Question: "What does it mean to be a Reader in the Orthodox Church?"

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 "What does it mean to be a Reader in the Orthodox Church?"

Question: "How does one become a Reader, and what does a Reader do?"
"My son, the first degree in the Priesthood is that of Reader. It behooveth thee therefore to peruse the divine Scriptures daily, to the end that the hearers, regarding thee may receive edification; that thou in nowise shaming thine election, mayest prepare thyself for a higher degree. For by a chaste, holy and upright life thou shalt gain the favor of the God of loving-kindness, and shalt render thyself worthy of a greater ministry, through Jesus Christ our Lord: to whom be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen."
This tells us that the office of the Reader is the first rank of the priesthood. There are two types of clergy: minor clergy, and major clergy. Readers are tonsured, which means that rather than being ordained in the Altar, they are set apart by having some of their hair cut in the form of the Cross (as also happens at baptism, and when someone is made a monastic) and ordained in the Nave of the Church, as are Subdeacons, who are also minor clergy. The major clergy are Bishops, Priest, and Deacons.
But what it means for this to be the first rank of the priesthood is that the same basic requirements to be ordained a Priest are also required of a Reader. A reader must of course be Orthodox. He must also be a man who has not been married more than once. He must be of a good reputation. There are other possible impediments to ordination, and most of them apply equally to readers (there are different age requirements for deacons, priests, and bishops, and bishops are required to be monastics).
A Reader should also read the Scriptures daily, and be familiar enough with the texts that he reads that those who hear him are able to understand him, and be edified by his reading. In addition to that, a Reader should learn the rubrics of the services, and should learn to sing his way through the services by learning the tones, and how to use and combine the liturgical texts at the kliros. In most parishes, there are choir directors who do most of that work at the main services, but a Reader should learn this as well, so that if he is the only person at the kliros (as can happen at some of the daily services) he will be able to read and sing all of the parts of the services that are not specific to the Bishop, Priest, and Deacon.
The admonition to the Reader that he "in nowise" shame his election means that he should be an example to others in the Church. As St. Paul admonished St. Timothy: "be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conduct, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity" (1 Timothy 4:12). And a reader should do this in order to prepare himself "for a higher degree." In other words, a reader should be preparing himself for the possibility of serving in a higher rank of the clergy. Of course all Christians should try to be an example "in word, in conduct, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity," but this should be especially the case for clergy. This means a Reader should be personally pious, loving towards others, and should love the services of the Church.
Anyone who is able (and of course an Orthodox Christian) can serve the function of a Reader, when needed. And there are many people who are not tonsured as Readers who do. However, one who actually is a Reader has a duty to fill this role, and so should be zealous to prepare himself to fulfill this role, and should be eager to actually do it, being present whenever possible for the services, and making themselves available to do their duty.
If someone is interested in becoming a reader, they should speak to the priest and begin applying themselves to learning how to properly do it. Even if they are not eventually tonsured as a Reader, the knowledge they acquire is beneficial to any Orthodox Christian.
For more on what it means to be a Reader, I would recommend reading Instruction for the Church Reader as well as A Guide for Readers in the Orthodox Church, by Fr. Geoffrey Korz.


Question: Respond in 518 words. What do you think about data as labor?

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 Respond in 518 words. What do you think about data as labor?

