Two people have been injured after an experimental flying car crashed into a tree Friday morning near a school in Vernon, B.C.

The aircraft clipped a fence behind Vernon's Ellison Elementary School, hit the tree and crashed a few metres from school property just before 9 a.m. PT.

Made by a Florida company, the flying car is a combination of a plane engine, propeller and parasail attached to a dune buggy.

RCMP spokesperson Gord Molendyk said there are indications the contraption had taken off from the airport in Vernon.

"It looked like it was on its approach," Molendyk said. "There was motor sound and people looked up and it got into trouble and came through the fence and into the trees here."

Molendyk said the pilot and his passenger had to be pulled from the tree. They suffered minor injuries and were taken to hospital. They have since been released.

No one was hurt on the ground, although children from the school were preparing on the nearby grounds for a track and field day.

It's believed Kelowna, B.C., resident Ray Siebring recently brought the fifth-ever flying car to Canada as a prototype and has been checking it out in a series of test flights across the Okanagan.

A release from the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) confirmed the flying car was "an American corporately registered I-Tech Maverick SP Powered Parachute" that had crashed.

The vehicle, known as "Maverick," uses a 100-metre runway to take off and flies under a parasail. But it also needs a 100-metre runway to make a safe landing.

According to the manufacturer's website, the car can travel at speeds up to 160 kilometres per hour on land and up to 65 kilometres per hour in the air. It costs at least $94,000 to purchase, according to the site.

The TSB is now investigating.


YALTA, CRIMEA—In what is being called the worst environmental disaster in the region’s history, millions of policy proposals gushed into the Black Sea on Thursday after a Brookings Institution think tanker ran aground off the coast of Crimea. “Cleanup crews are working around the clock to contain this massive flood of position papers on economics and global development,” said Brookings Institution president Strobe Talbott, adding that booms had been brought to the site to halt the spread of the nonpartisan research while skimmers had been deployed to collect the policy briefs from the ocean’s surface in hopes of preventing currents from dispersing them over a far greater area. “We’re doing our very best to limit the exposure of marine habitats to the analyses of sub-Saharan energy infrastructure, universal basic income, and automation in the labor market, but it could be months before we know the full extent of the damage.” Talbott went on to say that the Brookings Institution had already pledged $200 million toward cleanup efforts thanks to generous donations from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Hutchins Family Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

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Taking RPG to the Next Level #SRPG

Greetings, Lords! This is Fantasy War Tactics Support Team.

The first to make a fine start of the relay weekend events will be

Weekend Coocoo Dungeon Open Event!

This will make a great use out of Devil’s Soul you lords will have received from Burning Week On-time Event J!

In fact, the Lost Island will be available on the next weekend and all three bosses from the island will make special appearances!

Do not miss these events starting from this weekend to claim additional items, gold, and rewards!

Please refer below for further details

On the first weekend, all Coocoo dungeons will be open!

▶ Event Period: 2016. 01. 23(Sat.) 5:00am – 01. 25(Mon.) 04:59am

▶ Event Information: All Nephthys dungeons (Flame Garden, Moonlight Garden, Underwater Garden) will all be open during the weekend.

▶ Event Note:

- If you do not see those dungeons open during the event period, please re-login to check again.

On the second weekend, The Lost Island Festival Event!

▶ Event Period: 2016. 01. 30(Sat.) 5:00am – 02. 01(Mon.) 04:59am

▶ Event Information: All the time travelers will make their appearance during the event period!

[Featured Boss : Muang, Chenny, Nirvana]

▶ Event Note

- Please re-login during the event period to play

Thank you, always.


Featured image: The South Texas Project nuclear power facility in Bay City, Texas could be under extreme threat from historic flood waters, groups warned on Tuesday. (Photo: STP)

As record-breaking rainfall and unprecedented flooding continue to batter the greater Houston area and along the Gulf coast on Tuesday, energy watchdogs groups are warning of “a credible threat of a severe accident” at two nuclear reactors still operating at full capacity in nearby Bay City, Texas.

Three groups—Beyond Nuclear, South Texas Association for Responsible Energy, and the SEED Coalition—are calling for the immediate shutdown of the South Texas Project (STP) which sits behind an embankment they say could be overwhelmed by the raging flood waters and torrential rains caused by Hurricane Harvey.

“Both the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the STP operator have previously recognized a credible threat of a severe accident initiated by a breach of the embankment wall that surrounds the 7,000-acre reactor cooling water reservoir,” said Paul Gunter, director of the Beyond Nuclear’s Reactor Oversight Project, in a statement by the coalition on Tuesday.

The groups warn that as Harvey—which on Tuesday was declared the most intense rain event in U.S. history—continues to dump water on the area, a breach of the embankment wall surrounding the twin reactors would create “an external flood potentially impacting the electrical supply from the switchyard to the reactor safety systems.” In turn, the water has the potential to “cause high-energy electrical fires and other cascading events initiating a severe accident leading to core damage.” Even worse, they added, “any significant loss of cooling water inventory in the Main Cooling Reservoir would reduce cooling capacity to the still operating reactors that could result in a meltdown.”

With the nearby Colorado River already cresting at extremely high levels and flowing at 70 times the normal rate, Karen Hadden, director of SEED Coalition, warned that the continue rainfall might create flooding that could reach the reactors.

“There is plenty of reserve capacity on our electric grid,” she said, “so we don’t have to run the reactors in order to keep the lights on. With anticipated flooding of the Colorado River, the nuclear reactors should be shut down now to ensure safety.”

Last week, the STP operators said that safety for their workers and local residents was their top concern, but that they would keep the plant operating despite the approaching storm.

Susan Dancer, president of the South Texas Association for Responsible Energy, said that as residents in Bay City—herself included—were being forced to leave their homes under mandatory evacuation orders, it makes no sense to keep the nuclear plant online.

“Our 911 system is down, no emergency services are available, and yet the nuclear reactors are still running. Where is the concern for employees and their families? Where is the concern for public safety? This is an outrageous and irresponsible decision,” declared Dancer. “This storm and flood is absolutely without precedent even before adding the possibility of a nuclear accident that could further imperil millions of people who are already battling for their lives.”

As Harvey hovers over the coastal region, heavy rains are expected to persist for days even as the storm system creeps toward to Louisiana in the east.

But no matter how remote the possibility, said Gunter,

“it’s simply prudent that the operator put this reactor into its safest condition, cold shutdown.”

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License


The victims of the Bourke Street atrocity have received more than $2.2 million in compensation, new figures have revealed.

In January, a car ploughed into crowds at a Melbourne CBD shopping district, killing six people and wounding 37 more.

WorkSafe and Transport Accident Commission figures show just over $2.2 million has been given to the impacted families, reports The Age.

People pay tribute leaving flowers at a temporary memorial on Bourke Street Mall

Worksafe received claims for a total of $1.69 million from 70 people including families who lost loved ones and victims who suffered physical or mental harm.

Of the 70 victims, 14 did not need time off work and only needed to cover medical costs, 38 have returned to work, and 16 have been unable to go back to work.

Five victims are still suffering physical injuries and 11 are fighting mental health issues.

The TAC want sent 106 claims amounting to $578,926 for three of the deaths, 14 physical injuries and 89 mental injuries.

Claims were used to cover counselling, dependency benefits and reimbursement of travel and accommodation expenses stemming from hospital stays.

More than 1000 people called the Victorian Emergency Helpline in the aftermath of the attack, many for mental health issues.

The victims of the atrocity (pictured: one at the scene) have received more than $2.2 million in compensation

A significant number of WorkSafe and the TAC victims were injured in the incident.

Following the tragedy, the government set up a fund to provide financial support to assist the families most affected and to complement compensation.

An Independent Panel was established to guide decisions about the fund.

Witnesses and those affected are encouraged to seek help from the Victim Support Line 1800 819 817


For years, the antique had been on a rickety support on a sideboard of Wendy Jones's home without anyone suspecting it was of such high value.

Mrs Jones only took it to the show because her husband was taking some books.

But she was startled when the 22-inch oval-shaped plate turned out to be the most valuable to have appeared on the BBC programme in its 30-year history.

The plate was commissioned by the Prussian East India Company for King Frederick II, who set up the company in 1750.

It was made from hard paste porcelain and decorated with the alms of the Hohenzollern family, the order of the black eagle, and the Maltese Cross.

