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Haigh (/heɪ/) is a village and civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan in Greater Manchester, England. Historically a part of Lancashire, it is located next to the village of Aspull. The western boundary is the River Douglas which separates the township from Wigan. To the north a small brook running into the Douglas divides it from Blackrod. At the 2001 census it had a population of 594.
Haigh is derived from the Old English haga, a hedge and means "the enclosure". The township was variously recorded as Hage in 1193, Hagh in 1298, and Haghe, Ha and Haw in the 16th century.
Between 1220 and 1230 the manor was part of the Marsey fee. Hugh de Haigh, probably Hugh le Norreys paid 3 marks in 1193–4 for having the king's good will. Richard de Orrell granted land in Haigh to Cockersand Abbey in 1220. In 1282 Hugh le Norreys was lord of Haigh. His daughter Mabel married William Bradshagh and in 1298 they inherited the manors of Haigh and Blackrod from Mabel's father. Bradshagh took part in Adam Banastre's rebellion in 1315 for which he was outlawed and by 1317 his manors were confiscated by the crown and granted to Peter de Limesey. William was presumed dead and Mabel remarried, but he returned in 1324 and killed Mabel's new husband. Sir William was killed at Winwick in August 1333. As penance, a legend states that Mabel walked barefoot from Wigan to Haigh every week for the rest of her life. The legend was made into a novel by Sir Walter Scott, and is remembered by Mab's Cross in Wigan Lane. In 1336 and 1337 Mabel Bradshaigh arranged for the succession of the manors to her husband's nephews; Haigh to William, son of John de Bradshagh, and Blackrod to Roger, son of Richard. In 1338 she founded a chantry in Wigan Church. She held the manor until 1346.
Early in 1365 Roger de Bradshagh of Westleigh claimed the manor from William de Bradshagh and Sir Henry de Trafford. Thomas de Bradshagh took part in the Rising of the North of 1403 and was present at the Battle of Shrewsbury and was later pardoned by Henry IV. Edward Bradshaigh (d. 1652), a Carmelite friar – known as Elias à Jesu – was the fourth son of Roger Bradshaigh. Three brothers were Jesuits, and one brother a secular priest. Sir Roger Bradshaigh MP, was created a baronet in 1679 (see Bradshaigh baronets). Sir Roger Bradshaigh, the third Baronet, MP for Wigan for over 50 years, was Father of the House in the House of Commons from 1738 to 1747. Over time the name has been variously recorded as Bradshagh, Bradshaghe and Bradshaw. The Bradshaigh variant dates from about 1518.
On 1 June 1780 Elizabeth Dalrymple, great niece of the fourth Baronet and heiress of Haigh as a result of the failure of the male line in her maternal family (Bradshaigh), married Alexander Lindsay, 6th Earl of Balcarres. In 1787 the Earls of Crawford (after 1848, the Earls of Crawford and Balcarres) moved their seat to Haigh Hall for several generations. A manor house had stood on the Haigh estate since the Middle Ages. The present hall was built between 1827 and 1840 on the site of the ancient manor house, by Alexander's son the 7th Earl Balcarres who designed and supervised its construction whilst living in a cottage in the grounds. James, the 9th Earl, a bibliophile, established an extensive library at the hall. David, the 11th Earl sold the hall and grounds to Wigan Corporation in 1947 for £18,000 and moved back to the family's original home in Balcarres.
In 1540 John Leland reported that Sir Roger Bradshaigh had discovered a seam of cannel coal on his estate which could be burnt or carved by hand or machine into ornaments. It was an excellent fuel, easily lit, burned with a bright flame and left virtually no ash. It was widely used for domestic lighting in the early 19th century before the incandescent gas mantle was available but lost favour when coal gas made it obsolete. The cannel coal was mined from Tudor times but by the mid-1600s the mines were wet and started flooding. To remedy this, between 1653 and 1670, Sir Roger Bradshaw built a sough or adit, the Great Haigh Sough which ran for about a mile under his estate. It still drains water from the ancient workings. The Bradshaws successors, the Earls of Crawford and Balcarres, founded the Wigan Coal and Iron Company in 1865. Collieries in Haigh belonging the Wigan Coal and Iron Company in 1896 were the Alexandra, Bawkhouse, Bridge, Lindsay and Meadow Pits.
The central workshops for Balcarres' collieries in Haigh and Aspull were built on the north bank of the canal between 1839 and 1841. The forge, smithy, joinery and fitting shops were powered by a steam engine. The site became the sawmill for the Wigan Coal and Iron Company's pits and Kirkless Iron and Steel Works. The Georgian office block survives.
Haigh Foundry was opened in the steep-sided Douglas valley in 1788 by the 6th earl, his brother and Mr Corbett an iron founder from Wigan. It was an iron works producing pig iron and castings. Brock Mill Forge, of even earlier origins, was acquired. From 1808, the firm manufactured winding engines and pumps for the mining industry. In 1812, it built Lancashire's first locomotive and two more by 1816. In 1835 E. Evans and T.C. Ryley took a 21-year lease. They built 0-4-0 and 2-2-0 locomotives, subcontracted from Edward Bury. In 1837, Ajax was supplied to the Leicester and Swannington Railway, followed by Hector, an 0-6-0. In 1838 two broad gauge locomotives were built for the Great Western Railway. Four saddle tank locomotives designed by Daniel Gooch were built for the South Devon Railway. Long boiler locomotives were built for Jones and Potts and three locomotives were built for T.R.Crampton. In 1855 two 0-8-0 locomotives were built for use in the Crimean War, hauling guns up inclines as steep as 1 in 10. Over 100 locomotives were built before the lease expired in 1856.
In 1848, Haigh produced a beam engine of 100 inch bore by 12 feet stroke, possibly the largest in the world at that time. During the same decade, it supplied massive swing bridges for Albert Dock, Liverpool and Hull Docks - both extant in 2011. A new lease was signed by Birley & Thompson who concentrated on mining machinery, mill engines and large iron fabrications. Until 1860, castings had to be carted up the hill out of the valley and records exist of at least 48 horses being hired from farmers to move a single casting. A railway was built but was re-routed a few years later. The foundry lease was given up in 1884 and the works closed in 1885. Several of Haigh's engineers left to form engine building companies - Walker Brothers, Ince Forge and Worsley Mesnes Ironworks Ltd.
Much of the site, with the exception of Brock Mill Forge, was intact in 2011 and the route of the mineral railway, including four bridges, is little changed. The foundry has been demolished but the site is used for manufacturing. The cast iron gateposts remain and a four storey building and chimney by the River Douglas. The foundry drawing office was on Wingates Road in a building with large windows and a stone floor supported by cast iron columns.
Lying within the historic county boundaries of Lancashire since the early 12th century, Haigh was a township in the ecclesiastical parish of Wigan in the Hundred of West Derby. It was part of the Wigan Poor Law Union which after 1837 took responsibility for the administration and funding of the Poor Law in that area. Haigh was part of the Wigan Rural Sanitary District until 1894 and Wigan Rural District from 1894 until 1974.
Haigh's western boundary is the River Douglas and a small brook, a tributary of the Douglas, divides it from Blackrod in the north. The township which covers 2198 acres is on ground that rises towards the east and north. The village, about 2½ miles northeast of Wigan, is near the Aspull boundary at about 520 ft (160 m) above sea level. Haigh Hall Country Park occupies 250 acres of woods and parkland on south-western slopes. To the east are Winter Hill and the West Pennine Moors.
Roads lead north to Blackrod, west to Standish, and south to Wigan and Aspull. The Lancaster Canal portion of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal crosses the western part of the township near the River Douglas. Haigh's underlying rocks are the sandstones, shales and ironstones of the Middle Coal Measures of the Lancashire Coalfield and coal and cannel were extensively mined. The Great Haigh Fault throws the Cannel and King Coal seams close to the surface at Haigh and deeper seams outcropped east of the fault within Haigh Hall Estate. The deepest seam of the Middle Coal Measures, the Arley outcrops a quarter mile north of the estate boundary, Arley Brook.
According to the United Kingdom Census 2001, the civil parish of Haigh had a population of 594.
Haigh Windmill, the only remaining windmill in Greater Manchester, was built in 1845 and supplied well water to John Sumner & Company's Haigh Brewery which, until the 1950s, was situated behind the Balcarres Arms public house. The disused windmill was restored in 2011 in a £60,000 scheme made possible by Heritage Lottery Funding. The damaged brickwork was repaired and a broken and missing sail replaced.
Henry Eastman was the engineer for part of the Lancaster Canal to Haigh which was completed in 1799. This is the section where the canal joined the western arm of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal near Wigan Top Lock. In 1810 the Leeds and Liverpool Canal Company was allowed to use the Lancaster Canal south of Johnson's Hillock and the two joined in 1816. The canal passed through the Haigh estate and a Packet House for goods, mail and passengers was built near the Wigan Road entrance.
The Springs Branch Railway which ran from Ince Moss to Haigh and Aspull opened in 1838. There was a station at Red Rock which opened in 1869 on the Lancashire Union Railway. A waiting room was maintained for the occupants of Haigh Hall from 1870 until they left in 1946. The station was closed in 1949.
St David's Church is a Commissioners' church built as a chapel of ease to Wigan All Saints. The architect was Thomas Rickman and it was consecrated in 1833. In 1838 the parish of Haigh and Aspull was formed. The Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception was founded as a mission in 1853 and the church opened in 1858. |
The Series of conferences started in 1985 in Delft, and has since travelled through Eindhoven, Boston, Zurich, Pittsburgh, Singapore, Munich, and Atlanta. The location allocation optimization of a highly accessible pedestrian and street network grid still remains a complex process especially with neighbourhoods suffering from severe socio-economic deprivation. Information about the 2001 Conference and this book is available from: www. In the present paper we explore the potential benefits of such an integration in the area of statistical forecasting. The purpose is to provide examples of innovative research in decision support systems in urban planning from throughout the world. One of the significant advantages of the spatial microsimulation approach adopted by this project is that it enables the user to query any combination of variables that is deemed desirable for policy analysis. After outlining how this can be implemented in a case-based design supporting tool, the paper concludes with a discussion of advantages and downsides the use of the tool might entail.
Applications of Neural Networks for Landslide Susceptibility Mapping in Turkey; E. This paper proposes an alternative approach to land suitability analysis that does address the problem of uncertainty. Category: Architecture Author : Richard K. The purpose is to provide examples of innovative research in decision support systems in urban planning from throughout the world. For understanding and realizing puzzles in design learning, this research is divided into two stages of researches—manual design puzzles and interactive design puzzles. The purpose of this tool is to make design decisions quantitatively checkable and transparent.
The paper reports progress in meeting the above aims and outlines the associated difficulties and data issues. Contemporary advanced virtual reality systems use different stereoscopic 3D visualization technologies. In particular, Bayesian decision networks are suggested as a means of knowledge representation for agents in a multi-agent land use simulation system. The two scholars further add that the most important issue today to hospitals in relation to modern architecture is having a natural setting and good ventilation. The approach is illustrated by using the design of office spaces as an example. Together they present a broad view of support systems, in-depth developmental histories of the most important models and tools as told by their creators, and a provocative, in-the-trenches critique of the state of the art. The information transmitted by image element shape, colour, light,.
The identified criteria will be used in a discriminating way to associate a weight with an indexation term describing its representation illustrated by an image. The book reviews research, development, and industrial implementation of product and process model technology in construction. A large dynamic spatial micro-simulation model is being constructed for the population of Leeds approximately 715,000 individuals based on spatial microsimulation techniques in conjunction with a range of data, including 2001 Census data for Output Areas and sample data from the British Household Panel Survey. The outcome achieved a set of relatively optimal solutions with evaluation based upon a distance-based fitness objective function of various public service structures. The development of such an online procedural framework is a very first attempt to employ the capabilities of procedural automation with evolutionary computation to automatically generate and optimize the placement of a large number of building models. The papers accepted for presentation thoroughly cover the entire field of human—computer interaction, addressing major advances in knowledge and effective use of computers in a variety of application areas.
Puzzle making and puzzle solving provides an incremental exploration mechanism that is more intuitive for design learning. Images in our databases illustrate real architectural elements. Improved Understanding of Urban Sprawl Using Neural Networks; L. Land suitability analysis typically involves the assessment of the suitability of land units without knowing the future spatial distribution of land use. Then, road networks within a 1-kilometer radius of the robbed convenience stores were extracted from digital maps with a scale of one-twenty five within a 1-kilometer radius of the robbed convenience stores were extracted from digital maps with a scale of one-twenty five hundredth Geographical Survey Institute and Bureau of City Planning Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
To avoid this problem the Netherlands Institute for Spatial Research developed mapmaking software called RasterPlan. The book is comprised of three parts: Part 1: Geosimulation and land use plan Part 2: Geo Visualization and urban design Part 3: Geography information system and planning support Category: Science Author : Michael J. This paper discusses the approach and illustrates its use in the context of a retail agent. Bayesian decision networks model the uncertainty in terms of probabilities specified in the network representing the expertise of specialists with respect to specific land uses. For example, scholars working on architectural problems are not particularly familiar with computer applications in urban planning. Improved Understanding of Urban Sprawl Using Neural Networks; L.
All these case studies are about application in Japanese or Chinese cities, which are on-field examples reflecting the enormous spread of geo-computation technology. This paper presents an experimental implementation of RasterPlan for the design of the future development of the Province North Brabant. Category: Architecture Author : Jos P. The paper argues that this transformation is a key element in understanding architectural design processes. The implementation of a procedural modelling framework offers a promising area of research in location allocation optimization of residential and public service structures for urban regeneration planning and collaboration purposes but is still largely stochastic in nature until now. Likewise, although many computer-aided design systems claim to be based on principles of design methodology, serious discussions on the methodological underpinnings of such systems are relatively scarce.
For the purpose of pre-planning analysis and optimization of such design models, the construction framework of the whole system development life cycle is simulated using specialist analysis tools. The analysis will allow us to identify some criteria related to the visual features of each image. Two groups of researches that share many similarities with Puzzle-solving design process are the process of game-playing and playful learning. They further state that a patient's response to colour depends on his or her psychological association of specific emotions to specific colours. The conceptual and implementation framework of this view of design is elaborated in this paper as well as a particular design puzzle called puzzle collage is described as the realization of design puzzles.
In this article we examine the hypothesis that territorial micro-transformations occur according to a local logic, i. The maps which result from the RasterPlan are precise in geographical positioning and defining the surfaces of designed areas. According to Gupta and Kant, it was not until the start of the twentieth century that health facility designs were partly influenced by the ideals of enlightment age. In this paper the authors describe the design of an experiment based on conjoint measurement that explores the possibility of using the Internet to evaluate design alternatives. Category: Computers Author : H. These design alternatives are presented as panoramic views, and preferences are measured by asking subjects which alternative they prefer from a choice set of design alternatives. Leeuwen and Timmermans discovered that both colour and structural designs have the capacity visually stimulate individuals, and this can be manipulated to promote positive or negative mood. |
"The Use of Psychological Tests by Australian Psychologists Who do Asse" by Mary-Anne Martin, Alfred Allan et al.
Psychological tests form a central part of most forensic assessments. However, the tests used, and the manner in which they are used, have been criticised, especially in the United States. In a survey of 79 Australian psychologists who do evaluations for the courts, we tried to determine which psychological tests they use, how frequently they use them, and their reasons for using particular tests. Our survey reveals that the Wechsler Intelligence Scales, Rey Complex Figure Test, and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) are used most frequently. Notably, 7 of the 10 most frequently used instruments were neuropsychological tests. Respondents most frequently take into account the “suitability to the situation” and the “psychometric properties of the test” when selecting a test. The study demonstrates that the tests used by forensic psychologists are generally well established in the clinical field, and that psychologists doing assessments for the courts must be competent users of neuropsychological tests. |
My sermon from the 10th Sunday after Pentecost (July 29, 2018) on Ephesians 3:14-21. Listen to the recording at the bottom of the page or read my manuscript below.
In Provincetown, Massachusetts, there’s a boat sitting inside a building. The building itself is old, a former church that once fit over 900 people in its 128 pews. A large bell tower dominates the front and the sanctuary space overshadows the rest of the town. The building has been many different things over the years. It was an art gallery, a cultural center, and a heritage museum, but it’s now the Provincetown Public Library. And on that library’s second floor is a boat. Now since Provincetown has a long history of ships and sailing, it’s not surprising to find a boat inside its library. We should expect to find lot of boats, models of the various sailing ships that once called Provincetown home. But the boat I’m talking about isn’t a little model. It wouldn’t fit in a bottle and you couldn’t display it on your desk. No, the boat in the library is a half-sized model of a schooner, the Rose Dorothea, that was built in 1905. The original ship was 109 feet long, weighed 108 tons, and had 26 sailors for its crew. The ship was famous for winning the one, and only, Lipton Cup – a race organized by the inventor of the individual tea bag, Sir Thomas Lipton – in Boston harbor in 1907. The Rose Dorothea was low in the water, with a thin central mast, large sails, and a rounded bow which let it zoom through the water. The ship had a productive career, sailing all over the Atlantic until it was sunk by a German submarine in WW1. Rose’s dramatic story became a stand-in for all the fishermen and women and sailors who called Provincetown home. And in 1977, the grandson of one of the sailors who won that Lipton Cup decided to build a half-sized model of the Rose Dorothea inside the heritage museum that was in that old church. So -today, on the second floor of the Provincetown Public library, is a 66 foot long schooner with full sails and a mast poking through the top of the ceiling. It’s a boat designed to never sail. It has shelves of books around it, blocking it from ever entering the Atlantic Ocean. The boat is just sitting there, a memorial to a way of life that still matters in Provincetown, and with a funny little sign on it that says: Do Not Climb.
And that’s why, I think, the author of Ephesians ended the third chapter of their letter with a prayer. Today’s second reading marks the end of the first half of the letter, the part of the letter designed to tell us why it was written. The author was writing to a small community of Christians made up of Jews and Gentiles. And the letter focused first on the Gentiles, the non-Jews, letting them know that they were a necessary part of God’s kingdom. These people who never grew up Jewish were part of God’s plan because God, through Jesus, was uniting all people into a new humanity. This unity, I think, wasn’t supposed to ignore our differences but, rather, the author wanted to focus on what it is that keeps us together. It’s Jesus, this wandering Jewish Rabbi who casted out demons, fed the hungry, and lived a life showing us what it looks like when God comes near – that’s who connects us to each other. It isn’t our nationality or ancestry or history; it isn’t our race or language or gender; it isn’t our wealth or status or even sharing the same exact beliefs – that’s not the focus of why we’re here. We’re here because Jesus called us to be here. We’re connected to each other because, in our baptism, we are connected to the One who makes us one. And we matter to God because all people, in every kind of human family, comes from God. It’s absurd that a Jewish rabbi, killed by the Romans 2000 years ago, would call Gentiles to follow him. But Jesus did that then and he does that still. He calls all of us to cling to him, to follow him, and to know that his absurd love for us will overcome the absurd ways we run from him. We might not always know what that kind of love actually looks like. And we will have questions about what it is God wants from our lives. We’re not going to have every answer to every question that we ask. But we, through Jesus, will receive every answer that we need. In Christ, we are all connected to each other. In the Father, we are rooted to the One who has made all people One. And we, through the Spirit, have been given a faith that will remind us of the many way God is transforming us even when we don’t feel that way at all. Its this faith, grace, and hope that keeps us rooted and grounded in a love that will sometimes call us to do absurd things, like building a boat inside a library, so that all people, knowing who they are and whose they are, can finally see the new future that God is bringing about. |
Case analysis is an effective tool for teaching, learning, and most importantly, practising the art and science of management. The case method immerses students in real-life situations, allowing them to develop their business skills by analyzing realistic situations, applying business theories and tools, and making substantiated recommendations for a course of action. However, working with cases is a pedagogical approach that is unfamiliar to most new business students and often inadequately understood by advanced students.
The Case Guide Series introduces students to the case method and, in discrete notes, walks them through the tasks that are typically involved in case assignments: analyzing a case, discussing cases in class, writing case reports and giving presentations (individually and in groups), and writing case exams. A final note introduces students to the most common business tools used for case analysis. This field-tested series is best used as a complete package to orient students to the case method, but each note also stands on its own and can be used to supplement other course materials.
Performing a Case Analysis: All case assignments require students to analyze a case by performing one or more of four basic steps: identifying the issues, analyzing the issues, developing and evaluating alternative solutions, and recommending a course of action. Note 2 of the Case Guide Series takes students through the four steps of a full case analysis and introduces variations for partial case analysis and directed cases. This note provides content that is core to, and can be used for, any process involving case analysis: discussing a case in class; writing a report or making a presentation, individually or in groups; and writing a case exam.
understand basic business tools and their use in case analysis. |
Google apparently is not the most politically-correct mind on the planet. As a recent incident with the Google Photos app illustrates, the artificial intelligence engine is still learning…and making giant mistakes along the way.
Computer programmer and hobbyist photographer Jacky Alciné recently tweeted, “Google Photos, y’all f@#ked up. My friend’s not a gorilla,” along with a screen shot. Jacky had uploaded a photo of himself and a friend to Google Photos, and the automatic tagging feature got it completely wrong.
The problem with artificial intelligence is that it is just that – artificial. At the end of the day, it’s simply a bunch of ones and zeros coming together to output data. While, like human cognizance, it learns from what it sees, the problem is that it can’t explore beyond its current reach (i.e. what it sees on the Internet). It can’t walk out into the real world and discover new bits of information in the same way that a child steps beyond their front door.
Vivienne Ming, who is an artificial intelligence expert, believes this incident is the result of a biased society. The machines and algorithms are tested on the internet which, as she attests, poses a problem in recognizing non-white people because of the overwhelming data and images of white people.
As we’ve seen previously with Google’s various products, as time goes along and more incorrect data is fixed by users, the algorithms adapt and become more knowledgeable. It’s just unfortunate that this blunder had to happen along the way.
So, she was designed within some sort of AI and then rendered as a 3D pseudo-human who does social commentary…. Or, maybe we are just all humans who make mistakes. |
In this tutorial we will create an interactive graph that will display historical fertility rates per country, with a slider to pick the year, and a map to show rate distribution around the world. If you want to investigate the source code of this graph only, it's available as a separate wiki page. Use Interactive Graph Sandbox for experimentations. You might also be interested in the complete Vega documentation.
We start with drawing a few elements (marks). The graph code is surrounded by the <graph mode=interactive>...</graph> tag, even though the graph is not yet interactive. Open Interactive Graph Sandbox and copy the following code without the <graph> tag to experiment.
Hint: Use "edit source" to copy the graph spec to the Vega Editor for experimentation.
Having pixel position of the handler is not very good - we would much rather have a position that is meaningful to our graph, e.g. a year. Vega scales provide a useful mechanism for converting between our data (e.g. years) and the screen coordinates, and back (invert). In this step, we add "yearsScale" linear scale for values 1960..2013, mapping it to the whole width of the graph (excluding padding). We also add a new scaledHandlePosition signal that translates from the mouse X position to the meaningful value in years. |
The School of Life Sciences (SLS) and the International Center for Biotechnology and Health (ICBH) at Independent University have organized the second session of Career Forum on Thursday, March 9, 2017. This forum is designed to introduce students in small groups to eminent personalities in biology and help them better understand the diverse career prospects that are available and the strategies and skills that are needed to become future leaders in science. The session was coordinated by Professor Rita Yusuf, Dean, SLS and Afreen Zaman Khan, Lecturer, SLS with Dr. M A Wahed, retired Scientist and Head, Nutritional Biochemistry Laboratory, iccdr,b as guest speaker. Dr. Wahed has contributed almost 50 years in the research community and served in consultancy and advisory positions in multiple international organizations such as the World Bank, UNICEF etc. During the session, he shared stories with the students as to how cholera prevalence in Bangladesh changed over time and the various formulations of ORS that took place until the modern day saline was generated. He also brought up interesting facts in the area of viral pathogens as well as micronutrient deficiencies in Bangladesh and his immediate contribution in these areas. His personal observation about how horse-shoe crab blood can be used for diagnosing Shigella was of particular interest to the audience. Students engaged in a lively dialogue regarding the various challenges he met along his path and his opinions about the diverse branches of biological sciences that he himself explored. |
How can cities contribute to climate change mitigation?
What urban strategies are effective for different types of cities?
What is the magnitude of the total mitigation potential of future urbanization?
As the world urbanises rapidly, urban areas consume between 67 and 76 per cent of global energy and generate about three quarters of global carbon emissions according to the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Emissions of greenhouse gasses are likely to increase as urban populations grow by two to three billion people over the course of this century.
Current trends are leading to urban energy use more than tripling in the span from 2005 to 2050, growing from 240 EJ (exajoules) to 730 EJ. However, planning and transportation strategies can make a substantial difference, potentially limiting the future increase in urban energy use to 540 EJ in 2050.
A number of factors influence greenhouse gas emissions, with economic activity, gasoline price, and population density ranking highest. Also important are urbanisation level, household size, population size, and “an index of commercial centrality”, according the the authors.
Cities in developing countries, by contrast, can adopt compact urban forms and transport planning to avoid committing to high-carbon patterns of travel, and to achieve higher population densities. The ways in which “the cities of tomorrow develop spatially, especially their urban form, will lock in patterns of energy consumption for decades to come,” the report states. Cities in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East provide the bulk of the potential for GHG emissions reductions. In addition, in countries with low-cost fuel, the authors advocate raising fuel prices.
“If countries with fuel prices below 1.2 USD/L increased this price to 1.6 USD/L, they would enable a market-based transition toward more energy-efficient cities,” the report states.
Aside from distance transit infrastructure cities are by definition the chief engines of climate change – they're host to a rising preponderance of the world's population, and thus the sites of most production and consumption. |
The Vietnam-Korea free trade agreement: What are the challenges and opportunities for businesses in Vietnam?
The Vietnam-Korea free trade agreement came into effect in December 2015 – Suresh G Kumar, Managing Director of TMF Vietnam, examines the multiple tariff incentives, and the business challenges and opportunities it presents for Vietnam.
The Vietnam-Korea free trade agreement (VKFTA) came into effect on 20 December 2015. Among the many FTAs Vietnam has signed in 2015, it is the only significant one that actually came into effect in 2015. With tariffs going down every year from the first year of the VKFTA, the second year of tariff cuts came into effect immediately from 1 January 2016.
The VKFTA aims to increase bilateral trade between the countries to US$70 billion by 2020, as well as to attract Korean investors, their management expertise and technology.
Similar to other agreements signed between Vietnam and other developed countries, the VKFTA promotes investment opportunities, trade and economic growth. It also highlights certain issues that Vietnam needs to address, such as intellectual property rights, competition policy, trade in services, and environmental rules.
South Korea is Vietnam’s largest investor, with US$38 billion in more than 4,200 projects. According to the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, South Korea had approximately 30% of US$19.3 billion in foreign director investment (FDI) between January and October in 2015. South Korea was also one of Vietnam’s main export partners, with approximately 5.3% of US$6.4 million of exports in the first nine months of 2015.
What does the VKFTA include?
Under the VKFTA, companies from Vietnam and South Korea will benefit from reduced tariffs. South Korea will remove 95% of tariff lines on imports from Vietnam, and Vietnam will eliminate 90% of tariff lines on goods imported from Korea (within 15 years from the effective date of the agreement).
South Korea will open its market for 499 more items from Vietnam including tropical fruits and garlic. It also reduces import duties on key imports from Vietnam such as shrimp, fish, crab, tropical fruits, garment and textiles, and wooden products.
In Vietnam, the VKFTA will help create more than 400,000 employment opportunities as there are nearly 3,000 Korean enterprises operating in the country. In general, FDI companies in Vietnam are leading the import and export trends. According to the Vietnam Customs report, for the 11 month of 2015, exports for FDI companies equated US$101.53 billion – an increase of 18.3% from 2014.
Companies may need to restructure to improve their competitiveness; to take a more strategic approach and increase their involvement in regional and global production networks. Even if businesses are unwilling or unable to export on their own, they can still act as a supplier to major exporters to capitalise on the VKFTA’s benefits.
Changes in laws and administrative procedures also bring challenges to businesses operating in the country. Vietnamese companies can embrace the opportunities by investing and improving their employees’ skills, such as addressing productivity and language proficiency. |
How Does a Church Measure Success?
While every church leader and member may feel qualified to define how success is measured in their particular church, it is beneficial to look to those who have exposure to the larger Body of Christ when identifying success. The use of the term success when discussing Christian ministry creates concern for some. Some may equate this nomenclature with business models of success. Klopp assists us by addressing his use of terms other than success. He states, “Recently, there has been a resurgence of interest in church health, effectiveness and revitalization. I use the term effectiveness because it doesn’t carry the theological or secular baggage as do terms such as ‘missional’ or ‘success’.” Whether we address the concepts in terms of success, effectiveness or health, we should all agree that we are addressing ways in which the church may fulfill the responsibilities and expectations placed upon it by Jesus Christ. The Church is not to exist in an effort to please people; we will give an account to God and must please Him in every way.
This position would seem to some as an exaggeration; my experience concurs with their assessment. Shawn Lovejoy devoted an entire book to the concept of reevaluating and reestablishing the measurements of success in the church. He provides a list of common but unhealthy measurements, including comparing ourselves to others, copying what others are doing and condemning others who have success that we envy. He provides additional unhealthy approaches to church success, with some of the elements including numbers, activity, approval rating and fame. Lovejoy pleads with pastors to recalibrate their definitions of success and work toward healthier, more productive churches. Ed Stetzer and Thom S. Rainer encourage us to change the scorecard of measuring success in church. Program based, inwardly focused churches will accentuate those issues that appease consumers. Stetzer and Rainer say, “The old scorecard of the church valued the external measures of the three Bs: bodies, budget, and buildings. The North American culture likes to count and so does the church. So we count the number of people attending, the number of dollars being used, and the number of square feet being inhabited for the purpose of the church.” It is tempting to utilize such instruments because they are measureable and quantitative. Counting bodies is much simpler than measuring spiritual growth. We must, however, insist on interpreting success by godly standards, not by earthly ones.
If we are to measure what constitutes a successful church, we must begin with some basics as described by Scripture. Jesus provided the power of the Holy Spirit to the church so that we may be “witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8 NIV). Paul explains the purpose of church leaders as “to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” (Ephesians 4:11). Jesus assigned the Great Commission as the clarion call for the church: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20a). For a church to be considered successful according to Biblical standards, emphasis must be placed on reaching those who are separated from God, releasing God’s people for ministry and making disciples everywhere. This seems to be a missional focus rather than an inwardly focused approach. It is a common assertion that this type of outwardly focused ministry will produce measureable, quantitative results such as increased attendance and giving. There is no biblical guarantee of this result and caution should be exercised when making such assumptions. A successful church will minister out of pure motivation to see lives changed. If God allows us to reach an increasing number of people, we are blessed. This should assist us as we attempt to keep our definition of ministry success pure.
Leith Anderson addresses the idea of successful churches in two books he authored in the early 1990s. Along with a plethora of negative examples of success, he identifies the following: “Success is reaching the right goal, using our resources according to a specified standard.” I find that, without reading the book, this definition of success is vague and obscure. However, as Anderson develops his thoughts more fully, we find a solid didactic on church health. He focuses on the process of fulfilling mission, the utilization of gifts, and the necessity of adhering to Biblical standards while being flexible on non-essential issues. In his earlier work, Dying for Change, he eloquently argues for the church to stay focused on eternal issues refusing to compromise on Biblical truth while embracing the need to adjust methods as society shifts. “We cannot view the church as an island isolated from the rest of society. It cannot be isolated. As the culture changes, the church changes.” At least one aspect of the successful church must be considered as the ability to reach the world around it with the message of Jesus Christ. Given our primary goal is to lead others to Christ and to make disciples, if we fail at these two tasks, we are unsuccessful. If the church fails to make disciples, she will eventually become extinct. Anderson and other writers help us to see the balance of commitment to living a godly life while connecting with the culture we are trying to reach. Both are necessary in order for a church (or Christian) to be considered successful. Minatrea laments the dying church that refuses to adjust its methods to reach their community.
It is my opinion that it is impossible to have a successful church that is irrelevant to its culture. The Bible is always relevant, regardless of the society. Churches can be guilty of making the Bible irrelevant. Admittedly, we are in a major struggle with a propensity by many to reduce the Bible to a storybook. Post-modernism has impacted the church to the point that many are fearful of preaching the truth. However, watering down the Scriptures has resulted in an anemic church that is unable to deliver what our culture needs the most. The most successful churches are the ones that “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15) and offer life and hope through the transformative power of Jesus Christ. With today’s post-Christian attitude, churches that speak Biblical truth may have difficulty amassing a large congregation. However, I believe that people are hungry for real solutions and eventually truth will prevail. This is another reason why success may not be measured by using standard analysis. Being culturally relevant should mean making the truth of God’s love accessible to all. Unfortunately, the idea has become convoluted and a point of contention for many Christian leaders. Robert Logan assisted me in my understanding of the topic. He instructs, “Being culturally relevant is actually another way of describing what incarnating the Gospel is all about. It means putting the Good News into forms that relate and communicate to people wherever they are.” In my estimation, and utilizing this definition of culturally relevant, one may not consider their church successful unless they are culturally relevant.
I read two works that seem especially congruent with this topic. Koster and Wagenfeld’s Take Your Church’s Pulse, and Stanley, Joiner and Jones’ 7 Practices of Effective Ministry are closely related to the task of determining success for the church. Both are efforts to identify key elements of a healthy and productive church. The 7 Practices text lists things that the church should do in order to become successful. A brief summary of the 7 practices is: 1. Clarify the Win (what do we want to celebrate?); 2. Think Steps, not Program (where do we want our people to be?); 3. Narrow the focus (do no more than one or two things well); 4. Teach Less for More (say only what you need to say to the people who need to hear it); 5. Listen to Outsiders (focus your efforts on those you are trying to reach rather than on those you’re trying to keep); 6. Replace Yourself (prepare now for the future); and 7. Work on It (step back and evaluate). These practices are publicized to create healthy environments in the church. They are not considered as indicators of success but rather are recipes for success. Personally, I find the authors of these practices to be a bit presumptive. I originally read this book with our local church staff when it was first published. We read and discussed the book and explored ways to implement the concepts contained in it. As it developed for us, many of the ideas of the authors were very specific to their context and not as easily executed in other settings. Our particular cultural context was not conducive to some of the practices. Thus, I am of the opinion that the book has limited application when considering how to determine success in the local church.
A much more helpful resource in my quest to establish the elements of a successful church is Koster and Wagenveld’s Take Your Church’s Pulse. The book presents ten vital signs of a healthy church. The list is subdivided into five key commitments and five key functions. The five commitments are Clear and Inspiring Vision, Mobilizing Leadership, Motivated Ministering Body, Proper Stewardship of Resources, and Integration of Text and Context. According to the authors, implementation of these commitments will prepare and position the church to succeed in effective ministry. The five functions are listed as: Compelling Witness, Comprehensive Discipleship, Compassionate Service, Caring and Welcoming Community, and Dynamic Worship and Prayer. While these functions are practices of the church, they also serve as descriptors of an effective church. Healthy churches will participate in each of the functions listed. While I have not attempted to put into practice the comprehensive list as published by the authors, I have implemented each of the individual elements listed in a local church context. I believe that their list is synoptic and thorough. When attempting to identify key components of a successful church, we should utilize the index provided by Koster and Wagenveld.
As we summarize our research on the fundamentals of successful church ministry, my concern for the church of the 21st century remains. In my assessment, many churches are attempting to conduct impactful ministry by performing tasks and carrying out programs in their own strengths and abilities without relying on the life-transformative power of the Holy Spirit. We sometimes operate as though we are the source of life-change. Church can become an organization rather than an organism. I am very much in favor of investigating and exploring ways that God is working in other churches. God allows us to view successes in other ministries so that we may be inspired and motivated to also enjoy progress. However, it is a mistake to attempt to duplicate in our ministry what God is doing elsewhere. Trends and methodology can become contagious and, if we are not careful, all of our churches can begin to look and act alike. Popular pastors can garner a following of younger pastors and the temptation is to try to fit into the mold of this version of success. This may explain why North American churches spend an inordinate amount of effort trying to gain members from other churches. There can be a way of leading ministry that is attractive to other Christians, but not to those who are living without Christ. We experience a significant amount of transfer growth but not enough conversion growth. Our cultures and communities are too diverse for us all to conduct ministry the same way. The unique challenges and needs of the people in our neighborhoods require that we approach church work from a distinct and personalized platform. We may learn from the failures and successes of other churches but what God desires to do in our particular situation is distinct. Every church, every pastor and every community is unique. If we view the solution as mimicking what others are doing, we stifle the creative work of the Holy Spirit. He desires us to follow His leading as we address the needs of the culture that surrounds us. While it is beneficial for us to explore the concepts that various writers espouse as indicators of healthy ministry, we must recall that the Church is the bride of Christ and will ultimately be judged only by Him. Only God truly knows what is happening in the deep recesses of the ministry. We look at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. It is a common temptation to hold others to our standards and to determine their success or failure based upon our criteria. It seems presumptuous and arrogant to determine some churches as successes and others as failures. Obviously, we can observe when a ministry practices the Scriptures and connects with its community. But we cannot measure true spiritual success. When I am bold enough to condemn a ministry as a failure, possibly I should submit to the Biblical teaching that instructs me to remove the log from my eye prior to attempting to remove the speck from my brother’s eye (Matthew 7:5). I am not insinuating that we stop evaluating ministry for success or failure. I am purporting that we enter into this process with humility and a keen awareness that we cannot accurately perceive what is true success and failure. Regardless of the limited number of members, the small facility and the miniscule budget, some churches are fulfilling the call that God has placed on them to make disciples, to release people for ministry and produce fruit that remains. On the contrary, some churches with massive numbers of attenders, a magnificent edifice and a swelling budget may possibly be viewed as a failure in the eyes of the Lord. This reminds us that every church is unique and has a specific calling to fulfill. We must operate in the power of the Holy Spirit in order to fulfill that call.