Each and every one of us has multiple jobs, whether we know it or not. Right now, while reading this, you are generating data for Silicon Valley’s biggest giants; improving, upgrading, correcting, advancing, augmenting various artificial intelligence entities, tools of companies like Google and Facebook.
In it, the authors pose a legitimate question: Rather than being regarded as capital, should data be treated as labor? Published on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) and featured in the Economist, the report concludes: the relationship between big internet companies and their users has to transform.
As the authors point out, for an AI to improve, it has to be exposed to massive amounts of data, or rather, trained on massive amounts of data. That is where we come in. Internet companies gather data from users every time they read an article, issue a command to Alexa, Google a set of keywords or solve a CAPTCHA (an acronym for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart).
We pay for their services by providing them with the data they crave. By solving a CAPTCHA, we also help improve the AI. For example, a human solves a CAPTCHA by deciphering text from a book and this helps digitize books. A literature classic published on Kindle is, therefore, a product of an internet user’s free, digital labor. AI improves the value generated in the economy, bypasses workers, and reaches companies. Interestingly, authors also point out that the share of GDP paid out to workers in wages and salaries has been steadily declining.
Google currently holds 75.54 percent of the search engine market share. Facebook has 2.07 billion monthly active users. Considered one of the most valuable brands worldwide, Amazon is the leading e-retailer in the United States with close to 136 billion U.S. dollars in 2016 net sales.
Since AI is getting better all the time, it threatens to transform a host of industries, authors claim. Tuned in the digital matrix, we are shaping the global economy and adding to the problem of uncompetitive markets. Would-be startups that might challenge companies like Google and Facebook cannot train their AIs without access to the data only these titans possess. They can, at best, hope to be acquired by those very same companies.
If the economy is to function properly in the future, the role of data-creation has to change, authors claim. And they have quite a radical proposal: data should be treated as labor. In a world where data is treated as labor, or rather property of those who generate it, it would have to be provided to internet companies in exchange for payment.
In this scenario, data could be sold multiple times and to multiple companies, while at the same time reducing the extent to which data serves as barrier to enter the market. Quite ambitiously, authors of the paper also assert data labor could be seen as useful work in the future of mass automation, so internet companies could potentially generate better data by paying. Companies could, for example, ask individuals to voluntarily share information in exchange for payment.


Question: What do Pennsylvania voters over the age of 50 care about in the midterm elections?

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 What do Pennsylvania voters over the age of 50 care about in the midterm elections?

Health care and Social Security will be the top two issues on the minds of Pennsylvania voters over the age of 50 when they go to the polls on Nov. 6, according to a new Politico/AARP election poll.
Among older voters, 97 percent said health care was their top issue, followed by Social Security (96 percent) and Medicare (95 percent). The vast majority of survey respondents also say elected officials should act to lower health care and prescription drug costs and increase access to health care for Americans.
The Pennsylvania survey is the fourth and final poll in a series that surveyed voters in battleground states about their views on key issues and races in this year’s midterm state and federal elections. AARP has partnered withPolitico to illustrate how important the 50-plus voter is in determining the composition of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives as well as state offices across the country. The three previous polls, conducted in Arizona, Florida and Ohio, also showed that health care is a top issue in the minds of voters.
The survey asked 50-plus voters their views on a number of issues as well as on the political landscape in the Keystone State. Among all Pennsylvania registered voters, 52 percent disapprove of the job President Trump is doing, while 45 percent approve. Voters 50-plus view the president slightly more favorably, with 51 percent disapproving and 48 percent approving. When it comes to the issues voters care most about, survey respondents gave Congress failing grades. A strong majority disapprove of the way lawmakers are handling health care issues (66 percent), drug prices (67 percent) and Medicare (63 percent).
Pollsters asked Pennsylvania registered voters several questions about the affordability of health care. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) limited what insurance companies could charge people with preexisting conditions for their coverage. Older voters overwhelmingly (81 percent) say it would be unfair to make people with medical conditions pay more for their health care. And 90 percent say proposals that would allow insurers to charge people ages 50 and older up to five times more for health care would make insurance unaffordable for those who need it most.
More than a third (36 percent) of 50-plus voters also say that, because of cost, they have relied on home remedies or over-the-counter medicines instead of going to the doctor, and that same percentage has skipped dental care or checkups.
Pennsylvanians across parties and age groups overwhelmingly support allowing the Medicare program to negotiate directly with drug companies as a way to drive down prescription drug costs. Most 50-plus voters (86 percent) also believe limiting the amount drug companies can charge for their products would be the most effective way to lower drug costs.
Taxpayers will be able to deduct their health care expenses in 2018 if those expenses exceed 7.5 percent of their income as part of the new tax law. Pennsylvanians 50-plus (76 percent) support congressional legislation to preserve that deduction.
The majority of 50-plus voters (80 percent) also support a state measure that would provide a state income tax credit to family caregivers to help with the costs they incur to care for a family member. Such a measure also has nearly equal support (76 percent) among all Pennsylvania voters. State voters of all ages also believe that Pennsylvania lottery funds should be used both to pay for programs that help older residents remain in their homes and communities and for nursing home care.
Morning Consult surveyed 505 registered voters over the age of 50 online on Oct. 1 and 2. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.


