text:
The Power of Words: Holocaust Memorial Day 2018
Posted by cathannabel in Genocide, Second World War on January 27, 2018
In my first HMD blog, six years ago, I talked about how, in preparation for genocide, the power of words is used to dehumanise the intended victims:
The perpetrators of genocide don't start by taking lives. First they take everything else – name, livelihood, home, dignity, humanity. For it to be possible for society to collude in this, the victims have to become less than human – cockroaches, perhaps, or lice. Or less, even, than that – one of the most powerful Holocaust documents is a memo, addressing technical problems with vehicle stability. As one reads it, it takes a while before the nature of the destabilising 'load' becomes apparent: this load has a tendency to rush towards the light, which causes problems in getting the doors closed. This load may also scream.
That's why we must call out such language when it is applied to refugees, immigrants, or any group of 'others', whenever we hear it and whoever is using it.
"How many Romanians are in? How many Polish are in?" she splutters in the midst of a diatribe about the NHS, over-crowded prisons and illegal immigration. "They are congregating like cockroaches into our major city centres, which are unable to deal with the crime that they bring."
This quote featured in a 2007 interview with a well-known television writer. The interviewer, who herself was Polish, didn't challenge her, partly, I suspect, through shock. Much more recently (in 2015) a notorious 'newspaper' columnist, speaking of the deaths of up to 700 migrants in a Mediterranean shipwreck, said:
"These migrants are like cockroaches. They might look a bit 'Bob Geldof's Ethiopia circa 1984', but they are built to survive a nuclear bomb."
This characterisation of people as less than human, as vermin, as a "virus" (as she did elsewhere in the article) irresistibly recalls the darkest events in history. It is eerily reminiscent of the Rwandan media of 1994, when the radio went from statements such as "You have to kill the Tutsis, they're cockroaches" to, shortly afterwards, instructions on how to do so, and what knives to use. (Zoe Williams, The Guardian)
Perhaps neither the TV writer nor the notorious columnist was familiar with the use of the term 'cockroaches' in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. I don't know. But surely anyone, however ill-informed, should baulk at describing other human beings in such terms?
It is no joke when people start talking like this. We are not "giving her what she wants" when we make manifest our disgust. It is not a free speech issue. I'm not saying gag her: I'm saying fight her. Articulate the fellowship, the human empathy, that makes these deaths important. Stop talking about how many children were among the dead, as though only children matter. Start talking about everybody's life as cherishable, irrespective of anything they might produce.(Zoe Williams, The Guardian)
For the sake of the future, we have to oppose, vocally and vociferously, those who use the language of genocide whether through ignorance or with deliberation.
But it's equally important, as Zoe Williams says, to articulate human empathy, to talk about the lives of others as cherishable. And that includes those who are lost to us, who were murdered because they were seen as less than human.
I have reservations about fictionalising the Holocaust, when there are so very many first-hand stories yet to be told, and when there are still – always – those who claim that the whole thing is a fiction. But then I recall the TV series Holocaust, broadcast in the late 1970s.
For all its faults – and it had many – and for all the opprobrium that it attracted, from critics and from Holocaust survivors such as Elie Wiesel, it served a tremendously important function. For many viewers it was a shock – it was for me, and I thought I was well-informed – and in Germany especially so. Despite all of the efforts post-war to educate and inform, it was this fictionalised account, not the documentary footage of the liberation of the camps, that really made many people understand. They saw people like themselves, living lives not unlike theirs, and then they saw what was done to them. In the course of the Holocaust mini-series, the Weiss family experienced Kristallnacht, Aktion T4, the Warsaw Ghetto, Theresienstadt, Babi Yar, Auschwitz and Sobibor. Wiesel argued that this was a mistake, that 'the story of one child, the destiny of one victim, the reverberations of one outcry would be more effective'.
What then is the answer? How is one to tell a tale that cannot be—but must be—told? How is one to protect the memory of the victims? How are we to oppose the killers' hopes and their accomplices' endeavors to kill the dead for the second time? What will happen when the last survivor is gone? I don't know. All I know is that the witness does not recognize himself in this film.
The Holocaust must be remembered. But not as a show
Clive James was more positive, although he acknowledged that no character existed except to make a point, or to illustrate a particular aspect of Holocaust history, and that (crucially) the script was clunky ('the use of language was never better than adequate. As in all hack writing, the dialogue showed no sense of period. Prodigies of set-dressing were undone by a phrase'). However, he concluded:
There is no hope that the boundless horror of Nazi Germany can be transmitted entire to the generations that will succeed us. There is a limit to what we can absorb of other people's experience. There is also a limit to how guilty we should feel about being unable to remember. Santayana was probably wrong when he said that those who forget the past are condemned to relive it. Those who remember are condemned to relive it too. Besides, freedoms are not guaranteed by historians and philosophers, but by a broad consent among the common people about what constitutes decent behaviour. Decency means nothing if it is not vulgarised. Nor can the truth be passed on without being simplified. The most we can hope for is that it shall not be travestied. Holocaust avoided that.
If Wiesel is right, and it is both impossible and vital to tell these stories, it is a task to be undertaken with trepidation. There are so few survivors now, so few still here and able to give their own accounts. But the way we tell their stories must honour the witnesses, the living and those who did not survive. It must be truthful, not just in terms of getting the facts right (details matter, when those details are disputed by those who would wish to assign the Holocaust to the category of fiction or myth), but in terms of creating people who 'ring true', and enabling us to invest in their lives and in their fate.
In Louise Doughty's devastating and powerful novel of the Roma Holocaust, Fires in the Dark, she draws us in to the world of the Coppersmith Roma in 1920s Bohemia, into their rich and complex culture, into the lives of one family, Josef and Anna, their new son Emil, and the kumpania to which they belong. We see even then the beginning of the assault upon their culture, with the introduction of laws that require them to be registered and fingerprinted and to inform the authorities of their routes and destinations. And if we know anything at all of European 20th century history, we know this will not be the end of it.
Much later, Josef, dying of a fever in a camp, reflects on the nature of loss:
How strange a thing it is, he thought, the way you comfort yourself when it comes to loss. You turn away from it, show it your back, face and embrace what you still have. When we had to sell our gold I thought, ah well, we can always buy more gold, as long as we have the wagon and the horses and can still travel, then we will be fine. Then they stopped us travelling and burnt our wagon and I thought, well, we still have one horse and we can build a cart, and we have a roof over our heads. Then we had to flee our roof and I thought, we still have good clothes and boots, so many people don't have boots any more. Then they took the bundles from us as we stood in line on Registration Day and I thought, well, we have the clothes we stand up in. When we got here, they took those. They even took the hair from my head. I thought, at least we are together in the same camp. So many people have been separated from their families. Now my family are kept from me, even though they are a few metres away . … It is just me, just my body and my soul and that is all that I have. … If I cannot even move my limbs, let alone raise my body to relieve myself with dignity, then I cannot really call my body my own either. All I have left are my thoughts – and breath, each small breath that comes so shallow and strange into my lungs. (Fires in the Dark, pp. 311-312)
We do not need to share Josef's (or Louise Doughty's) Roma heritage to feel empathy, to recognise the humanity here. Within this one passage we follow and feel that inexorable progress from a bureaucratic attack on the Roma way of life ('The implementation of Law 117 … to curb the nuisance caused by so-called Gypsies and other Travelling Persons and Vagabonds') to the man alone and reduced to 'the next small breath'.
There are many first-hand accounts of the Holocaust, from those who survived and from those who did not, but very few from its Roma victims. The destruction of whole communities, and with them of customs, and dialects, and names and histories, means that creative works of imagination are vital, to bring them back to life for us. And so what Louise Doughty does here is of profound value. Richard Rorty, in a passage which Doughty quotes at the beginning of her novel, talks about how human solidarity might be achieved:
It is to be achieved not by inquiry but by imagination, the imaginative ability to see strange people as fellow sufferers. Solidarity is not discovered by reflection but created. It is created by increasing our sensitivity to the particular details of the pain and humiliation of other, unfamiliar sorts of people. Such increased sensitivity makes it more difficult to marginalize people different from ourselves by thinking, "They do not feel it as we would," or "There must always be suffering, so why not let them suffer?" This process of coming to see other human beings as "one of us" rather than as "them" is a matter of detailed description of what unfamiliar people are like and of redescription of what we ourselves are like. This is a task not for theory but for genres such as ethnography, the journalist's report, the comic book, the docudrama, and, especially, the novel. (Richard Rorty, Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (Cambridge UP, 1989), p. xiv)
The power of words, used to increase sensitivity to others, to extend our sympathies, as George Eliot put it.
"Words: So innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them." (Nathaniel Hawthorne – The American Notebooks)
Words have immense power to hurt or to heal, to damn or to save. And when we say of a novel or a play that it's 'only a story' we are forgetting that. Those that have the skill to create or recreate a world, to draw people in whom we can believe, to give those people words to move and engage us, their 'stories' can shake us from our facile assumptions and prejudices, and can arm us against those who want to make us hate 'them'.
We need those words, now more than ever.
Reflect on the fact that this has happened:
These words I commend to you:
Inscribe them on your heart
(Primo Levi, If this is a Man)
Elie Wiesel, Holocaust (TV series), Holocaust Memorial Day, Louise Doughty, Primo Levi, Richard Rorty, Roma
"A roof over their heads…"
Posted by cathannabel in Refugees on January 26, 2018
Phil Davis, who works on refugee projects in Birmingham, is as always articulate, passionate and compassionate in his assessment of how our society treats asylum seekers.
A darkened room
"A spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said:
'Our position is that every person should have the security of a roof over their head, and tackling homelessness is a complex issue with no single solution.
But, we are determined to help the most vulnerable in our society. That's why we are providing over £1 billion of funding to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping.'"
Metro News. Thursday 25th January 2018
"Every person should have the security of a roof over their head." Well, yes. Quite.
Here's a thought. A genuinely helpful contribution towards achieving this clearly laudable policy objective. Stop making asylum seekers homeless and destitute immediately after an unsuccessful appeal. Keep them in a house until they either overturn the refusal in the courts or are removed. I mean, I know homelessness is 'a complex issue', but not turfing people onto the streets is a big step forward.
Remainers Assemble
Posted by cathannabel in Brexit, Politics on January 15, 2018
Funny how swiftly a mood can change. I wrote a fairly despairing piece about Brexit, just over a month ago. It was a bit of a rant, an expression of my deep frustration at not seeing a way forward, a way out of the mess.
And suddenly, just in the last few weeks, the thing that I didn't dare hope for, that I want so badly, is being talked about openly.
Stopping Brexit.
It's not straightforward, obviously. The loss of face for May & co. will ensure that they set their faces against it. And, sadly, Corbyn seems unlikely to come out as a Remainer and lead the charge against the government. I also know that if it is stopped, damage will already have been done, and recovery will take a long time.
But the tide does seem to be turning. Surprising numbers of people who want Brexit to happen, as well as people who want to ensure it doesn't, are now saying 'if' rather than 'when'.
Those of us who voted Remain have been told, over and over again, to shut up and accept it. To get over it. We've been called whingers, 'snowflakes', 'Remoaners'. We've been accused of being traitors and saboteurs, of betraying the Will of the People. Some of us had death threats.
Funny kind of snowflake, that withstands the vitriol, the hate, the threats and keeps on keeping on. Because we had to call out the lies that tricked people into voting for Brexit, and the incompetence and ignorance that characterised the government's attempts to negotiate with the EU.
We didn't do that out of pique. We've kept on about it because we believe that Brexit is an act of national self-harm, and that whilst we will all pay dearly for it, those who will suffer its consequences most acutely are the most vulnerable in our society (the poor, those most in need of the NHS), and the young. We've kept on because we care about and love this country.
Whilst I do get tetchy about the assumption that it's my age group that landed us in this mess, statistically there is some evidence for Brexit appealing particularly to a generation that can remember the old (blue? black? who knows/cares) passport, pre-decimal currency, imperial measurements, and all that nonsense. The people who got terribly agitated because Big Ben's bongs might briefly be silenced. The people who want to return us to some fantasy version of the 1950s – post-rationing, pre-counter-culture.
But, to put it somewhat brutally, many of those who look back with such fondness to the past won't be around by the time Brexit really kicks in. Whereas the generations that will have their freedoms curtailed by this 'taking back of control' will be losing so much and gaining what, exactly? A different coloured passport. Perhaps a crown crest on their pint glass.
I want freedom of movement, for myself and for my children and their children.
I want the economic benefits of EU membership, for myself and for my children and their children.
I want our nation to continue to be diverse, to embrace people from Europe (and beyond Europe) who can contribute to our economy, our culture, our health service, our education – and those who need asylum. I want those Europeans who have made their homes here to feel secure, to feel that they are indeed at home, and welcome.
I want to be part of Europe, part of that group of nations forged after horrific conflict, based upon shared values, facing shared challenges. The greatest challenges we face are global – terrorism, climate change, the flow of refugees from war zones and famine. Our best hope of dealing with them is to work closely with our neighbours, not to shut them out.
I am convinced that there are many people who voted Leave – for a wide variety of reasons – who now regret that choice. Many must have been horrified by the open racism that followed so swiftly on the vote, the abuse offered to anyone who appeared to be 'foreign', the glee with which they were told they didn't belong here any more. Others have been dismayed by the disparity between what they were promised and what the government now says about what might be delivered, and the obvious disarray of those who are responsible for negotiating on our behalf. I am also convinced that there are many who didn't vote, maybe because – like so many of us who voted Remain – they assumed Remain would win. If those who voted Leave and now regret it, and those who stayed at home on polling day and wish they hadn't, were to join forces with those who voted Remain and still believe it was the right choice…
So, strengthened by the solidarity of on-line communities that are pressing for an exit from Brexit, I will not only not shut up but will go on, and on, and on, relentlessly, until we find a way of stopping this madness.
And my vote – at local and national level – will go only to those who are pledged to the same cause.
A Manifesto for Europe
The EU was built on the words of Winston Churchill. It was founded on the same values that we recognise as British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect.
The European Union has enabled neighbouring nations to overcome historic differences, create new alliances and build bridges where previously there were walls.
For the past 70 years, the United Kingdom has enjoyed peace, prosperity and enhanced standing in the world as a result of its role at the heart of the European Union.
In democracy and the rule of law.
In the sovereignty of the UK Parliament.
That the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union amplifies the rights, freedoms and interests of the British people.
That UK and EU law underpin our economic, social and political rights.
That the UK can only be truly global and outward facing as a fully committed member of the European Union.
That the life prospects of young people and future generations of British citizens are augmented by continued UK membership of the EU.
That the four nations of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are stronger when united as a sovereign country, and as a member of the European Union.
That continued UK membership of the EU is necessary to ensure the UK is relevant and effective in tackling global challenges such as climate change, terrorism, the displacement of peoples, and global economic adversity.
We reject:
All forms of hate, racism and xenophobia that have been exacerbated by the referendum campaign and ballot.
Nationalist protectionism, imperialism and isolationism.
Treating EU nationals, EU member states and the EU itself as our enemies rather than our friends
A strong, free and united European Union, with Britain at its heart, is capable of facing up to the challenges of today and tomorrow, and of playing a leading role in championing international peace and prosperity.
#FBPE, Brexit
You are currently browsing the archives for January, 2018
https://t.co/jXdtBJaPP0 1 hour ago
@fox359_ Oh yes. I have learned to expect that crash after spending time with people, talking and smiling and so fo… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 2 hours ago


