Management consultants provide business advice to public, private and not-for-profit organisations. This usually involves helping them solve a challenge of some kind, such as how to grow their business, how to make it more efficient or how to organise and structure itself in a different way. Some specialist consultancies have a particular focus – for example, how to write proposals for new work, or how to change an organisation or how to develop their workforce. Others are more generalist and you could work across several different types of project. Working on client site away from your office is a possibility, while hours are varied and often depend on the project.
Tasks can be varied. You might be involved in conducting research, analysing and interpreting data or be responsible for organising the logistics of the project. As you develop and progress, you might be involved in contributing to report writing which uses statistical evidence to support recommendations and conclusions, or support the creation of slide decks to deliver key messages to clients. You might also become more focused on a particular type of service offering (financial, strategic, operational, etc.) or industry (financial services, public sector, telecommunications etc.).
For full standards, please click here.
Individual employers will identify entry requirements in terms of previous qualifications, training or other criteria. Most candidates will have Level 2 Maths and English (equivalent to GCSE grade C or above), ideally as part of 5 GCSE A-C grades or other comparable qualifications. Apprentices without English or Maths at Level 2 must achieve this prior to the completion of the Apprenticeship.
Apprenticeships are work-based training programmes for new entrants to the world of work or for existing staff who wish to acquire substantive new skills. The apprenticeship will give you an opportunity to earn money while you learn. The School of Information Risk Management offers this apprenticeship programme, which helps you either you are already working in an organisation but lacking the skills necessary in order to succeed in your industry or to change a new career path or you are an employer looking to have apprentice in your organisations or simply upskill your existing employees.
SIRM is partnering with East Sussex College Hastings as a sub-contractor for apprenticeship.
For more information about East Sussex College Hastings please log on to www.sussexcoast.ac.uk.
For Partnerships and Sub-contracting please click here.


text:
Why women lack wealth? Join our CWIT book club discussion in March.
We would like to invite anyone who shares our passion of reading to join another CWIT Book Club discussion in March. This time we are bringing you a thought-proving read by Mariko Chang Shortchanged: Why Women Have Less Wealth and What Can Be Done about It and hoping that you will engage with other sharing your thoughts and hearing opinions of others. All from the comfort of your own home.
As so many of us enjoyed reading and discussing Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez in our first ever virtual CWIT book club discussion, which briefly highlighted how women worldwide have less wealth, our next book will look into the factors that lead to this in more detail as well as what can be done for wealth to spread equally in society.
You can buy this book on Amazon on Kindle or as a soft/hard copy here.
Women now receive more college degrees than men, and enter the workforce with better job opportunities than ever before. Indeed, the wage gap between men and women has never been smaller. So why does the typical woman have only 36 cents for every dollar of wealth owned by the typical man? How is it that never-married women working full-time have only 16% as much wealth as similarly situated men? And why do single mothers have only 8% of the wealth of single fathers?
The first book to focus on the differences in wealth between women and men, Shortchanged is a compelling and accessible examination of why women struggle to accumulate assets, who has what, and why it matters. Mariko Lin Chang draws on the most comprehensive national data on wealth and on in-depth interviews to show how differences in earnings, in saving and investing, and, most important, the demands of care-giving all contribute to the gender-wealth gap. She argues that the current focus on equal pay and family-friendly workplace policies, although important, will not ultimately change or eliminate wealth inequalities. What Chang calls the -wealth escalator—comprised of fringe benefits, the tax code, and government benefits–and the -debt anchor- must be the targets of policies aimed at strengthening women's financial resources. Chang proposes a number of practical suggestions to address the unequal burdens and consequences of care-giving, so that women who work just as hard as men will not be left standing in financial quicksand.
A comprehensive portrait of where women and men stand with respect to wealth, Shortchanged not only sheds light on why women lack wealth, but also offers solutions for improving the financial situation of women, men, and families.
Source: Good Reads
1st of March, 2021
Anyone in CWIT, Anyone from our CWIT member companies, anyone who loves to read or if you prefer to just listen in on topical conversations.
Share the news with your colleagues and friends who you think would like to get involved, we welcome everyone!
Our Book Club has finished reading three books so far:
Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez;
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou and
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo.
Were on Good Reads!
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


From its early beginnings 16 years ago, the renamed Westman Multicultural Festival continues the tradition of the earlier Lieutenant Governor's Winter Festival and Brandon Winter Festival.
We are pleased to present this permanent website along with social media on Instagram, Facebook and twitter with the handle @wmmfest or wmmfest.
A huge event like this takes time to organize, with many different players involved; we are posting information as it becomes available.
Look for online and print advertising, along with news, TV and radio information in the coming days and weeks. This will lead up to the Festival starting Thursday, January 31st and running until the late evening of Saturday, February 2nd.
There are ten exciting Pavilions including; England, Honduras, India, Métis, Mexico, Philippines, Scotland and Ukraine plus new addition Jamaica and the return of the Mauritius Pavilion. A map of the Pavilions can be found here. Information on each pavilion is available on the website and on social media.
We hope everyone comes out and enjoys the Westman Multicultural Festival again this year! It is going to be a great event to break-up this frosty season and unite us as a community.
All pavilions are all FREE to attend.
There is limited capacity in each pavilion according to the Provincial regulations.
The pavilions have a variety of shows and performances almost every hour.
Free bus service again for 2019.
Bring CASH as some of the Pavilions don't take interac or credit cards.
STOP: on Victoria Ave, straight north of entrance to Grand Salon.
STOP: straight across from front door, South side of Street.
STOP: by parking lot located north side of the building.
STOP: loading zone in front of the building.
STOP: on 17th Street in front of east entrance.
STOP: Existing bus stop located at Princess Ave and 20th St.
STOP: loading zone in front of Church.
STOP: West side of entrance to parking lot.
STOP: Existing bus stop located just east of building.
The festival takes a huge effort from many volunteers. If you would like to volunteer, please fill in the form and someone will contact you as soon as they can.
Please indicate the dates and time you are available.


Construction - Gardens are not only for lawns and household play fields, but will also be perfect locations for storage sheds wherein you can just basically stock unused household stuffs in the shed. Included in the entire house exterior, it is but proper that garden sheds will likely look presentable and in-relative on the house's design.
In order not being a total complete eyesore, garden shed designs really should be well-planned. Shed plans needs to be harmoniously with the available space in the backyard as well as the design befitting the house's style. Furthermore, garden shed designs should serve its purpose to the owners in general.
* Space. Earlier than a person help to make his/her personal storage area building ideas, just one has now these approximation in the room whereby your backyard get rid of would be placed. In addition to the space or room for sale, make up your mind additionally which in turn organ of the lawn it could be located. Make certain that furthermore it will be placed in outside the highway in an effort to keep clear of congestion belonging to the footpath on the future.
* Layout. About the small note, have a relatively design and style from a garden burn designs. You need not even to become your architect and also manufacture of this subject; an easy create regarding your garden garage - for instance what would appear that - is going to do considering that this approach will undoubtedly function as methods for that carpenter or simply fashionable within making the shed. If your are genuinely very delicate about that, he/she will be able to employ some trendy and / or designer to make the shed plan.
* Materials. Inside the storage devices making projects, add the level of supplies of which you wish meant for a garden storage area shed. Many of which will be created wooden as trees and shrubs really are deemed because great items for only a back garden storing shed. Besides the truth woodlands are generally less costly, these can also combination properly while in the natural environment of one's yard in which gradations about eco-friendly together with this planet different shades stuff any area. A good idea is, but, to real wood treatment methods in a few areas of the garden storing shed. This really in order to avoid unwanted pests or possibly property pesky insects in getting inside the woods.
Folks who wants undertake it yourself, hire a roofer that's found out and skillful around construction and also creating storage sheds. Hunt for hugely professional those who could certainly develop your garden storeroom shed. This doesn't primarily include any rugged garden plants outdoor storage shed end result, as well as some sort of keeping as a result of repeatedly resources used.
Popular backyard shed models at present add the A-frame style plus barn-style sheds. There's also some other kinds that include puppy barns, saltbox glasshouse, playhouses, bungalows, pool cabanas, as well as a miniscule release of yours house. Out of doors storage devices may perhaps be built having patio and also other accessories. When looking at gardening garage variations, test just what any maker wants to offer.
For your shed shed exactly where you should school yard play motor vehicles, exercise bikes, bicycles, in addition to cars, one can find reduce sets that come in assorted sizes available. Around opting for, you'd probably keep in mind ought to reckoning how many cars and trucks on the household. Usually, shed outdoor garden sheds are constructed to house automotive restoration gear, areas, resources, together with washing equipment. Due to the fact garage outdoor storage sheds seem to be respected with regards to indoors level of quality, external surfaces variations usually are very low and additionally simplistic.


