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The Texas Supreme Court voted against abortion providers’ challenge to the state abortion ban.
The Senate Bill 8, or Texas Heartbeat Act, prohibits all abortions after six weeks. Also, the document includes a provision that enables citizens to take action against any person who helps pregnant women proceed with an abortion by any means.
Texas abortion providers considered the Heartbeat Act unconstitutional and demanded some state officials not enforce the law.
According to the lawsuit filed by the Texas Supreme Court in response, the law “does not authorize the state-agency executives to enforce the state-agency executives to enforce the Act’s requirements, either directly or indirectly.” The Texas district court and US Supreme Court did not influence the case and delegated it to the Texas Supreme Court.
The final jury’s decision caused negative feedback among local non-profit organizations. For instance, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called the ruling “a devastating blow for abortion rights in Texas and across the country.”
For more details on the case, see the statement by the Texas Supreme Court.


After months and months of anticipation, Batman Arkham Knight is finally here for PS4, Xbox One and PC. And while the game is getting solid reviews, it’s not perfect. Batman Arkham Knight problems are starting to emerge for Xbox One, PS4 and PC users and today we want to take a look at what you need to know about these initial issues.
Yesterday, after several years of development, Rocksteady Studios and Warner Brothers released the third installment in the Batman Arkham video game series. The game, Batman Arkham Knight, follows in the footsteps of 2011’s Batman Arkham City and it thrusts PS4, Xbox One and PS4 users into the shoes of Bruce Wayne, also known as Batman.
The game, set in Gotham City, introduces several new characters and a host of new gameplay options including the ability to seamlessly switch from Batman to one of his allies which include Robin, Catwoman, and Nightwing.
Batman Arkham Knight has only been out for a day but it has already received solid reviews from Xbox One, PS4 and PC users and critics who have all raved about its graphics, puzzles and variety in gameplay. The new game is not without its problems though.
We’re just a day removed from its release date and we’re already hearing about a number of Batman Arkham Knight problems on the PS4, Xbox One and PC. Some initial hiccups are normal and today we want to take a look at what we think current owners and prospective buyers need to know.
With Batman Arkham Knight problems already emerging for PS4, PC, and Xbox One, we want to take a look at five things you need to know right now as we push away from the game’s release date.
Batman Arkham Knight Problems Emerge
The first thing you need to know, if you own the game or you’re thinking about buying the game, is that there are Batman Arkham Knight problems plaguing users on the PS4, Xbox One and PC. This isn’t surprising at all. Bugs and issues are always present immediately after a game’s release.
Warner Brothers’ forums are filled with complaints about the game including Error CE-34878-0 issues on the PS4, various issues with the Batmobile including this one on Xbox One, issues with cutscenes, Harley Quinn DLC problems on the PS4, Batman season pass problems, problems launching the game, problems with the game’s well-known Detective Mode, missing Flashpoint skin, problems with missions, problems saving the game, and more. The developer’s forums are full of complaints just a day after the game’s release.
We’ve been playing the game ourselves and thus far, we haven’t run into any major problems with the Xbox One version of the game. That said, we’ve barely scratched the surface of the open world game and there’s a good chance that we’ll run into problems down the road. This is a massive, complex game and there are bound to be bugs and issues.
Batman Arkham Knight problems will almost certainly continue to emerge as we push away from the game’s release date and it will be up to owners of the game to report bugs and up to the developer to fix those issues as time goes on.
Batman Arkham Knight PC Performance
PC Batman Arkham Knight users have been extremely vocal about the game’s performance Many PC users have run into major issues with the game after its release, so many, that the developer has taken out a thread to address the PC Batman Arkham Knight performance issues plaguing many owners.
Owners of the PC version of the game are complaining about bad looking graphics, glitches, lag, lock ups and freezes, and other general problems with the game’s performance. In response, the company has told owners of the PC version that it’s monitoring the problems and that those unsatisfied with the game can request a refund:
Dear Batman: Arkham Knight PC owners,
We are aware that there are performance issues for some users playing Batman: Arkham Knight on PC. WB Games is working diligently with our development teams, NVIDIA and AMD, to identify and fix the issues as quickly as possible.
Please know that we value input from those who are playing the game and we are continuously monitoring all threads posted in the Official Batman: Arkham Knight Community and Steam forums, as well as any issues logged with our Customer Support. If you are experiencing any issues with the game, please be sure to report it to support.wbgames.com.
In the meantime, we wanted to provide recommended, in-game graphical settings for those with minimum and recommend specs hardware. We will provide recommended settings for the Ultra specs as soon as we are able to conduct more tests. At the bottom of this post, you can find additional information that may help alleviate some of the most frequent issues that some players are experiencing. Also, for reference, we have included a list of the minimum, recommended, and ultra hardware requirements.
If you purchased your copy of the game through Steam and are not satisfied with your experience, you can request a refund at help.steampowered.com (Steam refund policies can be found here: https://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds).
Thank you for your patience as we work on resolving these issues and please be sure to check back for updates.
The letter has further fueled the fire because the developer simply outlines some settings to change in order to fix some of the graphical and performance problems plaguing the PC version of the game.
Bug Fix Updates
Before you get frustrated or sell the game, it’s important to know that this is an extremely big and ambitious game with lots of moving parts. And because it’s such an important title, there’s no way that Rocksteady and WB still stop support for the game anytime soon.
The developers aren’t going to sit on their hands. That’s why the issued this letter to PC owners and that’s why they have set up ways to communicate. They want to fix these problems and we’re going to see bug fix updates roll out for all versions of the game in the weeks and months after its release.
The company already rolled out a massive 3.5GB day one patch to address some of the initial problems and we expect the developers to roll out fairly regular patches for this extremely popular game. The release dates are impossible to predict but you’ll want to keep an eye on the game’s forums for news about upcoming fixes and patches.
How to Report Batman Arkham Knight Problems
The developer will be monitoring the game’s forums for bugs and problems so it’s important that you provide feedback about any bugs or issues you run into. Reporting your problems will do a lot more good than complaining about them to Rocksteady and WB.
If you have a general problem with the PS4 or Xbox One version of the game, you’ll want to head to the developer’s general support forum which you can find here. If you are looking to provide feedback about the PC version of the game, you’ll want to head to this part of the forum.
It’s important to note that the company has a very specific template that it wants you to use when you report a Batman Arkham Knight problem with the PS4, Xbox One or PC version of the game. You can find that template on the forum here. If you are extremely clear and detailed, there’s a good chance Rocksteady will provide a fix in an upcoming update.
Where to Find Help
If you run into issues with the Xbox One, PS4 or PC version of Batman Arkham Knight, you’ll want to post your issue on the appropriate forum. This way, forum moderators and other players can respond to it and potentially offer a solution for the issue ahead of an official patch. You can also take out a ticket because the forums only go so far. From the developer:
Please be aware this is not the official outlet to obtain support for any version of Batman: Arkham Origins. To get fully delivered service, you’ll have to log a ticket with our Customer Support:
To create a ticket, please visit: https://support.wbgames.com/ and a support official will be able to better help you resolve your issue.
Furthermore, if you live outside of North America, WB Games has set up some additional resources for you if you need help with your problems:
For our users based in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, WB Games has a team dedicated to helping you resolve any issues you might encounter.
Should you need support, please contact them at:
Email Support: [email protected]
Support Center URL: https://support.wbgames.com/ (choose your region on the left side of the page)
These are all solid resources but there are some other places to check out if you run into problems with your version of the Batman Arkham Knight.
The Reddit megathread for the game is a great place to post and discuss problems. There a ton of PS4, Xbox One and PC players discussing things they’ve seen during their travels in Gotham City and there’s a chance you’ll find a useful workaround for your problem there.
This article may contain affiliate links. Click here for more details.


