In the 1980s, there was no better place than Bulgaria for virus lovers. The socialist country – plagued by hyperinflation, crumbling infrastructure, food and petrol rationing, daily blackouts and packs of wild dogs in its streets – had become one of the hottest hi-tech zones on the planet. Legions of young Bulgarian programmers were tinkering on their pirated IBM PC clones, pumping out computer viruses that managed to travel to the gleaming and prosperous west.
In 1989, an article appeared in Bulgaria’s leading computer magazine saying the media’s treatment of computer viruses was sensationalist and inaccurate. The article, in the January issue of Bulgaria’s Computer for You magazine, titled The Truth About Computer Viruses, was written by Vesselin Bontchev, a 29-year-old researcher at the Institute of Industrial Cybernetics and Robotics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia. Fear of computer viruses, Bontchev wrote, was turning into “mass psychosis”.
Any competent programmer, Bontchev claimed, could tell when files are corrupted by a virus. Infected files are bigger than uninfected files. They run slower. They do strange things, such as play tunes, draw Christmas trees on the screen and reboot computers. It was hard to miss a virus! Prevention through basic cyber hygiene was simple: “Do not allow other people to use your computer; do not use suspicious software products; do not use software products acquired illegally.”
Bontchev would come to regret this article. He had not appreciated that what may be an obvious virus to him may not be obvious to the secretary using a computer as a typewriter. Moreover, most users in Bulgaria did not have their own personal computers; they shared them.
When Bontchev wrote this dismissive article, he had not yet seen a virus. He was very surprised when two men walked into Computer for You’s office, where he used to hang out, and claimed to have a virus. They had read the articles about these strange new creatures in the magazine and wanted to show Bontchev the virus they had discovered in their small software company. The men not only reported that they had a virus; they also claimed to have written an antivirus program that eliminated it. They’d brought their laptop with them. The laptop had a virus on it, and when they ran their antivirus program, the virus disappeared.
Bontchev was both fascinated and horrified: fascinated because he had never seen a virus before (or a laptop, for that matter), horrified because the men had just killed it. Horror turned to panic when the men told him that they had purged the virus from their firm’s computers as well. Bontchev raced to their place of business looking for any remnants. He found a printout of the virus’s code in the garbage. He took it home and entered it – byte by byte – into his computer, careful not to make any mistakes. Bontchev eventually figured out that he had resurrected the virus commonly known as Vienna.
When he analysed Vienna, Bontchev was disappointed. He imagined something wondrous – self-reproducing computer programs should be elegant, fruits of some esoteric black art. A look under the hood, however, revealed it was not so pretty. Vienna was viciously destructive, but its code was crude and sloppy.
As Bontchev was studying Vienna, other Bulgarians began tinkering with malicious programs, too. One of Bontchev’s compatriots would soon become the most dangerous virus writer in the world – and Bontchev’s most bitter enemy.
Vienna is a simple virus, and therefore a good one with which to experiment. Bontchev passed up the opportunity, not wanting to sully his reputation. But Teodor Prevalsky, a friend of his, had fewer qualms. He was fascinated by the concept of artificial life and decided to explore its possibilities. After two days’ work at the Technical University, Bulgaria’s largest engineering school, Prevalsky produced a virus. Though he modelled it on Vienna, his virus did not destroy files – it only instructed the speaker to beep whenever it infected a file. In his diary for 12 November 1988, he recorded his accomplishment: “Version 0 lives.”
As the weeks went by, Prevalsky added new features to the virus. He also experimented with antivirus programs. All of Prevalsky’s creations were “zoo” viruses, specimens built for research purposes, not for releasing into the wild. Nevertheless, they escaped from the zoo. Indeed, a version of Vienna became the first Bulgarian virus to immigrate to the US.
Vienna was able to escape from Prevalsky’s computer because his computer was running a Microsoft operating system known as DOS – short for “disk operating system” – which had no security features. DOS was developed for individual use on small, inexpensive micro-computers, which hit the market in the mid-1970s with names such as Apple II, TRS-80 and Commodore. Security was not a priority or even a necessity for these personal computers, or PCs. Cybersecurity at this time was simple: to stop people from stealing your data, you had to lock your door.
Those who used personal computers, however, wanted to share their code. Young nerds hungered for new video games but didn’t want to pay for them. DOS wasn’t free, either, and bootleg copies freely circulated among PC users. Software piracy was normal in Bulgaria.
Prevalsky shared a computer with four other researchers, and they passed around floppy disks freely. Though Prevalsky took great care to keep his zoo viruses captive, they inevitably escaped. He had put them in cages with no locks.
But Prevalsky was disappointed that he could find no productive use for his creations. When released into the wild, even his “good” viruses had bad side-effects. As Prevalsky was becoming disillusioned with the virus business, Bontchev’s career was heating up. With admirable candour, he wrote an article in Computer for You confessing his earlier error. Viruses were clearly a growing problem, and Bontchev wanted to rectify his mistake. He began to analyse new viruses that were spreading around Bulgaria and published the results.
Bontchev’s articles detailing the dangers of viruses had an unintended consequence: they inspired more virus writers. His readers learned how to write viruses from these articles, and some tried to improve existing versions.
Soon, it seemed as though every computer programmer in Bulgaria felt the need to write a virus. A student from Plovdiv was mad at his tutor, so he wrote a virus to infect his files. He wrote two more viruses for his girlfriend as tokens of his affection. Two friends who were angry with their boss for not paying them wrote a virus as revenge that made the sound of shuffling paper when infecting files. This virus quickly escaped the lab.
People started speaking of the “Bulgarian virus factory”. The founder of the Virus Test Centre in Hamburg, Morton Swimmer, was quoted in a 1990 New York Times article: “Not only do the Bulgarians produce the most computer viruses, they produce the best.”
The Bulgarian virus factory was a factory in the Andy Warhol sense: a loose collective of young Bulgarian men (they were all men) who were highly intelligent and bored. Writing viruses became a source of intellectual stimulation and a form of social distinction.
By 1991, Bontchev was finding two new Bulgarian viruses a week. He spent his days fielding calls from firms attacked by viruses; he spent his nights and weekends studying these viruses. Bontchev was also a founding member of the Computer Antivirus Research Organization (Caro). Caro advocated for certain ethical principles of antivirus research. One of the most important was the strict prohibition of writing viruses. Caro treated computer viruses like biological weapons. The danger of their escaping the lab was deemed too high to justify experimentation.
Indeed, Caro helped create a schism between antivirus researchers and the general cybersecurity community. The community generally expects its members to have hacked, so that they would know how to defend against hackers. The practice is known as ethical or white-hat hacking. Any researcher who has written a virus would have been vetoed for membership in Caro. Though many in the antivirus industry have tinkered with viruses, it is not something they talk about.
Even before Bontchev published his warning article on viruses in Computer for You, someone was secretly trying to refine the medium. His online handle was Dark Avenger. “In those days, there were no viruses being written in Bulgaria, so I decided to write the first,” Dark Avenger claimed. “In early March 1989 it came into existence and started to live its own life, and to terrorise all engineers and other suckers.”
Dark Avenger was wrong. Others had been pumping out viruses for months, but Dark Avenger built his to be lethal. His first creation would be known as Eddie. When a user ran a program infected with Eddie, the virus would not start by attacking other files. It would lurk in computer memory and hand back control to the original program. However, when a user loaded another program, skulking Eddie would spring into action and infect that program. These infected programs would be Eddie’s new carriers.
Eddie also packed a payload that slowly and silently destroyed every file it touched. When the infected program was run the 16th time, the virus overwrote a random section of the disk in the computer with its calling card: “Eddie lives … somewhere in time.” After enough of these indiscriminate changes, programs on the disk stopped loading.
Destructive viruses were not new. Vienna, for example, destroyed every eighth file. But Eddie was far more malicious. Because Eddie infections took a while to produce symptoms, users spread the virus and backed up contaminated files. When users discovered that their disk had turned into digital sawdust, they also learned that their backups were badly damaged. Dark Avenger had invented what are now called “data diddling” viruses – viruses that alter data in files.
Dark Avenger was proud of his cruel creation and claimed credit in the code. First, he inserted an ironic copyright notice: “This program was written in the city of Sofia (C) 1988–89 Dark Avenger.” The “Eddie lives” string that wreaked such destruction was a tribute to his love of heavy metal music. “Eddie” refers to the skeletal mascot of the band Iron Maiden; Somewhere in Time is the name of Iron Maiden’s sixth album, in which Eddie appears on the cover as a muscular cyborg in a Blade Runner setting, next to graffiti that reads “Eddie lives”.
Dark Avenger went on to write more viruses. And each virus was more sophisticated than the last. The viruses were so contagious that they infiltrated the computers of the military, banks, insurance companies and medical offices around the world. According to John McAfee, who at the time was the head of the Computer Virus Industry Association, “I would say that 10% of the 60 calls we receive each week are for Bulgarian viruses, and 99% of these are for Dark Avenger.”
One of Dark Avenger’s nastiest creations was first observed in the House of Commons library in Westminster in October 1990. Research staff were perplexed that some of their regular files were missing and others were corrupted. Since the problem kept getting worse, the library called in an outside specialist. A virus scan came out negative, but the specialist was sure that there had been an infection because the corrupted files grew in size. When he examined the contents of the files, he noticed one word in the jumble of characters: NOMENKLATURA.
Nomenklatura is Russian and literally means “list of names”. It referred to the elite of Soviet society – the bureaucrats and party leaders – given special privileges in return for their service to the party and state. Bulgaria followed this system as well. The term had a pejorative connotation, at least to those not on the list.
When the noted British virus researcher Alan Solomon was consulted, he discovered the most destructive virus he had ever observed. Unlike other viruses, which attacked files, Nomenklatura went after the entire file system. Its target is the all-important file allocation table (FAT) – the map of where files are stored on disk. With the FAT corrupted, a computer’s operating system could no longer find the files to run. Solomon also noticed some Cyrillic characters and guessed that they were Bulgarian. Using FidoNet, a computer network used to communicate between internet bulletin boards, he contacted a Bulgarian engineer. He got back the following broken translation: “This fat idiot instead of kissing the girl’s lips, kisses quite some other thing.”
Dark Avenger quickly achieved notoriety in the Bulgarian computer-virus community. No one knew his identity or anything about him, adding to his mystique. According to David Stang, the research director at the International Virus Research Center, “His work is elegant … he helps younger programmers. He’s a superhero to many of them.”
Excitement, therefore, erupted when he joined the Virus Exchange in November 1990. Pierre, a French virus writer, wrote: “Hi, Dark Avenger! Where have you learned programming? And what does ‘Eddie lives’ mean?” Another hacker named Free Rider welcomed Dark Avenger with praise: “Hi, brilliant virus writer.”
Not everyone was a fan, however – least of all Bulgaria’s leading antivirus crusader. Indeed, Dark Avenger and Vesselin Bontchev would become hostile rivals. And their animosity would propel Dark Avenger to write ever more malicious programs, malware that posed a real threat to the antivirus industry and every user of personal computers on the planet.
Sarah Gordon did not start her career as a virus researcher, or even in the tech industry. She grew up in extreme poverty in east St Louis, Missouri, in a house that had no heat or running water. She dropped out of school when she was 14 and ran away from home. At 17, she received her high school diploma by passing every exam the school offered, despite not having taken any of the classes. She held many jobs: among them, juvenile crisis counsellor. She grew her own food. And she liked to play with computers. In 1990, she bought her first personal computer, a secondhand IBM PC/XT.
As Gordon familiarised herself with her pre-owned computer, she noticed something curious: whenever she accessed files on her disk drive at the half-hour mark, a small “ball” (actually, the bullet character ) would ricochet around the screen. Her files seemed fine, but the ping-ponging ball was irritating. Gordon had no idea what was happening, so she asked around. But no one else knew either. In 1990, few Americans had encountered a computer virus.
As Gordon attempted to figure out what had infected her computer, she logged on to FidoNet, the network that connected the virus exchanges. Virus writers swore a lot and traded malware like baseball cards, but she noticed that one user was treated with reverence – Dark Avenger.
Gordon was haunted by Dark Avenger. He felt familiar. Given her background in juvenile correction and youth in crisis, she recognised the rebellious relationship that troubled young men often have with authority figures. Gordon knew how to draw these young men out. She managed to correspond with other virus writers she met on FidoNet. Dark Avenger, however, was not interested in talking.
She posted on a bulletin board that she wanted to have a virus named after her. A few weeks later, her wish came true. Dark Avenger uploaded new malware to the bulletin board. In the source code to the virus, he commented: “We dedicate this little virus to Sara [sic] Gordon, who wanted to have a virus named after her.” This virus would be known as Dedicated.
Gordon would later regret making such a flippant request. Asking someone to name a virus after her was an invitation for Dark Avenger to create destructive code that could cause much damage. It was irresponsible.
But that was not all. The virus that Dark Avenger wrote was ensconced within another piece of malware that he also built. This program was a “polymorphic virus engine”, a tool for creating mutated viruses that threatened to vanquish all antivirus software. When viruses emerged from Dark Avenger’s mutation engine, their altered genome was unrecognisable by the existing detectors. Even worse, it was an off-the-shelf program that anyone with a virus could use. It was small, a little over 2,000 bytes, and no one needed to understand how it worked. A beginner could use it to create undetectable, self-reproducing malware.
Gordon had innocently requested a BB gun. She got a nuclear weapon.
Though Bontchev spent his days and nights battling viruses, he did not dislike those who wrote them. After all, some of these writers were his friends. And he understood why they did it. According to Bontchev, “The first and most important [reason] of all is the existence of a huge army of young and extremely qualified people, computer wizards, who are not actively involved in the economic life.” Bontchev understood that these young men were trained with a hi-tech skill but had nothing to use it on. Bulgaria had few software companies and the salaries were minuscule. Writing cute and clever viruses was an outlet for creativity.
But the psychological need to create was not the only reason for the Bulgarian virus factory. Since software piracy was so widespread in Bulgaria – according to Bontchev it “was, in fact, a kind of state policy” – infections were, too. When everyone copies programs instead of buying them from the manufacturer, viruses have an easy way of moving from disk to disk, computer to computer. Software manufacturers could do nothing about this piracy because Bulgaria had no copyright laws. Bontchev understood the widespread harm that viruses were creating. He regarded the new national pastime as irresponsible and juvenile. But if this activity was not justifiable, it was at least understandable.
Bontchev could not, however, understand Dark Avenger. His exploits were so destructive, so malevolent, that their creator had to be psychologically abnormal. The feeling was mutual. Dark Avenger despised Bontchev and called him “the weasel”. In part, the antipathy is understandable – they were natural enemies. How could they not dislike each other? But the antipathy between virus and antivirus writers cannot fully explain the mutual loathing.
Dark Avenger was likely hurt by Bontchev’s harsh critique of his viruses. When analysing Dark Avenger’s creations in Computer for You, Bontchev savaged the code, calling it sloppy and pointing out errors. While the rest of the virus world thought of Dark Avenger as a viral deity, Bontchev portrayed him as a rank amateur. Dark Avenger lashed out by revising Eddie and inserting a new string into the code: “Copyright (C) 1989 by Vesselin Bontchev”. Dark Avenger was trying not only to frame Bontchev, but also to thwart his antivirus software. When run, the new variant (later known as Eddie.2000, because it is 2,000 bytes long) would search files for Bontchev’s name, a sign that the computer was running his antivirus software, and freeze the system.
Dark Avenger and Bontchev developed a codependent relationship. Each needed the other for notoriety, so much so that rumours began circulating that Dark Avenger and Vesselin Bontchev were the same person. Gossips claimed that Dark Avenger was Bontchev’s “sockpuppet”, a deceptive online identity. Many of those who did not believe the rumours, however, thought that Bontchev was unnecessarily antagonistic, publicly taunting and provoking Dark Avenger to lash out with even greater rage.
Because computer-virus writing was a relatively new phenomenon, social scientists had not studied virus writers. Sensational reports from the media drove a stereotype. “The virus writer has been characterised by some as a bad, evil, depraved, maniac, terrorist, technopathic, genius-gone-mad sociopath,” Sarah Gordon reported in 1994. She set out to discover whether this stereotype was true.
Gordon was shocked when Dark Avenger dedicated his demo virus attached to the mutation engine to her. She reached out to him but got a dismissive response, routed through an intermediary: “You should see a doctor. Normal women don’t spend their time talking about computer viruses.”
Undeterred, she laboriously composed a message in Bulgarian asking Dark Avenger whether he would answer some questions. She passed it to an American security researcher who was in regular contact with him. He quickly responded. Soon they were corresponding over the internet.
Gordon and Dark Avenger communicated for five months. She has never made those messages public, except for excerpts that she published in 1993 (with Dark Avenger’s permission). These snippets are revealing. They show that Dark Avenger expressed remorse for his behaviour and considered the moral consequences of his actions. They also showed that he was belligerent, resentful and prone to blaming his victims. Gordon’s main area of questioning concerned motivation. Why did Dark Avenger write destructive viruses? And why did he seem so unconcerned by the damage he was causing?
Sarah Gordon: Some time ago, in the FidoNet virus echo, when you were told one of your viruses was responsible for the deaths of thousands, possibly, you responded with an obscenity. Let’s assume for the moment this story is true. Tell me, if one of your viruses was used by someone else to cause a tragic incident, how would you really feel?
Dark Avenger: I am sorry for it. I never meant to cause tragic incidents. I never imagined that these viruses would affect anything outside computers. I used the nasty words because the people who wrote to me said some very nasty things to me first.
Gordon knew that Dark Avenger’s notoriety depended on his creations being highly contagious and destructive. His nemesis, Bontchev, had been hired to combat the virus epidemic that he helped start. Claiming ignorance was just not believable.
SG: Do you mean you were not aware that there could be any serious consequences of the viruses? Don’t computers in your country affect the lives and livelihoods of people?
DA: They don’t, or at least at that time they didn’t. PCs were just some very expensive toys nobody could afford and nobody knew how to use.
Class resentment comes out several times in the exchanges between Gordon and Dark Avenger. He also blamed computer users for software piracy. “The innocent users would be much less affected if they bought all the software they used.”
Dark Avenger admitted to enjoying the fame and power. He loved when his viruses made their way into western programs. He was feared and his handiwork could not be ignored. He also regarded his viruses as extensions of his identity, parts of him that could escape dreary Bulgaria and explore the world: “I think the idea of making a program that would travel on its own and go to places its creator could never go was the most interesting for me. The American government can stop me from going to the US, but they can’t stop my virus.”
Dark Avenger’s strongest reactions, however, were reserved for Bontchev: “The weasel can go to hell.” Dark Avenger even insinuated that Bontchev was to blame for the Bulgarian virus factory: “His articles were a plain challenge to virus writers, encouraging them to write more. Also, they were an excellent guide [on] how to write them for those who wanted to but did not know how.”
When Dark Avenger read on the internet that Gordon was engaged to be married, their correspondence turned ugly. Their contact ended shortly after her marriage. “I think he may have been one of the kindest people I have met,” Gordon told me 25 years later, “and one of the most dangerous.”
Dark Avenger’s true identity remains a mystery to this day. That someone, or some group, could wreak havoc on a global scale and remain anonymous is remarkable, especially considering that Bulgaria is a small country with an intimate virus scene. Dark Avenger’s obscurity was a harbinger of things to come. A new generation would use a veil of anonymity to act with total impunity. And they would flood the emerging world wide web with new species of self-reproducing malware far more destructive than anything Dark Avenger created, many of which we are still living with today.
This is an edited extract from Fancy Bear Goes Phishing: The Dark History of the Information Age, in Five Extraordinary Hacks, published by Allen Lane on 23 May.


