18 Instagram Stories Hacks That Will Blow Your Mind – Digital Market News

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The best Instagram Stories hacks are usually top-secret, but were here to reveal them all!

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From new and useful features to editing tools and techniques, were unearthing some of our favorite Instagram Stories hacks that are sure to make your stories stand out.

Keep reading to learn how you can make engaging, artistic, and effective stories with these 18 Instagram Stories hacks!

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Instagram Stories are getting a lot more creative and interactive from AR filters and animations, to templates and Instagram Stories stickers, there are a lot of new features to experiment with.

While new updates and features are always exciting, they can be a bit intimidating when starting out which is why why were dishing out our best-kept secrets.

With our design hacks and in-app tricks, you can use Instagram Stories to widen your reach, drive more traffic, and gain more followers in no time.

Ready to get started? Were sharing all our best Instagram Stories tips and tricks you (probably) dont know yet. Watch the video or continue reading this blog post.

Have you ever wanted to add in extra images or have multiple photos in a single Instagram story? Or add a specific GIF you cant find in Instagrams GIF Library?

Were going to show you two ways to do it:

This is a super simple and quick way to get an extra photo or GIF onto your Instagram story post. All you have to do is copy a photo from your camera roll and then paste it onto your story using the text tool!

Start by opening a photo and tapping the export button.

Now tap Copy and head back to your Instagram story.

Double-tap the screen to pull up the Paste option.

And thats it! The photo you copied earlier should now appear on your story.

The second option is to download Googles Gboard app and paste photos directly from your keyboard.

To do this, simply open a story, and tap the screen to pull up the Gboard.

Now tap the G Google logo and type a query into the search bar.

You can sort your search to include images and GIFs.

Once you find what youre looking for, simply tap the image or GIF to copy it, and then tap the screen once to paste it!

Just remember to check the usage rights or credit the image where needed.

Whats great about this Instagram Stories hack is that there are so many use cases. For example, if youre re-sharing an Instagram post to your stories, you can paste a rectangle onto the story and then place it behind the post to create a framing effect.

Or if youre trying to add your brand colors to a story, you can paste an element that contains the colors onto your story (like a graphic or logo), and then use the color dropper tool to pick up the exact color from that element.

Did you know that you can turn your live photos into Boomerangs in Instagram Stories?

As far as Instagram Stories hacks go, this ones definitely on the lesser-known side. The reason is that in order for it to work, the live photo needs to be taken within the last 24 hours!Heres how to do it:

Simply open Instagram Stories, swipe up, and pick a live photo from your camera roll.

Once selected, press firmly on the screen for a few seconds until you see the word Boomerang appear briefly.

And thats it! Youve now turned your shot into a Boomerang!

Instagram Stories offers a bunch of great fonts, but nothing beats having your own brand font! If youre looking to add a little more brand to your stories, writing in your brand font is a great option. And luckily, theres a way to do it.

Start by downloading the Over mobile app. Once downloaded, AirDrop your fonts .OFT file to your mobile device.

Select Over from the menu that pops up.

And thats all. Now when you design a story in Over, youll be able to incorporate your brand fonts!

Looking for more ways to create Instagram Stories that match your branding? Check out our free video workshop on how design captivating Instagram Stories using the popular design app Over!

Instagram collects a ton of great data around your Instagram posts performance, like the number of impressions, saves, follows, and more. But theres one piece of data you might be missing out on: story reshares.

You wont find this in your Instagram Insights. Instead, youll need to tap the ellipsis in the top right corner of a post to pull up a menu with the option to View Story Reshares.

This will take you to a screen with a list of your current public reshares.

You can even tap one of the reshares to see it live on the users account.

If you dont see the option to see reshares, this means that your post isnt currently being shared in anyones stories!

This can be particularly useful if youre looking to share user-generated content on your Instagram Stories! For example, if youve just launched a new product, you might want to reshare how your followers are reacting to your big announcement!

A few of the font styles in Instagram Stories lack the option to be left- or right-aligned, which can be a bit of a nuisance.

Usually, you can just tap the alignment button in the top left corner of the screen to change your texts alignment. But if the button is missing (which is the case for the Modern, Neon, and Strong fonts), your text will automatically appear centered.

Luckily, theres an easy solution! Simply type a message in Instagram Stories with a font that doesnt have the alignment button.

Now swipe a finger left or right on your text. This should change the texts alignment.

Instagram Stories is a great place to show off your brands personality, but its also really important to reflect your brands style, tone and aesthetic. And one of the easiest ways to do this is to integrate your brands color palette.

But what if Instagram doesnt offer your brand colors in its default color options?

Lucky for you, theres a hidden Instagram Stories hack that lets you access every color you could need for your text!

All you have to do is open your Instagram Stories and select the brush tool. Now tap and long-hold any of the default color options at the bottom of the screen to open the color slider.

Now just swipe across the slider to pick a custom color for your story.

Similarly, if youre using an Instagram Stories template that youve designed with your brand colors, you can use the color picker tool to pinpoint the exact brand color from your template!

Looking to get started with using Instagram Stories for your business? Check out our free 45-minute video course on how to design beautiful Instagram Stories that will help you get more followers, traffic, and sales!

If you really want to make your text design even more impressive, you can use the color picker tool to create a color gradient (or rainbow) effect with your text!

To do this, open Instagram Stories and type out a message. Then tap on your text and tap Select All to highlight it.

While your text is highlighted, press and hold one finger down on the color palette tool at the bottom of your screen (like you did before) to open the entire color spectrum.

With one finger held down on the color slider, and one on your highlighted text, begin to drag both fingers toward the left side of your screen at the same time.

Youll see your text begin to change color, letter by letter, as you drag your finger across the color spectrum! You can move your finger faster or slower for additional color variations, or alternate the direction that you drag your fingers across the screen to achieve an entirely different result.

Sometimes the simplest Instagram Stories hacks are the most fun!

If youve ever wanted to make your emojis really stand out on Instagram Stories, theres a hidden trick to give them a glow effect.

To do this, simply open your stories, tap the screen to open the text tool, and select the Neon font.

Now when you add an emoji, it should have a slight glow behind it!

This color-fill trick is pretty useful when you want to share a canvas with drawings and text rather than a photo or video!

Tap the pen icon in the upper right-hand corner of the screen and select a color.

Next, tap and hold on the screen for 1-3 seconds until the screen is filled with a solid color.

Note: The screen will have a solid color fill if you use the marker or neon brush, or a translucent color fill if you use the chisel-tip brush.

If you want to take this Instagram Stories hack a step further, you can use the eraser tool to create a sort of scratch card effect thats perfect for reveals!

For example, if youre teasing an upcoming campaign or even a new blog post, you can paint your screen with the brush tool and then use the eraser to share a few details about whats to come.

Heres how to do it:

Open Instagram Stories and take a photo or upload one from your camera roll. Once your photo is in, tap the pen icon in the upper right-hand corner of the screen and select a color.

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18 Instagram Stories Hacks That Will Blow Your Mind - Digital Market News

Sean OShea: Tips for Paralegals and Litigation Support Professionals August 2020 – JD Supra

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8/1/2020: Maryland Court of Appeals on Social Media AuthenticationIn Griffin v. State, 419 Md. 343 (2011), the Maryland Court of Appeals found social media evidence must be shown to have not been subject to hacking or other manipulation.

8/2/2020: Relativity Integration PointsRelativity Integration Points (RIPs) assist with the import of data from third party systems into Relativity workspaces.

8/3/2020: Automapping with Relativity Integration PointsIntegration points will perform automatic field mapping between a workspace and the load file.

8/4/2020: excel macro to hide multiple ranges of rowsIt successfully hid more than 70 ranges in a few seconds.

8/5/2020: NIST Study on Facial Recognition Too Many False PositivesFalse positive results were returned far more often than false negatives, and the software exhibited different biases.

8/6/2020: Circuit Court Ruling on PACER FeesThe cost of digital audio equipment used for recordings of trials and other proceedings can be taken into account for PACER fees.

8/7/2020: Emojis and the LawThe Android Grimacing Face emoji got the reactions shown in orange on the below chart, but the Apple version of the Grimacing Face face emoji got the reactions shown in blue.

8/8/2020: Judges Agree: Limit the Number of Pages in Your BriefLet me add an incentive to the production of short and pertinent briefs. The longer you make your brief, the more likely that most of the pre-argument analysis of your case will be turned over to a law clerk who just finished the bar exam. Hon. Arthur L. Alarcon

8/9/2020: D.D.C. Ruling on Adequacy of Search by Navy[T]he reasonableness of the Navys search is buttressed by the fact that Carlborg has offered no suggestion as to where else the Navy might have looked for his records or what other search criteria should have been used. Carlborg v. Dept of the Navy, No. 18-cv-1881 (DLF), 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 142543, at *13 (D.D.C. Aug. 10, 2020) (quoting Peavey v. Holder, 657 F. Supp. 2d 180, 190 (D.D.C. 2009)).

8/10/2020: NIST Guide to Media SanitizationThere are three methods of media sanitization: clear, purge, or destroy.

8/11/2020: Excel OLE action error explainedAn OLE action error message may be prompted if you click on a link to a PDF on a worksheet, and then try to OCR it.

8/12/2020: Enforce HTTPSAn admin can force visitors to a Relativity workspace to view it over HTTPS so that requests and responses are encrypted.

8/13/2020: Excels TEXT FormulaThe formula can easily convert a column of numbers of varying lengths into a standard format with a consistent number of digits.

8/14/2020: Getting a count of volume shadow copiesVSCMount is a tool that helps you check to see if volume shadow copies are available.

8/15/2020: Never Use However at the Beginning of a SentenceGarner instructs brief writers to never use however at the beginning of a sentence in order to indicate a contrast, and recommends using but instead.

8/16/2020: Mississippi Court of Appeals: Jury Must See Evidence Where Spoliation Unclear[T]he explanation for the original records absence may be fully satisfying either that it was lost through no fault of the [party], that the [party] deliberately destroyed it, or as in most cases, somewhere in between, thereby making it a jury issue. Murphy v. William Carey Univ., No 2018-CA-00910-COA, 2020 Miss. App. LEXIS 462, at *28-29 (Miss. Ct. App. Aug. 11, 2020) (quoting DeLaughter v. Lawrence Cty. Hosp., 601 So.2d 818, 824 (Miss. 1992)).

8/17/2020: 2 GB Text per DocumentRelativity will not process more than 2 GB of text for any single document. Such a document will generate an error that will cause processing to halt.

8/18/2020: Create htm file with linksUse this format:

8/19/2020: Simple File UploadRelativitys Simple File Upload tools allows users to load documents into a workspace without using the Relativity Desktop Client. No more than 100 documents can be loaded at a time.

8/20/2020: Making Relativity Desktop Client Work For YouDont miss that you can simultaneously import data into a single workspace using different instances of the Relativity Desktop Client on up to four different computers.

8/21/2020: Common email threading problemsAn embedded email link or attachment can cause email threading to be over inclusive.

8/22/2020: Separate email addresses with ; NOT ,Email addresses in the recipient and cc fields should be separated by semi-colons. If they are separated with commas, Relativity will read adjacent email addresses as a single address.