Question: "Describe your experience with the Great Books of the Western World or what it means to you."

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 "Describe your experience with the Great Books of the Western World or what it means to you."

Posted here for your convenience is the fullest free eBook list of Mortimer Adler’s Great Books of the Western World.
What makes this list more useful than the eBooks @ Adelaide list, from which the bulk of this version comes, is that several of the holes have been filled in by Project Gutenberg, and others by the Internet Archive. Links not provided by eBooks @ Adelaide are italicized. Notably, some links do not lead to eBooks, some of these even to simple Web pages. If an eBook or PDF of the appropriate work becomes available, leave a comment so this list can be updated. However, due to copyright concerns, please do not link to free eBook versions of books still under copyright in the United States.
All works listed between On the Sphere and Cylinder and the Book of Lemmas may be found in The Works of Archimedes.
Thanks! What a fantastic resource!
Yeah, I saw that in my original searches, but I tried to give preference to downloadable things. But if that’s what we have, that’s what we have.
I rescind my earlier whine. That is a much superior link!
I am in the midst of my journey through the Great Books. This is a terrific resource you have compiled for those wishing to go the digital route.
I consider the Great Books of the Western World one of the several corner stone publications to enhance knowledge and learning for all people. This resource is great and should be used for these purposes. I only wish we would have had these resources during my “learning years”.
There are many great books from around the world that should be included with the pages of gut Great Books, but at least these pages give us a reference and starting point on the important aspects of learning from different cultures, subjects, and people.
I cannot say enough about it since I am in my retirement years and cannot afford purchasing the complete set. Yes, even people my age like and need to learn. This resource provides a consolidated starting point; thank you.
really get into these topics.
A liberal education in the palm of my hand. Thank you!
It would be wonderful if the Syntopicon could be made available, and each reference notation, appropriately hyperlinked.
I use GBWW as the principal resource for an aesthetics course that I teach at Chattanooga High, Center for Creative Arts. Having just retired, I was considering whether to purchase the set, volume by volume, at my local used book store. Finding this resource on line may now make that mote. Bravo!
This is amazing. Far better than the actual PDF being sold or any other digital collection I’ve found. Thank you so much.
As a philosophy student I want to read Great books of the Western World.Really!
Thank you for putting this list together. It’s very helpful, and a great resource for any serious readers.
Wow! I am more excited than a two tailed dog and happier than a child trap in a candy shop! Thank you is not enough to display the gratitude to whomever is responsible for making all of these resourseces of great information available for free.
Good evening. How are you doing?I am glad that we found this blog. I just wanted to give back in return for the insight Ive gained here from the article. Seven years ago my mother was diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder. The news was a monumental setback for us all particularly for my son. Things turned around when my uncle suggested Jade Tun Noy. Jade Noy is a non-denominational mind over matter practitioner. He taught and guided us through the ordeal. Just google him if you want to get in touch with him.
Thank you so much for this great source! You’re fantastic!
Thank you Soo much again….


Question: Please provide a brief biography of Ronald J. Adrian.

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 Please provide a brief biography of Ronald J. Adrian.

