text:
The Best Chicken Sandwich in all of New Jersey
Yummy tasty chicken sandwiches
Kyle Anthony
Police: Driver, Not Wearing Seatbelt, Killed in Ocean County, NJ, Crash
Officials in Ocean County say a man, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was killed in a single-vehicle crash Sunday evening in Manchester Township.
Will Six Flags Great Adventure's El Toro Coaster Ride Again in Jackson, NJ in 2022?
The spring and summer seasons are fast approaching, and if you're dreaming of riding roller coasters at Six Flags Great Adventure, you'll want to know what's up with El Toro.
Girls Faced Racial Slurs at Ocean County, NJ School Basketball Game
At least two members of an Ocean County girls' middle school basketball team were taunted with racial slurs by opposing players during a game this week, according to a published report.
Eddie Davis
Ocean County, NJ, Cops: Car Strikes Deer, Leads to Tanker Truck Inferno
Cops in Ocean County say a vehicle that hit a deer early Wednesday morning caused an accident that lead to a tanker truck that was filled with thousands of gallons of gasoline to explode.
Tuckerton NJ Ventriloquist Has Role in 'Halloween Kills' [VIDEO]
'Halloween Kills' is the number one movie at the box office right now, and a local entertainer has a small role in it!'
19-Year-Old Lifeguard Has Died After Being Struck by Lightning at Jersey Shore
An investigation is underway at one Jersey shore beach after multiple people, including one lifeguard, were reportedly struck by lightning during Monday afternoon's storms.
New Jersey's Todd Frazier Welcomed Home from Tokyo Olympics With Silver Medal
From Toms River to Tokyo and back, Toms River's own Todd Frazier was given a special kind of welcome back to Ocean County on Monday night as he brought home the Silver Medal he and Team U.S.A. won during the Tokyo Olympics.
Egg Harbor Township Man Indicted for Attempted Murder, Arson
A 26-year-old man from Egg Harbor Township has been indicted on attempted murder and four counts of aggravated arson charges in connection to an incident in Ocean County last summer.
Lakewood Blueclaws fireworks show sparks fire after baseball game
No was injured in the fire behind the center field wall after the game, according to a team spokesman.


Eating nuts has been linked to a number of health benefits, such as a reduced risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Now, new findings from South Korea suggest that a nut-rich diet may also reduce a person's risk of colon cancer.
The researchers found a reduction in this risk for both men and women, according to the findings, presented here today (April 18) at the American Association for Cancer Research's annual meeting.
Eating a serving of nuts three or more times a week appeared to have a big effect on risk, said Dr. Aesun Shin, an associate professor of preventive medicine at Seoul National University College of Medicine in South Korea and an author of the study.
To examine the relationship between eating nuts and colon cancer risk, the researchers looked at 923 patients who had been diagnosed with colon cancer and compared their diets with those of 1,846 people who did not have colon cancer.
The researchers found that men who reported eating three or more servings of nuts a week had a 69 percent lower risk of colon cancer than those who reported eating no nuts. Women who ate three or more servings had an 81 percent lower risk than those who ate no nuts, according to the study.
In addition, the researchers looked at several different types of colon cancer, based on the location in the colon where the cancer is found. Nut consumption was associated with a reduced risk across all of the different locations that the researchers examined, Shin said.
Shin noted that a limitation of the study is that participants were asked to recall their own nut intake, and it's possible that they may have made mistakes.


text:
Cigar Companies That Grow Their Own Tobacco
Home / Blog / Cigar Companies That Grow Their Own Tobacco
You may accuse us of oversimplifying, but to us, at least three types of people are responsible for a great cigar: the farmer who cultivates and ferments the tobacco, the blender who chooses the tobaccos and finds the right combination for their target palate, and the rollers who produce the cigar at-scale and are responsible for how your cigar ultimately burns. Most cigar companies control the last two elements: they're headed by a master-blender who creates the blends and run factories where expert rollers create the premium handmade cigars. Some contract out their blends, leaving the rolling to a third-party factory once they've developed a blend. Sometimes they even work with the factory's master-blender to develop the blends. For example, Alec Bradley and Rocky Patel both started off working with Nestor Plasencia to develop and produce their blends, although Rocky's started his own factory now. But very few cigar companies control the first step of creating a premium cigar. They may choose their tobaccos extremely carefully, but they don't raise the tobacco from the seed to create the perfect leaf for their next blend. So the few brands that do grow their own tobacco have unique control over the final cigars. They're the only companies in the world who can take full responsibility for their creations. And it's no surprise that they include some of the most highly regarded brands in existence since growing and fermenting the tobacco allows the master-blenders to reach new heights of creativity. Here are four famous brands that grow their own tobacco:
No cigar company is better known for growing tobacco than Plasencia. Patriarch Nestor Plasencia not only manages the production of over 30 million cigars a year, but he also owns more tobacco farmland than any other company in existence. The Plasencia family owns thousands of acres across all of the major regions of Nicaragua and Honduras. You can find their tobacco in countless blends by all of your favorite brands. If a blend contains Nicaraguan tobacco, odds are it's either Plasencia or Oliva tobacco. Heck, when Nestor was asked by Cigar Aficionado what percentage of the US market uses his tobacco, his response was 70%. You read that right. More than two-thirds of all cigars in the US use Plasencia tobacco. And, of course, the Plasencias produce tens of millions of cigars every year for brands such as Rocky Patel, Alec Bradley, Gurkha, 5 Vegas, Cuba Libre, Casa Magna, and Padilla. Nestor Plasencia even created an entirely new cigar region when he founded a plantation on the volcanic island of Ometepe, in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. Now, the name Ometepe ranks alongside Esteli, Jalapa, and Condega in the Nicaraguan hall of fame. Despite their long history of growing some of the best tobacco around and rolling some of the best cigars, the Plasencias waited a long time before launching their own cigar brand. The wait is over though and their Alma line has been taking the world by storm for the past few years. The Alma del Fuego is one of their latest hits and one that represents the breadth of Plasencia tobacco. It's the best representation of Ometepe tobacco around and its Jalapan wrapper is nothing to scoff at either. A must-try for any fan of Nicaraguan tobacco. Buy Plasencia Cigars Online
Jose "Pepin" Garcia is one of the star blenders of the 21st century. He's dominated headlines, awards, and shopping carts ever since he landed in Miami in 2002. He made a name for himself by producing Tatuaje with Pete Johnson and things just went up from there. But Don Pepin's son, Jaime Garcia, changed everything for the Garcia family. Jose came back from a trip to Nicaragua to buy tobacco to discover that his son had created his first blend. He tried the cigar and decided to build a brand around the blend. You may have heard of the cigar before: My Father. Soon after, the Garcias opened a factory in Nicaragua and bought several plantations to source the tobacco for their growing brand. These days, Jaime is the master-blender and Jose spends his days on the Nicaraguan farms cultivating, fermenting, and aging the tobaccos for their world-famous blends. It's a true father-son partnership, with the skills and hard-work of both Garcias evident in every My Father cigar. Buy My Father Cigars Online
Arturo Fuente was one of the first mainstream cigar brands to embrace vertical integration and make a name for themselves with homegrown tobacco. Chateau Fuente grows almost all tobacco found in not only Arturo Fuente blends, but also Ashton cigars. Chateau Fuente is probably best known for Carlos Fuente Jr.'s stubborn determination to grow a high-quality Dominican wrapper leaf. Many said it couldn't be done, but in the mid-90s Carlito proved them wrong with a gorgeous shade-grown wrapper and one of the most sought-after blends in existence: the Fuente Fuente OpusX. One look at the waiting lists for OpusX cigars and you know that the Fuentes still grow some of the best tobacco around. Buy Arturo Fuente Cigars Online
If anyone could match Carlos Fuente for ingenuity, it's Litto Gomez. The winner of the 2016 Cigar of the Year award has pushed the envelope on everything from tobaccos to vitolas. Oh goodness, the vitolas. From the squat and tapered El Jocko to the iconic Chisel and the award-winning Andalusian Bull, Gomez seems ideologically opposed to rolling a normal-shaped cigar. But if there's anything he's better known for than his strange taste in vitolas it's his love affair with Ligeros. No other blender uses Ligeros more frequently or more effectively than Litto. Just ask anyone who's smoked the Double Ligero Chisel and they'll tell you the man knows how to blast away taste buds like no other. They'll also tell you to buy a box as soon as you can. And Litto has mastered the Ligero thanks to his two Dominican farms, one 120-acre farm that he's owned since the beginning and another 40-acre farm that he bought in 2006. Over the years, Litto has mastered the art of growing and aging the most potent long-fillers known to man. And we wouldn't have it any other way. Buy La Flor Dominicana Cigars Online

