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Council wants to remove "butt ugly" junipers
Electric City is looking to get rid of some of its “butt ugly trees.”
The moonglow junipers that the city put in several years ago, at a cost of about $60,000, has current city council members steaming.
Some 190 junipers were planted on either side of SR-155 as it makes its way through Electric City, wiping out parking spaces and eventually growing so tall and bushy that they obstruct the view of motorists entering the highway from the side streets. An item on the internet states that the trees can grow up to 20 feet high and 15 feet wide.
Councilmember Brad Parrish said the city should get rid of the “butt ugly” trees.
Council members seemed to agree and talked about eliminating trees on both sides of the highway in the middle of town.
Mayor Jerry Sands reported that city crews took out eight more trees that were masking traffic.
Sands said that when he first became mayor, he went around asking business people about the junipers. Most wanted to keep them. Now there’s been a change of heart.
Sands said before trees in the center of town are taken out, he wants to go around and do another survey.
When the trees were originally placed, some were put in the middle of parking spaces. Some of these were driven over, and a few cut down or trimmed up by unknown persons.
Now the city council has the bit between their teeth and are ready to start taking out the trees.


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Total number of Quinto stores in Montreal: 1
The biggest mall in Montreal with Quinto store: Les Cours Mont Royal
Quinto stores in Montreal - get information about the brand Quinto and all Quinto locations in Montreal - Quebec, Canada.
Select Quinto store in Montreal from the list below. All Quinto stores are also displayed on the map.
419 King Street West, Oshawa, ON L1J 2K5, Canada312 stores
208 Chain Lake Drive, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3S 1C5, Canada187 stores
6551 No. 3 Road, Richmond, BC, V6Y 2B6202 stores
1 Promenade Circle, Thornhill, ON, L4J 4P8188 stores
7275 rue Sherbrooke est, Montreal, QC, H1N 1E9
4300 Steeles Ave. E. at Kennedy, Markham, Ontario - ON L3R 0Y5, Canada291 stores
6000 Boulevard de Rome #420, Brossard, QC J4Y 0B6, Canada530 stores
8882 170 St NW, Edmonton, Alberta - AB T5T 4J2, Canada199 stores
261 A Richmond Road, Ottawa, Ontario K1Z 6X1, Canada195 stores
3255 Highway 7 East, Markham, ON L3R 3P9

domain: geography


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Stuck for something to do during lockdown? Then why not write a short radio play? All you need to record it on is a phone or computer. It can just be a monologue or involve the whole household if you want to. Just keep it to between five and 10 minutes long.
All the plays submitted will be listened to by a panel at the cornerHOUSE in Surbiton and some will get to feature on the arts centre’s website for all to hear. And, if Covid restrictions allow later on in the year, they may well be performed on its stage in front of an audience.
Submissions will be accepted up to and including Friday, February 5, 2021.
Guidance on how to write, record and submit a radio drama is on the arts centre’s website at www.thecornerhouse.org/cornerhouse-radio-shorts

domain: hobby


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Laureen Seeger, General Counsel, Kenneth Chenault, CEO, Edward Gilligan, Pres. stockholders and BODs.
We ask AX to immediately cease and desist its relationship with the new 2 for 1 rewards point program. Uber is an unregulated, illegal company operating in a regulated ground transportation industry. There has been regulatory opposition in every major city worldwide and States throughout the USA. They will not obey the laws anywhere. There are numerous legal proceddings at all levels throughtout and most recently yesterday, the State of PA has banned UBER. Please source all the media for its history. It all speaks for itself.
The major problem for AX is its referral liability to its worldwide card members. Uber and AX now advertise 2 for 1 reward points, if the card holder uses UBER for transportation and gives them an AX card to process for the ride. If there is an accident, injury, or death caused by an UBER driver who has no permit, commercial for hire license or insurance, the cardholder is left standing alone(there are 53 known claims and over 161 lawsuits of which over 20 in Federal Court) currently against UBER and they have turned their back on each one including the tragic death of 6 year old Sophia Liu on New Year's Eve in San Francisco). The public is not protected and placed in harm's way.
AX would have tremendous exposure if an accident happened and the attorneys would come after AX for referral liability as AX induced their worldwide cardholders to use an illegal unregulated public carrier like UBER ,LYFT, SIDECAR and other cyberspace app companies.
Please rescind immediately any prgrams or relationships with UBER Now.
Chuck Cotton, owner

domain: law


Waterparks are again with their first new music in virtually a yr, dropping the infectious single ‘FUNERAL GREY’ – hear beneath.
The Texas trio have been teasing their return for the reason that starting of the yr. In February, they shared an replace on their fifth studio album, the follow-up to final yr’s ‘Best Hits’, teasing that it was “80 per cent done”.
They then teased that if ‘Best Hits’ was “an indoor nighttime album”, the new record would be “an outdoor daytime album”. Additionally they hinted at an imminent single launch, writing in a word: “In all probability must allow you to hear one thing quickly huh?”
Waterparks – comprising Awsten Knight, Geoff Wigington and Otto Wooden – have signed with Fueled By Ramen, following their departure from 300 Leisure; ‘FUNERAL GREY’ is their first observe for the enduring different label.
“After which she walked away/ I didn’t get her title/ I can’t clarify the look on her face/ She wore a sweater in summer season climate, yeah,” Knight sings on the bouncy, guitar-led observe.
“She wore a sweater, it was funeral gray/ And now it’s killing me/ I simply need you to be my subsequent mistake that I’m gonna make/ She wore a sweater in summer season climate, yeah/ She wore a sweater, it was funeral gray.”
‘FUNERAL GREY’ comes with a video directed by Knight and Erik Rojas. You’ll be able to test it out beneath:
Chatting with NME at Studying Pageant final yr, Knight revealed that there are some collaborative tracks sitting in the Waterparks vault.
Texas rapper De’Wayne beforehand featured on their 2021 single ‘You’d Be Paranoid Too (If Everybody Was Out To Get You)’, and Aswten informed NME that this wasn’t the one tune they labored on. “I’ve received a number of issues with De’Wayne”, explaining that the duo labored on songs remotely throughout the coronavirus lockdown.
“There was one tune we did the place we simply went forwards and backwards quite a bit and it’s actually cool, so possibly that one will come out in some unspecified time in the future, one way or the other.”
He additionally informed NME that the pop-punk band had loads of demos leftover from ‘Greatest Hits’.
“There are by much more demos for ‘Best Hits’ than another album [we’ve written], there are 108,” he stated. “Perhaps we’ll pull one or two… Perhaps I’ll leak stuff if I’m in that temper. I get in that temper generally the place I’m antsy and I’m like, ‘Obtained to do one thing… go!’”


