text:
Inside Out South
06/02/2017 Inside Out South
Is is time to think out of the box when it comes to honey?
With bee numbers falling, something needs to be done.
Modern beekeeping is definitely adding to the trouble.
It's developed in such a way that the most profit can
be made from the bees.
If people suggest that we should stop collecting honey,
they don't actually understand the principle the bees work on.
And a Hampshire family opens up about their battle with mental
health and the struggle to get help.
He'd be taking knives, like this, out of my kitchen drawer.
He said he wanted people to feel his pain that he was suffering.
I feel that it's unfair on my family that they've had to put
up with all of this.
But they love you.
Yeah, I know they do, but...
Every year, thousands of people with mental health problems
end up in police cells, in court or in prison.
With one in four of us expected to struggle with our mental health
at some point in our lives, there simply aren't the support
services to go round to everybody who needs them.
David Fenton's been finding out what happens when those asking
for help are turned away.
As you can see, both of my windows have gone.
This was just all smashed and jagged.
For Anna Holder, living with her son can be difficult.
This is when Taran's been really frustrated and unable to cope
with how he's feeling, he's come and actually punched
through the cupboards, he's had knives and been
stabbing at the cupboards.
I'm having to try and calm him down while he's got a knife in his hand
and punching things.
For Anna, everything changed when Taran was 11.
He fell off a swing and cracked his head.
Taran's always been a joker.
A happy child.
Until he had his head injury.
He became a different person, very angry and aggressive.
My thought process goes a bit nuts sometimes.
I don't feel in control all the time, so my mind comes up
with all sorts of ideas which are going to happen so I m
starting to get ready for things like fight or flight.
Taran has paranoia and multiple personality disorders.
For him, the world outside his house is a scary place.
I'd end up end up breaking and smashing things in a rage,
breaking down crying.
I felt like one day was years.
I felt like a lot of time I was going through...
In 2015, his paranoia got worse.
He began carrying weapons whenever he went outside.
He'd be taking knives like this out of my kitchen drawer.
There was times when people were walking up to me and I've
put my hand there and I'm ready to take it out.
So yeah, I guess I was dangerous.
I could hear people talking outside, so when I walked past them
that day I knew something was going to happen to me and that
they're going to get me.
So I thought, "Right, I m not going to say nothing."
I started looking out the window a lot as well and then see vans
waiting outside.
They could be there for two minutes
and I'd already come up with something in my head that
something's going on.
I thought that someone was definitely out to get me
and that the people in the area were waiting.
It's not just been people,
I've had conspiracy things with the police as well.
You must have known that was illegal to be carrying
knives out in the street?
Yeah, of course I knew it was illegal, but I also
had my life right at the time.
I felt my life was at risk, so that's why I carried them.
What would have been the trigger?
If I was threatened in any way, then I would have used it.
I wouldn't have liked to.
And did you use them?
Only on myself, in the end.
Taran wanted to be in hospital.
His family wanted him sectioned for his own good.
But the professionals said no.
I was begging them to come and see him,
begging the psychiatrists to see him to review the meds,
begging for him to go into hospital.
And basically the only way I can describe it is
they left him like an animal.
A year on, Taran was still not well.
I had a phone call from his girlfriend and she was screaming
and crying and saying Taran had been shouting saying, "I've had
enough, I want to be dead" and he was actually throwing himself
in front of cars.
It ended in a stand off with police.
Now, he's on his way to court with mum and partner Andrea.
We are going to court and they will decide whether Taran
needs to be punished for his mental health or not.
How are you feeling about that?
I feel really angry and really upset because we have been asking for help
since August for psychologist or medication review or anything
and we didn't get it and the question today should be
whether Taran get a psychologist and proper help or not.
And it's still not nothing about helping us.
He's been charged with damaging cars and spitting at two officers.
Taran could be going to jail today.
He is nervous.
He's been drinking a little bit for a couple of days.
He doesn t like to make out that he's nervous but he is, definitely.
You can tell.
BLEEP.
Court is there.
That's where I go magistrates, I'm not in crown court.
That's where we go.
In the taxi, the nerves begin to show.
It's not BLEEP good, is it?
Depending on what happens, if they say it was down to my mental
health or not or if I say I plead guilty, I don t know what's
going to be the outcome, so I just expect the worst and then
whatever happens happens.
I feel it's unfair on my family that I m here and they have to put
It's hard sometimes to explain why.
I should feel better if they didn't have to put up
with all the problems in my life.
What if he goes to prison?
Well, we wait until he comes home and start again
the game, asking for help.
Taran has pleaded guilty.
He's about to hear his sentence.
He wouldn't cope in prison.
I think he'd kill himself, that d be it.
It's quite positive, he's not going to prison.
It's the result they were hoping for.
And he will get, hopefully, the proper help.
He's on a community order,I think that s what they call it.
The court has ordered Taran to see a psychologist.
It's exactly what he d been asking for.
You'll be all right.
Yeah, it's all sorted now.
They obviously see I wasn't well at the time
and took into consideration the things that were going on.
So I'm lucky this time.
Yeah, so I'll speak to you when I get home
anyway, but it's all gone well.
It's good, isn't it?
Bye-bye. Bye.
Outside the court, I notice there's something different about Andrea.
That's the engagement ring, is it?
It was a surprise for me, I didn't really expect it.
He was on his knees.
So, yeah, bit of crying.
Quite romantic and really surprising, actually.
You were very pleased.
Yeah, I was, yeah, really pleased.
I'm wearing my ring quite proudly, yeah.
If you are going to miss an appointment for whatever reason,
make sure you phone.
Taran says goodbye to the mental health team who helped in court.
He'll get the treatment he wants.
Not everyone is so lucky.
Taran may struggle with his mental health, but whatever the future
holds, at least he's not facing it alone.
David Fenton reporting there.
If you've been affected by any of the issues
raised in David's film, grab a pen because details
of where to get some help and advice are coming up at
the end of the show.
Still to come: Joe Crowley asks if Government cuts
are putting our farmers and our food at risk.
Just time for a quick reminder about Twitter.
You can find out more about what we're up to at...
Next, is our sweet tooth putting the long-term future
of the honey bee in jeopardy?
Every year, we get through a staggering half
a billion jars of honey.
Are we simply asking too much of the little honey bee?
Bees ? nature's wonder.
Man's sweetest friend.
For thousands of years, we've benefited from these
incredible insects.
Here in the UK we consume more than 25,000 tonnes
of honey every year.
Bees are very calm, very content and you'll notice we've not used any
smoke on them at all yet.
Ian Homer from Dorset has been mastering his skills as a beekeeper
for the last 36 years.
Total relaxation.
I've never come across anything that gives me quite as much variation
of interest as beekeeping does.
It also gives you honey.
There's probably just a little over ?3 of honey there.
Ian collects around 300 jars of honey every year,
from his 12 hives near Bridport.
I enjoy so many different aspects of beekeeping.
It teaches you so much about geology, about flora,
about the social structure within the colony.
Although Ian's hives appear to be healthy,
the UK population of bees
has fallen by a third over the last century.
Some experts blame the use of pesticides and the destruction
of natural flower rich habitats.
Others say that intensive farming of bees leaves them more
vulnerable to attack from the Varroa destructor -
a parasitic mite that can wipe out a colony.
In an attempt to halt the bees' decline, in this Sussex garden,
Heidi Hermann has adopted a controversial
approach to beekeeping.
Over the last 100 years, it's developed into what I could only say
is a kind of control freak, taking control of every process
of the hive in such a way that the most profit can be made
from the bees for their product.
Heidi is one of a growing number of natural beekeepers
who are suggesting that our sweet tooth might be contributing
to dwindling bee numbers.
How many different colours there are, some more black than others.
She doesn't use any chemicals and builds hives out
of natural materials.
So is it all about trying to keep bees happy with
the minimal amount of stress?
Happy is, sort of, a human term, but the main aim
is to keep the bees healthy.
Yes, and to keep colonies, long lived colonies, that
are in tune with their environment and are able to perform
their pollination task in an effcient way as possible.
This is a hive made of straw, ideally organically grown straw
because this is the home where all the babies
in the future will be raised.
And as they expand, bees expand downwards not upwards,
and I gave them more room by putting those boxes underneath.
The Natural Beekeeping Trust believes taking honey
from the bees weakens the colony.
Heidi only harvests a very small amount for use as a medicine.
And you'd never take honey from this?
You would never gather honey?
No, I would not take honey from this because it would mean
disrupting that hive.
There are hives I have that make it possible to take honey.
But, I have to say, it's neither for myself nor for any of my fellow
trustees in the Natural Beekeeping Trust.
The honey is definitely not a priority.
I think if people suggest that we should stop collecting
honey, they don't actually understand the principle
that bees work on.
Bees will go out to gather enough honey for themselves
and they will keep gathering honey until the nectar flow stops
or the colony dies out.
If we stopped gathering honey, eventually we'd get to a stage
where a lot of colonies would cease to function because they wouldn't
have anywhere to keep all of the honey.
Traditional beekeepers, like Ian, also worry that Heidi's chemical
free approach to disease control could increase
the spread of Varroa mites.
They have to remember that the bees that they keep are part
of a national stock of bees.
Those bees fly freely and interact with other people's bees.
And if they're not inspecting for disease, which few
of the natural beekeepers are able to do because of the way
in which the bees are kept, then that could spread
disease into my hives.
