{"content":"I'm not having great success finding an answer in google for this question.\nI wanted to try to format a double into a percentage using the String.format() method (not the number format classes). I was trying to figure out a String which would work, and the closest I've gotten is this:\nThe problem, is that I am wanting it to treat my value as a percentage in decimal form, meaning the output I want to get is:0.75%\nIs there a format which will treat it like a percentage? If not, is it possible to do math inside of the format String (multiply the value by 100)?75.42%"}
{"content":"ATTN. Players: The Self-Promoting Musician and Project Management for Musicians Are Now Available from Berklee Press\n(Published: November 21, 2013)\nThe latest edition of The Self-Promoting Musician lets you take charge of your music career with crucial do-it-yourself strategies. If you are an independent musician, producer, studio owner, or label, you should own this book.\nWritten by Peter Spellman, director of the Career Development Center at Berklee College of Music, this updated guide will teach you everything you need to know to become a success in the music business. It's filled with empowering tips and resources for self-managed musicians.\nThe Self-Promoting Musician will teach you to: create a goals-driven plan to help you fulfill your musical passions; multiply the power of every gig you play using 15 proven methods; turbo-charge your social media strategy; get radio airplay-online and offline; protect your creative works; keep your career organized and growing using the best low-cost practices; and much more!\nGet organized, and take charge of your music projects with Project Management for Musicians! This book will help you harness your creativity into clear visions and effective work plans.\nWhether you are producing a recording, going on tour, developing a studio, launching a business, running a marketing campaign, creating a music curriculum, or any other project in the music industry, these road-tested strategies will help you to succeed.\nMusic projects come in all sizes, budgets, and levels of complexity, but for any project, setting up a process for planning, executing, and monitoring your work is crucial in achieving your goals. This book will help you clarify your vision and understand the work required to complete it on time, within budget, and to your highest possible quality standard. It is a comprehensive approach, with hundreds of music industry-specific tools for keeping your work on track, mitigating risk, and reducing stress, so that you can complete your project successfully.\nYou will learn to: develop work strategies; delegate tasks; build and manage teams; organize your project office; develop production schedules; understand and organize contracts; analyze risk; and much more.\nMore Information: http://www.halleonard.com\nHal Leonard Corporation"}
{"content":"Gene Ammons' Boss Tenor is arguably the tenor saxophonist's best known and most critically acclaimed album. With songs like Canadian Sunset, Close Your Eyes and Blue Ammons, the June 1960 album has enormous cohesion and creative aggression. But as rich as Boss Tenor is, I've always been more partial to Ammons' Up Tight! and its sister album, Boss Soul.\nRecorded on October 17, 1961 for Prestige, Up Tight! featured Ammons with a sound that seemed bigger, fatter and more gospel-influenced than past outings. Joining Ammons on the date were pianist Walter Bishop, Jr., bassist Art Davis and drummer Art Taylor, with Ray Barretto on conga. The personnel remained the same on October 18, except for a switch at the piano: Patti Bown replaced Walter Bishop, Jr.\nUp Tight! has a tough, sad history, which makes the recording that much more meaningful. Ammons recorded the album between prison terms. Addicted to heroin since the mid-'50s, Ammons was arrested in 1958 and charged with possession. After his conviction, Ammons was sentenced to Statesville Penitentiary near Joliet, Ill.\nShortly after his release in 1960, Ammons was re-arrested for violating the terms of his parole. Apparently playing in nightclubs was against the agreed-upon terms set by the parole board. When he was released the second time in 1961, Ammons began to record with a soul-jazz feel that was heavy on the blues and deeply introspective. Up Tight! is from this period.\nMindful of Ammons' continued addiction and risks the musician was taking with his health and the law, Prestige owner Bob Weinstock in 1961 decided to record Ammons as often as possible to build up a treasure chest of material to release in case the tenor saxophonist was re-arrested. Ammons agreed. So the day after Ammons recorded Up Tight!, he recorded another album's worth of material, which was placed on the shelf.\nWeinstock's gut proved to be accurate. In late 1962, Ammons was arrested again for heroin possession, and this time he was sentenced to seven years at Joliet. Material from the session recorded a day after Up Tight! was released in 1966 as Boss Soul. In the liner notes to the second album, Bob Porter wrote:\n\"Perhaps a young jazz fan will hear Boss Soul by accident or out of curiosity and discover something. The something he gets from the LP will be hard to explain, perhaps just a feeling for the man and his music, but this is what Ammons wants and needs.\n\"In letters to Prestige president Bob Weinstock, Ammons continually hopes that the company has enough albums \"to keep my name alive.\" Fortunately thus far it has had enough but the supply is dwindling. For those discovering Ammons for the first time, there is much to go back for, and for those who have passed him by, there is much to re-discover and re-evaluate. For those of us who have been there, we, like Gene Ammons, can only wait.\"\nIf you're like me, you'll be swept away by I Sold My Heart to the Junkman, Soft Summer Breeze and Don't Go to Strangers. Up Tight! and Boss Soul is Ammons at his very best.\nJazzWax tracks: Up Tight! and Boss Soul together document two of Gene Ammons' most perfect recording sessions. Patti Bown's piano playing on the latter is deliciously bluesy and relentlessly interesting. You'll find both albums together on one glorious CD, called Up Tight!, at iTunes and here.\nJazzWax clip: Here's The Party's Over, with Gene Ammons (ts), Patti Bown (p), George Duvivier (b) and Walter Perkins (d). Though this track does not appear on Up Tight! or Boss Soul, it is from the same period (1962)..."}
{"content":"One of the most complex aspects of the divorce process can be dividing marital assets — and debts. When a court divides a divorcing couple’s debts, its goal is primarily to divide the debts in a way that is fair to both parties. In a simple world, this would mean allotting each side half of the marital debts, but this is much more complicated. Debts are often only in one party’s name and different types of debts have features which make them very difficult to divide.\nTo understand any of this, its important first to know that there are primarily, two kinds of debts: secured and unsecured.\nIn theory, the division of secured debts (a mortgage, car loan or student loan) is pretty simple: The party who takes the piece of property also takes the debt associated with it. This process is complicated when the secured property depreciates in value, or if a lender requires the now-single divorced spouse to show a second source of income in order to refinance the property.\nThe division of unsecured debts (things like credit cards and student loans), usually works the way the division of assets works — what is gained during marriage is deemed as part of the marriage and divided evenly. Problems arise, however, when one spouse is required to pay the debts that are solely in the other spouse’s name. Of course the problems are exacerbated if and when there is a default on any such debt.\nIn short, the issue of debt division in divorce is complicated. It is critical to understand the fine details of these issues before going to the negotiating table. Anyone considering divorce or in the middle of one should have an experienced divorce attorney by their side. Contact Boyer, Dawson & St. Pierre in Sterling Heights today at 888.559.4705.\nPosted in Divorce and Custody"}
{"content":"WhatsApp is an instant messaging service for smartphones that has over 450 million users, and it is growing globally at a rate of one million users every day.\nHow WhatsApp operates promises to influence Facebook as much as its mobile technology. Tweet this\nThat has lessons that can help your business ensure its relevancy moving forward.\n#1 – Don’t Fall in Love with Your Business Model\nFacebook’s business model is clearly driven by revenue from advertising. This enriches Facebook at the expense of advertisers and users. That’s right, the content that finds its way into your newsfeed is largely the result of advertising. We tend to forget that.\nThis is one reason why I have never liked this model, and have instead suggested a subscription model, much like the one that WhatsApp employs. They charge all of their users 99 cents per year, with the first year being free. I’m sure you can expect that to go up in the future.\nIs there anything wrong with that? Keep reading to learn why some form of subscription model may prove to be beneficial for everyone concerned.\n#2 – The User Experience Matters\nWouldn’t your business gladly pay a few hundred dollars/year to have all of its content delivered to 100% of its fans? Would you as a user pay fifty dollars/year to have an unfiltered Facebook experience? Would you pay one hundred to have no advertising at all?\nThankfully, WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum is an industry veteran who now has a seat on Facebook’s board of directors. If his voice is heard it will hopefully encourage more focus on earning revenue while respecting the user experience.\nIt’s doubtful Facebook will ever adopt a pure subscription model, but a hybrid incorporating some of its qualities is a possibility.\n#3 – Partner with Relevant Businesses\nFrom the beginning Facebook has encouraged it’s employees to “move fast and break things.” Breaking things will often get you into trouble, and over the years it has for Facebook, especially in regards to privacy. However, now that Facebook is a public company it is taking more prudent risks.\nFacebook recognizes that it is not cool anymore, especially with the younger crowd that is gravitating towards applications like Instagram and WhatsApp. Thus, in order to ensure its future relevancy Facebook is buying relevancy.\nWhile making acquisitions may not be a possibility for your business, it can partner with those in your industry that have different perspectives, approaches, and platforms. Many are lauding Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp, with some even beginning to compare Mark Zuckerberg’s forward thinking wisdom to that of Steve Jobs.\nIf this acquisition influences Facebook as suggested here, then count me in that camp too. Facebook has never been more profitable. That’s the best time to break things.\nIs it time to reconsider your business model to provide a better customer experience?\nAbout the Author: Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business – (Wiley 2013)"}
{"content":"GESTAPO (abb. Geheime Staats Polizei; \"Secret State Police\"), the secret police of Nazi Germany, their main tool of oppression and destruction, which persecuted Germans, opponents of the regime, as well as Jews at the outset of the Nazi regime and later played a central role in carrying out the \"*Final Solution\"; originally the Prussian domestic intelligence, which became a quasi-Federal Bureau of Investigation, though initially with much less power. The right-wing revolution in Prussia in late 1932 brought about a sweeping purge of \"left-wing and Jewish elements\" in its political police and paved the way for the changes of the Nazi era. After Hitler's ascent to power, he appointed Hermann Goering as the new Prussian minister of the interior and Goering completed the purge and gave the secret police executive powers, transforming it from a shadowing and information agency into a wide executive arm to persecute enemies of the Nazi regime. The head office of the secret state police – the Geheimes Staatspolizeiamt, or Gestapa – was given powers to shadow, arrest, interrogate, and intern; however, it had to struggle against the Nazi Party organizations, the SA (Storm Troops) and *SS, which also \"fought\" the regime's opponents, but without the supervision of traditional state bodies.\nSimultaneously, with relatively few changes in the Prussian political police, the Reichsfuehrer of the SS, Heinrich *Himmler, achieved control over the Bavarian political police and established direct ties between the SS, the political police, and concentration camps. Thus Himmler snatched the secret police administration out of the hands of the state conservatives and in collaboration with the Bavarian minister of justice, Hans *Frank, and with Hitler's direct support, created an independent organization for shadowing, interrogation, arrest, imprisonment, and execution along the lines of the Nazi ideology (see SS and *SD, and *Hitler). The Bavarian political police under Reinhard *Heydrich's direction was able to evade the laws that still applied in Germany in order to influence individuals, disband political parties, and liquidate trade unions. It led campaigns through the newspapers and radio against political opponents, interrogated individual \"enemies,\" and sent them to the central concentration camp *Dachau. The officials of the political police all remained civil servants but were simultaneously drafted into the SS and subordinated to Himmler, both through the civil service and Nazi Party. Many of the officials had never been members of the Nazi Party, as was the case of Heinrich *Mueller, an old Weimar secret police man who became Heydrich's assistant and eventually headed the Gestapo.\nFrom the outset Heydrich's prisoners included many Jews, most of whom were intellectuals or active in left-wing parties. During 1933 the political police began shadowing and investigating Jewish organizations and Jewish community life and thus set up its own network for imprisonment and uniform repression of all the Jews of Bavaria, in the wake of the policy of isolating Jews that was part of the first stage and was followed by exerting pressure, openly and insidiously, on the Jews to emigrate.\nUnification of the Political Police\nFrom August 1933, Himmler managed to rise from his starting point in Bavaria to take over the political police of the various Laender, including Prussia. From the head office of the Prussian Gestapo in Berlin, which also became the headquarters of the SS, Himmler and Heydrich directed all the political police services in Germany. The Gestapo then became the authority that investigated, along with the SD, every aspect of life in Germany, and especially watched over the regime's \"enemies of alien race.\" The Jews headed the list. Until the end of 1939, the Gestapo's Jewish Department was directed by Karl Haselbacher, a lawyer who was among those who drafted the first anti-Jewish laws. Until the outbreak of World War II, most of the murders in the camps were carried out on Gestapo orders under various cover-ups, such as \"killed while attempting escape,\" but eventually these pretenses were dispensed with, especially where Jews were concerned.\nAs an institution in charge of shadowing, interrogating, arresting, and imprisoning \"enemies of the Reich,\" the Gestapo became a massive authority employing thousands of government officials and SS men who together persecuted the regime's \"enemies\" or other opponents. Various groups in the population were turned over and left to the Gestapo's sole discretion; they were subjected to \"neutralization\" in camps without prior trial or forced to emigrate or face physical liquidation. From 1938 onward, the Gestapo began increasingly to deal with Jews who had previously been subject to other Nazi authorities. It had a hand in the *Kristallnacht and enforced Jewish emigration. In competitive cooperation with the SD, the Gestapo set up the Zentralstelle fuer juedische Auswanderung in annexed Austria, directed by Adolf *Eichmann and headed by Mueller. Other centers for forced emigration were set up in 1939 in the Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia and in Germany proper to accelerate the emigration of Jews by eviction and persecution, impoverishment, and degradation. When the Gestapo and part of the SD were joined under the *RSHA of the SS in November 1939, Office IV (Gestapo) of the new main office acquired sole authority over all Jews who were not yet imprisoned in camps.\nDuring World War II the Gestapo, along with the SD and Security Police, constituted part of the Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) in Poland and other occupied countries. These units dealt with the murder and internment of numerous Jews and especially with the expulsion of the inhabitants\nAfter the invasion of Russia in 1941, the Einsatzgruppen, headed by Gestapo men and directly responsible to Heydrich and Mueller, renewed the massacres on an enormous scale. The Einsatzgruppen carried out executions of Jews in the Baltic states and in Belorussia and wiped out part of the Ukrainian Jews. Later in 1941, the decision was made to kill all the Jews of Europe in gas chambers and the Gestapo was to supervise the dispatch of the Jews to the camps specially adapted or constructed for the program of mass murder (see *Holocaust, General Survey). The Gestapo section headed by Eichmann was in charge of the dispatch of Jews to the camps, and it also directly supervised at least one camp, *Theresienstadt, in Czechoslovakia. The section also supplied some of the gas used in the chambers, negotiated with countries under German domination to accelerate the murder, and dealt with Jewish leaders, especially in Hungary (see *Kasztner) in an effort to smooth the process of the impending destruction of various Jewish communities (see *Judenrat). The local Gestapo offices in Germany supervised the dispatch of Jews to death trains and the confiscation of their property. The Gestapo was largely responsible for the actual implementation of the dispatch orders and could choose its victims. It especially held the fate of people of mixed parentage (Mischlinge) in its hands. It excelled in its unabated and premeditated cruelty, in its ability to delude its intended victims as to the fate that awaited them, and in the use of barbaric threats and torture to lead the victims to their death, all as part of the \"Final Solution.\"\nAt the same time the Gestapo acted as the principal executive arm of the Nazi regime in all the campaigns of terror, liquidation, looting, starvation, confiscation of property, and theft of cultural treasures (see Desecration and Destruction of *Synagogues; *Poland) throughout Europe. The Gestapo also repressed the anti-Nazi partisan movement and stamped out resistance in the Western European countries. Thus the term Gestapo became an accepted synonym for horror. After the war, very few of the important members of the Gestapo were caught and brought to trial. The courts in the Federal German Republic from 1969 discussed the question of several principal contingents of the Gestapo.\nG. Reitlinger, SS, Alibi of a Nation (1956); H. Hoehne, The Order of the Death's Head: The Story of Hitler's SS (1969); K.D. Bracher, W. Saver, and W. Schulz, Die Nationalsozialistische Machtergreifung (1968); S. Aronson, Reinhard Heydrich und die Fruehgeschichte von Gestapo und SD (1970); H. Krausnick et al., Anatomy of the SS State (1968); F. Zipfel, Gestapo und SD in Berlin (1961); R. Hilberg, Destruction of the European Jews (1961, 19852, 20033). ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: R. Gellately, Gestapo and German Society: Enforcing Racial Policy (1991); E. Johnson, Nazis Terror: The Gestapo and Ordinary Germans (1999); G. Broder, Hitler's Enforcers: The Gestapo and SS Security Service in the Nazi Revolution (1996); S. Aronson, The Beginnings of the Gestapo System: The Bavarian Model (1970).\nSource: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2008 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved."}
{"content":"WASHINGTON (JTA) — Two Orthodox Jewish groups issued a joint statement opposing the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York state.\nAgudath Israel of America and the Orthodox Union, which represent a broad spectrum of Orthodox Jews in New York state, said in a statement that \"discarding the historical definition of marriage would pose a severe danger to society in a variety of ways.\"\n\"Moreover, we are deeply concerned that should any such redefinition occur, citizens of New York who are members of traditional communities like ours will incur moral opprobrium and risk legal sanction if they refuse to transgress their beliefs,\" the groups said. \"That prospect is chilling, and should be unacceptable.\"\nThe groups said that they approach the issue \"through the prism of the Jewish religious tradition, which forbids homosexual acts and sanctions only the union of a man and a woman in matrimony, the bedrock relationship of the human family.\"\nThe New York state assembly is scheduled to vote as early as next week on a bill that would extend marriage to same-sex couples."}
{"content":"Welcome to Jusr Answer:\nIt appears that you are experiencing dizziness associated with vertigo and double/blurred vision, which is seasonal. While your symptoms may be in part be related to seasonal allergy as a trigger, but it is likely there is an underlying susceptibility of your sinuses that make it easier for you experience this persisting seasonal problem. At the back of the nose, inside, there is a common meeting point between the nasal, ear and eye sinuses. With chronic or recurrent inflammation of these sinuses, any exacerabtion by seasonal allergy can cause imbalance of the fluid/pressure within and outside the sinuses, and so can cause vertigo and dizziness (ear sinus related) blurred/double vision (due to nystgamus-due to effect/pressure on the orbital sinuses).\nAlthough you need to continue with your current medications focused on reducing your allergy and inflammation, I suggest that your doctor closely evaluate you with CT Scan and/or MRI of the sinuses to exclude any persisting chronic infection that needs to be treated with a more effective antibiotics. Augmentin, instead of amoxicillin, for a longer duration may be necessary.\nPlease, feel free to clarify any further question(s). I'm always here to assist you.\nI hope this information is helpful. If agree, please press the ACCEPT button. Thank you so much.\nA positive feedback and/or bonus is welcomed and appreciated.\nThis is for information only, and should not replace the recommendation of your doctor.\nThank you so much."}
{"content":"AN INTERNATIONAL dairy farming advocate from Jamberoo believes the Showgirl competition is suffering an identity crisis, and needs to be reinvented to better spread the message of agriculture.\nSixth generation dairy farmer Lynne Strong said a name change was integral to the competition's long-term survival.\nPicture You in Agriculture is an entity which aims to provide professional and personal development for young people, including the Showgirl finalists for the Sydney Royal Easter Show.\nMrs Strong, the chief executive and national program director, said equipping young females with the necessary confidence, skills and knowledge was vital.\n\"It's an organisation which aims to get out there and tell the great story of agriculture,\" she said.\n\"Showgirls play a significant part of that, [telling the public] that rural and regional Australia is an exciting place to be.\n\"They don't know how to tell the story, so we want to give them the tools so they can do it in their own communities, and build those networks.\n\"We want them to be out there talking about Kiama, and agriculture just happens to be part of Kiama.\"\nIn recent years, she has been helping mentor Showgirl regional finalists from throughout NSW as part of The Land Sydney Royal Showgirl Competition, as well as interstate competitions.\nThe state final presentation will be at the Sydney Royal Easter Show on April 13.\nFor the past few years she has also advised the Kiama Showgirl winner.\nMrs Strong has also been associated with Art4Agriculture's Young Farming Champions program, which trains young farmers from regional Australia to actively engage with students in their area's schools, as part of the Archibull Prize.\nShe said Showgirls acted as vital ambassadors for rural and regional communities, and were the ideal vehicle to relay key messages.\n\"It's important to show the rest of the world that young people are excited about rural and regional Australia, and there are opportunities.\n\"One of the many challenges facing us today is the lack of comprehension of the complexities of how our food is produced. What is happening with that disconnect is people have begun to value price over quality.\n\"We want to see agriculture taking its story out there, so now people in the cities can make the best decision they can around food.\"\nMrs Strong said before she got involved she thought the Showgirl competition was a somewhat antiquated notion, but now hoped to help make it sustainable.\nShe believed it had some negative connotations, and that Showgirls taking ownership of its profile would help ensure its viability.\n\"It's always a pivotal competition. We just need to change the name, so people can point at this competition and know exactly what it represents.\n\"It would be good to see that the name actually reflected that you are an ambassador for your community. If we are to attract young women to the competition, it's important it has a name that sells itself.\""}
{"content":"Nasal deformities in children may be secondary to trauma or birth defects, the most common of which is cleft lip and cleft palate. Other less common birth abnormalities include Binder's syndrome, nasal bifidity, and nasal duplication. While discovering that your child has cleft lip or another nasal deformity may be discouraging, it's important to remember that treatment options are available.\nIf you're ready to take the next step, request a consultation online or call us at (469) 375-3838 for more information about nasal deformities.\nSince the nose does not attain adult dimensions until mid to late adolescence, surgical treatment must be carefully weighed to make sure that permanent bridges are not being burned. Things that we avoid in the early treatment are the transfer of skin replacement flaps which fail to reach adult dimensions and thereby permanently limit the expected outcome. A good example of this is the use of forehead flap tissue which makes a near perfect replacement of nasal skin but which should ideally be used only one time to minimize forehead donor scarring. Rib grafts to replace underdeveloped or injured skeleton may be used on repeat occasions to keep up with growth as long as the donor source on the chest is not exhausted.\nThe nasal airway in children deserves special consideration as the adjoining sinus cavities are only partially developed. In our series of cleft lip and palate patients, less than 3% required work on the septum before their definitive rhinoplasty in adolescence. Though the airway is more restricted on the cleft side, the septum is seldom the sole cause of sinus blockage and infection. Almost all of our children requiring septoplasty have had concomitant allergies as a part of their disease. When airway work is required, we make a special effort to preserve septal cartilage. This is important since the septal cartilage is used as a very essential part of the definitive tip reconstruction in adolescence.\nComplete or partial blockage of the airway may occur in infancy. Choanal atresia (complete blockage) may involve one or both sides. Bilateral choanal atresia is an airway emergency and is diagnosed soon after birth. Surgery to open the passages and nasal stinting to maintain the airway is required. Unilateral choanal atresia is more subtle and may simply present as a continuous \"runny nose\" on one side. Surgical treatment is required.\nWe routinely treat the nasal deformity of cleft lip and palate in infancy at the time of lip repair. Having followed these children to adulthood and performed over 1500 cases, we are certain that there is no interference of growth with this repair (Byrd et al., The Primary Correction of the Unilateral Cleft Nasal Deformity. Plast Reconstr Surg. 1985 Jun; 75(6):791-9). Our emphasis is on balancing the muscle forces on the lip and nose. We do not reposition the nasal septum. We do expect to perform a definitive rhinoplasty in the mid teen years (age 15 to 16 for girls; age 16 to 18 for boys)."}
{"content":"\\\"Made in the USA\\\" Makes a Comeback\nWhether it was General Motors’ cars or Procter & Gamble’s diapers, most products Americans bought through the late 1970s were made in the USA. From the end of World War II, manufacturing erupted into a major propellant of the U.S. economy. But as emerging economies started to manufacture products with cheaper labor, manufacturing moved from the U.S. to places such as China -- and so did many of the manufacturing jobs. A strong U.S. dollar didn’t help. Since the late 1970s, the manufacturing industry has been largely in decline. Until now.\nSince the Great Recession ended, an increase in exports has helped fuel our economy’s recovery. But is this resurgence a short-term trend or the end of a decades-long decline? For insight, we spoke with Jim Paulsen, an economist and chief investment strategist of Wells Capital Management in Minneapolis, Minn ., who has been outspoken about manufacturing’s revival for some time. Here are some edited excerpts from our conversation.\nKIPLINGER: After decades of lagging, the manufacturing sector seems to be on its way back. Is this the beginning of a longer renaissance?\nPAULSEN: Yes. The manufacturing sector is leading this recovery for the first time since the 1970s and, despite recent short-term turmoil, I think it’s sustainable. The U.S. manufacturing sector is becoming more competitive again globally.\nWhat makes the manufacturing sector more competitive now?\nTwo tough decades have forced manufacturers to cut costs and improve productivity, and they’re squeezing out more profit per job than at any time since World War II. In the last decade, virtually no new manufacturing plants were added and the number of manufacturing jobs has fallen from an average of around 18 million in the early 2000s to 12 million jobs now. It also helps that the gap between Chinese wages and U.S. wages is beginning to narrow as Chinese wages rise.\nHow does a weaker dollar help?\nAs the Chinese allow their currency to appreciate against the U.S. dollar, and other emerging markets allow their currencies to appreciate as well, the dollar is likely to continue a slow but steady decline against emerging world currencies over the next couple of decades. As emerging markets’ currencies appreciate, their economies will shift from exports toward consumption. The big prize for U.S. manufacturers will be winning new emerging-world consumers.\nWhat does this trend mean for outsourcing?\nYou’ll see less outsourcing. As we become more competitive with emerging producers, companies will start building more factories in the U.S. than overseas. We won’t regain all of what we used to make, such as apparel or electronics. It’s more likely we’ll produce new things -- something we don’t even know yet. And we’ll regain leadership by using new manufacturing processes.\nWill this mean more manufacturing jobs created?\nYes, we’ll see more jobs from the manufacturing sector than we have for decades. Wages will rise, too. But there’s not much of a trained workforce. We’re going to need more scientists and engineers in manufacturing.\nWhat does this trend mean for consumers?\nThere is a chance that prices of goods may climb. But if we revive manufacturing, we may start to bring more blue-collar manufacturing workers back into the middle class and close the income gap that has been widening between the wealthy and the rest of the population. Selling goods to younger consumers in emerging markets also means more economic growth domestically and therefore jobs, which will help finance some Social Security and other programs consumers depend on.\nPresident Obama wants to double exports over the next five years. Is that goal achievable?\nYes. But doubling exports isn’t the only key. The problem is also that our imports need to grow much more slowly. We have to sell to Chinese consumers, sure. But we also have to get U.S. consumers to buy U.S. As wages go up in developed markets and as the dollar weakens against those emerging market currencies, that can occur.\nAre there investment opportunities?\nYes. Invest in stocks of materials and industrial companies. [We like Baker Hughes (BHI) and Caterpillar (CAT). For more, see 2011 Midyear Outlook: Stocks and the Economy Face Off.] The whole manufacturing sector is lean and mean -- because if you weren’t you’re gone. That means as demand picks up, profits will grow more quickly.\nDo prices of manufacturing stocks have room to run?\nYes. In the early 1990s. the materials and industrial sectors together made up almost 20% of the market value of Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index. If you go back to the 1960s, it might have been closer to 50%. Today they make up only about 14%. If there’s just a little bit of recognition that investors want some exposure to the manufacturing industry, it could push the values of manufacturing stocks a lot higher."}
{"content":"Silverdale — If the preliminary results of a demographic study hold true, Central Kitsap School District will continue to face budget cuts — and might consider closing schools to save money.\nAn analyst studying local enrollment trends told school board members this week that the school district can expect to continue losing students through at least 2014. Enrollment at Central Kitsap schools already has dropped by nearly 1,000 students since 1997. Current enrollment is 12,114, still making it the largest school district in Kitsap.\nReed Hansen, an analyst based on Bainbridge Island, said the current population growth rate for Kitsap County is so low that there likely will be no enrollment gains over the next eight years.\nSince state funding for education largely is based on enrollment, Central Kitsap School District likely will have to cut its expenses for the next few years. Administrators anticipate costs will exceed revenues by up to $3 million for the 2006-07 school year. The current budget is about $103 million.\nSuperintendent Greg Lynch says the district has enough of a financial cushion to cover the upcoming budget. But he warns that the long-range outlook could be painful.\nIt can become cost-inefficient for a district to maintain and operate a school that is well below capacity. The fixed costs don't decline just because enrollment does.\nSchool boards are reluctant to close schools or lay off teachers because of public pressure. When Lynch mentioned the possibility of closing schools at Wednesday's meeting, he said it was the first time it had been publicly discussed since fall 2004.\nCentral Kitsap is hardly alone in this quandary. Aside from Bainbridge Island, each school district on the Kitsap Peninsula has either declining or stagnant enrollment.\nAnalysts say it's difficult to precisely say why enrollment at many Kitsap school districts is declining. The biggest factor is the declining birth rate, which peaked in 1992. Another possible explanation is that many new homes being built in Kitsap are so expensive that only \"empty-nesters\" and retirees can afford them.\nRegardless of the reasons for the decline, Lynch says this summer the board likely will address the possibility of closing schools.\n\"Unfortunately, none of this is related to school performance,\" Lynch said. \"This is just financial reality.\"\nHansen is expected to present the completed demographic study by early July.\nNeed Help? Call us at 1-877-304-7764.\nMonday-Friday: 5am-6pm / Saturday: 5am-8pm / Sunday: 4am-11am"}
{"content":"Ismailova Habibahon` Group\nHabibahon is a farm worker who also owns some livestock. She has been in this business since the early 1990s. She started it after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when most government agricultural land was privatized. At the present time, her seasonal income from farming exceeds $1500 USD. Habibahon usually spends all her income in covering family expenses. Her business earnings have meant that her family could marry both children, build a house for her son, and increase the number of livestock. In the near future, Habibahon is planning to open a food market near her house. This is her first loan from Kiva partner, Mol Bulak Finance, and it will be used to buy potato seeds and 300 kilos of mineral fertilizers.\nHojiumar, 49, is a father of two married children. He is a farmer, and will use his loan to buy potato seeds and fertilizers. Hojiumar has a dream of building a pharmacy and barber shop in the village center because the local population has to go to the district center to buy drugs.\nAdinahon, 41, is also a farmer. Her family has a total of 0.47 hectare of land. She cultivates potatoes and wheat there. She is requesting a loan to prepare for the spring sowing by plowing and buying potato seeds. Adinahon is married with two children. Her husband works in a cotton plant, and all her family members take an active role in the family business.\nGaznahan is 47 years old. She is a widow with four children, the eldest two of whom are married. The other two children are students. Gaznahan will use her loan to buy 500 kilos of potato seeds and 100 kilos of fertilizer. In the future, Gaznahan hopes that she will be able to build a house for her second son. For her, the most important thing is the happiness of her children.\nAbout Mol Bulak Finance\nThis loan is brought to you by Mol Bulak Finance, a young and ambitious socially-focused MFI in Kyrgyzstan. Mol Bulak Finance is strongly committed to the principles of sustainable development on the basis of the 3-Ps concept - People (building human capital and taking care of its customers and the society as well), Profit (to be profitable in order to grow further) and the Planet (taking care of the environment). It is also the only MFI in Kyrgyzstan that delivers its services to customers 365 days a year. To learn more about Mol Bulak and view a video presentation about the organization, please visit: www.kiva.org/about/aboutPartner?id=135.\nIf you would like to support and learn more about Kyrgyzstan and micro-finance in Central Asia, please join our Lending Team - Supporters of Kyrgyzstan - at www.kiva.org/team/kyrgyzstan. Members will get special updates and news from the Kiva Fellows in Kyrgyzstan and from Mol Bulak staff.\nThis is a Group Loan\nIn a group loan, each member of the group receives an individual loan but is part of a larger group of individuals. The group is there to provide support to the members and to provide a system of peer pressure, but groups may or may not be formally bound by a group guarantee. In cases where there is a group guarantee, members of the group are responsible for paying back the loans of their fellow group members in the case of delinquency or default.\nKiva's Field Partners typically feature one borrower from a group. The loan description, sector, and other attributes for a group loan profile are determined by the featured borrower's loan. The other members of the group are not required to use their loans for the same purpose.\n82View loans »\nSuccess!! The loan was 100% repaid"}
{"content":"Hilda is group president. She sells products she produces in her fields. Her wish is to continue making progress with Fundación Paraguaya and that the group continues to get stronger every day. She states that she feels very comfortable in her committee and expects to have many more of the benefits that the Fundación is offering.\nShe is asking for the loan to buy seeds, fertilizer and other supplies to continue working her fields and thus help to support her family. She is grateful for the opportunity she’s getting from Kiva and Fundación Paraguaya.\nLa sra Hilda, es Presidenta del grupo, ella se dedica a vender los producto que producen en su plantío de cultivo, su deseo es seguir progresando con la Fundación Paraguaya y que el grupo se vaya fortaleciendo cada día más, manifiesta que se siente muy a gusto en su comité y espera muchos beneficio más que la Fundación le están ofreciendo.\nElla solicita el crédito para la compra de semillas, fertilizantes y demás insumos para poder seguir trabajando en su campo y así ayudar a mantener a su familia. Agradece por la oportunidad que esta recibiendo de Kiva y fundación paraguaya.\nAbout Fundación ParaguayaFundación Paraguaya is a financially self-sustaining social enterprise that promotes entrepreneurship in urban and rural areas through microfinance, education programs, and more. Its focus on agriculture has helped many farmers boost their crop yields. And a number of other borrowers have taken out loans to start and grow social businesses that have helped deliver eyeglasses, medicines and other helpful services in their local communities.\nThis is a Group Loan\nIn a group loan, each member of the group receives an individual loan but is part of a larger group of individuals. The group is there to provide support to the members and to provide a system of peer pressure, but groups may or may not be formally bound by a group guarantee. In cases where there is a group guarantee, members of the group are responsible for paying back the loans of their fellow group members in the case of delinquency or default.\nKiva's Field Partners typically feature one borrower from a group. The loan description, sector, and other attributes for a group loan profile are determined by the featured borrower's loan. The other members of the group are not required to use their loans for the same purpose.\n122View loans »\nSuccess!! The loan was 100% repaid"}
{"content":"Janet K. is forty one years old. She is married and has four children who are currently in school. She is a very hardworking woman, who is able to combine numerous household demands with pressure from her business. She sells smoked fish in one of the busy local markets. Many homes enjoy her fish because it has a good taste and is moderately priced. She wants to use the loan to buy an increased stock of assorted fish to make increased sales and income to support her children’s education and business. She belongs to the community group called Shepherd Trust Group. Members guarantee one another as social collateral to access loans."}
{"content":"Meresi is 40 years old and lives in the town of Mbale in the Mbale region of Uganda. She is married and has three children with two of them currently in school. For the past three years, Meresi has been working hard to manage her shoe making business, which sells shoes for men, women and children.\nTo help expand her business, Meresi has requested a loan of 2,500,000 Ugandan Shillings from BRAC Uganda. The loan will be used to buy more shoes and materials, and will help Meresi to generate greater profits and increase the daily income. Meresi hopes that in the future she will be able to have more houses to rent.\nMeresi is a member of BRAC's Small Enterprise Program (SEP). The program primarily serves small entrepreneurs like Meresi who do not have enough collateral for commercial loans, but have businesses that have grown too large for microloans.\nAbout BRAC Uganda\nThis loan is administered by BRAC Uganda, a registered non-governmental organization (NGO) in Uganda that is also a part of the BRAC international network. BRAC Uganda attempts to address poverty through a holistic model, offering programs in education, health, water & sanitation, agriculture, and microfinance. BRAC Uganda’s microfinance program aims to provide the poor with easy, reliable, and efficient access to institutional financial services, and reaches over 150,000 families in Uganda. For more on BRAC Uganda, please see our partner page, and join our lending team, Friends of BRAC Uganda."}
{"content":"The kidnapping of a 9-year-old Pueblo girl has prompted response from people all over the state, including folks in her own neighborhood.\nMissy Champlain is a mother of two small children. When she heard the news of the missing girl, she knew she had to help.\nAt first she just watched as the hours went by and still no word of the child. Then she decided to be proactive.\nChamplain created a group on Facebook called \"No Child Walks Home Alone.\" The purpose of the group is to ensure no child is left vulnerable walking to and from school, by using volunteers to accompany kids.\nChamplain says anyone who has a child that walks home alone can call on her new group. She hopes this concept will spread throughout Colorado.\nThe group is getting a lot of feedback: a number of people from Pueblo and Colorado Springs schools have already agreed to help.\nMembers of the group hope that by having adults walking kids home, who would otherwise be walking home alone, will work as a deterrent for child predators.\nFor more information on \"No Child Walks Home Alone,\" just click on Find It, or click here to go directly to the Facebook group.\nKKTV firmly believes in freedom of speech for all and we are happy to provide this forum for the community to share opinions and facts. We ask that commenters keep it clean, keep it truthful, stay on topic and be responsible. Comments left here do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of KKTV 11 News.\nIf you believe that any of the comments on our site are inappropriate or offensive, please tell us by clicking “Report Abuse” and answering the questions that follow. We will review any reported comments promptly.powered by Disqus"}
{"content":"- March 10\nThe 2010 Census reveals a more ethnically diverse county than ever before. We've started to pour through the numbers and we'll have an early look at what they mean.\n- March 8\nThe 2010 Census shows the White population dropped during the decade, while several minority groups made significant gains.\n‹ Newer Stories Older Stories ›"}
{"content":"[Bytes] creates a byte stream that can be used to work with binary data or to convert strings from one character set to another. The [Bytes] tag can be used to instantiate a new bytes object, or it can be used to cast string data types as bytes types. Only string data types may be cast as bytes data types.\nThe [Bytes] tag has two optional parameters. The first specifies the size of the memory buffer in bytes that should be allocated to hold the byte stream. The second specifies the number of bytes that should be added if the initial memory buffer is too small to hold the entire byte stream.\nNote that the [Bytes] tag does not accept the data of the byte stream directly. The data is imported into the byte stream using the [Bytes->Append] or [Bytes->Import...] tags.\n<?LassoScript Var: 'Bytes1' = (Bytes: 'String Value'); Var: 'Bytes2' = (Bytes: 1024, 256); ... ?>\n|Buffer Size||The initial size of the buffer for the byte stream in bytes.|\n|Grow Size||The increment in bytes to grow the byte stream buffer.|\nSee the Lasso 8 Language Guide for examples of how to use this tag. This tag is documented on page 92.\nPlease note that periodically LassoSoft will go through the notes and may incorporate information from them into the documentation. Any submission here gives LassoSoft a non-exclusive license and will be made available in various formats to the Lasso community."}
{"content":"Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone Review\n\"They should have been the band that went way beyond any of us who were influenced by them,\" says Primus' Les Claypool about groundbreaking African-American band Fishbone in the documentary Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone.\nThe film, co-directed by Lev Anderson and Chris Metzler, is a love letter to the group. Packed with fantastic performance footage, the film solidly makes the case that, throughout the 1980s and early '90s, Fishbone were one of rock's best live acts ever — furiously energetic, innovative, leaping multiple genres in a single song.\nA slew of talking heads, from Vernon Reid to Gwen Stefani (who should pay Fishbone frontman Angelo Moore royalties), sings the group's praises, as Laurence Fishburne narrates a whiplash-inducing career ride: High school friends form a punk/ska/funk/fill-in-the-blanks band, create groundbreaking music, travel the world, influence countless other bands, but crash and burn before achieving the success they deserve. The reasons for liftoff failure are familiar: record-label ineptitude, the love/hate dynamics within the group that eventually gave way to alcoholism, mental breakdowns and bitterness.\nAnderson and Metzler get it all down but are so enamored of the band that they don't shape their material as tightly as they could have, and it occasionally drifts into redundancy.\nAn unexpected upside to the film is its timeliness. As conversations about \"post-blackness\" drift from the art world and academia onto the op-ed pages — see: Touré's controversial new book Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness? — it's refreshing to hear group members repeatedly stress that their art was rooted in black culture and consciousness, as the film itself becomes a dialectic on black masculinity. —Ernest Hardy (Sunset 5)\nGet the Film Club Newsletter\nStay up to date on the best new movies with our critics' latest reviews, interviews and trailers for the films coming to a theater near you each week."}
{"content":"What is a Key phrase?\nWhat is a Key phrase? or Keyphrase?\nFor a website to be ranked higher in the eyes of the search engines and have its products and services located very easily on the worldwide web it should properly construct a key phrase. A key phrase is made up of many words but it can be arranged in different orders and sequences. It is highly vital for the company to think and emphasize the key phrases, which can be used to get to its website, products, and services through a search engine. For key phrases to work they should first be tested to see whether they can effectively link the searcher to the company or not. For example, a key phrase “power play” is used in several games but if we added, “cricket” to it that would only mean the power play in cricket.\n47167/9%Last update: 2008-02-02 11:48\nYou can comment on this entry"}
{"content":"Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Lecture\nDate: January 20, 2009 Location: Wood Hall, Room 7, Law School\nWood Hall, Room 7, Law School\nProfessor Gerald Torres of the University of Texas School of Law, one of the top civil rights scholars in the nation, will deliver a lecture to honor Dr. King. The lecture is titled “Transformative Thinking in the Domain of Civil Rights: President Obama and Extending the Vision of Dr. King.”\nOn the date of inauguration of the nation’s first African American President, Professor Torres will lead a celebration of the fruits of Dr. King’s work to advance civil rights.\nThe lecture will take place at Lewis & Clark Law School, Wood Hall Room 7. A reception will follow the event"}
{"content":"ARTICLE VII. OPINION AND EXPERT TESTIMONY\nRULE 702. TESTIMONY BY EXPERTS\nIf scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will\nassist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine\na fact in issue, a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge,\nskill, experience, training, or education may testify thereto in\nthe form of an opinion or otherwise.\n[Effective February 1, 1985.]"}
{"content":"Top Stories Security\n- How To Skip The Line And Manually Update Your Nexus Device\n- How To Block All The Companies Tracking You On Facebook\n- What Windows 10's 'Privacy Nightmare' Settings Actually Do\n- How To Survive A Browser Hijack\n- Five Common Granny Scams (And How To Avoid Them)\n- How To Configure Windows 10 To Protect Your Privacy\nAndroid updates take forever. While that’s OK most of the time, it can be a problem when a new, terrible security vulnerability is found. Whether you want to protect your phone, or just can’t wait for new updates, here’s how to skip the line and update your Nexus phone (and occasionally other devices) manually.\nLast month, a hacker collective known as The Impact Team stole 37 million users’ data from the infidelity “dating” site Ashley Madison. Today, that data was unleashed to the masses. Many consider this to be just deserts or even divine justice. But hang on a minute. Doesn’t everybody deserve the same rights to privacy?\nFacebook is a great utility if you want to stay in touch with friends and family, share photos, and see what other people are up to in their lives. It’s free, of course, but that doesn’t mean it comes without a price. If you’re using Facebook, you’re giving the company a ton of information about yourself which it is selling to advertisers in one form or another.\nDear Lifehacker, I have bought an online digital code for Windows 10. Is there a website I can use to verify if it’s genuine? Obviously I know that when installing the software it asks for the code and if you pass that point it is valid, but I’m thinking of checking a code before installing to verify its authenticity.\nThe average user doesn’t give much thought to mobile operating system security, but with the number of threats increasing every day, the likes of Samsung and Apple are paying a lot more attention. The former even announced recently that it would be dramatically improving its Android update process to respond faster to vulnerabilities.\nWith all the noise regarding Windows 10 and its somewhat flexible definition of privacy, it might be worth giving the rest of your most-used applications the once over to make sure they’re not sending your information back home without your knowledge.\nDear Lifehacker, It was recently reported on the ABC that hundreds of Australian computers are being infected with ransomware, which I guess is a form of the cryptlocker virus. It seems that this problem is becoming more widespread. My question is: how can I prevent my computer from being targeted? And is there anything I can do if it’s already too late?\nAndroid: Last month, we got news of a particularly nasty Android vulnerability called Stagefright that affects nearly every Android device. If you want to find out if you’re vulnerable, Stagefright Detector can let you know."}
{"content":"An intramuscular (IM) injection is a shot. The needle goes into the muscle to deliver medicine. This is usually done by a doctor or nurse. Sometimes, your doctor may teach you to inject yourself. IM injections are deeper than subcutaneous injections (given under the skin).\nA needle passes through skin and fat layers into the muscle fibers to deliver medicine.\nCopyright © Nucleus Medical Media, Inc.\nSome medicines are better absorbed when given in the muscle; if taken by mouth, they may not work. Other medicines may be given in the muscle if you are unable to take them by mouth.\nSome examples of medicines given using an IM injection:\nComplications associated with IM injections are:\nDepending on the medicine, there is usually some discomfort at the injection site. Soreness in the muscle is also common.\nTips for minimizing pain include:\nfor general care.\nContact your doctor if any of the following occurs:\nIn case of an emergency, call for medical help right away.\nNational Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseaseshttp://www.niaid.nih.gov/\nCanadian Diabetes Associationhttp://www.diabetes.ca/\nEncyclopedia of Nursing and Allied Health: Intramuscular Injection\n. BNet website. Available at:\n. Accessed June 10, 2008.\nIntramuscular injection (IM). Cincinnati Children's Hospital website. Available at:\n. Updated September 2007. Accessed June 10, 2008.\nSelecting, evaluating, and using sharps disposal containers website. US Health And Human Services website. Available at:\n. Accessed October 14, 2005.\nWhat are the different methods of drug delivery? Johns Hopkins Arthritis Center website. Available at:\nAccessed June 10, 2008."}
{"content":"NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - More active men seem to have a rosier outlook on life, new research from Finland shows.\nDr. Maarit Valtonen of Kuopio University Hospital and colleagues found that men who spent less than one hour a week doing moderate to vigorous leisure-time physical activity were 37% more likely to report feeling hopeless than men who logged at least 2.5 hours weekly.\nFeeling hopeless has been linked to worse heart health and greater risk of dying, the researchers note, independent of the effects of depression. To investigate whether physical exercise might influence hopelessness -- just as it has been shown to help reduce depression -- the researchers surveyed 2,428 men, 42 to 60 years old, about their mood and physical activity levels and tested their fitness.\nThe men reporting the highest levels of hopelessness had \"more pronounced features\" of the metabolic syndrome, a cluster of symptoms that boosts risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. They were also less active and less physically fit.\nThe men who got at least 2.5 hours of moderate activity each week were significantly less likely to be hopeless than men who were active for an hour or less weekly, and this association remained even after the researchers adjusted for age, socioeconomic status, smoking, and other relevant factors. Vigorous physical activity had a particularly strong effect.\nWhen the researchers adjusted for depression, the link between hopelessness and activity remained. But while low levels of fitness were also tied to greater likelihood of feeling hopeless, further analysis found depression was the responsible factor.\nMany people, including those who aren't depressed or otherwise mentally ill, feel hopeless, the researchers note. The current findings, they say, suggest that \"hopelessness and depression are overlapping, but distinct entities.\"\nThe findings also suggest that being active can help \"ameliorate or protect against feelings of hopelessness\" even if a person's fitness levels don't improve.\nSOURCE: BMC Public Health, online June 25, 2009."}
{"content":"North Carolina ranchers will have the opportunity to vote Thursday on whether to continue paying $1 per animal sold to fund community agricultural education programs, farm research and other needs for area agriculture.\nThe Lincoln County Cooperative Extension office will serve as the local election center for those interested in casting a vote for or against the N.C. Cattle Industry Assessment Referendum.\n“The dollars will continue to allow the funding of educational programs, youth programs, judging contests, leadership programs,” said Libby Yarber, an area agriculture extension agent for Lincoln County as she talked with the Times-News on Thursday.\n“There’s a huge statewide beef industry tour trip for youth (that it funds), too. And some of it is political — it helps inform legislature groups on what’s going on in the beef industry; the funds are divvied up equally between those things.”\nFor those who aren’t entirely in favor of the mandate, a refund of the $1 will be given 60 days after the sale of the animal if they choose, Yarber noted.\nThough the money is coming out of the pockets of some local residents per animal, those in favor of the policy argue that the funding will be coming full circle to go back into programs that boost the cattle industry, and aren’t just dollars paid away in a tax never to be seen again.\nConservation Farm Family of the Year winner for 2012 Robert Kalmbacher has been raising and selling cattle in North Carolina for the last seven years — many of which he has taken part in voting on the matter.\nComing from a research-based background, working for the University of Florida’s Range Cattle Research and Education Center until his retirement in 2005, Kalmbacher stresses the importance of research and the need for funding to make it possible.\n“There used to be a time when the state could fully fund the kind of research we need to be able to support producers,” Kalmbacher said, “but today, there is so much competition for state dollars that we need to have additional money to cover the cost of research that is so important for production agriculture.\n“It supports the producers’ industry, and they need to get behind it and give support. A certain portion goes back for the nuts and bolts — things that help — and we need all the help we can get.”\nThough this may seem like an issue that only affects ranchers, the general public has and can benefit from the funding raised through the mandate, Yarber assured, as she remembered four local children who participated in a beef judging contest — a type of event that is possible partially from the dollar bills their neighbors paid to sell their animals — who were able to attend the event and learn more about the industry.\nPresident of the N.C. Cattlemen’s Association Bill Cameron said in a press release that the referendum will help assess the number of cattle sold and marketed in the state, with hopes of bettering the industry.\nCameron also mentioned the dairy farmers will see benefits of this mandate, too; it’s not beef exclusive.\nThose who will be filling out ballots next week, keep in mind:\nNo one under the age of 18 will be eligible to vote.\nAny resident who claims ownership of cattle may attend. An affidavit must be filled out to verify age,ownership and residency.\nAll eligible voters must vote in their county.\nAbsentee ballots may be obtained by contacting the N.C. Cooperative Extension office at (704)736-8452, and must be completed and received before 5 p.m. Oct. 4.\nVoting hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m."}
{"content":"CairoPlot Makes Pretty Python Plotting a Possibility\nIntro to CairoPlot\nData aficionados constantly on the lookout for better ways to display charts and graphs will appreciate CairoPlot. ServerWatch looks at this Python-based plotting software that is pretty enough to impress even the most jaded Mac user.\nAs a data junkie, I'm forever looking for better ways to display charts and graphs, especially from Python. There are lots of Python plotting packages available, but if you want output that's pretty enough that even your Mac friends will be impressed, consider using CairoPlot.\nCairoPlot isn't packaged for most distros, but it's an easy install. The current release is version 1.1 at the CairoPlot Launchpad page. You can download the cairoplot-1.1.tar.gz from there, or check it out with bzr if you prefer. (Once 1.2 is ready the project may move to Sourceforge.)\nFirst, extract the tarball:\nthen, copy one file, cairoplot-1.1/CairoPlot.py, to the directory where you'll be developing your Python script.\nPie Charts: Who's Sending Spam?\nWhen playing with plotting, finding a good source of data is always the first step. For this project, let's analyze a Postfix log file, /var/log/mail.info to look at the sources of one class of spam.\nA casual glimpse through the file reveals we're getting a lot of mail delivery attempts where the sender claims an address that doesn't really exist, like this one:\nRead the rest of \"Pretty Python Plotting With CairoPlot\" at ServerWatch\nSolid state disks (SSDs) made a splash in consumer technology, and now the technology has its eyes on the enterprise storage market. Download this eBook to see what SSDs can do for your infrastructure and review the pros and cons of this potentially game-changing storage technology."}
{"content":"Geeks404.com: Introduction to PythonMay 30, 2000, 19:07 (1 Talkback[s])\n(Other stories by David Booss)\n[ Thanks to BeOpen for this link. ]\n\"You've probably heard about Python, whether it's been a brief glimpse at an online article or browsing through a book, Python is gaining popularity rapidly. More developers are switching from other languages, such as Perl and Tcl, to Python. What is all the fuss about? Object oriented programming (OOP). Primarily, OOP lets programmers create reusable modules giving them greater flexibility and efficiency. One of the main attractions to Python is it's ability to deal with object oriented code, similar to C++ and Java. Whether you're coming from a heavy Unix C/C++ programming background, or you're new to programming, Python is a great choice for a wide variety of applications. Its syntax is clear and precise, and while similar to Perl, Python is simpler. If you're looking for a powerful yet easy solution to any kind of task, Python will soon be your native tongue.\"\n\"The Python interpreter is available for many operating systems, including most Unix flavors, GNU/Linux, Windows 95/98 and NT (Intel), Macintosh, OS/2, Amiga, BeOs, QNX, VMS, Psion, Windows CE, RISC OS, VxWorks, and finally Windows NT for Alpha processors. Some of these ports are still under development, but most major operating systems have stable releases at this time. For all other operating systems, you should check the Python web site, and see if someone is porting Python to your OS and then download a copy of Python.\"\n0 Talkback[s] (click to add your comment)"}
{"content":"In successful nanny care situations, the nanny has full authority over the child while the child is in the nanny’s care. This allows for the healthy development of the child and a strong and secure bond between the child and the caregiver. However, when the parents send the message that the nanny isn’t in charge or the nanny is unsure of her role and the rules she is supposed to be implementing, the children often sense that uncertainty and challenge the nanny’s authority. This is not only frustrating for the nanny, but can also put the child’s well-being at risk. Here are some of the common ways this plays out.\n“You’re not the boss of me!” Some children don’t easily accept the authority of a nanny. They see the nanny as a person who’s there to care for them and to play with them, but not as someone who can stand in their way when it comes to what they want. Of course, this attitude can also be a natural part of a developmental stage where the child questions the authority of every adult in her life.\nThe nanny can’t enforce rules she doesn’t know about. For nannies that are new to a job, it’s impossible to know about the countless rules that govern a house and a child. While the parent and caregiver can cover the big “what if…?” questions that the nanny will likely have to make an educated guess about, there are many other questions that come up throughout the day. Can he eat his snack in the living room? Can she talk on the phone for as long as she wants? Does he have to eat his carrots before getting up from the table? Kids know when a nanny is unclear about what is allowed and not allowed, and they will attempt to push the envelope as far as possible in these types of situations. The refrain, “But Mom lets me do it!” is well known to new nannies. Only time on the job and lots of checking in with the parents will overcome this challenge.\n“I’m going to tell mom on you!” In situations where the parents and the nanny don’t work as a team and instead work as leaders and a follower, children quickly hone in on the hierarchy of the relationship. While they may not fully understand the dynamics of the relationship, they pick up on the idea that one party has a lot more power than the other. In these cases, the nanny is often fearful of making a mistake, of failing to live up to the parents’ expectations, or of stepping outside of her role. Children often sense this fear and use it to challenge or even manipulate the nanny.\nKids know when the nanny doesn’t have the power to allow for natural consequences. Often the parents and the nanny have different perspectives when it comes to natural consequences. The nanny is often focused on allowing the child to learn by letting events take their natural course. If you dawdle through breakfast, you’ll be late for school. If you don’t pick up your toys now, you can’t go to your friend’s birthday party until you do. If you don’t put your dirty clothes in the hamper, your favorite shirt won’t be clean for the school picture at the end of the week.\nWhile the parents may like the idea of natural consequences in theory, they often feel that natural consequences are too harsh, and kids with rescuing parents know it. The child who dawdles through breakfast knows he won’t be late for school because Mom will ask the nanny to just give him a breakfast bar in the car. The child who refuses to pick up his toys knows he won’t miss his friend’s birthday party because Dad will tell the nanny to make him pick up the toys when he gets home. And the child who regularly throws her clothes anywhere but the hamper knows she won’t get her picture taken in anything but her favorite shirt because a quick phone call to mom at work will result in the nanny spot cleaning and pressing the shirt before school.\nKids with parents that don’t allow natural consequences to happen often don’t even have to involve the parents in the conversation with the nanny. The nanny is well aware of how the parent feels and won’t jeopardize her job by allowing the child to experience the consequence of his choice.\nIn the best case scenario, children respect and recognize the authority of the nanny entrusted to care for them. However there are a lot of factors that affect a child’s understanding of a nanny’s role. When a child challenges a nanny’s authority, it’s an issue that the nanny, the parents and the child must work on together."}
{"content":"LLU procures collection of rare Sanitarium menus\nThis menu from Christmas, 1913, is just one example from the collection of menus that was procured last month.\nIt’s been said that anything under the sun can be found on eBay. Michael Campbell, MA, interim chair of the department of archives & special collections of the Loma Linda University Libraries, certainly found this to be true last month. While searching through the infamous online auction site, Mr. Campbell discovered a rare collection of Loma Linda Sanitarium menus.\nPreviously, the University had a series of menus dating back to 1919, but this new collection of 25 menus dates from as early as 1913—thus helping to push the department’s collection of historic menus back to within the first decade of this institution’s history.\n“While these ephemera do not shed light on any major historical event or person, it does give a glimpse about what life was like during the first 50 years of this institution’s history or at least what you might have had to eat,” says Mr. Campbell. “They also give insight about the simple elegance early Sanitarium workers took in the care and preparation of campus events.”\nAccording to Mr. Campbell, the menus also illustrate the fine work of those who printed the programs at the College Press.\nPatients partake in a meal in the Sanitarium dining hall in 1913.\nuo;Christmas Menu” for 1913, the earliest in the collection, is illustrative of the rest of the menus. It has several verses such as: “May your days be as fair as the sunlit sky, and your heart free from care as the pumpkin pie!” In addition to dessert, for those who partook of this meal, they had a choice of two soups (cream tomato or vegetable consommé), several relishes, and entrees that included cereal nut roast with cranberry sauce and pecan nut croquettes.\n“From these menus, it’s clear that a vegetarian diet could be far from bland!” says Mr. Campbell.\nDesserts included a variety of fruits, and a choice of loaf cake, pumpkin pie, apple pie, plum pudding, and ice cream. On other parts of the program important values are prominently placed: grace, a clear conscience, kindness, good cheer, charity served with discretion, peace, love, and truth.\nThe newly acquired menus will be on display on the third floor of the Del E. Webb Memorial Library through April 13. Historic pictures of early meals and original Loma Linda Sanitarium dishes will also be on display.\nBy Dustin Jones"}
{"content":"How To Improve Lone Worker Protection And Workplace Safety?\nThis year's LONE WORKER SAFETY 2015 Conference & Exhibition is taking place on Tuesday 24th November 2015 at London's great Olympia Conference Centre... and it is once again all about improving the protection of lone workers.\nWe have to accept the fact that local government employees, such as parking enforcement, environmental health, housing officers, as well as and social workers, security guards, civil enforcement officers, and others working for utility, insurance or other private firms can be at risk.\nIt's easy to come up with examples of workers who spend time on their own and whose work is likely to bring them face to face with irate or aggressive members of the public. But to the list of vulnerable lone workers we now have to add paramedics, public transport employees, market researchers, even community nurses; people whose jobs are either innocuous or should put them on the side of the angels.\nThere is no agreement on the reasons for increased violence against public-facing workers, but what is clear is that employers have to take seriously their legal duty to protect their employees under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007. When sending their lone workers out into this increasingly hostile environment, these health & safety professionals now must be sure the protection and security of their workforce has been given plenty of consideration, and everything appropriate is done to ensure their safety.\nMore and more organisations are adopting lone worker policies and lone worker safety training, backed up in some cases by new lone worker protection technology and monitoring devices to raise the alarm when they run into trouble.\nSo what are the key elements that can help you to effectively improve lone worker lone worker protection? I will just highlight VERY briefly what I think are the most important elements you want to have covered (however, I am of course more than happy to put you in contact with professionals specialised in any of the below fields)\nLone Worker Protection Policies\nThe intention of a lone worker policy is to ensure the protection and safety of lone workers or staff who sometimes work alone, by minimising the risks that they face and putting in place appropriate measures to improve their safety.\n- Legal requirements\n- Applicable Laws\n- Places of Work\n- Personal responsibility\n- Working outside normal hours\n- Risk Assessment\n- Health & Safety\n- Safe System of Work\n- Organisational responsibilities\nThis year's LONE WORKER SAFETY 2013 Conference & Exhibition will have an entire 40 minutes speaker slot to cover this so very important subject. I would like you to come and see us in case this subject is of interest or in case you are charged with designing and completing a lone worker safety policy.\nLone Worker Protection Training\nStatistics suggest it would be wise to train vulnerable staff working alone to deal with aggression when they are faced with it. Self defence training is a very controversial option since many experts argue that it can send staff the wrong message, which would be to stay and fight... and subsequently this might get them into even more trouble... when their best defence actually would be to run away. I am very unsure about such argument. I would rather equip lone workers with all available tools to survive in case things get out of hand. Not allowing lone workers to have 'all access' to all available tools is something I seem to struggle with?\nBut conflict resolution training, aimed at helping employees diffuse aggression before it escalates, is becoming more and more popular... and righty so. However, please make sure you pick a trainer who knows what he/she is talking about. There are so so so many trainers out there who really should not be doing this job!\nA number of years ago I was speaking with the NCP (one of the largest employer of parking enforcement officers) and it became know that every single of their lone workers had to receive at least a full week's counter-aggression training, reflecting the hazardous nature of their work.\nBut their Director of Communications at that time Tim Cowen says the company also used other means to protect its staff. \"They also carry radios, and can radio back to supervisors in their depot, so someone can get to them within a couple of minutes,\" says Cowen. Having a computerised ticketing system also offers staff protection, he adds: \"Once they press that button, it is recorded in the system, which helps to reduce pressure on parking attendants to tear up a ticket.\"\nThere is no question about it effective lone worker protection training can make a massive difference to the person working alone.\nLone Worker Protection Devices\nThe arrival of 'mobile technology' has been a massive advance for lone worker protection. But we need to understand thatsimply providing a phone and relying on employees to call if they are in trouble is not always enough, since violent situations do not always offer such opportunities.\nHowever, ensuring your lone workers benefit from the same levels of protection and safety as your office-based employees is critical, and there is a rapidly growing number of suppliers keen to offer devices and services to meet those needs.\nThe problem now is in choosing what you really need, rather than what you might have been told you need; and it's compounded by the range of products on the market, all of which claim to be 'The Best In The Whole Wide World'.\nIf you are currently looking for lone worker devices in order to help protect your staff more effectively you really have to do your homework properly. There are clear British Standards a very good lone worker device needs to best tested against and comply with, and there are of course a couple of rather important features that can make a real difference for your lone workers.\nIf you have all the answers then that's great... if you have not, then please drop me a line and I will do my utmost to redirect you to experts I feel I can trust whole heartedly.\nI know (based on many years of operational frontline experience) that a person who is either intoxicated, simply has a serious dislike for the organisation you represent or aggressively disagrees with any decision you are about to make can overreact to anything you say or do.\nA lightweight stab resistant vest or body armour will protect you in such case from any impulsive physical assault such person might commit (and possibly deeply regret the following day for the rest of his/her life).\nTruly outrageous physical attacks on traffic wardens, licensing enforcement, housing, community safety, anti social behaviour and trading standards teams, have been revealed in data released by local authorities across the UK and many other countries.\nTo make it very clear, I am of course not saying everyone working for a local council or ambulance service is at risk of getting stabbed or brutally assaulted... of course not. This is of course depending on a number of factors e.g. are you working alone, time of work, location of work, and job responsibilities. However I feel strongly that body armour can help improve lone worker protection effectively.\nDynamic Risk Assessments\nA great article about this so very important subject has been written by Nicole Vazquez of Worthwhile Training. I can only suggest you give this article a good read.\nBehavioural Based Safety\nFor me personally one of the most fascinating subjects out there... I personally LOVE this subject!\nBehavioural Based Safety is a process that can help improve lone worker protection by reducing unsafe behaviours that can lead to incidents occurring in the workplace. The process works by reinforcing safe behaviour and identifying the causes of unsafe behaviour.\nThe Three Generic Types of Approach:\nA behavioural safety process can be introduced in numerous ways but can be categorised into one of three generic types, these are:\nA management driven process that typically has supervisors measuring behaviour and providing one to one feedback and relaying recommendations for improvement to the management team.\nAn employee driven process which encourages front line participation in safety. This works on the basis of using peer-to-peer observations which are fed back to a workforce run behavioural safety team who then conduct analysis to develop recommendations for managers to implement.\nA collective approach is where both managers and front line personnel conduct observations. Analysis is then conducted by a behavioural safety team (represented by both managers and front line personnel) to identify the root causes of unsafe practises. Recommendations are then identified and implemented to improve safety performance.\nIt should be noted that whilst organisations may initially be considering either a Top Down or Bottom Up approach, all organisations should eventually aim towards adopting a collective approach!\nHaving worked with Dr Tim Marsh (BSc MSc PhD C.Psychol, FIOSH) of Ryder Marsh Safety at previous LONE WORKER SAFETY Conferences... I can clearly say that 'he is the man' you want to speak with in case you are keen to lean more.\nBehavioural Based Safety is a process that reduces unsafe behaviours that can lead to incidents occurring in the workplace. The process works by reinforcing safe behaviour and identifying the causes of unsafe behaviour.\nBook your ticket now and learn how to stay safe when working alone"}
