text:
import * as path from 'path';
import dedent = require('dedent');
import {ExecaReturnValue, sync as spawnSync} from 'execa';
import * as fs from 'graceful-fs';
import which = require('which');
import type {Config} from '@jest/types';

interface RunResult extends ExecaReturnValue {
  status: number;
  error: Error;
}
export const run = (
  cmd: string,
  cwd?: string,
  env?: Record<string, string>,
): RunResult => {
  const args = cmd.split(/\s/).slice(1);
  const spawnOptions = {cwd, env, preferLocal: false, reject: false};
  const result = spawnSync(cmd.split(/\s/)[0], args, spawnOptions) as RunResult;

  // For compat with cross-spawn
  result.status = result.exitCode;

  if (result.status !== 0) {
    throw new Error(dedent`
      ORIGINAL CMD: ${cmd}
      STDOUT: ${result.stdout}
      STDERR: ${result.stderr}
      STATUS: ${result.status}
      ERROR: ${result.error}
    `);
  }

  return result;
};

export const runYarnInstall = (cwd: string, env?: Record<string, string>) => {
  const lockfilePath = path.resolve(cwd, 'yarn.lock');
  let exists = true;

  // If the lockfile doesn't exist, yarn's project detection is confused. Just creating an empty file works
  if (!fs.existsSync(lockfilePath)) {
    exists = false;
    fs.writeFileSync(lockfilePath, '');
  }

  return run(
    exists ? 'yarn install --immutable' : 'yarn install --no-immutable',
    cwd,
    env,
  );
};

export const linkJestPackage = (packageName: string, cwd: string) => {
  const packagesDir = path.resolve(__dirname, '../packages');
  const packagePath = path.resolve(packagesDir, packageName);
  const destination = path.resolve(cwd, 'node_modules/', packageName);
  fs.mkdirSync(destination, {recursive: true});
  fs.rmSync(destination, {force: true, recursive: true});
  fs.symlinkSync(packagePath, destination, 'junction');
};

export const makeTemplate =
  (str: string): ((values?: Array<unknown>) => string) =>
  (values = []) =>
    str.replace(/\$(\d+)/g, (_match, number) => {
      if (!Array.isArray(values)) {
        throw new Error('Array of values must be passed to the template.');
      }
      return values[number - 1];
    });

export const cleanup = (directory: string) =>
  fs.rmSync(directory, {force: true, recursive: true});

/**
 * Creates a nested directory with files and their contents
 * writeFiles(
 *   '/home/tmp',
 *   {
 *     'package.json': '{}',
 *     '__tests__/test.test.js': 'test("lol")',
 *   }
 * );
 */
export const writeFiles = (
  directory: string,
  files: {[filename: string]: string},
) => {
  fs.mkdirSync(directory, {recursive: true});
  Object.keys(files).forEach(fileOrPath => {
    const dirname = path.dirname(fileOrPath);

    if (dirname !== '/') {
      fs.mkdirSync(path.join(directory, dirname), {recursive: true});
    }
    fs.writeFileSync(
      path.resolve(directory, ...fileOrPath.split('/')),
      dedent(files[fileOrPath]),
    );
  });
};

export const writeSymlinks = (
  directory: string,
  symlinks: {[existingFile: string]: string},
) => {
  fs.mkdirSync(directory, {recursive: true});
  Object.keys(symlinks).forEach(fileOrPath => {
    const symLinkPath = symlinks[fileOrPath];
    const dirname = path.dirname(symLinkPath);

    if (dirname !== '/') {
      fs.mkdirSync(path.join(directory, dirname), {recursive: true});
    }
    fs.symlinkSync(
      path.resolve(directory, ...fileOrPath.split('/')),
      path.resolve(directory, ...symLinkPath.split('/')),
      'junction',
    );
  });
};

const NUMBER_OF_TESTS_TO_FORCE_USING_WORKERS = 25;
/**
 * Forces Jest to use workers by generating many test files to run.
 * Slow and modifies the test output. Use sparingly.
 */
export const generateTestFilesToForceUsingWorkers = () => {
  const testFiles: Record<string, string> = {};
  for (let i = 0; i <= NUMBER_OF_TESTS_TO_FORCE_USING_WORKERS; i++) {
    testFiles[`__tests__/test${i}.test.js`] = `
      test.todo('test ${i}');
    `;
  }
  return testFiles;
};

export const copyDir = (src: string, dest: string) => {
  const srcStat = fs.lstatSync(src);
  if (srcStat.isDirectory()) {
    if (!fs.existsSync(dest)) {
      fs.mkdirSync(dest);
    }
    fs.readdirSync(src).map(filePath =>
      copyDir(path.join(src, filePath), path.join(dest, filePath)),
    );
  } else {
    fs.writeFileSync(dest, fs.readFileSync(src));
  }
};

export const replaceSeed = (str: string) =>
  str.replace(/Seed: {8}(-?\d+)/g, 'Seed:       <<REPLACED>>');

export const replaceTime = (str: string) =>
  str
    .replace(/\d*\.?\d+ m?s\b/g, '<<REPLACED>>')
    .replace(/, estimated <<REPLACED>>/g, '');

// Since Jest does not guarantee the order of tests we'll sort the output.
export const sortLines = (output: string) =>
  output
    .split('\n')
    .sort()
    .map(str => str.trim())
    .join('\n');

export interface PackageJson {
  dependencies?: Record<string, string>;
  devDependencies?: Record<string, string>;
  jest?: Config.InitialOptions;
}

const DEFAULT_PACKAGE_JSON: PackageJson = {
  jest: {
    testEnvironment: 'node',
  },
};

export const createEmptyPackage = (
  directory: string,
  packageJson: PackageJson = DEFAULT_PACKAGE_JSON,
) => {
  const packageJsonWithDefaults = {
    ...packageJson,
    description: 'THIS IS AN AUTOGENERATED FILE AND SHOULD NOT BE ADDED TO GIT',
  };
  fs.mkdirSync(directory, {recursive: true});
  fs.writeFileSync(
    path.resolve(directory, 'package.json'),
    JSON.stringify(packageJsonWithDefaults, null, 2),
  );
};

export const extractSummary = (stdout: string) => {
  const match = stdout
    .replace(/(?:\\[rn])+/g, '\n')
    .match(
      /(Seed:.*\n)?Test Suites:.*\nTests.*\nSnapshots.*\nTime.*(\nRan all test suites)*.*\n*$/gm,
    );
  if (!match) {
    throw new Error(dedent`
      Could not find test summary in the output.
      OUTPUT:
        ${stdout}
    `);
  }

  const summary = replaceTime(match[0]);

  const rest = stdout
    .replace(match[0], '')
    // remove all timestamps
    .replace(/\s*\(\d*\.?\d+ m?s\b\)$/gm, '');

  return {
    rest: rest.trim(),
    summary: summary.trim(),
  };
};

const sortTests = (stdout: string) =>
  stdout
    .split('\n')
    .reduce<Array<Array<string>>>((tests, line) => {
      if (['RUNS', 'PASS', 'FAIL'].includes(line.slice(0, 4))) {
        tests.push([line]);
      } else {
        tests[tests.length - 1].push(line);
      }
      return tests;
    }, [])
    .sort(([a], [b]) => (a > b ? 1 : -1))
    .map(strings =>
      strings.length > 1 ? `${strings.join('\n').trimRight()}\n` : strings[0],
    )
    .join('\n')
    .trim();

export const extractSortedSummary = (stdout: string) => {
  const {rest, summary} = extractSummary(stdout);
  return {
    rest: sortTests(replaceTime(rest)),
    summary,
  };
};

export const extractSummaries = (
  stdout: string,
): Array<{rest: string; summary: string}> => {
  const regex =
    /(Seed:.*\n)?Test Suites:.*\nTests.*\nSnapshots.*\nTime.*(\nRan all test suites)*.*\n*$/gm;

  let match = regex.exec(stdout);
  const matches: Array<RegExpExecArray> = [];

  while (match) {
    matches.push(match);
    match = regex.exec(stdout);
  }

  return matches
    .map((currentMatch, i) => {
      const prevMatch = matches[i - 1];
      const start = prevMatch ? prevMatch.index + prevMatch[0].length : 0;
      const end = currentMatch.index + currentMatch[0].length;
      return {end, start};
    })
    .map(({start, end}) => extractSortedSummary(stdout.slice(start, end)));
};

export const normalizeIcons = (str: string) => {
  if (!str) {
    return str;
  }

  // Make sure to keep in sync with `jest-util/src/specialChars`
  return str
    .replace(new RegExp('\u00D7', 'gu'), '\u2715')
    .replace(new RegExp('\u221A', 'gu'), '\u2713');
};

// Certain environments (like CITGM and GH Actions) do not come with mercurial installed
let hgIsInstalled: boolean | null = null;

export const testIfHg = (...args: Parameters<typeof test>) => {
  if (hgIsInstalled === null) {
    hgIsInstalled = which.sync('hg', {nothrow: true}) !== null;
  }

  if (hgIsInstalled) {
    test(...args);
  } else {
    console.warn('Mercurial (hg) is not installed - skipping some tests');
    test.skip(...args);
  }
};


text:
El síndrome de Ulises, también conocido como síndrome del emigrante con estrés crónico y múltiple, se trata de un fuerte malestar emocional que viven las personas que han tenido que dejar atrás el mundo que conocían en situaciones extremas. Es un cuadro psicológico que sufren millones de personas en el mundo. El nombre se inspira en el héroe mítico Ulises, el cual vivió innumerables adversidades y peligros lejos de sus seres queridos. Se calcula que en España, por ejemplo, hay unas 800000 personas afectadas por ese síndrome.

