Today is often referred to as 'Low Sunday'. It contrasts with the 'high' of last Sunday, Easter Sunday. Congregations also tend to be lower after it! We are now in the Easter season, however, and, for the next few weeks, we will be thinking about what the events of Easter mean as we move towards Ascension Day and Pentecost.
One of the amazing things about the Early Church was how quickly it worked out the implications of Easter for its life and belief. It is often said that it was St Paul who did this and that the beliefs of the early church were relatively primitive and unformulated until St Paul came along and gave the Church a developed and sophisticated theology.
The reality is that the theology of the Early Church was already in place when St Paul came along: a fact that he himself acknowledges. What St Paul did do was to draw out the implications of it for the Gentiles especially - as we saw during our Lent Bible studies on Ephesians.
Before his crucifixion, our Lord had told his disciples that the Holy Spirit would lead them into all truth. He wasted no time in doing so. The resurrection might have come as a complete shock to the disciples, but they seem to have got what it meant almost immediately. Which, it has to be said, is more than most Christians today.
I would venture to suggest that the first disciples' understanding of the importance and significance of the events of Easter was more advanced than our own, and we have the benefit of 2,000 years of Christian thinking about it. I don't want to be offensive, but most of us understand our phones better than we do our faith. Dare I say that this may in part be because our phones matter more to us than our faith?
Now you may think that I am being a bit harsh in saying this. So let me ask you what would upset you most: losing your phone or losing your Bible? Now I realize that as I write this some of you will say, 'But Ross, my Bible is on my phone!' So, for you, a different question: what would upset you most: not being able to access Facebook or not being able to access your Bible? I think you get my point. There are a number of reasons for this and perhaps we will have an opportunity to think about them over the next few weeks. But one at least emerges from this morning's second reading from the first letter of St Peter.
These were Christians who were facing suffering for no other reason than they believed that Jesus Christ was alive and sought to serve him. St Peter says that their faith is more precious than gold. What was it about their faith that led them to value it more highly than the most highly valued commodity on earth?
I think the first thing to be said about it is that it was more than a theoretical belief. By this I mean that they didn't just think that Jesus was alive. I believe many things that have absolutely no impact on my daily life and which certainly I would not be willing to suffer for. To take a comparatively trivial example: I believe Mount Everest to be one of the highest mountains in the world, but it may as well not exist for all the difference it makes to me. For some people, however, it does make a difference and a very real difference. They can't wait to attempt to climb it even though doing so involves much effort, cost, and even pain.
The Christians that St Peter wrote to didn't just believe that Jesus had risen, it was something that they lived for and were prepared to die for: something that they were already suffering for, but valued so much that couldn't be persuaded to abandon it.
The reason why we wouldn't want to lose our phones is that they have become a part of our lives in a way, sadly, that our faith has not. You don't willingly suffer for something that has little personal value to you.
Perhaps the greatest challenge of this Easter season is not whether we believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but whether we experience it and are willing to allow it to become an integral part of our daily lives.
St Peter's Christians were prepared to suffer because their faith mattered to them and had become part of them. But what was it about it that had led to it becoming so important to them? Why did they value it above gold?
St Peter in just a few verses sums it up. He describes what they experience as a 'new birth to a living hope'. This is through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is into an inheritance that is 'imperishable, undefiled, and unfading'.
This is exciting stuff. We live in a world of 'change and decay' as the hymn describes it. We ourselves age, get sick, and die. What we have in Christ, however, is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. Not only have we new birth in Christ, not only do we experience the Risen Lord, the inheritance he gives us is everything that we do not have at the moment.
Despite this, it may not seem immediately attractive to us. Perhaps we are doing quite well for ourselves. We have a good job, a nice apartment, a happy family with our children at good schools. Talk of an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading may seem remote, abstract, and irrelevant.
It is, though, anything but.
Yes, talk of an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading can indeed seem remote and abstract; something that is not really relevant to our daily lives. Until, that is, we encounter one of the storms of life. It only takes a visit to the doctors to make it very relevant or an accident or a bereavement. Or any one of the storms of life that waken us from our easy complacency and challenge us to see what really matters in life. What it is that is secure in life. What we have that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.
It is not a coincidence that many people come to faith during one of life's storms – through a personal crisis of some kind. Sometimes that's what it takes to challenge us and make us think about what really matters. And God certainly respects that and doesn't turn us away just because we are being opportunistic in our coming to him.
The question, however, for us today is why wait?
I am a big fan of the stories of Sherlock Holmes, the original ones by Conan Doyle, that is, not the modern imitations. Conan Doyle wrote 56 short stories, the first of which, and one of Conan Doyle's own favourites, was 'A Scandal in Bohemia'.
In the story, the King of Bohemia had, some years earlier, had a fling with a beautiful opera singer, one Irene Adler. In his passion, he had written her letters and had his photograph taken with her. Now he wants to marry, but not someone as lowly as an opera singer. He intends to marry someone in his own class, a princess.
He is worried, however, that Irene will use what is in her possession to blackmail him threatening him with a scandal if his relationship with Irene became public knowledge. He has tried everything to get the letters and photograph back, but to no avail. In desperation, he turns to Sherlock Holmes.
Sherlock Holmes reasons that, in a crisis, when a person is threatened with the loss of everything, they will try to save what matters most to them. He plans a scheme then to convince Irene that her house is on fire, disguising himself so he can be there at the time to see how she reacts. As he anticipated, Irene reveals where she keeps the letters and photograph.
As it happens, however, Irene realizes what she has done and acts accordingly to protect herself. She earns the admiration and respect of Holmes for whom from henceforth she will always be THE woman. It turns out that she never had any intention of blackmail, but feared – justifiably – that the King might do her harm and kept the letters and photograph for her own protection.
'From what I have seen of the lady, she seems, indeed, to be on a very different level to Your Majesty'.
Irene revealed what mattered to her most when she thought she was going to lose it in a fire.
What would we grab in the fires of life?
St Peter talks about the 'fiery ordeal' facing those to whom he writes. Their faith was sometimes, quite literally, to be tried by fire. Most of us won't have to face such an ordeal, but we will be tried by the fires of life.
Is our faith what matters most to us?
If it is, we can have confidence for ours is a living hope in a living Lord. One who gives us an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.


text:
Q: python manage.py shell < scripts/myscript.py not working when the file contains if __name__ == '__main__' I am trying to run a script(myscript.py) using
python manage.py shell < scripts/myscript.py
but nothing happens.
Here is my code
myscript.py
def foo(x):
    print(x+1)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    x = 10
    foo(x)

any help please
Note:
I am new to django
I am using python 3.6 and django 1.10.6

A: Since you are importing that script into shell, value of variable __name__ will not be __main__ (it will be the module name myscript). That means here that part of code is not executing.
For more info

