to hunger and/or homelessness for myself. Keeping the delicate balance of boring-routine-proven, inline with fun experimentation is the challenge at the heart of this query. Today’s tough economy limits opportunity for innovation and testing at every level.
The idea of being able to implement new features without being forced up against the wall, to pay for feature licenses, is an obvious turn-on. Then again, the notion that the same minor network driver issue that could provide a vexing weekend of troubleshooting on a homebrew server could be the very same one that keeps dragging down an entire LAN makes my stomach turn. Despite a limited budget for test equipment, I can stomach some tough work and research so long as it leads to needed solutions that I can deploy for long-term production with confidence.
Cisco ASA (5505) Pros:
- sturdy construction, wall and rack mounts available
- easily tolerates the wide temperature swings typically present at smaller location router installs
- world-class software and on-site hardware support
- efficient, well-tuned OS
- popularity = documented fixes / workarounds for most any situation encountered
- no moving parts to stop moving at inopportune times
Cisco ASA (5505) Cons:
- dedicated to throwing small operators under bus
- requires additional costs for f/w updates and device recovery (anyone in the office have a spare USB to serial cable you can borrow?)
- incompatible w/ best practice of referring to NTP server by fqdn
- incompatible w/ even simple dynamic dns services, utilized for redundancy
- lacks even basic DNS services for orgs w/o a dedicated, on-site server
- limited / out-of-touch offerings for anything but mega-sized orgs
- arbitrary limitations imposed on otherwise capable devices, merely to generate additional revenue
pfSense on embedded, solid-state device Pros:
- more cost effective, and growing even more so, as PC prices decline
- no manufacturer incentive to hold me hostage for licensing fees
- device software limits logically tied hardware limitations in a practical way, allowing for easier forethought, selling, and planning
- in some cases, building a fully-redundant cold or hot swap unit would be less than the cost of Cisco + SmartNet
- support for USB flash drives eases admin burden
- Layer 7 inspection and VLAN trunking support out-of-the-box
- Linux base means ability to add relevant packages, like Asterisk, for a small-business PBX server
- can run off commodity hardware in an emergency
pfSense on embedded, solid-state device Cons:
- uncertainty: most of the (compact, powerful, yet solid-state) devices I’ve looked at feature Realtek NICs, instead of genuine Intel as I (and pfSense documentation) would prefer. Ordering hundreds of dollars in parts to build a router would not yield a happy client if something as basic and fundamental as NIC drivers could grow into a time-consuming, network-crashing issue
- support: I understand these smaller, open-sourced businesses may be forced to charge for time rather than on a per-incident basis. If their team is effective, it could be a more profitable solution, with just a few hours potentially lasting me a long time. On the other hand, if they are ineffective script readers, I could find myself out of a job and support hours all at once. Even if awsome,, they could succumb to economic pressures and fold tomorrow, leaving me with no support team at mission critical moments of the multi-year lifespan of these devices
- some resources must be wasted: I am not naive enough to think that a router based on a general-purpose OS could perform as efficiently as Cisco IOS - I go in assuming I will need a processor at least twice as powerful as the one I’d find in a comparable Cisco device to attain the same level of performance. This is approximately consistent with the recommendations tendered on the pfSense blog. I hope to be pleasantly surprised, yet I work in IT so I continue to plan for the worst.
- difficult to keep consistent hardware lineup means additional time spent tweaking and developing support and testing protocols for an ever-evolving set of hardware
I’m not interested in hearing about non-Cisco or non-Open Source options. I’ve seen all I care to: they are all second-rate compared to Cisco. All the commercial competitors decapitate their product lines unnecessarily, in vital ways, so as to coerce additional monetary payments at the most inconvenient moments. Once one graduates past a 5505 with Security Plus license and even basic level SmartNet, they are in a price range where considering alternatives that factor in a cold spare becomes not insane.
Much as I enjoy foregoing raises and vacations so that the IT budget can be spent enabling router commands I need in order to do my job, this must end somewhere. I feel the end of my near-universal endorsement period for ASAs may be coming to a close.
I am still in the midst of conducting research. I hope to have a clearer vision of what the specs and costs will be for a solid-state pfSense appliance that I can recommend for purchase with confidence. The (slightly) lower price and patience of my friend will buy me some leeway for testing, and even post-rollout tweaking. The potential for embarrassment and/or sky-high support costs still looms - as does letting this valuable educational opportunity pass me by.
I was looking initially at the Jetway JNF9D from mini-box. I like many things about the design, particularly the fact that it is solid-state, wall mountable, has 5 Ethernet ports, and operates on 12VDC. Concern over their use of Realtek NICs and proprietary daughterboards has found me investigating other options and drafting this query.
I can’t be the only one pondering this type of situation.
I am very interested in thoughts and suggestions, particularly from those who have recently installed pfSense on the newer breed of powerful small machines, and those who have experience both with pfSense and commercial Cisco gear.
Mar 16, 2013 at 9:24 UTC
Hi legalizeit
Having build a lot of PFSense boxes, I must say that I absolutely love PFsense, It is rock solid and just works.
I have mostly used Intel mini-itx boards for this purpose, d2500cc or s1200kpr (much more expensive build)
If you stick a d2500cc, memory, a cheap intel ssd in a mini-itx case, you would look at around $250-$300. You could tweak this with a usb stick instead of a ssd, but I tend to use SSD/Harddrive instead as it's the preferred way of running PFSense according to PFSense :-)
I know that $250-$300 is above you price point, but I found that the customer usually like the increased stability of a router/firewall that just work 24/7.
Mar 16, 2013 at 10:14 UTC
With one year of SmartNet and a wall mount, your most basic Cisco ASA 5505 easily exceeds $500. It's much closer to, or over, $1,000 for the license to enable VLANs on said device (license, in this case, is merely a code you type in that unlocks commands within Cisco's proprietary OS).
For my next project I'd be employing a real, IOS 12 Cisco router. Refurbished equipment costs will start at $1500.
After I equip the Intel mobo you suggest with a case, RAM, a small SSD, a power supply, 2 or more PoE injectors, and wall mount kit I'd be lucky to scoot by at $450, which is still well within the equipment budget. I'm aware and prepared for the fact that building a quality pfSense appliance will likely be more than a basic 5505 w/ no mount kits or support. If it gives me more freedom to shine, then I'd consider it well worth it. If it just causes more headaches, it'd be the epitome of bad investment.
One contradiction that kills me is the