text:
How to Write High-Quality Press Release Content
August 23, 2017 September 21, 2017 Michael 0 Comments content marketing, content marketing tools, press release, press release writing, press releases, writing spear
Writing and distributing your brand news in an essential thing that every brand needs to do. It helps your brand stay relevant in the minds of your wider customer base and that of the media.
However, a press release can accomplish much when crafted in the right manner. There are key elements you need to consider for you to write a high-quality press release content.
Whether you are targeting an audience, journalists and investors, you have to produce a high-quality content. Because you are competing against other companies that may be having a strong presence in the media, there are a set of rules you can follow to come up with a high-quality and compelling press release.
Make it insightful and relevant
To write an insightful and relevant press release in the hardest thing to do and the one that requires a lot of preparation and patience.
The content of your press release needs a purpose beyond the company's twitter feed or your website feed. To create a high-quality press release, start by creating an editorial calendar, coordinate everything with your products, your target audience and sales.
Write about a study you want to report on or a white paper you are proud of an upcoming trade show or even an executive saying in your company. Search engines and readers can quickly tell if what you have written relying on the insightful and relevant information on your press release.
Avoid short and unsubstantial messages
A press release is a chance to get the word out. Search engines do not only look for the minimum word count, but also for a high-quality content. This means that you need to produce a press release that isn't a quick post with a few quotes, information about the brand and links to outdated product pages.
Write a press release with the aim of going trust from the readers and the media especially reporters. They should not think of you as a spammer.
Don't fill your press release with unsubstantial messages instead, ensure you deliver substantial (authoritative, insightful and relevant) messages.
Identify an interesting and clear news announcement
The main purpose of your press release is to remind your clients, the media, other business or whoever it may concern why your company is relevant.
Let it answer the question of what your company has achieved recently, how you are recognized as a leader in your respective industry, what new services and products you are offering. These are just some of the things you need to write about on your press release.
Answering these questions can guide the direction of the press release and explain why and how your company has an impact on the industry.
Use your brand assets to engage customers
In the age where SERPs are updated with potential links that users can click on, you can use them to engage your customers.
A study done by HubSpot in 2016 reported that 43% reader gets information by skimming online content. That means the possibility of readers reading your press release in full is two out of five. So to keep your readers engaged use:
Company logos to provide a visual representation of your company.
Infographics to demonstrate your brand's expertise
Video and a sound clip for visually engaging and to tell the audience what they want to know.
Photographs of your events that your company has hosted or participated in.
Be the authority
Achieving authority is a nebulous challenge, but it means owning your press release with expertise and confidence.
Spot-on data, well-attributed quotes, and clean writing are always what the media, search engines and reporters are looking for, they will never go out of style. That does mean you can incorporate some fun in your press release, but don't be too subtle or overly clever with your message.
Be transparent and avoid the risk of undermining the importance of your authority because your audience will also do that. Let your audience know your intentions from the word go.
Engage your reader from the start
Avoid starting your press release with a dry quote from an executive. A press release example that has a dry quote is the one quoting as to why a deal will be better or why the product is the best for your company's future. Start by engaging your readers. You can achieve that by focusing on why the story matters, including incorporating relevant videos, eye-catching photos and call to action early on. Many readers engage easily with visual contents than text-only content.
Writing a high-quality press release is not an easy task. Your press release can have great intentions but fall flat because it was tossed out for lack of relevant, engaging and subtle message. Make it easy for readers everywhere to digest and don't forget about transparency. If the challenge lies in balancing style, a right formatting will help.
Before press release distribution, make sure it is worth attention.
← How to Write a Winning Press Release for Your Brand
6 Press Release Writing Tips to Drive Results →
Best of What and When to Write a Press Release
November 5, 2017 Michael 0
6 Press Release Writing Tips to Drive Results
September 3, 2017 Michael 0
How to Write a Winning Press Release for Your Brand
August 14, 2017 Michael 8