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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text:
Blog, Country Report
Ian Cooper
Country Report: UK
Ian Cooper (DCU)
BRIDGE Network Country Report
The United Kingdom (UK) is an ex-Member State of the EU, having formally left the bloc on 31 January 2020 and exited the post-Brexit transition on 31 December 2020. Nevertheless it was a Member State during the whole of the crisis-ridden 2010s, and over its years of membership since 1973 it secured so many opt-outs from common EU policies that it was probably the most differentiated state in the EU prior to its exit. For these reasons it is included in our series of Country Reports.
Crisis Impact and Response
Euro-crisis
The UK never joined the common currency, having secured an opt-out in the Maastricht Treaty (1992), and so it was not directly affected by the Euro-crisis to the same degree as the Eurozone states. Prime Minister Gordon Brown won praise for his leadership in managing the crisis in its early stages (2008-2009) when it was primarily a banking crisis. Later, when it became a sovereign debt crisis that threatened the Euro currency, much of the crisis management took place within the Eurogroup, the meeting of the Eurozone finance ministers, without the UK taking part. However, at a 2011 crisis meeting of the European Council, Prime Minister David Cameron, who had succeeded Brown, opposed a proposal put forward by Germany to amend the EU treaties (which would have required unanimous agreement of the EU states) to strengthen the fiscal rules for the Eurozone. Cameron had wanted to get a legal guarantee that the Eurozone states would not use their majority position to disadvantage non-Eurozone states such as the UK. This veto attempt failed, however, as the other EU Member States (except the UK and Czechia) went ahead and agreed the Fiscal Compact treaty anyway as a separate treaty under international law. This debacle contributed to Cameron's determination to renegotiate the terms of the UK's EU membership and put them to a referendum, starting the process which eventually led to Brexit.
Just as the UK was insulated from the Euro-crisis because it was not in the Eurozone, it was insulated from the migration "crisis" because it was not in the EU's Schengen area of passport-free travel. Even so, the high point of the migration crisis, in 2015-2016, coincided perfectly with the run-up to the Brexit referendum in June 2016 and was a major factor in the UK electorate's vote to leave the EU.
Rule of Law Crisis
The Rule of Law crisis in Poland and Hungary emerged as a critical issue within the EU only in recent years, when the UK had already voted to leave the EU and so was no longer deeply engaged with the EU's internal matters. However, in 2018, when the European Parliament voted to initiate Article 7 proceedings against Hungary to investigate its breaches of the Rule of Law, MEPs from the UK's Conservative party voted against it, which was seen by some as an attempt by the UK government to gain support from a law-breaking Member State just as the Brexit negotiations were reaching their climax. Later, after Boris Johnson became UK prime minister, the government made moves that were contrary to the Rule of Law in order to get its way in the Brexit process. In September 2019, at the height of the Brexit crisis when a no-deal crash-out was imminent, Johnson prorogued (suspended) Parliament, in what was widely seen as an attempt to avoid parliamentary scrutiny of the UK's Brexit plans; the UK Supreme Court found the prorogation to be unlawful and of no effect, and parliament was reconvened. Later, in September 2020, after the UK had concluded the Withdrawal Agreement with the EU, the UK introduced legislation that would contravene that agreement and thus "break international law" – but the offending provisions of the legislation were eventually removed. Finally, in 2021 the UK has on many occasions expressed an intention to invoke Article 16 the Northern Ireland Protocol of the Withdrawal Agreement, in order to force the EU to renegotiate the terms of Brexit.
Brexit has utterly consumed UK politics for the past six years. In a nutshell, the Brexit process proceeded as follows.
Prime Minister David Cameron promised in January 2013 that if the Conservative Party won a majority in the next election there would be an In-Out vote on the UK's EU membership. In the May 2015 election, the Conservatives (somewhat unexpectedly) won a majority, making a referendum inevitable. The Cameron government engaged the EU in a renegotation of the terms of the UK's EU membership, culminating in a February 2016 deal that would have loosened the UK's ties to the EU if it were ratified in a UK referendum. What happened instead, however, was that in the June 2016 referendum the UK electorate rejected the terms of the deal and voted to leave the EU. After this, David Cameron resigned and Theresa May became Prime Minister. Soon after, May set out a fairly stringent negotiating position (her "red lines") that implied a "hard Brexit" i.e. leaving the EU's Single Market and Customs Union. In March 2017, the UK government officially notified the EU of its intention to leave, triggering Article 50 of the Treaty, which started a two-year clock for the coming negotiations (a deadline which was actually extended three times, finally to 31 January 2020). The EU demanded a phased process in which three key issues regarding the separation (citizens' rights, the financial settlement, and the Irish border) should be resolved before the future relationship should be negotiated; the UK grudgingly agreed to this timetable. In December 2017, the two sides agreed to proceed to the main negotiations, although the issue of the Irish border question kept coming back into contention (and continues to do so to this day). Eventually Theresa May succeeded in negotiating a Withdrawal Agreement with the EU in November 2018, but her own parliament subsequently voted against it three times. Theresa May resigned and Boris Johnson became prime minister in July 2019. Johnson successfully renegotiated the Withdrawal Agreement with the EU and won reelection in December 2019, paving the way for the completion of the Brexit process in January 2020. Subsequently the EU and the UK negotiated the Trade and Cooperation Agreement in December 2020, which provides the framework for future UK-EU relations.
Differentiated Governance
Policy Differentiation
As noted above, the UK was probably the single most differentiated EU member state prior to Brexit. In the Maastricht Treaty negotiations it secured not only an opt-out from joining the Euro single currency but also a general opt-out in the field of Justice and Home Affairs. Furthermore, in the Treaty of Lisbon the UK along with Poland secured an "opt-out" from the Charter of Fundamental Rights (although the legal effect of this is disputed in the scholarly literature). When David Cameron renegotiated the terms of membership in 2016, he even secured an opt-out for the UK from "Ever Closer Union," which would have come into effect had the UK electorate voted to remain in the EU.
Intra-EU Differentiation
The UK was and is in a close bilateral relationship with Ireland, the Common Travel Area, which allows free movement between the two states so that citizens of the UK and Ireland can easily move to and work in the other country.
Territorial Differentiation.
The Withdrawal Agreement between the EU and UK has three Protocols which coincide with the three instances where there is a land border between "British" territory and EU territory – Northern Ireland, Gibraltar, and the sovereign bases of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, on the island of Cyprus.
The Northern Ireland Protocol is controversial because it seems to create a border in the Irish Sea, separating Northern Ireland (which remains de facto partly in the Single Market and the Customs Union) from the rest of the UK (ie. Great Britain). The future of Gibraltar, a UK territory located on the southen tip of Spain, is still the subject of negotiations between the UK and Spain. And the sovereign bases of Akrotiri and Dhekelia on the island of Cyprus have experienced little change as a result of Brexit; these territories remain inside the Customs Union and the Euro currency is in use there.
Covid-19 and the Recovery Fund
As an exiting Member State, the UK has had no experience of the Covid-19 Recovery Fund.
Conference on the Future of Europe
As an exiting Member State, the UK had no involvement in the Conference on the Future of Europe.
Ian Cooper is a Research Fellow at the Brexit Institute at DCU. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Yale University. He has previously held academic positions in the UK, Norway, and Canada and most recently he was a Jean Monnet Fellow at European University Institute in Florence, Italy.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Clark Should Pay Defamation Costs Herself
By: ACT New Zealand
Published: Fri 11 May 2001 09:05 AM
Thursday 10th May 2001 Richard Prebble Media Release -- Other
Helen Clark should personally pay the $55,000 agreed to in an out-of-court settlement with John Yelash, and all other costs associated with the defamation case, ACT leader Richard Prebble says.
Mr Prebble said it would be outrageous if taxpayers had to foot the bill for the $55,000 and probably another $100,000 in legal costs in the case that resulted from a slip of the tongue by Ms Clark, for which she has now apologised.
"No one in Cabinet told her to say it, she wasn't saying it in her capacity as Prime Minister," he said.
"If Ms Clark has to pay out of her own pocket, it might curb her tendency to make personal attacks.
"There are 55,000 reasons why the ACT Party thinks she should pay."
For more information visit ACT online at http://www.act.org.nz or contact the ACT Parliamentary Office at act@parliament.govt.nz.