There are some plot twists that are ubiquitous in dramas. Love triangles take first place, but the birth secret is a close second. It seems almost impossible for a drama to manage to make it through its run without pulling some form of birth secret, and that’s not limited to melos either. Action-revenge drama City Hunter? Yoon-sung’s birth father wasn’t his real father. Classic trendy drama Feelings? Yuri’s brother isn’t actually her brother. But why is this one plot convenience so common?
Part of the reason is that birth secrets actually happen in Korean society, both in terms of adoption and altered family relations. Confucian cultures have a heavy emphasis on bloodlines, which has led to a societal resistance to taking in non-related children. Up through the 2000’s, most Korean children adopted were adopted overseas. Even when the government tightened restrictions, the rate of domestic adoptions stayed about the same. Those who adopt will often pretend the adopted child is biological, due to the public perception that infertility is shameful. Thus, the scene in You’re the Best, Lee Soon-shin where the titular protagonist finds out she was adopted is something that actually happens.
The other major type of birth secret are altered family relations, where the characters’ family is  their biological family, but the nitty-gritty of the relationships are altered. Grandparents posing as parents is the most common variation, currently seen in weekend drama Wonderful Season. And these happen in real-life as well. Javabeans and GirlFriday, founders of the website Dramabeans, are both of Korean descent. In their book Why Do Dramas Do That?, they openly admit that birth secrets are so common in their families that they have ceased to shock them.
“Perhaps it’s because elders in the Korean family structure tend to make decisions (e.g., adopt that child) and then talk about it for decades. The illusion becomes the new truth, everyone accepts it, and anybody not lucky enough to have been alive to know the real situation is left out of the loop.”
Because birth secrets happen in real life, the utilization of birth secrets can be less a case of using a well-known plot twist to fill an episode and more of a writer simply writing what they know. However, the appeal for writers under deadline cannot be understated.
Birth secrets are one of the best twists for a writer to pull out of the Bag of Ways to Fill Airtime because they are so versatile. In the event of sagging ratings, one can be instigated at anytime, with little to no warning, and the effects can be drawn out forever. One such case is You’re the Best, Lee Soon-shin. Soon-shin learning that she was adopted and her subsequent issues with both her biological mother and adoptive family are what really drives over half of the show, letting the original premise of Soon-shin’s struggle to find her niche in life fall by the wayside. As the birth secret took more and more of each episode, the ratings just continued to rise.
Other times, they can be dropped at the start of the drama to give their otherwise formulaic set-up a way to stand out. One of the things about Heirs that caught a lot of people’s eye is Kim Tan’s birth secret. His mother is the mistress of the most powerful CEO in Korea, so Tan’s mother is listed in the records as his step-mother. This is something which he, his brother, and their parents are all very aware of, yet it is shielded from the public at all costs. Tan’s frustration that this is secret is one of the most telling aspects of his character early on, as the usual chaebol wouldn’t want to risk his claim to the family fortune.
Then, there is that which seems to go hand-in-hand with birth secrets: faux-cest. The drama of falling in love with someone seen as a sibling is almost unparalleled. The drama that codified the trope of faux-cest via birth secret was the 1994 hit Feelings. Yuri’s developing relationships with Han Bin, Hun, and Joon are affected by the slowly pieced together reveal that Joon is Yuri’s brother. Add in the fact that Joon was the first of all three brothers to fall for her, and the well-named drama succeeds in wrenching the audiences’ hearts into knots. However, the success of Feelings led to many copycats, and they were not as well-done, leading to the modern view of birth secrets: they’re a tool for lazy writers to use in place of character development or advancing the main plot.
Sometimes, though, a birth secret can actually be used like any other narrative tool, and enhance the story being told. City Hunter is one of the best examples of this, as the only reason for Yoon-sung’s birth secret to be mentioned at all is for the sake of the story. The ratings were sky-high, it came at the tail end of the run, and while his biological sister Da-hye had a minor crush on him in the beginning, it was never important.
Instead, when Yoon-sung learns that his adoptive father, Jin-pyo, lied to him about the identity of his biological father, it almost destroys him, something that is furthered when he realized his real father is the last man on his hit list, and has been unknowingly acting as a second father to his son. He’s faced with a choice between revenge and forgiveness, between his past and his future. The fact that it’s also a choice between his two fathers serves to echo the conflict rather than diminish it.
Birth secrets in dramas will never go away, but, like any other common drama element, they’re subjective, and depend on the execution of the drama to pass or fail. What do think of birth secrets, readers? Are there any example you particularly like or hate?
(Korea4expats, Why Do Dramas Do That?, Images via Dramabeans, SBS)
Tags: Birth Secrets, City Hunter, drama, Dramabeans, The Heirs, You're the Best Lee Soon Shin
Eddy Kim Provides “The Manual” to a Perfect Debut
Secret babies! Secret babies! In the drama! Secret, secret, secret, secret babies!
I don’t mind it when the secret babies are used correctly. A drama that had secret babies that I like was “can you hear my heart?”
wow did not know javabeans and girlfriday came out with a book!
To this day, I still think City Hunter pulled off the most ingenious birth secret plot. I was still pretty new to K-dramas then, but I really didn’t see it coming until it was revealed.
bigmamat on Guilty on All Charges: Iron: “I understand most people don't know when their love story will go south but people, men and women, can and…”


W the authorAuthor: Russell Davies
In an extended account of national identity, this companion volume to People, Places and Passions provides the first detailed study of the sexual and spiritual life of Wales in the period 1870–1945. The author argues that whilst Wales and its people experienced a disenchantment of the spiritual world, a revolution in sexual life was taking place. This innovative study examines how advances in life expectancy and improvements in health were reflected in emotional life. In contrast to the traditional emphasis upon hardship and hardscrabble experiences, this fascinating and beautifully written volume shows that the Welsh were also a free and fun-loving people.
Agent Tate
Author: Tommy Jonason
The wartime career of British double-cross agent TATE, who makes agent ZIGZAG look like a bit of a wuss
on
Author: Avihu Zakai
Demonstrates how four books by dissident German intellectuals served as a rebuke to the Nazi regime. During 1942, the decisive battles of Stalingrad and El Alamein raged and the Nazi genocide was at its lethal peak. The Pen Confronts the Sword examines the shared motives behind four remarkable texts German exiles began writing that year: Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus (1947); Ernst Cassirer’s The Myth of the State (1946);; and44). Each identified a specific danger in Nazi ideology and mustered new theories, approaches, and sources to combat it. The books aimed to expose the encompassing catastrophes of German culture (Mann), politics (Cassirer), philology (Auerbach), and philosophy and sociology (Horkheimer and Adorno). Their scope, mastery, and sense of urgency constitute a comprehensive Kulturkampf (culture war) against Nazi barbarism. Avihu Zakai cogently analyzes each work, explains the context of its creation, and draws connections between these four landmark books in Western intellectual history. Avihu Zakai isauthor of Erich Auerbach and the Crisis of German Phililogy: The Humanist Tradition in Peril.
Myths, Legends, and Folktales of America
Author: Ed Rayner


Daniel Yerger April 13, 2021 Financial Planning 1 Comment
The admonishment to not “judge a book by its cover” is usually one encouraging us to be better people. “Look past a person on their worst day or who presents poorly to see that they’re a human being just having a hard day. See the merit in every individual and get to know them better than they appear;” or some such encouragement from our parents might go. However, the less often used context of this expression is as a warning. “Don’t take things for granted” or “Don’t assume things are as they appear.” Today, we’re exploring some of the issues with the “packaging” of the financial world, and how consumers of financial services and products should be careful to read the fine print and do extra due diligence before assuming things are as they appear.
Socially Environmental Responsibly Sustainable Governance Investing
The word soup above is the amalgamation of “ESG” or “Environmental Social Governance” and “SRI” or “Socially Responsible Investing.” These two terms are in the current “vogue” of investing, including a multitude oflaunched with assorted themes such as “investing in minority-owned companies” or “investing in companies that combat climate change”, and so on. However, recently() caught flack for saying “I ‘green’ –ies –” As if to underline the truth of this claim, Phil Bak, the chief investment officer of Signal Advisors, tweeted out the comparison of three Blackrock funds over the weekend: “For 3 bps you get the S&P 500, for 15 bps you get to ‘drive innovation by embedding sustainability risk into our active investment process’ and for 30 bps you get ‘a sea change in global investing.’ Tell me which is which.” Of the three funds he then listed the top holdings for, all three had Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon as their three largest holdings and in almost identical proportion and order, all of them held Google, Facebook, JPMorgan, and two of them held Tesla, Berkshire Hathaway, and Johnson and Johnson. The order of the asset selection and concentration in all three funds was almost identical. So much for funds driving innovation in sustainability risk for 5x the cost or combatting rising sea levels for 10x the cost. None of this is to say that ESG or SRI investing are bad ideas or lack merit, but more goes to highlight the current trend of investment companies establishing largely arbitrary ESG/SRI criteria and opening funds that invest in more or less the same thing as their core investments do, but with significantly higher prices. With ethical investing must come virtue signaling, at least on some level? The cautionary tale here of course is clear: Just because the label says ESG/SRI or has some sort of ethical investing theme attached to it, doesn’t mean that when you look under the hood you’ll find anything different than a much cheaper run of the mill index fund.
Advisors are Yesterday’s News
While I’m an enormous critic of the SEC’s regulation “Best Interest”, it did accomplish one thing. No wait, that’s not true: It didn’t accomplish anything, but it did cause companies to get cleverer with how they deceived the public. One of the rules of “Reg BI” is that it finally regulated the term “advisor” and required that insurance agents and brokers using the term as their job title actually bmeaning that they’re actually licensed to give securities advice, not just to sell an investment or insurance product. Not to miss a step, financial product companies immediately started rebranding their agents and brokers as “Registered Securities Brokers” and “Risk Management Consultants”. While the homogenous “Financial Advisor” title is now barely protected by the regulation, it has done nothing to protect the title of Financial Planner. While CFP® or CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ is still a protected title under the copyrights owned by the Certified Financial Planner Board, the non-certified “financial planner” title has also come under swift adoption by unscrupulous companies looking to borrow legitimacy. Thus, we’ve simply moved the ball of the most common title for people in financial services from being “Financial Advisor” to seeing a quickly growing use of “Financial Planner”. How does the public tell the difference? Look up the professionals you’re talking to and verify that they’re actually a financial planner or if they’re just pretending.
Not to say I’ve written about Reg BI too much, but the news keeps rolling in that it effectively just made public clarity of who is and isn’t a fiduciary harder to determine. Because the Reg BI regulation requires brokers and product salespeople to say “I am required to act in your best interest”, the public has gotten burned with greater regularity over the past year than in previous years. Why? Because prior to Reg BI, it would have actually been an illegal form of false advertising to state that very same thing, as brokers and insurance agents are fiduciaries to their companies, agencies, and carriers, and legally can’t act in a fiduciary capacity toward their clients. That’s still the case, but now the requirement to state best interest has created a requirement that the brokers lie to their customers. To expand on that issue even further, the regulation clearly carved the firm itself out of the Reg BI best interest requirements, so the firm can give a broker investments that literally serve only to line the firm’s pockets, and the broker is technically correct when they say “the best thing I can recommend for you is fund X”, which happens to be objectively awful and designed only to line the firm’s pockets. To rub salt in the wound, the item that’s supposed to help make all of this clear to the consumer, the “Customer Relationship Summary” or “Form CRS” has been found to be missing at over half of those firms that are required to use it. So not only has the regulation opened a legal loophole for brokers to lie to the public legally, but of the firms that are doing so, over half are simply ignoring the parts of the regulation that don’t benefit them.
“If this all seems like a lot of work, it certainly is. But hey, it’s only your life savings and your financial future you’re ultimately entrusting to these financial products and service firms.”
Ummmm, but, but, one must not only take the time, one must be able to understand what they are reading once they have read it. Many of us just don’t have the gray cells to understand the convoluted labyrinths of the financial world.


