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Wellness Series:
Boredom, Creativity & The Great Outdoors
For the general population, the world of technology is a double-edged sword. In some ways, this may be an even larger truism for creatives. On one side, technology has further launched our craft: it's connected us even more closely with the greater creative community, it's provided a vast and impressive set of tools that enhance our abilities, and it's provided an expansive space for us to set our creations free. Yet, on the other side, with so many platforms, tools and ways to connect, it's also become quite a distraction. Some would even argue it's become a detriment to creativity and organic social function as a whole.
A Cry For Help
With all its wonder and possibility, large camps of users have decried divorce from their social media accounts and perhaps more so than ever, there's been a movement which routinely supports regular "digital detox." Let's pause on that for a moment. Detox— a word one reserved for a week of juice cleansing and hot yoga is now associated with the devices we depend on every day to perform our jobs, pay our bills, stay in tune with current events and generally move through our day-to-day. Our world has developed around technology in such a way that it's almost impossible to avoid, but it seems there's a growing concern that it's not only making us sick, it's crippling our ability to create and interact as we once did.
According to eMarkerter, 2019 marks the first time that US consumers will spend more time on their mobile devices than watching TV. Additionally, this year, the average US adult will spend an average of 3 hours a day on their phones, showcasing a 9-minute increase from 2018.
An average of three hours a day. That's an impressive amount of time when you really think about it. That's the entirety of the movie Titanic and the time allotment provided to complete the SAT — both relatively epic undertakings when it comes to sustained attention. But most people can relate to picking up their phone with the intention of simply responding to a text, only to look up and realize an hour or more has passed mindlessly scrolling through content we couldn't recall if we tried.
The Connection Between Bored & Creation
Robert Maynard Pirsig, a writer and philosopher well known for his book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance once said "boredom always precedes a period of great creativity." Even without research, for many of us a quick trip down memory lane proves this to be true. Most people who experienced childhood before the internet can probably recall how the long stretch of a summer day or one of those seemingly endless Saturday afternoons often yielded the invention of games with strange, abstract rules; haphazard, yet sprawling pillow forts, and the general craze of boredom-fueled, kiddish calamity. But for the science-minded, there actually is research proving that tedium and time unplugged are a few of creativity's best allies.
In a 2017 tech podcaster Manoush Zomorodi gave a Ted Talk titled, "How Boredom Can Lead to Your Most Brilliant Ideas." Zomorodi reached out to neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists alike and found that boredom ignites a sort of default mode in the brain. It causes the body to go into autopilot, triggering a subconscious wandering that opens the mind to unique neural connections which typically happens while doing things like folding laundry, driving or walking: the kinds of activities you don't really have to think about. But because we spend so much time texting and updating, we're never alone with our thoughts and never allowed the opportunity for our mind to drift and enter this sweet spot — this autopilot mode that allows our creativity to freely move about the cabin.
Nature's Effect on The Creative Brain
Repetitive physical action seems to be what triggers this default mode the most which is also why researchers have found such a huge connection between being active in the great outdoors and general mental wellness. In fact, after about ten years of research, neuroscientist David Strayer discovered that time spent in nature, without a cell phone, was one of the most powerful ways to take a time-out from the constant distraction of the digital world and to strengthen the mind.
In a 2012 study discussed in an article for Outside Online Strayer gave backpackers a range of cognitive tests both before and after spending an average of four days on the trail. Participants were given sets of words (such as blue, cake, cottage) and asked to figure out the unifying word (cheese). The study found that backpackers were 50 percent more creative after they had spent time on the trail and performed twice as well on the tests. "People were actually solving the problems more creatively after they had unplugged in nature," Strayer said.
Another study, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine followed participants who spent 25 minutes walking in three types of urban environments throughout Edinburgh, Scotland: a shopping street, a path through a park and a street in a busy commercial district. The EEG equipment provided recordings from five different channels which were labeled: short-term excitement (or frustration) engagement, long-term excitement (or arousal) and meditation. When the participants moved into the green zone there was evidence of lower levels of arousal, engagement and frustration and higher levels of meditation. When participants moved through the shopping street and commercial district, the levels of engagement, frustration and arousal spiked.
Alfa Charlie's Mission
As creatives based in San Diego just blocks from the beach there's no shortage of naturally beautiful vistas. But sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle and realize we haven't looked up from our screens in the last four hours. Yet, we both know and have experienced how beneficial time away from our desks and our screens is for both our physical and mental health.
We are huge believers in taking a break to walk in the sand and breathe in those famous Ocean Beach sunsets. And we are in immense support of heading to the mountains — or anywhere without cell service — to refresh our minds. In fact, it's part of our creative mission here at Alfa Charlie to organize group hikes and outdoor adventures for our creative community to take part in. We want to encourage reconnecting with nature and moving our bodies. We want to get reacquainted with boredom. And most of all, we want to make some space for that little elusive spark of genius.


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Q: How to convert any video to 3GP? How do I convert video (of any format) to 3GP, so that I can play it on my cellphone?
(The OS is Windows XP.)

A: FFMpeg will convert almost anything to almost anything else, including 3GP.
Ready-built Windows versions are available, e.g. http://ffmpeg.arrozcru.org/

A: My son (a tech nut) uses Allok Media Converter and I concur, it is fantastic.  It pretty much converts anything to anything.  I looked and found it does convert to 3GPP.  It is very easy to use and simply just works.

A: I did a fair bit of conversion when I was using the early N-Series Nokia phones with 3GP Converter. It's very simple to use basically drag and drop.
Just a general tip too, I find that videohelp.com is very useful for links and guides to using conversion software.

A: Try SUPER. It has a good interface, IMHO. You could also try FFMPEG (address leading to Windows builds) which converts to almost everything. It's very easy to use if you need basic things.
For example to convert a video to 3gp you just do: ffmpeg.exe -i infile.ext outfile.3gp. It tries to take the best settings (same as the source) and converts the video.

A: The simplest software I've found to do this is Convert 3gp (I've used this to convert to PSP mp4 in the past)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


How many times have you met with patients after starting them on the Enlite® sensor and the key concept of "calibration" dominates the session?
If you have ever wished you had some additional techniques in your arsenal to educate patients on sensor best practices, help has arrived. I am going to share with you some tips and tricks that will take your mastery of calibration techniques to expert levels—which you in turn can pass on to your patients.
In order for you and your patients to become experts on calibration, you should be conducting regular reviews of the reports generated by the CareLink® Personal Therapy Management software. The CareLink reports serve as virtual logbooks, so you can help patients accurately track their insulin intake and glucose levels, making it easier to compare any changes in glucose levels with daily activities such as meals and exercise routines. The charts and graphs included in the reports allow you and your patients to see changes visually, while tables provide detailed numeric values.
Having this valuable information at your fingertips can help you discover patterns and problems more easily and make therapy adjustments faster and more accurately than with meter software and logbooks alone. For example, the CareLink Daily Detail Reports show you exactly how your patients are using the MiniMed® 530G with Enlite® on a daily basis. This report will assist you in teaching your patients proper calibration techniques.
The information gleaned from CareLink reports can be leveraged to reinforce patients' positive behaviors—such as responding to alarms appropriately—as well as areas that may need improvement.
When there are no arrows present on the display screen (stability).
Note: Calibrating with 2 "down" arrows may decrease accuracy until the next calibration.
It's important to enter blood glucose (BG) readings immediately after testing BG for accurate calibration. The Bayer CONTOUR®NEXT LINK meter will wirelessly transmit BG results to the pump. Accurate BG results will help to ensure accurate calibration of the sensor.
Calibration should take place when glucose levels are less likely to be changing rapidly—before meals, before insulin, and when there are no arrows present. In addition, calibrating before bedtime allows patients to sleep through the night without experiencing calibration reminder alarms. Be sure to remind your patients that the sensor needs a current calibration in order for glucose alarms to function correctly.
For more information on sensor calibration, refer patients to Medtronic Diabetes' "Calibrating Your Sensor" tips.
Once patients have mastered the basics, it's time to move on to advanced techniques.
Use 1 meter to calibrate. Using more than one meter to calibrate may result in inaccuracy. The CONTOUR®NEXT LINK meter is the only blood glucose meter labeled by the FDA as part of the MiniMed® 530G with Enlite® system. The same meter should be used consistently, especially for boluses and calibrations.
In the event of a calibration error, wait 15 minutes to recalibrate, wash hands, and recheck BG. Recalibrate if appropriate.
Less is more: Most of your patients should only need to calibrate 3 to 4 times per day. The sensor glucose reading is a 4-calibration average. Calibrating the sensor during a rapid rise or fall may confuse the algorithm, leading to unwanted alarms and sensor errors.
Now that you are armed with these tips, it's time to put them into practice during your training and therapy review sessions. Good luck and happy training!
ANIMATED PATIENT VIDEO: THE D-FORCE DOES IT AGAIN!
To reinforce your calibration training with patients, you can share this MiniMed FUNdamentals animated video with them. This fun-focused "Sensor Glucose Values and Calibrating" video is part of a series featuring the MiniMed D-Force, with voice-overs from actual Medtronic patients. Each member of the D-Force represents a different type of patient from the D-Type Quiz: Busy Bee, Adventurer, Champion, D-tective, or Trendsetter. In this installment, members of the D-Force work together to troubleshoot issues that can affect accurate sensor calibration.
Be sure to let your patients know about the MiniMed® Connect, an innovative tool for mobile devices that will be available starting this fall. The MiniMed Connect links the MiniMed insulin pump and continuous glucose monitor (CGM) to your patients' iPhone® or iPod touch®, allowing you—and your patients—online access to their CareLink® data anywhere, anytime.
With most patients relying on insurance coverage for insulin pump therapy and CGM, access and reimbursement are top of mind for patients as well as their care teams. With that in mind, we wanted to share with you some exciting news about a new Medtronic Diabetes ICD-10 tool as well as an update on expanding coverage. In turn, we hope you will pay it forward by passing this important information on to the providers and front office staff in your practice.
Medtronic Diabetes has developed a "Crosswalk Tool" to help ease the transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10. Healthcare professionals (HCPs) will be able to enter an ICD-9 code into the Medtronic Diabetes Crosswalk Tool. Where there's a match, the equivalent ICD-10 code will be available. If there is no 1:1 match, HCPs can visit a coding resource such as the American Hospital Association's Coding Clinic® website at www.codingclinicadvisor.com for additional guidance.
For patients with commercial health insurance who are candidates for sensor-augmented pump (SAP) therapy, it's important to stay up-to-date on plans that are now offering coverage that may not have in the past. Nearly ALL (99.5%) commercial plans now cover the MiniMed® 530G with Enlite® for qualified patients, giving them access to the only diabetes management system with Threshold Suspend® technology. Meanwhile, efforts continue to obtain CGM coverage for Medicare patients—see related article in this issue.
CareLink® Personal Therapy Management software. Medtronic Diabetes. http://www.medtronicdiabetes.com/treatment-and-products/carelink-personal-diabetes-software. Accessed May 19, 2015.
ContourNextPRO: CONTOUR®NEXT LINK communicates wirelessly with Medtronic insulin devices for seamless integration. Bayer Diabetes Care. http://www.contournextpro.com/Blood-Glucose-Monitoring/NEXTProducts/CONTOUR-Next-Link. Accessed June 22, 2015.
Sensors & transmitters: Calibrating your sensor. Medtronic Diabetes. https://www.medtronicdiabetes.com/customer-support/sensors-and-transmitters-support/calibration-sensor. Accessed May 19, 2015.
How to increase sensor glucose accuracy and when to calibrate your MiniMed insulin pump [YouTube video]. Medtronic Diabetes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIJsdmzkG9o. Accessed May 19, 2015.
What's your D-type? Medtronic Diabetes Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/medtronicdiabetes/app_676985679042024. Accessed May 19, 2015.
When to calibrate the Enlite® CGM sensor [YouTube video]. Medtronic Diabetes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq1dFylnNvU. Accessed May 26, 2015. Introducing MiniMed® Connect. Medtronic Diabetes. http://www.medtronicdiabetes.com/treatment-and-products/minimed-connect. Accessed June 17, 2015.
Crosswalk-Medtronic: ICD-10 compliance. Medtronic Diabetes Professional website. http://www.professional.medtronicdiabetes.com/crosswalk. Accessed June 30, 2015.
AHA Coding Clinic® Advisor. American Hospital Association. http://www.codingclinicadvisor.com. Accessed June 30, 2015.


