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New Survey Shows UK Public Willing to Pay �10 for Missed GP Appointments to Support the NHS Amid Widespread Concerns About Government Spending on Healthcare - Healthcare leaders and the public say how they would balance the NHSï¿

Healthcare leaders and the public say how they would balance the NHS� books




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Michael Strahan Teams Up With Meta To Launch "Heart 2 Heart" Campaign During National Heart Month To Promote Living A Heart-Healthy Lifestyle - Meta Heart 2 Heart Featuring Michael and Gene Strahan

Meta Heart 2 Heart Featuring Michael and Gene Strahan




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2016 MORE/SHAPE Women's Half-Marathon Honors 13 Female Leaders, Including Sara Bareilles, Danielle Brooks And Padma Lakshmi, For The First-Annual Women Run The Worldâ„¢ Relay & Mentorship Program - 2016 MORE/SHAPE Half-Marathon BTS

Behind the scenes with Elizabeth Goodman Artis, Natalie Morales, Danielle Brooks, Padma Lakshmi and Sara Bareilles at the 2016 MORE/SHAPE Women�s Half-Marathon in Central Park on April 17.




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STOUFFER'S�, Kris Bryant And Mike Moustakas Surprise Fans With The Ultimate Game-Changer - STOUFFER�S�, KRIS BRYANT AND MIKE MOUSTAKAS SURPRISE FANS WITH THE ULTIMATE GAME-CHANGER

STOUFFER�S�, FIT KITCHEN� headed to Tempe, Arizona to host Fit City Event featuring a competitive softball game with a twist coached by two of baseball�s biggest stars encouraging fans to find their fit





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St. Jude Children's Research Hospital® to honor legendary Hispanic TV personality Cristina Saralegui at upcoming FedEx/St. Jude Angels and Stars Gala - Celeb Gala B-roll

Miami Gala celebrity B-roll for download




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Common Mistakes to Avoid in Food License Document Submission

In this article, we shall outline the everyday mistakes made at some stage during the submission of food license documents and guide how to avoid them.




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Conversion of partnership from into private limited

One of the partnership firm wants to convert the firm into a private limited company. However, both existing partners will become directors in the private limited company, maintaining the same share ratio and ownership as in the partnership. No new directors will be appointed, and no existing partne




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Not able to submit Trust accounts online on Charity Commissioners Website

Hello there,We are trying to submit the Trust accounts online on the website of Charity Commissioner Maharashtra but not able to do for many days.We were able to submit audit report only, but when it goes to next section i.e. Schedule IX, all cells are frozen, not able to type a




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Minutes of 53rd GST Council Meeting

Minutes of 53rd GST Council Meeting




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Finally, Our Long Laid COVID Plans Are Coming To Fruition

Members, bestow yourselves with back pats of honor, for everything is going exactly as planned!




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Which of the 24 HBO Streaming Services is Right For You?

It's simple! HBO GO has every HBO series, minus episode 2 of each season. HBO MAX only has each season's episode 2.





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To the Student Stuck in a Toxic Home during the Pandemic

A number of friends and mental health professionals helped me with this post. You know who you are. Thank you.

To the student for whom school is a safer place, but now you’re stuck at home in a toxic environment during the pandemic,

I see you. You’re not invisible. In fact, a lot of people see you and are thinking about you. I can’t tell you how many of my friends and colleagues have brought you up in the past few months, and expressed worry for what you're going through. Hang in there.

When schools started sending students home in March and April, I thought of you immediately. I waited with you to see if schools might open again in a few weeks, but of course that didn't happen. I waited with you hoping this country would get its shit together and start prioritizing realistic approaches to containing the pandemic, so that you'd be able to go back to school in the fall. And now it's clear that many of you won't be able to do that. It's also possible that those of you who can go back won't be able to stay there for long, though I continue to hope it won't play out that way. I, and a lot of people, wish you didn't have this uncertainty pressing down on you right now.

Hang in there!

Here are some tools from my own PTSD toolbox that might help. Some are more immediately helpful, some are stopgaps and temporary coping mechanisms. Some might spark ideas for you:

When possible, create distance from the toxicity. In my own experience, sometimes the smallest amount of distance can help. If you can safely go for a walk now and then, do it. If there's a physical spot where you can be alone sometimes, find it. If you can spend time online with friends, or even socially-distanced time outside, do it. Are you caring for siblings in some way? Is there some way in which you've been placed in the position of caring for your own parents? If so, that's a lot. If you ever have the opportunity to take some time to care for no one but yourself, I hope you won't begrudge yourself that. You deserve care as much as anyone else.