text:
Man spots shark in the shallows while swimming with his 4yo daughter
A man has captured the large fin of a shark in shallow water in a river south of Sydney.
Sharks in NSW: What researchers have learned00:38:16
For the past five years, researchers have been tagging, tracking and monitoring sharks across NSW to find out their migration patterns and behaviours.
A Sydney man has shared an image of a huge shark fin that he spotted while swimming with his young daughter south of Sydney.
They were splashing around in the Port Hacking River near Warumbul on Thursday when something grabbed his attention, Nine News reported.
Andrew English spotted a large shark about 20 metres away.
"I took the family out for a swim, my wife and daughter were swimming in shallows when we spotted it," he told Nine.
The dad quickly snapped the large fin in the water. Source: Nine.
Thrashing shark at the water's edge
He quickly took out his phone and managed to film the large shark thrashing around at the edge of the water.
He said the shark seemed more interested in fish than them.
"It looked like it was just chasing baitfish and it wasn't interested in us but we were out of the water pretty quick," he said, adding that "it was pretty cool to see it up so close".
Another young father was in tragically the news last month after he was initially believed to have been taken by a shark off the South Australian coast.
Duncan Craw was snorkelling with his family at Port MacDonnell in late January when he disappeared from sight.
Duncan Craw's wife Taylia snapped this final picture of the dad snorkeling in the background while his toddler son Levi played on the beach. Source: 9News
Great white spotted in the area
Hours later, the 32-year-old’s torn wetsuit and his remains were found in the water – with authorities believing he'd been taken by a great white shark spotted in the area.
Duncan’s heartbroken family told The Advertiser that it's most likely the dad suffered a medical episode in the water.
“While we may never know for sure, based on the evidence we do have, we now believe it is most likely Duncan suffered a medical episode long before the arrival of the shark,” his grieving family said in a statement.
The family has set up a GoFundMe campaign with the aim of supporting his grieving wife Taylia and two-year-old son, Levi.