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By JAVIER MANJARRESFormer Congressman and Fox News Contributor, Allen West, is weighing in on the upcoming special election in Florida’s 13th congressional district. West is backing Brigadier General Mark Bircher over ” David Jolly, Young’s former general counsel and lobbyist; and Kathleen Peters, a pro-choice state representative.”
West cited Bircher’s recent quote, and announced his support on his website here.
“Instead of spending the rest of my life complaining, even if I were to fail, at least I wouldn’t have to say ‘what if?’ I want this job. I want to do the best I can.”- Gen. Mark Bircher
Do you think the 2nd Amendment will be destroyed by the Biden Administration?(2)
While Jolly will have to overcome the hurdle of being a D.C. lobbyist, Peters will have a tougher time of overcoming her shortcomings.
As we posted earlier this week, Peters supports the controversial Common Core education standards conservatives like West and Senator Marco Rubio oppose. Peters also does not support a full and immediate repeal of Obamacare, as Jolly, Bircher, Rubio, West, and others all do.And then there is the fact that she is backed by left-of-center Republicans, who at one point, were all Charlie Crist Republicans, working hard to defeat Senator Marco Rubio in 2010.
If Bircher can defeat Jolly and Peters, he would then have to face off against former Florida CFO, Democrat Alex Sink, in the March special general election.

domain: news


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Few comic book writers can deliver a space opera quite like Jim Starlin, so when DC Comics wanted to revamp the revamped "Stormwatch" with an intergalactic bent, Co-Publisher Dan DiDio knew exactly where to go.
Best known for crafting cosmic adventures starring Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock while creating new characters like Thanos, Drax the Destroyer and Gamora for Marvel Comics, Starlin has also worked at DC Comics over the years, most recently on titles like "Mystery in Space" in 2006-07 and "Death of the New Gods" in 2007-08. Now, Starlin has returned to DC to write "Stormwatch," joining forces with French artist Yvel Guichet.
CBR News spoke with Starlin following the release of "Stormwatch" #19, his first issue on the series, and the fan favorite writer shared details about upcoming storylines and the heroes and villains that he and Guichet will feature, including Bryan Hitch-infused versions of Midnighter and Apollo, the big bastich Lobo and The Weird, a character that Starlin co-created with Bernie Wrightson for DC Comics in 1988, which later appeared in his subsequent series for the publisher "Mystery in Space," "Rann-Thanagar Holy War" and "Strange Adventures."
CBR News: Jim, you've been away from DC Comics for a few years. How did this assignment come about?
Jim Starlin: Originally, Dan DiDio and I started talking about me working on their science fiction characters again, which is something I muddled around with before a couple of years back, but I didn't feel like doing Adam Strange again. And Dan wanted something done with Lobo, so I plotted out a story that involved Lobo and Captain Comet, who appeared in the "Mystery in Space" series that I did a few years back. That was going to be a miniseries.
Unbeknownst to Dan at the time, Comet was already going to appear in "Superman." With the big New 52 changeover, it was hard to keep track of where everyone was at, so I figured that was the end of that. I had some other work to do so I was just going to pass on the whole thing because it was getting a little confusing. Then Dan called up and said, "Hey, can you convert this story into a 'Stormwatch' story and take over than title?"
I said, "Okay, send me some books." He sent me the first 12 issues of "Stormwatch." Once I read them, we talked on the phone and we both agreed that "Stormwatch" hadn't really worked out too well at the conversion to the New 52 [Laughs]. A number of the books worked out really well, but "Stormwatch" was clearly not one of them.
Dan said, "We really want to revamp this and we want you to do the story that you were going to do with Lobo and Comet and see if you can convert it over here." That's what we did and that is why, as much as anything, the new Jennifer Soul is a telepath. She replaced Comet in the storyline.
I honestly came into this project very lukewarm, but quickly found the direction it was supposed to go and have been having a great time with it ever since.
Revamping a series or concept is obviously nothing new to comics. Is the medium designed to allow for a major shift like this midstream?
Comics and comic book characters are reinvented just about every generation. If you look at a character like Batman or Superman, they go through major overhauls just about every decade -- or every decade as we get nearer to the present.
For that reason, eliminating and starting over didn't seem like that big of a deal to me. They were also busy killing off all of their characters from the Stormwatch before me so by the time I got the book, the only characters that were left were Midnighter, Apollo and Zealot. Everybody else was killed off, so it really was time to start over.
We were painted into a corner and there was no getting around it. We got rid of the old history by page 3 of the first issue and decided we were just going to start over.
We're bringing back the best things about the concept. Bryan Hitch's costume designs for Midnighter and Apollo were terrific. There was no reason to change those.
And we brought in a number of other characters. Yvel worked up a new design for The Weird. We played back and forth for several weeks on deciding who the characters were and what they would look like. It's actually been one of the best collaborations that I've had in years. It's all worked out quite nicely.
When Geoff Johns was selecting the Justice League, he went big with Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. For the Justice League of America, he went to a second and third tier but still filled his roster with plenty of recognizable heroes like Green Arrow and Hawkman. How do you go about picking a team like Stormwatch?
There are different kinds of characters. There are characters that have a deep history and are part of the cultural mindset like Batman and Superman and you can tinker with them, but you are a limited to a degree when you are modernizing them.
With something like Stormwatch, or back when I was doing Captain Marvel or Warlock, these are characters that have flown for a while but then flopped. There was no deep set, ingrained image of what these characters represented. That leaves me with the freedom to reinvent radically rather than just tinkering around the edges. We kept a lot of stuff from "Stormwatch," like the Shadow Lords, the ship, the basic premise of what they are supposed to be doing but we eliminated the U.N. connection because this is a smaller world now and the political reality is that such an organization couldn't exist. Who would fund it? It's better to have it where outside forces are in play here.
It would have been too complicated to continue on and everybody agreed that I could eliminate all the past history of Stormwatch, with them being a 1,000-year old organization, start off with something new and fashion something that features the team stumbling their way to success.
Is this a superhero book or a science fiction book?
[Laughs] I don't really think of things along those lines. It's a Starlin book. I try to take fantastic characters and give them human grounding and write as interesting a story that I can around their situation. They live in spaceship above Earth.
It fits into a genre, of course, but whether it's superhero or science fiction, those genres are easy to blur.
You mentioned Midnighter and Apollo, who are easily the most recognizable characters in "Stormwatch." Will they remain driving forces of the storytelling during your run?
Yes, they are the centerpiece of the group. They have been since their inception during the Authority's original run. Everything else is really built around them.
Before we go through the rest of the roster, I should back up a bit. Lobo is probably the most recognizable character you have. How does he fit into the mix?
I was always familiar with Lobo but my interest and knowledge of the character was limited. He always had a reality all of his own. He's a humor character or a satirical character at DC. He didn't fit into what I was doing, but they revamped all of DC and the Lobo that showed up in "Deathstroke" was more grounded in reality of the rest of the universe. Taking what was his history -- he's a villain, he's not a hero, he's a villain -- and I thought having him as the first one villain of our run would work. He's a peripheral villain of this first arc. He's not the main villain. The Kollective is the main villain. I'm giving away their name, which we never mentioned in the first book, but they are the creatures that were at the beginning of the series and they are going to be one of the two main villains that the team has to deal with down the line.
Another badass you have returning to the team is Hellstrike. He definitely wouldn't have played well with Lobo.
[Laughs] Hellstrike isn't a nice person, which you can probably gather simply from his dialog in the first issue. That darkness will get darker. He's a being of light but that darkness will get darker as time goes on. He's going to be a troubled character.
We started talking about Midnighter and Apollo, who are the only true established members of Stormwatch, but we also have the Engineer returning, who you have recruiting new members in your first issue. A new role for her moving forward, perhaps?
Well, yes. In this particular setup, she's rather new to all of this. In the first issue, it's kind of her maiden voyage, her first mission for Stormwatch. She's a recruiter at this point. She's not one of the active members because of the newness of her abilities.
The members Hellstrike, Apollo, Midnighter and The Weird have been around and have experience when we meet up with them. Angie is relatively new to it and will develop as the stories go on.
Jenny Soul is just a kid, of course, so she is sort of the protected member of the group even though she has incredible powers herself, which you'll see manifest as the stories go on.
I love that you've included The Weird, who's a character that you've worked with before. Were you eager to get back to him or did he just fit what you were looking for within this team construct?
He certainly fit into the science fiction of it. This was originally going to be a science fiction story when DC offered Lobo and Comet. When Dan said, "We want to get some DC characters into the lineup," I went down the list and all the really A-list characters with science fiction backgrounds -- like Green Lantern, Hawkman and characters like that were wrapped in "Justice League" and "Justice League of America" -- so I looked around and I found The Weird.
I've always loved The Weird. I love the way he talks and the child-like qualities that he has so I thought that he would be good to get in there, especially as a bodyguard. His chief goal is to be Jenny Soul's bodyguard. He just seemed to be a natural fit.
There was some talk about Lobo joining the team, but how are you going to have Lobo in a group like that? [Laughs] Dan's original idea was to have him join Stormwatch but if you think about Stormwatch, why would he and how would they keep him in check? Stormwatch and Lobo wouldn't not fit together well in any form whatsoever, that I could think of.
While we haven't seen very much from him just yet, one character that really has me intrigued after one issue is The Forecaster. He is a new creation, correct?
The Forecaster runs the show. He basically keeps all of the trains running on time. As far as his origin, that's going to be revealed down the line a little bit. I have a bit in mind but I actually have to tell everybody's origin all over again -- because these are all new characters.
As the early issues come out, we'll be getting Midnighter's and Apollo's origins to start off with.
One of the other characters, Xiomar, who shows up for the first time in "Stormwatch" #19, is going to become a major character in the series. He has links to another character in the series, which aren't good. It's going to be complicated and the reveals of whom these people are going to happen as they happen.
My chief idea is to keep the main story going while introducing origins and the background story a little bit at a time. Just enough to give you a little advance each issue. It won't be shown all at once.
If The Forecaster is keeping the trains running, what's Storm Control's role as he seems to have the best understanding of what's going on?
Storm Control probably looks the most uninteresting of all the characters but he's going to be the one who proves to be the most interesting of all of the characters.
He runs the team. He's the boss. He reports to the Shadow Lords and calls the shots. He runs everything.
One final new character is Force, who was super mysterious even by Stormwatch standards in your first issue. Anything you can share because he looks pretty cool awfully powerful?
Force is going to be a background character for a while. He's sort of a retooling of Fuji from the original Stormwatch. We've got a different origin for him in mind. Like I said, he's going to be much more of a background character for a while. He's sort of a reserve. He's another that is new to his power so you'll see him showing up but I'll warn you ahead of time, you're not going to learn much about him for a little while.
It's sounds like you and Yvel are building something quite grand here. Are you planning to stay on the series for a long while?
If the stuffs sells, I think I'm just going to stick around here for a while. I'm having a great time with it. I have big plans for all of these characters.
Finally, what are you enjoying most about working with Yvel and what do you feel he brings to the collaboration?
He has a really beautiful, clean style of art that I really like. He's good at the action and he's given me exactly what I need in the story.
We have a nice chemistry going when you consider that we have not met. We talked over the phone once and the rest of our communications have been done via email.
When we were designing the characters, he would send something, I would tweak it and send it back and so on. We just had a great time for a couple of weeks just figuring out what these guys would look like.
We both agreed that Apollo should go back to his original outfit but we also both agreed that there was too much white so we had to break it up a little bit with a belt and a few things like that. We seem to be on the same page in terms of how things should go visually.
"Stormwatch" #19, by Jim Starlin and Yvel Guichet, is available now.