For some of you, maybe there's even some other home where you could live (if only temporarily), like the house of a safe relative or family friend. Have you considered whether that might be the case for you? Give it some serious thought. This is important, though: Before making any major decisions or drastic changes, talk it through with a trusted adult. If you don't have a trusted adult, talk it through with a youth crisis line (see below). Your safety is the most important thing, and setting off an internal family drama may not be worth it and may even be dangerous. Also, you don't want to move yourself into a situation that's just as harmful, or even more so. This leads me to the next step.

Reach out to people who can support you. This might be friends, other family members, teachers, therapists or counselors, anyone in your life who actually sees and cares who you are and what you need when they look at you. Reaching out to trustworthy supports might give you a place to vent some steam and get some validation, and it might also lead to some practical help. Don't be afraid to consider professional organizations and helplines too. The first two organizations below are geared to helping kids and teens in danger of physical and sexual violence, but according to my professional source, they'd likely help if the threat is emotional too. The third organization is open to helping with any kind of crisis:

Safe Place
https://www.nationalsafeplace.org/
Here's a link to find a Safe Place site near you.
Or, to use TXT 4 HELP, text the word “safe” and your current location (city/state/zip) to 4HELP (44357). Within seconds, you will receive a message with the closest Safe Place site and phone number for the local youth agency. You will also have the option to text interactively with a professional for more help.

SafeHouse Center
https://www.safehousecenter.org/friends-family/children-youth-services/ 
https://www.safehousecenter.org/
They have a National HelpLine, available 24/7, at 734-995-5444 (English and Spanish). Advocates and volunteers can answer questions, give support, and provide information and referrals.

Crisis Text Line
https://www.crisistextline.org/
Text HOME to 741741 from anywhere in the United States, anytime. Crisis Text Line is there for any crisis. A live, trained Crisis Counselor receives the text and responds, all from their secure online platform. In the UK, text HOME to 85258. In Ireland, text HOME to 50808.

Note that while these are (inter)national organizations, there are a lot of local organizations as well. Do a little poking around and see what might be available to you, or ask someone you trust to do so.

Journal. This one definitely isn't for everyone, but if it's something you can do safely and if it appeals to you, give writing a try. It can be immensely clarifying — and can help with plans and goals — to write what you're going through and how it feels. I have a journal now, and years of journals stashed somewhere or other, and I'll probably never look at them again… I don't know that I've ever once gone back to look at something I've journaled. But I 100% know it helps me feel understood while I'm doing it, which is what matters.

Do creative projects. Again, this one isn't for everyone, but my larger point is this: If you can find an outlet for your distress, and most especially, a way to express it, so that there can be some way you're telling the truth of your experience to the world rather than bottling it up — it can help. It can allow you to take back your ownership of yourself and your experience, and it can give you power against the lies to which other people are subjecting you. I would venture to say that everything I write is some version of this. (But you don't have to write a book! I also knit, sew, draw, do collage, take pictures, or even get pleasure out of arranging items symbolically in my house. You get to decide what creativity is, and what helps you feel better!)

Find an anthem. This is also in the category of self-expression and connection. Find artists who seem to get what you're going through, and spend time with them. (Of course it doesn't have to be musicians. A book, or a character in a TV show, can do the same thing!) Some of my anthems over the years: "Girl" by Tori Amos. "Oh Father" by Madonna (the link opens a YouTube video).  "No More Drama" by Mary J. Blige. "Cold As It Gets" by Patty Griffin.

Trust your sense of things — while having compassion for your self-doubt.
If you live in a toxic home, there's a good chance that the toxicity around you includes other people's denial of the fact that it's a toxic home. Trust your own unhappiness, anxiety, avoidance, self-loathing, fear. Trust your sense that all is not okay. This self-trust can be challenging no matter what kind of abuse you're experiencing — but I want to give a special shout-out to people experiencing emotional abuse. It can be especially hard to believe your environment is toxic if the damage is "merely" emotional. In fact, it can be hard to metabolize a word like "abuse" when the abuse is "merely" emotional. Surely no one's abusing me? Surely this is just regular life, not abuse?