8/23/2020: regex from head on and from behindIf you want a regex search to find results from the beginning or end of every line start with (?m)

8/24/2020: District of Maryland Case with a Defendant Known Only By An IP AddressThe Court ordered the issuance of a subpoena to produce documents identifying the Doe subscriber.

8/25/2020: ALSPsThe past few years have seen a rise in the number of companies and law firms using ALSPs Alternative Legal Service Providers -which perform legal research; electronic discovery; and regulatory compliance.

8/26/2020: Excel worksheets that hide themselvesBeware of vba code that automatically re-hides Excel worksheets. Spreadsheets can be set to make a worksheet you unhid disappear again.

8/27/2020: Regex multiline wildcardUsing (?s) at the beginning of a regex search will let you search from in front and behind while also using a wildcard.

8/28/2020: DiffcheckerDiffchecker, is a free online tool that does a fine job of comparing differences between two text or PDF files. Diffchecker can also help you compare multiple versions of an image, allowing you slide back and forth between two versions.

8/29/2020: Florida Court of Appeal rules passcode protected by Fifth AmendmentThe Florida Fifth District Court of Appeal agreed with the Petitioner that producing the passcode would require him to disclose the contents of his mind and provide the State with incriminating information that would be used against him. Distilled to its essence, the revealing of the passcode is a verbal communication of the contents of ones mind.. Garcia v. State, No. 5D19-590, 2020 Fla. App. LEXIS 12232, at *8 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. Aug. 28,2020)

8/30/2020: finding duplicates with pythonYou can use a python script to find where there are duplicates in a character set.

8/31/2020: use code to generate list of links on a web pageRight clicking Inspect and entering code on the console of the Chrome browser will create a list of all links on a web page.

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Sean OShea: Tips for Paralegals and Litigation Support Professionals August 2020 - JD Supra

Why and How Did Tik Tok Absolutely Take Over Quarantine? – The George-Anne

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Ask anyone on campus, in your family, or even look at the news- Tik Tok is everywhere.

The app is easily considered viral and commonly regarded as the trendiest social platform at the moment. I thought that it would be interesting to break down why I think Tik Tok and the recent quarantine paired so well together.

According to Wallaroo Media, as of August 2020, Tik Tok has over 1 billion users and is available across 150 countries. It has been downloaded, just in the United States, over 175 million times. If were looking from a global perspective, Tik Tok has been downloaded over 2 billion times.

Tik Tok is an app for short-form media, where you can upload 15-60 second long videos pertaining to absolutely anything as long as it doesnt violate Tik Toks guidelines. (Though there has been some controversy over certain users being granted flexibility when it comes to adhering to guidelines). There are fandoms of almost every show and movie to be found, there are fan pages of all of Hollywoods heartthrobs, as well as some of the most creative, controversial and complex comedy on the app.

So, why was it perfect for quarantine?

Tik Tok was made with an endlessly scroll interface, unlike other video-based apps like YouTube or Quibi, every type of content one sees on their For You Page (Tik Toks coveted homepage, formulated individually for every user, based on the content they like).

If you find the punchline in the current video is lacking, you can just scroll upwards to find something that could be completely different. The users FYP consists of what they like, so if you are into musical theatre, Criminal Minds, and learning about succulents your FYP would consist of countless videos concerning those and maybe some new content the Tik Tok algorithm thinks you may enjoy.

It is so easy to change your mind about the content you want to see, and just as easily see something completely new in a matter of seconds.

I think this trait was really attractive during quarantine and the summer, during a time where youre quick to finish watching all of your favorite shows on all of your favorite streaming services. Though Netflix definitely tried by releasing countless original content, its hard to keep audiences engaged when it comes to longer-form media like television shows and movies. Tik Tok allows users to completely forget and move onto another genre or sect of media quickly.

I also believe that the virality of Tik Tok, and how it so often showed up on other social media platforms convinced naysayers or those reluctant to download, to try the app out. It is not uncommon to see viral Tik Toks get re-posted to Twitter and then Instagram, therefore giving the platform and its creators an even greater platform.

Some may compare the time crunch that Tik Tok provides to the app Vine, and how both platforms forced creators to be more creative or thoughtful when it comes to videos. Influencers have such a short amount of time to garner likes and followers.

Tik Tok requires a very short attention span for its users, and they can easily find completely different content on the same platform in less than a second, so its not too hard to understand why it was perfect for those stuck in the house and bored with more traditional media.

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Why and How Did Tik Tok Absolutely Take Over Quarantine? - The George-Anne

Blasters of the Universe: Infinity Forever Is A New Free-Roam VR Shooter – UploadVR

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Secret Location revealed Blasters of the Universe: Infinity Forever today, a new free-roam location-based VR shooter for up to four players.

The original Blasters of the Universe was one of the first room-scale VR interpretations on the classic bullet hell wave shooter genre. Instead of controlling a spaceship, youd move your body to dodge bullets while returning fire in a neon-soaked retro-futuristic landscape. It was a blast (pardon the pun) and is highly regarded as one of the best early VR shooters with lots of replay value that eventually left early access after a couple of years.

Now, Secret Location (also developers of the excellent time-bending VR puzzle game, Transpose) is back with Blasters of the Universe: Infinity Forever, a free-roam location-based entertainment take on the franchise. Designed for up to four people, it follows a linear story structure as players make their way through a series of levels at actual physical VR arcade locations powered by SynthesisVR.

The choice to focus on LBE VR rather than at-home VR is an interesting one given the current state of the industry. Top-billed attractions like The Void are struggling to retain leases for their locations and arcades around the world, but most especially in the United States, continue to struggle.

We have remained optimistic about the state of our industry in the past months as we continued to make our games from home, said Michael Masukawa, Director of Strategy and Business Development at Secret Location, in a prepared statement. We know that now more than ever, families and friends are going to be craving meaningful shared experiences and so were happy to be able to offer them exactly what they need. As family entertainment centers start to reopen with safety in mind, we are thrilled to be partnering with Synthesis on the launch of our first location-based VR game.

What do you think of the move? Risky considering the state of affairs, or forward-looking as the world slowly tries to return to normal? Let us know what you think down in the comment below!

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Blasters of the Universe: Infinity Forever Is A New Free-Roam VR Shooter - UploadVR

Jamia group accuses admin of not listening to queries over merit-based admissions, varsity says no decicion yet – EdexLive

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Jamia Millia Islamia recently announced that it might consider a merit-based system to conduct admissions this year and the news has left students furious and anxious. The students have been saying that they consider this move 'anti-student and anti-minority' but what has left some student groups even more angry is that they have allegedly been given the cold shoulder by the administration when they approached it to have a dialogue on the issue.

Jamia's unit of the All India Students Association and other organisations said that they tried to meet with the Vice Chancellor on August 27 but were stopped outside the office by the security guards. We were made to submit the memorandum in a makeshift box and we were not given an acknowledgement either. The officials just made hollow assurances. Later, we tried to meet the Jamia Teachers Association to raise concerns of students and submit the memorandum but we were denied entry by the guards and officials, the AISA statement said.

However, the media coordinator of the University said that no decision had been taken on the issue and it is yet to be discussed by the executive council, so there was no question of the students getting angry or issuing statements. "We extended the date for application and simpleasked students to upload their marksheets.We have no taken any decision yet, the executive council is yet to discuss. The health and the interest of the students will be kept in mind as far as possible when taking any decision. So we request the students to avoid any speculation," the media coordinator and PRO of the University said.

The University failed to have a dialogue with the students on the issue. The silence of key demands like clearing the uncertainty regarding merit-based admissions is taking a toll on students. The administration also failed to offer any satisfactory explanation as to why such an anti-student policy is being brought forth. This only makes us think that larger forces are at play, the AISA said.

In their memorandum, the AISA said, Merit-based admissions create a huge opportunity for back door entry which is an unfair disadvantage to deserving students. The financially sound, the upper caste, the residents of big cities and a status quoist procedure. Jamia is dominated with middle and low income students. They also pointed out in their letter that 76 percent of students of Jamia hail from Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir. Nearly half the students - 45.4 percent - belong to tier-3 cities, small towns and villages. Merit based admissions at Jamia would accommodate the rife social-educational-economic-cultural inequalities we have in our society. This would prove disastrous for aspirants from minority communities as Jamia Millia Islamia is a minority institution. Muslim women face multiple forms of social, educational and economic exclusion. Jamia's service as a space for them to realise their dreams and this merit based admissions would diminish the prospects of Muslim women, the Association explained in its memorandum to the VC.

The students pointed out that CBSE students score higher marks in the board exams in comparison to the state board and madrasa board students where the marking system is less generous. They also brought in the section of students that havedecided to drop a year due to the intense mental stress they are facingdue to the delay in the admission process. So a merit-based admission system, if adopted, could filter out many deserving candidates.

From our experience last year during the admission session, in which a lot of discrepancies were taking place including the Jamia administration not making the rank list public, we are sceptical that this kind of admission will make space for corruption. Any new experience in school admissions will leave students in the middle of nowhere, the students said in their plea.

The students are demanding that the administration doesn't base the admissions on meritand conduct the admissions based on the transparent mechanism of entrance tests and for it to be conducted after the pandemic is brought under control. They also demanded that the rank list of students who would appear for the entrances this year be displayed before the selection list is released.

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Jamia group accuses admin of not listening to queries over merit-based admissions, varsity says no decicion yet - EdexLive

‘As Kids We Were Taught to Become Humans, Amit Shah Wants Us to Become Hindus, Muslims’ – The Wire

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On September 1, 2020, the Allahabad high court set aside as illegal the Uttar Pradesh governments order holding Dr Kafeel Khan in preventive detention under the National Security Act. The UP government had argued, in defending Dr Kafeels arrest under the NSA, that the speech he delivered in Aligarh Muslim University on December 12, 20019 against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act had led to violence in the city on December 13 and December 15.

The court noted that the state could provide not evidence to back up this claim and had made a selective reading of his speech. A complete reading of the speech prima facie does not disclose any effort to promote hatred or violence. It also no where threatens peace and tranquility of the city of Aligarh. The address gives a call for national integrity and unity among the citizens. The speech also deprecates any kind of violence. It appears that the District Magistrate had selective reading and selective mention for few phrases from the speech ignoring its true intent.

The high court judgment reproduced the English transcript of this speech, originally delivered in Urdu with a few English words, and The Wire is publishing this below so readers can judge for themselves.

Very good Evening.

Lets begin with famous piece of poetry by Allama Iqbal Sahab Kuch baat hai ki hasti mit-ti nahi humari sadiyon raha hai dushman daur-e-zamaa hamara (There must be something special that we still exist despite the whole world against us) (Students clapping)

Before even entering the gate, I received a call from the C.O. City and he said that dont go there or your will be put behind bars. (Shame -Shame-Shame by students)

I asked him if he received a call from Yogi Ji regarding my arrival. If you all sit down it will be convenient for everyone. (Students saying sit down everyone)

If you all sit down then we will be able to talk and understand what & NRC are?

How afraid we should be of it please sit (students sit down sit down)

Since our childhood we all are taught that we will neither become Hindus nor Muslims, but humans and our Mota Bhai teaches us that we will become Hindus, Muslims, but not humans.

Why because as they said (pointing at students) How will a murderer know, whose clothes are stained in blood, how will he hide those stains?