It behooves us to concentrate our definition of the elements of a successful church. Ingredients such as worship, service, community, prayer and evangelism are crucial. Vision, stewardship, leadership development, outreach and proper handing of the text within the context are vital. We should explore these features with a sincere desire to be the best church we can possibly be. However, we must never place these elements ahead of complete and total obedience to what God is requiring of the specific church. In our efforts to determine what makes a church successful, we must be sure to be guided by the principle of the true purpose of the church: to bring glory to God and to share Christ with the world.
I am convinced that, on Judgment Day, we will not be subjected to a checklist of modern expectations that are commonly considered to be criterion for success. I do believe that God will determine that day whether or not we have been obedient to Him and faithful to His call. Certainly, we hope and pray that we will hear these words spoken to us and to the church that we serve, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of the Lord!” (Matthew 25:23).
Lovejoy, Shawn. The Measure of Our Success: An Impassioned Plea to Pastors. Grand Rapids, MI, Baker Books, 2012.
Minatrea, Milfred. Shaped by God’s Heart: The Passion and Practices of Missional Churches. San Francisco, California, Jossey-Bass, 2004.
Powers, Bruce and James T. Roberson Jr. Church Administration Handbook. Nashville, TN, B&H Publishing, 2008.
Schaller, Lyle E. The Very Large Church: New Rules for Leaders. Nashville, TN, Abingdon Press, 2000.
Stanley, Andy, Reggie Joyner and Lane Jones. 7 Practices of Effective Ministry. (Sisters, OR, Multnomah Publishers, 2004.
Stetzer, Ed and Thom Rainer. Transformational Church: Creating a New Scorecard for Congregations. Nashville, Tennessee B&H Publishing Group, 2010.
Powers, Bruce and James T. Roberson Jr. Church Administration Handbook. (Nashville, TN, B&H Publishing, 2008), 13.
Klopp, Henry. The Ministry Playbook: Strategic Planning for Effective Churches. (Grand Rapids, MI, Baker Books, 2002), 26.
Chester, Tim and Steve Timmis. Total Church: A Radical Reshaping Around Gospel and Community. (Wheaton, IL, Crossway Publishing, 2008), 191.
Lovejoy, Shawn. The Measure of Our Success: An Impassioned Plea to Pastors. (Grand Rapids, MI, Baker Books, 2012), 16-26, 34-35.
Stetzer, Ed and Thom S. Rainer. Transformational Church: Creating a New Scorecard for Congregations. (Nashville, TN, B&H Publishing, 2010), 26.
Appel, Gene and Alan Nelson. How to Change Your Church (Without Killing It). Nashville, TN, Word Publishing, 2000), 26.
Schaller, Lyle E. The Very Large Church: New Rules for Leaders. (Nashville, TN, Abingdon Press, 2000), 128.
Anderson, Leith. A Church for the 21st Century: Bringing Change to Your Church to Meet the Challenges of a Changing Society. (Minneapolis, MN. Bethany House Publishers, 1992), 89.
Anderson. Dying for Change: The New Realities Confronting Church and Para-Church Ministries. (Minneapolis, MN. Bethany House Publishers, 1990), 43.
Minatrea, Milfred. Shaped By God’s Heart: The Passion and Practices of Missional Churches. (San Francisco, CA. Jossey-Bass, 2004), 7.
Logan, Robert E. Beyond Church Growth: Action Plans for a Developing Dynamic Church. Grand Rapids, MI. Fleming H. Revell Publishers, 1989, 69.
Stanley, Andy, Reggie Joyner and Lane Jones. 7 Practices of Effective Ministry. (Sisters, OR, Multnomah Publishers, 2004), 10-11.
Koster, Tim and John Wagenveld. Take Your Church’s Pulse: Ten Vital Signs of a Healthy Church. (Sauk Village, IL, Multiplication Network Ministries, 2014), 13. |
Depriving a member of the household of sleep is a common tactic used by emotional abusers because it has a profound effect on the emotional state of the victim while leaving almost no evidence that abuse has occurred.
Motivation for sleep deprivation may range from anger and a desire to make the victim feel some of the abusers pain or rage to a more manipulative form where the abuser calculates that they will have more control over the victim in a sleep-deprived state.
Denying a person sleep or starting arguments at a late hour is a common tactic of emotional abusers and those who suffer from personality disorders.
Making excessive noise after bedtime.
Turning on lights after you have gone to bed.
Starting arguments or emotionally charged discussions at bedtime or just before bedtime.
Hitting or bumping you intentionally when you are in bed.
Forcing you to sleep in a strange place or to share a bed with an abuser.
At bedtime, it is normal to feel disorientated or confused as your body winds down and your brain releases hormones which slow down your metabolism and begin the regenerative process of sleep.
When this is interrupted or impeded, you may feel confused or irritable. Your ability to think critically or to understand and read the emotions or intentions of others may be compromised significantly.
You may become irritable and "snap" at the other person in an attempt to get back to a sleep state. Alternatively, you may find yourself bargaining or agreeing to things you wouldn't normally agree to just to get back to sleep.
If someone habitually denies you of the ability to sleep - they are abusing you as much as if they were starving you of oxygen, food or water. You need sleep and need to get yourself into an environment where sleep is possible.
Don't ignore lack of sleep or consider sleep as a luxury.
Don't participate in any discussions or arguments after bedtime.
Don't take the bait when someone says something provocative late at night.
Don't remain in an environment where you are habitually kept from sleeping.
Prioritize sleep in your life as high as food, shelter, water and oxygen.
Communicate clearly that you refuse to have any kind of discussion after a certain time of night.
Set this time to be 30 minutes to an hour BEFORE bedtime and stick with it. You will need this time to wind down before you try to sleep.
Turn off phones and other devices that an abuser may use to disturb and provoke you.
If you are repeatedly denied access to sleep at home, leave for a hotel, friend's house or shelter. |
The middle and upper Miocene sediments of the Humboldt Basin, northern California, have been investigated for the presence of radiolarian fauna. The vast majority of the radiolaria found are cold water indicators, however there are four distinct periods of invasion of warm water fauna. Two minor ones occurring at 11.5ma and approximately 8.0ma and two major events at 5.0ma and approximately 5.5ma. Occurrences of radiolaria indicative of low oxygen conditions, cold deep forms, and radiolarians associated with the California Current indicate that Paleoceanic circulation in the Humboldt Basin region at 6.5ma was similar to "normal" (anti-El Nino-like) circulation of Recent time. Depositional environments and paleoceanographic circulation are modeled from information obtained from 192 Miocene to Pliocene samples of five stratigraphic sections across the subaerially exposed southern margin of the paleo-basin. Radiolarian fauna indicate that initial deposition was in a basin open to deep marine waters. Through time and in a west to east direction, the radiolarian populations exhibit increasingly shelfal characteristics as shallow water sediments prograded to the west. Total organic carbon data from key chronozones support the models of oceanic circulation developed for the key time planes. The fluctuations in the California Current System are the dominant controls on faunal distribution and organic carbon preservation. An example of doming of deep water masses (Weinheimer et al., 1986) indicating analogous El Nino-like circulation is detected and differentiated from other similar appearing events of a different nature (normal, anti-El Nino circulation). |
If you needed additional incentive to give up smoking cigarettes (other than a reduced risk of increased risk of developing heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer), this might be it. A company in Japan is offering non-smoking workers an extra six days of paid holiday leave each year. The reason why? To offset the amount of time smokers take for cigarette breaks.
The Telegraph reports that Piala Inc., a marketing firm based in Tokyo, implemented the change after non-smoking workers complained that they were working more hours than their co-workers who smoke.
The company took the matter seriously, as the office is located on the 29th floor in a building. That means each cigarette break lasts at least 15 minutes, according to staff.
Takao Asuka, the Piala Inc CEO, told Kyodo News, “I hope to encourage employees to quit smoking through incentives rather than penalties or coercion.” Since the policy was put into place, no less than 30 of the 120 workers have taken extra days off. The initiative also encouraged at least four employees to give up smoking for good.
The incentive Piala Inc. offered for employees to quit smoking worked. But, there are additional reasons people should seriously consider giving up the habit of smoking. The CDC reports that smoking cigarettes harms nearly every organ of the body. As a result, it contributes to many diseases, as well as reduces the health of smokers, in general. In fact, more than 10 times as many U.S. citizens have died prematurely from cigarette smoking than have died in all the wars fought by the United States. That’s a staggering fact to consider, one that, hopefully, encourages more people to give up the habit. |
I think you need to focus on fundamentals. Tactics study is a necessity, but you need to also be able to piece together the different parts of the game (e.g., opening, middlegame, and endgame). I recommend a good basic, overall software like TASC or Chess Mentor. I'm sure that there are also some good books that fit the bill, too.
Also, there are a lot of fine articles by Dan Heisman in his Novice Nook series at Chesscafe.com. Those have helped me a lot, and I still go back and read them occasionally.
Finally, you mentioned on my blog an interest in Tisdall's IYCN book. I would say that perhaps that first chapter would help you.
Maybe it's motivation. When solving puzzles, you know the solution is out there somewhere, and if you persist, there are great benefits to reap. In OTB games, you just don't know exactly when is it worth looking deep into position, and when it doesn't.
Speed of calculation is, I think, something that will pick up as you do it more (in game conditions).
Generating too few candidates is a problem that may require you to change your thinking habits at the board. Is it in the initial position that you have this trouble, or is it when you;re considering the opponent's possible replies, or what?
If it's in the initial position, do you miss tactical tries or quiet candidates? If it's tactical tries, you need to train yourself to think at least for a moment about _all_ forcing moves (checks, captures, and threats), even if they seem absurd. If it's quiet moves you miss, well, sometimes you will miss those, but also try to decide what the most positionally desirable quiet move in the position is; that may help.
If it's the opponent's candidates you're missing, you need to apply that same method to his possibilities.
All these thinking methods will be slow at first, but will become automatic with practice.
Finally, I think problem of missing the opponet's possibilities can be made worse by intensive tactical training, since you may develop a tendency to think "aha! There is a tactical idea, so it must be the right move!" since it usually is right when you're doing problems. (Did that make sense?) To cure that, try playing over games by positional players (Karpov, Capablanca, Petrosian) while trying to guess their moves. Do that _after_ you finish your tactical training course, since you need your tactics in order first of all.
I wouldn't worry about it all too much. Improving your thinking process will help, but part of what you are doing is improving your pattern recognition. I found that after being on the MDLM plan for a month or so that stuff started to jump out at me. It's not that I had to look for tactics more than usual, but I just started seeing more.
Now that I've gotten pretty far in the program it will be interesting to see how my OTB play goes since I've not played in a while.
Ken Smith of Chess Digest fame wrote about how through combining a reasonable study plan and practical play, chess will start coming to you as if "by magic". Don't get discouraged- just keep working at it and you will start to see improvements.
Research found that a grandmaster has an average of 2-3 candidate moves which he looks at. An amateur has an average of about 5-6. It now often happens to me that only one candidatemove comes to mind. That move is urging me to play it. So nothing to worry there.
Nezha, I think you are in good company. MDLM, in his book (and articles), said he originally thought his training was done after the Vision Drills and the Seven Circles. However, he realized to actually use his newfound skills he had to add a third step, which was his 8-step thinking strategy for use during games. This seemed to help him a lot.
I. Avoid en prise blunders: do this until you make no mistakes for 10 (or 20?) actual games in a row.
Right after opponent's move: use threat vision to see if he can capture any pieces on his next move. Respond to the threat if you need to.
Right before your move: use threat vision while visualizing the board after your next move. Will she be able to capture any pieces on her next move?
II. Avoid 2-move blunders (same as above except replace 'next move' with 'the move after next').
N. Something more complicated like what MDLM has in his book.
If you make a mistake at level X, repeat level X and all subsequent levels.
I am too much a novice to have all the details worked out, but even doing I and II (with the repeat rule) would do wonders for my chess! At first I think it will take a lot of energy to do this in my games, but my hope is that good thinking will become an effortless habit.
Anyone have ideas about good steps to add or amend in Thinking Training? At some point, adding chess vision would be good I think, etc.. |
Jean-Baptiste Corneille (2 December 1649 – 12 April 1695) was a French painter, etcher, and engraver.
Corneille was born in Paris between 1646 and 1649. He was the youngest son of Michel Corneille the Elder of Orléans, and brother of the younger Michel. He is known as "the younger Corneille". His devoted father was his teacher and painstakingly prepared the youth for his future successes as an historical painter. In 1664 he won the second prize and in 1668 the first prize of the academy. He then went to study in Rome and, on his return in 1675 was received into the Royal Academy, painting for his reception-picture the Punishment of Busiris by Hercules, now one of the notable canvases in the Louvre. He painted in some of the Paris churches and in 1679 finished his Deliverance of St. Peter from Prison for the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. With Jacques Vouet he was employed on the decorations of the Tuileries. In 1692 he was appointed professor in the academy. He died in Paris on 12 April 1695.
His style, like his brother's, was that of the school of the Desiderosi, but Jean was somewhat inferior to the younger Michel in composition and drawing. Many of the paintings of this excellent artist were engraved by contemporaries, a few by the great Mariette, and Jean himself engraved and etched plates after his own designs and finished pictures, and after the Carracci. His work with acid and the burin was spirited and exhibited his thorough mastery of technic. He commenced and finished his plates after the manner of Agostino Carracci. His most important plates were: "Bust of Michelangelo", "St. Bernard", "Mercury in the Air", and "St. John in the Wilderness" (after Annibale Carracci).
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Jean-Baptiste Corneille" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton. That entry was written by Leigh Hunt. |
CHICAGO - The American Indian Library Association (AILA), an affiliate of the American Library Association (ALA), is pleased to announce the first recipients of its American Indian Youth Literature Award. This new literary award was created as a way to identify and honor the very best writing and illustrations by and about American Indians.
Books selected to receive the award present Native Americans in the fullness of their humanity in the present and past contexts.
The award is presented in each of three categories-picture book, middle school, and young adult, and each winner receives $500 and a commemorative plaque, which will be presented during the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color's (JCLC) Children's Luncheon program on Oct. 13 in Dallas.
We are thrilled to have this opportunity to honor authors and illustrators who best portray Native American culture for young readers, said Victor Schill, co-chair, AILA American Indian Youth Literature Award committee. The rich literary heritage of this nation includes the oral and printed stories of its indigenous peoples. American Indian literature always has been and continues to be an integral part of our literary tapestry.
Beaver Steals Fire: A Salish Coyote Story, by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, illustrated by Sam Sandoval, and published by the University of Nebraska Press is the winner for the picture book category. Accompanied by rich watercolor illustrations, the text relates a culturally vital tale from the Salish people of Montana about the significance of the gift of fire and how it should be respected.
Louise Erdrich is the winner of the middle school award for The Birchbark House, published by Hyperion Books for Children. Setting her book in the middle 19th century, Erdrich paints a detailed portrait of Ojibwa life through the experiences of 7-year-old Omakayas who lives on the Island of the Golden Breasted Woodpecker on Lake Superior.
The Birchbark House was Erdrich's first novel for young readers, and the first book she has illustrated. She is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwa and lives with her two daughters in Minnesota.
The young adult award is Hidden Roots, written by Joseph Bruchac and published by Scholastic Press. The book is set within the historical framework of the Vermont Eugencis Program, a Native American sterilization program in the 1930s, and tells the story of the haunting effects of this shameful and tragic deed on one of the Abenaki families victimized by it. Author of more than 70 books for adults and children, Bruchac is of Abenaki ancestry and is a nationally recognized professional storyteller living in Greenfield Center, N.Y. |
Bamako; capital city of Mali – MMM's "Everything is Possible"
Bamako is the capital and largest city of Mali. It is located on the Niger River, near the rapids that divide the Upper and Middle Niger Valleys, in the southwestern part of the country. The name Bamako comes from the Bambara word meaning “place of crocodile”.
The area of the city has been continuously inhabited since the Palaeolithic, but the founding of Bamako occurred in the seventeenth century by Seribadian Niaré and Soumba Coulibaly, or Bamba Sanogo, before its chiefdom passed to Diaoussadian Niaré. The city was an important market town. In 1883 the region was occupied by French troops, and in 1908, Bamako became the capital of the French Sudan. Its population has grown rapidly; in 1960 Bamako’s population was approximately 160,000 and now have grown to about 1.7 million people.
Bamako is by the Niger River. The city is on a flood plain, the land bordering the river not suitable for massive city development. Bamako is relatively flat, except to the immediate north where there is an escarpment, and where the Presidential Palace and main hospital are located. This place called Kouluba and you can have an overall view of Bamako from Point G.
Originally, the city developed on the northern side of the river, but as it grew, bridges were developed to connect the north with the south.
The first of these was the Pont des Martyrs and the Pont du Roi Fahd Abdul Aziz.
The new third bridge will be the largest in Mali is being constructed. The project is expected to take two years to complete. The bridge will be 1,450 metres in length, 24 metres broad with two lanes in each direction plus cycles tracks and pavements plus a kilometre of access roads. The bridge will also facilitate access to the proposed biggest hospital in Mali at Yirimadio.
Additionally there is an older bridge to the east of Bamako which was constructed on the Niger river’s rock bed.
Historically the city also contained a military airport to the west of the city. However, this has now been closed and is now a new business area known as ACI 2000.
Notable landmarks in Bamako include the National Library of Mali, BCEAO building, Bamako Grand Mosque, Cathedral of Bamako and the King Fahd Abdul Aziz Bridge. The Mali Bamako-Senou International Airport, as well as the Dakar-Niger Railway, to Koulikoro in eastern Mali and Dakar in Senegal are situated in Bamako. Attractions include the Mali National Museum, Bamako Regional Museum, Bamako Zoo, the Bamako Botanical Gardens and the Point G hill, containing caves with rock paintings.
I always use these 3 options to come to Bamako, Mali. First via Paris then to Bamako by Air France, Second, via Bangkok and Nairobi to Bamako by Kenya Airways and thirdly via Dubai, Casablanca by Emirates and Air Maroc. Air fares about RM8-10 ribu 2-ways, prices are depends on the season. Hotel rates in Bamako and other parts of Africa is expensive. 5star hotel rates stars at USD250, 3 star hotel rates around USD70-100. Rates for cheap or budget hotels like I used to stay are around USD40-60. But their star unlike our star, standard slightly below ours. In Mali public transports are quite good, taxi (old taxi), mini bus, express buses for long distance between city and country and domestic flight too.
Malaysia community is not known except 2 of us, but about 20 Malian who can speaks bahasa here (ex-student of Malaysian universities).
Soon I will posting about other things and regions after complete my memory in Indonesia that I have prepared while I was in Timbuktu recently.
Please describe how to get there. I dont think there is any direct flight from KL so which is the nearest route? Tell us about the hotels in Bamako and their various rates so that we will know how much to budget. Is there a Malaysian community in Bamako? What about public transport? |
Unlike conventional electricity in which the alternating current tends to fix a victim to the current source by tetanic muscle contraction creating a longer contact time, lightning is direct current that imparts an instantaneous but extremely high-voltage discharge of electricity to the body. The pattern of injury seen with lightning differs from that of injury caused by both high-voltage and low-voltage alternating current ( T.a.bl§..,..1..9.7.-..1.). Unlike conventional electricity, lightning current tends to flow over the body in a phenomenon called flashover, thus sparing injury to the deeper vital organs and explaining how victims are able to survive exposure to tremendous magnitudes of current. Less commonly, lightning current may enter victims and suddenly disrupt cardiac, respiratory, or neurologic function. |
The benefits of meditation are tremendous. In a world that is “on” 24/7, few of us get much regular rest. We go go go — perhaps getting a lot of work done, or cramming loads of activity into the day — while ignoring our body’s natural rhythms and need for post-sprint recovery. The result is that many of us are more stressed out, anxious, and depressed than previous generations.
A terrific antidote (that we all have with us all the time) is simple meditation. Scores of studies have shown the benefits of meditation to be broad and profound: meditation lowers our stress and anxiety, helps us focus, and, ironically, makes us more productive. Meditation even makes us healthier! After meditating daily for eight weeks, research subjects were 76% less likely than a non-meditating control group to miss work due to illness, and if they did get a cold or a flu, it lasted only five days on average, whereas the control group illnesses lasted an average of eight.
Here’s how: Sit in a comfortable position, spine straight and hands relaxed in your lap. Close your eyes, and turn your attention to your breath. Breathe naturally, controlling your attention, not your breath. When your mind wanders (it will) gently bring your attention back to noticing your breath. Try to meditate for 10-20 minutes before you go back to the hustle and bustle of the day, to really give yourself a break. |
Three decades after allotting land to the hunter-gatherer community of Ogiek in Mau forest, the Kenyan government has asked them to leave. The 2,500 Ogiek families have been asked to surrender their title deeds by October.
The move, Prime Minister Raila Odinga said, was made to save the country's largest catchment area. Located in the heart of Kenya's Rift Valley, Mau is the catchment area of 12 rivers that feed waterbodies across eastern Africa, including Lake Victoria, and support five million people. Green groups say the forest has lost a quarter of its 400,000 hectares (ha) in recent years due to unchecked settlement, illegal logging and burning of charcoal. The impact is evident in the drying of rivers.
A recent government report said the degradation of Mau started in the 1980s when the then President Daniel arap Moi moved the Ogiek community from the heart of the forest and resettled them on the outskirts. He offered each family 20 ha. But during the process those handling the resettling allotted thousands of hectares to themselves and other influential people who eventually pushed back the forest to establish commercial farms, ranches and tea estates.
The Philippine government halved the price of 21 essential drugs. Acting on a government study that found drugs are sold in the Philippines for four to five times the price in other countries, the government had appealed pharma companies to bring down the prices. The companies though agreed to reduce the price of 16 drugs, they refused to do so for amlodipine, atorvastatin, azithromycin, cytarbine and doxorubicin--drugs used for treating high blood pressure, cholesterol and cancer. Following this, President Gloria Macapagal Arroya issued an executive order capping drug prices. A third of Filipinos lives on US 85 cents a day, government statstics indicate. The pharma association estimates it will lose up to US $208 million in sales a year.
One of the least reported undercurrents of the climate change negotiations is trade protectionism. The fear escalated during negotiations on the EU climate package when French President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested levying carbon tariffs on the imports from countries that oppose binding greenhouse gas targets at the UN climate talks in Copenhagen in December. Sweden's environment minister, Andreas Carlgren, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, recently called a meeting to reject any such measures. "The threat of taxes to harm developing countries would seriously make the negotiations more difficult," said Carlgren. German state secretary for environment Matthias Machnig termed the French idea a form of eco-imperialism and a direct violation of wto rules. Developing countries such as India and China oppose the idea of carbon tariffs.
After 16 years of legal wrangle, the Wiks, an Aboriginal clan in Australia's Queensland state, have been granted access to their ancestral land. Citing anthropological records, the federal court said the Wiks are the traditional owners of the Cape York peninsula.Since a portion of the land has been leased to Rio Tinto for bauxite mining, the court ordered the mining giant to compensate the aborigines and to consult the community before building any infrastructure in the future.
Hopes that the 10 Nile basin countries would sign an agreement securing equitable share of the world's longest river have been dashed after Egypt refused any cuts in its historic quotas. The riparian countries met in Alexandria, Egypt, to sign a cooperative framework deal.
Though downstream, Egypt is the largest consumer of Nile water. A 1929 agreement signed with Britain, which at the time was acting on behalf of its eastern African colonies, had given Cairo the right to veto projects on the Nile that would affect the river flow. In 1959, it signed a pact with Sudan, which has the largest basin area, securing 87 per cent of the total annual average flow of the Nile. This riled the other basin countries who want changes in the pacts. Though the resentment has been brewing for years now, with the growing need to set up hydropower projects by upstream countries, the feud is intensifying.
If junk food leads to obesity, why not reduce the size of candy bars, juices and sodas and help people reduce their calorie intake?
The UK Food Standards Agency has called for suggestions on this line to tackle the country's growing health problem. By 2012, it wants chocolate-based snacks such as Mars bars and Snickers to be no larger than 50g compared to the current 58g. Choc-olate bars should weigh no more than 40g and cans of fizzy drinks should be cut from 330ml to 250ml by 2015, it recommended. The agency also called for confectioners to reduce the amount of saturated fat and sugar in biscuits, cakes, pastries and soft drinks. Studies predict that on current trends 60 per cent of UK's population will be obese by 2050.
China closed a chemical plant after thousands of residents in central Hunan province took to the streets alleging pollution from the plant killed two people and sickened hundreds of others. Health checkup of 3,000 people living in the vicinity of the Xianghe Chemical factory, which produced zinc sulphate, revealed more than 500 people had high levels of cadmium, a carcinogenic heavy metal. The authorities suspended two environmental officers and detained the plant head. Residents said they had petitioned for an investigation of the plant in 2007, but the provincial government had failed to take action.
Several Mapuche communities, indigenous people of Chile and Argentina, have begun to reclaim their traditional land in the Araucania region in central Chile. The reclamation began on July 23, two weeks after the government refused to talk about their rights; the Mapuche make up about 4 per cent of Chile's population. On July 23 hundreds of Mapuche tribals took over properties, including the land of a logging company, and set up roadblocks. The territories belong to the indigenous people, they said. The clash is part of an ongoing dispute between the government and the Mapuche who demand the constitutional recognition of their identity, culture and ownership of the land that belonged to their ancestors.
Giant poisonous jellyfish are poised to assault the Japanese waters. Researchers from Hiroshima University found unusually high numbers of Nomura's jellyfish are spawning in the Yellow and East China Seas and are moving towards Japan. They are expected to hit the country by mid-August, warned the researchers.
Nomura's jellyfish is one of the largest jellyfish species in the world, which can grow up to two metres wide and weigh 200 kg. Their huge bodies damage fishing nets, poison the catches and often sting fishers. Japan usually experiences such invasion once in 40 years. But it has become frequent in recent years, said the researchers; the last invasion was in 2005. One of the factors could be the decline of the jellyfish's natural predators, such as sea turtles and fish that eat them when they're still young, said the researchers. |
New research released today reveals that, while the public see business as at the heart of the economic recovery, they do not yet see business as key to fixing our environmental problems, with over two thirds (68%) of respondents unable to name a company taking the issue of environmental sustainability seriously.
The research, conducted amongst 1,819 adults for the Carbon Trust by YouGov found that only 5% see businesses as being most effective in helping the environment, when compared to environmental pressure groups, academics and the government. By contrast, 22% of those surveyed see businesses as being the most effective in helping the economic recovery.
Whilst it’s clear that consumers still care about the environmental future, their perspective on where the responsibility falls is skewed. It cannot be solely down to environmental groups to shoulder the weight of protecting our planet’s natural resources. Businesses have an enormous role to play here and need to be seen to be doing their part.
That is not to say that consumers are disinterested in the future of the environment. The demand for green products appears to be increasing with only 6% saying they are less likely to buy a sustainable product and/or service than 5 years ago while almost three in ten (27%) said they are more likely. Increased concern about the personal impact of what they buy on the environment was the most important reason for this (45%) and 43% of the public surveyed said they lead a more sustainable life than 5 years ago.
These signs of confidence in economic future success should strengthen the case for a more sustainable future. As businesses look for more ways to grow, sustainability should become a golden opportunity for investment, allowing them to become more resilient to future environmental resource shocks and to cut their costs and grow their revenues. The smart companies will invest now and put sustainability inside their businesses. |
Our projections are derived from two components: (1) A statistical model of the relationship between the set of predictors and the probability of onset, termination, escalation, and deescalation of armed conflict; and (2) projections for these predictors. All the countries in the world are units of analysis, and they are observed once every year. The statistical model is a multinomial logistic regression model which allows estimating the probabilities of no conflict as well as major and minor conflict.
We have data or forecasts for all predictor variables from 1970 up to 2050. Our independent variables are of two types. First, we include variables that several studies have shown are correlated with conflict: the two development indicators – infant mortality rates and education levels; the two demographic variables – population size and the size of the population in age group 15-24 years as a proportion of population in age groups 15-65 years; an indicator of ethnic dominance/polarization and whether the country is an oil producer. We assume that all these are exogenous to conflict. Second, the model includes information on whether the country was in conflict the year before. We also code for how long time the country had been independent or at peace or war up to two years earlier, and whether any neighboring countries are at conflict. These variables are obviously endogenous to conflict.
For the demographic variables, including infant mortality rates, we have forecasts for all countries in the period 2012-2050 from the UN demographic division. We use projections for the proportion of population with completed secondary education developed by the IIASA in Vienna. For ethnic composition and oil production we simply assume that these factors remain unchanged over the next forty years.
The figure below shows how a computer program, developed by Joakim Karlsen, combines the statistical model with the projections to obtain our conflict predictions. First, we estimate the statistical model. Then we load the last observed status (in 2009) for the dependent and independent variables. To account for uncertainty concerning our statistical model, we draw a ‘realization’ of the coefficients based on the estimates and the estimated variance/covariance matrix. We then pair the realized coefficients and the observed predictors to calculate the probability of minor or major conflict. The program then draws an outcome for the next year (no conflict, minor or major) based on these predicted probabilities. Before moving to the subsequent year, the program recalculates the variables representing conflict history and neighboring conflicts based on the simulated outcome and retrieves the projections for the exogenous variables. Then all of this is repeated until 2050. To even out the impact of random draws, this procedure is repeated several thousand times.
What is predictable and what is not?
Our predictions are based on some fairly restrictive assumptions: that the forecasts for our exogenous predictors turn out to be correct, that the past relationship between our predictors and the probability of internal armed conflict will continue to hold in the future, and that our model contains all major factors that cause conflicts. All of these premises can be questioned.
Global unexpected shocks such as deep and persistent global economic recessions may prove the UN/IIASA forecasts too optimistic. Likewise, the forecasts have not calculated in severe future effects of climate change. Technological changes may affect the incentives for warfare. The introduction of a substitute for oil would probably reduce the future incidence of conflict, but the innovation of new technologies that give rise to other types of rent-generating extraction could increase it.
We also assume that our predictors are exogenous to conflict. They obviously are not. Internal conflicts are devastating, and can set countries back a decade. Still, most countries have seen improvements in our development indicators. Lebanon, Laos, and Cambodia all reduced infant mortality rates by more than 50% from 1965 to 2009 despite their extremely destructive conflicts. Even Afghanistan has reduced infant mortality rates by about 30%. Moreover, the risk of devastating conflict is likely to feed into the UN’s forecasts, at least on average across regions. We are working on incorporating the feedback processes into the simulations, but believe the bias due to endogeneity is relatively minor.
We also ignore other shocks that may affect the future of armed conflict. Another ‘cold war’ between old or emergent superpowers might lead to a surge of new proxy wars. In the very unlikely event that a large country such as China or India was to disintegrate into several new states, we would probably see many new internal conflicts.
In my own view, perhaps the most evident shortcoming is that our predictions ignore the importance of political systems – the institutions that regulate how leaders are recruited and how they make decisions. We leave this out since we don’t have any credible forecasts for changes to political systems over the next 40 years, but it is evident that many internal armed conflicts are fought over the nature of the political system, in particular in non-democratic middle-income countries. Several studies in political science show that pressures for democratization increase with development. We failed to predict the conflicts in Syria and Libya mainly because we do not take into account the increase in such tensions within the Middle East and North Africa. |
Some participants at the early childhood education conference in Sheridan.
Educators from across Wyoming gathered in Sheridan over the weekend to discuss the future of early childhood education in the state.
Wyoming is one of 10 states with no state-funded preschool, but early learning is available—mostly to low-income families—through programs like Head Start—and special education preschools.
The group heard presentations about the latest science on early brain development and looked at studies showing that spending on early education has more impact on learning outcomes than spending later in life.
Michelle Sullivan is a trustee of the Homer and Mildred Scott Foundation—and organized the event.
I think it’s very critical to recognize that the investments we make early—and by early, I mean prenatal through 3 years old and beyond—will have enormous payoff later on in both our communities and in children and families’ lives,” Sullivan said.
Conference attendees say the different groups working in child development need to get on the same page and come up with a common set of goals.
“The issues are much too complex for any one agency or organization to try to take on themselves,” Sullivan said.
About 100 people attended the three-day conference at Sheridan College.
Sheridan College announced Tuesday that it has received the largest gift in the history of the school—a $25.3 million commitment from educational foundation Whitney Benefits.
The college says $16 million of the donation will be used to renovate and expand the fine and performing arts wing of Sheridan’s Whitney Academic Center. The funds will also help improve parking and renovate the Technical Education Center.
Whitney Benefits President Tom Kinnison says the updates at Sheridan College are much-needed and have been on the school’s to-do list for decades. |
One third of the global burden of mental illness – defined as healthy years lost to an illness – falls on China and India, where millions go untreated because of stigma and lack of resources, research published in the Lancet has found.
In China, less than 6% of people with anxiety and depression, substance use disorders, dementia and epilepsy seek treatment while in India, only about one in 10 people is thought to receive specialist help.
A lack of trained mental health professionals, poor access to mental health services, low investment, and high levels of stigma prevent individuals in both countries from accessing treatment. Less than 1% of the national health budget in either country is allocated to mental health care.
“We manage an astonishing degree of disregard in not treating a large majority of people with mental illnesses in every country on earth,” said Graham Thornicroft, professor of community psychiatry at the Centre for Global Mental Health at King’s College London.
Researchers led by Fiona J Charlson said that the burden of mental health problems had increased in both countries over a 13-year period. “In China, mental, neurological and substance use disorders accounted for 7% of all [years of healthy life of the whole population] in 1990, rising to 11% by 2013. Similarly in India, the proportion of all burden explained by mental, neurological, and substance use disorders rose from 3% in 1990 to 6% in 2013,” they write.
The burden of mental illness will increase in the next ten years in both countries, the researchers added. Estimates suggest that by 2025, 36.9m years of healthy life will be lost to mental illness in China (10% increase), and 38.1m in India (23% increase).
The findings come at a time when the UN has, for the first time, begun to recognise mental health as a global priority. In their sustainable development goals, they have included mental health as one of the key targets and they are now finalising their decisions around a number of indicators to measure mental health around the world and how it can improve over the next 15 years.
Depression and anxiety are the most common mental health problems among working age adults (aged 20-69 years) in both India and China, with higher numbers of women with the conditions than men. Substance use disorders were more prevalent in men, meanwhile, with the burden of drug dependence disorders more than twice as high for men as women, and the burden of alcohol use disorders nearly seven times higher for men.
Dementia is a growing problem for both countries. From 2015 to 2025, it is estimated that the number of healthy years lost due to dementia will increase by 82% in India and by 56% in China.
In their research, authors led by Jagadisha Thirthalli suggest that traditional medicine practitioners, prevalent in both India and China, could be trained to recognise and refer patients who are a risk to themselves and others, or to advise patients against stopping their medication. People use alternative medicine for a number of reasons including faith, culture, cost and a belief they are safer, but the authors say more research is needed to understand the effectiveness and potential risks of these therapies.
Stigma associated with mental health problems in the two countries also impacts on employment opportunities and therefore the social economic status of families, compounding social inequalities for those with mental health and substance use disorders. |
Inspired by the "Elements", the 4th Grade composed haikus during a wintry visit to their Weather, Water, and Woods (WWW) location on a cold Friday afternoon.
Nature provided a beautiful backdrop as each student used their senses to describe their experience and wrote their thoughts into their WWW Journal. They worked with the traditional Japanese haiku form of 3 lines consisting of 5-syllables, 7-syllables, and 5-syllables to artistically interpret their winter moment. |
Murderers' Row is also the title of a 1960s motion picture starring Dean Martin as secret agent Matt Helm.
Murderer's Row was the nickname given to the New York Yankees baseball team of the late 1920s, in particular the 1927 team. The team is recognized as one of the best teams in modern baseball history, alongside the Big Red Machine of the Cincinnati Reds, the late 1980s teams of the Oakland Athletics and others.
