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Submitted by Pater Tenebrarum – The Acting Man Blog
Hollande Declares War
It is a great tragedy for the innocent victims and their families and friends when a senseless terror attack like the one that occurred on Friday evening in Paris happens. Our heart goes out to all of them in sympathy. We have no sympathy or “understanding” whatsoever for the radicals perpetrating such attacks, but we also remain critical of Western governments, including that of France. Anyone who believes the State is “protecting” us would do better to think again (we will elaborate on this below).
Mr. Hollande declares war and decrees a state of emergency.
Photo credit: Stéphanie de Sakutin / AP / AFP
The entire population of Europe has been defanged by its governments (it is e.g. illegal for the average French citizen to carry a concealed handgun), which guarantees extremely large death tolls in such situations. There are an estimated 19 million handguns in private hands in France. Only 2.8 million of those are legally owned and registered – the rest are “black market” guns, a large proportion of which is held by, you guessed it, criminals. Don’t worry though, surely the introduction of additional restrictions on private gun ownership will fix this problem (a lot more jaw-dropping statistics are presented in the video by Stephan Molyneux posted further below).
View of the Bataclan from the stage during a concert (not the one of Friday, we merely want to show what the place looks like when it’s packed)
Photo credit: Kmeron
It took the “extremely well prepared” French police more than three hours to storm the Bataclan concert hall where the largest number of people was executed in cold blood by the attackers on Friday – almost 90 people died there, and countless people were grievously wounded. It took more than three hours in spite of the fact that it should have been crystal clear what was going on from the testimony of people who managed to escape and from tweets and SMS messages sent from inside the building. Moreover, an anti-terror exercise was taking place in Paris on the same day. We have a hunch that a few upstanding citizens armed with guns might have made a difference.
President Hollande has termed the terrorist attacks an act of war waged by a “foreign army”. He has thereby officially elevated IS to the status it claims for itself, namely that of a State. As we have previously observed, this is in fact precisely what it is, whether or not it is “recognized” by other states. It has all the trappings of a State: it has come into existence by brutal conquest, it has a state-like political and administrative hierarchy, it exercises a force monopoly in the territory it administers, and it funds itself with loot, taxation (i.e., the more sophisticated type of looting preferred by States), nationalized industries (primarily oil) and foreign aid (both in the form of money and armament donations from other States). And it most definitely has an army.
Mr. Hollande is reportedly not yet considering to invoke the mutual defense clause in line with article 5 of the NATO treaty (which was e.g. done after the WTC attack). However, his statements are indicating that this is an option he is keeping open. Since he has to be seen to be doing something, he has ordered the barn door firmly closed after the horse has escaped, by closing the French border, deploying large numbers of armed-to-the-teeth police and army in the streets and declaring a state of emergency.
It has in the meantime emerged that like a latter-day Sulla, he is pushing for the enactment of a new law that will allow him to unilaterally extend the state of emergency for three whole months beyond its current constitutional limit of 12 days. “State of emergency” is statist speak for instituting a de facto police state, by removing all restrictions that normally govern police activity and giving the administration the power to suspend an array of citizen’s rights by decree (this includes introducing curfews, ordering the closing of all sorts of private and public establishments, searches without warrants, etc., etc.).
Poking the Hornet’s Nest
Before it was decided by various Western powers and lately Russia to poke this particular hornet’s nest, IS was largely focused on its conquest of parts of Syria and Iraq. Contrary to Al-Qaida it actually showed little interest in hitting so-called “far enemies” – its leaders simply wanted to erect a medieval Caliphate in a region that looked promising for the success of such a venture. This has obviously changed.
Although not accompanied by 24 hour CNN specials and candlelight vigils, IS has over just a single week alsokilled 224 innocent Russian tourists by bombing a commercial airplane and 44 Lebanese citizens in an attack on a market in Southern Beirut. Note as an aside that a poll conducted in France prior to France joining the bombardments in Iraq and Syria in 2014 revealed that 64% of French citizens were set against the intervention(Mr. Hollande’s approval rating by contrast reached only 13%). The French parliament also voted against the action, to no avail. So much for democracy.
Investigators are poking through the wreckage of the Russian plane that by all accounts seems to have been brought down by an IS – planted bomb
Photo credit: Getty Images
The methods employed by IS in its conquest are barbaric, but in principle they are not much different from those used by other conquering armies throughout history. Looking at the region, the State known today as Saudi Arabia has e.g. been established in a very similar manner in the 1930s. The differences between the administration of justice in IS controlled territory and Saudi Arabia seem largely cosmetic. In Saudi Arabia, people can be beheaded in a public square for crimes such as “witchcraft and sorcery”. Some of the more obvious differences between IS and Saudi Arabia are that the latter is a “valued ally” of the West, while the former is selling crude oil at a big discount.
IS warriors posing in the desert, in one of the many Hollywoodesque propaganda videos the group produces for the benefit of potential Western recruits.
Photo credit: picture alliance / dpa
President Hollande promptly announced that France would now pursue a “pitiless war” against IS, and one of the first actions by France was to bomb Raqqa in Syria, reportedly destroying “a command center serving as an arms cache, and a training center of IS”. Since these locations must have been known, why weren’t they destroyed earlier already? How many people died? Was there any “collateral damage”?
We haven’t been told – all we know is that 20 bombs have been dropped. Clearly though, poking the hornet’s nest some more, this time in retribution, appears to be seen as a good idea. It is worth noting in this context that the region currently under the control of IS has been bombed by Western powers on and off for the past 26 years. The results of these efforts have so far been less than encouraging, to put it mildly.
A few interesting facts have emerged in the meantime. If one looks at the claim of responsibility released by IS on social media, it contains no insider knowledge. In terms of the facts cited, it merely repeats what one could read in the news media. The attackers were primarily home-grown French and/or Belgian djihadists (several have by now been clearly identified as such, and survivors of the attacks uniformly reported that the attackers spoke French fluently).
In other words, a French cell of radical Muslims that has declared “allegiance” to IS has planned the attacks. It has likely received logistical help from another French citizen who is with IS in Syria. One or two minders, who have reportedly traveled from Syria to France posing as refugees appear to have joined it as well. Even those were French citizens though. Several of the attackers have at some point in time taken part in the IS jihad in Syria and have returned from there.
The man currently suspected of planning the attack is 27 year old Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian citizen with Moroccan roots, who still resides in Syria. Incidentally, a vehicle loaded with AK 47s, hand grenades and explosives was stopped in Bavaria en route to France only a few days earlier – the driver was a 51 year old man from Montenegro (it is not yet clear if he worked for IS or was a “normal” arms smuggler)
A few less than well-integrated Muslims protesting in the Netherlands – “shariah is the true solution and freedom can go to hell”.
Photo via sodahead.com
This suggests that one of the reasons why it is difficult to actually stop such attacks is that they don’t necessarily require much effort by way of coordination or infiltration. People willing to die for the Islamist cause are already present in many Western countries. An estimated 10% of the French population consists of Muslims, a large number of whom are economically marginalized, are living in ghettos and are providing 70% of the country’s prison population (one of the sadly all too typical “success stories” of multi-culturalism). Fundamentalist groups have little problem recruiting and radicalizing young men in these ghettos. This creates a distributed network of cells that see themselves as part of IS and its cause. They don’t necessarily need to be in contact with the central command structures of IS.
There have also even been a number of so-called “lone wolf” cases in which someone previously held to be devout but harmless became willing to commit murder without regard for his own life at the drop of a turban, so to speak. For instance, the young Kosovar Arid Uka, who shot two US GIs at the Frankfurt airport in early 2011 reportedly took this decision within a few days of seeing a video that outraged him. He had never aroused suspicion previously and reportedly hadn’t been in touch with Salafist radical circles. It is impossible to prevent such attacks
The attacks have also shown (and this should surprise no-one) that in spite of adopting ubiquitous surveillance of its citizenry and introducing numerous restrictions of civil liberties (such as e.g. limiting the use of cash), the French government is unable to stop attacks executed by well-trained professional jihadists. Whatever genuine successes the authorities can claim to have had are more likely the result of tried and true old-fashioned sleuthing (excluding cases in which mentally challenged morons are persuaded to plan amateurish attacks by agents provocateurs of the security apparatus itself).