How would they know the meaning of Constitution, since the day RSS came into being in 1928, they dont believe in Indian Constitution. They dont believe in our Constitution. It is repeatedly said that the law brought in by Amit Shah Ji, our Home Minister, is unconstitutional and is not in consonance with Indias pluralism, communal harmony, humanity and equality.

We should understand whom are we talking to, We are talking to those who never believed Baba Sahebs Constitution and never ever read it. Since the time they came into existence nearly 90 years ago, their objective has been to divide this country.

Firstly, you all are very young and I believe you will have to lift the baton and will have to fight. (Students Inshallah (if God will).

Aligarh has always been dear to me and I think when I was in jail there was a huge protest march for me. After being released from jail, Ive been here for 2-3 times and though I wont be able to reciprocate the love Ive got from here, however when I got the call last night, I made up my mind that I would definitely come here, no matter how much Yogi Ji try (clapping)

Lets firstly talk about what CAB really is. How many people actually know the CAB is? Does everyone know? Why Citizenship Amendment Bill was introduced? There was an attempt in 2015 as well (2016 prompted by crowd). The reason to bring it at the moment is that the NRC implemented by them in Assam has resulted in 19 lakh people being left out. Out of them 90% were those people whom they wanted to be included in NRC. This backfired for them. Now they werent able to understand what they should do first, otherwise perhaps they would have been silent after the Kashmir issue for some days. Hence, they brought CAB. According to CAB, barring Muslims, even barring atheists and other groups including Rohingya and many others, whose name I can count, only for 5-6 religions, people were told that those who faced religious persecutions in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan will be provided citizenship. Muslims shall not be provided the same. We are not affected by it, its a good thing. Like Amit Shah ji said yesterday that it is about giving citizenship and not taking it from us Muslims, then why are you all protesting. Why are you protesting, you should not be concerned about it.

NRC plus CAB is the lethal term. And one thing is that, they have just build a small wall for now, and later they will build a full structure on it. It is the result of the hatred that they have spread amongst us for 90 years in minds of our youth on the basis of religion.

During the talks with Yogendra ji in car, he said that simply, constitution for us common village people is limited to the SHO. Whatever he says is the constitution for them. The SHO since 2014 knows how to treat them, they are second-class citizens and they should be constantly reminded that it is not their country. Whenever you go to them, they will show you their true nature. This is the reason why we have to protest and oppose. The same has been now approved by the so-called Honble House. When NRC will be introduced, that is the time when we will have problems. Now what is NRC? NRC was made for Assam, and for the same Indian Register was made which has now being amended and in 2019 the completed list is available on the website of the Home Ministry Affairs. The list is complete, all preparations are done. Also, let me tell you that Aadhar Card, Pan Card, Driving License wont be of any relevance. You would require a birth certificate. If you were born in India from 1950 to 1987 then you are a citizen, otherwise not. Next clause says that if any of your parents were born in the period 1987-2004, then you are a citizen. After 2004 till now, if both the parents are born in India, then only you are a citizen. It is nowhere written that if you are a Muslim you shall be removed. Then are we in trouble? Why are we protesting? Because we know what their intentions are. What do we know that people wearing white clothes, how dark they are. We know what their thinking is and what is there in their mind. Only hatred. They will intentionally make us run to get our certificates, our fathers certificates, our mothers certificates, our legal records. They will thus create problems for lakhs and crores of people.

But let me assure you all about one thing, that the rumour about sending everyone to detention centres is not possible. Understood? A budget of twenty three thousands crore will be required to send 6 lakh people of Assam to detention centres. 1500 crores were spent on NRC in Assam, say 1600 crores. For the entire India, about 30,000 crores would be required. When we ask for free education, they say that there is no money, increase the fees of JNU. The year in which 70 children died in BRD, 8 lakhs children died in India. I am running a Health for All Campaign, Im working on that and I have met 13 chief ministers. Even Ive met our Health Minister and given him my proposal. The data has been collected by us, a team of 25 non- political health activists, Supreme Court lawyers, CEOs, IITians and we have got the data from UN, UNICEF, World Bank and WHO. Those data were very tragic. 50% of our population are malnourished. India is the 3rd largest country of AIDS and HIV, 2nd largest of diabetes, 72% population is devoid of health facilities. If they get a heart attack, they will have to travel for 40 kilometres to get a doctor for themselves. As per the research, the ones who are called fake doctors, Bengali doctors are the ones who are actually working, otherwise there isnt anyone. The primary health centres which are the backbone of any health centres in the world is not there, it is shambles. So, we will not talk about that.

I am travelling across India and ask everybody, I repeat it again, they might be getting bored by my speech. But this is the truth. I ask people what do they want? People say that a respectful two-square meal per day, good medical facilities when our children are not well, good colleges and universities for their education for instance AMU, JNU, IIT, AIIMS, a good job after they attain their education. Thus, the only demand that we have for past 70 years is food, clothing, shelter, health, education and employment. And this demand is not just ours but of everyone, of all poor persons. But what they talk about is Shamshaan-Kabristan (Cremation ground-Graveyard), Ali- Bajrang Bali, your Kashmir, Ram Mandir, CAB, NRC. They dont talk about the promise that they made for 2 crores employment per year. They dont talk about giving 15 lakhs Rupees to us as earlier said by them. Economy is doomed, small businessman are ruined. If you go at the ground level, you are not the only one disturbed. By expressing their problems, they hid the problems of economy, employment, roads and housing. So that you dont even ask.

Why is mob lynching done? Mob-lynching is an organized crime. A trained mob comes who are well taught how to attack. Why would a murderer make a video himself? They themselves record the video, upload it on Facebook and inform their senior that the senior sitting in Delhi shall be happy and will save them. This is why mob-lynching is done, to create a fear-psychosis to one community and to create a pseudo- euphoria in other community. The talks about nationalism is actually pseudo-nationalism, on the basis of pseudo-Hinduism only. Our entire opposition gets hidden behind soft Hinduism. We only will have to speak and fight.

You must have heard that two months back I got a clean chit. Yogi Government constituted a committee in which it was alleged that Dr. Kafeel is a murderer, is involved in corruption, all children died because of him. The said committee held that Dr. Kafeel was the junior-most doctor and bought cylinders from his own pocket and saved lives of a number of children. Then Yogi ji thought now what can be done, how to trap him now. So, they again suspended me. Now they say that I speak against the government. So now I said is zulm ke daur me zubaan kholega kaun, agar hum bhi chup rahenge to bolega kaun (who will speak in this time of atrocities if not me). I would like to tell you that the ones sitting in power are merely faces, the ideology of RSS of spreading hatred has been existed for many years which is being spread in shakhas. We are the ones who are not able to understand this. We will have to understand and I will appeal all my brothers and sisters who believe in prosperous and united India that they should oppose this draconian law. Everybody should come up, not just us Muslims. Everyone should come as to how can citizenship be on the basis of religion. Where was this written in our Indian Constitution? We are the citizens of the world, these boundaries are created by the politicians for their sake only. You only have to fight.

Aligarh will have to become the leader, the way JNU comes up as the only leader in the entire India for issue of fees or for any issue, For many years I believed that Aligarh is sleeping, but now perhaps after seeking these young faces, I think now is the time to wake up and they have woken up. This is the fight for our identity. We will have to fight. And let me tell you that fight does not mean creating physical violence, we have to fight in a democratic way. We have to fight in their way only and have to tell people that the rumour about detention centers is false. Their thinking is restricted only to Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. You dont know how much is India being condemned all over this world for bringing this law.

You should think this way that the servant in your neighbours house has stolen something, he is mannerless, and if he comes to your house you will give him employment. How will your relations be then with your neighbour? How is justified to divide people in the name of religion? However, my brother is also here with me but he has probably gone somewhere right now. My brother was shot where Yogi Adityanath was himself present about 500 meters away. (Crowd- Shame, Shame) After this, when he was taken in the car for emergency surgery to take out the bullet, there was an unnecessary delay of 4 hours. We thought for once that why is God testing his patience. I went to save the children only. There was never a response to it. But I think there must be some will of God. He must be testing me. He must have had a plan and that is the reason I am here with you guys. (Students clapping)

Convey my message that please be united. Please all come together and not be bothered about these small things and quarrels. Do you know yesterday I heard in a debate, someone said that Pakistans Ahmadiya and Shias should have also been included so that the Muslims here would fight amongst themselves only. Everyone would have been associating them with Shias so that by this reason only they would be covered under CAB. Do you understand? This is how they want to divide. So, please be united and not just in the name of religion. We are humans first. Islam has taught us that our deeds should be right. Our intentions should be right. You choose the path and God will take you to the destination. Inshallah (if God wills).

So, I request you all that you try to reach to your non- Muslim friends, sit and talk to them and tell them we are not the ones who repair cycle-punctures, fridges, mobiles and who marry 4 times or Jihaadis, Pakistanis. We are also doctors, engineers. Come, sit and eat with us someday for the distances that are created. I would like to tell you that what RSS did was in the name of school, you must be knowing the name of school, I dont have to take its name, through the schools it stated teaching that these bearded people are very bad. It made 4-5 categories namely the ones who repair cycle-punctures, refrigerators, marries four times, lives untidily, support Pakistan, are terrorists. So, when they see that a doctor wearing a tie is saving the lives of children, they feel who is this animal. They dont know. How will you tell them? Get them together and make them understand that we are also humans and no one can be more religious than us. Only our religion teaches about humanity, only our religion teaches about pluralization.[Note: Dr Kafeel Khan says in Hindi: Humanity to hamare hi mazhab ne sikhai hai, civilisation to hamare hi religion ne sikhaya hai, which more accurately translates to It is our religion only that teaches us humanity, teaches us civilisation).

Thank you so much. There is a lot to talk about. I will just wrap up by saying three things.

First, that there is no need to be afraid of CAB. It has nothing to do with us. But yes, it is a pawn as it is being tried to show you that this country is not yours and you are merely tenants. This is a signal given, a very big signal and its ramification shall be extended to that SHO who is seen as our Constitution.

Secondly, yes, be prepared for NRC. Get your birth certificate made. Get your parents birth certificated made. And Im telling you that Aadhar Card, PAN Card, Driving License is not valid at all. What all documents would be required have not yet been informed by them. But 4 documents which are most important, including birth certificate, and ensure that you get your parents birth certificate made. Theirs would not be available, yours would be. Then, your land records, the ones received from Panchayats, your sabhaasat, voter ID cards. These 4 documents are very important. Keep them ready.

Thirdly and most importantly, this country is ours. This Hindustan is ours, not anyones property. As much as this land is yours, it is ours too. It is not in your capacity that you can take it away from us. It is not in your capacity that you can intimidate us. It is not in your capacity that you can remove us. We are 25 crores, you can neither scare us by mob-lynching, or by such trivial laws. We will be together, we will be together, we will be united. We will be together like a wall. This is our Hindustan and we will tell you how it will run.

