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How it works: You and your new friend open the ‘Instant Friend’ on your smartphones, you then scan the barcode displayed on your friends device, select ‘Add’ and that is it. If your device is offline no problem, when you get a signal just tap ‘History’.
There is one thing to note, Instant Friend post directly on to your Facebook wall when you install it and also when you add a friend with it, so if you do not want this to happen click on the ‘X’ to remove the post or to remove the Publishing Rights of Instant Friends.
This is a great OS app for those that are constantly on the go and can be downloaded for FREE from Android Market. If you install the Instant Friend app on your device, please return to tell us what you think of it.
The State Board of Education has told the Normandy School District to reverse years of poor student performance, or face a state takeover.
The board voted unanimously to revoke the district’s state accreditation.
The board says Normandy met only five of 14 standards on its annual performance report last month … a range Normandy has been for at least six years now.
Normandy is one of three struggling schools in a high-poverty part of north St. Louis County, which includes Riverview Gardens and Wellston, both of which have also lost state accreditation in recent years.
"As a result of both the court's 10 August, 2007 ruling and our entry into Chapter 11, there is substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern," read part of a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, made on Tuesday.
The final straw in SCO's financial crisis seems to have been the judge's decision that its 2003 licensing of Unix to Sun and Microsoft means that SCO now owes Novell a share of the fees generated by that business. The amount in question still has to be calculated by the court — and Novell's efforts to extract its money are on hold while SCO remains under Chapter 11 protection — but it could be as much as $30m (£15m), which is the amount claimed by Novell, including interest.
"If a significant cash payment is required, or significant assets are put under a constructive trust, the carrying amount of our long-lived assets may not be recovered," read SCO's Tuesday statement, which also conceded the dangers of remaining under Chapter 11 protection for too long. "So long as the Chapter 11 cases continue, our senior management will be required to spend a significant amount of time and effort dealing with the bankruptcy reorganisation instead of focusing exclusively on business operations. A prolonged continuation of the Chapter 11 cases may also require us to seek additional financing. If we require additional financing during the Chapter 11 cases and we are unable to obtain the financing on favourable terms or at all, our chances of successfully reorganising our businesses may be seriously jeopardised."
The filing also confirmed that the judge's decision had scuppered most of SCO's claims against IBM — it had claimed that IBM's inclusion of Unix code in Linux infringed upon SCO's intellectual property — although SCO still intends to pursue a claim against IBM of "unfair competition" arising from the Project Monterey initiative in the late 1990s.
Also revealed in the filing was the scale at which SCO's Unix business has been declining — for which SCO blames Linux. "Revenue from the Unix business decreased by $2,704,000, or 37 percent, for the three months ended 31 July, 2007 compared to the three months ended 31 July, 2006 and revenue from the Unix business decreased by $5,103,000, or 23 percent, for the nine months ended 31 July, 2007 compared to the nine months ended 31 July, 2006."
Who is the villain of the battle of Palashi?
If you respond, “Mir Jafar”, I'm afraid your schooling failed you.
Around Class 3 or so, we were studying Zainul Abedin for our Bangla classes. My peers from English medium schools will remember Bangla textbooks as quaint things on cheap paper with dated ink illustrations and with a very unglamorous focus on rote memorisation of dates and places, and full of essays written in difficult words that you aren't supposed to know; you just have to memorise the glossary at the end to pass your class tests. As a text, it left much to be desired, which was a shame as this was the primary source we had for Bengali history. This, and Bangladesh Studies, which was similarly ramshackle and much more interested in minutiae.
Zainul Abedin's chapter had the usual guff on where he was born and which schools he went to and when he died and so forth. This is fascinating information to certain people who have gone on to build their adult lives around it, but I can't remember any of it and I doubt you can either. Regardless, he was vastly more interesting than many of the other personalities we were introduced to through the Bangla curriculum—and what made him memorable were his depictions of the famine.
Durbhikkho. That's what we knew it as being. Those images are unforgettable. The sheer horror will stay with us for the rest of our lives.
I'd always been fascinated by history, though while I was studying Bangla, I didn't realise that I was also studying history. To me History was the illustrated, glossy, and very readable English textbooks my brother, five years ahead in the same school, was assigned. During the year-end holidays, my parents would buy his new textbooks, and it was my hobby to read them in their entirety before his classes began. Well, not all of them: maths and Bangla I never touched willingly. Geography and science I'd look into, and history I would devour. I was five years ahead than school's history classes (I did poorly in my actual tests because by the time it was my turn to study them properly I'd already tired of the material), and I'd been raised on fat illustrated encyclopedias. These, along with my brother's textbooks, were invariably British. I grew into a budding Anglophile automatically, and absorbed the ideas and prejudices in those attractive textbooks and encyclopedias.