Fairy trees, imaginary apartments, and creative inventions greeted IRW and author Ellen Potter during a whirlwind tour of three schools in Washington County. The first stop was at Pembroke Elementary where projects based on her three books ("Piper Green and the Fairy Tree," "Olivia Kidney" and "Slob") adorned the hallways and classrooms.
While discussing the art of writing with Ellen, some students spoke about their own writing habit, "I like to write because it inspires me to go forward ….[with my dream]," and another proclaimed, "Writing takes you to a whole different world." We couldn't agree more. The Pembroke visit was topped off with a Literacy and Math night where we got to share tales of the day with parents.
Jonesport Elementary was next where the pre-K-kindergarten group had made a huge wall fairy tree with treasures to be left in the fairy tree. The whole display was made as a family project with parents and kids doing everything from twisting the branches, to sewing the kitten that gets stuck in the tree in the story, to ornate fairy villages. On the fairy trading cards that they created with Ellen, they came up with all sorts of super powers from super vision, very fast, invisible, and love, to super slow! Of course IRW also loved the super power of a pencil so that one could draw or write whatever they needed to be safe.
A second grader was heard to say, "I never thought I'd meet a real author!" to which Ellen replied, "I never thought I'd meet a student from Jonesport!" With older students, Ellen reiterated that you can start writing at any time; you don't need to wait till you're a certain age. She also reminded them not to talk themselves into a negative tail spin; go for a walk, move, change your scenery and refresh – good advice for us all.
There was a real tea party awaiting us on day three at Beals Elementary. Pre-K-kindergarten students and parents welcomed us with a proper tea, tablecloths, cookies and of course a fairy house diorama and lively questions for Ellen.
Students in grades 1-2 are budding writers and had drawn and described their own tree, tidal pool or bedroom! Such is life on an island!
Grades 3 & 4 read "Olivia Kidney" closely and had terrific questions for Ellen about the characters, apartment living, about writing about what you don't know, and what most shocked them!
"Slob" book discussion brought up the reasons for the main protagonist, Owen, doing what he did in the book and students realized that perhaps it was his way of letting go of his sadness. As prep for Ellen's visit they had watched some of the retro TV shows mentioned in the story, had taken online IQ tests, and talked about appropriate height and weight – all elements of "Slob." Another student shared, "I like when authors start the story with something that grabs you…mystery" — like Ellen.
All three of these schools, and two schools that Ellen visited last fall, are participating in a new IRW project, WordCraft, where they can opt in to work on an online platform to hone their writing and connect with further with Ellen. We can't wait to see what these budding writers come up with as our pilot group of WordCrafters!


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Brisbane Heat captain Chris Lynn is one of the big hitters desperate to ignite the latest BBL competition. Picture: AAP
Grab a coldie, Big Bash becoming a summer hit
Anthony Breeze
20th Dec 2019 8:00 AM
BOMBER'S BLAST
CRICKET lovers are in for a smorgasbord of action over the Christmas period with games to be played nearly every day.
The Big Bash League has started and will take centre stage in most cricketing households around the country with a Boxing Day Test against the Kiwis mixed in between.
For lovers of fast and furious cricket action, the BBL hasn't come quick enough with the coloured uniforms dusted off and players keen to smash the ball over the fence. Bookmakers can't really decide who will win this year's competition with a host of teams vying for favouritism.
The Brisbane Heat were at the top of the list but after suffering a first-round loss have dropped to the second line of betting.
The new favourites are the Melbourne Stars. However, they have a host of teams on their tail with the Renegades, Sixers, Strikers, Thunder and Hurricanes nipping at their heels.
The outsiders are three-time winners in the Perth Scorchers ($11).
If you haven't been to a Heat game, I suggest you buy a ticket and take your child along as the carnival-like atmosphere makes it a great night out.
Record effort
A QUALITY quarterback in the NFL is a must if you hold any hopes of winning a Superbowl.
Over the years, we have witnessed some of the all-time greats throw their team to victory on the big day. Players that immediately come to mind are New England Patriot Tom Brady, Indianapolis Colt/Denver Bronco Peyton Manning, Falcon/Packer/Jet/Viking Brett Favre and Miami Dolphin Dan Marino.
Marino threw 420 passing touchdowns, Favre 508, Brady currently 538 and Manning 539.
Another name has risen to the top of the passing touchdown list. He is the quarterback for the New Orleans Saints in Drew Brees.
Brees started his career in 2001 and has now thrown a record 541 touchdowns.
SAINTS: 1. Hannah Green capped off a tremendous year being awarded the Greg Norman Medal for Australia's best golfer. Watch out for her in 2020.
2. Fallon Sherrock. Mark down this woman's name as the first female ever to defeat a male at the PDC World Darts Championships. Watch out men you will be hearing a lot more from her.
3. Jeff Horn. Most boxing pundits had written him off but he displayed the courage and tenacity that we all know he possesses to defeat Michael Zerafa. The Hornet can now seriously start planning his next fight.
Sinners: 1. Kevin Pietersen. Calling Brisbane a dump continues the dribble that has been coming out of his mouth since he retired.
2. Tiger Woods. This man can play golf and has just captained the USA to President's Cup glory. But having a whinge about the Aussie crowds was poor. Are you telling me Tiger that the American crowds are well behaved?
Sporting birthdays: 1. Chris Evert (64). American tennis player who won a remarkable 18 singles and three doubles Grand Slam titles.
2. Karrie Webb (45). Regarded as Australia's greatest ever golfer achieving 41 LPGA wins more than any current day active player.
3. Doug Walters (74). One of Australia's best Test batsmen averaging 48.26 and a true Aussie Larrikin.
On this day: 1. James Naismith published rules for a new game using five basic ideas and 13 rules. It was nine v nine using a soccer ball and two peach baskets. That game today is called basketball.
2. Don Bradman scores his second consecutive duck as Australia is bowled out for 80 in the 2nd Test in Sydney in 1936. Bradman only lasted three balls in these two innings.
Bomber's best: I tipped the Brisbane Heat to open their BBL account on Tuesday but unfortunately they suffered a first-up loss.
This week, I am heading to the NBL where I tip the Breakers and 36ers to win.
THIS is my last column for 2019 so I would like to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas and a safe new year.
The sporting action doesn't stop so sit back, grab a coldie and enjoy the action.
See you all in 2020.
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In the final issue of AOS News for 2017 read details of outreach work with remote communities and an item about Marie Curie's place as a role model for modern female scientists. There is also news from SPIE and the general optics community in Australia, and our 'Optics in Everyday Life' section looks at the history and evolution of camera lenses. There is also a report on the number of papers on laser physics and photonics published in Australia that investigates how well we're doing compared to the rest of the world.


