John Wights Coronavirus Digest #2

In order to cover up the hairloss caused by improper maintenance or nutrition defect or chemical treatment, wearing wigs becomes a necessity for every woman.There are a number of reasons why a woman wear wigs.Women wear wigs in different colors, different hairstyle and of course a different look. You will find a wide variety of wigs or hairpieces for women in unique styles, designs, colour and lengths. From Wig Supplier.Human hair wigs are to be mentioned importantly. If you are looking to transform your current look then go for an easy way, like trying stylish wigs. Most women feel that their hair is a definitive and unique component to their fashion, persona and appearance. This is the reason in every way they try a number of things to make them look stylish.Now it has almost turned to be a fashion for every women to live beautiful and young. No matter what, women spend a lot of time on their beauty and fashion, so the fashion market is always updated and are ready to cater them. Say a woman has short hair and desires to have a long hair immediately, so in that case wigs can play a significant role. They can choose between human hair wigs.Wigs come in variety of shapes, lengths, colours. With regards to the ever-changing style of head wear trends; everyone wants to look great and stylish. If you are looking for an easy process to transform look, then nothing could be better than Cheap Full Lace Wigs. This is perhaps the best option to keep up with the current fashion trends. This type of wigs helps you to change your looks instantly the way you want it to be. Now you need not pay on expensive hairstyles at beauty parlours and hair salons to get your hair a new look. Thanks to the wigs and hair extensions that give your natural hair a break from hair damage caused by everyday styling with chemicals and heated tools. If you are looking for high quality wigs at affordable rates, then look for the online stores that sell awesome stuff. It would be preferable to purchase hairpieces from online stores as you can get a wide variety at cost-effective rates. This can be done at the comforts of your home. You just need to browse through the websites, pick up China Lace Wigs that you would like to have and purchase them through PayPal payment gateway.Do you fantasize your superstars look? Then look for the best celebrity wigs and adore your looks the way your idol appears. You must have seen a lot of people putting up celebrity look at many occasions. This might have made you anxious about the fact that you too must, as be the trendsetter amongst your friends. You can get long or short Lacewigsbuy as per your requirements.If you are looking for long hair wigs, make sure you search for the leading high quality wig supplier who can deliver you fashionable yet quality products. So, what are waiting for? Look smart, versatile and graceful with beautiful wigs today at: RELATED QUESTION What is better, a foam mattress or a spring mattress? If you are suffering from back pain then a foam mattress is not likely to improve your situation. An innerspring mattress is more contoured to your back and will provide you with more support and firmness. While a foam mattress will provide to much give and will not solve your back problems. Individually wrapped, pocketed coils have been the standard feature in ultra luxury bedding for generations. This coil unit is designed to mold and contour to any shape, size or sleeping position. When this unit is then covered with a pillow top and an enhancement layer of memory foam, it creates a hybrid approach that features comformibilty with freedom of movement and independent support as well as temperature management. The health benefits of this type of bedding include proper spinal alignment and pressure point relief. This type of product is "consumer preffered" by a wide margin throughout the United States.

Women are always on pursuit of beautiful hair. LumHair,as best Wig supplier provides China lace wigs in versatile styles and mutiple colors. Women wear lace wigs not only for some bad reason, such as alopecia or cancer, but also more popular for embellishing themselves. The main advantage of wearing lace wig is their ability to create natural and glamorous hair appearance without worrying about the hair length and volume. Lace wigs give women many hair beauty options, you even can create the stylish hairstyles as many as you want straight, wavy, curly, short, long or even ponytail and up-dos (only with Cheap full lace wigs).For a long time, lace wig has formed a large market, in both local stores and also on the Internet, and now most women would like to go shopping online. Although the choices are plentiful, its very difficult to make the decision which will be best .If so, how should you finish the shopping? Then you need to seek advice from your local salon stylists. They may give you suggestions.There are generally two types of Lacewigsbuy for you to choose from:full lace and lace front wigs. Full lace wigs are more expensive than lace front wigs, but you can freely style them as you want. And women always cannot decide which kind should be chosen. Actually, its not that a problem now, with the development of the creation, lace front wigs can replace the full lace in some cases, they can give you undetectable look, and you know you can afford them. And whats more, you can share other benefits from lace front wigs, they often have natural and realistic hairline, you can even add your hair clips and other hair accessories. And because they are bonded at the front, so that the wig can be attached securely. The only disadvantage is that they cannot be worn in any form of ponytail or up-dos. And because the amount of work is a lot less, you can get high quality with very affordable price. So if you do not care to have ponytail and up-do hairstyles, cheap lace front wigs can be perfect for you.Generally speaking, lace front wigs are worth your investigation if you are do not how to make your purchase decision. Once you have decided China lace wigs , and then try to find a better place to go finish your shopping process, actually by communication,its not very difficult to identify best wig supplier which always have the professional technical expertise and reasonable price and considerable service RELATED QUESTION Which brand is suitable for hotel interior design and repair? Acoustical Sliding Hotel Room Divider Conference Movable Partition AcousticPartitionWall is a professional manufacturer of all types of hanging and sliding partition wall, integrating development, production and marketing together. Our company covers an area of 5,000 square meters, located in Guangzhou city, Guangdong Province. 