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text:
Are We in Danger From Wuhan Virus or Are We Sheep Being Led by Idiots Instead of Experts
The following story is brought to you courtesy of Red State. Click the link to visit their page and see more stories.
Our nation is being held hostage. Not by the fear of a virus but by incompetence.
I say fear of a virus for a reason. The actual virus itself, as the CDC has shown, is not particularly lethal. Like most other viruses, if you are healthy, if you don't have severe co-morbidities, and you are not immune-compromised, you will have a brief, mild illness and fully recover, in fact, so mild that the overwhelming majority of people who have contracted Chinese Lung AIDS don't even know that they have done so. Of course, there are exceptions, but there are exceptions to just about everything. You don't order society based on your worst fears about an ephemeral threat.
Why, then, has civilization been brought to its knees?
On the one hand, there is the fascistic tendency of certain elected and appointed officials to simply make their fellow citizens do stuff because they can. There is no rhyme or reason the Andrew "Let's Kill the Old Folks" Cuuomo's bizarre "zone" system that allows you to get snot-slinging drunk at a liquor store but not at a bar and which permits BLM protests but essentially outlaws churches. Justice Gorsuch made that very obvious in his concurrence to Amy Coney Barrett's opinion striking down Cuomo's power grab (see Low-Wattage Justice Sotomayor's Attack on the Bill of Rights Makes Her the Left's New Supreme Court Bobblehead).
What has been noticeable about the expert-driven response to the Wuhan virus is that nothing tried has had any impact (though we are assured that the failure, like the failure of socialism, is that we really haven't tried it hard enough). One would think that if the experts are part of the obvious power grab by politicians, they would at least want to seem credible, and that has not happened. Playwright David Mamet (who is not a conservative) writing in the Wall Street Journal comes to a different conclusion. Our experts are making bad decisions because that is all they know how to do.
We have seen shameless incompetence rewarded before.
Consider Prof. Frederick Lindemann, a close adviser to Winston Churchill during World War II. He treasured his access to the prime minister. Experts couldn't get near Churchill unless they came through Lindemann. He feuded with everybody he perceived to be a threat, and was especially threatened by Sir Henry Tizard, who helped to develop radar, one of the most useful tools in the war effort. Naturally Lindemann mocked it. Later, Lindemann dismissed the possibility that the Germans were developing a liquid-fueled rocket capable of bombing London—the V-2.
Lindemann was feted and honored to the end of his days.
Or consider Joseph Stalin's science adviser, Trofim Lysenko. He, too, had complete access to the boss. He believed that plants, like good Communists, could be educated—that peas and wheat could be trained to grow in winter. The Soviet ministry of agriculture, acting on Lysenko's bogus theories, managed to ruin crops all over Eurasia and starve as many as 10 million people. Later his ideas influenced agriculture policy in Mao's China and killed several million more.
Lysenko was a talented flatterer. He outlived Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev, dying peacefully in 1976.
Now we have climate change and its attendant alarmists. In 2001 a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change highlighted a recent study claiming that the Earth's temperature had risen dramatically during the period coincident with the introduction of fossil fuels—the famous "hockey stick graph." The news media, backed by those parts of the "scientific community" the media chose to honor, presented this analysis as though it were indisputable fact. In fact, it was riddled with problems. That would have been fine—no harm done—except that the American left, and the running dogs in education and the press, saw the fear occasioned by the hockey stick as an opportunity. No correction was forthcoming.
Most recently we have Covid-19. The New England Journal of Medicine reports that masks are useless outside health-care facilities, that there is little possibility of catching the virus from a "passing interaction in a public place." Happy news, save that they, one week later, issued a squishy semiretraction, saying, in effect, "It couldn't hurt."
And we see it rewarded again today. The same experts…like Antony Fauci and Robert Redfield and numerous "public health" gurus..have given wildly contradictory advice and predictions this insanity began. Fauci has sneered at the idea of wearing face masks and then claimed that wearing them was our savior. He's for and against both opening and closing schools. He's said asymptomatic carriers of the virus will and will not spread the virus to others. He's said we could get back to normal after getting a vaccine and that life will again be as it was before. Some Twitter blue check doctor literally sh** himself over the weekend over the Supreme Court decision which simply said the government can't treat churches differently than businesses, and yet he signed a letter by "public intellectuals" declaring that systemic racism was a greater public health risk than Chinese Lung AIDS and, therefore, it was completely okay to protest in tightly packed rioting mobs.
This is what results. Back to Mamet:
What could the shutdown hurt? A pandemic was allowed to destroy the American economy. Tens of millions are driven out of work, cover their faces, and walk down the streets in fear of their neighbors.
A friend owns a restaurant. He is going broke. He had seating outside, but winter approaches and heaters are back-ordered until next spring. He is holding on. One is "permitted" to sit at his tables and eat without a mask. Indeed, how would one eat while wearing one? Does the virus know that one is sitting down?
He greeted two regular customers the other night, and sat at their table to chat. He took off his mask. The customer informed him that the regulations stated that employees of a restaurant are required by law to wear masks at all times. The owner put his mask on and rose. But does the virus know he is an employee of the restaurant? With whom would he argue, being an employee and a proprietor? With the virus?
The virus here is government—or at least the incompetents who advise our rulers and cannot admit the legitimacy of dissension. Absent intervention, this virus may eventually kill the host organism.
We have been cowed into obedience by two powerful forces., There is the state's coercive power, which can deprive you of liberty and property. For that power to come into play, though, requires a conferred legitimacy. That legitimacy is being provided by, to be charitable, idiots who have insinuated themselves into the highest levels of our "scientific community." I say charitable because if we don't think they are idiots, we are left with the realization that they are truly evil people who are more than willing to kill as many of us as it takes to make us do what they want.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The final Sunday of the NFL season has arrived. The Seattle Seahawks square off against the Denver Broncos. The #1 offense vs the #1 defense. Should be a dandy of football game. I have both your Best Bet Side and Total Winners up now.
Here are my Prop Plays. You can find most of these on a variety of online sites.
Next Top Play - When will TV show broadcast and identify John Elway? Between 14:59 and 10:00 minute mark of the 1st quarter.
Lynch +345 - Baldwin +4100 - Ball +5100 . I like to put a couple 'outside the box' guys out in the MVP running!
As I close out another winning NFL season, I just want to say Thank You for all those who have purchased, followed or tailed this year. Another profitable season lay ahead, but now we will focus on College Hoops, NBA and NHL.


Test preparation has long been a big business catering to students taking SATs and admissions exams for law, medical and other graduate schools. But the new clientele is quite a bit younger: 3- and 4-year-olds whose parents hope that a little assistance — costing upward of $1,000 for several sessions — will help them win coveted spots in the city's gifted and talented public kindergarten classes.
Motivated by a recession putting private schools out of reach and concern about the state of regular public education, parents — some wealthy, some not — are signing up at companies like Bright Kids NYC. Bright Kids, which opened this spring in the financial district, has some 200 students receiving tutoring, most of them for the gifted exams, for up to $145 a session and 80 children on a waiting list for a weekend "boot camp" program.
These types of businesses have popped up around the country, but took off in New York City when it made the Otis-Lennon School Ability Test, or Olsat, a reasoning exam [i.e., and IQ test], and the Bracken School Readiness Assessment, a knowledge test, the universal tests for gifted admissions beginning in 2008.
Kayla's session at Bright Kids was an initial assessment; her mother, Jena Rosenblum, had not decided whether to put her through a full course of tutoring. She was considering it at the suggestion of Kayla's preschool teacher. "Even though we live in the West Village and there are great public schools, obviously, any opportunity to step it up a notch in caliber, we would like to try," Ms. Rosenblum said.
Melisa Kehlmann said her main concern was that her 4-year-old son, Adrian, would be shut out of the well-regarded but overcrowded schools in her Manhattan neighborhood.
No similar message, however, has come from the public schools. In fact, the city distributes 16 Olsat practice questions to "level the playing field," said Anna Commitante, the head of gifted and talented programs for the city's Department of Education.


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List of programs broadcast by TV 2 Bliss.

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Lists of television series by network