Owner Jacob Ruppert is the man most often credited for building the line-up of the team, although general manager Ed Barrow may have had as much to do with it. In a July series against the Washington Senators, the Yankees blasted their opponents 21-1 in one game and prompted Senators' first baseman Joe Judge to say, "Those fellows not only beat you but they tear your heart out. I wish the season was over."
The 1927 season was particularly spectacular by baseball standards for the Yankees. After losing in the 1926 World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals, the 1927 Yankee Stadium residents posted a record of 110 wins and 44 losses, one of the best records in baseball history. The team was nicknamed Murderer's Row because of their offense, including Babe Ruth's 60 home runs, 158 runs batted in (RBI), and .356 batting average; Lou Gehrig's 47 home runs, 175 RBI, and .373 batting average; and Earle Combs's 231 base hits.
Their pitching, however, was also one of the best ever, ranking first in the major leagues in lowest earned run average (ERA) that season. Waite Hoyt tied for the league lead in wins with 22, and Wilcy Moore somehow won 19 as a reliever. Three other Yankees pitchers had ERAs under 3.0 that season.
The 1927 Yankees won the American League pennant by one of the largest margins ever, 19 games. Then, they swept the Pittsburgh Pirates to win the World Series, and they repeated as World Series champion in 1928. |
June 16, 2015 – NASA’s Cassini spacecraft will make a close flyby of Saturn’s moon Dione today, coming within 321 miles (516 kilometers) of the moon’s surface. The spacecraft will make its closest approach to Dione at 1:12 p.m. PDT (4:12 p.m. EDT) on June 16.
During the flyby, Cassini’s cameras and spectrometers will observe terrain that includes “Eurotas Chasmata,” a region first observed 35 years ago by NASA’s Voyager mission as bright, wispy streaks. After the Voyager encounter, scientists considered the possibility that the streaks were bright material extruded onto the surface by geologic activity, such as ice volcanoes. Cassini’s close flybys and sharp vision later revealed the bright streaks to be an intricate network of braided canyons with bright walls, called linea.
Cassini will also try to detect and determine the composition of any fine particles being emitted from Dione, which could indicate low-level geologic activity.
Mission controllers expect images to begin arriving on Earth within a few days of the encounter.
This flyby will be the fourth targeted encounter with Dione of Cassini’s long mission. Targeted encounters require a propulsion maneuver to precisely steer the spacecraft toward a desired path above a moon. Cassini’s closest-ever flyby of Dione was in December 2011, at a distance of 60 miles (100 kilometers). The spacecraft will fly past Dione one more time, on August 17, swooping within 295 miles (474 kilometers) of the surface.
In late 2015, the spacecraft will depart Saturn’s equatorial plane — where moon flybys occur most frequently — to begin a year-long setup of the mission’s daring final year. For its grand finale, Cassini will repeatedly dive through the space between Saturn and its rings.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Cassini imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado. The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, also in Boulder, contributed the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph. |
Guided tours usually start at 2:30pm, and at noon on the occassion.
Guided tours of the Mount Teide Observatory take place daily throughout the year except on Saturday.
We are comparing Tenerife: Mount Teide Observatory Guided Tour Prices from leading ticket suppliers and Try to find you Cheap tickets prices on the market.
The Mount Teide Observatory is the largest solar facility in the world, and the guided tour of this place reveals many interesting facts about the sun and astrophysics.
Also, this observatory is one of 3 best places for exploring the sky on earth.
The guided tour includes a film about the sky above the Canary Islands, observing the sun and a tour of the professional night scope.
Here, you will be able to examine the sun with complete safety and observe its flares and sunspots.
The solar observatory also disposes of different areas that are introduced during the tour.
The facility also has many telescopes for daytime and nighttime observations that vary significantly in size.
This enriching guided tour is especially interesting to people interested in astrophysics, scientific research and the space outside of our world.
Also, if you dream of working in one such facility, the tour of the observatory will delight you.
During this enlightening tour, you will learn a lot about astrophysics and how scientists examine the universe.
In addition to interesting lessons, you will have a unique opportunity to safely examine the sun.
Furthermore, you will watch a short film that shows how the sky above the Canary Islands looks like.
Walk grounds of the largest solar observatory in the world.
Also, you will get yourself acquainted with the everyday routine of the people that work here.
What Tenerife: Mount Teide Observatory Guided Tour Includes?
The ticket to the Mount Teide Observatory combines entry and the guided tour of the place.
During the guided tour, you will gain access to 3 different scopes.
Through 2 of these scopes, you will examine the sun.
The 3rd scope is a professional night scope.
At this spot, you will find many big telescopes, but during the day, you will use the small ones to safely examine the sun.
Most of the guided tour takes place outside, so prepare accordingly.
If you suffer from altitude sickness, consult your doctor before booking this guided tour. |
I recently had a very scary experience. I had a chest infection, but suddenly I couldn’t breathe. I’m asthmatic, so I’m used to some difficulties, but this was different; it was like I was fighting for every breath. I had a high fever and was deathly pale. I was taken to hospital in an ambulance, where they did their observations and realised my temperature had gone up another degree in the 15 minutes it had taken to get to the hospital. My heart rate was 135 bpm, I was shivering like crazy and I just felt like I wanted to sleep. I was immediately diagnosed with suspected sepsis and put on IV antibiotics.
Thankfully after hours and hours my temperature and vital signs were normal enough for me to be allowed home with antibiotics and steroids, and instructions to check in with my GP every few days for the next week.
It’s important to act quickly if you’ve got an infection and think you or someone else may have Sepsis. Sepsis can lead to multiple organ failure and death if not treated quickly.
Some people recover very quickly from sepsis, but it does depend on the person’s overall health, the severity of the infection, and how much time was needed in the hospital (including the ICU). People with severe sepsis or septic shock often require admission to the ICU, and are likely to be very ill. In this case the condition can be fatal.
The main takeaway from this is that Sepsis is a serious medical condition, but if caught early enough, most people recover with no lasting issues.
Do you know the symptoms of Sepsis?
I didn’t not know anything about this thing called sepsis. Thank you for giving me the facts and what to look out for.
Wow this is such good information! A good friend of mine recently had a hole in his colon and suffered from sepsis. If only more people knew the signs!
This is so scary – wow. I am so glad you are okay! Thank you for sharing your experience – I definitely think it is something that needs a lot more awareness raised!
Thank You for all of this information. It is so serious when this takes hold. This is really valuable information.
Glad you agree! I’d heard about Sepsis in general but I didn’t know the specifics before I got it!
Thanks for commenting Jeremy, I’m so glad I got it right! |
Ketogenic diet (KD)KD used since the 1920′s, is complex and time-consuming & needs direction from a trained dietician and physician. The child may need hospitalization for fasting, and the parents are trained to weigh, measure and prepare foods. Calories & fluids are restricted, and foods are calculated in exact amounts. The ketogenic diet includes 80% fat, 15% protein, and 5% carbohydrate; the ratio of fat to carbohydrate plus protein ranges from 2:1 to 4:1, with higher ratios seen as more restrictive but more effective.
Modified Atkins diet(MAD)MAD version is less complicated. Patients do not need admission to the hospital, no fasting or dietician is required to plan meals. MAD is more “user friendly” version of the diet & can be recommended for older children, teenagers and adults. It is simpler to follow, less limiting socially, and more palatable.
Low Glycemic Index diet (LGIT)LGIT recommends ingestion of foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains yields a slow, steady rise in serum glucose as compared with ingestion of refined grains. It recommends 40–60 g of carbohydrates with glycemic indices < 50 and 60% of energy from fat and 20–30% from protein.
The Medium-chain Triglyceride diet This is a variant of KD which uses medium-chain fatty acids provided in oil form (MCT oil) as a dietary supplement. |
The National Pretreatment Program is a cooperative effort of federal, state and local regulatory environmental agencies established to protect our water quality.
The program is designed to reduce the level of potentially toxic pollutants discharged by industry and other non-domestic wastewater sources into the municipal sewer system, and thereby, reduce the amount of pollutants released into the environment from these sources.
Learn more about the National Pretreatment Program on the EPA website.
Pollution Prevention (P2) is reducing or eliminating waste at the source by modifying production processes, promoting the use of non-toxic or less-toxic substances, implementing conservation techniques, and re-using materials rather than putting them into the waste stream.
Learn more about P2 on the EPA website.
The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) received authorization from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to operate the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit Program (Section 402 of the Clean Water Act) on the state level in December 2002.
Protect publicly owned treatment works (POTW) from pollutants that may cause interference with sewage treatment plant operations.
Prevent the introduction of pollutants into a POTW that could cause pass through of untreated pollutants to receiving waters.
Manage pollutant discharges into a POTW to improve opportunities for reuse of POTW wastewater and residuals (sewage sludge).
Prevent introducing pollutants into a POTW that could cause worker health or safety concerns, or that could pose a potential endangerment to the public or to the environment.
To administer the City of Tempe’s Pretreatment Program, the city’s Environmental Services Section (ESS) issues permits for wastewater discharges, samples and inspects industries, and manages compliance issues regarding federal, state and local regulations. |
A bone marrow transplant or stem cell transplant is a procedure to replace damaged or destroyed bone marrow with healthy bone marrow stem cells. Bone marrow is the soft, fatty tissue inside your bones. Stem cells are immature cells in the bone marrow that give rise to all of your blood cells.
Allogeneic bone marrow transplant: The term allo means other. Stem cells are removed from another person, called a donor. Most times, the donor's genes must at least partly match your genes. Special blood tests are done to see if a donor is a good match for you. A brother or sister is most likely to be a good match. Sometimes parents, children, and other relatives are good matches. Donors who are not related to you may be found through national bone marrow registries.
Umbilical cord blood transplant: This is a type of allogeneic transplant. Stem cells are removed from a newborn baby's umbilical cord right after birth. The stem cells are frozen and stored until they are needed for a transplant. Umbilical cord blood cells are very immature so there is less of a need for matching. But blood counts take longer to recover.
Summary: Homozygous SS (Sickle cell disease) is a form of hemoglobinopathy where the sickle cell percentage in blood is high. In case of hypoxia, these sickle cell aggregate and cause various vaso occlusive manifestations.
The definitive treatment for this disease is Bone Marrow Transplant. BMT can be done preferable form a matched sibling or a matched related donor. If none of them is a suitable match we can look for an unrelated donor also who is a suitable HLA match with the patient. Even if this is not possible then we can even consider a haploidentical BMT form either of the parents. The results depend on the physical state of the recipient and the HLA matching with the donor. With 6/6 or 10/10 matched donor and physically well child the results are close to 80-90% DFS.
Any of the patients fulfilling above mentioned illnesses can be considered for bone marrow transplant. Bone marrow transplant can be autologous (self) or allogenic (different donor). As the name implies autologous BMT is used in patients with high risk solid tumors as a rescue after giving high dose chemotherapy.
On the other hand allogenic BMT can be considered for all the above mentioned indications baring high risk solid tumors. For allogenic BMT we need a HLA (Human leucocyte antigen) matched donor. We can screen family members to look for a suitable donor. If donor is not available in the family then we can look for donor in various bone marrow donor registries. In few cases where both these options are not available and the patient needs a transplant we can do a haplo-identical or half matched transplant from either of the parents.
Before deciding about transplant, we need a brief summary of the patient and HLA report. If HLA has not been done then it is requested to contact me before getting it done because a high resolution typing will be preferred.
Once a donor is identified then we can admit the patient for BMT. Total duration of stay in hospital is approximately 5-6 weeks. Success rate depends on the indication, type of donor and type of transplant.
When is a bone marrow transplant done?
A bone marrow transplant is done as a definite solution for serious blood related diseases like blood cancers, thalassemia, aplastic anaemia, sickle cell disorders, auto-immune disorders, immune deficiencies etc.
Bone marrow is the tissue found inside your bones. It is the ‘factory’ for stem cells, which make your blood cells. Sometimes, the stem cells disappear or turn abnormal which affect your entire system. Here we remove the defective stem cells and replace them with healthy ‘donor cells’.
Where do the donor cells come from?
They are collected from matching donors. Transplants are classified based on who these donors are.
What are the 4 different types of transplants?
1. Autologous transplants are those where you donate your own healthy stem cells.
2. Allogeneic transplants use cells from family members or strangers whose cells match yours.
3. Umbilical cord blood. The biggest hurdle in transplants is finding matching donors.
4. That is why the latest Haplo-identical transplant done for the first time at our centres is so important.
How is the Haplo-identical transplant different ?
Here the transplant can be done using donor cells that are just a 50% match. This means you can find a donor within your immediate family - your parents, children or siblings. It saves valuable time and money and treatment can be started immediately.
How are Bone Marrow Transplants done at our Centres ?
It is a procedure which requires advanced treatment facilities and experts at every stage. Your diseased bone marrow is destroyed with chemo or radiotherapy. We then collect, strengthen and store donor cells at - 170˚C until the transplant is done.
Once it is done, your immunity is very low. So we keep you isolated in 100% infection free HEPA filtered wards where you are monitored 24 hours, by experts. You are given transfusions of safe blood alongwith a customized combination of medicines to prevent infection and rejection of the transplant. Frequent blood tests at our 24 hour laboratory are done to see if the cells have started working. |
There are thousands of students living in every state of US who need financial aid to get higher education. The costs of higher education are increasing everywhere in US and the financial ability to pay for education is decreasing among students. This situation has reflected very badly on the number of students joining college for degree courses. The requirement of the situation is that the span of scholarships programs be expanded to cover students who are not able to qualify for academic merit based scholarships or for scholarships based on other merits. Feeling the need of financial assistance for students Us government has started many aid programs in every state based on financial need that are providing aid to considerable number of financially struggling students but there is always need for more assistance for such students.
In Missouri a government aid program is already running which provides 17,000 need based scholarships every year. A new senate bill is presented in senate under which the state funding for college scholarship programs will be increased from $27.5 million to $72.5 million. The upgraded program named as “Access Missouri” will provide aid to 36,000 college students. The increase of 19,000 need based scholarships will greatly help students from state of Missouri who are in need of financial assistance.
In addition to increasing scholarships funding for students the bill also calls for increasing funding of government colleges and universities by $40 million. In three years this aid will increase to $110 million.
A common problem for most students is that they are able to get scholarships for only first year fee and the scholarships are normally not available to them for rest of the years. The Bill also intends on filling this gap by proving funding for total duration of the course.
The bill also intends on providing funding of $350 million for construction of more college campuses in the state. At the moment the democrats have objected to the bill, but most senators are optimistic that the legislature will pass the bill.
The bill once passed will be a very good initiative from government that will solve many worries of college students in Missouri. Meanwhile students can also look for number of other need based scholarships offered by numerous colleges and welfare organizations. Such scholarships can be conveniently searched over the internet. Students from all states of US normally have access to such private scholarship programs. |
(aka San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo) has always been my favorite. Wouldn’t you know that it was Father Junipero Serra’s, the founder of the California Mission system, favorite mission as well? I have visited the mission on several occasions but this time I had the opportunity to attend a Roman Catholic Mass. I’m not a member of the Catholic Church, so I felt a tad out of my comfort zone but luckily I went with someone who had been born and raised in the Catholic tradition. The service was traditional but the surroundings, dating back to the late 1700s, made it memorable and moving. The baroque-influenced altarpiece stands front and center which captures your eye after gazing at the high ceilings. The traditional hymns were paired perfectly with the reed organ. After mass we headed out through the decorated America Indian cemetery where over 200 natives have been laid to rest. Indians were vital to the construction and operation of the mission and were trained as carpenters, cattle herders and blacksmiths. The cemetery then led to the area behind the church where they were serving coffee and donuts for a minimal fee. The Munras courtyard area also hosted a farmers’ market booth that featured organic local produce, perfect for a Sunday dinner. This was the icing on the historical cake as several medieval churches would hold similar markets in their courtyards as well. After soaking up a little caffeine I wandered through the main courtyard. You can’t help but linger around the mission grounds and admire the well kept gardens. I always enjoy imagining what kind of activities must have occurred here 200 years ago.
As soon as you make your way into the Mora Chapel Gallery you are struck by the tomb of Father Junipero Serra. The bronze and marble sarcophagus lies beneath the main altar which is also a common area for prayer. Wood from the original coffin and a few of Serra’s belongings are also on display. The rest of the Convento Museum portrays how the mission looked and operated in its heyday. Displays include depictions of the living room, kitchen, guest room and Father Serra’s bedroom. The last room is my favorite. It displays how Father Serra’s room would have looked like with just a modest layout and uncomfortable looking bed. It is truly a step back in time!
The Museum Store is a great way to end the tour. Here you can buy a statue, rosary, nativity scene and other religious artifacts. The museum is open Monday through Saturday from 9:30am-5pm and Sunday from 10:30am-5pm. |
The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is a small country in Europe that is landlocked. It is surrounded by Belgium, Germany and France. Luxembourg has huge banking industry and is considered to be a tax haven. The inhabitants of Luxembourg mainly speak French, German and Luxembourgish, which is a German dialect. |
NAVA has recently launched S2M: The economics of Australia’s small-to-medium visual arts sector, a report commissioned by NAVA from consultants Economists at Large. It is the first comprehensive study of the Australian S2M sector undertaken since the 2002 Contemporary Visual Arts and Craft Inquiry (Myer Inquiry).
Based on a survey conducted in 2016, the data in this study reveals that the small-to-medium (S2M) visual arts sector employs over 2,000 people, puts $100 million into the economy and produces 26,000 new art works each year with a budget worth just 0.03% of Federal Government revenue. However, there has been a 17.5% decline in per capita federal arts spending from 2008 to 2013 and further cuts to the federal arts budget since.
The report paints a picture of a highly professional and productive sector staggering under the load of diminishing resources and ever increasing demands for greater and more diverse public outputs without a concomitant increase in funding or provision of human resources to enable the building of the S2M organisations’ capacity.
NAVA will be campaigning for governments to respond positively to the fourteen recommendations in the report including the doubling of the Federal Government’s arts budget and the holding of a new inquiry into the health of the visual arts sector.
• less than 1/5 of the $553 million NSW will raise from traffic fines and other penalties this year.
The below figure shows federal funding for S2M respondents through both the Australia Council and other agencies declining from 29% to 24% between 2012 and 2016.
This cut to Federal funding will be exacerbated by the 50% of S2M visual arts organisations previously supported by the Australia Council losing their operational funding from the beginning of 2017.
Figure 2 (below) shows that per capita arts funding from the Federal Government has declined 17.5% over the five-year period, from $20.20 per year in 2008 to $16.68 in 2013 (in constant 2008 dollar terms). This equates to a 14.8% decline each year on average, and recent funding cuts to the Australia Council and the major national cultural institutions will exacerbate this trend.
Artists supported by S2M organisations increased by 23% between 2012 and 2016, while visitors to exhibitions and events increased by a similar amount, to over 6 million visitors expected in 2016. While the activities of the S2M sector are keeping up with population growth, clearly their funding is not.
The push to hold more events is contributing to a casualisation of the workforce of S2M organisations. While overall numbers of workers in the sector is increasing, this is driven by casual staff for events.
Within respondent organisations, full time staff numbers peaked in 2013 at 197 and have since declined by 9% to 180, as shown in Figure S6 below.
This demonstrates a key challenge for S2M arts organisations in attracting and keeping full time staff to perform core management functions.
Australia is one of the richest countries in the world at one of the richest points in our history. Having seen off the global financial crisis in a way few other countries did and enjoying a record stretch of uninterrupted economic growth, ironically our country is currently embroiled in a debate over how, how much and even whether we can afford to fund art.
What is most concerning about these trends and the latest cuts is that arts funding policy is being changed with very little data to guide it.
Art in society makes a significant contribution to shaping people’s individual tastes and preferences (Blaug, 2001). Most art is enjoyed not only for the way it stimulates individual thought and reflection, but the way it stimulates conversations, discussion and debate amongst a broad range of people.
Clearly culture and art play a big part in this process of shaping individual preferences, and aligning preference across individuals, and subsequently indirectly shaping major investment and consumption decisions that are based on those preferences.
The Visual Arts and Craft Strategy (VACS) was agreed in 2002 on the understanding that the needs of the visual arts and craft sector had substantially outgrown the allocation by government.
As much of the data in this report shows, the visual arts and craft sector has reached a similar point again and would benefit from a new Contemporary Visual Arts and Craft Inquiry (Myer Inquiry) style report and coordinated strategy based on such a report.
Design Tasmania hosts exhibitions of Australian and national designers and acts as a hub for design in the state. A member of the Australian Craft and Design Centre (ACDC) network, the organisation runs professional development activities for designers such as group retreats, portfolio development and competitions. In 2016 they celebrated their 40th anniversary with 40 designers contributing to two exhibitions to mark the milestone.
Fontanelle is an artist-run initiative, gallery and artspace that is now located in Port Adelaide. Fontanelle began in 2012, in Bowden, Adelaide, with facilities that included studio space for 26 artists and two show spaces that host 20 to 30 shows per year. |
Abstract: An open question in artificial intelligence is how to endow agents with common sense knowledge that humans naturally seem to possess. A prominent theory in child development posits that human infants gradually acquire such knowledge by the process of experimentation. According to this theory, even the seemingly frivolous play of infants is a manifestation of experiments conducted by them to learn about their environment. Inspired by this view of biological sensorimotor learning, I will present my work on building artificial agents that use the paradigm of experimentation to explore and condense their experience into models that enable them to solve new problems. I will discuss the effectiveness of my approach and open issues using case studies of a robot learning to push objects, manipulate ropes, finding its way in office environments and an agent learning to play video games merely based on the incentive of conducting experiments.
Biography: Pulkit is a Ph.D. Student in the department of computer science at UC Berkeley and Co-Founder of SafelyYou Inc. He is advised by Dr. Jitendra Malik and his research spans robotics, deep learning, computer vision and computational neuroscience. Pulkit completed his bachelors in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur and was awarded the Director’s Gold Medal. His work has appeared multiple times in MIT Tech Review, Quanta, New Scientist, NYPost etc. He is a recipient of Signatures Fellow Award, Fulbright Science and Technology Award, Goldman Sachs Global Leadership Award, OPJEMS, Sridhar Memorial Prize and IIT Kanpur’s Academic Excellence Awards among others. Pulkit holds a “Sangeet Prabhakar” (equivalent to bachelors in Indian classical music) and occasionally performs in music concerts. |
In Family Secrets: Acts of Memory and Imagination, Annette Kuhn commented that a photograph should not be considered a ‘mirror of the real’ but ‘material for interpretation, evidence in that sense: to be solved, like a riddle; read and decoded, like clues left behind at the scene of a crime. Evidence of this sort, though, can conceal, even as it purports to reveal, what it is evidence of. A photograph can certainly throw you off the scent’. While Kuhn’s comments may be applied to any genre of photography, they are particularly relevant to family photography in which, when face to face with a camera, the conventional response is to smile, an act which often masks a much wider range of emotions.
Family photographs may simply seem to provide a record of people and events, and, of course, on one level they do, while the ambivalence of the photographic medium means that they are, in fact, far more complex than they appear to be. Their familiarity lends them a superficial accessibility: images of people and of occasions which we have also experienced do not seem to signify anything more than is immediately evident. However, this familiarity and assumed naturalness are central to photography’s art/document duality, in which the constructed nature of the medium is neglected. It is precisely their surface ordinariness that conversely turns such images into remarkable, multilayered capsules of material, not only about the individuals portrayed but about the social, political and cultural worlds in which they lived.
The artists in Family Ties: Reframing Memory employ familiarity as a tool with which to engage the viewer and dig through the smooth surface of the image. Many of the works related to a number of themes and methods, such that to discuss them individually would be narrowly restrictive and misleading. For some of the artists, found family photographs provided the starting point with which to investigate the conflicts within family relationships that are often glossed over or buried more deeply.
Other works explored family narratives in relation to place, whether memories embedded in the family home, or a retracing of ancestors in more distant locations. The visuals were often combined with words to anchor them and, in doing so, indicate their wealth of interpretation. Wider contexts further framed the works, from literary references, to political issues, feminism and social change, while a range of methods were used in their production, drawing on life history, enactment, diary writing and autobiography. A tension between the tangible and intangible, the visible and invisible, structured many of the works, in which images are layered or difficult to decipher, much like the memories that they represent. Indeed, Kuhn’s words on photography are equally applicable to the instability and ambivalence of memory, which similarly has dual functions in recording and constructing, both individual and collective narratives.
In Family Secrets: Acts of Memory and Imagination, Annette Kuhn commented that a photograph should not be considered a ‘mirror of the real’ but ‘material for interpretation, evidence in that sense: to be solved, like a riddle; read and decoded, like clues left behind at the scene of a crime. |
IVAPM is committed to educating all members of the veterinary profession in pain management. Responses to pain are species specific and can even be associated with a particular breed, age and individual characteristics, as well as the origin and type of pain.
The ability to recognize pain and assess its intensity is essential to effective treatment. Pain guidelines and scales are useful tools in determining the level of pain a patient is experiencing based on clinical assessment and behavior. |
Posted on December 10, 2010, in Ageing, Aging, Alzheimer's, Alzheimer's Disease, Anti Alzheimer's, Anti Alzheimer's Disease, anti-aging, baby boomer, Baby Boomer Activities, baby boomers, Baby Boomers Activities, Brain, brain fitness, Brain Food, Brain Foods, brain health, Brain Plasticity, Build Brain Power, cognition, cognitive reserve, Dementia, executive function, exercise, grey matter, health, health and wellness, Health benefits of spices, Healthy Aging, Healthy Eating, healthy heart, Healthy Living, Healthy spices, heart, Improve brain function, Improve Memory, Improve Thinking Skills, judgement, judgment, Longevity, memory, Memory Loss, Mental fitness, Mental Stimulation, neuroplasticity, Prevent Memory Loss, problem solving, processing speed, reasoning, Senior Activities, Senior Fitness, senior health, Spices, Spices for brain health, thought flexibility, thought organization and tagged Ageing, almonds, Alzheimer's disease, Anti Alzheimer's, Anti Alzheimer's Disease, anti-aging, Baby boomer, baby boomers, Blood pressure, blueberries, brain, brain fitness, Brain food, brain foods, brain health, Brain Pathways, brain plasticity, Cognition, cognitive reserve, Conditions and Diseases, dark chocolate, Dementia, executive function, Fitness, Form new brain pathways, green tea, Grey matter, health, health and wellness, healthy aging, Healthy diet, Heart disease, Hypertension, judgment, longevity, memory, Memory Loss, mental fitness, mental stimulation, Neurological Disorders, neuroplasticity, Olive oil, Omega-3 fatty acid, Physical exercise, Prevent Memory Loss, problem solving, Senior Fitness, senior health, strawberries, Stress, Stress management, Walnut. Bookmark the permalink. 6 Comments. |
Dont litter and remind your friends to do the same. Keeping your neighborhood clean will make it a nicer, safer place to live and play.
Use dishwasher and washing machine only when full.
Have your parents turn down heat to 68 degrees or below.
Turn off lights, TVs and video games when you arent using them.
Ask your parents to arrange carpools for school and other activities.
Take your lunch in a reusable lunch box, or cloth bag instead of paper bags.
Cover your books in recycled paper bags or wrap...decorate them yourself, they could look fun and you might start a trend!
These are good words to remember at home, school and at play!
Use cloth shopping bags or recycle paper or plastic bags.
Use both sides of paper.
Take care of your toys! Broken toys become trash.
Recycle bottles, cans, plastic and paper.
Think of creative and fun ways to reuse items.
Empty cereal boxes can be turned into great storage boxes---just cut and decorate!
Empty glass jars are great for storing small items.
It allows us to make new products from old ones.
FACT-Recycling one soda can saves enough energy to run your TV for 3 hours!
FACT- Recycling a stack of newspapers 10 feet tall saves one whole tree! |
Over the last one hundred years, life expectancy for Americans has increased substantially. The Center for Disease Control reports that this increased life expectancy directly correlates with improvements in medical technology, public health and public health systems. Those who complete a master degree in public health can contribute to this important field of study and discipline.
Individuals who want to help improve the health of others, community health and the overall health of populations should consider enrolling in a campus-based or online master degree program in public health. Online programs provide students the opportunity to maintain a fulltime jobs while completing their master's degree when they can find the time. There are several accredited colleges and university that now offer online programs in public health.
People interested in careers social work should also consider enrolling in a public health master's program with an emphasis in mental health. The master degree in public health focuses on both psychological and physical health issues. Program curriculum typically includes courses in research methodology, environmental health topics, epidemiology, and biostatistics.
UNE Online, through the College of Graduate and Professional Studies, strives to enhance, expand and enrich learning opportunities in online programs. The UNE Online staff is highly invested in the success of each enrolled student from application to graduation and beyond.
An accredited online university, Capella offers bachelor’s, master’s/MBA, and doctoral programs designed to take you to the forefront of your profession.
Focus on areas of study in public health or health administration including health care informatics, health care leadership, health care quality and analytics, epidemiology, and more.
Each online program features dynamic, engaging coursework to encourage innovative thinking and leadership skills for application in the fast-paced field of health care.
Students also have the option save with scholarships, transfer credits, employer and association discounts, military discounts, and more. |
This Audit provides an overview of your creativity competency. Tick the column that most accurately describes your answer. After answering all questions, click 'Submit' to find your Personal Creativity score.
1. I tend to be curious about a lot of things, and am always exploring new ideas.
2. Whether deliberately or not, I tend not to ‘conform’.
3. I’m pretty flexible and can jump from one situation to another quickly and easily.
4. I have a high level of self motivation and am able to successfully initiate new things.
5. I’m confident about who I am in a wide range of different situations.
6. I view myself and the world as complex and full of possibilities and potential.
7. I consider courage one of my significant virtues and I’m not afraid to make mistakes.
8. I will pursue different approaches to life and life problems contrary to the advice and views of others.
9. I understand the processes of creativity and ideas generation.
10. I am aware of enablers and barriers to my own creativity.
11. I know about different practices, such as meditation, that can enhance my personal connection to the source of creative thought.
12. I understand the value of physical fitness and regular exercise in enhancing my mental and creative processes.
13. I can identify where and how I’ve been successful because of my creative approach and input.
14. I understand the value of creativity to success.
15. My work and life experiences have been many and varied.
16. My life would be easily described as one of constant learning.
17. I never assume the best way to do something is the way it’s always been done before.
18. I have learnt to surround myself with people that enhance, not obstruct, my creativity.
19. I practise some form of meditation or deep relaxation activity every day.
20. I am physically fit and I exercise sufficiently and daily.
21. I engage regularly and often in creative pursuits outside my work.
22. I have regular sleep habits; I do not go to bed late; I do get up early every day, including weekends.
23. I eat a diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables; my sugar intake is next to nothing; my coffee and other drug intake is nil.
24. I solve problems using different approaches and by following new ideas or nonstandard solutions.
25. I suggest many ways to solve a particular problem.
26. I can see many sides to a problem.
27. I separate the process of idea generation from the process of judging those ideas.
28. My problem solving processes encompass the freedom to make mistakes.
29. I always assess mistakes for new learnings.
30. I always present information and ideas, either orally or written, in a new style or new way.
31. I want to actually be creative, not just appear as though I am.
32. I have a fascination/admiration for great innovators and inventors.
33. I aspire to success in something new and exciting.
34. I put enormous value on creativity.
35. I have a clear vision and purpose in my life.
36. My ideas are directed towards achieving my vision and purpose.
37. I have a constant sense of enormous possibilities.
38. I ask others for help to clarify my vision, goals & ideas.
39. I’m able to get other people on board with my ideas & vision.
40. I can get other people to do what I need them to do.
41. I’m supportive of others’ creativity; I listen to others’ ideas.
42. I find ways to create win:win outcomes.
43. I share my ideas with other people.
44. I can assess and pursue ideas for their success value.
45. I give effect to my ideas; I make them happen – i.e. bring them to reality.
46. My creative output impacts positively on a lot of other people.
47. My creative output results in improvements to my life and in my work.
48. My creative input to this project resulted in significant improvement to my life and in my work.
49. My creative input to this project resulted in significant positive outcomes for many others. |
Browse Artists and Groups Charles Gagnon, R.C.A.
Charles Gagnon was among that formidable generation of Montreal artists born during the 1930s, including Tousignant, Molinari and Gaucher. Gagnon, however, stood out from the others with his unfastidious exploration of various forms of media; working in film, photography, collage and box constructions as well as painting. Such diversity was completely unsurprising for a personality such as Gagnon, a passionate and curious man fascinated with history, philosophy and science. With these alternate areas of interest constantly nourishing his creativity, Gagnon became one of the most important and inspiring figures in 20th century Canadian art with a complex and consistent body of work.
'leading figure' of Canadian painting."
Despite being a multidisciplinary artist, he was never unfocused, with painting remaining his primary medium. Even his earlier works from the late 1950s were already considering structural principles, notably their unusual composition as seemingly cropped from a larger scene in a photographic style. The source of these fragment-style compositions was the British St. Ives School of painters, especially Roger Hilton, who were prominent in New York and Toronto in the late 1950s when Gagnon had studied their work.
In 1962, Gagnon produced a painting and a box-construction with the title La Fenêtre / The Window. The first in a series, these works introduced a concept that is primordial for an understanding of the body of work that would follow. Marked by the use of green, henceforth indissociable from the artist, these paintings explored a clear spatial ambiguity.
The issue of spatial passage and obstruction would become a constant preoccupation in Gagnon's work, inspired in part by Egyptian art that he saw at the Metropolitan Museum during his first year of study in New York, explaining that "not only were there objects to look at, but spaces to step into, and portals to step through." By calling for kinesthetic behaviour Gagnon sets himself apart from his fellow Montrealers, who structured their paintings, whatever their internal visual activity, to be seen from a single position in front of the canvas; Gagnon's paintings work within another set of dynamics.
Gagnon accumulated a complex body of work, "in which painting and photography proceeded side by side, and sometime came together in a crucial interaction." His work broaches questions about titles and subject matter and their effect on interpretation; it dealt with perception itself, devising ways of subverting how we habitually look, perspective contradictions, scale changes, handedness. Gagnon's work is a confirmation that a painting can at once be abstract, representational, figurative and conceptual. |
A central Russian gallery has cancelled the opening of an exhibition of World War Two images by US and British photographers, sparking claims that the event was pulled for political reasons.
Yekaterinburg’s House of Metenkov said the closure was a “technical” matter.
Russians would have had a chance to see 150 images from war episodes less familiar to them, such as the Battle of Britain and 1944 Normandy landings.
Stark photos from Nazi concentration camps were to be shown too.
The exhibition had been titled “Triumph and Tragedy: allies in the Second World War”.
The US and British consulates sourced 150 photographs from the Imperial War Museum in London and the US National Archives and Library of Congress for the event, including work by Robert Capa, Alfred Eisenstaedt and Cecil Beaton.
A staff member at the state-run gallery told the BBC that the decision to cancel the exhibition was “political”, and said they did not believe it would ever open. They said they had been “ordered” not to comment further.
Gallery manager Raisa Zorina had previously dismissed the official explanation of “technical problems”, telling local media “this is very serious” and advising them to “read between the lines”.
A specific political motive is difficult to discern, though staff suggested it was related to the gallery’s collaboration with foreign consulates in today’s increasingly hostile political climate.
In 2012 Russia began obliging non-governmental organisations which receive overseas funding to register as “foreign agents”, amid suspicions that Western governments were plotting regime change in Russia.
However, the US consulate confirms that it has worked with the gallery before and the British consulate is equally mystified. The photographs had already been hung and 150 guests had been invited to the opening.
Russia is currently preparing to mark the 70th anniversary of victory in WW2, known here as the Great Patriotic War.
State media and politicians are promoting the date heavily, honouring the immense Soviet role in defeating Nazi Germany. The contribution of US and other Allied troops is often sidelined.
A US consulate spokeswoman said the exhibition commemorated “our shared history”, with images of Soviet troops as well as American and British military. In one, General Zhukov is awarding an American soldier the Russian Order of Victory.
The director of Yekaterinburg’s history museum, who is responsible for the House of Metenkov, insists it has closed for safety reasons.
The fact that repair work clashes with an exhibition opening is “pure coincidence”, said Irina Yevdakimova.
She insisted that the exhibition could open once the unspecified problem had been “liquidated”. |
The mention of the word “Cancer” invokes a series of emotions in patients and families facing this diagnosis. A coordinated multifaceted approach often provides the best possible way to meet and defeat the challenges of this metabolic disease. Outlook and hope of the patient are a fundamental key to a successful outcome. I didn’t know it at the time but personally observed this in an extraordinary women, my mother, who faced this diagnosis and defeated cancer on three separate occasions. Essential to this success was the physician that guides the patient along this multi-disciplinary therapeutic course while nurturing the patient’s healing spirit.
Recent research involving US Navy special forces investigating the ketogenic diet to prevent oxygen seizures in working divers at pressures much greater than the pressures used in clinical hyperbarics stumbled upon an amazing observation. The Ketogenic Diet used in conjunction with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy produced significant anti-cancer effects in a natural model of systemic metastatic cancer. Their results showed a significant decrease in blood glucose, tumour growth rate, and 77.9% increase in mean survival time compared to controls.