{"content":"In the continuing battle against crimes of \"hitism\", let me take a gentle swipe at an otherwise excellent piece on the cultural implications of the peer production age by music critic John Pareles in today's NYT. He writes:\n\"The open question is whether those new, quirky, homemade filters will find better art than the old, crassly commercial ones. The most-played songs from unsigned bands on MySpace — some played two million or three million times — tend to be as sappy as anything on the radio; the most-viewed videos on YouTube are novelty bits, and proudly dorky. Mouse-clicking individuals can be as tasteless, in the aggregate, as entertainment professionals.\nThe key word there is \"aggregate\". Popularity is simply a place where many roads--each one a single consumer's path through culture--intersect. Each road is different, but for a brief moment many crossed that point. Hits are products that reflect the coincidence of our collective tastes, and the reality is that most of the things that we agree on are relatively banal (that's why they call it the lowest common denominator).\nIndividually we may have excellent taste, but collectively we're as low-brow as they come. This is simply an artifact of the statistics of the Long Tail--when demand is spread over a huge number of products, most things won't be popular. And the things that are popular won't necessarily define their consumers.\nT'was ever thus: Yogi Berra's quote in the title reflects the reality of minority taste. We're as likely to avoid doing what everyone else is doing as were are to join them. For the discriminating, popularity is often a curse, even if it was their early embrace that kick-started that popularity in the first place.\nOnce the most popular fare defined our culture. Now a million niches define our culture and the few blockbusters are the exceptions that define none of us, even through many of us brush by them.\nDavid Foster Wallace, writing about television, said it best:\n\"TV is not vulgar and prurient and dumb because the people who compose the audience are vulgar and dumb. Television is the way it is simply because people tend to be extremely similar in their vulgar and prurient and dumb interests and wildly different in their refined and aesthetic and noble interests.\"\n(Image taken from our photo shoot this month for our cover story on LonelyGirl15, an example used in the NYT.)"}
{"content":"Things are heating up a little, aren’t they? Settlement – forced or “chosen” – was tantamount to giving up Romani identity. Children were often forcibly taken away from their families and made to speak the local language exclusively – a cultural death sentence. Adults were often forced to live in conditions that went utterly against their strict purity laws. (In many Rom cultures the lower half of the body is considered very impure – to the extent that living in the bottom floor of a house could be considered unclean because of the lower parts of the people walking above.) Ancient family trades dating back to life on the Indian subcontinent would have to be abandoned in favor of subsistence living.\nMany families who did concede to settlement (rather than being forced by local law enforcement efforts) had virtually no choice in the matter; losing your horses or wagons or being cut off from a traditional trade route could be a crippling blow. This particular family has had a rough year for its patriarch to be giving thought to the matter."}
{"content":"1Alfred E. Kahn, \"Deregulation and Vested Interests: The Case of Airlines,\" in Roger G. Noll and Bruce M. Owen, editors, The Political Economy of Deregulation (Washington, D. C.: The American Enterprise Institute, 1983), p. 140.\n2David B. Kopel, Access to the Internet: Regulation or Markets?, Policy Study No. 92, The Heartland Institute, September 24, 1999, p. 3 (hereinafter referred to as Heartland Policy Study).\n3Broadband Today, A Staff Report to William E. Kennard, Chairman, FCC, On Industry Monitoring Sessions convened by Cable Services Bureau, October 1999, p. 9.\n4\"Cable Modem Market Stats & Projections,\" Cable Datacom News, accessible via Internet at http://www.cabledatacomnews/cmic/cmic16.html.\n5These data are estimated from the \"Breakdown of Online Universe\" chart in the FCC Broadband Today report.\n6See NetAction, \"Broadband Cable: The Open-Access Debate,\" accessible via Internet at http://www.netaction.org/broadband/cable/current.html.\n7See Broadband Today for some background on the OpenNet coaltion's position.\n8See Broadband Today, pp. 14-15, for more details.\n9Senate Bill No. 667, June 17, 1999.\n10A portal is the first page the user sees when a connection is made. This page typically offers users many features like email, news, information organized by specific categories, and so forth.\n12This distinction, which is based on access speed, is arbitrary and likely to change as current technologies improve and new and faster technologies emerge in the marketplace.\n13Federal Communications Commission, Trends In Telephone Service, September 1999, \"Household Telephone Subscribership in the United States,\" 17-3 (hereinafter referred to as Trends In Telephone Service report).\n14Heartland Policy Study, p. 22. A brief survey of prices charged in several Michigan cities reveals that the price for broadband access is generally around $39.95. See Cable Datacom News at http://www.cabledatacomnews.com.\n15See Broadband Today, p. 19.\n16Heartland Policy Study, p. 22.\n17The bandwidth capacity is also shared with the transmission of video programming.\n18Nonetheless, cable firms are likely to address these problems as this technology becomes used more widely to provide access.\n19Heartland Policy Study, p. 45.\n20For example, AT&T/TCI's affiliate ISP is @Home and Time Warner's affiliate is RoadRunner.\n21Cable firms are currently developing a new type of modem that can be easily installed by consumers. For more details, see Broadband Today.\n22See Broadband Today for more detail.\n23See \"In a Race to the Web, Phone Upstarts Grab Turf,\" Wall Street Journal, October 18, 1999, p. B1.\n24See United States Internet Council, \"The Explosion of High-Speed Internet Competition,\" for some examples.\n25Heartland Policy Study, p. 44.\n26Economists refer to this phenomenon as \"opportunistic behavior.\"\n27Benjamin Klein, Robert A. Crawford, and Armen A. Alchian, \"Vertical Integration, Appropriable Rents, and the Competitive Contracting Process,\" Journal of Law and Economics, 21 (October 1978): pp. 297-326.\n28Telecommunications Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-104, 110 Stat. 56 (1996).\n29Report to the Michigan Governor and Legislature on Public Act 1991 as Amended Section 353, Report on Local Telephone Interconnection, February 1998.\n30See Trends in Telephone Service, 9-1, for more details.\n31For an example of how firms can voluntarily cooperate in a market setting similar to the Internet access market, see Paul A. Cunningham and Robert M. Jenkins III, \"Railing at 'Open Access,' \" Regulation, Spring 1997.\n32In this context, rent-seeking behavior refers to activities that reduce society's welfare, but improve the chances of the ISPs competing in the marketplace with assistance from the government.\n33This quote by the NTIA is taken from Thomas W. Hazlett and Matthew L. Spitzer, Public Policy Toward Cable Television: The Economics of Rate Controls (The MIT Press: Cambridge, MA, 1997), p. 39.\n34See Donald L. Alexander, \"Laying Cable and Competition,\" Michigan Privatization Report, Summer 1999, Mackinac Center for Public Policy."}
{"content":"Alvin Valenton sits on his living room couch surrounded by four of his five children as he explains what kind of father he doesn’t want to be: He doesn’t want to be like those here in the Philippines who, while their spouse is working abroad to support the family, turns to alcohol due to feelings of inadequacy over not being the breadwinner. And he doesn’t want his young children—grinning as they play with their colouring books—to feel neglected, or worse, abandoned. He’s seen it happen too many times.\nIn the Philippines, 10 per cent of the labour force now works abroad, and almost half of them are young women like Valenton’s wife, Erna. Two years ago, she left to work as a domestic helper in Macau after her husband went blind in one eye and temporarily lost his job as a tricycle taxi driver. For the first time in his life, the 37-year-old had to run the household. He needed help. “Taking care of the kids, doing the household chores, looking for food, everything was a challenge,” he says.\nSo last year Valenton joined a new two-month program in Mabalacat City, roughly 90 km north of Manila: a school for stay-at-home dads. The program, called AMMA (an acronym that, translated, stands for “A father that excels in nurturing his child”) teaches everything from how to communicate and bond with children to financial management for Filipino fathers whose wives are working abroad.\nIn recent years, the Philippines has experienced dramatic growth in overseas migration. As of 2012, more than four million Filipinos are working abroad as temporary labourers, making the Philippines one of the top 10 emigration countries in the world. (Canada consistently ranks among the top 10 destinations.) Last year, they contributed close to US$23 billion in cash remittances—a record high—accounting for more than eight per cent of the country’s GDP. Each day, thousands of female workers leave to become caregivers and domestic helpers, earning money that has become a lifeline to the Philippine economy.\nMeanwhile, their husbands are in the Philippines, exploring new territory in a conservative, predominantly Catholic country, which still believes that a real man financially supports his family. “There’s a strong machismo here,” says Honey Carandang, a clinical psychologist who spearheaded AMMA. Many of the fathers she’s met nurse a bruised ego when their wives become the breadwinners. “The men are at a loss when it comes to parenting. How do I discipline my child? How do I divide the household chores?”\nIn the Philippines, men rarely raise kids alone. Often times, when mothers leave to work abroad, female relatives take over. Aurora Javate de Dios, chair of the migration studies department at Miriam College, just outside Manila, describes extended families as a buffer, but also points out that their presence can complicate an already difficult situation. “By asking other people to take care of your children, they have a claim to your remittances,” she says. “Then they start meddling in your finances.”\nValenton was one of the program’s first 10 participants. For the longest time his daily routine had been simple: wake up at lunchtime, eat and go to work. After his injury his life was turned upside down. Mornings now begin at 5 a.m.—cooking breakfast, bathing the kids and dealing with the occasional tantrum before school. He says that before his wife left, he didn’t talk to the kids much. Now, the program’s instructors and his fellow stay-at-home fathers have encouraged him to take more of an active interest in his children’s lives. “I ask them questions like, ‘Where’s your assignment?’ ” says Valenton. “When I wash the clothes, I hear the kids singing, then we sing together.”\nSoon the stay-at-home dads at AMMA will undergo training to take over the program from Carandang and her staff. The men insisted. Their plan is to go to other areas of the city, hold the same kinds of sessions, and become a support group for other fathers coping with the challenges of having a wife abroad. “I want to show other families what they can do even if the wife is away,” says Valenton. The city’s mayor has volunteered to issue an ordinance that would give the stay-at-home fathers who join AMMA formal recognition, making it easier for them to apply for government funding.\nBack at his home, Valenton turns to his nine-year-old daughter, still in her school uniform, and asks, “Baby, what do you want to be?” “Teacher,” Alena exclaims. “I want to be a stewardess,” says his other daughter, six-year-old Angeline. Aljon, his 11-year-old, peeps out from behind his book and offers a wide smile. Valenton smiles back and proclaims, “Butcher.” For one of the first times in his life, he can proudly boast: “I’ve started dreaming for the children.”"}
{"content":"Click any word in a definition or example to find the entry for that word\nif something that you do pays off, it brings you some benefit\nto have a good result\nsomething has features that make it useful or attractive\nto be useful in a particular situation\nif it is worth your while to do something, you can get some benefit or advantage from doing it even though it may take some time or effort\nto be extremely useful or valuable\nto bring you a lot of benefit\nto be helpful or useful\na start-up … whose value has reached more than one billion US dollars\nto ask people to vote in order to decide an issue\nan afternoon full of crafts\nA must for anyone with an interest in the changing face of language. The Macmillan Dictionary blog explores English as it is spoken around the world today.\nFree thesaurus definition of to be advantageous and yield benefits from the Macmillan English Dictionary - a free English dictionary online with thesaurus and with pronunciation from Macmillan Publishers Limited."}
{"content":"updated 07:55 pm EDT, Thu September 27, 2012\nNew York address does not exist according to USPO\nAn advertisement for a Motorola smartphone showing Google Maps as better than Apple's Maps app came under criticism itself today. The ad, promoting the Droid Razr M compared both versions of the Maps app, with the Razr M appearing to have found a fictitious location correctly while the iPhone 5 seemed to complete the same task with the wrong result -- with the only problem being that the address doesn't actually exist.\nThe location, 315 East 15th Street in Manhattan, does not currently exist when checked with the US Postal Service, as no odd-number addresses are listed there -- the area is in fact a public park, with the only buildings or residences nearby having even-numbered addresses. While the iPhone shows the \"wrong\" location on a plain-looking map, the Razr M shows a map using satellite imagery -- but is also the wrong location.\nThe iPhone reports the fake address as being on a part of Marlborough Road, which is actually correct -- since there is no such place as 315 East 15th Street in Manhattan, the iPhone located the only \"real\" 315 E 15th Street in New York City -- in Brooklyn, where Marlborough Road was formerly named E 15th Street. The ad taunts the iPhone 5's Maps by asking readers \"Looking for 315 E 15th in Manhattan? Google Maps on Droid Razr M will get you there & not #iLost,\" but in fact users would not be looking for a public park through a non-existant mail address, making the Google Maps response incorrect as well.\nSearches for nearby locations that do exist come up with correct listings in Apple's Maps, and it has been suggested that Motorola could have used a real location that Maps gets wrong instead of faking it. Screenshots (seen below) show that if users attempt to enter in a real address -- 314 E 15th Street address in \"NY\" -- it will offer two options, both correct (the correct even-numbered Manhattan address, or the same address but in Brooklyn), both with impressive \"Flyover\" imagery. If users attempt to put in 315 E 15th Street in Manhattan, Apple's Maps drops the pin in the public park -- something Google's maps did not do, instead dropping the pin on the street corner.\nThe Maps app from iOS 6 received a considerable amount of complaints relating to its location data in the days after the iPhone 5's release. Satellite photos for locations have been found to have issues ranging from black and white imagery, low resolution stills, and cloud covering some places, while some addresses have been found to be in completely incorrect locations. Apple is now searching for people with experience in Google Maps to help fix the errors.\nNokia also came under marketing-related fire earlier this month, for misrepresenting photos and video it said were created by the Lumia 920. Marketing materials for the phone, including stills and video, were found not to have come from the camera, but instead from a professional-grade DSLR lens. Nokia has since apologized for the error. [via AppleInsider]"}
{"content":"Everything you need to know about sharing iPhoto images\nIn our last lesson, I walked you through the process of creating printed books, cards, and calendars from within iPhoto. While printing your images is a great way to pass around your photos, some people prefer sharing via digital means. And that’s exactly what we’ll focus on in this lesson.\nExporting your images\nIn the earliest versions of iPhoto, the tried-and-true method of moving images out of iPhoto was to use the Export command found in the File menu. That command remains and, when selected, reveals an Export window that contains three tabs—File Export, Web Page, and Slideshow. Here’s how they break down.\nWhen you drag an image out of your iPhoto library and onto the desktop, it will be copied in its native format (unless it’s a Raw image, in which case it’s converted to the JPEG format). If you’d like the image to be in a different format, quality, and/or size, turn to this tab. Within it you can choose to export your image in original, current, JPEG, TIFF, or PNG format. If you decide to export it as a JPEG, you can choose a quality setting—Low, Medium, High, or Maximum. And if you opt to export your images in either the JPEG or PNG formats, you can choose to include a title and keywords as well as location information.\nYou can also select from among a handful of sizes—Small, Medium, Large, or Full Size. Or if you’d like to use a custom size, choose Custom and you can configure the image’s dimensions.\nThis tab also offers naming choices. Click the File Name pop-up menu, and you’ll find these options: ‘Use title’, ‘Use filename’, ‘Sequential’, and ‘Album name with number’. ‘Use title’ will, of course, use the title you’ve assigned to the image. ‘Use filename’ will instead use the title assigned by your camera—DSC_1129, for example. In the case of ‘Sequential’, your images will be assigned numbers, as in 01.jpg, 02.jpg, 03.jpg, and so on. If you choose sequential titling, you have the option to add a prefix for your images in the ‘Prefix for sequential’ field below. You might, for example, add “Borneo” if all the images were from your recent trip abroad. When you choose Album name with number, the image will be assigned the name of the album in which it lives, along with a number. For instance, if you’re exporting two images selected in your Rhumba Lessons album, the images would be titled ‘Rhumba Lessons – 01’ and ‘Rhumba Lessons – 02’.\nWhen you select more than one image, a Subfolder Format pop-up menu will appear in the Export window. Here you can choose to export without a subfolder or, when you choose Event Name from the menu, have a folder created that’s named after the image’s host event—‘Jul 11, 2012’, for example.\nIn this age of photo-sharing sites and easy-does-it website creation tools, the idea of creating HTML pages and links that you can then upload to a website seems almost quaint. But if that’s a course you wish to pursue, you’re welcome to.\nWithin the Web Page window, you can name your page, choose the number of columns and rows per page, select a Plain or Framed template, choose background and text colors, determine the size of the thumbnails (and whether they show titles and descriptions), and configure the dimensions of the “full sized” images you’ll export (as well as choose whether to show title, description, metadata, and location information).\nWhen teaching you how to view your images, I mentioned the iPhoto feature where you can view your images as a slideshow. I can now admit that I was holding something back. Not only can you view slideshows, but you can also export them in the form of movies.\nOne simle method for doing this is to click this Slideshow tab, choose a size (Mobile, Medium, Large, or Display), and then click Export. The result will be a movie that employs the Ken Burn’s “pan and scan” effect accompanied by a tinkling jazz piano track. This is an easy way to create an enjoyable slideshow, but you can do far more. Read on to find out how.\nConfiguring shared slideshows\nThe slideshows you export can be more interesting than what I’ve described. To make them so, close the Export window and instead select the images you wish to include in your slideshow, click the Create button at the bottom of the iPhoto window, and choose Slideshow. If you were to then click the Play button at the bottom of the window, you’d see your slideshow with the pan-and-scan effect and hear that same jazz track. But let’s move beyond the basics.\nClick on Themes at the bottom of the window, and a Slideshow Themes sheet appears. Here you’ll find 12 themes, including Ken Burns (the default), Origami, Reflections, Vintage Prints, Snapshots, Sliding Panels, Scrapbook, Photo Mobile, Holiday Mobile, Shatter, Places, and Classic. Part of the fun with these themes is discovering what they do, and I don’t want to spoil that fun. So go ahead and give them a go. Just know that each has its own effects and soundtrack.\nBut that doesn’t mean that they can’t be configured. For instance, you may want to accompany your slideshow with a song other than the default—a tune from your iTunes library, for example. That’s easily done. Just click on the Music button (or, when a slideshow is playing, move your cursor to expose the slideshow tools and click on the Music button). In the resulting window, you’ll see that the Play music during slideshow option is checked. Uncheck it you want a silent slideshow.\nBelow this is the Source pop-up menu. Click it to select a track from Apple’s Theme Music collection, a GarageBand track, or your iTunes library (or a playlist within it). In the list below are all the tracks that belong to whatever you’ve picking from the Source pop-up menu. To preview a track, just double-click it (or select it and click the Play button). You can also use the Search field to search your music by title. If you have a long slideshow and you don’t want the same track to repeat over and over, enable the Custom Playlist for Slideshow option and drag tracks into the field that appears. The songs will play in order during your slideshow.\n“Yeah, but…” I can hear you yeah-butting, “I’d really like my slideshow to end when the music does rather than cut off a tune midway through.”\nApple is one step ahead of you.\nClick the Settings button at the bottom of the screen, and there’s your answer. You have two options in regard to timing and music. The first—Play each slide for a minimum of x seconds—allows you to set a specific time for each slide to play (5 seconds, for example). However, if you enable the Fit slideshow to music option, iPhoto will do the math and create a slideshow that lasts the approximate length of the soundtrack.\nIt’s also within this All Slides tab that you can choose to Show Title Slide, Repeat Slideshow, and choose an aspect ratio for your slideshow (options include This Screen, HDTV, iPad/TV, or iPhone). In addition, when you click on the This Slide tab, you can elect to apply a Black & White, Sepia, or Antique filter to the slide currently displayed in the main iPhoto window. (You can move between slideshow images by clicking on the slideshow’s thumbnails at the top of the window.)\nFinally, if you want to create breaks in your slideshow that display a bit of text—“Later that day…” or “The crocodile slowly approached…” for example—select a thumbnail image above and then click Text Slide below. Depending on the theme, either a slide that contains nothing but editable text will appear or a slide will be created that has a text field appended to it. Highlight the default text and enter whatever you like. You can change that text’s style by choosing Edit > Font > Show Fonts (or by pressing Command-T); selecting your text; and choosing a different font, typeface, and size.\nOnce you have things tweaked in exactly the way you like, click the Play button to see how your slideshow looks. If you like what you see, click the Export button and choose an export format in the sheet that appears. If none of the formats suit you and you know something about QuickTime’s export settings, click the Custom Export button in this sheet and then ultra-tweak your movie via the Export pop-up menu and its accompanying Options button.\nWhich sharing format to pick? Apple does its best to provide clues via the sheet’s devices table. If you know that your intended victi… er, audience is likely to view the slideshow on an iPhone, the Mobile setting is the one to use. If you’re making the slideshow for yourself—to show on your Apple TV, for example—Apple suggests you choose Medium or Large.\nIf you need more specific information about the format and size of the resulting slideshow, just hover your cursor over the Info button that appears to the right of each setting. A yellow tooltip will appear that provides the movie’s settings as well as how much storage space it’s likely to consume. (This is particularly helpful information when you intend to attach the movie to an email message. If the slideshow weighs in at over 10MB, it may be too large an attachment for your Internet service provider’s email gateway. In such a case, you’d want to choose a smaller setting or find some other way to share your images.)\nAnd speaking of other ways to share your images… (continue on to the next page)\nThe Share menu\niPhoto provides a very broad clue that its images can be shared with others. That clue comes in the form of the Share menu in iPhoto’s menu bar and the Share button that appears at the bottom of the window. Each of them contain Photo Stream, Messages, Email, Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter entries. We’ve already covered Photo Stream, so there’s no need to go there.\nIn the case of Twitter, Flickr, and Facebook, you’ll first need an account for the service you choose to use. Once you have that account, just enter your username and password, and you’ll be able to post your images to the service.\nWhen you choose Email, a new empty email message will be created within iPhoto and the image will be attached. On the right side of the message, you’ll see a number of templates. Select one that you want to use. From the Photo Size pop-up menu at the bottom of the template pane, choose an appropriate size—Optimized (designed so that the message will fit through an email gateway), Small, Medium, Large, or Actual Size. To send your message, fill in the To field, change the subject heading if you like, enter some text in the appropriate areas, and click Send.\nYou don’t have to email photos using iPhoto, however. To choose a different email client, select Photos > Preferences and then click the General preference. Click the Email photos using pop-up menu and select a different email client—Mail or Microsoft Outlook, for example. When you do that, a window will appear that prompts you to choose a size for your images and that gives you the option to include titles, descriptions, and location information. To complete the process, click the Compose Message button. The selected email client will open, and the images will be attached to a new email message.\nTo send images via Messages, you may select no more than 10 pictures and then choose Share > Messages. The images will be compressed and added to a message window that appears. Just choose the person you’d like to send the message to, enter some text if you like, and click the window’s Send button.\nOther share options\nWhen you click the Share button at the bottom of the window, you’ll additionally find the Order Prints option. Select some images and choose Order Prints, and a sheet appears. In this sheet choose the size of the prints and the number you’d like to order. Click Buy Now and you’ll be walked through the payment and shipping process. When that’s complete, the images will be uploaded to Apple, printed by the company Apple deals with for this sort of thing, and shipped to you when they’re done.\nClick the Share menu that appears in iPhoto’s menu bar, you’ll see two other entries—Burn and Set Desktop. In order for the Burn command to do anything other than send up an error message, you must have a CD/DVD burner attached to your Mac. New Macs don’t have such devices built into them, but if you add an external disc burner, you can use that. If you have an older Mac that does carry such hardware, choose Burn and you’ll be prompted for a disc to record the images to.\nNote that this command creates discs that can be used only in iPhoto. If you want to create a picture disc that can be used by a photo processor (or read by a Windows PC), you’ll have to copy the images you want to burn to a folder in the Finder, select that folder, and then choose File > Burn [name of folder] to Disc.\nClicking the Set Desktop command allows you to select an image and then use that image for your Mac’s desktop image.\nCreating the top-secret digital project\nBefore closing out the lesson, here’s one final tip for sharing your images digitally. I’ve told you how to create printed books, cards, and calendars. If you’d like to “print” digital versions of them for free, here’s how.\nCreate the project and then choose File > Print. In the resulting Print window, click the PDF button in the bottom-left corner and choose Save as PDF. In the sheet that appears, name your project and click Save. A PDF version of your project will be saved to the location you’ve chosen. While not exactly an ebook, it’s a way to present your friends and family with interestingly formatted projects that cost neither of you a nickel.\nNext week: iPhoto’s Faces and Places features"}
{"content":"Posts Tagged ‘ninja crafts’\nIt has been one crazy week here at my house so I haven’t had a chance to be very crafty. I thought about crafts as I cleaned up after sick kids. I also thought about crafts when I sat in the doctor’s office waiting for him to tell me that my baby does have R.S.V. And I thought about crafts while I washed loads of laundry. I did not actually do any crafts though, so no blog post this week, right? Wrong! I’m going to tell you about the ninja birthday party I hosted for my 7 year old’s birthday.\nFirst, a disclaimer: I have never attended a kids birthday party, not even as a kid. Thus, I was really nervous about what to do. The Boy wanted a ninja party so I started searching the web for and thinking of ideas. I started with Chinese lanterns just like I remember making in elementary school. My kids were able to help, which makes them extra fun. Then we hung them from banisters and things.\nThe guests were sent invitations to a ninja training. We rolled up the invitations like a scroll and tied them with red ribbon. When each child arrived at the party they were given a ninja head band so they felt more like ninjas.\nI assumed that there are games at a typical party so I set out to think of some for the party . I remembered that my brother used to make paper ninja stars when we were kids so I found instructions online and made each child their own color of stars. We played a game where we improved our aim by throwing them at pictures of dragon faces on the wall.\nI found an idea online for a game where you try to keep a balloon afloat using ninja swords, so my quest for cheap ninja swords began. I searched dollar stores and party stores but alas no swords. I also didn’t want to spend $1 per kid for them because I was doing other stuff too. Then my brain came up with a great idea (this doesn’t happen all that often). I made these ninja swords by rolling up sheets of newspaper from corner to corner. Then I taped it so it wouldn’t unroll. I folded up the bottom to make the handle a bit more substantial then wrapped it in electrical tape. Finally I wrapped the sword in tin foil. I love the results. The kids did too. They weren’t awesome at the game. They just wanted to pop balloons with their swords, but that kept them busy.\nInstead of cake we had candy sushi. It turned out so cute and super tasty. I keep trying to think of other things to do with rice krispy treats covered in fruit roll up. For party favors I wanted take out boxes from a restaurant. I looked at party stores but they were so expensive. Then my sweet husband brought home the perfect boxes that he asked for at a restaurant where he had lunch. They gave them to him for free, but he said he left a big tip.\nWe filled the boxes with fortune cookies, Chinese finger traps, and plastic ninjas that I got at the dollar store."}
{"content":"Innovative public-private partnerships to maximize the delivery of anti-malarial medicines: lessons learned from the ASAQ Winthrop experience\n1 Sanofi-Aventis, Access to Medicines Department, 74- 82 Avenue Raspail 94255 Gentilly Cedex, France\n2 Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, 15 Chemin Louis-Dunant,1202 Geneva, Switzerland\nMalaria Journal 2011, 10:143 doi:10.1186/1475-2875-10-143Published: 23 May 2011\nThis case study describes how a public-private partnership initiated to develop a new anti-malarial combination, ASAQ Winthrop, has evolved over time to address issues posed by its effective deployment in the field.\nIn 2002, DNDi created the FACT project to develop two fixed-dose combinations, artesunate-amodiaquine and artesunate-mefloquine, to meet the WHO anti-malarial treatment recommendations and international regulatory agencies approval standards. In 2002, Sanofi-aventis had started a development programme for a fixed-dose combination of artesunate and amodiaquine, to replace its co-blister combination. DNDi and sanofi-aventis joined forces in 2004, with the objective of developing within the shortest possible time frame a non-patented, affordable and easy to use fixed-dose combination of artesunate and amodiaquine adapted to the needs of patients, in particular, those of children. The partners developed Coarsucam®/Artesunate Amodiaquine Winthrop® (\"ASAQ Winthrop\") which was prequalified by the WHO in 2008. Additional partnerships have since been established by DNDi and sanofi-aventis to ensure: 1) the adoption of this new medicine by malaria-endemic countries, 2) its appropriate usage through a broad range of information tools, and 3) the monitoring of its safety and efficacy in the field through an innovative Risk Management Plan.\nDiscussion and evaluation\nThe partnership between DNDi and sanofi-aventis has enabled the development and pre-qualification of ASAQ Winthrop in a short timeframe. As a result of the multiple collaborations established by the two partners, as of late 2010, ASAQ Winthrop was registered in 30 sub-Saharan African countries and in India, with over 80 million treatments distributed in 21 countries. To date, 10 clinical studies, involving 3432 patients with ASAQ Winthrop were completed to document efficacy and safety issues identified in the Risk Management Plan.\nThe speed at which ASAQ Winthrop was adopted in the field shows that this drug fits the needs of patients and health authorities. It also demonstrates the power of partnerships that combine different sets of strengths and skills, and that evolve to include additional actors to meet new global health challenges for poverty-related diseases."}
{"content":"When those affected by the September 2004 flood born out of the last vestiges of Hurricane Ivan begin to talk about those dark days five years ago, they recall the shock, the devastation and the frustration.\nBut usually, they can also find something to smile about.\nFor Ellen McVicar, a first-grade teacher at Marietta's Harmar Elementary School, that smile comes when thinking about her late aunt, a retired teacher living at that time in the Westerville area. When she heard her niece's classroom, located in the basement of the west side school, had been filled with nearly two feet of water, she and a friend, Pam, got together a group to help.\nEVAN BEVINS The Marietta Times\nHarmar Elementary first-grade teacher Jean Caldwell, left, talks to a student Friday in her basement classroom. Five years ago, the room’s wall was damaged by nearly two feet of water in the building, resulting in the lower portion being removed. Until it was replaced, Caldwell covered the opening with paper to keep her students from being distracted by their peers passing in the hallway.\n\"Pam and my aunt Ann came down with this van-load of supplies,\" McVicar said.\nFloodwaters entered the building through backed-up drains and came up to the bottoms of the first-graders' desks. The water sloshed into the compartments, soaking and ruining supplies like crayons, paper and painting shirts.\n\"The kids didn't realize we had lost everything,\" McVicar said. \"They were reaching into their desks and there's nothing there.\"\nThe worst flood in 40 years\nFive years ago Saturday, a good portion of downtown Marietta was under water.\nBusinesses and homes from Belpre to Macksburg were inundated by the worst flooding in 40 years. Matters were made worse by the fact that many of those hit hardest went to bed two nights earlier thinking there would be little, if any, problems.\nThe impact of the September 2004 flood can still be seen today - whether it's the \"Ivan was here\" markers on Front Street or the nearly empty town of Elba.\nThis edition of The Marietta Times looks back on those days and the community's efforts to rebuild and recover.\nAnatomy of a disaster\nMore than a week earlier, the remnants of Hurricane Frances dropped nearly 4 inches of rain on the region. In Frances' wake came Hurricane Ivan, once again battering the southeastern United States.\nAs early as Sept. 14, the National Weather Service began issuing flood watches for the Ohio River as Ivan moved across the Gulf of Mexico.\nWhat was left of the storm reached the Mid-Ohio Valley three days later, dumping almost 5 inches of rain. The National Weather Service predicted the Ohio River at Marietta would crest just above the 35-foot flood stage.\nThat afternoon, however, the forecast called for the water to crest more than a foot below flood stage. Many people breathed a sigh of relief, thinking the area had dodged a bullet.\nIt was 10 p.m. when the weather service issued a new forecast, this one predicting a crest at 41.5 feet.\nOn the morning of Sept. 18, the rain had passed, but the water kept rising, fueled by heavy rains to the north.\nWater spilled over the banks of the Ohio, the strong current tearing away riverbank sediment and depositing it in homes and businesses. Nearly 1,000 structures in Washington County alone were affected, with Monroe, Morgan and Noble counties and Wood and Pleasants counties in West Virginia also battered by flooding.\nWhen the river finally crested on Sept. 19, it reached 44.97 feet. It was the worst flooding in Marietta in 40 years.\nAnd that was only the beginning of the story.\nFor a couple of days, the students shared supplies. But then McVicar's aunt and her friend arrived, bringing enough items to supply both first-grade classes and stock the school's supply room. A group from the Barlow-Vincent area also donated books, some of which McVicar still has in her classroom today.\n\"That's what people should do in a tragedy,\" McVicar said. \"It would have been a real hardship for some of the families to purchase those supplies again.\"\nThe donors' actions also provided an opportunity to teach the students, McVicar said.\n\"I think it was a lesson learned that way too, that people were very giving toward us,\" she said.\nHome and work\nBelpre resident Barbara Griener can also see positives when she thinks back to five years ago.\nShe and her husband, Doug, received a \"double whammy\" as water filled the basement of their Blennerhassett Avenue condo and their business Turqoise Spirit, on Front Steet in Marietta.\nThen it kept going.\n\"The river basically was coming in the front door and flowing out our back door,\" Griener said of the scene at Turqoise Spirit.\nThe shop was closed for six weeks as carpet, tile and drywall were replaced.\n\"We had loads of wonderful people helping us,\" Griener said, citing friends, family, customers and fellow church members. \"We couldn't've done it by ourselves. And they also helped with our house, too.\"\nThrough that time, she said, they never thought about not reopening.\nSticking it out\nTonya Robey, co-owner of Mad Hen Primitives in Marietta, admits she did consider throwing in the towel a couple of times, and not just because of the September flood.\nThe building had been struck by a fire in November 2003 at its Pike Street location. A flood followed in January 2004.\n\"Giving up is one of the first things that goes through your head,\" Robey said.\nThe September flood helped the owners of Mad Hen decide to move to their current Front Street address.\nThen the January flood hit.\nSince they hadn't finished moving into their new space, a loss of inventory wasn't a problem, Robey said.\n\"But we did have another cleanup to go through,\" she said.\nThe support of friends and customers helped Mad Hen keep going.\n\"They're always right here at the door waiting to help us,\" Robey said.\nChurches pitch in\nWith the water rising, churches swung into action, including First United Methodist Church in Williamstown.\n\"We fed a lot of people,\" said church secretary Kianna Anderson. \"Three meals a day at the church were available.\"\nThe food, provided mainly by families from that church, as well as First Baptist and First Presbyterian in Williamstown, was also taken out to people working on the cleanup.\nAnderson recalled one young family who lived near the Ohio River and lost everything. The church provided them transportation to stay with relatives in Parkersburg and other forms of support.\n\"We had entertainment for the kids and a safe place for them to be while other people were trying to clean and find what they could to salvage,\" Anderson said.\nThat was another key function of the church, she said - to provide a place for people \"to get out of all the mud and the muck\" and be able to relax, if only for a little while.\n\"It was such a horrible experience, but I think the community came together to make sure everyone was taken care of,\" Anderson said.\nBack to school\nHarmar Elementary also had plenty of help in getting things back at least closer to normal in the wake of the flood.\nOn Monday, Sept. 20, Cheryl Cook saw the school, where she had been principal since 1982, standing on \"an island of green\" in the receding floodwaters. Inside, she found the 23 1/2 inches of water standing in the basement.\n\"I just wanted to sit down and cry,\" Cook said. \"But I didn't. I started calling.\"\nThe silver lining in that day's clouds was the response from the community, the principal said.\n\"The fire department from Devola came with a pump and then AEP came with a gigantic pump and workers,\" she said.\nThe Marietta City school district divided its maintenance workers between Harmar and Phillips, the other school hit by flooding.\nAlthough most staff was kept away for health concerns, Cook insisted on helping with the cleanup. She was joined by fifth-grade teacher Todd Caltrider, who, with his wife, owns Simply Regal Cleaning Service. The Caltriders donated their time to the effort.\n\"The most devastating thing was thinking about all the kids' desks and all of the things you'd lost,\" said Caltrider as he recalled throwing away wet and muddy papers and tests students had taken. \"It was heartbreaking.\"\nMarietta schools were closed for the entire week after the flood. They reopened the next Monday.\n\"It was a major cooperative effort so that the following week we were clean and ready to begin,\" Cook said.\nMore work to do\nEven so, repairs at Harmar went on for more than a year. Insurance money covered most of it, although there were some challenges along the way.\nThe lower portion of the wall between first-grade teacher Jean Caldwell's classroom and the hallway was so damaged by water it had to be replaced.\n\"For several months, I taught with only the top part of the wall\" in place, she said.\nCaldwell's students were quite curious about the legs they saw walking by their room. Often, students on the outside were none too shy about stooping to take a peak into the classroom.\nSo Caldwell had to improvise, using a large roll of purple paper.\n\"I took paper off of the roll and made a paper wall for the months that it took to get it repaired,\" she said.\nEventually, Caldwell's wall was replaced and the school's library, also located in the basement, was remodeled. A custodian had stacked many of the books in the library on tables before the flood, sparing many of them from the muddy waters.\nFive years later\nSchools reopened in a week. Most businesses reopened within a month or two. Many people were able to return to their homes eventually.\nOthers decided to move on, either after the September flood or when the follow-up came in January. At least then, the water didn't rise quite as high and the lessons learned four months earlier - as well as better advance warning - helped head off some problems.\nToday, McVicar still uses the same desk she had in 2004. The change in its coloration about halfway up provides a physical mark of how high the water was in their classroom.\nFor most of her students, it's the only reminder of something that happened just a year or so after they were born.\n\"That's something that's kind of hard for them to fathom,\" McVicar said."}
{"content":"The fresh fruits and vegetables on your family table may be from the farms of Portugal, having made the six-day trip across the ocean in refrigerated containers\nhips from Lisbon to the States. And nearly 2,000 passengers recently steamed into Venice aboard the Grand Princess, which, running the length of two and a half football fields, is the largest cruise ship in the world. About 90 percent of its passengers that day, as is the case every day on most cruise ships, were Americans.\nIn Pennsylvania, hundreds of our products - among them Cannondale bikes, Cove shoes, JLG lifts, Freedom Forge Wheels, Letterkenny ammunition, and Empire chickens - travel by rail or truck to our ocean ports for shipment across the oceans of the world.\nWith the growth of the global economy, coupled with better transportation systems, the hills and valleys of central Pennsylvania are as close today to Europe and the Far East as Pittsburgh was to Philadelphia a hundred years ago. Pennsylvania is now ocean-shipping $5.3 billion annually around the world. Most of it in 20- or 40-ft. containers on giant ocean ships. The U.S. container trade has nearly tripled in the past 20 years from 48 to 137 million tons, and is projected to more than double again in the next 20 years.\nThousands of Americans now depend on that trade. Our prosperity is tied to our ability to transport our products effectively and economically to their destinations. Our maritime transportation system moves over two billion tons of foreign and domestic cargo annually, contributing $742 billion to our economy, and generating 13 million jobs.\nThe great containerships of the world each carry over 6,000 20-ft. truck-like containers, requiring ports with depths of about 50 ft. Yet six of America's largest container ports, which handle 80 percent of U.S. container traffic, do not have depths that great. They cannot handle the giant ships, which are increasingly diverting to ports in Nova Scotia, Canada and the Bahamas. Our harbors need to be dredged, and our terminals and intermodal connections to trucks and rails need to be modernized. Not only are American port jobs in jeopardy, but the increased cost of shipping U.S. products overseas puts all our export-related jobs at risk.\nThe good news\nis that a Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund already exists, receiving fees from users. The bad news is that, while it has collected about $733 million annually, it has spent only about $500 million each year, leaving a balance of $1.3 billion. Instead of investing at the level the Trust Fund can support, much of the money is withheld to offset unrelated government spending. Further compounding the problem, the Supreme Court\nhas ruled a portion of the fees unconstitutional. We must both unlock the fund and restructure it to pass constitutional muster so it can be used to modernize our maritime infrastructure.\nLikewise, the products flowing through our inland waterways - our rivers, lakes and canals - many on their way to loaded onto ocean carriers for shipment overseas, suffer from both our outdated ports and harbors and an antiquated system of locks and canals.\nBarges move 800 million tons of cargo on these waterways each year, representing 15 percent of the nation's freight for less than two percent of the nation's total freight cost\n. Yet, over half of the 270 locks making navigation possible are antiquated, well beyond their 50-year design lives. A 15-barge grain tow moves the equivalent of 870 trucks or 255 railroad cars, but because of outmoded locks, must be broken apart to pass in smaller clusters, raising the cost of shipping and slowing deliveries.\nWithout modern navigation systems - such as electronic charting and transponders - the vessels on our inland waterways are needlessly unsafe. If the fog-blinded tow that hit a bridge, causing an Amtrak train to plunge into the Mobile River in 1993, killing 47 people, had had modern navigational equipment, the tragic accident could have been avoided.\nAgain, the good news is that an Inland Waterways Trust\nFund, paid into by the users, already exists to help modernize the system. But it is not being spent for its intended purpose. Last year, the fund invested only $77 million, about 25 percent of the $304 million available, for improving the 25,600 miles of our inland and coastal waterways.\nJust as we have unlocked the Highway Trust Fund to invest the money paid into it to improve American highways and transit systems, and as the U.S. House this year has overwhelmingly passes legislation to unlock the Aviation Trust Fund, it is time to begin the battle to rededicate our harbors and inland waterways trust funds so they, too, can be used for their intended purpose to help rebuild the nation's maritime and river systems. -- (By Congressman Bud Shuster,U.S. House Transportation And Infrastructure Committee Chairman)\nCongressman Shuster recently led a delegation to inspect ocean shipping and shipbuilding facilities in Italy, Greece, Spain, and Portugal. His article is based, in part, on knowledge gained on that trip."}
{"content":"To download Bob Richard's PowerPoint presentation (about 8 megabytes) click here. These slides will be updated as the presentation is improved over time. They were last revised on March 30, 2015.\nDouglas Amy, Behind the Ballot Box: A Citizen's Guide to Voting Systems (New York: Praeger, 2000). Out of print but available through used book sites. Also available in Kindle format at Amazon.com.\nInternational Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, Electoral Systems Design: The New International IDEA Handbook (Stockholm, 2005). Download for free at www.idea.int.\nBritish Columbia Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform, Making Every Vote Count: the case for electoral reform in Britishi Columbia (Victoria, B.C., 2004). The Citizens' Assembly website has disappeared. To download the 16 page final report click here. To download the 264 page technical report, click here.\nWelcome to Marin Ranked Voting. We were formed in 2005 to promote instant runoff voting (IRV) and proportional representation in Marin County, California. Our website is currently off-line for a major overhaul, but will be relaunched soon. Please check back often. Meanwhile, you may reach us at:\nMarin Ranked Voting\nPO Box 235\nKentfield, CA 94914-0235\nPlease visit these election reform organizations and resources.\nLast updated April 1, 2015"}
{"content":"Criticism can be difficult to take, especially from a customer. But for any business to survive, negative comments must be addressed, and promptly, no matter how they’re received.\nWord of mouth used to spread to only a handful of people—usually the customer’s friends and family. Now, customers can broadcast their experiences to the world via social media, amplifying the reach of your company’s service, good or bad. This can also lead to additional publicity when social media messages go viral.\nA strategy for handling public complaints should be part of any integrated marketing program, especially given the growing number of new media channels for customers to air their grievances. The fact is, negative reviews can be seen as valuable opportunities to convert unhappy customers into enthusiastic brand evangelists.\nHere are eight principles to keep in mind in order when dealing with bad online reviews.\n1. Don’t Delete or Fake\nDeleting negative comments only infuriates the disgruntled, causing them to redouble their efforts and vitriol. By the same token, don’t try to write your own positive reviews. Review websites can find out when someone is writing multiple positive reviews for one business. Eventually you’ll get found out. That would be negative.\n2. Respond Promptly\nYour customers are living at Internet speed, always plugged in and connected. The longer it takes to respond to a negative (or potentially false) representation of your business, the more time it has to spread. Then the proverbial genie is out of the bottle.\n3. Show You Care\nWhen you get a negative comment or review, don’t ignore it. Reply respectfully and sincerely. But rather than emailing privately, use the same forum in which the negative remark was received to post your response publicly. Show other readers and prospective customers that you are listening and acting accordingly.\n4. Take Serious Complaints Offline\nOnce you’ve responded publicly to let everyone know you’re addressing the situation, take the details offline. After apologizing, ask the customer to email you so you can resolve the matter. This helps to protect the privacy and dignity of both sides and reach a more positive outcome.\n5. Monitor the Conversation\nYou don’t have to subscribe to every blog or forum to see what people are saying about your company online. Sign up for Google Alerts. It’s a free service that notifies you with an email alert every time your name or any other key phrase you specify is used on the Web. People pay big money for focus groups to get the kind of consumer opinion that’s now available free online.\n6. Make It Right\nAcknowledge the mistakes. Apologize—even if it’s not your fault. Then make it up to the customer somehow. This is the opportunity, the chance to exceed expectations with a huge potential return on investment. Do whatever it takes to turn that frown upside down.\n7. Bury the Bad\nIf you don’t have a website, LinkedIn profile, or any social media presence, then any negative reviews have a higher likelihood of rising to the top of search results. By consistently generating your own positive online content through blog posts, press releases, videos, and social networks, it’s possible to bury the negative results further down in the listings.\n8. Watch for Trends\nOne bad review could be a fluke or an off night for someone. Or it could be an early warning sign of an operational problem. Investigate the incident carefully. Ask open-ended questions of your customer to learn more than they may have been willing to write in a public forum."}
{"content":"Outlook for solar cells is sunny\nAn assembly line of solar cells at SolarWorld, the largest solar-cell manufacturing plant in the Western Hemisphere, which just opened in Hillsboro, Oregon, near Portland.\nTEXT OF STORY\nBill Rakde: How are you supposed to feel these days if you're in the renewable energy business? There has been a big push for new energy sources because of high oil prices, Mideast tensions and climate change. But now oil has gotten much cheaper, which hurts the renewable business. And it's harder to borrow money now to expand production and research. As Mitchell Hartman reports, a newly open solar-cell plant in Portland, Oregon, is trying to take all these developments in stride.\nMitchell Hartman: How big is the biggest solar manufacturing plant in the Western Hemisphere?\nWell, SolarWorld VP Bob Beisner walked me down one corridor a quarter-mile long. At one end:\nBob Beisner: This is our growing room floor. We melt down raw polysilicon at 1,400 degrees centigrade, then . . .\nAt the other end of the plant, 100,000 solar cells, each about the size of a CD case, will come off the line every day. That's as much solar-energy capacity as the entire U.S. produced back in 2003.\nBob Beisner is American, but his boss isn't. SolarWorld is a German company. Its biggest competitors are Kyocera, Sanyo, and Sharp from Japan, and Q-Cell, another German firm.\nMarc Tarpenning scopes out renewable energy prospects for a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. He says countries like Germany and Japan are way ahead.\nMarc Tarpenning: Other countries say for the next 20 years, here are the investment tax credits, or the feed-in tariffs, or whatever it is that they're using to stimulate alternative energy.\nThat's given foreign businesses the edge up until now. But the outlook for solar entrepreneurs here has improved with Congress's extension of renewable energy tax credits for eight more years. That's good timing, because the solar industry faces a squeeze right now-with financing tougher to come by, and oil prices down from historic highs.\nSolarWorld's Bob Beisner says his company has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in solar production.\nBeisner: This is what drives the cost of solar down. So that actually, in the not-distant future, we'll be at a grid-parity. That it would cost you about the same amount of money to get a solar array up as it would to be buying it from your local utility.\nWhen could we reach that point? Ron Pernick crunched the numbers for his research firm, Clean Edge. He says in some places, we're already there.\nRon Pernick: If I live in San Diego and I'm paying 28, 32 cents-per-kilowatt-hour, solar can look pretty good. Especially if I can get some rebates from California, which are available, and a tax credit. Then it's already at cost-parity.\"\nPernick predicts cost-parity nationwide as early as 2012.\nI'm Mitchell Hartman for Marketplace."}
{"content":"A bill was recently introduced in the Senate which would prohibit corporations from including arbitration clauses in their standard contracts with consumers and non-union employees. Though the Federal Arbitration Act, passed in 1925, was originally intended to cover only certain types of disputes, such as those between merchants and where a specialized knowledge of a particular industry would aid in deciding disputes, arbitration clauses have proliferated to the extent that it is now nearly impossible to find any standard customer agreement that does not include an arbitration clause. This means that anytime a consumer signs up for a credit card, phone service, or otherwise seeks to obtain some service or product from a corporation, the fine print will most likely include an arbitration clause which deprives the consumer of important rights. Namely, the consumer almost always is forced to give up the right to pursue a class action or to even join his or her claim with other consumers who may have been subjected to the same unfair or deceptive trade practices by the corporation. The customer agreements almost always require that any dispute be submitted to binding arbitration and prevent a consumer from pursuing a lawsuit in court. An arbitrator, who may regularly decide cases involving the corporation, would hear the dispute and the result may be confidential and subject to only limited review by a court.\nNowadays, whenever a consumer has a grievance against a company over a service or product obtained through any standardized agreement, the consumer may only pursue his or her claim on an individual basis and only in arbitration. In most cases, the consumer would not be able to find a lawyer who would take on the case, meaning the consumer would have to pursue his or her claim against a large corporation and its team of attorneys in an arbitral forum in which the corporation is well-familiar because it has required any and all disputes with it to be heard in that setting. Corporations are now very frequently including arbitration clauses in their employment agreements with their employees, meaning that any employment issues would also be decided by an arbitrator as opposed to a jury of one's peers.\nThe Arbitration Fairness Act of 2011 would prevent corporations from requiring that consumer disputes and employment cases be heard in arbitration. Employees and consumers would have the right to have disputes heard in court if they so chose, with that choice being made after the dispute arose so that an informed decision about the individual's options could be made. The rights at stake with consumer and employment disputes are too important, both for the nation as a whole and for the individual employee or consumer, to have those matters decided by an arbitrator with little oversight and without the openness that accompanies court proceedings. The Arbitration Fairness Act of 2011 would serve to protect critically important rights of employees and consumers. Concerned citizens should contact their representatives to urge support for the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2011. A copy of the draft of the bill can be accessed here."}
{"content":"A rare look inside an eating‑disorder clinic reveals the hard‑fought recovery of women who've spent their lives battling anorexia and bulimia.\nBy Joyce Ross\nPhoto Editor: Claudia Lebenthal\nLast August Tracey Rauh, 34, passed out in the women's locker room of the local YMCA after a swim with her 12‑year‑old daughter. She woke up a few seconds later on the wet tiles, alone and terrified. \"It was the first time I thought I could die from what I was doing to myself,\" she says.\nAt 5'6\", Rauh, a newspaper editor in New Hampshire, weighed 88 pounds. She admits that her behavior had become extreme. \"I was paranoid,\" she says. \"I even thought about writing to the company that made my toothpaste to see how many calories it had.\" Rauh has anorexia nervosa. She had been hospitalized four times before near her home in York, Maine, for her eating disorder. But this time, desperate for a treatment that would end her 18 years of starvation, she called the Renfrew Center in Coconut Creek, Florida.\nThe manor house at Renfrew’s Philadelphia facility.\nThe day before she left home, Rauh biked 30 miles and began taking laxatives. \"It was like, I'm not going in at 88 pounds,\" she says. \"I knew I could drop 4 or 5 more.\" Though covered by a sleeping bag and two blankets in the car, she shivered as her family drove her to the airport. It was 79 degrees out. \"I ate nothing on the plane,\" she remembers. On August 14 she checked into Renfrew weighing 85 pounds.\nUntil just over a decade ago, the only inpatient treatment available for severe cases of anorexia or bulimia was in locked psychiatric facilities, where women were strictly monitored, often forcibly fed, and even given shock treatments. The Renfrew Center in Philadelphia, which opened in 1985, was the first residential treatment center for women with eating disorders. The Coconut Creek location followed five years later.\nDying to be thin.\nTwenty-five-year-old Anne Walsh checked into the Renfrew Center in Florida last fall weighing 102 pounds. At 17 she had sometimes lived for weeks on slices of lemon.\nWe try to normalize a woman's eating patterns and behavior,\" explains Lynn Siegel, a psychologist and the co‑clinical director of the center in Philadelphia. \"But we don't believe in punishing the patients if they don't eat.\"\nIt's unsettling at first to look at these women, to reconcile their vulnerable, almost girlish features with the ravages of the disorder. Most are dressed in shorts and T‑shirts and appear to be in their 20s, but they move with none of the energy one expects to find in young women. Their faces are pale, slender, and sensitive; their bodies, frail skeletons of bulging bones and withered flesh.\nA woman who weighs only 75 or 80 pounds may be in grave medical danger. She has usually stopped menstruating; she may have damaged her reproductive system and increased her risk of endometrial cancer. Some, like Rauh, develop osteoporosis, and for those with bulimia, years of purging can do permanent damage to the esophagus. \"As the body continues to lose potassium and calories,\" 25‑year‑old patient Anne Walsh says, \"it will eat at the bone. The last thing it will go after is your heart.\"\nA patient's day usually begins around 6 A.M. with a weigh‑in call. \"I hate waking up for it,\" says Chris, a 27‑year‑old fabric stylist who chose not to give her last name. After years of dieting too intensely, drinking too much, and clinging to a dead‑end relationship, Chris tried to gain control by not eating. At Renfrew she didn't want to know how much she weighed (she was admitted at just under 100 pounds at 5'4\"). \"My therapist suggested blind weigh‑ins at first,\" she says, \"so I looked away from the scale.\"\nThe atmosphere at breakfast, where Chris goes after weigh‑in, is equally tense. The women look anxious as they reluctantly gather their silverware and confront the day's menu, sometimes tearfully. Chris was too distracted to eat during her first week in treatment, so she focused on other people compulsively. Some ate only with their fingers, crumbling bread into hundreds of pieces, or mixed everything on their plate into mush. Chris began with tiny portions of food, using a very small fork to feed herself. Finally she gravitated toward a group of teenagers, \"a strong table, really serious about eating everything. The girls said, 'Eat the food; it will make you feel better.\"\nRobyn DiDonato, a petite 31‑year‑old with dark brown hair who came in weighing 81 pounds, initially sought out the most severely ill patients. \"I used to sit with the thinnest anorexic in the dining room,\" she says. \"This woman was incredibly smart, she had gone to Yale, and she weighed around 65 pounds. I idolized her but feared her. To me, she stood for death and put some fear in me, like, 'You could end up like this.\"\nBecause those at extremely low weights may not be able to tolerate much solid food, Tracey Rauh began her treatment at Renfrew with small portions of vegetables and melon and Ensure Plus, a calorie‑and‑vitamin‑packed liquid supplement. She remembers her first glass: \"I was in a room with a therapist and some other patients. Some of us were crying. I had a panic attack. I didn't want to take it. But I did.\"\nDaring to eat\nThe atmosphere at the dining room can be tense, and some patients aren’t able to eat at first. They may crumble a slice of bread into hundreds of pieces or mix everything on their plate into mush.\nAs a woman's metabolism increases from its slower starvation level, her nutritionist will suggest that she eat more. \"In order to gain 1 to 2 pounds of weight per week,\" says Karin Sargrad, a Renfrew nutritionist, \"a woman may need 2,500 to 4,000 calories a day. When you have a woman who is going from 300 to 4,000 calories, it can be shocking.\"\n\"Your body changes very quickly,\" Rauh says. \"It's like a speeded‑up puberty ‑suddenly you have hips again.\"\nTo help patients deal with depressive reactions and feelings of utter helplessness ‑particularly the sense that gaining weight amounts to losing control‑ Renfrew offers individual and group therapy daily from 8 A.M. to 9 P.M. For the most part, when the women aren't eating, they're in therapy. The sessions target issues like sexuality, relationships, substance abuse, and others common areas to women who have eating disorders and promote the freewheeling involvement of consciousness‑raising groups.\n\"I was put with people who really understood my background,\" says Rauh, who was sexually abused as a child. At Renfrew, she finally met others like herself. A 1993 Renfrew study found that 61 percent of its anorexic and bulimic patients had been sexually abused before the age of 19.\nIn a session on body image last fall, Anne Walsh, who at 17 had sometimes lived for weeks on slices of lemon, was startled when her therapist traced the outline of her body with a marker. It was dramatically thinner than the one Walsh had drawn herself, just minutes earlier.\nRauh also had no idea how emaciated she appeared to others. \"Once,\" she says, \"I was waiting in line in a restaurant and looked across the room at a woman. I thought, she must be anorexic. And then I realized that I was looking in a mirror. That's the only time I've ever seen what I looked like.\"\nSome patients, like Tracey Rauh, are surprised that they are allowed to exercise‑albeit with restrictions‑while in treatment. \"I ran two miles three times a week after I'd gained a certain amount of weight,\" Rauh says. Psychologist Lynn Siegel emphasizes that a patient is given permission to exercise only after careful evaluation of her weight, vital signs, and nutritional intake, and that ‑at least in Philadelphia‑ women are given a choice of a 15‑minute walk or a Stretch and Tone class.\nIn a session on body image, Walsh was startled when a Renfrew therapist traced the outline of her body with a black marker. It was dramatically thinner than the one Walsh had drawn herself, just minutes earlier.\nBefore the rise of HMOs and managed-care programs, the average stay at Renfrew was seven to nine weeks; today the usual stay is two weeks, followed by graduated levels of outpatient treatment.\nAccording to the American Anorexia/Bulimia Association, an estimated 6 percent of American women now have eating disorders. Research done by Timothy Walsh, a professor of psychiatry and the director of the New York State Psychiatric Institute's Eating Disorder Research Unit in New York City, says that 30 to 50 percent of anorexic women will go in and out of hospitals and treatment centers, perhaps making slow, limited gains; 10 to 20 percent of the women who are hospitalized will die.\nAnd some, like Robyn DiDonato, will live normal lives again. DiDonato had suffered from anorexia for almost five years before treatment, but she left Renfrew in 1989 \"with ammunition,\" she says. \"A meal plan.\" She also sees a therapist once a week and attends a 12‑step group for people with eating disorders. Her weight has been stable at 110 pounds. \"Food will always be a discomfort for me,\" she says. \"But eating doesn't pose the same threat that it used to.\"\nRauh, who left Renfrew last fall after putting on 21 pounds, says, \"It was like saying good‑bye to your arm. I was so scared and depressed.\" She is continuing her therapy and is struggling to stabilize her weight. \"I've lapsed a bit,\" she says. \"I'm at 100 pounds. And I know every calorie I ate three days ago. But that doesn't stop me from eating them.\" When Rauh hears that anorexic voice, \"You're fat, you're fat, you're fat,\" she still falls back on a Renfrew technique. \"I write down the bad voice on one side of a piece of paper,\" she says. \"On the other, I write down good thoughts. It helps me to see what's happening.\"\nRauh's body, however, may never fully recover. \"My knees are so bad from the osteoporosis,\" she says. \"But there's deeper damage, with myself, my family, and my job. I missed my child's first day of school. That's permanent.\"\nNow that Chris is on her own, she starts her day with the same breakfast she ate at Renfrew: an English muffin, a teaspoon of peanut butter, a banana, and some orange juice or fruit. \"It centers me,\" she says. She also keeps in touch with a dozen women she met at the center, women whose stories she knows almost as well as her own.\n\"Once, in a group meeting,\" Chris says, \"a friend of mine at Renfrew who weighed 75 pounds and had terrible medical problems heard me say that I couldn't even win at anorexia, that I never got thin enough. And she said, 'This isn't winning, Chris. This isn't winning.\"\nEverything to gain.\nThe day before beginning treatment, Tracey Rauh, 34, biked 30 miles and began taking laxatives. At 5’6”, she checked in weighing 85 pounds. “I’d thought about writing to the company that made my toothpaste to see how many calories it had,” she recalls now.\nA Thin Line\nIt's been eight years since I was hospitalized in Washington, D.C, with bulimia and anorexia. Some of the women I shared time with there are dead now, others are still in and out of treatment. Had someone asked me when I weighed 95 pounds or was popping one of the 40 laxatives I took daily if I would ever be able to have a life not ruled by food, I would have said no.\nI was hospitalized at the beginning of my senior year of high school. My bingeing had become so bad that I would leave class in the middle of an exam to eat. Once home (both of my parents worked), I'd inhale cartons of ice cream, whole bars of cheese, entire quiches, and boxes of cereal, allowing myself only an hour to eat so that the food would not begin to be digested. Then I'd drink a bottle of ipecac and throw up. Afterward, I'd take laxatives to remove whatever the ipecac had left behind.\nDuring the anorexic phase of my illness, I saw vomiting as a dirty habit and imagined that I was attaining a purer state by nearly fasting ‑meticulously counting calories and dropping to the floor for 500 sit‑ups each time I was alone in a room. The feel of my rumbling stomach was like a drug high.\nWhen I began to binge again, I gained some weight, and my parents heaved sighs of relief. They didn't know what I was still doing to my body. When I began to binge six or seven, times a day, I finally chose to enter the hospital.\nThe bulimics there sometimes had black gaps in their months, or their teeth were yellow and rotting from stomach acid. The anorexics looked like walking skeletons. One woman had been a nuclear physicist. Down to 65 pounds, she would weep over the food she was forced to eat and would make ten trips to the microwave per meal, always moving to burn calories.\nCalories were strictly counted at mealtime, and nurses locked bathroom doors to keep women from purging. Exercise was banned, walks on the hospital grounds were chaperoned until you had earned enough \"points\" to stroll alone. The telephone and television were monitored, and therapy took place nearly 24 hours a day.\nI needed this intense schedule. I needed to be taken out of my routine of self‑destruction. But the hospital is only temporary. I was in for more than six weeks and then the insurance ran out. My doctor said, \"You'll either make it or you won't.\"\nThey don't just spit you out and leave you. There is aftercare, a once‑a‑week therapy session at the hospital in which people who've been out for different amounts of time discuss life \"outside.\" I saw my psychiatrist from the hospital biweekly in his private office, where he continued to weigh me. I vividly remember my first trip to the grocery store after getting out. I wheeled my cart up and down the aisles, each a sea of endless possibilities of what to avoid or indulge in. I ended up buying one 32‑ounce tub of vanilla yogurt and fleeing the scene like a criminal.\nI was not, by any means, instantly cured, and initially I lost a good deal of weight. I still binged, though sporadically, and I still made myself throw up. But I began to see what triggered these episodes. Stressful family arguments, college applications, anything dealing with impending adulthood sent me to the refrigerator.\nIt is never simply over. Eventually I stopped purging and only hinged. I gained a good amount of weight, something I was extremely uncomfortable with at first. But at some point, though I'm not sure exactly when, I made a choice to get better.\nI can't remember the last time I made myself throw up. Though my friends assure me that I am still thin, once in a while I look in the mirror and hear the sick voice tell me, \"You've sure got a set of thighs.\" But I don't diet. It’s like smoking cigarettes; just one, at night, with a drink, and I am buying cartons the next day.\nI eat what I want now, even chocolate‑chip cookies. I am not a do‑gooder like some of the recovered people I know. When I go out to eat and see a woman at the table next to me picking at her undressed salad, her collarbones sticking out from her neck like the handlebars of a bicycle, I am not filled with sympathy. I do have the urge to shake her by her toothpick arms because, I believe, if she could only see a sliver of light in the dark room I know she lives in, she could recover. But I don't. It has to be her choice."}
{"content":"Groom: I,____, take thee,_____, to be my lawful wedded Wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God’s holy ordinance; and thereto I plight thee my troth.\nBride: I,_____, take thee,_____, to be my lawful wedded Husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, cherish, and to obey, till death us do part, according to God’s holy ordinance; and thereto I give thee my troth.\nThese are the traditional wedding vows read at any marriage ceremony. Husband makes vow to wife and vice versa but in my opinion think that people don’t take these vows seriously because the vows were not written personally by the couple. Chances are that it is easier to forget them when things go rough. I think couples should take time to think about the reasons why they wish to be married and what they are willing to bring to the table and then write their personal vows to each other and read it on the day of the wedding in the presence of the congregation, and after the wedding they can frame the vow in their bedroom to have as a reminder of what was promised to each other on the day of the wedding.\nFor instance, if you tell someone to quit a bad habit, chances are that they will agree to quit but usually may not take it seriously just because someone else asked them to do it. So in order to get the person off their backs, they say they will quit but they honestly wouldn’t. But when that same person wakes up one day and decides to quit a habit, they usually will follow through with it (not without some struggles though).\nThe same principles can be applied to marriages. A priest/pastor/court tells the couple to say the vow and the couple do, probably with the intention of keeping to it or not. Soon after, things go sour and the first thing anyone thinks of is leaving the marriage without first taking time to think about the vows made and the possibility of saving the marriage. Whereas if they have their personal vows on the wall as a reminder, instead of just jumping ship, there’s a conscious reminder of the need to make the marriage work against all odds.\nI advise would-be couples to take some time to write a personal vow and type it out before the day of the wedding and then keep it in a safe place afterwards. This might help to curb the rapid rate at which relationships and marriages are breaking down."}
