Californian curb stomping and thrash warlords Psychosomatic release hell and fury with their new album Clicking Sound of A Hammer Pulled Back. While that album name is a mouthful, you'll have your mouthful with the barrel of a gun upon listening to this album. Everything about thrash you could possibly want is jam packed in this new release that features twelve songs. Psychosomatic combine their thrash attack with a tinge of punk creating an angry and incredibly volatile release.
Psychosomatic is like that bully at school that picks on you because they can, because they're bigger than you and stronger. They cause you bodily harm by shoving you down a flight of stairs or shoving you in that cozy locker you love so much. They're like that, but instead they take it a step further than that, and after a listen to Clicking Sound of A Hammer Pulled Back you really do feel as though you've been through the ringer, not once, but a couple of times.
Psychosomatic and their new album is an adrenaline fueled, blood pumping experience that will end in your head being twisted off by the sheer amount of times your head will go in circles while headbanging. If you're going to lose your cranium you may as well do it to neck twisting thrash.
CSOAHPB is a heaping mass of burning metal that twists, writhes, and snakes its way around your neck. The style of thrash in which Psychosomatic play is dizzying and disorienting to say the least. As per the thrash guidelines they play blistering fast laying waste to any opposing force and there is no rest between songs for you to catch your breath. Once you feel as though you've caught your breath you get gut checked again by these guitar, drum stick and mic wielding lads.
Psychosomatic keeps every song fresh by playing in the vein of old school thrash and yet keeping a newer sound about them at the same time. Within CSOAHPB you'll find quite a bit of punk influences as well that drive the album forth like a flaming semi on a crash course with a TNT factory.
CSOAHPB is propelled by hair scorching and skin melting riffs with razor sharp solos, assaulting drums that hammer away at your splintering skull and a thick and undeniable bass. Over top the brain scrambling musicianship the vocalist screams and yells at you as though he's a drill sergeant and you're nothing but a fly on the wall to him.
Psychosomatic isn't afraid to point the gun at you and pull it too. CSOAHPB is a blitzkrieg, it's a hammer to the knee caps, it's a neck twister, it's whichever description you want to give it. The point is, is that is a straight thrash metal shot to your vein and the ride isn't over until Psychosomatic says it's over.
Check out a new song from Psychosomatic from Clicking Sound of A Hammer Pulled Back titled Grand Mal Seizure.


I like the notion of "fresh starts" and "second chances." How about you? Did your fall semester in college or graduate school end on a low note? The spring semester that starts in a few weeks is a fresh start for you.
Was last year a tough one at work? Did you lose a job? Did you have to move your family from a place everybody really liked to a new location? One way to cope is to think of what you can gain rather than what you've lost. Focus on what to learn from the experience to help you move forward. Make some new friends.
Is an important relationship in trouble? Did someone you love die? Are you worried about the bad-attitude friends your child has made? Maybe you need to look at these things through fresh eyes and with hope.
A sense of brokenness is often the mandatory first step to renewal and healing. So it isn't a bad thing to lament our losses. But it is a bad thing to spend the rest of our lives looking over a shoulder to the past instead of lifting our eyes to the future. It can be fatal to the human spirit.
As you may expect in light of all this, I see the turning of the calendar to a new year as a big deal. Doesn't the idea of a clean slate appeal to you too? Doesn't the chance to start over sound great? But I'm not necessarily suggesting that you make a long list of New Year's Resolutions. In fact, I would advise against it.
Long lists are intimidating and frustrating. Most resolutions are too vague—reduce stress, save more money, be more helpful at home. And the notion of pledging to do something for 365 days is tough on people who are honest about just how often failure visits them. Perhaps there is a better way.
Remember the advice Jesus gave about just taking care of today and not biting off tomorrow's troubles? "Each day has challenges enough of its own!" he said. Think about it and you will realize that your own experience confirms it.
In the context of that statement, Jesus gave this counsel: "Strive above all else for the reign of God in your life, and the things that have been worrying you will resolve!" God's reign requires conscious surrender, not of the entire year but of today's trouble, a stressor or a particular loss; not of the other person but of my attitude toward her; not of yesterday's failure so much as today's opportunity.
New Year 2013 is God's mercy to you. With his presence a reality and in the one-day-at-a-time surrender to him, creative new things will come out of the waste-and-void chaos of the past and life will become fresh every morning.
Previous ArticleIs Your TEEN Getting Enough SLEEP?


GBS Reports following Gardasil vaccination.
As a steadily growing number of provinces commit scarce health care resources to the vaccination of young girls with Gardasil, the heavily promoted "cervical cancer vaccine", the public is still in the dark about the risks and side effects now associated with and documented on this vaccine. Nor is the public aware of the absence of fundamental safe guards in this country. Canada has NO "mandatory" reporting system of vaccine reactions, and NO publicly accessible data base of reactions/injuries which could be scrutinized to track the type and degree of injuries inflicted by this new vaccine on young girls.
Ontario is fast tracking Gardasil and lining up all grade 8 girls starting now, this September. The first group of 85,000 teenage girls will get the first series of 3 shots at a cost of approx. $400 each for a staggering $34 million in that province alone, to be repeated year in and year out. The cost of the vaccine doesn't include the cost of administration and infrastructure required to implement it in the province.
As with all other vaccines injected into Canadian children, when families agree to allow their daughters to partake in this medical experimentation, they will have no recourse when reactions and injuries occur, nor will they have any idea the numbers of girls adversely effected in this county. Based on reports to the U.S. VAERS reporting system, that health damage from this vaccine will occur is a certainty. We can only extrapolate from the U.S. experience the degree and types of injuries we can expect. Remember the figures provided below by consumer watchdog group NVIC, the injuries reported are only the tip of the iceberg as only 1% to 10% of vaccine reactions and injuries are reported to this federal data base.
We appreciate the vigilance of NVIC and for their diligent efforts to inform the world of the fallout from this latest medical experimentation foisted on the people.
Washington, August 15, 2007 - The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) today issued a new report on HPV vaccine (Gardasil®) safety analyzing adverse event reports to the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). The analysis gives evidence for a reported association in VAERS between Gardasil and Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), with a statistically significant increased risk of GBS and other serious adverse event reports when Gardasil is co- administered with other vaccines, especially meningococcal vaccine (Menactra®).
NVIC is calling on the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to issue an Advisory and amend its March 12 policy by alerting the public that Gardasil has been associated with 15 cases of GBS and an increased risk of GBS and other serious adverse event reports made to VAERS when the vaccine is administered simultaneously with Menactra and other vaccines. "The precautionary principle dictates that good science should precede CDC vaccine policy recommendations," said Barbara Loe Fisher, NVIC co- founder and president. "Parents have a right to expect proof of safety and not assumption of safety before new vaccines, like Gardasil, are given simultaneously with other vaccines to their children.
GBS is a disorder in which the body's immune system attacks part of the peripheral nervous system, and can cause total paralysis. "Our analysis of Gardasil reports to VAERS indicates there was a two to 12 times greater likelihood that serious adverse events, such as GBS, were reported when Gardasil was given in combination with Menactra rather than given alone," said Vicky Debold, PhD, RN, NVIC director of patient safety. "Accepted scientific standards indicate that these findings are statistically significant and cannot be dismissed as coincidence. In particular, the available VAERS data show there was a more than 1,000 percent increased risk of GBS reports following Gardasil administration when Menactra was given at the same time."
-GBS reports increased by 1,130 percent.
Nineteen Gardasil adverse event reports from 12 states have been made to NVIC's Vaccine Reaction Registry involving unconsciousness and injury, convulsions, numbness, weakness and other neuromuscular and coordination problems and GBS.
"Before the shots, I ran six miles a day," said Nelson. "The doctors told me that I might have been put on a respirator if I hadn't been in such good shape," she said. "I am out of the hospital now and getting a lot of physical therapy. I just want to go to college and do the things I did before, like play the guitar and draw or even just be able to smile. My Mom and I wish we had known about HPV vaccine risks, especially what could happen if I got other vaccines at the same time."
To view a copy of NVIC's report on HPV vaccine (Gardasil) safety, go to http://www.nvic.org/Diseases/HPV/HPVHOME.htm.
1) Vaccine Safety Group Releases Gardasil Report: Calls on FDA and CDC to Warn Doctors and Parents to Report to VAERS, February 21, 2007 http://www.nvic.org/Diseases/HPV/pr022107HPV. htm.
2) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Quadrivalent Human Papillomavirus Vaccine: Recommendations of ]the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) Early Release 2007; 56 March 12, 2007:1-24. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwr html/rr56e312a1.htm.


California is poised to be the first state in the nation to require abortion-inducing medication be available on campus at each of its public universities.
Additionally, the bill would require the Commission on the Status of Women and Girls to oversee the College Student Health Center Sexual and Reproductive Health Preparation Fund, which would be established and funded under the legislation. There is a stipulation that a certain amount of private money be raised in funding before the state creates a separate renewable appropriation.
Even while this bill is considered in front of the California General Assembly, there are pro-lifers across the state working to protest the concept of access to on-demand, abortion-inducing medication. The California branch of Students for Life of America (SFLA) is publicizing the dangers that come with this specific kind of abortion.
"Abortion harms student success, both mentally and physically, and brings danger to campus," stated Anna Arend, Northern California regional coordinator for SFLA.
Abortion via medication, which works by inducing an abortion, and is usually is given in two separate doses. Women generally stay in the clinic for the first dose, and then take the second on their own. As SFLA has argued, this would mean that women who receive such medication would have to face an induced miscarriage in a dorm room or shared bathroom facilities.