Darna aata nahi hai hume, jitna bhi dara lo. Har baar ek nai taakat se uthege, chahe jitna bhi daba lo. (We wont be afraid no matter how much scare us. Every time we will rise, no matter how much you suppress us)

Allah Hafiz (May God be with you)

Excerpt from:

'As Kids We Were Taught to Become Humans, Amit Shah Wants Us to Become Hindus, Muslims' - The Wire

There’s more to testing than simply testing – SDTimes.com

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Rapid innovation and the digitalization of everything is increasing application complexity and the complexity of environments in which applications run. While theres an increasing emphasis on continuous testing as more DevOps teams embrace CI/CD, some organizations are still disproportionately focused on functional testing.

Just because it works doesnt mean its a good experience, said Thomas Murphy, senior director analyst at Gartner. If its my employee, sometimes I make them suffer but that means Im going to lose productivity and it may impact employee retention. If its my customers, I can lose retention because I did not meet the objectives in the first place.

Todays applications should help facilitate the organizations business goals while providing the kind of experience end users expect. To accomplish that, software teams must take a more holistic approach to testing than they have done traditionally, which involves more types of tests and more roles involved in testing.

The patterns of practice come from architecture and the whole idea of designing patterns, said Murphy. The best practices 10 years ago are not best practices today and the best practices three years ago are probably not the best practices today. The leading practices are the things Google, Facebook and Netflix were doing three to five years ago.

Chris Lewis, engineering director at technology consulting firm DMW Group, said his enterprise clients are seeing the positive impact a test-first mindset has had over the past couple of years.

The things Ive seen [are] particularly in the security and infrastructure world where historically testing hasnt been something thats been on the agenda. Those people tend to come from more traditional, typically full-stack software development backgrounds and theyre now wanting more control of the development processes end to end, said Lewis. They started to inject testing thinking across the life cycle.

Nancy Kastl, executive director of testing services at digital transformation agency SPR, said a philosophical evolution is occurring regarding what to test, when to test and who does the testing.

Regarding what to test, the movement continues away from both manual [and] automated UI testing methods and toward API and unit-level testing. This allows testing to be done sooner, more efficiently and fosters better test coverage, said Kastl.

When means testing earlier and throughout the SDLC.

Companies are continuing to adopt Agile or improve the way they are using Agile to achieve its benefits of continuous delivery, said Kastl. With the current movement to continuous integration and delivery, the shift-left philosophy is now embedded in continuous testing.

However, when everyones responsible for testing, arguably nobodys responsible, unless its clear how testing should be done by whom, when, and how. Testing can no longer be the sole domain of testers and QA engineers because finding and fixing bugs late in the SDLC is inadequate, unnecessarily costly and untenable as application teams continue to shrink their delivery cycles. As a result, testing must necessarily shift left to developers and right to production, involving more roles.

This continues to be a matter of debate. Is it the developers, testers, business analysts, product owners, business users, project managers [or] someone else? said Kastl. With an emphasis on test automation requiring coding skills, some argue for developers to do the testing beyond just unit tests.

Meanwhile, the scope of tests continues to expand beyond unit, integration, system and user acceptance testing (UAT) to include security, performance, UX, smoke, and regression testing. Feature flags, progressive software delivery, chaos engineering and test-driven development are also considered part of the testing mix today.

Security goes beyond penetration testingOrganizations irrespective of industry are prioritizing security testing to minimize vulnerabilities and manage threats more effectively.

Threat modeling would be a starting point. The other thing is that AI and machine learning are giving me more informed views of both code and code quality, said Gartners Murphy. There are so many different kinds of attacks that occur and sometimes we think weve taken these precautions but the problem is that while you were able to stop [an attack] one way, theyre going to find different ways to launch it, different ways its going to behave, different ways that it will be hidden so you dont detect it.

In addition to penetration testing, organizations may use a combination of tools and services that can vary based on the application. Some of the more common ones are static and dynamic application security testing, mobile application security testing, database security testing, software composition analysis and appsec testing as a service.

DMW Groups Lewis said his organization helps clients improve the way they define their compliance and security rules as code, typically working with people in conventional security architecture and compliance functions.

We get them to think about what the outcomes are that they really want to achieve and then provide them with expertise to actually turn those into code, said Lewis.

SPRs Kastl said continuous delivery requires continuous security verification to provide early insight into potential security vulnerabilities.

Security, like quality, is hard to build in at the end of a software project and should be prioritized through the project life cycle, said Kastl. The Application Security Verification Standard (ASVS) is a framework of security requirements and controls that define a secure application with developing and testing modern applications.

Kastl said that includes:

The OWASP Top 10 is a list of the most common security vulnerabilities, said Kastl. Its based on data gathered from hundreds of organizations and over 100,000 real world applications and APIs.

Performance testing beyond load testingLoad testing ensures that the application continues to operate as intended as the workload increases with emphasis on the upper limit. By comparison, scalability testing considers both minimum and maximum loads. In addition, its wise to test outside of normal workloads (stress testing), to see how the application performs when workloads suddenly spike (spike testing) and how well a normal workload endures over time (endurance testing).

Performance really impacts people from a usability perspective. It used to be if your page didnt load within this amount of time, theyd click away and then it wasnt just about the page, it was about the performance of specific elements that could be mapped to shopping cart behavior, said Gartners Murphy.

For example, GPS navigation and wearable technology company Garmin suffered a multi-day outage when it was hit by a ransomware attack in July 2020. Its devices were unable to upload activity to Stravas mobile app and website for runners and cyclists. The situation underscores the fact that cybersecurity breaches can have downstream effects.

I think Strava had a 40% drop in data uploads. Pretty soon, all this data in the last three or four days is going to start uploading to them so theyre going to get hit with a spike of data, so those types of things can happen, said Murphy.

To prepare for that sort of thing, one could run performance and stress tests on every build or use feature flags to compare performance with the prior build.

Instead of waiting for a load test at the end of a project to detect potential performance issues, performance tests can be used to baseline the performance of an application under development.

By measuring the response time for a single user performing specific functions, these metrics can be gathered and compared for each build of the application, said Kastl. This provides an early warning of potential performance issues. These baseline performance tests can be integrated with your CI/CD pipeline for continuous monitoring of the applications performance.

Mobile and IoT devices, such as wearables, have increased the need for more comprehensive performance testing and theres still a lot of room for improvement.

As the industry has moved more to cloud-based technology, performance testing has become more paramount, said Todd Lemmonds, QA architect at health benefits company Anthem, a Sauce Labs customer. One of my current initiatives is to integrate performance testing into the CI/CD pipeline. Its always done more toward UAT which, in my mind, is too late.

To affect that change, the developers need to think about performance and how the analytics need to be structured in a way that allows the business to make decisions. The artifacts can be used later during a full systems performance test.

Weve migrated three channels on to cloud, [but] weve never done a performance test of all three channels working at capacity, said Lemmonds. We need to think about that stuff and predict the growth pattern over the next five years. We need to make sure that not only can our cloud technologies handle that but what the full system performance is going to look like. Then, you run into issues like all of our subsystems are not able to handle the database connections so we have to come up with all kinds of ways to virtualize the services, which is nothing new to Google and Amazon, but [for] a company like Anthem, its very difficult.

DMW Groups Lewis said some of his clients have ignored performance testing in cloud environments since cloud environments are elastic.

We have to bring them back to reality and say, Look, there is an art form here that has significantly changed and you really need to start thinking about it in more detail, said Lewis.

UX testing beyond UI and UATWhile UI and UAT testing remain important, UI testing is only a subset of what needs to be done for UX testing, while traditional UAT happens late in the cycle. Feature flagging helps by providing early insight into whats resonating and not resonating with users while generating valuable data. Theres also usability testing including focus groups, session recording, eye tracking and quick one-question in-app surveys that ask whether the user loves the app or not.

One area that tends to lack adequate focus is accessibility testing, however.

More than 54 million U.S. consumers have disabilities and face unique challenges accessing products, services and information on the web and mobile devices, said SPRs Kastl. Accessibility must be addressed throughout the development of a project to ensure applications are accessible to individuals with vision loss, low vision, color blindness or learning loss, and to those otherwise challenged by motor skills.

The main issue is a lack of awareness, especially among people who lack firsthand or secondhand experience with disabilities. While there are no regulations to enforce, accessibility-related lawsuits are growing exponentially.

The first step to ensuring an applications accessibility is to include ADA Section 508 or WCAG 2.1 Accessibility standards as requirements in the products backlog along with functional requirements, said Kastl.

Non-compliance to an accessibility standard on one web page tends to be repeated on all web pages or throughout a mobile application. To detect non-compliant practices as early as possible, wireframes and templates for web and mobile applications should be reviewed for potential non-compliant designed components, Kastl said. In addition to the design review, there should be a code review in which development teams perform self-assessments using tools and practices to identify standards that have not been followed in coding practices. Corrective action should be taken by the team prior to the start of application testing. Then, during in-sprint testing activities, assistive technologies and tools such as screen readers, screen magnification and speed recognition software should be used to test web pages and mobile applications against accessibility standards. Automated tools can detect and report non-compliance.

Gartners Murphy said organizations should be monitoring app ratings and reviews as well as social media sentiment on an ongoing basis.

You have to monitor those things, and you should. Youre feeding stuff like that into a system such as Statuspage or PagerDuty so that you know somethings gone wrong, said Murphy. It may not just be monitoring your site. Its also monitoring those external sources because they may be the leading indicator.

Excerpt from:

There's more to testing than simply testing - SDTimes.com

‘We’re lucky to have The Hub’ – Art & Leisure – Teesdale Mercury

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MAKINGMUSIC: Liam Samson has been working on material for a new solo album during lockdown

During lockdown, Indie-inspired musician Liam Samson, from Barnard Castle, has been working on material for a new solo album, based on a night out in Barnard Castle. The 20-year-old bass-player was also in the process of recording an EP with his band Metis, made up of artists from County Durham, however lockdown put a halt to this.

How did you get into music and what instruments can you play?I got into music because my older brother plays the drums, although I am not that great at the drums. About the age of 15, I got into playing the guitar. I am self-taught but I learnt a lot from my good friend Martin White, who is also a local musician.I learnt a lot when I studied music at Bishop Auckland college. I play rhythm guitar but primarily play bass in my band, Metis, which is made up of musicians from around County Durham.

What inspires your music and which other artists have influenced your music?I do write my own songs and a lot of the influence comes from Indie bands such as Artic Monkeys, Oasis, The Las and Jamie T. But I also have influences such as Status Quo, Bruce Springsteen and all the 80s bands my mam listened to when I was younger.

What are your favourite music genres?My favourite genres are 90s and early 00s indie rock. But I do have a few guilty pleasures like Abba and The Venga Boys.

The dale has a wealth of musical talent, what do you attribute this to?I think in the local area we are really lucky because we have the TCR Hub, which helps young musicans form bands or solo performers to work on their musical ability. My first gig was at The Hub playing as a support act. We were heavily encouraged by Andrew Yeadon to put ourselves out there. In Teesdale we also have a lot of open mic nights, which are very accommodating to both new and experienced musicians. Also, I took part, along with many other musicians, in the Covid Cutz Barney online Meet, which involved lots of local musicians. The talent on display was unreal.

When and where was your favourite performance?In one of my old bands I played the Sports Bar, in Bishop Auckland. It was a charity night and me and the other guys in the band pushed everyone we knew at college to come to the gig. It was absolutely packed to the point where people were almost standing on the stage. As an 18-year-old lad with barely any gigging experience at the time, seeing the audience singing songs back to you was an experience I will never forget.

