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I have managed to finish at least one painting per day since I started the Daily Painting. My goal is to keep it up as almost daily painting. I can't make it a priority on travel days or teaching days, but most week days while I am not away teaching I should be able to finish a small painting. The small format (I am working 6"x6") is very user-friendly. I am painting directly on gessoed wood panels.
You can see my daily paintings, as well as studies and experimental pieces for sale here. See the entire gallery of Daily Paintworks here. Sell your own work on Daily Paintworks!
Here are four of my daily paintings. Of course, I still work in multiples, so there are more of each of these, some finished, as you'll see on my DPW gallery, and some still in the works. I would love to hear your own thoughts on a daily painting practice. Have you tried it? Have you been doing it for years? How does it work for you?


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Tripoli, Libya - 18 December 2022
Libya has a young population with more than 25% of the 6.8 million population being children and young people. There Is an urgency for young people to have the chance to express their ideas and concerns regarding integrity, ethics, and anti-corruption matters, in a way that tangibly influences global policy dialogues. No solution to corruption can be sustainable, scalable, and efficient without the participation of those who will be the very recipients of those same solutions.
Through the Global Resource for Anti-Corruption Education and Youth Empowerment (GRACE) initiative, Libyan authorities and UNODC collaborate to create a culture of rejecting corruption among children and youth by increasing the role of education. The initiative will help young people become the integrity leaders of tomorrow by providing them with the skills, and concepts required to enhance transparency, accountability, and integrity within their communities.
Accourdingly, UNODC organized a workshop on “the methods and mechanisms for teaching the Anti-corruption curriculum for primary Education” and an expert group meeting on “contextualizing the anti-corruption modules developed by UNODC” for Libyan education experts and academics from the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.
The workshop provided knowledge on the GRACE initiative, its tools and material as well as the application of the GRACE educational curriculum. The expert group meeting provided a wealth of opportunities for educational experts and academics from Libya to share their views on how the UNODC anti-corruption modules could be contextualized to the Libyan culture and society and hence increase its adaptation effectiveness.
The workshop and meeting were held within the framework of the project “Building Libya’s National Capacity to Prevent and Combat Corruption and Money Laundering,” funded by The European Union and implemented by UNODC in collaboration with UNICIRI. UNODC is partnering with Libyan authorities through this project to provide a holistic approach to countering corruption.
International Anti-Corruption Day 2022:
On the 9th of December 2022, International Anti-Corruption Day (IACD) seeks to highlight the crucial link between anti-corruption and peace, security, and development. At its core is the notion that tackling this crime is the right and responsibility of everyone, and that only through cooperation and the involvement of each and every person and institution can we overcome the negative impact of this crime. States, government officials, civil servants, law enforcement officers, media representatives, the private sector, civil society, academia, the public and youth alike all have a role to play in this.
The 2022 IACD also marks the start of our efforts to mark the twentieth anniversary of UNCAC. This is reflected by the theme of this year’s international day, “UNCAC at 20: Uniting the World Against Corruption”.

domain: sociology


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The SmartLink Projector offers automatic keystone correction, allowing you to fine-tune the image to your liking. Whether you need to adjust the focus or correct any distortion, this projector provides flexibility and customization.
The SmartLink Projector offers various connectivity options, including HDMI and USB inputs. You can easily connect your preferred media source and enjoy your favorite content effortlessly.
Yes, the SmartLink Projector features built-in high-quality speakers, delivering clear and immersive sound. However, if you prefer a more enhanced audio experience, you can also connect external speakers using the 3.5mm audio jack.
Absolutely! The SmartLink Projector is designed to be portable and lightweight, making it easy to carry and set up anywhere you go. Whether you want to enjoy a movie night in your backyard or give a presentation at the office, this projector is convenient to transport and use.
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A few days back Google released an Android software developer kit for wearables in a move that should lead to smartwatch and other gear. What remains to be seen is how well Android can adapt to the small screen.
In an announcement that came at the SXSW Sundar Pichai, who heads Google Chrome and Android efforts said he wants to connect to a bevy of sensors and wearables with Android. Google’s Android is already moving into automobiles. Android has proved it can move to larger screens. From the smartphone, Android has hit tablets, TVs and even PCs. However, the small screen may be trickier—assuming some of these wearables and sensor-first devices even have screens. Here’s a look at Android’s key challenges as they relate to the wearable market:
1. Wearable computing operating systems need to be silently working in the background – effortlessly and elegantly. Android’s Achilles Heel is the working in the background bit.
2. The Wearables ecosystem is a smarter one having learnt its lessons from Smartphones. Already Intel and Samsung have upped their game and presence. OEMs this time may not want to play all of it into one corner.Android means a race to the bottom for hardware makers.
3. Its hard to be one OS for all screens – the OS must have to be lightened considerably especially for wearables. Android could simply be too bulky to be useful in wearable computing.
4. Apps for the wearables will need a serious rethink – especially in the sense that these may not be visible apps or may have to pair devices in groups for serious activity
5. There’s a bit of unease about Google and data. Android in a smartwatch seems like a no brainer since the device to date is merely an extension of the smartphone. However,users may be wary of sharing vital signs with Google and may not want ads and pitches via a wearable. Google is all about the ads and wearable computing can make pitches a bit more freaky.
Sooner than later, these challenges will be overcome by Google, but I’ve been in the tech industry long enough to know that retrofits and alternates don’t always fly. Adapting Android to wearable computing is likely to be harder than it appears on the whiteboard.
Nokia’s not finished, Nokia’s device division is going out with a bang, and while most view Nokia as a device-less company once the Microsoft deal closes in Q1 2014, this post delves into the other halves of Nokia and the tricks up its sleeve.
Microsoft paid $7.2bln for the Nokia devices and services portfolio – expected to close by Q1, 2014. However the other “not so significant” parts of Nokia could provide the value up end in the next 2-5years horizon.
While Nokia hasn’t really created any splash around its Lumia range of smartphones, but it is in the process of diversifying portfolio to phablets, tablets and wearables (smartwatch). Wearables alone are expected to number 485million by 2015. However, analysts and industry mavens are betting their monies on Nokia diversifying its portfolio from phones to “any communication” device. This includes amongst others cloud operated devices, sensors and receivers powering the Internet of things.
However it is the alternate portfolio of Nokia that is particularly interesting-
1. Nokia Networks which contributes to 90% of the Nokia (minus devices and services) is a key holder of 4G patents and has been on a comeback trail with associations with Sprint, US Cellular, T Mobile working out post the Nokia takeover of the better half. Nokia Networks also has a good patent portfolio in the 5G space and is expected to be a network driver in this technology.
2. Here Maps – is possibly the unsung Hero in the Nokia portfolio. What started as acquisition of Navteq has ended up in a strong suit of solutions around Mapping- It allows Offline use, Augmented Reality wrappers and a good accuracy (compared to Apple atleast). However, it is Here Map’s telemetry portfolio that is the strongest asset – Here Maps can leverage a robust and long standing relationships with key car makers to push the solutions to driverless cars. Here maps is quite clearly a very strong alternative to Google maps.
3. Finally, Nokia has a good portfolio of patents. Nokia has allowed Samsung to continue licensing its patents for 5 years (2010-15), with a settlement amount to be determined by arbitration in 2015. Nokia will also receive additional compensation beginning in 2014. Given the number of smartphones that Samsung is selling, there is a significant windfall from this settlement that is due to Nokia. Nokia’s venture into 5G technology, self-driving cars, Graphene, and its current core holding of essential 4G patents should ensure royalty fees from many technology companies for years to come.
Bottomline – Nokia after Nokia looks to be a great series of propositions. Now then, do we expect the rise of the phoenix?


A worldwide Report on Trafficking in Persons launched today by the un Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) provides information that is new a criminal activity that shames all of us.
Centered on data collected from 155 nations, it provides the very first worldwide evaluation of this range of individual trafficking and what exactly is being carried out to battle it.
it provides: a synopsis of trafficking habits; appropriate actions drawn in reaction; and country-specific all about reported cases of trafficking in people, victims, and prosecutions.
During the launch associated with Report in nyc, the Executive Director of UNODC, Antonio Maria Costa stated that “many governments continue to be in denial. There is certainly also neglect in terms of either reporting on, or prosecuting situations of individual trafficking”. He pointed to your undeniable fact that even though the amount of beliefs for peoples trafficking is increasing, two out of each and every five nations included in the UNODC Report hadn’t recorded a solitary conviction.
Based on the Report, the most frequent kind of human trafficking (79per cent) is intimate exploitation. The victims of intimate exploitation are predominantly females and girls. Interestingly, in 30% regarding the nations which supplied all about the sex of traffickers, females make within the proportion that is largest of traffickers. In some areas of the entire world, females trafficking ladies is the norm.
The next most typical as a type of human being trafficking is forced labour (18%), even though this can be a misrepresentation because forced labour is less often detected and reported than trafficking for intimate exploitation.
Internationally, very nearly 20% of all of the trafficking victims are kids. But, in a few components of Africa and the Mekong area, kids will be the bulk (up to 100per cent in elements of western Africa).
Although trafficking appears to indicate individuals going across continents, exploitation that is most occurs near to home. Information show intra-regional and domestic trafficking are the main types of trafficking in people.
The un Protocol against Trafficking in individuals – the foremost worldwide contract in this area – joined into force in 2003. The Report reveals that within the past couple of years the wide range of Member States really applying the Protocol has significantly more than doubled (from 54 to 125 from the 155 States covered). But, you may still find numerous countries that lack the required appropriate instruments or will that is political.
“This Report increases our knowledge of modern servant areas, yet it also reveals our ignorance”, stated Mr. Costa. “we now have a picture that is big however it is impressionistic and does not have level. We worry the issue is getting worse, but we cannot show it for not enough information, and governments that are many obstructing”, he admitted. The top of UNODC consequently called on governments and scientists that are social enhance information-gathering and -sharing on individual trafficking. “we will be fighting the problem blindfolded”, he warned if we do not overcome this knowledge crisis.
In a Panel Discussion on “Exposing Denial and Benign Neglect”, Mr. Costa called on governments, the private sector, as well as the public in particular to step within the battle against trafficking in people. “More should be done to lessen the vulnerability of victims, boost the dangers to traffickers, and reduced need for the products and solutions of modern-day slaves”, he said.
To improve general public understanding of human being trafficking and rally the whole world to fight it, Mr. Costa appointed Academy Award-winning actress Mira Sorvino as a Goodwill Ambassador to Combat Human Trafficking. “we all know that Mira’s dedication to the plight of trafficking victims will move visitors to do something against modern-day slavery”, stated the Executive Director of UNODC.