domain: news


This is tomorrow and the link below contains ALL the committee members emails:
Remember, this has already passed the FULL Senate UNANIMOUSLY (NON-PARTISAN), but the house may be a harder sell.
Our opponents are going to make a big charade. A shit show of logical fallacy and spin. Propaganda, threats and misinformation. During the European witch-hunts the legal notion of crimen exceptum (an exceptional and most dangerous crime] allowed for the suspension of the normal rules of evidence to punish the guilty. Same premise. Sanctimony, feigned piety and hypocritical devoutness will all be used to justify torture and torment. After all that’s a small price to pay when it comes to protecting the public from drug addled doctors throwing opiates out like candy from a parade float.
“Witch hunting,” wrote the historian Rossell Hope Robbins, “was self-sustaining and became a major trade, employing many people, all battening on the savings of the victims.” Same applies to these asshats so if you have not place your vote in this 11th hour then please do so now. Make it short and sweet. Quick and to the point.
I am in FAVOR of SB 286, The Physician’s Bill of Rights
I am a ______ healthcare professional who has been a victim of laws which have provided me no due process. Ordinary procedures are enough to assure the safety of the public without risking the destruction of the lives of good doctors unduly. There is no place in our country for any person or class of persons to be denied due process, period.
For what it’s worth (and sadly) these matters are often decided by the number of FOR letters any given voter has vs. AGAINST letters they have.
Physicians Health Foundation (PHF), which for years has abetted the Louisiana Board of Medical Examiners in targeting vulnerable medical practitioners in a manner reminiscent of the tactics employed by the Louisiana State Board of Dentistry, now finds itself in the crosshairs of State Sen. John Milkovich (D-Shreveport).
Both boards have for years flown under the radar of governors, legislators and the media but more and more, attention is being given to their near-autonomous rule by intimidation and extortion.
PHF, also known as the Healthcare Professionals’ Foundation of Louisiana (HPFL), is located on Bluebonnet Boulevard in Baton Rouge and it currently is about halfway through a three-year, $1.35 million contract with the Board of Medical Examiners to run a “Statewide Operations of Physicians Health Program.”
And, since the Board of Dentistry has been mentioned, it might be worth noting that PHF also is just over a year into a three-year, $287,000…
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2 thoughts on “Senate Bill 286 attempts to rein in dictatorial actions of State Board of Medical Examiners, runaway investigators”
Are the talks over ? is it too late to write ?
thanks for info
LikeLiked by 1 person
No they deferred it until next week. I will post video


Like most Collaborative Professionals, I have found myself working almost exclusively from home. Though I had worked from home in the past, I always had the option of going into the office to access needed equipment (such as an industrial scanner) that made life easier. Now, not so much. Fortunately, I had some software in place that made the transition to an at-home practice easier, and I have had to quickly learn new software.
The list below includes software and technology that has worked for me. However, you should check with your IT person and your professional regulations before implementing your work from home technology.
Client Files in the Cloud
Many people have fancy client management software that they have implemented to access their files from anywhere, on any device. The software that I use is fairly simple, and yet equally accessible as more comprehensive programs. I use a paid version of Dropbox. My version of Dropbox provides me with 2 Terabytes of storage, which, unless I needed to store a lot of large video files, satisfy all my storage needs. I use it for the same reason so many other people use it: It is quick and easy to implement, and client files get updated to other computers pretty much the moment that I hit “save” on my computer.
Many people are confident with the safety of their files in Dropbox. Others, including myself, want a bit more protection. Accordingly, I also use Boxcryptor, which encrypts all of my files before they are saved on Dropbox. This makes it so that if a rogue employee of Dropbox or a hacker were to attempt to access my client files on the Cloud, all they would see are a string of letters and numbers. Boxcryptor works seamlessly in the background so that, after I initially set it up on my devices, I barely notice that it is working. But it is, keeping my files safer.
Prior to COVID-19, I had used the free version of Zoom videoconference software plenty of times. As a participant. But now that I need to conduct Online Mediations and help set up Online Collaborative Practice meetings, I have had to learn how to become a Zoom host. And because the mediations and meetings that I have had to set up tend to last more than 40 minutes (the upper limit for the free version), I have ponied up the funds for the premium version of Zoom. This has also allowed me to have more control over the program and the participants in them.
But sometimes clients have a preference other than Zoom, such as Skype, FaceTime, or Google Hangouts. I have used all of these platforms at client requests, as I want to meet the clients where they are at, and some clients just don’t want to learn new technology.
So, I have been using video conferencing a lot more lately but, still, there are times where I don’t want to be on video. I don’t even remember the last time I had a haircut, and my bad hair days seem to be coming around more and more frequently. An oldie but a goodie, www.FreeConferenceCall.com, allows you to, well, set up conference calls for free. Without video!
Finally, for my international clientele, I keep in touch with them using WhatsApp. Though it is known for being a free smartphone app that allows you to send and receive encrypted text messages across national boundaries, it also has a function that allows you to make free international calls or videoconferences from your mobile phone. Check it out.
Alternatives to Printing and Scanning
In my office, we weren’t exactly paperless. Though we scanned everything, we also kept a paper copy in physical files. Now that neither me nor my assistant has access to my physical files, we are not printing out or scanning in anything. Perhaps we will do that when we get back to the office. Or perhaps, in real-time, I am making the transition to a fully paperless office. I’m not sure yet.
Either way, because we don’t have access to our office’s industrial printer/scanner, we needed to find better ways to keep and organize our files other than physically printing and scanning them. Microsoft Office software has an option built into all of its programs: Microsoft Print to PDF. This allows you to save any document as a PDF, which, at least in my jurisdiction, is the format that our courts require to e-file documents. We save the PDF in our clients’ Dropbox file.
I have found that Microsoft Print to PDF does not always work for non-Microsoft programs, and that sometimes it does not work on older computers. As an alternative, I sometimes use PrimoPDF, which does pretty much the same thing as Microsoft Print to PDF. PrimoPDF has a free version that has met my firm’s needs.
While in the office, my assistant spent much of her time printing out financial documents, redacting them with a Sharpie marker, and scanning the documents back in. Though she has a small printer/scanner at her home, it is not feasible for my assistant to use it to print out and scan in the volume of documents we generally work with. Accordingly, I have just, for the first time, signed up for Adobe Acrobat DC. This may be the single best investment that I have made in technology in years, as it is going to create so many efficiencies.
Adobe Acrobat DC is a paid version of Adobe Reader, which you probably already have on your computer right now to read PDF documents. Adobe Acrobat DC enables us to electronically redact documents. Not only is this a necessity right now, but it is allowing my assistant to redact documents so much more quickly than when she had to print thousands of pages then scan them back in. This is also saving me as it greatly reduces the amount of money I am spending on paper (and it’s good for the environment, too!).
Additionally, Adobe Acrobat DC allows us to combine documents. For example, clients recently signed a Collaborative Participation Agreement but only sent us the signature pages. Adobe Acrobat DC allowed us to combine the signature pages with the rest of the Participation Agreement. It also permitted me to sign the Collaborative Participation Agreement prior to sending it on to the rest of the professional team.
I understand that Adobe Acrobat DC has a function that allows you to collect signatures from others on documents. I have not yet used that feature and so cannot speak to it, but I have used two alternatives when directing clients to electronically sign documents. Clients who have an iPhone can electronically sign documents directly from the native Mail app. For clients who do not have an iPhone, or who want a separate app, I direct them to SignNow. SignNow has a free version that has worked for my clients and allowed them to provide a legal signature directly from their smartphone.
Many Collaborative Professionals prefer to be paid by check to avoid credit card fees. Now, being able to collect payments remotely is a necessity. I have found that LawPay is one of the merchant service accounts with lower fees. Because it specializes in law firms, it allows you to easily decide whether you want payments directed to your operating account or your trust account. Further, it now allows clients to pay by e-check if they so wish.
Since the beginning of the year, another option that I have added is the ability for clients to pay via certain cryptocurrency. I can now accept Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ripple/XRP, Ethereum, and USD Token. The program I use to accept the cryptocurrencies is Bitpay. When a client pays through Bitpay, I have it set so that the funds are automatically converted to U.S. Dollars at the then-current exchange rate. The funds are then deposited into my bank account. I just pay a small fee for each transaction – there is no monthly charge. And, if you were so inclined, you can change the settings so you receive the fee in the form of a cryptocurrency.
Remembering All These Damn Passwords
So now that my documents are in the cloud, I’ve got my communication set up, I found alternatives to printing and scanning, and I’m getting paid, I find myself with a big question: How the hell do I remember all of these damn passwords?!?
Fortunately, there’s an app for that. I use LastPass. LastPass is a free password manager that works on your desktop browser (I use Chrome) and as an app in your smartphone. The browser application saves all of your usernames and passwords as you type them into your browser, and it allows you to access them when you are on your smartphone. As a bonus, LastPass has a password generator, which makes it easy to select complex passwords for all of the websites you use (unfortunately, “Password1234” just will not cut it anymore). As you browse, it will also keep track of whether you have more than one website with the same password, and it will prompt you to change the password for that site.
Who has time to remember all of these passwords? With LastPass, you do not need to.
Now that we are working at home, we need to rely on technology more than ever. The above lays out what has worked for me, but it may or may not work for you. Speak with an IT professional near you and refer to your professional regulations. And, like me, you may find some technology that allows you to work more efficiently and better than ever.
Adam B. Cordover is a member of the Board of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals and co-chair of the IACP Website Content Committee. Adam is also co-chair and co-instructor of the Florida Academy of Collaborative Professionals’ Leadership Institute and co-author with Forrest (Woody) Mosten of Building A Successful Collaborative Family Law Practice (ABA 2018). Adam practices exclusively in out-of-court dispute resolution with a focus on Collaborative Practice.


