 milk, since I don't have a fridge.  Should I try getting used to powdered milk?  We can have cookies, but if we don't eat them all or dispose of them properly, the sugar ants will come in droves.  Ah, the lessons one has to learn.

There are three panels of windows which face the west, sort of, and there are curtains which block out the light pretty well.  Our backyard meets St. Michael's School, where I teach.  I can usually hear raucous noise from about 7 am (kids screaming with joy?) There are no screens, and I would like to open them but humid air comes in with or without insects.  So I use the air conditioner.  It's where the wall and ceiling come together;  it has a remote control and you can dial-a-temp;  It also has a fan in the air conditioner.  Then there's the heavy duty ceiling fan, which is great except when you're trying to sleep.  I think we'll use a combination of them, until you decide which is more comfortable for you.
Anyway, back to the windows.  From my view I can see the cows grazing, the chickens roosting and how the vegetable garden is coming.  We thought there wasn't going to be a garden for awhile, because the young man hired to be the farmer let the seed potatoes rot and basically did nothing for his wages.  The diocese bought a tractor and when I came it was left in the mud under some trees. The farmer lost his job, of course, and there was no one to replace him for several months.  This is prime planting season for the winter crop.  Well, the new farmer hit the ground running, planting tomatoes, chilies, cauliflower, eggplant and other vegetables.  Then THE CREW attacked the tractor.  The bad farmer had stolen all the tools from the tractor, and it had tires that were like cleats.  then I saw real tires on it, and a bunch of us went to cheer THE CREW on.  A farm machinery expert was there.  It's a crank motor, so several of the young men and boys had to learn how to crank it fast enough.  Then there's the whole carburetor deal, and the Bishop's wife (who knows about machinery and engines)  tweaked something, and with five other 'consultants' it was running in five minutes.  Now, how to plough ground?  I saw three kids about 12 sitting on a plank with three nails in the dirt, being the furrow-makers.  Now almost all of it is ploughed and planted.  We hope that in a few years we can grow most of our own food, especially potatoes, since that is such a staple.

Back to my room.  When I'm in the bed, I look directly at a kitchen sink and a marble cabinet top.  it could be turned into a little kitchen, but it hasn't been yet.  So I look around my room.  I bought a neat steel desk with three drawers and an office chair.  I also bought a steel armoire which is painted to look like honey oak  Pretty good resemblance. There is a door with a full length mirror (the girls come in all the time to look at themselves and laugh.)  There are three shelves in it for tops, slacks, underwear, etc. but not a place to .hang anything. There's another door below it.  The other side looks somewhat like a clothes stand, but it's challenging to hang anything there, although my hangers fit on the top rung.  Below that is a glass sliding door about 8 inches high and then another much larger space  below where the door works like a barrister bookcase.  I have a really good desk chair and another plastic chair for you to sit in.

Do you need to 'freshen up?'  Most non-Indians (including myself at first) do not understand all the possibilities in this room.  There's a fine toilet, and corner sink.  The hardware is the standard of Kohler: solid and beautiful.  You say, "Where can I take my bath?"  You can't.  There's a five gallon plastic tub and another 3 cup pitcher.  There's also a spiral shower head like we have, and then you're on your own for awhile.  All the other knobs produce water of all kinds from several different places.  You can get hot water if you use the 'geezer' high above all the plumbing and turn it on.  It heats the water, but I had months of cold showers before someone told me how to use it.  They're kind of bracing, if you don't think about it.  If you want to use the tubs, fill them with as much water as you need. Use your scrubbee, lather up good and there you are clean.  You use the little pitcher to rinse yourself off with, and go back into the tub for some more water.  The system works well, and you use very little water.  I use the shower head to wash my hair.  Now here's the neat part.  If there's no tub, where does the water run out?  The floor is slightly raked to the back of the room where the toilet is. There is a very large pipe connecting to the outside.  You just pour your buckets of water toward the toilet, and it just runs down the pipe until it reaches the gutter below.  Now that we've had tea and you got a chance to freshen up, how about we walk to the market?

1 comment:<|endoftext|>There's no question of my ever leaving
them. And Bruce wouldn't mind. Bruce would be only too thankful for me
to take them. And there's another thing--though I despised the idea at
the time, there's a good deal in it. I mean that Aylmer's well off, so I
should never be a burden. He would love to take the responsibility of us
all. I would leave my income to Bruce; he would be quite comfortable and
independent. Oh, he would take it. He might be a little cross, but it
wouldn't last, Landi. He would be better off. He'd find
somebody--someone who would look after him, perhaps, and make him quite
happy and comfortable. You're shocked?'

'Ça ne m'étonne pas. It's the reaction,' said Landi, nodding.

'How wonderful of you to understand! I haven't seen him again, you know.
I've just been thinking. In fact, I'm surprised at myself. But the more
I reflect on what he said, the more wonderful it seems.... Think how
he's cared for me all this time!'

'Sans doute. You know that he adores you. But,<|endoftext|>How To Detect A Bad Web Design

For sure that hip and trendy has becoming language of the youth. Every young designers have becoming too obsessed about looking so minimal and aesthetic that they forgot that content of a website is also another aesthetic value. They are so absorbed in limiting words just to maintain the minimal look of their web design. Informative content is highly important as they have a greater chance to reach a high amount of people. You should let visitors to enjoy staying at your website for a long period. Content is the way to let people spend so much time on your website. Imagine when your web design is just full of empty spaces and images. Don’t you think that they will just sit there, scroll down and less than 5 minutes, they would hop onto another website? But too much words can also be deceiving.

Mobile version

Mobile-friendly has to be a part of the web design language as 70% of users would normally use their mobile phones to look for something or surfing the browser. Sometimes the world is too modern that people can just order groceries from a few clicks on their mobile phones. They have to create a mobile version one yet making every CTA button functional. This will help increasing the number of visitors and the period of time spent by them. No more slow visitors traffic. Another reason is because not all desktop version is compatible with all mobile electronic devices. That is why you have to build it separately and making sure that every button can be used. At certain times, designers forgot to make those buttons functional.

All in all, those are the few errors that a designer and developer tend to make and have to go through. Before making your website visibly online, have a few recheck. Anyway, if you in need of someone to assist with your web design, make sure to consult with web design Malaysia as they are very keen and helpful. Besides, they are a group of professional people that are expertised in web development, SEO, and marketing your business.

Those are the simplest mistakes that probably a lot of us can automatically detect. But mistakes can be the things, the content and the input. It’s not just about the coding language mistakes.<|endoftext|>Thursday, October 09, 2008

A "Public Affairs," virtual debate with Manzullo and Abboud tonight on Cable in Rockford, et al, and Streaming

“Public Affairs,” interviews with Congressman Don Manzullo (R-Egan) and his Democratic opponent, Robert Abboud, Barrington Hills Village President, air this evening in Rockford and other 16th Cong. Dist. communities, listed below, on Comcast Cable Ch. 17. The program with Abboud airs at 8:00 pm and that is followed at 8:30 pm by the program with Cong. Manz

 healthy and boosts the immune system is important to help ensure they stay away.<|endoftext|>Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Come on in for a cup of coffee!

My room has an L-shape , with other part of the L containing the bathroom. When you enter my room you see two twin beds looking like fourposters and vinyl flooring looking like laminate wood.  One bed I use as a flat surface to put books, shawls, computer case.  The other one which I sleep in has mosquito netting, which fits over the top of the fourposter and comes all the way to the floor.  In the twenty first century mosquito netting is colored and printed so mine is pink with large flowers on it,  Very well designed and easy to work with.  Between the beds is a little side table, which has our electric water heater.  I have coffee and tea but no milk, since I don't have a fridge.  Should I try getting used to powdered milk?  We can have cookies, but if we don't eat them all or dispose of them properly, the sugar ants will come in droves.  Ah, the lessons one has to learn.

There are three panels of windows which face the west, sort of, and there are curtains which block out the light pretty well.  Our backyard meets St. Michael's School, where I teach.  I can usually hear raucous noise from about 7 am (kids screaming with joy?) There are no screens, and I would like to open them but humid air comes in with or without insects.  So I use the air conditioner.  It's where the wall and ceiling come together;  it has a remote control and you can dial-a-temp;  It also has a fan in the air conditioner.  Then there's the heavy duty ceiling fan, which is great except when you're trying to sleep.  I think we'll use a combination of them, until you decide which is more comfortable for you.
Anyway, back to the windows.  From my view I can see the cows grazing, the chickens roosting and how the vegetable garden is coming.  We thought there wasn't going to be a garden for awhile, because the young man hired to be the farmer let the seed potatoes rot and basically did nothing for his wages.  The diocese bought a tractor and when I came it was left in the mud under some trees. The farmer lost his job, of course, and there was no one to replace him for several months.  This is prime planting season for the winter crop.  Well, the new farmer hit the ground running, planting tomatoes, chilies, cauliflower, eggplant and other vegetables.  Then THE CREW attacked the tractor.  The bad farmer had stolen all the tools from the tractor, and it had tires that were like cleats.  then I saw real tires on it, and a bunch of us went to cheer THE CREW on.  A farm machinery expert was there.  It's a crank motor, so several of the young men and boys had to learn how to crank it fast enough.  Then there's the whole carburetor deal, and the Bishop's wife (who knows about machinery and engines)  tweaked something, and with five other 'consultants' it was running in five minutes.  Now, how to plough ground?  I saw three kids about 12 sitting on a plank with three nails in the dirt, being the furrow-makers.  Now almost all of it is ploughed and planted.  We hope that in a few years we can grow most of our own food, especially potatoes, since that is such a staple.

