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--from the Wall Street Journal , May 11, 1970
The May 8 "hardhat riots" occurred right in the Wall Street Journal's backyard. The full text of that newspaper's article on the Monday after they took place appears below.
A bloody melee last Friday, in which construction workers rampaged over antiwar protesters to the cheers of businessmen and office workers, threatens to have designated the heart of New York's financial district as a battleground for extremists of both sides.
Even now it isn't fully clear what went wrong--whether there weren't enough police to maintain order or whether they let their own sympathies with the construction men outweigh their duties. What is known is that at least 300 helmeted workmen, some armed with lead pipes and crowbars, ranged freely through the financial district for almost three hours, attacking protesters and those who sought to help the injured.
"We came here to express our sympathy for those killed at Kent State and they attacked us with lead pipes wrapped in American flags," said Drew Lynch, a 19-year-old employee of the city's Human Resources Administration, who came away with a black eye and a split lip.
At Trinity Church, where volunteer doctors and medical students treated about 60 victims in a makeshift hospital at the head of Wall Street, the vicar, the Rev. Donald Woodward, locked the gates to prevent worker mobs from entering. The surly crowd ripped down a Red Cross banner and tried to remove the Episcopal Church flag.
In a week of nationwide protests, including a massive march on Washington, the incidents on Wall Street proved to be by far the bloodiest since four students were killed at Kent State University. And the Mayor's office, which branded Friday's melee on Wall Street as "a breakdown of the police as a barrier between (the people of New York) and wanton violence," is bracing for the prospect that inflamed tempers on both sides may draw battlers to the same site for another showdown today.
Late yesterday, city vans unloaded barricades in front of the Subtreasury Building and along Broad Street. One police official said they were "in anticipation" of a possible renewal of Friday's violence. The police department is girding for trouble, he said, with some patrolmen's days off being canceled and additional police being available for deployment. "I imagine we'll be overloaded with police" in the district, he commented.
In part, at any rate, the appearance of the construction workers on Friday had been anticipated. It was the third consecutive day that antiwar demonstrators had converged at the corner of Wall and Broad streets. On Thursday a group of the hard-hatted workers had stormed demonstrators ranks to retrieve American flags. On Friday one speaker advised the crowd that "if they come again, don't try to fight them. The police are here to protect us."
What followed, though, was far from expected. Just before noon, as lunch-time throngs started to clog the streets, workmen from downtown Manhattan building projects suddenly converged on the rally from four different directions. Police quickly headed off the laborers, and for a few minutes a thin cordon of patrolmen kept the rival groups apart. The students chanted, "Peace now," and the workers shouted back, "Love it or leave it." Urged on by watching businessmen, and with their ranks swelled by office workers, the construction men surged through police lines. With fists flying, they pummeled their way up the steps of the Subtreasury Building to raise a cluster of American flags on the statue of George Washington.
"Wow, it was just like John Wayne taking Iwo Jima," remarked Jack Friedman, a 32-year-old insurance underwriter watching the action.
As police sought to sweep the workers off the steps, the group turned and charged back into the crowd of protesters. In the panicky rush that followed, the construction workers chased fleeing demonstrators through the streets of the financial district. Those they caught, whether male or female, were beaten with whatever came to hand, including helmets and metal flag poles.
Stock market activity slowed to a crawl. Brokers, analysts, investors, and office help poured out of the buildings or clustered at windows to watch. After the initial foray, the construction workers regrouped to march first down Wall Street and then up lower Broadway. As they marched, they chanted "U.S.A., All the Way." Many in the dense crowds on the sidewalks cheered. From the windows of offices lining the street came streams of ticker-tape and data processing punch cards.
Later the workers stormed City Hall several blocks to the north, overwhelming police and forcing officials to raise to full-staff the American flag. It had been ordered to half-staff by Mayor John Lindsay in memory of the four slain Kent State University students. Still later, the workers invaded nearby Pace College, again attacking students.
Violence is no newcomer to Wall Street. In 1712, Negroes, who comprised about one fourth of the city's population at the time, clashed with police over repressive actions against them. About 20 persons were killed. In 1920, a massive explosion of unknown origin in front of what is now the Morgan Guaranty Trust Co. building killed 30 and injured between 200 and 400 persons. And as recently as 1948, when 500 burly sailors joined the picket lines of men on strike against the New York Stock Exchange, countless fistfights broke out around the building.
But observers of last Friday's clashes say that violence set a new mark in its scope, the apparent high degree of coordination among the construction workers, and the support they got from many members of the white-collar business community.
One construction worker, who said his life would be in danger if he was identified, claimed the attack was organized by shop stewards with the support of some contractors. He said one contractor offered his men cash bonuses to join the fray.
"These are people I know well," he said. "They were nice, quiet guys until Friday. But I had to drag one fellow away from attacking several women. They became storm troopers." On Broadway, a burly workman slugged a booing young girl in the jaw, knocking her into the gutter. A gray-haired man in a three-piece business suit rushed forward to shake his hand. At the corner of Wall and William streets, a group of workmen trapped 24-year-old Alan Waldman, a demonstrator holding his hand in a V for peace sign, after a group of businessmen blocked his path to escape.
Michael Belknap, a 29-year-old lawyer with Sullivan & Cromwell, said he was knocked down and stomped by workers when he tried to help a bleeding youth. "Someone yelled, 'He's a Commie bastard, we ought to kill him,' and they ran over me," he says. "My back is covered with bootmarks."
Despite the scope of the violence only six arrests were made on Friday. Three men were charged with harassment, one with disorderly conduct and two with assault. Mayor Lindsay ordered full investigation and disciplinary action, and the New York Civil Liberties Union charged that "police stood around passively and, in some isntances, joined in the assaults."
"These hippies are getting what they deserve," said John Halloran, one of the construction workers, while the melee was still going on. As he talked a co-worker standing with him yelled, "Damn straight," and punched a young man in a business suit who said he disagreed.
Said George Tangel, a 35-year-old construction worker with an American flag decal on his hard hat: "I'm doing this because my brother got wounded in Vietnam, and I think this will help our boys over there by pulling this country together."


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Why John Ruskin, Born 200 Years Ago, Is Having a Comeback
LONDON — Time hasn't been kind to the reputation of John Ruskin. Two hundred years after his birth, hardly anyone today remembers Victorian England's pre-eminent art critic and social philosopher for his books. Instead, his main claim to fame is his ill-starred wedding night, during which unspecified "circumstances" in the "person" of his beautiful young wife, Effie Gray, repelled the religious-minded Ruskin. The marriage was never consummated.
The subject of a 2014 movie and a fair amount of inconclusive scholarly research, his miserable six-year marriage with a woman almost a decade his junior was annulled in 1854 on the grounds of Ruskin's "incurable impotency." (Soon after, Gray married the Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais, by whom she had eight children.)
Ruskin would seem to be an eminent Victorian way out of step with our times.
But are his ideas due for a comeback? The 200th anniversary of Ruskin's birth is being celebrated in Britain and beyond with a yearlong program of exhibitions, conferences and other events that will highlight the progressive influence he once exerted — and might continue to exert — on culture and society.
John Everett Millais portrait of Ruskin, painted 1853–54.CreditAshmolean Museum,University of Oxford
Ruskin was appalled by the way industrialization dehumanized workers, stifled creativity and polluted the environment. Using lectures and open letters, he encouraged workers to improve their lives through self-education. He founded a drawing school in Oxford (now known as The Ruskin School of Art), and he created one of Britain's first regional museums, in Sheffield, in northern England. His watercolors, inimitably capturing the delicacy of a single flower or a gothic facade, celebrated the beauty of both divine and human creation.
But for Ruskin, the pen was always mightier than the brush. He was an extraordinarily prolific writer. The official Library Edition of his works runs to a forbidding 39 volumes. Of this prodigious output, only "Unto This Last," his ferocious critique of laissez-faire capitalism, and his autobiography, "Praeterita," remain readily available in print.
"He's a dazzling intellectual and an enormously great writer, but other things in his life have got in the way," said the scholar Clive Wilmer, referring to the current fixation with Ruskin's sexuality. Mr. Wilmer is master of the Guild of St. George, a charity Ruskin founded in Sheffield in the 1870s to give practical application to his utopian ideas.
The appropriately Victorian venue of Two Temple Place in London is currently showing almost 200 artworks and objects from the Guild's eclectic study collection. Including original Ruskin drawings, medieval manuscripts, minerals, daguerreotypes, metalwork and plaster casts, they form the centerpiece of the comprehensive bicentennial exhibition "John Ruskin: The Power of Seeing."
"It's a cluttered treasure box," said Louise Pullen, curator of the Ruskin collection at Museums Sheffield. "It was a people's collection, something that would make the lives of workmen and everyday people better." Ruskin wanted them to "stop, look and appreciate" beauty in art and nature, she said. "He thought that was the key to well-being."
The exhibition, as well as "Ruskin, Turner and the Storm Cloud: Watercolors and Drawings," focusing on Ruskin's visionary environmentalism and opening next month at the York Art Gallery in northern England, aims to highlight the thinker's enduring relevance.
Robert Hewison, author or editor of more than a dozen books on Ruskin, said in an interview that Ruskin was the first major literary figure to write about pollution and climate change.
In an 1884 lecture to the London Institution, "The Storm-Cloud of the 19th Century," Ruskin spoke of a "Thunderstorm; pitch dark, with no blackness — but deep, high, filthiness of lurid, yet not sublimely lurid, smoke-cloud; dense manufacturing mist." He was describing a new meteorological phenomenon he called the "plague wind," tainted with soot from a nearby steel factory, observed at his home in the Lake District in northwest England.
"This and his observations on glaciers are something that make him a justified prophet," Mr. Hewison said. "Pollution was emblematic of the corruption in contemporary capitalism, the destruction of nature by man and his greed."
Quoting Ruskin's "Unto This Last," Mr. Hewison added, "He famously wrote 'there is no wealth but life,' and his attack on liberal economics could just as easily be a critique of neoliberalism now."
But the evangelical density of Ruskin's prose can intimidate. "It's a barrier," Mr. Hewison said. "You can look at his drawings to get a sense of the man he was and what he was interested in. He drew as powerfully as he wrote."
Ruskin's watercolor studies of the natural world and architecture, often used to illustrate his books or lectures, are remarkable for their intensity of feeling and observation. More than 40 of these drawings will be included in the York Art Gallery show, alongside a dozen works by Ruskin's hero, the painter J. M. W. Turner. Others are currently on display in the exhibition "Victorian Visionary: John Ruskin and the Realization of the Ideal," at the Houghton Library at Harvard, as well as at Two Temple Place.
But can watercolors really compare to what Ruskin achieved with words? Take "The Stones of Venice," his 1851-1853 account of the rise and fall of the Italian city as a political and artistic power. In the stand-alone chapter "The Nature of Gothic," he eloquently extolled the collaborative dignity of medieval architecture, establishing the ideological foundation of the Arts and Crafts movement, and of thousands of neo-Gothic buildings across the world.
Ruskin's 1864 lecture "Traffic," in which he tells a planning committee in the industrial English city of Bradford of the contempt he feels for their proposed wool exchange building because it would be a symbol of the exploitation of human labor, still has the power to jolt.
"He holds our feet to the moral fire. He makes us disconcerted," said James Spates, the co-coordinator of a Ruskin conference and exhibition this December at The Huntington Library in San Marino, Calif. "My belief is Ruskin is a spot-on critique of modern America, and is relevant now as he was then."
What would Ruskin have made of "post-truth" politics, of the richest 1 percent owning almost half of the world's wealth, of a plastic-strewn planet where climate change may be beyond repair?
Maybe we should go back to him: He saw it coming.

