Well I certainly appreciate all the helpful info. Lookin like I got my work cut out for me from here on out.
Did try placing the bullet on the lands and there was really no difference. I'll back off the PC and see what that does. I've also got a 100 155gr A-MAX bullets coming soon. I figure it liked the factory 150's I got from meijers right. It hated the 180's I got one time. All over the place.
So I'll start there along with checking the rifle for anything loose or out of ordinary things. I do anyway before I shoot, but I'll double duty check it next time.
I was under the impression that the first cold/clean/dry bore shot is really the most important, being that's what it will be on the first shot of a hunt. ? Made sense when it was suggested.
Thanx again ALL! I'll let ya know what happens next time. Stay safe, aim and squeeze!


WRITTEN BY VASANTHA
The Maine-coast archipelago consists of Mount Desert Island, Isle au Haut, and Schoodic Peninsula. 125 miles of hiking trails, 45 miles of rustic carriage roads, and wildflower-carpeted meadows and marshes
Expect to see a variety of creatures, including black bears and white-tailed deer, as well as coyotes, raccoons, skunks, otters, foxes, deer, and the rare moose.
This magnificent 900,000-acre wilderness area bears the name of Theodore Roosevelt and features three unique ecosystems.
300 kinds of birds, including bald eagles, northern pygmy owls, and sooty grouse, as well as sanctuaries for Roosevelt elk, Columbia black-tailed deer, cougars, snowshoe hares, mountain goats, and Olympic marmots.
This unique 2.2-million-acre volcanic playground features hydrothermal wonders (hot springs, mud pots, and geysers), a large forest, many mountain ranges, and North America's highest altitude lake.
With 67 different mammal species, you're quite likely to witness free-roaming bison, mule deer, coyotes, elk, mountain lions, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, buffalo, grey wolves, and two varieties of bear.
Candace Cameron's new GAC movie has hallmark fans excited


text:
The Grand Ole Opry has announced a star-studded music concert for May 23 to salute the U.S. military and CreatiVets members.
“Salute the Troops” night at the Opry House will feature live country music from John Conlee, The Oak Ridge Boys, Jason Crabb, LOCASH, The War and Treaty, and the husband and wife duo of U.S. Army veteran Michael Trotter and Tanya Blount in addition to “some big surprises.”
More artists are expected to be announced later. Tickets and more information about for “Salute the Troops” can be found at Opry.com.
This year’s Opry “Salute the Troops” will be aired as a special Opry Live on Memorial Day weekend on May 27 on the Opry’s television broadcast home, Circle Network, Circle All Access Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The show will air live on WSM Radio and will also be heard on SiriusXM, Channel 59 Willie’s Roadhouse.
CreatiVets supports men and women who need relief and healing after serving in the military, including through songwriting and other creative outlets.
Music News Service distributed by Frankly Media. Copyright(c) 2023 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved

domain: news


text:
Halloween Costumes / Search Results
Peter Pan Costumes
1 - 3 of 3
View: Grid | List
Peter Pan Adult Womens Costume
…Halloween party in this officially licensed Peter Pan adult womens costume. Stay young forever in the green, 100% polyester tunic, complete with attached belt, green leggings, brown boot covers and a green hat with a red feather. The tunic features a Peter Pan image with the phrase, I (Heart) Lost Boys…
Princess of Thieves Adult Womens Costume
Steal hearts when you wear the Princess of Thieves adult womens costume. This sexy bandit outfit comes with a green, 100% polyester, lace-up crop top, matching lace-up mini skirt with jagged hem, brown boot tops, green hat with red feather plum and a brown pouch on a belt.
Secret of the Wings Tinker Bell Girls Costume
…take flight and reveal your secrets, or keep them bottled up when you wear this officially licensed Disney Secret of the Wings Tinker Bell girls costume on Halloween. This adorable outfit includes a green dress, petticoat and wings.

domain: entertainment


text:
Children's books are frequently used to proselytize. Luckily, resources like these help sort out the good from the dogmatic, the mediocre, and the bad. As former Caldecott and Newbery Award committee member Odean reminds us in her introduction to Great Books for Boys, boys have different challenges growing up than girls do. In this companion to her Great Books for Girls (LJ 1/97), she summarizes over 600 books, from picture books to novels, arranging them by reader age from two to 14 and providing short, descriptive synopses. She chooses stories with characters of both sexes that reflect the complexity of boys' lives--a family's flight from domestic abuse, a sixth grader's struggle to understand a beloved but bigoted father--as well as stories about children who use creativity to solve problems. She also lists tips for reading aloud, magazines that review children's books, and a special section for books on sexuality and growing up. Cooper-Mullin and Coye, who have six daughters between them, have gathered books whose heroines are smart and strong-willed. Nontraditional roles, interesting plots, meaningful character development, and rich language were some of their criteria for inclusion. Organized from "early readers" to "young adults," their book includes a resource list for finding the books mentioned. It also features quotes from women like Ruby Bridges and Janet Reno. As with Great Books for Boys, all children can enjoy these selections. A single drawback of both these titles is the absence of author and title indexes. Both books are recommended for all school and public libraries. Introduced by Marian Wright Edelman, Strong Souls Singing focuses on African American literature for girls and women and is the companion to Spirited Minds: African American Books for Our Sons and Our Brothers (LJ 9/1/97). Covering 110 books, it is the narrowest of the three titles reviewed here. Each chapter covers a particular genre (i.e., poetry, drama, fiction, biography, and history) and contains page-long entries with suggested reading levels. These mini-book reviews are nicely illustrated and accompanied by book excerpts, but many of the recommended books, such as Alice Walker's The Color Purple, are already well known and are certainly found in other bibliographies. Recommended for large public libraries and African American collections.--Glynys Thomas, Suffolk Univ. Lib., Boston
Library Journal - Library Journal
Using recommendations from librarians, teachers, book reviews, and their own experiences as mothers, the authors have compiled a list of classic and current titles from almost every genre that provides girls, from pre-schoolers to young adults, with positive role models. The annotations are generally concise and informative; however, those in the preschool category tend to be cloying and sentimental, e.g., a sweetie pie of a book! or totally adorable! An interesting and valuable component of the book is recollections of 70 famous women of their own childhood favorites. While Kathleen Odeans Great Books for Girls (Ballantine, 1997) covers much of the same ground and is easier to use, these reminiscences and the lack of duplication make Once upon a Heroine a worthwhile addition to parenting or professional shelves.Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
School Library Journal - School Library Journal
With six daughters between them, the authors (former publishing executives) recognize girls' need to imagine themselves as the heroine of their own lives and the stories they read. Organized by age group, and based on recommendations by teachers, librarians, and reviews, this guidebook also contains favorite book selections by real heroines (e.g. Gloria Steinem and Oprah Winfrey). Readers can suggest additions for the next edition via e-mail. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

domain: literature


text:
The Bowie State women’s and men’s basketball teams both came away wins on their home floor against the Fayetteville State Broncos in both teams’ final game of the calendar year and the decade.
The Lady Bulldogs were up first remaining undefeated after earning a 55-39 win over the Lady Broncos. Talanya Hutton led the Bowie with 15 points and seven rebounds while Dynaisha Christian came off the bench to record a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds along with two steals and two blocks. Kyaja Williams finished just shy of a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds.
Fayetteville State was led by Aminata Johnson who recorded 11 points, eight rebounds and two blocks while Shantel Bennett finished with 11 points and two steals.
Bowie State’s men were next up getting the win over the Broncos by a closer margin of 71-64.
Cameron Hayes came off the bench to score 15 points while David Belle scored 13 points and five rebounds. Yohance Fleming finished with 11 points and six rebounds and Saiquon Jamison had eight points and nine rebounds.
Fayetteville State was led by Jalen Seegars finishing with 18 points, six rebounds and three blocks.
The Lady Bulldogs will be back in action in 2020 on January 2 at home against Bloomfield College then both teams will be in action at home on January 4 against Winston Salem State.


text:
The Department would like to congratulate Ms Muniswary Subramanian for successfully completing her Master of Medical Science Viva Voce today. The title of her thesis is “Smoke-free Public Places and Intention to Quit Smoking among Smokers in Malaysia”. She was supervised by Prof. Madya Dr. FarizahBinti Mohd Hairi and Prof. Madya Dr. Yee Hway Ann @ Anne Yee. We would also like to appreciate the External Examiner, our Alumni, Professor Dr. Wee Lei Hum from the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and our very own Dr. ‘Abqariyah Yahya for examining the thesis. The VIva session was chaired by Professor Dr. ShahrulBahyah Kamaruzzaman and also present was Professor Dr. Lau Yee Ling our Faculty Representative.
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Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri
The Department celebrated Aidilfitri in the usual manner, with ‘Makanan dan Minuman’, i.e., Food and Drinks.
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GOVERNMENT departments and city residents now owe the cash-strapped Bulawayo city council a whopping $68 billion in unpaid rates and charges as the local authority struggles to provide service.
The latest figures represent an increase of about $22 billion on what the government and residents owed council at the beginning of November last year.
Documents from the city treasury department indicate that residents owe the largest chunk of unserviced debt.
Residents owe council a total of $51,6 billion and government departments a further $17,2 billion.
Previously, residents owed council $33 billion while government owed $13 billion.
The largest chunk of the amount owed by residents is in unpaid water charges that constitute about $27,9 billion of the debt while supplementary charges and rates are next at $13,9 billion.
Other areas of debt include sewerage, land sales and refuse removal charges.
Government departments’ debt stems from unpaid bills for water, sewerage and refuse removal.
The latest council figures, submitted by city treasurer Middleton Nyoni, indicate that the Ministry of Rural Resources and Water Development is the biggest debtor at over $1,4 billion, closely followed by the Ministry of Health at $1,39 billion.
The Ministry of Home Affairs owes $1,37 billion.
The council recently benefited from a $150 billion local authorities advance from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe that will see it complete some of its capital projects that have been in limbo for a long time.