It's okay if that word doesn't feel right to you. You get to decide what words apply. But trust the panicked feeling you have, the one that's driving you to want to escape. Trust your gut. Something is wrong, whatever you want to call it. A person in your situation deserves help and relief, just like anyone else.

At the same time, this is important: Depending on your situation, you may not be able to do much with your gut realizations at the moment. And if there's not a lot you can do to fix your situation right now, there might be limits to how helpful it is to realize how bad your situation is. So, also have compassion for the ways you end up doubting yourself. It's normal and okay to doubt yourself; it's not a weakness. Your self-doubt may even be a temporary survival mechanism, working hard to keep you safe and get you through this, which is important. Your self-trust, in the meantime, will outlive this situation and be a source of healing someday.

If you can, hold onto your sense of humor. This might not be possible, depending on your situation. But if it is, it can be another release. Example: I once went through a stretch of time during which I had relentlessly recurring dreams that I was moving to a new home that wasn’t emotionally safe for me. When I say relentlessly recurring, I mean that I had some version of this dream every single night for three months. Every single night for three months. Except for one night! One night during this stretch, I had a dream that I was moving to a new home and it was perfect. It had an elegant dining room, fancy staircases, a lounge — it was noticeably bigger and fancier than any of the other homes in any of the other dreams I'd had — and I belonged there, I could be myself there, I was emotionally safe there. I was so, so happy. So were all the other people who apparently lived in this home, because it seem to be sort of like… a gigantic, perfect hotel? It wasn’t until I woke up from this dream that I recognized this “hotel.” We were on the Titanic.

I'm sorry, but that's hilarious. Thank you, unconscious, for cracking me up. If there's anything right now that cracks you up… Hold onto it.

Hang on. Someday you'll be able to build your own life. You will. For now, whenever you can, do get whatever help you can. You deserve it.

I hope something on this list is helpful. If nothing else, remember that I, and so many other people, are thinking about you and pulling for you. There are even people who've dedicated their lives to looking out for you; reach out to them. We know there's light at the end of your tunnel, so hang in there. You're not invisible. We see you!

Love,
Kristin




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Upcoming Changes to Email Delivery

Just a note to those readers who receive my blog post via email: The service that provides this, Feedburner, is shutting down in a couple of weeks, so I'm going to be migrating my subscribers to a new service. If you get an email from me in the next couple of weeks, please pay attention, because you may need to reconfirm your subscription with the new service! 

Thanks, and stay tuned!




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Upcoming Online Events with Gareth Hinds for the GRACELING Graphic Novel!

Hi again folks. Just announcing some upcoming events for the release of Gareth Hinds' graphic novel adaptation of Graceling:

Tuesday, November 16, 7pm - East City Books, online, Gareth Hinds and Kristin Cashore in conversation.

Friday, November 19, 7pm - Oblong Books, online, Gareth Hinds and Kristin Cashore in conversation.

Saturday, November 20, 3pm - Books of Wonder, online, Gareth Hinds, Makiia Lucier (Year of the Reaper), and Kristin Cashore in conversation.

Saturday, November 27, 6pm - An Unlikely Story, Plainville MA -- this event is in-person + Facebook and is just Gareth -- I will not be there -- but that means Gareth will do more drawing and process stuff!

You can pre-order signed copies now from any of those stores. Follow the links to order books or sign up for the events. Hope to see you there!

 


 




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New in Maps: Inspiration curated with Gemini, enhanced navigation and more

From helping you explore even more with Immersive View to taking the stress out of your drive, here are updates on Google Maps you won’t want to miss.




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New road reporting features coming to Waze

Check out Waze’s latest updates, including Conversational Reporting.




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How Google supports veterans and military families

An overview on how we’re honoring and supporting Veterans — and helping everyone benefit from their skills.




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Our AI Opportunity Initiative comes to the Middle East and North Africa

Google is committed to make benefits of AI more accessible and inclusive for everyone in the Middle East and North Africa.



  • Google in the Middle East
  • AI

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What Time Does Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson Fight Release on Netflix?

The highly anticipated Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight is set to arrive soon, and this has sparked major excitement among fans about its release time. Netflix is bringing this exclusive event to its platform, making it accessible for fans wanting to witness the showdown. In it, boxing legend Mike Tyson will go up against […]

The post What Time Does Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson Fight Release on Netflix? appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.