You can't be on the treatment treadmill forever.
If a colony is stressed, it has no possibility
of defending itself, of actually developing its own innate
defences against Varroa.
My bees have never been treated against Varroa
and they do absolutely fine, they have better longevity
than most beekeepers' bees.
One thing both Ian and Heidi do agree on is that bees need our help.
In Andover, carpenter Matt Sommerville has taken a natural
approach to lending a hand.
Matt, this is everything a traditional hive isn't.
It's not square.
It's just a beautiful thing.
What's the idea behind it?
It's not that complicated.
All I've really done is look at bees in the wild and try to replicate
a nice habitat for them off the ground, away
from people and predators, where bees can evolve to be healthy.
And we're finding that set up in trees, bees just thrive
without human intervention.
Bees have been round for millions and millions of years,
long before we came on the planet, and they've always been looking
for places like caves or trees, that was their place to go,
and nowadays a lot of trees are being cut down and there isn't
a habitat for the bees.
So by making these, we can allow bees to find them by themselves
and we're getting strong bees from them.
This one was my first.
I had no idea whether bees would find it.
We just found a suitable looking tree and whacked it up there.
Within two weeks - bingo, bees found it.
So the theory is you just let the bees do their thing?
If there aren't bees in the area, then you don't get any bees.
Just like a bird box.
I quite often come back just to watch them, their progress.
If the queen's healthy and laying, then they bring back lots of pollen.
Seeing bees bring back sacks full of pollen is a good sign that
everything's strong in the hive.
If they're surviving, then they're genetically strong bees.
However they're doing it, they're strong.
We need them so much for pollination, not just
for ourselves, for all our fruits and vegetables that we eat,
but for nature, generally, all the flowers in our landscape.
That's the primary importance of bees.
No dead bees.
It's dry and I can just see one Varroa mite in the middle there.
So it's amazingly healthy, really.
In this natural environment, the bees appear to be thriving.
This small scale, hands off approach is what the Natural Beekeeping Trust
wants to see more of.
Rather than a few people keeping hundreds or thousands of hives,
we need thousands of people keeping two or three hives,
taking honey in small quantities, at the same time using honey only
for medicinal purposes rather than food.
Do you get people go, "Aw, it's all well and good,
but it'll never work in practise?"
It's almost an idealistic approach.
It's certainly an idealistic approach, but without idealism
there will be no future.
If we carry on in the rapacious way that we are using
in relation to all of nature, there will be no future.
What do bees mean to you?
What fascination do they hold?
You feel that they know you and they are very
aware of your intention.
Yes, I do keep bees for the pleasure of their company.
They are very pure.
We need to strive to be the same.
Now, don't forget, if you want to get in touch with the show why
don't you drop me an e-mail?
Finally, these days we expect what we eat to be safe.
But with Government cuts hitting the labs which help
keep our farms disease-fre, Joe Crowley has been hearing
from those who fear our farming industry and, more importantly,
our health is at risk.
There's money in meat.
We spend ?18.7 billion on it every year, so it's no surprise that
monitoring and stopping the spread of diseases like foot-and-mouth
is a top priority.
The fight to eradicate foot-and-mouth has
been going on for over
90 years and this place, The Pirbright Institute,
is right on the front line.
It's a world-class research facility responsible for developing vaccines
and trying to control some pretty nasty diseases.
There are countries that are endemic to foot-and-mouth disease along
the border of Europe, but what we are starting to see
is we see certain strains popping up in places that we don't
usually see them.
At the moment, we're actually developing something that will look
like a pregnancy test, where you get a simple
line across the little cassette to tell you whether or not
a sample is positive or negative
and, of course, the quicker that you can identify an outbreak,
the quicker you can put in certain bio-safety regulations and prevent
the outbreak from spreading.
Pirbright may be at the cutting edge, but it has the odd blemish
on its safety record.
The 2007 foot-and-mouth outbreak, which cost farming ?100 million,
started when the virus escaped from Pirbright.
In the last decade, there have been 15 safety breaches here,
including a ?70,000 fine in 2014 for failings
over foot-and-mouth.
Why is the record here so poor?
There is always a risk with running facilities like this,
but by the infrastructure we have here now and the improved procedures
and protocols we have in place, I think we've contained that risk
to the smallest possible.
You handle live viruses here, with that there's always
going to be a risk.
Is it worth it?
It certainly is, with all the diseases that are approaching
the borders of Europe.
We are seeing viruses move like we hadn't
seen them move before.
And so there's a real threat of a number of these viruses coming
into Europe and coming into the UK.
I would say we're between outbreaks, they're not going away.
Recent diseases to reach us in Britain include Bluetongue,
avian flu and then there's the ongoing Bovine TB epidemic.
Keith Cutler is a vet based in Salisbury.
His practice is the only one left in this part of Wiltshire,
covering more than 2,000 square miles, half of it
in TB infected areas.
In my experience, it's worse than it's ever been.
TB is increasing in prevalence and now we have a significant proportion
of the country endemically infected.
Wiltshire is now in what's called the high risk area and Hampshire
is in the edge area where new cases are cropping up fairly frequently.
Today, Keith is TB testing and checking for pregnancies.
This dairy farm is constantly producing milk and new calves,
but recent inconclusive TB results mean they're on lockdown -
losing money every single day for farmer Phil Shearing.
I can't sell any calves at the moment, so I've got to either
keep them or humanely get them killed.
There's a lot more disease we're finding we've got to do a lot more
vaccinations and DEFRA being cut is going to affect us big time.
We're sort of being left out on our own and we are dealing
with the consequences.
With the ?220 million animal health budget set to be cut
by a third within the next three years, seven regional labs that used
to diagnose and identify new diseases have already shut down.
Winchester's gone, so Keith's nearest Government lab is now over
100 miles away.
Diseases tend not to be investigated to the extent
that they were when Winchester was open, and it means we don't
have the surveillance network for the new and emerging diseases.
Concerns are that our surveillance system will fail.
A new or exotic disease will already be established in this country
before we find out it's here and it will be difficult then
to bring it under control.
Now, when you see good money being bid for fine beasts like this,
you might think everything's rosy, but actually farmers are struggling.
Profits for the industry overall fell by ?1.5 billion last year,
mainly due to falling food prices, and that means that farmers
are vulnerable to any outbreak in disease,
indeed it's thought many wouldn't be able to survive it.
We could have a lot more help, there could be a lot
more Government support.
There aren't enough politicians that farm.
If they farmed, they wouldn't cut.
It's farmers that are suffering from not having these
centres because obviously if they have an animal die
on the farm they want to know why it died because they want to know
if there's anything wrong with it and should they,
what action should they take.
And so it's getting harder and harder to get
a postmortem done.
And it's worrying for the vets, they're all trying to do their very
best to help everybody, but there s not enough of them.
And that's the knock-on effect of Winchester closing,
that you don't have this information at your fingertips you don't
have a local centre you could have gone to.
Exactly, we would go, in fact ours would be
Bury St Edmunds from here, believe it or not.
We've had two well publicised diseases come into the UK recently,
bluetongue 2006, Schmallenberg two or three years ago, thank
goodness those don t cause problems to humans.
Another very well-known example is something like Zika virus
which is catastrophic to humans.
And that's why it's so important that we pick up
on these diseases early.
The classic example of that, I suppose,
is mad cow disease or BSE.
So, back in 1986, vets started noticing and, farmers of course,
started noticing some strange behaviour in some of their animals
and they were able to get a really professional diagnosis from those
animals by submitting them to their local surveillance centre.
From that, a whole new disease was discovered which no-one had
really recognised before.
We never know what's around the corner.
So we have to have the facilities in place and we need
to have the experts in place to deal with that when required.
There are more than 800 diseases that can pass
from animals to humans.
You're in a deep sleep, aren't you?
Did you hear that?
Christine Lord lost her son Andrew 10 years ago to CJD ?
the human form of BSE.
To hold your once fit, strong 24-year-old son
in your arms and watch him die, it's indescribable and the pain that
I feel today, time doesn t heal.
Food should be safe, it shouldn't kill.
I lost my son because of an animal disease.
I'm just appalled that no lessons have been learnt,
but I'm not surprised.
We asked the Government why it's cutting animal health budgets
and surveillance centres.
A spokesperson told us
the remaining labs are in areas with the main
populations of farmed animals, and that world-class expertise
at the central lab means it's well placed to detect
new and emerging diseases effectively.
But with around 23,000 farms in the south-east, vet Keith Cutler
is worried we are vulnerable to new disease outbreaks.
All the time there are cuts coming to the surveillance budget
and from Government, perhaps, the wrong message is being sent,
perhaps the message is that it's not important and I think
it's vitally important.
There's a reduction in surveillance.
Is it the start of the end?
I don't know where it's going, but we're
probably not as on the ball as we used to be.
Joe Crowley reporting there. That's just about it for now.
Plenty more stories from the south to come next week.
Till then, bye-bye.
Details of organisations offering help with mental health are
available at bbc.co.uk?actionline.
Or you can call for free at any time to hear recorded
information on 08000 564 756.
Hello, I'm Riz Lateef with your 90-second update.
Overcrowded - the number of patients on wards in England have been
at unsafe levels in nine out of ten hospitals this winter.
That's according to BBC analysis.
NHS bosses said there were problems discharging frail patients.