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Standard Chart
Studio Estimates
Screens & Showings
<<Last Weekend <Last Year View Index: By Year | By Weekend Next Year> Next Weekend>>
Row TW LW Title (click to view) Studio Weekend Gross % Change Theater Count / Change Average Total Gross Budget* Week #
1 28 24 Star Wars: The Force Awakens BV $153,949 -19.0% 208 -52 $740 $936,064,861 $245 19
2 14 15 Deadpool Fox $680,518 -30.2% 594 -197 $1,146 $361,132,461 $58 11
3 6 4 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice WB $5,502,033 -39.1% 3,066 -439 $1,795 $319,483,636 $250 5
4 4 5 Zootopia BV $6,579,545 -19.2% 2,798 -411 $2,352 $316,404,151 - 8
5 1 1 The Jungle Book (2016) BV $61,538,821 -40.4% 4,028 - $15,278 $192,213,247 $175 2
6 31 25 The Revenant Fox $108,895 -29.8% 170 -52 $641 $183,416,276 $135 18
7 22 22 Kung Fu Panda 3 Fox $274,514 +0.3% 273 -20 $1,006 $141,654,709 $145 13
8 58 54 Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip Fox $14,238 -28.4% 46 -13 $310 $85,847,969 - 19
9 19 14 10 Cloverfield Lane Par. $553,313 -47.7% 595 -490 $930 $70,728,064 - 7
10 18 13 The Divergent Series: Allegiant LG/S $635,453 -53.6% 852 -632 $746 $65,038,769 - 6
11 26 20 London Has Fallen Focus $185,379 -38.6% 275 -161 $674 $61,715,066 $60 8
12 13 8 Miracles from Heaven TriS $1,073,517 -44.6% 1,264 -818 $849 $58,759,303 $13 6
13 8 7 My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 Uni. $2,096,025 -35.7% 1,749 -548 $1,198 $55,370,765 - 5
14 83 45 The Hateful Eight Wein. $1,819 -95.2% 9 -14 $202 $54,116,191 $44 18
15 67 56 Hubble 3D WB $7,159 -61.4% 7 -4 $1,023 $51,605,261 - 315
16 5 3 The Boss Uni. $6,228,205 -37.5% 3,375 -120 $1,845 $49,656,410 $29 3
17 95 113 Deep Sea 3D (IMAX) WB $747 +857.7% 3 - $249 $46,190,197 - 500
18 40 40 Spotlight ORF $31,253 -30.9% 91 -12 $343 $44,867,903 - 25
19 61 64 Brooklyn FoxS $10,972 -8.3% 22 -7 $499 $38,251,390 - 25
20 62 58 Risen Sony $10,021 -41.8% 41 -16 $244 $36,749,336 $20 10
21 3 2 Barbershop: The Next Cut WB (NL) $10,518,254 -48.0% 2,676 +15 $3,931 $35,719,746 - 2
22 77 83 Under the Sea 3D WB $3,008 +27.0% 4 -2 $752 $34,969,384 - 370
23 34 34 The 5th Wave Sony $57,282 -6.4% 89 -10 $644 $34,725,946 $38 14
24 32 29 Gods of Egypt LG/S $80,659 -14.9% 152 -11 $531 $30,998,712 $140 9
25 50 46 The Witch A24 $23,741 -37.3% 45 -10 $528 $25,081,475 $4 10
26 78 99 Born to Be Wild (IMAX) WB $2,895 +384.1% 8 - $362 $24,581,108 - 257
27 33 27 Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Par. $73,125 -39.8% 154 -69 $475 $23,049,575 $35 8
28 2 N The Huntsman: Winter's War Uni. $19,445,035 - 3,791 - $5,129 $19,445,035 $115 1
29 12 9 God's Not Dead 2 PFR $1,119,889 -40.4% 1,168 -443 $959 $18,958,215 - 4
30 100 101 Galapagos (IMAX) IMAX $570 -3.9% 3 +1 $190 $18,547,276 - 803
31 39 43 Eddie the Eagle Fox $34,155 -17.3% 73 -21 $468 $15,685,764 $23 9
32 10 10 Eye in the Sky BST $1,204,335 -22.5% 838 -53 $1,437 $14,956,486 - 7
33 90 77 Room A24 $1,090 -69.7% 2 -4 $545 $14,677,654 - 28
34 98 85 To the Arctic (IMAX) WB $658 -63.9% 1 -2 $658 $14,438,754 - 199
35 17 16 Hello, My Name is Doris RAtt. $636,746 -18.5% 496 -154 $1,284 $11,964,457 - 7
36 7 6 Criminal (2016) LG/S $3,116,777 -46.0% 2,683 - $1,162 $10,881,263 - 2
37 74 88 Island of Lemurs: Madagascar (IMAX) WB $4,208 +143.7% 4 -2 $1,052 $10,611,288 - 108
38 37 37 The Lady in the Van SPC $42,045 -10.3% 59 -12 $713 $9,800,386 - 21
39 49 61 The Perfect Match LGF $23,957 +67.8% 85 +25 $282 $9,658,370 - 7
40 21 11 Hardcore Henry STX $282,519 -80.5% 519 -2,496 $544 $9,014,324 - 3
41 23 17 Meet the Blacks Free $204,157 -58.3% 282 -302 $724 $8,740,292 - 4
42 106 91 Journey to the South Pacific IMAX $315 -72.9% 4 +2 $79 $7,122,514 - 116
43 72 65 Where to Invade Next Drft. $5,346 -54.7% 15 -8 $356 $3,820,195 - 11
44 29 18 Midnight Special WB $132,372 -69.3% 174 -347 $761 $3,450,455 - 6
45 15 19 Everybody Wants Some!! Par. $652,690 +52.3% 454 +320 $1,438 $2,345,937 - 4
46 85 81 Son of Saul SPC $1,709 -43.7% 7 -4 $244 $1,772,944 - 19
47 48 35 I Saw the Light SPC $24,882 -58.1% 49 -54 $508 $1,593,189 - 5
48 9 N Compadres PNT $1,397,434 - 368 - $3,797 $1,397,434 - 1
49 16 23 Miles Ahead SPC $639,032 +227.5% 527 +480 $1,213 $1,334,920 - 4
50 56 59 The Little Prince EOne $15,278 -3.0% 35 -18 $437 $1,274,914 - 11
51 52 49 Embrace of the Serpent Osci. $21,851 -28.1% 15 -21 $1,457 $1,260,313 - 10
52 11 N A Hologram for the King RAtt. $1,138,578 - 401 - $2,839 $1,138,578 - 1
53 38 32 Chongqing Hot Pot CL $36,488 -58.0% 23 -16 $1,586 $735,222 - 4
54 54 47 City of Gold IFC $17,363 -52.9% 37 -13 $469 $574,113 - 7
55 86 75 Knight of Cups BG $1,675 -57.8% 3 -5 $558 $553,176 - 8
56 45 36 Remember (US Release) A24 $26,970 -46.1% 29 -15 $930 $543,695 - 7
57 36 30 Born to be Blue (US Release) IFC $51,655 -42.9% 73 -6 $708 $517,255 - 5
58 25 26 WARx2 WARX2 $188,294 +42.8% 12 +2 $15,691 $495,572 - 7
59 20 N Elvis & Nixon BST $466,447 - 381 - $1,224 $466,447 - 1
60 42 38 Saturday's Warrior Purd. $29,844 -35.0% 27 -1 $1,105 $448,327 - 4
61 51 39 Marguerite Cohen $22,595 -50.1% 23 -16 $982 $440,665 - 7
62 68 62 Dough Men. $6,576 -50.9% 5 -2 $1,315 $373,863 - 11
63 111 105 Jafar Panahi's Taxi KL $131 -73.3% 1 - $131 $321,642 - 30
64 24 31 Green Room A24 $197,408 +124.4% 30 +27 $6,580 $312,911 - 2
65 30 33 Sing Street Wein. $124,441 +95.7% 25 +20 $4,978 $209,399 - 2
66 44 48 April and the Extraordinary World GK $27,877 -24.1% 26 -1 $1,072 $186,267 - 5
67 41 41 The Invitation Drft. $31,014 -29.8% 29 +10 $1,069 $181,482 - 3
68 27 N Unsullied Indic. $179,112 - 102 - $1,756 $179,112 - 1
69 101 69 Krisha A24 $517 -92.3% 3 -17 $172 $134,267 - 6
70 104 - Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words Rialto $353 - 1 - $353 $133,283 - 24
71 43 50 Francofonia MBox $28,849 +0.1% 15 +7 $1,923 $131,512 - 4
72 46 51 Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe CLS $26,957 -3.3% 7 +2 $3,851 $118,982 - 4
73 57 - 1915 BM $15,000 - 1 - $15,000 $111,682 - 16
74 88 110 Aferim! BWP $1,236 +550.5% 2 - $618 $100,328 - 14
75 47 55 Louder than Bombs Orch. $26,169 +34.1% 21 +6 $1,246 $90,736 - 3
76 55 42 New York, New York (2016) CL $15,989 -62.1% 12 -4 $1,332 $78,172 - 2
77 94 - Sweet 20 CJ $823 - 1 - $823 $71,132 - 6
78 81 94 Mountains May Depart KL $2,255 +127.3% 3 +2 $752 $69,106 - 11
79 82 - The Messenger (2015) KL $1,843 - 3 - $614 $66,637 - 11
80 35 N The Meddler SPC $57,022 - 4 - $14,256 $57,022 - 1
81 109 115 DONGJU: The Portrait of a Poet CJ $183 +147.3% 1 - $183 $56,550 - 4
82 66 57 The Dark Horse BG $8,330 -52.2% 7 -3 $1,190 $53,667 - 4
83 87 96 Ran (2016 re-issue) Rialto $1,333 +52.7% 3 +2 $444 $53,069 - 9
84 103 90 Cemetery of Splendor Strand $412 -66.5% 2 -2 $206 $49,140 - 8
85 65 52 Los Sures Osci. $8,559 -67.2% 1 - $8,559 $48,996 - 2
86 69 66 Vita Activa: The Spirit of Hannah Arendt Zeit. $6,050 -44.1% 3 +2 $2,017 $47,838 - 3
87 76 78 Sweet Bean KL $3,648 +3.2% 6 +2 $608 $46,876 - 6
88 53 72 Time Renegades CJ $20,149 +232.1% 11 +10 $1,832 $30,051 - 2
89 75 68 Sold Mats. $4,100 -54.2% 7 +3 $586 $29,323 - 4
90 73 - The Winding Stream Argo. $5,277 - 3 - $1,759 $28,766 - 12
91 71 - Love Thy Nature ITL $5,503 - 17 - $324 $28,041 - 17
92 110 - Rabin, the Last Day KL $182 - 1 - $182 $27,493 - 13
93 89 86 Take Me to the River (2016) FM $1,130 -36.8% 2 -2 $565 $25,826 - 6
94 99 95 No Home Movie Icar. $643 -33.8% 2 +1 $322 $23,460 - 10
95 91 106 Lolo FR $1,046 +198.9% 1 -1 $1,046 $19,908 - 7
96 80 60 Revelation: Dawn of Global Government RM $2,631 -82.4% 2 - $1,316 $19,107 - 2
97 63 70 Our Last Tango Strand $9,419 +43.8% 3 +2 $3,140 $19,086 - 2
98 114 80 Neon Bull KL $36 -98.8% 1 -3 $36 $15,004 - 3
99 59 N Hockney FM $13,683 - 4 - $3,421 $13,683 - 1
100 70 N How to Let Go of the World and Love All Things Climate Can't Change WOW $5,800 - 1 - $5,800 $12,824 - 1
101 115 117 The Program (2016) EOne $6 - 1 - $6 $12,582 - 6
102 97 89 Of Mind and Music Mont. $714 -48.1% 1 -1 $714 $12,356 - 10
103 60 N Streit's: Matzo and the American Dream Men. $12,065 - 3 - $4,022 $12,065 - 1
104 84 - Gridiron Heroes Indic. $1,812 - 3 -2 $604 $12,012 - 2
105 92 73 Adderall Diaries A24 $1,023 -81.5% 31 +1 $33 $11,287 - 2
106 64 N Tale of Tales IFC $8,871 - 2 - $4,436 $8,871 - 1
107 105 82 Wedding Doll Strand $351 -87.3% 1 -2 $351 $4,186 - 2
108 102 111 I Don't Belong Anywhere: The Cinema of Chantal Akerman Icar. $457 +238.5% 2 +1 $229 $3,774 - 4
109 108 104 Mad Tiger FM $199 -60.7% 1 -1 $199 $3,322 - 6
110 96 118 Burning Bodhi Mont. $744 +18,500.0% 1 - $744 $3,203 - 6
111 113 114 The Dying of the Light FRun $80 +2.6% 1 - $80 $3,086 - 3
112 79 N Men & Chicken Drft. $2,654 - 2 - $1,327 $2,654 - 1
113 93 N Sworn Virgin Strand $830 - 1 - $830 $830 - 1
114 107 N The Silence of Mark Rothko Icar. $268 - 1 - $268 $268 - 1
115 112 - Memoria Mont. $85 - 1 - $85 $219 - 3
TOTAL (115 MOVIES): $128,304,144 -27.4% 35,676 -3,552 $3,596
* Production Budget in millions. On average, studios earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.
Weekend Index Page