{"content":"This morning, MBAE issued School Funding Reality: A Bargain Not Kept, our report on school funding and spending trends in Massachusetts. We did the study to look at how the foundation budget was working and found that the explosive growth in the cost of school employee health insurance has crowded out funding for other portions of school budgets that directly impact students such as spending on books and other classroom materials as well as teacher training.\nEducation funding has increased by $5 billion since the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993, school districts all over the state are laying off teachers and cutting back on book purchases, teacher training, library services and athletics. Our members wanted to find out why and this report answers the question.\nThe study found that school employee health benefits are eating up school budgets. From fiscal year 2000 to fiscal year 2007, state education aid (known as Chapter 70) rose by $700 million per year; over that same period school spending on employee benefits rose by $1 billion per year.\nIn contrast, spending on classroom teachers, teacher professional development, and purchases of books, software, and other educational materials – areas of the budget that have a significant impact on student learning – when adjusted for inflation has actually been falling since 2000. Spending on instructional materials fell by 11.3% per year from 2000 to 2007.\nThere is almost no increase in the number of teachers and no improvement in average class size despite an almost $5 billion increase in total school spending since the Foundation Budget formula went into effect in 1996. After 11 years of education reform, the student/teacher ratio was significantly less favorable in 2007 than it had been a decade earlier.\nThe report also found that spending between Massachusetts school districts has not been made equal, a central goal of the Act. The neediest districts are the farthest below the state spending goal and have the lowest growth in spending. At only 2.3% per year from 2007 to 2010, their per pupil spending growth was a full percentage point less than the wealthiest suburban districts (3.4%).\nThe report comes at a critical time. Massachusetts faces an unprecedented education funding crisis as the slow recovery of state revenues and a concurrent drop in municipal income are compounded by the impending end of federal stimulus funding. The immediate need for financial efficiency and a recent resurgence of education reform efforts makes this an opportune time to reexamine the school finance system and evaluate what changes are needed to achieve its goals – delivering high quality public education to all students.\nThe Boston Foundation provided funding for this work and released the report as part of its Understanding Boston series at a forum this morning. MBAE Executive Director Linda Noonan and Board members Michael Widmer and Joseph Esposito joined MBAE co-Founder and Secretary of Education Paul Reville for a panel discussion. The research for this report was conducted by Ed Moscovitch of Cape Ann Economics and the Bay State Reading Institute. Ed worked with MBAE to establish the original foundation budget."}
{"content":"Who governs the information that runs your company?\nWritten by Thomas M. Stockwell\nWe've all witnessed the explosion of information within our organizations. Recent studies have estimated that nearly 15 petabytes—15 million gigabytes—of data are created every day. This data represents the backbone of how our industries interact, how they manage their businesses, how they perceive themselves, and how they position themselves to compete. It doesn't reside on any individual computing platform, application, or corporate silo, but it has an incalculable value that represents the lifeblood of our commerce.\nThe free service stores your passwords online using AES encryption and offers features that provide essentially one-click access to multiple password-protected Web sites.\nWritten by Chris Smith\nHave you ever wished that passwords were easier to remember so that you could use ones that were a little stronger? And is your three-ring binder containing your list of passwords just a little too accessible for anyone actually snooping around your office? Or maybe you keep your passwords in a secret Word document with a filename that matches your daughter's Girl Scout troop. If you're not using some kind of password vault today, you might want to reassess your procedures because there are many new choices today for either free or low-cost software and hardware vaults that keep your passwords safe through AES encryption. The question then becomes which is most convenient rather than which is the most secure, since all of them are likely more secure than what you are doing currently.\nRobot/SCHEDULE Enterprise runs your SSIS packages automatically.\nWritten by Tom Huntington\nMore than 90 percent of the servers running next to IBM i servers are running Windows. And more than 50 percent of these Windows servers run MS SQL Server to perform some form of reporting against data that was stored on the IBM i system. This reporting process uses SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) packages to bundle data and generate business reports."}
{"content":"Festivals of Bangladesh have always played a significant role in the life of the people of Bangladesh.Those are parts and parcels of Bangalee culture and tradition. These festivals include traditional, cultural, religious and political. It is said that Bangladesh have Baro Mashe Tero Parbon (Thirteen festivals in twelve months). Salient features of the major festivals are given here.\nPahela Baishakh : The advent of Bengali New Year is gaily observed throughout the country ON 14 April. Colorful procession, daylong gatherings along with arrangement of cultural program at and around Ramna Park , Dhaka is a special feature of Pahela Baishakh. Fairs, tournaments, boat races etc. are held in cities and villages amidst jubilation.\n21st Feb, the Language Movement Day and World Mother Language Day : 21 February is observed throughout the country to pay homage to the martyrs’ of Language Movement of 1952. Language Movement started to establish Bangla as a state language, when leaders of Pakistan declared Urdu to be the state language. Police fired to control the agitation, where at least four persons died on 21 February 1952 near Dhaka Medical College Hospital .\nThe Shahid Minar (martyrs monument), erected on the spot of action, is the symbol of sacrifice for Bangla, the mother tongue. Mourning procedure begins at midnight with the song Amar vaier raktay rangano ekushay February (Stained with my brothers’ blood is 21st February) and nation pays homage by placing flora wreaths at the Shahid Minar. The day has been declared World Mother Language Day by UNESCO.\nIndependence Day : March 26 is the day of Independence of Bangladesh. It is the biggest state festival. This day is most befittingly observed. The citizens of Dhaka wake up early in the morning with the booming of guns heralding the day. Government leaders, sociopolitical organizations, freedom fighters and persons of all ages place floral wreaths at the National Martyrs Monument at Savar. Socio-cultural organizations hold cultural functions. Public buildings are illuminated to give the capital city a dazzling look at night.\nEid-ul-Fitr : The biggest Muslim festival observed throughout the world. This is held on the day following the Ramadan or the month of fasting. In Dhaka big congregations are held at the National Eidgah and all mosques of the country.\nEid-ul-Azha : Eid-ul-Azha is held marking the Hajj in Mecca on the 10th Zilhaj, the lunar month. Eid congregations are held throughout the country. Animals are sacrificed in reminiscence of Hazrat Ibrahim’s (AM) preparedness for the supreme sacrifice of his beloved son to Allah. It is a public holiday.\nEid-e-Miladunnabi : Eid-e-Miladunnabi is the birth and death day of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). He was born and died the same day on 12th Rabiul Awal (Lunar Month). National flag is flown atop public and private houses and special food is served in orphanages, hospitals and jails. At night public buildings are illuminated and religious function are held.\nMuharram : Muharram procession is a ceremonial mournful procession of Muslim community. A large procession is brought out from the Hussaini Dalan Imambara on 10th Muharram in memory of the tragic martyrdom of Imam Hussain (RA) on this day at Karbala in Iraq . Same observations are made all over the country.\nDurga Puja : Durga Puja, the biggest festival of the Hindu community continues for ten days, the last three days being culmination with the idol immersed in rivers. In Dhaka the big celebrations are held at Dhakeswari Temple , where a fair is also held and at the Ram Krishna Mission.\nBuddha Purnima : It is observed by the Buddhist community of the country, like all over the world. It is observed on the three full moon days of April, June and September.\nChristmas : Christmas, popularly called “Bara Din (Big Day)”, is celebrated in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country. Several day-long large gatherings are held at St. Mary’s Cathedral at Ramna, Portuguese Church at Tejgaon, Church of Bangladesh on Johnson Road and Bangladesh Baptist Sangha at Sadarghat Dhaka. Functions include illumination of churches, decorating Christmas tree and other Christian festivities.\nRabindra & Nazrul Jayanti : Birth anniversary of the noble laureate Rabindranath Tagore on 25th Baishakh (8 May) and that of the National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam on 11th Jaystha (27 May) are observed throughout the country. Their death anniversaries are also marked in the same way. Big gatherings and song sessions organized by socio-cultural organizations are salient features of the observance of the days. Rabindra Nath Tagore is the writer of our national anthem while National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam is famous as Rebel Poet."}
{"content":"Income inequality and wealth concentration have grown consistently since the 1980s, but today play a growing role in American discourse. Occupy Wall Street. Mitt Romney. A millionaire tax. The Buffet rule. Returning growth in some luxury markets. Goldman Sachs resignation letters. The list goes on.\nWe set out to explore opinions of Affluent Americans about these trends, and added a series of relevant questions to our February online survey of 1,017 adults living in households with at least $100,000 in annual household income. In some ways, the survey is a paradoxical, self-reflective exercise for them – affluent individuals describing how they feel about their growing collective affluence, but at a time when few feel particularly affluent as individuals.\nThe results are clear: for affluent Americans, issues of income inequality and wealth concentration are familiar, important, and quite polarizing.\nKey take-aways include…\nFamiliarity with the issue is widespread: when asked about the issue of gaps between the wealthy, middle class and poor, 85% of Affluents described themselves as at least somewhat familiar with the issue, and 45% are extremely or very familiar.\nThe issue is widely considered important as well: 75% consider the issue at least somewhat important, and 39% consider it an extremely or very important issue.\nMost Affluents support higher taxes: 58% favor higher federal income tax rates on higher-income Americans. However, polarization is stark and growing: 84% of Democrats are now in favor, compared to just 29% of Republicans.\nA substantial but shrinking minority support Occupy Wall Street: 39% agree with the opinions of the Occupy Wall Street protesters, down from 49% since October 2011. Among Democrats, 68% agree, compared to just 9% of Republicans.\nAffluents are split on government involvement: Our December survey found that 28% want government to have a major role in the issue, and another 23% prefer a minor government role; in contrast, 41% want little or no government involvement.\nGiven that income inequality and wealth concentration have grown steadily for three decades, some might argue that these issues are long overdue in playing a central role in American discourse. Despite that history, these issues now clearly shape Affluent mindsets, and influence how they think about fundamental elements of life and society such as success, taxation, equality, meritocracy, and the role of government in wealth distribution."}
{"content":"The Marcus Shelby Quartet is scheduled to perform at 8 p.m. April 14 at UC Merced, inside the school’s Lakireddy Auditorium. According to the event’s Facebook page, Shelby will tell the remarkable story of Harriet Tubman, a runaway slave who worked in the Underground Railroad and became a leading abolitionist. Throughout her life, she worked to unite American women and men of all colors and classes in a common struggle for liberty. The event is free to the public. UC Merced is located at 5200 Lake Road."}
{"content":"SACRAMENTO — When it comes to campaign dollars, the May 19 special election is shaping up as a lopsided affair. Led by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the campaign for a slate of ballot measures designed to shore up the state budget is outraising opponents by at least 6 to 1 — and as much as 13 to 1, depending on how you count.\nBut the governor and his supporters may need every cent. With early polling showing voters angry at the state's political leaders and wary of the tax increases and borrowing that the measures would authorize, opponents are gambling that it won't take much cash to sink the measures.\n\"People are already against them, so we don't have to convince them of anything,\" said Kenneth Burt, political director of the California Federation of Teachers, a leading opponent of the cornerstone measure, Proposition 1A. \"It's a good place to be.\"\nSchwarzenegger and legislative leaders drafted the ballot measures as part of their plan to close a $40 billion deficit through mid-2010. Proponents warn that the state budget will be in dire shape if the propositions fail.\nThe fiercest campaign is being waged over Proposition 1A. It would limit the annual growth of state spending and place unexpected revenue in flush years into a special reserve. The measure also would extend a series of tax increases that are now in effect through mid-2010 for an additional one or two years, generating $16 billion.\nA companion measure, Proposition 1B, would set aside 1.5 percent of state revenue, starting in 2011, to essentially pay back public schools for the funding cuts they sustained in the recent budget deal. That set-aside would continue until public education receives $9.3 billion over and above what schools are guaranteed under the state constitution. The measure would take effect only if Proposition 1A passes also.\nThe governor is collecting cash from a bevy of business interests that are frequent supporters of his political causes. Among the biggest donors so far, according to campaign records: Spanish-language media mogul A. Jerrold Perenchio ($1.5 million); Chevron ($500,000); developer Henry T. Segerstrom Properties ($250,000); Netflix CEO Reed Hastings ($250,000); and Constellation Brands, the beverage giant that owns Robert Mondavi wines, Clos du Bois, Ravenswood and other popular brands ($100,000).\nSchwarzenegger also has transferred more than $1 million to the ballot campaign from his own political account. The Schwarzenegger-led committee pushing for the propositions also has accepted large checks from a frequent adversary of the governor: the California Teachers Association. The association has kicked in $6.7 million, although most of that has gone to a campaign committee focused solely on promoting Proposition 1B, the education measure.\nAltogether, the campaigns for Propositions 1A and 1B have collected about $13 million.\nThe opposition campaign, by contrast, has collected just over $1 million, with about $600,000 of that total coming from the Service Employees International Union's state council. The California Faculty Association has contributed $177,000, and the California Federation of Teachers, a rival to the CTA, has given $116,000. Union opponents say Proposition 1A's spending cap would starve state programs that help the needy,\nPerhaps more notable than who has given money to the opposition campaign is who has not. While Proposition 1A has come under fire from some fiscal conservatives who dislike the tax increases it would prolong, so far, two of the most vocal and well-heeled critics of the measure — state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman — have declined to open their wallets. Both are Republican candidates for governor in 2010.\n\"They're saying the right things,\" said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, \"but it would certainly help the cause of fiscal conservatism to have them donate something in the seven figures.\"\nSpokesmen for both candidates responded virtually the same way: They said they are keeping their options open about a possible contribution, but suggested that spending money against the propositions would be a waste of money because voters will probably reject them anyway.\n\"The reality is, the measures don't seem to be faring well in the polling,\" said Kevin Spillane, a Poizner adviser.\nA poll by the Public Policy Institute of California last month showed the key ballot measures well below the 50 percent mark — an ominous sign for any proposition early in a campaign. And a long list of factors is working against the measures, from the difficulty of selling voters on higher taxes in the midst of a recession, to the governor's and Legislature's dismal approval ratings, to the mind-numbing complexity of some of the measures themselves.\nBut with proponents continuing to rake in large contributions — Schwarzenegger has scheduled two $100,000-a-head fundraisers at his Brentwood mansion, including one last night — it's hardly a given that the measures are destined to fail, analysts said. Proponents plan to use their financial advantage to drive home the importance of the propositions to the state budget.\nThe deficit would grow by $6 billion immediately, and possibly by tens of billions more in future years, if voters reject the measures.\n\"We think that as voters learn the consequences if these don't pass, they'll continue to come on board,\" said Julie Soderlund, a spokeswoman for the \"yes\" campaign.\nContact Mike Zapler at firstname.lastname@example.org or 916-441-4603.\nprop. 1a supporters\nSome other top contributors to Proposition 1A on the May 19 special election ballot:\nCalifornia Alliance for Jobs (represents construction industry)\nBrian L. Harvey, Cypress Land\nAnschutz Entertainment Group\nA.G. Spanos Cos.\nCalifornia State Council of Laborers\nCharles T. Munger Jr., Stanford physicist\nE. & J. Gallo Winery\nGerald Forsythe, CEO of Indeck Energy Services\nGTECH Enterprises (gaming technology)\nWine Institute of California"}
{"content":"We hope we never have to use it, but we have a Contingency Plan for a reason.\nMercy Corps has been working in Bentiu, Unity State, since 2005, and for the past year specifically helping people make a living in the local market with small business and farming support.\nTwo months ago, when border clashes erupted in the area, we made the decision to move our equipment and key files to our office farther south, in Leer. Eventually, the skirmishes turned into aerial bombings — and general violence escalated in the area. We were forced to suspend our work and officially close the office to keep our two dozen staff members safe.\nMost of them — guards, cooks, drivers, program officers and managers — are from Bentiu and live there. They, like all South Sudanese, have been optimistic about their country's future after its official independence from Sudan last July. But the two countries continue fighting over borders and shared resources like oil, while hundreds of thousands of people are caught in the middle.\nMuch of our work is about giving people the resources they need to build healthy, safe and productive lives for the longterm. To do so in areas where conflict threatens not just livelihoods, but lives, can be especially challenging.\nWe were able to return to Bentiu last month after the bombings stopped. The security situation is better, but there is a new normal here. Soldiers are everywhere. Bentiu is the rear military base, where the hospital is. All the wounded are treated here, and soldiers returning from the front are always streaming in. You can feel the tension in the humid air.\nOne bomb fell just 20 yards away from the bridge that we use everyday — Sudanese planes were targeting the strategic river overpass. It left a crater and a frail, charred tree standing alone. It's a warning to people who drive by (including us) to slow down and look at the sky before crossing the bridge.\nIn the market, we saw a couple of small craters and one shop entirely burned to the ground, another scarred by shrapnel. It seems there are less women and children, who escaped the danger and have not yet returned. The recent events definitely shook some confidence in the market. Trade was disrupted and prices are off the charts, fuel almost unavailable.\nBut the resilience of the community is quite extraordinary. Life goes on. Shop owners have reopened their doors. Farmers are tending their fields. More local production generates more local profit. And we'll keep working to help individuals build their income, thereby strengthening the economy against shocks like this."}
{"content":"Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin discusses benefits of neurologic music therapy at UM Bank United Center as part of the Stamps Distinguished Visitors Series.\nDr. Daniel Levitin meets with music therapy students from Frost School of Music after his lecture at the UM BankUnited Center.\nNeurologic Music Therapy Research Expands Understanding of the Human Brain.\nMarch 4, 2011—By Julia Berg\nAbout 20 years ago, a young indie rock ‘n’ roll producer sat in a San Francisco Bay recording studio while Carlos Santana recorded a new album…and he felt goose-bumps.\nEven though it is a common physical reaction, the producer, Daniel Levitin (who also worked with Stevie Wonder and such groups as Blue Oyster Cult) found himself fixated on figuring out WHY we have physical reactions such as goose bumps when listening to great music.\nAfter the Santana project wrapped, Levitin audited a class at nearby Stanford to learn more about the field of neuroscience, and soon after entered a fascinating new field of research focusing specifically on music and the brain, ultimately earning a Ph.D.\nNow a leading expert on the subject, he is the James McGill Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada with additional appointments in music theory, computer science and education. The author of the best-selling “This is Your Brain on Music” and “The World in Six Songs,” Dr. Levitin enthralled an audience of 400 at the University of Miami’s BankUnited Center on March 3 as a guest lecturer for the Frost School of Music’s 2011 Stamps Family Charitable Foundation Distinguished Visitors Series.\nStill an active guitarist, producer and songwriter, Levitin believes that music “reinvents and reinvigorates the brain.” His research is used in clinical settings to help study and rehabilitate damaged brains, and has brought significant international attention to the type of neurologic music therapy research that is being done by Shannon de l’Etoile and Teresa Lesiuk at the UM Frost School of Music in conjunction with the UM Miller School of Medicine.\nDuring the lecture, he also summarized research findings on musical expertise, and what gives rise to the “super-genius” in music.\nHe notes that “all of us are expert music listeners: by the age of five, most children have internalized rules about which chord progressions are “legal” or typical of their culture’s music.”\nRecognizing that the brain has a “music acquisition device” similar to the “language acquisition device” that enables the human brain to acquire language skills in any language (there are over 6,000 languages currently in use throughout the world), he notes that studies have shown that if music is denied to a young person in the first 10 years of life, he/she may never be musical, just like if language is denied during the first 10 years of life.\nSo, conversely, what gives rise to the rare super-genius in music?\n“Music engages more regions of the brain than anything else,” Levitin explains, but “musical expertise manifests in many ways.” Those who play and study music do not all become super-geniuses, but more often develop an “expertise domain” in a dominant musical area such as rhythm, pitch, playing and instrument, composing, arranging, or professional listening (such as DJs, hit-makers and producers).\nHe also explains that language researchers define “expert” as being superior in things that we socially care about, such as emotions, music, art, intellect, and athletics…and not things that we don’t care much about, like being good at crossing your arms.\n“Brain studies also indicate that components of expertise that contribute to superior performance include memory, attention, will power, belief in self, physical configuration and an ability to view multiple failures as necessary steps to succeed,” and that these qualities manifest themselves in musical geniuses, as well as geniuses in other fields.\nSo, music students…rev your engines. Activate your auditory cortex to invigorate your brain, engage your brain in all musical domains, and take your audiences on a scenic brain journey. You’ll maximize your musical expertise and invigorate your brain.\nFollow Daniel Levitin’s research blog at twitter.com/danlevitin"}
{"content":"America is Moving Beyond Coal\nBy MikeBloomberg.com - JUL. 26, 2012\nOne year ago, Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Sierra Club formed a partnership with the goal of retiring one-third of the remaining 500 coal-fired plants in the U.S. by 2020 and replacing them with clean energy. As the Sierra Club announced today, 112 coal plants have announced plans for retirement and America is moving beyond coal towards a cleaner energy future.\n“We are clearly witnessing the end of our dependency on coal and the move toward a cleaner energy future,\" said Mike Bloomberg, whose Bloomberg Philanthropies has contributed $50 million to the Beyond Coal Campaign. “Coal-fired power plants and the pollution they produce—including mercury—are the number one threat to our public health and the environment. This is an issue of the American people's public health versus a narrow special interest. And we will not stop until we have achieved our goal.”\nAccording to the Clean Air Task Force, the removal of 112 coal-fired power plants translates into the prevention of around 2,166 deaths, 3,426 heart attacks, and 35,210 asthma attacks every year.\nLargely due to the decrease in coal use, the U.S. has experienced the largest reduction in carbon pollution of any country, with C02 emissions falling by 7.7 percent, according to a report by the International Energy Agency.\nU.N. Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change and President of the Board of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group.\nIN MIKE'S WORDS\nThere are so many facets to climate change that make it difficult to address, but you don’t give up just because it’s difficult. You work harder.\n70% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions come from cities.\nCities also present the greatest opportunities for protecting the environment. Mayors around the world are rising to the challenge."}
{"content":"Top 100 Teams\nInternational League (Triple-A)\nBy Bill Weiss & Marshall Wright, Baseball Historians\n|1918 TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS|\nIn 1918, due to wartime travel restrictions caused by America’s involvement in World War I, every minor league in the land, save one, stopped play in June or July. The one league that continued on to its scheduled conclusion was the International. Its champion in 1918 was the Toronto club, although the MapleLeafs wouldn’t win the laurels without a struggle.\nThe city of Toronto, located on the north shore of Lake Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario, entered teams in several professional 19th century leagues. Among them were the Canadian(1885) and Eastern Leagues (1886-90). The team, which was called the Canucks, won one flag during this time, besting Buffalo by three games in 1887.\nIn 1895, Toronto rejoined the Eastern League, remaining in the loop through the league’s change of name to International in 1912. The team, now named the Maple Leafs after Canada’s national symbol, finished first in 1902, with a top 100 team, and in 1907. As World War I engulfed the globe, the team won another flag in 1917, setting the stage for even a better champion the following season.\nMinor league baseball entered the 1918 season with ten leagues in operation. However, the United States had a “work or fight” order in place, stating that non-essential workers like baseball players would have to join the war effort either as a part of the armed services or a war-related industry. In addition, travel, a necessity for baseball leagues, was severly restricted. With this collar in place, the ten leagues began to fall by the wayside. In June, the Blue Ridge and Virginia Leagues as well as the Southern Association suspended operations. The Pacific Coast, Western, Eastern, Pacific Coast International, Texas and American Association followed suit in July. That left only the International League standing, with the stipulation that their season would end three weeks early, on September 2.\nAt this time, Toronto played its home games at 18,000-seat Maple leaf Park, located at Hanlan’s Point, adjacent to an amusement park and a zoo on an island in Lake Ontario. It was the third facility on the site, opened in 1910, after two earlier wooden ballparks had burned down. Fans reached the park by ferry.\nAll through the abbreviated 1918 campaign, Toronto and an upstart franchise from Binghamton, known as the Bingoes, battled for the bunting. Binghamton got out to an early lead and by the end of June was 32-9, 7.5 ahead of Rochester. Toronto started out slowly, but had a hot July, pulling within percentage points of the Bingoes by the end of the month. The two clubs raced neck-and-neck through August and by September were in a virtual tie. After the games of Saturday, August 31, Binghamton held a one point lead over the Maple Leafs, 82-37, .689 to 86-39, .688. On Sunday, Binghamton took a double-header from Baltimore 4-1 and 2-0, while Toronto was idle. Both teams had morning-afternoon double-headers scheduled for closing day, the Bingoes at home against the Orioles, the Maple Leafs at home against Buffalo. Both teams won the morning games, Toronto, 4-1 behind Fred (Bugs) Hersche, who won his 21st game, and Binghamton, 2-1, although Baltimore collected 11 hits off John Verbout. If the Bingoes won the afternoon contest, they won the pennant. Toronto’s only hope was a Binghamton loss while the Leafs defeated Buffalo. At Binghamton, the two staff aces faced one another, Ralph Worrell, the league’s top hurler going for his 25th victory, for the Orioles and Johnny Beckvermit (17-3) for the Bingoes. Beckvermit was working with only one day’s rest. On Saturday he had pitched a 3-0 shutout over Baltimore. The Orioles scored single runs in the first and second innings and Worrell made them stand up. Although he gave up nine hits, Binghamton scored only once, in the fourth. That game was over while the Leafs and Bisons were still playing and the result was posted on the Toronto scoreboard. Each team scored two runs in the fourth and one in the fifth and that’s the way it stood after nine innings. Buffalo scored one run in the tenth and the Leafs tied it once again. In the bottom of the 12th, Toronto had runners on first and second with one out. Leo Callahan was walked intentionally to load the bases. Then, Fred (King) Lear hit a long drive to deep center field to score the winning run and give Toronto the pennant. Lear’s hit climaxed a great day. He went 3-for-6, drove in four of Toronto’s five runs, stole three bases and handled 20 putouts at first base. As a result, the Leafs claimed the pennant by a razor-thin .693 to .691 margin.\nThe ’18 Leafs were managed by 32-year-old Dapper Dan Howley, who also served as the team’s number two catcher. Howley, a life-long resident of Weymouth, MA, had jumped from semi-pro ball to Indianapolis of the American Association at the age of 20 in 1906. In his first professional appearance he caught an exhibition game against the World Champion New York Giants, which Indianapolis lost to Christy Mathewson 2-1, and threw out three runners trying to steal. Howley caught for Indianapolis for four years, then for Utica and Portland (PCL) before reaching the majors in 1913 with the Phillies. He appeared in only 26 games, batting just .125 and was traded to Montreal. In mid-1914, Dan was appointed Montreal manager at the age of 28 and led the Royals through the 1917 season. He was then appointed manager of Toronto and had some big shoes to fill. In 1917, the immortal Nap Lajoie had led the Maple Leafs to the pennant while hitting a league-leading .380, but he resigned in a salary dispute and went to Indianapolis in 1918. Toronto had to rebuild their team as well. By the time the 1918 season started, only two members of the ’17 champions, pitchers Jack Warhop and Hal Justin, remained. After winning the 1918 title, Howley was appointed coach at Detroit, but after a disagreement with manager Hugh Jennings, he left to manage Hartford in 1920. Ty Cobb replaced Jennings in 1921 and re-hired his friend Howley as coach. After two years, Howley returned to Toronto to manage in 1923 and finished fourth, second and second the next three seasons. In 1926, as the Maple Leafs opened their new mainland stadium, Howley led the team to another International League pennant, dethroning Baltimore after the Orioles had won seven consecutive championships. The Leafs capped the season by defeating Louisville (American Association) five straight games in the Junior World Series. In 1927, Howley moved up to the majors to become manager of the St. Louis Browns, finishing seventh, third and fourth in his three seasons there. His 1929 team was the last Browns club to reach the first division until 1942. He left St. Louis to take over the reins at Cincinnati, but with little money to spend, the Reds finished seventh once and eighth twice during his tenure. Howley returned to Toronto in 1933, but left after a salary dispute following one fifth-place season. He came back to the Maple Leafs once more in 1937-38, but after two second-division finishes he retired from managing. Howley later became a scout for the Red Sox and was serving in that capacity when he suffered a fatal heart attack in March, 1944.\nHolding down first base for the Leafs was 25-year-old left-handed hitting Ed Onslow (.318), one of the all-time greats in International League history. After hitting .235 in 52 games for Detroit in 1912-13, he joined Providence for the first of 17 consecutive seasons in the International League. Playing for five different teams including Toronto, Rochester, Baltimore and Newark, he set the league’s career records for most years, games (2,109), hits (2,445) and triples (128). Ironically, he never was a season leader in those or any other offensive departments. After five years with Providence, Onslow moved to Toronto for seven consecutive seasons interrupted only by two games with Cleveland at the end of 1918. In 1922 he replaced Lena Blackburne as Toronto manager. After a fifth place finish, he returned to the playing ranks when Howley came back in 1923. Onslow had one more shot at the majors, hitting .222 in nine games for Washington in 1927. His last season as a player was 1929 when he hit .308 for Baltimore and Newark. Onslow had a career minor league average of.327 with 2,712 hits in 2,326 games. He managed for 11 years, starting in 1930, and later scouted for the White Sox and Athletics (1949-53). Eddie’s older brother, Jack Onslow, a former catcher, managed the White Sox in 1949-50.\nLear was the Maple Leafs’ leading hitter at .345, fourth in the league, and was second in walks (60). He had been a star athlete at Villanova where he suffered an arm injury playing football that bothered him throughout his baseball career. He went from college to the Athletics for two games in 1915, then was sent to the minors. The Cubs acquired him in 1918 and optioned him to Toronto. He played for Chicago in 1919 and the Giants in 1920 with a .235 major league average in 75 games. Lear’s best years were with Milwaukee, hitting .358, .354 and .297 in 1921-22-23. He played three seasons of outlaw baseball for Kenosha in the Midwest League before returning for one final season in Organized Baseball with Milwaukee in 1927. He later scouted for the Pirates and White Sox. Lear called himself “the last of the choke hitters.” Off the field, he was well known as a raconteur and pianist.\nOne of the Leafs’ most interesting players was speedy outfielder Alex “Midget” Reilley, who came from Indianapolis in mid-season. Reilley, a switch-hitter, stood only 5’4 ½ “ tall and weighed 148 pounds. In a 19-year minor league career (1905-23) he stole 676 bases, the seventh highest total in minor league history. His only appearance in the majors was in 1909 when he bated .210 in 20 games for Cleveland.\nThe third baseman was 32-year-old Billy Purtell (.311) whose playing career spanned 25 years (1904-28). In 1910, Purtell set one of the majors’ most unusual records, one that still stands. While batting .210 in 151 games for the White Sox and Red Sox, he hit only 6 doubles, the fewest by any major league player in 150 or more games. He did have 5 triples and two home runs! Purtell hit .227 in 335 major league games in five seasons with Chicago, Boston and Detroit (1908-11, 1914). He played in the International League for six years between 1912 and 1920 for Jersey City, Montreal, Toronto and Akron. His younger brother Marty, a shortstop during most of his career, was a player for 15 years and a player-manager for 16 more although he never reached the majors. Marty got into a few games at the age of 50, in 1939. He scouted for the Giants, Braves Yankees and Pirates for 13 years.\nOutfielder Dave Callahan (.317) hit .200 in 19 games for Cleveland in 1910 and 1911. Outfielder Johnny Mokan batted only .212 for Toronto, but later had a seven-year .291 average for the Pirates and Phillies (1921-27), three times hitting over .300.\nHersche, a 31-year-old, stocky, 5’8” right-hander from Parker’s Landing, PA, was the Leafs’ best pitcher (21-6, 1.88), third in the league in wins and seventh in ERA. He pitched 25 complete games in 29 starts. This was his first year in Toronto and his best season in a career going back to 1910. He was with the Leafs again in 1919 (16-5, 3.13), his last year in Organized Baseball. Neither Hersche nor Toronto’s other two big winners, Hal Justin (19-10) and Alex Peterson (18-8) ever pitched in the majors.\nThe best known of the Toronto pitchers was 34-year-old Jack Warhop (4-2, 3.73) who had a 69-93, 3.09 record in 7+ years with the New York Highlanders/Yankees from 1908-15. He is forever enshrined in baseball history as the pitcher off whom Babe Ruth hit his first two major league home runs, on May 6 and June 2, 1915 when Ruth was a Red Sox hurler. Warhop also is one of only four major league pitchers to steal home twice during their careers. A 1915 “Baseball Magazine” article about Warhop was titled “The Unluckiest Pitcher in the American League.” In 1912 his ERA was 2.86 with a 10-19 record and in 1914 it was 2.36 with an 8-15 mark. Typical was a 1914 game against the White Sox; he shut them out for 12 innings only to lose 1-0 in the 13th on an error, a sacrifice and a single. Warhop was one of the few pitchers with an underhand delivery to reach the majors. Contemporary articles describe him as “diminutive”, although the record books list him as 5’9”, 160-165 pounds. New York writer Tom Meany, describing Warhop at a 1951 old-timers reunion, referred to him as a “tiny wisp of a man.” His nicknames included “The Flea,” because of his size, and “The Crab,” because he was always complaining (perhaps justified if it was due to lack of support by his teammates). He was sometimes called “Chief” by people who thought he was of Indian ancestry because of his last name and his high cheekbones. However, Jack said he was of French-Irish descent and the family name originally Wauhop.\nIn his three years before joining New York, Warhop won 82 and lost only 20: 29-7 for Freeport (Wisconsin-Illinois) in 1906, 30-6 for the same team in 1907 and 29-7 for Williamsport (Tri-State) in 1908. In 1907 he struck out 330 and his 13 shutouts were the second most in a season in minor league history. After he left the Yankees, Warhop pitched for Salt Lake City and Baltimore before arriving in Toronto during the 1917 season. He was out of Organized Baseball in 1919, pitched for Norfolk and Columbia in 1920-21-22 and played semi-pro ball from 1923-26. On June 8, 1927, six weeks into the season, Warhop signed with Bridgeport (Eastern). In his third start for the Bears, June 22, two weeks before his 43rd birthday, he pitched a complete 17-inning game, losing to Hartford 4-3. On August 10 he became possibly the oldest man to pitch and win a complete double-header. In the first game he beat Albany, 5-3 in nine innings, then pitched a ten-inning 1-0 six-hitter in the nightcap. For the season he was 11-7, 2.49, ninth in ERA, pitched 177 innings and completed 15 of his 18 starts. Warhop pitched one more season before retiring.\nDuring its last 50 years in the league, Toronto won its share of honors, placing three more teams (1920, 1926 and 1960) in the top 100 list. In 1967, the Maple Leafs left the International League. Nine years later, the Toronto Blue Jays joined the American League, where they remain today.\nIn a war-strained year, the 1918 Leafs, after surviving a frantic pennant chase, represented the year’s sole surviving minor league with honor. In addition, of the four Toronto first place teams in the top 100, none have finished with a better mark then the 1918 champions.\n|1918 International League Standings|\n|1918 Toronto Maple Leafs batting statistics|\n|1918 Toronto Maple Leafs pitching statistics|"}
{"content":"Mintzberg's 5 Ps of Strategy\nDeveloping a Better Strategy\nWhat's your approach to developing strategy?\nMany of us brainstorm opportunities, and then plan how we'll take advantage of them.\nUnfortunately, while this type of approach is important, we need to think about much more than this if we want to be successful. After all, there's no point in developing a strategy that ignores competitors' reactions, or doesn't consider the culture and capabilities of your organization. And it would be wasteful not to make full use of your company's strengths – whether these are obvious or not.\nManagement expert, Henry Mintzberg, argued that it's really hard to get strategy right. To help us think about it in more depth, he developed his 5 Ps of Strategy – five different definitions of (or approaches to) developing strategy.\nAbout the 5 Ps\nMintzberg first wrote about the 5 Ps of Strategy in 1987. Each of the 5 Ps is a different approach to strategy. They are:\nBy understanding each P, you can develop a robust business strategy that takes full advantage of your organization's strengths and capabilities.\nIn this article, we'll explore the 5 Ps in more detail, and we'll look at tools that you can use in each area.\n1. Strategy as a Plan\nPlanning is something that many managers are happy with, and it's something that comes naturally to us. As such, this is the default, automatic approach that we adopt – brainstorming options and planning how to deliver them.\nThis is fine, and planning is an essential part of the strategy formulation process.\nOur articles on PEST Analysis , SWOT Analysis and Brainstorming help you think about and identify opportunities; the article on practical business planning looks at the planning process in more detail; and our sections on change management and project management teach the skills you need to deliver the strategic plan in detail.\nThe problem with planning, however, is that it's not enough on its own. This is where the other four Ps come into play.\n2. Strategy as Ploy\nMintzberg says that getting the better of competitors, by plotting to disrupt, dissuade, discourage, or otherwise influence them, can be part of a strategy. This is where strategy can be a ploy, as well as a plan.\nFor example, a grocery chain might threaten to expand a store, so that a competitor doesn't move into the same area; or a telecommunications company might buy up patents that a competitor could potentially use to launch a rival product.\nHere, techniques and tools such as the Futures Wheel , Impact Analysis and Scenario Analysis can help you explore the possible future scenarios in which competition will occur. Our article on Game Theory then gives you powerful tools for mapping out how the competitive \"game\" is likely to unfold, so that you can set yourself up to win it.\n3. Strategy as Pattern\nStrategic plans and ploys are both deliberate exercises. Sometimes, however, strategy emerges from past organizational behavior. Rather than being an intentional choice, a consistent and successful way of doing business can develop into a strategy.\nFor instance, imagine a manager who makes decisions that further enhance an already highly responsive customer support process. Despite not deliberately choosing to build a strategic advantage, his pattern of actions nevertheless creates one.\nTo use this element of the 5 Ps, take note of the patterns you see in your team and organization. Then, ask yourself whether these patterns have become an implicit part of your strategy; and think about the impact these patterns should have on how you approach strategic planning.\nTools such as USP Analysis and Core Competence Analysis can help you with this. A related tool, VRIO Analysis, can help you explore resources and assets (rather than patterns) that you should focus on when thinking about strategy.\n4. Strategy as Position\n\"Position\" is another way to define strategy – that is, how you decide to position yourself in the marketplace. In this way, strategy helps you explore the fit between your organization and your environment, and it helps you develop a sustainable competitive advantage .\nFor example, your strategy might include developing a niche product to avoid competition, or choosing to position yourself amongst a variety of competitors, while looking for ways to differentiate your services.\nWhen you think about your strategic position, it helps to understand your organization's \"bigger picture\" in relation to external factors. To do this, use PEST Analysis , Porter's Diamond , and Porter's Five Forces to analyze your environment – these tools will show where you have a strong position, and where you may have issues.\nAs with \"Strategy as a Pattern,\" Core Competence Analysis , USP Analysis , and VRIO Analysis can help you craft a successful competitive position. You can also use SWOT Analysis to identify what you do well, and to uncover opportunities.\nThere can be a lot of overlap between \"Strategy as Position\" and other elements of the 5 Ps. For instance, you can also achieve a desired position through planning, and by using a ploy. Don't worry about these overlaps – just get as much value as you can from the different approaches.\n5. Strategy as Perspective\nThe choices an organization makes about its strategy rely heavily on its culture – just as patterns of behavior can emerge as strategy, patterns of thinking will shape an organization's perspective, and the things that it is able to do well.\nFor instance, an organization that encourages risk-taking and innovation from employees might focus on coming up with innovative products as the main thrust behind its strategy. By contrast, an organization that emphasizes the reliable processing of data may follow a strategy of offering these services to other organizations under outsourcing arrangements.\nUsing the 5 Ps\nInstead of trying to use the 5 Ps as a process to follow while developing strategy, think of them as a variety of viewpoints that you should consider while developing a robust and successful strategy.\nAs such, there are three points in the strategic planning process where it's particularly helpful to use the 5 Ps:\n- When you're gathering information and conducting the analysis needed for strategy development, as a way of ensuring that you've considered everything relevant.\n- When you've come up with initial ideas, as a way of testing that that they're realistic, practical and robust.\n- As a final check on the strategy that you've developed, to flush out inconsistencies and things that may not have been fully considered.\nUsing Mintzberg's 5 Ps at these points will highlight problems that would otherwise undermine the implementation of your strategy.\nAfter all, it's much better to identify these problems at the planning stage than it is to find out about them after you've spent several years – and millions of dollars – implementing a plan that was flawed from the start.\nThe 5 Ps of Strategy were created by Henry Mintzberg in 1987. Each of the 5 Ps stands for a different approach to strategy:\nAs a Plan, strategy needs to be developed in advance and with purpose. As a Ploy, strategy is a means of outsmarting the competition.\nWith strategy as a Pattern, we learn to appreciate that what was successful in the past can lead to success in the future.\nWith Position, strategy is about how the organization relates to its competitive environment, and what it can do to make its products unique in the marketplace.\nPerspective emphasizes the substantial influence that organizational culture and collective thinking can have on strategic decision making within a company.\nUnderstanding and using each element helps you develop a robust, practical and achievable business strategy.\nThis site teaches you the skills you need for a happy and successful career; and this is just one of many tools and resources that you'll find here at Mind Tools. Subscribe to our free newsletter, or join the Mind Tools Club and really supercharge your career!"}
{"content":"A sluice is generally defined as an artificial channel through which flows controlled amounts of water. In gold placering, the sluice includes sluice-boxes which collect the gold by means of various configurations of riffles, corrugations, mats, expanded metal, or the like, which trap the heavier particles while allowing the waste to continue through.\nAn important part of any sluicing operation is its water supply, and where water is not plentiful, pumps, pipelines, or even dams with special head-gates may be required.\nSmall-scale sluicing by hand methods has been called quite appropriately shovelling -into-boxes. In contrast, in ground sluicing, usually a more efficient operation, most of the excavation is accomplished by the action of water flowing openly over the materials to be mined. In either case, the materials pass through a sluice, where gold is collected behind riffles. A variation of the sluicing technique, where water is stored and released against or across the materials intermittently, is called booming.\nThe sluice-box in its simplest form might be a 12-foot-long plank of 1- by 2-inch pine lumber, to which sides about 10 to 12 inches high are nailed, with braces secured at several places across the top. Larger sluices can be made with battens to cover joints between boards where gold might slip out, and with braces built around the outsides of the box for greater rigidity. To provide for a series of boxes, the ends should be bevelled or the units tapered so that one will slip into the other in descending order and form a tight joint. Four to eight such boxes in series would be a typical installation. Two men hand-shovelling into sluice-boxes can wash 5 to 10 times as much gravel as could be put through a rocker in a day. The slope of the sluice and the supply of water must be adjusted so that the gravel, including larger cobbles, will keep moving through the boxes and on out. Slopes of 4 to 12 inches per 12-foot box are normal, but if water is in short supply the slope may be increased. Trestles are necessary to support the boxes over excavated ground, galleys, or swales.\nInside the boxes, various kinds of riffles may be employed, depending upon availability of material and personal preference. The riffles, which go on the bottom, are usually set crosswise in the box, but they can also be effective when placed lengthwise, the concentrates settling between them. They may be of wood, or of strap or angle iron, or a combination of the two. Straight, round poles or a pattern of square blocks or stones can serve for riffles. Rubber or plastic strips have even been used. Durability is important for prolonged operations, so wood may be armoured with metal. Expanded metal, heavy wire screen, or cocoa mats make good riffles for collecting fine gold.\nA common height for riffles is 1-1/2 inches; they may be placed from one-half to several inches apart. Fastening the riffles to a rack, which is then wedged into place in the box, permits their removal. A tapered shape on the cross riffle, with the thinnest edge to the bottom, tends to create an eddying action that is favourable for concentration. Another way to achieve this eddying action is to cant the riffle or even just the top of the riffle. Burlap or blanket material is commonly placed under the riffles to help in collecting fine gold.\nSluice cleanups should be made at fairly regular intervals. After running clear water until the sluice is free of gravel, riffles are removed in sections starting at the upper end. With a thin stream of water, the lighter of the remaining material is washed to the sections below. Mercury may be used to amalgam fine gold from concentrate, but care must be taken to prevent escape of the mercury. The gold, heavy sands, and amalgam, if mercury has been used, can be panned or cleaned up in a rocker to obtain a final concentrate or amalgam.\nFeeding the Sluice\nIt is common in a small operation, when feeding the sluice, to place a heavy screen or closely spaced bars of some sort across the section where the gravels enter, to eliminate the larger particles, which are probably barren anyway. The screen or bars (a \"grizzly\") should be sloped so the oversize material rolls off to the side. The size of mesh or spacing will depend upon the gradation of feed, but would generally be in the range of 1/4 to 1 inch, with 3/8 inch being a common size. In larger operations a rotating screen, or trommel, might be used. In a ground sluicing operation, possibly all materials would be run through the sluice-boxes. Provisions must be made for removing the oversize material, and, if required, stacking it away from the work area.\nIf the gravel contains much clay it may be desirable to use a puddling box at the head of the string of sluice-boxes. This may be any convenient size--for instance, 3 feet wide by 6 feet long, with 6- to 8-inch sides. The clayey material is shovelled into this box and broken up with a hoe or rake before being allowed to pass into the sluice. The importance of this step is that if allowed through the sluice, the unbroken clay lumps may pick up and carry away gold particles already deposited.\nUsually, the shovelling -in method proceeds as follows: After the boxes are set, shovelling begins at an advantageous point. Experienced miners work out the ground in regular cuts and in an orderly fashion. Enough faces are provided so that shovellers will not interfere with one another. Provision is made to keep bedrock drained, and boulders and stumps are moved a minimum number of times. Cuts are taken of such a width and length that shovelling is made as easy as possible. The boxes are kept as low as possible so a minimum lift of gravel is necessary. At the same time an adequate slope must be maintained for the gravel to run through the boxes under the limitations of the available water. Allowance for dump room must also be provided at the tail end of the sluice. Leaks in the sluice are stopped promptly, and shovelling is done in such a manner that the sluice does not become clogged nor does water splash out (Water in the pit hampers shovelling.)\nAll material of a size that will run through the sluice is shovelled in, and the oversize material is thrown to one side. Boulders from the first cut should be stacked outside the pit, on barren ground if possible. The width of a cut is usually limited to the distance a man can shovel in one operation. When shovelling from more than several feet away, it is best to set boards above and on the opposite side of the box; this increases the efficiency of the shovellers. The greatest height a man can shovel into a box is 7 to 8 feet, and above 5 or 6 feet the efficiency of the shoveller is markedly reduced. If the gravel is over 3 or 4 feet deep, it usually is excavated in benches to facilitate digging and to permit the upper layers to be raised a minimum shovelling height. Where the gravel is shallow, wheelbarrows may be used. Another way is to shovel the gravel onto a conveyor belt that discharges into a trommel, discarding the oversize material and running the undersize material through the sluice. Where two or more persons are working in the same cut, the height of succeeding benches is governed by the character of the material being dug and the distance the gravel has to be lifted.\nThe sluice may be maintained on the surface of unworked ground or supported on bents on the opposite side of the cut. After the first cut the boulders are thrown onto the cleaned-up bedrock. Where cuts are run on both sides of the sluice, the boxes are supported on bents as the ground underneath them is dug out. At other places the boxes may be set on bedrock and the dirt may be shovelled into the head of the sluice from short transverse cuts at the upper end of the pit. Work usually begins at the lower end of a deposit so that bedrock may be kept drained, and then proceeds across the deposit by regular cuts. The length and order of the cuts will depend upon local conditions. As heavy sands and gravel build up deposits between the riffles in the sluice, it may be necessary to stir these up to prevent packing and the consequent override of gold particles. A tined implement such as a pitchfork is often convenient for this. Larger stones that lodge in the sluiceway may be similarly removed.\nThe quantity of water available will influence the scale of operations and the size of sluice used. A minimum flow of 15 to 20 miner's inches (170 to 225 gallons per minute) is required for a 12-inch-wide sluice-box with a steep grade. Smaller flows than this can be utilized by storing the water in some kind of reservoir and using the supply intermittently. A common practice followed where the quantity of water is limited is to use a grizzly or screen over the sluice to eliminate oversize material and thus increase the duty of the water. Reduction in the amount of material to be treated by first running it through a trommel to wash and screen out the coarse size is another effective way to lower the water requirements.\nWater usually is conducted via ditch to the sluice. However, if the ground is rich enough it may be practicable to pump water for the sluice. The feasibility of obtaining a gravity flow should first be investigated, as the expense of pumping may be more than the cost of a long ditch, when the cost is distributed over the yardage of gravel moved. A suitable number of sluice-boxes or some other removal system may be used to transport the tailings to a dumping ground away from the working area. A tailings or settling pond may be required to maintain downstream water quality.\nGround sluicing utilizes the cascading effect of water to break down the gravel; hence, the requirements for water are much greater. The chief application of ground sluicing is to streambed deposits. Pipelines, flumes, or ditches would be necessary if ground sluicing were applied to gravels higher up on banks or terraces, and the larger scale hydraulic methods would then become more favourable. If booming is to be done, a dam and reservoir are needed. The dam is usually equipped with a gate mechanism that permits either automatic or manual control and quick release of the impounded water for maximum washing effect. The water may be passed over the upper face of a gravel bank or diverted against the bottom in order to undercut and carry away the gravel as the face of the bank breaks down. All materials are channelled toward the sluice.\nThe natural flow of a stream can be used by diverting the current with boards or simply with piled boulders. \"Shears\" can be constructed of 1- or 2-inch-thick boards 12 feet long nailed to pairs of tripods so that the boards slope back from the water flow at an angle of about 60 degrees. The tripods are built in such a way that boulders can be piled inside the base to hold them in place. A row of these shears may be used to divert the force of the water against a bank, or two rows may be used to form a flume.\nThe seasonal nature of stream flow in different areas must be kept in mind when planning any placer operation. State and Federal agencies can provide information on stream runoff for many of the more important streams, information which will indicate the limitations in water supply that might be expected due to seasonal changes.\nFrom: Bureau of Mines Information Circular 8517 by J.M. West, released in 1971.\nRafal Swiecki, geological engineer email contact\nThis document is in the public domain."}
{"content":"DETROIT, MI- Today marks the 60th anniversary of General Motors Co. starting production of arguably the most iconic vehicle ever, the Chevrolet Corvette.\nThe sports car, now in its seventh-generation, is Americana. Since its inception, many of the more than 1.5 million Corvettes produced by GM have found their way onto the big screen and hearts of car-lovers worldwide.\n“During the past six decades, the Corvette has been woven into the fabric of American culture, as the sports car of choice for movie stars, musicians and astronauts,” said Chris Perry, vice president, Chevrolet marketing, in a statement. “The very best Corvettes represent the state-of-the-art for their eras in terms of design, technology and performance.”\nAs production hits the 60th-anniversary mark, the Detroit-based automaker appears to have no thoughts of retiring the iconic nameplate.\nEarlier this year, GM unveiled the seventh-generation Corvette, named the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray.\nThe highly-anticipated vehicle features an all-new small-block, LT1 6.2-liter V8 engine that delivers an estimated 450-horsepower and achieve 0-60 in less than four seconds.\nGM resurrected the iconic Stingray moniker for the 2014 Corvette, which features a modern, more defined look.\nThe Stingray, or “Sting Ray” from 1963-67, has only been used on two other generations of production Corvettes in the vehicle’s 60-year history.\nStingray was last used four generations ago on the Detroit-based automaker’s generation 3 Corvette from 1968-82. The name was first used on the 1959 racing car and again for the second-generation Corvette from 1963-67.\nHere’s a look at more key facts highlighting 60 years of Corvette history:\n- Corvette is the world’s longest-running, continuously produced passenger car. The longest-running vehicle of any type is the Chevrolet Suburban.\n- Corvette made its debut as a concept vehicle at the General Motors Autorama in New York City on Jan. 17, 1953. It was such a success that a limited run of 300 production Corvettes began on June 30 of that year.\n- All 1953 models were Polo White with a red interior and they were priced at $3,498. In 2006, the third 1953 Corvette produced sold for a record $1.06 million at auction.\n- Corvette was exclusively available with an inline six-cylinder engine until 1955. That year, the optional V-8 engine was ordered by 90 percent of buyers. The six-cylinder was dropped in 1956. Corvette has been available exclusively with V-8 power since.\n- Corvette was produced only as a convertible for its first 10 years. The fixed-roof 1963 “split-window” Corvette Sting Ray coupe launched the second-generation Corvette. Sales doubled and it became a year-round car for drivers in colder climates.\n- Approximately 1.56 million Corvettes have been produced since June 30, 1953. The 500,000th Corvette was built in 1977; the 1 millionth was built in 1992, and the 1.5 millionth Corvette rolled off the line in 2009.\n- Corvettes have been produced at three facilities: Flint, Mich. (1953); St. Louis, Mo., (1954-1981); and Bowling Green, Ky. (1981-2014). The change from St. Louis to Bowling Green happened during the production year. The first 1981 Corvette was built in St. Louis, and the last 1981 Corvette was built in Bowling Green.\n- No 1983 Corvettes were sold to the public. The model year was skipped in preparation for the all-new 1984 Corvette, which launched the C4 generation. Forty-four Corvette prototypes were built as 1983 models. Only one remains, and it is on display at the National Corvette Museum, in Bowling Green, Ky.\nClick here for all the most-recent news regarding the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray."}
{"content":"The Holland-Grand Haven and Detroit areas had the fastest growing real gross domestic product in 2011 among 14 metro areas in Michigan.\nThe Niles-Benton Harbor and Battle Creek areas, however, had some of the biggest decreases among all metro areas nationwide.\n“The growth is mixed across metro areas in Michigan, and I would say that most of all, the diversity of the industry mix of the local economies is going to be a key determinant into whether or not the metro area is going to grow or see declines in real GDP,” said Sharon Panek, an economist with the BEA.\nEight Michigan metro areas increased their real GDP from 2010 to 2011, while six contracted, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. On average, the 14 metropolitan statistical areas increased their real GDP by 0.7 percent, compared to a national metropolitan average of 1.6 percent growth.\nReal GDP is an inflation-adjusted measure of an area’s gross product that is based on national prices for the goods and services produced within the metropolitan area, according to the BEA.\nMichigan had the 6th fastest-growing GDP in the nation in 2011, marking two consecutive years of strong growth after years of declines.\n“Similar to what we’re seeing at the national level, the trends in the areas across Michigan were driven by manufacturing and professional and business services,” Panek said.\nThe Holland-Grand Haven area’s GDP grew 4.2 percent, the biggest increase in Michigan and 21st best among 366 metro areas nationwide. Detroit’s growth of 3.5 percent was second-highest in Michigan and 34th highest in the country. Both have rebounded from double-digit declines in 2009.\n“Metro Detroit is more economically tied to how auto sales are doing, so they do way worse than the rest of the country when things are going down, and they do better than the rest of the country when things are going up,” said Alex Rosaen, a consultant with Anderson Economic Group in East Lansing.\nMeanwhile, the Niles-Benton Harbor area’s GDP shrunk by 3.1 percent, the biggest decline in Michigan and 8th worst nationwide. Battle Creek didn’t fare much better, dropping 2.3 percent, the 15th worst in the country. The declines come after both areas posted sizable increases in 2010.\nContraction in the natural resources/mining and transportation/utilities sectors contributed to the Niles-Benton Harbor decline. The Battle Creek area saw declines in nondurable goods manufacturing, natural resources/mining and professional and business services sectors."}
{"content":"BURTON, Michigan -- Rain and fast-melting snow caused a sanitary sewer backup at about noon today at the corner of Bristol and Fenton roads.\nFlooding on the south side of Bristol created traffic slowdowns, with Burton police diverting cars to two lanes on the north side of Bristol, just east of Fenton.\nThe backup was caused by rain and melted snow infiltrating the sanitary sewer system, said John O'Brien of the Genesee County Water and Waste Division.\nO'Brien said county crews were headed to the corner -- the center of the county's sewer system -- at about 1 p.m. to make repairs.\nA flood watch was still in effect this afternoon, but no serious traffic accidents were reported.\nFlooding occurred sporadically throughout the area, including at the corner of Pierson Road and Dupont Street. Standing water was reported in some yards in Clio.\nThe county saw less than one inch of rain overnight and this morning, said Danny Costello, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in White Lake Township.\nHeavy fog throughout the county lifted at about 11 a.m., he said. Costello predicted rain showers on and off Saturday, with temperatures dropping to the 30s tonight.\nHigh winds and some snow were expected Sunday, he said."}
{"content":"LANSING, MI - Michigan's ban against affirmative action in public university admissions will remain in place while the state awaits whether the Supreme Court will take its appeal.\nThe 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this month struck down the 2006 voter-approved constitutional amendment known as the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, or Proposal 2, which banned the use of race, gender or ethnicity in college admissions.\nBut on Friday the court granted Attorney General Bill Schuette's request to stay its ruling until the Supreme Court disposes of the case. The Republican on Thursday filed his appeal to the high court.\nThe appeals court in Cincinnati said having supporters and opponents debate affirmative action through the governing boards of each public university would be much fairer than cementing a ban in the constitution, which it referred to as home of \"the highest level\" of public policy.\nThe decision is limited to states in the 6th Circuit, which includes Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee. But it also raises the odds that the Supreme Court may get involved.\nA very similar law in California was upheld by a San Francisco-based appeals court, and the Supreme Court could choose to resolve the conflicting decisions of the 9th Circuit and the 6th Circuit on voter-approved bans.\nThe University of Michigan's admissions policies were the basis of a landmark 2003 Supreme Court ruling that prohibited quotas for certain racial groups at universities but allowed applicants' race to be a factor.\nThe Associated Press contributed to this report."}
{"content":"Got an old V-8-powered clunker lying around? The government says it could be worth $4,500 towards the purchase of your next SUV — and it’s OK if it only gets marginally better gas mileage. I love the idea of the federal cash-for-clunkers law, but I hate the way it is shaping up in Washington, the city where dreams go to die.\nBut the compromise worked out between the House of Representatives has resulted in a bill that doesn’t make much sense, especially when it comes to trucks. The clunker has to get 18 mpg or worse, but the trade-in can be only two mpg better and you still get a $3,500 voucher. For $4,500, it only has to be five mpg better. This is not a misprint — two and five mpg — we’re not saving the planet with tiny increments this way.\nThe bill is a bit better for cars — it has to be 10 mpg better for you to clear the $4,500 voucher, but even if there’s only a four mpg improvement you’re good for $3,500. Thanks, Captain Planets of the U.S. House of Representatives!\nThe American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy says the scrappage program “needs repair.” According to Therese Langer, ACEEE’s transportation program director, “I can’t see using taxpayer dollars to sell a Hummer H3T [which meets the 15-mpg large truck threshold].”\nThere’s a better bill, introduced in the Senate by Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Charles Schumer (D-NY).\nThis one would achieve 32 to 38 percent greater fuel savings than the House compromise, and would demand that the car you buy has above-average fuel economy in its class. The trade-in will have to be 17-mpg or worse, which may raise the price on ’74 Cadillac Eldorados. New cars under their version of the program will have to get at least 24 mpg and trucks 20 mpg. The new car will have to be at least seven mpg better than the one traded in, and the new truck at least three mpg.\nThe senators think their version would save 176 gallons of gas per vehicle per year (compared to 133 gallons in the House bill) and 11,451 barrels of oil per day (House: 8,706 barrels). Feinstein says the House compromise would “allow for the scrapping of perfectly adequate vehicles in return for federal incentives to purchase gas-guzzling vehicles. That’s unacceptable.”\nIt’s not surprising that the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers likes the Senate version of the bill backed by Deborah Stabenow (D-MI) and Sam Brownback (R-KA). It’s much friendlier to SUVs and other cars Detroit is still stuck with. New cars have to get 22 mpg instead of 24, and trucks 18 mpg instead of 20. Brownback and Stabenow say it will sell a million vehicles over its one-year life. That’s great for Stabenow’s state of Michigan, but what kind of cars will they be?\nAccording to Alliance President and CEO Dave McCurdy, “With just-released May auto sales reporting a continued decline towards numbers that haven’t been seen in a quarter century it is imperative to consumers, dealers, manufacturers and the communities they represent that a fleet modernization proposal be passed by Congress and quickly signed into law by the President.” That's their emphasis.\nJack Hidary, one of the authors of the Center for American Progress white paper and the chairman of Smarttransportation.org, says the compromise bill came about because lawmakers needed the vote of powerful Michigan Congressman John Dingell on the climate bill, and \"he demanded a much lower bar because U.S. automakers produce so few fuel-efficient cars.\"\nU.S. automakers currently have a million cars in inventory, so action is needed fast. Ten other countries, including Germany and Italy, have instituted their own version of clunker bills, and they're already producing increased car sales.\nLet’s get rid of the clunker of a bill now moving forward. The reform bill would actually help, compared to legislation that is a big wet kiss to auto states and car dealers. It is still early in the process, Hidary says, and it is possible that the legislation that actually gets passed will be a further compromise — between the Stabenow and Feinstein versions of the Senate bills. The differences could be worked out in a Senate conference.\nHere's a bit more of an explanation of how cash for clunker bills work, from Cars.com:\nThe opinions expressed by MNN Bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of MNN.com. While we have reviewed their content to make sure it complies with our Terms and Conditions, MNN is not responsible for the accuracy of any of their information."}
{"content":"Also known as gluten enteropathy, coeliac disease is a problem in the intestine which is cause by an abnormal immune response to gluten. Gluten is a protein that most commonly is found in cereal grains like wheat, barley and rye.\nEssentially coeliac disease causes damage to the lining of the small intestine and occasionally can also affect organs such as the pancreas, thyroid glands and the nervous system. This tendency to affect organs beyond the small intestine mean coeliac disease can lead to an increased risk of diabetes, thyroid disease and neurological disorders respectively.\nMost worryingly, a person can suffer coeliac disease and not show any symptoms, however, some things to be aware of that do show up in coeliac disease patients are:\nAs well as the physical symptoms listed above, coeliac disease has also been known to cause some emotional problems such as anxiety and depression.\nAs coeliac disease is triggered by gluten the best advice for suffers or people who suspect they may have coeliac disease is to work with a health professional and go gluten free. You should also go for regular check up’s to monitor coeliac disease and check for anaemia and bone health as well as nutritional deficiencies which may arise.\n|Calcium||Coeliac disease can cause mal-absorption which can lead to numerous nutritional deficiencies which taking calcium could help correct.|\n|Vitamin B12||Vitamin B12 can be beneficial for people who struggle with depression resulting from coeliac disease.|"}
{"content":"The popular social networking site Facebook asks users to make commitments to register and maintain a Facebook account. One of these commitments reads “You will not use Facebook if you are under 13” yet according to a January report in Network World, 79% of social networkers under the age of 15 admitted to having a profile on the site.\nIf you have a child who is under 13 that has a Facebook account, or if your preteen is begging you to use Facebook, in addition to breaking the rules, allowing him access to the site sets three precedents that you may want to ponder.\n1. It’s Okay to Lie When You Really Want Something\nDo you really want to get into the world of color coding lies? While some people may consider fudging your age to gain access to Facebook a white lie, to young children, a lie is simply a lie. Children learn by example. Allowing your child to fake it until he makes it, sends a strong message that if you want something bad enough, it’s okay to put to the truth behind you and say what you need to in order to get what you want.\n2. The Rules Don’t Apply to Me\nWhen you allow your child to break a rule that is designed for everyone, you’re sending the message that the rules were created for everyone else but your child. Teaching your child that he only has to follow the rules when he wants to, sends him down a slippery slope that can lead to rejecting authority from teachers or others.\n3. It, It Must Be If Everyone Else is Doing Okay\nAll his twelve year old friends have Facebook, so your child should too, right? Take this opportunity to teach your child that following the crowd isn’t always the right thing to do. Teaching your child that following the rules, even when others aren’t or when he does not want to, is a life lesson that is worth teaching.\nWhile allowing your child to use Facebook prior to turning 13 isn’t the worst parental decision you can make, it definitely can have more consequences then you may think. Before allowing your preteen to sign up, ponder the precedents that doing so may set."}
{"content":"‘Prime Minister John Howard says he is opposed to gay couples adopting children and heterosexual adoption is a benchmark society should maintain.\nBut he said that didn’t mean gay and lesbian people had no affection for children.\nThe Victorian Law Reform Commission has recommended to the Victorian Parliament that gay couples be allowed to adopt and lesbians have access to IVF treatment.\nMr Howard said today he believed children should ideally have a mother and a father.\n“It gives children the best opportunity in life,” he said on Southern Cross radio.’"}
{"content":"Definition of laparotomy\nn. - A cutting through the walls of the abdomen, as in the Caesarean section. 2\nThe word \"laparotomy\" uses 10 letters: A A L M O O P R T Y.\nNo direct anagrams for laparotomy found in this word list.\nAdding one letter to laparotomy does not form any other word in this word list.Words within laparotomy not shown as it has more than seven letters.\nAll words formed from laparotomy by changing one letter\nBrowse words starting with laparotomy by next letter"}