It is worth noting though that Turkey has warned the French authorities of Ismaël Omar Mostefaï, one of the ringleaders of the attacks, months ago already. Not once, but twice (in December 2014 and July 2015). Both theIraqi and Israeli securities services have warned France of an impending terror attack as well. Evidently terrorist groups like IS must have been infiltrated quite thoroughly. This does give one pause.
The Goals and Playbook of IS
It is by now well-known how IS has come into being. It is a monster our own governments have helped to create, by constantly intervening militarily in a region that is none of our business, and then tolerating and even furthering the emergence of jihadist groups as long as they were deemed useful in the pursuit of other goals (such as e.g. the unseating of Assad in Syria). Good summaries of this with plenty of links to supporting evidence can be read at antiwar.com and Washington’s blog. If there are any remaining doubts, note that even Tony Blair recently thought it necessary to apologize for his part in helping to give birth to IS.
However, this certainly doesn’t mean that organizations like IS or Al Qaida don’t have their own dynamics and goals. They definitely see the West as an enemy and it appears that they are fervently hoping to incite Western countries to join a ground war in Syria and Iraq. They cannot shoot down allied planes, but they can definitely shoot at soldiers. A ground war would likely reinvigorate IS.
With respect to Europe, IS initially appears to have viewed it mainly as a recruiting area rather than a target. After all, as many radical Muslim preachers have frequently stressed in the past, the Muslim conquest of Europe is just a question of time, as the Muslim population is breeding at more than twice the rate of the indigenous population (see also the video further below).
This prompted a friend of ours to comment that the Paris attack seemed short-sighted, as it would be far easier to “take over Europe slowly via demographics and the suicidal openness and self-flagellating guilt of Northern Europeans.” However, we believe the attack was actually very well timed from the perspective of IS. One must keep in mind that radical factions like IS are not representative of the broader Muslim community. IS is e.g. very much against Syrians seeking refuge in Europe, as it undermines its claim of having created a “haven” for true believers.
The aim of IS in Europe is to sow discord between the indigenous and Muslim populations as well as to shake the unity of the member states of the EU. It achieves both with terror attacks. The fact that the Paris attacks have come at a time when there are already growing tensions due to the wave of refugees flooding Europe has made them all the more effective.
Marine Le Pen of the Front National – terror attacks tend to increase her support (after the Charlie Hebdo attack, support for the FN surged as well).
Photo credit: Francois Mori / AP
One only has to ask who will actually gain from these attacks. In France itself, Marine le Pen and the Front National will be the biggest winners. The same applies to the political landscape elsewhere in Europe: nationalist extremists are likely to gain support. This in turn actually helps IS: If e.g. Ms. Le Pen’s party ever comes to power, there will be confrontation with the EU (possibly even leading to a break-up) and the Muslim community in France. IS and other radical Islamist factions will gain numerous new recruits.
Radical fundamentalist groups like IS are not all that much interested in whether moderate Muslims are gaining ground in Europe. They primarily want more fighters willing to die for the cause. The more alienation, distrust and hate there is between the Muslim and indigenous populations of European countries, the better from the perspective of IS.
The playbook of IS in Europe is eerily reminiscent of that the fascists and communists used prior to and between the two World Wars. As Scott Atran writes in the Guardian, IS wants to “eliminate the gray zone” in which a peacefully side by side existence of moderate Muslims and Europeans is imaginable. This is incidentally in full agreement with George W. Bush’s black and white “with us or against us” doctrine – as confirmed by the late Osama bin Laden himself:
“It’s “the first of the storm”, says Islamic State . And little wonder. For the chaotic scenes on thestreets of Paris and the fearful reaction those attacks provoked are precisely what Isis planned and prayed for. The greater the reaction against Muslims in Europe and the deeper the west becomes involved in military action in the Middle East, the happier Isis leaders will be.Because this is about the organization’s key strategy: finding, creating and managing chaos.
There is a playbook, a manifesto: The Management of Savagery/Chaos , a tract written more than a decade ago under the name Abu Bakr Naji, for the Mesopotamian wing of al-Qaida that would become Isis. Think of the horror of Paris and then consider these, its principal axioms.
Hit soft targets. “Diversify and widen the vexation strikes against the crusader-Zionist enemy in every place in the Islamic world, and even outside of it if possible, so as to disperse the efforts of the alliance of the enemy and thus drain it to the greatest extent possible.”
Strike when potential victims have their guard down. Sow fear in general populations, damage economies. “If a tourist resort that the crusaders patronize … is hit, all of the tourist resorts in all of the states of the world will have to be secured by the work of additional forces, which are double the ordinary amount, and a huge increase in spending.”
Consider reports suggesting a 15-year-old was involved in Friday’s atrocity. “Capture the rebelliousness of youth, their energy and idealism, and their readiness for self-sacrifice, while fools preach ‘moderation’ (wasatiyyah), security and avoidance of risk.”
Think of the group’s appreciation of focus on cause and effect: “Work to expose the weakness of America’s centralized power by pushing it to abandon the media psychological war and the war by proxy until it fights directly.” Ditto for France , the UK and other allies.
There is a recruitment framework. The Gray Zone, a 10-page editorial in Isis’s online magazineDabiq in early 2015, describes the twilight area occupied by most Muslims between good and evil, the caliphate and the infidel, which the “blessed operations of September 11” brought into relief.Quoting Bin Laden it said: “The world today is divided. Bush spoke the truth when he said, ‘Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists’, with the actual ‘terrorist’ being the western crusaders.” Now, it said, “the time had come for another event to…bring division to the world and destroy the gray zone”
In short, groups like IS are ultimately pursuing the same goals that are pursued by those who are held to be their most vociferous opponents – both gain power by increasing the polarization between ethnic and religious groups.
This out-of-focus picture is the only image of Abu Bakr Naji we could find. He is said to have penned the playbook the jihadists of IS are using.
Photo via lifelines10.rssing.com
Freedom vs. Statism
Another sector that keeps making gains in spite of its evident failure to prevent attacks from occurring is the security apparatus itself (a.k.a. the Deep State). As an example, the first reaction of the UK government to the Paris attacks was to announce that it will increase its intelligence agency staff by 15%. One can also be reasonably certain that the new security-related legislation that has been tabled in the UK in reaction to the Snowden revelations (the goal is primarily to make legal what was hitherto illegal but has been done anyway) will no longer meet with much resistance.
This is a good moment to take a look at the video by Stephan Molyneux, who does a very good job of summarizing the relevant facts as far as they are known, and presents a number of truly stunning statistics. To mention a few of the more glaring ones: 70% of the inmates in French prisons are Muslims; a poll in France (conducted before the recent attack) revealed that roughly a quarter of the population aged 18-44 held a “positive view of ISIS” (about 10 million people); France is the world’s 4th largest arms exporter in the world on an absolute basis and the 2nd largest on a per capita basis.
Guess who its biggest customers are? Autocratic regimes in the Middle East and North Africa are three of its five biggest customers (the other two are China and Singapore). As Mr. Molyneux points out, the UAE, France’s top weapons customer, is widely criticized for its lack of human rights and the role shariah plays in its legal system. This evidently poses no problem whatsoever for the French government (this shows how much it “cares”, but the Middle Easterners allegedly hate us all for our fast fading freedoms).
As Stephan Molyneux remarks in closing, one can either have death merchants selling weapons to autocrats, intervening in every madcap conflict abroad and bombing foreign countries to smithereens while erecting a welfare state at home, or one can have a free society. One cannot have both.
Stephan Molyneux’s comment on the attacks in Paris – a wealth of valuable background information.
Governments are notoriously prone to doing what hasn’t worked so far, only more of it. We doubt that bombing Syria and Iraq some more will do the trick. Declaring a state of emergency over several months seems just as futile an exercise. After a major attack, terrorist cells usually tend to lie low until everybody’s guard is down again. At best this will produce a psychological effect in that it may make some people feel safer. The things that actually make them unsafe seem unlikely to change.
The conflict that has brought terrorism to Europe didn’t just drop unbidden from the sky. As Stephan Molyneux says, there are certain choices before us if we want a free society. To keep bombing countries to “failed state” status while selling arms to despots in the region is unlikely to bring forth peace and harmony. There will of course always be radicals who pursue violence no matter what anyone does or doesn’t do, but in recent years their numbers have vastly increased and they have been provided with a playground where they can hone their martial skills. At the very least one should stop playing into their hands.