Back to my room.  When I'm in the bed, I look directly at a kitchen sink and a marble cabinet top.  it could be turned into a little kitchen, but it hasn't been yet.  So I look around my room.  I bought a neat steel desk with three drawers and an office chair.  I also bought a steel armoire which is painted to look like honey oak  Pretty good resemblance. There is a door with a full length mirror (the girls come in all the time to look at themselves and laugh.)  There are three shelves in it for tops, slacks, underwear, etc. but not a place to .hang anything. There's another door below it.  The other side looks somewhat like a clothes stand, but it's challenging to hang anything there, although my hangers fit on the top rung.  Below that is a glass sliding door about 8 inches high and then another much larger space  below where the door works like a barrister bookcase.  I have a really good desk chair and another plastic chair for you to sit in.

Do you need to 'freshen up?'  Most non-Indians (including myself at first) do not understand all the possibilities in this room.  There's a fine toilet, and corner sink.  The hardware is the standard of Kohler: solid and beautiful.  You say, "Where can I take my bath?"  You can't.  There's a five gallon plastic tub and another 3 cup pitcher.  There's also a spiral shower head like we have, and then you're on your own for awhile.  All the other knobs produce water of all kinds from several different places.  You can get hot water if you use the 'geezer' high above all the plumbing and turn it on.  It heats the water, but I had months of cold showers before someone told me how to use it.  They're kind of bracing, if you don't think about it.  If you want to use the tubs, fill them with as much water as you need. Use your scrubbee, lather up good and there you are clean.  You use the little pitcher to rinse yourself off with, and go back into the tub for some more water.  The system works well, and you use very little water.  I use the shower head to wash my hair.  Now here's the neat part.  If there's no tub, where does the water run out?  The floor is slightly raked to the back of the room where the toilet is. There is a very large pipe connecting to the outside.  You just pour your buckets of water toward the toilet, and it just runs down the pipe until it reaches the gutter below.  Now that we've had tea and you got a chance to freshen up, how about we walk to the market?

1 comment:<|endoftext|>How To Detect A Bad Web Design

For sure that hip and trendy has becoming language of the youth. Every young designers have becoming too obsessed about looking so minimal and aesthetic that they forgot that content of a website is also another aesthetic value. They are so absorbed in limiting words just to maintain the minimal look of their web design. Informative content is highly important as they have a greater chance to reach a high amount of people. You should let visitors to enjoy staying at your website for a long period. Content is the way to let people spend so much time on your website. Imagine when your web design is just full of empty spaces and images. Don’t you think that they will just sit there, scroll down and less than 5 minutes, they would hop onto another website? But too much words can also be deceiving.

Mobile version

Mobile-friendly has to be a part of the web design language as 70% of users would normally use their mobile phones to look for something or surfing the browser. Sometimes the world is too modern that people can just order groceries from a few clicks on their mobile phones. They have to create a mobile version one yet making every CTA button functional. This will help increasing the number of visitors and the period of time spent by them. No more slow visitors traffic. Another reason is because not all desktop version is compatible with all mobile electronic devices. That is why you have to build it separately and making sure that every button can be used. At certain times, designers forgot to make those buttons functional.

All in all, those are the few errors that a designer and developer tend to make and have to go through. Before making your website visibly online, have a few recheck. Anyway, if you in need of someone to assist with your web design, make sure to consult with web design Malaysia as they are very keen and helpful. Besides, they are a group of professional people that are expertised in web development, SEO, and marketing your business.

Those are the simplest mistakes that probably a lot of us can automatically detect. But mistakes can be the things, the content and the input. It’s not just about the coding language mistakes.<|endoftext|>Thursday, October 09, 2008

A "Public Affairs," virtual debate with Manzullo and Abboud tonight on Cable in Rockford, et al, and Streaming

“Public Affairs,” interviews with Congressman Don Manzullo (R-Egan) and his Democratic opponent, Robert Abboud, Barrington Hills Village President, air this evening in Rockford and other 16th Cong. Dist. communities, listed below, on Comcast Cable Ch. 17. The program with Abboud airs at 8:00 pm and that is followed at 8:30 pm by the program with Cong. Manzullo.

Jeff Berkowitz, Host and Producer of Public Affairs, and executive legal recruiter, debates and discusses bailout and other congressional issues with candidate Robert Abboud (taped on September 21, 2008) and Cong. Manzullo (taped on September 30, 2008). A Bush Administration 700 billion-dollar bailout proposal was rejected by Congress in a Sep. 29,


pipes and tobacco, or you are undone--your labors
in the ministry will soon be at an end.""[F]

   [Footnote F: Another Clergyman writes as follows. "I thank
   God, and I thank you for your advice to abandon smoking. My
   strength has _doubled_ since I quitted this abominable
   practice."]

A mere hint at these evils would seem to be sufficient to awaken
inquiry, among the votaries of the plant in question. I shall therefore
leave it to their candid decision, after a full and free investigation
enables them to arrive at a just conclusion.

The great increase of _dyspepsia_ within the last twenty years, with the
dark and lengthened catalogue of nervous complaints that follow in its
train, is, I have no doubt, in part owing to the universal prevalence of
practices, the propriety of which we are calling in question.

The misery to which the consumers of this drug are subject, when from
any cause they are temporarily deprived or it, would go far to deter a
reflecting man from<|endoftext|> Dark Knight] 378961

I'll shake my head.
"Are you still hungry?"

Ambrosia [Ex-slave] 378962

"No. I have eaten enough. Thank you for being considerate, Crescent."

Kilana [Deathsinger] 378963

I try to enjoy the meal.

Sion 378964

Take another sip of my wine again.
Move over to Kilana and ID.

"Thanks again for those cakes. It's one of my favorite snacks."

Venia [Battlemage] 378965

"Hmmm… I wonder… Do you think the paladins of Hardflank would know what to do?"

DM 378966

Frostmourn, Sunrise and the others can now be talked to

Venia [Battlemage] 378967

Sunrise soon…

Waxing Crescent [M Uni Dark Knight] 378968

I'll roll my eyes slightly.
"One of these days I'm just going to have to take you somewhere and then we'll both eat until we can hardly move."
I'll smile a little at her.
"But, not until you choose to do so. As for the consideration, it's the least I can do for a friend."
I'll look down at my armor for a second.
"Hmm. I suppose spontaneous hugging is out of the question in full armor. Though such things might be stepping beyond the bounds of what sort of contact you'd like to have."

Radiant Dawn [Celestial] 378969

I dismiss my wings.
"I'm not sure, but it's possible."

Imminent Domain [Mastermind] 378970

"You have a lot of friends here, in the High King's court. I'll try to take your advice about Nylis."

Nod as he approaches.

Venia [Battlemage] 378971

"Guess we'll have to hope for that…"

Kilana [Deathsinger] 378972

"No problem, How are you liking everyone so far?"

Kilana [Deathsinger] 378973

"Well, you could try to go to a library or museum with her."

Radiant Dawn [Celestial] 378974

"I don't really have anything else in mind that could help."

Smoldering Torch [Red Lantern] 378975

Sit down next to them.
"It's an interesting company to say the least."
I chuckle.
"I wasn't expecting formal parties to be this rowdy either."

Venia [Battlemage] 378976

"Until then… I suppose we'll just have to keep an eye on you."
I hug her again
"But don't worry, I wont drop you even if you fall. I would never forgive myself…"

Imminent Domain [Mastermind] 378977

Offer a weak smile. "I think she might vanish. But it's worth a try… and if your libraries are extensive as you implied, I would like to see them myself. Maybe you can show me, if she won't?"

Nod. "With respect due, I was surprised as well. However…"

Look over at Kilana. "…Don't let it fool you into thinking they're unprofessional. The Northlands is full of amazing people."

Ambrosia [Ex-slave] 378978

I just stare at him.
Why does he look like a mare…
Is he related to Radiant? No…

Radiant Dawn [Celestial] 378979

Hug her back.
"Venia… thank you. For snapping me out of it and everything. For being here for me…"

Venia [Battlemage] 378980

"It's what friends do Radiant. You've done a lot for us and I don't intend on it all being for nothing. I know you have a good heart. I don't question that for even a second."