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I haven't seen the movie Unbroken yet but as a fan of the genre I look forward to checking it out, especially after seeing some of the behind the scenes of the special effects. Rodeo FX produced over 200 visual effects for the movie and as you can see after the break the quality blurs the lines between reality and CGI a completely rad and undistinguishable manner.
Rodeo FX produced 240 stunning visual effects shots for Angelina Jolie's biopic Unbroken, including the breathtaking air combat between the B24s and the Zero fighter planes, as well as the landing scene of the damaged B24 Superman plane at the Funafuti airstrip. Take an in-depth look at how our artists crafted invisible VFX to make the World War II biopic seem real.
Unbroken - VFX Breakdown from Rodeo FX on Vimeo.


text:
RECOM Reconciliation Network
BHSC (BHSC)
About RECOM
What Is RECOM?
What is the Coalition for RECOM?
What is RECOM process?
RECOM News
Victims' Voice
Memoralization
Balkan States 'Expected to Sign Truth Commission Agreement'
RECOM in the Media_2006-2019
Berlin Process, BIRN, Establishment of RECOM
A coalition campaigning for the establishment of the RECOM regional fact-finding commission on the 1990s wars said ex-Yugoslav states could sign an agreement committing their support in July.
The Coalition for RECOM announced on Monday that five Western Balkan states – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia – are likely to sign an agreement to establish the new regional commission in London in July.
The commission is intended to determine the facts about war crimes and human rights violations in the former Yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001.
Ana Marjanovic Rudan of the Coalition for RECOM told a Forum for Transitional Justice event in Sarajevo that establishing the commission is important because "fact-finding is a prerequisite for preventing manipulation" of the 1990s conflicts for political purposes.
The expected signing of the agreement forms part of the Berlin Process, the German-initiated diplomatic project aimed at helping Western Balkan states to join the EU.
"The idea is that at the next meeting in London in the coming July, state signatories commit themselves to form a regional fact-finding coalition," said Marjanovic Rudan.
The presidents of Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia "have already named their personal envoys for drafting this agreement between the states", she added – a move which would accomplish the Coalition's objective of lifting the initiative from civil society to the institutional, state level.
The Bosniak member of Bosnia and Herzegovina's ethnically-composed tripartite presidency has also named his envoy, but the Croat and Serb members of the presidency have not done so yet. It is also not yet clear whether Croatia and Slovenia will join the RECOM initiative.
Although the Berlin Process is mostly focused on economic cooperation, it tackles political and issues which arose from the Yugoslav conflicts.
At the last Berlin Process meeting of political leaders from the region in Trieste in July 2017, RECOM was explicitly mentioned as an important mechanism for regional reconciliation.
David Hudson, a senior expert at the European Commission's Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations, told a panel discussion at the Forum for Transitional Justice that reconciliation was an "index of political maturity".
"Can we ensure that we get along with each other? Are you grown-ups, do you behave as grown-ups?" Hudson said, directing his question to political leaders in the region.
He added that the European Commission would not ask for reconciliation on a personal level, but more on a political and institutional level.
RECOM would put together a name-by-name list of all the people killed, missing, imprisoned and tortured people in all the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia.
The Coalition for RECOM started gathering signatures of support for the initiative in 2011 in all the capital cities of the republics of the former Yugoslavia, as well as online.
It set out to get a million signatures and has so far got over 600,000.
NOTE: BIRN reporter Sven Milekic contributed an article entitled 'RECOM as a Precondition for Effective Youth Cooperation Leading to Reconciliation' to a policy brief published by the Coalition for RECOM, 'Reconciliation through the Berlin Process: The Role of RECOM'.
( Published on Balkan Insight, 29.01.2017. )
Tags: Berlin Process, BIRN, Establishment of RECOM
A Brief History of the RECOM process
REKOM Support
Coalition Members


text:
Bride And Prejudice season two: More of Australia's worst parents
AUNZ | 6,10h — Australian Eastern Standard (NSW) – October 17, 2018
- Last year's debut season of the show made headlines as viewers watched people like Chris, a gay man marrying the love of his life whose parents ...


Froggatt Edge is one of the gritstone Derbyshire edges, which run from Ladybower Reservoir all the way along the Derwent Valley to Chatsworth.
It is a brilliant place to walk in the snow on a winter afternoon as the sun lowers. The edge is about 300 metres high, so with the right weather conditions, the late afternoon light can fill the woods with a warm glow.
On this November afternoon, as I approached the edge of the wood, the trees began to thin and the open moors dominated the view. The sun was just beginning to set and I found this group of silver birch trees silhouetted against the warm sky. The sunlight casting long shadows on the snow provided me with a fascinating snow subject.