Although resettlement agencies such as the IC are allowed to use $2 in MG funds for each $1 in donations they gather, the ORR review found "numerous instances in which copious amounts of inappropriate and unallowable donations were being recorded and counted as MG match. Examples include $1,639 for clothing donations to [match the MG funds] a family of three…and $3,319 for clothing donations for a family of six…unclear service donations of $192 (I suspect that should be four digits — a piece here is redacted)…and counting donations that are clearly required as part of the [State Department refugee grant] (Mattresses [for one refugee] and pillows, sheets, mattresses, etc. for [another refugee] as MG match. The reviewer…found that donated goods were not…consistently valued in a manner that assigns reasonable values to such donations."
The IC intermingled funds from separate grants, even from separate US federal agencies, which the ORR assessed as "grossly incompliant" (sic). For example, the reviewer found "numerous instances where [IC] was incorrectly charging federal funds for employee time. ORR Matching Grant, ORR Cash Assistance, ORR Medical Assistance, ORR…
Despite these deficiencies the ORR wrote that the International Center provides "effective services to refugees that are enrolled in the MG program" (?


San Juan Capistrano Dentist


Are you passionate about diamonds? Are you passionate about jewelry? Are you good with your hands? Are you detail oriented? Are you extremely accurate and precise? Do you have keen eyesight? And are you responsible, reliable, and honest? If you gave affirmative answers to all the questions above, then you can make cool cash by getting your hands dirty with diamonds.
That is, you can consider starting a diamond cutting business. Diamonds are a timeless classic opportunity whose market yields many career and investment opportunities. Starting a diamond cutting business will not only enable you to cut diamonds, but it will also empower you to venture into sales and marketing of diamonds.
This is why a diamond cutting and polishing business plan is highly recommended. Before we discuss the steps involved in starting a diamond cutting business, let’s look at the various roles of a diamond cutter, since it is very important to learn what a business entails before venturing into it.
3. Get the needed tools
How much can you earn as a diamond cutter?
Diamonds are usually cut according to a variety of standard faceted designs, but custom cuts may be required, too. These custom cuts are the most difficult, as working out the measurement of the many faces of their design require a lot of mathematics.
The work of a diamond cutter revolves round three skills: sawing, cutting, and polishing. But more specifically, here are the tasks handled by a diamond cutter:
Checking for flaws in diamond stones
Determining the best faceted shape for the diamond
Girdling the diamond (creating a flat surface on a diamond stone by rubbing it against another stone)
Determining the final value of diamond using the 4 C’s (color, cut, claroity, and carat size)
With the above in mind, let’s now look at the steps involved in becoming a diamond cutter.
Starting a Diamond Cutting Company – Sample Business Plan Template
It is very important to evaluate yourself to determine if you really have all it takes to succeed as a diamond cutter. Only after you deem yourself fit and capable should you proceed to take a plunge.
Working as a diamond cutter requires training. You will need to enroll for a diamond cutting training program, where you will receive training on diamond grading, cutting and faceting, use of equipment, appraisals, diamond industry terminologies, and so on. You will be awarded a certificate at the end of the program if you are able to cut diamond perfectly and repair damaged diamonds.
Although certification is not necessary to work as a diamond cutter, being certified will give you a competitive edge and will help you earn higher rates than you would without certification. A certificate will also boost your credibility, as potential employers won’t nurse doubts over your expertise.
Aside being a proof of your expertise in diamond cutting, being certified will help you pursue opportunities in wholesale and retail of diamond, rough diamond brokering, and consulting.
Before you can start working as a diamond cutter, you will need to acquire the tools you will need. These include bruters, cleaving tools, measuring tools, and a heat source. The quality of your work hinges largely on the quality of your equipment, so ensure that your equipment are of very good quality.
Once you have perfected your diamond cutting skills, you can start hunting for opportunities. You can contact individuals and companies dealing with diamonds and ask if there are possible openings that you can fill as a diamond cutter. Provided you offer high quality services that satisfy your clients, you will attract more clients with time, and you will make more money.
When you are just starting out, you should expect a pay rate of around $10 per hour. But as you gain more experience, your rates will increase. Highly experienced, self-employed diamond cutters typically earn between $40,000 and $60,000 per annum.
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How to Start a Granite Quarry – Sample Business Plan Template
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Signing Bonuses for Physicians, Non-physician Providers Should You Expect a Signing Bonus With Your Job Offer? Print By Andrea Clement Santiago Updated February 27, 2018 Visivasncsigning bonus is a lump sum of money paid upon accepting a job offer. Signing bonuses are used as an added incentive, especially when competition for talent is very high, as it is for physicians and other non-physician advanced providers. "In today's physician recruiting market, most physicians expect, and receive, a signing bonus of some sort In fact, the volume of these signing bonuses has increased over the years and now are often are combined with "relocation bonuses" for an even greater incentive to lure top clinicians to a particular hospital or medical group. Over the past few years, physician signing bonuses have grown and are hovering above $20,000, according to Mr. Stone. For the first half of 2015, the average signing bonus was $21,595. Additionally, non-physician providers (s) are now commanding signing bonuses too. In 2014, half of all non-physician providers placed via the firm received a signing bonus, compared to only 11 percent in 2013. The average signing bonus for non-physician providers more than doubled, from $3,000 in 2013 to $7,500 in 2014. Signing Bonus Likelihood "More than 70 percent of the providers we placed received a signing bonus so far in 2015," states Stone, "so, you are more likely to get one than not, as a physician or advanced provider." However, it's still not a good plan to assume that you will definitely receive a signing bonus. The more competitive the specialty is, the more likely you will receive a bonus, and the higher it will be. Primary care and psychiatry are "hot" physician searches right now, (as of mid-2015), according to Mr. Stone. Also, smaller communities may be more likely to offer a larger bonus because they are competing with major metro areas. Make sure to ask the physician recruiter if you are interested in a signing bonus. Let him, or her, know that you have student debt to pay off or whatever your need is, if possible. Additionally, areas that are smaller or more rural, or designated shortage areas will be more likely to offer a signing bonus too. Don't take it personally if you are not offered a signing bonus. Often, these types of bonuses are budgeted in advance. Sometimes they aren't offered until or unless you ask for one. If you do ask, be sure to do so in a respectful way that doesn't come across as sounding greedy, or entitled. If possible, explain why you feel you need the up-front money, if you think it is a valid reason that would help state your case to your prospective employg