Entender la migración

En las últimas décadas, la transformaciones de carácter cultural y social se han visto fuertemente influidas por las migraciones, creándose nexos entre las diferentes naciones.

De este modo, no solo se caracteriza este proceso como un fenómeno social relevante en los últimos tiempos, sino también como un cambio vital para la persona.

Esto conlleva una serie de beneficios pero también puede dar paso a la existencia de dificultades en dicho procesos, generando sentimientos de pérdidas, incertidumbre e inseguridad (Ibarrola-Armendariz y Firth, 2007).

Estresores del síndrome de Ulises

Según el psiquiatra Joseba Achotegui, director del SAPPIR y profesor titular de la Universidad de Barcelona: Los estresores más importantes son: la separación forzada de los seres queridos que supone una ruptura del instinto del apego, el sentimiento de desesperanza por el fracaso del proyecto migratorio y la ausencia de oportunidades, la lucha por la supervivencia (dónde alimentarse, dónde encontrar un techo para dormir), y en cuarto  lugar el miedo, el terror que viven en los viajes migratorios (pateras, ir escondidos en camiones…), las amenazas de las mafias o de la detención y expulsión, la indefensión por carecer de derechos, etc.

El duelo migratorio
El duelo migratorio no es el mismo concepto de duelo que quizás conocemos. En este caso, se refiere a un proceso de reestructuración de la persona ante la separación o pérdida de algo que es importante para esta (Achotegui, 1999). Habría dos conceptos influyentes, el tiempo que permanece fuera del país de origen y la distancia.

Algunas de las características que lo definen y diferencian serían las siguientes:

 Duelo parcial: el duelo se produce ante una separación. En este caso, no se debe a la muerte de un ser querido, pues el país de origen y todo lo relacionado no desaparece. La persona tiene posibilidad de regresar de nuevo a su hogar.
 Duelo recurrente y de larga duración: en este caso, el contacto con el país de origen se mantiene mediante llamadas o periodos de tiempo vacacionales, por ejemplo. Existe un deseo recurrente de volver a su hogar si se dan situaciones de fracaso o crisis. Ante estas, el duelo puedo cronificarse y dar paso a los síntomas característicos del síndrome de Ulises.
 Duelo vinculado a aspectos de la infancia muy arraigados: si esta separación se lleva a cabo en el periodo infantil se darán una serie de etapas  vinculadas y, asimismo, conformará la personalidad del niño de cara a la adultez.
 Duelo múltiple: conllevaría la existencia de diferentes tipos de duelos, entre ellos:

 Duelo por la familia y seres queridos
 Duelo por la lengua
 Duelo por la cultura
 Duelo por la tierra
 Duelo por el estatus social
 Duelo por el contacto con el grupo de pertenencia
 Duelo por los riesgos en la integridad de la persona

Parte clínica del síndrome de Ulises

 Sintomatología depresiva: destacaría la tristeza que se incrementa si la persona percibe fracaso. También se señala en esta área el llanto, la culpa y las ideas de muerte en algunos casos.
 Síntomatología de la ansiedad: entre los síntomas más comunes encontramos la presencia de preocupaciones continuas, irritabilidad y nerviosismo. Asimismo, se vería comprometida el área del sueño, favoreciendo una posible aparición de insomnio.
 Síntomatología en cuanto a somatización: destacan dos síntomas en esta área, las cefaleas (en un estudio se observó que el 76,7% de quienes sufrían el síndrome tenían cefalea) y la fatiga.

El síndrome de Ulises es un cuadro reactivo de estrés ante situaciones límite que no pueden ser elaboradas. No es el duelo migratorio clásico, sino una variante extrema de este duelo que afecta a los inmigrantes en situación extrema del . Es importante remarcar que el síndrome de Ulises no es un trastorno mental, sino un cuadro intenso de estrés. Fue descrito en el año 2002.

Referencias

Enlaces externos
 Emigrar en situación extrema: el síndrome del inmigrante con estrés crónico y múltiple. Artículo publicado en la revista NORTE de Salud Mental, n.º 21 del 2004 (consultado el 15/07/2013).
 SAPPIR. Servicio de Atención Psicopatológica y Psicosocial a Inmigrantes y Refugiados.
 Red Atenea. Red Atenea: Red global de ayuda psicológica y psicosocial a inmigrantes en situaciones extremas.