Simon Bryden-Brook, president, called to order the Second General Assembly of the International Federation for a Renewed Catholic Ministry (IFRCM) on June 10, 2011. Follow the link for the President's Remarks, Minutes, Dublin Declaration and photos.
The International Federation for a Renewed Catholic Ministry is an association of groups concerned with the renewal of all forms of ministry in the Catholic Church. The mission, goals and objectives of the IFRCM are the renewal of the Church.


text:
package com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.Races;
import com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.core.interfaces.*;
import com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.core.*;
import com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.Abilities.interfaces.*;
import com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.Areas.interfaces.*;
import com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.Behaviors.interfaces.*;
import com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.CharClasses.interfaces.*;
import com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.Commands.interfaces.*;
import com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.Common.interfaces.*;
import com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.Exits.interfaces.*;
import com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.Items.interfaces.*;
import com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.Locales.interfaces.*;
import com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.MOBS.interfaces.*;
import com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.Races.interfaces.*;

import java.util.*;

@SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
public class Chimp extends Monkey
{
	public String ID(){	return "Chimp"; }
	public String name(){ return "Chimp"; }
	public int shortestMale(){return 36;}
	public int shortestFemale(){return 34;}
	public int heightVariance(){return 8;}
	public int lightestWeight(){return 80;}
	public int weightVariance(){return 50;}
	public String racialCategory(){return "Primate";}

	//                                an ey ea he ne ar ha to le fo no gi mo wa ta wi
	private static final int[] parts={0 ,2 ,2 ,1 ,1 ,2 ,2 ,1 ,2 ,2 ,1 ,0 ,1 ,1 ,1 ,0 };
	public int[] bodyMask(){return parts;}

	protected static Vector resources=new Vector();
	public void affectCharStats(MOB affectedMOB, CharStats affectableStats)
	{
		super.affectCharStats(affectedMOB, affectableStats);
		affectableStats.setRacialStat(CharStats.STAT_STRENGTH,15);
		affectableStats.setRacialStat(CharStats.STAT_DEXTERITY,15);
		affectableStats.setRacialStat(CharStats.STAT_INTELLIGENCE,1);
	}
	public Vector myResources()
	{
		synchronized(resources)
		{
			if(resources.size()==0)
			{
				resources.addElement(makeResource
				("a "+name().toLowerCase()+" hide",RawMaterial.RESOURCE_FUR));
				resources.addElement(makeResource
				("some "+name().toLowerCase()+" toes",RawMaterial.RESOURCE_HIDE));
				resources.addElement(makeResource
				("a pound of "+name().toLowerCase()+" flesh",RawMaterial.RESOURCE_MEAT));
				resources.addElement(makeResource
				("some "+name().toLowerCase()+" blood",RawMaterial.RESOURCE_BLOOD));
				resources.addElement(makeResource
				("a pile of "+name().toLowerCase()+" bones",RawMaterial.RESOURCE_BONE));
			}
		}
		return resources;
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
You are here: Home > News & Events > PRINCE CHARLES PRAISES 'BRAVE' PUPILS AT CRANMER AWARDS FINAL
PRINCE CHARLES PRAISES 'BRAVE' PUPILS AT CRANMER AWARDS FINAL
HRH The Prince of Wales praised school pupils from across the country 'brave enough to
take part' in this year's national final of the Prayer Book Society's thirtieth annual Cranmer
Awards Competition at Lambeth Palace in London.
Prince Charles – who is Patron of the PBS – presented prizes to six winners and certificates
to 22 other finalists aged between 10 and 18.
They had competed with hundreds of entrants taking part in regional heats across the
country in which they were required to select, learn and speak from memory prayers and
readings from the Book of Common Prayer (BCP). At the finals they were supported by an
audience which included parents, teachers and members of the PBS.
Speaking about the BCP, Prince Charles told them: 'It is a crucial part of our heritage and
this is, I think, the particular point; we mind about our churches, our cathedrals our buildings
but also our language is important.
'When you think how much importance, fortunately, is paid to Shakespeare, the Prayer Book
Society still works so hard to spread the word about the Prayer Book and its value.'
He added: 'And as I'm sure many of you understand, as I do, as you get older, the words in
the Prayer Book mean more and more and more.'
Read the full speech at https://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/speech/remarks-hrh-prince-
wales-prayer-book-societys-30th-cranmer-awards-lambeth-palace
This year's junior prize winners were first: Owen Guy Marshall (12), a pupil of The Judd
School, Tonbridge, whose home is in Cross-in-Hand, East Sussex; second: Edward
Thomson (12), a pupil of The Pilgrims' School, Winchester, whose home is in Haywards
Heath; third: Jessica Macfarlane (14), a member of the church of St Martin of Tours in her
home town, Epsom in Surrey.
Senior prize winners were first: Joseph Oxtoby (15), a pupil of Gresham's School, Holt,
whose home is in Paston, Norfolk; second: Jemima Shepherd (16), a pupil of King William's
College in Castletown, Isle of Man, whose home on the island is in Foxdale; third: Rose
Beedle (15), a pupil of Sexey's School in her home town, Bruton in Somerset.
Winners received cash prizes – £200, £150 and £100 – as well as a commemorative
certificate and a copy of the BCP.
 Schools and churches keen to take part next year can obtain more details of the
PHOTO-CAPTION:
As he receives his certificate, senior first prize winner Joseph Oxtoby (15) shares a joke with
the Prince of Wales


text:
Tom Hanks declares his Love to Greece at Golden Globes (VIDEO)
Tom Hanks, who recently became Greece's newest honorary citizen, was the recipient of the prestigious Cecil B. deMille Award at the 2020 Golden Globes! Charlize Theron gave a warm, touching introduction for Hanks, relating a story about how he helped her calm down and gave her a second chance during a nervous early audition Theron had for a film with Hanks.
 The beloved actor went up on stage to accept the award but immediately explained that he had a cold and was quite nervous. He became quite emotional when thanking his wife, Rita Wilson, and his children. As Hanks said, "a man is blessed when he has a family sitting down in front like that." He spent a great deal of time thanking the people who work to help him on every set, and expressed admiration for the many wonderful actors who had come before him. The 63-year-old actor has been working in Hollywood for 40 years, amazing audiences with unforgettable performances in films including "Big," "Forrest Gump," & "Saving Private Ryan". He has also produced film, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," which he helped bring to the big screen alongside Greek-American wife Rita Wilson. Hanks' love for Greece has been well-known for a some time, as he spends most of his summers in the Greek islands with Wilson, and frequently attends services at Agia Sophia Greek Orthodox Church in Los Angeles.
On December 27, 2019, he officially became a citizen of Greece after President Prokopios Pavlopoulos signed the official naturalization papers.
Small Airplane Crashes in Greece (Video)
Top 10 Reasons You'll Want to Live in Greece
Greece among Top 10 most Beautiful Countries in the World
10 Greek Islands with amazing Beaches
Crete ranked in the World's Top 5 Travel Destinations
Top 10 Places in Greece to Live there for Ever
Strong Earthquake (5.0R) shakes Kafalonia Island
Greece Voted #1 best Country to Visit in 2020
Tom Hanks Loves Greece
Tom Hanks Becomes a Citizen of Greece
Greece voted Most Beautiful Country in World for 2019
Why you should Never choose All Inclusive in Greece and in Greek Islands
© Magical Earth


text:
Q: What would be a complete way to check for null cross browser I'm looping through an array in JavaScript to check for null in each object using jQuery, what would be the best cross browser solution for this?

A: What's wrong with this:
if (myValue === null)
{
    \\ Null
}

Null is a reserved keyword in JavaScript, and it shouldn't change across browsers.

A: null is pretty reliably null. If you don't care specifically about null - that is, if you'd do the same thing when something is undefined as you would when it's null or any other "falsy" value, you can just use
if (!array[i]) { /* nothing there */ }

However that's not safe if you're data is numeric, because zero is "falsy", or if they're strings where an empty string should not count as "empty" in the array, for the same reason. Thus you can compare with the double-equals comparator to null
if (array[i] == null) { /* nothing there */ }

I've never heard of any cross-browser issues with this.