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


All nike air max some nike store athletic air max 1 mechanics cheap beats headphones often nike free run had to endure nike roshe run JJB nike roshe disapearing on womens nike air max 11p nike roshe run 134p.Pursuits nike store Direct nike huarache was cheap jordan shoes already mont blanc pens online in beats headphones recent cheap beats by dr dre years favorable this nike roshe years Yeezy Shoes improvement, You nike huarache will nike store find jordan 13 thought: nike shoes "Such being moncler jacket womens sale london mont blanc rollerball are beats earbuds yet under armour sale to black moncler coat experienced beats headphones cheap to beats solo be able beats by dre cheap to nike store 2008 eu nike air max 90 titles, cheap under armour A nike factory store lot more claims can't be good of nike roshe run building womens nike air max that much nike air max 90 cla new jordans of moncler uk economic louboutin outlet success,It went mont blanc fountain pen price ahead moncler jacket women's and Michael Kors Bags Sale inserted cheap under armour exactly air max 1 who jordan 11 earns moncler mens that air max 90 will year beats by dre wireless are nike air max 95 often"Apt mens nike air max to air max be nike shoes down underneath moncler jacket mens regarding adidas originals carried under armour outlet out cheap beats headphones in recent nike roshe times,The basketball jordan 12 Direct cheap moncler jackets indicator cheap beats by dre was mont blanc pen price most beats by dre most current from nike free 5.0 the sequence involving air max not nike shoes so beats earbuds good jordan 11 news to realm jordans for girls but nike free run buyer Lillywhites. Voices womens nike air max sailed nike clearance at nike free run 300p recording, under armour discount Coming up 929 nike outlet million Michael Kors Diaper Bag with nike roshe run regards moncler jacket womens to cheap jerseys Ashley, new jordans Just baseball jerseys what Michael Kors Sale individuals mont blanc pen refills perhaps cheap jordans even mont blanc online store can mont blanc ballpoint pen use nike clearance Newcastle red moncler jacket u. nike boots s. jordans for cheap there nike roshe are nike shoes for women a 29% moncler hoodie share regarding Umbro.The gloomy nike air max 90 running moncler from moncler sale womens the jordan 11 he nike shoes for men uk nike huarache young cheap jordans franchise jordan shoes much moncler discount less nike sneakers administrator david beats by dre studio McClaren nike factory store keeps cheap jordans analyzed mont blanc pencil quick discount jerseys for sale discounts christian louboutin outlet of Michael Kors Diaper Bag Sale replacement Adidas Yeezy For Sale equipments nike cleats slip recently. nike air max 2017 Umbro, mens nike air max That nike sneakers sometimes Yeezy Boost 350 latest month christian louboutin sale opted for a 285 nike free million takeover nike outlet to beats headphones on sale with moncler jacket involving new jordans take moncler down jacket on nike clearance Nike, montblanc factory outlet Perfect now cheap nike air max cautioned nike cleats in adidas stan smith which nike store continue working nights under armour sale link intended adidas outlet details nike shoes more retro jordans painful,The Yeezy Boost 350 Price lower nike air max numbers moncler outlet online shop of Michael Kors Handbags Sale uk household mont blanc prices hat jordan 13 industry nike shoes suggests nike air max of moncler clothing in jordan shoes 2007 jordan 6 and incapability's nike air max inthat nike roshe run would moncler jackets entitled to the nike roshe run titles jordan 13 European Yeezy Boost involve some where to buy mont blanc pens will mont blanc online shop affect bottom custom jerseys line in nike boots our christian louboutin budget air max year, nike store Had moncler online identified nike free run Umbro,The mont blanc rollerball pen consequence on nike shoes for men 2008 beats by dre on sale gains, jordan 6 Life-style cheap moncler and air jordan offer regardless nike store cloudy, jordan shoes Upgrade. nike air max 90 obvious nike basketball shoes because Adidas Yeezy Boost 350 of substantial jordans for sale decline in moncler outlet uk our buy mont blanc pen asked cheap nike air max income air max 90 quantities christian louboutin shoes of beats by dr dre the initial cheap basketball jerseys free air max 1 jacket,Remain nike air max evening of nike free run overcom nike outlet can under armour womens shoes purchase nike clearance each air max 95 united nike boots kingdom nike store monetary moncler bomber jacket system cheap jordan shoes nearly air max everything retro jordans 1.5 jordans for sale million nike shoes for men that nike basketball shoes brs, nike free Sports air max books, nike outlet Suppliers nike free 5.0 and therefore trip nike roshe run providers nike air max 2017 undergo.Experienced cheap jordan shoes a nike air max night jordan shoes for moncler jacket bookies the people nike roshe that montblanc online shop created nike boots a jordans for women destroying on Yeezy Adidas the nike free 5.0 topic jordans for cheap of devoted uk cheap nike air max people nike free 5.0 bet air max of nike store doors nike air max 90 McLaren's nike roshe so mont blanc sale that nike roshe run you nike outlet can Michael Kors Handbags On Sale get.
Superb ad! Were very seriously willing to look over effortless details the next few paragraphs. Not long originated alongside your websites available for chiropractic dispose of and were going to specify that I in reality secret generally well liked browsing your blog post subject material. Today be sure to check this cash advance Amazing place, in reality enlightening. Vacation one of the best. Utilizing kudos at one time for any succeed.


text:
We urgently need to save the Amazon rainforest, but not for the reason usually given
Before I embark on today's subject let me make perfectly clear, as I have done before: I am passionately in favour of saving the Amazon rainforest. In fact I have advocated that we, Europeans and Americans, should buy Amazonia, all two and a half million square miles of it, and preserve it for our progeny. It comprises more than half of the planet's remaining rainforests, and is the largest, most bio-diverse area of the world. A great and precious treasure.
Having said that, I am most gratified to see that people all over the world, prominent people, are joining in the plea to save the Amazon rainforest. This took a special place in the news during the past month, when we were told that an unprecedented number of fires were burning in the rainforest. It was cause for great alarm. And the prime reason for alarm? Let me quote French President Emmanuel Macron, who on August 22, 2019, tweeted: "The Amazon rain forest — the lungs which produces 20% of our planet's oxygen — is on fire."
Others chimed in — celebrities like Madonna, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cristiano Ronaldo took to social media to say essentially the same thing: "The Amazon Rainforest produces more than 20% of the world's oxygen and its been burning for the past 3 weeks" (Ronaldo on Twitter, DiCaprio even donated five million dollars to the cause). Another meme that was repeated by an endless stream of experts in the news media was: "The Amazon provides one of every five breaths you take."
Now I spent some time considering: is this a good thing? It helps achieve the end I wish for: preserving the rainforest in South America. One could do the same by convincing people that Amazonia is somehow preventing asteroid impacts, or earthquakes, or devastating volcanic eruptions. But: is it expedient to give false reasons to support an important goal? Unfortunately not. At some stage the fallacy will be uncovered and the entire enterprise will be discredited.
First let me correct one factoid that politicians, celebrities and journalists keep getting wrong: the number of fires we have been seeing in 2019, and the area that is affected is not "unprecedented in the history of the Amazon rainforests." In fact it is fairly average, as you can see in this BBC report:
In the first eight months of this year the NISR counted around 87,000 fires, as compared to 49,000 in the same period in 2018. But Brazil experienced more fire activity in the 2000s — there were more than 142,000 fires in the first eight months of the year 2005. It is quite normal in the dry season, with the fires starting naturally or, unfortunately, they are started by farmers and loggers clearing land for crops or cattle grazing.
The main fallacy in the news stories, however, is that Amazonia does not in fact produce 20% of our planet's oxygen, in any sense of the word. It is not responsible for every fifth breath we take. I dealt with this in a in a previous Medium.com story, where I asked: do the rain forests actually produce oxygen or merely recycle it? It is one of the most-read articles I have published on my biographical and general interest blog. Also the most criticised. I will allow scientist to repeat my arguments in greater detail at the end of this piece.
Not one breath
I understand that it is difficult to accept my conclusions, which are not shared by the popular media. It was difficult to find any outspoken allies — until now.
One Strange Rock, a science feature that premiered on National Geographic in 2018, is in my humble opinion one of the finest and most watchable television documentaries ever made. It tells us how life survives and thrives on planet Earth. One Strange Rock is hosted by actor Will Smith and features contributions by eight astronauts who have spent time (about 1000 days) on the International Space Station, viewing the Earth from above.
In the very first episode Amazonia and the "Lungs of the Earth" question are addressed, supporting exactly what I have been saying. You can watch a small part of this segment by clicking on the following link:
African Dust
Dust from the deserts of Africa brings life to the Amazon
www.nationalgeographic.com.au
The above three-minute excerpt starts with astronaut Jeff Hoffman, who spent fifty days in Space, and Jerry Lininger (143 days) describing how you see, orbit by orbit, gigantic dust storms from the continental Africa crossing the Atlantic ocean and hitting the coast of South America. Lininger explains:
"As they grow the plants and the trees turn carbon dioxide into oxygen. One single tree can produce enough oxygen to support two people — and the Amazon rainforest is ten times the size of Texas, producing twenty times more oxygen then all the people on the surface of the Earth could consume. BUT: not one breath of it leaves the Amazon. There are so many animals in the Amazon basin that the life there uses all that oxygen up."
Anchor Will Smith takes over: "For all these years I have been thinking the rainforest is 'the lungs of the planet.' Sure, it makes a lot of oxygen, but it uses it all."
The episode goes on to explain who are really responsible for the oxygen in our atmosphere: "Diatoms, tiny marine organisms which smaller than the width of a hair." I urge you to watch One Strange Rock, which is currently available in Netflix. It is extremely informative and visually stunning.
Assorted diatoms as seen through a microscope, digitized from original 35mm Ektachrome slide. These tiny phytoplankton are encased within a silicate cell wall.
Anyway: if we are looking for the source of oxygen in the atmosphere we need to go to the oceans. That's where most of atmospheric carbon dioxide is dissolved, and that's where phytoplankton, microscopic organisms invisible to the naked eye are using photosynthesis to extract carbon from the CO2, and in the process releasing two oxygen molecules into the atmosphere. They, and not Amazonia, are providing the oxygen we breathe; they are responsible for the development of the oxygen-breathing creatures that inhabit the Earth.
Cyanobacteria, diatom, dinoflagellate, green algae, coccolithophore (drawings not to scale) are the things that produce gigatons of oxygen every year.
Will Smith: "Take a breath. Now take another. Now think about this: one of those breaths was entirely provided by those little fellas under the sea."
So what about Amazonia, does it provide nothing? In my previous article my reasoning was as follows: if it actually were the case that the Brazilian rainforest was constantly extracting CO2 — carbon dioxide — from the atmosphere, and releasing oxygen which we inhale (with every fifth breath), we need to ask a very simple question: where's the carbon? In the plant mass people say. But those 150 billion tons of vegetation have been around, in essentially the same quantity, for hundreds of thousands of years. No additional biomass, which would store additional carbon is being generated every year. Search as you will there is no giant repository of carbon to be found in the rainforest.
In the case of phytoplankton we know exactly where the carbon that they extract from the (dissolved) CO2 goes: to the ocean floor. There we find a half-mile thick layer of the remnants of these microorganisms, carbon that has been stored for tens of millions of years, with more being added to it, layer by layer, each year. The oxygen they have released in the process is what keeps creatures like us alive — every second breath is supplied by them.
Of course it is true that returning all the carbon stored by plants in Amazonia to the atmosphere would have catastrophic consequences. Actually it is similar to what we are doing now, with oil and coal. These are gigantic carbon sinks created by geological processes over millions of years: plants and trees died but did not decompose — they were pushed under the surface of the earth into anaerobic layers, where trillions of tons of carbon have been stored in permanently sealed caverns, as oil and natural gas. Well "permently" until homo sapiens came along and started drilling it all out again, releasing the carbon back into the atmosphere, while consuming atmospheric oxygen in the process.
Science Background
Thankfully it is not just the popular media in shows like One Strange Rock that inform millions of people worldwide — I have been able to find a fair number of scientific papers and articles that correctly address the subject. Here are two you should read:
Yadvinder Malhi: Does the amazon provide 20% of our oxygen?
The phytoplankton in the oceans photosynthesise, generating around 240 Pg (petagram: one Pg is 1¹⁵ g, or a thousand million million grams, also often called a gigatonne, a thousand million tonnes) of oxygen per year. Total global photosynthesis (land and sea) produces about 570 Pg of oxygen per year. Therefore in terms of TOTAL global photosynthesis, photosynthesis in the Amazon contributes around 9%. This is small, but still substantial.
A bigger point that is often missed is that the Amazon consumes about as much oxygen as it produces. This is shown in the diagram. Plants produce oxygen through photosynthesis (green arrow). However, the the same plants consume the equivalent of over half the oxygen they produce in their own respiration (blue arrows). Plants metabolise as animals do, just at a slower rate, and at night when there is no photosynthesis forests are net absorbers of oxygen. The remaining 40% of the Amazon oxygen budget is consumed mainly by microbes breaking down the dead leaves and wood of the rainforest, a natural process called heterotrophic respiration (dark blue arrows). These process of plant and heterotrophic respiration are effectively the reverse of the photosynthesis equation above.
So, in all practical terms, the net contribution of the Amazon Ecosystem (not just the plants alone) to the world's oxygen is effectively zero. A final point to make is that the atmosphere is awash with oxygen, at 20.95% or 209,500 ppm (parts per million). Carbon dioxide, by comparison, is around 405 ppm, over 500 times less than oxygen, and rising by around 2–3 ppm per year. Human activity (around 90% of which being fossil fuel combustion) has caused this oxygen concentration to drop by around 0.005% since 1990, a trivial amount. In parallel, the same activities have caused carbon dioxide concentrations to rise by by 37 ppm since 1990, or 10%. This is a much more substantial percentage because there is so little carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to begin with, so human activities that emit or absorb carbon dioxide can make a major difference. This is why we need to worry about the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (and its resulting impact on climate), and why we don't need to worry about running out of oxygen.
National Geographic: Why the Amazon doesn't really produce 20% of the world's oxygen — "Of the many important reasons to worry about the thousands of fires raging in the world's largest rainforest, oxygen supply is not one of them. Trees don't just exhale oxygen — they also consume it in a process known as cellular respiration, where they convert the sugars they amass during the day into energy, using oxygen to power the process. So during the night when there's no sun around for photosynthesis, they're net absorbers of oxygen. … Trees inhale a little over half the oxygen they produce this way. The rest is probably used up by the countless microbes that live in the Amazon, which inhale oxygen to break down dead organic matter of the forest."
My previous Medium.com article: Rain forests — lungs of the Earth?
Do they actually produce oxygen or merely recycle it?
Forest for your nose
Kanya Chairunissa in BOSBOUW
A Devastating Omission (A Grazier's Manifesto)
Farmer Sledge in Age of Awareness
5 Climate Actions You Can Do From Home Right Now
Krista Kurth Ph.D. in Age of Awareness
The climate crisis is shaping our presidential campaign — and it could bring us together
Carl Pope
Don't Charge For Plastic Bags, Give Discounts For Not Using Them
Howard Chai
What You Should Know About Microfiber Pollution
Climate breakdown, capitalism and democracy
Julia Steinberger