"A new study has identified a bacterial blueprint for chronic fatigue syndrome, offering further evidence that it is a physical disease with biological causes and not a psychological condition." - NY Times, July 2016.
Congratulations to Dr Kirsten Coppell who received funding from the Health Research Council of New Zealand for her project: What predicts regression from prediabetes to normal glucose regulation?
Vagal nerve stimulation is used to treat epilepsy and depression and more recently has been found to be potentially beneficial for the treatment of obesity. However, the mechanism by which vagal stimulation causes weight loss is unclear. The vagus nerve innervates many intrathoracic and intra-abdominal organs to regulate their function and also contains sensory fibers that monitor intestinal nutrients and volume. Now, Williams et al. have begun to specifically examine the connections between the gut and the brain.
Position statement of Faecal Occult Blood [FOB] testing on Asymptomatic People.
The first announcement of the World Gastro Conference 2016 has just been made. This year the conference will be held in Abu Dhabi, UAE, 17-19 November.


On behalf of The Law Offices of James A. Cuddy, LLC posted in Child Custody on Friday, January 31, 2014.
Changing the way in which judges resolve disputes over the custody of children has been the focus of a legislative task force in Connecticut. One of the questions legislatures are hoping the task force will resolve is whether the state should abandon the traditional policy of allowing judges to award child custody to just one parent. Proponents of shared custody argue that the best interests of the child favor a system under which both parents share equally in raising a child.
Traditionally, judges in divorce or child custody proceeds have been limited to resolve custody disputes by designating one party as the custodial parent and granting visitation to the other. The limitation with such arrangements has been that the noncustodial parent is usually removed from having an influence on the day-to-day decisions associated with raising a child. Supporters of shared parenting contend that a law favoring joint custody, except in cases where there is evidence proving substance abuse or domestic violence on the part of one of the parents, is preferable to the current system that exists in most states.
Some people suggest that as important as maintaining a relationship between a parent and a child might be, doing so through child custody orders mandating equal parenting time might invite further bickering and conflict between the parents. Some states have responded to this criticism of equal time with each parent by considering proposals for joint custody in which there is a reasonably equal sharing of time.
Both sides in the debate over child custody agree on the importance of maximizing the ability of both parents to be involved in raising a child. An attorney might be of assistance to a parent who has questions and concerns about child custody and shared parenting.


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Home » News » Open Source Software » Office on a USB Stick: LibreOffice Portable
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Office on a USB Stick: LibreOffice Portable
in Open Source Software on September 13, 2011 . 0 Comments.
Your Portable Office on a USB Flash Drive
You're on the road often, and like to carry a USB flash drive with an encrypted backup of your most important data, as well as a few handpicked applications that run straight from the USB drive and without the need to install anything on the host computer? You're in need for a portable office and productive suite?
Our recommendation to you is LibreOffice Portable, a full-blown office suite that runs from any USB flash drive with a capacity of more than 128MB and enables you to work with an amazing set of productivity tools for professional editing of documents and spreadsheets.
LibreOffice each consists of six applications, called Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base, and Math in both. The modules provide word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, business graphics, database management, and formula editing, respectively.
If you've been using Linux or any other open source software, chances are that you have heard about OpenOffice, which for many years used to be the leading free open source alternative to Microsoft Office suite, that's rich in functions and well documented.
StarOffice to OpenOffice, from OpenOffice to LibreOffice
OpenOffice started as early as back in the late '90s - yeah those where the days - and originated as StarOffice by the German company StarDivision, that became a popular alternative to Microsoft Office in the European markets. During the following years by Sun Microsystems and as an open source project. After picking it up, Sun changed the name of the product to OpenOffice.org and released its code as open source.
OpenOffice managed to retain popularity within professional enterprise users, also because of its cross-platform capabilities and the no-cost license.
However and when Oracle acquired Sun in 2009, the future of OpenOffice.org stated to change and many of the important core OpenOffice developers where not happy with the new changes and licenses that Oracle started to impose, and one developer after the other started to distance them self from the project and many joined together to form LibreOffice. LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice, and works and feels very similar to the well-know open source office suite we've known now for so many years and that many of us has learned to prefer above the closed-source and proprietary office version also know as Microsoft Office.
LibreOffice Pre-Loaded on Your USB Flash Drives
One of the main difference, is that LibreOffice is being developed in an open source community-driven way, and without any intervention by Oracle.
LibreOffice reads and writes to most office formats, and you can export and import files also the most common Microsoft Word formats, PDF as well as OpenOffice.org's OpenDocument file formats, Microsoft Works, Lotus Word Pro, WordPerfect and many other commonly used document file formats..
Writer - the main WYSIWYG editor and Word editor - includes a new dialog box that makes it easier to format document title pages. Perhaps one of the most significant new features of LibreOffice is now finally the support for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) files in Writer, Impress, and Draw. SVG is an open standard for vector-based graphics that can be exported from many popular drawing applications, including Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft Visio, and many CAD programs.
With the new release of LibreOffice Portable you can now run a full Office Suite from your USB stick, and carry your most important documents and the means to read and edit them from any computer and just by inserting the USB flash drive into a host computer and launching LibreOffice directly from the USB stick.
You can also order branded USB flash drives with LibreOffice from MemoTrek with the full LibreOffice preloaded onto the a separate partition on the USB drive against a small fee for the data preloading. Feel free to ask your MemoTrek account manager for more or just go ahead and contact us now!
Tags: USB Software, Portable Software, LibreOffice Last update: October 27, 2014
USB Flash Drive Security: Encrypt Your Data with TrueCrypt
LibreOffice: 3.4.2 Ready for Enterprise Users
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Clearing the Water The real story behind activist groups' favorite case studies.
Groups like Food & Water Watch – as well as their national and international allies, like Corporate Accountability International, In the Public Interest and Public Services International Research Unit – regularly distort the private water experience in just a handful of cities to make their ideological case against private water. Over and over again, critics point to these seven cities to argue that private water doesn't work.
But their favorite "case studies" contain more fiction than fact. Activist groups rely on partial timelines, made-up facts and biased reports to paint a purposefully misleading picture of what happened during private operation – and more importantly, what's happened since.
In 1999, the Atlanta City Council signed a 20-year, $428 million contract with United Water to operate Atlanta's water system. However, by 2003, the two parties ended the contract. Water activists claim that the partnership between Atlanta and United resulted in lost jobs, declining water quality, higher rates, backlogged maintenance and unrealized cost savings. In fact, the system had no water quality issues and no public employees lost their jobs. In addition, critic claims about maintenance backlogs and cost savings don't tell the full story. After moving back under public control, Atlanta's water system has been plagued with problems, from skyrocketing water rates to faulty meters and erratic billings – information conveniently ignored by water activists. As of 2011, Atlanta had the highest water rates of any major U.S. city, and inconsistent and incorrect billings even led to a class-action lawsuit against the City. Learn more about the true story in Atlanta.
In 2002, American Water asked the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) for approval to raise rates in Felton by 57 percent over three years, citing an urgent need for infrastructure repairs. The water rate increase, approved by the state CPUC, spurred some public opposition, and a local grassroots organization formed to push for a government takeover, or condemnation, of the water system. After six years of American Water operations, the system was brought under government control via eminent domain. Activists like Food & Water Watch call Felton a "great victory" and applaud the current operations model, claiming water costs have decreased since condemnation in 2008. In reality, water rates increased a total of 67 percent under government ownership between 2008 and 2016, about three times faster than condemnation proponents promised. And when the San Lorenzo Valley Water District Board proposes additional rate increases, local residents are largely ignored and no longer can rely upon a transparent CPUC rate-setting process to air their concerns. Learn more about the true story in Felton.
In 1998, the Gary Sanitary District (GSD) awarded a 10-year, $95 million contract to United Water to operate the city's wastewater treatment facility and sewage collection system. In 2008, the contract was extended for five additional years. However, in 2010, the two parties agreed to end the engagement after a series of disputes. Water activists claim that the experience in Gary "underscores how a private water company can prioritize profits over human and environmental health." But in reality, before United took over operation in 1998, an EPA environmental engineer called the Gary Sanitary District the "most poorly operated sewage facility in the Midwest," and the EPA considered the system incompliant. Just one year after the public-private partnership began, United and Gary received the U.S. Conference of Mayors' Outstanding Achievement Award. When the contract was renewed in 2008, the president of the Gary Sanitary District said, "This public-private partnership has served Gary area residents well… We have made tremendous strides working with United Water during the past decade." Learn more about the true story in Gary.
In 2002, Indianapolis signed a 20-year, $1.5 billion deal with Veolia to manage the city's water system. However, the two sides agreed to end the deal in 2010. Food & Water Watch (FWW) has claimed the experience in Indianapolis "illustrates why the movement to stop the privatization of water is gaining momentum around the world." However, critics fail to note that after exiting the Veolia contract, the Indianapolis water system has experienced job cuts, worker benefit cuts, and rate hikes. Double-digit rate increases occurred in 2011, 2012, and 2014, and the system is currently seeking another 20% water rate increase. Learn more about the true story in Indianapolis.
In 1998, United Water entered into a 10-year, $300 million agreement with the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) to provide wastewater treatment services. Milwaukee officials expected to save an estimated $130 million, or 34 percent of the sewer service cost over the term of the contract. Water activists claim the private operator was at fault for various problems with the city's system, including sewage overflows and pump shutdowns. In reality, United's operations in Milwaukee saved residents $144 million in the first nine years of its contract, beating projected savings by a wide margin. In addition, city overseers didn't blame United for the issues that arose and, in fact, applauded the company's work. While critics attempt to blame United for every issue, facts from independent sources tell the real story. Learn more about the true story in Milwaukee.
In 2010, city officials in Missoula, Montana, launched an effort to purchase Mountain Water, the privately owned local water system. Following a breakdown in negotiations, the mayor led the city into a government takeover, or condemnation, of the water system using eminent domain laws. After several delays, Missoula was successful in taking over the system in 2016, but it came at a high cost for taxpayers. Advocates originally argued that the system could be purchased for $43 million, yet the final cost surpassed $105 million. The city spent 20 times its legal fee budget for the takeover, amounting to millions of dollars in cost overruns. After convincing the public that a takeover would lower costs, rates immediately increased 6% under government ownership. Learn more about the true story in Missoula.
From 2012 to 2015, the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority (PWSA) maintained a peer consulting arrangement with Veolia, where a small group of Veolia employees worked alongside more than 200 PWSA employees to improve day-to-day operations and share industry best practices. Despite the fact that the water system in Pittsburgh has been owned and operated by the government for decades, activists try to blame Veolia for PWSA's longstanding problems, including $1 billion in total debt; deferred investment in infrastructure, illustrated by an average water mainline age of over 70 years; longstanding billing and customer service issues; and recurring water mainline breaks leading to millions of dollars in lost water and repair costs. Given all of these issues, it is shocking that critics and activists continue to argue that the status quo of continued public operation is the right path forward for PWSA. Learn more about the true story in Pittsburgh.
Sponsored by National Association of Water Companies ©2019.