The plate was made between 1750 and 1755, and there are pieces of the service in museums across the world.

Mrs Jones said: "The plate actually belongs to my son because he was left it by his grandmother.

"He didn't have room for it in his London home so I had it.

"One day it fell off the stand and crashed onto the sideboard but luckily it wasn't damaged.”

As she left the house to go to the show in Aberglasney, Wales, she grabbed the plate and put it in a single Tesco's carrier bag. They can easily split,” she said.

"When I heard how much it might be worth I was shocked.

"On the way to the show the plate was on the back seat of the car, but on the way home I kept hold of it all the way.”

She added: "We are not sure where the plate came from but my son's paternal grandmother did marry into a German family.

"And the plate was made for the King of Prussia, so that's possibly how it ended up in our family.”

John Axford, from Woolley and Wallis auction house in Salisbury, Wilts, who valued the plate, said: "It is a fantastic piece of a very rare Royal service.”


Received on 24.12.17:

We are social activists and friends of Dmitry Polienko and we are starting a New Year campaign of solidarity with the Belarusian prisoner of conscience! Please send a postcard with some words of support to Dmitry!

You can also post a photo of your postcard on social media and use the hashtag: #Free_Polienko

It should be recalled that in October 2016, Dmitry Polienko was sentenced to 2 years suspended prison sentence for allegedly assaulting a police officer during a ‘Critical Mass’ cycling demonstration in Minsk. This Spring Dmitry was arrested again: the court overturned the suspended sentence and sent him to serve the sentence in Babrujsk prison colony.

Let’s not wait for miracles! Let’s be a society that helps miracles come true!

Write to Dmitry:

Paliyenka Dzmitry

Sikorskaha 1, PK-2, a.9

Babrujsk, Belarus

213800


And, perhaps most importantly, he shows he thinks you’re stupid in the many ways he protects President Donald Trump from accountability. On Monday night, during a CNN-moderated town hall event in Wisconsin, he offered the following justification for opposing a congressional resolution that would censure Trump for coddling white supremacists:

I will not support that. I think that would be—that would be so counterproductive. If we descend this issue into some partisan hack-fest, into some bickering against each other, and demean it down to some political food fight, what good does that do to unify this country?

Ryan, who was recently gearing up for years’ worth of partisan investigations of President Hillary Clinton, says censuring Trump for coddling Nazis would be too partisan for his taste. What he hopes you’ll overlook is his own power to determine what is partisan and what is not. If a censure resolution passed the House overwhelmingly—reflecting a broad rejection of Trump’s comments after the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia—it wouldn’t be partisan. What makes censuring Trump “partisan” is Ryan’s view that Trump doesn’t deserve it.

But Trump does deserve it. Not only does he deserve it on a basic and obvious moral level, but he deserves it because significant, symbolic rebukes to white supremacy are effective means of driving it back into the discredited silence where it belongs. Ryan is fortunate, in a way, that the events in Charlottesville, and Trump’s response to them, occurred amid a lengthy congressional recess, with Republican elected officials scattered across the country rather than gathered in Washington, D.C. That is the one thing insulating Ryan and his party from answering for their apparent determination to see Trump clear of the political consequences of siding with neo-Nazis. But the winners who will benefit from Ryan’s good fortune aren’t Republicans in Congress or in the White House—they are the racists who will take note when the censure resolution fails.

This isn’t theoretical. White supremacists were pretty happy with Trump’s initial response to Charlottesville, undeterred by his second, and absolutely thrilled with the unhinged defense of Nazi marchers he offered on the third go.

By contrast, after upwards of 10,000 peaceful counterprotesters dwarfed a dismal gathering of white supremacists in Boston over the weekend, the anti-Muslim group ACT canceled scores of “America First” rallies scheduled for Saturday, September 9.


Category 5 cable, commonly referred to as Cat 5, is a twisted pair cable for computer networks. Since 2001, the variant commonly in use is the Category 5e specification (Cat 5e). The cable standard provides performance of up to 100 MHz and is suitable for most varieties of Ethernet over twisted pair up to 1000BASE-T (Gigabit Ethernet). Cat 5 is also used to carry other signals such as telephony and video.

This cable is commonly connected using punch-down blocks and modular connectors. Most Category 5 cables are unshielded, relying on the balanced line twisted pair design and differential signaling for noise rejection.

Cable standard [ edit ]

The specification for category 5 cable was defined in ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-A, with clarification in TSB-95.[1] These documents specify performance characteristics and test requirements for frequencies up to 100 MHz.

The cable is available in both stranded and solid conductor forms. The stranded form is more flexible and withstands more bending without breaking. Patch cables are stranded. Permanent wiring used in structured cabling is solid-core. The category and type of cable can be identified by the printing on the jacket.[2]

Termination [ edit ]

TIA/EIA-568-B.1-2001 T568A Wiring Pin Pair Wire Color 1 3 1 white/green 2 3 2 green 3 2 1 white/orange 4 1 2 blue 5 1 1 white/blue 6 2 2 orange 7 4 1 white/brown 8 4 2 brown TIA/EIA-568-B.1-2001 T568B Wiring[3] Pin Pair Wire Color 1 2 1 white/orange 2 2 2 orange 3 3 1 white/green 4 1 2 blue 5 1 1 white/blue 6 3 2 green 7 4 1 white/brown 8 4 2 brown A Cat 5e Wall outlet showing the two wiring schemes: A for T568A , B for T568B Category 5 patch cable in T568B wiring

Cable types, connector types and cabling topologies are defined by TIA/EIA-568-B. Nearly always, 8P8C modular connectors (often referred to incorrectly as RJ45 connectors[5][6]) are used for connecting category 5 cable. The cable is terminated in either the T568A scheme or the T568B scheme. The two schemes work equally well and may be mixed in an installation so long as the same scheme is used on both ends of each cable.

Variants [ edit ]

The category 5e specification improves upon the category 5 specification by revising and introducing new specifications to further mitigate the amount of crosstalk.[7] The bandwidth (100 MHz) and physical construction are the same between the two,[8] and most Cat 5 cables actually meet Cat 5e specifications, though they are not specifically certified as such.[9] The category 5 was deprecated in 2001 and superseded by the category 5e specification.[10]

Applications [ edit ]

Category 5 cable is used in structured cabling for computer networks such as Ethernet over twisted pair. The cable standard provides performance of up to 100 MHz and is suitable for 10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX (Fast Ethernet), and 1000BASE-T (Gigabit Ethernet). 10BASE-T and 100BASE-TX Ethernet connections require two wire pairs. 1000BASE-T Ethernet connections require four wire pairs. Through the use of power over Ethernet (PoE), power can be carried over the cable in addition to Ethernet data.

Cat 5 is also used to carry other signals such as telephony and video.[11] In some cases, multiple signals can be carried on a single cable; Cat 5 can carry two conventional telephone lines as well as 100BASE-TX in a single cable.[12][13][14][15][16] The USOC/RJ-61 wiring standard may be used in multi-line telephone connections. Various schemes exist for transporting both analog and digital video over the cable. HDBaseT (10.2 Gbit/s) is one such scheme.[17]

Characteristics [ edit ]

The use of balanced lines helps preserve a high signal-to-noise ratio despite interference from both external sources and crosstalk from other pairs.