Technology has taken off, and smart homes are now all the rage. A wireless home intercom system is just what you need, making your home more user-friendly. If you are tired of yelling across the house to get your family's attention or calling them on the phone when they are just downstairs, then installing an intercom might be the answer for you.
Just exactly what is a wireless home intercom system? Well, in short, they are intercoms made for your home that don't require wired connections.
A home intercom system can be either wired or wireless. While wired systems are great if you are building a new home, installation can be a royal pain in the rear in an existing home that wasn't made with this convenient feature in mind. One of the advantages of a wired system is that it is secure and you don't have the worry of anyone else listening in on your private conversations.
However, when installing the intercom system in an existing home without the help of a professional, wireless is definitely the easier DIY option. Since wireless systems either use batteries or plug into normal outlets, you can have your wireless home intercom system up and running in no time at all. These systems communicate through a frequency similar to that of a cordless phone.
A wireless home intercom system can be divided into two main parts: the master station and substations.
The master station is essentially the brain of the intercom system. This is the control panel for the entire thing. The master station turns the system on or off and, if equipped with music features, which some of these nifty little systems are, it gives control of that as well.
Substations, also known as remote stations, contain a speaker and a microphone. These substations don't necessarily require a location inside your home. Some of them can be placed outside as well, linking outer areas to the main house at a touch of the intercom. This means you can have a substation at your front door, so you know who is there before you answer it.
When determining what wireless home intercom system will fit your home and lifestyle, there are a few things you must consider. As mentioned earlier, the first decision is whether you want a wired system or a wireless option featuring easier installation.
It's important to keep substations in mind, as their locations impact the type of system you choose. Do you only need one substation for your upstairs? Or do you want a substation in every room? Do you only want them inside? Or do you want a substation at your front door as well? How about in your garage, or the patio?
If you foresee an expansion to your wireless home intercom system in the future, make sure that the substations you will install later are compatible with your existing system. If you want substations in outbuildings, like your garage, verify that the signal will reach that far. Most wireless systems have a range of about 1,000-1,500 feet.
Think about what features are most important to you. Is your budget the number one consideration? Do you want a system with voice-activation? Or maybe you want a system with video capabilities so that you actually see who is ringing your doorbell. Also, keep in mind that some systems only allow for communication between the master station and substations rather than substation to substation.
Installing a wired intercom can get expensive in an existing home, but a wireless home intercom system is surprisingly affordable. The cost of any system comes down to how many substations you need. If you only want a master station upstairs and a substation downstairs, the costs will be less. As you add substations, the cost will go up accordingly.
Most substations for wireless systems cost somewhere between $100-$300. However, there are a few quality products available for as little as $50. The good news is that since you can buy substations individually, you can still update your home with a state of the art wireless home intercom system even if you can't afford a hefty up-front investment.
This is a fabulous system. The Nucleus Anywhere Intercom with Amazon Alexa is family friendly. This wireless intercom system was "designed for everyone." This means that not only can the kids work the Nucleus intercom, but grandma can too. Using Alexa, this system allows you to make both audio and video calls. There is also a mobile app that lets you check in from anywhere.
This video intercom system allows users to connect room-to-room, home-to-home, and even mobile-to-home. With the power of Alexa and a touch screen that is exceedingly user-friendly, the Nucleus truly has it all and is the perfect addition to any smart home.
A two-pack intercom system will run you just under $300, making this one of the more expensive options.
The Sancom Wireless Intercom System lets you buy up to six substations in one package. Although this system does not have video capabilities, it does provide quality audio. The Sancom system also allows for one-to-one conversations or one-to-many, so you can talk to more than one substation at a time. This wireless system is also supported by Power Bank, which means the device is portable and compatible with other devices that share the same digital channel code, regardless of the brand. A system with six stations will cost you more than $200, but with only two stations you are looking at spending less than $100 to get started.
This wireless home intercom system by Hosmart is an affordable option. Although it does not offer video features, it does provide up to 10 hours of monitoring at one time. The Hosmart intercom provides users with crystal clear audio and a conference call mode so that you can communicate with more than one substation at once. This system also allows you to add a wireless intercom doorbell system as well as portable walkie-talkies. The Hosmart is one of the most affordable home intercom options on the market, with a price tag of only $69.99 for a starter kit.
The TekeyTBox wireless home intercom system boasts multi-channel capabilities and a range of a whopping 1800 feet. It also offers 10-hour monitoring and lets you hold group calls with all the substations connected to your system. Because the TekeyTBox is supported by Power Bank, this system is portable and compatible with other devices of different brand names, as long as they use the same digital channel code. You can buy a starter system with two stations for only $69.
This wireless home intercom system by Guardline has a super easy setup. Even those without advanced tech skills can have this intercom up and running in less than five minutes. The intercoms themselves can be mounted on a wall or you can just sit them on your counter. Their small size makes them very portable. Guardline intercoms only have a range of 500 feet, but you can pair as many as 16 devices throughout your home. This system also provides high-quality audio and a monitoring mode. The initial two stations are priced at only $89.99.
The Echo Show wireless home intercom system connects to other echo devices throughout your home. The Echo Show also lets you call family and friends who have an Echo Spot, Echo Show, or even just the Alexa App. This device lets you play music via streaming services such as Pandora, Spotify, and iHeartRadio. Thanks to Alexa, the Echo Show can be used to control a wide variety of home automation devices, including cameras and thermostats, among others. The Echo Show is priced at $229.99, making it one of the more expensive options for a wireless home intercom system.
When trying to decide which wireless home intercom system is the best for your home, you have to first make up your mind exactly what it is you are looking for. As with most things, there is no one size fits all answer. If you want all the bells and whistles, including video capabilities, then you can't go wrong with the Nucleus intercom system. On the other hand, if you are on a budget and only need to be able to communicate with one other room in your house, a lower priced system may fit your needs without the extra cost.
To make an informed choice, look at what it is that you really want out of a system. Do you want to see who is at your door? Monitor a child or an elderly loved one? Or do you just want to be able to tell your spouse that dinner is ready without having to run across the house or scream like a maniac?
Verify that the range of the wireless home intercom system you are interested in will meet your needs. For example, you don't want to buy an intercom that only has a range of 500 feet when the rooms you plan to connect are 1,000 feet apart.
And last but not least, even if you want to start off with only two substations, consider how difficult it will be to expand your wireless home intercom system in the future.


text:
New thunderstorms warning issued by the Met Office for Dorset
Thunderstorms warning issued by the Met Office
By Sarah Cartlidge
Lightning over Branksome Beach by Echo Camera Club member, Paul Cobb.
THUNDERSTORMS could be on the cards again this week, the Met Office has warned, as the unsettled weather continues.
A yellow weather warning for thunderstorms has been issued for Tuesday and Wednesday.
The warning comes into force at 6pm on Tuesday and will remain in place until 9pm on Wednesday.
It covers Bournemouth, Poole and the rest of the county.
"Torrential rain, hail and lightning" could be seen in some places which would bring with it potential travel disruption and flooding.
Power cuts and lightning strikes could also occur.
The Chief Forecaster said: "Through Tuesday evening there is potential for thunderstorms to break out, initially across parts of southern England, before developing more widely overnight and then clearing through Wednesday morning. The thunderstorms may merge into areas of more prolonged and widespread rain for a time on Tuesday night and at first on Wednesday. "
The spokesperson said between 15 and 30mm of rain could be widespread with as much as 50mm in some locations.
They added: "After a drier interlude, further thunderstorms may develop in a few places during Wednesday afternoon, mainly south-eastern parts of England. Whilst rain and flooding is likely to be the largest impact, hail, lightning and gusty winds will be additional hazards."
The Met Office has issued two separate warnings for thunderstorms for the county over the past two weeks.


text:
Total Nonstop Deletion fue un evento especial de lucha libre profesional producido por la Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). Tuvo lugar el 15 de diciembre de 2016 desde la residencia de Matt Hardy denominada "Dome of Deletion", en Cameron, Carolina del Norte. El evento contó con las apariciones especiales de The Hurricane, Disco Inferno, Road Warrior Animal, ODB y Swoogle, entre otros.

Antecedentes
En el episodio del 9 de octubre de Impact Wrestling, Matt Hardy anunció que el episodio del 15 de diciembre sería un evento especial que se realizaría desde su residencia en Cameron, Carolina del Norte. El evento central del episodio se reveló que sería una invitación abierta a equipos en parejas por el Campeonato Mundial en Parejas de TNA; Hardy realizó diversas invitaciones a los campeones en parejas de otras empresas de lucha libre profesional como a los Campeones en Parejas de Raw de la WWE, The New Day; y a los Campeones Mundiales en Parejas de ROH y Campeones en Parejas Peso Pesado Junior IWGP, The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson), ofreciéndose aparecer en la programación de ROH y WWE a cambio de ello. La grabación, sin embargo, sería pospuesta debido a las cuestiones legales entre entonces presidente de TNA Presidente Billy Corgan y la empresa. Corgan perdería su orden judicial contra TNA, que había impedido la filmación de cualquier tipo el 31 de octubre, permitiendo la filmación de Total Nonstop Deletion comenzar más adelante esa semana. Durante las semanas previas a Total Nonstop Deletion, Matt Hardy hizo una aparición sorpresa en el evento de Ring of Honor, Final Battle, lanzando un desafío a The Young Bucks.

