text:
Xzazu is a lead distribution platform that lets you deliver your leads to the right customer at the right price.
Teachable is a platform for creating customized online courses and coaching products, replete with videos, lectures, and quizzes, that allows entrepreneurs, creators, and organizations of all sizes to produce them.Teachable Integrations
Xzazu + TeachableCreate New User to Teachable from New Outbound Lead in Xzazu Read More...
Xzazu + TeachableEnroll User in Course in Teachable when New Outbound Lead is created in Xzazu Read More...
Xzazu + TeachableUnenroll Student From Course in Teachable when New Outbound Lead is created in Xzazu Read More...
Xzazu + TeachableCreate New User to Teachable from New Outbound Ping in Xzazu Read More...
Xzazu + TeachableEnroll User in Course in Teachable when New Outbound Ping is created in Xzazu Read More...
Xzazu + {{item.actionAppName}}{{item.message}} Read More...
It's easy to connect Xzazu + Teachable without coding knowledge. Start creating your own business flow.
Triggers when a new outbound lead is available for your contract.
Triggers when a new outbound ping is available for your contract.
Triggers when a new pong result is available for your ping.
Triggers when a user completes 100% of a course.
Triggers when a user enrolls in a course. (Note: User's will need to confirm enrollment before the trigger fires if you manually add them to a course).
Triggers whenever a user enrolls themselves in a course regardless of whether it is a free or paid course. If you add them as an admin, this does not trigger.
Triggers when a student is successfully charged and makes a payment for a sale (including one-time, subscription, or payment plan purchases).For a subscription or a payment plan, there is a new transaction created for every single payment.
Triggers whenever a new user signs up for your school.
Triggers whenever a user updates their profile on your school.
Triggers whenever a user cancels a subscription on your school.
Create an Inbond lead.
Create a new user in your Teachable school.This action is only available to schools on the Professional plans and higher.
Enroll a user in a course on your Teachable school. (If the person does not have an account, one will be created and they will then be enrolled.)This action is only available to schools on the Professional plans and higher.
Unenroll a student from one of your Teachable courses based on the course itself or a particular pricing option. This action is only available to schools on the Professional plan or higher.
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Teachable is a software program designed for e-learning. It was founded in 2007 by "two fellow New York University students", Andrew and Matthew. The company started as a project at Y Combinator which is now known as "a seed accelerator that helps startups get off the ground". The first version was launched on January 2009.
Xzazu is a social network that allows users to share knowledge through their profiles, blogs and games. Users can create their own questions and challenges. They can also earn points for answering questions and challenges.
Teachable can be used as an educational top in Xzazu to let users learn new things and improve their skills while playing a game. Let's take Trivia as an example. If a user gets a question wrong in Trivia, he will lose the game and will not be able to proceed to the next level. However, if he wants to improve his knowledge, he can choose to replay the game again and try to answer the question correctly this time. He can also use Teachable to watch some videos on how to answer the question correctly. In this way, he will use up his time and improve his knowledge.
There are many benefits for using Teachable in Xzazu such as:
In conclusion, it is very helpful for Teachable to be integrated into Xzazu because it can help users to improve their learning skills while they are having fun playing games on Xzazu.
The process to integrate Xzazu and Teachable may seem complicated and intimidating. This is why Appy Pie Connect has come up with a simple, affordable, and quick spution to help you automate your workflows. Click on the button below to begin.


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OLD TOWN — Michael and Frances St. Peter, of Old Town, have announced the engagement of their daughter, Malorie Leah St. Peter, to John Robert Hersom, both of Bangor. Hersom is the son of John and Roberta Hersom, of Sidney.
St. Peter is a graduate of Old Town High School and a 2010 graduate of the University of Maine in Orono, where she received a bachelor's degree in social work and a master of education degree in school counseling. She is employed as a school counselor by Lawrence Junior High School.
Hersom is a graduate of Lawrence High School and a 2012 graduate of Husson University, where he received a bachelor's degree in elementary education and is pursuing a master of education degree in curriculum, assessment and instruction from UMaine. He is employed as a science and mathematics middle school teacher by the William S. Cohen School in Bangor.
A July 2015 wedding is planned.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Mark your calendars for August 24, 2022! We will be holding our annual field day that afternoon / evening. Join us for plot tours, educational presentation, dinner, and networking. Watch the video from John Ortiz to learn more. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out anytime. We hope to see you August 24th!
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text:
WOW E Newsletter - January 09 2017
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- Magazine Details
- In this issue
Magazine Description
In this issue
A2ZBuild e newsletter brings some of the most unexpected words on the list which are seen as creative use of language.
- Cancel Anytime [ No Commitments ]
- Digital Only


text:
I know I am pretty
But something in the brain
Is not right
It is a daily battle
Convincing yourself
That indeed you are beautiful
That you are sexy enough
That your body is right
Just as God had intended it to be
Then why, mortal being
Do you spend your every breath
On my weight
My looks you criticise
My articulation
Why are you pulling me down?
When pulling myself up is hard enough
Did your parents not teach you?
To shut up, when you have nothing
Nothing nice to say
Well I am telling you
Telling you to shut up!
I do not need to change
A damned thing at all
Society is the one
The one to change
Not me
It's the world
That needs to change


text:
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text:
Based on a long ethnographic study, L'Islam, un recours pour les jeunes focuses on the Islamic identities of French youth with North African or Turkish origins and working-class backgrounds. It asserts that young men and women's religious paths are linked to experiences at school, within immigrant families and in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Young men complain of being labelled negatively at school and being pushed toward low-skilled jobs instead of the professional vocations and lifestyles for which they yearn. They are often in conflict with teachers or with career advisers and engage Muslim symbols to protest against school judgments. The book also insists on the deep differences between Turkish and North-African populations with working-class backgrounds. The Turkish populations settled in France later than North-Africans and subsequently their settlement has been more fragile. They want to preserve traditions and customs from their country of origin, a phenomenon reinforced by the high concentrations of Turkish populations in urban areas. Turkish parents' aspirations influence their goals for their children, especially in relation to school, professional life and marriage. The second part of Kapko's book discussed the response of local authorities to Muslim religious claims. For over a decade, changes in Muslim demands of local policitians in relation to religious practice have been noticed. In comparison to demands made in the 1980s by immigrant fathers which focused on the need for prayer space, the 1990s have seen new demands such as the right to wear the headscarf in public spaces, the participation of local politicians to seminars held by religious leaders, and accommodation of religious arguments during negotiations with local political leaders. This investigation shows that council representatives often only select the aspects of the demands that seem to suit their objectives -keeping public order, social integration-and ignore the religious content of the demands. In other cases discussed, religious intonations are not ignored but rather exploited by the local government. Government officials, who fear confrontations between ethnic groups in disadvantaged areas, are tempted to turn religious militants into unofficial mediators between immigrant populations and public authorities.
Tag: family
Muslims Remain Very Attached to Collective Rituals
It is generally said that France is home to 5 million Muslims. In reality, however, no one has counted them, because ethnic and religious census questions are forbidden. The last projections made by poller Michele Tribalat (on the basis of INED's family surveys in 1999) put the estimation at more like 4 million Muslims living in France. But the alleged Muslim population level has grown unceasingly in the past few years. Some even put the number at 10 million, obviously confusing national origin with religion. Up to now, most people coming from the Maghreb, from Senegal, Mali, Turkey, and Pakistan have effectively considered themselves Muslims. But the last firm survey, taken from a large population samble by Cevipof, shows an increasing gap between national origin and religious practice, especially among those born in France of North African origin. In 2005, 35% of this population declared themselves to have no religion. The process of secularization has been set in motion…
What Works Against Forced Marriages?
BERLIN – As part of the Integration Summit, Chancellor Merkel and the Ministry of the Interior invited experts to give testimony on forced marriages to the family committee in the Bundestag. Heiner Bielefeldt, director of the German Institute for Human Rights, was one of many who argued that forced marriage is not a typically Islamic practice.