Accepting the words "I'm sorry" and understanding true forgiveness have always been really tricky ("tricky" meaning impossible) things for me.
Forgiveness always seemed like something other people could achieve; never me. It was something that I just couldn't grapple.
I would say "I forgive you" because I wanted to be like Oprah. I wanted to be all zen and I promise you, I really wanted to forgive, I just didn't know how. I wanted to appear like a forgiving person.
I would always, ultimately find myself stuck – still hurt, stillllll holding a grudge and even more angry with myself because I said "I forgive you," prematurely. I lost respect for myself.
Stop looking back. Basically stop analyzing the crap out of the past – the shoulds, the coulds, the woulds. I found so much comfort in the past because as long as I could live in Past-ville, I had an excuse for not being in touch with reality and not actually doing anything. Taking action is difficult because it's scary and it means that the past really is over and my past was so much more addictingly dramatic and painful than the repetitive looping Vine video that my life had become.
As long as I lived, loved, obsessed and had a ph. D in the past, I was totally justified in talking a big game to everyone about how everything was so great and all of the exciting things I was accomplishing. In reality, I had nothing to show for it because I never really did anything. How could I? I was always exhausted from dwelling over a past that dictated my present.
Obsessing way too much/Having way too many f*ucks to give. You won't meet a person that cared more than I did about what other people thought of me. I don't even like to use the term "care," it seems too casual in my case. I would let the actions and opinions of others dictate my mood, my health and my self esteem. Just like when you're dating a guy or you have a friend that turns out to be super flakey but you really care about them and give them the benefit of the doubt and then one day you realize that this person has become nothing more that a collage of excuses that you've made for them – I was a self-painted, self-constructed collage of the opinions of others. I felt lost and like any little breeze could knock me down. In fear of getting labeled as "too sensitive," I would internalize it all. I was the "wronged girl" in the movie of my life, on an endless search to find "acceptance" and be universally liked.
FAST FORWARD TO NOW: I'm so far from perfect that the words "far" and "perfect" shouldn't be in the same sentence when describing me (or on the same page. or website.) BUT, I'm happier. I feel at peace. I sleep at night. I don't obsess about stuff that happened yesterday, last year, in high school, etc. I have zero sh*ts to give. I've become friends with my old arch-enemy, the present.
So how do you do you get there?
The hardest thing to do when you're in the midst of a breakup, going through drama with friends, having disagreements with family or coworkers; are a hormonal mess, hate the world, want to tell everyone to refrain from doing absolutely anything but completely f*cking off, etc. is to stay on the white horse.
The white horse and I didn't used to be friends. I thought the white horse was stupid, weak and not even an option.
Now, the white horse and I are besties.
I SNOOPED THROUGH MY BOYFRIEND'S PHONE AND OMGGG. NOW WHAT?
So, you snooped. All the way through your boyfriend's phone, his iPad, his laptop… everything.
Yes, all of the above is definitely true, but we don't give a f*ck, we snoop anyway. We snoop harder. We snoop smarter. We have to.


text:
Q: Excecute function in Javascript when the event does not occur I have the following:
<input type="text" name="field1" onblur="numericField(this);" />

But I also need to excecute numericField() for the element before the form is submitted.
I tried document.getElementById("Campo1").onblur() but it returns undefined. How can I do this?

A: If you need to do something before submit I suggest writting a validation function. It is much more transparent.
Example: JQuery
<form id="form">
...
</form>

You can use the following jQuery code to do something before the form is submitted:
$(function() {
    $('#form').submit(function() {
        // DO STUFF
        return true; // return false to cancel form action
    });
});

A: First of all, binding events the way you do it is not a good idea. Instead, use element.addEventListener instead.
Guessing from your question you want to do a validation right before you submit the form. In this case you should write:
document.querySelector("form").addEventListener("submit",function(){

  // validate your fields - basically run numericField() on both your input fields
  // if your numericField correctly returns true or false, the submit element will
  // be canceled if validation fails
  return numericField(your_element);
});

If you really wont to emit the blur event on a specific element, you can do the following:
var el = document.querySelector("<select your element here>");
el.focus();
el.blur();

Also with HTML5 you can now do a direct validation of the imput field on blur with defining the type correctly (e.g. if it's a Number set the type to number) and/or the pattern attribute (Docs). Now the browser intrinsic validation directly triggers on blur.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


TEHRAN (FNA)- Five notorious ISIL commanders were killed in an anti-terrorism operation by the Iraqi Federal Police in Kirkuk province, field sources reported on Wednesday.
The security forces, tipped-off by the country's popular forces of Hashd al-Sha'abi, staged an ambush on a militant hideout in the village of Karhakazan, and killed the terrorists.
The slain terrorists were later identified as Adnan Ahmed Hassan al-Sour nom de guerre Abu Rizwan, who was a senior militant commander in the Riyadh district Southwest of Kirkuk, Shaker Shallal Ousebi, commonly known as Abu Haifa, who was responsible for ISIL's medical affairs, Abu Talha, Abu Haitham and Hassan Ali Thalaj nom de guerre Abu Dhar.
Abu Rizwan was apparently one of the main organizers of ISIL's surprise attack on Hashd al-Sha'abi forces in Saadounia village, Western Huweija, on February 18, when 21 voluntary fighters were killed.
Separately, security forces have uncovered a huge cache of ISIL's munitions in the oil-rich city of Baiji, some 130 miles North of Baghdad.
Iraq's Security Media Center reported on Saturday that five senior ISIL commanders that once participated in occupation operation of the town of Mosul and other regions in al-Anbar province were arrested in the Iraqi troops' operation on Syria's soil near the border with Iraq.
The center further said that the Iraqi forces captured Ferat Velayat (province) security Commander Saddam Omar Yahya al-Jamal nom de guerre Abu Roqiyeh al-Ansari, al-Mayadeen emir (commander) Mohammad Hossen Hazar nom de guerre Abu Seif al-Sha'eiti, Osam Abdul Qadir Ashour al-Zobei nom de guerre Abu Abdul Haq Araghi, Intelligence Commander in Ferat Velayat and Commander in al-Mayadeen region Omar Shahab Hamad al-Karbouli and Ismayeel Alwan Salman nom de guerre Abu Zeid Araghi, an aide to al-Baghdadi in an operation in Syria.
The center further said that the Iraqi forces interrogated the ISIL commanders and discovered the venue a meeting of ISIL commanders.
The Iraqi Air Force later pounded the meeting, killing nearly 40 terrorist commanders.
ISIL's War Council Commander Omar Abd Hamed al-Fahdawi nom de guerre Abu Tarif al-Fahdawi, Chief of the Levant's governors Abu Walid al-Sinawi, Security Commander of the Levant Abu Islam al-Kurdi and Military Commander of Ferat Velayat Ahmad Yahya Zeidan nom de guerre Abu Hassan al-Askari were among the terrorist commanders killed in the Iraqi air raid.


This two-tone gym leotard by Alegra will make your gymnastics training wardrobe bolder! An asymmetrical colour slash cuts across the front of the leotard for a pop of vibrancy. Classic tank sleeves and round neck make this style ideal for class.