subset: commoncrawl


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The following e-mail message was sent from the principal of Fairfax County's W.T. Woodson High School to parents on April 11, discussing the school's actions following a series of suicides at the school. The message came ahead of the school's spring break and a day before The Washington Post published a story about the suicides of six Woodson students in the past three years and the effects the suicides have had on their families and the school community.
Dear Woodson Families,
We are deeply committed to supporting our students and families who may continue to have concerns following the losses our community has experienced. As you know, we hosted a community event on March 5th where families were encouraged to share concerns and provide us feedback. We immediately reviewed the suggestions that were turned in and made contact the following day with students and parents who requested clinical support. In addition, we looked at every suggestion for ideas that could be implemented in the short term while considering other ideas, including hosting a Teen Summit, that could set in motion long term FCPS changes. I also want to let you know about actions we have been taking at Woodson to support our students.
First, school counselors, psychologists, and social workers have been visiting English classes this week and will again following spring break to share information with students and address some of the issues, concerns and questions that were shared with us from the March 5 meeting. This is providing an opportunity for the mental health team to reintroduce themselves to students, to let students know where they are located in the building, and to provide examples of when students might want to meet with one of them.
The following points are being communicated to the students during these class visits:
■Any student can see a counselor, psychologist, or social worker during the school day.
■ If there is a safety concern, the staff will work with the student to contact parents or guardians. Nothing will be done without a student's awareness, but it's important to note that this information cannot be kept confidential.
■ What is shared with a school counselor will not be included in letters of recommendation to colleges unless a student requests that the information be shared/included.
■ If a student shares information about his or her own drug or alcohol use or that of a friend, we will work with the student or his or her friend to get them help.
■ If a student is having a problem, we encourage the student to come talk to us.
■ Our counselors, psychologists, and social workers are here to support and help our students.
In addition to sharing information with students, the staff is also asking students to provide feedback on the following two questions to help identify and address any barriers — real or perceived — to students receiving support at the school:
1. Are there any obstacles that prevent you or other students from talking to the school counselor, psychologist, or social worker if you need help? If so, what are they?
2. What can school staff do to help students feel more comfortable approaching the school counselor, psychologist, or social worker?
Second, our school counselors will be meeting individually with all seniors in the coming months. At that time, the counselors will ask about student plans after high school and, as leaders in the school, ask them to provide feedback about their experience at Woodson and seek their ideas about what teachers and other adults in their lives could do to help support students during the high school years.
Third, I will continue to hold monthly parent coffees and will be happy to invite a member of the clinical team to answer parent questions.
Finally, the responses to the blue cards collected at the March 5 meeting, and subsequent conversations I have had with parents and various community partners, including Community of Solutions, have been provided to Dr. Garza and the individuals who are planning the FCPS Teen Resiliency Summit, which is planned for May 17, 2014 at Hayfield Secondary School. Many of the topics and sessions have been developed based on Woodson parent and student feedback and we hope you will be able to attend. I will provide additional information about the Summit as the details are finalized.
As you know, schools will be closed from April 14 through 18 for spring break. If you have any concerns about your child while schools are closed, there are community resources that are available to support you. Crisis Link (703-527-4077) is staffed with professionals who are able to consult with families about any mental health concerns. Additional resources are available at: http://www.fcps.edu/dss/ips/emergency-info/index.shtml. During normal school hours, school counselors, school psychologists, and school social workers continue to be available to support students and families.
I hope that you and your family have a restful and wonderful spring break.


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Welcome! I'm Tracy, a working mother of one who enjoys fitness and running (hence miles) and an elevated level of glam in my home and wardrobe. After buying my own place in 2015, I continue to scour flea markets and thrift shops, as well as home good stores to find unique treasures. These old and new pieces are mixed to create a warm, inviting atmosphere. In addition, I am no stranger to turning old, dated pieces of furniture into new, functional ones with a touch of eclectic beauty.
Creative in nature, my plan is to utilize this space as an outlet to showcase my home and style ideas. It is my thought that everything in life can be made "pretty" with a few simple touches. Hopefully you will find a little inspiration of your own through my passion to make everything just a little more glam. xo
Photo credit: Maddy of Mad Hearts Photography


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Studies show that people who are asked to provide performance feedback for others are four times more likely to seek similar input about themselves. This virtuous cycle of feedback is how companies can improve their culture, their team, and even their products.
But peer feedback doesn't always happen organically, and often the systems companies put in place to encourage it aren't efficient or helpful to the actual employees who are receiving the feedback.
SurveyMonkey's learning and development team partnered with our survey scientists to develop this peer feedback survey template to help encourage more virtuous cycles in other organizations.
Our employees can send this peer feedback template when they finish up a project together, to help inform their quarterly reviews, or even add a link to it in their email footer! It's up to you how you implement it—the key is to encourage actionable, helpful feedback that helps everyone grow.


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Assassin's Creed Odyssey
Assassin's Creed Odyssey Free Version PC Game Download:
Assassin's Creed Odyssey is an action and role-playing game in genre which is developed by Ubisoft Quebec and published by Ubisoft. This PC version game was released on October 5, 2018 for Microsoft Windows. It is the twentieth installment in the Assassin's Creed series. You can also download Assassins Creed Syndicate and Assassins Creed Unity.
In Assassin's Creed Odyssey let the player decide his path through the Golden Age of Ancient Greece and become a legendary Hero. This game was full of exploration in which the player is able to uncover the mysterious world hidden below the surface of the ocean. In this PC version of game player decisions shape the world around, which leading to multiple game endings.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey Free Version Game:
In this awesome version of game player will have to prepare himself for war and able to choose play-style with a large variety of abilities from Warrior to Assassin or even Marksman. Player will also able to customize each part of his gear and upgrade his abilities, to give himself an extra edge in combat. For the first time in Assassin's Creed player is able to choose the gender of the main character whether a male or female. The player can also develop romantic relationships with non-playable characters of both genders. In this pc version of game player will have to fight for himself and demonstrate his extraordinary warrior abilities and shift the tides of battle during the Peloponnesian War.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey Free For PC:
For the first time in series, the game features a notoriety system in which mercenaries chase after the player if they commit crimes like killing or stealing. In this PC version game player is able to sail and fight across the mysterious sea. Player will also able to customize the look of his ship, upgrade weaponry to suit his strengths, and recruit crew members with unique perks.
The hitbox combat system is returns in which the player access to four different special skills when the ability bar fills up. The game also features a gear system in which each piece of armor the player wears has different statistics and provides a range of advantages. The game uses a skill tree system that allows the player to unlock new abilities like "Hunter", "Warrior" and "Assassin".
At the end, Player will have to get prepared to overcome the challenges and discover the adventures ancient Greece.
Minimum RequirementOperating System: Windows 7 SP1 (64bit versions only) Processor: AMD FX 6300 @ 3.8 GHz, Ryzen 3 - 1200, Intel Core i5 2400 @ 3.1 GHz Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: AMD Radeon R9 285, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 (2GB VRAM with Shader Model 5.0) DirectX: Version 11 Hard Drive: 60 GB available space Sound Card: DirectX compatible soundcard Additional Notes: Video Preset: Lowest (720p)
Recommended RequirementOperating System: Windows 10 (64bit versions only) Processor: Intel Core i7-3820 (3.6 GHz)/AMD FX-8370 (4.0 GHz) Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (4GB VRAM with Shader Model 5.0) DirectX: Version 11 Hard Drive: 60 GB available space Sound Card: DirectX compatible soundcard Additional Notes: Video Preset: High (1080p)
Assassin's Creed Odyssey Game For Free:
File Size: 56.1 GB
Download All The Parts From Given Link,
Extract with winrar or winzip,
Run Setup And Install,
Now Enjoy The Game:


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EMC's New Gear for Big Data and the 'Consumer' Enterprise
EMC (s emc) launched 41 new products and a new product line that it hopes will keep it relevant in a world where cloud computing and products with a more consumer feel are changing the IT dynamic at both ends of the spectrum. In a press conference Tuesday morning, the storage giant also explained how in the coming year it plans to announce a customer who is using its gear to store an exabyte of data a decade after it first started seeing customers storing a petabyte of storage.
During the launch event, EMC (s emc) showed off its VNXe line — for small- to medium-size business customers — which is cheaper and contains nifty features, such as the ability to provision the hardware from an iPad (s aapl), and a graphical interface that represents the hardware box, so users can determine what's wrong. EMC "proved" how easy this system is for folks by getting a fourth grader armed with an iPad to troubleshoot the hardware.
EMC also announced a new product using its $2.1 billion Data Domain acquisition for faster sending of backup information, as well as a new version of its Atmos line of software built on its $2.25 billion acquisition of Isilon. For those drowning in data, EMC offered a new version of it VMAX box that's twice as fast, with more brains inside for processing big data. (It contains a 128-core processor to manage the memory.) The VMAX system also does away with Fibre Channel interconnects, and instead, counts on the better brains and Flash memory to provide the faster speeds.
However cheesy the presentation, EMC is clearly aware of the big trends in the enterprise, and how the market is fragmenting between the high and low end. At the low end, businesses want cheap, easy-to-use and something that resembles the Apple (s aapl) experience. But at the high end, where there may be fewer customers, but they buy a lot of boxes, EMC is aware that speed, scale and big data are changing the way IT views storage. It's no longer this backroom archive, but a real-time delivery system for information that could be called upon at any moment. So EMC, which said it has shipped over 10 petabytes of Flash memory last year, is trying to deliver the new future of data. It's always on, and is the new foundation for business decision-making.
For more on how the data deluge is affecting the enterprise and innovative ways startups are tackling their own data problems, come to our Big Data conference held March 23 in NYC.
Related Content from GigaOM Pro (subscription required)


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Create an Account - Increase your productivity, customize your experience, and engage in information you care about.
This program allows residents to enjoy worry free vacations, knowing that their homes are being checked regularly by their police department. If you would like to place your home on Vacation Watch, submit an online request using this form.


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Corporate Advisory Services
The objective of corporate advisory Services is to establish a faster and more competitive management, in harmony with current reality, providing the company with decision making instruments at the right time.
Specific Services
- Diagnosis of internal and financial controls
The purpose of this type of work is to identify within the corporate routines indication of non-compliance with certain key and crucial processes, performed through interviews and discussions about procedures adopted by the company' s Management. Such work aims at identifying control improvement opportunities with the intention of optimizing the management of corporate processes.
- Accounting, tax and labor diagnoses
The objective of this type of work is to identify non-compliance with significant accounting practices and procedures determined by the tax, labor and social security legislations through interviews and discussions with the company's Management. Such work aims at identifying and offering specific solutions for each area involved that represents significant impacts on the business.
- Controllership procedures
We analyze the current controllership processes and processing systems, identifying significant issues that need improvement by developing and implanting solutions for strategic and budget planning, applying the best market practices, with the purpose of assessing, monitoring and, where necessary, modifying the actions with the intention of achieving the basic goals of the organization and decision making, always using the trinomial: costs, quality and time.
- Economic and financial appraisal and modeling of the company
Our firms analyzes the figures of the company and of the transactions with the purpose of preparing for a process of acquisition, merger, disposal, reorganization and restructuring, as well as continued assessments, assessments for tax purposes and the optimization of the tax benefits for both individuals and legal entities.
- Advice on conducting or supporting merger and acquisition transactions
We assess the viability of the business, the definition and review of the acquisition criteria, the identification and approach to appropriate acquisition goals, which best fit the strategic objectives of the company and we advise the development of a detailed strategic business plan.
- Advisory services concerning IPOs
We provide advisory services in order to change and adapt the structure of the company's internal controls, with the intent of reaching stock market requisite levels, as well as those of regulatory bodies, assisting the company in the public offering of stock, by implanting the most recent Corporate Governance models and organizing the administrative, financial and accounting information in order to conform to the standards issued by regulatory bodies.
Due diligence
- Before acquiring:
due diligence directed towards potential purchasers or interested parties that which to know the tax, labor and social security risks they will undertake if the transaction is effectively made. It allows the purchasing company to consider the risks and contingencies identified by the practice adopted by the target company in price negotiation, establishing guarantees, or identifying alternative business structures, aiming at eliminating or reducing possible contingencies, thus protecting the benefits and results planned.
- Before selling:
due diligence directed towards companies that wish to prepare for a selling process or joint venture. The preliminary identification of potential risks and contingencies that would be identified in a pre-acquisition process allows the adoption of measures to eliminate or reduce possible risks (such as tax-deficiency notices), thus extremely facilitating the negotiation process with an eventual interested party.


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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders say a royal commission into the juvenile detention system in the Northern Territory must be followed with real action.
They point to the recommendations from the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody in 1991, established to address the high rates of Indigenous incarceration, which have largely been ignored.
"How many more royal commissions do Aboriginal people have to get excited about?" former NT Labor senator Nova Peris told BuzzFeed News.
"There was a lot of hope when the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody was done, yet barely any recommendations were implemented. In 1997, the Bringing Them Home report about children in out-of-home care gave us hope, but what actually happened there, if anything?", Peris said.
As a senator, Peris visited the Don Dale juvenile detention centre featured in last night's disturbing Four Corners episode, which is now to the be the focus of a royal commission. Peris says she raised her concerns in parliament several times about high incarceration rates of young people in the Northern Territory.
"No-one listened. These kids need rehabilitation, they don't need torture: hate breeds hate, they need to know that there is life outside."
"Over the years people brushed these kids off, calling them 'little bastards'. These are kids as young as 11 years old, how are they even thinking criminal activities. Let's look at the underlying issues here," Peris said.
Footage of children detained at the centre being thrown onto concrete floors, tear gassed, hooded and strapped to chairs shocked the nation and has dominated headlines today.
John Elferink has been sacked as NT minister for corrections over the revelations. He received reports last year of the tear gassing of six teens at Don Dale in 2014, but he told Four Corners he had not yet watched footage of the incident.
Since the incident came to light last year, the NT's chief minister, Adam Giles, has increased punitive measures for offenders in the NT, including the introduction of paperless arrests, which saw the death in custody of one Aboriginal man, and a plan to strip bail from young serial offenders.
Today, the federal minister for Indigenous affairs, Nigel Scullion, said he didn't investigate the tear gassing incident because he assumed the NT government had already followed it up.
Principal legal officer at the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency, Johnathon Hunyor, told BuzzFeed News, "Anyone who has portfolio responsibilities for children or for justice or for Aboriginal people who say they didn't know are either dishonest or derelict in their duty."
"These reports have been out there, there was nothing in that show that was new in terms of incidents. What was new is we saw first hand the grubby, brutal treatment of these children."
Aboriginal young people make up almost 96% of the juvenile detention population in the Northern Territory despite only comprising 44% of the population aged between 10 and 17.
"A royal commission can't be a historical summary of the bad things that have happened," Hunyor said.
"Yes, we need to shed light and accountability, but it has to be about the future and how we can change this toxic culture in youth detention and how we are going to get services out there to traumatised kids."


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Twig is used to feeling unwanted. Sent to live on a pony ranch for troubled girls on a misty, haunted island, Twig is about to discover the impossible—someone who needs her.
Jolted awake from a bad dream, Twig follows the desperate whinny of a terrified horse out to the stables. There in the straw is a bleating little scrap of moonbeam. A silver-white filly with cloven hooves and a tiny, spiraling horn.
A baby unicorn.
Now Twig knows what secret is hiding in the island's mist: the last free unicorn herd. And a mysterious boy named Ben who insists that this impossible creature is now Twig's to care for. That she needs Twig's love and protection. Because there's something out there in the deep, dense shadows that's hunting for them…
Okay, now for my review:
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I didn't think I would have this review done in time for the blog tour since I just received a paperback copy with print big enough for my old eyes to read yesterday. But once I started reading today, I didn't want to put the book down. So I didn't. I read the whole book in one evening. Or should I say a dark and stormy night. Well, it was. Our lights went off and on so many times, I pulled out all the electronics' plugs but kept walking with the book. Otherwise, I didn't notice the storm much because R.R. Russell wrote so well. Aubrey Poole edited as well – I found fewer errors than I have in months.
After I discovered I couldn't read the PDF copy, I loaned it to a friend's twelve-year-old daughter for her to review in my stead. I can't say for sure, but I think she'll love the book as much as I did. The only people who might not like this series would be those who don't like references to Christianity or vicious, predatory animals they think should be tame. Keep this in mind for sensitive kids. At age nine, I suspect I would have hid under the bed like I did when I read about Tolkien's ring wraiths riding by the hobbits. But I sure wouldn't have wanted my parents to take the book away!
The characterization is good and most of the plot unfolds in a realistic manner. Twig was very likable; however, Russell withheld too much concerning Twig's background. I didn't like the false mystery, the opposite of info dump. Twig's not talking was dead on: exactly how my dad's death affected me at a younger age. But the book was written in Twig's point of view, and no girl could avoid thinking of the event that brought her to the island for as long as she did. Nightmares would be a frequent and terrifying event. My other concern was that troubled girls didn't act very troubled, and in a couple of places, I also doubted the adult reactions.
Still, multitudes of excellent storytelling choices dwarf those problems. I'll limit examples to a few: time as a healer of wounds and a spur to character growth; good caregivers (for once!); unique unicorn behavior and anatomy (not hard to believe if you've seen skeletons of some extinct animals); plus interior and exterior conflicts working together to create tension. I could go on, but the best part of all my favorite books is a complete plot arc with an unexpected resolution, plus a teaser for the next book. It's hard to explain without spoilers except to say that good overcomes the bad, but not without loss.
I think most adults will like Wonder Light almost as much as their kids will. I rate it a 4 for me and 4.5 for tweens. In fact, families might want to have a tug of war to see who reads first. Don't. Read aloud together and enjoy. I rate received a free copy in exchange for an honest review. Now, I'm champing at the bit – pun intended – for book two. I hope it delves a little deeper into the other girls' issues because those who are hurting most inside may also seek reading as an escape and a means to heal. Now that would be real magic.
R.R. Russell lives with her family in the Pacific Northwest. She grew up traveling the world as an army brat and now travels the country as a coach with a nonprofit judo club. She loves to read and draw, and like Twig, once spent a lot of time sketching unicorns.
To find out more about her writing and publishing process, her other books, and other overly caffeinated craziness, visit RRRussellauthor.com.
She writes as R.R. Russell for kids and R.H. Russell for teens and adults. Also see the social media links below.