Wow, I finally did something with FunToBeAGirl.com . Took me long enough. I was looking up domain names for some other project quite a long time ago and ran across it as available. Rather surprised it wasn't taken so I purchased it with the intention of using it just never really got around to it. The most successful blogs are those that stick to what you know and I certainly have this topic down. I cheated and used a theme layout created by someone else because I really like the way he created the post layouts, customized it and voila!.
Now to learn about using various affiliate networks to generate revenue from ad clicks. It's all in fun and a learning experience so if it doesn't generate any money that's cool but I would really like to learn how using blog networks to increase site traffic works. So far I've been approved for three affiliate programs and hoping for one or two more. I don't want to overwhelm anyone with ads and I also won't post anything I don't use or like myself.
Thinking the project might be more fun if I enlist (harass) friends in to creating posts too. All of us women have our own tips, tricks, quirks and needs so it would be that much more fun and useful a project if the posts covered a wider range than myself and my own opinions.
Who knows maybe I'm on a roll and will finally add book reviews and suggestions to kerrianne.com as I originally intended. Little intimidating to think about considering the amount of books I inhale. There would be quite a bit of work involved in revisiting some of my much loved series to be able to effectively post about them. Time will tell.
Two Days in a Row Oh MY!
I think I may even need to sit down now that I am writing a post two days in a row. Trying to work out my layout here and I'm stuck! Somewhere, hiding from me are pixels which are just a teensy bit too big and are throwing everything else off. I have it narrowed down to two images but still not figuring out exactly what the issue is. I'm just going to let it rest for a little while and give it a go again later. For now it just is what it is. Still obsessing over Peter Steele(leaving another pic here so I don't lose it), still don't know why and I know it's not going to stop until I nail down what the catch is. Oh to be one of those people who can just go with the flow. Nope not me. If there is a wall in front of me I will keep trying to go through it rather than around. Why? Apparently I like when things are difficult.
Trying to get into a book I started reading but it's just not happening. I wish the a new Dark-Hunter book would come out. I am jonesing for a fix. That's right fluffy vampire fiction. Love it! I like the darker stuff too, the whole vampire thing just does it for me what can I say. I mean who wouldn't want to never grow old, never die and be at the height of physical perfection without ever working for it. Speaking of which this is now the 2nd night in a row I'm misbehaving and skipping the drill. Ummm.. I feel guilty. Maybe that's what I should go do now. Nah!
I have a purry kitten love right where I am…does it get better than this?
One thing that all Crabs (astrological Cancers or the seafood type of crab) know deep in their hearts is that someone, somewhere out there knows how great it would be to bust them wide open and eat them with melted butter. The big news for you this year, Cancer, is that Pluto has moved into your Seventh House, which rules marriage, partnerships and close relationships. This means that someone may very well be cracking your heart open in the next year. Update… Nope not unless you count my new found obsession with Peter Steele.
Cancer has a bit of a reputation for enjoying doom and gloom. You don't. You just seem to get more than your fair share of it. It must be that thick shell of yours. Everyone assumes you can just take it.
The good news is that you earned that reputation because you can take it, and more. And often, your greatest moments come when you have overcome the greatest obstacles. Thankfully, the roadblocks you face in 2010 won't be that devastating, but they'll certainly give you an opportunity to shine. New support and new energy will be entering your life from unexpected and overlooked people and things, and you'll be able to soar above it all! Update …. Well this is sort of true. I definitely had some work related set backs but as it turned out got through it and it brought about the opportunity to work with some amazing people whose contributions exceeded even the original expectations!
As far as your work life goes, 2010 divides up into two nice, clearly defined chunks: the first half of the year is going to present struggles, and the second half will see a boatload of new opportunities. January and February will be a lot of work — literally and figuratively — almost as if everyone ignored their jobs during the run up to Christmas, and then decided to drop everything on your desk. Although your relationships with co-workers may be strained at this time, it isn't anything you can't handle. Be careful not to drag too much of that work stress home with you to a partner, particularly in January. Rather than dwell on it, do your best to find a way to take that experience and use it to your benefit. Update… very true.
June and July will bring some exciting opportunities for advancement. You'll be getting more recognition for your efforts, and the possibility of a raise is in store. If you don't have a regularly scheduled salary review planned for that time, things may be going well enough that you might want to bring the subject up anyway. Even the seed of that notion planted then can take root later. March to May will urge you to really do something about your actual cash-on-hand situation. You'll have both an increased drive to increase your security, and (paradoxically) the urge to overspend. Try to avoid "emotional overspending" during that time, and the rest of the year should work out for you. Update … well this is always true. I always make sure to have cash on hand and I am ever so good at spending it..lol!
After a year in which you felt that you weren't being heard — whether by a spouse, or your calls for an adequate mate went unanswered — things will be shaking loose in dramatic manner in 2010. Two eclipses this year will have a particular effect on your relationship with a partner. In January, an eclipse in your Partnership House will bring issues to the forefront. If you have an existing relationship, tensions that have been building will become unavoidable; and if you aren't, you may suddenly find yourself more dissatisfied with that situation (or a new partner may suddenly come into your life). In either case, the more dramatic of the effects may be short-lived but will give you the opportunity to make some long-needed changes.
As far as romance in general goes, however, it's more a good year than a bad one. May and June in particular will see new romantic opportunities coming your way, and will pump new life into a current relationship. Update…. nope nope nope nope. Boring and uneventful was the romance department in my life for 2010.
I think I may have a love/hate relationship with style sheets. The possibilities are endless, the learning curve sucked! It's taken me almost a month to redo my layout into a word press theme. At times I have wanted to cry and kick my laptop clear across the room.
I seem to be missing most of my blog post images. It s going to be soooo much fun putting them back. Ewwww!
Anyways it's the 4th of July weekend and I am free from work for a whole THREE DAYS!!!!!! I have been sitting here trying to work up the enthusiam to get up and go to the supermarket to pick up the rest of what I need to barbeque tomorrow. And that is exactly what I am doing now……….
Okay so Yahoo 360 is going away. I finally managed to get all my posts and images into a new WordPress blog. Wish I was more up to speed on the customization of it as I just don't feel like messing around with it right now.


A changed clause in Apple's iOS 4.0 SDK agreement has left some developers fuming, with fears that it effectively outlaws Adobe's forthcoming Flash to iPhone compiler.
Developers use programs like the Flash to iPhone compiler to save time, but a wording change could potentially see the practice penalised by Apple.
This would mean that developers cannot get their apps through the Apple vetting and onto the Apple App Store.
A post by Daring Fireball's John Gruber explains the problem, stating: "My reading of this new language is that cross-compilers, such as the Flash-to-iPhone compiler in Adobe's upcoming Flash Professional CS5 release, are prohibited.
"…the language in the agreement doesn't leave much wiggle room for Flash CS5. It could hardly be more clear if they singled out Flash CS5 by name."
Of course, the might of the Apple App Store means that developer disquiet will make very little difference, but it does serve as a reminder that Apple's walled garden is not crumbling.


When appropriate, the court will order a young person/adult offender to perform a set number of hours of community service.
provide light maintenance work for non-profit organizations.
By performing community service the young person/adult offender not only repays the community for the harm done but has the opportunity to find outlets in the community for developing skills, new interests and abilities. Rather than being punitive, community service focuses on young person/adult offender responsibility and accountability.
The young person/adult offender must be willing to participate in the program. Community service can be for a maximum of 240 hours and must be completed as directed.
Failure to complete community service may result in a new charge.


text:
\section{Learning from Bandit Feedback}
Traditional approaches to recommendation are often based on some form of collaborative filtering on the user-item matrix containing \emph{organic} user-item interactions~\cite{Hu2008,Rendle2008,Christakopoulou2016,Liang2018}.
These methods find their origin in the broader field of supervised learning, and generally don't take \emph{bandit} feedback into account (i. e. which recommendations were actually shown and whether the user interacted with them).
Recently, several methods have been proposed for so-called Batch Learning from Bandit-Feedback (BLBF) or Counterfactual Risk Minimisation (CRM)~\cite{Swaminathan2015JMLR}.
These methods make use of action-reward pairs: recommendations that were shown and whether they were interacted with.
Using counterfactual estimators~\cite{Owen2013}, they aim to learn an optimal recommendation policy.
This line of research is more closely related to the reinforcement learning field than classical supervised learning approaches~\cite{Sutton1998}.

In this work, we present several of those recently proposed methods and discuss their practicality in a recommender system context.
Throughout a series of experiments with the RecoGym simulation environment~\cite{Rohde2018}, we compare their empirical performance under various environments.

\subsection{Notations}
Throughout this work, we will denote the user state or context vector by $\mathbf{x} \in \mathbb{R}^n$.
Although this vector can be of arbitrary dimension, we will assume it to be a vector of length $n$ containing counts of historical interactions with items for fair comparison and simplicity.
An action is either represented by a scalar identifier $a$, or a one-hot encoded vector $\mathbf{a}$.
The reward for a given action, i. e. whether it leaded to a click, is denoted by $c \in \{0,1\}$.
In what follows, we provide an overview of the methods we discuss in this work, along with a brief explanation.
All models were optimised through the full-batch L-BFGS algorithm.
Table~\ref{tab:methods} provides an overview of the methods we include in our comparison.

\subsection{Methods}
\begin{table}[t]
    \centering
    \begin{tabular}{lccccc}
        \toprule
        \textbf{Method} &    $P(c|x,a)$ &   $P(a|x)$   &   \textbf{IPS} &   \textbf{Variance}    \\
        \midrule
        Likelihood &   \checkmark  &   &   &   &\\
        IPS Likelihood &   \checkmark  &   &  \checkmark &   &\\
        Contextual Bandit &   &  \checkmark   & \checkmark  &   &\\

        Dual Bandit &  \checkmark  &  \checkmark   & \checkmark  &   &\\
        POEM &    &  \checkmark   & \checkmark  & \checkmark  &\\
        SNIPS &    &  \checkmark   & \checkmark  & \checkmark  &\\
        \bottomrule
    \end{tabular}
    \caption{An overview of the methods we discuss in this paper, and how they relate to one another.}
    \label{tab:methods}
\end{table}
\paragraph{Likelihood.}
The standard statistical approach is to do statistical inference and decision making in two separate steps.  The simplest approach is to first do statistical inference using maximum likelihood and then do decision making in a separate step, bypassing the empirical/counterfactual risk minimisation approach.  If the reward is a binary variable, then a logistic regression model is appropriate:

\begin{equation}\label{eq:likelihood}
    P(c|\mathbf{x},a) = \sigma((\mathbf{x}\otimes\mathbf{a})^\intercal\mathbf{\beta})
\end{equation}

Here, $\mathbf{\beta} \in \mathbb{R}^{n^2}$ are the model parameters and $\sigma(\cdot)$ is the logistic sigmoid; $\otimes$ is the Kronecker product.

\paragraph{Reweighted Likelihood.}

Often we fit a simple model e.g. a linear model to a complex relationship.  When we do this, the model will underfit the data and is unable to capture the true relationship.  When a standard maximum likelihood approach is used the error due to the underfitting will be minimized around common occurrences of $(\mathbf{x},a)$.  This leads to a phenomenon widely known as \emph{covariate shift}~\cite{Shimodaira2000}.
One general solution to this issue is to make use of importance sampling~\cite{Owen2013}, and reweight samples to adjust for the difference in the distribution of past actions (as per the logging policy) and future actions (which we will evaluate uniformly in this case).
Practically, this is achieved by reweighting samples $(\mathbf{x}_i,a_i,c_i)$ by the inverse propensity score of the logging policy during maximum likelihood estimation: $w_i = \frac{1}{\pi_0(a_i|\mathbf{x}_i)}$.  This procedure is only beneficial if the model lacks capacity to correctly model the complete relationship \cite{storkey}.

