text:
A lightweight, efficient paddle machine.
Give ocean waves, lakes, and calm rivers a good old-fashioned spanking with the Werner's Spanker Stand-Up Paddle. This buoyant, lightweight one-piece paddle features a full-size tear-drop-shaped blade for a smooth easy stroke and gentle power. Plus, its low-cadence blade offers immediate power and improves tracking efficiency while you paddle across the bay or from island to island.
- Full-size tear-drop-shaped blade offers power and a smooth, easy stroke for well-conditioned paddlers
- Light swing weight reduces fatigue and makes paddling more fun
- Carbon weave construction supplies the lightest weight-to-strength ratio and gives the Spanker a lighter, buoyant feel on the water
- Dihedral blade design offers smooth forward stokes, while a ribless back provides smooth sculling strokes
- Lightweight, stiff, and durable carbon shaft adds comfort and control
- Enhanced ABS palm-grip for maximum control and greater grip and durability
- For surf paddling, add 8in to your height to determine the correct paddle length
- For touring or cruising, add 10in to your height to determine the correct paddle length

domain: design


text:
Software development has evolved via structured model creation. As we progress further in the 21st-century digital world, applications that require software models to be created are also requiring those models created to be adaptive, iterative and sufficient documentation of the coding involved. A new approach to software development termed as the agile software development began at the start of the 21st century. It along with similar programs emerged to address the dynamic nature of work in various sectors like e-commerce, health, retail, finance, insurance, etc that traditional models of software were finding difficult to provide solutions.
Clinical research has emerged as a 21st-century sector that is at the interface of health, pharmaceutical research, new drugs, and treatments along with the inclusion of software models to help with the vast data banks associated with clinical research. Software model adoption by the clinical research industry is important for both financial reasons and also efficiency reasons. By efficiency reasons what is meant is that software models enable quicker research timings in the lab during primary drug development research and help in storing and managing large patient information databases among others.
While traditional models of software have to an extent been able to help clinical research processes, reduce costs, manage patient information, help drug development research, they have not been able to adapt to real-time changes during the clinical research processes like clinical trials. Requirements for a trial may change during the process and associated software models need to be responsive and appropriate change.
An agile approach to clinical research processes like clinical trials or clinical monitoring need not only be through software models. It can also be a change in conventional modes of responding to events in a clinical trial or drug development. For instance, interactions between those who develop software models for clinical research can interact with clinical research professionals on a real-time basis for better input in designing more efficient software programs that are dynamic and adaptive.
Traditionally in clinical studies, randomization and trial supply management (RTSM) help randomly allocate patients to a trial and ensure that an adequate and balanced trial design has been created. Also, it ensures that trial supplies are provided wherever necessary in the required amounts. Clinical trial protocols are electronically developed using plan driven models that again follow the conventional waterfall method. But the problem with an approach like the waterfall method is that only after the first step in the model was completely satisfied with the system progress to the next step. A sudden change in the requirements at step 1 is difficult for the traditional system to address. Hence agile methods will prove to be a game changer in addressing the dynamic nature of clinical research processes. Some of the advantages that an agile approach can provide clinical research are as follows:
- An agile approach is able to develop a high-quality clinical trial software (CTS) system that was well within the budget and did not require additional resources.
- Since trial or study protocol design is accomplished comparatively quickly, there is less waiting time between steps and the research team can focus more on solving problems rather than spending disproportionate amounts of time in micromanaging protocol design and its customizations.
- Development of a dynamic CTS that stores and manages trial data will offer multiple financial benefits for the organizations conducting clinical trials.
- An agile approach promises faster project completion of a clinical study. While traditional studies may take around 8 weeks to complete, an agile clinical study system can reduce the duration to 5 weeks from the beginning of study protocol to patient responses.
- Patients have diverse needs within a trial or study even after a standardized protocol is designed and applied. An agile approach can help in designing protocols that are standardized yet can accommodate specific needs of patients without customizing too much.
- A reduced customization also helps in reducing costs associated with the designing the trial or study and improves the time in which they are designed. This helps lower the overall time taken by a clinical trial or study to complete.
- Since the agile approach makes the CTS flexible and easy to understand and follow, the clinical research sponsors need not always be micro-managing and assuming the role of project managers. Engineers or primary investigators can take charge of the CTS too thus improving efficiency.
- An agile model allows for faster problem resolution because people directly involved in the trial are also able to manage and monitor the CTS.
- Agile risk-based monitoring is enabled by an agile approach due to the presence of a multivariable model and the comprehensive metrics used in monitoring patient safety and data quality.
- An agile method also helps in recruitment of patients for participation in trials or studies. The easy to understand flexible model can help sponsors attract the right volunteers with their full consent.

domain: medical


text: One of my clients has asked me to design a book as a gift for one of her friends. The book will consist of around 20-30 pages of poetry. She has given me free reign on how to design the book both visually and physically. My idea is to use something along the lines of 200x200mm with very heavy front/back covers and some card for each of the pages. However, I really don't want to just get it digitally printed as I think it'd ruin the handmade feel that I'm trying to go for. I would happily hand write the poems myself, but some of them are quite long and my handwriting is not the best, nor am I any sort of calligrapher. It'd be great to use lithography, but I'm not really sure if that would be out of the client's price range of around Â£150 (including my own costs). I don't mind making the book myself in terms of front/back covers and I can take care of the binding too, but I would really like to do something special with each page of poetry in terms of how it's printed. I'm just wondering if anyone has any advice for this type of project and if there are any printers out there who can give me some rough costs for litho printing 20-30 pages of 200x200mm. Thanks for your help.

domain: hobby


text:
Check out this upcoming feature film, "Rickshaw Girl," the first-ever US/Bangladeshi co-production, based on the acclaimed novel by Mitali Perkins. My friend Eric Adams is one of the producers, who is aiming for a Cannes premiere and a summer release! rickshawgirlmovie.com
@virtualDavis I will certainly enjoy that as well!
Definitely on my reading list! twitter.com/virtualDavis/s…
© Laura Carroll and lauracarroll.com, 2016. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this sites author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Laura Carroll and lauracarroll.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

domain: artistic


YORK COUNTY, (FOX 46) - Tired of the congestion problems in York County? Turns out so is York County Council. Tuesday night council members voted to move forward with a new "Thoroughfare Plan" that would help do just that.
"I grew up in Tega Cay on a two lane street and it was in and out. Now, about from 12 to 8 in the evening it is backed up entirely," Long time York County resident Corbin Payne said.
"It's bad enough to where I leave usually about an hour to an hour and half earlier to get anywhere, I’m just sure to be early, so I don't have to deal with it," Fort Mill resident Andrew Platt said
The County Council is now in contract negotiations with a consulting service out of Columbia to help them create a "Thoroughfare Plan" to hopefully fix the problem. According to county officials, the plan will look at areas where new roads can be put in and other options.
"I do think side roads might help but it has to connect to a bigger avenue of the roads," Payne said.
While their ideal goal would be to have the plan ready by the end of the year, it will take a few years to add the new roads.
"With the amount of time that it's going to take them to create these new roads, there is going to be an influx of more people, so once those roads are done, you are going to need more to bypass those roads," Platt said.
Others feel it's the influx of new business and homes in the area the county should be looking into instead.
"I’d think it would be a smart to build the road first and do the construction second. It seems they are doing things backwards," Gibbons Pender, works in York county, said.
Most people FOX 46 Charlotte spoke with say while they are happy to hear the county is working on fixing the problem but they aren't very hopeful this "Thoroughfare Plan" will solve the traffic issues.
"They aren't going to be able to it efficiently or cost efficient either," Platt said.
"It has to work. You have to have a good plan, and you got to make sure you follow through with it," Payne said.


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Raise your hand if you have a 45-0 record in muay thai. If your hand is raised and your name is not Germaine De Randamie then you need to get the hell out of Asgard. Nine people on this earth understood that joke, and two of them are in jail, bummer. If we ever get the chance to interview Germaine, we would like to know how it was like being raised on the planet Krypton. Normal humans can’t even comprehend attempting something 45 times and succeeding every time. Try going to class 45 times in a row without being late. I don’t think there’s been a single moment in my life where I’ve had 45 consecutive daily showers. My old roommate can take 45 shots of beer in a row, that’s pretty impressive. 45 shots shortly followed by projectile vomit erupting out of his head much like a fire hydrant in a Spike Lee movie spews water on kids playing on the streets of New York. Except in this case, New York can be replaced with my living room and ‘kids playing on the street’ can also be replaced with ‘the three hot chicks that lived upstairs’.
Although Germaine De Randamie has a muay thai record that would even make a member of X-Men proud, she still has yet to make her Strikeforce debut which has been highly rumored for years. She’s been training with Bas Rutten in the fundamentals of ground defense (and the liver punch), and according to Damon Martin at MMAWeekly, she will finally make her Strikeforce debut on January 29th against Stephanie Webber.
With a name like Germaine De Randamie, you would expect her to be clad in chain-mail, riding an Arabian horse into battle. Instead she gets in the ring with guys and knocks them out. Yeah, she knocks dudes out! Germaine will be making her debut on the same card that features two Strikeforce title fights — and even a Herschel Walker celebrity appearance. [Source]