It's Christmas time with Mama Luma's designer kids clothes!
Santa Claus hats and striped socks are all fun and well on Christmas morning… but do you have dinner at grandmother's house, family brunch, or a Santa Claus picture date?
Searching for the Perfect Holiday Dress? Look No Further!


text:
Fair Use, Privacy, and Commenting Policies
Big Brass Ones – Andrew Breitbart tells Eric Holder "Investigate ACORN or we will release more tapes right before the election"
Oh my goodness there are! Not only are there more tapes, it's not just ACORN. And this message is to Attorney General Holder: I want you to know that we have more tapes, it's not just ACORN, and we're going to hold out until the next election cycle, or else if you want to do a clean investigation, we will give you the rest of what we have, we will comply with you, we will give you the documentation we have from countless ACORN whistleblowers who want to come forward but are fearful of this organization and the retribution that they fear that this is a dangerous organization. So if you get into an investigation, we will give you the tapes; if you don't give us the tapes, we will revisit these tapes come election time.
(source) (h/t)
How many more tapes can they have? At what point does a good looking girl in a short skirt and a nerdy guy is a fur coat asking about using government funds to start an child prostitution ring start to ring alarm bells?
In any case I am watching for the news conference announcing Andrew Brietbart's arrest for some heinous crime soon. He will probably be shot trying to "escape".
-elsewhere-
CNN Poll – Blame for recession shifting from GOP to Dems
A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday morning indicates that 38 percent of the public blames Republicans for the country's current economic problems. That's down 15 points from May, when 53 percent blamed the GOP. According to the poll 27 percent now blame the Democrats for the recession, up 6 points from May. Twenty-seven percent now say both parties are responsible for the economic mess.
Thirty-six percent of people questioned say that President Barack Obama's policies have improved economic conditions, with 28 percent feeling that the president's programs have made things worse, and 35 percent saying what he's done has had no effect on the economy.
Palin Favorables Improving
Hacked e-mails prove global warming hoax? – probably not but they throw fuel on the fire.
← LOL – Even God wants Obama out of office
FMJRA 13 – How Bizzare →
A (newly) Conservative Lesbian
Another Black Conservative
Banjo for Life
Bring the Heat Bring the Stupid
Conservative Grapevine
Curses! Foiled Again!
Honesty in Motion
Megan McCardle
Snark and Boobs
That's Right
The Hostages
Unreligious Right
More Music wp.me/pCuLS-sx 7 years ago
In Re: Police Militirization wp.me/pCuLS-sw 7 years ago
I'm back –@again wp.me/pCuLS-sv 7 years ago
Google.com/elections. mainly news aggregation so far but there is a <a href="[youtube http://www.youtube.c… wp.me/sCuLS-1761 10 years ago
More Music for the Masses wp.me/pCuLS-s4 10 years ago
TMZ.com: Vogue Legend Andre Leon Talley Dead at 73 — VOGUE ANDRE LEON TALLEY DEAD AT 73 … Fashion icon Andre Leon Talley has died at 73 ... TMZ has learned. — A source with direct knowledge tells us Vogue's former creative director and one-time editor-at-large passed away Tuesday at a hospital in White Plains, NY.
Vanessa Chalmers / New York Post: Man's agonizing penis pain is found to be rare side effect of COVID — A man's agonizing penis pain was blamed on COVID infection, as docs warned of the rare side effect. — Writing in a medical journal, the Iranian team described how the virus led to blood clotting in the poor man's shaft.
New Evidence Shows Trump 'Personally Implicated' In Potential Fraud, Including Lying About the Size of His Manhattan Apartment (Hunter Walker/Rolling Stone)
Hunter Walker / Rolling Stone: New Evidence Shows Trump 'Personally Implicated' In Potential Fraud, Including Lying About the Size of His Manhattan Apartment — New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a motion to compel testimony from the former president and his children that included a series of bombshell allegations
N.Y. Attorney General Outlines Pattern of Possible Fraud at Trump Business (New York Times)
New York Times: N.Y. Attorney General Outlines Pattern of Possible Fraud at Trump Business — The attorney general, Letitia James, released new details of her investigation into whether the company misrepresented the value of its assets, but her office did not file a lawsuit.
Attorney General James Takes Action to Force Donald J. Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., and Ivanka Trump to Comply with Ongoing Investigation Into Trump Organization's Financial Dealings (NY State Attorney General)
NY State Attorney General: Attorney General James Takes Action to Force Donald J. Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., and Ivanka Trump to Comply with Ongoing Investigation Into Trump Organization's Financial Dealings — Motion to Compel Filed After Donald J. Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., — and Ivanka Trump Refuse to Provide Sworn Testimony
Restoring the Senate to Protect the Freedom to Vote (Doug Jones)
Doug Jones: Restoring the Senate to Protect the Freedom to Vote — By Senators Tom Daschle (SD), Kent Conrad (ND), Byron Dorgan (ND), Bob Graham (FL), Heidi Heitkamp (ND), Doug Jones (AL), Mary Landrieu (LA), Blanche Lincoln (AR), Mark Pryor (AR), Mark Udall (CO), and Mark Begich (AK).
As Democrats lurch to defeat on voting, it's up to Biden to get his party off the ropes (Jill Lawrence/USA Today)
Jill Lawrence / USA Today: As Democrats lurch to defeat on voting, it's up to Biden to get his party off the ropes — At least Democrats are reality based. Trump, his devotees and way too much of the Republican Party are from Area 51 or some other planet entirely. — America's political choices these days are not particularly appetizing. […]
Israel police uses NSO's Pegasus to spy on citizens (Tomer Ganon/CTech)
Tomer Ganon / CTech: Israel police uses NSO's Pegasus to spy on citizens — Mayors, leaders of political protests against former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and former governmental employees, were among those tracked by police without a search or bugging warrant authorizing the surveillance
Why Trump and DeSantis Are Talking About Australia (New York Times)
New York Times: Why Trump and DeSantis Are Talking About Australia — For conservatives, the country has become a symbol of coronavirus "tyranny." — For those who haven't been following the conversation on the right about Australia, Donald Trump's recent entry into the chat might have been a little baffling.
Biden Year One Approval Ratings Subpar, Extremely Polarized (Jeffrey M. Jones/Gallup)
Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup: Biden Year One Approval Ratings Subpar, Extremely Polarized — WASHINGTON, D.C. — During his first year in office, an average of 48.9% of Americans approved of the job President Joe Biden was doing. Biden's job approval ratings started relatively strong at 57%, but by September had plunged to 43%.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bluegrass
Defenders of Potential
Our Big Impact
School-Based
Bigs in Blue
Workplace Mentoring
Big FAQs
Brothers Reaching Back
Families as Partners
#10toDefend Club
Littles perform better in school.
With the help of our donors, volunteers and partners, Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bluegrass makes a Big impact on children's education. The effect has been confirmed by study after study and can be tracked and monitored using our best-in-class measurement tools.
Our landmark study
Our impact on education is evident in research conducted by Public/Private Ventures and published in 1995. When comparing children matched with a Big Brother or Big Sister to those waiting to be served by Big Brothers Big Sisters, these researchers found that:
Littles skipped half as many days of school as did their peers.
Littles felt more competent about doing schoolwork.
Littles skipped fewer classes than did their peers.
Children who are in school, in class, and engaged in their work are more likely to succeed.
What our current Littles say
Our impact on education is confirmed by those closest to it: our Littles. In a 2009, we commissioned industry leader Civic Enterprises to conduct a nationwide survey of our Bigs and Littles. Of those children surveyed,
97% of Littles said working hard in school is very important.
95% of Littles said going to school and getting a good education is very important.
94% of Littles said graduating from college is very important.
Children who work hard, recognize the value of education, and set a goal of going to college are more likely to succeed.
What our alumni say
Our impact on education is felt long after Littles graduate from high school. In 2009, Harris Interactive conducted an online survey of alumni Littles from across the nation. Among those former Littles:
77% said they are doing better in school because of their Big.
65% agreed their Big helped them reach a higher level of education that they thought possible.
52% agreed their Big kept them from dropping out of high school.
Children who graduate from high school, perform well in school, and achieve beyond their expectations are successful in school and in life.
More Proven Results
We don't just trust that our programs have a big impact – we learn about their impact from independent research and continuing partnerships.
Big Brothers Big Sisters Research
Research shows that our one-to-one mentoring programs have real outcomes for children.
Impact on Self-Confidence
One-on-one attention from a caring adult role model is a key part of developing self-confidence, and research shows that Bigs help Littles feel more confident in several areas.
Impact on Juvenile Justice
Many children get swept up into what their peers are doing, but research shows that having another caring adult on their side helps Littles make good decisions and avoid risky behaviors.
It's not just a donation. It's an investment in a child's future.
When you donate online to Big Brothers Big Sisters, you join our cause and directly support children in your community. No matter how little or big the amount, donating can start making a difference in the lives of young people around you.
For more than 100 years, Big Brothers Big Sisters has operated under the belief that inherent in every child is the ability to succeed and thrive in life. As the nation's largest donor and volunteer supported mentoring network, Big Brothers Big Sisters makes meaningful, monitored matches between adult volunteers ("Bigs") and children ("Littles"), ages 6 through 18, in communities across the country. We develop positive relationships that have a direct and lasting effect on the lives of young people.
Big Moments
Events for Our Matches
Apart (But Together) Activities for Matches
Be a Big
Come Back Soon…
COVID-19 Updates and Resources
Big in the Bluegrass
Bowl for Kids' Sake
Golf Fore Kids' Sake
Get a Big
© 2023 Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bluegrass. 181 W. Lowry Lane, Suite 150, Lexington, KY 40503