Fiduciary rule redux? Democratic win in November could revive stringent regulations
Depending on how the election turns, big regulatory changes could be on the horizon, according to industry observers and fiduciary advocates.
Should former Vice President Joe Biden win the presidential election and his party control both the House and the Senate, that would mean a whole new slate of political appointees, including, in all likelihood, a new chair of the SEC and a new secretary of labor.
For fiduciary advocates disappointed by the SEC's Regulation Best Interest package, that raises hopes for reviving more stringent regulations on brokerage advice.
"We fully expect that a Democratic-led SEC would reexamine [the rule package] with an eye toward how best to deliver the high standard of conduct investors reasonably expect from the financial professionals they rely on for advice and recommendations about their investments," says Barbara Roper, director of investor protection at the Consumer Federation of America.
Regardless of whether Trump or Biden is president, "you have to start with who controls the two houses in Congress," says Joel Seligman, professor of political science at the University of Rochester.
"If Trump were reelected and, for example, the Democrats controlled the House or the House and the Senate, initiatives would be limited," he says. Likewise, if the GOP ran the table, Seligman anticipates more deregulatory activity across the board, though he notes that SEC Chairman Jay Clayton has been less zealous about rolling back regulations than many other Trump appointees.
The courts will also have a say. How a future SEC may reassess Reg BI will turn on how a federal court rules on a current legal challenge seeking to throw out those regulations. Should the court side with the plaintiffs' argument that Congress intended for the SEC to write a uniform standard of conduct, then it would be back to square one. If the court upheld Reg BI, a Democratic-led SEC try tweaking the rule to further crack down on conflicts of interest, define the term "best interest," and strengthen disclosure and monitoring provisions.
Of course, how the court will rule is anyone's guess at this point. "It's in the laps of the gods," Seligman says.
A Democratic sweep would likely bring "the most significant changes," according to Paul Richman, chief government and political affairs officer at the Insured Retirement Institute. Richman's group will continue to advocate for policies to shore up retirement security, such as the SECURE Act, which passed with strong bipartisan support in an intensely polarized Congress. But he also sees the potential for a blue wave to rekindle interest in a regulation that his group fought tooth and nail to defeat: the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule.
"Depending on the size of the majority the Democrats win in this scenario [it] could allow for a significant number of legislative victories," Richman says in an email. That includes "a return to the earlier Department of Labor fiduciary rule and the harmful effects we began to see it have on consumer choice and access to professional financial advice, effects which IRI believes could be avoided by giving SEC's Reg BI the opportunity to work with a stronger standard and enforcement mechanisms to deliver consumer protections and preserve consumer choice of financial advice."
The IRI was one of the groups that successfully sued to overturn the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule.
Roper suggests that an SEC under more fiduciary-friendly leadership would scrutinize firms’ compliance with Reg BI and their efforts to minimize conflicts before tweaking the regulation or crafting a new uniform fiduciary standard.
That last prospect seems less likely to Duane Thompson, senior policy analyst at Fi360, a fiduciary consultancy. Thompson points to the new research and economic analysis agency staff would have to conduct, the fraught politics of any such effort, and the all-but-certain legal challenges new rules would face.
"Regulators have a bit of a straitjacket — you can't have a Biden SEC-appointed chair come in and just gut Reg BI," Thompson says.
He does anticipate that in the event of a Democratic sweep of the presidency and Congress, there could be renewed momentum on Capitol Hill for clarifying the language in Dodd-Frank that authorized the SEC to adopt a uniform standard. The current litigation focuses on whether Congress went a step further and meant to mandate the commission to do so.
Seligman advocates a more structural reimagining of the regulatory regime for brokers and advisors, suggesting that their governing statutes, from 1934 and 1940, respectively, have fallen badly out of step with the way the industries have evolved and converged. He sees potential in the aftermath of the current crises for a watershed moment when there is renewed appetite to advance policies that would have been unthinkable just a couple years earlier.
"Things don't always move instantly, but the oscillations in the stock market [and] the amount of economic dislocation may translate into substantial changes in our elected officials. That is the fundamental basis for actual change," he says. "Are the current circumstances such that we've reached one of those moments?"


text:
Date of Award
Dr. Naveed Piracha
Based upon the recent study by TMS Engineers, Inc. on the section of South Belvoir Boulevard between Washington Boulevard and Carroll Boulevard, a new pedestrian hybrid beacon is designed. Using their recommendations, this traffic signal provides a unique design focused on the safety of pedestrians crossing South Belvoir. This hybrid beacon will minimize pedestrian waiting time, require no interaction from the pedestrian, and clearly articulate to drivers and pedestrians the proper behaviors.
Doughty, Bradley, "A Novel Pedestrian Hybrid Beacon Designed for South Belvoir Boulevard" (2015). Senior Honors Projects. 77.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.

domain: design


text:
One of southeastern Virginia's first permanent residents was Adam Thoroughgood,
a former indentured servant, who prospered in the colonies as a result of his
astute business sense.
In 1635, he petitioned for a grant of more than 5,300 acres
based on a 50-acre "headright" for each of the 105 men and women he transported from England.
For a peek into the lives of Virginia Beach’s earliest residents,
visitors may enter a number of historic homes located throughout
The Adam Thoroughgood House
(circa 1680) stands on land
that was part of the original land grant.
Other historic homes
still standing in Virginia Beach were constructed later in the
colonial period such as the Lynnhaven House
(1725) and the Francis Land House
All homes are open to the public for
tours and host special interpretative programs throughout the year.Locations:
Adam Thoroughgood House
1636 Parish Road, Virginia Beach
4405 Wishart Road, Virginia Beach
Francis Land House
3131 Virginia Beach Boulevard, Virginia Beach,
The Adam Thoroughgood 17th-century home is one of the oldest brick homes in the country.
Lynnhaven House exterior. In the heart of the modern city lies the 18th-century Lynnhaven House.

domain: geography


text:
Team GB Men’s football team will meet South Korea in Cardiff on Saturday after beating Uruguay to finish top of Group A (13/2 to Olympic Football Gold Medal). Daniel Sturridge converted from close range on the stroke of half-time to score the only goal of the game. Uruguay responded after the break but GB keeper Jack Butland made two brilliant saves to deny Liverpool striker Luis Suarez.
The result ensures the GB men's team (13/2 to Olympic Football Gold Medal) repeat the feat of the women in reaching the last eight of the football tournament. And if Stuart Pearce's team can defeat South Korea when they return to Cardiff on Saturday then they will reach the last four and be guaranteed a bronze medal match at the very least.
Team GB (Evens to beat South Korea) have now won back-to-back fixtures following Sunday's 3-1 victory against the UAE at Wembley, although with the fixtures coming thick and fast Pearce opted to make changes for Wednesday's match.
Skipper Ryan Giggs, James Tomkins and Marvin Sordell all dropped to the bench, with Craig Bellamy named skipper in the city of his birth. He was one of four Welsh players in the starting XI and might have capped the occasion with a goal but the Liverpool forward could not quite make decisive contact after Uruguay failed to clear a corner.
In the other Group A match, Senegal (12/1 to Olympic Football Gold Medal) drew 1-1 with UAE meaning the west African side qualified and will meet Mexico at Wembley.