JF-17 Thunder (CAC/PAC)
The PAC JF-17 Thunder (Urdu: جے ایف-١٧ گرج), or CAC FC-1 Xiaolong (pinyin: Xiāo Lóng; lit.: ‘Fierce Dragon’), is a lightweight, single-engine, multi-role combat aircraft developed jointly by the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) and the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC) of China. It was designed to replace the A-5C, F-7P/PG, Mirage III, and Mirage V combat aircraft in the Pakistan Air Force.
The JF-17 can be used for multiple roles, including interception, ground attack, anti-ship, and aerial reconnaissance. Its designation “JF-17” by Pakistan is short for “Joint Fighter-17”, while the designation and name “FC-1 Xiaolong” by China means “Fighter China-1 Fierce Dragon”.
The JF-17 can deploy diverse ordnance, including air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles, and a 23 mm GSh-23-2 twin-barrel autocannon. Powered by a Guizhou WS-13 or Klimov RD-93 afterburning turbofan, it has a top speed of Mach 1.6.
The JF-17 is to become the backbone of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), complementing the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon at half the cost. The PAF inducted its first JF-17 squadron in February 2010. In 2015 Pakistan produced 16 JF-17s. As of 2016, Pakistan is believed to have the capacity to produce 25 JF-17 per year. 58% of the airframe is Pakistani and 42% Chinese/Russian-origin.
As of December 2016 Pakistan Aeronautical Complex has manufactured 70 jets in the country for use by the Pakistan Air Force of the Block 1 type, and 33 jets of the Block 2 type.
The Pakistan Air Force plans, by 2017, to induct a twin-seater version known as the JF-17B for both enhanced operational capability and training. Preparations for a more advanced and technologically sophisticated block III version of the aircraft are underway and the AESA radar, KJ-7A, has been developed, which can track 15 targets and engage 4 targets simultaneously.
Since its induction in 2011, the JF-17 Thunder has accumulated 19,000 hours of operational flight. The JF-17 has seen active military service as it is used by the Pakistan Air Force to bomb militant positions in North Waziristan, using both unguided munitions and guided missiles for precision strike capability.
The JF-17 was primarily developed to meet the Pakistan Air Force requirement for an affordable, modern, multi-role combat aircraft as a replacement for its large fleet of Dassault Mirage III/5 fighters, Nanchang A-5 bombers, and Chengdu F-7 interceptors, with a cost of US$500 million, divided equally between China and Pakistan. The aircraft was also intended to have export potential as a cost-effective and competitive alternative to more expensive Western fighters. The development of this aircraft was headed by Yang Wei, who is considered China’s “ace designer”. Yang also designed the Chengdu J-20.
By 1989, because of economic sanctions by the US, Pakistan had abandoned Project Sabre II, a design study involving US aircraft manufacturer Grumman and China, and had decided to redesign and upgrade the Chengdu F-7. In the same year, China and Grumman started a new design study to develop the Super 7, another redesigned Chengdu F-7. Grumman left the project when sanctions were placed on China following the political fallout from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. After Grumman left the Chengdu Super 7 project, the Fighter China project was launched in 1991. In 1995, Pakistan and China signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for joint design and development of a new fighter, and over the next few years worked out the project details. In June 1995, Mikoyan had joined the project to provide “design support”, this also involved the secondment of several engineers by CAC.
JF-17 vs Rafale
The JF-17 Thunder block 3 and 4 will have same tech as China’s J-20 Stealth fighter jet.
These include a new and larger holographic wide-angle head-up display and integrated cockpit display comparable to the one used by the J-20, in addition to an advanced infrared missile approach warning system used by J-20 fighter jets.
Analysts said the new additions to the JF-17 can give pilots more situational awareness, permitting them to concentrate more on combat instead of flying the aircraft. In March 2019, Yang Wei, chief designer of the fighter jet, said development and production of the JF-17 Block 3 were underway, and the third block will see the JF-17’s information-based warfare capability and weapons enhanced.
The reports regarding the deployment of longer-ranged Chinese PL-15 missiles on an upgraded JF-17 jet have caused anxiety in the Indian Air Force. Global Times earlier reported that the upgraded JF-17 will host an infrared search and track system along with a cross-section radar that lessens the pseudo-stealthy airframe. The PL-15’s beyond visual range missile has reportedly also caused serious worry in the Pentagon.
“China has made a large amount of achievements in the development of the likes of the J-10 and J-20, resulting in many mature technologies and equipment… If they can be used on the JF-17, the pilot could enjoy a significant efficiency increase in flying, which will also boost its combat efficiency,” Wang said.
Analysts said the new additions to the JF-17 can give pilots more situational awareness, allowing them to focus more on combat instead of flying the aircraft.
Another advantage of using mature commercial off-the-shelf technologies is their cost-efficiency, Wang said.
This JF-17 Block 3 prototype did not seem to be equipped with radar, although the JF-17 Block 3 is also expected to be fitted with an advanced active electronically scanned array radar system, according to the report.
The JF-17 Block 3 is the first major upgrade version to the JF-17. It is expected to enter Pakistan Air Force service, the Aerospace Knowledge wrote.
Potential Buyers of JF-17 Tunder Block 3
Various countries are interested in JF-17 Thunder Fighter Jet including Algeria, Ukraine, Argentina, Bulgaria, Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, Malaysia, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, South Africa and Uruguay have shown interest in the JF-17.
The Azerbaijani Air Forces negotiated with China for several dozen JF-17s worth approximately US$16 to 18 million each. The Sudanese Air Force was reportedly negotiating to buy twelve aircraft. The Air Force of Zimbabwe reportedly planned to purchase twelve JF-17s in 2004, as part of a $240 million deal with China. No such sales have materialized. In 2010, China was reportedly in talks about the JF-17 with five or six countries, some of which had sent pilots to China to undergo test flights.
Argentine officials at the 2013 Paris Air Show said they had discussed JF-17 co-production with Chinese officials, calling it the first formal effort potentially leading to the co-production of a modern Chinese fighter in Latin America. Fábrica Argentina de Aviones (FAdeA) officials said the co-produced FC-1 could be called the “Pulqui-III”, recalling FAdeA’s Pulqui-II, Latin America’s first swept wing jet fighter. On 15 February 2015, after a three-day visit to Beijing by Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Argentina completed negotiations to purchase twenty FC-1s from Chengdu Aircraft Corporation.
Pakistan F-16 Falcon vs JF-17 Thunder Airshow Display
In January 2014, the Royal Saudi Air Force was reportedly examining potential technology transfer and co-production opportunities for the JF-17. Saudi Defence Minister Prince Salman bin Sultan toured the JF-17 project during a visit to Pakistan.
In June 2015, Pakistani media suggested that an export order had been confirmed with the Sri Lanka Air Force; claims were made that the JF-17’s first sales contract had been signed with the Sri Lanka Air Force at the 51st Paris Air Show. Other sources claimed that Myanmar is the first buyer of Pakistani JF-17s. Reportedly, the order would cover around 18–24 aircraft and deliveries set to begin in 2017. During a state visit by Nawaz Sharif in January 2016, Sri Lanka reportedly signed an agreement to buy eight JF-17s from Pakistan; however, the Sri Lankan government has issued denials. The alleged deal was said to involve 10–12 aircraft, each valued at US$35 million, for a total of US$400 million Reportedly, any such sale was scuppered by Indian diplomatic pressure.
Morocco has shown interest in the JF-17, having invited a sales team to showcase it in the Marrakech Air Show 2016. According to a local analyst, a potential acquisition by Morocco may be complicated by incompatible technologies; the JF-17 Block I and Block II have broadly different electronics suites and air-to-air & air-to-surface munitions than its current Western-sourced aircraft, such as the Mirage F-1 (MF2000), F-5E/F Tiger II and Alpha Jet.
Specifications of JF-17 Block 2 and 3
Data from Pakistan Aeronautical Complex marketing brochure and official website
General characteristics JF-17 Thunder
- Crew: 1 (single-seat) or 2 (dual-seat)
- Length: 14.93 m (49 ft 0 in)
- Wingspan: 9.44 m (31 ft 0 in)
- Height: 4.77 m (15 ft 8 in)
- Wing area: 24.43 m2 (263.0 sq ft)
- Empty weight: 6,586 kg (14,520 lb)
- Max takeoff weight: 12,700 kg (27,999 lb)
- Fuel capacity: 2,330 kg (5,137 lb) internal fuel; 1 x 800 kg (1,764 lb) centre-line drop tank; 2 x 800 kg (1,764 lb) or 1,100 kg (2,425 lb) under-wing drop tanks
- Payload: 4,600 kg (10,100 lb) external stores
- Powerplant: 1 × Klimov RD-93MA afterburning turbofan with digital electronic engine control (DEEC), 50.4 kN (11,300 lbf) thrust dry, 85.6 kN (19,200 lbf) with afterburner
Performance JF-17 Thunder
- Maximum speed: 1,909 km/h (1,186 mph, 1,031 kn)
- Maximum speed: Mach 1.6
- Cruise speed: 1,359 km/h (844 mph, 734 kn)
- Stall speed: 150 km/h (93 mph, 81 kn)
- Range: 2,500 km (1,600 mi, 1,300 nmi)
- Combat range: 1,352 km (840 mi, 730 nmi)
- Ferry range: 3,500 km (2,200 mi, 1,900 nmi) with 3 external drop tanks
- Service ceiling: 16,500 m (54,100 ft)
- g limits: +8/–3 (limited by flight control system)
- Rate of climb: 300 m/s (59,000 ft/min)
- Thrust/weight: 0.95 with RD-93 (with 50% internal fuel and 2*SRAAM) ,0.97 with WS-13 engine
Armament JF-17 Thunder
- Guns: 1 × 23 mm GSh-23-2 twin-barrel cannon or 1 × 30 mm GSh-30-2 twin-barrel cannon
- Hardpoints: 7 (2 × wing-tip, 4 × under-wing, 1 × under-fuselage) with capacity for dual ejector racks on each under-wing hardpoint
- JF-17 Thunder Missiles:
- Air-to-air missiles JF-17 Thunder:
- PL-5EII (within visual range missile)
- PL-9C (WVR missile)
- AIM-9L/M Sidewinder (Short-range)
- PL-8 (Short-range)
- PL-15 ( Very Long range Beyond Visual range missile)
- R-Darter (beyond visual range missile)
- SD-10A (PL-12 export version) (beyond visual range missile)
- Air-to-surface missiles JF-17 Thunder:
- CM-102 (anti-radiation missile)
- LD-10 (anti-radiation missile)
- MAR-1 (anti-radiation missile)
- Ra’ad (Nuclear Stealth Cruise missile)
- Ra’ad MK-2 (Nuclear Stealth Cruise missile)
- Air-to-air missiles JF-17 Thunder:
- Anti-ship missiles JF-17 Thunder:
- C-802AK (anti-ship missile)
- Exocet (anti-ship missile)
- C-803 (sea skimming anti-ship missile)
- CM-400AKG (anti-ship missile)
- Anti-ship missiles JF-17 Thunder:
- Bombs in JF-17 Thunder:
- Unguided bombs:
- Mk-80(General-purpose bomb)
- Mk-82 (General-purpose bomb)
- Mk-83 (General-purpose bomb)
- Mk-84 (General-purpose bomb)
- 250 kg Pre-fragmented bomb
- Matra Durandal (Anti-runway bomb)
- AWC HAFR-2 (Anti-runway bomb)
- AWC HAFR-1 (Anti-runway bomb)
- AWC RPB-1 (Anti-runway bomb)
- CBU-99 (Anti-armour cluster bomb)
- CBU-100 Cluster Bomb (Anti-armour cluster bomb)
- Guided bombs:
- GBU-10 (Laser-guided bomb)
- GBU-12 (Laser-guided bomb)
- GBU-16 (Laser-guided bomb)
- LT-2 (Precision-guided bomb)
- JDAM (Precision-guided bomb)
- H-4 SOW Stand off weapon (Precision-guided glide bomb)
- H-2 SOW Stand off weapon (Precision-guided glide bomb)
- Takbir (GPS/INS guided glide bomb)
- LS-6 (GPS/INS guided bomb)
- Unguided bombs:
- Range Extension Kit (GPS/INS guided bomb)
- GDJ-II19 dual ejector rack
- Countermeasures (Flares, Chaff)
- Up to 3 external drop tanks (1 x 800 kg (1,764 lb) centre-line drop tank; 2 x 800 kg (1,764 lb) or 1,100 kg (2,425 lb) under-wing drop tanks) for extended range/loitering time
Avionics in JF-17 Thunder
- KLJ-7 v2 Airborne Pulse Doppler Fire-Control Radar ( Range-150 km for 3m2 RCS aircraft.)
- Northrop Grumman ALR-67 Rader Warning Recever (RWR)
- S740 Airborne Missile Approach Warning System (MAWS)
- Indra ALQ-500P Electronic Countermeasure (ECM)
- Link-17 Tactical Data Link
- MIL-STD-1760 data-bus
- Externally mounted avionics pods:
- Aselsan ASELPOD Advanced Targeting Pod Electro-Optical Reconnaissance, Surveillance, and Targeting System
- KG300G Airborne Self-Protection Jamming Pod
- KG600 Airborne Self-Protection Jamming Pod
- Forward-looking IRST pod
- WMD-7 Day/Night targeting pod
- KZ900 Electronic reconnaissance pod.
- Blue Sky (navigation pod) for low altitude navigational and attack


