text:
Can Cognitive Training Make You Smarter?: Interview with Author Dan Hurley
Conversations March 03, 2014 / By Scott Barry Kaufman
Interview with author Dan Hurley exploring the promise of cognitive brain training.
Dan Hurley is one of my favorite science journalists. Not only does he write about issues that interest me, but he doesn't sacrifice the nuance, or the humor. Dan's popular feature in The New York Times Magazine, "Can You Make Yourself Smarter?" brilliantly presented multiple perspectives in the cognitive training debate. In his latest book, "Smarter: The New Science of Building Brain Power", Dan expanded his investigation of the cognitive training literature and also reviewed other interventions that attempt to increase intelligence. I highly recommend the book for anyone who wants to see how science works (i.e., how messy it really is behind the scenes), including its real human dimension.
What in the world compelled you to jump into the swamp that is the cognitive training literature?
When I was in third grade, I still couldn't read. Mrs. Browning, my teacher at Whittier School in Teaneck, N.J., told my mother, "Daniel is a slow learner." And then I was saved by Spider-Man. My best friend started reading it with another kid, and then I started reading it, as best I could. Soon we were writing our own comic books, and by sixth grade, I was getting straight A's and on my way to becoming a writer. Ever since, I've wondered what really happened back then: did reading and writing comics actually make me smarter?
Then, a few years ago, I was assigned to write an article for Neurology Today about drugs being tested as a means to improve the cognitive abilities of people with Down syndrome. I talked to Alberto Costa, who was then running the first clinical trial in young adults with Down syndrome, using a drug that had been successful in the mouse model of Down syndrome. I ended up writing a profile of Dr. Costa for the New York Times Magazine, and then I wondered whether any research was being done on improving intelligence in otherwise healthy people. The article I wrote for the NY Times Magazine, "Can You Make Yourself Smarter?" became one of the magazine's most-emailed stories of the year. That led me to write a book, and here I am.
How do you define "intelligence"?
Psychologists define it with tests. But those tests are ultimately designed to measure the real-world ability to figure things out, solve problems, and see meaningful patterns in the world around us. And it's not just "book smarts." It includes our ability to understand ourselves and those around us, to handle whatever life throws at us, to make sense of things. Intelligence is what allows us to learn from our experience, to gain insight into life, to juggle multiple demands. With the internet these days, information is everywhere. But intelligence is how we make sense of all that information.
You spend some time in the first chapter defending the importance of intelligence. Why did you feel the need to do that. Do you think intelligence is underrated in society?
If you've ever been called "stupid," as I was a kid, you know how intensely personal and important it is. If you've ever had a learning-disabled child, or if your parent is becoming impaired by Alzheimer's disease, you know how important intelligence is. The evil history of eugenics actually started in Britain, with researchers who decided that IQ was almost entirely genetic in nature, and so they concluded that only smart people should have kids. That view was widely adopted in the United States in the first half of the 20th century. Laws were passed requiring the sterilization of cognitively disabled people, and refusing entry to immigrants who tested poorly on IQ tests. The Nazis carried this view of human nature to its horrific conclusion, which explains why they murdered tens of thousands of cognitively disabled people in their gas chambers. These days, it's become politically incorrect to talk about intelligence. The intelligentsia (pun intended) prefer to talk about grit and determination, or "emotional" intelligence. But wishing away the importance of intelligence doesn't make it go away.
What do you think being smarter by IQ test standards buys you in life?
Malcolm Gladwell actually wrote in "Outliers" that if he could "magically" increase your IQ by 30 points (as if there could be no other way) you would not really benefit. That's ridiculous. Anyone with a serious cognitive impairment, including those who have suffered a traumatic brain injury, can be truly disabled by it. If you want to write a good novel, if you want to work for Google or some other cool company, if you want to complete college – all of those things require some serious intellectual firepower. Today we live in a knowledge economy, where most of the good jobs require critical thinking, the ability to learn and communicate and understand complexities. Factory work is disappearing. Getting smarter empowers you to succeed in life.
Does anyone in the cognitive training field agree on anything?
A handful of researchers, most of them connected to Georgia Tech, continue to loudly insist that intelligence training is a bunch of baloney, that it's like "cold fusion." But those arch-skeptics have pretty well lost the argument. At this point, the vast majority of the 200 or so researchers I interviewed believe that cognitive training can work. The Office of Naval Research, the U.S. Air Force, the Marines and the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency (IAPRA) wouldn't be funding this stuff if it were make-believe. Nor would the National Institute of Neurological Disease and Stroke. The legitimate questions that need to be answered are: Which methods work best? How long do you have to do them? Who benefits? Should the methods be combined? As with any new area of medical research, larger and longer studies are needed to clarify uncertainties.
What areas of the cognitive training field are most contentious?
Even some of the psychologists who have found strong benefits for training feel nervous about the commercial advocacy of companies like Lumosity. We all know that physical exercise builds muscles…but we don't yet know exactly which kinds of cognitive exercises work best. That said, I have counted about 75 randomized, placebo-controlled trials (and they're all cited in my book) demonstrating significant benefits from various kinds of cognitive training—from "working memory" training to physical exercise, learning a musical instrument, mindfulness meditation, transcranial direct-current stimulation and more. I found only four randomized, placebo-controlled trials that found no benefit whatsoever. That's pretty overwhelming.
You quote Susanne Jaeggi as saying, "We really think the question at this point should not be whether cognitive training works, but for whom and why." I found this to be quite sensible. Does anyone in the field disagree with that sentiment?
That is the view of almost every credible researcher in the field. And I have to say, I was very, very nervous about sounding overly positive and hopeful about this subject. I am a born skeptic. To be a science reporter requires a fundamental level of doubt and skepticism about just about everything. A good friend of mine from college loves to goof on how, whenever he tells me anything the least bit surprising, I repeat it back to him in a tone of disbelief. I'm really a bit of a nut in that regard. My first science book, "Natural Causes," was all about the wacky world of dietary supplements, where companies keep promoting products that have been proved to be ineffective and often unsafe. It's very unlike me to promote anything. So it took many interviews with many researchers, and many visits to scientific labs and meetings around the country, to convince me that most researchers are pretty well in agreement that cognitive training can, at the very least, help some of the people some of the time.
Was Randy Engle the most skeptical scientist that you spoke to?
Randy is brilliant and personable and funny. He is one of the most important psychologists of the past 20 years. For that reason, his skepticism toward intelligence training scared the beeswax out of me. But I found nobody else with his level of extreme skepticism toward the field of cognitive training. He seems personally offended by the idea, as though other researchers are trying to pull the wool over the rest of us. Perhaps Randy is right and everybody else is wrong. But it sure didn't seem that way to the many other researchers I interviewed.
How did Engle's views on the malleability of intelligence change throughout your investigation?
He started out by noticing some problems in a major 2008 paper by Susanne Jaeggi, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He described these problems in detail in scientific papers and at meetings. He published a couple papers finding no benefits from training. Then he published papers attacking Cogmed, a form of computerized working-memory training offered by psychologists. Since then, however, Randy has published a paper showing that training one kind of working memory does benefit other kinds of working memory. And he has stated at scientific meetings that he does believe that it's possible to improve attention through training. So his views have evolved, although he remains intensely critical of some of the published literature.
You spoke to K. Anders Ericsson, who studies the development of expertise. Does he think that cognitive training increases in intelligence are irrelevant to the development of world-class expertise?
Ericsson believes that the benefits you get from practice apply only to the specific skill you're practicing. He published studies showing that even if you practiced memory tricks to learn how to remember a hundred random numbers in a row, you still were no better at remembering a hundred letters in a row, or anything else. In the lingo of psychologists, he believes that training doesn't "transfer." Malcolm Gladwell made Ericsson famous in "Outliers" by describing his so-called "law" of 10,000 hours of practice. Ericsson has published studies suggesting that talent doesn't matter, and that the only thing that does matter is practicing for 10,000 hours in order to become an expert. Whether you want to be a concert pianist or a world-class chess player or anything else, supposedly all you need to do is practice for 10,000 hours and then you'll be a master.
What do you think of Ericsson's perspective?
Ericsson's claims have not been supported by other researchers who have found that talent does matter, and that training in certain tasks does result in "transfer" to improvements in other abilities. Some chess grandmasters practiced for much less than 10,000 hours before they reached the top, whereas other people can practice for much more than 10,000 hours and still not make it. The same is true of intelligence as a trait. Just because you study and study and study doesn't mean you're going to get into Harvard. We all know that. Some people are smarter than others. The real question is whether you can increase your intelligence so that the hard work you put in will pay off better.
What kind of effect does cognitive training have on the brain?
There is no question that training causes structural and functional improvement in the brain, as seen on MRI. Most of the changes are seen in the frontal areas of the brain, where high-level thinking occurs. Mindfulness meditation, for instance, has been shown to produce increased white-matter connections between the anterior cingulate cortex, an important region for complex decision-making, and the rest of the brain.
What cognitive functions did you find are most trainable?
Working memory is the ability to juggle multiple items of attention, to manipulate and analyze information. If you try to multiple 26 by 37 in your head, the reason it's so hard is because of the demands it puts on your working memory. Tons of studies, including the latest one by Randy Engle, show that by training on certain kinds of working-memory tasks, you can improve your working memory overall. This is profoundly important for your ability to multi-task and think through complicated problems.
What interventions are the most effective in improving cognitive ability?
Working-memory training has proved really useful, although exactly which kinds of working-memory tasks are most useful remains unclear. Susanne Jaeggi has focused on the N-back task, which anyone can check out online at www.soakyourbrain.com. Others prefer various other kinds of working-memory tasks. But plenty of research also shows that physical exercise, learning a musical instrument, and mindfulness meditation can all bring significant benefits. One of the coolest parts of my training was learning to play the Renaissance lute.
Teenagers everywhere want to know: are there any cognitive benefits of first-person shooter games?
Absolutely. These games are so good at improving reaction times that they are used by the U.S. military to train pilots and operators of drones. These games can also improve the "useful field of view," your ability to see and respond to stimuli at the periphery of your vision, which is incredibly important when driving a vehicle. Other computerized games have been shown to improve older people's ability to distinguish very fine differences in shades of gray. Strangely, this ability has been shown to be one of the single most important markers of longevity. So if you get better at it, will you actually live longer? That's not yet clear. But improving your ability to see and respond to your environment can be potentially lifesaving.
How important is exercise?
Research has proved beyond doubt that the brain is actually connected to the heart and lungs via something called the "neck." Physical exercise is perhaps the best-proved method for improving cognitive function in older people. It's also critical for children and middle-aged sloths. Some researchers believe that cardiovascular exercise is best, while others insist that strength training is more important.
What about vitamins? Which one should take the most of if I want to think more quickly? Or should I just continue to drink lots and lots of caffeine?
I know that many people believe in the benefits of vitamins and dietary supplements. But there are no good studies showing that any of them really help cognitive function. Large studies of fish oil given to pregnant women have even suggested that there might be some risks to the intellectual abilities of their children. Caffeine, on the other hand, has been repeatedly shown to enhance not just attention, but motivation and even, most recently, memory. And if you can believe it, nicotine also helps. Cigarettes and other forms of tobacco are of course extremely dangerous and greatly increase the risk of cancer, heart disease, and much more. But studies in both humans and animals confirm that nicotine, given through a patch or gum, can be a great cognitive enhancer. I actually started using a 7 mg nicotine patch and found it useful, without any noticeable addictiveness.
Can mindfulness meditation make you smarter? What cognitive functions are most affected by mindfulness meditation?
A series of studies by Michael Posner and Yi-Yuan Tang have shown that mindfulness meditation can enhance all kinds of cognitive abilities. Mind-wandering is not helpful when you're trying to write an article or take a test. On the other hand, some recent studies have suggested that allowing your mind to wander can also be helpful when you need a breakthrough. Some of the greatest scientific insights have occurred when scientists were spacing out.
How transferable are improvements in specific cognitive functions to intelligence more generally?
It's easy for psychologists to give you a series of tests, have you practice some exercises, and then run follow-up tests to see if you improve better than people who didn't do those exercises. But figuring out what the real-world benefits are to those improvements is much, much harder. A recent study of older adults given just ten hours of training found that even ten years later, they still enjoyed significant benefits in daily functioning. A hundred years of studies have proved that IQ tests and other tests of cognitive function are very, very predictive of real-world abilities. They're not perfect—no test is—but on average, just like blood-pressure tests, they're pretty good at predicting how you'll do in the future. Many large corporations, as well as the U.S. military, give these tests not because they love tests, but because they really help pick out people who can be successful from those who just lack the ability to learn and function.
If a person increases their IQ score by 40%, do you think that means they are 40% smarter?
If a person with an IQ of 85 increases his or her score by 40%, it would then be 119. Some part of that improvement might be just that the person is now better at taking tests. But some portion is also likely going to represent an increase in their real-world intelligence. On average–and only on average–that person should then be better able to handle college-level courses, to make inferences, learn from experience, and work in a complex environment. Of course, hard work and diligence still make an enormous difference in how well people actually do in life. But the whole point of cognitive training is to help them in real life–not just to improve a score on a test. Now very few researchers would claim that by training, you could increase your intelligence by 40 percent. That would be remarkable. But a number of studies have shown that the gains produced through training pay off in daily activities, so that they do, at some level, literally make people smarter.
Through training, how good at the n-back task did you become, and has that had any notable impact on your everyday life?
Like most people, I started out at 2-back and quickly reached 3-back. Eventually I mastered 4-back and occasionally succeeded at 5-back. I have since found myself working much more efficiently as a journalist, getting along better with my family and handling the many demands of life.
You had your IQ tested and it turned out to be quite high. But let's say the test score happened to come out low. Would that have substantially changed your own perception of your intelligence? Would you have reassessed your options in life? Check yourself into the nearest institution and enjoy the free food and care?
Back in high school during the early 1970s, I went to a Free School without grades. There were no requirements and no tests. It was not even recognized by the state of New Jersey. I had to take the GED and SAT by myself in order to get into college. So I've never been a big believer in the meaning of tests, or the importance of putting a number on a person's ability. Even so, it was scary for me to take those tests—but exciting too, kind of like the way a person would feel before jumping off a bridge attached to a bungee cord. I did not know in advance how I would do. I thought that perhaps I would still be the "slow learner" with a low IQ who has gotten this far in life just through hard work. Actually, I felt almost embarrassed at scoring high enough to qualify for membership in Mensa.
After you assess the results of your own cognitive training, you put it all in perspective by saying:
"And so what? Those are just numbers on a test. In the end, for all of us, the best test of cognitive abilities is one for which there is no answer key. It's called life."
I actually found that paragraph quite profound, and a bit of a turn from your defense of IQ-type intelligence in the first chapter. In what ways did your investigation change your views on intelligence, and the importance of IQ test scores?
I had the privilege while researching the book of meeting brain-injured veterans at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Most of them had experienced "only" a mild TBI, but all of them had terrible problems at home, with their families, and on the job. Meeting them, and meeting other people facing serious cognitive problems, reminded me that intelligence is a matter of profound, real-life importance. Even though intelligence tests can be a useful indicator of abilities, the tests themselves are not the point. This new field of science is aimed at helping people handle life better.
Do you regret entering the swamp?
Regret it? I loved it. Trying to sense of this new field was exciting and fun. Testing out these methods on myself was exhilarating. Having the opportunity to convey an important new area of research to the public has been an honor. Plus, hey, I learned how to play the Renaissance lute.
© 2013 Scott Barry Kaufman, All Rights Reserved.
Note: For my own writings on the cognitive training literature, see here and here.
images credit: danhurley.com
This post originally appeared at Scientific American.
cognitive training
dan hurley
ray engle
scott barry kaufman
susanne jaeggi
working memory training
Scott Barry Kaufman is a humanistic psychologist exploring the depths of human potential. He has taught courses on intelligence, creativity, and well-being at Columbia University, NYU, the University of Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. He is interested in using his research to help all kinds of minds live a creative, fulfilling, and self-actualized life. Scott likes to share his enthusiasm and knowledge of the science of potential through his books, teaching, coaching, podcast, blog, articles, and speaking engagements. In his latest book Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization, Kaufman presents a new hierarchy of human needs for the 21st century, one that allows for the fulfillment of individual potential as well as the actualization of transcendent purpose and peak experiences. Kaufman hosts the #1 psychology podcast in the world— The Psychology Podcast— which has received over 12 million downloads and was included in Business Insider's list of "9 podcasts that will change how you think about human behavior." Kaufman's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Scientific American, Psychology Today, and Harvard Business Review. Kaufman's early educational experiences made him realize the deep reservoir of untapped potential of students, including bright and creative children who have been diagnosed with a learning disability (see the free monthly webcast "Critical Conversations on Cognitive Diversity"). Scott received a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Yale University, and an M. Phil in experimental psychology from the University of Cambridge under a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. In 2015, he was named one of "50 groundbreaking scientists who are changing the way we see the world" by Business Insider. Scott is a co-founder of The Creativity Post.
More about Scott Barry Kaufman
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Five New Lessons From Salman Khan On Reinventing Education
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How Do You Raise The Odds Of Creative Breakthrough? Rather Than Search For Answers, Seek Out Your Simple Truths