domain: artistic


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Class AAA farm team
of the Pittsburgh Pirates
, in Nashville
, TN. The Sounds
play their home
games in Herschel Greer Stadium
. They compete in the East
ern Division of the Pacific Coast League
The Nashville Americans were a charter team of the Southern League when it was formed in 1885. The team, going through several name changes, was unable to win a pennant and folded ten years after its inception. When the Southern Association started in 1901, their field became home to the Volunteers. Playing for over 60 years, the Vols' reign ended when the Southern Association disbanded in 1961. They were resurrected shortly in 1963 as a Double-A team, but Nashville was soon without a baseball team after their disappointing inaugural season. It would be 15 years before minor league baseball returned to the city. The first Nashville Sounds team was formed in 1978 as an expansion team of the Southern League. They played as the Double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds for two years and as a New York Yankees team from 1980 to 1984.
In 1985, the Double-A Nashville team moved to Alabama and became the Huntsville Stars. Owner Larry Schmittou bought the Evansville Triplets of the American Association and brought them to Nashville. The team's initial Triple-A affiliation was with the Detroit Tigers, but they rejoined the Reds' organization in 1987. In 1993, the team switched affiliations again, this time to the Chicago White Sox. The Sounds shared their stadium with a homeless Southern League team, the Xpress, in 1993 and 1994 before the Double-A team moved to Wilmington, NC. In 1998, the American Association folded and the team joined the Pacific Coast League and became a Pirates franchise.
Famous players to have played for Nashville include Don Mattingly, Willie McGee, and Buck Showalter.
Games are broadcast on WANT FM 98.9. Web broadcasts can be found at www.nashvillesounds.com

domain: history


The Garden Festival is the festival which originated and inspired the whole now thriving festival scene in Croatia, it’s soundtracked by some of the world’s best live acts and DJs, thereâ€™s an intimate feeling found at this idyllic part of the beautiful Dalmatian coastline outside of Tisno which overlooks the crystal clear waters of the Adriatic ocean. This year will see a full week of festival madness take place between July 2nd-July 9th.
Headline guests for the 2014 edition of the festival includes heavyweights such as Eats Everything, Craig Richards, Bicep, Wolf and Lamb, Soul Clap, Crazy P Soundsystem, Levon Vincent, Axel Boman, Tim Sweeney, Catz N Dogz, Ben Ufo, Kink, Session Victim, Prosumer and many more. In addition to the festival area there’s a wide array of boat parties and club nights. Check out all the details over at the festival website.
We here at Discobelle can offer one lucky winner two tickets to the festival, answer this question: When did the first The Garden Festival take place? E-mail us your answer by Wednesday February 5th.


The pulse shaping dynamics of a diode-pumped laser oscillator with cavity dumping operating in the solitary regime is studied experimentally and numerically. The stability of the laser system is investigated in dependence on the relevant laser parameters. With a stroboscopic detection technique the intracavity temporal and spectral pulse profiles are measured between two dumping events. The results are compared to the numerical analysis of the system. Due to the strong periodic disturbance of the solitary pulse imposed by the dumping process a second set of Kelly-side bands can be identified.
© 2004 Optical Society of AmericaFull Article | PDF Article


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(ran PW, PS editions)
As a dancer worked the stage Wednesday night at Sin-Na-Bar, an undercover detective was watching. And he thought she was working too hard.
The detective arrested Courtney Haynes Way at the exotic dance club, 4233 U.S. 19. He also found drugs in her duffel bag, according to an arrest report. She faces charges of lewdness and cocaine possession.
Way of Clearwater was released Thursday from the Land O' Lakes jail without having to post bail, according to a jail spokeswoman.
The detective said Way performed lewd acts on another dancer.