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Hotels in Chemnitz, Germany
Where to Stay in Chemnitz, Germany?
Some decent hotels and guesthouses scattered around the suburbs of Chemnitz welcome tourists round the year. Most of these rooms and hostels are equipped with necessary amenities and accept card payments. Hotel rooms starting at US $70 per night for two people are available in Chemnitz. Popular neighbourhoods for tourists staying in Chemnitz include Kassberg neighbourhood, Salzstraße street and Wasserschloßweg.
- Budget Hotels in ChemnitzIn Chemnitz, you will find a large number of affordable apartments which are equipped with all basic and modern facilities like wireless internet, air-conditioning, television and toiletries. The average cost of these apartments lies in the range of US $66 to $110. You will also find a few basic hotel rooms catering to the same price range.
- Mid-range Hotels in ChemnitzMost moderately priced hotels in Chemnitz are located within the 5-kilometer radius from the city centre. Falling in the price range of US $100 to $170, these hotels mostly include breakfast. In addition to the basic amenities, these hotels also give you facilities like laundry, centralised heating, bars, lifts, room service and 24-hour-front-desk.
- Luxury Hotels in ChemnitzLuxury hotels priced at more than US $170 per room per night are not found in large numbers in Chemnitz. Hotel Schloss Rabenstein, Pentahotel Chemnitz and Schlosshotel Klaffenbach are few of the luxury accommodation options in Chemnitz which are recommended for tourists.
- Air BnBsAir BnBs are the best way for you to experience the local flavour of Chemnitz, and that too at highly pocket-friendly rates. Well-furnished private rooms equipped with basic facilities starting at as low as US $18 per person can be booked by contacting the hosts.
Hotels Near Attractions in Chemnitz
- Hotels Near Historischer Theaterplatz
- Hotels Near Burg Rabenstein
- Hotels Near Wildgatter Oberrabenstein Chemnitz
- Hotels Near Museum Fur Sachsische Fahrzeuge Chemnitz E.v.
- Hotels Near Kulturkaufhaus Tietz
- Hotels Near Das Chemnitzer Rathaus
- Hotels Near Parkeisenbahn Chemnitz
- Hotels Near Galerie Roter Turm
- Hotels Near Center Sachsenallee
- Hotels Near Besucherbergwerk Felsendome Rabenstein
- Hotels Near Jakobikirche
- Hotels Near Messe Chemnitz
- Hotels Near Schlosskirche
- Hotels Near Chemnitzer Kabarett
- Hotels Near Markthalle Chemnitz Gmbh & Co. Kg
- Hotels Near Deutsches Spielemuseum E.v.
Hotels in and around Chemnitz
- Shopping Centers
- Parks & Gardens

domain: travel


In 2014, we submitted a stage 1 bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for the regeneration of Beckenham Place Park through the Parks for People programme.
The Heritage Lottery Fund's Parks for People programme is focused on getting more local people to use regenerated open spaces.
The HLF approved the bid and earmarked £4.9m to invest in Beckenham Place Park. We worked up designs for the park with local people and submitted our final stage 2 bid to the Fund in August 2016.
We are now on site carrying out extensive restoration of the landscape and historic buildings, which will be complete in spring 2019.
There are plans for many new sport and leisure activities including:
5km running route within the park
all weather and walking rails giving better access for those with limited mobility and for buggies
open water swimming
a new BMX track and better cycling facilities
enhanced skate park
lots of space for informal sports, eg football, cricket and rounders.
Other new and improved features and facilities include:
restored natural lake
wet woodland area
a new cafe in the restored listed stable block
new toilets in the east and west sides of the park
an education centre
a volunteering hub
two new children's play areas
community food growing.
Get in touch with your views by emailing firstname.lastname@example.org
Find out more and change your cookie settings