150 kilometers away from Hong Kong, and Shenzhen airport. Acoustic Sliding Hotel Room Dividers Conference Movable Partitions 1.Simple fitting to ceilings 2.Age resistant 3.Easy to handle after installation 4.Less than 80mm loss of wall space At present, we are engaged in producing: Acoustic Mobile Partition Wall Soundproof Movable Partition Fabric for Office for Concert Hall Free Standing Mobile Partition Panel Acoustic Movable Partition for Banquet Hall MDF Exhibition Partition Wall Acoustic Movable Partition for Banquet Hall Movable Partition With Different Finish Choice for Conference Room Phenolic Wall Partition Interior Wall Partition Conference Hall Wood Movable Partition Veneer Factory Aluminum Movable Partition 100 Thickness Building Construction Our acoustic folding wall products are far sold to Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, United States, Vanuatu, Russian Federation, India, South Korea, Tanzania, United Kingdom, Azerbaijan, Bermuda, etc. Projects Asia Bank, Singapore; Hanyuan Conference Center; Museum of Nanyue King in Guangzhou; Health Department of Hunan Province; Huiyang Stadium in Huizhou City; Stadium of Southwest University of Finance; Gymnasium of South China Normal University in Guangzhou University Town, etc. Our URL:

By Paul SondhiAfter a solid, if ordinary, regular season and an underwhelming March Madness performance, Kansas Jayhawks freshman Andrew Wiggins has officially declared for this Junes NBA draft. If you are even just a casual NBA or NCAA Mens Basketball fan, you know about Wiggins. An elite defender with athleticism and length, the 19-year old Canadian forward has had scouts going back and forth all year about what he could be if he reaches his potential. Well-informed observers will take note that Wiggins stats from college must be taken in context, otherwise they look worse than they actually are. About 17 points and 6 rebounds a night is a solid average line, but it certainly doesnt scream superstar. But, those numbers dont capture his defensive acumen, nor do they tell the story of how coachable he has proven by adhering to Kansas coach Bill Selfs system. Projecting out how any college athlete may perform in a professional league is a tough thing to do, and this case is no different. Some turn to current players to find a comparison that makes sense based upon factors such as skill set and body type; others will use only statistical models to see what translates from college to the pros. Andrew Wiggins, however, is unlike other players in this draft in that he will be an entirely unique player. Lets start with the defense. Few draftees come straight into the NBA and maintain their level of individual defense, especially because NBA defensive schemes grow more and more complex; theres also the issue of guarding Kobe Bryant instead of the back-up point guard from Kansas State. With his ability to disrupt passing lanes and shutdown opposing players one-on-one, though, Wiggins should have no problem in isolation. His coachability will flatten the usual learning curve for younger players, and I expect him to be in the discussion as one of the leagues best perimeter defenders just a couple years into his career. The offensive side of the ball is where Wiggins has to make a name for himself as a special NBA player. He is not nearly as physically opposing as LeBron James, and his outside game cant touch that of Kevin Durant, but the Jayhawk is built as the ultimate slasher who could potentially finish around the rim with ease. As the focal point of whichever team drafts him, it will be on Wiggins shoulders to prove that he can carry an offense. Much of what scouts and talking heads derided him for all season long was his apparent lack of aggressiveness; if he is to be a great scorer, than this obviously must change. I would argue that he had trouble being the center of it all at Kansas, but given the keys to an NBA franchise with a professional coaching staff and a few veterans in the locker room, the kid will figure it out.The one name that always pops up as Wiggins best comp is the Indiana Pacers Paul George, who is arguably a top 5 NBA player. I could see him fitting that mold somewhat, but that is not what Wiggins should strive to be. George is a great defensive player, yes, but his offensive game is still very limited and inefficient. The one takeaway from George that Wiggins would be smart to glean is Georges reputation as a hard-worker who puts in the hours necessary to be one of the very best. One oft-overlooked factor is that so much will have to do with the team that actually selects Wiggins. The Milwaukee Bucks, Philadelphia 76ers, and Orlando Magic are currently the most likely teams to get the top pick in the draft. Its not a guarantee at this point that Wiggins will go first overall, Jayhawks teammate Joel Embiid and Duke Blue Devil Jabari Parker remain lurking in the background, but I would bet that Wiggins ends up on one of these three squads. Each are rebuilding and have assets, but the development process would probably look very different for Wiggins on any of those teams. He still has superstar potential, and being in the right situation would help him realize it.[Image via] RELATED QUESTION I didn't get Google Glass Explorer Edition. Is trying to learn Glass dev without the hardware a futile effort? No, you can still learn the fundamentals of Glass development without the hardware. There are three main approaches for accomplishing this: 1) Visit the Mirror API documentation, get into the playground, and start hashing up some code. Download the PHP, Java, and Python library, whichever you're most comfortable with. Familiarize yourself with the jargon and converntions (timeline, bundles, menus, etc). Read the support documentation (second link below) to see how the Glass hardware actually functions. Build some apps to this specification. Soon enough, you will find a friend with hardware to t