There are two different flags that you can set that involve enabling Urban Airship Engage notifications on Android devices.
The first flag on your device is push enabled. This flag controls the ability to receive in-app messages and is enabled by default. You can read more about how to change this setting by reading our Urban Airship Android Library docs.
The second flag on the device is enable user notifications. This flag must be set to true if you want the device to receive basic push notification alerts (in the device's notification center). Setting this flag to true will also set the push enabled flag to true. You can set the user notifications enabled flag by following our documentation on Enabling User Notifications.


Get Out writer and director Jordan Peele, who won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his work, has revealed that the title of his next film will be Us.
Peele unveiled the title with the release of a poster on Twitter, which can be seen below. Details on what his next movie is about have not yet been shared, unfortunately, but it is being reported that fellow Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave, Black Panther) is in talks to star.
Other actors Peele is currently looking at for potential roles include Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid's Tale, Mad Men), who's said to be the top choice for one of the lead roles, and Winston Duke (Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War).
Peele will once again write and direct Us, and he produces as well through his Monkeypaw Productions. The project is the first in a first-look deal he signed with Universal Pictures. Producing the film alongside Peele is Ian Cooper, also through Monkeypaw, and Sean McKittrick and Jason Blum.
After the massively successful Get Out, which earned over $250 million worldwide on a $4.5 million budget, Peele has of course had plenty of things to work on and offers to consider.
Last year he was in talks to direct the long-gestating adaptation of Akira, which he ultimately turned down. He's also executive producing the HBO horror anthology series Lovecraft Country, which comes from Peele, J.J. Abrams, and Warner Bros. Television. Late last year came word that he was working on a new take on The Twilight Zone for CBS All Access. A couple of months back we found out that he was set to star in the stop-motion animated feature Wendell and Wild alongside his Key and Peele co-star Keegan-Michael Key. He's also co-creator and executive producer on the new TV series The Last O.G. starring Tracy Morgan and Tiffany Haddish. Just to name a few things.
Though no story details have been revealed for Us just yet, Universal has already locked in a release date for the film. It's currently set to be released in theaters on March 15, 2019.


In the UK, the government there has updated its IT procurement procedures to bring them into line with European directives. These directives demand that technology projects must not specify specific brands of microprocessor. This directive originally came about because it was revealed that a number of EU member states were mandating the use of Intel processors in IT projects. Complaints from AMD prompted a probe. Originally the UK was not under investigation, but the Office of Government Commerce has issued its version of the non-discriminatory technical specification guidelines set down in the Europe-wide regulations. The new rules require that contracting authorities must specify requirements in generic technical or performance terms, and that hardware specifications should exclude any reference to minimum processor clock speeds.


CostumeTop offers price comparison on Monkey Costumes for adults and kids from TOP Halloween online stores on the Web.
The largest assortment of Monkey Costumes helps you to find and order the best costume at super-low prices.
CostumeTop offers free shipping on Monkey Costumes in USA, UK, Canada, Australia and all over the world.
CostumeTop offers other costumes: Unique Lalaloopsy Costumes For Sale and Cheap Boy's Wigs For Sale.


Special Scouts Canada issue. Contains pricing and order information for the 150th year anniversary of B-P's birth.
Includes scouting testimonials for igloo making equipment.
Offers kits of items to make swaps for girls to exchange at camps and events.
Provides free templates to create scouting related certificates in a pdf format.
Dealer in custom patches, dog tags, statues, pins, coins, medallions, and belt buckles for all Boy Scouts and Scouting Adventures.
Kerchief slides, carving kits and supplies for scouts by Bob Reitmeyer.
Ontario, Canada scouting and guiding artifacts. Includes location, hours and description of holdings.
Information relating to a Scouting museum and library in Manchester, New Hampshire. Several gift shop items are available online.
Location, contacts and brief description of museums in Ottawa, Belleville, Niagara Falls and Calgary.
Information on displays, hours, driving directions to this museum in Valley Forge National Park, Pennsylvania.
Boy Scout and Girl Scout memorabilia collector information. This is an amalgamation of the American Scouting Traders Association and the National Scouting Collectors Society.
An association of Scouting enthusiasts and avid collectors formed to display, trade and discuss Canadian Scouting Memorabilia.
A non-profit philatelic organization specializing in the collecting, study, and enjoyment of Scouts and Guides on stamps and philatelic items.
A listing of members, links and contact information.
Pictures and interesting information relating to stamps commemorating important dates in GSUSA and BSA history.
Special postal covers and issues.
A collection of articles specific to Girl Guides and Girl Scouts on stamps.


In order for the R-Motion device to register shots properly, a right handed player should use RIGHT-hand mode and vise-versa for left handed player. Follow this instructions below to switch between left and right hand mode.
Will Almost Golf balls work with R-Motion?


text:
from __future__ import unicode_literals

from django.db import models, migrations

class Migration(migrations.Migration):

    dependencies = [
        ('Map', '0002_auto_20151225_1957'),
    ]

    operations = [
        migrations.AlterField(
            model_name='maplog',
            name='timestamp',
            field=models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True, db_index=True),
        ),
    ]

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The Contract Management Intern will manage a variety of government, international and commercial contracts and subcontracts, in accordance with company policies and procedures, applicable laws and customer requirements. This individual will also take the responsibility to provide on-site advice to business units and project teams on Contract Management and policy compliance matters.
The Contract Management Intern may manage more than one engagement or, alternatively, be full-time on a single engagement (depending on the size/complexity of the agreement), or may work within a service center function.


