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Linda Bock TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
Published Wednesday November 20, 2013 at 5:00 am
Updated Wednesday November 20, 2013 at 10:28 am
WORCESTER — The quick work of a police officer aided by two good Samaritans on bicycles led to the arrest of a 51-year-old man shortly after he allegedly robbed the Gulf Gas Station in Kelley Square early Tuesday morning.
The officer was on patrol about 1 a.m. when he noticed three men on bicycles pedaling very fast away from the gas station.
Just as he was pulling into the business, the clerk ran out and yelled to the officer that one of the men had just robbed him. The clerk also told the officer that the two men were chasing the suspect, also on a bicycle.
The two men chasing the suspect pointed the officer in the right direction, according to police. The officer caught up to the suspect at Washington and Lamartine streets.
David Cardona, 51, of 260 Pleasant St., was placed under arrest. A search of Mr. Cardona produced evidence that linked him to the Gulf robbery, according to police.
There were no weapons on Mr. Cardona, although he allegedly told the clerk he had a knife on him.
The clerk had apparently witnessed Mr. Cardona stuffing items into his jacket. He confronted him.
"The clerk attempted to grab Cardona but he reached into his jacket pocket and threatened the clerk verbally that he had a knife," according to a Worcester Police news release. "The clerk let go and Cardona fled on the bike."
Mr. Cardona was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, armed robbery and intimidation of a witness.
Contact Linda Bock via email at firstname.lastname@example.org. Follow her on Twitter @LindaBockTG


Rania Mustafa Ali, a 20-year old Syrian woman, filmed her whole journey from the ruins of Kobane to Austria. Crossing the border into Turkey, taking a dangerously overcrowded dinghy to Greece, reaching an already closed FYROM border at Idomeni, and searching for ways to move forward and to reach safety, Rania’s journey is a powerful testimony of the hardships endured by refugees during their journeys.
Being told first-hand and with small and easy-to-carry equipment, her story has a strong potential to contribute to a better understanding of the reasons why people flee their countries. The video, produced by The Guardian, is a great example of providing refugees themselves with the tools to tell their stories and bringing their own voices into the debate.
Watch Rania’s journey here:


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Pain Management Specialists in Boston
Pain management specialists can help with chronic pain by providing pain medicine consultations, anti-pain stimulator implantations, pain medicine prescriptions and injections, and more. With ZocDoc, you can browse reviews of excellent Boston pain management specialists who participate in your health insurance plans and practice in areas from Charlestown to Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury. Once you've found the right doctor, simply choose a time to make an appointment. It's that easy!

domain: health


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domain: entertainment


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This intimate, 4-star hotel, the smallest first-class hotel in Germany, offers luxurious accommodations on the banks of the Scharmützelsee lake in Bad Saarow, 43 miles southeast of Berlin.
Hotel Landhaus Alte Eichen is located in the health resort Bad Saarow on a peninsula with private access to lake Scharmützelsee – halfway between the public thermal bath and various golf courts.
“The spa was the highlight of my stay. Bianca is a … had a beautiful selection and variety available.”
Situated on the banks of the Scharmützelsee lake, a 1-hour drive from Berlin, this hotel boasts 4 golf courses, a wide range of spa/leisure facilities, and fine cuisine. Free WiFi is available.
“Layout, staff, smoking room, shop”
This guest house is set in beautiful forest countryside in Bad Saarow. Guests at Pension Haus Friederike enjoy free parking and good access to the A12 motorway.
“Very kind and friendly staff. Very good breakfast.”
This hotel enjoys a quiet location in Brandenburg countryside, 3 km from Bad Saarow. Landhaus Neu-Golm offers regional German cuisine in the restaurant or terrace.
“Quiet location, really comfortable bed, spotless r…0 for the day, really welcoming and helpful host.”
This hotel is located on a spa resort directly on the shores of Lake Scharmützelsee and features an indoor pool, spa area and sauna.
“everything was perfect during our stay! Third time…ted outdoor pool with mineral water is awesome :)”
Located just 100 metres from the Scenic Scharmützelsee Lake, this 3-star hotel offers bike rental facilities, free Wi-Fi and a sauna. It is ideally located for exploring the Brandenburg countryside.
Surrounded by countryside, Schlosspark Bad Saarow is located directly at the idyllic Scharmützelsee Lake. Each of the self-catering apartments features a private sauna, hot tub and terrace.
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A bicycle rental service and barbecue facilities are available at this modern hotel, located 400 metres from the Scharmützelsee Lake. The hotel features bright rooms as well as free WiFi in all areas....
Located 200 metres from Scharmützelsee Lake in the spa town of Bad Saarow, these spacious and elegantly decorated apartments offer an elevator, terrace and fully equipped kitchens.
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domain: geography


Average scores by New York students on the ACT exam have generally held steady for the high school class of 2012 and top the national average.
Scores also show modest progress in those who appear ready for college-level work in science.
The report being released Wednesday shows 29 percent of the state’s graduates took the ACT, traditionally a rival college entrance exam to the SAT. That’s up slightly from a year earlier.
Their average composite score was 23.3 (on a scale of 1 to 36), down one-tenth from the class of 2011 but still higher than the national average of 21.1.
New York’s percentage of graduates with scores indicating readiness for college was 80 percent in English, 67 percent in reading, 67 percent in math and 47 percent in science.