Insulation [ edit ]

Outer insulation is typically polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or low smoke zero halogen (LSOH).[citation needed]

Example materials used as insulation in the cable[24] Acronym Material PE Polyethylene FP Foamed polyethylene FEP Fluorinated ethylene propylene FFEP Foamed fluorinated ethylene propylene AD/PE Air dielectric/polyethylene LSZH or LS0H Low smoke, zero halogen LSFZH or LSF0H Low smoke and fume, zero halogen

Bending radius [ edit ]

Most Category 5 cables can be bent at any radius exceeding approximately four times the outside diameter of the cable.[25][26]

Maximum cable segment length [ edit ]

The maximum length for a cable segment is 100 m per TIA/EIA 568-5-A.[27] If longer runs are required, the use of active hardware such as a repeater or switch is necessary.[28][29] The specifications for 10BASE-T networking specify a 100-meter length between active devices.[30] This allows for 90 meters of solid-core permanent wiring, two connectors and two stranded patch cables of 5 meters, one at each end.[31]

Conductors [ edit ]

Since 1995, solid-conductor UTP cables for backbone cabling is required to be no thicker than 22 American Wire Gauge (AWG) and no thinner than 24 AWG, or 26 AWG for shorter-distance cabling. This standard has been retained with the 2009 revision of ANSI TIA/EIA 568.[32]

Although cable assemblies containing 4 pairs are common, category 5 is not limited to 4 pairs. Backbone applications involve using up to 100 pairs.[33]

Individual twist lengths [ edit ]

The distance per twist is commonly referred to as pitch. Each of the four pairs in a Cat 5 cable has differing precise pitch to minimize crosstalk between the pairs. The pitch of the twisted pairs is not specified in the standard. Measurements on one sample of Cat 5 cable yielded the following results.[34]

Pair color [cm] per turn Turns per [m] Blue 1.38 72 Green 1.53 65 Orange 1.78 56 Brown 1.94 52

Since the pitch of the various colors is not specified in the standard, pitch can vary according to manufacturer and should be measured for the batch being used if cable is being used in non-Ethernet situation where pitch might be critical.

Environmental ratings [ edit ]

United States and Canada fire certifications[35] Class Phrase Description Standards LSZH Communications low-smoke zero halogen NES‑711, NES‑713, MIL‑C‑24643, UL 1685 CMP Communications plenum Insulated with fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) and polyethylene (PE) and jacketed with low-smoke polyvinyl chloride (PVC), due to better flame test ratings. CSA FT6[36] or NFPA 262 (UL 910) CMR Communications riser Insulated with high-density polyolefin and jacketed with low-smoke polyvinyl chloride (PVC). UL 1666 CMG Communications general purpose CSA FT4 CM Communications Insulated with high-density polyolefin, but not jacketed with PVC and therefore is the lowest of the three in flame resistance. UL 1685 (UL 1581, Sec. 1160) Vertical-Tray CMX Communications residential UL 1581, Sec. 1080 (VW-1) CMH CSA FT1

Some cables are "UV-rated" or "UV-stable" meaning they can be exposed to outdoor UV radiation without significant destruction.[citation needed]

Plenum-rated cables are slower to burn and produce less smoke than cables using a mantle of materials like PVC. Plenum-rated cables may be installed in plenum spaces where PVC is not allowed.[37]

Shielded cables (FTP or STP) are useful for environments where proximity to RF equipment may introduce electromagnetic interference, and can also be used where eavesdropping likelihood should be minimized.

Comparison with later standards [ edit ]

The Category 6 specification improves upon the Category 5e specification by extending frequency response and further reducing crosstalk. The improved performance of Cat 6 provides 250 MHz bandwidth and supports 10GBASE-T (10-Gigabit Ethernet) for distances up to 55 meters.[10] Category 6A cable provides 500 MHz bandwidth and supports 10GBASE-T for distances up to 100 meters. Both variants are backwards compatible with Category 5 and 5e cables.

Notes [ edit ]

^ Z 0 = R + j ω L G + j ω C {\displaystyle Z_{0}={\sqrt {\frac {R+j\omega L}{G+j\omega C}}}} f R L = R 2 π L {\displaystyle f_{RL}={\frac {R}{2\pi L}}} f G C = G 2 π C {\displaystyle f_{GC}={\frac {G}{2\pi C}}} f R L > f G C {\displaystyle f_{RL}>f_{GC}} corner frequency (or break frequency) is defined as f R L {\displaystyle f_{RL}} f R L {\displaystyle f_{RL}} Z 0 = L C {\displaystyle Z_{0}={\sqrt {\frac {L}{C}}}} [20] The characteristic impedance of a transmission line is given by. There are two important transition frequencies related this equation:and. Typically we haveand the(or) is defined asbecause at frequencies greater thanthe familiar "lossless" relationfor characteristic impedance holds true to excellent approximation. Unfortunately neither of the terms corner frequency nor break frequency are consistently used in the literature. Most often these frequencies are not given any special name, and the topic itself is glossed over in most modern texts.


Columbus Crew SC today announced that it has loaned defender Kalen Ryden to the Austin Aztex of the USL. The rookie becomes the first Black & Gold player to be loaned to Austin, which was previously announced as Crew SC’s new USL affiliate ahead of the 2015 campaign. Crew SC retains the option to recall Ryden at any point while on loan.

“Our partnership with the Aztex is a strong opportunity for players to gain valuable match experience while continuing to develop,” said Crew SC Sporting Director and Head Coach Gregg Berhalter. “We are certain Kalen will be in good hands with the coaching staff in Austin, led by Paul Dalglish, as they get their season underway on Saturday.”

Ryden appeared in five contests during Crew SC’s preseason, helping the club keep clean sheets against Austin (February 15), London United (February 18) and the Costa Rica Under-23s (February 21).

In college, the defender made 28 appearances (27 starts) over two seasons at Midwestern State. The Mustangs recorded a shutout in 13 of his starts. Ryden led the school to consecutive NCAA Division II postseason appearances, earning NSCAA All-South Central Region First Team honors in 2014. Previously, he spent two seasons at Oral Roberts University.

Ryden was selected in the Fourth Round (69th overall) of the 2015 MLS SuperDraft on January 20. He signed with Crew SC on March 2.

The Aztex begin the 2015 USL season on March 28 against Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC. A complete Aztex schedule can be found at AustinAztex.com.

TRANSACTION: Columbus Crew SC loans defender Kalen Ryden to the Austin Aztex (USL) on March 26, 2015. Crew SC retains the option to recall Ryden at any point while on loan.


Stefan Johansen remained coy on his Celtic future following the appointment of Brendan Rodgers.

With just 12-months remaining on his deal, the club could cash in on the midfielder signed in January 2014 from Stromsgodset by Neil Lennon to make way for new players.

Several German teams are thought to be interested in the midfielder, who has underperformed for the Hoops this season.

As quoted by Norwegian outlet Nettavisen, he said:

We’ve been negotiating for a while, but I haven’t signed anything yet. We’ll see if it happens or not. I completely trust that my agent does what is best for me. I have a year left on my contract with Celtic and I will focus on it.

His two assists against Malmo in a crucial playoff tie were quickly forgotten about as he put in under par performances time and time again.

This season he has made 37 appearances, scoring four goals and assisting on eight occasions – with his last league goal coming on Flag Day against Ross County.

The 25-year-old also spoke about the recent appointment of Rodgers, who replaced his fellow Norwegian Ronny Deila.

He has coached big clubs like Liverpool and Swansea. I think he will be a good match for Celtic , and the football he stands for is also suitable for the club.

Johansen was given time off to recover after he admitted to suffering from a back injury, but he still hasn’t quite reached the standards he set last year when he scored 10 goals and added 13 assists and received the SFA Player of the Year Award.

It remains to be seen who Rodgers will want to keep this summer and beyond, and with his contract up next summer, it will quickly become clear whether Johansen features in his future plans.

Should Celtic sell Stefan Johansen this summer?


What an amazing time to be a rich person in Miami-Dade. The market just keeps providing you guys with luxury things that us poorer people couldn't even imagine actually existed. Things like condos for your cars. No, not condos to actually live in and park your car nearby like the under-construction Porsche Design Tower in Sunny Isles Beach. A condo that is literally just a nice place to store your collection of luxury automobiles.

The new project to do just that is called the Gables Auto Vault and it will be located at 3851 Bird Road. It's currently a vacant lot but is blocks away from a few high-end luxury car dealerships, including the Collection. It's a collaboration between CFH Group and developer Sheldon Lowe, and just received a $19.5 million loan for construction.

Gables Auto Vault: a car condo for your luxury car. $500K to $2 mill. via @trdmiami https://t.co/DtgKU8pMzE pic.twitter.com/GWaeeTuZap — SFDB (@sfdb) March 2, 2016


A Peek At Other Computer Technicians Workbenches #4

Keeping with what has almost become a Technibble tradition, its time again to take a peek at the Technibble forum members workbenches. Its a great way for technicians to get inspiration for your own setups, see how others are doing it and for the owners to show off a little.

We are now up to Workbenches #4 and if you missed them, you can check out our previous “Peek at Technicians Workbenches” posts here (1, 2, 3).