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Carol Martini - 'Hit Man'
Carol Martini, a prolific songwriter from Orange County, California. She recently released her 7th CD titled, 'The Art Of Singing While Drowning'. This CD of 23 songs reflects her ability to fill a song cataglog to the top. The album represents an amalgamation of styles; she covers rock, pop-rock, folk-rock and adult-contemporary. there are even songs that would work for theater and film. Previous releases include: The Story So Far, Piece By Piece, Modern Loneliness, The Rose In The Boxcar, Petals Of The Red Magnolia and Songs Of The Girl On The Swing. Carol has been a staple in the Southern California coffeehouse circut. She plays weekly in venues including coffee houses, small clubs, book/music stores. Her performances feature acoustic guitar versions of her original songs - she is known for her approachable and warm connection with her audience.
Her single "Hit Man" (produced by Daniel Martin) is a hihgly entertaining song and a great way to get know Carol. The song is loosely based on Phil Spector, the infamous producer with a multitude of hits who was convicted of murder. Although the songn is not about Spector per say, it does tell a similar story. Carol uses the term "hit man" to describe a person who puts out hit records then turns to a life of crime( a hit man with gun in hand,) when the records stop selling. Commencing with four strong cymbal hits, "Hit Man" is out of the gate with a pop-rock vibe. The rocking instrumentals feature a captivating blend of pulsing drums, ambient electric organ, crunchy guitar, and bass.
Carol begins the story singing, "He was a master in the studio/ he knew how to get those golden sounds/he tookbands to the top of the charts/he made those gold records go round and round." Not before long, the energy picks up with background vocals from Carol as she begins to sing about the downfall of the "Hit Man." Followed up by an easily remembered chorus, one of Carol's great gifts is her ability to write songs with strong hooks and melodies that get stuck in your head long after you hear them. She also has a flare for storytelling with twists and turns.
With a certain nostalgic feeling, Carol Martini's "Hit Man" offers up entertaining pop-rock with strong story-telling and a cathcy hook that gets stuck in your head long after you hear it and puts a smile on your face.
For more information about Carol Martini or to check out her extensive song library and release, please visit her website.
#CarolMartinHitMan #IndependentMusicReviews
Echoheart - 'Void'
Austin Mulka - 'Soul'
Rooftop Heroes - 'Heroes'


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Basematerial
Membrane touch, RFID
In mold electronics
Strechable electronics
Low temperature curing
Heaters & Kapton Inks
Printed bio sensor
PCB circuitry
Electroluminescent
OLED/LED/touch panel
CHASM transparent conductor
Ceramic Circuits
Dielectric & Encapsulants
Low temperature cofired ceramic (LTCC)
Bonding wires
Special substrates
Plating on plastic
Precious metal recovery
Gold and alloys plating
Quality & Certificates
Agfa and CCI Eurolam expand their co-operation
Mortsel (Belgium), 30 August 2006 - Agfa and CCI Eurolam announce that they expand their co-operation. In September 2005 CCI Eurolam was appointed as distributor in France for Agfa's film and chemicals dedicated to the Printed Circuit Boards (PCB) industry. As from September 2006 CCI Eurolam will also cover Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark.
Through this expanded agreement, both companies will be able to offer their customers high quality products, service and support at the best cost.
Agfa's Specialty Products business unit offers high-quality film-based consumables in the business-to-business market. For the motion picture market it supplies sound recording film and color print film on which copies of the master version of a movie are printed. Other main products are microfilm and film for non-destructive testing. Furthermore Specialty Products' portfolio includes solutions for aerial photography, for thermal printing, for the production of printed circuit boards, security identification cards and passports and for use in electroluminescent lamps, touch screens and displays. It also produces PET film and custom designed bases for various applications.
CCI EUROLAM is a leading European distributor for the Printed Circuits Industry.
About Agfa
The Agfa-Gevaert Group is one of the world's leading imaging and information technology companies. Agfa develops, manufactures and markets analogue and digital systems for the printing industry (Agfa Graphics), the healthcare sector (Agfa HealthCare) and film related products and specific industrial applications (Agfa Materials). Agfa's headquarters are in Mortsel, Belgium. The company is present in 40 countries and has agents in another 100 countries throughout the world. The Agfa-Gevaert Group achieved a turnover of 3,308 million Euro in 2005.
More information is to be found on www.agfa.com or mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
About CCI EUROLAM
CCI EUROLAM based in France, Germany and UK is the leading European supplier of advanced products for fabricating Printed Circuits Boards.
CCI EUROLAM is offering a wide range of products and services for the PCB industry as well as a strong technical support.
The company is active in European and Mediterranean countries and turnover of 2006 should be around 21 millions Euros.
More information is to be found on www.ccieurolam.com
© 2020 CCI Eurolam


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New United routes for Spring Travel
Ozgur Tore
United Airlines (UAL) will offer customers more opportunities to travel from five of its U.S. hubs to 10 cities in California, Florida, Montana, New York, North Carolina, Oregon and Texas beginning in April 2018.
Additionally, the airline announced it will optimize its O'Hare International Airport (ORD) schedule to provide shorter connection times and more options for customers connecting through Chicago.
New year round service
United will now serve Wilmington, North Carolina from Chicago and Washington Dulles and Elmira, New York from New York/Newark. The full list of new routes includes:
El Paso (ELP)
2 flights daily
Wilmington (ILM)
Jacksonville (JAX)
1 flight daily
Redmond (RDM)
New York/Newark (EWR)
Elmira (ELM)
Washington-Dulles (IAD)
New seasonal daily service from Chicago (ORD) and Los Angeles (LAX)
With United's new summer service, more customers will have easier access to popular outdoor destinations like Yosemite National Park near Fresno; Glacier National Park near Kalispell and Yellowstone National Park near Missoula.
Fresno (FAT)
Kalispell (FCA)
Enhancing operations in Chicago
Beginning in February 2018, a newly enhanced bank structure at O'Hare will mean shorter connection times and better access to more destinations for customers connecting through the carrier's Chicago hub. This operations enhancement, already in place at United's Houston hub, will enable United to greatly improve connectivity throughout its industry-leading global route network.


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Opinion Against the tide
Against the tide: Central bank forward guidance for doves
Published on: Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Dovish forward guidance from the European Central Bank has been followed by a similar approach from the Bank of England.
'Forward guidance' is the new buzz phrase after the main European Central Bank (ECB) meetings in July. Since US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke launched his guidance about the imminent tapering of the Fed's asset purchase programme in June, the other central banks have jumped on this new bandwagon.
The ECB's new forward guidance was classically woolly: current policy would be held for "not six months, not 12 months, but for an extended period", said ECB president Mario Draghi. But this is the most dovish the ECB has ever sounded. Offering forward guidance is a big shift in monetary policy terms.
It is ironic that the ECB has chosen to act now after the withdrawal of liquidity from markets triggered by the realization that Fed tapering might begin sooner rather than later. But then the downside risks to the ECB's inflation target have been obvious for several quarters. The peripheral debt crisis itself is deflationary in character, and even the upside risks the ECB still mentions are disinflationary in the longer term (tax increases and higher commodity prices, both negative for demand).
So the ECB needs to be more aggressively dovish if it is to meet its inflation mandate. Rates might well be cut further and, if tapering in the US creates a lasting squeeze on global liquidity, the ECB will have to do even more to prevent monetary conditions from tightening. A further round of long-term refinancing operations (liquidity injections) for the banks might be one route to negate a rise in the real interest rate, although it is questionable how effective this would be given the tendency of banks to repay this funding.
The euro exchange rate will be more critical to this process. Euro resilience earlier in the year was in part because the market misread the Fed and the timing for an exit from quantitative easing. This was further exaggerated by the relative shifts in central bank balance sheets, with LTRO repayments shrinking the ECB's, while asset purchases continued to swell the Fed's.
But with the ECB now committed to an easy-money policy for the foreseeable future and the market focused on the outlook for Fed tightening (exiting QE), the divergent economic and monetary cycles should become the driving force. This favours both a stronger dollar and equally a weaker euro. Indeed, I see more ultimate downside in the euro from current levels of 1.285 to the US dollar than I do upside in the US dollar-yen cross at 100.
New Bank of England governor Mark Carney has also reacted. The governor noted specifically that the recent rise in market rates was not warranted by the developments in the domestic economy. Furthermore, he said that an analysis on forward guidance would be produced at the August Monetary Policy Committee meeting. That reinforced the notion that (under market-designated 'über-dove' Carney) rates will not rise any time soon.
Although explicit forward guidance is still in the can, it is no secret that this is something Carney supports. This should help pin UK short-term rates, but it adds to risks further down the curve, particularly if UK data flow remains as robust as it has been recently.
The prospect of more explicit forward guidance from central banks has big implications for markets. It will increase the importance of local monetary policy decisions (specifically in the case of the ECB) as the Fed moves to exit from its QE measures.
And it suggests a steepening of yield curves in the US and the UK as 10-year yields continue to move out, while central banks try to guide the market towards the correct timing for the end of the era of QE.
BoE's Carney unleashes Delphic forward guidance?
Proactive central bankers to keep euro and sterling in check
Against the tide: Upsetting the apple cart
Against the tide: Brunettes not Goldilocks
Against the tide: Cyprus – They think it's all over
Link between economic data and Fed tapering lost in translation
Coeuré: ECB confronts SME financing challenge
Welcome to zombie Britain Mr Carney
Mark Carney: special focus
Forward guidance: special focus


Well, she is the ship's A.I. Any time they need to speak to the "computer", they're talking to Gertie, and she has to be available to them whenever she wants. The difference between Gertie and a computer on Star Trek is that the Star Trek A.I. isn't also an intelligent being with thoughts and emotions. When the computer is listening, it's not thinking, and judging, and storing ideas up for later. It's just there. Having a living being (which is basically what Gertie is) listening is more... confusing.