A Panel Response: What to Take Away from the Second Round of the French Elections?
To debrief the second round of the French presidential elections, Tocqueville 21 has invited a distinguished set of academics, journalists, and commentators on French politics to provide their thoughts on what we just witnessed as well as what to expect as the legislative elections approach.
From Parties to Movements – Elisabeth Zerofsky
If I’m honest, I didn’t really believe that Marine Le Pen could win the French election until about 5pm yesterday, as I serially refreshed the Twitter feeds of the French pollsters I follow. There are several truisms that I and probably many other dual observers of French and American politics rely on—that, unlike in America, in France a candidate must scrape past the 50% threshold of the popular vote, such that a Le Pen or a Trump could win in America, but not in France; also, French pollsters have been dealing with so-called “shy Le Pen voters,” since the late 1980’s when Marine’s father Jean-Marie Le Pen launched his perennial candidacy, so they’ve had more time to fiddle with their models, and French projections of the populist vote tend to be more accurate. But in the late afternoon yesterday, the pollsters started tweeting out a few early data points: for example, the greater the support for Jean-Luc Mélénchon in a given department, the greater the abstention rate in the second round; likewise, there was a decrease in voter participation between the first and second rounds in areas that went for both Macron and Le Pen, but the decrease was slightly greater in Macron territory. All of this leant in the direction of what would need to happen for Le Pen to achieve an upset. In the end, those data points didn’t go nearly far enough in her direction, but you could see being enacted in real time all the trends that would conspire to bring about a dramatic overturning of France’s political fortunes.
Given the circumstances—a pandemic, inflation, war, not to mention numerous novel protest movements and a spate of gruesome terrorist attacks—Emmanuel Macron’s victory should not be diminished. He increased his score in the first round by more points than Le Pen did hers since 2017, and in the end the contest between them wasn’t really close. Still, it was encouraging to see him acknowledge in his acceptance speech last night that “many compatriots voted for me not to support my ideas, but to block those of the extreme right.” Hopefully he governs accordingly. On the other hand, a Le Pen scoring 41% in the second round tells us that the historical associations with the name have indeed weakened.
Much has been made of the collapse of the party system in France, at least at the national level, with the traditional left and right parties practically disappearing (at the level of local and regional governance, where administrative competency is more important than media-penetrating personal charisma, they endure). National politics in France now seems to consist not of parties with their members and ideas, but of “movements,” precariously organized around big personalities. Traditional parties that played by the old rules clearly lost out. The pressures of the “vote utile,” that sent French voters flocking to these personalities may have deprived many of expressing a real choice. In the next five years Macron should support the rebuilding of an infrastructure of more diverse democratic ideas and offers, as he may not like what transpires in the wake of the system he has rendered.
Elisabeth Zerofsky is a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine, based in Berlin. She has written widely on European politics, with a focus on France.
Les fractures françaises – Emile Chabal
Much has been made of the various fault lines in French politics in recent years. Not so long ago, in 1995, Jacques Chirac’s entire presidential election campaign was articulated around the “fracture sociale.” This language of fragmentation and disintegration continues to play a powerful role in French political discourse. Historians of modern France will not find this very surprising. The fear of disorder, collapse, and revolution has driven French politics since the early 19th century—so much so that calls for “national unity” are almost always a reflection of how unlikely it is that any such unity can be achieved.
And so it was again last night. As Macron’s supporters celebrated, not unfairly, a strong victory under challenging circumstances, his detractors had already condemned him to the most ignominious of fates: the president who could not unify the French. One might well ask why this matters at all. Democratic politics is, by its nature, divisive, and the political fault lines of this election were not imagined ones. The demographic and socio-economic differences between Macron and Le Pen’s electorates reflect real jobs, places, communities, and lived experiences. Like all modern democracies, France is a divided country. Would it not be easier to start from this premise, rather than imagine the country as united behind a single vision?
The problem is that Macron himself has reinforced this desire for unity. Structurally and personally, he has embraced the hyper-presidentialism of the Fifth Republic. He has not shied away from his Jupiterian pose—brilliant, talented, knowledgeable, omniscient. Nor has he created a sustainable political movement in En marche. The party, such as it is, is a coalition of different groups, all of whom think they have something to gain by their proximity to the president. The marcheurs are supposed to represent all of France, but they represent mostly themselves.
Macron’s challengers in this election were no better. Mélenchon’s called his cheerleaders “l’union populaire”, and Le Pen promised that her first act would be to convene a “gouvernement d’unité nationale”. At least Macron could credibly claim to represent the consensual middle-ground in French politics; the idea that either Mélenchon or Le Pen would be anything other than deeply divisive is laughable. And yet the desire to project themselves as unifiers was too strong. Even they couldn’t bring themselves to acknowledge that they are—and would be—sources of division.
Of course, if this were all at the level of political rhetoric, we could laugh about it. But the dramatic disconnect between the aspirations of the current crop of presidential hopefuls and the variegated social reality of 21st century France is a real issue. Without recognizing the divisions that exist, it is hard to develop strategies to solve them. Macron may have done a better job than most of convincing people that he is a unifier—and only the most churlish would fail to acknowledge his very real achievement in getting re-elected yesterday—but those divisions he wants to wish away will come back to bite him soon.
Emile Chabal is a Reader in History at the University of Edinburgh. He is a specialist of postwar French and European history. He has published widely on contemporary French politics and intellectual history, from major scholarly monographs to newspaper op-eds.
“Everyone’s a Winner!” (Or, Requiem for the Two-Party System) – Michael Behrent
Elections used to be reality checks. During a campaign, candidates could go on and on about how they were the authentic voice of the people, the soul of the nation. But on election night, they had to yield to the hard facts of the ballot box—“le verdict des urnes,” as the French say.
France has not experienced the election-results-denial that has wreaked havoc in American politics since November 2020. And yet: watching the election coverage on Sunday night, it was difficult not to be struck by the impression that everyone seemed to think they had won. Emmanuel Macron claimed that his impressive reelection was a both an endorsement of his first term and a rejection of political extremes (though, with the best humility that money can buy, he acknowledged that not everyone who voted for him did so because they supported his political program). Despite underperforming compared to recent polls, Marine Le Pen basked in her party’s best-ever presidential score, even as she claimed to represent those excluded from an disloyal and unpatriotic establishment. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, despite being eliminated from the second round, appeared to take some credit for Le Pen’s defeat, while asserting that Macron, due to high levels of abstention, was the “most poorly elected” president of the Fifth Republic.
As for Éric Zemmour, who was also disqualified from the second round, he thinks that no one won, and certainly not France. He concluded his election night remarks with some underhanded—but nonetheless shocking—anti-republicanism: “Vive la République,” he declared, and “SURTOUT vive la France!” (Long live the Republic, and, ESPECIALLY, long live France!”).
My point is not to reiterate the truism that, in any age of fake news and social media, perception prevails over reality. What these election-night spins indicate is something about the current nature of French politics, as it becomes increasingly clear that the populist revolt, like the covid pandemic, is not going away anytime soon. There is a sense that, even as they engage in electoral politics and compete for power, the main candidates for the French presidency aren’t playing the same game. When elections pitted the right against the left, there existed a kind of symmetry between their goals. While they may have disagreed, both were invested in a system that they could imagine themselves governing.
Now, the main candidates seem to be playing fundamentally different games. Macron and his team exude competence and professionalism but view the democratic task of appealing to voters as distasteful and a bit silly. Le Pen seeks to be a lightning rod for the country’s pent-up resentment and anxiety, which she has tried, more or less successfully, to transform into a political program. Though he has abandoned most references to the “left,” Mélenchon is focused on the task, which has a robust leftist pedigree, of building a movement. Whether or not he wins, the union populaire, he contends, is growing greater by the day. Far from being engaged in a single game, each candidate seems to be focused on their own, very different game. The latter play to the candidates’ respective strengths, while requiring them to cast their opponents’ gambits as vaguely illegitimate.
On the plus side, the 2022 French presidential election makes one nostalgic of the two-party system. This is quite a feat: what’s not to hate about a system organized around stale showdowns? But the 2022 race reminds us of what politics looks like when one abandons this organizing principle. Transcending the left-right divide, Macron formed a vast centrist party. As a result, his primary opposition came from the political extremes (corresponding, sociologically, to the more marginalized elements of French society). In a left-right dynamic, centrists and extremists on each side have some incentive to collaborate; when it’s just the center vs. the extremes, each extreme is extreme in its own way. Electoral confrontations between the center left and center right may have bored electors and contributed to the view that there was little at play. But they also ensured that genuine competitions occurred, rather than the lopsided contests witnessed in France’s past two presidential elections (66%-34% in 2017, 59%-41% this year).
France finds itself in an era of high-stakes and vigorously contested elections with (relatively) uncompetitive outcomes. In opting for Macron rather than a potentially disruptive candidate like Le Pen, France chose to adhere to its democratic traditions. But a political system that seems so out of sync with the frustrations and expectations of the French people is a danger for democracy as well.
Michael C. Behrent teaches modern European history at Appalachian State University (North Carolina).
A Normal Election Night – Harrison Stetler
Every election must be historic. Even the most anti-climactic—a feeling best captured last night by the France-Info host who, announcing Emmanuel Macron’s victory, remarked in the same breath that here was the first incumbent reelected since the introduction of five-year terms. It was the least that can be said about the results on April 24: Macron has been reelected. Jacques Chirac was France’s last president to sit for two consecutive terms in office, one seven-year stint followed by a five-year mandate between 2002 and 2007. He was followed by two single-term presidencies held by France’s traditional governing parties, prefiguring, with the benefit of hindsight, what now looks to be their total disappearance from the political field.
Macron’s 58-42 percent is a miniscule margin compared to the twenty first century’s other two face-offs with the far-right (this is the third of the century). More interestingly, it is a large margin in a normal bi-partisan electoral face-off, which is perhaps how this will be remembered. Piercing the 40 percent mark, the National Rally can claim, with some justification, that it is just that: a normal party. The banality of Sunday night’s result was only confirmed by the string of Macronist spokesmen, making the rounds of the television studios, who celebrated the results as a ringing endorsement of their champion.
This new normal is an erasure of an entire sphere of French society, the left-wing voters who had to cover their noses to again fend off the far-right, and who, studies will surely show, will have been instrumental in Macron’s victory. If over the next five years the latter governs the country the same way he has since 2017, we can’t count on them showing up again to support X responsible centrist’s Defense Of The Republic from Y far-right demagogue’s Race-Baiting Populism.
And yet, we should look at the numbers: 18-34-42. Since 2002, there is an unambiguous trend in support for a far-right presidential candidate—one that should be setting off alarm bells. There’s not much cushion left.
A few years ago, some friends and I (naively) speculated about the possibility that Macron would, as we put it, pull a “reverse Mitterrand,” meaning that he would take an opposite leap from habits developed, breaking from the right to the left. Does Macron have the political wherewithal to know that this flexibility is what France needs most in the coming years? I’m not holding my breath.
Harrison Stetler is an independent journalist and teacher living in Paris. He has written for The New York Times, New York Review of Books, The Nation, Jacobin, Mediapart and other French and American publications
It Didn’t Happen Here – Shane McLorrain
The French presidential elections are over. After an uncertain run, Macron has been confirmed for a second term, beating out Marine Le Pen and becoming the first French president to win a second term in twenty years. For Europhiles, technocrats, and entrepreneurs, Macron’s 60-to-40 triumph over the far right is a cause for relief. But with high dissatisfaction, inflation, and a more robust performance by the far right than ever before, France runs a historically high risk of serious social and political unrest.
Macron’s first term has been marred by seemingly endless crises. From the Gilets Jaunes and transport strikes to the anti-lockdown protests, there has scarcely been a move made by the president that hasn’t garnered outrage from one side of the political aisle or the other. Despite a 72% participation rate in the second round of the elections, the perception of disenfranchisement is high. Combined with a tack to the right on social issues and the emergence of far-right challengers such as the quixotic ethnocentrist Eric Zemmour, Macron’s second term is vulnerable to compromise through both legitimate means (ie being kneecapped in the upcoming legislative elections) and less legitimate ones (another round of massive protests). The real battle for Macron will therefore be social. Racial and religious tensions have flared and could very well reach their peak should inflation continue to squeeze the working classes. To prevent this, Macron must first thread the needle of economic issues by managing inflation while encouraging high GDP growth. As Nicholas Sarkozy and François Hollande can attest, that is no mean feat, even for the “Mozart of Finance”, and especially without a strong parliamentary majority.
Next, he must do what his predecessors, most notably Sarkozy, could not and open a meaningful national discussion on race and religion in France. Viewed as taboo in the decades since the Vichy government, ethnic and religious tensions have consistently defied any attempts at defusion and have been exacerbated by multiple high profile incidents in the past few years including the beheading of Samuel Paty. France collects no data on ethnicity or religion, opting instead to avoid the question as a matter of principle. Engaging with these sensitive matters will mean redefining how the country understands both civism and its long-standing tradition of laïcité, all while preventing a hijacking of the conversation by Mr. Zemmour and his ilk.
Mr. Macron has his work cut out for him. Between these deep domestic issues and foreign policy crises such as the war in Ukraine and the ongoing supply chain disruptions, not to mention the impending legislative elections that will define the edges of his power for the entire second quinquennat, the next few months may very well be the most significant period of his presidency.
Shane McLorrain is an Editor for Tocqueville 21. His contributions focus on geopolitics, geoeconomics and French politics. He is also the creator, host and producer of the Tocqueville 21 Podcast.