Written by Alison McKenzie-Folan, Chief Executive, Wigan CouncilEarlier this year we launched the Deal 2030, which sets out ten key priorities for our city, Wigan. This strategy was published following a Big Listening exercise we undertook with our residents, where more than 6,000 people gave their ideas. Those ideas, which included making our borough more digitally friendly, have been pulled together into this one strategy. One of those priorities is Confidently digital. This priority sets out how we will harness the power digital has to improve peoples opportunities and prepare for the future. This means changing the way we operate as a council and using digital to transform the borough. From this we have developed our digital strategy which looks at this ambition in greater detail and is divided into three elements: Digital People, Digital Place, Digital Council.Digital people asks how we can help equip people with the digital skills for the future. This means working closely with schools to upskill our teachers and provide professional digital leadership skills to ensure they have the right tools to deliver cutting edge digital learning. One of the projects were rolling out in schools, and to the wider population, including our staff is iDEA. Our d igital inclusion strategy has been designed to break down the barriers that impact disproportionately on the most vulnerable groups in our community. Working with libraries and our Digital Taskforce partners we will aim to unite people, organisations and communities with a shared vision of digital inclusion for all. How can we make the borough a more digital place? This is the theme of our second digital strategy strand and perhaps the most challenging and ambitious. We want Wigan to become the first choice for digital business by reimagining our economic strategy to create a vision based around connecting residents to new emerging digital skills and attracting businesses to unlock new local employment opportunities.To support our ambition for a Digital Place, we and our partners are working alongside the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) on an Initiative and led procurement programme which aims to increase penetration of full fibre within Greater Manchester improving our Wi-Fi connectivity offer throughout the borough and making it a more attractive place to work, live and visit. We are also following the progress of 5G with a very keen eye as this an exciting development which will further support our aspirations for the borough.We recognise the opportunities of Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things to help redesign the way in which we deliver services and as such we are currently exploring ways in which we can adopt these technologies in areas such as Adult Social Care, Health and Wellbeing as well as how we interact with our residents on a day to day basis. Were currently working on our smart homes projects which will use data to reduce energy consumption in our social housing, which will not only be good for our residents finances but will have important environmental benefits too. In July 2016 Pokemon Go, an augmented reality (AR) mobile game, was launched. By September the game had been downloaded over 500 million times worldwide and become the fastest game to make over $500 million in revenue. Using the mobile device, GPS to locate, capture, battle and train virtual creatures, the game got people out of the house and moving around. Forbes Magazine said that Pokemon Go is the worlds most important game, because of its broader impacts on society through its health benefits. Like Nintendo, we want to explore how smartphone games and apps can encourage a greater footfall to our town centres, thus having a positive impact on our local businesses and on the health of our residents. One tool that were currently looking at is Beat the Street which has been implemented very successfully by a handful of local authorities. This walking points-based scheme is designed to get you walking to collect points for your team. In Swindon 31,000 people took part last year.How can we become a more Digital Council? We already do so much work with our communities and theyre a great asset. Were working with them at the moment to design a one stop fully integrated digital platform for residents with accessibility at the heart of design, this will include access to GP services, something that through our Big Listening Project was raised.We recognise the power digital has to improve the potential and growth of our borough and to transform the way we deliver services. We also know it has wider benefits, helping to address some of our biggest health issues. Weve already embedded the digital agenda in everything we do and will continue to push the bar to ensure we get the best possible outcomes for our residents.Read More of The Deal 2030More thought leadershipOriginally published at on November 12, 2019 RELATED QUESTION I didn't get Google Glass Explorer Edition. Is trying to learn Glass dev without the hardware a futile effort? No, you can still learn the fundamentals of Glass development without the hardware. There are three main approaches for accomplishing this: 1) Visit the Mirror API documentation, get into the playground, and start hashing up some code. Download the PHP, Java, and Python library, whichever you're most comfortable with. Familiarize yourself with the jargon and converntions (timeline, bundles, menus, etc). Read the support documentation (second link below) to see how the Glass hardware actually functions. Build some apps to this specification. Soon enough, you will find a friend with hardware to t

Over the past few months, as it has found itself under increasing military pressure in Iraq, Syria, and Libya, Daesh has opened up a new front in Europe and North America. The call the organisation has put out to its supporters and sympathisers in the West to strike wherever and whenever they can in response to its mounting setbacks and defeats on the battlefield is being listened to and put into practise with deadly effect. And this is without factoring in the prospect of Daesh militants from Europe whove travelled to Syria to join the so-called Islamic State being sent back to carry out prepared and planned attacks in the coming weeks and months. The support Daesh has succeeded in attracting and cultivating in the West in recent years is confirmation of the emergence of a radical Islamic Ummah, one distinct from its traditional and mainstream counterpart which feeds on the alienation, marginalisation and social exclusion that is the lived experience of millions of young Muslims in the West.Ironically, though, those responsible for the attacks that have recently taken place in Paris, Brussels, and Nice are the product of the very Western cultural values they rejected in the process of crossing the psychological Rubicon that lies between the aforementioned anger, alienation, and social exclusion, and the willingness to engage in random acts of terrorism against innocent civilians. Those