Ronald J. Adrian is the Ira A. Fulton Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Arizona State University's Fulton School of Engineering and heads the Laboratory for Energetic Flow and Turbulence. He is well known for his contributions to the field of fluid dynamics in the areas of wall turbulence, thermal convection, coherent structures in turbulence and laser instrumentation. He is the Associate editor of the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Co-editor of the Springer Series in Experimental Fluid Mechanics and Co-founder and editor of eFluids.com


Question: What can you tell me about Brushcreek Township? Respond in 2 sentences.

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 What can you tell me about Brushcreek Township? Respond in 2 sentences.

Brushcreek Township is one of the seventeen townships of Highland County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2010 census the population was 1,381, of whom 1,248 lived in the unincorporated portion of the township.


Question: Who is Rika Zaraia? Respond in 5 sentences.

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 Who is Rika Zaraia? Respond in 5 sentences.

, real name , is a Japanese singer born on October 6, 1971 in Bungo-ōno, Ōita, Japan. Two of her songs have been featured in anime, "Glass Kiss" in the "Maison Ikkoku" movie and "Stand By Me" in "Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl". Rika is married to bass player of Foghat, World XXI and Michael Fath Dave Crigger. They live in the US with their three children.


Question: Describe what Swansea Bay is.

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 Describe what Swansea Bay is.

The Swansea Bay area of Wales is located north of the sea area of Swansea Bay. The term Swansea Bay is used by the Welsh Assembly Government for policy planning purposes as well as by a number of other organisations.


Question: What kind of fish is Pseudotropheus elegans? Respond in 3 sentences.

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 What kind of fish is Pseudotropheus elegans? Respond in 3 sentences.

Pseudotropheus elegans is a species of cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi. This species can reach a length of SL. It can also be found in the aquarium trade.


Question: Provide a brief biography of Najam ul Hasan. Respond in 26 words.

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 Provide a brief biography of Najam ul Hasan. Respond in 26 words.

Najam ul Hasan (, born 15 March 1952), is the 16th and current Chief Justice of the Federal Shariat Court, in office since 15 May 2017.


Question: Where is St. Paul's Higher Secondary School? Respond in 14 words.

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 Where is St. Paul's Higher Secondary School? Respond in 14 words.

St. Paul's Higher Secondary School is a school in Vepery, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.


Question: Discuss the social and economic benefits of investing in girls’ education.

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 Discuss the social and economic benefits of investing in girls’ education.

On the occasion of International Women's Day, Jo Bourne of UNICEF discusses the importance of educating girls.
We all know that it’s important to educate girls – it is the one consistent determinant of progress for practically every development outcome, from mortality declines to economic growth, democracy and equity.
Nevertheless, how do we know that investing more in girls’ education is worth it, in terms of the economics?