Hypoxia is a critical hallmark of solid tumors and involves enhanced cell survival, angiogenesis, glycolytic metabolism, and metastasis. Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) treatment has for centuries been used to improve or cure disorders involving hypoxia and ischemia, by enhancing the amount of dissolved oxygen in the plasma and thereby increasing O2 delivery to the tissue. Studies on HBO and cancer have up to recently focused on whether enhanced oxygen acts as a cancer promoter or not. As oxygen is believed to be required for all the major processes of wound healing, one feared that the effects of HBO would be applicable to cancer tissue as well and promote cancer growth. Furthermore, one also feared that exposing patients who had been treated for cancer, to HBO, would lead to recurrence. Nevertheless, two systematic reviews on HBO and cancer have concluded that the use of HBO in patients with malignancies is considered safe. To supplement previous reviews, researchers summarized work performed on HBO and cancer in the period 2004–2012. Based on the present as well as previous reviews, they found there was no evidence indicating that HBO neither acts as a stimulator of tumour growth nor as an enhancer of recurrence. On the other hand, they found evidence suggesting that HBO used in conjunction with the ketogenic diet might appears to have a tumour-inhibitory effects in certain cancer subtypes, and the investigators strongly believe that they need to expand their knowledge on the effect and the mechanisms behind tumour oxygenation. These therapies should be further investigated as potential non-toxic treatments or adjuvant therapies to standard care for patients with systemic metastatic disease. |
It is all about the hips. These are the muscles that really help drive your leg behind you and push the rest of you forward during fast running. Most individuals tend to think the hip extensors are limited to the gluteal muscles, but that does not do justice to multiple powerful muscle groups that make up the hip extensors. First we do have the gluteal muscles, which tend to be a weak point in the chain. Second we have the hamstring muscle group, which tend to be the over utilized group. Finally we have the adductors, which I have discussed previously how the adductor magnus especially is a powerful hip extensor.
I want to emphasize that all three of these muscle groups are important to both hip joint loading and power generation. A common mistake is to assume that all power comes from one muscle. The body however does not work by single muscles. It works in muscle groups, chains and systems. The power necessary to do everything that happens extension wise at the hip should not come from one muscle. The gluteal muscles do several things. Extending the hip is one of them, as is abduction, external rotation... and if we talk about the lower glute max fibers, actually hip adduction as well. The hamstrings extend the hip, flex the knee and can slightly internally or externally rotate the hip and knee depending on which hamstring muscles are firing (the lateral biceps femors or medial semitendinosis or membranosis). The adductors, especially the magnus extend the hip and adduct it as well. So all these muscles, despite being huge, have multiple actions and overlap. Can them compensate for another muscle if it is weak? Yes. Can that lead to overuse? Yes, because they already have a great deal to move and stabilize. Gluteal tendinopathy (overuse and chronic inflammation of the tendon) is a real thing. I have now treated 2 patients in my short time as a Doctor of Physical Therapy with this issue. And yes they had weakness elsewhere that the glute was compensating for (one of the rare individuals that actually had high glute strength to start with). There are no magic muscles.
So how do I like to train them? Well here are a few (emphasis on a "few". I have lost count of how many ways you can train these muscles) of the exercises I typically like. How I train my patients a little differently is that I tend to emphasize the eccentric component or lengthening phase of the movements most. The eccentric component is extremely important with these muscles as to work best they need to be stretched a bit before they truly generate maximal force. That initial stretch in running usually occurs during the load phase when the foot hits the ground. The act of absorbing forces in these muscles causes them to lengthen a bit before driving that hip underneath and behind the body during a powerful push-off/terminal stance. (I will elaborate more on this in a future post in when I discuss plyometrics).
I have discussed bridges before as one of my favorite exercises for starting glute exercises. While the double leg bridge is a great starting exercise, it is limited by the fact that it only places 50% effort onto each leg. That is why I really like single leg bridges. If done correctly, this exercise is both a strength, control and core exercise. It is a strength exercise for obvious reasons. The core and control component come in from not letting the pelvis rotate, which is a important co-function of both the abdominals and glutes to help stabilize the pelvis. So when you lift, don't let the opposite hip drop! If you do, you are neglecting the rotational control aspect of the gluteal muscles and are more likely to utilize your hamstring or lumbar muscles for this exercise.
Add a foam roller to emphasize the lower fibers of the glute max and the adductor magus (and challenge that core).
As many individuals, including Bret Contreras (the Glute Guy) have made the hip hinge exercise popular (doing a bridge with your thoracic spine on an elevated surface), the same principles apply for the single leg version! Regardless of the type you do, make sure when you do the bridge to at least get to a neutral hip position or even get into hip extension. Not getting into end range hip flexion will not activate the gluteal muscles as well and can (from anecdotal evident in clinic) leave room for easy excess substitution of hamstrings (instead of being equally balanced).
Can't escape without me pulling into single leg balance and neurologic PT! Many individuals will see this exercise as the single leg deadlift and others will see the body weight version as drinking birds (although drinking birds tend to have a reaching component). Regardless, the gluteal muscles, hip adductors, hip abductors and hip extensors play an important role in single leg balance. Not only do they help with proximal control, they stop the trunk from leaning too far forward. Plus, if you cannot hold a good single leg balance for longer than a few seconds, why do you expect to be a good, injury free runner? Running is a series of single leg stances with high impact forces. If you can't handle statically handling single leg stance, dynamic loading will likely be a problem. So before you try this exercise, you should be able to hold a single leg stance for at least a minute without an issue. Once you get there, this is a favorite hip hinge exercise of mine. If you do this correctly, you should only move from the hips with the knees and back acting as static stabilizers throughout the whole motion. If you utilize those two excessively, you will lose the hip extensor emphasis. Control the downward motion without letting that hip rotate or drop (that sounds like the discussion on the last exercise... because the same thing applies) and come back up to load the hip joint with a long lever arm. Bonus points if you can keep the opposite straight and in neutral hip position.
And then we have lunges, another of my favorite strength exercises. I personally prefer reverse lunges over forward lunges because of the fantastic eccentric loading of the hip extensors over the forward lunge. I will not get into functional talk here as the point of strength training is to get the muscles strong and resilient. The best functional exercise is the activity itself (in this case running). The reverse lunge, like the others, work best if you go down slow. The more you can load the front leg the better, as many people will cheat by shifting a majority of their weight to the back leg. Don't do that. Use the posterior leg as a mild stabilizer, reaching back to both get a nice hip flexor stretch (one of the reasons I love this exercise as it functions both as a dynamic stretch and loading exercise) and keep a majority of your weight on the front leg so you can appropriately load it. To load the hip extensors over the quads, a slight forward lean from the hips will help load the hip joint. Do not lean from the back as that will emphasize the back extensors over the hip extensors. This exercise also can easily be loaded extremely heavy with dumbbells and the like, but even body weight can cause major soreness. Extra credit? Do a reverse lunge from a step to dig deeper into end range tension on the hip extensors (do not do this version if you have hip impingement or severe arthritis). Just make sure that extra motion is coming from the hip and not elsewhere.
There are endless other exercises you can use to train the hip extensors. Hip hikes are an advanced exercise I will address in a later post that help bring in the gluteus medius and glute max as abductors and there are ways to bring BOTH those muscles as hip extensors. This is due to the fact that posterior fibers of the gluteus medius also happen to contribute to hip extension. The above are a great way to start learning control and eccentrically loading these muscles. I will have many more posts on strengthening these muscles later. For now, chew on these. |
A Youden plot of sperm concentration. For a given distribution, the results of the assessments of each centre for Sample A (abscissa) is plotted against the assessments of the same centre for Sample B (ordinate). The target ranges for the concentration in each sample (provided by reference centres) is shown between the dotted lines on each axis and they overlap to define the target window (solid line). The positions of points outside the target window indicate random errors (R) or systematic errors (S). The graph is thus divided into 9 areas and Ranks are awarded for falling within the target window (Rank 1), for having random errors (Rank 2 in R2), systematic errors (Ranks 3 in S3) and extreme random errors (Rank 4 in R4). |
Italian painter whose untimely death (perhaps suicide owing to gambling debts) brought an abrupt end to the career of one of the most attractive painters of the seventeenth century and an eccentric exponent of the Emilian school. He was connected to the Farnese courts in Parma and Modena where he both assimilated and reworked a variety of different influences. Among them we can see both a direct line to Correggio, the finely detailed way of working used by the Carracci cousins, and all of the latest trends from Rome.
Ranuccio Farnese sent Schedoni to Rome at the close of the sixteenth century, but he soon returned to Emilia and settled in Parma. It was there that he painted a small but fascinating group of masterpieces in a severe and noble style. At the same time his works were warmed by a light that softened fabrics and added delicacy to expressions. Although the dates and places were different, Schedoni's personal story ran along similar lines to Caravaggio's. His violence and trouble-making got him into endless scrapes with the law, while his passion for tennis was so great that he almost lost the use of his right hand. |
I wonder how many people are 99 when they discover what their mother looked like? Ness Carne, a resident of Mountain View Aged Care Centre, lost her mother before she began school. But thanks to the wonders of modern communications, a distant relative contacted Ness last year and then sent a small copy of an old cracked photo revealing a beautiful young woman.
Ness’s parents married in North Queensland where her father was managing a cane farm. In preparation for Ness’s birth, he built a high wooden Queenslander home that was finished on Friday March 8, 1918, paid for on Saturday March 9, and completely destroyed by the largest known Queensland cyclone on Sunday March 10. Financially, the newlyweds never recovered. Ness was born three months later on July 1, 1918.
In 1921, after the birth of another daughter, Ness’s mum became gravely ill. Her father took the family to Victoria where he had a large extended family, and his wife could go to a sanitarium. Sadly, she did not recover, and was buried in Hamilton cemetery in 1923. These were during The Great Depression years, and Ness and her sister were passed around to many different relatives while their father went fencing and rabbit pelt trading to survive. Everything belonging to their mother was lost. There was not even a photo of her, and Ness grew up not knowing anything about her mother’s siblings – though she had a vague infant memory of a favourite uncle she had nicknamed “Nu Tu”.
Ness worked hard at school, often by correspondence, and became one of a handful of women to achieve a Municipal Clerk’s Certificate. During the war, she became Shire Secretary of Birchip, in charge of rationing and asset lists, and treasurer for the NorthWest Shires and Burroughs. She married and had three daughters before relocating back to Queensland for her husband’s health. One day, in the 1970’s, in need of a plumber, she opened the Brisbane yellow pages and saw one with her mother’s maiden name. Intrigued, she called, and when he arrived, it was her mother’s brother. There followed a precious time of reconnection with her dear Uncle Wilfred. Sadly he had no photos of his late sister.
Ness and her husband retired to North Queensland to be closer to their eldest daughter. After Ness was widowed in 1989, she lived for some time with family at Balgal Beach and then moved into an aged care facility in Cardwell on the Coral Sea coastline. Though always mentally alert, Ness was physically frail and in need of a completely flat walking surface. In 2011 Cyclone Yasi forced 93 year old Ness to evacuate to Townsville where her grand-daughter drove through the palm littered streets to rescue her. She was transferred to family in Canberra as soon as the airport reopened, and arrived at Mountain View Aged Care Centre.
Happily, her youngest daughter lives nearby, and together they began to record Ness’s memories. As her 100th birthday approached, family gathered documents and mementos, and circulated invitations. Then, in one post, her late Uncle Wilfred’s daughter sent a small photo that had come via other relatives. At the age of 99, Ness finally saw an image of her mother. At her 100th birthday party at Mountain View, other photos from far away emerged, some with her mother’s handwriting on the back.
Ness has now been able to find exactly where her mother was buried, and had a plaque made for the grave. She has also had the photo enlarged, restored and her mother’s signature added. It was a wonderful gift and hangs proudly in her room. We give thanks for this period of grace in her life – for safety from cyclones, and for the restoration of family connections. |
Math can be made fun by using everyday objects as manipulatives.
Hey all! So do you ever just collect things for no reason and then think "what should I do with these?" Um, me neither? Oh fine. I do. And one thing I kept for no reason were these little plastic tags from packages of bread and rolls and things. I found that they make great, cheap math manipulatives.
Sort! Give a pile to your preschooler and let them sort. Sort by color! Sort by size! Sort by shape! Sort by date on the tag! You get the idea.
Plus if you let them sort into a muffin tin, these make a very satisfying "plink!" noise.
And they can be used for fine motor work. Here I strung up a shoelace between two chairs and Nathan clipped them on. He decided to make a pattern too.
These are also great for counting, adding, subtracting, making patterns etc . . .
So start collecting some plastic tags for a cheap math manipulative at home or in your classroom.
And be sure to explore the other fun math games we've done. |
Blood Flow Diagram – Blood Flow Chart – Circulatory System Diagram – Blood Flow diagrams depict the flow of blood in the human body. The below chart displays the human circulatory system and the anatomy of the human body as it pertains to the movement of blood. The following organs are key in the circulatory system: heart, arteries, aorta, veins, lungs, capillaries of various organs. |
In Cappadocian and Pharasiot, the two main members of the inner Asia Minor Greek dialect group, the head nouns of NPs found in certain syntactic positions are marked with the accusative if the relevant NPs are definite and with the nominative if the NPs are indefinite. This differential case marking (DCM) pattern contrasts with all other Modern Greek dialects, in which the accusative is uniformly used in the relevant syntactic positions. After revisiting recent proposals regarding the synchronic status of DCM in Cappadocian and Pharasiot, I show how the two dialects developed this ‘un-Greek’ feature in the model of Turkish, which marks the head nouns of direct object NPs with an accusative suffix only if they take a specific reading leaving non-specific direct object NPs unmarked. I subsequently trace the diachronic trajectory of this contact-induced innovation within the two dialectal systems, seeking to explain why DCM was gradually lost in Cappadocian but preserved in Pharasiot. |
Flat roofs are those with a slope of about 10 degrees or less. Flat roofing systems in Arizona have been in use for hundreds of years. While they may not be new, these roofs are highly effective and can even improve the lifespan of your Arizona roofing system. |
Does cardiac arrest cause hypernatremia?
Hyperkalemia causes cardiac arrest in systole?
Hyperkalemia: No, in diastole, i.e. Flaccid heart.
Can dehydration cause cardiac arrest?
Can cardiac arrest be considered accidental death?
Can propranolol cause heart failure or sudden cardiac arrest?
Can panic attack cause cardiac arrest?
Can alcohol induce cardiac arrhythmia?
Can a cardiac arrest cause respiratory failure?
Palpitations scared of sudden cardiac arrest ?
Can leukemia cause cardiac arrest?
Can propranolol cause cardiac arrest?
New onset Cardiomyopathy. Risk for Sudden Cardiac Death and Ventricular Tachycardia.....?
Can medical induced coma cause seizures?
Can marijuana cause cardiac arrest?
How can sudden fright or shock cause cardiac arrest?
Cardiac arrest related to brain inflammation?
Can beta blocker prevent vF or sudden cardiac arrest?
Cardiac arrest v.S.Respiratory failure, what's the difference? |
The grades of DUROSTAT B2 are boron alloyed, quenched and tempered steels, which are produced as fine-grain steels. The steels are mainly used for components of agricultural machines such as harrows and ploughs. Additional areas of use are wheel loader buckets, dump bodies or cut bars on front loaders.
DUROSTAT B2 steels are produced via the LD-route. |
People who have heart attacks or other heart conditions who do not experience chest pain are commonly overlooked and undertreated at the hospital, often resulting in greater fatality rates in this group of patients. A new study in the August issue of CHEST, the peer-reviewed journal of the American College of Chest Physicians, shows that cardiac patients presenting to the hospital without chest pain have triple the death rate of other cardiac patients and are less likely to receive medications to slow the progression of a heart attack.
A group of international researchers analyzed data from the Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE), a registry of 20,881 patients from 14 countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, and France. These patients were hospitalized with a variety of heart conditions from July 1999 to June 2002. Of the 1,763 cardiac patients who did not experience chest pain, 13 percent died in the hospital compared to 4.3 percent of those with chest pain. In addition, 23.8 percent of patients without chest pain were initially misdiagnosed when they arrived at the hospital, compared to only 2.4 percent of heart patients who experienced typical symptoms. Patients without chest pain tended to be older women and to have a history of diabetes, heart failure, or hypertension, as opposed to patients with chest pain who were more likely to be smokers with plaque buildup in their coronary arteries. Patients with atypical symptoms were also more likely to have the unfavorable outcomes of heart failure, cardiogenic shock, arrhythmias, and renal failure.
Researchers also discovered that patients who did not experience chest pain were often not given proper medication or offered appropriate cardiac medical procedures. Drugs such as aspirin and beta-blockers are usually given to patients with heart problems when they arrive at the hospital because they act as blood thinners, lesson the burden on the heart, and decrease the chances of a future coronary event; yet patients who did not have chest pain were significantly less likely to receive these drugs both during their first 24 hours of hospitalization and throughout their hospital stay. These patients were also less likely to undergo procedures such as coronary angiography and percutaneous coronary intervention and were less likely to receive statins at hospital discharge. |
Mexican painter Gunther Gerzso spent many years as a teenager in Switzerland living with his Uncle, Hans Wendland, who was an influential art historian and dealer. Returning to Mexico, Gerzso worked as a set designer and during the 1940s and 50s he created sets for films winning a total of five Premios Ariel for Best Production Design. In 1984 he worked with John Huston on ‘Under the Volcano’. Gerzo was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1973 and in 1978 was presented with Mexico’s highest artistic honour, the National Award for Arts and Sciences. |
The bouquet garni (French for “garnished bouquet”; pronounced [bukɛ ɡaʁni]) is a bundle of herbs usually tied together with string and mainly used to prepare soup, stock, casseroles and various stews. The bouquet is cooked with the other ingredients, but is removed prior to consumption. Liquid remaining in the bouquet garni can be wrung out into the dish.
There is no generic recipe for bouquet garni, but most French recipes include thyme, bay leaf and parsley. Depending on the recipe, the bouquet garni may also include basil, burnet, chervil, rosemary, peppercorns, savory and tarragon. Vegetables such as carrot, celery (leaves or leaf stalks), celeriac, leek, onion and parsley root are sometimes included in the bouquet. In Provence, it is not uncommon to add a slice or two of dried orange peel.
Sometimes, the bouquet is not bound with string, and its ingredients are filled into a small sachet, a piece of celery stalk, a net, or even a tea strainer, instead. Traditionally, the aromatics are bound within leek leaves, though a coffee filter (or cheesecloth or muslin) and butcher twine can be used, instead.
The term is an antiquated name for the bouquet garni.
^ Rombauer, I.S.; Becker, M.R.; Becker, E.; Guarnaschelli, M. (1997). JOC All New Rev. – 1997. Scribner. p. 686. ISBN 978-0-684-81870-2. Retrieved January 16, 2017.
^ Rappaport, R. (2013). The Big Book of Slow Cooker Recipes. Adams Media. p. 478. ISBN 978-1-4405-6069-9. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
^ Moine, M.P.; Wickenden, N. (1994). Chicken and Other Poultry Dishes: Les Poulets Et Volailles. Marie-Pierre Moine’s French Kitchen. Simon & Schuster. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-671-89658-4. Retrieved January 16, 2017. |
Dozens have fallen ill in a multi-state E. coli outbreak — but the CDC says the cause of the outbreak isn’t known.
A reported 72 people have become sick with E. coli O103 since March 2, the CDC announced Friday. Eight people have been hospitalized, although there have been no cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome — a form of kidney failure — or death.
PulseNet, a lab network “that connects foodborne illness cases to detect outbreak," was used by the CDC to link the cases of E. coli.
The cause of the illness has not been pinpointed, however. The CDC said no specific food item, grocery store, or restaurant chain has been linked to the infections.
Affected states include Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and Virginia as of April 4. Half of the reported cases have occurred in Kentucky, and 21 people in Tennessee have fallen ill, according to the CDC.
E. coli cases in Kentucky include those reported by the Kentucky Department of Health.
The CDC reports that illnesses began March 2-29, and have affected those ages 1 to 74.
Those who are affected by E. coli typically show symptoms 2-8 days after ingesting the germ, although the average timeline is 3-4 days.
Common symptoms include severe stomach cramps, vomiting and diarrhea, which is often bloody. Those who become infected may also have a fever, the CDC says. Typically, people become well withing 5 to 7 days, although symptoms can last longer and be more severe and potentially life-threatening.
Because the cause of the outbreak is unknown at this time, the CDC has not recommended people stay away from a particular food.
To protect against E. Coli, the CDC recommends washing hands, cooking meats thoroughly, avoiding cross-contamination when preparing food, washing fruits and vegetables before eating them, avoiding raw milk and unpasturized dairy products and fruit and not preparing food or drinks for others when ill.
The CDC said the investigation is ongoing and more information will be shared as it becomes available. |
Cosplay is not consent was a panel slightly different than most other panels. It is an education panel where speakers told us their struggles with cosplay consent and then opened the floor to us for questions. This was an emotional, loud and constructive panel on a topic that should never have been a threat. COSPLAY IS NOT CONSENT!
A hot button topic, cosplay is not consent refers to cosplayers who are being sexually, or otherwise, harassed while in cosplay. There are multiple definitions to harassment and each con has its own. However, not all cons have put it in writing which makes punishing those who break the rules much more difficult. In this panel, we heard about instances of sexual harassment toward male and female cosplayers, the dangers of glomping and racist behavior toward cosplayers. None of these are acceptable actions/ concepts inside or outside any convention. They hope that in educating masses we will be able to bind together and free ourselves of such behavior.
Cosplay is not consent covered many problems. Highlighted first is what others see you as when you do cosplay. Cosplay is seen as one embodying the character of their choosing. Much like at Disney Land when you see Mickey or Minnie, seeing (for example) Domo running about creates a thrill in anime lovers which makes it hard for them to remember someone is inside. However, this does not excuse anyone who chooses to act inappropriately. In fact, I personally almost made this mistake. Below is a picture of someone I felt pulled off a good Captain America Cosplay. When I first saw him, I automatically wanted to run up and hug him (I’m a hug person) but I remembered what I’d just learned at the panel. Stopping mid hug I asked if I could take a picture of him instead. When he consented I was overjoyed. I took a couple pictures of him and then politely asked if I could hug him. I was lucky enough to get permission, but running up and hugging him would’ve been plain wrong.
Another example is: one of the panelists was competing in a competition where she was in a bulky and fragile costume. Right before she got on stage, she was glomped and her wings broke. A member of the audience had dressed up as Harley Quinn and was also glomped; her hammer broke and her cosplay was ruined. These are the dangers of glomping.
In terms of sexual harassment, it is NEVER okay to sexually harass someone and if you are harassed please seek help immediately. It is never the victim’s fault. There were two ways the panelists covered harassment of this nature in the panel (a) where the perpetrator didn’t realize that the cosplayer didn’t want to be touched (as in a naive person who momentarily forgot that you’re not really their favorite anime character) or (b) some misguided soul who thinks that they can touch you like you’re an object because you’re cosplaying.
Clearly, with the first case, these are naive people and a simple sentence will remind them that you’re human. That’s where you get an apology and then go your separate ways. The others are not as easy. Our one male panelist was harassed, while underage, by the wife of a stranger when he happened to be cosplaying with friends- as Vegeta. A child, father and mother came up to him and politely asked for a picture. He consented and this was acceptable behavior. However, afterward, the mother acted inappropriately toward him, saying things like, “boy if I wasn’t married…”. She said this to a seventeen year old boy (not that age matters because harassing anyone is wrong!) Her husband looked at him, “like dude just go, just run”. Later that weekend, he was cosplaying as a different character, covered in leather and he was running around in his pants and shirt and hanging out in a hallway and dancing with others.
This was his first time cosplaying and he happened to be very hot in his outfit. This led to him going sweaty and shirtless half way through the con (note: still not a valid reason to harass someone). This woman comes out from the Artist Alley with chair in hand, sits down in front of him dancing pulling a fistful of dollar bills out of her purse and asking him for a lap dance. It turns out it was the same mother from before. He was utterly humiliated. He tried to diffuse the situation by saying, “oh, well my girlfriend wouldn’t like that,” to which this mother responded, “oh, that’s fine,” before promptly shoving a dollar into his pants and leaving. When a dude says, “Hey if you cross the line, that’s not okay,” you get more objections where as men usually backpedal and apologize when confronted by a woman.
While it happens to women more often, it’s no excuse to ignore the stories there either. Women in certain anime wear outfits that range from modest to skimpy (or what some would consider slutty). Seeing as anime women are known for such outfits, one would think that others would be tolerant of it. However, that’s not the case. One of the panelists, for example, was actually approached by an unknown male who proceeded to grab her breast to see if it was real. This is in no other setting allowed, what makes people think it would be here? Despite all the hype of an anime convention, these characters are people. Please keep this in mind!
Another outrageous behavior spoken about in this panel was racist behavior toward cosplayers. Whether someone is white, black, Japanese, Korean or a gunky space monster from the planet Whose-e-what’s-its, we should be tolerant of them (until they try a mass genocide in which case, be gone devils!) Anime conventions, particularly Anime Expo, are places where one can attend events and meet like minded individuals. We are here to accept one another as a community whether you cosplay or not. It is under no circumstance okay for someone to belittle someone else if their skin tone doesn’t match a certain character’s portrayal! To prove this point, people have done studies in the field showing that different nations identify with anime characters and no one truly knows where a character comes from. That’s mostly because anime themes are designed to be relatively universal so they can reach a broad audience. It is up to us to follow the example! |
If you receive a notice that the IRS intends to place a tax lien or levy your assets, you can request a Collection Due Process hearing by filing IRS form 12153. These hearings give you an opportunity to appeal the IRS’s collection actions. They can potentially stop the lien or levy from happening.
What is a Collection Due Process Hearing?
A Collection Due Process hearing is a hearing to appeal IRS liens and levies. This is an informal hearing which can happen in person or over the phone. Oaths are not involved, and no transcript gets taken.
The hearing looks at the validity of the notice and relevant issues related to the unpaid tax. At the hearing, you can attempt to obtain innocent spouse relief— that’s where you argue that your spouse or ex-spouse was exclusively responsible for the debt. You may also work out a payment plan or suggest collection alternatives.
Whether or not the IRS delivered the lien or levy demand correctly—The IRS must hand deliver these notices. Or, the IRS must send the notice via registered mail to your last known address and get a receipt that you received it.
Whether or not a lien is going to be placed.
Whether or not a levy is going to happen.
The details of any payment arrangements decided upon during the hearing.
Whether or not the IRS accepted your request for innocent spouse relief or any similar defenses.
Whether or not relief was offered.
After receiving the Notice of Determination, you have 30 days to appeal to the Tax Court or the US District Court.
When Do You File a Request for a Collection Due Process Hearing (Form 12153)?
You want to request payment alternatives such as a payment plan or an offer in compromise. To get these plans accepted, you must file all delinquent returns.
You have a terminal illness and overwhelming medical bills.
You can’t pay because you’re living on Social Security or unemployment.
You can’t afford to pay with your income—the IRS has strict guidelines on this type of hardship arrangement.
You want to apply for a lien subordination. That’s when the IRS agrees to put its lien as subordinate to another lien. For instance, if you want to take out a home equity loan to cover your tax bill, the lender will only give you the loan if that lien takes precedence over the IRS lien.
You want the lien discharged so you can sell the underlying asset and pay the IRS.
You need the lien removed from your credit report because you already paid in full or you are currently in a payment arrangement.
The IRS may be willing to accept other reasons, but those are some of the most common.
What If You Don’t Agree With the Amount Due on Your Notice?
You may also request a Collection Due Process hearing (form 12153) to challenge your tax liability. However, you can only do that in rare situations. Namely, you can only challenge the amount due if you didn’t receive a statutory notice of deficiency, if you didn’t receive a notice to file a Tax Court petition, or if you didn’t have a chance to dispute your liability previously. You cannot bring up issues that have already been heard.
Pay the tax debt in full. Then, file a refund claim and appeal when the IRS denies your refund.
File an Offer in Compromise for doubt as to liability.
All of the above options are complicated, and you may want to get professional help in all of those situations.
How Do You File a CDP Request?
To request a Collection Due Process hearing, you need to complete Form 12153 (Request for a Collection Due Process or Equivalent Hearing). This form is pretty straightforward. It requests your name, ID number, address, phone numbers, and the best time to reach you. You also have to include information from your tax lien or levy notice.
You can tick a box if you want to apply for innocent spouse relief. Otherwise, you need to write in your reason for requesting a hearing. This is the most important part of the form, and you won’t get a hearing if you don’t supply a reason. You can use any of the reasons listed above or reasons suggested by your tax professional.
Once the IRS receives this form, all collection activity stops, and the 10-year statute of limitations pauses. The IRS will only respond to your request if you postmark the form by the last day of the 30-day period after receiving your Intent to Levy or Tax Lien notice.
If you don’t submit the form within the 30-day period, you can request an equivalent hearing. You have one year and five business days from the filing date of your Federal Tax Lien to make this request or one year from the date of your levy notice. In these cases, the levy may go forward, and the IRS can take your assets, but if the hearing is successful, the IRS will stop the levy.
How to appeal various tax decisions if you don’t agree. Understand when, why, and how you can file for different kinds of IRS tax appeals.
There are many different situations in which you may be able to appeal a tax levy. If the appeal is successful, the IRS stops the levy and does not take any of your property.
How to appeal a filing of a tax lien. There are many circumstances in which a lien can be appealed. If you win the appeal the lien will be removed.
Understand the steps to appeal an IRS Offer In Compromise that was rejected. |
To show the syntax of the view query, use SHOW CREATE VIEW.
Consider the following two tables: a table employees with two columns, id and name, and a table salaries, with two columns, id and salary.
In the following example, we create a view named view1 that enables you to hide more complex query syntax.
This view runs on top of two tables, table1 and table2, where each table is a different SELECT query. The view selects all columns from table1 and joins the results with table2. The join is based on column a that is present in both tables. |
Mikhail Chekhov (1891-1955) was one of the most renowned Russian actors and pioneering acting teachers of the twentieth century. The emphasis in his teaching was on the imagination and psychophysical acting. However, what is less known, is that he also elaborated a rich set of ideas about scenography and theatre design. In this talk, award-winning theatre director Sinéad Rushe provides a fresh look at this relatively under-appreciated side of Chekhov’s work, that she is presently researching. Drawing upon unpublished materials from the Michael Chekhov Studio/Dartington Hall archives in Devon, and in particular Chekhov’s own set, costume and character drawings, Sinéad will demonstrate how Chekhov’s interest in design was an important extension of his embodied acting practice and is essential to a complete understanding of his technique. She will consider his legacy in the light of current thinking on scenography, and investigate its significance and value to contemporary theatre designers.
Sinéad Rushe is an award-winning theatre director and Senior Lecturer in Acting and Movement at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, London. She is the author of Michael Chekhov’s Acting Technique: A Practitioner’s Guide, (Bloomsbury Methuen), and the co-translator into French of four plays by Howard Barker (published by Editions Théâtrales, Paris). |
Internet research often produces a large number of documents. Some of these documents may not be relevant or reliable. Below are some criteria to consider when reviewing and evaluating Internet documents.
Source of the document. Is it reliable? What is its bias? What’s the purpose of the website?
One quick way to check the source is looking at the web address: .edu (school or university), .gov (government body), .com (business or general site), .org (non-profit organization), although this is changing and sometimes the url ending does not mean that’s the source. You have to look at the website content carefully.
Is the website being maintained?
How relevant is the title and what’s the context in the document for where your search terms show up? Remember all web browsers like Google, Internet Explorer or Firefox have a find function so you can search for specific words in a page.
Who wrote it? What do other people say about it? Who has linked to it?
Can you find the same information other places?
Is there a way to contact the author or webmaster? |
If people followed all this advice over the years, they would expect to have a nice nest egg in retirement. Everyone knows that saving for retirement can be hard but cracking into a nest egg can be downright complicated.
Unlike decades ago when retirement meant stopping work altogether (a boon to the rocking chair industry), retirement now means different things to different people. The once magic age of 65, the retirement goalpost of an earlier era, is almost irrelevant now as many more people are working past age 65.
For example, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), in 1975, 13.7 percent of people age 65 or older were still working, but that percentage increased to 18.7 percent by 2013. Considering that 10,000 baby boomers reach age 65 every day, the higher percentage of senior workers also implies a much greater number of senior workers than in 1975. The reasons are many: the Great Recession of 2008, increased longevity, meager retirement savings, low interest rates, and more.
The decision to work full-time or not at all past age 65 is one of the most important considerations in developing and maintaining a retirement distribution strategy. Age, health, family situation, and retirement assets all play into the strategy, as well. Indeed, just as these factors vary from person to person, so should a distribution strategy be customized to meet individual situations and needs.
This article covers the most important considerations for individuals who might work during retirement and the impact of using more than one source of retirement funds.
“Working during retirement” sounds like an oxymoron, but it’s a real option that could help stretch individuals’ retirement assets; every dollar earned is a dollar that doesn’t have to be taken out of the nest egg.
Example: Marcia, a 67-year-old widow, earns $25,000 per year working as an instructor at the local community college. She has saved $350,000 in qualified retirement accounts and traditional IRAs. If she can live off her earnings, Social Security benefits, and interest and dividends from her nonqualified accounts, she won’t have to touch her retirement assets for four more years, when she must start taking RMDs. Marcia’s investment returns will also continue to accrue on her retirement account balances. This sounds like a good plan.
However, there is a cost to this strategy. Leaving her retirement assets untouched during this period will also increase Marcia’s RMDs. If her retirement assets grew at 5 percent per year, they would be worth more than $420,000 when Marcia is 71, almost $116,000 more than if she had taken four annual distributions of $25,000 per year between the ages of 67 and 70. This will increase her first-year RMD by approximately $4,700.
So, should Marcia stop working and start taking distributions from her retirement accounts? From a tax perspective, her wages and retirement distributions both are taxed as ordinary income, but her wages are also subject to payroll taxes (7.65 percent). So, taking retirement distributions, rather than working, will eliminate payroll taxes. On the other hand, working will help her preserve her retirement assets, but her RMDs will be higher.
Despite payroll taxes and higher RMDs, Marcia will likely be better off financially if she continues to work. Quitting work only to avoid payroll taxes and higher RMDs is like buying a home just so you can deduct mortgage interest. Also, the decision to continue working after age 65 doesn’t come to an abrupt halt at age 70½, when RMDs must begin. That decision is often about more than finances or taxes, although many people who haven’t saved enough for retirement have fewer options.
Retirees’ distribution strategies may change when their retirement nest eggs are made up of pre-tax and after-tax (e.g., Roth) retirement assets, as well as other cash-flow sources, such as Social Security, nonqualified investment earnings, income from business interests, etc. Let’s take a look at how these could impact a distribution strategy.
People in their 50s should realistically include Social Security benefits in their retirement planning. However, a discussion about when to begin taking Social Security benefits is beyond the scope of this article.
Up to 85 percent of Social Security benefits can be taxed, but a full 100 percent of earned income is taxed.
Regardless of the tax differences, Social Security benefits and earned income have similar effects on retirement assets. That is, a dollar of Social Security benefits received may help preserve a dollar of qualified plan assets. An individual’s decision to work may be more focused on the taxation of Social Security benefits than on the preservation of retirement assets, but the effect on retirement assets is the same.
For retirement assets, “tax diversification” means that a taxpayer has a combination of Roth and ordinary assets, as well as nonqualified investment and savings accounts. Having a mix of assets allows more flexibility in establishing a retirement distribution strategy. Greater flexibility also means more complicated options, so working with a tax professional and financial advisor will produce the best results.
If Nina’s nonqualified investment accounts hold long-term capital assets, distributions will be taxed at favorable capital gains rates (15 percent for Nina).
Distributions from pre-tax qualified retirement accounts can help preserve the balance of Roth assets, allowing them to remain untouched and grow longer, tax free. Also, distributions from pre-tax accounts reduce their balances faster, which will reduce future RMDs.
Distributions from nonqualified accounts and pre-tax qualified accounts increase Nina’s modified adjusted gross income (MAGI), which could increase the amount of Social Security included in income.
Distributions from designated Roth accounts and Roth IRAs are purely tax free, with no RMDs.** Also, Roth distributions don’t increase MAGI, so they won’t affect the taxability of Nina’s Social Security benefits.
Nina should consider taking distributions based not only on their tax impact, but also their effect on her portfolio. She may need to rebalance the portfolio to meet her investment objectives as she takes distributions.
This formula isn’t optimal for everyone. The sources for distributions will depend on the individual’s tax bracket, underlying portfolio, and more.
Clearly, developing a strategy for distributing retirement assets is based on many factors, and depends on an individual’s unique situation. Some of the factors include age, longevity, potential Social Security benefits, as well as the size and mix of retirement assets, both qualified and nonqualified.
Any retiree’s goals should include maximizing cash flow, minimizing federal and state tax liabilities, preserving retirement asset balances, and satisfying all RMDs. To meet these goals, the expertise of a financial advisor and a tax professional is necessary to determine the optimum distribution strategy.
