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How Rwanda is spurring a generation of women in technology
June 22, 2020 Elwin Mandowa Africa Banking, African Development Bank
Rwanda is renowned as a pioneer for gender equality.
In 2020, it was the only African country ranked in the top 10 of the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report.
It ranked in the top four in the Report's political empowerment category, in recognition of the high proportion of Rwandese women lawmakers and ministers.
The country therefore seemed a natural fit for a 2018 pilot program of the African Development Bank's Coding for Employment initiative, with Nigeria, Kenya, Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal.
The Coding for Employment flagship program is establishing 130 ICT centers for excellence in Africa, training 234,000 youths for employability and entrepreneurship to create over 9 million jobs.
Hendrina C. Doroba, Manager in the Education, Human Capital and Employment Division at the Bank, explains how Rwanda is empowering women in technology.
How has the government of Rwanda enabled women to pursue careers in technology, and STEM in general?
The government of Rwanda has been a foremost champion of women in ICT and in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (also known as STEM), by driving initiatives like the establishment of the Carnegie Mellon University-Africa campus, for which the Bank provided funding. Students from 17 different countries pursue highly specialized ICT skills at the Africa campus.
The country also hosts the African Institute of Mathematics (AIMS) which is now recruiting balanced cohorts of women and men. Lastly, the Bank-funded University of Rwanda College of Science and Technology has for many years produced women leaders in the ICT sector in Rwanda and globally.
Rwanda's government also supports initiatives such as the Miss Geek Rwanda competition, an initiative of Girls in ICT Rwanda, which aims to encourage school-age girls, even those in remote areas, to develop innovative tech or business ideas and to generally immerse themselves in ICT. The Miss Geek initiative has now been rolled out in other countries in the region.
What role has the Bank played in supporting Rwanda's digital strategy, especially in relation to women?
The strategy of the Bank's Coding for Employment center of excellence in Rwanda has been to join forces with the Rwanda Coding Academy through a grant agreement to support the school's activities, like ICT equipment, teacher training and career orientation. The Rwanda Coding Academy started in January 2019 and has so far enrolled one cohort, which is now going into their second year.
Besides the Rwanda Coding Academy, the Bank's Coding for Employment program held a two-day masterclass for girls and young women entrepreneurs at the 2018 Youth Conneckt summit, where over 200 beneficiaries were trained in using digital tools to amplify their businesses. The session was attended by women entrepreneurs as well as students from girl schools in Kigali, including those from White Dove School, which is an all-girl school fully dedicated to training in ICT. The masterclass culminated into a pitching exercises from various groups who presented their ideas to a panel of judges.
What lessons can other African countries learn from Rwanda's approach to the 4IR, in particular the role of women?
The government of Rwanda has been a trailblazer in using innovation to improve public services across the country using the e-governance platform Irembo, to bring government services closer to citizens. In addition, the government is driving national digital skilling campaigns by championing digital ambassador programs and platforms such as Smart Africa, which has organized the annual Transform Africa summit since 2013.
Still, gender equality remains a concern, and gender gaps are evident even in schools. Rwanda's ambitions extend to piloting the Kigali Innovation City, also Bank-funded, to serve as the country's knowledge and innovation hub by attracting new businesses and incubating ideas. At the same time, the country has created a business environment which is pro-entrepreneurship and welcomes global inventors to test their ideas and concepts. Zipline, a company which uses drones to deliver medical supplies in remote areas, is one example.
Lastly, Rwanda promotes women leaders in the ICT and innovation sector. The country's Minister of ICT and Innovation is a woman, as is the CEO of the Irembo platform. Appointments such as these are helping to dispel the myth that women are not as capable as men in ICT.
Buhari: A Dictator Murdering His Own People By Bayo Oluwasanmi
Africa's agriculture value chains must go digital to transform production – webinar
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Sénégal : inauguration du Train express régional, un projet phare du plan Sénégal émergent soutenu par la Banque africaine de développement
December 28, 2021 Elwin MandowaAfrica Banking, African Development Bank
Le président de la République du Sénégal, Macky Sall, a présidé, lundi 27 décembre, la cérémonie...
Year in Review 2021: African Development Bank Group maintains strategy for building the continent's resilience and recovery in the face of Covid-19
Against the challenges of an ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the African Development Bank's efforts to support Africa's...
Au Burkina Faso, la Banque africaine de développement aide gouvernement et communautés vulnérables à faire face aux conséquences sanitaires et…
En cette matinée du 17 décembre 2021, Mme Sabine Ouédraogo a le sourire aux lèvres. Comme...


Blue Ridge Propane Inc is located at the address 100 N Depot Ave in Galax, Virginia 24333. They can be contacted via phone at (276) 238-8100 for pricing, hours and directions.
For maps and directions to Blue Ridge Propane Inc view the map to the right. For reviews of Blue Ridge Propane Inc see below.


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Ramchandrapur - Village
Uttar Pradesh Sant Ravidas Nagar Abholi Ramchandrapur
About Ramchandrapur village
Ramchandrapur is a village situated in Abholi Block of Sant Ravidas Nagar district in Uttar Pradesh. Located in rural region of Sant Ravidas Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh, it is one of the 97 villages of Abholi Block of Sant Ravidas Nagar district. According to the government records, the village code of Ramchandrapur is 209945. The village has 160 homes.
Population of Ramchandrapur village
Ramchandrapur's population is 1097. Out of this, 534 are males whereas the females count 563 here. This village has 173 children in the age group of 0-6 years. Among them 95 are boys and 78 are girls.
Literacy rate of Ramchandrapur village
Literacy rate in Ramchandrapur village is 57%. 635 out of total 1097 population is literate here. Among males the literacy rate is 63% as 341 males out of total 534 are literate whereas female literacy rate is 52% as 294 out of total 563 females are literate in this Village.
The dark side is that illiteracy rate of Ramchandrapur village is 42%. Here 462 out of total 1097 individuals are illiterate. Male illiteracy ratio here is 36% as 193 males out of total 534 are illiterate. Among the females the illiteracy ratio is 47% and 269 out of total 563 females are illiterate in this village.
Agricultural status of Ramchandrapur village
The number of working person of Ramchandrapur village is 254 whereas 843 are non-working. And out of 254 employed individual 27 individuals are entirely dependent on farming.
Ramchandrapur's Members & Followers

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


About Samsung's Innovative SmartPhones and Samsung's Innovative Design History (2-27-2013) | It Is Time For Patriots to Take Our Country Back!
Allen recently went to the Samsung Corporate Website with the Intent Being to Grab a Few of Their Web Pages for a WordPress Blog that he Intended to Write in Regard to Samsung's Innovative Smart Phone product line.
In the Survey that Allen filled out, at one point he was asked "Why Reason Did You have to Come to our Corporate Website?" No other Choice Listed Applied here but *Other*.


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In enzymology, a glycine formimidoyltransferase () is an enzyme that catalyzes the chemical reaction

5-formimidoyltetrahydrofolate + glycine  tetrahydrofolate + N-formimidoylglycine

Thus, the two substrates of this enzyme are 5-formimidoyltetrahydrofolate and glycine, whereas its two products are tetrahydrofolate and N-formimidoylglycine.

This enzyme belongs to the family of transferases that transfer one-carbon groups, specifically the hydroxymethyl-, formyl- and related transferases.  The systematic name of this enzyme class is 5-formimidoyltetrahydrofolate:glycine N-formimidoyltransferase. Other names in common use include formiminoglycine formiminotransferase, FIG formiminotransferase, and glycine formiminotransferase.  This enzyme participates in purine metabolism and one carbon pool by folate.