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Samuel Langhorne Clemens (pen name Mark Twain) was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri. Twain is considered the greatest humorist of 19th Century American literature. His novels and stories about the Mississippi River: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1894) are still popular with modern readers.
In 1839 the Clemens family moved to Hannibal, Missouri, on the Mississippi River where young Sam experienced the excitement and colorful sights of the waterfront. Like many authors of his day he had little formal education. His education came from the print shops and newspaper offices where he worked as a youth. In 1853 Clemens left Hannibal with a yearning to travel. On a trip to New Orleans he persuaded a riverboat pilot to teach him his skill. By the Spring of 1859 Clemens was a licensed riverboat pilot.
At the outbreak of the American Civil War (1861) Clemens chose not to get involved and moved to Carson City, Nevada. After an unsuccessful attempt at gold and silver mining he joined the staff of a newspaper in Virginia City, Nevada. He first wrote under the pen name, "Mark Twain" (meaning "two fathoms" in riverboat-talk) in 1863. "Twain" wrote his first popular story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County in 1865.
He continued to travel as a correspondent for various newspapers, and in 1869 his travel letters from Europe were collected into the popular book, "The Innocents Abroad." Encouraged by his success Twain married Olivia Langdon and settled down in Hartford, Connecticut to his most productive years as a writer. Between 1873 and 1889 he wrote seven novels including his Mississippi River books as well as The Prince and the Pauper (1882) and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889).
Some modern readers are offended by some of the language and content of Twain's books. One particularly sensitive example of this is the free use of the word "nigger" in "Huckleberry Finn." Twain used contemporary language in his books to bring his characters to life. This realistic prose style influenced numerous American writers. Ironically, for his time Twain was liberal on racial and many social issues. The underlying themes of "Huckleberry Finn" support a fundamental equality for people of all races.
As Twain's life and career progressed he became increasingly pessimistic, losing much of the humorous, cocky tone of his earlier years. More and more of his work expressed the gloomy view that all human motives are ultimately selfish. Even so Twain is best remembered as a humorist who used his sharp wit and comic exaggeration to attack the false pride and self-importance he saw in humanity.
If you are aware of any Internet resources, movies, audio tapes, or books about Mark Twain or related subjects, or if you would like to submit comments, please send us email: .

domain: library


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Kelly Marie Tran is receiving her first big break as an actor with a role in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. And at tonight's red carpet event for the world premiere, she was understandably emotional.
Luckily, she found some support from franchise star Daisy Ridley, who was on hand to offer a hug that is surely the most heartwarming moment that took place at the event. Check it out in the video above, posted by Star Wars Battlefront II's Janina Gavankar.
This isn't Ridley's first rodeo, but she's been in Tran's shoes before. Just two years ago, her life changed when she appeared as Rey for the first time in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and the role catapulted her to superstardom.
Tran had a moment during the live feed of the red carpet event when she started crying while being interviewed by The Star Wars Show's Andi Gutierrez. That Ridley was on hand to comfort her co-star is pretty heartwarming, and it's amazing to see it captured on camera.
Despite having never seen a Star Wars movie before her casting, Tran is taking to the chaotic frenzy that surrounds the franchise very well.
"The amount of support that I've gotten from people, even though they haven't seen me do anything, it means a lot and it makes me emotional thinking about it," Tran said. "I don't know that I'm deserving of that sort of support right away. And Mark Hamill and I have kind of talked about that and just how incredible it is to have people love something so much and then to be a part of it. I can't even describe it."
It will be fun to watch Tran's career take off after appearing in this movie.
Fans will be able to see her debut as Rose when Star Wars: The Last Jedi premieres in theaters on December 15.


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As if police don’t have better things to do. Now municipalities participate in the frenzy to get paid on mask mandates.
Thus, as Reason reported, we now have “mask traps”.
It’s been less than two weeks since Miami-Dade County announced it would be fining people for not wearing masks in public. Already, Florida media outlets are filled with stories of people cited for wearing masks improperly, lowering masks to sip a drink, or removing their face coverings once outside of a store.
On Thursday, the Miami Herald reported that the Miami-Dade Police Department has issued 162 citations for violating the county’s mandatory mask ordinance, which comes with a $100 penalty.
One woman, Johanna Gianni, says she removed her mask in the parking lot of a Publix grocery store in North Miami Beach, when a police officer approached her and wrote her a ticket for not wearing a mask. Gianni told the Herald the parking lot was nearly empty and that she felt set up by police.
She’s not the only one.
The ABC affiliate Local10 reports that Dean Gonzalez was fined while leaving a North Miami Beach Publix because his mask didn’t cover his nose. The encounter was captured on video; in it, an officer can be heard telling Gonzalez that improper mask usage is as bad as not wearing a mask at all. Gonzalez accused the cops of setting up a “mask trap” and said that they threatened him with arrest if he didn’t sign the ticket he was issued.
The Herald article includes several other examples of people being fined while wearing masks, including a customer at a barber shop who lowered his mask to take a sip of water right as a police officer entered the business.
Don’t even think Leftists politicians don’t understand the damage enforcing these silly mask mandates will have on police.
Out of curiosity, how many tickets do you believe will be written to black folks not wearing masks?
The article continues,
NBC Miami reports that Miami-Dade police conduct 500 random compliance checks each day to enforce the county’s public health ordinance.
The Herald also identified one Wawa convenience store where eight people were cited over two days for not wearing masks, suggesting that police are indeed setting up “mask traps.”
Pretty simple calculus. President Trump removes bureaucracy, and Democrats figure out ways to add it back.
Why the mask mandates? According to published propaganda, mask mandates have proliferated across the US in order to combat the spread of COVID-19. This is a complete lie. Mask mandates serve two purposes: (1) gain willful compliance, and (2) an additional source of revenue.
And there is the added benefit of demonizing police, forced to enforce these Draconian mandates. Don’t comply and get arrested.
I say, “GET ARRESTED!”. I’m willing to do it. Because in the end you will win the case, and get a fat settlement.
The mask wars will soon be over. Because more and more Americans wake up daily to the ruse of the Wuflu. Further, they know who to blame. Democrats.
Democrat politicians will test the mask mandates, particularly the fundraising ability of the order. And they will fail, as most things Leftist do.
But for now, avoid the Miami-Dade “mask traps”.

domain: law


New Matrix UV Source: Directional matrix light source with Min. angle 2°, LCD matrix quartz lamp beads design, uniform ultraviolet radiation, ensures excellent printing effect and printing efficiency.
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Light source: Matrix directional source
Z-axis type: Linear slide rail + T-rod
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Platform material: aluminum alloy
Package weight: 17.5kg
Package size: 430x400x600mm


FRAN KIRBY has given Chelsea a major fitness boost with the forward set to return to action following a spell out with illness.
The Blues star could be in line to feature for the team in their Champions League duel with Vllaznia.
Chelsea will face the Albanian champions at Kingsmeadow tomorrow night in their first home match in this year’s tournament.
While the Blues will be without Jelena Cankovic, with the midfielder missing their last three games due to injury, Kirby is likely to be included in the club’s squad.
The club’s all-time leading goal scorer has made three top-tier appearances so far this term netting three times for the WSL champs.
General manager Paul Green said: “Jelena’s injury hasn’t settled down as quickly as we’d hoped so she won’t be available.
” Fran has been back in training for the last couple of days, so she’ll be one addition to the squad.
“She is a quality player and to have her back is fantastic and gives everybody a boost.
“She has been out with illness, but we’re delighted she’s now available.
“We look forward to seeing her on Wednesday night and hopefully staying healthy for the whole season.”
Chelsea’s second Group A game is likely to see Blues goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger make her sixth appearance across all competitions this term.
Green hailed the German international’s recent displays between the sticks two months on from her announcing the recurrence of thyroid cancer.
Since then, Berger has kept three clean sheets in five games.
He added: “The way she’s handled herself in this period and such difficult circumstances is a real credit to her.
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“She’s immensely mentally tough to cope with the cancer.
“She’s a real inspiration to all her team-mates and somebody to really look up to with the way that she has gone about her business at such a difficult time.
“We’re delighted with her coming back to full health and fitness on the pitch.
“She has shown that in her performances since going back in the goal.”
Chelsea’s game against Vllaznia’s comes six days after the nine-time Albanian National Women’s Champions fell to a 2-0 away loss to Real Madrid.
Their visitors, who are playing the Champions League for the first time in their 12-year history have five American players in their squad.
And the team are underdogs in a group that includes Paris Saint-Germain in addition to Madrid and the title winners of England.
Green expects Chelsea will face a side prepared to sit deep.
He said: “We can’t take anything for granted.
We need to perform at our best level to be able to break down their block and get the goals that are ultimately going to win us the game.
“They’re in the competition on their own merits and we’ve got to get the job done.
Should the Blues progress to knockout the phase they.
Chelsea vs Vllaznia can be watched live from 8:00 pm on DAZN’S Uefa Women’s Champions League channel on Wednesday 26 October