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Attractive coloured map of the Alsace from Homann Heirs. Showing the Rhine River from Strasbourg to Rheinzabern.
Old ink notes in margin, slight offsetting around centrefold.
Johann Baptist Homann was born 1664 in Oberkammlach. He founded his business 1602 in Nuremberg, Germany. After a long period of Dutch domination in map publishing, the Homann publishing house became the most important map and atlas producer in Germany. He became a member of the Academy of Science in Berlin just after he published his first atlas in 1707. After his death 1724 in Nuremberg, the company was continued by his son Johann Christoph. The publishing firm was bequeathed to his heirs after his death in 1730 and was traded under the name Homann Heirs until the next century.
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Homann Erben: Alsatia tam Superior, quam inferior una cum Sundgovia, utraque in suos Status provincia les divisa & ex subsidus veteribus....
Coloured map of the Rhine River, Alsace. Printed in Nuremberg by Homann Heirs circa 1750.
France - Homann Erben - Alsatia tam Superior, quam inferior una...


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Last time I met with Joanna for her root touch-up she showed me a tube of an amazing apple green crazy colour and asked for a dip-dyed look. This is the finished result but I would like to say that it’s not as easy as it looks. It took hours to paint every strand by hand. The good thing about going for such a look before your summer holidays is that it’ll be back to normal by the time you come back from the sea & sun land. Crazy colours wash out like crazy when under the sun and inside the sea water. So do it without worrying you’ll get fired when you return from your holidays. Just keep in mind that the lighter the colour, the quicker it will go away.
Kenji had let his hair grow for months but because of the heatwave he wanted to shave it all off with clippers. I decided to do two more haircuts before all his hair fell on the floor. He’s half Greek, half Japanese so it was no surprise that I wanted to experiment since he has the silky and straight Asian type of hair. The first haircut was a short back and sides with the hair on top combed back and wet. Classic stuff. It’s just the use of gel that makes it fresh.
The second look was a haircut inspired by Japanese musician Towa Tei. The only element I kept the same is the roundness of his hair at the front. This is more on the eccentric side. I just love the contrast between the quirky front and the rather masculine back and sides.
Towa Tei in 1998 (couldn’t find photo credit for this picture).
So, in the end he got what he wanted and he was really happy for it. Let the carefree summer begin.
Here is another version of the hitler youth haircut and it’s slightly longer than the one I showed in the Panos P. 2 post. I love the combination of this hairstyle with a beard.
I cut and coloured Aphrodite’s hair again. Gone are the lighter ends but I’m sure once she goes on holiday and the sea and sun work their magic, really light blond highlights will appear. Her haircut is more or less the same as the last one, I am only trying to grow out her fringe. Treasure your natural texture as it’s much more fashion forward than any result a curling tong or a straightener could give you.
I didn’t really cut Dimitris’s hair this time. I just gave him a small undercut at the back and shortened his sideburns. Last time I cut his hair was February (Dimitris M. post) and it’s grown a lot since then. It doesn’t take that long to grow your hair long, it’s just that you should see the glass as half full and stop worrying so much about embarrassing stages while getting there.
Joanna has been taking pole-dancing lessons for a year now and her school threw an annual end-of-the-season party recently. So obviously Joanna was going to pole-dance and the song was “Why don’t you do right”, sung by Amy Irving for the film “Who framed Roger Rabbit” (1988). When she asked me to do her hair for the event, the first thing I thought was that because she is a blonde and not a redhead, I didn’t have to copy Jessica Rabbit’s hairstyle but rather be inspired by the era. She has a lot of hair so no extensions were going to be needed in order to give her the right hairstyle. I decided not to do the perfect waves with all the hair in its place, as it felt a bit stiff and I wanted lots of movement. The finished result looked silky and soft but a bit undone and decadent as well. I wanted it to look as if she had already been dancing in it. Marina Stat did the make-up.

domain: artistic


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The secret is in your hand. Even if the recipe is the same, it’s the hand of the one who makes it that matters in the end. These words play a pivotal role in Jim Casey’s cooking career. “I heard this from a chef once and it’s stayed with me for a long time,” says Casey, chef-owner of Bridgestreet Libations & Temptations in New Hartford. “It represents my culinary point of view because in cooking there’s so much room for interpretation and creativity. I might see something and say, ‘Hey, that looks awesome, I want to try something like that,’ but I won’t follow the recipe. I’ll look at the dish as a whole, understand its flavor profile, then come up with my own way of doing it.”
Casey embraces tailoring a dish to his own style, just like the potato gnocchi he learned from other chefs. “Gnocchi is one of the simplest pastas to make at home. People are really impressed when you say you made the gnocchi yourself. Kind of makes you feel like you’ve learned it from an old Italian grandmother,” he says. “That’s what makes cooking so great and intimate. It’s a piece of your mind and soul that you’re materializing on a plate and sharing with others for them to enjoy.”
This simple, feel-good dish has many nuances. “It’s hearty, yet light and refreshing,” says Casey, noting it’s best to use fresh corn and peas, but frozen vegetables can be substituted. “You can serve it hot or chilled. Make a little pesto and toss that in there, too. The versatility of this dish is amazing. I’ve given you a canvas and a bit of direction. I have one rule — make it taste good.”
Preparation time: 1 hour and 45 minutes
3 russet potatoes
2 ears of corn (can substitute about 1½ cups frozen corn)
1 teaspoon salt
2½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup fresh peas (can substitute frozen)
3 sprigs thyme
1 bunch asparagus (cut on the bias, or diagonally, about 1 inch in length)
¼ stick of unsalted butter
Juice of 3 lemons
½ ounce chopped parsley
½ ounce chopped cilantro
Bake potatoes at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until cooked through. Remove from the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes.
While potatoes are cooling, cut the corn from the cob and roast in the oven for approximately 10 minutes.
Once potatoes are cooled, remove the skin, cut the potatoes and put them in a mixer. Add salt. Slowly mix the potatoes, adding 2 cups of flour and Parmesan cheese until you have a dough-like consistency.
Roll the dough into ropes and cut into 1-inch lengths. Dust with a half-cup of flour and then drop them individually into a sauce pot filled with about 6 quarts of salted boiling water. Once the gnocchi float to the surface, wait about 3 minutes before removing them.
Put a sauté pan on medium-high heat and lubricate with vegetable oil. Add the corn, peas, shallots, thyme, asparagus and butter.
Once vegetables are cooked, add the gnocchi. Pour into a serving dish and top with lemon juice and chopped parsley and cilantro.
Chef’s tip: “Respect the gnocchi dough and don’t overwork it. There’s not really a way to describe when to know if the dough is ready, you just have to feel it. Take your time with it, learn it. Make some mistakes — that’s the only real way to learn how to do anything in life.”