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Jump up ^ George Forster (1798), A journey from Bengal to England: through the northern part of India, Kashmire, Afghanistan, and Persia, and into Russia, by the Caspian-Sea, R. Faulder, ... A society of Moultan Hindoos, which has long been established in Baku, contributes largely to the circulation of its commerce; and with the Armenians they may be accounted the principal merchants of Shirwan ...
If you have extra time with you over weekends or after your job, you can freelance and take small projects. There are many websites like elance.com , odesk.com or freelancer.com where you can earn money by working on projects. There are thousands of people in India who are working full time on these kind of freelancing websites and believe me, they are earning in lakhs. Look at it as a serious way of making money and not just a time pass activity.
India liberalised its FDI policy in 2005, allowing up to a 100% FDI stake in ventures. Industrial policy reforms have substantially reduced industrial licensing requirements, removed restrictions on expansion and facilitated easy access to foreign technology and investment. The upward growth curve of the real-estate sector owes some credit to a booming economy and liberalised FDI regime. In March 2005, the government amended the rules to allow 100% FDI in the construction sector, including built-up infrastructure and construction development projects comprising housing, commercial premises, hospitals, educational institutions, recreational facilities, and city- and regional-level infrastructure. Between 2012 and 2014, India extended these reforms to defence, telecom, oil, retail, aviation, and other sectors.
CD Interest Income: I only have one CD account left in the amount of $185,000 paying 3%. It expires at the end of 2018 and I’ll have to figure out what to do with it. After selling my SF rental house in mid-2017 for 30X annual rent, I’m left with about $500,000 in cash after investing ~$2,200,000. The best CD today is the CIT Bank 12-month CD at 2.5%. That’s pretty darn good because just a couple years ago, such a CD was less than 0.5%. The yield curve is flattening, meaning folks should take advantage of shorter duration CDs.
"But for our jobs, for how we make money, I think many of us — most of us — have one way we make money. It can be very risky. I've really come to believe, and have done a lot of research over the years, that one of the best ways that we can create real, legitimate professional stability for ourselves is by choosing to cultivate multiple income streams.
Given the growth in the sharing economy, your junk can start to pay for itself. For example, if you have some awesome vintage furniture inherited from your grandmother sitting in a storage unit, you can rent this out to photographers for their “styled shoots” which are becoming all the rage. If your furniture is more modern but you still can’t bear to get rid of it – perhaps a home stager will be interested.
Mike, I don’t consider the income from FS to be passive, as I’m spending time commenting to you right now. But since 75% of my traffic comes from search, the most traffic I would probably lose is 25% for probably a year. And then my search word rankings would probably slowly fade given frequency of posting new content is one of the search algo variables.
For the 95% on $10 a day, see Martin Ravallion, Shaohua Chen and Prem Sangraula, Dollar a day revisited, World Bank, May 2008. They note that 95% of developing country population lived on less than $10 a day. Using 2005 population numbers, this is equivalent to just under 79.7% of world population, and does not include populations living on less than $10 a day from industrialized nations.
That got me thinking how many people in our country cook some amazing things, but never capitalize on it. So if you have people at home who cook some speciality and you feel that it will loved by people in your city, you can start pickup service at home. Get the order, prepare the food , opt to deliver at home (at extra cost) or ask them to pick up from your place. And if you are thinking about preparing “Andhra meals” in Pune, I am your customer already.
One of the easiest ways to increase your passive income is to shift your savings to a bank that pays a higher yield on your savings — for example, Discover Bank and EverBank pay almost 1% for your money. Although it doesn’t sound like much (especially in this low interest environment), little things do add up and eventually interest rates will rise.
Until the liberalisation of 1991, India was largely and intentionally isolated from world markets, to protect its economy and to achieve self-reliance. Foreign trade was subject to import tariffs, export taxes and quantitative restrictions, while foreign direct investment (FDI) was restricted by upper-limit equity participation, restrictions on technology transfer, export obligations and government approvals; these approvals were needed for nearly 60% of new FDI in the industrial sector. The restrictions ensured that FDI averaged only around $200 million annually between 1985 and 1991; a large percentage of the capital flows consisted of foreign aid, commercial borrowing and deposits of non-resident Indians. India's exports were stagnant for the first 15 years after independence, due to general neglect of trade policy by the government of that period; imports in the same period, with early industrialisation, consisted predominantly of machinery, raw materials and consumer goods. Since liberalisation, the value of India's international trade has increased sharply, with the contribution of total trade in goods and services to the GDP rising from 16% in 1990–91 to 47% in 2009–10. Foreign trade accounted for 48.8% of India's GDP in 2015. Globally, India accounts for 1.44% of exports and 2.12% of imports for merchandise trade and 3.34% of exports and 3.31% of imports for commercial services trade. India's major trading partners are the European Union, China, the United States and the United Arab Emirates. In 2006–07, major export commodities included engineering goods, petroleum products, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, gems and jewellery, textiles and garments, agricultural products, iron ore and other minerals. Major import commodities included crude oil and related products, machinery, electronic goods, gold and silver. In November 2010, exports increased 22.3% year-on-year to ₹850.63 billion (US$12 billion), while imports were up 7.5% at ₹1,251.33 billion (US$17 billion). The trade deficit for the same month dropped from ₹468.65 billion (US$6.5 billion) in 2009 to ₹400.7 billion (US$5.6 billion) in 2010.
Corruption has been a pervasive problem in India. A 2005 study by Transparency International (TI) found that more than half of those surveyed had first-hand experience of paying a bribe or peddling influence to get a job done in a public office in the previous year. A follow-up study in 2008 found this rate to be 40 percent. In 2011, TI ranked India at 95th place amongst 183 countries in perceived levels of public sector corruption. By 2016, India saw a reduction in corruption and its ranking improved to 79th place.
We’ve discussed how to get started building passive income for financial freedom in a previous post. Now I’d like to rank the various passive income streams based on risk, return, and feasibility. The rankings are somewhat subjective, but they are born from my own real life experiences attempting to generate multiple types of passive income sources over the past 16 years.
The thing is, I’m not talking about buying brick-and-mortar buildings. I tried that many years ago with my father-in-law, and with devastating results. We tried to buy a duplex once, and the deal fell apart after we realized we weren’t really prepared for the purchase. I secretly wanted to become a landlord, but at the same time, I knew it wasn’t for me.
Example. Jean Blanc, a citizen and resident of Canada, is employed as a professional hockey player by a U.S. hockey club. Under Jean's contract, he received $150,000 for 242 days of play during the year. This includes days spent at pre-season training camp, days during the regular season, and playoff game days. Of the 242 days, 194 days were spent performing services in the United States and 48 days performing services in Canada. The amount of U.S. source income is $120,248 ((194 ÷ 242) × $150,000).
I have a total of three CDs left. There is no way in hell I’m selling them after holding them for 4+ years so far to take the penalty. The CDs are for 7 years. That would be completely counterproductive. As a result, I feel very stuck with ever getting my CD money back if I wanted to. If the CDs were for just 1 or 2 years, I agree, it doesn’t matter as much. But combine a 7 year term with 4%+ interest is too painful to give up.
How do you do this? Well, try to get the highest paying job you can! Ask for a raise! Utilize services, such as Glassdoor.com, to see how your salary competes with others in your same job. Some companies really force employees to leave to get a raise, and then come back for another raise. This industry jumping promotional strategy is very common and could work.
E-Commerce is taking off in India. One of my friend runs ebay shop for second income and easily earn Rs 1 Lac per month. You don’t need huge investments to start your store. Besides ebay you can create your own e-commerce website without any hassles. Recently Shopify set shop in India. Shopify is leading E-commerce platform & provide ready solutions to launch e-commerce store i.e. no need of website designing.
Good ranking FS, I’d have to agree with the rankings. And it looks like your portfolio covers five of the six! Some people consider real estate passive will others classify it as active. But every scenario is different, whether you are doing all the maintenance and managing yourself, or you are contracting out a lot of the work. Obviously it takes a lot more time and effort than purchasing a 36 month CD and “setting it and forgetting it.”
Well written piece, but I question the core premise. Why the fascination with maximizing “income” (passive or otherwise). Shouldn’t the goal simply be to maximize long-term after tax growth of your entire portfolio? If this takes the form of dividend paying stocks, so be it. But what if small caps are poised to outperform? What if you want to take Buffet’s or Bogle’s advice and just buy a broad market index like the S&P 500, (no matter what the dividend because you’ll just have it automatically reinvested to avoid the transaction fees).
The legendary investor, Warren Buffett rightly said that if you cannot create a second source of income by the age of 45, then you have really done injustice to yourself. If you are in business or if you are an independent consultant there are multiple streams that you can consider. But what if you are employed and your existing contract does not allow you to take up other work? Also, your pressures at your workplace may be tight enough to leave you with little spare time to worry about how to create a second stream of income. That is when you have to make money work hard for you. Let us look at two such approaches.
We live in an exciting time. You can literally make money while you sleep. As an entrepreneur, you don’t get a steady paycheck. You can create financial stability when you create multiple streams of income and make some of them passive. Use these steps and tools. Don’t just run towards the online because these are still a lot of opportunities offline. Create systems and don’t try to do it all alone.
What I like about p2p investing on Lending Club is the website’s automated investing tool. You pick the criteria for loans in which you want to invest and the program does the rest. It will look for loans every day that meet those factors and automatically invest your money. It’s important because you’re collecting money on your loan investments every day so you want that money reinvested as soon as possible.
As a private lender, you can lend to anyone in your social circle. For example, many home rehabbers need access to a source of capital they can tap into very quickly in order to fund the initial purchase of their properties. You can partner with a rehabber who uses your capital for a short-term in exchange for an interest rate that is mutually agreed upon.
Culture Food Music Myth Sports Demographics Earthquakes Economy Education Environment Geography Climate Ecology Flora Fauna Government Capitol Districts Governor Legislature Supreme Court Healthcare History Law National Historic Landmarks National Natural Landmarks NRHP listings Politics Congressional delegations Elections People Protected areas State Parks State Historic Landmarks Symbols Transportation Water Index of articles
Agricultural and allied sectors accounted for about 52.1% of the total workforce in 2009–10. While agriculture employment has fallen over time in percentage of labour employed, services which includes construction and infrastructure have seen a steady growth accounting for 20.3% of employment in 2012–13. Of the total workforce, 7% is in the organised sector, two-thirds of which are in the government-controlled public sector. About 51.2% of the workforce in India is self-employed. According to a 2005–06 survey, there is a gender gap in employment and salaries. In rural areas, both men and women are primarily self-employed, mostly in agriculture. In urban areas, salaried work was the largest source of employment for both men and women in 2006.
If you watched the video, he goes into a discussion about shocks (about 8 minutes in) like bad investments but how they don't really matter as much if r (rate of return) is greater than g, the rate of economic growth. If r = 5% and g = 1%, then you can lose 80% (the difference) and still be ahead because the return on the remaining 20% has paced with economic growth.

domain: finance


The unreal one-handed catches NFL fans witness on Sundays don’t happen by accident. Just ask Los Angeles Chargers star Mike Williams.
While working out at home amid the pandemic, Williams is doing some absolutely wild drills. Check out this one-handed catch display he put on his Instagram account, shared by the Chargers on Twitter.
The bonkers aspect here is not that Williams is catching these balls with one hand. It’s that he’s doing it while contorting his body in all sorts of directions. Just incredible skill by the superstar.
We’ve seen this type of practice pay off for the Chargers receiver, too. Check out this absurd catch he made a couple years ago.


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Enjoy some cool graphics and easy controls while you check out this virtual bowling alley. Select a player and get ready to earn some strikes in this exciting online game.
Help Drake the Dragon to find his way back home! Fly through a mystical world and collect coins, boosters and more!
Fun, frustrating, addictive – this is Flappy Multiplayer. Fly and compete with other people from your area in this fun Flappy Multiplayer mod! Carefully avoid the pipes and get further than anyone else, while you see the other players fail.
Ship the Sheep
For whatever reason aliens seem to need sheep. Lots of sheep! Of course they cannot send an intergalactic cattle ship to get them, as the sheep simply wouldn’t live long enough. Instead, you are part of the alien sheep abducting work force. You have to grab the sheep with t [...]
Fun Mahjong Cube game with the Zoobies. Remove the Zoobies in pairs. You can only use the top Zoobies.
That dang-old zombie apocalypse is finally over! Unfortunately, we have a lot of zombies to get rid of! Stack the caged-up zombies onto your tractor trailer and take them away to the zombie zoo. Be careful not to speed too much or the zombies will fall off the back and start inva [...]
Summer Sports: Javelin
Chalk your hands, grab your javelin and get ready to compete for that gold medal! A perfect combination of precision, power, and timing is required to nail that perfect throw and crush your opponents in this olympic-inspired simulation. Combine in a tournament with other Qlympics [...]
The adorable kitten wants to jump far: show your skills and help her by finding the right timing for her start and extend it by tapping the items on the playground. Extras and power-ups are available in the shop.
Mini Motos are fully working mini motor bikes. You will race against some of the best mini moto riders in the world. There are many tracks that you need to race on and can only move onto the next track if you win a race. Avoid the oil slicks on the track or you will spin out of c [...]

domain: game


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"Heat Wave," from Irving Berlin's musical As Thousands Cheer, is sung by Miss Piggy, backed by...
Announcer Ladies and gentlemen, stand by for the television event of the decade! A montage plays...
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domain: artistic


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Art Deco Console
This simple, elegant art deco console with brass accents is of course also possible with chrome or nickel, so that it fits into your decor.
Standard Lead Time: 12-16 weeks for custom orders, unless item is in stock. Please inquire to confirm.
Indian rosewood Brass or nickel accents cm: W 120 D 35 H 80 inch: W 47 D 14 H 31,5
SKU: KS030 |

domain: design


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Spanish giants Barcelona have lowered Brazilian ace Philippe Coutinho’s loan cost with several Premier League clubs interested, according to a report in the Daily Mirror.
Coutinho spent this season on loan at Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga, however, the German club have chosen not to make his move a permanent one or renew his loan deal.
The Brazilian midfielder will now return to Barcelona this summer, but it is believed that the Catalan club will seek to loan him out again next season.
According to the report, Barcelona have set an asking price of £10m for any clubs wanting to sign Coutinho on loan and several Premier League clubs are interested in signing him but his wages have proved to be a stumbling block.
Arsenal have also shown keen interest in bringing Coutinho on loan to the Emirates but have been reluctant to meet Barcelona’s initial demands of paying the Brazilian midfielder’s £250,000-per-week wages in full.
However, it has now emerged that the Catalan outfit have agreed to pay a portion of Coutinho’s wages even when out on loan at another club, which has reignited interest from Premier League clubs, Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea, Manchester United and Newcastle, according to the Mirror report.
Gunners boss Mikel Arteta is looking to sign a midfielder this summer and should a structure of the proportion of his wages to be paid be agreed between both Arsenal and Barcelona, the Brazilian ace could make a move to the Emirates ahead of next season.

domain: sports


text: The IC library is a welcoming space for all students and staff to get materials for pleasure reading and research information. We have almost 10,000 items that cover all genres and we can find a great read for everyone. Stop by the library anytime and you might find a STEM project in progress, or a class exploration of a book with a bulletin board to exhibit our learning. You might find students working with a partner or independently on a self selected writing project. Of course, you will find students tucked into cozy corners or sharing a bean bag while reading a favorite book. Our library is the place to be to let your imagination and creativity free.