First Muslim Sorority Hopes To Form Chapters Across USA
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Christine Ortiz slips quietly from the Muslim prayer room on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and into a group of squealing young women. Some of them are Ortiz's Muslim sisters, the undergraduate pals who embraced her when she converted to Islam from her family's Roman Catholicism. Less than a year after she graduated from MIT, Ortiz, 23, has returned to campus on a chilly night to help introduce them to a new concept in Muslim sisterhood: the first Muslim-oriented sorority, Gamma Gamma Chi. The sorority, which was formed last year, has no campus chapters but is trying to drum up interest with informational meetings across the nation. It aims to be a sorority unlike almost all others by adhering to principles of Islam: no alcohol and no casual mixing between men and women. Ortiz is a member of Alpha Phi, one of five traditional sororities at MIT. She says she wants her Muslim girlfriends to have the sorority experience without having to compromise their religious values. In theory, the existing sororities' policies are in line with Muslim beliefs, but in reality, she says, the sorority culture at MIT and other campuses "unfortunately is based on men and alcohol." Muslim women at MIT, the University of Kentucky, Rutgers, the University of Maryland-Baltimore and the University of Southern California have expressed interest in Gamma Gamma Chi, says founder and President Althia Collins, who owns an educational consulting business in Alexandria, Va. Collins and her daughter Imani Abdul-Haqq, both Muslim converts, created the sorority in 2005. The MIT gathering attracted 13 women – five in traditional Muslim head scarves and loose-fitting clothes but most with uncovered hair and typical campus attire of jeans and sweaters. "I never felt attracted to sorority life," says Tania Ullah, 20, a junior from New York City. "Aside from the drinking and partying, which I don't do, I didn't feel comfortable with pledging loyalty to the principles." 'We're already a close-knit group' Collins and Abdul-Haqq's idea for a Muslim sorority reflects both the increasing presence of the religion on U.S. campuses and the growth of multiculturalism, says Denise Pipersburgh, a lawyer in Newark, N.J., and president of the National Multicultural Greek Council. The National Panhellenic Conference represents 26 historically Caucasian sororities and women's fraternities with 3.8 million members. The National Panhellenic Council, which represents four historically black sororities and five men's fraternities, has 1.5 million members. The first Latina sorority was formed in 1975, and Asian-American Greek organizations have existed since the 1920s. At the MIT session, the Muslim women, whose majors include brain and cognitive sciences and chemical engineering, seem intrigued by the idea of their own sorority. But they also are skeptical. "An Islamic sorority is almost an oxymoron, isn't it?" asks Tasneem Hussam, 20, a junior from Centreville, Va. Muslims are active at MIT, where the Muslim Student Association on the 10,200-student campus regularly attracts 200 people to its dinners. All of the women at the presentation belong to the association. "We're already a close-knit group," Hussam says. "I'm a little unsure about how necessary it is to have a sorority." Tayyba Anwar, 18, a freshman from New York City, wonders how she'll explain the sorority concept to her parents and persuade them to let her join Gamma Gamma Chi. "They'll say, 'What is this? Is it good or bad?' " Anwar says. "To me, it sounds like a respectable thing." Ortiz notes that Greek life is a big part of MIT. "Once they are organized, it'll give Muslim women a face and voice on campus," she says. Ultimately, none of the MIT students submitted applications to Gamma Gamma Chi. 'An American phenomenon' The Muslim women at MIT say they rarely suffer from discrimination or isolation on campus. Panhellenic President Shannon Nees, 20, a junior from Hatfield, Penn., says they would be welcome in any of MIT's five sororities. "MIT is a very diverse group of people," Nees says. "None of the sororities discriminate." Abdul-Haqq says Gamma Gamma Chi, unlike traditional sororities, will allow Muslim women to feel more comfortable without compromising their Islamic beliefs. Abdul-Haqq recalls trying to join a sorority at Bennett College in Greensboro and fearing she might be required to dress immodestly while pledging. "I don't wear short sleeves," she says. "I wear my hair covered. I felt put off from the beginning." Collins and her daughter have sent e-mails to Muslim student groups and received enthusiastic responses, but no campus has signed up the 10 to 15 members needed for a chapter. "We have to keep in mind that sororities are really an American phenomenon," Collins says. "A lot of Muslims come from Middle Eastern and South Asian backgrounds. This is not a part of their experience." The sorority has collected the names of 200 women who have expressed interest in joining. The sorority, Collins says, would also welcome non-Muslim women who support its mission. Xenia Tariq, 19, a freshman at Kentucky whose family moved to the USA from Pakistan, attended the sorority's recent seminar in Lexington and applied to join. She has been spreading the word among her Muslim girlfriends and hopes the university will have a chapter by fall. "I guess the appeal was that it is the first ever Muslim sorority," Tariq says. "I was thinking this is going to be really cool and groundbreaking, and I wanted to be a part of it."
A Look At France's Draft Immigration Bill
Key points of a bill making its way through parliament: _ Create a renewable, three-year work permit for highly skilled foreigners. _ Do away with a provision that allows foreigners who have been in the country for more than 10 years – even those here illegally – to apply for French citizenship. _ Require the government to submit to parliament an annual report specifying the number and kind of residency permits to be authorized over a three year period. Although the draft bill avoids using the word 'quotas,' critics say the provision amounts to a quota-system. _ Stiffen requirements on foreigners requesting to bring family members to France, requiring them to show their salary alone – and not government assistance – would suffice to support their families. _ Double the current two-year period foreigners married to French nationals must wait before applying for French citizenship. _ Require foreigners applying for long-term residency permits to attend French language and civics classes. _ Make obtaining 10-year-residency permits contingent on speaking French and respecting of the "values of the French republic."
Tending to Muslim Hearts and Islam's Future
By ANDREA ELLIOTT The young Egyptian professional could pass for any New York bachelor. Dressed in a crisp polo shirt and swathed in cologne, he races his Nissan Maxima through the rain-slicked streets of Manhattan, late for a date with a tall brunette. At red lights, he fusses with his hair. What sets the bachelor apart from other young men on the make is the chaperon sitting next to him – a tall, bearded man in a white robe and stiff embroidered hat. "I pray that Allah will bring this couple together," the man, Sheik Reda Shata, says, clutching his seat belt and urging the bachelor to slow down. Christian singles have coffee hour. Young Jews have JDate. But many Muslims believe that it is forbidden for an unmarried man and woman to meet in private. In predominantly Muslim countries, the job of making introductions and even arranging marriages typically falls to a vast network of family and friends. In Brooklyn, there is Mr. Shata. Week after week, Muslims embark on dates with him in tow. Mr. Shata, the imam of a Bay Ridge mosque, juggles some 550 "marriage candidates," from a gold-toothed electrician to a professor at Columbia University. The meetings often unfold on the green velour couch of his office, or over a meal at his favorite Yemeni restaurant on Atlantic Avenue. The bookish Egyptian came to America in 2002 to lead prayers, not to dabble in matchmaking. He was far more conversant in Islamic jurisprudence than in matters of the heart. But American imams must wear many hats, none of which come tailor-made. Whether issuing American-inspired fatwas or counseling the homesick, fielding questions from the F.B.I. or mediating neighborhood spats, Mr. Shata walks an endless labyrinth of problems. If anything seems conquerable, it is the solitude of Muslim singles. Nothing brings the imam more joy than guiding them to marriage. It is his way of fashioning a future for his faith. It is his most heartfelt effort – by turns graceful and comedic, vexing and hopeful – to make Islam work in America. Word of the imam's talents has traveled far, eliciting lonely calls from Muslims in Chicago and Los Angeles, or from meddlesome parents in Cairo and Damascus. From an estimated 250 chaperoned dates, Mr. Shata has produced 10 marriages. "The prophet said whoever brings a man and woman together, it is as if he has worshiped for an entire year," said Mr. Shata, 37, speaking through an Arabic translator. The task is not easy. In a country of plentiful options, Muslim immigrants can become picky, even rude, the imam complains. During one date, a woman studied the red-circled eyes of a prospective husband and asked, "Have you brought me an alcoholic?" On another occasion, an Egyptian man stared at the flat chest of a pleasant young Moroccan woman and announced, "She looks like a log!" the imam recalled. "This would never happen in Egypt," said Mr. Shata, turning red at the memory. "Never, never. If I knew this boy had no manners I never would have let him into my office." The Imam's Little Black Book The concept of proper courtship in Islam, like much about the faith, is open to interpretation. Islamic law specifies that a man and woman who are unmarried may not be alone in closed quarters. Some Muslims reject any mingling before marriage. Others freely date. Many fall somewhere in between, meeting in groups, getting engaged and spending time alone before the wedding, while their parents look the other way. For one Syrian in New York, a date at Starbucks is acceptable if it begins and ends on the premises: The public is his chaperon. Mr. Shata is a traditionalist. There were few strangers in his rural town of birth, Kafr al Battikh, in northeastern Egypt. Men and women often agreed to marry the day they met, and a few made the deal sight unseen. It was rare to meet anyone from a distant province, let alone another country. New York is not only the capital of the world, imams often joke, but also the crossroads of Islam, a human sampling more diverse than anywhere save Mecca during the annual pilgrimage known as the Hajj. Beyond the city's five boroughs, Muslim immigrants have formed Islamic hubs in California, Illinois, Michigan and Texas. At the center of these hubs stands a familiar sight in a foreign land, the mosque. What was a place of worship in Pakistan or Algeria becomes, in Houston or Detroit, a social haven. But inside, the sexes remain largely apart. A growing number of Muslim Web sites advertise marriage candidates, and housewives often double as matchmakers. One mosque in Princeton, N.J., plays host to a closely supervised version of speed dating. And so many singles worship at the Islamic Society of Boston that a committee was formed to match them up. Fearing a potential surplus of single Muslim women, one Brooklyn imam reportedly urged his wealthier male congregants during a Ramadan sermon last year to take two wives. When a woman complained about the sermon to Mr. Shata, he laughed. "You know that preacher who said Hugo Ch_vez should be shot?" he asked. "We have our idiots, too." More than a matchmaker, Mr. Shata sees himself as a surrogate elder to young Muslims, many of whom live far from their parents. In America, only an imam is thought to have the connections, wisdom and respect