domain: news


text:
Remember “the moment” in the last round of Democratic presidential debates? That moment when Sen. Kamala Harris called out Joe Biden for consorting with segregationists and opposing mandatory school busing — an attack Biden seemed unprepared for? That moment was fresh in viewers’ minds when the pollsters came calling. Biden’s support swooned by 6, 8, even 10 points in some polls in the days after his exchange with Harris.
But the next wave of polls, completed just before this week’s second debate doubleheader, showed the former Vice President’s support floating back to the surface, at about 33 percent, where it was a month earlier. What's the lesson here? Television is great at producing moments of high drama, but that’s all they are — moments.
Think of a memorable debate moment. For me it was when Sen. Lloyd Bentsen turned to Dan Quayle in 1988 after Quayle had once again invoked the memory of John F. Kennedy, who once was a young senator. Bentsen said calmly, “I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy.” Bentsen, you may recall, was not elected Vice President.
And this isn’t even that high-stakes a debate. It’s the summer before the summer before the election. Most of the candidates who appeared on stage this week will vanish because the Democratic Party has set a 2 percent polling threshold to qualify for the next round of debates. Two percent! Five candidates are already in, so that leaves Cory Booker, Beto O’Rourke, and Andrew Yang as the three candidates on the bubble, needing a post-debate bump to ensure they’re still debating in September.
Unfortunately for O’Rourke, whose campaign has thus far failed to electrify anyone, it was his misfortune to be randomly selected for Tuesday’s broadcast, while the media’s attention stayed focused on Wednesday’s debate and the resumption of the Biden-Harris hostilities. Even worse, O’Rourke’s progressive-ish stance on key issues made him less of a foil to the two candidates in the center of the room — senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren — than two more moderate white males, John Delaney and Rep. Tim Ryan.
Delaney held a gerrymandered safe seat in Maryland from 2013 to 2019 and claims to have announced his candidacy before any other Democrat, but I literally have no memory of him in the June debates. However, because he fit neatly into the media narrative for Tuesday’s debate — progs versus mods — Delaney got an inordinate amount of camera time so that he could challenge Warren and her stack of big-dollar governmental reforms, including a “Medicare for all” plan that opponents say will cost tens of trillions.
Prodded by CNN’s Jake Tapper, Delaney argued that “Democrats win when we run on real solutions, not impossible promises, when we run on things that are workable, not fairy tale economics.”
Warren couldn’t wait to take that apart, in what became one of the night’s few viral moments. “You know, I don't understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running for president of the United States just to talk about what we really can't do and shouldn't fight for,” Warren said indignantly, as wild applause broke out in the hall.
Also on stage Tuesday was Mayor Pete Buttigieg, the fifth highest-polling candidate, sounding calm and pleasingly wonky. After listening to his rivals batting around ideas for reforming immigration and gun laws, Buttigieg jumped in to note that Democrats had been floating ambitious plans like these for 20 years. Nothing would happen with these plans, though, until “structural reform” happened. And then he explained, in simpler terms, what that meant.
“This is a country that once changed its Constitution so you couldn’t drink and changed it back because we changed our minds, and you’re telling me we can’t reform our democracy in our time?” Buttigieg said. “We have to — or we will be having the same argument 20 years from now.”
Mayor Pete, who seems far more impressive in a one-on-one interview than when speechifying, saw his poll numbers plateau this summer. But even if his quest for the Oval Office comes up short, the vice president’s office is just down the hall. He sort of sounded like he was angling for that.
Overall, there was little from Tuesday’s debate to fault viewers for tuning into the Bachelorette finale instead. If you were one of those, I would commend to watch just the one clip below of author Marianne Williamson holding forth on race and explaining the math behind her $500 billion reparations figure. I’ll say this, she’d make a helluva warmup act at next year’s campaign rallies.
Wednesday’s main event was kind to nearly everyone who took part — even the former Vice President, who took incoming from all sides. Almost every challenger on stage threw themselves into the scrum, resulting in an occasionally chaotic but highly entertaining and surprisingly useful exchange of ideas.
Two senators who had previously seemed almost lifelike, Kirsten Gillibrand and Michael Bennet, were much more animated this time around.
Gillibrand flung in Biden’s face an old op-ed he had written arguing that working moms “create the deterioration of family” by leaving their kids in day care. “So under Vice President Biden's analysis, am I serving in Congress resulting in the deterioration of the family?” she asked coolly.
Biden harrumphed, “That was a long time ago,” and tried to pivot, but Gillibrand demanded a response. Finally, Biden groused that the senator had praised his efforts to help working women in the past, adding, “I don’t know what’s happened except that you’re now running for president.”
That zinger may not launch a thousand memes, and it’s too wordy for a T-shirt, unlike Bernie Sanders’ cri de couer from Tuesday — “I wrote the damn bill!” — that was already emblazoned on merch by next morning. But his retort, and others he delivered seemingly off-the-cuff during Wednesday’s fast-moving debate, likely reassured the 33 percent who back him that the Biden of old was back.
The same couldn't be said of Harris, who not only didn't make a dent in the veep's armot but stumbled when confronted by her own service record. Oddly enough, the challenge came from the low-polling Hawaiian congresswoman and veteran Tulsi Gabbard.
“Senator Harris says she’s proud of her record as a prosecutor,” Gabbard began, “but I’m deeply concerned about this record. There are too many examples to cite but she put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations ... She blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the courts forced her to do so. She kept people in prison beyond their sentences to use them as cheap labor for the state of California.”
Harris replied by citing some boilerplate about her role in criminal justice reform and yadda yadda until Tapper cut her off.
Speaking of CNN, the Democrats’ preferred mode of working the refs was to accuse its journalists of moonlighting for Fox. “Jake, your question is a Republican talking point,” scolded Sanders when Tapper pushed him on his progressive policies. Warren pushed back twice in similar fashion, and on Wednesday, when Tapper challenged Harris on how she would pay for her universal health care plan, she looked unsure how to respond until she remembered the all-purpose retort: “We cannot keep with the Republican talking points on this!”
Likewise, Don Lemon — who calls out the president’s racism and misogyny on a nightly basis on his CNN show — was himself called out by Julian Castro after reading a quote criticizing Castro’s “open borders” immigration plan. “Open borders is a right-wing talking point!” Castro thundered. Except that Lemon had just quoted to him from Jeh Johnson, the homeland security chief under President Obama, in whose cabinet Castro also served.
Anyway, CNN journalists do not exactly lead the list of media people doing the GOP’s bidding. Lemon, Tapper, and Dana Bash were there to do what they do best — put mildly challenging questions to public figures — while also managing ten egos with live microphones, all of them clamoring for time. It was a mostly thankless task that they are paid handsomely to do every election cycle. (The exception was Castro, of all people, thanking CNN during his closing statement.) But hey, at least CNN stuck to a conventional format this time. Remember the godawful YouTube debate in 2007?
As for the bubble candidates, Yang did his best to bring a Ross Perot flavor to the Democratic debate. For someone who consistently stopped talking before his time was up, Yang’s proposals, like his $1000-a-month-for-everybody plan, felt fully fleshed out and even appealing in an alternate-universe kind of way. He also chimed in with useful anecdotes that were models of concision.
“As someone who’s run a business, I can tell you flat-out our current health care system makes it harder to hire,” Yang said. “If we say we're going to get health care off the backs of businesses and families, then watch American entrepreneurship recover and bloom. That's the argument we should be making to the American people.”
Then there’s Cory Booker. Watching him on television I sometimes wonder: Why is he not doing better in the polls? He has passion, he’s quick on his feet, and people like him — even Joe Biden, who in an effort to defuse a tense exchange reached over and touched Booker on the arm while referring to him as “our future President.” Booker immediately laughed, as though the two men had enjoyed friendly disputes like this a hundred times before.
And that’s the final point to make about these otherwise meaningless debates. Television is about optics, and Biden’s were overwhelmingly favorable — nothing flashy, just continuous ease and confidence. In his opening statement he looked the viewer in the eye and declared, “I'm running for president to restore the soul of this country.” Then he used the same line in his closing remarks.
He can’t live off that line forever, but for the moment, it’s working.
Aaron Barnhart has written about television since 1994, including 15 years as TV critic for the Kansas City Star.
TOPICS: CNN, Andrew Yang, Bernie Sanders, Beto O’Rourke, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, Marianne Williamson, Pete Buttigieg, 2020 Presidential Election, Cable News