2. The bracelet is IP67 waterproof, you can wear it to rain, wash hands, take a bath and even swimming but DON'T put it into hot water and NOT FIT for diving.
3. You need connect to the watch via the app "JYOU", and download the app by scanning the QR code, search the keywords "JYOU" in the google play or Apple Store. Through connect to app, you can unlock more features .
HD FULL COLOR SCREEN and SUPERB BATTERY LIFE : 0.96 – inch exquisite color IPS screen with Carbon fiber technology , showing a unique temperament and bring a pleasant feeling of wearing . 5 – 7 day battery life with only 1.5 hours charge . Convenient removable USB charging method .
Wide Compatibility and WARRANTY :Support Bluetooth 4.0. Supports IOS 8.0 or above ( iPhone 4S , iPhone 5 , 5S , 5C , iPhone 6 , 6S plus, iPhone 7 , 7S plus , etc . ) ; Android 4.4 or above ( Download APP "JYOU" from Apple Store or Google Play. We offer a 30 day money back and 90 day free replacement , 36 months warranty , and inquiries within 24 hours to make you happy and satisfied with our product .
Love this brand of fitness trackers Love this brand of fitness trackers. This one is very light weight and comfortable. You don't notice it being on. It has so many functions. It has steps, calories, heart beat, and more. I love that you can get messages and phone calls. It even allows notifications for social media. One feature I also enjoy is the find my phone. It will help you locate your phone if you can't find it. Lastly it charges super easy with just a USB port!


text:
Exclusive Video Interview With Jason Clarke, Brit Marling And Wes Bentley On The Better Angels
Ben Kenber Nov 3, 2014 12:31 pm 2014-11-04T15:45:56-05:00
The Better Angels marks the directorial debut of A.J. Edwards, a long time protégé of Terrence Malick. Filmed in beautiful black and white, it focuses on the childhood of one of America's greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln.
In the harsh wilderness of Indiana, we see how the hardships and the people closest to Abraham came to shape his life. His father, Tom (Jason Clarke), proves to be a strict disciplinarian, but his mother, Nancy (Brit Marling), and later his stepmother, Sarah (Diane Kruger), come to give him the love and guidance he needs. Like many of Malick's films, Edwards' first effort sweeps over beautiful landscapes with subtle narration and aims to leave a lasting impression on audiences everywhere.
The press day for The Better Angels was recently held at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, and while there I landed an exclusive interview with Clarke, Marling and Wes Bentley, who plays Abraham's schoolteacher, Mr. Crawford. It was fascinating to hear them speak about how making this movie proved to be very different from other projects they've worked on in the past, and also what it was like playing characters that live in a world without technology.
Check it out in the video above and be sure to catch The Better Angels when it opens in theatres this Friday!


text:
Big Banks vs. Small Banks: Which are Better?
When it comes to big banks vs small banks the winner isn't always clear. Take your personal needs into account first and make a decision based on them.
By Simon Zhen
To go with the mega-bank or the community bank?
You're likely to ask this question on your search for a new bank.
The strong physical presence of a big bank is tough to ignore when you want a high level of convenience. But, smaller banks may be seem as less profit-hungry institutions that aim to stand by their customers.
The truth is:
When choosing a bank, the most important question is not, "Do I prefer a big or a small bank?" but rather, "Which bank is best for me?"
Advantages of Big Banks vs. Local Banks
Widespread ATM and branch access More intimate, personal service
Better and faster technology and adoption Community-oriented products and services
Uniform service standard across branch network More willing to negotiate and work with customers
Big Banks vs. Small Banks: What's the Difference?
Financial institutions in the United states can generally be divided up into three subsections: large banks, community banks, and credit unions.
Large banks commonly have $500 million or more in total assets.
Community banks are smaller: usually under $500 million in assets.
Credit unions are different. A credit union is a financial institution that is cooperatively owned by its members. They typically claim about the same total assets as community banks, and 75% of them have less than $100 million in assets, but their size can vary widely.
Generally, in the big picture, credit unions are closer to community banks.
Advantages of Big Banks
Big presence
They operate massive branch and ATM networks -- making it convenient for many customers. (The commonly seen signage of bank logos also help their marketing efforts.)
You may be able to access a bank's branch on separate coasts simply because it has locations everywhere.
Comprehensive products and services
Big banks became big for a reason.
They tend to offer a highly comprehensive list of financial accounts and services. From deposit accounts to loans to investing to wealth management and more, big banks aim to be the one place where you hold all your money.
Let's face it:
Technology is a key part of how consumers conduct their banking. Online and mobile banking increases convenience to the point where many people don't even have to visit a branch.
Bigger banks tend to put in the investment to adopt and pioneer new financial technologies that can improve the service provided to customers.
This means they're the ones showing proof of concept. If a new digital feature becomes a standard at big banks, it's likely to end up being available to smaller banks (it'll just take longer for them to implement).
Advantages of Small Banks
Many small banks, community banks, and credit unions offer better customer service than the large institutions do.
It's simply easier to have a personal touch in a smaller setting. Bankers may remember your face and name and that level of attention can make you feel safer about having your money with that bank.
Smaller banks can serve as the financial hubs for a local community.
They feel responsible for the financial of well-being of the nearby residents and aim to do better for them.
For example, community banks may offer certain small business loans to people who want to open a business in the area -- helping to spur the neighborhood economy.
Big banks have financial products with fees and interest rates that are set across the board.
There's little wiggle room.
Community banks may be more likely to work with customers on a case-by-case basis to see how they can provide a service to clients.
Waived certain account or service fees
Reduced interest rates on loans
Weighing pros and cons always comes down to what is most important to the person doing the tallying. Now more than ever, it pays to shop around.
Some of the questions you need to ask include:
Are the banking services offered sufficient?
Is the cost of doing business low?
Is the customer treated fairly?
Is the institution's online presence is up-to-date?
In many cases, there is no downside to going small and independent, but your options could vary widely depending on where you live.
What are you looking for in a bank? How you answer that question could go a long way toward determining if you would be happier with a large bank or a small bank.
Here are the top online banks that have highest savings accounts rates and free interest checking accounts:
Blog | Posts | Big Banks vs. Small Banks: Which are Better?
About the author Simon Zhen
Simon Zhen is the chief research analyst for MyBankTracker. With more than 11 years following the retail banking industry, he has become an expert on consumer banking products, bank innovations, and financial technology. Simon has contributed and/or been quoted in major publications and outlets including Consumer Reports, American Banker, Yahoo Finance, U.S. News - World Report, The Huffington Post, Business Insider, Lifehacker, and AOL.com.