* Strategies for reducing the impact of larger RMDs, such as making qualified charitable distributions (QCDs), is outside the scope of this article.
** Non-spouse beneficiaries of Roth IRAs and designated Roth accounts are subject to RMDs. |
Familial hypercholesterolemia is an inherited disorder characterized by high cholesterol and an increased risk for heart disease. FHNext is a 4-gene panel that analyzes genes associated with familial hypercholesterolemia, clarifying a diagnosis and allow for individualized disease management and treatment.
If 1st-degree relatives are unavailable/ do not wish to undergo testing, testing should be offered to second-degree relatives (i.e. aunts/uncles, grandparents).
The FHNext test is designed and validated to be capable of detecting >99% of described mutations in the genes represented on this test (analytical sensitivity). The clinical sensitivity of the FHNext test may vary widely according to the specific clinical and family history.
The FHNext test is an analysis of 4 genes associated with familial hypercholesterolemia. Genomic deoxyribonucleic acid (gDNA) is isolated from the patient’s specimen using a standardized kit and quantified. Sequence enrichment of the targeted coding exons and adjacent intronic nucleotides is carried out by a bait-capture methodology using long biotinylated oligonucleotide probes, and is followed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Next-Generation sequencing. Additional Sanger sequencing is performed for any regions missing or with insufficient read depth coverage for reliable heterozygous variant detection. Reportable small insertions and deletions, potentially homozygous variants, variants in regions complicated by pseudogene interference, and single nucleotide variant calls not satisfying 100x depth of coverage and 40% het ratio thresholds are verified by Sanger sequencing (Mu W et al. J Mol Diagn. 2016 Oct 4). This assay targets all coding domains, and well into the flanking 5’ and 3’ ends of all the introns and untranslated regions. Gross deletion/duplication analysis is performed for all genes using a custom pipeline based on read-depth from NGS data followed by a confirmatory orthogonal method, as needed. Exon-level resolution may not be achieved for every gene.
1. Sturm, Amy C., et al., Clinical Genetic Testing for Familial Hypercholesterolemia. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 72 (2018) 662-680. |
Cybersecurity analyst Morgan Wright on the global cyberattack.
While data breaches were big problem in 2018, they stand to get even bigger in 2019 as the shortage of cybersecurity professionals continues to grow globally.
According to a new study by (ISC)2—the world’s largest nonprofit association of certified cybersecurity pros—the shortage of cybersecurity workers is close to three million globally, putting many organizations and people at risk.
“Despite increases in tech spending, this imbalance between supply and demand of skilled professionals continues to leave companies vulnerable,” the group said in its report, adding that it is now the number one job concern for those who already work in the field.
Asia Pacific in particular, is among the hardest hit region, with roughly 2.15 million in shortages across all cybersecurity sectors. The report cites its growing economies and new cybersecurity and data privacy legislation for the growing problem.
North America is second hardest hit region with a shortage of 500,000, following by Europe and Africa at 142,000 in job openings.
Overall, the survey found that 63 percent of respondents said their organizations have a shortage of IT staff dedicated to cybersecurity and nearly 60 percent say their companies are at moderate or extreme risk of cybersecurity attacks due to this shortage.
Last year alone, big companies such as Marriott, Facebook, Macy’s, Delta, and Under Armour were all hit with major data breaches. |
Should I take singing lessons?
Maybe you’ve thought about taking singing lessons in the past, but then put it off because you thought “Those aren’t for me”? Maybe you’re a working singer who needs help with your voice because it’s tiring out during long gigs, but are not quite sure if you should take singing lessons?
Sometimes we get asked “do you work with beginners?“, or “I just like to sing for a hobby, should I take singing lessons”?
And the answer to these questions, and many like them, is always YES!
Have you ever thought about developing your singing voice for any reason? Perhaps to sing better in the shower, or sound more professional at the karaoke night? Or to sing more easily as a working professional singer, or even to serenade your other half at your wedding? If you can answer “Yes!” to any of these questions – you should take lessons from a good singing teacher.
Singing lessons are not just about your voice, they can help to develop your musical ear and performance techniques as well.
potentially even set you homework alongside practising!
During points 2 and 3, they will also be developing your musical ear, making sure you are pitching correctly during the scales and song and making sure that your voice is working towards achieving vocal balance.
They’ll be helping you with performance technique as well, so you are actually performing the song, and not just singing along to a backing track.
If you are struggling with a specific part of a song, asking someone who knows what they are talking about can help you get past that sticky patch. As singers, we are often completely unaware of what we are actually doing and a outside ear can be a huge help to flag the problem for you.
When you go to the gym, if you don’t know how to use a piece of equipment, you don’t blindly go ahead and use it, do you? No, you ask one of the gym staff for help (at least if you have any common sense that is).
It’s the same with singing. If you don’t know how to hit a note, or you experience tension or strain, or can’t work out that tricky riff – ask a good singing teacher. They’ll help you with that issue, and maybe fix one or two things that you didn’t know about as well!
I’m 14/30/60/80 years old and have never had lessons before. Does it matter?
Nope! Singing lessons are great for people of any age – it gives you the freedom to develop an instrument you carry around with you, and can help to develop confidence too. Developing confidence in singing at any age is important – if you can do something you like well and without fear of judgement, then why wouldn’t you want that?
Singing lessons for children are important if they harbour a desire to sing, aside from potentially doing themselves some damage without the correct training, it can be a massive confidence booster for them.
Every child deserves the right to be able to learn a musical instrument, and by taking singing lessons, you don’t even have to buy them the instrument! Just make sure you pick a good teacher who is comfortable teaching children.
Here at Your Voice Studio, we teach all kinds of people, from complete beginners and singers who want to sing for their own benefit, all the way to musicians touring around the world. Our advice is based in the IVA Technique, and orientated to your specific vocal and musical goals. |
The developmental psychologist and philosopher on learning what other people think.
One of the greatest mysteries of life is what goes on in other people’s minds. How well do you really know your parents, your siblings, your friends, your dog, or your significant other? The developmental psychologist and philosopher Alison Gopnik explores what human consciousness looks like at various stages of development, starting from when we’re babies. She has written about it in books including The Scientist in the Crib: What Early Learning Tells Us About the Mind (co-written with Andrew N. Meltzoff and Patricia K. Kuhl) and The Philosophical Baby: What Children’s Minds Tell Us About Truth, Love, and the Meaning of Life. After watching her 2011 TED Talk, in which she describes the way consciousness changes shape over the course of our lives, I started thinking about how understanding other people starts with how we experience the world. So I got in touch with Gopnik, who is a professor of philosophy and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and we talked on the phone about what it’s like to imagine other people’s imaginations, why it’s important to care in the first place, and why teenagers may have expanded consciousnesses.
ROSE: You study consciousness, and specifically what consciousness is like for people at different ages. There may be no greater unknown than What Other People Think. How motivated are you by the idea of trying to answer a seemingly impossible question?
ALISON GOPNIK: That impossibility is part of what it makes it so interesting. You might think, “How could you ever know what it’s like to be a baby?” Philosophers have said, well, there’s nothing we can know about other people’s consciousness. It’s just a fundamental, unapproachable mystery. But in my experience, if we keep looking at it and thinking about it, it’s amazing how much progress we can make, including answering questions about what it’s like to be an infant.
Why is it so important to try to understand what other people think?
Human beings are really social animals. One of the big differences between other animals and us is that we depend on other people for just about everything. And that means that having the ability to imagine other people’s minds and thoughts is crucial to being a successful human. One of the problems that we have in philosophy is that we have tended only to consider the consciousness of a philosopher—historically the grownup, white, male philosopher sitting in an armchair. Thinking about what life might be like for a creature that wasn’t like that—an animal, a child, [other] adults—can really broaden our horizons, and keep us from being narrowly focused on what consciousness is like if you’re the sort of person who is writing about consciousness.
How does imagination relate to the formation of our consciousness?
One of the problems that children are trying to solve is what’s going on in other people’s minds. As children are growing up, they are getting better and better at taking the perspective of another person and understanding things from another person’s point of view. It starts very early—even 18-month-old babies attempt to understand what another person wants, and how it differs from what they want themselves. This continues to be a problem to solve all the way through being a grownup. And the facility for imagination, the ability to understand different points of view—the same thing you use when you read novels or see great films—is a lot about trying to work out how other people think.
One thing about your work that really strikes me is the idea that an adult has a consciousness like a spotlight, which they can focus intensely on one thing at a time. A child, on the other hand, has consciousness like a lantern that gives off rays of light in all directions—they can absorb a lot more information but are not so good at focusing on one particular thing.
In my first book, The Scientist in the Crib, I argued that a lot of what children are doing in terms of problem solving is what scientists are doing. To be a scientist, you need to have that open-minded curiosity and do whatever it takes to get an answer. You don’t do things because you think you’re going to get a grant or money or even because you think you’re going to do something useful. You experiment for the sheer love of seeing things out. I think you really see that urge in its purest form in two-, three-, and four-year-olds, where the most important thing in their lives is figuring out what’s going on around them.
When I was a teenager, I spent a lot of time looking backward and forward at the same time. I wanted desperately to be independent and make my own choices, yet I missed the excitement about the world that I felt as a young child. It’s almost as if I was experiencing psychic growing pains as I shifted from lantern consciousness to spotlight consciousness. It seems like teenagers often feel torn between two ways of being. Is that something you’ve noticed, too?
I’ve spent my whole career researching babies and young children, and I’m just now planning to research teenagers. Adolescence might be the time in which there is a reengaging with that kind of wideness and openness. If you look at babies and preschoolers, they are trying out a million new things, and they are very emotional and volatile. School-age children have this agenda where they are more like grownups. They want to learn from their teachers about how things should be done. Teenagers seem to return to how preschoolers are. They don’t just accept what people say to them, they explore, they are curious, they take risks, they try on lots of different possibilities. The important difference is that with preschoolers, all that exploring happens in this very safe setting where you don’t have to make any decisions and all of your needs are taken care of by your caregivers. But with teenagers, that experimenting is happening out in the real world where you can’t rely on being protected. It’s quite interesting when you consider that the innovations of adolescence might be a result of that rebooting of the free will and urge to take risks, combined with a new adult competence.
It also seems like nostalgia is an important part of being a teenager. You’re super conscious of how you’ve changed, and what you may have lost in terms of engagement with the world.
I think that kind of expanded consciousness can come at any time, but adolescence is certainly a time where people experience this a lot, even though you’ve also got all these other responsibilities. There’s a constant tension between wanting to be in this wide-open creative space and having to go to high school and get your homework done. It’s an important feature of adolescent thought.
From your perspective, is there a way to hold on to the lantern consciousness, even as growing up demands that we operate more like spotlights?
Traveling is a really good way to reopen your mind. Trying to do something new is another way to get to that place. Putting yourself in a situation where everything is new is a good way to return to that child-like consciousness. Like when an artist says, “Oh, I am going to try painting with foot-long paintbrushes just so I am out of my comfort zone.” But you probably don’t want the lantern consciousness to be part of who you are at all times. After all, three-year-olds are like scientists, but they can’t tie their shoes or make lunch. As an adult, you’d probably like to be able to tie your shoes and ignore distraction and get things done. I think the secret is finding a balance. As a scientist, for example, I have to write grant proposals, and I have to get work done on time, and I have to balance those responsibilities with the pursuit of that kind of openness and curiosity that is really important for making discoveries.
How did you get interested in psychology and theory of mind?
I started out my career in philosophy instead of psychology. I studied philosophy because I wanted to answer some of the questions about how we come to understand the world around us. And one of those big philosophical questions, which people sometimes call “the other mind question,” is How do we ever understand what’s going on in someone else’s mind?
I was the oldest of six children and I spent a lot of time with babies and young children. I began to think that a good way to answer those questions was to look at kids because they are in the process of trying to answer them, too. But back in the ’70s, you could look at 2,500 years of philosophy and not even know that children had existed, and for sort of obvious reasons. Philosophers were mostly men and most of them weren’t even married men. So when I started talking about children back in the ’70s, there were a lot of people who said, “This doesn’t make sense, this isn’t part of philosophy.” One of my teachers at the University of Oxford said, [in a prim British accent] “Well one has seen children about, hasn’t one, but one wouldn’t ever actually speak to them.” So I switched from doing philosophy to doing developmental psychology because when I looked at children I found them to be incredibly fascinating and interesting. I never looked back.
Was there also resistance in the psychology community to taking children seriously in this way?
There was. The traditional wisdom about children was that there wasn’t much going on in their minds. They were blank slates, they lived in a bubble of confusion, or they were eccentric, irrational, or precausal—to name just a few insults from psychologists. In developmental psychology, we’ve had a very narrow range of context. We’re only now attempting to understand how scientific assumptions come from white, educated, industrial, rich, and democratic cultures. That’s not what most of human history has been like. Fortunately, a whole community of people started questioning our assumptions and started trying to get babies and children to tell us what they know in their language, instead of our language. And when we did that, we discovered that they knew much more and learned much more and thought much more than we ever imagined. |
When my daughter was just three years old she needed to start wearing a patch to help with her vision problems, and boy did she hate it. The very first thing they tell you is that you can pick up some adhesive patches at any drug store, and so we did. Within a few days my poor girls eye was getting a rash, and the adhesive was peeling her tender skin off. It was miserable.
Let me help you save your child the same misery by showing you how to make a simple patch your child will not mind wearing so much!
You can print out the pattern for the patch by clicking the picture link below.
For this tutorial I'm going to use this Hello Kitty patch because it's easy to see where I've attached pieces. If you get further along and need some help feel free to contact me or leave a comment below.
1. Print out your pattern pieces and cut them out. Turn the patch pieces to the direction of the eye you need to cover. This is so important! You don't want to make a patch for the wrong eye!
Use the pattern to trace the shapes onto your choice of felt. I used a fabric marker to then trace on the pattern for embroidering. Embroidering your patch is purely for the kids pleasure. My daughter got a kick out of having something cute and girly and made it more desirable for her to wear it. Choose whatever character or design you/your child would like.
For Hello Kitty, I backed the Base Piece with a very thin piece of black leather that I had some scraps of. It helps to block light/vision and is still light enough to not weigh down the glasses. I suppose you could also use a darker color for the Base Piece.
2. Around the edge of your Base piece use a zig-zag stitch, or other stitch that might hold the edges of your felt together, so that with time and wear it won't start to fray apart or pill. You can see this in the pictures around the edge.
Mark this spot on the base and carefully cut a hole big enough for the nose piece to fit comfortably through.
Hand stitching around the edge of the nose piece hole has several benefits--it will hold double layers together if you use a darker backing like I did, it is cute and decorative, and it will help hold up to wear over time.
This patch is about 4 years old...it's held up well!
4. It's time to make the piece that will hold the patch along the ear piece of the glasses. With several of the other patches that I've made I simply stitch a small piece of elastic onto the back end of the patch. I sewed one end to the top edge, and the other to the bottom edge so that the ear piece could slip through it. With this particular patch I cut out a little flower, sewed it to a piece of black felt and attach the top and bottom so that her glasses ear piece slid through. It's important to add some sort of ear piece holder to the end of the patch so that it doesn't sag and let light in or tempt your child to peek out the side with his/her "good" eye.
5. Now that each piece is complete all you need to do is attach the lens cover to the base piece by sewing along the top edge. You want to be sure to sew about the nose rest hole so! See picture below.
Trim loose threads! On the underside of the edges of the patch I put some small pieces of adhesive backed velcro to hold the lens cover against the base when the patch is on the glasses. Without the velcro it does stay attached, but the lens piece may stick out a bit. See the picture above step 4 to view this.
Try it on your little one and see how it fits. If you feel you need help, please don't hesitate to let me know! |
Electric car. An electric car is a vehicle powered by an electric motor which runs on a system of rechargeable batteries.
(These are at present of the lead-acid variety, although new types, including zinc-chlorine, sodium-sulphur and fuel cells, are being developed.) The motor converts the battery’s electrical energy into kinetic energy. The driver simply switches on the power, selects “Forward” or “Reverse”, and steps on the accelerator pedal.
Like gasoline-powered cars, electric vehicles have a system of gears, shafts, and joints to transmit motion from the motor to the car wheels. However, they do not have clutches or multi-speed transmission. In order to go backwards, the flow of electricity through the motor is reversed, changing the rotation of the motor and causing the power train to make the wheels reverse direction. Moreover, they do not have the high number of moving parts that an internal-combustion engine has, since the electric motor has only a single rotating element.
In most electric cars, the braking system acts as a battery charger. When drivers take their feet off the accelerator, the motor acts as a generator, converting the energy produced by the movement of the vehicle back into electricity and storing it in the battery. This conversion of kinetic energy into electric energy slows the car. To stop the car quickly, however, there is also a brake pedal and a traditional braking system which works on the wheels.
In the early days of automobiles, electric cars were serious rivals to gasoline cars. The first automobile to exceed 100 km an hour was an electric car (Camille Janatzy’s La Jamais Contente, 1899). In 1900, 40% of U.S. cars were powered by steam, 38% by electricity and only 22% by gasoline (petrol). The gasoline car was unreliable and noisy. Moreover, it had to be started by hand crank, and this made it difficult to operate. The electric car, on the other hand, was silent, self-starting and needed minimal maintenance, but it was limited by its short range (50-60 km) and its dependence on recharging equipment. Eventually, it was another application of battery power, the electric self-starter, that helped to make the gasoline car more attractive, especially for women motorists.
Electric cars began to reappear in the 1960s as an answer to problems of air pollution in city centres, and in the 1970s, as a result of oil shortages. Since then, several car manufactures (Ford, Nissan, Volkswagen) have included electric cars in their range. More recently, in 1996, General Motors Corporation announced the first modern, mass-produced car designed specifically as an electric car (until then, electric cars were generally created by replacing the gasoline engines and fuel tanks of conventional cars with electric motors and batteries). |
In this paper we investigate speech recordings before and after speaker’s drug-abuse treatment, and show that there is no statistically significant dependency between distortions of speaker’s fundamental frequency and formants on the one side, and different groups of drugs and on the degree of drug intoxication on the other. Changes of the fundamental frequency are not regular and do not have a general nature. The main reasons for these changes are changes in the emotional state of speakers, rather than a drug addiction treatment.
This paper presents a development of previous research by P.Kenny, which deals with using a supervised PLDA mixture of two gender-dependent speaker verification systems under the conditions of gender uncertainty. We propose using PLDA mixtures for speaker verification in different channels. However, in contrast to creating a gender-independent mixture, the optimal decision for training a channel-independent mixture for two channels in our task was mixing three channel-dependent PLDA systems.
The paper considers some peculiarities of training and using N-gram language models with open vocabulary. It is demonstrated that explicit modeling of the probability distribution of out-of-model (unknown) words is necessary in this case. Two known techniques for this modeling are considered and a new technique with several advantages is proposed. We present experiments which demonstrate the consistency of the proposed approach.
In some applications of speaker recognition, for example in the forensic area or in the access control systems, an important task is to estimate some absolute measure of identity of the speakers. Automatic speaker recognition methods in this case seem to be the fastest and the simplest speaker identification tool [1-2]. However, up to now the applicability and reliability evaluation of automatic speaker recognition systems (ASRS) for single cases, e.g. in forensic area, is widely disputable [3-7]. Output results of state-of-the-art ASRS are based on statistical data analysis.
In this paper we propose to use Variational Bayesian Analysis (VBA) instead of Maximum Likelihood (ML) estimation for Universal Background Model (UBM) building in GMM text independent speaker verification systems. Using VBA estimation solves the problem of the optimal choice of the UBM mixture dimensionality for the training data set, as well as the problem of noise Gaussians which are typical for ML estimation.
This paper deals with topic segmentation of continuous speech. We propose an online segmentation method that relies on the information about sentence boundaries obtained from an automatic sentence boundary detection system. We show that using information about sentence boundaries to divide continuous speech into fragments for topic classification provides an increase in classification accuracy of about 25-30%, compared to the method where only a threshold on the number of words is used to divide continuous speech into fragments.
Word pronunciation variability is one of the basic problems in automatic speech recognition (ASR). There is a significant performance degradation of a system trained on all types of data nondiscriminatively when the test signal differs noticeably from the speaker-independent (SI) acoustic model (AM). We explore a class recognition system with minimum phone error (MPE) training. Class models provide an improvement in recognition quality compared to SI models.
In this paper we investigate speech recordings before and after speaker’s drug-abuse treatment, and show that there are no statistically significant dependences in distortions of speaker’s fundamental frequency on different groups of drugs and on the degree of drug intoxication. Changes in the fundamental frequency are not regular and have no general nature. The main reason for changing the fundamental frequency is a change of speaker emotional state, rather than drug addiction treatment.
This paper reports on some of the results obtained in the course of computer-aided processing of a large text corpus in Russian. Frequencies of occurrence of Russian monophones and diphones are presented and some notable observations are discussed.
This paper deals with new front-end feature improvements for Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) robustness to changes in speech loudness. Our experiments show that applying a RASTA– like filter gives a significant improvement in robustness to speech loudness change, leading to an up to 4% PER reduction. |
Its collections include more than 135,000 items. Among them natural crystals, geodes, druses and other kinds of mineral treasures.
The museum was named after Alexander Fersman.
The museum was founded in 1716 in Saint Petersburg as a mineral cabinet of Kunstkamera. As a base for this mineral cabinet a collection of 1195 specimens was bought by Gotvald, a doctor of medicine from Danzig, at the behest of Tsar Peter the Great. This collection was enriched by the material from Russian deposits and opened for public view in 1719.
During the reign of Peter the Great mineral collections grew very quickly. They were replenished with specimens which were presented to members of the imperial court or to the tsar personally. For example, in 1718 Charles XII of Sweden presented to Peter a magnificent example of natural, crystallized «rope» of silver from the royal silver mines at Kongsberg in Norway. This 21 cm long specimen called «Silver Horn» is the oldest specimen in the collections of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
In 1745 the collection included more than 3000 minerals, fossils, gems and rocks. By this time it was already one of the most enviable Europe collections with a great aesthetic and scientific value. This great quantity of material required sorting and cataloging.
The first to be appointed to the task of organizing the mineral cabinet was a German scientist Johann Gmelin (1709—1755). Thereafter, Mikhail Lomonosov, who had just completed his studies in Germany, continued his work. For almost five years, Lomonosov sorted out the collection and compiled a catalogue which was published in 1745.
On 5 December 1747 a great fire destroyed virtually the whole collection. Only the most valuable items were saved, including the «Silver Horn». In 1836 the Kunstkamera was divided into 7 separate museums, including Mineralogical museum which was moved to the new building. In 1898 the museum was significantly expanded and renamed the Geological museum.
In 1912, the name was changed to the Museum of Geology and Mineralogy, dedicated to Peter the Great. The mineral research laboratory was founded and research trips were organized to the Urals, Siberia and Transbaikalia.
Museum was moved from Petersburg to Moscow in 1934 together with the Russian Academy of Sciences. Thirty railway carriages were required to move the museum's collection of more than 60,000 specimens. The relocation and setting up of the exhibition took three years of energetic work. In 1936 and 1937 the museum organized independent exhibitions in Moscow.
Systematic collection consists of more than 90000 items representing about 2400 mineral species (from 4000 species known in nature). Mineral specimens in this collection demonstrating diversity of mineral species by it constitution, morphology, physical properties, associations with other minerals.
Crystal collection includes more than 4800 crystals of minerals representing all crystal systems and most of space groups. Mineral specimens in this collection demonstrating different forms and their combinations, twinning laws, perfection and defection of natural and man made crystals.
Locality collections included more than 31000 specimens representing genetic features, mineral association and ore types for more than 300 former Soviet Union deposits and couple dozen well known localities in other countries.
Pseudomorph collection includes about 2200 mineral specimens, representing different kinds pseudomorphs and also different features of mineral growing and transformations in various conditions.
Gems and stone art collection includes аmong 8000 rough and faceted gemstones, items made of stones. A large part of this section is Russian stone art from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries including some thirty items designed by Peter Carl Fabergé, including the last Fabergé egg, the Constellation egg. |
Going behind the scenes of my favourite sites and gently tearing them apart and sharing with you all those secret bits I’ve managed to find.
Many people are complaining about how frustrating it is to be working with such a limited number of web safe fonts. However, rather than simply blowing off some steam talented designers have learned how to cope with it and make the best of it until an uncertain future when we would be blessed to spend hours contemplating on which one of the hundreds available for Web fonts we should use for our sites.
I’m constantly scouring the Web looking for sites with an exquisitely crafted typography and getting under their hoods, studying the CSS code, trying to uncover their magic tricks in achieving a perfectly balanced typographic designs accomplished with only one or few of the twelve web safe fonts that are installed on all computers.
Inspired by John’s article on Web Typography, I decided to go behind the scenes of my favourite sites and gently tear them apart and share with you all those secret bits I’ve managed to find.
Our first stop is going to be non-other but A List Apart itself – a powerful testament of what can be achieved with a good eye on typography, knowledge of grid, a little bit of colour and abundance of style.
There are three fonts that are used throughout the site: Georgia, Verdana and occasional Times. However, a careful look at the site reveals a number of stylistic/layout manipulations that give A List Apart such an opulent look.
First of all, ALA is based on a semi-authentic elastic layout, setting the default font size in the body tag to font-size:0.8125em and the font-family:Verdana,sans-serif. All the consequent hierarchy of text sizes vary from the date set in uppercase 0.9em Verdana, letter-spaced with 0.33em to the introduction text set in Georgia, italic, size 1.05em to the post’s title being displayed in 1.8em Georgia font and the author’s name shown in uppercase 0.85em Verdana, with 2px space between the letters.
A masterful switch from uppercase letters to italic to bold creates a rich font hierarchy. It’s a simple math after all – with three type faces and three styles of each of the fonts you get nine different types. Add to that all the different sizes you can set the font in and the possibilities are pretty much unlimited. Just take a look at the elegant menu text on the site, who could know that you can achieve that by setting your characters with the uppercase 18px Georgia.
The quickest way you could improve any web site’s typography and the overall look is by injecting generous amounts of white space here and there. On A List Apart the text lines in all paragraphs breath easily with the line-height:1.8em and font-size:0.88em. There’s plenty of padding and margin space between the block elements and various sections.
Notice a subtle change in font styles in the byline, where the word “by” is set in 1.1em Times, italic, while the rest of the line with the author’s name is set in a complimenting uppercase bold 0.85em Verdana and 2px letter-spacing.
By varying types and styles, with carefully thought out white space, and with the help of a well organized grid it becomes so much easier to read from screen where each section shines with individuality.
Initially I planned on dissecting four web sites in one article, but I think I rather spread it out over several posts and give you a chance to try out some of the typographical tricks shown here on your own sites. That is if you actually found this post useful and helpful, did you?
This study of web site typography has certainly helped me a lot, and I’ve already envisioned how the text would be laid out in my re-designed site. Let me know what you think of it and what would you like me to concentrate more in my research of exquisite web typography? Which are your favourite sites with beautiful typography?
In my next installment of a great typography on the Web I will be going behind the scenes of a gorgeously looking website that is featured in every CSS gallery out there, and the most incredible thing about this site that all the stunning typography was achieved by using only ONE typeface: Georgia. Be sure you’re subscribed to Inspiration Bit so you don’t miss out on how you too can add some grace to your own site’s typography.
Btw, I don’t quite get the image scalability part in the elastic designs. Is it a good thing to have? I always thought that we shouldn’t let the browser resize the actual image size, since we’ll be losing in its quality. Are we talking about all images on the site, or just the content frames in the background, and things like that – that are supposed to scale with the scaled text?
Thanks, Simonne. See? Now you know why you liked ALA design ;-) Tell me something – did you find my tutorial bits easy to follow here, or should I adjust the structure of these behind-the-scenes posts?
Hi Vivien, it does use relative sizes for type, but has absolute widths for structural elements so just for (you could say pedantic) clarity, it is a fixed-width layout. Part of the reason for me clarifying this is that I’ve often see folks be confused by the differences between elastic, fluid, fixed-width and hybrid layouts, so perhaps this might help in a small way.
Regarding image scalability: I was referring to all images, but specifically images as embedded content. It is a contentious issue, mainly because of the quality loss, and the fact we don’t have SVG or CSS3 scalable background images yet (although IE8 might support SVG I believe.) However, the same people who benefit from extreme levels of text scalability would almost certainly benefit from being able to scale images, too. As Joe Clarke once pointed out, watching someone with a vision impairment put their nose an inch away from the screen in order to try and understand an image is a case in point. Obviously, for some designers, any quality loss may be unacceptable. Is it for their audience though? Browsers could, and should handle resized quality better. Even so, I would rather code to give people the native ability to scale images. After all, the folks who might benefit often can’t even see the perfectly-rendered regular size image anyways. Not allowing them enlarge images on grounds of quality is redundant.
Hi Jon. Thanks so much for your detailed response. About ten years ago when I’ve heard about SVG for the first time, and started playing with it, I was convinced that it’s going to be the next standard on the Web, but then came Flash, and SVG was put on the back shelf. I do hope it comes back, it’s got a huge potential.
“the folks who might benefit often can’t even see the perfectly-rendered regular size image anyways” – it’s impossible to disagree with this.
You know what? You’ve inspired me to look for and feature some elastic sites here and talk about how they function. There is a CSS galery site featuring liquid and elastic sites, and I did a feature on Liquid sites while browsing that gallery.
I particularly like how they use different type and type styles as hierarchy.
A List Apart also has a good Print style sheet (something I need to do!).
I really love how you broke this down and even recreated a sample with what you learned! The way your investigative mind works is so great for the rest of us! Keep these articles coming, Vivien!
Thanks, Kristarella. I agree – I’ve seen several sites mixing serif and sans, but very few of them are doing that successfully.
fonts that got together with a plea to give them a break and forget about their existence for the next 25 years.
inspired and partially based on the results of the interviews conducted with 35 web designers by Smashing Magazine.
Looking for some design inspirations for your logo?
How do you create a community that will inspire you, build lasting relationships with your readers?
which seems to be slowly overtaking the mainstream blog’s structure.
that will cure every workaholic in the world, will motivate any procrastinator and encourage the utmost pessimist.
Harmonious colour combination reinforce the impact and recognition, help in establishing powerful identities and brand.
Your one in a lifetime chance to swim in the ocean of inspiration filled from 37 sources.
Leon is an ardent crusader for accessible and readable web design. His own sites come with very minimalistic, stripped down to bare necessities, designs.
Are you forgetting about a very important factor—Information Architecture—the art and science of organizing and labeling any system?
Which old articles from Inspiration Bit are the most memorable to you?
It takes a bit of effort in styling the images to fit within the site’s design without breaking the flow.
Six prominent designers are interviewed to get the insider info on how to effectively blend blogging with business.
Take a look at the 16 exquisitely crafted headlines.
How can branding be applied to blogging? What are the driving forces of a flourishing Brand?
Things did change since I wrote this post, but some still ring the bell quite vividly.
If there is one thing that places a designer into an admired category of great designers it is the attention to details.
If you were a poet who would you dedicate a poem or a song to?
It took me three days and three nights to finally decide on the name for this blog.
Hi, I'm Vivien. Thanks for visiting my Inspiration Bit. I often find myself scouring the internet looking for either answers to many questions I have or websites that inspire me, sites that I can learn from. On what topics you might ask — any topics that interest me, anything from web design to typography and art, from blogging to entrepreneurship, from programming to open source. |
1. "It's my job to correct my pack followers "
An upside down pack hierarchy (humans as followers, dog as leader) develops when humans do not fulfill the needs of their dogs as canines. The dog resultingly fills what he perceives as a leadership void. His instincts tell him that someone must take the reins, and he steps up to the job in lieu of seeing any human do so.
Now that he's in charge, it's his job to set rules and boundaries for his pack even though he has no model for how to do so.
Dogs nip one another and escalate to bites to correct junior members of their pack. If your dog now disagrees with having his nails clipped, being picked up or rubbed too abrasively or having his space invaded by the irritating toddler, it is quite predictable that he will use his mouth to correct.
2. "I must vent the frustration of my pent up energy"
Dogs need a consistent daily walk (with a leader who masters the walk) to exercise their minds and bodies. Just like us, they need to get out and experience the world, and return home later. A big backyard is not heaven for a dog. It's more an extension of the house, the bathroom.
Ideally the dog receives a walk in the morning, off leash frolicking play with other dogs late morning, and a soft walk, ball games or other exercise in evening before bedtime.
3. "I'm overly contained and isolated "
Canines are very social animals. Those who enjoy regular socialization with other dogs and people are more calm, stable and happy than those who are kept in the solitary confinement of home and yard, let alone those who live half their lives in crates. As a rule, dogs should never be crated for longer than 4 hours without receiving social contact and the chance to exercise their bodies and brains.
4. "I am anxious, afraid and don't trust you"
A dog who lives with anxiety and insecurity does not welcome new situations. Instead of staying in the family Pack Drive, these tend to send him to his Defense Drive where he feels cornered with the panicked need for fight or flight.
It is very important that the human not reward this instability with affection. Instead we need to disagree with the state of mind, afford time for nature's coping mechanisms to kick in, and join in the celebration when the dog "gets it right. "
Let the Houston Dog Whisperer dog training help you. You'll see amazing results in short order!
5. "I am dominant "
We become a dog's leader by earning his love, trust, and respect. Dominant dogs will assess whether a human is worthy of his respect, filling in the void if in his k9 brain we fall short. This is a prapractical consideration by the dog. He needs to feel that whomever is strongest, smartest and most wise takes the lead in the hunt and eradicating predators from an instinctive basis.
Leaders provide rules to followers. They correct unstable energy and inappropriate behaviors. Dogs correct in a variety of ways that have nothing to do with how we humans typically deal with dogs. One of these ways is to nip and bite.
It is quite natural for a puppy to use his mouth. If still with his litter mates, he would be "jowling." This means wrestling and pulling their skin with his mouth to hone his fighting skills for joining the pack with the hunt. In addition, there are 2 teething stages which caused the puppy discomfort. He relieves some relief when he can chomp.
But biting and nipping often results in the children voicing, " I don't like my puppy anymore. " We want to set rules and boundaries for Junior before this reaches that stage in our family.
(1) Puppy/dog never uses his mouth on human in any way. (2) Humans start and stop all play. (3) Humans begin and end all affection.
Tip: give your pup a raw frozen marrow bone slice when he is restless or mouthy. This will entertain him for an hour plus the cold helps relieve teething inflammation discomfort.
7. "It's my job to guard and protect. "
The dog who parks his body in front of his owner is clocked onto the job of protecting her. He perceives that the world presents risks and that owner is too weak to deflect these and protect herself.
The irony is that this owner has created this situation of distrust and anxious fear in her dog. And the minute she changes her behavior, the dog will relax and clock off the job.
Get the Houston Dog Whisperer's help if you're experiencing a dog who is protective and territorial.
Means dog wants to inflict harm simply because another dog or person exists.
Not born with, results from usually 3 to 5 root causes ... fear, anxiety, weak leader/territorial, not socialized, not exercised, ill timed affection, more.
Too risky for layperson to take on. Engage help of professional dog behaviorist (not simply dog trainer) like Houston Dog Whisperer. |
To be successful in this event, talent alone will not suffice. You will need proper training from a knowable coach to be consistent in all these three phases of the technique. Here are some workouts only known to the better jumpers that will help you to become successful as a high jumper.
Sit on the floor and stretch out your legs to the front. Swing your arms one by one as in running and try to raise your bottom from the floor without bending your knees or placing your hand on the ground. You won’t be able to do it. Now, while you remain seated, have both your arms behind your body keeping your elbows bent at 90o. Swing both arms vigorously to the front of the body and stop suddenly when the triceps come parallel to the ground. If you do this correctly your bottom will have left the floor.
This drill demonstrates just how important the arms are in generating force for jumping and therefore how you should use your arm when high jumping.
Visualization is a major part in any jumping event. To do this you should find yourself a quite place away from any noise or distractions, and just focus on jumping technique.
To help yourself to become better at visualization, you can carry out this exercise: This is an old yogic practice involves fixing an unflinching gaze on an oil lamp or candle placed in front of you. You should then close your eyes and visualize the object. Repeat this exercise until you are comfortable. This practice steadily brings wandering minds to a focus.
One of the most important, yet very difficult parts of the jump is to successfully coordinate the last three steps prior to the take-off.
In these final steps, your body should be leaning away from the bar. Most jumper nowadays use the fosbury flop technique to clear the bar and the final few steps of the fosbury flop approach run is a curved run. The lean away from the bar at take-off is helped by executing the runway curve properly. The jumper should run the approach to the takeoff by leaning into the radius of the curve.
The jumper’s center of mass is lowered in the penultimate step of the take-off and then the take-off leg is placed on the floor to drive the jumper into the air. If you were to take a picture of your body during the last step (the take-off) of the approach run, you should be able to draw a straight line from the top of your head, going through the spine, down through the takeoff leg on the ground. This position would help you transmit force to the ground and drive you into the air. And with the lean away from the bar, this will now give you the time to get up and over the bar successfully.