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Yellowstone Season 5: Who Killed John Dutton? Jamie, Sarah or Beth?

Yellowstone recently started airing part 2 of its fifth season. It resumes the journey of the Dutton’s to protect their ranch triggering high-voltage drama and entertainment. However, the most shocking aspect of the season was the death of the family’s patriarch, John Dutton. So, who killed John Dutton in Yellowstone Season 5? Here is everything […]

The post Yellowstone Season 5: Who Killed John Dutton? Jamie, Sarah or Beth? appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.




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Microsoft опубликовал дистрибутив Azure Linux 3.0.20241101

Компания Microsoft опубликовала обновление дистрибутива Azure Linux 3.0.20241101, продолжающее развитие сформированной в августе стабильной ветки 3.0. Дистрибутив развивается в качестве универсальной базовой платформы для Linux-окружений, используемых в облачной инфраструктуре, edge-системах и различных сервисах Microsoft. Собственные наработки проекта распространяются под лицензией MIT. Сборки пакетов формируются для архитектур aarch64 и x86_64. Размер установочного образа 751 МБ.




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DeepMind открыл код AlphaFold 3, AI-системы моделирования структуры белков

Компания Google DeepMind опубликовала исходные тексты системы машинного обучения AlphaFold 3, предназначенной для предсказания трёхмерной структуры белков и моделирования взаимодействия белков с другими типами молекул. За создание алгоритмов машинного обучения, реализованных во второй версии AlphaFold, в этом году присуждена Нобелевская премия по химии. Связанный с AlphaFold 3 инструментарий написан на Python и C++, и распространяется под лицензией CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Натренированные модели предоставляются на основе пользовательского соглашения. Отдельно запущен сервер, позволяющий экспериментировать с AlphaFold 3 в online-режиме.




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A Little About My Story “Apocalypse Considered Through a Helix of Semiprecious Foods and Recipes” Now Out in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

My latest short story is out in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. When I first started writing short stories, back in the 90s, F&SF was one of the ‘big three’ that I really wanted to get a story in to cross off my bucket list. The big three were Asimov’s, F&SF, and Analog. […]




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They Say There’s No Room for Immigrants While Desperate Rural Towns Lie Empty All Across the Western World

Here’s a thing I keep noticing, and it drives me nuts. In Italy, a ship captain is arrested for bringing immigrants to shore after rescuing from them near death at sea: The number of migrants reaching Italy’s shores has drastically diminished – just 2,800 so far this year – and the country is now led […]




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Will Abortion Rights Decide 2024 Election? Amy Littlefield on Trump's Misogyny & 10 Ballot Measures

Kamala Harris is blasting Donald Trump for vowing to protect women whether they “like it or not” at the same time he is calling for Republican Liz Cheney to be shot in the face. We get response from The Nation's abortion access correspondent Amy Littlefield and talk about 10 states with abortion rights on the ballot, including Arizona, Nevada, Florida, South Dakota and Missouri. Trump's remarks are a “succinct and clear definition of patriarchy,” says Littlefield. She argues the 2024 election will be decided in large part by white women and whether they will vote for abortion rights. Trump is “laying out the bargain that white patriarchy has offered for white women in this country,” says Littlefield. “He is saying, 'White women, we will protect you from Brown and Black men.'”




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Juan González: Sitting Out This Election Would Be a Mistake, Just as It Was in 1968

As voters across the United States head to the polls on Election Day, many face “a choice between two unsatisfactory candidates,” says Democracy Now! co-host Juan González. This choice is especially “excruciating” for those “who are outraged by our government’s continued support for Israel’s yearlong genocidal assault on Gaza.” He says the 2024 election has echoes of 1968, when many progressives sat out the election because of anger over Vietnam, but Richard Nixon’s victory and ultimate expansion of the war proved to be disastrous. “It would take many years for some of us to realize we had made a big mistake in sitting out that election. … Making these decisions at the time of election may be difficult but sometimes necessary to do to open up the way for possible change in the future.