Ulises
Ulises
Migración

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
www.fplegal.com
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Address: 90 North Main Street, Suite 201
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Flora Pettit's employment and employee benefits lawyers possess a wide range of experience supporting businesses, their owners and managers in stewarding their most important asset – their people. We have worked closely with companies employing thousands of employees to small businesses with only a handful. Our clients also represent a large variety of industries and types of businesses ranging from retailers, manufacturers, and agri-businesses to start-up companies and professional services firms to nonprofit and large institutional clients. There is very little in this practice area that we have not touched, often daily, in our combined years of experience.
Our lawyers enjoy assisting our clients in the proactive and practical management of their human resources. However, when disputes cannot be avoided or resolved, we vigorously defend our clients in administrative proceedings and state and federal court.
• Compliance support in all aspects of employment law, including wage and hour (FLSA), anti-discrimination (Title VII, ADEA, USERRA) medical issues (FMLA, ADA, GINA, HIPAA), labor relations (NLRA), workplace safety ( OSHA and workers' compensation), immigration (IRCA) and unemployment (VEC) claims. Such support consists of drafting and assisting with employment agreements, handbooks, personnel policies, HR protocols, and disciplinary documentation. We can also provide on-site training for supervisors and management in many areas including: interviewing, hiring, disciplining, appraising, investigating and terminating employees, managing workers' compensation claims and coordinating leaves of absences, among other topics. Effective annual training is becoming the centerpiece in defending harassment and discrimination cases and our lawyers can provide "in the trenches" training which will make supervisors sit up and take notice.
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text:
What Happens in Russia If Putin Can't Win in Ukraine?
Thursday, 24 March, 2022 - 05:45
Hal Brands
Hal Brands is the Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies and a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. His latest book is "American Grand Strategy in the Age of Trump."
The world has been transfixed by Ukraine's fight for survival. As the war drags on, we'd better start considering what will become of Russia, as well.
President Vladimir Putin's nation has now been subjected to an isolation more sudden and total than that experienced by any major power in recent history. What that leads to may not be pretty.
Since late February, Russia has been hit with punishing economic, trade and financial sanctions. It is careering toward a debt default, as a rapid technological decoupling is also underway. Foreign firms are fleeing the country, while Russian teams are excluded from international competitions in soccer and other sports. Even the International Cat Federation has barred Russian felines from its events.
Russia isn't some tinpot tyranny like Cuba or North Korea; it is a major power whose population was, until recently, deeply connected to its larger global environment. Now, Russia is suffering a degree of international ostracism that typically happens only when a country is at war with the world.
What will this mean for Moscow if its conflict with Ukraine drags on for months or years to come? We can imagine a few scenarios, all of which would pose nasty challenges for Russia, and some of which could be quite concerning for America and its allies.
The rosiest is a "Moscow Spring," in which the costs of conflict lead to regime change and a rebirth of the democracy Russia experienced fleetingly in the 1990s. Russian elites push Putin aside and make peace with Ukraine. Having experienced the consequences of aggression and autocracy, the more urban, liberal swaths of Russian society demand a broader political opening and the country's reintegration into the world. Just as isolation helped convince South Africa to ditch apartheid in the late 1980s, foreign opprobrium forces dramatic change in Moscow's foreign and domestic policies.
The odds of this scenario materializing are slim. Two decades of Putinism have left Russia with a weak, fragmented opposition. The president has surely tried to coup-proof his regime by co-opting the security and intelligence services and pitting them against one another. And even if Russia did experience a revolution, look out: The history of the 1990s cautions us that instability and even chaos could follow.
A second, more plausible scenario is "Wounded Giant." Here, Putin uses his control of the security services to hang onto power and repress whatever popular discontent isolation produces. He exploits the black-market opportunities that sanctions inevitably create to compensate loyal cronies. Russia becomes more dependent on China as it seeks economic and technological alternatives to the West.
What changes is not so much Russian policies but Russian power: The cost of slogging ahead is continued attrition of the economy, retarded technological modernization and a long-term weakening of Moscow's military potential. This scenario isn't great for the Western and Pacific democracies, but it isn't terrible, either: Against a more sluggish, stagnating Russia, the US could fare well enough in a protracted rivalry.
There is a third, darker scenario: "Tehran on the Volga." Here, isolation and radicalization go hand in hand. Educated, upwardly mobile Russians leave the country, ridding the regime of its most outspoken liberal critics. Hard-liners embrace a "resistance economy" premised on self-sufficiency and avoiding the contaminating influence of the West. Aggressive internal purges, relentless propaganda and the fanning of militant nationalism produce a Russian variant of fascism. When Putin eventually falls, he is replaced by an equally repressive, ambitious and xenophobic leader.
Russia thus becomes a superpowered Iran with nuclear weapons — a country that is permanently estranged from the world and compensates for weakness with heightened belligerency. Far from retreating in its confrontation with the West, this Russia might dial up the intensity of that struggle — pursuing wide-ranging programs of sabotage in Europe or more aggressively training its cyberweapons on targets in the US and other democratic countries.
The eventual reality could diverge from any of these scenarios, of course. But the exercise illustrates two important points.
First, Washington needs to start thinking seriously about Russia's long-term trajectory. In 1989, the administration of President George H.W. Bush quietly created a planning group to consider what might happen amid earthshaking changes in the Soviet Union. Regardless of what happens in this crisis, Russia is big and powerful enough that its trajectory will be vital to the overall health of the international order — which means that the US needs to be ready for whatever direction the country takes.
Second, be careful what you wish for. The US and its allies are rightly using devastating sanctions, along with tenacious Ukrainian resistance, to impose heavy costs on a Russian regime that has flagrantly violated the most basic norms of international behavior. Appeasement and military intervention are the only obvious, and abhorrent, alternatives to this policy. But we have only begun to consider what its long-term consequences might be.
Even in the best-case scenario, the US would confront enormous challenges helping a liberalizing Russia emerge from authoritarian rule. More plausibly, Washington could face a recalcitrant, perhaps even a further radicalized, Russia instead. The war in Ukraine will eventually end, but America's problems with Russia may only be getting started.
Read More for Hal Brands
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text:
Alerts & Articles
Ninth Circuit Rules That Employers Must Include Payments In Lieu Of Benefits in Calculating Regular
Ruling on an issue that had never been decided by any court in the country, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that an employer must include monetary payments made in lieu of benefits when calculating an employee's regular rate of pay for purposes of determining overtime payments under the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA"). The Ninth Circuit further held that under FLSA's liquidated damages provision, the employer was liable for double the amount of unpaid overtime compensation covering the three years before the complaint was filed. Flores v. City of San Gabriel (June 2, 2016, 14-56421) _ F.3d _ [2016 WL 3090782]. The June 2nd ruling will significantly affect most employers operating in the Ninth Circuit, increasing the amount of overtime payments due their employees and opening the door to lawsuits seeking to recover ordinary and liquidated damages over a three-year period.
The City of San Gabriel ("City") offers a Flexible Benefit Plan that provides employees with a set monetary amount to purchase various benefits. Employees may decline to use these funds for medical benefits, receiving them instead as cash payments added to their paychecks. The City did not include these cash-in-lieu of benefits payments in its determination of recipients' regular rates of pay, and consequently did not incorporate them into its calculation of non-exempt employees' overtime rates.
Fifteen current and former police officers sued the City, arguing that the payments should have been included in calculating the officers' regular rates of pay and overtime rates. After the trial court ruled on the issues, the case went to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Ninth Circuit's Analysis
First, the Ninth Circuit acknowledged that the case raised a question of first impression: whether the City properly excluded cash-in-lieu of benefits payments from regular rates of pay under FLSA section 207(e)(2), given that the payments are not tied to hours worked. Section 207(e)(2) excludes from the regular rate of pay "payments made for occasional periods when no work is performed due to vacation, holiday, illness, failure of the employer to provide sufficient work, or other similar cause; reasonable payments for traveling expenses, or other expenses, incurred by an employee in the furtherance of his employer's interests and properly reimbursable by the employer; and other similar payments to an employee which are not made as compensation for his hours of employment."
Relying on Department of Labor interpretive bulletins that found that section 207(e)(2) did not exclude bonuses and room-and-board payments, the Ninth Circuit determined that the City's payment scheme was commonly considered compensation, even without a direct relationship to the number of hours worked. The Ninth Circuit emphasized that the question "does not turn on whether the payment is tied to an hourly wage, but instead turns on whether the payment is a form of compensation for performing work." It referred to its earlier ruling concerning payments made to supplement wages of disabled workers who performed lower-wage work than they had performed before their disability. In that case, Local 246 Utility Workers Union of America v. Southern California Edison Co., 83 F.3d 292 (9th Cir. 1996), the court had determined that the payments qualified as compensation for work and stated that "it makes no difference whether the supplemental payments are tied to a regular weekly wage or regular hourly wage." Id at 295.
The Ninth Circuit also noted that the inclusion of a separate exemption specifically addressing benefits, Section 207(e)(4), indicated that Congress did not consider Section 207(e)(2) to already exempt payments related to benefits.
Second, the Ninth Circuit held that because the City's cash-in-lieu of benefits payments were made directly to employees, they did not qualify under Section 207(e)(4), which excludes from the regular rate of pay "contributions irrevocably made by an employer to a trustee or third party pursuant to a bona fide plan for providing old-age, retirement, life, accident, or health insurance or similar benefits for employees." The court further ruled that even if the City had made these payments directly to a trustee or third party, its flexible benefits plan did not qualify as a "bona fide plan." The court looked to the Department of Labor's interpretation of the term in 29 C.F.R. Section 778.215, which states that incidental payments to employees do not affect whether there is a bona fide plan under 207(e)(4). Given that cash-in-lieu of benefits payments constituted 40 percent of the City's payments under its plan, the court concluded they were not incidental and thus could not be excluded.
Third, the Ninth Circuit found the City liable for liquidated damages. Section 216(b) of the FLSA requires employers that violate the statute to pay employees their unpaid overtime compensation plus "an additional equal amount as liquidated damages." Liquidated damages may be reduced or eliminated if the employer shows that it acted in good faith and had reasonable grounds to believe that its actions did not violate the Act. The court held that neither exception applied.
Finally, the Ninth Circuit held that the City willfully violated the FLSA. Under FLSA Section 255(a), the statute's two-year statute of limitations may be extended to three years if an employer's violation is "willful." The court noted that a violation is willful if the employer is on notice of the FLSA's requirements, yet takes no action to assure compliance. The Ninth Circuit found that the City was aware of the FLSA's mandates, as it distinguished between "premium" payments and "benefit" payments.
Two of the Ninth Circuit judges signed a concurring opinion on the basis that "our willfulness case law in the context of the FLSA statute of limitations is off track." Using phrasing to amuse Game of Thrones fans, the Concurrence stated that by finding a willful violation whenever the employer knew the FLSA "was in the picture," the majority opinion "comes very close to a qyburnian resurrection" of a standard that a Supreme Court decision had made defunct.
The potential impact of this decision promises to be dramatic. Employers may need to immediately add cash-in-lieu of benefits in their calculations of overtime payments for non-exempt employees, so as to avoid paying such employees double damages for a three-year period. We anticipate that the City may file a petition for rehearing with the Ninth Circuit and/or a petition for certiorari with the United States Supreme Court, so this may not be the last word on this issue.
Scott K. Dauscher
sdauscher@aalrr.com
Amber S. Healy
ahealy@aalrr.com
Jonathan Judge
jjudge@aalrr.com
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What Specialist Coating Would Suit My Building/Shop Front?
Specialist coatings applied to the exterior of commercial buildings and shop fronts typically perform two functions. Aesthetic and defensive respectively. These coatings are specifically designed to provide a decorative layer that is applied to the exterior of a building, whether this is cladding, the architectural metalwork or a shop front. In addition to these aesthetic attributes, these coatings are often specifically designed to provide a protective coating to the surface which they are applied, protecting it from corrosion.
In essence, paints are liquids that are applied to a surface that then dry to become a solid coating over the original surface. Due to this, the majority of coatings can be applied onsite in a live environment. However, powder coatings differ slightly from conventional coatings, as this coating type is heated in extremely hot ovens in order to cure and can often only be accomplished in dedicated facilities.
When it comes to the application of coatings onsite there are four different types of coatings that are specifically suited for application on commercial buildings, including shop fronts. These are primers, build coats, under coats and top coats respectively.
This coating type is specifically designed to protect the substrate from corrosion. The coating also "keys" the surface ensuring that all subsequent coatings correctly adhere. Commonly, primers are labelled according to their metallic content, examples of this include iron oxide, red lead and zinc oxide.
This coating type is applied to a substrate in order to enhance and add thickness to the surface which they are applied. When applied to metal surfaces such as cladding and shopfront fascias, these coatings protect the underlying substrate as they are often specifically designed for this purpose and therefore contain additives.
This coating type is essentially designed to provide a specific base colour on the substrate, so that a finishing coat can be applied subsequently. Often the foundation formed by the undercoat is of the same colour as the topcoat so that the colour of the final coating is not affected.
This coating type is the final coating that is applied to a substrate. In some cases, this coating can be protective, however its primary function is aesthetic. This coating type typically falls into two classes, a two-pack paint or a one-pack paint.
For further information about our coating types, or for advise on which coating or combined coatings would be most relevant for your application, a member of our dedicated customer service team can be contacted by calling: 01908 963 710.
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Robinson Steel Company provides answers to some of your basic questions about our restroom partitions and restroom supplies. Feel free to contact us if you have additional questions.
Can I place orders for restroom partitions on-line?
Can I install the partitions myself, and how much experience is required for installing toilet partitions?
How do my partitions come shipped?
Can I place an order for ADA compliant toilet partitions?
What is the return policy for restroom partitions and restroom supplies?
No, due to the nature of each restrooms specific needs and dimensions, we prefer that you use the request a quote form. In order to fill your request more efficiently please feel free to fax or email your restroom dimensions and requirements.
Yes, however experienced carpentry skills are required, a novice should not attempt to install toilet partitions. With each order factory installation instructions are provided. You can download the installation instructions prior to purchase.
Material ships via common carrier. Toilet partitions will be on pallets and a loading dock will be required for off loading.
Yes, our engineers stand ready to assist in layout design to meet code or special requirements.
All restroom partitions are fabricated to your requirements, so they non-returnable.