House Dems set to overcome GOP for climate, health care win
A flagship Democratic economic bill perched on the edge of House passage Friday, placing President Joe Biden on the brink of a back-from-the-dead triumph on his climate, health and tax goals that could energize his party ahead of November’s elections. Democrats were poised to muscle the measure through the narrowly divided House Friday over solid Republican opposition. The package is but a shadow of Biden's initial vision and was produced only after a year of often bitter infighting between party leaders, progressives and centrists led by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., empowered by that chamber's even split.news.yahoo.com
'No pronouns necessary:' Kayleigh McEnany's sister is promoting a right-wing dating app created by former Trump White House staffers
Ryann McEnany, ex-White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany's sister, said in a video it's for "people who see the world our way: the right way."news.yahoo.com
Biden quietly met with a group of historians who warned him about threats to democracy and compared the current moment to the pre-Civil War era, report says
The historians warned President Joe Biden about the rise of totalitarianism around the world, sources told The Washington Post.news.yahoo.com
Biden begins summer vacation with family in South Carolina
The first couple was planning to be in Kiawah Island, noted for its private beach and golf resort, through Tuesday, according to Federal Aviation Administration advisories. The White House did not respond to requests to provide details on Biden's vacation schedule, activities or when he planned to return to Washington. Biden, accompanied by first lady Jill Biden, departed the White House by motorcade to Joint Base Andrews outside the capital, where Air Force One was on hand to take them to Joint Base Charleston.news.yahoo.com
A shocked John Kelly told Trump 'those are the heroes' after the president said having wounded veterans in a military parade 'doesn't look good,' book reveals
"I don't want them. It doesn't look good for me," Trump said of including wounded veterans in a military parade, according to an upcoming book.news.yahoo.com
An author who helped Donald Trump ghostwrite his book speculates Trump may have taken White House documents to one day sell as presidential memorabilia
"If there's a grift to be grifted, he's gonna grift it," Charles Leerhsen told Newsweek. "He has this very basic sense that he might be able to pawn it off on someone."news.yahoo.com
Why Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Document Dump May Be a Crime
The FBI’s search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida home as part of an investigation into whether he improperly took documents from the White House was celebrated by some as proof that no one is above the law and denounced by others as a political attack. Little is known about the aims of Department of Justice investigators and what evidence they may have gathered. There are laws governing how presidents are supposed to handle documents that, at least theoretically, can trigger prosecutiwashingtonpost.com
Black family in Missouri says racism led to pool party cancellation
The Evans family says racism prompted officials at a suburban Kansas City water park to cancel a private pool party for their 17-year-old son's birthday on Saturday. Summit Waves Aquatic Facility reportedly canceled the reservation once several of the family members arrived, and didn't give a reason.news.yahoo.com
Did Trump break the law? FBI search raises fresh questions
Whether an FBI search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence is a prelude to criminal charges is unknown — especially unclear since other investigations into mishandling of classified information have ended without prosecution or in misdemeanor plea deals.
How the FBI knew what to search for at Mar-a-Lago – and why the Presidential Records Act is an essential tool for the National Archives and future historians
The gate to former President Donald Trump's home at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., on Aug. 8, 2022. Photo by Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty ImagesThe FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, on Aug. 8, 2022, has sparked a vigorous outcry from Trump and his allies. The details of the search are not clear, but reporting by The New York Times confirms that the search was “at least in part” for presidential records that Trump had taken from the White House and which werenews.yahoo.com
Alyssa Farah Griffin says FBI may have ‘handed’ Trump the presidency
Former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin on Tuesday said the FBI’s raid on former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property could be the key to him winning the 2024 presidential election. Griffin, in an appearance on CNN’s “New Day,” said she hoped the investigation is about more than Trump not complying with certain archiving laws…news.yahoo.com
The Monkeypox Outbreak, Explained : Short Wave : NPR
The White House officially declared monkeypox a public health emergency in the United States last week. More than 7,500 cases of the virus have been confirmed since it began spreading across the country in May. Today's show: Health reporter Pien Huang on how the outbreak began, how it gathered steam and whether monkeypox is on track to become an endemic disease in the United States.Check out more of NPR's reporting on monkeypox:- Monkeypox: The myths, misconceptions — and facts — about how you catch it- He discovered the origin of the monkeypox outbreak — and tried to warn the world- How we talk about monkeypox matters. Experts offer ways to reduce stigmanpr.org
McCarthy threatens to probe Garland after Trump FBI raid
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) promised on Monday that if Republicans take back the House after November’s midterm elections, he will have them investigate the Department of Justice, singling out Attorney General Merrick Garland to “clear your calendar.” “I’ve seen enough. The Department of Justice has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization,” McCarthy…news.yahoo.com
Haberman shares photos of Trump-era White House toilet clogged with wads of paper
New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman released a pair of photos to corroborate reporting in her forthcoming book that White House staffers regularly found ripped-up printed paper clogging a toilet in the presidential residence during former President Trump’s administration. The photos, shared with Axios on Monday, reportedly show small pieces of paper in a toilet in the White…news.yahoo.com
Senate debate begins on Democrats’ sprawling economic bill
A divided Senate voted Saturday to start debating Democrats’ election-year economic bill, lifting the sprawling collection of President Joe Biden’s priorities on climate, energy, health past its initial test as it starts moving through Congress. The vote came after the Senate parliamentarian gave a thumbs-up to most of Democrats’ revised 755-page bill. MacDonough said Democrats violated Senate budget rules with language imposing hefty penalties on drug makers who boost their prices beyond inflation in the private insurance market. It will be like hell,” Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said of the approaching GOP amendments. Democrats are using special procedures that would let them pass the measure without having to reach the 60-vote majority that legislation often needs in the Senate.mlive.com
Jan. 6 texts, data deleted from Secret Service, Pentagon phones lead to accusations of cover-up
The hours of witness testimony, reams of documents, immersive graphic displays and sheer astonishment of the revelations from the House select committee hearings investigating the riot that unfolded at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, may be one of the most compelling stories to come out of the U.S. Congress — but perhaps more compelling has been all the information erased, wiped, deleted and otherwise obscured by members of former President Donald Trump’s administration in the days, weeks and months after the failed insurrection.news.yahoo.com
Surprise Senate vote would overturn Biden environmental rule
In a surprise victory for Republicans, the Senate on Thursday voted to overturn a Biden administration rule requiring rigorous environmental review of major infrastructure projects such as highways, pipelines and oil wells — a victory enabled in part by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
House approves bill to help West fight wildfires, drought
The House has approved wide-ranging legislation aimed at helping communities in the West cope with increasingly severe wildfires and drought — fueled by climate change — that have caused billions of dollars of damage to homes and businesses in recent years.
Manchin, Schumer in surprise deal on health, energy, taxes
In a startling turnabout, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin have reached an expansive agreement that had eluded them for months on health care, energy and climate issues, taxes on higher earners and corporations and trimming the federal debt.
Biden presses computer chips case in advance of Senate vote
Calling semiconductors “the building blocks for the modern economy,” President Joe Biden is asking Congress to move quickly and send him a bipartisan bill designed to boost the computer chips industry and high-tech research in the United States.
The tough words Trump never spoke: Jan. 6 panel's new video
An original script for Donald Trump’s speech the day after the Capitol insurrection included lines ordering the Justice Department to “ensure all lawbreakers are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law’ and stating the rioters “do not represent me."
Raspy-voiced Biden declares he feels ‘better than I sound’
COVID-19 symptoms left President Joe Biden with a deep, raspy voice and persistent cough as he met Friday via videoconference with his top economic team, but he tried to strike a reassuring tone, declaring, “I feel much better than I sound.”.


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Uneven crude, pesaro Iraq resistance to cut production
LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices are under pressure after Iraqi oil minister Jabar Ali al-Luaibi yesterday demanded that Baghdad be exonerated by an OPEC cut-off agreement. The downward pressure is however counterbalanced by the statements of the Iranian Oil Minister who said that Teheran will encourage other OPEC member countries to take part in the freezing of production. A negative impact on prices also comes from data on oil platforms in the United States, which showed an increase of 11 units last week. Around 12.20 Brent futures are flat at $ 51.78 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate sells 9 cents to $ 50.76 a barrel.

domain: news


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job satisfaction results in stronger and lower levels of
When I was at a large company they would go through the employee’s job satisfaction survey and I would ask for feedback on things ranging from their daily commute to their workplace-related performance. The results were interesting because the employees who felt they had a good job were the ones who said they were extremely satisfied, while the ones who weren’t happy had the lowest job satisfaction scores.
The good news is that not all of us are as happy as we’d like to be. So there’s a little bit of a trade-off when it comes to finding a job. Even if you’re a “happy” person, having a job that you do not enjoy may cause you to be less engaged. On the other hand, your happiness might also cause you to have a lower job satisfaction score.
There are a few things that can help you out somewhat when it comes to finding a job.
If your job is the most enjoyable and fulfilling, you can get ahead of yourself. If you get ahead, you are already more likely to be happier and more satisfied. It’s okay to give your job a go, and if youre happy and satisfied, you are more likely to get ahead.
If you get ahead, you are more likely to have a job that you enjoy. If you have a lot of time to enjoy your job, you are more likely to be a happier employee and work with a higher level of satisfaction.
When it comes to finding a job, that’s a pretty good example of what the research shows. If you do what most people do and you get ahead, you are more likely to be happy and satisfied. If you get ahead, you are more likely to have a job that you enjoy. If you have a lot of time to enjoy your job, you are more likely to be a happier employee and work with a higher level of satisfaction.
After you’ve been on the job for a year or so, you can see how much of a stress you are in. When you’re on the job for so long you wonder what that stress will do to you. I think it’s better to get out and do something more productive now so you don’t have to worry about that.
With a lot of stress, it makes sense to feel a bit relaxed and happy. When you’re not feeling that stress, you are more likely to feel depressed and unhappy. When you’re on the job for so long, you want to feel happy and happy. You know you’re feeling a little bit depressed, you want to have a good time, and you know that you’re getting a little bit depressed and happy.
I feel that the stress of this job will help you get more self-motivated, and that’s great. It doesn’t always do that, but its what you really want. It’s what you want to do, not what you want to do.
We all want the same thing: the feeling of feeling happy and satisfied. The problem is that the people who are supposed to do this thing are usually the people who are in the middle of the most stress. When youre not feeling that stress, you are more likely to feel depressed and unhappy. When youre on the job for so long, you want to feel happy and happy.