{"content":"Thursday, March 20, 2014\nHave you always wanted to try your hand at gardening, but feel you lack a green thumb or necessary space? Maybe you're looking for a fun way to liven up your home cooking or just a simple hobby for spring. Well, starting your own herb garden might be the thing for you.\nIf you're like me, the idea of starting a garden of your own can seem daunting. You may see the neighbors cultivating beautiful, lush gardens and think, “All I can grow is tired and frustrated.” If this sounds familiar, don't fret; you just need to start small.\nHerb gardens can be simple projects, taking up no more space than a windowsill, but the rewards can be major. Growing your own fresh Basil, Cilantro and Thyme can add that special something to any dish, while also building up your skills as a home gardener. But before we get started, we'll need a few basic essentials.\nFirst, you'll need to clear off a dedicated space to serve as the site of your future garden. It can be a sunny, south-facing kitchen windowsill or a covered space on your porch, just make sure the location recieves adequate sunlight (at least five hours a day) and isn't a high-traffic area. The last thing you want is for your fledgling garden to fall prey to your family's early morning rush or the curiosity of a house pet. Next you'll need to take a trip to the local nursery or garden supply store. There you'll want to pick up seeds (or an already established starter plant), six- to 12-inch draining pots in which to house your herbs, and a well-draining potting soil. One of the store's employees should be able to help you find what's right for you. Herbs are especially susceptible to diseases in the soil, so a store-bought brand is probably preferable to the soil you'd find in your yard. If you are starting out with seeds, you'll also need to purchase a peat pot.\nOnce you have everything you need, it's time to get your hands dirty. If you're working with a starter plant, begin by filling each pot with about three inches of soil. Then place the plant atop the soil and fill the pot until there is about one inch remaining between the surface of the soil and the top of the pot. You'll want to keep your pot in a saucer of some kind to catch all the excess water that drains out after watering. Be careful not to overwater or else you'll up with a case of rot.\nIf you've decided to go the cheaper route and are starting out with seeds, things are going to be a bit more complicated and require a little more tlc. Start by filling your peat pot with potting mix and then insert the seeds into the top of the soil. They wont need to go much deeper than a few centimeters below the surface. Now place the peat in a small bowl of water and let it sit there until it has fully absorded the contents. Once the water is absorded and the seeds are in place, loosely cover the pot in plastic to create a sort of small greenhouse. Keep an eye on the seedlings and once they reach a healthy size, they can be trasplanted into the 6-inch pot.\nAfter your herb garden is established and begins to thrive, feel free to snip off a few sprigs of oregano, basil or mint to throw in the pot as you cook or just sit back, relax and enjoy a job well done.\nDustin Waters is one of our staff reporters and the staff copy editor. Follow Dustin on Twitter @MNreports for more news updates."}
{"content":"My taste for drug-riddled crime movies may be far too indulgent. Perhaps it’s time that I stopped viewing such movies (the British movie Pusher qualifies as a recent example) as viable forms of entertainment. I reached no conclusions, but thought about the matter while watching Eugene Jarecki’s potent new documentary The House I Live In.\nFor 27 years, Robert Denerstein was the film critic at The Rocky Mountain News. Read more of Robert's reviews at Denerstein Unleashed.\nJarecki has taken a persuasive look at ravages inflicted on many Americans by the country’s apparently endless and extremely costly war on drugs. Some of the movie’s tilt derives from Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow, Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Alexander, who teaches law at Ohio State University, is interviewed in Jarecki’s movie, along with many others, including David Simon. (The title of Alexander’s book gives you a decent idea of where she stands.) Before creating The Wire, Simon reported on cops and crime in Baltimore, which is to say he has been a war correspondent in America’s battle against drugs.\nJarecki began the movie when he decided to learn more about Nannie Jeter, a woman who worked for his family as a housekeeper in New Haven, Conn. Jarecki says he thought of Jeter as a kind of second mother. As it turns out, Jeter lost a drug-addicted son. Jarecki effectively lifts his movie from the anecdotal to the global, augmenting the movie’s personal focus with lots of beefy information about the ways in which the drug war has masked consequences that have ravaged minority communities and, more recently, working class white communities.\nI don’t know if it’s fair to go quite as far as someone such as Simon, who calls the drug war a slow holocaust, but there’s little question that the U.S. war on drugs — which has been going on longer than any other war the country has fought — has been a failure, leading mostly to the creation of a profitable prison-based economy that keeps a variety of small towns thriving and also has led to the establishment of private corrections firms. In the face of the failure of so many of its stated goals, it’s difficult not to wonder why the drug war persists. This steadfast commitment to failed policy makes the conclusions Jarecki reaches powerfully plausible — and deeply unsettling."}
{"content":"Here's my question. I have a Nokia cellphone that I'd like to connect to my carputer. I want to be able to dial numbers and also to use computer's microphone and audio as a speakerphone. I know it requires two separate connections - one through the COM port for dialing and another one for audio.\nSince my Nokia doesn't have a bluetooth I'm using USB data cable for dialing numbers, but I don't know how to connect audio. Does anyone tried it? The phone has only one audio input, how do you connect it to board's microphone and audio output?\nThank you for any help!"}
{"content":"Mel Bay Learn to Burn: Uke\n- Write a Review\n- Seen a Lower Price? Click Here.\n45 day price guarantee, 45 day return policy, 100% secure shopping\nThe ukulele is an increasingly popular instrument, appearing in everything from rock albums to traditional music. With Learn to Burn: Uke, you can quickly learn to play this versatile instrument. Strumming, chords, scales, and left hand techniques are all included. Each concept in the book is first presented in easy-to-master steps and then expanded upon in play-along pieces. The music is written in both standard notation and tablature, and the accompanying audio includes a variety of styles.\nLearn to Burn: Uke Specifications:\n- Product Number:30031BCD\n- Format:Book/CD Set\n- Skill Level:Beginning-Intermediate\n- Binding:Saddle Stitched\n- Size:8.75 x 11.75\n- Series:Learn to Burn\n- Publisher:Mel Bay Publications, Inc."}
{"content":"Six to Seven\nErwin SCHULHOFF (1894-1942)\nString Sextet (1924) [22:21]\nRichard STRAUSS (1864-1949)\nMetamorphosen (1945) arr. Rudolf Leopold [27:00]\nHyperion Ensemble (Annelie Gahl and Gunde Jäch-Micko (violins),\nFirmian Lermer and Jörg Steinkrauß (violas), Detlef Mielke\nand Astrid Sulz (cellos), Martin Heinze (double bass on Strauss)\nrec. St Konrad, Abersee, Austria, 1997\nPALADINO MUSIC PMR 0010 [49:21]\nThe two works on this disc are two composer’s\nresponses to the experience of war, one by Schulhoff who was profoundly\naffected by his time as a serving soldier during the First World War.\nHe ended up in an Italian POW Camp. His life was cruelly cut short during\nthe Second World War. The other is by Strauss who watched as his beloved\ncountry fell into ruins through allied bombardment and with it his world.\nSchulhoff’s work sounds very modern for something written almost\nninety years ago; the first movement is the most expressionist which\nmakes the second slow movement sound dreamy with an austere beauty that\nis quite irresistible. The third short movement marked Burlesca.\nAllegro molto con spirito and based on a Slav folk melody is delicious;\na welcome relief from the general bleakness of the work as a whole.\nThe final movement Molto adagio reminds the listener what drove\nSchulhoff to compose the work. Its suitably dark nature rounds off a\npowerful musical statement on war. Schulhoff was friends with Janaček\nand, interestingly, just as Paul Hindemith was the violinist in the\nfirst performance abroad of Janaček’s sonata for violin and\npiano in 1923, he was also a member of the sextet that first performed\nSchulhoff’s work the following year. I was surprised to learn\nthat the sextet was only published for the first time in 1978 for there\nis no doubt after hearing it that it is a major contribution to the\ncorpus of 20th century chamber music. Repeated hearings will make it\na favourite with any lover of such repertoire. The Hyperion Ensemble\nwhich came together precisely to present the two works on this disc\nfor a festival concert in 1996, and has since stayed together, are clearly\ncommitted performers of this work and have done Schulhoff good service\nReading something of Richard Strauss reveals him as a pathetic character\nfar from the willing tool of the Nazis as has often been the impression.\nRather he was a true believer in the nature of art and the German contribution\nto its history. Choosing to stay after Hitler took power resulted in\ndifficult choices when trying to steer a path through those turbulent\ntimes. His efforts to protect his Jewish daughter-in-law and Jewish\ngrandchildren led to compromises that, perhaps, in other circumstances\nhe would not have made. He was resolute in his determination to continue\nto perform the music of banned composers such as Mahler and Mendelssohn.\nIn 1933 he wrote in his private notebook “I consider the Streicher-Goebbels\nJew-baiting as a disgrace to German honour, as evidence of incompetence\n- the basest weapon of untalented, lazy mediocrity against a higher\nintelligence and greater talent”. Strauss had hoped that since\nHitler, an ardent lover of Wagner, had admired Strauss’s opera\nSalome that he would support and champion German culture. Goebbels\non the other hand had no time for Strauss’s music and wrote that\nonce “we have our own music ... we shall no further need of this\ndecadent neurotic”. There is plenty more evidence of his hatred\nfor the regime not least the entry in his diary following the end of\nthe war that reads “The most terrible period of human history\nis at an end, the twelve year reign of bestiality, ignorance and anti-culture\nunder the greatest criminals, during which Germany's 2000 years of cultural\nevolution met its doom”.\nStrauss’s Metamorphosen was written in 1945 amid the blackest\ndays of the war during which he witnessed the destruction of every major\nopera house. This music is the starkest representation of the grief\nhe must have felt at what seemed to him to be the destruction of German\nculture itself. Originally composed as a work for septet it was Paul\nSacher that great “artpreneur” who commissioned it to be\nturned into a work for 23 strings. Here in a version by Rudolf Leopold\nwe can hear it as originally intended. The greatest of Strauss’s\ngifts is his incredible imagination when it comes to orchestration.\nHis use of strings is almost unparalleled in the music of the twentieth\ncentury and this work is proof of that. Gorgeous harmonies abound with\nsounds that reach upwards toward the heavens all tinged with sad reflections\non the folly of Man and its pernicious results.\nStrauss wrote in 1947 that \"I may not be a first-rate composer, but\nI am a first-class second-rate composer.\" I and millions of others would\nbeg to differ and indeed his reputation as one of the greatest composers\nof the first half of the 20th century is assured. This work\nis among those that caused that assessment and deservedly so. The performance\nhere is sumptuous but with Strauss’s uncanny ability to write\nfabulous melodies that could hardly be otherwise.\nThis disc presents two very different reactions to the experience of\nwar, the earlier one more advanced in experimental terms, the later\nmore conventionally “classical” but both equally effective"}
{"content":"Compelling Vocal Drama\nLAWRENCE BUDMEN listens to\nand the New World Symphony\nThe New World Symphony presented a program of early twentieth century music from Paris and Vienna on 19 December 2009 at the Lincoln Theater in Miami Beach, Florida, USA. With the gifted British conductor Mark Wigglesworth in charge of most of the podium duties, the highlight of the evening was Alban Berg's exquisite, too rarely heard Seven Early Songs in a spellbinding performance by Canadian soprano Measha Brueggergosman, an artist of remarkable expressive range and compelling vocal drama. Indeed her achievement was one of the finest musical events witnessed by this critic in 2009.\nThe young Berg was a prolific composer of art songs. By the time he was in his early twenties and began studying with Arnold Schoenberg (a pivotal moment in his career), Berg had produced some eighty songs. The Seven Early Songs were composed between 1905 and 1908 and then orchestrated as a cycle for a November 1928 première. (By that time Berg had achieved celebrity as a leading avant garde composer and Schoenberg protégé with the first performance of his opera Wozzeck in 1925.) The songs reveal a young composer under the spell of Richard Strauss. Expansive vocal lines, surges of impassioned and haunting song and subtle variations of dynamics are woven into this mercurial cycle. In the final song Summer Days, Berg produced an outburst of poignant lyricism that foretells the elderly Strauss' Four Last Songs. The composer has encased these memorable vocal ruminations in a rich orchestral fabric, the string writing particularly deep and passionate.\nBrueggergosman, one of the most distinctive vocalists on the contemporary opera and concert scene, gave an extraordinary reading of these neglected gems. Generous in beauty of tone and intensity of feeling, the soprano exhibited dark, smoky richness of timbre and pure, dulcet high tones that entranced the ear. Her deep emotional penetration made each song come vividly alive as mini vocal drama. Indeed Brueggergosman's performance would be hard to surpass, vocally or interpretively. A memorable fusion of music and artistry. Wigglesworth is a vastly experienced opera conductor whose resumé includes appearances at the English National Opera and New York's Metropolitan Opera. He drew gorgeous string textures from the eager young players and provided a soaring wave of orchestral luminescence beneath Brueggergosman's vocal velvet.\nNew World conducting fellow Edward Abrams opened the French portion of the program with a snappy, jazz inflected rendition of Darius Milhaud's 1923 ballet score La creation du monde ('The Creation of the World'), Op 81. A meticulous craftsman, the talented Abrams led an idiomatic performance that captured the jazzy 1920s musical panorama but did not slight the contrasting moments of lyricism and songful repose. The seventeen instrumentalists played superbly with especially dynamic solo piano and saxophone riffs. Written a year before Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, Milhaud's score remains a musical landmark. It was a pleasure to encounter such a vital performance.\nWigglesworth emphasized instrumental transparency and magical impressionistic colors in a luminous reading of Ravel's Mother Goose Suite. The conductor found the perfect sound for each movement: softly surreal for the opening Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty; light and bright for Tom Thumb; rich extravagance of colors and timbres for Empress of the Pagodas (delivered with bracing orchestral panache); sensuous string hues for Conversations of Beauty and the Beast; and soaring, gorgeous climactic radiance for The Enchanted Garden. Wigglesworth's lucid conducting produced an enchanted performance of a masterpiece taken too easily for granted. The New World musicians played their hearts out, producing a glorious stream of orchestral paintings -- musical impressionism at its most intoxicating.\nWigglesworth commanded the lilt and orchestral shimmer of Strauss' Suite from Der Rosenkavalier, Op 59. The Viennese waltzes danced in felicitous syncopation. Wigglesworth understands the trick of that slight hesitation that distinguishes a waltz from Vienna. The Presentation of the Rose music glowed in lush, captivating sounds. Wigglesworth miscalculated some of the climaxes. In the Lincoln Theater's super bright acoustics, fortissimos were overwrought. Also the music of the final trio was rushed, lacking poetry and eloquence. The vivacious playing of the youthful orchestral academy members remained hard to resist. Strauss' poignant backward glance at the era of the Viennese waltz kings proved the perfect holiday musical champagne toast.\nCopyright © 24 December 2009\nMiami Beach, USA\nNew World Symphony members play Martinu's Nonet, Britten's Phantasy Quartet, Rzewski's Moonrise with Memories and Stravinsky's Suite from The Soldier's Tale on 15 January 2010 at the Lincoln Theater in Miami Beach, Florida, USA. Violist and Curtis Institute of Music president Roberto Diaz is guest artist for a chamber matinée musicale on 17 January featuring Hindemith's Clarinet Quintet and Trauermusik and Beethoven's Viola Quintet (Storm).\nOn January 23 Susanna Malkki conducts The Finish Line in the Sounds of the Times series with cello soloist Anssi Karttunen in a program of Saariaho's Notes on Light, Murail's Gondwana and Lindberg's Feria. On 5 and 6 February French conductor Ludovic Morlot leads Berlioz's Les Francs-juges Overture, Stravinsky's Petrouchka and John Adams' Violin Concerto with Jennifer Koh as soloist.\nRobert Spano conducts Gershwin's American in Paris, Rachmaninov's Symphony No 3 and Barber's Violin Concerto with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg on 20 February at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami. For information see www.nws.edu"}
{"content":"On October 17, 2011 the EPA approved revisions to Oregon's water quality standards for toxic substances that determine how much fish humans can safely consume. The standards for toxics were already stringent and the further decrease will require more advanced treatment technologies and systems. Regional program staff were actively engaged in the review process with the DEQ to provide accurate information on potential impacts to municipal wastewater treatment facilities.\nOn June 1, 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) disapproved Oregon's New and Revised Human Health Water Quality Criteria for Toxics, which cleared the way for Oregon to continue the rulemaking process whereby the \"Fish Consumption Rate\" has been increased to the highest levels in the United States.\nThe 6.5 g/day fish consumption rate has been increased to 175 g/day (24- 8 ounce meals a month).\nFor more information visit the DEQ website."}
{"content":"About ESF 4 / ESF 9\nThe Division of State Fire Marshal is the lead agency for two Emergency Support Functions (ESF) at the State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) during a disaster or state emergency. The Division is responsible for the management and staffing of ESF 4 (Firefighting) and ESF 9 (Search and Rescue) at the SEOC as mandated by the State of Florida Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan.\nThe Division accomplishes this responsibility through a partnership with the Florida Division of Forestry and the Florida Fire Chiefs' Association, both of which supply personnel at the SEOC as part of the staffing plan. Personnel are assigned from all of the Division's Bureaus and are responsible for:\nEnsuring relief is provided for any resource necessary for an extended operation.\nIn addition, State Fire Marshal personnel assigned to the SEOC coordinate with Law Enforcement (ESF 16), Military Support (ESF 13), Health and Medical (ESF 8) and Hazardous Materials (ESF 10). There are other ESFs in the SEOC that either supply information or receive information from ESF's 4 and 9.\nThe coordinated response and management of statewide fire service resources is accomplished using the Florida Fire Chiefs' Association Statewide Emergency Response Plan (SERP). This plan was developed shortly after Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and has been used extensively since that time. Every year this plan is reviewed for necessary revisions by a committee designated by the President of the Florida Fire Chiefs' Association. The Division of State Fire Marshal uses the Incident Management System as a standard for SEOC operations. Training in emergency management is an ongoing, cooperative effort with the four partners: the Division of State Fire Marshal, the Florida Forest Service, the Florida Fire Chiefs' Association and the Division of Emergency Management.\nIn addition to responsibilities at the SEOC, the Division of State Fire Marshal also staffs multiple teams of Division personnel to respond to the disaster area and perform search and rescue duties, debris removal, road clearing and damage assessment. These teams are comprised of personnel from all three bureaus of the Division and are provided with fire apparatus from the Fire College and communication vans and bobcat tractors from the Bureau of Fire and Arson Investigations. The teams are self-sufficient for a minimum period of 72 hours. After which, support for the teams is supplied by either the Division or through the SEOC.\nDivision personnel at the SEOC are also responsible for providing current information concerning any disaster or emergency to the management of the Department of Insurance and other organizations with responsibility for providing disaster assistance. This is accomplished through the Department of Insurance statewide network as well as internet e-mail. This computer link assures that the Department receives timely and accurate information concerning the disaster.\nEMAC: Emergency Management Assistance Compact\nFEMA: Federal Emergency Management Agency\nFFCA: Florida Fire Chiefs' Association\nFMAG : Fire Management Assistance Grant\nSAR: Search and Rescue\nSERP: State Emergency Response Plan (FFCA).\nSMAA: Statewide Mutual Aid Agreement"}
{"content":"Subscribe Now - For Free!!\nSubscribe Now to the Special Yorkshire Terrier Online Newsletter & Report. Learn Important Facts and General Tips. FREE!!\nJust fill in your details below and get started...\nOwning miniature Yorkshire terriers can be great fun! Yet not everyone is up to the task of caring for them. They are extremely small dogs, no more than five pounds. The smallest ones are about three pounds.\nIf you love the way the miniature teacup Yorkie looks then you need to make sure you can properly care for it. They require a great deal of protection so they won't be injured.\nYou also need to make sure you have the right food for it, understand grooming needs, and get it ongoing medical care.\nThese Toy dogs are very expensive though so not everyone can purchase them. They are usually at least two thousand dollars from a breeder. You can sometimes get lucky though and get them from private individuals.\nYou may be able to get one from a rescue centre as well, although you will have to be very lucky. This will allow you to save a lot of money on the cost of buying one.\nIf you enjoy dog shows, miniature Yorkshire terriers are a great breed to enter. They are adorable and will certainly gain the attention of the judges. It does take some time and effort though to train them to perform well at these shows.\nYet the recognition for the top contenders is well worth it. Their offspring can also merit a very high price on the market due to their lineage.\nThere is no question that owning one of these special dogs can be great fun. However, you need to evaluate all of the issues and make sure you are up to the task.\nToo many people purchase this breed of dog for the way it looks. They don't have a clue that it has special needs.\nTherefore they aren't able to enjoy it to the fullest. You need to make sure you don't find yourself falling into this trap.\nThe more information you have about miniature Yorkshire terriers before you look for one the better. You will have an idea of what to look for and where to get one that is very good quality.\nSince they are so expensive you don't want to get taken advantage of. Most breeders are quite honest but some of them aren't.\nThose who aren't ethical may take you for a ride because they don't think you know any better. There are also puppy mills out there pretending to be quality breeders and you need to be able to tell the difference.\nIt is very important to understand that this dog breed make very demanding pets. They need to have constant interaction.\nThis isn't a good breed of dog for someone who isn't home very much. If you aren't dedicated to spending a great deal of your time with your pet then it isn't going to work, and this breed is not for you.\nThey also are prone to severe medical problems. You need to be committed to seeing a great vet from the very start. Keep up on routine checkups, shots, and taking your dog in when something doesn't seem right.\nYour vet can also help you develop a good diet and exercise plan to keep your miniature puppy as healthy as possible.\nBelow are more articles about Teacup Yorkie Puppies;\nAll The best"}
{"content":"ACT NOW! Rockford Police Shooting Shows Need for Federal StandardsDecember 31, 1969\nIt has been two months since Mark Barmore was shot down by police officers at a Rockford, Illinois daycare center. Witness reports indicate that he was shot three times in the back, in full view of the children at the center. Mr. Barmore’s death has become a symbol of a startling lack of accountability in far too many local police forces.\nYou Can Help! On Saturday, October 3rd, join NAACP President Benjamin Jealous, along with the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, Amnesty International, the National Baptist Convention, the NAACP Illinois State Conference and the NAACP Rockford Branch for a major mobilization to combat police violence. Click here for details. We will be marching for:\n- Justice for Mark Barmore,\n- Counseling for the children who witnessed shooting, and\n- Legislation to create Federal use-of-force standards.\nWe hope you can join us, but if you cannot make it to the event, you can still help:\n- Sign our petition demanding a full investigation into the shooting by the Department of Justice, and legislation to mandate federal standards for the use of force by police officers, and\n- Sign on to our Facebook page for the latest news, photos and action opportunities from the Rockford rally."}
{"content":"Our \"NanoTube\" collection of informative and noteworthy videos\nin the areas of nanosciences and nanotechnology\nIndividual silver atoms are pulled out from a nanosized silver cluster on a Ag(111) surface at 6 K using a scanning tunneling microscope tip. Just by approaching the tip close to a protruding part of the cluster, the binding energy of the topmost cluster atom is greatly reduced. When the STM-tip laterally moves, the atom breaks the bond with the neighboring atoms within the cluster, and follows the tip trajectory. This process involves manipulation of atom along rough terrains of the 3-D cluster surface."}
{"content":"01.03.2013 - Astronomers using data from NASA's Kepler mission estimate that at least 100 billion planets populate the galaxy.\n11.20.2012 - After discovering the spacecraft was not collecting precision data, Kepler engineers succeeded in returning the spacecraft to science data collection.\n11.14.2012 - Today NASA marks two milestones in the search for planets like Earth.\n10.26.2012 - The Kepler team has completed two more science data downloads marking the successful completion of Quarter 14 flight operations.\n10.15.2012 - The discovery of planets continues to expand beyond the domain of professional astronomers.\n09.14.2012 - The Kepler team completed another monthly science data download, August 29-30, completing Quarter 14 month 2 science data collection.\n08.28.2012 - Kepler-47 is the first double-star system discovered containing multiple planets, one of which is orbiting in the so-called \"habitable zone.\"\n08.22.2012 - Two newly submitted studies verify 41 new transiting planets in 20 star systems.\n08.01.2012 - The Kepler team completed another monthly science data download over July 29-30, 2012.\n07.24.2012 - As reported earlier, on July 14, 2012, the Kepler spacecraft experienced an anomaly in the reaction wheel assembly (RWA) of the Attitude and Determination Control Subsystem (ADCS).\n07.20.12 - On July 14, 2012, the Kepler spacecraft experienced a disruption in science data collection due to a pointing error.\n07.10.12 - Since the last update the team has had two science data downlinks.\n06.21.2012 - Astronomers have discovered a pair of neighboring planets with dissimilar densities orbiting very close to each other.\n06.13.12 - The formation of small worlds like Earth previously was thought to occur mostly around stars rich in heavy elements such as iron and silicon.\n06.05.2012 - It's the final opportunity of the century to witness the rare astronomical reunion of the sun, Venus and Earth.\n05.31.12 - News media and the public are invited to observe the transit of Venus broadcast live from atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii, beginning at 3:04 p.m. PDT Tuesday, June 5, 2012 in the Exploration Center at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. The June 5th transit will be the final opportunity to witness the rare astronomical reunion until 2117.\n05.18.12 - Astronomers may have detected evidence of a possible planet disintegrating under the searing heat of its host star located 1,500 light-years from Earth.\n05.15.2012 - April was a momentous time for the mission! The team received approval for a mission extension through fiscal year 2016.\n4.04.12 - NASA's Kepler mission has been approved for extension through fiscal year 2016.\n04.01.2012 - On March 31 and April 1, team members from NASA Ames and the Kepler mission will participate in the first SpaceUp San Francisco event held at Citizen Space."}
{"content":"The Cabinet Secretaries' Notebooks (CAB 195/8)\nConvention on Human Rights\nConvention on Human Rights\nConvention must be adopted – we couldn't oppose it in principle.\nFurther amendmt. won't get us anything better than this draft.\nThe European Court is based on optional clause: we don't need to be bound by it.\nWill this be a paid body? Watch that.\nThis Convention makes a planned economy impossible. Eg. inspection of premises. Arts. 4, 5, 8, 13. Policy twds. Communists in Civil Service wd. also be barred.\nAll the Greeks etc. will vote for it, even tho' they won't carry it out.\nWe shall look v. foolish if we vote v. it.\nIs Council/Europe the right place for this sort of thing. Tories wd. enjoy supportg. somethg. embarrassing to \"planning\" Govts.\nI was briefed by F.O. to stall on this in E.C.O.S.O.C.\nCan we take an opposite line at Strasbourg.\nThis Convn wd. enable U.K. co. to object at this court to a planning Reg.\nPolicy of workg. for a Convention has gone on too long to reverse it now.\nThis draft follows what U.K. repves proposed.\nWe cd. meet R.S.C.'s view by small amendment of Art. 8.\nAll these Conventns will be apt to be out of tune with letter of municipal law. Enough if consistent with genl. principle and substance of our law.\nOpposed to that view. We shall be jockeyed into accepting the court – wh. administers no known law but only generalities – and overriding our courts and our legislature.\nWe shd. be surrendering to the Commn and the Court control over our law.\nNo pol. advantage. For Russians and others won't pay the slightest attention to Convention and we shall feel obliged to.\nPolitical diffy. is tht. we shall have to oppose it in public in Assembly. Hope therefore we may take opportunity of seeking amendments in the Council of Ministers, in private. Esp. Art. 23.\nParallel Convention under discn in U.N. That restricts right of petition to States. If this is carried in C/Europe same principle may be inserted in U.N. draft.\nUrge therefore omission of Art. 23. or at least its modification.\nBut can we go back on genl. policy of support for a Convention.\nWe can either a) say that havg. seen the draft we don't like it. b) U.N. are doing one: no sense in having two.\nHow come we to put fwd. such a draft as this – inconsistent with planned economy.\nDon't accept that it does.\nTake the line tht. U.N. shd. do this, and C/Europe shd. leave it alone.\nWe cd. have said that a year ago – and didn't. What new reason for saying it now. Only hope is to try to reduce it to a declaration. Or kill it by a 1.000 cuts at particular provisions – eg. Art. 23 and Court.\nAre you going to have a Commn.\nThere's bn. a declaration already. Too late for that line.\nWe have agreed to go ahead with Conventn.\nIf we oppose it now, we shall be alone with the Greeks.\nx/ Best line wd. be to stall on this, on drafting grounds.\nM'while let J. explain the legal diffies to Maxwell Fyfe.\nCab. shd. realise it will be seen, at Assembly stage, tht. we have made volte face.\nAgreed as at x/.\nCan we have a memo. showg. how this came about.\nYes. Shdn't anyway have come up so late.\nTaken from C.M. 52(50) - Meeting held on 1 August 1950."}
{"content":"Where's Elmer Fudd when you need him? Although, the folks at San Juan Island National Historical Park, who have a rabbit problem on their hands, could use a hunter who's a little more successful than Bugs Bunny's archenemy ever was.\nThe problem at this small park (which usually is more connected with pigs, than rabbits, but that's another story) off the coast of Washington state are European rabbits, a non-native breed that, according to park officials, \"over the years has turned portions of the American Camp prairie into a moonscape.\"\nAccording to an environmental assessment the park prepared on a rabbit eradication plan, \"European rabbits were first documented on San Juan Island in 1929, but are thought to have been introduced much earlier between 1875 and 1895.\"\nWhile they provide a food source of a non-native species of fox, the rabbits have few redeeming attributes, according to the park.\nEuropean rabbits construct extensive systems of subterranean burrows known as warrens consisting of multiple entrances, tunnels, and chambers. Stevens (1975) measured one warren at American Camp with 92 m (301.8 feet) of subterranean tunnels, and recorded that warrens ranged from 0 to 56 entrances with an average of 9.35 entrances per warren. In 2006, there were 3,440 active burrows at American Camp in the core colony area. One partially collapsed burrow observed by park staff near the dunes in 2009 was nearly three feet in diameter and five feet deep. Excavated tailings from lower soil horizons are piled at entrances to burrows burying the rich prairie topsoil. These extensive systems of warrens also significantly alter the hydrologic regime at American Camp by altering absorption, runoff, retention, and evaporation rates of rainwater, as well as greatly exacerbating soil susceptibility to wind and water erosion.\nThe rabbits also impact native wildlife, such as western meadowlarks (which like to nest in grasslands), and voles, and are wiping out stands of the hookedspur violet, which is \"an important host plant for the valley silverspot butterfly.\"\n“The goal is to eliminate European rabbits from and prevent their recolonization in the park, which will allow us to protect important natural and cultural resources threatened by this non-native species,” said Superintendent Peter Dederich when he released the EA for public comment on July 8. “It also will afford us the opportunity to mitigate past damage caused by the rabbits.”\nAccording to park biologists, more than 470 non-native rabbits inhabit approximately 150 acres of American Camp today—down from an estimated high of 50 rabbits per acre in the 1970s and approximately 23 rabbits per acre in 2005. The long-term effects have been devastating to American camp’s unique prairielands.\n“European rabbits exclude native wildlife and destroy wildlife habitat, damage native plant communities, and confound efforts to restore native species,” Superintendent Dederich said. “Through their burrowing, they also damage important cultural resources the park was established to protect. Most recently rabbits re-established warrens in the Redoubt at American Camp, one of the best remaining examples of Civil War-era earthen fortification in the United States.”\nWhile the park reviewed a number of options for dispatching the rabbits, such as fumigation, live trapping, and even dogs, \"(S)hooting is generally considered one of the most effective techniques for rabbit removal and is the primary method recommended in the feasibility study conducted for the park by Island Conservation in 2006.\"\n\"To minimize potential conflicts with park users during daylight hours, shooting would be carried out primarily during nighttime hours. However, park facilities could be temporarily closed for public safety if control activities are required at dawn or dusk,\" the EA notes. \"All shooting operations would be conducted by trained professionals with experience in shooting for conservation purposes. Trained professionals are defined as individuals that have received training in firearms handling, are skilled in precision shooting, and are considered a marksman. Typically, shooting would be done with a small-caliber rifle, though other firearms could be used depending on circumstances. Lead-free ammunition would be used to eliminate risks to non-target species, such as raptors that may scavenge carcasses, as well as to avoid the general adverse environmental effects of lead.\"\nA 30-day public review and comment period for the EA runs to August 12. An open-house public meeting is scheduled from 1 to 3 p.m., on Tuesday, July 27, at the Mullis Senior Center in Friday Harbor, Washington.\nTo read and comment on the 145-page EA, head to this site. Or you can write the superintendent at San Juan Island NHP, PO Box 429, Friday Harbor, WA 98250."}
{"content":"A potted biography of Beatrix Potter\nBeatrix Potter was born in London on 28 July 1866 - as Helen Beatrix Potter. She lived with her mother Helen, her father Rupert, and her younger brother Bertram.\nThe families of both her parents had their origins in the industrialised North of England. The money inherited from the Lancashire cotton industry enabled the Potters to live comfortably in Bolton Gardens, an elegant square in Kensington, London.\nRupert Potter was a qualified barrister who chose not to practice his profession but to pursue his passion for art and photography. As a young child, Beatrix showed signs of having inherited the artistic talent of her parents and was frequently treated to gallery trips or visits to her father’s notable friends: William Gaskell, husband of Elizabeth Gaskell the novelist, and John Everett Millais, the painter.\nTypical of many middleclass young girls in the Victorian period, Beatrix had little real contact with her parents. Her childhood was rather lonely, with few friends and only a governess for company. Her fascination for painting and drawing occupied most of her spare time outside lessons and she loved to sketch plants and animals. This interest would later become the inspiration for her stories.\nThe Potters took long holidays each year to the countryside in Scotland and the Lake District, where Beatrix indulged in her interest in nature, spending hours exploring and sketching the wildlife. Her first visit to the Lake District was in 1882 when she visited Wray Castle, a Victorian gothic mansion. They also stayed in Lingholm, Fawe Park, Holehird, and Lakefield (now Ees Wyke).\nBeatrix frequently returned from holiday with animals such as mice, rabbits, newts, caterpillars and birds which formed an entire menagerie that lived in the schoolroom.\nThe Tale of Peter Rabbit and the first children’s books\nBeatrix had been painting for her own amusement for many years but in 1890 she had her first commercial success with rabbit pictures she sold as Christmas card designs to Hildesheimer & Faulkener.\nBeatrix had become close friends with her former governess, Annie Moore. She was particularly fond of Annie’s young children, regularly writing amusing picture letters for them about the many pets she kept.\nSeveral years later Beatrix turned one of the tales into a picture book. It was rejected by several publishers, so she privately printed 250 copies of it herself. The Tale of Peter Rabbit was a great success with family and friends.\nIn 1902, Frederick Warne & Co agreed to publish an initial quantity of 8,000. They sold out instantly and Beatrix’s career as a storyteller was launched.\nBy 1905, Warne had published six of Beatrix Potter’s books, including The Tale of Mrs Tiggy-Winkle. She used the profits to buy her first farm, Hill Top Farm in Near Sawrey village in the Lake District.\nIn the summer of that year, Norman Warne proposed marriage and she accepted. But tragically, Norman fell ill and died four weeks later. Beatrix threw herself into the running of her farm whilst working on more ‘little books’. The Tale of Tom Kitten and The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck were both set in and around Hill Top.\nIn 1903 Beatrix Potter designed and patented a Peter Rabbit doll – making Peter Rabbit the world’s oldest licensed character.\nWith her approval a range slippers, handkerchiefs and china tea sets were designed and by the 1940s Wedgwood and Royal Doulton had begun to create pottery with scenes from the tales.\nBeatrix and the Lake District\nBeatrix loved life in the Lake District and as a prominent member of the farming community she won prizes for breeding sheep, especially the Herdwick breed. She did much to promote the breed and was the first woman to be elected president of the Herdwick Sheep Breeders Association (although she died before she took up the chair). She also became a fierce campaigner on local conservation issues. She was passionate about preserving a way of life, but she was an astute and forward thinking business woman, not afraid of making changes where necessary.\nDuring the next few years Beatrix purchased a considerable amount of land in the Lake District and was advised by local solicitor William Heelis who she later married. She and William lived in Castle Cottage, Near Sawrey, from 1913 until her death. Only a few books were produced for Frederick Warne after their marriage.\nBeatrix and the National Trust\nShe worked closely with the National Trust, helping it to acquire land and manage farms with a view to long-term preservation. In one of her letters to Eleanor Rawnsley in 1934, she wrote 'I wish there may be a sufficient representative number of the old farms in the hands of the Trust.'\nBeatrix was a friend of Canon Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley – one of the three founder members of the National Trust. When she died in 1943, she left 4000 acres of land and countryside to the National Trust, as well as 14 farms.\nAll of these farms are still working farms managed by tenant farmers, in accordance with her wishes, and we continue her conservation work in the Lake District to this day."}
{"content":"Alkaline Diet For Disease-Free Living!\nYou’ve read my inclination towards an alkaline based, raw foods diet. You’ve probably heard about the “alkaline diet” in the news, and perhaps – if you’re really, really trendy and on top of things – you even have an alkaline water filter in your home (you’ve forked out thousands for this, too, no doubt).\nTrends aside, there’s a reason why an alkaline diet is such a no-brainer when it comes to maintaining our health – and preventing ailments and early-onset aging!\nWhat is PH Balance and Alkaline State\nAll humans, when we are born, are perfectly PH balanced. This means that we are in an alkaline state – the opposite of which is an acidic state. The best example of an alkaline state is how a newborn smells: clean, fresh, almost sweet. Many elders smell sour: this is because their tissues are continually in an acidic state. In fact, acidity is the main cause of aging, and it can be significantly slowed down by maintaining our PH balance, or alkalizing, our tissues.\nWhy Alkaline State and PH Balance Is So Important\nThink of our body as an electrical being. This means that our cells carry electrical charges, both positive and negative. In science, PH is measured on a sliding numeric scale, with PH balanced tissue resting at around 7.5. In a PH balanced body, blood cells are equally spaced apart, which allows them to travel throughout our capillaries and our bodies easily. When our PH balance becomes too acidic, meaning our tissues are closer to 3 on the PH scale, our blood cells clump together, blocking capillaries and disrupting proper flow. This contributes to creating acidic tissues in the body, and if PH is not balanced, disease occurs. Scientists who study cancer, for example, know that cancer grows in acidic tissue, while the surrounding alkaline tissue carries no cancer.\nOur bodies are continually re-balancing our PH levels, though we live in a culture that is extremely acidic. Therefore, it is very difficult for the average human body, consuming the typical western diet, to stay alkaline. Many scientists and doctors believe that acidity is the leading cause of disease and premature aging.\nCauses Of Acidity\nFrom our alkaline, newborn state, we become gradually acidic. This is mostly because here in the west, we consume a very acidic diet. HERE’S AN AMAZING LINK (thanks, Angelfire!) that details acid forming foods, alkaline foods – it’s super detailed, so make sure you scroll down all the way! And here’s a basic list of alkaline and acidic foods:\nExtremely Alkaline Lemons, watermelon.\nAlkaline Forming Cantaloupe, cayenne celery, dates, figs, kelp, limes, mango, melons, papaya, parsley, seaweeds, seedless grapes (sweet), watercress. Asparagus, fruit juices, grapes (sweet), kiwifruit, passionfruit, pears (sweet), pineapple, raisins, umeboshi plums, and vegetable juices.\nModerately Alkaline Apples (sweet), alfalfa sprouts, apricots, avocados, bananas (ripe), currants, dates, figs (fresh), garlic, grapefruit, grapes (less sweet), guavas, herbs (leafy green), lettuce (leafy green), nectarine, peaches (sweet), pears (less sweet), peas (fresh, sweet), pumpkin (sweet), sea salt (vegetable). Apples (sour), beans (fresh, green), beets, bell peppers, broccoli, cabbage, carob, cauliflower, ginger (fresh), grapes (sour), lettuce (pale green), oranges, peaches (less sweet), peas (less sweet), potatoes (with skin), pumpkin (less sweet), raspberries, strawberries, squash, sweet Corn (fresh), turnip, vinegar (apple cider).\nSlightly Alkaline Almonds, artichokes (jerusalem), brussel sprouts, cherries, coconut (fresh), cucumbers, eggplant, honey (raw), leeks, mushrooms, okra, olives (ripe), onions, pickles (homemade), radishes, sea salt, spices, tomatoes (sweet), vinegar (sweet brown rice). Chestnuts (dry, roasted), egg yolks (soft cooked), essene bread, goat’s milk and whey (raw), mayonnaise (homemade), olive oil, sesame seeds (whole), soy beans (dry), soy cheese, soy milk, sprouted grains, tofu, tomatoes (less sweet), and yeast (nutritional flakes).\nNeutral Butter (fresh, unsalted), cream (fresh, raw), cow’s milk and whey (raw), margine, oils (except olive), and yogurt (plain).\nModerately Acidic Bananas (green), barley (rye), blueberries, bran, butter, cereals (unrefined), cheeses, crackers (unrefined rye, rice and wheat), cranberries, dried beans (mung, adzuki, pinto, kidney, garbanzo), dry coconut, egg whites, eggs whole (cooked hard), fructose, goat’s milk (homogenized), honey (pasteurized), ketchup, maple syrup (unprocessed), milk (homogenized). Molasses (unsulferd and organic), most nuts, mustard, oats (rye, organic), olives (pickled), pasta (whole grain), pastry (whole grain and honey), plums, popcorn (with salt and/or butter), potatoes, prunes, rice (basmati and brown), seeds (pumpkin, sunflower), soy sauce, and wheat bread (sprouted organic).\nExtremely Acidic Artificial sweeteners, beef, beer, breads, brown sugar, carbonated soft drinks, cereals (refined), chocolate, cigarettes and tobacco, coffee, cream of wheat (unrefined), custard (with white sugar), deer, drugs, fish, flour (white, wheat), fruit juices with sugar, jams, jellies, lamb. Liquor, maple syrup (processed), molasses (sulphured), pasta (white), pastries and cakes from white flour, pickles (commercial), pork, poultry, seafood, sugar (white), table salt (refined and iodized), tea (black), white bread, white vinegar (processed), whole wheat foods, wine, and yogurt (sweetened).\nHow To Balance PH And Stay Alkaline\nThe best way to stay alkaline is to consume a mostly alkaline diet. According to many experts, we should enjoy about 60% alkaline forming foods, and 40% acidic foods. Eating fresh vegetables, low amounts of protein, and drinking citrus-infused water – yes, I know that citrus is acid, but it actually creates an alkaline ash in the urine! – will help keep the body in a PH balanced state. Couple that with a healthy lifestyle, avoiding toxins like cigarettes, household cleaners and environmental pollutants, can all keep acidity at bay.\nA Sample Alkaline Meal Plan:\nHere’s what I typically consume on any given day. I feel amazing, and I know that I am keeping myself balanced! And youthful, and healthy, and gorgeous.\nUpon Rising: Glass of pure water with squeeze of sliced lime\nCoffee: SUPER ACIDIC I know! This is my one indulgence. Forgive me please. At least I’m honest.\nBreakfast: Raw Breakfast: Apple chunks, 1/4 avocado slices, grated fresh coconut, tsp flax seeds, tsp pumpkin seeds\nSnack: Smoothie: 1 ounce almonds, 1/2 cup raw spinach, 1 tbs coconut oil, 1 pear – cored, 1/2 to 1 cup pure water. Blend – enjoy!\nnch: Raw Salad: Mixed greens, heaps of sprouts (I sprout my own, and I love them mixed: like alfalfa, mung, lentil, chick pea), cucumber slices, chopped veggies: zucchini, carrots, celery, tomato, raw olives, chopped tofu, flax seeds, chopped fresh dill. Dressing: olive or grape seed oil, spray of Bragg’s non-fermented soy sauce. Occasionally I’ll add a sprinkling of Red Star nutritional yeast. Yum!\nSnack: Seaweed rolls: Nori lined with lettuce leaf, tomato, cucumber, sprouts, green onion. Bragg’s sauce to dip.\nJuice: My current fave: apple, cucumber, celery, kale, and a slice of ginger.\nDinner: Broiled wild salmon, mashed sweet potatos with garlic and olive oil, steamed chard.\nMy diet may seem a little extreme to those of you unfamiliar with raw foods. You needn’t be so hard-core – I really like to eat this way, but it’s not for everyone! What IS for everyone, though, is Incorporating more alkaline foods into your daily diet. I guarantee you that you will look, feel, and perform better than you can remember!\nIn health, Sage Photo"}
{"content":"Sore Throat Home Remedy.\nUnfortunately it’s cold and flu season, again! And one of the most common symptoms associated with a virus is a sore throat. Generally it is caused by Streptococcus; a common strain of bacteria that can live in your respiratory systems for months. Sore throats are irritating, bothersome, and just plain sore. So we would like to help you soothe that pain.\nHere are 2 great home remedies to help ease your throat:\n1. Good ol’ mom’s recipe. Boil up some hot water, and mix in a tablespoon of honey, and squeeze of lemon. The honey will help soothe your throat. Honey has not been proven to, but has been said that it contains substances that can help kill microorganism/viruses. At the very least it is soothing, and tastes good.\n2. Try gargling with ½ tsp of Cayenne pepper mixed with a few ounces of water. We know it sounds uncomfortable, or like the possible enemy because most of think “hot” when we think of pepper. However; capsaicin the main ingredient in chilli helps to numb the throat, and ease the pain.\nGive it a Try!"}
{"content":"Lovie Smith has broken barriers in his career as a coach. He was the first African American coach for the Chicago Bears and made history when he and Tony Dungy coached the Super Bowl in 2006.\nIt was the first time the NFL's biggest game was coached by two African Americans.\nDuring the season, he met up in a hotel lobby with Eddie Macon, another African American who broke barriers with Chicago. Macon was the first African American to play for the Bears, playing for George Halas in 1952. He was a running back and kick returner, and told the Chicago Bears website didn't have much trouble with other teams, except for one.\n\"The team that I really had problems with was the Detroit Lions. They beat me in the face, twisted my legs. When I got in a pile, I tried to come out of that pile because I knew what they were going to try to do.”\nMacon met not just Smith, but another player who was remembered for his kick returns.\n“It wasn’t just a thrill for me. It was a thrill for Devin, Charles and all of the guys who got a chance to meet the first African American player for the Chicago Bears. I always want our players to know about our history, and for us to get an opportunity to just not know about it but to see a guy that actually did it is something we won’t forget.”\nThe connection to Bears history is one that is important to Smith. Few other franchises in the NFL can take pride in the team's history like the Bears can. George Halas, the Papa Bear who founded the Bears, also founded the National Football League. The Bears have more Hall-of-Famers than any other team.\nCheck out Grizzly Detail: NBC Chicago's Bears blog features videos, photos, news, commentary and more. All the Grizzly Detail is right here.\nBear Down, Chicago.\nGrizzly Detail on Twitter: @Grizzly_Detail"}
{"content":"Telling the story of the world -- the history, the culture, the people -- is no small task. But what if you started with something small? Like say a grain of salt. Following in the footsteps of Mark Kurlansky, whose book Salt ravaged the best-seller lists in 2003, four writers who have similarly approached our vast, impenetrable history using one ingredient, one staple dish or even one bottle of wine, are gathering at the Housing Works Bookstore on Wednesday to talk about food, obsession, people, and especially people who are obsessed with food.\nAnne Mendelson, who takes a critical look at the history of dairy in her 2008 book Milk -- beginning with the lives of goat herders in the Middle East some 6,000 years ago -- will be there to discuss how we ended up with such dairy-like abominations as strawberry-flavored Nesquik and Go-Gurts. If we're lucky, maybe she will share some hot tips from her book for making homemade yogurt.\nHow did a country that thrives on cheeseburgers and mashed potatoes become so obsessed with eating raw fish and rice? Trevor Corson, in The Story of Sushi, follows students at the California Sushi Academy while also providing a history of the Japanese staple, it's unlikely rise to stardom in the U.S. over the last decade and the biology of the scaley, slippery suckers themselves.\nThere's even something for oenophiles: Brooklyn-based journalist Benjamin Wallace goes all Da Vinci Code in The Billionaire’s Vinegar as he tracks the history of a bottle of wine that famously sold for over $150,000 in 1985, revealing the dark, deceptive and ultimately ridiculous side of high-price wine collecting.\nDangerously close to home, David Sax in Save the Deli chronicles his quest for pastrami on rye outside the confines of New York City and is surprised to find salami, cabbage rolls and chopped liver that is -- get ready for it -- better than New York City's finest. Feel free to take issue with his outrageous claims (psst, he's from Toronto -- easy target) during the Q&A.\nThis is the second panel in \"Word of Mouth,\" a series to help raise money to renovate the not-for-profit Housing Works Bookstore's cafe so they can make even more fresh pies, quiches and cookies while ultimately helping out those who are homeless and living with HIV/AIDS in New York City.\nWhere: Housing Works Bookstore/Cafe\n122 Crosby Street nr. Houston\nWhen: Wednesday, April 14, 7:00 p.m.\nCost: Free (wine and beer $5)"}
{"content":"Establishment of Districts.\n§ 156-54. Jurisdiction to establish districts.\nThe clerk of the superior court of any county in the State of North Carolina shall have jurisdiction, power and authority to establish levee or drainage districts either wholly or partly located in his county, and which shall constitute a political subdivision of the State, and to locate and establish levees, drains or canals, and cause to be constructed, straightened, widened or deepened, any ditch, drain or watercourse, and to build levees or embankments and erect tidal gates and pumping plants for the purpose of draining and reclaiming wet, swamp or overflowed land; and it is hereby declared that the drainage of swamplands and the drainage of surface water from agricultural lands and the reclamation of tidal marshes shall be considered a public use and benefit and conducive to the public health, convenience and welfare, and that the districts heretofore and hereafter created under the law shall be and constitute political subdivisions of the State, with authority to provide by law to levy taxes and assessments for the construction and maintenance of said public works. (1909, c. 442, s. 1; C.S., s. 5312; 1921, c. 7.)"}
{"content":"From March 2007 to February 2010\nProject Leader(s): Professor Cam Donaldson, Dr Rachel Baker\nStaff: Sue Bell, Helen Mason, Michael Jones-Lee, Emily Lancsar, John Wildman\nContact: Dr Rachel Baker\nSponsors: European Commission\nA major issue in cost effectiveness analysis is that of the value to place on a quality adjusted life year (QALY), commonly used as a measure of health care effectiveness across Europe. This has come to the fore in several European countries, resulting from the creation of national health technology and pharmaceutical assessment agencies. Such agencies were established to make recommendations on technology adoption, addressing issues of affordability and sustainability of publicly-funded health care systems. Recommendations are most often made on the basis of QALYs produced relative to costs incurred. Methods of estimating cost per QALY, based on rigorous decision analytic models, are now very sophisticated. However, ‘threshold’ values adopted (such as £20-40,000 per QALY above or below which a new therapy will be rejected or recommended for adoption in England) are essentially arbitrary, with little or no economic foundation. This critical policy issue is reflected in the growing interest across Europe in development of more sound methods to elicit such a value.\nThe aim of this research would, therefore, be to develop robust methods to determine the monetary value of a QALY across a number of European Member States.\nThis would be addressed in two ways: through ‘modelling’ such a value based on values of statistical lives currently used (or implicit values from adoption decisions in various fields) across Member States; and through survey research to test two methods of deriving a societal willingness-to-pay (WTP) based monetary value of a QALY.\nUniversity of East Anglia\nUniversity of Aberdeen\nUniversity of Tromso\nUniversity of Southern Denmark\nSwedish Institute of Health Economics, Lund\nINSERM Research Unit 379 ‘Social Science Applied to Medicine’, Universitee de la Mediterranee Aix-Marseille\nUniversidad Pablo de Olavide, Sevilla\nErasmus University Rotterdam\nJagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków\nCorvinus University Budapest\nUniversity of York"}
{"content":"Acute hospitals grew up in the 19th century to provide safe settings for elective and emergency treatments requiring bed rest (The National Beds Inquiry, Department of Health, February 2000).\nMany of the local authority hospitals were nineteenth-century poor law hospitals recently transferred to the local authorities under Neville Chamberlain's Local Government Act of 1929. They still had the grim aura of the workhouse (Paul Addison, Now the War is Over - A Social History of Britain 1945-51).\nThe aim should be to close the City General Hospital eventually (A Survey of the Hospital Services of the North Western Area HMSO 1945).\nThe development of the Cumberland Infirmary\nThe original Cumberland Infirmary was an imposing building funded, gradually extended and continually supported by subscription. Wealthier patients' contributions helped make possible treatment of the less well off by distinguished specialist doctors. All types of cases could be admitted as inpatients and up to thirty times as many again as outpatients.\nThe old City General Hospital opened on 2 April 1864 as a \"Union\" Workhouse, and provided accommodation and \"relief\" of the poor and an adjacent \"Infirmary\" for chronic cases. It became known as the City General Hospital from 1946.\nAnother voluntary hospital was established in 1820 for Infectious Diseases at Collier Lane on the site of the present day Citadel Station. In 1847 it transferred to Crozier Lodge, a large private house next to the Infirmary. After the last Smallpox epidemic in 1904, a new Isolation Hospital was opened on Moorhouse Road, a mile beyond the city limits, which was only disposed of in 1981 following the World Health Organisation's announcement of eradication. Further voluntary provision for chronic disability and illness was made from 1883 at the Border Home for the Incurables, later Strathclyde House, demolished in 1992 to make way for a supermarket.\nEven before the formation of the National Health Service at midnight on 4/5 July 1948, the need to bring all Carlisle's hospital buildings together on one site had become the policy direction . In the event this would take more than half a century to achieve with the closure of the City Maternity and General Hospitals on 15 April 2000.\nThe development of West Cumberland Hospital\nIn West Cumbria a small voluntary and local authority managed hospital was inadequate to meet the needs of the population in an area with heavy industry and its associated morbidity. The Regional Hospital Board planned an all new District Hospital in Hensingham, Whitehaven, which opened in 1964 as the first such post war development in England. The old Whitehaven Hospital continued to be used for elderly care until closure following fire damage in 1988 whilst Workington Infirmary closed in 2005, in favour of the Private Finance Initiative Workington Community Hospital.\nIn 2009, the announcement was made that West Cumberland Hospital would be redeveloped and reburbished using capital funds and this work is progressing (see our deciated website Building Your Hospital in West Cumbria).\nThe development of our Trust\nNorth Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust was formed in 2001 when Carlisle Hospitals NHS Trust merged with West Cumbria Healthcare NHS Trust. The Trust became a University Hospital Trust in September 2008.\nOur main commissioner is Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)."}
{"content":"Research & Information\nResearch and Information assists the agriculture commissioner by providing research and analysis of issues facing agriculture and the rural community, such as federal farm policy, regulatory matters, trade, disaster assistance, crop insurance, value-added agriculture and renewable energy development.\nResearch and Information writes, edits and publishes most department publications, including press releases, informational pamphlets and brochures, newsletters and the biennial report. Publications are made available in hard copy and on NDDA’s website, www.nd.gov/ndda.\nResearch and Information serves as a liaison to agricultural organizations, councils and other government entities, and is also the point of contact for the news media and the general public in learning more about North Dakota agriculture and the department."}
{"content":"Ready for the 2010 FIFA World Cup\nEven penguins at the Japanese Hakkeijima Sea Paradise Aquarium celebrate the second most important thing in the world - soccer. Three little penguins had a mini goal placed in their habitat; it didn't take them long to start kicking and passing the ball.\nThe match in which all of them were winners was perfectly timed: to celebrate the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, starting on June 11.\nKeepers at the Aquarium usually teach animals different tricks. Beside the Ronaldo like penguins, they have taught two whales to balance oranges on their heads."}
{"content":"When you pack, make it the responsibility of one person, or make sure the divisions are absolutely clear - that way you won't arrive at your destination with six bikinis but no knickers!\nIt's a really good idea to keep a box to store all the small and essential items you take away with you - things such as calpol, spoon, toothbrushes and paste, toddler shampoo, thermometer etc.\nIt simplifies the packing process especially if it includes items that can't be packed until the last moment (i.e.toothbrushes).\n- As soon as you've washed and ironed holiday clothes put them away in the suitcase so that the family can't get at them.\n- Stuff all shoes with socks.\n- Roll your clothes - they won't get so creased.\n- If it's likely to be cold, think in terms of layers, rather than everyone having one thick coat or jacket.\n- If you can, pack your swimming stuff in your hand luggage if you're going to a hotel. That way, you can go swimming if your rooms aren't ready without having to rummage through suitcases.\n- Don't forget hot weather essentials, such as sunhats and sunglasses.\n- For little ones and toddlers make sure you keep back a pair of pants to carry in hand luggage just in case of little accidents en route\nToiletries & medicines\n- Hang on to those freebie hotel toiletries - very useful for short holidays. They'll save you a fair bit of money and space in the suitcase.\n- Make sure you pack toiletries in a zip-up bag; the lids can pop off with the cabin pressure. Put your toiletries, perfume and bulk of your make-up in your suitcase as it may be confiscated if you put it in your hand baggage. Equally, sharp objects such as tweezers or nail scissors must be packed in your hold luggage.\n- Some medicine essentials include: plasters; digital thermometer (more accurate in a hot climate); insect repellent; re-hydration salts and diarrhea medicines; antiseptic cream for insect bites; antiseptic wipes; calpol; paracetamol\nOther useful bits & bobs\n- Good quality sealable plastic bags. Useful if things spill or get dirty.\n- Clothes pegs come in handy for all sorts of things, such as creating darker curtains if necessary.\n- Some soap flakes or travel wash - useful if you run out of clean undies and you need to wash some in the sink!\n- Nail clippers - nails grow much faster in a warm climate, and short nails make it harder to scratch insect bites.\n- If you're hiring a car abroad, don't forget to take car sunshades and a child view mirror with you if you want one.\nIt might be easier to actually buy some things abroad rather than take them with you: cheap towels; inflatable boats; toiletries etc. Also, remember to check your hand baggage size before you go. Each passenger can take on one piece of hand baggage but it mustn't be any bigger than length of 56 cm, width of 45 cm and depth of 25 cm. Write your name and address on a sheet of paper and put it in your luggage. If the label comes off, it's a fail-safe."}
{"content":"Turtles, tortoises and terrapins are all members of the order Testudines. These reptiles all have a protective shell that has developed from their ribs. The top half of a turtle’s shell is called the carapace and the underside portion is called the plastron.\nContrary to cartoons and children’s media, turtles cannot leave their shells.\nThere are an estimated 300 species of Testudines. Typically, the term “turtle” is used to describe species that are associated with fresh or salt water. “Tortoise” is used for species that are strictly confined to the land. The term “terrapin” is used for only one species, the Diamondback Terrapin, which is associated with brackish water.\nOne Aquarium Way\nNewport, KY 41071\n© Copyright 2015. All Rights Reserved"}
{"content":"McDONOUGH — For people age 70 and above, often a word is as good as a handshake.\n“That’s why they’re so often the victim of scams,” said Dottie Callina, manager of communications at the Better Business Bureau. “They tend to be very trusting of what people say.”\nCallina said many scammers these days are specifically targeting the senior citizen population.\n“The worst is the grandparents scam,” she said. “People will call them and say their grandchildren are in need of urgent help. They may not think about it and just send money.”\nIn a recent Elder Fraud Survey done by Investor Protection Trust, one in five seniors fall victim to financial fraud.\n“Typically, they are likely to have excellent credit and own their home,” the release said.\nThe BBB and FBI have released a list of scams and fraud schemes seniors should be award of. They are:\nHealth Care/Insurance Fraud: Scammers may pose as a Medicare representative to get seniors to give them their personal or financial information.\nDoor to Door Sales/Repairs: Scammers will often go door-to-door offering repair services or equipment sales.\nFuneral/Cemetery Fraud: Scammers will attend the funeral service of a stranger to take advantage of the widower or other family member, claiming the deceased had an outstanding debt with them.\nCounterfeit Prescription Drugs: Consumers can now refill prescriptions online, but an unauthorized site with the best price may send ineffective or harmful drugs.\nTelemarketing Fraud: Telemarketing scams often involve calls and email offers of free prizes, low-cost vitamins or health care products.\nFraudulent “Anti-Aging” Products: Scammer-distributors will suggest bogus homeopathic remedies that do nothing or will use renegade labs to create versions of products which can have health consequences.\nInternet Fraud: Pop-up browser windows simulating virus-scanning software will fool victims into downloading a fake program. In some cases a virus will be downloaded allowing scammers to steal personal and financial information.\nGrandparent Scheme: Scammers will place a call to a senior posing as their grandchild or a relative in need of help or trapped in a foreign country. They will usually ask for cash to solve the problem and ask for payment through a money wiring service.\nInvestment Schemes: Because many seniors find themselves planning for retirement and managing their savings, investment schemes have been a successful way for scammers to take advantage of them.\nReverse Mortgage Scams: Scammers like to take advantage of the fact that many seniors own their homes and will send fraudulent letters on behalf of the county’s assessor’s office offering the homeowner to arrange a reassessment of their property for a fee.\nThe BBB has issued tips to help protect seniors from being defrauded. They recommend finding a business to trust, be aware of high pressure sales tactics and be wary of an unsolicited correspondence — this can include anything from government agencies, credit card companies and banks. Also, use secure payment methods, never send money via wire transfer and do not share any personal information — this includes social security number, bank account information, birth date or address.\n“We try to talk to talk to as many senior citizens as we can to get the word out,” Callina said. “We have to do everything we can to protect them.”\nTo report a fraud contact the Better Business Bureau online at www.bbb.org or call 404-766-0875."}
{"content":"NSW & ACT\nA BUSHFIRE has closed roads near Forster on the state's mid-north coast, as NSW faces a week of soaring temperatures and dry, windy weather.\nThe Lakes Way is currently closed in both directions between Sweet Pea Road and Green Point Drive, just south of Forster.\nNSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) crews are on the scene and have advised residents to stay in the area. No homes are currently under threat, according to the RFS.\nSix aircraft are assisting firefighters to control the blaze.\nThe Transport Management Centre has advised motorists to use the Pacific Highway as an alternative route, while those travelling to Forster should use Failford Road via Tuncurry.\nEmergency services are at the scene trying to put the fire out.\nPenrith is now Sydney's hottest suburb, with a temperature of 35.2C at 4.05pm. Bankstown fell to 27.6C at 4.04pm, Camden was 31.8C and Campbelltown 31.1C, just after 4pm.\nNSW Rural Fire Service Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers said there were 43 fires burning around the state and nine of those were not contained.\n\"We have got incidents happening all the time,\" Deputy Commissioner Rogers said.\nThese fires are located in areas ranging from Orange to Gloucester, Shoalhaven, Gundagai and Cobar.\nA Skycrane has also been stationed in Wagga in preparation for the warm weather. The other Skycrane remains in Sydney.\n\"We are making sure we have got the resources where they are needed most,'' Deputy Commissioner Rogers said.\n\"We have also provided some aircraft assistance to South Australia and Victoria to help them.\"\nA \"superheated\" air mass flowing from the deserts of central Australia will push temperatures well above 40C across huge areas of Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and the Northern Territory into next week.\nA seven-day heatwave is set to hit parts of NSW today, with temperatures expected to soar as high as 44C in the state's west - prompting warnings from the fire services and health authorities.\nFirefighters are warning NSW residents to prepare for more bushfires this weekend with windy and dry conditions tipped for much of the state, along with the hottest temperatures in four years.\nDeputy Commissioner Rogers says firefighters are expecting tough conditions over the next few days as the heatwave intensifies across inland parts of the state.\n\"We're coming from a 10-year drought where there was no fuel particularly west of the ranges to a record year where it has dried off,\" Mr Rogers told AAP.\n\"The next week of really hot weather is going to make it drier and drier to the point that it'll take a single spark and we'll have fires to deal with.\"\nMr Rogers says winds are also predicted to strengthen, making the likelihood of fires even greater.\n\"So it's fair to say we're bracing for difficult conditions over the next few days,\" he said.\nTemperatures are forecast to stay above 40C in the state's west until Tuesday next week, the Bureau of Meteorology advises.\nHowever, sea breezes are tipped to keep temperatures cooler in Sydney and NSW coastal regions.\nBureau of Meteorology forecaster Chris Webb says areas west of Dubbo are likely to experience temperatures not recorded in the state for several years.\n\"It will be the hottest run since 2009,\" Mr Webb said.\n\"The extreme temperatures are going to be on the plain west of the ranges.\n\"It's not expected to be record-breaking but it's extremely unpleasant.\"\nHe said coastal parts of the state would be \"saved from the worst of it\".\nA total fire ban is in place for NSW's southern Riverina on Friday.\nIt covers the Berrigan, Conargo, Corowa, Deniliquin, Jerilderie, Murray, Urana and Wakool council areas.\nAnd while the highest temperature in the Sydney CBD over the next seven days will only reach a maximum of 30C, the mercury is expected to reach 39C in Penrith on Tuesday.\nOther parts of western Sydney, such as Campbelltown and Liverpool, are tipped to hit 37C, while Broken Hill and Tibooburra are expecting 44C.\nThe heatwave is set to last until at least next Thursday.\nBureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Andrew Haigh said a large mass of hot air sitting over central Australia would push temperatures up in regional areas of the state for an extended period of time.\n\"We're expecting winds to be fairly light and this means a quite large and deep air mass will be sitting in the same place for a number of days,\" Mr Haigh said.\n\"The sun will heat up the land and there is nowhere for it to go. These conditions do occur from time to time where we get runs of extreme hot weather.\"\nThe highest maximum temperature ever recorded in NSW was 49.7C at Menindee, in the state's west, on January 10, 1939."}
{"content":"As the average consumer, you probably often hear about natural cosmetics and its benefits a lot lately. It is a growing trend to use this type of makeup due to the many benefits that are often associated with it, but some probably feel that using natural cosmetics is just all hype similar to other makeup products released on the market. However, the hype surrounding these makeup products is well deserved and will be around for a while due to its beneficial and healthy use.\nSo just what are organic cosmetics exactly and why should you use them? Well one of the main attractions to natural cosmetics is the 100% natural ingredients in comparison to other makeup products filled with chemicals giving the same effects desired by the consumer. These chemicals are extremely harmful to the skin and can ultimately upset allergies that the user was not aware they possessed, thus creating harmful effects on the body as well. Organic and natural ingredients give the consumer the purest of ingredients to create the look that they are trying to achieve. Since there are absolutely zero chemicals applied to the face, these natural cosmetics will also give the skin the most natural of glows as well as a completely natural look.\nIt is often not known that the skin actually takes in anything that is applied on it. These chemicals is mainstream cosmetics will pass into your skin every time that you apply it to your face, thus guiding these chemicals into your bloodstream. Immediate effects are often not seen by using these chemical filled cosmetics, but in the long run it could have very negative effects on the health of the body. Natural cosmetics will give you freedom not to worry about such things.\nOther benefits of using these cosmetics in comparison to mainstream chemical cosmetics are the fewer allergies associated with its use as well as healthier skin. Many people have sensitive skin which after long-term use of chemical cosmetics can cause skin to look worse instead of better. Natural cosmetics will not have any negative long-term effects on the skin, giving the user a healthier and younger appearance in the long haul. Using these cosmetics will also prevent clogging of the pores that is often seen in aluminum based products, whereas natural makeup contains only natural ingredients so no potential for acne scars or long-term damage.\nThe price of these products tend to run a little more than typical drugstore cosmetics, but the benefits of using these natural cosmetics outweigh the price associated with them greatly. At the end of the day, your skin will look much healthier and younger with or without cosmetics in comparison to consumers who incorporate chemical induced cosmetics into their daily ritual. This will save you money by giving you fewer products to purchase in order to fix damage done by long-term use of chemical cosmetics, while also giving you lasting effects that will not have to be associated with guilt.\nMike Funes invites you to take a look at Ucell Corp.. As the average consumer, you probably often hear about Natural Cosmetics and its benefits a lot lately. It is a growing trend to use this type of makeup due to the many benefits that are often associated with it."}
{"content":"On Thursday, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, explained his defense of a secret National Security Agency telephone surveillance program by revealing it was responsible for preventing at least one terrorist attack, the Hill r\n“Within the last few years, this program was used to stop a terrorist attack in the United States,” Rogers said.\n“We know that. It’s important. It fills in a little seam that we have, and it’s used to make sure that there is not an international nexus to any terrorism event that they may believe is ongoing in the United States.”\nThe Guardian revealed Wednesday it had come into the possession of a leaked secret court order, issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, requiring Verizon to hand over the phone records to the NSA of all of its customers, whether or not they are thought to be involved in any wrongdoing.\nThe order covers information known as “metadata” -- phone numbers, the time calls were made, the length of those calls and other identifying information but rules out the gathering of the contents of conversations or text messages.\nRogers let it be known that the House has been steadily informed regarding the information gathering and that the order must be reinstated by a judge every 90 days.\n“It is legal,” Rogers said.\n“It's been authorized by Congress and it has, again, judicial oversight and review.”\nAccording to the Washington Post,\nRogers would not get into specifics when talking about the nature of the thwarted terrorist attack, saying only that efforts were underway to declassify the information, which would then be made public.\nLater on Thursday, Rogers joined with the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., to release a joint statement praising the order.\n“The collection described with yesterday’s disclosure of a purported court order is consistent with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) as passed by Congress, executed by the Executive Branch, and approved by a Federal Court,” the statement read.\n“Understanding the necessity of the public’s trust in our intelligence activities, and out of an abundance of caution, the Committee will review this matter to ensure that it too complies with the laws established to protect the American people,” the congressmen wrote.\n© 2015 Newsmax. All rights reserved."}