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Home Top News Imran urges people to amp up struggle against 'imported govt'
Imran urges people to amp up struggle against 'imported govt'
PTI supporters stage nationwide protests
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) workers and supporters on Sunday took to the streets in various cities across the country to protest against rising inflation on the call of party chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan.
In Karachi, the protest was staged at Shahrah-e-Quaideen. A large number of police officials were deployed on the road leading from Sharea Faisal to Shahrah-e-Quaideen. Former governor Sindh Imran Ismail and other members of the PTI's local leadership were present.
In Peshawar, the protest was staged in front of the main Hashtnagri Gate as party workers chanted slogans against the government, inflation and loadshedding. In Lahore, the protestors, which included a number of women, gathered at Liberty Chowk.
Similar protests were also held in Islamabad and the neighbouring Rawalpindi. At various protest sites, screens were set up to watch Imran's virtual address, which he delivered a little after 10pm. In his speech, Imran said he had asked people to take to the streets against inflation "for their own good".
He warned that more price hikes and inflation were in the offing and asked people to amp up their struggle against the "imported government".
The former prime minister recalled that his government had "rolled out subsidies and distributed health cards despite being in the IMF programme". "This government is in the IMF programme for two months and we remained in it for two and a half years," the PTI chief said as he made the comparison.
Imran said his government had reduced petrol prices by Rs10 at a time when the IMF actually him to jack up fuel prices.
Hitting out at the PML-N-led coalition government, the ex-PM said the "real land mines" were laid by the Nawaz Sharif-led government when it left the power in 2018 with a $20 billion current account deficit.
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Organ printing is an emerging branch of medicine which uses healthy cells to repair a damaged or diseased organ but it obviously needs ink, paper and a printer. Now, a new biopaper developed at the University of Utah might potentially help millions of people waiting for transplants for livers or kidneys.
Organ printing is an emerging branch of medicine which uses healthy cells to repair a damaged or diseased organ. But as its name implies, this new medical technology needs ink, paper and a printer. Now, a new hydrogel -- or biopaper -- developed at the University of Utah has been selected by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to speed up this process, according to Deseret Morning News. This five-year NSF study will initially try to print blood vessels and cardiovascular networks. But its real goal is to build some complex organs, such as livers or kidneys. This technology can potentially help millions of people waiting for transplants.
So what's new with this hydrogel?
"Think of taking a blood vessel -- a cylindrical object -- and trying to reconstruct it in 3D with two-dimensional slices," said U. Presidential Professor of Medicinal Chemistry Glenn D. Prestwich, who created the hydrogel. He likens the resulting slices to a "non-nutritious doughnut" with muscle cells on the outside and endothelial cells inside.
To make the cylinder, those flat doughnut sections are literally printed, one thin layer of cells and hydrogel at a time, the platform moving away from the printer's "bio-ink"-delivering needles as the cylinder grows.
Below is a diagram showing the "schematics of building a tubular organ module by bioprinting. The blue sheets represent the biopaper or scaffold gel. The gel and the histotypical spherical bioink particles are deposited/printed layer-by-layer." (Credit: Gabor Forgacs, University of Missouri-Columbia, in this news release from the University of Utah).
Here are more details about this hydrogel.
[It] is made of normal biological material from the body, two sugar chains that, mixed with a reactive substance, turn from liquid into gel. It's the type of biologic filler that is used in ophthalmic surgery, in injections in knee joints to ease pain or in the face to erase tiny wrinkles.
"We've put a chemical handle on it, sort of like Velcro, to make something cells like and will attach to. The cells eat it up, then secrete a new tissue matrix that's needed for the tissue to function. And those become part of the final product."
Buts is this real? Will this help people in need for transplants?
The NSF study will try first to print blood vessels and cardiovascular networks. Once they prove it can be done, the scientists will look at more complex organs such as livers and kidneys and simpler but more mechanical organs like the esophagus, Prestwich said.
Experts believe that millions of people who need transplants eventually will benefit from organ printing. "I believe in five years we're going to be able to print simple organs, such as a cardiovascular network or a urethra," Prestwich said.
For this NSF study, Prestwich is working with Gabor Forgacs, from the University of Missouri-Columbia, who is a pioneer in organ printing.
Forgacs said he uses Prestwich's hydrogel because of its biocompatibility with other cells. Instead of disappearing, it becomes part of a matrix that is integral to the tissue.
For more information about the research projects of the two professors mentioned above, you can visit the Prestwich Research Group home page or the Organ Printing project page at the University of Missouri.
And don't miss this paper, Organ printing: Fiction or science (PDF format, 5 pages, 160 KB), which contains more details about bioinks and biopapers.
Finally, you might want to read a previous post about a new use for old printers: treating burn victims.


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Toybox REVIEW: Power Rangers Lightning Collection In Space Black Ranger
Release Date: May 2021
There may be still plenty of Power Rangers teams untouched by Hasbro's Lightning Collection but at least a lot of the ones that have made headway on are nearing completion. While the prioritising of franchise golden goose Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was to be expected it's quite impressive how much love they've thrown to Power Rangers in Space as well - with numerous villains released from the fan-favourite series on top of the heroes themselves. The line's ninth wave continues to build upon that impressive streak with the release of the Lightning Collection In Space Black Ranger aka Carlos Vallerte, who took over as the second green Turbo Ranger before blasting off into space with the rest of the team in search of the captured Zordon.
As part of the main line of retail release Lightning Collection figures the In Space Black Ranger comes in one of the standard white boxes, which is the perfect background colour to make that bold black character artwork stand out. The view of the figure via the front window gives you a good look at the whole body (perfect for checking for any paint imperfections if you're able to buy this in a physical store), as well as the majority of the accessories as only the Lunar Lance is fully covered up. The sides of the box also feature that same character artwork as the front - one side simply continuing it from the front (along with the Power Rangers in Space series logo) and the other creating a new copy of it. On the back you'll find the usual Hasbro promotional render showing off the figure in an action pose, and then inside everything is neatly laid out on a moulded plastic tray.
The third Space Ranger to be released in the Lightning Collection (following on from the Yellow and Red Rangers), the In Space Black Ranger naturally re-uses the same body as Andros with a tweaked helmet sculpt which reflects the very subtle differences in the team's visors. The suit design is one that works particularly well in black given the main use of white as the secondary colour, along along with the yellow around the collar really stands out on that sea of black. Running across that central chest stripe are squares representing each of the team's colour - a simple detail but another one that really stands out on these suits. That stripe also runs along the moveable butterfly section parts to keep the sculpt as close to the suit as possible, and whilst the lines might not be quite as clean in those areas it still works to the intended effect.
With the Black and Red Space Rangers sharing the same body, articulation is exactly the same across the board. This means that Carlos features;
- Swivel hinge shoulders, wrists and ankles
- Butterfly shoulders/pecs
- Double hinge elbows and knees
- Bicep, thigh and boot swivels
Being effectively the same as all the other male ranger figures in the Lightning Collection this means that In Space Black has a great range of movement, and with no notable restricts to any of the joints is capable of plenty of fantastic action poses. What did immediately stick out with In Space Black though is just how unbelievably stiff everything was on this figure. Nearly all of the joints needed some real force to move as they're supposed to, and any attempt to use the ab crunch was met with a deafening crack that sounded as if something was breaking apart. Having not posed multiple copies of the figure this could easily be something that was limited to mine (or a certain batch of copies), but I've not really had anything like this with any of the other Lightning Collection figures I own. Thankfully some of the joints have begun to loosen about with a bit more movement/posing, but I'm still pretty hesitant to use that ab crunch.
The figure comes packaged with two alternate pairs of hands (giving him a pair of accessory holding hands, closed left fist and posed right hand in total), Astro Blaster, Lunar Lance and a purple effect part intended for use with the lance. The additional pair of hands give Carlos the ability to replicate his roll call pose, which isn't always a certainty in this line so is definitely appreciated when it does happen. The Astro Blaster is identical the ones previously included with the Red and Yellow Rangers - nicely painted in blue with silver, gold and red detailing. When not in use, the blaster can be stored in the holster on the belt's right side. Finally we have the Lunar Lance, an extremely basic-looking weapon but accurate to how it appears on the show. It's a long, thin black lance with a silver crescent moon shaped attachment on the end. Getting it to fit in the figure's hands takes a little force since the grip is moulded so tightly, but once in you're able to make use of that Lightning Collection articulation for some superb poses. The effect part is a unique slash piece which hooks over the crescent shape to imitate an energy slash effect. The way it works feels like it would have limited use with any other Rangers' weapons, but it works quite nicely here. Again it's a shame that Hasbro are completely omitting each unique weapons' combination with the Astro Blaster, but other than that glaring omission it's a well-rounded set of accessories for the Black Ranger.
Rounding off the accessories is the alternate Carlos head, which is definitely one of Hasbro's better efforts but still not perfect. The shape of the head isn't perhaps quite as rounded off at the bottom as actor Roger Velasco's is, but at the very least it's still recognisable as Carlos. Thankfully Hasbro opted for a neutral expression on this release too, which instantly makes it a hell of a lot better than Ashley's regardless. The hair is also a match for how Carlos appears in Power Rangers in Space which is good attention to detail, and will make for a nice contrast when a Turbo Carlos appears somewhere down the line. However much like the issue I had with the articulation on the figure, swapping the heads on this release proved a lot more troublesome than usual. Getting the helmet off the body was fine, but getting this head to properly pop onto the joint took a fair bit of force. In turn, getting it off the body again needed a similar amount of force. With lots of reports of neck breakages in the line recently (particularly with the disguised Andros figure) I made sure to take more care than usual, and will probably avoid changing the heads here too often just to be sure.
With Power Rangers in Space being a firm fan-favourite it's great to see Hasbro showing just as much love to this series as they are to Mighty Morphin, and the Lightning Collection In Space Black Ranger is another great release. Carlos plays to the same strengths as Andros, highlighting the effective simplicity of the In Space suits as well the quality poseability the Lightning Collection has to offer. Due the stiffness and potential fragility of the joints on my copy I can't in full confidence give it full marks, but with Power Rangers in Space being one of the teams I am planning to complete in Lightning Collection form it's great to be over halfway there. At the time of writing they're all out in various parts of world now, so it's just a case of waiting until distribution evens out and then they'll be flying higher than ever before.
Tags: Carlos Vallerte, figure, hasbro, In Space Black Ranger, Lightning Collection, power rangers, power rangers in space, review, toys