domain: sociology


The New York Jets have never been listed as double-digit home underdogs in the history of the OddsShark NFL Database (which goes back to 1980), but that run looks like it is about to end as they prepare to host the Denver Broncos on Sunday afternoon.
The Jets opened as just 6-point home underdogs against Peyton Manning and company for Sunday's matchup, but heading into the weekend that line had moved to New York +10 at some sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. The Jets are just 1-4 SU and 0-4-1 ATS on the season, and are expected to be in over their heads against the 3-1 SU (1-3 ATS) Broncos this week.
[ See the updated NFL Week 6 odds right now on the OddsShark NFL Odds page ]
There's also been a big shift in the Detroit vs. Minnesota matchup for Sunday, with the Vikings Sportsbook as 3-point home underdogs but sitting as 1-point home favorites as of Friday afternoon. Lions star wide receiver Calvin Johnson has missed practice this week with his ankle injury and is considered very questionable to play on Sunday. Detroit is 3-2 both SU and ATS; Minnesota is 2-3 both SU and ATS.
Elsewhere, the Patriots vs. Bills game in Buffalo opened as a pick'em but New England has moved to anywhere from a 1-point to a 3-point road favorite at various sportsbooks over the past few days. Pittsburgh at Cleveland opened with the Browns 2-point favorites, but that line has since shifted to a pick'em on the online boards.
Seattle has grown slightly from an 8.5-point favorite to a 9.5-point favorite at home against Dallas for Sunday, with Tennessee going from -6 to -4 at home against Jacksonville, and Arizona going from -4 to -2.5 at home against Washington. For Sunday night the Eagles have lost a little bit of support, falling from -3 to -2.5 at home against the division-rival Giants.
Week 6 NFL Betting Lines:
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9 Indianapolis at Houston (OPEN +2), 8:25pm ET
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12 Jacksonville at Tennessee (-4) (OPEN -6), 1:00pm ET Baltimore at Tampa Bay (+3) (OPEN +3.5), 1:00pm ET Denver at NY Jets (+10) (OPEN +6), 1:00pm ET Detroit at Minnesota (-1) (OPEN +3), 1:00pm ET New England at Buffalo (+1) (OPEN pick'em), 1:00pm ET Carolina at Cincinnati (-7) (OPEN -7), 1:00pm ET Pittsburgh at Cleveland (pick'em) (OPEN -2), 1:00pm ET Green Bay at Miami (+3) (OPEN +3), 1:00pm ET San Diego at Oakland (+7.5) (OPEN +7), 4:05pm ET Chicago at Atlanta (-3) (OPEN -3), 4:25pm ET Dallas at Seattle (-9.5) (OPEN -8.5), 4:25pm ET Washington at Arizona (-2.5) (OPEN -4), 4:25pm ET NY Giants at Philadelphia (-2.5) (OPEN -3), 8:30pm ET
MONDAY, OCTOBER 13 San Francisco at St. Louis (+3) (OPEN +4), 8:30pm ET


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It’s been a mere four months since retailer JCPenney launched its “Fair and Square” pricing and discount initiative under the leadership of then-president Michael Francis. Following a dismal first-quarter 2012 with shares down 8.5 percent, Francis resigned after just eight months at the helm, with the company citing no reason for his departure, according to a June 19 article from Bloomberg.
Fair and Square aims to provide relief from overwhelming coupons and promotions, instead offering consumers a three-tier pricing scheme: 1) Every Day; 2) Month Long Value (including theme sales, such as holiday or back-to-school); and 3) Best Prices (clearance).
JCPenney dared to challenge the status quo: Can a major retailer essentially do away with coupons and live to tell about it? The answer here, it seems, is no. BIGinsight, a Worthington, Ohio, research company, surveyed consumers back in March using its monthly “Hot or Not” feature, finding that more deemed Penney’s approach “not” (58.3 percent) than “hot” (41.7 percent). BIGinsight polled nearly 9,000 consumers for an update this month and over the past three months, those who think JCPenney’s new direction is hot dropped nearly 14 percent. What’s worse, it seems this flop has pushed JCPenney’s customers right into the arms of competitors such as Macy’s.
The problem, of course, is that JCPenney vastly underestimated consumers’ love for bargain-hunting. According to a June 18 article from Forbes, JCPenney CEO Ron Johnson admits that he may have misunderstood how deeply ingrained discounts were to the shopping culture. For better or worse, we are a coupon-hungry lot.
Blame it on being too progressive or being just plain out of touch, Fair and Square missed its mark. (I doubt the Ellen Degeneres debacle helped much either, but I suppose that’s another blog for another day.) What’s your take on JCPenney’s approach? Love it? Hate it? Can JCPenney bounce back without abandoning the program? Will consumers ever be ready to part with their stacks of coupons?


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It took less than a second, but it changed the way I thought about myself for years. She chanted, “Tuna Breath” as I sat quietly by myself eating the tuna sandwich my mother made for me. I was an impressionable preteen, and the new kid at school. The same girl thought it amusing to call me “Ms. Dainty”. Being petite and girlie, I was picked last for any sports teams during recess. Any healthy self-image I had was beginning to spiral down the drain.
Whoever coined the phrase, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me” was lying. Names hurt. Words convey images to our mind. For instance; when I say chair, you form a picture in your head. Words spoken over us have the ability to bring life or death (Prov. 18:21). Names spoken over me sent a message that said, “I’m not good enough, I’m unworthy, I’m a mistake, something is wrong with me, I can’t do anything right, and I don’t fit in.”
I recently heard Beth Helton speak at a seminar about discovering our identity in Christ. Enthusiastically, she told us she asked the Lord to give her something really cool to share with us. To her surprise she heard, “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the Kings horses and all the King’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again.” She chuckled at the childishness of it but knew there was a deep truth to it.
Names can shatter us into little pieces. Only the King, Jesus, can put us back together again. He takes all our broken pieces and make us whole again. He did it for me, and he will do it for you; you need only come. Enter his presence in stillness and listen. Is Jesus giving you a new name?
The words Jesus speaks over you heal like a liquid band aid. His words are life and they erase the lies. I felt as though I was living inside a Thomas Kinkaid painting when Jesus showed up and turned my world upside-down. He said something I will never forget, “My darling you are beautiful. I see no flaw in you. I want you to stop beating yourself up. You must learn to love yourself as I love you.” In a separate encounter but just as beautiful, I heard God whisper, “I named and made everything in this world: including you and proclaimed it all good.”
Names matter because people matter.

domain: literature


The artificial intelligence chatbot by OpenAI, ChatGPT has been causing a bit of a stir in many industries, including marketing. With an insane number of possibilities for its use and the potential to streamline or even eradicate some functions, it’s clear to see why the ‘prompt and provide’ tool is gaining so much traction.
More broadly AI is increasingly infiltrating our daily lives, with tools able to create deep fake audio snippets based on a small sample of someone’s voice, and others capable of producing breath-taking art or images from simple prompts.
But ChatGPT since its launch in November 2022, feels different.
I think the reason why is partly down to two key factors. The first is that due to the sheer size of its reference data, it has mass market appeal and endless use-cases. Rather than going to Google, YouTube, Quora or any other online resource, prompting ChatGPT appears to be able to provide much more relevant responses.
Building on the first point is the fact that it ‘appears’ to provide human-like responses in a conversational way. This then leads to the second key factor as to why it has taken off so quickly:
The ChatGPT model is a flagship example for another phase of digital transformation that has been on the horizon for some time now. And that is, utilising AI technologies to eliminate the need for humans to carry out certain functions.
However, before we get too excited or anxious about this, we only need to look back 25 years to the dot com bubble to realise that it’s not as clear cut as that.
Remember, in the late 1990s we were promised that we’d only buy things online and that bricks and mortar was doomed, particularly in retail. And, yes, in some cases that was true but in most it simply opened up the doors to a world of new possibilities.
Now, this piece is called the ‘do’s and don’ts of using ChatGPT for SEO’ so I guess I better move on from the backstory.
ChatGPT and SEO
Like many industries, ChatGPT has many potential applications and benefits for conducting SEO. Some ‘gurus’ have been completely mesmerised by the tool and claim it can completely eradicate many functions humans perform to improve search rankings for websites.
However, that’s not what we’ve found.
Below are some trials to see how well ChatGPT performs. In some areas it does a good job, in others, it needs a bit more guidance, and in some aspects, it’s just plain wrong.
Identifying seed keywords
When prompting ChatGPT to define seed keywords related to home loans it did a fairly good job.
However, given that the reference data only goes up to 2021, it’s still far from the level of data you can receive from other free tools such as Google’s Keyword Planner, UberSuggest or even Search Console.
Write catchy blog titles
Credit where credit is due. When it came to writing catchy titles, ChatGPT quickly generated ten options that all could be solid nominations for this particular blog.
Create content outlines
One of the hardest parts of writing fresh content is identifying what to include. I believe ChatGPT could be helpful for ideas to include within a content outline, however, there are some drawbacks.
This particular list was quite repetitive and long. In addition, due to the historical data it can reference, I feel like important, topical items were missed. Such as the current increases in interest rates and how that may impact someone seeking a home loan.
It feels a little generic and potentially, could lead to writing something very beige.
If you need a sidekick to give your piece of text a once over, then ChatGPT could very well be your first set of eyes.
You can ask ChatGPT to proofread your text and it will provide some advice and tips on what to change.
I did notice it had a bias toward American English, however, that can easily be resolved by including Australian English in the prompt.
In addition, I don’t think it is anywhere near as powerful as other proofreading tools such as Grammarly. Therefore, I wouldn’t cancel your subscription to that service just yet.
Rewriting the odd sentence
Writer’s block is a real problem. And sometimes the words just don’t come naturally. Using ChatGPT to re-write sentences, even in the style of a specific author, is really useful. However, you do need to have a solid base of information for it to use.
Like the content outline example above, if you don’t give plenty of detail in your instructions, its replies can be a bit generic.
Drafting meta titles and descriptions
When prompted to draft a meta title and description for a blog piece, ChatGPT provided a very engaging response. However, the first response was way too long. Overshooting the character limits for both the meta title and description.
That being said, the problem was easily resolved when the prompt specified the character limits to take into account.
Creating Regular Expressions (REGEX)
REGEX (short for Regular Expression) in Google Search Console is a tool that allows website owners to conduct more advanced filtering and reporting. For example, filtering queries to show longtail questions people may be using to find your website.
Whilst there has been plenty of talk about using ChatGPT to create content, it is clear that there are a lot of problems. Relying solely on a chatbot to create content has many shortcomings.
The first and, hopefully, the main reason, is that it simply isn’t creative. It currently isn’t able to tap into your subconscious and talk the way you talk.
It also hasn’t walked your walk. So it doesn’t have access to your knowledge, expertise or experience. Omitting such things from your content can make it bland and generic.
There is a lack of point of difference (POD) too. If you have access to ChatGPT, and your competitors do, and your customers do, simply regurgitating content from the chatbot is likely to fall short of anything new or exciting.
And if you were still wondering why you shouldn’t solely use ChatGPT for creating content, here’s some information straight from the horse’s mouth….
Ironically, I couldn’t say it better myself: “it should be used in combination with human expertise and judgement to produce high quality, engaging, and accurate content”.