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In January 2020, at the very start of the pandemic, the New England Journal of Medicine published a letter that suggesting the possibility that covid could be spread by people who did not show any symptoms of the illness. This article was based on a single case report. Germany’s public health agency, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), later spoke with the person mentioned in the case report, who was supposedly the asymptomatic spreader, and she clarified that she did have symptoms encountering the second person mentioned in the article. So, this case report, published in one of the world’s most prestigious medical journals, was a false alarm. But no matter, the myth of asymptomatic spread was born.
On June 8, 2020, WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced that asymptomatic people could transmit covid. That same day, Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead for the covid pandemic, clarified that people who have covid without any symptoms “very rarely” transmit the disease to others. WHO then backtracked on their original alarmist statement one day later. Weeks later, Kerkhove was pressured by the public health establishment, including Harvard’s Global Health Institute, to backtrack on her statement that asymptomatic spread was very rare, claiming that the jury was still out. Her original claim that asymptomatic spread was not a driver of the pandemic was correct, as is now clear. Given that no respiratory virus in history was known to spread asymptomatically, this should not have surprised anyone.
But the damage was already done. The media ran with the asymptomatic threat story. The specter of people with no symptoms being potentially dangerous—which never had any scientific basis—turned every fellow citizen into a possible threat to one’s existence. We should notice the complete reversal that this effected in our thinking about health and illness. In the past, a person was assumed to be healthy until proven sick. If one missed work for a prolonged period, one needed a note from a doctor establishing an illness. During covid, the criteria was reversed: we began to assume that people were sick until proven healthy. One needed a negative covid test to return to work.
It would be hard to devise a better method than the widespread myth of asymptomatic spread combined with quarantining the healthy to destroy the fabric of society and to divide us. People who are afraid of everyone, who are locked down, who are isolated for months behind screens, are easier to control. A society grounded on “social distancing” is a contradiction—it’s a kind of anti-society. Consider what happened to us, consider the human goods we sacrificed to preserve bare life at all costs: friendships, holidays with family, work, visiting the sick and dying, worshipping God, burying the dead.
This is a very important subject. This horrible misinformation about asymptomatic spread has destroyed my relationship with my brother who lives 20 minutes away from me. I have not seen him in two years. He is triple jabbed & boosted & I am not. I am very healthy, I have not even had a cold in the last 5 years or maybe more. He’s afraid to be around me. I have tried to reason with him to no avail. Now we barely speak. I just sent him this column. Thank YOU for writing it. I doubt that it will do any good but it is nice to have someone that I respect tell the truth about how this lie became the truth. We are both alone in this world, it’s very sad what has been done to families. I once thought he was intelligent, I have a different opinion now. I also see that some people aren’t capable of love. P.S. I watched your interview with Dr. Drew Pinsky & enjoyed it very much. It was illuminating.
I am sharing this on Gettr and TruthSocial.
"Given that no respiratory virus in history was known to spread asymptomatically, this should not have surprised anyone." We're having a repeat of the natural immunity denial. Known and established science and public health practices suddenly and radically abandoned or discredited. Why? Presumed noble lies on behalf of a presumed greater good: a global vaccination campaign with an unproven vaccine that revealed itself as unable to prevent infection or stop transmission. A global campaign also to establish individual, person-level bio-tracking. Itself a venture of highly questionable merit, and one with extreme risk for abuse with no safeguards in place. Yet the lies continue, and the campaigns continue. Thank you for skillfully documenting this vital piece of recent history.


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ShepherdddModel Male Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
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By Sonia Khanna | September 30, 2019
One of the most-followed reality shows on the television, Bigg Boss is back with another exciting season. The premiere of the show happened last night and it was nothing short of a fantabulous. With power-pack performances to amusing antics, it offered it all. This year not only the theme is unique, but also the list of contestants is something to look out for. Besides several celebrities, one contestant is peculiarly gripping the viewers in large is Shehnaz Kaur Gill. The Punjabi model-turned-actress made a remarkable entry with some endearing dance moves on the popular Punjabi track. Attired in a white authentic Punjabi suit, she looked every bit of elegance.
As soon as, the sensational host of the show Salman Khan introduced her, she started expressing her feelings for the former. She also crooned few lines of the song ‘Dil Diyan Gallan’ for the superstar of Bollywood who shared a few dance steps as well. The actress also revealed being fondly known as ‘Punjab Ki Katrina Kaif’. When Salman tried to introduce her with one of the fellow inmates, she readily denied saying she will meet the latter and was rather interested tattling with the host of the show.
Further, the small competition carried out between her and the fellow contestant named Shefali Bagga, a news anchor. Humorous Shehnaz emerges out to be the winner and she got (Spiltsvilla participant) Paras Chhabra as her partner who will help the former in accomplishing the task of rationing items in the house.
On the first day, the Punjabi damsel was everything from blabbermouth, quirky, naughty to witty. And Salman’s sweet smile on her jests was fueling her confidence to another level. In all, the viewers are in awe of her personality and excitedly looking forward to the daily dose of entertainment!