Do you have a special place where you write music?There are two places that spring to mind. One is my friend Martins back room. The other, as stupid as it may seem, is the bathroom. Everything just sounds better in the bathroom for some reason.

How have you been keeping busy during lockdown?Ive been writing material for my new solo album. The idea for the album is based on a night out in Barnard Castle. Its going to be quite different to my first album, Walls, as this one is more electric and full-band based whereas Walls was acoustic focussed.

Where can people hear your music?I have a YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe6eiCu6hmqqtyhwy... where I upload my music, but I havent uploaded any videos or music lately as I am trying to write this solo album. Once it is complete Ill be uploading it there.

Continued here:

'We're lucky to have The Hub' - Art & Leisure - Teesdale Mercury

Freedom and Madison off to a ‘super’ school year – Conway Daily Sun

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MADISON Its good to be back, was the overwhelming sentiment from students and staff after the first two days of the 2020-21 school year at Madison and Freedom elementary schools.

Principals at the schools part of SAU 13, which started the school year Monday, are upbeat despite challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Its a whole new world, but everyone seems to be adjusting the best we can, Freedom Elementary School Principal Pat Stone told the Sun by phone Tuesday. The kids are excited to be back with their friends and eager to have some sense of normalcy in their schedules.

Things are really going well, Heather Woodward, principal of Madison Elementary School, said by phone Tuesday. The kids seem happy, the staff are pleased to be back.

The 2019-20 school year switched from in-person to remote learning on Friday, March 13, due to the coronavirus pandemic. While it was initially thought the closure would last two weeks, it stretched through the final third of the school year.

For most students, it marked the return to the classroom for the first time in six months.

SAU 13 Superintendent Meredith Nadeau visited both schools on opening day and on Tuesday met with third- and fourth-grade students outside for a friendly meet-and-greet.

Lots of smiles the children seem really happy to be back, and its great to see them back, she said. Well continue to take things one day at a time. I think children seem to be adjusting well to the new routine.

Freedom has 51 students in the K-6 school, with roughly one-third opting to continue doing remote learning rather than face-to-face instruction.

Weve had a few technical glitches with broadband, Stone said of the start to remote learning. Were having trouble maintaining connections (over the internet), but hopefully, well get them straightened out. Nadeau said she has been in touch with the service provider for Freedom, and work is being done to fix the hot spots.

Madison has 127 students in grades K-6, with 25 (roughly 20 percent) choosing remote learning.

SAU 13, which serves Freedom, Madison and the K.A. Brett School in Tamworth (K-8), came up three options: face-to-face, remote learning or a hybrid of the two in its re-entry plan.

The three school boards chose face-to-face, but heard concerns from families who were not quite comfortable sending children back to school just yet. The boards and schools decided to offer both face-to-face and a remote learning option.

We felt like we needed to have this option available to people, Woodward said. We wanted parents to have a choice and to choose which route they were most comfortable with.

Remote learning began Tuesday for the Mustangs of Madison. It went super, Woodward said.

Nadeau is pleased to see school back in session. If you had asked me in early July, Im not sure I would have thought wed get here, she said, but Im so grateful we are. Fortunately, the cases in New Hampshire have remained low, and if that can continue, it bodes well.

Woodward and Stone along with other educators spent the bulk of the summer preparing for a return to school.

I didnt sign up for summers off, Woodward said. We knew we had a lot of important work to do. I cant say enough about the staff. Theyve worked tirelessly to make this happen.

Madisons theme this school year is We are M.E.S. and will focus on several different characteristics each month. We figured wed start with, We are flexible, Woodward said. That seemed like an appropriate starter.

The Eagles of Freedom are focusing on four core beliefs being safe, kind, responsible and respectful this year.

Both Stone and Woodward have seen an uptick in new students. We have had an influx of new students, said Woodward. Every year we see some new students, maybe were up a little bit more than in the past.

We have 12 new students this year, Stone said. Its nice having new faces. They all seem to be settling in well.

Nadeau urged families with children attending Kennett High and Kennett Middle School in Conway to go to the school websites to get updates on the school bus routes which are still being finalized.

Madison and Freedom have no school this Friday or on Monday (Labor Day) or Tuesday as both schools will be used for voting in the primary election.

The Brett School will also be a polling center for Tamworth on Tuesday, meaning Wednesday, Sept. 9, will be the first day for the Tigers to attend classes.

While the Brett School and Freedom have made masks mandatory all times, students in Madison can remove their masks in their classrooms provided they are at least 6 feet away from other individuals.

The Brett School will be providing both face-to-face and remote learning, but classes will be held just Monday through Thursday.

Fridays school staff will be available for office hours only, according to the schools opening plan.

Classroom teachers, students and parents need on-going supports during this time, the plan states. KAB will create collaborative learning teams to support KAB staff and the families of remote learners. Parents will be supported through KAB staff guidance using Google Classroom other curriculum tools. In addition, social and emotional well-being of students will be supported by the KAB school counselor to students, staff and families.

Although we know remote learning during the spring was a major challenge for teachers, we also recognize that in many cases the disruption for families has been even greater. Our goal this year is to help parents best support their child, learn how and when to intervene and provide structure and balance in the home while providing instruction.

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Freedom and Madison off to a 'super' school year - Conway Daily Sun

Freedom and Independence group formed to combat Soviet terror founded 75 years ago today – The First News

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Having suffered so much during the years of German occupation, when World War II was officially over, Poland was again under foreign domination and the country was in the grip of Soviet terror. Public domain

Before his execution on March 1st, 1951, Lt. Col. ukasz Ciepliski took pen to paper and wrote: I am glad to be murdered as a Catholic for the holy faith, as a Pole for my homeland and as a man for truth and justice.

I believe more than ever that Christ will win, that Poland will regain its independence and that the disgraced human dignity will be restored.

He was then taken outside his cell at Mokotow prison in Warsaw and shot in the back of the head.

Freedom and Independence was established by Colonel Jan Rzepecki as a continuation of the Home Army, which was dissolved in January 1945.Public domain

As the last leader of the Freedom and Independence movement, his death was also the death knell of the movement which was founded on September 2nd, 1945, 75 years ago today.

As the largest independence organisation in Poland after World War II, its aim was to regain independence through political not military means. It ended in tragedy when its leaders were arrested and shot.

The end of the war was extremely bitter for Poles. Having suffered so much during the years of German occupation, when World War II was officially over, they were again under foreign domination and the country was in the grip of Soviet terror.

As the largest independence organisation in Poland after World War II, the aim of Freedom and Independence was to regain independence through political not military means.Lower Silesian Public Library T. Mikulski

After the fall of the Warsaw Uprising, it was clear that the Soviets and Polish communists had no intention of sharing power with anyone.

Home Army soldiers and those in the underground were in a desperate position.

The prisons were full and former Home Army soldiers were being arrested on a massive scale. The NKVD were waging a campaign of terror to subjugate and Sovietise Poland.

Although the Home Army had been wound up, the need for a resistance organisation was as strong as ever.

The last leader of the Freedom and Independence movement, Lt. Col. ukasz Ciepliski, was executed on March 1, 1951.Public domain

Freedom and Independence was established by Colonel Jan Rzepecki as a continuation of the Home Army, which was dissolved in January 1945.

The difference, though, was that it was to have a civil not a military character. Its objectives were resistance but without war and sabotage. The forces that it had at its disposal were only to be used in self-defence.

Its objective was to take advantage of the democratic elections promised at Yalta Conference in February 1945.

Following an offer of amnesty by the communist authorities, many members of Freedom and Independence handed themselves in, only to be put on show trials. Many were executed.PAP

Dr. Wojciech Frazik from the Branch Office of Historical Research of the Institute of National Remembrance in Krakw said: In the summer of 1945, the only chance for regaining independence was seen in free and democratic elections, which were provided for by the Yalta agreements.

They were supposed to decide what the political system would be in Poland and who would hold power. The commanders of the former underground decided that this chance should be seized and the action should be changed from armed combat to political struggle.

First president of Freedom and Independence, Franciszek Niepoklczyck was arrested on 22 October 1946 by the Polish secret police and during his show trial was sentenced to death. This was later changed to life imprisonment. He died in 1974 at the age of 73, after being released in 1956.Public domain

Under the slogan We Will Not Allow Elections to be Falsified, the organisation collected information about the situation in Poland.

They informed Polish society, the Polish authorities in exile and also people around the world about the situation in Poland under the Communist system.

All this was supposed to lead to free and democratic elections. In view of the actions of the Polish communists and the Soviet Union, it had no chance of succeeding.

Since 2011, March 1 has been a National Day of Remembrance for both the organisation and others who have collectively become known as the Cursed Soldiers.Radek Pietruszka/PAP

Despite the decision of Freedom and Independence to move from armed conflict to political activity, the terror being carried out by Polish communists and the NKVD in the first post-war years forced the commanders of units to carry out armed operations.

In 1945-46, the association had over 30,000 members. Partisan units attacked prisons and militia stations, fought the army and liquidated people cooperating with the communist authorities, treating these actions as a defence against terror.

The association came to an end in the winter of 1947 and 1948 following the arrest by the Communist security service of its leadership. After a show trial they were sentenced to death on October 14, 1950.

Executions were carried out at the Mokotw prison in Warsaw.Rafa Guz/PAP

The sentences were carried out on March 1 the next year in Mokotow prison in Warsaw. ukasz Ciepliski, Mieczysaw Kawalec, Jzef Batory, Adam Lazarowicz, Franciszek Baej, Karol Chmiel and Jzef Rzepka were all shot in the back of the head.

The next day the corpses were placed in coffins and taken away from the prison. To this day, nobody knows where they were buried.

Since 2011, the date of their murders has been a National Day of Remembrance for both the organisation and others who have collectively become known as the Cursed Soldiers.

Sergeant Jzef Franczak was the last Freedom and Independence soldier to be captured after he remained in hiding until 1963.Public domain

After the removal of the leadership, the security service took control of Freedom and Independence by covertly installing its agents as leaders. For the next four years, the security services used this cover to break up underground groups in Poland and in migr circles.

Although Freedom and Independence was a civilian organisation, it was managed to a great degree by officers from the Home Army and around 60,000 soldiers served in its ranks up to the amnesty of February 1947 under which underground soldiers could reveal themselves without fear of arrest.

Many, though, remained underground. Most of them were eventually arrested and sentenced to death by military courts. They were secretly buried in anonymous death pits.

In 2016, the remains of Leon Taraszkiewicz, commander of Freedom and Independence in the Lublin region, were found. He was given a proper burial in 2017.Wojciech Pacewicz/PAP

The last Freedom and Independence soldier to be captured remained in hiding until October 21, 1963.

Sergeant Jzef Franczak was taken after being denounced by a relative of his lover.

His body, desecrated and decapitated, was found on the grounds of Lublin Medical University in March 2015.