You hear a lot of talk about learning to "be present". My man Anderson Cooper recently dedicated a 60 Minutes (our favorite podcast) segment to the concept. There are workshops and retreats all over the world targeted at busy folks who want to learn the art of living in the moment. Apparently, just being is harder than most of us realize.
Think about it. You're at work – Preparing for an important meeting. Debriefing on your last project. You're with friends – Sharing the story of your last Tinder date. Planning a weekend getaway. At just about any moment throughout the day, we are focused on either the past or the future. Aside from those mindful folks who practice some form of daily meditation (me, not included), there are few of us who devote any time each day to being present. Too much to do and plan and think about.
I am the WORST when it comes to this. A real "multi-tasker", I'm rarely able to focus on one thing at a time. I remember once taking part in a "Sound Bath" in Joshua Tree, which promised me aligned chakras, waves of peace and total relaxation. As I lay in the large wooden dome, odd crystal sounds washing over me, grocery lists and song lyrics and decorating ideas danced uncontrollably in my head. More often than not, my brain is anywhere but here.
And then I realized the other day, deep in conversation with fellow travelers about the aforementioned podcast and the importance of "now" and whatnot, that maybe that's one of the subconscious draws of long-term travel. When we disconnect – from our jobs and our bills and even our friends – every moment has no choice but to consume us. The majority of our days spent completely present, absorbed in whatever it is we are doing, seeing, the conversation we are having. There is nothing but us and this place, right now. Sure we tell stories of things we've done and plan where we're going next and miss so many people back home – lots of distractions pull us from the moment. But generally, far more of our day is spent here and now than it would ever be back home. Touching, tasting, trying, feeling, experiencing. Maybe that's why traveling makes us feel so alive.
While on a bike ride through the rice fields of Ninh Binh, we approached an ancient pagoda, its entrance a large arch flanked by two smaller ones. Our guide told us that the three openings represented the past, present and future, then challenged us to guess which is the most important (and thus, in the middle). Everyone in our group guessed simultaneously – "The future?" But I knew immediately that the most important thing, the central arch under which we should enter, is the present.
Your post was suggested to me by mutual friend, Dirk V. I think you nailed it. I know that I'm often not present. It's a very human problem. I've found that daily meditation has helped me greatly by a) grounding me more in the present by giving me skills to focus on it, and b) by allowing me to gently pull myself back to the now when I drift off _without_ judgement when I do. I live far more in the present than I ever used to as a result.
Thank you for sharing your experience and your travels! That's very cool.
Thanks so much for reading and commenting, Roger. Really appreciate the feedback, and love when something I write actually speaks to someone :-) Hoping to learn to meditate myself on this trip. I could certainly use it!


Home Herald-Post Collection Henry M. Johnson, Jr. of Louisville, Kentucky.
Henry M. Johnson, Jr. of Louisville, Kentucky.
Title Henry M. Johnson, Jr. of Louisville, Kentucky.
Description Portrait of attorney Henry M. Johnson, Jr. of Louisville, Kentucky, wearing wire-framed glasses and a printed tie. The photograph has been marred with discolorations. Stamped on back of image: Stone Studio.
People Pictured Johnson, Henry M., Jr.
Source 2.75 x 4.75 in. b&w photographic print. Item no. 1994.18.2322 in the Herald-Post Collection, University of Louisville Photographic Archives.
Add tags for Henry M. Johnson, Jr. of Louisville, Kentucky.
Post a Comment for Henry M. Johnson, Jr. of Louisville, Kentucky.


Rhese are upcycled old ski gondolas transformed into mobile 4-person electric saunas! Designed by Toni Egger and Felix Tarantik who were looking for a high-quality easy to use outdoor sauna. The Saunagondel has the frame of an original Swiss gondola, an interior of silver fir, and a 4.5 kW electric heater. They even have a wifi controlled heater! You can currently buy/rent them in Europe.


text:
Halifax councillor wants staff report on blue and black bins for recycling and garbage
By Zane WoodfordStarMetro Halifax
Fri., Jan. 11, 2019timer3 min. read
HALIFAX—One councillor thinks it's time for Halifax to consider chucking recyclables and garbage into blue and black bins instead of bags.
Councillor Sam Austin has a motion coming to regional council on Tuesday asking for a staff report on "adopting a bin program for recycling and garbage."
Austin did some research and found several cities across Canada, including Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal, use blue and black bins, similar in size and shape to Halifax's green bins, for recycling and garbage.
In some cities, residents have to put their trash in a bag before putting it in the black bin, but according to Austin's research, the waste goes directly into the bin in all the cities listed above.
"That would eliminate need for plastic bags in the system," Austin said in an interview.
It was the municipality's move towards a ban on plastic bags that got Austin thinking about the bins.
In December, council's environment and sustainability standing committee voted in favour of banning plastic bags in the municipality. The committee hoped to lead the way in the province and create a makeshift provincewide ban by working with other municipalities.
That motion comes to council for a final vote on Tuesday, and a vote in favour would see a bylaw written by December 2019 to ban the distribution of single-use plastic bags.
"There was a lot of feedback from people, both people who were in favour of the ban and people who were against, writing and saying, 'Yeah, you guys, it's kind of hypocritical of you to be banning bags while at the same time basically requiring bags to put out recyclables and to put out garbage,'" Austin said.
"I mean the cost piece is probably the biggest limitation on it, but I think it's an idea that's at least worth a look, especially given where we seem to be heading on the plastic bag front."
The cost is significant.
"When we rolled out the green bins to residents in 1999, the cost was $8 million dollars for 100,000 residents at that time," municipal spokesperson Erin DiCarlo said in an email.
The number of households receiving waste pick-up services has only increased in the 20 years since, and was about 140,000 in 2013.
The cost of providing a bin to every household now would be about $12 million, Austin said, so blue and black bins would likely be at least $24 million.
"The only way to do that would be through a tax increase, obviously," he said. "You can't just come up with $24 million out of the blue."
With a tax increase already all but guaranteed this year, Austin said it would be a few years before blue and black bins hit the curb.
"If it ends up happening some day, it'll be years off," he said. "Our service is contracted, so it's not just the logistics of buying the bins, but then you'd also have to work it into the contracts, because of course the method of pick-up would have to change."
That means waste collection contracts could increase in price as well, creating further ongoing costs to the bins. Those are the kinds of numbers staff would produce for Austin's report.
But for the average household, Austin believes there could actually be savings.
"How much does the average household spend on blue and black bags over the course of the year? If you average the cost out among all the households, it might even end up being a savings," he said.
Zane Woodford is a Halifax-based reporter focusing on City Hall. Follow him on Twitter: @zwoodford