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Honey is a natural sweetener. It is made by bees from the flowers of plants.
Foraging bees visit flower blossoms to suck the nectar into their long tongues and store it in their honey stomachs. When their honey stomachs are full (100 flowers yields a teaspoon of nectar), they return to the hive.
How it’s made
Honey starts as flower nectar, which contains sugars and scent chemicals produced by flowers to attract insect pollinators. Each droplet of nectar is sucked up by a bee through its long, straw-like tongue called a proboscis and stored in the first chamber of its stomach, where an enzyme named invertase breaks down the complex sugars into simple ones like glucose and fructose.
After the nectar has been reprocessed by the bee and stored, each cell of honey is capped with a layer of beeswax to keep it from spoiling or absorbing water from outside. This process is critical, because without it, bees would lose their ability to store and use honey.
When it’s time to harvest, beekeepers brush the bees off the frames of honeycomb and remove the wax caps (also known as cappings) using an uncapping knife – an electric machine used for large batches or a cold serrated knife dipped in water for small batches. They then place the frames into an extractor to spin them, separating honey from the honeycomb cells.
Once the honey comb is fully capped and the nectar flow season has ended, the time has come to harvest your honey. This can be done in a variety of ways; one popular method is to use a capping scratcher, electric uncapping knife or cold knife to remove the wax cap from each frame so the honey can drip out.
Another option is to spin the honey in a centrifuge honey spinner/extractor. These machines range from hand-cranked, room-sized models to large, industrial sized machines that are capable of spinning thousands of frames at once.
Before you start extracting, make sure all your equipment is sterilised and you have a good supply of clean honey bottles ready to fill. Also keep in mind that harvesting can be messy, so you may want to choose a clean room to work in. Make sure to label your jars and keep track of how much you are harvesting so you know when it’s time to put the rest away for next year.
A honey factory might not look like much from the outside, but it’s a bustling hive on the inside. There are many ways to process honey, but the main goal is to remove the bee pollen and other contaminates. This can be done using pressure-driven membrane processes (UF and MF), or conventional thermal processing.
Before the honey is extracted, it’s usually smoked to pacify the bees and keep them from returning to their hives with empty frames. This is also used to help prevent yeast activity.
Honey has a high viscosity, but it’s often heated and evaporated to reduce this. Heating can cause the honey to crystallize and reduce its quality.
Microwave and ultrasound heating of honey have been proposed as alternative methods to conventional thermal processing for the production of higher-quality honey. Bath and Singh  found that microwave heating of two types of honey increased the formation of HMF and browning, but only at higher power levels.
Honey lasts a long time due to its low water content, acidity, and a special enzyme that suppresses bacteria growth. If stored correctly, it can last decades. However, over time, honey can experience natural changes like crystallization or color darkening. This doesn’t mean it’s spoiling, but it’s no longer as tasty or clear as it was when first bottled.
To prevent these natural changes, store your honey in a cool, dry place. The ideal storage temperature is between 50degF and 70degF. Avoid storing honey in areas that are hot or have windows as exposure to light can impact its quality over time.
It’s also important to store your honey in glass or food-grade plastic containers. Metal containers should be avoided as they introduce unwanted moisture that could lead to fermentation or spoilage. When transferring your honey to new containers, be sure they are clean and free of any moisture by running them through a warm cycle in the dishwasher or by scrubbing them with a damp rag.

domain: agronomy


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Bitcoin continued to hover over its most recent $20,000 support line, whereas Polygon rose higher along with Uniswap.
Barring some altcoins and stablecoins, the majority of the crypto tokens were trading lower. Dogecoin led the losers with a 7% cut, followed by Shiba Inu which plunged 4%. However, Polygon rose over 6%.
The global cryptocurrency market cap was trading marginally lower at the $1.01 trillion mark, dropping more than a per cent in the last 24 hours. However, the total trading volume zoomed almost 40% to $102.76 billion.
Did you Know?
SAP has launched a new enterprise on the Metaverse with the aim of accelerating cloud adoption among Indian firms. The interactive and immersive ‘cloud on wheels’ platform will enable customers to experience the full range of SAP’s offerings and reimagine processes for improved business outcomes.
Interestingly, the global crypto market cap in comparison to its equity counterparts remained largely stable after the Fed announcement. Thus, signalling some strengthening of the market, said Prashant Kumar Founder and CEO at weTrade.
"During Asia trading hours on Thursday morning, the global market cap remained above $1 trillion," he said. "Meanwhile, Dogecoin, which enjoyed great highs over the last week, saw an 8% decline over the past 24 hours," he added.
In the US border town of Niagara Falls, residents accustomed to the soothing roar of the famous waterfalls recently discovered a much less pleasant sound: the "haunting hum" of bitcoin mining farms.
Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z, is seeking permission from a federal court to join an ongoing lawsuit.
Crypto venture capital company Digital Currency Group has promoted Chief Operating Officer Mark Murphy to president amid a restructuring in which some 13% of its staff departed, Bloomberg reported.
Community members in the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Aave voted to deploy the protocol to the zkSync 2.0 testnet. The successful vote marks the first stage of Aave's rollout to the new version of the zkSync platform.
Tech View by Giottus Crypto Platform
Once among the largest altcoins, Litecoin (LTC) was among the top-gaining altcoins on Wednesday. It was up nearly 15%, at its high, and still maintains a gap of 25% over its October lows.
This move comes after leading global payments network MoneyGram announced that users can now buy, sell and hold some major cryptocurrencies – including LTC. The rally seemed to be fueled by a bounce off a strong support trendline.
The coin has been trading within a symmetrical triangle for a large part of this year, and as the triangle now narrows, price action is expectedly seeing higher volatility as a break to either side is attempted by both bulls and bears.
Current resistance is this triangle’s trendline stretching from back in May. This, combined with other factors continuing to dampen markets - such as the Federal Reserve’s rate hike and its continued hawkish stance for the period ahead, make this rally one that is unlikely to sustain. LTC may therefore likely retest support at $62 and $57. However, if this resistance is broken, re-tested and held, traders may want to go long for upside targets of $67 and $70, suggested the expert.
Support: $62, $57, $55
Resistance: $67, $70
(Views and recommendations given in this section are the analysts' own and do not represent those of ETMarkets.com. Please consult your financial adviser before taking any position in the asset/s mentioned.)
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- FPO on Track, No Price Band Change, says Adani Group
Adani Enterprises on Saturday said its follow-on public offer (FPO) will continue as per schedule without any changes in the price band, quelling speculation about changes being made after a tepid investor reception on the first day.MSCI Invites Mkt Feedback on Adani, Related Securities
Global index services provider MSCI sought feedback from market participants on Adani Group and associated securities in the wake of US activist short-seller Hindenburg Research’s report on the conglomerate that has resulted in shares tumbling in the past two trading sessions.Tier 2-3 Univs Make the Cut as Indians Rush to Study Abroad
The rising competition for seats amid an overall spike in the volume of applicants has seen Indian college aspirants flocking to tier-2 and -3 universities abroad, education consultants said.
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domain: news


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Bulgaria's Jan-June Trade Gap WidensBusiness | August 11, 2014, Monday // 15:10| views
Bulgaria’s trade deficit increased by over 16% on the year in the first half of 2014, official figures showed on Monday.
The country’s foreign trade balance (exports FOB - imports CIF) showed a gap of BGN 4.182 B in the period January – June 2014, up BGN 583.9 M from the corresponding period of 2013, the National Statistics Institute (NSI) said.
Half-year exports decreased by 3.4% to BGN 20.1 B, while imports fell by 0.5% to BGN 24.3 B.
In June 2014 alone total exports rose 7.1% compared to the corresponding month of 2013, reaching BGN 3.7 B, mainly thanks to increased exports to other EU member states. Total imports decreased by 2.3% to BGN 4.1 B.
Turkey, Singapore, China, Russia, Macedonia and Serbia accounted for 54.9% of Bulgaria’s exports to third countries in January-June.
Germany, Italy, Romania, Greece France and Belgium absorbed 72.4% of Bulgaria’s exports to EU member states in the January-May. The NSI said it would announce more detailed trade figures for January-June 2014 at the beginning of September.
First-half exports to Russia fell 6.3% to BGN 495.8 M, while imports declined by 26.5% to BGN 3.44 B.
Bulgaria’s exports to Ukraine where pro-Russian rebels have been fighting the Ukrainian government forces, shrank by 68% year-on-year to BGN 113.4 M in January-June, while Bulgarian imports from Ukraine increased 21.7% to BGN 605 M.
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Singer-turned-TV star Michelle Heaton spent Sunday night in hospital after her longterm "scary heart problems" flared up.
The Liberty X star suffers from an irregular heartbeat and after the birth of her daughter Faith earlier this year, she told fans that she feared she may have to undergo emergency surgery.
Michelle was okay after the birth, but she was admitted to Watford General Hospital on Sunday after a health scare.
She uploaded a photograph of her hand attached to a drip on her microblogging page, and added, "Not exactly how I'd imagined my Sunday... Overnight stay needed."
The star explained, "As you may or may not know I have suffered from long and scary heart problems over the years. Today it took a turn for the worst (sic)... I am ok now, I am being kept in over night just 4 (sic) monitoring... NHS are amazing and have looked after me so well. Thank u (sic) Watford General."
Husband Hugh Hanley was on hand to reassure her, and even took baby Faith to visit her mum to boost her spirits.
Michelle told her followers, "Time to rest now and get cuddles in with my angel before they have to leave."
She shared her sadness at missing the Closing Ceremony of the London Olympics, but philosophically added, "Being in hospital makes u (sic) realise life is too short... cherish your loves ones and make sure the life u (sic) lead is the life you want to lead."


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Apparently, some people other than me and my immediate family have discovered this blog, so I thought I'd say hello. I've set up this blog primarily to record my trip to the 2012 Tour de France. However, I've also taken to blogging about my other cycling-related exploits.
Regarding my trip to the TdF, I will be travelling with my son, and am leaving on 7/12/12. We will arrive in France on Friday and over the next 4 days make our way down to the Pyrenees. We will be staying in Bagneres-de-Luchon where we will see the end of Stage 16 and the beginning of Stage 17. After that, we will make our way up to Paris to do tourist stuff.where we will catch the final stage and the awards. We might also make a day trip out to Chartres to catch the ITT for Stage 19. After that, we will spend some tourist time in Paris and return to home on 7/24/12.
Anyway, if you have any suggestions for how best to see the Tour, I'd love your input. Thanks for reading!

domain: travel


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https://sites.lifesci.ucla.edu/psych-dishlab/wp-content/uploads/sites/289/2022/09/dish_logo-removebg-preview-300x260.png 0 0 Guest Blogger https://sites.lifesci.ucla.edu/psych-dishlab/wp-content/uploads/sites/289/2022/09/dish_logo-removebg-preview-300x260.png Guest Blogger2013-03-04 13:09:282023-07-28 14:12:15Brandon Guest Blogs: Consciously Unconscious
This Guest Blog Post is from Brandon Rokos, one of Dr. T’s Health Psychology students:
Waking up midway through the procedure isn’t something most people think about before going under the knife. But for a small group whose senses remain active throughout the surgery, this is the reality. These patients report being able to hear the equipment buzzing around them as they lay on the operating table unable to move. Even worse is that anesthesiologists cannot reliably test to see whether a patient is fully unconscious or not. However, a recent neuropsychological study at Massachusetts General Hospital used electrical signals to detect the brain function of subjects in hopes of monitoring their level of sedation and understand what really constitutes being fully unconscious. Researchers administered a general anesthetic called propofol and tracked electrical signals while the subjects performed a task to test their consciousness. It is hoped that the usage of distinct electrical signals can reveal more about the brain and its relationship to the psychological behaviors of consciousness and unconsciousness, and furthermore, fuel research that ensures patients are properly sedated before medical procedures.