Here is “A Peek at Other Computer Technicians Workbenches #4”:

PBComputer

Here are three pictures of our workshop. The images have not being stages or have I tried to tidy up for the pictures.

A lot of the “stock” will be hopefully gone this week, once it’s being put on eBay.

gunslinger

Its not much, but it gets the job done

Maniaman

Here’s an update now that my room is pretty well 95% finished. Fully functional now. Only thing left to do is put up a couple more shelves, and get electricity to the wall to the left in the first pic. Until then it’s still a great space for things like laptop disassembly.

Computers under the counter are waiting to be parted out/pieced together into used computers.

Center island with two tech machines, a server, and a collection of usb drives with various tools on them. By far the messiest right now, I need to clean it up again.

ComputerPro

Were moving into a new building across the street from our current location. LOT of work ahead! Were thinking of reversing our theme colors for this one (Walls green with black trim) and Blue used as accent color. Currently its the exact opposite. We’ll be tripling our space (there’s more offices, storage area in back not shown in pics).

Right now its VERY bland being plain white. Compared to our loud colors anyway lol. Here are a few photos of the new building.

‘putertutor

This is my own little dark and dank corner of the world. This is in my basement, and I had a fluorescent bulb go out on me this morning, so its not always so depressing looking in there. I am in the process of building a 20″ long bench to the right of the wooden door in the pic. I’ll probably convert the space my bench is in now to shelving, get all the machines of the floor.

Eventually, I’ll stud out the walls, sheet rock them and make it a proper looking shop. Eventually…

PS: That red cup is a pen/pencil holder, not a drink.

gamesta400

Here are the pics of my shop inside my home. My house was zoned business so I build this shop inside the front door and put a 5 foot sign in the front yard.

gikstar

The skylights work great for us, no need to turn on the lights during the day time.

I have added about 20 more computers sitting in the racks and under the work benches now. I seem to be constantly purchasing more and more stuff… just can’t seem to pass up a good Craigslist deal. Just today I purchased 2 – Dell 22″ monitors (P2210t’s) for $60 each and a Dell 2007 Ultrasharp for $15 (which replaces the one we just sold today).

We have room to expand if we need to (have an empty bedroom). That one monster of a tech bench I had in storage for about 3 years since we didn’t have a place big enough to put it up (a free item that I found on Craigslist along with a full size server rack).

stidham

Here is my work at home area.

BillMoney

My “workshop” down in the basement

TechLady

Here’s my workshop in the garage. Those book shelves used to go all the way down to the floor and all the way across the wall…wasn’t easy letting go but we now have an awful lot of credit at the used bookstore down the street.

The left half is more for laptops, the right half more for desktops.

Sewed the curtains myself :)

16k_zx81

Left pic – my spot, right pic – bob’s spot, bottom pic – spare bench, shared, for work overflow.

PR Tech

Here is a Google virtual tour link of my shop. Fun things to see… 3 Chronic Cellars posters (Dead Nuts, The Unteachables & Purple Paradise) in the tech bench area and the wall clock in the reception area. I had the tech benches custom made by a local cabinet maker. I use raceways to hide the cabling.

Special thanks to everyone who shared pictures of their workbenches with us!

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BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY) and T-Mobile US (NYSE:TMUS) have kissed and made up. A little more than a year after BlackBerry cut sales ties with T-Mobile amid a dispute over T-Mobile promoting the iPhone over BlackBerry's phones, T-Mobile is now going to start selling the BlackBerry Classic smartphone.

BlackBerry Classic

Notably, the rapprochement between the carrier and the smartphone maker comes as T-Mobile is ramping up its efforts to gain market share in the enterprise market with new business plans. Getting T-Mobile back on board will also give BlackBerry a new possible revenue stream.

The Classic will be available beginning May 13 at T-Mobile.com and in participating T-Mobile stores beginning May 15 for $0 down, with equipment installment plan payments of $18.33 per month for 24 months. Customers can also purchase the Classic for $439.92 at full retail price.

The Classic is not BlackBerry's newest phone (that would be the touchscreen Leap) but it is one of BlackBerry's flagship products, and with its Qwerty keyboard it will likely appeal to business users. Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) and AT&T Mobility (NYSE: T) started selling the Classic in February.

In a statement, the companies said they "showed they're two companies in the business of listening to their customers."

"People who love BlackBerry smartphones and want to use one on America's fastest nationwide 4G LTE network now have that choice," T-Mobile CEO John Legere said in a statement. "Bringing BlackBerry into our device line-up now also stokes Un-carrier 9.0, which is all about bringing the Un-carrier revolution to business."

"BlackBerry is proud to partner with T-Mobile once again to offer the world's most secure and reliable mobile products and services that encourage productivity--whether they are individual users making the most of their day with the BlackBerry Classic, or an enterprise seeking to manage thousands of devices," BlackBerry CEO John Chen added. "Together with T-Mobile, we hope to deliver highly differentiated solutions that appeal to our mutual users: the power professionals who depend on their smartphones to get things done and make things happen."

The burying of the hatchet comes less than two months after T-Mobile launched new plans aimed at business customers with a simplified rate structure in an effort to take away business from Verizon and AT&T. Although BlackBerry has seen its market share dwindle in recent years, many government workers and those in the legal, finance and medical professions still use BlackBerry phones. Selling the Classic could be a way for T-Mobile to step up its presence in the enterprise and small-and-medium-business markets.

BlackBerry's decision last year to essentially cut sales ties with T-Mobile came after a public spat between the two companies over T-Mobile's decision to promote the iPhone as an alternative to its BlackBerry customers.

For more:

- see this release

- see this SlashGear article

Related Articles:

Analysts: T-Mobile's business plans could appeal to small businesses but not big enterprises

T-Mobile aims to steal business customers from Verizon, AT&T with cheaper, simpler pricing

T-Mobile offers $100 credit to BlackBerry customers after companies break up

BlackBerry to cut sales ties with T-Mobile

Report: 94% of T-Mobile BlackBerry customers who traded in phones switched to another platform

T-Mobile to offer BlackBerry users $250 in credit to upgrade to new Z10, Q10

BlackBerry CEO Chen slams T-Mobile for enticing BB users to switch to iPhone


Confusion has surrounded the debate over Alberta's Bill 6, as the NDP government continues to push forward legislation aimed at making farm work safer and bringing the province's labour laws more in line with the rest of Canada.

Farmers and ranchers see the proposed law as a threat to their businesses and ways of life, however, and they have not been shy about saying so.

The often emotional debate has been heightened by the recent deaths of a 10-year-old boy who was killed driving a forklift on a farm near Killam, Alta., and three sisters who suffocated in canola seed near Withrow, Alta.

In the face of a protest involving more than 1,000 people outside the Alberta Legislature, Labour Minster Lori Sigurdson admitted the government "could have done a better job in communicating."

She and other ministers then pledged to personally attend town halls and public meetings around the province to offer more clarity about the bill.

Still, many questions remain.

Here, we do our best to answer five of the most common ones, and compare Alberta's proposed regulations to those in our neighbouring provinces:

1. Will workers compensation be mandatory for all farm workers, including family members?

According to the current wording of the bill, yes, but that could change.

"If you are operating a for-profit farming operation … you must cover any unpaid workers, including family members and children, performing work on your farm," the Workers Compensation Board (WCB) of Alberta states in its explanation of Bill 6.

Farm operators would be asked to provide a "value of service" for the work unpaid labourers perform, the board explains.

Sigurdson, however, later suggested that would be amended in a new version of the bill, which would include an "explicit" exemption for families working on farms.

The province later clarified in a press release that "WCB coverage would be required only for paid employees, with an option for farmers to extend coverage to unpaid workers like family members, neighbours and friends."

In Manitoba, workers compensation coverage was made mandatory for farm labourers in 2009, but family members were exempted from that change.

2. How much will WCB coverage cost?

Workers compensation premiums, which must be paid by employers, range depending on the risk of injury associated with the type of work being performed.

Alberta is proposing rates ranging from $1.70 per $100 of insurable earnings for things like greenhouse work up to $2.25 for grain farming and $2.97 for workplaces involving large animals, including beef producers, feed lots, livestock auctions and horse stables.

In British Columbia, by comparison, the rates are more expensive.

At the low end, orchard and vineyard work in B.C. comes with WCB rates of $1.73 per $100 of insurable earnings, but at the high end, the rate for grain farming stands at $4.87 and ranching at $5.65.