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Other acts to perform for the audience of 3,000 at Hampton Court Palace included the B Positive Choir — BGT finalists last year.
Sentebale was set up to support children and young people living with HIV and Aids in Lesotho, Botswana and Malawi.
Richard Miller, Sentebale's chief executive, said: "We're delighted that Prince Seeiso and some of our advocacy champions will be joining some of the biggest global performers to help Sentebale deliver a sustainable, quality programme for children and young people affected by HIV, enabling them to lead healthy, happy and productive lives."
On May 6, 2019, Harry and Meghan welcomed a baby boy into the world. Their son was born in Windsor at 5.26am.
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domain: celebrity


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|Snap Raise Announced as WIAA Corporate Partner|
RENTON, Wash. – The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association is pleased to announce a new partnership with Snap Raise making them the Official Fundraising Partner of the WIAA.
Snap Raise (snap-raise.com) is dedicated to helping WIAA member high school and middle school athletic teams and activity programs reach their fundraising goals. Snap built its innovative solution specifically for school teams and programs after learning first-hand about the challenges schools have faced with traditional fundraising methods.
“The WIAA is happy to welcome Snap on board as a corporate partner,” said WIAA Executive Director Mike Colbrese. “Snap’s easy-to-use fundraising platform will be an excellent tool for member schools to help get the most out of their fundraising initiatives.”
After years of feedback, Snap’s founding team of former WIAA student-participants created the industry’s most simple, effective, and powerful solution for team-based fundraising. Snap’s social donation platform and full-service process has already helped hundreds of teams and groups across the state of Washington reach their fundraising goals.
"We are extremely excited to give WIAA member school coaches, athletic directors, and activity directors the ability to raise more money, keep more money, and save a substantial amount of time doing it,” said Cole Morgan, Snap Co-Founder.
Snap representatives will be attending a variety of upcoming WIAA meetings and events, including Coaches School, Fall Workshops, and WIAA State Championships, to educate coaches, athletic directors and activity directors about the fundraising potential of the Snap platform.
To learn more about the Snap fundraising platform, visit snap-raise.com.
Director of Marketing, Promotions & Corporate Partners

domain: news


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Ditmar Award Shortlists
Voting has started for the 2013 Ditmar Awards that recognise achievement in Australian science-fiction, fantasy and horror.
In the Best Novel category the short list is:
- Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan
- Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth
- Suited: The Veiled Worlds 2 by Jo Anderton
- Salvage by Jason Nahrung
- Perfections by Kirstyn McDermott
- The Corpse-Rat King by Lee Battersby
For the full list of categories head to the official website here.
Voting for the awards is open to members of the Australian National Science Fiction Convention: Conflux 9, happening in Canberra later this month.

domain: artistic


text: Golden Sakura Blossom YukataRich in symbolism and sophistication, this Yukata captures the essence of spring in bloom. In Japan, the sakura or cherry blossom is a metaphor for the fleeting nature of life. The delicate blooms in shimmery gold and white grace a blue background. This soft, comfortable robe is made of 100% cotton and includes a matching belt. This Yukata is perfect for lounging at home or as a cover-up at the beach or pool. It measures 56" in length. The sleeve length is 13 1/2", shoulder width is 25" and the girth is 50". Made in Japan.

domain: design


3 min read
RTI Co-Authors First Connectivity Framework for the Industrial Internet
The Industrial Internet Consortium Details Use of the Data Distribution Service (DDS) Standard as a Core Connectivity Standard for the IIoT
SUNNYVALE, Calif.—Feb. 28, 2017—Real-Time Innovations (RTI), the Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity company, today announced the company’s leadership in the creation of the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC)'s Industrial Internet Connectivity Framework (IICF), released today. The IICF is a key milestone; it is the first time a major consortia analyzed the technical connectivity problem for the Industrial IoT. Dr. Rajive Joshi, Principal Solution Architect at RTI and Co-Chair of the IIC Connectivity Task Group, was the lead author and editor of the IICF. Joshi collaborated with other market leaders, such as Cisco, Nokia, Ericsson and ABB, as well as RTI colleagues, Dr. Stan Schneider, CEO; Dr. Gerardo Pardo, CTO; and Brett Murphy, Director of Business Development for IIoT.
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is a new and confusing, yet huge market opportunity. There are many technologies, both proprietary and standard, proposed for various use cases. Until the IICF, there were no guidelines for selecting the right fit. Worse, there was no architecture for combining technologies into a comprehensive design for a true Internet of Things. The confusion hindered the seamless data sharing required to enable a global IIoT marketplace.
With the guidance of the IICF, system developers now have a clear roadmap for navigating the IIoT connectivity landscape. The framework clarifies the connectivity stack, provides an assessment template for system architects evaluating connectivity technologies, defines a reference architecture for data sharing and establishes criteria for core connectivity standards. Perhaps more importantly, it also analyzes the capabilities of current standards, including the Data-Distribution Service™ (DDS™) standard, OPC UA, OneM2M, REST, MQTT, and more. The resulting analysis helps designers make an immediate, intelligent choice for their use case, as well as design a system for future integration with the larger IIoT.
The framework has two overarching goals. First, it brings clarity that will accelerate the development of new IIoT applications across industries. Second, it provides architecture to enable data sharing and interoperability between previously closed components and subsystems.
Both goals are met with the concept of a "core connectivity standard." This concept expedites adoption by outlining key connectivity criteria. For the first time, the IICF firmly defines the minimum expectation of a connectivity framework: It must provide syntactic interoperability—the unambiguous exchange of structured data—between IIoT components and subsystems. The IICF then catalogs the common IIoT standards that meet this basic requirement and guides system architects in determining a suitable core connectivity standard based on their system requirements.
"The release of the IICF is a critical milestone in the acceleration of the Industrial Internet. It took years of work involving many key contributors and full participation from champions of the various standards. The resulting clarity empowers system integrators and developers to evaluate IIoT protocols and communication patterns, and select the best-fit technology for their application," said Dr. Stan Schneider, CEO at RTI. "RTI has a long history in standards development, starting with the development of the DDS standard, and extending to 15 different consortia. Our proven connectivity technology powers many intelligent distributed systems, from self-driving cars (carbots) to medical devices. The IICF points to DDS as the right choice for software systems requiring performance, reliability, scalability, security and safety."
The IICF follows the launches of the Industrial Internet Security Framework (IISF), published in Sept. 2016, and the second version of the Industrial Internet Reference Architecture (IIRA), published at the end of last month. The newly announced IICF is critical part of the IIoT and the most technical document released by the IIC thus far. Together, these documents provide a comprehensive architecture for the IIoT.
The Industrial Internet Connectivity Framework is now available for download on the IIC’s website: http://www.iiconsortium.org/.
Real-Time Innovations (RTI) is the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) connectivity company. The RTI Connext® databus is a software framework that shares information in real time, making applications work together as one, integrated system. It connects across field, fog and cloud. Its reliability, security, performance and scalability are proven in the most demanding industrial systems. Deployed systems include medical devices and imaging; wind, hydro and solar power; autonomous planes, trains and cars; traffic control; Oil and Gas; robotics, ships and defense.
RTI lives at the intersection of functional artificial intelligence and pervasive networkingSM.
RTI is the largest vendor of products based on the Object Management Group (OMG) Data Distribution Service™ (DDS) standard. RTI is privately held and headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif.


What else but another Derek Fisher miracle? With the Magic leading 87-84, Dwight Howard missed two free throws. The Lakers drove the court, and Fisher made a 3-pointer from the right side with 4.6 seconds left to tie the game 87-87 and send it to overtime.
LAKERS 87, ORLANDO 87
Rashard Lewis got the home fans going with a 3-pointer on the first possession, but then it was all Lakers, as they went on a 12-1 run to close out the game. The big shot, of course, came from Fisher, who broke a 91-91 tie with yet another devastating 3-pointer.
LAKERS 99, ORLANDO 91


Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are investigating a suspected case of Ebola virus disease, in the country’s eastern province of North Kivu. The country’s National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB) is in the process of testing samples to determine if the patient contracted Ebola.
The suspected case is a 46-year-old woman who died on 15 August 2022 in Beni, a town located in North Kivu. The case received care at the Beni Referral Hospital, initially for other ailments, but subsequently, exhibited symptoms consistent with Ebola virus disease.
“While the analysis is ongoing, WHO is already on-the-ground supporting health officials to investigate the case and prepare for a possible outbreak,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa.
WHO staff are working with health authorities to identify anyone who came in contact with the suspected case and monitor their health. WHO will also work to ensure proper infection prevention and control measures are in place, that treatment can be made available for those who need it, and to raise awareness about Ebola among local communities.


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A Community Plan is intended to be an extension and refinement of the County’s Comprehensive Plan. The Comprehensive Plan is general in nature and provides guidance on issues county-wide. A Community Plan is more detailed than the Comprehensive Plan and intended to provide specific recommendations on local issues raised by – stakeholders.
These Community Plans ask the public to examine challenges and opportunities facing the area, and develop strategies to address them. In this way, the community planning process builds upon the feedback presented by the community, and portrays a shared vision for the future.
The County has a long history of community planning beginning in the early 2000’s. Since 2001 twenty-two plans have been created and adopted into the Livable Communities Element of the Comprehensive Plan.
Below you can learn more about the community planning process and find information about current community planning projects in Unincorporated Hillsborough County.