text:
Adjuvant Pembrolizumab Continues to Prolong EFS Benefit in TNBC
Kyle Doherty
Conference | San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium
Results from prespecified subgroup analyses of the phase KEYNOTE-522 study were presented during 2021 SABCS.
In the phase 3 KEYNOTE-522 clinical trial, treatment with adjuvant pembrolizumab following neoadjuvant pembrolizumab (Keytruda) plus chemotherapy showed a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in event-free survival (EFS) in patients with early-stage triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), according to prespecified subgroup analysis results presented to during the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
Results from the primary EFS analysis showed that the 784 patients treated with pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy followed by pembrolizumab EFS events occurred in 15.7% of patients compared with 23.8% among 390 patients in the placebo plus chemotherapy followed by placebo arm (HR, 0.63; 95% CI, 0.48-0.82; P = .00031). Both cohorts had a median follow-up of 39.1 months (range, 30.0-48.0). The 36-month EFS rates were 84.5% vs 76.8%, respectively.
Investigators performed 5 additional EFS sensitivity analyses (SAs) in addition to the primary EFS analysis. Each additional analysis included the same 5 definitions of an event as the primary analysis: local disease progression precluding definitive surgery, local recurrence, distant progressive disease, distant recurrence, and death from any cause. The primary analysis and SA 1 also considered positive margin at last surgery and a second primary cancer as EFS events; the 2 analyses had identical EFS event criteria with alternate censoring rules.
Additional criteria added to each SA were as follows: SA 2 included new anticancer therapy for metastatic disease as an EFS event, SA 3 included positive margin at last surgery, SA 4 included only the 5 EFS events shared by all the analyses, and SA 5 added positive margin at last surgery, second primary cancer (nonbreast), and second primary breast cancer.
In SA 1, 14.3% of patients experienced an event in the experimental arm vs 21.5% in the control arm (HR 0.64; 95% CI, 0.48-0.84). The 36-month EFS rates were 85.3% vs 77.9%, respectively.
Patients in the experimental arm of SA 2 had an EFS event occurrence of 15.7% compared with 23.8% in the control group (HR 0.63; 95% CI, 0.48-0.82). In SA 3 these rates were 15.6% vs 23.1%, respectively (HR 0.65; 95% CI, 0.50-0.85) with 36-month EFS rates of 84.6% vs 77.5%, respectively. EFS events occurred in 14.8% vs 22.6% of patients in the experimental vs control arms, respectively, in SA 4 (HR 0.63; 95% CI, 0.48-0.84). Finally, in SA 5 events occurred in 16.1% of patients in the experimental cohort and 24.4% of patients in the control arm (HR 0.63; 95% CI, 0.48-0.82).
"The treatment benefit with pembrolizumab in each SA was consistent with the primary analysis," said Peter Schmid, MD, PhD, a professor of medicine at Cancer Research UK Barts Centre in London, England. "This shows the robustness of the primary EFS results. These results support pembrolizumab plus platinum-containing neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by adjuvant pembrolizumab after surgery as a new standard-of-care treatment regimen for patients with high-risk, early-stage TNBC."
Pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy followed by adjuvant pembrolizumab also improved EFS results regardless of nodal status. In patients with node-negative disease, events reported for 11.4% of patients experimental group compared with 18.6% in the control arm (HR 0.58; 95% CI, 0.37-0.91). The 36-month EFS rate was 88.6% in the experimental arm (n = 376) vs 82.2% in the control arm (n = 194). Patients with node-positive disease had events at a rate of 19.6% vs 29.1% in the experimental and control arms, respectively (HR 0.65; 95% CI, 0.46-0.91). The 36-month EFS rates were 80.7% in the experimental arm (n = 408) vs 71.5% in the control arm (n = 196).
Patients also saw benefit with pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy followed by adjuvant pembrolizumab regardless of disease stage. Patients with stage II disease had EFS events reported at a rate of 11.7% vs 18.6% in the experimental and control arms, respectively (HR 0.60; 95% CI, 0.42-0.86). The 36-monnth EFS rates were 88.6% in the experimental arm (n = 590) vs 81.7% in the control arm (n = 291). EFS events were reported in 27.8% vs 39.8%, respectively, for those with stage III disease; the 36-month EFS rates were 71.8% (n = 194) vs 62.0% (n = 98), respectively.
The benefit extended to patients regardless of menopausal status with HRs of 0.62 (95% CI, 0.42-0.91) and 0.64 (95% CI, 0.44-0.93) favoring adjuvant pembrolizumab for patients who were premenopausal and postmenopausal, respectively. Additionally, those with HER2-positivity of 2+ per immunohistochemistry (HR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.43-1.24) and those with HER2 status 0 to 1 by immunohistochemistry (HR, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.44-0.82) also saw a benefit with the experimental regimen.
"All subgroups appear to derive a comparable EFS benefit, including those by nodal stages and disease stage," Schmid added.
KEYNOTE-522 randomized a total of 1174 adult patients in a 2:1 manner into the experimental or placebo groups. To be eligible for the trial, patients must have a new diagnosis of TNBC of either stage T1c N1-2 or T2-4 N0-2, an ECOG performance status no greater than 1, and be able to provide a tissue sample for PD-L1 assessment. Stratification factors included nodal status (positive vs negative), tumor size (T1/T2 vs T3/T4), and carboplatin schedule (weekly vs once every 3 weeks).
Baseline characteristics were well-balanced between the 2 arms. Patients in the experimental arm were node-positive at a rate of 51.7% vs 51.3% in the control group, and most patients in both groups were disease stage II (75.3% vs 74.6%). In terms of menopausal status, 55.9% of patients in the experimental cohort were premenopausal compared with 56.7% in the control group.
Both arms of the trial were treated in 2 neoadjuvant treatment phases, with each phase consisting of 4 cycles over 12 weeks. Patients in the experimental arm received chemotherapy plus pembrolizumab 200 mg once every 3 weeks; those in the control arm received placebo in place of pembrolizumab. Both cohorts went to surgery at 12 weeks. The experimental group continued with pembrolizumab 200 mg in the 27-week adjuvant phase and the other arm continued with placebo.
The primary end points of the trial were pathologic control rate (pCR) assessed by the local pathologist and investigator assessed EFS. Secondary end points included pCR by alternative definitions, overall survival, and safety. The exploratory analyses included EFS sensitivity analyses and EFS in patient subgroups.
Regarding safety, treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs) occurred in 98.9% and 99.7% of patients in the experimental and control groups, respectively. Grade 3 to 5 AEs were present in 77.1% of patients in the experimental group vs 73.3% in the control arm. Serious AEs occurred in 34.1% of patients in the experimental arm, 0.5% of AEs led to death and 27.7% led to discontinuation in this group. AEs leading to death occurred in 0.3% of patients in the control group and led to discontinuation 14.1% of the time.
Common grade 1 to 2 TRAEs occurring in the adjuvant phase of treatment in the experimental arm included arthralgia (8.5%), rash (6.0%), and pruritus (5.1%). TRAEs in the control group of grade 1 to 2 in the control group consisted of arthralgia (6.9%), asthenia (5.1%), and fatigue (4.8%), among others. Immune-mediated AEs of any grade occurred in the adjuvant phase at a rate of 10.2% and 6.0%, in the experimental and control arms, respectively.
"The rate of adverse events (AEs) with pembrolizumab was low, especially in the adjuvant setting," Schmid said.
Schmid P, Cortes J, Dent R, et al. KEYNOTE-522 study of neoadjuvant pembrolizumab + chemotherapy vs placebo + chemotherapy, followed by adjuvant pembrolizumab vs placebo for early-stage TNBC: event-free survival sensitivity and subgroup analyses. Presented at: 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; December 7-10, 2021; Virtual. Abstract GS1-01.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
McLaren denies reports of leg injury for Jenson Button
By Chris EstradaApr 29, 2014, 2:30 PM EDT
After the emergence of multiple reports that said McLaren's Jenson Button pulled out of a recent triathlon on the Canary Islands due to a leg injury, the team has commented on the matter.
"Jenson decided not to complete the Canary Islands triathlon, but he is fit and well and has, contrary to a few rogue media reports, no injuries of any kind," a team spokesperson has said.
"Indeed, he is driving in our simulator today and is looking forward to participating in the forthcoming Spanish Grand Prix."
Those particular reports said that Button had completed the swimming and cycling portions of the triathlon but pulled out of the half-marathon run due to a muscle issue.
Button tweeted about the triathlon earlier this morning, but made no reference to any possible injuries.
Fun week at @ChallengeFTV half distance triathlon with @Ichiban_TriTeam didn't get a result in the end but a good tough race with mega views
— Jenson Button (@JensonButton) April 29, 2014
However, on his Instagram page, he made reference to having to pull out of the running portion due to his "ITB," or illiotibial band, acting up.
And then the run came!! 21.1kms, was ok but at 11km my ITB started playing up so pulled out, shame but it did mean I could watch the rest of team Ichiban going through pain with a beer in hand!!
A post shared by Jenson Button (@jensonbutton) on Apr 29, 2014 at 12:53am PDT
The illiotibial band is a ligament that serves to help extend, abduct, and rotate the hip, as well as provide lateral stabilization of the knee. Injuries involving the band are common among runners.


Anyone waiting for their score to be reported tomorrow?
I've been dying to know if I passed!
did u get yours. i dint get mine. took on aprll 11th. not yeet repotrted.
Yes, mine got reported on the 24th. I checked OASIS this morning.
I took it in Philly on April 12th.
Sure, I'll be happy to share my sources.
I did First Aid for CS and Kaplan book for CS.
What I did first is went through the DDs and tried to memorize them.
Then I practiced typing notes. To do that I used the kaplan book (it has a number of cases that briefly describe the clinical scenario and than based on that I tried to write a note including DDs and orders).
For typing I used the screen provided on the USMLE CD.
I timed myself every time and tried not to exceed 9 min.
And that's it. I wish you good luck with your preparation.
Where are you taking the test?
THANK YOU FOR YOUR REPLY!!!it seems im on the right track...im reading the DDX in the first aid right now&after w/c i plan to practice writing patient note using kaplan&do practice cases w/ the first Aid as you did...thank you vr much again..im taking it this june 27 in LA..im flying from Baltimore.. are you planning to be Match in 2007?
I like to share my experiences because I learned a lot from this forum so I want to give back now that I'm done with my exams.
Yes, I will be applying for a 2007 spot.
i took it in march, just got the report.


The Practice Research Symposium in Europe features Higher Degree by Research examinations, candidate presentations, a keynote lecture and various social functions associated with the symposium.
Held in Barcelona and attracting participants from influential academic institutions and practices across Europe, the PRS provides an opportunity for shared reflection between distinguished practitioners about creative design practice.
To join our mailing list please contact prs_eu@rmit.edu.au.
PRS EU May program – released late April.
Welcome by Dr Marta Fernandez, A/Prof Paul Minifie, A/Prof James Auger, and Prof Martyn Hook.
Followed by Keynote and Book Launches.
What does it entail – this manoeuvring between observation and speculation, between the figurative and the figural, between object and event, between measurability and the subject's perspective, urging multiple points of view poised by iteration, implying time-related change?
object-subject viewpoint, in which the world of objects is replaced by a world of events.
attempting to capture architecture without being an illustration of it.
Riet Eeckhout's practice in Architecture spans 20 years during which she worked as an architect in Brussels (Belgium), Valletta (Malta), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and London (UK). In 2007 she cofounded the architecture design studio APLondon with projects on various scales in close relation to architectural research. This research culminated in 2014 in the completion of her doctorate, entitled Process Drawing, under the supervision of Professor Martyn Hook at RMIT University (Melbourne).
Riet lectured at RMIT University (Melbourne), UCA University Canterbury (UK), Syracuse University (London Program, UK) and University of Ljubljana (Slovenia). She currently holds a teaching and research position at KU Leuven University (Belgium).
Her work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale 2014, Galerie d'Architecture (Paris), DeSingel Arts Campus, Flanders Architecture Institute (Antwerp) and Tchoban Foundation Museum for architecture drawing (Berlin).
"To observe with the client, to draw with the existing". Three cases of architecture dealing with the As Found.
This PhD is focussed on rehabilitation in architecture. It researches the introduction of our studio into working with existing buildings, and how the conversations between architect, client and the existing, builds a tri-polar relationship that informs an attitude towards the host building.
The examination will happen while visiting an exhibition that collects different material related to the 3 projects that are in the focus of this research. Five of the documents in the show were fabricated as responses to some questions that arose during the different Practice Research Symposiums, and some of them were part of our participation at the last edition of the Venice Architecture Biennale.
Holding onto the Land. Projects and practices toward anticipatory large scale landscape strategies.
This PhD describes a landscape architect's activity over 25 years, working on large scale landscapes under pressure and enable, through the research, the understanding its modus operandi.
The research was carried through the creative practice-based PhD process, a programme run by RMIT Melbourne. Their PhD method (van Schaik and Johnson 2011) consists of a three-step process, research on, in and for design. The first step involves research on the practitioner's approach to design by analysing past projects. The second step looks at defining the design process, in this case through a self-commissioned project run in Upper Normandy on the future of its cultural landscape patterns. The research questions were inspired by the author's role as landscape architect government advisor in the region. The third step reveals shifts in the practitioner's design process and enriches its practice. In this PhD process a five-step procedure (echo, weak signals, osmosis, facilitation and frameworks) was identified, and the importance of the multi-scalar spatial dimension was highlighted; the landscape's multiple social dimensions as well as the future possible role of new landscape patterns in preventing climate change effects. I conclude that much of my work involves the design of proactive landscape frameworks which anticipate future changes, transformations, acceptance of disappearances, and the integration of new artefacts into large cultural landscapes.
RMIT gratefully acknowledges that research leading to these results was funded by the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013/ under REA grant agreement n° 317325.


text:
Q: Get class info of Keras' ImageDataGenerator images besides parsing filename I load hundres of images with ImageGenerator and its flow_from_dirctory-function from lets say two directories (two classes) in the validation directory (and test directory) with names "cats" and "dogs":
validation_generator = test_datagen.flow_from_directory(
        root_dir + '/validate',
        target_size=(img_x, img_y),
        batch_size=batch_size,
        color_mode='grayscale',
        class_mode='input',  # necessarry for autoencoder
        shuffle=False, # must be false otherwise filenames are wrong
        seed = seed)

After using some Keras model generation and fitting I want to debug sample images: I want to take images from the validation_generator and run the model on it. But I have to know in which directory the image was in the first place or with the class it was assigned to.
For plotting I use:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
n = 7
x,y = validation_generator.next()
for i in range(0,n):
    image_x = x[i,:,:,0]
    #print(validation_generator.class_indices) # always shows the same
    print(validation_generator.filenames[i]) # only OK if shuffle=false
    plt.imshow(image_x)
    plt.show()

I could only find the possibility to parse validation_generator.filenames[i] and take the directory of it. Is there any other, more elegant, way for that?