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This furnished co-op at 256 West 10th Street offers flexible lease terms, but the attractive, understated West Village apartment is flexible in other ways–and even manages to throw a few curves. On the rental market for $12,500 a month, the unusual home's three bedrooms–one in an enclosed loft–are joined by a small office/study, and adventurous architectural details add more space for living between rooms.
The 1,600-square-foot Hudson Mews apartment's steep rent is undoubtedly based on its location behind a gated courtyard on a block where the streets toss off their rigid grid and boast some of the city's finest restaurants, shops and historic buildings. The enviable landscaped private courtyard and lushly planted roof deck won't send anyone running, either.
See more of this off-the-grid co-op


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If you were disappointed because Edgar Wright left this film, then you're really going to be disappointed after seeing this film. That's because Wright's fingerprints are all over the film, yet he is nowhere to be found.
Yes, this is an Edgar Wright film. He and Joe Cornish are still credited with story and part of the screenplay (the latter shared with Adam McKay and Paul Rudd). And if you are a fan of Wright's work, you'll be able to pick his parts of the film out almost immediately.
For example, one of Wright's most prominent trademarks is the jump-cut scene, where he presents a part of the story in a series of staccato images that say what they need to say in a concise and exciting way. In my opinion, it's a trait that proves his genius and a big part of what I love about his films.
In Ant-Man, there are four or five scenes that you just know that Wright and Cornish wrote for this jump-cut style. However, Peyton Reed, either by conscious choice or lack of the ability to do so, presents these scenes with the pacing of a turtle trying to cross a molasses-covered roadway. The difference between the scenes as Reed directs them and the way they were intended is painfully obvious, and creates a disconnect with the audience. Unfortunately, this also makes us more aware of the other flaws in the film, flaws such as dodgy motives, underdeveloped characters and gaps in logic that we might not have had time to notice in the faster pace Wright works in.
The film opens as Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) leaves prison after serving three years for a Robin Hood-like bit of computer theft . He is desperate to go straight so he can provide a good role model for his daughter Cassie (Abby Ryder Forston), but he's not even able to keep a job at Baskin-Robbins due to his criminal record. Soon, an old prison pal by the name of Luis (Michael Peña) seduces Scott back into a life of crime with a sure-fire robbery of a billionaire ex-military guy.
However, the only thing Scott finds in the billionaire's vault is what he thinks is a motorcycle suit. After he puts the suit on, he realizes it allows him to shrink to ant size. The theft was orchestrated by the suit's creator, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) as a test of Lang's skills. See, Pym's protege Darren Cross (Corey Stoll), has used Pym's designs to create his own shrinking battle suit, one he is willing to sell to the highest bidder, no matter who that bidder will kill with it. Pym wants Lang to steal the designs from Cross to keep them from being used for nefarious purposes. Lang quickly signs on, much to the chagrin of Pym's daughter, Hope (Evangeline Lily), who wanted the assignment for herself.
The reason given for Pym choosing Scott over Hope is that Scott is expendable and Pym dares not to lose his daughter. This is where the questions begin, because if he was that concerned about her, why did he have Hope work as his inside woman in Cross' company, keeping tabs on an man who has no compunction about killing an employee for as little as speaking up in a meeting. And why wouldn't Hope be a better choice, as she already has a high level access in the company, and would be able to sabotage the development of Cross' suit from the inside. She wouldn't even need the Ant-Man suit to do it either.
In addition to that, Pym is a man who doesn't want his technology used by the military, unless he is the one to use it. Cross has a highly advanced, weaponized version of the Ant-Man suit he created himself, yet still is obsessed with stealing Pym's outdated 1980's version of the technology. Cross is another edition of the poorly defined Marvel villain. He constantly reminds us that he is the "jilted protege of a father-figure-like mentor (with nary a flashback to back that up)," yet comes off more as a raving lunatic who completely ignores his expressed motivation at the end just to give the film a slam bang finale.
Who do we blame for these contradictions? Wright and Cornish? McKay and Rudd? Reed? Marvel Studios' interference? One from column A, one from column B? All of the above? Regardless, the studio would have been better off if it either delayed the movie, scrapped all of Wright's stuff, and then started over or, you know, just let Wright direct it.
Which isn't to say that the film is all bad. The effects are spectacular, the acting is great and there are moments of fun action and witty comedy. It's just that it seems like without Wright at the helm, the film is like a jacket three sizes too big for Reed to wear, a jigsaw puzzle with miss-matched pieces. The result is a disappointing film.


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Should a student visa be rejected by a Canadian Embassy, the rejection letter should be submitted to the school. On receipt of the official rejection letter, the institution will retain the $150 non-refundable registration fee, and will refund all tuition and refundable accommodation fees.
A student may be entitled to a refund of tuition fees in the event that:
1.a The student provides written notice to the school that he or she is withdrawing from the program; or
1.b The student provides a copy of the visa rejection letter from Canadian Embassy
1.c The school provides written notice to the student advising that the student has been dismissed from the program.
1. The written notice of withdrawal or dismissal may be delivered in any manner provided that a receipt or other verification is available that indicates the date on which the notice is delivered.
2. The notice of withdrawal or dismissal is deemed to be effective from the date it is delivered.
3. The refund to which a student is entitled is calculated on the total tuition fees due under the contract. Where total tuition fees have not yet been collected, the school is not responsible for refunding more than has been collected to date and a student may be required to make up for monies due under the contract.
4. If the school has received fees in excess of the amount it is entitled to under the student contract, the excess amount must be refunded.
5. Refund policy for students before the program of study starts:
5.a If written notice of withdrawal is received by the school within 7 days after the contract is made, and before the commencement of the period of instruction specified in the contract, the school may retain 5% of the total tuition and fees due under the contract to a maximum of $250.
5.b If written notice of withdrawal is received by the school 30 days or more before the commencement of the period of instruction specified in the contract and more than 7 days after the contract was made, the school may retain 10% of total tuition only due under the contract to a maximum of $1000.
5.c Subject to Section 6(a)(1) above, if written notice of withdrawal is received by the school less than 30 days before the commencement of the period of instruction specified in the contract, and more than 7 days after the contract was made, the school may retain 20% of the total tuition only, due under the contract to a maximum of $1300.
6. Refund policy for students after the program of study starts:
6.a If written notice of withdrawal is received by the school or a student is dismissed before 10% of the period of instruction specified in the contract has elapsed, the school may retain 30% of the tuition due under the contract.
6.b If written notice of withdrawal is received by the school, or a student is dismissed after 10% and before 30% of the period of instruction specified in the contract has elapsed, the school may retain 50% of the tuition due under the contract.
6.c If a student withdraws or is dismissed after 30% of the period of instruction specified in the contract has elapsed, no refund is required.
7. Where a student did not meet the school's specific minimum requirements for admission through no misrepresentation or fault of their own, the school must refund all tuition and fees paid under the contract, less the applicable non-refundable student application or registration fee.
8. Refunds owed to students must be paid within 30 days of the school receiving written notification of withdrawal and all required supporting documentation, or within 30 days of a school's written notice of dismissal.
* In Accordance to the Guidelines of the British Columbia Ministry of Advanced Education.
1. If written cancellation notice is given 12 weeks or more before beginning of homestay, all money will be refunded including Homestay Placement Fee.
2. If written cancellation notice is given less than 12 weeks before beginning of homestay, all money will be refunded except for the Homestay Placement Fee.
3. For after commencement of Homestay:
3.a The student should inform the GV Homestay Office in writing three weeks before the end of the homestay period if he/she decides to terminate the agreed homestay period. If the notification period is less than 3 weeks, then in addition to the non-refundable notification period, a $150 cancellation fee will apply.
3.b If the host family has failed to meet the Homestay conditions, the student will be moved to another Homestay, and there will be no refund given for the period of homestay already used.
All policies subject to change. Please check gvenglish.com for updates.
Prices: All registrations for studies in 2021 received prior to December 31, 2020, will be charged the 2020 rate for tuition. This policy does not apply to alternative accommodations. Registrations received from January 1, 2021, on will be charged the 2021 rate for tuition for studies in 2021.
Application Process: A letter of acceptance will be issued upon receipt of the completed registration form and a payment. Please check with the school on payment policy. The original copy may be mailed, faxed, or emailed upon request. The school is not responsible for any extra courier charges.
Minors: Students under the age of 19 must have their application co-signed by a parent or legal guardian. Underage students must submit underage agreements signed by their parents/legal guardians. Student contracts must be signed by parents or legal guardians (Canada only). Custodianship may also need to be arranged.
Payment: Students may be required to pre-pay tuition fees when applying for student visas. Check with the school and local consulate or embassy on payment methods and any other requirements. Payment may be made by credit card, wire transfer, money order, or bank draft. Additional bank charges may also apply.
Refunds: Check fee sheets and our website for individual school policies. To be considered for a refund a student can submit a written notice of withdrawal to the school. The date of receipt of the written notice determines which cancellation charges will be applied.
Changes and Availability: Start dates, programs and course content may change at any time and without prior notice. The fees, dates and conditions listed in this brochure are subject to change at any time and without prior notice. Please check the website for up-to-date information. All courses are available based on enrollment.
Responsibility: Global Village and its member schools accept no responsibility whatsoever for any loss or damage to the personal belongings or property of a student or program participant or for any injury to or death of a student or program participant occurring on or off school property.
Students must comply with the rules of the school. Failure to do so may result in dismissal without refund (Canada only).
Directors must receive a written description of all complaints. Please check with the school regarding a complaint resolution procedure.
Medical insurance: Canada Student or legal guardian is responsible for ensuring sufficient medical insurance coverage is in effect before arrival. $500,000 minimum coverage is strongly recommended.
Materials and advertising by third parties on offerings by GV must be approved in writing by GV.
Global Village Victoria, Designated Learning Institution (DLI) #O19319050762 Global Village Calgary, Designated Learning Institution (DLI)
This website and the Global Village Victoria and Global Village Calgary webpages have been translated for your convenience using translation software powered by Google Translate.
If any questions arise related to the accuracy of the information contained in the translated website, refer to the English version of the website which is the official version.
Global Village English Centre Victoria Ltd. © | Copyright 2022