domain: food


Italian writer Paolo Nori posted a video on Instagram on Tuesday saying he had received an email from officials at the University of Milano-Bicocca, in Milan, informing him of the decision to postpone his course following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"Dear Professor, the Vice Rector for Didactics has informed me of a decision taken with the rector to postpone the course on Dostoevsky," the email said, according to Nori's video.
"This is to avoid any controversy, especially internally, during a time of strong tensions."
Nori said he had been invited by the university to deliver the four-session course on Dostoevsky, whose novels include Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, Demons and The Brothers Karamazov, starting from next Wednesday.
"They invited me. Each lesson was 90-minutes long. They were free and open to everyone," he said.
Nori went on: "I realize what is happening in Ukraine is horrible, and I feel like crying just thinking about it. But what is happening in Italy is ridiculous."
"Not only is being a living Russian wrong in Italy today, but also being a dead Russian, who was sentenced to death in 1849 because he read a forbidden thing. That an Italian university would ban a course on an author like Dostoevsky is unbelievable," he said.
Nori's video sparked an outcry, with several notable figures criticizing the university's decision.
"In this time we need to study more, not less: in the university we need teachers, not incapable bureaucrats," Renzi wrote.
On Wednesday, the university released a statement on its social media accounts confirming the course would go ahead.
"The University of Milano-Bicocca is a university open to dialogue and listening even in this very difficult period that sees us dismayed at the escalation of the conflict," the statement said.
"The course of the writer Paolo Nori is part of the writing course aimed at students and citizens who aim to develop transversal skills through forms of writing. The university confirms that this course will take place in the established groups and will deal with the contents already agreed with the writer. In addition, the rector of the university will meet Paolo Nori next week for a moment of reflection," it said.
Newsweek has contacted Nori and the university for additional comment.


text: Estimate Your RMD Help determine the required minimum distribution from an IRA or other qualified retirement plan. You are viewing this website at a small screen resolution which doesn't support calculators. Click here to view this calculator. Have A Question About This Topic? Name Email Address Message Thank you! Oops! Related Content How Will Working Affect Social Security Benefits? Knowing the rules may help you decide when to start benefits. Should You Ever Retire? A growing number of Americans are pushing back the age at which they plan to retire. Or deciding not to retire at all. Volunteering in Retirement For many, retirement includes contributing their time and talents to an organization in need.

domain: economics


text:
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domain: travel


Because of the war in Ukraine, russia has already become the most sanctioned country in the world — it has even overtaken North Korea and Iran. However, most of the restrictions imposed do not have a destructive effect on the russian economy and cannot stop its aggression yet. Moreover, it manages to bypass some sanctions, for example, regarding individual enterprises. Therefore, the governments of the states supporting Ukraine are currently discussing more stringent restrictions, in particular the embargo on russian energy resources.
The US and Britain have taken the first step in this direction. On March 8, Joe Biden announced a ban on import of russian oil, gas, and coal. On the same day, Boris Johnson reported that Britain would give up russian oil and petroleum products by the end of 2022, and was also looking for ways to do without russian gas.
The European Union has so far dared to impose an embargo only on coal — restrictions on its import will be in force starting from August. However, this ban will not have a significant impact on the economy of russia. In the structure of its export, the share of coal in 2013-2021 was approximately 3%, while oil and petroleum products accounted for more than 42%, natural gas — 11%.
Bloomberg estimates that if current oil and gas prices are maintained, russia’s energy revenues this year will be approximately USD 320 bln. This is one third more than in 2019 and 2021, and twice as much as in the crisis year 2020. Former chief economic adviser to vladimir putin, Andrii Illarionov, suggests that only a real embargo on russian energy by Western countries can stop the war in Ukraine.
We investigated to whom and how many energy carriers russia exports. The study is based on data from open access: statistics of foreign trade of russia according to the Federal Customs Service of russia, statistical data of the Federal Customs Service of russia, Reuters data on the gazprom export.
Oil and oil products
According to the International Energy Agency, russia accounts for 11% of the world’s oil production and ranks third in the world (first ranks the United States, second — Saudi Arabia). Russia received the most for the export of oil and oil products in 2013 — USD 281.3 bln. From that year until 2019, it constantly increased its export volumes. During this time, they increased by 30%. However, due to fluctuations in the price of oil on the world market, revenues from these exports did not increase in the same way. The second maximum was in 2018 — USD 207.4 bln.
Almost half of russian oil and oil products (47%) are exported to European countries. In 2021, russia delivered 108.1 million tons of crude oil to the EU for USD 50.9 bln. For comparison, in 2013, the EU share in russian oil export reached 67%.
- China — 70.1 mln tons (31% of total exports) for USD 34.9 bln. Since 2017, China has remained the largest buyer of russian oil.
- The Netherlands — 37.4 mln tons for USD 17.3 bln;
- Germany — 19.2 mln tons for USD 9.3 bln;
- Belarus — 14.9 mln tons worth USD 6.4 bln;
- South Korea — 13.5 mln tons for USD 6.4 bln.
Most of the oil russia exports by sea — tankers ship it all over the world, in particular to refineries in Europe. However, because of russia’s war against Ukraine, it became more difficult to track them. Windward states that more and more tankers with russian oil and oil products are disappearing from radars, and their shadow activity has increased by 600%. According to international regulations, you can only disable systems that transmit a signal about the location of a tanker for safety reasons. However, Windward CEO Ami Daniel is convinced that russian vessels are concealing information about themselves in order to circumvent sanctions. Moreover, according to CNN, approximately 1.5 mln barrels of russian oil are secretly purchased every day by buyers who do not want to risk their reputation because of their relations with russia.
The oil company Shell Plc continues to buy russian oil under the cover of so-called blending, writes Bloomberg. That is, it sells a barrel, in which 49.99% is produced in russia, and 50.01% is supplied from other sources. Such Shell cargo is technically not of russian origin. To allow blending with russian energy resources, the company amended the so-called general regulations and conditions of its contracts.
Oil companies are also tempted by the discount on the russian resource — the discount on Urals reached almost USD 35. In late March, India’s Hindustan Petroleum Corp bought 2 mln barrels of russian Urals oil with delivery in June. Other Indian refiners buy the same variety — Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. and Bharat Petroleum Corp.
However, Chinese national oil refiners, on the contrary, avoid new bidding with russian oil. They execute existing contracts, but refrain from new ones, despite significant discounts. Here, companies are listening to Beijing’s calls for caution as Western sanctions against russia intensify.
Russia received the most for its gas in 2013-2014, as in the case of oil, the level of income for the resource it has not yet managed to return. The largest subsidence was in 2020, while gas exports from russia amounted to only USD 26.1 bln. However, after the 2020 crisis, the revenue for it doubled to USD 54.2 bln. All thanks to the rapid growth of demand and, accordingly, gas prices.
It is also worth noting that russia conceals the volumes and directions of natural gas supply, attributing the sale of these resources to the group of secret export.
In 2021, according to Tadviser, Germany imported the most russian gas — 48.2 bln cubic meters, 23.7% of the total volume of gas exports from russia. Turkey ranks second with 26.8 bln cubic meters (13.2%), followed by Belarus with 19.8 bln cubic meters (9.7%). Among the large buyers were also Italy — 16.1 bln cubic meters (7.9%), France — 11.2 bln cubic meters (5.5%), and Austria — 10.9 bln cubic meters (5.4%).
Overall, russian gas in the EU accounts for approximately 43% of all the gas consumed. It gets there via 4 main routes:
- transit through gas pipelines of Ukraine;
- “Nord Stream” via the bottom of the Baltic Sea;
- Yamal—Europe, passing through Belarus;
- TurkStream via the bottom of the Black Sea.
The rest comes from Norway, as well as in the form of liquefied natural gas from the Middle East, the United States, Libya, and Algeria.
From April 2022, russia decided to convert the payment for the supply of russian gas to “unfriendly countries” to russian rubles. EU countries refuse to implement such a decision by the Kremlin. In particular, the G-7 countries stated that they would not pay for russian gas in rubles. Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia have ceased receiving gas at all.
How and using what sources it is possible to replace russian energy resources
The EU has already presented a plan to make Europe completely independent of russian energy carriers by 2030. It involves the diversification of gas supplies to produce heat and electricity. However, there is still no unity in the EU’s decision on a complete embargo on russian oil and gas.
Of course, it is difficult to find a replacement for russian gas. The main reason is the network of gas pipelines, by which gas from russia comes to Europe. An alternative to it could be the import from Qatar, Algeria, and Nigeria. However, it will not be possible to quickly ramp-up export from there — the countries have already contracted their production with other buyers from Asia in the near future. The US has agreed to supply Europe with an additional 15 bln cubic meters of liquefied gas by the end of this year. According to the plan, by 2030, additional deliveries should increase to 50 bln cubic meters per year.
Finding an alternative to russian oil is much easier than to gas. Although the russia is a large supplier, but not a monopoly one. The US will open up the country’s oil reserves to keep oil and fuel prices from rising, and has asked Saudi Arabia to boost oil production.
Therefore, although it is difficult to give up russian energy carriers, it is necessary to clearly understand that for russia, the sale of oil and gas is the main resource for the continuation of the war in Ukraine. The EU purchases more than 40% of all gas and oil from russia. It is clear that it is much harder for the EU to give up russian energy carriers than for Britain and the United States. However, it is the European decision that will play a huge role in the effectiveness of economic pressure on russia.