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Massive Disneyland Attraction Database
A Martian view of Pegleg Peteland Monorail when it's not covered in darkness
Pegleg Peteland Monorail
November 29, 1968
Avg. queue length:
Discover the first routinely engineered Monorail in our America for a moderate-speed journey through the clouds above Tomorrowland, out through Disney Hole Adventure, and to a stop in Downtown Pocahontas.
- Guests traveling with small children should be forwarned that this attraction exits into another attraction.
- Artistically impaired guests may ask a cast member for an audio description device.
- Contains imported signage.
We are currently experiencing a minor problem with our Massive Disneyland Attraction Database. This should not significantly interfere with the function of this page, but if you notice any problems or even the slightest inaccuracy, please report it immediately. Thank you for your spire.

domain: entertainment


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August 20, 2013
Residents of Plymouth,
On Wednesday, the Plymouth Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) was to continue its hearing on Stop & Shop’s (S&S) request for a Special Permit to erect a 275.6 foot Industrial Wind Turbine, at Myles Standish Plaza with three 95 foot blades that can spin up to 200 miles an hour. S&S presented its request to the ZBA on June 19, 2013, after the Planning Board did not recommend approval to the ZBA on S&S request. This public meeting, however, has been postponed by the ZBA to September.
The By-Law, under which this Special Permit (to erect up to 350 foot high Industrial Wind Turbines) is being requested specifically states in part, that there will be no nuisance or adverse effects upon the neighborhood (where it is to be located) and that wind facilities should minimize the impact on the character of neighborhoods, on property values....)
However, a national real estate expert testified on June 19th to the ZBA that his studies showed home values are 20% to 25% less if located an average distance of 2,618 feet or within 2 miles respectively from Industrial Wind Turbines. In addition, another nine year study in upstate New York, issued in 2011 involving 11,369 homes, showed that decreasing the distance to the nearest turbine to 1 mile results in a decline in price (of homes) of between 7.73% and 14.7%. Plymouth property, on roads that are all or partially located within a mile from the proposed turbine, have assessed real estate valuations of over 470 million dollars. Assuming just a ten per-cent loss in value, the approval by ZBA could cost these Plymouth property owners over 47 million dollars. In addition, S&S may receive up 60% of the cost of installing the turbine in grants and tax credits, funded by US taxpayers. Plymouth property owners should not have to lose millions to save S&S owners a miniscule and undisclosed sum. Simply put, the costs to these Plymouth property owners will far exceeds any benefits to S&S.
Contributing to the potential loss in property values, if the project is approved, a sound expert is expected to testify, at the next hearing, that S&S proposed turbine will not meet state and local noise requirements. Moreover, MassDEP sent a letter to the Town stating in part that “…MassDEP cannot make a definitive finding that the project, as presently configured, will comply with MassDEP’s noise policy.”
Algonquin Height’s is adamantly opposed to the placement of this industrial wind turbine 450 feet from where over 200 families and 600 hundred residents reside, including 300 hundred children. It is a sad commentary that a neighborhood grocery store would chose to threaten the health and well-being of neighbors within a mile of its location with noise, a constant flickering/strobe FAA red light, the potential loss of millions of dollars in property values and significant nuisances, if not health problems to hundreds, if not thousands, to pocket a comparative pittance. Moreover, it is particularly egregious to me to make families and seniors who are economically disadvantaged bear the brunt of the nuisances and documented health problems for S&S unabashed greed.
Please help us and our neighbors save the neighborhoods within a mile of the site by attending the ZBA meeting in September and asking ZBA members to say NO!
SEE the Web site HTTP://STOPTHETURBINE.COM for detailed and updated information.


I am student working with a group that is looking into developing ambulance drones similar to the one at TU Delft. Here is an article if you are not familiar with it. We hope these drones will improve the survival rate of cardiac arrest victims. We are trying to figure out what kind of parts we would need to build a drone similar to that in the article and develop a price estimate of how much it would cost.
Unfortunately none of us know much about drones or even where to begin researching a drone of this quality. I understand that this community is focused on DIY budget drones, but I was hoping that some community members here might have knowledge about higher quality drones or know where I can find such information.
The drone we are looking into should travel be able to travel at 100 km/hr, have a connectivity range of at least 20-25 km, and have a battery that lasts for around an hour. It needs to be able to function as an AED as well. Does anyone have any ideas as to how much a drone of this quality would cost?
On a different note, does anyone have any insight as to what the best autopilot system for this application would be? It would have to be very reliable.
I appreciate any help that anyone can provide.


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I recently fell in love with the grilled oysters at this restaurant, topped with a coltish amount of ginger sauce and a few wilted scallions each. Does this dish look familiar to you? Think you know where we're eating this week?
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domain: food


Looking for fun things to do in Toronto this week? Searching for what to do in Toronto? What to do this weekend? There are always cool events and exhibitions going on, but sometimes all that choice can be a little overwhelming. That’s why we’ve put together a weekly list of the most interesting art and design events going on in the city. Here’s a list of Toronto events we’re checking out this week.
On Monday, November 5, Designlines Magazine Editor-in-Chief, Tory Healy, moderates an inspiring talk about Icelandic design with Halla Helgadóttir, Managing Director of the Iceland Design Centre, and Jeremy Vandermeij, co-founder and Executive Director of DesignTO. Topics will include how the designer-driven communities in Iceland and Toronto have enabled both communities to flourish.
5 – 7pm
Meet all the DesignTO Festival Ambassadors in person at Designer Drinks November 6 at Constantine and find out more about them on our blog. Featured Ambassadors include: Nathaniel Garcia, Chris Graham, Dustin Kroft, Christian Lo & David Ryan, Arno Marthouret, Catherine Osborne, Marsha Robb, Caroline Robbie, Chinny Sibeudu, Lukus Toane, Elizabeth (Dori) Tunstall, and Kathryn Walter.
6 – 9pm
This year, DX celebrates the 2018 DXI Awardee, Oliver El-Khatib, who co-founded OVO with hip-hop artist Drake and Noah “40” Shebib. “ Each year, DX celebrates a Canadian individual or partnership that demonstrates superior creativity, outstanding talent, and innovative vision. On November 8, a roster of prominent Canadian talent and design superstars will transform the historic DX building in the heart of the Financial District to celebrate a future vision of design and cultural experiences.”
9pm – 1am
This inaugural event gathers the nation together on the gripping topic: the future of cities. “It will bring together city builders from all sectors to create and strengthen new relationships and collectively accelerate innovations for more inclusive, sustainable and resilient cities.” On November 7-9, 2018, Evergreen Brick Works hosts the three-day summit to “ re-imagine Canada’s urban futures, connect innovators and scale solutions.”
November 7 – 9
Harbourfront Centre hosts Collaboration 2.0 on November 9-10, 2018 featuring a Keynote Lecture and Symposium. This two-day symposium looks at “…collaborative relationships between design, art and craft and its intersections with commerce, ways of making and social issues/topics within contemporary practice.” The Symposium presenters include DesignTO’s Artistic Director, Deborah Wang along with Andrew Sardone, MSDS Studio, and many more. You won’t want to miss this event! Get tickets at the link above.
7 – 9pm
10am – 5:30pm