World War II was one of my favourite topics to read about. So, of course, I was a big fan of Churchill. What's not to like? He led Britain through the war and defeated Hitler, and was a funny fat man with a cigar and hat. That was how I thought of him: The British bulldog. While I was reading about Zainul Abedin for class, I was using my free time to read about Churchill.
At no point did anyone tell me that the two were connected. Call it laziness or a lack of curiosity, but if you're pretending to teach me history, and you are actually covering Zainul Abedin there is no excuse for failing to get into this.
I first read about the Bengal Famine in university. I was 21. It's relatively common knowledge now that Churchill intentionally starved Bengalis to create food reserves for British troops. This is thanks to people like Shashi Tharoor and the recent surge in the UK of people questioning Churchill's legacy. I am unsure how I would have felt, as a child, if someone had told me the hero from my encyclopedias was callously responsible for inspiring Abedin's paintings. There might be an argument that children should be shielded from graphic knowledge, but this isn't something that flies in Bangladesh—we were shown the actual paintings, and each of us grows up being taught in detail about the Pakistani regime. Heck, which of us didn't grow up being taught by our teachers to draw soldiers shooting at protesting crowds?
If our schools can exert so much energy in making us remember the depredations of our most recent masters, why do they slack in the condemnation of those that created Pakistan and Partition and all the centuries of woe?
Yes, we are told, broadly, that the British despoiled us, but this isn't enough. When we're taught about famines, in the absence of the crucial narrative of what engineered this disaster, we are left with no choice but to imagine it as an organic failing of nature, or of people. We get it hammered home to us that this is a golden, verdant land, so naturally all the famine and poverty we read about, and the trash and human misery we see around us, every day (in such contrast to the world we see in our American TV channels)—well, the only explanation is that we were responsible.
Imagine what that does to a child's outlook on themselves and the country that they are so rigidly taught to love: a nation that's so incompetent it can't even feed itself reliably. A nation whose colonial history, if at all taught, seems to all stem from the story of Nawab Sirajuddaulah.
It's understandable that the British-based history curriculum English medium schools follow do not provide a proper breakdown of colonialism's legacies, if they touch on it at all. Yet, the fact that such conversations are popping up in the UK should be a mark of shame for us—we do not even attempt to critique their narratives, or explain what really happened from the perspective of those who were victimised. This is very dangerous given how the UK exerts such a stranglehold on our education aspirations—one that I personally have not escaped. Our schools have a responsibility to teach history beyond just parroting what the textbooks say, and really talking about who bears responsibility.
To be taught to blame Palashi on Mir Jafar does nothing but confirm to us that we as a nation are greedy simpletons who engineer our own destructions. A proper education in history will teach students to vilify Clive, a name that was never mentioned, at any point, during any of my history instruction, regardless of subject or language. This is not a call for nativism or Anglophobia—it's a simple call to stand up for ourselves and speak the truth. If we can teach children exactly how each Bir Shreshtho died, they can handle being taught about colonialism.
Zoheb Mashiur is an artist and an MA candidate in International Migration at the University of Kent. Read more of this sort of thing in Disconnect: Collected Short Fiction.
There are new comics in comic shops and available for download on many of your favorite digital devices (no, not your microwave) every Wednesday. I have recommendations for you. One of them is a limited time offer... for a digital comic. Go figure.
American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest #2 American vampire hunters go to Romania to find a cure for vampirism and not get killed by Nazis. The first issue of this mini-series was excellent.
Captain America #1 They're re-starting Captain America. Official summary: ""Bestselling Cap writer Ed Brubaker and superstar artist Steve McNiven bring you the next huge chapter in Steve Rogers life, and it's a perfect jumping-on point for fans of the Cap movie. A funeral for a fallen friend turns into a race against time as the original Captain America makes his explosive return!"
DC Comics Presents: Batman Gotham Noir #1: This $8 comic contains an old Batman story by the aforementioned writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips, whose sharp, tense Sleeper, Criminal and Incognito series have been some of the best gritty crime comics published in recent years. Their comics aren't flashy but they are consistently very good.