References

EC 2.1.2
Enzymes of unknown structure

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Following a dream, three friends – Sri, Sam, and Harsha, set out on a 3000 Km journey retracing Lord Hanuman's epic quest from the Ramayana. They walked 1200 kilometers across South India from Hampi to Kanyakumari, followed by a 2000 Km bike ride around Sri Lanka. Monkeys, Motorcycles, and Misadventures tells the story of their journey and experiences along the way. What follows is a discussion on the process of writing MMM.
"What do you dream of? Love? Happiness? Power? Money? Or maybe Wisdom? In my case it was none of those. I dreamt of faith; something I had lost and was desperate to regain. For this purpose, we followed my dream of retracing Lord Hanuman's route from the Ramayana. We finished the journey, the pieces fell together, I wrote a book and it got published. It was like clockwork. I never even intended to write a book in the first place. That's how dreams work," I said.
"Dear God, he's started this off with his ridiculous 'follow your dreams' monologue. I see where this is going. Be right back, taking a long walk off a short cliff," Sam said.
"Banzai! If by any chance you survive, I will throw his idiocy on top of you. That should get the job done," Sri offered.
"Are you guys done? Can I continue?" I asked.
"Don't look at us. You go off on tangents every single time and lose the plotline. I wonder how you even managed to finish writing the book," Sri said.
"Huh. Pieces? Clockwork? Stop giving gyan! Your friend Ram handed you a notebook just before you set out and asked you to write down your experiences every day. He said it would help you organize your thoughts. That is the only reason you were even able to think of writing a book. That notebook, my friend, was the first draft of MMM," Sam said.
Step 1 – Write a log to make notes and expand on them. Carry a notebook and a drink wherever you go. You never know when you might need either of them.
"I expanded the notes and it was done and it was brilliant." I said.
"Stop being an asshat. You spent one month trying to understand your handwriting and another three months researching additional details," Sam explained patiently.
"Hah…Keep dreaming. Once the research was done, you stayed home for over a year, writing and rewriting every single line. It could have been done faster if you just focused only on writing, but you chose to run off on trips at every possible opportunity," Sri replied.
Step 2 – Sit still and write. Keep at it till your head hurts and you feel like killing yourself.
I just stayed silent, knowing it was pointless to argue when these two were on a roll.
"You spent another four months editing the book and making numerous changes. If I recall correctly, you spent two weeks agonizing over whether to use the word 'troublemaker' or 'rabble-rouser' in a particular line. If I hadn't suggested an alternative, you might have been stuck on it for several more weeks," Sam complained.
"The point is, you were agonizing over every tiny detail in the book and creating multiple useless drafts after a good edit. Attention to detail is good, agonizing over details is bad," Sam argued.
"Yeah, I remember reading over thirty drafts. Heck, if I read so much during my school days, I would have made it into IIT," Sri added.
"That's assuming you were smart enough." I said, determined to have the last word.
Step 3 – edit and re-edit; proof read and spell check. Do it till it feels right, then do it again.
"Ah yes. How could I forget that? Your so called 'final version'. It was like a shittier version of the Transformer scripts, if that's even possible," Sam declared.
"Yes, it was absolute horseshit. It was like reading one of those tourist brochures – 'Went to place A, saw B, did C'." We begged you to rewrite it, this time talking about how you felt about the journey rather than as a log of events. The story needed passion and the human element not a bloody checklist. People needed to understand what we went through," Sri said.
Step 4 – Have friends or your editor read it. Remove whatever isn't needed to the plot. Remove whatever affects the pacing of the book. Make it personal.
"A few more months and three more 'final versions' later, you had something that all of us thought wasn't half bad," Sam said.
"Yeah and then it took four more months to find a publisher. Oh and the editors at the publishing house took a few more months to make tweaks, and then the cover design and finally it was ready for printing. Phew…that was a long process," I said, happy to be done with the whole circus.
Harsha is the author of Monkeys, Motorcycles, and Misadventures, from Leadstart Publishing. For maps, photographs, and additional details about the journey, please visit MMM's Facebook page. You can purchase a copy of MMM at Amazon.


Our activities have grown significantly since our fledgling meeting at Texas A&M University in 2016, and will expand even further through the RCN. The documents provided on this page outlines a set of collaboration guidelines to facilitate intellectual and career-enhancing interactions. Most of the documents address data sharing, project (i.e., manuscript, grant) development, and authorship, which are both a privilege and a responsibility. Collaboration is rewarding, but it is also sensitive, politicized, and frustrating. These documents convey expectations aimed to minimize professional conflict in our collaborative endeavors. Promoting cross-pollination between empirical and conceptual scholarship is also very important to us. Therefore, this document attempts to bridge differences in sub-disciplinary norms about how publication and authorship are determined, and ensure that all contributors are appropriately recognized.


At Snowcrest Foods we're committed to giving back to our communities to help them grow and prosper. Our involvement in the environments in which we live and work is a meaningful pursue for our leadership team and in turn our employees.
donations, sponsorships, both locally and globally. Our charitable givings are a natural tradition for all stakeholders in the Snowcrest family. We seek out individuals and partners who fit the culture of "Making a Difference" with ongoing "Acts of Kindness".
Our family of employees are encouraged to give back when possible. To build this culture among our team, we at Snowcrest try to support initiatives that our employees and their families are involved in.
Snowcrest Foods sponsored Madison Field(Todd's daughter) when she was playing for the Stoney Creek Sabres.
BC Provincial High School Wrestling ChampionshipsSnowcrest Foods was a sponsor of the event.
We are dedicated to serving the community in which we work.
Our staff and employees are at times paid to volunteer at local events or causes.
At Snowcrest Foods we believe that no act is big or small as long as you believe in what you do. That is why we make an effort to donate frozen fruit products when the opportunity is presented.
One of the benefits given to the Snowcrest Foods employee is funds to purchase new safety boots every year. Several years ago we started a program whereby employees must hand in their "old" boots which we then donate. We realized that many of the boots were not really worn out in one year and we had heard that the Salvation Army needed safety boots to for those in the community who were entering the work force but needed safety boots. We contacted the Salvation Army and they were thrilled to come pick up the boots provide them where needed. Dan Lennox, Snowcrest's Senior Accountant, is shown helping load the boots into the Salvation Army van. Our safety boots donation is an annual event.
Blueberries were appreciated by all!
– "We served a blueberry pancake Welcome-Back breakfast" – Chilliwack Secondary.
Snowcrest Foods Annual Staff Christmas Party with Santa!
At Christmas every year we have lunch altogether. A special guest usually arrives right after the lunch is done.
Snowcrest Foods has long standing relationships around the world, so we feel that we should be doing our part to help regardless of where in the world we are.
We understand that our partners at the corporate level work with organizations they support. That is why we at Snowcrest are always looking for opportunities to collaborate with our partners. It's true what they say: there is power in numbers, especially when trying to do a good thing!


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Barry'[email protected] moves into former Arabian Bar space
Jon Solomon October 3, 2012 4:55PM
Nine years ago, Barry Zadikoff took over the old Skylark Lounge space at 58 Broadway and transformed the address into Barry's on Broadway. Now he plans to basically clone Barry's in Highland. He's taken over the former Arabian Bar, which had been in business since the '20s at 3360 Navajo Street, and hopes have Barry'[email protected] open by early December.
See also: - Barry's on Broadway: Hungry for more - The Skylark gets a green light on its move to a new nest - Longo's Subway Tavern reaches the end of the line
This was one of the most coveted pieces of property in Highland, which just saw Longo's Subway Tavern sold to Larimer Associates.
Zadikoff says he's gutted the building and is in the process of doing a full remodel, which includes installing windows (the building didn't have any before), and cutting out the drop ceiling to make the 1,000 square-foot space look bigger. The exterior is also getting stuccoed, and there are plans for landscaping. He also hopes to get city approval for 50-foot-long patio along 34th Avenue.
Like Barry's on Broadway, the new bar will have a retro style with a checkerboard floor, and some chrome-and-black leather tuck and roll. Since Zadikoff has had a lot of success with Skee-Ball on Broadway, there will be one at this location, too, along with a few vintage arcade games and flatscreen TVs.
"It's basically going to be a neighborhood bar, which Barry's on Broadway is," Zadikoff says. "It's a real non-pretentious place. People ask, 'What's your theme?' Our theme is we have no theme."
Zadikoff says he'd known the family that had owned the property for four decades. He'd thought about having a bar in Highland for the last twenty years, and the place just fell in his lap, he explains: Through a friend in the vending business, Zadikoff got word in the middle of June that the Arabian Bar was going to lose its liquor license at the end of the month, so he stepped in. After taking over the place, Zadikoff was able to have the liquor license transferred within two weeks.
Before taking over Barry's on Broadway, Zadikoff owned Tug's Bar & Grill in Northglenn for more than two decades. and he also owns My Bar at 10139 East Colfax Avenue in Aurora. He calls that spot the "League of Nations," because you can go in there any time and hear several different languages.
Follow @CafeWestword
Jon Solomon writes about music and nightlife for Westword, where he's been the Clubs Editor since 2006.
Contact: Jon Solomon
Twitter: @sixteenshells
Instagram: @sixteenshells