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In the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, thousands gathered for the burial of human rights activist Suha Jarrar, who was found dead at her home Sunday at the age of 31. She reportedly died of a heart attack, though the cause has not yet been confirmed. Suha Jarrar’s mother, Palestinian lawmaker Khalida Jarrar, is currently in an Israeli prison on what rights groups say are politically motivated grounds, and was not permitted to attend her daughter’s funeral. Suha Jarrar worked for Palestinian rights organization Al-Haq, focusing on the environmental impacts of the Israeli occupation.
Mourners Gather in Ramallah for Funeral of Human Rights Activist Suha Jarrar
HeadlineJul 14, 2021

domain: politics


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During the Varsity open week, the JV picked up a game due to the weather cancelation they had during week 3 against Comfort. The Punchers picked up a game with the Brownwood Lions at Gordon Wood Stadium.
The Punchers started off the game by taking their opening drive down for a touchdown. Once the Punchers got rolling, there was no stopping them. Just a few of the Punchers that scored were Go Chanriang, Garrett Bibb, and Sammy Matinez.
The Punchers ended up capping off a victory with a score of 43-0. It was a great confidence booster for the boys as they head into district. The JV finished the non-district season at 3-2.
They have continued to work hard and show signs of growth. The JV Punchers face off against Harper here in Mason following the JH games Thursday, October 11, 2012.


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By Bill Black, the author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One and an associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Originally published at Benzinga
Spain’s conservative government, eager to change the media’s emphasis on its repudiation in recent EU elections, has launched a media campaign stressing its adoption of an aggressive “stimulus” program. Spain’s conservatives – and their predecessors the so-called socialists – are infamous for embracing the troika’s demands for austerity. Why have the Spanish conservatives finally admitted that austerity is a disaster and stimulus is essential? They have not done so. Instead, they have rebranded “austerity” as “stimulus.”
MADRID—Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is planning to launch a €6.3 billion ($8.59 billion) economic stimulus package, a move to keep sky-high unemployment and the risk of deflation from derailing the country’s recovery.
Mr. Rajoy told 200 business leaders at a conference in Sitges, near Barcelona….
No one should be surprised that this supposed “economic” policy is actually all about domestic Spanish politics, as was the decision to make the presentation in restive Barcelona.
Spain is the eurozone’s fourth largest economy, so an $8.6 billion “stimulus,” even if it were real, would be of trivial help. But it isn’t real, though a reader would never learn that from the WSJ or the BBC. Let’s start with the essential background, which both articles omit. The troika’s (the IMF, EU, and ECB) austerity demands gratuitously forced one-third of the EU’s total population (living in Spain, Italy, and Greece) into a Second Great Depression. Their unemployment levels exceed the average rates for the original Great Depression. The EU’s chief apologist for austerity, Olli Rehn, recently predicted that if there were no further economic shocks it would still take Spain ten years to emerge from the “crisis” phase.
The depravity of the troika’s economic policies – the financial equivalent of “bleeding” a patient to cure him – is radicalizing many Europeans.
The WSJ article does not describe the purported stimulus program, which is a rather remarkable omission from a story purportedly about a purported stimulus program. The article exhibits a remarkable amount of logical inconsistency. It tells the reader that the IMF describes “demand” in Spain as “fragile.” Recessions and Great Depressions are caused by grossly inadequate demand. Austerity exacerbates already grossly inadequate demand. Spanish demand is not “fragile” – it is grossly inadequate. If Prime Minister Rajoy is finally admitting that Spain’s problem is inadequate demand then he has to abandon his self-destructive austerity program and switch to a real stimulus program.
Is Rajoy proposing to deliberately run a substantial budget deficit to restore the inadequate demand? That would be the obvious question for any reporter, but the WSJ never addresses the issue. The only aspect of the plan that the WSJ describes is for a minor reduction in corporate income tax rates.
Mr. Rajoy also said he would cut the main corporate tax rate to 25% from 30%.
The main idea, he said, “‘is to lower taxes.”
No one believes that the minor reduction in corporate income taxes will significantly boost Spanish growth. Rajoy, understandably, wants to claim that the economic disaster he and his predecessor have inflicted on Spain is really a success story. The WSJ is happy to spread his propaganda.
Spain, the euro zone’s No. 4 economy, has had one of the strongest recoveries of any country in the monetary area, after a recession stretching from 2008 to last year. In the first three months of 2014, the Spanish economy grew 0.4%—double the quarter-to-quarter growth rate posted at the end of last year.
Spain’s “recovery” is pathetic. At this growth rate, Spain will continue to have Great Depression levels of unemployment for the remainder of this decade. If Spain has “one of the strongest recoveries” in the eurozone then the reader needs to know that the eurozone’s “recovery” is worse than pathetic.
Indeed, in the next sentence of the article the WSJ unintentionally and unknowingly revealed Rajoy’s incoherence.
“We are looking to increase disposable income for families, invigorate consumption, improve economic competitiveness, boost savings, and especially, contribute to the increase in employment,” Mr. Rajoy said.
Increasing “disposable income for families” in order to “invigorate consumption” is precisely what Rajoy should be doing. Reducing the corporate income tax will not do so. Austerity and Rajoy’s fierce efforts to reduce Spanish wages reduce “disposable income for families” and cripple “consumption.” Worse, Rajoy says that his goal is to increase household “savings.” In the midst of trying to recover from the Second Great Depression the last thing Rajoy should want to do is “increase savings.” The WSJ, the nation’s top financial paper, is unable or unwilling to point out Rajoy’s logical incoherence and financial ignorance.
The BBC story at least describes the purported stimulus program.
“Next Friday, the government will present a package of measures to increase competitiveness and productivity,” Mr Rajoy said.
The plan will include investments totalling 6.3bn euros, of which 2.67bn will come from the private sector and 3.63bn from the public sector.
Reports suggest the package will include credits to small and medium-sized firms, and investments aimed at research and development, transport and energy saving.
As the BBC report reveals, Rajoy has no stimulus plan – he has a magic “productivity” plan. Rajoy plans to continue austerity. He is still trying to bleed the Spanish economy through budget surpluses. Like President Obama, Rajoy is purveying the myth that it does not matter that his overall budget is austere because jobs training programs are magic. The magic programs will suddenly supercharge productivity and lead to large increases in exports and employment. The “magic” claims are not taken seriously by economists of any school. It may be perfectly sensible to fund R&D programs, but no one seriously believes it will have any meaningful near term effect on demand.
The reality of Rajoy’s faux stimulus program is the same old conservative game plan – tax breaks and subsidies for corporations. Recall that Rajoy sold his plan on the claim that its paramount goal was to “to increase disposable income for families [and] invigorate consumption….” The plan described by Rajoy will do nothing to increase disposable income for families and invigorate their consumption.” It would also do nothing to fulfill his stated goal of increasing their savings – but that is good news because increasing household savings would send Spain’s economy reeling backwards. Rajoy will argue that his plan meets his third stated goal (“improve economic competitiveness”), but if he believes that giving subsidies to domestic businesses “improve[s] economic competitiveness” then (1) Rajoy is no conservative, and (2) somebody better keep the WTO from learning about Rajoy’s plan because it violates the rules.
Rajoy’s “stimulus” plan is an economic joke. It is all about domestic Spanish politics and the surge of Spanish support for Rajoy’s vigorous new opponents – Podemos (“We Can”). The eagerness of the WSJ and the BBC to aid Rajoy’s attempt to rebrand his disastrous austerity as “stimulus” is the most revealing aspect of the episode.
Rajoy and his gang have Spain pushed up all sorts of taxes on labor. He is even trying to tax the sun. He has instituted a solar panel tax and anyone caught not tying their solar power to the grid face millions of euro fines. Yes, with an M.
Spain has so many vacant properties because of rampant housing building they can house all of the homeless in Europe. Yet, thousands of Spaniards are kicked out of their homes every year since the crises because of a failure to pay their mortgages. Unfortunately for Spaniards who are kicked out of their homes, they are still obligated to pay their mortgages so banks (cajas) will always be protected.
What keeps Spain and a lot of other failed European states up and running is the black economy. A lot of work is done under the table to avoid paying onerously high taxes. As a result, tax revenues always fall short in national budgets.
Increasing saving is bad news? What about the “chicken and the egg”? Must you not have savings before people actually have disposable income to spend? Have keynesians become so paranoid about savings and deflation that in their world people spend every penny they have naturally and save nothing at all? That’s not human nature. People spend all they have when all they have is debt. If they actually have money(for anyone who remembers those nostalgic days of the past) they will always save something. Bad form indeed!
One must first have money before they can save or spend. Common sense dictates they do both. Therefore savings means they actually have money so how can that be bad news? Is keynesian economics now making chickens without eggs? Nice choice we get between criminal politicians and economists who continue to believe the problem can be solved by doing more of the things that created the problem in the first place. Let’s just get on with the collapse so the next generation can start over fresh.
If what you want is higher demand it is arguably good to have more disposable income. Mariano’s plan does nothing for it, which is what I think Mr. Black is arguing. Spanish median salaries have been pushed down to € 800/month. Now, pray tell how you think “increasing competitiveness” (pushing down salaries) helps in increasing consumption, or, for that matter, savings.
In order to “have money” as you put it you need people to get paid for their work an honest wage…which Mariano’s plan does nothing to address.
People don’t spend all they have because it comes from debt…people get into debt in order to pay for the things they need (housing, food, son’s schooling, etc) because the pitiful sums they get paid in general cannot cover their needs. You can thank the troika for that.
People must have income before they can save. Chicken and egg. Spending equals income. If people save, they do not spend. Chicken and egg. That’s why saving is bad. It reduces income.
The answer is not to keep people from saving. It is to inject money into the economy. Unfortunately, Spain does not control its money supply. The European Central Bank does. Chicken and egg.
The real troika is the central banks? Each taking turns bailing out each other and passing the credit to China to print YUAN! Now the mal-investments are piling up to the point where CHINA NEEDS A BAILOUT and you and me who demanded our governments and industrialists invest into the new China needs to wake up! The only way to get our money back is too give it to them in the form of a series of Money tranferz not called bailouts?
My first comment here. I’ve hesitated for about a year before contributing.
This is pure supply side stim and must be taken down as that. I read the Spanish dailies but nothing (Pais is lost) is covering this on that level.
Supply side economics at it’s best.
Take care of the Oligarchs and they will take care of the serfs just like they have through history.
Yeah,right. Someone once said that the only thing people learn from history is that people don’t learn from history. At least ,as the running joke on the old Laugh In comedy series had it, Franco is still dead.
The way El Pais covers the prop… news does not differ much from the WSJ. I believe the impact of these ^news” in readers is close to zero. Even worse, if someone gets excited about this “stimulus” plan will almost certainly be disappointed soon (except if you are the CEO of one of those corporations that would benefit if the plan really goes ahead). That disappointment will probably fire back in next elections. Rajoy has been playing for too long with the “recovery” word. As his predecessor he probably thinks that just by mentioning the word very often, somehow recovery will magically gain mementum. According to Rajoy the crisis is just a question of confidence (or lack thereof).