The world has been spellbound by the protests in Egypt that have led to the ouster of Hosni Mubarak. Currently, the Egyptian military is in control of the government and this leaves many in the US wondering what the future holds for Egyptians hungry for democracy. Because of how quickly Mubarak’s rule was toppled, there is a palpable sense of euphoria surrounding the events in Egypt. Many observers are wondering if this euphoria is premature, though. What do these events mean for the stability of the Middle East? Will this bring a wave of democracy to Egypt that will spread to the rest of the Middle East?  Or will the military in Egypt maintain the autocratic status quo or establish a theocratic regime?
Many political analysts are conjecturing that it was the recent overthrow of the ruler in Tunisia that inspired Egyptians to join together in mass protest against Mubarak’s rule. As if we need more proof of how globalized and interconnected the world is, here we have events in one country affecting the political landscape of another country. Of course this is nothing new, but what is intriguing to me is how quickly these events transpired. On January 14th, the president of Tunisia was forced to flee the country. On January 25th, citizens began protesting in Egypt. And on February 11th, Mubarak relinquished power to the military. The government in Egypt was overthrown in eighteen days.
It is believed by many Egypt watchers that the speed of the regime change was aided by the use of social networking tools by protesters. Wired Magazine reported that Facebook was used by citizens to organize the protests and Twitter was used to broadcast the protests to the rest of the world. The Twitter hashtag #Jan25 was used by many – including the State Department – to track the events in Egypt. Recently, Tyler Thompson, an ADP student at FHSU, wrote an opinion piece for the ADP Blog and made the case that social networking tools were instrumental in increasing the scale and impact of the protests. This opinion can easily be challenged. Would the revolution have happened if it weren’t for Twitter and Facebook? Probably. Would it have happened as quickly? Maybe not. There is no way to know, of course, because we cannot isolate these events and understand them separate from our very networked world. However, it does beg important questions about the role of technology and social networking tools in fostering democratic societies.
This all leads me to the point of this blog post. Many students nationwide have been inspired by the revolution in Egypt and are talking about and following it. I would guess that they aren’t as clear about what this change in power means for US foreign policy given the political and strategic significance of Egypt’s former government to the US. And many more likely don’t know that Egypt is the fourth largest recipient of US foreign aid (after Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Israel). Egypt receives roughly $1.5 billion dollars in aid from the US. The reasons for this aid allotment are complex, and should be talked about nationwide.
Although ADP is focused nationally and on local issues concerning American democracy, events like the revolution in Egypt provide us with an opportunity to educate students about US foreign policy, our increasingly networked and interdependent world, and the ways in which international events affect local politics. Because of this, I challenge the leaders in the ADP network to engage their campus communities in discussions about the events in Egypt. Given all of the implications for US foreign policy and international politics, we cannot afford to ignore this and other world events in our efforts to educate citizens for our democracy.
Below are a list of suggested activities and resources that you might find useful as you encourage discussions about the events in Egypt as they relate to American democracy. This is by no means an exhaustive list and I hope that many in the ADP network will add to it.
The 7 Revolutions initiative is focused on developing the global understanding and competency of undergraduate students. 7 Revolutions (7 Revs) studies the seven major global trends that will impact the world by 2025 – governance, conflict, economic integration, population, information, technology, and resource management. If your campus currently uses the 7 Revolutions framework to educate globally competent citizens, think about how the events in Egypt can be explained by each of the 7 Revs. For example, one commentator noted that the leaders in Egypt are in their sixties and seventies and do not use social networking tools and thus underestimated how powerful these tools could be for protesters. In this one example, we see the revolutions of governance, population and technology reflected. What other connections can you make to the 7 Revs framework? And how do each of these revolutions being enacted in Egypt compare to issues around population, technology and governance in your own community? To learn more about 7 Revs, please visit this website.
Campus dialogues and conversations are a great way to educate and engage students in current events. Below are a list of potential discussion topics.
Should the US promote democracy abroad?
One topic of conversation could be whether or not the US should involve itself in democracy building around the world. A recent Pew study found that Americans give low priority to promoting democracy around the world. Yet much of US foreign policy claims to promote democracy. What is and should be the role for the US in worldwide democracy promotion in general and in Egypt specifically?
Should the US give aid to autocratic governments if this aid will help maintain stability in contentious places such as the Middle East?
As was mentioned above, Egypt is the recipient of $1.5 billion in US aid. The Obama administration was slow to condemn Mubarak’s refusal to relinquish power. According to the US State Department, Egypt is an important strategic ally. Engage your students in a discussion about the complexities of US foreign aid to countries like Egypt. Is it always black and white? Should we only give aid to countries that are free and democratic, or should we take a larger view of global stability and help countries that will help stabilize volatile regions like the Middle East? For an analysis of US aid to Egypt, please read this article.
What lessons and insights do people think the Egyptian movement holds for the civic revitalization of the US?
Another topic of conversation could explore how the civic agency of the Egyptian protesters compares to American citizens’ sense of their own agency. This New York Times article explores the Egyptians sense of civic agency.
What was the role of eCitizenship in the Egyptian Revolution?
An interesting conversation to have with your students would explore the importance and role of social networking tools in ushering in the Revolution in Egypt. How important is the internet to democracy? How much can we truly involve ourselves in foreign events when we are using social networking tools? This New York Times article discusses the importance of people not directly affected by revolutions bearing witness to the plight of the people involved. Social networking tools make this much easier. But is this enough to encourage and support democracy building worldwide?
Alternatively, theorists such as Malcolm Gladwell believe that the “Revolution will not be Tweeted.” Wired Magazine published an article conjecturing that the use of social networking tools allowed for the protests to quickly topple Mubarak’s regime. In response to Malcolm’s commentary on social networking tools, The New York Times hosted a “Room for Debate” feature about their use in promoting democracy.
What are (and should be) women’s roles in political protests?
Egyptian women were heavily involved in the protests. According to media reports, Egyptians saw women’s participation as a sign of the unified nature of the dissent. Engage your students in a conversation about women’s roles in political protests. This article provides more information about women’s participation in the Egyptian protests.
Education Week is primarily a resource for K-12 educators, however this article offers some great ideas for educating students about Egypt. Some of these ideas include hosting an Egypt Day during which students learn more about the history, culture and political environment of Egypt. This article also gives suggestions for classroom discussions that will help develop students’ knowledge and understanding of the events in Egypt.
Analysis and coverage of events in Egypt:
The New York Times offers an excellent analysis of the differing perspectives on Egypt in the Room for Debate series. This series covering Egypt explores the question of what the Egyptian military will do now that Mubarak is out.
This article by Nicholas Kristof in the Times offers a sobering perspective of the potential future for Egypt.
This Mother Jones article offers an excellent timeline of the events in Egypt  with links for more information.
Al Jazeera also provides live coverage of the events in Egypt.
You can also follow the revolution on Twitter by using this hashtag: #Jan25
Finally, the WashingtonPost also offers a detailed analysis of the events in Egypt in this article.
Giving credit where credit is due. I am grateful to Niko Sommaripa for giving me the idea to write this blog post and to Kate Dixon, Shiva Prasad, Tyler Thompson, and Crystal Rosario for contributing resources and ideas.
Tags: 7 Revolutions, eCitizenship
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varo Morata.ows with Wenger believed to be a strong admirer of the star hitman.
However, Morata’s agent confirmed the striker has received TWO “interesting” offers this summer.
“All I can is that it is a very interesting and now the decision lies with Real Madrid.
The Gunners have been linked with signing a striker this summer and have even seen a £87miliion offer rejected for Monaco youngster Kylian Mbappe.
However, the Gunners are also interested in signing Alexander Lacazette and reports claim Arsenal are considering a swap deal and are ready to lose Olivier Giroud in the process.


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Remedy: Stop using the TV stand if it moves from side-to-side. Contact Sauder to receive instructions on checking the tightness of the fasteners.


Q: How do I specify non-scalar parameters in a Slim table? I want to test functions that have non-scalar parameters and return types, e.g., "given a matrix M, check that M times its inverse is the appropriate identity" or "given a row vector V, check that transpose(V) is the correct column vector.
Do I need a clever use of TableTable?


Gael Garcia Bernal (Movie Actor) was born on November 30, 1978(age 41) in Guadalajara under Sagittarius zodiac. Gael Garcia Bernal ranking is 1676ael Garcia BernaGael Garcia Bernal on Wikipedia. Read trending tweets about Gael Garcia Bernael Garcia Bernal on Linkedin below.
Dilm, Bable, which was nominated for seven film awards.
married Dolores Fonzi in 2009. He has a son named Lazaro and a daughter named Libertad.
He played Victoras in Letters to Juliet with Amanda Seyfried.


I'm a freshman from Bangalore, India, planning to major in Information Science and minor in CS.
I’m deeply passionate about data science and its numerous innovations for improving the human condition. I’m also concerned about issues related to data ethics and trust – interests that were triggered by my research in security and privacy. I’m excited about leveraging the Milstein Program’s resources and opportunities to explore these areas further, and designing breakthrough solutions to address humanity’s most pressing challenges.
I can’t waiBy appreciating the diverse world views of my fellow Milstein students and faculty, I hope to enrich my own.
My hobbies include theatre, poetry and elocution. I’ve been a stage musician for several years: I play the drums, although off late, I’ve developed a deep passion for the guitar!