\paragraph{Contextual Bandits (CB)}
The previous approaches model the probability of a click, given a context-action pair.
Contextual bandits aim to directly model the probability of an action, given a context vector~\cite{Langford2008}.
This is shown in Equation~\ref{eq:contextual}, where $\theta \in \mathbb{R}^{n\times n}$ are the model parameters.
\begin{equation}\label{eq:contextual}
    P(a|\mathbf{x}) = \text{softmax}(\mathbf{x}^\intercal\mathbf{\theta})
\end{equation}

The goal at hand is to learn a policy that chooses the optimal action given a context $\mathbf{x}$, i.e. the policy that maximises the number of clicks we would have gotten when $\pi_{\theta}$ was deployed instead of the logging policy $\pi_0$.
Equation~\ref{eq:counterfactual_objective} formalises this counterfactual objective.
\begin{equation}\label{eq:counterfactual_objective}
    \theta^{*} = \argmax_{\theta}\sum_{i = 1}^{N}c_i \frac{\pi_\theta(a_i,\mathbf{x_i})}{\pi_0(a_i,\mathbf{x_i})}
\end{equation}

We optimise it by maximising a lower bound on the log of the objective obtained through Jensen's inequality~\cite{Jensen1906}, since it then becomes the log-likelihood of a multinomial logistic regression where each observation has been weighted by $w_i = \frac{c_i}{\pi_0(a_i|\mathbf{x}_i)}$.
In doing so, it improves numerical stability of the optimisation procedure.

\paragraph{Dual Bandit.}
Due to the reweighting scheme used in the contextual bandit approach, the model ends up learning only from those context-action pairs that led to a click.
Indeed, if $c_i = 0$ then $w_i = 0$.
Nevertheless, valuable information is embedded in the negative samples about what actions should \emph{not} be repeated in the future.
One possible approach is to jointly optimise the contextual bandit objective with the likelihood presented in Equation~\ref{eq:likelihood}.
Here, $\beta$ is a flattened version of $\theta$, and the model parameters are shared.
This leads to the combined loss shown in Equation~\ref{eq:dual_loss}, where $0 \leq \alpha \leq 1$ is a hyper-parameter that controls the influence of the negative log-likelihood on the final loss.
\begin{equation}\label{eq:dual_loss}
    \mathcal{L}_{\text{dual}}(\theta) = (1 - \alpha) \mathcal{L}_{\text{CB}}(\theta) + \alpha \mathcal{L}_{\text{LH}}(\theta)
\end{equation}

\paragraph{Policy Optimiser for Exponential Models (POEM)}
Inverse propensity scoring is a powerful technique that allows for counterfactual optimisation.
When the target policy $\pi_\theta$ and the logging policy $\pi_0$ diverge, however, IPS-based estimators tend to fail as the variance of the estimate grows along.
\citeauthor{Swaminathan2015} tackle this by formalising the Counterfactual Risk Minimisation (CRM) principle along with a learning algorithm POEM~\cite{Swaminathan2015}.
On top of the standard counterfactual objective presented in Equation~\ref{eq:counterfactual_objective}, CRM clips the IPS weights~\cite{Ionides2008} and includes a variance penalisation term.
We do not clip importance weights in our experiments.

\paragraph{Self-normalised IPS (SNIPS)}
Variance regularisation alone, as included in POEM, is insufficient to fully avoid overfitting in the bandit-feedback case.
Norm-POEM is an extension of POEM that optimises the CRM objective for the SNIPS estimator~\cite{Swaminathan2015snips}, specifically targeting the problem of propensity overfitting.
This work is further extended and generalised to allow for optimisation through stochastic gradient descent (SGD) methods~\cite{Joachims2018}.

\section{Results and Conclusion}
\begin{figure}
    \centering
    \includegraphics[scale = .40, trim = {4mm 10mm 0cm 0cm}]{img/final_recogym_plot.png}
    \caption{Simulated A/B test results}
    \label{fig:results}
\end{figure}

Figure~\ref{fig:results} shows the measured click-through-rate (CTR) for a varying number of users in the training data, a fixed set of $10$ items, and a reasonable popularity-based logging policy\footnote{All code necessary to replicate our experiments will be open-sourced upon acceptance.}.
For $5\,000$ users, we approximately obtain $400\,000$ logged bandit events.
We evaluate every method on $30\,000$ users, in order to obtain a robust estimate of performance.
Around every line, the 95\% confidence interval is shown.
We see the contextual bandit approach being the most effective when not much data is available, and the variance penalisation scheme from POEM not having a big impact.
This latter observation might change drastically for a less sensible logging policy or a larger number of actions, as this would impose more uncertainty.
Likelihood catches up when fed more training data, and the combined objective from the dual bandit stands out, showing merit in including negative feedback for policy learning.

We have presented several recently proposed methods for learning from bandit feedback, and discussed their practicality in a recommender system context.
Through experimental validation on the RecoGym environment, we empirically validated the performance of said approaches.
As future work, we aim to include more promising recent methods such as the one presented in~\cite{su2019cab}, and perform more experiments on the impact of the logging policy on the quality of the learning procedures.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
var assert  = require('assert'),
  webinos = require('find-dependencies')(__dirname),
  os      = require('os'),
  path    = require("path"),
  fs      = require('fs'),
  https   = require("https"), net = require("net");

var pzh     = webinos.global.require(webinos.global.pzh.location, 'lib/pzh');
var wPath   = webinos.global.require(webinos.global.util.location, 'lib/webinosPath');
var pzp     = webinos.global.require(webinos.global.pzp.location, 'lib/pzp');
var logger  = webinos.global.require(webinos.global.util.location, 'lib/logging')(__filename);
var session = webinos.global.require(webinos.global.pzp.location, 'lib/session');

var check_webinos_connectivity = function (){
  "use strict";
  var pzh_provider, firstPzh, secondPzh, firstPzp, authCode, address;
  function getIpAddress(callback) {
    var socket = net.createConnection(80, "www.google.com");
    socket.on('connect', function() {
      socket.end();
      address = socket.address().address;
    });
  }

  function startPzh_Provider(callback) {
    pzh_provider = new pzh.provider("", "");
    pzh_provider.startProvider(function(status, details){
      assert.deepEqual(status, true);
      if(status){
        logger.log("started zone provider");
        callback(true);
      } else {
        logger.error("failed starting zone provider");
        callback(true);
      }
    });
  }

  function startPzh(userDetails, callback) {
    pzh_provider.createPzh(userDetails, function(status, uri){
      assert.deepEqual(status, true);
      if (status) {
        logger.log("successfully started pzh " + uri);
      } else {
        logger.error("failed starting pzh " + uri);
      }
      callback(status, uri);
    });
  }

  function testPzhFunctionality(callback) {
    pzh.qrcode.addPzpQRAgain(firstPzh, function(result){
      assert.deepEqual(result.cmd, 'addPzpQR');
      assert.deepEqual(result.to,  firstPzh.getSessionId());
      authCode = result.payload.code;
    });

    pzh.apis.listZoneDevices(firstPzh, function(result) {
      assert.deepEqual(result.to, firstPzh.getSessionId());
      assert.deepEqual(result.cmd, 'listDevices');
      if (result.payload.pzhs.length === 1) {
        assert.deepEqual(result.payload.pzhs[0].id, 'alicé@gmail.com (Your Pzh)');
      } else {
        assert.deepEqual(result.payload.pzhs[1].id, 'alicé@gmail.com (Your Pzh)');
        assert.deepEqual(result.payload.pzhs[0].id, 'bob@gmail.com');
      }
    });

    pzh.apis.listPzp(firstPzh, function(result){
      assert.deepEqual(result.cmd, 'listPzp');
      assert.deepEqual(result.to,  firstPzh.getSessionId());
      if (firstPzh.getConnectedPzp().length >= 1){
      } else {
        assert.deepEqual(result.payload.signedCert, []);
        assert.deepEqual(result.payload.revokedCert,[]);
      }
    });

    pzh.apis.fetchUserData(firstPzh, function(result){
      assert.deepEqual(result.cmd, 'userDetails');
      assert.deepEqual(result.to,  firstPzh.getSessionId());
      assert.deepEqual(result.payload.servername, firstPzh.getSessionId());
    });

    pzh.apis.fetchLogs(firstPzh, "error", function(result){
      assert.deepEqual(result.cmd, 'crashLog');
      assert.deepEqual(result.to,  firstPzh.getSessionId());

    });

    pzh.apis.fetchLogs(firstPzh, "info", function(result){
      assert.deepEqual(result.cmd, 'infoLog');
      assert.deepEqual(result.to,  firstPzh.getSessionId());
    });

    console.log(firstPzh.getConnectedPzh().length)
    if (firstPzh.getConnectedPzh().length <= 1){
      firstPzh.addOtherZoneCert(address+"_bob@gmail.com", pzh_provider.fetchPzh, pzh_provider.refreshCert, function(result) {
        assert.deepEqual(result.cmd, 'pzhPzh');
        assert.deepEqual(result.to,  firstPzh.getSessionId());
        assert.equal(result.payload, true);
        callback(true);
      });
    }else {
      callback(true);
    }