values, by way of a reminder, include a propensity for unleashing indiscriminate violence on an industrial scale Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya under the rubric of democracy and humanitarian intervention. The indiscriminate violence part has been imbibed by radical Islam, while the democracy and humanitarian parts have been rejected.Though Daesh is on the way to being crushed in Iraq and Syria, the long term struggle that also must be won amounts to a battle of ideas, based on the unalterable truth that an idea can only be defeated by another idea; one that is better, more attractive and compelling. As such, we cannot avoid the socioeconomic consequences of neoliberalism and the way that minority communities, such as Muslim communities throughout Europe and the West, have seen their access to full participation in the economic and social life of the societies in which they are located blocked or severely circumscribed. In a BBC report on the riots that erupted in the suburbs of Paris and other French cities in 2005, suburbs populated by the countrys large Muslim community, Henri Astler describes how radicals are able to tap into the alienation felt by many ghetto youths, before going on to quote a youth worker by the name of Farid Khelifi, who tells him, They [Muslim youth] have no jobs, no future. They do not know who they are. They are told they are French but they are not given the same rights as the French. Necessarily some become radicals.A rejection of the West and its values under such conditions is inevitable, with the attenuation of the left as a counter-hegemonic alternative to the status quo on the basis of class also playing a role in allowing the politics of identity race, religion, etc. to fill the space left behind when it comes to channeling the anger and, with it, militancy of young men who find within radical Islam the camaraderie, purpose, and self esteem denied them as outsiders at the banquet of Western democracy.This battle of ideas can only be won in the context of a struggle against neoliberalism and its replacement by something approximating to capitalism with a human face, which some might be bold enough to describe as socialism. It can also only be won when the West finally accepts that the Middle East and North Africa do not constitute one giant chessboard upon which its governments, peoples, and societies can be moved around like its pieces in service to their own economic and strategic objectives. For it is imperialism not terrorism that poses the real threat to humanity, with terrorism its inevitable symptom. The chaos and carnage that has engulfed the Middle East and North Africa in recent years is a monster of the Wests creation, one with historical precedent in rise of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia in the 1970s on the back of the mass bombing of the country by the United States. It is an historical precedent that disproves the causal link applied by apologists for Western intervention between Islam and terrorism. In 2016 what we discern is a circular relationship between the industrial violence unleashed in the name of democracy across MENA and its bastard child otherwise known as Salafist-jihadism.It is why we can say without fear of contradiction that we have met the enemy and he is us. And it is why we can also say that winning the battle of ideas between the idea of radical Islam and the idea of a modernity which rests upon an economic system that serves humanity rather than is served by humanity, winning this battle is crucial in the interests not only of this generation but in the interests of generations to come Muslim and non-Muslim alike. End. RELATED QUESTION I didn't get Google Glass Explorer Edition. Is trying to learn Glass dev without the hardware a futile effort? No, you can still learn the fundamentals of Glass development without the hardware. There are three main approaches for accomplishing this: 1) Visit the Mirror API documentation, get into the playground, and start hashing up some code. Download the PHP, Java, and Python library, whichever you're most comfortable with. Familiarize yourself with the jargon and converntions (timeline, bundles, menus, etc). Read the support documentation (second link below) to see how the Glass hardware actually functions. Build some apps to this specification. Soon enough, you will find a friend with hardware to t

by Marie LodiLifetime has recently been focusing on biopics instead of their usual awesomely bad cyberseduction-forbidden-priest-romance fare. Last year, they released The Anna Nicole Story; despite a decent cast (Adam Goldberg, Cary Elwes) and this shot of Martin Landau as J. Howard Marshall, the film fell flat. So far, this year well see The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Movie, an unauthorized Aaliyah flick to look forward to (or fear), and a Whitney Houston movie directed by none other than Angela Bassett. Lifetimes latest release, The Brittany Murphy Story, seemed like it came out of nowhere. And it did; The Brittany Murphy Story was shot in just two weeks, with the lead actress having only two days to prepare for the role. If I was going to sum up my review in one sentence, that sentence would be: this movie was a depressing three-ring circus with lots of thrift store wigs and not much heart. It begins with Brittany (Amanda Fuller), wearing bad wig #1, as a teenager living in New Jersey. She convinces her mother Sharon (Sherilyn Fenn, in bad wig #2 ) to move to Los Angeles with the hopes of starting her acting career. Soon Brittany is booking commercials and appearing on the show Drexells Class. She wins the pivotal role of new girl Tai in Clueless, the role that introduced most of us to Brittany.On set, Brittany overhears a crew member saying cruel things about her weight and laments that she is not a pretty tall blonde, like her co-star Alicia Silverstone, played by Karynn Moore (whose wig might actually be the most frightening of all). Later, Brittany starts wearing her hair straight and dyes it blonde, transforming herself into the Hollywood starlet she always wanted to be. Thats when her trouble begins. Brittany becomes a darling of the paparazzi and eventually Simon Monjack, a paparazzi who nonetheless, warns Brittany that the paparazzi are not your friends! After a failed, but lovingly goofy, relationship with Ashton Kutcher, Simon eventually becomes Brittanys husband.After their wedding, Brittanys career goes into a downward spiral. She is fired from two movies, battles drug addiction rumors, and becomes