to step into the role. Mr. Shata began the service three months after arriving in Brooklyn in 2002, recruited to lead the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge, a mosque on Fifth Avenue. Dates chaperoned by Mr. Shata – or "meetings between candidates," as the imam prefers to call them – often take place in his distinctly unromantic office, amid rows of Islamic texts. As a couple get acquainted, the imam sits quietly at his desk, writing a sermon or surfing the Arabic Web sites of CNN and the BBC. If there is an awkward silence, the imam perks up and asks a question ("So tell me, Ilham, how many siblings do you have?") and the conversation is moving again. Candidates are vetted carefully, and those without personal references need not apply. But instinct is Mr. Shata's best guide. He refused to help a Saudi from California because the man would consider only a teenage wife. Others have shown an all-too-keen interest in a green card. Those who pass initial inspection are listed in the imam's version of a little black book – their names, phone numbers, specifications and desires. Some prefer "silky hair," others "a virgin." Nearly all candidates, men and women alike, want a mate with devotion to Islam, decent looks and legal immigration status. Scanning the book, the imam makes his pitch with the precision of a car salesman. "There is a girl, an American convert, Dominican, looks a little Egyptian. Skin-wise, not white, not dark. Wheat-colored. She's 19, studies accounting," Mr. Shata told a 24-year-old Palestinian man one afternoon. "This is my only choice?" replied the man, Yamal Othman, who lives in Queens. Such questions annoy Mr. Shata. An imam, he says, should be trusted to select the best candidate. Often, though, his recommendations are met with skepticism. "It's harder than choosing a diamond," said Mr. Shata. Sometimes, on the imam's three-legged dates, no one seems more excited than Mr. Shata himself. He makes hurried, hearty introductions and then steps back to watch, as if mixing chemicals in a lab experiment. Love is rarely ignited, but the imam remains awed by its promise. Mr. Shata discovered love 15 years ago, when he walked into the living room of the most stately house in Kafr al Battikh. The imam was tall, 22, a rising star at the local mosque. For months, Omyma Elshabrawy knew only his voice. She would listen to his thunderous sermons from the women's section, out of view. Then, one evening, he appeared at her home, presented as a prospective groom to her father, a distinguished reciter of the Koran. The young woman, then 20, walked toward Mr. Shata carrying a tray of lemonade. "She entered my heart," said the imam. After serving the drinks, she disappeared. Right then, Mr. Shata asked her father for her hand in marriage. The older man paused. His daughter was the town beauty, an English student with marriage offers from
doctors. The imam was penniless. But before Mr. Elshabrawy could respond, a sugary voice interrupted. "I accept," his daughter said from behind a door. "I loved him from the moment I saw him," Ms. Elshabrawy said. They now have four children. The family posed last year for a Sears-style portrait, taken by a woman in Bay Ridge who photographs Muslim families in her basement. A blue sky and white picket fence adorn the background. The imam sits at center, with the baby, Mohammed, in his lap, his three daughters smiling, his wife wrapped in a lime-green hijab. Mr. Shata carries the picture in the breast pocket of his robe. It is as close as most people get to his family. At the mosque, they are a mystery. His wife has been there twice. Their years in America have come with great hardship, a subject the imam rarely discusses. The trouble is the illness of his 7-year-old daughter, Rawda, who is severely epileptic. She has dozens of seizures every day and rarely leaves home. No combination of medicine seems to help. "Rawda is the wound in my heart," the imam said. Mr. Shata offers long, stubborn theories about the value of marriage, but to observe him at home is to understand the commitment he seeks to foster in other Muslims. The family lives in a spare, dimly lighted apartment two blocks from the mosque. Headscarves are piled over Pok_mon cards. The gold-painted words "Allah is Great" are framed over a threadbare couch. In the next room, an "I {sheart} New York" bumper sticker is slapped on the wall. Mr. Shata spends long hours away from his family, lecturing at mosques, settling disputes, whispering the call to prayer in the ears of newborn babies. On his walk home at night, he shops for groceries, never forgetting the Honey Nut Cheerios, a favorite American discovery of his children. When he walks in the door, his face softens. Loud kisses are planted on tender cheeks. Mohammed squeals, the girls smile, sweet laughter echoes. But then there is Rawda. "My beautiful girl," the imam says softly one evening, holding his limp daughter in his lap after a seizure has passed. He places one pill in Rawda's mouth, then another. She looks at him weakly. "There we go," he whispers. "Inshallah." Her lids close with sleep. He lays her in bed and shuts off the light. Hardship, the imam believes – like marriage, like life – is a test from God. Foreign and Familiar It is proof of the imam's uncommon popularity among women that he is trusted with roughly 300 female marriage candidates. The mosque on Fifth Avenue is a decidedly male place. Men occupy every position on the board of directors. They crowd the sidewalk after prayer. Only they may enter the mosque's central room of worship. Only men, they often point out, are required to attend the Friday prayer. One floor below is the cramped room where the women worship. On Fridays, they sit pressed together, their headscarves itching with heat. They must watch their imam on a closed-circuit television that no one seems to have adjusted in years. But they listen devotedly. Teenage girls often roll their eyes at foreign imams, who seem to them like extraterrestrials. Their immigrant mothers often find these clerics too strict, an uncomfortable reminder of their conservative homelands. Mr. Shata is both foreign and familiar. He presides over a patriarchal world, sometimes upholding it, and other times challenging it. In one sermon, he said that a man was in charge of his home and had the right to "choose his wife's friends." Another day, to the consternation of his male congregants, he invited a female Arab social worker to lecture on domestic violence. The women were allowed to sit next to the men in the main section of the mosque. The imam frowns at career women who remain single in their 30's, but boasts of their accomplishments to interest marriage candidates. He employs his own brand of feminism, vetting marriage contracts closely to ensure brides receive a fair dowry and fighting for them when they don't. Far more than is customary, he spends hours listening to women: to their worries and confessions, their intimate secrets and frank questions about everything from menstruation to infidelity. They line up outside his office and call his home at all hours, often referring to him as "my brother" or "father." He can summon the details of their lives with the same encyclopedic discipline he once used to memorize the Koran. "Are you separated yet?" Mr. Shata asked a woman he encountered at Lutheran Medical Center one day last July. She nodded. "May God make it easier for you," he said. A Chaperoned Date By most standards, the Egyptian bachelor was a catch. He had broad shoulders and a playful smile. He was witty. He earned a comfortable salary as an engineer, and came from what he called "a good family." But the imam saw him differently, as a young man in danger of losing his faith. The right match might save him. The bachelor, who is 33, came to Brooklyn from Alexandria, Egypt, six years earlier. He craved a better salary, and freedom from controlling parents. He asked that his name not be printed for fear of causing embarrassment to his family. America was not like Egypt, where his family's connections could secure a good job. In Brooklyn, he found work as a busboy. He traded the plush comfort of his parents' home for an apartment crowded with other Egyptian immigrants. His nights were lonely. Temptation was abundant. Women covered far less of their bodies. Bare limbs, it seemed, were everywhere. In Islam, men are instructed to lower their gaze to avoid falling into sin. "In the summertime, it's a disaster for us," said the bachelor. "Especially a guy like me, who's looking all the time." Curiosity lured him into bars, clubs and the occasional one-night stand. But with freedom came guilt, he said. After drifting from his faith, he visited Mr. Shata's mosque during Ramadan in 2004. The imam struck him as oddly disarming. He made jokes, and explained Islam in simple, passionate paragraphs. The bachelor soon began praying daily, attending weekly lectures and reading the Koran. By then, he had his own apartment and a consulting job. Now he wanted a Muslim wife. If the bachelor had been in Egypt, his parents would offer a stream of marriage candidates. The distance had not stopped them entirely. His mother sent him a video of his brother's wedding, directing him to footage of a female guest. He was unimpressed. "I'm a handsome guy," he explained one evening as he sped toward Manhattan. It was his second date with Mr. Shata in attendance. "I have a standard in beauty." From the passenger seat, the imam flipped open the glove compartment to find an assortment of pricey colognes. He inspected a bottle of Gio and, with a nod from the bachelor, spritzed it over his robe. The imam and the bachelor were at odds over the material world, but on one thing they agreed: it is a Muslim duty to smell good. The religion's founder, the Prophet Muhammad, was said to wear musk. The car slowed before a brick high-rise on Second Avenue. Soon the pair rode up in the elevator. The bachelor took a breath and rang the doorbell. An older woman answered. Behind her stood a slender, fetching woman with a shy smile. The young woman, Engy Abdelkader, had been presented to the imam by another matchmaker. A woman of striking beauty and poise, Ms. Abdelkader is less timid than she first seems. She works as an immigration and human rights lawyer, and speaks in forceful, eloquent bursts. She is proud of her faith, and lectures publicly on Islam and civil liberties. She was not always so outspoken. The daughter of Egyptian immigrants, Ms. Abdelkader, 30, was raised in suburban Howell, N.J., where she longed to fit in. Though she grew up praying, in high school she chose not to wear a hijab, the head scarf donned by Muslim girls when they reach puberty. But Sept. 11 awakened her, Ms. Abdelkader said. For her and other Muslims, the terrorist attacks prompted a return to the faith, driven by what she said was a need to reclaim Islam from terrorists and a vilifying media. Headscarves became a statement, equal parts political and religious. "There's no