As you approach the takeoff point of the jump your gaze should be focused above the bar. If you are looking at your feet, you cannot jump high. If you look at the bar, you will fly into it. If you see a picture of any international level high jumper, you will notice that they are all looking up and over the bar, this of course match their intentions.
If you are new to jumping and want to learn how to high jump, here are some steps that should guide you. |
The chemicals PFOS and PFOA were widely used to make carpets, clothing, fabrics for furniture, paper packaging for food and other materials that are resistant to water, grease or stains. They were also used for firefighting at airfields and in a range of industrial processes.
These chemicals have been in the news a lot recently due to water contamination issues associated with historical use in firefighting foams.
Dr Louis Tremblay. Louis is an environmental toxicologist at the Cawthron Institute and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Auckland. His research involves assessment of the toxicity of contaminants and complex mixtures like sewage effluent in the receiving environment. Louis’ main area of interest is the characterisation of the mechanisms of toxicity of microcontaminants on key New Zealand species.
Dr Grant Northcott. Grant has amassed a wealth of experience in environmental chemistry in New Zealand and abroad. Grant has previously worked at The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, the University of Lancaster School of Environmental and Biological Science where he obtained his PhD in 2000, and The Institute of Plant and Food Research. Grant is now the Director of Northcott Research Consultants. |
Here's a look at some of the noteworthy hepatitis C (HCV) research being presented at The Liver Meeting 2016 in Boston from Nov. 11 to 15. The conference will gather hepatologists from around the world and feature some of the latest research and developments in the field of hepatitis C.
Researchers will present updates on a program and care model known as ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes), which aims to improve health outcomes in communities. The session will highlight the effectiveness of the ECHO model and how it can help improve hepatitis C care around the world. Specifically, the presenters will describe how to start a new ECHO project and where to obtain resources and technical assistance.
This session will give a "state-of-the-art" update on providing care for the more challenging communities living with hepatitis C by discussing clinical data and offering practical tips on patient management and best treatment options in the direct-acting antiviral (DAA) era. The presenters will help identify optimal treatment, particularly for patients with chronic kidney disease and those who inject drugs, and suggest how to improve cure rates.
Even though we have highly effective direct-acting antivirals that can cure hepatitis C, accessing and prescribing these medications can be a major obstacle to care, particularly due to restrictions set by many state Medicaid providers. This panel will bring together different stakeholders to discuss how to help resolve this problem.
19. Incidence and Pattern of "De Novo" Hepatocellular Carcinoma in HCV Patients Treated With Oral DAAs.
20. Uptake of and Factors Associated With Direct-Acting Antiviral Therapy Among Patients Infected With Hepatitis C Virus in the Chronic Hepatitis Cohort Study, 2014-2015.
34. Not Just What, But Also When You Eat: Analyzing the Impact of Meal Timing Patterns on Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.
55. Decreasing Mortality in Hepatitis C Patients Awaiting Liver Transplantation in the Direct-Acting Antiviral Era.
111. RG-101 in Combination With 4 Weeks of Oral Direct Acting Antiviral Therapy Achieves High SVR Rates in Treatment Naive Genotype 1 and 4 Chronic Hepatitis C Patients.
180. Hepatitis C Complications: Prevalence and Disparities in a Large U.S. Cohort 2006-2014.
227. Towards Eradication of Hepatitis C Virus Infection in the Veterans Affairs National Health Care System: A Study of 107,079 Antiviral Treatment Regimens Administered From 1999-2015.
Check back during and after the conference for our news and analysis. |
I have always had a love/hate relationship with fan art. In one way, I enjoy celebrating my favorite movies/books/TV shows by making art inspired by them (you know I can never resist a good Frozen or Song of the Sea doodle). In another respect, I feel like fan art is unproductive for me. After all, I could be spending that time working on my own projects, rather than just indulging in someone else’s fantasy. Recently, I’ve been thinking of my book/illustration work as my own sort of fan art: fan art that I create based on my ideas and creations. A book, after all, could be considered fanfic that one person makes of the ideas swimming around in their head.
Which is not to say that my work is so amazing that it deserves fan art. It’s not. Certainly not to me, who works on each book for years. Years. Which can sometimes lead me to feel a bit stuck. Trapped even. So I thought, if I’m here anyway, why not enjoy the view? Celebrate it even? It’s an interesting way to approach working on my books. It engenders a mentality of cheering myself on, getting excited about the worlds and characters I create, and letting that enthusiasm spill into the work itself.
Thinking of the work as “fan art” or “fanfic” also necessitates that I be a fan of my own work. Which is far easier said than done for me. Too often, I am critical and judgmental of my work, rarely taking time to step back and just enjoy it, much less say “wow, this took a lot of hard work, I’m proud of this.” Just typing those words makes me laugh. In some ways, letting myself be a fan of my own work is an act of faith. A symbol of belief. A belief I so rarely feel. The belief that this is not all complete and utter garbage, that the book is worth finishing, that there is something magical and fantastic in there worth celebrating. Even if it’s a little thing. Oftentimes, I have to find a single idea that I like. Just one. I can then hold that idea up as proof, to tell myself “see, this is worth all your time and hard work.” A lot of writing (and painting), at least for me, is telling myself that it is worth it. That it is not all worthless bosh. And neither am I. I know, I have frighteningly low self-esteem, especially when it comes to my work. But that’s one thing that always pushes me to be better. To work harder. Practice more.
But that mentality isn’t healthy. At the very least, it’s only effective in small doses. Too much negativity and self-chastisement and I get bogged down. And that, more than anything, is what causes my creative blockages. My own mindset. The good news, however, is that mindsets can be changed. It might take time and practice, but you’ll get there. Choosing to treat yourself gently and with kindness can be difficult at first. I still struggle with it daily. That’s why oftentimes, it’s easier to start with one thought. Say, “I get to write fanfic of these interesting characters in my head!” instead of “I have to make myself write at least one scene today,” or what have you. If I can see my creative work as an enjoyable opportunity, rather than a difficult obligation, or a task I’ll never measure up to, I’m much more likely to produce better work. It’s the whole carrot vs. stick scenario. And we all know that carrots are much healthier than sticks. Unless perhaps you’re a beaver.
Be nice to yourself. You deserve it. As does your imagination. Give your own creative ideas just as much value and power as you give to your favorite books/movies/TV shows/etc. if not more. They deserve it. After all, your favorite book started out as just an idea in someone’s head. Same with every movie, TV show, comic, song, etc. They were all just ideas once, that someone believed in and honored with their hard work and time.
You are capable of incredible things. And I say that in full knowledge of the literal meaning of the word. Something that you can’t believe. Not yet, anyway. You are stronger than you think, more creative than you let yourself believe, and capable of more than you’ve ever imagined.
I believe in you. What will you create?
I am a huntress of rare grace. A pursuant of everyday beauty. A seeker of hidden inspiration. Take me to the beach, and I’ll walk the shore for hours, looking for pretty seashells. In the forest, I’m like to pick up golden acorns and lacy leaves, stowing them in my coat pockets for later. Even in rest stop meadows, I’ll gather honey-scented clovers to tie into chains and crowns, leaving them for passersby. Beauty and inspiration hide everywhere, I’ve found. And what joy is the hunt!
Online image resources like Google Images or Pinterest can seem far removed from a forest or shell-strewn beach at first glance. Yet they also hide great treasures, provided you’re willing to hunt for them. How fortunate we artists and creatives are, to live in an age of information and online image databases.
My first boss, a kind mountain man and great nature painter, had filing cabinets full of images and photos he’d cut out of magazines, nature guides, and books over the years. So if he asked me to paint a diamondback rattlesnake (I painted museum casts all throughout high school), I had to dive into the cabinets, wading through folder after folder in order to cull just a few pertinent reference images. One day I dug into the filing cabinets to find reference pictures of a certain type of tree frog, only to discover an enchanting photo of a hawk (thus fueling a years-long obsession with raptors). Now, all I have to do is type my query into Google or Pinterest. Some say that we have lost the magic of accidental discoveries all for the sake of convenience. I would argue the contrary.
Silly though it may seem, I generally start an illustration (or even piece of writing) with a cursory image search, usually both on Google Images and Pinterest. Not only does this reveal what’s already out there, but shows what’s been done before, and how. Sites like Pinterest can also be useful for observing current trends, a feature I made great use of when I worked in commercial fabric design. But I distrust trends. A) because they won’t last (especially in areas like publishing), so that by the time you’ve “caught up” and tailored your style to match current fashions, the trends will have moved on and more importantly because B) your work and style should be your own, made for your own pleasure and edification, not to please an invisible and ever-changing market. It seems a simple thing to say, yet it took me years to truly learn. That said, I do like to see how others across the world have interpreted a concept. I like to keep my searches simple and broad: a few key words (such as “summer twilight,” “Arctic forest,” or “yew tree”), which I can then refine further if need should arise. Google Images and Pinterest also allow you to search or browse through related images, a feature I find myself using frequently.
Often I find treasures buried in the related images (though sometimes four or five tiers down). Maybe my keywords weren’t specific enough, or perhaps searching in English limited the results (I do search in other languages from time to time, such as when doing research for my picture book set in Arctic Norway, I’ll usually search in Norwegian). Of course, as anyone who has used Pinterest (or similar sites) before knows, there is always the danger of falling down the rabbit hole. I admit to falling into this trap numerous times (especially when researching book things or reference images, since I can tell myself I’m “doing work” even though I’m not being productive in the slightest). And sometimes those journeys into the Deep Dark Pinning Depths (which I imagine to look something like the depths of Moria) do result in a rare gem that sparks inspiration, but more often than not, I find that it’s yet another disguise for procrastination.
I also enjoy watching documentaries while I paint or listening to TED talks. Netflix has a wonderful selection of science and nature documentaries that often give me new ideas or perspectives for the project at hand. Similarly, I’ve found that if I’m actively engaging different parts of my brain while I paint (even if it’s trying to keep up with a TED talk on neuroscience), it helps deepen my experience of painting and view the work from new internal angles. Or at least bring different ideas and perspectives into the work.
Yet my greatest source of inspiration is always nature itself. A walk in the woods is my creative panacea. Every time, I find it leaves me refreshed and renewed, and even if it’s hasn’t left me with a jolt of inspiration, it has created a calm and welcoming environment, so that when inspiration visits later, it will feel so at home it might stay a while.
Inspiration is hiding all around you. You have but to open yourself to the presence of wonder, the possibility of beauty in all things.
As my series of little village paintings comes to an end, I thought I’d take this opportunity to give you a peek into my process for one of them. And as it’s a rather rainy day today (which I adore), the rainy mushroom village seemed a perfect choice.
Since my health limits me from getting out as much as I’d like (especially to hike), I’ve enjoyed painting these little villages as a way to explore all the pretty and magical natural places I’d love to visit. As a child, I always played outside, making little houses and villages for my small animal toys, and it was lovely reliving those memories as I painted. In a way, I’m still playing those same imaginative games, only now with watercolors!
These are small and easy paintings to undertake, done with relatively simple techniques, so feel free to use this as a guide and paint your own little village! I’d love to see where your imagination takes you.
First, I trace a 6 inch circle using a candle lid to trace (bowls and baking canisters work well too). I like working in circles, as it’s a more organic and peaceful shape to me, but you can use squares, diamonds, or any other shape you like!
I’m quite a messy sketcher (this is actually rather neat for me), since in painting, the sketch is usually quickly obscured. But since this will be inked, I wanted to give myself a few more guides to follow.
Using a sepia .005 pen (I like Sakura Pigma Micron pens), I inked the whole scene, down to the teeny tiniest details. I like using sepia ink because it means the lines aren’t quite as harsh as with black, but you still get good definition.
Generally I don’t like inking paintings, as it’s rather like cheating in my mind, since the ink defines the edges for you, rather than forcing you to clarify them through light and shadow. But, inking allows me to keep these paintings relatively quick and easy, since I don’t need to render every aspect with paint alone. But that’s just my own personal preference and style!
This is where the fun starts! Using watercolors, I painted a gradient wash over the whole scene, starting with an indigo/marine blue at the top and gradually shifting to an undersea green/subdued bluish green at the bottom. I like starting with some sort of overall gradient (oftentimes I’ll put the lighter/warmer color at the center, and the darker/cooler color at the edges, though I didn’t here), as it helps unify the piece from the very beginning, and sets the visual mood.
While the wash was still wet, I dabbed it with a damp sea sponge (a crumpled up paper towel will work in a pinch) for a nice bit of texture. This is an optional step, but I like the overall effect it gives.
Then, dampening a small sea sponge (a damp bit of paper towel will work too), I lifted the color from all my light sources, in this case, the windows and glowy mushrooms. I also lifted the color from the little animals with umbrellas, as I wanted them to be brighter/more in focus.
Next, I let the painting dry for an hour or two (while I watched some Great British Baking Show, made some more tea, and took a nap). When using such heavy washes, it’s important to let the painting dry completely between stages to keep your colors from bleeding together and becoming muddy.
After the painting was completely dry, I went back in to start adding color to my light sources. Generally, I like warm light in paintings, as it looks glowier and cozier (and thus, more visually inviting), but bioluminescent mushrooms tend to be cooler and more aqua in color, so I took my cue from nature.
I like keeping the light washes rather wide and messy at this stage, as it helps give the impression of the light glowing, as it will infuse into the colors around it (such as the yellow window lights lightening the greenish brown of the tree trunks in the next stage). Painting light is a fun puzzle: figuring out where the light would fall, what color it would be, and what it might reflect off of.
In this painting, I kept the light washes quite simple, but often I enjoy adding many colors to my light sources (like a circular gradient, where the inside is light yellow/white, moving to gold/orange, and finally to a soft rose madder on the outer edges). But since I wanted this village to be a bit rainy and dark, and because there are so many light sources, I chose to keep the light washes simple.
Generally, things closer to the foreground look darker, while things farther away appear lighter. This is an easy way to communicate perspective in your painting and thus break up the visual plane. You want your viewer to be able to wander through your painting, getting lost in its world, and this is a key way to achieve that. In this case, it meant painting my foreground trees a darker greenish brown than the trees in the distance, which are only slightly lighter than the background.
I also tried to lighten the bark around the windows a bit, adding more greenish-yellow to the mixture to communicate the glowing lights.
This is also when I started adding greenish blobs of moss to the trees to further that “rainy day” feel. The moss closest to the windows is more of a yellow-green, while the moss further away from the light is more of a bluish or turquoise-green. Mostly, I just really like moss.
For me, this is the most fun part. This is when I finished adding all the colors of the scene: the green of the grass, the grey-violet cobblestones, the brown mushrooms, and the warm brown doors with indigo eaves. The little animals were one of the last things I painted, as I wanted their colors to stand out bright and vivid (without the risk of getting muddied during previous washes). Also, by now I knew what colors they need to wear in order to best stand out, while still remaining a homogeneous part of the painting.
Before I added the raindrops, I decided to re-ink the main trees and animals with my same sepia pen. Using so many dark/heavy washes had faded my original ink lines, and I wanted a bit more definition. But, I only re-inked the outlines of the trees, windows, etc. and left the inked texture of the tree bark and all the little details alone, as I wanted them to blend in a bit more.
Finally, the last step for this painting was using opaque white gouache to paint the rain drops and little splashes. When it comes to these sorts of finishing details, especially done in white/bright gouache (which tends to stain if you try and scrub it off), I’ve found that less is more. I also used a watered down white gouache to add some reflections to the cobblestones, making them look wet and slippery. Then I dotted a bit of white gouache at the center of each light source to make it look even brighter and more glowy.
And that’s it, you’re done! After I scanned the image, I cleaned it up in Photoshop a bit (making the circle crisp and clean and adjusting the colors to match the original), but that’s a completely optional step.
In the spring, my sweet husband made me two small herb gardens in old metal tubs, since we live in a rented townhouse and thus can’t plant an actual garden just yet. I’ve already harvested herbs from them several times, hanging the fragrant bundles in my kitchen to dry, and I’m already looking forward to cooking with them all winter long. It then occurred to me that sometimes I need to trim back parts of my novel and let the bundles rest for a bit, so that I can use them later on. Not only does this pare a scene down to its essentials and keep it from interfering with its neighbors, sometimes the extra bits can be put aside for later use. I enjoy using Scrivener when working on novels, partly because it makes organization so easy, not only for the novel itself, but also for all the research, notes, etc. that go with it. A bit like a garden shed nestled in a back corner.
I am not, by nature, an organized person. While this drives Daniel crazy, I quite enjoy running on chaos most of the time. However, I’m working hard to become more organized when it comes to my novels, as a bit of organization and planning at the beginning can mean far less revising and rewriting later on (as I’ve learned the hard way). In tidying my novel “shed” (all the behind the scenes work), I’ve created a few different bins into which to sort things I’ve either cut or dug up from my books. For each, I created a separate folder in my Scrivener project, as well as a few notebooks in which to jot ideas outside of the garden proper. This is by no means a definitive system (it’s hardly a system at all), simply what I’ve found works best for me. For this season anyway.
Some days we are blessed to write page after page of brilliant stuff. The flowers bloom, the sun shines, and the birds all break out in glorious song. But more often than not, at least for me, when I sit down to work on a book, it feels like I’m slogging out into the garden in heavy rain, my wellies sticking in the mud, and nothing is growing. So I write the weeds, then put them in my compost bin. This can be a depressing process, especially if it goes on for weeks and months, but it’s a necessary one.
I believe in writing every day. Even if that means writing weeding compost stuff. Because the compost shows that I’ve been working through it. I choose to believe that nothing is wasted. I choose to see my compost bin as proof that I’m willing to put in the hard work day after day, and to really tackle the questions and problems of the book in a deep and meaningful way.
For the last six years, I’ve worked on and off on a YA fantasy trilogy. I was 75% of the way through the second book when I realized none of it was working. The books and characters had changed so much through a half-dozen revisions that I no longer recognized them. The plot felt disconnected, the themes buried under half-hearted attempts to make the books more “commercial,” and my inspiration had long gone stale. So, I threw the books into the compost bin and decided to start over, combining the ideas of both books into one new novel. Was it an easy decision? Not in the slightest. Did it hurt? You betcha. But as soon as I made the decision to start over, with a freshly tilled garden plot (pun intended), I found inspiration rushing back to me, begging to be planted. The two composted books are providing excellent fertilizer for the new novel; they’re helping nurture my seedling ideas and questions, so that they can grow into a garden so full of life it one day will become a forest of its own.
In the midst of all this, I have realized once again the necessity of staying open. Open to new ideas, directions, and inspirations. Open to seeing what you once thought of as a weed as a beautiful flower. Open to letting yourself try new things and experimenting in your garden. Once I let myself be open to the possibility of starting over, my inspiration began to come back to life.
I believe that openness is a choice. It can start with a small choice to try rewriting a scene from another character’s perspective. Or to play around with a new setting and see how it influences your characters and their decisions. Openness is a sum of small choices. Such as my choice to view starting over as an opportunity to have fun and start something wonderful growing, rather than just slashing and burning my old book gardens and letting that negativity and resentment fester.
Of course, I’m still trying to preserve a few clippings and seedlings from the previous two books. Maybe they’ll take and maybe they won’t. But until such time as I find the perfect spot to replant them, they’re hanging out in my garden shed in their own little area. This is what I refer to as my “To Root” bin. Here I’ll put bits of writing that spark an idea, emotion, etc. but I don’t know quite where they go, or how they fit in with the novel as a whole. So I set them aside in the greenhouse to grow on their own for a bit, much like putting clippings in water on the kitchen windowsill for a month or two to root. I’ll often go into the greenhouse and pick one of these seedlings as a starting point for my morning writing practice, or if I’m stuck and need some fresh inspiration. Often times the seedlings will grow up and go into different gardens entirely, and that’s fine too.
I also keep a greenhouse notebook, where I jot down interesting ideas that don’t correspond to a particular project yet. Sometimes these will be ideas for future books, or just something I think would be fun to write about. The notes can be anything from a word or two to whole sentences or bits of dialogue that might pop in my mind. Then, generally owing to my own scattered mind, I’ll forget about them for a while, during which time they can germinate and sprout if they have enough energy. If not? Into the compost bin they go.
It might sound naive or idealistic, but because I want my books to be deeply positive things, I believe that writing them should be deeply positive experiences as well. I wish to incorporate nurturing practices in every step of the journey, both for the sake of my books and my own creativity. This doesn’t mean that there won’t be hard work, challenges, and failures along the way, but it means that I can choose to see them as opportunities, rather than disappointments. Whatever my garden grows into, I plan to enjoy it, and to celebrate the journey as much as the end result.
I have been lost in the wilderness of my current novel (adult literary fiction) for some time now, overwhelmed by the daunting process of revising. Having not had a formal education in writing, I've been reading every revision guide and piece of authorial advice I can get my hands on. And it has made me so upset to see so many well-respected writers and editors talk about "fighting," "breaking," and "attacking" their writing when they revise, as if it's some monster to be defeated. "Kill your darlings" they say, "make the manuscript bleed." What of the pieces of ourselves and our hearts that live in that manuscript? Are we expected to put part of ourselves to death every time we have to revise? And then it hit me, why can't revising instead be a positive process?
I have a weakness for British gardening shows. It's no secret that I'll take Monty Don and a quaint cottage garden over a high-stakes drama any day. So while watching ordinary gardeners turning their unused, weed-ridden gardens into truly delightful spaces, I thought, why can't I do this with my novel? For me, creativity and creation are deeply positive things. My end goal, no matter whether it's a painting or a book, is plant the seed of something positive, whether it's hope or joy or gratitude, etc. So it seems only natural to me that revising and editing (both firmly a part of the creative process) should follow suit, should also be positive.
Of course, if you're overhauling a garden, the first step is usually to clear out the space. Cut back the dead prose, the passages with no life or energy, that are no longer working for your new vision or your new season of writing. You must make room for new growth and new ideas. Yes, this means a lot of hard work, and sure, on the surface it can seem like a violent process: slashing and digging up all the weed-ridden info dumps and dull descriptions, but it is also invigorating. You're not destroying, you're creating space. Space for yourself, for your story, for your reader's experience. You're pruning back scenes to let the action/characters/etc. shine through. Less is often more in gardening and in writing: you must maximize the space, make full use of the literary form you're utilizing.
I don't exactly have a green thumb, but I quite enjoy growing roses. And if you want your rose bushes to keep blooming all season, you must continually trim off the dead blooms; roses thrive on new growth. And I believe, so do novels. Both can be beautiful, fragrant gems, but as they say, every rose has its thorns. Which is to say that the revision process is never an easy or painless one. My advice: wear thick gloves, don't be afraid of a few cuts, and go in anyway, armed with purpose and determination. You were brave enough to write a novel, you are brave enough to revise it.
Books are surprisingly hardy creatures. Like trees, if they're made of tough enough stuff, they can survive the worst of storms and continue to grow and thrive. They need room to grow as well as sunlight and water. In your novel, make space for new perspectives, or for ideas you plant to germinate and grow. Cram too many ideas together and they'll suffer, fighting with each other for the limited resources of the reader's attention and belief. I like to imagine working on your plot structure like landscaping a garden, setting a clear narrative path for the reader to wander down and enjoy all that your novel has to offer. Let them admire your beds of character: filled with all sorts of disparate plantings that come together to create a well-rounded and interesting whole. Allow them to stop and sniff the lovely aroma of your prose, notice the ingenious layout of your plot, and surprise them with hidden delights every step of the way.
Finally, I believe that books and the characters in them take on lives of their own. As such, you must allow them to grow. Sometimes this means not hovering over them with spade and pruning sheers every minute of the day, or not fertilizing them until their tender roots start to burn, but simply walking away, and letting them get on with it. It may take a few seasons, but growth takes time. Be patient and don't give up. Soon you will have created a garden that can be carried anywhere and enjoyed by readers the world over. I believe in you.
As many of you know, I've been fighting major illness for a long time, illness which suddenly took a nose-dive this past autumn. This coincided with my finishing two novels in two months, and meant that I started 2018 physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted. So I started painting.
Nothing big, just little doodly paintings that I'd work on during lunch or in the evenings. But they sparked something, and I soon found myself painting in every spare moment.
I went back and forth to the hospital for more and more tests, and at home struggled just to perform normal household tasks, like cooking and getting out of chairs. It was around this time that I began craving gardens. I yearned for sunshine, fresh air, and most of all, plants. Some deep and essential part of me needed to be beneath the trees, to feel soft moss under my feet, and see tender bulbs begin to bloom. But with my health the way it was, I could no longer just go for a walk or a hike in the mountains, as I used to. So I decided to bring the outdoors indoors.
Sitting at my desk with my paintbrush in hand, I began to dream of rambling cottage gardens and allotments filled with vegetables and herbs. I dreamed of roses climbing over old stone walls and snowdrops peeking out beds of moss deep in the forest. As we live in a small townhouse, I couldn't have a real garden, but with a little paint and imagination, I could create any garden I dreamed of. Tiny gardens that would fit in, say, a teacup. A cup of hope and sunshine, dainty enough to fit in the smallest of spaces. Being Very Sick, I have a hard time finding hope in great quantities. But through my little gardens, I've found I can create just enough to fill a teacup. So for now, I'll take my optimism one cup-full at a time.
Before I began my master's degree in illustration, I had had no formal training in art. And while being self-taught does come with certain advantages, I quickly realized how much I didn't know about technique, theory, design, etc. Even now, I feel like I'm only just beginning to delve into my craft and learn its intricacies. And what an adventure it is to learn!
Texture adds richness and depth to your painting, as well as making the surfaces therein feel more tactile and therefore real. Paintings are like the Velveteen Rabbit, they all yearn to be real. And no matter the style or subject matter, it's always good to anchor some part of the painting in reality, to give your viewer somewhere to start and something familiar to hold onto.
So that's all well and good, you say, but how do I put texture in my art? As I'm primarily a watercolorist, I'll share some of my favorite texturing techniques below. There are many, many more ways to insert texture into your art (especially if you work digitally or with mixed media), but many of these painting techniques can be applied using your medium of choice.
1. The damp sponge method.
This is exactly what it sounds like: lay down a wash, wait for it to be almost dry (no longer glossy), then dab with a damp sponge (natural sea sponges work best, but in a pinch, a crumpled up paper towel will do) to create cool water spots. I did a more in-depth tutorial a long time ago which you can still find on my tumblr HERE.
Again, the name says it all. I've never been a huge fan of this one, since the effects are hard to control (and we all know how much I love control). Basically, lay down a wash (it works better with darker colors) and while the paint is still wet, sprinkle on salt. Coarse sea salt works best, but for the above example, I literally just sprinkled some salt from my little penguin salt-shaker onto a wet wash. Then when it's completely dry, just brush off the salt.
This is an easy technique to do in any medium to add a bit of texture. Need to make that basket look like it's actually woven from sticks? Add some hatch lines in a slightly darker color. Want that tunic to look like it's made from rough-spun wool? Hatch lines. Knit patterns on a sweater? You guessed it: hatch lines. Just pick up a small detail brush, and start painting thin lines in one direction, then add some going in a different direction. Super. Easy.
Experiment with line weight and stroke to make your hatching even more expressive.
It's exactly what it sounds like. Painting with a dry brush. This is a bit harder to do with watercolor, as you have to have some moisture either on your brush or in your pigments in order for them to spread. But a little goes a long way. Too damp? Run the brush over a dry paper towel or the back of your hand a few times to dry it off a bit. The left half of the sample was made by stippling, the right half by doing normal strokes.
Fun fact, I used to work designing commercial fabrics. It was a pretty interesting gig, and taught me all about repeats as well as historic pattern design, though I'm happy not to be banging my head against my desk trying to make complex tiny repeats work anymore.
Remember, your patterns don't need to be perfect (mine are far from it, for evidence, see above), they just need to break up the monotony of flat-colored surfaces and give them some visual interest.
Similar to hatching and dry-brushing this technique is great for painting fur, hair, spines, etc. and making them seem more real. Remember, paintings are like the Velveteen Rabbit, they want to become real.
I modeled the left side of this sample after hedgehog spines and first put down a thin wash of burnt sienna for the base, then did a layer of strokes in burnt umber, all going the same direction. Then when that was dry, I went back with a thinned white gouache and put some more spines on top. For more complexity, add more layers of in-between shades (or hide some dull blues or violets in there), just be sure that you can still make out distinct spines, so that it hasn't all run together in one blob.
The right side I modeled after fur, and followed the same basic steps as above, just with a thinner brush and short, curving strokes. Remember that fur moves a lot and frequently changes direction. Just look at a dog's face and all the different directions the fur there grows. Then snuggle that dog, because we've reached the end of our tutorial!
If you want more practice, challenge yourself to find and paint six different textures (or more!) around your house or in your backyard. Maybe there is some really interesting tree bark outside, or a nice pattern knitted into your favorite sweater, or even lichen-mottled rock surfaces. Remember, inspiration is everywhere!
It's no secret that when it comes to painting, I'm obsessed. Recently, I spent two whole weeks thinking waves, painting studies of waves, reading about waves, and generally trying to get my mind to move in more wave-y ways. I meditated on the ocean, studied the frothy white lace that rides atop seawater, and did a lot of swimming, imagining I was a big rock with waves crashing against me, or that I was a seal, gliding through a stormy sea. All this in preparation for one painting for an upcoming book. I realize I'm more than a little crazy, but for me, this is all just part of my process. When it comes to painting, I'm all in: putting my heart, mind, and spirit in everything I do. It's exhausting, sure, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
I love getting to really dig into a painting. I love immersing myself in the colors, the detailed brushwork, the way the water interacts with the pigments. I think my "immersion method" probably stems from a childhood of having very few friends, being bored to tears in school, and so really throwing myself into my art. It was a refuge, an escape, a world in which I could create anything I wanted. I learned to comfort myself with color, to distract myself with detail.
Recently I've been thinking a lot about my creative process and its rituals. I've always been fascinated by creative people's rituals: how they get their juices flowing, and how they keep that energy up.
Funnily enough, I feel like I have more structured rituals when it comes to my writing. When I sit down to write, I'll light a candle (usually something that smells like a winter forest: juniper, spruce, pine, and snow), have a mug of hot tea ready to go, and play classical music (usually Ravel or Debussy). Sometimes I'll comb through collections of notes or inspirational images relevant to the project (hello, Pinterest!). Other times, I'll just sit down and start hammering out scenes.
Painting is much looser (and easier) for me: I put on some sort of interesting music, or maybe a show (I love watching documentaries, especially food-related ones while I work), maybe do some light stretching or take a short walk outside. Sometimes I'll even wear certain jewelry or perfume to help myself feel more in the creative spirit.
I think these rituals are part Pavlovian cue, part distraction to coax my subconscious or intuitive mind out of hiding. And as my inspiration is constantly changing, I find that the rituals to unlock said inspiration must change too. It's a constant journey of exploration, of finding new things that awaken my curiosity and ignite my creative spirit. Who knows where it will lead next?
Paper moths are actually fairly easy to make. They are comprised of simple shapes, so the key to making them look "real" is a keen eye for observation when it comes to painting the wings. For this tutorial, I chose a Spanish luna moth, as their wing patterns are quite straightforward and it doesn't take much to make these Art Nouveau-esque beauties look ready to flutter away!
1. Find a good reference picture (or 2-3) of your moth. You'll be consulting these reference pictures frequently, so make sure you can see the details and colors clearly.
2. Sketch and cut a template for half of the moth, then trace it onto plain white watercolor paper. Cut out with an x-acto knife, making sure your edges are clean and sharp. Set aside the body and head for now.
3. Start layering on base washes of color for the wings. Almost all moth wings are gradients at their simplest, and even if they're not, you can fudge it a bit to add visual interest. For the Spanish luna moth, the wings go from a mix of greenish aqua near the body to a very light, yellowy green at the edges.
4. Start tracing the stained glass wing patterns with a light burnt sepia. You'll darken these up later, but sketching them in a lighter brown makes them easier to erase if you happen to flub up (which I always do). Use that same burnt sepia to trace the outsides of the wings.
5. All right, time to break out your tiny brushes. Outline the burnt sepia edges with a dark burnt umber (pure black is too harsh) and use a mix of burnt umber and ultramarine blue to go over the inside lines. Also outline the "eyes" and the half-circle shapes inside. On the outer edges of the wings, you can layer a mix of carmine red and burnt umber over the burnt sepia to give it more of a reddish tint and help the dark outlines blend more easily.
6. Your moth is almost done! Add the dark stripes at the edges of the wings, mimicking their patterns in your reference photo. It's hard to get wings perfectly symmetrical, so just try your best and line them up close together now and then to check your progress.
Add a tinge of ocher and carmine to the part of the top wings closest to the body. Then, in the "window panes" next to them (on both top and bottom), add just a touch of cool mint (again, this just gives the wings a bit of extra dimension and visual interest). Also add small half circles of white to the "eyes" to help them pop.
7. If you're feeling up for a challenge, cut tiny fringe onto the antennae with a fine x-acto knife. If not, don't worry, you can simply paint it in.
8. Paint the head and body. Different moths have different body structures and segments, but here I've chosen to simplify the body so that it doesn't compete with the intricate wings. Give your moth some big bug eyes and make sure the paint gets into all the fringe of the antennae.
9. Now it's time to assemble your moth! This is fairly straightforward, with wings glued under the body. On the back, I like to add a rectangle of the same watercolor paper to add stability, as these tend to be quite delicate creatures. You won't see the back of the moth if you mount it in a shadowbox etc., so don't worry if it's messy.
10. Holding the moth's body firmly (where you just glued everything together), start to bend and shape its wings. This way, when it's mounted, it will seem to hover rather than simply laying flat.
11. Very gently curl the moth's antennae around the slender end of a paintbrush. Be especially careful if you've cut fringe into them, as it tends to break rather easily.
12. OPTIONAL: Add touches of iridescent paint to the moth's wings to help give it a bit more dimension and pizzazz. Be careful not to over indulge on iridescent accents, however, as you still want your moth to look realistic. Here I've used some iridescent green and yellow pigments from Finetec.
13. Congratulations, your moth is all finished! I find these are best mounted in shallow shadow boxes (that can usually be found at the craft store), so that they can be displayed easily without risking being damaged.
I paint and write because I have to. In my mind, there is no other option.
It's therapeutic in a way, self-indulgent in another. Creating like this is my passion and my whole life I have been drawn to it, like a moth to flame.
I began making moths just for myself: for the relaxation and meditative aspects of it. It's quite soothing, making these little creatures. I have long admired taxidermy moths and butterflies, but wanted to find a way to preserve their beauty with no creatures being harmed/killed (though I know many mounted specimens are found already dead). Plus, I thought painting moths would be a good challenge of technical skill (an area in which I continuously need improvement).
The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols notes the unique dichotomy of moths, that they are symbols both "of the soul seeking the godhead...consumed by a mystical love" and "of faithless frivolity." Both are represented by the image of the moth fluttering around the candle frame until its wings burn. In a more personal sense, moths to me are representative of creativity: that I am constantly drawn to the mysterious and divine in it, but that if I'm not careful, I'll burn myself out trying to reach it.
I've always felt a certain kinship to moths. We are both most active late at night, when the rest of the world is sleeping. And though we live in a world of darkness, we seem to expend all our energy seeking out beauty and light. We're silly, dusty creatures who are continually evolving, even if right now we're just cocoon goo.
But my moths make me happy. They are peaceful, contented reminders of creative potential, of metamorphosis, of the beauty found in darkness.
This won't be a dramatic change, mind you. I still illustrate for the same markets and will continue to do so, but I feel my personal aesthetic has shifted a good deal. After hearing a talk last fall by the brilliant Giuseppe Castellano, art director at Penguin, I feel somehow as if I have permission to make the sort of art I want, even if it's not the cute and colorful sort normally thought of as for children's books. His main point was to make good art. That's all. It can be dark, or strange, or serious; it doesn't matter, as long as it's good art. That has really stuck with me and in a sense has allowed me to follow my curiosity in ways which are both personally meaningful and challenging for me.
I think as artists, one of the greatest battles we fight is between producing what we feel naturally drawn to create and what we think other people want. When in reality, it's my belief that people don't know what they want. So it's really a losing battle from the start. So this year, I'm challenging myself to say "what is it that I truly want to create?" and "what has meaning for me?" instead of "what will sell?" or "what will be popular?". Because the latter is built on little more than guesswork. Only with the former can I hope to communicate something different, something meaningful.
To be perfectly frank, I have hated wedding planning. Planning trips? Great! Planning weddings? Not so much. But there has been one piece that Daniel and I have really enjoyed working on together: the paper goods!
Since we're both professional artists, we had a lot of ideas about how we wanted our invitations, save-the-dates, etc. to look, and how we could best collaborate on them.
We designed our save-the-dates pretty soon after getting engaged (well before we knew what sort of style we wanted for the wedding), and so tried to have them really reflect our personalities: kids at heart who love adventuring together outdoors. We both grew up with Calvin & Hobbes, and love it just as much now as we did then, so it seemed a natural choice of style. Plus, the comic setup let us tell more of a story, which we really liked. Daniel did all of the sketching and inking, while I did the painting/color. It was a fun experiment, trying to copy someone else's watercolor style like that! Most of all though, we enjoyed getting to work together on a project, which, having such different styles and types of work, is a rare occurrence.