A: (obj == null) is pretty damn cross browser last time I checked.


text:
Case study: Amsterdam Trade Bank – Amster-can
Written by Tanya Andreasyan
Michel Hofman, ATB: "There is no time to waste"
A bank-wide replacement of its main business applications is ambitious enough but it is just the starting point for Amsterdam Trade Bank (ATB), as it seeks to harness new technologies, adopt a new culture and digitise its business.
ATB is around half a year into a project to replace all of its main business applications. In fact, this is only the start and the bank's ambitious goals shouldn't be seen purely in the context of this application-oriented refresh.
ATB is still a relatively young entity. It was founded in 1994 and has been a subsidiary of Russia-based Alfa-Bank Group since 2001. In 2016, a new business strategy has been defined with a focus on commodity trade finance and asset financing in specific market niches (e.g. shipping finance).
An IT transformation programme has been designed to enable the new business strategy. At the heart of it is the need for a solid operational base to support digital transformation and innovation. The latter includes working with EssDocs to "digitise" the bank's trade finance services, and with other partners applying blockchain technology and data analytics to tradeflows and a change of culture within the bank.
Already a long-standing Misys customer, there was no guarantee that it would stay with this supplier when it set about planning its bank-wide overhaul. However, in the end it has settled on a range of new or upgraded solutions from this vendor and, if successful, it would represent a flagship site for Misys, breaking new ground in terms of integration between Fusionbanking Equation for retail and corporate banking, Fusioncapital Opics for treasury, Fusionrisk for risk management and Trade Innovation for trade finance.
The core banking replacement programme started in October 2016 and is intended for completion early October 2017 although "I'd settle for the end of the year", admits head of business technology and change, Michel Hofman. "It would still be record time, I think. There is no time to waste, you have to push yourself out of your comfort zone if you really want to transform."
The "operational bedrock" has been the first priority, making it fully integrated, sorting out the APIs and data management across the Misys platforms. Next steps will include assessing transaction portals and their support of the banks' online strategy. The bank certainly looked at what else was on the market before opting to work with Misys.
For all the talk by Misys over the years, there was limited integration between this set of applications in combination with a number of disappointing implementations at ATB, which were the key reasons for looking beyond this supplier. "They were initially not happy with us going out to the market," says Hofman. However, that exercise then allowed a new conversation to begin with the incumbent. The previous tactical relationship, whereby the bank and Misys operated at arm's length, was ended, with Misys' and ATB's senior management now focused on the relationship and a common objective. "We are almost redoing our marriage vows," says Hofman.
Also leveraging the strong relationship of Alfa Bank group, the bank was able to engage with Misys' senior executives, particularly global head of product management, Boris Lipiainen. "He personally committed himself to the success of this project. What's in it for them? Well, for a bank of our size to achieve a fully integrated solution and achieve the intended business benefits would be a very good showcase." The ambition now is summed up by Hofman as integrating all customer transaction flows with the back-ends, KYC, anti-money laundering and other applications to become a fully digital bank.
"We are really approaching this as a co-production, with a lot of shared interest in achieving our objectives." As well as Misys, another important partner is Benelux-based Sentia, which will host the new environment. In December 2016, ATB has signed a contract with Sentia to outsource and renew its whole IT infrastructure. The bank is now "all in" with this partner with the aim to have migrated all applications to Sentia by July 2017. "They are the ones pushing us, challenging us and providing us with quick time to market on new initiatives. Sentia is helping us to achieve a higher maturity level on managing IT, while at the same time allowing us to substantially reduce IT related costs." He thinks these attributes are only available from smaller players. "All the big players are not in that category."
In terms of areas to improve, Hofman admits to the bank's failings. "We need to further streamline the organisation, we are still very inefficient in some areas, there are a lot of things we do manually." It can live with that when transaction volumes are low but the lack of straight-through processing (STP) will become critical as it grows…
This is an excerpt. The full article is available in the June 2017 edition of Banking Technology.
Tags: Banking, Cards, Core Banking System, Digital, Outsourcing, Payments, Software-as-a-Service/SaaS Amsterdam Trade Bank, ATB, Equation, FusionBanking, FusionCapital, Fusionrisk, Opics, Sentia, Trade Innovation BankingTech, FinTech Case Studies, Intelligence Europe
Video: Top fintech stories this week - 08 January 2021
FinTech Futures' weekly news round-up.
Webinar: Deep dive on ServiceNow's purpose built product for finserv operations
How to improve customer and employee experiences. Featuring a demo of The Now Platform from ServiceNow.
All players should look carefully at this space and define strategies of "where to play" and "how to win".
We relay our industry highlights of 2020.
Based on Temenos' combination of market impact, solution capabilities, and customer experience.
Video: Top fintech stories this week - 11 December 2020
The value retail banks will achieve annually at $29.54m per organisation ($70,000 per 100 users) by using ServiceNow.
Learn how to transform the entire organisation with the migration to the cloud.
Banking Tech Awards 2020 hosted online by Tom Ward
Video: Top fintech stories this week - 27 November 2020
E-book: The dawn of end-to-end AML compliance
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AccuTrip+ enables easy integration of GPS odometer and hour meter data enriched with location and event data into the Gilbarco Veeder-Root IS360 Fleet platform at pre-defined time intervals using 3G mobile data technology.
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Includes over-the-air (OTA) meter reading reset via the GMS Connect platform or via our easy to use mobile application, improving device accuracy maintenance tasks. No need to schedule vehicle downtime to maintain your electronic odometer or hour meter readings.


text:
Reviews › Menace Beach › Ratworld
Ratworld
Though many people – even those who weren't around when the system was - could probably rattle off several of the more popular NES titles of the 8-bit era, there was a whole world of games existing outside the realm of the familiar gray plastic cartridge. Developed by independent publishers, unlicensed NES games appeared in misshapen, strangely colored plastic housing and ranged in quality from the wonderful (Micro Machines, arguably the most fun racing title for the system) to the weird (the violent and somewhat gory early car combat gameDeath Race) to the downright wacky (the zap gun abomination Chiller, to say nothing of the handful of games based around Biblical stories).
If nothing else, the frequently eccentric content seen in these games provided a definite alternative to the mainstream titles which carried the Nintendo Seal of Approval. A musical group named after one of these dodgy "misfit toys" might be expected then to be boisterous and off-the-wall, but that description doesn't quite fit when applied to 2015's Ratworld, the debut full-length from England's Menace Beach. Given the inspiration behind the band's name, the outstanding overall quality of this release may be a bit unexpected as it tries to mine gold from the remnants of the '90s music scene. Sometimes designated as a supergroup due to a revolving lineup of players who cut their teeth in established Leeds-based bands, Menace Beach combines the best elements of Brit rock, alternative, and shoegaze into an memorable cocktail of feel-good tunage.
The main point of interest in Ratworld's enthusiastic first track "Elastic" (and indeed in the album as a whole) is the interaction between co-vocalists and core members Ryan Needham and Liza Violet. Trucking along on the back of a thick bassline and upbeat guitar riffage, Needham's fuzzed-out voice delivers the main verse on top of Violet's warmer, airy background parts. This brisk number eventually gives way to the more laid-back and almost soothing "Drop Outs" which provides a nice "cool down" period after the more energetic opener. Slowing the pace a bit, the second track remains catchy and likable, with a slithering organ accompanying the rhythmic guitar and bass. Continuing on after the speedy noise rock of "Lowtalkin," Violet gets a moment to shine, conjuringSlowdive's Rachel Goswell on the soft and sublime "Blue Eye." Arguably the most shoegazey piece here, this track drifts by as if being carried on a breeze, only achieving some semblance of heaviness in its final moments.
The album's midpoint finds Menace Beach pulling a trio of slacker rock tunes straight out of the Seattle grunge scene. "Dig It Up," "Tennis Court," and the album's title track are decent enough, but they're fairly familiar and somewhat forgettable in the long run. On the other hand, "Tastes Like Medicine," with its bouncy rhythm and cozy chorus, heads back into more uptempo dream pop territory and may just be my favorite track. The song's conclusion seamlessly leads into the invigorating and sugary "Pick Out the Pieces" which bathes the listener in a haze of shimmering guitar noise. I would have been quite OK with the album ending on this glowing ninth track, but it nevertheless continues with the jerky, and frankly skippable, "Infinite Donut." The hazy psychedelia of "Fortune Teller" is more to my liking however, and I also can get down with the shuffling alt-rock of album closer "Come On Give Up."
Knowing virtually nothing about Menace Beach going in, I gave this album a shot primarily since it was released on the same label that gave us The Go! Team. Truth be told, Menace Beach does seem to carry on as that band did, making pleasant and appealing music, and ultimately, their debut album has a string of highlights that make sure it stands out in a crowded field of vaguely similar albums. The presence of a few tracks that I'd label as filler keep Ratworld from being an outright masterpiece, yet the bright melodies and nifty songwriting make it one of the best of the year so far in my book. This seems to be one of those records that sticks with a listener over time and it's certainly deserving of more love than it's received thus far. Fans of indie rock would be wise to book an outing to Menace Beach as soon as possible.
8.5 / 10 — Andy
https://twitter.com/menace_beach
Memphis Industries
Posted June 29, 2015, 5:45 p.m.
More by Menace Beach
Super Transporterreum
After dropping their debut album Ratworld earlier this year, Leeds-based Menace Beach have wasted no time in producing an energetic but decidedly more focused follow-up. The five songs on the ...
Records New Track From Forthcoming Menace Beach EP
Posted July 13, 2015, 5:40 p.m.
Half a year after the release of their debut album Ratworld, Leeds-based Menace Beach have already announced a follow-up. The five-track Super Transporterreum will release this fall, featuring artwork conjured ...