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Freedom and Independence group formed to combat Soviet terror founded 75 years ago today - The First News

COMMENTARY: Your freedom hinges on freedom of speech – The Cherokee One Feather – Cherokee One Feather

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By ROBERT JUMPER

ONE FEATHER EDITOR

When the One Feather was created, a group of community leaders determined that the Tribe should have a way to put out information from the government in mass production so that decisions made by the government were provided quickly to the citizens of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. The founders referred to the One Feather as a news bulletin. The vision for the community newspaper has been evolving since its conception, beginning with the funding by grant of a mimeographed 5-page business-letter format newsletter with hand drawn illustrations to a professionally printed, tabloid format thirty to forty-page full newspaper with full-color photography funded through a combination of tribal allotment and advertising sales revenue.

One of the milestones in the history of free press on the Boundary occurred in 2006 with the creation of the Free Press Act. Within it was the statement that the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Free Press shall not be hindered by political influence and is duty bound to be a conduit for the citizenry to petition for redress of grievances. Fancy words for using the EBCI Free Press to share your disagreements, and affirmations, with government in a fair and unbiased forum.

The framers of the Free Press Act in the Cherokee Code had a vision of the One Feather (and whatever free press that might be created on the Qualla Boundary-is implied), to be an information disseminator and community forum. It was not the vision for the paper to be a good news or happy news leaflet.

Government-owned free press is an oxymoron. The tribal newspaper is funded, in large part, by the government. Being so is a two-edged sword. While we enjoy the ability to operate in an environment that has crippled and even eliminated many print media outlets, we also must be ever vigilant concerning political and special interest influence. In the history of the Cherokee One Feather, there have been administrations, tribal management, and even legislators who have attempted to insert or successfully inserted political and personal bias in the reporting of the One Feather.

When I first encountered the One Feather as an employee of the Tribe in 2002, even I saw it as a tribal newsletter. I thought it proper that, since it is owned and operated by the government and the principal chief was the representative head of the government, the chief of the Tribe should dictate what was in the newspaper. Fortunately, over the course of a decade, and many discussions with my now reporter, I had come to realize that the One Feather was much more than a government newsletter. It may have started out that way, but based on the introduction of legislation influenced by community voters, the government itself expressed that the One Feather should not be a newsletter, but a true newspaper, one that belongs to the community and not to the governmental leadership.

And starting with the language established in the Cherokee Code in 2006, the One Feather staff, government, and community began to craft what free press means in Cherokee. I can only speak to the efforts since I formally joined the One Feather staff in 2012. While here, we have attempted to craft legislation to further establish a functioning editorial board to craft policy within the organization to clarify our charge to be a free press. It is challenging. As we have said many times, we currently enjoy the most pro-free press administration and Tribal Council that I am aware of in the history of our tribe. So much so, in fact, that they are reluctant to exert any pressure on the reporting of the One Feather.

But, it has always been my position that we are only one scandal or disagreement away from a politically adversarial relationship with government. We have had the Free Press Act for 14 years, but we have had a personnel policy for much longer than that. There has always been a conflict in the language of the personnel policy and the charge of One Feather staff, who also happen to be Tribal employees.

In the EBCI Personnel Policy, Section 3.25 is titled Non-public information outlining a detailed list of what the public is not entitled to. At the end of the list it makes a broad statement about information that can be withheld from the public, including the One Feather, any other information as determined by EBCI management. Our Cherokee Code includes similar language in the Public Records law (Chapter 132). Section 4.20 of the personnel policy states, Should an employee be contacted by the press or any outside agency requesting non-public information, the request shall be given to that persons supervisor, who will forward it through levels of authority with final approval to be made by the Principal Chief.

Technically, that means even my reporters would be bound to clear stories including any governmental decision or function, with me and ultimately the Chief, assuming a tribal employee took the risk of providing that information without proper clearance, before we made it public. Article 8 of the personnel policy is the Code of Ethical Conduct. Section 2 refers to confidentiality inherent in the policy and that some departments may require an additional confidentiality agreement to be signed as a condition of employment.

The Tribal Employee Ethical Code of Conduct also includes this language, All EBCI employees are expected to conduct themselves with integrity, impartiality, and professional conduct that will reflect favorably upon themselves and the EBCI. Again, technically, this could put reporters (and the editor) in a position of conflict with tribal policy.

The Free Press Act doesnt say that we are to report only the news that is favorable to the EBCI. In fact, I view all factual reporting, whether it places government in a favorable light or not, as reporting with integrity, impartiality, and professionalism. To do otherwise would conflict with Chapter 75 of the Cherokee Code and with the code of ethics adopted from the Society of Professional Journalists, which we are also bound by Code to adhere to.

A few years ago, the EBCI personnel policy was removed from tribal law, but it is still the standard by which employees are hired, evaluated, and terminated. And while the Free Press Act generally provided guidance about the conduct of the One Feather, it provided little protection for those reporting the news in an unbiased fashion to the public. So, this year we asked for and received additional protections for the newspaper to protect the personnel in the execution of duties. It is not the elected officials themselves, but the governmental mechanisms that caused concern. Tribal Council expressed agreement with that concern and voted for protections that will further the cause of free speech and freedom of information on the Boundary. Principal Chief Sneed also expressed his agreement through signing the legislation into law.

Could the One Feather be politically influenced even with personnel protections? Absolutely, that other edge of the sword is that Tribal Council is the holder of the purse-strings of the program. A majority vote could be taken to defund the One Feather and it would disappear. The newspaper is far from self-sustaining. In the current economic environment, small local newspapers are falling by the wayside. Many of us, including the One Feather, are trying to shift advertising models to a more digital, web-based approach, which is full of its own challenges.

Tribal Council, the Executive Office, and the One Feather have agreed on the idea and importance of Free Press, even when it comes to outside press organizations. But the continuation of this positive environment for free speech is fragile in the case of the One Feather and, indeed, all local print media.

Margaret Sullivan recently authored a book titled Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy. In the introduction, she addresses the negative progress for a community who reduces or loses its local free media. It matters-immensely. As Tom Rosenstiel, executive director of the American Press Institute, put it: If we dont monitor power at the local level, there will be a massive abuse of power at the local level. And thats just the beginning of the damages thats already been done, with much more on the way. As a major PEN America study concluded in 2019: As local journalism declines, government officials conduct themselves with less integrity, efficiency, and effectiveness, and corporate malfeasance goes unchecked. With the loss of local news, citizens are less likely to vote, less politically informed, and less likely to run for office. Democracy, in other words, loses its foundation. (PEN stands for Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists, Novelists)

Adding to the loss of democratic foundation is the misinformation in the unregulated social media paradigm. It is amazing that it has to be said in modern culture, but not everything you see on the internet and particularly on social media is true, even if it is related to you by a friend. As local media shifts its focus to this digital environment, we will have to be the clearing houses for fact for the community.

The One Feather and tribal government continue to work together to ensure your access to information and continue to provide an avenue for free thought and expression for the readership. You are in the drivers seat as far as what the One Feather will look like in the future. And you will decide what your freedom looks like in the process.

Finally, a quick shout out across the decades to Principal Chief Jarrett Blythe, Charlotte Sneed, Winona Digh, and Ella West, who are listed in Volume One, Number One of the Cherokee One Feather as the committee appointed to oversee the task of creating the Cherokee One Feather. They are also listed as the original editors. They said, Cherokee custom, before the advent of the white man, was for the warriors to wear a single eagle feather. The feather was a symbol of the warriors standing within the tribe and was earned through a series of courageous acts or deeds. To be able to wear the feather, a young warrior had to be battle-tested and approved in special ceremony. In search of an acceptable name for our news communication, we were unable to uncover a more suitable title than the Cherokee One Feather, noting its important symbolism in the Cherokee past.

And, kudos to all the past and present editors, reporters, subscription clerks, and advertising staff who have been part of the One Feather evolution. In the war of words, you were and are the warriors for the cause of free speech.

I heard the effort toward a Cherokee constitution mentioned in a recent Tribal Council work session. I would implore those who will be editing and presenting the constitution proposal, and those government officials who will be ultimately bringing it before the people for a vote, please put free speech and free press rights at the forefront of your governing document. Social systems succeed or collapse on those rights of freedom.

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COMMENTARY: Your freedom hinges on freedom of speech - The Cherokee One Feather - Cherokee One Feather

Will it be Freedom Hilly cross country course? – The Macomb Daily

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What kind of running shoes do the folks in the funk metal band Primus wear?

How about ZZ Top? Do they prefer Asics or Saucony? What about the Goo Goo Dolls? Do they lean toward ultra lightweight shoes that help them Go Go like the Nike Zoom Pegasus Turbo 2?

All of the above acts have been on stage at Freedom Hill in Sterling Heights.

Freedom Hill is not only the site of an amphitheater famous for bringing in nationally and internationally cognized acts.

It is also a spacious, 100-acre county park that already features a nature trail.

Freedom Hill County Park will be the locale of the 2020 Macomb County Championship cross country meet scheduled for Friday, October 9 and Saturday, October 10.

Two days are needed to abide by social distancing requirements dictated by the ongoing pandemic. The Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) has set a maximum limit of 70 runners and 100 people, which includes coaches and race officials, on the premises.

The boys will run Friday and the girls will compete Saturday. Multiple varsity and junior varsity races will be held. They will run in heats each day, with the top teams competing earlier.

All the details have not been finalized, said Mike Buslepp, the cross country coach at Romeo. The main thing is we want to make sure it is competitively balanced.

I know that (County Executive) Mark Hackel has given full autonomy to Keith and Kevin Hanson to build a cross country course at Freedom Hill. My kids are really, really excited. We have never run there before, but I hear the course is full of rolling hills, lots of grass and is wide open, continued Buslepp. We are going to do a tuneup a week before at the Hansons Invitational.

The county meet has traditionally been held at Stony Creek Metroparks Eastwood Beach.

Keith and Kevin Hanson are the owners of Hansons Running Shops. There are four in the Metro Detroit area including a location on Hall Road in Utica. Former college runners and high school cross country coaches, they are also the founders of the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project.

The Project creates a unique opportunity for successful college athletes to continue training beyond their college years.

Hansons-Brooks runners have enjoyed success on the world stage.

Success is something the Romeo High School cross country program knows plenty about, too. Both the boys and girls teams are defending county champions.

The Bulldogs kicked off the 2020 season with impressive wins over talented teams from Troy High.

The boys topped Troy 16-45 by placing eight in the top 10 including the top four finishers. Zander Cobb was first in 16:42. Jack Kelke came in second in 16:43; Joseph Rinke was third in 16:57 and Owen Sharnas finished fourth in 17:17.

Coach Buslepps girls team triumphed 22-36. The Bulldogs had three of the top four runners. Romeos Madison Clor crossed the line in 19:41, good for first place. Amanda Felstow finished third in 21:17, and Gracie Youngblood came in fourth in 21:34.

We are going to be good, said Buslepp.This is what I have been telling them; that it would be easy to use COVID as a reason why we might not accomplish things that we wanted to accomplish. But that is really no excuse. Weve had the opportunity to go out and train. This group in particular has really, really embraced that. They did not miss a beat. They are in incredible shape, continued Buslepp.

The guys are five strong right now. The depth of the girls team is insane. We have 10 girls who could all run in the top five right now. There are also a couple of freshmen who are figuring in the scoring right now, said the Romeo coach.

Freedom Hill is not just a concert venue. Which high school teams and individual runners will be singing a happy tune in early October?