FF #7 I've been enjoying this new take on the Fantastic Four a lot, but I don't know the group's history, so you tell me why this official summary is meaningful: "The Return of the King. Black Bolt is back and is determined to reclaim his throne."
Red Wing #1 A new series from Jonathan Hickman, writer of Marvel's stellar FF series. Official summary: "To stay alive in the future, the best fighter pilots in the world not only have to perfect their skills and master their aircraft, they also have to know how to travel through time. Brought to you by award winning writer Jonathan Hickman and possibly the best new talent of the year, Nick Pitarra, the Red Wing is the story of the greatest battle in the history of the history of three worlds.
X-Men: Schism One of my favorite super-hero comics writers, Jason Aaron, begins his X-Men run with this. Official summary: ""The X-Men event of the decade starts here! It's never been a more dangerous time to be a mutant. Even with their numbers at a record low, the world refuses to trust mutantkind…and after a mutant-triggered international incident, anti-mutant hatred hits new heights. Of course it's at this moment, when the mutant race needs most to stand together, that a split begins that will tear apart the very foundation of the X-Men. From superstar writer and Marvel Architect Jason Aaron and a full roster of comics' top artists, this is an X-tale that will reverberate for years to come!"
Crysis 2 Official summary: "Trapped on the Lingshan islands in the South Pacific, Prophet and the survivors of Raptor Team are on the move, trying to stay one step ahead of the alien invaders awoken by the North Koreans. While hiding, Prophet reveals the details of his last mission in Columbia, how he came to meet the mysterious Jacob Hargreave, and how their mission on Lingshan may hold the key to mankind's survival."
Pokémon Black and White Vols. 1 & 2 Official summary: "Meet Pokémon trainers Black and White! White has a burgeoning career as a Trainer of performing Pokémon. Black is about to embark on a training journey to explore the Unova region and fill a Pokédex for Professor Juniper."
Star Wars: The Old Republic: Lost Suns #2 official summary: "There are dark secrets behind the treaty that brought peace to the galaxy and an end to the war between the Jedi of the Republic and the Sith Empire. Now, with rumors of the secrets spreading, the galaxy is afraid a new war may be beginning . . . Elite Republic spy Theron Shan has been assigned to find the old Jedi Master behind these rumors. Previously thought lost forever in Sith territory, Ngani Zho is back and more peculiar than before he left. Theron has his hands full with Zho, a troublesome thief, and the threatening Sith Knights who are also on Zho's trail!"
The ComiXology Comics app and website offer a fresh batch of new and old digital comics this week (though beware that Marvel doesn't offer comics on all of the services' platforms). Highlights this week include the first few issues of Todd McFarlane's 1990 Spider-Man series (but don't blame me if the writing isn't very good) and a bath of recent standalone ".1" issues from Marvel, the best of which were Wolverine #5.1 and Secret Avengers #12.1 (only one of those is about a birthday party for Wolverine). But the highlight and best value is the Planetary Digital Omnibus, which is a limited edition $25 collection of the great series' 27-issue run. The series is about a group of superpowered investigators whose tours through the world's oddest events had them intersecting with thinly-disguised versions of some of the most iconic moments in comics history. This is one of writer Warren Ellis' best comics, if not his best. The only problem here is that it's a limited edition which, of course, makes no sense for a digital product.
I didn't read many comics last week and few of those were very good. I enjoyed the first two issues of Mystery Men, a Marvel mini-series about some new pulp Marvel heroes who fight crime in the 30s (a new issue is out today). I liked that latest issue of FF. But the best comic of the small batch that I read was Nick Spencer's Secret Avengers #14, which was a standalone story about the experiences of super-powered and non-super-powered people who see their loved ones killed on the battlefield. Well-paced, well-told, as Nick Spencer's comics almost always are. It's strong and one of the few cross-overs with the Fear Itself series that I've liked, but it's not essential.
Sydney Masciarelli breaks the tape at the Foot Locker Northeast Regional Championship at Van Cortlandt Park in 17:12.60.
Three local cross-country runners posted top-three finishes at the Foot Locker Northeast Regional Championship on Saturday morning at Van Cortlandt Park in New York.
Marianapolis Prep sophomore and Northbridge resident Sydney Masciarelli won the girls’ race in 17:12.60, while Natick senior Grace Connolly finished third with a time of 17:27.50.