3. How dangerous are farms?

Alberta averages about 17 farm fatalities each year, including three deaths of children, based on data collected by the provincial government since 1985.

Most of those deaths in recent years are due to machine runovers or rollovers, although not all were work-related.

By contrast, there are an average of 13 people killed on Saskatchewan farms each year, most involving machinery.

About 14 per cent of serious farm-related injuries in Saskatchewan involve youth.

4. What about occupational health and safety?

Unlike other provinces, farm workers in Alberta are currently exempt from occupational health and safety laws and have no right to refuse unsafe work.

That also means data on work-related injuries and deaths are considered incomplete in Alberta, because currently all accidents don't need to be reported, and investigations aren't routinely launched.

In Saskatchewan, by contrast, employers are required to provide safe working environments and must ensure their workers know they have the right to refuse what they perceive to be unsafe work.

Alberta's occupational health and safety exemption for farms and ranches would change under Bill 6, with standards applying "when a farm employs one or more paid employees at any time of the year," according to a government press release.

5. Will kids and neighbours still be able to help out on family farms?

That's been a particularly unclear point, according to Stephen Vandervalk, vice-president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers in Alberta, who has been watching the legislation closely.

If Bill 6 is passed and indeed takes effect on Jan. 1, Vandervalk says farmers and ranchers aren't sure if neighbours could casually pitch in with cow branding or if children younger than 16 could help or even accompany their parents if they're working long hours.

Premier Rachel Notley, however, later pledged that kids living on family farms "will continue to be able to work on the farm as they always have."

"And they will continue to be educated on the farm through 4H programs as they always have," the premier said, speaking to reporters via conference call from Paris, where she was attending the COP21 climate change summit.

In Saskatchewan, there are exceptions to occupational health and safety rules that allow kids to help out on family farms, but children are prohibited from tasks like operating motorized farm equipment and handling dangerous chemicals.

No such prohibitions on kids operating motorized farm equipment currently exist in Alberta.

There have been cases in Saskatchewan of confusion, however, where parents have run afoul of labour laws for having their kids take on particular tasks on the family farm.


It is not just torture hearings on the training table this morning, there is a plateful of AIG/Bankster/Bailout fun on tap too. At 10:00 am EST, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a hearing on “AIG: Where is the Taxpayer Money Going?”.

In advance of the big hearing, David Cho and Brady Dennis in the Washington Post have a significant article out this morning confirming what any sane mind has thought all along, namely that the government and the Fed were way deeper in the muck of the AIG bonuses, and knew full well about the issue, long before they have admitted:

Documents show that senior officials at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York received details about the bonuses more than five months before the firestorm erupted and were deeply engaged with AIG as well as outside lawyers, auditors and public relations firms about the potential controversy. But the New York Fed did not raise the alarm with the Obama administration until the end of February. Timothy F. Geithner, who became Treasury secretary early this year, was the head of the New York Fed when it became aware of the bonus details. But his name is not among those of senior New York Fed officials mentioned in the summaries of phone calls, correspondence and other documents obtained by The Washington Post. Those documents also illuminate who in the government, beyond the New York Fed, knew what about the bonuses at AIG’s most troubled unit, and when.

…

By Sept. 29, the bonus matter first appeared on the radar of the New York Fed, which was designated as the primary contact for AIG, documents show. Senior officials from the New York Fed met with AIG officials to discuss the compensation plans in place at Financial Products, whose risky derivative contracts had brought the insurance giant to the brink of collapse. AIG e-mailed officials at the New York Fed copies of the company’s compensation plans, which detailed bonuses and retention payments, including those at Financial Products, documents show. The issue arose in scores of meetings and conference calls over the ensuing months. AIG also disclosed its retention programs in public filings.

Weeeeeeee! Another shocking instance of gambling going on at the casino. Or not. Actually, when we first learned of the Semtex laden AIG Retention Contracts there were immediate questions as to how it could be that the Fed and the rest of government had no idea of the explosive potential. Now that we know they knew, it sure is hilarious that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, in mid-March 2009, tried to devise a laughably bogus plan to fix the very same problem he apparently full bore ignored in October 2008 at the previous job where he was supposedly the smartest kid in the room.

Of course, it wasn’t just the New York Fed, and their purportedly detached head, that have completely misrepresented their depth of knowledge of the pending AIG Bonus Scandal. Congress did too (and they also attempted an inane hasty fix to the problem they had long known of):

Key members of Congress began investigating the payments as long ago as October and, beginning in January, repeatedly warned the Treasury about the matter.

…

The spark that would grow into a political firestorm began in October when lawmakers began to request documents about the compensation at Financial Products. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) in particular latched on to the issue. By January, AIG was feeling heat from lawyers at the House Financial Services Committee, and from the offices of Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski (D-Pa.) and Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.), who one staff member noted in an e-mail to AIG was "very upset about these payments." Kanjorski has said that around this time his staff began calling the Treasury about the issue and sending letters, but communication was hindered by the transition between administrations.

Note that both the Fed and Congress folks were jabbering at the Administration, both that of Bush and Obama, on this long before either Administration has fessed up to. Another shocker. There are a lot more specific facts and discussion in the Washington Post article, and it is worth a full read. In fairness, it is certainly not like we didn’t suspect such duplicitous complicity out of these officials, but the starkness of it sure brings the fury of the initial Bonus Babies Scandal revelation right back to the front burner. And just in time for today’s hearing. Go figure.

Now, back to the hearing, the official press announcement describes it as follows:

At 10:00 a.m., Chairman Towns and Ranking Member Issa will offer their respective opening statements and then Chairman Towns will swear in the C.E.O. of AIG, Mr. Edward M. Liddy, at approximately 10:15 a.m. Mr. Liddy will then offer his opening statement followed by questions from the Committee members. At the conclusion of Members’ questions for Mr. Liddy, Chairman Towns will swear in the second panel of witnesses [comprised of AIG Trustees and a professor] and proceed with their opening statements, followed by Members’ questions. The hearing will be broadcast in-house on channel 32 and available on the Committee webcast at 10:00 a.m.

The prepared testimony/statement of AIG Chief Ed Liddy is here and the AIG Trustees here.

If you are interested in high finance, and torture is not your cup of tea, tune in and turn on. Of course, that is not to say that the slow rot coming out of Tim Geithner, Congress and the AIG saga isn’t torture, it most certainly is.


The District of Columbia and D.C. United announced on Wednesday that the District has filed for eminent domain to acquire full control of the site of United’s proposed stadium in the Buzzard Point neighborhood of Southwest Washington.

The club and the District jointly released the following statement to announce the measure, which – if completed – would clear United to begin construction on their long-awaited soccer-specific stadium.

“The District of Columbia and D.C. United are moving forward on a soccer stadium that will transform a neighborhood on the banks of the Anacostia and generate hundreds of new jobs for District residents," the statement reads. "We have created the best deal for the District, its residents, D.C. United and its fans."

Per terms of a deal signed between the District and United in June, the D.C. government had a Wednesday deadline to acquire all of the land at the proposed stadium site. They had obtained all but two acres of land at the site prior to Wednesday, but couldn't agree to a price to buy the final piece of land from a local developer, forcing Mayor Muriel Bowser's government to file for eminent domain.


HELSINKI (Reuters) - Vesa Vihavainen is worried. Merivaara, his Finnish-based hospital bed-making business, is struggling - just like the economy that Finns once held up to debt-laden Greeks as a model of what national thrift can achieve.

People stand near the gate of the Nokia factory in Salo, January 17, 2013. REUTERS/Roni Lehti/Lehtikuva

Weak sales mean Merivaara has had to lay off staff as Finland fails to find an exit from a two-year recession. That spiral of lost jobs and income is also wrecking the country’s cherished reputation for sound public finances.

Finland’s school-masterly advice, prominent in a chorus of northern European criticism when euro zone debtors asked for bailouts, may come back to haunt its policymakers as they struggle to agree on reforms from taxes to pensions.

While southern Europe starts to win back investors after years of donor-imposed job losses and welfare cuts, Finnish welfare costs and taxes have risen as jobs are lost. Government levies as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) have jumped to a European Union high, piling costs onto the private sector.