thing oppressive about it," said Ms. Abdelkader. "As a Muslim woman I am asking people to pay attention to the content of my character rather than my physical appearance." The pair sat on a couch, awkwardly sipping tea. They began by talking, in English, about their professions. The bachelor was put off by the fact that Ms. Abdelkader had a law degree, yet earned a modest salary. "Why go to law school and not make money?" he asked later. Ms. Abdelkader's mother and a female friend who lived in the apartment sat listening nearby until the imam mercifully distracted them. The first hint of trouble came soon after. It was his dream, the engineer told Ms. Abdelkader, to buy a half-million-dollar house. But he was uncertain that the mortgage he would need is lawful in Islam. Ms. Abdelkader straightened her back and replied, "I would rather have eternal bliss in the hereafter than live in a house or apartment with a mortgage." An argument ensued. Voices rose. Ms. Abdelkader's mother took her daughter's side. The friend wavered. The bachelor held his ground. The imam tried to mediate. Indeed, he was puzzled. Here was a woman who had grown up amid tended lawns and new cars, yet she rejected materialism. And here was a man raised by Muslim hands, yet he was rebelliously moderate. After the date, the bachelor told the imam, "I want a woman, not a sheik." Months later, he married another immigrant; she was not especially devoted to Islam but she made him laugh, he said. They met through friends in New York. Ms. Abdelkader remains single. The imam still believes she was the perfect match. That evening, the imam stood on the sidewalk outside. Rain fell in stinging drops. "I never wanted to be a sheik," he said. "I used to think that a religious person is very extreme and never smiles. And I love to smile. I love to laugh. I used to think that religious people were isolated and I love to be among people." The rain soaked the imam's robe and began to pool in his sandals. A moment later, he ducked inside the building. "The surprise for me was that the qualities I thought would not make a good sheik – simplicity and humor and being close to people – those are the most important qualities. People love those who smile and laugh. They need someone who lives among them and knows their pain." "I know them," said Mr. Shata. "Like a brother." Copyright 2006The New York Times Company Home Privacy Policy Search Corrections XML Help Contact Us Work for Us Site Map Back to Top
US Muslims fight halal meat scam. Some stores sell meat that is falsely labelled as Halal
Of the many ways Musa Abdus Salaam could break the tenets of his Muslim faith, eating a cheeseburger might seem the least threatening. But one year ago, not long after he and his family dined on beef he purchased from a shop in Norfolk, Virginia, Abdus-Salaam learned they had unwittingly violated the Quran: His investigation revealed the store's meat was not halal. "It is a major sin in our religion," Abdus-Salaam said. Halal is the Muslim equivalent of kosher, a method of slaughtering, blessing and preparing food to purify it. Believers are willing to pay a premium for halal, and across the US, states and localities are targeting unscrupulous dealers who prey on their dietary devotion. The state of Virginia, home to 350,000 Muslims, is weighing three proposals. One would make selling halal knockoffs a misdemeanour punishable by up to $500 in fines. "In my research, I realised that Virginia does not have a programme to certify kosher or other religious foods," said Kenneth Alexander, a state legislator who sponsored the bill at his constituents' request. Fines or jail Other legislation would force vendors to offer certification information and a toll-free number or website for confirmation of halal and kosher foods. Violators could face up to six months in jail and $1000 in fines. The bills are pending in legislative committees. Last summer, New York enacted a law requiring halal food distributors to register with the state. Pending legislation would fine vendors caught possessing mislabelled halal items. Similar codes are on the books in a handful of states, including California, Illinois and Michigan, despite the misgivings of some who maintain that state governments should not be policing religious laws. In Virginia, growing communities are bringing Muslim needs to the forefront, said Imad Damaj, president of the Virginia Muslim Coalition for Public Affairs. Growing numbers He pointed to a 1994 survey that found 11 mosques between Richmond and northern Virginia. "Now there's no less than 45," he said, adding that the 9-11 attacks highlighted the American Muslim presence. "Now the community is more higher profile and more under the microscope, too." Halal foods are vital for the expanding group. Halal means lawful and applies to anything from lunch meat to potato chips, depending on things such as additives and what something's cooked in. Seafood is automatically halal while pork automatically is not. Other meats undergo a complex procedure. The Muslim population in the US is increasing Generally, the butcher must invoke the name of Allah while cutting the live animal's neck; once the blood has drained and the animal's heart stops, Abdus Salaam said, it is halal. Years ago, he was among many residents who travelled as far as Philadelphia to find properly prepared cuisine. Now halal foods – and their lookalikes – are popping up in grocery store meat cases, on carryout menus and in fast food drive-throughs. Difficult to decipher Scams have become common. Some vendors will blend regular meat with a little halal meat to justify Muslim-friendly labels and higher prices. Others simply lie, preying on Muslims' trust and devotion, said Habib Ghanim Sr, president of the USA Halal Chamber of Commerce. "It's not like Third World countries, where you can just slaughter a lamb in your back yard and feed the family," he said, pointing out that halal meat has no special smell or appearance. "You wouldn't know the difference." His group is one of several sniffing out fakers. They ask questions such as which supplier one uses – guaranteed to trip up vendors unfamiliar with the tight-knit community of halal butchers and slaughterhouses. Sometimes it pays off. In 1997, authorities fined Springfield's Washington Lamb Inc $10,000 after they found that the company was falsely claiming its products were halal. Federal agriculture officials can pursue litigation against a company for misbranding a product, considered a violation of the federal meat inspection act. Tricky laws "It's not like Third World countries, where you can just slaughter a lamb in your back yard and feed the family. You wouldn't know the difference" Habib Ghanim Sr President, USA Halal Chamber of Commerce But creating laws could put state governments in the touchy position of interpreting religious rules, said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. He argued that it is up to community members to confront vendors. "That seems to me vastly more powerful an instrument than going and expecting some young district attorney to understand the complexities of this," he said. Yet, without legal repercussions, proponents argue, it is impossible to ensure phony vendors would not resume business. That troubles Abdus-Salaam. His faith mandates that he ask forgiveness for eating non-halal food and promise never to do it again – a tough proposition with shady vendors pushing phony foods. The regional administrator with the Islamic Political Party of America is promoting Alexander's law. "In our religion, if we see a wrong, we have to right that wrong," he said. "We can't just stand around and wish for it to go away."
Us Latinas Seek Answers In Islam
By Christine Armario UNION CITY, N.J. – Jasmine Pinet sits on the steps outside a mosque here, tucking in strands of her burgundy hair beneath a white head scarf, and explaining why she, a young Latina, feels that she has found greater respect as a woman by converting to Islam. "They're not gonna say, 'Hey mami, how are you?' " Ms. Pinet says of Muslim men. "Usually they say, 'Hello, sister.' And they don't look at you like a sex object." While some Latinas her age try to emulate the tight clothes and wiggling hips of stars like Jennifer Lopez and Christina Aguilera, Ms. Pinet and others are adopting a more conservative lifestyle and converting to Islam. At this Union City, N.J., mosque, women account for more than half of the Latino Muslims who attend services here. Nationwide, there are about 40,000 Latino Muslims in the United States, according to the Islamic Society of North America. Many of the Latina converts say that their belief that women are treated better in Islam was a significant factor in converting. Critics may protest that wearing the veil marks a woman as property, but some Latina converts say they welcome the fact that they are no longer whistled at walking down a street. "People have an innate response that I'm a religious person, and they give [me] more respect," says Jenny Yanez, another Latina Muslim. "You're not judged if you're in fashion or out of fashion." Other Latina Muslims say they also like the religion's emphasis on fidelity to one's spouse and family. But for many family members and friends, these conversions come as a surprise – often an unwelcome one. They may know little of Islam other than what they have heard of the Taliban and other extremist groups. That creates an inaccurate image, insists Leila Ahmed, a professor of women's studies and religion at Harvard University. "It astounds me, the extent to which people think Afghanistan and the Taliban represent women and Islam." What's really going on, she says, is a reshaping of the relationship between women and Islam. "We're in the early stages of a major rethinking of Islam that will open Islam for women. [Muslim scholars] are rereading the core texts of Islam – from the Koran to legal texts – in every possible way." New views of women and Islam may be more prevalent in countries like the US, where women read the Koran themselves and rely less on patriarchal interpretations. "I think the women here are asserting more their rights and their privileges," says Zahid Bukhari, director of the American-Muslim Studies Program at George- town University. " Some Latina Muslims say they harbored stereotypes about Muslim women before deciding to convert, but changed their minds once becoming close friends with a Muslim. "I always thought, geez, I feel sorry for women who have to wear those veils," says Pinet. Then she met her Muslim boyfriend and began studying the Koran with a group of Muslim women. She says she was impressed with the respect they received. "A women is respected because she is the mother, she takes care of the children, and she's the one that enforces the rules," Pinet says. "They're the ones who are sacred." Critics of the decisions of Latinas to convert to Islam say they are adopting a religion just as patriarchical as the Roman Catholic faith that many are leaving behind. "While it's true the Latino culture tends to be more male-dominated, and there's a tendency toward more machismo, I would venture to say it exists [in Islam] as well," says Edwin Hernandez, director of the Center for the Study of Latino Religion at the University of Notre Dame. Latinos account for six percent of the 20,000 Muslim conversions in the United States each year, according to a report published by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Anecdotal evidence suggests this number may be rising. But that doesn't mean it's getting any easier for the women who make this choice. "At first it was anger and then more like sadness," Nylka Vargas says of her parents' reaction when she told them she was converting to Islam and began dressing more conservatively. "They would sometimes feel strange being around me." Pinet's family has been more accepting, but she too has encountered some resistance in her community. It's as if you've betrayed your own kind," she says. For some, the cultural differences are the most trying. "I can't eat pork, I can't wear [form- fitting] clothing, I can't dance in the clubs, I'm not gonna attend church," says Ms. Yanez, who is of Cuban and Spanish descent. "But I keep my language, and there's still things that we do as Latinos that they don't have to change." Within the Islamic community, Latina Muslims report being warmly received, although language barriers sometimes exist for Latinas who only speak Spanish. There are few Spanish services at mosques and a limited number of Islamic texts in Spanish. Grassroots organizations specifically for Latino Muslims have been created in recent years. They function in part as an informational resource for new converts and but also as a support group for those who encounter difficulties at home. Ultimately, Latina Muslims say that time heals the divisions and angst their conversion sometimes causes among friends and family. "What I had to learn was patience," says Vargas, whose family came to accept her religious beliefs after several years. "Sometimes things are not as we want them."