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My primary academic interests lie in the areas of political philosophy, applied ethics, business and public policy, with a particular interest in the intersection of these areas. I am also interested in the role that poetry can play in discovering philosophical and social intuitions.
Research Fellow, Centre for Applied Ethics, University of Stellenbosch
Member, Scholars & Practitioners Network, Corporate Responsibility Initiative, Harvard University
PhD* Political Theory Oxford University, UK
MPhil Political Theory Oxford University, UK
MSc Political Theory London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), UK
MPA Political Thought Harvard University, USA
MSc Finance London Business School (LBS), UK
MBA Strategy Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT Sloan), USA
BSc Mech. Engineering University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
* expected 2021
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'Criminal justice after corporate corruption is just the beginning' Business Day, 19 February 2019
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'All Hands on Deck: Getting all corporations, not only pharmaceutical companies, to fight TB', Lancet, Under consideration
'Ranking Agents of Justice: When Should the Corporation Act?' St Anthony's International Review, Vol 14, No 1, May 2018
'The Justice Gap: If Our Institutions Are Just, Why is Our Society So Unjust?' in Institutions and Institutionalisation, (ed) Daniel Plaatjies, UKZN Press, forthcoming 2019
'Strategy Implementation Requires Bold Leadership,' Management Today, Vol 23, No 2, March 2007
'Lower Financial Results: Market Slowdown or Poor Management,' Management Today, Vol 25, No 5, June 2009
'The Justice Batting Order: When Should the Corporation Act to Remedy Injustice?' Priority in Practice conference, Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford University, 2018
'Poverty in all its dimensions' (panel), Human Welfare Conference, Green Templeton College, Oxford, 2018
'Rhodes Must Fall: What about the UK?' (panel), Common Ground Symposium, Oxford, 2018
'Evidence in Action' (panel), Human Welfare Conference, Green Templeton College, Oxford, 2018
'The Participation Principle as Partial Grounds for Assigning Justice Responsibility to the Commercial Corporation' Applied Ethics Group, Oxford, 2017
'SME Financing' (panel), Africa Development Conference, Harvard Law School, Harvard, 2013
'Applying Business Insights to Improve School Systems,' Harvard Education Series, Harvard, 2012
'Award-winning South African poet, Athol Williams, fulfilled a 20-year dream by earning a distinction for his thesis at England's Oxford University' Radio 702, 19 July 2019
'Reparations and big business,' CapeTalk Radio, 29 January 2019
Entry into Regent's Park Book of Recognition, Regent's Park College, Oxford University, 2018
Prize for "Best MSc Political Theory Dissertation," London School of Economics (LSE), 2014
Lucius N. Littauer Award, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University, 2013
Past Roles
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Web secrecy is difficult to find, however not feasible. Quite a bit of what you read, purchase, bookmark, or offer online is followed. Programmers are continually searching for methods for getting to your own data, while enormous information firms need to move your online information. Moreover, numerous individuals trust that the legislature might listen in on their online exercises. In this way, it is critical to find a way to guarantee that your online exercises remain totally mysterious.
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Mauricio Stella
Mauricio Stella "Muralist Painter", was born in San Carlos of Chile on December 17th 1970 from an Italian father. In 1987 he graduated from the Bilingual Humanistic Artistic High School and since then he has started to paint full time in his Atelier in Santiago.
In the 90s and 92s he met and appreciated the German painter and sculptor Wolfram Brillant, a prominent figure in his training process, such as that of the internationally renowned Surrealist painter Roberto Matta. Although he is so young, he reveals great artistic maturity and domination of the expressive means, which will allow him since then his own spaces in the world of modern painting.
In 1995 he was awarded a Scholarship in Italy thanks to which he can attend a Humanistic-Artistic Course at the University of Genoa. The following year he returned to Chile and the authorities of his hometown commissioned him to create a "mural" for the library of a new school. This project was completed in 1997 and immediately returned to Italy where it settled permanently in the city of Imperia.
Over the years he has organized numerous personal exhibitions both in Italy and abroad and also participates in various collective exhibitions.
In 2011 he presented a solo show in the Principality of Monaco in Monte Carlo, participated in the Artists Fair in Parma and in the virtual experimental exhibition Artistiweb and exhibited at the Thuillier Gallery in Paris.
In 2012 the artist was selected for his inclusion in the Mondadori Italian Modern Art Catalog and in the same year he also participates in a collective exhibition, as an artist selected by the Art Critic Prof. Paolo Levi, representing the 'Italian Contemporary Art at the National Art Museum in Liviv in Ukraine where a work by the artist Stella is permanently exhibited, under the patronage of the Italian Embassy. Also in Ukraine in Kiev, in the same year, Mauricio Stella exhibits as part of a group exhibition at the National Art Gallery of the same city.
The Scientific Committee of the Mondadori Italian Modern Art Catalog (CAM) selects the artist Stella for the insertion and publication of his works in three consecutive years from 2012-13-14.
In 2013 he was invited with other artists to exhibit in the Bellini Museum in Florence, on the occasion of the Festival of Fine Arts and Culture of the XXI Century, during the events of the "Maggio Fiorentino".
In the three-year period 2014-15-16 he is present with his works, participating both in a collective called "Chengdu International Art Fair" and for the prestigious headquarters of the Altis Architects & Planners Co in Beijing, where his works will be exhibited for three consecutive years .
Currently the works of Mauricio Stella are found in private and public collections both in Italy and abroad.
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text:
Q: Java components are invisible when swing app is run as APPLET Respected all,
I am making a Swing-application window in ECLIPSE. When I run the program as 'JAVA-Application' the program functions well. However when I try to run the program as "Java_applet" the components like 'command button', 'textbox' are invisible.
I am entirely new to Java. I had previously worked on C#. Kindly please help me.
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.applet.*;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JRadioButton;
import java.awt.BorderLayout;