text:
Some police officers have allegedly stolen phones belonging to two protesters from the BuhariMustGo protest which occurred on October 1st.
Men of the Galadimawa Police Station in Abuja arrested the protesters during their protest and allegedly collected phones from them before they were transferred to the FCT CID Saharareporters gathers.
“They forcefully collected the phones from them before transferring them to the FCID. Their only sin was for calling for the resignation of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“One of the lady protesters, Deborah Yusuf was also attacked by a police team led by DSP Altine Hyderia. The same police officer that shot human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore with a riot gun,” a source told the publication.
The protesters took to the street as early as 5am to demand good governance, transparency, and an end to insecurity.
They formed a blockade in the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport road and held out Placards with Buhari must go written on them.
Armed anti-riot police officers led by ASP Altine Daniel apprehended the protesters, chased, dispersed, and took them into custody.

domain: law


text: Eine Kleine Kling Klang with Alan Watson 4th September 2016 1783 Listen Again Here Eine Kleine Kling Klang A music show featuring Krautrock, Moterik, Electronica and Rhythm Driven music from the 70’s to the present day. The show will feature a wide range of music with a strong British and European focus. The the name “Eine Kleine Kling Klang” was picked to illustrate the strong German musical influence within Britain and particularly Europe, which for many years has been a stronghold of innovative music. In English it means “a little Ding Dong”! German influence in rock and electronic music has been particularly critical to it’s development over the years, and this show hopes to illustrate this in the music played, wherever it has originated. Turn it up, sit back, relax, enjoy! Leave a Reply Cancel Reply Your email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Notify me of new posts by email.


text:
Background: Several cancer types have differences in incidence and clinical outcome dependent on gender, but these are not well described in myeloma. The aim of this study was to characterize gender disparities in myeloma. Methods: We investigated the association of gender with the prevalence of tumor genetic lesions and the clinical outcome of 1,960 patients enrolled in the phase III clinical trial MRC Myeloma IX. Genetic lesions were characterized by FISH. Results: Disparities were found in the prevalence of primary genetic lesions with immunoglobulin heavy chain gene (IGH) translocations being more common in women (50% of female patients vs. 38% of male patients, P <0.001) and hyperdiploidy being more common in men (50% female vs. 62% male, P <0.001). There were also differences in secondary genetic events with del(13q) (52% female vs. 41% male, P <0.001) and +1q (43% female vs. 36% male, P= 0.042) being found more frequently in female myeloma patients. Female gender was associated with inferior overall survival (median: 44.8 months female vs. 49.9 months male, P = 0.020). Conclusions: We found gender-dependent differences in the prevalence of the primary genetic events of myeloma, with IGH translocations being more common in women and hyperdiploidy more common in men. This genetic background may impact subsequent genetic events such as +1q and del(13q), which were both more frequent in women. The higher prevalence of lesions associated with poor prognosis in the female myeloma population, such as t(4;14), t(14;16) and +1q, may adversely affect clinical outcome. Impact: These differences suggest that gender influences the primary genetic events of myeloma.
ASJC Scopus subject areas

domain: biology


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text:
Hotel chain Hilton International says its worldwide reservations call centre in Dubai handled a record number of calls in 2002.
Anish Bhatia, manager of Hilton Reservations Worldwide, said the high volumes were achieved during an industry downturn.
"The increased volumes of inbound calls has allowed us to boost capacity of existing lines, add new dedicated lines for Oman and Jordan, plus increase our agent levels by 100 per cent in order to cope with the increased demand," Bhatia said.
"We also expanded our scope of operations last year, and set up dedicated toll-free lines to service our 95,000 Hilton HHonors loyalty programme members in the region. We now average 700 calls a month, primarily covering redemption bookings and enrolment for these members in the UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt."
Hilton says the response from travel agents, corporate bookers, and the public has topped expectations. Further growth is expected this year as users get familiar with the booking processes.
Hilton Reservations Worldwide was set up in Dubai in 1996. It is current based at Hilton's regional headquarters in the Dubai Internet City. The reservations hub offers toll-free access to hotel bookings at over 2,400 Hilton hotels in more than 65 countries worldwide.
TTN is the most established trade publication in the Middle East distributed on a controlled circulation basis to members of the travel and tourism industry.
Published monthly by Al Hilal Publishing and Marketing Group, the region’s foremost trade publisher, TTN is aimed at professionals in the industry, from travel agents to airline and hotel personnel.
TTN provides in-depth and extensive coverage of relevant issues in the Middle East and North Africa as well as in other parts of the world. Travel related news, analysis, and new appointments together with information on up-coming exhibitions, marketing and promotional campaigns are presented in an innovative and striking colour tabloid.
Every issue also contains a collation of international and regional news and topical features of interest to readers.


text:
Recipe created by 2016 Glorious Bites Semi-finalist: Becky Ellis
This glorious appetizer from Becky Ellis, one of our Washington, D.C. Glorious Bites 2016 Semi-Finalists, pairs perfectly with our Sonoma Brut sparkling wine. This layered appetizer brings to life different flavors with every bite; all of which pair very well with bubbles. The citrus notes in the wine go very well with the avocado, the layer of crab is complemented by the toasty almond finish, while the third layer of prosciutto is balanced out perfectly by the pear flavors, and finally the roasted pepper and chili sauce are mellowed out by the floral notes in this wine.
Place coupe champagne glasses and appetizer forks in the freezer to chill for service.
Layer 1 (bottom)
1 ripe avocado
1 tablespoon whipping cream
1 tablespoon tequila
Lump Crab meat
1 slice Fried prosciutto, crumbled
Layer 4 (top)
1 roasted red bell pepper, finely chopped
Thai Chili Oil Remoulade Sauce
1/4 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1 teaspoon Thai Chili Oil
1/4 cup chopped celery
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
2 tablespoons prepared horseradish
3 tablespoons Grey Poupon Harvest Course Ground Mustard
3 tablespoons yellow mustard
3 tablespoons ketchup
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Fried tortilla garnish
Flour tortillas, burrito sized
Vegetable Oil (for frying)
- For bottom layer of appetizer: Mash avocado with fork, add whipping cream and tequila and continue mashing until smooth consistency.
- Second layer: Lump crab meat
- Third layer: Fry prosciutto, place some vegetable oil in frying pan and heat until prosciutto is crispy like bacon. Drain fried prosciutto on paper towels.
- Fourth layer: Core pepper and clean out seeds. Broil pepper on baking sheet until brown and blistered all over. Remove pepper from oven and place in a brown paper bag. Allow it to cool. Remove pepper from bag and with a sharp knife peel away the skin of the pepper. Rinse to remove any seeds.
- Thai Chili Oil Remoulade Sauce: Combine all ingredients in food processor or blender and process until smooth. Chill until service.
- Fried tortilla garnish: Cut burrito size flour tortillas into 1 inch strips. Place 2 inches vegetable oil in frying pan and heat until sizzling. Roll tortilla strips into spirals and hold spirals in the hot oil (very carefully!) to allow the strips to start cooking and holding their shape before letting go of the strips.
- To serve: Place avocado mixture in the bottom of the champagne glass, top with lump crab meat, then prosciutto, topped with roasted red pepper and Spicy Romoulade Sauce and fried tortilla spiral.
Makes 4 servings.


