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PG-13 | 2h| Drama, Romance, Sport | 23 June 2006
The year 2006 was certainly an interesting one for movies. The multiplexes were filled with filmgoers eager for cinematic escapism. Movies like “Casino Royale,” “X-Men: The Last Stand,” and “The Hills Have Eyes” were doing just that, thrilling and chilling audiences with violent tales of espionage, superheroes (and villains), and mutated cannibals, respectively. However, besides these big-budgeted displays of sound and fury, other filmmakers were taking a chance on tales with more positive messages.
Director Victor Salva teamed up with screenwriter Kevin Bernhardt and together they adapted a bestselling book by Dan Millman called “Way of the Peaceful Warrior.” The result was a film simply titled “Peaceful Warrior.”
Based on Dan Millman’s early life (and starring Scott Mechlowicz as the lead), young and cocky Dan is a gifted gymnast from a well-to-do family. He has plenty of friends and girls eager for his attention. In other words, it would appear that he has it all.
However, although things seem to be going just dandy for Dan, he has a nagging feeling that something is missing. It’s an unsettling feeling that makes him question his very existence. He also has a disturbing nightmare where he’s attempting a high-risk maneuver on the parallel bars, falls off, and breaks his leg in multiple places.
After one such nightmare, Dan awakes and decides to go on a nocturnal run in order to release some of his pent-up anxiety. During his jog, he comes across a derelict-looking gas station where a middle-aged man in dusty coveralls is working under the hood of a car parked outside.
Dan begins a conversation with the man, whom he dubs “Socrates” (Nick Nolte) because the older man always seems to speak in parables and philosophical riddles. Because Dan has such hubris, Socrates might as well be speaking in an alien language—everything seems to go in one ear and right out of the other.
Later, Dan experiences a horrible motorcycle accident and breaks his leg in multiple places. He is told that, because of the severity of his injury, he’ll never be able to compete as an athlete again. With Dan’s dream world crumbling around him, he slowly begins to warm up to Socrates.
Thus, Socrates becomes somewhat of a mentor and spiritual guide for the young, troubled man. Dan begins a journey of self-discovery and spiritual awareness that puts him on the path of recovery. But with his disability, does he have enough belief in himself to overcome the greatest obstacle that he’s ever faced?
Although this film has a familiar narrative arc, here the lessons are told in an earnest way that piques one’s curiosity. Much of the spiritual wisdom that Socrates dispenses has a universal appeal that just about anybody can comprehend.
Acting-wise, Mechlowicz does a fantastic job of portraying a young, arrogant, hot-shot athlete. He seems to disappear into the role and even made me loathe him (a bit). However, by the end of the film, I was on the edge of my seat, rooting for him. Gravelly-voiced Nolte is likewise perfect in his role as the enigmatic mentor, who never gives up on chipping away at Dan’s inflated ego.
While big movie studios are busy putting out films about families breaking up, senseless and violent rampages, and other unsavory debris, “Peaceful Warrior” is an uncomplicated, uplifting film that should inspire all but the most jaded.


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CCTV footage shows the horror moment a cyclist dad-of-two was sent flying into the air during a suspected hit and run. Darren Murphy suffered eight shattered ribs following the rush-hour smash at 8.40am on September 29 in Wythenshawe.
The technician had been travelling to The Christie Hospital when, as he crossed Hall Lane, he was struck by a car and knocked from his bike. Darren was rushed to A&E following the crash, with his loved ones fearing he had been killed in the collision.
His family have since released shocking footage of the incident, which shows the car hitting the dad before speeding off. They are appealing to anyone with information to get in touch with police, Manchester Evening News reports.
Daughter Alina Murphy, 20, told the Manchester Evening News: "It was awful, we didn't find out until about two hours after it happened. We looked for him on the Find My Friends app and it said he was stuck where he had the accident.
"We had to call his work, I knew straight away what would have happened. My dad isn't the type to not show up to work. We called Wythenshawe and found out he was in A&E.
"I went into a full panic. No one was able to tell me anything."
The family arrived at the hospital to find Darren with a head brace, 'struggling to get his words out' and 'very lethargic' as he recovered from the smash. "But it was good to see that he was still alive," explained Alina.
"He could still talk and didn't have brain damage. If he gets better, he's now going to have to see that road every day, it's so near our house.
"You can't even go to the shops without being on it. He's never going to be able to forget this."
The family say they have lost sleep over the terrifying crash and are pleading with members of the public to come forward with information.
The family claims Darren was hit by a white Toyota Corolla, claiming the driver 'ran a red light' before fleeing the scene.
"As if that isn’t horrific enough, [the driver] drove away knowing he was left in the middle of the road.
"Thank you to the people that stopped and stayed with him waiting for the ambulance, I don’t think he would still be here without you," said Alina.
Greater Manchester Police have been contacted for comment.
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here.

domain: news


text:
Peanut Butter ‘n’ Jelly Pie
Total TimePrep: 10 min. + chilling
I didn't know what kind of desert I was going to make for New Years day. I got on line, and there it was!! My email from Taste of Home with new recipes. I had all the ingredients to make this one. When I told everyone what we're having for desert, they all groaned. When I served it, I only had 2 small slices left over! Even my Grand Daughter, who doesn't like peanut butter ate her whole piece.The only thing I changed, was that I added a little more preserves.
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domain: food


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Democratic Legislation Would Force FCC To Ban Internet Fast Lanes
If legislation unveiled Tuesday by Senate Judiciary Committee chair Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA) becomes law, the debate over Internet fast lanes could be over.
The legislation, known as the Online Competition and Consumer Choice Act would give the Federal Communications Commission broad authority to prohibit Internet providers from speeding up some content at the expense of other content.
Specifically, the law is aimed at preventing ISPs like Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) from charging content providers like Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) additional fees – which would then be passed on to consumers – to ensure smooth streaming of movies, television shows and other content.
Related Link: Google: ‘We Don’t Charge For Peering Or Fast Lanes’
Leahy told The Washington Post, "Americans are speaking loud and clear. They want a platform for free expression and innovation, where the best ideas and services can reach consumers based on merit rather than based on a financial relationship with a broadband provider."
The fast lane ban would only apply to connections between end-users (consumers) and Internet providers. The FCC’s current proposal, now in the public comments stage, would allow ISPs to create multiple tiers on the content provider side – although the agency has asked whether that practice should be banned as well.
Broadband As Utility
Meanwhile, a larger debate continued over whether the FCC should reclassify broadband as a utility – allowing for full regulation. Such action would eliminate any question about whether the FCC has authority to ban traffic discrimination under the current proposal.
The FCC’s current proposal addresses that issue by allowing commercial speed agreements, but reviewing them on a case-by-case basis if the agreement seems to be a violation of the spirit of the regulations in effect.
Although consumer advocates want reclassification, broadband companies do not. Even with reclassification, some broadband providers have maintained that loopholes exist that could permit speed agreements, so long as they were not considered “unjust” or “unreasonable.”
Partisan division over the proposed legislation has resulted in an admission on the part of Democrats that a bipartisan agreement would not be likely.
In fact, in May, Republican congressman Bob Latta introduced a bill that would prevent the FCC from reclassifying broadband as a utility.
FCC chairman, Tom Wheeler, hoped reclassification wouldn't become an issue, saying he would reserve trying that option only if the existing FCC proposal failed to protect consumers.
At the time of this writing, Jim Probasco had no position in any mentioned securities.
© 2017 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