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Actors Kartik Aaryan and Tabu have resumed filming for their upcoming film “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2”, which was stopped due to the second wave of Covid-19. The filming takes place in Mumbai.
Kartik treated his fans with a picture on Instagram. The photograph shows him posing with Tabu.
“Start over # BhoolBhulaiyaa2,” he wrote as the caption currently has 725K likes on the photo-sharing site.
The film also plays Kiara Advani. It is a sequel to the 2007 Akshay Kumar-Vidya Balan hit film “Bhool Bhulaiyaa”.
The 30-year-old actor also has the film “Dhamaka” in line, which is scheduled to be released on an OTT platform.
Kartik was in the news for his controversial exit from Karan Johar-produced “Dostana 2”.


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Freeze dried strawberry powder with an intense and natural flavour, used to expand creativity in pastry, desserts, and confectionary.
Sweet flavour of fresh ripe strawberries in a pack. Inspired by nature, “Fresh As” freeze dried Strawberry Powder is a vibrant red coloured powder with the intense flavour of just picked raspberries. Strawberry powder is superb mixed with fine sugar for rimming cocktail glasses. It makes a wonderful garnish for vanilla ice cream with poached peaches and a spectacular garnish on white chocolate truffles. Strawberry powder can be used to add fruitiness to a spice rub for meat.

domain: food


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October 5, 2012
Baltimore's Best Bet to Beat Texas
An Orioles fan might put money on the O’s to win their wild-card play-in game against Texas tomorrow night, but a betting man wouldn’t, at least with even odds. Then again, by now the betting man may have already gone broke backing Baltimore’s opponents.
The Orioles have spent the whole season surprising people. First they flouted the expectation that they couldn’t compete in the AL East, then the near-certainty that they couldn’t sustain their early-season success (or, for that matter, their success later on in the season). To reach the Division Series, they’ll have to have one more surprise in store.
The Orioles have drawn a difficult opponent in the Rangers, who’ll have their strongest starter, Yu Darvish, on the mound. Texas outscored its regular-season opponents by over 100 runs; Baltimore’s run differential barely broke even. Darvish has pitched to a 2.13 ERA over his last seven starts, striking out 59 batters against only 10 walks in 50 2/3 innings and looking a lot like the ace the Rangers expected to see when they signed him. Not only will the O’s have to defeat Darvish, they’ll have to do it in Arlington, where the Rangers have gone 50-31. And while the Orioles might appear to have more “momentum” in the wake of the Rangers’ disappointing denouement, history has taught us that how a team fares leading up to October doesn’t help us predict how it will play once the postseason starts.
Darvish’s opponent has not yet been named: as we went to press, Buck Showalter was still deciding between Steve Johnson, a soft-tossing righty with just 38 1/3 big-league innings under his belt, and Joe Saunders, a soft-tossing lefty who’s been about league average in his eight-year career. Johnson, whose sore knee was declared good to go after a successful bullpen session on Wednesday, seems more likely to get the nod, both because the Rangers excel against southpaws and because Saunders has struggled in Arlington, recording a 9.38 ERA there in six career starts.
*UPDATE: Showalter went with Saunders, noting that the team wasn't completely confident that Johnson's knee would be up to the task.
In many cases, a team’s choice of starter can make a major impact on its odds of success in an elimination game, but neither Johnson nor Saunders would move the needle much more than the other. In a sense, that’s appropriate, since the Orioles’ rotation has consisted of a largely interchangeable (and often interchanged) cast of characters all season. Either way, as Showalter admitted, the O’s will have their work cut out for them.


A £25m scheme to regenerate Swansea’s High Street is being undertaken by Coastal Housing Group.
The social housing provider has begun work to create a new urban village combining high quality retail, office and residential space in the run-down part of the city.
The urban village will be completed in three phases. With planning approved, work on the first phase has been completed and work on the second phase of work is already underway.
The first phase, known as the Creative Cluster, has seen the construction of a new commercial block, containing seven units for retail and leisure uses, together with offices and 76 flats.
The residential properties and office space are expected to be occupied by February 2012 and the remainder later in the year.
It is intended that the Creative Cluster will house creative industries – ranging from advertising and marketing to architecture and computer and video games design.
The second phase of the project, The Strand, will see the creation of a city living residential block containing 76 social housing apartments.
The third phase will see the creation of a Creative Hub, which is linked to the High Street frontage.
The Hub, which will be located in a refurbished 19th century warehouse on Kings Lane will house community resources such as a recording studio and a live events venue.
Gerraint Oakley, director of development at Coastal Housing Group said the intention of the scheme was to breathe new life into the High Street area.
“By centring this development in one area, Coastal is hoping to ensure that the creative talents bounce off and inspire one another and that the transformed, thriving High Street is once more a buzz with activity,” he said.
“The contractor, Midas, has worked on phase one and new tenders will be sought in the new year for the rest of the work.”
Mr Oakley said he hoped that development would provide not just housing but jobs which would keep young talent in the city.
“The intention is to give graduates a working environment and a place to live that’s affordable and will keep them in the city,” he said. “This has already been done in Bristol and Birmingham to great effect.
“Although we are charged with providing homes for the needy we have to think out side the normal constraints.”
Mr Oakley is particularly hopeful that the development will help to support the creative industries in the city.
“Too often these days there is a perception that the voice of creativity is not encouraged, nurtured or heard,” he said. “Those wishing to pursue a career in the creative media are more likely to feel that their talents will stand a better chance of being recognised elsewhere.
“Moreover, their lack of experience stems from a lack of opportunity.
“The Creative Hub aims to address some of these issues, offering, not only an outlet but also direction, purpose and support.
“The beneficiaries of this new development will not only be those who live and work within this creative space. There will be a wider impact on the city as a whole and on everyone who passes through the area, such as customers, participants and visitors.
“The core target groups to participate in the Creative Hub and urban village include established SME’s which have been trading for between two and five years, sole traders, micro-businesses which have been trading for two years or more and graduate spin outs and start ups.”


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Mozart - The Marriage of Figaro
Mozart wrote forty-one symphonies and twenty-seven piano concertos. And yet the work which said everything for him, the genre of music he truly thought to be the crucial currency of a composer, was the opera.
Mozart considered opera to be the supreme musical language, where everything was perfectly possible and, with a genius such as Mozart’s, possibly perfect. Mozart would have just hit thirty and had been enjoying one of his most successful periods when The Marriage of Figaro received its premiere. He was in Vienna, at the centre of the musical world and away from what he considered the parochial restrictions of his native Salzburg.
One contemporary reporter, who was lucky enough to witness Mozart himself directing the entire opera from the keyboard, said, ‘Mozart directed the orchestra, playing his fortepiano; the joy which this music causes is so far removed from all sensuality that one cannot speak of it. Where could words be found that are worthy to describe such joy?’ Apart from the wonderful Overture, vocal highlights include the divine ‘Sull’aria’ duet, and the aria ‘Porgi’.
Carol Vaness; Nuccia Focile; Alessandro Corbelli; Alastair Miles; Susanne Mentzer; Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Chorus; Charles Mackerras (conductor). Telarc: 3CD80725.
Illustration: Mark Millington