Apple iPhone 12 mini Review: Does it offer better value than the iPhone 12?
How good is the iPhone 12 mini? Is it better than the iPhone 12? This and other questions answered in our Apple iPhone 12 mini review.
Apple iPhone 12 mini?
To tell you the truth, there are only two key2 - Display size and battery.
For my iPhone 12 mini review, I used the device for nearly a week. Prior to this, I reviewed the iPhone 12, so I have an idea of how that device works and can recommend it to people based on their use case.
As I said, I can recommend a particular device based on the individual’s use case. With the iPhone 12 and 12 mini, since the difference in terms of specs are not much, it comes down to the preference of form factor.
Apple iPhone 12 mini is a compact smartphone. Keep it next to the iPhone 12 and you will notice how tiny the device is. It has the same matte-finished aluminium frame with squared-off edges you get on the iPhone 12 but the size is smaller. Instead of the 12’s 6.1-inch display, iPhone 12 mini gets a 5.4-inch Full HD+ Super Retina XDR display. It also has a notch for the front camera Face ID sensors.
Now because the iPhone 12 mini’s overall form factor is quite compact as compared to iPhone 12, you can easily reach the top of the screen while using your phone with one hand. Not many phones offer that ease of use. I was able to do the same on the iPhone 12 but then it required some effort and adjustment. iPhone 12 is smaller compared to its predecessor and the iPhone 12 mini is slightly bigger than as the iPhone 5s.
You can try it yourself. I personally do not find the boxy design to be an issue. Even if I were to, there are cases that you can use. iPhone 12 mini is ridiculously lightweight at 135 grams and is only 7.4mm thick. Using a case would not add a lot of weight. A plus here would be protecting the glossy back from fingerprint smudges. This White iPhone 12 mini serves best for those who don’t want to use a case and also avoid fingerprint marks.
It only took me a couple of hours to get used to the 12 mini’s form factor after switching from the iPhone 12. I won’t lie though when it comes to the typing experience. The keys felt a bit cramped for my big hands and I did make several typos. Maybe I should credit my muscle memory that I caught up on my typing speed without hitting backspace on iPhone 12 mini.
Regarding my viewing experience, the iPhone 12 mini’s smaller screen offers the same level of brightness as the iPhone 12. It has a brightness of 625 nits and hits its peak at 1200 nits while playing HDR content. I did not face any issues while using the phone indoors or outdoors. When streaming video content indoors, I relied on the loud, clear dual stereo speaker setup. Some say that the iPhone 12 mini’s speaker is less loud compared to iPhone 12. To be honest, even if it were the case, the difference is not noticeable.
Outdoors, the screen is more than bright to use even in direct sunlight. It’s the same as the iPhone 12 but in smaller screen size. Rest of it is the same - True Tone, Ceramic shield for better drop resistance, HDR and P3 colour gamut support, etc. For watching videos and playing games, I would pick the 12 as I prefer bigger screens. If you don’t care about the screen size, you are getting one of the most colour-accurate displays.
When it comes to performance, Apple iPhone 12 mini is a pocket rocket. Compact phones in the past have often compromised on performance and have been put forward as a “Lite” version of flagship devices. This is not the case with iPhone 12 mini. The performance unit is exactly the same as the 12. You get a 5nm-based Apple A14 Bionic chip, which is the fastest on any smartphone launched till date. Combine that with 4GB RAM and iOS 14, and you will have a butter-smooth user experience from this performance beast. The hardware and software are well optimised and you are likely to not face any performance issues.
I played Call of Duty Mobile and there was no sign of lag. Because the screen is relatively small, I found it kind of hard to play games on 12 mini. One thing that I noticed was that the iPhone 12 mini got slightly warm after my extended gaming sessions. That would be due to limited room for thermal management but nothing to worry out. I also did not miss a high refresh rate screen, courtesy of the smooth iOS 14 animations. What did bother me though was the average battery life - something that I was already expecting.
iPhone 12 mini is a small phone. While the device is a no-compromise performance flagship in a compact form factor, a smaller chassis also means that you have less space for the battery. Apple claims that the iPhone. My day-to-day tasks include scrolling through Twitter and Instagram, sending snaps on Snapchat, watching movies, attending video calls, etc. The battery did drain by evening and I got an average screen-on time of four hours. On days when I played a lot of games, the screen-on time was 3.5 hours.
This is just my use case and I use my phone a lot cause my work revolves around it. For someone who does not perform graphics-heavy tasks, they can easily pull the battery life to the end of the day on their iPhone 12 mini.
The benefit of a smaller battery is that it charges quickly. iPhone 12 mini took roughly over an hour to charge completely with an 18W charging brick. There is also support for the new MagSafe charger but its charging capacity is limited to 12W compared to 15W on the iPhone 12. I said this in my Apple iPhone 12 review and the same applies for the iPhone 12 mini - MagSafe is a great feature but it can only be used as a secondary charger for your iPhone due to relatively-slow speed. The device does get a bit warm when attached with the MagSafe charger. Keep in mind, none of the iPhone 12 models come with a power adapter and you need to purchase one separately. Same goes for the wired EarPods. Either purchase one separately from Apple or get a pair of earbuds like the AirPods/ AirPods Pro.
I agree. The challenge would be when you are travelling somewhere and shooting photos and videos. The battery will drain a lot quicker when you are shooting content on iPhone 12 mini. Maybe carrying a battery case would be smart during such times.
Yes. As I told you earlier, the biggest differences between the 12 mini and 12 are the display size and battery life. Rest of it is the same.
My iPhone 12 review covers the camera performance. The 12 mini has the exact same sensor setup. You get a 12MP f/1.6 wide lens and another 12MP f/2.2 ultrawide lens. You get true-to-life, natural colours when you shoot pictures using the iPhone 12 mini. The dynamic range is excellent and so is the sharpness levels. Not many phone cameras give detailed and colour accurate shots with the sun in line with the subject.
Lowlight too is fantastic, thanks to the f/1.6 wider aperture on the main lens. Like the iPhone 12, the 12 mini suffers from the lens flare issue where you see green dots when you are shooting directly at something with high luminance in line with the subject. This does not happen all the time but can be annoying when you try and adjust the shot to avoid the flare and miss out on the moment.
The front camera too is among the best. The normal “Photo” mode of the 12MP front camera shoots sharp and detailed selfies with true to life colours. The Flickr slideshow below lists some of the photos shot on iPhone 12 mini.
So do I. The iPhone 12 mini manages to get maximum detail and does not oversaturate the colours to make the shot look vibrant.
“Okay, so the main question. Does the iPhone 12 mini offer better value than iPhone 12?
2) Does not perform a lot of tasks on their smartphones and can deal with the average battery life.
3) Or simply wants the latest iPhone but cannot spend over Rs 70,000.
Don't buy the smartphone just because it is priced lesser. Analyse your use case and then make the purchase decision. If you tick any of the three points, you can expect the iPhone 12 mini to offer more value for your money.
iPhone 12 mini is an iPhone 12 in a smaller body and battery. It is very ergonomic and will be appreciated by the ones who always wanted a compact, no-performance-compromise smartphone in the era of big, bulky phones.
However, if battery life is your priority, and you want a decently-sized smartphone, pick the iPhone 12.
...


“Yeah, that’s where we’re headed,” Limbaugh said Monday on his national program.
“unds,” Limbaugh explained.


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After being disappointed when a statue of late Dubliners singer Luke Kelly failed to be erected in Dublin a while ago, Kelly’s family, friends and fans can now take heart and joy: two statues are now being planned.
Once they are on their plinths, one wonders if the joy will turn to consternation when, like most other Dublin statues, Kelly’s will acquire some less than respectful–if doubtless humorous–nicknames.
In Dublin, statues are often used as landmarks, to point visitors to their destinations. So, if you’re planning a Dublin visit, it would be as well to learn the names and nicknames for many of Dublin’s statues. You’re far more likely to be told by the locals that O’Neill’s Pub & Kitchen is “near the dish with the fish” than that it is close to the corners of Suffolk Street and Church Lane. Here, then, ten famous statues with local nicknames for them. Be warned, some are very politically incorrect and we had nothing to do with their naming!
In much the same streamlined vein as the spire is a modern statue at Trinity College officially known as Sphere within Sphere. It’s other names? The half-eaten Malteser and The Death Star.
Returning to a more typically Irish and lyrical sort of statue, number 7 is that of iconic author James Joyce, located on North Earl Street. The uncommon author’s statue is commonly known as ‘The prick with the stick’ or ‘The prat with the hat’.
Another Irish author, Patrick Kavanagh, boasts a likeness on the Grand Canal. His likeness is known as either ‘The crank on the bank’ or ‘Banal at the canal’, apparently a critical comment on his writing. The first nickname alludes to his personality, one supposes. Dubliners should know.
Phil Lynott, the rocker who was a founder of Thin Lizzie, has also been memorialised in Dublin with a statue on Harry Street. He has so far only garnered a single nickname ‘The ace with the bass’.
The final nicknamed statue in Dublin isn’t actually there anymore. Perhaps it was silly to commemorate the run-up to Y2K, as the entire brouhaha amounted to nothing, and the panic disappeared as soon as it began. No wonder the Dublin statue to it, The Millennium Clock on the banks of the Liffey, was sensibly pulled down. Oddly enough, though, it was removed in 1999, before the needless countdown to a non-disaster reached its zenith. Whether or not Dubliners knew their politicians had decided to memorialise a non-event, one thing is certain; Dubliners memorialised the hod full of nothing that was Y2K with a long-lasting nickname, ‘The chime in the slime’.


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But is this the first time that Bangladesh has been portrayed in a bad light in an Indian film?
Their statement read: "Several of our Bangladeshi brethren have shared with us their concerns about how the story has been described and we would like to apologize if any disrespect or prejudice has been caused to them. and is meant to be a fictional work and does not project or disrespect any particular segment of society, persons or nation. "
"I'm not in favor of stereotypes. There are films in which Bengalis are identified with certain clichés. The problem is that such clichés lead people to generalize about a race or a nation," the actress said. Bangladeshi Sohana Saba at Times of India at the time. . "It is a sensitive subject and one that requires careful contextualization."