domain: politics


text:
Preparing the Thanksgiving meal can be arduous and time-consuming even for the best of cooks but when you incorporate some of the same techniques the pros do you will find you can turn out an amazingly delicious meal in almost half the time. One fantastic time-saving device is the Ninja® 3-in-1 cooking system – it uses super-heated steam to roast or bake foods and it is also ideal for making tasty and nutritious one-pot meals; steam cooking is one way professional restaurant chefs produce top quality meals in minutes and with this system you can do the same thing at home.
Another way to save time and expedite meal preparation is by using frozen vegetables and fruits – there’s no need to do all the prep work required to make green beans when you can buy them bagged and ready to cook; frozen cranberries are ideally suited for whipping up a healthy and flavorful dish in minutes. Making mashed potatoes from scratch can take hours if you wash, peel, boil and then mash the potatoes by hand plus you have a lot of messy cleanup to deal with. Pick up some readymade mashed potatoes which can be boiled in a bag – cleanup is a snap.
Planning & Preparation
Many dishes can be made days or even weeks in advance of the holiday and this is a great way to enjoy homemade dishes without the added pressure of cooking to a deadline. Pies can be made and frozen; side dishes can also be prepared and frozen so that all you need do on Thanksgiving day is simply reheat the food, enjoy the aroma and savor the flavor. This is when planning is key – by shopping early and cooking ahead of time you can get great deals on popular ingredients and take advantage of seasonal specials.
Cooking ahead does require that you have extra pans, baking and serving dishes because you will be taking them out of your daily rotation when you cook and freeze foods in advance. This is when single use aluminum pans or similar disposable pans are especially useful plus they reduce the need to clean up baked on food and grimy pots and pans. Look for food storage ideas and holiday serving ware at bedbathandbeyond.com – they have a great selection.
The Perfect Table
Naturally you want your holiday table to be attractive and show off the bounty of the harvest. This is when you can actually use your copper cookware, good dishes and better serving utensils to play off the rich palette of autumnal colors. Incorporate gold or rust napkins and candles along with colorful gourds and greens for a seasonal table that will wow friends and family.


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Remember when we first met? You told me you wished I were dead. You thought I had done something I shouldn’t have. It was Bogdi, that demon, who harmed your family, not me. I promised myself that he would never bring harm to you again, but somehow it has happened, and he’s stolen you away. I want you to know more than anything that you had my heart from the start. Did you see that? I made that rhyme, just for you. If you were here now, you would tell me what a fool I am. I miss that smile, one I haven’t seen in weeks. But I’ll find you. With everything in me, I’ll put an end to Bogdi and help bring you home. Do you want to know a secret? I was going to ask you to marry me, and I’d already written you a collection of stories. You said you did always like my stories, as unconventional as they may be. While we wait, here is the first one, my dearest.
Hey there, everyone! In celebration of its publication day, I have the pleasure of sharing with you all a little bit about Dearest Clementine: Dark and Romantic Monstrous Tales by Candace Robinson. This book is a collection of short stories weaved together to form an overarching plot, chock full of romance and horror, and one I’m very much looking forward to reading. The letter above is just one of many gems peppered throughout its pages, so if you’re on the hunt for something a little different and highly imaginative, then be sure to give this book a look!
Dearest Clementine: Dark and Romantic Monstrous Tales is available today!
Clementine has been taken by a creature of darkness.
Dorin is a fiend in love who must find Clementine before losing her forever.
While on his desperate search, Dorin pens eight dark and romantic monstrous tales, written only for Clementine. Each story serves a purpose, and that is, do monsters have the ability to love, too?
Dearest Clementine is a short story collection filled with dark romantic tales.
Candace Robinson spends her days consumed by words and hoping to one day find her own DeLorean time machine. Her life consists of avoiding migraines, admiring Bonsai trees, watching classic movies, and living with her husband and daughter in Texas–where it can be forty degrees one day and eighty the next!
Sign up for her newsletter to hear about awesome things! http://eepurl.com/dhV0yv

domain: artistic


text:
Thousands of papers have been published on the important topic of what determines people’s subjective well-being and psychological health,” but what about the potential influence of the different kinds of foods people eat?
The rising prevalence of mental ill health is causing considerable societal burden. Inexpensive and effective strategies are therefore required to improve the psychological well-being of the population.
A growing body of literature suggests that dietary intake may have the potential to influence psychological well-being.” Dietary intake of what? Well, given the strong evidence base for the health benefits of fruits and vegetables, researchers started there.
Cross-sectional studies from all over the world support this relationship between happiness and intake of fruits and vegetables. Those eating fruits and vegetables each day have “a higher likelihood of being classified as ‘very happy,’suggesting “a strong and positive correlation between fruit and vegetable consumption and happiness” and perhaps feelings of optimism, too.
The largest of such study was done in Great Britain, where “a dose-response relationship was found between daily servings of [fruits and vegetables] and both life satisfaction and happiness,” meaning more fruits and veggies meant more happiness. People who got up to seven or eight servings a day “reported the highest life satisfaction and happiness,” and these associations remained significant even after controlling for factors such as income, illness, exercise, smoking, and body weight, suggesting fruit and vegetable consumption didn’t just act as a marker for other healthy behaviours.
But how could eating plants improve happiness on their own? Well, many fruits and veggies contain higher levels of vitamin C, which is “an important co-factor in the production of dopamine,” the zest-for-life neurotransmitter. And, the antioxidants in fruits and vegetables reduce inflammation, which may lead “to higher levels of eudaemonic well-being.”
Eudaemonic? What does that mean? “Aristotle’s notion of eudaemonia described the highest of all human goods as the realisation of one’s true potential,” which was the aim of a study: Researchers wanted to know whether eating fruits and vegetables was “associated with other markers of well-being beyond happiness and life satisfaction.” So, they tested whether consuming fruits and veggies was associated with “greater eudaemonic well-being—a state of flourishing characterized by feelings of engagement, meaning, and purpose in life.”
The researchers followed a sample of about 400 young adults for 13 days, and, indeed, the young adults who ate more fruits and veggies “reported higher average eudaemonic well-being, more intense feelings of curiosity, and greater creativity.” This could be followed on a day-by-day basis: greater well-being on the days they ate healthier. “These findings suggest that [fruit and vegetable] intake is related to other aspects of human flourishing, beyond just feeling happy.”
Not so fast, though. Instead of eating good food leading to a good mood, maybe the good mood led to eating good food. Experimentally, if you put people in a good mood, they rate healthy foods, like apples, higher than indulgent foods, like candy bars.
Given a choice between M&M’s and grapes, individuals in a positive mood were more likely to choose the grapes. The results of these studies “lend support to a growing body of research that suggests that positive mood facilitates resistance to temptation.”