A: validation_generator.class_indices  # ==> return: {'ants': 0, 'bees': 1}

A: The class_indices attribute is a dictionary that contains the mapping from class names to class indices, so this is indeed the same for each data example that the generator yields. You could access the label for image_x from y as follows:
label_x = y[i]

A: There does not seem to be an elegant way for an autoencoder so I post my quirky way:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import os
n = 7
x,y = validation_generator.next()
for i in range(0,n):
    plt.figure(figsize=(2, 2))
    image_x = x[i,:,:,0]
    image_label = os.path.dirname(validation_generator.filenames[i]) # only OK if shuffle=false
    print(image_label)
    plt.imshow(image_x)
    plt.show()

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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text:
Home ›› CUES Fellows to Explore Ways to Transform Teaching and Learning
CUES Fellows to Explore Ways to Transform Teaching and Learning
By Kyle MittanUniversity Communications
Guadalupe Lozano took over as director of the Center for University Education Scholarship last year.
Matthew Mugmon, assistant professor of music and holder of the Daveen Fox Chair in Music Studies
Shelley Staples, associate professor of English
The Center for University Education Scholarship has welcomed a new class of Distinguished Fellows – and a new director.
This cohort, the center's second, is the first under CUES' new director, Guadalupe Lozano, who took the position about a year ago. Debra Tomanek, professor emerita of molecular and cellular biology, led the center after it was established in late 2016.
Lozano has been on the faculty in the Department of Mathematics since 2009, and is an associate research scientist and associate research professor. She is also director of external relations and evaluation for the School of Mathematical Sciences.
The center – founded with a $3 million gift from a donor who asked not to be named – aims to catalyze the practice of scholarship and innovation in university teaching and learning. Its Distinguished Fellows program provides $20,000 to each fellow annually for up to three years, allowing fellows to develop projects that align with the CUES mission and provide institutional value to the UA.
The fellows' projects explore educational grand challenges, design, implement and assess innovative teaching and learning approaches, or create tools that enhance or scale evidence-based pedagogical practices.
The faculty selected for the fellowships are:
Bryan Carter, associate professor of Africana studies and director of the Center for Digital Humanities
John Pollard, associate professor of practice of chemistry and biochemistry and assistant dean of academic affairs in the Honors College
Pollard, who was part of last year's inaugural class, was selected for another round of funding.
The 2019 Fellows' projects involve ways to improve the undergraduate research experience, studying international students' writing assignments to improve pedagogical practices, and building faculty capacity to harness the power of the digital age for university teaching.
Reflecting on his time as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania, Mugmon found that there is a "disconnect" between the way undergraduates are taught to study music history and the way musicologists do their research. Though much music-related research is done with primary sources – original documents such as letters, manuscripts and diaries – undergraduates are taught historical aspects of music using mostly secondary sources and textbooks that compile and summarize the content and analysis of primary sources, he said.
It's often not until graduate school that students are expected "to really dig into what kind of materials there are inside archives, collections of materials that belong to people, or letters sent from one person to another, and to analyze those sorts of things," Mugmon said.
Mugmon's project sets out to make work with original source materials central to undergraduate education.
While similar work has been done before in various fields, "I want to find ways as a teacher to highlight and expand that sort of practice," Mugmon said. By identifying overlooked materials in archives, he added, the effort will also give students access to learning how underrepresented groups have contributed to shaping culture.
As director of the Center for Digital Humanities, Carter uses various technological tools to teach Africana studies. He'll spend his fellowship building on that work.
"My CUES fellowship will enable research in not only advancing the connection between technology and Africana studies but also explore the nature of how immersion affects one's interaction and engagement with course content," he said.
Staples will spend her fellowship growing and mining a recently created corpus – or a collection of texts, particularly students' writing assignments, from three first-year English composition courses designed for international students. The aim of her project is to explore this large data set to create materials that the courses' instructors can use to improve their teaching practices.
"We're not only doing descriptive analysis and seeing what's going on in these student texts," Staples said, "but we're then using them to develop materials, and then the teachers are going to be using those materials in their classroom with students."
Staples is no stranger to this type of work. Along with faculty at universities around the U.S., she developed the Corpus & Repository of Writing, or Crow, to study students' writing strengths and potential areas for growth. But her project for CUES focuses more on pedagogy – a lens that Lozano said is "the very relevant for CUES."
"I am just so excited that CUES exists, because it's not something that you see a lot of," Staples said.
New director
As a mathematics graduate student at the UA in the early 2000s, Lozano became interested in how math is taught, learned, and understood, and helping students see and access the power of thinking mathematically in any field, not simply learning how to pass a required course. That interest led Lozano to focus her postdoctoral work on content, pedagogy, and knowledge measurement tied to mathematics education. Her current discipline-related work includes improving access and delivery of quality mathematical know-how, and exploring ways to transform STEM education at Hispanic-Serving Institutions such as the UA.
Lozano's interest in leading CUES came from the center's mission, she said, which involves cultivating intersectional expertise, both by unpacking topics that bridge across disciplinary divides, or by charting the space between education scholarship and faculty members' expertise in their respective disciplines – two areas that are often kept separate in higher education.
"That's what CUES does. It supports the development of expertise in scholarship of teaching and learning that is informed by one or more disciplines, and it's of benefit to university education, specifically," Lozano added.
To this end, the center also offers events, such as symposia and seminars, for faculty, organized by Lozano with the input from the Distinguished Fellows and members of the CUES Advisory Board. This past spring, a new knowledge-generating workshop series titled Mapping Educational Challenges, or MECha, was piloted.
MECha workshops are designed to bring together faculty from across the University to ask and answer questions on teaching and learning of critical relevance to multiple disciplines. The first one, on quantitative intuition, brought together 30 faculty and administrators from nine colleges at UA.
As Lozano looks to what the future holds for CUES, she said she hopes she can garner more interest in transforming teaching and learning among faculty across the UA.
In visioning a future for CUES, Lozano sees an opportunity to be at the forefront of change and build capacity to tackle key ideas and challenges, while building on UA strengths and values.
"CUES can function as an epicenter for pushing the boundaries of the scholarship of teaching and learning in the ever-evolving landscape of university education," she said.