Radiant Dawn [Celestial] 378981

I nod again, then break off the hug.
"I will be back with you and the others in a minute… I just need some more time in the fresh air, okay?"

Smoldering Torch [Red Lantern] 378982

"I do not underestimate anypony here.
Every pony here seems to have an interesting history."

Venia [Battlemage] 378983

I nod
"Okay, take your time. I'll be back in the dinner hall."
I turn to leave and head back over to the feast, sitting down on a chair with a heavy sigh.

Imminent Domain [Mastermind] 378984

Pipe up. "And the Zebras, too."

Smoldering Torch [Red Lantern] 378985

ID is a donkey or am I wrong?

Imminent Domain [Mastermind] 378986

That's correct.

Smoldering Torch [Red Lantern] 378987

Cock my eyebrow.
"I don't think I've seen any zebras around. Then again, nothing would surprise me."
Take a look around, any zebras around here?

Imminent Domain [Mastermind] 378988

Shift and indicate Kilana.

Smoldering Torch [Red Lantern] 378989

Kilana is a zebra?

Imminent Domain [Mastermind] 378990

Very much so.

Kilana [Deathsinger] 378991

"Of course, you know I used to hate libraries when I was younger, thought they were boring." I smile. "But, now they are just another tool."
Aw, that's sweet. "Pony is just a general term, but thanks for the thought"

Smoldering Torch [Red Lantern] 378992

Crap. Ignore >>378987 then.

"Of course. I meant ponies more as a general term. Zebras and donkeys included."

Imminent Domain [Mastermind] 378993

Mind reader. I wonder if I can figure out what she likes to do? '1d10+1'

"I'm sorry. I can visit on my own. Maybe the… place we're working on… will have a performance hall, too?"

Roll #1 8 + 1 = 9

DM 378994

Sunrise looks at you with a worried face
"You look distressed, Venia."

Radiant Dawn [Celestial] 378995

I perk my head up and glance around.
"Who's there?"

Venia [Battlemage] 378996

"I did not… exactly have the best of days today."

DM 378997

"Merely a shadow in the darkness, Embraced."
"…that's terrible.
Do you want to talk… alone?"

Venia [Battlemage] 378998

I smile weakly at her
"No need to worry, it's nothing too important. But if you want, we could go for a walk outside."

Radiant Dawn [Celestial] 378999

Keep trying to find the source.
"…is that you, Shadow Song?"

Kilana [Deathsinger] 379000

"What are you sorry about? And it sounds fun, maybe I can get Winterbreese to convince Nylis to come see a show with us,"
She likes to party, dance, sing, shop. You can see images of her hanging out and getting icecream with friends, shopping for dresses, singing while drinking some ale.. you can also see a certain joy in her work.

Sneaky sneaky.

Roll #1 3 = 3

DM 379002

…I don't want Frosty to see you all down like this."
She gets up
"No, it's Tirek's hairy ballsack here to gently rest on your face.
Yes it's me."

Ambrosia [Ex-slave

 Dark Knight] 378961

I'll shake my head.
"Are you still hungry?"

Ambrosia [Ex-slave] 378962

"No. I have eaten enough. Thank you for being considerate, Crescent."

Kilana [Deathsinger] 378963

I try to enjoy the meal.

Sion 378964

Take another sip of my wine again.
Move over to Kilana and ID.

"Thanks again for those cakes. It's one of my favorite snacks."

Venia [Battlemage] 378965

"Hmmm… I wonder… Do you think the paladins of Hardflank would know what to do?"

DM 378966

Frostmourn, Sunrise and the others can now be talked to

Venia [Battlemage] 378967

Sunrise soon…

Waxing Crescent [M Uni Dark Knight] 378968

I'll roll my eyes slightly.
"One of these days I'm just going to have to take you somewhere and then we'll both eat until we can hardly move."
I'll smile a little at her.
"But, not until you choose to do so. As for the consideration, it's the least I can do for a friend."
I'll look down at my armor for a second.
"Hmm. I suppose spontaneous hugging is out of the question in full armor. Though such things might be stepping beyond the bounds of what sort of contact you'd like to have."

Radiant Dawn [Celestial] 378969

I dismiss my wings.
"I'm not sure, but it's possible."

Imminent Domain [Mastermind] 378970

"You have a lot of friends here, in the High King's court. I'll try to take your advice about Nylis."

Nod as he approaches.

Venia [Battlemage] 378971

"Guess we'll have to hope for that…"

Kilana [Deathsinger] 378972

"No problem, How are you liking everyone so far?"

Kilana [Deathsinger] 378973

"Well, you could try to go to a library or museum with her."

Radiant Dawn [Celestial] 378974

"I don't really have anything else in mind that could help."

Smoldering Torch [Red Lantern] 378975

Sit down next to them.
"It's an interesting company to say the least."
I chuckle.
"I wasn't expecting formal parties to be this rowdy either."

Venia [Battlemage] 378976

"Until then… I suppose we'll just have to keep an eye on you."
I hug her again
"But don't worry, I wont drop you even if you fall. I would never forgive myself…"

Imminent Domain [Mastermind] 378977

Offer a weak smile. "I think she might vanish. But it's worth a try… and if your libraries are extensive as you implied, I would like to see them myself. Maybe you can show me, if she won't?"

Nod. "With respect due, I was surprised as well. However…"

Look over at Kilana. "…Don't let it fool you into thinking they're unprofessional. The Northlands is full of amazing people."

Ambrosia [Ex-slave] 378978

I just stare at him.
Why does he look like a mare…
Is he related to Radiant? No…

Radiant Dawn [Celestial] 378979

Hug her back.
"Venia… thank you. For snapping me out of it and everything. For being here for me…"

Venia [Battlemage] 378980

"It's what friends do Radiant. You've done a lot for us and I don't intend on it all being for nothing. I know you have a good heart. I don't question that for even a second."

Radiant Dawn [Celestial] 378981

I nod again, then break off the hug.
"I will be back with you and the others in a minute… I just need some more time in the fresh air, okay?"

Smoldering Torch [Red Lantern] 378982

"I do not underestimate anypony here.
Every pony here seems to have an interesting history."

Venia [Battlemage] 378983

I nod
"Okay, take your time. I'll be back in the dinner hall."
I turn to leave and head back over to the feast, sitting down on a chair with a heavy sigh.

Imminent Domain [Mastermind] 378984

Pipe up. "And the Zebras, too."

Smoldering Torch [Red Lantern] 378985

ID is a donkey or am I wrong?

Imminent Domain [Mastermind] 378986

That's correct.

Smoldering Torch [Red Lantern] 378987

Cock my eyebrow.
"I don't think I've seen any zebras around. Then again, nothing would surprise me."
Take a look around, any zebras around here?

Imminent Domain [Mastermind] 378988

Shift and indicate Kilana.

Smoldering Torch [Red Lantern] 378989

Kilana is a zebra?

Imminent Domain [Mastermind] 378990

Very much so.

Kilana [Deathsinger] 378991

"Of course, you know I used to hate libraries when I was younger, thought they were boring." I smile. "But, now they are just another tool."
Aw, that's sweet. "Pony is just a general term, but thanks for the thought"

Smoldering Torch [Red Lantern] 378992

Crap. Ignore >>378987 then.

"Of course. I meant ponies more as a general term. Zebras and donkeys included."

Imminent Domain [Mastermind] 378993

Mind reader. I wonder if I can figure out what she likes to do? '1d10+1'

"I'm sorry. I can visit on my own. Maybe the… place we're working on… will have a performance hall, too?"

Roll #1 8 + 1 = 9

DM 378994

Sunrise looks at you with a worried face
"You look distressed, Venia."

Radiant Dawn [Celestial] 378995

I perk my head up and glance around.
"Who's there?"

Venia [Battlemage] 378996

"I did not… exactly have the best of days today."

DM 378997

"Merely a shadow in the darkness, Embraced."
"…that's terrible.
Do you want to talk… alone?"

Venia [Battlemage] 378998

I smile weakly at her
"No need to worry, it's nothing too important. But if you want, we could go for a walk outside."

Radiant Dawn [Celestial] 378999

Keep trying to find the source.
"…is that you, Shadow Song?"

Kilana [Deathsinger] 379000

"What are you sorry about? And it sounds fun, maybe I can get Winterbreese to convince Nylis to come see a show with us,"
She likes to party, dance, sing, shop. You can see images of her hanging out and getting icecream with friends, shopping for dresses, singing while drinking some ale.. you can also see a certain joy in her work.

Sneaky sneaky.

Roll #1 3 = 3

DM 379002

…I don't want Frosty to see you all down like this."
She gets up
"No, it's Tirek's hairy ballsack here to gently rest on your face.
Yes it's me."

Ambrosia [Ex-slave] 379003

Nope, looks like I'm stuck in stasis for now.

Smoldering Torch [Red Lantern] 379004

"While we're on that subject, I'd like to offer my help in constructing that place, should there be any way in which I could help, of course."