Motion planning for robotics is the task of finding a sequence of feasible robot states between a start and goal state. Feasible robot states are those that satisfy problem-specific constraints, generally one of which is to remain out of collision from objects in the environment. Motion planning for a robot is often performed in its configuration space (C-space), a space in which each element represents a unique configuration of the robot. Each configuration in the robot’s C-space can belong to one of two subspaces: or . A configuration is in the collision-free subspace if the robot is not in contact with any workspace obstacle when in that corresponding configuration; otherwise, the configuration is in the in-collision subspace [1, 13]. For robot manipulators with many controllable degrees-of-freedom (DOF), the dimensionality of the C-space may be large as each joint contributes to defining the robot’s configuration. An example workspace and its corresponding C-space for a 3 DOF robot arm are shown in Fig. (a)a-(b)b.
Determining feasibility of a robot state usually involves discrete collision checking to determine whether the query robot state would intersect with an environmental obstacle . Repeated collision checking is computationally expensive and takes up to 90% of the computation time during motion planning . An open challenge exists for real-time, accurate, dynamic robot planning in changing environments; to meet this need, we seek to create an accurate C-space model that may be used as a faster proxy to the more computationally-burdensome geometric collision checkers upon which most motion planners currently rely.
In this paper, we present a new kernel function, or similarity function, for improved configuration space modeling for robot manipulators. We show improved proxy collision checking performance in terms of both collision check times and accuracy with the new kernel, and we demonstrate the kernel’s usefulness in accelerating motion planning.
In previous work, we described the Fastron algorithm, which creates a nonparametric model inspired by the kernel perceptron algorithm and efficiently checks for changes in the C-space due to moving workspace obstacles. The input into the Fastron model is a robot configuration, and the output is its predicted collision status. In previous work, a radial basis function (RBF) was used for the kernel function, which isotropically compares the joint values of a robot manipulator. While the RBF kernel is an adequate general-purpose kernel function, it fails to capture the influence each joint has in the manipulator’s workspace. In this work, we replace the RBF kernel function with a new kernel function we call the forward kinematics (FK) kernel. The benefits of replacing the RBF kernel with the FK kernel may be observed in Fig. (c)c-(d)d, where the Fastron model closely resembles the ground truth with the FK kernel but is uneven and requires many more points to represent the model when using the original RBF kernel.
We show that the FK kernel is positive definite and prove our modeling algorithm can always find a set of weights that correctly predicts the collision status of a training set. We also show that when using the Fastron model as a proxy collision checker, using the FK kernel can provide collision status predictions twice as fast as when using the RBF kernel and requires approximately an order of magnitude fewer support points to represent the model. Using the FK kernel improves the accuracy of collision status prediction to be over 95% for a 7 DOF robot arm, a significant improvement over the 75% accuracy achieved with the RBF kernel. We apply the Fastron algorithm with the FK kernel to various motion planners, demonstrating up to 3 times faster motion plans compared to when using other collision checkers.
I-B Related Work
The following works describe proxy checking methods that try to avoid computationally-burdensome collision checking and methods that utilize control points (which are used in the proposed FK kernel) for other kinematic contexts.
I-B1 Configuration Space Modeling
, Gaussian mixture models (GMMs), k-nearest neighbor models (KNNs) , and kernel perceptrons . Most of these methods provide either high accuracy but very poor computational speed, or high computational speed but poor accuracy and limited capacity to model changing environments.
Pan et al.’s SVM method learns a C-space model for a pair of rigid-body objects
. Their method provides near-perfect models because they employ an active learning strategy that iteratively improves the precision of the model, and they use their SVM-based model for distance/penetration depth estimation between two bodies using a constrained nonlinear optimizer. However, to apply this method to a kinematic chain, a new model must be learned offline for each pair of objects, including each link in the kinematic chain and each workspace obstacle.
In , active learning of a GMM model is associated with sample-based motion planners itself by using the samples from a rapidly-exploring random tree (RRT) motion planner to modify the GMM. GMMs are constrained by the fixed dimensionality of the model.
KNNs have also been used for faster proxy collision detection for static environments . Locality-sensitive hashing is utilized for extremely fast query times. However, the problem of rehashing given changing environments makes this unsuitable for changing environments.
Our Fastron algorithm uses a kernel perceptron model to globally represent the C-space and uses an active learning strategy to adapt to a changing workspace. It was shown that collision checks may be an order of magnitude faster than state-of-the-art collision detectors . However, the accuracy of the model must be improved to reduce the search time for valid configurations and to reduce the amount of time spent repairing infeasible parts of a motion plan.
While each of these learning-based methods generates an approximate C-space model, the workspace and C-space are treated as completely separate entities and the link that relates the two spaces is more or less neglected. In this work, we aim to link the two spaces via FK.
I-B2 Control Points for Collision-Free Motion
Control points are a set of hand-selected points placed on a robot and their locations may be used to indicate the position of a rigid-body robot or a kinematic chain manipulator. Control points should be chosen to constrain the configuration of the robot, and the minimum number of these points depends on the number of DOF of the robot . FK provides the positions of these control points for manipulators given a set of joint values, and we consider FK to be the link that relates a robot’s position in C-space to its position in the workspace.
Artificial potential fields can be used for motion planning in a robot’s C-space, where the sum of attractive and repulsive forces drive the robot away from C-space obstacles and toward a goal . Potential fields can be applied to kinematic chain manipulators using control points placed along the kinematic chain .
RelaxedIK, a motion-synthesis method for manipulators, uses a neural network to estimate the risk of self-collision for an input robot configuration. Control points are placed at each joint and their locations in the workspace are included in the input to the network. The use of control points allows estimation of the self-collision costs two orders of magnitude faster than a distance-based method, and optimizing over these self-collision costs allows finding configurations that are free from self-collisions.
In this work, we utilize control points in creating a similarity function between manipulator configurations, and we leverage how FK relates a manipulator’s C-space to its workspace for more accurate proxy collision checking.
Ii-a Forward Kinematics
FK for a kinematic chain determines the pose (position and orientation) of a point on the chain given the joint values. When using the standard Denavit-Hartenberg (D-H) convention, the homogenous transformation matrix of the pose of joint in the frame of joint is
where and are the distances between the joints’ origins along the -axis and -axis, respectively, and are the angles between the joints’ -axes measured along the -axis and vice versa, respectively, and and represent and , respectively. and are the joint variables for revolute and prismatic joints, respectively, and a configuration of a robot with DOF is represented as a -dimensional vector of these joint variables. The other D-H parameters are fixed depending on the geometry of the robot. Note that when using the standard D-H convention, the origin of the frame of the joint is placed at the distal end of the link. For more details, see .
Starting with the base transform relative to a world frame , the pose of the joint is , where each transform in the chain is dependent on the robot configuration as described in the previous paragraph. The pose for an arbitrary point on the link is found by appending an additional static transformation to the pose of the joint: .
Let extract the position from a homogeneous transformation matrix, i.e., the first three elements of the last column. We can thus represent the position of the control point for configuration as
where is the static transform applied to the the pose of the joint with index .
Ii-B Binary Classification and Kernel Functions
A binary classifier predicts the class label of a query point. A binary classifier model is fit to a datasetand its associated vector of labels . Each represents a configuration of a robot. We let denote and denote .
Binary classification models often use kernels to describe nonlinear seperation of classes. A kernel function is a similarity function that should provide a large score for similar configurations and a low score for dissimilar configurations. RBF kernels, which are functions of the distance between two points, such as the Gaussian kernel, are popular. In this paper, we use the second-order rational quadratic kernel  for all RBF kernels, defined as
where is a parameter dictating the width of the kernel.
Each element of a kernel matrix is defined elementwise for each pair of points in : . is called positive definite (PD) if , and equality occurs only for . is considered to be positive semidefinite (PSD) if equality may occur for .
A PD kernel is one that yields a PD kernel matrix when each configuration in set is unique . Positive definiteness is an important property for a kernel function because it guarantees nonsingularity for the kernel matrix and represents an implicit mapping to a higher dimensional feature space according to Mercer’s theorem . PSD kernels and matrices do not have the same guarantees their PD counterparts have. is an example of a PD kernel . Summing PD kernels or multiplying PD kernels with a scalar also yields a PD kernel .
Iii-a Forward Kinematics Kernel
The major insight of this paper is in a more intuitive distance metric by computing distances in the workspace rather than in the joint space. Computing distances directly between joint configurations does not take into consideration the robot’s position in the workspace. Consider the blue two-link arm shown in Fig. (a)a. Comparing the pink and green configurations to the blue, the pink configuration appears much closer to the blue than the green does. However, the distance in the C-space between the blue and pink configurations (represented as colored dots) is equal to that of the blue and green configurations as can be seen in Fig. (b)b and (c)c. Consequently, according to the RBF kernel, the blue configuration is as similar to the pink configuration as it is the green configuration as shown in Fig. (b)b.
Rather than comparing the joint values of two configurations directly, we use FK and compare distances in the workspace between control points on the arm. We can thus define the FK kernel as a sum of RBF kernels evaluated between each corresponding control point location:
where provides the position of the control point and is the number of control points representing the kinematic chain.
In this paper, we only place control points at joint frame origins (using the standard D-H convention) by setting for each control point. In other words, a control point is placed at the distal end of each link. However, control points may be placed at arbitrary locations along the manipulator if desired. If the origins of the frames of two subsequent joints in the kinematic chain are coincident, we only place one control point at the overlapping origin. In other words, using the standard D-H convention, if a revolute joint has both and equal to 0, a control point is not placed for this joint as its origin overlaps with the preceding joint origin.
Fig. (c)c provides a visualization of the FK kernel for the blue two-link arm in Fig. (a)a, where control points are placed at the location labeled “Elbow Joint” and “End Effector”. According to the FK kernel, the similarity score between the blue and pink configurations is about 0.8, while the similarity between the blue and green is about 0.1. The similarity scores produced by the FK kernel better represent the differences we perceive in the positions of the robots in the workspace.
Iii-A2 Positive Definiteness
As previously mentioned, a PD kernel guarantees a PD and nonsingular kernel matrix and represents an implicit mapping to a feature space. The RBF kernel defined in Eq. 3 evaluated on dataset will give rise to a PD kernel matrix as long as each configuration in is unique. We show below this is also true for the FK kernel.
The FK kernel matrix based on the FK kernel defined in Eq. 4 is a sum of RBF kernel matrices evaluated on control points: . We henceforth refer to the RBF kernel matrices that comprise the FK kernel matrix as summand kernel matrices. The summand kernel matrix is PD as long as the locations of the control point (determined by applying to the configurations in ) are unique. However, depending on the choices of control points or kinematic redundancy, it is possible for two unique configurations in to yield the same control point location. For example, Fig. 3 shows four unique configurations of a two-link arm, but there are only three unique locations for each control point (represented as a hollow square and circle on each configuration). With coincident control point locations, the summand kernel matrices are demoted to PSD.
Despite possibly having PSD summand kernels, the FK kernel matrix is PD if the intersection of the nullspaces of the summand matrices is the zero vector.
The FK kernel matrix is PD if the nullspaces of each summand kernel matrix share only the zero vector, .
Assume . Thus, .
For to be PD, it must also be nonsingular, which means . Thus, . ∎
What Claim 1 means intuitively is that even if some control point locations coincide for two unique configurations, the FK kernel is PD if these configurations are distinguishable using the locations of the other control points. For example, in Fig. 3, the locations of the control points marked with hollow circles differentiate the configurations with coincident control points marked with squares, and vice versa. Note that in practice, if the configurations in are generated via random sampling, control point locations should almost surely be unique.
Iii-B Fastron Model and Algorithm
The Fastron algorithm (described in detail in ) generates a binary classification model that is used for proxy collision checking. The Fastron model is a weighted sum of kernel functions: , where is a vector of model weights, is a set of configurations, and is a PD kernel. Proxy collision detection is performed by determining the sign of , where denotes the query configuration is predicted to be in and denotes . is considered to be correctly classified if its margin is positive, where is its true label.
The weight vector is found by minimizing the loss
subject to , where is a vector of labels for dataset , is the kernel matrix for , and is a diagonal matrix where the diagonal element is and is a user-selected conditional bias parameter, which biases the model toward predicting
for more conservative predictions. This loss function is similar to that used in SVMs. The Fastron algorithm utilizes greedy coordinate descent and exits as soon as the margin , where . Some advantages of greedy coordinate descent we realize are it promotes model sparsity (and thus computational efficiency), allows us to perform lazy kernel matrix evaluation (i.e., a column of can be computed and stored only when needed), and allows us to define a cheap update rule (described below) .
In what follows, parenthetical superscripts denote the training iteration upon which the given value depends. On iteration , and are determined incrementally:
where is the standard basis vector. The descent direction, as stated previously, is determined greedily by selecting the point with the most negative margin:
This descent rule guarantees positive margin for all points in in a finite number of iterations.
If , an upper bound on the change in loss per descent step is . A lower bound of is for nonsingular . A loose upper bound on the number of descent steps required to reach from initial loss is thus . The margin is for when , which is positive because .
If , the model at iteration successfully provides a positive margin for all samples. ∎
Claim 2 means the weight update algorithm can terminate once all training samples have positive margin or will otherwise work toward achieving positive margin for all samples. Claim 2 is contigent on being nonsingular, which is shown to be the case for the FK kernel in Claim 1.
After finding a model with positive margin for all training points, points in the training set with nonzero value in comprise the support set . To promote model sparsity, support points are removed from (by setting their corresponding weight to 0) if they would have positive margin even after their removal from .
The Fastron model update algorithm is summarized in Algorithm 1. An iteration limit and a limit on the size of the support set can be set to limit update times and model sizes at the cost of model accuracy. initializes the values in each data structure to 0 or loads a previously-trained model if it exists, computes the column of , and removes elements from any data structure corresponding to a non-support point because these points are not needed for classification.
After model updating, a two-stage active learning strategy searches for changes in the C-space in case workspace obstacles move. In the first stage, random samples are generated near each support point to search for small perturbations to the C-space obstacles. In the second stage, uniformly random samples are generated in the C-space to search for new obstacles entering the workspace of the robot. A geometric collision check is performed for each support point and new sample generated via active learning to update . With the updated training set, the model update procedure is repeated.
In this section, we evaluate the performance of the FK kernel by examining how it improves proxy collision checking and motion planning. We use the 7 DOF arms of the Baxter robot for these experiments. We use Fastron with the proposed FK kernel and with the original RBF kernel, denoted as Fastron FK and Fastron RBF, respectively. We select the parameters for Fastron FK and Fastron RBF with a grid search. The geometric collision detectors compared are GJK  and FCL . GJK can determine whether two convex shapes are intersecting, and FCL is the collision detection library used in the MoveIt! motion planning framework . We use GJK as a faster, approximate geometric method and use FCL as the ground truth collision method.
Iv-a Collision Checking
|Method||Query Time||Update Time|
To compare collision checking performance, we compare model correctness, query times, model sizes, and model update times. Measures of model correctness include the overall classification accuracy, true positive rate (TPR), and true negative rate (TNR), defined as
where and represent the number of samples in the test set that are correctly and incorrectly predicted to be in , respectively, and and represent the same but for the class. TPR and TNR are useful measures of correctness when the volumes of and are unbalanced. Model size is the count of support points required to represent the model for the proxy collision check methods. The results of the experiments are averaged over 50 trials, where each trial uses one randomly-sized obstacle that moves up to 30 times in a random direction, and the models are updated between each obstacle movement.
The query timings, model sizes, and model update timings are tabulated in Table I. The initial model training (i.e., labeling 5000 random configurations using FCL and training the model starting from ) took on average 134.0 ms and 164.8 ms for Fastron FK and Fastron RBF, respectively. The majority of this initial training time (approximately 115 ms) for both methods is dedicated toward labeling the dataset using FCL. While Fastron FK has 7.8 times fewer support points than Fastron RBF, the FK kernel is more expensive to compute than the RBF kernel, causing Fastron FK to be only 1.8 times faster than Fastron RBF for query times. Fastron FK beats GJK and FCL by a factor of 5.8 and 9.2, respectively, for query times. Since there are fewer support points in the Fastron FK model, the update time (largely throttled by labeling new data via FCL) is about 2.3 times faster for Fastron FK than for Fastron RBF.
The correctness of the approximate collision methods are shown in Fig. 4, illustrating the advantages of Fastron FK over Fastron RBF. The accuracy, TPR, and TNR of Fastron FK are much higher than those of Fastron RBF. In fact, Fastron FK performs similarly in terms of correctness to GJK, but is 5.8 times faster. Fastron FK achieves an accuracy of 96.4%, a significant improvement over Fastron RBF’s accuracy of 74.5%. While the accuracy, TPR, and TNR are roughly balanced for Fastron FK, Fastron RBF’s TPR is much higher than its accuracy and TNR because it prioritizes the label over the label. While biasing toward the label yields a more conservative model, it also reduces the volume of the valid region of C-space and increases search time during sampling-based motion planning, which we will see is the case for Fastron RBF in the next section.
Fig. 5 shows typical failure cases using Fastron FK and Fastron RBF, where the true collision status is but the Fastron models incorrectly predict . Using the RBF kernel, the robot often significantly intersects with the workspace obstacle, especially at its more distal links. Using the FK kernel, the robot usually slightly intersects with the workspace obstacles in its failure cases. A slight intersection with workspace obstacles is less severe than blatantly penetrating the obstacle, demonstrating the benefit of comparing control points in the FK kernel over comparing joint values directly with the RBF kernel.
In an additional experiment, we increase the number of obstacles to see the effect on query times. Fig. 7 shows the query times for each method with respect to the number of workspace obstacles for up to 50 randomly-placed obstacles. We can see that the geometry-based methods, GJK and FCL, increase in query times as the number of obstacles increase. On the other hand, Fastron-based query times first increase and then decrease because fewer support points are required when one collision status is more prevalent than the other.
Iv-B Motion Planning
We apply Fastron FK to a broad collection of the sampling-based motion planning algorithms implemented in OMPL . We select RRT , RRT-Connect , SBL , RRT* , FMT* , and Informed-RRT*  to demonstrate each collision checking method’s performance. RRT, its bidirectional variant RRT-Connect, and SBL are probabilistically complete motion planners  that terminate once a path between start and goal is found. SBL includes lazy collision checking, which only calls the collision check routine when absolutely necessary. The other planners are optimizing planners that attempt to determine the shortest collision-free path between start and goal. Rather than letting the optimizing planners run until timeout (which would cause all planning times to be equal), we stop these planners once an initial feasible path has been found. While these paths may not be close to optimal, we include the average lengths of these initial paths in the plot of results.
We use similar environments as used in Section IV-A, but the obstacle is sized such that the arm must always move around it. The start and goal configurations are selected to be on opposite sides of the workspace obstacle. Each collision checker is applied to each motion planner for 50 trials, where a trial consists of up to 30 random movements of the workspace obstacle, and the motion planner is repeated 10 times for each obstacle position. When using the approximate collision checkers, we verify and repair (if necessary) each plan using FCL by replanning with FCL on the invalid part of the plan. The resulting motion plan is thus guaranteed to be collision-free according to FCL.
The average motion planning timings are shown in Fig. 6. Even with the verify and repair steps, Fastron FK provides the fastest motion plans, providing up to 3 times faster collision-free motion plans compared to when using FCL. On the other hand, Fastron RBF often struggles to find a feasible path because it overestimates the subspace, causing its planning time to often be large or hit the time limit. Furthermore, the repair times for Fastron RBF are significantly larger than those for Fastron FK and GJK, illustrating that Fastron RBF often yields invalid paths.
In this paper we introduce the FK kernel, and we use it with the Fastron algorithm for proxy collision detection for manipulator arms. The FK kernel utilizes control points placed at each joint in a kinematic chain to better represent the relation between C-space and workspace. The FK kernel is positive definite, which guarantees that the Fastron algorithm will provide a model with positive margin for a dataset in a finite number of iterations.
Compared to the previously-used RBF kernel, the FK kernel required 8 times fewer support points to represent the configuration space model and allowed 2 times faster proxy collision detection. Prediction accuracy is significantly higher with the FK kernel (96%) than with the RBF kernel (75%). The FK kernel allowed proxy collision checking to be 9 times faster and motion planning to be up to 3 times faster than when using geometric methods.
Future work includes utilization of GPU parallelization for faster kernel evaluation and proxy collision checking and applications of the FK kernel in other kernel-based methods.
-  (2005) Principles of Robot Motion: Theory, Algorithms, and Implementation. The MIT Press. Cited by: §I-B2, §I-B2, §I, §IV-B.
-  (1995) Support-Vector Networks. Machine Learning 20 (3), pp. 273–297. External Links: Cited by: §III-B.
-  (2019) Learning-Based Proxy Collision Detection for Robot Motion Planning Applications. arXiv preprint arXiv:1902.08164v1 [cs], pp. 1–19. External Links: Cited by: §I-A, §I-B1, §I-B1, §III-B, §III-B, Fig. 4, Fig. 7.
-  (2014) Sampling-Based Robot Motion Planning: A Review. IEEE Access 2, pp. 56–77. External Links: Cited by: §I.
Informed RRT *: Optimal Sampling-based Path Planning Focused via Direct Sampling of an Admissible Ellipsoidal Heuristic. In 2014 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 2997–3004. External Links: Cited by: §IV-B.
-  (1988) A Fast Procedure for Computing the Distance Between Complex Objects in Three-Dimensional Space. IEEE Journal on Robotics and Automation 4 (2), pp. 193–203. External Links: Cited by: Fig. 4, Fig. 7, §IV.
-  (2008) Kernel methods in machine learning. Annals of Statistics 36 (3), pp. 1171–1220. External Links: Cited by: §II-B.
-  (2016) Learning high-dimensional Mixture Models for fast collision detection in Rapidly-Exploring Random Trees. Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation 2016-June, pp. 63–69. External Links: Cited by: §I-B1, §I-B1.
-  (2011) Sampling-based Algorithms for Optimal Motion Planning. International Journal of Robotics Research 30 (7), pp. 1–76. External Links: Cited by: §IV-B.
-  (1985) Real-time obstacle avoidance for manipulators and mobile robots. In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 500–505. Cited by: §I-B2.
-  (2000) RRT-Connect : An Efficient Approach to Single-Query Path Planning. In International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 995–1001. External Links: Cited by: §IV-B.
-  (2008) Rapidly-Exploring Random Trees: A New Tool for Path Planning. Animal Genetics 39 (5), pp. 561–563. Cited by: §IV-B.
-  (1983) Spatial Planning : A Configuration Space Approach. IEEE Transactions on Computers 32 (2). Cited by: §I.
Mercer’s Theorem, Feature Maps, and Smoothing.
International Conference on Computational Learning Theory, pp. 154–168. External Links: Cited by: §II-B.
-  (2012) FCL: A general purpose library for collision and proximity queries. Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 3859–3866. External Links: Cited by: Fig. 7, §IV.
-  (2015) Efficient Configuration Space Construction and Optimization for Motion Planning. Engineering 1 (1), pp. 046–057. External Links: Cited by: §I-B1, §I-B1, §I.
-  (2016) Fast probabilistic collision checking for sampling-based motion planning using locality-sensitive hashing. International Journal of Robotics Research 35 (12), pp. 1477–1496. External Links: Cited by: §I-B1, §I-B1.
-  (2018) RelaxedIK : Real-time Synthesis of Accurate and Feasible Robot Arm Motion. In Robotics: Science and Systems, Cited by: §I-B2.
-  (2006) Gaussian Processes for Machine Learning. The MIT Press. External Links: Cited by: §II-B, §II-B.
-  (2011) Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing A comparison between the Denavit – Hartenberg and the screw-based methods used in kinematic modeling of robot manipulators $. Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing 27 (4), pp. 723–728. External Links: Cited by: §II-A.
-  (2003) A Single-Query Bi-Directional Probabilistic Roadmap. In The Tenth International Symposium on Robotics Research, pp. 403–417. Cited by: §IV-B.
-  (2015) An Asymptotically-Optimal Sampling-Based Algorithm for Bi-directional Motion Planning. In IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots Systems, External Links: Cited by: §IV-B.
-  MoveIt!. External Links: Cited by: §IV.
-  (2012) The Open Motion Planning Library. IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine (December), pp. 72–82. Cited by: §IV-B.