Resultados
 King Maxel Hardy (con Rebecca Hardy) derrotó a Rockstar Spud en un No Disqualification Match (00:17).
 Maxel cubrió a Spud después de que Señor Benjamin aturdiera a Spud con un arma de electrochoques.
 Después de la lucha, Maxel celebró con su padre Matt y su familia.
 Sienna derrotó a ODB ganando una oportunidad por el Campeonato de Knockouts de la TNA (3:55).
 Sienna cubrió a ODB después de golpearla con una silla y un «The Silencer».
 Al principio, Sienna iba a luchar contra el dron Vanguard-1 (kayfabe), pero el árbitro se lo negó.
 Después de la lucha, ODB levantó a Vanguard-1 y celebró con el público.
 Esta es la reaparición de ODB en TNA después de dos años.
 Itchweeed derrotó a Chet Sterling en un Hardy House Rules Match (3:50).
 Itchweeed cubrió a Sterling después de un «Pesticide Elbow».
 Después de la lucha, Itchweeed tomó una podadora y cortó la ropa de Sterling haciendo que éste huyera.
 La lucha entre Eddie Edwards (c) y Lashley por el Campeonato Mundial Peso Pesado de la TNA terminó sin resultado.
 La lucha quedó inconclusa cuando Edwards y Lashley continuaron atacándose fuera del recinto.
 Después de la lucha, Edwards y Lashley continuaron atacándose, interfiriendo en el Apocalypto Tag Team Match.
 Como consecuencia, Edwards retuvo el campeonato.
 The Broken Hardys (Matt Hardy & Brother Nero) (con Rebecca Hardy) eliminaron en última instancia a Decay (Abyss y Crazzy Steve) (con Rosemary) en un Tag Team Apocalypto y retuvieron el Campeonato Mundial en Parejas de TNA (44:00).
 Matt cubrió a Steve después de que Steve fuera expulsado de un volcán artificial y aterrizara en el ring.
 Antes de la lucha, Rosemary interfirió a favor de Decay, atacando a Matt.
 Durante la lucha, Gregory Shane Helms interfirió a favor de The Helms Dinasty, y The Hurricane a favor de The Broken Hardys.
 Durante la lucha, Eddie Edwards y Lashley interfirieron en la lucha, atacándose entre sí.
 Durante la lucha, James Storm ingresó a la lucha con un conjunto de hombres desconocidos para atacar a Abyss y a Steve pero éstos derrotaron a los secuaces de Storm.
 Después de ser eliminado, Storm le aplicó un «Last Call» al fan que provocó su eliminación.
 Después de ser eliminado, Swoogle intentó atacar a Lashley pero Lashley lo derribó empujándolo.
 Después de la lucha, Matt y Nero celebraron junto con Rebecca y su familia. En esto, Rebecca anunció su embarazo.

Referencias

PPVs de Impact Wrestling

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Hey, Are you an Instagram individual? If yes! after that this post is really valuable for you. Instagram Like For Like App: Here I will show you 5 applications for breaking out likes on Instagram blog post. Lately I published Facebook auto liker app where individuals get likes on account photos as well as video clips. Afterwards, The majority of individuals ask me that which is the best application for Instagram likes? Well, I told them by hand however I thought why not make an additional post where I will certainly tell my individuals regarding how you can obtain even more likes on Instagram You may like to understand Instagram photo/video downloader online.
It's very simple to obtain likes on Instagram There are many apps for Android as well as iOS for insta likes. But I will give you the listing of Android & iphone apps for free Instagram likes in 2017. Tese apps will certainly provide you genuine Instagram likes from real individuals. It takes very little time to increase Instagram likes on Photos or Videos. It's 99% risk-free for obtaining likes.
These Insta liker apps are very easy being used. Yet you ought to understand the procedure before getting likes. Just you need to collect coins or points by merely suching as other insta images. And afterwards utilize that coins to get likes on Instagram.
Below applications are able to offer likes on your Insta photos or videos. If you have actually used Social exchanges after that you will certainly recognize the process of obtaining likes. Due to the fact that It is additionally completely based on collecting point and after that bidding process indicate break out likes on Instagram. I recommend you download and install Instagram liker app and also utilize them step by step to obtain likes for Instagram. Allow's see apps list to get likes on Instagram.
Turbo Like for Instagram is one of the best and prominent apps to get likes & followers on Instagram which is created by MMobileDev. It is completely based upon coin. If you accumulate coin by liking and also seeing other instagram pictures or videos after that you could utilize gathered points to obtain unlmited likes without paying anything. Turbo like for instagram is offered for mobile and also PC. You can obtain instagram likes on Windows (7, 8, 10) or Mac OS X with this tool. And also you could donwload this app in your Android or iOS device to obtain likes and also followers. It supply 100% actual Instagram likes & Followers and important point is they are actual and also active instagram customer.
Magic Liker for Magic Liker is popular iphone app for Instagram likes. This is an one-of-a-kind application for those that want 100% actual and also working app to get likes on Instagram photos. If you want a lot more likes on your Instagram image then I advise you to attempt this app additionally. Not only likes on photos but additionally it provides followers on your Instagram profile. It is same as over Instagram likes apps.
Istlike is one more best Instagram likes carrier. Below you will certainly get likes and also followers for Instagram. It is likewise based upon coin system. If you like or comply with Instagram user after that you will certainly obtain 1 coin and afterwards you bid that 1coin to obtain likes on your Instagram images or videos. You could claim it resembles turbo insta liker.
In IstLike, you will certainly obtain 3 tab likes, Fans and also Win coins. Not just this you can additionally make coin by referring your buddies, and also use your earned coin to enhance likes on the Instagram post.
LikeHub is just one of the best liker application to get likes on Instagram for Quick as well as Free. This application is only for iOS customer. If you have apple iphone then you could obtain likes on your Instagram images as well as video via this app or else wait or try similar insta likers.
If you want free Instagram photos and also videos likes then you must attempt this app. So iPhone individuals could download this totally free to get likes on Instagram.
Super Liker is offered for iOS customer. It assists you to obtain more likes on Instagram. You could install this app in your iPhone to obtain likes on your blog posts.
So these are the most effective applications for Instagram to obtain likes on photos. I have actually provided these Android as well as iphone applications on the base of suggestion as well as individual evaluation. Occasionally Instagram likers don't work. Well, don't worry you could attempt social exchanges to get unrestricted likes on Instagram pictures, videos and fans also.


text:
package com.ip_b1.fii.admission;

import org.junit.Test;
import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest;
import org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringRunner;

@RunWith(SpringRunner.class)
@SpringBootTest
public class MiddlewareApplicationTests {