domain: library


When it comes to NBA predictions, fans and pundits across the globe have their own beliefs in what will likely occur over the course of 82 games. Due to the movement of the NBA's stars, the championship is there to be taken by a wide variety of teams.
The window for many teams is wide open, and all the players want a chance to perform at their highest level in order to capture the NBA's most prestigious award.
Without further ado, here are the ten most shocking predictions entering the new NBA season.
10. Detroit Pistons Trade Blake Griffin And Andre Drummond
The Pistons made a big splash by trading for Blake Griffin, and pairing him next to defensive star Andre Drummond. They seem to complement their games well, with Griffin taking over the scoring while Drummond does the dirty work.
But the league is shifting away from big-man dominance, as guards and wing players are the players winning games and ultimately championships.
Detroit, in a shocking move, might move both Griffin and Drummond with the hopes of attracting young scoring guards or even collecting high-quality draft picks. The Pistons simply need wing players and guards, and the only way to get that might be to move the two big men.
9. San Antonio Spurs Trade DeMar DeRozan And LaMarcus Aldridge
The Spurs had high hopes when they signed both DeMarre Carroll and Marcus Morris this past offseason. Adding two effective wing players greatly improved the Spurs tenacity on defense, which may have helped their deep playoff run this season. But Morris backed out, which might have been the biggest disaster for the Spurs this season.
Even though he is not a star, he is a very productive player in a league dominated by forwards. The Spurs might look to move on from their two All-Stars, and give room to the young guys to develop and get better. DeRozan and Aldridge will not be worth more than they are now, and the Spurs will likely capitalize on their return this season.
8. Chris Paul Leads OKC To The Playoffs
When Chris Paul got traded to the Thunder, the entire world was shocked. After all, Paul was a fantastic player for the Rockets and put them on the map to become an NBA title contender. But Paul quickly aged last season, where he failed to perform at an All-Star level consistently leading into the playoffs.
With the Thunder, Paul has a responsibility to not only help the young guys get better but also play like an All-Star. The Thunder still has some talent, including Gallinari (if he does not get moved) and Gilgeous-Alexander. Paul will be the HOF point guard that he is known to be and put forth an All-Star season while leading the young and rebuilding Thunder to the 8th seed in the West.
7. Karl-Anthony Towns Requests A Trade
After Jimmy Butler left Minnesota, many people quickly wrote off the Wolves for not having enough leadership or quality on the squad. These doubts were true, as the Wolves look to be going nowhere in the West rankings. It may only be a matter of time before Towns requests trade from Minnesota, and it might happen this season.
Players have a lot of power in the league nowadays and Towns is still one of the best young players in the world. He is clearly their best player and a franchise player in his own right. Towns will most likely request to be traded out of Minnesota, to a culture that suits his desire to grow and mature under an organization that has proven itself to develop stars. Some examples? The Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs.
6. Los Angeles Lakers Trade Kyle Kuzma For Bradley Beal
The Lakers almost pulled off an incredible move this offseason, by adding Kawhi Leonard to LeBron James and Anthony Davis. This signing might have made the Lakers the best team ever, and we might have had a Warriors Dynasty 2.0.
But the Lakers were not able to sign Kawhi and instead filled their roster with quality role players. However, knowing the Lakers, they might want to add another All-Star and Bradley Beal is certainly a very rumored player in the league.
The Lakers might offer Kyle Kuzma, a nice young star, for the services of scoring machine Bradley Beal. Beal fits perfectly next to AD and LeBron and can be the man to spot up for open shots or create his own from the perimeter when the paint is loaded with defenders.
The Lakers will be the clear favorites in the West if they make this deal happen.
5. Dwyane Wade Return To The Los Angeles Lakers
Next up, the return of Flash. Dwyane Wade will return but to the LA Lakers. The Lakers will want to pair James and Wade one more time since Wade is still in tremendous shape and showed an ability to have clutch performances last season.
The Lakers are all about flash and putting on a show, and the return of Wade and James partnership will certainly sell tickets everywhere they go. Wade's championship experience and leadership will fit nicely next to James and Davis, and certainly, provide more depth to a stacked Lakers team.
4. Warriors Miss The Playoffs
The Warriors retooled this summer after losing Kevin Durant and signed D'Angelo Russell to pair with Steph and Klay. But they might not be an NBA playoff team this season.
Klay is out for a while, and it is really up to both Steph and Russell to take over the Warrior's offense. Both guys are great scorers who can shoot well from the perimeter, but neither of them has the size or girth to handle that kind of load over the course of the season. Not to mention, Steph has a long history with injuries and might take a few games off.
As good as Russell and Curry may be, the Warriors might not have enough talent to make it out the West with KD gone and Klay on the sidelines.
3. Ben Simmons Makes Over 100 3-Pointers In The Season
Simmons is a rare talent. He is a power forward with the skillset of a point guard and the athleticism of a small forward. He is a legitimate triple-double threat every night and is one of the most exciting players to watch in the league. As a matter of fact, he is one of the main reasons why the Sixers will be the favorites to come out of the East this year.
But his jump shot has prevented him from reaching the heights of NBA superstardom. That might change this year. Simmons will be open of the best scorers for the Sixers this season and will showcase a much-improved jump shot en route to making over 100 3-point shots over the season. This would be a tremendous number that will shock the entire NBA Universe, but Simmons is ready to take the next step as a superstar.
2. The New York Knicks Make The 2020 NBA Playoffs
No team was more heavily scrutinized than the New York Knicks, and it might be for good reason. They were unable to attract and sign one All-Star player this past offseason and had to settle for Julius Randle and role players to fill out the roster. As a result, many have written off the Knicks as another tanking team that will sit at the bottom of the conference.
But they will surprise everyone. Randle will take a jump in his play to become an All-Star, and the acquisition of key role players such as Taj Gibson, Bobby Portis, and Marcus Morris will give them toughness and size. Perhaps most importantly, the East is extremely top-heavy.
Starting lineup with RJ Barrett, Dennis Smith Jr and Julius Randle could surprise everyone in the East.
With a lack of talent across the conference, the Knicks will have enough squad depth and even desire to make the playoffs after a long spell of losing.
1. Kyrie Irving Wins The MVP Award
Last but not least, Kyrie Irving will be the man to prove everybody wrong this season about his leadership qualities and even his skillset.
Irving will be one of the top scorers in the league for the Nets, who will be missing Kevin Durant, and show that he can be a leader when he is in the right situation. Irving will completely take over games and catapult the Nets to a top-3 seed in the East.
If Irving is able to average at least 27 points per game while carrying his injury-ridden team to the playoffs, he might be a surprising favorite for the MVP Award.


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Special features include an audio commentary track by director Jeff Stein, DVD producer John Albarian, and moderated by Martin Lewis. There are also two subtitle options: Guitar & Pen (song lyrics) and Eyesight To The Blind (liner notes). The Special Edition version (#12103) adds a second disc, which includes a number of extras Who fans may find of interest. Miracle Cure is a 40-minute documentary focusing on the film's restoration and presentation on DVD. Getting In Tune: Audio Showdown is a six-minute demonstration of how this new version rectifies audio problems present in previous home video editions. Trick Of The Light: Picture Showdown is a revealing five-minute comparison of the image quality between the new and previous editions. The Ox: An Isolated Track Of John's Bass Feed is, well, an isolated track of John's bass feed
"The Kids Are Alright" is the quintessential rock film documenting two decades of The Who and their performances.
The anamorphically enhanced DVD, framed at 1.78:1, exhibits a picture of varying image quality due to multiple source elements and various types of footage. Interviews and stage performances, in both color and black-and-white, range from clean and nicely detailed to peppered with grain and artifacts. Smeared, undefined, or quite sharp can be descriptions of different performances throughout the program. Colors can be rich and well balanced or dated and washed out. Overall, this is a great exploration of The Who that will, without a doubt, be enjoyed by the band
The 5.1-channel remastered audio presentations feature all of the music in multichannel surround sound, whether the original source was stereo or mono. The stereo-sourced segments range from being very good to quite admirable, with an aggressive spatial presence. There
Reason #24 Why Readers Love Widescreen Review:
I love all the DVD and D-VHS reviews! I also love all the letters from people like me telling the truth about everything. Also, I canít get enough of hi-def info on everything. I can't wait for the next issue! Keep up the good work!


Tori Lynn Lovett, 23, was driving a 2005 Cadillac CTS when it crashed in Taylor County, Fla., around 10:30 p.m., Sunday. Ms. Lovett died when she was ejected from the car.
Stephen Taylor Edwards, 24, was a passenger in the front seat. He was listed in fair condition Tuesday afternoon at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, according to a hospital spokeswoman.
The couple were driving East on U.S. 98 when Lovett attempted to pass another vehicle, according to information from the Florida Highway Patrol. It states Lovett lost control of the Cadillac for unknown reasons and the car overturned on the north shoulder. The car collided with a power pole and continued overturning multiple times, the information states. Ms. Lovett was not wearing a seat belt at the time and was ejected from the car after it hit the power pole. Mr. Edwards was wearing a seat belt, but was trapped in the front seat. He was taken to Tallahassee Memorial with critical injuries at the time.
In addition to the Florida Highway Patrol, the Taylor County Sheriff’s Department, Taylor County Fire and Rescue and TCEC Electric responded to the accident scene.
Memorial services for Tori Lynn Lovett, 23, of Cairo, Ga., will be held at 3 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, at Eastside Baptist Church, Cairo, with the Rev. Carl Harrell officiating. Ms. Lovett passed away on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012.
Ms. Lovett was born on Jan. 17, 1989, to John L. Lovett and the late Rebecca Lynn Turner Harrell. Tori was a Pharmaceutical Tech with Cox Pharmacy in Cairo and a member of Eastside Baptist Church.
Clark Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.