text:
CONYERS — A bipartisan group of Rockdale residents is working to revise the county’s 1% Homestead Option Sales Tax legislation in order to provide greater tax relief to county homeowners.
The Rockdale Voter group is seeking signatures on a petition that would make it possible to call for a referendum to suspend the current HOST and implement a revised Equalized HOST that would require that 99% of HOST collections be used to roll back property taxes and the remaining 1% used to defray administrative costs of the county.
Under the current HOST legislation, the county must use at least 80% of HOST revenues for homestead property tax relief.
House Bill 1102, approved in the General Assembly last year, makes it possible for counties that have a HOST to amend the HOST through a referendum. The Rockdale Voter group is working to obtain the number of signatures needed on a petition to call for that referendum. The group will need 10% of voters registered to vote in the 2018 General Election to sign the petition in order to qualify for a referendum.
Larry Cox, who along with Ken Holmes founded The Rockdale Voter, said the group plans to begin a push for signatures next year in order to have the required number of signatures by June 2021. He said the group plans to have the referendum placed on the November ballot, coinciding with municipal elections.
Rockdale and DeKalb counties are the only two in Georgia that have a HOST. DeKalb approved an EHOST in 2017. Cox said the passage of EHOST in DeKalb County resulted in significant savings for homeowners, and The Rockdale Voter is seeking to do the same in Rockdale.
“We wanted to make this change because we keep seeing taxes go up in Rockdale County, and we had a good example to look at in DeKalb County once they converted to ther EHOST,” he said. “Their citizens have recognized record savings since they went to this system, and we firmly believe Rockdale citizens will recognize those same savings.”
Rockdale commissioners voted in August to reduce the 2020 millage rate; however, due to increases in property tax assessments, the county still saw a 4.19% increase in tax collections.

domain: news


text: Two very different midcentury pieces combine to present a unique story, of a spider meeting a flower in a garden. The flower is a truly stunning piece uniquely cast with beautiful flowing petals. Perched on the edge of the flower is a large bold set with pearl. 3” diameter. Set on 22ct gold plate chain.


Cassper: I Dropped A F*cking Amazing Album
Cassper: I Dropped an Amazing Album
Multi-award winning musician, Cassper Nyovest, is still reeling from the success of his fifth studio album, Any Minute Now, which dropped on Friday, 11 September 2020. Less than a month after its release, the rapper has achieved many accolades, solidifying the fact that he is one of the top rap artists in the country.
In case you managed to forget the genius that is Any Minute Now, our boy Cassper has no problem reminding you. In a tweet today, 7 October 2020, the rapper stated, “People don’t really listen to albums anymore so the fact that a rap album with nothing but rap music on it has been number 1 for 4 weeks straight in the amapiano climate is lit. You can’t downplay that. I dropped a fucking amazing album and the people are loving it. Go fella FAO!”.
His fans rallied behind him with his self-promotion, and made sure to let the rap God know that the album will remain on top for weeks to come. Melusi Moloi commented with, “That’s true bro. When you posted videos saying this is your best project yet they didn’t want to believe it but you really showed the world that you were born for this.” Of course haters took it as an opportunity to discredit him, although Cassper chose to ignore those who attempted to steal focus from his success.
Any Minute Now boasts astounding features with the likes of U.S R&B crooner Anthony Hamilton, Kwaito legend Zola, Samthing Soweto, Langa Mavuso, Tellaman, Youngsta CPT, Busiswa, Nadia Nakai and his homeboys from Mahikeng; Khuli Chana, Tuks, Momolemi, Towdee Mac, DJ Lemonka and the late HHP.
On Wednesday, 30 September 2020 Cassper received recognition for his latest body of work, tweeting, “BOOM!!! #Amademoni certified gold & Good for that just went Platinum!!! #AnyMinuteNow is currently the bestselling album in the country across all genres. Thank you so much to all the fans!!! I appreciate it a lot!!! Keep streaming!!!”.
Mufasa’s fans have praised the rapper for his stellar work on the album from the production to the songs. Cassper’s shares his growing pains over classic hip-hop beats mixed with a flair of traditional jazz, kwaito, and even gospel on the album.
Poeple don't really listen to albums anymore so the fact that a rap album with nothing but rap music on it has been number 1 for 4 weeks straight in the amapiano climate is lit. You can't downplay that. I dropped a fucking amazing album and the people are loving it. Go fella FAO!
— R.M Phoolo (@casspernyovest) October 7, 2020


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Welcome to My New Entertainment Blog
Either I made the comment you knew “Becker” was troubled when not even a solid sitcom director like Andy Ackerman could make an episode work or I meant to make that comment. This episode has Ackerman back and, this time, he’s able to compensate for some of writer Michael Markowitz’s stumbles. Not the misogynist stuff… Read more
So the first couple episodes of “Watchmen” have only hinted at having an actual Watchmen character in it; it took until this episode for the show to confirm, in fact, Jeremy Irons is playing architect of the end of the world and therefor its savior, Ozymandias. He even puts on the costume. And, you know… Read more
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White Day March 14th (회이트데이)
March 14th, White Day, is when men who were given Valentines gifts on February 14th (Red Day), reciprocate, usually with gifts of chocolate, white lingerie or other presents. Like many of the silly days we celebrate around the world, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day, for example, White Day is a fairly recent invention, not as usual an innovation by a card company, but by a confectioners based in Fukouka, Japan which launched the first White Day in 1978. For saddo men, myself included, April 14th, Black Day, is the day to ‘celebrate’ being sad and single. Considering the animosity many Koreans express for Japanese history, if not Japanese people, I am surprised White Day has become so popular. Although it might not manifest itself in a significant way, even the small store near my apartment has appropriate gifts and I have seen several market stalls this week selling various chocolate items. So, like Valentines Day, for me at least, White Day passed by almost unnoticed.

domain: sociology


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Kaluki: Maya Jane Coles Album Launch: Maya Jane Coles + Heidi + Eats Everything + Subb-an + Krysko + Horatio + Pirate Copy + Pete Zorba + B_Deep + AJ Christou + Flux Groove
Mixmag's Breakthrough DJ of 2011. You'll probably know Maya from her mix compilations for DJ Kicks and Fabric Live, or her
remixes of artists including the XX, Bonobo and Little Dragon. She also toured with electronic titans Depeche Mode on the European leg of their tour.
Maya Jane Coles tour dates
With her energy behind the decks and an infectious style of DJing, it's hard to stand still when Heidi is in control.
Keep a close eye on this lady, and keep shaking your ass on her dancefloor!
Heidi tour dates
This omnivorous beat-maker Eats Everything is at the forefront of an emerging wave of talented producers to come out of the West Country’s bass epicentre Bristol, helping define an entirely new genre of forward-thinking underground music.
Eats Everything tour dates
Subb-an’s rapid rise to prominence as a DJ, producer and one of the most exiting new British live acts of recent years is testament to his hard work, natural talent and wholehearted commitment to electronic music. Named as DJ Magazines ‘Best Breakthrough DJ’ in their 2011 end of year awards, Subb-an’s prodigious studio talents have seen him release on Crosstown Rebels, Spectral, Saved and My Favourite Robot and deliver much lauded remixes of Jamie Woon, Lana Del Ray, Noir & Haze and Hollis P Monroe over recent months.
Subb-an tour dates


Because I know the person so well (and not just because I took the picture), I can fill the before and the after of this instant with countless stories. Others can only wonder.
I am a software engineer in London, UK. I update this blog sometimes. -- Eddy Young


Lamborghini has confirmed the Urus SUV concept has been green lit and is slated to begin production in 2017.
From the moment it debuted back in 2012 at the Beijing Auto Show, the Lamborghini Urus SUV concept was something many enthusiasts wanted to see get the production green light. It looked fantastic inside and out and was powered by a turbocharged 4.0-liter V8 that produced 584 horsepower. Was the Urus quite as bonkers as the old Eighties favorite "Lambo Rambo"? That's all a matter of opinion, but it certainly makes the current Porsche Cayenne look downright boring by comparison.
Despite all of the (mostly) positive reaction, Lamborghini refused to confirm whether it would build the Urus, as the Italian automaker was still trying to make a business case for it. Fortunately, the suits at VW Group realized that a production version will be a money-maker and have given the go-ahead for production. It's now officially been confirmed by Audi boss Rupert Stadler at the Grande Giro 50th anniversary tour of Lamborghini that the Urus will begin production sometime in 2017. No additional details are known just yet but they'll likely begin to come out in the months ahead.