Nicolas Sartini, who suggested this week, not without hesitation and misgiving, that cargo volumes between Europe and Asia could recover in the second half of next year.
Recovery! You want a recovery! The reaction of Bumble the beadle to Oliver Twist"s request for a second helping of workhouse gruel comes to mind.
You can almost hear the howls of outrage provoked by the simple utterance of the word in a liner shipping industry still soaking up the pain caused by the collapse of rates and volumes on its main trade lanes.
In this shipping industry take on the Charles Dickens novel, Oliver is played by CMA CGM"s head of east-west lines, Nicolas Sartini, who suggested this week, not without hesitation and misgiving, that cargo volumes between Europe and Asia could recover in the second half of next year.
He made no claim to knowing more than the next box carrier about the likely performance of the market, acknowledging that several scenarios were possible.
But he decided to stick his neck out nevertheless, saying, ?What seems to us plausible is that we should have a quiet soft first half next year followed by recovery in the second half.?
Why so? As always, China is never far from the minds of the senior management team at CMA CGM, who have been encouraged by the series of measures taken by the Chinese leadership to stimulate the country"s export performance.
?We see that, on the Chinese side, there has been quite a lot of reaction,? said Mr. Sartini. ?We are not yet seeing the effects but we are seeing stimulation of exports.?
Mr Sartini acknowledged that stimulatory measures did not automatically mean export recovery.
?Chinese goods must be competitive and there must be the demand in Europe to buy them,? he said. ?These two factors must be put in place.?
There is no evidence at this point to say that this is likely to happen soon. So is Mr Sartini just whistling in the dark to keep his spirits up?
He did have another argument to back his belief that recovery could only be a certain time coming ? the behaviour of the Asia-Europe market in the past.
He recalled past market slumps in 2000-2001 and 2005-2006, which he said had lasted nine months and six months respectively.
The argument is worth what it is worth. Its validity depends on the extent to which you think that the current slump can be compared to the previous two.
Many would say that they cannot and would doubtless argue that the current downturn can be expected to match the longevity and vigour of the boom which preceded it.
However, Mr Sartini is arguably someone who has his ear closer to the ground than most and there is something to be said for listening to those who are out on the ground as opposed to those whose principal source of information is their computer screens.
His clinching argument, moreover ? if clinching argument there can be ? is that the liner shipping industry has already done a great deal to restore supply and demand balance to the Asia-Europe trades.
He calculated that 18 services representing some four million teu had been withdrawn from the market since August.
?It is clear that at one moment or another we are going to return to balance,? he said. ?I believe that we are not far from balance at the moment.?
Indian Navy to Receive More Israeli Missile Defence SystemsIndia's state-owned company Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) has awarded Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) an additional, 777 million dollar contract for the delivery on Naval Barak 8 surface to air missiles for the Indian Navy.
Jurong Port, Oiltanking Team Up on New Liquid Bulk TerminalSingapore's Jurong Port Pte Ltd and liquid bulk handling and s Oiltanking Singapore Limited have signed a joint venture agreement to develop, own and operate a new liquid bulk terminal that will be located on 16 hectares of existing land in Jurong Port.
Newbuilding Orders Focus on TankersTankers are still the main focus of ship owners who are willing to shell out the necessary money to move forward with newbuilding orders.
Capesize Market Stops Falling, Rates Halved in Less Than a MonthThe capesize dry bulk market finally stopped falling on Friday, after rates have been more than halved in the space of a few weeks.
Obama Defends Arctic Oil DrillingUnited States' President Barack Obama defends his decision to allow Royal Dutch Shell to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean.


PATH is a 24-hour rapid transit system that will get you where you need to go.
The PATH system links Jersey City to Hoboken, Harrison, Newark, and to both Downtown and Midtown in New York City.
To begin, enter your travel information in the fields below the map.Reserve your car service using our simple form and one of our representative will call back to confirm and securing the booking.
Shuttle Service in Jersey City on YP.com. See reviews, photos, directions, phone numbers and more for the best Shuttle Service in Jersey City, NJ.
Our facility is licensed by the New Jersey Department of Health, certified by Medicare and accredited by the Joint Commission.
Fulop, is leaving downtown — for a single-family house he bought last summer in Jersey City Heights, at the northern end of the city.Station, Jersey City Marin Boulevard Station, or Jersey City Harborside Financial Center Station.
Jersey City is the second-largest city in New Jersey, trailing Newark in population, but far surpassing Trenton, the state capital.Browse Venue prices, photos and 2 reviews, with a rating of 4.2 out of 5.
Newport Centre is the premier shopping destination in Hudson County.
An hourly rate will be applied to service durations in excess of 10 hours. Hotel Courtyard Jersey City Newport This is a Preferred Partner property.
The Surgical Center of Jersey City is a multi-specialty surgery center located in Jersey City, New Jersey.
See reviews, photos, directions, phone numbers and more for the best Shuttle Service in Jersey City, NJ.
AAA Express Car and Limo is a public business and is considered small.It is located on a peninsula that includes Hoboken to the north, the Hudson River and Manhattan to the east, Bayonne to the south, and the Hackensack River to the west.
Newport Center Mall is located in a vibrant area of Jersey City known for its popular theater scene and top museums.
Newport Rentals offers a wide range of Jersey City apartments for rent including studio apartments, 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom, and 3 bedroom luxury apartments, Hamilton Park apartments near plenty of green space and waterfront apartments offering spectacular views. Follow I-78 E to 11th St in Jersey City for 12 min (8.8 mi). Continue on 11th St to your destination for 4 min (0.9 mi). Turn right onto 11th St for 0.4 mi. Use the right lane to merge onto Newport Pkwy for 0.2 mi. Turn right onto Washington St for 0.3 mi. Turn right for 105 ft.
Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Courtyard Jersey City Newport is a 5-minute walk from Newport Centre shopping mall and a 10-minute subway ride to New York City via NJ PATH, accessible from the station immediately adjacent.After all, there was an estimated increase of 23,156 residents between 2010 and 2016, according to the US Census Bureau.
I used them to pick me in the city after having a small surgical procedure.Newport Rentals - Atlantic Apartments is in the The Waterfront neighborhood.
We go where and when you need to go, safely, in comfort and in style.
Atlantic City Service fee includes an 10-hour round trip from a single pick-up location in Jersey City, NJ.
Newport Car and Limousine provides Limousines and Town Cars for all occasions.
This 4-star hotel is 4.1 mi (6.5 km) from One World Trade Center and 4.3 mi (6.9 km) from New York University.


text:
Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition coming to Xbox July 1
By Nick Santangelo	• 5 years ago
Next month, Xbox owners looking for a fun side-scrolling action-platformer will finally be able to experience what their PlayStation brethren did — and then some — more than a year ago. Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition will release on Xbox One and Xbox 360 on July 1 for $14.99, developer DrinkBox Studios has announced.
The embiggened title features an expanded story including both brand new content and all of the DLC released for the original 2013 version of Guacamelee. The campaign is longer thanks to the addition of the new Canal of Flowers and Volcano areas as well as a new boss named the Trio of Death, a three-headed skeleton residing in the new Volcano area where he helps main antagonist Carlos Calaca by constructing his skeleton army. That also means that Calaca will have new baddies "that want to chokeslam luchadores to sleep" at his disposal.
Players will have the new "Intenso" ability to help them in overcoming these new adversaries. Additionally, when playing in co-op, you will be able to swap dimensions independently, a much-requested ability by fans of the original release.
Speaking to XBLA Fans in April, the game's lead designer, Greg Lesky, estimated that the new content would make the game about 20 percent beefier. Lesky also told us that while certain elements of the game were being smoothed over to increase Guacamelee!'s approachability, the new enemies would be elite-class and more hard-to-find secrets requiring brutally challenging platforming maneuvers to unlock were being tossed in.
"We wanted [the challenges] to be really hard because we wanted people to feel special when they did them," he said at the time. "We're fans of games that focus on player skill and reward exploration and are not afraid to challenge the player, because it's so much more rewarding when you finally overcome it."
In an attempt to build excitement for the upcoming release, Drinkbox also made a pair of exclusive Guacamelee! Gamerpic packs available for download on Xbox 360 as of last week.
DrinkBox Studios Guacamelee: Super Turbo Championship Edition
Nick Santangelo
Nick has been a gamer since the 8-bit days and has been reporting on the games industry since 2011. Don't interrupt him while he's questing through an RPG or watching the Eagles, Phillies, 76ers or Flyers. Follow Nick Santangelo on Twitter.
Guacamelee 2 Review: Double Dipping
FeaturesFeature List
Say hola to Guacamelee: Super Turbo Championship Edition


Good support for when I have problems.
Capacity in terms of monthly visits. The more the better.
Simplicity of the technical / backoffice of the hosting company / website.
Other. I will leave my answer in the comment section.


text:
Q: where to put the external css and js in rails I am just starting in rails and loading external resources like css and js has been an issue for me. Reading in few places, i found out that, css should be placed in app/assets/stylesheets and js inside app/assets/javascripts. After doing this i called my css and js in my view file like
<%= stylesheet_link_tag "<<path to my css>>" %>

for css and
<%= javascript_include_tag "<<path to my js>>"  %>

and i included this line inside my config/initializers/assets.rb
Rails.application.config.assets.precompile += [/.*\.js/,/.*\.css/]

but doing this gave me some sort of compilation error. But i am not sure whether its the correct way or not to load external resource.Where are the other place that i need to change in order to load css and js and the best practice to include external resources in rails in terms of performance as well.