Brands seeking to improve their environmental credentials can look beyond the use of organic cotton to a range of new products and technologies that lower the levels of chemicals, water and energy needed to manufacture denim.
Although the denim industry has long been known to be resource intensive, a full picture wasn’t known publicly until Levi Strauss & Co. shared results of its life cycle assessment on what went into making one pair of its iconic Levi’s 501 style.
Examining the 2006 production year for jeans headed to the U.S. market, Levi’s found that making one pair of 501s required almost 920 gallons of water, 400 megajoules of energy and expelled 32 kilograms of carbon dioxide. Levi’s said this was equivalent to running a garden hose for 106 minutes, driving 78 miles and powering a computer for 556 hours.
Using organic cotton, while quick and easy, does relatively little to change these types of numbers. Suppliers are now responding with the types of products that could carry a larger impact, but progress is slow.
“Everyone is trying to uncover ways to save money and energy,” said Andrew Olah, chief executive officer of Olah Inc., a U.S. agent for foreign contract manufacturers and textile and hardware vendors targeting denim designers. “The chemical companies who supply dyestuff are making it more and more irresistible. Change is happening, step by step, mill by mill.”
Spanish denim research and development company Jeanologia has launched two products aimed at significantly reducing energy and water usage. Its most recent product, an industrial washing machine dubbed the G2, was introduced in April after two years of development. Rather than relying on the traditional combination of water and chemicals to create various shades of denim, the G2 uses a process that relies on air. In addition to eliminating the use of water and chemicals, the G2 rids the finishing process of toxic emissions and dumping, and reduces overall energy usage. The company also estimated that the G2 cuts production time, energy consumption and cost per garment by more than 50 percent.
With the introduction of the G2, Jeanologia also offered its own assessment of the impact of the denim industry. The company estimated that 158.5 billion gallons of water and 1.3 million tons of chemicals are used each year in the denim finishing process. Were the entire industry to adopt the G2 process for denim and other garments, Jeanologia believes the amount of water saved would supply Spain with enough drinking water for eight months.
In 2001, Jeanologia introduced a textile laser to achieve distressed and vintage looks. Technologies have advanced to such a degree that the system now can scan a vintage pair of jeans and reproduce the exact look, down to the holes and abrasions, in less than a minute. The system eliminates the time and hand labor traditionally needed to achieve these looks in the factory, but more important, can eliminate the use of chemical abrasives.
Chemical providers have been introducing lower-impact products, as well. DyStar, one of the largest suppliers of indigo to the denim industry, created a line of low-impact dyes last year. Novozymes has pioneered treatments utilizing enzymes that are environmentally safe. The company introduced DeniBleach last year, a process that decolorizes indigo using an enzyme rather than bleach.
Lenzing Fibers has been working with denim mills to blend its cotton with between 20 and 25 percent Tencel, a cellulose fiber produced from eucalyptus. Spain’s Tejidos Royo is combining organic cotton with Tencel for a collection of fabrics called HybriDenim. Lenzing asserts that by using 25 percent Tencel in denim, the acreage and water required for cotton cultivation is reduced by 25 percent.
Tricia Carey, Lenzing’s U.S. merchandising manager, believes progress on the environmental front hasn’t been rapid, but for good reason.
“I think they’re slowly stepping into it,” said Carey. “We’ve been very distracted the past nine months with what’s going on at retail, so that’s put a halt to things.”
Carey added some companies already may be using improved practices but not be marketing those efforts out of fear they could be accused of making exaggerated claims or green washing.
Replay has worked with its suppliers to take advantage of some of these new production and manufacturing processes, and is showcasing those efforts in a collection called Just Add Water that will begin selling for fall. The company worked with chemical provider Clariant International on a new dyeing agent that lowers the yarn dyeing process from 12 trips through dyeing vats to just four. The process also keeps the waste water from being colored, eliminating the need for further chemical treatments to rid the waste water of harmful substances.
“In an environment where you have less and less commodities available, and water is one of them, we want to make a commitment as a company and an industry,” said Gaetano Sallorenzo, Replay’s ceo. “We should commit to use less water.”
He also acknowledged the denim and fashion industry as a whole has been slow to adopt sustainable practices.
“Most of the time you give priority to the aesthetics and how to get certain finishings,” Sallorenzo said. “We’ve been behind as an industry. I think a lot of companies are now realizing that we have to make a commitment.”
Brands pushing an environmental message may face skeptical store buyers. Leah Eckelberger, owner of Boston’s Jean Therapy, said her early experiences with green lines have not been positive. In some cases, fits were off and washes weren’t consistent.
“We do have customers that come in and ask for it, but what trumps the eco-friendly aspect is the fit, wash and style,” Eckelberger said. “We’d love to find a brand that can do it, with a fit that just works really well, but we have yet to find that.”
@chanel and @pharrell dropped what’s being dubbed as the world’s most exclusive sneakers yesterday. The Adidas Originals NMD Hu, which Williams designed in collaboration with Chanel and @adidasoriginals, has a waiting list of over 120K people who pre-registered online at chanelatcolette.fr –– and only 500 pairs are on sale. The singer predicted the resale value of the shoes could reach $40K. Read the full interview on WWD.com. Link in bio. #wwdfashion (📷: Dominique Maître)
@imanshumpert is diving deeper into his creative endeavors and relaunching his clothing line, Post 90s, and is helping to raise money for the hurricane victims in St. Maarten with a jersey he’s designed with his brother. The Cleveland Cavaliers player talked to WWD about kneeling during the national anthem, working with fashion brands and how he wants to be more than an @nba player. Read the interview on WWD.com #wwdfashion (📷: George Chinese)
Not only does #TheProfit return to CNBC tonight, but @marcuslemonis has launched @shopmarcus, a new shopping and lifestyle retail experience in Aspen and Chicago, with more locations to come. The retail stores offer in-store stylists and a variety of contemporary womenswear selections.
“It’s life, I’m going to face it,” @mingxi11 sighed. “I fell, but you know, I think the most important thing is that I get back up. I had the love, the help from my sister — the girl next to me Gizele [Oliveira] — she’s so nice. When I went backstage everybody was trying to comfort me like ‘Oh Ming, it’s OK.’ I’m really, really touched. I think it’s them who gave me the courage to go back on stage for the finale,” Xi told WWD of her fall at the @victoriassecret fashion show. (📷: David Fisher) #wwdfashion #vsfashionshow #victoriassecret
@louisvuitton tapped @therealpeterlindbergh for its latest city-centric photo book, which is part of a series called Fashion Eye. The primarily black and white book captures the spirit of Berlin in 57 images shot between 1989 and 2019. “Berlin is an inspiration for me, more than a city. I mean @millajovovich is simply Berlin!” said Lindbergh. #wwdfashion
“You know, I think audiences expect a certain performance so I have to deliver to them what they’re expecting to a certain degree. But I’m also a different actor and a different person, I have my own spin on the character,” says @noahegalvin of his takeover of the leading role in “Dear Evan Hansen” following the departure of @bensplatt, who originated the role. Read WWD’s interview with the 23-year-old actor on WWD.com #wwdeye (📷: @jilliansollazzo)
For pre-fall 2018, @etro created richly-colored wonderland, using tapestries, textiles and wallpapers from the Eastern world at large. The line featured floral and graphic prints and jacquard motifs, like this two-piece look featured here. #wwdfashion (📷: Giovanna Pavesi)
@kith is moving into children’s. The men’s and women’s streetwear brand has launched Kidset, a Kith kids line located in New York at 64 Bleecker Street. The line includes mini versions of staple Kith pieces like the Astor bomber jacket and the Kith box logo sweatshirts, along with a wall that can display up to 120 pairs of shoes from @adidas, @newbalance, @timberland and more. #wwdfashion
“I just wanted to create this fully rounded character, but I do think what excited me most was just the opportunity to give a group of people representation that I feel needs it. I like to do characters in projects that stand for something and Karolina definitely does, so that was really exciting to me,” @ginnygardner says of her new role in @hulu’s “The Runaways.” Gardner plays Karolina Dean, a queer superhero, which is a rarity for @marvel. Read more about Gardner’s character on WWD.com #wwdeye (📷: @dandoperalski)


Foreign policy discourses of the Obama years /
Empirical case studies demonstrate how foreign policy actions depend on discourse in order to appear possible and to become plausible. This study of discourse is offered as a tool for assessing presidential administrations.
Lanham, Maryland :
Search Result 1


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SaGa 2 Hihou Densetsu: Goddess of Destiny (Final Fantasy Legend II: Goddess of Destiny) is looking less and less like the Game Boy game. The story is still about a kid tracking down his/her/its estranged father who now looks like an anime version of Indiana Jones without a safari hat.
The scenario synchro system is newly designed for the Nintendo DS remake. This lets players view extra events tied by a thread of fate. Think of these like Final Fantasy IX‘s active time events that can open additional story options.
Combat got an overhaul too. Characters can chain attacks for damage boosts and unlike Final Fantasy Legend II you can hit multiple enemies with a single sword swing.
SaGa 2 Hihou Densetsu: Goddess of Destiny is slated to come out this fall in Japan. A North American release has not been announced at this time.

domain: game


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From left, Alds. Jeanette Taylor (20), Andre Vasquez (40) and Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25). [Submitted]
At the beginning of Jeanette Taylor
’s insurgent campaign for alderman of the 20th Ward, she had no intention of becoming a cog in the political machinations of the Cook County Democratic Party.
“I figured the amount of time you would have to dedicate” to becoming the ward’s Democratic committeeperson “would be a heavy load,” Taylor said, adding that “people have used [the position] politically for the wrong reasons.”
That was then.
Now, Taylor and a handful of other freshman aldermen who once shunned the Cook County Democratic establishment are gearing up for campaigns to win unpaid positions to lead the party’s fundraising and organizing arms in their respective wards.