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New philanthropists in Russia – Taming the wild philanthrocapitalists
Vadim Samodorov
Peer groups and engagement key to new money
Interview – Nat Sloane
Venture philanthropy strategies for foundations
Ashley Metz Cummings and Lisa Hehenberger
Venture philanthropy's expanding toolbox: a report from the EVPA conference
Caroline Hartnell	For Subscribers
Investors' perspectives – From acorns to oaks
Doug Miller and Simon Chadwick
Interview – Clare Woodcraft
When talking about 'philanthrocapitalism', it's important to keep in mind that new trends in philanthropy reflect the socio-economic evolution of society. In the new economy, ideas and creativity capitalize much faster than industrial assets, and human relationships therefore become a more effective tool in corporate practices than financial indicators and operational efficiency. The new philanthropy tries to follow these trends, practising a relationship-based approach to giving.
It's not fair to say that 'traditional' grantmaking foundations are not results-oriented or do not take a hands-on approach, but they still tend to use the size of their endowment and the value of grants distributed as the measure of success, while the new philanthropy focuses on building successful and self-reliant organizations.
However, it's important to stress that all the new economic trends in Western societies build on an established market, democratic institutions, and sane regulatory environments. Equally, the new philanthropy is based on long-standing traditions of giving and well-established philanthropic institutions. Russia lacks all these things.
Over the last two decades, Russian capitalism has been developing without existing patterns, proper business education or clear policy from the state. This harsh environment made most Russian entrepreneurs exceptionally self-reliant and inclined to distrust others and believe only in their own judgements.
In their giving, too, the first Russian capitalists had no precedent to go on. The non-profit sector that emerged, funded mainly from abroad, could not offer adequate service or articulate its mission and value to society. The infrastructure of philanthropic foundations, charities and intermediaries is still in embryonic form, and the very few private foundations that exist spend money at the whim of their founders or the behest of the authorities, while human rights and social justice issues are avoided. Boards are not considered useful.
So the challenge is this: can the wild capitalism (which has recently turned into an equally wild state capitalism) be transformed into a civilized, socially oriented market economy? And can wild Russian philanthrocapitalism grow into a philanthropic sector with an established infrastructure, aimed at innovations in the social sector?
Very slowly, the process is moving forward. As the rules governing economic relationships become clearer, businessmen are becoming more aware of where they live and what their place is in this country. More philanthropic institutions are being created, more prominent people are getting involved in philanthropy, and more thought is being given to the place of the third sector. The law on endowments was adopted at the beginning of 2007, and although it gives no tax incentives to donors, it provides a crucial basis for civilized philanthropy.
The clearest example of a professional and strategic approach to philanthropy is the Vladimir Potanin Foundation, the first Russian private foundation. It began eight years ago with scholarship programmes and has now begun to concentrate on evaluating the impact that it has had on the Russian educational system. Mr Potanin has put time and thought into ways of improving the environment for philanthropy and used his influence to lobby for the law on endowments.
A striking example of an entrepreneurial philanthropic initiative is the Vnimanie ('The Attention') Foundation, recently incubated by CAF Russia. Up to now, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has not been considered as a disorder requiring treatment in Russia, but a businessman with a long-standing interest in the issue has succeeded, through his foundation, in bringing ADHD to the attention of the highest level of Russian healthcare authorities and is beginning to change federal policies with regard to its treatment.
Other successful businessmen are beginning to establish private foundations, too: Oleg Deripaska and the Volnoe Delo Foundation, which aims to revive his homeland community, is one, while Dmitry Zimin and the Dynasty Foundation, which supports young scientists to help keep them in Russia, is another.
These are small but significant steps in transforming the philanthrocapitalism of rich individuals into a philanthropy sector, where the value of the non-profit organization is recognized and supported.
Vadim Samorodov is Programme Director at Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) Russia. Email vsamorodov@cafrussia.ru
What have we learned?
Nilda Bullain


Welcome to Battersea Power Station, London's smartest new neighbourhood.
A futuristic new city is springing up around the old power station along the banks of the Thames in London, designed by Gehry Partners and Foster + Partners.
The redeveloped Marseille docks will be inaugurated at the end of 2015. The project, designed by the Genoese studio 5+1AA, transforms the 19th century warehouses that surround the port into an innovative social, cultural and commercial space.
Private partnerships are transforming cities throughout the United States reflecting a growing awareness that the economic crisis is leading to higher concentrations of people in urban areas.
From disuse to reuse, abandoned industrial facilities return to life thanks to the work of artists and writers. The case of a former factory in Emilia.


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Savini's Night of the Living Dead: Re-Visiting the Divisive Remake
Andrew WelshRe-Animated: Original vs. Remake1990s Horror, George A. Romero, Horror Movie, Horror Remake, Night of the Living Dead, Tom Savini, Zombie Movie, ZombiesLeave a comment
Aside from John Carpenter, Hollywood has re-imagined George A Romero's work more frequently than just about any other horror filmmaker. To date, we've re-visited Day of the Dead twice with diminishing returns (see Day of the Dead: Bloodline). Zack Snyder got more right than wrong with his "fast zombies'" 2004 Dawn of the Dead. And Night of the Living Dead got a 3D update in 2006, but the less said about it, the better. Somewhere in between in these remakes and legitimate sequels, Tom Savini turned in his own version of Night of the Living Dead in 1990. Apparently, Romero himself tasked Savini with the remake, even re-writing his original screenplay. As remakes go, audiences and critics were split, though consensus has lightened over the years.
Night of the Living Dead Remake Plays it Safe With the Material
Given its well-earned status as a classic horror movie, you'd be right to argue that Night of the Living Dead (NotLD) didn't need a remake. In spite of its low budget, Romero's original zombie movie still has genuine shocks and scares. Arguably, the movie's low budget just adds to the overall horror experience. Nevertheless, Romero's penchant for social commentary in his undead movies also made NotLD an ideal candidate for a remake. Yes, Snyder sidestepped any serious social critique in his 2004 remake. But some of the best recent zombie movies have embraced the undead as a critical lens for social ills. And with over 20 years separating the original from Savini's remake, and Romero re-visiting his own screenplay, the 1990 NotLD had an opportunity to take the basic premise in new, potentially interesting directions.
In fact, the 1990 NotLD makes few changes to Romero's story, even keeping much of the dialogue intact.
Instead, Savini's NotLD plays it safe, following the original story closely. Very closely. In fact, the 1990 NotLD makes few changes to Romero's story, even keeping much of the dialogue intact. Of course, this isn't entirely surprising. Based on various sources, Romero's intent was either to cash in on money never seen from the original and/or to capitalize before someone else did their own remake. And there are some welcome updates. Savini's early cemetery swerve on a classic scene, for instance, delivers a fun scare. In particular, the 1990 NotLD's updates to Patricia Tallman's "Barbara" were necessary. The 1968 catatonic and helpless "Barbara" had no place in NotLD by 1990. Other characters would have benefited from some updates. Country bumpkins Tom and Judy Rose feel like they're fresh out of Green Acres. And Tom Towles' "Harry Cooper" is reduced to a one-dimensional curmudgeon.
Savini's Make-Up Effects as Good as Expected, But Something is Missing
Stan Winston. Rick Baker. Greg Nicotero. Rob Bottin. Jack Pierce. And Tom Savini. Horror fans know these names. They're among some of the best make-up artists in the genre. Not surprisingly then, Savini's NotLD remake ups the ante in one critical regard – its make-up effects are outstanding. And the zombie make-up holds up well even after 30 years. Savini's "undead" look every bit the part of animated, rotting corpses as one would expect. No CGI effects – this is pure craftsmanship. Clearly, there's a gritty realism found in the remake absent in Romero's original classic. Moreover, some of Savini's zombies have some cheeky fun. Expect a little more full-frontal zombie action and an occasionally morbid dedication to realism, such as an "autopsy zombie" complete with a stitched-up Y-incision.
Night of the Living Dead Remake Quickens the Pace at Expense Of Some Focus
If Savini's remake diverges from the 1968 original in any other way, it's the pacing. Though Romero's classic was by no means a slow-burn, Savini quickens the flow of his movie. In particular, the farmhouse siege rarely lets things slow down, capturing some of the desperation of its characters. There's a bit more of a sense of urgency here. Of course, the quicker pacing comes at the expense of some minor exposition and world-building. Missing are the news broadcast scenes that offered a bleak glimpse beyond the farmhouse. Though minor bits of Romero's movie, they tapped into the same sense of panic that Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio broadcast created. As a result, some of the original's atmosphere is lost. Savini's ending also feels like a more generic statement on humanity as compared to Romero's more focused critique.
Night of the Living Dead a Good, If Unremarkable, Retread
How much you enjoy Savini's remake of the Romero classic likely depends on what you wanted. If you were hoping for a version that hued closely to the original, while offering upgrades on zombie effects, then you're likely to enjoy the 1990 remake. Most of the remake's upgrades are superficial and, by today's standards, may already feel outdated. But Romero handpicked Savini for a reason. And Savini knows the material and his way around a camera. Not surprisingly then, his NoTLD is a technically sound update. Comparatively, if you wanted Savini to take risks with Romero's premise – maybe even go in a new direction – the 1990 NotLD may disappoint.
The Lodge: Unsettling Psychological Horror
Cult of Personality: 10 Horror Movies About Cults