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The white man, leaning with both arms over the roof of the little house in the stern of the boat, said to the steersman —
“We will pass the night in Arsat’s clearing. It is late.”
The Malay only grunted, and went on looking fixedly at the river. The white man rested his chin on his crossed arms and gazed at the wake of the boat. At the end of the straight avenue of forests cut by the intense glitter of the river, the sun appeared unclouded and dazzling, poised low over the water that shone smoothly like a band of metal. The forests, sombre and dull, stood motionless and silent on each side of the broad stream. At the foot of big, towering trees, trunkless nipa palms rose from the mud of the bank, in bunches of leaves enormous and heavy, that hung unstirring over the brown swirl of eddies. In the stillness of the air every tree, every leaf, every bough, every tendril of creeper and every petal of minute blossoms seemed to have been bewitched into an immobility perfect and final. Nothing moved on the river but the eight paddles that rose flashing regularly, dipped together with a single splash; while the steersman swept right and left with a periodic and sudden flourish of his blade describing a glinting semicircle above his head. The churned-up water frothed alongside with a confused murmur. And the white man’s canoe, advancing upstream in the short-lived disturbance of its own making, seemed to enter the portals of a land from which the very memory of motion had forever departed.
The white man, turning his back upon the setting sun, looked along the empty and broad expanse of the sea-reach. For the last three miles of its course the wandering, hesitating river, as if enticed irresistibly by the freedom of an open horizon, flows straight into the sea, flows straight to the east — to the east that harbours both light and darkness. Astern of the boat the repeated call of some bird, a cry discordant and feeble, skipped along over the smooth water and lost itself, before it could reach the other shore, in the breathless silence of the world.
The steersman dug his paddle into the stream, and held hard with stiffened arms, his body thrown forward. The water gurgled aloud; and suddenly the long straight reach seemed to pivot on its centre, the forests swung in a semicircle, and the slanting beams of sunset touched the broadside of the canoe with a fiery glow, throwing the slender and distorted shadows of its crew upon the streaked glitter of the river. The white man turned to look ahead. The course of the boat had been altered at right-angles to the stream, and the carved dragon-head of its prow was pointing now at a gap in the fringing bushes of the bank. It glided through, brushing the overhanging twigs, and disappeared from the river like some slim and amphibious creature leaving the water for its lair in the forests.
The narrow creek was like a ditch: tortuous, fabulously deep; filled with gloom under the thin strip of pure and shining blue of the heaven. Immense trees soared up, invisible behind the festooned draperies of creepers. Here and there, near the glistening blackness of the water, a twisted root of some tall tree showed amongst the tracery of small ferns, black and dull, writhing and motionless, like an arrested snake. The short words of the paddlers reverberated loudly between the thick and sombre walls of vegetation. Darkness oozed out from between the trees, through the tangled maze of the creepers, from behind the great fantastic and unstirring leaves; the darkness, mysterious and invincible; the darkness scented and poisonous of impenetrable forests.
The men poled in the shoaling water. The creek broadened, opening out into a wide sweep of a stagnant lagoon. The forests receded from the marshy bank, leaving a level strip of bright green, reedy grass to frame the reflected blueness of the sky. A fleecy pink cloud drifted high above, trailing the delicate colouring of its image under the floating leaves and the silvery blossoms of the lotus. A little house, perched on high piles, appeared black in the distance. Near it, two tall nibong palms, that seemed to have come out of the forests in the background, leaned slightly over the ragged roof, with a suggestion of sad tenderness and care in the droop of their leafy and soaring heads.
The steersman, pointing with his paddle, said, “Arsat is there. I see his canoe fast between the piles.”
The polers ran along the sides of the boat glancing over their shoulders at the end of the day’s journey. They would have preferred to spend the night somewhere else than on this lagoon of weird aspect and ghostly reputation. Moreover, they disliked Arsat, first as a stranger, and also because he who repairs a ruined house, and dwells in it, proclaims that he is not afraid to live amongst the spirits that haunt the places abandoned by mankind. Such a man can disturb the course of fate by glances or words; while his familiar ghosts are not easy to propitiate by casual wayfarers upon whom they long to wreak the malice of their human master. White men care not for such things, being unbelievers and in league with the Father of Evil, who leads them unharmed through the invisible dangers of this world. To the warnings of the righteous they oppose an offensive pretence of disbelief. What is there to be done?
So they thought, throwing their weight on the end of their long poles. The big canoe glided on swiftly, noiselessly, and smoothly, towards Arsat’s clearing, till, in a great rattling of poles thrown down, and the loud murmurs of “Allah be praised!” it came with a gentle knock against the crooked piles below the house.
The boatmen with uplifted faces shouted discordantly, “Arsat! O Arsat!” Nobody came. The white man began to climb the rude ladder giving access to the bamboo platform before the house. The juragan of the boat said sulkily, “We will cook in the sampan, and sleep on the water.”
“Pass my blankets and the basket,” said the white man, curtly.
He knelt on the edge of the platform to receive the bundle. Then the boat shoved off, and the white man, standing up, confronted Arsat, who had come out through the low door of his hut. He was a man young, powerful, with broad chest and muscular arms. He had nothing on but his sarong. His head was bare. His big, soft eyes stared eagerly at the white man, but his voice and demeanour were composed as he asked, without any words of greeting —
“Have you medicine, Tuan?”
“No,” said the visitor in a startled tone. “No. Why? Is there sickness in the house?”
“Enter and see,” replied Arsat, in the same calm manner, and turning short round, passed again through the small doorway. The white man, dropping his bundles, followed.


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NFL team owners this week decided that players will no longer be allowed to take a knee during the playing of the national anthem. And if they do, they will be subject to punishment and their team will be subject to fines.
The owners did provide the players with an alternative, of sorts: If a player does not wish to stand and salute the flag, he can stay in the locker room and wait for the anthem to end. This new league policy is meant to enforce a particular vision of patriotism, one that involves compliance rather than freedom of expression.
The policy is also illegal — for a host of reasons.
The clearest illegality derives from the fact that the league adopted its new policy without bargaining with the players union. When employees, including football players, are represented by a union, the employer — including a football league — can’t change the terms of employment without discussing the change with the union. Doing so is a flagrant violation of the employer’s duty to bargain in good faith.
If, as the NFL Players Association says, the employer implemented this change on its own, the policy is flatly illegal for that reason and should be rescinded by the league.
Kneeling is also a workplace protest
But the new policy has other, deeper problems. Just this week, the Supreme Court issued a major decision that clarifies exactly why the players’ anthem protests are protected by our labor laws. In this decision, Epic Systems Corp v. Lewis, the Court concludes that the National Labor Relations Act is, at its core, designed to “protect things employees ‘just do’ for themselves in the course of exercising their right to free association in the workplace.” Put plainly, the Court holds that collective actions engaged in by employees at work are the heart of labor law’s concern.
In Epic, the Court uses this reasoning to hold that pursuing class-action arbitrations is not something labor law protects. Whether you accept that view or not — I do not — it is impossible to come up with a clearer example of something employees “just do for themselves” as a means of “exercising their right to free association in the workplace” than the anthem protests. They are a perfect example of the type of concerted activity that labor law is designed to protect.
Some might object that labor law does not protect these protests because they’re about something other than work: They’re about police brutality, or systemic racism, or the president’s view of what patriotism means. Of course, in some sense this is exactly what the protests are about. But in a more direct, literal sense, what the players are protesting is the requirement that they stand during the national anthem. That’s what the protest is: a refusal to stand.
Now that the owners have made it a workplace rule to stand during the anthem or stay in the locker room, any player who takes the field and takes a knee is protesting an employer rule. And that is unquestionably protected by federal labor law.
There is a potentially important caveat here, one that comes from a perverse and byzantine part of our labor law called the “partial strike” rule. A partial strike occurs when employees refuse to participate in only one workplace rule rather than ceasing to work entirely. Such strikes are not protected by the law.
This partial strike rule may mean that players who refuse to comply only with the anthem rule, but otherwise fulfill their obligations to the league, can be disciplined for doing so. The rule is perverse because any player who decided to protest the anthem rule by fully striking — not playing at all — would be protected.
In a perfect world, we would get rid of this silly doctrine, but until that happens, if the owners chose to enforce the partial strike rule, they might just be prodding the protesting players toward a complete strike.
The free speech case is also strong — especially given Trump’s involvement
Finally, there is a serious free speech problem with the owners’ rule. In general, the constitutional right to free speech applies only to censorship by government entities, not to what a private sector employer like the NFL does. But there are two reasons why the players have a viable free speech claim.
The first is that the president of the United States has been actively involved in the league’s decision-making process. In an earlier round of the protest dispute, President Trump called on the league to discipline Colin Kaepernick for his leadership of the anthem protests and threatened to use the tax code to punish the NFL if they allowed them to continue. Vice President Mike Pence walked out of a 49ers game where anthem protests were planned.
What’s more, the owners have made clear that their adoption of the new rule was made in response to presidential intervention: They believe that if they do not ban the protests, the president will continue to make the protests a national issue and thereby negatively affect the league’s income stream.
As Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones told Sports Illustrated, Trump “certainly initiated some of the thinking, and was a part of the entire picture.” When the president and vice president of the United States are this intimately involved in encouraging a private employer to adopt a workplace rule, the Constitution should have something to say.
Applying the Constitution in this context is justified but would require judges to break some new legal ground. But even if the courts refuse to apply the Constitution directly here, the players ought to have at their disposal another powerful legal tool. The law of most states declares that employers may not fire, or otherwise discipline, employees for reasons that violate the state’s public policies.
That’s why, for example, employees cannot be fired for fulfilling jury duty, or for refusing to perjure themselves on the employer’s behalf. If an employee is disciplined for one of these reasons, he is entitled to sue the employer (through what’s called a public policy tort).
It is hard to imagine a public policy — in whatever state you choose — more important than the policy in favor of free speech on matters of public concern. Indeed, this public policy is enshrined in the constitution of every state in the nation. Given that freedom of speech is one of our most important public policies, courts should follow the lead of the famous Novosel decision, which held that an insurance company worker who declined to lobby legislators for a particular bill as the company had requested, and who stated his opposition to that bill, could not be dismissed.
The upshot of that decision is that an employer that disciplines an employee for engaging in peaceful speech has disciplined an employee in violation of public policy.
There would, of course, need to be limitations on this rule, and not everything an employee says regardless of context or form could be protected. But the NFL anthem protests are not a tough case. We have players engaged in fully peaceful speech acts, on a subject of core national importance, and in a context where they are literally debating with the president and vice president of the United States.
Given these facts, if the NFL takes action against the players, the league will violate public policy and should accordingly be vulnerable to legal action.
Benjamin Sachs is the Kestnbaum professor of labor and industry at Harvard Law School.
The Big Idea is Vox’s home for smart discussion of the most important issues and ideas in politics, science, and culture — typically by outside contributors. If you have an idea for a piece, pitch us at firstname.lastname@example.org.