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These families whose loved ones still lie in the Pike River mine, are determined to get them out, get answers and justice, give them a proper burial, and grieve and obtain closure. They’ve gone about acquiring a report from both a group of UN experts as well as a British former mines inspector. The report which has been both peer reviewed and endorsed by mining experts advises re-entry to the mine is “absolutely possible”.
So why is Solid Energy’s CE not willing to even sit down and listen to this report? They have plans to seal the mine in February with 30 meters of concrete. What’s to hide then?
Bernie Monk has said he’s “over” the firm because of this refusal and intends to deal only with the Government from now on. He hopes to bring the expert who wrote the plan to a meeting with new PM Bill English.
This cold hearted and steely indifference to the human suffering of these families for their loved ones is atypical of the character of corporations. The term ‘character’ is not a misnomer by any stretch of the imagination. In the documentary called ‘The Corporation’, professionals in their respective fields have astutely classified and labeled the “legal person hood” that corporations enjoy, as basically “psychopathic”. This legal entity is constructed in such a way that it enjoys complete absolution from all responsibility for the harm it inflicts. We can see this playing out now in the Pike River mining tragedy. Please also read Dr Jacob Cohen’s exposé of their activity in this respect. The following information is from The Corporation film’s own website.
A Legal “Person”
“In the mid-1800s the corporation emerged as a legal “person.” Imbued with a “personality” of pure self-interest, the next 100 years saw the corporation’s rise to dominance. The corporation created unprecedented wealth but at what cost? The remorseless rationale of “externalities” (as Milton Friedman explains, the unintended consequences of a transaction between two parties on a third) is responsible for countless cases of illness, death, poverty, pollution, exploitation and lies.”
The people who work for corporations may be good people, upstanding citizens in their communities, but none of that matters when they enter the corporation’s world.
“To assess the “personality” of the corporate “person,” a checklist is employed, using diagnostic criteria of the World Health Organization and the standard diagnostic tool of psychiatrists and psychologists. The operational principles of the corporation give it a highly anti-social “personality”: it is self-interested, inherently amoral, callous and deceitful; it breaches social and legal standards to get its way; it does not suffer from guilt, yet it can mimic the human qualities of empathy, caring and altruism. Four case studies, drawn from a universe of corporate activity, clearly demonstrate harm to workers, human health, animals and the biosphere. Concluding this point-by-point analysis, a disturbing diagnosis is delivered: the institutional embodiment of laissez-faire capitalism fully meets the diagnostic criteria of a “psychopath.” “
Watch ‘The Corporation’ movie on our Corporations page. A very enlightening movie, it will switch on the light to what is really happening with this heart rending scenario at Pike River. It is time for these behemoths to be disabled and dismantled. They are about control and greed … and absolution from all responsibility for fallout from that. They are what controls the drive for introduction of the TPPA trade ‘agreement’.
Families of Pike River Mine Disaster Victims Release Expert Plan for Safe Re-entry
“Families of some of the victims of the 2010 Pike River mine explosion have submitted an experts’ report to Parliament in a bid to stop Solid Energy from sealing the “crime scene” forever.
The report was written by David Creedy, vice-chairman of the United Nations group of experts on coal mine methane, and Bob Stevenson, a former mines inspector in Britain.
The report has been peer-reviewed and endorsed by Britain’s leading mines rescue expert, Brian Robinson, and mining ventilation experts John Rowland and Roy Moreby.
Moreby has advised Solid Energy, which plans to seal the mine drift, on re-entry of Pike River.
Pike River Blockade Ends but the Protest Continues
Monk said he was “over” the mining firm since chief executive Tony King refused to sit down and listen to what the families’ experts had to say.
“I don’t want anything to do with Solid Energy. They have been uncooperative. They are bullies. I will only deal with the Government from now on.”
He hoped to bring the expert who had written the new plan for safe re-entry to NZ for a meeting with Prime Minister Bill English.
READ THE ARTICLE:


SURGEONS have removed a giant renal tumour - FIFTY times the size of the patient's kidney.
Manju Devi, 28, had complained of having a "lump" on her right side for three years before a scan revealed the huge 31cm by 19cm growth.
It took a team of surgeons eight hours to remove the 12lb tumour from her kidney, which had dwarfed her other organs.
Urologist Dr Ajit Sawant, who led the surgical team at a hospital in Mumbai, said: "She was no longer able to do her day-to-day activities because of the huge mass in her abdomen.
"In the past three years she had been referred to multiple hospitals, however because of the enormous size, the surgery was deferred."
Dr Sawant said a CT scan revealed the large tumour.
It measured a staggering 31cm by 19cm and weighed the same as a bowling ball.
The growth had completely engulfed the patient's intestines and pancreas, to the left of her abdomen.
Dr Sawant said: "After thorough evaluation of her fitness to undergo major surgery, she was posted for radical right nephrectomy (removal of the right kidney).
"The enormity of the surgery can be understood by comparing the weight of the kidney tumour - 5.5kg with the weight of a normal kidney,which is 110 to 140g."
The operation was carried out at Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital at Sion in Mumbai.
The woman, from the Darbhanga district of Bihar state in North India, was released from hospital after a week.
The Guinness Book of World Records confirmed it was the largest renal tumour ever discovered.
Earlier this year it emerged an unnamed woman had surgery to remove a giant tumour growing in her abdomen, after it began crushing her organs.
The lump weighed 38.5lbs and was so big the woman in her 40s was unable to breathe under its weight.