text:
Endicott, Part Three: Wrong, Wrong and Wrong Again
June 14, 2017 by Robert Franklin, Esq, Member, National Board of Directors, National Parents Organization
In her article for the Huffington Post about which I've written the previous two days, Marisa Endicott treads uncertainly between the merely misleading and the outright false (Huffington Post, 6/9/17). Hers is the type of zeal we often see coming from those who would erect still more barriers between children and their fathers. Endicott's taken up the cause of those who pretend that no parent ever alienates a child from another parent. That of course plumbs the depths of absurdity. The newspapers are chock full of obvious examples to the contrary.
One standard dodge by the anti-dad crowd is to elide the differences between PAS and PA. Endicott proves herself an adept student.
The American Psychological Association has no official position on PAS, but notes a lack of supportive data. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a guide used worldwide to diagnose disorders, does not recognize the syndrome, either, despite campaigns for it to do so.
Technically true, but of course Endicott neglects to mention what so many have noted – that the APA in fact included the concept of PA in the DSM – V, but not by that name. It now comes under the rubric of, for example "Child Affected by Parental Relationship Distress" that specifically includes "disparagement" in its list of stress-inducing behaviors.
To her credit, Endicott briefly quotes Dr. Amy Baker:
"Frankly, alienation is a form of emotional abuse," she said. "If you care about abused kids, you would care about whether they are being alienated, not just whether they're being physically or sexually abused."
But alas, she never comes to grips with what Baker said – that PA is abusive behavior. Baker could have been speaking directly to Endicott's article when she said "if you care about abused kids…" Does she? It's a fair question that Endicott neither asks nor answers.
However, the definition of parental alienation is broad, and many of the symptoms are similar to those of legitimate estrangement.
Again, that's technically true, but at the same time a frank misrepresentation of PA. Perhaps the key symptom of PA is the child's rejection of a parent without justification, i.e. the very opposite of "legitimate estrangement." Anyone with even a cursory knowledge of alienation understands that most basic of facts. Endicott either failed to do fundamental research into her chosen topic or she's deliberately misleading her readers. I think I know which it is.
There is a common perception that mothers are greatly favored in custody disputes, and fathers' rights organizations have argued that parental alienation serves as a tool to balance the unequal playing field.
Utterly untrue on both counts. That mothers are greatly favored in custody disputes isn't a "perception," it's a fact, as many datasets and studies demonstrate. Is Endicott aware of the data on child custody outcomes from the State of Nebraska? What about the Census Bureau? Has she read the surveys of family judges and lawyers that reveal frank anti-father bias?
And no, fathers rights organizations don't argue in favor of recognizing alienation in order to "balance the unequal playing field." The argument is invariably as Baker says – that PA is damaging to children and we should try to discourage doing so. Period. Too bad Endicott and the Huffington Post aren't on board with that humanitarian effort.
When it comes to highly contested cases with abuse allegations, critics say, parental alienation is inherently biased against women, and an American Psychological Association task force found a reluctance in family courts to believe mothers' abuse claims. Indeed, these claims often cast the mothers themselves as unstable, hostile or alienating.
Wrong, wrong and wrong again. Parental alienation isn't biased against women. As every reliable source on parental alienation has said, fathers and mothers are equally capable of alienating behavior. The only reason most alienators are women is that PA is an opportunistic behavior, i.e. you can't alienate a child if you don't see him/her very often. Since mothers overwhelmingly get custody, they have the opportunity. If more dads were sole or primary caregivers, we'd see more of them hauled into family court as alienators.
That APA task force? Its report (a) is over 12 years old, (b) is among the most frankly misandric documents you'll ever read, (c) is overtly false in that it assumes domestic violence to be a gendered phenomenon and by the way, (d) nowhere says what Endicott claims. To say that a "task force found" something strongly suggests that a group of people inquired into an issue and made findings of fact that indicate one thing or another. The APA group did no such thing. The very brief statement to which Endicott linked is literally nothing but a string of unsupported assertions, all of them anti-father and none of which admit that mothers are about twice as likely to commit child abuse as are fathers.
And, while claims of alienation do indeed sometimes cast the alienating parent as "unstable, hostile or alienating," even a casual glance at alienation cases, demonstrates that's exactly what many of them are. Read my pieces on, for example, Suzanne DeWalt and tell me if Endicott's isn't a precise description of her. There are countless others, but, needless to say, Endicott found none.
Jaclyn has experienced this first hand during her legal battle. Because she never pressed domestic violence charges, the abuse essentially didn't exist in the court's eyes.
Well, her never having raised the issue of DV with anyone prior to her custody case does call its veracity into question, doesn't it? Any balanced, fair judge is bound to wonder why such an important topic went unmentioned until Mom wanted custody. But if Jaclyn had evidence of abuse, what was it? What did she put on the record in court to back up her claims? Anything? Again, Endicott gives readers nothing on which to base a belief in her narrative of an abused mother done wrong by heartless judges. Nothing.
Many point to a lack of abuse-specific training among judges, evaluators, mediators and experts in family court as the root of the problem.
Complete nonsense. Judges have been trained by domestic violence organizations (wrongly, but trained they are) for decades now and every state requires them to consider violence and abuse in making custody determinations. Endicott's claim is pure fabrication.
In criminal court, everyone has the right to an attorney, because the government is involved, and freedom is at stake. But in family court, no representation is provided, because the proceedings involve disputes between private parties.
This is misleading. The anti-dad crowd has always claimed that fathers have an advantage in family court because they have more money than do their ex-wives. But the reality is that fathers are far less likely to hire an attorney than are mothers. Again, the Nebraska data bear this out as did Maccoby and Mnookin back in the early 90s.
The hope of those opposed to children maintaining real relationships with both parents post-divorce that they can further their campaign by attacking PA is a losing battle. Indeed, it's already been lost. There's far too much science on parental alienation, it's been accepted as scientific fact in too many courts and it's too familiar a phenomenon to family lawyers and judges for anyone to doubt its existence. That opponents like Endicott and Laurie Udesky stoop to the type of dishonesty they do stands as mute testimony to the weakness of their claims.
As ever, if they had real arguments to make, they'd make them. But they don't.
National Parents Organization is a Shared Parenting Organization
National Parents Organization is a non-profit that educates the public, families, educators, and legislators about the importance of shared parenting and how it can reduce conflict in children, parents, and extended families. Along with Shared Parenting we advocate for fair Child Support and Alimony Legislation. Want to get involved? Here's how:
Become an official member of the National Parents Organization team.
Join our Facebook Page.
Together, we can drive home the family, child development, social and national benefits of shared parenting, and fair child support and alimony. Thank you for your activism.
#parentalalienation, #childabuse, #childcustody


Two UK-originated teams travelled to Cambodia this past summer to complete 22 houses in impoverished villages outside of Phnom Penh. Throughout the spring, team members worked hard to raise the £25,000 required to purchase construction materials and fund the installation of an equal number of wells. Thanks to the generosity of supporters, the teams exceeded their goal and extra funds were donated to the construction of Nokor Tep Women's Hospital.
While in Cambodia, team members learned about Cambodia's tragic history, met with founder Janne Ritskes, enjoyed local tours and a cultural show, and witnessed the progress in construction of Nokor Tep.


Why do I want to bail someone out of jail?
The judicial process is very slow. When someone is arrested we post their bond so that they can get back to work and move on with their normal life.
How much does a bail cost?
Typically the bail bond fee is 10%. We offer the most affordable rates allowed by law. Everyone's situation is unique & we will set up a plan that will work for you. We offer 0% interest for payment plans in good standing. Discounts are available for senior citizens, union members, military, & attorney referrals.
What happens if a defendant misses court?
We will give the defendant a court date when they are released from custody. The defendant is required to make all court appointments. If they do miss the defendant has 180 days to get back into custody or pay the full amount of the bail bond.
As a co-signer you are liable for the full amount of the bail bond if the defendant misses court. In the event that the defendant misses court you have 160 days to get them back in jail or pay the full amount of the bail bond. In addition the co-signer is responsible for any costs incurred from the search and arrest of a defendant that misses court.
Do I have to put up collateral?
Everyone's situation is different and collateral is not required for everyone. Usually a signature from someone with good credit will get the defendant out of jail.
What are my responsibilities as a defendant?
It is the defendant's responsibility to appear in court every time until the case is solved by either sentencing or dismissal. In addition the defendant is responsible to notify the bail bondsman of any changes in address or phone number.
Do I get my money back after the case is resolved?
Anytime you pay a premium to a bail bondsman the payment is non refundable. You are contracting the bondsman to have the defendant released from custody. Once the defendant walks out of jail the bondsman has fully earned the premium.


Why Don't We Have Vaccines for Everything?
in the last discussion is, Why don't we have vaccines for everything?
fighting off all manner of infection.
and treat All manner of diseases, so malaria, cancers, bacterial diseases.
in developing vaccines for these other, maladies?
Mary, you were, you were, I cut you off on the last one.
start is to see if there are people who actually have protective immunity.
And then we simply copy it.
Or, Now copying it means that we have ways to induce it.
then it become,s quite a bit more challenging.
And HIV, I think, is a, is a very good example of that.
>> So the difficulty with HIV is not the localization of the virus, is it?
mount an immune response against it, is no localization issue with HIV.
>> I'm not sure what you mean by localization.
>> Doesn't the virus, I think it's an eruption of spores, does it get into?
>> No, it's a retrovirus.
>> Yeah, maybe ou're better to tell me.
hides away from, from drugs in some way, it's under the radar.
>> It can do that so that it, it may infect a cell and then not replicate.
it's probably not having any adverse affects as well.
There are antibodies responses and, cellular responses to the virus.
But there not always protective.
>> Okay. >> Okay so what do you induce then?
then it's not enough medications vaccine.
so we haven't made a vaccine that does better than natural immunity.
extend immunity beyond what natural immunity would be.
experiment with the, with the conjugate meningitis vaccine in sub Sarahan Africa.
a sugar on the outside of this vector.
And it provided a year or two's worth of immunity at maximum.
is hopefully going to produce upwards of ten years of immunity.
a dramatic decline in meningitis disease as a consequence of this.
you've had some experience in developing vaccines for bacterias, is that right?
Certain, and, as I concur, I think that's, that's one good example.
So, addressing your, your question out there.
So, I think it's an important question to consider from two different perspectives.
just a prag, pretty pragmatic perspective.
in terms of a natural immune response and protection.
in the face of a variety of different, insults, if you will.
So, for example, you have to have, an active infection and then get protected.
That protection may not lost as long, as Matt just suggested.
actually might extend that significantly more than the actual infection, right?
not to a variety of other antigens that a pathogen might present.
In a vast majority of vaccines, it's somehow in the other process.
hopefully going to be beneficial.
So, yes, in a sense that they do improve upon, the immune response.
successfu,l based on what happens naturally?
There have been some improvements, but not dramatic ones.
there are some hopes that we might.
I think with the new technologies there's some interesting promises.
vaccinate against, it's because you're got a lot of immune escapes.
Evolutionary advantage or grit or something.
I think that's the classic challenge within influenza, for example.
so the, the vaccine, has got very low efficacy from year to year.
and so at least I think there's been experiments in mice.
immunity through this clever new gene technology, so.
to encourage a more diverse response?
And what we've just talked about suggests it, it may not be best to just target.
if you know that you can prevent a virus from getting into a cell.
one episode that makes sense to block that then you don't have an infection,.
infection you're unlikely to have, have disease.
But that seems like, it's also a really, really strong selective.
Yeah, and that's the thing about something like malaria.
its got lots of redundancies in those invasion pathways.
binding arrangements go on in terms of evading the red cells.
You could knock out ten and you would still have a bunch more.
the natural immunity of people has been trying to block malaria for, for eons.
like you say, the antigenic variations as well on that, change through time.
>> So we're always hearing that there's going to be a new vaccine against malaria.
>> [LAUGH] Yes. >> Is this, is this possible or what?
>> So, ever since I've been in this business.
Which is somewhere in the mid 80s it's been ten years out.
>> As you were in the mid 80s.
[LAUGH] >> And it's still ten years out.
that's getting efficacy in Africa, but it',s not that great.
It takes a third longer gain, as long a gain as it takes to get malaria.
The vaccine just delays the time until you get it.
And don't we drop the bar as well?
>> We keep talking ourselves down.
if you shift your goals down to something like 50% will accept.
What's the, what's the problem?
quite a bit better than that to make it worth rolling it out.
you know, quite a bit better.
>> So, the next jump from 30% might have to be to 80%.
we shouldn't put up with 30%, we should wait until we get a higher to roll it out.
I gotta, reduces my chances of getting malaria by a third, that's not too bad.
I'd probably pay for that.


text:
Q: Angular JS : Custom validation issue I'm trying to set custom validation in my application, and it works for once scenario. When i do focus out or tab out, it works fine. But, i'm handling one more scenario, where while calling a function, from the controller, i'm broadcasting an event and handling it inside the directive. Please find the code snippet :-
HTML snippet
<md-input-container class="md-block" md-no-float>
  <input type='text' id='signInUsername' ng-model="formData.email" signinauthvalidator name="username" required placeholder="Username ( eg:- bill2016 )">

This is required

Minimum of 4 characters and maximum of 64 is allowed.