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Hi My Friendly Bloggers!
This is Cindy from Cindy's Scraptastic Designs, It's my day to post over at Jaded Blossom.
For today I made two cards using the same cut and making it look totally different.
So here is my first card, I used Jaded Blossom the Halloween Treats 2 for my sentiment, the Scallop Square Dies for the bottom layer, the Stitched Circle Dies to give the look
SVG Cutting Files I used the cut Kawaii Owls for the cute little Owl and the
Acorn Branch for the branch that he is sitting on.
Ok here is my second card using the same little Owl. For this one I used Jaded Blossom
the Autumn Designer Tapes for the tapes, the Holiday Treat Tags for the sentiment, the
Paint Splatters 2 for the background splatters, the Wine Tag Die to cut out the window so you can see the sentiment inside my card and I used the Border Dies to frame it, the Fall Dies for some of the leaves and from SVG Cutting Files I used Kawaii Owls for the cute little Owl with the Acorn Branch for the branch that he is sitting on.
So two cards, two different looks!!! Hope you like my cards for today :)
Supplies I Used for my Cards:
We have a GREAT new Challenge over at SVG Cutting Files
We have a GREAT Challenge over at Jaded Blossom too
Monthly Challenge - Fall Colors
Thank you for stopping by and have a GREAT week!!! :)
SUPER CUTE!! LOVE that Owl!
Theresa’s Crafty Creations
Cindy, these cards are awesome!!!!
These cards are so cool. Love both of them!
Post a Comment


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domain: game


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The One and the Many
View from the railroad bridge in Rosendale, New York, 2007. Photo by Eric Francis.
Planet Waves by Eric Francis
The other day, an email came floating into my inbox from a website called Care2, a green-styled corporate site purportedly dedicated to saving the world, claiming 12.5 million subscribers. The subject header of the email read, "Monogamy vs. Polyamory: Do Open Relationships Work?"
Naturally, I thought: this ought to be interesting.
The writer titled her analysis like a boxing match or a legal case. Mono versus Poly is now in session! All Rise! The article commenced as such (literally, its first words): "Non-monogamy is about one thing -- sex. And sex is good."
(You can tell she learned her writing style from The Bible.)
It went downhill from there, fast. Faster than I thought possible without jet propulsion and a lot of lube. "And sex with different people -- either concurrently or over the course of a lifetime -- is good too. Sex is so good that some people are addicted to it. Sex makes people do crazy things and it makes people feel amazing things. I love it just as much as anyone else, but there is more to life than sex."
When you see the word 'but' you can usually tell how things are going to go. Her premise is that since polyamory is about sex, and since sex isn't everything, polyamory is nothing special to concern oneself with. The author, whose name is Polly, continues: "I am pretty sure that the words on your deathbed won't be, 'I wish I had had more sex with more people'. Maybe if you're a pervert, or if you didn’t get much action in your life, you would say that, but most people wouldn't."
I will spare you any more. This article, while one of the less eloquent and less favorable recent mainstream reviews of polyamory, shares one thing in common with every other article on the topic that I've ever seen in the mainstream media: it sets polyamory and monogamy against one another as irreconcilable opposites.
While the author is less tactful about her prejudices, she does us the favor of expressing them overtly: for example, there is in many discussions the lurking suspicion that people who don't claim orthodox monogamy are perverts, but the word is rarely used. Or they don't really like relationships, and can't handle intimacy; they just want to get laid. Facing these prejudices repeatedly is enough to push nearly anyone who tries to be openly polyamorous back into the closet.
Yet I wonder what the real issue is. Studies done over the years on the incidence of cheating reveal that 45% to 65% of women and 55% to 80% of men stray outside monogamous commitments. The variance is because some studies ask whether people have ever cheated while in a monogamous agreement; some ask whether they have cheated in their current relationship. Other studies show that women tend to understate their sexual conquests, and men tend to exaggerate.
In any event, we're talking about a large portion of the population whose definition of monogamy has at one time included, and possibly includes today, sex with more than one person. For a fast check, ask yourself: do you know anyone who hasn't been through this at least once? How about three times? How abut five?
Notably, the accepted definition of monogamy has changed in recent decades from one partner for life (now considered archaic), to one partner at a time, as often as you feel like moving on. That's a big difference. The revised term is 'serial monogamy', but I prefer to think of it as serial polyamory: we tend to have multiple partners, one at a time (that is, while we're not having multiple partners, several at a time).
By any realistic description, monogamy is sounding a lot like polyamory. Those who are proponents of monogamy at all costs, who advance the cause of abstinence only until heterosexual marriage for life, sound like they are in reaction to the observable data, which basically proves that most people are simply not that way; that, and in reaction to their own feelings. True, there are some who choose a mate for life. For some this actually works and for some it creates misery. In any event, we only know their story up until today. We don't know about tomorrow.
No matter how we experience relationships, I would propose that there are more similarities between what we call monogamy and what we call polyamory. For one thing, they both involve modes of relationship. No matter what the outward style, relationships boil down to a one-to-one meeting between two individuals. Those meetings are set within a larger community context with many complex interrelations: a community. That community either supports the relationship or it weakens the relationship. The relationship either offers something back to society, or it does not. Who has sex with whom seems to be incidental -- except for one thing, jealousy. I won't say much about jealousy in this article, except I would state up front that if one issue is choking off the potential of the human race, that's the one.
From Self to Self: The Inner Origin of Relationships
But let's go back to the back to the egg. One must be a self to have a relationship with someone else. Being a self implies an inner awareness of existence, which is a relationship to existence that is in truth a relationship to self. The quality of this core relationship determines nearly everything that follows. No matter what kind of external relationships you engage in, your primary relationship is to you.
How do you feel about your existence? Do you love yourself, judge yourself, hate yourself, struggle to 'be yourself'? What threatens you and what makes you happy? To what extent to you take ownership of your life? What threatens or enhances your sense of existence? How do you relate to death?
And, a kind of operative question that results from all of these: why do you want to be in relationship to other people? What is your motive? Is it to share pleasure, learning, and food? Is it to share work and a mission? Is it to share misery? Is the purpose to seek completion in another, or to explore your wholeness with another? Is the purpose to protect you from something or to celebrate and explore a sense of safety? Do you seek love or attachment?
These themes appear to be mediated by one's relationship to oneself. Each individual brings an agenda into the pairing, and that agenda is internally mediated. In other words, you decide and express your agenda based on your relationship to yourself. Notably, this is the relationship that we seem to lose sight of when we're 'in a relationship', which might feel like losing one's independence or sense of identity.
And I would add, this inner relationship is the real thing that most of us struggle with, most of the time we're struggling. Even if we think we're struggling in a relationship, what we're actually struggling with is a relationship with ourselves. If we could figure that out, we would have fewer problems and more solutions. We would know where to look for those solutions.
From One Self to Another Self: Dyad as the Basic Bond
One subject that rarely arises at polyamory conferences (the places polyamorous people come to talk about relationships) is monogamy. I mean, it's mentioned, but the topic of the depth of one-on-one bonds is secondary to the issue of how things are doing with the other partners; the rules of engagement with other partners; and so on. Rare is it that to hear open conversation about the need to relate one-on-one or the need to be in an exclusive relationship for a while.
I think that most people who identify as polyamorous know this and honor this, but individual relationships seems to play second fiddle in poly culture when in fact, so far as I can tell, it's the second most basic foundation of poly culture. The very most basic is where one stands with oneself.
Now 'monogamy' and 'polyamory' have a second key element in common: they are both use dyadic (that is, pair) bonding as a structural basis. Strong dyads share the same basic properties: they are based on agreements; they are based on honesty; they are based on a desire to share; hopefully they are based on love.
Relationships have a purpose, and they express that purpose within a tribe or community. Remember that marriage, our society's most basic and seemingly most coveted bond, is often performed in a pubic ceremony, officiated by a public official (traditionally by a minister, a judge, the mayor or a sea captain).
The relationship is presumed to have public implications and the marriage license is a public document, filed with the city clerk. This suggests that the pair bond is part of something larger: society or a community and often, a family.
Relationships involve a contract or agreement of some kind, even if that is just to be together. Whether they are happy affairs or not usually involves whether the individuals involved feel that the agreement is honored; whether the individuals get their needs met; and whether the arrangement works for both people. These facts apply whether the relationship is heterosexual or homosexual, whether the individuals are members of the same race or economic class, or whether they are of the similar or very different ages. Most of us would agree to that: "whatever makes them happy." Whatever makes us happy, if we can arrange it. Whether the individuals involved choose to have sex with other people would be covered by all of these concepts.
The Many: We All Have Multiple Relationships
One thing does not change, whatever kind of relationship is involved: those individuals relate to other people. Unless they are really, really lonely, they love other people and other people love them.
Referring back to the beginning of Polly's article (polyamory is all about sex), the truth is our relationships are always about so much more. It verges on hilarious that someone would accuse polyamorous people in particular of focusing on sex; poly folk spend so much of their time obsessively involved with the details of their relationships, it's amazing they have time for sex. But even the 'let's meet at the motel for a quickie' kind of affairs have a way of becoming more than just sex.
Yet even if we presume sexual monogamy -- someone who only has physical sex with one other person, for a long time -- we all have bonds and commitments with others. Some of those, while nonsexual, can be profound, intimate and long-lasting connections. Imagine a man is married, in a healthy relationship with his wife. He also has a secretary who has worked for him for 20 years, and they love and trust one another deeply. They haven't shared sex, but their bond of love is as powerful as that of any marriage. Most people would not call that polyamory; I would.
One thing I've always found interesting is that monogamy has many rules that don't involve sex. Some monogamous couples do not 'allow' one another to have close friends of the opposite sex. Some monogamous people feel threatened when their partner has any friends at all. Some don't 'allow' their partner to go to community college. Some feel threatened when their partner checks out a cute guy or girl, and some encourage one another to be open about their attractions and even their erotic fantasies, unfettered. Others would be profoundly threatened by this. Still others invite their friends to have sex with them.
Since nearly everyone has sexual desires and fantasies about others, the core issue running the show would seem to be jealousy. Jealous people are going to relate to others with a different set of presumptions and expectations than those who either don't experience jealousy, or who process it in a healthy way. As it turns out, in an attempt to avoid the jealousy issue, a great many have sex with others without telling their partner about it.
When we talk about polyamory, what we're really describing is an agreement to take up all the boundaries of a relationship consciously, rather than applying a term that seems to presume the nature of those boundaries, but more often denies their existence. Why ever would we do that? Well, since your first relationship is to yourself: ask yourself.