We as an industry are collecting more data every year. IoT, web, and mobile applications send torrents of bits to our data centers that have to be processed and stored, even as users expect an always-on experience—leaving little room for error. Patrick McFadin explores how successful companies do this every day using the powerful Team Apache: Apache Kafka, Spark, and Cassandra. Read more.
In the last few years, auto makers and others have introduced devices to connect cars to the Internet and gather data about the vehicles' activity, and auto insurers and local governments are just starting to require these devices. Charles Givre gives an overview of the security risks as well as the potential privacy invasions associated with this unique type of data collection. Read more.
Kafka provides the low latency, high throughput, high availability, and scale that financial services firms require. But can it also provide complete reliability? Gwen Shapira and Jeff Holoman explain how developers and operation teams can work together to build a bulletproof data pipeline with Kafka and pinpoint all the places where data can be lost if you're not careful. Read more.
Dataiku and Bioserenity have built a system for an at-home, real-time EEG and, in the process, created an open source stack for handling the data from connected devices. Eric Kramer offers an overview of the tools Dataiku and Bioserenity use to handle large amounts of time series data and explains how they created a real-time web app that processes petabytes of data generated by connected devices. Read more.
For decades, industrial manufacturing has dealt with large volumes of sensor data and handled a variety of data from the various manufacturing operations management (MOM) systems in production, quality, maintenance, and inventory. Gopal GopalKrishnan and Hoa Tram offer lessons learned from applying big data ecosystem tools to oil and gas, energy, utilities, metals, and mining use cases. Read more.
Apache NiFi has seen it all. (It worked for the NSA after all.) What it brings to the Hadoop ecosystem is a series of data flow and ingest patterns, a GUI, and a lot of security and record-level data provenance. Simon Elliston Ball offers an overview of Apache NiFi and explores its innovations around content and provenance repositories. Read more.
Watermarks are a system for measuring progress and completeness in out-of-order stream processing systems and are used to emit correct results in a timely way. Given the trend toward out-of-order processing in current streaming systems, understanding watermarks is an increasingly important skill. Slava Chernyak explains watermarks and demonstrates how to apply them using real-world cases. Read more.
Moty Fania shares Intel's IT experience implementing an on-premises IoT platform for internal use cases. The platform was based on open source big data technologies and containers and was designed as a multitenant platform with built-in analytical capabilities. Moty highlights the key lessons learned from this journey and offers a thorough review of the platform's architecture. Read more.
Apache Kafka lies at the heart of the largest data pipelines, handling trillions of messages and petabytes of data every day. Gwen Shapira and Todd Palino explain the right approach for getting the most out of Kafka, exploring how to monitor, optimize, and troubleshoot performance of your data pipelines from producer to consumer and from development to production. Read more.
Application messaging isn't new. Solutions like message queues have been around for a long time, but newer solutions like Kafka have emerged as high-performance, high-scalability alternatives that integrate well with Hadoop. Should distributed messaging systems like Kafka be considered replacements for legacy technologies? Jim Scott answers that question by delving into architectural trade-offs. Read more.
Exactly-once semantics is a highly desirable property for streaming analytics. Ideally, all applications process events once and never twice, but making such guarantees in general either induces significant overhead or introduces other inconveniences, such as stalling. Flavio Junqueira explores what's possible and reasonable for streaming analytics to achieve when targeting exactly-once semantics. Read more.
The Internet of Things and big data analytics are currently two of the hottest topics in IT. But how do you get started using them? Emil Andreas Siemes and Stephan Anné demonstrate how to use Apache NiFi to ingest, transform, and route sensor data into Hadoop and how to do further predictive analytics. Read more.
Data stream processing is emerging as a new paradigm for the data infrastructure. Streaming promises to unify and simplify many existing applications while simultaneously enabling new applications on both real-time and historical data. Stephan Ewen and Kostas Tzoumas introduce the data streaming paradigm and show how to build a set of simple but representative applications using Apache Flink. Read more.
Heron has been in production at Twitter for nearly two years and is widely used by several teams for diverse use cases. Karthik Ramasamy describes Heron in detail, covering a few use cases in-depth and sharing the operating experiences and challenges of running Heron at scale. Read more.
Privacy is no longer "a social norm," but this may not survive as the Internet of Things grows. Big data is all very well when it is harvested in the background. But it's a very different matter altogether when your things tattle on you behind your back. Alasdair Allan explains how the rush to connect devices to the Internet has led to sloppy privacy and security and why that can't continue. Read more.
ICT systems are growing in size and complexity. Monitoring and orchestration mechanisms need to evolve and provide richer capabilities to help handle them. Ignacio Manuel Mulas Viela and Nicolas Seyvet analyze a stream of telemetry/logs in real time by following the Kappa architecture paradigm, using machine-learning algorithms to spot unexpected behaviors from an in-production cloud system. Read more.


text:
layout: post
title: "Brach's Purple Rain Tiny Jelly Bird Eggs"
brand: Brach's
variety: "Purple Rain Tiny Jelly Bird Eggs"
date: 2020-04-08
permalink: brachs-purple-rain-tiny-jelly-bird-eggs
image: brachs-purple-rain-tiny-jelly-bird-eggs.jpg
image-credit: EliteDaily.com
image-layout: float
---

You may be aware, dear readers, that the Brach's brand has a storied history
here on A Boy and His Beans.
Their various "Jelly Bird Egg" offerings have been routinely savaged, from the
[Classic](/brachs-classic-jelly-bird-eggs) to the
[Speckled](/brachs-speckled-jelly-bird-eggs) to the
[Spiced](/brachs-spiced-jelly-bird-eggs).
There was also the regrettable, unusual, and
title holder for longest-named package I've reviewed, bag of
[Giant Egg'Ruptions: Sour Juicy Filled Jumbo Jelly Beans](/brachs-giant-egg-ruptions).
And yet, they have proven themselves capable of producing a high-quality product
in both the [Island Fruit](/brachs-island-fruit-jelly-beans) and
[Orchard Fruit](/brachs-orchard-fruit-jelly-beans) Jelly Beans.
(Note that those were _not_ labeled "Jelly Bird Eggs".)

Today, we dip our toes back in the troubled waters of Jelly Bird Eggs
with this set of "Purple Rain" themed beans.
Have Jelly Bird Eggs improved at all in the last few years?
Does them being "tiny" improve things at all?
Let's find out.

## Size and shape

Consistency doesn't seem to be a quality that Brach's concerns themselves with.
Both size and shape vary pretty significantly from bean to bean. (Color, too.)

The smallest beans are a little under ideal size;
the biggest are significantly too large.
But the average is not too far over the ideal.

Shape is very poor. The surface of most beans is not very smooth.
There are lots of dings, dents, and pockmarks to be found.
They do have, broadly speaking, a mostly egg-shaped appearance,
which I suppose is what they're going for, but again,
it's not very consistent.
Many are flattened; a good number have ends that are too pointy or odd bulges.

They'll rate one bean better than the
[Classic Jelly Bird Eggs](/brachs-classic-jelly-bird-eggs)
for being an appropriate size, but still a poor category.

**2 out of 5 beans**

## Chewability

Chewability has never been a huge issue for Brach's, even the Jelly Bird Eggs.
These chew quite easily, perhaps just a bit too easily.
I'd like the shell to take a bit more effort to crack than it does.
Pretty good category for these beans, though.

**4 out of 5 beans**

## Texture

I would say again that the size of these beans contributes to them faring
a little bit better in this category than their larger Jelly Bird Egg siblings.
The shell is thinner and not as noticeably gritty.
It does break up into fine particles, rather than my preferred chunks, though.
The insides don't seem particularly smooth,
but they're not overly mealy, either.