To become increasingly media literate, one needs to consider the sources, byline, audience and what other outlets are reporting.
Imagine you are waiting on a street corner and watch as an out-of-control car zooms past you and smashes into a light pole, causing another vehicle to run into it. Worried, you rush over to the wreckage, joined by two other people who saw the crash. Soon after, a policeman shows up and inquires what each person saw.
All three witnesses, including you, report a different version of the story. Yet each individual reported correctly according to what they had seen.
Every story has multiple angles. As journalists, it is our job to seek and report those stories with detailed accuracy, quickness and without bias.
Unfortunately in today's day and age, trust in media seems to rest at an all time low. The rise of "fake news" in just the last two years has created a chasm between the public and those who report news.
The truly sad part is fake news exists in grave excess. Some major news outlets publish fake and or biased news to fill an agenda or sell papers. A popular tool to use in the fake news realm is to wrap truth all around one big lie, so it appears believable but the heart of it is actually incorrect.
As a result of this, citizens absolutely must be engaged with the news they watch and read, especially online or on social media. While journalists serve as a watchdog, the public must serve as a watchdog for the journalists and news sites. But so many people blame the media for spreading false stories.
There are organizations who seek to spread their fake news to advance their agenda, but at the same time, we, the people, also bear some responsibility for sharing these fake stories with our followers, completely unaware of their inaccuracies.
To become increasingly media literate, one needs to consider the sources, byline, audience and what other outlets are reporting. Additionally, before you like, share or retweet an article, actually take the time to read it instead of sending it out to your followers based on the outrageous clickbait title.
Reports without other sources simply must be viewed with skepticism while the byline is the line of text, telling the audience the author's name. Not only do they boast the author's name, but if there is no byline, the author most likely does not want their name attached to their work.
Think about the audience an outlet is sending their news to, knowing they attempt to appeal to certain demographics to keep ratings high. Adult? Child? Democrat? Republican? How are they spinning it in their favor?
Additionally, before you like, share or retweet an article, actually take the time to read it instead of sending it out to your followers based on the outrageous clickbait title.
It is crucial when reading a major, breaking or controversial story that other news sites are reporting the same thing. Corroboration between multiple sources is key when searching for truth and accuracy.
Lastly, follow through with a story. Journalists report news as it becomes available so over time, a story may change.
We as citizens hold the civic duty to stay engaged with our media to help our democracy function best. We must have the ability to pull out the bias of what we listen and read, as well as listen to all sides of the story, whether Republican or Democrat, Liberal or Conservative. Instead of jumping on a mass media bandwagon, become an informed and educated news consumer.
For more articles related to SJW, check out Join the discussion: Feather staff shares views on controversial topics and COLUMN: Scholastic Journalism Week inspires students to find voice. For another column, read COLUMN: Golden Knights' mindset impresses Alexander Rurik.
Alexander Rurik can be reached via Twitter @alexrurik23 and via email: Alexander Rurik.
Great column Alex. This is a great topic for our generation to talk about.
This is a super important topic, and you covered it so well! Great work.


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January 21, 2015 Matt Nicolette
Important to every life of a Studio Outsider is planning how to use our paid time off (PTO). Last year my wife and I, new to North Texas, decided to take advantage of our closer proximity to Colorado and take a road trip to the Rocky Mountains. Our America the Beautiful Annual Pass was expiring and we wanted to squeeze-in one more park, do some hiking, and see some scenery. A (long) day's drive from Dallas, nestled in the south Rockies, Great Sand Dunes National Park seemed like an interesting destination to visit with beautiful scenery, unique hikes, and fascinating history.
History and Geology
Originally designated in 1932 as a National Landmark, Great Sand Dunes National Park was established in 2004 to preserve the unique character of the site and to protect valuable water resources that still exist just a few feet below the surface of the sand. Covering 44,245 acres, the sand dunes are the highest in North America. Trapped between the San Juan Mountain Range to the west and the Sangre de Cristo Range to the east, the dunes rise as high as 770 feet above the San Luis Valley floor. The dunefield evolved and grew over the past 440,000 years as winds from the west deposited sand left behind by the now extinct Rio Grande River and prehistoric Lake Alamosa at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountain range. The dunes grew higher as storms blew from the east down from the mountains pushing and depositing the sand back towards the valley floor. Contributing to this constant evolution Medano and Sand Creek run along the base of the dunefield carrying sand from the eastern edge of the dunes around to west edge where the eolian process continues in an endless loop.
The Hikes
The Park offers incredible dune hikes as well as hikes into the Rocky Mountains and through the valley's grasslands and wetlands. Our favorite trail was to the summit of Star Dune, the highest dune in North America. I use the term "trail" loosely as I can't tell you how we reached the Dune. As we entered the dunefield we gradually found our way up, around, down, and across several ridges, past High Dune, and eventually to the summit of Star Dune. From Star Dune we looked across the 30 square miles of the dunefield toward the Rocky Mountains in the distance. If you remember your sled (we didn't) you can make the trip down the dunes much quicker by sliding or sandboarding down the sandy slopes to the edge of Medano Creek.
A uniquely exciting trip, I would recommend Great Sand Dunes National Park to anyone looking to escape the city for a long weekend. If by chance you have enough vacation days to extend the trip, the western entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park is a quick and beautiful four hour drive north through the Rocky Mountains. Drive safely and remember your water and sunscreen!
In Ecology, Photography, USA, Travel Tags travel, outsiders, outsider voices
Unveiled: Oakbrook Center Vortex, Chicago
July 14, 2014 Jessica Pfeffer
Photo Credit: Jongmu Lee
Oakbrook Center first opened its doors in 1962 and quickly became a regional shopping destination for the Chicago metropolitan area. The mall, located in a first ring suburb of Chicago called Oak Brook, offered a unique shopping experience in an outdoor, open-air environment. Original designs for the mall played on this idea by conceptualizing the mall as a garden, with water features within the garden a primary component of the experience of the place.
Oakbrook is the second-largest retail destination in the Chicago area, so it was an easy decision for Chicago-based development company General Growth Properties to invest in the redesign of the shopping center. In 2011, GGP engaged Omniplan Architects and Studio Outside in that task: to take the strong points of the existing shopping center and re-envision them through total renovation of the exterior space.
The studio team used an elegant palette of materials to revitalize and upgrade the aging facility while using many of the existing large specimen trees as focal points of the landscape design. The largest task that faced the design team was to re-imagine the shopping center's well-known water features. Studio Outside began the large task by conceptualizing 5 new fountains which would run year-round for the mall. Fountain Source, a California-based fountain design firm, helped the team understand the powthe intricacies of water technology and engineering.
At the heart of the mall is perhaps the renovation project's most celebrated amenity, the Vortex Fountain. The large, central fountain consists of a series of concentric spirals that work in harmony with water jets, lighting, and seating to create an incredible public space and focal point for the entire project. A large, central fountain had always existed in its space, but it's tired 1960's design was one-dimensional and did not excite shoppers.
Video Credit: Crystal Fountains
The owner challenged the designers to create a fountain that was visually dynamic while also discouraging shoppers from directly entering the space. To do this, the fountain's form created a space, as opposed to simply acting as an object in space. The design team sought to minimize the edge of the fountain in order to marge the fountain into the surrounding plaza space. The edge was given multiple functions; it acts as a seat wall, a planter wall, and a water container. Instead of being continuous, the wall is made up of many segments spiraling around each other. This makes it hard to define where it begins and where it ends. At its lowest point, the fountain is only 18" deep and spirals down to this point from the elevation of the plaza surrounding it.
The sculptural water feature plays a significant role in the visitor's experience of the fountain. Fountain Source created very dynamic water sequencing to engage visitors. Vertical jets emphasize the spiraling form of the fountain and draw the visitor's eye down to a large central array, a composition pulsing with over 4,000 gallons of water per minute. This is enough volume to fill a typical backyard swimming pool in less than five minutes.
What a visitor will never see is the impressive pump and computer system built by Illinois-based fountain contractor Fountain Technologies and General Contractor Graycor Construction. Together, the team was able to design, engineer, and build the system that runs the fountain including: a 40,000 gallon water tank (located in the basement of the mall building next to the fountain), a highly sophisticated computer panel, over 50 Crystal Fountain nozzles and LED lights, 7 pumps, and an elaborate network of piping.
Below the fountain: two layers of an elaborate network of piping.
Concrete reinforcing shows where the concrete will be formed to create the concentric spirals of the Vortex walls. Pipes stub up where weirs are located that deliver water to the fountain.
Massive concrete formwork in place while concrete is poured to form the fountain.
The concrete basin is cured. A dozen ornamental trees are planted in perimeter planters along the fountain walls. To the side of the planters are the weirs that supply water to the fountain. Pipe connections for the jets are stubbed up.
In the middle, the piping to deliver water to the center array of jets. A layer of black water-proofing membrane covers the concrete fountain basin- which will evenutally be covered with stone pavers. Stone masons work on cladding outter foutain walls with limestone.
Fountain System Photos
The fountain system's mechanical panels and computer.
Massive supply and drainage pipes to take water into and out of the pump room. To the right: The fountains 40,000 gallon water tank.
Pumps that feed water to the fountains jets, and supply weirs located just outside of the water tank.
Read more about Oakbrook Center at StudioOutside.us
In Landscape Architecture, Projects, USA, Video Tags on the boards, projects, project recap, on site