Radiant Dawn [Celestial] 379005

I relax slightly, and sit back down.
"What is it?"

Imminent Domain [Mastermind] 379006

"I meant… I don't want to drag you along somewhere you think is boring, so I'm sorry. If you like, I don't really know how to dance, so maybe you could show me? Or you could come when I shop for a new mask and help me pick one out…"

"I'm sure the help would be appreciated."

Pumpkin Swansong [Northblade] 379007

Hail the North!

Kilana [Deathsinger] 379008

"Its healthy to lighten up once in a while, otherwise we'd ended up at each other's necks."


 up the repo file into an RPM and distribute that? By default RPMs will open with Package Installer and that's GUI based.

share|improve this answer
We can (and do), but when we distribute a set of RPMs (multiple apps with common dependencies) it's sad to make the user figure out the right install order. I'll look into the repo-release.rpm model. –  Michael Brewer-Davis Sep 19 '10 at 17:14

Your Answer

<|endoftext|>ADDRESSED TO ALEXANDER.

SIR,

Since you have mounted the scorner’s chair, and set your tongue against
the heavens, by denying the glorious doctrine of the Godhead, divinity,
personality, and of course the offices and operations of God the eternal
Spirit, I consider it my duty to address you.  I once considered you
sound in the faith—but alas, how have you fallen, and fallen for the mean
the beggarly purpose of a morsel of bread, and your conscience knows it.
I should not perhaps have troubled you with this letter, but you are so
very busy in making converts to this your opinion—not contented with
going to hell yourself, you are determined to drag others with you.  I
make no apology for this abrupt address, but assure you, that if you die
in these awful sentiments of denying the Godhead, divinity and distinct
personality of the Holy Spirit, your end will be awful indeed; to treat
his sacred person with such awful contempt is shocking, and to teach
others so to do<|endoftext|>

Author: David Churbuck

Cape Codder with an itch to write

9 thoughts on “GArden8-6948”

  1. “ATwater”5-6308 or just 5-6308 was my childhood number in what is now area code 904. And when my mother (b. 1917) was a child, people calling her family in Durham, NH simply asked the operator for “Durham-4.”

    What would our kids make of Lily Tomlin’s operator skits on “Laugh In”? One ringy-dingy, two ringy-dingy

  2. Dave,

    I grew up with a party line. With cells, skype, voip on cable available today, it’s so hard to comprehend concepts like rotary phones, party lines, and switchboard operators. Seeing this stuff seems like archeology, and somewhat surreal.

    My Grandmother worked as a switchboard operator for a while, and I loved hearing some of her stories of how things were.

    Neat post!

  3. I still remember my grandparents phone number as IN1-3548 (IN = Independence).

    My grandfather worked for Ma Bell and he was always bringing us the colorful plastic-coated wiring they used in switchboards and things, and we would make jewelry out of it. And every single one of us had a cable spool end table somewhere in our first apartment. One of my cousins still has the old time “stick” telephone (the one where you spoke into the microphone at the top of the stick, and held the earpiece up with a separate hand). We loved that phone; played with it all the time.

  4. I still have one old rotary phone up in the workshop, still working. We used to be able to dial a number (11 9 33), then hang up and it would ring the other phones in the house. It would come in handy now trying to contact the uncommunicative teen hiding upstairs, who has turned down the ringer on his cell and won’t answer a yell from downstairs. I remember with some numbers we didn’t even have to dial the 8. My Grandfather Higgins’ number was 8-6378, but we could reach him with just the last 4 digits. When my Dad was a kid that same number was Osterville 378. If asked for my number by a Cotuit resident I still give just the last 4 digits and if they know what I mean I know at least how long they’ve been around. I admit to being a 428 snob since 420 came on the scene, many years ago now.

  5. And when your phone was owned by Ma Bell who charged you for every extension. SPring5-xxxx was for Hyannis – I forget what Barnstable was. An Operator was your best bet when calling long distance – try to get one on the line now – VRU hell.

    One night in 1969 Mark Alvin and I called the Operator to ask what time it was in Alaska and she connected us with an operator in that state. We were able to ask a live person what time it was.

    And pay phones! Before cell phones there were pay phones everywhere! I used to keep a small notebook with the numbers and locations of all the pay phones because you could actually call them. You could have a friend wait at a pay phone and call them there – or have acomplete stranger answer.

  6. Those Western Electric phones look like they could be used as clubs, and probably were. Our number in Wichita, Kansas, was TE8-0555. Southwestern Bell had abbreviated Temple to TE, but after the late 1960s it was just 838.

  7. We lived down the street from you but Helen MacL made sure that there was no (buried) party line at Off Main. However, up in Wakeby Malcolm and Kay let us listen to the party line up there. Pretty cool. But even cooler was when we lived in East Orleans and you only had to dial THREE digits to reach the locals! Thanks for the memories.

Leave a Reply to gaga Cancel reply
<|endoftext|>Monday, September 18, 2017

On Being Politically Homeless

Editor's note: this blog post was originally written in January 2016 and never published. After realizing this I've edited it to update it for today.

I've been wanting to write a blog post for some time about the politics and attitudes surrounding liberalism, "regressive leftism," Islam, and immigration. I was inspired by the events back in January of 2016 in Cologne Germany where groups of men who appeared to be of Middle Eastern and North African decent sexually assaulted hundreds of women and raped at least two. Some of those who committed the assaults may have been recently arrived refugees, and predictably, there were many conservatives saying "I told you so."

What I face here is a very complicated and tricky situation, and navigating it is like walking over a dilapidated roped bridge over a raging river: every step must be carefully planned.

I am at heart a liberal. I believe in liberty and equality and fairness and tolerance, and I despise racism and bigotry of all sorts. But the situation today regarding Islam, immigration, and political correctness is really challenging my liberal identity. Some of the things I hear coming out of the aptly termed "regressive left" are making me nauseous — while at the same time I can understand where they're coming from as a liberal myself.

Many people on the Left are genuinely concerned about racism and bigotry towards people of Middle Eastern or Asian ethnicity, but their political correctness inhibits them from acknowledging and coming to terms with the reality of what we face with Islam.

I am concerned about the rise of right-wing fascist groups and political parties in Europe and in other Western counties. I definitely don't want to see Europe go down that path. But at the same time, I'm concerned about rising immigration of people from Muslim majority counties into Europe. Just as I don't want to see Europe go down the road of right-wing fascism, I also don't want to see Europe in 30 years looking like Egypt or Saudi Arabia.

As a liberal, I want Europe to remain open and tolerant, but tolerating views that oppose that very same tolerance is in the long run problematic. There is a huge cultural clash between the disturbingly conservative views that many of those from Muslim majority countries hold, with the liberal, secular, and open European cultures. And labeling anyone who says that Europe should consider limiting its immigration a xenophobe, a racist, or a bigot, is highly unproductive. What many on the Left do not have any tolerance for is anything against their tolerance for multiculturalism. But meanwhile, they'll tolerate the sexism and homophobia of brown skinned Muslims because they're an "oppressed" minority in the West.

This level of hypocrisy is madness.

So what's a liberal like me to do? I don't feel like I belong in the ranks of the Trump-loving right-wing fascists who want to keep Western countries "racially pure," nor do I feel like I belong in the ranks of most liberals who are so politically correct that they'll gleefully tolerate those who would destroy almost everything they stand for if they had the power. There must be some moderate middle ground I can take, but my options are limited.

There is a burgeoning "New Centre" movement that is critical of both the Far Right and Far Left elements. But many of them are too libertarian for me on economic issues, and so I only agree with them on some of the issues and face the same problem I do with Democrats and liberals.

I feel so politically homeless right now and it's not fun. I'm in a position where I agree with various different political movements on various different issues, but disagree with all of them on other major issues. On health care and economic issues, I'm on the Bernie Sanders Left. On free speech, I'm on the libertarian side and I disagree with many on the Left. And on

 Brewer-Davis Sep 29 '10 at 16:43

1 Answer 1

up vote 3 down vote accepted

PackageKit, the default package management tool in Fedora 13, does not include a method and it's unlikely that they ever will as it's a deliberate design choice to not include repository management.

However, could you instead package up the repo file into an RPM and distribute that? By default RPMs will open with Package Installer and that's GUI based.

share|improve this answer
We can (and do), but when we distribute a set of RPMs (multiple apps with common dependencies) it's sad to make the user figure out the right install order. I'll look into the repo-release.rpm model. –  Michael Brewer-Davis Sep 19 '10 at 17:14

Your Answer

<|endoftext|>

Author: David Churbuck

Cape Codder with an itch to write

9 thoughts on “GArden8-6948”

  1. “ATwater”5-6308 or just 5-6308 was my childhood number in what is now area code 904. And when my mother (b. 1917) was a child, people calling her family in Durham, NH simply asked the operator for “Durham-4.”