I bet you already knew that the earth has a spirit, but I don't think that many of us have explored the implications of this fact. The implications include intriguing possibilities regarding the future of our earth and other planets within the solar system.
The story of Enoch in the Book of Moses is central to understanding the earth's spirit. Enoch is among the privileged few who got a first-hand look at God's creations. God showed him the earth, all its inhabitants, and gave Enoch a glimpse of the future of mankind. Perhaps most touching, God shared with Enoch how He felt about the wickedness that prevailed upon the earth at that time, before the Flood.
As Enoch talked face-to-face with God, the Lord turned and looked down at the earth and all its wicked inhabitants and wept. Enoch said, "How is it that thou canst weep, seeing thou art holy, and from all eternity to all eternity?" Put differently, Enoch queried, "How can you weep? You are God!" The Lord then shared His godly perspective with Enoch. He told Enoch that those wicked people down there were his children, and it pained Him to see them hating each other and rejecting their God. It also pained Him to know of the suffering that would soon come upon them as a result of their wickedness.
All of a sudden Enoch began to see and understand God's perspective. As this divine perspective came upon him, he too glanced down at the inhabitants of the earth, "looked upon their wickedness and their misery, and wept." Heartbroken over what was happening on earth, Enoch "stretched forth his arms, and his heart swelled wide as eternity; and his bowels yearned; and all eternity shook." For a moment he was privileged to see and feel as the Lord saw and felt.
Enoch's godly sorrow intensified as his attention was turned toward the earth. God allowed him to hear the cries of our mother earth.
"Enoch looked upon the earth [and] heard a voice from the bowels thereof, saying: Wo, wo is me, the mother of men; I am pained, I am weary, because of the wickedness of my children. When shall I rest, and be cleansed from the filthiness which is gone forth out of me? When will my Creator sanctify me, that I may rest, and righteousness for a season abide upon my face? . . . [W]hen Enoch heard the earth mourn, he wept, and cried unto the Lord, saying: O Lord, wilt thou not have compassion upon the earth?"
Reading this scripture, I can't help but wonder if the earth has moral agency - the power to choose between good and evil which is necessary for exaltation.
Given that the earth has a spirit, that it will die, and that it may have moral agency, what may we conclude about other planets?
It may be that planets like Mars and Venus are so inhospitable because they are dead. In other words, their spirits have left and now they just exist as empty shells. Mars shows evidence of having once been a vibrant planet with flowing rivers etc.; perhaps it had a spirit at one time, but this is no longer the case. Astronomers are baffled by the hostile features of Venus. If our sister planet had developed the same as earth, it would be very similar to our planet. Well, perhaps Venus was vibrant when it was alive with a living spirit, but became hostile when it died and its spirit left.
Finally if our earth has moral agency, then might the same be said for other living planets? If this be the case then it is conceivable that other planets have chosen to not follow all the commandments of God. What would happen to these less than faithful planets? Well, under this scenario, I think that some of these would be resurrected to either a telestial or terrestrial state. This kind of makes sense given that telestialized and terrestrialized human beings will need to have worlds to dwell upon, while exalted people dwell upon the celestialized earth.
I have always believe that all creatures of our God and King regardless of what creature are made alive by a spirit of which the physical is in the image of including planets and all heavenly bodies, I also believe that your position on the planets is accurate. Is there any papers concerning the scientific position on whether all living creatures are dual creations by this I mean is a physical made alive or quickened by its spirit?
This is a great idea, I have often wondered about the planets in our solar system especially after hearing the NASA recordings of various planets in our Solar System. It could be too that the planets here are simply at different stages of existence or life. Also consider purpose. Each of the planets serves a purpose I believe in protecting God's creation, it may not be disobediance but their free will to give their lives to maintain a safe neighborhood in the galactic sense. The best example of this would be Jupiter, and how it knocks out most debris or wayward material that could harm us like the comet schumacher levy 9. Just an idea. Great article though, fascinating to consider.
I like the idea of the creator putting planets into our solar system such as Jupiter because they fulfill a certain purpose. They may be spirit-less spheres that simply fulfill their purpose.
Great article. The Universe is about consciousness. The mormon doctrine puts man as the center of the creation, God himself is a exalted man. I'm not sure until what extent it could be the FULL version of the truth. However, is logical that we are the one trying to find meaning to our existence. I'm not going to discuss if God is like us, I actually think he is. However, he is not the only god in the universe. There should be other creatures or "intelligences" or we simply are all the same.
After the Eden happenings, maybe earth has "fallen" to this solar system and is here just for a period of time, as we are.
Does this imply that there is truth in Astrology? What if these planets (and therefore Moons and Sun) are alive, maybe in a lower vibration but alive, (because they keep moving in an organised way) and can certainly "sent" special energies and messages to our planet? This is funny, planets saying things to each others, and people could catch them?
Then, why in the Bible, astrologers are condemned? Is that because planets are not supposed to reveal information because they are not God messengers??? Or maybe they are?
I'm not sure if God can really get sad about us since everything has a purpose. He has the highest and most pure vibrations, his eyes are the HOLY TRUTH, he sees us through love and love is healing, is hope.
All our curiosity about the universe must be based on pure purposes of understanding rather than defying his power. It's all about harmony. HE IS. He doesn't need us for being who he is, we need him.
Interesting comments and notions to consider. In Leviticus chapter 18 it refers to the earth and its spirit within, stating that wickedness is the cause of the great storms heaving upon the shores along with the volcanic activity as it vomits at the wicked immorally of men and women.
In regard to the stars of our universe, astronomic research and study has determined that most the stars have already died or at least are in the last stages of their life. Interesting that within this element of how they die, falling from their present status, going from one state to the next.
Since the earth has agency with the ability to think and choose, and it has feelings so that she mourns when people are wicked----and she has a spiritual and physical body---- where is her heart, her nervous system? Are ley lines her nervous system?
Is her heart at her core?
Does she have ears, eyes, mouth etc ?perhaps her entire body and spirit are able to hear and see. People clothed with a physical body can see only through their eyes. Take away the physical body and sight is from all of the spirit.
I have had an interest for some time in what scientists refer to Dark Matter and Dark Energy. It is my opinion that these are actually spiritual matter and the power of the Priesthood. D&C 131:7 reads: "There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes." I believe mortal beings are incapable of discerning spiritual matter and that scientists will never discover what it is unless they accept the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. What they call "Dark Matter" is what makes up the spirits of all living things, including the earth, the stars, and other planets. No wonder they find that 90% of the mass of the Milky Way must be something besides the objects like stars that we can see. The power of the Priesthood is what holds it all together. Another thought I've had regarding what astronomers see as they gaze deep into the cosmos is that they can never see things in real time, since the Earth is located about 25,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way. What we see of distant stars happened many years ago. What is presently happening on distant worlds can only be discerned by purer eyes.
This is an interesting concept. Have you explored these ideas some more and written about them? I am interested in hearing more about this.
I believe that science is on the cusp of discovering the effects of spiritual energy such as the light of Christ that fills the immensity of space. This might include dark matter and energy. Areas of science like string theory and quantum mechanics might be knocking on the door of spiritual energy, but we are not quite sure what to make of weird findings in string theory and quantum mechanics. But, the scriptures are clear that spiritual things can only be perceived by "purer" eyes, so science will always operate with a fuzzy understanding of dark energy, the quantum world, and string theory if these concepts are a manifestation of the spiritual realm.
I became interested in the research being done on Dark Matter after reading an article about how scientists are trying to detect it at the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) dark matter experiment, which operates nearly a mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in the Black Hills of South Dakota. From what I've read, scientists don't really know what they're looking for. They call leading candidates for dark matter particles weakly interacting massive particles—WIMPS. I'm not a scientist, but I do have a degree in electrical engineering, so I have some scientific knowledge. You can search online for articles about dark matter research as I occasionally do. I would like to think that science is on the cusp of discovering the effects of spiritual energy, but unfortunately I think most scientists would not even consider the possibility that dark matter and dark energy are actually spiritual matter and spiritual energy. I wonder if any LDS scientists would consider these possibilities. But I suspect that the general scientific community would reject such notions. I have been careful not to bring this subject up in Gospel discussions at church because I realize it is only speculation, but it makes sense to me. This is the first time I have written about this concept other than in my journal, which I believe was a personal revelation I received a couple of years ago. I wonder if anyone else feels like they had a similar revelation.
Would you like to write a guest blog post for mormonsandscience on the potential link between dark energy and matter and the spiritual?
Please let me know how to go about posting a guest blog post. It may take me a few weeks to do additional research and explore the potential link further.
Good. You can write up to 1 page of single spaced text in Word (Microsoft's word processing program) and send it to me with some information about yourself. I will read through the article and if it looks good put it on the Religion and Science blog as a guest post. If your okay with adding your name at the end we will do that as well. Please send the write-up to davecollingridge@gmail.com.