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Overnight, the vacant, dreary parking lot northwest of the La Cañada Congregational Church (known here for many years as Church of the Lighted Window) comes alive with farmers displaying fresh raspberries, bakers with buttery biscuits and cooks offering hot tamales. It's a kaleidoscope of sights, smells and colors.
It's the weekly Farmers Market, across Foothill Boulevard from Memorial Park, a great big happening smack dab in the middle of La Cañada Flintridge.
From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., every Saturday, about 45 stalls open for business 52 weeks of the year. As I crossed the street I thought of a movie set with this gorgeous display of fruits and vegetables, fresh off the pickup trucks, plumped up for the camera man.
I saw a giant cauliflower that I could barely lift, organic apples, fresh wild fish, and avocados so big I couldn't close my hand around them. Somehow I managed. I am going to admit that the delicious strawberries that I bought made it only as far as my taste buds and not into my tote bag.
There are also retail stalls displaying flowers, clothing and jewelry. As I looked around at the bustle of vendors, farmers and shoppers, breathing in the fresh air, I realized that I could be in any market square across the nation or the world, and, for that matter, in any century.
An extra plus this particular day was spotting our La Cañada postmistress, who had convinced the U.S. Postal Service to set up a one-time post office table at the market to hand-stamp our outgoing mail with 91011, in honor of our ZIP code and the day's date, an event that will not happen again in our lifetimes.
The Farmers Market and our Chamber of Commerce supervise the marketplace and it is a happy blend. I would like to see a handout listing all the vendors — perhaps with a description of their products. And there I would be the following Saturday, with my shopping list and another tote bag eventually full of goods. Or, more appropriately, goodies.
Parking is an issue. There are not enough spaces for this popular event. Newcomers may be somewhat discouraged and even veterans of the market may not want to walk around the corner and down the block with their bags full of supplies. Nevertheless, the trek is worth it.
Many of us of a certain age remember when farms were just outside the towns in which we lived. The whole family would crowd into the old car and make an outing of it.
It was open season on the produce and fruit. You could bite into a big heirloom tomato and have the juice dribble down your chin. There were plenty of red lips (and achy stomachs) when too many cherries were torn from the trees.
One summer day, my friend Dean and I earned some money by picking peaches. The orchard smelled, well, peachy, and I don't recall having breakfast.
We did get paid by the pound and I recall the old-style scales hanging from the trees. There was an extra "spiff" (a commission) for the kid whose end-of-the day tonnage beat all the others. I believe Dean was tempted to lift me up and put me on the scales so he could win. I had eaten the profits.
It's more fun bringing the orchard and farm to us. So, a big thanks for the creative people who had the foresight to establish the Farmers Market in La Cañada. It was raw inspiration and we now have our own farmer in the dell.


The P3 Power Boost » Marijuana Collective near Me – What Is It?
One of the greatest approaches to locate a consistent resource for cannabis is to visit cannabis-specific events and conferences and meet cultivators and manufacturers. Well it won't get you high but it has been demonstrated to enable a wide selection of healthcare conditions. It can be possible that you can't locate a seller near your house, particularly in the rural places.
When you are checked in and find the chance to peruse our menu in the primary lobby, you're get invited back into our consultation room. You will receive tremendous benefits of in taking CBD. You will have to employ a construction team to bring your vision in the last stages.
You may even find and get marijuana oil online that's very less available in dispensaries. In some areas hemp is utilized to wash the soil. The marijuana business is attracting widespread interest.
When it has to do with https://www.gcu.edu/degree-programs/mba-accounting teaching people how to purchase marijuana, our team's training is centered on helping patients find the relief they require. Results from some studies are hard to extrapolate to the overall population because of too little standardization of the active compounds in marijuana, and due to the difficulty in adequately blinding patients. For example, they can experience an increase in heart rate and a decrease in blood pressure after initially consuming marijuana.
It is possible to choose online cannabis websites and locate a correct dispensary one. Medical marijuana has a rather higher tendency for physiologic and mental dependence and abuse. First, it fits well with skiing and snowboarding.
Additionally, the legalization of marijuana would enable the patient to utilize it without first having to prove it ought to be used for medical purposes. Surprisingly, in spite of legalization approaching, nobody would like to actually discuss cannabis, especially the way that it impacts the workplace. There must have been a lot of individuals who heard that marijuana is secure and not addictive!
What Is So Fascinating About Marijuana Collective near Me?
MMjOS stipulates the ability target pretty much any group of members you can imagine. Banks and credit unions are expected to inform federal authorities should they suspect a customer may be engaged in illegal activity. The usage of medical marijuana in California is widespread and lots of dispensaries offer you the identification cards.
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Every state has fantastic areas to visit however if you just have enough time or resources to plan 1 trip for the season we wanted you to take advantage of it. The present bill and its history are available here. You might even try more than 1 place before you find one that you like.
Finding a Health-related Cannabis Card is only great for a year after it's been issued, then it has to be renewed. Acquiring a medical marijuana card is not ever a complicated approach. Knowing now you can buy real marijuana online along with buy legal weed online.
It is still quite scary to take part in the democratic process when you're admitting that you sell federally illegal drugs. THC also has quite noticeable consequences on sleep. The CBD has exposed the capacity to obstruct the maturation of the rheumatoid arthritis, whilst both THC and the CBD has lots of anti-inflammatory outcomes.
To pay online whenever you're buying marijuana, you marijuana dispenseries don't even require a charge card, which is a huge selling point for lots of people. Because of the variety our industry offers, patients have many options in regards to picking the process of consumption that is most suitable for them. Given the total amount of information in a number of the applications, it's possible the members may decide to recess to be able to have enough time to review that information and reconvene at a subsequent date to deliberate and make their selection, Broussard explained.
Always be certain you read the reviews on the many dispensaries and learn what others have skilled. First of all, one of the simplest things to do to get involved is to speak with the local government. Consumers must be confident that they're buying that which we tell them they are buying.


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Explained: Why numbers showing job crisis are misleading
TV Mohandas Pai
Financial Express 28 July 2019
jobs, jobs in india, Ministry of Labour, jobs creation, GDP, employment, National Pension Scheme, Employee State Insurance, EPFO, AISHE graduation data, post graduate degrees
By TV Mohandas Pai & Nisha Holla
The jobs debate rages on. Naysayers and the Delhi Leftist Economic Club claim increasing unemployment. The facts are that India recorded impressive growth between 2014-2019. Nominal GDP grew by an estimated Rs 78 lakh crore—69.2% growth at a CAGR of 10.9%—implausible without a corresponding increase in employment.
Oft-quoted surveys, like PLFS (Ministry of Labour) and Consumer Pyramids (CMIE), indicate a decline in employment. However, they survey merely 105,000 and 160,000 households, respectively; not statistically representative of 1.35 billion people since the context in which people work has fundamentally changed. Many scholars have also pointed out technical challenges in the surveys. Further, there is significant economic variance among states, and even within states, as shown in our previous article (https://bit.ly/2IsxvIJ). India's economic composition has also changed dramatically in the last ten years, rendering some survey methodologies outdated. We need new data sampling methodologies, including employment databases, that account for these factors.
It is time policymakers and economy watchers analyse data from sources like EPFO (Employee Provident Fund Organization), ESI (Employee State Insurance), NPS (National Pension Scheme), IT returns, vehicle sales, Mudra scheme, and others. Steadily, these databases are linking subscribers to Aadhar and can be cross-mapped. EPFO, ESI and NPS publish monthly reports, with disaggregated data from September 2017, and serve as useful starting points.
EPFO applies to entities with 20+ employees across 190 industry classifications. EPFO records new subscribers every month upon payment of contribution and classifies them by age group, industry, and state. The latest June 2019 payroll report shows gross number of new EPF subscribers in FY19 is 1.39 crore (see graphic). Accounting for people who joined and then exited, and in some cases rejoined in the same FY, net number of new subscribers is 1.12 crore—representing the net number of people who got a new job during the year.
An applicable entity, on crossing the 20-employee mark, is inducted into EPFO. One criticism is that EPFO does not indicate new jobs but only formalisation, because existing employees are inducted in this manner. This criticism doesn't hold because we can easily account for this. 60,884 establishments remitted their first electronic challan (ECR) in 2018-19; factoring this by 20 gives us 12.17 lakh new subscribers, which are existing employees getting formalised. Subtracting 12.17 lakh from the net number yields just over 1 crore new jobs (see graphic). Further, new employees over the 20-employee minimum of existing entities count as new jobs.
EPFO's methodology was recently updated. In the old MOSPI format, the subtraction of exiting employees included those that had joined before the FY started instead of only those who had registered in the FY. Methodology was revised to count the number of exits, as well as those who rejoined in the same FY, correctly. If a person quits and joins a new job, the record must reflect in both columns. With the correction, the net new subscribers excluding formalisation are at 1.003 crore.
Of the 1.12 crore (see graphic), the highest number is 28.6 lakh, in the age bracket of 22-25 years. A very close second is 27.8 lakh in the 18-21 year bracket. In the below-18-years group, the record is 1.01 lakh. The sum of net new subscribers in these three groups, till age 25, is 57.4 lakh. Census data shows that over the last 30 years, 2.5 crore babies were born every year, on average. With approximately 2.5 crore people attaining the age of 21 every year, of which, let us assume, 60% look for employment, across levels of education—we arrive at 1.5 crore needing jobs incrementally every year. With a total of 56.4 lakh new subscribers in the 18-25 year age bracket, we must look at higher education data to correlate the number of college graduates who enter the job market. A majority in the 18-25 years category could have either graduated from high school or progressed substantially in higher education. The 26-28 year age bracket recorded 13.9 lakh new subscribers, who could either have post-graduate degrees or maybe took a break and started a second job.
The accompanying graphic shows the 2018-19 EPFO data, disaggregated by state and age group, correlating with 2017-18 AISHE graduation data. This is the old MOSPI format, with new subscribers totaling 61.1 lakh. Applying the corrected methodology across state data might reveal new patterns. India's GER in 2017-18 was 25.8, and 89.6 lakh students graduated in total. These are people who completed college and may be seeking formal employment. The coverage ratio of new jobs in the 18-28 age bracket in 2018-19 to graduates in 2017-18 is also presented.
In the representative states in the North-Central-East zones, total new subscribers in the 18-28 age bracket were 7.3 lakh while the number of college pass-outs was nearly 40 lakh. Uttar Pradesh is a significant contributor here—it has an impressive GER of 25.9 and 17 lakh graduates—but the coverage ratio is only 11.4%. States like Bihar, Jharkhand and Rajasthan have low GER and low coverage ratios. West Bengal has a higher coverage ratio, 49%, but low GER, 18.7, which must be improved along with formal job creation.
Even in the more industrialised South-West, some states are unable to provide formal employment on par with graduation rates. Tamil Nadu, with India's highest GER at 48.6, has a coverage ratio of 47% while Andhra Pradesh is at 25.8%. Karnataka and Maharashtra have 100%+ coverage ratios, which is a good sign—representative of economies that have a substantial services contribution. It also indicates sizeable migration towards Bengaluru and Mumbai as zones of high employment. The same could account for Telangana at 92% with Hyderabad. Gujarat, remarkably, also has a 100%+ coverage ratio. However, GER is 20.1—lower than all-India GER—and can be improved to feed Gujarat's formal job creation engine.
ESI enrolment applies to 10+ employ ee entities across 90 industries. In 2017-18, ESI showed an increase of 17.97 lakh, with 6.1% growth. There could be some double counting between ESI and EPFO subscribers. NPS scheme is availed by citizens and government employees alike. Since 2004, new government employees are necessarily added on a defined contribution basis. PFRDA data (see graphic) shows that number of new government employees has increased by 21.64 lakh from FY15 to FY19, 52.2% at a CAGR of 11%—indicating employment growth in the government sector as well. In FY19, 5.16 lakh new government employees registered.
Above data clearly shows job creation as new subscribers in EPFO, NPS and ESIC—excluding formalisation—invariably equal new jobs. Previous articles by authors Pai and Baid analyse the transportation sector (https://bit.ly/2FtPrSS) and tax-paying professionals (https://bit.ly/2T7pXy7) to demonstrate creation of jobs from other data sources. Ghosh and Ghosh also demonstrated the use of these databases to estimate job creation.
Amidst employment data, however, it is clear that India needs to fix the following:
1.Not enough high-paying jobs are being created for graduates. It is probable that most jobs recorded in EPFO are low paying in the Rs 25-30,000 bracket. Data (https://bit.ly/2K5gnbD) shows that number of salaried taxpayers probably with salaries exceeding Rs 5 lakh/year has increased from 1.70 crore in AY15 to 2.33 crore in AY18. This could also include existing employees. Correlating ITR data with EPFO subscribers will give an idea of income levels in formal jobs and needs further study.
2.Some states with a significant number of graduates are not providing adequate employment. This results in higher unemployment and emigration towards cities with opportunities. For example, there are 1.5 lakh Bengali IT engineers in Bangalore; significantly higher than those in their home state.
3.Women stand to lose the most as they cannot migrate easily, either due to caregiving duties or conservatism. Our previous article (https://bit.ly/2WSFKWq) shows that female GER rose from 19.4 in FY12 to 25.4 in FY18, and continues upward. PLFS indicates decline in workforce participation of educated women—19.8% unemployment in 2017-18 compared to 10% in FY12. Formal jobs must be created in home states to employ graduates.
Regardless, it is challenging for anyone to make claims of growing unemployment based on thin surveys. Instead, one must assemble large datasets from multiple databases—EPFO, ESI, NPS, vehicle sales, IT returns, Mudra and others—and collate with Aadhar. Using the latest big data analytical tools, an appropriate jobs report reflecting facts and the on-ground reality can be prepared to direct policy decisions.
Pai is chairman, Aarin Capital Partners, and Holla is an independent researcher. Views are personal