{"content":"A crows foot spanner is a tool that is used to apply torque to screws and bolts. It is a type of wrench that is made up of a handle and a socket. The socket is usually attached to the handle via a screw thread. The crows foot spanner is used to apply torque to screws and bolts by turning the handle. The socket is usually attached to the handle via a screw thread.\nA crows foot spanner is a type of wrench that is used to turn bolts or nuts that are difficult to reach with a regular wrench. The crows foot spanner has a long, thin handle with a small, open-ended head that resembles a crow’s foot.\nHow do you use a crow’s foot on a torque wrench?\nIf you place the crowfoot wrench at an angle 90-degrees to the torque wrench handle, the amount of torque you’re applying doesn’t change. You can set the torque wrench to the fastener’s torque specification and continue to use the torque wrench normally. This is a great way to ensure that you’re applying the correct amount of torque to the fastener.\nWhen you put an extension on a torque wrench, the torque applied to the fastener increases as the lever arm extends. The calculator will work out what value you should set into the wrench to achieve the required fastener torque.\nHow do you measure torque with a spanner\nWhen tightening a bolt with a torque wrench, it is important to first place the wrench around the nut to hold it in place. Then, move the torque wrench back and forth until the bolt is tight. You will hear two distinct clicks to indicate the correct number of foot pounds of torque has been applied. Finally, lift up the torque wrench to release the bolt.\nA torque wrench is a precision tool that helps ensure that screws and bolts are tightened to the correct level of tension. This is important in order to avoid problems with assembly or adjustment. The torque wrench allows the operator to set the level of torque that is applied to the fastener, so that it meets the requirements for the particular application. This ensures that all parts are properly tensioned and loaded.\nCan you torque bolts with a crow’s foot?\nWhen you’re using a torque wrench, it’s important to get the setting right. The setting will determine how much torque is applied to the bolt or nut that you’re tightening. Too much torque can damage the bolt or nut, and too little torque won’t secure it properly. Finding the right setting is important to ensure that your work is done properly.\nAs such, when using a torque wrench, it is important to first identify which direction the torque wrench is designed to operate in. For most torque wrenches, this will not be an issue, as they will work in either direction. However, for the “C” series of torque wrenches, it is important to note that they will only work in the clockwise direction. The exception to this rule is the C4D600F series of torque wrenches, which have a ratchet that can be flipped over to allow for counter-clockwise applications.\nWhat happens if you torque too much?\nIf a technician uses too much force when tightening or loosening a threaded fastener, they can strip the threads or stretch the bolt beyond its limits. This can result in loose nuts, or the bolt may crack and break. It is important to use the correct amount of force when working with threaded fasteners, to avoid damaging them.\nYou should never, under any circumstances, use a “cheater bar” with a torque wrench. Not only is the accuracy adversely affected by cheater bar tools, but also serious bodily injury may result.\nDoes torque wrench prevent over tightening\nA torque wrench is used to apply a specific level of torque to a fastener such as a nut or bolt. It is important to use a torque wrench to prevent over tightening, which can damage the fastener or the surrounding material. While a torque wrench can help to prevent over tightening, it is still possible to damage the fastener if the operator does not pay attention to the click sound indicating that the torque has been reached.\nAn adjustable spanner is a versatile hand tool that can be used to tighten or loosen a variety of different fasteners. To use one, simply identify the size of the fastener you wish to work with, turn the screw mechanism on the spanner to open or close the jaws (adjusting the width between them as necessary), and then place it over the nut or bolt you wish to tighten or loosen. Finally, tighten the thumb screw back up to the desired grip.\nWhat is the easiest way to measure torque?\nOne relatively simple way to estimate torque on the output shaft of an electrical motor is to measure its electrical power input via an electrical power meter. The meter calculates the power input by measuring the current and voltage in the line driving the motor. This power input can be then used to estimate the torque by using the motor’s efficiency.\nA torque wrench is a tool used to tighten nuts and bolts to a predetermined torque value. This instrument allows fasteners to be tightened to the proper tension, helping avoid damage from over tightening or joints coming apart from under tightening.\nWhat are the three most commonly used torque wrenches\nThere are four basic types of torque wrenches, each with slightly different operating principles: beam or deflection, dial indicator, clicker, and digital.\nBeam or deflection torque wrenches are the most basic type. They work by deflecting a beam of metal when a certain amount of torque is applied. Dial indicator torque wrenches are a bit more complex. They have a dial that indicates how much torque is being applied. Click torque wrenches make a clicking sound when a certain amount of torque is applied. Digital torque wrenches are the most advanced type. They use electronic sensors to measure the amount of torque being applied.\nIt is important to keep your torque wrench clean and stored properly in order to keep it in good condition. Micrometer adjustable type torque wrenches should always be stored at their lowest torque setting to prevent damage. Always remember to unwind the handle after each use. If a torque wrench is dropped, it should be re-calibrated before use. It is also important not to exceed the capacity of the torque wrench.\nHow do you find the right torque without a torque wrench?\nA ratchet is a tool that is used to tighten or loosen a fastener. It is a very versatile tool and can be used in a variety of applications. A long ratchet will work best for this application, but any ratchet that is at least a foot long will suffice.\nThe crowfoot wrench is a handy tool to have around when you need to work in tight spaces. The ratcheting action of the socket handle locks in the direction the wrench is turned, providing the leverage needed to turn the bolt or nut.\nA crows foot spanner is a type of wrench that is used to loosen or tighten bolts and nuts. It has a long, thin handle with a small, rounded head that looks like a crow’s foot.\nA crows foot spanner is a wrench with a short, offset handle that is used to turn fasteners in tight spaces. The offset handle provides extra leverage, making it easier to loosen or tighten a fastener."}
{"content":"- The ignition of my gas hob keeps sparking during cooking\n- All the burners on my hob ignite when I press one button\n- Stuck ignition or clicking noise on the gas hob\n- The spark ignition of my gas hob keeps ticking/clicking\n- Electric spark ignition gives a short circuit after water boils over\n- Why is my gas hob sparking constantly?\n- Gas hobs\n- Gas cookers\nWhen any button on the gas hob is pressed, all the burners will spark. When the button is released when the burner is lit, the sparking will stop. This is the normal operation of a gas hob\nIf the spark ignition remains active after releasing the button, check the following:\n- Check whether the hob has become wet due to water boiling over. Remove the plug from the socket or switch off the group in the fuse box to which the gas hob is connected and dry the plate as much as possible and check whether the sparking has stopped after the group has been switched on again or the plug has been placed in the socket.\n- Check that the knob has not been accidentally left pressed by removing the knob from the hob and removing the rubber seal as instructed in the user manual.\n- Clean the rubber mounted under the button with a damp cloth. Due to the use of oil and fats during cooking, the rubbers can become greasy, causing the knob to stick to the rubber.\n- Replace the rubber seal, replace the knob, and check that the ignition returns to normal operation.\nIf the issue persists, please contact our Customer Care Team.\nIf the hob continues to tick, the plug can be removed from the socket and the hob can be used by igniting the burners with a match or table lighter. In this case approach the burner with a flame, turn the control knob counter-clockwise to the maximum gas supply position and push it down. Keep the control knob pushed for equal or less than 10 seconds to let the thermocouple warm up."}
{"content":"Severe Weather Coordination Message #2 – Friday 5/15/20 Severe Weather Potential\nHello to all…\n..Severe Weather Risk has shifted a bit further north and west with Western and Northern Massachusetts into Southern New Hampshire, clipping parts of Northwest Connecticut as the key risk area but all areas should monitor similar to the previous coordination message particularly interior Southern New England..\n..Scattered to Numerous Strong to Severe Thunderstorms are likely Friday particularly across Western and Central Massachusetts and Northern Connecticut but also possible in interior Northern Rhode Island through interior Northeast Massachusetts along and north and west of the Boston to Providence. Strong to damaging winds, hail, frequent lightning and heavy downpours resulting in urban and poor drainage flooding are the primary threats with the secondary threat for an isolated tornado particularly in Western New England..\n..The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) has shifted the enhanced risk area to focus on Western and Central Massachusetts as far east as North-Central Middlesex County Massachusetts clipping a portion of Northwest Connecticut. A slight risk of severe weather exists for the rest of Northern Connecticut, Rhode Island and interior Eastern Massachusetts up to the Boston to Providence corridor. East coastal and south coastal Massachusetts and Rhode Island remain in a marginal risk for severe weather..\n..SKYWARN Self-Activation with Amateur Radio call-up nets are likely after 3 PM ET Friday Afternoon. The timeframe for severe weather is between 3-10 PM Friday Afternoon and Evening..\nAt 1110 AM, the warm front has shifted through Southern New England with clearing evident on visible satellite imagery across interior Southern New England across, Connecticut, Western, Central and Northeast Massachusetts from the Boston to Providence corridor north and west. Clearing is also starting in southeastern areas as well. Based on the timing of the cold front being a bit later, the focus for more widespread strong to severe thunderstorms is across Western and Northern Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire clipping Northwest Connecticut. Radar does show an area of showers over Southern Ontario Canada and lighter showers in South-Central New York where which may be an area that allow severe thunderstorms to develop in the earlier peak heating timeframe of 3-7 PM and will bear watching. The headlines depict the current thinking. Key factors include:\n1.) Clearing allows for the expected heating and destabilization as modeled. This is progressing as expected.\n2.) The position of the warm front verifies allowing most of Southern New England to be in the warm sector. This has progressed as expected.\n3.) The position of and timing of the cold front is a bit later than previously forecasted which is why the enhanced risk for severe weather has shifted into Northwest Connecticut, Western and Central Massachusetts through North-Central Middlesex County Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire. The key item is whether the warm/cold frontal positions will allow for the triggering mechanism to be close enough for severe thunderstorms to develop ahead of the main line increasing the severe weather risk. The squall line of severe thunderstorms will arrive towards sunset where instability will be dropping but jet dynamics and forcing could allow the severe thunderstorms along the line or activity ahead of the line to maintain itself for 2-3 hours after sunset with the focus again in Northwest Connecticut, Western and Central Massachusetts through North-Central Middlesex County Mass and Southern New Hampshire. If the timing is later or jet dynamics do not compensate to maintain the squall line of activity or any activity ahead of the squall line, the severe weather potential would be more muted and/or isolated to scattered in nature. Regardless, the potential will have to be monitored closely.\nSKYWARN Self-Activation with Amateur Radio call-up nets are likely after 3 PM ET Friday Afternoon. This will be the last coordination message as we shift into operations mode. Below is the NWS Boston/Norton Special Weather Statement on Severe Weather Potential, Hazardous Weather Outlook, Enhanced Hazardous Weather Outlook and SPC Day-1 Convective Outlook:\nNWS Boston/Norton Special Weather Statement:\nNWS Boston/Norton Hazardous Weather Outlook:\nNWS Boston/Norton Enhanced Hazardous Weather Outlook:\nSPC Day-1 Convective Outlook:\nRobert Macedo (KD1CY)\nARES SKYWARN Coordinator\nEastern Massachusetts ARES Section Emergency Coordinator\nHome Phone #: (508) 994-1875 (After 6 PM)\nHome/Data #: (508) 997-4503 (After 6 PM)\nWork Phone #: 508-346-2929 (8 AM-5 PM)\nEmail Address: firstname.lastname@example.org\nLike us on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/wx1box\nFollow us on Twitter – http://twitter.com/wx1box"}
{"content":"A Messiah for All People\nLouis H Valbracht, St. John’s Lutheran Church\nEphesians 3: 2-12\nSeveral years ago, a young woman strayed into our church. At nineteen years of age, she had been a prostitute, had borne an illegitimate child, been married and divorced, and was well on her way to alcoholism. She wanted, and desperately needed, the help of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She needed a Savior.\nShe had a beautiful singing voice, and I suggested that she begin her relationship with our congregation by joining the choir. After the first rehearsal and the first service at which this woman sang with the choir, I heard one of the elderly members of the choir say to a friend of hers: “And there she sat, right in the choir, along with the rest of us, just like she belonged there.” What a tragedy!\nAnother time, in another city, I heard a neighboring church referred to by one of its members as a “very exclusive church.” What a horrible contradiction! How could that organization, whatever it was, be a part of the church of Jesus Christ and be “exclusive?”\nIn another case, a church member told me one time about a family of prospective members whose names I had received from someone in the congregation. Those prospects happened to be the neighbors of the member who gave his estimate. He said to me: “Quite confidentially, Pastor, I don’t think you would want them as members of our church. They just are not our kind of people.”\nAnd so it has gone, the terrible exclusiveness of part of the church of Jesus Christ, negating the message of the Gospel, which was meant for all people, the understanding of which first came about through the dynamic, untiring efforts of the Apostle Paul, who almost single-handedly carried that Gospel outside of the Jewish culture where some people, including St. Peter himself, sought to confine it.\nThe Twelfth Day\nWe like to sing about the “Twelve Days of Christmas.” We go through the whole song to the twelfth day of Christmas. But I venture to say that if I were to ask you what is the twelfth day of Christmas, there would be probably half of you that wouldn’t know. Usually, even though we sing about the twelve days of Christmas, we never make it. By that time, our trees are down, the decorations are all packed in their usual places for another year, the children are back in school, and the January White Sales have begun.\nWhat is the twelfth day of Christmas? It is January 6th, the Epiphany of our Lord. Epiphany was the first Christmas, the most ancient celebration of Christmas in Christendom, and a lot more valid, incidentally, than December 25th. We put the festival of the birth of Christ on that date so that we could compete with the pagan festival of Saturnalia. Epiphany was the great celebration. That word coming from the two Greek words epi and phaino, means, “to show forth.” The glory of Christ was shown forth, for this is the day that we observe the visit of the Magi or the Wise Men to the child Jesus, and notice that I said “child,” not “infant.”\nI am sure that you are well aware by this time that contrary to much of our Christmas art and imagery and Christmas cards, and even our creche out in front of the church, that the Magi did not arrive at the same time as the shepherds at the stable in Bethlehem. They arrived between one and two years after the birth of Christ. Mary and Joseph and the young Jesus was not living in a stable at that time. The Gospel clearly states that they were living in a home. And it doesn’t call Jesus an “infant,” it calls him a “young child.”\nWe sing “We three kings of Orient are.” But there are three things wrong with that song. In the first place, they weren’t kings. In the second place, they weren’t from what we consider the Orient. And, in the third place, there weren’t three of them. And yet, we sing that song as one of our Epiphany hymns.\nActually, these men came, not from what we call the Orient, but from the area of ancient Babylon, the Tigris-Euphrates valley. They were men who were much more respected than kings, because, in those days in the Middle East, kings were a dime a dozen. These were the representatives of the school of the Magi. They were the astronomers, the astrologers, the scientists, the physicians, the prophets, the religious seers of their day. At the height of their fame and influence, they were honored far above kings, because kings were not particularly notable for being wise men. Kings don’t travel somewhere to worship other kings. They usually are going out to kill them.\nBut here is the Epiphany, the “showing forth” of the glory of Christ. Here is the miracle of joy.\nHere was a marvelous manifestation in the heavens – a star so new, so brilliant, so unusual that it stirred the school of the Magi into immediate contemplation and study, and finally action. What did the Magi see? What kind of star? Is it still in the heavens? Why did nobody else see it? Remember, they were Zoroastrians. They were astrologers, the chief astrologers of their day. They were the ones who believed – the way some people foolishly believe today – that the movement of stars had something to do with the behavior of people upon earth. And so, through calculations of astronomers and historians, we have determined that Christ was born, not in the year 1, but because of many changes and mistakes in our calendar, He was born in the year 6 or 7 B.C.\nNow in the 17th Century, the astronomer Kepler found that something did occur in the year 7 B.C. that only occurred once every 805 years in the solar system. And so, obviously, the Magi could have known nothing about that. In 7 B.C., in the winter, there occurred a very close grouping – actually a juxtaposition – of the three planets Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, as they were viewed from the earth. They became, literally, one light in the sky, more brilliant, obviously, than anything else in the sky at that time. That grouping occurred under the sign of the Zodiac, Pisces, in the winter. Some of you have noted that in my regular clerical garb I sometimes wear a medallion with the figure of Pisces on it. That is not because I’m an astrologer or believe in astrology. It is a Christian symbol. It symbolizes the coming of Christ, and it was the first symbol of the early church, not just because I was born in that period of the year. The sign of the fish!\nThis portion of the sky in which this juxtaposition occurred was known as the House of the Hebrews. And so, it was perfectly readable to the Magi as they studied the stars as though planets came together in the grouping that had never before occurred in their experience, and it occurred in the House of the Hebrews. It was obvious that something important was happening to the Jews. And since they knew that the Jews expected the coming of a great king, it was obvious to them that he had apparently come. And so, they eventually started out on their caravan, and it was about sixteen months later, in the spring of 6 B.C., that something happened that only happens once every one hundred twenty-five years in the solar system. The planets of Jupiter and Saturn came together, and to the Wise Men looking at it from Jerusalem, it appeared right over Bethlehem. So it is explained why the Wise Men knew that Jesus was born in Bethlehem.\nThe Irony of Epiphany\nThis marvelous manifestation happened, and yet the shepherds of Bethlehem didn’t see it. You know, we send out Christmas cards showing the shepherds out in the fields and the star shining above them. Well, that’s ok, if you want to put the star in, but don’t show the shepherds looking at it, because they didn’t see it. The priests and Levites didn’t see it. The Romans didn’t see it. Herod didn’t see it. And here was the sad beginning of the fulfillment of the prophecy: “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.”\nHere is the irony of God’s revelation of Himself to us. The first to fall down and worship Jesus Christ as divine king were not the ones who were supposedly waiting and watching for him, but the despised, the hated, the pagans, the heathen. They fell down and worshiped him. They came, as they told Herod, for the expressed purpose of worshiping him.\nEveryone else was so preoccupied with the pettiness of life that they didn’t notice the coming of Christ. They were too busy even to notice that the King of kings had come. But that is typical, even in our day.\nBack in the early 1950s, the world was all involved in what we called the cold war. Oh, we were fighting a nasty little was over in Korea, but that wasn’t really important. What was important was the cold war, in which the world was choosing up sides over the barbed wire of the Berlin wall. Everyone was wondering about the balance of terror between the Communist countries and the so-called Free World. Everyone was concerned about the arms race, the atomic race, the missile race. Everyone wondered when World War III would begin, and how. The old, moldy, empty minds among the military and political leaders on both sides in the cold war thought nothing else except the inevitability of a final, tragic confrontation between these two opposing sides, and so we were feverishly preparing for that.\nNothing that a generation of babies was being born throughout the world at that time, and those babies are now young adults or students. Today in every part of the world, those young adults are soundly rejecting the tired, old, stupid cliches of the tired, old, stupid, statesmen and militarists of the world. They no longer accept the inevitability of war. They no longer believe the scare warnings of the militarist. Thousands of them refused to take part in our war in Vietnam. They are well on their way to rejecting forever war as an instrument of international relationships. Yes, in the 1950s everybody was looking at the arms race. No one noticed that God was bringing to life a generation which might take a good look at all of this and get rid of both piles of that bloody junk their fathers had paid for!\nTwenty years ago, the church was in its heyday. The heyday was popularity, and the church was feverishly building up the establishment. One denomination competed with another for numbers, wealth, power and prestige. The church moved to the suburbs to attract the more affluent. Left behind were the plaguing problems of the inner city – the poverty, the hunger, the unemployment. Left behind was the question of racial equality in the churches. The parishes sought refuge in the lily-white suburbs and neighborhoods where they deal with such problems by ignoring them. They didn’t kow that at the time they were raising their statistics of “success” in their own eyes, they were also raising a generation of young people who would reject this kind of “Establishment” church in all of its glory and strength and wealth. We were raising youth, both white and black and brown and yellow and red, who would ask” “But what is the church doing to carry out the mandates of the Gospel of Jesus Christ about these problems that we face today? How relevant is this organization? Does Christianity mean anything?” They are still asking that.\nIt’s up to Us\nAnd so, history repeats itself. We are the people of God. We worship every week in His temple. We read the Scriptures. We know all about the promises about the Second Coming of Christ. And yet, we are so preoccupied with our own little projects that when Christ comes in Spirit in revolutionary power in our culture, we don’t recognize Him. In fact, we even resent and resist the upsetting influence the Gospel has when it interjects itself into our social and national and international lives. It threatens our position as the self-righteous policemen for the rest of the world.\nHere, then, was the irony of the coming of the Magi. The ones to whom the Messiah was promised were too busy worrying about the preservation of the kingdom to know that the king had come. They saw no star. They experienced no light. But, lo, Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and there came pagans, Gentiles, heathen, from the East who said: “We have seen his star and have come to worship.” What about you? Have you seen the star?\nNo, we don’t preach every Sunday that Christ is coming soon, that we know this by private knowledge or study of the Scriptures. That’s nonsense! There’s not a word in Scripture that tells us anything about when Christ is coming, and there will be no one, the Scripture tells us, who knows the day or hour of his coming.\nNo, we don’t know when he is coming, but we know he is coming, not alone to the Jews, or to the Americans, or to the civilized white people of the Western Hemisphere, but as a Messiah, a Savior for the whole world! As it says in blazing words in the Gospel: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.”"}
{"content":"“Plank Pose – Step by Step Instructions” is a blog post that talks about Plank pose and what you need to do in order to achieve it. Planks are an essential exercise for those who want to work on their core strength, balance, and stability. The plank position also trains the abdominal muscles as well as your back muscles.\nPlank is one of the most foundational poses in yoga for lots of good reasons. Each time you visit this grounding pose you’ll build abdominal strength and power in your arms and wrists.\nYou’ll also strengthen the muscles surrounding the spine, which improves posture. The increased strength and stamina you build in Plank will help you with more challenging postures like Boat Pose, Dolphin Pose, and Side Plank Pose.\nThe benefits of this posture aren’t just physical. Plank Pose also builds mental endurance and deep focus. Holding the pose when your arms start to shake is a powerful reminder that you can tackle challenges both on and off the mat.\nBecause Plank Pose is part of the Sun Salutation sequence, it’s easy to cruise through it during a vinyasa without focusing on your alignment. So make sure to dedicate some time in your practice exploring Plank on its own.\nIt can take some time to build up enough strength to hold Plank Pose for more than a breath or two. If you’re still building up the core and arm strength, drop to your knees. If the full expression of Plank Pose puts too much pressure on your wrists, the forearm version of the pose can reduce the strain.\nPlank Pose: Step-by-Step Instructions\nPlank is a basic yoga position that offers an excellent full-body stretch. Beginners should be aware of their breathing while easing into Plank Pose. For those who prefer video, see our Plank Pose video here.\nStart in Downward Facing Dog. Then inhale and draw your torso forward until the arms are perpendicular to the floor and the shoulders directly over the wrists, torso parallel to the floor.\nPress your outer arms inward and firm the bases of your index fingers into the floor. Firm your shoulder blades against your back then spread them away from the spine. Also, spread your collarbones away from the sternum.\nPress your front thighs up toward the ceiling, but resist your tailbone toward the floor as you lengthen it toward the heels. Lift the base of the skull away from the back of the neck and look straight down at the floor, keeping the throat and eyes soft.\nPlank Pose is one of the positions in the traditional Sun Salutation sequence. You can also perform this pose by itself and stay anywhere from 30 seconds to 1 minute.\nPlank Pose Information\n1 – Beginner\nContraindications and Cautions\nCarpal tunnel syndrome\nPlank Pose Modifications and Props\nDo Downward Facing Dog with your index fingers and thumbs pressed against a wall. Inhale the torso forward, as above, and press the crown of your head against the wall. Use the pressure of the head on the wall to learn about the release of the shoulder blades down the back.\nDeepen the Pose\nOpen the space between the shoulder blades. As you press the outer arms inward, push the inner borders of the shoulder blades into this resistance. Make sure you don’t narrow across the collar bones to do this. This is a useful action to learn for poses like Bakasana and Sirsasana.\n- Downward Facing Dog\n- Four-Limbed Staff Pose\n- Downward Facing Dog\n- Bakasana (Crane Pose)\n- Four-Limbed Staff Pose\nTo help strengthen the arms in this pose, loop and secure a strap around your upper arms, just above the elbows. Push the inner arms out against this strap. Release the outer arms from the shoulders to the floor, and lift the inner arms from the bases of the index fingers to the shoulders.\nPlank Pose Benefits\n- Strengthens the arms, wrists, and spine\n- Tones the abdomen\nA partner can help you learn about the lift of the top thighs in this pose. While in the position, have your partner loop a strap around the topmost thighs, just where they join the pelvis, and lift up. Press your tailbone down, against this lift, and lengthen along your back thighs through your heels.\nJust as Downward Facing Dog has a one-leg-lifted variation, so does Plank Pose. After coming into the position, inhale and lift one leg parallel to the floor. Press strongly through the raised heel and lengthen through the crown of your head, keeping the tailbone pressed towards the pubis. Hold for 10 to 30 seconds, exhale the foot to the floor, then repeat with the left leg for the same length of time.\nPlank Pose offers an excellent full-body stretch and is a basic yoga position that beginners should be aware of their breathing while easing into. Plank pose can also be performed by itself and hold anywhere from 30 seconds to one minute.\nPlank pose benefits include strengthening the arms, wrists, and spine as well as toning the abdomen. A partner can help you learn about lifting your top thighs in Plank Pose which will allow for deeper hip flexion through your back thighs leading towards stronger external rotation too!\nPlank Pose has variations such as holding it with just one leg lifted parallel to the floor or performing this balancing variation on each side consecutively without losing form for maximum strength-building potentials."}
{"content":"Environmentally-friendly Management of Organic Fertilizers in Agriculture\nPriority: P2 Sustainable use of common resources\nSpecific objective: Reduced nutrients, hazardous substances and toxins inflow into the Baltic Sea\nThe project GreenAgri aims at reducing nutrient losses from agriculture in Baltic States by introducing and testing environmentally-friendly management of organic fertilizers. As agriculture is one of the sources of nutrients eventually entering from surface waters to Baltic Sea the project’s idea is to amend the situation.\nThe project is a joint effort of farmers from Estonia and Latvia contributing to the improvement of eutrophication status of the Baltic Sea. During the project period 20 farmers from Estonian and Latvian pilot areas implement innovative technologies and methods in real life using their own financial resources. Experts and researchers gather and analyse nutrient runoff data and provide the farmers with information about the efficiency of different solutions demonstrating real results in reducing nutrient losses from farms. It’s the first time, when testing of different technologies in manor management will be arranged in wider area using financial resources and intellectual capital of Estonian/Latvian farmers, farmers organizations and research institutions.\nProject main result is reduced nutrient inflows from 20 pilot farms from Estonia and Latvia to surface water entering the Baltic Sea. The sustainability is ensured through dissemination of new knowledge to approximately 300 farmers. The advisors, who receive knowledge and experience during the project implementation, are able to support farmers from both sides of the border. Additionally, the project results support achieving the HELCOM targets for reduction of phosphorus and nitrogen input in Gulf of Finland and Gulf of Riga, aiming at reaching good ecological and environmental status by 2021.\n- The Estonian Chamber of Agriculture and Commerce\n- NGO “Farmers Parliament”\nTotal budget: EUR 859 491.51\nERDF co-financing: EUR 730 567,78\nPartners contribution’: EUR 128,923.73\n- Silja Lehtpuu – Project Coordinator: firstname.lastname@example.org\n- Roomet Sõrmus – Chairman of Estonian Chamber of Agriculture and Commerce: email@example.com\n- Maira Dzelzkalēja-Burmistre, Deputy Chair of the Farmers’ Parliament: firstname.lastname@example.org\n- Zanda Melnalksne – Project Manager of the Farmers’ Parliament: email@example.com\n- Malle Lind, Communications Manager of the Estonian Chamber of Agriculture and Commerce: firstname.lastname@example.org\n- Līva Norkārkle, PR off Union “Farmers’ Parliament”: email@example.com\nElīna Dūdiņa, Junior Project Manager of the Union “Farmers’ Parliament”: firstname.lastname@example.org\nProject GreenAgri homepage: www.epkk.ee/en/green-agri/\n21.09.2016. Rural day “Environmental requirements for organic fertilizer management” VIDEO\nUnion “Farmers’ Parliament” introduces organic fertilizer spreading technologies Report\nProject number: CB272 GreenAgri\nProject period: 09.2015.-08.2019.\nThe project GreenAgri is co-financed by the Central Baltic Programme 2014-2020."}
{"content":"It is very simple to accidentally erase your information records or have programming messes up that cause some harm. This information can be recuperated in the event that the media are not acquainted with charming field or things nor disabled unequivocally. The singular client, paying little cerebrum to the amusement or work appraisal of his PC, would by and large does not have the spending plan at the departure of a connection that has an IT structure. In this manner you need to track down subtle information recuperation decisions. There is a breathtaking fortune in information recuperation, I ought to state support we should simply say there is an affiliation whether fortress is a preventive measure. On the off chance that there is standard fortress of information records, by when information on your PC is wrecked, hurt, erased or basically lost to various causes, you have energetic permission to your information and can be less adroit while going with choices concerning reestablishing your gadget in case of setbacks, error or underhandedness.\nI mean assuming your PC hard drive crashes or bear another sort of harm. Besides, getting the associations of specialists would cost equivalent to purchasing the most recent brand of PC that you outrageous or sometimes widely more. Assuming that you have every one of your information kept up with up, you might have to give yourself a treat and get that most recent piece of equipment instead of fixating on the old PC. Outside hard drives, USB streak drives DVD s and CD is in much the same way as online information empowering or support associations are choices to consider. You might have to consider having copy support media in like manner, in Data Recovery Secrets of the fact that even those media can be liable to hurt. Unpretentious information recuperation in the guaranteed sense is applied. Generally nowadays there are assorted information recuperation freeware and utilities open that you can go very much or buy to get your information reestablished.\nThese particularly in models where the information records are erased in mess up. In sorting out what is suitable you ought to think about the reason behind the information misfortune. In instances of standard or fire calamities or other underhandedness occasioned by crazy power floods, in the event that the harm the PC has continued does not cause uncommon center charming, utilitarian or actual destruction; you can research a gathering of programming and utilities to utilize. At any rate, you should be certain that the method you use will work and not wanted on additional underhandedness. There might be two or three instances of hard drive crash, programming breakdown or other naughtiness to your PC that would thoroughly require the associations of a subject matter expert. In that model, the information recuperation will not be unassuming. Such the information stockpiling blog organization reestablishes structures are delicate and unequivocal. An issue like mechanical naughtiness in a hard drive can cause over the top information debacle. The PC should be executed at that point."}
{"content":"A life. What color is it?\nThe word life initially carries the vibrations of a golden color - this is the embodiment of wisdom that is born from:\n- kindness of pink\n- passion of red\n- calmness and inner silence of blue\n- originality, optimism of yellow\nBut in front of you you see a stream of green color that was born from the combination of the calmness of blue and the optimism of yellow, which tells us about harmony and balance, showing that life is an all-encompassing integrity."}
{"content":"BREAST CANCER ACTION MANITOBA\nBreast Cancer Action Manitoba (BCAM) is a grass roots organization which was started in the early 1990s by a small group of women living with breast cancer who met informally in a private living room to support each other and to share coping skills. After they attended the National Forum on Breast Cancer in 1993, they decided to form Breast Cancer Action Winnipeg to assist women who were recently diagnosed with breast cancer. By 1997 there were support groups throughout Manitoba and the name was changed to Breast Cancer Action Manitoba. The volunteer members of the BCAM Board are women living with breast cancer. In 1998 BCAM became a registered charitable organization (#87036 3462 RR0001). The original goal of BCAM was to provide support and education to women living with breast cancer.\n- Monthly meetings were held to provide coping information and ongoing emotional support.\n- Potluck suppers were held twice a year.\n- Our telephone calling tree was used several times a year to inform members of upcoming events and to encourage members who could not attend meetings.\n- Many of our members were involved in the CCMB-BCCH Peer Support Program and/or the Cancer Connection Program of the Canadian Cancer Society Manitoba Division.\n- Frequently we invited guest speakers to our monthly meetings to inform us about various topics on interest to people living with breast cancer.\n- For twelve years “News and Views”, the BCAM quarterly newsletter, was distributed province wide to breast cancer support groups, dragon boat teams, hospitals and clinics, women’s centres and BCAM members.\n- Together Conferences provided information and emotional support to those living with breast cancer in Manitoba.\nWe set up displays to educate the public at the CIBC Run for the Cure, the Misericordia Health Centre and the Health Science Centre.\nBCAM was represented on following committees:\n- The Winnipeg Breast Cancer Information and Support Network\n- The Manitoba Breast Cancer Information and Support Network\n- The Run for the Cure Planning Committee\n- The Canadian Breast Cancer Network Board of Directors.\n- The Breast Cancer Centre of Hope’s Younger and Wiser Sessions for young women living with breast cancer\n- The Manitoba Advocates for Breast Cancer Funding (now Helping Hands).\n- The Board of the World Conference on Breast Cancer Foundation for two World Conferences\n- The International Support Links Project formed at the WCBC in Victoria in 2002\n- The CCMB Breast Cancer of Hope Younger and Wiser Planning Committee\n- Assisted The Canadian Cancer Society Manitoba Division with two New Connections Conferences\n- At the national level BCAM was involved with the formation of the Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control which evolved from 1999 to 2002 and its success at obtaining funding by the federal government to implement the strategy.\n- Working with several volunteer cancer groups, BCAM participated in the drafting of the Breast Cancer Patient Charter which specified the standard of care expected and outlined the rights of people living with breast cancer. This document was launched at the Reasons for Hope Conference in 2006. It was ultimately used by the Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control to develop the Canadian Cancer Patient Charter.\nWe were involved in the drafting of the Victoria Declaration which advocated for the implementation of the precautionary principle to ensure a safe and healthy environment for the peoples of the world.\n- BCAM made a presentation to the Manitoba Government on behalf of the Manitoba Advocates for Breast Cancer Funding (now Helping Hands) regarding the financial difficulties incurred by people living with breast cancer. The cost of prostheses and surgical bras are now covered in Manitoba.\nBCAM continues to have representation on the following committees:\n- The Canadian Cancer Action Network Manitoba\n- The Breast Cancer Centre of Hope Peer Support Program\n- Canadian Cancer Society Manitoba Division Volunteer Program\nBCAM is currently a member of:\n- Canadian Breast Cancer Network\n- Canadian Cancer Action Network\n- Manitoba Breast and Women’s Cancer Network\nAt a strategic planning meeting in 2011, the Board Members of BCAM decided to change our focus to include not only people living with breast cancer but also those at risk. We agreed on a new vision and mission statement which reflected the big picture of the current support and information available to those diagnosed with breast cancer in Manitoba.\nOur commitment to promote awareness of the causes of cancer and educating people to make informed choices about the products they consume and use daily is based on our belief that although the number of breast cancer survivors is increasing, the number of people being diagnosed with breast cancer is NOT decreasing.\nTo achieve goals of our Mission Statement we have formed a Primary Cancer Prevention Committee composed of members of Breast Cancer Action Manitoba and non-members who have an interest in reducing the incidence of cancer.\nA website committee was formed to develop a website to make people aware of the causes of cancer and to provide information on ways that they can reduce their risk of a cancer diagnosis or a recurrence by making informed choices."}
{"content":"O MOTHER CERES set her torch in a corner (where it kept burning all the while), and took up her abode in the palace of King Celeus, as nurse to the little Prince Demophon. She treated him as if he were her own child, and allowed neither the king nor the queen to say whether he should be bathed in warm or cold water, or what he should eat, or how often he should take the air, or when he should be put to bed. You would hardly believe me, if I were to tell how quickly the baby prince got rid of his ailments, and grew fat, and rosy, and strong, and how he had two rows of ivory teeth in less time than any other little fellow, before or since. Instead of the palest, and wretchedest, and puniest imp in the world (as his own mother confessed him to be when Ceres first took him in charge), he was now a strapping baby, crowing, laughing, kicking up his heels, and rolling from one end of the room to the other. All the good women of the neighbourhood crowded to the palace, and held up their hands, in unutterable amazement, at the beauty and wholesomeness of this darling little prince. Their wonder was the greater, because he was never seen to taste any food; not even so much as a cup of milk.\n\"Pray, nurse,\" the queen kept saying, \"how is it that you make the child thrive so?\"\n\"I was a mother once,\" Ceres always replied; \"and having nursed my own child, I know what other children need.\"\nBut Queen Metanira, as was very natural, had a great curiosity to know precisely what the nurse did to her child. One night, therefore, she hid herself in the chamber where Ceres and the little prince were accustomed to sleep. There was a fire in the chimney, and it had now crumbled into great coals and embers, which lay glowing on the hearth, with a blaze flickering up now and then, and flinging a warm and ruddy light upon the walls. Ceres sat before the hearth with the child in her lap, and the fire-light making her shadow dance upon the ceiling overhead. She undressed the little prince, and bathed him all over with some fragrant liquid out of a vase. The next thing she did was to rake back the red embers, and make a hollow place among them, just where the backlog had been. At last, while the baby was crowing, and clapping its fat little hands, and laughing in the nurse's face (just as you may have seen your little brother or sister do before going into its warm bath), Ceres suddenly laid him, all naked as he was, in the hollow among the red-hot embers. She then raked the ashes over him, and turned quietly away.\nYou may imagine, if you can, how Queen Metanira shrieked, thinking nothing less than that her dear child would be burned to a cinder. She burst forth from her hiding place, and running to the hearth, raked open the fire, and snatched up poor little Prince Demophon out of his bed of live coals, one of which he was griping in each of his fists. He immediately set up a grievous cry, as babies are apt to do when rudely startled out of a sound sleep. To the queen's astonishment and joy, she could perceive no token of the child's being injured by the hot fire in which he had lain. She now turned to Mother Ceres, and asked her to explain the mystery.\n\"Foolish woman,\" answered Ceres, \"did you not promise to intrust this poor infant entirely to me? You little know the mischief you have done him. Had you left him to my care, he would have grown up like a child of celestial birth, endowed with superhuman strength and intelligence, and would have lived forever. Do you imagine that earthly children are to become immortal without being tempered to it in the fiercest heat of the fire? But you have ruined your own son. For though he will be a strong man and a hero in his day, yet, on account of your folly, he will grow old, and finally die, like the sons of other women. The weak tenderness of his mother has cost the poor boy an immortality. Farewell.\"\nSaying these words, she kissed the little Prince Demophon, and sighed to think what he had lost, and took her departure without heeding Queen Metanira, who entreated her to remain, and cover up the child among the hot embers as often as she pleased. Poor baby! He never slept so warmly again.\nWhile she dwelt in the king's palace, Mother Ceres had been so continually occupied with taking care of the young prince that her heart was a little lightened of its grief for Proserpina. But now, having nothing else to busy herself about, she became just as wretched as before. At length, in her despair, she came to the dreadful resolution that not a stalk of grain, nor a blade of grass, not a potato, nor a turnip, nor any other vegetable that was good for man or beast to eat, should be suffered to grow until her daughter were restored. She even forbade the flowers to bloom, lest somebody's heart should be cheered by their beauty.\nNow, as not so much as a head of asparagus ever presumed to poke itself out of the ground without the especial permission of Ceres, you may conceive what a terrible calamity had here fallen upon the earth. The husbandmen ploughed and planted as usual; but there lay the rich black furrows, all as barren as a desert of sand. The pastures looked as brown in the sweet month of June as ever they did in chill November. The rich man's broad acres and the cottager's small garden patch were equally blighted. Every little girl's flower bed showed nothing but dry stalks. The old people shook their white heads, and said that the earth had grown aged like themselves, and was no longer capable of wearing the warm smile of summer on its face. It was really piteous to see the poor, starving cattle and sheep, how they followed behind Ceres, lowing and bleating, as if their instinct taught them to expect help from her; and everybody that was acquainted with her power besought her to have mercy on the human race, and, at all events, to let the grass grow. But Mother Ceres, though naturally of an affectionate disposition, was now inexorable.\n\"Never,\" said she. \"If the earth is ever again to see any verdure, it must first grow along the path which my daughter will tread in coming back to me.\"\nFinally, as there seemed to be no other remedy, our old friend Quicksilver was sent post haste to King Pluto, in hopes that he might be persuaded to undo the mischief he had done, and to set everything right again by giving up Proserpina. Quicksilver accordingly made the best of his way to the great gate, took a flying leap right over the three-headed mastiff, and stood at the door of the palace in an inconceivably short time. The servants knew him both by his face and garb; for his short cloak, and his winged cap and shoes, and his snaky staff had often been seen thereabouts in times gone by. He requested to be shown immediately into the king's presence; and Pluto, who heard his voice from the top of the stairs, and who loved to recreate himself with Quicksilver's merry talk, called out to him to come up. And while they settle their business together, we must inquire what Proserpina has been doing ever since we saw her last.\nThe child had declared, as you may remember, that she would not taste a mouthful of food as long as she should be compelled to remain in King Pluto's palace. How she contrived to maintain her resolution, and at the same time to keep herself tolerably plump and rosy is more than I can explain; but some young ladies, I am given to understand, possess the faculty of living on air, and Proserpina seems to have possessed it too. At any rate, it was now six months since she left the outside of the earth; and not a morsel, so far as the attendants were able to testify, had yet passed between her teeth. This was the more creditable to Proserpina, inasmuch as King Pluto had caused her to be tempted day after day with all manner of sweetmeats, and richly preserved fruits, and delicacies of every sort, such as young people are generally most fond of. But her good mother had often told her of the hurtfulness of these things; and for that reason alone, if there had been no other, she would have resolutely refused to taste them.\nAll this time, being of a cheerful and active disposition, the little damsel was not quite so unhappy as you may have supposed. The immense palace had a thousand rooms, and was full of beautiful and wonderful objects. There was a never-ceasing gloom, it is true, which half hid itself among the innumerable pillars, gliding before the child as she wandered among them, and treading stealthily behind her in the echo of her footsteps. Neither was all the dazzle of the precious stones, which flamed with their own light, worth one gleam of natural sunshine; nor could the most brilliant of the many-coloured gems, which Proserpina had for playthings, vie with the simple beauty of the flowers she used to gather. But still, wherever the girl went, among those gilded halls and chambers, it seemed as if she carried nature and sunshine along with her, and as if she scattered dewy blossoms on her right hand and on her left. After Proserpina came, the palace was no longer the same abode of stately artifice and dismal magnificence that it had before been. The inhabitants all felt this, and King Pluto more than any of them.\n\"My own little Proserpina,\" he used to say, \"I wish you could like me a little better. We gloomy and cloudy-natured persons have often as warm hearts at bottom as those of a more cheerful character. If you would only stay with me of your own accord, it would make me happier than the possession of a hundred such palaces as this.\"\n\"Ah,\" said Proserpina, \"you should have tried to make me like you before carrying me off. And the best thing you can do now is to let me go again. Then I might remember you sometimes, and think that you were as kind as you knew how to be. Perhaps, too, one day or other, I might come back, and pay you a visit.\"\n\"No, no,\" answered Pluto, with his gloomy smile, \"I will not trust you for that. You are too fond of living in the broad daylight, and gathering flowers. What an idle and childish taste that is! Are not these gems, which I have ordered to be dug for you, and which are richer than any in my crown--are they not prettier than a violet?\"\n\"Not half so pretty,\" said Proserpina, snatching the gems from Pluto's hand, and flinging them to the other end of the hall. \"Oh, my sweet violets, shall I never see you again?\"\nAnd then she burst into tears. But young people's tears have very little saltness or acidity in them, and do not inflame the eyes so much as those of grown persons; so that it is not to be wondered at if, a few moments afterward, Proserpina was sporting through the hall almost as merrily as she and the four sea nymphs had sported along the edge of the surf wave. King Pluto gazed after her, and wished that he, too, was a child. And little Proserpina, when she turned about and beheld this great king standing in his splendid hall, and looking so grand, and so melancholy, and so lonesome, was smitten with a kind of pity. She ran back to him, and, for the first time in all her life, put her small soft hand in his.\n\"I love you a little,\" whispered she, looking up in his face.\n\"Do you, indeed, my dear child?\" cried Pluto, bending his dark face down to kiss her; but Proserpina shrank away from the kiss, for though his features were noble, they were very dusky and grim. \"Well, I have not deserved it of you, after keeping you a prisoner for so many months, and starving you, besides. Are you not terribly hungry? Is there nothing which I can get you to eat?\""}
{"content":"A few months ago, a colleague and I had a hot discussion on good styles of sorting methods in source code, and (of course) we also discussed the advantages of the newspaper-style as proposed by Robert C. Martin:\nHave you ever chased your tail through a class, hopping from one function to the next, scrolling up and down the source file, trying to divine how the functions relate and operate, only to get lost in a rat’s nest of confusion? Have you ever hunted up the chain of inheritance for the definition of a variable or function? This is frustrating because you are trying to understand what the system does, but you are spending your time and mental energy on trying to locate and remember where the pieces are.\nConcepts that are closely related should be kept vertically close to each other. We want to avoid forcing our readers to hop around through our source files and classes.\nRobert C. Martin \"Clean Code\" pp. 80\nUnfortunately, Eclipse doesn't support sorting members in \"clean-code style\". Thus, we decided to give away this idea to a pair of students as an Eclipse hand's-on training. This post is a follow-up of my post in May.\nTo get you started, here is a quick refresh of the problem:\nTypically, there are two types of code ordering. Alphabetically (+ modifiers) or completely hand-crafted (which in many cases means \"without any particular order\"). But is it that complicated to let the IDE sort a class' members for you? Reducing the need to hop from top to the bottom of the file and thus minimizing scrolling and confusion?\nThe slide below gives you an example of how a well-sorted piece of code might look like. As you see the number of hops required to read the whole code is minimal since there is a clear ordering between the code:\nHow complicated can it be?\nIt's amazingly complex :) We had to learn that an optimal solution would be APX-hard to find (did you no that complexity class before? I didn't.) Anyways, we had quite tough discussions with our students and sometimes even bar room fights what might be the best solution. To make that part of the story short, Mateusz and Fabian came up with two solutions. One solution is already available for testing.\nIf you like the newspaper-style as described by Robert C. Martin, you should give it a try! Please check this wiki page for further information about the plug-in and installation instructions (it's not an official part of Code Recommenders yet).\nTo track the progress of this feature, add yourself to this bugzilla report.\nStay in touch with Code Recommenders via Twitter."}
{"content":"One approach to reducing friction loss, as well as vibrations, is to focus on an adjustment we normally call “Pinion Angle.” We tend to think of this difference in the angles between the driveshaft centerline (CL) and the pinion gear CL. A more correct term for this angle is to call it the “Working Angle” of the rear U-joint. However, to look at this relationship as being only between the pinion and the driveshaft would be a mistake. We also need to consider the working angle at the opposite end of the driveshaft, where it meets the transmission output shaft. In doing so, we will be considering the entire drivetrain angle.\nYet before we leave the topic of what we call this adjustment, let’s understand that to many drag racers, particularly those with leaf spring rear suspensions, the words “pinion angle adjustment” often relates to a tuning aspect of their suspension setup. For these guys, pinion angle is used to adjust how hard they hit the tire on a launch. This is a somewhat controversial topic. For some, the reason for paying attention to pinion angle is so that we will reduce bind in the U-joints in the driveshaft. If we follow this logic to its final conclusion, then the reason racers see a difference in ET, reaction time, or 60-foot time with different pinion angles is that incorrect pinion angle is a form of bind and having this bind is a way to remove violence from the hook. Remove the bind, or in other words have the correct pinion angle, and you’ll hit the tire harder because the suspension will move that much more freely. Such racers often monitor U-joint temperatures with the same heat gun they use to measure track temperatures. The other side of the conversation is based on the notion of harnessing the torque of the pinion gear as it climbs up the ring gear. Drag racers use this rotational force to a better effect than any other type of motorsports. In a leaf spring application, the forward half of the leaf spring is the front/rear locating device for the suspension system. Keeping in mind that this front locator is a spring; it flexes and in doing so, can permit more vertical pinion motion, which lifts the front eyelet of the leaf spring upwards. In doing this, the differential housing is forced downward. Careful racers modulate this downward thrust with some excessive amount of pinion angle that they adjust into the car by adding, or removing, wedged-shaped shims between the leaf spring and the housing tubes of the differential. They are careful because to do this they must tickle the limits of the range of motion of the U-joints. If they exceed these limits too many times, noisy, spinning, middle-of-the-car badness follows.\nHow much torque do we produce at the ring and pinion?\n( Drive Wheel Torque ) DWT= Engine Torque X First Gear Ratio X Rear Gear Ratio X .85\nWe’ll consider a racecar that produces 515 foot-pounds of torque during the usual launch rpm. This is a manual-transmission car with a low gear ratio of 2.95 and a rear-gear ratio of 5.38.\nReduce friction and you also reduce bind. We see this attitude in play when we look closely at the engine position in a tubeframe racecar. Normally, to reduce frictional losses, the tubeframe chassis builder, who does not have a stock transmission tunnel to work around, can aim the crankshaft directly at the pinion CL. The crankshaft, input and output-shaft on the transmission and driveshaft are all on the same angle. In this case, the front and rear working angles are the same and we have the least amount of resistance at the U-joints.\nFor this conversation, we’ll take an average of these 10- to 20-percent estimates and say our car loses 15-percent of its torque from friction. That .85 factor at the end of the above formula is one way of reducing the total by 15-percent.\nDWT=515 ft/lbs X 2.95 X 5.38 X .85 = 6947.53 ft/lbs\nNow we know that when the pinion gear tries to rotate upward in this car, it is doing so with a force of nearly 7,000 pounds! (And we wonder why stuff back there flexes.) Scratch one up for the leaf spring guys because they can say this is the DWT force they use to wrap their springs up with and load against the chassis then beat the daylights out of their rear tires. But ladder bar racers and four-link guys can’t forget that they too, use this DWT. Ladder bar racers use it to raise the front rod end against the chassis. In four-link cars, the top bars pull and the lower bars push from this DWT.\nPinion Angle? If all we are going to do is think only about pinion angle, many racers measure this angle incorrectly. They think pinion angle is the angle of the pinion in comparison to the level ground. They place an angle finder on the yoke of the pinion and what ever that number is; they call it the pinion angle.\nFor cars with the stock floor still in the car, zero pinion angle is the same as the crankshaft angle.\n“In a textbook approach, what people call the pinion angle is the working angle of the U-joint at the rear of the driveshaft. There is another working angle at the front of the driveshaft. That’s the one people don’t think about. They don’t realize there is a front working angle and a rear working angle and the relationship is about both working angles. We want them to be the same within a half-degree tolerance. Also, we want no more than three degrees of working angle for the U-joints on either end of the drive shaft.\nIf we are going to consider both front and rear working angles, then we can split the combinations of angles into two types of cars.\nThe first is the tubeframe car, which has the benefit of, the crank aims right at the pinion, working angles are the same, and friction is reduced. So in this case, we compare the angle of the pinion to the angle of the driveshaft, which is concentric with the transmission shafts and crankshaft.\nHere’s a maintenance tip for those racers who have a tubeframe car with the crank aimed at the pinion. One of the benefits to having a very small difference in working angles is that the bearing cups in the U-joint are rotated slightly with each revolution of the driveshaft. This causes the needle bearings within the cups to roll so that a different needle bearing will receive the full impact of the torque with each turn of the driveshaft. As the working angles become closer, this rotation of the bearing cups lessens and individual needle bearings get clobbered with the force of moving the car. The tip is to periodically remove the driveshaft and manually rotate the bearing cups in the U-joints. “That’s a good idea,” Rahek said. “Grease gets backed against the needle bearings and holds them in place while they get hammered by the torque. They will form splines into the surface of the trunnions to the point of U-joint failure.”\nThe second type of car is one that has the stock floor in The transmission tunnel of the stock floor creates some limitations on the engine placement along with ring-and-pinion location. The crank CL can not be aimed at the pinion CL so the two shafts that will be connected by the driveshaft will be at different heights to each other.\nThat’s when guys get into trouble, The OEM guys have the working angles down pat for the engine/chassis combinations they sell to the general public. When a racer places a different engine in a car, he loses all that engineering that went into driveline placement. This means that racers, who upgrade to a bigger engine, need to pay close attention to the angle of that bigger motor, which probably does not have the same crank CL height location as the original, meaning the transmission will need to be relocated also; and that changes the front working angle, which no longer matches the rear working angle.\nNow we’ll return to the issue of using the rear working angle as a means of planting the tires harder. Keep in mind the environment that the driveshaft is in and the job it has to do. It must smoothly transmit massive amounts of torque between two shafts that may, or may not be aligned, remembering also that the angular relationship between the two shafts constantly changes.\nLaunching 3500-pounds of anything is going to resist a lot of force that is trying to move it (the name of the game.) This means that the driveshaft, like most driveline components, is subjected to two loads. These are the huge amount of torque from the engine/transmission and the enormous inertia that is inherent in a 3500-pound car. To be able to transfer lots of torque, move a porky automobile and not bust into a bunch of needle bearings is a very good quality to have in a driveshaft.\nEveryone who has considered the rear working angle, no matter what they call it, realizes that the angle of the pinion changes as the differential goes through its vertical travel and that it rotates up when torque arrives. The amount of upward rotation is limited by the suspension linkages. These include the leaf spring, which has a lot of pinion rotation, the commercially available ladder bar, which has less pinion rotation than the leaf spring, but more than an equal-length four-link system. When we compare the equal-length four-link system to the triangulated four-link on a Fox-bodied Mustang, where the upper bars are shorter than the lower bars, we see that the equal-length four-link has less pinion rotation.\nSo when we can ask ourselves what angle should our pinion shaft be, we should also identify what we compare that angle to. If we want the rear working angle to be within a half degree of the front working angle for the least amount of vibration and friction loss, then we’d like to have the pinion at nearly the same angle as the crankshaft, and consequently the transmission output shaft. This means that we can register the angle of the pinion against the angle of the crankshaft and call that “Zero Pinion Angle.”\nFor tubeframe cars, pinion angle is the difference between the angle of the driveshaft versus the angle of the pinion shaft.\nKnowing how much our suspension linkage changes the angle of the pinion, we can lower the angle of the pinion at the yoke end by the same amount that the suspension permits the pinion to raise under acceleration.\n* For leaf spring cars, the pinion CL is set between 5-7 degrees down in comparison to the crankshaft angle (keep your temperature gun handy.)\n* Ladder bar cars normally run three degrees down in relation to the crank.\n* ( Modern )Equal-length four-link bars run one-to-two degrees down in comparison to the crank angle.\n* Unequal-length four-link cars will see as much as four-to-five degrees in relation to the crank (find a buddy with a leaf spring suspension and a temperature gun.)\nHow to measure Drivetrain Angles\nTo reduce frictional loses and vibration, we need to compare the working angle of the front U-joints versus the working angle for the rear U-joints. We want the two working angles to be within a half-degree of each other and as slight an angle as possible, less than three degrees is normally recommended in drag racing. The exception is in cars with leaf springs where the spring wrap exceeds three degrees and cars with triangulated four-links where the upper bars are shorter than the lower bars.\nThere are three angles that we are concerned with in our driveline. These are:\n• The driveshaft angle, which is exactly what it sounds like and is the easiest to measure. This is the angle of the driveshaft, which normally spans downward from the tail of the transmission to the pinion in the differential.\n• The front working angle is a comparison between the angle of the output shaft and the angle of the driveshaft. For this, we’ll need to measure the angle of the yoke at the rear of the transmission, and then compare that to the driveshaft angle.\n• The rear working angle is a comparison between the angle of the pinion gear and the angle of the driveshaft. For this, we’ll need to measure the angle of the yoke at the front of the pinion, and then compare that to the driveshaft angle.\nFor example, let’s consider a car with the transmission angle at 3.5 degrees, driveshaft angle at 4.5 and actual pinion angle at 3 degrees, as shown below. The front working angle is 1.0 degrees, while the rear working angle is 1.5 degrees. This alignment will probably work, but is at the edge of tolerance, which is a half-degree difference between the two working angles. Both working angles are also less than three degrees, which is considered the limit of the range of motion available from the U-joints."}
{"content":"When engaging in various business activities, it is crucial to establish clear agreements and contracts to protect the interests of all parties involved. From non-disclosure agreements to service-level agreements, these legally binding documents ensure that everyone understands their rights and responsibilities.\nConsideration for non-disclosure agreement is an essential aspect of any business relationship. This type of agreement outlines the terms and conditions under which confidential information can be shared between parties. It ensures that sensitive information remains protected from unauthorized disclosure. By including specific provisions regarding the consequences of breaching the agreement, parties can mitigate potential risks and maintain trust.\nAnother important agreement is the SaaS agreement definition. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) has become increasingly popular in today’s digital landscape. This type of agreement outlines the terms and conditions for providing software applications to customers over the internet. It clarifies usage rights, support services, and any limitations or liabilities involved.\nUnderstanding what a service-level agreement entails is crucial for businesses that rely on external vendors or service providers. This agreement sets the expectations and defines the quality and level of service to be provided. It includes metrics, such as response time, uptime, and performance standards, to ensure that the service provider meets the agreed-upon requirements.\nFor those in the entertainment industry, a side artist agreement is a necessary legal document to protect the rights of artists and collaborators. This agreement specifies the terms of engagement between the main artist and supporting artists or musicians, including compensation, rights to intellectual property, and potential royalties.\nHowever, there are instances where an agreement on sharing of information may conflict with the wishes of the individual. In situations where privacy or personal preferences are at stake, striking a balance between the need for information sharing and respecting individual wishes becomes challenging. It is important to navigate these sensitive matters with empathy and ethical considerations.\nThe duration of a listing agreement is another crucial element in the real estate industry. This agreement establishes the length of time a property will be listed with a real estate agent or agency. It defines the obligations of both parties during the listing period and sets a timeline for marketing, showing, and selling the property.\nWhen entering into a listing agreement, it is essential to understand what is required in a listing agreement. This document outlines the specific details of the property, such as its address, legal description, and listing price. Additionally, it includes terms related to commissions, termination clauses, and any disclosures required by law.\nOperating agreements for LLCs also play a crucial role in business operations. For example, an operating agreement for LLC Georgia template establishes the rights and responsibilities of members and outlines how the company will be managed. It includes provisions regarding profit distribution, voting rights, and decision-making processes.\nFurthermore, employment agreements are vital to protect the rights of both employers and employees. An employment agreement en ingles outlines the terms and conditions of employment, including job duties, compensation, benefits, and termination clauses. It ensures clarity and fairness in the employment relationship, promoting a harmonious working environment.\nIn the janitorial industry, understanding how to bid on janitorial contracts is essential for securing projects and building a successful business. Bidding on contracts involves estimating the cost of providing janitorial services, considering factors such as the size of the facility, frequency of cleaning, and specific client requirements. It requires thorough preparation and competitive pricing to stand out from other bidders.\nIn conclusion, agreements and contracts are crucial for various aspects of business and personal relationships. From protecting confidential information to outlining service expectations, these legally binding documents ensure clarity, fairness, and accountability. Understanding the specific requirements and intricacies of each agreement type is essential to navigate the complex world of business effectively."}
{"content":"Discover Our Regions\nLying just south of the equator, 160km north of Australia, Papua New Guinea is part of a great arc of mountains stretching from Asia, through Indonesia and into the South Pacific. With a vibrant and colourful Papua New Guinea culture, more than 600 islands and 800 indigenous languages, Papua New Guinea is made up of 4 regions with 20 provinces.\nGetting to and around Papua New Guinea\nAs an island nation with untouched rugged terrain extending from its coastal areas to its highlands, Papua New Guinea is generally most easily navigated by air.\nPapua New Guinea has one international airport in Port Moresby, Jacksons International Airport. This is the official gateway into Papua New Guinea, situated about 8km away from the main town centre of Port Moresby. The airport itself has the domestic terminal adjacently connected (500 metres apart) to the international terminal making it easy to connect to your onward flight.\nJacksons International Airport provides Duty Free Services and Shopping for departing visitors and transit lounges for passengers connecting to other international destinations.\nThere is a risk of Malaria in Papua New Guinea and it is recommended that visitors consult their local doctor or tropical disease clinic to commence anti-malarial preparations before departing for PNG. Certification or vaccination against yellow fever or cholera is required for travellers over one year of age travelling to certain areas in PNG.\nWater quality is within World Health Organisation standards in most towns; however, bottled water is available and in rural areas it is advisable to boil water at all times.\nPNG is often safe, secure and full of friendly people, however there are certain areas where it is advisable to take safety precautions.Tourism Papua New Guinea advises that all visitors travel with care and consideration for their personal security and wellbeing.\nWherever possible, PNG Tourism recommends travelling with organised Papua New Guinea tours and making all travel arrangements prior to departure with one of our preferred partners.\nThe National Airline of Papua New Guinea operates a modern fleet of aircraft consisting of Boeing 767 & 737 jets, Fokker 100 & 70 jets and Dash 8 aircrafts. Air Niugini has operated for 40 years providing air services to/from and within the country and have a safety record unmatched by other airlines in the country. They offer direct flights from Tokyo (Narita) once a week to Port Moresby.\nFor more information on Air Niugini flights go to www.airniugini.com.pg"}