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"The Misinformation Web": Maria Hinojosa on the Pro-Trump Propaganda Targeting Latinos in 2024

As Latino voters are a key voting bloc in the 2024 presidential election in battleground states like Nevada, Arizona and Pennsylvania, they have been targeted by a rise in Spanish-language misinformation. Most of the false messaging disparages Kamala Harris and supports Donald Trump, says Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa, host of Latino USA, which investigated the phenomenon in a new episode called “The Misinformation Web.” She interviewed some of the content creators in this “blob” of online vitriol and says there is almost no effective content moderation online, nor many reliable fact-checking sources in Spanish to counter the lies.




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Rami Khouri: U.S. Voters Are Sick of Foreign Wars. Can Trump Strike a Grand Bargain in Middle East?

Shortly after Donald Trump was announced as the winner of the U.S. presidential election, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to social media to enthusiastically congratulate him. Meanwhile, the Israeli military continued its violent assault on Gaza, killing multiple Palestinians in strikes on apartment buildings and homes. We speak to Palestinian American journalist Rami Khouri about what we know of Trump’s pro-Israel policies and how Trump beat Kamala Harris for the presidency. “Trump out-dramatized Harris, and that’s how he won,” he says.




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Fatima Bhutto: Kamala Harris's Support for Israel's Genocide in Gaza Is a Betrayal of True Feminism

With former U.S. President Donald Trump returning to the White House for a second term, we speak with Pakistani author and columnist Fatima Bhutto. Bhutto is an award-winning author and writes a monthly column for Zeteo on world affairs. She criticizes Kamala Harris’s campaign for relying heavily on celebrity endorsements and vague appeals to “joy” while silencing dissent on Gaza as the Biden administration continues backing Israel. “You don’t need to be a man to practice toxic masculinity, and you don’t need to be white to practice white supremacy,” says Bhutto.




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End the Arms: Humanitarian Chief Jan Egeland Urges U.S. to Stop Arming Israel Before Trump Takes Office

Top U.N. officials are again warning that the entire Palestinian population in north Gaza is “at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence.” At least 1,800 Palestinians have been killed, many of them children, since October, when Israel imposed a draconian siege and began an intensified campaign of ethnic cleansing on northern Gaza. Jan Egeland of the Norwegian Refugee Council recently spent several days in Gaza. He describes what he saw as “devastation beyond belief,” as Palestinians face “the most intense and most indiscriminate bombardment anywhere in the world in recent memory,” coupled with the utter depletion of aid. Egeland pleads for the United States, the largest supplier of military funding and equipment to Israel, to condition its weapons to Israel, enforce the provision of aid and commit to ending Israel’s assault. “It’s not in Israel’s interest to destroy its neighborhood in Gaza and in Lebanon. It will create new generations of hatred,” Egeland says.




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"Complete Charade": Qatar Withdraws from Ceasefire Talks, Middle East Prepares for Trump Presidency

We speak with Dutch Palestinian analyst Mouin Rabbani about the latest developments in the Middle East as Israel continues its deadly assaults on Gaza and Lebanon. Qatar recently announced it will no longer act as mediator for ceasefire talks, saying the two sides were not serious about reaching a deal to stop the fighting. “This entire process from the outset has been a complete charade,” Rabbani says of the U.S.-backed ceasefire negotiations, urging Egypt to follow suit and also stop acting as a mediator. Rabbani also discusses how a second Trump administration could deal with the region, saying Trump’s “erratic” behavior makes predictions difficult, but that signs point to a more aggressive posture toward Iran.




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"Hatemonger": Stephen Miller to Hold Key Post as Trump Pushes Mass Detention & Deportation

President-elect Donald Trump reportedly plans to appoint his former senior adviser Stephen Miller as his deputy chief of staff for policy. Miller will play a key role along with Trump’s border czar Tom Homan and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, who will reportedly be the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Miller is the architect of Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda, an avowed white nationalist and a man who is spurred by his “animus to the notion of the United States as a multicultural and multiethnic democracy,” says author Jean Guerrero, author of Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda. Guerrero says the Trump administration’s “obsessive deportation” attempt to “radically reengineer the racial demographics of the United States” will “backfire” on the U.S. economy and destroy “the United States’ global reputation as a safe haven for the persecuted.”