A: Asset Pipeline
What you're referring to is something called the asset pipeline - the app/assets folder is where you store all the "dependent" files for your HTML -- css / js / images etc.
The asset pipeline is very simple -

The asset pipeline provides a framework to concatenate and minify or compress JavaScript and CSS assets. It also adds the ability to write these assets in other languages and pre-processors such as CoffeeScript, Sass and ERB.

It's function is to provide you with a way to "compile" your CSS/JS into condensed (minified) files, which you can call in your front-end HTML. The ultimate aim is to make your "assets" as small as possible, so your page loads fastest.
--
In your case, you'll want to look up Sprockets Manifest Directives --
#app/assets/stylesheets/application.css
/*
   *= require self
   *= require_tree .
*/

The above will take every CSS file in app/assets/stylesheets and concatenate them into a single application.css file:
#app/views/layouts/application.html.erb
<%= stylesheet_link_tag :application %>

So to answer your question directly, you only need to store external stylesheets in your app/assets/stylesheets folder.
If you have a "real" external stylesheet (hosted by Google or something), you'll want to include it in your layout as follows:
#app/views/layouts/application.html.erb
<%= stylesheet_link_tag :application, "http://cdn.google.com/stylesheet.css" %>

A: Once you add your css and js in assests respective folder, you have to require those files in application.js and application.css and then you can include these two files in your html. Try following code:
application.css
//= require abc

application.js
//= require xyz

In your html:
<%= stylesheet_link_tag "application" %>
<%= javascript_include_tag "application"  %>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


A super double walled stainless steel. Cornwall Travel Mug.
Cornwall One and All logo to centre.
Choose from classic Cornish black vibrant red or blue.
The perfect way to keep your Cornish Coffee Cornish Tea or Cornish Chocolate nice and warm!
Great for the journey to work or the journey to Cornwall and beyond!!


text:
Omar Jamal earns $43,000 a year to communicate with the community on behalf of the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office.
In response to Sahan Journal's public records request, Sheriff Bob Fletcher's Office disclosed Omar Jamal's salary, job title, and duties.
by Joey Peters October 7, 2020 October 7, 2020
Project Veritas has partnered with Omar Jamal, a man of questionable reputation in the Somali community to allege "ballot harvesting fraud" in Minnesota. Credit: Screenshot via Project Veritas' YouTube page.
Finally, an answer.
Last night, we published a post about the work Omar Jamal performs at the office of Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher. Omar Jamal recently appeared as one of the main sources in two controversial videos from a national right-wing media outfit alleging mail-in voter fraud in Minnesota.
In the wake of that video, the Sheriff's Office refused to disclose Omar Jamal's job title or duties to Sahan Journal, despite our repeated requests.
In response to a public records request Sahan Journal filed with the office asking for this information last week, the Sheriff's Office released that information today.
Some 12 hours after we posted our story, Kyle Mestad, director of the administrative division with the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office, wrote in an email to Sahan Journal that Omar Jamal works as a community service officer for the Sheriff's Office.
He began the job on March 2, 2020. His job is full time, paying an hourly wage of $20.70, for an annual salary of $43,073.78.
Mestad revealed that Omar Jamal's job duties include, but aren't limited to:
Facilitating communication between law enforcement staff and residents.
Performing public relations work in the community.
Explaining police work and procedures to the public.
Conducting, recruitment and other community outreach activities to support office initiatives.
After Omar Jamal's starring appearances and claims in the videos released by Project Veritas, a Sheriff's Office spokesperson stated that Omar's comments were not a part of his professional work.
Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher won't tell the public what Omar Jamal does for his office.
Omar Jamal, the main source for a controversial and questionable pair of videos alleging voter fraud in Minnesota, works for the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office. But what does that work involve? That question has proved hard to figure out. Omar Jamal's exact role, job description, and salary remain unknown. And the Sheriff's Office won't disclose…
Tagged: Omar Jamal, Ramsey County Sheriff Office
Joey Peters
jpeters@sahanjournal.com
Joey Peters is a reporter for Sahan Journal. He has been a journalist for 15 years. Before joining Sahan Journal, he worked for close to a decade in New Mexico, where his reporting prompted the resignation... More by Joey Peters


With a quick turnaround, you'll have the answers you're looking for in no time!
This form is NOT 100% secure. Please do not include any sensitive information such as Social Security numbers, Bank Account numbers or your Birth Date. Please consider sending us a secure message from within online banking.