Italian Prison Warily Allows Muslims To Pray; European Jails Often Are Breeding Grounds For Radical Islam
Milan — The guards, heavy brass keys swinging from their belts, open and shut the metal gates to each floor of the labyrinthine Bollate prison as the Muslim call to prayer echoes in the corridors. Prisoners rush to the makeshift mosques that have sprouted in every building. At the end of the hall on the fourth floor of Building 1, a hand-lettered paper sign proclaims, in Italian, "moschea" — mosque. Furnishings inside are sparse, just three green prayer rugs, pointing eastward, and on the wall a plaque with verses from the Quran. Abdelfattah Jendoubi, serving a sentence on drug charges, throws on a dishdasha shirt, pulls off his shoes and makes his way to the room. The 42-year-old Tunisian is joined by two other men. He is apologetic, saying turnout is better on Fridays. Generally, though, younger Muslims in the prison are not very religious, he says. He hopes to change that. "I want to teach the young beautiful things," he says, but it is unclear whether authorities, who lack Arabic speakers to monitor his preaching, would agree with his definition of beauty. "They have to change their lives. God wants them to leave the life of crime." Jendoubi's mission is a difficult one: reaching out to the young men confined within these sterile walls on the outskirts of a city known the world over as Italy's vibrant fashion capital. About 30 percent of the inmates in Bollate are Muslim, officials say; that's in a country where Muslims make up just 2 percent of the population of 58 million, although there is a higher concentration of them in northern Italy around Milan. Their burgeoning numbers in prison are a reproach to Europe's efforts to integrate its immigrants, and a boost to radical imams and hard-core militants who use cellblocks to attract followers and spread a doctrine of violence. Many of the Muslim inmates in Bollate arrived in Italy alone, sometimes as young as 14, hoping to find an uncle or a cousin, or even a distant relative, and burdened with the overly optimistic expectations of their family back in Morocco, or Tunisia or Algeria. Once in Italy, they can find themselves trapped in a vicious circle. Unable to obtain proper work and residency documents, they live on the fringes, perhaps turning to crime to survive. Marginalized in society, they are doubly marginalized in prison, outsiders in an institution where Italian clout and influence are supreme. Their hopes of sending money to families who sacrificed to send them to Europe are vanquished. They probably will be deported, and going home as ex-cons will bring shame. That fate probably awaits Bilel Sefir, an inmate with an air of quiet desperation. Sefir left his native Tunisia for France four years ago, when he was 17. After a couple of years he moved to Italy, thinking, mistakenly, that it would be easier to obtain residency papers. Alone but for a friend who had come with him from France, he found odd jobs as a plumber and was able to support himself for about a year, until he was arrested in a crackdown on drug dealers. "I made a big mistake," he says in a voice barely above a whisper. Tall but slight, with wavy dark hair, Sefir received a relatively short sentence of 14 months and expects to be sent back to Tunisia after his release. Like Jendoubi, he takes some comfort in his faith. Sefir says he is able to pray five times a day, as devout Muslims do, with little trouble. In fact, he finds it easier to pray inside jail than outside, where mosques are far away and tolerance more rare. "I have the time," he says. "Once in a while, other prisoners make fun of me and ask me why I do it the way I do and why do I keep praying. But most people are respectful. "I pray mostly that God forgives me for what I've done." Jendoubi, in his quest to save souls, sees far more hardened cases in Bollate. A greater number of young Muslim men in the prison are like Mohammed Derrag, 23, a heavily tattooed Moroccan. He does not pray at all, saying, "This is not the moment." Derrag is caught between his family and heritage, which he acknowledges he has betrayed with his criminal ways, and the gritty world in which he survives. "I was born a Muslim and always will be a Muslim," he says. "But my family prays. Not me." Even some young immigrants who seem destined for better things can get caught up in a hard-luck underground. As baby-faced as Derrag is tough, Yunis Qabili, 19, landed in jail after being caught with friends who had drugs. Unlike most other inmates, Qabili has lived more than half his life in Italy with his parents and siblings, who arrived legally from Morocco. The teenager, who says he speaks better Italian than Arabic, worked as a mechanic. But he fell in with a bad crowd, and now he just wants to do his time (a year), get out and finish high school. "The police will say they don't (discriminate), but I think they look more for Moroccans," Qabili says, narrowing his eyes and taking a long drag on his cigarette. Mirroring friction on the streets, relations between Italian and immigrant prisoners are often strained. A recent — and not uncommon — brawl landed several inmates in the infirmary. In the prison's gyms, cafeteria and library, the inmates usually divide into cliques. Muslims lift weights and exercise together, and share pork-free meals. Bulletin boards advertise Italian lessons for Arabic speakers. The library has copies of the Quran — as well as works by the Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci, known of late for her anti-Muslim screeds. For a while, the prison employed "cultural mediators" who could translate both language and cultural sensitivities, but there's no budget for them anymore. None of the inmates at Bollate talks about waging jihad; one youth recoils physically and begins to shake when asked. But authorities in Italy, Spain, Britain and elsewhere in Europe are all too aware of the ease with which prison populations have become fodder for militant networks operating in their midst. Throughout Europe, some suspects in notorious cases, including the recent London bombings, are said to have been radicalized in prison, and a number of terrorist plots are known to have been hatched behind bars. Muktar Said Ibrahim, an Eritrean immigrant arrested in a failed bombing attempt in London in late July, obtained British citizenship in September 2004 despite having served a five-year prison sentence for armed robberies. He found Islam in the same penitentiary where radical imams converted Richard Reid, the convicted shoe-bomber of Jamaican descent imprisoned in the United States for trying to blow up a Paris-to-Miami flight. And so the delicate balance for wardens such as Lucia Castellano at Bollate is allowing inmates to practice their faith without letting the institution be used to recruit and indoctrinate extremists. "I'm a little scared of the imams," she says. "They don't speak Italian, we can't understand them, and in Milan that can be quite dangerous." As a consequence, and in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, she has banned imams from outside the prison. Milan has long been known as a center of radical Islam, and one of its principal mosques was named by U.S. and Italian authorities as a likely European headquarters for al Qaeda. Instead, Castellano allows the Muslims in each cellblock to appoint an imam from among themselves. Still, the inability to understand the language being spoken in many cells is worrisome, says Castellano, a red-haired native of Naples, one of Italy's toughest cities. Her office is decorated with Andy Warhol prints of Marilyn Monroe on one wall, a crucifix on another. "Each of my head guards can tell me who the boss (of the Muslim inmates) is on each floor," she says. "It does not mean that they are terrorists, but they are organized. We are paying attention. We are watching." But the warden and her guards can only guess at what devout prisoners such as Jendoubi are preaching. On the fourth floor of Building 1, Italian inmates are giving hard looks to the trio of Muslims gathered to pray in the room designated as a mosque. They keep their distance, smoking cigarettes. Jendoubi, the Tunisian, says he avoid
s the Italian inmates. But he praises the prison for allowing the Muslim inmates to pray. A carpenter by trade who has lived many years in Italy, he was not religious when he was sent to prison, he says, but has used his time in the three years since to study the Quran. Now he prays 12 times a day, sometimes rising well before dawn to do so. "I didn't pray before," says Jendoubi, who has a thin, graying beard. "But as I read more, I saw it was the right way." On this particular midday, another Tunisian calls out the summons to prayer. He, Jendoubi and a third man then move inside the one-room mosque. The three men kneel on the small rugs and pray. They bow eastward, toward a window looking out on the cold gray concrete of the prison, and the walls topped with barbed wire.