   // Test Authentication
   // Revoke PZP
   // Restart PZH
   // Service configuration
   // logout
   // Test auto enrollment
   // --login
   // --authenticate
   // --auto enrollment
   // --registerPzh
  }
  function startPzp(callback) {
    var pzpModules = [
      {name: "get42", params: {num: "21"}},
      {name: "geolocation", params: {connector : "geoip"}},
      {name: "discovery", params: {}}];
    var config = {pzhHost: "localhost", pzhName: "", friendlyName: ""} ;
    var local_pzp = new pzp.session();
    local_pzp.initializePzp(config, pzpModules, function(status, sessionId, csr) {
      assert.deepEqual(status, true);
      if (status){
        if (local_pzp.getSessionId().split("/") && local_pzp.getSessionId().split("/").length < 2){
          sendAutoEnrollment(address + "_"+ "alicé@gmail.com", sessionId, csr, callback);// After enrollment it will trigger pzh-pzp connection
        }else {
          callback(true, sessionId);
        }
        // Test: PZP TLS Server
        // PZP WebSocket
        // PZP TLS Client
      }
    });
    return local_pzp;
  }

  function sendAutoEnrollment(sendAdd, sessionId, csr, callback) {
    var msg = {"type": 'prop', from: sessionId, to: sendAdd, "payload": { "status": "enrollPzp", message: {csr: csr, authCode:authCode }}};
    var options = { host: sendAdd.split("_")[0],  port: 9000,  path: '/index.html?cmd=pzpEnroll', method: 'POST',
      headers: {'Content-Length': JSON.stringify(msg).length + 1 }};
    console.log(options);
    var req = https.request(options, function(res) {
      res.on('data', function(data) {
        var msg = JSON.parse(data);
        if (msg.payload && msg.payload.status ==="signedCert") {
          firstPzp.enrolledPzp(msg.from, msg.to, msg.payload.message.clientCert, msg.payload.message.masterCert, msg.payload.message.masterCrl);
          setTimeout(function(){
            callback(true, sessionId);
          },1000);
        }
      });
    });
    req.on('error', function(err) {
      logger.error(err);
    });
    req.write(JSON.stringify(msg));
    req.end();
  }

  function deleteFiles(sessionId) {
    var resolve = path.resolve(wPath.webinosPath(), firstPzh.getSessionId().split("_")[1]);
    fs.rmdir(resolve, function(){
      resolve = path.resolve(wPath.webinosPath(), secondPzh.getSessionId().split("_")[1]);
      fs.rmdir(resolve, function(){
        fs.rmdir(wPath.webinosPath() +"/"+ sessionId.split("/")[1], function(){
          process.exit();
        });
      });
    });
  }

  this.startTest = function() {
    getIpAddress();
    startPzh_Provider(function(status) {
      if(status) {
        var userDetails = { email: "alicé@gmail.com", firstname: "Alicé", country: "UK"};
        startPzh(userDetails, function(status, uri) {
          if (status) {
            firstPzh = pzh_provider.fetchPzh(uri);
            userDetails = { email: "bob@gmail.com", name: "Bob", country: "UK"};
            startPzh(userDetails, function(status, uri) {
              secondPzh = pzh_provider.fetchPzh(uri);
              testPzhFunctionality(function() {
                firstPzp = startPzp(function(status, sessionId){
                  if (status) {
                    logger.log("successfully start pzp");
                    deleteFiles(sessionId);
                  }
                });
              });
            });
          }
        });
      } else {
        logger.error("failed running tests.. aborting")
        //process.exit();
      }
    });
  }
};

var check = new check_webinos_connectivity();
check.startTest();

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
@thebeast
Followers 4040
Following 4097
Blog Categories all music news OZZY'S DISLODGED METAL RODS
OZZY'S DISLODGED METAL RODS Monday April 8 2019, 8:00 PM
Sharon Osbourne says that Ozzy "feels terrible" for the recent health struggles that forced him to cancel all of his live appearances through the end of the year.
Last week, Ozzy postponed all his 2019 tour dates, both in North America and Europe, as he recovers from an injury sustained while dealing with his recent bout of pneumonia. The BLACK SABBATH frontman fell at his Los Angeles home, aggravating years-old injuries from his 2003 ATV accident that required surgery last month. Ozzy will remain under doctor's care in Los Angeles as he recovers.
On today's (Monday, April 8) episode of the CBS daytime talk show "The Talk" , Sharon teared up as she discussed her husband's latest health scare, saying that he is doing "great" but that he is sorry to disappoint his legions of fans.
She said (see video below): " Ozzy is… Oh, Lord, I don't know where to begin, and I have to make this quick... He, at the beginning of the year, had a bad flu that went to bronchitis, that went to pneumonia. And then when he had the flu, he came out of hospital and he had a bad accident at home. He fell. And he fell in the middle of the night. And years ago, previously, he had a motorbike accident, where he was in a coma for days. And what he'd done was he reinjured his back and neck and shoulders. And all of the metal rods and everything that were put in his body were dislodged. So we had to cancel his year events. But he's good, he's fine, he's great."
Fighting back tears, she added: "He just feels terrible. He says it's the only thing he's ever done right in his life, his performing, and he just feels terrible."
Ozzy was in a coma for eight days in December of 2003 when he accidentally crashed an ATV while riding on the grounds of his English estate. He broke his collarbone, several ribs and a neck vertebra in the incident, of which he told The Pulse Of Radio he had very little memory. "All I remember was getting on the quad bike and that was it I don't remember anything else," he said. "I didn't know what was real, I didn't know whether I was dreaming. I kept believing, when I'd come in and out of this coma, that they were moving me around from different hospitals, so it was really weird. It was like going on this incredible journey."
In his book "I Am Ozzy" , the singer said that he eventually "made a full recovery" from the ATV accident. "My short-term memory seemed worse, but maybe that was just age, or the sleeping pills," he wrote. "And my ribcage is still full of screws and bolts and metal rods. When I walk through an airport metal detector these days, a klaxon goes off in the Pentagon. But I can't complain, y'know?
"I remember when I first went back to America after the crash, and I had to go to the doc for a check-up. He took all these X-rays of my chest, put
them up on the viewing box, and started to whistle through his teeth. 'Nice work,' he said. 'Must have been a bit pricey, though. What did it cost ya? Seven figures? Eight?' 'Nothing, actually,' I said. He couldn't believe it. 'What d'you mean?' 'National Health Service,' I said, and shrugged. 'Holy crap,' he went. 'No wonder you guys put up with the weather.'"
Most of the 2019 shows on Ozzy 's last full world tour will be rescheduled beginning in February 2020. Fans are being asked to hold onto their original tickets, as they will be honored for the rescheduled dates. Because some of the 2019 dates were festival appearances, not all will be rescheduled.
Via Blabbermouth
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© Metal Devastation Radio 2020


Conte, ink, gouache, charcoal & gesso on plywood.
Halifax, Canada, 1946. 68.5cm x 91.5cm.
Reference image source Nova Scotia Archives. "Car 126 burns in VE Day riots on May 7, 1945. From Nova Scotia Archives, Photographer Unknown."
Reference image source Reuters. "Evacuation buses attacked en route to Idlib. Updated 18 Dec 2016, 10:12am. The buses were on their way to evacuate ill and injured people from the besieged Syrian villages of al-Foua and Kefraya. Reuters: Amman Abdullah."
Duo is two drawings I made during the winter of 2016-17. The piece is two separate panels of shop-grade birch plywood, each resurfaced with layers of gesso, charcoal, conte, sanding & wash. They are shown together as one piece.
The images have a specific spatial and temporary relationship. The left (Halifax) is from a familiar place, at a distant time; the right (Aleppo) is contemporary, in a distant place. Both images challenged my sense of empathy, and challenged my understanding of myself in relation to violence.
I drew these images because I thought that through labouring over each, I might be able to find a better understanding of either through time spent at their intersection. Similarly, I wanted to share the way in which these images' similarity positioned and challenged my sense of self, with other people.
According to accompanying reports no persons were killed in either of the events depicted.


text:
Un  tallagespa , talladora de gespa o màquina de tallar la gespa és una màquina, manual o motoritzada, usada per retallar la gespa dels jardins, camps esportius, etcètera, de manera que s'obtingui una catifa d'herba d'alçada uniforme.

L'alçada de la gespa tallada es pot fixar pel disseny de la segadora, però generalment és ajustable per l'operador, normalment amb una sola palanca o mitjançant un cargol a cadascuna de les rodes de la màquina. Les fulles poden ser accionades per força manual, amb rodes connectades mecànicament a les fulles de tall de manera que quan la segadora s'empeny cap endavant, les fulles giren o la màquina pot tenir un motor elèctric alimentat per bateries o endollable. La font d'energia autònoma més comuna per a talladores de gespa és un motor de combustió interna petit (normalment d'un cilindre). Les segadores més petites sovint no tenen cap forma de propulsió, i requereixen poder humà per moure's sobre una superfície; Les segadores de "caminar per darrere" són autopropulsades, i només requereixen que un humà camini darrere i les guiï. Els tallagespes més grans solen ser de tipus autopropulsat o, més sovint, són segadores de gespa amb cotxe, equipats perquè l'operador pugui muntar-lo i controlar-lo. Un tallagespa robòtic ("bot de talla de gespa", "mowbot", etc.) està dissenyat per funcionar completament per si sol o amb menys freqüència per un operador mitjançant un control remot.

A les talladores de gespa s'utilitzen dos estils principals de fulles. Les talladores de gespa que utilitzen una sola fulla que gira al voltant d'un únic eix vertical es coneixen com a segadores rotatives, mentre que les que utilitzen una barra de tall i un conjunt de fulles múltiples que gira al voltant d'un únic eix horitzontal es coneixen com a segadores de cilindre o de bobina (tot i que en algunes versions, la barra de tall és l'única fulla, i el conjunt giratori consisteix en peces metàl·liques planes que forcen les fulles d'herba contra la barra de tall afilada).

Hi ha diversos tipus de tallagespes, cadascuna s'adapta a una escala i un propòsit particulars. Els tipus més petits, segadores d'empenta sense motor, són adequats per a jardins residencials petits. Per a jardins residencials més grans s'utilitzen segadores elèctriques o amb motor de pistó. Els tallagespes muntats, que de vegades s'assemblen a tractors petits, són més grans que les segadores d'empenta i són adequades per a superfícies grans, tot i que les segadores de gespa comercials (com les segadores de gir zero) poden ser tipus "de peu" i sovint tenen poca semblança amb els tipus tractors residencials, dissenyats per tallar grans superfícies a gran velocitat en el menor temps possible. Les segadores de múltiples bandes (multipalmes) més grans estan muntades en tractors i estan dissenyades per a grans extensions de gespa com camps de golf i parcs municipals, tot i que no són adequades per a terrenys complexos.