text:
Making waves with sounds: SoundCloud to take on YouTube
By Tom Cheshire
Timmo Schreiber
This article was taken from the July 2013 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by <span class="s1">subscribing online.
Since its launch in October 2008, SoundCloud's orange waveform bars have become a common sight on the screens of music fans.
Founded by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, the Berlin-based company now has 40 million registered users, with five percent paying for the site's Pro and Pro Unlimited plans, and reaches more than 200 million people each month. But with $63 million (£41 million) in investment, it hasn't yet made a profit.
After a redesign last year, and the addition of new advertising features launched in March, CEO Ljung is aiming to change that.
To reach true net-zero, we need tech that doesn't yet exist
By Azeem Azhar
He tells Wired why he thinks sound is the future of the web -- and why the time is right for SoundCloud to take on YouTube.
Wired: SoundCloud has been variously called the YouTube, the Twitter, the Instagram and the Kindle Direct Publishing for music. Which of these makes the most sense to you?
Alexander Ljung: The YouTube comparison works pretty well.
YouTube is pretty good with social music as it is -- nearly 40 per cent of its plays come from music videos, and it's currently the biggest online streaming site in the world.
Sure, but the main thing you go there for is to watch things. That means it doesn't really work as well if you're only listening to stuff. It's focused on the watching experience. We're more focused on the listening experience. It's about different intentions, and how those intentions get interpreted on to different platforms. The beautiful thing with sound is that you can listen to it while you're doing other things. I can be in the car, or I can be walking down the street -- but it starts with the intention, then you figure out the best solution.
These are the UK tech hubs that will thrive after the pandemic
By Emily Wright
We think brands can be part of a very interesting community. But we're making sure it happens in the right way
Alexander Ljung
Did intentions change with SoundCloud, leading to the redesign?
We got to the point where more than ten hours of sound were being uploaded every minute. We wanted to make it a lot easier for people to find the sounds they wanted to listen to. We rebuilt the search algorithm, but we also added the idea of reposting sounds, like you're retweeting them. It's a great way for people to show others what they're finding interesting.
There's a shift from users creating sounds, to following artists?
Some creators have found they're getting more followers and more people listening to their stuff. So features that helped casual listeners find stuff are also interesting for someone who is uploading.
Blue Monday isn't a thing. The data shows April could be way tougher
By Alex Lee
Does being more consumer-facing make it easier to monetise?
We've launched the first steps, with branded and promoted profiles. We think brands can be part of a very interesting community. But we're making sure it happens in the right way. Take Red Bull -- the brand created a piece of music with a visual behind it, and it informed people about an event at SXSW, where people could submit music. People have submitted a bunch of stuff, reposted it and showcased it on their profiles. That fits very naturally. We're looking for brands that see themselves as creators.
It sounds like you're trying to recreate the fan/artist relationship on SoundCloud, using a fan/brand relationship.
It's similar -- one of the greatest things the internet does is let people who aren't necessarily close to each other feel as though they are close. For example, I'm not close with 50 Cent, but I can still see him upload something to SoundCloud. I can feel this direct connection. That's something that can be also useful between a fan and brand. You can create this much closer connection than you had before.
Why the hell isn't there a McVegan Burger yet? It's complicated
Is that the sort of relationship you envisaged at launch?
It's strange, because we had the idea that SoundCloud would develop into something big and would be used around the world, but we didn't think an artist such as 50 Cent would use it -- we thought it would be limited to up-and-coming artists. So, we were a little surprised to see 50 Cent and Bruce Springsteen uploading stuff on the platform. Although, in hindsight, it makes perfect sense. It's just something that happened along the way.
And fans seem to be collaborating with artists.
You see Beyoncé putting something up and asking people to remix it, and it generates thousands of remixes of that song. The level of creativity that can happen around an artist like that is pretty amazing. Beyoncé ended up Skyping one of the people who remixed the track, and he pretty much fell off his chair. Cool stuff happens with those collaborations.
We are moving towards this future where [...\c the sounds that we hear are like a companion for us
Why remote working could actually help fix some diversity problems
By Rachel Muller-Heyndyk
Can you track those collaborations and watch genres develop and spread?
I'd say we are definitely noticing it more. We don't do it with analytics, although we might do in the future. When dubstep was emerging, some of the early parts of it happened in SoundCloud.
When a new genre is beginning to be defined and when new sorts of collaborations are happening, SoundCloud's a really good platform for people doing that. It doesn't mean we are defining new genres, it just means that SoundCloud tends to be a helpful platform for that kind of work.
So you see SoundCloud as being part of a growing remix culture?
I think culture has become much more participatory than ever -- it's not three big artists setting the scene for everybody, it's way more involved. There are more niches for people to go into, more space for different kinds of things. We have some people who are into dubstep, some people who are into the sound of songbirds.
People can find their own niches and participate.
What can we expect for the rest of 2013?
We're doing a lot of work on mobile apps. Mobile is going to be even more massive because sound is consumable while you're doing other things, such as driving your car to work or playing stuff on your smartphone. We are moving towards this future where we're listening to a lot more things throughout the day, where the sounds that we hear are like a companion for us.
How does that change what SoundCloud will look like in five years' time?
We think a lot about how we can bring people closer via interaction through sound -- how to make a connection. The next few years are about scale: we think we have a good chance of overtaking YouTube in terms of scale. The biggest challenge is timing: we're kind of impatient.
This article was first published in the July 2013 issue of WIRED magazine
Is holidaying by train really that much better for the environment?
By Amit Katwala
WIRED Book Club: YouTubers, by Chris Stokel-Walker
By Matt Burgess, Victoria Turk and Matt Reynolds
A new-wave of challenger banks is taking on Monzo and Starling
By Nicole Kobie
How Monzo, Revolut, Starling and N26 plan to topple legacy banks
By Sabrina Weiss


text:
CMonsterEventManager::CMonsterEventManager() {}

CMonsterEventManager::~CMonsterEventManager() { clear(); }

void CMonsterEventManager::add_delegate(EEventType event, typeEvent delegate) {
    auto it = m_event_storage.find(event);
    if (it == m_event_storage.end()) {
        auto res = m_event_storage.insert(std::make_pair(event, EVENT_VECTOR()));
        it = res.first;
    }

    it->second.push_back(event_struc(delegate));
}

void CMonsterEventManager::remove_delegate(EEventType event, typeEvent delegate) {
    auto it = m_event_storage.find(event);
    if (it == m_event_storage.end())
        return;

    for (auto it_del = it->second.begin(); it_del != it->second.end(); ++it_del) {
        if (it_del->delegate == delegate)
            it_del->need_remove = true;
    }
}

void CMonsterEventManager::raise(EEventType event, IEventData* data) {
    auto it = m_event_storage.find(event);
    if (it == m_event_storage.end())
        return;

    for (auto I = it->second.begin(); I != it->second.end(); I++) {
        if (!I->need_remove)
            (I->delegate)(data);
    }

    auto it_del = std::remove_if(it->second.begin(), it->second.end(), pred_remove());
    it->second.erase(it_del, it->second.end());
}

void CMonsterEventManager::clear() {
    for (auto I_map = m_event_storage.begin(); I_map != m_event_storage.end(); I_map++) {
        I_map->second.clear();
    }

    m_event_storage.clear();
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


It's safe, simple and secure. It's also the easiest way to automate your giving. By choosing this option, you can give using your credit/debit card, checking or savings account. You can give anonymously, or you can set up a profile which will enable to view your giving history or set up a recurring gift on a custom schedule. Already have an account? Login here.
Being generous just got a lot easier. With the SecureGive smart phone app, available from the Apple App Store (iPhone) and Google Play Store (Android), you can give to Center Church right from your mobile device before, during or after service. It also gives you the ability to get connected to what's happening in our community by signing up for events, groups, volunteer teams and more. Simply download the SecureGive app from your App Store and select "Center Church San Diego" as your home organization.
You can also make your gifts in person using cash, checks, or debit/credit cards via the giving envelope on the weekend. We typically worship God in our giving at the end of each service. Just keep an eye out for the little white container that looks like a bucket of fried chicken.