British Tolerance Of Forced Unions Wanes
The government may criminalize forced marriages, hundreds of which take place annually among Muslims. By James Brandon In a drafty railway station cafe in England's Midlands, Ayesha, a young Muslim girl whose family is from Pakistan, is trying not to cry as she talks about her wedding day. "When I was young I always expected to have an arranged marriage," she says. "But I also thought that I'd get a chance to know the man first." Instead, at 17, her family forced her to marry a man she had never met. When Ayesha, not her real name, tried to have the marriage annulled, she was disowned by her family, and forced to flee her hometown of Birmingham. Although every year hundreds of Muslim, Sikh, and Hindu women in Britain, according to figures from the government and aid agencies, are forced into marriage to fulfill traditional ideas of family honor or parental prestige, Britain's government has so far been reluctant to interfere in the private lives of immigrants. But now, following the London subway and bus bombings on July 7, the government is proposing new laws that would specifically criminalize forcing others into marriage. And calls for the ban have grown as Britain attempts to integrate its insular Muslim communities into the mainstream in an effort to temper extremism. "In Britain we are proud of our cultural diversity," said Baroness Scotland, a Home Office minister who started talks on the proposal earlier this month. "But even a sensitive appreciation of cultural differences cannot allow abuse to go unchallenged." Shaminder Ubhi, director of the Ashiana Project, one of several London refuges for Asian and Middle Eastern women fleeing domestic violence, says that about 300 women looking for help come to them every year. "And around 60 percent say that forced marriage is one of the issues they are escaping from." But some say that new legislation specifically targeting minorities will only increase feelings of persecution, and that the worst cases of forced marriages can be dealt with under existing laws against rape and kidnap. "There is already enough legislation. We prefer to say it's a cultural and not a religious thing and to abolish the practice that way," says Reefat Drabu, of the controversial Muslim Council of Britain's Social and Family Affairs Committee. "The media use the issue to demonize the Muslim community. And the problem is diminishing anyway." But in Derby, a city where Britain's growing racial divide is most apparent, the problem is far from diminishing. "The cases sound barbaric but they happen every single day," says Jasvinder Sanghera, who runs Karma Nirvana, a shelter in Derby for Asian women fleeing forced marriages and abusive husbands. "One day last week I dealt with 12 cases. We need a complete change of mind-set," says Ms. Sanghera. "This is a human rights issue. It needs to be treated with the seriousness it deserves." One key problem is that while many South Asian immigrants permit their sons to absorb Western influences, they often cannot accept that their young women brought up in Britain have adopted Western ideas of female independence. "We're born here. We're bound to be influenced by Western ideals," says Sanghera, who herself ran away from home after her Sikh family tried to force her into a marriage with a stranger. "I just wanted to have a love marriage that people like you can take for granted," she says. The challenges of reconciling their increasingly Western ambitions with their private loyalty to their family and their cultural traditions are too much for many young women. "Younger Asian women in the UK in the 16 to 24 age group have a suicide rate two to three times the national average," says Sanghera. "Girls in schools at this moment are sitting there fearing that they're about to be sent to India or Pakistan to be married off." But while the practice of forced marriage initially came from older generations keen to preserve their traditions, many young British-born Asians perpetuate the practice as a way to differentiate themselves from mainstream British society, which many deem corrupt and immoral. "We are seeing an increasing number of 16 year olds fleeing forced marriages," says Sanghera, "The myth is that when the older generation die this problem will go. But young people are reinventing these attitudes." The growing isolation of minority communities, particularly in the north of England, means that even with the new law, Sanghera's ambition to stamp out the problem may take years to fulfill, especially as many community leaders deny that the problem exists. "Some schools say not to bring our leaflets into schools because it will upset the Asian community," she says. "But our human rights organizations shouldn't worry about upsetting people. These arguments slow us down. "Asian community leaders say leave us alone, you're stereotyping us. I wish faith groups did work with us because they hold a lot of power," says Sanghera. "These communities are not above the law. If they choose to live [here] they must sign up to helping people live free of fear and violence." But even if the new law does prevent forced marriages, it will do little for those who have already fled their homes to escape. "I've not seen my family for eight years," says Ayesha. "I'm so disappointed – they are supposed to be the closest things to me – they're not supposed to hurt you."


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Subject: Re: [stella] Double-ended carts?
From: emooney@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Erik Mooney)
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 1998 08:53:25 GMT
>> It would cost over twice as much if you used the same production >> techniques as the other new carts, like Okie Dokie. Why? Because you >> would have to scrap double-enders and they are worth more to most >> collectors than your average extra pac-man and berzerk. If you were to >> work out a way to use common carts and "connect" them into a double-ender, >> the price would still be slightly more than twice the price of a single >> cart. I much prefer the idea of a 4-in-1 or an 8-in-1 with a 2 or 3 >> switch dip. Over that I prefer a menu-driven cart! :) > >Yes, but if you made your own circuit boards, and molded your own carts, >you could sell two games for not much more, if any more, than a single game. >In theory, you could attach both ends to just one 8K chip to make two 4K >games. > >How much of this is practical, I don't know. That's what I was supposing originally - one board with two sets of connectors, though I was thinking of two 4k roms rather than one 8k. (would it work to connect VCC to A12 from one connector - this'll be the high 4k of the ROM - and connect GND from the other connector to A12 to make a double-ender with nothing extra but the board and an EPROM? Chris, what'd be the price increase over the boards you already said you could do?) We wouldn't scrap existing double-enders for cases, though new cases might need to be made. Looks difficult to cut a hole in the front end of a standard case for another connector. New cases do mean we don't need to use *any* parts from old carts, too (not *all* of us have fifty Combats lying around :) ) -- Archives (includes files) at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/archives/ Unsub & more at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/stella.html Don't post pirate BINs to Stellalist. Be a programmer, not a pirate. Write the best game, win framed autographs of famous Atari alumni!!
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(Reuters) – Rescuers picked through the rubble of an apartment building in eastern Ukraine searching for two dozen people, including a child, feared trapped after a Russian rocket strike on the five-storey building killed 15 people. FIGHTING * Donetsk regional Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on the Telegram messaging service that a Russian missile had struck Druzhkivka, a town behind the front line, and reported shelling of other population centres. * Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said on Telegram that Russian forces were gathering in the area of the village of Bilohorivka, about 50 km (30 mile…


text:
No. 17 Bishop Gorman blasts Whitney Young with help from Eli Bradley's hot homecoming hand
SANTA ANA, Calif. — Eli Bradley subbed out of the game midway through the second quarter right after his third 3-point attempt of the night rimmed out.
He'd splashed his first two tries, and as he walked to the bench, Bishop Gorman head coach Grant Rice presented a challenge.
"I told him he was going to get three more," Rice said.
Turns out, Rice spoke it into existence. Bradley hit his next three 3s to finish with 15 points off the bench as Bishop Gorman (Nev.), the No. 17 team in the country in the SBLive/Sports Illustrated Power 25, pulled away and beat Whitney Young (Ill.) 89-59 on Saturday night in the Nike Extravaganza at Mater Dei High School.
MORE: Nike Extravaganza recaps, highlights
It's a gym Bradley, a 6-foot-4 junior, called home for the last two seasons as a student at Mater Dei when his father Gus Bradley was the defensive coordinator for the L.A. Rams. Teammates recognized the left-handed sharpshooter, who finished 5 of 6 from deep, had brought a little something extra.
"(The bench) knew it was a big game for Eli, so they were cheering for him," Rice said.
Most everything else went Bishop Gorman's way. Senior Darrion Williams finished with a game-high 24 points while being checked by McDonald's All-American AJ Casey for long stretches. Jase Richardson, son of former NBA All-Star and Dunk Contest champ Jason Richardson, had 20 points for the Gaels (22-0).
Read More
Bishop Gorman led by seven at half. Casey, a Miami commit, had 11 of his team-high 18 points for the Dolphins (14-8).
They exploded right out the gate in the third quarter.
Williams intercepted a pass and finished a wide open fast break dunk out of a timeout late in the third quarter to put the Gaels up 17. Richardson then hit three consecutive 3s — the third in front of a slap-happy Gorman bench — Williams added another to push the lead past 20.
Of their 13 made 3s, the Gaels hit 8 of 10 attempts after halftime.
"After hitting that first one I was like OK, it's time to go," Richardson said. "And I hit two more after that, I was hyped. That last one, I felt the energy behind me so I was like 'OK, it's really time to put our foot on their throats and just end it."