domain: medical


A systematic and rational approach is presented for the consideration of uncertainty in rotordynamics systems, i.e., in rotor mass and gyroscopic matrices, stiffness matrix, and bearing coefficients. The approach is based on the nonparametric stochastic modeling technique, which permits the consideration of both data and modeling uncertainty. The former is induced by a lack of exact knowledge of properties such as density, Young’s modulus, etc. The latter occurs in the generation of the computational model from the physical structure as some of its features are invariably ignored, e.g., small anisotropies, or approximately represented, e.g., detailed meshing of gears. The nonparametric stochastic modeling approach, which is briefly reviewed first, introduces uncertainty in reduced order models through the randomization of their system matrices (e.g., stiffness, mass, and damping matrices of nonrotating structural dynamic systems). Here, this methodology is extended to permit the consideration of uncertainty in symmetric and asymmetric rotor dynamic systems. More specifically, uncertainties on the rotor stiffness (stiffness matrix) and/or mass properties (mass and gyroscopic matrices) are first introduced that maintain the symmetry of the rotor. The generalization of these concepts to uncertainty in the bearing coefficients is achieved next. Finally, the consideration of uncertainty in asymmetric rotors is described in detail.
Nonparametric Stochastic Modeling of Uncertainty in Rotordynamics—Part I: Formulation
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Murthy, R., Mignolet, M. P., and El-Shafei, A. (June 7, 2010). "Nonparametric Stochastic Modeling of Uncertainty in Rotordynamics—Part I: Formulation." ASME. J. Eng. Gas Turbines Power. September 2010; 132(9): 092501. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.3204645
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text:
this is a screen shot of the second design.
The first design did not last too long.
The original design had little folders
at both the top and the bottom of the
screen, the top folders were used for
navigating the site, and the folder tabs
at the bottom were used for navigating
the pages within the section / league.
second design was much simpler with a
side menu, a top menu over a graphic along
with the six sections we had at the time

domain: design


text:
My book is now available in both paperback and for Kindle e-readers!!! For more information, including a description of the book and its contents, check out the tabs below
it’s beautiful thinspo time
I like and dislike this pic at the same time, and I can’t figure out why
such a gorgeous shot
so tiny and cute
so strange and so creative and so … legs
Never not been amazed by this photographer
unique shot—and look at those legs!


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domain: entertainment


text:
RALEIGH, NC -- Cliff Missen is an advocate for prisoner education who has interacted with thousands of inmates, but he doesn't forget an inmate's first experiences at a prison book club.
"Inmates show up for a meeting with a book from the 1800's, and these people are crying," Missen said. "Because for the first time, they feel like they're inside somebody else's skin and they can see where they're coming from."
If an inmate in a North Carolina prison wanted to read "Fifty Shades Darker," comics from "The Watchmen" series, Maya Angelou's autobiography or even just an encyclopedia, he would leave the prison library empty-handed.
The North Carolina Department of Public Safety's "Disapproved Publications Report" includes nearly 500 titles deemed pornographic, violent or otherwise inappropriate for prisoners. More mundane publications like dictionaries and issues of "Rolling Stone" are also on the list. After the North Carolina American Civil Liberties Union challenged the list in January, the DPS set out to review the entire collection.
The list has been tailored to promote inmate and guard safety, but civil and prisoners' rights advocates like Missen, an associate professor in the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, have criticized the breadth of the list.
Similar lists in New Jersey and Texas prisons have drawn national attention to the issue, but Missen has pointed to the list as only one example of shortcomings in prisoner education in North Carolina.
Despite accusations of censorship, though, prison safety is the goal of the list. Texts that might suggest how to escape from prison, or how to kill a prison guard, are barred for obvious reasons.
Department of Corrections deputy director of administration Carlton Joyner has worked for the DOC for more than three decades. He said the list of disapproved publications is always in flux.
Publications requested by or sent to prisoners are skimmed upon arrival. If the material is marked inappropriate, it will be banned for 12 months. Joyner said books are not added to the list unless received, reviewed and flagged.
The DOC's policy once prohibited hardcover books larger than 8.5" x 11" and 2" thick, as well as spiral-bound notebooks, for space restrictions and the rare safety concern. Such safety concerns could be the use of a larger, hardcover text as a blunt weapon or for hiding illicit materials. Joyner said the restriction policy is under review, but that all books from the size-restricted categories were removed from the list.
"If a book is currently on the list, it will be based on content solely," Joyner said.
Joyner said he wasn't sure of the reasoning for individual titles, noting again that titles are barred exclusively when prisoners attempt to order them or are sent the publication.
Now, with the entirety of the bank of disapproved publications under review, the Department of Public Safety will apply restrictions based on content alone and the list will likely shorten dramatically.
But just this January, inmates were also denied access to Michelle Alexander's, "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness." The North Carolina ACLU called the ban "cruelly ironic," and successfully pressured the DPS to lift the ban last month.
While prisoner rights advocates have pointed to banned books as just one manifestation of a larger problem in inmate education, North Carolina ACLU legal director Chris Brook said inmates often specifically ask about access to reading materials.
Some texts are "fundamentally incompatible" with operating a prison safely, Brook said, but he explained that the logic behind banning the Alexander book was unclear.
"It's about the mass incarceration of young black men, who are disproportionately impacted by the criminal justice system. That's a reality anyone incarcerated in North Carolina is aware of, day in and day out," Brook said. "So why, then, are prisoners being denied access to it?"
Although black men make up less than 20 percent of the state population, more than half of North Carolina inmates are black males.
Further, Brook said the vast majority of the incarcerated will be released, and that their rights aren't forfeited behind bars. Brook said the censorship of a book that critiques the very system that victimizes many inmates is ironic at best. At worst, he said limiting educational materials can cripple an inmate's prospects of staying out of prison after release.
"I think fully walling prisoners off from society is not likely to help with reintegrating," he said.
The DPS has affirmed its dedication to preserving safety without limiting prisoners' rights to information and education by focusing exclusively on content-based regulations on publications in response to the ACLU's actions.
A 2016 study published by the RAND Review found inmates who participated in any form of correctional education - from book clubs to accounting classes - were up to 43 percent less likely to return to prison.
Missen credited the ability of literature to instill inmates with empathy for the link between reading and reduced recidivism rates.
He said attitudes toward inmates and about prisons as a whole in the United States are more punitive than constructive, which is at odds with prison systems in other developed nations. Banned books, understaffed libraries and limited resources are symptoms of a toxic national prison culture that repeatedly fails its captives.
In North Carolina, although all prison facilities are required to house a library, there's one actual librarian dedicated to the entire system, totaling nearly 40,000 inmates. The result of insufficient prisoner education is often higher rates of recidivism.
The sanctuary of a fully functioning library, Missen said, should be the bare minimum for inmates. He described a "hugely dysfunctional" situation in American prisons where inmates and staff are afraid of each other. Trust and education are keys to closing that gap, Missen suggested.
Libraries in North Carolina prisons are currently staffed by "qualified staff members or community volunteers," as DOC policy 1101a dictates.
Missen said retaining a single librarian and a workforce of fill-ins for 55 prisons is "insane."
Joyner said he's manned the library himself - as a state prison employee after his time as a correctional officer - but couldn't recall the training that the policy mandates. He said he didn't remember the system ever working differently than with volunteers and appointed employees manning the library.
"We don't have an employee whose job is to be a librarian," Joyner said. "Generally, it's an individual who we call a programs person, and one of their responsibilities will be to supervise the library."
He said that employee is mostly concerned with ensuring books are returned after being checked out by inmates.
Without a librarian, advocates for prisoner education like Missen are wondering what internal force will speak out for those unable to speak for themselves.
"Who is there in the prison who is advocating for access to information?" he said. "Who is advocating for these books to be available?".
Had the ACLU not been tipped off, it's likely that nobody would have intervened to challenge bans on "The New Jim Crow" and other questionable texts. Without librarians in prison libraries, that oversight will continue to come from external forces.
Meanwhile, Brook said limitations on education behind bars will only end up harming the imprisoned and the communities they'll eventually return to.
"It's in all of our interests to have a rehabilitative component to our prisons, and that we help prepare folks who are going to be back on the outside to succeed on the outside," he said.
This article was submitted to ABC11 by UNC Media Hub.
Click Here for more from UNC Media Hub.
Banned books and a lack of librarians: reading in North Carolina prisons
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By Abdul Kerimkhanov
Armenia’s national debt doubled over the period of 2008 to 2018, head of the Methodology, Analysis and International Relations Department of Armenia's Audit Chamber Karen Arustamyan has said.
As for the 2012-2018 statistics, the reality is even worse. In the mentioned time span, the national debt of Armenia increased by 342 percent.
Addressing a meeting of the Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs of the National Assembly of Armenia, Arustamyan said that according to the findings of the Audit Chamber, an internal audit of public debt was never conducted in Armenia and the risks were not assessed.
“Although the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank are obliged to publish documents relating to the state debt, in fact this has never been done. In addition, the State Revenue Committee did not provide the Finance Ministry with its forecasts about the state budget," he stated.
When asked by the Committee Chairperson Mane Tandilian whether the non-compliance with these procedures contained corruption risks, Arustamyan replied that the government would assume these obligations by its decision.
"Let it control this process by commissioning an audit of some of the organizations. Indeed, in this way it will be easier to identify these risks," he answered.
Arustamyan confirmed that this is a rather serious process, adding that Audit Chamber asks to carry it out.
He noted the Audit Chamber recorded 37 risks in the Public Debt Management Department in 2017 and 2018.
"In the framework of studies in various credit programs, the audit chamber revealed a number of abuses," he concluded.
The highest level of external public debt in Armenia was recorded in 2017 in the amount of 48 percent of GDP.
When Levon Ter-Petrosyan was in power in Armenia, the external public debt grew by $734 million, Robert Kocharian - $827 million, Serzh Sargsyan - $3.98 billion.
Note that law "On the State Budget of the Republic of Armenia for 2020" provides that the state debt of Armenia will amount to $7.6 billion or 51.2 percent of GDP in 2020.
Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz


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Qdos Entertainment announced today (16 October 2020) that Elaine Paige will join the cast of Pantoland at The Palladium for the three-week festive run beginning 12 December 2020, which sees pantomime return to the world-famous The London Palladium for a fifth consecutive year.
Paige, returning to The London Palladium having played Queen Rat in Dick Whittington in 2017, joins the previously announced panto favourites Julian Clary, Paul Zerdin, Nigel Havers and Gary Wilmot, past stars Ashley Banjo & Diversity and Charlie Stemp and Palladium panto newcomers West End stars Beverley Knight and Jac Yarrow.
Multiple award-winning actor, recording artist, producer and broadcaster Elaine Paige will play Queen Rat. She has previously starred in more West End and Broadway musicals than anyone else of her generation – Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar, Grease, Billy, Evita, Cats, Chess, Anything Goes, Piaf, Sunset Boulevard, The King & I, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, The Drowsy Chaperone and Follies. In addition, she was part of the Sir Peter Hall Company for The Misanthrope and Where There’s A Will. Her BBC Radio 2 programme, Elaine Paige on Sunday, is broadcast weekly to over 2.5 million listeners and is now in its sixteenth year. As a recording artist, she has released 22 solo albums as well as featuring on multiple cast albums. She can currently be seen on BBC1 in Life. Paige was made an OBE in 1995.
Elaine Paige said: “I absolutely loved playing the evil Queen Rat in Dick Whittington a couple of years ago and can’t wait to be back on The London Palladium’s stage again this year, alongside Julian and the wonderful panto gang. Bringing theatre back to the West End is vital for our industry, which has been largely closed since March. I’m thrilled to play a part in helping theatre take its first steps towards full reopening in 2021. It’s time to escape the challenges around us all and give everyone a well-needed laugh!”
This production at The London Palladium has been made possible as a result of a creative initiative announced by The National Lottery last week which it hopes will enable hundreds of thousands of theatregoers to enjoy socially distanced pantomime this Christmas in theatres across the nation. The initiative will see The National Lottery buy seats that need to remain empty to enable social-distancing, complying with relevant government and public health guidance. By making it viable for theatres to open their doors to the general public, up to 250,000 tickets are expected to be available, with more than 20,000 free tickets available for National Lottery players and the rest to go on sale. This will generate vital income for theatres and help restore jobs – while providing much-needed cheer for panto lovers at Christmas.
The London Palladium pantomime has become an essential part of Christmas in London, with record-breaking box office success year-after-year. Pantoland at The Palladium, devised by Michael Harrison, will be a treasure-trove of The London Palladium panto past and exciting new surprises written especially for the show, guaranteeing an unmissable treat for panto and musical theatre fans alike.
The show will feature the work of Olivier Award-Winning Team director Michael Harrison, choreographer Karen Bruce, set designer Ian Westbrook, costume designer Hugh Durrant, lighting designer Ben Cracknell, sound designer Gareth Owen and composer and orchestrator Gary Hind.
Celebrating the very best of pantomime, with comedy in abundance, this star-filled extravaganza will play to a socially-distanced audience. Operating in line with the Government’s current guidance around the reopening of theatres, performances of Pantoland at The Palladium will run with a wide suite of health and safety measures (including reconfiguration of seating across the venue and the mandatory wearing of face coverings) that keep audiences, staff and crews safe. Since July, The London Palladium has been designated an official Government pilot venue to support the safe and full reopening of theatres across the country.
Pantoland at The Palladium is produced by Michael Harrison and Nick Thomas for Qdos Entertainment. As the world’s biggest pantomime producer, over the past 38 years Qdos Entertainment has established itself as one of the largest entertainment companies in Europe. Over the past three decades the pantomime giant has staged 754 pantomimes.


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Backspace Festival Leamington Launches For the Second Year!
Written by Clay on October 23, 2014
For over three decades Warwickshire has enjoyed a rich, although sometimes well-hidden, history of world-leading videogame development. Backspace is here to celebrate that history, revel in the games being produced right now, and encourage and engage the designers and developers of the future.
Launched to huge acclaim and multiple awards in 2013, the Backspace festival was co-organised by Vital, Press Space PR, Leamington Looks Back, Warwick District Council and Warwickshire County Council. Expanding its reach in 2014, Backspace 2.0 will continue to showcase the creativity and technological innovation across the region, this year expanding outside of its Leamington Spa roots, to include games companies and community events across the whole of Coventry and Warwickshire.
A broad range of activities for all ages and interest levels will light up October half term week, in addition to a series of ‘warm-up’ events in the weeks and months that lead up to the festival proper. And a flagship community-wide schools game design competition (launched in May 2014) will culminate in a 2-day ‘game jam’ that will see school students, professional developers and local dignitaries rub shoulders to create a series of original games that celebrate Warwickshire itself.
So come and join the fun, and help us tell the story of how a small Midlands region helped to change the face of the largest entertainment industry in history.
Find out more at http://backspaceuk.com/index.html

domain: hobby


text:
Htoi (Win Lett) Gender and Development Foundation (HGDF), non-profit and non-governmental organization, was formed by religious leaders, community leaders, and social activists from Kachin State in May 2005. The main aim of Htoi is to address gender inequality issues in Kachin Society. Htoi has been working with the vision of “Every society in Kachin State accepted and practiced gender equality approach and Kachin State is developed and able to maintain sustainable peace” in Northern Shan State and remote areas along the Kachin State and China border.
For strengthening gender equality in Kachin society, Htoi intervenes through promotion of gender awareness capacity for local communities, public administrators from line departments, civil societies and religious organizations to integrate concept and approach of gender equality in their intervention and operational processes.
Under DPP, Htoi work on promoting Women’s Participation in COVID-19 response with the purpose of raising awareness on the gendered impact of COVID-19 and disseminate preventive material to vulnerable population, with focus on women at quarantine centres in selected areas of Kachin.