She’s playing a queen in the new movie Mary, Queen of Scots and she’s almost as rich as one. Oscar-nominated actress Margot Robbie has come a long way from the Australian soap opera Neighbours, where she got her start back in 2008. Now, she’s one of Hollywood’s hottest commodities, and she has the net worth to prove it.
Margot Robbie is worth $12 million
Celebrity Net Worth estimates that Margot Robbie is worth $12 million. After moving to the U.S. to star in the ABC show Pan Am (which only lasted one season), she landed supporting roles in movies like About Time and The Wolf of Wall Street.
In 2015, she moved to leading lady status with a role opposite Will Smith in Focus. In 2016, she played Jane in The Legend of Tarzan. The same year, she won acclaim for her role as Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad. Then there was her award-winning turn as disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding in I, Tonya.
Playing Queen Elizabeth I in Mary, Queen of Scots
Now a bona fide star, Robbie has taken on one of her biggest roles yet, as Queen Elizabeth I in Mary, Queen of Scots. Robbie stars opposite Oscar-nominee Saoirse Ronan, who plays Elizabeth’s rival and cousin Mary, Queen of Scots. The movie explores the tense relationship between the two queens, both female rulers in a male-dominated world.
“I don’t want people to think of them as rivals,” she told NPR. “I guess what I want modern audiences to take away is just the chance to kind of examine what it is like to be a woman in power and the cost of that.”
What’s next for Margot Robbie, including a Harley Quinn solo movie
Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad | Warner Bros.
Robbie might have had a busy year, but she isn’t slowing down. Her next big movie is Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. In the film, she plays actress Sharon Tate, who was murdered by members of the Manson Family. She’ll also star in 1930s-set Dreamland. The movie is about a fugitive bank robber. Both are due out in 2019.
The actress will also star in an as-yet-untitled movie about disgraced Fox News exec Roger Ailes. She’s even signed on to play Barbie in a movie based on the iconic doll.
But the role Robbie’s fans might be most excited for is her return to the DC Extended Universe as Harley Quinn in the upcoming The Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). In the movie, Quinn ends her relationship with the Joker and puts together a gang of female heroes, including Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Black Canary (Jurnee Smollet-Bell), Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), and Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco). Ewan McGregor will play the villain Black Mask. Cathy Yan will direct.
In addition to taking on more acting roles, Robbie has branched out into producing. Her production company, LuckyChap Entertainment produced I, Tonya, and has a number of other projects in the works. Those include Firefighters, a movie about a group of female prisoners who fight California wildfires, and TV show, Shattered Glass, about a group of female Wall Street executives who are intent on breaking the glass ceiling in their industry.
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Paul Heaton, former frontman of The Beautiful South and The Housemartins will play an exclusive gig at BikeRadar Live, which takes place at Brands Hatch on 10-11 July.
Heaton, a keen cyclist for many years, recently completed his ‘Pedals and Pumps’ tour of the
The singer-songwriter will play an exclusive set on the opening night of BikeRadar Live, Friday 9 July, which will only be open to festival-goers with a full weekend pass or riders signing on for the Cycling Plus Sportive.
Playing in the Big Top in front of an intimate crowd of 500, Heaton – who once owned a bike shop in
In an interview which will appear in the August issue of Cycling Plus magazine, Heaton says:
“The cycling really started as I wrote the last three or four Beautiful South records and the first two Paul Heaton albums in
Book your BikeRadar Live tickets now.


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Depending on your employer’s HRA plan design, you may be provided a debit card that you will use for certain eligible expenses not paid through the CDPHP medical claims integration system. For example, your HRA may reimburse dental or optical hardware expenses, and you may receive a debit card to be used for these services.
When using your debit card for allowed items other than medical care billed directly to CDPHP, always save your receipts and EOBs to document your expenditures. Make sure to charge as “credit” rather than “debit.”
If your spouse or dependents are on your insurance plan, they may use your HRA debit card. Dependents over age 18 can get their own HRA debit card by requesting one through the secure member site.
To replace a lost or stolen debit card, log into our secure member site or call the CDPHP Health Funding Department at 1 (518) 641-3770 or 1 (877) 793-3960. They will deactivate the old card and issue you a new one.


he Karnataka High Court has observed that the right of a major individual to marry the person of their choice is a fundamental right enshrined in the Constitution of India and the liberty relating to the personal relationship of two individuals cannot be encroached by anybody irrespective of caste or religion.
The observation followed a habeas corpus petition filed by one Wajeed Khan seeking the release of his lover, Ramya G.
In her interaction with the Court, Ramya told the Court that she was staying at Mahila Dakshatha Samithi, Vidyaranyapura pursuant to a complaint lodged by her at the Janodaya Santwana Kendra. She alleged that her right to liberty was being infringed by her parents as they were against her marriage with Khan.
Ramya said that she decided to marry the petitioner who also happens to be her colleague working at IQVIA. She added that Wajid’s mother had no objections to the marriage even as her parents were opposing the same.
A division bench of Justices S Sujata and Sachin Shankar Magadum ordered the release of Ramya forthwith and observed:
“Kum. Ramya G. being a software engineer at IQVIA is capable of taking a decision regarding her life. The Mahila Dakshata Samithi is directed to release Kum. Ramya. G. forthwith,”
Earlier, the Allahabad High Court held that right of a person to live with someone of their choice irrespective of the religion professed by them, was intrinsic to the right to life and personal liberty.
“The Courts and the Constitutional Courts, in particular, are enjoined to uphold the life and liberty of an individual guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India”, the Allahabad HC said.


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Amendment One has made me angry.
I am angry because there are a group of people being actively persecuted in our country. I am angry because tonight, these people were denied a basic human right. The right to marry the person you love.
I’m angry because right now, my peers are more focused on Taylor Swift than this issue.
I’m angry because time and time again people will uphold the bystander effect, and will diffuse responsibility.
I’m angry because people are selfish.
I’m angry because government officials, church leaders, and parents beg time and time again that children remember: “it gets better”, only to deem them unimportant, and unsuitable for marriage.
I’m angry because tonight in North Carolina, a group of people were deemed second class citizens, unworthy of rights granted to all the rest of us.
This isn’t my fight. I can get married in any state that I would like, as many times as I would like, for as long as I would like, but some of my best friends cannot.
This isn’t my fight, but if I don’t fight for the rights of my fellow man, when the time comes, who will fight for mine?

domain: law


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5 Places Where Marriage and Family Counselors Work
- Private Practice Office
- Employee Assistance Programs
- Outpatient Mental Health Centers
- Substance Abuse Treatment Centers
- Public and Private Hospitals
When a person is considering a career as marriage and family counselors, the type of work setting may play a role in selecting a job. Marriage and family counselors work in many different settings, and they may be independent or a part of a clinic, healthcare facility or counseling practice. Understanding the five most common career settings for a family and marriage counselor could help a person make an informed decision about their job choices.
1. Private Practice Office
Family and marriage counselors may establish their independent practice. These may be in an office building or suite where other types of therapists also have their practices. Some counselors share a practice, allowing them to have one administrative assistant handle the scheduling and billing tasks. A private practice office could also be located in the counselor’s own home. Some private practice counselors travel to the client’s home and conduct in-home therapy services.
2. Employee Assistance Programs
Medium and large-size employers often have an employee assistance program. These programs are set up to support the health and well-being of employees. Healthy employees are more productive and miss less work, so it benefits the employer to have these programs in place. Marriage and family counselors may be on the full-time staff of such an employer, or they might have a contract with several companies, visiting each one once per week or some other schedule. This type of setting involves working with people of different backgrounds, ages and family situations. The employer would pay for the costs of the counseling, and the sessions might be before, during or after work hours. The counselors might also provide educational sessions to groups of workers at those companies.
3. Outpatient Mental Health Centers
Marriage and family counselors may also work at outpatient mental health centers. These mental health centers may have different types of counselors and therapists for helping people in a wide variety of life situations. Their services might be paired with those of another therapist. For example, if one member of a married couple has a gambling addiction, the individual with the addiction might get individualized therapy for that issue, and they might see the marriage counselor with their spouse to heal their relationship with their partner.
4. Substance Abuse Treatment Centers
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, marriage and family counselors also work in substance abuse treatment centers. These include both outpatient and inpatient facilities. When a person has a substance use disorder, their relationships suffer. The marriage or family counselor offers help with repairing those relationships.
5. Public and Private Hospitals
Some marriage and family counselors work in hospitals. They may meet with families who are experiencing bad news, such as a diagnosis of a terminal illness. They may also meet with a person who is hospitalized after a domestic violence situation. The counselors could also help the employees of the hospital with their family and marriage issues.
Each of these career settings for marriage and family counselors offers a slightly different perspective. A person who likes to work independently might choose to set up their practice, while a person who enjoys working with other counselors, psychologists and mental health professionals might choose a more team-oriented setting. Knowing about these five career settings for marriage and family counselors allows a candidate to hone the types of positions they apply for when searching for a job.
- 5 Best Online Ph.D. Marriage and Family Counseling Programs
- 5 Podcasts on Marriage and Family Counseling
- 5 Popular Specialty Areas for Marriage & Family Therapists
- 5 Reasons to be a Marriage and Family Counselor
- 5 TED Talks on Marriage Counseling
- Is a Ph.D. Required to Be a Marriage and Family Counselor?
- Is an Online Psychology Degree Cheaper Than a Traditional One?
- Is Marriage and Family Counseling a Fulfilling Career Option?
- Is Marriage and Family Counseling a Lucrative Career?
- What are the Prerequisites for a Ph.D. in Marriage and Family Counseling?
- What Certifications are Available for Marriage and Family Counselors?
- What Degree is Necessary to be a Marriage and Family Counselor?
- What is the Employment Outlook for Marriage & Family Therapists?