Cookees Drive-In New Bathroom-Storeroom-Plumbing Remodel!
Next, we noticed that the floor was a little soft over near the bathroom/storage area. We had a carpenter come in and found that the entire floor in that area was rotted and ready to collapse! SIGH! As you probably guessed, we had to have it all torn our and replaced. We had to close our restaurant for 4 days due to not being able to be open without a working bathroom. Health codes! While we had the floor torn up, it was found that years and years of neglect had taken their toll on the plumbing. All plumbing had to be replaced or eventually fail. Therefore, we replaced everything including water, sewer, and even gas! Below is the whole project from floor tear-out to plumbing replacement and finally new floors.
The start of the bathroom tear-out.
Bathroom and storage room items.
New main sewer line install.
New plumbing in the bathroom.
Hallway leading to storage room.
Storage room. New sink plumbing.
Hard to see, but new gas lines.


OK I'm going to break my blogging silence and my aversion to blogging in my subject area to post about a really cool result that came out earlier this week.
Looking up at the night sky you see a hodge-podge collection of stars, perhaps a few thousand of the hundreds of billions of stars in the Galaxy. Some are extremely bright types of star that are really far away. Others like the Sun's nearest neighbouring system Alpha Centauri are fairly run of the mill but appear bright because they are so close. But not all stars close to the Sun can be seen with the naked eye. Take Barnard's Star, the second closest system to the Sun, it's situated roughly twice as far away from us as Alpha Centauri but because it's a red, faint type of star, it's over 6,000 times fainter and 25 times too faint to see with the naked eye. This means that even though some stars are very close to us, they are so faint that we need to use a few tricks to pick them out from bright background stars.
One of the best tricks to use is to take a picture of the sky and look back a few years later and compare the positions of stars. Stars move around the Galaxy with different orbits and hence every star has a velocity with respect to the Sun. Due to their closeness, nearby stars appear to move more compared to background stars (their proper motion). This is simply a perspective effect, they aren't actually moving through space faster. Hence if you look for stars moving quickly across the sky, chances are a lot of them will be near the Solar System. This isn't simply a matter of cartography, if you want to pick out a population of faint objects, your best bet is to look close-by.
And that's exactly what Kevin Luhman did. By taking the positions of objects observed by the WISE satellite, he found one which stuck out. It moved across the sky pretty fast and was very bright in infrared light. Looking back at images taken by other surveys he also found it detected there. This often happens in astronomy, sometimes you find an object nobody had noticed was interesting before but which may have been first detected 50 or even 100 years ago. Anyway, the object Luhman found was moving across the sky pretty fast. Well actually it wasn't, nearby stars tend to have their motions measured in arcseconds per year. One arcsecond per year is the same angular speed as seeing the average tortoise walking at the distance of the Sun from Earth. The newly discovered high proper motion object was moving at about 2.8 Solar Tortoises, which is pretty big for stars. Well I say star, but it isn't, it's a brown dwarf, well actually not "a" brown dwarf.
Stars are fuelled by nuclear reactions in their core. These work because of the huge temperatures in their cores caused by all the mass above pushing down. It's like the atomic nuclei in the core are caught at the bottom of a really big rugby ruck*. Anyway, they get so hot that they can sometimes overcome their mutual repulsion and fuse together. However some objects, with masses below about 8% of the Sun can't reach the appropriate minimum temperature to begin stable fusion and hence are "failed" stars or brown dwarfs. When Luhman took a spectrum of his object, he found it was a brown dwarf, well actually while taking the observation he found that it was actually two brown dwarfs in orbit around one and other. Finally, using the data from the WISE satellite and other surveys he was able to work out its distance from an effect known as trigonometric parallax. This showed the two brown dwarfs are about 6.5 lightyears away, slightly more distant than Barnard's Star.
My reaction to this was probably like others in my field, "how did we miss this?" Well the answer is simple, the system lies close to the Milky Way. The density of stars on the sky increases sharply as you go close to the plane of the Milky Way, meaning searches of nearby stars are often flooded with spurious candidates. Additionally the gas and dust in the plane make background stars appear redder and faint in the optical but still bright in the infrared. This can mimic the colour of brown dwarfs, again contaminating searches. Brown dwarf searches therefor often avoid the region around the Milky Way to make sure they can have clean samples without wading through a load of junk. Hence the extremely nearby, bright brown dwarf lay undiscovered for decades after it had first been detected.
And that brings me to my last point, this is a really cool discovery yet it hasn't got the attention it deserves. The third closest system to the Sun was just found, that should at least be on the BBC News front page.


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Stellantis: How is it changing for leasing and loans
Posted By: Neville Carr
During the past few hours Stilants Announce important business related news. The Italian-French car group, which was born from the merger between Fiat Chrysler and PSA, has specifically stated that it was considering a reorganization of its activities. Finance on the ancient continent. What is said should not surprise fans of all-wheel drive. Sooner or later, the conglomerate will inevitably restore order to the various partnerships inherited from previous administrations, regarding the activities of Leasing. Well, that moment seems to have arrived now, with all due respect to those who have been completely satisfied with the solutions offered to clients thus far.
Stellantis: Leasys and Free2Move come together in one device
First of all, Stellantis wanted to clarify the meaning of the operation. With this ruling, the auto giant aims to strengthen its financing activities from a global perspective. This is attested by the recent operation carried out in the United States on the assimilation of First Investors Group for Financial Services.
If we take into account the situation at the European borders, the company headed by Carlos Tavares announced that it had begun negotiations with BNP Paribas Personal BankAnd Santander Consumer Finance e Credit Agricole Consumer Finance. The last moves involve farewell lysis e Free2Move, which will be combined into a single multi-brand rental reality. This will be done with the aim of giving the concerned audience a full range of products as possible. Certainly, this is not a minor maneuver and it will take time to get used to the changes made.
See also Eva Mendes shares the graphic to treat her beauty
Following the agreements with Stellantis, Crédit Agricol is expected to absorb 50 percent of FCA Bank e Leasys . rent Which is currently located within the assets of the giant automobile company. Speaking of BNP Paribas, it will deal exclusively with countries such as Austria, Germany and the United Kingdom, while Santander Consumer Finance will deal with Italy, France, Spain, Poland, Belgium and the Netherlands. So customers in the peninsula who are interested in buying a car through financing will deal with Santander.
Explained by Carlos Tavares
In this regard, the CEO, Carlos Tavares, described the maneuvers carried out by Stylantes as preliminary to strengthening the related leasing activities, and taking a step towards consumers Which Dealers – Agents. In short, it will be an important novelty that will increase the power of the automotive group on the continental scene. The main area of conquest, although publicly stated by managers, the intention is also to expand into areas such as China and the United States.
Neville Carr
Friendly alcohol advocate. Future teen idol. Beer aficionado. Amateur music fanatic. Food guru.
Ecuador y Reino Unido amplían cooperación en materia ambiental