domain: sociology


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text:
goes Green for Earth Week 2015 brought to you by Rodale’s Organic Life
Note: Select a region before finding a country.
Partly sunny and warmer
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Abundant sunshine and warmer
Becoming noticeably warmer today and tomorrow
Oct 28, 2012; 5:00 AM ET
The presidential election is only days away. How does the weather affect the number of people who show up to vote?

domain: geography


On Monday @AuManufacturing officially launched our search to identify Australia’s 50 most innovative manufacturers with a live webinar featuring UTS, Sydney Emeritus Professor Roy Green. Here, Green identifies a core issue – the absence of a national, coherent and coordinated industry policy.
Question? You often make the point that we need to develop and deploy a national industry policy – so where are we going as a country?
Roy Green: “We seem to be heading tentatively in the right direction – whether we are doing enough is another matter.
“We seem to have been treading water since at least the period of the commodity boom. We saw some big steps taken during the 1980s and 1990s associated with the tariff reductions to make our industries more competitive in global markets.
“We took some backward steps then, and have trodden water since around 2012.
“As we know we had a revolving door of industry ministers – eight ministers in nine years or nine ministers if you count the surreptitious portfolio of the Prime Minister.”
Question? How has the election of a new government in Canberra changed things?
Roy Green: “We now have a new government which is committed to sovereign capability, committed to building up Australia’s role in manufacturing, exports and supply chains.
“And we have what is central to what is, I think, in Australia a new approach to industry which is to use a National Reconstruction Fund to provide co-investment along with industry itself.
“It is not a grant funding body, it is to invest in equity and provide loan guarantees. Of course there will still be a role for grant funding and there will be a role for tax credits such as the Research and Development Tax Incentive (RDTI).
“But the most important thing is not just the funding – it is to get the structures right.
“The structures have been allowed to fragment, with every new minister slicing and dicing programmes so that they can have a launch of shiny new things.
“Now is the time to pull it all together and not just with the Commonwealth, but in conjunction with the states who have shown themselves willing to play a part in national industry policy – to date we really haven’t had the co-ordination or the coherence to make that happen.”
Question: The passage of legislation for the National Reconstruction Fund has run into a few problems, with the federal opposition opposing its passage, and the Greens demanding changes. What happens now?
“A compromise will have to be found and it is taking up a lot of valuable time. But once it is passed I think the attention will then turn to the rest of the national innovation system.
“We also have the review of universities by (Chair of the NSW Independent Planning Commission) Professor Mary O’Kane coming up, and it shows a lot of what we need to do is spread across a number of portfolios across government.
“So what what I would hope for and what I fully expect the government to pay attention to is the development of a whole of government approach to industry and innovation policy.
“It just can’t be done in one portfolio. It requires the industry portfolio, the education portfolio and skills, and indeed the climate change and energy transition portfolios to work together, co-ordinated to some extant by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
Picture: Roy Green
Is you company one of Australia’s 50 most innovative manufacturers? We want to hear from you.
PUT YOURSELF FORWARD AT THIS LINK. NOMINATIONS CLOSE AT 5 PM (AEST) ON MAY 26.
WATCH OUR LAUNCH WEBINAR HERE.
Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers is a new campaign by @AuManufacturing. It has been made possible by the generous support of MYOB, SMC Corporation Australia, and Bosch Australia Manufacturing Solutions. Be sure to check back at this website for regular updates including profiles of nominees and other information.


Feb. 26: Pouliot and Stankoven were both recalled to Dallas on Monday morning, per a team announcement. With Seguin not at the Stars’ Monday morning practice, per Bally Sports Southwest’s Brian Rea, Stankoven will play his second career NHL game tonight against the Islanders. Hakanpää and Lundkvist also remain out, per Rea, so Pouliot will play as well.
Feb. 25: The Stars returned Pouliot and Stankoven to the AHL on Sunday, per a team announcement. Both players suited up in last night’s 2-1 win over the Hurricanes, with Stankoven logging a +1 rating and three shots on goal in 15:20 of ice time during his NHL debut. Pouliot played a team-low 9:56, recording one hit. One or both of Pouliot and Stankoven may find themselves back on the NHL roster ahead of Monday’s game against the Islanders, depending upon the availability of Tyler Seguin (lower body), Hakanpää, and Lundkvist.
It’s the second recall of the week for Stankoven although his first one only lasted a matter of hours without him getting into the lineup. That said, it’s worth noting that he was a late scratch for Texas on Friday, suggesting that the 20-year-old might get a chance to suit up this time around. Stankoven has been dominant in the minors in his first professional campaign, leading the league in scoring with 57 points in 47 games.
As for Pouliot, he returns to Dallas after spending just one day off the roster having been sent down yesterday in a move that at least temporarily delayed his waiver clock. The 30-year-old has played in just three NHL games this season but has been productive in the minors, collecting 31 points in 44 appearances so far. With the status of Nils Lundkvist (concussion) and Jani Hakanpaa (upper body) both in question for tonight’s game, Pouliot will once again serve as injury insurance.
With the two recalls, Dallas is now carrying a full 23-player roster.


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text:
Humpty Homeowner had a great fall.
All Bush's/Obama's horses & all Bush's/Obama's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again
By Dave Clark
(Reuters) - U.S. home foreclosures jumped in the third quarter and banks' efforts to keep borrowers in their homes dropped as the housing market continues to struggle, U.S. bank regulators said on Wednesday.
The regulators said one reason for the increase in foreclosures is that banks have "exhausted" options for keeping many delinquent borrowers in their homes through programs such as loan modifications.
Newly initiated foreclosures increased to 382,000 in the third quarter, a 31.2 percent jump over the previous quarter and a 3.7 percent rise from a year ago, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision said in their quarterly mortgage report.
The number of foreclosures in process increased to 1.2 million, a 4.5 percent increase from the second quarter and a 10.1 percent increase from a year ago, according to the regulators.
The report, which covers 33 million loans serviced by national banks and federally regulated thrifts, also shows a sharp drop in the amount of loan modifications processed through the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), the Obama administration's leading foreclosure prevention effort. HAMP loan modifications fell by almost 46 percent in the third quarter, according to the report.
Regulators noted, however, that loan modifications done by servicers outside of HAMP increased by 10 percent in the third quarter.
Overall home retention actions taken by banks to keep borrowers in their homes dropped by 17 percent compared to the second quarter. Add'l Housing Market Articles
No need to worry, the U.S. Stock Market has all
negative matter priced in to the market.