domain: sociology


text:
The United States has demanded clarifications from Israel after IDF special forces killed three terrorists Saturday who murdered a civilian, Rabbi Meir Chai, on Thursday.
Calls were made to National Security Adviser Prof. Uzi Arad, apparently by senior U.S. Administration officials, in which he was asked to provide clarifications. The calls came from the United States after Palestinian Authority officials complained to the Americans that the IDF had carried out “executions.”
Arad informed the White House of details of the counterterrorist raid and rejected the PA officials' claims.
The left-wing group B'Tselem also made a public demand that an investigation be launched into whether the IDF “executed” two of the three terrorist murderers. The self-acclaimed human rights group said that an initial inquiry it conducted at the homes of the dead killers indicated that they were executed.
The group said that the family members of two of the terrorists had told them that the terrorists were not armed and did not try to escape, nor did IDF soldiers try to arrest them. Rather, they said, the soldiers shot them at close range when their identity was confirmed.
The IDF denied these allegations.
A senior IDF officer said Saturday night that the security forces received accurate and focused information regarding the whereabouts of the terror cell's members. Forces from the Judea and Samaria Brigade, together with the Nachshon Battalion and the Duvdevan Battalion, were sent to the locations and conducted a three-hour long chase after the terrorists. One terrorist hid inside his home and sent his wife as a human shield to the front of the home.
"After the IDF operated on all required levels and using all means to arrest him,” the officer said, “and when he did not respond to the loudspeaker, nor to the means of riot dispersal and additional means, and in the knowledge that the man was armed and dangerous, a decision was made to open fire.”


i am trying to get some NMEA data from my SL8082T. My device manager shows four virtual COM ports belonging to the module. One of them is called “Sierra Wireless NMEA Port (UMTS)”. Since the documentation (AT Commands Interface Guide for Firmware 7.50.A2 for AirPrime SL808xT and Q2698 - Interface Guide" does not mention anything about GPS, i tried some commands from the Extended AT Command Reference which is not officialy supporting the SL808xT.
Interestingly many of the given commands work (AT!GPSSTATUS, AT!GPSFIX and more), but AT!GPSNMEACONFIG does not.
My question is now, how can i get the NMEA Port to work on the SL8082T?
How is GPS meant to work with the Open AT Framework if it is not available over AT commands?


Qualcomm has announced it has submitted an offer to acquire Veoneer for $4.6 billion. The offer has been approved by Qualcomm’s Board of Directors, does not require Qualcomm stockholder approval, and has no financing conditions.
This proposed acquisition is consistent with Qualcomm’s growth and diversification strategy. It reinforces the company’s commitment to bring advanced technologies to the automotive industry and represents a natural extension of Qualcomm’s digital chassis solutions. The company continues to see traction in automotive, with a revenue-design win pipeline of approximately $10 billion.
“As the automotive industry continues to transform, it is becoming increasingly important for automakers to have a partner who develops horizontal platforms that drive innovation and enable competition. The proposed acquisition will bring together our industry-leading automotive solutions with Veoneer’s assisted driving assets to deliver a competitive and open ADAS platform to automakers and Tier 1 suppliers at scale,” said Cristiano Amon, president and CEO of Qualcomm Incorporated.


Ranking the 25 highest-rated Android mobile games of the last three years (2013, 2014 and 2015); plus 25 runner up games now available on the Google Play Store! These are the games that were top-rated by video game critics and mobile gamers from around the world.
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“Early Riser” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0


text: A 5” x 7” journal of 372 pages, handwritten by a Boston-area woman, spanning the years 1933 -1937. Full brown leather stamped in gilt to upper cover, with owner’s name and dated April 10, 1933; contents organized as a "Line-a-Day" Five Year Diary, in which each page is one day, with five subsections in which to enter each year’s entry; most pages are full, about 80% full overall (of the 1,825 days in this five-year diary, about 1400-1500 have entries.) Spine leather mostly missing and stripped down to its glue and sewing, with extremities rubbed and torn, spine still functional with all pages intact, but with leather chipping and flaking, fair condition overall. Grace works in Dr. Weston’s office. She describes her work duties and events ("President’s Birthday party – all over country – balls to benefit infantile paralysis victims”), and interactions with patients (“Norma Burnham [a child who dies at a year and half old] was brought home. Their bird died 15 minutes after she was brought into the house.”) She also provides vivid details of her active social life. There are eight or nine people in “the gang” who she regularly goes out with, participating in activities like ice skating, hiking, and bowling at Fenway Alleys, to name but a few (“heard Rabbi Israel from Baltimore speak at the Cong Church on ‘The Art of Living Together’ – beautiful speaker.”) Indeed, the places she visits reads like a tour of Boston, including Boston City Club, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, plus bus trips to Salem, Pittsfield, and Dorchester. Grace is also excellent at naming her contacts and companions, among them are Marty Alden, the Eastmans, Lita Elliot, Miss Leadbetter, Marjorie Lovell, Dr. Weston, the Marshalls, Ruth Brown, Dorothy Muriels, the Bogdens, Mattie Moore, Carl Richards, Norma Burnham, Bill Whittemore, Donald Winslow Thurston, plus many more. With a few bits of ephemera laid in: a humorous hand-drawn cartoon showing Grace and her friends tobogganing, a bookmark from the Williston Library (Easthampton, MA), a Certificate of Ascent for Mount Washington, NH dated 8/28/38, a typed passage from Somerset Maugham’s The Narrow Corner, and a small card with “Greetings from the Pilgrim Press”.