public class sa extends Applet{

    private JFrame frame;

    /**
     * Launch the application.
     */
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                try {
                    sa window = new sa();
                    window.frame.setVisible(true);
                } catch (Exception e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        });
    }

    /**
     * Create the application.
     */
    public sa() {
        initialize();
    }

    /**
     * Initialize the contents of the frame.
     */
    private void initialize() {
        frame = new JFrame();
        frame.setBounds(100, 100, 450, 300);
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

        JRadioButton rdbtnNewRadioButton = new JRadioButton("New radio button");
        frame.getContentPane().add(rdbtnNewRadioButton, BorderLayout.CENTER);
    }
}

A: You can't just have your class extend Applet and expect that that is all that is necessary for it to behave like a proper Applet. You need to give the class a proper init method and build the GUI from within this method. But most importantly you will need to read an Applet tutorial, any decent tutorial should do. Myself, I'd have my GUI extend JPanel, build the GUI in its constructor, and then I could use this JPanel in a JApplet or JFrame as needed.
As Andrew aptly notes in comment,

I think the OP should also dump the entire 'applet' part of it and develop the JFrame with an idea to launching it from a link using Java Web Start.  At least then it would have a better chance for working for users of Chrome and FireFox (which are both planning to remove all support for applets).

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text:
import path from "path";
import url from "url";
import ipRegex from "ip-regex";
import { cosmiconfig } from "cosmiconfig";
import isAbsoluteUrl from "is-absolute-url";

function capitaliseFirstLetter(string) {
  return string.charAt(0).toUpperCase() + string.slice(1);
}

function addLine(name, rule) {
  let contents = "";

  if (rule && Array.isArray(rule) && rule.length > 0) {
    rule.forEach((item) => {
      contents += addLine(name, item);
    });
  } else {
    const ruleContent = (name === "Allow" || name === "Disallow"
      ? encodeURI(rule)
      : rule
    ).toString();

    contents += `${capitaliseFirstLetter(
      name.replace(/([a-z])([A-Z])/g, "$1-$2").toLowerCase()
    )}:${ruleContent.length > 0 ? ` ${ruleContent}` : ""}\n`;
  }

  return contents;
}

function generatePoliceItem(item, index) {
  let contents = "";

  if (index !== 0) {
    contents += "\n";
  }

  contents += addLine("User-agent", item.userAgent);

  if (item.allow) {
    contents += addLine("Allow", item.allow);
  }

  if (typeof item.disallow === "string" || Array.isArray(item.disallow)) {
    contents += addLine("Disallow", item.disallow);
  }

  if (item.crawlDelay) {
    contents += addLine("Crawl-delay", item.crawlDelay);
  }

  // Move from policy for next master version
  // https://yandex.ru/support/webmaster/controlling-robot/robots-txt.html
  if (item.cleanParam && item.cleanParam.length > 0) {
    contents += addLine("Clean-param", item.cleanParam);
  }

  return contents;
}

function buildConfig(configFile = null) {
  let searchPath = process.cwd();
  let configPath = null;

  if (configFile) {
    searchPath = null;
    configPath = path.resolve(process.cwd(), configFile);
  }

  const configExplorer = cosmiconfig("robots-txt");
  const searchForConfig = configPath
    ? configExplorer.load(configPath)
    : configExplorer.search(searchPath);

  return searchForConfig.then((result) => {
    if (!result) {
      return {};
    }

    return result;
  });
}

export default function ({
  configFile = null,
  policy = [
    {
      allow: "/",
      cleanParam: null,
      crawlDelay: null,
      userAgent: "*",
    },
  ],
  sitemap = null,
  host = null,
} = {}) {
  let options = {
    host,
    policy,
    sitemap,
  };

  return Promise.resolve()
    .then(() =>
      buildConfig(configFile).then((result) => {
        // Need avoid this behaviour in next major release
        // Load config file when it is passed or options were set
        options = Object.assign({}, options, result.config);

        return options;
      })
    )
    .then(
      () =>
        new Promise((resolve) => {
          if (options.policy) {
            if (!Array.isArray(options.policy)) {
              throw new Error("Options `policy` must be array");
            }

            options.policy.forEach((item) => {
              if (!item.userAgent || item.userAgent.length === 0) {
                throw new Error(
                  "Each `policy` should have a single string `userAgent` option"
                );
              }

              if (
                item.crawlDelay &&
                typeof item.crawlDelay !== "number" &&
                !Number.isFinite(item.crawlDelay)
              ) {
                throw new Error(
                  "Option `crawlDelay` must be an integer or a float"
                );
              }

              if (item.cleanParam) {
                if (
                  typeof item.cleanParam === "string" &&
                  item.cleanParam.length > 500
                ) {
                  throw new Error(
                    "Option `cleanParam` should have no more than 500 characters"
                  );
                } else if (Array.isArray(item.cleanParam)) {
                  item.cleanParam.forEach((subItem) => {
                    if (typeof subItem === "string" && subItem.length > 500) {
                      throw new Error(
                        "String in `cleanParam` option should have no more than 500 characters"
                      );
                    } else if (typeof subItem !== "string") {
                      throw new Error(
                        "String in `cleanParam` option should be a string"
                      );
                    }
                  });
                } else if (
                  typeof item.cleanParam !== "string" &&
                  !Array.isArray(item.cleanParam)
                ) {
                  throw new Error(
                    "Option `cleanParam` should be a string or an array"
                  );
                }
              }
            });
          } else {
            throw new Error("Options `policy` should be define");
          }