It's still not as good as the Brach's jelly _bean_ texture,
but I can definitely rate them higher than full-size Jelly Bird Eggs.

**3 out of 5 beans**

## Taste and flavor

Flavors

:purple_heart: Berry

:large_blue_circle: Blueberry

:blue_heart: Blue Raspberry

:grapes: Grape

Sadly, the taste of these beans is in line with
the previous Jelly Bird Egg sets I've had:
the overwhelming taste when you
put any of these four flavors in your mouth is white sugar.
The actual fruit flavors are so subtle they're barely there.
You really have to search for them with your taste buds.

Even when I can find the flavors, the beans that I think are blueberry
and blue raspberry – the bag doesn't correlate the colors with the flavors –
don't really match up with what I'd expect.
And both are somewhat medicinal.
Berry and grape fare a little better.

Speaking again of color, there are hardly any shades of purple in these beans.
They are all much more blueish (or white with blue speckles),
except for a weird _subset_ of the blue raspberry beans,
which inexplicably have some purple tinges to their shells.
Not something to affect the rating here, just an observation.

**2 out of 10 beans**

## The one-of-each test

Perhaps the ultimate test of a bag of jelly beans is how enjoyable it is
to take one of each flavor and eat them all at the same time.[^1]

Ordinarily, I would say that four average-sized beans is too few
for a satisfying one-of-each experience,
but in this case, less is more.
The flavors are already so sugary and artificial,
having more would probably only make it worse.

That said, there is an interesting the-whole-is-more-than-the-sum-of-its-parts
thing happening here.
Something about the flavor interactions actually brings out something new and
almost pleasant, compared to just having a couple beans of the same flavor
(which is a common way for me to work through a bag of beans).
More fruit comes to the forefront, and the white sugar doesn't dominate.

**3 out of 10 beans**

## Conclusion

Category         | Score
---------------- | ---------------
Size and shape   | **2**/5 beans
Chewability      | **4**/5 beans
Texture          | **3**/5 beans
Taste and flavor | **2**/10 beans
One-of-each test | **3**/10 beans
---------------- | ---------------
_Total_          | **14**/35 beans

So, the Tiny Jelly Bird Eggs end up scoring significantly higher
than regular-sized Jelly Bird Eggs.
I suppose that's not all that surprising,
given my general size preferences,
but the notable difference in texture certainly helped, too.
I'll still never buy these again, though.

---

[^1]: This test is specific to fruit flavors _only_. While non-fruit flavors like licorice or buttered popcorn may be welcome, they are exempt from this test. Because that's just nasty.


Mr. Haresh Keswani is chief executive officer, Artee Group Nigeria, a company that started as a wholesaler in 1998. Presently, the group has become one of the leading businesses in Nigeria, spanning across the consumer market space. While the group focuses mainly on the retail end of the market – which it runs with a revolutionary approach, it has subsidiaries engaged in shopping malls, manufacturing and real estate, among many others.
In 2014, the group launched its first shopping mall in Port Harcourt, the success of which has spurred other shopping mall projects across Nigeria. Its strategy is to maintain presence across the consumer market space and increase the value format in its retail brand portfolio. To this end, it launched dollarstore at the Port Harcourt Mall, and has joined hands with Landmark Group of Dubai to launch Babyshop. It has added lifestyle and splash store brands to feed the fashion and lifestyle demands in the marketplace.
The group's SPAR Park n Shop, which operates in the hypermarket and supermarket retail format, is operating in Nigeria's three major cities of Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt. The group's business philosophy is driven by listening and adapting, which empowers it to deliver exceptional value to customers.
The group's brand portfolio includes SPAR Services, which offers home delivery services, providing a convenient way to make purchases at the stores and receive the goods at home. It also offers made to order furniture customized according to taste and need for home and office purposes. It makes cake to order and runs private catering services for big and small events.
Babyshop is another member of the group's brand portfolio – a one-stop concept store for kids from newborns teens up to the age of 16. It also offers a range of products for mothers. Lifestyle, another brand in the portfolio, began operations in 1998. The Nigerian operation is part of a chain of over 200 stores across the Middle East, Africa & Pakistan, offering home & fashion accessories. It deals on a wide range of products from home furnishings, lighting and bath decor to makeup, perfumes, fashion bags & accessories, spa products and teen accessories.
Other members of the group's brand portfolio include Splash – a large fashion retailer and one of the biggest retail conglomerates in the Middle East, India and Africa. Mydollarstore is a value format store for household items, which offers products at N399 and N499 only.
KRS Investments Ltd, a member of the Artee Group, is a water processing and plastic injection-molding company operating in Lagos. Millenium International Ltd, another subsidiary of the group, is ranked one of the largest multi-faceted furniture manufacturing facilities in West Africa. Artee Group is a large employer of labour, providing opportunities for people to learn and grow by working with other people of other cultures across nations and continents.


Don't let a missing model release create a situation that drags you into the court system!
Sadly we live in a litigious world with too many people ready to pounce the minute they think there's an injustice in the air. So, before you go to the next event, there's one item so many photographers forget about, a model release.
John Harrington, in More Best Business Practices for Photographers, an incredible resource book all of you should have in your library, dedicated a section to model releases and includes two samples, one for an adult, another for a minor. Don't get caught short without a stack of model releases in your bag. Learn to know when you need one and when you don't, but always opt on the side of caution. Better to have a signed release and not need it, than not have one at all.
I'll wrap it up with a quick true horror story from our industry.
One of the best known professional photographers in the world sold an image of a bride and groom to a mass merchant for use in their picture frame line. It was nothing more than a decorative element to their packaging. The photographer was paid $750. There was a signed model release and the photographer absolutely thought she had the rights to use the image.
He never signed the release, the mother of the bride did. As a budding attorney he claimed the use of the image in a mass merchant store like Target, Kmart, BigLots etc. damaged his ability to be taken seriously as an attorney.
In the end the photographer's insurance company, thanks to PPA insurance, handled the claim and if I remember right, this bonehead wound up with a six-digit settlement!
Always have a model release or equivalent on images you're going to publish and always have the right insurance coverage, but that's another story and another post!
P.S. At the time this all happened, approximately ten years ago, the market was different. Facebook, posting, Twitter were all pretty non-existent. The model release was signed by the client, the mother of the bride. Today, without question, nobody would move ahead and sell an image for a picture frame without notifying the client, in most cases even if you had a model release. My comment using the expression "bonehead" was based on the approach of the "victim" when he saw potential dollar signs. It doesn't matter if you agree with my opinion of the whole thing or not - the issue is don't shoot without a model release...and, make sure you've got the right kind of coverage for your insurance.
I used to carry pocket model releases with me (via Adorama), but since iPhones came out I've started using EasyReleases which is, in my opinion, the best releases app available. Makes life so much easier!
Wait. Why is this guy a "bonehead "? If he never signed the release how does that make him an opportunist? I'd be freaked out if I gave permission for my image to be used in someone blogs or portfolio and it turned up in a public product. Photographer should have contacted them and at least given a heads up.
Jenna...The more I think about it the more you make a really good point on my criticism of the "victim". In today's industry he should be given a heads up...however, the bonehead comment comes from the scenario at the time. There was a signed model release by the client, his mother-in-law, considered adequate back then. In addition, he claimed serious damages to his career, which hadn't really started yet. He wanted to sue for all the money the photographer made, but when he learned it was only $750 the big bucks came into play when he sued. That doesn't change the fact that you're very right and a heads up would have resolved the whole issue. However, the point of the post is still accurate - nobody should shoot without the appropriate model release.
The "victim" would still have been an opportunist, in my opinion. He would have requested compensation as a model if the image was sold to the frame company. And I'm sure for much more than $750. He was out to benefit, in my opinion. At least that would have been known before the mess if "victim" had been notified, and the photographer might of had a different image to sell.