For our invitations, I wanted to do some kind of papercutting, while still involving Daniel's sleek design sensibilities. Our original wedding venue was a gorgeously restored 1920s Art Deco building, so as you can see, we drew heavily on that glamorous Deco style for our invites. And while the venue unfortunately went out of business 5 months before our wedding (giving us some major panic and forcing very hasty replanning!), we still liked the look of the sumptuous fur and classy tuxedo, and decided to use the design anyway, just replacing the background.
And of course, our cat, Arthur, wanted to be included too, so we set him to work guarding the RSVPs.
While I know that a lot of people try to have all their paper goods coordinate in design, we decided just to have fun with it and do a little bit of everything. Also, since we've both been working our normal jobs throughout the entire process, we only had time for so much. All in all, we had fun with it and had fun doing it together, which at the end of the day, is what matters most.
Since I work primarily in watercolors, I sketch quite lightly, then tap the sketch down with a kneaded eraser which accomplishes two things: 1) it lightens the sketch so that it won't show in the finished painting and 2) removes excess graphite so that the paint pigments don't become muddied.
I sketch like a painter, which is to say minimally and loosely, since all the real work for me comes later (and a lot of details are lost in the first few washes anyway). This also gives me the freedom to further refine the image as I go. My one exception is the face: I'll include most of the facial lines/details in my sketch, since a very small change here can drastically alter the image (nose too long, eyes too small/not even, etc.).
There are lots of "rules" for mixed media (what goes down first, how to layer and combine media, etc.). For the sake of brevity however, I'll stick to explaining just my own process.
With watercolor, lay down your lightest shades first, as well as the areas furthest back in the painting (usually, your background). Which, I completely disregard here. That's the funny thing about art: there are all kinds of "rules," but you have to learn the rules in order to break them (I'm a big believer in this, especially when it comes to things like realism, anatomy, and perspective). Since the selkie will be painted in gouache, I don't have to be so careful about preserving her outlines. If you want to be really careful, you can apply masking fluid to the figure. I, however, am not that tidy. I also like doing a wide background wash, as it helps tone the figure and keep her palette harmonious with the background colors.
The scan below actually shows several washes, adding different colors each time. Watercolor takes a bit of layering to darken up/make really vivid, so for the edges, I applied several washes of deep ultramarine + burnt umber, with a mix of deep ultramarine + viridian + aqua for the middle. The great beauty of watercolor, for me, comes from all the colors you can hide in one area. If you look closely, you can spy tinges of purple, rose madder, and burnt umber in the background.
I also took the opportunity here to add some texture to the background with a sponge. This is a very old technique, used by illustrators like Edmund Dulac and Arthur Rackham, but can be quite tricky as it relies on precise dry times (I have a separate tutorial for it here). I also sponged away the pigment at the focal point of the painting: the selkie's face to help it stand out more.
In doing so many dark background washes, I almost completely lost my sketch (thankfully I had scanned it earlier, so I could refer back to it as needed). However, I can see the basic shapes, such as the selkie's face and the curve of her tail, which is enough for me to get started. This is why I never spend too long on the sketch.
Using gouache, I lay down the base colors for the selkie: her skin, sweater, and tail. Then, I start marking out her face and adding the making the gradient for her hair.
Once the base colors and shadows are painted, I start adding details, such as the cabling on her sweater, strands of her hair, and tail spots. I also add highlights to her face and hair to help them pop more.
If this was a real illustration, instead of just a doodle painting, I would've already planned out the image and colors with thumbnails and color comps. However, since I didn't do any planning, I decided to scan it and do some test runs of different colors/rock placements in Photoshop. This allows me to play with endless different options without affecting my painting. This is an especially helpful tool with watercolor, as there's no going back once you've made a mark on the paper!
If you covered the foreground (in this case, the selkie) with masking fluid or knew that you were going to use opaque acrylic gouache for the figure, you could've done this step after completing the background washes. But again, since I more or less made this up as I went, I finished the background pattern towards the end. In this case, I added rounded diamond shapes in gradients to represent the flowing Arctic waters. I also added the rocks with acrylic gouache and painted patterns on them with watered down gouache in a light mint.
To finish off the painting, I added some white highlights to her hair, and painted ripples in the water with a more watered down white. Overall the painting still has plenty of problems, but since it's just an un-planned doodle, I'll let it stand as is. There is a very fine line between putting enough work into a painting and knowing when to stop. Unfortunately, this is one of those things that is best learned by doing (and messing up plenty!).
And even if I'm not totally satisfied with the painting, I still accomplished my goals with it: to visually think about Arctic selkies and how to represent them and to have fun!
I love looking at other artists' sketchbooks, whether in person or online, via social media platforms like tumblr or instagram. Sketches give a unique look into an artist's thought process and method. While some sketch in pencil, many more take their sketches to the next level with ink+brush, gouache, or charcoal on toned paper (to name but a few). This change in media may seem small, but it can have a huge impact on your sketches and really take your "silly doodles" to the next level!
While cultivating a portfolio, the goal is always to make your work look professional (fake it 'til you make it, right?). And with social media becoming a larger and larger part of marketing and making connections, it's important to carry that professionalism over into the sketches and "rough work" you show too. Sure, your lines can still be loose and messy, but a simple change of medium can help your doodles really shine.
Lately I've been doing more gouache sketches. These quick and simple paintings help me focus more on shape, color, and pattern since I don't use any line work etc. Below is a step-by-step look at the process I use. For this painting, I used acrylic gouache, which dries quite quickly, forcing me to work fast and really commit to the colors and shapes I put down.
1. I start off with a wash of aqua for the base. Some artists prefer to put down their sketch layer first and then seal it in with a very light wash, but since I'm using opaque acrylic gouache, I decided to put the sketch on top of the color once it was dry. This aqua is actually straight from the tube, which made it easier to clean up edges/stray marks at the end. While I rarely use color straight from the tube, I take exception when I want a painting to be A) extra colorful/bright or B) fast.
I keep my sketches minimal and very light--blotting them with a kneaded eraser so that they're barely visible. (This comes from working primarily in watercolor, where you want your sketch to be so faint it's almost invisible.) Also, if you have too much graphite in your sketch, your paints will pick up its grey pigment.
2. Starting with the objects in the very back of the painting, I start to block in the colors. I decided to have the pineapple be a gradient of yellow to orange/coral so that the light-colored dole whip (the midground) would stand out more. Since I'm painting yellows/oranges on blue, I had to use a few coats to get the color pure and not so muddy looking.
3. Start playing around with patterns/textures for your background object(s). Remember that it will be easier to experiment now, before you paint the top layers (in this case, the bird). Then I block in the dole whip with light, buttery yellows, starting to get that swirled look with my brushstrokes.
4. Add more detail to your midground (dole whip), and then block in the colors of the foreground (bird). As with the pineapple, since I painted a white bird on a blue background, it took several coats to get the color bright and pure like I wanted.
I also gave Miss Birdie an eye, because I find it much easier to paint things that "have a soul," so to speak. People/animals/etc. really come to life once you give them eyes; it's usually at this stage that they'll start telling me who they want to be, their personality shining through with every detail and line.
5. Almost done! The more I paint Miss Birdie, the more I come to understand who she is, what kind of personality she has. With each pass, I add more detail to the painting. Remember that detail, like color, can draw your viewer's eye to a certain spot, so try to focus it wisely. Here, I use it to point to both the bird's face and the dole whip.
6. All finished! As you can see, I changed my mind a few times before I arrived at the final painting. Namely, changing the texture on the pineapple and having the birds feathers all separate from the body. The nice thing about acrylic gouache is that, like regular acrylic, you can simply paint over mistakes and keep going (though the paint builds up rather quickly, giving it a distinct texture, unlike acrylic, whose layers tend to lay smooth).
Note: This image shows the colors more clearly since it's a scan, rather than a quick phone picture.
So the next time you feel like doodling, try adding color, or sketching in a new medium. You never know what happy accidents you may find!
So often, people tell me "I wish I could just draw my ideas, but I can't." But the secret is: even professional artists often have a hard time getting the idea or image in their head down on paper. After all, there are no USB cables to connect your brain to a printer, as tempting a thought as that may be sometimes.
Ideas and images that come into your imagination tend to be fleeting. It's just part of their nature, I think, as it's part of the nature of creativity. Like I've mentioned in the past, I like to think of creativity as a living, growing organism. And like cats or small children, it never stays still for long, so you have to keep up with it, and develop a system for quickly capturing ideas as they appear. Of course, this system with vary from person to person, so think of the guidelines below as a sort of starting place to play around and see what works best for you. I've also found these steps to be helpful when trying to pin down on paper that elusive image in your mind. And while here, I'm relating these steps to visual art, the basic principles can also be used for writing, music, dance, etc.
Make a rough sketch or gesture drawing. It doesn't have to be pretty; as long as you know what you're trying to convey.
Color block your image. Just get down the hues you see in your mind, and don't worry about them working perfectly yet; remember, this is just stage one.
Value block your image (like color blocking, just with shades of grey). This works particularly well for people who tend to think in black-and-white or have an eye for dramatic lighting (chiaroscuro, anyone?).
Each person has their own preferred method for doing this. For instance, being a painter at heart, I work by color, so I'll start by painting large swathes of color either with watercolors or Photoshop (the latter is nice in that it's easily edited), or I'll sketch in very loose, messy strokes. Again, don't limit yourself to only these methods: play around and just have fun with it, seeing what comes easiest to you! Maybe it's making collages, or arranging tiles into patterns. The most important thing is to keep it quick and dirty: getting the basics of your idea down in a couple minutes and in a way that seems natural to you.
An inspiration board from a (still unpublished) project.
When it comes to art, you can never have too many reference photos. The best are the ones you take yourself (cell phone cameras are great for this, since you can capture interesting details/lighting situations/etc. anywhere you go). Plus, if you're someone who tends to rely heavily on reference photos, using your own photos avoids problems with copyrights and intellectual property rights later on.
One of the most helpful things to me when I'm trying to get an image down is finding inspiration images. Usually these are other pieces of art, maybe with a similar palette, or style, or even just a way of drawing noses that I like. I collect entire Pinterest boards fill of inspiration images to flip through when I find myself stuck, but also frequently reference children's books, vintage prints, and museum archives (The National Gallery and Met have amazing online collections, as do many other museums).
In Anne Lamott's book Bird by Bird (I really like books on writing, okay?), she encourages writers to take their stories one step at a time, and not get overwhelmed by the big picture.
Most oil and digital painters work through a similar method: they start with very loose sketches and rough blocks of color, and then slowly, work on each part of the painting, adding more detail and clarity with each layer. The idea is to build up the final image with each layer, firming up your idea as you gradually bring your image to life. Maybe you change your mind partway through and decide that it would actually work better if you did this, or altered that. Remember that editing is an essential part of creation! Very few people have the gift of getting it right the first time around (and we don't like those people very much because of it). Most of us mere mortals have to really work at something, let it sit for a while, then come back with fresh eyes, work at it some more, and repeat until done. This is a process that could take hours or could take years (scary, I know). But unless you have a deadline, try and let yourself enjoy the process!
So the next time you get a great idea for an illustration, or any sort of creative work really, but feel like you just can't bring it to life or get it down on paper, give these steps a try. Take it one small piece at a time and work your way up to the image or idea as a whole. Be kind to yourself, and remember that mistakes are always allowed; you never know what unexpected opportunities they may bring!
There is a photo of the Dalai Lama that I particularly love: he is hunkered down in the passenger seat of a car as a child might be, his hands eagerly clinging to the side of the door, and his face full of wonder. There is such simple and profound joy in his eyes, that I can't help but smile every time I think of it.
I think of that photo almost every day when I sit down to paint. I marvel that such joy could come from something as simple as riding in a car, something that to many of us would be considered mundane and dull. It's a poignant reminder to me to enjoy every piece of my paintings, and every step of creating them. I often feel silly, getting so caught up in the beauty of a particular color or the grace of a simple brushstroke, but I have to remind myself that it's okay to be childlike in my wonder. There's a magic in the quotidian, if we let ourselves see it.
In my younger days, I read a lot of manga, but the only series that I continue to read (or go back and re-read) is Yotsuba& by Kiyohiko Azuma. The premise of the series is very simple: Yotsuba is a little girl living in Japan with her adopted father and experiencing the many adventures of life (such as puddle stomping and ordering pizza) for the first time. My favorite part of the series, though, is its motto: "Enjoy everything." One of my goals every day is to do just that: enjoy everything! From pouring the water for my tea to cooking meals to seeing how the wind stirs the branches outside my window, and everything in between.
Such an attention to detail, a willingness to see the adventure in even the most ordinary of tasks, is something I work had to bring into all of my art. Most of us [unfortunately] don't usually get to go on epic adventures every day, like having tea parties with dragons or taking a hot air balloon around the equator. Kudos to you if you do. But for the rest of us, we have to make do with calmer, more ordinary adventures, like going to the grocery store, waiting at the doctor's office, and the ever-fun game of laundry. But why do these things have to be less exciting or magical than what we read about in books? They're more common, true, but these simple tasks have a beauty all their own, I believe. There can be something very peaceful and zen about folding laundry or seeing produce at the market arranged in colorful stacks. So the next time, you're feeling bored or "normal," take a moment to appreciate the quiet beauty of the world around you. Find grace in even the most minute of movements. And above all else, cultivate gratitude for all these small moments of magic; after all, no one else sees the world quite like you do.
I apologize for the long silence on the blog, life has been inordinately busy lately with travelling to Germany, moving, and planning a wedding. Phew! Amidst it all though, I'm still trying to find time to doodle every day.
Being plunged head-first in the wedding industry (the magazines, the planning guides, the websites full of expensive foof), I realize just how inundated our society is with desire for material things. Living in a consumer society, we're constantly told how we "need" this or "have to have" that, so much so that we spend all our time lusting over items and not appreciating what we have, or what's more, what we ourselves can create. That's one of the great appeals of art to me: I can create anything I wish, anything I can imagine. There are no budget limitations (unless you're shopping for supplies, that is), no "oh, I don't have the body for that," no limits on travel.
I deal with a lot of chronic health issues that force me to follow a pretty strict diet. This results in constant cravings for things I can't have (I'm looking at you, donuts). I mean, it gets bad. So what do I do? I paint pages full of colorful, sprinkle-covered donuts. Weird? Yes. But oddly enough, it helps. Just like when I'm working on book illustrations, I like to paint places I'd like to spend time in: magical forests, cozy cottage homes, wild mountain paths, etc. After all, how can I expect readers to get lost in my illustrations if I myself can't?
So the next time you sit down to doodle, but don't know what to draw, think instead about the kind of person you wish you could be, the adventures you wish you could go on, the world you wished you lived in. Because through art, you have the ability to transform not only how you perceive yourself, but how you (and others) view the world around you.
Recently, I've been reading Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. While I initially started reading the book in hopes of paring down my possessions for an upcoming move, I have found myself transfixed with the simple question she uses when deciding whether or not to keep an item: "Does this spark joy?" And while certainly this is an excellent way to narrow down what physical things you value most, it can also be used in many other situations, namely: art.
Does your art spark joy?
For years I tried to make art that was marketable and appealing to a wide range of audiences. And along the way, I lost my passion for it. I was so focused on trying to make commercially viable art, that I forgot the reason I had started painting in the first place: which was simply that painting made me happy. Funnily enough, as soon as I started making art that I enjoyed creating and that brought me joy, I found the commercial success for which I had yearned.
For many of us, our art is also our work and thus takes up a large portion of our time and energy, but this doesn't mean that we can't still enjoy it. Think back to why you decided to go into art in the first place. Did you constantly doodle in your notebooks in school? Were you always making up stories in your head? Did your limbs ache if you sat still too long, begging you to dance? More than likely, you pursued art because it brought you joy. And, more than likely, your art sparks joy in others too.
I have a dear friend who is an incredible dancer and choreographer. When I watch her dance, I am filled with the same feeling that I get when I'm sitting in my studio, absorbed in a wonderful trance of painting. It is a pure and fascinating joy, and I can see her passion and her devotion to her art in every movements. It can be easy, I think, to be so consumed in the process of creating that we forget that the finished art is meant to be seen and enjoyed. That we can, in some sense, share our joy with our audiences, even if we don't know it. That we can choose to create joy in our lives and in our work, and offer up this happiness for others to participate in too.
Of course, there are many aspects of your art that will not necessarily bring you joy. For instance, I don't particularly like painting still-lifes or realistic studies of anatomy. Yet, if I ignore these crucial exercises, my art will suffer. Similarly, I greatly dislike bookkeeping and accounting, yet I can't very well skip them simply because they don't bring me joy. I'd be in a very tight spot if I did! I like to call this the "eating your vegetables" principle, where you may not enjoy something (and it may very well feel like choking down raw brussel sprouts), but it's good for you. It's a necessary step to keep growing as an artist and to running a healthy business.
The key, at least for me, is to think of the joy of art in terms of the big picture. Since I do illustration for a living, I work on plenty of projects that might not be my personal favorite, such as an assignment to draw cute cans of spinach (you'd be amazed). Yet, even illustrating spinach cans, I can find joy in the fact that I'm getting to do what I love: paint. I am able to take pleasure in working from home and in having a flexible schedule. It's all about silver linings and remembering to view things as a whole, instead of getting caught up in the details of "I don't like this" or "this isn't my style." Naturally, as your reputation as an artist grows, you're able to be more selective about the projects you take on, but it's still good to be able to find the positive in everything.
I know I've written before about the importance of artistic play, and this is why. To be able to take even a 5 minute doodle break and in so doing remind yourself how much you love what you do is invaluable. I've often heard the saying "if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life," which I don't quite agree with, but I like the sentiment. If you are passionate about your work, and if that work makes you happy, it will show. When I'm asked about working as a professional illustrator, I admit that I quite often work 14 hours a day, 7 days a week, with very few true holidays. Most people make a horrid face and ask how I can do that, week after week, month after month. And the answer, quite simply, is that I love what I do. Painting sparks great joy for me, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. |
A field trip can be a really enjoyable and beneficial part of your child’s school career. The FSC provides opportunities for schools and colleges to visit and work in a range of superb teaching and activity sites, inspiring young people while ensuring courses are always well-taught and safe.
The information below will help you to see what is involved on FSC day and residential courses and answer some common questions.
Our day courses are quite similar to a day at school but most of the time will be spent outdoors.
Each day of the visit will be long, with activities from the morning right up until 8.00pm so lots of energy will be required but it will be rewarding and hopefully enjoyable. Students will have free time after 8.00pm.
Each Centre has well equipped classroom, a staff sitting room and recreational areas for students. Accommodation consists of a mixture of single, twin and dormitory rooms sleeping up to eight people. Bathrooms will be close by if the rooms are not en-suite.
Breakfast is usually served sometime between 8.00am and 9.00am. Before or after breakfast students will be able to make their packed lunch. The evening meal will usually be served sometime between 6.00pm and 7.00pm. Centres cater for special dietary requirements and hot/cold drinks will be available throughout the stay.
Each Centre is unique, so a virtual tour has been created of each Centre to show you what the accommodation, classrooms and recreational areas are like. They are located on the Centre’s web pages.
Films have been produced to demonstrate what happens on some of our commonly taught courses. They can be found on our YouTube site.
The Field Studies Council (FSC) is an environmental education charity dedicated to helping people of all ages to experience the environment at first hand; to discover, explore and be inspired by the natural world. As part of its mission FSC welcomes over 2,500 schools to courses in its 17 Field Centres every year. They provide residential and day fieldtrips for all key stages primarily in geography and science subjects. The FSC also run a programme of leisure courses for adults and reach many others through publications and community-based programmes.
What are the Centres like?
Each Centre has its own unique character and many are in historic buildings. They have been chosen for their location and surroundings. See inside the Centres with our online virtual tours of each Centre.
Residential Centres have comfortable accommodation in a mixture of twin and shared bedrooms or small dormitories. They also have a dining room, drying room and places for relaxation and recreation, both in and out of doors. Friendly, trained staff are on hand 24 hours a day.
All residential Centres have fully equipped kitchens and dining rooms which serve plenty of good food. All day Centres have allocated eating areas. Visitors will be asked to complete a dietary preference sheet so that suitable options are available during their stay; vegetarian and special dietary requirements will always be catered for. We will also ask for information about allergies. Our own inspection team makes sure that we comply with all food and hygiene requirements.
What do visitors need to bring?
We try to go out in most weathers so adequate clothing and footwear is important. All of our Centres will provide a list of recommended items and a minimum of at least one spare set of warm clothing is usually suggested. Waterproofs and boots are available from Centres and our residential Centres have drying rooms.
All of the Centres have public telephones and email access to maintain contact. Mobile phones will not work in some of our more remote Centres and we do try to discourage the use of mobiles unless there is an emergency.
Please see the Centre pages for more information about each Centre and its location.
Does the FSC have health and safety procedures?
Our vast experience has given us the opportunity to establish effective policies which are reviewed continuously by the FSC Health and Safety Committee. Our codes of practice exceed government and local authority guidelines.
Field teachers are fully trained in first aid and group management. A qualified first aider is available at the Centre at all times of the day and night and all field teachers carry dedicated first aid equipment.
All of our field sites have been carefully surveyed and fully risk assessed and all Centres hold the Quality Badge (see below). Our Safety and Care Charter summarises what you can expect in all of our Centres.
What is the Quality Badge?
All of our Centres have been awarded the Quality Badge by the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom, demonstrating that they consistently deliver high quality teaching and manage risk effectively. This is a national scheme providing a recognised benchmark in both learning and safety.
Every FSC Centre has a team of highly trained and CRB checked field teachers working full time, all year round. Between them they spend over 15,000 working days a year delivering fieldwork courses. No untrained staff will lead school groups in the field and our staff will always work within their own experience. All FSC field teachers are fully trained in first aid and group management. Staff in the Centres which carry out 'adventure' activities such as climbing, caving, trekking or watersports hold appropriate qualifications to lead the activities.
The FSC has public liability insurance to cover our legal liability for injury to visitors or damage to their property. Most schools have their own insurance which covers travel and field trips. See our Health and Safety page for a copy of the latest certificate.
Medical emergencies are very rare during our field trips but if they do happen we are well prepared. All visitors will be asked to fill in a confidential medical questionnaire before a visit. All of our field teachers are first aiders and carry dedicated first aid equipment for emergencies and first aid during field trips away from our Centres. |
Apparently most respectable universities have so many more qualified girls than boys that they favor less qualified boys in their admissions, to maintain a semblance of balance.
Yet at the same time, Caltech does the opposite: goes aggressively out of its way to recruit girls, to try to balance its persistently male student body (a ratio of between 2-to-1 and 7-to-1 over the past 20 years).
Why would there be persistent disparity in opposite directions?
One possibility comes from Darwin’s theory of sexual selection (The Descent of Man, 1871). Males of all species exhibit higher variability in all traits than do females. This is true of all sexually reproduced life, whether animal, plant, vertebrate, invertebrate, etc.
This would reduce the Pomona/Caltech paradox to a statistics problem. Caltech seeks students distinguished by just a few traits, and thus would find most candidates from among the wildest statistical outliers. The wildest single-trait outliers tend to be male, per Darwin.
Pomona, by contrast, seeks students with a balanced set of abilities, so single-trait outliers have no special advantage. Since the odds of a multiple-trait outlier, where those traits are all positive, is vanishingly low, there may not exist enough multiple-trait positive outliers to fill even a tiny fraction of all respectable universities.
Males would then be left with no advantage, and even a possible statistical disadvantage, if variability reduces overall genetic fitness (and there is evidence this is true). That is to say, one might speculate the average male candidate could be inferior to the average female, precisely because the statistical spread of individual abilities is wider in the male, and because the reduced fitness caused by the greater variation brings the average of all abilities in the male down, both in the individual and in the population as a whole.
Add in the proposition that females mature emotionally much earlier than males, and you can see how Pomona and other good schools might logically become persistently female, while Caltech and other “single-trait” schools persistently male. |
Two good Gloucestershire singers from the Winchcombe area were related: Archer Lane and Ernie Lane. Archer Lane was the great uncle of Ernie Lane. Both were descended from a Winchcombe family.
The earliest ancestors of this family that we know were John Lane who was probably born in 1777 and his wife Elizabeth. John was buried in Winchcombe on 3 November 1830.Their son, James Lane, was baptised in Winchcombe in January 1808 and married Mary Clark, also from Winchcombe, there in April 1826. James and Mary both signed the marriage register by mark. They had four sons, including Archer Lane (see below), and four daughters, born between 1829 and 1847. James and Mary and their two eldest sons, including Archer, were agricultural labourers. They lived in various locations in Winchcombe: Castle Street in 1841 and Vineyard Street in 1851. Archer was their fifth child born in 1838 and their sixth child was another James Lane born in 1840. This James was an agricultural labourer and carter who married Catherine Corbett Penelope Fleming, who was living in Corndean, Winchcombe, on 29 October 1859 in Winchcombe. Catherine’s father was a gamekeeper and her mother was Scottish, from Renfrew. They had ten sons and two daughters all born in Winchcombe who mainly worked as labourers: Archibald born 1860, James born 1862, Agnes born 1963, Charles Henry born 1865, Catherine born 1869, John born 1871, Hector born 1863, Henry Charles born 1874, Frederick Cecil born 1877, George born 1879 and William Fleming born 1883. Catherine died on 14 April 1907 whilst living in Hailes Street, Winchcombe, and on 30 December the following year James also died, having entered Winchcombe Workhouse.
Cecil Lane married Edith Agnes Dale on 21 November 1898 in Winchcombe where Cecil worked as a labourer and cowman. The family moved around the area and they had six boys and two girls. Nelliewas born in Little Washbourne in 1900 and Olive Agnes was born in 1901 in Stanley Pontlarge where Cecil was working as a cowman. Francis John was born in 1903 in Snowshill, James born in 1905 in Snowshill, Archibald born in 1907 in Snowshill , George born about 1910 in Little Washbourne and Ernest Wilfred (Ernie) was born 3 December 1916 in the Winchcombe Registration District. Three of Cecil’s brothers went to live in Wales, including Henry Charles who lived in Bridgend.
Cecil Lane died in December 1940 in the Cheltenham Registration District.
Between 1923 and 1934 Ernie Lane was living at Nursery Glasshouses, Toddington and then By 1939 Ernie Lane was living at Didcote Farm Cottage Dumbleton with his parents, Cecil and Edith Agnes and at age 16 was working as an under cowman. From then onwards he lived all his life in Dumbleton. In 1949 he was living at 28 Dumbleton. In 1952-3 he lived at 3, Old Rectory, Dumbleton and between 1956 and 1965 he lived at 1, Golden Hay, Dumbleton. He was an active member of village life there. He joined the Dumbleton cricket club at the age of 11 and played for them for the next 45 years, before hanging up his books to become the club’s groundsman, gaining the nickname of The Singing Groundsman.
Apart from his hobby of cricket, he was a keen poet and published a book of poetry These Dumbleton Hills, a homage to the local countryside he knew so well.
He was of course well known as a singer, particularly after the cricket matches, and had a repertoire of comic and folk songs.
Ernie Lane died in 1997 in the Cheltenham Registration District.
Archer Lane enlisted in 4th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade in 1857 and had 16 years military service. He was a Private in the Rifle Brigade stationed at Chatham Barracks in the 1871 census. Percy Grainger stated that Archer Lane had been in Corfu, Malta, Gibraltar and Canada.
In 1878 he married Eliza Houlton who was born in Bolton, the daughter of a cotton weaver, and by 1891 was living with her at 3, Miner’s Row in Pendleton in Salford in Lancashire. He was working as a general labourer and she was a cotton winder. They moved back to Winchcombe and Eliza died towards the end of 1901. Archer Lane was in Winchcombe workhouse at least from October 1899, described as an agricultural labourer. He remained there until at least February 1901, then was discharged from there before returning on 12 July 1901. He remained in the Workhouse until at least 20 February 1901 when the Workhouse Master reported that Archer Lane had been helping to nurse inmates with the disease Erysipelas. He was back in the Workhouse from 2 January 1905 until 26 March 1905 and then back there again on 3 January 1906. Life was not always easy there as on 14 August 1909 the Master’s report stated, ‘I beg to report Edmund Skillern for fighting and striking inmate George Care across the face with a handsaw on the 5th Instant and also with quarrelling this morning with another inmate i.e. Archer Lane.’ However in 1911 he was given leave to attend a Veterans Dinner in Cheltenham on Empire Day 24 May 1911. Eleanor Adlard of Postlip Hall supervised the transport of the veterans to the dinner.
Archer Lane remained in the workhouse until his death on 23 January 1912. |
Looking for a nutrition plan unique to you which means your chances of success are higher? The Blood Type Diet may be for you.
Our blood type contains the genetic message of our ethnic background. Each blood type (there are four — O, A, B, AB) is named for its biochemical differences found in the antigens.
Antigens are chemical markers found on the cell membranes in our bodies. They spark the production of antibodies, which are the basis for our immune systems. Imagine little antennae sticking out from cell membranes. These antennae are composed of saccharides (sugars, but not your basic table sugar!). Each of the four blood types has different combinations of the eight basic sugars in their antennae.
Blood type O has one sugar (fructose) as the basis of its antennae. Type A has two antennae and uses two sugars (fructose plus n-acetyl-galactosamine). Type B has two sugars (fructose plus d-galactose). Type AB has all three sugars found in the other three blood types.
We have found that blood type indicates potential allergies/sensitivities and disease potential more than any other factor. However, we also found that it is not totally effective without an understanding of metabolic profiling. |
Kopi luwak - a specialty coffee in Southeast Asia.
Kopi luwak – a specialty coffee in Southeast Asia.
Kopi luwak ~ haven’t you ever heard of it?
Kopi luwak is a name of a rarest and most expensive coffee in the world, made of taking the coffee berries which have been eaten and passed through the digestive track of Asian palm civets. It is also one of world’s finest tastes of coffee. Kopi means coffee as in kopi-o (black coffee) and luwak means civet. This is a compound noun which shows a type of coffee made by a civet.
An Indonesian made kopi luwak coffee product on Amazon.
Kopi luwak should be deserved the world’s weirdest processed coffee.
The process of making kopi luwak is quite weird which some people may not believe. Asian palm civets (paradoxurus hermaphrodites), a species of animal living in the South and Southeast Asia, eat coffee berries and when they defecate, coffee beans which are undigested or partly digested will be come out with their crap. As a result, these being-left-coffee beans become more flavor than them of before. Why? There are two reasons. The first is when a civet eats coffee berries, they choose the best ones with high-qualified beans inside. Coffee beans themselves, at first, are best-selected coffee beans. The second is the process of digestion of civet’s stomachs can improve the flavor of digested coffee beans thanks to the affection of some enzymes in their intestine. Here one can understand that civet’s enzymes with its biological characteristics create an unexpectedly unique taste for “processed” coffee beans.
It is believed that Asian wild civet is the only animal which can make kopi luwak.
How was kopi luwak found?
The history of kopi luwak is weird, too. In the 18th century, when Indonesia became a colonial country of Dutchmen, they banned the then local farmers from taking coffee beans from their own plantation. That’s made them have to pick only coffee beans on the ground which had been eaten by civets. And surprisingly, these coffee beans tasted so much better than the original ones. Since then, the kopi luwak became popular.
Kopi luwak is mainly produced at Southeast Asian countries, especially in Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines and Vietnam. In Laos and Vietnam, it is also called weasel coffee, civet-enzyme coffee or civet dung coffee. However, because of its specific method of processing, the output of this coffee is extremely limited. It is rumored that the total annual production of natural weasel coffee is around 500 pound of beans. That’s reason why this coffee is super expensive. Its prices range from $100 to $600 per pound. It means that you have to pay about $35 to $60 for a cup of kopi luwak.
As kopi luwak is weird, its output is very limited so far.
Despite of its inflated price, kopi luwak still gets an excessive consumption thanks to its amazing taste. Coffee beans are undergone chemical treatments and fermentations in a civet’s stomach. They absorb some enzymes and acids in digestion system but still remain the intact shapes. When these beans come out with civet’s excrements, they will be collected and processed with normal ways like other coffee beans. But it has outstanding flavors with smell of caramels or chocolates somewhat. Its taste is heavier and stronger and better than normal coffees. The ground coffee is smoother than the others. The experience of drinking this special coffee is very incredible.
How was kopi luwak named in Vietnamese?
In Vietnam, there are just few farms producing kopi luwak with about 300 civets located in Dak Lak province and Da Lat city. In Vietnamese, people call this coffee as “Café chon” or “Cà phê chồn” which is translated into English as weasel coffee or civet dung coffee with the reference to the meaning of weasel as “chồn” animal. The average production of weasel coffee is about 500.0 kilograms per year. And its price is at around $3,000 per kilogram.
Trung Nguyen Coffee – a Vietnamese coffee roaster – also offers a so-called Legendee coffee with kopi luwak flavor.
Today, a lot of coffee producers offer kopi luwak at unbelievable prices. Some people say that this coffee is so unspecific and immeasurable that you have to spend such a huge amount of money. But having chance to enjoy this rare and unique coffee once can be an awesome experience.
To sum up, kopi luwak is deserved a must-taste coffee specialty. As its legend and rumors reveal, this kind of coffee is very unique in taste and possesses extraordinary characteristics that any other regular coffees don’t have. Due to deforestation activities in Southeast Asia, there are not many wild civets left in natural environment today. Thus, it becomes more difficult to increase the product’s quantity. And, kopi luwak seems not too much popular in Western markets as its main markets have still been customers from Asian countries.
How to become a coffee wholesale supplier?
Types of coffee beans and its main commercial varieties.
Coffee Disappearance from Earth due to global warming? |
Malas are beautifully hand-crafted pieces made with organic stones, beads, crystals and seeds that are threaded together by vibrant colored thread, but there is more to this piece of jewelry than expected. Malas are traditionally used as meditation beads and have 108 beads connecting to one larger bead – the Guru Bead.
The significance of the number 108 predates Buddhism and is the long-established number of the Hindu names that is assigned to a Hindu Deity. As Malas began to form into mediation mantras practiced in today’s modern yoga application, the number 108 began to take on new meaning. The Hindu religion uses the 108-beaded necklace to count prayers and to signify one full prayer circle completed; yoga and meditation practices have adopted the 108-count circle and adapted it into meditation with the use of modern-day mantras (see our recent article about today’s most common mantras!) Many people use the Mala necklace during yoga and meditation to count their modern-day mantras. Yoga enthusiasts have also established that the meaning of 108 has come to identify with the 108 marma points – or sacred places of the human body. The sacred points of the body align with the body’s chakras. Chakras are studied in the practice of Yoga and meditation and can be understood in relation to the body’s healing nature.
The number 108 has taken on many meanings over time and each meaning is fully connected to the wearer of the Mala. Find your perfect Mala that balances your inner mantra and connects you to the solar-alignment meant for you. |
To help ensure that you and your children make clearly focused decisions, you can use the information that follows to rank your choices. Some of you may want to use a five point scale to rate each college on items 4 – 11. In that way, parents and students can more easily compare colleges on individual items and total scores. You can even add items, if that would be helpful. However, the first three items on this list should be fully discussed and agreed upon long before you begin to look at colleges.
1. Evaluate Your Financial Position – How many children do you have? How much money can you afford for each child’s college education? Is the student able and willing to obtain a part-time job? What is the likelihood that your student will receive a significant amount of grant and merit scholarship money? Is the student willing to take on one or more student loans? As parents, are you willing to take on one or more loans to help pay for college?
2. Consider Cost Reduction Alternatives – Since money is a concern for most parents, students should consider community colleges and lower cost four year colleges. However, be sure to check out the ratings and reputations of those colleges. It pays to attend a college that has a good reputation. Then, if you obtain good grades, you may be able to transfer to a higher ranked, four year college. Don’t ignore the savings that can be gained by attending a local college and living at home. Does the student need a car? Should the student attend college on a part-time, pay as you go basis? Explore the alternatives to determine which one is best for you.
3. Rate Your Student’s High School Performance – Be honest. What is the quality of the high school your child has attended? The best colleges will take this into consideration. Carefully evaluate your student’s high school performance, including the following: academic achievement, leadership roles, participation and performance in school activities, community involvement and service, part-time work, critical life experiences, obstacles that were overcome and outstanding achievements. In what areas has your student been recognized by others for having achieved excellence? What is the likelihood that your student will excel in college?
much money is each college willing to offer your child? Is there enough difference between the offers to influence the student’s college choice? Qualified students should begin to investigate local and national scholarships and grant money early in their junior year of high school. After all possible grants and scholarships have been investigated, look at other options including work-study programs, part-time jobs and loans. Since student loans come in all shapes and sizes, both students and parents should carefully consider each loan option. Obviously, some loans are more repayment friendly than others. Make certain that you fully understand all loan requirements before you commit. Also understand that you may be repaying those college loans for more than twenty years.