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Palestinians and settlers clashed at the site of the former West Bank Homesh settlement on Monday, in an incident that left three Palestinians injured.
Both Palestinian and settlers at the site claimed that they were victims and not the perpetrators of the violence, which they warned was so severe it could have ended in the death of those involved.
The left-wing group Yesh Din contended that settlers attacked 15 Palestinians as they tried to access their farmland on the Homesh hilltop.
The Samaria Regional Council argued that the violence started when a yeshiva student passed by the Palestinian vehicles on his way to the small modular seminary at the site and was attacked by the Palestinians.
Both the Samaria Regional Council and Yesh Din provided video of the incident, but none of the short clips provided a clear narrative of the events.
“We felt that we were in grave danger and had a feeling that we might not make it out of there alive,” said a Yesh Din field worker. “A group of people were chasing us, and I heard one of them shooting into the air. It makes you feel fear in your whole body.”
Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan said that the students at Homesh “survived by a miracle.”
The army said that it responded to a violent incident between settlers and Palestinians at Homesh, that both groups had thrown stones, and that settlers had fired in the air.
Homesh is one of four settlements in northern Samaria that the IDF destroyed in 2005, concurrent to the Gaza withdrawal. Right-wing politicians and activists have long argued that Israel should rebuild the four settlements that also included Sa-Nur, Ganim and Kadim.
Right-wing activists have made multiple illegal attempts to resettle Homesh and Sa-Nur, all of which the IDF has thwarted. A small modular yeshiva has also existed at the site for the last 16 years. The IDF has periodically evacuated it.
Since the 2005 demolition, Palestinians have made multiple attempts to farm the hilltop on which the Homesh settlement had been situated. The land belonged to the Palestinian village of Burka, and the High Court of Justice upheld the rights of Palestinians to farm that land, but security forces have not ensured that they can do so safely.
Supreme Court Justice Esther Hayut reiterated that stance last month.
“Given the situation at present, they [the Palestinians] have a right to access their lands,” said Hayut, adding that this has not previously occurred, and that they had not been given sufficient protection.
Yesh Din said that when Palestinian farmers headed toward their land on Monday, “about 15 settlers charged toward them while throwing stones and armed with clubs. The settlers managed to trap one of the Palestinians. They beat him severely with clubs and stones and pepper sprayed him. Two additional Palestinians were injured from stones as they tried to escape.”
It added that three Palestinian vehicles were also damaged by settler stone throwing.
“Eventually, the Palestinians returned to rescue their trapped comrade, and together they all left the scene,” said Yesh Din. “According to eyewitnesses, at least one settler fired live bullets,” and that three Palestinians were treated at Rafidiya Hospital in Nablus.
According to Homesh Yeshiva CEO Shmuel Wendy, “At 11:05, while the yeshiva students were busy studying Torah, five Palestinian vehicles passed by the yeshiva. Meanwhile another student who arrived alone was outside the yeshiva. He tried to enter the yeshiva but encountered the Palestinians.”
Wendy said that he called on the other yeshiva students to help him and that they had responded to his call.
“The Palestinians got out of the vehicles, attacked the yeshiva students, threw stones at them and tried to hit them with batons. The yeshiva students contacted the security forces and tried to keep the rioters away until the security forces arrived,” Wendy said.
Dagan called on the security forces to treat the event as a serious safety threat and to act accordingly.
“Unfortunately, the settlements in their entirety, as well as the State of Israel, are facing an orchestrated and planned delegitimization campaign by far-left organizations,” Dagan said.
“I call on the Israeli government and the law enforcement authorities to act immediately to stop this delegitimization campaign, and to stop these provocations in the area. This conduct endangers all of us,” Dagan said.


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Caramel Apple Crisp Cheesecake Bars
One Pan Lemon Parmesan Chicken and Asparagus (Video)
Apple Pie Bites -- The perfect Fall/Autumn dessert recipe #applepie #cinnamon #fall
Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Cheesecake
Thin Mint Cheesecake Brownie Cake - layers of chocolate, no bake mint cookie cheesecake, and chewy mint brownies make this a fun cake to make. Great dessert recipe for any party!
Raspberry Cheesecake Truffles are delicious, sweet and tart bites of creamy cheesecake filling hidden inside chocolate shell.
Homemade Soft Pretzels. So soft, so buttery, they're better than any food chain!
Super juicy chicken thighs grilled and topped with tomato guacamole for easy weeknight dinner | littlebroken.com @littlebroken.com
Creamy Broccoli, Chicken Breast, and Bacon Fettuccine Pasta in homemade Alfredo sauce. Easy, delicious pasta Recipe!

domain: food


In the ONDINE album Seasons and Serenades – Works for String Orchestra (ODE 1398-2) we were introduced to the music of the Lithuanian composer Algirdas Martinaitis.
The artists featured – all Lithuanian – are nicely led by Modestas Barkauskas at the podium of the St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra with violinist Ruta Lipinaityte and harpsichordist Daumantas Slipkus doing some musical heavy lifting throughout.
The compositions range from the orchestral suites The Three M‘art Comedy Seasons, Altizarra, Serenada panelei Europai, Rojaus paukščiai , and two French language songs exquisitely sung by soprano Asta Krikšciunaite. Throughout the album, the unique voice of Algirdas Martinaitis is present, now comedic in tone, now lyrical, at times tonally anchored, at others defiantly dissonant, quite often rhythmically hyperkinetic, never at rest, always vibrantly intriguing.
If I assume correctly, the music of this respected artist is often heard in Europe but rarely performed in our country. What a shame, for this iconoclastic composer’s works would certainly enrich the repertory of our often timid musical institutions.
Rafael de Acha ALL ABOUT THE ARTS


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U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron has shaken up his Cabinet in what is being seen as a bid to freshen the image of the ruling Conservative Party ahead of next year’s polls.
The ousted ministers are men, middle-aged and white — the so-called male, pale and stale. Their replacements are likely to be selected from several female MPs tipped for Cabinet roles.
The BBC’s political correspondent Chris Mason said that Britons could expect “more ministers who are women and more ministers with regional accents, in more prominent roles,” in an attempt to improve the diversity of Team Cameron.
However, opposition figures say the reshuffle is a ploy to oust centrist figures. Michael Dugher, a Labour MP, said, “Four years of failure to promote women and now we have the massacre of the moderates.”
Monday’s most significant departures came from William Hague, who resigned as Foreign Secretary, and Ken Clarke, a veteran of two previous Conservative governments.
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V launch will be broken up
It seemed like such a fantastic idea, take an iconic science fiction from eighties and remake it using today’s technology, now that has got to be a winner.
Well that was how it everything seemed when the studio ABC decided to remake V the mini series, to put more pressure on the project the studio have released some brilliant trailers and other material, but it seems that V is having problems getting off the ground.
It seems that a November launch may not have been a brilliant idea after all with the winter Olympics and the festive season approaching, so it looks like V will be shown in little blocks of episodes.
The launch will be on the 3rd November, but this will only be for the first four episodes, hopefully when the series reaches the UK scheduling will not be an issue.
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Lakeland Dairies approached us to help them launch a brand new milk drink into the fiercely competitive ‘impulse drink’ sector, fighting against the likes of Coke and Innocent for share of wallet.
We needed to design a website that worked on a number of levels. It needed to reflect the quirkiness of the brand and deliver a distinctive tone of voice. What’s more it had to appeal to consumers and trade alike, to make them either want to buy or stock this great new product.
Modern Milk is making great strides into the impulse drink sector, including being listed by Tesco 3 months after launch, thanks to a great product supported by a website, social media, events and press advertising that help to set the brand apart.
Take a look at the website