On International Women’s Day, we are reminded of the challenges that remain in not only giving girls access to education, but also in keeping them in school and learning, as well as ensuring that their education equips them for their futures.
We are also reminded of the opportunities: investing in girls’ education delivers concrete, far-reaching economic and social benefits for all.
T he yields from investing in girls’ education are substantial. An educated girl is likely to increase her personal earning potential, as well as reduce poverty in her community. According to the World Bank, the return on one year of secondary education for a girl correlates with as high as a 25% increase in wages later in life. The effects carry from one generation to the next: educated girls have fewer, healthier and better educated children. For each additional year of a mother’s education, the average child attains an extra 0.32 years, and for girls the benefit is slightly larger.
Improved literacy can have a remarkable effect on women’s earnings. As stipulated in the 2013/4 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, in Pakistan, working women with high levels of literacy skills earned 95% more than women with weak or no literacy skills, whereas the differential was only 33 % among men. Educated women are empowered to take a greater economic role in their families and communities, and they tend to reinvest 90% of what they earn into their families.
Investing in girls’ education also helps delay early marriage and parenthood. In fact, if all girls had secondary education in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia, child marriage would fall by 64%, from almost 2.9 million to just over 1 million.
At the wider societal level, more educated girls lead to an increase in female leaders, lower levels of population growth and the subsequent reduction of pressures related to climate change. The power of girls’ education on national economic growth is undeniable: a one percentage point increase in female education raises the average gross domestic product (GDP) by 0.3 percentage points and raises annual GDP growth rates by 0.2 percentage points.
We advocate for girls’ education at community, national and global levels.
UNICEF is also proud to host the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI) and serve as a lead technical partner in advancing the rights and achievement of girls through advocacy, partnership and the sharing of good practice.
Girls’ education is a core component of UNICEF’s work at the country level. In South Africa, UNICEF, the government, and the private sector are partnering to provide not just technology education, but also active mentorship for 10,000 under-privileged girls. In Malawi, a World Bank-led initiative called the Zomba Cash Transfer Program provides cash transfers to girls to stay in or return to school. In Afghanistan, UNICEF supports non-formal and community-based schooling, with a focus on girls who had dropped out or never enrolled, contributing to increases in the number of girls who stay in school to grade five.
Investing in girls’ education is not only the right thing to do, it’s also smart for overall economic and social development. Together with our partners, we are working urgently to articulate more ambitious targets for the post-2015 agenda in terms of girls’ education and gender equality in schooling. We will use momentum from this year’s International Women’s Day as an opportunity to collaborate and map a way forward that truly catalyses the transformative potential of girls’ education.
This makes a lot of sense. Woman and girls have always been a huge part of society and life in general.