User doesn't exist.

</md-input-container>
<md-input-container class="md-block" md-no-float>
   <input id='password' signinauthvalidator type="{{si.showpw? 'text': 'password'}}"  placeholder="Password" required name="password" ng-model="formData.password">

This is required.

Password should be 8-30 characters

Invalid password.

</md-input-container>

Directive code snippet
scope.$on('authError', function (e,v) {
    if(v == 'PASSWORD_INVALID') {
     ctrl.$setValidity('passwordInvalid', false);
    } else if(v == 'USERNAME_INVALID') {
     ctrl.$setValidity('userExist', false);
    }
});
ctrl.$parsers.push(customValidator);

What is happening is, when this code ctrl.$setValidity('passwordInvalid', false); executes, this validation is also getting injected to the username field. I checked out the form response and i can see passwordInvalid field present in both username and password fields. How can i make this to apply only for password field ? Thanks


text:
Official Gazette RS, no. 31/2000 and OdlUS IX, 53 | 09.03.2000
National Assembly Elections Act (Official Gazette RS, No. 44/92) (ZVDZ), Art. 92.1 and 4
Paragraphs 1 and 4 of Art. 92 of the National Assembly Elections Act are not inconsistent with the Constitution.
The principle of the equality of the right to vote embodied in Art. 43 of the Constitution requires that all voters have the same number of votes and that all votes are given in advance the same possibility to be taken into consideration when election results are established (the distribution of mandates).
However, it is not necessary that the votes of all voters make in fact the same impact on the election results or that the electoral system ensure full proportionality between the share of votes and the share of mandates obtained. Furthermore, the principle of the equality of the right to vote does not require that all political parties need the same number of votes to obtain one mandate; it suffices that political parties (more precisely: candidates or lists of candidates) have equal possibilities ensured in advance for obtaining a mandate or mandates. The conformity of the electoral system with the constitutional principle of the equality of the right to vote is reviewed in view of the equality of voters at the time when their votes are cast, not at the time when representative mandates are distributed.
The challenged provisions regulate the manner of the distribution of mandates and make no impact on the equal value of the votes of voters at the time when their votes are cast.
Deviation from the proportionality between the share of votes and the share of mandates does not entail an unequal position of the voters at voting. Given the same degree of probability, it can occur in the case of any voter that their vote would count more or less, or would have greater or smaller value, when mandates are distributed. The deviation from proportionality caused by the distribution of part of Deputy mandates on the basis of the sum of remaining votes given to the same lists in all electoral units, and the fact that the final impact of a vote depends on which party did the voter vote for, thus does not violate the principle of the equality of the right to vote.
Principle of the equality of the right to vote.
Elections, to the National Assembly.
National Assembly, elections.
Elections, the distribution of mandates.
Constitutional Court, the change of a viewpoint.
Principle of a State governed by the rule of law.
Principle of the direct exercise of power.
Dissenting opinion of a Constitutional Court judge.
Concurring opinion of a Constitutional Court judge.
Constitution, Arts. 2, 3, 43
Constitutional Court Act (ZUstS), Art. 21
In the reasoning of its decision, the Constitutional Court referred to its case No. U-I-44/96, dated 13 June 1996 (Official Gazette RS, No. 36/96 - DecCC V,98).
u-i-354-96-an.pdf
Download [ ]
The full text:
D E C I S I O N
At a session held on 9 March 2000 in the proceedings to review constitutionality and legality instituted by the petition of the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia, the Constitutional Court
d e c i d e d:
Paragraphs 1 and 4 of Art. 92 of the National Assembly Elections Act (Official Gazette RS, No. 44/92) are not inconsistent with the Constitution.
R e a s o n s
1. The petitioners challenged Paras. 1 and 4 of Art. 92 of the National Assembly Elections Act (hereinafter: ZVZD), which determine that, with regard to National Assembly elections, mandates which are not distributed in electoral units on the basis of the electoral quotient are distributed on the State level on the basis of a sum of remaining votes given to the same lists. They asserted that the challenged provisions were inconsistent with the principle of the equality of the right to vote (Art. 43 of the Constitution), since they allegedly entailed the different strength of the votes of voters when election results are established. They stated that the distribution of mandates on the basis of remaining votes made an impact such that the mandates were not distributed to the same lists in proportion to the share of votes they obtained. They cited theoretical and practical examples, which allegedly supported their assertions. For example, at the 1996 National Assembly elections for obtaining one mandate, the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia needed 11,543 votes, whereas the Slovenian People's Party 10,987 votes, the Social-Democratic Party 10,279 votes, the Slovenian Christian Democrats 10,728 votes, the Associated List of Social Democrats 10,728, the Democratic Party of the Retired 9,218 votes, and the Slovenian National Party 8,600 votes. According to the petitioners, there were 12,377 votes needed for one mandate within the framework of the first phase of distribution, and 8,441 votes for a mandate within the framework of the second phase of distribution.
2. In the petitioners' opinion, the fact that there were more votes needed for a mandate for one political party than for a mandate for another political party entailed that the vote of the voter who voted for the second political party valued more than the vote of the voter who voted for the list of the first political party. They asserted that the challenged provisions were inconsistent with Arts. 2, 3 and 43 of the Constitution.
They suggested that the Constitutional Court annul the word "remains" in Paras. 1 and 4 of Art. 92 of ZDVZ, or (subsidiarily) annul Paras. 1 and 4 of Art. 92 of ZDVZ entirely.
3. In its reply to the petition, the National Assembly Secretariat for Legislation and Legal Affairs stated that the effects of the challenged ZVDZ provisions were the same as asserted by the petitioners, which could allegedly be confirmed by the results of the 1992 and 1996 elections. The Secretariat further stated that such a regulation was, however, not discriminatory since it was applicable to all political parties. Differences emerged later, when the proportion between the votes obtained and candidates elected of individual lists are taken into account. Furthermore, the Secretariat stated that the National Assembly had already viewed, with a high degree of consensus, such unproportionality as unappropriated. To this effect, a bill was submitted to remedy the challenged regulation, which was approved in the first discussion. The Secretariat referred to Art. 301.2 of the National Assembly Rules of Procedure and stated that, in view of the fact that the bill to change the disputed statutory regulation had been submitted for parliamentary discussions and debates, there was no need for it to explain this regulation.
B. - I.
4. The Constitutional Court adopted the said petition by Ruling No. U-I-354/96, dated 14 November 1996, however it dismissed a proposal for temporary suspending the challenged ZVDZ provision.
5. The challenged provisions of Art. 92 of ZVDZ regulate the so- called second distribution of mandates concerning National Assembly elections. The first distribution of mandates is carried out in a manner such that in electoral units individual lists obtain one mandate per a certain number of votes, which is equal to the electoral quotient; provided that the electoral quotient is calculated by way of the whole number of votes cast for all lists in an electoral unit divided by the number of Deputies to be elected in the electoral unit, i.e. by eleven.
How many times the list reaches this number that number of mandates it obtains on the basis of the first distribution.
Since, on account of remaining votes, all mandates cannot be distributed in such a manner. Therefore, the remaining (undistributed) votes are distributed on the State level on the basis of a sum of remaining votes to the same lists in all electoral units. What is applied to such distribution is d'Hondt's system, according to which the sums of remaining votes are divided by the numbers from one to the number of undistributed mandates; such mandates are distributed to lists by an order of precedence of the highest quotients.
6. Mandates which are not distributed in electoral units on the basis of the electoral quotient are divided in proportion to the sums of remaining votes given to individual lists. Thus, the second distribution of mandates is regulated in a manner such that only remaining mandates (the ones which were not distributed at the first distribution) are distributed, on the basis of the sums of remaining votes. This entails that possible unproportionalities developed at the first distribution of mandates (i.e. the distribution on the basis of electoral quotients) are preserved and, furthermore, certain unproportionality created in particular to benefit those lists which obtained less mandates on the basis of the first distribution. The development of the second phenomenon particularly results from the fact that in the case of the distribution on the basis of remaining votes also those mandates are distributed, which would be given to lists which did not reach the electoral threshold Šin order to enter the National AssemblyĆ. In distributing these mandates, what is important is only remaining votes, not the whole number of votes obtained by the same lists. Accordingly, such distribution is not fully proportional.
7. The challenged regulation, pursuant to which in the case of the second distribution only the mandates which were not distributed at the first distribution are proportionally distributed, concerning only the sums of remaining votes, may entail deviation from the principle of the proportionality between the share of votes and the share of mandates given to the same lists. The distribution on the basis of remaining votes may cause that the number of mandates may depend on chance and that the whole number of mandates obtained on the basis of the electoral quotient in electoral units and on the basis of the second distribution is not fully proportionate to the overall success of individual lists at elections. Individual political parties (or other proposers) thus need a different number of votes to obtain mandates for their lists.
B. - II.
8. In Art. 43.1, the Constitution provides that the right to vote is universal and equal. In Decision No. U-I-44/96, dated 13 June 1996 (Official Gazette RS, No. 36/96 and DecCC V,98), the Constitutional Court adopted the following view: "The equality of the right to vote entails that every voter has the same number of votes and that the votes of all voters have the same value. In a proportional electoral system this is ensured in a manner such that Deputy mandates are distributed in proportion to the number of votes for each list of candidates, what means that every vote has the equal weight (i.e. for the election of every Deputy the approximately equal number of votes is needed, given that every single valid vote cast is taken into consideration). Any deviation from the principle of proportionality developed in this electoral system may entail an encroachment on the right to vote."
9. A consistent application of the view embodied in Decision No. U-I-44/96 would entail that only such electoral system is in conformity with the principle of the equality of the right to vote which ensures the full proportionality (insofar as it is possible to be achieved in terms of mathematics) between the share of votes and the share of mandates. However, given consistent respect for this view, only such exemptions from full proportionality would be allowed which protect some other constitutional value, are necessary for achieving it, and proportional to the benefit they bring (as, e.g., the electoral threshold). Any other deviation of the manner of the distribution of mandates from the proportionality between the share of votes and the share of mandates would be unconstitutional. The view that equates the principle of the equality of the right to vote with the principle of the proportional distribution of mandates, thus restricts the legislature's discretion in selecting an electoral system consistent with the principle of the equality of the right to vote to the proportional system with the highest possible proportionality ensured between the share of votes and the share of mandates obtained.
10. Such an interpretation of the principle of the equality of the right to vote is too narrow; the view embodied in Decision No. U-I-44/96 entails too strict evaluation of this constitutional principle. The Constitution does not restrict to such extent the legislature's own political judgement. The principle of the equality of the right to vote determined in Art. 43 of the Constitution requires that all voters have the same number of votes and that all votes have the possibility ensured in advance to be considered when election results are considered (and mandates distributed). It is not, however, necessary that the votes of all voters make in fact the same impact on the election results or that the electoral system ensure the full proportionality between the share of votes and the share of mandates obtained. Moreover, the principle of the equality of the right to vote does not require that all political parties need to obtain the same number of votes in order to acquire one mandate; it is enough that political parties (more precisely: candidates or candidate lists) have the same possibilities ensured in advance for obtaining a mandate or mandates.
11. The principle of the equality of the right to vote thus requires that every voter bring to the polls the same number of votes having the same value, although it occurs, when the mandates are distributed, that the votes of some voters are not respected or that they make a lesser impact on the election results. If all voters have the same number of votes and if their votes have the same possibility determined in advance for making an impact on the election results (and on the distribution of mandates), they are considered equal by law at the time of voting; however, it may occur to any voter, with an equal degree of probability, that their vote is considered to a greater or smaller extent at the distribution of mandates. The rules governing the distribution of mandates equally apply to all voters and none of them is discriminated against. However, the equality of the right to vote would be encroached on, for example, when, due to the essential inequality of the size of electoral units (measured by the number of qualified voters), it is evident even before a voting or at the time of the voting that the vote of one voter (i.e. the voter from the first electoral unit) is worth less than the vote of another voter (i.e. the voter from the second electoral unit).
12. Accordingly, it follows that the conformity of the electoral system with the constitutional principle of the equality of the right to vote is reviewed in view of the equality of voters at a voting, not at the distribution of representative mandates.
13. The challenged provisions regulate the manner of the distribution of mandates and make no impact on the equality of the votes of voters at a voting. Truly, they represent deviation from the principle of proportionality. However, the deviation from the proportionality between the share of votes and the share of mandates does not entail an unequal position of voters at a voting. It may occur to any voter, with an equal degree of probability, that their vote would be worth more or less at the distribution of mandates, that it would have a greater or smaller weight. The deviation from proportionality, caused by the distribution of part of Deputy mandates on the basis of the sums of remaining votes given to the same lists in the electoral units, and the fact that the final impact of a vote depends on the list for which the voter voted, therefore do not entail a violation of the principle of the equality of the right to vote.
14. The deviation from the view embodied in Decision No. U-I- 44/96 does not entail that the Constitutional Court considers incorrect the decision made in the said case. The disposition of the decision (finding conformity with the Constitution) would have been namely the same also in case the view of the Constitutional Court had already then been such as taken in this case. What would have differed is only the reasoning.
15. The petitioners also asserted the inconsistency of the challenged regulation with Arts. 2 and 3 of the Constitution.
They had not substantiated the inconsistency with Art. 2 (the principle of a State governed by the rule of law) of the Constitution, thus the Constitutional Court did not enter the review of this assertion. In Art. 3.2 of the Constitution, it is determined that in Slovenia, supreme power is held by the People and that citizens exercise this power directly and through elections. This provision requires that the statutory regulation of elections to the National Assembly conforms with the principles of democratic elections (in particular with the principle of the universality and equality of the right to vote, the freedom and secrecy of voting and the directness of elections). Concerning the fact that the petitioners expressly asserted only the violation of the principle of the equality of the right to vote, the Constitutional Court reviewed the conformity of the challenged regulation only in this light, not also in the light of other principles of democratic elections.
16. The Constitutional Court reached this Decision on the basis of Art. 21 of the Constitutional Court Act (Official Gazette RS, No. 15/94 - ZUstS), composed of: Franc Testen, President, and Judges: Dr. Janez Čebulj, Dr. Zvonko Fišer, dr. Miroslava Geč- Korošec, Lojze Janko, Milojka Modrijan, Dr. Mirjam Škrk, Dr. Lojze Ude and Dr. Dragica Wedam-Lukić. The Decision was reached by seven votes in favor to two against. Judges Čebulj in Testen, who voted against, gave dissenting opinions. Judge Ude gave the concurring opinion.
P r e s i d e n t
Franc Testen
Liberal Democracy of Slovenia
establishment – it is not inconsistent with the Constitution/statute