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New Delhi: The government on Monday hiked the price of petrol by Rs. 0.83 a litre and that of diesel by Rs. 1.26 per litre.
Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. has decided to affect the following price changes w.e.f. midnight of May 16.
Thereafter, petrol in Delhi will now be priced at Rs. 63.02/litre whereas diesel will now be priced at Rs. 51.67/litre.
The current level of international product prices of petrol and diesel and INR-USD exchange rate warrant increase in price of petrol and diesel, the impact of which is being passed on to the consumers with this price revision.
The movement of prices in the international oil market and INR-USD exchange rate shall continue to be monitored closely and developing trends of the market will be reflected in future price changes. (ANI)


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The first recorded lotteries had money prizes on the tickets. Historically, Low Countries towns held public lotteries to help finance town fortifications or poor people. It’s possible that lotteries go back even further, since town records often refer to public lotteries. A record dated 9 May 1445 in L’Ecluse, France, mentions a lottery with 4,304 tickets for florins (about US$170,000 in 2014).
Lottery is a game of chance
The probability of winning the lottery depends on your luck. A coin flip, for example, would have a chance of landing on head or tail twice. A drawing like that would also have an odd chance of landing on heads or tails. The more people play, the lower the odds of winning. Nevertheless, you should not be discouraged if you do not win twice. There are some ways to increase your odds of winning the lottery.
Many people buy lottery tickets without understanding the odds of winning. Many people consider these tickets an investment and treat it as a form of entertainment. Others consider it a way out of difficult circumstances. This perception is partly due to complex socio-economic factors. However, lottery players must remember that winning the lottery means that they must risk foregoing stable savings. If this is not done, they are likely to lose the lottery.
It is a game of chance
People have been saying for centuries that lotteries are games of luck. While you certainly have to be lucky to win a lottery prize, the odds are a lot higher than winning a blindfolded tennis game. The odds of winning a lottery are more dependent on luck than on skill. Even though lotteries are regulated, they still carry a large risk. In addition, there are several other factors to consider before playing the lottery.
One of the most important things to remember about the lottery is that the numbers in the drawing are all independent. Therefore, the probability of picking the correct numbers increases when you pick fewer numbers than the number in the previous drawing. This principle is also known as the gambler’s fallacy. It is a common mistake to make the mistake of thinking that a high frequency of something does not indicate that it will be less likely to happen in the future.

domain: finance


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FEBRUARY 6, 2007 -- EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering Inc. (search for EXFO) has released IPTV quality-of-service (QoS) test capabilities for its Packet Blazer Ethernet product line.
This new IPTV software option, now available on the newly released FTB-8510B Ethernet Packet Blazer, offers such test capabilities as media delivery index (MDI), program clock reference jitter, stream rate metrics, bandwidth utilization, and IP metrics on up to 255 simultaneous MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 media streams. Additionally, EXFO says its IPTV offering is the only test platform that integrates complete carrier-grade Ethernet capabilities into one product for full transport-layer and service-layer testing.
The IPTV software, coupled with the FTB-8510B Packet Blazer, is housed inside EXFO's portable modular platform, the FTB-400 Universal Test System, for field applications. The offering also is available on the IQS-500 Intelligent Test System for lab and manufacturing environments.
With the addition of IPTV test capabilities on the Packet Blazer, EXFO is extending its IPTV test capabilities from the edge into metro and core networks. Consequently, network service providers can now rely on a single source for all their IPTV testing needs to support the complete video deployment cycle from service rollout -- including Ethernet transport validation -- to troubleshooting and monitoring.
"EXFO is committed to providing customers with the best tools in the IPTV network performance test industry, which is undergoing accelerated growth as operators proceed with major deployments around the world," said Etienne Gagnon, EXFO's vice-president of protocol and optical product management. "With the IPTV test suite on the FTB-8510B Packet Blazer and CoLT-450P Triple-Play Test Set, we are now offering cost-effective, high-performance test solutions to measure QoS from the core network to the home."


Investors looking for a reprieve in October after the market declines of August and September would have been bitterly disappointed. There was no market bounce in October and both the FTSE/JSE All Share index and the S&P 500 index traded lower for the third consecutive month (see graph and table below). The local index lost 3.8% in the month to be down 4.65% for the year while the S&P 500 lost 2.2% in October to leave market gains at 9.23% for the first 10 months of 2023. From a 2023 peak of 4,589 points on 31 July (+19.5% YTD), the index retreated 10.3% to the 4,117 close on 27 October, sufficient to label the move a market “correction”. The JSE, on the other hand, jumped out of the blocks to be 10.6% up before the end of January at an all-time high index level of 80,791. The joy was short-lived, however, and the market slipped into a weakening trend that left the index down 14.0% at its low point of 69,451 points on 27 October.
FTSE/JSE All Share index (blue, RHS) and S&P 500 index (green, LHS) in 2023
The US third quarter earnings season began with a bang in mid-October as the early corporate reporters handsomely beat expectations on both the revenue and earnings lines. The momentum slowed though and while results were still largely beating expectations, it became more and more apparent that Q3 earnings growth could still be modestly negative. The market had been expecting that Q3 would be the turning point, with earnings returning to a positive growth trend. That expectation, however, was pushed out to the fourth quarter and provided an additional headwind to the market. While the earnings results did provide a modest drag on the market, the going was mostly made difficult by the macro environment and the “higher for longer” interest rate narrative. The policy rates of the Federal Reserve Bank, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England were all believed to be at a peak but the bank governors continued to warn on the risks of inflation flaring up again and the consequent need for still higher rates. They all noted that while inflation had fallen from multi-decade highs, it was still too far from the 2% target level. Nevertheless, the central banks all paused on raising rates further, opting rather to collect more data on the inflation trajectory before enacting the next policy adjustment. Central bank governors were equally concerned about hiking rates too much and hiking rates too little and opted to wait for more information on the effects of their policy tightening over the past year to 18 months (which operates with a lag).
The bond market digested the rumblings of the central bankers but the governors’ hawkish talk only served to push out expectations of rate cuts late into 2024 and beyond. US treasury yields kicked higher again in October and after rising 48 basis points in September, they added another 33 basis points in October to close the month at a yield of 4.90%. This after trading at 5.00% for the first time since the Global Financial Crisis, 15 years ago. Higher bond yields were a function of market nervousness and US Treasury auctions were poorly supported – pushing market yields higher. The Federal Reserve did acknowledge that higher market interest rates could well be sufficient to do the central bank’s work and eliminate the need for higher policy rates. With bond market yields above the inflation rate, the real yield (bond yield minus inflation) is positive which makes for a restrictive monetary environment. Should inflation move lower or bond rates rise further, then the real yield would increase and effectively leave market rates more restrictive. Sharply higher bond yields in October were a key reason for the equity market weakness in the month.
The table below details the monthly moves in the US and South African equity and bond markets in 2023 along with monthly moves in selected commodity prices, currencies, inflation rates and central bank policy rates. The green blocks on the inflation rows points to the recent low points in consumer price inflation – exactly a year after the peaks were reached in each country (and the higher inflation bases established).
Index, currency, commodity, inflation and fixed income moves in 2023:
The table below reflects some of the JSE’s biggest winners and losers in the month of October and in the first 10 months of this year. The list of winners was rather abbreviated in October and the $126/oz gain in the gold price over the month lifted the gold miners to the top of the list. Iron ore and coal prices were modestly lower in October but Kumba and Exxaro both managed to eke out a high single digit gain in the month. The bourse’s two pharmacy companies were also on the green list after Clicks posted results that were very well received by the market. On the flipside, the platinum producers continued bending under the weight of higher costs and weaker metals prices and their share prices wilted again in October. The weakness in the sector is evidenced in the share price declines in 2023 with Implats down 63%, Angloplat down 56%, Sibanye Stillwater down 47% and Northam down 40%.
Pick n Pay announced the return of Sean Summers as CEO at the start of the month and then posted results towards the end of the month. Any turnaround in Pick n Pay’s fortunes will take time and while the market might speculate as to the level of success that Sean Summers might have with his second spell at the wheel, the market voiced its displeasure at the results and sent the share price down 32% in October. That left Pick n Pay down 56% for the year and in the company of the beleaguered platinum miners and other commodity stocks. The big winners in 2023 so far have been the gold shares along with a good smattering of financial stocks and a small number of selected recovering retailers, pharma companies and real estate companies.
Selected winning and losing stocks on the JSE over October and 2023 year-to-date (price):
Higher bond yields continued to drive the overall “risk off” sentiment in the US market in October with corporate earnings season adding some individual flavour to those companies that reported. The weight loss drug theme, very much in evidence this year, continued in the month with Danish company Novo Nordisk gaining 6.2% and Eli Lilly gaining 3.1%. The short-term market thinking about these drugs is that they will help reduce the overall level of obesity which will lead to a lower demand for surgeries and the products and services of the medical technology companies. This ongoing story led Danaher to be the biggest S&P 500 loser in the month (-22.6%) with Thermo Fisher Scientific down 12.1%, Intuitive Surgical down 10.2% and Medtronic down 10.0%. Other pharmacare companies such as Bristol Myers Squibb (-11.2%) and Pfizer (-7.9%) were also under pressure in October.
The Generative AI theme took something of a breather in October as the market started questioning how long some of the market leaders could maintain their competitive advantage. Nvidia lost 6.3% in the month but that still left the counter up 179% for the year so far. The marginal revenue and earnings miss for high-flying Tesla disappointed the market when they released Q3 numbers and along with a weaker perceived outlook, the share lost 19.7% in October. That still left Tesla up 63% for the year with the third best price return of the S&P 500 companies in the first 10 months of the year. The Israeli-Hamas conflict initially had investors concerned about the supply and price of oil should the neighbouring territories become involved. Nevertheless, while the conflict continued, the oil market became less concerned about the market repercussions and the oil price gave up $10 a barrel in October. That was enough to see Chevron (-13.6%) and Exxon Mobil (-10.0%) amongst the biggest monthly losers. RTX Corp regained some of its losses in October (+13.1%) as the company announced an immediate $10bn share buyback programme to take advantage of the lower share price. The market liked that support for the share price but the company still faces additional liabilities with its Pratt & Whitney engine recall. After the share price rally, RTX Corp remained 19.4% down for the year.
Despite the August, September and October market malaise, the top winners in 2023 to date still include a substantial number of technology stocks. The top 20 gainers list below includes all of the “Magnificent Seven” stocks: Nvidia (+179%), Meta (+150%), Tesla (63%), Amazon (+58%), Alphabet (+41%), Microsoft (+41%) and Apple (+31%). The tagline for the 1960 movie “The Magnificent Seven” was “They were seven … they fought like seven hundred”. The Magnificent Seven stocks have done something similar and have provided an average capital return of +80.6% in the first 10 months of this year. This compares to a simple average (unweighted) return of -3.2% for all of the other stocks in the S&P 500 this year. They are seven stocks … they have fought like seven hundred!
After a bleak three months, the market could do with a bit of a reprieve. A Santa Claus rally into year-end to lift the markets and the spirits would be predicated on some lightening up of the tough central bank rhetoric. At the time of writing, the Federal Reserve Bank had held its 1 November meeting and paused on hiking rates for the second successive meeting. There is one meeting to come this year on 11-12 December and the Fed will have a little more time to review the economic response to its restrictive policy so far. It may want to wait even longer to see the impact of its higher rates on inflation (and growth) but the market is now leaning towards no further rate hikes from the Fed. That’s also the view for European Central Bank and Bank of England policy rates. Any whiff of lower rates to come would be very well received by the market, especially once we enter 2024 and start believing that easier monetary policy is that much closer. If not, we could always keep faith in the Magnificent Seven stocks – after all, the Magnificent Seven proved their longevity as they rode on to three more sequels.