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The moment I wake up, before I put on my make up, I say a little prayer for you…
It’s absolutely one of the most beautiful songs of all time, and one which truly introduced me to the beauty of Aretha Franklin’s voice. Now, in a stylish biopic, the story of Aretha’s early life and rise to fame is shown in all its horror and glory. The fame, the Grammys, the husbands, the abuse, the alcohol struggles and the music, oh the music, it’s all there in Respect, with the astounding Jennifer Hudson bringing a joy and pathos to the complicated lady behind the music.
Respect is a movie that shows why you shouldn’t always believe the critics, who have not been that kind in their reviews. For me, a film should inspire, entertain and enthrall whilst telling a story worth telling, and Respect does precisely that, with brilliant performances from the aforementioned Hudson, but also Forest Whittaker as her preacher father C L Franklin, and Marlon Wayans as her first husband Ted.
The abuse Aretha experienced, both as a child, and during her marriage to Ted, is often alluded to at a distance of time, rather than showed, and this makes it even more powerful when Aretha is forced to face her demons. Her children (the first two born before the singer was 15, the film suggests as a result of the abuse she experienced) are often brushed to the side in the story, left behind at her childhood home in Detroit, and her relationships with her sisters and her controlling father are shown to be stormy. But the film is not bleak throughout, her delivery of ‘Think’ as a clarion call out to women everywhere, and an ecstatic version of the legendary ‘Respect’ are pure moments of joy, only enhanced by Hudson’s brilliant performance of both. Her rendition of Amazing Grace brought me to tears.
The music soars in this film, but the costumes are also a joy to those who love fashion. The early 1960s period is often forgotten, shoe horned in between the new look of the 1950’s, and the swinging sixties looks, but it was a glamorous and elegant time which is beautifully portrayed in Respect. Aretha’s stunning spangled dresses and stage costumes are also lovingly recreated, and also her style as we move towards the 70’s when Aretha embraced her natural hair, animal print kaftans and more casual styles.
Respect is a stunning movie that deserves to be seen on the big screen to really enjoy it, if you love Aretha, or are just a fan of entertaining biopics, you will truly love this.

domain: artistic


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Comets finish undefeated with 6-1 win over LumberjacksPublished 10:22am Tuesday, October 8, 2013
BEMIDJI — The Hillcrest/Pelican Rapids boys soccer team finished its season unbeaten as it topped the Bemidji Lumberjacks 6-1 Monday.
Kevin Franco got the Comets on the board at the 22 minute mark, but Bemidji immediately responded with a goal of its own. The half would see no more scoring as the Lumberjacks threaten Hillcrest 1-1 at the break.
The Comets would respond to the challenge scoring three goals in two and a half minutes as Pellegrino would notch two goals and Franco would add his second. Pellegrino would continue his scoring onslaught adding two more goals before the game ended to insure a victory.
With the six goals scored in the game, the Comets continue to make school history as it surpassed its 128 goals in a season and now sit at 135 on the year.
The Comets will now wait to see who its opponent is on Thursday as it hosts a 4 p.m. Section 8A playoff match up.


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UNFPA Brussels director, Sietske Steneker, presented the report, aptly entitled ‘Against my will’, discussing the harmful practices against women and girls around the world. These harmful practices include female genital mutilation, child marriage and sex selection. They are exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the absolute number of girls subjected to these practices is still growing, even after decades of hard work by advocates and grassroots organisations.
GAMS reminded the participants that FGM is a global issue, which also affects girls in Belgium. It is very much a human-rights issue, and working on norms and cultural ideas is crucial here too. They work in different sectors, and train professionals to have a culturally sensitive approach to the issue. GAMS emphasised there are no short-term solutions and that sustainable change means long-term involvement.
Minister Kitir closed the webinar by presenting her policy plans and answering questions. She emphasised sexual and reproductive health and rights will be important in her policy, with the SDGs at the heart of her work and a strong focus on the impact of policies on women’s well-being. She will also see to the systematic integration of SRHR in health system strengthening. Together with her colleague Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sophie Wilmes, she intends on being vocal on SRHR issues both internationally and bilaterally, as Belgium has been in recent years.

domain: sociology


Oswalt shouldn’t worry too much about losing his spot in the rotation, but he should be aware that help is on the way…
Derek Holland was the first of the Rangers’ DL casualties to return to action. In his first start since June 5, Dutch picked up a no-decision but looked pretty sharp as he allowed just three runs over six innings pitched.
Here’s a quick status update on some other Texas Rangers injuries:
Colby Lewis—right forearm tendonitis (15-Day disabled list)
Lewis is scheduled to throw a bullpen session this Friday at Seattle, and could be available to pitch as soon as July 18 when the Rangers travel to Oakland.
Alexi Ogando—strained right groin (15-Day DL)
Ogando is all set to begin a rehab assignment this Thursday at Triple-A Round Rock. If this goes well, the next step would be to throw a live bullpen with a tentative return date for Ogando later this month.
Neftali Feliz—elbow inflammation (60-Day DL)
Feliz will throw on his own at his home during the All-Star break. How he feels after throwing will determine a possible return date. The Rangers are being extremely careful with Feliz, and he probably won’t return to action before the end of August at the earliest.
Mark Lowe—strained right intercostal muscle (15-Day DL)
Placed on the disabled on June 30, Lowe will continue to rest and recuperate during the upcoming All-Star break. In all likelihood, Lowe can possibly begin a throwing session early next week.
Koji Uehara—right lat strain (15-Day DL)
Today Uehara threw 43 pitches in his third bullpen session. The next step for Koji will be to make a rehab start—most likely at Triple-A Round Rock—and then he should be all set for reactivation.
Post All-Star Break rotation announced:
Per Richard Durrett of ESPN Dallas, manager Ron Washington has announced his post-AS break roation. It will look like this:
LHP Derek Holland, RHP Yu Darvish, LHP Matt Harrison, RHP Roy Oswalt and RHP Colby Lewis.
With Justin Grimm optioned back to Double-A Frisco earlier this afternoon, it appears that rookie left-hander Martin Perez would be the first option out of the bullpen for a spot start, should the need arise. Bullpen long man, Scott Feldman, is also an option to slide into the rotation should ineffectiveness or injury occur in the second half of the season.
Rangers’ right-hander Roy Oswalt (2-1, 7.79 ERA) seeks his third win, and opposes fellow right-hander Cole De Vries (2-1, 3.91 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 6:15 PM (CT).


Wear it your way. With its extra-long length, it can be styled as a longline tank or short vest dress. Made from a cotton-rich stretch fabric for comfort and great shape retention. Finished with our classic mini logo embroidery.
96% Cotton, 4% Elastane single Jersey
S 10 M 12 L 14 XL 16


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Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Creamy Pesto Sauce
This is a great pesto sauce. Of course I found this lovely recipe on Pinterest, which has now become my go to source for finding recipes. I needed to find a homemade pesto sauce recipe for a couple of reasons...1- My brother said that it would be the best sauce to go with these fantastic Chicken Sausage and Kale Ravioli's that I got at Costco..and 2- I have an abundance of basil growing in my herb garden and it was getting a little tall and needed some thinning. Enjoy!
3/4 cup fresh basil leaves, packed
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
3 tablespoons pine nuts
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 tsp kosher salt and coarsely ground pepper, each
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter
12 oz fettuccine pasta (For GF, use your favorite gluten free pasta)
1. Bring 4 quarts of water to boil, then add 1 tablespoon kosher salt and 12 ounces pasta, and cook until al dente. Drain the pasta and set aside. Meanwhile, make the pesto.
2. To the workbowl of a food processor, add basil, 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, pine nuts, garlic cloves, and salt and pepper. Process while slowly drizzling in olive oil. Next add the cream and butter to a heavy-bottomed saucepan set over medium heat. Pour in the pesto, stir until well combined, and let simmer for 2-3 minutes. Turn off the heat, add the the remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, and stir until melted and combined.
3. Add the drained pasta to the sauce and gently stir together.
Optional step 4. At this point you can either plate and top with hot rotisserie chicken, or if your chicken is already chopped and is cold from the fridge, go ahead and add it to the pasta and stir together for 2 minutes to heat up the chicken.
**Randi's Side Notes**
~ This would be good on any type of pasta, but it was FANTASTIC on the Chicken Sausage and Kale Ravioli from Costco.
~ Since my blender blades don't reach the bottom of my blender I had to add quite a bit extra olive oil. It still tasted great, but a little on the oily side.
~ To make this gluten free just serve over your favorite gluten free noodles.


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Fiona Walker Felt Zebra Wall Head
Made from organic wool
The original felt animal heads
Dimensions: H 40cm W 23cm D 28cm
Our Original Zebra Head. This black and white Zebra head sits perfectly with our Elephant and Giraffe heads and makes a great addition to a Safari themed room.

domain: design


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I'm studying Bach's two-part inventions, and am reminded of something John LaPorta pointed out to me years ago at Berklee.
J. S. Bach was reputedly a great improviser at the keyboard. Sadly, we'll never hear him. But the contrapuntal lines in his Inventions & Sinfonias, in terms of their structure and cantibile quality, are remarkably like those found in the Charlie Parker Omnibook.
That is, Bird and the architects of bebop (far from the bon sauvage stereotype) were such accomplished musicians that they could improvise at a blistering tempo with a melodic logic comparable to Bach's.
Compare, for example, this Bach invention, performed by Glenn Gould, to this performance of "Koko" by Bird & Diz.