text:
How to cope with farming burnout
May 14, 2017, 8:00am
With more farmers experiencing burnout, writer and dairy farmer Lorna Sixsmith – herself a victim – found that taking a strategic approach to the farming calendar can alleviate the stress of working as long as 90 hours a week.
"I have to admit that for the first time in my life, I felt burnt out last May. I was emotionally and physically drained," said Sixsmith, who farms with her husband, Brian James, in Crettyard, Co. Carlow.
Keeping the farm running while converting from being sole traders to a company between February and May, took its toll.
"With the exception of our accountant, most of the so-called 'professionals' knew very little. This led to a lot of extra work and stress," she said.
"Farming can seem like drudgery when stress combines with long hours. This year has been fine and we've enjoyed the calving season – although a short break before breeding season would be nice.
"For most farmers now, the calving and lambing season is fairly compact. The longest hours are over a six-week period, so the end isn't too far from sight," she said.
"Farmers are showing more awareness of their own capabilities and limits now during busy calving and lambing seasons, with many getting students in for the couple of months.
"We made a move two years ago to reduce the workload somewhat. For a few years, we were calving down 150-160 – of which about 60 were heifers – and then selling some freshly calved cows and heifers.
"We now sell about 30 heifers as maidens each year to reduce the workload. It's 30 less to calve, train to the parlour and sell privately or in the mart. We calved 128 this year and would see 140 as our maximum number."
Sixsmith and James put preparation in before the calving season starts. "The calf sheds will be clean and ready for disinfecting and bedding most of the time.
"The cows are housed in three different sheds and divided according to calving dates. The milking parlour will have been serviced.
"We have all necessary supplies in place – including chocolate. Paperwork will be up to date, and we go on holiday in January."
Ploughing your own furrow helps.
We don't pay any heed to what other farmers are doing. We ask ourselves; 'will doing this make us money and is it necessary?'. That helps to determine the essentials at a busy time.
"We let the frills go and have a very long finger for the non-essentials. Power naps of 15-20 minutes are useful too."
Family farming means just that – everyone helps out, she said. "The children are a great help at weekends and during their holidays.
"Our daughter does some of the cooking and baking. It's lovely to come in from feeding the calves to a toasty warm kitchen and the table set for breakfast."
Trying to finish tasks by a certain time can only add to anxiety levels, Sixsmith said. "I believe that jobs like calf-feeding take as long as they take.
"We don't clock watch – except for when children have to be collected – during calving. If the cows are milked half an hour later than planned because we need a cuppa and cake then so be it," she said.
"Our social life is almost nil for two months but that's far less stressful. Social media is great as I dip in and out of it for chats. To be honest, I don't miss not seeing much of other people at all," said Sixsmith.
The commute of just a few minutes to the workplace and the ability to resume hobbies in quieter times are compensations, she said.
For Sixsmith, author of 'An Ideal Husband', 'Would You Marry a Farmer', and 'How To Be A Perfect Farm Wife' on Amazon and in bookshops, writing is a novel way to supplement farming.
She and James, along with Will, 14, and Kate, 12, left the UK to run the Sixsmith family farm in Garrendenny.
"My husband and I were both reared on farms but he, as the second son, and I, as a daughter, went to college."
James was a scientist and Sixsmith a teacher near Salisbury. They dreamed of buying a smallholding in Devon or France.
An offer from Sixsmith's father, who wanted to retire, found the family back in Crettyard in 2002.
"As someone with allergies to dairy products; straw; grass; pollens; and much more, not to mention never having considered full-time farming as a career, I surprised myself," Sixsmith said.
Having also worked as an interior designer and social media trainer, Sixsmith found she wasn't that different to many other farmers.
"More farmers are following other careers now. The decision may be made for financial reasons as the farm may not be able to provide incomes for two generations or because parent and child recognise they would struggle to work together."
There has been a move, particularly in dairy farming, towards couples working together, she said. "They were traditionally called farmers' wives rather than farmers, even though the recognition was there that the wife was often the reason for the success of the farm."
According to Sixsmith, there's now more equality, with both parties having a say in how the farm is run, as well as how money is spent.
Other women have told her that they often have to prove themselves before being accepted by male farmers. "Once they've been accepted, it's all fine," she said.
As a female farmer, Sixsmith finds it beneficial to chat to other women about farming. Topics range from calf rearing to how to cope with being in a field all day where there's no toilet.
"I think this is one of the reasons for the popularity of the new women in farming groups. I'm interested in talking about books, farming history or current farming practices.
"I'm finding the women in farming groups are providing companionship and interesting conversation as well as being educational and positive," she said.
Sixsmith divides her year into three. "February to early May is my busiest season on the farm as I do the calf rearing.
"May to September is my busiest time for writing. As I've brought books out in time for the Ploughing Championships in September every year, it's meant a very busy July and August.
"October to January is spent marketing, reading and catching up on some decorating."
Working the land is inspirational, she said. "My best ideas come when I'm feeding calves or bringing in the cows. This is brought on by the relaxation of getting into their zone of walking languidly and hearing nothing but birdsong and the trundle of a distant tractor.
"Yet as someone who seems to change her career every five years, I can't see myself just farming for 30-plus years.
"The writing dovetails very neatly with farming. If I'm away from the farm for a few days, I really miss it. When I've had a break from writing for a few weeks, my fingers start itching to get back to it. It's a case of having the best of both worlds."
Diversification is child's play for midlands farm
Burnout Dairy Farm Work Lorna Sixsmith Stress