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KHYBER: Syed Jalal Wazir, chairperson of All Khasadar and Levies forces committee has announced to postponed March 15 Sit-in at D-Chowk in Islamabad after Corps Commander ensured support for their rightful demands on Thursday.
Syed Jalal while talking to media persons in Khyber said their committee has held a meeting with corps commander, Peshawar who has expressed support and said that he will raise all the concern. “The corps commander has accepted all our rightful demands,” announced Said Jalal, during his media talk. However, said Jalal, the corps commander has sought time till March 20 to discuss the issues with the provincial government.
Syed Jalal claimed that the Corps commander has expressed full support for the demands of the All Khasadar and Levies forces. Due to which, the committee has decided to postpone the March 15 Dharna in D-Chowk, Islamabad which was arrangeBut, the head of the paramilitary forces committee said, their protests in all tribal districts will remain intact. He added that during this time, they will not participate in the anti-polio immunization campaigns and will not extend any support to the provincial government.
The Khasadar and Levies are paramilitary forces stationed in the area formerly known as Fata. There is a total of 30,000 personnel of the Khasadar and Levies in the seven former agencies and six frontier regions. Over 2,000 personnel of these paramilitary forces laid down their lives during the fight against terrorism in the area. The Khasadar and levies force added demanding the government to extend the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police department to tribal districts and merged the Khasadar and levies forces with the police force. They asking for equal salaries and privileges as provided to the Police personnel in the province.


neighbours is a pretty good tv show.
We have a tv show called Neighbours here, Ted.
This morning on Channel Nine he launched an attack on his critics, singling out Nick Minchin and Tony Abbott, calling their strategies "catastrophic" for the party.
"They will not give up until they have bullied and intimidated the majority into agreeing with their position," he said.
PS. The reason this has all come to a head now is that for no apparent economic, diplomatic or environmental reason (but a very, very obvious political one) the government wants this passed before Copenhagen.
Looks like a disagreement between the house/senate.
The Liberal party does this to some extent but there seems to be more of a degre of lattitude. If individuals dont agree with policy they may not always tow party line. More often than not , they do though. This makes the Labor party slightly inflexible, but sort of solid. But the Liberals have a bit more chance to speak their mind, although it can make the party seem weaker.
Also looks like Hockey as opposition leader on Monday, Dutton as deputy. He promised he wouldnt challenge Turnbull yesterday. But seems happy to break that promise today. I also saw on the news that Hockey came out of a meeting with John Howard today. I am not suprised he had his mits all over this one. He is probably the most cunning/conniving politician there ever was. And he hated Turnbull for being too liberal.
Meh. I hope that Turnbull wins, personally.
I would point something out here. Everyone talks about Turnbull alienating the base, but this isn't America and since there is compulsary attendance here, how many wouldn't bother to vote? The overwhelming majority would vote liberal come rain hail or shine. Alienation of the base only comes when the base doesn't bother to show up, but since you have to show up... I'm pretty sure most, having been made to show up at the voting hall, would actually vote.
Why the Coalition think moving further to the right is good strategy is anyone's guess. They are fighting for votes they would be getting anyway.
Right, but that's a rather hollow argument don't you think?
Mr RUDD—This seems to result in considerable animation all round!
The SPEAKER—Order! A number of members on the frontbench on my left and the Deputy Prime Minister are denying the Prime Minister the call.
The SPEAKER— on a point of order.
The SPEAKER—The member for North Sydney on a point of order.
A government member—Don’t be so ridiculous!
 Put that on the record, too.
Senator FIELDING—No, I don’t support this.


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If I had to quit my job now, I would still go on to make designs. Why? Well, because it’graphic designer.
Okay, don’t take my words for what it’s worth; instead, take a look at the Internet and how it controls virtually every human interaction and activity. Interestingly, same Internet relies on graphical contents to remain useful and relevant.
Think about billions of users whose lives revolve around these apps daily. Think about millions of sponsored pages and ads created monthly. Oh, and don’t forget all this depends on graphic design.
Graphic design enables one to think creatively about problems and proffer visual, functional solutions.
Proficiency in graphic design provides a solid foundation needed to thrive in other areas of creative endeavours. I know a couple of designers who have moved on to become filmmakers, professional photographers, advertising gurus, fashion designer, animators etc.
For example, I started a clothing label known as FETCH for creatives like me. It was borne out of passion. And honestly, my graphics skills guided me all through its creation; from ideation to execution.
However, as you might be aware, there’s no discipline that does not have its own peculiar problems and intricacies. Hence, graphic design does have its own unique problems.
First off, it’s exhausting to choose graphic design as a career in a country where intellectual property isn’t taken seriously. A country that has consistently shown disregard towards creative works. You sure don’t want get your hopes all up only to be disappointed.
Now, aside from government’s lackadaisical approach and lack of interest in art, graphic design itself is one hell of a discipline. It takes only the highly disciplined to make headway. So here are some of the challenges I experienced (and still experience ):
It could be anything from neutral background to human body. But over here, it’s known as artboard or canvas.
A graphic designer’s dilemma begins with a blank page and the thought of what to splash on it. Staring at a plain background can be terrifying. In fact, it’s one of designers’ greatest fears. You only conquer this fear by carefully studying the client’s brief. And a good understanding of the brief clears the clouds and gives room to create something amazing.
Graphic design is such a bully. It forces you to stay up all night when the rest of the world is asleep. I’m yet to meet a designer who wasn’t insomniac at least once in his or her career.
Even when it’s obvious you aren’t preparing for examinations, you have to stay up all night to catch up on tutorials. You’re expected to work on client’s brief during the day, and then spend the night to improve on your craft. Graphic design forces you to either hone your skill or go home.
Ours is a discipline that evolves at the speed of light. There’s always something new at every given moment. People are sharing new tips and tricks that enable designer work faster and better.
Specialisation Problem
Then I learned to grow. I narrowed down my skill to where my interest lies and concentrated all my efforts there. It wasn’t easy to let go of some stuff, but look, designers have to be known and appreciated for what they do differently, and that’s only achievable if efforts are concentrated in areas where your strength lies.
Crazy Deadline. Nagging Client
These are portions of every graphic designer. You would sometimes find yourself working with clients who give crazy deadlines for project completion. And you dare not argue. A huge chunk of a designer’s job isn’t done between 9 to 5. It’s either he works all night to beat deadline or experience nightmares.
In spite of the challenges stated above, graphic design remains a discipline that is fun filled and rewarding. Interestingly, it doesn’t take much time to learn the skill; it only takes a lifetime to gain mastery.
We can never have enough designers. In fact, everyone should be designing something. After all, we live in a world where everyone has unconsciously become a personal brand. Therefore, every living soul is a potential client. And for personal brands to thrive, a consistent message has to be out there. Now, who designs these messages?
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Yemi Fetch: You Are Up For Sale
Celebrating African fashion at the Lagos Fashion and Design Week (LFDW)


We greatly enjoyed spending time with our alumni at the annual Carey Dees (Zeta Psi 360) Memorial Sigma Nu Scramble. It was our honor to be the hosts for the alumni BBQ at the golf tournament!
We also want to thank all of the alumni brothers who help us in our fundraiser by purchasing the golf tees, towels and ball markers!


Technical outlook – Nufarm Limited (NUF) gapped higher from $4.50 to $6.94, and since then has struggled to uphold to the gains.
Therefore, we believe that this share continues the current pattern until reaching the region of $5.90. Reassess from there.
Company Overview -Nufarm Limited (NUF) is a crop protection and specialist seeds companies. NUF product helps fhas manufacturing and operates a seeds business focused on canola, sorghum and sunflower seeds — former Names: Fernz Corporation Limited (FZC), 25/01/2000.


Vacationing Like An Argentine
Callan Swaim
It has officially been one month since the beginning of our adventures in Argentina. Hard to believe huh?
Well, this weekend was the first national holiday that we got to celebrate. March 24th represents the Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice which is connected with the anniversary of the 1976 coup that ruled the country for 7 years, pretty serious stuff. Back in Buenos Aires, there were demonstrations and gatherings held to support or protest things happening in Argentina (especially because elections are coming up), so most of us IES kids decided to head south (or north- its warmer up there) for vacation.
On Saturday and Sunday, a very well- known music festival across the world was occurring in a suburb of Buenos Aires, Lollapolooza. Having bought our tickets months in advance, we were SO excited for this festival. Famous bands and artists like Calvin Harris, Bastille, Pharell Williams and Jack White were the headliners- how cool. It was actually pretty funny because we didn't feel like we were in a foreign country anymore- almost all of the bands were from the United States or England and were speaking English or extremely bad Spanish. It was especially humorous when bands would ask the audience questions or give them directions to repeat after them (you know, to rile up the crowd) and there would be dead silence because, well, we were in a Spanish speaking country and they were screaming English. Its okay though, the Argentine audience reciprocated the awkwardness by chanting their "Ole ole ole ole ollle ollleee" cheer after every performance which usually put the bands in some sort of confused panic. Only one band actually acknowledged it with a simple response of "Uhhh, I have no idea what you guys are saying, but okay" with a slightly sheepish smile. Lets just say there was more entertainment than just the performances at this Lollapolooza. So really the point of this whole paragraph again is to iterate that there is ALWAYS something to do in Buenos Aires.
After Lollapolooza, a few of us decided to take a trip south to Mar del Plata (I know, not Uruguay) , a well known beach town about 5 hours from Buenos Aires. Before I get into the details about the actual vacation, I really want to mention the bus trip. First of all the bus terminal, the train station and the boat port are all within a mile of each other- how convenient! Next, there is a thing called semi- cama bus (you know, half bed) and to anyone reading this- promise me that you will always book the semi-cama. Don't think "Oh, its only five hours, I don't need that" or "Maybe I should save money"- No. Book the semi-cama. It is the ultimate luxury transportation complete with delicious snacks. Alright, off my soapbox to now talk about Mar Del Plata. Such a beautiful town, with a beautiful ocean and beach, what more could you want? I do want to mention my particular point of pride from that trip when my group of 5 friends and I decided to save money (you know, because we put it towards the semi-cama) and bought eggs, hotdogs and cheese to make omelets for dinner. I know its not the classiest of meals but come on, we are still college kids- and we somehow made it ourselves. Thank you Dad for making me learn how to make eggs last summer. The dinner was a success and we then spent the rest of the night listening to our friend play his guitar and playing cards in the hostel. The next morning we immediately went to the beach and enjoyed our first vacation with Matte and sunshine until our bus ride home.
Vacationing like an Argentine: Check.
Callan Swaim, Jun 23, 2015
Chau, Che
These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things: Food and Coffee Edition