text:
Three schools, two tablets and a terminal: can tech really save SA education?
Adam Oxford
"How different are these learners today?" asks Sammy Thomas, an institutional development and support officer from the Gauteng Education Department, "Many of us – and teachers specifically – have a problem with that. 'If it worked for us it will work for them'… our reference is still 'when I was at school', isn't it? It can't work any more."
Thomas is standing in front of an audience of about 150 parents, teachers, governors and IT resellers at an open day at Sunward Park High School in Boksburg. The purpose of the day is to give parents and professionals from this school and others an insight into how it became the first government school in South Africa to throw away its textbooks and require all pupils to bring a fully charged tablet computer to class every day.
Speakers from the school staff and its suppliers talk about how long it took them to overcome problems with things like the cost of kit, designing lesson plans and getting textbooks to put on-screen. Vivien Naidoo, founder of MIB Software in Highlands North, explains how the huge library of learning resources, which straddles both freeware like Khan Academy and proprietary ebooks from CAPS-aligned suppliers, was put together and how pupils can access it. Deputy Principal Enoch Thango talks about the biggest challenge of all – getting WiFi to work.
Sunward Park, mooted to be the model for tablets in education in South Africa.
The school went through two different networking companies who almost, but not completely, failed to blanket the school with a useable network signal that allowed children to access class materials but not the internet at large. Eventually, Thango says, the school realised that WiFi was so critical to the success of the project that it was the one area upon which it couldn't skimp. It called in Ruckus Wireless who, despite costing more than most suppliers, sorted every problem he had out within 24 hours.
I've written about Sunward Park a lot in the past. Lots of things about the school have surprised me and, I'll be honest, changed my opinion about the role tablets can play in schools based in underprivileged areas. The first time I went to Sunward, I was very sceptical. The one thing that really surprises me about the initiative to take a former model C with a large township catchment totally digital is that no-one has questioned it at all. There's been no sniping from the sidelines, no carping about costs: everything I've read, everyone I've spoken to about Sunward Park has been positive to a greater or lesser degree.
And now, the school has found a new and highly influential supporter. This week, Gauteng MEC for education Panyaza Lesufi told listeners of Radio 702 that he had visited Sunward Park and was so impressed with what he saw, he wants every other school in the province to mimic it. Lesufi's announcement appears to have taken his own department by surprise – it has no hard details to flesh out about how his plan will work. Apparently Lesufi has told his counterpart in the DA that the overall cost of the project will be around R2bn, but even that is vague. Is this the same R2.2bn that was earmarked for the Gauteng Online project (now called eLearning Solution)? R1.2bn of that is for networking alone.
What we do know is that even staff at Sunward thought that plans were under wraps for a few more weeks, and no moves have been made by the department to clarify Lesufi's plans outlined on the radio. The MEC's plan seems a lot more ambitious than simply dropping off 40 tablets each at schools, which is the current goal for eLearning Solution.
Children working on the Strreetwise stations at Umqhele in Ivory Park.
In his radio interview, Lesufi said that all new schools in Gauteng will be built using Sunward as a model, and other schools will be upgraded until every child in the province has a tablet. It's also been suggested to me that the Department of Basic Education (DBE) wants to expand that vision nationally.
Lesufi said that the new plan includes funding for back-up generators to charge tablets during power cuts, and training programs drawn up with the assistance of Sunward staff, learning from their experience. Actual budget allocations and how it sits alongside the existing IT for schools project haven't yet been made clear. The current "e-Learning Solution" replaced Gauteng Online at the start of this year, and was budgeted at R396.2bn over two years. That covered the cost of getting 88 000 tablets out to each of the 2 200 public schools in the area, along with broadband networking for the establishments involved. The extra costs involved in the new vision are rumoured to be around R2bn, but the timescale isn't clear.
Is Sunward Park the best role model, though? As impressive as the school is, it's only been textbook free for 18 months at a time when the national Department of Education has also been running a large-scale research project which has involved trialling many different ways of putting more tech into teaching. The results of that haven't been published yet, so it could be presumptuous to say that the Sunward strategy is going to work everywhere. Especially given the track record of recent effort by Gauteng authorities to get schools online.
"Since the [Gauteng Online] project started there have been issues with connectivity – hence the nickname Gauteng Off Line," says The Star's education correspondent, Nontobeko Mtshali, "The labs have been broken into or are just sitting idle because schools don't have trained staffers to utilise the facilities or and lack qualified teachers to teach computer related subjects. For as long as these problems remain, the intended purpose of the project won't be met. For the most part, it appears as though the education system has not fully embraced ICT in education. Technology is still largely limited to computer related subjects like IT and not seen as something that can be incorporated and utilised in the teaching and learning process as a whole."
Streetwise terminals are a South African invention. Simple, but effective.
Even more disturbingly, a report published this week by Via Afrika – a South African CAPS certified textbook publisher which has recently begun to expand into ebooks for schools – fewer than a third of teachers in the country have rudimentary IT skills.
Umqhele Secondary in Ivory Park, Tembisa, is a classic case in point. Earlier this year it received a gift of 30 Streetwise terminals thanks to a CSR donation from tech firm Altech Autopage. The Streetwise terminals are a South African design created by Cape Town's The Content Company in 2009.
Streetwise terminals are very cheap, very rugged and exceptionally simple. They come in batches of ten – two master terminals for teachers and eight slaves, which are essentially thin client machines. The master units have 3G modems built-in and share their connections with the others. They're useful for accessing library materials and Wikipedia, and very good at teaching children how to research using web tools, but not a general purpose learning device.
When I visited Umqhele, it had already received its 40 Huawei tablets delivered by the government, but the teachers were unsure of how to use them or integrate them into their classrooms. With only enough tablets for one class at a time, it's hard to see how they'll be useful for non-IT subjects – a problem encountered at other schools too. Over at Phefani Secondary, on Soweto's famous Vilakazi Street, humanities teachers are already frustrated that there's no way for them to use the tablets to teach their kids.
In Umqhele, there are many questions. Can teachers book out tablets to access Romeo and Juliet for English, for example, or to find resources to learn about the rise of the Zulu nation? Or will demand be too high? Staff aren't confident using the tablets, and it's not for want of leadership or vision. You'd be hard pressed to find a better, stronger head than Mrs Lekgoathi.
The Streetwise terminals, by comparison, are simple and obvious. Kids can use them in their spare time, because they're just another library resource. One of the main reasons that the terminals have the support of staff at the school, however, is because Altech is also funding a full-time member of staff to manage the new computers and help pupils and other teachers use them productively.
One important way in which Sunward will vary from the model being mooted is that at Sunward all parents are expected to buy their children their own tablet – parents enjoy significant cost savings over the price of textbooks in the first year. The MEC's vision is to supply one tablet per child from the state. That raises all kinds of interesting questions about whether or not the resource is more valued if you pay for it.
It is, however, a model that can work.
Over in the UK, the state-funded Essa Academy in Bolton was arguably in a worse off situation than Sunward Park. In 2007 it was close to being categorised a "failing school", with low academic results, a high turnover of staff and students and some of the most challenging teaching conditions in the country. In 2008, it began a program in which it moved entirely to elearning and instead of buying textbooks began to give its pupils tablets. Not just any tablet, either, Essa Academy is entirely iPad-based.
Just like Sammy Thomas, Essa's Abdul Chohan describes the vision as "trying to redefine education and do things we haven't done before". Like Sunward, Essa doesn't use technology for technology's sake – in fact, Chohan says, it's vitally important that anything they use "can be bought in a shopping mall". More important than the iPads is the conviction that the previously written off kids can succeed, given the right tools and change in mentality from staff too.
For example, using Apple's built-in learning library – iTunes U – to gather materials and lesson plans means that all planning is done in the open. Parents can see what's going on in class, says Chohan, which makes them feel engaged with it. Likewise teachers are more exposed, so lesson plans are better and more professional. School meals were improved so that children were better nourished and new rules around social behaviour introduced. Chohan talks regularly and enthusiastically about instilling confidence in the pupils: "training them to be CEOs" with "the tools that CEOs use", not simply churning out pass-grade pupils for factory jobs any more.
Essa's results have been astounding. Indeed, the leap in its end-of-year exam scores in 2009 was so large that the editor of the local paper refused to print them, believing it to be a typo. And even more amazingly, the school is even saving money: the reduction in photocopying costs alone from £30 ooo a year (R539 472) in 2008 to £9 000 (R161 000) is enough to offset the cost of iPads for almost all new students in a year.
And that's where the vision for Gauteng gets complex. On the one hand, it's not fair to undervalue the potential of any school, teacher or learner to embrace high tech transformation and start producing world-class students with a world class education. On the other, it's not an issue in which schools and the bureaucracy that runs them have a great track record.
Kobus van Wyk is a leading proponent of IT in education who blogs at E4Africa. He's a great admirer of Sunward Park.
"Sunward Park succeeded in its technology implementation owing to specific factors," van Wyck says, "Those factors are not necessarily present – in fact, it's unlikely that they will be – in the majority of schools."
And that's going to be the biggest problem. It's expensive, but fairly straightforward, to get tablets into schools. Whether or not every school will use them well is what the department of education must work out.
Gauteng Department of Education
IT in education
Kobus van Wyk
Sunward Park
http://www.adamoxford.co.uk
Adam is the Editorial Director at htxt media. He has been writing about technology for almost two full decades now. In a previous life, he was the editor of PC Format and Digital Camera Shopper in the UK, before going on to work as a freelance journalist for seven years. His work has appeared in or on Stuff, The Guardian, Linux Format, TechRadar, Wired.co.uk, PC Gamer, Green Futures, The Journalist, The Ecologist and The Review. Adam moved to South Africa in 2012 and loves 3D printers, MakerFairs and tech hubs. He hates seafood. None of his friends remember this when cooking.
SME banking, Bitcoin, stokvels & what else to expect for SA fintech in 2020
Van Schaik opens four new bookstores: Where to find them
Why vocational training could be a viable alternative to Matric in the 4IR era
10 business resolutions that Gartner says CIOs should target in 2020
Five pieces of weird and wonderful tech from CES 2020
Unisa prompts matriculants to register online
Make and learn to fly your own drone with Drone Academy...
CT students build awesome open source laser guided star finder robot...
What subjects should your child consider if they want to work...
Government rolling out robotics and coding from Grade R to...
Apple sold 78 million iPhones in 2016 but the iPad is...


text:
Trump refusing to pay for New Mexico security and barricades -- while trying to change the state from blue to red
President Donald Trump at a reelection campaign rally in Grand Rapids, MI (screengrab)
President Donald Trump thinks he will win New Mexico. He's repeated the factoid multiple times, including to a group of oil and gas workers and executives Wednesday at a conference in Pittsburgh, PA. But he also made two significant mistakes to put that support in jeopardy.
First, the president indicated he was building his "wall" on the border of Colorado, which is north of New Mexico. It would mean that New Mexico was now part of Mexico.
Second, it was reported by the Albuquerque Journal that their city is yet another one Trump's campaign is refusing to pay for security costs.
"The city last week sent a $211,175.94 invoice to the president's campaign organization, Donald J. Trump for President Inc." the paper reported.
When Trump helped a September rally in New Mexico, it was in Rio Rancho, but many public agencies, including the City of Albuquerque had to come in to help with human resources, equipment and other resources.
"The Albuquerque Police Department incurred $71,242 in expenses to provide '1,528 hours of additional police coverage required by the campaign visit,'" The Journal cited an Oct. 17 letter with the invoice. They also owe $7,102 for barricades.
Albuquerque is just another in a long line of states and municipalities that have been stiffed for security for Trump's campaign. Trump's team claimed that the US Secret Service is the one responsible for safety, but the Secret Service said that they couldn't reimburse municipalities for their involvement. It would take an act of Congress.
So, Trump has been operating in a kind of security grey-zone and taking advantage of the free equipment, security and resources from cities where he's trying to win votes.
Those cities and states include: Lebanon, Ohio, Mesa, Arizona and Erie, Pennsylvania, to name a few. According to the Center for Public Integrity, Green Bay and Eau Claire, Wisconsin; Tucson, Arizona; Burlington, Vermont and Spokane, Washington — have also been stiffed, but that was from before he was elected to the president and during the 2016 campaign.
Some cities, including El Paso and Minneapolis, have begun to get more aggressive with the Trump campaign's refusal… https://t.co/iDd7NIAirg
— Dave Levinthal (@Dave Levinthal)1571877978.0
As Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold pointed out, Trump also had Irish police protect him at his resort in Ireland. He charged then $100,000 in food and drink costs.
When @realdonaldtrump made a side trip to his Irish golf club this summer, dozens of Irish cops were sent to protec… https://t.co/pkAciMAujn
— David Fahrenthold (@David Fahrenthold)1571846698.0
In all, Trump owes more than $1 million he's refusing to pay. Meanwhile, he's demanding these places vote for him.
"If it were an official presidential visit, you don't bill for that kind of thing," county spokesman Tom Thorpe said. "It was campaign (related). That makes it different."


This exhibition presents over 70 prints by 33 Cuban artists who have all worked, at one time or another, at the Taller Experimental de Gráfica de Habana – the oldest, continuously running print workshop in Cuba. The Taller was established in 1962 by muralist Orlando Suarez with the help of Che Guevara, who was then Cuba's Minister of Industry. From its inception, the workshop has focused on connecting artists with traditional printmaking techniques and fostering a dynamic artistic community based on the sharing and exchange of ideas, experimentation, and art criticism. This supportive community has allowed Cuban artists a relative freedom of expression, even amid the country's larger political and cultural issues. It continues to be one of the most important workshops in Cuba. The exhibition is pulled entirely from the collection of the Racela Educational and Charitable Foundation.


text:
package certgen.model.table;

import java.security.KeyStore;
import java.security.KeyStoreException;
import java.util.Enumeration;
import java.util.Vector;

import javax.swing.table.DefaultTableModel;

/**
 * Represents table model which contains certificates.
 *
 * @author Dražen Đanić
 */
public class CertificateTableModel extends DefaultTableModel {

	private static final long serialVersionUID = 5927032790873006586L;

	public CertificateTableModel() {
		setColumnIdentifiers(new Object[]{"Alias", "Type", "Creation date"});
	}

	@Override
	public boolean isCellEditable(int rowIndex, int colIndex) {
		return false;
	}

	/**
	 * Adds rows to end of table model. Each row represents
	 * one entry from passed key store.
	 *
	 * @param keyStore - key store with entries
	 */
	public void addRows(KeyStore keyStore) {
		try {
			Enumeration<String> aliases = keyStore.aliases();

			while (aliases.hasMoreElements()) {
				addRow(aliases.nextElement(), keyStore);
			}
		} catch (KeyStoreException e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
	}