With those with a round shape, you want to balance things out. Avoid a rounded fringe and split your bangs to the side. This simple technique helps sculpt and elongate the face!
Here you want to stay away from a straight cut bangs as the style will just make your face look boxier. Consider a smooth, curvy shape for that lightweight, flirty fringe.
The best bangs for you would be one parted at the centre. With a triangle-shaped face, your natural hairline may appear further back due to the length of your forehead. By spitting your fringe, the proportion of the fringe will help contour the face.
Bangs on an oval face help change the face shape by shortening its length. Instead of a blunt cut, consider curving the fringe on the sides as it adds a frame around the eyes.
No haircut works exactly the same on every person. We're tackling fringe hairstyles and how to balance it according to your face shape.
Unlike a handbag, hairstyles are not a one-size-fits-all kind of deal. It's about finding a comfortable balance for it on your particular face shape. We've gathered five types: oval, square, round, heart-shaped and triangle. We're focusing on a specific haircut: namely, the styling of your fringe. Although one's personal style should never be dictated by someone else's dos and don'ts, we still welcome a little guidance when it comes to our hair.
Ready to see fringe hairstyles work their magic? Click ahead for 5 transformations and prepare to rethink fringe.


2017 marks the sixth consecutive year of Vittoria's involvement as Presenting Partner of the Cuisine NZ Good Food Awards. Vittoria Coffee customers were among the decorated restaurateurs, chefs, sommeliers and industry professionals at this years awards. Held on Monday 7th August 2017 at the Auckland War Memorial Museum with audience of over 400 industry guests, the annual awards celebrate the world-class dining scene in New Zealand.
Of the four restaurants awarded the ultimate three-hat tribute, two were Vittoria Coffee customers: Kazuya and Merediths. In addition, Cassia, Pacficia, Palate and Victoria Street Bistro all received two hats, while Baduzzi and Chameleon received one.
Three hats denote a perfect score, and are reserved for those establishments that deliver the consummate restaurant experience. CEO Les Schirato presented the Cuisine Restaurant of the Year along with Cuisine Magazine Editor Kelli Brett to Pacifica and the Vittoria Coffee Chef of the Year accolade to Ed Verner of Pasture, the chef known for pushing boundaries and using the very best of local produce.
"We are so honoured to be part of the constant evolution of the New Zealand food scene, having been in business here for over 20 years" said Vittoria Food and Beverage CEO, Les Schirato. Vittoria is also honoured to partner with culinary legends Ben Bayly (The Grove, Baduzzi), Michael Meredith (of Merediths), renowned restauranteur Michael Dearth (Baduzzi, The Grounds), Sid Sahrawat (Sidart, Cassia) and Phil Clark (Phil's Kitchen). As some of the country's most discerning chefs, they demand products of exceptional provenance, which is reflected in their choice to serve Vittoria coffee.
Guests were served delicious cups of Vittoria's signature Oro Blend, from the Vittoria Coffee espresso bar, showcasing the Faema E61 Legend machine and this year';s limited edition fashion takeaway cups and crockery.


"Modern Vintage", the new album from SIXX: A.M., the band featuring MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist Nikki Sixx alongside guitarist DJ Ashba and vocalist James Michael, is likely to sell between 15,000 and 18,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release, according to industry web site Hits Daily Double. The estimate was based on one-day sales reports compiled after the record arrived in stores on October 7 via Eleven Seven Music. The chart will be unveiled on Wednesday, October 15.
SIXX: A.M.'s sophomore album, "This Is Gonna Hurt", sold 30,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release back in May 2011 to land at position No. 10 on The Billboard 200 chart.
SIXX: A.M. celebrated the "Modern Vintage" release by playing its first live show since 2009 Tuesday night (October 7) at iHeart Radio Theater in Los Angeles in front of an intimate crowd, hosted by Trey Morgan from 98.7, L.A.'s alternative radio and in partnership with iHeartRadio Live. The big announcement at the event was that SIXX: A.M. will embark on its first-ever headline tour in 2015, playing a limited number of dates across North America with special guest APOCALYPTICA.
Says Sixx: "Fans have been asking for years, 'When is SIXX: A.M. gonna tour?' and we've finally announced our first headline tour.
"We can't wait to play these songs live and put on a rock extravaganza for our fans.
"We're excited to announce that we're bringing along APOCALYPTICA as special guest because we are fans of their music and think this is going to be an amazing night of music from beginning to end."
Joining Sixx, Ashba and Michael on the road will be drummer Jeff Fabb (IN THIS MOMENT, BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, FILTER), who also played on "Modern Vintage".
Says Michael: "For three records now, we have been envisioning what a SIXX: A.M. headline tour would look and feel like. We are so excited to finally be bringing these songs to life." Ashba adds: "Over the years, we feel we have taken our fans on some pretty incredible and diverse musical journeys. However, they have only been able to experience half of our vision. For the first time, we are going to present a visual journey to go along with the music. This tour will be something you won't want to miss. This will be the ultimate SIXX: A.M. experience."


ALBANY — Legislators approved the first and least controversial piece of the state budget on Tuesday afternoon. And while there were no signs that a broader agreement was imminent as the day wound down, lawmakers are still expressing optimism that their work would be completed by the Sunday deadline.
The approved piece was the Debt Services appropriations bill. That's always the first to move, as the question of whether the state should bankrupt itself isn't terribly contentious.
The passage of the bill was used, as it often is, as an opportunity for members in the minority to complain about how much the state is spending: "Our debt service costs have increased 53 percent over the last 10 years and now New York follows only Illinois with the highest debt service payments as a percentage of all funds receipts," said Assemblyman Will Barclay (R-Oswego County).
While it garnered 19 protest votes in opposition in the Senate and 33 in the Assembly, the bill still passed without a lengthy debate in either chamber. And while its passage doesn't necessarily presage a final budget deal, lawmakers have been publicly and privately optimistic that they will be done on time.
That optimism comes as the faintest outlines of what might make its way into the final product have begun to emerge. Congestion pricing? It looks more likely. Recreational marijuana? The odds seem to be growing longer by the day.
While a pied-à-terre tax seems to have fallen out and been replaced by a real estate transfer tax, supporters of the original idea are saying that the replacement of one charge on high-value real estate with another isn't necessarily a bad thing.
There does seem to be an agreement on banning single-use plastic bags, but whether or not there will also be action dealing with paper bags remains an open question.
And lawmakers are continuing to negotiate several other high-profile issues that may or may not find their way into the final product.
De Blasio said that "the trend line … is in favor of including" an extension of mayoral control over the city's public schools.
He also said he believes "there is a good chance" that criminal justice reform "will be in." Gov. Andrew Cuomo took a slightly more cautious approach on that subject in an interview on WNYC in the morning: "We are close, but we're not there yet," he said.
The Assembly's reluctance to act on a public campaign financing system gained a boost on Monday, when the AFL-CIO issued a letter saying it should not be included in the budget. But supporters have since countered with endorsements of their own, including one from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Monday night and a Tuesday afternoon article in The Nation which she argued that its inclusion would make New York a national leader in political reform.
Cuomo, for his part, is continuing to characterize campaign finance reform as a must-have.
"We have to come out of this … decision-making point, with now a Democratic Senate and a Democratic Assembly, where we can say this state is going to be doing public financing," he said on WNYC.
Marie J. French contributed to this report.


The Pointer School appreciates that extended hours can be hugely beneficial to working parents and is able to offer supervision from 7.45 am to 6.30 pm. The Breakfast Club runs before school and provides a healthy cereal breakfast for all those who require it. The Late Class is an opportunity for children to complete their homework but also to enjoy games and activities. The school cook provides a variety of tasty sandwiches and fruit with a drink as an afternoon snack at 4.00pm.