{"content":"Sanicle.us, in collaboration with CF Industries, proudly hosted the groundbreaking ‘Period Party,’ a prelude to Menstrual Hygiene Day, which raises awareness about the importance of good menstrual hygiene management.\nMenstrual Hygiene Day, observed annually on May 28, aligns with the average length of a menstrual cycle of 28 days, with an average menstruation duration of five days per month. This year’s theme, “Making menstruation a normal fact of life by 2030,” as stated by Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of UNFPA, emphasizes the need to destigmatize menstruation globally.\nThe first day of the black Menstrual Health summit on May 26, conducted virtually, focused on highlighting the disparities faced by black women regarding menstrual health and involving men in the\nconversation. Diverse speakers from various organizations, backgrounds, and ethnicities came together to share their knowledge, experiences, and perspectives on menstrual health, particularly within the black community.\n“We are excited about hosting this edition as we have witnessed the potential of a cohesive community for Black Menstrual Health,” expressed Dr. Ray Owen of The Met Church. “We have found this summit to be an effective tool in keeping the community engaged, and we are glad to have collaborated with Sanicle during Martin Luther King Day and World Menstrual Hygiene Day.”\nThe summit featured esteemed speakers including Tosin Oni and Zaakirah Muhammad of Sanicle, Priscilla Siwela of Manevia, Hawa Diallo of the United Nations, Ogene Jude Ogbodo of Town Crier Initiative, Stephen Yinka Oguntoyinbo of Alarinka Communications, and Kolawole Elisah Akinmuyiwa of Roses Natural. These individuals shared their insights on tackling period poverty, combating exclusion in menstrual health discussions, cultural perceptions of menstruation, and religious perspectives on black women menstruating.\nThe discussions extended to the challenges faced by black women and girls, with tangible solutions proposed by the speakers to increase awareness of menstrual health. The summit also included a watch party featuring a pre-recorded roundtable conversation with women from Ghana, moderated by Dr. Delia Gillis of the University of Central MO, Giftologi Limited, Pamm Takyiwaa of WH Ghana, Dr. Patricia S. Richardson of Landmark Healthcare, and Erica M Daniel.\nThe second day, May 27, 2023, shed light on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) and technology in raising public awareness of menstrual health. Nehemiah D. Frank, founder of The Black Wall Street Times, delivered the keynote speech, highlighting the need to challenge stigmas and create a more inclusive society.\nRepresentative Amanda Swope shed light on the challenges faced by black and Native women, addressing the need for policy changes to enhance access to period products. Notably, she emphasized the critical moment when she assumed office and discovered that correctional facilities were denying female incarcerated inmates access to necessary period products.\nThe representative expressed her enthusiasm for Senator Jessica Garvin’s bill, which aims to combat period poverty—an often overlooked issue affecting many women in Oklahoma. The proposed legislation allocates $1 million from sales tax revenue to establish a program starting in the 2024 fiscal year. Local health departments can apply for funds from the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH), with grants awarded based on the specific needs of the served population.\nIn addition, the bill introduces a refundable sales tax exemption for feminine hygiene products, including tampons, panty liners, menstrual cups, sanitary napkins, and other similar items related to feminine hygiene during the menstrual cycle. Women would be eligible for a refund of the sales tax paid on these products by providing their receipts to the Oklahoma Tax Commission for qualifying purchases made in the previous year.\nRepresentative Swope found personal resonance with the mission of the summit, particularly in promoting father involvement. Having grown up with a single father due to her parents’ divorce, she recognized the importance of advocating for justice system reform.\nFurthermore, on behalf of The Oklahoma Legislative Black Caucus, she presented the Citation of the Black Menstrual Hygiene Day, highlighting the significance of the occasion.\nThe women’s panel, moderated by Caragan Tillman of Tulsa Innovation Labs, featured Aiko Pickering of Monthly, Chrystvan D. Cross of PERIOD. Oklahoma City, Rose Hurd of With Love Births, and Dominique Clarke of Tulsa Remote. These multigenerational women discussed their personal experiences with menstruation, the affordability of period products, and strategies to combat the stigma surrounding menstrual health. They emphasized the importance of including both boys and girls in discussions about periods.\nChaste Inegbedion, also known as Mr. Padman, took the stage to highlight his career journey and the creation of Sanicle in the menstrual health industry. As the Chief Product Officer at Sanicle, Chaste emphasized the significance of involving men in menstrual health conversations and introduced the “Period Passport,” a self-help guide to educate fathers and daughters about menstruation.\nThe diverse industry-focused men’s panel, moderated by Dr. Ben Barenberg, MD, FPMRS of Optimal Health, discussed menstruation and menstrual health. Panelists included Joshua Bowers of Black Wall Street Chamber of Commerce, Juhon Irons of KIPP Schools, Darrel Frater of Visible Hands, Kyle Smith of Builders and Backers, Marquess Dennis of Tulsa Dream Center, and Claudio Nascimento of CF Industries. They explored how organizations can better support female employees during their menstrual cycles and encouraged more men to engage in menstrual health outreach.\n“Claudio Nascimento of CF Industries expresses our pride in partnering with Sanicle to address the critical issue of period poverty. Through our Our Communities program, which is aligned with our Vision 2030 goal to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in our community, we aim to create a positive impact that resonates with Sanicle’s mission.” stated Mr. Nascimento.\nHe further added, “CF Industries firmly believes in supporting the communities where we live and work, and we demonstrate this commitment through financial donations, personal time, and a localized giving strategy that aligns with our business objectives. The topic of period poverty resonates deeply with our team, as I, as a first-generation graduate from a humble background in Rio, have personally experienced the transformative power of support. I am grateful for the unwavering support of my mother, my high school sweetheart, and most notably, my sister, who selflessly donated her kidney to save my life. These experiences have fueled my passion for breaking taboos and fostering open discussions about these challenges. I wholeheartedly encourage men to be exemplars of change and contribute to meaningful progress in this area.”\nJustin Harlan, Managing Director at Tulsa Remote, extends warm congratulations to Chaste, a valued member of Tulsa Remote, and co-founder Roxanne for their exceptional contributions to the Tulsa community since their relocation. Their dedication and efforts in hosting the first-ever Black Menstrual Health Summit in Tulsa have been instrumental in promoting awareness and addressing important issues surrounding menstrual health. Dr. Harlan commends their commitment to fostering positive change and their valuable impact on the community. Their contributions are truly commendable and have made a lasting difference in Tulsa.\nThe summit fostered a remarkable environment for learning and networking, expanding the community of like-minded individuals committed to addressing the challenges faced by Black women. By promoting open conversations about menstrual health, Sanicle aims to eliminate fear, ridicule, and stigma surrounding the topic.\n“A specially-curated period menu with delectable food and drinks with an emphasis on nutritional benefits from Onifade Cookies, the vendors, and potential partners we are committed to working with going forward, like accessing Impact Investment from Visible Hands, all showing off the Menstruation Bracelet as a symbol of the menstrual cycle to help #EndPeriodStigma and celebrate women’s equality,” stated Roxanne Stewart.\nSanicle had the privilege of being featured on IG Live with two influential hosts. Pimkiepriscilla, with over 199k followers, and Cutekimani, with over 66k followers, invited Sanicle as a special guest to discuss the significance of Black Menstrual Hygiene Day. It was an engaging conversation that shed light on important menstrual health issues and fostered awareness among a wide audience."}
{"content":"Most finance professionals view the “13-week cash forecast” as a burden – another task to satisfy an overbearing banker. The fact that the forecast is less interesting than an analysis of an acquisition or investment doesn’t help. People often prioritize these forecasts only in desperate situations when it’s too late to correct the problem.\nWhat are Weekly Cash Flow Predictions?\nWeekly Cash Forecasts can be used to estimate a company’s cash flow over the medium term by estimating timing and amounts. Weekly intervals force companies to examine their business in greater detail. Cash inflows can be high one week if receivables have been collected well, and outflows huge the following week if rent or payroll is due. Cash flow reports broken down weekly can capture granular information that is otherwise missed when using quarterly or annual intervals. Why not make a daily forecast? It can be overkill, as it has seven times more variables than a weekly forecast. And it may not increase the accuracy of a prediction. The weekly interval is a good compromise between granularity and detail.\nThe industry standard for a forecasting period is 13 weeks. This is the number of weeks that make up a quarter. Ideally, a business should be able to predict how costs and revenues will change in the next 13 weeks. It will be hard to react effectively to issues of liquidity if you project only four to eight weeks out. It is important to project out far enough to allow your team to respond but not too far so that there will be no certainty.\nArguments against weekly forecasts are short-sighted.\nSome of you have probably used one or more reasons for not doing the forecast.\nIt’s great that you did, but they were all in distress situations. Weekly cash reports are a waste because my business is in good health.\nI have a small (or no) team and don’t have the time to prepare weekly cash flow reports.\n“My business is doing well and I see no reason to think otherwise.”\nCash forecasting does not apply to my business because it is different from the companies you describe.\n“My shareholders/lenders/parent company believes in us and has deep pockets. They will cover any shortfall in cash if there is a problem.\nAll of these examples are relatable but short-sighted. No matter how successful a company is, it will face tough times. We must not forget the Great Recession when blue-chip companies (e.g., Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, etc.) were at their zenith. They were brought to their knees. Would a cash forecast for the week have prevented this disaster? Perhaps not. What I can say is that these companies did not have a clear understanding of their liquidity requirements, which would have helped to mitigate the damage. Operators need to be aware of the limit on their liquidity.\nCash is King mentality forces discipline.\nAccounting tricks cannot be used to conceal underperformance. GAAP may help to cover business problems, but it’s hard to hide issues when you focus on cash. Businesses that are subject to seasonality can benefit from focusing on near- and medium-term time frames.\nImproved understanding of suppliers and customers\nThe process of stratifying customers and suppliers can provide insights on key customers and vendors, depending on the circumstances:\nA customer who is slow to pay can be called as an excuse. Instead of simply demanding payment, it can be another revenue-generating opportunity–assuming your company still wants business from this customer.\nCertain suppliers may offer discounts for early payment. By managing cash flow, a business can take advantage of the discounts.\nWhen certain vendors are flexible with their terms, a company can increase its cash flow and decrease its net working capital by stretching some of its flexible vendors.\nUnderstanding the cost of business growth is important for businesses\nCash is often a problem for growing companies, as capital expenditures and investments in inventory must be made before the revenue generated by the growth. Understanding the near-term cash needs of a business allows it to plan and secure financing for development. This helps the company avoid financial difficulties or, even worse, failure to deliver.\nThe cost of capital is reduced.\nUnderstanding liquidity allows a business to minimize the use of credit for interim payments such as rent and payroll. Other times, a business can reduce its cash on hand by investing it back into the company, paying down debt, or distributing dividends.\nCommunication with other departments is improved.\nTo properly complete the cash-flow forecast, the finance department must communicate with colleagues from sales, purchasing, accounts payable, receivables, human resources, etc. This forces finance experts to gain a better understanding of how the business operates.\nWhen and What Types Of Businesses Are It Appropriate For?\nUnderstanding incoming and egressing cash flow and taking the appropriate action can help to avoid financial stress in many situations. Cash forecasting is beneficial in all cases. Cash is king! I strongly believe that all companies, big or small, young and old, should use this tool. Even the weekly cash flow forecast is customizable to fit every business type.\nFor companies in desperate situations, this is invaluable.\nIn the fall of 2008, I was skeptical about its value when I received my first cash forecast. The company I worked for at the time was a distributor that provided services to companies in the construction and transportation industries. With the forecast, we could see when customers were actually coming into our shops and when money was being deposited into our account. Cash flow and business performance both improved despite the difficult economic climate. We noticed that certain buying patterns caused sales to spike on certain dates of the month (1st, 10th, and 20th). This trend was capitalized by the company, which ran promotions on those days in order to increase the average dollar per order. I became a quick believer.\nWe avoided disaster in another case with a service business because the cash forecast predicted that we would be out of money the next month if the banks demanded a mandatory payment. We were about to run out of cash in the next month if the bank forced a compulsory repayment. The company did more than $100 million in sales a year, but the seasonality was going to leave us with a $1,000,000 hole. The forecast helped us convince the bank to lower the amount they required for debt repayment and allow us to get through the seasonal cash crunch into more profitable times. The accurate insight into our business not only helped us avoid a financial crisis but also built our credibility when we presented our re-forecast for renegotiation of our covenant package."}
{"content":"FISHES: Fisherman Invested in Science, Healthy Ecosystems, and Sustainability\nThis program is designed to inform Northern Gulf of Mexico stakeholders about fisheries management, fisheries science, and sustainability via an electronically available book and accompanying in-person course.\nRecreational and commercial fishermen in the northern Gulf of Mexico, members of the general public with an interest in fisheries management, fisheries science, and sustainability\n- Learn information about the frameworks and functions of various regulatory bodies tasked with managing fisheries,\n- Understand applied fisheries science concepts that collectively form the basis for fisheries management,\n- Comprehend emerging ecosystem modifications and issues, and\n- Become involved in fisheries management and fisheries science efforts.\nTotal Number of Modules or Sessions: 11\nTotal Number of Hours for Program Delivery: 20\n- Educational Class\n- Educational Video (Online or DVD)\n- Group Discussion\n- Numbered Extension Publication\nDr. Marcus Drymon, email@example.com"}
{"content":"A casino is a gambling establishment that offers different types of gambling games. It is often combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shops, and cruise ships. Casinos are most famous in the United States, but they are also found in other countries and cities.\nThe earliest casinos were places where people could play poker and other card games with one another. Later, other games, such as roulette, blackjack, and craps, were added to the mix. In the early 21st century, many more types of games were invented, and the modern casino was born.\nCasinos make money by taking a small percentage of every bet that is made. This can amount to less than two percent, but over time it adds up, especially with the millions of bets made each year. This is known as the vig or rake, and it is what makes casinos profitable.\nAs the casino industry grew, organized crime gangsters got in on the action. In Reno and Las Vegas, they supplied the bankrolls, took sole or partial ownership of some casinos, and even influenced the outcomes of certain games. This was done by using their vast cash resources from drug dealing, extortion, and other illegal rackets. However, federal crackdowns on mob involvement in the casinos made it unprofitable for these criminals to continue their support of these gambling operations.\nNowadays, most casinos focus on the high-stakes gamblers, who are a lucrative group for many companies. According to studies by Roper Reports and the U.S. Gaming Panel, these people are usually forty-six years old and come from households with above average incomes. They are often referred to as high rollers because they wager much more than the average player. In return, they are treated to free spectacular entertainment, luxury suites, and other inducements."}
{"content":"MISSION, TX – CNN: Target release 10/19/15 – With the shadow of a drug story hovering over Amazon, here is our latest Case File: ” Omicron Propxts ” the biggest case in decades in a case that could have major ramifications in the pharmacy and health care industries.\nIn October, five pediatric patients died at a Pittsburgh hospital after getting a fake Diprivan in pill form or by other means. As the and cause the bone marrow transplant necessary to save their lives, investigators at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC filed suit against both Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of Pennsylvania and Amazon.\nAccording to the suit, Amazon stopped selling tablet and powder form of Diprivan over several weeks in 2017 and 2018. But because the child’s names were in the prescription record, Horizon allegedly sold the medicine in the form of capsules and powder online.\nA former colleague who worked with Diprivan also filed a case against Amazon in Western Pennsylvania Federal Court in September, alleging that Amazon knowingly sold Diprivan to businesses that used children as lab rats at hospitals around the country."}
{"content":"“Work is about a search for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor; in short, for a sort of life, rather than a Monday-to-Friday sort of dying.” Studs Terkel\nStrive for excellence in all you do. I was discussing the Real Life Recovery Program with a therapist recently. He asked me why our curriculum did not include a relapse prevention component. I responded that we do have a relapse prevention component to our program we simply do not label it such. Recovery is about being proactive in our lives. It is more than not drinking and drugging. If we focus on what we want in our lives then relapse is not an option.\nThe early stages of recovery requires diligence and work. We then move to a focus on living our lives one day at a time on “purpose”. The pursuit of happiness and fulfillment is our relapse prevention. Staying focused on living life on life’s terms, striving to achieve our goals within our abilities, and to maintain a spiritual balance in life.\nFocus, Forgive and Fulfill,\nGo. Go. Go…"}
{"content":"A service for writing essays that is reliable can create an account that sets the due dates for both writers and universities. If the due date for an essay is on 12th of the month, then the author gets three days to https://happyunionbaptistchurch.com/privacy-policy/ go through the work and revise any errors. Any changes made will be provided to you in order that it is possible to ask for any. It is important to know the length of time it will take your writer to write your essay. This should allow you to make any needed changes before the date of submission.\nEssays can be composed in your course of study.\nThe process of writing an essay comes with many benefits. Writing essays stimulates inquiry and also allows students to examine different examples and arguments for a better understanding. Students are encouraged to be more independent and fosters the pursuit of knowledge. These are important qualities to succeed. They can also utilize their writing abilities to help in different settings. To learn more about the benefits of writing an essay take a look at the reasons to consider its significance.\nIt is crucial to fully comprehend the purpose of an assignment so that you can help students write essays. When writing essays, students must consider their reader. The students should think about whether the intention behind the essay is to present an opinion, to educate readers, or communicate an idea. A written essay must be considered an element of learning. An essay is essential for all educational projects. Get help from an essay writer if you are feeling overwhelmed.\nThe initial step is to select a subject. Although the majority of students http://bigactivemedia.com.bd/2022/05/01/how-to-write-a-good-college-essay/ are given an essay topic, more students can choose choosing a topic. Be sure to select an appropriate topic for the paper you’re creating. For an overview, general topics work well. However, for papers that are more in-depth and specific, they’re better suitable for research. You should also decide whether you’d prefer to concentrate on the topic of an overall outline or study a specific subject.\nOnce you have defined the issue, you will be able to formulate a thesis statement. You can also design a headline for the essay. The opening paragraphs introduce the topic. The next sentence should be in agreement with or counter to the introduction assertion. The thesis should be stated in the conclusion paragraph. The body must contain information and argumentation on the subject. The body of the essay is https://ec2-52-66-203-107.ap-south-1.compute.amazonaws.com/write-my-paper-cheap-how-to-find-cheap-writers-online/ where you present your arguments that you made in your introduction.\nThe time between summer and senior year is a great time for students to start writing essays. This time is free from any other commitments, and there’s ample time to complete multiple drafts. If you’re looking to make decisions early and act the deadline for college applications tend to be in November. Common Application Common Application is available to review the essay requirements for every college on their website. The Common Application is accepted by over 9000 schools. If you’re still writing your essay, it is ideal to complete it one week prior to the due date.\nThey must think about various ways of improving their writing abilities for essays. Students must consider the different viewers and goals for their essay. It https://podcase.org/2022/05/05/how-to-make-your-essay-longer-2/ is important to plan their essay thoroughly. This involves the brainstorming of ideas, and then deciding the goal of the essay. The students should draft several drafts following brainstorming and plan. While drafts are essential but revision is vital, and provides an opportunity to alter the content.\nIt requires creativity and technical writing skills\nEssay writing requires both the ability to write creatively and technically. To attract attention from the readers, technical writing might comprise creative or graphic writing. Creative writing demands a strong spelling and grammar skills, audience analysis skills, and project planning. This kind of writing demands a great deal of organisation. The best essay writing services must http://www.onreechhotel.com/2022/05/02/is-it-ethical-to-pay-someone-else-to-write-my-paper-2/ provide 24 hours online chat as well as email service to their clients. Additionally, they can provide personalized essays with reasonable rates.\nTechnical writers need to be able to comprehend the level of knowledge of their audience before they write their essays. The level of understanding of a father putting together his baby’s crib or of a doctor studying a research report about medicine is very different. Thus, the writer should modify the tone, vocabulary and framing so that it meets the reader at their current stage of comprehension. Technical writing enhances the creativity of writing by providing relevant information to be included in setting.\nThe technique of technical writing allows the writer to communicate complex concepts and techniques in a clear form. This type of writing is suitable for many professions like computer science, robotics, aerospace, and chemistry. Although it is not a formal term the type of writing combines the creative and technical components of writing. This style of writing is intended to relay information to an audience with common understanding.\nHooks are the most common way for creative writers to start essays. A hook interrupts the chronology of the piece by providing compelling images or prompting a topic. Writers should try to strike a chord with the reader from the very beginning. A solid opening is crucial in this regard. Beginning with the introduction, the reader is likely to develop an opinion on the essay. The hook is what will keep the reader interested enough to want to go through the whole essay.\nEssays should always be written keeping your reader in mind. While an essay must be entertaining and informative but it shouldn’t be dry or boring. A well-written essay must contain many details and description. This is a great tool for showcasing your talent as a writer. The reader must to comprehend your ideas and sense your enthusiasm. Your essay could be rejected if the audience doesn’t seem to be engaged.\nCreative writing and technical writing are two distinct skills they are both essential to the writing of an essay. Technical writing focuses on concepts and facts while creative writing focuses on imagination and emotionality. Writing for technical purposes, on the opposite, is more focused on education and information. In both cases the result will be exactly the same. A student has to be able to grasp the basics of both fields."}
{"content":"The International Cultures Committee is excited to “travel” with you to Czechia in April as part of the Holmes Cultural Passport Program.\nFun Facts About Czechia\n1. The largest ancient castle in the world is the Prague Castle.\n2. Czechia has the highest castle-density in the world (with more than 2000!)\n3. Mushroom hunting is a very popular pastime of the Czechs\n- The Virtual Cooking Club will be on Friday, April 23rd from 5-6pm, hosted by our chef duo Jill and Petr Marousek, who will teach us to make Czech Breaded Pork Cutlet and Czech potato salad. This event is open to all Holmes school families. No pre-registration needed (the Zoom link will be sent the day before the event).\n- Our adults-only International Book Club will be meeting on Wednesday, May 5th from 7:30-8:30pm. To join, please email Aparna at firstname.lastname@example.org\nPlease click here to learn more about April’s offerings including the ingredient list and background on our chef duo! Also, please share photos of your participation in these events with Sary at email@example.com so they can be shared on Holmes social media."}
{"content":"|Landscapes of facilitation: how self-organized patchiness of aquatic macrophytes promotes diversity in streams\nCornacchia, L.; van de Koppel, J.; van der Wal, D.; Wharton, G.; Puijalon, S.; Bouma, T.J. (2018). Landscapes of facilitation: how self-organized patchiness of aquatic macrophytes promotes diversity in streams. Ecology 99(4): 832-847. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2177\nIn: Ecology. Ecological Society of America: Brooklyn, NY. ISSN 0012-9658; e-ISSN 1939-9170, meer\nCallitriche platycarpa; habitat diversity; patchiness; positive interactions; spatial patterns; spatial self-organization; species coexistence; stream macrophytes.\n- Cornacchia, L., meer\n- van de Koppel, J., meer\n- van der Wal, D., meer\n- Wharton, G.\n- Puijalon, S.\n- Bouma, T.J., meer\nSpatial heterogeneity plays a crucial role in the coexistence of species. Despite recognition of the importance of self‐organization in creating environmental heterogeneity in otherwise uniform landscapes, the effects of such self‐organized pattern formation in promoting coexistence through facilitation are still unknown. In this study, we investigated the effects of pattern formation on species interactions and community spatial structure in ecosystems with limited underlying environmental heterogeneity, using self‐organized patchiness of the aquatic macrophyte Callitriche platycarpa in streams as a model system. Our theoretical model predicted that pattern formation in aquatic vegetation – due to feedback interactions between plant growth, water flow and sedimentation processes – could promote species coexistence, by creating heterogeneous flow conditions inside and around the plant patches. The spatial plant patterns predicted by our model agreed with field observations at the reach scale in naturally vegetated rivers, where we found a significant spatial aggregation of two macrophyte species around C. platycarpa. Field transplantation experiments showed that C. platycarpa had a positive effect on the growth of both beneficiary species, and the intensity of this facilitative effect was correlated with the heterogeneous hydrodynamic conditions created within and around C. platycarpa patches. Our results emphasize the importance of self‐organized patchiness in promoting species coexistence by creating a landscape of facilitation, where new niches and facilitative effects arise in different locations. Understanding the interplay between competition and facilitation is therefore essential for successful management of biodiversity in many ecosystems."}
{"content":"In the past, the cleaning industry in India was not so vibrant. Due to poor services and the least use of machines and equipment in the cleaning of offices or residences, the company had almost lost its sheen until it started regaining its lost credibility after 2010. But now the economic experts in India are seeing the cleaning industry as one of the businesses with better prospects of growth in the coming years. Some of the Major Reasons for the Growth of Office Cleaning Service in India are as Follows:\n1. The reasons include the increase in the double income households and a major increase in the income per household in India.\n2. As the population of the country increases and a growth in the number of the empty nest households the growth of the cleaning industry looks obvious now in the country. The double income families which juggle with young children and hundreds of other responsibilities hardly find time or energy to keep their house or office clean.\n3. On the other hand, the cleaning services in the country provide services to people at very less prices. For a double income family, the cost of the cleaning services per week will be negligible. Moreover, the double income families in India see housekeeping services as the luxury more than a necessity.\n4. The disposable income per family across the country in 2017 is now at an all-time high. Due to some visible cons of the availing the maid services, even the average income families have now shifted to the housekeeping services in Metropolitan cities of India\n5. Moreover, the flexibility offered by the cleaning services in India is one more reason why the trust of the people is gradually building over this industry. You can opt for a normal cleaning service for your office or go for a deeper cleaning service. We offer you cleaning services for deep sanitizing sofas, chairs and other furniture.\n6. In your office, the desks carpets, pantry, floor and appliance are the focus of attention and hence need regular cleaning. The cleaning services offer you cleaning services from cleaning floors to the deep sanitization of the washrooms and the pantry.\n7. The cleaning industry in India can be categorized into office cleaning services, residential cleaning.\n8. In the past, the cleaning industry in India was not so vibrant. Due to poor services and the least use of machines and equipment in the cleaning of offices or residences, the company had almost lost its sheen until it started regaining its lost credibility after 2010 and particularly 2015.\n9. The flexibility in the laws has made it easier to start a successful cleaning company in India. And the relatively low capital investment, low level of market share and the extreme demand for the cleaning services in the country has given a new life to the cleaning industry in India.\n10. The majority of the income of the cleaning companies in India comes from the retail and commercial sectors along with health care. The other major sources of their income are the household services.\nAdvantages of Opting Office Cleaning Service in Kolkata\n1. It Relieves Stress When you opt for office cleaning services, it creates a neat and organized kind of atmosphere that limits distractions and you are able to concentrate more on your work, not on your clutter.\n2. Reflects Your Personality The neat and tidy workplace reflects your personality and you look like an organizer Genius. It portrays a better image of you as a boss in the office and you appear pulled-together and productive otherwise disorganized and sloppy.\n3. Increase Efficiency The need and tidy workplace increase efficiency and limit distractions. The cluttered desk will always pull your mind off from your task. When your workplace looks organized, it becomes easier for you to focus on your work. You will have space available to keep things rather than pushing mess aside to carve space out of your water bottle.\n4. Prevents health problems The untidy office causes many health problems to your staff. They often suffer from health issues like a stomach bug, vomiting and allergy.\n5. Ensures Safety Of Employees The neat and tidy Office doesn’t only mean having a fresh and sparkling building; it also means to ensure the safety of employees. The safety of employees is in their best health. The work space injuries due to clutter and messy office can prove a great loss to your business.\nBacked by our expertise in this domain, we are involved in providing a range of Factory Cleaning Service in Kolkata and other parts of West Bengal to our customers in diverse industrial domains. These Factory Cleaning Services are delivered to the clients by employing latest techniques and methodologies. All the personnel involved in delivering the cleaning services are trained and skilled to perform the task diligently and with precision. Apart from this, we deliver these services within the promised time period. We use only the best quality chemicals and equipment to carry out the cleaning process. We have a staff of well-disciplined , trustful and experienced employees to deliver services. We ensure that the factory processes are not hampered while we carry out the cleaning services, causing zero inconvenience to the workers of the factory. We are punctual and plan to ensure that work finishes on time. We offer customized solutions-weekly, monthly and yearly contracts are available at affordable prices."}
{"content":"“Magic and Myths Unite Europe”, has taken off with gusto over the last few weeks.\nThe project website, www.magicandmythsuniteeurope.weebly.com was launched. Here you will find about information about each partner school. Activities undertaken already and those to be undertaken in the future are listed. A vast array of photographs taken in Le Chéile and our partner schools show how our project is taking shape. Check it out and be kept informed of project life around Europe!\nMany classes have written their first letters to the new penpals. Some classes have even received replies! All penpals will be school based with letters being exchanged school to school.\nAidan’s fifth class made a video to show what life in Le Chéile is like! Children took it in pairs to record and present. This video was presented to our partner schools during the first project meeting in Turkey. It was a fantastic piece of work and credit must go to all the children involved. Well done Aidan’s class!\nAll children were invited to take part in a logo competition, which would see their logo potentially representing the project not just in Ireland, but across Europe.\nTo be kept up to date with all Erasmus+ events in Le Chéile, please visit our project website- www.magicandmythsuniteeurope.weebly.com\nTo see all Posts related to the Erasmus+ Project click here:"}
{"content":"One of the most trusted method of testing to truly determine an individual is DNA testing. This is especially true when one wishes to develop the identification of a moms and dad. These days most examinations of DNA are lawfully binding so the test results can be made use of in a court of law whether to establish a DNA paternity or to convict a felon. The price of DNA testing varies depending on which laboratory does the work. It additionally relies on the dimension of the example and its condition. Oh yes how the examination results will certainly be used is also shown in the cost. Analysis starts at around 200 and also increases. But results for a DNA paternity examination usually begin around 500 and increase.\nDNA testing can range from an extremely affordable rate to inflated rates that are out of this world. That is why it pays to look around and get the very best price. Naturally the simpler the test the more affordable the rates and also the harder the test and the even more analysis the extra it is most likely to set you back. It can run right into the thousands. That is especially true if records are called for. The sort of evaluation that is done will certainly also be reflected in the cost of testing DNA. In the case of a normal paternity DNA examination a person would likely spend around 200. If that test required to be made use of in a court of legislation where a lot more comprehensive evaluation and reporting was needed you would generally be looking at around 600.\nDNA testing is usually not covered by insurance provider however some do cover the lower valued basic screening so you will certainly require to speak with your insurance provider to see if the expense of testing DNA is covered and if so what percentage and to what quantity. Most trustworthy way of recognizing an individual whether as a parent or as a felon is with DNA testing and in almost every circumstances it is legitimately binding. The cost of NOVAGEN will additionally differ from one lab to the following. In some situations it pays to shop about. There are likewise free screening of DNA kits readily available online then you simply ship back and pay the charge for processing the laboratory work. Often this is less expensive than various other laboratories in some cases it works out the same so make certain that you contrast alternatives and also search like you would for any type of other surface area."}
{"content":"The British Intelligence Agency recently said the latest weapon of Al Qaeda is to use female suicide bombers with explosive breast implants, thus making it impossible to detect at security check-points.\nWhile British agencies are finding it difficult to deal with this new technique, Indian agencies say that they are aware of the new technique. It was in fact started by the Jaish-e-Mohammad. However they had used this technique in men where bombs were planted inside the human body. This was quickly picked up the Lashkar-e-Tayiba.\nIndian agencies say that it was the Lashkar which was first to start using women in its organisation.\nThe IB says that there is a difference, however, in the manner in which Lashkar and Al Qaeda use women for terror. While the Al Qaeda is clear that women would be used as bombers, the Lashkar uses them as foot soldiers and recruiters. However of late, the Lashkar, too, has been mooting various ideas to use women as suicide bombers. Finding a women suicide bomber is not a big deal for the outfits.\nThe Lashkar has also used women to circulate fake currency and as recruiters. The Lashkar has managed to convince outfits such as the SIMI and the Indian Mujahideen to follow suit. The SIMI, which opened up a wing called as the Shaheen Force to educate children, was soon converted into an all-woman force. The role given to the women was to recruit children into the outfit.\nThe IB says that in future, women will play a much bigger role in terror attacks.\nThe British Intelligence MI5 had stated that the Al Qaeda has a dedicated set of doctors to implant the explosives. They have been doing it with so much expertise that once the bomb is implanted it would be virtually impossible to detect.\nIndian agencies say that detecting such a bomb will be extremely difficult unless there are sophisticated X-ray machines in place.\nThis new technique would not, however, be used in major explosions. It has been specifically made for airline bombings.\nThe quantity of the substance will be extremely low since it needs to be implanted in the body and also not be detected. Experts say that the explosion on an aircraft would be sufficient to damage the aircraft to such an extent that it would crash."}
{"content":"The main objective of the project was to help countries make their PA networks more resilient to the impacts of climate change, by:\n1. Developing innovative science-based tools for assessing the vulnerability of PAs to climate change;\n2. Designing adaptation strategies to strengthen the resilience of PAs;\n3. Building capacity in the region for applying the tools and implementing the strategies; and\n4. Creating a platform for further field implementation following transboundary pilot site activities."}
{"content":"Photo Credit - CDC/ Frederick Murphy. This colorized negative stained transmission electron micrograph (TEM), captured by F.A. Murphy in 1968, depicts a Marburg virus virion, which had been grown in an environment of tissue culture cells. Marburg hemorrhagic fever is a rare, severe type of hemorrhagic fever which affects both humans and non-human primates. Caused by a genetically unique zoonotic (that is, animal-borne) RNA virus of the filovirus family, its recognition led to the creation of this virus family. The four species of Ebola virus are the only other known members of the filovirus family. See PHIL 7219 for a black and white version of this image.\nAfter an incubation period of 5-10 days, the onset of the disease is sudden and is marked by fever, chills, headache, and myalgia. Around the fifth day after the onset of symptoms, a maculopapular rash, most prominent on the trunk (chest, back, stomach), may occur. Nausea, vomiting, chest pain, a sore throat, abdominal pain, and diarrhea then may appear. Symptoms become increasingly severe and may include jaundice, inflammation of the pancreas, severe weight loss, delirium, shock, liver failure, and multi-organ dysfunction. Because many of the signs and symptoms of Marburg hemorrhagic fever are similar to those of other infectious diseases, such as malaria or typhoid fever, diagnosis of the disease can be difficult, especially if only a single case is involved.."}
{"content":"Layout is as important as the science itself - keep it simple.\nExceptional layouts, graphical details, or interactive parts should enhance the understanding of the results.\nChallenge your layout by involving your colleagues, e.g. print a version and hang it in the hallway to get feedback.\nNot all information can be visualized in exactly the same way. Something compelling on A4 does not automatically work on A0 and vice versa.\nYour genuine enthusiasm in presenting your research and your ability to explain the results is very important, but respect that some audiences just want to read the poster and not engage in a long discussion.\nCheck out these websites for further instructions and inspiration: Designing conference posters and Better posters.\nPosters can be in portrait format only. Posters in landscape format will not be exhibited. The dimensions of the poster should be maximum A0 size (84.1 x 118.9cm). Fittings will be provided.\nRead the detailed poster guidelines.\nPoster session at ICES ASC 2015 in Copenhagen."}
{"content":"Help: Password SecurityWhen you login, most browsers will give you the option to save your password so future login is easier. Normally, this site scrambles your password before sending it over the Internet, so that it's never sent in clear-text form. But for some browsers, like Apple's Safari, this scrambling disables the ability to save your password. You can check the \"allow browser to remember password\" box to force the browser to remember your password correctly. Doing this is less secure, but you should only have to do it once."}
{"content":"Many in the United States have failed to see the urgency of the Islamic State because it seemed focused on the Middle East and thus a good candidate – whether you’re coming from the left or libertarian right – for non-intervention. But the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino have disabused us of the notion that the Islamic State isn’t afraid to punch above its weight and take on Europe and the United States. At Politico Magazine, Harleen Gambhir writes:\nISIL’s global strategy should come as no surprise. In fact, ISIL has pursued an international expansion campaign from the moment it declared its “caliphate” in June 2014. While the group solidifies its proto-state in parts of Iraq and Syria, it also is expanding its would-be caliphate regionally – and preparing for the apocalyptic war it desires with the West.\nTo expedite that, the Islamic State is “fostering affiliates in Muslim-majority areas and directing and inspiring terror attacks in the wider world,” including “Egypt, Libya, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Russia and Nigeria,” and, in the future, Bangaladesh, Tunisia, and Somalia. Mergers and acquisitions, in other words!\n(Breaking for an incipient panic attack as we briefly contemplate the Islamic State taking over the world.)\nKruse writes that, “Its growth strategy is sophisticated and systematic” – wait for it – “much like a multinational corporation expanding by acquisition.”\nRather than build affiliates from the ground up, ISIL co-opts and changes existing militant groups or networks, some of which have splintered from Al Qaeda. Potential affiliates must consolidate factions, select a leader and present a military plan to ISIL’s leadership for approval, according to ISIL’s own standards.\nAlso, like a multinational, the Islamic State performing due diligence.\nISIL then chooses whether to establish a wilayat, or province, in the affiliate’s operating area. ISIL’s leaders help these affiliates to become more brutal and effective by exporting military training and expertise. ISIL calls for international recruits to reinforce its strongest partners; it also provides military training and funding to some affiliates.\nThe irony of the Islamic State’s resemblance to a multinational corporation is almost too delicious. But, it plans ahead, unlike multinationals (seem to, at any rate).\nISIL’s most dangerous affiliates are those that give the group strategic resilience: They’re strong enough that they could help the group survive even if the group were to be wiped out in its home territory of Syria and Iraq."}
{"content":"The Students’ Association exists for the purpose of ensuring that Mount Royal University students have an opportunity to participate in all matters that may affect the quality of student life at the University.\nThe representation responsibilities associated with this mandate are critical. SAMRU ensures that all students are well represented on dozens of academic and non-academic committees and boards on and off campus and to all levels of government.\nCouncil of Alberta University Students\nSAMRU partners with other student organizations to represent students’ interests municipally, provincially and federally. SAMRU is a member of the Council of Alberta University Students (CAUS), which advocates for students on post-secondary issues such as tuition fees and university funding. As the provincial government is largely responsible for the post-secondary sector, CAUS is the primary avenue for effecting change for our university.\nCanadian Alliance of Students’ Associations\nThe Canadian Alliance of Students’ Associations (CASA) is the federal group in which SAMRU holds membership. It advocates on national issues of accessibility, affordability, innovation and quality.\nSAMRU student representatives lobby to make a positive difference for students, dealing with issues like tuition and loan policies across Alberta and Canada or academic and non-academic issues and mental health initiatives on your very own campus"}
{"content":"Origin: Wild caught, Canada & USA – FAO21\nSize: 500g- 1kg\nIngredients: Skate Wings\nSkates are members of the shark family that have pectoral fins. They eat mainly crustaceans and other invertebrates. It is rare in NA to encounter skate on a dinner plate, it is served in areas like New England that have a strong fishing and seafood tradition. In Asia, it is considered a delicacy.\nSkate is Harvested the year round, with a peak of catching during the summer.\nSkin-on wing sections. Skinless wing sections\nSkate flesh is quite mild, but slightly more gelatinous than that of regular fish. It cooks very quickly and if overcooked breaks up along the corrugations.\nStrictly inspected, size graded and Ammonia tested"}
{"content":"Here Comes Santa Claus was inspired by a Christmas parade.\nIn 1946, the original singing cowboy, Gene Autry, was riding Champion, his horse, down Hollywood Boulevard in the annual Christmas parade.\nHe was placed just a few spots ahead of Santa Claus. He noticed that no one was paying any attention to him. They were all shouting, “Here Comes Santa Claus!”\nIn the summer of 1947, Art Satherly suggested that Autry record the Christmas song, An Old Fashioned Christmas. They needed a song for the B-side of the album, and Autry remembered the idea he had at the Christmas parade. Autry was inspired to write the song. Oakley Haldeman set the lyrics to music.\nThe demo was recorded by Johnny Boyd, who had Art Satherly standing beside him as he recorded. The ice from Satherly’s drink was captured on the recording and sounded like jingle bells. This inspired the use of real jingle bells when Autry recorded the song.\nAutry recorded and released the song in 1947, and it became an instant classic, selling two million copies in the first release."}
{"content":"Given that Florida is known for its heat and humidity, many are often surprised to find that the state has its own hail season. March to July is the season for hail in Florida, with the peak of the season occurring in May. Cold air from the north clashes with the warm breath from the Gulf of Mexico, sharing the stage for operatic thunderstorms that develop into hail. It is the south-central portion of the United States that receives the highest amount of hailstorm damage each year. Knowing the patterns of hailstorm can help mitigate hailstorm risks, which is important particularly if you are an apartment manager.\nHow to Prepare Apartment Buildings for Hailstorms\nWhile you cannot prevent a hailstorm, there is much that you can do in preparation to mitigate the damage that can occur before and after an event. Much of these preparations have to do with roofs, which can be prepped to be more hail-resistant.\n- Keep roofs clean. Regular roof maintenance puts you ahead of the game. Regularly clear your roof of debris, dirt and other items to promote better drainage and resist water ponding.\n- Impact-related skylights. Ordinary skylights are not best equipped to handle intense hailstorms. Opt instead for skylights with hail ratings that show that they can better withstand hail.\n- Protect your HVAC equipment. A bulk of HVAC equipment is located on rooftops, so it is recommended that you ensure that this equipment will be able to withstand hail impact. We also recommend installing hail shields, guards and wire mesh protection.\n- Get the right solar panels. Solar panels are in the direct range of hail, so it is best to ensure that the solar panels placed on your roofs are able to withstand them.\n- Post-storm inspections. Following a hailstorm, it is recommended that you conduct a comprehensive roof inspection. Assess for and repair damages immediately to prevent them developing into more significant costlier issues.\nMinimizing Hailstorm Risks and Liabilities\nIt is ideal for apartment owners to communicate clearly with their tenants regarding hailstorms. This includes making sure that your tenants are aware of what should be done before, during and after severe storms. Hailstorms can incur property damages, and keeping your tenants safe helps you reduce liability. Conduct drills with your tenants and prepare a checklist with handy information and guiding instructions; take the time to ensure that your tenants are familiar with it prior to each storm season. It would also be helpful to keep copies of these documents where your tenants can easily see them.\nSome items on the checklist can include:\n- Preparing a weather safety kit that includes items such as flashlights, medical supplies, batteries, nonperishable food and hydration.\n- A list of emergency contacts and phone numbers\n- Emergency exits and storm protocols.\n- Staying away from windows and keeping shutters closed.\nDealing with Hail Damages Claims\nAs with any natural disaster, hailstorms can strike quickly. If you are facing the aftermath of a hailstorm, you may be wondering about dealing with hail damages claims. If you are having trouble with a claim or have been denied one, contact us today. We are here to help you claim what is rightfully yours."}
{"content":"Do you think on your own polygamous? Polyandrous? Polyamorous? If you ask me, the word “polygamy” has been quick – one person being in a romance having numerous anyone else. Turns out the notion of “polygamy” is more nuanced. It may be split up according to who is with who and in what way.\nKind of poly\nPolygamy – a type of wedding in which a person away from often intercourse keeps several partner meanwhile (increased exposure of the word ‘y. Inside West regions, polygamy with all of the divisions isn’t prominent. On the other hand, it is widely practiced in a lot of areas of Africa. It is reasonably judge within the asian countries and Middle east.\nPolygyny – Merriam-Webster defines polygyny as the that have one or more partner otherwise ladies partner meanwhile. It will not say far towards fundamental topic of these a love – the person who has actually these spouses. The newest LGBTA Wiki, but not, determine that in case off polygyny, it is men who has multiple wives.\nPolyamory – staying in multiple romantic matchmaking immediately. The brand new matchmaking is going to be emotional, intimate, otherwise romantic. Remember that brand new parties can be familiar with each other. Though they don’t relate genuinely to one other people away from its lover, they should have knowledge of the life. If they don’t, such as for example an ordeal might possibly be noticed an open matchmaking otherwise ordinary cheating.\nUnlock matchmaking – a committed couples who’ve concurred they can have sex with other people plus don’t always have share with per other information regarding their “extra” partners.\nThen there’s together with “swinging” and you will “mate exchanging” that also be lined up less than an enthusiastic umbrella label away from “consensual nonmonogamy”. It’s possible to argue that polygamy is even polyamory, exactly what throughout the loveless marriages? I’m able to exit one on how best to wonder upon. Let us just agree that the new website name are complex in reality.\nDating into the Dutch aka twarrel, scharrel, kwarrel, prela, and rela\nPossibly I’ve resided living when you look at the a weird method, but have never dated multiple people at the same time. I’ve had several members of the family and, at some point, I have build a liking to 1 ones. That it, consequently, has evolved to the a romantic relationship with that people, nevertheless moment such as for instance liking happens, relationship anyone else has been from the dining table.\nFor this reason, I became quite astonished as i been aware of new relationship society regarding the Netherlands. Dutchies are loose with their dating games. It is common to blow long relationships, often investigating numerous prospective relationship at a time. Basically polyamory!\nGood twarrel identifies a man you connect having immediately after inside a blue moonlight. You scarcely learn one another. A beneficial twarrel cannot meet your mother and father. If you start connecting with greater regularity and you will speaking of the thoughts, your own relationship are upgraded to help you scharrel.\nA scharrel is basically a fuck friend – anyone you butt phone call when you need getting informal intercourse. The relationship is fairly irregular, low, and noncommital. Merely a couple having a good time. It probably is inspired by the brand new verb “scharrelen” and thus “so you can scrape upwards” otherwise “rummage using sth”. “Scharrelkip” makes reference to 100 % free-variety chicken and “scharreleieren” for the egg instance good hen provides, therefore i wanna think of it as perhaps not getting all the the eggs in one container. Basically, keeping the options open.\nA great kwarrel is regarded as a beneficial “quality scharrel”. It is just in short supply of in love. You love both, has significant discussions, hook up multiple times a week, and you will become personal if you wish to, but it’s maybe not sensed like.\nA beneficial prela was an abbreviation to have pre-relationship, as soon as before you could y part-of-glance at, you’ll be mostly personal along with your prela. The thing is one another usually, thought you are in love, and discuss a future with her. Good prela you can present on the moms and dads.\nBetween a good prela and a rela a keen ignorela will be defined – a turn down relationships. We all know you fall in together, however you have not really had “the fresh new speak” yet ,. Something is actually for yes – relationships or making love which have anybody else was frowned-upon within that it stage.\nGood rela ‘s the ultimate quantity of the new Dutch relationship video game – the relationship. You love both, perhaps real time together with her, inhale with her, generate a lifestyle together with her. If for example the mothers haven’t fulfilled the rela yet ,, you do something wrong! You are demonstrably intended for each other and certainly will alive happily ever before immediately after.\n- Scharrel (a loosely discussed relationship)\n- Kwarrel (kwaliteits scharrel, which have potential)\n- Twarrel (twijfel scharrel, having doubts)\n- Barrel (a bad vehicles)\n- Varrel (vacation scharrel)\n- Larrel (long distance scharrel)\n- Mischarrel (high school scharrel)\n- Prela (pre relationship)\n- Rela (early dating)"}
{"content":"we provide innovative solutions for health-screening and snoring prevention for people around the globe. any abnormal enlargement can be harmful, starting from the size of specific organs, finishing with being overweight. snoring isn’t as simple as one may consider, and the variety of its causes only supports this fact. how are tonsils and snoring connected? tonsils are located at the back of your throat. snoring can hit anyone. enlarged tonsils and child snoring are very common. the function of those glands is to fight infections, and that’s extremely important during the first years of our life. enlarged tonsils and snoring can happen to adults as well.\nthe noise created by snoring develops due to vibrations of the soft tissue in our throat. narrowed space for airflow contributes to louder noise and even breathing pauses (that can later flow into a disorder, sleep apnea). does taking out tonsils stop snoring? but let’s recall that the function of tonsils or adenoids in our body diminishes with age. plus, there is an amazing statistic that nearly 79% of children who overcame tonsillectomy (part- or full tonsil removing surgery) experienced relief of snoring. as you can see, there is a direct connection between enlarged tonsils and snoring. in case you’re snoring isn’t caused by tonsils, you can download a snore recorder app goodsomina lab and figure out the possible reason for your snore directly at home. get a personal mobile tool for sleep recording and snore analysis. get a personal mobile tool for sleep recording and snore analysis.\nthe medical terms for these enlarged areas of tissue are “tonsil hypertrophy” and “adenoid hypertrophy. it is also important not to confuse enlarged tonsils with tonsillitis (an inflammation of the tonsils). pauses in breathing during sleep, on the other hand, are mainly caused by enlarged palatine tonsils. and the severity of symptoms isn’t always related to the size of the affected tonsils or adenoids. these problems are often caused by enlarged tonsils or adenoids in children, particularly between the ages of 3 and 6 years.\nhe or she then looks at the child’s throat to see how big their tonsils are and how narrow their airways have become as a result. it is also important to rule out other possible causes of the symptoms, such as allergies or a jaw misalignment. but this step is often not taken in people with enlarged adenoids or tonsils because it involves a lot of time and effort, and there are only limited appointments. if both the adenoids and the tonsils are enlarged, they can be (partially) removed in one operation. the suitability of any of the described options in an individual case can be determined by talking to a doctor. you can find a detailed description of how our health information is produced and updated in our methods.\nenlarged tonsils and adenoids are a common cause of snoring and sleep disruption in children. the tonsils are clusters of lymphoid tissue in the back of the enlarged tonsils cause snoring snoring can hit anyone. however, some factors can make you more vulnerable. those include sex, age, enlarged adenoids or tonsils don’t cause any problems in many children. about 7% of all children snore all the time, and about 2% have nighttime, .\nenlarged tonsils and adenoids are a common cause of snoring and sleep disruption in children. the tonsils are clusters of lymphoid tissue in the back of the throat while the adenoids are a similar mound of tissue in the back of the nose. when snoring is linked to enlarged tonsils or adenoids, surgery may be recommended to remove them. removing the tonsils or adenoids is a relatively straightforward procedure and it can be very effective at treating snoring. enlarged tonsils caused by tonsillitis can cause snoring and sleep apnea or worsen current sleep disorders worse. tonsillitis is especially if a child snores, is surgery the answer? surgeons often remove tonsils and adenoids in children to help treat snoring and mild sleep- tonsils when are enlarged, while sleeping, blocks or blocks the airway entirely, can fall into the back of the throat. tonsils become the cause, .\nWhen you try to get related information on tonsils and snoring, you may look for related areas. tonsil removal for snoring,enlarged tonsils and snoring child,swollen tonsils from snoring,lingual tonsils snoring,tonsils and snoring in adults,tonsil snoring remedies ."}
{"content":"Melanoma may be the deadliest type of epidermis cancer and comes with an incidence that’s growing faster than every other great tumor. dacarbazine in 675 sufferers with studies Up to now, numerous studies have got investigated mixed targeted therapy and immunotherapy in melanoma. The very first report recommending that oncogenic BRAFV600E can result in tumoral immune system escape was released in 200633. Further research have already been performed following the advancement of particular BRAF inhibitors, and BRAF inhibition in BRAF mutant melanoma cell lines and clean tumor digests continues to be demonstrated to bring about up legislation (as much as 100-collapse) of melanoma differentiation antigens34. Additionally, inhibition with BRAF and MEK inhibitors elevated the recognition of the melanoma antigens by antigen-specific T lymphocytes. Nevertheless, MEK inhibitors adversely have an effect on the T cell function whereas those treated with BRAF inhibitors preserved efficiency34. Further unbiased studies on the consequences of dabrafenib (BRAF inhibitor), trametinib (MEK inhibitor), or their mixture on T lymphocytes also have proven that trametinib by itself or in mixture suppressed T-lymphocyte proliferation, cytokine GSK1059615 creation, and antigen-specific extension, whereas treatment with dabrafenib acquired no impact35. Callahan and research Importantly, the result of BRAF inhibition in addition has been examined in sufferers with metastatic melanoma. Outcomes showed an identical upsurge in melanoma differentiation antigens and a substantial upsurge in intratumoral Compact disc8+ T cells, that have been even more clonal 10-14 times after initiation of BRAF inhibition37-39. These results were also connected with down governed IL-6, IL-8, IL-1 and vascular endothelial development aspect (VEGF)38,40,41. The elevated immunomodulatory substances, PD-1 and PD-L1, 10-14 times after BRAF inhibition initiation will also be important, which condition suggests a potential immune-based system of level of resistance38. The up controlled PD-L1 expression might have been due to infiltrating GSK1059615 IFN–secreting T cells42, although stromal parts can also be included43. Jiang cytotoxic activity and intratumoral cytokine secretion from the moved T cells. Oddly enough, BRAF inhibition didn’t alter adoptively moved T cell development, distribution, or intratumoral denseness45. Liu and function is definitely beneficial. Aggregate data claim that BRAF inhibitor treatment is definitely associated with improved melanoma antigens, improved Compact disc8 T cell infiltrate, and reduced immunosuppressive cytokines and VEGF early Mouse monoclonal to FOXD3 throughout therapy (within 14 days of initiating treatment in individuals)38,40,41. Nevertheless, a simultaneous upsurge in immunomodulatory substances was also discovered, which may donate to therapy level of resistance. Adding BRAF-targeted therapy to a variety of treatment modalities could improve reactions (Number 1), and these mixtures are currently becoming examined in murine versions and medical trials. Open up in another window Number 1 Putative ramifications of adding BRAF targeted therapy to immune-based therapies. With no treatment, melanomas demonstrate an immunosuppressive environment with generally low degrees of melanoma antigens, low degrees of infiltrating cytotoxic T lymphocytes, and high degrees of immunosuppressive cytokines and VEGF (A). Treatment having a BRAF inhibitor leads to a good tumor microenvironment with an increase of antigens and Compact disc8+ T cells and reduced immunosuppressive cytokines and VEGF, but with concurrent upsurge in immunomodulatory substances, such as for example PD-1 on T cells and PD-L1, within the tumor microenvironment (B). BRAF-targeted therapy may synergize with different treatment modalities, which phenomenon has been examined in murine versions and in medical trials. Proof for synergy is present with immune system checkpoint blockade (C), due to the fact the BRAF inhibitor addition offers positive effects within the tumor microenvironment (with an increase of antigens, Compact disc8+ T cells, and reduced immunosuppressive cytokines/VEGF) and that the simultaneous upsurge in immunomodulatory substances is definitely tempered by immune system checkpoint blockade (D). The synergy includes mixed treatment with IL2 (E), where the addition of BRAF-targeted therapy may augment the antitumor immune system response by its beneficial results within the tumor microenvironment (F). However, regulatory T cells with this setting could be questionable. Adoptive cell therapy functions through former mate vivo activation of autologous antigen-reactive T cells (G), which behavior could be improved by the good ramifications of BRAF-targeted therapy within the tumor microenvironment (H). Rays therapy has very clear results within the tumor microenvironment with results on both tumor cells and antitumor immunity (I), which might be augmented with the addition of BRAF-targeted therapy (J). Current and ongoing medical trials of mixed targeted and immunotherapy Translating the ideas derived from earlier studies has captivated much interest for software in GSK1059615 patient treatment setting. Nevertheless, GSK1059615 data on."}
{"content":"Ecuadorians Vote to Stop Petroecuador’s Oil Drilling in Yasuni National Park\nYasuni National Park in the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador, one of the most biodiverse areas of the planet, is home to the Huaorani, Tagaeri and Taromenane Indigenous peoples. It has been exploited for oil by companies like Shell and Petroecuador for over 50 years. In September 2023, after 10 years of activism, the people of Ecuador voted to halt oil drilling forever.\n“Finally, we are going to kick oil companies out of our territory! This is a major victory for all Indigenous peoples, for the animals, the plants, the spirits of the forest and our climate!” – Nemonte Nenquimo, Indigenous Waorani leader\nOil extraction first began in Ecuador’s Amazon in 1972. Drilling concessions were granted to oil companies such as Shell and Texaco (now Chevron). In 2010 Ecuador began the process of nationalization of the petroleum industry and handed oil concessions to state-owned Petroecuador. Today Petroecuador extracts 57,000 of oil barrels a day from the Yasuni National Park.\nYasuni ITT Initiative\nIn 2007, president Rafael Correa launched the “Yasuni ITT” initiative seeking to keep over a billion barrels of oil in the ground in the Ishpingo, Tiputini and Tambococha (ITT) oil fields of Yasuni National Park, if the international community was willing to pay US$3.6 billion. Unfortunately, six years later, with just $336 million pledged, the plan was shelved.\nIn 2013, YASunidos – a group of youth activists in Ecuador – together with the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) and other organizations started collecting signatures for a national referendum to keep oil in the ground in Yasuni. They gathered 757,623 signatures in the span of 5 months, more than the 580,000 required by law.\nUnfortunately, the National Electoral Council arbitrarily annulled over 60 percent of the signatures gathered. After a decade of court battles by YASunidos, the Constitutional Court of Ecuador ruled that the Ecuadorian state violated the rights of participation of its citizens, on May 10, 2023, allowing the referendum to go ahead.\n“There should never have been oil exploitation in Yasuní. Oil exploitation in Yasuní should always have been prohibited, not only because the people there live in isolation but because it’s a protected area.” – Pedro Bermeo, YASunidos spokesperson\nOn August 20, 2023, Ecuador’s citizens went to the polls to vote on the initiative. Over 5.2 million people voted in favor (58 percent of those who voted), giving Petroecuador 12 months to stop operations in the ITT zone and banning the government from signing any new oil exploration contracts.\n“Petroecuador will coordinate all pertinent actions, together with the other State institutions involved, to fully comply with the sovereign decision of the Ecuadorian people in Block 43 ITT.” – Petroecuador press release\nThis is #61 in our series of Instagram infographics on resistance against corporate power.\nClick here to see the full post on Instagram.\n📸 1/10 Nemonte Nenquimo at oil spill near Shushufindi, Ecuador. Photo: Sophie Pinchetti/Amazon Frontlines ©\n2/10 Omanka Enquiri, Waorani traditional leader (“Pikenani”) speaks during a press conference outside the headquarters of the Ministry of Energy and Non-Renewable Resources in the city of Quito. Photo: Amazon Frontlines ©\n4/10 Petroecuador petrol station on the Pan-American Highway, Ecuador. Photo: Bernard Gagnon\n5/10 Jaime Vargas, President of national indigenous organization CONAIE, marches alongside Waorani women including Waorani leader and lead plaintiff Nemonte Nenquimo and Omanka Enquiri, Waorani traditional leader (“Pikenani”). Photo: Amazon Frontlines ©\n6/10 Young Kichwa leaders join in the Waorani people’s mobilization in the city of Quito. Photo: Amazon Frontlines ©\n7/10 The Waorani people spearhead a mass mobilization in the city of Quito to demand the government to respect the court’s decision and indigenous rights. Photo: Amazon Frontlines ©\n9/10 Kofan leaders from the small community of Sinangoe, which won a landmark ruling against gold mining last year, join in the Waorani people’s mobilization. Photo: Amazon Frontlines ©"}
{"content":"Beaverhead County High School has had a strong Athletic Training program for many years. Alysa Brown is the high school’s trainer; she provides support to athletes in many sports programs. Taping, icing, and stretching are just the beginning. Each injured athlete is put on a rehab plan to get back to their sport safely as quickly as possible. Dr. Downey helps Alysa make diagnoses and establish treatment plans for injured athletes. Dr. Downey also attends or arranges for another physician to attend every BCHS home football game. In addition, injury prevention training is taught to athletes."}
{"content":"The application supports various formats including EPUB, LRF, HTML, MOBI, PDF books and others and offers you several options for adding of books into the library. So you can add items from single or multiple folders (including subfolders) or by entering the ISBN code and then group them by author, language or format.\nFurthermore, you can sort your books by name, popularity and rating, define and manage new categories, edit meta tags for a bulk of books, perform search and replace operations, make conversions between different formats supported (in bulk as well) or create catalogs.\nThe built-in viewer comes with several handy customization options to ease up your reading. You can adjust the font size, the margins of pages and the text width in full screen mode, change the color of background and text and also customize the default keyboard shortcuts.\nMoreover, Calibre supports bookmarks and also allows you to download covers for your e-books as well as news from various online sources that you can view in a digital book format.\n- supports batch conversion and metadata editing\n- support for all major e-book readers\n- can schedule downloads\n- numerous customization options\nOne can use this application to manage and read e-books and also to make quick conversions between various book formats."}
{"content":"What are the technological innovations that will shape the future of the automotive industry? From electric vehicles and fast-charging batteries to autonomous vehicles, additive manufacturing and robotics, let’s explore what the automotive industry will look like over the next decade.\nThe most fundamental trend in the global automotive industry not just in 2022 but for the rest of the decade will be an increasing emphasis on the development of vehicles that produce zero emissions. Here are the top 5 automotive we identified for 2022 and beyond.\n01. Electric Vehicles\nOliver Larkin is head of group corporate relations for Volkswagen in the UK. He says that in order for VW to meet the demands of the Paris Climate Accord for complete CO2 neutrality in both products and processes by 2050, the company “must be making electric vehicles (EVs) only by 2040.”\nHe explains that,\n“At the moment, 14% of global CO2 is generated by the transport sector, which means given VW’s share of the market that 2% of global CO2 emissions is produced by cars made by VW.”\nThis will involve massive investment in the company. Larkin promises “35 billion euros of investment in EVs by VW over the next five years.”\nThis will allow the company to develop over 70 new EV models and make 26 million such vehicles at 18 different locations worldwide by 2030.\n02. Ultra-Fast Charging Batteries\nIn order for EVs to take off, something else is necessary – the ability to charge their batteries from nearly flat to full in a matter of minutes just like filling the petrol tank of a car today.\nStoreDot based in Herzliya, Israel is developing technology for this purpose.\nCEO Dr. Doron Myersdorf says that the importance of ultra-fast charging in a future EV infrastructure is still under-appreciated, but he believes that :\n“It is in fact the number one barrier for the adoption of EVs. Cost of ownership and cost per mile over the lifetime of a car is already less for EVs than it is for ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles.”\nStoreDot’s solution is to re-engineer the chemistry of the lithium-ion batteries most commonly used in EVs so that graphite is replaced by a nano-silicon formulation as the primary anode material with vastly superior performance.\nAccording to Dr. Myersdorf, the company’s “Gen1” technology should be ready for implementation with EVs in a couple of years and should enable the charging of a typical saloon car in “about ten minutes” with a charging station rated at 300-350kW.\nFurther in the future, he is confident that StoreDot will have advanced its own technology with charging stations perhaps twice as powerful to enable “five-minute charging.”\n03. Autonomous Cars\nAnother technology that may well shape the future is that of self-driving cars. But their development has to overcome a surprising possible obstacle – the fact that they can cause nausea and other symptoms together known as motion sickness in-vehicle occupants.\nDr. Joseph Smyth, a research fellow at the Warwick Manufacturing Group in the UK, explains that the cause is “mismatches” between the perceptions gathered by occupants’ sensory systems in such vehicles.\nHe says that design opportunities presented by autonomous vehicles such as reducing window size or turning seats around limit the ability of occupants to gain visual information about the motion of the vehicle and so increase chances of motion sickness. He believes the problem is potentially highly significant:\n“One third of the population is highly susceptible to motion sickness.”\nBut he adds that research at WMG has shown that “there are lots of options vehicle manufacturers can incorporate into their future vehicles” to counter these effects. Remedies may involve vehicle design to ensure appropriate attributes covering not just windows and seating but also vehicle dynamics. Vehicles may even need to be programmed to follow particular routes.\n04. Additive Manufacturing\nBut what of the manufacturing processes involved in making cars?\nOne technology that will continue to have increasing influence is that of additive manufacturing, explains Fadi Abro, head of global automotive for additive technology supplier Stratasys. According to him, most car manufacturers are currently using the technology for “design validation to support and speed up product development.”\nOthers are forging ahead with its application in direct support of manufacturing such as by making customized tooling.\n“Innovative thinking is allowing them to recognize cost and time savings that their competitors have yet to achieve. This is the most significant way to implement additives in the automotive industry today, and will be for the next 5-10 years.”\nAbro is also emphatic that additive manufacturing will play a major role in the industry’s switch to electrification.\n“Electrification means new products, new plants and new ways of doing things. Additive manufacturing can help every step of that change and will eventually support the customization that will come with high-end EVs by making on-demand parts.”\nLastly, automation will continue. But one change will be that robots will increasingly take the form of ‘cobots’ – machines that work in close collaboration with people instead of in isolated cells. This development is confirmed by Christoph Hock, head of human-robot collaboration for German robot supplier KUKA.\n“There are already 150 cobots on the market from around 50 different suppliers and many car manufacturers have implemented successful applications.”\nTheir further implementation is being facilitated by the development of supporting technologies such as factory floor radar.\nCurrent applications include precise tasks such as adhesive application and screwdriving. But further ahead Hock says that there will be increasing opportunities for using cobots to support “assembly in motion.”\n“Demand for cobots will pick up significantly once the economic situation recovers. Device prices will continue to fall, while technology such as ‘machine learning’ will continue to improve to help meet the demand for applications in the industry.”\nPhone: 136 6181 3373\nTel: 021-5106 1321"}
{"content":"Kentucky Residential Rental Agreement\nWhen it comes to renting a property in the state of Kentucky, it`s crucial to have a clear and comprehensive residential rental agreement in place. This legally binding document outlines the terms and conditions of the lease, including rent payment schedules, security deposits, and rules and regulations for tenants.\nHere are some key components that should be included in a Kentucky residential rental agreement:\n1. Basic Information: The agreement should start with basic information such as the names of the landlord and tenant, the address of the rental property, the start and end dates of the lease, and the amount of rent to be paid.\n2. Rent Payments: The payment schedule for rent should be clearly outlined in the agreement, including the due date, the amount due, and any late fees that may be incurred.\n3. Security Deposits: The agreement should specify the amount of the security deposit required, how it will be held, and under what conditions it will be refunded. Kentucky law limits security deposits to two months` rent.\n4. Tenant Responsibilities: The agreement should outline the responsibilities of the tenant, including maintenance and upkeep of the property, compliance with rules and regulations, and restrictions on subletting or allowing others to live in the property.\n5. Landlord Responsibilities: The agreement should also specify the responsibilities of the landlord, such as providing necessary repairs and maintenance, and adhering to local and state housing codes.\n6. Termination: The agreement should include details about how the lease can be terminated, such as notice requirements and penalties for breaking the lease early.\nWhen drafting a residential rental agreement in Kentucky, it`s important to be familiar with state laws and regulations regarding landlord-tenant relationships. Seeking the guidance of a legal professional or experienced property manager can help ensure that your rental agreement is legally sound and protects the interests of both parties.\nIn conclusion, having a comprehensive and clear residential rental agreement is essential for any property owner or tenant in Kentucky. It outlines the expectations and obligations of both parties, protects individuals from unexpected circumstances, and helps to avoid disputes."}