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Home > ENGINEERING > ELECTRICALCOMPUTERENGINEERING > ELECTRICALCOMPUTERENGINEERING-FACPUBS > 15
Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications
Research Trends in Digital Forensic Science: An Empirical Analysis of Published Research
Ibrahim Baggili, University of New HavenFollow
Afrah BaAbdallah, Zayed University
deena Al-Safi, Zayed University
Andrew Marrington, Zayed University
Professor Baggili's Faculty Profile
Professor Baggili's web page
Cyber forensics, Computer forensics
Computer Engineering | Computer Sciences | Electrical and Computer Engineering | Forensic Science and Technology | Information Security
Digital forensic science is a new discipline. In order to advance and improve this science, stakeholders should stay abreast over the research trends in this domain. This research studied, categorized and analyzed a sample of five-hundred publications (n=500) from this discipline. The results indicated that the rate of publication in this domain continues to increase over time. Additionally, results showed an overall lack of anti-forensics research where only 2% of the sampled papers dealt with anti-forensics. In terms of research methodology, the results indicated that 17% of the sampled publications were secondary research, 36% were exploratory studies, 33% were constructive and 31% were empirical. The results also indicated a lack of basic research in this scientific discipline where most of the research (81%) was applied, and that only 19% of the sample was categorized as basic research. Additionally, results exemplified a lack of quantitative research in the discipline, with only 20% of the research papers using quantitative methods, and 80% using qualitative methods. Furthermore, results showed that the largest portion of the research (42.9%) from the examined sample originated from the United States. The findings also showed a lack of cooperative research between academia and industry, where only 10% of the research studies examined where a collaborative effort between industry and academia. Lastly, the findings indicated an increase in the disparity between the number of published articles and the number of cited articles over the years possibly indicating isolation amongst researchers in this domain.
Volume 114 of the series Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering.
Purchase book or chapter here
Find in UNH library
Baggili, Ibrahim; BaAbdallah, Afrah; Al-Safi, deena; and Marrington, Andrew, "Research Trends in Digital Forensic Science: An Empirical Analysis of Published Research" (2013). Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications. 15.
https://digitalcommons.newhaven.edu/electricalcomputerengineering-facpubs/15
Baggili, I., BaAbdallah, A., Al-Safi, D., & Marrington, A. (2013). Research Trends in Digital Forensic Science: An Empirical Analysis of Published Research. In Rogers, Marcus K., Seigfried-Spellar, Kathryn C. (Eds.)Digital Forensics and Cyber Crime (pp. 144-157). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. ISBN: 978-3-642-39890-2
Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science at the University of New Haven


Grand Island Fire Co. Chief Kevin Koch reports that during the period of Oct. 18 through 24 firefighters and medics handled 33 emergency incidents, including three motor vehicle accidents and a truck fire.
Shortly before 10 p.m. on Oct. 18, GIFC rescue personnel responded to a two-car collision, which occured on Baseline Road near Homeland Road. Both drivers, 83-year-old Shirley Runckel and 22-year-old Jennifer Andrews, both of Grand Island, were evaluated by GIFC medics but declined hospitalization.
On Oct. 19, just after 6 p.m., Grand Island firefighters responded to a reported truck fire on Whitehaven Road near Alvin Road. When GIFC firefighters and engine No. 4 arrived on location, a good Samaritan passerby had already stopped the driver, Christopher Moscati of Grand Island, and applied a hand extinguisher to the fire, which was caused by careless transport of a burning charcoal grill. Deputy Fire Chief Matt Osinski reported that approximately $200 damage was done to the pickup truck bedliner.
GIFC rescue personnel responded shortly before 1 p.m. on Oct. 21 to a two-car motor vehicle accident at 2140 Grand Island Blvd., in front of Tops Market, where 39-year-old Michael Murphy of Niagara Falls was treated for injuries that were not life-threatening. He was transported to Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center for precautionary followup care. Tiffany Markel, 30, of Niagara Falls was also evaluated by GIFC medics and transported to Mount St. Mary's Hospital and Health Center for additional followup care. Susan Berard, 41, of Niagara Falls, claimed no injuries.
Finally, at 4:13 p.m. on Oct. 24, GIFC firefighters and medics responded to another two-car accident on Baseline Road near the Grand Island Plaza entrance. Karen Ernst, 47, of Grand Island denied injuries; 35-year-old Garry Halliwell of Buffalo also denied injuries, according to Koch.