    What would our kids make of Lily Tomlin’s operator skits on “Laugh In”? One ringy-dingy, two ringy-dingy

  2. Dave,

    I grew up with a party line. With cells, skype, voip on cable available today, it’s so hard to comprehend concepts like rotary phones, party lines, and switchboard operators. Seeing this stuff seems like archeology, and somewhat surreal.

    My Grandmother worked as a switchboard operator for a while, and I loved hearing some of her stories of how things were.

    Neat post!

  3. I still remember my grandparents phone number as IN1-3548 (IN = Independence).

    My grandfather worked for Ma Bell and he was always bringing us the colorful plastic-coated wiring they used in switchboards and things, and we would make jewelry out of it. And every single one of us had a cable spool end table somewhere in our first apartment. One of my cousins still has the old time “stick” telephone (the one where you spoke into the microphone at the top of the stick, and held the earpiece up with a separate hand). We loved that phone; played with it all the time.

  4. I still have one old rotary phone up in the workshop, still working. We used to be able to dial a number (11 9 33), then hang up and it would ring the other phones in the house. It would come in handy now trying to contact the uncommunicative teen hiding upstairs, who has turned down the ringer on his cell and won’t answer a yell from downstairs. I remember with some numbers we didn’t even have to dial the 8. My Grandfather Higgins’ number was 8-6378, but we could reach him with just the last 4 digits. When my Dad was a kid that same number was Osterville 378. If asked for my number by a Cotuit resident I still give just the last 4 digits and if they know what I mean I know at least how long they’ve been around. I admit to being a 428 snob since 420 came on the scene, many years ago now.

  5. And when your phone was owned by Ma Bell who charged you for every extension. SPring5-xxxx was for Hyannis – I forget what Barnstable was. An Operator was your best bet when calling long distance – try to get one on the line now – VRU hell.

    One night in 1969 Mark Alvin and I called the Operator to ask what time it was in Alaska and she connected us with an operator in that state. We were able to ask a live person what time it was.

    And pay phones! Before cell phones there were pay phones everywhere! I used to keep a small notebook with the numbers and locations of all the pay phones because you could actually call them. You could have a friend wait at a pay phone and call them there – or have acomplete stranger answer.

  6. Those Western Electric phones look like they could be used as clubs, and probably were. Our number in Wichita, Kansas, was TE8-0555. Southwestern Bell had abbreviated Temple to TE, but after the late 1960s it was just 838.

  7. We lived down the street from you but Helen MacL made sure that there was no (buried) party line at Off Main. However, up in Wakeby Malcolm and Kay let us listen to the party line up there. Pretty cool. But even cooler was when we lived in East Orleans and you only had to dial THREE digits to reach the locals! Thanks for the memories.

Leave a Reply to gaga Cancel reply
<|endoftext|>Monday, September 18, 2017

On Being Politically Homeless

Editor's note: this blog post was originally written in January 2016 and never published. After realizing this I've edited it to update it for today.

I've been wanting to write a blog post for some time about the politics and attitudes surrounding liberalism, "regressive leftism," Islam, and immigration. I was inspired by the events back in January of 2016 in Cologne Germany where groups of men who appeared to be of Middle Eastern and North African decent sexually assaulted hundreds of women and raped at least two. Some of those who committed the assaults may have been recently arrived refugees, and predictably, there were many conservatives saying "I told you so."

What I face here is a very complicated and tricky situation, and navigating it is like walking over a dilapidated roped bridge over a raging river: every step must be carefully planned.

I am at heart a liberal. I believe in liberty and equality and fairness and tolerance, and I despise racism and bigotry of all sorts. But the situation today regarding Islam, immigration, and political correctness is really challenging my liberal identity. Some of the things I hear coming out of the aptly termed "regressive left" are making me nauseous — while at the same time I can understand where they're coming from as a liberal myself.

Many people on the Left are genuinely concerned about racism and bigotry towards people of Middle Eastern or Asian ethnicity, but their political correctness inhibits them from acknowledging and coming to terms with the reality of what we face with Islam.

I am concerned about the rise of right-wing fascist groups and political parties in Europe and in other Western counties. I definitely don't want to see Europe go down that path. But at the same time, I'm concerned about rising immigration of people from Muslim majority counties into Europe. Just as I don't want to see Europe go down the road of right-wing fascism, I also don't want to see Europe in 30 years looking like Egypt or Saudi Arabia.

As a liberal, I want Europe to remain open and tolerant, but tolerating views that oppose that very same tolerance is in the long run problematic. There is a huge cultural clash between the disturbingly conservative views that many of those from Muslim majority countries hold, with the liberal, secular, and open European cultures. And labeling anyone who says that Europe should consider limiting its immigration a xenophobe, a racist, or a bigot, is highly unproductive. What many on the Left do not have any tolerance for is anything against their tolerance for multiculturalism. But meanwhile, they'll tolerate the sexism and homophobia of brown skinned Muslims because they're an "oppressed" minority in the West.

This level of hypocrisy is madness.

So what's a liberal like me to do? I don't feel like I belong in the ranks of the Trump-loving right-wing fascists who want to keep Western countries "racially pure," nor do I feel like I belong in the ranks of most liberals who are so politically correct that they'll gleefully tolerate those who would destroy almost everything they stand for if they had the power. There must be some moderate middle ground I can take, but my options are limited.

There is a burgeoning "New Centre" movement that is critical of both the Far Right and Far Left elements. But many of them are too libertarian for me on economic issues, and so I only agree with them on some of the issues and face the same problem I do with Democrats and liberals.

I feel so politically homeless right now and it's not fun. I'm in a position where I agree with various different political movements on various different issues, but disagree with all of them on other major issues. On health care and economic issues, I'm on the Bernie Sanders Left. On free speech, I'm on the libertarian side and I disagree with many on the Left. And on immigration, I have my own position that agrees a bit with the Left, and a bit with the Right.

But here is a controversial position today according to many on the Left:

If multiculturalism has been an abysmal failure in Europe, as it appears to be the case, and if letting in millions of more immigrants is only going to make the current situation worse, then I support European countries limiting their immigration and the number of refugees. European countries should prioritize their immigration systems on what kind of skills they need and how well a person can assimilate to their culture. That might mean limiting the numbers of people from Muslim majority countries as well as low skilled migrants. The people from those countries who are the least religious should have priority, all other things being equal, and atheists


that ran smooth as oil, and inside of half an
hour I was rollin' through McRae's gate.

"Now, up to this time, I hadn't any notion of a program as to Nancy; I
was all took up with gettin' ahead of dad. But when I found myself in
front of old McRae, more down at the heel and raggeder in the seat than
ever, I was a whole lot set back. What was I to say to him and to her? I
didn't know. He was gappin' at me with the eyes of an owl, and so I
opened up.

"'I see you have no lightnin'-rods?' I says. 'In this day and age of the
world you can't afford to go without lightnin'-rods.'

"He wa'n't no fool, if he did wear rats in his hair, and he says:

"'I thought you was a cream-separator man. Are lightnin'-rods comin'
into style again?'

"'My kind is,' I says.

"'Well, the trade must be lookin' up,' he says, walkin' round and round
my machine and eyin' it. 'I'm thinkin' of havin' one of them wagons for
haulin' milk to town. Won't you light out?'

"'Don't care if I do,' I says, and out I<|endoftext|> the membership smart contract and she automatically gets a vote in future proposals. She also knows that the management team can’t simply run off with the money because the smart contract does not let them withdraw the money! The only way they can take the money is by approval in a vote amongst the members.

Alice no longer needs to trust anyone because she knows precisely how the smart contract will act and function. Finally, let’s take a look at a smart contract system for the employment agreement mentioned earlier.

Example: an employment smart contract

The parties involved in an employment agreement are:

  • The employee
  • The employer
  • The taxman — we can’t forget about him, can we?

Before the employment agreement takes effect, both the employee and the employer must make a deposit into the smart contract itself. This is a refundable deposit and both parties will get their deposit back if the contract is terminated correctly. If any party misbehaves, their deposit could be awarded to the other party as compensation.

The employee’s salary is agreed and input into the smart contract itself. The employer must always have deposited enough money to cover the employee’s next wage but the employee won’t be able to withdraw their money until after payday. If the money due is not there yet by payday, the employee can terminate the contract and take the employer’s deposit. Furthermore, there is also an agreement about notice periods and probation periods. The employer can’t terminate the contract without also paying for the effective notice period because otherwise they lose their deposit.

The government might want to ensure that it collects the tax due to it to consider the agreement legal. To do this, a separate contract can be deployed that defines an Income Tax Scheme. Smart contracts on the Ethereum platform can actually communicate with each other. Therefore the employment smart contract can declare the employee’s income on the tax scheme contract and even allow the employee to pay the tax due immediately. If the employee takes up a different employment contract in the future, the same tax scheme smart contract is used so their previous tax payments are recorded and the correct tax calculations can be made.