Hola! My name is Callan Swaim and I am a junior currently studying Business and Spanish. In the United States you can find me either frolicking in the cornfields of Indiana or perhaps strutting to class at Wittenberg University in Ohio, but in Argentina I will experiencing a whole new world. Stay tuned and I will take you on my adventures exploring though the life, streets, and culture of the magical city of Buenos Aires.

Isabel Rameker, Dec 10, 2022


Das 7. Eidgenössische Sängerfest fand am 12. bis 14. Juli 1856 in St. Gallen statt. Erstmals fand das Fest an drei Tagen statt und es wurden zwei Wettbewerbskategorien (Volksgesang und Kunstgesang) eingeführt. Insgesamt nahmen 1700 Sänger in 55 Vereinen teil, ausserdem 14 Gastvereine aus Deutschland sowie erstmals aus Österreich. Organisiert wurde das Fest vom Männerchor Frohsinn St. Gallen.
Kunstgesang
 1. Preis: Basler Liedertafel
 1. Preis: Männerchor Concordia Wil


law have more strength and do a better job of constraining lower level government action.
But an important point I want to add to this is that the legal reform community has not been eliminated by these developments. They are still there. And many of the things that they have pushed for— in terms of increasautonomy, for example through the Administrative Litigation Law — that agenda has not completely disappeared. It’s just that it hasn’t received the same level of political mobilizing support that some people thought it might enjoy, back in 2012.
But let’s talk about the thing that prompted me to reach out to you: Chinese legal scholars questioning the legality of some of the anti-COVID measures in Shanghai:
These three in particular have very recently published commentaries about the consistency (or lack thereof) of lockdown measures with Chinese constitutional and administrative law. In each of those cases, the commentary was “harmonized” (as we like to say) on the Chinese social media platforms where they were initially posted, but then made available through alternate means.
Just to be clear, they basically said that going into people’s homes without their permission to sanitize them, or locking them up without giving them any choice, that these actions were not in accordance with administrative law.
Yes, each of them made a slightly different argument. I think Tong Zhiwei was particularly focused on forced quarantine. Zhao Hong’s commentary mainly addressed when they take people’s keys away. Shen Kui’s examined when authorities go in and disinfect people’s homes..
In each case, these scholars looked at provisions, provisions in the Emergency Response Law and in the Chinese Constitution. They each performed very careful legal analysis to suggest why there was a problem with the government actions at issue.
Now, we can go back to other times in the past when the Chinese government has, in its local forms, acted in ways that have generated the same concerns, such as the milk powder scandal, or the Sichuan earthquake — all those different moments have generated similar kinds of commentary from Chinese legal scholars. There used to be a lot more expression of critical voices in those past instances than we are seeing today, but I take heart that such expressions are not completely gone.
Again, in each of those recent cases, the articles were harmonized on the first platform they was issued on. (And some of that may just be because the article attracted so many page hits that it triggered almost an automatic control.) But, anyway, each of those commentaries was able to be republished on other platforms. So, it’s not to say that there’s no censorship because obviously, they were harmonized in their first instances — but the commentaries did end up on other platforms and get shared, if not viewed at quite the same rate as they were initially.
To be clear, I don’t think that any of the three scholars I mentioned are in the same category now as Tsinghua professor, Xǔ Zhāngrùn 许章润 — who wrote much more personally about Xi Jinping and about his failings as a leader. None of the three scholars are doing that. But I would contend that the types of critiques they are making — which are not in the same mode as someone like Xu Zhangrun — do still matter nevertheless.
And the space for such critiques has not been completely eliminated. So if you say I’m an optimist, it’s because I find that space, as constrained as it is, still at least somewhat visible.
Well, sure. And that’s…I mean, what’s our reference point? Do we want to compare things to 1968? Do we want to compare things to 1988? Do we want to compare things to 1998? Each of these moments have had their own particular contours.
Let me ask one more question. It’s been interesting, since the beginning of the pandemic, to watch Americans, at least liberal Americans, be much more receptive to the idea of government controls than perhaps they would’ve been a few years ago. I think certainly in cities like New York and San Francisco and Philadelphia, you have a lot of people who have been quite enthusiastic about the power of government to regulate even the smallest details of our lives.
I think that so much of what we see now in the Chinese government’s pandemic response can’t be disassociated from the failings of its response to the early days of the pandemic.
If you go back to January, February 2020, for the legal reform community, there was a window where they actually had a lot of space to really critique the failings of the initial response, especially the ways in


,d Manager in the Respiratory Business Unit.


Bystander Effect-Article Writing
Your assignment: write 4 pages rubric
Your name is Milton. You worked late at your office. It was 10 p.m., when you left your office building.
As you entered your poorly lit parking garage, your attention was captured by the sight of three high school-aged boys kicking and beating a shabbily dressed elderly man. He cried out for help, but the boys continued to pummel him with fists and kicks.
As the boys caught sight of you entering the garage, they abandoned the man and ran off to the lower floors of the garage by the exit stairs.
You cautiously approached the man. You saw that he was bleeding profusely. Fearing that the boys would return to the scene, and extract the same abuse on you, you ran to your parked car and screeched your tires as you shot through the exit gate. You did not notice that the heel of your custom-made (by the only shoemaker in the city) right shoe had trod on the blood pool of this unfortunate victim.
Upon your panicked departure, another person, a woman, walked toward her parked car. She saw your car whiz past her. She took note of the model of your car but not your license plate number. Her eyes immediately lit on the mound of dirty clothing, which was the victim, and the rapidly expanding pool of blood around his head. She assumed that since you had parted he scene so hurriedly, that you had beaten this man.
Fearing that since she had not noted the departing car’s license plate number, she soon might become “a person of interest” if she called the police. She ran to her car and sped off. She did not notice the missing metallic button missing from her designer suit. The button, with the designer’s logo on it, lay next to the victim’s filthy coat.
Your name is Sam or Samantha Watkins. You are a reporter for “The Big City Gazette.” It is the next morning and you have been called to this parking garage to report on this brutal murder.
You think to yourself. This is America! Ci’t any of these people call the police?
You i “bystander” effect.
l “bystander” ro
Your article will be called “You’re an American! Never Be a Bystander.” 09:06:222021-03-12 09:06:22Bystander Effect-Article Writing
Dealing with Impending Death-Kübler-Ross’s five stages Remote Access Methods and Techniques-Advantages, Strengths and/or Weaknesse...


Please join us for Chapel every Tuesday at 2:00pm on Zoom.


I got a little prayer journal for the boys for Christmas. It has fill-in-the-blanks for their prayers; "I love you because...", "I am sorry for...", "thank you for...", "I need..." and a place for answered prayers..
Wow, that's an intriguing post...one I might have to read a few times to grasp...I think anytime we get out of "our" little world and see suffering around us it helps a little bit to treasure things in heaven. Having never been a parent, I'm not saying I know how to teach kids important concepts like this, but certainly dialoguing and exposing your family to the inconvenience and uncomfortableness of life would lead to thoughtfulness :)


The slow motion disaster reached its apogee this week – at least until the next one – with the public announcement from US President Joe Biden that the US-UK trade deal, which had been held up as the coveted prize for leaving the EU, was very unlikely to occur for a number of years.
While there was an interruption to the supply chain because of Brexit, the shift to supply hardware via The Netherlands “has worked well and has become very streamlined, so the Brexit impact has been minimised. The Netherlands is the country of choice for shipping into Ireland and this works well”.
Conway adds that “cutting the UK out of the loop has been quite transparent to be honest”. That’s probably just as well because “receiving any shipments of anything out of the UK is a nightmare and to be avoided”.