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Here are the most interesting stories Tuesday in the AFC East:
The New England Patriots are expected to sign receiver Donte' Stallworth.
Morning take: This probably means bad news for receiver Julian Edelman, who was in a walking boot after the game. Stallworth is familiar with New England after spending time with the Patriots in training camp. Edelman could be out for an extended period.
Why did Miami Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin pull starting defensive ends Cameron Wake and Jared Odrick for most of the final drive against New England?
Morning take: This was a brain cramp by a rookie head coach. The Patriots ate up the clock by running right at Miami's defensive line, which included two backups. But Philbin is learning on the job, too.
Are the New York Jets leaning toward starting quarterback Greg McElroy?
Morning take: This would be an interesting decision. We will have more on New York’s quarterback situation later (wink, wink).
Buffalo Bills receiver Donald Jones (calf) expects to return next week against the St. Louis Rams.
Morning take: After losing center Eric Wood, getting back a starting receiver is a welcome addition. The St. Louis Rams are playing some of their best football and Buffalo needs all hands on deck.


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Southwest equips students with life-saving skills
Southwest High School students are learning how to save lives and more about health professions in one class.
The school’s Introduction to Health Science class teaches students the history of healthcare and skills like basic medical terminology. The course also allows participants to receive their Red Cross certification in CPR, AED and first-aid to care for adults, children and infants for two years.
“I think it's important. So, we all have the background knowledge to help someone if they're having a life emergency and they need help because then we can keep on using it throughout our lives,” Southwest senior Brogan said.
“I think that everybody should learn these skills,” Southwest teacher Kay Burbach added. “You never know when an emergency can happen. Actually, they say that it's more likely you will respond to your family member's emergency before a first responder will.”
Students also practice skills like applying tourniquets to stop severe bleeding and how to rescue someone while they may be choking. The class not only equips students for emergency situations but also for their futures.
“I eventually want to go into a health career, which I feel like would be beneficial,” Southwest senior Nataly said.
The class is an elective, which is offered to students in grades 9 - 12. After completion, students can use this to prepare themselves for The Career Academy Health Sciences pathway.
Published: May 10, 2023, Updated: May 10, 2023


When Ladislaus Shikerete saw people still use plastic bags despite the plastic bag levy introduced in Namibia in August 2019, he decided to turn plastic waste into profitable products.
The levy sees shops charge N$0.50 or more per bag as a way of reducing plastic waste and protecting the environment, but people continue to use plastic bags and other single-use plastic items such as food and beverage containers. The funds to be collected are expected to be channelled to the Environmental Investment Fund for reinvestment in improved waste administration.
Through his Wapa-Nawa Recycling Centre, he and his team collect plastic waste and converts it into eco-friendly bricks without the use of water and cement, all in the name of keeping the country clean.
“Our business model is called eco-preneurship, where plastic waste is collected from the plastic collectors and used for recycling,” said Shikerete.
The 32-year-old agriculture graduate from the University of Namibia told Youth Corner the plan is to have a fully-fledged factory that will allow them to produce enough bricks and expand to other towns in Namibia.
“The business has been facing both ups and downs both rough and successful stories but we are not profit-driven, we are driven by the concept of reduce, reuse and recycle. All we do is heat and melt the plastic and make bricks.”
Born at Shighuru village in Ndonga Linena constituency, Kavango East, Shikerete shared the team is busy building their office at Tuhingireni using bricks to show potential customers their product is of good quality and can be used to erect any structure.
“Our bricks have been lab-tested, and I say this because people have been sceptical about the bricks thinking they will burn if exposed to too much heat but that hasn’t been the case. Most of our clients use the bricks to build interlocks but they can be used to build any structure,” he assured.
The group further aims to collaborate with different municipalities to combat solid waste and finally create more employment for the youth as well as create more awareness on the concept of reduction, reuse, and recycling.
Wapa-Nawa employs four young Namibians temporarily as brickmakers. It also has contracted over 50 women who are plastic collectors as a revenue generating option for them.
Another institution involved in reducing waste is Unam in collaboration with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU) that have embarked on a project to address plastic waste management under the title ‘Assessment of household plastic waste handling in the city’.
Meanwhile, a waste management seminar will take place in Windhoek later this year, when the results of the collaborative project will be presented and discussed with various stakeholders for implementation


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JOHANNESBURG - The African National Congress (ANC)'s integrity commission has recommended that over 90 of the party's members implicated in corruption and widespread state capture be excluded from the party's election candidate list.
The City Press reported on Sunday that out of the 97 implicated members, five were cleared by the integrity commission and another 62 have been referred for disciplinary hearings.
According to the newspaper, the commission's report was handed to ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula ahead of the IEC's 8 March deadline for political parties to submit their candidate lists for Parliament and the provincial legislatures.
The governing party's electoral committee flagged 97 members during the candidate nominations by the branches and the interviewing process.
According to the City Press report, ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa has been cleared of any wrongdoing relating to the 2020 theft of more than US$580,000 at his Phala Phala farm.
The party's national chairperson Gwede Mantashe has also been cleared of corrupt allegations after corruption-implicated company Bosasa installed a security system at his home.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, whose sexual assault case at the Kruger National Park in 2022 was withdrawn, was also reportedly among those cleared.
The integrity commission recommended that the party's senior leaders with questionable integrity be barred from standing for public office.
The party's national executive committee is set to discuss and approve the candidate lists on Monday.
The commission's report has compelled the ANC's top seven leadership to call an emergency meeting on Thursday to discuss its implications.

domain: law


WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the June 28 failure of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket should not be used as “leverage” to buy more of the Russian rocket engines that power United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket.
“I am confident that this minor setback will in no way impede the future success of SpaceX and its ability to support U.S. national security space missions,” McCain said in a statement. “There will be those that will seek to leverage this incident to argue for deepening America’s dependence on Russian rocket engines for national security space launches. This mishap in no way diminishes the urgency of ridding ourselves of the Russian RD-180 rocket engine.”
The failure came with SpaceX gearing up to compete for national security business using its newly certified Falcon 9 rocket. ULA, whose primary and most competitive rocket is the Atlas 5, has long had that market to itself.
Congress directed the U.S. Air Force to stop using the RD-180 following Russia’s incursion into Ukraine last year. ULA, which already has a large batch of RD-180s on order, says it needs 14 more engines to stay competitive in the military market until its planned Vulcan rocket, to be powered by a U.S.-made engine, is ready around 2020. The House version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 permits ULA to procure those engines for Air Force launches, but the Senate version allows only nine.
ULA and the Air Force say the Senate version of the bill would eventually create a new national security launch monopoly in SpaceX. In the wake of the Falcon 9 failure, the Air Force cited the need to maintain assured access to space, a term that has come to mean having two different vehicles available in case one is grounded.
“The Department of Defense will continue to have two launch providers until at least 2018, if not later,” McCain said in the statement. “If that competitive environment were placed at risk in the coming years, I am confident the Congress could revisit this issue in order to mitigate any national security impacts.
“With Russian troops still occupying Ukraine and killing its citizens, I will continue to oppose language currently in the House defense authorization bill, which guarantees that $300 million of taxpayer money will go to Vladimir Putin, his cronies, and the Russian military industrial base.”


Ultra-light summer sleeping bag with smallest pack size and high comfort for sleeping
With a weight starting from 450g and a compressed pack size from 13 x 17cm, i.e. only a handful, it is the optimal summer sleeping bag for trekking, biking, camping and for the Way of St. James.
Biopod DownWool Extreme Light 200
Better sleeping climate thanks to the natural DownWool insulation
Light-weight & small packing size
BIOPOD DOWNWOOL EXTREME LIGHT 200
Ultra-light summer sleeping bag with smallest pack size and high comfort for sleeping.
With a weight starting from 15.9 oz and a compressed pack size from 13 x 17cm, i.e. only a handful, it is the optimal summer sleeping bag for trekking, biking, camping and for the Way of St. James.
The mummy sleeping bag has an innovative zip that allows you to comfortably place your feet on the top of the sleeping bag when it gets too warm.
Its comfortably cut mummy shape makes it light and small in pack size. The pillow compartment is also very practical - simply insert a fleece jacket, for example, and you have a pillow that won't slip during sleep.
The unique Feature of our DownWool sleeping bags is their innovative insulation: DownWool is a natural insulation made of 70% down and 30% wool and combines the advantages of both natural materials. Very good insulation and a pleasant feel-good climate.
HOW THE UNIQUE DOWNWOOL INSULATION WORKS
The natural high-end DownWool-Insulation is a blend of 70% high-quality RDS-certified down, which provides high insulation, and 30% wool from the Alpine region, which acts like a lightweight natural air conditioner. The combination is perfect. Nothing insulates as well as high-quality down. The 30% wool content absorbs any moisture that arises and thus keeps the down naturally drier. Down has a very high insulating capacity at a low weight. However, down only insulates as long as it is dry and fluffy. With increasing humidity, the fine branching of the down collapses, which considerably reduces the insulating effect of the down. For this reason, the down is often treated with water-repellent agents. With DownWool, this is made unnecessary by adding the wool content. Wool can absorb up to 30% of its own weight in moisture without losing its insulating effect. Furthermore, wool is very temperature regulating and creates a pleasant microclimate in a natural way.
The result is a unique sleeping climate, which means that the temperature range in which you feel comfortable and sleep well in a DownWool sleeping bag is particularly wide. This makes DownWool sleeping bags popular all-rounders.