HAVA does not require election officials to purchase eletronic voting machines. Voting machines can cheat the disabled just as easily as the able-bodied voter. And, the evidence so far is that these machines are difficult for the disabled to use. Voting machines companies admit that it takes the sight-impaired voters ten times longer to use a touchscreen machine as able-bodied voters. There is a way for the sight-impaired to vote privately and independently using tactile paper ballot templates with audio assistance. Templates are used around the world and in some states such as Rhode Island. (Ballot Templates) Two organizations for the blind, The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and The National Federation of the Blind (NFB), are ardent supporters of paperless touchscreen voting machines. They also have received over $1 million dollars from the voting machine industry.
The descriptions of these two organizations makes it very clear that any standards are really industry guidelines with no meaningful oversight from the FEC or NASED.
FEC - The Commission formulates voting systems standards and maintains those standards to keep them dynamic to changes in technology and testing requirements. The FEC coordinates with NASED to assure that independent testing can be performed under the standards. No voting system is ever "Federally Approved" or "FEC Approved."
NASED - NASED selects and approves testing laboratories which can perform testing related to voting systems to meet the FVSS. The standards are not NASED standards and NASED does not have authority over the FVSS or its individual components of the standards. NASED does select and qualify Independent Test Authorities to perform the work of doing professional testing to assure that voting systems manufacturers comply with the FVSS. NASED has no ability to determine whether a system passes or fails; the ITAs operate independently to determine objectively whether the vendor has met or exceeded the FVSS.
National Workshop on Internet Voting / see Aug 27, 03: Internet Voting - The End of Democracy?
Jun 26, 03 Johns Hopkins Report: Numerous security flaws are identified in a newly published paper entitled 'Analysis of an Electronic Voting System' by Tadayoshi Kohno (JHU), Adam Stubblefield (JHU), Aviel Rubin (JHU), and Dan Wallach (Rice University). http://www.jhuisi.jhu.edu Read about it: The Baltimore Sun (Front Page), MSNBC News, CNN, New York Times, The Washington Post, Reuters, CNET News, Scoop, and Headlines@Hopkins.
Government Oversight: There is no federal agency that has regulatory authority over the elections industry. No agency or organization even has a complete list of voting machine companies. Using a rough estimate, there are about 70 voting machine companies worldwide, with at least 48 based in the U.S.. The FEC lists only 19, the Texas-based National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) lists 16 that are 'industry certified' (which are outmoded and voluntary guidelines), while the IFES Buyers Guide lists 64 companies worldwide. Meanwhile there is one company that is 'flying under the radar' of both the FEC and NASED, that is the Bermuda-based Accenture (formally Andersen Consulting) that has the contract for the online military vote in 2004.
Paper Ballots, Paper Trails, Audits: There is no federal requirement for voter-verified paper trails, a paper ballot, or independent auditability of voting systems. Many experts say that a paper ballot that can be verified by the voter and then hand counted is vital to ensure that votes are cast and counted properly, and to allow for legitimate recounts. Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) has introduced legislation HR 2239 to require all voting machines to produce a voter-verified paper trail.
The 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA) legislation authorized $3.8B in federal spending, with a substantial portion of these funds allocated to US states and terrirories for the purpose of replacing their punch card and lever voting machines and making voting systems accessible to the disabled. To obtain the money, an implementation plan must be submitted to the Election Assistance Commission by January 1, 2004. Note that states are not required to purchase computerized voting systems, they can still obtain mark-sense (optically scanned) products, but in order to receive certain of the equipment funds, the plan must indicate that the state will replace all of its lever and punch card machines by the first election for Federal office held after January 1, 2006.
The Presidentially appointed 4-member HAVA Election Assistance Commission, in addition to approving each of the state plans, will also be responsible for administering a host of other tasks, not the least of which include overseeing a 14-member Technical Guidelines Development Committee and a 110-member Standards Board, and making provisions for "testing, certification, decertification, and recertification of voting system hardware and software by accredited laboratories." The Technical Guidelines Committee must produce a set of recommended voluntary voting system guidelines nine months after appointment, and it is understood that these guidelines would be the ones used by the laboratories in their certification and testing processes.
Only problem is, the HAVA Commission has yet to be appointed (it was supposed to have been created by February 26, 2003). As well, none of the HAVA Committees and Boards were established. Thus, the Technical Guidelines are unlikely to be available by the time that state implementation plans are due. This has resulted in the states contracting to purchase voting systems that can not possibly be HAVA compliant, since there does not yet exist any HAVA standards.
Those of us (including myself) who had worked hard for this bill are sorely disappointed that its implementation seems to be stalled. Write your congressfolk and urge them to get things moving.
Voting systems are currently certified under a system established by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED). This certification is based on the 2002 FEC guidelines that were only adopted by 37 of the states and have been criticized by technologists as flawed. (See my detailed comment The FEC Proposed Voting Systems Standard Update.) According to their website, even "the FEC recognizes that the Help Americans Vote Act of 2002 will fundamentally alter the long term application of the Standards, including testing." Some problems with the FEC standard include the lack of a requirement that vote tallies be independently auditable, the allowance of trade-secret code that may not be able to be inspected should an election contest question the proper functionality of a voting system, and the use of commercial software products in voting systems without any certification inspection.
Internet voting is risky due to its sociological and technological problems. Absentee balloting does not provide the safeguards of freedom from coercion and vote selling that are afforded via local precincts. Internet voting creates additional problems due to the inability of service providers to assure that websites are not spoofed, denial of service attacks do not occur, balloting is recorded accurately and anonymously, and votes are cast by the appropriate person. The government's website warns that "it is the citizen's responsibility to maintain the latest anti-virus software for their computer" in order to assure safety, yet they fail to acknowledge the fact that anti-virus software can only protect against known malware (new ones appear constantly, and could occur during an election season) and server-based attacks are still possible. Certainly citizens overseas should have an opportunity to vote, but perhaps this could be handled by setting up remote balloting precincts at the U.S. Embassies, or by creating bi-partisan poll-worker teams on military bases?
Back in 2000 when the U.S. Department of Defense first tried Internet voting they spent $6.2M so that 84 voters could cast ballots. This time, the DoD has engaged Accenture, the Bermuda-based consultancy arm of the former Arthur Andersen (can we spell Enron?) group to oversee its SERVE project for military personnel and overseas citizens. Accenture recently acquired election.com (the firm that provided Internet voting services that were disrupted by the Slammer worm during a Toronto election on January 23, 2003) from a Saudi investment group, Osan Ltd. that had owned 51.6% of the company.
Several critics of the computer election fraud concept downplay the dangers by arguing that any programmer inside a large computer vendor who is bent on, let's say, rigging the election in favor of Bill Clinton, would run the risk of accidentally shooting himself in the foot, unless he knows the ballot position of the candidate (first, second, etc.). Since he has no control over some county clerk in Tupelo, Mississippi who might plug Bill Clinton into the top, middle or bottom of the ballot depending on how she feels that day, he will have an equal chance of shifting the illegal votes to Bob Dole or Ross Perot. However, this argument does not hold up when one considers that in many, if not most cases, the computer vendors either input the candidates' names to the ballot themselves or know the ballot positions in advance of their sending out the computers.
"There's no happenstance on the ballot positions".
She informed Relevance that whichever party currently occupies the office of Secretary of State appears first on the ballot. The other parties appear according to their pre-determined ballot status. The names of contenders in primary elections and the many non-partisan candidates, such as those vying for judgeships, are selected by alphabetical order and rotated according to precinct.
"As a rule, the counties will leave that rotation portion to the vendors".
"Elections are much too important to leave up to the election officials".
Remote modem access to a central counting computer?
Could the counting computers be accessed remotely by cell phone or other device?
His previously cordial tone instantly changed to a rude, insulting one. He condescendingly stated that the question betrayed a total lack of understanding of how computers actually work. Although this was not far off the mark; he still hadn't answered the question.
When it was repeated, he stammered that it was a ridiculous question and seemed to want to get off the phone in a hurry, insisting that "until you go to Lynn Allen, your Oakland County Clerk and sit in his office and have him show you how the computer works, you shouldn't be asking me that kind of a question!"
When he was told that he and his firm were better qualified to respond to technical questions about their own product than their politician customer, and when your editor wondered aloud why it was such a touch question, Mr. Ryan apparently unable to stay on the phone another second, blurted "Thank you very much, thank you..." and hung up even as the offending question was being asked for the third time.
Why Are Modems Being Placed Inside Voting Computers?
"They talk between the modems – there is a modem between each [computer] unit, or at least, most of them."
"You have to program the phone number into the card. The card accesses the modem in the Accu-vote unit and the card tells it to dial into the central computer... To close the election you slide an "ender card" – like a special ballot – which has certain codes on it and it tells it to lock up the election.
"Following simple instructions, the poll workers plug a phone jack into the receptacle in the back of the Accu-Vote and press a button on its front to automatically dial and transmit the precinct results to the Host Computer for county-wide accumulation."


text:
Q: Delete vector class member I have a class A with a member which is a vector of object pointers of another class B
class A
{
    std::vector<B*> m_member_A

m_member_A is populated by creating objects of B by using new operator
B* b1 = new B;
m_member_A.push_back(b1);

In A's destructor, is the following correct to free up everything?
A::~A()
{
    for(int i = 0; i < m_member_A.size(); ++i)
    {
        delete m_member_A[i];
    }

    m_member_A.clear();
}

A: It's correct, as long as you also have a correct copy constructor and copy-assignment operator per the Rule of Three. Note that the clear() is redundant, since the vector's destructor will release its memory.
By why are you messing around with pointers and new? Why not follow the Rule of Zero, and use vector<B>, or vector<unique_ptr<B>> if you need pointers for polymorphism? Then you shouldn't need to worry about a destructor, copy constructor or copy-assignment operator at all; and you'll get move semantics as a bonus.

A: Yes, it's correct… yet it is not sufficient.
You will also need to deep-copy the container whenever your A is copied.
If you can use smart pointers inside the vector, then so much the better. Just be clear in your mind and in your code about who owns what.

A: Almost
If you construct (allocate) elements of B in the constructor of A and some B is throwing an exception you have a memory leak (unless it is caught in the constructor of A where deletion of B's is done)
And the usual rule of three.
Some illustration might be (please adjust MAKE_FAILURE to 0 or 1):
#include <iostream>
#include <stdexcept>
#include <vector>

#define MAKE_FAILURE 0

static unsigned count;
const unsigned ExceptionThreshold = 3;
struct B {
    B() { if(ExceptionThreshold <= count++) throw std::runtime_error("Sorry"); }
    ~B() { std::cout << "Destruct\n"; }
};

struct A
{
    std::vector<B*> v;
    A()
    {
        for(unsigned i = 0; i < ExceptionThreshold + MAKE_FAILURE; ++i)
            v.push_back(new B);
    }

    ~A()
    {
        for(unsigned i = 0; i < v.size(); ++i) {
            delete v[i];
        }
    }
};

int main()
{
    A a;
    return 0;
}

Also you get into the terrain of shallow and deep copies (as mentioned by @
Lightness Races in Orb)

A: This is correct way to free memory of your dynamically allocated objects in m_member_A vector. You actually dont need to call:
m_member_A.clear();

std::vector will free its memory on its own.
If you can use C++11, then I would suggest changing to shared_ptr:
  std::vector<std::shared_ptr<B>> m_member_A

now you dont need to free memory on your own.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Acer's announced an extension of its Chrome OS device line-up with a spanking new Google-powered desktop.
The Chromebox CXI is a pint-sized, budget-friendly PC that works in much the same way as your standard Chromebook, but isn't designed to be lugged about on the tubes.
"The Acer Chromebox CXI is an excellent fit for schools or businesses where conserving costs and space are high priorities," says Simon Hwang, president of Acer's Stationary Computing division.
The Chomebox CXI runs off Intel's 64-bit 1.4GHz Celeron 2957U processor which launched late last year, with 4GB of DDR3 memory in tow.
It uses standard integrated Intel HD graphics, so while the specs are okay for your basic computing, the Chromebox definitely won't be a choice platform for gamers.
In terms of connectivity, you're looking at 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, an ethernet port, four USB 3.0 ports, and an SD card reader supporting up to 32GB of bonus storage.
There's also a HDMI port and DisplayPort, as well as a standard audio jack - the usual gear, really.
Fortunately, the device is very nippy thanks to its 16GB SSD storage, meaning the device will boot up in around 8 seconds and can resume almost instantly from sleep mode.
It comes with a raft of pre-installed web apps, plus there's access to 30,000 additional apps, themes, and extensions courtesy of the Chrome OS web store.
The 4GB RAM model is expected to cost $219.99 (£133), while the 2GB model will mark-up at a slightly fairer $179.99 (£108).
It's worth noting that although the device is pegged for release in September in the US, there's no word on whether it will ever make it to UK soil.


text:
Q: is it possible for a query to return the wildcard that matches a given string? I have the following table  in postgres:
Table "public.items"

   Column    |           Type           | Collation | Nullable |                Default
-------------+--------------------------+-----------+----------+---------------------------------------
 id          | integer                  |           | not null | nextval('items_id_seq'::regclass)
 wildcard    | character varying(255)   |           | not null |

The wildcard column value contains wildcards of the form:stackoverflow*.
This should match any word that begins with 'stackoverflow'.
How can I locate the record that contains the a matching wild card?
For example, given 'stackoverflow.com' I would like to return all wildcards matching it.
something like

A: There is no built-in reverse match operator, but you can just swap the position of the arguments to get the reversed match:
select * from items where 'stackoverflow.com' LIKE items.wildcard;

Now, you can't get use of an index this way around, but that is only a barrier to performance, it won't stop you from running the query and getting an answer.