A problem still exists with the above smart contract. It is difficult for the smart contract to determine whether the employee is doing their job well. A solution for this is admittedly hard to find but a possible way to resolve this is to try and achieve consensus between the employee and the employer. If they both agree that the employee is not performing well, then the employee gets, say, half of their deposit back. Otherwise, if they still can’t agree, the case is put to a vote in public. The public (which is not a centralized entity!) will decide who is in the right and who is in the wrong. Whoever wins gets their deposit back. Whoever loses, loses their deposit which gets distributed amongst the voters for their time as a reward.

Looking to the future

The smart contract system described above is only a tiny sneak peak of what is possible using decentralized computation and smart contracts. At the extreme, we can have entire nation-wide elections and governments being run using smart contracts. I invite the reader to think about which chains of trust they’re involved in and encourage people to eliminate these chains using blockchain technologies. Through our efforts and with a little bit of help from technology on the side, we could finally have a society that is fair and just for all.

Content provided by Kyle Pullicino, Kyle is a consultant on blockchain for Grant Thornton Malta, with experience in financial and betting systems. More recently, he has delved into the world of blockchain, specifically the Ethereum platform and smart contracts.

Download brochure blockchain-brochure
Download PDF [ 1395 kb ]<|endoftext|>

Against Referendums

Referendums give people little say over what happens after the polls close.

Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos. Ivan Valencia

2016 was the year the people made their voice heard, a year of great referendums. Among others, we saw the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom, the mass rejection of the peace agreement in Colombia, Hungary’s refusal to accept EU refugee quotas, Thailand constitutionally solidifying its coup regime, and the rejection of the Italian government’s proposed constitutional reforms. But in so many cases, it seems hard to stomach what they’re saying.

For the Left, there’s a vague idea that we ought to quite like referendums. The yes-or-no choice represents a kind of popular self-determination without any of the usual excrescences of the political: no gurning, grinning, awful electoral figureheads with a filmy residue of malice glossing their TV-ready faces; none of the antidemocratic abstractions of parliamentary seats or electoral colleges; no need to choose the lesser evil — nothing but the people and their sovereign decision.

After all, wouldn’t any real, direct, non-representative democracy look something like rule by referendum; the Athenian council reconstructed, possibly using some kind of app, in the shining postmodern enlightenment of the twenty-first century?

So it’s sometimes baffling how many of these referendums seem to be going so badly wrong.

Italy is an outlier. Its referendum result does seem to be genuinely progressive. But despite this it could still be claimed as a victory for the far right. Watching recent developments in Italy through the international press, something very strange quickly became apparent: nobody writing about it seemed to have any idea what the referendum was actually about.

This wasn’t just the media’s usual ellipsis, although that was present too. (Renzi’s attack on workers’ rights in Italy was almost invariably shrouded under the name of “economic reforms,” and the trashing of the Constitution — an antifascist text, constructed in the rubble of World War II to hold back executive power — needed to push such measures through Parliament was just a dry piece of wonkish tinkering).

The victory for “No” was vast but vague. Voters were clearly saying no to something, but it was hard to say what they were saying no to. Clearly it wasn’t just the revision of Title V of Part II of the Constitution, or even the sitting government. That “no” gained a life of its own, becoming a soaring “no” to everything in existence, to be filed alongside all those other “no”s of 2016 that had grown to engulf the original question and unbalance the world.

But what comes out of that “no”? The new Italian prime minister, Paolo Gentiloni, is not a radical socialist; the assault on the Italian working classes is unlikely to let up. There are shades here of last year’s referendum in Greece, in which the overwhelming majority of the population voted against the troika’s austerity measures, only for the Syriza government to then submit a set of proposals that mirrored them in every detail.

It might be time to start questioning seriously what good referendums really can do for the Left, and how democratic they really are.

There’s an established liberal critique of the referendum: these things bypass the orderly representative institutions; they’re unstable, it’s mob rule, an unstable excess of democracy. But the reality is in many ways precisely the reverse: the referendum is not at all democratic, but far too stable and too orderly. Democracy is rule by the people, and the referendum doesn’t give sovereignty to the people, but to the abstract principle of number.

If we are to have any conception of the people as a collective subject, it’s something that brings itself into being through communal struggles. Ten thousand people sitting at home and bickering about politics with their families are just the public, a low, undulating field of opinion and indifference. Bring them all together in a central square to fight for the same thing, and they might plausibly lay claim to being the people.

In a referendum, struggles usually don’t emerge out of people’s actual experiences of life and capitalism — they’re ordained by the state. Governments rarely call a referendum unless they expect to win: it

 the membership smart contract and she automatically gets a vote in future proposals. She also knows that the management team can’t simply run off with the money because the smart contract does not let them withdraw the money! The only way they can take the money is by approval in a vote amongst the members.

Alice no longer needs to trust anyone because she knows precisely how the smart contract will act and function. Finally, let’s take a look at a smart contract system for the employment agreement mentioned earlier.

Example: an employment smart contract

The parties involved in an employment agreement are:

  • The employee
  • The employer
  • The taxman — we can’t forget about him, can we?

Before the employment agreement takes effect, both the employee and the employer must make a deposit into the smart contract itself. This is a refundable deposit and both parties will get their deposit back if the contract is terminated correctly. If any party misbehaves, their deposit could be awarded to the other party as compensation.

The employee’s salary is agreed and input into the smart contract itself. The employer must always have deposited enough money to cover the employee’s next wage but the employee won’t be able to withdraw their money until after payday. If the money due is not there yet by payday, the employee can terminate the contract and take the employer’s deposit. Furthermore, there is also an agreement about notice periods and probation periods. The employer can’t terminate the contract without also paying for the effective notice period because otherwise they lose their deposit.

The government might want to ensure that it collects the tax due to it to consider the agreement legal. To do this, a separate contract can be deployed that defines an Income Tax Scheme. Smart contracts on the Ethereum platform can actually communicate with each other. Therefore the employment smart contract can declare the employee’s income on the tax scheme contract and even allow the employee to pay the tax due immediately. If the employee takes up a different employment contract in the future, the same tax scheme smart contract is used so their previous tax payments are recorded and the correct tax calculations can be made.

A problem still exists with the above smart contract. It is difficult for the smart contract to determine whether the employee is doing their job well. A solution for this is admittedly hard to find but a possible way to resolve this is to try and achieve consensus between the employee and the employer. If they both agree that the employee is not performing well, then the employee gets, say, half of their deposit back. Otherwise, if they still can’t agree, the case is put to a vote in public. The public (which is not a centralized entity!) will decide who is in the right and who is in the wrong. Whoever wins gets their deposit back. Whoever loses, loses their deposit which gets distributed amongst the voters for their time as a reward.

Looking to the future

The smart contract system described above is only a tiny sneak peak of what is possible using decentralized computation and smart contracts. At the extreme, we can have entire nation-wide elections and governments being run using smart contracts. I invite the reader to think about which chains of trust they’re involved in and encourage people to eliminate these chains using blockchain technologies. Through our efforts and with a little bit of help from technology on the side, we could finally have a society that is fair and just for all.

Content provided by Kyle Pullicino, Kyle is a consultant on blockchain for Grant Thornton Malta, with experience in financial and betting systems. More recently, he has delved into the world of blockchain, specifically the Ethereum platform and smart contracts.

Download brochure blockchain-brochure
Download PDF [ 1395 kb ]<|endoftext|>

Against Referendums

Referendums give people little say over what happens after the polls close.

Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos. Ivan Valencia

2016 was the year the people made their voice heard, a year of great referendums. Among others, we saw the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom, the mass rejection of the peace agreement in Colombia, Hungary’s refusal to accept EU refugee quotas, Thailand constitutionally solidifying its coup regime, and the rejection of the Italian government’s proposed constitutional reforms. But in so many cases, it seems hard to stomach what they’re saying.

For the Left, there’s a vague idea that we ought to quite like referendums. The yes-or-no choice represents a kind of popular self-determination without any of the usual excrescences of the political: no gurning, grinning, awful electoral figureheads with a filmy residue of malice glossing their TV-ready faces; none of the antidemocratic abstractions of parliamentary seats or electoral colleges; no need to choose the lesser evil — nothing but the people and their sovereign decision.

After all, wouldn’t any real, direct, non-representative democracy look something like rule by referendum; the Athenian council reconstructed, possibly using some kind of app, in the shining postmodern enlightenment of the twenty-first century?

So it’s sometimes baffling how many of these referendums seem to be going so badly wrong.

Italy is an outlier. Its referendum result does seem to be genuinely progressive. But despite this it could still be claimed as a victory for the far right. Watching recent developments in Italy through the international press, something very strange quickly became apparent: nobody writing about it seemed to have any idea what the referendum was actually about.

This wasn’t just the media’s usual ellipsis, although that was present too. (Renzi’s attack on workers’ rights in Italy was almost invariably shrouded under the name of “economic reforms,” and the trashing of the Constitution — an antifascist text, constructed in the rubble of World War II to hold back executive power — needed to push such measures through Parliament was just a dry piece of wonkish tinkering).