Finnish exports, investments and retail sales are all tumbling and firms are putting out profit warnings.

“The Finnish economy has drifted into the same reference group with Italy and France,” the EU’s top economic official Olli Rehn said, referring to the two big euro zone economies whose finances linger outside the bloc’s fiscal limits.

“We have no time to lose,” said Rehn, a Finn, last month.

But with parliamentary elections in a year’s time and Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen due to step down next month, serious cost cutting looks unlikely for now.

“We would need a brave government to implement the needed reforms,” Danske Bank economist Pasi Kuoppamaki said.

But the chance of that happening decreased further on Friday, when social democrats replaced their leader, Finance Minister Jutta Urpilainen, with union boss Antti Rinne, who has advocated state take a bigger role in the economy.

And with the opposition talking mainly about small cuts to welfare and incremental changes, elections are unlikely to produce anything beyond policy fine-tuning.

Finland’s GDP is still about 5 percent below its 2007 level, a bigger lag than the euro zone average and well below its main export competitors, Sweden and Germany.

The economy shrank 1.4 percent last year, and on Monday, the European Commission forecast it to grow 0.2 percent this year and 1.0 percent next - the second-weakest in the euro zone on both counts, beating only bailed-out Cyprus.

Netherlands, another debt-crisis hardliner, also has seen economy contract, but its struggles are smaller than Finland’s and has returned to export-led growth.

In the euro zone, only Malta and Estonia are less competitive than Finland on pricing. Companies such as Merivaara produce less, but labor costs have not fallen nearly as much.

While Finnish leaders are worried, about half the deficit trimming has been achieved by raising taxes. Government revenue as a share of GDP rose to 56.3 percent this year, the highest in the EU and more than 10 percentage points above the EU average.

“The question is: How can Finland finance a public sector of this size, and the answer is: ‘It really can’t, at least if it wants the economy to grow’,” Nordea analyst Jan von Gerich said.

ERODING COMPETITIVENESS

Merivaara’s sales of hospital beds and surgical tables show rising domestic costs coupled with the strong euro are increasingly hampering exports, which go mainly to Scandinavia and Russia, where the economy has stagnated.

“Price competitiveness is getting tougher all the time,” Merivaara’s Vihavainen said. “Labor here is expensive, and we are far from markets, which adds to transportation costs.”

Besides, health care spending across the globe is being squeezed by cuts in public budgets - a cause Finland championed.

“Why would we listen to countries that are not taking care of their own public finances?” said its EU minister Alexander Stubb in 2011.

He could become prime minister next month.

Even after two years of recession, there are few empty storefronts. Unemployment has risen, but is still well below the EU average, which has made it easier to delay reforms.

Finland has kept its top triple-A credit rating, earned by reforms undertaken after a deep recession in the early 1990s. But its pristine fiscal reputation “is more the past than the present,” Pimco portfolio manager Andrew Bosomworth said.

Foreigners hold 90 percent of its sovereign debt, and Finland may find its cost of borrowing drifting higher as debt investors look more closely at its current performance.

“When investors think next time whether they should buy more or reduce Finland’s weight (in their portfolios), it may be that they’ll act differently,” Nordea’s von Gerich said.

LOST RECIPE FOR GROWTH

Finland, with 5.5 million people, has lost about 100,000 industrial jobs in 10 years. Phonemaker Nokia’s woes have grabbed global headlines, but traditional Finnish strongholds of machinery and paper sectors are shedding jobs too.

In a February report to government, economists Bengt Holmstrom, Sixten Korkman and Matti Pohjola called the current crisis “to some extent even worse” than that of the early 1990s, when unemployment rates were close to 20 percent.

“Productivity growth has stopped in a never-before-seen manner and there is a lack of ideas to speed it up. The recipe for growth has been lost,” they said.

Finns must shrink their welfare state and, put simply, work harder, they said. The OECD has just given a similar message.

In Finland, Sweden serves as a yardstick for almost anything, and Finland has fallen well behind. Sweden has rebounded from the financial crisis well and its economy is expected to grow about 3 percent this year and next.

Mobile games have often been touted as a Finnish success story, with global hits including Clash of Clans and Angry Birds. But the sector employs only about 2,000 people at home.

Slideshow (3 Images)

Finland also lags on reform: Sweden has cut taxes and brought the welfare state to an affordable level.

With many Finnish export-goods makers training their workers to perform highly specialized tasks, they have sought to keep the staff employed. Now lay-off notices are more frequent, and with capacity use at less than four-fifths, even an export upswing is unlikely to mean more hiring or investments.

“There is no positive news for Finland in any scenario, at least not in the near future,” Nordea’s von Gerich said.


Brian Snyder / Reuters - Susan Walsh / AP

You’re entitled to your own opinion but not to your own facts; that political dictum was coined by the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, because he was no fun. Well, good news, folks! Now you can have your own facts! Even better, when it comes to campaign polls you don’t like, you can now have your own numbers!

The concept / conspiracy theory that election polling this year is “skewed” toward oversampling Democratic voters–meaning they give falsely strong results for Obama–has, through social media and the Drudge Report, reached full-on Internet meme status. (Go on Twitter after any major poll release, search for “Obama poll” or “Romney poll” and watch your screen fill with disgruntled amateur statisticians muttering about “D +9 sampling.”) And now the polling conspiracists have their own website, UnSkewedPolls.com, which essentially takes existing polls and changes the numbers so that Mitt Romney is winning them.

Well, there’s more to it than that—not a lot more, but more. The idea behind UnSkewedPolls.com is that there should be a far greater ratio of Republicans to Democrats in the electorate today than voters are telling pollsters that there is. The site takes data from major public polls, opens them up, and recalculates the percentages based on these much-more-GOP-friendly assumptions. In the RealClearPolitics average of national polls this morning, as I write this, Barack Obama leads by 3.7%. In the world of UnSkewedPolls.com, Romney is currently up by 7.8%. Click, tap–hello, landslide!

People more astute politically or accomplished at statistics than I can better detail the problems with this approach. (To take just one example, even if you accept this site’s premise, it’s applying the same recalculating method to polls with different methodologies—peeling oranges like apples.) But the mere fact that this mindset has developed, has quickly spread and has become the current weapon of choice for mau-mauing election coverage on behalf of an aggrieved party says something about how hospitable political culture has become to conspiracies.

Certainly polls can be wrong. They can be wrong en masse. (I won’t, however, cite exit-polling foulups like those in 2000 and 2004; those are a different type of survey than pre-election polling.) They can even, conceivably, be wrong en masse in the same direction. And it’s absolutely true that certain pollsters can have a “house effect” that tends more Republican or Democrat–which is exactly why sites like RealClearPolitics average out all the polls, and stat gurus like the brilliant Nate Silver account for the leans of various pollsters in their forecasts.

But consider what the “polls are biased” meme asks us to believe. That dozens of national and local polls are deliberately skewing their results to find a greater proportion of Democratic voters than there are. (Not only that, but the private campaign polling that Republicans themselves say bodes poorly for Romney is also biased for Obama!) And/or: voters themselves are—from guilt? political correctness? peer pressure?—reporting themselves as identifying Democratic more than they actually do. Evidently they didn’t do this in 2008, at the apex of Obama-mania–else the pre-election polling would have shown Obama with a 20% blowout lead–but they’re in the tank now, in concert–all of them.

Independent polling firms. Educational institutions. Local media. National media. The Wall Street Journal and Fox News—that’s right, Rupert Murdoch’s media properties are in there lifting away to give Obama a second term! What’s more, they’re all knowingly, erroneously reporting results that not only can be, but by definition will be, refuted by vote returns. Media outlets that rely on polls for credibility, pollsters that rely on accuracy for their very businesses’ existence–they’re ready to blow it all in a few weeks just to give Obama four more years.

Except—aha!—there is of course a way around this argument. Suppose by some chance the results of these “skewed” polls prove right on election day. How do we know that the skewing didn’t influence the result? That a drumbeat of positive polls for Obama didn’t brainwash voters into jumping the bandwagon, dry up campaign donations, depress Republican turnout? You call it an accurate poll? I call it a self-fulfilling prophecy! The game is rigged, my friend!

That’s why this sort of thinking is so popular, why it spreads so easily and why, apparently, no one in America will ever again believe that they fairly lost a hotly contested major election. This kind of bias charge is not just a willful single belief—it’s a totalizing mindset, in which any proof to the contrary can be jiu-jitsued into proof that the conspiracy is working.