A: Store your wildcards with % instead of * and use like:
select *
from items
where 'stackoverflow.com' like wildcard

Or if you must use *, same but replace * with %:
select *
from items
where 'stackoverflow.com' like replace(wildcard, `*`, `%`)


text:
Sadie Grant Pack (December 20, 1877 – August 24, 1960) was the first counselor to May Anderson in the general presidency of the Primary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1925 to 1929.

Sadie Grant was born in West Bountiful, Utah Territory to Joseph Hyrum Grant (a son of Jedediah M. Grant) and Evaletta Eldredge. She was educated at the University of Utah, where she met her future husband, Frederick J. Pack, who was also a native of West Bountiful. Grant and Pack married in November 1896 and later that year began service as an LDS Church missionaries in the Colorado Mission of the church.

From 1904 to 1906 while her husband was a student at Columbia University, Sadie was president of the LDS Relief Society in New York and Brooklyn.

Pack held a variety of callings in the Relief Society, the Young Women's Mutual Improvement Association and the Primary prior to her call as first counselor in the general presidency of the Primary. In 1925, when May Anderson was called as the general president of the Primary, she selected Pack as her first counselor. Pack was released in 1929 and was succeeded by Isabelle S. Ross.

Pack and her husband were the parents of four children. Pack died in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Saide Grant Pack was a granddaughter of prominent church leader Jedediah M. Grant and was a niece to LDS Church president Heber J. Grant.

References

Children's Friend, vol. 25, p. 23

1877 births
1960 deaths
19th-century Mormon missionaries
American Mormon missionaries in the United States
American leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Burials at Salt Lake City Cemetery
Counselors in the General Presidency of the Primary (LDS Church)
Female Mormon missionaries
Latter Day Saints from Utah
People from Davis County, Utah
University of Utah alumni


text:
Steps towards needed forest waters protection
Fri, 02/21/2020 - 15:05 | chandra
Last week, two dozen conservation groups and timber companies announced an agreement to chart a new course toward meaningful reform to Oregon's outdated logging laws. Oregon Wild played a key role in negotiating the Memorandum of Understanding, which not only calls for immediate reforms to the Oregon Forest Practices Act (OFPA), but also begins an 18 month process that we expect to result in greater protections for waters, wildlife, and forests.
Oregon has weaker logging laws than its neighboring states, which is why Oregon Wild, partner organizations, and concerned citizens proposed several ballot initiatives to protect "Forest Waters" that our communities depend on.
As the Forest Waters movement continued to grow throughout the state, it became clear that the timber industry was feeling the pressure - filing their own counter measures against aerial spray reform, and ultimately prompting negotiations that will kick off a process for bringing Oregon's logging rules into the 21st Century. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) laid out in the agreement signed on February 10 includes a framework for developing a Habitat Conservation Plan, which could bring Oregon's logging laws in closer alignment with states like Washington and California. In fact, it was an HCP agreement that saw Washington's logging rules vault ahead of Oregon's 20 years ago. You can read Oregon Wild's statement here.
What's cooking in Salem?
In the short term, the MOU calls for the Oregon Legislature to pass a bill during the short session (happening currently and scheduled to end March 9) to comprehensively reform Oregon's weak aerial pesticide spraying laws. The bill (HB 4168) was first introduced February 20 and is moving quickly in Salem per legislative rules, but it still faces a few hurdles before passing.
The proposed bill would implement a variety of improvements to Oregon's current aerial spray laws, most of which have been part of legislative and ballot campaigns for the past ten years. Here are the three most important reforms in the bill:
1. Modernize Oregon's notification system so that communities near aerial spraying activities are notified about spray applications in real time.
Oregon's notification system for logging and pesticide spraying, FERNS, provides only limited information about the timing of logging and spray activities to the public. Currently, there is no requirement for logging companies to give real time notification to landowners who live near clearcuts that are sprayed, they simply are notified that spray could happen sometime in the next year. But that would change if the new legislation moves forward: nearby residents would get more timely notification, including within 24 hours of spray applications. The bill would also require logging companies to comply with other regulations that help protect people from exposure to pesticides.
2. Increase no-spray zones around homes and schools.
Did you know that, currently, it's perfectly legal to clearcut and spray herbicides within 60 feet of homes and schools? This bill would expand the spray buffers around these areas to 300 feet. This is a significant improvement and surpasses Washington's buffer of 200 feet. Evidence has shown that aerial spray can drift well beyond the intended target, putting community and wildlife health at risk. These new buffers will take a big step in the right direction - and paired with the new notification system will give communities more tools to protect themselves from harm.
3. Expand minimum buffers where aerial spray is prohibited along streams and near drinking water sources.
Oregon's logging laws currently do very little to protect watersheds from aerial drift or pesticide runoff, which is especially concerning for the hundreds of thousands of Oregonians whose watershed is actively logged and sprayed. This bill would increase the size of no-spray buffers around springs and water intakes where people get their drinking water from 60 feet to 300 feet. In addition, it would extend spray protections to certain waterways that are currently not protected from spray, including the headwater systems that make up 70% of the state's stream network. Under current practices, this extensive network of waterways receives no protections from aerial pesticide spray.
In addition to the aerial spray reforms outlined above, the legislation would also put into effect no-logging rules to retain stream-side trees to better protect salmon, trout, and bull trout habitat in southwest Oregon that passed for the rest of western Oregon in 2017.
How did we get to this point?
Eight years ago, Oregon Wild increased our involvement in the years-long effort to reform the Oregon Forest Practices Act (OFPA), working with community groups, fish conservation, public health, and environmental organizations around the state.
In 2015, a strong coalition of Oregon legislators, working on behalf of rural residents and public environmental health interests, pursued legislation to increase public transparency and accountability around uses of aerial pesticide and herbicide spraying. It would have created a notification system for aerial spray and set up a process for making rules about spraying close to homes, schools, and drinking water. Unfortunately, SB 613 was shunted to a closed-door working group where it languished, while another committee produced a watered-down bill backed by the timber industry.
After the legislature failed to act to limit aerial spraying in 2015, Oregon Wild and our partners decided to file three initiative proposals for potential inclusion on the 2016 ballot. All three initiatives would have stopped aerial pesticide sprays in watersheds that are a source of drinking water, and near homes and schools. We were, unfortunately, unable to move the initiative forward in time to qualify for the ballot.
In 2017, Oregon Wild and many of our partners worked with legislators and community groups to introduce several ideas to the legislature that could dramatically improve forest and drinking water protections, and help people protect themselves from aerial spray. Again, the legislature failed to move even the most common-sense reforms out of committee.
In 2018 and 2019, we continued building support for logging and spray reform, and worked with partners and campaign experts to craft a new round of ballot measures - beginning the qualification process in the fall of 2019. These initiatives would require no-spray buffers of 500 feet from water bodies, no-cut buffers varying from 50-100 feet on streams, and new rules for steep slope logging. The saga of Initiative Petitions 35, 36, and 37 unfolded in a battle with Oregon's Secretary of State, the subsequent filing of Initiative Petitions 45, 46, and 47, and taking the steps necessary to mount a major signature gathering campaign this year to qualify for the November 2020 ballot.
The possibility of finding some agreement for reform of forest practices with the timber industry happened quickly, and, as noted above, would not have been possible without the years of pressure by activists speaking up, organizing, gaining media attention, and exposing again and again the shortcomings of Oregon's outdated forestry laws. Ultimately, the timber industry agreed that change is needed, and we are now on a course to finally get the changes activists have demanded for years.
If the spray reform bill passes in the coming weeks, the signatory parties have agreed to withdraw support for the Forest Waters ballot initiatives and the initiatives proposed by the timber industry. Even if that happens, there will still be a major need for citizens and activists to help move reforms forward.
In the coming months, representatives from the timber and environmental groups that signed the MOU will be working with state and federal agencies to develop a process for what logging practice reforms will be addressed in Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP). The development of these changes will be informed by the best available science and will need to better protect fish and water quality by addressing the impacts of logging roads, logging on steep slopes, and logging near streams. These reforms have the potential to be significantly more comprehensive than what could have come out of the initiative process.
As the HCP process plays out over the next few years, we will need our supporters to continue to speak up in favor of our forests, water, and wildlife during public comment opportunities, hearings, and other opportunities for citizen feedback. We know we have a long way to go to update Oregon's weak forest laws so that we can address the impacts years of clearcutting has had on our climate, streams, fish, wildlife, and human health. The work is just beginning!
Photos by Chandra LeGue, Francis Eatherington
Webcast: Renewal in Our Burned Forests
Defending Our Burned Forests: Learn and Take Action
Webcast: Snowshoeing Mount Hood
Dead trees don't go to heaven
December wildlife update: Wrapping up 2020 with a (legal) punch
Webcast: Snowshoeing Central Oregon
Webcast: Oregon's Vanishing Glaciers
The Oregon Wolf Trail
November Wildlife Update: Thankful for Oregon's Wildlife
Wolverine(s) of Oregon