The victory for “No” was vast but vague. Voters were clearly saying no to something, but it was hard to say what they were saying no to. Clearly it wasn’t just the revision of Title V of Part II of the Constitution, or even the sitting government. That “no” gained a life of its own, becoming a soaring “no” to everything in existence, to be filed alongside all those other “no”s of 2016 that had grown to engulf the original question and unbalance the world.

But what comes out of that “no”? The new Italian prime minister, Paolo Gentiloni, is not a radical socialist; the assault on the Italian working classes is unlikely to let up. There are shades here of last year’s referendum in Greece, in which the overwhelming majority of the population voted against the troika’s austerity measures, only for the Syriza government to then submit a set of proposals that mirrored them in every detail.

It might be time to start questioning seriously what good referendums really can do for the Left, and how democratic they really are.

There’s an established liberal critique of the referendum: these things bypass the orderly representative institutions; they’re unstable, it’s mob rule, an unstable excess of democracy. But the reality is in many ways precisely the reverse: the referendum is not at all democratic, but far too stable and too orderly. Democracy is rule by the people, and the referendum doesn’t give sovereignty to the people, but to the abstract principle of number.

If we are to have any conception of the people as a collective subject, it’s something that brings itself into being through communal struggles. Ten thousand people sitting at home and bickering about politics with their families are just the public, a low, undulating field of opinion and indifference. Bring them all together in a central square to fight for the same thing, and they might plausibly lay claim to being the people.

In a referendum, struggles usually don’t emerge out of people’s actual experiences of life and capitalism — they’re ordained by the state. Governments rarely call a referendum unless they expect to win: it’s the invention of a plastic and prosthetic collective subject, and victory is simply a matter of having the biggest number. Instead of the urgency of the demand for justice, you get a glorified census, a math problem.

Rule-by-numbers obscures all human subjectivity behind its arithmetic. In Colombia, for instance, those living in areas affected by the civil war — who lost the most from continued battles between the FARC and the government — overwhelmingly voted for a peace settlement, but their votes were cancelled out by the urban bourgeoisie, swayed by the far right who had little to lose.

Referendums approach every human being as a single, fungible monad. They hide all the political determinations that structure our lives; they pretend, briefly, that everyone is free. But we are not. Everywhere, people are still denied basic autonomy over their own lives. All the domination that surrounds us doesn’t suddenly disappear when we walk into the polling booth. When we vote, our powerlessness just takes on a different form.

Of course, people do still sometimes fail to vote the way the state wants them to. In 2016, they’ve done it with greater fury and viciousness than ever before. But the results haven’t been pretty. For a left which has spent years fighting against the pale non-politics of neoliberalism, austerity, and globalized financial capitalism, this last year has been a shock: in referendums and elections, voters have rejected these things in droves,


a happy thing. I find so much pleasure in things other people
don't care about."

"A very nicely delivered little snub, Hilda. You couldn't have told me
to mind my own business more kindly." Odd's humorous look met her glance
of astonished self-reproach. He hastened on, "Will you try to find
pleasure in a thing most girls _do_ care for? Will you go to the
Meltons' dance on Monday? Katherine told me I must go, this morning, and
I said I would try to persuade you."

"I _didn't_ mean to snub you."

"Very well; convince me of it by saying you will come to the dance."

The girlish pleasure of her face was evident.

"Do you really want me to?"

"It would make me very happy."

"It is against my rules, you know. I can't get up at six and go out in
the evening besides. But I will make an exception for this once, to show
you I wasn't snubbing you! And, besides, I should love to." The gayety
of her look suddenly fell to hesitation. "Only I am afraid I can't. I
remember I haven't any dress."<|endoftext|> hot or cold outside, physical outdoor activities lead to sweating, which makes people want to replenish their fluids. As such, it is important to have an adequate supply of clean water at all times.

Unfortunately, most natural water sources like rivers or lakes do not contain clean water that is safe for human consumption. Luckily, with a Sawyer gravity filtration system, people can enjoy clean water anywhere and anytime.

Sawyer Gravity Filtration System

What is The Sawyer Gravity Filtration System?

The Sawyer 1 Gallon Gravity System is a type of gravity filter that purifies contaminated water on the go. It is a quick and easy way to filter enough water in a base camp or a remote backcountry location. Since it weighs only 8.3 oz., carrying it outdoors is quite easy.

The Sawyer gravity filtration system package contains a 1-gallon water reservoir, hose, adapters, Sawyer micro water filter, and a syringe for cleaning the filter. Surprisingly, even with all these amazing features, this filtration system costs only 40 dollars.

About Gravity Filters

A gravity water filter uses gravity to filter polluted or contaminated water. There are two chambers in the filter, the top chamber, and the bottom chamber. The upper chamber is where dirty water is put for filtration. On the other hand, the lower chamber serves as the finish line, where the contaminated water will be transformed into filtered water.

The gravity water filter’s upper chamber contains an element that handles the filtration of your contaminated water. That element is made up of minute pores that prevent impurities and other pollutants from passing through, leaving only water to pass through to the lower chamber. After this process, clean water that is free from residues is generated.

A gravity filtration system has the advantage of not requiring any pumping, squeezing, or waiting time to obtain filtered or treated water. Simply fill the dirty reservoir with water and let gravity pull it through the hose. Because of this, the filtration system is perfect for filtering water for a large number of people. Additionally, it perfectly saves time during camping creating time for other activities such as setting up a tent or making a fire.

Product Features

Sawyer’s 1-Gallon Gravity System with dual-threaded MINI filter is:

• Lightweight
• Durable option
• Filters large amounts of water
• Filtration takes as little as 7 minutes
• Excellent for emergency preparedness as well as backcountry camping and backpacking

Here are details of the system’s specific features:

The Sawyer Mini Water Filter

The Sawyer gravity filtration system included with the unit is a new type of Sawyer Mini water filter, which makes the system work even better. It is similar to the Sawyer Squeeze water filter, with threads on both sides. When travelers or hikers are done filtering water and they want to suspend the grates, they may switch off the flow using the valve on the output side of this double-threaded Mini.

The Mini is a dual-threaded micron hollow fiber filter that physically removes almost every bacteria in the water. It gets rid of all salmonella, cholera, and protozoa. The filter can do its work in under seven minutes, even though other systems in the market take a shorter time.

If the filter becomes clogged as a result of contaminants, it can be back-flushed by inserting the tip of a plastic syringe filled with water into the filter’s output side. Luckily, the plastic syringe comes as part of the package when the system is purchased. This helps to clean it out and enhance the flow rate. The Mini is rated to last long if properly cared for and cleaned regularly.

The Single Gallon Reservoir

The water reservoir for this filter system has a large aperture on one end for filling and a small opening on the other for putting in a filtration line. Moreover, the bag is made of a strong, non-pliable plastic that makes rolling it up in a backpack difficult. Because it isn’t gusseted on the bottom, it won’t stand up on a picnic bench and must be hung up or laid flat when filtering. Most importantly, the reservoir is large enough to accommodate a whole gallon of water.

While having a large hole for filling is convenient, it comes at a cost. Unlike other smaller filters, people cannot expect the reservoir to fill up by dumping the bag into a shallow water source. Because the walls are made of softer plastic, it’s not as hard as other bottle filters. The only way to fill the 1-gallon bag is to pour water into it from the top with a separate container or holding container.

Unfortunately, the reservoir is not made like those of other filters. This is because it is colored on the outside, making it hard to see through it. The fact that the reservoir is opaque and not transparent makes it hard to see how much water remains. As a result, it is hard to approximate refilling time especially when camping. Additionally, it is almost impossible to tell how clean or dirty the collected water is, and whether filtering was effective. Notably, this feature may make buyers prefer transparent filter systems over this one.

While camping or hiking outdoors, water filters are normally hanged somewhere like on a tree. Unfortunately, the Sawyer gravity filtration system does not come with hanging lanyards. As a result, it becomes hard to find a perfect place to place the filtration system. Moreover, most forests contain twigs and other objects that could ruin the system if it is not placed in a safe place. That said, this is a feature that the company should look into before developing an upgraded version of the filtration system.

Product Accessories

The Sawyer gravity filtration system comes with various accessories. These include inline hydration adapters, cleaning coupling, plastic tubing, a plastic syringe, and cleaning coupling. The plastic syringe is meant for back-flushing the system in case the filters clog with dirt. Luckily, most of these accessories come with the product, but can also be bought separately if they get misplaced.

Is the Sawyer Gravity Filtration System Recommended? Definitely. Here’s Why:

Well, this filtration system is one of the simplest ways to get access to clean water while having fun outside. Here are the advantages of having this filter system:

• It is Affordable

The gravity filtration system costs only 40 dollars which is far much cheaper than buying bottled water for a large group of people. As such, it saves on both energy and money since water filtration is faster while using it.