          if (options.sitemap) {
            if (
              typeof options.sitemap === "string" &&
              !isAbsoluteUrl(options.sitemap)
            ) {
              throw new Error("Option `sitemap` should be an absolute URL");
            } else if (Array.isArray(options.sitemap)) {
              options.sitemap.forEach((item) => {
                if (typeof item === "string" && !isAbsoluteUrl(item)) {
                  throw new Error(
                    "Item in `sitemap` option should be an absolute URL"
                  );
                } else if (typeof item !== "string") {
                  throw new Error(
                    "Item in `sitemap` option should be a string"
                  );
                }
              });
            } else if (
              typeof options.sitemap !== "string" &&
              !Array.isArray(options.sitemap)
            ) {
              throw new Error(
                "Option `sitemap` should be a string or an array"
              );
            }
          }

          if (options.host) {
            if (typeof options.host !== "string") {
              throw new Error("Options `host` must be only one string");
            }

            if (ipRegex({ exact: true }).test(options.host)) {
              throw new Error("Options `host` should be not an IP address");
            }
          }

          let contents = "";

          options.policy.forEach((item, index) => {
            contents += generatePoliceItem(item, index);
          });

          if (options.sitemap) {
            contents += addLine("Sitemap", options.sitemap);
          }

          if (options.host) {
            let normalizeHost = options.host;

            if (normalizeHost.search(/^https?:\/\//) === -1) {
              normalizeHost = `http://${host}`;
            }

            // eslint-disable-next-line node/no-deprecated-api
            const parsedURL = url.parse(normalizeHost, false, true);

            if (!parsedURL.host) {
              throw new Error("Option `host` does not contain correct host");
            }

            let formattedHost = url.format({
              host:
                parsedURL.port && parsedURL.port === "80"
                  ? parsedURL.hostname
                  : parsedURL.host,
              port:
                parsedURL.port && parsedURL.port === "80" ? "" : parsedURL.port,
              protocol: parsedURL.protocol,
            });

            formattedHost = formattedHost.replace(/^http:\/\//, "");

            contents += addLine("Host", formattedHost);
          }

          return resolve(contents);
        })
    );
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


That's right, today is send a card to a friend day. You could send an actual card, a letter, an e-card or just send a message to a friend you haven't been in touch with for a while.
Friends are an important part of our life and if we don't nurture these relationships they can fall by the wayside. We all know friendships can drift apart over the years but one way to keep these relationships strong is to make regular and meaningful contact. Sending a card gives you the opportunity to touch base with your friend and let them know you are thinking of them.
It can be as short and sweet as 'Thinking of you' or why not share a memory of the two of you that always reminds you of them. Lots of us bottle up our feelings and don't share with those around us so a simple message and a card can really help someone to know there are people out there looking out for them and thinking of them. Send your favourite photo of the two of you together, one from your favourite memory would work even better!
So go on, start a habit today to send a card and brighten up someone's day. We can't really see any negatives to Send a card to a friend day and you never know it might be your turn to receive one next year!
Random Acts of Kindness Day – Spread some joy!


Alfamega (real name: Cedric Zellers) is having the worst week ever. Not only has he been outed as a certified snitch and dropped from T.I.'s Grand Hustle imprint, but to make matters worse, we hear he was sitting in jail when all of this happened! According to a new report by The Smoking Gun, he was arrested April 29th on felony gun and obstruction charges following a confrontation with police. They say he made bail Saturday, but if convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison!
According to an Atlanta Police Department report, a copy of which you'll find below, police found a stolen .40 caliber pistol in Zellars's SUV during a search of the vehicle following a traffic stop (the Sig Sauer handgun was loaded and had a round in the chamber). After cops discovered the gun, Zellars became "combative and non-compliant" and sought to flee.
Officer Antonio Blasini pepper sprayed Zellars in the face, but the substance "had no immediate effect." Cops chased Zellars to a nearby parking garage, where he was struck with a police baton, again to no effect. In a bid to shake his pursuers, Zellars weaved through parked cars and climbed over the garage wall, jumping "25-30 feet to the ground." The landing was not a smooth one.
The fall "resulted in an injury that appeared to be pieces of bone protruding from his ankle," cops noted. Zellars, pictured in the mug shot above, was booked into a Fulton County jail, where he remained until Saturday when he made bail. Zellars, a predicate felon, has yet to be indicted on the gun and obstruction charges. However, if the gun case were to be handled by federal prosecutors, Zellars could easily be facing more than a decade in prison.
Pepperspray? And they beat his @ss with a baton … and he was still trying to run? That dude must be a beast!


text:
Kroger Will Pay Workers $100 to Get COVID-19 Vaccine
Tony LaBrie
Tony LaBrie Published: February 8, 2021
Kroger feels so strongly about their employees getting the COVID-19 vaccine that they're going to pay them to get it.
According to Fox 2, the 500,000 associates who work at Kroger stores across America can get the one-time payment after receiving the full dose recommended by vaccine manufacturers.
Kroger Chief Medical Officer Dr. Marc Watkins:
We know that the most effective defense against this pandemic comes in the form of the COVID-19 vaccine and the continuation of the rigorous safety precautions we've established across our stores, manufacturing facilities and supply chain. We are strongly encouraging all customers and associates to receive the vaccine to curb the spread of COVID-19, and we'll do all we can to ensure they have access as soon as it's available.
I'm no math wizard but 500,000 employees at $100 apiece is some serious cash that they're giving up to ensure their employees are safe and protected. But It's really nothing compared to the $1.5 billion they invested in their frontline associates in 2020 during the pandemic.
Kroger isn't the only company that's taking care of their employees when it comes to getting the COVID-19 vaccine. Dollar General is giving its employees a one-time payment equivalent to four hours of work to get their shots. Aldi and Mcdonalds are doing something very similar to this as well.
I know a lot of people are on the fence about getting the vaccine but not this guy, as soon as it's available for me, I'm getting it.
UP NEXT: 7 Foods Michiganders Eat When It's Cold Outside
Filed Under: Kroger, vaccine
Categories: Health, Michigan News, National News