domain: finance


India coach Ravi Shastri on Monday defended the team management's decision to exclude Ajinkya Rahane for the first Two Tests in Cape Town and Centurion respectively, saying Rohit Sharma was the best option going by form. Rahane's omission drew a lot of flak and widespread criticism, forcing the management to re-think about Rahane for the third and final Test beginning January 24. Rohit's failure to score runs in the first two Test raised a lot of eyebrows as India yet again surrendered a Test series to South Africa. He has scored only 78 runs in four innings with an average of 19.50 and a highest score of 47. "If Ajinkya (Rahane) had played the first Test and not done well, you would have asked me the same question about why Rohit hasn't played. Rohit played, he didn't do well, so you are asking me why Ajinkya didn't play," a defiant Shastri told reporters when queried about the selection policy.
"The same would have happened with the fast bowlers. So you have choices. The team management has discussed what is the best option. They stick by it and they go by it," Shastri said.
"Overseas, you go on current form, you go on conditions. You see which player can adapt to certain conditions quicker than the other," he added.
But if the practice sessions at the Wanderers were any indication, there is a possibility of Rahane's return to the playing XI for the inconsequential third Test starting here on Wednesday.
The India coach said on overseas tours, a team is forced to select their playing XI keeping conditions in mind.
"Chopping and changing overseas is easier. In India, you don't need to chop and change because you know what the conditions are and for which bowler to play, as opposed to what kind of track you will get," Shastri said.
"Whether you need a bowler with bounce or you need a bowler with swing, so that's where the chopping and changing starts," he added.
Shastri also refused to the criticism back home.
"Experts are meant to do a job. They can say what they want. It doesn't affect us. They have a job to do, so they are entitled to what they say," he said.
Shastri's dig at experts came following former India opener Virender Sehwag's criticism of skipper Virat Kohli's selection policy.
And Sehwag did not mince words when he stated that Kohli "should drop himself" if he fails in the second Test against South Africa.
Schoolboy errors: Shastri on India's sloppy run-outs
Shasrti also said the team will have to rectify the "schoolboy errors" that led to three run-outs in the lost second Test against South Africa, insisting that conditions are hard enough without such mistakes adding to the misery.
India lost the first two Tests in Cape Town and Centurion to be 0-2 down in the three-match series, which will conclude with the match starting January 24 here.
"It hurts a lot. As it is the conditions are very tough, and on top of that, if someone gets run out then you feel bad and there is no doubt of that. You hope that those mistakes don't happen again because at times they are schoolboy errors," Shastri said after today's practice, referring to the run-outs in Centurion.
The team's batsmen, outplayed by South Africa's menacing pace battery so far, added to their problems with poor shot selection and sloppy running between the wickets.
The run-outs of Hardik Pandya and Cheteshwar Pujara in the Centurion Test, particularly stood out.
While Pandya was guilty of not dragging his bat in, Pujara pushed for a very risky third single, which was avoidable.
"They have to be rectified. In tough conditions like these, where there is not much between the two teams, you cannot afford to give away wickets like that. Boys have been told that," Shastri said.
(With PTI inputs)


ReScore Reviews™ (2)
Thank you for your review April. Its unfortunate that you felt like you were not taken care of. We did everything we could to help you, we made sure to go on a test drive with you to get your approval of the vehicle and you did grant us that. When you first came in you said you felt that you "were floating on clouds" and all 7 other shops you went to couldnt find any problems with your vehicle and that everyone thought you were "crazy." We looked at your vehicle and explained to you what parts were worn and what could be causing the issue. After having helped you its so unfortunate for us that we could not help you at our bussiness again. You brought us so much drama, cried, complained over nothing and we cannot deal with that kind of behavior at our business, Dr. Phil would be the place to go to help you not an auto repair shop because there is nothing else wrong with your vehicles suspension. Thanks again for your review!
Alex Rangel, I believe every step of the way we communicated every part we replaced or every part we seen that needed to be replaced and left it to you whether you wanted the work to be completed after our recommendations. The engine kit that you purchased pertained directly to the engine and you were explained exactly what would be replaced which was not heater hoses. At the time your vehicle was in the shop the heater hose did not need to be replaced, heater hoses get brittle over time and eventually need replacement. We do not recommend our customers to replace parts for no reason. We hold ourselves to be very honest with our customers!


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domain: chemistry


text:
The gland isolation method was applied to various gastric lesions to measure DNA content by cytophotometry and flow cytometry for the first time. By incubating and agitating fresh specimens from surgically resected stomachs in calcium-magnesium free Hanks's balanced salt solution (CMFH) containing EDTA, many neoplastic glandular epithelial cells were successfully isolated from the stroma, and their characteristic three dimensional features were seen morphologically. The DNA content of pure nuclear suspensions of isolated glands was obtained by cytophotometry and flow cytometry staining with 4',6-diamino-2-phenylindole dihydrochloride (DAPI) and propidium iodide, respectively. Compared with histological grading, the frequency of the DNA aneuploidy of cancer with moderate or poor differentiation by cytophotometry (75%) was significantly higher than that of well differentiated cancer (25%), but the histological typing of gastric cancer DNA frequency were not correlated. This method allowed us to detect small aneuploid peaks by flow cytometry, which were previously masked by contaminating interstitial cells. The frequency of DNA aneuploidy detected by flow cytometry (87.5%) was higher than detected by cytophotometry (58.3%). The results of these studies shows the feasibility of this technique for analysing the DNA content of various lesions of the stomach.
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domain: literature


60 Minutes Overtime, 10.24.10
October 23, 2010 10:06 AM
Steve Kroft goes over the top with the blokes behind "Top Gear." Then, "60 Minutes" rewinds to their profiles of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert looking ahead to their rally on the National Mall. Also, Lara Logan reflects on her profile of Jane Goodall.


text:
If I unravel this body
into a pool of black shimmering,
of ribbons, coils of dance, of flitting—
Begin with a Failed Body: Poems by Natalie Graham is the poet’s first collection of published poetry and the winner of the 2016 Cave Canem Poetry Prize. Graham earned her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Florida and completed her Ph.D. in American Studies at Michigan State University as a University Distinguished Fellow. Her poems have appeared in Callaloo, New England Review, Valley Voices: A Literary Review and Southern Humanities Review. She is a Cave Canem fellow and assistant professor of African American Studies at California State University, Fullerton.
This is a collection that I am not a typical audience member. The poems, without a doubt, are from the female and African American perspective. Nonetheless, I found the collection fascinating. In the first section, her work seems to capture Langston Hughes voice and language. The second section moves into religious topics with Judas and Mary Magnaline as subjects. The language of her poems flows well:
The oscillating fan shakes its rickety head.
She smoothes the raised black mane of a tattooed lion
and burns like Moses’s bush, fueled at four a.m.
from “Palatka, Florida”
Graham seems to be greater than her actual age as references to items and activities seem to predate her in several instances. Perhaps this is more of an indication of the standard of living in poorer sections of Florida. This is also reflected in worn out shoes and Sunday dress as well as, for most of us, long vanished Datsun trucks. There is also a great sense of community from family and friends who take on the role as honorary aunts and uncles. Graham also presents a great deal of history included in the collection. Those who are neither not African-American nor from the South may have missed more of the personal references and history involved in the poems.
An excellent collection and an opening to a life that many have not experienced and perhaps a reminder that it should not exist in an enlightened and modern world.
One response to “Poetry Review — Begin with a Failed Body: Poems”
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If your Valentine's Day greeting list includes more family members and friends than your little one can count, consider trading in the pricey store-bought cards for handmade versions. Cards are Valentines crafts for kids that are easy for even your toddler to make. After thumbing through what seemed like hundreds (in reality it was problem more like a dozen) Valentines at the local stationary store, I opted to enlist my son's help and have him his own cards. While there are countless card-making crafts that you can translate into toddler-friendly art, these are my top favorites.
Picture Cards: While looking for a way to use up those cute Valentine's Day photos of my two-year old that I got for free with my mall studio coupon (he was holding a faux little cupid's arrow!), I realized that gluing them into a card was the perfect way to show him, and his art-making skills, off to my friends and relatives. Simply fold a piece of 8-by-10 inch card stock in half. Have your toddler turn over the photo and "draw" all over the back with a glue stick. Press the photo onto the front of the card. Open the card and have your child scribble across the middle using red and pink crayons to make a holiday-themed pic.
Stencils: Just because your toddler can't write his own greeting doesn't mean that you have to skip the words. Gather together stencils to spell out "Valentine's Day" or, "I love you." Line them up on a piece of thick paper. If you are looking for a low-mess approach — have your toddler color the letters in with markers or crayons. Adventurous moms can opt for a paint project. Give your child red and pink tempera and have him paint in the letters. Then, turn it over to personalize it with a special message that you can write.
Collage Cards: Use up your left over V-Day gift wrap scraps. Cut or tear holiday gift wrap into smaller pieces. Fold a piece of card stock in half and help your toddler to decorate the front with a paper collage. Use a glue stick to attach the different papers in a patchwork style. Add a few pre-cut hearts in pink or red to give the card an extra-special holiday feel.
Hand out your toddler's super-crafty cards or fit them into an envelope and mail them out.
What are your favorite Valentines crafts for kids?
Photo credit: Morguefile