text:
Preparing for endemic COVID-19
by Brent Walker
covid-19, COVID-19 Blog
An analysis of why actuaries should prepare for endemic COVID-19.
Endemic COVID-19
Despite the severest of lockdowns, New South Wales has not got the reproductive Index (RI) for the COVID-19 Delta strain below 1.0 as at the first week of September. The combination of the restrictions and the seasonal influences should have caused the peak to be in late August. However, it is now rife in the Western NSW aboriginal community, where continued spread is inevitable. The NSW Government currently expects the peak new infections to occur by mid-September. So far, Victoria hasn't also been able to supress the Delta strain.
Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, when giving evidence in early August to the UK's All Party Parliamentary Group on COVID-19, admitted that herd immunity was "mythical" with the Delta strain[1]. People who have been immunised or have been previously infected can still catch the virus and infect others. This was obvious in Mumbai in March and reported in Misplaced Coronavirus Complacency[2].
For people who had been infected with the Alpha strain in England more than 180 days prior, the probability of being reinfected with Delta has been calculated at 237% higher than the probability of being infected with Alpha, which was 50% more infectious than the original strain. For those who had more recently been infected with Alpha, the probability was 79%[3]. The New England Journal of Medicine reported that the Pfizer vaccine initially has an effectiveness of 88% after two doses and the AstraZeneca vaccine – 67%[4]. Unvaccinated people, however, have about 25 times the probability of hospitalisation and death from Delta than recently vaccinated people[5].
Because of the Delta strain, everyone will eventually become infected COVID-19. Evidence from Mumbai suggests that because it is likely that even more infectious strains[6] will follow, people will eventually get infected more than once, irrespective of their vaccination status. Therefore, governments around the world must now plan their strategies to deal with endemic COVID-19. Pandemic-type restrictions can only work to slow the RI infection rate down sufficiently to enable hospital systems to cope while vaccination levels are maximised.
Angela Merkel has announced that free COVID-19 testing will end in Germany from 11 October[7]. Other countries will follow suit. Eventually, coronavirus testing will be done for clinical reasons. So, patients will be tested on admission to hospitals and medical treatment centres, during treatment and upon discharge. Serology testing, such as that used in Australian sewerage treatment plants, will be used to keep track of the extent of the community spread of the virus.
Endemic COVID-19 has implications for the actuarial profession. It means that there will be waves of strain on medical and hospital systems and higher mortality and morbidity rates. Fortunately, reasonably healthy vaccinated people, on being infected with the Delta strain, will mostly only have symptoms of a head cold; stuffy nose, headache, sore throat, and cough. Some, usually those with underlying medical conditions, will develop more severe illnesses. For a small number of cases, it will still be fatal.
Hospital systems
Public hospital systems will come under stress with each new highly infectious strain of COVID-19. So too will private hospitals. Already in NSW, at least two private hospitals are accepting COVID-19 patients. The NSW Government modelling suggests that the peak stress on the hospital system will be around mid-October. Staffing will be a critical issue. Doctors and nurses will catch COVID-19 due to their continual exposure to it, despite their personal protective equipment. Although nearly all of them won't get seriously ill as they have been vaccinated, they won't be able to continue their professional duties for fear of infecting other hospital staff or non-COVID patients. The second critical issue will be COVID-19 intensive care beds and the third COVID-19 ward beds.
Plans have been made to turn operating theatres into COVID-19 intensive care wards and provide ward type COVID-19 treatment facilities outside of the hospital environment. Already, thousands of NSW COVID-19 patients are being treated successfully at home. But that also takes staff. Nurses attending homecare patients can still catch the virus.
Some staff of co-located private hospitals have already been seconded to their co-located public hospital. But wider secondment is occurring. To get JobKeeper funding, private hospitals had to agree to staff being deployed elsewhere if required. Elective surgery is almost completely unavailable in public hospitals. Private hospitals are now getting substantial bookings from the public system, particularly those whose staff haven't been seconded. Also, as occurred in 2020, private hospitals with intensive care facilities are preparing to take overflow from the public system.
Adapting to endemic COVID-19
Hospitals will prepare for future outbreaks of COVID-19 infections much in the way they prepare for the flu season. Although new strains could spread rapidly through the population at any time it is likely that peaks will occur in the mid-winter to mid-spring season. Almost certainly a booster COVID-19 vaccine will be a component of the annual flu vaccine administered in Autumn. For the next few years there will have to be a dedicated COVID-19 ward in most public hospitals.
Oximeters will become standard first aid equipment in home medical cabinets for those who don't have a smart watch with an oximeter. People will be encouraged to monitor their blood oxygen levels, particularly when they have symptoms of COVID-19. Medical advice will be to get to hospital if their blood oxygen levels have been consistently below 97% (say) for some hours or have dropped below 95% (say). Fitness levels, age and co-morbidities will temper such advice.
[1] https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/delta-coronavirus-government-liberal-democrat-b950068.html
[2] Misplaced coronavirus complacency – Misplaced coronavirus complacency | Actuaries Digital
[3] SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and variants under investigation in England Technical briefing 19. 23/7/21.
[4] New England Journal of Medicine Vol 385 No7. 21/8/21.
[5] Improving communications around vaccine breakthrough and vaccine effectiveness, Meredith McMorrow, MD, MPH Co-lead, Vaccine Effectiveness Team Representing EPI Task Force July 29, 2021 CDC (US)
[6] Delta Plus has become a variant of concern along with Alpha, Beta and Gamma. There are another five variants of interest.
[7] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/08/10/delta-variant-has-wrecked-hopes-herd-immunity-warn-scientists/
Brent is Principal at Brent Walker Actuarial Services Pty Limited. Before he retired, Brent had over fourteen years of management experience in the life insurance industry, ten years in the health insurance industry and over 35 years actuarial consulting to the health industry. He has been involved in advising The Australian Commonwealth and State Governments, health insurers, life insurers, friendly societies and retirement villages. He has also undertaken many international assignments in Europe and Asia. Brent is a past chairman of the International Association of Consulting Actuaries.
Mr Brent Walker says
No comments? A question for readers. Will mankind still be battling the mutations of Sars-Cov-2 in 100 years? Note: the various seasonal HnNn avian type flu are mutations of H1N1, the Spanish flu.
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Happy first Friday of 2017! I am so very excited to continue our Five on Friday link-up in 2017 with two of my best blog friends — April and Natasha! We are so grateful for all of you who link up with us each week and for all of you who stop by to read!
one. Matt pulled off a pretty amazing Christmas present for me. He consulted with one of my girlfriends to pick out the perfect pair of duck boots. And you know who was just as excited as me when I opened them? Caroline. I had just purchased a pair of duck boots on Black Friday for her and she couldn't believe we now have matchy matchy boots.
two. My sister is super picky when it comes to athletic wear. So when she texted me to say she finally found an (affordable) sports bra that she really liked I drove straight to Target and picked a few up. I love the strappy racerback style and the removeable cups. For those of you with fitness goals, I highly recommend stocking up on this C9 sports bra right now during Target's buy 1 get 1 50% off sale!
three. A few months ago I picked up the cutest shawl vest for my sister from one of my favorite boutiques, Ivy & Leo. And ever since I've wanted one for myself! And then I waited too long and all my favorite colors sold out. So when Ivy & Leo contacted me and asked if I wanted to review one of their new spring colors I jumped right on that and picked the sage shawl vest. I love this piece so much because you can style it dressy or casual, it's only $29 and it comes in 9 colors. Also, this vest showed up to our Christmas gift exchange and was stolen three times and fought over big time. So hurry and pick up your spring shawl vest now from Ivy & Leo! PS – my shoes are also from Ivy & Leo but I think they are sold out online now.
four. We took a break from HelloFresh over the holidays but are back in the swing of things so I started our deliveries back up. I forgot how much I love the convenience of coming home from work and not having to wonder what I'm going to make for dinner. And because I think HelloFresh missed me, they gave me a promo code to give FOUR of my friends a FREE box of HelloFresh meals! I'd be happy to send the first 4 readers to leave their email address in the comments a free week of HelloFresh to try!
five. POLL! I have a random question for you. Do you run your dishwasher every night or do you wait until it's full?
Previous Post Cheers to 2017!
I would love to try it! Kathrynbeckenhauer@gmail.comThanks!!
I run it when it is full – I also put the dishes in there clean of any nasty crusty food.
Love the boots and that vest!! Trying Hello Fresh is on my list!
That vest is great! That picture of the little ones in the dishwasher is the cutest! Happy 2017!
I would love to try HelloFresh.. my email is kayleeheape@gmail.com. I only run our dishwasher when its full.
I love that shawl vest so much!! Last time you post about it they didn't have any colors I liked yet, I'll have to go see if that changed! We run our dishwasher when its full but now that you mention it, every day sort of makes more sense in my mind!
We run our dishwasher when it's full 🙂 Which ends up being about every second day. Cute duck boots – love that they match! That vest is gorgeous on you, too!
I love the duck boots…so cute! I love the shawl vest so much I just bought the Indi. Peach one!! 🙂 We run our dishwasher when it's full but ours is generally full every night! Happy Friday!!
Happy Friday!! I am loving the coordinating duck boots – too cute! I saw your Insta post on that shawl – might need to scoop that up, love it!
I definitely wait until the dishwasher is full. LOVE the vest!
We usually wait until the dishwasher is full – which is generally every other day (1 year old and 3 year old over here)!
Those matching boots are adorable! I don't have a dishwasher but I do wash the dishes almost as soon as they're dirty! I hate a sink full of dirty dishes!
I LIVE in those bras. They are so so comfy. Love the duck boots. They're essential up here. Yall will look adorable in them.
Love those duck boots and so adorable y'all are matching! We run our dishwasher when it's full but it's also just me and my husband. When my parents come to town it's full about every day!
I run mine 1-2 times a day, when it's full. We go through a lot of dishes! I found the Columbia sports bra on Amazon. it's $7 and I've ordered 3! They are low impact but I do full body workouts and hold up my B cups nicely! 🙂 Very comfy!
We run our dishwasher every night so it's ready to be unloaded first thing in the morning. It's usually full or close to.
I usually wait until the dishwasher is full… unless we ate something especially messy or smelly!
I wait until the dishwasher is full, usually! That sports bra is adorable… and I love you and C in your matching boots!!
Love the boots, and so cute that you two match!! We run out dishwasher only when it's full, but then again, there's only two of us and no kids yet, so we don't have a ton of dishes!
I have that sports bra and really, really love it too! One of my favorites. Happy New Year!
Girl those Target sports bras are my absolute fav!! I've had mine for years and years and they hold up so well! We wait until ours is full to run it but with a new babe coming in 9 weeks I think it will be daily for sure!
We used to run our dishwasher only when full, but then would somehow end up with half a loaf stuck in the sink waiting for the dishwasher (or to be washed by hand), so we try to run it each night, and it's almost full (I stopped washing sippy cups and bottles by hand to fill it up).
I wait till it is full, but then again, it is just my husband and I which makes a difference. I may have to explore that sports bra! I am a DD and I can't seem to find anything great that is affordable! Happy new year!
With a three year old and 1.5 year old twins…we run it every single night! Excited to take a look at that vest…thanks!
We run it when it's full, which is usually every other night.
We run ours when full. Which is often twice a day. But I'm home all day with a 3 year old and an 8-month-old baby on formula and I cook a lot. When I worked full time we ran it about every other day.
Love the matching bean boots!