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Will it be Freedom Hilly cross country course? - The Macomb Daily

OPINION/LETTER: Gun range noise is the ‘sound of freedom’ – Cape Cod Times

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WednesdaySep2,2020at7:00PM

In answer to the inquiry if a machine gun range fits an eclectic/elitist image of Cape Cod located on Joint Base Cape Cod, the answer is a resounding absolutely not, with a caveat. Those are images not the reality of what a military reservation is or does.

Mary A. Jones of Brewster posed this question, and I am grateful for the contact email that she provided. My communication to that address paraphrase is along the following lines.

Thank you, God, for a facility that trains and prepares men in the operation and control of machine gun fire teams that are the nucleus of the ground forces deployed to all parts of the world.

You see, Ms. Jones, Otis Air Force Base and Camp Edwards played a major role in my own military service commitment. Circa 1950s the first Black Air Force general, Chappie James, was the commanding officer at Otis. General James made the base a go-to place for me as a Boy Scout and allowed me to sit in the flight simulator for the F-106 new jet aircraft. General James made the base a central part of the community and we used to go to the gym and the movies. Spending a weekend in the WW2 barracks was a big deal for all of us. The rattle of small arms fire and 155 howitzers against the backdrop of thundering jets was appreciated and accepted as the sounds of "freedom." Yours and mine. I still miss those sounds.

That, Ms. Jones, is my reality and experience that was a realistic preparation for life. Images are images, no more and no less.

Don C. Hayward, Monument Beach

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OPINION/LETTER: Gun range noise is the 'sound of freedom' - Cape Cod Times

Joliet Township Sued Under The Freedom of Information Act; Unauthorized Fees – Edgar County Watchdogs

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Joliet, IL. (ECWd) -

Last week we sued Joliet Township for failing to provide requested public records, and for their attempt at charging us unauthorized fees. Both are violations of the Illinois Freedom Of Information Act.

Joliet Township received a request for public records on June 9, 2020. They responded by imposing an unauthorized fee of $300 for someone to be onsite to copy the files to an external hard drive.

Section 6 of the FOIA specifically grants authority for fees, and what a public body may and may not charge to the requester:

a) When a person requests a copy of a record maintained in an electronic format, the public body shall furnish it in the electronic format specified by the requester, if feasible. If it is not feasible to furnish the public records in the specified electronic format, then the public body shall furnish it in the format in which it is maintained by the public body, or in paper format at the option of the requester. A public body may charge the requester for the actual cost of purchasing the recording medium, whether disc, diskette, tape, or other medium. If a request is not a request for a commercial purpose or a voluminous request, a public body may not charge the requester for the costs of any search for and review of the records or other personnel costs associated with reproducing the records. Except to the extent that the General Assembly expressly provides, statutory fees applicable to copies of public records when furnished in a paper format shall not be applicable to those records when furnished in an electronic format.

Joliet Township tried charging an additional $300 to place the requested records onto a $50 external hard drive.

Since the Edgar County Watchdogs is media, as that term is defined in Illinois law, Joliet Township could not classify the request as voluminous, nor as a commercial request.

In addition to the fee issue, Joliet Township failed to produce additional records, not part of the data placed on the hard drive.

We are asking for the requested records, a declaration that Joliet Township violated the FOIA, civil penalties, and costs/attorney fees.

Complaint HERE or below:

Joliet Township Complaint_Redacted

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Joliet Township Sued Under The Freedom of Information Act; Unauthorized Fees - Edgar County Watchdogs

What was the Red Sox best trade-deadline acquisition? Freedom from luxury-tax penalties – The Boston Globe

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Five veterans out, six prospects in.

The only disappointment was the Sox didnt go further and find spots for Matt Barnes and Jackie Bradley Jr. or really shake things up by landing prominent prospects for Christian Vazquez.

Ben Cherington burned the house down to the foundation in the great fire sale of 2014. But Chaim Bloom didnt go that far.

The Red Sox and Rangers reportedly considered a swap of bad contracts that would have sent Nate Eovaldi to Texas for infielder Rougned Odor. Both are signed for two more seasons, Eovaldi at an average annual salary of $17 million and Odor at $8.25 million.

An executive from another team suggested that sort of deal could be revisited in the offseason when theres more time.

The Sox werent opposed to dealing Bradley, who will be a free agent after the season. But no contender had a glaring need for a defensive upgrade in center field.

The Sox also would have likely needed to pay down some of the $1.8 million Bradley has remaining on his salary through the end of the season.

We know hes a good player. Wed love to have him here for a long time, Bloom said.

Well see how that plays out. The Sox could play Alex Verdugo in center field next season until Jarren Duran is ready. They also picked up an interesting center field prospect in Jeisson Rosario in the Moreland deal.

A short-term deal might make sense for both sides. But whos to say Bradley will want to stay with the Sox? Hes learned how great it is to play in Boston during the good times and how miserable it can be during the bad times.

Its probably going to be a while before the good times roll around again given the state of the pitching staff. But at least steps are being taken.

With some of these trades weve added more contributors that I think can start to form our next core, Bloom said. We still have work to do to continue building that core . . . were looking forward to putting more contributors in place.

The biggest accomplishment Monday was that the trade deadline passing also meant the luxury-tax penalties the Sox have been incurring will reset for 2021.

That creates considerably more flexibility in putting together a better roster. Thats important as the coming offseason will be one where creativity will be required.

It remains uncertain to what degree fans will be allowed into games in 2021 and every team has already taken a financial beating with the loss of revenue this season.

Were in the business of staging mass gatherings, Bloom said. This pandemic has not been kind to our industry and its a massive crisis in a lot of ways for the baseball industry that were banding together to try and do everything we can to overcome. Its hanging over everybody.

The free agent market could be barren, even for the best players, and some teams may be compelled to shed payroll by trading stars.

Controlling costs this season and adding to their prospect depth has positioned the Sox to take advantage of the situation.

Its our job to make sure were aware of everything thats out there, Bloom said.

The final 25 games are unlikely to be pleasant. With Eovaldi on the injured list, the rotation consists of Martin Perez and four coin flips. And nearly every game remaining is against a contender.

Bloom said that the Sox would lean on the side of development as the season plays out. The remaining games offer a chance to further evaluate players such as Jonathan Arauz, Michael Chavis, Bobby Dalbec, and Yairo Munoz and see how many of those pitchers are worth keeping around.

The four trades opened playing time for others and the Sox should use that wisely. Munoz, once a productive player for the Cardinals before a falling out that led to his release, was called up Monday for his first big league time since being signed in March.

We move on, manager Ron Roenicke said.

Peter Abraham can be reached at peter.abraham@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @PeteAbe.

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What was the Red Sox best trade-deadline acquisition? Freedom from luxury-tax penalties - The Boston Globe

Fortify Your Home on the Cheap, Part 2 – America’s 1st Freedom

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Photo credit: via Unsplash

In addition to firearms training, you can still fortify your home against crime with a number of simple, cost-effective solutions. Here are half a dozen more strategies to protect your home.

8. Install a hotel-style lock on your bedroom door: For some reason, placing a lock on your bedroom door sounds odd to some people. But why? Do you not lock your outside doors? A lock on your inner sanctum gives you a last line of defense. Besides, if you are asleep and someone breaks in and enters your bedroom, there isnt much you can do. I like the locks that allow you to open the door a crack; also, these locks tend to make loud clanging noises if the door is opened without first throwing off the lever. And unless you sleep like a hibernating grizzly bear, if someone breaks your bedroom door down you should wake up. If youre awake and armed, you have a chance. If you are awake and armed behind a locked door, you have the advantage.

Put your lights on a timer: Whether you are away on vacation or home at night, buy a timer system for a few of your inside lamps and outside floodlights. Set them to turn on and off at random intervals to give the illusion that someone is home. Most criminals wont break into a home if they think someone is there. Knowing theyll have to face someone in their own home decreases the likelihood of criminals picking your house.

9. Put NRA stickers on your doors and windows: Put simply, if a criminal knows that the homeowner is armed and ready, they are far less likely to pick your house. One study that interviewed criminals while in jail indicated that the thing that scared them mostmore than cops, jail time or dogswas homeowners who are armed with guns. NRA stickers tell thieves that you are not a helpless victim.

10. Have a plan: This is perhaps the least-expensive thing you can do to keep your household safe, but its likely the most important. Simply talk with your family about what will happen should the unthinkable happen. Devise a secret knock that alerts other family members its them at their bedroom door and not an intruder. Have a meeting place and a backup meeting place. Tell family members whether you want them to go to a safe room, a secure hiding place or if you want them to flee to a neighbors house. Make sure that when a family member calls 911, they know to inform dispatchers that the homeowner has a gun, and what that person looks like. You just need a plan, a backup plan as well, and you need to talk about it now, before something happens. The fact is, if you have a relatively secure home, a gun and a plan, it is the home invader who should be worried.

11. Secure your vehicles: If your vehicles stay outside, be sure to remove any garage door openers, firearms, items that may have personal information or spare house keys, says Orman. If you dont, the criminal can obtain access to your house once they open the vehicles. Park vehicles under lights or in open areas that can be seen. Always set the alarm and lock the doors.

12. Team up with trusted neighbors: Few security measures beat having a neighbor who will watch your backand your backdoor while youre home and away. Over time, a perceptive neighbor will learn whats normal around your house and whats not, so communicate with your neighbors and tell them that you definitely want them to reach out if anything seems strange. Exchange phone numbers with them to establish a 24-hour line of emergency communication. Tell them youll do the same for them, and, when and where appropriate, devise a simple plan if ever there is an emergency.

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Fortify Your Home on the Cheap, Part 2 - America's 1st Freedom

Sen. Gardner touts vaccine progress, pandemic legislation at Steamboat Institute’s Freedom Conference in Beaver Creek – Steamboat Pilot and Today

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BEAVER CREEK Saying people want a doggone solution to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sen. Cory Gardner spoke to supporters at Beaver Creek on Friday on the first day of the 2020 Freedom Conference and Festival.

The conference is a 12th-annual event from the Steamboat Institute, but COVID-19 restrictions prevented the event from being held in Steamboat Springs this year. Beaver Creek was able to accommodate the group.

The widespread restrictions on social gatherings are in direct violation of (the First Amendment), and we believe that defending and exercising this right is at the core of what the Steamboat Institute stands for, wrote Jennifer Schubert-Akin, institute chairwoman, in a welcome letter to attendees.

In addition to SchubertAkins welcome packet, attendees were given copies of The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution of the United States, Trent Englands Why We Must Defend The Electoral College, and a Steamboat Institute pamphlet titled How Lockdowns Infringe on Civil Liberties, A Pocket Guide.

A COVID-19 panel discussion featured economic doctor Arthur Laffer, medical doctor Scott Atlas, and Gardner, who touted economic recovery legislation and advances in science, saying the country is close to receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.

Were gonna have a vaccine, said Gardner,who is polling behind Democratic challenger John Hickenlooper, Colorados former governor and presidential candidate, in his re-election campaign. Its going to be similar to a flu vaccine, where youre going to probably have to get it every year, and there will be different types of vaccines, and were going to get through this.

Atlas said he also believes the country is going to progress with the vaccine, but even if we didnt, we are going to be OK here, he said.