paranoid that people are after her, when she hears what she thinks are gunshots in her neighborhood. She becomes severely ill but refuses to see a doctor. On December 20, 2009, Brittany dies in her home. Her death is explained in the credits to be caused by pneumonia and anemia. Six months later, Simon died from the same causes.Brittany and her mother were quite close, and the movie portrays them as having a dynamic more codependent than a normal mother-daughter relationship. At the time of her death, Brittany, Sharon, and Simon were all living together in that same house. Lets not forget the weird photo that Sharon and Simon took after Brittanys death. Sharon reportedly sold many of Brittanys personal belongings including her passport. Lifetime has not revealed who their sources were for the film, so its curious where they received the info for Brittanys private life. Amanda Fuller, best known for Last Man Standing, was cast as Brittany, despite bearing no resemblance whatsoever to the late actress. She may have had Brittanys trademark giggle down, but much of her vocal performance remained in the thick New Jersey accent Brittany used during her performance as Tai, which was odd since Brittany didnt use that accent in real life. The best performance might actually go to Ashton Kutchers (Adam Hagenbuch) trucker hat, which had the words This Is My Trucker Hat emblazoned on it (to prevent theft, Im sure. ) It had its big closeup during a scene where Ashton placed it on top of a lampshade after a wild night of partying symbolizing their impending breakup due to lifestyle differences: Ashton liked to party; Brittany liked to stay at home and hang out with mom.Brittanys father, Angelo Bertolotti, is setting Twitter ablaze with his anger. Hes pissed that Lifetime chose to make this cacadooky movie about his daughter and wants justice for her mysterious death. Last year, Bertolotti sent Britneys hair and tissues to a company for testing, and a report showed that there were ten different metals present in Brittanys system at the time of her death. Even with this new information, the Los Angeles Coroner has no plans to exhume Brittanys body for further investigation. Theres even a petition to open the case. Brittanys story is tragically filled with so many question marks. Perhaps thats one reason why this biopic leaves a bitter taste and a sad feeling, far from the guilty pleasure giddiness a Lifetime Original Movie usually provides.I fondly remember watching an episode of MTVs Diary years ago that showed Brittany as a ball of positive energy. She drank a shit-ton of Mountain Dew and was stoked on her new house (she had bought it from Britney Spears) and the fancy hotel rooms she was staying in. Brittany seemed like a down-to-earth person who counted Dr. Pepper Lip Smackers as one of her favorite beauty products. After she died, I went straight to the drugstore and bought a Dr. Pepper Lip Smacker in a tribute.Maybe instead of watching The Brittany Murphy Story, honor her by streaming Clueless, Uptown Girls, and Little Black Book, and these videos that show Brittany as she should be remembered: a bubbly woman with an infectious laugh, boundless talent, and who could really belt out a tune.Marie Lodi is the president of a pizza club in LA. She is also a staff writer and the resident style advice columnist at Rookie. Richard Simmons once said she moved like a stripper. Read more of her stuff at and follow her everywhere @agentlover. RELATED QUESTION I didn't get Google Glass Explorer Edition. Is trying to learn Glass dev without the hardware a futile effort? No, you can still learn the fundamentals of Glass development without the hardware. There are three main approaches for accomplishing this: 1) Visit the Mirror API documentation, get into the playground, and start hashing up some code. Download the PHP, Java, and Python library, whichever you're most comfortable with. Familiarize yourself with the jargon and converntions (timeline, bundles, menus, etc). Read the support documentation (second link below) to see how the Glass hardware actually functions. Build some apps to this specification. Soon enough, you will find a friend with hardware to t

Founding Father and slave owner Thomas Jeffersons mantra that, When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty, is today exemplified in the stance taken by NFL quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, with his refusal to stand for the US national anthem prior to the San Francisco 49ers recent preseason game against the Green Bay Packers. As Kaepernick told the press afterwards, I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."Kaepernicks stand is with the growing number of victims of police brutality in America, specifically blacks whove been gunned down by law enforcement officers in controversial circumstances, and over the lack of prosecutions when it comes to the officers involved. It is a controversy and national scandal which confirms that when it comes to law enforcement and justice, there are two Americas. There is the land of opportunity that is the domain of most white people, otherwise known as the American Dream, and there is the American Nightmare which is the lived experience of black and brown people, predominately located in the countrys sprawling inner cities.Malcolm X put it thus: No, Im not an American. Im one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of Americanism. One of the 22 million black people who are the victims of democracy, nothing but disguised hypocrisy. So, Im not standing here speaking to you as an American, or a patriot, or a flag-saluter, or a flag-waver no, not I. Im speaking as a victim of this American system. And I see America through the eyes of the victim. I dont see any American dream; I see an American nightmare.Predictably, the 28-year old quarterback has been hit with a tsunami of criticism over his stance, demonised as unpatriotic and a disgrace to the NFL. His critics have taken particular umbridge over the fact Kaepernick recently signed a six-year $114 million contract with the 49ers, thereby inferring that being rich and not having a social conscience are two sides of the same coin. Indeed Kaepernick, who is of mixed race parentage, is deserving of even more respect given his wealth, as the people hes taking a stand with victims of police brutality are overwhelmingly poor or from low income communities.If there is one thing white America hates it is having its mask of democracy and liberty removed to reveal the true face of a nation that was established upon the