text:
Election 2020: A breakdown of the Bay Area's police reform ballot measures
Megan Cassidy Sep. 25, 2020 Updated: Sep. 25, 2020 8:05 p.m.
Election 2020: A breakdown of the Bay Area's police...
1of6San Francisco Sheriff Paul Miyamoto walks through San Francisco City Hall on Friday, Aug. 7, 2020. Miyamoto is opposed to a key portion of a San Francisco's Proposition D that would create a new agency to investigate the Sheriff's Department. Miyamoto believes the city's current policies are sufficient.Photo: Noah Berger / Special to The Chronicle
2of6Supervisor Shamann Walton poses for a photograph in San Francisco on Monday, September 14, 2020. Walton is the author of the city's Proposition D, a measure he believes is needed to increase oversight and accountability of the San Francisco Sheriff's Department.Photo: Nick Otto / Special to The Chronicle
3of6A portrait of District 7 supervisor Norman Yee at his City Hall office on Friday, Feb. 15, 2019, in San Francisco, Calif. Yee is the author of San Francisco's Proposition E, which would eliminate the mandate in the City Charter that the Police Department maintain no fewer than 1,971 full-duty officers. Yee and his supporters believe the provision is antiquated and arbitrary.Photo: Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle
4of6Sheriff Paul Miyamoto meets with the Chronicle editorial board about his election campaign at the SF Chronicle on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019 in San Francisco, Calif. Miyamoto has opposed a ballot measure that would create more civilian oversight on the Sheriff's Office, saying its duties would be duplicative of a system already in place.Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle
5of6Dayton Andrews, 27, of Oakland, with Revolutionary United Front, speaks in front of West Oakland Bart during the West Oakland Solidarity All Power to the People rally in Oakland, Calif., on Saturday, August 1, 2020. After a summer of civil unrest over police killings of Black people, cities and counties across the Bay Area are once again reimagining what police reform should look like — and testing some of these ideas at the ballot box this November.Photo: Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle
6of6Supervisor Shamann Walton during a board meeting on Tuesday, June 4, 2019, in San Francisco, Calif. Walton is proposing a seven-member Sheriff's Department Oversight Board that would make policy recommendations to the sheriff and the Board of Supervisors, as well as an Inspector General posision for the Sheriff's Office.Photo: Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle
After a summer of civil unrest over police killings of Black people, cities and counties across the Bay Area are attempting to reimagine what police reform should look like — and they're testing some of these ideas at the ballot box this November.
While calls to "defund the police" have become a rallying cry amid Black Lives Matter protests — and a platform for some politicians — most of the ballot measures here are intended to move the needle slightly rather than overthrow the system.
Many center on creating or fortifying civilian oversight bodies for police. Police commissions like those in Oakland and San Francisco have for years helped shape department policies and recommend discipline, shedding some light on what have long been highly secretive internal decisions.
Here's a closer look at how the next wave of police reform could shape up throughout the Bay Area on election day:
San Francisco's Proposition D: A charter amendment sponsored by Supervisor Shamann Walton would create a seven-member Sheriff's Department Oversight Board that would make policy recommendations to the sheriff and the Board of Supervisors.
By Brett Simpson
Sonoma County supervisors send law enforcement oversight...
San Francisco voters will find 13 ballot measures to decide on...
By Megan Cassidy and Dominic Fracassa
SF mayor releases police reform plan to deal with racism, use...
Defund San Francisco police? Chief Bill Scott says he's open...
The measure, which would be passed with a simple-majority vote, would also create an Office of Inspector General for the Sheriff's Department, which would investigate in-custody deaths and complaints against its staffers and contractors. Both bodies could recommend but not impose discipline.
Walton said he created the measure in response to the botched investigation into the Sheriff's Department "fight club" case — in which deputies allegedly forced jail inmates to fight each other in gladiator-style battles — as well as in-custody deaths.
If passed, the measure would cost roughly $3 million annually.
Sheriff Paul Miyamoto has opposed the investigative portion of the measure, calling it a "wasteful bureaucracy" that overlaps with a independent investigation system already in place.
Miyamoto said his office has updated its agreement with the city's independent Department of Police Accountability, and that the public can lodge complaints against sheriff's staff directly with the DPA, rather than going through the Sheriff's Office.
The sheriff said he agrees with Walton, however, about creating an oversight committee that would recommend policy changes, but without investigative powers.
"The investigative portion is what doesn't need to be duplicated," Miyamoto said.
Walton pushed back on Miyamoto's claim that the investigative duties of the DPA and the inspector general would be duplicative. The inspector general would have subpoena powers, he said, and DPA has struggled to handle its existing caseload.
"They have a long way to go to doing their job," Walton said. "There are several complaints, several injustices that still haven't been addressed. DPA is not the appropriate department."
San Francisco's Proposition E: A measure introduced by Supervisor Norman Yee would eliminate the mandate in the City Charter that the Police Department maintain no fewer than 1,971 full-duty officers.
The requirement, introduced to the charter in the mid-1990s, has been deemed an antiquated and arbitrary benchmark for police staffing levels. If passed with a simple-majority vote, Prop. E would strip the minimum staffing requirement from the charter and require the police department to submit a staffing report to the Police Commission every two years.
The San Francisco Police Officers Association has opposed the measure, saying the department has never met minimal staffing levels in recent history and is consistently short-staffed. If the measure passes, they said, it would inevitably shrink the number of sworn forces needed to combat the city's crime.
"Our response times to 911 calls are lagging because we don't have enough people on patrol," said Sgt. Tracy McCray, vice president of the police union. "They have supervisors who say they want more foot beats, but in order to do that it has to come from somewhere else. ... It's kind of hard to do when there's not a lot of people to go around in the first place."
Yee said the measure would lay the groundwork for the types of police reforms San Franciscans are demanding. Namely, he said, it would allow the city to bring in other types of professionals to handle activities related to homelessness issues and mental health crises that don't involve criminal wrongdoing. Many such calls are currently handled by police.
"It would take the handcuffs off of our policy decisions for reform efforts," he said.
Oakland's Measure S1: Four years after overwhelmingly passing a measure to create the Oakland Police Commission and its accompanying Community Police Review Agency, voters now will decide whether to give its civilian-run police watchdog groups more autonomy and authority.
The measure would create the position of an inspector general that works for the police commission who would have the power to investigate the city's handling of police misconduct and audit the police department's compliance with anti-bias measures.
Additionally, the measure would allow both the police commission and the Community Police Review Agency to hire its own outside attorneys, separate from the City Attorney's Office.
Berkeley's Measure II: Residents will be asked whether to replace the current Police Review Commission with a new, independent, nine-member Berkeley Police Accountability Board. The board would have broader authority to review and set police department policies, practices and procedures and investigate public complaints against officers. The measure would additionally create a director of police accountability, who will investigate complaints against sworn staff and recommend discipline.
The measure would provide broader access to records and lower the standard of proof in which a Berkeley officer can be charged with committing misconduct. The current standard is "clear and convincing," and the revised standard would be "preponderance of the evidence," according to a city report.
Sonoma County's Measure P: This initiative asks Sonoma County residents to strengthen its civilian law enforcement watchdog group, giving it greater access to personnel records and body-worn camera footage. The measure would additionally allocate 1% of the sheriff's $184 million budget to fund the watchdog group's efforts.
Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy
Megan Cassidy
Follow Megan on:
https://www.facebook.com/SFChronicle/meganrcassidy
Megan Cassidy is a crime reporter with The Chronicle, also covering cops, criminal justice issues and mayhem. Previously, Cassidy worked for the Arizona Republic covering Phoenix police, Sheriff Joe Arpaio and desert-area crime and mayhem. She is a two-time graduate of the University of Missouri, and has additionally worked at the Casper Star-Tribune, National Geographic and an online publication in Buenos Aires. Cassidy can be reached on twitter at @meganrcassidy, and will talk about true crime as long as you'll let her.
S.F. murder-suicide: Tragedy preceded by bitter dispute centered on son's vaccinations
Audit finds state district attorney group misspent millions allocated for environmental cases
Breed nominates Carmen Chu to be city administrator
California records near-record coronavirus death toll as Bay Area struggles...


Publisher of the "Washington Teleological Repertory", Aug. 1823-Dec. 1828. Publisher of the "Teleological Repertory", Jan.-Dec. 1830. Publisher of the "American Spectator…", 1830-1832. From 1831-1832 as Isaac Orr & James C. Dunn.


text:
Q: How to Interpret "Levels" in Random Forest using R/Rattle I am brand new at using R/Rattle and am having difficulty understanding how to  interpret the last line of this code output. Here is the function call along with it's output:
> head(weatherRF$model$predicted, 10)
336 342 94 304 227 173 265 44 230 245
No No No No No No No No No No
Levels: No Yes

This code is implementing a weather data set in which we are trying to get predictions for "RainTomorrow". I understand that this function calls for the predictions for the first 10 observations of the data set. What I do NOT understand is what the last line ("Levels: No Yes") means in the output.

A: It's called a factor variable.
That is the list of permitted values of the factor, here the values No and Yes are permitted.


The Enneagram is an ancient and powerful profiling tool for getting the best out of our personalities.
This course offers a framework for understanding ourselves – what motivates and challenges us, insights into our core desires and root fears – and how we're likely to relate to others.
This course reveals our natural blueprint for success, helping us to unlock the secrets behind our behaviour patterns and free us from self-sabotaging behaviour.
• Identifying one's specific personality type.
• Greater understanding of self and others.
• Developing greater emotional intelligence.
• Understand one's natural blueprint for success and how to bring this success back into one's life.
• Freeing oneself from self-sabotaging behaviour.
• Strengthening relationships and team collaboration.
• Harnessing one's best traits for optimised results.
• Greater individual and team efficiency and productivity.
Introduction to the history of the enneagram, the enneagram model and the 9 personality types.
Identifying your specific personality type (enneagram number), with deeper insights into strengths, fears and an overall blueprint for success.
Volker Schlettwein, from Vetta Communication, brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from the corporate business world to the training and development arena. Having had an influential role as a corporate leader in both operations and culture change management, Volker understands the true value of the 'human resource' and how to harness this invaluable potential. With a skillset supporting personal development and sustainable positive change, Volker's passion is optimizing individuals and businesses for success through motivational training, facilitation and life skills coaching.


We're hearing from our insiders at Big Red that Verizon is looking to make make a couple of changes to their prepaid options. Beginning March 1st, the carrier will look to introduce an all new $60 smartphone prepaid plan that'll give you unlimited talk and text plus 2.5GB of data per month. This is in addition to the $45 smartphone plan that already exists which gives you the same talk and text, but with just 1GB of data.
Those still using basic plans for whatever reason should note that they will be retiring both the current $35 and $45 options and replacing it with just a single one-size-fits-all package. The new package will be $35, and will come with unlimited talk, text and 500MB of data. To compare, the original $35 plan only afforded you 500 talk minutes.
They aren't huge changes, but for those on prepaid who have been hoping to get more value for their money this is certainly welcome news. We expect Verizon to make a formal announcement a few days short of March 1st so if any other details emerge by then we'll be sure to keep you posted.