Apps use the Open panel as a convenient way to query the user for the name of a file to open. In a sandboxed environment, Open panels are drawn in a separate process by the powerbox, not by AppKit itself. When the user chooses a file to open, macOS adds that file to the app's sandbox.


I was very happy to get my Amarya box redelivered to me from the post depot today, along with some other wonderful goodies that I had missed whilst being away. This month's Amarya box contains a full size bottle of Pure Organic Argan Oil by Simply Argan which I am very excited to try out. Ever since this miracle oil exploded onto the blogosphere, I have been wanting to try it, but had been seriously put off by the amount of fakes on the market, so I was a bit wary. Plus it annoyed me greatly that some companies were using the term 'Pure Argan Oil' on their products when they actually only contained a small percentage. So you can imagine how pleased I am to finally have a proper bottle of the pure stuff, this one even comes with a certificate of authenticity!
The other two products in the box are tiny sample sachets, but again ones that I'm happy to try out nonetheless. I received a 7ml Evolve Protein Build Conditioner for dry/damaged hair and a 2ml Jurlique Purely White Skin Brightening Cleanser. Will include mini reviews of these two in my monthly empties posts once I've given them a go.
Special offer code: enter EASTERBOX for 15% off the Evolve and Jurlique ranges when you purchase them from Amarya.
I signed up but missed out on this months box. So jealous of the Pure Argan Oil. I'm coming to the end of my Moroccan Oil but wont be repurchasing.. Silicone City.
Thank you for taking the time to review our product and we look forward to hearing how you find using our argan oil.
It is good to read that you realise that there are a lot of companies out there peddling other/mixed oils as pure argan oil. We have had some comments from people saying that they can buy argan oil elsewhere cheaper – but I think the old saying "you get what you pay for" is really true for this product.
We do go to great lengths to ensure that we source the best Argan Oil for our customers and we test this in a UK laboratory (which, as yet, we cannot find any other company doing), providing a certificate of authenticity with each bottle, as you yourself have commented on.
Argan Oil is a very expensive oil because it is so rare. It takes several hours labour to extract just 1 litre of the oil and, to put its rarity into perspective, there are only 4 million litres produced annually compared to 1.8 billion litres of olive oil!
Would you be kind and put our site (www.arganoil.co) in the main body of your blog?
Please email us if you have any questions about the oil or how to use it at info@arganoil.co.
Thanks for reading my blog and for your informative comments, it's always good to hear from the companies who make products that I've featured. I am a big believer in using quality ingredients and feel that because Argan Oil has been exploited heavily as a 'must have' trend product, a lot of companies have taken advantage and undermined the quality of this rare oil by pushing inferior products onto the market and onto unsuspecting consumers.
I'm happy to have found your Argan Oil and will be putting up a seperate more in-depth review of it soon (and will of course include your site links in that one, no probs!).


When is a glove not a glove? In the hands of Claire Watson—found things are transformed. Just as René Magritte proclaimed "This is not a pipe" on a picture of a pipe, Watson challenges assumptions, changes ideas, subverts and converts objects to her vision. Materials like rope, gloves, household implements and pipes (in a nod to Magritte) are reshaped, reconstructed and reimagined by Watson in works that blend sculpture, imagery, found objects and recycling.
It's not just material Watson recycles, it's remembered and forgotten histories as well. She started with tobacco pipes and leather shoes and gloves, tearing them apart to build structures that whisper of histories, mysteries and conundrums. In her work, shoes may be used to map a dance, gloves have convoluted fingers that extend beyond usability. "I'm really interested in paradox and confounding function," Watson said.
She's also interested in reclamation. "I've always worked with found objects." Lately, they're used leather jackets and pants found in thrift stores, laden with layers of time past. "I'm all about finding and repurposing materials. I always have been. That's part of the attraction of the found object, how to transform it and make it into something new or different. In this case, the reference to the figure, the body, the animal, is in there. It's in the materials so I don't need to create a figure-shaped piece. I don't need to create any kind of narrative or literal reference that points back to the figure. It's in there.
"Match," a large, wall-hung relief sculpture reads like a puzzle in bright, primary colors, whose pieces refuse to click together. It leaves behind a question, some tension. Resolving it is the viewer's work. "Those are three pairs of pants, a blue, a black and a yellow pair. And they're split along the seam of the outside hip and then I boil it and flatten it out. With boiling, I find that I like the accidents that result—I want to work with the accidents. So there's that chance element. It puts a layer of remove between ourselves and the original pants, but it also heightens the pores and the wrinkles and the evidence of the animal life that's underneath all of that, and I like that.


Another departing Walking Dead star could get their own spinoff.
Deadline reports Disney is now developing a film adaptation of Polly Shulman's young adult series, The Grimm Legacy, for Disney+ from screenwriter David Gleeson (Tolkien). Schulman's series follows the teenage employees of a library in New York City lending out magical artifacts from the Grimm collection.
Kryptonite-shaped hunk o' salt at the ready—a new report from Revenge of the Fans alleges that Henry Cavill now demands both director and script approval before agreeing to make any future Superman movies.
Speaking with Collider, Joe Russo revealed Endgame's three-hour runtime is "testing great" with audiences.
We're still at the three-hour mark.
John Boyega recently shared a still from Attack the Block on Instagram and commented, "If the supporters want it then I'll have to get back to Peckham ASAP".
Director Nicolas Piece compared his reboot of The Grudge to David Fincher's Seven in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly.
Those movies will always exist and always be there for you to watch. I think that horror audiences these days are looking for a much more grounded, much more realistic, much more character-driven story in their horror movies. We see what's doing well now and it is these kind of smarter, more nuanced horror stories, and that's what this is going to be. We're trying to update it for contemporary sensibilities, and we have an unbelievable cast, and I think it's going to be something very different. There's a thousand Grudge movies out there, and we wanted to figure out a way to kind of put a new, fresh spin on it, and it's going to be exciting.
The movie is set up a lot more like Seven, that sort of movie. There's a cop drama that drives the whole thing, and Andrea [Riseborough] is the lead detective on this new case that they've come upon, and is the driving force through the movie. She's incredible. She's in absolutely everything and, when you see her act, you know why.
During the Legion panel at the Television Critics Association, producer Lauren Shuler Donner stated she'd "hate to see" the X-Men spinoff "thrown at Hulu," as has been rumored amidst the Disney-Fox merger.
[The production team] worked hard on it. I want to see it released [theatrically], I'd hate to see it thrown at Hulu.
The DisInsider has the latest international poster.
King of the Monsters has released four new posters in honor of the Chinese New Year.
UglyDolls takes a page from The Garbage Pail Kids Movie in the latest trailer.
We also have footage from Little Monsters, the horror-comedy starring Lupita N'Yongo, Josh Gad and Alexander England concerning a love triangle between a schoolteacher, the world's most famous children's television entertainer and a chaperone on a kindergarten field trip who find themselves in the middle of a zombie outbreak.
In a recent interview with THR, Lauren Cohan revealed a Maggie-centric spinoff series is currently under consideration at AMC.
There may have been some conversations, but everything is so early-days ambiguous. Me, as much as anybody, we'll have to see what happens.
Speaking at the Television Critics Association, ABC President Karey Burke revealed she's keen to reboot two separate J.J. Abrams-associated series—Lost and Alias—but no plans are actually in the works just yet.
It's literally at this point just what I dream about when I go to bed at night. I have not spoken to [executive producers] Carlton [Cuse] or J.J. [Abrams] or ABC Studios about it. But I do often get asked the question what show would I reboot and often my answer is Lost — sometimes Alias. Nothing to report yet. Maybe ever. But it would be a fun thing to have a conversation about.
Entertainment Weekly reports the Game of Thrones prequel series begins filming this summer.
A new poster from Screen Rant reveals Cloak & Dagger returns April 4 with a two-hour season premiere.
Matt Bomer's Negative Man gets his own Doom Patrol teaser.
Finally, Nora is caught in a time loop in the trailer for "Cause and XS," next Tuesday's episode of The Flash, directed by Rachel Talalay.