Història
La idea d'una màquina per tallar herba va ser concebuda a Gloucestershire (Anglaterra) el 1830 per l'enginyer independent Edwin Beard Budding, antic fuster a Chalford. Possiblement es va inspirar en el tallador rotatori dissenyat per a tallar la pelussa de la llana teixida al molí de Brinscomb. El tallagespa de Budding va ser dissenyat principalment per a tallar la gespa dels camps esportius i els jardins extensos com a alternativa superior a la dalla. La seva patent del 25 octubre de 1830 descrivia «una nova combinació i aplicació de la maquinària amb l'objecte de ranar o tallar les superfícies vegetals de gespa, herba i camps.» La patent afirma també que «els cavallers trobaran la utilitat de la meva màquina realitzant un exercici entretenidor, útil i saludable.»

Referències

Eines de jardineria

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


January 20 is Penguin Awareness Day, and as the species are coming under threat due to climate change, the species future is now more uncertain than ever. If you're a fan of these cute little creatures that are always dressed to the nines, then you might want to plan travel to see them now before it becomes increasingly difficult to see them in their natural habitat.
From Australia to the Antarctica we reveal the best travel destinations to see penguins in the wild, awkwardly waddling free.
Penneshaw, on South Australia's Kangaroo Island, is a great place to see these little guys in action. The Little Penguins (Eudyptula Minor) are the smallest of all the world's penguin species and can only be seen on land during night time. Kangaroo Island offers nightly tours by torchlight and is preceded by an entertaining and educational aquarium tour and if the weather permits, a laser guided talk through the southern constellations (tours will not be conducted from Feb 1 to Feb 28th/29th).
What's great about seeing Penguins at Kangaroo Island is you will also get to experience an impressive selection of other animals: kangaroos, wallabies, rare glossy black cockatoos and echidnas.
Boulder's Beach in Simon's town may offer the most interesting penguin experience. This beach and its safe sandy shores are home to a breeding colony of over 2000 tuxedoed little birds, also known as the endangered African Penguins. You can stroll on the pristine sand and freely explore the 540 million year old granite boulders in the close proximity to the beautiful birds. There's a dedicated walkway that will guide you to their nesting and breeding sites, to get an intimate view of their home and lifestyle. If you're looking for a close-up casual experience with penguins book a flight to South Africa.
There are plenty of tour operators in Ushuaia which offer day cruises to view penguins and other marine life. But if you want to walk among the penguins then only one operator, PiraTour, will be sufficient.
Piratours will take you to Martillo Island to walk among Gentoo and Magellanics penguins; you will be accompanied by a guide and walk through authorized trails and experience a unique adventure.
IMG: Best Penguin Picture by Christopher.Michel, More Penguins by jomilo75 / Flickr cc.


Time to unwind and enjoy! Up to six persons can relax comfortably in your private Deluxe Family Lounge 3, which compels with its state-of-the-art and exclusive furnishings.
Please note: The Deluxe Family Lounge 3 is available on working days from the opening of the THERME ERDING until the closing of the GALAXY ERDING!


Cod Collapse: The Rise and Fall of Newfoundland's Saltwater Cowboys. Fall 2019 (Forthcoming book). Nimbus Publishing.
Shed Culture: Some Work, All Play is the Newfoundland and Labrador Way. May 2019 (Forthcoming article). Downhome Magazine.
Roam Like Home. April 2019 (Forthcoming article). Newfoundland Quarterly.
Accordion to Don: How a Squeezebox Became a Barometer for My Father's Health. Summer 2019 (Forthcoming article). Newfoundland Quarterly.
Here Comes the Sun: Artist Jean Claude Roy's Bright Outlook for Newfoundland and Labrador. March 2019. Newfoundland Quarterly.
I'm Afraid of Men: Vivek Shraya (Session Review). 2018. Ottawa Writersfest.
The Secret History of Soldiers: Tim Cook (Session Review). 2018. Ottawa Writersfest.
First Person: Darrel J. McLeod and Tom Wilson (Session Review). 2018. Ottawa Writersfest.
collaborative. Chron Respir Dis. 2018 Feb;15(1):5-18. doi: 10.1177/1479972317712720. Epub 2017 Jun 14. PubMed PMID: 28612657; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5802658.
10.1177/1479972316679682. Epub 2017 Oct 5. PubMed PMID: 28982256; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5802652.
Pulmon Dis. 2017 Jul 26;12:2157-2164. doi: 10.2147/COPD.S140043. eCollection PubMed PMID: 28794620; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5536231.
J Health Policy Manag. 2017 May 16;6(12):691-694. doi: 10.15171/ijhpm.2017.60.
PubMed PMID: 29172375; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5726318.
Farmanova E, Kirvan C, Verma J, Mukerji G, Akunov N, Phillips K, Samis S.
10.1093/intqhc/mzw118. PubMed PMID: 28423164; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5892163.
Gibson R, Carson SR. A Patient-Centred Redesign Framework to Support System-Level Process Changes for Multimorbidities and Chronic Conditions. Healthc Q.
Policy Manag. 2015 Jul 28;4(11):783-5. doi: 10.15171/ijhpm.2015.140. PubMed PMID: 26673343; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4629708.
Invest Med. 2015 Feb 6;38(1):E11-4. PubMed PMID: 25662619.
things right. Clin Invest Med. 2014 Oct 4;37(5):E311-9. PubMed PMID: 25282137.
Verma J, Petersen S, Samis S, Akunov N, Graham, J. Healthcare Priorities in Canada. Prepared to support the Canadian Harkness Fellowship Canadian Tour, hosted by the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement with The Commonwealth Fund. 2014. CFHI: Ottawa, ON.
Akunov N. & Verma J. Healthcare Primer (Series): How is healthcare regionalized across Canada?; How are hospitals financed across Canada?; and How is quality of care measured across Canada? 2014. Canadian Healthcare Network.
10.1136/eb-2012-100996. Epub 2012 Nov 9. PubMed PMID: 23143923; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3786663.
Verma J, Petersen S, Sutherland K, Law S, & Leatherman S. (2012). The Authors Respond – Quality of Healthcare in Canada. Healthc Pap. 2012;12(1): 51-58.
strategy. Healthc Q. 2012;15(1):19-21. PubMed PMID: 22354049.
health systems planning for the aging population. Healthc Q. 2011;14(2):14-5.
Q. 2011;14(3):16-8. PubMed PMID: 21841371.
Major J & Verma J. How can we provide better health care to older Canadians? 2011Long Term Care Magazine. 21(3). Ontario Long Term Care Association.
Brasset-Latulippe A, Verma J, Mulvale G. & Barclay K. Provincial and Territorial Health System Priorities: An Environmental Scan. 2011. CHSRF, Ottawa, ON.
Brasset-Latulippe A, Verma J, Mulvale G. & Barclay K. Transformation Lessons from Disease-based Strategies: An Environmental Scan Chronic disease: New frontier of healthcare. 2011. CHSRF, Ottawa, ON.
Major J & Verma J. Putting it in context: Canadians' views on the financial sustainability, quality and accessibility of healthcare in Canada (A Backgrounder). 2011. CHSRF Ottawa, ON.
Verma J, Samis S. Canada's population is aging. Healthc Pap. 2011;11(1):3-5.
McGrail K. & Verma J. Examining Geographic Variations in Healthcare Services Delivery. Briefing for the 2011 CEO Forum, Leadership accountability in Canadian healthcare: Creating the momentum to improve quality. 2011. CHSRF, Ottawa, ON.
Hollander M, Verma J & Major J. Improving Transitions Across the Continuum of Care. Briefing for the 2011 CEO Forum, Leadership accountability in canadian healthcare: Creating the momentum to improve quality. 2011. CHSRF, Ottawa, ON.
Elshaung A, Verma J & Petersen S. Improving allocation efficiencies in healthcare. Briefing for the 2011 CEO Forum, Leadership accountability in canadian healthcare: Creating the momentum to improve quality. 2011. CHSRF, Ottawa, ON.
create the momentum Canada needs to realize performance gains? Healthc Q.
Q. 2009;12(3):42-9. PubMed PMID: 19553761.
capacity to use research. Healthc Q. 2009;12(1):22-4. PubMed PMID: 19142059.
research use capacity: a joint evaluation project led by EXTRA and SEARCH Canada.
Healthc Q. 2009;12(2):18-20. PubMed PMID: 19369806.
cultural imperative. Healthc Q. 2009;12(4):16-8. PubMed PMID: 20057224.
Canadian healthcare systems: what's a researcher to do? Healthc Q.
Interface of Applied Health Services Research, Policy and Decision-making.
Healthc Policy. 2008 May;3 Spec no:118-30. PubMed PMID: 19377316; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2645184.
improvement puzzle. Healthc Q. 2008;11(1):18-9. PubMed PMID: 18326374.
healthcare? Healthc Q. 2008;11(2):14-6. PubMed PMID: 18700266.
Thornhill J, & Clements D. Mythbusters Teaching Resource. 2008. CHSRF: Ottawa, ON.
community of practice. Healthc Q. 2007;10(4):16-8. PubMed PMID: 18019893.
quality. Healthc Q. 2007;10(2):20-1. PubMed PMID: 17491561.
Jenn Thornhill Verma has been interviewed for a variety of news programs such as CBC Ottawa Morning, The Broadcast (CBC NL), The Telegram/The Western Star, CFRA News (Ottawa), VOCM (NL) Back Talk and VOCM Sunday Drive, among others.
She regularly presents at national and international events/conferences as well as to graduate-level programs (e.g., McMaster University Degroote School of Business and University of Toronto's Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation).


Do you operate servers that run on physical hardware on-premise, in a colocation facility, or a DIY server closet? Do you have a need or interest to bring your systems to the cloud?
This presentation walks through the migration of a CentOS 5.X Physical Server to a cloud-hosted Ubuntu 16.04 Virtual Machine. The server in question began its life in a colocation facility and served its purpose well enough. However, there were issues, including a tech forgetting to plug in the hard drive during a RAM upgrade to discovering the hosting provider itself had been acquired by a new company and would be shutting down all hosting services completely. These issues ultimately forced the move to a more resilient solution that can avoid these types of issues by design.
The presentation content discusses the main processes involved in moving everything from the physical drives of the original server to a brand new and improved Virtual Machine that can scale on-demand, back itself up on a user-defined schedule, and also allow for white-label deployment using a base image. It will cover specific changes that had to be made from CentOS to Ubuntu, and reconfiguration steps for popular services such as apache2, exim, and dovecot. If you have an interest in general server operations / administration or have wondered about the benefits of moving physical servers to the cloud, this session will offer real-life insights, opinions, and examples to help you get started in the right direction.