Question: What is Mike Baird's NSW doing to erode civil liberties?

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 What is Mike Baird's NSW doing to erode civil liberties?

OPINION: Just as you start to come to terms with the latest draconian police powers, a new set are introduced, writes Greens MLC David Shoebridge.
Under the guise of terrorism, the protection of public safety and safeguarding corporate interests from ‘ragtag protesters’, the Baird Government has continued to strip civil liberties and create a parallel criminal justice system based on rumour, innuendo, suspicion and prejudice.
The laws seem geared towards those cases where police don’t have enough evidence for a conviction, or even to charge a person, but they have some unprovable gut-feeling about it that they nevertheless want to do something about.
Enter “serious crime prevention orders”, that can be imposed without any requirement to prove the person has or was going to engage in serious crime, a mere suspicion is enough. Add to this “public safety orders” where if a police officer decides a person in a public place is a danger to anyone, with no requirement to prove this in a court and no right to appeal, they can direct them to leave the area.
What these laws have in common is they do not require the police to be able to prove a case beyond reasonable doubt to be able to impose punishment on a person. They can stop them from going about their daily activities, they can ban them from events and places, and impose almost any conditions they decide are reasonable – with no need to prove this is actually the case.
And there’s more to come as we see a new attack on civil liberties called “investigative detention.” This will allow police to hold people without charge and without any rights, for the purpose of interrogating them. Where such schemes have operated overseas serious human rights violations have occurred. There is no reason to think NSW will be any different.
Though it has some competition, we believe this is the most serious breach of human rights proposed yet by this Government. Even children can be subject to the laws, with the possibility that 14-year-olds could be subject to two weeks of intensive police interrogation without contact with their families or a lawyer.
These laws go far beyond existing laws where a terrorism suspect can be detained to prevent an immediate threat to the public. Those subject to preventative detention, who have not been charged with any political offence, currently have the very limited protection that they cannot be questioned during this time. This is in recognition of the fact that they are often held on the basis of secretive police intelligence, including hearsay evidence, and do not have access to legal representation.
While the past few weeks have seen a particularly aggressive assault on basic freedoms, these changes are just part of a longer term pattern by this Government to consistently increase to police powers and erode longstanding civil liberties and legal rights.
In 2011 they re-introduced drunk and disorderly laws in NSW to expand police powers in relation to people in public places. A whopping 33,000 of these were issued in the following year with over 40 per cent issued against vulnerable people including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the homeless and young people. In 2012 and 2013 they introduced the so-called Bikie Laws which have done little to challenge organised crime in NSW, but which have been used to target and criminalise Aboriginal people.
The consorting laws criminalise people from associating with convicted offenders, regardless of the activity. You can be done under these laws for playing mini golf with an old school friend, if many years ago your friend was convicted of an indictable offence. These laws apply to associating with around 200,000 people in NSW who have been convicted of an indictable offence in the past 10 years.
More recently anti-protest laws have passed the Parliament but not yet come into law. These laws are the Government’s sop to the mining industry, and they once again expand police powers in the name of public safety and protecting commercial interests. The interests of the protesters and general public suffer.
IMAGE: Thom Mitchell. Police on crowd control.
So why is all of this happening in NSW? Why has the Government surrendered to the demands of the Police Commissioner to degrade the civil liberties of residents in NSW? There are two key reasons that work closely in tandem.
Traditionally, the first law officer in NSW has been the Attorney-General, who has also held the Justice Ministry. The Attorney-General is expected to exercise a unique and independent role by standing up for the rule of law and liberty in Cabinet and Parliament. But now under the Baird Government, in an unprecedented move, the Police Minister has been elevated to also be the Justice Minister. The Police and Justice Minister now sits above the Attorney-General, pushing and promoting the interests of the police to the detriment of centuries of legal tradition.
Rounding this off nicely is the absence of a Bill of Rights. There is nothing in our system to protect citizens from an excess of parliamentary power. The absence of a Bill of Rights means the Parliament can effectively do whatever it likes. When the agenda is set by the Police Minister this can be a frightening prospect.
This is Mike Baird’s NSW, it is routinely tramping on our traditional freedoms and its citizens are supposed to just cop it. It’s time we fixed that.
David Shoebridge is a Greens member of the New South Wales Legislative Council. His portfolio responsibilities within the Greens include: Forestry; Industrial Relations; Planning & Heritage; Firearms; Justice and Local Government.