text:
Table 410. Eighth-grade students' perceptions about mathematics and hours spent on leisure activities, by country: 2003
Country or other jurisdiction Index of students' self-confidence in learning mathematics (SCM)1 Average hours spent each day2
High SCM Medium SCM Low SCM Watching
TV or videos Playing computer games Playing or talking with friends Doing
jobs at home Playing sports Reading
for enjoyment Using
the Internet Working
at a paid job
Percent Mean score Percent Mean score Percent Mean score
Armenia 41 (1.1) 505 (4.0) 40 (1.0) 468 (3.7) 19 (0.9) 462 (4.1) 1.8 (0.03) ‡ (†) ‡ (†) ‡ (†) ‡ (†) ‡ (†) ‡ (†) ‡ (†)
Australia 50 (1.7) 542 (4.5) 31 (1.1) 483 (3.7) 19 (1.2) 451 (6.4) 2.0 (0.03) 0.9 (0.02) 1.7 (0.04) 1.0 (0.02) 1.6 (0.03) 0.7 (0.02) 1.3 (0.04) 0.4 (0.03)
Bahrain 44 (0.9) 437 (2.0) 38 (0.9) 379 (2.4) 18 (0.6) 366 (3.2) 2.0 (0.03) 1.2 (0.02) 1.6 (0.03) 1.2 (0.02) 1.5 (0.03) 0.9 (0.02) 1.4 (0.03) 0.6 (0.02)
Belgium (Flemish) 45 (0.9) 556 (3.2) 30 (0.7) 526 (3.0) 25 (0.8) 518 (3.5) 2.1 (0.03) 1.0 (0.03) 1.9 (0.03) 0.9 (0.02) 1.6 (0.03) 0.5 (0.01) 1.3 (0.03) 0.2 (0.02)
Botswana 38 (0.9) 390 (2.8) 45 (0.8) 361 (2.5) 17 (0.8) 352 (3.4) 1.4 (0.03) 0.5 (0.02) 2.1 (0.04) 2.3 (0.03) 1.5 (0.02) 1.8 (0.03) 0.7 (0.02) 0.6 (0.03)
Bulgaria 33 (1.3) 519 (5.5) 39 (1.4) 467 (4.2) 28 (1.2) 445 (4.8) 2.5 (0.04) 1.1 (0.04) 2.6 (0.05) 1.5 (0.03) 1.2 (0.04) 0.7 (0.03) 1.0 (0.04) 0.3 (0.02)
Chile 35 (0.9) 427 (3.9) 42 (0.7) 369 (3.4) 23 (0.7) 361 (3.9) 2.2 (0.02) 0.7 (0.02) 2.3 (0.02) 1.5 (0.02) 1.8 (0.03) 0.6 (0.01) 0.7 (0.02) 0.3 (0.02)
Chinese Taipei 26 (1.0) 661 (4.1) 30 (0.7) 593 (5.1) 44 (1.1) 534 (4.0) 1.7 (0.03) 1.4 (0.04) 1.4 (0.03) 0.7 (0.01) 1.0 (0.02) 1.0 (0.02) 1.4 (0.04) 0.2 (0.01)
Cyprus 46 (0.8) 503 (2.0) 32 (0.8) 437 (2.2) 22 (0.7) 407 (3.6) 2.1 (0.03) 1.3 (0.02) 2.1 (0.03) 1.0 (0.03) 1.7 (0.03) 0.9 (0.02) 1.2 (0.02) 0.6 (0.02)
Egypt 58 (1.0) 437 (3.3) 35 (0.9) 383 (3.7) 7 (0.4) 374 (5.3) 0.8 (0.02) 0.7 (0.02) 0.8 (0.02) 1.3 (0.03) 1.1 (0.02) 1.0 (0.02) 0.6 (0.02) 0.6 (0.02)
England3 ‡ (†) ‡ (†) ‡ (†) ‡ (†) ‡ (†) ‡ (†) ‡ (†) ‡ (†) ‡ (†) ‡ (†) ‡ (†) ‡ (†) ‡ (†) ‡ (†)
Estonia 41 (0.9) 569 (3.2) 32 (0.7) 520 (3.1) 28 (0.8) 489 (3.5) 2.3 (0.03) 1.1 (0.03) 2.8 (0.03) 1.1 (0.02) 1.4 (0.03) 0.7 (0.02) 1.5 (0.04) 0.4 (0.02)
Ghana — (†) — (†) — (†) — (†) — (†) — (†) 0.7 (0.02) 0.6 (0.02) 1.2 (0.03) 1.5 (0.03) 1.3 (0.02) 1.7 (0.03) 0.8 (0.03) 0.8 (0.03)
Hong Kong, SAR4 30 (0.9) 627 (2.9) 38 (0.7) 581 (4.1) 33 (0.9) 556 (4.0) 2.3 (0.03) 2.0 (0.04) 1.6 (0.03) 0.7 (0.01) 1.0 (0.02) 1.1 (0.02) 2.0 (0.03) 0.1 (0.01)
Hungary 44 (1.0) 574 (3.3) 32 (1.0) 507 (3.9) 24 (0.8) 479 (3.9) 2.1 (0.03) 1.1 (0.03) 2.2 (0.03) 1.1 (0.02) 1.5 (0.03) 0.8 (0.02) 0.6 (0.03) 0.2 (0.02)
Indonesia 27 (1.1) 420 (6.6) 59 (0.8) 408 (4.5) 15 (0.9) 416 (4.7) 1.5 (0.03) 0.5 (0.02) 1.3 (0.03) 2.2 (0.03) 1.1 (0.02) 1.1 (0.02) 0.3 (0.02) 0.8 (0.03)
Iran, Islamic Republic of 35 (0.9) 447 (3.5) 49 (0.8) 399 (2.6) 16 (0.7) 377 (3.4) 1.6 (0.03) 0.4 (0.02) 1.4 (0.03) 1.5 (0.03) 1.4 (0.04) 1.0 (0.02) 0.2 (0.02) 0.7 (0.05)
Israel 59 (1.2) 526 (3.5) 30 (0.9) 461 (3.8) 11 (0.7) 451 (5.7) 2.5 (0.04) 1.9 (0.03) 2.3 (0.03) 1.4 (0.03) 1.6 (0.03) 0.9 (0.02) 1.8 (0.04) 0.6 (0.02)
Italy 46 (0.9) 521 (3.3) 29 (0.9) 466 (3.6) 25 (1.0) 439 (3.4) 1.8 (0.03) 1.0 (0.02) 2.6 (0.03) 1.1 (0.03) 1.8 (0.03) 0.7 (0.02) 0.6 (0.02) 0.9 (0.02)
Japan 17 (0.6) 634 (3.1) 38 (0.7) 580 (2.7) 45 (0.8) 538 (2.3) 2.7 (0.03) 0.9 (0.02) 1.6 (0.04) 0.6 (0.01) 1.3 (0.03) 0.9 (0.02) 0.6 (0.02) 0.1 (0.01)
Jordan 49 (1.2) 463 (4.7) 38 (1.0) 400 (3.7) 13 (0.7) 390 (4.4) 1.5 (0.03) 0.9 (0.03) 1.2 (0.03) 1.3 (0.03) 1.2 (0.03) 0.9 (0.02) 0.6 (0.03) 0.6 (0.03)
Korea, Republic of5 30 (0.7) 650 (2.8) 36 (0.6) 592 (2.5) 34 (0.8) 534 (2.3) 1.7 (0.03) 1.5 (0.03) 1.8 (0.03) 0.7 (0.01) 0.7 (0.02) 0.6 (0.01) 1.7 (0.03) 0.1 (0.01)
Latvia 34 (1.0) 555 (3.4) 33 (0.9) 499 (3.2) 33 (1.0) 473 (3.4) 2.4 (0.03) 1.0 (0.02) 2.8 (0.03) 1.6 (0.03) 1.3 (0.03) 0.8 (0.03) 0.8 (0.03) 0.5 (0.02)
Lebanon 43 (1.4) 462 (3.6) 44 (1.1) 416 (3.1) 13 (0.7) 403 (4.4) 1.8 (0.04) 1.3 (0.03) 1.6 (0.04) 1.3 (0.03) 1.6 (0.03) 1.0 (0.02) 1.0 (0.03) 0.8 (0.03)
Lithuania 36 (1.0) 552 (3.1) 37 (0.9) 486 (2.8) 26 (0.9) 456 (2.7) 2.1 (0.03) 1.1 (0.03) 2.6 (0.04) 1.6 (0.04) 1.1 (0.03) 0.6 (0.02) 0.7 (0.03) 0.3 (0.02)
Macedonia, Republic of 33 (1.0) 482 (4.0) 37 (1.0) 418 (4.7) 31 (1.0) 424 (3.9) 2.3 (0.04) 1.3 (0.03) 2.2 (0.03) 1.6 (0.03) 1.8 (0.03) 1.0 (0.02) 0.9 (0.03) 0.7 (0.03)
Malaysia 39 (1.2) 546 (4.2) 45 (1.0) 490 (3.7) 16 (0.7) 471 (4.4) 2.1 (0.04) 0.8 (0.03) 1.5 (0.03) 1.7 (0.02) 1.1 (0.02) 1.2 (0.02) 0.6 (0.02) 0.3 (0.02)
Moldova, Republic of 30 (1.2) 494 (5.0) 50 (0.9) 451 (4.5) 20 (1.1) 441 (5.3) 1.9 (0.04) 0.7 (0.03) 2.0 (0.04) 2.2 (0.06) 1.3 (0.03) 1.1 (0.03) 0.7 (0.03) 0.5 (0.03)
Morocco ‡ (†) ‡ (†) ‡ (†) ‡ (†) ‡ (†) ‡ (†) 1.3 (0.04) 2.3 (0.06) 1.3 (0.03) 1.8 (0.03) 1.5 (0.03) ‡ (†) ‡ (†) ‡ (†)
Netherlands 45 (1.4) 557 (4.4) 33 (1.0) 527 (4.7) 23 (1.0) 511 (4.8) 2.1 (0.05) 1.2 (0.04) 2.0 (0.05) 0.8 (0.02) 1.7 (0.04) 0.5 (0.02) 1.5 (0.04) 0.8 (0.05)
New Zealand 43 (1.4) 534 (6.4) 36 (1.1) 475 (5.4) 21 (0.9) 452 (4.1) 2.1 (0.04) 1.0 (0.04) 1.8 (0.05) 1.0 (0.02) 1.5 (0.03) 0.7 (0.03) 1.3 (0.04) 0.6 (0.03)
Norway 46 (1.1) 502 (2.0) 32 (0.8) 445 (2.9) 21 (0.8) 405 (3.4) 2.2 (0.03) 1.2 (0.03) 2.7 (0.03) 1.0 (0.03) 1.8 (0.03) 0.6 (0.02) 1.2 (0.03) 0.7 (0.02)
Palestinian National Authority 43 (1.0) 428 (3.9) 41 (0.9) 370 (2.9) 16 (0.6) 355 (3.6) 1.2 (0.02) 0.7 (0.02) 1.3 (0.03) 1.5 (0.03) 1.1 (0.03) 1.0 (0.02) 0.5 (0.02) 0.6 (0.03)
Philippines 29 (0.7) 405 (6.1) 59 (0.7) 369 (4.8) 12 (0.5) 366 (6.5) 1.6 (0.04) 0.6 (0.02) 1.7 (0.03) 1.9 (0.03) 1.4 (0.02) 1.2 (0.02) 0.5 (0.03) 0.8 (0.04)
Romania 30 (1.2) 533 (4.6) 45 (1.1) 465 (4.5) 25 (0.9) 442 (5.4) 2.0 (0.04) 0.9 (0.03) 2.1 (0.03) 1.7 (0.05) 1.3 (0.03) 1.0 (0.03) 0.8 (0.04) 0.5 (0.04)
Russian Federation 43 (1.1) 548 (3.0) 30 (0.8) 492 (4.1) 27 (0.8) 466 (4.6) 2.0 (0.03) 1.0 (0.03) 2.5 (0.04) 1.6 (0.03) 1.3 (0.02) 1.1 (0.03) 0.4 (0.02) 0.2 (0.02)
Saudi Arabia 41 (1.4) 361 (4.8) 43 (1.1) 321 (5.4) 16 (0.9) 303 (5.8) 1.6 (0.05) 1.1 (0.03) 1.3 (0.03) 1.5 (0.04) 1.2 (0.04) 0.9 (0.02) 0.8 (0.05) 0.8 (0.03)
Scotland 52 (1.5) 524 (3.9) 32 (1.0) 477 (3.8) 15 (0.9) 456 (5.0) 2.2 (0.03) 1.4 (0.04) 2.7 (0.03) 0.8 (0.02) 1.7 (0.03) 0.6 (0.02) 1.4 (0.03) 0.5 (0.03)
Serbia 44 (1.1) 530 (2.8) 26 (0.7) 458 (3.2) 30 (1.1) 422 (3.4) 2.1 (0.03) 1.0 (0.03) 2.1 (0.03) 1.3 (0.03) 1.7 (0.03) 0.8 (0.02) 0.6 (0.03) 0.3 (0.02)
Singapore 39 (0.8) 639 (3.0) 34 (0.7) 594 (3.9) 27 (0.7) 571 (4.6) 2.3 (0.02) 1.4 (0.02) 1.7 (0.02) 0.7 (0.02) 1.4 (0.02) 0.9 (0.02) 1.6 (0.02) 0.2 (0.02)
Slovak Republic 40 (1.1) 556 (3.7) 35 (1.0) 487 (3.9) 25 (1.0) 462 (4.1) 2.5 (0.03) 1.1 (0.03) 2.8 (0.03) 1.5 (0.03) 1.9 (0.04) 0.9 (0.02) 0.6 (0.03) 0.4 (0.02)
Slovenia 40 (0.9) 533 (3.2) 39 (1.0) 474 (2.5) 20 (0.9) 453 (2.8) 2.2 (0.03) 1.3 (0.03) 2.0 (0.03) 1.2 (0.03) 1.7 (0.03) 0.8 (0.02) 1.1 (0.03) 0.4 (0.02)
South Africa 37 (0.9) 300 (8.3) 48 (0.9) 242 (3.9) 15 (0.8) 255 (9.9) 1.5 (0.03) 0.7 (0.02) 2.0 (0.03) 1.8 (0.03) 1.6 (0.02) 1.6 (0.03) 0.8 (0.02) 0.8 (0.02)
Sweden 49 (1.3) 534 (2.6) 36 (0.9) 477 (3.1) 16 (0.9) 446 (3.4) 2.1 (0.03) 1.1 (0.03) 2.8 (0.03) 1.0 (0.02) 1.6 (0.03) 0.6 (0.02) 1.7 (0.04) 0.4 (0.02)
Tunisia 44 (1.0) 436 (2.7) 36 (0.8) 399 (2.5) 20 (0.9) 384 (2.2) 1.4 (0.02) 0.8 (0.03) 1.5 (0.02) 1.9 (0.03) 1.5 (0.02) 1.3 (0.02) 0.7 (0.02) 0.6 (0.02)
United States 51 (0.8) 534 (3.3) 29 (0.6) 483 (3.5) 20 (0.6) 461 (3.6) 2.2 (0.03) 1.1 (0.02) 2.4 (0.03) 1.2 (0.02) 1.8 (0.02) 0.7 (0.01) 1.8 (0.03) 0.6 (0.02)
1 Index based on students' responses to four statements about mathematics: 1) I usually do well in mathematics; 2) Mathematics is more difficult for me than for many of my classmates (reverse scored); 3) Mathematics is not one of my strengths (reverse scored); 4) I learn things quickly in mathematics. Average is computed across the four items based on a 4-point scale: 1. Agree a lot; 2. Agree a little; 3. Disagree a little; 4. Disagree a lot. Students showing positive attitudes a little or a lot of the time across the four statements were assigned to the high level. Students showing negative attitudes a little or a lot of the time across the four statements were assigned to the low level. Students showing mixed attitudes across the four statements were assigned to the middle level.
2 Number of hours based on: No time = 0; Less than 1 hour = 0.5; 1–2 hours = 1.5; More than 2, but less than 4 hours = 3; 4 or more hours = 4.5. Activities are not necessarily exclusive; students may have reported engaging in more than one activity at the same time.
3 Did not satisfy guidelines for sample participation rates.
4 SAR = Special Administrative Region.
5 Korea tested the same cohort of students as other countries, but later in 2003, at the beginning of the next school year.
NOTE: Data are for eighth grade or equivalent in most countries. Possible scores range from 0 to 1,000. Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. Standard errors appear in parentheses.
SOURCE: International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), 2003, TIMSS 2003 International Mathematics Report, by Ina V. S. Mullis et al. (This table was prepared April 2005.)