Atlas, who is a special advisor to President Trump, began the discussion by saying while states have begun reopening, significant limits to those reopenings remain, including travel warnings, quarantine requirements, reduced capacity on retail, bars that remain closed, reduced capacity at fitness centers, reduced capacity at restaurants, take-out only restaurants, and online-only and hybrid-attendance at schools.

The harms of continuing those lockdowns are enormous, Atlas said.

Citing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlas also said the most recent analysis indicates that the infection fatality rate for COVID-19 patients under 70 years of age is 0.04%.

Which is less than or equal to seasonal influenza, he said.

In addition to their confidence in vaccine development, panel members expressed optimism in population immunity, medical community response and market recovery, even crediting Gov. Jared Polis for Colorados response.

I think your governor has done a phenomenal job on bringing this state back into process, Laffer said.

While Laffer had kind words for his host in Polis, more immediately in Beaver Creeks Gerald Ford Hall, where the Freedom Conference took place, he had less enthusiastic words for the buildings namesake, saying President Fords Whip Inflation Now program cost enormous lives and cost enormous wellbeing.

Laffer said like Fords program, the 2020 pandemic response in the U.S. was a result of politicians making decisions while panicked.

There were lots and lots of mistakes, Laffer said. They were not done deliberately, obviously.

Atlas said Trumps plan is aimed at saving even more lives while rolling back limitations to reopening and protecting high-risk populations.

That means highly detailed, real-time monitoring; a smarter, prioritized, very intensive testing strategy of nursing home staff and residents; pro-active warnings to high-risk elderly in regions of increased in-community infection; massive allocation of extra resources including point-of-care testing in all 14,500 nursing homes by mid-September and rapid mobilization of CDC strike teams where surge testing is needed, Atlas said.

We will continue to emphasize to the public the goal of protecting the high-risk group, including importantly adopting the highest standards of hygiene and social distancing, all the things weve already learned, when interacting with elderly friends and family members at risk, he added.

Addressing dozens of unmasked viewers in Gerald Ford Hall, some of them elderly, Atlas said some mask policies are reasonable, especially concerning those in high-risk groups.

Wear a mask if you cannot socially distance, particularly in certain settings, he said. When youre close by somebody, its reasonable. When youre walking into a nursing home and theres a very, very high-risk situation, OK, then you gotta be super, super cautious when youre near people, and you can not socially distance.

Moderator Hadley Heath Manning said a lot of risk assessment and risk taking during a pandemic is a very personal choice. Manning said she flew across the country to visit her grandparents during the pandemic.

My grandmother insisted that we come to her house, Manning said. She made me think of a passage from Esther in the Bible If I perish, I perish.

Laffer, who is 80, said he has also visited with his grandchildren and great-grandchildren during the pandemic.

Frankly, I love my grandchildren far more than I love myself, Laffer said. And I just dont want this economy shut down and have their futures put at risk because of someone wanting to save another 80-year-old like me.

Gardner said we have to save the elderly, because there would be no one left in the Senate otherwise.

I have a vested interested in my colleagues, to make sure they get this right, he said with a laugh.

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Sen. Gardner touts vaccine progress, pandemic legislation at Steamboat Institute's Freedom Conference in Beaver Creek - Steamboat Pilot and Today

‘Zombies of the Corn’ haunted attraction set for 8th season of frightful fun in Freedom – TribLIVE

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'Zombies of the Corn' haunted attraction set for 8th season of frightful fun in Freedom - TribLIVE

President Armen Sarkissian: Artsakh Was the Spark Which Lit the Fire of Freedom – Armenian News by MassisPost

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YEREVAN (Armradio) Artsakh was the spark which lit the fire of freedom which spread all over the Armenian world, President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian said in a congratulatory message on the occasion of Artsakh Independence Day.

Our people rose to defend their rights and to take their worthy place in the modern family of nations. This was a truly historic time for the realization of our aspirations and abilities and its significance was duly appreciated in Artsakh as well as in Armenia, the President said.

According to him, the declaration of independence became the catalyst which allowed to form a sovereign statehood.

Today, 29 years later, the Republic of Artsakh is a mature state unit thanks to the struggle being fought by all-Armenian forces, thanks to the victory, which was achieved through the unity of Artsakh, Armenia, and Diaspora, thanks to the willpower which is leading the people of Artsakh, and has become the promise of their success, President Sarkissian continued.

I bow to the memory of all fallen heroes who sacrificed their lives for the free and independent Artsakh and express gratitude to all who gave their health and well-being to achieve that goal, he added.

The President noted that Artsakh was a touchstone for our national willpower and remains the pivot of our national unity.

For us, as a nation, every achievement in Artsakh is a stone to the restoration of the huge Armenian world. Thus, our mind and effort, our work and ideas ought to be directed towards the protection of the Fatherland, security and peace of Artsakh and Armenia, well-being of our nation, he stated.

The President believes this notion should be the strongest in each of us because the fight for Artsakhs full freedom, for the restoration of the violated rights of our people is not over yet, it continues.

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President Armen Sarkissian: Artsakh Was the Spark Which Lit the Fire of Freedom - Armenian News by MassisPost

One Database to Rule Them All: The Invisible Content Cartel that Undermines the Freedom of Expression Online – EFF

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Every year, millions of images, videos and posts that allegedly contain terrorist or violent extremist content are removed from social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter. A key force behind these takedowns is the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT), an industry-led initiative that seeks to prevent terrorists and violent extremists from exploiting digital platforms. And unfortunately, GIFCT has the potential to have a massive (and disproportionate) negative impact on the freedom of expression of certain communities.

Social media platforms have long struggled with the problem of extremist or violent content on their platforms. Platforms may have an intrinsic interest in offering their users an online environment free from unpleasant content, which is why most social media platforms terms of service contain a variety of speech provisions. During the past decade, however, social media platforms have also come under increasing pressure from governments around the globe to respond to violent and extremist content on their platforms. Spurred by the terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels in 2015 and 2016, respectively, and guided by the shortsighted belief that censorship is an effective tool against extremism, governments have been turning to content moderation as a means to fix international terrorism.

Commercial content moderation is the process through which platformsmore specifically, human reviewers or, very often, machinesmake decisions about what content can and cannot be on their sites, based on their own Terms of Service, community standards, or other rules.

During the coronavirus pandemic, social media companies have been less able to use human content reviewers, and are instead increasingly relying on machine learning algorithms to moderate content as well as flag it. Those algorithms, which are really just a set of instructions for doing something, are fed with an initial set of rules and lots of training data in the hopes that they will learn to identify similar content But human speech is a complex social phenomenon and highly context-dependent; inevitably, content moderation algorithms make mistakes. What is worse, because machine-learning algorithms usually operate as black boxes that do not explain how they arrived at a decision, and as companies generally do not share either the basic assumptions underpinning their technology or their training data sets, third parties can do little to prevent those mistakes.

This problem has become more acute with the introduction of hashing databases for tracking and removing extremist content. Hashes are digital "fingerprints" of content that companies use to identify and remove content from their platforms. They are essentially unique, and allow for easy identification of specific content. When an image is identified as terrorist content, it is tagged with a hash and entered into a database, allowing any future uploads of the same image to be easily identified.

This is exactly what the GIFCT initiative aims to do: Share a massive database of alleged terrorist content, contributed voluntarily by companies, amongst members of its coalition. The database collects hashes, or unique fingerprints, of alleged terrorist, or extremist and violent content, rather than the content itself. GIFCT members can then use the database to check in real time whether content that users want to upload matches material in the database. While that sounds like an efficient approach to the challenging task of correctly identifying and taking down terrorist content, it also means that one single database might be used to determine what is permissible speech, and what is taken downacross the entire Internet.

Countless examples have proven that it is very difficult for human reviewersand impossible for algorithmsto consistently get the nuances of activism, counter-speech, and extremist content itself right. The result is that many instances of legitimate speech are falsely categorized as terrorist content and removed from social media platforms. Due to the proliferation of the GIFCT database, any mistaken classification of a video, picture or post as terrorist content echoes across social media platforms, undermining users' right to free expression on several platforms at once. And that, in turn, can have catastrophic effects on the Internet as a space for memory and documentation. Blunt content moderation systems can lead to the deletion of vital information not available elsewhere, such as evidence of human rights violations or war crimes. For example, the Syrian Archive, an NGO dedicated to collecting, sharing and archiving evidence of atrocities committed during the Syrian war reports that hundred of thousand videos of war atrocities are removed by YouTube annually. The Archive estimates that take down rates for videos documenting Syrian human rights violations is circa 13%, a number that has almost doubled to 20% in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. As noted, many social media platforms, including YouTube, have been using algorithmic tools for content moderation more heavily than usual, resulting in increased takedowns. If, or when, YouTube contributes hashes of content that depicts Syrian human rights violations, but has been tagged as terrorist content by YouTubes algorithms to the GIFCT database, that content could be deleted forever across multiple platforms.

The GIFCT content cartel not only risks losing valuable human rights documentation, but also has a disproportionately negative effect on some communities. Defining terrorism is a inherently political undertaking, and rarely stable across time and space. Absent international agreement on what exactly constitutes terrorist, or even violent and extremist, content, companies look at the United Nations list of designated terrorist organizations or the US State Departments list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. But those lists mainly consist of Islamist organizations, and are largely blind to, for example, right-wing extremist groups. That means that the burden of GIFCTs misclassifications falls disproportionately on Muslim and Arab communities and highlights the fine line between an effective initiative to tackle the worst content online and sweeping censorship.

Ever since the attacks on two Mosques in Christchurch in March 2019, GIFCT has been more prominent than ever. In response to the shooting, during which 51 people were killed, French President Emmanuel Macron and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern launched the Christchurch Call. That initiative, which aims to eliminate violent and extremist content online, foresees a prominent role for GIFCT. In the wake of this renewed focus on GIFCT, the initiative announced that it would evolve to an independent organization, including a new Independent Advisory Committee (IAC) to represent the voices of civil society, government, and inter-governmental entities.

However, the Operating Board, where real power resides, remains in the hands of industry. And the Independent Advisory Committee is already seriously flawed, as a coalition of civil liberties organizations has repeatedly noted.

For example, governments participating in the IAC are likely to leverage their position to influence companies content moderation policies and shape definitions of terrorist content that fit their interests, away from the public and eye and therefore lacking accountability. Including governments in the IAC could also undermine the meaningful participation of civil society organizations as many are financially dependent on governments, or might face threats of reprisals for criticism government officials in that forum. As long as civil society is treated as an afterthought, GIFCT will never be an effective multi-stakeholder forum. GIFCTs flaws and their devastating effects on the freedom of expression, human rights, and the preservation of evidence of war crimes have been known for years. Civil societies organizations have tried to help reform the organization, but GIFCT and its new Executive Director have remained unresponsive. Which leads to the final problem with the IAC: leading NGOs are choosing not to participate at all.

Where does this leave GIFCT and the millions of Internet users its policies impact? Not in a good place. Without meaningful civil society representation and involvement, full transparency and effective accountability mechanisms, GIFCT risks becoming yet another industry-led forum that promises multi-stakeholderism but delivers little more than government-sanctioned window-dressing.

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One Database to Rule Them All: The Invisible Content Cartel that Undermines the Freedom of Expression Online - EFF