The 500-acre Tate Lohr Wildlife Management Area (WMA) ranges across moderate slopes that climb from 2,100 to 3,550 feet above sea level on the north flank of East River Mountain. Game traditionally hunted in the management area includes deer, squirrel, raccoon, and turkey, though hunting is limited as a result of the relatively small size of the management area. The management area encircles the Tate Lohr Fish Hatchery. Camping is prohibited.
Directions: The Tate Lohr Wildlife Management Area is located in southern Mercer County four miles south of Oakvale, WV. From the US-460 expressway at Oakvale, WV, on Goodwins Chapel Road (WV-112) follow Morgan Road and Christie Road (CR-219/6) approximately two miles to a right turn onto Hales Gap Road. Follow the latter approximately 1.5 miles to a left turn onto Neale Chapel School Road (CR-219/9). The management area is one half mile farther.
The Tate Lohr WMA is managed by the W.Va. Division of Natural Resources. It was formerly known as the Tate Lohr Public Hunting & Fishing Area.
Further information on lodging, dining, and recreation near the Tate Lohr Wildlife Management Area may be found in our guide to travel in the Bluestone Region in western West Virginia, in which the management area is located.


Hands-on Training that's Exciting and Fun!
Want some one-on-one instruction to go over the basics, hone your shooting skills, or learn something new?
At A & S, our NRA qualified instructors are looking forward to sharing their experience and enthusiasm with you!
½ Hour Sessions from beginner to advanced.
At least we think so, and we hope you'll agree. We offer popular NRA Firearms Training and Safety Classes featuring both classroom and hands-on training.
This five hour class provides you with the basic knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for owning and operating a pistol safely.
The Saturday class is one 5 hour session.
The Tuesday/Thursday class is two 2 ½ hour sessions.
Course Prerequisite: No previous shooting experience required.
This course is designed for first time and beginner shooters. However, the lessons taught serve as an excellent refresher course for the more experienced shooter. This class will include both classroom and live shooting instruction. All materials, firearms, ammunition, and safety apparel are included.
With the completion of this course, receive a FREE one-month Range membership (a $35.00 value). This FREE membership must be activated within six months of completing this class.
See our Class Policies. Visit our Class Schedules page for days and times.
Excellent course. Informative. Answers all questions.
We Learned. Loved being able to shoot different guns.
ability to handle any handgun safely.
A & S to take this class.
This eight hour class is a hands-on program encompassing both classroom and range instruction.
Class begins at 8:00 am and ends at 5:00 pm with one hour for lunch.
Your NRA qualified instructor covers equipment, techniques, tactics, and potential implications of armed self defense.
This class will include both classroom and live shooting instruction. All manuals, classroom materials, and range time are included in the class.
See our Class Policies. Visit our Class Schedules page for dates and times.
out prior to this class. Thank you.
One word to describe this course…Awesome!
This three hour class will provide you with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to safely carry and defensively shoot a pistol.
Class begins at 6:00 pm and ends at 9:00 pm.
1. Basic Pistol Shooting Class required.
2. Must be proficient in safe gun handling skills with YOUR own firearm.
Fundamentals: Grip, stance, trigger control, flash sight picture, drawing and re-holstering, strong hand and weak hand shooting, fast accurate first shot, controlled accurate rapid fire, speed vs. tactical, reloading, drills for fun and practice.
Equipment Selection: Guns, holsters, belts, magazine pouches, speed loader holders, and modifications.
The course will start with approximately 2 hours of classroom time, plus 1 hour in the Range with live fire training.
Excellent course! I would highly recommend.


Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Shane Ross and Minister of State for Tourism and Sport Brendan Griffin, launched the "Strategy for the future development of National and Regional Greenways" on the Old Rail Trail in Moate, County Westmeath.
I am delighted to be launching this Strategy today in our Hidden Heartlands. That brand, and indeed our other tourism brands all identify activity tourism as a key sector for sustainably growing tourism numbers in Ireland. This Strategy, is, I know, eagerly awaited around the country. People have seen the benefits that have accrued to towns along our Greenways to date, examples such as Newport on the Great Western Greenway, Kilmacthomas on the Waterford Greenway and here in Moate along the Old Rail Trail. Our goal is to replicate the success of those towns and those Greenways in other locations around the country. That is why we are focussing our investment on projects of scale, the common denominator of successful projects to date is that they are in the order of 40km and thus provide the opportunity to overnight in a new area.
We are lucky to live in such a beautiful country and Greenways provide an opportunity to experience that beauty up close and at a slow pace. Our Strategy will help us fund the spine of a network of greenways that can, over time, provide links to the rest of the countryside through quiet roads that will prove attractive to many people cycling. I know that Longford County Council is looking to identify a quiet route from the end of the Royal Canal Greenway in Clondra to Athlone, this will provide a wonderful triangular route from Mullingar along the Royal Canal to Clondra and then to Athlone returning to Mullingar on the Old Rail Trail.
we must also remember that Greenways are for more than people cycling, statistics from our current Greenways show that in towns such as Moate there are more people walking than cycling and the important health benefits that accrue to users are another huge benefit for our country.
I am looking forward to examining the many worthwhile project proposals that we expect to receive over the coming months under the funding call, and I would urge local authorities and state agencies to consult widely with landowners and communities along proposed routes to bring agreed routes to fruition. This Strategy sets out how that consultation should take place and suggests the components that make for a successful Greenway.


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So first, I want to thank everyone who checks out my blog. I appreciate all the viewer and subscribers. I had a great time blogging and look forward to what this new year will bring. Happy New Year!!
1. Spruce up my hair styles – Don't be so reliant on buns.
2. Be faithful to this 6 rollersetting challenge (and the 2 heat passes).
3. Make my weekly weight training/cardio workouts a mainstay this year. – No more excuses!
4. Take more steps towards changing my eating habits. – First Step: More Water!
5. Take better care of my nails. – the nails on my right hand are tragic.
6. Maintain these new thick and luscious ends. – Detangle patiently.
7. Keep growing my hair. – Midback Length please!
8. Incorporate more recipes into my dinner time rotation. – too much chicken, rice & broccoli; not enough variety.
1. My hair grew to BSL.
2. I lost lbs (and lowered my body fat %) with bursts of consistent exercise and healthy eating.
3. I cleared up my skin. Little to no acne and less noticable acne scars.
4. I protective styled for the entire year(with a few exceptions).
5. I simplified my make up routine and added new colors to my nail collection.
6. I started this amazing blog and actually made it interesting enough to get subscribers! Yay!
May it be a happy and prosperous one for you!!


text:
Q: Knockout observable property is not updating I am using knockout.js plugin in my application. I have a problem with observable. I created an Example Fiddle. In this fiddle i am creating Menus dynamically and generating Menu sequence each time when new menu is added. User can to delete any existing menu also except first one.
The problem comes when user delete any existing menu. Because at the time of deletion i am updating the sequence number in the remove function but the sequence numbers are not updating.
Can anybody please tell me whats the problem ?

A: Solution: Fiddle
Modified:
newMenuVM.Sequence = ko.observable(self.menus().length+1);

self.menus()[i].Sequence(i+1);

Deleted:
self.courseOptions.push(newMenuVM);

Reason:
When I run your fiddle, I see an error "Property 'Sequence' of object # is not a function".
I search this property and see:
newMenuVM.Sequence = self.menus().length+1;

So, I add ko.observable function.

A: You are redefining the Sequence variable. Originally it is a ko.observable. You are setting it to a integer value. You should set the value as so
newMenuVM.Sequence(self.menus().length+1);

This will allow the observable to notify and update the value on screen.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Portugal's nurses this week staged two days of strike action to press the government to table a new negotiating proposal on nursing careers, in line with professionals' expectations and commitments it has already made.
"The strike is essential to require the government to present a career proposal that meets the expectations of nurses, but, more than that, to meet the commitments that were made by the government and the Ministry of Health in the agreed negotiating guidelines, which aimed precisely to determine within what framework the assessment of the nursing career would be made," Guadalupe Simões, leader of the SEP nurses' union said.
The national strike action is to be repeated on 16, 17, 18 and 19 of October, with a demonstration being scheduledfor the latter date in front of the Ministry of Health in Lisbon to demand that the government meets commitments made during last year's negotiating process.
The unions are demanding a review of nursing careers, the definition of conditions of access to employment categories, the salary scale, the principles of the system for performance assessment, the rules for and organisation of working time, and the conditions and criteria applicable to employment.
They claim, among other matters, that the specialist nursing career is applicable to all public and National Health Service (SNS) institutions and to all nurses who work in them, independent of the type of employment contract they have. They are also demanding clear conditions of access to voluntary retirement for nurses and that they be entitled to full pension after 35 years of service once they are at least 57-years-old; this is the unions' starting position in the negotiations.
The unions called a strike on 20 and 21 September for the same reasons; according them, participation by nurses was at 80.4 percent.
The strike has been called by the SEP, Madeira's SERAM, SINDEPOR and ASPE.