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911 Calls and Protecting the Natural Voice – Mandatory or Optional?
This entry was posted on September 7th, 2011 and is filed under Open Government, Public Records (General).
Under Section G.S. 132-1.4(c) of the North Carolina Public Records law, the contents of 911 calls are public information, except for certain information specified in the statute. This provision was modified in An Act To Provide That a Transcript or Altered Voice Reproduction May Be Made Available for A 911 Call So As Not To identify the Caller by the Natural Voice. (S.L. 2011-321). The motivation for the change was apparently to encourage witnesses to report crimes without fear of retribution. The wording of the new provision has raised a question about whether law enforcement agencies are now prohibited from releasing natural voice recordings, or whether the altered voice/transcript is optional. I think that it's optional. Here's why.
The provision is an exception to an exception to an exception to the public records law. Let's walk through the various provisions and all those exceptions, starting with the basic requirement under the public records law.
All records of public agencies that involve the transaction of public business are subject to public access. Then we have an exception: Under G.S. 132-1.4, criminal investigation and intelligence records of law enforcement agencies are not public records. This exception does not prohibit the release of law enforcement records. It simply eliminates the public's right of access. Law enforcement agencies may release criminal investigation or intelligence records, but are not required to do so.
Next we have an exception to the exception: G.S. 132-1.4(c) lists specific information that is public, even if it is contained in a criminal investigation or intelligence record. The public does have a right of access to this information and it must be released if requested. Included in this list is G.S. 132-1.4(c)(4), which makes public the contents of 911 and other emergency telephone calls.
Finally we come to the exception to the exception to the exception, and it is this language that was amended. The provision as amended (as shown in underlined text) now says that the contents of 911 and other emergency telephone calls are public information,
"except for such contents that reveal the natural voice, name, address, telephone number, or other information that may identify the caller, victim, or witness. In order to protect the identity of the complaining witness, the contents of "911" and other emergency telephone calls may be released pursuant to this section in the form of a written transcript or altered voice reproduction; provided that the original shall be provided under process to be used as evidence in any relevant civil or criminal proceeding."
I read this last exception to mean that the natural voice content, along with the name, address, telephone number, and other identifying information, are not public records.
Here's how I would map it out:
Rule: Records of public agencies are public (must be released)
Exception: Criminal investigation and intelligence records are not public (may be released)
Exception: 911 contents are public (must be released)
Exception: Natural voice of caller is not public (may be released)
In effect, the last exception restores the status of this information to the first exception, that is, to the status of information to which the public does not have a right of access. I don't see anything in the provision that would prohibit the release of this information. Indeed, a separate provision in the statute (G.S. 132-1.4(d)) specifically prohibits (temporarily) the release of information about a complaining witness if necessary to protect the person or to prevent a compromise to the pending investigation. Without similar language in subsection (c)(4), it would appear that the information may be released in the discretion of the law enforcement agency.
A public agency may choose to adopt a policy that all 911 recordings will be voice altered or provided as written transcripts (although note that the original must be preserved for evidence). But I see nothing in the law that requires such a policy.
Employers, GINA, and Family Medical History
Local Taxation of Private Property on Federal Land
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Christian Lacroix suit from the 1990s. Features a shoulder padded jacket and short length skirt.
pistels that are on the jacket lapel. I purchased it with these and they look so good with it, that I have chosen to leave them with the suit.
Lining is pink & yellow striped and is made of cupro. Cupro is similiar to rayon as it is made of a cellulose base.
The names comes from the process "cuprammonium" which is used to the process the cotton and wood pulp that from it's base material. The woven fabric is most interesting as it combines a vivid yellow, a yellow green, a bit of pale blue, pink with a metallic finish on a black background, most striking.
The size label reads 48 - Please rely on the following measurements for size.
Jacket: Bust - 42" Waist - 38" Bottom - 40" - Shoulders - 18" Sleeve - 24" Overall Length - 30"
Skirt: Waist - 36" Hips - 44" Overall Length - 21 1/2"
A wonderful suit in an out of the ordinary color scheme and fabric.