text:
at the 2016 Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Each summer REDCAT celebrates the vitality of Los Angeles' vibrant and growing community of artists making work for the stage. We transform our theater into an artist-driven creative laboratory where disciplines are challenged and blurred, traditions are re-imagined, and hybrid visions take hold.
"Some Vexations for Taku Sugimoto" - Johnny Chang (world premiere, 2016)
The Voice Index - Andrea Young (2015)
performed by: Andrea Young, Micaela Tobin, Sharon Kim & Sara Sinclair Gomez
The first in a series of two large ensemble concerts. These concerts highlight three seminal works by Cage, considered to be a "series": Atlas Eclipticalis, Variations IV and 0'00".
soundSpark is a free, monthly new music series for young children featuring solo and duo performances by emerging artists. soundSpark takes place at 12pm on the first Saturday of every month. The June 2016 featured artist isMicaela Tobin.
Postcommodity, White Boy Scream, Carmina Escobar
Experimental Half-Hour Presents Lossless Summit, a live multimedia night of experimental video and musical performances by artists Kate Parsons, White Boy Scream, Stephie’s Castle, Carmina Escobar, and Pauline Lay.
Inspired by La Monte Young's "Dream House" as well as the work of musicians and composers such as Terry Riley, Yoko Ono and John Cage. Tonalism combines sound and visual elements to create an experience that audiences can enjoy over an extended period of time.
"Bye Bye Butterfly," a piece for voice and tape machine
Composed by Pauline Oliveros, re-imagined and performed by Micaela Tobin and William Hutson
Dada Divas, composed by singer Jacqueline Bobak, is a large-scale interdisciplinary project centered on important female artists who were among the originators of the Dada movement. The preview of Dada Divas is scheduled for late November 2015 in the Czech Republic. The premier performance will help mark the Dada centennial in 2016.
Ear Meal is an art webcast documenting the experimental music and sound arts scene in Los Angeles
Opens October 31st for a limited run.
WBS w/ Xina Xurner, Sister Mantos, and Yawn
A night of art, landscapes, sound, movement and interactions.
Debacle Records Presents: Gabriel Salomen (ex-Yellow Swans); bardo:basho; White Boy Scream
Danielle de Picciotto + Alexander Hacke, White Boy Scream, PRETA w/ Randall Dunn + Pink Void, Hair & Space Museum
White Boy Scream, Black Hat, DreamSleeper, Julia Mazawa
White Boy Scream, VRS, Seamstress, Andrea Young
Patrick Michael Ballard - After the Rise and Fall of Teenager (2015) - live performance
After the Rise and Fall of Teenager is a work by Patrick Michael Ballard examining the relationship between object based narrative, persona, and tableaux to enact a physical montage of performance genres and unstable effects.
A rotating cast of experimental musicians will work with participants to create collaborative scores, which will evolve over the weeks as we work towards a final performance series in Machine Project’s Mystery Theater. This workshop is open to all humans.
Performances by Justin Scheid, Edward Park, Mint Park, and Micaela Tobin.

domain: artistic


Bitcoin Fortune Review – Is it Scam? – Online Broker
In today's digital world, cryptocurrency has emerged as a popular investment option. With the rise of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, there has been a growing demand for online brokers that facilitate cryptocurrency trading. One such platform is Bitcoin Fortune, which claims to offer a user-friendly and secure trading experience. In this review, we will delve into the details of Bitcoin Fortune, explore its features, and evaluate its legitimacy as an online broker.
II. What is Bitcoin Fortune?
Bitcoin Fortune is an online broker that allows users to trade various cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. It provides a platform for individuals to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, speculate on their price movements, and potentially profit from these trades. Bitcoin Fortune utilizes advanced algorithms and artificial intelligence to analyze the market and generate accurate trading signals, helping users make informed decisions.
How Bitcoin Fortune works
Bitcoin Fortune operates by connecting users to reputable cryptocurrency exchanges. It acts as an intermediary, allowing users to access multiple exchanges through a single platform. The platform leverages its algorithms to analyze market data and identify profitable trading opportunities. Users can then execute trades directly through the platform, with Bitcoin Fortune facilitating the process.
Key features and benefits of Bitcoin Fortune
User-friendly interface: Bitcoin Fortune is designed to be intuitive and accessible to both novice and experienced traders. The platform provides a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to navigate and execute trades.
Advanced trading algorithms: Bitcoin Fortune uses advanced algorithms and artificial intelligence to analyze market data and identify potentially profitable trading opportunities. This can help users make informed decisions and improve their chances of success.
Automated trading: Bitcoin Fortune offers an automated trading feature, allowing users to set specific trading parameters and let the platform execute trades on their behalf. This can be particularly beneficial for users who don't have the time or expertise to actively monitor the market.
- 24/7 trading: Cryptocurrency markets operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Bitcoin Fortune allows users to trade at any time, ensuring that they don't miss out on lucrative trading opportunities.
III. Is Bitcoin Fortune a Scam?
One of the most common concerns when it comes to online brokers is the potential for scams or fraudulent activities. It is essential to investigate and evaluate the legitimacy of Bitcoin Fortune to determine if it is a reliable platform for cryptocurrency trading.
Addressing common scam concerns
Bitcoin Fortune has taken several measures to address common scam concerns and establish itself as a legitimate online broker. The platform ensures that user funds are securely stored and protected. Additionally, it employs robust security measures to safeguard users' personal information and prevent unauthorized access.
Investigating the legitimacy of Bitcoin Fortune
To determine the legitimacy of Bitcoin Fortune, it is crucial to consider factors such as licensing, regulation, and the reputation of the platform. While Bitcoin Fortune may not be licensed or regulated by traditional financial authorities, it is important to note that cryptocurrency trading is a relatively new industry and regulations are still evolving.
Reviews and feedback from users
One way to gauge the legitimacy of Bitcoin Fortune is to consider reviews and feedback from users. Positive reviews and testimonials can indicate that the platform is trustworthy and has provided a satisfactory trading experience for its users. However, it is important to approach online reviews with caution, as they can be biased or manipulated.
Comparison with other online brokers
Another way to assess the legitimacy of Bitcoin Fortune is to compare it with other established online brokers. By evaluating its features, reputation, and user feedback in relation to other platforms, it is possible to gain a better understanding of Bitcoin Fortune's credibility as an online broker.
IV. How Does Bitcoin Fortune Compare to Other Online Brokers?
To determine how Bitcoin Fortune compares to other online brokers, it is essential to evaluate its features, functionality, and overall user experience in relation to popular platforms in the market.
Overview of popular online brokers
There are numerous online brokers available for cryptocurrency trading, each with its own set of features and advantages. Some of the most popular platforms include Coinbase, Binance, and eToro. These platforms have established a strong reputation and have a large user base.
Comparison of Bitcoin Fortune with other platforms
When comparing Bitcoin Fortune with other online brokers, it is important to consider factors such as user interface, trading options, fees, and customer support. Bitcoin Fortune offers a user-friendly interface, a wide range of trading options, and competitive fees. However, it is essential to conduct thorough research and compare these features with other platforms to make an informed decision.
Differentiating factors and advantages of Bitcoin Fortune
While Bitcoin Fortune may not be as well-known as some of its competitors, it offers several advantages that set it apart from other online brokers. These include its advanced trading algorithms, automated trading feature, and 24/7 trading availability. These features can be particularly beneficial for users looking to maximize their trading opportunities and potentially increase their profits.
V. How to Get Started with Bitcoin Fortune
If you are interested in getting started with Bitcoin Fortune, the following step-by-step guide will help you navigate the account creation process and start trading cryptocurrencies.
Step-by-step guide to creating an account
- Visit the official Bitcoin Fortune website.
- Click on the "Sign Up" or "Register" button to create a new account.
- Provide the required information, including your name, email address, and phone number.
- Create a strong and secure password for your account.
- Agree to the terms and conditions of Bitcoin Fortune.
- Complete the registration process by verifying your email address or phone number.
Funding your Bitcoin Fortune account
Once you have successfully created an account, you will need to fund it to start trading cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin Fortune accepts various payment methods, including credit/debit cards, bank transfers, and cryptocurrencies. Follow the platform's instructions to fund your account using your preferred payment method.
Explaining the user interface and functionalities
Bitcoin Fortune provides a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to navigate and execute trades. The platform typically includes features such as a trading dashboard, live market data, trading charts, and order execution options. Familiarize yourself with the different functionalities of the platform to make the most of your trading experience.
VI. Trading with Bitcoin Fortune
To successfully trade cryptocurrencies on Bitcoin Fortune, it is important to understand the trading process, available options, and potential strategies for success.
Understanding the trading process on Bitcoin Fortune
The trading process on Bitcoin Fortune typically involves the following steps:
- Analyze the market: Utilize the platform's market analysis tools and trading signals to identify potential trading opportunities.
- Set trading parameters: Determine your desired trading parameters, such as investment amount, stop-loss, and take-profit levels.
- Execute the trade: Once you have determined your trading parameters, execute the trade through the platform. Bitcoin Fortune will facilitate the trade and execute it on your behalf.
Exploring the available trading options
Bitcoin Fortune offers a range of trading options, including buying and selling cryptocurrencies, as well as speculating on their price movements through contracts for difference (CFDs). CFD trading allows users to profit from both rising and falling cryptocurrency prices without actually owning the underlying assets.
Tips and strategies for successful trading
While trading cryptocurrencies can be lucrative, it is important to approach it with caution and employ effective strategies. Some tips for successful trading include:
- Conduct thorough research and stay informed about the latest market trends.
- Start with a small investment and gradually increase it as you gain experience and confidence.
- Set realistic profit targets and stop-loss levels to manage risk.
- Diversify your portfolio by trading multiple cryptocurrencies.
- Keep emotions in check and make rational decisions based on market analysis.
VII. Security and Safety Measures on Bitcoin Fortune
Security is a paramount concern when it comes to online brokers and cryptocurrency trading. Bitcoin Fortune takes several measures to ensure the security and safety of user funds and personal information.
Overview of the security measures implemented by Bitcoin Fortune
Bitcoin Fortune utilizes state-of-the-art security measures to protect user funds and personal information. This includes encryption technology to secure user data, as well as multi-factor authentication to prevent unauthorized access to accounts.
How Bitcoin Fortune protects user funds and personal information
Bitcoin Fortune stores user funds in secure, segregated accounts to ensure they are protected from potential hacks or thefts. Additionally, the platform adheres to strict privacy policies to safeguard user personal information and prevent it from being shared with third parties without consent.
Addressing concerns about hacking and fraud
While Bitcoin Fortune implements robust security measures, it is important to note that no system is completely immune to hacking or fraud. Users should take additional precautions, such as using strong and unique passwords, enabling two-factor authentication, and regularly monitoring their accounts for any suspicious activity.
VIII. Customer Support and Assistance
Reliable customer support is crucial when it comes to online brokers. Bitcoin Fortune aims to provide responsive and helpful customer support to assist users with any questions or concerns they may have.
Availability and responsiveness of customer support
Bitcoin Fortune offers customer support services that are available 24/7. This ensures that users can reach out for assistance at any time, regardless of their geographical location. The platform strives to provide prompt and efficient responses to user inquiries.
Contact methods and response times
Bitcoin Fortune typically provides multiple contact methods for customer support, including email, live chat, and phone support. Response times may vary depending on the complexity of the inquiry and the volume of support requests. However, the platform aims to address user concerns in a timely manner.
Frequently asked questions and knowledge base
To facilitate self-help and provide users with quick answers to common questions, Bitcoin Fortune typically maintains a comprehensive knowledge base and frequently asked questions (FAQ) section. This resource can be a valuable tool for users seeking immediate assistance or looking for general information about