{"content":"The revolutions of those times took up the historical scene, with the cruelty and generalizations that came with them, destroying the greatness of the intellectual turmoil and dimming the power of thought that lightened the era.\nFROM FILANGERI TO THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION\nBehind such revolutions was the need to establish a new status for the individuals and for the population, after centuries of obscurantism; the principles of democracy, forgotten since the time of Athens, came back to life in the passionate discussions of philosophers, legal experts and knowledgeable citizens.\nAll the interconnections of the European intellectuals were working to contribute to these new ideals, but soon they realized that Europe was not the right continent to apply these ideals, due to monarchical resistance and the persistence of feudalism.\nOn the contrary, the 13 ex-colonies of North America, the New Nation, were the perfect place to experiment with these new ideals, a sort of world laboratory for modernity.\nWhen reading the works of authors of that time it is possible to grasp not only the actual content, but a surplus of enthusiasm and a universal idealism that went beyond the tight borders and the barriers of the single States, in order to face the entire world and the whole of humanity.\nFrancesco Mario Pagano, Neapolitan jurist and intellectual, believed that “State and citizenship” were words to abolish from the vocabulary of a modern society.\nAntonio Genovesi elaborated the principles of “public happiness” in his economy lectures at the University of Naples.\nGaetano Filangieri in Naples had already published the first two volumes of his treaty on the “science of legislation” in 1780, trying to consider rules that could work for the whole world, outlining the road to grant freedom of the individual and development of the human being.\nThe visionary power of Filangieri is still appreciated, declining some of the aspects he elaborated: abolition of excise duties to guarantee development; freedom of the press to enable a righteous formation of the public opinion; the right to a fair trial are only few of the colors with which the young Filangieri from Naples tried to depict the rules for a new humanity.\nAnd he was not alone.\nThe intellectual Masonic net of the times, before the papal bulls that would claim its illegality, has surely had a leading role in the promotion and divulgation of the new ideals, and determined the encounter of the innovative power of the young Neapolitan philosopher and jurist, Gaetano Filangieri, with an undisputed leader of the birth of the New Nation, the United States of America, Benjamin Franklin, both exponents of the Free Masonry.\nGaetano Filangieri was in Naples between 1780 and 1783, at the court of the King, already followed by a consistent fame among intellectuals thanks to his work, and kept a strong correspondence with many of these.\nAfter taking part in the Committee of Five, held by Thomas Jefferson in 1776, in order to corroborate the New Nation in the European courts, Benjamin Franklin was sent to Paris, at the court of King Louis XVI of France, as the first of the American ambassadors.\nFrom 1779 to 1781 Franklin became Master of the Lodge of the Neuf Soeurs, one of the most important expressions of the French Masonry.\nIn 1781 Luigi Pio, a young secretary representing the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in Paris and another member of the Masonry, obtained the diplomatic role at the same court, becoming an essential channel between Filangieri and Franklin.\nFranklin was astonished by Filangieri’s work, and from that moment a strong correspondence started between them, influencing the liberal principles of the first parliamentary and republican democracy of the planet.\nThe human and personal differences between Filangieri and Franklin were unbridgeable, yet their destinies travelled parallel from 1781 to 1788, up to the point when Tuberculosis broke Filangieri’s young life; he had yet to turn 35.\nYoung, idealist and intellectual the first; consummate politician, scientist and entrepreneur the latter, they only shared the fact they were great innovators, able to elaborate theories or inventions without any conformism.\nGaetano Filangieri had idealized Philadelphia and Pennsylvania to the point of seeing it as a land where the ideals of freedom that he supported with such vigor had already found life.\nIn a letter of the 24th August 1782, Filangieri writes to Franklin: “From childhood, Philadelphia has called for my eyes. I have grown so accustomed to seeing it as a land where I could be happy, that my imagination cannot get rid of this idea”.\nEverything had started with a letter dated 11th September 1781 from Luigi Pio to Filangieri, where he explained that Franklin wished to encouraged him to obtain the work “Science of Legislation” as it was to be “more useful in his Nation, terribly lacking in aspects of this topic.”\nA rich correspondence that followed in the years, in which Franklin also asked Filangieri for suggestions, as well as opinions on the Constitution of the 13 American States, sending him a copy of the book printed in Philadelphia.\nThis book is lost, and probably is still in some private library of the heirs of the jurist and philosopher.\nThe correspondence ended with a letter from the 14th October 1787 that Franklin, now President of the State of Pennsylvania, wrote to Filangieri to tell him of the approval of the American Constitution, adding a freshly printed copy of it.\nTogether with the news, Franklin asked for nine copies of the third volume on Criminal Legislation, and eight copies for the next publications on the Science of Legislation by Filangieri.\nThe third volume had also been the subject of a letter from Filangieri to Franklin, who was still in Paris, on the 21st March 1784, in which Filangieri sent a sheet from that book, marked by the letter “V”.\nThat page, recognizable also thanks to stylistic anomalies, included the proposal to establish that, as the first act of the process, there should be the summons to the accused, that is later found in 1791 in the Sixth Amendment of the US Constitution which provides for the right of the accused to be informed of the accusation.\nThe tribute sent by Franklin on the 14th October 1787 arrives in Naples on July 1st 1788, by which time tuberculosis had begun to undermine the health of Filangieri, that will pass away after three weeks, on the 21st July 1788 in Vico Equense.\nIt will be Filangieri’s wife, Charlotte Frendel, to respond to Benjamin Franklin, with a letter sent from Naples September 27, 1778 with which she announced the death of her spouse and followed through with Franklin’s request, thus providing the certainty that those copies of Filangieri’s work arrived at destination.\nThis story, as I said, describes the visionary power of the legal and philosophical thought of Filangieri, but also tells us about the importance of Naples at that time, when it was the centre of a European and international network of intellectuals who set out to forge the society and to regulate the future and the changes, with an eye to the whole world.\nIt questions us on how much we still need a network of modern Filangieris and Franklins to take charge of processing new rights and duties of which we all feel the need, with the same universal and reforming vision, thinking about the United States, but not only of America."}
{"content":"Today is Labor Day, a holiday that the U.S. observes on the first Monday in September to pay tribute to the contributions and achievements of American workers. It was created by the labor movement in the late 19th century and became a federal holiday in 1894. Labor Day also symbolizes the end of summer for many Americans, and is celebrated with parties, parades and athletic events.\nWhen I was young – very young – my dad put Labor Day right up there with the Fourth of July in holiday rankings. He was a coal miner. A working man. Labor Day meant a day off for anyone with that title.\nIt wasn’t just a day off. It was the last day off until Thanksgiving, unless it happened to be an election year, of course, when there’d be a day off in early November to vote. That was a big day for my dad, also. And when I was growing up, school always started the day after Labor Day, so that made it a biggie for me, too.\nEvery holiday was a big deal for my dad. Each special day that rolls around brings with it loving memories of him and his zest for life. He was the force behind our family; a typical “head of the household” man. I wonder how many of those are left.\nIf I could turn back the hands on the clock today to a time when I was about ten years old, I’d find my dad sitting on the front porch swing puffing on his pipe; my mother would be in the kitchen cooking a nice meal and I’d be sitting on the porch listening to one of my dad’s stories. He always had a story! I was never quite sure if his tales were true or if he was just having fun with his listeners. He loved to tease!\nThere was one I’d heard many times, but I kept asking him to tell it again and again over the years. Seems he and a friend went hunting in mid-November. It was pretty cold so they took along some moonshine. They couldn’t say where it came from, but its purpose, so they said, was to help them stay warm.\n“Like I said, it was awfully cold,” my dad began, “so we needed a few swigs of that moonshine before we ever got started. Only thing was, before long, we were feelin’ so nice and warm, we didn’t care much about shootin’ anything but the breeze, so we found a couple-a tree trunks to lean back on and sat down and started tellin’ each other tall tales. We were just a-laughin’ and havin’ the best ole time when all of a sudden, we heard a noise from behind some bushes.” We both sat straight up!\n“What was that?” Ole Jim said, his eyes as big as half dollars. “’Bout the time I was ready to answer, that noise came again! Well, we didn’t wait around to see what it was. We were both on our feet in a flash and climbin’ the trees right behind us. In a few minutes, we sure were glad we did ‘cause we saw what was makin’ all the noise.” It was a big ole grizzly bear!” He came walkin’ out from behind the bushes, didn’t even see us, but you could tell he was hungry ‘cause he went right over to our basket of food and started pullin’ out stuff and eatin’ everything in sight. He must-a been thirsty, too, ‘cause he looked around and, sure nuff, he spotted our jug-a moonshine. Well that ole bear picked up that jug and turned it up and just barely tasted that corn liquor before he shook his head like a wet dog and then snorted like a scared stallion. We were tryin’ to keep from laughin’, ‘cause we didn’t want that ole grizzly to spot us, but it was the funniest thing I’d ever seen!”\nWell, we didn’t know what to do. We just wanted him to leave so we could come down and go on home since he’d done away with all our food and everything. But he just kept lookin’ around. He finally picked up the jug again, turned it up to his mouth and didn’t take it down ‘til it was plumb empty! Then he pitched it as far as he could.”\nI was gettin’ so cold I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to move again and so was ole Jim, but that grizzly didn’t look like he was goin’ anywhere. Then after about twenty minutes, all of a sudden, plunk... he just fell to the ground! Me’ n ole Jim looked at one another. “You think it’s alright,” Jim said. “I reckon it is,” I said back, “He doesn’t look like he’s gettin’ up any time soon.”\nSo we came down outta the trees, tiptoed around that big grizzly bear, and took off runnin’. We didn’t stop ‘til we got to Jim’s pick-up parked down on the highway ‘bout a half mile away. Me ‘n ole Jim were so glad to get home, we never went huntin’ again!”\n\"Is that a true story?\" I asked.\n\"Every word!\" my dad said, winking.\n\"Every word!\" my dad said, winking.\nHappy Labor Day!"}
{"content":"Garlic head bottle vase\nHan dynasty (206 B.C – 220 A.D)\nH. 35 cm or 13 ¾\nin / d. 20.5 cm or 8¼ in\nThis amazing terracotta ceramic is a hu 壺 type bottle vase. Globular in shape, its body is surmounted by a long thin tubular neck. This slender vase is also characterised by the edge of its mouth, the lips of which take on the subtle appearance of a garlic head. Traces of polychromy have survived to the present day. Remains of red pigments are visible around the foot and in the grooves of the garlic clove. Finally, this work dates from the Han period (206 BC – 220 AD). At the time of this dynasty, this model of vase was based on bronze vases, whose production cost was very high. Their use was mainly dedicated to the conservation of liquids such as fermented drinks.\nShaped like a bottle vase, this hu type ceramic with a ‘garlic-head’ mouth is in very good condition. It shows no structural anomalies and only a few concretions, testimony to its past burial, are to be noted."}
{"content":"Risk and Reward\nYou should understand the degree of risk you are willing to accept before undertaking any kind of investment. People have very different attitudes to risk and you need to be clear about the degree of risk you are willing to accept.\nThe following is an example of a Risk/Reward profile. These risk categories are for guidance only.\nThe risk of an investment is affected by a number of factors and varies depending on the timeframe of an investment. A volatile investment such as a share in a company may be very risky over a short timeframe.\nThere is a balance between risk and potential return and, in general, higher risk investments usually mean that higher returns are possible but the risk of losing money is also increased. Lower risk generally means lower returns but a lower risk of losing money.\nThe risk of an investment varies according to how long the investment is held. With volatile investments such as property and shares you should be looking to invest for a minimum of ten years.\nRisk can also be varied by how you invest. Combining different types of investment (property, shares, bonds and cash) via an asset allocation model can help to even out these swings in value, especially if they are \"non-correlated\" (i.e. their prices move independently). This is why it usually makes sense even for investors to have some exposure to bonds and cash even though their long term potential is less than that of property and shares.\nOur job as advisers is to help you understand enough of this to make the best decisions for your savings but also minimise the time you need to spend on your investments as we want to take this hassle away from you, safe in the knowledge that your money is being professionally monitored and re-balanced to your optimum and chosen asset allocation on a regular basis.\nTHE VALUE OF INVESTMENTS AND INCOME FROM THEM MAY GO DOWN. YOU MAY NOT GET BACK THE ORIGINAL AMOUNT INVESTED.\nPAST PERFORMANCE IS NOT A RELIABLE INDICATOR OF FUTURE PERFORMANCE."}
{"content":"US president sets Afghan target\nThe increasingly deadly conflict in Afghanistan is a \"serious fight\" but one essential for the future stability of the country, the US president says.\nInsisting that US and allied troops have pushed back the Taliban, Barack Obama said the immediate target was to steer Afghanistan through elections.\nThe country is due to hold a presidential vote in August.\nMr Obama spoke to Sky News as concern grew in the UK at the rising British death toll in Afghanistan.\nUK Prime Minister Gordon Brown was also forced on Saturday to justify British involvement in Afghanistan.\nMr Brown said the UK's military deployment there was aimed at preventing terrorism in the UK.\nFifteen British troops have died in the past 10 days, pushing the country's number of deaths in Afghanistan past the number killed in action in Iraq.\nSpeaking during a day-long visit to Africa, Mr Obama also told Sky News that the battle in Afghanistan was a vital element in the battle against terrorism.\nHe said the continued involvement of British troops in the conflict was necessary, right and was a vital contribution to UK national security.\n\"This is not an American mission,\" Mr Obama said.\n\"The mission in Afghanistan is one that the Europeans have as much if not more of a stake in than we do.\n\"The likelihood of a terrorist attack in London is at least as high, if not higher, than it is in the United States.\"\nHe praised the efforts of all troops currently fighting the Taleban in gruelling summer heat, singling out British forces for praise when asked if their role was still important.\n\"Great Britain has played an extraordinary role in this coalition, understanding that we can not allow either Afghanistan or Pakistan to be a safe haven for al-Qaeda, those who with impunity blow up train stations in London or buildings in New York.\n\"We knew that this summer was going to be tough fighting. They [the Taliban] have, I think, been pushed back but we still have a long way to go. We've got to get through elections.\"\nSince taking office in Washington in January of this year, Mr Obama has announced a troop \"surge\" in Afghanistan.\nThe US has said it is sending up to 30,000 new troops to Afghanistan this year to take on a resurgent Taleban. They will join 33,000 US and 32,000 other Nato troops already in the country.\nHe also replaced the incumbent US commander in the country, ousting Gen David McKiernan less than a year into his command.\nThe new US chief in Afghanistan, Gen Stanley McChrystal, has a stellar reputation from his days commanding special forces operations in Iraq.\nHe has been tasked with the mission of outsmarting the Taliban, who continue to win support among ordinary Afghans often caught in the crossfire of the bitter fighting.\nHigh numbers of Afghan civilian casualties have become an issue of major concern to the US. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has regularly called on the international forces to reduce the numbers of Afghans killed in its operations.\nSpeaking to Sky News, Mr Obama said although forces were currently engaged in heavy fighting, new strategies for building bridges with Afghan society would be considered once the country had held its presidential election.\nAfghanistan needed its own army, its own police and the ability to control its own security, Mr Obama said - a strategy currently being implemented in Iraq, where security is being handed over to Iraqi forces.\n\"All of us are going to have to do an evaluation after the Afghan election to see what more we can do,\" the president said.\n\"It may not be on the military side, it might be on the development side providing Afghan farmers alternatives to poppy crops, making sure that we are effectively training a judiciary system and a rule of law in Afghanistan that people trust.\"\n\"We've got a core mission that we have to accomplish.\""}
{"content":"Swedish Massage- Incorporates gentle pressure applied to long flowing strokes, called effleurage. This massage also includes techniques such as kneading, friction and tapotement . A Swedish massage tends to be very relaxing by working with and manipulating the superficial muscle layers of the body.\nTherapeutic/Deep Tissue Massage- Like it's name implies, Deep Tissue Massage works with the manipulation of the deeper layers of muscle as well as connective tissue and is carried out with medium to firm pressure.\nAromatherapy Massage- Essential oils are incorporated into your massage for a truly delicious experience.\nHot Stones- Heated soapstones that retain heat, stones are placed both to rest on particular high tension areas as well as used to massage areas of discomfort and pain. Maneuvered using either light or deeper pressure.\nReflexology- Massage targeting particular areas of the feet or hands that correspond with different regions or systems of the body.\nSports Massage- Massage focused on those who are active and work out regularly. This is another type of therapeutic work that incorporates stretching to increase mobility and flexibility of the ligaments and joints.\nNeuromuscular Therapy- Massage that involves applying static pressure to different areas of skeletal muscles as to balance the central nervous system with the musculoskeletal system.\nPrenatal Massage- Massage done during pregnancy, specifically catering the needs of Mom-To-Be.\nThai Massage- This unique form of bodywork is done fully clothed and on a futon floor cushion. The therapist applies pressure to specific points on the body as well as preforms assisted stretching. This form of massage is very relaxing and is commonly known as the lazy mans yoga.\nSound Therapy- A variety of singing bowls, gongs, chimes, and other high frequency instruments are used to send you on a journey to help you relax into a deep and meditative state. As you drift away to the sound of these powerful tools, it works toward healing you on a cellular level. You will leave feeling transformed realigned with your higher self."}
{"content":"|2014-08-30 21:05:32 UTC\n|2014-12-24 20:26:52 UTC\n|Delorazepam is a benzodiazepine which, like other drugs in its class, possesses anxiolytic, skeletal muscle relaxant, hypnotic and anticonvulsant properties. It may have adverse effects such as drowsiness, and cognitive impairments such as short term memory impairment. Delorazepam is an active metabolite of the benzodiazepine known as cloxazolam. It is a long acting benzodiazepine which makes it superior in this sense to lorazepam which is short acting. Lorazepam is also a major active metabolite of delorazepam. In addition to be long acting, delorazepam is relatively potent, with 1 mg of delorazepam being the equivalent of 10 mg diazepam. It has been approved for marketing in Italy.\n- Organic Compound\n- Synthetic Compound\n|Average Molecular Mass\n|CAS Registry Number\n| belongs to the class of organic compounds known as 1,4-benzodiazepines. These are organic compounds containing a benzene ring fused to a 1,4-azepine.\n- Alpha-amino acid or derivatives\n- Aryl chloride\n- Aryl halide\n- Monocyclic benzene moiety\n- Carboxamide group\n- Secondary carboxylic acid amide\n- Carboxylic acid derivative\n- Organic 1,3-dipolar compound\n- Propargyl-type 1,3-dipolar organic compound\n- Organopnictogen compound\n- Organic oxygen compound\n- Organic nitrogen compound\n- Hydrocarbon derivative\n- Carbonyl group\n- Organic oxide\n- Organooxygen compound\n- Organohalogen compound\n- Organonitrogen compound\n- Aromatic heteropolycyclic compound\n|Aromatic heteropolycyclic compounds\n|Detected and Not Quantified\n|GC-MS Spectrum - EI-B (Non-derivatized)\n|Predicted LC-MS/MS Spectrum - 10V, Positive\n|Predicted LC-MS/MS Spectrum - 20V, Positive\n|Predicted LC-MS/MS Spectrum - 40V, Positive\n|Predicted LC-MS/MS Spectrum - 10V, Negative\n|Predicted LC-MS/MS Spectrum - 20V, Negative\n|Predicted LC-MS/MS Spectrum - 40V, Negative\n|Mass Spectrum (Electron Ionization)\n|Route of Exposure\n|77-87% oral bioavailability, with a relatively slow absorption rate. Reaches peak plasma levels within 1-2 hours of administration. Food may slow absorption, however other pharmacokinetic variables remain unchanged. After multiple doses delorazepam accumulates, however accumulation is slower in younger patients.\n|Mechanism of Toxicity\n|Benzodiazepines bind nonspecifically to benzodiazepine receptors BNZ1, which mediates sleep, and BNZ2, which affects affects muscle relaxation, anticonvulsant activity, motor coordination, and memory. As benzodiazepine receptors are thought to be coupled to gamma-aminobutyric acid-A (GABAA) receptors, this enhances the effects of GABA by increasing GABA affinity for the GABA receptor. Binding of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA to the site opens the chloride channel, resulting in a hyperpolarized cell membrane that prevents further excitation of the cell.\n|Delorazepam is metabolized at a relatively slow pace by the liver. The major metabolite (15-34% of the parent drug) is lorazepam. Older patients metabolize delorazepam slower than younger patients.\n|Carcinogenicity (IARC Classification)\n|No indication of carcinogenicity to humans (not listed by IARC).\n|Mainly used as an anti-anxiety agent. Studies have found delorazepam to be more effective in the first 4 weeks of use than antidepressants; however, after 4 weeks, antidepressants showed superior anti-anxiety effects. Anti-anxiety effects also appear to be weaker in elderly patients. Effectiveness has also been observed in the treatment of alcohol withdrawal. Delorazapam was reported to be a manageable drug in that it did not exhibit severe side effects and did not require further therapies to control symptoms of withdrawal.\n|Minimum Risk Level\n|Older patients metabolize delorazepam slower than younger patients and thus suffer from more adverse effects.\n|General supportive measures should be employed, along with intravenous fluids, and an adequate airway maintained. Hypotension may be combated by the use of norepinephrine or metaraminol. Dialysis is of limited value. Flumazenil (Anexate) is a competitive benzodiazepine receptor antagonist that can be used as an antidote for benzodiazepine overdose. In particular, flumazenil is very effective at reversing the CNS depression associated with benzodiazepines but is less effective at reversing respiratory depression. Its use, however, is controversial as it has numerous contraindications. It is contraindicated in patients who are on long-term benzodiazepines, those who have ingested a substance that lowers the seizure threshold, or in patients who have tachycardia or a history of seizures. As a general rule, medical observation and supportive care are the mainstay of treatment of benzodiazepine overdose. Although benzodiazepines are absorbed by activated charcoal, gastric decontamination with activated charcoal is not beneficial in pure benzodiazepine overdose as the risk of adverse effects often outweigh any potential benefit from the procedure. It is recommended only if benzodiazepines have been taken in combination with other drugs that may benefit from decontamination. Gastric lavage (stomach pumping) or whole bowel irrigation are also not recommended.\n|PubChem Compound ID"}
{"content":"I was watching a documentary on earthquakes about 9 days ago, based in part on this book. I ordered the book and started reading two days later.\nI thought myself fairly knowledgeable on earthquakes, but I was wrong. Mostly because most of what we know we have found out in the last decade or two. The book is written as a sort of detective novel, leading up to its big conclusion.\nMany people of my age probably think that we are in a largely earthquake free zone. Geologists thought so too, but wondered why the Cascadia had not had a large quake when every other part of the ring of fire did. They rationalized that our rocks are slippery so stresses can be relieved regularly. After Sumatra and the 250,000 dead there, interest picked up in Cascadia. Could a Magnitude 9 quake be in our future too?\nIn the olden days, lo, several decades ago in the sixties, plate tectonics was only just gaining acceptance. In the eighties, lasers were used to measure distances between points to see if the earth was moving. This was expensive and difficult. Then GPS came along. Geologists were not interested in GPS coordinates per se, they were interested in how far apart two rock-fixed points were. This was cheap and easy. Soon tons of data was pouring in and computer simulation started taking off. The other thing they did was to look for evidence of past quakes in multiple different ways. They found it.\nSpoiler alert… We are due. The Juan De Fuca Plate is now called the Cascadia Subduction Zone Fault and it has let rip every 400 years or so with a massive quake. The last was 400 years ago.\nIf you live in the interior, you are laughing. If you live on the coast of Vancouver Island, you are fucked. Depending on the nature of the shaking, many buildings in Vancouver (esp brick and mortar \"medium-rises\") will collapse. In the worst case scenario, the entire west coast of North America from LA to Alaska may be hit hard. The expected tsunami would hit Crescent City like a hammer, and would probably do significant damage in Japan.\nIt is a good story. The evidence of the turbidite cores, tree rings, oral histories, ghost forests etc all come together nicely. The upshot is that we should be spending more on earthquake preparedness and building reinforcement.\nOne nice sub-story came from a ten year old British girl in Phuket who had been taught what to look for. She spotted the signs of an incoming tsunami. She convinced her parents and saved her family.\nCascadia is Sumatra. The death toll will be lower, but the damage worse. The good news is that while earthquake prediction is still a dark art, predicting what tsunamis will do is becoming relatively easy. For example, next time, we will be able to tell the Sri Lankans to bug up (not out) even if they are on the lee side of the island… which actually got hit worse than the weather side did. You will have to read the book to find out why.\nLee Moller is a life-long skeptic and atheist and the author of The God Con."}
{"content":"West Meet East\nHolistic Therapy & Acupuncture Clinic\n715 1/2 Adelaide Street N.\nLondon, ON, N5Y 2L4\nIn Chinese philosophy, the concept of Yin and Yang is used to describe how seemingly opposing forces are interconnected and interdependent in the nature. There are complementary opposites that, together, create a dynamic, balanced, integrated and inter-dependent whole. This is the central concept in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).\nThe Main Aspects of Yin and Yang:\n(1.) Yin and Yang are Opposites but in a constantly changing balance - They are either on the opposite ends of a cycle, like the summer and winter seasons of the year, or, opposites on a continuum of energy or matter. This opposition is also relative. For instance, water is Yin relative to steam but is Yang relative to ice.\n(2.) Yin and Yang are interdependent and can't exist without each other - Nothing is totally Yin or totally Yang. When a state of total Yin is reached; Yang begins to grow. As the Chinese old saying states: \"Yin creates Yang and Yang activates Yin.\"\n(3.) Yin and Yang can be mutually weakened each other - In a harmonious state, the relative levels of Yin and Yang are continuously transform into each other. However, when Yin or Yang are out of balance, they affect each other and too much of one can weaken the other.\nIn practice, clinical signs and symptoms can be interpreted through the concept of Yin and Yang. When Yin and Yang are in dynamic balance and relating harmoniously, there will be no symptoms to observe. When Yin and Yang are out of balance, they become separate and symptoms appear.\nWhen Yin does not cool and nourish Yang, then Yang rises - symptoms like headaches, red face, sore eyes, sore throats, nosebleeds, irritability, manic behavior appear.\nWhen Yang dose not warm and activate Yin, then Yin rises - symptoms like cold limbs, hypo-activity, poor circulation of blood, pale face, low energy appear.\nFrom this view, we get sick when the rhythmic cycling between yin and yang in our body gets out of balance. In general, a shift toward yin shows up as under activity, while a shift toward yang shows up as over activity.\nFor example, the immune system is influenced by two general kinds of signals: (1) those that promote attacking invaders and (2) those that inhibit, or shut off, the attack. The Chinese would call the attackers yang and the suppressors yin.\nThis table shows that allergies and autoimmune conditions are yang disorders because they come from an overactive immune system. Infections and tumors are yin disorders because they come from an underactive immune system.\nThus, Diseases can be prevented by having a Balance Lifestyle, such as excessive (Yang) work without rest leads to deficiency (Yin) of energy; excessive consumption of cold food (Yin) leads to deficiency of body's Yang energy.\nWeight Loss Solution\nCancer Patient Support\nin network with most major insurance companies\nMonday 9:30 am - 6:30 pm\nTuesday 9:30 am - 6:30 pm\nWednesday 9:30 am - 6:30 pm\nThursday 9:30 am - 6:30 pm\nFriday 9:30 am - 6:30 pm\n©2014 WestMeetEast . All Rights Reserved"}
{"content":"You may recall the story in June about a motorist who videotaped a police officer writing him a ticket and posted the video on YouTube. He was arrested and charged with violating Maryland’s wiretap law. The prosecutor claimed that police exercising their public duty have an expectation of privacy. The You Tuber was facing 16 years in prison.\nWell, some activist judge dismissed the case.\nJudge Emory A. Pitt Jr. had to decide whether police performing their duties have an expectation of privacy in public space. Pitt ruled that police can have no such expectation in their public, on-the-job communications.\nPitt wrote: \"Those of us who are public officials and are entrusted with the power of the state are ultimately accountable to the public. When we exercise that power in public fora, we should not expect our actions to be shielded from public observation. ‘Sed quis custodiet ipsos cutodes’ (\"Who watches the watchmen?”).\"\nGraber was also charged with possessing a “device primarily useful for the purpose of the surreptitious interception of oral communications\" — referring to the video camera on his helmet. The judge disagreed with the prosecutor that the helmet cam was illegal, and concluded the state’s argument would render illegal “almost every cell phone, Blackberry, and every similar device, not to mention dictation equipment and other types of recording devices.\"\nPitt’s decision is the first ruling in Maryland to address the legality of citizens taping police in the course of their duties. Because it is a circuit court ruling, it is not binding on other judges. However, unless it is appealed, said Graber’s attorney, David Rocah of the ACLU of Maryland, \"it is likely to be the last word\" on the matter and to be regarded as precedent by police.\nNo word yet on whether the state’s attorney will try to appeal the decision. Graber still faces traffic charges stemming from the incident.\nNo word on whether he got his four computers, external hard drives, thumb drives and a camera back that police confiscated.\n(Cross-posted on Commonwealth Commonsense)"}
{"content":"The Action Date Range Picker allows setting a date range (From Date and To Date) and triggering an action.\nWhenever the date range picker values are changed, the associated action is executed.\n1. After double-clicking or drawing a rectangle on the dashboard canvas, click on the Select Part pane then click the Action Date Range Picker icon.\nThe Action Date Range Picker pane is displayed, and the Action Date Range Picker part is added on the dashboard canvas with the current date range (parameters From Date to To Date) and the Set button.\n2. Select the parameters that will be used for the From Parameter and To Parameter dates range.\n3. Enter the Title of the action date range picker button.\n4. Select the Date/Time Format.\nClicking on the Date/Time box displays the current month.\nThe text of the date can be directly entered, or alternatively it can be clicked on, to bring up a date picker in the Web client.\n4. Tap the Hide Button slider to turn it on. This means the action control will update the parameter whenever the value of the data picker changes.\n5. You can either:\n· tap the Default to Today slider to turn it on. This allows the action date picker to check the current value of the dashboard parameter. If it is set to null/empty, an action is executed to update the parameter and trigger the loading of the parameterized data with the current date.\n· or enter the following date range values:\n¨ Relative From Date or the start Date/Time\n¨ Relative To Dateor the end Date/Time\nThis allows the relative date calculation (based on today’s date), by parsing the input text string.\nThis method uses the following pattern:\nSIGN NUMBER UNIT\no Sign is either a ‘+’ or ‘-’\no Number is any number\no Unit which can be any of the following:\n§ m – minute\n§ H – hour\n§ D – day\n§ B – business day\n§ M – month\n§ Y – year\nBack 5 minutes from current time.\nBack 1 day from today.\nForward 1 day from today.\nBack 1 business day from today (ignore Saturday and Sunday).\nForward 1 business day from today (ignore Saturday and Sunday).\nBack 1 month from today.\nBack 1 year from today.\nBack 7 days from today.\nBack 14 days from today.\nWhen these values are entered, the correct date should be selected, and then the data requests are executed based on this date.\nThe special now term can also be used, this represents the current Date/Time. For example:\n¨ Using now will set the date picker to the current Date/Time\n¨ now-7D will set the date picker to 7 days ago. This is the same as specifying 7D\nThe From date will be now-7D and the To date will be now by default.\nFor example, now is February 13, it will go back 7 days (February 6) and then the date will be recalculated.\nIn addition, you can use the SIGN UNIT NUMBER pattern to modify the relative date calculation.\nFor example, if you enter -1M:\nThe recalculated relative date will be January 13:\nComplex expressions can also be entered to recalculate the relative date. These expressions are evaluated from the left to right pattern. The now term can also be used as a pointer to the currently evaluated value of the relative time expression.\nFor example, if you enter now-5M-2D+3Y as the Relative To Date and now as the Relative From Date:\nThe date will be now-5M-2D+3Y by default.\nIn the expression, you can also use startOf and endOf functions. Both functions take the same arguments, a relative time string, and a unit.\nLastly, you can define a complex expression with the functions. For example, if you enter startOf(now-7D, W) as the Relative From Date and endOf(now, D) as the Relative To Date:\nThe From date will display the start of the previous week and the To date will display the end of the current day:\n· The Default Relative Date will be used if the dashboard parameter is null/empty.\n· The relative Date/Time string is case sensitive.\n· You can also opt to select from a pre-populated date ranges:\nRefer to Selecting Relative Dates in Action Date Picker and Action Date Range Picker Controls for more information.\n6. You may opt to set new From Label and To Label.\n7. Tap the Auto Fire Quick Ranges slider to turn it on. This automatically updates the date ranges as you click in the drop-down in the Web client. Otherwise, you have to select a date range first in the drop-down and then click to update.\n8. Set the Range Limit of the date by selecting the number of days. By default, the range limit is -1.\nSelecting a shorter date range limit can help in having a faster response time.\n9. When a Range Limit has been set, the Range Limit Error box is enabled. It is mandatory to enter an error message to help in defining a better input to match the set limit. (Default: Out of range)\nFor example: “The Range Limit is set to 30 days. Modify the To date within this limit.”\n10. Tap the Display in PDF slider to turn it on and include the action date picker in the PDF output.\n11. To modify the style settings of the action date picker:\n· click the Background box to display the Color dialog and set the background color or enter the Hex color code\n· click the Foreground box to display the Color dialog and set the foreground color or enter the Hex color code\n· set the Font type, size, style (Bold and/or Italic)\n12. Click the Save icon on the toolbar to save the changes.\nWhen saved, the notification is displayed."}
{"content":"A lot of us understand the frustration related to having a cell phone number and having no idea to that it belongs or a means to find out. As well as there are those mobile numbers which keep showing up on your caller ID every time you leave as well as it’s riving you insane not knowing that it is. On your phone expense you may see a mysterious number that is calling your child and also you wish to find out that it belongs to. With today’s modern technology, you can place an end to this aggravation and also find a solution for it in no time at all.\nThe mobile phone details you have wanting is right within your reaches merely by searching on line for reverse cellphone info. It’s incredible exactly how in a matter of mins, it can recognize the proprietor of a specific telephone number. You can get the name and address of the proprietor to the telephone number simply by looking at the cellular phone companies massive data sources which are easily offered.\nFor a little charge, the details you Reverse Phone Lookup look for is fingertips away as well as you can say goodbye forever to needing the solutions of a pricey search firm. Much of the reverse lookup websites need an once cost which provides you life time subscription as well as limitless searches. You can successfully become your own private detective effortlessly. In hardly no time whatsoever you can execute a reverse search online to get the details you desire making the identification of the unknown cell phone number a secret no more.\nSeeking a contact number can in some cases be really hard, particularly if that number is non listed or if you are not absolutely certain of what the individual’s name is. Simply visualize just how tough it is when you are seeking a name that matches a number that you have. For lots of people this may look like a job that they would not even be willing to think of, not to mention start. Nevertheless, today on the net there are ways that you can find out that any type of contact number belongs to which is by using an on the internet reverse directory.\nIndividuals choose to make use of a reverse phone number tracker whenever they require to understand the name of a person that a number belongs to. Sometimes this is since that number is always telephoning their home as well as hanging up on them. Or occasionally this is since they are worried about a number that their companion has actually been calling. Some individuals utilize it to help organise a messy personal digital assistant which has grown hard to check out for many years. Or possibly they simply wish to check up on their phone costs due to the fact that there is a number or more that they don’t acknowledge and also they do not wish to be billed for.\nIt matters not what your reason is when you make use of reverse directory site you recognize that you will quickly be able to know the name that goes with the number. Having a look at that’s calling you is absolutely nothing to be worried about and also nobody else in addition to you will understand that you have gone on the internet as well as done this – unless you inform them of course. So when you utilize a reverse lookup service you need to do so risk-free in the knowledge that you as well as you alone know what you are doing."}
{"content":"What you should know:\n- Akkeshi Distillery is a craft whisky distillery (or known locally as Ji-whisky) from Hokkaido, Japan, and looks to use ingredients sourced locally such as malt, peat and even Mizunara oak.\n- Its first series is called the “24 Solar Terms” which is the Japanese tradition of segmenting the four seasons into 24 parts, and is used by Akkeshi to showcase the effects of the local climate in different seasons on the whisky.\n- This plays into the increasingly in vogue theme of terroir.\n- The first two releases are Kanro and Usui, which refer to early winter “Cold Dew” and “Spring Showers”. Read below for tasting notes!\n- Akkeshi’s whiskies are moderately peaty, briny from the seawaters around Hokkaido, fruity like apples and strawberries, sweet like milk chocolates with a touch of pepper.\n- Ji-whiskies have been gaining in popularity with distilleries like Chichibu and more recently Akkeshi and Shizuoka (here).\n- We can’t wait to try some!\nHokkaido Is known for its gorgeous seasonal colours, the spring time foliage, to the plush snowcap peaks and cozy ski inns. Don’t forget the seafood! As a coastal island north off the main island of Japan, the prefecture has be thoroughly blessed with natural abundance. But did you know that it also happens to spot the perfect location for whisky to be distilled in. It has a cool humid climate, great access to fresh water and clean, crisp air, very similar to…the Scottish highlands!\nNikka’s Yoichi Distillery was the first whisky distillery in Hokkaido. You can’t miss it, it looks like what Santa’s workshop would look like. (Image Source: MATCHA)\nThe first distillery to find its home in Hokkaido was none other than Nikka’s Yoichi Distillery, and for a long while the distillery had the beautiful island all to itself. However, as Japanese whisky soared in popularity, it was inevitable that it would find itself sharing some of its turf.\nIn comes Akkeshi Distillery, which started distilling in 2016. And if you know some quick whisky math, you’d figure that 2020 would be a momentous year for the young distillery. For whisky to be considered “legit”, it would have to meet Scotch whisky standards of 3 years of maturation. And as our math would have it, Akkeshi released its highly anticipated inaugural release Kanro in October of 2020.\nThe Akkeshi Kanro meaning “Cold Dew”. (Image Source: Whisky Auctioneer)\nKanro, which actually translates into “Cold Dew” in the early winter, is the first in a series of 24 bottles to be released by Akkeshi, titled “24 Solar Terms”. Now you might be wondering “what is this cryptic ancient term you’re using Akkeshi?”. Well Japan has a traditional way of expressing its seasons, which basically splits the longitude of the sun into 24 terms, or “solar terms”. Hence, Akkeshi’s series is an ode to the seasons experienced in Japan and will look to explore the effects of local climate, wildlife and farming on the whisky (this is linked to the idea of terroir which you can read here).\nWhere the Beckies at? We need to know what the effect of Leo Sun and Sagittarius Rising has on the whisky. (Image Source: China Travel)\nBack to Kanro, this single malt full-sized bottle (the distillery released 20ml bottles of its new-make in a series called Foundations) is a peated malt whisky matured in a combination of ex-bourbon, wine, mizunara and sherry wood.\nThe tasting notes we can expect are:\nNose: Strawberry, Orange, Apple, Cereal, Sour Lemon, Butter, Sweet Milk\nPalate: White Pepper, Sweet Chocolate\nThe bottle comes in a 55% abv, with a total of 15,000 bottles released. If you’re keeping track, Kanro is actually the 17th Solar Term. Just some quick facts for you to flex about to your friends.\nNext up! Akkeshi has announced the upcoming release of the 2nd bottle in its Solar Terms series.\nWe have the Usui, 2nd solar term (LOL…as much as are into this whole whisky as an expression of its provenance movement, the solar term idea is just a tad much). So from 17th we’ve jumped to 2nd so you know they’re not ones for arithmetic order. Usui actually means “Spring Showers” and is the time when the climate becomes warmer and snow begins to melt and becomes rain.\nThe Akkeshi Usui. Okay now what about Gemini Sun and Virgo Rising? (Image Source: Ultimate Spirits JP)\nThis one is going to be a blend, unlike the Kanro, which was a single malt, and will integrate non-Japanese grain whisky, which under the new rules (read here) would disqualify it from using the title “Japanese whisky” on its label.\nIt is bottled at 48% abv but we don’t know yet how many bottles will be released.\nOur digging tells us we can expect tasting notes to be:\nNose: Smoky, Sweet, Butter Biscuits, Touches of Seabreeze Saltiness, Orchard Fruits (Apple, Peach, Apricot), Citrus Zest, Dark Cacao\nPalate: Peaty, Sweet, Peppery, Tartness, Raspberries, Blueberries\nFirst off, Hokkaido is an amazing place, I remember spending holidays there when I was still in school. The weather was awesome, so cool and filled with plush snow that you could jump into and fall right through. In fact it was the first time I ever saw snow! The seafood is of course incredibly fresh as well. The skiing was fun even though I spent more time barreling down the slope and would not be remotely categorized as skiing by even an amateur.\nAs such, I have a great affinity to the place with all these wonderful memories of first times. And I would imagine all the freshness of the place would bode well for anyone looking to produce anything on the island.\nThe Akkeshi Distillery almost looks like a little seaside cottage. (Image Source: Dekanta)\nAkkeshi itself belongs to the revitalizing Ji-whisky movement. For those unfamiliar with term, Ji-whisky means craft whisky in Japan and was big in the 80’s where whisky was produced in small batches by hand with ingredients sourced locally as much as possible. If we look more broadly, it’s not too different from the popularity that craft beers are enjoying right now. Unfortunately, when Japan’s economy collapsed in the 90’s, it plunged the country in a deep recession that wiped out most of these small whisky producers. Perhaps the most popular Ji-whisky right now is Chichibu, but Akkeshi and peer Shizuoka are not far behind.\nAkkeshi’s New Born series. (Image Source: Akkeshi)\nAkkeshi, while fairly young, has been met with much fanfare. Prior to their full-sized bottlings, they released multiple batches of their new-make in the New Born Foundations series, which were very well received. Since then, they’ve also begun to move towards using more local ingredients, such as local Akkeshi malt, peat and Mizunara. This would give drinkers a true taste of the region which is obviously very exciting and plays into a greater interest in terroir.\nWhile I can’t totally appreciate the Solar Term theme, which I feel is alittle melodramatic, I’m definitely interested in trying whisky that gives me a good representation of the local terrain. I find the idea of terroir incredibly interesting and locally sourced ingredients certainly make for a very unique whisky and therefore experience. To distill a big concept like provenance and everything unique about a place into a single bottle of local produce is simply irresistible to our human craving for something so one of a kind that cannot be replicated.\nAnd my own melodrama aside, who can truly say I don’t like something floral like a potpourri, fruity like strawberries and apples, a wee touch of smoke, slight side of brininess, of citrus zest and dark cacao bitters. It has something for everybody.\nNow only if we can get our hands on it."}
{"content":"It's a new age sound made by 20 meta instruments. The sound came from Stanford's laptop orchestra.\nThe Mac books are programmed to create sound, notes, and music. It's a concept assistant professor Ge Wang, Ph.D., created three years ago while at Princeton.\n\"We want to play music with laptops. We want to make new instruments, find new sounds, make new music,\" said Wang.\nHe brought the idea of musical computers to Stanford this year. Students learn not only to play on the computers, but musical composition and sound design as well. The final step is the performance.\n\"I love it,\" said Jason Riggs, from the Stanford laptop orchestra. \"It's very refreshing to do something new and innovative.\"\nTo get that surround sound so to speak, it requires attaching the computers to this speaker, which is actually a salad bowl from Ikea. They've drilled six different car speakers to it and inside there's an amplifier.\n\"What this gives us is an intimate sonic identity for each lap top station,\" said Wang.\nOn Tuesday night, the advanced technology didn't stop here, it traveled 6,000 miles to Beijing.\nThe high definition inter-connectivity line allows traditional Chinese musicians to accompany the multi-media American musicians during a first of its kind, real time, jam session.\n\"We just want to play music together and be able to do this without planning months ahead, actually get a plane ticket, find a venue and actually meet up in the same place,\" said Wang.\nPlaying music and being on stage is a first for most in the lap top orchestra. In fact, the majority like their professor, have a background in computer science, but after Tuesday night, they're getting used to being in the spotlight."}
{"content":"Tips for good stoma pouch adhesion\nHear from Sarah our Clinical Advisor\nFrom A Bigger Life\nAchieving good stoma pouch adhesion helps to prevent problems. We have a few hints and tips to help you achieve this.\n1. Make sure your pouch is cut out to exactly the right shape and size. This is to allow the pouch to adhere well around the stoma and onto the peristomal skin.\n2. Whenever you are washing and drying your skin, make sure you dry it thoroughly. Some people would use a hair dryer, on a cool setting, hold it away at arms length so you have no risk of burning your peristomal skin, around 10-15 seconds would be enough.\n3. Another common thing is people use baby wipes or wet wipes for handiness. Even though they do say they have no additives or no oil, they do leave a residue on the skin which can effect the adhesion of your pouch. It’s okay to use them in a emergency once or twice, but not continuous use because it will contribute to your pouch leaking. If you have experienced your pouch leaking and you do use baby wipes, we would advise you to stop and just use water and dry thoroughly to achieve a better adhesion.\nYou might be interested in:\nDo you have a story you want added to A Bigger Life?\nSubmit your own story and we will get back to you."}
{"content":"Ensuring Reliable Cardiac Assessments: The Crucial Impact of ECG and Diagnostic Pads in Medical Diagnosis\nThe medical industry is highly demanding for companies involved in the conversion process. It presents specific standards and requirements that can challenge finding a converter capable of ensuring top-notch quality.\nFortunately, ABLE offers solutions for producing exceptional medical devices. We meet and surpass the industry’s rigorous requirements by utilizing medical-grade materials. Our expertise in procuring raw materials, design solutions, and converting capabilities enables us to create tailor-made parts for medical applications. Additionally, our account engineers assist in identifying suitable adhesives, films, and other medical-grade materials that meet and exceed industry standards.\nABLE provides comprehensive support in developing your medical devices, offering customized solutions and high-quality medical-grade materials. Drawing from our extensive experience in the medical industry, we are equipped to address any challenges you may encounter. Moreover, we ensure competitive pricing without compromising on the superior quality of our parts.\nABLE, Supporting the Medical Field One Part at Time\nAt ABLE, we ensure that we can provide a multitude of industries with their products. In the medical industry, we recognize the importance of Electrocardiography (ECG) and diagnostic pads in a medical diagnosis.\nECG is a critical tool for diagnosing various heart conditions and monitoring cardiac health. It involves the measurement and interpretation of the electrical activity of the heart. This provides valuable insights into its function and detection of potential abnormalities. However, for accurate and reliable ECG readings, the use of high-quality diagnostic pads is essential.\nDiagnostic pads, also known as electrodes, play a crucial role in ECG examinations. They are the interface between the patient’s body and the ECG machine, facilitating the transfer of electrical signals from the heart to the device. These pads are typically attached to specific points on the patient’s chest, limbs, or torso, ensuring optimal signal acquisition.\nEnhancing Accuracy and Patient Care: The Crucial Role of ECG and Diagnostic Pads in Medical Diagnosis\nThe importance of using reliable and well-designed diagnostic pads cannot be overstated. Here are some key reasons why these pads are vital in the field of medical diagnosis:\n- Signal Quality: Diagnostic pads with excellent conductivity and proper adhesive properties ensure optimal contact with the patient’s skin, enabling the accurate detection and transmission of electrical signals. This directly impacts the quality and reliability of the recorded ECG data, leading to more accurate diagnoses.\n- Patient Comfort: High-quality diagnostic pads are designed with patient comfort in mind. They are made from soft and hypoallergenic materials that minimize skin irritation and discomfort during prolonged ECG monitoring sessions. Comfortable pads encourage patient compliance and enable longer monitoring periods when necessary.\n- Durability and Longevity: Diagnostic pads need to maintain their adhesive properties throughout the entire duration of an ECG examination. Reliable pads are constructed to withstand movement, sweat, and external factors that may compromise their attachment. Ensuring durability and longevity reduces the need for frequent pad replacements and enhances overall cost-effectiveness.\n- Hygiene and Safety: In medical settings, maintaining hygiene and preventing cross-contamination are paramount. High-quality diagnostic pads are designed to be disposable or easily cleaned, reducing the risk of infection transmission. Additionally, they are often latex-free, making them suitable for patients with latex allergies.\n- Compatibility: Diagnostic pads come in various shapes and sizes to accommodate different ECG procedures and patient populations. They can be tailored for adult, pediatric, or neonatal use, ensuring accurate readings across diverse patient groups. The appropriate pad options allow healthcare professionals to select the most suitable configuration for each patient.\nThe significance of ECG and diagnostic pads rests in their ability to facilitate accurate and reliable cardiac monitoring and diagnosis. Healthcare providers can ensure optimal signal acquisition, patient comfort, durability, hygiene, and compatibility by utilizing high-quality pads. Investing in reliable diagnostic pads is a fundamental step toward enhancing the effectiveness of ECG examinations and improving patient care in cardiovascular health.\nElevating Safety Standards: The Testament of Cleanroom Facilities in Ensuring Purity\nABLE’s cleanroom facilities align perfectly with the requirements of the medical industry. We understand the significance of cleanliness, particularly in producing medical devices. Our sterile environment prevents bacterial and mold growth, ensuring adherence to industry standards.\nWith a cleanroom workspace exceeding 1,200 square feet and ISO-6 and ISO-7 certifications, ABLE demonstrates its commitment to cleanliness. Our facilities enable high-speed rotary and flat-bed die cutting, material laminating, short-run productions, assembly, and packaging. This delivers precise, top-quality solutions for medical applications.\nTrust ABLE’s cleanroom capabilities to meet and surpass the stringent demands of the medical industry, ensuring excellence in medical device production.\nABLE is a reliable partner in the medical industry, offering high-quality solutions that meet and exceed specific standards. We excel in producing exceptional medical devices using medical-grade materials and providing comprehensive support. Our cleanroom facilities ensure a sterile environment, and we prioritize the importance of ECG and diagnostic pads in accurate medical diagnosis. Trust ABLE for excellence in medical device production and innovation.\nInterested in learning more? Contact ABLE today, and our team will be more than happy to assist you!"}
{"content":"Every year, nearly 800,000 United States citizens are sent to the hospital due to dog bites. In almost all cases, it is the dog’s owner who is responsible for paying the medical bill. Many dog owners are responsible people who will gladly pay for any and all injuries caused by their pet, however, there are those out there that will try and avoid reimbursing you.\nDon’t get left with an expensive bill. Make sure to protect yourself after a dog attack by knowing your rights.\nAccording to FLSA 767.07, an owner is liable for injuries caused by their dog when their dog bites another person and that person is in a public place or lawfully in a private residence.\nWhile the law only refers to bites, it can apply to any injury caused by a dog due to the negligence of the owner. So if a dog injuries you by knocking you over or scratching you, the owner is still liable for your injuries.\nSome examples of owner negligence include:\n- Not using a leash\n- Not fencing in their yard\n- Not muzzling their dog\nThese are just some of the instances in which a dog owner is liable; however there are many different cases of people being injured by a dog in which the owner is at fault.\nIn Florida, there is a “strict liability” statute when it comes to dog bites. This means that the dog owner is liable for their dog biting someone, even if they have no prior knowledge of their dog being aggressive. In most cases, the victim does not even have to prove lack of responsibility on behalf of the owner.\nProtect Your Rights\nThe most important thing to do after a dog bite is to protect your rights. You may be facing expensive medical bills, psychological trauma and loss of wages. If the owner is at fault for your injuries, then you are entitled to compensation. Immediately after the bite, be sure to;\n- Get the name of the dog\n- Get the name and contact information of the owner\n- Get insurance information from the owner\n- Get the name and contact information of any witnesses\n- Take photos of all wounds and injuries, including bruises and bloody clothing\nOf course, seek medical attention as soon as possible after the attack, but be sure to at least get the name and number of the owner. The more information you can collect, the stronger your case.\nStatutes of Limitation\nThe statute of limitation for a dog bite is Florida’s civil court is four years. However, you do not want to wait when filing a lawsuit. As more time that passes, the witnesses’ testimony becomes less reliable and your case becomes weaker. Don’t wait. Call the experienced attorneys at LMW today. We have experience dealing with all kinds of personal injury cases, and will work hard to get you the money you deserve."}
{"content":"In the competitive realm of global business, back-office outsourcing has emerged as a strategic lever, offering companies an edge in efficiency and cost-effectiveness. The Philippines, in particular, has carved out a reputation as a leading destination for outsourcing, seamlessly integrating into the worldwide market for BPO services. This surge in outsourcing is not just a trend but a significant shift in business operations, reshaping the landscape of corporate efficiency and productivity.\nThe appeal of the Philippines for back-office tasks lies in its combination of skilled labor, technological advancement, and a cultural alignment with Western business practices. Companies worldwide are turning to local BPO companies for a range of services, from data entry and processing to HR management and financial services. This transition is driven by the need to streamline operations, allowing businesses to focus on core competencies while outsourced professionals handle the outsourcing functions.\nThe integration of advanced technologies like AI, cloud computing, and RPA (Robotic Process Automation) has further bolstered the attractiveness of Filipino back-office services. These technologies enable more efficient data processing, enhance accuracy, and significantly reduce turnaround times. The application of AI and ML (Machine Learning) in data analytics and management transforms raw data into actionable insights, providing businesses with a strategic advantage in decision-making.\nAnother aspect contributing to the growth of back-office outsourcing to the Philippines is the scalability and flexibility it offers. Companies can adjust the level of services based on their evolving needs, ensuring they have the right amount of support without the overheads associated with scaling in-house teams. This adaptability is crucial in today’s rapidly changing business environment, where agility and responsiveness are key to maintaining a competitive edge.\nIn addition to operational efficiencies, cost reduction is a significant factor driving the outsourcing trend. By leveraging the competitive cost structures in the Philippines, businesses can achieve substantial savings without compromising on service quality. The combination of cost efficiency and high-quality service is a compelling proposition for companies looking to optimize their back-office operations.\nHowever, it’s not just about cost savings and operational efficiencies. Outsourcing back-office functions to the Philippines also enhances the overall customer experience. As these services often support front-line operations such as customer service and technical support, their efficiency directly impacts customer satisfaction. The Filipino workforce is renowned for its customer-centric approach, ensuring that even non-customer-facing back-office tasks contribute to a positive customer journey."}
{"content":"Experts advocate that experiential learning and conceptual understanding have to grow to be the basis of our education and learning technique as we transition from a common marks-based evaluation product to just one that pushes innovation and creativity to the most. Also, the emotional quotient desires to be included into the mastering procedure.\nParag Diwan, Chairman of Paradigm Consultants & Resource Administration, a management consulting agency, clarifies that experiential mastering involves the learner to act in the serious planet, alternatively than study only from lectures.\nThis kind of learning pushes pupils past the common classroom partitions, by focussing on inquiry, application, and genuine discovering alternatives.\nAlso Read through: Multidisciplinary finding out critical to generate holistic men and women\n“Experiential mastering is mandatory, usually schooling quantities to only theoretical learning,” says Diwan, who is intently connected with the schooling sector and was beforehand President and CEO of Great Lakes Education and learning Team.\n“Experiential instruction teaches college students to examine their steps and their considered procedures, and even their psychological responses. This inner reflection prepares pupils for the office and aids them make key life decisions, increase their personal interactions, and handle their emotional wants.”\nNEP’s suggestion to carry vocational education and learning programmes into mainstream education is predicted to have a significantly-reaching favourable effects on how the Indian workforce will form up above the subsequent 10 years.\nThe policy aims to introduce at minimum 50 for each cent of learners to vocational schooling programs. Teaching of vocational classes from Class VI, typically in the sort of internships and sensible actions, could grow to be transformational in a lot of techniques.\nEducationists and academics phone for the merger of various skill and trade sectors and improved participation of field bodies in educational experiments to develop improved employment possibilities.\n“Our ITIs, polytechnic and neighborhood faculties need to be merged into one trade college, so that at minimum 30-40 per cent of our school leavers would be able to go to trade educational facilities,” claims Diwan. “The vocational programmes ought to cover new and rising industries,” he provides.\nOn the other hand, Rajiv Tandon, CEO – Government Education and learning, BITS Pilani, Operate Integrated Discovering Programmes (WILP) claims companies are not able to just need work-all set people instead, they need to collaborate with institutions to construct the up coming generation of expertise.\nHe urges policy interventions that motivate field to perform with institutions and also inspire establishments to go past their campuses to produce long run-all set expertise.\n“Marketplace is also intensely searching for the correct people today to recruit. There really should be a coverage or a design exactly where instructional establishments can do the job with an employer to collaborate in educational experiments,” Tandon states.\n“It can be a extended-expression alternative past finishing college programmes or limited courses to assist individuals get their first work. Top rated employers and establishments are ready to foresee 5-10-12 months trends they can join arms with educational institutions and produce that talent for the potential,” he provides.\nThe pandemic, even though not by structure, has speedy-forwarded innovations. To begin with, innovation was focused on discovering continuity. And now, the learnings from the pandemic in phrases of obtain and high quality want to be scaled to a new amount and new styles of hybrid learning designed to accommodate the hybrid-perform planet.\nWith a impressive demographic edge and a potentially transformational education policy at perform, India can with any luck , appear ahead to last but not least evolving an schooling technique that functions for all."}
{"content":"Yesterday, in a segment on autism and vaccines on the Today Show, Dr. David Tayloe, President Elect of the American Academy of Pediatrics, was asked the following question:\n\"Do you believe that all vaccines should be used on every child?\"\nHis complete response:\n\"Yes. I think any of the vaccines we have today have been tested and proven to be safe, and the credible studies don't show any relationship between vaccines and permanent injury. So we favor this and we know that unless we have vaccination rates that are in the 90 to 95% range we are not going to prevent epidemics from coming into this country of measles, of polio, from countries where these diseases are still endemic. So its very important that we vaccinate all our children.\"\nRepeating: No \"relationship between vaccines and permanent injury\".\nThis is probably the most glaring falsehood that I have heard in the vaccine debate yet, stated by the chief pediatrician in the US, to whom all other pediatricians look to for guidance in how to treat their patients.\nHas Dr. Tayloe has never heard of the Federal Program called the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, the sole purpose of which it to compensate people for the permanent injuries that they sustain from approved vaccines?\nFrom the VICP section of the HRSA web site that shows the vaccine injuries that are covered:\n\"The Vaccine Injury Table (Table) makes it easier for some people to get compensation. The Table lists and explains injuries/conditions that are presumed to be caused by vaccines. It also lists time periods in which the first symptom of these injuries/conditions must occur after receiving the vaccine. If the first symptom of these injuries/conditions occurs within the listed time periods, it is presumed that the vaccine was the cause of the injury or condition unless another cause is found. For example, if you received the tetanus vaccines and had a severe allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) within 4 hours after receiving the vaccine, then it is presumed that the tetanus vaccine caused the injury if no other cause is found.\"\nA quick rundown of a few of the covered reactions:\nDTaP, Tdap, DTP-Hib, MMR, MR, R - Anaphylactic shock, encephalopathy, any accute complication or sequela of above events(including death).\nRubella vaccines - Chronic arthritis, any acute complication or sequela (including death) of above event.\nMeasles vaccines - Thrombocytopenic purpura, Mealses, any acute complication or sequela (including death) of above event.\nLive Virus Polio vaccines - Polio.\nInactivated Virus Polio vaccines - Anaphylactic shock, any acute complication or sequela of above events(including death).\nI am pretty sure that \"Death\" could be considered permanent injury.\nAdditionally, Dr. Tayloe has apparently never read a package insert in a box of vaccine.\nHere is a random sample of insert quotes. Let's start with the one that sent my two week old Chandler into three months worth of fevers and crying and two years of constipation:\nENGERIX-B, Hepatitis B Vaccine -\n\"Multiple Sclerosis: Although no causal relationship has been established, rare instances of exacerbation of multiple sclerosis have been reported following administration of hepatitis B vaccines and other vaccines. In persons with multiple sclerosis, the benefit of immunization for prevention of hepatitis B infection and sequelae must be weighed against the risk of exacerbation of the disease.\"\n\"Carcinogenesis, Mutagenesis, Impairment of Fertility: ENGERIX-B has not been evaluated for carcinogenic or mutagenic potential, or for impairment of fertility.\"\n\"Postmarketing Reports: Additional adverse experiences have been reported with the commercial use of ENGERIX-B. Those listed below are to serve as alerting information to physicians.\nHypersensitivity: Anaphylaxis; erythema multiforme including Stevens-Johnson syndrome; angioedema; arthritis. An apparent hypersensitivity syndrome (serum sickness–like) of delayed onset has been reported days to weeks after vaccination, including: arthralgia/arthritis (usually transient), fever, and dermatologic reactions such as urticaria, erythema multiforme, ecchymoses, and erythema nodosum (see CONTRAINDICATIONS).\nCardiovascular System: Tachycardia/palpitations.\nRespiratory System: Bronchospasm including asthma-like symptoms.\nGastrointestinal System: Abnormal liver function tests; dyspepsia.\nNervous System: Migraine; syncope; paresis; neuropathy including hypoesthesia, paresthesia, Guillain-Barré syndrome and Bell’s palsy, transverse myelitis; optic neuritis; multiple sclerosis; seizures.\nSkin and Appendages: Eczema; purpura; herpes zoster; erythema nodosum; alopecia.\nSpecial Senses: Conjunctivitis; keratitis; visual disturbances; vertigo; tinnitus; earache.\"\n\"CONTRAINDICATIONS - Hypersensitivity to any component of the vaccine, including yeast, is a contraindication. This vaccine is contraindicated in patients with previous hypersensitivity to any hepatitis B-containing vaccine.\"\n(Even though my baby, in no uncertain terms, showed \"hypersensitivity\", his doctors continued to administer the vaccine to him until his regression at 18 months).\nThis is given to babies that are hours old. And remember, the head of the AAP says, even though the package insert says differently, that the vaccine is safe for every child and no permanent injury will occur.\nFluvirin, Flu Vaccine\n\"Controlled studies on FLUVIRIN® have not been conducted to demonstrate safety in pregnant women.\"\nINFLUENZA VIRUS IS PROPAGATED IN EGGS FOR THE PREPARATION OF INFLUENZA VIRUS VACCINE. THUS, THIS VACCINE SHOULD NOT BE ADMINISTERED TO ANYONE WITH A HISTORY OF HYPERSENSITIVITY (ALLERGY) TO CHICKEN EGGS, CHICKEN, CHICKEN FEATHERS OR CHICKEN DANDER.\nTHE VACCINE IS ALSO CONTRAINDICATED IN INDIVIDUALS HYPERSENSITIVE TO ANY COMPONENT OF THE VACCINE INCLUDING THIMEROSAL (A MERCURY DERIVATIVE) (SEE ADVERSE REACTIONS). EPINEPHRINE INJECTION (1:1000) MUST BE IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE SHOULD AN ACUTE ANAPHYLACTIC REACTION OCCUR DUE TO ANY COMPONENT OF THE VACCINE.\nIMMUNIZATION SHOULD BE DELAYED IN PERSONS WITH AN ACTIVE NEUROLOGICAL DISORDER\nCHARACTERIZED BY CHANGING NEUROLOGICAL FINDINGS, BUT SHOULD BE CONSIDERED WHEN THE\nDISEASE PROCESS HAS BEEN STABILIZED.\nTHE OCCURRENCE OF ANY NEUROLOGICAL SYMPTOMS OR SIGNS FOLLOWING ADMINISTRATION OF ANY\nVACCINE IS A CONTRAINDICATION TO FURTHER USE.\nTHE VACCINE SHOULD NOT BE ADMINISTERED TO PERSONS WITH ACUTE FEBRILE ILLNESSES UNTIL THEIR TEMPORARY SYMPTOMS AND/OR SIGNS HAVE ABATED.\"\nInfluenza Virus Vaccine should not be given to individuals with thrombocytopenia or any coagulation disorder that would contraindicate intramuscular injection unless, in the judgment of the physician, the potential benefits clearly outweigh the risk of administration.\nPatients with impaired immune responsiveness, whether due to the use of immunosuppressive therapy (including irradiation, corticosteroids, antimetabolites, alkylating agents, and cytotoxic agents), a genetic defect, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, or other causes, may have a reduced antibody response in active immunization procedures.\nBut if Dr. Tayloe is right, the package insert should be changed to read:\n\"No studies regarding the simultaneous administration of inactivated influenza vaccine and other childhood vaccines have been conducted.\"\nOne more... Merck's MMR vaccine:\nHypersensitivity to any component of the vaccine, including gelatin.\nDo not give M-M-R II to pregnant females; the possible effects of the vaccine on fetal development are unknown at this time. If vaccination of postpubertal females is undertaken, pregnancy should be avoided for three months following vaccination (see INDICATIONS AND USAGE, Non-Pregnant Adolescent and Adult Females and PRECAUTIONS, Pregnancy).\nAnaphylactic or anaphylactoid reactions to neomycin (each dose of reconstituted vaccine contains approximately 25 mcg of neomycin).\nFebrile respiratory illness or other active febrile infection. However, the ACIP has recommended that all vaccines can be administered to persons with minor illnesses such as diarrhea, mild upper respiratory infection with or without low-grade fever, or other low-grade febrile illness.\nPatients receiving immunosuppressive therapy. This contraindication does not apply to patients who are receiving corticosteroids as replacement therapy, e.g., for Addison's disease.\nIndividuals with blood dyscrasias, leukemia, lymphomas of any type, or other alignant neoplasms affecting the bone marrow or lymphatic systems.\nPrimary and acquired immunodeficiency states, including patients who are immunosuppressed in association with AIDS or other clinical manifestations of infection with human immunodeficiency viruses;41-43 cellular immune deficiencies; and hypogammaglobulinemic and dysgammaglobulinemic states. Measles inclusion body encephalitis60 (MIBE), pneumonitis61 and death as a direct consequence of disseminated measles vaccine virus infection have been reported in immunocompromised individuals inadvertently vaccinated with measles-containing vaccine.\nIndividuals with a family history of congenital or hereditary immunodeficiency, until the immune competence of the potential vaccine recipient is emonstrated.\"\nDue caution should be employed in administration of M-M-R II to persons with a history of cerebral injury, individual or family histories of convulsions, or any other condition in which stress due to fever should be avoided. The physician should be alert to the temperature elevation which may occur following vaccination (see ADVERSE REACTIONS).\nHypersensitivity to Eggs Live measles vaccine and live mumps vaccine are produced in chick embryo cell culture. Persons with a history of anaphylactic, anaphylactoid, or other immediate reactions (e.g., hives, swelling of the mouth and throat, difficulty breathing, hypotension, or shock) subsequent to egg ingestion may be at an enhanced risk of immediate-type hypersensitivity reactions after receiving vaccines containing traces of chick embryo antigen. The potential risk to benefit ratio should be carefully evaluated before considering vaccination in such cases. Such individuals may be vaccinated with extreme caution, having adequate treatment on hand should a reaction occur\"\n\"The AAP states, \"Persons who have experienced anaphylactic reactions to topically or systemically administered neomycin should not receive measles vaccine.\"\nNow that Dr. Tayloe is running the AAP, will they remove that statement from the insert?\nI have not even gotten to the sections on Adverse Reactions yet, but I have already made my point.\nOh, yeah... and then last week the Hannah Poling case broke.\nIt is factual to say that in come cases, approved vaccines DO result in permanent injury and that not all vaccines are safe for all children.\nDr. Tayloe is wrong.\nEither he knows about the things which I have written above, in which case he has lied to the American public and he has no place being the head of the AAP, or he does not know the things which I have written above, in which case he is incompetent to be the head of the AAP.\n... and there is not a chance in hell that he does not know about all that I have written here.\nAdditionally, allow me to draw your attention to the second half of Dr. Tayloe's statement:\n\"So we favor this and we know that unless we have vaccination rates that are in the 90 to 95% range we are not going to prevent epidemics from coming into this country of measles, of polio, from countries where these diseases are still endemic. So its very important that we vaccinate all our children.\"\nNote the goal of his vaccination policy, not to serve the best interest of your individual child, but to protect this country of a viral epidemic.\nKeep in mind, that when your are in the pediatricians office and he is looking at your child and making decisions on how to treat him, the AAP, his professional organization has taught him that your baby is not his client. That 'society' is his client. And that depending on how ethical he is or how sharp his critical thinking skills are, he may not actually be serving your child, but \"the greater good\".\nWe have been lobbying the AAP to reevaluate vaccines and move in a more cautious direction in making recommendations for their doctors.\nIf the election of Dr. Tayloe and his criminal pronouncements are the response to the AAP of parents increasingly loud protestations of their destructive direction, then it is time to start ignoring the AAP.\nThere are many, many pediatrician out there who genuinely want to work in the best interests of their patients, and as difficult as it was for me and Honey to hear Dr. Tayloe lie on tv, it must have been more difficult for them to have heard. They know that serious vaccine reactions exist, and they just watched the man that represents them tell a very stupid lie to the entire country.\n(please excuse any typos, etc, as I have not had a chance to proof this. I reserve the right to make corrections)"}