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"It is a story of the unremitting love that binds a young boy with his wayward uncle who dissipated himself and his large family by remaining a hopelessly irresponsible drunkard," says Jayaraj.
The locale is set in his familiar environs and traverses the topography of north Malabar as a whole. "The novel unfurls in the mode of the varied recollections of the protagonist who comes back to his native place after years," the author says.
The moods of the characters in the novel are inextricably linked with the accounts of rains in the backdrop, turning it lively and vibrant.
Though many works have come out in Malayalam with the milieu of the lush landscape and torrential rains, `Monsoons in Malabar' is said to be the first fictional attempt in English to copy the life of north Malabar.
The author knits together, in the self-published work, a string of interesting tales about the social situation that prevailed in Malabar in the seventies through characters familiar to him.
The historical sense of the author is evident from his documentation of communities during a transitional period, dissecting the dominating influence of caste system through his characters.

domain: library


This weekend, the Wisconsin Badgers travel to Champaign for a rare Big Ten night game that could not be a tougher matchup for the Illinois Fighting Illini. Coming off a very impressive beating of then #19 Northwestern, who was held to a mere six points, the Badgers look to continue their winning ways against a team that struggled mightily against the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the wild wind in Lincoln, Nebraska two weeks ago.
The stout Badgers defense will look to continue dominating their opponents, as they are the nations 10th best running defense, only allowing 90.1 yards per game. Thus far in the young season, Wisconsin has only allowed 2.85 yards per rush, while allowing a total of 4.1 yards per play.
Part of the great run defense comes from the very talented senior inside linebacker Chris Borland, who ranks third in the Big Ten with 56 tackles. Borland posted a career high sixteen tackles against The Ohio State University Buckeyes, while following that up with double digit tackles against Northwestern the following weekend.
Borland is only one forced fumble away from tying the national and Big Ten mark of fourteen for his career. In the previous two games against the Illini, Borland has posted some very impressive numbers, having 26 tackles, two pass breakups, and three forced fumbles. Borland is a beast inside, and the Illini will do whatever they can to make adjustments to keep the ball away from the talented senior.
Another impressive player the Illini will have to make adjustments against is the freshman cornerback Sojourn Shelton, who is fourth in the Big Ten with 3 picks. The Illini passing game can expect Shelton to blanket their top receivers, so it will be imperative that other guys find ways to get open in the passing game.
At 4-2 overall and 2-1 in Big Ten play, the Badgers biggest strength may lie in their ability to shut teams down when they are attempting to convert on third down. On the young season, their opponents are only converting a paltry 29% of third downs, giving their defense something to hang their hat on.
When the Badgers defense held a talented Northwestern team to six points, the nation stood up and took notice of the talent on this team, from the line to the safeties. With the 13th best passing defense nationally (177.2 YPG) and the fifth best overall defense nationally (267.3 YPG), the Badgers will look to continue their winning ways against the Illini, as they are 7-1 in the past eight games against this squad.
Prediction: While I would love to be the optimistic one and say the Illini are going to surprise some people, the Badgers team looks to be playing at a high level right now. If they can find a way to get the run game going, they may be able to keep it close late in to the game.
Wisconsin 33 – Illinois 24
Follow Austin on Twitter @ajabs85


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The Handmaid's Tale is set in a dystopian future, in which women have little to no power. Reproduction rates are low and Handmaid's are used to procure a child in the even that a commanders wife is unable to. Sex is passionless. There is no love.
The rules they live by are rigid and strict, not just for Handmaids but for society as a whole. Penalty for breaking rules can result in death. This futuristic society is disturbing to say the very least.
The story is told by a woman who goes by the name, Offred. Her story is told in "real' time and in flashbacks, that allow you to see the change that society has undergone. You learn about her past, her life with her husband and child.
Atwood develops astonishing characters and a society that leaves you feeling... chilled and unnerved.
Women are seen as property and have defined rules. It is frightening. The government controls everything. The oppressiveness is captured brilliantly.
If you are into dystopian novels, add this to your list of must read.
Tom Krupp returns from work and something is amiss. His wife, Karen is not home and her purse and cell phone have been left behind and there...
I didn't read the synopsis of, "The Year We Turned Forty" and it ended up being completely different than I anticipated and as...
Publish Date - Tuesday, August 30th, 2016 The Night Voyage is a sweet, sweet coloring book. The drawing are delightful a...
I first read, "Songs of the Humpback Whale" in, July of 2008. You can see my blog post on it HERE. Jane and Oliver get into ph...