Dry Temperature Probe for La Crosse Alerts Mobile Sensors
When connected to a La Crosse Alerts™ temperature and humidity sensor, this 6 ft. dry probe measures air or soil temperature. Use probe to monitor a separate room, refrigerator, freezer, electronics, plants, or kennels. *
- 6 ft. detachable dry temperature probe for existing temperature and humidity sensor
- Dry probe measures temperature of air, soil or other dry environments
- Monitor indoor temperature and humidity with the sensor (purchased seperately) and outdoor temperature with the detachable 6 ft. dry probe.
- Temperature: -40°F to 140°F


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Another day, another story about Jared Leto’s ‘crazy’ method acting. Where the actor was previously accused of sending used condoms, rats and other creepy artefacts to his co-stars in Suicide Squad, reports have now revealed that Leto snorted lines of spicy Arrabiata sauce on the set of Ridley Scott’s latest film, House of Gucci.
Starring the likes of Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Salma Hayek and Lady Gaga, House of Gucci is a venomous drama of deceit and envy, following the fight for power over the illustrious Gucci fashion brand. Jared Leto plays Paolo Gucci, a disgraced businessman who sold his family out before spending extravagantly and filing for bankruptcy in 1993.
Speaking to i-D magazine, Leto discussed how he prepared for his latest role, telling the publication: “I did it all. I was snorting lines of arrabbiata sauce by the middle of this movie. I had olive oil for blood. This was a deep dive I did”. Continuing, Leto announced his dedication to the role, adding: “If you took a biopsy of my skin, it would come back as parmesan cheese! This is my love letter to Italy”.
Not alone in his method acting escapades, lead star Lady Gaga also reported that she got so into her role as Patrizia Reggiani that she was often sick due to stress before every day of production. Explaining how he embodied his House of Gucci character, Leto also told i-D: “There was a lot of work and preparation, and yes, I had an Italian accent and I enjoyed and embraced that, and lived in that space as much as I could, and for as long as I possibly could”.
The jury’s out as to whether Jared Leto’s method acting actually paid off on screen, but for the actor himself, it seems as though he is proud of his own efforts, concluding the interview by stating, “I climbed into that creative cave and came out through the bowels and intestines into the oesophagus of the one and only Paolo Gucci”.


GM Design Touts Tough-Looking GMC Truck Sketch With EV Vibe
Electric vehicles are definitely the future, nay, the present, and automakers are all setting up their electrified lineup to keep up with the market trend (and tight environmental standards). Even trucks are starting to become electrified, so much so that America’s perennial best-selling vehicle, the Ford F-150, already has an electric version, the Ford F-150 Lightning.
Of course, the rest of the US Big Three aren’t about to let the Blue Oval take the cake. In fact, GMC is also early in the game with the electrified return of the Hummer, but reports have stated that the luxury automaker won’t let the Hummer EV be alone in its plugged-in stable.
As confirmed by Duncan Aldred, vice president of global Buick and GMC, to Automotive News back in July, GMC confirmed that an all-electric full-size pickup truck is arriving in “due course,” to be built alongside the Hummer EV. Aldred, however, didn’t confirm whether this full-size EV truck will share the Sierra name.
In terms of design, GMC hasn’t revealed anything yet, but a post from General Motors Design Instagram page might be showing us a preview of what’s to come for the electric EV with a bed. Created by Nathan Zabarsky, the sketch above shows a gnarly-looking truck void of a grille upfront.
However, we’d be remiss not to mention that this isn’t a confirmed design nor did GM mention that the sketch will make its way into a production EV truck. It could, however, give us an idea, considering that the sketch kind of resembles the redesigned 2022 GMC Sierra that debuted last month – or at least it’s within the ballpark in terms of styling.
Based on his LinkedIn profile, Zabarsky has been working with GM since 2017 as a Creative Designer, a job he took after his five-month stint as an Exterior Design Intern for Ford. His Behance profile shows old works including an autonomous Buick vehicle, a Mack Concept on rails, and an ‘Ergonomic’ cheese grater.


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“We are the music makers, we are the dreamers of dreams…” Arthur O’Shaughnessy
The Exuberant Theatre Company
Practicing theatre, we travel through the full range of our emotions to arrive, finally emptied of all disharmony, at joy. We are always learning to be more and more aware of and in control of our body, voice, emotions and mind. Continually striving for mastery, we build a theatrical ensemble and perform work that provides catharsis for our audience. The result of complete catharsis is emotional calm. Only from calmness can we reclaim our energy for celebrating life–our exuberance.
We invite professional actors and non-professionals alike, to experience The Exuberant Theatre Company Training. Drawing extensively upon the European Physical Theatre background of Artistic Director Sean A. Mulvihill, we combine the American-Russian psychological model (inside-out) with the Italian-French physical model (outside-in) of the actor. This union of the two approaches furnishes a complete actor, one who can play his body, voice, mind and emotions like an instrument. The actor who accomplishes that is a virtuoso.
In order to synthesize these two modes of working, we train in various areas of the theatre. Furthermore, actors are members of the community at large and always must perform for an audience, so we also train how to fit our work into the context of the society in which we live.


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The Geeky Juans is basically the podcast version of all the novelties and hobbyist paraphernalia being sold in Greenhills Shopping Mall. Self-proclaimed geeks can test their knowledge about interests by listening to Jude Cruz, Von Adrias, and Steven Tan ecstatically talk about their fandoms in the comic and Gundam world. Since 2018, this trio has successfully been making their episodes distinct from each other by meticulously picking interesting topics and cultivating diverse and entertaining geek-out sessions.
But how exactly did The Geeky Juans start?
Jude and Steven work in the fields of content writing and digital marketing, aside from the fact that all of them—including Von—are History majors who graduated from De La Salle University. Von is currently taking law school. As a way of building personalities outside of their professional careers, the three started the Geeky Juans as an outlet for their geeky interests.
They would usually talk about their fandoms. For example, Cruz’s love for Gundam, and Tan’s thing for comics. By sharing what they’re passionate about, they hope their listeners will be able to resonate with them as well. Aside from these topics, they also cover anime, movies, video games, and pro-wrestling.
On the other hand, both of them realized how the podcast could be an avenue to establish relationships with the people they’ve met and others who share the same interests as well. They envisioned themselves inviting creatives from any industry to join them for interviews and have a rich dialogue about their craft.
Fortunately, they were able to do so in the past two years. They were able to tap Miguel Mercado, a local comic book artist, to join them as their special guest in one of the podcast’s episodes where he discussed his sentimental connection to Spider-Man 2099 (the very first Marvel comic book he got that his mother bought him), his Gwen Stacy cover, movies, and cosplay, among others. In that particular episode, Mercado mentioned how he was contacted by Marvel last 2019 to draw a Spider-Man 2099 cover because of his Peter and Mary Jane fanart that garnered wide public acclaim on social media. In addition, he was also contacted by Jacob Cabochan of Filbar’s and Sandy Sansolis of Comic Odyssey in his making of an Philippine exclusive cover for Archie.
Similarly, for their 35th episode, Cruz and Tan spoke with Jin, an avid cosplayer. Jin narrated how she started out in cosplaying when she started seeing cosplayers in Japan and China through the internet. She realized she had similar physical features with these cosplayers and eventually decided to pursue the endeavor coupled with her fondness of anime. Her first portrayal was lifted from the Prince of Tennis anime series, which her siblings would always watch together as they only shared one television set. Jin’s interest in cosplay also stemmed from her love for theater, fueling her passion to dress up and mimic a character. She identified it as the trait that sustained her commitment to the hobby of cosplaying.
These two stories show that The Geeky Juans is more than just a source of entertainment. The podcast has become a space where like-minded people can talk about their passions and find a community they can belong to. The way The Geeky Juans is able to create an inclusive community shows that they have been successful in relating to their fellow geeks.
While The Geeky Juans have a unique content structure, the trio is aware that they still need to set themselves apart from other podcasts. One of the ways they do this is through their candor when it comes to reviewing certain topics. By maintaining their candidness and constantly curating ideas that they’re zealous about, it’s easy for the pair to imbue their content with more love and energy.
What’s also flamboyant about their podcast is how they stay true to their geekiness in the wide range of subjects they cover. It’s a reflection of how they love to listen to different kinds of fans and appeal to all kinds of geeky interests.
The podcast can be seen as both Jude’s and Steven’s extended identity, and more than just a sharing platform, it has also been a way for them to learn about other skills such as arranging a conducive audio and live-video setup, editing various multimedia content, and even developing personal marketing and communication skills. The two hosts are also grateful for fellow podcasters who helped them improve their hosting skills, and as well as guide them in tailor-fitting their podcast format such that it will facilitate a wider and more engaged audience.
Just like much of the media we consume these days, The Geeky Juans is a one-stop shop for all things geeky. More than just an avenue for entertainment, it’s also a community-building platform where everyone gets to hear and share what they love.
Visual By: Chloe Gaw
Written by: Ervin Delas Peñas

domain: entertainment


text: I got an email today about taking a survey about my Magic playing habits. Anyone else see this? It might be an MTGO thing. It felt weird answering some of the questions because I haven't touched a paper card or even played online in a few years, but my wife bought me the board game for Christmas, so I put that as the version I've played most recently even though I prefer the regular card game. I also put this site as my primary source of Magic news and connecting with the Magic community.