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As Private Prison Stocks Soar, Immigrant Rights Activists Vow to Fight Trump's Mass Deportation Plans

Incoming President Trump’s vow to deport millions of undocumented immigrants when he starts his term has sent private prison stocks soaring. Immigrant rights advocates, including our guest, the executive director of Detention Watch Network, Silky Shah, are preparing for the Trump administration’s threats of mass deportation, a central tenet of his presidential campaign. “The first Trump campaign was defined by the border wall, and this one is really defined by mass deportations,” says Shah. If the Biden administration wants to protect immigrants’ rights before Trump takes office, she adds, it must begin reducing detention capacity by “shutting down facilities now.”




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"American Coup: Wilmington 1898": PBS Film Examines Massacre When Racists Overthrew Multiracial Gov't

American Coup: Wilmington 1898 premieres tonight on PBS and investigates the only successful insurrection conducted against a U.S. government, when self-described white supremacist residents stoked fears of “Negro Rule” and carried out a deadly massacre in Wilmington, North Carolina. Their aim was to destroy Black political and economic power and overthrow the city’s democratically elected, Reconstruction-era multiracial government, paving the way for the implementation of Jim Crow law just two years later. We feature excerpts from the documentary and speak to co-director Yoruba Richen, who explains how the insurrection was planned and carried out, and how the filmmakers worked to track down the descendants of both perpetrators and victims, whose voices are featured in the film.




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Online multiplayer game Nightfall adds Doctor Who for a limited time!

Young gamers in the UK can now transport themselves inside the iconic world of Doctor Who for a limited time in Nightfall, the BBC’s online multiplayer game.







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Two different authorities cannot pass the two orders for confirming demand and dropping demand

The Hon'ble Madras High Court in the case of Asir Automobiles (P.) Ltd. v. Assistant Commissioner (ST), Tuticorin [Writ Petition (MD) No. 3785 to 3789 of 2024 dated July 24, 2024] held that when the Assessee had reversed credit availed on the supplies that were returned for which the supplier had is




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Application of GST registration cancellation cannot be rejected based on scrutiny proceeding against Assessee for determining tax liability of past period

The Hon'ble Delhi High Court in the case of M/s Sanjay Sales India v. Principal Commissioner of Department of Trade and Taxes, Government of NCT, Delhi [Writ Petition (Civil) No. 10234 of 2024 dated July 26, 2024] held that the application for the cancellation of the GST registration cannot be denie




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Elon Musk Might Have a New Role in Donald Trump’s Administration: But What Is It?

Efforts to shape the policies of President-elect Donald Trump through Elon Musk are already underway. On Friday, Americans for Responsible Innovation (ARI), a nonprofit AI advocacy group, initiated a public petition urging Trump to appoint Musk as his special adviser on




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Reliance Jio's True 5G Network Promises Longer Smartphone Battery Life: What You Need to Know

Reliance Jio's ambitious rollout of its True 5G network across India is not just about faster internet speeds or improved connectivity. One of the less talked about, yet significant benefits is the potential enhancement of smartphone battery life. During the company's




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Elon Musk Joins Trump Administration, But Not in the AI Role You'd Expect

In a surprising twist, Elon Musk is joining the Trump administration: not to advise on artificial intelligence or space innovation, but to lead an ambitious new project focused on government efficiency. Alongside entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, Musk will head up the Department




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November 3, 2024: Vote Against The Illuminati

November 5 is Election Day. I'll get back to that in a minute.

But first . . . Once upon a time I did not believe in conspiracy theories. That's why I enjoyed creating Illuminati and INWO. They showed the world through the eyes of a few complete nutballs, and it was a fun place to visit.

Things have changed, and not in a good way. The Internet made it easy for the nutballs to find each other and set up an echo chamber, and a tragic number of people found the simplicity of a Great Evil Conspiracy to be very attractive, compared to the messy complexities of the real world.

Also, some people REALLY ARE awful, and the net let THEM get together, too.

So now I really do believe in one conspiracy theory. If we were to diagram it as an INWO card layout, it would look like this . . .

At the center we have the Illuminati, of course. If we have to pick an analog from the game the Gnomes of Zurich are closest, though the power-mad Bavarians run a close second. At any rate, the real Illuminati here are a loose, but busy, cabal of billionaires who range from "very conservative" through "extremist," plus more than a few of those complete nutballs we were talking about. Between them, they have trillions of dollars to buy everything from individual votes to Supreme Court decisions. And they do.