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featured home & garden
in the glen…
Written by Elaine Wertheim
Mid-century modern architecture features simplicity and an integration with nature, intended to encourage people to explore the world in new ways. The houses, many of which are ranches or split levels, are currently in great demand, Realtors say.
Mid-century modern madness abounds. Between 2007 and 2015, the AMC series Mad Men accelerated the interest in all things MCM. Tune in to HGTV to witness home buyers gush over wall-to-wall floor windows, open floor plans and horizontal stone. Magazines such as Atomic Ranch appeal to enthusiasts with articles such as Pink Tiles, Subtle Renovations and Soaring Rooflines; and Modernism Thrives with a New Generation of Purists.
On woodsy Forest Glen Drive, two houses nestled near a small stream exemplified mid-century modern design long before Don Draper ever sipped a martini or lounged in a Herman Miller chair.
In 1957, a young couple, Gretchen and Marshall Brown, hired architect William Polson Young to build a home in this location for their growing family. One year later, the architect Alexander Sansosti began construction next door for another young couple, Boyd and Ruth Challinor. Both houses are outstanding examples of one branch of the MCM design style that flourished between 1945 and the early 1960s.
The term, mid-century modern, encompasses a variety of creative architectural innovations. Cedarhurst Manor's long, lean one-stories, split-levels and mid-levels are textbook examples of atomic ranches. The Brown and Challinor homes demonstrate a lingering connection to Frank Lloyd Wright's organic architecture in the earlier decades of the 20th century.
The Brown house and the Caroll house above, at right were designed by different architects but have the same flat planes, large glass windows and open space that characterize mid-century modern homes built from the mid-'50s to around 1980.
The Brown house balances horizontal and vertical elements. Random placement of the thin horizontal variegated Crab Orchard stone enlivens the entire exterior. The stone is balanced by vertical windows that flank the entryway. Five steps lead down to the door, introducing a tall thin window divided into vertical panes that echo the horizontal shapes of the exterior stones.
Gretchen Brown, who still lives in the house, and her late husband raised six children—Michael, Leslie, Jennifer, Susan, David and Kelly—in this well-designed home. The living room flows into a dining room with a perfectly proportioned table for 12. A richly detailed cypress ceiling defines the space, as does the original grass cloth. The living room has a large wall of the horizontal Crab Orchard stone with a working fireplace. No mantle or unnecessary details distract from the drama of the eye-catching textured stone.
The mid-century modern mantra calls for open floor plans for common living areas. In the Brown home, the dining room and living room flow together in a logical, comfortable manner. The integration of interior and exterior is part of the Frank Lloyd Wright canon, exemplified here by the long wall of windows and four doors along the back of the dining and living rooms that invite in natural light. The doors open to an elevated veranda that extends the length of the house and offers a view of the tranquil green glen. In 1973, the Browns seamlessly added a porch and a second-story bedroom with a balcony to the original footprint. Looking down through the glen to a swimming pool tucked among the trees, the cozy porch is a favorite gathering place for the extended Brown family.
Frank Lloyd Wright believed bedrooms and bathrooms were secondary to the public living spaces. In the Brown house, the modestly sized bedrooms are on the second floor. The lowest level of the house is a spacious apartment-like area. The well-crafted original built-in walnut cabinets demonstrate the simplicity that makes mid-century modern both functional and timeless.
The Brown family have plenty of room for furry family members in their home, flooded with natural light.
As the Browns settled into their new home, next door Ruth and Boyd Challinor and architect, Alexander Sansosti were creating their own interpretation of mid-century modern. Three uneven levels of slate roofs shelter thin, rough-cut slabs of Maryland ledge rock that defines the horizontal exterior. Between the house and garage, a modest shaded breezeway provides private outdoor living space and entry to the house. Entering through the breezeway door seems quirky and understated, but inside the front door is a stunning visual surprise. Sansosti's design compels the eye to sweep down the stairs to the expansive living room. A steeply pitched richly textured cedar notch and groove ceiling tops the expansive rock wall. The understated, off-center fireplace is functional but does not distract from the drama of the wall, which serves as the spine of the house, reaching down to the lower-level family room.
The tactile stone defines the interior hallway, while on the exterior, the ledge rock melds into the chimney above the slate roofs. This spine is a classic example of how Wright integrated interior and exterior materials. Throughout the first floor, the rich tonalities of cedar ceilings and cherry walls are a counterpoint to the rough textured horizontal stone of the spine.
Sansosti and the Challinors designed the house as a comfortable place to raise their daughters, Susan and Linda, but also to serve in the future. A comfortable sitting room and a master suite are just down the hall from the front door and the kitchen. In later years they were able to avoid three levels of stairs while still enjoying their home. After 53 years on Forest Glen, they moved, and spent the rest of their lives at Providence Point.
Synonyms for providence include: foresight, vision and discernment—words that characterize the sensibilities of Rob and Lacey Carroll, the current owners of the Challinor house. When they moved here from New York City in 2011, Lacey, who grew up in Mt. Lebanon, launched a search for a mid-century modern among the Tudors, Cape Cods and Foursquares that are abound here. Luck and timing led them down the driveway to 13 Forest Glen. The Carrolls are "residence scholars," knowledgeable about mid-century style and intent on preserving the history and important details of their house.
The framed original Sansosti architectural rendering of the house hangs in the dining room. The original door knobs, recessed lighting, and grass cloth wall coverings appear as stylish as they were in 1958. In the kitchen, the couple added zinc countertops and a slate backsplash, and above the cabinets, colorful Hudson Bay stripes brighten the space under the cedar ceiling.
The Carroll family enjoys their spacious open floor plan
Both Wright and Sansosti recognized that furnishings are architectural elements and integral parts of domestic design. In the Carrolls' living room, the original long rectangular built-in bench sofa, a Fallingwater inspiration, runs below a band of windows and faces the striking stone wall. To compliment the rich wood in the room, the Carrolls favor minimal, structured teak furniture. In the dining room Sansosti installed a floor-to-ceiling built-in with a mirror inset. Lacey designed lighting to enhance the area. An open space in a dining room wall looks down into the living room, creating a stunning visual statement.
One small detail exemplifies the Carrolls' desire to preserve and protect what the Challinors treasured. Simple translucent, loosely woven cream colored curtains grace the windows in the dining room. The curtains have been in place since the 1950's and are the perfect accent for a less-is-more sensibility.
Gretchen Brown is content in her quintessential mid-century modern home. "I appreciate the functional space in my house and I never mind the overabundance of leaves," she says, looking out the expansive windows. The Brown home brims with family activity, welcoming children, grandchildren and memories.
The Carroll house, designed by Alexander Sansosti, was built by Dr. Boyd Challinor and his wife, Ruth. The Carroll and Brown offspring remember playing together in the glen when they were children.
Leslie Brown Wagner, who recently moved back to Mt. Lebanon, remembers childhood adventures with the Challinor girls, and Linda Challinor reminisces about neighborhood games of night tag and sitting on the pillars at the end of the street waiting to welcome her father home.
"My father and I selected the largest Christmas tree to place in front of the stone wall in the living room, " Leslie recalls. "And I remember the scary drama of thunderstorms with all those windows."
In this same space Lacey and Rob Carroll are creating their own memories with their sons Kane, Dirk and Lars. As Rob observes, "We love our home because it is so thoughtfully designed. Although it was built years before we were born, we feel it was meant for us."
The revival of interest in mid-century modern is real. But in this tranquil corner of Mt. Lebanon there is continuity rather than revival. The "twins in the glen" are architectural delights whose fine features have been preserved, protected and appreciated for decades.
Ballerinas of Pittsburgh
A study in strength and beauty
By Story and photos by Linda Hackett
Mt. Lebanon considers changing the way it regulates overnight parking.
By Merle Jantz
Some say this is the golden age for documentaries. Mt. Lebanon film critic and instructor Elaine Wertheim shares a few of her favorites.
By written by Elaine Wertheim


Media Center provides Audio databases through Internet. Please refer to "NCKU Library Media Online" and click "Online Audio Library".
A collection of over 5000 Music on Demand laser CDs, which includes "Naxos", "Marco polo" and "Da Capo" series.
Online Audio Library could be accessed both in the Library Media Center and through the internet on NCKU campus.
NCKU faculty/staff/students can access to the database through library RPA proxy server. For more information, please refer to "NCKU Library Off-campus access".