The Nepal local election is conducted in two phases: Polling for the local Units comprised in Provinces 3, 4 and 6 is on 14 May, and for those in Provinces 1, 2, 5 and 7 scheduled for 14 June.
On Sunday 14 May, Nepali citizens voted to elect their representatives of 281 local units, mainly in hilly and mountainous regions of the country.
The voters of Phase I represent just over one third of the total electorate and more than 70% of them turned out to vote.
According to observer reports, polling day operations were well organized and generally peaceful, although sporadic cases of election-related violence were registered.
A total of 49,337 candidates filed their nominations, including 19,332 women.
There are reserved seats for women and dalit women to be elected as ward committee members.
A total of 9,033 women and 7,472 dalit women filed their candidacy for those reserved seats.
Furthermore, political parties that submit candidates for the two top positions at the level of village and municipality are obliged by law to submit at least one female candidate.
Counting is conducted at the level of the 281 local units under the supervision of the Returning Officers, who declare the results.
The winning candidates are the first elected leaders under Nepal's new federal setup. Last time Nepal held local elections was in 1997.
ESP supported the conduct of the elections through technical assistance and operational support, primarily in the areas of information technology, training, voter and candidate education, women's political participation, inclusion of people with disabilities, electoral violence prevention, as well as the supply of IT equipment.


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Joseph Garner
"I am an associate professor of comparative medicine and, by courtesy, of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. I received my doctoral degree in (abnormal) animal behavior at the University of Oxford, Great Britain, conducted my postdoctoral training at UC Davis, and began my faculty career at Purdue University. My research interests include the development of refined methods in behavioral research; abnormal behaviors in animals and their relationships with abnormal behaviors in humans; mouse well-being and enrichment; and the scientific impact of well-being problems in lab animals. My favorite experiments are ones where the animals tell me what's really going on by doing the opposite of what was predicted. I pursued a career in the field because it presents some of the hardest questions and most beautiful answers in science; and because of the great potential for animal behavior to improve both the lives of animals, and also the lives of humans. I serve on the boards of both animal well-being and human mental health advocacy organizations. None of the animal members of my own family are particularly well behaved, but I prefer them that way."
Joseph Garner, D.Phil., Associate Professor, received his doctoral degree from the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford, Great Britain, where he studied the developmental neuroethology of stereotypies in captive animals (1995-1999). His postdoctoral research in animal behavior and wellbeing was undertaken at UC Davis (1999-2004). He served as an Assistant (2004-2010) and an Associate (2010-2011) Professor of animal behavior and wellbeing in the Department of Animal Sciences at Purdue University, where he also held a courtesy appointment in the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences (2009-2011). Dr. Garner joined the Department of Comparative Medicine at Stanford in 2011. Here he oversees 3R's services (Biostatistics consulting, Environmental enrichment & Behavioral management, Breeding colony management, Apparatus design & 3D printing) that help researchers implement new and emerging technologies, techniques and best practices in animal research that benefit both the wellbeing of research animals and the effectiveness, efficiency, reproducibility and translatability of the research.The overarching theme of Dr. Garner's research is understanding why most drugs (and other basic science findings) fail to translate into human outcomes; the role that animal models, animal methodology, and animal wellbeing play in in these failures; and developing new approaches to animal research which improve the translation and benefits of animal work through improvements in the wellbeing of animal participants. He is an internationally recognized expert in the behavior and wellbeing of laboratory mice, and abnormal behavior in animals in general, including awards from the National Center for the 3Rs (UK), the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science, the Swiss Laboratory Animal Science Association, and the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare. His current human health research is focused on animal and human studies in autism, trichotillomania, and compulsive skin-picking. The question driving all of this work is "Why does one sibling become ill and another does not?", and the goal is to identify biomarkers leading to screening, prevention and personalized treatment options. Recognition of his work in human health includes being selected for Spectrum's Ten Notable Papers in Autism Research for both 2017 and 2018. His publication record includes over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, including papers in Science, PNAS, and Nature Methods.Dr. Garner serves, or has served, as a council member for the International Society for Applied Ethology, an Editor for Applied Animal Behavior Science, a Special Topics section editor for the Journal of Animal Science, on the AAALAC Board of Trustees, on the SCAW Board of Trustees, on the NA3RsC board, on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Trichotillomania Learning Center, the Tourette Association of America, and the Beautiful You MRKH Foundation.
jgarner@stanford.edu
Full publication list from Google Scholar
Mouse ethogram and video library
Animal Behavior: Sex, Death, and Sometimes Food!


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Bring your plans and questions and receive tailored solutions at the free one-on-one sessions at the Advice Centre. Talk to over 15 resident property experts, some of whom are regular TV presenters, including Charlie Luxton, a sustainable architectural designer who is currently presenting 'Best Laid Plans' on Channel 4.
Whatever the product, there's nothing quite like seeing it in real life and picturing it in your home. The show brings together the freshest ideas from industry leading suppliers based across the country, all under one roof.
All the inspiration, ideas and products to create the home you want.


text:
audiobook (Unabridged) ∣ A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love
By Dani Shapiro
Audiobook icon Visual indication that the title is an audiobook
Dani Shapiro
Biography & Autobiography Multi-Cultural Nonfiction
An Instant NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A LOS ANGELES TIMES, BOSTON GLOBE, WALL STREET JOURNAL, and NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLER
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR according to Elle, Real Simple, and Kirkus Reviews
"Memoir gold: a profound and exquisitely rendered exploration of identity and the true meaning of family." —People Magazine
"Beautifully written and deeply moving—it brought me to tears more than once."—Ruth Franklin, The New York Times Book Review
From the acclaimed, best-selling memoirist, novelist—"a writer of rare talent" (Cheryl Strayed)— and host of the hit podcast Family Secrets, comes a memoir about the staggering family secret uncovered by a genealogy test: an exploration of the urgent ethical questions surrounding fertility treatments and DNA testing, and a profound inquiry of paternity, identity, and love.
What makes us who we are? What combination of memory, history, biology, experience, and that ineffable thing called the soul defines us?
In the spring of 2016, through a genealogy website to which she had whimsically submitted her DNA for analysis, Dani Shapiro received the stunning news that her father was not her biological father. She woke up one morning and her entire history—the life she had lived—crumbled beneath her.
Inheritance is a book about secrets—secrets within families, kept out of shame or self-protectiveness; secrets we keep from one another in the name of love. It is the story of a woman's urgent quest to unlock the story of her own identity, a story that has been scrupulously hidden from her for more than fifty years, years she had spent writing brilliantly, and compulsively, on themes of identity and family history. It is a book about the extraordinary moment we live in—a moment in which science and technology have outpaced not only medical ethics but also the capacities of the human heart to contend with the consequences of what we discover.


Escape rooms for children and adults have mushroomed in popularity, with at least six new venues opening on Long Island since last summer. Each themed experience challenges players to work together to solve puzzles in order to escape from a "locked" room in 60 minutes. Here is a roundup of 10 great escape-room experiences for kids.
Puzzle Break has three rooms; the brightly lit "Escape the Midnight Carnival" room is the easiest and therefore best for kids. It holds various carnival-themed games, such as a colorful spinning wheel, plenty of keys, boxes, blocks and puzzles. Puzzle Break, based in Seattle, opened here in July, is constructing a venue in Newton, Mass., and is on board three Royal Caribbean cruise ships. Puzzle Break offers birthday party packages.
Pictured: Caitlin Watters, 13, of Bethpage, works with friends to "escape the room" by solving a series of puzzles at Puzzle Break.
Padlocked Inc., which opened in July, has four rooms, two of which are the better choices for children: the "Home Alone" room, based on the movie, and "Escape the Jungle," with a jungle theme. If playing with children younger than 16, you must book the whole room, paying for a minimum of eight players. Padlocked offers birthday parties.
"For kids we always recommend our location in Ronkonkoma, where we have a game called 'Legends of a Hidden Temple,' " says manager Zak Seghrouchni. The game is based on an old Nickelodeon TV show. Kids are trying to uncover lost treasure, going through the sand room, past the walls of despair, through a tunnel and into a treasure room. Escape the Room Game, which opened in February 2016, does birthday parties for kids ages 8 to 14. Rooms accommodate up to 10 people, and kids must be part of a group to participate.
Escape Zone Long Island, which opened in December, has two family-friendly rooms: "Another Christmas Story" and "Casino Heist." If kids want to do the Christmas room, they should act now — in April the room will be changing over to "Mad Hatter's Wonderland," says owner Tim Kennedy. Escape Zone Long Island can do birthday parties.
Cryptiq Inc., which opened in 2015, has one room called "Grandma's Basement," in which players search for Grandma's real will. Kids ages 10 to 15 must be accompanied by an adult; ages 16 and older can play as a group of teenagers. Cryptiq doesn't have birthday party packages.
Photo Credit: Can You Escape?
Can You Escape?, which opened in 2015, has six rooms, and owner Alissa Torres recommends kids play either "Escape the Subway," which has players trapped in a subway car, or "Once Upon a Time," in which players are trying to escape from a storybook. Can You Escape? has two identical "Escape the Subway" rooms, so larger groups can split up and race not only the clock but each other as well to see who gets out first, Torres says. Can You Escape? doesn't have birthday packages.
Just Escape opened in November and has five rooms. For kids, Just Escape recommends "Sweet Revenge," which is a search in a candy store for the recipe for everlasting youth, or "Carnival Conundrum," which features classic carnival games. Just Escape does birthday parties for kids 7 and older. Rooms hold eight to 15 people, and smaller parties can mix in with other patrons.
Pictured: Birthday girl Theresa Schmitt 11, pointing, and her fifth-grade friends celebrate her 11th birthday party at Just Escape.
"The Sweet Shoppe" room in Franklin Square and Patchogue is popular with kids, as is "The Game Room" at the Rockville Centre location. In "The Sweet Shoppe," players are trapped in their bakery and trying to get out in time to make it to a baking competition. "The Game Room" is board-game themed, incorporating Scrabble, Monopoly and more. Challenge Escape Rooms doesn't have birthday party packages.
Pictured: Mike Incigeri, left, and Sam Dertinger in the "Psychic Room."
38 'Shark Tank' inventions for families to buyFamily-friendly "Shark Tank" products you have to buy now. 50 places every LI family should check outFind out where LI parents love to take their kids. The best-selling toys on Amazon right nowHere are the toys that are the most popular on Amazon this month.