genocide of the indigenous population, prior to being built on the whipped and gnarled backs of millions of slaves. It is a country that still today exists at the negation of people of colour, disproportionately making up the ranks of the astounding 47 million of US citizens living in poverty in the second decade of the 21st century. Regardless of the long and courageous struggle of the Civil Rights Movement, regardless of the raft of laws passed against racial discrimination, and regardless of a constitution that enshrines the principle that, all men are created equal, in 2018 America has yet to come to terms with the racism and inequality that lie at the heart of its culture and cultural values.You only have to consider the rise and popularity of Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, to understand the extent of the recrudescence of bigotry and prejudice in the land of the free almost to the point where you could be forgiven for thinking the pro-slavery Confederacy that won the countrys 186165 civil war. Colin Kaepernick is not the only high profile voice thats been raised against the ongoing injustice being suffered by black people and people of colour in America recently. Beyonce has also attracted criticism for taking the same stand during her performance at the MTV Video Music Awards in New York with her depiction of a police shooting. In taking the public position they have, Kaepernick and Beyonce are standing on the shoulders of other black American athletes and performers whove refused to look the other way in a society in which they have succeeded in achieving financial and professional success. In so doing they have earned something far more valuable than any contract, endorsement, or paycheque; they have earned a place in history.Paul Robeson, Muhammad Ali, Tommie Smith, John Carlos their names live on as a reminder that only live fish can swim against the tide, and that it is upon those with the courage to say no to injustice, to refuse to go along to get along, that justice and freedom depends.To those who insist that every Americas should respect the national anthem and the flag it reveres, here again we see the disjunction between the myth of America and its ugly truth. The Star Spangled Banner was written by a man, Francis Scott Key, whod tasted defeat in the US War of Independence at the hands of former slaves fighting on the side of the British against the future of slavery and oppression that awaited them and their families in the event that the men such as he prevailed.Keys disdain for black soldiers, Colonial Marines, who dared take up arms to fight for their freedom from slavery and racial oppression, is laid out in a verse of the Star Spangled Banner that nowadays is never sung or at least certainly not in public.No refuge could save the hireling and slaveFrom the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth waveOer the land of the free and the home of the brave. Colin Kaepernick courage reminds us of the timeless wisdom embodied in the words of South Africas Archbishop Desmond Tutu, If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.More than neutral, the quarterbacks critics are the kind of people Oscar Wilde had in mind when he described patriotism as the virtue of the vicious.End RELATED QUESTION I didn't get Google Glass Explorer Edition. Is trying to learn Glass dev without the hardware a futile effort? No, you can still learn the fundamentals of Glass development without the hardware. There are three main approaches for accomplishing this: 1) Visit the Mirror API documentation, get into the playground, and start hashing up some code. Download the PHP, Java, and Python library, whichever you're most comfortable with. Familiarize yourself with the jargon and converntions (timeline, bundles, menus, etc). Read the support documentation (second link below) to see how the Glass hardware actually functions. Build some apps to this specification. Soon enough, you will find a friend with hardware to t

One of the most enduring and longstanding myths of British politics is that Labour lost the 1983 general election because it was too left wing, fighting the election on a manifesto that ensured it was unelectable. In words that have become engraved in the nations history, Labours Gerald Kaufman described the 83 Labour manifesto as the longest suicide note in history, which is how it is still regarded over three decades on.It is a myth that has been doing the rounds in the context of Labour Shadow Chancellors John McDonnell pledge not only to renationalise the railways, Royal Mail, and energy and water companies as part of an electoral platform of anti austerity, wealth redistribution, and a state role in the countrys economic life. Taken together, it is a platform that has succeeded in exciting and energising millions up and down the country who had become accustomed to a Labour Party that had surrendered to right wing nostrums on the economy, welfare, and foreign policy.In 1983 Labour put forward a manifesto that drew inspiration and direct lineage from the transformational programme of the 1945 Labour government, the most ambitious of any Labour government ever. Back then, despite the parlous state of an economy exhausted after the Second World War, Labour came to power committed to governing in the interests of a working class that had been accustomed to unemployment and poverty with little if any succour from the state prior to the war. The subsequent rolling out of the welfare state, NHS, and a commitment to full employment laid the foundations of the most sustained period of economic stability and prosperity in the nations history. With the harnessing of state investment, planning, and intervention in the economy, it was a radical departure from the laissez faire policies that had led to the Depression of the 1930s, condemning millions of working families to penury and destitution.By the time of the 1983 general election working class families and communities had suffered the consequences of four years of Thatcherism. The country was mired in recession with unemployment at a record 3.2 million, as Thatcher set about decimating the nations industrial base in favour of turning a deregulated banking and financial sector into the motor of the economy, in the process ensuring the transferance of wealth from the poor to the rich on a grand scale.The result was a spike in inequality, crime, and public spending on welfare as tax cuts added further downward pressure on public funds. In this context, Labour pledged to embark on a programme of