Hi there at this site, where you may use hot ringtones for your cell. Today we have a ringtone of “I Love Rock 'n Roll” by Joan Jett as well as 161 other ringtones by Joan Jett. You can listen to all 3 Joan Jett – “I Love Rock 'n Roll” ringtone variations available here and download it for free in a second. You can also search for other 2 albums produced by Joan Jett for all time. “I Love Rock 'n Roll” is referred to Rock, and we can offer you a huge amount of Rock compilations absolutely for free. And finally, we have collected lyrics for this track and you can view it here as well. So feel free to browse, listen, download ringtones at Audiko.net. Make your phone sound cool!


text:
Renowned journalist Huchi Lora has denied allegations that he is suing the producers of the film “Assault in Progreso”. The film, which is set to premiere on 2nd May at Cinema Hoy.com.do, has been surrounded by controversy after producers of the film were reported to have been intimidated by unknown individuals.
According to reports from El Caribe Newspaper, the producers of “Assault in Progreso” have denounced acts of intimidation against them. The reasons behind the alleged intimidation have not been disclosed, but it has caused a stir in the Dominican film industry.
Despite the rumors, Huchi Lora has made it clear that he has no intention of suing the producers of the film. He emphasized that he fully supports the creative expression of artists and wishes the film success in its upcoming premiere.
“Assault in Progreso” is a highly anticipated film that tells the story of a violent assault that takes place in a small town. The film has already garnered attention for its gripping storyline and talented cast.
The producers of the film have not commented on the alleged intimidation, but they are excited for the public to finally see their hard work on the big screen. As the premiere date approaches, fans of Dominican cinema eagerly await the release of “Assault in Progreso”.


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For horror, chillers and sci-fi thrillers, Carma Studio presents the killer gore library!
A collection of sensory horror sure to spice up all your graphic, cringe-worthy projects.
This library focuses on the unnerving sounds of bones breaking, flesh tearing and the reactions of body manipulation, including a collection of weapon strikes and tool inflicted damage.
A variety of plant-based textures and more are included in this pack to provide your unearthed zombies with frightening, out of this world sound. And the plant variety makes for a plant texture library when in need.
Files are categorized in folders named Blood, Body, Bones, Flesh/Guts/Viscera, Flesh/Skin/Sinew, Head and Skull, Mouth, Tool Use and Weapon Attack. Multiple versions of files are in order of length, pitch, or other factors so you can hone in on your specific gorey needs.
File names include adjective descriptors as well as the materials used, such as ‘celery’, ‘sponge’ or ‘slime’, if you are looking for a certain texture’s character.
Go ahead and Rip Tear Snap Break Stab Bite Eat Crack Peel Slice and Chop up your Fruits Vegetables Succulents Slimes Meat and more!
Royalty-free for commercial use in film, television, radio, gaming, podcasts, audio books and more.
Demo 1: Gore – Horror Sound Effects
“Gore – Horror Sound Effects” works in all DAWS and is 100% royalty free.
Zipped Contents (1.4 GB)


||Etchers and Engravers
- Adjust depths and sizes of cuts by adjusting heights of worktables, or by adjusting machine-arm gauges.
- Set reduction scales to attain specified sizes of reproduction on workpieces, and set pantograph controls for required heights, depths, and widths of cuts.
- Start machines and lower cutting tools to beginning points on patterns.
- Insert cutting tools or bits into machines and secure them with wrenches.
- Select and insert required templates into pattern frames beneath the stylus of a machine cutting tool or router.
- Observe actions of cutting tools through microscopes and adjust stylus movement to ensure accurate reproduction.
||Woodworking Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Except Sawing
- Adjust machine tables or cutting devices and set controls on machines to produce specified cuts or operations.
- Install and adjust blades, cutterheads, boring-bits, or sanding-belts, using hand tools and rules.
- Change alignment and adjustment of sanding, cutting, or boring machine guides to prevent defects in finished products, using hand tools.
- Select knives, saws, blades, cutter heads, cams, bits, or belts, according to workpiece, machine functions, or product specifications.
- Attach and adjust guides, stops, clamps, chucks, or feed mechanisms, using hand tools.
||Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Remove defective or substandard materials from machines, and readjust machine components so that products meet standards.
- Select and install machine components, such as cutting blades, rollers, and templates, according to specifications, using hand tools.
- Type instructions on computer keyboards, push buttons to activate computer programs, or manually set cutting guides, clamps, and knives.
- Change or replace saw blades, cables, cutter heads, and grinding wheels, using hand tools.
- Position width gauge blocks between blades, and level blades and insert wedges into frames to secure blades to frames.
||Lathe and Turning Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Position, secure, and align cutting tools in toolholders on machines, using hand tools, and verify their positions with measuring instruments.
- Select cutting tools and tooling instructions, according to written specifications or knowledge of metal properties and shop mathematics.
- Move controls to set cutting speeds and depths and feed rates, and to position tools in relation to workpieces.
- Install holding fixtures, cams, gears, and stops to control stock and tool movement, using hand tools, power tools, and measuring instruments.
- Mount attachments, such as relieving or tracing attachments, to perform operations, such as duplicating contours of templates or trimming workpieces.
||Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Install, align, and lock specified punches, dies, cutting blades, or other fixtures in rams or beds of machines, using gauges, templates, feelers, shims, and hand tools.
- Turn controls to set cutting speeds, feed rates, or table angles for specified operations.
- Set blade tensions, heights, and angles to perform prescribed cuts, using wrenches.
- Select, clean, and install spacers, rubber sleeves, or cutters on arbors.
||Milling and Planing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Select cutting speeds, feed rates, and depths of cuts, applying knowledge of metal properties and shop mathematics.
- Move controls to set cutting specifications, to position cutting tools and workpieces in relation to each other, and to start machines.
- Select and install cutting tools and other accessories according to specifications, using hand tools or power tools.
- Mount attachments and tools, such as pantographs, engravers, or routers, to perform other operations, such as drilling or boring.
||Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood
- Adjust saw blades, using wrenches and rulers, or by turning handwheels or pressing pedals, levers, or panel buttons.
- Mount and bolt sawing blades or attachments to machine shafts.
- Set up, operate, or tend saws or machines that cut or trim wood to specified dimensions, such as circular saws, band saws, multiple-blade sawing machines, scroll saws, ripsaws, or crozer machines.
- Select saw blades, types or grades of stock, or cutting procedures to be used, according to work orders or supervisors' instructions.
||Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Determine setup procedures and select machine dies and parts, according to specifications.
- Install dies, machine screws, and sizing rings on machines that extrude thermoplastic or metal materials.
- Change dies on extruding machines according to production line changes.
- Select nozzles, spacers, and wire guides, according to diameters and lengths of rods.
||Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Install dies onto machines or presses and coat dies with parting agents, according to work order specifications.
- Obtain and move specified patterns to work stations, manually or using hoists, and secure patterns to machines, using wrenches.
- Select and install blades, tools, or other attachments for each operation.
||Pressers, Textile, Garment, and Related Materials
- Select appropriate pressing machines, based on garment properties such as heat tolerance.
- Select, install, and adjust machine components, including pressing forms, rollers, and guides, using hoists and hand tools.
||Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Select and install machine components, such as dies, molds, and cutters, according to specifications, using hand tools and measuring devices.
- Install, align, and adjust neck rings, press plungers, and feeder tubes.
||Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, and Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Select machine tooling to be used, using knowledge of machine and production requirements.
- Mount and position tools in machine chucks, spindles, or other tool holding devices, using hand tools.
||Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Install attachments to machines for gluing, folding, printing, or cutting.
- Measure, space, and set saw blades, cutters, and perforators, according to product specifications.
||Drilling and Boring Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Select and set cutting speeds, feed rates, depths of cuts, and cutting tools, according to machining instructions or knowledge of metal properties.
- Install tools in spindles.
||Tool Grinders, Filers, and Sharpeners
- Select and mount grinding wheels on machines, according to specifications, using hand tools and applying knowledge of abrasives and grinding procedures.
- Compute numbers, widths, and angles of cutting tools, micrometers, scales, and gauges, and adjust tools to produce specified cuts.
||Rolling Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Position, align, and secure arbors, spindles, coils, mandrels, dies, and slitting knives.
- Select rolls, dies, roll stands, and chucks from data charts to form specified contours and to fabricate products.
||Welding, Soldering, and Brazing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Select, position, align, and bolt jigs, holding fixtures, guides, or stops onto machines, using measuring instruments and hand tools.
- Select torch tips, alloys, flux, coil, tubing, or wire, according to metal types or thicknesses, data charts, or records.
||Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers
- Select and install torches, torch tips, filler rods, and flux, according to welding chart specifications or types and thicknesses of metals.
- Determine required equipment and welding methods, applying knowledge of metallurgy, geometry, and welding techniques.
||Forging Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Install, adjust, and remove dies, synchronizing cams, forging hammers, and stop guides, using overhead cranes or other hoisting devices, and hand tools.
- Select, align, and bolt positioning fixtures, stops, and specified dies to rams and anvils, forging rolls, or presses and hammers.
||Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians
- Select lens blanks, molds, tools, and polishing or grinding wheels, according to production specifications.
- Position and adjust cutting tools to specified curvature, dimensions, and depth of cut.