Surrounding the billionaires are their high-level puppets. I'd assign those slots to:

• Donald Trump. He, in turn, controls the (Fanatic, Violent, Criminal, zero Power but high Transferrable Power) MAGAs. He thinks he controls the Republicans, but they are only paying lip service to him; they are clients of the billionaires.

• The Republican Party. The once-patriotic GOP has become a creature of the billionaires' whims. Yes, there are some decent Republicans left, but just by accepting the party's label they owe their positions to corruption. The Republicans, in turn, control the House of Representatives (still narrowly).

• The Supreme Court. You read the newspapers, right? Enough said. This pickup took decades for the Gnomes to achieve, and it's been worth every penny.

• Russia. Putin himself is part of the billionaire's club. The country, nukes and all, is his personal fiefdom.

We could extend this out to another level of extremists (hello NRA! Hello Cycle Gangs!) and puppets who won't admit who pulls their strings (hello, hello, Big Media!) but you get the idea.

Yep, I believe in one conspiracy now, and that's the one. No flat earth. No faked moon landings. Just a few people with a sizeable proportion of the world's wealth and the conviction that it makes them superior to the masses. And a lot of useful idiots, permitted to think they are free right up until they stop being useful.

After this election, you could be their property. It's the Golden Rule . . . When you have all the gold, you make all the rules.

So, getting back to the election. It's very important that you vote. You can't vote against the Illuminati who are trying to suck America dry. All you can do is vote against their tools. At this stage of the game that is ALL you can do, but it's a start.

Please vote for Kamala Harris. Please vote for the Democratic candidates for state and national offices. Even if you feel that the Democratic platform is terrible. Because if the Democrats win, you'll at least be guaranteed another vote in four years. If the Illuminati win, it's game over.

Steve Jackson

Warehouse 23 News: Weapons For A Bygone Era

Add spice to your Victorian and Wild West campaigns with GURPS High-Tech: Adventure Guns. This catalog describes iconic and unusual firearms from the mid-19th and early-20th centuries, plus new rules and historical insight to make the era come alive. Don your 10-gallon hat or steampunk goggles, and download it today from Warehouse 23!




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November 10, 2024: The Reality Of Tariffs In Tabletop Gaming

Over the next few weeks and months, you'll see social media posts discussing how companies cannot offer holiday bonuses or will have to cut employees due to Trump's tariffs (proposed or enacted).

 

Some of these stories may be fiction or cautionary tales that illustrate the price the average American pays for a politician's decision.

 

But I can 100% tell you this is a reality many business owners in the manufacturing sector now face.

 

If you aren't aware of how tariffs work, it's relatively simple. The company importing the goods from a foreign country pays the fee. If a company has to pay 20%, 60%, or 200% more to bring that item into the United States, who ultimately bears that cost? The American people.

 

Over the last few days, I have been talking at length with my factory representatives, figuring out how much of an item I need to order now to offset any expanded costs later. In addition, we are looking at where we can move manufacturing to outside of China (hard mode, not a lot of places outside of China or Europe produce boardgame components at the scale our industry uses).

 

I've been speaking with my shipping representatives about the increasing freight costs we expect to see with a rise in tariffs. We're already paying extreme freight prices, which will only go up as demand increases. The last time tariffs were levied on Chinese manufactured goods, freight costs went up.

 

Now I am in a position that forces me to examine how much we may need to raise prices if the most extreme of the proposed tariffs goes into effect.

 

I'm also trying to do right by my staff. But I can only do so much, you know? How long can business owners incur these costs, protect our staff, and not have consumers pay through the nose? Can I accept breaking even for the time being to keep my people employed and our games affordable? But what happens when the company starts losing money?

 

Many CEOs and business owners are staring down this reality right now. This isn't just a theoretical exercise. We have to plan for the worst.

 

So, what do I plan to do about this? I will be even more present in my local and state business associations that have direct links to policy makers in D.C. I will take every opportunity to speak directly to those who have a say in this new administration about why this isn't good for the economy. I'm just a tiny player in the world of manufacturing. But I do know the power of my voice. And more importantly, I know the power your voice holds as well.

 

You can start putting pressure on your elected (or newly elected) officials by writing, calling, or contacting them through their open channels (many of them love social media). Tell them you do not want these proposed tariffs, and let them know how these cost increases will impact you. Hold them to their promises. Make your voice heard. 

We are all in this together. 


Meredith Placko

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