5. College Ratings – Most colleges have an international, national, state or local reputation. What are the reputations of the colleges to which your student will be applying? Are any of the colleges known for the field that your student plans to enter? Colleges with a the best reputations can be helpful when it’s time to look for a job.
6. Career Services – Does the Career Services office have enough employees to provide personal assistance, classes and training for every student, or do they merely provide information on their web site? Do they provide students with assistance in every aspect of the job search: A Goal, A Plan, Assessment Instruments, Research, Networking, The Resume, Interviewing, References and more? Can they help students with internships, part-time and summer jobs? Can they steer students to alumni who are already working in their field of interest?
7. Job Placement Statistics – Colleges are very clever with the statistics they present. Many colleges state that 95% or more of their students are employed within six months of graduation. However, those numbers don’t tell you how many students are working in their field of interest and if they are earning a living wage. Are graduates forced to live at home because they can’t afford to live independently and still pay off their college loans? Before selecting a college, students should find out how many employers, in their field of interest, actually come to that campus to recruit students. How many students, in that field, received job offers as the result of campus interviews? What were the titles of the jobs they were offered? How much did they pay? Where were they located? Parents and students have a vested interest in these answers.
8. Campus Safety & Security – Every college has safety and security issues. What are the statistics for the past four years? Ask about Murders, Rapes, Assaults, Stalking, Thefts and Intruders. What prevention measures are in place? With regard to major security events, what is the college’s track record and ability to immediately communicate with students about lock downs? How does the college handle Contagious Health Issues – Meningitis, etc.? Are you satisfied with the way each college has handled such problems? Be sure to ask about and investigate dorm security. Talk with current students about these issues.
9. Counseling Services – What counseling services are offered? Which of the counseling services is your student most likely to need? Students often seek counseling for anxiety, depression, eating disorders, drugs, drinking, academic performance and career issues. How comprehensive are these services? How frequently has each service been used by students in past years? What are the success rates?
10. Parent Association – Which colleges have a Parent Association? If they have one, you will be able to talk with other parents about any issues that concern you. Make a judgment whether each college is parent and family friendly. You will find that some are interested in parent opinions, suggestions and involvement, while others are not. Some colleges only want your tuition payments and annual donations.
11. Campus Activities – When students have a special interest, make certain that the colleges under consideration provide the student with an opportunity to participate. Other students may prefer colleges with a broad array of activities, so they can explore their options and test their skills.
As you get down to the four or five colleges that hold the most interest, are appropriate for the student’s qualifications and meet your personal financial requirements, the application process can begin. Many students apply a strategy to help ensure acceptance at colleges that fit their needs and wants. They apply to one or two colleges they consider to be a stretch, two or three in which they are confident of acceptance and one or two that they consider to be a slam dunk. This is an excellent strategy to consider, since the competition at high quality, lower cost colleges will always be stiff. Keep in mind that some colleges accept as few as 20% of their applicants.
When parents perform well during this process, they will have helped their children to gather and evaluate important college information, explore the alternatives, focus on the things that will enable students to find success and teach their children how to make sound and informed decisions. However, once the choices are reduced to the two or three most suitable colleges, the final selection should be left to the student. |
Upon arrival, you will be greeted by us and then be transfer to the hotel for check-in (early check in depends on room availability and costs an extra fee). After that, head to the city center, catch sight of city hall, colonial buildings, take photos at Sule Pagoda for a while and wander around Maha Bandula Park. That is how our walking tour starts.
At lunch time, access a popular tea shop to discover Myanmar’s tea tradition. Because of British influence, the Burmese has drunk strong tea with sugar and condensed milk for over a century. Still, they also drink green tea to get rid of the sweet flavor. Plus, you can also enjoy typical Burmese snacks and noodles such as: Mohinga (rice vermicelli with fish sauce), Shwe Htamin (Golden sticky rice), Mont Leit Pyar (bean and jiggery wonton-like), Mont Pyar Tha Let (rice pancake), and Ohn No Kauk Swe (chicken soup served on noodles).
After lunch, we will take you to Mawtin Jetty to see the hustle activities at the sides of Yangon River and visit a market which sells sweets, fruits, and snacks daily. Next, move to another market at China Town for Chinese as well as Burmese specialties such as fresh tofu, spices or seafood. Then, come to the 19th Street nearby which is famous for local beer. Also, at this street you can find Myanmar BBQ, snacks and salads.
After breakfast, you will be transferred to Yangon Airport for the domestic flight to Nyaung U and then be driven to Bagan, the land of thousands pagodas and Myanmar’s most important archaeological sites. There, explore Bagan’s remarkable pagodas: Shwezigon Pagoda, Wetkyi-in’s Gubyaukgyi, and Htilominlo Temple. Next, savor lunch at La Min Thit Burmese Restaurant, a great place where various delicious Burmese are served, especially curries.
In the afternoon, visit the Ananda complex. The temple itself is home to four Buddha standing statues; each faces one of the four cardinal directions. Within the complex is Ananda Okkyaung, one of the rare red brick monasteries still remained nowadays. After that, head to Thatbyinnyu Temple, Bagan’s highest pagoda whose name means ’omniscience’, including two storeys and four corridors. Take a horse cart ride passing through Taungbi Village to visit Sulamani Temple, a Buddhist edifice rebuilt in 1994 from which Htilominlo Temple was modeled after and Dhammayangyi Temple – Bagan’s largest consisting of two parallel corridors and two vestibules. Around sunset, contemplate the marvelous settings at Pyathatgyi Temple, a double-cave construction.
After breakfast at the hotel, our guide will take you to the colorful Nyaung U Market and show you several kinds of herbs and vegetables used in cooking. After that, drop by a workshop manufacturing Pone Yay Gyi (black soybean paste) – Bagan is an important producer of this condiment. It can be mixed with sliced onions, beaten dry shrimp, salt, peanut oil, and may be some sliced chili to create a salad dish. At the workshop, you can learn how to transform raw soya beans into Pone Yay Gyi step by step. Next, come to another workshop to see another famous Bagan dish – Pe Chaung snack – is made from green beans.
Around lunch time, head to a family-owned palmyra garden out of the town, a good occasion for you to witness the daily routine of palm climber. Also, see how toddy is made, from fruit collecting to wine fermenting. Coming there from August to February, you will see other plants in the garden: beans, peanuts, cottons. Savor a delicious lunch prepared by the family.
In the afternoon, we will head back to Bagan, access a lacquer ware house and observe skilled artisans draw decorative patterns. Next, you will be driven to Ayeyarwaddy River and enjoy a boat ride sailing down the river, catching sight of antiquated temples and peaceful villages in the magnificent sunset.
After having breakfast, you will be transferred to Nyaung U Airport for a flight to Mandalay, the cultural capital of Myanmar.
Our Mandalay sightseeing tour starts with Mahamuni Buddha Temple, the home for the gigantic gold-gilded Mahamuni statue. Next, come to traditional workshops creating marble, gold leaf, and Kalaga tapestry. Then, spend some time to discover Laphet Thoke, a kind of salad mainly made from fermented tea leaves, adding beans, sesames and peanuts. Another variation of Laphet Thoke is A Phoe Gyi Thoke, made by adding dried shrimp, green chili, garlic, sliced tomatoes and cabbages.
At lunch, stop at a popular teahouse of Myanmar named Min Thiha. There, two popular Mandalay dishes are served: Mandalay Monte and Khotaung Monte. Apart from enjoying lunch, you can also socialize with locals or do business.
In the afternoon, access Kuthodaw Pagoda which holds the world’s biggest book and 729 slabs of marble carved with Buddhist scriptures and Shwenandaw Monastery which is renowned for its delicate teak carvings. Enjoy sunset at Mandalay Hill.
Firstly, stop at a morning market to see inhabitants of Inle Lake and nearby exchange their products. Next, take a cyclo drive to the canal where boats carrying vegetables gather for distribution around the country. Also, the cyclo takes you through peaceful streets, nunneries and monasteries. Drop by ’tomato house’ where tomatoes are graded and priced, and stop for taking photos. Then, head to the port and get on the private motorboat taking you to Inle Lake.
This fresh water lake is one of the most renowned destinations in Myanmar and also the habitat of the extraordinary one leg rower Intha people. Make your first Inle stop at a tomato garden, the main product of Inle grown in floating gardens. Check out on-water planting techniques, socialize with local farmers and see their life. At Thalay Village, prepare and enjoy lunch with local delights like Inle-style Tomato Salad at a traditional Intha house.
In the afternoon, access Phaungdawoo Pagoda, one of the principal shrines in Myanmar, presenting the most extraordinary Buddha images. Plus, drop by the silk weaving village Inn Paw Khon and a cheroot making workshop (a kind of Burmese cigars) to discover local crafts.
Stay overnight at hotel in Inle.
Have breakfast early before joining in five day market, a typical activity in Shan State which takes place around the lake. Next, sail to the northwest part of Inle to visit Khaung Daing Village which is noted for the traditional Shan Tofu. You will be amazed by the delicious flavor of this dish.
Head to the northeastern coast of the lake and visit Red Mountain Estate Vineyards & Winery. There, taste wines and also observe various kinds of grapes planted in the Red Mountain Estate. Drive back to Nyaung Shwe and enjoy lunch at View Point Restaurant with the best authentic Shan dishes. Shan State is the region possessing the most remarkable cuisine in Myanmar.
In the afternoon, access the 150-year-old Shwe Yan Pyay Monastery and contemplate bizzare windows in oval shape and impressive glass mosaic. Lastly, we will transfer you to Heho Airport for the returning flight to Yangon.
Spend the night sleep at hotel in Yangon.
After breakfast at the hotel, take a cooking lesson delivered by an experienced. He will be your company to a local market and help you choose ingredients to make popular Myanmar dishes. He will teach you the usage of various types of spices and vegetables. Head to Monsoon Restaurant and prepare your meal. Enjoy your achievement. Come back to your hotel for rest before joining in our sightseeing tour.
This afternoon, have a bit of a rest at your hotel and then continue with a visit to Chaukhtatgyi Temple which holds the biggest reclining Buddha statue in Southeast Asia. Around sunset, experience the wonderful 99 meter Shwedagon Pagoda, being left breathless with its vivid color and sacred atmosphere. Then, head to Kandawgyi Park to enjoy fresh air and splendid settings of Karaweik Palace, Shwedagon Pagoda and the surrounding areas. |
Does The Philippines Deserve Its Investment Grade?
Over the past decade the Philippines' sovereign credit rating oscillated between "negative" and "stable," reflecting concern about the ability of the government to collect sufficient tax revenue, manage its budget, and sustain a high rate of GDP growth. Three years ago, President Aquino embarked on a long overdue path to correct what had become endemic deficiencies in the Philippine economy. Over the past 10 weeks, the country has been rewarded for its efforts, with Fitch, the Japan Credit Rating Agency, and S&P all categorizing the Philippines as "investment" grade. Does it really deserve that designation?
Moody's retains its rating at a notch below investment grade, but will undoubtedly follow the others in due course, reflecting a rising chorus of voices in the investment community expressing confidence in the country's future. The external position of the Philippine economy -- its current account balance, external payments position, and foreign exchange reserves -- has been solid under President Aquino's fiscal management. The public deficit (2 percent of GDP) and debt-to-GDP ratio continue to fall, inflation remains at 3 percent, and the country's GDP in 2012 grew at 6.6 percent -- higher than Indonesia (6.2 percent) and Malaysia (6.0 percent), and not far behind Asia's perpetual economic leader, China (7.6 percent). Year to date, the Philippine peso and stock market (ranked 5th best globally) are among the best performers in the world.
Cleary, much of the credit must go to the President, and his willingness to tackle some long simmering issues. Since taking office in 2010, President Aquino managed to pass the 'sin tax' law covering such items as alcohol and cigarettes, increased tax collection rates, and successfully impeached the now former Supreme Court chief justice of former President Arroyo, on grounds of undeclared wealth. Because of Aquino's "straight path" platform, the Philippines ranked 105th (out of 174) in Transparency International's Corruptions Perceptions Index in 2012, on par with such countries as Algeria and Mexico. When he assumed power, the country was ranked 134th, on par with countries such as Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Clearly, the country is making good progress in that regard.
But what progress has been made in terms of simply doing business in the Philippines? Despite its newly minted investment grade credentials, the World Bank's 2013 'Doing Business' indicators continue to give the Philippines a low grade. Out of 185 countries in its index, the Philippines ranks just 138th, sandwiched between Ecuador and the Ukraine. In six of the ten categories, the country ranks in the lowest third, and particularly poorly in terms of both starting a business and resolving insolvency (at 161st and 165th, respectively). Also, the Philippine rankings actually fell in 7 of the 10 categories since last year. This stands in stark contrast to what is implied by its investment grade ranking.
Beyond the ease in doing business, regulatory risk remains a challenge, and the country's judiciary remains notoriously corrupt. While the political risk associated with attempted coups over the past several decades has notably diminished in recent years, election-related killings and violence remain a problem. And the country's rising level of net foreign direct investment remains a fraction of that of its neighbors, or other investment grade countries throughout the world. Given all this, what explains the relative haste with which the three ratings agencies upgraded the Philippines?
Apart from perhaps wanting to maintain a sense of consistency, given that Indonesia was also recently upgraded to investment grade by Fitch and Moody's -- even though its currency has not performed as well and it incurred its first current account deficit in 15 years last year -- one explanation might be a tendency to overemphasize a country's external profile while underemphasizing development indices such as the inclusivity of economic growth, per capita development across social strata, the Gini coefficient, and absolute poverty.
Recently, the Philippine National Statistical Coordination Board reported that despite the series of consecutive credit rating upgrades made by various agencies over the past 3 years, poverty levels in the Philippines remain unchanged. As of 2012, about 22 percent of Filipino households were considered poor by absolute standards, compared to 23 percent in 2009. A 2008 Asian Development Bank study stated that the Philippines has the largest number of higher education institutions in Southeast Asia, and the number of examinees in professional licensure exams continues to rise, yet passing rates continue to drop. In addition, the Philippine underemployment rate increased from 19 percent in 2011 to 22.7 percent in 2012. In other words, some important, underappreciated indicators are going in the wrong direction.
The Aquino administration has been quick to focus on how long the "trickle down" process can take, but it did not dispute the findings of the report. To date, President Aquino's technocrats are struggling to reconcile high credit scores, on one hand, and inclusive growth, on the other. So far, there has been no adequate reason cited -- other than Kuznet's inverted-U curve (circa the 1950s), where income inequality should eventually decrease, but only after sustained growth in the long term. On that basis, the Philippines must have high sustained growth for many decades to make a real difference in the absolute poverty rate.
So this appears to be a "Tale of Two Countries" -- one with significantly improving economic indicators and an activist President determined to smash through some of the unfortunate legacies of the Post-Marcos era, and the other -- an unbroken legacy of poverty, regulatory ineffectiveness, and judicial corruption. The ratings agencies appear to have focused primarily on the former, presumably under the assumption that it will take time to address the latter.
Much will depend on what happens after President Aquino leaves office in three years time. Will his reformist legacy continue, or will the country slide back into its old ways? At least three ratings agencies appear to be saying that there is a better chance that meaningful reform will continue in the longer-term. Clearly, the Philippines has a great deal of untapped potential. Nouriel Roubini, a perennial pessimist, forecasted that should the Philippines continue to defy the global recession, and if it were to consistently register GDP growth rates between 7 percent and 9 percent annually, as one HSBC study claimed, the Philippine economy may be among the largest economies by 2050. This assumes an uninterrupted path to nirvana, however, which is rather unlikely to occur, particularly given the vicissitudes of the global economy and the plethora of challenges facing the Philippines.
More likely is that the country will encounter its share of obstacles along the way, some of which will be externally derived, but many of which will undoubtedly be self-imposed. To truly deserve its investment grade rating, the Philippines needs to achieve much outside the realm of economic indicators. Being rated, as it is, one notch above junk status, it wouldn't take much for the country to fall back below an investment grade rating. Rather than beating its chest too much about what it has just achieved it, the government would be wise to focus on how best to avoid losing it. |
Hong Kong is a hot and humid city, which means that any time you go outside – even if you aren’t moving around – you’re probably going to start sweating within minutes. This can seem like a pain, but all that sweating is doing us good. While the main reason we sweat is to cool down our bodies when we’re hot, there are plenty of other perks to perspiring.
According to medical website Science-Based Medicine, sweating can help rid the body of heavy metals and chemicals. In a city like Hong Kong, where air pollution is such a severe problem, metals like mercury and lead can find their way into our bodies. So, too, can substances like BPA – a chemical found in plastics. Although your body is already well-equipped to rid itself of these toxins – that’s what your liver and kidney are for – you can give it an extra helping hand by getting your sweat on.
According to health website Medical Daily, sweating opens up the pores in our skin, bringing dead skin cells and bacteria to the surface where they can be washed away. This means you are less likely to have pimples. Sweat also encourages your skin to replace dead skin cells with new ones, giving your skin a much healthier look.
Working up a sweat through exercise releases endorphins, hormones which make you happier. Exercise also helps your body to break down the hormone cortisol – also known as the stress hormone – making you feel more relaxed overall.
Sweat prevents colds and other infections because it contains dermcidin – a protein that helps fight infections and germs – according to the science journal Nature. In addition, several studies have shown that sweating improves blood circulation and flow by widening blood vessels. This reduces the risk of developing heart disease or having a heart attack when you’re older.
The Medical Daily site also claims that sweating can help fight dangerous viruses, bacteria, and fungi, and also prevent kidney stones from developing.
How should you break a sweat?
In Hong Kong, it’s easy to break a sweat by simply going outside, but you’ll break an even better one by exercising, regardless of whether you’re indoors or outdoors.
But when you don’t really feel like exercising, sitting in a sauna is one of the best ways to get a good sweat going. Just make sure you don’t stay in there for too long. If you’re not used to using the sauna frequently, keep your sessions under 20 minutes.
Last but not least, as beneficial as sweating is for your body, it is also dehydrating. So make sure you drink plenty of water to replenish all the liquid you lose.
So now you know: sweating may not make you smell good, but it will make you look and feel good in the long run. |
Kiwi Chateau - Hastings / Battle (Battle of) - 1066Portion of the famous Bayeux Tapestry, depicting King Harold with an arrow in his eye.It is nearly 70 meters (230ft) long and is located at the Cathedral of Bayeux in the cityof Bayeux, lower Normandy, France. In actual fact, it ISN'T a tapestry at all !Tapestries are WOVEN. The "Bayeux Tapestry" is a SEWN Embroidery!
Portion of the famous Bayeux Tapestry, depicting King Harold with an arrow in his eye.
of Bayeux, lower Normandy, France. In actual fact, it ISN'T a tapestry at all !
Tapestries are WOVEN. The "Bayeux Tapestry" is a SEWN Embroidery!
Edgar the Atheling, closest blood claimant to Edward.
A Saxon prince and nephew of Edward, he was a sickly fourteen year old boy.
Harold Godwinson, powerful noble in England, a good soldier and a gifted politician. Harold was born and bred in England and was popular with ordinary people. He was son of Earl Godwin, the most powerful noble in England, a leading Saxon Lord and the brother of Edward's wife. He had won a number of battles for Edward.
William, Duke of Normandy of France.
Harald Hardrada, Viking King of Norway.
It is NOW believed that the actual battleground was two miles closer to Hastings... at Crowhurst!
The battle began at 9am on 14th October 1066 and lasted most of the day.
Finally, William brought in his archers and Harold's luck ran out. The arrows didn't break the Saxon line, but if the Bayeux Tapestry is to be believed, one of the arrows hit Harold in the eye.
The battle lasted six hours.
According to legend, Harold Godwinson was killed by an arrow in his eye. The legend of Harold being hit in the eye comes from the Bayeux Tapestry, which shows Harold's death.
It is not certain how Harold actually died. The Bayeux Tapestry shows a soldier with an arrow near his eye but the soldier does not appear to be wounded as he is standing up.
If he had been killed it would have shown him falling to the ground. This is the reason why most people now think that Harold is the man on the right with the battle axe. He has been struck down by a blow from the Norman knight on horseback. It seems more likely that Harold was killed by a blow from a sword.
When William won the Battle of Hastings, he earned himself the title 'Conqueror'. He marched to London and was crowned King in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066.
The Norman victory changed the way in which England was ruled. Under the Saxons, the earls were often as important as the king, but now the king was firmly in control. He governed the whole country, and his rule was law.
William was used to running a country using the “Feudal System” which involved the King owning everything (land, animals and buildings) and everybody else renting it from him. In practise this meant he rented everything to his Barons in return for them providing him with an army when required. In turn the Barons leased out the land given to them (leased from the King) to local farmers and millers, etc.
Having conquered England, William wanted to make sure he remained in control of it. After winning the Battle of Hastings, William set about building a string of castles in strategic areas across the country. Two of his best known being the Tower of London (originally of wood for speed of erection) and Windsor Castle.
Originally the castles the Normans built were wooden towers on earthen 'mottes' (mounds) with a bailey (defensive area) surrounded by earth ramparts, but many were later rebuilt in stone. By the end of William's reign over 80 castles had been built throughout his kingdom, as a permanent reminder of the new Norman feudal order.
Thanks to the Domesday Book we know much about England in the eleventh century. It shows, for example, that by 1086, twenty years after the Battle of Hastings, there were hardly any rich landowners of English birth left in England. England was a land ruled by Frenchmen, especially William's favourite Normans. |
The first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16, 1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel. The cost of guest tickets for that night's ceremony was $5 ($73 in 2018 dollars). Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the film-making industry of the time, for their works during the 1927–28 period. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes. |
The next two pieces are pure musical whimsy with an Irish twist. They represent the architectural whimsy of Castle Ward itself. Family history has it that Lord and Lady Bangor could not agree on the architectural style for their new home, or else agreed to disagree, so they created two façades in the two different architectural styles in vogue in the mid 18th century – Classical and Gothic. Both Temple Dancer in Blue and Lady Anne's Fancie share the same foundation – in musical terms, harmony and pulse.
Lord Bangor wished his new home at Castle Ward to reflect the Classical Palladian architectural style and Temple Dancer in Blue represents the front façade of the building. The musical inspiration for the piece was taken from Satie’s Gymnopedies – pieces reputedly inspired by a Grecian vase decorated with temple dancers. |
The Alamance County Health Department contracted with the Center for Child and Family Policy to conduct the external evaluation of Project LAUNCH, a demonstration project for the wellness of young children and the development of state- and locally-based networks for the coordination of key child-serving systems. LAUNCH aimed to create a preventive system of care for children birth-to-8 years of age and their families by enabling a child’s medical home to act as a portal for screening and identifying potential concerns in the areas of physical, social, emotional, cognitive and behavioral health. A medical home is a patient-centered, team-based health care delivery model led by a physician that provides comprehensive and continuous medical care to patients, with the goal of obtaining maximized health outcomes. Care coordination is an essential component of a medical home. Its goals are better access to health care, increased satisfaction with care, and improved health. The Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Family Physicians, American College of Physicians, and American Osteopathic Association have collaborated in creating this concept and promoting it across the country.
Five strategies were used to create the preventive system of care: developmental and social-emotional screens and assessments, integration of behavioral health care into primary care, home visiting programs, mental health consultation and family strengthening and parent skills training. |
If you ask any Foundry Family member what they're currently reading you're sure to hear an impassioned report. After all, the only thing more personal than peeping into someone's medicine cabinet (or, in our case, their brush collections) is looking through the stack of books on their bedside table. While recently our reading lists have been skewing in the direction of new(ish) fiction and meditations on social justice (and Lillian has been doing a personal deep divee into the weaving of sweetgrass, so she's already right on track for this week's reading list)... The books that have most recently captured our imaginations are these lovely, slender Foxfire-style softcovers about "Forest School".
If you're not familiar with the concept of "Forest School", pull up a (toad)stool and let us (cedar) wax(wing) poetic about it for a moment. Forest School is both an ideology and an educative methodology that creates a process of inspiration by having humans interact with natural spaces.
These books are practical hands-on guides to harnessing the magical, ceaseless curiosity of childhood and directing it, gently and naturally, towards discovery (and self-discovery) of all of the things that might be possible when the utility of one's own hands are paired with the power of knowledge and imagination in equal measure. Plus, it all really just sounds so darn fun!
An entry titled "bramble cordage" teaches us how to make rope and string from blackberry canes and honeysuckle. An entry on "sistrums" (an ancient Egyptian instrument similar to a maraca) asks us to pause in springtime to consider the trilling threads—birdsong, water droplets, a chorus of bees visiting early tulip poplars—that make up the fabric of sounds that festoon the woodland branches and join in the symphony with a handmade rattle and a barbaric yawp. An entry on "blackberry ink and feather quills" fashions a whole desk-full of writing implements from foraged goods, another on "evergreen brushes" fashions an artists palette. Fire building. Shelter construction. Wild foraging. Tracking. Intuition. Survival. Wonder. Celebration.
These books, while specifically written for children, call forth the ancient power of woodlands and the deep, real teachable-magic of being with trees for all humans. We know that, as we've been reading them, we've been shot through with wonder in the same vein as when we read Emerson or Thoreau, but this is less an intellectual enlightenment and more a visceral one. Who doesn't need a reminder to be more present in breath and acknowledging of the miraculous possibilities of simply being alive in the world? Who can't appreciate a call to arms that transcends simply "hey, you, go outside!" but also gives you simple instructions on how and tools to know why?
In short, Forest School celebrates the endless possibilities of knowledge and self-knowledge that can be gained—by ALL learners—from being out in the woods and experiencing nature with all of our senses. Not restricted by age or ability, not bound by core curricula or test-teaching, not limited to fair weather or dampened by (inevitable) rain, these books, and the concept of Forest School in general, nurture independence and interdependence, the grace of both growth and fallow-states, and, most importantly, they honor and elevate the power of the natural world.
Special heart-thunderbolts to our favorite wild foxkits Juniper + Iris and their wonderful Mama—and Foundry Sister—Katie Rose, who facilitates a beautiful Forest "Tree School" in the Hudson Valley. Thank you for building something so beautiful and for letting us live inside the pictures for this post. |
There is a remarkable interdisciplinary union of scientists committed to the study of a very small world, a world we cannot see even with a light microscope. That small world is the field of nanotechnology, the domain of atoms and nano-structures.
There is nothing on Earth that is not made up of atoms. This ranges from the food we eat, the clothes we put on, the buildings and houses that shelter us, and finally our very own bodies.
Nanotechnology is the ability to see and to manage individual atoms and molecules. It is a field of research and modification concerned with building things such as materials and devices based on the scale of atoms and molecules. Essentially, a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter which is ten times the diameter of a hydrogen atom.
However, the microscopes needed to see things at the nanoscale were created about 30 years ago. Immediately scientists had the correct apparatus, which were the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) and the atomic force microscope (AFM), the era of nanotechnology was born.
The Nanotechnology is lauded as having the potential to boost the effective energy utilization. It basically helps sanitize the environment and figure out health issues. The Nanotechnology is said to be able to enhance manufacturing production at a relatively affordable cost enormously. The products of nanotechnology are smaller, affordable, lighter but more operational and make use of less energy and a few raw materials to manufacture products.
Although nanotechnology is an approximately fresh science, it already has many applications in our everyday lives, cutting across consumer goods, medicine and developing the environment.
Medicine is presently being advanced by applying nanoparticles to carry drugs, heat, light and other elements to some particular types of cells, namely; cancer cells. Particles are created so that they can appeal to diseased cells, which enables direct treatment of those cells. This approach lowers the damage to healthy cells in the body and aids in the quick detection of disease.
Through Nanotechnology, electronics enhance display screens on electronic devices, and these include improving display screens on electronics devices and also expanding the density of memory chips. It can also diminish the size of transistors used on unified circuits.
The word “Nanotechnology” is being used in diverse applications to enhance the environment. This consists of cleaning up pollution, enhancing formation to diminish the procreation of new pollution. This makes different energy sources more expensive.
The Nanotechnology has made its way into diverse consumer products starting from clothing to skin oil. Some include Lithium-ion batteries that utilize nanoparticle-based electrodes that power plug-in electric cars. And also, the flame retardant created by coating the foam used in building furniture with carbon nano-fibers.
Most of the benefits of Nanotechnology will likely occur shortly, however, it is already helping to enhance our world in many diverse ways. While lots of people tend to think of Nanotechnology as something alien, maybe because the word “technology” means artificial and human-made, but life itself is a very good example of Nanotechnology. |
In the liturgy of the church, we are at the end of human time. That’s the yearly theme. As Scripture reminds us, every living being is challenged by the limits of time.
We concluded the church year with the hopeful proclamation for the reign of Christ to govern the world with justice, and then launched into the Advent season of hopeful expectancy for the coming of Christ. The language of liturgy articulates our hope: Christ has come. Christ is come. Christ will come again.
If we were gambling people, we could righteously claim: Two out of three! Not bad. The Biblical record tells the story Christ has come. Your personal faith confirms that Christ is come, the risen Lord is present in your daily life. But what about the affirmation Christ will come again?
Since the days of the early church, Christians have been waiting and preparing for the coming of Christ — again. The Advent season reminds us to be alert, keep awake, be ready, get prepared. Christ is coming again to the earth. The question then is: What do you do with the delay? The early church had to come to terms with a delay in Christ’s return. So do we.
From the human point of view, it is a question about what do you do with your time. What do you do with the time allotted you between now and then? There are two dominate thoughts about this waiting period. One: Christ will come again and bless you and the world with eternal love. Two: You will die and Christ will meet you in the next life and usher you into the strong arms of God. Both possibilities inspire our religious imagination.
Biblical scholars refer to the gospel of Matthew, chapters 24-25, as the little apocalypse. Here, Jesus tells three parables about using your time in the delay of Christ’s return. In the parable of the ten bridesmaids — five wise; five foolish — the foolish fail to fill their lamps with oil. In the parable of the talents, the fearful slave buried his treasure. In the parable of the sheep and goats, both sheep and goats fail to recognize Jesus in the lives of suffering people.
Yet, the goats are identified as unwilling to extend a helping hand to a suffering world. The point being: Fill your life with the oil of wisdom. Invest your life in the good purposes of the Master. Offer a helping hand to relieve a suffering world. Be savvy smart in this world.
In our culture, the dominate theme has to do with warnings about safety. Wear your seat belt. Ride your bike with a helmet. Pay attention to your surroundings. Be safe. The argument could be made that safety and wisdom go together; however, like the fearful slave who buried his talent, safety denied the slave the opportunity to live more fully into the rich opportunities of life. The resources given him would have been better used investing in wisdom, a virtue our culture has decidedly taken a vacation.
The end of human time serves as humble motivation to not fritter your life away in foolishness. Seek wisdom. Resist evil; invest in the good. The time is short, therefore, lean into the challenge of a well-lived life. |
The grand majority of taxpayer revenue came from local and state sources; just 10.2 percent of the money raised to fund the nation’s public school system hails from the federal government.
The report also summarizes how states spent their education dollars. More than $322.5 billion of the roughly $527 billion in expenditures went toward covering the cost of instruction. The other $204 billion was used mostly for support services, like $50 billion for operations and maintenance, nearly $40 billion for school and district leadership, $24.9 billion for instructional staff support, and $22.4 billion on student transportation costs, among others.
The revenues and expenditures are down slightly from the previous year. The 2011 data show total local, state and federal dollars designated for public education spending dropped $21 billion, or 3.5 percent, compared to 2010. The federal contribution to public education spending slid by more than 21 percent in those two years. Expenditures, which account for many types of spending commitments but not capital outlays and interest on long-term debt, fell by 3 percent between 2010 and 2011.
Filtering by federal revenue, for example, shows New Jersey relied on federal funds the least (5.3 percent), while Mississippi depended on federal revenues the most (22.4 percent). |
Omarkhali, Khanna (ed.). 2014. Religious minorities in Kurdistan: Beyond the mainstream (Studies in Oriental Religions 68). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
Religious Minorities in Kurdistan: Beyond the Mainstream, edited by Khanna Omarkhali, represents an account of the various religious milieus flourishing beyond the Islamic mainstream in all parts of Kurdistan. The miscellany describes how the religious minority groups operate within the Kurdish regions, which themselves have been subject to numerous conflicts and social as well as political transformations at the turn of the 21st century. This volume emphasizes recent developments affecting these communities, in particular their social and religious lives. Six chapters are dedicated to the Ahl-e Haqq (Yarisan/ Kaka’is), Yezidis, Alevis, the Haqqa and Khaksar Sufi traditions, the Shabaks, as well as to the Jewish and Christian communities in Kurdistan. The anthology includes three indices and a glossary of religious terms appearing in the volume.
For the ToC, see here.
Savant, Sarah Bowen. 2013. The new Muslims of post-conquest Iran: tradition, memory and conversion (Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
How do converts to a religion come to feel an attachment to it? The New Muslims of Post-Conquest Iran answers this important question for Iran by focusing on the role of memory and its revision and erasure in the ninth to eleventh centuries. During this period, the descendants of the Persian imperial, religious and historiographical traditions not only wrote themselves into starkly different early Arabic and Islamic accounts of the past but also systematically suppressed much knowledge about pre-Islamic history. The result was both a new ‘Persian’ ethnic identity and the pairing of Islam with other loyalties and affiliations, including family, locale and sect. This pioneering study examines revisions to memory in a wide range of cases, from Iran’s imperial and administrative heritage to the Prophet Muhammad’s stalwart Persian companion, Salman al-Farisi, and to memory of Iranian scholars, soldiers and rulers in the mid-seventh century.
Llewellyn-Jones, Lloyd. 2013. King and court in ancient Persia 559 to 331 BCE. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
The first Persian Empire (559-331 BCE) was the biggest land empire the world had seen, and seated at the heart of its vast dominions, in the south of modern-day Iran, was the person of the Great King. Immortalized in Greek literature as despotic tyrants, a new vision of Persian monarchy is emerging from Iranian, and other, sources (literary, visual, and archaeological), which show the Kings in a very different light. Inscriptions of Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes, and their heirs present an image of Persian rulers as liberators, peace-makers, valiant warriors, righteous god-fearing judges, and law-makers.
Around them the Kings established lavish and sophisticated courts, the centres of political decision-making and cultural achievements in which the image of monarchy was endorsed and advanced by an almost theatrical display of grandeur and power.
This book explores the representation of Persian monarchy and the court of the Achaemenid Great Kings from the point of view of the ancient Iranians themselves and through the sometimes distorted prism of Classical authors.
Dusinberre, Elspeth. 2013. Empire, authority, and autonomy in Achaemenid Anatolia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
The Achaemenid Persian Empire (550–330 BCE) was a vast and complex sociopolitical structure that encompassed much of modern-day Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan and included two dozen distinct peoples who spoke different languages, worshipped different deities, lived in different environments and had widely differing social customs. This book offers a radical new approach to understanding the Achaemenid Persian Empire and imperialism more generally. Through a wide array of textual, visual and archaeological material, Elspeth R. M. Dusinberre shows how the rulers of the empire constructed a system flexible enough to provide for the needs of different peoples within the confines of a single imperial authority and highlights the variability in response. This book examines the dynamic tensions between authority and autonomy across the empire, providing a valuable new way of considering imperial structure and development.
Potts, D. T. 2014. Nomadism in Iran: From antiquity to the modern era. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
A completely new approach to nomadism in Iran, one which rejects the identification of nomads in the archaeological record of the Neolithic and Bronze Age (c. 8000-1200 BC). Emphasizes the fundamental changes brought about by major influxes of nomads from outside the region, beginning in the 11th century.
Secunda, Shai. 2013. The Iranian Talmud: Reading the Bavli in its Sasanian context. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Although the Babylonian Talmud, or Bavli, has been a text central and vital to the Jewish canon since the Middle Ages, the context in which it was produced has been poorly understood. Delving deep into Sasanian material culture and literary remains, Shai Secunda pieces together the dynamic world of late antique Iran, providing an unprecedented and accessible overview of the world that shaped the Bavli.
Ansari, Ali (ed.). 2013. Perceptions of Iran: History, myths and nationalism from medieval Persia to the Islamic Republic. London: I.B. Tauris.
From the Sasanian to the Safavid Empire, and from Qajar Iran to the current Islamic Republic, the history of Iran is one which has been colored by a rich tradition of myths and narratives and shaped by its wealth of philosophers, cultural theorists and political thinkers. Perceptions of Iran dissects the construction of Iranian identity, to reveal how nationalism has been continually re-formulated and how self-perceptions have been carried by Iran’s literary past, in particular the mystical love poetry of Rumi, Sa’adi and Hafez. It traces a long history of encounters with the Western world and tracks Iranian thought from Herodotus’ representation of Cyrus to the Constitutional Movement of the early twentieth century. This book ties together the diverse threads of Iranian intellectual activity that have underpinned social and political movements, spanning Kermani’s writing on ancient Persian history and liberal nationalism, through to the strident anti-Westernism of figures such as Sayed Jamal Al-Afghani and Ayatollah Khomeini. |