domain: library


text:
“One who causes others misfortune also teaches them a lesson” and, “if you close your eyes to facts, you will learn through accidents.”
These African proverbs encapsulate the continent’s climate change predicament. That while it has been a source of misfortune, it constantly provides us with lessons to climate proof and grow our economies – but only if our actions are persuaded by facts.
Last week, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released its annual Adaptation Gap Report. The report showed that if we increase ambition towards the safer 2°C goal, the losses in annual economic growth due to climate change, will be limited to 1.6%. But if we do not, these losses will increase to 2.2% for the unsafe 3.2°C trajectory.
This report called for investments in nature-based solutions to drive climate change adaptation. According to this report, a $1.8 trillion investment in adaptation measures would bring a return of $7.1 trillion in avoided costs and other benefits.
In the same vein about a few months ago, UNEP released the Emissions Gap Report whose analysis pointed to the fact that the level of global ambition in current Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) commitments remains inadequate. And as a result, the globe is still heading for an above 3.2°C warming this century.
A figure that is way above the 1.5℃ threshold that is critical to forestall the worst impacts of the changing climate. However, this report did offer a glimmer of hope in what is called a “green pandemic recovery”. Which implies a re-prioritisation of fiscal investments, in trajectories that lower emission but drive the much-needed socioeconomic bottom-line benefits which could cut emissions by up to 25% by 2030 and bring the world closer to the safe 2°C goal of the Paris Agreement.
A 1.5℃ warming scenario is the threshold set by the Paris Agreement as best insurance against an unravelling climate change impacts projected to spell doom for Africa. Key among them, a devastating 75% shrinkage of economic productivity in developing countries – most of which are in Africa. Currently, one in three Africans – which is up to 422 million people – live in poverty.
This represents over 70% of the world’s poorest people. While climate change is global, the poor are disproportionately vulnerable to its effects since they lack the resources to quickly recover from its effects. Youth unemployment is at its highest – with a gap of up to 13 million additional jobs needed each year. 257 million people go to bed hungry and accounts for over 70% of the world’s poorest people – among key vulnerabilities.
The findings of this Adaptation Gap report send an unequivocal message of the urgent need to ratchet up adaptation actions which must align with accelerating socioeconomic growth to build resilience of populations in Africa.
Critical Facts for Bridging Adaptation Implementation Gaps in Africa
First, while Africa has contributed least to global emissions – just 2-3%, it stands out as the most vulnerable to climate change. With vulnerability driven primarily by the prevailing low levels of socioeconomic development. Communities cannot afford the goods and services they need to buffer against the worst impacts of climate change.
This is the core of Africa’s disproportionate vulnerability. While climate change is global, the poor are disproportionately vulnerable to its effects because they lack the resources to quickly recover from its effects. The message for the continent is therefore clear – that efforts to drive adaptation must align with accelerating socioeconomic growth to build resilient populations.
A resilient population is an economy-wide responsibility. The work of every ministry and every sector of the economy – aims to build resilience of citizens – to enable them put food on their table, money in their pockets, a job for every youth and a globally competitive economy. Investing in adaptation is a sound economic decision and must become an added tool in every countries’ economic arsenals.
Second, and building on the above, an African proverb reminds us that “every adversity carries with it the seed of equal or greater benefit”. While the threat of climate change looms, it is a blessing in disguise. Prioritising adaptation is an investment for direct and indirect realisation of socially and economically inclusive development that is the core aspiration of any government.
Adaptation directly contributes to the realisation of of the SDGs. Every ministry of government in the world, every sector of the economy, has the responsibility of driving actualisation of one or more of the SDGs. Adaptation therefore offers us a shortcut.
Third, according to UNEP Adaptation Gap Report annual adaptation costs in developing countries are estimated at $70 billion. This figure is expected to reach $140-300 billion in 2030 and $280-500 billion in 2050 even if the international community succeeds in keeping climate warming below 2°C. For Africa alone, this cost already means $7-15 billion per year for adaptation and could amount to $50 billion per year in 2050 – in the most optimistic scenario and excluding the costs of the energy transition.
At the same time the total investments required for implementation of ratified NDCs across Africa (conditional and unconditional) exceeds $2.5 trillion, approaching $3 trillion. Actualising the SDGs, requires at least $1.2 trillion annually. Africa therefore needs astronomical amounts to drive adaptation implementation. This is a clear call for alternative financing model, already solidified through high level policy provisions.
From the ground-breaking Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Sustainable Financing, to the UNEP inquiry into a more sustainable financing model for the future, to the UNEP Africa Adaptation Gap Reports, the message has been unanimous and two-pronged. That to sustainably finance development, first, we must embrace more innovative approaches that balance public and private, domestic, and international sources.
Second, we must divest from socially driven financing to investment financing. Where returns transcend the traditional social benefits to include environmental benefits and financial dividends that are critical for longevity.
Systemic approach and Policy Implications to drive adaptation implementation in Africa
Adaptation implementation in Africa should leverage the “green pandemic recovery” lens which is a focusing of fiscal & other investments in trajectories that lower emission but drive the much-needed socioeconomic bottom-line benefits. The following are principles to be leverage in driving adaptation implementation in Africa
First, “Leverage mitigation to power adaptation”. Nature based solutions, on their own, have recorded pockets of successes across the continent. But to progress to broader solutions that underpin a green pandemic recovery – with not only food security enhanced, but the environment enhanced and more money put in more pockets, what is produced using nature-based approaches e.g. agro-produce grown using biofertiliser, must be value added.
And done so in a process that does not pile-up the aggregate emissions that compound climate change. And for this clean energy, which is a mitigation action, should be prioritised for powering value added actions. It is in adding value that wealth opportunities are created. Of critical importance however is the fact that, value addition does not need to start on a sophisticated scale. Rather, local solutions, accessible to the informal sector, work best.
For example, decentralising climate action solutions of solar dryers to farmers in local markets, to enable them to dehydrate and preserve their harvest that remains unsold at end of day and sell when demand peaks, has proven able to not only cut postharvest losses (PHLs) but increase earning up to 30 times. The scalability of this approach is multiplied when we consider the $48 billion worth of annual PHLs Africa experiences.
These tell us that if we apply nature-based solutions alone, we will only be increasing the haemorrhaging food losses. But if we combine it with clean energy for value addition, we will be on track to tap into billion-dollar worth of value-added enterprise opportunities.
Two, “Divest from socially driven financing to investment financing” where returns transcend the traditional social benefits to include environmental benefits and financial dividends that are critical for longevity. To start off on this trajectory, Africa already contributes 20% of its total current annual adaptation needs estimated at $15 billion. This means up to $3 billion of adaptation costs are financed locally. In addition to asking how the continent can raise the 80% deficit the question we should ask is, how can we invest the 20% the continent have to maximise returns?
How can continent ensure the benefit of the 20% in hand is invested in such a way that drives environmental benefit, measurable social & economic dividends in form of improved climate action enterprise opportunities as well as financial – where climate action enterprises created operate profitably.
Structure for this transition from social to investment and enterprise financing already exists – and must now be strengthened. This can start with building on the structure for risk sharing & diversification already existing in the continent – such as communal cooperatives. For example, domestic adaptation financing should be invested in incentivising local, accessible and market-driven cooperatives & micro-finance institutions, to lend affordably to climate action enterprises providing socioeconomic co-benefits.
Third, “Policy coherence and Harmonisation to bridge Adaptation Implementation Gaps” In implementing climate action commitments – the NDCs, while the ministry of environment is responsible for reporting progress, the actual work is done by other line ministries – such as agriculture, energy, lands, transport, trade among key ones.
What this tells us is that just as “a bird cannot fly in one wing”, Adaptation implementation policies cannot be left to the environment ministry alone. Implementing adaptation enterprises, drawn from catalytic sectors, that can support innovative financing cannot be done through one sector alone. Input from all the leading productive line ministries and sectors is critical. The good thing is that these policies already exist. The gap is in implementing them in a coherent cascade to move the needle of adaptation at the operational level.
Fourth, “Prioritising Human Capital”. Investing in youth, by structurally guiding them to continually improve, refine & adapt their skills and creativity towards finding purpose in adaptation enterprises that upscale nature-based solutions and unlock tangible benefits for the community is a formidable strategy. And this is what we are doing through an approach we call Innovative Volunteerism to engage willing youth under UNEP EBAFOSA framework.
“A bridge is repaired only when someone falls into the water”. Africa’s high vulnerability coupled with astronomical adaptation financing gap, send a very clear message – Africa is already in the deep waters. But adaptation offers a way out.
By Richard Munang
For more information, contact:
Richard Munang is UN Environment Programme’s Africa Climate Change Coordinator,
Mohamed Atani, Head of Communication and Outreach, UN Environment Programme, Africa Office (Tel: +254 (0) 727531253)


Adventure Club continue to drop massive remix after massive remix. We got to see theri remixes Crave You and Collect Call, and their more recent original Do I See Color. This track has the same overall concept. Great vocal sampling, dramatic buildup, massive yet smooth drops. The calm voice from Foxes works very well with the crushing bass. Turn up the bass, enjoy!
Foxes – Youth (Adventure Club Remix) | Direct Download
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One Comment to “Foxes – Youth (Adventure Club Dubstep Remix) : Must Hear Indie / Dubstep Remix”
My story has changed quite a lot since moving to Boulder, Colorado and starting Thissongissick back in 2010. My name is Nick Guarino and this is Thissongissick.com. We have grown a lot since, but the original goal has stayed the same, making it easier for you to discover sick new music you have never heard before. In high school I would make mix cd's for my friends to show them all the new music I was discovering. Now through Thissongissick, we work with musicians and record labels from all over the world to showcase a variety of freshest electronic, hip-hop, indie, and other fresh genres to a worldwide following that now reaches millions of music lovers over 110+ countries, every single month. Make yourself at home, enjoy countless amazing musicians from a variety of genres and let the sick sounds fill your ears.Enjoy!


text:
Dr. Bret Scher interviews Dr. Jake Kushner about type 1 diabetes, low carb diets, and dealing with teenager T1Ds. I think it’s difficult for people without T1D to be able to empathize with what we are up against. It’s a rare person without T1D who can jump that gap and really get it. Jake Kushner is one of those people.
I found this interview interesting as it looked at the current state of clinical practice for T1D and explains some of the ignorance and stuck-in-the-past medical provider attitudes that we often face when we visit our doctors.
Dr. Kushner mentions low carb proponent, Dr. Richard Bernstein, more than once in a positive light. He also mentions the low carb Facebook group, Type One Grit, a few times.
His teenage patients who see him are lucky to be one of his patients. This interview will likely be of interest to any parent of a child with T1D, especially a teenager.
This is well worth a listen. Enjoy.

domain: medical