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Archive for June 2011
Posted on 29th June 2011 in Releases
Black Chamber Order
Posted on 27th June 2011 in Releases
Posted on 26th June 2011 in News
1. Surgeon – Those Who Do Not – Dynamic Tension
2. Shifted – Inside – Mote-Evolver
3. Iori – Lapis One – Prologue
4. Ozka – Phantomz – Mowar
5. Perc – Gonkle – Perc Trax
6. DML – Forstenried – Broque
7. Sigha – Politics Of Dying – Our Circula Sound
8. The Black Dog – Black Chamber Order – Dust Science Recordings
9. Adam Beyer & Alan Fitzpatrick – Human Reason – Drumcode
10. Trust The Machine – Camshaft – The Public Stand
It’s been a while since we’ve done an update but seeing as we’re in the studio right now taking a break from other people we thought we’d share what we are up to.
Over the last year or so we’ve kinda grown tired over production values. In Sheffield there’s always been a sense of the “least fuss necessary”, all you need is a dark room, a strobe, a smoke machine and great sound system. This has always held true for us and after working on two ambient projects we wanted to strip everything back. We just want to make people dance and have a great party. While that explanation may not be complex enough for some people it is the truth, a return to the source.
We’re currently working on 3X12″s for Dust Science called Liber Kult, Liber Temple and Liber Nox. These releases are aimed straight at the dancefloor; they’re dark, stripped back as far as possible and loaded with bass. We’re working with Simon Francis on the mastering and Human for the artwork. Each 12″ will be on 180gram coloured vinyl and will be limited to 300 units, with the first 100 for duststore coming in a limited hand numbered cover. Liber Kult will be available on 1/08/11.
Stay tuned for an update on Liber Dogma, our new album due out on Soma on 17/10/11.


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Polishing is a more aggressive process whilst buffing is not as harsh, which causes a smoother, brighter finish. Polishing isn’t a precision operation. Polishing is additionally a frequent pretreatment for metal things which should be plated or painted, based on the desired finished product. After you’ve achieved everything you can with polish you should move over to buffing to be able to find that fine shiny finish. Polishing of moulded ABS plastics isn’t required before plating.
Check to see whether the compound has rehardened and rake if needed. Using too large an amount of compound will lead to a heavy buildup that is hard to eliminate. It will reduce the effectiveness of the cutting action, because the surface will become TOO greasy and over lubricated. You’re now prepared to apply compound. Don’t use an excessive amount of pressure against the wheel, permit the wheel and the compound do the job. Steel compounds vary in cut based on the type of sisal buff used and the total amount of grease in the compound.
If it is possible to hold the part below the wheel after loading, you’ll see the compound spitting on the part if there is enough on the wheel. After the wheel is coated full, it is prepared to use. Each DICO wheel is provided with a pair of special toothed flanges which bite in the buffing wheel to stop it from slipping.
Because the wheel isn’t tightly stitched, it is going to collapse, allowing cotton to acquire into awkward places more easily. There are several kinds of cloth wheels. Rake between different compounds, too, but it’s better to have one wheel dedicated to a compound. Each wheel should run for a couple of seconds ahead of use. Wheels come with a ton of different hole sizes, so get the most suitable mandrel or bushings. Keep the buffing wheel moving and you’ll observe when it’s polishing effectively.
Stainless steel generally has a greater resistance to the consequences of exposure. If you’re working on a part that’s stainless steel you are going to be better off taking it to a 400 grit finish prior to beginning buffing. Stainless steels can be effortless to buff or nearly impossible based on the status and kind of steel. In the event the metal is cold, the compound isn’t going to do the job properly.
Now you are all set to buff. Buffing is a procedure that is often confused with polishing, but it’s slightly different. A loosely sewn buff is acceptable. Buffing to an extremely substantial shine isn’t always necessary for items that should be electroplated afterwards.
Pre polishing can be the toughest step and can take several applications to get the wanted outcomes. The metallic polishing and buffing procedure utilizes a wide variety of materials and methods to smooth a surface based on the original status of the part. There are two techniques of buffing, called cut-motion and color-motion. Both buffing and polishing seem to get the exact same effects in the long run. Rapid buffing will subsequently generate a brilliant shine. Next there’s color buffing. A buffing and polishing kit will have each of the essential instruments and accessories for a striking outcome.


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Apollo Rock Reveals Moon Had Molten Core - Universe Today
[/caption] Back in the 1960’s and ’70’s when scientists claimed that the Moon rocks returned by the Apollo astronauts would keep researchers busy for decades, they weren’t kidding. Analysis on one of the rocks collected during the Apollo 17 mission has helped to solve a longstanding puzzle about the Moon. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute … Continue reading "Apollo Rock Reveals Moon Had Molten Core"
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domain: geography


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BREAKING NEWS: U.S. Supreme Court Rewrites U.S. Law
The following statement is from Citizens for Community Values President Aaron Baer on the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. CCV filed a brief with the Supreme Court in this case opposing redefining the word “sex”:
“The insurmountable harm done to women and girls today by the U.S. Supreme Court is devastating. It’s perhaps only matched by the harm done to voters, who elect leaders to make policy, not judges.”
“By a 6-3 decision, Justices Gorsuch, Roberts, Breyer, Ginsburg, Sotomayor and Kagan have put the privacy, safety, and equal opportunities of women at risk. Today’s decision by the Court will create more litigation, not less, and put businesses in the untenable of defending themselves in court against frivolous and baseless lawsuits because of a vague and chaotic court opinion.”
“Ultimately, this makes the work of defending religious liberty and the rule of law all the more essential. Citizens for Community Values has been in Ohio for nearly 40 years standing for families and freedom, and today’s court decision makes our fight for freedom all the more essential.”
For more information, contact CCV at 513-733-5775, or [email protected]
As Ohio’s Family Policy Council, Citizens for Community Values seeks the good of our neighbors throughout Ohio by advocating for public policy that reflects the truth of the Gospel. We endeavor to create an Ohio where God’s blessings of life, family, and religious freedom are treasured, respected, and protected.


Berlusconi Allegedly Bought Votes
Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi’s political rap sheet is already quite appalling, from alleged under-age sexcapades to anti-Semitic jokes. But new allegations by state prosecutors have added another blotch on the billionaire’s bill: He’s accused of buying votes to stay in power. –JCL
Wait, before you go…
The state prosecution service in Rome today opened an investigation into claims that Silvio Berlusconi was buying up MPs before a series of votes in parliament next Tuesday to decide on the future of his government.
The move followed a sharp about-turn late last night when a leading member of Berlusconi’s party, the rightwing People of Freedom party (PdL), announced that the government, which has been without a clear majority for the past five months, could be sure of winning by at least one vote. Just hours before, a senior party source told the Guardian that the billionaire prime minister’s chances of survival were no better than 50/50.
News also emerged of the latest of up to eight defections by MPs previously considered to be either in opposition or non-aligned.
If you're reading this, you probably already know that non-profit, independent journalism is under threat worldwide. Independent news sites are overshadowed by larger heavily funded mainstream media that inundate us with hype and noise that barely scratch the surface. We believe that our readers deserve to know the full story. Truthdig writers bravely dig beneath the headlines to give you thought-provoking, investigative reporting and analysis that tells you what’s really happening and who’s rolling up their sleeves to do something about it.
Like you, we believe a well-informed public that doesn’t have blind faith in the status quo can help change the world. Your contribution of as little as $5 monthly or $35 annually will make you a groundbreaking member and lays the foundation of our work.Support Truthdig


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Video games are not only for youngsters! They offer many different online games that can benefit folks of any age. It is obvious why modern take traditions is very captivated by online video game playing overall. This post offers you some terrific tips, tips and even cheats to help you improve your video gaming expertise.
Pick-up applied games…[Read more]

domain: game


Free shipping on all orders throughout the USA or Spain.
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Description: For the little home fashionistas we have this beautiful animal print swimsuit, the full swimsuit cut is perfect for the youngest as it facilitates movement and increases fun on vacation. It also has beautiful ruffles throughout giving an undeniable showiness and style to the piece, your cute baby will be more than charming with this marvel of a swimsuit.
Care & Maintenance: To keep the fabric fresh all year round: We recommend treating stains between washes with stain removers, cold washing to preserve the fibers and color of the fabric, turning them over to minimize friction, using a specialized detergent, and hanging the clothes so that it dries. Doing so whenever possible will ensure lasting quality.
Quantity: 1pc Material: Cotton, Polyester Colors: Terracotta, Zebra Style: Trendy, Fashion, Modern Garment Type: Girls Swimsuit Opportunity: Beach, pool day, travel, vacations, pool party


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Published on Aug 27, 2014
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot and EMEA Executive Director Alain Corre accepted the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Thanks to BlueByte, RedLynx and Jim Ryan from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe for the nomination! We challenge Andrew House from Sony, Phil Harrison from Microsoft and Miyamoto-san from Nintendo to participate and raise awareness for ALS. Learn more about the challenge here ► http://www.alsa.org/fight-als/ice-buc...