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Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow may be a bit of a mouthful of a name, but it's designed to be a faceful of natural looking, radiant skin. Benefit's new foundation has been in development for three years now, with the brand starting off with a wishlist as long as your arm including great sun protection, a lightweight finish, brightening and hydrating ingredients, an oil free formula...
The finished product comes in 9 shades, aimed at fair, medium and deep skin tones, with three variations for different undertones within each shade. Confusingly, there are two shades called Ivory - one subtitled "I'm pure 4 sure" and one subtitled "Believe in me". I turned out to be "I'm pure 4 sure", which is the cooler of the two pale Ivory shades (no surprises there).
The foundation comes in a smart looking box and includes a sample of Benefit's primer, The Porefessional, which is apparently now the UK's best selling premium primer. Samples are always good, as you get to try a product before you lay out the full price, and samples targeted to work alongside the product you've received are even better!
Formula wise, this stuff is incredibly light - it's a very fluid foundation, with a single pump giving you a decent puddle of foundation which is enough to give light coverage across the whole face. Applied, it blends quickly and seamlessly, and feels absolutely weightless on the skin, even when layered up for a little more coverage. If you're looking for something with medium to full coverage, this isn't likely to be for you - it's a sheer, natural finish foundation which can be built up to a medium coverage, but it's never going to cover everything.
You can see that it acts more to smooth and even the skin, without looking heavy or obviously makeup-y. The finish is radiant and a tiny bit dewy, but it's definitely the right side of dewy - slightly glowy, rather than all out shiny. And it wears well, too - I've found it lasts the whole day with ease, although I do need a spot of powder on my oily nose halfway through the day.
Overall, this is a good foundation if you've got decent skin and are looking for an even, bright effect. I particularly like the SPF 25 PA+++, which affords maximum protection from UVA and UVB rays, which is unusual in a foundation, especially one with such a light texture. If you'd like to try Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow for yourself, you'll find it at Benefit stores, counters and concessions, and online via the Benefit website, where a bottle will cost you £24.50.
Disclosure: PR sample


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Where Stuff Comes From
How Toasters, Toilets, Cars, Computers and Many Other Things Come To Be As They Are
Prices & shipping based on shipping country
Book Description
Molotch takes us on a fascinating exploration into the worlds of technology, design, corporate and popular culture. We now see how corporations, designers, retailers, advertisers, and other middle-men influence what a thing can be and how it is made. We see the way goods link into ordinary life as well as vast systems of consumption, economic and political operation. The book is a meditation into the meaning of the stuff in our lives and what that stuff says about us.


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How to verify an Electrician's License
Every home expert has been harping about hiring only licensed electricians to do electrical work. But how can a homeowner verify a prospective electrician's license? How can he verify the credentials being presented to him by a contractor or by the electrician himself?
In California, the Department of Consumer Affairs' Contractors License Board has a website where a homeowner can check whether the license presented to him by a contractor is valid. Information about pending complaints can likewise be seen in this webpage. They only need to type in the 8-digit license number presented to them in the portal, and the website will run a check on the data. Here is the link https://www2.cslb.ca.gov/onlineservices/CheckLicenseII/checklicense.aspx to the website.
"When the contractor comes to your house to give you a bid, ask to see his/her pocket license, along with a picture I.D. Make sure the person you're dealing with is the same person on the license. Contractors also can hire salespeople to work for them. Those people must be registered with CSLB as a Home Improvement Salesperson. Ask to see the registration card, along with a picture I.D. REMEMBER Contractors are required to have their license number on their business card and on all bids and contracts. Seeing a license number doesn't necessarily mean the license is valid." Read the rest of the CSLB's reminders in their webpage here. http://www.cslb.ca.gov/Consumers/Hire_A_Contractor/Finding_The_Right_Contractor.aspx
Third-=Party Service Ratings Website Angie's List also shared some tips on how to verify the license presented by an electrician contractor. Apart from checking with the state board, they also recommended that the homeowner ask about the contractor's liability insurance.
"As a secondary step, you can ask for proof of liability insurance. The insurance company can verify the license. Licenses for electrical work are available for individuals or contractors. A contractor must verify that work done by employees meets all code requirements. You should check whether the license is for a contractor or individual. When you are presented with a license, verify that the person's name matches the name of the license."
Take a look at the original article here. https://www.angieslist.com/articles/how-verify-electricians-license.htm
When checking a contractor's license, the homeowner should also verify that the electrician is duly employed by the said contractor, to be sure of the guarantee on the code requirements.
Contact Us:
Gforce Green Electric Solutions
2920 McGraw St San Diego, CA 92117
Phone: 858-480-7729
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Website: https://www.gforceelectric.com/
External Links:


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In celebration of Intec Digital's re-launch of the 'Pure Intec' compilation, Pure Intec 2, VIBE is giving away five copies signed by producers Carl Cox and Jon Rundell. To enter, just follow us on Twitter and use hashtag: #VIBEIntec. We'll announce the winner on Twitter live from Ultra Music Festival before Cox takes to the decks, this weekend!
Released in two sections, part one (mixed by Carl) showcases unheard remixes from Cox's album 'All Roads Leads to the Dancefloor', while part two (courtesy of Jon) includes upcoming releases from the Intec label.
Pure Intec 2 will be available on CD, digital and USB versions April 8.
This will be Intec label head Rundell's first since he usually works behind the scenes as the Intec label head. Now he talks with VIBE about his new career path, working with Carl, and his dream to sit down with 70's rock legends.
VIBE: Describe your own individual sound/style in three words.
Jon Rundell: Groovey, Techno, Energy
What is it like working with Carl Cox?
Its great fun and we share a lot of the same ideas and views on things, and to be inspired every day by somebody so positive is a nice feeling.
Tell us about the new album you both have produced together, Pure Intec Two.
When Pure Intec was originally conceived it had been almost five years of releasing music on the label so there was a lot to showcase. This time around its been 3 years and we felt it was just time.
Working behind the scenes before as the labelhead, what made you want to step out and take a part in this project?
I've been playing in clubs a lot before I joined Intec (and even after I became part of it) so with this being my first ever compilation, it was important to show people that I can still represent the label, but also play the records in the clubs. What you get on this mix is what you will get by coming to hear me play.
Who else would you want to collaborate with in the future?
There are loads of people that have influenced me over the years, but two would really stand out. I think it would be really interesting to sit in a studio for a week with Moby, who's 'Go' record got me into the dance scene. I had the pleasure of meeting Liam Howlett not so long ago too, and his music has also been a big part of my youth. I'm proud to say I already work with Neil Mclellan who is part of The Prodigy's output in a big way, so maybe one day. You never know.
I'd also love to just sit and chat with people like Ray Davies (of The Kinks) and Paul Weller. Their ideals of what they stood for connected with me in a big way from listening to my Dad's records at home."