Brookline senior Lucas Aramburu took second in the boys’ race with a time of 15:37.10. Two other Massachusetts runners also posted top-10 finishes as all five qualified for the Foot Locker National Championship on Dec. 8.
The 15-year-old Masciarelli pulled away from Starliper (17:17.50) down the stretch to win the girls’ race. She claimed the top time in her first season running cross-country after playing soccer as a freshman.
Connolly had a comfortable cushion of almost 22 seconds between her and fourth-place finisher Abby Loveys of Randolph, N.J., but was outkicked by Masciarelli and Starliper down the stretch. The three-time state champion still bested her fourth-place finish in the 2016 regionals after not finishing last year’s race because of injury.
Natick senior Grace Connolly finishes third at the Foot Locker Northeast Regional Championship at Van Cortlandt Park.
Aramburu stayed with the leaders throughout the boys’ race, just edging Connor Nisbet of Wilmington, Del. (15:37.70) and Liam Murphy of Allentown, N.J. (15:38.20) for second place. His time of 15:37.10 was seven seconds behind winner Jack Stanley of Mendham, N.J. (15:30.20), and also bested his third-place finish in the same event last year by seven-tenths of a second.
Northfield Mount Hermon’s Richard Sturtevant also qualified for Nationals in the boys’ event, placing 10th with a time of 15:41.30. Littleton’s Sarah Roffman qualified in the girls’ race with a ninth-place finish of 18:12.10.
All five runners will head to Balboa Park in San Diego to race in Nationals on Dec. 8. Connolly finished ninth in the event in 2016, while Aramburu placed 38th last year. Masciarelli, Sturtevant, and Roffman all qualified for the first time.
Brookline senior Lucas Aramburu finishes second overall, just ahead of a pack at the Foot Locker Northeast Regional Championship at Van Cortlandt Park.
As you read these words, disaster may be about to strike in the galloping crisis of the European financial system and the euro. Or it may not — yet.
On November 30, the imminent threat of a banking system implosion stirred the European Central Bank (ECB), the US Federal Reserve, Bank of England and central banks of Japan, Canada and Switzerland, into taking the minimum action needed to prevent a “Lehman Brothers event” collapsing the European financial system.
After months of relentless propaganda by mining companies and the corporate media, the idea of taxing the super profits of the big mining companies remains a popular measure. Recent Essential Research polling said 51% support such a tax (up from 50% since July 2010). Opposition to it rose from 28% to 33%.
Community and Public Sector Union Tasmania general secretary Tom Lynch gave the speech below to a 4500-strong rally in Hobart on November 12. The rally was held in protest at the Labor-Greens state government’s budget cutbacks.
While external forces often determine the overall direction a government takes, the path it chooses to get there is for it to determine based on its values and beliefs and the will of the people it represents.
Italy faces a wave of devastating International Monetary Fund (IMF) imposed austerity as European leaders struggle to contain the spreading debt crisis by disenfranchising their own citizens.
On November 4, at the end of the G20 meeting in Cannes, the President of the EU Commission Jose Barroso announced that “Italy has asked on its initiative to the IMF to monitor its commitment to fiscal and economic reforms”.
From writing stories about workers being sacked during the 2009 global financial crisis, Elisabeth Wynhausen, a journalist at Rupert Murdoch’s The Australian, got a taste of the real thing when she was handed a pink slip of her own.
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams led a dramatic walkout from the Dublin parliament (Dail) on November 2. The protest was over the coalition government’s decision to hand over more than €700 million to an unknown private investor in the failed Anglo Irish Bank.
Finance minister Michael Noonan admitted in the Dail there was no legal obligation to refund the bond investment, which was not covered by the former government’s bank guarantee.
With the government refusing a debate on the matter, Adams led the walkout of Sinn Fein and United Left Alliance parliamentarians.
In the space of barely more than a weekend, the deal that was supposed contain the euro crisis has unravelled entirely. The call for a referendum on the so-called rescue package by Greek Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou, later retracted under huge pressure, merely capped its rapid unravelling.
The prospect that the European Unions’ principal victims could be asked their opinion of the policies inflicted on them provoked near-hysteria in respectable quarters. EU leaders, Greek politicians, and the financial markets united to denounce the threat of an unseemly democratic intrusion.
On October 18, about 200 students held a “Save Political Economy” demonstration at the University of Sydney, organised by the Political Economy Students Society (EcopSoc).
The university administration is considering abolishing political economy as a separate department.