	/**
	 * Adds a row to the end of the model.
	 * Added row represent one entry with alias from passed key store.
	 *
	 * @param alias - alias of entry from key store
	 * @param keyStore - key store which have given alias
	 */
	public void addRow(String alias, KeyStore keyStore) {
		try {
			Vector<String> rowData = new Vector<String>();
			rowData.add(alias);

			if (keyStore.isCertificateEntry(alias)) {
				rowData.add("Certificate Entry");
			} else if (keyStore.isKeyEntry(alias)) {
				rowData.add("Key Entry");
			} else {
				rowData.add("");
			}

			rowData.add(keyStore.getCreationDate(alias).toString());

			addRow(rowData);
		} catch (KeyStoreException e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
	}

	/**
	 * Returns an alias value for the cell at rowIndex.
	 * If an error occurred, method will return null.
	 *
	 * @param rowIndex -  the row index whose value (alias) is to be queried
	 * @return the alias at the specified row
	 */
	public String getAliasAt(int rowIndex) {
		String alias = null;

		try {
			alias = getValueAt(rowIndex, 0).toString();
		} catch (ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		}

		return alias;
	}

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
It's Fair Time
Layla Lawson|October 12, 2011
The Alaska State Fair is here. What is the talk about the fair? The crazy hair styles, painted faces, concerts, food, shops and much more. What fair food is really attracting these lovely fair costumers? Well, let's take a closer look. "Macho Nachos. If you haven't had them, you are missing out on them," Dimond Senior Alexandra Johnson said. If you haven't had them, stop in and take a bite of a crunchy goodness. "I liked candied apples. They are so good, but get stuck in your teeth," Johnson said. What other food is there to enjoy at the fair? "Kettle corn it is delicious," Dimond Senior Stephanie Montgomery said. Then you find the people who don't like the fair food. "The lines are to long you can't enjoy your food," English teacher Todd Sanderson said. Does everyone look forward to the fair? "Yes, for the food. It tastes yummy" Montgomery said. Some dislike the fair quite a bit. "No, there are too many people, don't like rides, lines are to long," Sanderson said. What rides do people enjoy going on at the fair? "I went on a few rides, the Sizzler five times and the Tornado once. I went on the flying bobs and I moved it super fast and my little brother was freaking out," Johnson said. Is everyone out there a fan of these thriller rides? "No, I haven't gone on any of the rides. I know that is lame, but I haven't," said Montgomery. Did the concerts and shows make people jump for joy? "I went to Uncle Kracker. I loved the concert. It was amazing. My favorite song was 'Follow Me'," Montgomery said. Are fair workers generous and caring? "My grandfather ran a hot dog food stand, and I worked at his booth. We donated he money to blind people," Sanderson said. Fair time is a time you create memories that are great and funny experiences that will last a lifetime.


text:
PPP Reference Guide
Establishing the PPP Framework
Download Reference Guide
Choose any Module
PPP Basics
PPP Framework
PPP Policy
PPP Legal Framework
PPP Processes and Institutional Responsibilities
Public Financial Management Frameworks for PPPs
Assessing Fiscal Implications of a PPP Project
Controlling Aggregate Exposure to PPPs
Budgeting for Government Commitments to PPPs
Fiscal Accounting and Reporting for PPPs
Broader PPP Program Governance
Municipal and other subnational PPPs
PPP Cycle
Budgeting for PPPs involves making sure money is appropriated and available to pay for whatever cost the government has agreed to bear under its PPP projects. Because such cost may be contingent or occur in the future, PPP budgeting can be hard to manage in traditional annual budget cycles. Nevertheless, credible and practical budgeting approaches are needed for good public financial management, and to assure private partners that they will be paid. This section describes how some countries have introduced systems specifically to enable better budgeting for PPP payments, both direct and contingent.
Budgeting for Direct Commitments to PPPs
Direct commitments to PPP may include ongoing payments such as availability payments and shadow tolls, as well as capital subsidies during project construction.
When governments provide capital subsidies to PPPs, the payments required are similar to those for traditionally-procured government projects. Because these payments are typically made within the first few years of a project, they can be relatively easily built into annual budgets and medium-term expenditure frameworks. Nonetheless, some governments have introduced particular funds, called Viability Gap Funds, from which such payments will be made. One example of such a fund is in India, as described in The Viability Gap Fund Program in India.
The Viability Gap Fund Program in India
In July 2005, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs established India's Viability Gap Fund (VGF) program through its approval of the Scheme for Financial Support to Public Private Partnerships in Infrastructure. During its first eleven years, 58 projects with a total project cost of approximately $4.9 billion and VGF allocation of $872 million received final approval thanks to the scheme.
The primary objective of India's VGF program is to attract private investment in infrastructure by making PPP projects financially viable, with three underlying objectives:
Mobilizing additional finance to meet India's infrastructure needs more rapidly
Prioritizing PPP projects to improve the...
Prioritizing PPP projects to improve the efficiency of service delivery, control timing and cost, and attract private sector expertise
Developing projects through an inclusive approach that does not neglect geographically or economically disadvantaged regions
Knowing that the funding is available encourages firms to bid on India's PPP projects. The resulting competition has meant that many projects that the government thought might need a subsidy have, in fact, been fully privately financed, without a VFG contribution being called on or in some cases with negative grants, or upfront payments by the private sector.
The scheme is funded by the Government through budgetary resources. Budget provisions are made on an annual basis based on the likely demand for disbursements during the year. In the first year, a budgetary provision of $40 million was made. The scheme also provides for a revolving fund under the authority of the Empowered Committee to ensure liquidity of the VGF facility. The fund is replenished as needed.
In any given year, the value of projects approved is capped by a ceiling equivalent to ten times the budget provisions for VGF—to ensure continuing liquidity and prevent bunching of disbursement requests as far as possible. This cap can be modified at the discretion of the Ministry of Finance. In practice, the cap has not been binding.
Sources: (IN 2013a); (IN 2017)
Budgeting for long-term direct commitments, such as availability payments, is more challenging. The mismatch between the annual budget appropriation cycle and the multi-year payment commitments exposes the private party to the risk that payments may not be appropriated when due. This problem is not unique to PPPs—many other types of contractual payment commitments extend beyond the budget year. In many jurisdictions, governments do not introduce any particular budgeting approach for direct, long-term PPP commitments on the assumption that a responsible legislature will always approve appropriations to meet the government's legally binding payment commitments.
Where appropriations risk is high—typically in systems with a strict separation of powers between the legislature and executive—mechanisms to reduce this risk may be warranted. In Brazil, at the federal level, Law No.101 of 2000 (BR 2005) requires subsidy payments to PPPs to be treated in the same way as debt service payments—that is, they are automatically appropriated. This means that once the subsidy is approved, the appropriations needed are not subject to further legislative approval. Although no federal subsidies have been disbursed yet, this policy should help reduce the likelihood that committed funds are retracted and provides investors with more certainty.
For more on budgeting for direct commitments to PPPs, see the World Bank report on fiscal subsidies for PPPs (WB 2012a). The study presents the appropriations mechanisms for Brazil at the Federal and State levels (see pages 15–16), Colombia (page 31), Mexico (page 46), and India (page 59).
The long-term nature of most governments' commitments to pay, under PPP contracts, suggest the need for incorporating them in the Medium-Term Fiscal Framework (MTFF). More countries have legislation requiring periodic analysis of a MTFF, such as Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Peru, and Poland—good practice consists of including PPPs in the MTFF.
Governments with prudent fiscal governance have felt the need to establish and continuously update a centralized register for all PPP commitments in the Ministry of Finance. This is good practice. All PPP commitments should be centrally recorded and monitored. This is relevant for unitary countries, but also for federal republics that have a history of subnational fiscal discipline issues. Monitoring currency exposures may be also relevant—PPP commitments may have foreign exchange implications.
Availability payments depend on effective availability of infrastructure. Although contingent upon availability, these payments should be considered as direct liabilities as their probability of occurring is almost certain in a well-designed PPP. Governments may commit to pay according to the volume of production or the amount and quality of services delivered, for instance healthcare services in a PPP hospital or electricity generated at a PPP power plant. Since these costs are variable, governments must budget for expected levels of delivery.
Budgeting for PPP Contingent Liabilities
Budgeting for contingent liabilities can be particularly challenging, because payments may become due unexpectedly. If savings cannot be found within the existing appropriations, government may need to go back to the legislature to request a supplementary appropriation—often a difficult and contentious affair.
To overcome these difficulties, some governments introduce particular mechanisms for budgeting for contingent liabilities under PPP projects. As described in Cebotari's paper on managing contingent liabilities (Cebotari 2008, 26–28), the first option is to create additional budget flexibility. This can include creating a contingency line in the budget from which unexpected payments can be made. A contingency line could be specific to a particular liability—for example, to one considered relatively riskier—or cover a range of contingent liabilities. In Chile, the Ministry of Finance assesses the cost of guarantees (e.g. demand guarantees) provided to PPP operators and creates a budget line for those guarantees. Cebotari also notes that some countries allow spending in excess of the budget without need for additional approval in certain, defined circumstances.
A second option, also described in detail by Cebotari (Cebotari 2008, 27–29), is to create a contingent liability fund. A contingent liability fund (or guarantee fund) is an account (which may be within or external to the government's accounts) to which transfers are made in advance, and from which payments for realized contingent liabilities will be made when due.
The following are examples of contingent liability funds for PPPs:
Colombia—has developed a set of procedures for managing contingent liabilities arising from guarantees offered to toll road concessionaires. This includes assessing the fiscal impact of guarantees before these are granted and setting aside funds to cover the expected payments from the guarantees (WB 2012a, 32–33). A Government Entities Contingent Liabilities Fund, established in 1998, is managed by La Previsora, a Trust Company. The fund is funded by contributions by various government entities, contributions from the national Budget, and the returns generated with its resources. The government entities carry out the contingent liabilities valuation which is then approved by the Public Credit Division of the Ministry of Finance. Once the PPP is approved and implemented, the division carries out ongoing assessments of the value of the associated contingent liabilities (CO 1998, Articles 3–8).
São Paulo, Brazil—in the State of São Paulo, the São Paulo Partnerships Corporation (Companhia Paulista de Parcerias—CPP) was established in 2004 using resources from the sale of the government's stake in State-Owned Enterprises (SP 2004a, Articles 12–23). Section 5 of State Governor's Decree (SP 2004b, Articles 11–12) describes the duties of CPP. The CPP manages its resources as a fiduciary fund that provides guarantees to PPP projects (SP 2004b, Article 15). The CPP is governed by a directorate made up of up to three members selected by the governor of the state, a management council made up of up to five members selected by the state governor, and a fiscal council. The CPP is an independent legal entity. The government of the state can add capital to the fund using funds from the sale of shares in state-owned companies or government-owned buildings, public debt titles, other goods or rights that are directly or indirectly owned by the government. The World Bank review of Subsidy Funds for PPPs in LAC (WB 2012a, 16) provides more background about the CPP.
Indonesia—the Indonesia Infrastructure Guarantee Fund, or IIGF, is a state-owned enterprise established by government regulation and a 2009 Ministry of Finance decree. As one of the fiscal tools of the government, IIGF is under direct supervision of the Ministry of Finance and has mandate to provide guarantees for infrastructure projects under of PPP schemes. IIGF is part of the government's efforts to accelerate infrastructure development in Indonesia, by providing contingency support/guarantee for the risks caused by the government's action or inaction. The Fund operates as a single window for appraising, structuring, and providing guarantees for PPP infrastructure projects. The single window ensures a consistent policy for appraising guarantees and a single process for claims. It introduces transparency and consistency in the process which is critical for market confidence. IIGF provides guarantees against specific risks based on private sector demand in a variety of sectors—including power, water, toll roads, railways, bridges, ports, and others (IIGF).
South Korea—The Infrastructure Credit Guarantee Fund (ICGF) was established in 1994. It is being managed by a public financial institution. ICGF guarantees each project up to 300 billion won, for an annual guarantee fee capped at 1.5 percent of the total guarantee amount (KR 2011). Typically, the annual guarantee fees range between 0.3 and 1.3 percent. The guarantee operates as a subrogation—that is, ICGF pays back loans taken by the project company to financial institutions if it defaults on its debt obligations. If funds become insufficient, the government can provide additional contributions (Kim et al. 2011).
As well as providing a clear budgeting mechanism and thereby improving credibility, creating a fund can also help control the government's fiscal commitments to PPPs—depending on how the fund is designed. For example, Colombia's approach encourages discipline when deciding what liabilities to accept, as described in Assessing Fiscal Implications of a PPP Project. Requiring a cash transfer from the implementing agency's budget when a contingent liability is incurred means the decision to accept a contingent liability has an immediate budget impact that must be considered. In Indonesia, the government policy requires IIGF to accept contingent liabilities based on a careful assessment of the risk by the fund's management. The EPEC note on State Guarantees in PPPs (EPEC 2011a, Section 2) provides further detail on the different types of guarantees that governments may offer to PPP projects.
PPP Knowledge Lab
MDB Initiatives
© Copyright 2020 The World Bank Group.
Other Sites in the PPP Network
PPPIRC
PPIDatabase