	@Test
	public void contextLoads() {
	}

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
You are here: Home / Archives for Mediterranean
For the first time, Drones autonomously attacked humans. This is a turning point
3 Giugno 2021 By Redazione Islamedianalysis
The world's first recorded case of an autonomous drone attacking humans took place in March 2020, according to a United Nations (UN) security report detailing the ongoing Second Libyan Civil War. Libyan forces used the Turkish-made drones to "hunt down" and jam retreating enemy forces, preventing them from using their own drones, like reported by esquire.com.
The field report (via New Scientist) describes how the Haftar Affiliated Forces (HAF), loyal to Libyan Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, came under attack by drones from the rival Government of National Accord (GNA) forces. After a successful drive against HAF forces, the GNA launched drone attacks to press its advantage. From the report:
Logistics convoys and retreating HAF were subsequently hunted down and remotely engaged by the unmanned combat aerial vehicles or the lethal autonomous weapons systems such as the STM Kargu-2 (above) and other loitering munitions. The lethal autonomous weapons systems were programmed to attack targets without requiring data connectivity between the operator and the munition: in effect, a true "fire, forget and find" capability.
The report says Turkey supplied the drones to Libyan forces, which is a violation of a UN arms embargo slapped on combatants in the conflict.
The Kargu-2 ("Hawk"), from Turkish defense contractor STM, is a quadcopter drone designed to carry a weapons payload. STM's marketing video below explicitly describes Kargu-2 as being capable of autonomous attack.
How does it work? First, the shooter loads coordinates into the Kargu-2 drone's software, and then launches the drone. The drone will travel to those coordinates, identify likely "targets," and execute a dive maneuver, swooping down on the target and blowing itself up as it detonates a shotgun-like explosive package.
In military parlance, this process is known as "fire and forget," which means once the shooter launches the drone, they can do something else, like relocate, prepare another attack, or even go eat lunch.
Drone experts have been dreading this moment while advocating for a ban on autonomous attack drones.
"The UN report implying first use of autonomous weapons against soldiers paints an uncertain picture—however, that's the point," Zachary Kallenborn, an official U.S. Army "Mad Scientist" and national security consultant, tells Pop Mech. He continues:
"The first use of autonomous weapons in war won't be heralded with a giant fireball in the sky and dark words on how humanity has become Death, Destroyer of Worlds. First use of autonomous weapons may just look like an ordinary drone. The event illustrates a key challenge in any attempt to regulate or ban autonomous weapons: how can we be sure they were even used?"
The Kargu-2 indeed looks like any other quadcopter drone. The major difference is the software, which might be difficult to obtain from scattered bits of plastic for forensic analysis. This raises the question: Could military forces modify civilian drones into human-hunting counterparts to attack civilians?
There are some events in the history of mankind, like the atomic bomb test in Alamogordo, New Mexico in 1945, that are so profound, they serve as a divider between one social, economic, or military era and another. The events in Libya may similarly divide the time when humans had full control of weapons, and a time when machines made their own decisions to kill.
US offers $7 million for AQIM leader Abu Ubaydah Yusuf al-Anabi
The US State Department posted a $7 million reward Wednesday for information leading to the location or identification of Abu Ubaydah Yusuf al-Anabi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), like reported by thedefensepost.com.
The department said Anabi was declared the emir of the northern Africa region branch of Al-Qaeda in November 2020 and his predecessor, Abdelmalek Droukdel, was killed five months earlier.
It said Anabi is an Algerian citizen also known as Yazid Mubarak. He has pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri as AQIM's leader, according to the State Department.
Previously he was on AQIM's Council of Notables, its Shura Council, and also has acted as the AQIM media chief.
In 2015 the State Department listed him as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.
Hezbollah has dug tunnel network from Beirut to 3km from Israel border
The Hezbollah terror group has dug a network of tunnels hundreds of kilometers long from Beirut to southern Lebanon, the Kan public broadcaster reported Monday.
The network was dug in parallel to six Hezbollah attack tunnels into Israel, which the Israel Defense Forces exposed and destroyed in 2018, Kan said.
The purpose of the additional network is reportedly to enable the swift and covert movement of forces during a war against Israel.
According to the report, command and control headquarters have been built inside the tunnel network, with the tunnels reaching to some three kilometers from the Israeli border.
The IDF conducted Operation Northern Shield between December 2018 and January 2019, in an effort to locate and destroy tunnels dug by Hezbollah into northern Israel from southern Lebanon.
In total, the military said, it found six such passages and rendered them inoperable — either using explosives or filling them with concrete.
The IDF said the six tunnels were built with the specific purpose of enabling thousands of Hezbollah terrorists to stage an infiltration attack on military and civilian targets in northern Israel as a surprise opening maneuver in a future war.
The military said the discovery and destruction of the tunnels removed what otherwise would have been a potentially devastating weapon in Hezbollah's arsenal.
In January 2020, the IDF began installing a series of underground sensors along the northern border in order to detect any new subterranean tunnels being dug into Israeli territory from Lebanon.
Israel has fought two wars in Lebanon, one in 1982 against Palestinian terrorist groups and another in 2006 against Hezbollah, as well as a number of smaller operations.
Though seen as volatile, the border has not seen significant fighting since the end of the 2006 war.
An unnamed Lebanese official told the London-based Arabic-language newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat on Sunday that Hezbollah does not want to expand the ongoing fighting in the Gaza Strip to Lebanon.
Though there have been some clashes on the Israel-Lebanon border in support of the Palestinians, the Iran-backed Hezbollah was reportedly not intending to launch its own attacks.
Six rockets were fired from Lebanon toward Israel late Monday, but they apparently fell short of the border fence. The military said it responded with artillery fire. The IDF believes a small Palestinian faction — not Hezbollah — was responsible for the attack, military spokesperson Hidai Zilberman said on Tuesday morning.
Tunisia troops kill 5 Islamist terrorists near Algerian border
Tunisian forces on Monday killed five jihadists in an air and ground operation targeting a rugged mountain hideout of Islamist fighters, the interior ministry said.
The operation launched at dawn was still underway, the ministry said in a statement, adding authorities were working to verify the nationalities and affiliation of the "five terrorists" killed.
The operation targeted a jihadist base on Mount Chaambi, near the border with Algeria.
Tunisia has seen a surge in radical Islam since veteran president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was ousted in the country's 2011 revolution.
The army has been battling armed groups since 2012 in the country's central mountains.
They include fighters from Jund al-Khalifa, or "Soldiers of the Caliphate", linked to the Islamic State group, and jihadists from Okba Ibn Nafaa, a local branch of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
One of the bloodiest operations took place in 2014 when assailants killed 15 soldiers on the Mount Chaambi, the first of a series of deadly attacks that have seen dozens of security forces killed.
In February, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the killing of four soldiers in three blasts near Mount Mghila, adjacent to Mount Chaambi, and said a "spy" was beheaded.
In April, a suspected jihadist blew herself as security forces closed in on the remote Selloum area of the central Kasserine mountains, also near Algeria's border.
The interior ministry said security forces launched Monday's operation based on "technical and detailed" information, without giving further details.
Gaza: Al-Qaeda affiliate Jaysh Al-Ummah claims rocket attack in Israel, lauds car-ramming attack, urges Palestinians to 'revive the glory of martyrdom operations'
On May 16, 2021, the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Gaza-based jihadi group Jaysh Al-Ummah Fi Bayt Al-Maqdis ("The Ummah Army In Jerusalem") released two statements claiming responsibility for a rocket attack on an Israeli settlement and celebrating the car-ramming attack in Jerusalem, urging Palestinians to wage jihad against Israel, and "revive the glory of martyrdom operations", like reported by memri.org.
The call for suicide attacks against Israel followed the May 10, 2021 rocket attacks against three Israeli positions when the group's leader Abu Hafs Al-Maqdisi recommended "martyrdom operations" as a "power tool" to target Israel.
According to a brief statement released by Jaysh Al-Ummah's media arm Al-Rayah Foundation For Media Production, the group said: "The mujahideen of Jaysh Al-Ummah in Bayt Al-Maqdis [Jerusalem] targeted Sha'ar HaNegev mustakhrabat [an Arabic derogatory term for an occupied area] with a 107mm rocket salvo at 1 pm in response to the Jews' violation of the Muslim blood and desecration of their sanctuaries."
In a subsequent statement, the group expressed its blessing for the car-ramming attack near Dahariyya Junction in the southern West Bank and described it as a "heroic operation carried out by the one of the heroic sons of Al-Quds [Jerusalem]."
Calling for more attacks in the West Bank and inside Israel, the group said: "In that regard, we urge our brothers in the [West] Bank, Al-Quds [Jerusalem] and the occupied [inside] territory to make more sacrifices and wage jihad to revive the glory of the martyrdom [suicide] operations, which disturb the sleep of the Jews."
IDF: 160 terrorists eliminated in Gaza
Roughly 160 terrorists in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip have been killed thus far in Israel's ongoing counter-terror operation, dubbed Guardian of the Walls, according to an IDF spokesperson Tuesday.
The army reported Tuesday morning that most of the 160 terrorists killed since the fighting began last Monday are from the Hamas terror organization. Some 120 Hamas terrorists have been eliminated, compared to roughly 40 terrorists from the Islamic Jihad organization.
The IDF also said that it destroyed 9.4 miles (15 kilometers) of terror tunnels built by Hamas in its massive "metro" tunnel network.
"Overnight, we destroyed about 15 kilometers of the fourth section of the Hamas 'metro', though we still have a great deal of work left in the tunnels in Khan Yunis and Rafiah."
Sixty Israel Air Force aircraft pummeled terrorist targets in the southern Gaza Strip overnight, destroying 65 rocket launchers in Khan Yunis. The launchers, an IDF spokesperson said, were capable of launching between six to nine rockets at a time.
Israel's military also said that the IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi spoke twice last week with his American counterpart about the ongoing conflict.
A total of ten people have been killed in Israel since last Monday, with over 300 injured in rocket attacks.
Gaza's health authority has reported 212 people killed, with 1,400 injured.
Iran's hand seen in Hamas drone threat against Israel
Israel has increasingly had to deal with drone threats by Hamas, and said on Thursday that it downed a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) that crossed from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory, like reported by meforum.org.
The new drone threat has also been showcased by Hamas in a video circulated online that shows the Palestinian terror group with several medium-size drones in Gaza. Hamas says its new drones are called "Shehab."
Drone experts such as Nick Waters and others have pointed out the close connection between the Hamas "Shehab" and the Iranian Ababil.
The IDF has released video of the drone flying and being shot down. These drones appear to be based on Iranian Ababil drones, models of which have been exported to the Houthis in Yemen, and which the Houthis built and used against Saudi Arabia. The US has warned for years about the Iranian drone threat, including putting Iranian drones on display in Washington.
The IDF said on Wednesday that it "struck a squad of terrorists operating explosive UAV launchers belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip. The squad was struck while they were preparing to launch the UAV into Israeli territory."
Israel also said on Wednesday that the Iron Dome Aerial Defense System intercepted a Hamas UAV that crossed from Gaza into Israeli territory. Israel's Defense Ministry has said that the Iron Dome system has new capabilities, developed and made operational over the years, that make it effective against drones.
Why do drone threats matter? Because drones can carry warheads and also move slowly and may be able to maneuver. Most of the Iranian-style drones, which are called "loitering munitions" or "kamikaze" drones, are the kind that can be programmed to fly to a certain destination and then sent on their way.