text:
Year in Review | June
The International Society for Contemporary Legend Research held its 21st Perspectives on Contemporary Legend International Conference at Sir Wilfred Grenfell College. The conference took place from June 25-28 and featured presentations on all aspects of "contemporary," "urban" or "modern" legend research by scholars from North America, Europe and beyond.
Dr. Alex Faseruk, Business, was one of eight recipients across the country to be awarded a 3M Teaching Fellowship June 12 in Vancouver, B.C., at the annual conference of the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. The award recognizes excellence in teaching over an extended period of time, principally at the undergraduate level and also acknowledges leadership in commitment to the improvement of university teaching within the candidate's own institution.
A Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) investment of $414,672 to Memorial was announced on June 18 in Ottawa. The awards were in support of four newly recruited faculty members. Dr. Christina Bottaro, Chemistry, was awarded $44,288 for a capillary electrophoresis system to aid in the analysis and identification of environmental pollutants. Dr. David Thompson, also in Chemistry, was awarded $151,576 for infrastructure to support research in the area of nanotechnology. Two researchers from the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Drs. Faisal Khan and George Mann, were also awarded funds. Dr. Khan was awarded $122,452 for a laboratory facility for process safety and risk management. Dr. Mann was awarded $96,356 for the development of Intelligent Systems Lab (ISLAB) for research in coordinated robotics.
The Marine Institute of Memorial University signed a $2.5 million agreement with Maersk Contractors Newfoundland Limited to train operations personnel for the White Rose floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel. MI will deliver its training program, specifically developed for the 78 crew members who will work onboard the vessel, beginning this fall. Crew members will undertake a wide-range of courses in marine safety, vessel operations, process simulation, maintenance, and process operations to prepare for their roles onboard the vessel. In total MI will deliver approximately 6,800 training days at its St. John's, Foxtrap and Southside Marine Base campuses, through classroom demonstrations, practical activities, in-water exercises and simulation scenarios.


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The specialist in medical oncology serves as a consultant to other physicians for patients with hematologic or oncologic disorders in an outpatient and/or hospital setting. The hematologist-medical oncologist is expert in history taking, physical examination, test interpretation, patient counseling and differential diagnosis and medical therapeutics. Interest in the care of patients with head and neck, and/or GI cancer is particularly desirable. VA providers work as part of a team to ensure Veterans receive the highest quality care. The ideal candidate will have a well-established track record of teamwork, timely responsiveness to Veteran and/or medical staff inquiries, and ownership of all Veterans under their care regardless of whether a trainee is also participating in the care. The practice of hematology-oncology is not delimited by the location in which a patient is seen and occurs in both inpatient and outpatient settings.
The preferred candidate will have a strong interest in palliative medicine and commit half their effort to participation on the multidisciplinary Palliative Care team tasked with Veteran care and program development. Service on the Palliative Care team includes consultation to other physicians for patients with life-limiting or serious advanced illnesses in an outpatient and/or hospital setting. The palliative medicine consultation function requires expertise in history taking, physical examination, test interpretation, patient counseling, communication skills/advance care planning and differential diagnosis and medical therapeutics. Palliative medicine consultation includes the evaluation and management of adults who have single or multiple disorders in all of the subspecialties in the broad field of medicine and specifically palliative medicine. The practice of palliative medicine is not delimited by the location in which a patient is seen and occurs in both inpatient and outpatient settings.
As assigned by the section Chief, clinical duties for this position will include:
- Continuity outpatient clinics
- Precepting residents and fellows in clinic
- Inpatient hematology and/or medical oncology consult service attending
- Creation and management of templates and order sets to facilitate non-face to face care (Consults, e-consultation)
- Completion of hematology and/or medical oncology E-consults
- Inpatient and outpatient palliative medicine consult service attending
- Indirect patient care: returning telephone calls, responding to patient emails, reviewing and renewing prescriptions, reviewing laboratory and imagine data, communicating results to patients, and implementing improved quality in systems delivery
Functional Statement Title: Adult Internal Medicine Physician/Medical Oncology, Division of Hospital and Specialty Medicine
Work Schedule: Day Tour plus on-call hours
* Must be a Citizen of the United States
* Must be proficient in written and spoken English
* Must possess a degree of doctor of medicine or an equivalent degree resulting from a course of education in medicine or osteopathic medicine
* Must hold a current, full and unrestricted license to practice medicine or surgery in a State, Territory, or Commonwealth of the United States, or in the District of Columbia
* Completion of a three year Internal Medicine residency in good standing
* Completed a fellowship in joint Hematology/Medical Oncology in good standing
* Be eligible to take, or have passed, the certifying examinations in hematology and medical oncology of the American Board of Internal Medicine
* Demonstrated a strong interest in palliative care
Reference: VA Regulations, specifically VA Handbook 5005, Part II, Appendix G-2 Physician Qualification Standard. This can be found in the local Human Resources Office.
The position will require walking, standing or sitting for periods of up to or beyond 10 to 12 hours each day.
Veterans' Preference: When applying for Federal Jobs, eligible Veterans should claim preference on the Occupational Questionnaire in the section provided and provide a legible copy of your DD214(s) and/or documentation related to your active duty service which shows dates of service, character of service (honorable, general, etc.), or dates of impending separation.
Additionally, disabled veterans and others eligible for 10-point preference (such as widows or mothers of eligible Veterans) must also submit an SF-15 "Application for 10 Point Veterans Preference" with required proof as stated on the form. For more information, please review the information for disabled Veterans in the application checklist or visit http://www.fedshirevets.gov/job/vetpref/index.aspx.
The following documents are required by all applicants: 1. Resume (required)
2. Signed10-2850, "Application for Associated Health Occupations (Revision Jul 2006) (http://www.va.gov/vaforms/medical/pdf/vha-10-2850-fill.pdf) (required)
3. Responses to the questionnaire (required)
4. Copy of your transcript: if you are using education to qualify.
5. Signed OF-306 "Declaration for Federal Employment" (Revision Oct 2011) (http://www.opm.gov/forms/pdf_fill/of0306.pdf) (required)Please note: ***The signed OF Form 306 must be the current version (Oct/2011) and dated with in the last six months of the closing date of the announcement.***
If a current or former Federal Employee:
In addition to the above please submit most recent non-award SF-50 (Displays grade, tenure and title. Federal employees may be able to access their SF-50 through the eOPF https://eopf.nbc.gov/va/)
If you are a preference eligible Veteran you need to include the following documents in addition to the above required documents:
6. SF-15, Application for 10-Point Veteran Preference, available at http://www.fedshirevets.gov/job/vetpref/index.aspx, if applicable
7. Veteran Administration Letter of Disability Rating, If applicable.
8. DD Form 214 (Member 4 copy) Showing Type of Discharge
Any other documents required by the checklist.
All applicants are required to submit the following supporting document type(s):
*Other(VA Form 10-2850 Application for Physicians )
Applicants may also submit the following supporting document type(s),which may not be required for all applicants:
*Other Veterans Document
Faxing Applications or Supporting Documents:
You are encouraged to apply online. Applying online will allow you to review and track the status of your application.
NOTE: If you applied online and your application is complete, do not fax the paper application (1203FX) as this will overwrite your prior online responses and may result in you being found ineligible.
If you completed the occupational questionnaire online and are unable to upload supporting document(s):
1.To fax your documents, you must use the following cover page http://staffing.opm.gov/pdf/usascover.pdf and provide the required information. The Vacancy ID is TAG:VacancyID.
2.Fax your documents to 1-478-757-3144.
If you cannot complete the Application Package online, you may fax all of your materials. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (EST) on TAG:Closing Date to receive consideration. Keep a copy of your fax confirmation in the event verification is needed.
To complete the occupational questionnaire and submit via fax:
1.Click the following link to view and print the occupational questionnaire TAG:Link to Full Questionnaire.
2.Print the 1203FX form, follow the instructions and provide your responses to the occupational questionnaire items http://www.opm.gov/forms/pdfimage/opm1203fx.pdf.
3.Fax the completed 1203FX form along with any supporting documents to 1-478-757-3144. Your 1203FX will serve as a cover page for your fax transmission.