text:
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Jolly Roger Slot Machine Online
When we talk about pirates, first of all we think of pirates of the Caribbean and the east coast of America. In reality, piracy has a much longer history. The Jolly Roger slot machine from Play`n Go has a funny theme that focuses on pirates and treasure hunts. Incredible sea adventures are waiting for every player of the slot, so finding a treasure will be very easy.
Gameplay and Prizes
The design of the slot machine is presented in very beautiful colours. Here the main background is represented by a pirate ship. Every detail offers high quality graphics. Also there is good animation and interesting music, so the sea adventure promises to be exciting. Here the control unit is built according to the maximally simple principle, so it will be very easy to understand the basic rules of the game. Beginners and the most inveterate casino players like this gaming machine, so it is more like a treasure trove. In the Jolly Roger online game, you will find an exciting sea adventure that will allow you to find a great treasure. Entering the ship of the video slot, it is necessary to get acquainted with the payout table, which is launched with the Paytable button. All the details and nuances of the game process are indicated here.
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Starting of the gameplay follows with the choice of a bet, which is determined in several stages. First, you need to select the value of one coin using the Coin Value button.
Then you must select the number of active lines using the Lines button. The maximum bet can be made by activating just one button, which is Bet Max. Running the reels will be done with the Spin or the Autoplay button.
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Here you can find a lot of pleasant surprises, which are in the features of the game characters. There is a wild symbol here that is represented by the Pirate Flag. Also in the slot, there is a scatter symbol – a Parrot. The developers also awarded the Jolly Roger slot machine with two bonus symbols that will launch prize rounds.
The first one is a chest. In this bonus round, you need to find a chest that contains the maximum reward. However, Treasure Map can bring a very pleasant surprise. The main thing is to collect three identical symbols on the active line, after which the "Card" bonus round will be launched.
In this game, you will search for a treasure using a map. You should choose three places for digging, and if the Luck is on your side, you can get a prize of 1200 bets.
The sea adventure with pirates can begin right now, it is only necessary to launch the Jolly Roger slot machine. This video slot hides a lot of pleasant surprises. Booze, gold and women on the beach – that is all that most pirates were interested in. However, despite this, many pirates deliberately worked for some states.
The needs of pirates always concerned, first of all, ships and weapons. Pirates simply had to possess the fastest and the most powerful fleet. There were many pirates of different nationality, as well as their views, weapons, tactics of combat and ways of life.
Meet the life of pirates, and you will know all pleasures of robbery!
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By the author of the critically acclaimed novel, Casting Lots, William D. McEachern, Caledonia: A Song of Scotland is his second historical novel. Caledonia is the epic tale of Scotland's struggle to become an independent nation.
William D. McEachern: I am consumed with a passion to write. I have wanted to write novels since I was a young boy. I now have the time to follow my passion. There is nothing like writing a book. You live the life your characters live. You see the world from their different perspectives. It is the ultimate fantasy voyage.
William D. McEachern:I love Russian authors, such as Boris Pasternak and Leo Tolstoy. They somehow transfer their passion for life into the printed page.
BooksAndAuthor.com: Your new book is Caledonia: A Song of Scotland? Discuss briefly.
William D. McEachern: Caledonia: A Song of Scotland is the story of Scotland's journey to freedom and independence, culminating at the Battle of Culloden. Scotland has a rich history, including the first written declaration of independence in the world. It is a country which has fought long and hard for religious freedom. The novel is written from the viewpoint of one clan: the MacDonalds of Clanranald of the Isle of Skye. Of course, the book comes down to the story of but one man, what he experiences in war and battle, what he loses for his cause, what sacrifices he makes for his clan and for his honor, and the love he has for a woman who is engaged to another: his best friend and the clan chief to be.
BooksAndAuthor.com: What is it about the historical genre you enjoy?
William D. McEachern: It gives me and the reader the chance to live and explore another era. History is simply about people living their lives, but in a time different from our own. So, what was it like? Why did they do the things they did? How did they go about their daily lives? How does the 'then' they experienced differ from our 'now'? How is it the same? Does history reveal eternal truths about people's souls? The historical genre does not constrain you, even though the events as they happened must be followed. Still, you are able to turn over the subtle and not so subtle nuances of the era, find connections that may have eluded prior historians. You look at life with the eye of the emotions, passions, heartbreaks, dreams, aspirations, and hopes of your characters. You explore their inner lives.
BooksAndAuthor.com: Caledonia: A Song of Scotland has a lot going on - How much research went into this book?
William D. McEachern: Historical fiction must be completely grounded in the era such that your characters live, breath, and drink the era. To convince your readers that your fiction is meaningful and authentic, your research has to be in depth and complete. If, for example, you are describing the Netherbow Port, a gate to the City of Edinburgh, you have to know what it is built of, how tall it is, what it looks like, and how much of an obstacle it would present to an army trying to besiege Edinburgh. If you describe a distillery in Oban, besides having partaken of its product, you need to know where it was, and so forth. Your reader must come to feel that he or she is immersed in the era, in the pace: they must smell the wind, taste the whiskey, see the heather, hear the horse's hooves, and feel the sleet nipping at their checks on the battlefield of Culloden. I research each book as completely as I can, which includes going to the places set forth in my books. I spend literally years researching each of my books.
BooksAndAuthor.com What did you learn from writing Caledonia: A Song of Scotland?
William D. McEachern: Over a year ago, I visited the Clan MacDonald Center on the lovely Isle of Skye, the largest island of the Outer Hebrides, in Scotland. I went there with great anticipation in my heart. I hoped to learn about my Scottish forebears. I had traced my family back through the centuries, until I reached the first one who came to America, Daniel McEachern, who came to the Colony of North Carolina in 1774. Beyond that, I was stumped. I could find no files, no information, nothing about my ancestors. So, I went to the Isle of Skye thinking that the vast genealogical resources of the Clan MacDonald Center would open up the mystery.
I met the Head Librarian/Head Genealogist. I asked her if she had information about the "McEacherns'.
I was impressed. Ever more hopeful, I said, "With an 'E'".
So I wrote Caledonia: A Song of Scotland in part to find out why King George II's son, William Augustus, the Duke of Cumberland would be so provoked as to go to such drastic measures to blot out the memory of the Clan and sept of which I am a descendant.
BooksAndAuthor.com: Briefly discuss your first novel Casting Lots? Please explain the title as it relates to the plot.
William D. McEachern: The title-Casting Lots-refers to the gambling game among the Roman soldiers that ensued after the crucifixion of Jesus that is the Roman soldiers cast lots (played dice) for his clothes. The contrast of the Roman soldiers gambling for the one poor possession of Jesus, given who Jesus was, is a juxtaposition of more than morals, it is a comparison of ideologies, and a clash of two civilizations. The main character, the Centurion Cornelius, has gambled away the money of the men of his century. He faces the ultimate punishment, if he is found out. Through his brief interaction with Jesus, the arc of his life is thrown completely off-course. He ends up being despised by the Romans for believing in Jesus, reviled by the Jews for having carried out the execution, and hated by the Christians for having killed their messiah. A Greek slave, Lucinius, is ordered by his cruel master to collect stories of the wonder worker Jesus. One story his master desperately wants is that of Cornelius. Through the interaction of Cornelius and Lucinius, both are transformed and become major figures in the spread of early Christianity.
BooksAndAuthor.com: What do you hope to achieve with your books?
William D. McEachern: As a writer, I do want to entertain my readers, but most of all, I want them to think. I want them to experience lives they never would have considered living. I want them to learn about different eras and different people. But most of all, I want them to find within themselves what is true in all eras to all men.
William D. McEachern: Braddock's Defeat: The Battle of the Monongahela and the Road to Revolution, by David Preston.
William D. McEachern: Caledonia: A Song of Scotland is only the first book in a series. The next book in that series is entitled: New Caledonia: A Song of America. This book will follow the Scots who fled Scotland during the 1750's and 1760's, that is they fled after the Battle of Culloden, because of the repressive programs of King George II and his son, William, Duke of Cumberland, which included the deaths of thousands of Highlanders. Laws were enacted with the express aim of destroying the Highland life, including such things as banning the wear of tartans and other highland clothes, the disarming of the clans by the banning of broad swords, the destruction and banning of churches, meeting houses, the execution of clan leaders, the outlawing of the clan chiefs' powers, the transfer of various powers and privileges from the clan chiefs to the monarch, and so forth.
Many of the same men who fought against King George II at Culloden fought for the Crown during the French and Indian war, only to fight against the Crown during the American Revolution. This next book will trace those Scots who pioneered in North and South Carolina during the 1750's and then fought in these wars. New Caledonia: A Song of America will follow the MacDonalds of Clanranald to their new home in the Carolinas where they are settlors in the era of the French and Indian War. Then they are forced to choose on which side to fight on the eve of the American Revolution. The American Revolution was won in South Carolina-more battles were fought in South Carolina than in any other colony and there were more American victories there than in any other colony. I have already completed the research for this book which included walking the Battlefields of Cowpens and Kings Mountain, as well as visiting other places in the South Carolina upcountry.
After New Caledonia: A Song of America is completed, I will turn to what I presently project will be the third book in this series, Caledonia Lost: A Song of the South. This book will follow the Scots into the American Civil War, where most of them fought for the Confederacy, as did my great grandfather. This book will trace his war experiences, which included fighting in every major battler in the Eastern Theatre, including being present at the firing upon Fort Sumter, First and Second Bull Run, and Fredericksburg, but not Gettysburg. He also had the honor, if you can call it that, of being one of the few men from the Army of Northern Virginia who were shipped west to fight in Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and Knoxville. Later, he returned east and fought at Spotsylvania, the Wilderness, and the Petersburg siege, finally surrendering at Appomattox. This book will be based upon letters he wrote, as well as his military records, pay vouchers, and medical records (he was wounded twice, as well as extensive research of each battle where he fought, as well as having walked each battlefield.