I'm not a social drinker. I don't like the taste of alcohol and I don't like the way it makes me feel. And since my peers didn't seem to care much for me when I was young, I never got into the habit of knuckling under to peer pressure.
I do, however, have sherry in my house. I make delicious spiked trifles. I have a bottle of brandy because I intended to make a variety of Southwest cookies, which I never got around to doing.
I love rum balls, for which I need rum. I've misplaced the recipe but I think the other ingredients are ground nuts, crumbled up wafer-type cookies, rum, corn syrup, chocolate powder, and powdered sugar. You let the batter stand a while and then roll it into ball shapes, which are dipped in powdered sugar or coconut or whatever you like.
I guess I have to admit these taste just a little like old fashioned Watkins cough syrup.
You are currently browsing the The Blueberry Tales weblog archives for December 2009.


text:
Worońce (; ) – wieś na Białorusi, w obwodzie witebskim, w rejonie głębockim, w sielsowiecie Udział.

Historia
W czasach zaborów w granicach Imperium Rosyjskiego.

W dwudziestoleciu międzywojennym wieś leżała w Polsce, w województwie wileńskim, w powiecie duniłowickim (od 1926 postawskim), w gminie Łuck (od 1927 gmina Kozłowszczyzna).

Według Powszechnego Spisu Ludności z 1921 roku zamieszkiwało tu 120 osób, 114 było wyznania rzymskokatolickiego, 6 prawosławnego. Jednocześnie 113 mieszkańców zadeklarowało polską przynależność narodową, a 7 białoruska. Było tu 26 budynków mieszkalnych. W 1931 w 27 domach zamieszkiwało 109 osób.

Miejscowość należała do parafii rzymskokatolickiej w Mosarzu i prawosławnej w Wierzchni. Podlegała pod Sąd Grodzki w Duniłowiczach i Okręgowy w Wilnie; właściwy urząd pocztowy mieścił się w Mosarzu.

Uwagi

Przypisy

Wsie w rejonie głębockim

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Includes Tec Trimix Diver Course Manual, Tec Deep Stop Calculation Table Imperial, Tec Trimix Fill decal, TecRec Emergency Procedures slate and forms. This is the required student materials for the PADI Tec Trimix 65 and Trimix courses. Deep Diver Manual wPIC online. P SP. Log In To See Pricing Details. Deep Diver Specialty Instructor Outline.
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Hilgard Hall is a historically significant laboratory building currently used by the College of Natural Resources. SKA completed two feasibility studies for UC Berkeley Construction and Design. The first study was a building condition survey that developed recommendations and a budget for infrastructural upgrades that will allow the College of Natural Resources to modernize its wet-labs.
As Berkeley campus is facing a shortage of large classrooms (100+ seats) and active learning classrooms, SKA completed the Hilgard Hall Classroom Conversion Study which investigated the feasibility and cost of converting a 1917 Laboratory building into a state-of the art general assignment classroom building. This second study replanned Hilgard Hall to include two floors of general assignment classrooms with large classrooms in the basement. Large classroom designs included a standard auditorium layout and a "Parliament" style layout. Active Learning classrooms and student study rooms, which can function well as non-rectangular rooms, were placed in corners of the building formed by the building's "C" shaped geometry.


SAN FRANCISCO -- October 4, 2016 -- Zimperium, Inc. announced today a new version of its leading enterprise mobile threat protection solution. Version 3.1 is available now and includes seven new features to better protect enterprises from known and unknown cyberattacks on mobile devices, networks and applications.
Version 3.1 includes advanced app analysis, delivered via an OEM partnership with Mi3 Security, Inc. "Mi3 Security is the leading provider of mobile app insight technology, so we saw an opportunity to complete our mission to deliver comprehensive risk management to our customers by deeply integrating their technology with our own," said Michelsen. This capability, released as z3A™ Advanced App Analysis, evaluates mobile app security and privacy risk on employees' devices, identifies which apps are high risk, and triggers security policies to reduce that risk. Kevin Mullenex, CEO and co-founder of Mi3 Security, said "combining our in-depth app intelligence with Zimperium's mobile threat protection solutions provides the detailed insight IT and security teams need to identify risky apps before they become a threat." The joint solution is already being implemented at several Global 1000 customers.
Threat Mitigation Framework: administrators can now share specific instructions, such as restoring access to corporate resources, once a threat has been remediated.
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OS Risk for Android: provides access to a high-level overview of the risk posture for every device's installed OS, including a list of vulnerabilities that could potentially impact that device.
Dashboard Activity Widget: creates an activity report, including data for the organization's devices, networks, apps and detected threats over a selected period of time.
Citrix 10.4 Integration: offers added support for Zimperium's Citrix integration, including synchronization between users, devices and apps from the Citrix MDM and the Zimperium database. Administrators can also lock devices or selectively wipe information to protect against advanced threats.
For more information or to set up a free trial, please click here.