THELEICO - EXCELLENCE IN GRINDINGTHELEICO has been in existence as a family company for more than 130 years and has been making ceramically bonded grinding tools since 1924. Synthetic bonded grinding wheels and discs were added to the product range in 1935. Today we are among the leading manufacturers in the grinding technology sector. We owe this not only to our many years of experience and the comprehensive expertise of all our employees, but also to our values that are practised every day at the company.
- Family industrial company with over 130 years' experience
- Specialised in the development and manufacture of grinding discs and wheels according to customer requirements
- Competent support of customers from the automotive industry, machine and tool manufacturing through to steelworks, foundries as well as the timber, glass and plastics industries, sports industry and the energy sector
- THELEICO has always stood for safety, constancy, flexibility and courage


Great White: After 30 years in the music business they are still Rock’n & Roll’n, touring, and creating new music. Friday May 31st they are coming back home to do a show at The Grove in Anaheim. Taking the stage with them for the evening is the one and only Slaughter, plus local up and comers Heaven Below. Today we chatted with Mr. Mark Kendall, founding member and lead guitarist of the now legendary Great White. The following is what he had to say to Rockwell UnScene – http://www.ROCKwellUnScene.com – about the new album “Elation”, The Monsters of Rock Cruise, and coming back to the bands former home of Anaheim, CA.
Rockwell UnScene: You just got off the Monsters of Rock Cruise recently as headliners, what was that like?
Mark Kendall: “It was fun. We got to do an acoustic show on an island in a Tiki Hut, on the boat we had Y&T on stage with us and we got to run into a ton of bands we knew from the past, in that regard it was like a reunion. We got to mingle with our fans – it was not the usual format.”
Rockwell UnScene: You guys have played with pretty much everyone, but who would you like to share the stage with that you have not and why?
Mark Kendall: “Yeah we have played with almost everyone. It is kind of a dream of mine to play with ZZ Top. A dream would be to share the stage with AC/DC.”
Rockwell UnScene: What is it like to play the hometown shows in SoCal?
Mark Kendall: “In the Hay-day we did not do a lot of L. A. shows…I don’t know why, that is just the way that it was. Our hometown base when we were up and coming was in Anaheim. We all lived in one house and we played a local place called The Wood Stock. We played there a lot before we started playing Hollywood. It is great to play around in California, especially where we grew up. This is where we started and we know lots of people around here.”
Rockwell UnScene: Where did the new Rock/Blues sound come from?
Mark Kendall: “We never have a pre-conceived notion of what we are going to do, we just write songs and the best ones make it. I am influenced by guys that are blues based. Santana, Ritchie Blackmore and more. They play out of their heart and that inspired me. Michael (Lardie) is influenced by Billy Joel and Elton John. Audie (Desbrow) likes the real heavy stuff. When we all write together we just make a certain sound. We just write what we like and we get on our knees and pray that everyone likes it too. We have not re-invented ourselves. Our new singer (Terry Ilous) has a slightly more blues roots influence. He listens to a lot of different music, Otis Redding, Paul Rodger…a ton of singers… maybe that is where the blues overtones are coming from.”
Rockwell UnScene: What have been the fan favorites off the new album?
Mark Kendall: “The first time we played “Ive got Something for You” the crowd connected, and sang along. We were really surprised that they already knew the song. It is a driving song and a simple song . Hard to Say Goodbye gets a really good reaction. We are just now going to start playing Shotgun Willie’s and we filmed the video to that on the cruise. In the past it seemed like a waste to me to only play a couple of songs off our records and never get any deeper than that, so I want to make it a point to play all the songs a couple at a time. We play a couple of new ones at a time. We don’t want to bombard the fans with all new music I have seen bands do that and it just don’t work. You need to play songs from the hay-day also.”
Rockwell UnScene: How much input did you have on the production of the new album “Elation”?
Mark Kendall: “ Being that it was our first album with the new singer (Terry Ilous) I really wanted to be involved. We knew this was an important album. I just gave Micheal Lardie extra ears to bounce off. Micheal and I work together very well. We did it in 35 days – record, mix, write, and grand master it. We played 4 shows in that time also. We had a deadline with the record company. If we missed that we would have delayed the release of the album for 3 months. We brought in George Tutko, a legendary producer who worked with The Cars, Rod Stuart, Cheap Trick, Bob Seger, Journey, XYZ, Duran Duran, and countless others He is off the charts amazing. He knew Terry (Ilous) and so we asked him to mix the one song “Hard To Say Goodbye”. It turned out so good we had him remix the whole album and it turned out amazing. It was a blessing to have him involved and he is a really good guy.”
Rockwell UnScene: What is it like playing with Slaughter and what other dates do you have with them?
Mark Kendall: “I have known Mark from the past, since he was with Vinnie Vincent…forever…and they are all super people and they have become friends of ours. They work with our booking agents and that is why we are playing 5 or 6 shows with them. They are great to work with – they get on stage on time and off stage on time. This coming full circle to Anaheim thing is pretty cool (Great White played with Slaughter on their home turf, Las Vegas, in July 2012)”.
Rockwell UnScene: What is it like to see generations of fans in the crowd?
Mark Kendall: “The cool part of that is we are not like Lawrence Welk. It is fun because we can play some Rock with the best of them. I see kids in the crowd, one was about 12 playing air guitar the whole show. Backstage now is like family time, not like it was in the 80’s. The kids discover that mom and dads’ music is cool. I work with up and comers also. I have an 8 year old down the street that I am giving lessons to. It is nice to have the kids involved.”
Rockwell UnScene: What is the plan for Great White in the Future?
Mark Kendall: “Check us out at http://www.GreatWhiteRocks.com We are going to go back into the studio soon. We are looking for options for a European tour. They have great festivals over there. The fans really want us and we really want to accommodate them. We still play about 70 shows a year.”
Great White are legends on stage, but one thing that sticks out to me is the love and appreciation they have for their fans. Filming the video to “Shotgun Willie’s” on the Monsters of Rock Cruise gave the band an opportunity to see how much the fans love and support them, and the fans continued support is the major reason they do what they do. If you missed the shows they have already done in CA, get your tickets for their show at The Grove in Anaheim now. They will be rock’n it all night with Slaughter and Heaven Below. Jump into the Shark zone and follow them on http://www.GreatWhiteRocks.com You can hear Mark Kendall live tonight on Metal Mayhem this Friday, May 24th at 9:10pm Eastern on WVOX.com. See you at the show next Friday, May 31st at The Grove in Anaheim!
Written by: Melissa Anderson, http://www.ROCKwellUnScene.com
Photo’s by: Rockwell Anderson Media, http://www.ROCKwellUnScene.com


An evacuation notice is an order issued by Northampton County advising everyone in a particular area to evacuate their homes. Possible events that would necessitate an evacuation notice include flooding, high winds, storm surge, and/or hazmat incidents.
There are several possible levels of evacuation:
Partial Evacuation (may include some or all of the following):
Prior to any evacuation, date & time evacuation notices for all affected areas will be announced over local radio stations. If local emergency shelters will be opening, that information will be announced via radio also. Though citizens will be given as much advance notice as possible, everyone should already have evacuation & sheltering plans in place prior to any evacuation notices.
These maps show projected hurricane storm surge flooding along coastal areas.
Eastern Shore [777kb PNG]
Northampton County PDF [1 mb]
Northampton County PNG [637 kb]