After COVID-19 restrictions in Nevada cost the state of Nevada its entire 2020-21 high school basketball season, the Gaels entered this season with a chip on its shoulder. Winners of nine consecutive Nevada state titles, they carried a 14-game win streak from the previous season with a young roster (that streak is now at 34 games).
They start two sophomores — Richardson and John "Juni' Mobley Jr. — and recently inserted 6-8 freshman Chris Nwuli in the lineup. Seniors Ryan Abelman and Williams have been the team's stabilizing forces.
On Saturday, Williams carried much of the load offensively, as he's done at times throughout the season.
"He's been a leader all year," Rice said. "He's been unbelievable. But it's been a group effort. We've got guys who step up at different times."


text:
Dubbed by many travel vloggers as "The Hidden Gem of the..
Earlier, committee members have been angry at the Pharmally executive for being "evasive" during hearings.
The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee signed the order to transfer Pharmally director Linconn Ong to the Pasay City Jail. He allegedly lied during the hearing over the allegedly overpriced COVID-19 supplies.
Committee chairman Richard Gordon announced the order and Senators Panfilo "Ping" Lacson, Francis Drilon, Risa Hontiveros, and Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan noted the motion, and it was approved by Senate President Vicente "Tito" Sotto III.
Gordon said, "You lie and you steal from our people, you're gonna pay."
He also requested committee secretariat director-general Rodolfo Quimbo to send a letter to the Singaporean Minister for Finance stating how, "we're having a hard time in this country because some Singaporeans...crafted to make sure that money was produced from somewhere and they were able to get a lot of resources of the Philippines that should otherwise go to the Filipino people," Gordon said.
Earlier, committee members have been angry at the Pharmally executive for being "evasive" during hearings.


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• #1051
• #1052
A free interpretation of me stacking it a few months back in Bermondsey, with apologies to Samuel Palmer and Breughel the Elder
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• #1053
wheres the turd
• #1054
PS I tried to write a tiny LFGSS on the hat, but failed on this crappy laptop
PPS one of the sheep has just done a poo (see attached revision)
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• #1055
From a couple of weeks ago
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• #1056
Bonus points for fluoro deep rims and bartape
• #1057
I hit the deck like a sack of sprouts this morning somewhere in icy somerset.
With the heavy bike and panniers I slid right down the hill into a village green postbox (as illustrated).
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• #1058
Well, as it seems you were bearing late xmas parcels wrapped with bows the village green PB was the ideal choice to bump into, no?
• #1059
^ This: I love a happy ending.
• #1060
My panniers contained some presents (from others, to me)... so I used some artistic license there.
The only damage was the (now pureed) bananas in my jacket.
• #1061
Good use of turd and snowflakes, always a great coupling. Disappointed about the lack of banana's.
8/10 would look at again.
• #1062
Another brilliant drawing for this great thread.
Glad you're alright too.
Tough break about the 'nana though mate. Hope you get a new one soon.
• #1063
Why no crashes? Has everyone been for cycle training?
• #1064
Bikes with wide tyres and hydraulic discs are much harder to crash it seems...
• #1065
Why no crashes? Has everyone been for cycle training?
(Everybody be safe though!)
• #1066
(Everybody be safe though!)
Yeah, nothing deadly or painful, just comedy pratfalls into dog poo and so forth.
• #1067
Bah, I was really hoping to see @stedlocks hero-save on here!
• #1068
I slid right down the hill into a village green postbox (as illustrated)
I am still loving this.
• #1069
Another beater just went to heaven... big thanks to forum member thebrenthamtaffy for saving this classic Halfords 1986 Olympic from land fill. I rebuilt her and she went on to transporting my mate to and from work faithfully for the last few years!
• #1070
To be honest, my mates email is funnier than the comic - here it is in all it's glory (perhaps this should be in another section):
So the bike has finally gone to God.
I was riding home from work and some guy decided to open his car door just as I was coming past. I completely face planted the door. The front fork snapped, wheel came off, and the rest of the frame will no longer pass any structural tests, I'm sure.
I was swearing my head off at him, and he asked me why I had to use such language, haha. After telling him what a fucking idiot he was, he asked me what about his car door. I told him I don't give fuck and was left to walk home carrying what remains of the bike, nursing some bruises and sore head.
There will be a service in memory of the bike in Amsterdam this Saturday at noon. It would be nice is you could come and give your final respects before throwing it in a canal.
• #1071
Long may you and your friends crash your bikes in the vicinity of poo.
• #1072
Welded by Tommy Pickles before his time on the Rugrats.
• #1073
Quite some time ago I dented a car. I was only getting into riding anything 700c wheels at the time, particularly fixed, and naturally, I was quite upset (luckily this was all the damage for me). Later I reasoned that the driver was a nature-destroying (to the T)wat.
edit: apart from the obvious disregard for grass the guys in the car were straight nice.
1 Attachment
• #1075
i thought i'd killed him. horrible. he was fine though, what a prick. i'm bruised to shit, can't even straighten my arm.


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Committee of Management
The Committee of Management (COM) is comprised of the Executive Committee (President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer and Course Coordinator), plus a minimum of five ordinary committee members. All committee members are elected at the annual AGM, usually held in April.
The Committee meets monthly. All members of U3A Mornington are welcome to attend.
To see profiles of the Committee members, please CLICK HERE
Committee Members
|President & Database
|Russ Incoll
|Vice President
|Sharon Boffa
|Anne Davey
|Secretary & Equipment
|Graham Cooper
|Course Coordinator & Website
|Di Lewis
|Newsletter & Communications
|Dina Tanphanich
|Intergenerational Coordinator
|Libby Wilson
|Major events
|Maurie Johns
|UMAS System Administrator
|Wayne Hewett
|Social events & Excursions
|Ken Yendell
|← Scroll to view →


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First few episodes are an excellent start
All of the leads are women; this should be applauded. When only one-third of women and girls in movies and TV have speaking parts at all and "speaking part" is a very low bar, women-led series need to be recognized. The protagonist, while no perfect feminist icon, is keenly aware of both misogyny and the ways in which she perpetuates it. She's beautifully self-aware and actively struggles to be better to herself and others: as she says, "I am trying to be better, but what if I actually don't have better in me?" In both TV and the real world, we need more honesty and willingness like that. Oh, and did I mention it's well-written, entertaining, and funny?
Maudie: The whole of a life, beautifully painted
This is a quiet, slow film. During an era when time is counted by seconds and illustrated with the clownish stunts of a President seemingly more concerned with ratings than with any fabric of life, with society's shorter and shorter attention span, when movie screens are deluged with computer generated images, million dollar special effects, car chases at maximum speed, and lead characters with superhuman physical powers, Maud Lewis stands in her space occupied by Sally Hawkins, the actress who gracefully captures the heroine's awkwardness and beauty for film, and says, "I am to be counted." This film is to be counted. And I'll pass on films faster than a speeding bullet and choose Hawkins and Ethan Hawke as they steadily tell the story of the real-life painter and her husband, Everett.
The film is much like a painting, using images to portray a life. There are few words and barely one is wasted. The dialogue, like the house in which much of the lives are spent, is spare, using colors and landscapes and objects and faces to tell a simple, amazing story. Much like the artist, Maud Lewis, did, the filmmaker shows us how he sees her world through the sense of sight: a single, still wooden wheel against a backdrop of a brown and gold wheat field, the wooden houses of reds and blues sitting on the hills of Nova Scotia, next to the sparkling sea, still clouds against a radiant sky, a woman's face suddenly opening with a large smile. The photography is dazzling, stunning, yet soft. With all to see, the ear is not neglected: Michael Timmons, the creative force behind the band The Cowboy Junkies, uses his moody, smokey hues to gently orchestrate the score that is true to the woman at the center of the film, and a few lovely songs dot the soundtrack with emotion, language, and beginnings and ends, stirring the canvass of the lives we are invited to witness and, through adroit performances by the actors, even enter.
Maudie is what Maud said of windows: "The whole of life, already framed, right there - " and anybody would be lucky to see how it reveals itself.
Who Killed the Electric Car?
Entertainment and Integrity in a Compelling Caper
This is an important film. What you will learn is disconcerting but the manner in which you'll learn it is enjoyable.
It is well organized, revealing "clues," in the form of convincing evidence, as this whodunit unrolls into a persuasive case against corporate money in politics, the power of the oil industry over both the auto industry and government, and the power of all three to subvert the will of consumers and the well-being of the citizenry.
Some documentaries are dry, and while they may present strong cases, they offer little in the way of keeping the audience engaged. Some documentaries, on the other hand, are little more than empty entertainment in the guise of serious exploration. Some are so polemical as to alienate the viewers they're trying to persuade. Who Killed the Electric Car is entertaining, unfolding the way a great mystery does, while also maintaining journalistic integrity and evidentiary rigor.