domain: game


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- How much money do pro Valorant players make?
- How bad is cheating in Valorant?
- How old is Valorant?
- Is Valorant playable?
- Will Valorant kill fortnite?
- What country is Valorant?
- Is Valorant worldwide?
- Does Valorant have virus?
- Is Valorant still popular?
- Will Valorant kill CSGO?
- Which country owns Riot Games?
- Which country plays Valorant the most?
- Is Valorant a spyware?
- How many are playing Valorant right now?
- Is Valorant safe to install?
- How much money do Valorant pros make?
- How much money has Valorant made?
- Is Valorant pay to win?
How much money do pro Valorant players make?
A report from Graham Ashton on The Esports Observer has stated that the average salary for a Valorant team featuring five players can range anywhere from $15,000 to $25,000 per month..
How bad is cheating in Valorant?
97% of the player base goes unreported in Valorant Akerman said: “Reports feed into many of our team’s processes both automated and manual. … 90% have been reported by fewer than 3 players. To put this another way, only 0.6% of players have received more than 1 cheating report and only 0.3% have received 3 or more.
How old is Valorant?
Is Valorant playable?
Valorant is out now on PC and is free-to-play, but other platforms may be announced in the future.
Will Valorant kill fortnite?
Valorant will not kill Fortnite – Concluding the Riot games vs Epic games debate. … Valorant is in no way a threat to Fortnite.
What country is Valorant?
IndiaRiot Games has officially released its free-to-play first-person shooter game Valorant in India and other Asia-Pacific and Oceaania regions. The Windows PC game has also gone live in Europe, Turkey, MENA, Russia and CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries.
Is Valorant worldwide?
Riot Games announced Thursday that its 5-on-5 character-based tactical shooter VALORANT will launch for free on June 2 across a majority of regions worldwide. North America, Europe, South Korea, Brazil, Oceania, Japan and more will be able to play the game starting June 2 in a staggered rollout across the globe.
Does Valorant have virus?
There have been concerns spread about online that the anti-cheat system for Valorant is actually malware. People over on Twitter and various Reddit threads have accused the anti-cheat software of Valorant being malware and a reason not to play its beta. … Now you can make a decision to install malware or not.
Is Valorant still popular?
Valorant was never going to keep its closed beta popularity. It’s was never going to happen, guys – deal with it! However, it’s still a fairly popular game.
Will Valorant kill CSGO?
Until Valve steps up and proves that they’re capable of the same things, Valorant will edge out CSGO just as Riot has edged out Valve as an event organizer.
Which country owns Riot Games?
Riot Games was majority-acquired by Chinese corporation Tencent in February 2011 and fully acquired in December 2015.
Which country plays Valorant the most?
Top Countries For VALORANT1.United States502 Players2.Canada76 Players3.Korea, Republic of72 Players4.Japan85 Players5.Sweden32 Players72 more rows•Apr 9, 2020
Is Valorant a spyware?
And no, it’s not spyware. “Vanguard contains a driver component called vgk. … Any cheat detection scans will be run by the non-driver component only when the game is running.” Essentially, while Vanguard is constantly running, it is only active while Valorant is active.
How many are playing Valorant right now?
There are no fixed numbers released on how many people are actually playing the game but Riot games did release some stats for closed beta which stated that nearly 3 million players logged on each day to play Valorant during its two-month beta testing period.
Is Valorant safe to install?
Well, simply put, Valorant is incredibly invasive, taking kernel-level access to the operating system that is a major risk to the integrity and security of Windows 10. Hackers and viruses will seek to gain kernel-level access to Windows to get up to all sorts of nefarious misdeeds, and any driver or software that taps …
How much money do Valorant pros make?
Top 20 highest earning Valorant prosPositionNameEarnings1stardiis$21,689.602ndmixwell$18,865.413rddavidp$18,349.454thpyth$17,925.3216 more rows•Sep 6, 2020
How much money has Valorant made?
The game has reportedly generated $20 billion in revenue over its lifetime. A member of Gen. G’s “League of Legends” team practices ahead of a match.
Is Valorant pay to win?
Yes. Valorant is free to download and free-to-play as well.


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Macbeth is also one of the most ambitious character as he does many crimes to achieve the power and become the King. Macbeth’s ambition started when the witches told him about the prophecies because of these prophecies he killed King Duncan and planned to kill Banquo. Before Macbeth killed the King, even though he was really ambitious he still thought before killing Duncan this shows ambition in a positive way. However, he still killed King Duncan this shows ambition in a negative way. The first time Macbeth met the witches one thing they said to Banquo was that his son will rule the world in the fear that someone will take his kingship he tried to kill Banquo’s son. Most of the characters who were killed in the play died off stage and Macbeth was killed on stage this shows that due to his evilness and the crimes he committed Shakespeare showed that this is what will happen to you and too much ambition is not a good
The play “Macbeth”, by William Shakespeare illustrates many themes through the characters from the beginning to the end of the story. But the main central theme introduced is Ambition and Greed. As the play goes on we read how Macbeth permits his Ambition and Greed to dictate the outcomes and tragedy’s that occur to himself and others. The main examples of Ambition and Greed is seen through Duncan, Banquo, and Macduff.
In William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, Macbeth begins as a man of integrity and is a noble man. Infact he was one of the king’s favorite fighters and subjects. But over time Macbeth becomes corrupt once the power and the crown are his. Macbeth first becomes power thirsty when he and Banquo were given a prophecy by the three weird sisters. The theme ambition shows up frequently in the character Macbeth, especially when it has some relation to murder and the throne, to get the throne to begin with, some examples are when he killed King Duncan, Macduff’s family and Banquo, to keep the throne.
Both greed and power, if not controlled, can lead to destruction. Throughout William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, Shakespeare uses both characters Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to demonstrate how ambition can change one’s personal relationships. As in the beginning of Act 1, Scene 7 Macbeth and Lady Macbeth do not share the same ambition, and it is because of this that their relationship lacks love and affection however through the use of persuasion and other means, Lady Macbeth is able to get Macbeth to pursue her ambition. This not only changes their relationship drastically but it also changes Macbeth’s attitude towards ambition.Throughout the play, Shakespeare shows us through Macbeth, the possibility for ambition to eventually turn into greed and how the lust for power may corrupt us. This type of sentiment can be seen when Macbeth says “ Bloody instructions,being taught, return to plague the inventor” (Act 1, scene 7). Here, with the use of personification, we can see that Macbeth is wrestling with his ambition, as he is still toying with the idea of whether to kill Duncan or not. Macbeth is aware that murdering Duncan is bad and could eventually lead to even more bloodshed, he is also aware that murdering Duncan could ruin his honor which he greatly values. Macbeth states that Duncan is a good man and a good king, and from this he decides that ambition is not enough to justify the possible regicide of King Duncan. Lady Macbeth, on the other hand will do anything to pursue
A story of tragedy is not uncommon with William Shakespeare and his works of prose. In his plays, death and despair is more likely than honor and prosperity. This is an included facet to Macbeth as well, having sinister themes of greed, manipulation, and brutality. Macbeth, by the infamous playwright, Shakespeare, presents us with multiple aspects factoring into whether the main character controls his actions that lead to the tragic events.
This shows macbeth's ambition because he is willing to kill kids and a whole family just so he can stay king. Macbeth is a tragic hero because he meet that first requirement which is Hamartia This shows the that Macbeth is very desperate to stay king. By now, Macbeth has changed a lot. He used to be very kind, and had a lot of ambition for the right reasons. But Lady Macbeth has changed him, when he agreed to kill
Helen Keller once said “character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” People inspired by ambition can accomplish great things. However, when tempted by their desires, people can destroy themselves as well. These desires can simply be too much for any one person or two to overcome. In William Shakespeare’s dramatic tragedy ‘Macbeth’, ambition is portrayed throughout and Macbeth, a Scottish Noblemen is overcome by his desires. His downfall and destruction was caused by his blind ambition leading to his fatal flaw.
How can a man of trust and honor morally decline to the point of becoming a traitor and heartless murderer? The story of Macbeth clearly illustrates Shakespeare’s effective portrayal of sinful human nature. The tragic eroding of Macbeth’s character can be blamed on three primary factors: the prophecies of the three witches, the evil influence of his wife Lady Macbeth, and his continual determination to keep the throne at all costs.
Throughout Shakespeare’s Macbeth it becomes evident that Macbeth’s demise as the tragic hero occurs as a consequence of his own actions. Macbeth examines themes of overarching ambition, changing and controlling fate, and disruptions in the natural order. These ideas are exemplified through Macbeth’s characterisation as the tragic hero, through the emphasis that is placed upon his hamartia and through the evidence of his attempts to change his fate. This is supported through Act 1, Scene 7 as Macbeth encounters the witches and his fatal flaw is exposed, throughout Act 3 as the disparity of Macbeth’s morality and psychological state progressively declines, resulting in his eventual demise
To concluded, Macbeth through the whole play you can see his desire rising more and more. The witches’ prophecy dud wrong to Macbeth and made him ending up in a bad place which its death. Ambition didn’t leave anything good him. He committed murders and even lead him to lose everything he
Some would argue that Lady Macbeth made him king, but his own desires were truly what fuelled his ambition to do whatever it took to make himself king. “Two truths are told, As happy prologues to the swelling act of the imperial theme” (Shakespeare 1.3 136-138). Lady Macbeth may have pushed Macbeth but he killed the former king and others to make himself king. Macbeth has the blood on his hands, he was not forced into killing anyone he did that out of his own desire to become king. Macbeth wanted to be king because he had the insight to what his future held which fueled his ambition and drive to become
Shakespeare's tragedy, Macbeth, analyzes the tragic downfall of a man who pursued his prophecy given to him by three witches, and suffered the downfall because of it. Told his power was inevitable, Macbeth explores the idea of murdering the King to achieve his goal of becoming King himself. Macbeth continually faces this, contemplating the moral issue of committing murder to in turn, fulfill his powerful destiny. While facing this internal conflict, Lady Macbeth developes an influence over Macbeth as well. Driven by her own desire to be Queen, Lady Macbeth persuades Macbeth to commit the murder, by challenging his manhood and often reminding him that it is, in fact, his destiny. We see the two counter each other’s claims throughout this as
Macbeth started off as a valiant and courageous soldier, who would do anything for the king. By the end of the play, Macbeth was a tyrant and a horrible leader who killed those who trusted him to maintain the throne. It takes many factors to take a strong man and transform him into an evil monster. Macbeth’s downfall was caused by the deception and temptation of the witches and their prophecies, Lady Macbeth’s greed and aspirations for her husband to be king, and Macbeth’s own greed, jealousy and ambition.
William Shakespeare, playwright of Macbeth, shows the importance that power and corruption can hold on a person’s humanity. In order to prove the true effect of personal gains, he uses the main character, Macbeth, to show how evil people are willing to become. Personal power has the ability to be essential to greatness, but at the same time is able to destroy a person’s true nature. Believe it or not, Macbeth once was a man of honor. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth was loyal to King Duncan, a strong military leader, and a respected husband. Throughout the tragedy, Macbeth 's character takes a big, yet gradual change for the worst as ambition starts to completely take over him. Once the three witches give Macbeth his prophecies he transitions from a brave, loyal man to a cold blooded murderer. His power hungry personality leads to a character change from who he was before he knew about the witches prophecies, after he learned of them, and right before he was murdered. In Macbeth, Shakespeare dramatises the damaging physical and mental effects of ambition on those who seek power for their own sake.
Without moral discipline, anarchy would arise- boundary, order, and control would cease to exist. Every day, humankind is in a constant battle between right and wrong, good and evil. Even a once noble person will turn to greed, betrayal, and guilt when deprived of their morals. The deprivation of morality and its effects reflect itself within the story The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were once noble people, but when exposed to the possibility of power and control, they turn corrupt, allowing their sinister thoughts to consume them. By portraying Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s loss of moral discipline, Shakespeare accentuates the calamitous corruption of human nature, and warns society that ambition without