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When Albert Jackson took over the chorale back in 1998, there were nine members. Today, the South Holland Master Chorale boasts some 120 voices. The group of mostly amateur singers hail from across the south suburbs and northwest Indiana. (South Holland Master Chorale)
When maestro Albert Jackson walked into his first rehearsal of a South Suburban College choir, he found nine singers.
"That’s not even a choir. That’s more like a small ensemble," he said. "So I said, ‘For the next rehearsal you’ve all got to bring a friend, I don’t care if they sing or not, as long as they’re breathing.’"
The singers obliged and at the group’s first concert two months later, there were 24 performers.
That was in 1998 and what was supposed to be a temporary gig for the Chesterton, Ind., resident has morphed into a full time job with the village of South Holland.
Now as Jackson prepares to kick off his 20th season at the helm of what is today the South Holland Master Chorale (southhollandmasterchorale.org), he can count upwards of 120 members, 111 of whom he took on a concert tour in Europe a few years back.
"Little by little and bit by bit people heard ‘They’re having fun on Monday nights,’ so it grew and grew and grew and grew," he said.
And they continue to come, even though by Jackson’s own admission, "This is very difficult music. It’s not sing along with Uncle Al.
"We’re doing the finest, the best of choral literature, the best that I can lay my hands on. We do Bach, we do Mozart, we’ll do African American spirituals, we’ll do the occasional gospel piece, although I’m not a gospel musician," he said. "And people rise to the occasion."
At its two upcoming fall concerts, "Looking Back, Looking Ahead" — 4 p.m. Oct. 8 at St. Irenaeus Church in Park Forest; 4 p.m. Oct. 15 at First Reformed Church of South Holland — audiences can expect to hear the work of Mozart, Vivaldi and Wagner, as well as a couple of spiritual pieces, he said. "As broad a spectrum as we can possibly manage."
This season the group, which hails from 23 communities, will present six concerts: two in South Holland, two in Calumet City and one each in Park Forest and Dyer, Ind.
A community effort
Like the music it performs, the chorale itself is diverse in terms of race, economic stature and age, Jackson said. Singers come from as far as the South Side of Chicago and Kankakee as well as from Tinley Park and northwest Indiana.
"I have people on the thin side of 30. I have people who are 90," he said. "Very dog-gone few of them" are professional singers, he added.
"But they work like professionals and they perform at as close to professional as we can possibly attain as a group," he said.
South Holland resident Amelia Bishop, 70, is one of the "original nine."
"What I like is how it connects the community," she said. "We practice at a Lutheran church but we sing at all the Christian denomination churches in the community, so it’s a way of uniting all of the churches. It’s a way to meet other people at other churches who are also interested in singing."
She said she also appreciates the group’s flexibility. She took a hiatus after her daughter, who also was a member, died several years ago.
"But I still came to their performances and kept up with the choir," said the retired biology teacher. "Then I went back to school and eventually rejoined the choir."
Jackson’s leadership, she said, fosters an atmosphere of caring and respect.
He celebrates all levels of singers, she said, giving voice lessons and inviting all to shoot for a soloist spot.
After each performance, there’s a casual get-together, sometimes at a Pizza Hut, she said.
"He makes singing more joyful," she said. "We’re singing all kinds of sacred music so it’s a very peaceful, enjoyable experience."
Belonging to a choir, she added, "makes me, a senior, feel connected. I look forward to it."
As a music teacher at Western Avenue School in Flossmoor, Valerie Pasqua, 37, celebrates song every day.
But the chorale "is my outlet to be musical," the New Lenox resident said.
She was a member for six years, then took four years off to have children.
"This is my first year back. When I was away, I really missed it," she said.
She’d find herself standing in her kitchen listening to 98.7-WFMT, Chicago’s classical and folk radio station, and when she heard a song the group had performed, she’d quiet the kids and say, "Oh, I just need to listen."
"Music teachers get so busy with the stuff that we’re directing that we don’t get to do our own thing and I was missing that a lot," she said.
The 35-minute drive to practice at Flossmoor Community Church is worth it, she said, to work with Jackson and the others.
"He is so knowledgeable and so good and so caring. He makes classical music come alive," she said. "One time we were practicing Mozart’s ‘Requiem’ and we were singing this beautiful part and he stops us and says, "This is one of the last things Mozart wrote before he died.’ He makes the music come alive with history."
Pasqua said she enjoys being part of a group effort to create a unified sound.
"There’s all this teamwork," she said. "It’s my joy, my little happy spot of the week."
The little choir that could
The South Holland Master Chorale began in the early 1970s, under the direction of J. Albert Kindig at what was then Thornton Junior College, now SSC. Jackson, now 60, stepped in as a temporary director in 1998 and hasn’t looked back. Today, the chorale is a civic branch of the village of South Holland.
"We do concerts in the village and all around the Southland," said Jackson, who grew up in Chico, Calif., but landed permanently in Chesterton after meeting his wife, Patricia, there during graduate school. The couple has a daughter.
In 2011, Jackson, who taught at SSC before retiring after 17 years, took 111 members of the chorale to Europe.
"I used to live in Germany so it was like homecoming for me. I knew most of the sites we were going to sing at," he said. Those included venues in Prague, Czech Republic; and Salzburg and Melk, Austria; as well as St. Michael’s Church in Mondsee, Austria, which is where the wedding scene for "The Sound of Music" was shot.
Pasqua recalls how thrilling it was to sing in some of those historic places.
"I remember, at the last concert, for the last song, crying (while trying to sing) because the experience was over. One of the choir members next to me looked at me and said, ‘I understand.’ We had so many fun adventures and sang in the most beautiful places in the world on that trip," she said.
Jackson said, "One of the things that makes us famous is that I do not audition. Everybody’s welcome. Everybody.
"They come in having heard about the group, knowing what we do, knowing the level of literature that we perform and knowing that in rehearsal, we work hard. Just like the Chicago Symphony Chorus. Just like any professional chorus," he said.
Does he believe anyone can sing?
"Yes. I would say unconditionally. I’ve had people in this group or other groups who can’t match the pitch but with time and training and effort and desire, anybody can at least match a pitch," he said.
"In the vast majority of cases, people are scared to death they can’t sing," he said.
But Jackson said he believes most people want to sing.
"The studies on the advantages of it are innumerable. From the purest physical basis, you increase respiration, you lower heart rate, you lower blood pressure, cerebral activity increase exponentially. All of the above is accomplished with any kind of aerobic exercise, which includes singing," he said.
Anecdotally, he added, "A number of people in my chorus have said over the years, ‘You know I come on Monday nights and I’m (stressed) and I leave (relaxed)’ because they’re physically active in singing."
He also cites studies explaining the social benefits of singing in a group.
"There are choirs of seniors, disabled people, people in prisons, in orphanages, in rest homes. There is a certain societal togetherness that occurs when you’re all doing the same thing. When you’re singing, you’re taking breath together. You are moving sound in an absolutely unified fashion," he said.
"Then on the spiritual level, most of what we do is sacred music. I’ve had people tell me, ‘Albert this is as close as I get to church.’ That’s very meaningful to me," he said.
"I don’t think of it in terms of numbers. You can wind up with a chorus of 200 people and nobody knows who anybody is," Jackson said.
"I want to continue what has been established — continue to sing at the highest level possible. Sure, I’d like to draw in new singers, to foster the singers who have been here a long time. But I don’t have grand and glorious visions," he said.
He is also mindful of serving the longstanding audiences that fill the venues when the group performs.
"I flatter myself to say we have a following but people know who we are and know if they want a great experience to come to our concerts, all of which have always been free," he said.
The Christmas concerts at St. Victor’s in Calumet City are always standing room only, he said. The spring events typically draw 600-800.
"So, yeah, people know of the group," he said. The audience has a lot in common with the performers, he noted.
They are loyal, diverse and "like a big community family."


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In order to graduate, Utah high school students may soon be required to pass the very same citizenship test for immigrants seeking U.S. citizenship.
Sen. Howard Stephenson, Rep. Steve Eliason and Overstock.com CEO Jonathan Johnson announced they will push legislation in the 2015 session requiring every high school student in the state pass the U.S. Citizen Civics test.
"When citizens don't understand how government workd, they aren't likely to vote or take part in policy discussions," says Johnson. "This civics education initiative is important to help keep what the Founding Fathers set up."
Stephenson and Eliason say they don't anticipate any additional costs to schools because of the test. The questions and study materials are already produced by the U.S. government. Schools will be allowed to administer tests however they want and students can take it as many times as needed in order to pass.
"As we push for better STEM education in Utah, there's no requirement for civics education," said Eliason. "If we can help students understand government better, then they're more likely to vote and engage in important discussions."
Stephenson cited recent studies that showed just one in three Americans can name all three branches of government, and even fewer can describe what each one does.
"Other studies show that less than 4% of all high school students in Oklahoma and Arizona can pass this test, but 92% of immigrants pass on their first try."
Backers say they still need to work out some of the details with the State Board of Education, but they say implementing the program should be fairly easy.

domain: law