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Cream – Disraeli Gears
When the dust had settled, it became clear that Cream's debut album, Fresh Cream, released in December 1966, had been a solid Top 10 UK success rather than a phenomenon. Had that album had anyone else's name on it, it would have been deemed a massive achievement, but, given the pedigrees of Eric Clapton (guitar/vocals), Jack Bruce (bass/vocals) and Ginger Baker (drums), it seemed that nothing less than a masterpiece would do. Fresh Cream, some observers said, had too many covers on it and too little punch.
It was an opinion shared by Cream's US label, Atco (a subsidiary of Atlantic Records), who pushed the group to record their second album at Atlantic's New York studios, then situated at 1841 Broadway, on the corner of 60th Street. The album was recorded very quickly, in between the heavy commitment to tour dates which was Cream's constant story, and one which probably contributed to the band's early demise.
1967 had kicked off with Cream undertaking a gruelling UK tour plus an appearance on BBC TV's Top Of The Pops programme. After three months of virtually non-stop dates, Cream flew on March 22nd to New York, where between March 25th & April 2nd they guested on the Murray The K show, alongside a stellar line-up, with, amongst others, The Who, Wilson Pickett and Simon & Garfunkel, but playing only one to two songs a day. Its importance for Cream was that it introduced them to the New York music cognoscenti, who spread the word, especially after many late night jams in the city.
Cream had expected to do some recording in New York, and Atlantic boss Ahmet Ertegun did agree to a couple of days in the studio to record a single. Ertegun wanted a blues track, so they duly laid down a version of the traditional Lawdy Mama – a traditional 12-bar number, which was in their live set – with Eric Clapton singing lead. Ertegun was producing, but the session was visited by a young producer, Felix Pappalardi, who offered to do some work on the track. The next day he returned with a new melody, plus lyrics created by his wife, Gail Collins, over the top of the basic track. 'Felix turned it into a McCartney-esque pop song,' recalled Clapton, who reluctantly agreed to play on the track when it was decided that he could add a blues guitar solo. 'That was like an unspoken deal. If I gave in and played on this pop song, I could play an Albert King guitar solo.' Clapton completed the track, now titled Strange Brew, but the former bass part remained, much to Jack Bruce's continuing annoyance, since there are places where it doesn't quite fit the new guitar parts.
Having used up their allotted time, the band then returned to Britain where they began to work up the material for their next album, often in the small hours after gigs.
Cream returned to New York on 8th May and entered the studios on the 11th. The engineer was Tom Dowd, a seasoned veteran, the first person to record in stereo and a pioneer of multi-track recording, who went on to work with Clapton again on his solo recordings and the Layla album by Derek & the Dominos. Producer from then on was Felix Pappalardi, whose vision would prove central to Disraeli Gears. 'He was like an A&R man,' Clapton recalled of Pappalardi, 'who would take what we had and make it more evolved.'
The recording of Disraeli Gears was characterised by an underlying tension, with Cream's management and Atlantic keen to push Clapton into the spotlight as the front man, and resistance being voiced towards some of Bruce's songs (many co-written with lyricist Pete Brown, who listed his lyrical obsessions of the time as 'sex and dancing'). 'I was kinda gutted', Bruce recalls, 'because I'd done a lot of work, and I'd mostly been the lead singer, and it was working pretty well.' In support of this notion, Pete Brown wrote in his autobiography that Cream had recorded a number of song demos, (at Spot Productions in Mayfair), in March 1967, intended for the second album, but that the tape 'mysteriously disappeared'. The songs included two that were subsequently cut for Jack Bruce's debut solo album Songs For A Tailor (Weird Of Hermiston and The Clearout), plus SWLABR, Take It Back, We're Going Wrong and an early version of Blue Condition, all of which eventually made it on to Disraeli Gears. The tape was found in 1986, leading to the rediscovery of Hey Now Princess, which was revamped and included on Jack Bruce's 1989 Question Of Time album.
Despite all this, it was clear that Cream had found another level, both in their own compositions and their interpretation skills. SWLABR was an angular stomper that dealt with, as Pete Brown put it, 'the war between the sexes'. The title was an acronym for 'She Walked Like A Bearded Rainbow', which came from an incident when flowers were delivered one day to Brown's flat. Jack Bruce had ordered them for his then-girlfriend, but hadn't specified the type of flower; Brown was particularly taken by the way the long stems of the flowers swayed around, and told Bruce that the flowers reminded him of the way girls walk. The flowers turned out to be Irises – a variety supposedly known as 'Bearded Rainbow'. Pete Brown's floral understanding may not be 100% accurate, but the Iris does take its name from the Greek word for rainbow, and there is a subgenus called 'Bearded', so it's a plausible connection.
Dance The Night Away was a hypnotic wig-out featuring a rare use by Clapton of the electric 12-string guitar, apparently Jack Bruce's suggestion. We're Going Wrong was an atmospheric cri de coeur that had its origins in an argument between Bruce and his partner, while Blue Condition was a feature for its writer, Ginger Baker.
Tales Of Brave Ulysses, with lyrics by a friend of Eric Clapton, illustrator Martin Sharp, was released as the B side of Strange Brew in June 1967, and featured imaginative use of the new wah-wah pedal. Clapton had acquired it only that morning, from Manny's instrument shop on 48th Street, and it predated Jimi Hendrix's similar wah-wah usage on The Burning Of The Midnight Lamp single, released in August 1967. The lyrics are inspired by Homer's Odyssey, an account of the adventures undertaken by Ulysses, lyricist Sharp later explaining that he had recently returned from Ibiza, the source of many of the images in the song. Clapton meanwhile had been writing a tune based on a descending chord sequence, when, in a chance encounter, Sharp gave him the words, written on the back of a beer mat.
One track stood out above the others. The descending riff of Sunshine Of Your Love had been created by Bruce and Brown as they sat up into the early hours writing, and Clapton provided the bridge part and the title. Ginger Baker pounded across the beat in a style suggested by Tom Dowd, the whole creating a track that sounded like nothing else around at the time. Only label boss Ahmet Ertegun failed to recognise the song's potential. 'I remember playing it to Ahmet and he called it 'psychedelic hogwash' ', Bruce later remembered. History, of course, has proved Ertegun wrong. Sunshine Of Your Love went to #5 in the US singles charts in Spring 1968, and was the springboard that broke Cream in mainstream America: the flash of true genius that alerted people to its parent album and brought them in droves to the band's exhausting tours of the States.
After only five days in the studio, Cream took a flight back to Europe and continued their punishing schedule, leaving the production team to finish the mixes. Their labels didn't seem to be in a rush to release the album, because July 8th found the band doing a photo session for the album on Ben Nevis in Scotland, after which Baker and Clapton raced each other down the mountain.
It was to be a further four months before the album came out. The album title was a corruption by Cream's roadie, Mick Turner, of a description of racing bicycle gears known as 'derailleur gears'. Benjamin Disraeli was a 19th Century British Prime Minister, hence Disraeli Gears. The psychedelic cover was designed by Australian artist Martin Sharp, Clapton's friend who had contributed the lyrics to Tales Of Brave Ulysses.
Disraeli Gears was released in November 1967 and was hugely successful, peaking at #5 in the UK and charting for 42 weeks, while in the US it hit #4 and stayed in the chart for two weeks short of a whole year.
Cream were, in many ways, the perfect band, and Disraeli Gears was their finest hour. It's a record that spills over with talent, while addressing the everyman issues of passion, self-doubt, hatred and – most important – volume. Turn it up loud and remember Cream this way.
Jack Bruce died of liver disease on 25 October 2014, in Suffolk, England, aged 71. In March 2011 Rolling Stone readers selected him as the eighth greatest bass guitarist of all time. "Most musicians would have a very hard time distinguishing themselves if they wound up in a band with Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker," the magazine said at the time, "but Jack Bruce was so gifted on the bass that he did it with ease."
Ginger Baker died on 6 October 2019 age 80.
Related Topics:BadgeCreamCrossroadsDisraeli GearsEric ClaptonGinger BakerJack BruceSunshine Of Your LoveTales Of Brave Ulysses
Dan Bogle
Jack Bruce, The 8th greatest bassist, Bull Shit !!. He played that frickin bass like Clapton played a lead guitar. The only other bassist that comes close is Barry Oakley from ABB. "8th", These people are deaf !!!!!
Mark Allan
I agree with Dan that ranking Jack Bruce eighth is just wrong. I would suggest that John Entwistle was the only other rock bassist in Jack's class.
George Sakalo
'Rolling Stone' polls are utterly meaningless to me. You know who was here, you knew what Jack and Ginger and Slowhand could do. You heard what they could do. Who gives a shit about a poll in which some readers would've preferred voting for Kajagoogoo?


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NASCAR: Greg Biffle Announces Birth of First Child With Girlfriend Cristina Grossu
By John Newby - September 9, 2020 02:44 pm EDT
Former NASCAR driver Greg Biffle just welcomed a new member of the family. He announced on Twitter the birth of his first child with girlfriend Cristina Grossu. Ryder Jack Biffle entered the world on Wednesday afternoon.
Biffle posted the photo on social media showing his newborn. This first photo followed multiple updates on Grossu's Instagram Stories in which she showed the happy couple heading to the hospital. Although she mentioned in one post that the former NASCAR driver just looked nervous. Ryder's birth did not come as a surprise, however, after Grossu revealed that they had scheduled a C-section for Wednesday afternoon due to Ryder being "stubborn."
We welcomed Ryder Jack Biffle today at 1:01pm pic.twitter.com/gtSFzu46eo
— Greg Biffle (@gbiffle) September 9, 2020
"Aww Congrats Greg and Christina. He's too cute. Also, Congrats to Emma on becoming a big sister," one fan commented on social media after seeing the first photo. Several others joined in and expressed similar sentiments. They wanted to send their congratulations while expressing excitement about the healthy boy.
Biffle previously revealed that he and Grossu were expecting with an Instagram post in early March. The photo showed him and his partner standing next to each other in front of an old pickup. His daughter from a previous marriage, Emma, stood in front while beaming with excitement.
"Big News for 2020!! Emma is going to be a big sister !!!" Biffle, 50, wrote in the caption of his Instagram post. Another image also showed him holding Grossu. A sign said that the baby was "coming in hot" in fall 2020.
Biffle originally got his start in the NASCAR Cup Series during the 2002 season, appearing in seven of the season's 36 races. He had previously made a name for himself in the NASCAR Xfinity Series starting in 1996, and he split time between the two series until 2010. Biffle also competed in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series.
Over the course of his professional racing career, Biffle secured 19 Cup Series wins, 20 Xfinity Series wins, and 17 Gander Truck Series wins. This also includes championship victories in the 2000 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and the 2002 NASCAR Busch Series.
Biffle has not been a full-time driver since he and Roush Fenway Racing parted ways at the end of the 2016 season. He did compete in one NASCAR Truck Series event in 2019 at Texas Motor Speedway while driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports. Biffle won the SpeedyCash.com 400, earning $50,000 in the process. Three days prior to the birth of his first son, Biffle took part in the South Carolina Education Lottery 200 Truck Series race at Darlington, finishing 19th overall.
Chris Jericho-Produced Metal Documentary 'I'm Too Old for This S—' Is out Now
Paulina Gretzky Sets Record Straight on Her Relationship With Dustin Johnson


To kick off Marvel Week on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, several actors from Captain America: Civil War stopped by to discuss the epic conclusion to the trilogy.
Chris Evans, Anthony Mackie, Paul Rudd, and Sebastian Stan brought a new clip with them, which showcases an awkward first encounter between the First Avenger (Evans) and Ant-Man (Rudd), complete with an unsettlingly long handshake. Plus, Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) makes an appearance!
Later in the clip, the guys try to guess trivia facts about each other and fail miserably. Watch the whole thing below.


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Malcolm Rifkind
This biographical article does not give any references or sources. Please help by adding reliable sources. Information about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed very quickly, especially if it could cause arguments or harm.
Find sources: (Malcolm Rifkind – news, books, scholar) (October 2013)
Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind (born 21 June 1946) is a British Conservative Party politician. He hold cabinet positions in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major. He was the Chairman for the Intelligence and Security Committee and the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Kensington.
Malcolm Rifkind was born in Edinburgh into a Jewish family from Lithuania.[1] He first became a Conservative MP at the February 1974 General Election for the constituency of Edinburgh Pentlands. He was first made a cabinet minister in 1979 and served constantly through 18 years of Conservative government.
His cabinet posts included:
Minister of Home Affairs and the Environment at the Scottish Office (1979 - 1983)
Minister of State at the Foreign Office (1983 - 1986)
Secretary of State for Scotland (1986 - 1990)
Secretary of State for Transport (1990 - 1992)
Secretary of State for Defence (1992 - 1995)
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1995 - 1997)
At the 1997 General Election, Malcolm Rifkind lost his seat to the Labour Party. He tried but failed to regain the seat at the 2001 General Election and re-entered parliament in 2005 as the MP for Kensington. Rifkind left parliament in 2015.
↑ The Independent
Retrieved from "https://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Malcolm_Rifkind&oldid=6557943"
Former Conservative MPs
Former members of the British House of Commons for Scottish constituencies
Jewish British politicians
Members of the British House of Commons for English constituencies
Politicians from Edinburgh
UK MPs 1974
UK MPs 1974–1979
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This page was last changed on 28 May 2019, at 16:33.