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Background and objective: COPD has a variable natural history and not all individuals follow the same course. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of COPD in the absence of chronic bronchitis (CB) based on a population survey in China, and to identify the determinants of CB in patients with COPD.
Methods: A multi-stage cluster sampling strategy was used to survey a population from seven different provinces/cities of China. All residents over 40 years of age were interviewed using a standardized questionnaire and spirometry was measured. A post-bronchodilator FEV(1)/FVC < 70% was defined as the diagnostic criterion for COPD. All COPD patients who were screened were divided into two groups according to the presence or absence of CB.
Results: Of the population of 20,245 that was surveyed, 70% of the 1668 patients who were diagnosed with COPD reported no history of CB. The ages, BMI and comorbidities of COPD patients with or without CB were similar. Male gender, residence in a rural area, having a lower level of education, exposure to tobacco smoke or biomass fuels, poor ventilation in the kitchen and a family history of respiratory disease were all associated with a higher risk of COPD with CB. Patients without CB had less difficulty in walking and higher FEV(1)/FVC values than patients with CB, but were more likely to be underdiagnosed. The strongest predictors of CB were male gender, current smoking and severity of dyspnoea.
Conclusions: This survey confirmed that there is a high prevalence of COPD in the absence of CB in China. It appears that CB is not essential to the diagnosis of COPD.
© 2010 The Authors. Respirology © 2010 Asian Pacific Society of Respirology.

domain: medical


Another wave of severe flooding has wreaked havoc in the Eastern, North and North Central Provinces of Sri Lanka where heavy monsoon rains have caused 11 deaths and affected more than 1.2 million people.
By February 6th almost 250,000 people had been displaced from their homes, most from the worst hit districts of Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Polonnaruwa and Ampara. Families are being housed in more than 600 temporary evacuation centres established by the government in 11 districts across the island.
Since December, heavy and persistent rains have deluged roads, agricultural lands and towns. 18 of Sri Lanka's 25 districts have been affected in what some are saying are the worst floods that the country has experienced in the past one hundred years. Several major tanks (reservoirs) have overflowed causing extensive flooding of downstream villages with over 8'000 homes reportedly damaged or destroyed.
Last week more than 2'000 people were displaced in Dutuwewa, after a dam in the Kiwulkadawela tank in Polonnaruwa burst, unleashing 55'000 cubic acres of water to the nearby area. Coconut trees in the area were reportedly uprooted by the force of the water gushing from the broken dam.
Sugath Thaksala, a famer in Matale, Central Sri Lanka had a lucky escape from the floods. As the rains intensified he warned his family to get inside their house but cracks began to appear in the walls. He managed to escape with his wife, two sons and a daughter but could only watch as the rain and strong winds caused their home of 20 years to collapse.
"It was really tragic, we are not rich people. All that we earned we put towards building our house. Our kids need a roof on top of their heads. I am 47 years old and I can't imagine starting over again."
Currently Sugath and his family are taking refuge at the nearby temple where the Sri Lankan Red Cross has set up a relief camp.
More to be done
"We are closely monitoring the unfolding situation here in Sri Lanka and have been supporting the Sri Lanka Red Cross to strengthen their emergency response efforts", says Bob McKerrow, head of delegation for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in Sri Lanka. "This is the third successive wave of flooding since December. We've have had severe rains for at least 48 hours which will have hit many of the same families once again. We urgently need more funds to purchase relief materials locally."
Meanwhile over 3'000 Sri Lanka Red Cross volunteers from branches in Ampara, Batticaloa, Polonnaruwa, Matale and Trincomalee have been involved in relief efforts, distributing food and non-food relief items such as sarongs, sarees, mosquito nets, bed sheets, sleeping mats, kaftans, tarpaulins and safe drinking water to affected people.
"It's crucial that we provide these relief items to these people so that they do not become vulnerable to other diseases that could arise after a flood situation like this", says Sri Lanka Red Cross director general, Tissa Abeywickrama.
The IFRC has launched an emergency appeal to seek 4.6 million Swiss francs (4.8 million USD, 3.5 million Euros) to support the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society to assist 75,000 people over the next six months with emergency relief and support for their longer term recovery.


National Restaurant Association Identifies ‘Numerous Concerns’ with ‘Nature’ Report
The National Restaurant Association (NRA) is disputing a report by the journal Nature and researchers from Northwestern and Stanford universities that singles out the reopening of full-service restaurants and bars as producing a significant spread of COVID-19 infections last spring. The report also mentioned gyms, hotels and places of worship as being places of high risk for COVID-19 infections.
The study analyzed cell phone data that tracked people’s movement in 10 large cities from March through May.
“The results of a recent modeling exercise, to be published in the journal Nature, were designed to illustrate health disparities and evaluate the disparate impact of reopening restaurants on economically disadvantaged groups,” the NRA said in a statement. “Instead, the project created an ill-advised correlation between the exercise and the risk of dining at restaurants. Like polling data, modeling data cannot reliably be used to draw definitive conclusions about the actions of a group of people or determine outcomes.”
The NRA said it identified numerous concerns with the accuracy of the model and the determinations contained in the final report, including the following:
• The report did not consider restaurant safety measures — Not all full-service restaurants are equal in relative risk. The model did not include the robust safety protocols used at restaurants throughout the country including: face-covering use/enforcement, changes in process for physical and social distancing (seating, waiting areas, lines, etc.), air flow and exchange management, indoor versus outdoor dining, and surface disinfecting.
• Predicted transmission versus actual contact tracing — The report determined “predicted” transmission rates based on modeling only, not on real-world contact tracing.
• Used a limited sample size — The study was conducted in just 10 major metropolitan areas and was not a representative sample of points of interest around the country.
• Unable to account for different types of movement — The model was conducted at a time (March through May 2020) in cities where restaurants were closed to indoor dining during most of that period, serving food for takeout and delivery only. Visits to restaurants to pick up takeout orders (which certainly could be captured in mobility data erroneously, as an on-premises visit to the restaurant) were not segregated in the points of interest listings.
• Unable to account for different types of restaurants — The points of interest did not discriminate between types of dining establishments, indoor dining, takeout service, etc. Not all restaurants carry equal risk — all of the management practices that have been published as guidance will reduce individual and population risks.
• Used secondhand datasets — The datasets used to calibrate confirmed case and death counts came from the New York Times and their reporters who, in turn, reported them from public news conferences and public data releases. They were not obtained directly from public health authorities who frequently update and revise the datasets.
• Did not include mask wearing in the analysis — The two biggest factors identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public health officials —use of face coverings and physical distancing — are not mentioned. The model essentially estimated all levels of compliance as equal which, over time since the sampling was done, have proven that many restaurant operators are effectively managing compliance.