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Summary : Leibniz defines the monad as a simple substance, without a party. The existence of compound bodies proves the existence of monads, since the existence of the compound proves the existence of simple. Thus, "what are the true atoms of nature" (see Leibniz quotes)
Analysis :
What may look like the parts absolutely simple, monads?
In fact, they have neither extension, nor figure. Indeed, the range being divisible, extended bodies are not absolutely simple: the same, the figures are divisible (can be cut, such as a triangle in half) and can characterize the complex bodies.
Similarly, monads can appear or disappear as suddenly (by creation or annihilation), for point of dissolution to fear for a single body (body only can see their complex parts to sever) or training ( one part being added to another to form a whole).
No external movement comes assign a monad (again, due to their simplicity, the movement consists mostly in a change in the arrangement of parts of them). Thus, nothing can get into a monad. This leads to the idea famous "monads have no windows through which something can enter or leave it."
The monad is for the time being as something unknown, not even as a kind of empty, since it occupies a certain extent.
Leibniz will then try to give content to the monad, without contradicting its simplicity, it is perilous.
We must, first, that "monads have some qualities, otherwise it would not even beings." It must also ensure that the compounds can be distinguished from each other.
Finally, it must also ensure that the monads can be distinguished from each other; Leibniz referring here to his principle of indiscernibles, stated in his New Essays following the principle of sufficient reason, according to which "there has never in nature two beings are exactly like one another. "
The monads have no parts, but they have qualities.
On the other hand, if no external movement does affect the monad is, she knows, like all created internal movements, coming from an internal principle.
Finally, it is that it is found "a plurality of conditions and reports, although there may be no parties" are the perceptions.
The Monad is soul. The simple substance that makes up the different body is the soul. Indeed, the perception can not be explained only from the physical or mechanical body. This is the meaning of the famous passage: "By pretending there is a machine whose structure makes think, feel, have perception, we can conceive it enlarged so that we can enter it as a mill. And this granted, we will find by visiting it on the inside that parts that push one another, and never enough to explain a perception. "
It may also appoint such entelechies monads or souls, because they have a certain perfection, as they are themselves sources of their internal (Aristotelian entelechy is a term that refers to a being that has reached its end, So who has attained a certain perfection).
Leibniz notes the importance of memory, which is organizing perceptions, but we share with animals (such as the beaten dog who runs away when he sees the stick with which we are used to hit him).
But it is by knowledge of the eternal truths of reason and necessary that man differs from animals.
Two principles guide our reasoning are: the contradiction (indeed contrary to true) and that of sufficient reason: nothing happens without reason (or: there is a reason for everything)
Leibniz also distinguishes two types of truths: truths of reasoning and truths of fact. The former are necessary (and their opposite is impossible), while the truths of fact are contingent and their opposite is possible.
An example: If A is B and B is C, A is C: is a truth of reasoning required. However, "there is a cat in the garden" is a contingent truth is, because the cat might not be there.
The analysis is the process by which to uncover the ideas contained in the simple necessary truths, forming and melting them. Thus the theorems of mathematics can be reduced by analysis to definitions, axioms and requests.
Some of these simple ideas can neither be defined nor demonstrated, because as first principles, they are not based on anything but it is on them that everything else is based: it is the same utterances (of the type: A = A, a cat is a cat) "whose opposite contains an express contradiction" 1).
The truths of fact, although contingent, also obey the principle of sufficient reason. But the immense variety of things in nature that the analysis could be boundless. This requires that "the last reason of things," sufficient to explain all, is out of the infinite series of things.
This is a necessary substance, God.
So God is achieved by the principle of sufficient reason in the Monadology of Leibniz. The existence of God is based on this principle, "is sufficient reason for all the details, there is only one God and that God is enough."
He is infinite, and the creatures derive their perfection of it, while they get their imperfections in their own nature.
God is the cause of all existence, but also species. Indeed, "God's understanding is the region of eternal truths, or ideas on which they depend." For example, if the sum of the angles of a triangle is always 180 degrees or 2 +2 = 4, it is because God willed it so, and would have otherwise.
God is a necessary and perfect essence, therefore, contains its existence. In other words, he "just be possible to be present," "God alone has the privilege to be there, if possible."
The existence of God can be deduced a priori, that is to say, by simple reasoning, without having to rely on the experience, such as that of a hypothetical encounter with God. Its simple concept we can deduce its existence, "as nothing can prevent the possibility of which encloses no bounds, no negation and consequently no contradiction, this alone is enough to know that God exists a priori." Here are reminiscent of the ontological argument formulated by St. Anselm and taken up by Descartes in the Meditations.
Nevertheless, one can also infer its existence a posteriori, from the experimental observation of the existence of contingent beings as are men or animals, "they can not have their reason being that in the necessary" .
Act is the mark of perfection of the creatures, while suffer is the mark of their imperfection. But the monad acts as it has distinct perceptions, and suffers, as it has confused perceptions.
Monads can not act on each other (as we have seen, they are without doors or windows), it is God who in the beginning of time has established the harmony of their relationship.
An infinity of universes are possible, but it can not exist one. There must be a reason that explains the choice of God to this world: he chose the best possible world, because of his wisdom and goodness.