investment in industry, eduation, council housing, jobs, and the NHS. Along with an increase in child benefit and pensions and the renationalisation of those state assets that had already been sold off and privatised under the Tories, it offered a progressive alternative.It would be mostly funded by an increase in government borrowing rather than tax increases, on the argument that borrowing to invest in the economy is more productive than borrowing to pay for an over-inflated welfare budget, given the record rate of unemployment that obtained under Thatchers government. The scourge of poverty wages would also be tackled through the strengthening of the Equal Pay Act in consultation and cooperation with the unions. Currency controls would be re-introduced in order to counter currency speculation, thereby guaranteeing the stability of sterling and interest rates.Rather than focus on reducing the budget deficit, a priority would be placed on tackling the nations trade deficit, which under Thatcher had regressed to the point where Britain, once the workshop of the world, had become a net importer for the first time in its history, a direct result of the destruction of the countrys industrial base. Labours plan of placing controls on imports and bolstering exports via investment in industry and manufacturing was designed to reverse this trend, creating jobs in the process. The expansion of democracy was also planned, especially at the local level, which had suffered under the governments policy of reducing the role and power of local government in its determination to railroad through its structural adjustment of the economy with minimal opposition.On defence unilateral nuclear disarmament was a bold initiative designed to tackle the scourge of weapons of mass destruction on the understanding their use could never be countenanced and were a crushing waste of public funds that could be better spent and invested. The objective of the governments foreign policy would be based onthe urgent need to restore dtente and dialogue between the states and the peoples of the world. We will actively pursue dialogue with the Soviet Union and China, and will urge the American government to do so. We will work consistently for peace and disarmament, and devote all our efforts to pulling the world back from the nuclear abyss. Labour will dedicate some of the resources currently wasted on armaments to projects designed to promote both security and human development.An essential difference between the Labour and the Tory approach is that we have a foreign policy that will help liberate the peoples of the world from oppression, want and fear. We seek to find ways in which social and political progress can be achieved and to identify the role that Britain can play in this process. So why, given the aforementioned, did Labour lose the 1983 election?There are two key reasons: i) the bounce in personal popularity enjoyed by Margaret Thatcher in the aftermath of the Falklands War the previous year, and ii) the split in Labours vote by the breakaway SDP faction.Mention must also be made of the campaign of demonisation that was carried out in the pages of the right wing popular press against Labour leader Michael Foot, who was treated disgracefully and venomously by a tabloid press that had fallen behind Thatcher and extended itself in fanning the flames of the reaction and jingoism that had swept the land on the back of the Falklands War. Here it is worth noting that Labour intended to place controls on press ownership, understanding the danger posed to democracy by the concentration of newspaper ownership in the hands of a few rich media barons, thus inviting their enmity. In an era when social media and the Internet was a distant dream, this aspect of British society was key in shaping public attitudes and opinionTaken in the round, the 1983 Labour Party manifesto offered a truly progressive, redistributive, intelligent, and eminently realisable alternative to the cruel and desolate reality of Tory Britain. Defeat in 1983 not only meant another four years of Thatcher, it set in train the process of turning Labour into the Tory-lite party it became RELATED QUESTION I didn't get Google Glass Explorer Edition. Is trying to learn Glass dev without the hardware a futile effort? No, you can still learn the fundamentals of Glass development without the hardware. There are three main approaches for accomplishing this: 1) Visit the Mirror API documentation, get into the playground, and start hashing up some code. Download the PHP, Java, and Python library, whichever you're most comfortable with. Familiarize yourself with the jargon and converntions (timeline, bundles, menus, etc). Read the support documentation (second link below) to see how the Glass hardware actually functions. Build some apps to this specification. Soon enough, you will find a friend with hardware to t

The days of cog-in-the-machine employment is coming to an end. As the information economy grows and develops, people who can do more than shift a lever or press a button on a production line are more important than ever.But, what is it exactly that we need people, in this new era of work, to do? And, how can we create a culture and environment that facilitates and supports their work and produces the results todays businesses need?I wont bore you with a long winded, wanky, geo-politico-eco-historical exploration of the needs of modern businesses. If youre reading this Im sure you already have some ideas.I will instead state, quite simply, this:We need leaders who can work collaboratively and creatively to solve complex problems.Ill say that again. Todays organisations need leaders who can work collaboratively and creatively to solve complex problems. And, herein lies our dilemma. The way we run organisations and the way we manage people does not support or create the right environment for this type of person, let alone a whole team of them, to operate with the autonomy or freedom required to be effective.So what can you do? How can you become the type of person we need to work and manage in a modern organisation?Start here:Do something you enjoyYou are likely to spend more time working throughout your lifetime than doing any other activity. You may as well spend it doing something youre good at and love doing. Universities and colleges offer more degrees than at any other time. Online courses are easily accessible and many are free or cheap. Theres no reason to settle for a career doing something boring or that you feel indifferent about. There are also more opportunities