They are launched from a rail and can be transported on a truck or even a boat and also launched that way. They have a propeller at the back. Gyroscope technology used in the drones for guidance links Iran to the drone exports that have gone to Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and even further afield, to be used in places like Sudan, Afghanistan and Venezuela, according to various reports.
Iran used drones to attack the Abqaiq oil-processing facilities in September 2019, which appeared to be a warning to Israel. Iran also used a drone flown from the T-4 base in Syria to attack Israel in 2018. It flew into Israeli airspace and was shot down by a helicopter. Iran also advised Hezbollah to send what Israel called a "killer drone" team to an area near the Golan in 2019. Israel struck that team.
There have been numerous drone incidents on the Lebanese border, and also several on the Syrian border. In addition, Israel's enemies have tried to shoot down Israeli drones. In March, the Israeli military said that, "during routine IDF UAV activity over Lebanon, anti-aircraft missiles were fired toward the UAV. The aircraft was not hit and continued its mission as planned."
Last month, Israel said that troops downed a drone and located an additional drone "belonging to the Hezbollah terror organization that crossed from Lebanon into Israeli airspace."
The IDF shot down another drone from Lebanon in January, as well as a drone that flew from Lebanon in November. There were also drone infiltrations in July and August.
In addition, Israel said it struck a drone site in September connected to Hamas in Gaza. Israel said in September 2019 that "a drone infiltrated into Israeli airspace from the Gaza Strip and dropped an explosive device on a military vehicle."
All this points to an increasing drone capability by Hamas, and this week's conflict has seen several references to Hamas's UAVs.
Israel uses several terms for drones, usually calling the smaller quadcopters rakhfanim, and the larger drones malatim, meaning a UAV.
The Hamas drones that resemble the Ababil will likely have a warhead on the front and some sort of guidance system. They have two sets of wings, one toward the rear and a smaller set in the front, looking like a flying fish with fins. They are slightly longer than the height of an average person.
Apparently, the design is relatively easy to manufacture because the Houthis have become experts at using drones to terrorize Saudi Arabia.
Some of these drones also have increasingly longer ranges. Concern in January pointed to a new drone based in Yemen among the Houthis, which had a 2,000-km. range that could reach Eilat.
Iran has long boasted that it has drones with ranges of thousands of kilometers, and has said it has increased the armaments it can put on the drones. That means Iran has a drone army that combines the kind of smart munition elements that cruise missiles have. And the drones can be operationalized in swarms.
Iran has also tried to copy the US Predator and Sentinel as well as other drones, adding munitions to them as has the US Reaper. However, Iran has had mixed success in this.
It also has mixed success supplying the Houthis, Hamas, Hezbollah or Iraq-based militias with a way to fly the drones with a live video feed or have them return to base. This means that Iran's drones are still quite antiquated, and that its allies like Hamas possess drones that have outdated aspects.
Hamas drones are a threat because they can maneuver and fly low, but they still may be a blend between aspects of the old, Israeli V-1 drones from the 1980s and cruise missiles. However, it is clear Iran is exporting its technology.
Iran first began using Ababils in the 1980s against Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war. They were built at a HESA factory (Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company) that is based on a factory once built by Textron, which constructed Bell 214 helicopters prior to 1979.
Today, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps often uses the Ababil drones, and this makes sense because the IRGC's Quds Force oversees support for Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.
It is believed that pro-Iran militias in Iraq have now used drones several times against US facilities. This points to a wider drone war being waged by Iran against Israel, Saudi Arabia, the US and others.
Israel ground forces mount at Gaza Border for possible invasion
Israel is preparing ground forces along the Gaza border for a possible invasion of the Palestinian enclave as Hamas launched more rockets at Israeli neighborhoods Thursday, like reported by voanews.com.
Air raid warnings sounded across southern Israel for the fourth consecutive day, while some rockets even reached as far north as Tel Aviv.
Israeli military forces say Hamas has fired 1,600 rockets across the border since Monday, with the majority intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system, while about 400 rockets fell short of their targets and landed inside Gaza.
Israel has responded to the rocket barrages with devastating air strikes on Hamas-controlled targets in Gaza, including Hamas rocket launch sites, intelligence offices and the homes of Hamas leaders.
Several commanders of the Hamas militant group have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, Hamas and Israel announced Wednesday. The dead commanders include Bassem Issa, the leader of Hamas' military operation in Gaza City, as well as the group's engineering chief and the heads of cyber warfare and rocket development.
At last count, at least 69 Palestinians have been killed in the air strikes, including at least 16 children and six women, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Seven Israelis have been killed in the rocket attacks, including a six-year-old girl.
The deadly exchange of rocket fire and airstrikes, the biggest fighting between the Palestinian militant group and Israeli forces since the 2014 war in Gaza, were sparked by growing unrest over control of Jerusalem and attempts by Jewish settlers to take over Arab-controlled communities.
The tensions have spilled over into the West Bank, where bloody clashes have broken out in several Arab-Jewish cities. Authorities have imposed a nighttime curfew in the central city of Lod, where at least one person was shot this week, while several hundred people in Lod and other cities have been arrested. A mob of right-wing Jewish residents in the town of Bat Yam brutally attacked an Arab motorist, beating him unconscious.
US reaction
U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday expressed his support for Israel's right to defend itself, while saying he hoped the fighting would end "sooner than later."
After U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke Wednesday with his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Gantz, the Pentagon released a statement saying Lloyd informed Gantz of the Pentagon's "ironclad support for Israel's legitimate right to defend itself and its people."
The statement said Lloyd "strongly condemned the launching of rockets by Hamas and other terrorists [sic] groups that targeted Israeli civilians" and "reiterated the importance of all involved parties to take steps to restore calm."
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken similarly condemned the Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians in a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, declaring "Israel has the right to defend itself" while the Palestinians must be afforded the right "to live in safety and security" while calling for deescalation.
Blinken also said he instructed Hady Amr, the deputy secretary of state for Israel and Palestinian affairs, to leave immediately for the Middle East to urge Israeli and Palestinian officials to deescalate.
Germany's justice minister, Christine Lambrecht, said Wednesday that Germany is "strongly on the side of Israel" and added it "has the right to defend itself."
Lambrecht also criticized recent anti-Semitic acts such as Israeli flag-burnings near synagogues in Germany, saying they show "nothing but horrible disrespect for human dignity."
During a conversation Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan voiced support for the Palestinians.
Erdogan said the global community should "give Israel a strong and deterrent lesson" over its attacks on Palestinians, according to Turkey's Presidential Communications Directorate.
The directorate said Erdogan suggested to Putin that the establishment of an international force to protect the Palestinians should be considered.
Emergency UN meeting
The U.N. Security Council was holding an emergency closed-door meeting Wednesday to discuss the situation. Sources say the United States is delaying efforts by the council to issue a formal statement on the escalating fighting out of concerns it could harm behind-the-scenes efforts to end the violence.
The recent violence follows weeks of mounting tensions and confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli troops in the city, sparked in part by Israeli plans to carry out evictions of Palestinian families in a neighborhood of east Jerusalem.
A lawsuit over the evictions has reached Israel's Supreme Court. However, the court postponed a key ruling in the case Monday, citing the "circumstances."
To avoid the clashes, Israeli organizers of a march to celebrate the Jewish state's 1967 capture of east Jerusalem altered its parade route to avoid the Muslim Quarter of the Old City.
Israel considers all of Jerusalem as its unified capital. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of a future state.
Islamic State media groups urge Palestinians to wage Jihad with knives, vehicles
In response to recent tensions between Palestinians and Israelis in Jerusalem, pro-Islamic State (ISIS) media groups released posters urging Palestinian Muslims to wage jihad against Israel and slamming "apostate factions of Palestine" – a reference to Hamas and other Gaza-based jihadi groups – for using "empty and hollow slogans." The posters follow calls to Palestinians by pro-ISIS media outlets and ISIS supporters to wage "uncompromising" jihad against Israelis and Jews, like reported by memri.org.
The pro-ISIS Al-Khayr Foundation released two posters titled: "And The Jews Were Frightened at the Approach Of Promises" – a phrase originally used by Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden to rally Muslims against Israel.
In the first poster, the media group warned Palestinians that "chants and slogans do not restore rights or expel a usurper [from your lands]." It also advised them to unite and wage jihad against Israelis, reminding them that "the religion is a book that guides and a sword that brings victory" and that "the Jews are the weakest nation and the most cowardly creations."
The second poster urged Muslim Palestinians to wage jihad against Israelis, whom it described as the "grandsons of monkeys and pigs." The poster also urged them to "kill them with any means available," such as knives and vehicles.
Warning Palestinians of "apostate factions of Palestine," the poster stated: "And do not be deceived by the empty and hollow slogans of the apostate factions of Palestine or of the unclean and cursed Rawafid [a derogatory term used by ISIS to refer to Iran]; their only concern is to trade you and your blood."
Addressing Muslim youths, the poster urged them to use knives and run over Israelis with their vehicles.
Meanwhile, the pro-ISIS Al-Battar Foundation released a poster titled "Palestine And the Trafficking of the Deviant Ones" depicting Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in flames above the Jerusalem skyline. The Arabic text on the poster accused the leaders of both Fatah and Hamas, and what it called "militias which receive their orders from Tehran and the UN," of having "sold Palestine" for nothing other than securing "their own safety and lavish funds."
Warning Palestinians that "apostates are selling them day and night," the poster urged them to rise up and wage jihad: "The solution is at your hands: waging jihad. It is the word that frightened the Christians and Jews everywhere."
Israel: IDF hits 130 targets in Gaza, eliminates 15 terrorists
Israeli forces struck over 100 targets across the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip overnight in response to a series of rocket attacks, an IDF spokesperson said Tuesday morning, like reported by israelnationalnews.com.
More than 130 terrorist targets were hit by Israeli airstrikes late Monday night and early Tuesday morning, after terrorists operating out of the Gaza Strip launched over 200 rockets into Israeli territory.
During the first and second wave of airstrikes, collectively dubbed 'Operation Guardian of the Walls', Israeli Air Force fighter aircraft, attack helicopters, and army drones struck weapons manufacturing facilities operated by Hamas.
In the third wave of airstrikes, IDF forces hit a series of Hamas and Islamic Jihad positions in Gaza, including additional weapons manufacturing facilities, military training camps, and the home of a senior Hamas military commander.
In addition, Israeli forces hit a Hamas military intelligence center in the Gaza Strip, along with two terror tunnels running close to the Israeli border.
IDF tank fire targeted terrorist positions across the Strip.
A total of 15 terrorists were confirmed as being eliminated in the Israeli strikes. The Gaza health authority claimed that a total of 24 people, including civilians, were killed in the airstrikes, with over 100 wounded.
The Israeli military announced Tuesday morning that Operation Guardian of the Walls would continue throughout the day.
"Our attacks are just the beginning," said IDF spokesperson Brig. Gen. Hidai Zilberman. "We have an intense day ahead of us, which will be a clear continuation of what we did last night."
"We will attack anyone who points their weapons at us or threatens us with terrorism."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently holding consultations with top security officials, including the IDF chief of staff, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, the Shin Bet chief, the National Security Adviser, and other top brass.