Micheál Naughton has stepped down as the Donegal senior ladies manager after two years at the helm.
Naughton informed the Donegal Ladies Board of his decision and officials are now in search of a successor.
Donegal won the Ulster Senior Championship this year, beating Monaghan in the final, but they lost out to Mayo in an All-Ireland quarter-final last month.
Donegal also reached the Division 1 League final, but were narrowly beaten by Cork.
This was Donegal’s first year back in the top flight after Naughton guided them to the Division 2 title.
Naughton was recently co-opted onto Donegal County Council.
Previously, Naughton led Donegal to an All-Ireland Intermediate title in 2010.
Listen: ‘This is the sweetest’ says Mickey...
Watch: Ulster final highlights as Cavan dethrone...


Remember when I did a review of the Big Top Cupcake back in December? I love that product.
My mom gave it to me for my birthday.
Yesterday I stopped by Dollar General and spotted a version of it for $8.
It's a smaller box but the shells and pans looked about the same size as the Big Top Cupcake version.
It's a silicon baking mold but a different brand.
Check your Dollar General for the same offer. It has the signature Dollar General on the box price tag, you know the kind you can't remove.


John Daly: He Used to be Someone "A sinister cabal of superior writers."
Some will say, as Daly has, that he really shouldn't have been playing because he's nursing injuries. Maybe. But then again, if he hadn't played for that reason how would it explain his playing in the Russian Open in Moscow this week for what is undoubtedly a large appearance fee?


was delicious, and I don’t have to share it!
Comments: My husband sometimes gets frustrated with me because I can’t duplicate what I’ve made in the past, so this is a good idea.
Work Peak Performance
Comments: this was a “make a to-do list” challenge. I attended a class all day, so it wasn’t something meaningful for today. I find to-do lists frustrating. In my work I am constantly getting pulled away from my desk by a number of people. If I get a patient referral, I have to drop what I’m doing and go to the hospital. I may try a to-do list tomorrow for my day off.
Benefits noticed from primal efforts: plenty of energy and mental focus during long and demanding class today.
Daily highlights: passing the written ACLS exam on my first try, “Cocoa” nut pie
Daily needs-to-improve: ability to exercise </s> Posted March 30, 2011
To keep young children entertained on car trips or when they are under the weather we have new DVDs from the "Chugginton" series, and "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood." We have a new space fantasy audiobook just for kids titled "Infinity Riders." There's music, and kits. We are always changing the list, adding new items as they come through the library doors.
Region Wide </s> Hob.
It. </s> Produced by Vic Maile
But it’s the title track that will always be the strength and to some extent it impacts negatively on some other fine tracks. It towers above all around it; nothing can penetrate either its malevolent attitude to clean living or its powerhouse instrumental delivery. It’s sentiment is a “My Generation” for the new decade, but significantly, whilst Pete Townshend was aware of the older naysayers decrying the devolution of morality amongst the youth, Lemmy is completely oblivious to it. It is both his anthem and eulogy and as his passing in 2016 was announced, “Ace Of Spades” will fittingly be the song associated to his life.
Growling, mind garotting metal excess, this collection is the most raging, pounding, overdriven experience you’re ever likely to hear. An influential album and a fine testimonial to a band that built their reputation on bloody, glorious instinct.
1 – Ace Of Spades (10)
3 – Shoot You In The Back (8)
4 – Live To Win (8)
6 – (We Are) The Roadcrew (8)
11 – The Chase Is Better Than The Catch (8)
It is indeed, and worthy of being in anybody’s list of greatest songs of all time.
In much the same way that Fawlty Towers episodes tire me out, the sheer exhaustion of this album is testament to the sensual overload of skyscraper guitars, 36volt sds max bass and richter quaking drummage combined to earthquake the listener into rubble.
This goes to eleven….
I had a feeling this record was right up your strasse Kenny. Just think, if only Vardis had managed to write one song as good as many of the tracks on this album, their story would have been so different.
Vardis fall sadly into that painful “where are they now” category as suffered by Tap in ’82.Gunma Prefecture (群馬県).
Gunma Prefecture is part of the Kanto region (関東地方), just north-west of Tokyo. It’s an area mostly known for its hot springs, and the capital is Maebashi (前橋市). Maebashi is apparently known as the ‘City of Water, Greenery and Poets’, and is the birth place of a number of contemporary poets, including Sakutaro Hagiwara (萩原 朔太郎) (1886 – 1942).
Nearby is Mount Shirane (白根山), or Shiranesan, often also known as Kusatsu


I was in the basement of NYU’s Bobst library, in the little padded (soundproofed) cell, wherein I and other visually impaired and blind students had access to a computer with speech synthesizer, CCTV, and a giant Kurzweil scanner, when I first read Haüy’s encounter, which seemed to me dreadful and delightful in equal measures. What were those blind men thinking? It could not have been so bad, I thought, to entertain that raucous crowd. Perhaps it had provided an exciting change from dull hospice life. I think I was not alone in feeling conflicted. There seemed to be a guilty glee in the recounting of this origin story of the education of the blind. If it seemed to the authors to be exploitative, it was yet seldom left out, even if such spectacles strike our modern ears as painfully shameful.
I encountered Haüy and the blind “musicians” at the beginning of my grad school career, and the ideas it raised would eventually inspire my dissertation. On the other end of my PhD, when I was nearing the end of my struggle, I stumbled upon a book called The Radical Lives of Helen Keller, which impelled me to make one of my rare forays outsidearound 2007, when getting (accessible) ebooks of new releases was not yet a thing, and so I was forced to scan it page by page.
It was fascinating to find the almost palpable disdain in a book that itself sought to chip away at the saintly blind edifice by revealing just how radical a thinker Keller was. Although The Radical Lives of Helen Keller painted a more nuanced and interesting portrait than any I’d read before, it seemed to want to distance Keller’s vaudeville stint from her leftist politics—she was outspoken in the woman ’ s suffrage movement, fought for workers ’ rights, was a card-carrying socialist and one of the founding members of the NAACP.
By the time I learned that Keller performed on vaudeville, I’d already slipped off the grad school rails. I knew that the academic life was not for me. I’d started performing at open mics i, trying my hand at everything from standup to storytelling, drums to the accordion. I performed my teaching duties by day and did performance art by night. Thus, it was not a stretch for me to imagine myself in Keller ’ s place, nor when I thought back on it, in the place of the unknown blind men who so disturbed Haüy.
“It had always been said that we went into public life only to attract attention,” wrote Keller in Midstream, “and I had letters from friends in Europe remonstrating with me about ‘the deplorable theatrical exhibition’ into which I had allowed myself to be dragged.” She assured her readers that she went into vaudeville of her own free will and for very practical reasons.
After the immense success of Keller’s first book The Story of My Life, published in 1903, when she was barely into her twenties, people clamored to get a look at her. For several years before World War I, Keller and Sullivan did the lecture circuit, supposedly a genteel and acceptable kind of performance. But they soon discovered it was grueling, not well paid, and had more than a dash of the Old West looseness about it.
I liked to feel
I developed one of my monologues from these words, but I’m afraid I never did them justice. I had not been the best actress I knew, merely the cheapest, or at least that’s what I joked. In fact, I was sort of picking up the thread of a dream that had been thwarted long ago.
When I was a kid, before the eye disease, I took lots of acting classes and had a little repertoire of monologues. I was maybe ten years old when I tried to pull off Poe’s “Tell-Tale Heart.” My acting teacher attempted to dissuade me from a role that was so far from who I was. She was perhaps concerned with type, but I was excited about the darker emotions, about adult things. I also had a Dorothy Parker monologue that I thought was very witty—such a brave little drama nerd. At summer camp I performed monologues, and people clapped politely.
The last monologue I performed as a kid was in high school. I plucked a speech from Chaim Potok’s The Promise, one of the last books I read with my eyes. It was a struggle by then. I needed strong light, read very slowly, and could only do so for short periods. I played the kid who was having a psychological meltdown. “You were scary,” a friend told me.
It’s hard not to think about who or what I would have been had I not had an eye disease that made it impossible for me to read normal print from about age fifteen. Or, alternatively, if I'd had the eye disease, but had been born ten or twenty years later. How different life would have been, how much more possible to keep my dream alive of being an actor and playwright. Technology would have been there to catch the faltering letters and put them into sound. Or maybe this is an excuse—I could have learned braille, and indeed I tried , but I never got very speedy. I could not have read scripts for auditions or rehearsals. Additionally, the dearth and typically conservative selection of titles available in braille were not encouraging.
So in some ways it’s no surprise that, as I wound up my grad school days, I decided to return to the stage. After decades of vision loss, it seemed high time to perform my disability, to give blindness a sexy black box treatment.
Those words, spoken by me in a tight spotlight closed Act One of The Star of Happiness, probably packed one of the biggest emotional punches of my show. Keller’s frustration at not being allowed to write of things beyond her own experience was viscerally felt by myself and the audience.
Ba dum tsh. Harding, the president during her vaudeville days, was pretty bad. But it feels like the joke could use an update. Maybe it’s time I started performing The Star of Happiness again.