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Ann Arbor budget changes: Public art, police and fire staffing, fall leaf pickup, recycling and more
More police officers and firefighters? A restoration of fall leaf pickup and holiday tree pickup services? Cuts to public art? The end of recycling rewards in Ann Arbor?
Those are among the proposals on the table as the Ann Arbor City Council prepares to take final action on the 2012-13 city budget tonight.
Council members are planning to bring forward a flurry of amendments at the meeting, which starts at 7 p.m. inside city hall and is sure to last a while.
Here's a sneak preview of what's being proposed.
Six more firefighters
Jane Lumm and Margie Teall both propose increasing the number of full-time employees in the fire department from 82 to 88, which is Fire Chief Chuck Hubbard's magic number.
Ryan J. Stanton | AnnArbor.com
The City Council cut the number of FTEs in the fire department from 89 to 82 last year and tentatively planned to trim further to 77 this year.
With the city's revenue picture improving, City Administrator Steve Powers proposed a budget in April that would avoid layoffs and hold the line at 82 FTEs in fire.
But Teall and Lumm want to do better and get the department back up to 88, relying in part on additional state and federal fire protection grant money.
Teall's proposal calls for dipping into the general fund's cash reserves to pay whatever costs grant funding doesn't end up covering.
Lumm's proposal anticipates the city will be approved for a federal Staffing for Adequate Fire & Emergency Response (SAFER) grant to cover the cost of three additional firefighters.
She also believes it's realistic that state officials will approve an increase in state fire protection grant funding to cover at least one additional firefighter, and it's possible the increase from the state could be significantly higher and cover three more firefighters.
Lumm noted fire staffing levels have dropped from 126 to 82 FTEs since 2001. She said public safety services are essential and are highly valued by residents and businesses.
If state and federal revenues don't come through as planned, Lumm suggests the city could cut spending for a high-speed rail grant match related to Fuller Road Station.
Separate from Lumm and Teall, Council Member Stephen Kunselman, D-3rd Ward, is bringing forward a proposal to generate extra local funding for fire staffing.
Kunselman wants the Downtown Development Authority to follow an interpretation of city code that would call for the return of $659,771 in tax-increment financing dollars to local taxing jurisdictions in the next year, including $199,360 to the city's general fund.
He wants to use that money to hire at least two more firefighters beyond what the city administrator proposes in his budget.
5 to 10 more police officers
Lumm also wants to amend the city administrator's budget to add more police officer positions — 10 more if grant funds come through and five more if they don't.
Police department staffing levels have fallen from 244 to 164 FTEs since 2001, Lumm points out. The current budget of 164 FTEs includes 118 sworn police officers and Lumm said the chief previously indicated his "magic number" was 150 sworn officers.
Ryan J. Stanton | AnnArbor.com
The administrator's proposed budget adds just one FTE in police, as well as five part-time officers through a new cadet recruit program.
The city continues to apply for federal funds through the COPS Universal Hire grant program, but has not been awarded any money yet.
If awarded, Lumm said, a $1.4 million grant could fund five full-time positions for three years, based on the cost of an entry-level officer being about $90,000 a year.
Lumm's proposal calls for adding 10 more officers (in addition what's already proposed by the administrator) if the COPS grant is awarded, and five if it's not awarded.
In the most optimistic scenario, that would mean an increase of 11 full-time officer positions by July 1, plus the five part-time officers being added through the recruit program.
Lumm said the city could pay the $450,000 cost of adding five officers using up to $567,200 in recurring savings. She's calling on the administrator to make additional cuts to the budgets for mayor and council, public services, human resources and 15th District Court.
Additionally, she wants to reduce the training budget by $20,000 and amend the contract with the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority so more police costs are shifted to the AATA.
Restoring fall leaf pickup
Lumm is proposing the city restore fall leaf pickup and holiday tree pickup, two services that were eliminated in previous rounds of city budget cuts.
She argues leaf pickup is a basic service that should be provided to residents, particularly given that taxpayers pay more than $11 million a year in a solid waste millage.
Holiday tree pickup may not be a core service, Lumm said, but it offers a significant convenience to residents that can be provided for $25,000.
The city's staff indicated the recurring costs to restore both services would be $300,484, or about 2 percent of the city's $14 million annual solid waste expenses.
That breaks down to $275,280 for leaf pickup and $25,204 for tree pickup.
Lumm said those increases can be funded by reductions in other solid waste operating expenses. She proposes leaving it up to the city's administration to decide where to make those cuts, but recommends elimination of the recycling rewards program, among other changes.
The city's staff indicated that restoring leaf pickup would require the purchase of two street sweepers/pushers at a one-time cost of $383,000.
If that expense is necessary, and the city can't use existing equipment or share equipment with another community, Lumm said there are sufficient funds. She points out the solid waste fund had unrestricted net assets of $8.5 million last June, 60 percent of annual expenses.
Downsizing public art
Kunselman wants to reduce the city's public art budget by $307,299. He proposes eliminating about $185,000 in transfers to the art fund from the water, sewer and stormwater budgets, as well as another $122,500 in expected transfers from the street millage.
He believes the capital dollars going to public art should remain in their original funds and should be used for purposes within those original funds.
It's unlikely Kunselman will win support for his proposal. The council has thoroughly debated the issue of public art funding several times now and only Lumm and Briere joined Kunselman in supporting cuts when the issue came before council in December.
Council travel budget
Council Member Sabra Briere, D-1st Ward, is asking her colleagues to consider an amendment to zero out the mayor and council's $6,500 budget for conferences and travel. The council eliminated the item from the budget in 2010 but it was added back.
The end of RecycleBank
Briere is collaborating with Kunselman and Carsten Hohnke, D-5th Ward, on a proposal to discontinue the RecycleBank recycling rewards program, arguing the program hasn't produced the desired outcome of significantly increasing participation in recycling.
Discontinuing the program effective July 1 would result in no change to the solid waste budget for the coming year, according to their proposal.
That solid waste budget includes a $103,500 expense for the RecycleBank contract, but there's going to be a $107,200 one-time cost associated with eliminating the program.
That includes $90,000 in an equipment purchase settlement, and $17,200 for 60 days of contractual notice.
Human services funding
Lumm has drafted an amendment to dip just shy of $50,000 into the general fund reserves to maintain last year's funding level for human services.
The city last year allocated $1.24 million to nonprofit human services agencies through a coordinated funding process.
District Court secretary
Council Member Christopher Taylor, D-3rd Ward, is proposing to restore a 15th District Court secretary position that was slated to be eliminated.
Taylor noted the recommendation corresponded with a judge vacancy that wasn't sure to be filled, but the judge position was filled when Joe Burke was appointed to the bench.
Taylor proposes restoring $76,193 in general fund expenditures for a secretary position to be funded by a reduction in the planned general fund surplus for next year.
That proposal will be competing with Lumm's proposal to reduce the District Court budget by $94,617 to offset some of the costs of hiring new police officers.
Lumm's policy resolutions
Lumm is planning on bringing forward two other resolutions for consideration, including one to restructure the city's retirement plan to a 401K-style plan.
Her proposal calls on the city administrator to develop a recommendation for a defined contribution retirement plan by Dec. 31, with the intent to place all newly hired nonunion employees in the plan by July 1, 2013.
Lumm's other resolution asks the council to adopt a more strategic budget development process, moving away from across-the-board cuts that she says have resulted in a disproportional reduction in public safety staffing over the years. She says a more strategic approach could result in the city budget better reflecting the community's priorities.
She's asking for a budget process committee to develop a new target-setting approach to be presented to council no later than Oct. 1, with the intent that the new process starting later this year will be used in developing the next two-year budget plan.
Ryan J. Stanton covers government and politics for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at email@example.com or 734-623-2529. You also can follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's email newsletters.
Tue, May 22, 2012 : 10:51 p.m.
"It's unlikely Kunselman will win support for his proposal. The council has thoroughly debated the issue of public art funding several times now and only Lumm and Briere joined Kunselman in supporting cuts when the issue came before council in December" Then get rid of the other council members who don't support Kunselman's proposal. How ludicrous is using money from the sewer and water funds, and from the street millage for public art? NO MORE MILLAGES! Period. Vote out the clowns on city council.
Tue, May 22, 2012 : 10:47 p.m.
"Kunselman wants to reduce the city's public art budget by $307,299. He proposes eliminating about $185,000 in transfers to the art fund from the water, sewer and stormwater budgets, as well as another $122,500 in expected transfers from the street millage." There is NO reason for funds from water, sewer and stormwater as well as the street millage be used for public art! The street millage?? The roads and streets around A2 are crumbling and potholes are the size of craters in some areas. So this is ok, because some of the street millage goes for public art? This is totally WRONG.
David Frye
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 9:56 p.m.
It's hard to imagine a bigger waste of money and resources than leaf pick-up. Just leave the leaves where they fall, folks! Contrary to what you were taught, they decompose perfectly well all by themselves and turn into instant fertilizer by spring.
Tue, May 22, 2012 : 10:51 p.m.
Public art is a much bigger waste of money when police and fire personnel are being cut.
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 7:58 p.m.
I cannot wait to see leaf pick up again, more Police and Firemen. With the amount of taxes we pay to this city it is great to finally see some results. While the solar powered talking traffic lights are nice, its the types of things in this article our Money should have been spent on to begin with. I wonder how much money has been funneled into that underground parking garage. Is that why leaf pickup was suspended to begin with? Finally a good decision, if they approve these changes!
Alan Goldsmith
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 7:30 p.m.
"Council Member Sabra Briere, D-1st Ward, is asking her colleagues to consider an amendment to zero out the mayor and council's $6,500 budget for conferences and travel. The council eliminated the item from the budget in 2010 but it was added back" Wow. Profile in Courage that one.
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 6:12 p.m.
Sounds like a good budget to me.
mike gatti
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 5:48 p.m.
Public art is a worthy cause but I as a reader have no idea if A2 spends more, less or equal to similarly situated cities. Leaf pick up would be great. Tree pick up? I guess I'd rather have the money go to pay for some of a police officer or firefighter's salary.
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 5:29 p.m.
Considering how much Recycle Bank is costing the city, I say it's a total scam. I signed up a year or two ago and I have 1957 points. And that's with only putting out my bin every other week. The problem is there is nothing of real value to redeem these points for. It's mostly just coupons. In fact the very best value I could find to use these points for were some free subscriptions to magazines that practically give away subscriptions anyway. I guess maybe I could get a free subscription to People magazine so I could recycle them and get more Recycle Bank points...?
Ron Granger
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 3:23 p.m.
Some people like to celebrate by destroying a tree every year. They should not expect the rest of us to subsidize their wasteful behavior. I know it's nice to toss it from your property, and have it magically disappear so you can forget it and the waste it represents. But is that the behavior we want to encourage through subsidies?
Wed, May 23, 2012 : 7:26 a.m.
I think that plastic trees are more wasteful and damaging to our environment than trees specifically grown to be cut and recycled.
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 4:47 p.m.
You are aware that there are people who provide for their families by maintaining farms whose sole or primary crop is Christmas trees, right? The average Christmas tree is not culled from a forest.
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 2:57 p.m.
Ann Arbor is a city that loves arts. There are many organizations, individuals and businesses that support art through a variety of channels. But these organizations, individuals and businesses can't operate a fire-fighting service or the police. So, the city government, please provide adequate basic service before you support public art.
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 2:26 p.m.
Once again, I'm glad I cast my vote for Jane Lumm. The residents of Ann Arbor really need to be aware of what is coming down the pike and let their council member know how they feel. Otherwise, we'll be dealing with same issues over and over.
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 4:50 p.m.
I'd like to live in an Ann Arbor in which a Republican can call herself such and get elected based on the merits of her ideas and not be voted down SOLELY because of her party affiliation. Thirty years ago those with a (D) next to their name used to complain of the same thing. Now that they have control, they've forgotten about it.
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 2:22 p.m.
While some of the amendments may not pass, hopefully voters will take note of who voted to pass the amendments and more important, who voted NOT to pass the amendments. During the election later this year, voters will hopefully voice their concern for the ongoing issues resulting from a council out of touch with the community.
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 2:05 p.m.
Breaking News: Some common sense invades Ann Arbor City Council!!! It must be an election year. Let's hope that these common sense proposals have some legs and get passed.
Tue, May 22, 2012 : 10:53 p.m.
The use of street and water and sewer funds for public art will pass again. This is not a budget that should pass.
Ryan J. Stanton
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 2 p.m.
A bit of background on state fire protection grants: http://www.annarbor.com/news/ann-arbor-among-cities-hardest-hit-by-michigans-underfunding-of-fire-protection-grants/
J. Zarman
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 1:48 p.m.