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Carter scores 17 in Navy's season-opening win
- Zags back at No. 1; Auburn up to No. 2
- No. 4 Purdue tops No. 17 Illinois in 2OT
- Hoosiers top Huskers for rare road win
- Arizona State extends Utah's skid to 6
- Notre Dame wins at Howard in MLK Classic
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) John Carter Jr. posted 17 points and six rebounds as Navy topped George Washington 78-71 on Wednesday in a season opener.
Cam Davis had 15 points and seven assists for Navy. Richard Njoku added 12 points. Tyler Nelson had 12 points.
James Bishop scored a career-high 20 points and had nine assists for the Colonials. Jamison Battle added 20 points. Jameer Nelson Jr. had 18 points.
For more AP college basketball coverage: https://apnews.com/Collegebasketball and http://twitter.com/AP-Top25
This was generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com
Updated November 25, 2020


text:
How ozone walkthrough gates can help flatten the Covid-19 curve
They may be a better alternative to chlorine gates, which can be harmful for health
KARACHI: In a bid to play their role in flattening the corornavirus curve, engineers working for Saaf Pakistan Project [Clean Pakistan Project] - an organisation that provides technology solutions - have introduced ozone disinfectant walkthrough gates in the country.
According to Ali Zia, who heads the organisation, this is the first time that these environment-friendly gates have been introduced in Pakistan. He said it was made possible after Talha Saleem, a graduate of the NED University of Engineering and Technology, prepared special generators for separating ozone from water - the principal mechanism used in the walkthrough gates.
Elaborating further, he said that at present, the walkthrough gates being used in the country used chlorine for the purpose of disinfection, which killed the virus but only at the cost of posing a threat to human health in other ways.
According to Zia, this drawback is the reason he and his team have introduced ozone disinfectant gates, which are not just more effective but costs less as well.
Saying that the mechanism of separating ozone from water for the purpose of disinfecting had been approved by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan, he explained that ozone was a naturally occurring substance which was internationally recognised for killing 99 per cent of infectants 30 times faster than other chemicals.
He said that the gates had ozone, which has high viscosity, stored in tanks after separated from water, adding that motion sensors installed in the gates stimulated automated spraying of ozone on anyone passing through. The duration of the spray could be adjusted through another sensor, Zia added.
"The mechanism was really effective in fighting CoV-1, which caused the severe acute respiratory syndrome, in 2003," he claimed.
According to Zia, the gates are suitable for being installed in public places such as shopping centres, conference rooms, auditoriums, offices, community centres and assembly halls.
"Saaf Pakistan Project has already prepared and installed five such gates at Karachi port's private terminal, shopping malls and mosques," he shared, adding that these didn't cost much as the generator used was made locally. "Each of these, now costing around Rs100,000, would have been as expensive as Rs300,000 had we imported the generators," Zia projected.
Gates having different ozone-storing capacities are available, according to Zia. "We have those that can store 30 litres and are also preparing gates with higher capacities up to 60 litres, 80 litres, 100 litres and even 3oo litres," he said, adding that each of them had five to ten nozzles to spray disinfectant on those passing through from head to toe.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 20th, 2020.

domain: chemistry


text:
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Storyline 360 – Toggle Hidden/Disabled State Triggers in Storyline 360
In software, toggle refers to switches that allow you to change the state of something. Examples include the Caps Lock and Num Lock keys on a keyboard.
When it comes to software applications, toggles are often used in options menus and trigger events. In Storyline 360, we’ve introduced a new way to do this with Toggle hidden/disabled state triggers.
If you’re familiar with HTML radio buttons, this is a lot like the concept. The only difference is that toggles are only active when they’re in the hidden or disabled state.
This approach is great for things that don’t change very frequently or which have no impact on the running system. But it can get pretty fiddly as the number of toggles increases.
Savvy teams view the toggle configuration as inventory that comes with a carrying cost and seek to keep that inventory as low as possible. As a result many organizations move toggle configuration into some type of centralized store, often an application DB.
Once that store has been built out the challenge becomes maintaining a consistent set of toggles across a large fleet of servers. This can be a very frustrating experience.
The solution is to add runtime configuration support to your toggle system which allows you to override the default state of a feature flag at runtime. This can save a lot of time during the validation process. It also helps ensure that toggles don’t end up causing you to start up the whole test environment just to flip them.