And then everything goes quiet… You can feel the silence and calm within this image. Just think how beautifully it will soften your space. Boone Speed's Superscapes are massive images that can blown up to fit just about any size wall.
*Click on main image to see full mural.


text:
Israel Pulse
Israeli artists campaign against 'Loyalty in Culture' law
READ IN: עברית
Akiva Eldar October 30, 2018
Stars of the Israeli entertainment industry prefer not to confront powerful Culture Minister Miri Regev on the "Loyalty in Culture" law, designed to defund cultural institutions "undermining the state's values and symbols."
MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty Images
Israeli Minister of Culture and Sports Miri Regev speaks before the actors from Habima, Israel's national theater, at a performance in the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba, on the outskirts of Hebron, West Bank, Nov. 10, 2016.
Some 1,000 Israelis, or more precisely only some 1,000 Israelis, turned out for the Oct. 27 demonstration in Tel Aviv against proposed legislation known as the "Loyalty in Culture" law.
The amendment to the Israeli law that regulates funding for theater and film productions, approved Oct. 21 by the government's Ministerial Committee for Legislation, seeks to defund cultural institutions "undermining the state's values and symbols."
Leading Israeli theater and film personalities attended the protest, but the stars of Israel's entertainment industry were glaringly absent. Maybe they find no fault with the economic sanctions the law would impose on theaters that stage plays casting doubts on Israel's self-professed identity as both a Jewish and democratic state. Maybe they agree with the law's sponsor, Minister of Culture and Sports Miri Regev, who argues that the taxpayer should not have to fund any play that gives off a whiff of incitement to racism or support for armed struggle and terrorism. Audiences certainly do not like texts that strike at the symbols of the state and its Independence Day, so why should leading song and entertainment figures get into a fight over the issue with the government funding committee?
Whereas the Nationality Law adopted this past summer (anchoring the Jewish nature of the State of Israel) strikes a blow to the soul of Israeli democracy, the cultural loyalty law shoots it directly in the heart. Repertory theater in Israel cannot survive without public funding. The new law hands control of this vital oxygen supply to a politician who prides herself on never having read Anton Chekhov.
The law would authorize Regev to decide, for example, that the adaptation by playwright and translator professor Avraham Oz of "The Merchant of Venice" constitutes incitement to anti-Semitism. On Oct. 25, Regev stood on the Knesset podium reprimanding opposition lawmaker Yoel Hasson of the Zionist Camp, saying he had not accomplished "even a quarter of what I have done, even a third.''
Next week, if the Knesset votes its proposed amendment into law, Regev would have the power to cut a quarter, a third and even half the budget of every Israeli theater.
There is no guesswork involved in knowing Regev will use the law to muzzle Israeli theater. Regev, a former chief military censor, who when asked could not name a single film by Quentin Tarantino, is a harsh critic of the Israeli film industry. She was enraged by director Samuel Maoz's internationally acclaimed film "Foxtrot," which deals with the conduct of Israeli soldiers, without bothering to see it. The Israeli TV documentary "Megiddo," which depicts the complex relationship between Palestinian prisoners and their Israeli jailers, also earned her harsh condemnation.
The screening of "Foxtrot" at the Venice and Toronto film festivals last year prompted Regev to issue a statement saying it was "inconceivable that movies which shame the reputation of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] are those that are supported by the Israel Film Fund, which is supported by the state. And those are the films that are selected to showcase Israeli cinema abroad."
Speaking at the protest against the new law, choreographer and dancer Renana Raz urged her colleagues to be willing to pay the price for protecting their right to express political views. Writer, playwright and filmmaker Moti Lerner was more explicit. "We must continue to deal with the occupation and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," he said.
Israeli filmmaker Udi Aloni found that of the 30 full-length feature films produced in Israel over the past three years or so, only "Foxtrot" and his own film "Junction 48" dealt with the Palestinian narrative. Artists "believe that with a bit of self-censorship and cooperation," they can control the government efforts to rein them in, he wrote last year in a scathing Haaretz op-ed. "The Judeo-Israeli censorship has won a clear victory, not necessarily because of the establishment censorship's horror shows," he added, but because "the Palestinian narrative has been erased within the cultural discourse itself with the help of self-censorship."
Oz, who lectures on theater at Haifa University and the Academy of Performing Arts in Tel Aviv, told Al-Monitor this week that Israeli theater had always practiced self-censorship and political theater has always been constrained by public consensus, ideologically committed to realizing national tasks. Playwright Hanoch Levin's first forays into biting political satire in the 1960s were staged in basement, fringe theaters and thus generated limited reactions, he recalled. But when an established public theater such as the Cameri put on Levin's iconic "Queen of the Bathtub" satire in 1970, mocking Israel's euphoria over the 1967 victory in the Six-Day War, the Mapai regime (mother party of Israeli Labor) turned audiences against the theater. The poison spread to Cameri actors who demanded that management take down the play.
"'Queen of the Bathtub' signaled creators and theater management the accepted limits of expression by political theater," Oz noted. He added that the Haifa Theater decided not to stage the play "Ephraim Returns to the Army" by Itzhak La'or, which was banned by Israeli film censors at the time, even after the Supreme Court overturned the ban in 1987. (It was eventually staged by the Tzavta Theater that does not enjoy government funding.) "Political theater has turned into a dirty, subversive and dangerous term," Oz concluded.
"Our creation is stronger than all the governments in the past and this government too," Lerner declared at the protest. Recent experience shows his statement is somewhat inaccurate; the variety of plays proposed by mainstream theaters does not generate unease over the settlements. In August 2010, dozens of actors informed the country's major repertory theaters that they would refuse to perform in the new cultural center built in the West Bank settlement town of Ariel. In a letter to the management of the Habima, Cameri, Beit Lessin, Beersheba and Khan theaters, actors expressed disgust with the intention to stage plays in Ariel and declared they would never perform in the occupied territories. Since then, Habima, Beersheba Theater, Beit Lessin, Hasifriya Theater, Orna Porat Children's Theater and Israel's Youth Theater actors have all performed in Ariel. Some even took the stage in the settlement town of Kiryat Arba adjacent to the Palestinian town of Hebron. The managers of Ariel and Kiryat Arba cultural centers can easily have their pick from a large offer of nonpolitical plays.
Theater actors, directors and playwrights, whose creations depend on public funding controlled by the government, will not be the salvation of Israel's dissipating freedom of expression. Nor will salvation come from Israeli audiences trapped in the warm consensus over the right-wing ideological path; this is the audience that was moved to see its minister of culture tear up as the Israeli national anthem was played at a judo competition in Abu Dhabi last week.
The masses will only take to the streets on the day that singers and entertainment artists from Israel and around the world decide to stay away from the popular Eurovision song contest or from other performances taking place in countries who blindly follow censorship — countries like Israel.
Found in: Art and entertainment
Akiva Eldar is a columnist for Al-Monitor's Israel Pulse. He was formerly a senior columnist and editorial writer for Haaretz and also served as the Hebrew daily's US bureau chief and diplomatic correspondent. His most recent book (with Idith Zertal), Lords of the Land, on the Jewish settlements, was on the best-seller list in Israel and has been translated into English, French, German and Arabic.
Palestinian students look at gender equality through cameras
Artists persevere in Iraq despite death threats
Will government's new rules control fake news or control Egyptian media?
Israeli theater world struggles with self-censorship
Cairo to build new site for culture but will artists and fans come?
Growing esports market has huge potential in Mideast


olive and ollie: check out this AWESOME picture!
check out this AWESOME picture!
Look at this gorgeous photograph, which was taken by my friend Kim from Evermore Photography. She is an awesome photographer and I'm so excited to be working with her on this project. Her totally cute daughter, Lorelai, is modeling one of my new peasant dresses, which are available in my etsy shop.
Thank you, Kim! I can't wait to see the rest of the pictures!


text:
Q: How to remove an CAEmitterLayer? I'm playing with particle system in iOS using CAEmitterLayer (like in this example) but i can't remove the particles when i want.
I'm trying the following code but it doesn't work:
[self.emitterLayer setLifetime:0];
[self.emitterLayer removeFromSuperlayer];
[self.setEmitterLayer:nil];

Any suggestions? Thanks!