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From Our Editors
At Publix in Hialeah, you can shop for all of your favorite grocery items and discover some new and tasty items. For baked goods that are as delicious as they are fluffy, don't forget to pick up some fresh ingredients to make sure your creation hits it out-of-the-park. With a bottle of water in hand, it's easy to refresh and refuel. Grab a couple drinks from Publix and stay on the go all the time. Add some produce to your next dinner plate for a delicious meal jam-packed with vitamins and nutrients. If you're looking for beverages that will handle all your hydration needs, look no further. This drink will refresh, renew, and refuel your energy. If you love to taste different tea and coffee blends, check out the selection of items available at Publix. Looking for comfort food? What's better than spaghetti or a savory pasta dish? Grab some of this pasta today and your next meal will be on-point! Catch all your omega-3 fatty acids! Fish are delicious and nutritious, so start planning your next seafood platter. If milk is your go-to beverage, you'll love the dairy products available here (great for strengthening your bones and teeth). Chicken, beef, sausage, and more are all available from this fine establishment for your cuisine. When you have a hunger craving in between meals, these snacks will come in handy. Pick up a loaf of freshly-baked bread from Publix and create that tasty sandwich you've been craving all day. If you are starting to run low on oil and vinegar, head on over here and pick up your favorites. Pick up some of their quality seasonings and spices for a delicious meal that packs a ton of flavor. Who's hungry? A frozen entree will fool anyone's palate, so why waste time cooking up a storm? The frozen food here tastes so good, you'll forget it came from the microwave! Cereal doesn't have to be just for kids. If you are looking for a quick, easy, and tasty breakfast to get out the door, pick some up today. When you need to prepare a quick and healthy meal, some canned goods from Publix will do the trick.
Traveling by car is no problem at all with the fantastic available parking near Publix. Publix in Hialeah offers both fresh and affordable items so stop by today and get all of your grocery shopping done in one fell swoop.

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I used LA Colors Sea Foam as a base. Its a really unusual colour. One of those ones that you spend hours trying to describe. Then you settle on one but look at it again 24 hours later and its different again. Hey ho, maybe its just me... ;)
I then used my finest detail brush from Roo Beauty to paint in the lily petals with French White, and then added the petal detail with Jessica Blushing Princess. I dotted in the centres using Color Club Psychedelic Scene and more Blusking Princess and then used Color Club Gimme A Grape Big Kiss to add some colour to the edges of each petal. I then painted in some stems using Sinful Colors Exotic Green and Barry M Gelly Key Lime and finished with Seche Vite.
As far as the Buffet goes, we have just settled on our themes for the next few months and they are up for your viewing pleasure in the group :)
Don't forget to check out everyone else's fab florals below!


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Six months ago Childcare Expo got the early years, childcare and nursery sector buzzing. It is now just six months until this event is back again bringing all that was great about last year’s show and more to the Ricoh Arena in Coventry on 27th - 28th September.
New Kids on the Block
Many of last year’s exhibitors such as Community Playthings, SenseToys and Eduzone have re-booked their space at the show ready to meet lots more potential customers again this year. The popular event has attracted more and more companies each year and will be introducing many new exhibitors to meet the masses including Child’s Play, Meningitis Trust and While on the Move this September.
For the 4th year running Childcare Expo are proud to be sponsored by the UK’s market leader in childcare insurance, Morton Michel and excited to introduce this year’s media partners Nursery World. Nursery World is the UK's leading magazine and website for practitioners and decision-makers across the early year’s education and childcare sectors making them the perfect partners for this event.
A sensational seminar programme is filling up with industry leaders who are ready to focus on the hot topics facing early year’s professionals and deliver some educational and informative talks to give visitors some food for thought. This year’s seminar programme will include Anand Shukla, Chief Executive Officer of Daycare Trust, Sue Robb, Head of Early Years at 4Children, Gail Ryder Richardson from Outdoor Matters as well as speakers from PACEY and NDNA.
Event Director Emma Barrett said “This will be the 4th year for Childcare Expo which year on year has grown in both the number of visitors and exhibitors. We hope to make this year the best yet and make sure everyone leaves the show with a smile on their faces and excited about the future of this dynamic sector.”
To find out more about Childcare Expo 2013 please visit www.childcareexpo.co.uk or call us on 01425 838393.


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Number one cause of accidents in the waste industry is backing accidents!
Backing accidents continue to be the most
frequent type of accident in the waste industry. Typically, the end
result of most of these backing accidents is minor to moderate damage to
a parked car or fixed object. However, when pedestrians or bicyclists
are involved, there is always the potential that a backing accident can
result in serious injury or even death.
Because most of them seem
to result in only minor property damage claims, there are some waste
companies that see backing accidents as a cost of doing business. Thus,
some of these firms may not spend a great deal of time or expend much
energy toward their prevention. The old adage is that “frequency breeds
severity,” and the more backing mishaps a waste company has, the more
likely they are to endure a serious or catastrophic accident.
following deadly backing accidents occurred around the country within
the past couple of years and should remind everyone that these accidents
can result, first and foremost, in loss of life, but also large
liability claims, negative publicity for a company and even criminal
Arizona: A 79-year-old man was killed after being backed
over by a waste collection vehicle. The helpers were further up the
street at the time of the accident and the driver was using his mirrors
to back the truck. The truck had a working backing alarm.
Iowa: A 45-year-old woman was fatally injured when she was backed over by a waste collection vehicle in an alley.
Pennsylvania: A helper on a collection truck was killed when he was pinned between a telephone pole and the backing truck.
A 54-year-old man died after being backed over by a refuse collection
vehicle. The man was crossing the street when the truck backed over him.
Florida: A collection driver was cited for improper backing after he backed over his helper. The helper died from his injuries.
The driver of a waste collection vehicle faces charges after backing
over and killing an 85-year-old man in a parking lot.
nine-year-old boy was killed when he was backed over by a waste
collection truck. The boy had followed a ball into the street, and the
driver of the truck never saw him.
Ohio: A man who was legally
blind was struck and killed by a backing waste collection truck. Charges
were filed against the driver after it was discovered that the backing
alarm (beeper) was not in working order at the time of the accident.
Bruce Hooker works for R.F. Mattei & Associates of CA Insurance Services, Sacramento, Calif.