姓名 毛郁舜(YU-SHUN MAO) 電子郵件信箱 E-mail 資料不公開 畢業系所 電機工程學系研究所(Department of Electrical Engineering) 畢業學位 碩士(Master) 畢業時期 109學年第2學期 論文名稱(中) 多通道時間混合神經網路應用於空氣品質預測 論文名稱(英) Effective Approaches to Air Quality Prediction Using Multi-Channel Temporal Hybrid Neural Network 檔案
紙本論文：5 年後公開 (2026-10-19 公開)
電子論文：使用者自訂權限：校內 5 年後、校外 5 年後公開
論文語文/頁數 英文/71 統計 本論文已被瀏覽 91 次，被下載 0 次 摘要(中) 隨著城市化和工業化的嚴重，空氣品質逐漸下降。都市圈是受到空氣污染影響的最大的族群。隨著城市化和工業化的發展，空氣污染已經成為一個嚴重的環境問題。空氣品質預測被認為是重要的議題，早期預警和控制可以減少對都市居民的健康影響。本論文提出多通道時間混合神經網絡來預測空氣品質。該模型包括擴張卷積層、雙向閘循環單元層和注意力層，分別提取空間特徵、時間特徵和關鍵特徵。該混合了學習數據的不同維度，即時間維度和特徵維度。這結構該結構能夠建立時間特徵和特徵關聯，同時實驗證實此結構能夠準確預測空氣品質。我們在實驗中採用了來自（台灣 左營）、（中國 北京）、（哥倫比亞 甘迺迪）和（哥倫比亞 波利瓦爾公園）的數據集。實驗證明，我們提出的模型在大多數情況下都是贏過傳統的回歸方法、神經網絡和其他作者提出的方法。 摘要(英) In recent years increasingly serious air pollution, the air quality decline gradually. Especially people living in the city circle is affected by air pollution the most ethnic groups. With the quick advancement of urbanization and industrialization, air pollution has become a serious issue in developing countries. Air quality prediction is considered as a major issue, and early warning and control can reduce the health impact on the residents in the area. This paper aims to predict air quality by multi-channel temporal hybrid neural network. This model includes dilated convolution layer, bidirectional gate recurrent unit layer and attention layer which extract spatial features, temporal features and key features respectively. The hybrid structure learns different dimensions of data, namely the temporal dimension and the feature dimension. This allows the structure to build temporal dependencies and feature associations to learn higher-level features. The proposed model takes into account the first 168 hours of different pollutant data, meteorological data from a single station. We employ real world dataset from (Zuoying, Taiwan), (Beijing, China), (Kennedy, Colombia) and (Simon Bolivar Park, Colombia) in experiment. The results show that our proposed model is superior to the traditional regression method, neural network and other methods in most cases. It also shows that our proposed model can handle air quality predictions with high accuracy for next 24 hours ahead prediction. 關鍵字(中) 卷積神經網路 雙向閘循環單元 注意力層 混合結構 空氣品質預測 關鍵字(英) Convolutional Neural Network(CNN) Bidirectional Gate Recurrent Unit(Bi-GRU) Attention Layer Hybrid Structure Air Quality Prediction 論文目次 Contents
Verification Letter i
Chinese Abstract iii
List of Figures vii
List of Tables ix
Chapter 1 Introduction 1
Chapter 2 Related Work 4
2.1. Feature Selection 4
2.2. The Methods for Air Quality Prediction 4
2.3. Impact of Meteorological Conditions on Air Pollution 5
Chapter 3 Proposed Method 6
3.1. Normalization 7
3.2. Selection of Input Variables 8
3.3. Building Training Examples 9
3.4. Temporal Hybrid Neural Network 11
3.4.1. One Dimensional Dilated Convolution Layer 12
3.4.2. Bidirectional Gated Recurrent Unit Layer 14
3.4.3. Attention Layer 16
3.4.4. Dense Layer 17
Chapter 4 Experiments 19
4.1. Introduction to Datasets 19
4.2. Data Exploration 21
4.2.1. Missing Values 22
4.2.2. Data Distribution 23
4.3. Details of Experiments 25
4.3.1. Machine Learning Approach 26
4.3.2. Deep Learning Approach 26
4.4. Experiment Results 29
4.4.1. The result of feature selection 31
4.4.2. Comparison of Single Step Ahead Prediction Performance 33
4.4.3. Comparison of Multi-Step Ahead Prediction Performance 35
4.5. Statistical Analysis for Experiment Results 44
4.6. Discussion 45
4.6.1. The analysis of window size and structure 46
4.6.2. The Analysis of Machine Learning Method and Deep Learning Method 48
Chapter 5 Conclusion 53
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口試委員 吳志宏 - 召集委員
侯俊良 - 委員
劉志峰 - 委員
歐陽振森 - 委員
李錫智 - 指導教授
口試日期 2021-08-02 繳交日期 2021-10-19


| The purpose of the Smart Water Grid is to efficiently monitor the supply and demands of water.
An ideal SWG will allow for the real-time monitoring of leakages. It should also be easy to find the specific details of such a leak. However, leakages can often result in only a micro-scale change in flow, making it difficult to find with a common flow meter. The NINJA, unlike the commonly used electromagnetic flow meter, is able to measure even these tiny differences in flow rate. This makes it a much more efficient candidate.
Moreover, A SWG often has parts in the pipeline that switch flow directions in the day and night or simply have sections of pipe where the flow direction is undetermined. An electromagnetic flow meter is unable to measure any flow in the negative direction, making it nearly impossible to operate a SWG efficiently.Conversely, the NINJA has the capability to measure flow rate in either direction.
The NINJA fits these important purposes of the SWG, making it the perfect product to efficiently manage water.


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This is the third post in a multiple part trip report of our long weekend trip to Koh Samui, Thailand. Trust me, I’m getting to the Conrad Koh Samui. Just be patient.
Koh Samui: Part 1 – Any Hilton in the World
Koh Samui: Part 2 – The Oryx Lounge Saves the Day
Koh Samui: Part 3 – Exploring Koh Samui
We arrived at the Koh Samui airport around 7:30 in the morning and headed straight for the Avis rental car counter. Not surprisingly, no one was to be found there that early in the morning. Soon enough though, someone noticed a few of us hanging around and made a phone call. An agent showed up, and we quickly got the rental process started. We were soon taken to our ride and started to check out the car. As I started to survey for dents and scratches I took a look inside. Turns out it was a manual. I don’t do manuals. I never learned how to drive a manual, and I was about to try to learn while driving in a foreign country on the opposite side of the road. Eventually they brought out an automatic and we were on our way.
We knew our villa at the Conrad wouldn’t be ready for us at 8:30 in the morning, so we decided to explore the island a little bit. It was probably a good thing that it was a lazy Friday morning as it took me a little bit of time to get used to driving on the right side of the road again. I think the last time I had driven on the opposite side of the road was on our honeymoon to Ireland in May 2010. As we knew the resort was somewhat remote and the restaurant prices would be quite high there we wanted to stock up on snack foods and drinks before arriving. I had done a fair bit of reading on the Conrad Koh Samui on Flyertalk and learned that Tesco is basically Thailand’s version of Wal-Mart. We soon found one, and stocked up on crazy flavored chips, exotic fruits, and root beer. I’m not a fan of grocery shopping in general, but shopping in a foreign country always makes for a good time. It’s always interesting to see what kinds of interesting things are on the shelf.
After killing a decent amount of time at Tesco we headed out to see what there was to explore on the island. There honestly wasn’t too much that I thought looked interesting, but there were a couple of waterfalls and a giant Buddha to see. I really enjoy waterfalls, and Dawn loves being around water in general, so we decided to head to the Na Muang Waterfall. The place was a bit of a tourist trap with offers of elephant rides and jungle treks. We originally passed on all of that, and started walking towards the hiking path to the waterfall. As we were about to begin our hike, the option of a ride up to the waterfall on the top of a truck was offered. The hike looked fairly steep, and as we had just arrived on an overnight flight we were pretty worn out. We decided to take them up on their 100 Baht roundtrip offer (about $3/person). It turns out that it was probably worth about $3, but not much more. They drove us up a pretty steep hill, but we still had quite a hike to go to get to the waterfall. Being buckled into a seat on the roof of a truck was quite an interesting experience.
The hike was hot, but the waterfall was quite nice when we finally reached the top. It wasn’t anything spectacular, but it was certainly a worthy detour on our way to the resort. I really enjoy climbing around as much possible in these types of places, so I had a pretty good time. The waterfall was busy with tourists, but it wasn’t overly crowded.
We spent maybe 30 minutes near the waterfall, and then headed back down.At this point we were pretty hungry and were looking forward to finding some of that great, authentic Thai street food. We found a street market not too far from the waterfall entrance and stopped. There were plenty of options of what appeared to be mostly take home type food, but there was at least one ‘restaurant’ type place. I ordered the red pork fried rice and Dawn had the chicken Pad Thai. Both were excellent, and I almost went back for a second serving. After lunch we spent some time shopping at the clothes and food stalls. While the quality of the stuff was quite good, the prices were not as ridiculously low as I had hoped. It was cheap, but not quite as cheap as I had expected in Thailand. I’m sure better deals are to be had in Bangkok instead of a tourist island.
After shopping we figured that it was late enough that there was a good possibility that our room would be ready for us. We were also pretty worn out, so we were hoping that the resort was close by. Even with only one main road around the island we managed to have some slight difficulties in finding our way around. While I had printed out Google maps of directions to the Conrad, they weren’t the most detailed, and we struggled a bit to find it. Actually, we struggled a lot. We ended up driving the entire loop of the island only to discover that the road leading to the resort was less than a mile from where we had stopped for lunch. The loop around the island was only about 45 minutes, but the combination of jet lag from the overnight flight and thinking that we’d find the place any minute the 45 minutes was torture for me. I felt like I was going to fall asleep at the wheel at any moment. Eventually we found the correct turn off and made it to the Conrad Koh Samui.

domain: travel