I received 4,570 votes, just 101 short of the number needed to get a seat on Council.
Below are some graphs that show how the voting went. The whole Council stays the same – other than Alan Hall who replaces Margaret Thorpe.
CLICK HERE to download a PDF map produced by GDC that shows which households/streets voted and which did not.
Thank you again for all the messages expressing how disappointed you are that we were not successful this time. I am encouraged by the strong support for the vision, ideas and track-record that I stand for and take this as a mandate to continue in the same direction.
Thanks especially to the annonymous '84 year old Pakeha woman' who left a message saying how gutted she was that I didn't get in, how much she thinks we need positive change and how she would vote for me if she is is still alive in three years time. That was a very encouraging message that made it all worth while!
Planning has already started for the next local body elections in 2010 – this time we will have a three year campaign rather than three months!
1. People who REALLY want to see positive change in local leadership should let us know – I will add you to a mailing list to keep you up to date on plans and activities.
There are a huge range of things we can do over the next three years to build more popular support for a different Council and we need as many people as possible willing to commit a couple of hours a month and/or other resources to make it happen.
This website will be used to publish my views on Council activities, individual Councillor performance and other information relating to monitoring Council responsiveness to community aspirations and priority needs.
Please email me now if you want to be added to the mailing list.
2. A survey of voters is being conducted by KaPai Kaiti residents association.
Click here to download the survey form and Freepost it back to KaPai Kaiti.
3. If you know someone who might be interested in standing next time please let us know.
I would be keen to support others who share a similar vision, have a track record of making a positive contribution in the community and are able to articulate their views on local issues – particulalry individuals from sectors of the community not well represented on Council or the DHB at present.
4. I'm writing down some 'lessons learnt' from the campaign.
If you are interested in a copy of that please let me know.
5. GDC are producing a map that shows which areas of the community voted and which did not.
If you would like a copy of this please let me (or GDC) know.
Thank you to everyone who supported my family and myself during the election campaign – it was an incredible experience.
Of course I am disappointed at not being elected but have learnt lots and will be involved in some way or another with the next election.


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Remember that you still need to come down to the clubhouse to fill out medical forms, pay fees and pick up your club shirt.


I didn't get the timing right. I know that now, and I can appreciate it as a learning experience, use it, benefit from it, write it on a Post-It note and stick it on my desk to forever remind me. But that still doesn't make it any less of an irreversible, frustrating mistake.
Pre-release promotion. Apparently essential. And just another missed opportunity to check off the big list of missed opportunities when your début novel is already on Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, etc. and you come across the first of many helpful online articles about how essential it is to promote your book … before your book is actually released.
Well, a month before my publication date would probably have been the perfect time for me to start promoting, but at least I don't have Arnold around to smugly explain this to me. Although, if he wants to request a free copy of Kissing The Scorpion (purely for review purposes, of course), he's more than welcome to ask.
In the general scheme of things, does it matter that I missed the pre-release sweet-spot for publicising my début novel? Maybe not. I suspect that pre-release promotional activities for a début novel from an unknown author would attract the same amount of attention that the book itself has had during its first couple of weeks on Amazon. If you're wondering how much that is, it's not a heck of a lot.
What I'm finding more interesting than pointlessly cataloguing and regretting everything I'm doing wrong with my release and promotion strategy is the honest feedback I'm starting to get from people who have read, or are currently reading, Kissing The Scorpion. I don't believe, as an author, that you can be fully confident that what you have written works on any level, let alone all the levels you convinced yourself it would work on during the years you spent writing it, until your readers tell you, honestly, that they're being entertained by it. For me, with this novel, so far, that is what is happening and I am incredibly grateful to everyone who has taken the time to post reviews or contact me directly.
In the spirit of providing honest feedback and possibly some useful information for other first-time authors, I'll post future blog entries about the levels of success I achieve with different promotional methods. The first one I'm trying will be a New Release Promotion due to appear on December 17th on Indie Author News. This is a promotion for books that have been available for no more than 3 months; it includes a book description, author bio and profile image, and it is shared on social media (Twitter, Google+, Facebook) for a couple of weeks. The article itself permanently stays on the Indie Author News website. I've read a selection of the existing articles and they generally look pretty good. I'll be interested to see how this influences the sample downloads and sales of Kissing The Scorpion, but it's more of an experiment than some kind of last resort straw-clutching exercise. I'm not crossing my fingers and hoping for a huge response, or any kind of a response, I just want to see what happens. If it works at all, I'll do more with that site and I'll post reports on this blog.
If you would like to contact me to request a review copy of Kissing The Scorpion, or ask me to link to your own blog or website, or just start a conversation, please use one of the contact methods on the Contact page on this site.
This entry was posted in Blog and tagged Kissing The Scorpion, Promoting a novel by johnt321. Bookmark the permalink.


text:
Cleaning: Floor Care Equipment
Chasing The Shine
Tips For Long-Lasting Floor Shine
BY Kassandra Kania
According to Griffin, forgoing super-shiny floors that require stripping, refinishing and burnishing can save a facility 50 to 65 percent in maintenance costs. However, VCT is rarely replaced on a whim; most facilities consider low-maintenance flooring options for new construction or renovations.
Today, some of the popular alternatives to VCT include luxury vinyl tile, polished concrete, terrazzo, ceramic tile and rubber. Many new flooring options have a matte finish or a factory coating that imparts sheen, rendering finish unnecessary.
"I've seen people ruin floors because they put wax on no-wax floors," says Poole. "Custodial staffs need to know what type of floor they're looking at and what the manufacturer's recommendations are for maintaining that floor."
Mt. San Antonio College installed alternative flooring in some of its new and renovated buildings several years ago.
"We were able to get our voices heard on the labor involved with VCT," says McAlpin. "So we went with finished concrete throughout one of the buildings in the corridors and classrooms, and we also installed some rubberized flooring."
The new floors are durable rather than shiny, and McAlpin says they are easier to maintain than VCT.
"Once you prep and finish them, you can go three years or more without a lot of labor-intensive work involved," he says.
Despite advances in technology and the trend toward alternate flooring, VCT is still a viable option for many facilities — especially those who covet high shine. But shiny floors aren't just about appearances: Applying finish protects the floors, extends the life of the product and provides a stable platform for walking.
"There used to be a reason to replace VCT, but the second- and third-generation products perform much better," says McAlpin. "If you maintain VCT well — strip it, finish it and preserve the look — it's pretty much a lifetime deal."
KASSANDRA KANIA is a freelancer based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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text:
32,000 expected at Ramaphosa's inauguration
Thursday 16 May 2019 - 3:16pm
About 32,000 people are expected to attend the president's inauguration next week Saturday.
JOHANNESBURG - For the first time, the president's inauguration will not be held at the Union Buildings but at Loftus Versfeld Stadium.
About 32,000 people are expected to attend President Cyril Ramaphosa's inauguration next week Saturday.
These will include heads of states, SADC ambassadors and representatives from the different business sector.
WATCH: Briefing on Presidential Inauguration readiness
Minister in the Presidency Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma gave an update on the readiness for the event.
"We expect some 22,000 [people] will come from the neighbouring provinces and the bulk from Gauteng," said Dlamini-Zuma.
Following Ramaphosa's inauguration, 400 Members of Parliament will be sworn into the National Assembly next week.
He's promised the new government will have a zero-tolerance to fraud and corruption.
"Corruption got in the way, patronage got into the way and not focusing on the needs of our people got into the way," said Ramaphosa.
READ: A new look parliament
The ANC will be returning with a smaller majority of 230 seats.
They have lost 19 seats in this election, while the EFF has gained that same number.
The official opposition, the DA, has also had its presence trimmed by five seats.
But the IFP with 14, and the Freedom Front Plus with 10 seats will be taking up more space to round out the top 5 parties.
Ramaphosa condemns social media spat
President Cyril Ramaphosa has condemned the public spats over e-tolls between Finance Minister Tito Mboweni and Gauteng's provincial government.
Disrupted world order brings urgency to SA's seat on Security Council
Election to the Security Council is prestigious for member states because it gives them a seat at the highest table of global decision-making.
ATM sues for R22m