A: Please use this
for (CALayer *layer in _plusButton.layer.sublayers) {
    if (layer.class == [CAEmitterLayer class]) {
        [layer removeFromSuperlayer];
    }

}

and please find the link that is helpful for you
here

A: I have played around with views a lot in the last months esp. with ios 5.0 to 6.0 and my experience is that you can't remove most these views with "removeFrom" but you can hide them and show then at will. Especially if your logic takes place within one view or without a root view.
You only have to implement something like this: to hide it: [YourView setHidden:YES]; or to show it: [YourView setHidden:NO];
Hope this helps,
R.


text:
View source for Swimming to Ithaca by Simon Mawer
From TheBookbag
← Swimming to Ithaca by Simon Mawer
{{infobox1 |title=Swimming to Ithaca |author=Simon Mawer |reviewer=Lesley Mason |genre=Literary Fiction |summary=Historian Thomas Denham grieves for his mother and is drawn into unresolved questions about her past. As his own life takes new twists, he finds unacceptable parallels in the past but they are only a prelude to the revelations to come. |rating=5 |buy=Yes |borrow=Yes |pages=352 |publisher=Abacus |date=June 2007 |isbn=978-0349119236 |cover=0349119236 |aznuk=0349119236 |aznus=0316730998 }} Watching his mother die, historian Thomas Denham thought he ought to find some significance in the event, but failed to feel anything. Sadness, maybe, or an appreciation of 'tragedy' - which it wasn't really since she was a fair old age, had lived a good life, and the death was not a sudden unexpected shock. But there should be something significant in the passing of one's mother, shouldn't there? Thomas doesn't feel it. He doesn't weep. Not outwardly at any rate. Not in ways that he would understand as finding significance and grieving... for grief actually hits him very hard in ways that he doesn't expect. Having failed to find "significance", that all-important grail for the historian, in her death, he starts to seek it in her life. He wonders about the words she whispered during her final illness "This is a punishment". What could his dear, perfect, law-abiding, husband-&-child-adoring mother possibly have done to deserve punishment? Gradually, through the sorting of things that follows a death... the tidying away of a life... Thomas begins to unearth rumours and possibilities extrapolated from keepsakes, which trigger long-buried scarce-understood memories from his distant childhood. Meanwhile, intersected with Thomas' journey in the present day, his mother (Dee)'s story unfolds. We're taken back to Cyprus in the 1950s... days when the British have more or less acknowledged that the only remaining tasks of the Empire are to clear the desks, hand over the chalk and switch out the lights, but who cling on in places (like Cyprus) where they cannot even manage a pretence at a dignified exit. These are the days of EOKA - Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston, or National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters, who were fighting for 'self-determination'. Actually they were fighting for the right to rid the island of, first the British, and then the Turks, so that they could self-determine to unify with Greece. The Turks on the other hand would be equally pleased to see the British depart, but want a truly independent Cyprus, a state in its own right. As we know both got half of their wish, neither got all of it and Cyprus remains divided. But back in the 1950s who knew what might be achieved. Certainly the British that remained, Dee among them, were ex-pats in the old sense. They were "old school". Military or military-wife, or military-spinster-daughter out on a do-gooding mission with the support organisations. You got there by boat. A long passage upon which, if you were travelling alone, a flirtation was almost de rigueur... but most definitely to be consigned to the 50-year-rule files upon landing. When you got there - being a military wife - you settled into a home that was either rented or army, you settled into a life that tried hard to cut you off from your local neighbours and keep you within the 'compound' - literally or figuratively. Dee tries to be dutiful... and tries to be true to herself... and to her neighbours... all honest parts of who she is, which are not in direct conflict, but which have shadowy borders of uncertainty. If she absolutely HAD to choose, where would she? Back in the present day Thomas is embarking on a potential relationship himself. Have the taboos really changed, or just shifted... and to what degree will he yield to his own temptations? The two stories stumble forward in parallel, the differences and analogies all the clearer as a result. So much has changed, and so little. Mawer is stronger in talking about the past. The depiction of the Mediterranean in those final days of Empire is understated but accurate. It is for the most part a single viewpoint (Dee's) and it is biased to that extent. Using Thomas' history profession, he gets to question some of the interpretations, but mostly he leaves us to make up our own mind about rights and wrongs. He just tells the stories. Reading it as someone utterly ignorant of Cyprus and its history beyond the vague knowledge of the division and the green line, I found it intriguing. The weakest novelists talk down to you, assume you know nothing and feel the need to explain every last nuance. Other insensitives assume you know it all and fail to leave enough clues for you to seek out the facts you need to fully understand. Getting the balance right is an art. Mawer doesn't feel the need to explain... if you don't know about EOKA (& I didn't) then you should do, go look it up!, he seems to say... and I agree with him. It's part of our history. I should know. And now I know a little more. I've always argued that one of the functions of novels is not just to entertain us with stories and philosophical conundrums, but to teach us real facts - or encourage us to learn them. Much of my history, geography, social & political theory is from the gleanings of stories and the follow-up (what, when, how, why) that they lead me towards. One result of Ithaca is that I want to know more about what happened (and how and why). Another is that I want to visit the places described, although I can't imagine how much they will have changed since those days. Maybe its because I want to see how much they've changed... the best novels can be trusted as social histories can they not? The best novels? Yes. ''Swimming to Ithaca'' is up there among the best. It is full of atmosphere. There are set pieces and mythical reverences galore. There are archetypal characters: cads and bounders and squaddies and officers and spies and poets and gin-drinking wives and lusty natives... and freedom fighters (or terrorists?)... all of whom seem strangely real. Still the tale is full of tension and red herrings of who betrayed (or will betray) whom and how and when, and the real revelation manages to come out of the blue at the very end. There's nothing specifically lyrical about the prose, and the interspersed poetry felt a little forced, but the third person narrative shifts subtly between the epochs and the pace is held all the way through. There are moving episodes and amusing ones... but mostly, you'll turn the pages to find out what did happen, and what will happen. And only one of those questions will be answered. I'd like to thank the publishers for sending this book to The Bookbag. If you've enjoyed this book then you might also enjoy [[Playing With The Moon]] by Eliza Graham. {{amazontext|amazon=0349119236}} {{amazonUStext|amazon=0316730998}} {{commenthead}} {{comment |name=Jacquie Longden |verb=said |comment=(Jacquie won a copy of ''Swimming to Ithaca'' in our July competition.) This isnt the type of book I would normally choose to read - I knew nothing about the political background, and initially I thought it would be dull and dry. I did enjoy reading it, and I learnt a lot and had a really vivid picture of a 50's Cyprus from the climate, flora and fauna, to the hot and complicated relationships. I thought that the way that Thomas remembered and viewed his mother from a child's perspective and as an adult - having idealised her as a 'mother' but not a woman was very interesting and insightful - we don't necessarily view our parents as people in their own right - with pasts and mistakes, and as sexual beings. The way that he then realised that, with this knowledge, looking back, he hated her, whilst simultaneously adoring her was interesting too. The present day part of the story, I agree, is much weaker, although the connection between Thomas's behaviour and Dee's behaviour is an interesting comparison. Her 'inappropriate' relationships are guided by romance and love and emotion in a true and genuine spirit, whilst his seem to be driven by a sense of inadequacy; he was desperate to be loved by his mother, and has some sort of Oedipus complex perhaps. He sees himself as young, even compared to the younger women he 'picks up' for casual relationships and needs to feel wanted and needed by them. I thought that the ending of the book was disappointing. Although I guessed about the identity of Janet earlier in the book, I felt that this was a relationship (with Dee and Janet) that could have been explored. I thought that the most of the poetry excerpts were not relevant, and added nothing really to the book... This all said though - I am glad I read it, and I would recommend it. Regards, Jacquie }}
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The meme has caught on that indie games are facing difficult times. Nicholas Lovell made the point about two months back when he said that Valve had started the race to zero, but this sense of impending disaster has been floating about the scene for a while. Most recently Jeff Vogel's post entitled The Indie Bubble Is Popping nailed it, explaining it all as a simple supply and demand problem. As supply increases in a market of relatively fixed size, prices decrease. Eventually the benign conditions turn malignant, and then everybody's in the soup.
Privately I've heard many similar sentiments of doom. Speaking with indie developers there's the sentiment that the good times have passed, and some have even darkly hinted that they feel the ladder needs to be pulled up lest all is lost. Many are looking to the safer havens of consoles, particularly to Sony, to shield them – but history would indicate that that kind of help only lasts so long. Taking all that in mind I took to Twitter this morning to think these issues out.


Matt utilizes his unique blend of in-house counsel and over 20 years of private practice experience to provide our clients creative solutions to meet the needs of large corporations, universities and emerging and start-up organizations. Matt previously worked as in-house intellectual property counsel at Jaguar Land Rover and Lear Corporation to develop global portfolio strategies and implement cost-effective legal processes. As a registered patent attorney, he works closely with our clients' technical specialists to protect their most valued assets and achieve their innovative and business goals.
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In addition to participation in Quinn IP Law sponsored community service projects and charitable events, Matt volunteers his time in support of local youth sports and community activities.


text:
Q: If $\sum_{n=1}^\infty E\{X_n^2\} \lt \infty$ then $\dfrac{S_n}{n}\to 0$ almost everywhere.
Let $X_1, X_2, \cdots$ be independent random variables with mean zero and finite variance. Put $S_n= X_1+\cdots+X_n$. If $\sum_{n=1}^\infty E\{X_n^2\} \lt \infty$ then $\dfrac{S_n}{n}\to 0$ almost everywhere.

I have a intution that Kronecker's lemma will be helpful but don't know how to proceed.
Any help will be appreciated.

A: Denote by $\gamma$ the sum $\sum_{i=1}^\infty \mathsf E(X_i^2)<\infty$. Note that independence implies
$$\mathsf E(X_iX_j)=\mathsf EX_i\cdot\mathsf EX_j=0,~i\not=j$$
Hence
\begin{align}\mathsf E\left(\frac {S_n}n\right)^2&=\frac 1{n^2}\sum_{i=1}^n\mathsf EX_i^2+\frac 2{n^2}\sum_{1\le i<j\le n}\mathsf E(X_iX_j)\\
&=\frac 1{n^2}\sum_{i=1}^n\mathsf EX_i^2\le\frac{\gamma}{n^2}
\end{align}
and by Chebyshev's inequality we have
\begin{align}
\mathsf{P}\left(\left|\frac{S_n}n\right|\ge\varepsilon\right)\le\frac{\mathsf E(S_n/n)^2}{\varepsilon^2}\le\frac{\gamma}{n^2\varepsilon^2}
\end{align}
Now invoke Borel-Cantelli lemma to get the result.