Each day "you" get up and brush your teeth, button your shirt, tie your laces, and can hold a cup of coffee, but people with advance tremor can only do this with great difficulty. Most people with ET don't have a social life and go to great lengths to hide their shaking. They avoid having to hold anything and will often use two hands when they do. In public or around strangers most will avoid eating and drinking until they can do it unobserved.
Essential Tremor is the most common form of tremor. ET was called benign tremor but there is nothing benign about it. It is often mistaken for Parkinson's, and can affect people of any age.
The disorder will usually get worse with age. Today, there are more than 20 different kinds of tremor, so people suffering with ET must be diagnosed carefully.
ET can be involuntary, oscillating, wobbling, rhythm tic, or a movement or shaking of your head, arm, hand, or torso or a combination of these.
It can occur on one side, or both sides of the body. Common types of tremor are: Resting, Postural, Task Specific, Essential and Parkinson's.
A family history will be present but not always. Millions of people are affected by tremor in the United States alone. ET is a neurological disorder that is more common with aging but can be present at any age, even in the teen years.
Postural tremor occurs in the arms and hands during movement and no action or drugs are known to cause the problem. Head, voice and neck tremor may or may not be present.
ET causes uncontrollable shaking of the hands, voice, torso, head, legs and other parts of the body and will increase in severity when trying to perform an action of any kind.
If you have the disorder or know someone who has, seek out a neurologist who has training in this field.
WHAT IS THE TREATMENT FOR ET?
Many different drugs are available to treat ET, such as Propananol, Primidone, Sotalol, Atenolol and various others.
Before much was known about the disorder, even valium was mistakenly prescribed as a treatment. While the different drugs may help, they are not a cure. They will not completely do away with the symptoms of the disease, but will help to improve the lives of those affected. Many individuals with ET find that drug treatment eventually becomes ineffective and other forms of treatment may be required (surgery).
When all else fails to control the disorder surgery may be required. Brain stimulators are used which interfere with or block the bad signals sent by the brain. This type of surgery has fewer complications than other surgery and is also reversible.
While surgery may sound like a scary procedure, the results can make it all worthwhile… no more drugs, a social life, a job you have always wanted, and no more trying to hide the symptoms of the disease.
With a little knowledge and persistence most people suffering from ET can learn to live a normal and productive life.


USPTApro.com is a personalized website for USPTA members. It allows them to input content and market themselves and their accomplishments in the broadest sense. This valuable benefit is free to certified members of USPTA. The site features pages for a biography, facility information, tennis tips, and links. There are also pages for lessons, events and news. Click here for a working sample.


Save energy every day of the year and reduce energy costs. Keep heat from getting in and you will not have to pay to pump it out. Unlike drapes and blinds, sun control window film rejects up to 79% of the heat that would otherwise come through the window. That can translate into a savings of about one ton of air conditioning for every 100 square feet of glass exposed to sunlight - a noticeable energy savings each month on your monthly utility bill.
The more windows there are in your home, the greater the benefits of installing 3M Sun Control Window Films. These films do much more than simply control heat gain or loss. They also improve the safety, security, energy efficiency, and appearance of your home - all at a fraction of the cost of installing special new windows.
filter the suns harmful UV and Infrared rays which cause sun damage and heat buildup. You can also add another layer of protection by incorporating the strength of our safety and security films. Our full line of window film products allows you to determine if you want a light film or darker film along with a variety of exterior appearances that range from virtually indetectable to dark and private.


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Category archives for: Music
Grammy-Winning Cellist Zuill Bailey to Perform at St Paul's Church
By Mittie Roger Called "one of the finest cellists alive today" by the online classical music website Classical Net, Zuill Bailey comes to St Paul's Church this weekend, thanks to Pro Musica. Bailey has been described as "gifted with a beautiful tone, fabulous technique and sensitive interpretation" by the Audiophile Audition music website, and for [...]
Mar 25 2019 | Posted in Music | Read More »
Musician Dwight Blake's "Memories of Motown" Show Arrives in San Miguel for Three Dates
By Fredric Dannen The Motown Sound, a blend of African-American soul music and mainstream pop, helped break down racial barriers in a recording industry that had kept its chart listings segregated throughout most of its history. Between 1961 and 1971, Motown had well over a hundred Top Ten hits from artists such as Stevie Wonder, [...]
Samir Belkacemi Flamenco Jazz Fusion
By Robert Troya The guitarist and composer Samir Belkacemi, offers us a program with original compositions characterized by strong and innovative tonalities, surprising and unusual harmonic and polyrhythmic modulations, Belkacemi creates a balance between consonant and dissonant sounds, seeking a unique language. Inspired by the incidental music, it seems that throughout the concert, the entire [...]
Gypsy Music Artist Bartok Lataretu Returns to the Biblioteca
By John Miller Once again, the Santa Ana Theater is pleased to present the great gypsy artist Bartok Lataretu, whose unmistakable interpretation of gypsy art has captivated the most demanding of audiences in Latin America and Europe and has positioned him as one of the most important Rom musicians today. Safeguarding gyspy tradition in the [...]
Pro Musica Youth Chamber Orchestra Returns with Inaugural Concert
By Tim Hazell Pro Musica's Youth Chamber Orchestra is back as the official "Orchestra in Residence" at Bellas Artes, with a "Music Under the Arches" concert series, an ongoing series of free Sunday concerts throughout 2019. In addition, the 33-member orchestra has signed a new accord with the historic Centro Cultural El Nigromante's new director, [...]
Norwegian Violin Sensation Returns to San Miguel for Concert on 1725 Stradivarius
By Mittie Roger San Miguel welcomes the return of Norwegian-born violin sensation David Coucheron, known for being the youngest concertmaster in any US orchestra and for performing on his Stradivarius violin, made by the master luthier in 1725. Get ready to hear the "creamy, highly expressive … sound from his Stradivarius," (Fort Worth Star-Telegram) of [...]
Performer Lady Zen's Upcoming "Cocktails and Concert" Party is a Luxurious Fundraiser for Mujeres en Cambio Scholarships
By Misty Gibson Haskett Mujeres en Cambio presents Lady Zen in concert in a cocktail party event with an open bar, hors d'oeuvres, and stunning views. The event will take place in a luxurious home at Revueltas 12, high in the Balcones neighborhood. The party will take place on Friday, April 5. Lady Zen herself [...]
Popular Group Media Luna Band Comes to Bellas Artes
By Christie Seeley The exciting group Media Luna, an all-time favorite of San Miguel de Allende who are currently on an extended engagement in Puerto Vallarta, will be visiting their longtime favorite city of San Miguel on March 15 for a special concert at Bellas Artes. The band's gypsy rumba, flamenco, and huapango music has [...]
Violin Phenomenon David Mendoza and Friends Take the Stage at the Peralta Theater
By Fredric Dannen It is not commonplace for a violin soloist to draw crowds in a restaurant that usually books rock and blues bands and singers, but there is nothing commonplace about David Mendoza. Here's an example: a friend of mine went to the downtown Paprika restaurant the other night and ordered a margarita, but [...]
Alfredo Muro and Virginia Yep Fuse Genres in Casa Europa México Guitar Concert
By Zayra Aguilar An evening of Peruvian and Ibero-American music with a sensual Latin and jazz flavor is perhaps the best way to describe the upcoming performance by Peruvian classical guitarists Virginia Yep and Alfredo Muro at Casa Europa México on March 21. The two met some years ago at an international guitar festival in [...]


These are stories about 'sick' from BreakingNewsFeed.com headlines.
Viewing page 1 of 11 with 510 results for 'sick'. | Search URL for 'sick' (e.g. link itself).
2019-02-28 21:54:10 Unprecedented Number Of Sick, Dead Dolphins Washing Ashore Along Southern CA Beaches.
2019-02-07 08:44:03 Mysterious Odor On NYC Subway Sickens Workers, Straphangers; Lightheaded, Vomiting.
2018-11-20 15:34:05 Major E.Coli Outbreak; Dozens Sickened.
2018-09-29 09:42:05 Kavanaugh fight shows us that Washington is sick. Very sick.
2018-09-05 09:54:04 EMIRATES Flight Held On Runway At JFK Airport After 100 Passengers Report Feeling Sick.