The department was established in the 1970s after a big campaign of protests and occupations by students and staff who wanted economics courses that taught a wide range of theories — not just the right-wing orthodoxy.
What stance should the European left take towards the euro and its galloping crisis?
This issue, which began as a theoretical discussion among radical economists in late 2009, has increasingly acquired practical political urgency: left parties are being challenged to define their position in the face of rising popular resentment at governments forking out billions in taxpayer euros to bail-out banks and indebted “Club Med” countries.
MY CAUSE MY CLEATS - NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS TOM BRADY SIGNED AND GAME WORN CUSTOM CLEATS.
All proceeds benefit charities identified by the specific player associated with the cleats, the NFL does not profit from the auction of these cleats.
Please also note that cleats may take up to 90 days after the close of the auction to receive.
PBS has suspended its longtime late-night talker Tavis Smiley after looking into allegations of sexual conduct against its host.
There were no details provided about the alleged misconduct, but our sister site Variety cites sources as saying a lawyer at the firm hired to conduct the investigation took reports from 10 witnesses, a mix of men and women of different races and employment levels in Smiley’s organization. Most of them are former staffers.
In October 2015, Warner Bros TV signed an exclusive multi-year development and production pod deal with Smiley — who’s also a broadcaster, author and producer — to develop scripted TV series for broadcast and cable.
The suspension comes three weeks after PBS canceled Charlie Rose amid numerous sexual misconduct allegations against that show’s host.
Our sister site Variety first reported the Smiley news.
SATURN’S moon Titan contains deep lakes, rivers and seas which could support life, scientists have revealed.
Petrol-like liquids flow over the rocky landscape, at times as deep as 100 meters, data obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft showed.
Because of Titan's complex chemistry, scientists suspect it could harbour life, particularly in its underground ocean of water.
But it is also theorised by some scientists that alien life on Titan might use methane, not water, as its vital ingredient.
Titan and Earth are the only two places in the solar system with standing bodies of liquid on the surface — extremely rare in space.
"Titan is the most Earth-like body in the solar system,” Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory planetary scientist Shannon MacKenzie said.
“It has lakes, canyons, rivers, dune fields of organic sand particles about the same size as silica sand grains on Earth," he added.
Titan, with a diameter of 3,200 miles, is bigger than Mercury and is the solar system's second-largest moon, behind only Jupiter's Ganymede.
Researchers described landforms akin to mesas towering above the nearby landscape, topped with liquid lakes comprised mainly of methane.
The scientists suspect the lakes formed when surrounding bedrock chemically dissolved and collapsed, a process that occurs with a certain type of lake on Earth.
The scientists also described "phantom lakes" that during wintertime appeared to be wide but shallow ponds - perhaps only a few inches deep - but evaporated or drained into the surface by springtime, a process taking seven years on Titan.
The findings represented further evidence about Titan's hydrological cycle, with liquid hydrocarbons raining down from clouds, flowing across its surface and evaporating back into the sky — comparable to Earth's water cycle.
Warmer temperatures are here to stay now, but the winds have yet to slow down.
PORT SAINT LUCIE — As we get into May weather, it's still blowing out there most days. Warmer temperatures are here to stay now, but the winds have yet to slow down.
The rainy season is bringing much needed rain to the area and that means run off water draining into the rivers and bringing back the polluted waters into the Treasure Coast.
Hopefully this year will bring about the change necessary to clean up the waterways.
Snook fishing has remained steady in spite of the recent full moon. Lots of jacks around the river to keep anglers busy. The mackerel have moved into the inlets and will hit small shiny lures.
The Treasure Coast Casters had their last monthly tournament of the school year recently. The championship tournament will be held this month for the Treasure Coast Caster of the Year.
I have Nick, Josh and Michael in the boat for the April tournament. We started off around the docks. Nick and Michael both landed sheepshead around the docks.
After one short redfish, Josh lost a big red under the docks. Nick caught a nice pompano that wasn't on the fish list. We ended up in the turning basin and found the mackerel everywhere.
The boys caught ten quickly and everyone had fish to check in for the weigh-in. Nick finished first place Middle School.
Michael and Josh came in second and third place Middle School. It was another exciting tournament for all! The water on the grass flats has been clean lately.
The winds will stir it up some days, but it has held up nicely. It's time to get out the DOA Deadly Combo on the flats for trout and redfish.
Awesome lure that will help you find where the fish are hanging out in the shallow water.

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