Simply does not seem to work, replacing € by ¬.
It's true that those methods are not tested, but is the syntax right?
Only samcv or some other core dev can provide an authoritative answer. This is my understanding of the code, comments, and results I see.
Specifying the $replacement argument matches a different P6 core multi method than not doing so. Let's call it the "replacer" code path.
The "replacer" code path passes the $replacement and $strict arguments onto a code path in nqp that in turn passes them onto a code path in the backend that handles replacements.
The nqp::decoderepconf function directly maps to a corresponding function in the backend.
On the MoarVM backend, it's MVM_string_decode_from_buf_config in ops.c.
This in turn calls MVM_string_decode_config in the same file.
Unlike MVM_string_decode, it will not pass through codepoints which have no official mapping.
For now windows-1252 and windows-1251 are the only ones this makes a difference on.
Spelunking the code and commits in the repo suggests the latter comment is slightly out-of-date because it looks like it should make a difference on shiftjis too.
The current code for MVM_string_decode_config does not pass on the replacement/strictness arguments to the MVM_string_ascii_decode and MVM_string_latin1_decode functions.
So, if you use the encoding "ascii" then the blob must only contain values between 0 and 127, and for "latin1" the values must be between 0 and 255.
The first string (as a Buf) fails to decode, and instead produces an error message, because 254 is more than 127 and the ascii decoder code in MoarVM reacts to an invalid value by throwing an exception with the "invalid ASCII" message.
But it's no better if you use a Buf with a larger element size. The result is still a ¬, combined with tofu. I can see even if I can't C so it's clear to me that the MVM_string_latin1_decode function in MoarVM that decodes latin1 does not throw exceptions. So presumably when it encounters character values outside the range 0-255 it turns the higher bytes into tofu.
1 Of course the very thing JJ is doing that led them to post this SO in the first place is fixing the doc. I added this footnote so that other later readers would understand that context and realize that this SO is leading to changes in the doc, and may lead to changes in the code, that will presumably render this SO moot due to the work done.
2 It would be nice if there were multis that rejected use of the $replacement argument if the decoder for the specified encoding doesn't do anything with it.
3 See timotimo++'s comment below.
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged encoding perl6 or ask your own question.


Your guarantor must be a full/core staff of the organization he/she works for.
You are expected to provide a clear copy of your guarantor's work ID card.
When you have all requirements set, you can click the button below to go to the application portal and apply.
Next articleGlobal Good Fund 2018/2019 Fellowships for young Social Entrepreneurs across the globe.
I would like to know if thats the correct link to apply to?
I would like to know if thats the right link to submit?


text:
White House violated law in freezing Ukraine aid: Government Accountability Office
President Donald J. Trump arrives at Miami Executive Airport Friday, Jan. 3, 2020, en route to an event at King Jesus International Ministry in Miami, Fla. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)
WASHINGTON - The White House violated federal law in withholding security assistance to Ukraine, an action at the center of President Donald Trump's impeachment, a federal watchdog agency said Thursday.
T he Government Accountability Office said in a report that the Office of Management and Budget violated the law in holding up the aid, which Congress passed less than a year ago, saying "the President is not vested with the power to ignore or amend any such duly enacted law." The aid in question was held up last summer on orders from Trump but was released in September after a whistleblower's complaint became public.
Download the FOX 5 DC News App for Local Breaking News and Weather
The independent agency, which reports to Congress, said OMB violated the Impoundment Control Act in delaying the security assistance Congress authorized for Ukraine for "policy reasons," rather than technical budgetary needs.
"Faithful execution of the law does not permit the President to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law," wrote the agency's general counsel, Thomas Armstrong, in the report.
Capitol Hill Democrats seized on the report as evidence of a lawless White House. led by Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, who is a key figure in the impeachment investigation of Trump. He is still officially the OMB director.
"Congress makes funding decisions, and the Trump Administration's illegal impoundment of these vital national security funds was a brazen assault on the checks and balances inherent to our democracy," said House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey, D-N.Y. "Given that this illegal conduct threatened our security and undermined our elections, I feel even more strongly that the House has chosen the right course by impeaching President Trump. No one is above the law."
OMB has argued the hold was appropriate and necessary.
"We disagree with GAO's opinion. OMB uses its apportionment authority to ensure taxpayer dollars are properly spent consistent with the President's priorities and with the law," said OMB spokeswoman Rachel Semmel.
Trump was impeached last month on charges of abusing his power for pressuring Ukraine to investigate Democratic rivals, as he was withholding the aid, and for obstructing Congress' ensuing probe. The Senate is set to begin its trial on Thursday.
The GAO finding concludes that the White House budget office "withheld the funds for an unauthorized reason in violation" of the Impoundment Control Act, a federal law that requires the executive branch to spend money that is appropriated by Congress.
The impoundment control law is rigorously adhered to by career officials in agency budget offices, who can face severe trouble for violating it.
© 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.