At the heart of Hearthside Grove the 35-acre nature preserve provides a peaceful setting for comfortable outdoor living, which is easily enjoyed from this spacious site on Ciderpress Drive. A pull-in site with a wonderful view of the preserve and birdlife which affords maximum privacy. Afternoon shade is cast from the mature trees of the nature preserve over the large and open brick paved patio area which is great for entertaining. Enjoy privacy and accent landscaping, natural gas fire pit, outdoor kitchen with granite counter top, stainless steel sink and large BBQ grill. Contact the Welcome Center today to make your reservation for lot 32.


text:
« The forensic fireman
The Australian 40 Years: The Land »
Published in The Weekend Australian Magazine, May 31- June 1 2003
Not only can environmental scientist Peter Cullen demystify phenomena such as salinity and drought, he has workable solutions – and the ear of the Prime Minister.
Story: Åsa Wahlquist
After a week of headlines screaming drought, and calls for drought-proofing and turning the rivers inland, Australia's most eminent environmental scientists met in a Sydney hotel. Determined to wrest the agenda back from the shock jocks, to insert the science that was their life's work into the debate, they tossed their ideas back and forward over dinner.
The conversation ranged across the breadth of Australia's settled history: through agriculture, land clearing, salinity, the climate, water use and drought. Dessert eaten, the discussion continued, taking many energetic, if not too disciplined, turnings. The evening was threatening to collapse under the weight of so many fine minds with their many fine ideas.
One of the journalists present banged the table. "What are you going to do about it?" he demanded.
The scientists, thus challenged, adjourned to the next room.
Fifteen minutes later the journalists were invited in to hear a man with a commanding presence read a statement that began: "We are of the view that the problem with Australia's degrading landscapes is not just one of the immediate drought, but it has been 200 years in the making, and we really need to look again at how we live in this landscape.
"You can't drought proof Australia," he read, "we need to learn to live with the landscape, not try to fight against it all the time."
It was a concise yet eloquent statement that not only starkly outlined the problem, but presented a five point solution. It was a statement borne of science, written with deep feeling, hostage to no vested interest or bureaucracy.
The astonished journalists applauded. And so the Wentworth Group was born.
Their statement hit the media like a drought-breaking storm. "We were just flabbergasted by the press response," says Peter Cullen, the reader that night of the Wentworth statement, and the man who pulled it together. "We had a dream run in the media and got so much coverage from it that it just amazed us."
NSW Premier Bob Carr engaged the Wentworth Group to report on landscape conservation, and adopted their model. The Prime Minister takes careful note of what they say. Seven months after that October night, they are still fielding media requests, along with several invitations a week to talk to groups.
For Cullen, arguably Australia's leading environmental scientist, the Wentworth Group is a new phase in his life's work to bring science and the community together. After all, as Cullen points out, nothing in the Wentworth statement is new, to those who understand the environment, "but nobody had put it that way before. Nobody had said 'we can't drought proof Australia, we have to live within our limits'."
But he is also proud of the fact it provides solutions. "I think the community is sick and tired of scientists listing the problems. They want solutions and we think we have got ways forward on these issues. That is the value we are adding."
Cullen is a hard man to miss in a crowd. He is a large – a very large – man who loves to laugh. His untidy sweep of hair and slightly dishevelled appearance render him a friendly sight. But don't be fooled by his air of mild, slightly detached amusement. This is a man of enormous authority, a skilled listener with a penetrating intellect who is prepared to speak the truth exactly as he sees it.
Cullen's gift lies not just in understanding science, its broad sweep and its daunting, even damning, details. It is also lodged in his striving to find first where his listener stands, then talking their language, and, as he puts it, going on the journey together. His fellow travellers include not only NSW's Bob Carr, but the Prime Minister himself, who in 1991 awarded him Environmentalist of the Year.
Cullen first grabbed John Howard's attention in 1998, when he addressed the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council on salinity.
"When you are in a position like mine you meet a lot of people," Howard explains, "and somebody who can explain a complicated issue in clear language and can provide a cut through mechanism for beginning to tackle it always impresses you.
"The presentation he made at the Science Council really drove home to me what a big challenge it (salinity) was. He brought everything together in a very effective way for the first time. It meant that, in my mind, that we really did have to do something about it."
When the Federal Government was, to use Howard's words, treading water on salinity, he remembered Cullen, and invited him to chair the committee that developed the National Action Plan on Salinity. That gave rise to one of Cullen's appellations, the 'father' of the action plan.
The fact is Howard says the $1.4 billion salinity action plan, a significant part of his commitment to what he describes as bread and butter environmental issues, is hugely important.
"The big difference between environmental politics in Australia now and when I first entered Parliament, (is that) at that time it tended to be a movement on the periphery of politics but now it is very mainstream," Howard says. "You have to tackle issues that you feel comfortable with, and we have tried to tackle these mainstream bread and butter environment issues." It is, he reminds this writer, too soon to talk about his government's legacy, "governments have legacies when they are in the past," but there is no doubt when it comes to these issues, the Prime Minister has his eye on history, with Cullen as one of his guides.
Cullen was born in Melbourne sixty years ago. The formative event of his childhood was when his father, an engineer with the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission, moved the family to Tallangatta, on the Murray River. His job was to relocate the town, which would be flooded when Hume Dam was enlarged.
Although only primary school child, Cullen so loved the country he decided then to break the family tradition of engineering, for the land. He went on to study agriculture at Melbourne University.
He did a masters on irrigation. "Of all the things I could have studied in agriculture that was the one that always just excited me – the power of water to make this country blossom and, as I understood it a bit more, then the damage that the misuse of that water was doing."
In his one year sojourn as a high school teacher, Cullen felt out of place in the authoritarian structure of the school. But there he also found his life's companion, his wife Vicky who was then a French teacher and is now an Anglican priest.
University teaching followed, first at Melbourne, and then Canberra's College of Advanced education. "It was a new institution, an exciting environment and we had a very innovative course in natural resources in those days."
In the late 1980s the Co-operative Research Centre program was launched. CRCs bring together scientists from across the country, backed by industry, for a five year period.
Cullen put together a bid for a CRC in Freshwater Ecology.
Early in the summer of 1991, a massive blue green algal bloom infected over 1,000 kilometres of the Darling River. It made world headlines, but it also exposed the dearth of relevant research here in Australia. "We had some very good aquatic scientists but they were working on the Alpine streams of Tasmania, rather than the lowland dirty rivers of the Murray Darling," Cullen says.
Cullen took a team of scientists to study the bloom. "It was while we were up there having dinner one night that we got the phone message that we had failed to get the CRC. I remember sitting in the pub at Bourke, thinking 'what is going on in this country? Here we have this bloody disaster out here with this bloom that we don't understand, and we can't get governmental support to establish a research centre in freshwater ecology?' That was a shock to me."
Cullen describes the blue-green algal outbreak in the Darling as a focussing event. "Every now and again, politically, we get a focussing event when the ideas of different people all coalesce and you have a chance to change in this country."
The next year the CRC for Freshwater Ecology got up, with Cullen running it.
The second focussing event was the 1999 Salinity Audit of the Murray-Darling basin. "The one thing that everyone really understood was that we weren't going to be able to drink the water in Adelaide two days out of five (in the next 50 to 100 years). That was the result of a computer model, not an event like an algal bloom, but it had the same way of grabbing people's attention."
And perhaps the third will turn out to be the 2002 drought, and the debate over drought-proofing.
To use those events, Cullen says scientists must understand "that now is not the time to sit and write an elegant paper. It is the time to get in there and tell people what should be done. In fact they are looking for ideas, and if you have an idea you want to present there is a little period of receptivity there where people are looking for a good idea. If you have got one, that is when you have got to get it there."
By 1999, Cullen had a national profile, and the Prime Minister himself was listening.
"I was the new boy at the Prime Minister's Science Council with all these eminent people all around me," Cullen recalls. "I was almost speechless, sitting with the Prime Minister and half the cabinet." He was then surprised with the request that he lead a review on salinity. "This was the first that I had heard of it. And I thought, 'but I am too busy'. How do you say no to the PM and the cabinet," he laughs, "so I found myself leading this group on dryland salinity."
Cullen had in fact never worked in dryland salinity. But his years at the CRC, developing his skills as what he describes as a knowledge broker – bringing together the science, integrating it, synthesising it and packaging it so it could be understood by the layperson – were about to be put to good use. "People can produce knowledge which is like producing beautiful bits of a jigsaw but someone has to put the jigsaw together," he explains.
The problem was that every one could see bits of the salinity problem, but no-one was seeing it as a national issue. Cullen's main recommendation, was he admits, the most cheeky. "I said, 'well the first step here is we have to acknowledge that this is a big national issue and the best person to do that is the Prime Minister'. And he did. The bureaucrats weren't very happy with us telling the Prime Minister what he should say, but my view is we are not there to be politically correct, we are there to say what we think should be done."
Cullen retired from the CRC last year, and although his health is poor, his diary is full. "I am doing things that I feel passionate about and that I think are important." He is on the boards of Landcare Australia, the research and development corporation Land and Water Australia, and the new CRC for irrigation futures, and has a ten year commitment to Lake Eyre. He recently conducted a science review on the lower Balonne, for Queensland Premier Beattie.
And then there is the Wentworth Group. "I've become pretty heavily engaged with the Wentworth group as a way of delivering our knowledge in a way that is understandable to the community and to governments."
The next challenge is a water policy. "We think a number of politicians would very much like to find ways forward, and we don't have great faith that the bureaucracies are going to come up with ways that will resolve the problem."
Ready recipients of the Wentworth Group's water policy will include Bob Carr and John Howard. They might be in for some surprises.
Take some of Cullen's past statements. Amongst other things, he would like the Federal Government to challenge the State's hold over land and water management; a National Rivers Corporation run by private-sector appointments, to take over water management; a National Heritage system to protect Australia's undamaged water courses; the end to broad-scale land clearing of remnant native vegetation; and 20 per cent of the flow of the Murray-Darling allocated to environmental flows, to the health of the river itself.
He argues dredging the mouth of the Murray "is another example of investing to treat symptoms rather than address the cause of a problem". And he says much of Australia's agriculture "is highly marginal and depends on ongoing cash subsidy (for droughts, floods and poor markets) and on acceptance of high levels of natural resource degradation (our rivers, wetlands, estuaries and coastal waters including the Great Barrier Reef)."
For Cullen, environmentalists are dealing with the biggest issues in society. Debates over the direction of water policy, he argues, "are really debates about the sort of society and the sort of environment we want to live in."
The stakes Cullen deals with are high. A recent series audits spell out the sorry tale. Approximately 5.7 million hectares are at risk of dryland salinity, rising to 17 million in 50 years time. Up to 20,000 km of streams could be significantly salt-affected by 2050, and too much water is being taken from 26 per cent of Australia's rivers and 34 per cent of Australia's groundwater. Nearly 1600 species of native plants and animals are in danger of extinction and 2900 ecosystems are under threat.
Cullen says we can never go back to a pristine situation. "What we can do is make sure that these ecosystems function effectively and still give us the freshwater and the air and the services we want from them."
Cullen admits he is disappointed with erstwhile child, the salinity plan. Arguments between the States and the Commonwealth, which jointly fund the salinity plan, mean that, after two and a half years, only about $160 million has been approved, and $70 million released. "I'm disappointed with the implementation," he says. "It has taken a long time and there has been so much arguing between State and Federal governments. I think we have not been effective at delivering the best mechanism. That seems to me a wasted opportunity."
But Cullen is steadfast in his belief that Australians want to go forward, that they do want solutions to their environmental problems. "I think the community and their politicians would like to be able to do something about them. The question is, they are not exactly sure what." Cullen sees it as his challenge to provide answers to that question.
The problems might seem overwhelming, Cullen is a man of great faith in the human spirit, and the human mind. "I have always felt that knowledge was better than ignorance, and we should try knowledge in this country because ignorance hasn't got us very far."