I couldn't help but to compare it to, for example, many Michael Moore movies. Moore can be an excellent filmmaker in many ways but, while I agree with him on the issues, he too often ignores empirical evidence and cogent argument, even though there is much of both to buttress his conclusions. Instead, Moore too often appeals only to the viewer's emotions, lessening his credibility. Chris Paine, the writer and director of Who Killed the Electric Car, doesn't exchange logos and ethos for pure pathos. Rather, he combines all of the essential elements of documentary filmmaking and offers us a product that is simultaneously engaging, convincing, and credible.
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History: Founded in 1982, this folk dance group consisting of forty-five members who wear fashions of the past and demonstrate through their dancing and singing traditions and customs of yore this parish, being a true cultural ambassador of the county. In 1998, after having written two papers on tape, Rancho see released his first CD, even becoming one of the first groups in the area to show such success. A year later, it gives life to another major project aimed at preservation and dissemination of folklore this continuous Ranch, with the birth of the Child Group "Moleirinhas Marine".
The singing and dancing the Moleirinhas have traversed the country from end-to-les having as well as some foreign countries, depending directly from another association of this parish, the United Youth Marine.
This ranch is the folklore of Minho (Minho Low), the region to which it belongs, with the grind is cut for its folklore, the simple and beautiful dances, its soft songs that recall the life of millers and millers since the farmer sows , watering, knit the ears, and harvest until the millers will get the mules corn, which then crushed in the mills or water mills, is returned to the farmer by paying an glosses.
The costume work or field consists of simple clothes, the woman wearing a scratched bar to the bottom skirt, white petticoat, blouse cheetah on the apron and smooth facades to the belt. At the head of a Chinese hat and scarf. The man wore pants and striped shirt farm or square as well as a façade. Went barefoot or wore punches, coming up with the hammer and spikes basket-shaped representation of fieldwork.
The Domingueiro Costume is richer, the emerging man with pants finest farm linen shirt embroidered in white over dark vest and hat. The woman also wore a white blouse, embroidered in white, typical vest, detachable scarf, skirt and a richer farm and half white apron. The luxurious shawls on hand were used only in cases of bereavement or in harsh winters, and gold completed this costume.
The Costume Miller was poor and convenient, a simple man wearing jeans, no fixed color and the scratched, shirts into squares, facades to the belt and beret on his head. Could use punches or walking barefoot. The woman suit, somewhat similar to the male element, consisted of a scratched skirt, smooth or quartejada blouse facha the belt scarf and Chinese. The constant loading batches to the head or back, forcing this element to walking barefoot in order to go the lighter tracks. Was accustomed to wear kilts, wool and embroidery esbicados using best fabrics inside the costume.
The Black Tie women was made with the finest, bright and on the natural, with rameados or flowery fabric itself and without any manual embroidery fabrics. It consisted of a long skirt and jacket with or without collar, using blouse or not, as the shape of the jacket itself. Wore finer slippers, embroidered white socks to thigh and headscarf, with no bright colors, but to excel in clear tones. The male element wore black pants farm, white shirt, and vest over dark black shoe.
Group Composition:
This ranch has grown in enriched quality its artistic heritage with a vast repertoire of traditional dances and songs and a rich toccata gathering instruments as diverse as the cavaquinho, a tambourine, accordion, the concertina, banjo, the require the bass drum and triangle. Between dancers and dançadeiras, players and cantadeiras, this ranch is comprised of 45 adults and 22 children.
Dances and Songs
: Belonging to the Minho region, rich in folklore, we can not fail to emphasize our Malhões, Chulas, Regadinhos, Vareiras, You turn, etc.. also taking into account the simple and beautiful dances that are part of their repertoire, are the strong traditions of the region.
Location: Esposende


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The Salvation Army of Tallahassee is offering free Emergency Disaster Training classes to the community. These classes will provide valuable information on what citizens' roles and responsibilities are when it comes to disasters. Participants of these classes will become trained and credentialed volunteers. The classes are scheduled for June 9th, 2017 beginning at 9:00 AM.
To register for classes and to view other scheduled trainings, please visit: www.disaster.salvationarmyusa.org and click the VOLUNTEER page to build your disaster worker profile. Once you have completed your profile, you can register for classes through the TRAIN tab.
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The market continues to "melt up" despite the first projected quarterly year-over-year decline of S&P 500 earnings happening in many years. This "profit recession" should continue for the second quarter as well as the current consensus has second quarter earnings also being down from the same period a year ago.
As concerning is that first quarter GDP growth forecasts have moved down to just over 1% annually from the 3% level that was the consensus to begin 2015.
Some of this recent rally can be attributed to early quarterly results stepping over a lowered bar as analysts have been driving down their earnings estimates for months now.[ad#Google Adsense 336×280-IA]This is a quarterly ritual I call the "analyst two-step" and one reason more than two-thirds of companies beat the consensus almost every quarter.
An ebb to the massive upward trend to the value of the U.S. dollar against other major currencies has also helped, as has the recent rebound in oil from six-year lows.
However, with the market trading at over 18 times trailing earnings at current levels investors should at least be mildly cautious here.
Forward guidance for the next quarter has been conservative so far this earnings season.
Greece looks like it could also be finally heading to a "Grexit" and now that spring has come to Ukraine another offensive by Russian backed "rebels" seems likely.
These events could easily make the market more volatile in the weeks ahead.
What little "dry powder" I am allocating into the market now on any decent dips is going to what I term "Trifecta" stocks. The rare equities these days that still sell at attractive valuations, are seeing solid growth and provide a decent and growing dividend payout. Most of these are found in the large cap growth area. Below are two of these "Blue Chip Gems" which still look good in this overvalued market.
AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) is a large biopharma company whose stock has recovered now from a brief sell-off triggered by the company's over $20 billion acquisition of Pharmacyclics (NASDAQ: PCYC) in the first quarter.
Helping the recent rise is some solid trial results from Imbruvica (a blood cancer drug which was the main reason for the purchase) for new indications which should boost sales further if drug is approved for treatment against different conditions.
For yield-hungry investors, AbbVie fits the bill with a juicy 3.5% dividend. Earnings should be up some 30% year-over-year in FY2015 and analysts expect another 20% to 25% rise in FY2016. AbbVie's main drug Humira will start to lose patent protection in December 2016. However, Humira is a biosimilar which is harder to reproduce than other blockbusters that have come off patent protection in recent years, like Lipitor. Analysts believe Humira should continue to do north of $10 billion in annual sales for many years even as patent protection expires.
AbbVie has other drugs besides Humira and Imbruvica that do between $100 million to $300 million in sales a quarter. These include Viekera Pak, a competitor in the hepatitis C space with Gilead Science's (NASDAQ: GILD) blockbuster duo of Sovaldi and Harvoni. Viekera should start to rack up $2 billion to $3 billion in annual global sales by 2016. The company also has myriad new drugs in late-stage trials. Investors are paying a cheap 12 times projected 2016 earnings per share on AbbVie right now despite its growth trajectory and high yield.
Next up is JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), which in my mind is the best managed major bank in the industry given the complexity of its various businesses.
The company just delivered extremely solid quarterly results that easily beat both top and bottom line expectations.
The company got particularly strong performance from its investment banking and asset management businesses.
What is impressive about JP Morgan's performance of late is they have delivered these results despite one of the most repressive regulatory regimes for banks on record. On top of this, hard pressed net interest margins thanks to the flood of liquidity from global central banks is driving down the long term edge of the yield curve. Major banks have now paid more in fines and settlements to various government agencies than their credit losses stemming from the financial crisis and its aftermath.
However, we should have now seen the peak of these actions as the current administration winds down, new regulations have been implemented and major players at the Department of Justice and other government agencies leave for more lucrative positions in private industry.
This should start to bolster bottom line results in the years ahead. For example, earnings in the last quarter would have been 13 cents a share higher if not for regulatory and litigation costs. Provided the domestic economy continues to hold up, interest rates should be higher over the next six to twelve months boosting net interest margins and profits as well.
JP Morgan is doing fine even with these headwinds. After easily passing the recent "stress tests," the company bumped its dividend payout by 10% and now yields just under three percent. Earnings are projected to move up in the low teens annually over the next few years and the stock is a bargain at 10 times next year's earnings per share expectations.
— Bret Jensen[ad#ia-bret]
Source: Investors Alley


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According to the EDU/903/2010 Order, on this page you will find all the information concerning the follow-up of the CEI UPF-Icària project, distinguished as Campus of International Excellence in 2010.
The Final Report (2010-2015) (pdf. fully in English), complied according to the methodology provided by the General Secretariat of Universities of the Spanish Government in February 2015, includes an introduction, a qualitative and quantitative description of the actions taken, a description of its model of management and governance, and future prospects.
For further convenience of the reviewers, the report can also be downloaded separately:
- An introduction (pdf.) with the main results, conclusions and impact of the project;
- A qualitative and quantitative description (pdf.) using tables of indicators of progress achieved in the areas of the project (see Tables annexed);
- A description of the management and governance model implemented (pdf.) to manage the project;
- The future prospects of the project (pdf.).