Question: Analyze the difference between the Democratic and Republican Party exit polls in the Massachusetts primaries to describe the potential correlation between efficacy of vote counts and type of voting system.

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 Analyze the difference between the Democratic and Republican Party exit polls in the Massachusetts primaries to describe the potential correlation between efficacy of vote counts and type of voting system.

Vote count matches Republican Party exit polls but not the Democratic Party exit polls.
Article first published in OpEdNews.com on March 10, 2016.
In the Massachusetts March 1, 2016 primary Democratic Party race, the computerized vote count declared candidate Clinton the winner but the exit polls indicated candidate Sanders to be the winner by a margin of 6.6%. These same exit polls accurately predicted the results of each and all of the Republican candidates. Until the US joins a long list of many other countries that protect the integrity of their elections through publicly observed hand counting of paper ballots, our elections are liable to be suspect.
Exit polling has been performed in the US and other countries for decades and the science and proper methodology is well established to obtain an accurate prediction of the final vote. For years, many researchers have pointed to the discrepancies between exit poll results and the unverified computer counts in US elections. The main response by the defenders of computerized voting, while expressing blind faith in the unverified computer counting, has been to claim that the exit polls may go wrong because respondents, more enthusiastic for a particular candidate, would be more likely to agree to be polled. The recent Massachusetts Super Tuesday primaries did not support this theory.
The Republican Party primary race has been widely acknowledged as more polarized and contentious than the Democratic Party primary race. In the current election cycle, many Republican Party voters demonstrate enthusiasm for candidate Trump as many Democratic Party voters demonstrate enthusiasm for candidate Sanders. Yet, the exit poll results for the Republican Party closely matched the final computer vote count for every candidate. This accuracy was obtained with about 500 fewer respondents than for the Democratic Party. The higher number of respondents in the Democratic race should lead to a smaller margin of error. The same exit poll for the Democratic race, however, conducted at the same time and the same places, differed widely from the final computer count and the margin of error for the exit poll. This difference turned a Sanders’ victory into a defeat.
According to Klaus Pötzsch of the electoral committee responsible for the organization and running of any federal or EU election in Germany, after the decision by the Country’s highest court, every ballot is now hand-counted in public and read aloud. Germany is not alone among technologically advanced nations that reject computerized counting in their elections. Countries such as Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, Denmark, Finland and 53 other countries protect the integrity of their elections with hand-counted paper ballots.
As the Massachusetts primaries indicate, the integrity of our elections will be always questionable and suspect until we join the many other countries that safeguard their elections with publicly observed hand counting of paper ballots.
*As demographics alone may not explain the large discrepancy between the hand counted precincts and the computerized count of the rest of the state, the weighting factors applied to the Democratic Party exit poll may also be incorrect and even the exit poll underestimated Sanders’ win. The raw exit poll data, prior to their alteration with weighting factors, should be made available for forensic analysis (see e.g., paper published by the Shorenstein Center, Harvard Kennedy Center, p.19. Exit Polls: Better or Worse Since the 2000 Election?). The accuracy of the Republican Party exit polls suggests that the correct weighting factors were applied to the Republican electorate.
This entry was posted in Election Integrity and tagged 2016 Democratic Party Primaries, 2016 elections., 2016 Republican Party Primaries, Election Fraud, Election Integrity, Exit Polls by Theodore de Macedo Soares. Bookmark the permalink.
8 Comments on "The Suspect Massachusetts 2016 Primary"
No twitter. Perhaps I should use it! Glad you like the posts, more coming next week.
be honest but your bllgs really nice, keep iit up!
This post talks about concerns with electronic voting machines but Massachusetts does not use these machines – Massachusetts has paper ballots that are counted by optical scanning. The post notes but should have further explored geographic differences in the state – Clinton’s greater strength in communities of color and urban areas vs. Sanders’ greater appeal to rural areas.
Heather, optical scanner counts are driven by computer software and are not observable. These computer counts are then sent to computer software driven central tabulators. The only method that insures the integrity of elections is to have paper ballots counted by hand in full public view as Germany, France, Canada and many other countries do.
One of the main points of this article is to point out that the unverified computer counts matched the exit polls for the Republican Party races but not for the Democratic Party race.


Question: Have you heard anything about SK Gaming re-entering League of Legends?

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 Have you heard anything about SK Gaming re-entering League of Legends?

One of the oldest organizations in esports, SK Gaming, will officially re-enter League of Legends.
According to a report by Riot, SK Gaming will participate in the upcoming Premier Tour, a Germany-exclusive tournament-circuit organized by Riot themselves, rather than the ESL.
SK Gaming, also known as Schröt Kommando, used to own one of the most successful European League of Legends teams, before dropping their League squad in January 2016 after a failed promotion to the European Challenger Series.
Players like nRated, Ocelote, FORG1VEN, Svenskeren and current Roccat coach Fredy112 used to play for the team.
SK Gaming also participated in Worlds 2012 and Worlds 2014.
There has been no information on who will be on SK Gaming’s roster. However, the Premier Tour’s rules dictate that at least 3 out of the 5 participating players must be from the DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) region.


Question: Provide an overview of ReactPHP

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 Provide an overview of ReactPHP