Perfect for Large Groups

Organizing a camp or a hike for a large group can be stressful, but this water filter reduces the planning stress by taking care of all water needs. The system can filter a whole gallon of water in only 7 minutes. This means that it is perfect for many people. Moreover, no waiting time is required, allowing extra time to have fun while outdoors.

• Durable

The problem with many water filter systems is that they get damaged fast, making them unreliable. Luckily, with the Sawyer gravity filtration system, there is a guarantee of durability. When properly used and maintained, the system can filter up to 100,000 gallons of water. Compared to other brands in the market, its durability is perfect.

• Saves on Time and Energy

With gravity water filters like this one, there is no need for pumping or squeezing. This is because the system uses the force of gravity to clean water. That said, minimum energy and time are consumed. More importantly, the filtration process takes place without the supervision of anyone which is interesting.

Final Verdict

Before purchasing any water filtration system, it is vital to understand your personal needs first. This is because different systems are made for different needs. When looking for an affordable, simple, and easy-to-use filter, however, this one is top of the list. The Sawyer Gravity Filtration System should be the ultimate choice!

Purchase Your Sawyer Gravity Filtration System Today! – Click Here

Leave a Comment<|endoftext|>Call our Free 24/7 Helpline Now

Drinking Alcohol Because You Need It

You’re out for a night with friends.  You used to enjoy it more, but lately you’ve fallen into a depression and anxiety.  Life’s handed you some real difficulties and you haven

 hot or cold outside, physical outdoor activities lead to sweating, which makes people want to replenish their fluids. As such, it is important to have an adequate supply of clean water at all times.

Unfortunately, most natural water sources like rivers or lakes do not contain clean water that is safe for human consumption. Luckily, with a Sawyer gravity filtration system, people can enjoy clean water anywhere and anytime.

Sawyer Gravity Filtration System

What is The Sawyer Gravity Filtration System?

The Sawyer 1 Gallon Gravity System is a type of gravity filter that purifies contaminated water on the go. It is a quick and easy way to filter enough water in a base camp or a remote backcountry location. Since it weighs only 8.3 oz., carrying it outdoors is quite easy.

The Sawyer gravity filtration system package contains a 1-gallon water reservoir, hose, adapters, Sawyer micro water filter, and a syringe for cleaning the filter. Surprisingly, even with all these amazing features, this filtration system costs only 40 dollars.

About Gravity Filters

A gravity water filter uses gravity to filter polluted or contaminated water. There are two chambers in the filter, the top chamber, and the bottom chamber. The upper chamber is where dirty water is put for filtration. On the other hand, the lower chamber serves as the finish line, where the contaminated water will be transformed into filtered water.

The gravity water filter’s upper chamber contains an element that handles the filtration of your contaminated water. That element is made up of minute pores that prevent impurities and other pollutants from passing through, leaving only water to pass through to the lower chamber. After this process, clean water that is free from residues is generated.

A gravity filtration system has the advantage of not requiring any pumping, squeezing, or waiting time to obtain filtered or treated water. Simply fill the dirty reservoir with water and let gravity pull it through the hose. Because of this, the filtration system is perfect for filtering water for a large number of people. Additionally, it perfectly saves time during camping creating time for other activities such as setting up a tent or making a fire.

Product Features

Sawyer’s 1-Gallon Gravity System with dual-threaded MINI filter is:

• Lightweight
• Durable option
• Filters large amounts of water
• Filtration takes as little as 7 minutes
• Excellent for emergency preparedness as well as backcountry camping and backpacking

Here are details of the system’s specific features:

The Sawyer Mini Water Filter

The Sawyer gravity filtration system included with the unit is a new type of Sawyer Mini water filter, which makes the system work even better. It is similar to the Sawyer Squeeze water filter, with threads on both sides. When travelers or hikers are done filtering water and they want to suspend the grates, they may switch off the flow using the valve on the output side of this double-threaded Mini.

The Mini is a dual-threaded micron hollow fiber filter that physically removes almost every bacteria in the water. It gets rid of all salmonella, cholera, and protozoa. The filter can do its work in under seven minutes, even though other systems in the market take a shorter time.

If the filter becomes clogged as a result of contaminants, it can be back-flushed by inserting the tip of a plastic syringe filled with water into the filter’s output side. Luckily, the plastic syringe comes as part of the package when the system is purchased. This helps to clean it out and enhance the flow rate. The Mini is rated to last long if properly cared for and cleaned regularly.

The Single Gallon Reservoir

The water reservoir for this filter system has a large aperture on one end for filling and a small opening on the other for putting in a filtration line. Moreover, the bag is made of a strong, non-pliable plastic that makes rolling it up in a backpack difficult. Because it isn’t gusseted on the bottom, it won’t stand up on a picnic bench and must be hung up or laid flat when filtering. Most importantly, the reservoir is large enough to accommodate a whole gallon of water.

While having a large hole for filling is convenient, it comes at a cost. Unlike other smaller filters, people cannot expect the reservoir to fill up by dumping the bag into a shallow water source. Because the walls are made of softer plastic, it’s not as hard as other bottle filters. The only way to fill the 1-gallon bag is to pour water into it from the top with a separate container or holding container.

Unfortunately, the reservoir is not made like those of other filters. This is because it is colored on the outside, making it hard to see through it. The fact that the reservoir is opaque and not transparent makes it hard to see how much water remains. As a result, it is hard to approximate refilling time especially when camping. Additionally, it is almost impossible to tell how clean or dirty the collected water is, and whether filtering was effective. Notably, this feature may make buyers prefer transparent filter systems over this one.

While camping or hiking outdoors, water filters are normally hanged somewhere like on a tree. Unfortunately, the Sawyer gravity filtration system does not come with hanging lanyards. As a result, it becomes hard to find a perfect place to place the filtration system. Moreover, most forests contain twigs and other objects that could ruin the system if it is not placed in a safe place. That said, this is a feature that the company should look into before developing an upgraded version of the filtration system.

Product Accessories

The Sawyer gravity filtration system comes with various accessories. These include inline hydration adapters, cleaning coupling, plastic tubing, a plastic syringe, and cleaning coupling. The plastic syringe is meant for back-flushing the system in case the filters clog with dirt. Luckily, most of these accessories come with the product, but can also be bought separately if they get misplaced.

Is the Sawyer Gravity Filtration System Recommended? Definitely. Here’s Why:

Well, this filtration system is one of the simplest ways to get access to clean water while having fun outside. Here are the advantages of having this filter system:

• It is Affordable

The gravity filtration system costs only 40 dollars which is far much cheaper than buying bottled water for a large group of people. As such, it saves on both energy and money since water filtration is faster while using it.

Perfect for Large Groups

Organizing a camp or a hike for a large group can be stressful, but this water filter reduces the planning stress by taking care of all water needs. The system can filter a whole gallon of water in only 7 minutes. This means that it is perfect for many people. Moreover, no waiting time is required, allowing extra time to have fun while outdoors.

• Durable

The problem with many water filter systems is that they get damaged fast, making them unreliable. Luckily, with the Sawyer gravity filtration system, there is a guarantee of durability. When properly used and maintained, the system can filter up to 100,000 gallons of water. Compared to other brands in the market, its durability is perfect.

• Saves on Time and Energy

With gravity water filters like this one, there is no need for pumping or squeezing. This is because the system uses the force of gravity to clean water. That said, minimum energy and time are consumed. More importantly, the filtration process takes place without the supervision of anyone which is interesting.

Final Verdict

Before purchasing any water filtration system, it is vital to understand your personal needs first. This is because different systems are made for different needs. When looking for an affordable, simple, and easy-to-use filter, however, this one is top of the list. The Sawyer Gravity Filtration System should be the ultimate choice!

Purchase Your Sawyer Gravity Filtration System Today! – Click Here

Leave a Comment<|endoftext|>Call our Free 24/7 Helpline Now

Drinking Alcohol Because You Need It

You’re out for a night with friends.  You used to enjoy it more, but lately you’ve fallen into a depression and anxiety.  Life’s handed you some real difficulties and you haven’t coped well.  You’ve eaten a lot for emotional reasons and gained several pounds the last few months.  Tonight you vowed to just “get over it” and go out like you used to.  How will you use alcohol this evening?

Whats Behind Your Alcohol Drinking Choices

What a question to ask “How will you use alcohol?”  If you’re out, you just drink, right?  Not necessarily.  Take a different situation, where you have a couple good hobbies, a great group of friends, a decent job that pays enough, and you feel some healthy satisfaction in your life.  Do you think you would drink the same way as you would in the first situation?

More than likely, the first situation would be a setup to drink heavily in order to feel comfortable being out.  With a weight gain, you are likely to feel self conscious and somewhat anxious.  You might be feeling a great sense of self doubt and wondering why you had such a stupid idea to go out.  Just to go along and cover up your misery, you could be prepared to not care how much you drink.

This can set you up for a lot of problems – drinking and driving, having unwanted sex, injury, assault, the beginning or continuation of a heavy drinking pattern.  When you drink to