Whatever Moynihan once said, the way it works now, you don’t need to have your own opinions or your own facts. As long as you have your own all-encompassing theory of mass brainwashing, the opinions and facts that you want will supply themselves.

[Update] Here, my standard disclosure: I voted for Obama in ’08 and plan to do so again in ’12. To paraphrase Walter Mondale: most people who write about politics have voting preferences—the difference is they won’t tell you theirs and I just did. To read my fuller thoughts on political writing and disclosure, click here.


A GUNMAN has opened fire at a busy market in Trelleborg, Sweden.

Four people have been taken to hospital as a result of the incident which happened Thursday night local time, around 8am AEDT.

Police say the attack is not being investigated as terrorism. However it appears to be the latest in a string of violent gang-related incidents that have beset the Swedish nation.

Trelleborg is the southermost town in Sweden and has become known for gang violence. The shooting happened in the centre of the city.

Police said two of the injured were hurt during a shooting and that a total of four people were taken to the hospital late Thursday.

The Express quoted a Swedish policespokesman as saying: “We have received several reports of a shooting in Trelleborg.”

“When we arrived at the scene, several people with gunshot injuries were found.

“We are blocking certain areas and will conduct an investigation.

“I do not have any more information at this time. But we are at the scene and investigating.”

According to initial reports people were shot at multiple locations.

One witness told The Express: “There were many shots. We saw someone running outside. It’s packed with police cars in the street.”

Another said: “I was at home at my computer when I heard a loud bang.”

People have been advised to avoid the area which has been cordoned off.

Police say a K-9 unit is searching for weapons and officers are interviewing witnesses. No suspects are in custody.

Trelleborg is a Swedish port town located 33 km south of Malmo and 64km southeast of Copenhagen, Denmark.


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Last December the same conservative activists who persuaded the Supreme Court to gut the Voting Rights Act challenged the historic principle of “one, person, one vote.” They asked the Court to require states to draw districts based on eligible or registered voters, as opposed to total population, which had been the standard for more than 50 years. If that happened, millions of people, including children and non-citizens, would have been denied political representation. Districts would have become older, whiter, more conservative and more favorable to Republicans. Ad Policy

Today the Supreme Court rejected that challenge, upholding “one person, one vote” in a unanimous 8-0 decision. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the decision, saying that all people are entitled to equal representation under the law. “It remains beyond doubt that the principle of representational equality figured prominently in the decision to count people, whether or not they qualify as voters,” she wrote. (Justices Thomas and Alito concurred with the judgment but did not agree with its reasoning.)

Here’s the key part of her argument:

Adopting voter-eligible apportionment as constitutional command would upset a well-functioning approach to districting that all 50 States and countless local jurisdictions have long followed. As the Framers of the Constitution and the Fourteenth Amendment comprehended, representatives serve all residents, not just those eligible to vote. Nonvoters have an important stake in many policy debates and in receiving constituent services. By ensuring that each representative is subject to requests and suggestions from the same number of constituents, total-population apportionment promotes equitable and effective representation. LIKE THIS? GET MORE OF OUR BEST REPORTING AND ANALYSIS

This is a major victory for voting rights, and a huge crisis averted. If states had been required to use current voting-age population instead of total population as the metric for drawing districts, as I previously reported, a staggering 55 percent of Latinos—those who are under 18 or non-citizens—would not have been counted, as well as 45 percent of Asian Americans and 30 percent of African Americans.

Yet this is still in many ways a bittersweet victory, given that the 2016 election is the first in 50 years without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act. We’re seeing the clear impact of that decision this year, with five-hour lines in Arizona, voters turned away from the polls by North Carolina’s voter-ID law, and 300,000 registered voters who could be disenfranchised in Wisconsin tomorrow.

Imagine if protecting voting rights were the norm, rather than the exception, before the Supreme Court. That’s why the future of the Court is the most important issue facing the country in 2016 and beyond.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article may have implied that the Court’s decision barred voter-eligible apportionment. In fact, though Justice Ginsburg’s opinion strongly endorsed total population apportionment as a “well-functioning approach” that “promotes equitable and effective representation,” the Court explicitly declined to “resolve” the question of whether states may use voter-eligible apportionment. While Justices Alito and Thomas concurred with the judgment, they disagreed with the opinion. The article has been updated to clarify these points.


Friday, July 7th I began my new series “A Different Approach” with the post about injecting resources into the experience editor. After I made my that post live, I continued my research and I became increasingly unhappy with my solution described. There is a better solution that solves my issue and that solution is somewhere in this post! 😮

Click here to skip the details of what led to this post.

Click here to skip everything and go straight to my solution.

Click here to watch the companion vlog to this post. It explains the code in more detail.

Flashback to June 30th

Issue:

It all began with another oddly themed post. In that post, I described a situation where a client wasn’t 100% satisfied with their EE experience. They were concerned with the vagueness of how some of the fields and made a valid request. The client asked if we could add helpful descriptions to the fields prior to them initializing the field’s chrome which obviously contains the Field Name and Help Text (if any).

Solution:

I decided to use my Editor Enhancement Toolkit module. First, I created a new rule action that ties a field to the helpful information. Next, I created a processor that’s patched into the RenderField pipeline. The processor is simple. It processes the rules and if the rule’s conditions pass, the new rule action populates a variable with the helpful information. The variable is then wrapped in HTML markup and prepended the default markup that renders the field’s chrome.

Issue That Arose from That Solution:

Since both inline-styling and customizing existing Sitecore files i.e. the webedit.css are frowned upon, I needed to find a way to inject the stylesheet into the EE. I attempted to implement a solution using “PageExtenders” that I found on blogs by Pavel Veller, Mike Reynolds and Kamruz Jaman, but I failed.

Kamruz Jaman, the always helpful Sitecore superhero saved me from wasting a lot of time troubleshooting and told me: “Since SC8.1 or so, the ribbon changed and was put into its own iframe. Previously it was part of the same page so using the page extenders meant it would affect both the content and the ribbon.”

Update July 13th: I figured out how to get the PageExtender working, I explain it in the “My Solution” section. Kamruz also figured out a way to get it functional and informed me of this a little bit ago.

Let’s head back to the future… er… present, July 13th, 2017

What I Hope to Achieve

I want to figure out a way to implement my solution that is more flexible than hard coding the Stylesheet’s file in code and it must not involve any customizations to Sitecore items and files. Normally I would give a lecture on how customizing Sitecore items or files creates upgrade headaches, but rumor has it Speak UI is becoming extinct. Which means this post will probably lose all relevance in about 2 months. Let’s live for today and continue the quest to find a better solution to the issue. I am going to blog as I try to figure this out. Hopefully I figure this out quickly so the post doesn’t become insanely long.

Potential Solution : GetPageStylesheets Pipeline & Speak Items

I was digging through the decompiled assemblies, I can across something interesting in the Sitecore.Speak.Client assembly. It was the processors that are used in the GetPageStylesheets pipeline. There are two important templates that are used by the code in processors. They are:

Page-Stylesheet-File : This item allows you to select a single stylesheet from the file system to include in your app.

: This item allows you to select a single stylesheet from the file system to include in your app. Page-Stylesheet-Folder: This item allows you to select a single folder from the file system. That folder should contain only stylesheets, but it doesn’t matter. The code will render out all the stylesheets that are in the selected folder, ignoring any other file type.

The items based on either template need to be created under the PageSettings item for the everything to work correctly.

Going back to the code, the GetFileNames processor was the first to catch my eye. The code gets the PageSettings item and then it’s passed to the StylesheetCollection for processing. The ProcessItem method in the StylesheetCollection loops the children of the PageSettings item and performs two checks:

If the child item’s template is the Page-Stylesheet-File : The stylesheet’s path that is defined on the item is added to args.FileNames collection.

: The stylesheet’s path that is defined on the item is added to args.FileNames collection. If the child item’s template is the Page-Stylesheet-Folder: The StylesheetCollection gets the path to the folder defined on the item and loops through the folder’s files. If the file is a stylesheet, the file path is added to the args.FileNames collection. If the file is a different type, it is ignored. It appears that it also processes any sub-directories as well.