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- The official image of the Nord N20 5G reveals the design.
- OnePlus Nord N20 5G specifications include Snapdragon 695 5G SoC, a 5,000mAh battery and a 6.43-inch AMOLED display.
- OnePlus Nord N20 5G is tipped to debut in April in the US market.
OnePlus Nord N20 5G is tipped to make its way to the US smartphone market in April. The news comes from PC Mag, who has also shared an official image of the Nord N20 5G. The Nord N20 official image lines up perfectly with the 5K renders we exclusively shared last year. Much like its predecessor – the OnePlus Nord N10 – the upcoming Nord 20 5G will be exclusive to the US market.
OnePlus is gearing up to launch multiple Nord devices. The OnePlus Nord 2T, Nord CE 2 Lite, and Nord 3 frequently make headlines by revealing bits of information. However, these OnePlus Nord phones will not be available in the US market. With that said, let’s look at what the OnePlus Nord N20 5G has in store for us.
OnePlus Nord N20 5G price and availability
OnePlus Nord N20 5G, according to PC Mag, will hit the US shores in April but the exact date is still under wraps. The OnePlus Nord N10 was launched at USD 299 (Approx. Rs 22,800), and the price of the OnePlus Nord N20 can be expected to be around the same price mark.
OnePlus Nord N20 5G design
The design revealed by the official image shows a triple-camera setup and a LED flash on the top left corner, alongside the OnePlus branding in the centre of the rear panel. The Nord N20 5G houses a power button on the left and volume rockers on the right. We don’t see an alert slider on the OnePlus Nord N20 5G.
It has a 3.5mm headphone jack alongside the USB Type-C port and a speaker grille at the bottom. OnePlus Nord has a punch-hole cutout display with thin bezels at the front.
OnePlus Nord N20 5G specifications
OnePlus Nord N20 5G specs
- 6.43-inch AMOLED display
- Snapdragon 695 5G
- up to 8GB RAM and 128GB storage
- 48MP triple camera setup
- 5,000mAh battery, 33W fast charging
- Android 12-based Oxygen OS
The PC Mag report also shed light on the OnePlus Nord N20 5G’s specifications. It has a 6.43-inch AMOLED panel with a slower 60Hz refresh rate, compared to the 90Hz of its predecessor. The panel also has an under-display fingerprint scanner for security. A Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G chipset powers the OnePlus Nord N20 5G.
OnePlus Nord N20 5G packs up to 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. It draws power from a 5,000mAh battery that supports 33W fast charging. OnePlus Nord N20 5G boots Android 12-based Oxygen OS skin out of the box.
Moving to cameras, the triple camera setup of the OnePlus Nord N20 5G houses a 48MP primary camera with an 8MP ultra-wide lens. The details of the third shooter are still unknown. The front camera of the OnePlus Nord 2 is expected to be a 16MP shooter.


Gettin' Made: Knit One, Cure Too This Weekend
Tomorrow, over 100 knitters, survivors and supporters in pink Santa hats will join Spa Gregorie's Day Spa and Salon to converge upon Mainplace Mall in Santa Ana for the third annual Knit One, Cure Too charity event. Join them for a day of knitting to produce scarves that will raise money for breast cancer research.
After the jump, more details on this hands-on crafting for charity event.
All scarves produced at the Knit-a-thon on Saturday will go to auction to raise money for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. "There's a huge underground knitting community that is unbelievably supportive of the cause," says Angela Cortright, Spa Gregorie's owner and founder. "All of the beautiful scarves, hats and other items sold out last year. I just knew we had to do it again. Not only were folks getting an affordable and darling scarf for the holidays, they were helping raise money for an amazing cause."
The Knit One, Cure Too event is open to the public; everyone is encouraged to show up and support the cause. "Many of us have lost loved ones to this horrible disease. Even the smallest gesture is an extra step towards a cure," says Cortright. "These one-of-a-kind
items are truly gifts that keep on giving."
Knit One, Cure Too takes place Saturday, December 4 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Westfield Mainplace Mall located at 2800 N. Main Street, Santa Ana. For more information, visit the Spa Gregorie's website.
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Catch up on the day's news and stay informed with our daily digest of the most popular news, music, food and arts stories in Orange County, delivered to your inbox Monday through Friday.


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Romanian women and girlfriends or wives are labelled as Romanian women of all ages. Some lovers marry a Romanian girl and later in every area of your life they choose to remarry a Greek much more Latvian a person. There are several causes that take into account this phenomena. Marriage is viewed a contract between two people which binds all of them for life, which form of relationship has been in practice from days immemorial.
Today Romanian girls are incredibly kind and constant towards the husbands, and love and respect them for their status as frontrunners of the family members. The strong family members values that permeate within a Romania friends and family make the Romanian wives and ladies very attractive to foreign men. Even today many foreign guys prefer to marry a Romanian lovely lady because of these cultural attributes. However it should be plainly understood that beautiful females are not eligible for marriage in any country. The Romanian ladies have various set of best practice rules which must be followed to get married.
This country is divided into 3 parts — Brasov, Grecia, and Transylvania. All these metropolitan areas are home to a exclusive culture, with strong Both roman influences. Romanian women will vary cultural best practice rules but are recognized for their sweetness, commitment, and wonder. If you are looking for your right kind of matrimony partner, then you certainly should go intended for romania mail order bride Romanian girls. They have better to get married to a Romanian woman over a Greek much more Latvian you.


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There have been a lot of debates and protests lately surrounding the proposed mosque and community center near Ground Zero (known by various names: Park51, Cordoba House, “the mosque”). Many Christians and other conservatives are speaking out against it. One candidate for New York State governor, Republican Carl Paladino, even promised that he would use eminent domain to block it.
That is correct: After years of conservatives fighting for the First Amendment, and fighting against eminent domain, we have a conservative who wants to use eminent domain to fight against the First Amendment. Now you know why I am not impressed with either major political party. The “conservative, God-friendly” party can act just like the demons in the liberal party when it suits them!
Personally, I do not want to see the mosque built so close to the World Trade Center site. However, there is a conflict between personal preferences, public sentiment, and the basic rights that we Americans enjoy.
Since the First Amendment guarantees all Americans the right to practice their religion of choice, there is no Constitutional reason to oppose the building of a mosque. However, that is just too close to the site of 9/11. It is essentially a slap in the face to our nation, and especially to those whose lives were directly affected by the events of that day.
However, there is a real danger when we ask the government to block the mosque. Today, it is an Islamic center just 600 feet away from the most devastating terrorist attack in US history. Tomorrow, the precedents set in this case could be used to block the building of a Christian church somewhere. Maybe residents will not want certain minority or ethnic groups worshipping in their neighborhood.
This is not a minor consideration. Today’s court ruling, executive decision, or other government action becomes tomorrow’s precedent, to be repeated in ever-broadening “similar situations.” We cannot assume that the argument is only about a mosque. It is about the nature of freedom of religion.
Do we want to give the government the precedent and the authority to claim a parcel of land for its own purposes, just to stop a particular church or synagogue from worshiping there? Do we want our rights to religious freedom to be determined by public opinion polls or the popularity of their beliefs? That is not a world I want to live in. It is not fitting for a nation that boasts of itself as “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
The organizers of the mosque and community center claim they want to create a “center for multifaith dialogue and engagement.” If they want to foster multifaith dialogue, a good-faith first step would be to seriously reconsider their location. I suspect that even a few blocks would appease many of the project’s opponents.
However, in a free country, this is a decision that Cordoba House’s developers should make. It should not be thrust upon them by the government.


The Borelli-Walsh National Sevens rugby team has found out who it’ll play in the qualifying round at next month’s Hong Kong 7s Series tournament.
The tournament draw held this morning (14 March) placed Cayman in Pool E, where it joins Germany, Zimbabwe and Hong Kong as the team’s vie to get through to the tournament’s main draw.
“I think it’s actually probably the best that we could hope for,” Cayman Islands Rugby Football Union Director of Rugby Richard Adams said. “We saw Germany play in Las Vegas. A very good side — big, strong — but certainly manageable for us. Hong Kong obviously will be very strong. They’re second in the Asian region pretty much only to Japan. So they’ll be a good side, we know they’ll be good. Zimbabwe — we know absolutely nothing about so Zimbabwe is gonna be totally unknown for us. We’ll get on YouTube, have a look and see what they’ve been doing.”
The local squad will kick off pool play on 8 April in what is considered the premier sevens tournament in the world.
“That level, you’re at teams 16 through 23 basically,” Adams said, “The next best 12 teams in the world.”


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Electronic Arts, the NFL, and the NFL Players Association renewed their partnership to create new Madden NFL games as well as more titles spreading, the companies announced on Thursday. The EA Sports Madden NFL franchise will remain as the exclusive football simulator for the NFL and EA while EA Sports and the other companies involved will work to develop new experiences. These include games in “new genres,” the announcement said, as well as expanded esports experiences. The next new game that’s known to be coming from this renewed partnership is Madden NFL 21, a game which has been confirmed for the next-gen Xbox Series X and will get its big reveal trailer in June.
The companies announced some of the details of the renewed agreement in a press release shared this week. Touting the success of the Madden NFL brand both in terms of actual players playing the yearly installments as well as the amount of Madden NFL people have watched, the announcement had EA CEO Andrew Wilson looking ahead to more types of experiences as well as new genres the EA Sports games can explore.
“Building on the most successful year ever for Madden NFL, this is a powerful time for EA SPORTS to come together with the NFL and the NFLPA in this new wide-reaching partnership,” Wilson. “Together, we have a tremendous opportunity to entertain more players through new Madden NFL experiences, games in new genres and on new platforms, esports, and new innovations that will grow fans’ love of the NFL around the world.”
We may not know yet what the new experiences will look like and what all genres EA plans on tapping into with these new games, but we do know some of what to expect from the next Madden NFL game. The latest on the Madden NFL series prior to this announcement came from Microsoft’s Xbox Series X gameplay event where we got the first trailer for Madden NFL 21 that confirmed it’d be available on the next-gen console.
The trailer focused more on the evolution of the Madden NFL games leading up to the next release, but there’s a reveal trailer event planned for June 1st that’ll show more on the game. The holding place for the reveal trailer specifically mentions the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC platforms though, so it looks as though the content we see may be from the current generation of platforms.

domain: hobby


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NYC's The Wooster Group brings Vieux Carré by Tennessee Williams to Harbourfront's World Stage on March 28th. Get your tickets now.
“Technological wizardry, porn, and literature.” Well, that’s more than enough to get us to the theatre. Beginning March 28th, the renowned NYC theatre troupe The Wooster Group, founded in 1975 by Elizabeth LeCompte, will bring their version of Vieux Carréby Tennessee Williams to Harbourfront’s World Stage. The Wooster Group is one of the premiere performing… Read More »Read Article