text:
Registration of SAITM Campus students to KDU starts, NO Scholarship for students with financial difficulties
Registration of SAITM campus students to the KDU start today August 6 amidst strict regulations that those who failed to pay the course-fee by Monday would not be enrolled for the MBBS degree.
The new condition had shattered the dreams of top three students, with the top A/L results to join the University over financial constraints.
It was learned that at least three, including two female students, who have the highest A/L results among the SAITM students, had to give up their enrollment at the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU) due to financial difficulties.
Among the top results, there are students with 2As and 1 B, 2As and 1C, 1A and 2Bs and learned that most of the scholarship holders are having a Z-Score over 1.7.
Parents of the scholarship holders said the with the Government decided to cancel the scholarships their children had faced a severe inconvenience.
"There is no way that we can find Rs. 1.3 million per annum as course fee. We have written to President Maithripala Sirisena to provide us with a relief," a parent said.
"Our children received scholarships as they have good A/L results. Their time has been wasted and we are helpless as parents," the parent told.
The parents said their children were going through a tremendous amount of stress and anxiety because of the new condition.
They said that their children accepted the scholarship at SAITM solely because of their interest in studying medicine and there was no political intervention behind the scholarships.
According to the parents, the majority of scholarship holders were with high A/L results and their parents were low-income receivers.
They said that the authorities had neglected them stating the scholarships were based on political intervention and refused to grant any relief.
"We assured that the students with top results would have no political connections and were granted the scholarship based on their talent. Our children have to suffer because of the tug-o-war between the two Governments," a parent said.
They said that the SAITM degree was advertised as the University Grants Commission (UGC) approved one, and as such, the Government was responsible for their children's education.
"We beg President and relevant Ministers to not to play with our children's lives. If the SAITM degree was affordable to us then our children wouldn't be selected for the scholarship scheme. Without checking our financial background, it was inhumane to just reject our children at KDU," they stressed.
The Students Action Committee of SAITM in a letter had informed the injustice faced by the scholarship holders and said it would stage protests outside the Presidential Secretariat this week.
"We will even resort to fast unto death if our children were rejected today," a disturbed parent said.
Although the SAITM institute had awarded scholarships to its students they would not be entitled financial scholarships at the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU), Minister of Higher Education Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe said.
"KDU has no scholarship scheme," he told.
Minister Rajapakshe explained that the SAITM had awarded scholarships under political grounds.
"SAITM scholarships are given on political patronage, not on merit," he said.
He also said that SAITM founder Dr Neville Fernando accepted SAITM had awarded Rs. 400 million worth scholarships under the influence of politicians.
Minister Rajapakshe said that Dr Fernando had informed him that among them there were ten students who received Rs. 10 million worth scholarship each, under the influence of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
He said the absorbing students at the KDU under the current financial ground were also agreed by SAITM parents then.
"KDU course fee is one-third of what they had to pay at the SAITM. By awarding scholarships to the students, we cannot make the KDU another SAITM. The Government had served the justice at its best to the students," he added.
Source - Daily Mirror
LankaUniversity-News.com Sri Lanka University News at 9:02 AM No comments:
Labels: SAITM Campus students registration to KDU General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University
Registration of SAITM Campus students to KDU start...


Michael Albasini has finished fourth on stage 12 of the Tour de France, capping off a strong day for ORICA-GreenEDGE that also saw Simon Clarke awarded most aggressive rider.
Clarke spent all but fifteen kilometers of the 185.5km stage out in front and will be deservedly recognised with the red most combative race numbers on his birthday tomorrow.
"The only way you are going to win is if you really put it on the line. You have to risk losing to win," Clarke said.
"We had a big plan today to make sure at least one of us was in the breakaway and then have a couple of guys waiting for the sprint.
The 2012 Vuelta a Espana King of the Mountain escaped in a five-man breakaway at the ten-kilometer mark of the stage that at its best gained an advantage of just over five minutes after 40km of racing.
With Giant-Shimano and Europcar leading the bunch and a crash in the break that saw the withdrawal of David De La Cruz (TNE) with a suspected broken collarbone, the gap began to diminish.
Recognising the fading power of the break, Clarke attacked with Garmin rider Sebastian Langeveld and the duo went alone with 55km left to race. Keen to be amongst the action, Europcar launched two riders in pursuit whilst Clarke made a solo move with 25km to go leaving Langeveld in his wake.
Europcar pair Cyril Gautier and Perrig Quemeneur joined Clarke at the 20km to go mark but they were eventually caught with five kilometers left to ride.
The team then looked to Australian champion Simon Gerrans and Albasini to contest the sprint. When Gerrans was slightly affected by a crash involving André Greipel with three kilometers to go, the reigns were left with Albasini.
"We really expected the racing to be a lot more aggressive for a lot longer this morning," sport director Matt White said.
"It was always going to be a good day for a break away and once Clarke went with his group of five we could just sit behind and see what eventuated later on.
"When Simon (Gerrans) couldn't get back into position after being offset by the crash of Griepel and (Sylvain) Chavanel, Alba (Albasini) made a great effort alone.