The end to this madness is relatively straightforward. The extension method: PageStylesheets located in the static class: SitecoreHelperExtensions is where all the magic happens. In this method, the GetPageStylesheetsArgs are set and then the getPageStylesheet pipeline is fired. The processors do their thing, finally BuildStylesheets has its moment to shine. It processes the args.FileNames collection. Looping thru the collection, it constructs the link tag for each stylesheet and sets the final value to args.HtmlString. The PageStylesheets returns the HtmlString and called on the PageCode view and rendered.

Cool pipeline. I am glad I learned more about its functionality. I need to keep it in mind when I resume my custom Speak App.

I was curious if anyone else blogged about this and of course someone did. August 25, 2015 Mark Servais posted: SPEAKing Aloud: Changing CSS. Great post. I wish I had searched for this a couple hours ago, it would have saved me some time.

Unfortunately, this potential solution was a bust. The search continues.

Potential Solution: A PageExtender, a Control and Pipeline Processors

Every rendering on the Ribbon item renders in the Ribbon… makes sense. I mentioned that so we can cross off all solutions that involve custom views being placed on the Ribbon item. This also means we should stop considering the PageCode in hopes of finding a solution.

We know that the page code controls everything on the Ribbon which lives in an iframe. If you go to a content page in the Experience Editor and inspect the page’s source, you’ll notice other code and markup. Interesting, I wonder what is controlling all that. Let’s explore that more.

After searching for some unique words found in the source such as “scClientSettings”, I was led the ScriptResources.cs and the GetClientSettings extension method. Next, I needed to find what was calling this method. After a quick search, I found two files, WebEditRibbon.cs and RibbonWebControl.cs.

WebEditRibbon:

This is used in three of the PageExtenders: DebuggerExtender, PreviewExtender and WebEditPageExtender. However, there is a red flag… the WebEditRibbon is marked as Obsolete. I’m going to slowing back away from the WebEditRibbon and pretend I didn’t see it.

RibbonPageExtender:

This is located in the Sitecore.ExperienceEditor.Speak.Ribbon assembly. It’s related to the PageExtenders. When the RibbonPageExtender code runs, it fires the getExperienceEditorRibbon pipeline and the processor AddWebEditRibbon.

AddWebEditRibbon:

That processor created a new RibbonWebControl, sets a property. That object is then assigned to the args.Control.

RibbonWebControl:

There is a lot to this, but the part I’m interested in is the DoRender method. That method is writing out some of the stylesheets and other items seen in the page’s source. Cool.

I think I have seen enough. I have an idea that just may solve my issue while achieving my goals of flexibility and Laissez-faire Sitecore items and files.

My Solution

After researching the code in the previous section, I decided to mimic a few things from that approach. I was going to cover rendering out both the Stylesheets and JavaScript but time is short. I am sacrificing the JavaScript code and code refactoring.

I created a new PageExtender called “InjectAssetsPageExtender”.

When the Insert runs, it fires off a custom pipeline called “renderPageArgs” located on line 15, The first processor in this pipeline is GetStylesheets.

GetStylesheets:

I borrowed the “sources” node section from a processor located around line 95 in the 001.Sitecore.Speak.Important.config. , I get the folder paths of the stylesheets from the config:

I also borrowed some of the code from the GetFileNames processor located in the Sitecore.Speak.Client assembly, that is used in the GetPageScripts pipeline. After making a lot of quick edits, the code for GetStylesheets looks like:

The method AddSource gets the values from the config. Path = path of the Stylesheet, deep = process subfolders, add additional stylesheets to the collection and pattern, this allows what file type are permitted to be added to the FilePaths collection. Next, it loops through the folder(s) defined in the config above, and adds the stylesheet paths to the FilePaths collection. After the method finishes, we assign the FilePaths list to args.FilePaths. Next up, AssignPageAssetsToControl.

AssignPageAssetsToControl:

If I had included the JavaScript functionality in this post, this file would have a larger role. Currently, it has one purpose and that is to instantiate a new RenderAssetsControl and assign the FilePaths list to the StylesheetList.

RenderAssetsControl:

Next we head back to the InjectAssetsPageExtender.

InjectAssetsPageExtender:

Line 16 calls AddControlToPage and passes in the args that now contains a valid, populated RenderAssetsControl control which is then added to the page using the “webedit” placeholder.

The Configuration for this in its entirety looks like:

If everything is set up correctly, you should be able to locate your CSS files by viewing the page’s source. This is what my source looks like:

Other Files

The Processor:

The Args

Since my first post covering this topic, Kamruz Jaman and I have discussed the PageExtenders and a few other things. Initially he informed me that PageExtenders no longer affect the Experience Editor since the Ribbon was moved into an iframe.

I was excited that I was able to get a PageExtender to render outside the Ribbon and I needed to share. I opened Slack and messaged JammyKam my good news. If you know Kamruz, you can probably guess what he said. He figured out how to get the PageExtenders to work as well! 🎉 It’s like Christmas in July🎄. Kamruz showed me how he finally got it to work and it was different from my code.

If you’re curious what Kamruz’s solution is, you can read about it here. It’s a great post.

I am relieved I figured out a decent solution that met the requirements I set for myself. The code is more flexible than it had been and additional code can be added that would increase the flexibility. I had more planned, but I’m not sure if I want to spend more time on something that may become obsolete when SItecore 9 is released.

Click here to watch the companion vlog explaining the code in greater detail.

I hope you found this post informative. Thanks for reading.


My intention is to unify the weapon damage and armor ratings across all installed mods. This way you can add any new item and it will be balanced.The increase in damage and armor ratings is in correlation with the weight of an item. Items made of iron weight about half as much as dragonbone items and all the other materials are somewhere in between.Everything is optional and adjustable to let the user create a custom experience of the game.- change the base damage values for bow, onehanded and twohanded skill weapons- critical damage will be half normal damage (vanilla style)- change the base armor values for light and heavy skill armor- optional change robes and hoods clothing to light armor- optional make robes and hoods craftable- change material weights and therefore the resulting damage/armor rating- how much of each material is in an item can be adjusted, but has good default values- add a Boost to certain precious materials to make them more powerful- this is an optional setting to override the weights with random values (roleplaying purpose)- Weight = MatWeight*Parts- BoostValue = MatWeight*Boost- Armor = Min+Weight+BoostValue+-Randomnon-body armor will be 1/3 of body armor rating- Damage = Min+((Weight+BoostValue)*Speed)+-Random- Crit Damage = Damage/2- it runs for me without or with 200+ active mods- the min values should be greater than the random change, otherwise you might end up with a weapon of 0 damage or armor with 0 armor rating- click to install via Mod ManagerNMM:- run "Data"\SkyProc Patches\ArmoWeapUnizer\ArmoWeapUnizer.jar"MO:- activate the mod- open the "Data" tab and navigate to "SkyProc Patches/ArmoWeapUnizer"- right click on "ArmoWeapUnizer.jar" and choose "add as Executable"- run the patcher from the dropdown menuBOTH:- once the patch is ready, activate ArmoWeapUnizer.esp in NMM or MO as usual- deactivate ArmoWeapUnizer.esp- it does not run in SUM, please run it as a standalone Skyproccer- some robes/hoods appear as craftables in the list without values, they do not produce anything and are bogus or leftover armors from mods or the base game- very rarely either the armor or weapons thread may stop and the data is missing from the patch in the end, just rerun the patcher if this happens- Immersive Armors and Immersive Weapons introduces custom materials covered in this mod- Warmonger Armory works out of the box- Heavy Armory - New Weapons works out of the box- CCO introduces custom materials covered in this mod- WAFR introduces custom materials covered in this mod- you can add your own custom materials to the materials.ini file for compatibility- you can add your own keywords to the armor patch exclusion and/or the robes/hoods exclusion ini for compatibility*- get a materials.ini going that is close to vanilla values Wintermyst - Enchantments of Skyrim - comes with a lot of very fancy enchantments that can all be disenchanted and learned Xtended Loot - does enchant nearly every single item in the game, making crafting and disenchanting obsolete (disenchantment not possible)*every keyword in keywordsarmor.ini is inherited into keywordsrobes.ini. At the moment only IA-Keywords are additional in the robes ini, because the mod lets you change ingame the robes and hoods to light armor---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWUJvTyl-m4 :)