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It’s hard to remember the value a dedicated magazine could bring to a fandom in a time before the internet. Unless you had a local group of friends who were into it with you, there was no outlet to broadcast your love for the show, no instantly accessible community. For twenty-three issues between 1992 and 1994, there was the Red Dwarf Smegazine ran interviews, articles, and discussion on Red Dwarf that kept its fanbase vitalized at a time when the show was performing at its peak. One of the most important features, however, present from the first issue to the last, were the comics.
There was no single author, artist, or even visual style consistent to the comics of the Smegazine. The publication gave creators freedom to explore aspects of the show the televised version never would. Stories take place in various series and focus on characters beyond the main five. The earliest comics were simple retellings of episodes. Both The End and Future Echoes were given the comic treatment, and while neither of these are my favourite comics the Smegazine produced, they established many of the aspects which would remain consistent enough for these anthology-esque comics to be identifiable as belonging together, such as the depiction of holograms as black and white. This was requested by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who always wanted to employ the prohibitively-expensive technique on the show.
It may not be Doctor Who or Star Trek, but comics provided a medium that matched Red Dwarf perfectly in terms of content. Facial expressions, body language, and background details like Rimmer’s soldiers from Marooned hidden in an adaptation of The End were a cheeky game between artist and fan, and the ability to take things to the extremes artistically made for an original take on the classic comedy. While retrospectively cheap looking in its publication and using only a few colours that come off as bold and brash, the style of the Smegazine comic still surpasses what you’d expect from a fan zine. There’s substantially more interesting visual storytelling going on than in a multi camera tv show, and the writing, coming from some of the most dedicated sci-fi fans out there, definitely held itself up to par.
Due to their nature, no two comics are stylistically the same. As such, it’s impossible to describe the Smegazine comics as a whole. The majority of the Red Dwarf Smegazine comics were written either by Steve Lyons, Chris Howarth, or Ann Wright, though a plethora of other writers contributed as well. They’re a densely packed treasuretrove of further entertainment for the desperate fan that are now freely available online. While it looks like there will be new Red Dwarf in the near future, it never hurts to be prepared. Here are a few of my personal favourite original stories or series.
Written by Howarth/Lyons, Art by John Royle, Letters by Elitta Fell
Mutinous Pursuits is the first original comic story featured in Smegazine. It picks up in Series IV with Kryten and Girl Holly as the gang is playing Trivial Pursuit. While it unfortunately repeats a few of the jokes from earlier seasons, it treats those jokes more as a set up to a later punchline than anything else. Rimmer’s feud with the skutters is used to great effect, and in the end it turns out everything was a distraction so Holly could rig the game so that she can use her total knowledge from “The Junior Encyclopedia of Space” and “Football: It’s a Funny Old Game” books to win.
While Mutinous Pursuits doesn’t feel like quite enough material to warrant an entire episode, it does have that perfect tone for a light dose of comedy to break up the pages between interviews and news on the upcoming Red Dwarf USA. Not the best work the Smegazine would ever produce, but notable for being the first time Kryten was featured in the comic. His appearance is fairly easy for Royle to replicate in comic form, the hard angles of his head making an easy transition from screen to page.
Created by Kylie Gwenlyn
Kylie Gwenlyn’s Androids is a bit of an anomaly here. Rather than a one-off or multi-part comic like many of the others, it was a recurring strip styled as a simply laid out panel comic that presents itself as the soap opera from the episode Kryten.
Like a newspaper strip to suit the soap opera format. These comics can get incredibly surreal and at times more superficially adult than I was expecting. I’d compare the Androids character design to the Metal Men from DC, with an absolute abundance of extreme angles and overextended limbs. It’s content, however, likely belongs somewhere like Mad Magazine. Sex, violence, betrayal, longing, and every other emotion you can imagine are here in short, frantic bursts. It’s a regular feature, but by its very nature, really never goes anywhere. Still, you can see why Kryten called it his favourite show.
Ace Rimmer: Space Adventurer
Written by Howarth/Lyons, Art by Alan Burrows, Letters by Elitta Fell
What a guy! As a concept, Ace Rimmer: Space Adventurer is one of the most brilliant comics in the entire magazine. With the space adventurer hopping between universes both known and new to the Red Dwarf fan, this particular story expands both the premise of Dimension Jump and Parallel Universe by returning to the gender-swapped universe of series 2. There are changes since we last visited. Not only do Lister and Rimmer now have a female mechanoid named Dayzee, but Hilly is now a man.
While this was the first Ace Rimmer comic to appear in the magazine, it wouldn’t be the last. Later comics in this series would see Ace visiting multiple alternate realities original to the comic. One particularly odd one is where his counterpart is a football player about to commit suicide. Ace gets in the game and kicks the old ball around. Dave, Kryten, and Cat all get parallel-universe cameos as well. Then another might see a universe where Rimmer is PM. Smoke him a kipper, he’ll be back for breakfast.
Whatever Happened to Duane Dibbley
Written and Art by Nigel Kitching, Letters by Elitta Fell
Even the show couldn’t help bringing Duane Dibbley back a couple more times before the classic era of Red Dwarf ended in 1999. The Cat’s worst fear is that he’ll be considered uncool and Duane Dibbley is the universe’s number one dork. This comic serves as a direct sequel to Back to Reality, with Cat having a Despair Squid flashback that makes him think he’s actually Duane Dibbley.
A sequence at the end of this comic at first makes Rimmer seem cold and uncaring as the Cat is about to end his own life with a knife to his throat. The reveal that Cat was actually holding a herring the whole time makes for a great reveal, and I would have preferred something like this as the storyline that brought Duane Dibbley back in the show instead of Emohawk or Back in the Red. At the very least, it’d be interesting to see what Danny John-Jules could do for an episode on his own.
Written by Steve Noble, Art and Letters by Jon Beeston
I’ve described the novels as being heavily influenced by Douglas Adams in their approach. The Smegazine book review section had multiple instances of The Hitchhiker’s Guide showing up. The fact that this story starts with Kryten receiving a message from himself and ends with Spare Head 3 completing the same time loop that Marvin the Android made is a great shout out. A little predictable, but a true space adventure. Spare Head 3 is abandoned on a planet of sentient metal called Flob that can be shaped by telepathic will. The boys (including Kryten) encounter Spare Head 3 after living for centuries in a world of his own creation.
Where this story really shines is the visuals. Massive landscapes and statues to Kryten fill the landscape, and you can just imagine the nonlinear geometry that fills this world. While I don’t think the art totally captures the endless possibility of the concept, Jon Beeston gives some impressive visuals nonetheless.
In Living Memory
Written by Steve Lyons, Art by Ron Smith, Colour and Letters by Elitta Fell
Before Rimmer was granted hard-light status in series 6, the fact that he couldn’t touch or be touched by anyways was always a bit of a sticking point. That’s why the idea of creating a new body appealed to him so greatly. When the crew find a machine that can make anything you can imagine, Rimmer does that, exactly as he was, from memory. Of course, this is Rimmer we’re talking about, so that memory also makes him “Braver, stronger, and… erm, better endowed than before” to quote Kryten.
Putting this comic in league with some of the other works in the magazine is no contest, but it contains shades of DNA in Rimmer’s plan. It’s a lark to see exactly how Rimmer sees himself and the way Ron Smith draws his live body with subtly different features works wonders to achieve this goal. Of course, like every time Rimmer gets his body back, something goes wrong, and as brave as he is, Rimmer sacrifices himself to the five-eyed amorphous blob Lister imagined and is killed by a pile of crumbling rocks.
Written by Ann Wright, Art by Roger Langridge
If nothing else, Evolution is interesting. It covers a concept the series would later address in the series 8 two-part episode Pete. Not only does the time wand feature prominently, but a plan to evolve something to its future state goes horribly wrong as the entire crew is devolved. Lister’s a monkey. Rimmer is a silent movie. Kryten is a vacuum cleaner. Cat is… well, do I even have to explain? Giving Talkie Toaster his own featured story along with Holly works incredibly well. Hattie Hayridge’s Holly is written very well by Ann Wright here. It feels a lot like their scenes in White Hole and it’s interesting to postulate what might have happened with that pairing.
I likely wouldn’t have put this comic so high if it wasn’t for the art. It’s colourful. So many times a comic goes for realism and muted colours, but when it’s allowed to play around and be wacky and fun, I delight. Evolution has art that matches its premise.
Jake Bullet: The Case of the Cashed-In Contestant
Written by Steve Noble, Art by Carl Flint, Letters by Woodrow Phoenix
Like Duane Dibbley, Jake Bullet is a fictitious product of the Despair Squid, this time in the mind of Kryten. Unlike the Duane Dibbley comics, however, Jake Bullet: The Case of the Cashed-In Contestant indulges in all the trope-filled glory of England under fascist dictatorship. Carl Flint’s art has a unique visual style that goes gritty and subversive. These comics take on a film noir tone.
The penultimate comic sees Jake in an internal crisis, seeing shades of his self on Red Dwarf, questioning the nature of reality as he falls to his death. This is absolutely the darkest timeline for Red Dwarf, and the Jake Bullet comics don’t miss their chance to stay in that groove. The final issue of Jake’s serialized adventures has him being arrested. I’d love for this thread to be picked up one day by future writers.
Written by Ann Wright, Art by Vince Danks, Letters by Elitta Fell
I chose this comic because it feels the most like an original episode of Red Dwarf without alterations. Clearly the creators of Smegazine thought so as well, as The Geap actually made cover status on the sixth issue. Inside a pod, the crew find an animal Kryten identifies as a G.E.A.P. (Genetically Engineered Adaptable Pet). He warns Dave that its telepathic influence will make humans love and protect them, but it has already awoken from stasis and taken Dave under its control. To add to the drama, Cat’s alien physiology makes him want to eat it.
Vince Danks didn’t do art on many comics for the magazine, but his work on The Geap is wonderful. Incredibly colourful and original, he makes the adorable creature convincing as the object of Lister’s obsession. Those sad eyes? You can’t fight that. I want to hug it and I’m not even there.
Home of Lost Causes
Script and Art by Nigel Kitching, Letters by Elitta Fell
The story opens with the boys returning to Red Dwarf with an entire crew waiting for them. The fact that this comic predates the return of Red Dwarf to the show by nearly six years shows how genuinely inventive the Smegazine could be.
Pulling double duty as artist and writer for this comic, Nigel Kitching pushes himself to extremes. Kitching’s art is blocky and colourful, making the best of the comic experience by stylizing each character in full pop art glory. Kryten was flat-out made for this art style, and while Rimmer is still comics-true black and white, his puffy blue jacket is in full bold colour.
The imagery in this book is just as intense. Kristine Kochanski returns, and when Dave accidentally shoots her with a bazookoid, she continues talking with viscera and eyeballs splayed out of her head as she’s revealed to be a manifestation of the Polymorph. A version of Red Dwarf with a tail and gnashing teeth is one of my favourite depictions of the Polymorph, ramping the scale of the creature up from minor annoyance to genuine cosmic threat. While The Geap felt like the comics doing a true episode of Red Dwarf, Home of Lost Causes finally felt the comic doing something all its own.
While it may never have reached the status of Doctor Who or Star Trek in terms of having a vast comics library filled with continuity and complex original characters, Red Dwarf was always a series that prided itself on taking the smeg out of established sci-fi traditions. These comics maintained the cheeky subversive quality of the show and continued to give freedom to its creators. The fact that Smegazine noticed their importance, putting the comics on such a high pedestal within their publication that they often got cover status speaks volumes about their place in the minds of fans.
A final issue in January 1994 put a sudden end to Smegazine after only twenty-three issues. It was a start of a four year hiatus for the series and the end to its peak of popularity. With the launch of Series XI this week, it will mark the first time two series of Red Dwarf will air in back to back seasons since 1992 and 1993. It’s been a long road to get here. But it’s finally time. Finally, after all this waiting, the slime’s coming home.