than at any time in our history to start your own business and be successful. Dont limit yourself to the rat race. A credit card with a few hundred dollors and a good idea is all you need to start an independent business with a good chance of being successful if you do it right.Work toward something you care aboutThere is plenty of evidence that shows that when we are alienated from the outcomes of our work, we become unhappy. There is also plenty of research that shows that when we work towards a high level goal in an area we care about, we become happier. Ill let you do the math.Lead from behindYou will work for morons, idiots, know-it-alls, know-nothings and lazy jerks for the majority of your career. Dont let them stop you. Dont let them kill your spirit. Your boss will micro-manage, get in the way and just generally slow progress on a regular basis. Your job is to convince them that they have more to gain by leaving you alone to do your work.Create and support the right environmentIf youre a manager: hire the right people with the right skills, set the goals and the strategy, support them, give them the time and materials they need and then, get out of the way.Todays organisations need leaders who can work collaboratively and creatively to solve complex problems. Be that person. Be that type of leader. Dont settle for a generic, uninspired career. Youll be happier and more successful for it RELATED QUESTION I didn't get Google Glass Explorer Edition. Is trying to learn Glass dev without the hardware a futile effort? No, you can still learn the fundamentals of Glass development without the hardware. There are three main approaches for accomplishing this: 1) Visit the Mirror API documentation, get into the playground, and start hashing up some code. Download the PHP, Java, and Python library, whichever you're most comfortable with. Familiarize yourself with the jargon and converntions (timeline, bundles, menus, etc). Read the support documentation (second link below) to see how the Glass hardware actually functions. Build some apps to this specification. Soon enough, you will find a friend with hardware to t

Greed is killing us. It has poisoned our culture from top to bottom, attacking and corroding the bonds of human solidarity that are the non-negotiable glue of social cohesion without which we are condemned to exist as a disconnected mass of human dust.The publication of the top salaries paid courtesy of the taxpayer to BBC presenters such as Gary Lineker, Chris Evans, Graham Norton and Andrew Marr comes as further evidence of the pressing need to focus our attention on the introduction of a maximum wage in order to be able to fund a just minimum wage. The alternative is that we continue to allow unalloyed human greed to corrupt us all, wherein we are conditioned to not only accept such obscenely gargantuan salaries at the top end of the pay scale but to believe they are consonant with human worth and achievement. They are not. What they are is consonant with the normalisation of injustice, a symptom of the model of unfettered and deregulated capitalism that sits as a tyrant over the lives of the majority and a servant of a very small and privileged minority in 2017.Gary Lineker cannot conceivably defend being paid close to 2 million a year to read an autocue. Judging by his presence on social media - the views that he has expressed on issues such as Brexit, immigration, and refugees - he is a moral person. As such, surely he must reflect on the public salary he enjoys at a time when nurses are forced to rely on foodbanks, poverty is endemic, and the NHS is going through a funding crisis.And the issue is not the market rate, as self-important idiots such as Alan Sugar are arguing on this question, the issue is class. How can it be anything else when police officers, firemen, nurses, and other public sector workers have been forced to endure a pay cap in service to austerity for the past ten years?As an employee of the BBC, does Andrew Marr not work in the public sector? And if so why has he not been subjected to the same decade-long pay cap as other public sector workers? If he is not i. e. if he is employed as a contractor then how can the BBC still be considered a public service broadcaster? On the contrary it increasingly resembles a brand that operates according to market norms while enjoying a guaranteed income by dint of what is essentially a poll tax.The entire thing constitutes an unalloyed disgrace, a scandal which speaks to the domination of the aforementioned free market values to the detriment of society as a whole.There are other questions that need to be asked concerning the BBC. How many of its employees are from working class backgrounds? What is the proportion of employees from the nations various minority communities? And how many of its key employees are products of private education and Oxbridge? All of these questions are relevant and the answers should be made public.On the issue of the gender pay gap that has also arisen from the publication of the top salaries paid by the BBC, here, surely, the metric being adhered to is absurd. The idea we should be exercised over whether a female news presenter or DJ is paid two hundred thousand pounds rather than the three hundred thousands pounds her male counterpart receives is profoundly grotesque. The only gap that matters is the one that exists between the rich and ordinary working people, both men and women, due to the simple fact that obscene wealth and ostentation has its roots in poverty. It is an issue, once again, of class.It is beyond clear by now that the BBC, to coin an overused phrase, is no longer fit for purpose. It is no longer a public broadcaster whose content is representative of society, but instead a repository of the very elitism, greed, and inequality that is suffocating us all. RELATED QUESTION I didn't get Google Glass Explorer Edition. Is trying to learn Glass dev without the hardware a futile effort? No, you can still learn the fundamentals of Glass development without the hardware. There are three main approaches for accomplishing this: 1) Visit the Mirror API documentation, get into the playground, and start hashing up some code. Download the PHP, Java, and Python library, whichever you're most comfortable with. Familiarize yourself with the jargon and converntions (timeline, bundles, menus, etc). Read the support documentation (second link below) to see how the Glass hardware actually functions. Build some apps to this specification. Soon enough, you will find a friend with hardware to t