text:
Kryk Slants
Stay in the game with NFL columnist John Kryk's new weekly newsletter for game picks and in-depth breakdowns Stay in the game with NFL columnist John Kryk's newsletter for in-depth breakdowns Subscribe now>
Search torontosun.com
Share this Story: 'That's all folks!': The Sun's entertainment columnist Jim Slotek signs off
'That's all folks!': The Sun's entertainment columnist Jim Slotek signs off
Jim Slotek
Apr 12, 2017 • April 12, 2017 • 6 minute read
Tom Grunick (William Hurt): "What do you do when your real life exceeds your dreams?"Aaron Altman (Albert Brooks): "Keep it to yourself."
— Broadcast News
I can't actually claim to have exceeded all my dreams (I dream pretty big). But I've had a sweet ride, doing what many consider a dream job.
As I say goodbye to this place for other opportunities, I realize my connection to the Toronto Sun is best measured not in years, but in events and adventures.
While still studying journalism at Ryerson University, I was hired as a proofreader in the orange bunker at 333 King St. E. And I was there catching typos when word came — just as the presses were about to run — that John Lennon had been killed outside The Dakota in New York City. The whole edition was torn up in minutes, and every available wire story and instant-column was poured into a special edition. Every warm body was frantically busy.
It was the first time I'd felt the electricity and adrenaline that a newsroom was capable of (I'd already spent a summer as an intern at the much-less-fun Toronto Star — an experience that made me question whether I wanted to do this for a living).
It's almost impossible to describe the loony, chaotic chemistry that once fuelled the Sun. I speak from the experience of having typed a Paul Rimstead column dictated over the phone to me from Mexico.
After three years, post-grad, I was an entertainment writer at the Ottawa Citizen. And somewhere in the Ottawa Valley, my soon-to-be-pal Gary Dunford read my stuff and suggested me when the Sun went looking for a TV critic. I was hired by two great editors, George Anthony and Kathy Brooks, and I was back at the eccentric place where I'd spend most of my career.
And the adventures began. A party at Larry Hagman's Malibu house, where J.R. himself gave me a tour of an art installation made from cremated human remains (ashes that were left behind when he and his wife bought "the house that Jeannie built").
Not long after, I was one of four journalists invited on the set of the brand-new Star Trek: The Next Generation, before any episode had aired. Our guides for the day were the hilarious Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes. At one point, Rob Bowman, director of the episode Where No One Has Gone Before, gave us holy hell for laughing so loudly while he was trying to film.
Break time, and lunch with the cast in the Paramount commissary. Across from me, Michael Dorn, in full Worf makeup (including "this turtle on my head"), was eating a spinach salad. Live gagh apparently was not on the menu that day.
And the captain's chair? I sat in it.
One of the differences between print and digital journalism is that the former tended to be more personal. I was a Trekker, so Star Trek was mine. I was into comedy, so I spent 20 straight years covering the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal (and caught people like Sam Kinison and Robin Williams at L.A.'s Comedy Store, and Bill Maher and Norm Macdonald — an old friend from Ottawa — at the Improv).
You had a beat. The editor asked you what you were covering, and it went in the paper. Now you have to convince them it'll get clicks. And what gets clicks? Superhero movies, Beyonce, sports and — at this paper — hard-right politics.
Which is another change from print to digital. It can be fairly said that I didn't always see eye-to-eye with the politics of this place. But at the same time, they were fine if you wanted to write something to the left of the day's editorial. Even better if you and another columnist went toe-to-toe. Readers loved it.
And now? Online, so the current wisdom goes, it's crucially important to always stay "on message." If you were to use the word "liberal" in a non-pejorative fashion, it would confuse people. They might walk into traffic.
More important than its conservatism was the fact that, in those days, you could actually like people you disagreed with. I don't think there was a single political columnist on staff I didn't regard fondly (I even played tennis occasionally with Peter Worthington). Readers, too, would soften up after getting off their chests what a clueless pinko I was. Some of them kept up correspondences with me for years.
A young reporter recently amazed me by running through her game-plan for her life, job, marriage, kids, at set ages. By comparison, my life seems like one big accident. All I knew when I was young was I didn't want to wear a tie, and I didn't want to punch a clock.
The one time I did wear a tie? When I was a zombie in Zack Snyder's reboot of Dawn of the Dead.
I wanted something more than the typical set visit. So I convinced the unit publicist to have me hired as a zombie "background performer," which meant two hours in a makeup chair and 12 hours of filming. (I had to be hired properly, by ACTRA rules, and donated my day's salary to Habitat for Humanity.)
It was a scene immediately after an explosion in a gun factory had knocked all the zombies on their backs. My job, all night, was to get up off the ground, surrounded by propane-fuelled pyro and hungrily chase people. This was one of those "fast zombie" movies. (It reminded me of wind sprints in high school football practice.)
But before we could get started, zombie canon had to be consulted. I wore glasses, and Snyder and his AD decided that a zombies' vision was regenerated by zombification.
So no glasses. At night. When I got up and blindly breathed hot breath on the neck of actor Michael Kelly, Snyder called, "Cut!" and said, "YOU'RE in the movie!" (I am, for a few seconds. In the director's commentary he says, "The guy in the suit? He's a Toronto newspaper writer.")
And the highlights kept on coming. They included:
- A one-on-one interview with Angelina Jolie in her Paris hotel room (for the not-so-great movie The Tourist) that segued into an impromptu tour of her tattoos — including longitude and latitude tats of every place her kids were either acquired or conceived.
- Two straight years of following The Amazing Race Canada around, to India and Vietnam. My room in Cai Be had mosquito netting around the bed and noisy lizards on the walls. At the "wet market," rats were for sale for deep-frying.
- Having my then 10-year-old son sit in on an interview with Jackie Chan at Casa Loma during the Toronto filming of The Tuxedo.
- Attending the Bangkok Film Festival and getting blown away by the closing gala, the world premiere of the action classic Ong Bak.
- And watching the International Space Station under construction at the Marshall Space Centre in Huntsville, Ala. The city was hosting the 25th anniversary "Star Trek Woodstock," with original castmembers William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig. (I eventually interviewed them all, and even have a soundfile of Nichelle Nichols singing the Trek theme to me over the phone.)
Marshall is where the astronauts are trained, and a heavily-'Bama-accented guide named Horace Bibb keyed on me immediately when he heard I was Canadian, going on and on enthusiastically about someone named "Budda Bundah!" Budda Bundah this, Budda Bundah that.
It took me 20 minutes to realize he was talking about Canadian astronaut Roberta Bondar.
Dr. Bondar, Horace remembered you well.
Finally, a shout-out to all my amazing colleagues over the years. I started making a list, but a small army used to work in our entertainment department, and I realized I could fill most of this space just naming them.
I'll single out my current editor, Mark Daniell, whose ability to ride hard times has been inspirational, and my longtime "work wife," the terrific and funny Liz Braun, who carries on.
'That's all folks!': The Sun's entertainment columnist Jim Slotek signs off Back to video
Your Midday Sun
From our newsroom to your inbox at noon, the latest headlines, stories, opinion and photos from the Toronto Sun.
The next issue of Your Midday Sun will soon be in your inbox.
Motorcyclist dies in horrific crash captured on live TV
HUNTER: Twisted neo-noir tale of murder and the Mob in Bolton?
Ireland drops most COVID restrictions in wake of 'Omicron storm'
Ontario ticket holder wins Tuesday's $22 million Lotto Max jackpot
TRAIKOS: The NHL apparently wants McDavid and the Oilers to miss the playoffs
Follow the Toronto Sun
© 2022 Toronto Sun, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized distribution, transmission or republication strictly prohibited.


text:
Sauromaces II (en georgiano: საურმაგ II, latinizado Sauromaces), de la dinastía cosroida, fue un rey de Iberia (Kartli, Georgia oriental) entre 361 y 363, y diarca del 370 al 378. Fue ignorado por la tradición histórica georgiana, pero mencionado por el historiador romano Amiano Marcelino (s. IV). Fue el primogénito de Rev II y Salomé, y hermano de Tiridates de Iberia.