text:
H.R. 5674 (115th): VA MISSION Act of 2018
To establish a permanent community care program for veterans, to establish a commission for the purpose of making recommendations regarding the modernization or realignment of facilities of the Veterans Health Administration, to improve construction of the Department of Veterans Affairs, to make certain improvements in the laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs relating to the home loan program of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.
David "Phil" Roe
Sponsor. Representative for Tennessee's 1st congressional district. Republican.
Enacted Via Other Measures
Provisions of this bill were incorporated into other bills which were enacted.
This bill was enacted as:
S. 2372: VA MISSION Act of 2018
Enacted — Signed by the President on Jun 6, 2018. (compare text)
"Rep. Sam Johnson Memorial Day Message"
— Rep. Sam Johnson [R-TX3, 1991-2018] (Co-sponsor) on May 28, 2018
"Higgins: We must prioritize veterans over bureaucracy"
— Rep. Clay Higgins [R-LA3] (Co-sponsor) on May 16, 2018
"This Week in Congress - May 11, 2018"
— Rep. Gregorio Sablan [D-MP0] on May 14, 2018
R Street Institute SpendingTracker.org estimates H.R. 5674 will add $51.4 billion in new spending through 2028.
Identical Bill — Passed Senate (House next)
This activity took place on a related bill, S. 2372 (115th), possibly in lieu of similar activity on H.R. 5674 (115th).
Reported by House Committee on Veterans' Affairs
Identical Bill — Passed House
Identical Bill — Senate Agreed to Changes
Identical Bill — Enacted — Signed by the President
GovTrack.us. (2021). H.R. 5674 — 115th Congress: VA MISSION Act of 2018. Retrieved from https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hr5674
"H.R. 5674 — 115th Congress: VA MISSION Act of 2018." www.GovTrack.us. 2018. January 15, 2021 <https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hr5674>
VA MISSION Act of 2018, H.R. 5674, 115th Cong..
|date=May 3, 2018
|quote=VA MISSION Act of 2018
SpendingTracker.org estimates H.R. 5674 will add $51.4 billion in new spending through 2028.


text:
Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, in partnership with Abandon Normal Devices, Kunsthal Aarhus, and transmediale 2015,
Nicolas Maigret
THE PIRATE CINEMA
New Media Installation
Aksioma | Project Space
Komenskega 18, Ljubljana
21 January – 20 February 2015
Exhibition opening and talk by Geoff Cox and Nicolas Maigret: WED, 21 January 2015 @ 7pm
Launch of The Pirate Cinema (Online)
in the framework of the conference Digital Utopias
Hull Truck Theatre, Hull (UK)
The Pirate Cinema (performance)
Thursday, 29 January 2015 @ 9 pm
auditorium hkw, Berlin (DE)
in the framework of transmediale 2015
The Pirate Cinema (Online)
4-29 March 2015
Link Cabinet
In recent years, piracy and peer-to-peer file sharing of audio-visual contents have become a massive activity involving millions of internet users, and one of the main ways in which cinema is experienced at home. This does not only raise obvious copyright and legal issues, and not only floods us with poor, downgraded versions of the hi-quality original[1] but also potentially challenges cinema's materiality and the idea of a movie as a linear narrative.
The Peer-to-Peer Sharing protocol is based on small samples file fragmentation. This fragmentation smoothes the exchange between different recipients: when all the "chunks" have been downloaded, the file can then be reconstructed sample by sample until completion, from chaotic scraps received from distinct users. This hidden architecture reveals extraordinary narrative implications, automatizing and randomizing the remix processes widely used in art since the Avant-gardes.
The Pirate Cinema takes off from here to make the hidden activity and geography of Peer-to-Peer file sharing visible. The project is presented as a monitoring room, which shows Peer-to-Peer transfers happening in real time on networks using the BitTorrent protocol. The installation produces an arbitrary cut-up of the files currently being exchanged. This immediate and fragmentary rendering of online activity, with information concerning its source and destination, thus depicts the topology of digital media consumption and uncontrolled content dissemination in a connected world.
The Pirate Cinema is based on a data interception software. It reveals, through a simple diversion, different aspects of exchange platforms, such as the global and multi-situated nature of Peer-to-Peer networks (P2P), the potential for viral transmission, and alternative social models. Its purpose is to make available for aesthetic exploration the pre-existing potentials of Peer-to-Peer architectures. The installation of The Pirate Cinema relies on an automated system that constantly monitors the most viewed torrents. The intercepted data is immediately projected onto a screen, after which it is discarded. The 3 screens installation at Aksioma project space visualizes fragmentary files received and sent all over the world.
[1] Hito Steyerl, "In Defense of the Poor Image", in e-flux journal, Issue 10, November 2009, online at http://www.e-flux.com/journal/in-defense-of-the-poor-image/.
The Pirate Cinema is a project developed with the support of ArtKillArt (F), CNC / DICREAM, La Maison populaire, Conseil Général de Seine-Saint-Denis (F), Eastern Bloc (CA).
Concept: Nicolas Maigret
Software development: Brendan Howell
Production of the exhibition:
Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, 2015
Artistic Director: Janez Janša
Producer: Marcela Okretič
Executive Producer: Sonja Grdina
Public Relations: Hana Ostan Ožbolt
Technician: Valter Udovičić
Documentation: Adriana Aleksić, Jernej Čuček Gerbec
Presented in partnership with Kunsthal Aarhus (DK), transmediale 2015 (DE) and Abandon Normal Devices (UK).
Realized in the framework of Masters & Servers, a joint project by Aksioma (SI), Drugo more (HR), AND (UK), Link Art Center (IT) and d-i-n-a / The Influencers (ES).
Supported by: Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, the Municipality of Ljubljana, and Institut français de Slovénie.
Partners for technical equipment: Zavod Projekt Atol, Forum Ljubljana
Aksioma | Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana
Nicolas Maigret exposes the internal workings of media, through an exploration of their dysfunctions, limitations or failure thresholds which he develops sensory and immersive audio visual experiences. As a curator, he initiated the disnovation.net research, a critique of the innovation propaganda. He teaches at Parsons Paris and co-founded the Art of Failure collective in 2006.
His work has been presented in international exhibitions and festivals: transmediale (Berlin) - File (Sao Paulo) - Museum of Art and Design (New York) - 30th Chaos Communication Congress (Hamburg) - NWFF (Seattle) - SAIC (Chicago) - China Museum of Digital Arts (Beijing) - The Pirate Bay 10th Anniversary (Stockholm) - Palais de Tokyo (Paris) - Eastern Bloc (Montreal) - Gli.tc/h (Birmingham)...
a presentation by Nicolas Maigret
Aksioma | Project Space, Ljubljana
21 January at @ 7.30pm
Real-time for Pirate Cinema
a lecture by Geoff Cox
21 January at @ 7pm
As a portrait of the network in real-time, Pirate Cinema somewhat reflects the temporal complexity of the world now in the coming together of different co-existing ways of being in time. In the talk Geoff Cox wants to suggest that Pirate Cinema might allow us to better understand the dynamics of networked technologies and some of the defining conditions of globalization that underpin the cultural logic of our times.
The lecture is based on Geoff Cox essay, which was commissioned for the Aksioma's new series of brochures PostScriptUM.
Geoff Cox (UK) is Associate Professor in the Dept. of Aesthetics and Communication, and Participatory IT Research Centre, Aarhus University (DK), and Adjunct faculty Transart Institute (DE/US). His research interests lie in the areas of contemporary art and performance, software studies and network culture. He is an editor for the DATA Browser book series (published by Autonomedia). With Alex McLean, he wrote Speaking Code: coding as aesthetic and political expression (MIT Press 2012).
The festival Abandon Normal Devices (UK), Aksioma - Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana (SI) and Kunsthal Aarhus (DK), in partnership with transmediale 2015 (DE) have co-commissioned a new version of The Pirate Cinema project that will be made available online from January 20, 2015 onwards. TPC (Online) has been developed with the support of mur.at (A) and creacast.com (F), and was realized in the framework of the platform Masters & Servers, an European adventure focused on a new generation of digital interventionism supported by Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
The official release of the co-commission will happen in Hull (UK) during the conference Digital Utopias, an Arts Council initiative curated by Abandon Normal Devices as a trailblazer event for Hull City of Culture 2017.
Live Performance / Nicolas Maigret & Brendan Howell
transmediale 2015
Thu, January 29, 2015 at 9pm
HKW, Berlin (DE)
The Pirate Cinema | Act 3 - Copyright Infringement(Online)
At Link Cabinet the artist presents a custom version of the online piece that focuses on the Metallica versus Napster case of the early 2000's: the first law suit that involved artists suing a peer-to-peer file sharing software company that caused the eventual shut down of Napster. The audio streaming is based on the monitoring of users currently sharing Metallica albums.
Slovensko >>
The Pirate Book
A compilation of stories about sharing, distributing and experiencing cultural contents outside the boundaries of local economies, politics, or laws.
eBOOK (PDF) FREE!
PRINT ON DEMAND: B/W
PRINT ON DEMAND: COLOUR
Masters & Servers is a European adventure
focused on a new generation of digital interventionism.
Challenging the shifting art eco-system in the information age,
we create a space where media artists, activists and creators traverse the frontiers of contemporary art, radical entertainment and amateur invention.