ReactPHP is a low-level library for event-driven programming in PHP. At its core is an event loop, on top of which it provides low-level utilities, such as: Streams abstraction, async DNS resolver, network client/server, HTTP client/server and interaction with processes. Third-party libraries can use these components to create async network clients/servers and more.
This simple web server written in ReactPHP responds with "Hello World" for every request.
ReactPHP is production ready and battle-tested with millions of installations from all kinds of projects around the world.
Its event-driven architecture makes it a perfect fit for efficient network servers and clients handling hundreds or thousands of concurrent connections, long-running applications and many other forms of cooperative multitasking with non-blocking I/O operations.
What makes ReactPHP special is its vivid ecosystem with hundreds of third-party libraries allowing you to integrate with many existing systems, such as common network services, database systems and other third-party APIs.
ReactPHP is non-blocking by default. Use workers for blocking I/O.
The event loop is based on the reactor pattern (hence the name) and strongly inspired by libraries such as EventMachine (Ruby), Twisted (Python) and Node.js (V8).
Rock-solid with stable long-term support (LTS) releases.
Requires no extensions and runs on any platform - no excuses!
Takes advantage of optional extensions to get better performance when available.
Highly recommends latest version of PHP 7+ for best performance and support.
Supports legacy PHP 5.3+ and HHVM for maximum compatibility.
Well designed and reusable components.
Decoupled parts so they can be replaced by alternate implementations.
Carefully tested (unit & functional).
Promotes standard PSRs where possible for maximum interoperability.
Aims to be technology neutral, so you can use your preferred application stack.
Small core team of professionals supported by large network of outside contributors.
ReactPHP's core reactor event loop that libraries can use for evented I/O.
Event-driven readable and writable streams for non-blocking I/O in ReactPHP.
Async, streaming plaintext TCP/IP and secure TLS socket server and client connections for ReactPHP.
Event-driven UDP client and server sockets for ReactPHP.
Event-driven, streaming plaintext HTTP and secure HTTPS server for ReactPHP.
Event-driven, streaming HTTP client for ReactPHP.
Async DNS resolver for ReactPHP.
Async, Promise-based cache interface for ReactPHP.
Event-driven library for executing child processes with ReactPHP.
A trivial implementation of timeouts for Promises, built on top of ReactPHP.
The missing link between Promise-land and Stream-land for ReactPHP.
A series of articles covering ReactPHP: from the basics to the real application examples.
Blog series about several ReactPHP components and how they work.
Super Speed Symfony - ReactPHP.
Bring High Performance Into Your PHP App (with ReactPHP).
Do you have a question and need help with ReactPHP?
As a first step, check the elaborate documentation that comes with each component (see links to individual documentation for each component above). If you find your question is not answered within the documentation, there's a fair chance that it may be relevant to more people. Please do not hesitate to file your question as an issue in the relevant component so others can also participate.
Check out #reactphp on irc.freenode.net. You can use the Webchat if you don't already use an IRC client. Many of us are available in this channel, so many questions get answered in a few minutes to some hours. We also use this channel to announce all new releases and ongoing development efforts, so consider setting up an IRC client and idling in this channel for a little longer.
Also follow @reactphp on Twitter for updates. We use this mostly for noteworthy, bigger updates and to keep the community updated about ongoing development efforts. You can always use the #reactphp hashtag if you have anything to share!
We're a very open project and we prefer public communication whenever possible, so that more people can participate and help getting the best solutions available. At the same time, we realize that some things are better addressed in private.
Whether you just want to say thank you, want to report a security issue or want to help sponsor a certain feature development, you can reach out to the core team in private by sending an email to [email protected]. Please keep in mind that we're a small team of volunteers and do our best to support anybody reaching out.
Do you want to support ReactPHP? Awesome! Let's start with letting the the world know why you think ReactPHP is awesome and try to help others getting on board! Send a tweet, write a blog post, give a talk at your local user group or conference or even write a book. There are many ways you can help. You can always reach out to us in private and help others in our support channels. Thank you!


Question: What is the biography of Li Jingfang? Respond in 124 words.

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 What is the biography of Li Jingfang? Respond in 124 words.

Li Jingfang (李經方; 1854 – 28 September 1934), also known as Li Ching-fong, was a Chinese statesman during the Qing dynasty. Being the nephew and adopted son of the late statesman Li Hongzhang, he served in his adoptive father's secretariat in his youth. In 1882, Li Jingfang obtained the second highest degree in the imperial examinations and subsequently obtained appointment in the Qing foreign service because of his knowledge of English. In 1886-89, he worked as a secretary to the Qing legation in London and in 1890-92 he served as the Qing minister to Japan. He is mostly known for having signed the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Shimonoseki in Li Hongzhang's stead in 1895. He also served as the Chinese Minister to London in 1909-1910.