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Bad maths may be a disability
If counting change makes you sweat, subtracting digits sends shivers up your spine and calculators make you anxious, you may have dyscalculia.
A study launched by Auckland University researchers Anna Wilson and Karen Waldie aims to find out why 6 per cent of the population suffer from dyscalculia - a learning disability that makes it difficult for the brain to process and understand numbers and simple mathematics.
Dr Wilson says the research into the numeric form of dyslexia will try to identify the cognitive and neurological symptoms of dyscalculia - which means "counting badly".
"Dyslexia is reasonably well-known, and there has been a lot of research into its neurological causes and how to combat it. Dyscalculia is also quite debilitating, but many people do not even realise the condition exists."
The study - involving Aucklanders aged 18 to 35 - will look at the relationship between dyscalculia and dyslexia, in which the brain is slow to read words. About half of the people with dyscalculia also have dyslexia, but research tends to focus on dyslexia.
Dr Wilson says that not everyone who has trouble with maths has dyscalculia. Often people are just "math-phobic".
"People often have a very negative experience with maths and it can be hard for them to see how math is used in everyday life, unlike with reading, where it is pretty obvious."
Striking a bad maths teacher one year can be enough to change someone's opinion of maths, she says. Difficulty with keeping score in a sports game or failing to understand statistics read in a newspaper article would prove challenging for someone with dyscalculia.
FIVE SIGNS OF DYSCALCULIA
* Did you struggle to learn maths as a child, even in primary school, and despite extra help?
* Have you always had trouble with fast recall of basic addition or multiplication? (e.g. 8+7=?, 7x6=?)
* Do you find that numbers sometimes seem like meaningless symbols to you?
* Do you have trouble estimating, for instance, how much your supermarket shop is going to cost or about how much 236 + 564 is?
* Do you struggle to understand everyday numbers such as statistics in the newspaper or your financial statements?
If you answer yes to all or most of these questions as an adult, you could have dyscalculia.
For an official diagnosis, you would need a professional cognitive assessment.
* Children with dyscalculia fall behind early in primary school, and may develop anxiety or a strong dislike of maths.
* In secondary school they are likely to struggle to pass maths and science courses and find their career options reduced.
* As adults they may earn less, and have difficulties managing their everyday finances.
The Dominion Post

domain: psychology


text:
The Saudi's move followed a report in the Washington Post that the U.S. was to stop refuelling aircraft from the Saudi-led coalition, amidst ongoing worldwide outcry over Riyadh's actions in Yemen, particularly after a series of coalition strikes in which scores of civilians, including several children, were killed.
Mattis went on to say that the United States would continue cooperating with the Saudi-led coalition and Yemen to "minimise civilian casualties and expand urgent humanitarian efforts throughout the country", while it would also support UN effort's to solve the crisis.
Currently, the Pentagon provides refueling capabilities for about 20 percent of coalition planes flying sorties over Yemen.
Saudi Arabia, in a statement released by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA), said it had made a decision to request an end to US aerial refueling for its operations in Yemen because it could now handle it by itself.
Riyadh also has nine KC-130 Hercules aircraft that can be used, it added.
Mattis in August noted that USA support was conditioned on a Saudi commitment to doing "everything humanly possible" to avoid any loss of innocent life and Riyadh supporting a United Nations -brokered peace process to end the civil war.
The move to end refuelling cooperation may be an attempt to forestall action on the arrangement that USA politicians had promised to table next week.
Still, a halt to refueling could by itself have little practical effect on the war.
USA officials told Reuters only a fifth of Saudi-led coalition aircraft require in-air refuelling from the United States.
Fighting in Hodeidah has intensified in the last week as Yemeni government forces and their Saudi and UAE allies try to wrest control of the city from the Houthi rebels, who are backed by Iran.
The Pentagon would not confirm the Post's story.
He said the ceasefire call was an attempt "to save face after the humiliation" caused by the murder of Washington Post columnist Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi policy, that has strained Riyadh's relationship with the West.
Global focus on the conflict, which sees a Saudi-led coalition battling Houthi rebels, has sharpened in recent weeks as the country is pushed ever closer to an official starvation, which the United Nations warns will be the worst the world has seen for 100 years.
The statement also said there is concern over 900 detainees in the central prison in Hodeidah and six pre-trial detention facilities after it was hit on Monday by two mortar shells, injuring five and cutting off power and water to the prison.
The Saudi-led coalition intervened on the side of the government the following year.
The UN has warned that thousands of people have been trapped by the fighting.
Cease-fires in Yemen's civil war have rarely held, and peace talks have repeatedly broken down in the past.
"We have decided that in the present situation we will not give new licenses for the export of defense material or multipurpose goods for military use to Saudi Arabia", Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soereide said in a statement.
US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity Friday to discuss the decision before its announcement, said the end to refueling wouldn't stop American training and military assistance.


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Allowing violent dictators to spread their message on Twitter is a benefit to the world because it promotes "dialogue", the company has said.
Nick Pickles, Twitter's director of public policy, told a US Senate hearing that the social network would continue to allow autocrats and tyrants to spread their message as long as they did not break Twitter's own rules.
Banning them, he argued, would not change their behaviour "on the ground", whereas allowing them to tweet would create debate about their policies and their positions.
The remarks were part of an inquiry by the US Senate's commerce committee into extremism and terrorist violence on social media, with executives from Twitter, Facebook and Google responding to accusations that their services had become "terrorist training camps".
Mr Pickles was asked by Dan Sullivan, a Republican senator for Alaska, why Twitter has not stopped Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, from tweeting to his 3.7m followers while "committing genocide against his citizens".
"Maduro, he sits there and continues to act like he's a world leader, and he's a pariah. It sure seems to me that what you're doing is allowing him to continue to do that," said Mr Sullivan.
Mr Pickles responded: "There are geopolitical circumstances where there are world leaders who have Twitter accounts in countries where Twitter is blocked, where there is no free speech. We do take a view, [and] we hope, that the dialogue that person being on the platform starts helps contribute to solving the challenges that you outlined...
"His current account hasn't broken our rules. Were he to break our rules, he will treated to the same rules as every other user, and we would take action where necessary."
Asked whether a government unleashing violence against its citizens breaks Twitter's rules, Mr Pickles said: "That activity is happening offline, and the key question for us is what's happening on Twitter." He said the social network would allow Russian president Vladimir Putin or Chinese president Xi Jinping to tweet as long as they followed its rules.
Twitter's treatment of political leaders has been contentious. In February, it deleted a tweet by an account appearing to represent Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, for making "specific threats of violence" against the author Salman Rushdie. The tweet upheld as "irrevocable" a 30-year-old command by Khamenei's predecessor, Ruhollah Khomeini, that Mr Rushdie should be killed.
The social network suspended the campaign account of Mitch McConnell, the leader of the US Senate, for sharing a video which included a violent threat against him. The account was restored after a two-day campaign by Mr McConnell's supporters to "Free Mitch".
Last month, it also suspended Mr Maduro's English-language Twitter account, then restored it after determining that it had not broken any rules.
At the same time, Twitter has an explicit policy of adding a label to, but not deleting, tweets which violate its rules and yet are "newsworthy" or whose persistence is in the "public interest". That policy only applies to verified accounts, whereas the Khamenei account was unverified.
The company was criticised for failing to delete a tweet by President Donald Trump which threatened Iran with "consequences "the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before". It also did not add any message to a later tweet by Mr Trump telling four non-white American congresswomen to "go back" to "the crime-infested places from which they came", despite the fact that all of them are American citizens.
Twitter's permissive policy stands in contrast to that of Facebook, which bans people or groups for engaging in offline violence. The company has its own definitions of terrorism and "organised hate", which it has used to ban more than 200 white supremacist organisations as well as numerous other extremist groups, along with an unknown number of "hate figures" and "dangerous individuals".
In his response, Mr Pickles also cited Twitter's removal of almost 2,000 accounts which it said were were part of two covert propaganda operations undertaken by the Venezuelan government.
The use of the term "genocide" for Maduro's campaign of oppression is contested, with some experts arguing that it should not apply because he is not targeting any particular ethnic or religious group.

domain: sociology


text:
HMM to take delivery of new mega-ships in a few months
In the second quarter, South Korea's HMM will receive the first of a number of large container vessels, while another year with high uncertainty has commenced, CEO says in New Year's address.
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domain: economics


text:
The National Weather Service in Reno has issued a flood warning for south Lyon County along the Walker River. The National Weather Service explains there may be record breaking flooding and that residents may see the Walker River rise to above 12 feet by Wednesday (5/24/2017) morning.
Lyon County officials are urging residents to have a plan for sheltering in place or evacuating. Response agencies are preparing for evacuation and rescue operations. Public Works crews are mobilizing sandbagging operations and continue to work on clearing channels and building up levies along the Walker River.
Lyon County strongly urges residents that have a family member that is home bound or confined to bed to make arrangements to have the family member moved out of harm’s way if they live near the river, in the flood plain or were flooded in 1997.
The City of Yerington is conducting a community sandbag fill and deliver operation starting Saturday morning (May 20, 2017) at 8:00 AM. If you can help please volunteer to fill and deliver sandbags to residents that are elderly or disabled.
Residents that are elderly or disabled can request to have sandbags delivered by going to www.coypw/sandbag/ and filling out the requested information.
Lyon County and City of Yerington crews will be working throughout the weekend on projects to help reduce the impact of any flooding. The Lyon County Emergency Coordination Center will be fully operational Tuesday (May 30, 2017) at 7:00 AM