Su reinado
Sauromaces parece haber sucedido a su abuelo paterno, Mirian III, primer rey cristiano de Iberia, en 361 y seguido políticas pro-romanas. En 363, fue depuesto por el rey sasánida Sapor II quien instaló en el cargo a Aspacure II (o Varaz Bakur), tío paterno de Sauromaces.

La intervención sasánida en el Cáucaso causaría la respuesta romana y en el 370, el emperador romano Valente enviaría doce legiones –unos 12 000 hombres– que devolverían a Sauromaces su puesto en las provincias del oeste de Iberia y absorbiendo Armenia y Lázica, mientras que al sucesor de Aspacure, Mitradates III se le permitió mantener el control del noreste del reino. Este arreglo no fue reconocido por Sapor II, quien lo tomó como un acto de guerra y con esto retomó las hostilidades contra Roma en el 371. Para el 378, la Guerra Gótica llevó a Roma a abandonar a Sauromaces; y su reino debió dejar de existir cuando Iberia fue mayormente (o completamente) absorbida por el Imperio Sasánida.

Véase también

 Sapor II
 Imperio Sasánida
 Historia
 Historia antigua
 Historia del Cristianismo

Bibliografía

Enlaces externos
 The Church History of Rufinus of Aquilea, página 48.
 Significados: Sauromaces II

Reyes de Iberia caucásica
Gobernantes del siglo IV

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Nature ⋅
Bird Information for Kids
••• Fuse/Fuse/Getty Images
Characteristics of Birds for Kids
By Sarah Lipoff
When a bird flies, it is an amazing thing to watch. How they take flight, glide through the air and land with ease is very intriguing. Birds are the only animals that have feathers, and not all birds fly. You can find birds just about anywhere, and some people think birds make great pets.
Birds are the only animals that have feathers and belong to the scientific class called Aves. A bird's feathers are what help them fly and stay warm or cool in different climates. Birds are warm-blooded, egg-laying animals that have vertebrae, or a backbone. They are different from mammals because they lay hard-shelled eggs and have feathers. A bird has four limbs—two that are wings—along with a beak and no teeth. According to the website "Where in City," there are about 10,000 living species, or different kinds, of birds.
The skeletal system of a bird is very lightweight but strong, which helps the bird fly. Some birds are very small, with the smallest being the bee hummingbird. According to the website "Kids Konnect," the bee hummingbird is 2 inches long. The largest bird is the ostrich, which can be as tall as 9 feet. Birds are biped animals, which means they have two feet that they use to walk, hop or run.
Not all birds use their wings to fly. You might be surprised to find out that there are several that hardly use their wings for flight at all such as the otsrich, kiwi and emu. Penguins have feathers and wings and don't use their wings to fly but to swim and navigate through the water. There are other kinds of birds that don't use their wings to fly often or for long distances such as peacocks and roadrunners.
When birds communicate, they use songs and calls. These songs and calls are special to each bird and mean different things. Birds are social animals and like to work together, and they flock together for protection and company. A bird might also use its body to communicate, as seen in special mating dances.
Beaks
A bird's beak, or bill, is different depending on the diet of the bird. If a bird is a meat eater, or raptor, such as a bald eagle, they have a sharper curved beak that is used to help tear the meat off the animal they are eating. Birds that live off the water, such as ducks and swans, have flat rounded bills, which help them root around in marshes and soft soil for plants. Birds that eat insects, such as sparrows, have short pointed beaks, which help them pull out bugs from the ground or trees.
According to the website "Where in City," flamingoes are pink because shrimp are the main staple of their diet. And flamingoes eat with their heads upside down to strain excess water from their mouths.
Kids Konnect: Birds
Sarah Lipoff has been writing since 2008. She has been published through BabyZone, Parents, Funderstanding and Education.com. Lipoff has worked as a K-12 art teacher, museum educator and preschool teacher. She holds a Bachelor of Science in K-12 art education from St. Cloud State University.
Fuse/Fuse/Getty Images
What Are the Dolphin's Body Parts?
Different Types of Hawks
Animals in Forest Ecosystems
How to Make Animals Out of Geometric Shapes
The Characteristics of Falcons


text:
NCAAB: Michigan State Spartans vs Kansas Jayhawks
2018 State Farm Champions Classic Opens with Jayhawks and Spartans Clash
Two of the top teams in the nation face off in the State Farm Champions Classic in Indianapolis on Tuesday. Top-ranked Kansas and No. 10 Michigan State battle in the season opening tournament.
The Jayhawks and Spartans lost key players from last season's squads. They both bring back some experienced players, as well as some top recruits to make themselves into title contenders again.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, ESPN.
LINE: Kansas -4.5; O/U: 155.5.
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo would like to have NBA lottery picks Miles Bridges and Jaren Jackson Jr. back. That isn't happening, but he has three starters returning. Point guard Cassius Winston is the team's leading returning scorer at 12.6 points. He is also the Big Ten's assist leader at 6.9.
Forward Nick Ward will be the key for the Spartans down low. He averaged 12.4 points and 7.1 rebounds in 18.9 minutes as a sophomore.
Ward and the Spartans could have a tough time in the paint against Kansas. The presence of 7-0 junior center Udoka Azubuike is menacing. He averaged 13 points, 7.0 rebounds and 1.7 blocks last season. The kid is a load on both ends of the floor.
Jayhawks fans are excited about the brother duo of Dedric and K.J. Lawson. They are eligible to play after transferring from Memphis where they averaged 19.2 and 12.3 points, respectively, in 2016-17.
Jayhawks and Spartans were 30-win Teams Last Season
The Spartans were 30-5 in 2017. Ward and Winston have garnered a majority of the preseason headlines and accolades. Coach Tom Izzo and Michigan State knows the most important is guard Joshua Langford. The junior was the only Spartan to start every game last season and averaged 11.7 points. He was inconsistent with his shot and his scoring output.
Winston led the Big Ten in 3-point field goal percentage in 2017-18, hitting 49.7 percent of his shots from beyond the arc.
The Jayhawks were 31-8 in 2017. The departure of the team's leading scorer and assist man, Devonte' Graham, is going to be an impact early. Coach Bill Self has to figure out a new starter at the point guard position, though he has a few options.
To start the season, Self will likely go with highly regarded freshman Devon Dotson. He is a McDonald's All-American who averaged seven points and three assists in the team's two exhibition contests.
If Dotson struggles, Self can turn to California transfer Charlie Moore. He led the Golden Bears in assists as a freshman, though both will certainly see plenty of time throughout the season.
Azubuike led the nation and set the Kansas and Big 12 single-season record for field goal percentage at 77.0 in 2007-18.
PREDICTION: Kansas 82, Michigan State 72
College Basketball Betting Odds & Trends
Michigan State is 14-2 SU in its last 16 games
The total has gone UNDER in 7 of Michigan State's last 9 games
Michigan State is 6-2 ATS in its last 8 games when playing Kansas
Michigan State is 4-2 SU in its last 6 games when playing Kansas
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Michigan State's last 6 games when playing Kansas
Kansas is 7-1 SU in its last 8 games
The total has gone OVER in 6 of Kansas's last 7 games
Kansas is 2-6 ATS in its last 8 games when playing Michigan State
Kansas is 2-4 SU in its last 6 games when playing Michigan State
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Kansas's last 6 games when playing Michigan State
Michigan State home to Florida Gulf Coast Sunday, November 11
Kansas home to Vermont Monday, November 12
Get a 50% Bonus up to $1,000 at A-Rated Sportsbetting Online Sportsbook
2018 State Farm Champions Classic College Basketball Kansas Jayhawks Michigan State Spartans NCAA Basketball Online Gambling sports betting Sports Gambling Sportsbetting.ag State Farm Champions Classic 2018-11-06
Previous: Nuggets Take on Celtics in Denver
Next: NCAAB: Duke Blue Devils vs Kentucky Wildcats


text:
Pays de la Loire, France
Pays de la Loire, France ×
Nantes ×
All locations in Pays de la Loire ×
Apartments with pool for sale in Pays de la Loire
New home – Nantes, Pays de la Loire, France
Apartment with a balcony in an elite new-built residency at the sea, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, French Riviera, France
Total area 66 m²1 bedroom1 bathroom
Sea view apartment with a terrace in a new residential complex with a swimming pool and a parking, Eze, Cote d'Azur, France
Modern apartment with a terrace in a sea view residence with a swimming pool and a parking, Eze, Cote d'Azur, France
New one-bedroom apartment with stunning views of the sea and the city in Nice, Cote d Azur, France
1 bedroom1 bathroom
Three-bedroom apartment with sea views in Antibes, Cote d'Azur, France
Modern apartment with a terrace, in a residence with a garden, a swimming pool and a garage, Eze, Cote d'Azur, France
Exclusive deal
Total area 67 m²1 bedroom
Luxury apartment with overlooking the sea in a luxury complex with a swimming pool and a car park, Mont Boron, Nice, France
Apartment with a balcony, in a luxurious residence with a garden, a pool and a parking, close to the sea, Juan-les-Pins, Antibes, France
Two-bedroom apartment with sea views in Antibes, Cote d Azur, France
Apartment with a huge terrace and a panoramic view of the sea, in a luxurious residence, near the Promenade des Anglais, Fabron, Nice
Apartment with a panoramic view of the Baie des Anges, in a gated premium-class residence with a park and a pool, Fabron, Nice
Apartment – Juan-les-Pins, Antibes, Côte d'Azur (French Riviera), France
Apartment – Beausoleil, Côte d'Azur (French Riviera), France
Apartment – Roquebrune — Cap Martin, Côte d'Azur (French Riviera), France
Apartment – Cannes, Côte d'Azur (French Riviera), France
Spacious apartment with a panoramic sea view in a small luxury residence with a pool, a garden and a gym, Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
Exclusive apartment with views of the sea in a luxury residence with a swimming pool, Beausoleil, France
New home – Roquebrune — Cap Martin, Côte d'Azur (French Riviera), France
Unique apartment with a panoramic view and a garage in a residence with a concierge, a garden and a large pool, Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
Three-level apartment with terraces and a view of Cap Ferrat in a luxury residence with a pool and a concierge, near the beach, Cap d'Ail
Real Estate Expert Tranio in Pays de la Loire
Our best articles about Pays de la Loire