domain: medical


Southtown by P.O.D. - Digital Sheet Music
At a Glance
This arrangement is comprised of the main guitar riffs written in standard notation, with chords and complete spoken lyrics.
* This arrangement contains complete lyrics
* This product is available worldwide
The Arrangement Details Tab gives you detailed information about this particular arrangement of Southtown - not necessarily the song.
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text:
The Hunt for Pancho Villa: The Columbus Raid and Pershing's Punitive Expedition 1916-17 (Paperback)
The Columbus Raid and Pershing's Punitive Expedition 1916-17
Osprey Publishing (UK), 9781849085687, 80pp.
Publication Date: March 20, 2012
About the Author
Praise For The Hunt for Pancho Villa: The Columbus Raid and Pershing's Punitive Expedition 1916-17…
"Military historian Alejandro De Quesada delivers an absorbing account of Villa's reasons for invading the United States ... the author's text is accompanied by detailed maps, grerat photographs and drawings of the personalities, weapons and equipment each side used at that time."
--Al Hemingway, Military Heritage (October 2012)
" I utterly enjoyed The Hunt for Pancho Villa. Photos, annotations, maps, sidebars, illustrations and index augment this enthralling effort. Read it with OSPREY's equally interesting The Mexican Revolution 1910-20 (Elite 137). Robustly recommended."
--David L. Veres, www.cybermodeler.com


King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa inspected the Russian aircraft SSJ 100, which is presented at the air show BIAS-2018 in Bahrain, and drew attention to the large luggage compartments of the aircraft.
“For the region, as it turned out, the volume of luggage compartments is also important. Today, the King of Bahrain specifically showed how large the SSJ 100 is in terms of luggage compartments and shelves, a comfortable and convenient aircraft, which turned out to be just as important for the region than for Russia. Everything our counterparts pay attention to this”, said the president of the company Sukhoi Civil Aircraft, Alexander Rubtsov.
The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, took part in the inspection of the Russian plane along with the King of Bahrain, who flew to the exhibition at the invitation of his authorities.
The Sukhoi Superjet 100, also known by its abbreviation SSJ100, is a fly-by-wire twin-engine regional jet with 8 (VIP) to 108 (all economy) passenger seats. Sukhoi claims cash operational costs lower by 8-10% than competitors, reduced fuel burn per seat and higher maintenance intervals. It is designed to compete internationally with its An-148, Embraer E-Jet and Airbus A220 counterparts.
The final assembly of the Superjet 100 is done by Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association. Its SaM-146 engines are designed and produced by the French-Russian PowerJet joint venture and the aircraft is marketed internationally by the Italian-Russian SuperJet International joint venture.