It takes more than jobs to employ workers. The debate that is taking place in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. is about jobs; the more jobs we have the better off workers and the economy will be. Unfortunately, jobs are not enough. In this community with a robust job market, unemployed workers continue to struggle to find employment. The issue is not about jobs, but rather the skill gap between what employers require and workers possess. The solution to getting workers back to work is not job creation but rather investing in workforce development to retrain workers for the right skills in the innovation economy. For many years, the local workforce development system has faced a significant decline in federal funding through the Workforce Investment Act and now the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. There is a disconnect between the demand for a skilled workforce and the funding necessary to train workers. When Congress reconvenes in September, I hope that consideration will be given to tackling the core issue and that is training workers for the many jobs that employers are desperate to fill.
In this latest edition, you can read more what NOVA and the community are doing to get people back to work and employers the talent they need to succeed. Please share it with your colleagues and enjoy!
NOVA, through its foundation, was awarded a $250,000 grant in June from Google.org. This by-invitation-only grant opportunity will build dedicated pathways for up to 60 low- income youth and young adults to careers in the Silicon Valley innovation economy. The project is a collaborative partnership with Hack the Hood, an Oakland-based nonprofit connecting youth to technology careers; Virgil, a developer of a virtual assessment tool and navigational solution; and Economic Advancement Research Institute, a Massachusetts nonprofit that promotes economic opportunity and career mobility. This initiative will complement and leverage NOVA's other tech initiatives including Slingshot and its partnership with the Boston workforce development community that is promoting a "tech talent exchange." For more information, please refer to the press release and the June 13 article in the San Jose Mercury News.
Prospect Silicon Valley, a San Jose-based incubator of emerging clean tech transportation companies, was awarded a $2 million grant from the California Energy Commission to research, develop and demonstrate an advanced energy management and grid services system for electric transit bus fleets that is expected to reduce costs for charging electric buses. NOVA is a workforce partner in this initiative receiving a $50,000 grant, and will be joined by the Valley Transportation Authority and Cisco Systems, among others. Prospect Silicon Valley has been a longstanding partner with NOVA on the Advanced Transportation Opportunity Initiative.
NOVA is taking the lead, on behalf of the three workforce boards in the region, on the development of a local SlingShot initiative that is part of a multi-year statewide initiative to increase regional economic prosperity and improve income mobility. The Silicon Valley SlingShot initiative has convened industry leaders in the region to form a compact to engage other industry partners and key stakeholders in the design and implementation of a plan to address talent acquisition and retention challenges for occupations requiring technology skills. On March 28, the State approved the local SlingShot compact and has awarded NOVA a $900,000 grant to advance to the next phase of this initiative and that is the launch of two pilot projects in San Mateo County: an advanced digital advertising training program for incumbent workers in collaboration with the Interactive Advertising Bureau and San Mateo County Community College District, and a DevOps training program, in collaboration with Open Access, CollabNet and Kapor Center for Social Impact, targeting the in-demand career synthesis of software development, quality assurance and IT operations. Hack the Hood will be partnering on both projects.
Even in a successful job market such as Silicon Valley, the high demand for NOVA services from job seekers continues to be robust due to the churn common in a technology-driven economy. This past year, NOVA saw only a slight decline in the total number of customers served at the NOVA Job Center in Sunnyvale, but an increase in some of the services requested. The chart, below, shows the service statistics for the last fiscal year, July 1, 2016, through June 30, 2017, and a comparison with the previous year.
Believe me, it's an easy time to be a critic, but I have nothing but positive things to say about Nova's staff.
Nova has a wonderful staff, they are always very friendly and eager to help!
I recommend Nova all the time! So many people have been impacted by the economic/job change…and so many people need help! Thank you for being there! We all thank you!
Satisfied isn't good enough. They are excellent. They are always patient and kind.
Whether by phone or in person, I'm thankful that they are there to help me when I need it.
Front desk staff is ALWAYS cheerful and helpful, should bottle and sell their solution!
As with all of the customer satisfaction surveys, NOVA will be taking the feedback received and continue to improve upon the services it provides to its customers.
I've been working in healthcare and project management for many years, but when my last position ended in November, I realized I needed help to focus my job search and develop some new skills. I learned about the NOVA Job Center in San Mateo and started taking classes there, including résumé and LinkedIn workshops.
The team in San Mateo was great, but I wanted to do something with more involvement. A friend of mine recommended ProMatch. I came to orientation, but I didn't know what I wanted to do. Connie encouraged me to join and get help exploring. I needed to take the time to assess my skills and future direction and ProMatch helped me to do that.
I can't say enough about ProMatch. It's the whole package – I've taken classes and workshops but ProMatch puts it all together for job seekers. It gets you out of the house away from the computer so you're not just blasting resumes off into the internet. The whole community has been amazing. ProMatch helped to build my self-confidence and determine my value and worth. It's such a supportive environment, where you're not afraid to fail or make a mistake but rather to take a leap of faith and try.
I credit NOVA and ProMatch with helping me to be prepared and focused, so that when an opportunity came up to interview at UCSF Medical Center, I was ready to take action. I start my new position as a Lead Project Analyst next week! My advice for other job seekers? Practice your PSRs [Problem-Solutions-Results] (the best thing I learned), and also get yourself out the door - go to events and talk to people. You never know when the right opportunity will come along.
In the spring, NOVA co-sponsored the Nonprofit & Public Service Job & Internship Fair in collaboration with the San Jose State University (SJSU) Career Center. The event was held at the SJSU Student Union with the goal to support careers in the nonprofit and government sectors. Thirty employers participated representing a broad cross section of these sectors, including the California Employment Development Department, the counties of San Mateo and Santa Clara-VTA, the cities of Fremont, San Jose, Santa Clara and Salinas, Bill Wilson Center, Committee for Green Foothills, Music for Minors, and YMCA of Silicon Valley, among many others. The organizations offered volunteer, internship, full-time and part-time opportunities to over two hundred NOVA job seekers and SJSU students and alumni who attended the event.
NOVA Employer Services provides a wide range of services to assist businesses with their workforce development needs that include finding the right talent to address identified skill gaps and working with companies undergoing layoffs, referred to as rapid response. This past year, the Silicon Valley economy experienced great churn, with new innovation replacing obsolete industries, which was seen in the number of layoffs that occurred locally, despite the decline in the region's unemployment rate. Last year, the NOVA Employer Services team responded to 96 layoff announcements (up from 78 in 2015/16) affecting 58 companies (up from 50 in 2015/16) and 6,584 individuals (up from 5,967 in 2015/16). This is not surprising given the fact that last year NOVA was ranked first in the state for both the number of layoff notices and the number of individuals affected by layoffs.
NOVA has been awarded a $1 million 2017 Southern Storm National Dislocated Worker Grant from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). This funding will be used to address flood damage in San Mateo County, as a result of the heavy storms experienced in January. Funding for this project will go toward providing up to 55 job seekers to work on flood-related projects identified by the County of San Mateo. The period of service is April 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018. This grant was one of a series of DOL grants that were awarded to the State after the Federal Emergency Management Agency declared disasters in seven counties across California.
In June, LinkedIn awarded NOVA a grant to support the NOVA youth program. This award represents one of several grants that LinkedIn has awarded NOVA over the past several years to prepare youth in this community for careers in a technology-driven economy. LinkedIn has been actively engaged with the NOVA youth program hosting a variety of events for youth at its Sunnyvale campus. NOVA is deeply grateful for LinkedIn's generosity and unwavering commitment to our community's youth.
On August 24, NOVA hosted a visit from Congressman Ro Khanna. The visit was an opportunity to showcase NOVA's contributions to the community assisting residents return to work and providing employers with the skills necessary to compete in today's highly competitive marketplace. The visit included a meeting with NOVA Director Kris Stadelman and members of the NOVA Workforce Board, followed by participation in the weekly convening of ProMatch that serves dislocated workers from the professional fields, and concluded with a tour of the NOVA Job Center in Sunnyvale. NOVA would like to thank Congressman Khanna for visiting NOVA and meeting with NOVA staff and customers.
On August 15, NOVA hosted a visit from Congressional staff from U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein's office. The purpose of this visit was to provide important information about the skill needs of employers in Silicon Valley to ensure that businesses have the right talent to succeed locally and compete globally. This will require an investment in workforce development in order to prepare workers for future demand-driven jobs, rather than the decline in federal funding that has occurred over the past several years. As part of the visit, NOVA hosted several roundtable discussions with an employer group, customer group and members of the NOVA Workforce Board. The visit also included a tour of the NOVA Job Center in Sunnyvale. NOVA would like to thank Senator Feinstein's staff for visiting NOVA and meeting with NOVA staff and community stakeholders.
NPower, a national nonprofit providing free technology training and job placement assistance, invited NOVA Director Kris Stadelman to join the regional advisory board for NPower California (NPower CA). NPower CA has offices in San Mateo and Alameda and will serve military veterans and their spouses. For more information, please review the press release.
On July 12, the NOVA Employer Services team participated in the third annual Technology Showcase, hosted by the City of Mountain View and Mountain View Chamber of Commerce and funded by Google, LinkedIn, Intuit and Yamaha Motors Venture. The purpose of this event is to bring together innovators from the local community to exhibit the latest technology. NOVA was invited to exhibit and was joined by: Google's Virtual Reality Day Dream system, NASA's business units in supercomputer simulations, drone, Human Map and others, Hoverboard Technologies, Mobile Art Academy, Library technology, Police Command Vehicle, and many more. NOVA provided information about its business and job seeker services to community residents who were seeking employment assistance.
On May 16, the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) convened a forum about the trends and pressing issues with workforce and trade in the high-tech sector. The event was held at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office and was attended by a broad range of representatives from Silicon Valley employers, workforce and economic developers, academia, and governmental and nonprofit agencies. As part of the presentations, NOVA Workforce Board Co-chair Chris Galy of Ten-X presented on the industry sectors and workforce trends in this region and the issues facing workers and employers. In the future, the BLS is hoping for greater participation from the tech sector in future employer surveys that are used to capture the current and projected employment picture.
On April 21-23, San Mateo County held its 48th annual Progress Seminar, a convening to identify and tackle the most pressing regional issues facing this community. This conference is considered the premiere event for the county's community leaders representing business, education, government and community-based organizations. With the addition of San Mateo County to the NOVA consortium, this is the second year that NOVA has participated in this event that provided a wonderful opportunity to connect with current partners and forge new relationships in this area. Rosanne Foust of the San Mateo County Economic Development Association (SAMCEDA) and NOVA Workforce Board member, California State Assembly Member Kevin Mullin and San Mateo County Board of Supervisor Carole Groom were Progress Seminar co-chairs. The focus of this year's breakout sessions was on housing, transportation/traffic congestion, big data, and the new cannabis cash crop. Overall, the event was another tremendous success!
In April, NOVA Director Kris Stadelman was invited to attend the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles. This annual event convenes "the best minds in the world to tackle the most stubborn challenges" and this year the theme was on building meaningful lives. The director participated on a panel titled, "Not Working: Solutions to America's Underemployment Crisis" that was moderated by Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times and included panelists: Rev. Greg Boyle of Homeboy Industries, Alan Krueger of Princeton University, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., and Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin. Other guest presenters at the conference included: former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Joe Biden, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, David Solomon of Goldman Sachs, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, John Chambers of Cisco Systems, and Eric Schmidt of Alphabet, among many others.
On April 21, NOVA Director Kris Stadelman was invited to present to Leadership Sunnyvale, as part of the Civic Affairs Seminar. This was an opportunity to educate upcoming community leaders in Sunnyvale about the economic and workforce trends impacting the region and the workforce development services that NOVA provides to local residents and employers that support the Valley's quality of life.
On March 1, NOVA Director Kris Stadelman was invited to present at a forum that was hosted by the Boston, MA workforce development and philanthropic communities. This was the second of three forums convened to: 1) sustain community-wide engagement on IT/tech workforce challenges; 2) inspire ideas for a local response to issues identified; and 3) showcase local innovators and learn from exemplar practices in other cities. Over 150 participants attended this forum, with representatives from education, workforce development agencies, philanthropy, and the tech industry. The director presented on a panel that included: moderator Phil Jordan of Economic Advancement Research Institute, with whom NOVA has worked on several industry research projects; Tess Posner of Opportunity@Work; David Delmar of Resilient Coders; and Ronald Mitchell of Virgil, Inc., with whom NOVA is partnering on a career mapping assessment tool with Upwardly Global and on the new Google.org grant. NOVA is currently collaborating with the Boston workforce development community to explore piloting a tech talent exchange (TTX), a public-private partnership that will serve as a talent hub, training center and technology-recruiting venue for regional job seekers pursuing tech careers.
On August 16, President Trump signed H.R. 3218 - the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2017 that would provide a $3 billion expansion of veterans' education benefits. The bill would increase education benefits, remove the 15-year limit on when recipients must use their benefits for new enlistees, and provide support for veterans enrolled in non-traditional education programs such as coding boot camps. The bill would also restore funding for veterans impacted by the collapse of several training schools. The Vet-Tec Act, sponsored by Congressman Khanna, is part of the legislative package and would implement a new pilot program to test how the GI Bill can help veterans learn job skills for the tech economy. This bill will have a tremendous impact on veterans seeking to gain access to jobs in the growing technology industry.
On April 27, the Senate confirmed Labor Secretary Nominee Alexander Acosta. Secretary Acosta begins his tenure in a tense climate outside the Labor Department among workers across the country and within the Labor Department with future actions expected on former President Obama's executive orders on overtime rules, wages and the fiduciary rule. While Secretary Acosta is seen as a better alternative to President Trump's first choice for Labor Secretary, Andrew Puzder, who withdrew his name amidst controversy, concerns have been expressed regarding Secretary Acosta's commitment to defend workers on issues that may conflict with the White House administration.
On May 5, President Trump signed a nearly $1.2 trillion spending plan that funds government through the end of the fiscal year (September 30). The spending plan includes a $15 billion increase in funding for defense and a $1.5 billion increase for border security that does not include funding for building a wall, with corresponding cuts to non-defense discretionary programs including the Department of Labor. The plan calls for a $83 million cut to the Department of Labor below the fiscal year 2016 enacted level and rescinds $75 million from the Employment and Training Administration; however, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act formula funding for adults, dislocated workers and youth will remain at fiscal year 2016 spending levels. The approved spending plan was passed by the deadline, thereby averting a government shutdown. When Congress returns in September after the August recess, it will be deliberating over a new spending plan and raising the debt ceiling. There is significant concern that workforce development funding will face draconian cuts further exacerbating the erosion of workforce funding experienced by local workforce boards for many years. Local workforce development programs need more funding not less in order to provide employers with the talent they need to succeed and prepare workers for jobs in demand-driven industries.
On May 23, the White House released President Trump's proposed budget for fiscal year 2018. The $4.1 trillion budget mirrors the President's previous "Skinny" budget outline that calls for a 10 percent increase in military spending, $1.6 billion allocated for the creation of a border wall, cuts to the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent and the elimination of the estate tax, with corresponding cuts to domestic programs to pay for this totaling $3.6 trillion in cuts over the next 10 years. The Labor department would receive a $2.5 billion cut or a 21 percent reduction, with significant cuts to Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)-funded programs which includes a $1.3 billion cut to the WIOA formula-funded grants that represents a nearly 40 percent reduction from current funding levels. This would be devastating to state and local workforce development boards. The budget also eliminates the Senior Community Service Employment Program and the Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker training program.
On June 15, as part of "Workforce Development Week", President Trump issued an Executive Order that would eliminate government oversight of apprenticeship grants, providing third-party entities with much more control over establishing apprenticeship standards raising concerns about sufficient accountability. At the same time, federal agencies were asked to review and eliminate job-training programs that are viewed as ineffective. The Department of Labor is expected to increase the funding available for apprenticeship grants from $90 million to nearly $200 million, with a focus on increasing access for students from accredited secondary and post-secondary educational institutions.


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