domain: sociology


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HIGHLAND PHARMS GUMMIES – 30CT AND 20MG OF CBD PER PIECE!
OUR 20mg CBD GUMMIES ARE WHEAT-FREE AND GLUTEN FREE!
This is our highest concentration size of these gummies. Many children and smaller people only use 5-10mg per serving. If the 20mg serving is too great for you, they can easily be cut into halves (10mg serving size) or even quarters (5mg serving size). No matter what you need, these yummy edibles deliver for you.
These CBD Gummies are a customer favorite and utlize FULL SPECTRUM hemp extract. Oh, and they TASTE AMAZING! These include all the cannabinoids and phytonutrients that are found in our Full Spectrum products. This gummy offers you the BEST benefit. We are so pleased to have this product to offer to our customers.
We also offer a lower concentration package that has 10mg gummies if that’s a better fit for you. They’re available by going to our CBD Gummies page. Whichever strength you choose, you’ve got options!
There are 30 pieces in a package and each piece has 20mg of CBD FULL SPECTRUM for a package total of 600mg. These gummies are very good tasting and make it easy to give your children the CBD you want them to have.
Organic Tapioca Syrup, Organic Cane Sugar, Organic Tapioca Syrup Solids, Organic Grape Juice Concentrate, Citrus Pectin, Citric Acid, Sodium Citrate, Natural Flavors, Potassium Citrate, Colored with Extracts (Black Carrot, Organic Black Currant, Organic Turmeric, Carrot, Blueberry, Organic Annatto), Natural Flavors, Full Spectrum Hemp Cannabidiol (CBD) Distillate.
(Contains < 0.3% THC)

domain: health


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|Blurberiano dal||marzo 2010|
|Nome||Sean R. Strong|
|Sede||Hot Springs, Arkansas|
Writing has been my passion for many years, and I've recently begun to self-publish works I've written years ago, now that there are sites like this one available.
I'm a 42 yr old, single father of three, I'm self-employed and aspire to make the NY Best Seller List at least 3 times before my time is over. I welcome your email comments: email@example.com.
|Vi svelo un segreto: penso che il mio prossimo libro parlerà di...|
|A story about a wealthy young man, who inherits a vast fortune from his late uncle, and decides to relocate to try and forget the pain of his lost relative, whom he cherished. Upon settling down in a small township of semi-elite yuppies, he discovers his self-imposed exile from aristocratic society will be short lived after having caught a glimpse of his beautiful, voyeur of a neighbor, who shamelessly sunbathes in plain view of his mansion courtyard.|
|Tutti dovrebbero conoscere questi autori e questi artisti...|
|È uno di quei libri da cui non riesci a staccarti. Leggilo. (a tuo rischio e pericolo).|
|Skyscraper, by Zane Strebor|
Crea subito il tuo libro a partire da 2,79 €.


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Rapper Kanye West paid a heartwarming tribute as he opened up about his relationship to "one of his best friends," NBA legend Kobe Bryant.
West and Bryant are two icons in different fields of interest who share the same passion and dedication to their craft.
In the recent cover story of GQ Magazine for their May issue, the two-time Grammy winner explained why the Los Angeles Lakers superstar served as an inspiration and how his memories keep him going.
"There's one street that I drive to go from either my office or my home to the property where the domes were built," the Yeezy creator mentioned while referring to the Las Virgenes Road -- the crash site where Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna perished.
"So now there's no way for me not to be as determined as Kobe every time I drive down that street. It's game time," he added.
The 42-year-old rapper-turned-producer also shared the impact of Black Mamba's legacy, not just to him but to the whole world.
"Everyone in our life is now a member of the Lakers on one of Kobe's championship teams," he said. "The way that Kobe would say that we all have to come together and win this championship is the way I look at life now. To an infinite, other level."
Two Legends, One Goal
The father-of-four also shared their similarities in life's perspective despite having two different careers.
"He was the basketball version of me, and I was the rap version of him, and that's facts!" Kanye said.
On January 26, the world was shocked when it was reported that the basketball legend along with eight other passengers died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California.
The group was said to be heading to Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks, California for a youth basketball event.
The former Lakers superstar is survived by his 37-year-old wife Vanessa, and their three daughters: Natalia (17), Bianka (3), and Capri (9).
Kanye West Rapping For God
Moreover, West also confessed that he considered leaving the rap scene because "it's the devil's music."
"I was thinking of not rapping again because I rapped for the devil so long that I didn't even know how to rap for God," West added.
But then again, he opted to use his God-given talent and his platform to a benefit. Thus, his "Jesus is the King" album was born.
The Christian-themed album is West's ninth studio album which was released in October 2019.
He described it as "an expression of the gospel," with which he received massive support from several gospel artists who were quick to embrace his new album.
The 42-year-old music icon/entrepreneur has attracted several celebrities to his Sunday service, including fellow artist Justin Beiber.
A few weeks ago, Beiber made a surprise appearance where he performed a heartfelt version of Marvin Sapp's gospel hit "Never Would Have Made It."

domain: celebrity


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Euthanasia in the Netherlands Book PDF Online
The Dutch experience has influenced the debate on euthanasia and death with dignity around the globe, especially with regard to whether physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia should be legitimized or legalized. A review of the literature reveals complex and often contradictory views about the Dutch experience. Some claim that the Netherlands offers a model for the world to follow; others believe that the Netherlands represents danger, rather than promise, and that the Dutch experience is the definitive answer regarding why we should not make active euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide part of our lives. Given these contradictory views, it has become clear that fieldwork is essential to developing a more informed opinion. Having investigated the Dutch experience for a number of years, and after thoroughly reading the vast literature published in English, I went to the Netherlands for one month in the summer of 1999 to get a feel for the local situation. I felt that this would provide the basis on which I could better interpret the findings of the available literature. I visited the major centers of medical ethics, as well as some research hospitals, and spoke with leading figures in the euthanasia policy and practice. The time spent was extremely beneficial and enriching. I followed in the footsteps of Carlos Gomez, who 1 published a book following one month of extensive research in the Netherlands.


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Today, REN price is at $0.942050 with a 24-hour trading volume of over 21 million. It is a 10.7% decrease in the last 24 hours. Interoperability has become a key theme within the crypto market as it relates to the evolution of the blockchain ecosystem. As decentralized applications (dApps) become more prevalent, the need for efficient and secure communication is also increasing. Ren (REN), a blockchain protocol that enables the decentralized exchange of assets, has started gaining momentum.
Three reasons for the price growth in REN include the steady increase in activity and the total value locked on RenVM. The price of Ethereum spiked on September 15 after the release of the Arbitration bridge. The platform is a layer-two network that enables decentralized applications to run in a fast, low-cost environment. Due to the high fees and delayed transactions times, many users have been unable to use Ethereum’s decentralized protocols (DFTs) related to nonfungible tokens (NFT). Arbitrum’s low-cost environment has made it an attractive choice for BTC holders wanting to migrate to a more robust DeFi environment.
Biotech, Tech, and Crypto reporter
Anthony Gonzales brings 3 years of experience in helping grassroots, mid-sized organizations and large institutions strengthen their management and resource generating capacities and effectively plan for the future. He is also a mentor and professional advisor to artists working in all disciplines. He is the gold medalist from St. Marco University of Science and Technology in the Bachelors of Financial Management as well.


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I’m in hair heaven. I got my hair done last night by my new hairdresser. But seriously, “hairdresser,” doesn’t even begin to describe my new holistic, natural hair care expert. She looked at every single one of my locs, scrubbed my scalp with a homemade sugar-coconut-lemon-grapeseed scrub, and treated my hair and scalp with a delicious smelling balm of essential oils. Basically, she hooked me up. I’m floating in a cloud of geranium and lemon oil. Lovely.
And yes, I know: the story of my hair pales in comparison to issues of real import, such as voter suppression, reproductive justice, and shameful shenanigans in public education – all issues on which I am trying to collect my thoughts. Still, I won’t underestimate the significance of hair. As much as I blast India Arie’s “I Am Not My Hair,” we would not all have responded so strongly to that song if there wasn’t something there. Poems, Essays, Dissertations – tomes weighty and light – have been dedicated to Black women and our hair. The first American woman to be a self-made millionaire was entrepreneur Madame C.J. Walker, who built a black hair care empire.
I am not my hair. My hair is not my crowning glory. Yet there is something to be said for a beautiful head of hair. I am more confident when I think my hair looks good. I know that my stress, my diet, my general well-being, are all reflected in my locs. Biblical lore tells us that Samson took his strength from his hair. Maybe it’s just the care and attention that comes from the careful ministrations of having your hair done.
Whatever it is – today, my locs are glossy (kind of) and smooth. My scalp is calm. And I am prepared to take on the world. Thank you, Ahava.
And no celebration of Black women would be complete without a little bit of…
Ego Tripping (there may be a reason why)
by Nikki Giovanni
I was born in the congo
I walked to the fertile crescent and built
. the sphinx
I designed a pyramid so tough that a star
. that only glows every one hundred years falls
. into the center giving divine perfect light
I am bad
I sat on the throne
. drinking nectar with allah
I got hot and sent an ice age to europe
. to cool my thirst
My oldest daughter is nefertiti
. the tears from my birth pains
. created the nile
I am a beautiful woman
I gazed on the forest and burned
. out the sahara desert
. with a packet of goat’s meat
. and a change of clothes
I crossed it in two hours
I am a gazelle so swift
. so swift you can’t catch me
. For a birthday present when he was three
I gave my son hannibal an elephant
. He gave me rome for mother’s day
My strength flows ever on
My son noah built new/ark and
I stood proudly at the helm
. as we sailed on a soft summer day
I turned myself into myself and was
. men intone my loving name
. All praises All praises
I am the one who would save
I sowed diamonds in my back yard
My bowels deliver uranium
. the filings from my fingernails are
. semi-precious jewels
. On a trip north
I caught a cold and blew
My nose giving oil to the arab world
I am so hip even my errors are correct
I sailed west to reach east and had to round off
. the earth as I went
. The hair from my head thinned and gold was laid
. across three continents
I am so perfect so divine so ethereal so surreal
I cannot be comprehended
. except by my permission
I mean…I…can fly
. like a bird in the sky…
I am not nearly this bold, but maybe I’ll take some inspiration.
Homage To My Hips
By Lucille Clifton
these hips are big hips
they need space to
move around in.
they don’t fit into little
petty places. these hips
are free hips.
they don’t like to be held back.
these hips have never been enslaved,
they go where they want to go
they do what they want to do.
these hips are mighty hips.
these hips are magic hips.
i have known them
to put a spell on a man and
spin him like a top!

domain: literature