It is time to end the RecycleBank nonsense. Kudos to council members Kunselman, Briere and Hohnke for moving to end this fiasco. My experience with RecycleBank was miserable. The website that claimed "It's so easy" was one of the mostly unwieldy registrations ever. Updating my information proved to be a hopeless and impossible process. Phone calls to RecycleBank support? Over 12 times the system was down or unavailable. The several times I got through, never a human, and the automated "help" never got close to the information I sought. End result? I continued thoroughly putting recyclables out for collection, week after week. I got zero rewards even though I had given much time & effort to check out RecycleBank and sign up. Not even the promised free pass to Recycle Ann Arbor's Drop-Off center ever arrived. Meanwhile, the City of Ann Arbor sent me eight mailings, reminding me of my RecycleBank member number, urging me to get rewards, etc. Eight mailings, at what cost to me and other city taxpayers?!? A total and irresponsible waste of scarce city funds.....
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 5:17 p.m.
Having read about Cleveland using the same system as a stick rather than a carrot caused me not to sign up in the first place. I could easily see that city's use of the technology to track and fine people for NOT recycling coming here.
Tony Livingston
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 1:47 p.m.
Restructuring the retirement plans at city hall needs to be a very top priority. It should have been addressed years ago. The massive early retirements plus benefits that we are paying for is bankrupting the city. I hope Ms. Lumm is sincere and that she is able to see that some real changes are made.
Albert Howard
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 1:30 p.m.
Amen. Back to the basics.
Tue, May 22, 2012 : 10:54 p.m.
Using water and street money for public art is not back to basics.
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 1:27 p.m.
As long as single stream recycling remains, I could care less about Recyclebank. I'm also glad to see the police and fire departments are being restaffed, even if not to previous levels. It's a start.
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 1:25 p.m.
Increases in fire and police personnel and fall leaf collection are far more important than public art or a useless recycle bank.
Elijah Shalis
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 3:07 p.m.
We don't need this many police and fire fighters. Do you want to live in a police state?
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 1:16 p.m.
The Recycle Bank has certain earmarks I associate with scams. I recently received notice my 75 recycle points are expiring, since I never used them. These are the same 75 points I received for signing up in the first place. In other words, more than a year's worth of recycled trash as generated absolutely zero additional points. What's that all about, and why should we pay $60,000 additional to get rid of something that never paid out dollar one in the first place?
Tue, May 22, 2012 : 5 p.m.
My husband does the recycle bank points and we have gotten a few Lowe's gift cards for $10 each time. Not bad for just recycling things. I told him this morning it might be going away and he was sad but not surprised.
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 1:10 p.m.
Way to go Council Person Lumm! Finally, we have someone who knows what they are doing in the city council.
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 1:09 p.m.
Lumm for Mayor!
Stephen Lange Ranzini
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 12:59 p.m.
@EyeHeartA2: on the Christmas tree drop off site, you obviously didn't go there the day I did late in January when it was a giant mud pit! Besides getting my wife's GMC Tahoe with 4 wheel drive stuck (I finally did get out without a tow), I ruined my favorite pair of casual shoes... How could anyone without 4-wheel drive have gone in there and not come out having to be assisted with a tow truck? The whole idea is a waste of taxpayer resources and just shifts costs onto tax payers for a service done more economically by the city.
Ron Granger
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 3:28 p.m.
Your SUV was stuck in the mud and your shoes were ruined as you cast aside your now dead tree. Oh the humanity! Disposal of dead Christmas trees in Ann Arbor is almost like living in the third world. Won't someone think of the stuck SUVs and the ruined shoes. I weeped for my muddy SUV, until I saw a man who had no SUV. Government - please save us from this misery!
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 12:54 p.m.
These are just proposals, heaven forbid that the leftists will succumb to such fiscally sensible solution to a committee that is bent on entitlements and wasteful spending.
Ron Granger
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 12:50 p.m.
If this city wants to combat crime, they need more cops on bikes and not in cars. Bike patrols get them out in the community, where they can interact with the people. It gets them away from speed traps and speeding around, and sitting in their patrol cars with the engine running and the a/c cranked. And bikes are much less expensive than patrol cars. On foot or bike, you are far more aware of your surroundings, and you approach much more quietly.
Bertha Venation
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 7:23 p.m.
Maybe the cops on bikes will follow the traffic laws.... Nah.... what was I thinking? :)
Ron Granger
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 12:47 p.m.
"The public art needs to go as well until all other city needs are met." All other city needs will NEVER be met. With that thinking, we could never have any nice things. Like parks.
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 7:22 p.m.
We were at least allowed to vote on the parks. The 1% for art program appears to be beyond the control of voters and in a down economy with services cut and cut and cut, it makes sense to at least temporarily reduce or suspend it. Art can't put out a fire.
Elijah Shalis
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 12:37 p.m.
Ann Arbor already has too many police officers and the speed limits are too low. I also noticed since moving back here at if a light turns green the next light will almost always turn red by the time I get to it. Also many major roads are now 2 lane roads with a turn lane! What have these people done to my city!
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 8:24 p.m.
What are you basing too many cops on?
Elijah Shalis
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 12:56 p.m.
Uh no Ron and ur comment calls into question the veracity of all ur other comments.
Ron Granger
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 12:46 p.m.
It sounds like you're in a big hurry. If you want to drive fast, take the highway. Speed limits in and around Ann Arbor are significantly higher than they were 20 years ago.
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 12:30 p.m.
Oh, the leaf collection? That needs to come back. What were they thinking? (or not)
Wed, May 23, 2012 : 7:17 a.m.
And then the wet leaves freeze into large leaf ice rinks...."Wheeee!" (That's what I hear from my kids in the back seat.)
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 2:06 p.m.
My favorite part about the leaf collection is when the wet leaves clog up the storm drains, and then drivers get to skid around on standing water and wet leaves. Great system. Really makes driving in Ann Arbor a lot more interesting. I am so pumped for that again -
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 1:22 p.m.
For all the years I've lived hear and witnessed many leaf pickups, I've never see a snow plow used in this service. Converted front end loaders yes and large dump trucks, snow plows no.
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 12:37 p.m.
considering the fact that they used snow plows to do it the last time, i'm sure they just didn't understand how the process worked.
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 12:29 p.m.
Jane is great. A breath of sanity on the council. That said - I think I disagree with her on the Christmas tree thing. I used it, I liked it, I was cheesed off when it went away ---but really, it wasn't that big a dea to cut off a few branches and throw them in the compost bin. In fact, I think it might have been easier, since I just cut all the branches off in the living room. I don't want to go nuts restaffing the cops. I still see too many enforcing the revenue zones with illegal speed limits. Not as many as there used to be, so I count that as a good thing. That's my measure of overstaffing. Now if those cops were for downtown patrols or in areas we need them, OK, but if they are just going to "collect and serve" again, no thanks. If 6 extra fire fighters will get people to just shut up about it, then it is worth it for that alone. I can't imagine 6 makes much of a difference one way or the other.
Stephen Lange Ranzini
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 12:21 p.m.
Let's hope some of the proposed amendments pass!
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 12:17 p.m.
Thank you, Jane Lumm. This is why we voted for you.
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 12:16 p.m.
It appears this group of city council members (at least some of them) has finally developed a common-sense approach to solving these important problems .
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 11:50 a.m.
The revisal of the "1% heist for art" program will probaby have to wait until after the election when we will hopefully have some more sane people on council.
Tue, May 22, 2012 : 10:58 p.m.
Michael, public art in A2 are still being supported by the ruling party, and not the majority of residents who would much rather see the street millage money used for the streets!!! Fill the potholes and stop buying frivolous so-called "art" to hang in the lobby of some city building.
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 7:19 p.m.
@Michael - Of course most folks love art, but when we are losing basic community safety services (Fire, Police) as well as many other services, the "public art" community would do itself a great service by recognizing that times are tough and art won't put out a fire. I would think their smartest move would be voluntarily call by the art community for a temporary moratorium (or at least, reduction) to the 1% for arts program until some reasonable metric is reached (unemployment falls below 5%, safety services hits a certain threshold, etc). It'll demonstrate an understanding that will likely get them a fair bit of sympathy when the economy is doing better and we can afford this. With things tough, with the 1% for art program sitting on a bunch of unspent cash (that they can't even find good use for now) and people and services hurting, a stridently "Never cut art" view looks tone deaf and selfish.
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 12:33 p.m.
Yes, nothing says more about the "human condition" than the LED-adorned rusty metalwork sitting outside City Hall and the Lite-Brite on steroids that they plan to hang in the lobby there. And you're right about it being supported by the "ruling party", which with any luck will see its end in November.
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 12:10 p.m.
Art is civilization. At the center of every movement, every enlightenment, is art. It points to new directions in science, philosophy, engineering, etc. Historically, the arts have always been supported by the church, government, or ruling parties. It is about uncovering new potential, revealing the human condition, and fostering creativity, which to me, has far more return for my dollar than picking up somebody's dead tree every December. Peoples limited insight, selfishness, and outright ignorance towards the arts only highlights the bankrupt trajectory of contemporary culture.
Linda Peck
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 11:41 a.m.
I too am hopeful that the basic services will be shored up and the fluff will go. Nix to the travel budge, nix to the stealing of money for art, increase the much needed fire and police staffing, nix new hire pensions. Government should not be about fluff, not now and not ever.
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 11:40 a.m.
OK for once i an happy we have some people that can think of people.leaf and art really are the right way to go. art has always been my pet peeve. who needs art when we need so much. people go to the store and would like to get $150 for food. they only have $100 so they buy $100 worth. leaf pu is a great come back. so much easier on the older people. lets hope they do it right this time. over time for fire and police is because we need more of them. good luck
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 11:33 a.m.
The taxpayers of the city (not the hanger's on ) can only hope some sense comes to the budget , but don't hold your breath, the machine and its sacred cows will grind on no matter what..it's an election year and there will be lots of smoke and mirrors just like washington to lull the sheeple into believing they actually count....
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 11:25 a.m.
Finally a modicum of sense here - Although I do hope the public art funds do get eliminated - let that be funded by donations, volunteers, patrons of the arts, and all the other 'normal' methods that art gets funded. Funding it thru taxpayers dollars that go for city services ( that art cut because of 'shortfalls'), without the taxpayers being in on the decisions made, is arrogant and absurd. Tip my hat to the 3 rogue members that realize that the city's basic needs are the first priority. Now, time to wait (and hold my breath & vote) to see if they're true to their words.
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 1:18 p.m.
Only in A2 would someone claim that this plan makes sense. The council sees an extra dollar in their pocket and they rush to spend it - along with a few extra dollars from grants. Nonsense! Stop spending money. Period.
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 10:42 a.m.
It is good to see a possible increase in both the fire and police department -- this is extremely important and needed very much. DDA can be closed down and all the funds can go to the city -- I just don't understand how it is that they can not pay their "due" to the city and get away with it. The public art needs to go as well until all other city needs are met. Art is totally marvelous but if the funds are not readily available, it does need to be put on the back burner. Travel funds is another area that should be cut until a brighter future allows for those expenditures. A retirement plan definitely needs to be looked at -- and I am not in favor of any individual who can work for 5 years, retire and get a hefty pension and full health benefits -- believe that is what the last city administrator received -- something just is not right with that.
Mon, May 21, 2012 : 1:17 p.m.
Your last paragraph is filled with misinformation and you lack an understanding of what the DDA is and how it operates. Too bad. As well, some the travel funds are for continuing training for workers like Fire and Police. Minimal costs at best and good value for the dollar.


text:
The Mini Maker Faires were a huge success! The arena held up beautifully and the robots faired far better than I expected. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who helped.
- Wade for all his help fabricating, testing, brainstorming and running the Northside booth.
- Kat for making us amazing flags and buildings, as well as brainstorming and support.
- Olga for help running multiple events.
- Renée for an amazing set of antennas.
- Patrick for filming and sharing video.
Here's a video I put together with Patrick's video as well as some footage from GoPros on the Geekbots. Music ala Feral Mountain Man Jonathan Coulton
makerFaire2016 from kamon mark on Vimeo.
So what did I learn?
- The bracket that connects the wheel servo to the chassis needs to be lock-tighted in, lest the wheel servo fall out.
- Glue is also needed to make sure the rubber stays on the wheel should it catch
- If a ball gets stuck under the wrist gripper, it can be hard to dislodge. Also, under the right(or wrong) conditions, it is it possible to burn out the wrist servo, since it can't go to its lowered position.
- The transmitters I bought worked surprisingly well, even surviving me accidentally leaving one on overnight.
- After the first
- Li-Ions are the way to go!
- After the first event, I implemented a timer into the control panel, 'limiting' the time each person can play.