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“One way of feeling infallible is not to keep a diary,” wrote George Orwell in December 1943. The man considered by many to be the English language’s most influential political essayist of the 20th century never tired of questioning himself and was indeed a prolific diarist.
Next month, his diaries will be published in the United States (after being published two years ago in Britain). Though that in itself would be a festive literary occasion, what has added interest to the publication is the fact that the introduction was written by Christopher Hitchens, the British-American journalist and polemicist who died last December. Not only is it likely that this will be one of the last pieces written by Hitchens to see the light of day, but there is particular poignance in its being an appreciation of Orwell − the one writer he most admired and strived to emulate. It is also significant for being the first and only place where Hitchens has addressed at any length Orwell’s latent anti-Semitism.
Over the last decade, Hitchens’ writing has become the main prism by which Orwell is read and understood by many. Through his own wide popularity, Hitchens reintroduced Orwell to a younger generation and has served as apologist-in-chief for some of Orwell’s more disturbing tendencies.
Orwell and Hitchens had many traits in common, not least their willingness to address uncomfortable issues and challenge accepted thinking, but one glaring omission in Hitchens’ constant defense of his life-long inspiration, it has always seemed to me, as an avid reader of both authors, was his apparent complacency regarding one of Orwell’s most remarked-upon faults: his disregard for Jews.
In one of Hitchens’ earlier spirited defenses of Orwell, a 1996 response to the revelation that Orwell on his deathbed had compiled for the authorities a list of potential communist sympathizers, Hitchens admitted in a Vanity Fair column that Orwell “did have a slightly thuggish side to him on occasion, making unkind remarks about ‘nancy’ homosexuals and (when he was younger) Jews. But he always strove to overcome these scars of his upbringing.”
The parenthesis says it all: According to Hitchens, Orwell’s antipathy toward Jews was a passing phase, an adolescent misdemeanor that he outgrew. As a result, the younger writer didn’t feel that the issue warranted more than passing mention in his 2002 book “Why Orwell Matters,” in which he deals at length with the latter’s relations with the political left and right, British colonialism, feminism and even his literary merits. On all of these, Orwell’s record is championed for his unswerving commitment to penetrating truth and moral disambiguation.
Hitchens is right: Orwell accurately sketched, and in many cases foresaw the hypocrisies and contradictions of modern ideology, politics and media. For his brave refusal to conform to any party line, he paid a heavy price. After resigning from the colonial Burmese police force, he lived most of his life as an itinerant writer, forced to accept ill-paying odd jobs due to a lack of fixed income. In revolutionary Spain, he nearly paid with his life for his opposition and outspoken criticism to the communist takeover of the Republican cause.
Orwell achieved critical and commercial success only when he was already dying from tuberculosis, and yet 62 years later, most of his writings still resonate clearly in a world facing the challenges he was first to detect and define. Hitchens admitted that “George Orwell has always meant everything to me” and we can sympathize with that feeling. But his admiration seems to have clouded partly his critical faculty, for Orwell never fully grew out of his ill feelings toward Jews.
Hitchens and other admirers of Orwell have sought to cleanse him of this accusation of judeophobia by citing the long English literary tradition, from the days of Chaucer until well into the 1930s, of villainous Jewish characters, and by emphasizing the thoughtful way Orwell wrote about anti-Semitism later in his career and, of course, his large number of Jewish friends.
One of his most able biographers, D.J. Taylor, who has dealt seriously with the issue, quotes journalist Malcolm Muggeridge, who was surprised by the number of Jews who attended Orwell’s funeral, since he thought that he was “at heart strongly anti-Semitic.” Other contemporaries record Orwell, at late stages of his life, remarking to them about the preponderance of Jews working for the Observer newspaper for which he wrote, and indeed in his diaries he refers to the control of Jews over vast swathes of the media.
It is true: Nowhere in his later writings does Orwell write of Jews as crudely as he did in his very first book − “Down and Out in Paris and London” where, in addition to fantasizing about punching in the face a Paris pawnbroker, a “red-haired Jew, an extraordinarily disagreeable man,” the first thing he notices upon returning to London is in a coffee shop where, “in a corner by himself a Jew, muzzle down in the plate, was guiltily wolfing bacon.”
Even in his last years (he died in 1950) Orwell was always quick to identify people, gratuitously, as Jews, in a way in which their Jewishness is seen an explanation to their situation, actions or appearance.
His idol’s prejudices
We will probably never know why Hitchens, who described himself “as a wretchedly heretic and bastard member of the tribe” − famously discovering at the age of 38 (after he had already discovered Orwell’s work) that his late mother was Jewish − found it hard to seriously address one of his idol’s deepest prejudices. And it is rather ironic that his most serious consideration of this is seeing light posthumously. Hitchens must have realized, though, that readers of the Orwell diaries, coming upon repeated disparaging references to “Jews,” would demand some sort of answer.
“One of the many things that made Orwell so interesting,” he writes in the introduction, “was his self-education away from such prejudices, which also included a marked dislike of the Jews. But anyone reading the early pages of these accounts and expeditions will be struck by how vividly Orwell still expressed his unmediated disgust at some of the human specimens with whom he came into contact. When joining a group of itinerant hop pickers he is explicitly repelled by the personal characteristics of a Jew to whom he cannot bear even to give a name, characteristics which he somehow manages to identify as Jewish.”
Hitchens tries to stick here to the defense that Orwell’s antipathy was in his “early” pages and that “he strove to overcome” and self-educate himself away from prejudice. But he acknowledges the “unmediated disgust” at the appearance of Jewish characteristics, and later on deals with it at further length when he writes of Orwell’s “need to know things at the level of basic experience.”
Hearing a rumor in 1940 that “Jews greatly predominate among the people sheltering in the Tube [underground station],” Orwell notes: “Must try and verify this.” Ten days later, he is down in the depths of the transport system to examine “the crowds sheltering in Chancery Lane, Oxford Circus and Baker Street stations. Not all Jews, but, I think, a higher proportion of Jews than one would normally see in a crowd of this size.” He goes on, with almost cold objectivity, to note that Jews have a way of making themselves conspicuous.
Again, this is not so much an expression of prejudice as a form of confrontation − a stage in Orwell’s own evolution. Only a few months after he expresses the misanthropic and even xenophobic view that European refugees, including Jews, secretly despise England and surreptitiously sympathize with Hitler, he excoriates the insular-minded British authorities for squandering the talents of Jewish Central European emigre Arthur Koestler. When Orwell contradicts himself, as he very often does, he tries his best to be aware of the fact and to profit from it.
Hitchens nails down Orwell’s attitude to Jews as a self-aware and useful contradiction. A man can be disgusted at the sight of easily identifiable Jews while having numerous Jewish friends and even admired Jewish contemporaries, and while he knows and writes that anti-Semitism is wrong, he also acknowledges that it is ineradicable in human society, even from oneself.
But as Hitchens himself would probably admit, Orwell defined his own feelings about Jews. In his monumental essay “Antisemitism in Britain,” he hinted at his own inner feelings, writing that the “starting point for any investigation of antisemitism should not be ‘Why does this obviously irrational belief appeal to other people?’ but ‘Why does antisemitism appeal to me? What is there about it that I feel to be true?’ If one asks this question one at least discovers one’s own rationalisations, and it may be possible to find out what lies beneath them. Antisemitism should be investigated − and I will not say by antisemites, but at any rate by people who know that they are not immune to that kind of emotion.”
This essay was first published in April 1945 in Contemporary Jewish Record, the forerunner of today’s Commentary. One wonders whether today’s bastion of neoconservatism would run such a piece and whether its writer would not have been excoriated by the Anti-Defamation League.
But Orwell was nothing if not honest, and Hitchens is right to defend him. He did try to educate himself away from his native prejudices, and even if not entirely successful in defeating them, he was scathingly honest about them. And how many other writers can we say that about?
Everyone has irrational dislikes and pet hatreds, some of them morally wrong, but we either outgrow them or they evolve with us, and we have to handle them somehow. Orwell put the handling of his own feelings toward Jews on public display, an act of daring unimaginable today by any “respectable” writer. If the involuntary thought − “what is wrong with these Jews?” − goes through my mind, does that make me prejudiced? And what if I confide that thought in my diary or to a friend?” Orwell realized the ugly truth that we are all prejudiced, and tried to deal with it out in the open.
For more, go to Haaretz.com
Was George Orwell an Anti-Semite?

domain: literature