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In the first of a series of exclusive interviews, the head of government’s ‘Digital HQ’ talks to PublicTechnology about the Central Digital and Data Office’s work to unlock £8bn of digital investment, engage with departmental leaders, and deliver definitively great services
PublicTechnology is delighted to be working alongside the Central Digital and Data Office to gain insights from some of government’s most prominent senior leaders, looking at their, and their department’s digital and data priorities and challenges.
Over the coming weeks and months, CDDO chief executive Megan Lee Devlin will talk to a range of figures including Sir Ian Diamond at the Office of National Statistics, HM Treasury’s head of the Government Finance Function Cat Little and Jo Farrar about her time as Second Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice.
This series of interviews – the Digital Leaders’ Download – will be published regularly on PublicTechnology, covering topics that include what it means to be a leader, plans for service transformation, as well as the difficulties posed by legacy technology and upskilling civil servants.
To kick off the series, we met with Lee Devlin to discuss CDDO’s work implementing government’s digital and data strategy, its ambitions to raise standards across the most significant citizen services, and the importance of gaining the support of senior leaders in government outside of the DDaT profession.
The Central Digital and Data Office, which was spun out of the Government Digital Service (GDS) in 2021, was created to spearhead digital transformation in government, and is responsible for the government’s Transforming for a Digital Future Roadmap 2025.
The kind of digital transformation described in the strategy has long been taking place beyond the boundaries of the Cabinet Office – home to both CDDO and GDS; across the civil service, the DDaT profession is now comprised of 27,000 people, the vast majority of whom are employed by departments and other government agencies.
Their work is typically now much better understood, appreciated – and scrutinised – by colleagues in other disciplines, as well as by senior leaders and ministers.
Or, as CDDO chief executive Megan Lee Devlin puts it: “It’s become increasingly clear over the last five or so years – including in government – that digital is everyone’s business.”
This can necessitate a different, collaborative, approach to pushing forward government’s digital ambitions.
“What we’re fundamentally trying to do in CDDO is make sure that we’re not just working with our community of brilliant technologists within the digital, data and technology community, but work with the various different business components of government – whether that’s policy teams, operational teams, or commercial, project delivery, or finance teams – to ensure that we have the right capabilities and the conditions in place for digital transformation to be achieved,” the CDDO CEO adds. “This is a shift away from digital being a disruptive force, to being collaborative partners that help to translate the government priorities into digitally enabled tools, solutions and services.”
Such collaboration is evidenced by the creation and delivery to date of the Transforming for a Digital Future strategy – which was published last year, and sets out objectives for the three-year period to 2025.
CDDO developed the strategy in concert with a Digital and Data Board of permanent secretaries – six of whom also act as named ‘sponsors’ for the sextet of core missions set out in the roadmap. The board meets every three months to track the progress in implementing the strategy.
Lee Devlin tells PublicTechnology of the importance of this senior support.
“Leaders are absolutely crucial in delivering our aims to transform HMG,” she says. “There are three core roles that leaders play in supporting this agenda; first, putting the conditions and culture in place for their teams to operate effectively – whether that be to experiment, or to operate iteratively using agile principles, or to work in a multidisciplinary team to deliver outcomes that improve the lives and livelihoods of the public. The second, is making sure that they have the right capabilities in their teams, whether development skills, core tech capabilities or analytical skills. And then, thirdly, leaders play a crucial role in role modelling curiosity about new and emerging technologies, and different ways of working, and their potential impact on government and the communities we serve.”
The CDDO chief executive says that these roles – enabling “great digital practices, a focus on data-backed outcomes and impact and a culture focused on learning and curiosity” – are the same that she tries to embody as a leader.
In its capacity of leading the rollout of the three-year digital strategy, the first of the six missions CDDO is delivering is to create “transformed public services that achieve the right outcomes”.
This includes a commitment – perhaps the centrepiece of the strategy – that, by 2025, at least 50 of government’s 75 most widely used and critical services will have achieved a defined ‘great’ standard.
“In CDDO we are effectively ‘Digital HQ for Government’ and so advocating for digital, data and technology and translating the priorities of government into our functional priorities, is a core part of that.”
This definition will be met if a service is rated highly enough against a range of measurements, which Lee Devlin says will be based on “industry-standard metrics”, and will cover two key areas: usability and efficiency.
“In terms of usability, we look at measures like digital completion rates, and customer satisfaction. In terms of efficiency, we look at cost-to-serve and other indicators around automation of operational processes,” she adds. “We are taking best practices from the private sector – and indeed great practices from across government – and scaling those to measure service performance over time. It also provides a very valuable way of making that link between the activities of digital teams day to day and the business outcomes that they’re delivering – and how that’s improving outcomes for the public while ensuring that we’re achieving value for money on taxpayer funds.”
The other missions include: supporting departments’ adoption of the new government-wide One Login system; improving the quality of data and its use in decision-making; boosting the security of technology infrastructure and tackling legacy IT; building digital skills across government; and addressing procedural and structural barriers to transformation – including funding and business-case processes.
These missions were embarked on 11 months ago. As CDDO prepares to provide a one-year update on progress so far, its chief executive says that work to date has focused on “putting the conditions and foundations in place to enable teams in all corners of government to deliver”.
Examples of such foundations being laid include the launch of core elements of the One Login programme and working with service owners to establish the baseline performance of the top 75 services, so as to measure progress over time, Lee Devlin says.
“Similarly in the data space – where one of our core commitments is that critical data assets will be made available for government departments – we’ve been working with teams across government to identify at a whole-of-government level what our critical assets are, and establishing the routes to making them available. We’re building out the central enablers needed to see that delivered,” the CDDO chief adds.
“Another example of that – one that I’m particularly proud of – is in the legacy space, where we’ve made a commitment that all of our red-rated legacy systems will have plans for remediation by 2025. And in the first couple of months, we identified our highest-risk legacy systems across government and are working to ensure that funding that was awarded through the 2021 spending review is being prioritised accordingly.”
That spending review – government’s first full three-year funding round since 2015 – saw CDDO work closely with HM Treasury to help set levels of support for programmes and operations across departments. A total of £8bn was ultimately committed to enable digital transformation, investment in tech infrastructure, and remediation of cyber risks.
“In CDDO we are effectively ‘Digital HQ for Government’ and so advocating for digital, data and technology and translating the priorities of government into our functional priorities, is a core part of that, ” Lee Devlin says.
Year in which CDDO was spun out of GDS
Number of government’s 75 foremost services that will have met a ‘great’ standard by 2025
Amount committed in 2021 spending review to support digital transformation and address cyber risk
Number of DDaT professionals across government
Collaborating closely with the Treasury and engaging with permanent secretaries helps make good on an ambition to be “a force multiplier” for digital and data across government.
This objective – which is also supported by convening networks of departmental leaders in DDaT disciplines – is one of three core roles fulfilled by CDDO, according to the chief executive.
Another key strand of the organisation’s remit is to lead the DDaT function by setting and maintaining standards for departments’ use of technology and data, as well providing a short- and long-term overarching vision for government digital and data.
“The third role that we play is really around people,” Lee Devlin says. “That is about building digital skills and capabilities, both within the 27,000 digital makers in government, and beyond the function – to the half a million civil servants, to ensure they have a great foundational level of understanding of how to use digital and data – particularly in a world of generative AI and all of the interesting trends we’ve seen recently. That includes making sure our cadre of senior civil servants have the right understanding of the digital environment, and the skills and expertise to be able to lead great digital teams effectively.”
Among the commitments set out in the three-year strategy is a pledge to ensure that 90% of all senior officials can demonstrate the skills set out in government’s Digital, Data and Technology Essentials guidance. CDDO’s upskilling efforts also include the new Digital Excellence Programme – a training scheme, which just concluded a pilot in which 300 members of the SCS learnt how to build a culture that is supportive of transformation and makes the most of data.
Lee Devlin says that this focus on digital from government’s senior leaders will only increase as the power and the profile of technology continues to grow – characterised by ever-more eye-catching uses of artificial intelligence and automation.
“I think what generative AI has shown us is that exciting technology can become available at a scale in timescales that we previously couldn’t imagine. And with that comes more excitement than ever on the power of technology to transform the way that we work,” she adds. “We’re all acutely aware of the pace with which technology is moving. The fact that generative AI is doubling in strength every 59 days, means that putting the conditions, capability and culture in place to achieve government’s transformation aims is not nice to have – it is an imperative.”
PublicTechnology will publish the first in our Digital Leaders’ Download series next week, featuring an exclusive conversation between Megan Lee Devlin and Jo Farrar, the former Second Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Justice – whose brief included HM Prison and Probation Service, the Office of the Public Guardian, Legal Aid Agency and Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority.
Keep a close eye out for the interview, which covers pioneering efforts to eliminate technical debt, the transformative impact of technology for prisoners – and her memories of sharing her first government computer with 20 colleagues.
In the coming weeks and months, we will be publishing interviews with a wide range of senior leaders from organisations including HM Treasury, the Ministry of Defence, HMRC, and the Office for National Statistics.

domain: politics


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How will new home construction in Prince Edward County affect housing prices in the years to come?
The big news in the first quarter of 2019 is that new construction is impacting County real estate, a trend which will continue for years to come.
The number of re-sale homes actively listed during the first quarter of 2019 grew by 11% over the year before. This growth in supply is welcome news for buyers, but it’s only part of the story.
When listings for new home construction are included, total listings are up 68% over last year.
New Attitude to Development
Until recently, new construction had a limited effect on the supply of homes in the County. Developers had complained for years about the excessive costs and delays to build in the County. That changed to a significant degree under the last (pro-development) Council.
As a result, development has increased markedly. Based on the developments announced so far, there are more than 1,500 new residences at various stages in the planning process. (More on this in a later article.)
Even if only a thousand of these units are actually built over the next ten years, that’s still 100 new homes a year which must get sold. To put that in context, the County is a small market with around 500 home sales in a good year.
New Home Listings
Three developments currently have shovels in the ground, and these new homes have started to show up on the market. During the first quarter of 2019 there were an average of 109 active MLS listings for new construction, up from a handful at the same time last year.
Most of the MLS listings for new construction are actually for homes that haven’t been built yet. As a result, the flood of these new construction listings has a smaller consumer impact than the numbers would suggest.
Still, this is the start of a flood of new construction listings which will add to the housing supply in the County. If development proceeds as planned, new construction will affect housing prices for years to come and potentially limit the increase in real estate values.
Given the weakness in the Toronto market, it not surprising that the demand for County real estate has moderated. Sales of re-sale homes fell by 4% compared to the same time last year. However, when sales of new construction are included, total sales were up 4% compared to last year.
Days on Market
With re-sale listings up 11%, and total listings (resale and new construction) up 68% over last year, supply is growing much faster than demand. As a result, homes stayed on the market 46% longer than in the first quarter of 2018.
Selling to Listing Price Ratio
Despite the increase in supply, County homes continued to fetch, on average, 98% of listing price, effectively unchanged from last year.
The fact the ratio stayed the same may seem surprising. Rapid growth of supply would normally strengthen the buyers’ position, leading to a deeper “discount” from listing price. In this case, the ratio may have stayed the same because sellers have become more realistic in the prices they are asking for.
The median price for all homes (re-sale and new construction) sold in the first quarter was down $4,000 from last year. This is the same median price for the first quarter in 2017.
Demand is up slightly; listings are up more (much more if you include new construction). Houses are taking longer to sell, but prices are largely unchanged from last year.
Top image credit: Jun Zhang
Treat Hull spent three decades as a management consultant and marketing executive before moving to the County and taking up real estate. He is broker/owner of Treat Hull & Associates Ltd., a Prince Edward County brokerage which takes no listings and represents only buyers.