text:
Gun Control Puts Your Life at Risk
In the 20th century, far more people were murdered by genocidal governments than by armed criminals.
According to gun prohibitionists, Europe is much safer than the United States, because Europe has stricter gun control. In fact, the historical record shows that excessive gun control (as in Europe) is about a hundred times more deadly than "insufficient" gun control (as, supposedly, in the U.S.). While a lone criminal with a gun can be very dangerous, a criminal government with a disarmed population is the deadliest thing on Earth.
Let's start with the data. If U.S. gun homicide rates had been as low as European rates in the 20th century, how many lives might have been saved? According to a 2018 article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, in 1990—a bad year for violent crime in the United States—the age-adjusted U.S. firearms homicide rate was 5.57 per 100,000 population. That same year, the rate in Western Europe was 0.53 and the rate in Eastern Europe was 1.31, giving us a European average of 0.92.
The difference between the European rate and the American rate is 4.65 per 100,000. Since the U.S. population in 1990 was nearly 249 million, these data indicate that the U.S. had 11,785 more firearms homicides that year than it would have had if the rate had been as low as it was in Europe. If we apply the estimate of 4.65 additional gun homicides per 100,000 population to every year of the 20th century, taking into account changes in the U.S. population, we find that the United States had 745,162 more firearms homicides than it would have had under the European average.
For the sake of argument, we'll assume that every excess American gun homicide would not have been a homicide if the United States had adopted European-style gun control. That is, we'll assume that other lethal means would not have been substituted for firearms. We also won't consider that many American gun homicides are justifiable self-defense. In other words, when a would-be killer is shot by a law enforcement officer or a citizen, we'll consider the criminal's death to be just as bad as the death of an innocent victim.
Finally, we'll ignore the extensive evidence that nonfatal defensive firearm use often prevents homicides and other crimes.
With the above assumptions, the failure to adopt European-style gun control would be responsible for almost three-quarters of a million excess deaths in the United States in the last century. That is a very large number. It is, however, two orders of magnitude smaller than the number of Europeans killed by governments during the same period.
International homicide statistics usually only count murders by individuals or small groups. A serial killer may murder two dozen people over the course of many years. A mass shooter may murder dozens at once. Those who use explosives or arson sometimes kill even more. But even in the aggregate, individual criminals or criminal gangs perpetrate vastly less homicide than do criminal governments.
In Europe in the 20th century, governments killed about 87.1 million victims, according to research by the late University of Hawaii political scientist R.J. Rummel. That figure does not include combat deaths, such as in World War I or II. It includes only the murder of civilians, from 61.9 million killed by the Soviet Union to 20.9 million killed by Germany. Over the long run, one's risk of being murdered is much lower in the United States than in Europe. It's no surprise that migration between the two has always been very heavily in one direction!
I am alive to write this article because my Jewish German and Lithuanian ancestors migrated to the United States in the 19th century. By doing so, they increased their risk of being shot by an individual criminal but drastically reduced their risk of being murdered by a criminal government. As we all well know, those risks did materialize in Germany (under the Nazis and the Communists) and in Lithuania (under the czars, the Nazis, and the Communists). Because governments are so much more effective at killing than are individual criminals—even looking at all individual criminals combined—the United States was much safer than Europe in the 20th century.
Rummel found that the less free the government, the more likely it is to perpetrate domestic mass murder. Totalitarian regimes perpetrate by far the most; authoritarian regimes less so; and democratic ones least of all. Indeed, no democratic government has committed large-scale murder against a population that was able to vote.
If you could be sure that a given government would forever be democratic, there would be no need for arms to resist a possible domestic dictatorship. Unfortunately, certainty on that score is impossible. The list of nations to have maintained both independence and free government at all times since 1900 is short: Australia, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. That's just seven nations out of 196 worldwide.
Only a foolish version of American exceptionalism would imagine that the United States has been granted permanent immunity from the dangers of tyranny. Democracy was founded in Greece, yet that country has succumbed to dictatorship many times. Germany in 1900 was a progressive democracy and one of the most tolerant places in the world for Jews; a lot can change in a few decades.
According to gun prohibitionists, armed victims cannot meaningfully resist a murderous dictatorship with weapons of war at its disposal. The dictators who do the murdering think just the opposite.
In 1942, Adolf Hitler explained the necessity of disarming his victims: "The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subjugated races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subjugated races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the supply of arms to the underdogs is a sine qua non for the overthrow of any sovereignty. So let's not have any native militia or native police."
Tyrants past and present have come from virtually every continent and ethnic background. Their ideologies have varied, but they are united by a number of common practices. They do not allow freedom of the press or an independent court system. They attempt to bring religion under state control. And they claim for themselves a monopoly of force. Search the history of the world, from ancient times to the present, and you will not find many tyrants who deviated from the principle that the state must be stronger than the people.
Mass shootings by criminal governments occur predominantly in gun-free zones—places where the population has been disarmed. As soon as the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union began on June 22, 1941, special S.S. units called Einsatzgruppen began assembling all the Jews or Gypsies from a village and marching them out of town. The victims could then be easily machine-gunned at once. Within a year, just 3,000 Einsatzgruppen, aided by a few thousand helpers from the German police and military, had murdered about 1 million people.
Regime change is difficult once a tyrant has taken power, as today's China and Cuba illustrate. So as an anti-tyranny tool, widespread citizen arms ownership works most effectively when it deters tyranny in the first place. Among the reasons there was no Holocaust in Switzerland was that the people there were heavily armed and organized in a very well-regulated militia. The German military almost certainly could have conquered its uncooperative neighbor to the south. Yet because of the costs that the Swiss militia would inflict on the Wehrmacht, Hitler never had the nerve to mount an invasion.
Even after mass murders have already begun, victims who obtain guns can save lives. During the Holocaust, armed Jews caused the Nazis much trouble—in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising during Passover 1943 as well as in many lesser-known actions. The Nazi extermination camps of Sobibor and Treblinka were shut down forever because prisoners stole guns from the guards and led mass revolts. The Bielski commando unit in the forests of Belarus grew to 149 armed fighters and saved a thousand more Jews.
During World War I, when the government of the Ottoman Empire began murdering Christians, hundreds of thousands of lives were saved by armed resistance—which relied on guns that the Christians had secreted in defiance of confiscation orders.
"The gun has been called the great equalizer, meaning that a small person with a gun is equal to a large person," observed then–California Gov. Ronald Reagan in a 1975 article for Guns and Ammo, "but it is a great equalizer in another way, too. It ensures that the people are the equal of their government whenever that government forgets that it is servant and not master of the governed."
As the last century demonstrates, the short-term risks of a well-armed civilian population are far less than the long-term risks of a government that is stronger than the people.
1 MILESFORTIS 1999-2004 ARCHIVE
3 FAIR USE STATEMENT
61 Statistics Describing U.S. Gun Owners
69% of mass shootings happen outside of the US
A Theory of Citizenship
A Theory of the Militia
A Thesis on our Right to Keep and Bear Arms
Against the Tiers of Constitutional Scrutiny
American Gun Ownership: The Positive Impacts of Law-Abiding Citizens Owning Firearms
Americans Think Most Gun Deaths are Murders (They're Not)
An Individual Right
An Updated Assessment of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban
Armed Citizens A Deterrent To Suburban Violence
Be Prepared To Protect Yourself
Carrying Guns is Preventive Medicine
Constitutional Civil Rights Are Not Subject To A Majority Vote
Deaths by the use of a gun are cultural.
Examining the Race Effects of Stand Your Ground Laws
Firearms Possession By "Non-State Actors"
Greg Wallace | Scholarship Highlight, "Assault Weapon" Lethality
Gun control is psychological warfare
Gun Ownership in America: A Guide on its Positive Impact
How America's Gun Culture Cultivates Civic Virtue
How careless rhetoric will doom the Second Amendment.
If The FBI's Contempt For The Law Is Not Reined In, Its Abuses Will Get Worse
In US History, the right to arms is associated with liberty
Jesus Endorsed Armed Self-Defense
Justice Alito's Second Amendment
Lying About the (NO) Link Between Gun Ownership and Homicide
Our Revolution's Logic
Our Second Amendment: A rejection of nobility
Protecting Gun Manufacturers From Frivolous Lawsuits
Public Safety and the Right to Bear Arms
Revisiting RAND's Gun Law Research Review
Study Finds Homicide Victims Tend To Be Criminals Too
Tench Coxe and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
The Effectiveness of Gun Control Legislation: A Comparative Study
The Ethics of 'Gun-Free Zones'
The gun guy and illegal militia founder who became President.
The Moral Case for Gun Ownership
The Natural Law as a Restraint Against Tyranny
The Natural Right of Self-Defense
The Origin of an Armed Citizenry
The Reality of American Violence
The Right to Armed Self-Defense in the Light of Law Enforcement Abdication
The Right to Keep and Bear Arms
The Right to Prompt Access to Guns in a Time of Unrest
The Torah and Self-Defense
Unbannable Arms?
Well Regulated: The NFA hearings (1/6) – an unforgivable betrayal.
Well Regulated: The NFA hearings (2/6) – 4/16/1934
Well Regulated: The NFA hearings (4/6): 5/14/1934
What arms are "common"?
What is a 'Well Regulated' Militia, Anyway?
Why Governments Shouldn't Close Gun Stores During A Pandemic
Bureaucraps
Cartoon O' The Day
Comic Relief O' The Day
Comment O' The Day
Crap For Brains
Darwin Awards.
Econuts
Editorial O' The Day
Enemies Foreign & Domestic
Goobermint
Gun Schtuff
Harsh But True
Meme O' The Day
moslems & jihadis
Now for something completely different
Parler O' The Day
Quote O' The Day
Scratch a Lib-Reveal a Tyrant
Slugs For Thugs
Smells like propaganda to me
The Violence Inherent in The Left
They Made a Movie About This
Tweet O' The Day
Vid O' The Day
You Can't Make This Up


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