The French state railway SNCF is set to hold a three-month strike against President Emmanuel Macron's labor reforms that seek to open up the operator to competition from 2023 as required by the European Union.
Trade unions across sectors, including collection, electricity, energy, academics and others, are vehemently opposing Macron's proposal for state liberalization, writes the BBC.
Macron, who cruised to a sweeping win last year, seems to be capitalizing on the decisive mandate to deliver on his promise of transforming France. However, a recent survey shows growing sympathy for SNCF staff, with 46 percent respondents calling the strike "justified," notes The Local.


Some additional aspects of the tragedy ["13-Nov-15: Again: Israeli lives extinguished by Pal Arab terrorists"] we reported here Friday afternoon, just before the peace and spirituality of the Sabbath arrived.
Times of Israel reports that Rabbi Ya'akov Litman, 40, and his son Netanel, 18, were murdered in the shooting attack around 3:00 pm Friday near the Jewish community of Otniel. They along with other members of the family, residents of the Kiryat Arba community, were driving from their home to Meitar, near Be'er Sheva, for what sounds to us, from the vague description in the news reports, to be a Shabbat Hatan, the celebration of the upcoming wedding (set for November 17) of their daughter and sister. She was evidently not in the family van. Instead of a welcome, joyous and presumably long-awaited celebration, the Litmans and their family and friends have had to arrange a funeral for the father and son in Jerusalem tonight.
The other family members in the van were the wife and mother, a 16-year-old son and three young daughter aged 11, 9 and 5, according to Haaretz. All were lightly hurt with bruises and shrapnel injuries. Based on our familiarity with Jewish custom, the fourth daughter preparing for her wedding was very likely spending the Shabbat in or near her home with friends.
Haaretz says the gunman was waiting by the side of the road for any Israeli vehicle to drive by. Investigators found 14 bullets had been fired at the Litmans. The shooter fled, and a search has been underway since last night, focusing on the Palestinian Arab towns of Yatta and Dhahiriya.
Times of Israel says Ya'akov Litman, the driver, was wounded by the gun fire, swerved into the opposite lane, and crashed into rocks at the side of the road. Netanel called rescue services but was then also shot dead. A Channel 2 news report quoted by the news site says that after this, one of the gunmen came closer and fired additional bullets after killing the father and son.
A younger son then called the Magen David Adom hotline to report the attack, reporting as well that a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance had just driven past the scene of the attack, and had deliberately ignored them and failed to stop. (Israel is said to be filing a protest with the International Committee of the Red Cross about this. Israelis are holding their breaths waiting for a robust response from Geneva. Not.) Haaretz says the MDA team reached the scene soon afterwards, pronounced the father and son dead at the scene, and rushed the other family members to Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva.
There are reports tonight that the murders were celebrated publicly by Hamas via social media.


text:
Philosophers Among the 2021 Newcombe Doctoral Fellows
Mr. Steers-McCrum is the inaugural recipient of the Robert M. Adams–Charlotte W. Newcombe Fellow in Philosophy, co-named for philosopher Robert Merrihew Adams, the program's co-founder.
Marzouq Alnusf, Shannon Brick, Alex Steers-McCrum, Karolina Wisniewska
Marzouq Alnusf (Northwestern University)
Global Racial Capitalism: How Race Matters to Global Justice
Shannon Brick (CUNY Graduate Center)
Rehabilitating Authenticity
Alex Steers-McCrum (CUNY Graduate Center)
What Does "Native" Mean? Disentangling and Decolonizing Settler Terms and Categories
Karolina Wisniewska (University of Arizona)
Identity, Inequality, Injustice
The Institute for Citizens & Scholars (formerly the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation), has awarded its 2021 Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships, and several philosophy students are among the winners.
The Newcombe Fellowships are awarded to Ph.D. candidates in the humanities and social sciences whose projects address "questions of ethical and religious values in interesting, original, or significant ways." They fellows are provided with a 12-month award of ,500 to support their final year of dissertation writing. You can see the full list of fellows here.


text:
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Inside an Arizona Border Militia
By: Latino Rebels
This week on Latino USA, two award-winning journalists spend a night with Arizona Border Recon, a volunteer militia made up of former soldiers hunting down immigrants in the Sonoran Desert:
In 2008, Tim Foley was living in Phoenix and making $40 an hour running construction crews. Then the financial crash happened, and his life went up in smoke: he lost his job and his home. He couldn't find another decent paying job, and felt that it was because there were too many immigrants working illegally in the country and chopping wages. Frustrated and adrift, Foley drove down to southern Arizona, living out of his truck at first. If the government wasn't going to secure the border, Foley decided, then he would.
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One response to "Inside an Arizona Border Militia"
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