Is the blog being 'manned' today?
Sold all my VW shares a month ago - thanks to a wink and a nod from an in the know chum. Have had a little flutter (only a modest grand) on the Wolf chappies with the profit I made.
What`s hapened to the blog?
You don't seem aware of a comment problem??
Looks like we are in business. Sorry folks.
All set for Kenny Jackett's 100th league game in charge of Wolves then! And the first, for symmetry, was of course here at Deepdale.
While we're waiting for kick-off, why not take a look at some of our videos from earlier in the week?
Don't forget to tune into Player HD for full match commentary with @BurrowsMikey and Andy Thompson.
Goals for Under 18s courtesy of @NicuJr @ronoclevo and Ross Finnie.
ACADEMY | Make mine a double! Under 18s beat WBA 3-1 and U16s win 3-2.
Gutted to be missing the @OfficialWolves game today. Best of luck to the lads away at Preston. Working hard to be fit as soon as possible! ????
Good luck to the Academy today as they take on local rivals West Bromwich Albion at Compton Park.
Morning all. 2366 already in the away end today and pay on the day also available. Safe trip all and thanks for the great support.
Kevin was - understandably - very serious in that interview. But, off the pitch, he is not always as serious! Coming up - top 5 KM videos!


text:
Constitutional Professor Calls to get Schooled on US Constitution
ClintStroman
Daily Clip
Constitution, federalist papers, original intent, professor, university
http://media.blubrry.com/crusade/p/www.mikechurch.com/beta/mc-media/daily-clip/01052012_Transcript_Const_Prof_calls_to_get_schooled_on_US_Constitution_EDIT.mp3
Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Audio & Transcript – Mike in Kentucky, a "Constitutional Professor", calls in to the show today to get schooled at Mike Church University. Listen to Mr. Church give him the lesson on original intent that he must've skipped out on at his "real" university. And remember Mike in Kentucky, that's a very valuable diploma you have… if you ever run out of toilet paper. Check out today's audio and transcript for more…
http://www.mikechurch.com/mc-media/daily-clip/01052012_Transcript_Const_Prof_calls_to_get_schooled_on_US_Constitution_EDIT.mp3
Begin Mike Church Show Transcript
Mike: Mike in Kentucky, you're next on the Mike Church Show. Hello.
Caller Mike: Thank you for having me on. So here's the point. I was listening to Glenn Addison. It is great to see guys with a good heart wanting to run for the United States Senate. He is woefully underprepared to talk about the U.S. Constitution, and here's why. I teach judicial process and constitutional law. I understand different views of the Constitution: originalism, literalism, living constitutionalism. All this goes back to the notion that you're not going to find the words for each one of the federal departments in the Constitution because it's not that kind of document. That would be a civil code. We live under common law and our founding fathers understood —
Mike: No, no. You know what, Mike? No, no, no. I don't know where you learned constitutional law, but you ought to go back and read some James Madison. Madison was asked this question shortly after the Constitution went into effect, and he explicitly made it clear for anyone that wanted to know that common law was not the underpinning of the U.S. Constitution because it couldn't be. There was no way you could possibly write down the vastness of common law and have it apply. Common law was left where it is. It is left in the police powers and the courts that are in the states.
The Constitution does not deal with common law. The Constitution is a plan of government. It explicitly, by definition, confers, voluntarily, some powers from the states to a general government for them to exercise. As the ratification statements in Pennsylvania, in North Carolina, in Virginia and in New Hampshire make very, very clear, as soon as the general monster begins to take any power that was not conferred to it, the people have an indubitable and feasible right to reserve those powers for themselves. I don't know where they teach constitutional law and common law at the same time as being one in the same, but my understanding, of course that comes from some guy named James Madison, is that the two are very, very separate.{sidebar id=56}
Caller Mike: Mike, I have read every one of the Federalist Papers.
Mike: I didn't read that in the Federalist Papers. I read that in correspondence. There is writing on the document outside of the propaganda that is The Federalist. That's what it was, a series of newspaper editorials to influence the people in New York to ratify. Guess what? It had no effect. They didn't want to ratify after reading The Federalist.
Caller Mike: Mike, you're being somewhat selective. If I could just finish my argument.
Mike: Go ahead, please.
Caller Mike: As you look at the Constitution itself, the way it's configured is exactly right. It's enumerated powers of the federal government. The remained is reserved to the state. That's an appropriate interpretation. People that go beyond that simply don't understand the underpinning of our Constitution. However, the Constitution itself has language which is broad and intentionally broad. That language, when married to the Necessary and Proper Clause and the Supremacy Clause —
Mike: No. No.
Caller Mike: Let me finish.
Mike: No, because you're poisoning the audience. No. If you really want to do tit for tat on the Necessary and Proper and Supremacy Clause, these were actually the points of — this is what Patrick Henry referred to in the ratification convention in Virginia, which lasted for four weeks. This is what Henry referred to as the "Sweeping Clause." He kept referring back to the Sweeping Clause. James Madison and Edmund Randolph and Mr. Nicholas and Edmund Pendleton and every federalist alive, including John Marshall, stood up and said no, that is not a clause that can be used other than to carry the foregoing powers into use. That's all it means.
You are taking the argument that the anti-federalists or republicans made, and you're giving it life, while the people that advocated on the side of ratification said that was a bunch of BS. The Supremacy Clause, by the way, Professor, says "in laws made in pursuance thereof." It is only supreme inasmuch as a law has been constitutionally made through an enumerated power, and then it is supreme. Anything else is not supreme and you can't sit there and claim because something was ubiquitously left out there for interpretation that it is. Either you have a written constitution and it has certain things you must follow or you don't.
The reason we're in the pickle we're in today is as soon as the damn ink on the document was dry, people began to do what you just did, just selectively say, [mocking] "Yeah, but to bring that into power, of course we have to create this agency and this national bank. It'll be okay." Yeah, it'll be okay. Your explanation, sir, is perfectly reasonable when you're in the company of people like Laurence Tribe or Eric Foner or other people that love to use the living, breathing and it's subject to interpretation version of the U.S. Constitution.
The fact of the matter is, the reason it was written down is so that what you just did can't be done, or to make it more difficult for it to be done. Men not being the perfect people that we are, mischievousness is in our nature. What would be called construction to a founding father or a man of the founding generation, that's what you just engaged in, in construction. In other words, [mocking] "I want it to mean this because it's necessary and proper." My good friend Professor Kevin Gutzman puts it this way. I'll read it to you.
[reading]
It is always hard to educate anyone to believe that there were some instances in which the U.S. Constitution correctly read does not yield the outcome they'd prefer.
[end reading]
End Mike Church Show Transcript
Constitutionfederalist papersoriginal intentprofessoruniversity
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This was a great segment Mike! You really put this "Constitutional Professor" in his place! I really love it when you called him "Professor". I was driving to work at the time that this segment aired and I almost wrecked going down I-10 due to extreme excitement and vigorous fist pumping!
Keep up the good work and keep educating. Thanks Mike!
Excellent, Mike. It's a shame that our universities have become breeding grounds for Marxism and Liberalism. I say that with 2 college degrees that only served to provide me with the evidence of education to get a job, in which I use about half of what I was taught in college.
Keep up the good fight. RESTORE AMERICA NOW. From the great state of Kentucky, thank you!
Jason Holbert
I live on the left coast (Oregon) and listen to Mike every day early and on replay twice on Patriot Plus and when he schooled that guy it was hilarious each time I listened to it. It was one of the worst ass-whoopings I have heard in a long time. Can't wait till the MP3 is available so I can share it with everyone I know. Great job King Dude!
TheKingDude
The mp3 is available RIGHT NOW, HERE!
Ahhh, got it. THANKS!
Shawn C.
That was an awesome segment! I missed the last little bit, but I really liked how you educated him on common law vs. what the Constitution is. You knocked it out of the park, Mike!!!