{"content":"Nicholas A Branch\nWhat is your next adventure?\nI'll be coming back to Georgia Tech to work in the High-powered Electric Propulsion (HPEP) Lab with Dr. Walker. Mostly, I'll be looking at plasma material interaction because that's the big question in electric propulsion these days. When rockets re-enter the atmosphere we have to better understand what happens between materials and the plasma if we want to reduce degradation.\nWhat about your next adventure are you most looking forward to?\nJust getting into the physics side of propulsion will be exciting. A lot of the research opportunities when you're an undergrad don't allow you to control the science part. As a grad student I will be able to begin asking my own questions. Also, this summer, I will be at JPL, working on an upgrade for one of the more advanced Hall thrusters. That will be exciting.\nDid you have any previous co-op, internship, or research experience in this area?\nMy first semester freshman year I got involved in the Prox-1 [cubesat] project with Dr. Spencer. Coming from a high school that had very little science beyond AP calc, that was the perfect learning experience for me. They didn't expect me to have already worked on advanced projects -- I didn't have to have already laser-cut a 3D printer if I wanted to join the team. I built up my knowledge and skills over two-and-a-half years. Then Dr. Walker needed someone with mechanical/hardware experience to design an ion-beam dump. I knew that would teach me vacuum hardware, so I joined him. That led to an other project helping Dr. Walker to build up the propellant feed system for a jet thruster. That was a lot of work and a lot of learning at the same time. In the Fall of 2016, I started working on another project: the magneto-hydrodynamic generator where I was designing electrodes. Ultimately we were trying to see if you could power a rocket with its own exhaust. In the Spring of 2017 I interned at NASA Marshall where I was working computer algorithms to identify mode shapes and frequencies. We got some great software out of it. This summer I worked with SpaceX, on engine-related ground support equipment for the Dragon II vehicle. This past fall, I was in the lab with Dr. Walker preparing a vacuum chamber for testing helicon plasma thruster.\nHow did your educational experience at GT-AE help you achieve that goal?\nThere is a lot of knowledge in our faculty. A lot of them have worked in the field so they can tell you how things will actually work. Dr. [Marilyn] Smith directly correlates things with how it works in industry. When you have that sort of knowledge as a foundation, it's not that hard to put all of your trust and time into a project. No matter how hard it is.\nWhat advice would you give to an underclassman who would like to follow the same path?\nNumber one, if you don't like coffee, suck it up. You'll be putting in the time. Also, I had a couple of really good friends in AE which was, for me, like having work-out partners. They were motivating when I was not motivated.\nAnd, two, find yourself a community that's not AE. For me, that was the CRC, where I worked as a building supervisor. It was completely social. Every shift there were people from other schools working with me, and we could crack jokes. It was a great support."}
{"content":"Tanzania’s President John Magufuli has died\nPosted On March 17, 2021\nTanzania’s President John Magufuli is dead. The head of state died of heart failure in a hospital in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday, said Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan. Previously, his lengthy absence from the public had fueled speculation that the head of state, who had been in office since 2015, was ill. The 61-year-old had long denied the existence of Covid-19 in the East African country and downplayed the risk of the corona virus.\nThe former German colony with its around 58 million inhabitants has not published the number of new infections since May 2020. According to the constitution, the vice-president will now assume the highest office in the country until the next election in 2025. Only last year Magufuli had won a controversial presidential election.\nDuring the corona pandemic, Magufuli questioned the credibility of corona tests and recommended prayers and steam baths. Magufuli – sometimes called the “bulldozer” because of his uncompromising leadership style – urged the Ministry of Health to be careful with vaccines developed abroad and questioned how they could have been developed so quickly. Unlike in many other African countries, where foreign holidaymakers arriving by plane had to go into quarantine for several days last year, he opened the East African country to tourism.\nThe opposition politician Tundu Lissu, who lives in exile, recently sparked speculation on Twitter about Magufuli’s disease of Covid-19. “With his devastated Covid denial, his prayer-instead-science craze has proven a deadly boomerang,” he wrote. According to his information, Magufuli was seriously ill and first taken to a hospital in the Kenyan capital Nairobi for treatment and then to India.\nMagufuli, who came to power in 2015, polarized the East African country. He was supported by proponents, among other things, because of his strong and uncompromising leadership style, large infrastructure projects and promises to fight corruption. Critics, however, condemned his increasing restrictions on freedom of the press and freedom of expression as well as his handling of the corona pandemic. The human rights record in Tanzania has steadily declined under Magufuli, judged the human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW).\nThe politician was born on October 29, 1959 in the western Chato district and first became a teacher before earning his doctorate in chemistry at the University of Dar es Salaam and then going into politics."}
{"content":"Roerich Nicholas. Bridge of Glory. Fine art postcard A6\nHaze was flaring, and behind it, at a great distance, the most powerful element was raging. Haze, glow, and heat lightning are the messengers of remote events. Northern lights or the Himalayan glow remind one of the accumulations which ears and eyes cannot perceive. It is the heart that can sense them, and it will beat with agitation and solemnity.\nNicholas Roerich. Diary Leaves. Vol.2. Synthesis. 1941\nWe have changed design of our site for you to make using of our site more comfortable.\nWe are appreciate your opinion if we have achieved this goal.\nWe are waiting for your critics in Guestbook.\nAgni Publishing House (Samara, Russia), Nicholas Roerich Museum (New York) and Fine Arts Academy Gallery (Moscow, Russia) have published a unique album, dedicated to the pictorial heritage of Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947).\nWill be available on the second volume of a unique publication dedicated to the works of Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947).\nThe album was released by the publishing house \"Agni\" (Samara), with active cooperation of the Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York, as well as the Moscow Gallery Fine Arts Academy and the St. Petersburg State Museum and Institute of the Roerich Family."}
{"content":"Synthetic intelligence (AI) is turning into commonplace, and machine studying fashions are on the coronary heart of this development. Machine studying strategies and applied sciences are revolutionizing varied sectors, from healthcare to finance. Nonetheless, few folks perceive the significance of machine studying and the instruments that make it potential.\nThe precise set of instruments could make a major distinction within the success of a undertaking. Observe that there’s a couple of kind of machine studying, together with supervised studying and unsupervised studying. Every kind has its functions and is fitted to particular duties. These fashions have turn out to be the spine of varied machine studying strategies. They’re important for constructing AI-powered functions.\nThis weblog submit will talk about the highest 7 machine studying instruments of 2023. Hopefully, it should enable you to select the best machine studying algorithm and power on your undertaking.\nOn this part, we’ll introduce the seven hottest machine studying instruments and platforms in 2023. These instruments have been rigorously chosen primarily based on varied elements. As an example, some stand out on account of their ease of use or algorithmic functions. Others have greater GPU coaching pace or extra instruments provided. You’ll discover two sorts of instruments for machine studying on this listing.\nCloud-based platforms play a major function in machine studying. Huge names like Google Cloud AI Platform, Amazon Machine Studying, and Azure Machine Studying cleared the path. The platforms present easy accessibility to highly effective computing assets. Additionally they let you entry collaborative companies.\nOpen-source frameworks and libraries are additionally a vital a part of the machine studying ecosystem. Python, TensorFlow, and PyTorch are a few of the hottest decisions amongst builders, because of their in depth capabilities and ease of use.\nMachine Studying on Microsoft Azure\nOur first ML software is Microsoft’s Azure Machine Learning. It’s a strong cloud-based platform for machine studying that gives a big selection of options. Most of it’s carried out via its Azure Machine Studying Studio. This platform supplies a user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface. It’s tremendous straightforward to create Enterprise Intelligence functions, even for these with restricted ML experience. You should use these functions for anomaly detection, fraud detection duties, and extra.\nThe benefit of use of Azure’s graphical consumer interface is mixed with an in depth vary of machine studying algorithms and predictive fashions. This enables customers to rapidly create and deploy varied machine studying functions. This versatility makes Azure Machine Studying appropriate for a variety of initiatives. It might assist with small-scale experiments and large-scale, mission-critical techniques.\nAlong with Azure Machine Studying Studio, Microsoft gives different companies that complement its machine studying platform. Microsoft Power BI is a well-liked knowledge reporting and visualization software, nice for enterprise intelligence. However, Azure Data Factory is a cloud-based knowledge integration service. Lastly, Azure Databricks is an Apache Spark-based analytics platform. It may be used for large knowledge processing and machine studying duties.\nThis integration permits customers to leverage the complete potential of the Microsoft ecosystem. It enhances their machine studying initiatives and ensures easy interoperability between totally different elements. Its help for common open-source frameworks, like TensorFlow and PyTorch, makes it much more versatile.\nIBM Watson is a complicated AI platform with a powerful service suite. The preferred is IBM Watson Studio, IBM’s major machine studying platform. With capabilities like NLP and picture recognition, Watson can autonomously execute varied duties. It’s primarily used to ship insights throughout industries.\nThe well-known supercomputer additional reinforces Watson’s skill to deal with machine studying duties. It does an amazing job of powering deep studying frameworks and recurrent networks. This neural community mannequin permits Watson to excel within the subfield of machine studying. As such, it’s a flexible software for builders and researchers.\nActual-life functions and case research of companies utilizing IBM Watson are a lot. The corporate demonstrated its worth in varied industries, like sign processing and healthcare. You may additionally discover it in finance, advertising and marketing, and customer support. Watson’s superior capabilities have confirmed efficient in fixing complicated issues and driving innovation.\nAlong with its core machine studying capabilities, Watson additionally gives a set of AI-powered instruments. For instance, there’s Watson Assistant, used for constructing conversational AI functions. These digital assistants are surprisingly human-like and have the potential to revolutionize customer support. Watson Discovery is one other great tool used for unstructured knowledge evaluation. These extras assist companies harness the true energy of AI and machine studying, unlocking new alternatives and efficiencies.\nSadly, working Watson’s in-house operations could be moderately costly for many companies. In response, IBM gives cloud-based choices for smaller firms. Going via the cloud reduces the price for these in search of entry to Watson’s superior studying capabilities with out the necessity for vital infrastructure investments.\nAdditionally Learn: What Happened to IBM Watson?\nSubsequent, now we have a Goliath of ML. Amazon Machine Learning on AWS is a well-liked cloud-based machine studying infrastructure seen as a pioneer within the business. With its cost-effective and scalable options, Amazon ML is a lovely possibility for all sorts of companies. They make it straightforward to implement machine studying of their operations. Integration with the AWS ecosystem, together with Amazon S3 and Amazon RDS, additional enhances its attraction.\nAmazon ML helps many machine studying strategies, similar to:\n- Supervised studying\n- Binary classification\n- Multiclass classification\nThis versatility permits customers to use Amazon ML to make use of instances starting from fraud detection to suggestion techniques. It’s additionally nice for predictive upkeep and demand forecasting. This platform focuses on offering a protected house for companies. Their tight security measures make it a well-liked alternative amongst giant organizations. One notable instance of leveraging Amazon infrastructure is Coursera, a web-based schooling platform.\nAmazon ML’s skill to ship actionable insights is a testomony to its worth within the machine studying panorama. Its effectiveness has been confirmed in predictive analytics and buyer segmentation.\nTo brighten its choices, Amazon ML additionally supplies extra instruments and companies. As an example, Amazon SageMaker simplifies the method of constructing, coaching, and deploying functions at scale. With this complete suite, Amazon ML is well-equipped to help companies of their endeavors.\nTensorFlow, an open-source framework developed by the Google Mind crew, is a well-liked alternative for deep studying. As a library for dataflow programming, it tremendously simplifies the creation of machine studying fashions. You’ll discover pre-trained fashions and varied instruments for duties like:\n- Picture recognition\n- Speech recognition\n- Neural networks\n- Pure language processing\n- Laptop imaginative and prescient\nTensorFlow’s in depth ecosystem consists of extra instruments and libraries as effectively. There’s TensorFlow Lite for cellular and embedded units, TensorFlow.js for browser-based machine studying, and TensorFlow Extended (TFX) for end-to-end machine studying pipelines. These instruments make TensorFlow a complete platform for varied machine studying duties.\nTensorFlow’s highly effective capabilities make it a best choice for builders in varied industries, from healthcare and finance to retail and manufacturing.\nMost individuals within the business have heard of Python. However do you know it’s additionally a well-liked scripting language for ML initiatives? This is because of it boasting a big group and a comparatively easy syntax. With its in depth libraries and packages, Python is a well-liked software for growing machine studying fashions. Some examples of those libraries embody scikit-learn, which gives:\n- Dimensionality discount\n- Mannequin choice\nNumPy is one other one, offering help for linear algebra operations. One other helpful library, pandas, simplifies knowledge manipulation and evaluation, making it simpler for builders to work with structured knowledge. Python’s function in machine studying schooling can also be price noting. Many on-line studying platforms like edX are constructed on it. Additionally they provide programs that train programming abilities, knowledge evaluation, visualization libraries, predictive analytics, and internet software improvement utilizing Python.\nAs an unbiased programming language, Python gives flexibility and flexibility. This makes it a well-liked alternative for machine studying initiatives. Python’s package deal supervisor caters to a variety of machine studying duties, from knowledge preprocessing and have engineering to mannequin coaching and analysis. The straightforward syntax and readability make it straightforward for rookies to study. However it’s nonetheless strong sufficient for skilled builders to put in writing environment friendly traces of code.\nAdditionally Learn: How Long Does It Take To Learn Python\nOne other rising possibility on this planet of ML instruments is PyTorch. This open-source framework is known as after its origins. You guessed it; it combines the Python programming language and the Torch library. Scripted utilizing Lua, PyTorch gives a dynamic computation graph and linear algebra framework. There are over 200 mathematical operations, making it a perfect alternative for deep studying duties and irregular knowledge.\nCertainly one of PyTorch’s key strengths is its flexibility. Builders can construct and experiment with complicated fashions extra simply. Its sturdy debugging capabilities and lively group help cement its attraction as a machine studying framework.\nPyTorch’s compatibility with varied programming languages and platforms, similar to Python and C++, makes it a flexible software for builders. Actual-life functions of PyTorch embody laptop imaginative and prescient, language fashions, speech recognition, and reinforcement studying.\nAdditionally Learn: Introduction to PyTorch Loss Functions and Machine Learning\nLastly, now we have Vertex AI, a comparatively younger platform. Vertex AI helps varied machine studying strategies, claiming to supply all the mandatory instruments underneath one unified UI and API. A few of its functions embody object detection, pure language processing, anomaly detection, and sentiment evaluation.\nGoogle Cloud’s Vertex AI is a cloud-based machine studying platform with a user-friendly interface. It lets customers begin coaching fashions rapidly, even with out prior expertise. Vertex AI’s integration with different Google Cloud companies makes it even higher. The API provides you entry to Google Cloud companies, similar to Google Cloud ML Engine and Google Cloud Storage. That makes it a lovely possibility for companies trying to hit the bottom working.\nVertex AI has a scalable structure that permits customers to construct and deploy fashions effectively.\nIn conclusion, the highest 7 machine studying software program instruments mentioned on this article are main the way in which on this thrilling discipline. These common machine studying platforms and deep studying instruments provide a number of necessary options and capabilities.\nWhen selecting a machine studying software, it’s important to guage the particular wants and targets of your undertaking. You should guarantee to pick essentially the most appropriate machine studying algorithm and platform. When you perceive the superior studying capabilities of every software, you may make an knowledgeable resolution about the perfect match on your undertaking.\nWe encourage readers to discover and experiment with totally different instruments to search out the one which most closely fits their initiatives and targets. Because the world of synthetic intelligence and machine studying fashions continues to evolve, so will the applied sciences that drive it. Keep up-to-date with the most recent developments in machine studying applied sciences and neural community fashions, and you’ll assist form the longer term!"}
{"content":"There have been a lot of changes in managing your HVA’s units in the last few years: from refitting units to ensure that they are the most up-to-date possible, to alteration to coolants and refrigerants that are used in your units. Most homes in the US have some form of heating and cooling unit in their homes, with only 3% without heating at all. The majority use natural gas, with most of the rest using electricity to heat their homes. In order to get the most from an existing Las Vegas NV HVAC Unit , or to look at fitting a new one, you need to understand the demands that are being placed upon these devices in Las Vegas.\nChanges to HVAC Ratings Since 2015\nOne of the biggest issues that users of HVACs in Nevada have is the changes to ratings of these units. This is in response to a 2015 federal regulation which affected the energy rating of air conditioners and heat pumps. Any unit which has been installed since this time must comply with the new SEER standard. This energy rating affects the HVAC particularly because it is likely to be used throughout the year, both for heating and for air-conditioning. Therefore, if you wish to buy a new model, you have to consider how this rating will affect its use and the possibility of getting your home to the temperature you require.\nWhy Does HVAC Heating Need To Be Regulated?\nThere are several reasons why the government has decided to adjust its efficiency ratings. Mostly, it is to provide a higher quality for customers, reducing the amount of energy that they use on their units, while still providing the best comfort possible. This energy rating relates to the installation and running costs of the unit. Since 2015, most HVAC units are operating more efficiently, using fewer natural resources and providing lower energy bills for homeowners.\nAdding or Replacing Components\nIf you need to replace particular parts or components of your HVAC, then you will need to make sure that these comply with the new regulations. Components are often made separately from the units, and this can mean that sometimes they are not compliant with the SEER rating, even though they have been designed to work with a unit that is. Non-compliant parts will affect the efficiency of the unit, sometimes causing problems such as condensation, higher energy bills or even failure of the unit. In order to make sure that you get a suitable replacement for parts within the HVAC, you need an HVAC expert who can help you to get the right parts for your machine. A contractor who understands the parts is vital in getting the right unit.\nImproving Your HVAC Ratings\nIf you are thinking about how to improve the efficiency of your HVAC without having to renew or replace all of its components, then you need to make sure that you take control of your heating. You can do this in a number of ways, for example by making sure that you clean and replace filters and radiators, heaters and other parts of the HVAC. You should also ‘bleed’ your radiators regularly, at least twice per cold season, in order to get the best results. You might also consider reducing the amount of time that you use fans, for example extractor fans in the kitchen and bathroom. Turn these off 20 minutes after you finish in order to reduce cool air coming into the home. You can also do other things such as keeping the house warm using drapes and shades at night, leaving them open during the day to allow warm air to circulate.\nChoosing the Right Las Vegas NV HVAC Unit\nIf you want to replace your HVAC machine, then you will need to buy one which is best suited to your home. For example, thanks to the new efficiency ratings, you will not have to buy so big a unit in order to keep your home cool and hot during the different seasons. Even smaller HVAC units can now be as powerful as the older ones, and it is more important to find one which will match the size of the rooms you use rather than simply picking the largest one.\nFind What You Need From Our Team\nDo you need help with getting a new HVAC unit installed in your home? Do you want to make sure that the component you receive will work with your existing HVAC unit? In order to make sure that you get the best air conditioning services available to you, you need a team like Air Pro Master. Our team is here to help you, so start your HVAC journey by contacting us online, or call us at (702) 935-5622 today."}
{"content":"June 10th, 2013\nFood security means access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life.\n“Hunger hits closer to home than many of us think. Based on this data, we all probably know someone who isn’t sure where their next meal is coming from,” said Kristina Scott, executive director of Alabama Possible-Alabama Poverty Project.\nChildren are more likely to be food insecure than adults, and 26.4 percent of Alabama children lived in food insecure households. Child hunger is linked with poor health and educational outcomes.\nAlabama is the nation’s sixth poorest state, and 19 percent of Alabamians and 28 percent of children live in poverty.\nAccording to the Fe\neding America analysis, Macon and Greene Counties were both in the Top 10 majority African American counties within high food\ninsecure rate counties. Both are 82 percent African American, and 28 percent of Macon County residents are food insecure. In Greene County, 30 percent of residents are food insecure.\nMacon County, which has a poverty rate of 31 percent and a median income of $27,591, also is one of the nation’s highest food insecure and highest food cost counties.\n“Hunger is a solvable problem. Emergency food assistance is just the start, however. In order to ensure no Alabamian goes hungry, we need to explore local food systems, economic development, community support systems, and civic engagement for sustainable solutions to build a food secure and thriving community,” said Scott.\nCharts with complete Alabama 2011 food insecurity and child food insecurity data is available on the Feeding America website.\nAlabama Possible-Alabama Poverty Project (APP) is a statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing systemic poverty and its root causes across Alabama. APP educates Alabamians about poverty, motivates colleges and faith-based institutions to engage in poverty-reduction activities, and advocates for fact-based policy decisions. APP was founded in 1993 and is based in Birmingham. For more information visit http://www.alabamapossible.org.\nFeeding America is a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks that leads the fight against hunger in the United States. Together, we provide food to more than 37 million people through 61,000 food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters in communities across America. Feeding America also supports programs that improve food security among the people we serve; educates the public about the problem of hunger; and advocates for legislation that protects people from going hungry. Visit www.feedingamerica.org"}
{"content":"When I conceived my idea for a thin, flexible wallet invention in 2002, I was very excited about the potential of my invention. But, I had no clue what I should do first. So I found a patent attorney and filed for a utility patent on my product.\nReady, fire, aim!\nFortunately it worked out for me and my product has been a big success, but it could very easily have been a complete waste of $5,000.\nNew Inventor Startup Kit – a Much Better Way\nOver the last 15 years of my invention journey I have acquired a lot of ‘wisdom' in the form of countless costly mistakes and missteps.\nNow, I know there is a better way to get off to a good, productive start with a new invention idea – a plan to mitigate risk and optimize potential reward. Sound interesting?\nHere is the 3-step process:\n- Decide what you want to do – what you are willing to do\n- Become a fisherman: throw the ‘little ones' back\n- Learn what matters most to the buyer – and give it to them\nDecide What You Want to Do\nThis sounds so simple, doesn't it? But it's not and many inventors never do this early and only discover much later they are pursuing a course that doesn't work for them.\nYou need to decide if you want to build a business around your product or if you want to license it and be paid a small royalty percentage on sales.\nBuilding a business around a product requires a huge commitment of time and capital. You should carefully consider your family circumstances and your career needs carefully before making such a commitment. Inventing is a very risky venture, you must feel comfortable with the commitments and risks you will have to take and that there is no guarantee of success. Sometimes it is just better to keep your day job and a regular paycheck. Really.\nLicensing transfers the risk away from you and onto the licensee – the company that would manufacture, package, distribute and market your product. The time commitment is much less and can easily be managed while holding down a full time job. There is no guarantee that you will find someone willing to license your product, but you might come up with another invention. This course is much less taxing on families and bank accounts.\nOnce you have chosen your path, focus on it – in the words of entrepreneur and podcaster, John Lee Dumas – Follow One Course Until Successful.\nThrow the ‘Little Ones' Back\nProfessional fisherman (and women) who fish for a living follow a simple creed: throw the little ones back. You can't make much of a meal or have much to sell with tiny fish.\nUnfortunately, inventors tend to fall in love with every idea they have, often pursuing and spending thousands on little ones – inventions that simply have no chance for success.\nLearn to cull your invention ideas. Recognize that a great product must have strong profit margins, sell to a very large segment of the population, and provide clear benefits over competitive products. Carefully assess each product idea you have against these three measures. If it is not great or even questionable – throw it back and go to the next idea.\nLearn What Matters to the Buyer – and Give it To Them\nHere is a simple fact: what matters most to the inventor is quite different from what matters most to the buyer – whether it is a retail buyer or a potential licensee.\nWhat matters most to the inventor is how unique and beneficial their product will be to the end buyer, the consumer.\nGuess what? The buyer assumes your product is unique and beneficial or there would be no conversation.\nA retail store buyer cares most about profitability, turns, and shelf space – probably in that order. They expect their wholesale cost to be ‘keystone' – 50% or less of the retail price. If it's $20 retail price, they expect to buy for $10 – or better yet, $9.50. Higher profit margins for them mean lower risk on stocking the product. You must be able to live with your margin and offer them one that is attractive to them.\nThey also want a product that ‘turns' quickly – doesn't stay on shelves very long. Products sitting in inventory only make the store money when they sell. Slow sellers are quickly returned to the vendor – the inventor in this case.\nAn ideal product has a small ‘footprint' – it takes up very little shelf space. Retailers' shelf space is a valuable commodity. Products with small footprints are easily displayed, easily bought and restocked. Larger products hog shelf space and often are slow sellers too – a bad combination.\nTalk with the retail buyer about profit margins, turns, and shelf space and you will have their undivided attention. Talk to them about how great your product is – and they will be looking at their watches or checking emails!\nLicensees care about cost to manufacture (versus retail price), any special tooling required, and how it will complement their existing product line. Their focus is much more on their capital risk (which is guaranteed if they take on the product ) versus the potential reward of lucrative sales – which is an unknown and never guaranteed.\nTalk to your buyers about what matters most to them."}
{"content":"What is sexual self-advocacy and why is it important?\nSexual self-advocacy is the ability to communicate and assert your sexual desires and needs in a way that is respectful of yourself and others. Sexual self-advocacy is important for everyone, but it can be especially important for people who are marginalized or discriminated against, such as people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ people, and teens from low-income families.\nIt includes the right to:\nSexual self-advocacy provides an individual with the freedom of choice to engage in a romantic sexual relationship with another consenting adult. In order to make healthy choices the individual must first be informed. Too often people with disabilities are treated like children who do not have sexual desires and are not seen as sexual beings. They are excluded from age-appropriate health education classes that teach about sexuality. They are not provided with correct information about their bodies and sex. And they may be prevented from having a healthy sexual relationship with another person.\nSexuality education is important for ALL teens, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. It can help teens to make informed decisions about their sexual health and well-being and to build healthy relationships.\nThere are many reasons why it is important to teach sexuality education to all teenagers. Sexuality education can help teens to:\nSexuality education is not just about sex. It is also about teaching teens about their bodies, their rights, and their responsibilities. It is about helping them to develop the knowledge and skills they need to make healthy choices about their sexual health and well-being.\nHere are some specific benefits of sexuality education for teens:\nSex Positive Sexuality Education\nSex-positive sex education is taught in a way that is non-judgmental and inclusive. It challenges traditional gender roles and stereotypes, recognizes that sexuality and sexual development are natural, normal, and healthy parts of our lives, and refrains from using shame and fear to motivate students to be abstinent, and it affirms the right of everyone to express their sexuality in a way that is safe and healthy.\nResearch has shown that sex-positive sex education is effective in reducing risky sexual behaviors and promoting healthy sexual attitudes and behaviors. It can also help to prevent sexual violence and abuse.\nMany parents may find the topic of sexuality uncomfortable to talk about. We may believe that by discussing sex, we are offering permission for our kids to engage in unsafe sexual activity. This could not be further from the truth. When parents increase their own knowledge about sexuality, and we become more comfortable talking to our kids about sex, we are directly supporting our children's sexual self-advocacy to make healthy choices as they explore their normal sexual feelings and desires.\nEveryone is entitled to receive correct information about their bodies using medically accurate terms. They should receive appropriate sexuality education that is age-appropriate. They deserve the right to explore their sexuality, their sexual orientation, their gender identity, and enjoy sexual pleasure without judgment or criticism. Sexuality education should be sex-positive and trauma-informed.\nTrauma-informed Sexuality Education\nTrauma-informed sexuality education is an approach to sex education that takes into account the impact of trauma on people's sexual development and experiences. It is based on the understanding that trauma can have a profound impact on people's physical, emotional, and psychological well-being, including their sexuality.\nTrauma-informed sexuality education aims to create a safe and supportive learning environment where people can learn about sex and sexuality in a way that is empowering and respectful. It focuses on teaching people about their bodies, their rights, and their options, and it helps them to develop the skills they need to make healthy choices about their sexuality.\nCourses and Workshops\nWe offer individual and small group courses in Healthy Relationships and Human Sexuality for Teens and Young Adults. We also provide parent workshops and parent training to support parents and caregivers in this difficult topic and to teach strategies to communicate about sexuality with their children."}
{"content":"This article investigates the motivations behind why bosom knead is good for ladies who are on a program of regular bosom development whether they are taking spices, bosom expansion pills, creams or moisturizers. Nearly everybody appreciates having a body back rub to mitigate away strains, a throbbing painfulness. A decent body knead makes a quiet condition of readiness while diminishing mental pressure. It expands the progression of oxygen and blood course in the body.\nAt the point when there is unsettled strain and stress in our regular routines, it can wind up making consistent solid pressure. Strain makes a development of poisons in the body. Elevated degrees of harmfulness can prompt bosom malignant growth and will keep natural bosom supplements from arriving at the bosom tissue cells. A bosom back rub will likewise assist with adjusting the chemicals in the endocrine framework.\nSound Bosom Back rub – Western Culture\nBosom knead, as a device for prosperity, isn’t as broadly acknowledged in our western culture. We see bosoms as objects of want and we center more around developing greater bosoms instead of better bosoms. Bosom rub then again is an acknowledged piece of medical care in Asia. Without a doubt there are as yet numerous sexual restrictions encompassing the legitimate consideration of bosoms. Numerous ladies might feel awkward to have their bosoms moved by anybody other than their accomplices.\nIndeed, even in the back rub treatment callings, numerous male experts face opposition and humiliation with regards to advancing and managing bosom wellbeing. We keep on burning through a lot of cash on recognizing bosom malignant growth. Current measurements show that 1 out of 8 ladies will contract bosom malignant growth in the course of their life. Insufficient is finished to advance protected and straightforward strategies, for example, self-bosom rub.\nNations, for example, Thailand put incredible significance on the restorative worth of a bosom knead and are effectively advancing it as a feature of a health schedule. While tragically the advantages of a bosom rub (whether for growth or for helpful purposes like the counteraction of cancers) has not yet been generally perceived and advanced, ladies can do an incredible arrangement by a few straightforward strategies for self-bosom rub.\nA few Basic Procedures for Self-Bosom Back rub\no It is recommended that bosom rub be performed up to three times each week for 2 – 5 minutes to animate chemical discharge from the bosoms and ovaries and to forestall poisonous development in the lymph and bosom tissue.\no Apply rub oil: you can buy these at a wellbeing salon or at your nearby wellbeing food shop. Sweet almond and apricot piece oils are phenomenal. Assuming you are oversensitive to nuts, keep away from the almond oil. Coconut oil is a light, fluid oil which functions admirably. Attempt to keep away from scented or mineral based oils.\no This is likewise a great chance to utilize your bosom broadening creams and serums\no Utilize just a light strain on the bosoms while applying the oil and for rub, as unnecessary tension will cause torment and inconvenience. You just need the lightest development, utilizing the palms or level of the fingertips to flush poisons from the bosom region through the lymphatic framework.\no Cup the bosoms with your hands and utilize a light roundabout movement over the entire of the bosom. You can likewise knead the under of the armpit to advance flow.\no Delicately work the bosoms with your hands utilizing a lifting and squeezing activity\no Try not to wear a bra when you can, for example, at home or when snoozing. Take out the metal wiring in those push-up bras (in the event that you can manage without them), as they can be harming to the fragile tissue of the bosoms and to appropriate dissemination.\nBosom rub subsequently is perceived as a great method for keeping the bosom tissues solid and to advance regular bosom extension. Ordinary self-bosom back rub will assist with keeping the bosoms smooth and firm. In particular, a bosom back rub will assist with adjusting the chemicals in the endocrine framework."}
{"content":"‘Smash and grab’ theft has spiked recently in affluent areas across the country. But you can protect your vehicle and the valuables inside with an aftermarket car alarm.\nCar Windows and Stolen Items\nIt doesn’t take long for someone to become a victim. Thieves quickly spot and snatch bags, electronics and other valuables from vehicles parked on the street, in parking lots and parking garages. These incidents usually involve the perpetrator using a blunt tool to break a car glass allowing them to reach in and remove items.\n‘Smash and grab’ incidents happen in just a few seconds and are usually reported in sprees, within the same area and time frame. By smashing a window, the thieves are able to steal valuable possessions left in sight, even if the glass is tinted and the doors are locked.\nHow to Protect Your Car\nTo prevent break-in’s police in Alberta advice against leaving anything of value inside the vehicle. Items that are considered easy targets for car theft include:\n- Mobile phones\n- Laptops and tablets\n- GPS navigation devices\nDrivers should also park in well-lit areas, close to the nearest building.\nAnti-Theft Alarms Systems\nAnother precaution for smart car owners includes installing an anti-theft alarm system, but buyer beware. Not all systems can effectively prevent this type of car break-in.\nA few years back, Tesla owners complained of a security vulnerability. The Model 3 Tesla was the target of an increasing number of ‘smash and grab’ crimes. This was because the alarm system apparently didn’t sound when the glass of the rear quarter window was broken. Thieves were then able to reach in, fold down the rear seats, and steal items from the trunk. Tesla responded by installing enhanced anti-theft systems on the Model S and Model X. The advanced systems now alerts to any motion inside the locked car.\nUnfortunately, not all vehicle manufacturers and factory models offer this kind of comprehensive system. But car owners have a wide range of aftermarket alarm options which can help prevent them from becoming a victim of this type of crime.\nFactory, optional and aftermarket alarm systems have a computer-controlled unit which triggers the siren when necessary. Systems can use one or multiple types of sensors to understand that someone is trying to break into the vehicle.\nGlass Break Sensors\nThis kind of sensor detects certain acoustic frequencies. The noise of shattering glass is picked up by highly sensitive microphones and activates the alarm system. It’s a popular way of protecting the car cabin which should also detect tampering and blows to the glass which don’t cause breakage.\nA shock sensor helps prevent theft by detecting impact on the auto body, including the door panels. If a person hits the car body or delivers a blow to the glass, for example, the system will sense the intensity of the motion. Some models have a warning signal which sounds before the regular alarm is triggered.\nA pressure sensor detects changes in the air pressure changes within the vehicle. If a window is broken or the doors are forced open, this type of sensor will trigger an audible signal.\nOther alarms can be more effective at preventing theft by detecting movement inside the cabin. Cadillac, for example, provides systems which detect motion using ultrasonic waves. This type of system effectively alerts owners to break-ins and ‘smash and grab’ theft.\nExpert Car Glass Repair & Replacement\nIf you have been the victim of a car break-in or a ‘smash and grab’ incident, we can get you safely back on the road. All Makes Auto Glass has specialized in glass repair and replacement for over 15 years. We are your local windshield and car glass expert, servicing all car makes and models. Call us at 403-539-5411 or take a moment to contact us online."}
{"content":"Furnaces are great systems to heat your home and are sure to keep you toasty warm all winter long — unless the pilot light goes out, that is.\nIf this happens to you, don’t panic. Relighting your furnace’s pilot light is a lot easier than you think. Just follow this super easy step-by step-guide on how to light a furnace.\nHow to light the pilot light in your furnace\nHere are the easy steps for how to light the pilot light on your furnace.\nTo do this, you will need a long-necked lighter and a fire extinguisher. You are unlikely to need the fire extinguisher, but you should have one nearby while trying to relight the pilot light.\nNow let’s get down to how to light a furnace:\nStep #1: Do the initial checks\nSometimes we can get all the signals or symptoms that a pilot light has gone out only to discover that isn’t really the problem. Before attempting to relight your pilot, make sure you do a thorough check of your furnace and thermostat system to ensure that lighting a furnace is the correct course of action.\nOne thing to do is to make sure that your furnace is connected properly to the electric and gas sources. You should also double-check that the pilot light is indeed unlit. The pilot light may be fine in some cases, and the furnace may be functioning properly, but the thermostat may just need new batteries.\nStep #2: Locate your furnace’s instruction label\nEvery furnace is designed with a visible and clear instruction label on it. The instructions located on this label will give a detailed description of how to light your furnace. Sometimes the instruction label can be small and difficult to read, though. If that’s the case, or you simply can’t find your furnace’s instruction label, we recommend printing out this article and keeping it close to your furnace in case the pilot light goes out again.\nStep #3: Locate the pilot light\nThe pilot light should be located towards the bottom of your furnace. It should be clearly labeled “Pilot” and should also have an “On/Off” switch very close by.\nIf your pilot light is out, make sure you turn this switch to the “Off” position and wait at least five minutes before proceeding to step three.\nThis is very important. A pilot light is a small flame that is constantly burning, whether your furnace is generating heat or not. This small flame is sustained by releasing a small amount of fuel in a constant stream. The pilot light is then used to provide the necessary flame for burning the fuel when your furnace is turned on to generate heat. If the pilot light goes out, the small but constant stream of fuel meant to power it will still release gas into the surrounding area until the pilot switch is turned off. Waiting for five minutes after you turn your pilot switch off allows this built-up fuel to disperse and prevents you from causing an explosion or a fire.\nIn the meantime, you can locate the reset button, which should be found close to the switch you flipped off. Again, this waiting period is the most important step in this guide for how to light a gas furnace.\nStep #4: Re-light the pilot\nAfter the five minutes have elapsed and the gas has dispersed, turn the switch back to “On.” Note: your switch may say “Pilot” instead of “On.”\nOnce you’ve turned the switch to “On,” hold down the “Reset” button while you bring your lit long-necked lighter to the pilot opening. This process should light the pilot in your furnace. As soon as the pilot light has been lit successfully, you can release the pressure on the “Reset” button.\nImportant considerations and notes\nThere are a few things to keep in mind when trying to relight your pilot light.\n- If your pilot still won’t light after correctly following the above instructions more than two times, this likely indicates that the furnace is malfunctioning. If this is the case, you should stop attempting to light the pilot light and should contact a professional for a consultation and repair.\n- You should never attempt to light your furnace’s pilot light without making sure it has been completely switched off for a period of five minutes. Failing to follow this crucial step can result in an incredibly dangerous situation.\n- Relighting the pilot light is the only thing you should attempt on your furnace unless you are trained to repair furnaces. For any other problems, you should consult a professional. This is because gas can be very dangerous, and a lot can go wrong very quickly if you don’t have experience repairing furnaces.\n- Do not attempt to relight your pilot with a short lighter or match. You should acquire a long-necked lighter or a long match before attempting to light your pilot light to ensure that there is enough distance between you and the flame you are about to ignite in your furnace.\nConclusion and final thoughts\nMost furnaces that are functioning properly won’t require you to relight the pilot light more than a few times in their life span. Most furnaces last about 15 years after installation with regular use, and it’s more likely that you’ll need to light the pilot light more frequently at the end of a furnace’s lifespan.\nRelighting the pilot light can seem like an intimidating task, but as you learned by following the steps above, it’s actually quite simple. Despite the fact that it’s simple enough to execute, it is still a potentially dangerous operation to attempt if you don’t follow the safety protocol. Therefore, you need to be sure that you carefully follow all of the steps and the safety recommendations listed above."}
{"content":"Celebrating a chassideshe Yom Tov in a most exciting manner was the goal of the PTA, as they held their Annual Hey Teves Book Fair.\nIn preparation for the book fair, sale pamphlets were sent home so the talmidim can choose which seforim and books they want. There was a special pamphlet prepared for the younger grades as well, so everyone can choose seforim on their level. Funds were raise to be able to offer the talmidim even greater discounts. Rabbi Veli Karp was instrumental in this project.\nUnique to this year was a an exhibit, Shaleshles Hakabalah – A chronological overview of Tanach,, which is printed in the back of the siddur. This presentation was prepared by OTEG – A project of the eighth-grade classes, under the direction of Rabbi Yossi Bryski.\nAlso new to this year was an exhibition of 70 tanyas from around the world, which was done in connection with Shnas HaShivim of the Rebbe’s nesius.\nThe PTA also sponsored seforim for a nominal fee of One dollar – making it possible for every talmid to come home with a sefer.\nOther highlights included, Chinese auction of various sefirim and judaica, an expanded display of antique seforim and a guest mashpia who held farbrengens and dancing with the talmidim. He explained to the students the special simcha and yom tov atmosphere of the day, and the importace of Didan Notzach and what it represents.\nThe PTA is a most important and energetic group that enhances many aspects of the day to day yeshiva experience. The care and generosity of the PTA infuses the yeshiva programs immensely.\nThe PTA annual auction, https://www.oholeitorahpta.com/ their main fundraiser enabling them to do so much will be held on Sunday, Januray 19th."}
{"content":"Not all technology is benign. The rapid pace at which technology is evolving brings new opportunities and challenges for businesses and individuals alike, but some innovations can pose serious threats to our digital security, privacy, and safety.\nThe global cost of a data breach last year was USD $4.45 million—an increase of 15% over the last three years. As we step into 2024, it’s crucial to be aware of emerging technology threats that could potentially disrupt and harm your business. The tech experts at Anderson Technologies have outlined the most prescient emerging technology threats to be aware of in 2024 and beyond.\nThreats on the Horizon\nData Poisoning Attacks\nData poisoning involves corrupting datasets used to train AI models. By injecting malicious data, attackers can skew algorithms’ outcomes, leading to incorrect decisions in critical sectors like healthcare or finance. Some actions, like protecting training data integrity and implementing robust validation mechanisms, are vital in countering this insidious threat.\nBusinesses should use AI-generated data cautiously. It should be heavily augmented by human intelligence and data from other sources.\n5G Network Vulnerabilities\nThe widespread adoption of 5G technology introduces new avenues of cyberattack. With an increased number of connected devices, the attack vector broadens. IoT devices, reliant on 5G networks, might become targets for cyberattacks. Securing these devices and implementing strong network protocols is imperative, especially for preventing large-scale attacks.\nEnsure your business has a robust mobile device management strategy. Organizations should properly track and manage how these devices access business data.\nQuantum Computing Vulnerabilities\nQuantum computing, the herald of unprecedented computational power, also poses a threat. Its immense processing capabilities could crack currently secure encryption methods. Hackers might exploit this power to access sensitive data. This emphasizes the need for quantum-resistant encryption techniques to safeguard digital information.\nArtificial Intelligence (AI) Manipulation\nThe transformative nature of AI tools means they can be manipulated more covertly. Cybercriminals might exploit AI algorithms to spread misinformation. They are already creating convincing deepfakes and automating phishing attacks. Vigilance is essential as AI-driven threats become more sophisticated. It demands robust detection mechanisms to discern genuine from malicious AI-generated content.\nAugmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) Exploits\nAR and VR technologies offer immersive experiences, but they also present new vulnerabilities. Cybercriminals might exploit these platforms to deceive users, leading to real-world consequences.\nEnsuring the security of any AR and VR applications you use is crucial, especially for preventing user manipulation and privacy breaches. This is very true in sectors like gaming, education, and healthcare. Always update devices and programs when prompted to patch new vulnerabilities.\nRansomware attacks have evolved beyond simple data encryption. Threat actors now use double extortion tactics. This consists of stealing sensitive data before encrypting files for a ransom. If victims refuse to pay to decrypt the files, hackers leak or sell the stolen data, causing reputational damage.\nSome defenses against this evolved ransomware threat include:\n- Robust backup solutions\n- Regular cybersecurity training\n- Proactive threat monitoring and response\nSupply Chain Attacks Persist\nSupply chain attacks remain a persistent threat. Cybercriminals infiltrate third-party vendors or software providers to compromise larger targets. Strengthening cybersecurity in the supply chain vector is critical in preventing cascading cyber incidents. Businesses can do this through rigorous vendor assessments, implementing multi-factor authentication, and deploying continuous monitoring.\nBiometric Data Vulnerability\nBiometric authentication methods, such as fingerprints or facial recognition, are becoming commonplace. The downside is that users can’t change biometric authentication data once compromised, like they can passwords. Protect biometric data through secure encryption. Ensure that service providers follow strict privacy regulations. These are paramount to preventing identity theft and fraud.\nAdvanced Phishing Attacks\nPhishing attacks are one of the oldest and most common forms of cyberattacks. Thanks to AI, these attacks are becoming more sophisticated and targeted than ever before. For example, hackers customize spear phishing attacks to a specific individual or organization based on online personal or professional information. Another example is vishing attacks. These use voice calls or voice assistants to impersonate legitimate entities. They convincingly persuade victims to take certain actions.\nOngoing employee phishing training is vital to preventing these carefully crafted phishing campaigns, as well as automated solutions like email hardening tools to detect and defend against phishing threats.\nTips for Defending Against These Threats\nAs technology evolves, so do the threats businesses face; it’s more important than ever to be vigilant and proactive in your business’s cybersecurity approach. Here are some tips that can help:\n- Educate yourself and your employees about the latest technology threats.\n- Use strong passwords and multi-factor authentication for all online accounts.\n- Update your software and devices regularly to fix any security vulnerabilities.\n- Avoid clicking on suspicious links or attachments in emails or messages.\n- Verify the identity and legitimacy of any callers or senders. Do this before providing any information or taking any actions.\n- Back up your data regularly to prevent data loss in case of a cyberattack.\n- Invest in a reliable cyber insurance policy that covers your specific needs and risks.\n- Report any suspicious or malicious activity to the relevant authorities.\nNeed Help Ensuring Your Cybersecurity is Ready for 2024?\nLast year’s solutions might not be enough to protect against this year’s threats. Don’t leave your security open to emerging vulnerabilities. We can help you with a thorough cybersecurity IT assessment, so you know where you stand against a future of new digital risks.\nContact Anderson Technologies today to schedule a chat with one of our experts!\nArticle used with permission from The Technology Press."}
{"content":"There’s a lot to like about cloud computing. St. Louis businesses can benefit from the cost-savings, security features, and ease of collaboration facilitated by cloud-based solutions. Here’s what you need to know.\nWorldwide spending on public cloud computing will increase from $67 billion in 2015 to $162 billion by 2020, according to IDC, a global market intelligence firm. This surge is fueled in part by a growing number of small and medium-sized businesses adapting cloud computing. St. Louis companies are investing more in IT across the board. According to a recent report, technology hiring in the St. Louis area is on the rise for the second half of 2017. More companies are expanding in or relocating to St. Louis, which is part of what’s driving the trend, but in general, St. Louis small businesses are investing more in digital marketing, mobile, and big data. Cloud services can play a crucial role in data security, and they also offer a host of other benefits.\nWhat is Cloud Computing?\nIn the past, businesses stored all their data and ran their applications on company-owned and managed servers in their offices. Now, they can do these same functions online. When someone says they’re using cloud-based software, that software is delivered via the internet, as opposed to the “old days,” when we used CD-ROMs to physically install programs on our computers. If a business is using the cloud as part of its data storage approach, that means it is storing critical business information somewhere other than a server onsite. The information lives online.\nLet’s take a closer look at why small businesses are using cloud-based services.\nCloud computing services allow smaller companies to leverage IT technology that was previously reserved for businesses with big budgets. For example, rather than having to invest in its own network of servers, a small business can pay a monthly fee to leverage cloud computing services. With cloud computing, it is also easy to scale services up or down as your business needs change.\nStoring data in the cloud, ideally as part of a hybrid approach in which you back up data locally and online, offers businesses of all sizes important security benefits. For example, if your server crashed or your office was hit by a natural disaster, you’d have peace of mind knowing your data was also stored remotely.\nThe security benefits of the cloud extend beyond data storage. If you use cloud-based software, or software as a service (SaaS), your software is automatically updated with important security patches. These security updates help protect you from digital fraudsters, who are constantly looking for new ways to infiltrate your system.\nThe increase in cyber crime also contributes to the growing adoption of cloud services. St. Louis businesses identify cyber security as a key concern, according to the previously cited report. If an employee clicks a link and unwittingly downloads ransomware, the damage could extend beyond that machine. New strains of ransomware can encrypt your entire network, even your local backup servers. If you were backing up data to the cloud, you would be able to work with your IT provider to wipe your system clean and start anew from your last backup.\nIt is worth noting that not all cloud backup providers are created equal, and they are not immune from hackers. Cyber crime targeting the cloud is on the rise. A dual-destination backup approach is just one part of a comprehensive IT security plan.\nCloud-based services make collaboration easier. A simple case in point is when multiple team members are working on the same file. Rather than sending the document back and forth and tracking changes, a system where edits can be easily lost or mismanaged, businesses can opt to use a cloud-based program, such as Microsoft OneDrive or Dropbox for Business. Then, multiple users can work from the same master document easily.\nWhen your data is in the cloud, you can also access it remotely, whether you are onsite with a client or working remotely.\nThose are just a few of the reasons to consider cloud services. St. Louis businesses should work with an IT specialist to determine what is right for them. Anderson Technologies has a team of St. Louis cloud services specialists who can assess your IT needs and determine, execute, and manage the most cost-effective, efficient, and secure plan for you."}
{"content":"Hot on the heels of the highly generous 12-year tax-free status for Lynas Corporation comes another huge ‘GIFT’ – this time for the oil and gas big boys.\nWhile the government seems intent on cutting subsidies on selected essential goods used by ordinary Malaysians, it is dishing out more corporate subsidies, oops, I mean ‘incentives’, to a small band of lucky firms in the lucrative oil and gas sector.\nThere is a 100 percent 10-year ‘Investment Tax Allowance’ for firms involved in petroleum refining.\nThe Edge notes that among the US$20bn oil and gas projects in 2012 are the Rapid project in Pengerang, the oil and gas terminals in Johor and Sabah, and the regasification plant in Malacca.\nApart from this, LNG trading companies will enjoy a three-year 100 percent income tax exemption under an appropriately named GIFT (Global Incentive For Trading) programme. What is the justification for this ‘gift’ of a 100 percent income tax exemption? And then we wonder why there is a fiscal deficit!\nWhile the government dishes out generous tax exemptions to the corporate sector, it is now mulling a Goods and Services Tax that will hit many ordinary Malaysians, especially low- and middle-income workers who are currently exempted from income tax. But of course the GST will only come AFTER the general election (if the BN wins, that is). Meanwhile, enjoy the RM500 and RM250 cash handouts (vote buying?) while it lasts.\nIt is policies such as these that have contributed to the widening gap between the rich and poor.\nIn fact, corporate subsidies are never referred to as such. Instead many euphemisms are used: soft loans, income tax allowance, pioneer status, tax relief, tax exemption etc – even though these are all obviously subsidies. So whenever there is any discussion about removing subsidies, all these generous subsidies to the corporate sector are never mentioned."}
{"content":"Another school year, your children have learned a lot and it is time for a break. The\nsummer holidays lie ahead. Some people embrace the change and let term time patterns\nand routines have a holiday too. Late breakfasts, less tidying, more being outside. Some\npeople will continue working and be arranging for other people to look after their children\nwhile some of you will find the thought of the holidays a bit overwhelming. Whatever your\nreality, the summer holidays bring a change of rhythm and pace. To fully embrace this and\nease gently into the next few weeks, I’ll often start by asking my clients to take a bit of time\nto think and plan for themselves first. Find 10 minutes for yourself in a quiet moment this\nweek and, thinking about you, answer the following questions:\nHow do I want to be this summer?\nHow do I want to feel in the holidays?\nWhat thoughts do I want to have?\nHow do I want to react in situations of tears, tantrums and tension?\nFor the next few weeks, what can I let go of?\nHow do I want to be at the end of the holidays?\nBy giving yourself the time to answer these questions and others like them this week, you\nare making plans and setting the tone that will work for you and your family this summer.\nYou may have babies and sleepless nights, toddlers with piles of lego and crayons and\npuzzles everywhere, you may have slightly older children who are enjoying doing more\nthings for themselves like being involved in cooking, playing games by themselves and\ngoing for bike rides with their friends. You may have teenagers who could well sleep their\nway through the best weather and be mono syllabic a lot of the time walking around with\nWhatever stage your children are at being realistic about where you are at as a family is\nkey to a happy vibe. If you plan a day out to a dinosaur museum your 15 year old may not\nenjoy this and your toddler may not be able to last all day. What are the best outings for us\nat the moment and how long is a realistic amount of time for us to all stay having fun? If\nyou are stressed and not having fun and doing things because you think you ought to that\nstress will vibrate through your family. So keep it real and ask, What works for us at the\nAnna and I were having a great Business coaching session last week and she told me\nabout her mantra of seeking out the Daily Joy. I thought this was a lovely phrase and it\nmade me think about the holidays. Your days will have ups and downs, tired children, tired\nparents – both can lead to sulks and arguments, See those moments for what they are – a\ndip in blood sugar, a lack of sleep, a traffic jam. During those days there will also be\nmoments of joy – things that make you smile and shared times when you all laugh out loud.\nPut your focus on these moments. It can be a fun exercise for you all to play at the end of\nthe day to recall and share with each other a particular joyful moment or two that was\nspecial for each of you.\nChildren will learn to tie their shoe laces with summer, others will swim for the first time\nwithout armbands, some will master riding a bike and some may even make their beds!!\nLots of learning and small moments of Daily Joy to be celebrated. They count for a lot.\nAn important point is to avoid comparison and your planning at thinking about your vibe at\nthis stage will help you avoid that. As my coach friend Janey says: ‘Comparison is the\nthief of Joy’.\nYou may know people who have what sound like amazing summer plans and you may not\nhave plans yet or feel that yours don’t measure up. Put away that particular measuring\nstick. Your families summer is your families summer and whatever your particular family\nmake up and circumstances there is fun and joy to be had in whatever you are doing and\nthis is the very best place to put your focus.\nHow you react to situations is a choice. If your plane was delayed, if it rain constantly on\nyour camping holiday, if the house was a constantly covered in toys, cooking with children\nmakes lots of mess, if you don’t enjoy playing with your children, if you had to work every\nweek of the holidays and if your plans got unexpectedly changed there will be moments of\njoy in all these situations. Seek them out.\nReporting that while the plane was delayed you all sat on the airport floor and played uno\nfor hours, fish and chips on a rainy Welsh beach actually tastes extra good, the lego\ncreations have reached a new level of complexity, fairy cake heaven was created in the\nkitchen, I actually did allow myself to relax into childsplay, when I phoned the children from\nwork they sounded like they were having a great time – these and others like them are the\nmoments I am talking about. It is your choice where you put your focus.\nGood luck with some simple planning and I hope you all have great summers filled with\nmany joyful moments."}
{"content":"What are space features and which of them are secured?\nSpace features are Confluence features that can only be used in spaces.\nThe Space Privacy app ensures that users can see only those users who have at least one extranet space in common. This prevents accidental interaction with users that don’t have access to the current extranet space. Regarding space features, even users in administrative roles (Confluence administration, extranet administrators or extranet user administrators) can not interact with users that are not assigned to the current extranet space.\nThe following space features are secured:\n- Mentioning users (@-mention)\n- Sharing pages"}
{"content":"- The ECB’s corporate bond purchase program will officially kick off this week, but potential impacts have largely been priced in by the market.\n- The program has already resulted in reduced yields on corporate bonds, and could keep a lid on U.S. rates if European investors look across the pond for higher yields.\nThe European Central Bank (ECB) recently announced that its Corporate Sector Purchase Program (CSPP) will begin on June 8. The program was announced on March 10, 2016, as an enhancement to the ECB’s quantitative easing (QE) program, which was also increased to 80 billion euros per month (from a previous 60 billion) during the same announcement. The CSPP allows the ECB, through its member banks, to purchase both primary and secondary issues subject to predefined credit quality ratings and concentration limits. Adding corporate bonds to the mix is intended to further increase the reach of the QE program and continue to lower debt costs broadly.\nHOW WILL THE PROGRAM IMPACT MARKETS?\nThe CSPP had a large impact on the European corporate bond market, pushing non-financial corporate yields significantly lower following its unveiling in March. The ECB announced final details of the plan following the conclusion of last week’s meeting, but the impacts of the program had already been largely priced into the market [Figure 1]. The ECB didn’t announce a specific monthly purchase amount, but consensus forecasts expect a range of 5 to 10 billion euros per month. Investors remain uncertain, however, how quickly the ECB may ramp up the program.\nHOW BIG IS THE PROGRAM RELATIVE TO THE MARKET?\nIn short – it’s big. There is no question that the ECB’s CSPP is aggressive and is worthy of impacting the market. According to ECB data, outstanding non-financial corporate debt stands at approximately 916 billion euros. The size of the eligible universe for the CSPP is smaller though, as restrictions on credit ratings (BBB or better), type of business (i.e., no financial institutions), and position limits (no more than 70% of any individual bond issue) likely reduce the CSPP eligible market to somewhere between 600 and 700 billion euros. This means that based on 5 billion euros per month in purchases, the ECB would be purchasing in the neighborhood of 10% of the eligible market, and 7% of the entire non-financial corporate bond market per year [Figure 2]. If the ECB purchases 10 billion euros per month, then the share of purchases rises to a more significant 20% of the eligible market.\nHOW DOES THE PROGRAM AFFECT U.S. INVESTORS?\nOver $10 trillion of global sovereign debt is now trading with negative yields, but so far, corporate bonds have been a notable exception to this phenomenon. Moves from both the ECB and Bank of Japan (BOJ) have been primary drivers of pushing rates into negative territory in their respective areas. Corporate bonds offered investors higher yields; but with the addition of the CSPP, one more opportunity for more reasonable yields is put under pressure.\nU.S. Treasury yields, while low compared to history, are attractive compared to European alternatives, and the yield advantage of Treasuries to German bunds is near an all-time high[Figure 3]. This fact has helped to keep U.S. yields lower than they may otherwise have been, as foreign purchases help support prices.\nA similar story is playing out with corporate investment grade bonds, and the CSPP is likely to continue to put downward pressure on corporate European debt yields, potentially pushing even more money toward the relatively higher yields of U.S. corporate and Treasury markets. Both U.S. and European corporate bond yields have decreased in recent weeks, another sign that the market has already adjusted following the announcement of the CSPP, but U.S. corporate investment-grade yields remain about 2.3% higher than their European counterparts, based on a comparison of the Barclays U.S. Aggregate Credit and Euro Aggregate Credit indexes.\nThe ECB’s CSPP is an aggressive program designed to broadly lower debt costs for companies in the European Union. By that measure the program has already been successful, with the yield for AA-rated non-financial corporations falling from 1.6% prior to the announcement of the program to less than 1% today. While the recent announcement of additional details brought the program back into the news, further upside for European corporate bonds may be limited. However, by pushing European yields lower, the CSPP would also continue to put downward pressure on U.S. yields, should the program push more foreign money toward the relatively higher yields of U.S. bond markets.\nThe opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. To determine which investment(s) may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing. All performance reference is historical and is no guarantee of future results. All indexes are unmanaged and cannot be invested into directly.\nThe economic forecasts set forth in the presentation may not develop as predicted and there can be no guarantee that strategies promoted will be successful.\nBonds are subject to market and interest rate risk if sold prior to maturity. Bond values and yields will decline as interest rates rise, and bonds are subject to availability and change in price.\nGovernment bonds and Treasury bills are guaranteed by the U.S. government as to the timely payment of principal and interest and, if held to maturity, offer a fixed rate of return and fixed principal value. However, the value of fund shares is not guaranteed and will fluctuate.\nCorporate bonds are considered higher risk than government bonds but normally offer a higher yield and are subject to market, interest rate, and credit risk as well as additional risks based on the quality of issuer coupon rate, price, yield, maturity, and redemption features.International debt securities involves special additional risks. These risks include, but are not limited to, currency risk, geopolitical and regulatory risk, and risk associated with varying settlement standards. These risks are often heightened for investments in emerging markets.\nThe credit ratings are published rankings based on detailed financial analyses by a credit bureau specifically as it relates the bond issue's ability to meet debt obligations. The highest rating is AAA, and the lowest is D. Securities with credit ratings of BBB and above are considered investment grade.\nThe Barclays US Aggregate Credit Index measures the performance of investment-grade, U.S. dollar-denominated, fixed-rate taxable bond market. The index includes U.S. corporate bonds, as well as specified SEC registered foreign debentures and secured notes that meet certain requirements.\nThe Barclays Euro Aggregate Credit Bond Index is a broad-based benchmark that measures the investment-grade, Euro-denominated, fixed-rate bond market. The index includes corporate, sovereign, and government-related bonds.\nThe Barclays Euro Corporate ex-Financial Bond Index is a broad-based benchmark that measures the investment grade, euro denominated, fixed-rate corporate bond market excluding securities issued by financial institutions. The Euro Corporate ex-Financial index is a subset of Barclays broader based flagship indexes, such as the Euro Corporate, Euro Aggregate, and the multi-currency Global Aggregate Index"}
{"content":"Welcome to Aranya Farm\nA sustainable organic farming initiative dedicated to providing high-quality Agri, Dairy, Health & Immunity products that are both nutritious and environmentally friendly. Aranya Farm is committed to using only natural farming methods and avoiding harmful chemicals to ensure that our products are safe and healthy for our customers and the planet. Our products are not only eco-friendly but also more nutritious and flavorful due to being chemical-free.\nAt Aranya Farm, we specialize in cultivating cordyceps, a rare and highly valued medicinal mushroom known for its potent health benefits. In addition to cordyceps, we grow a variety of exotic vegetables and herbs, and produce organic A2 cow ghee and wild honey. We firmly believe that Aranya Farms can be your go-to source for fresh, wholesome, and sustainably grown agricultural and dairy products.\nA 15 acres farm with abundance of resilient crops & vegetables developed via use of biotechnology. The farm also employs advanced agriculture sensors and livestock monitoring techniques to track and produce high-yield crops.\nA vast farm measuring 20 acres employs climate prediction tools, laser-based land leveling, and livestock monitoring to achieve better control and higher yields. The farm also adheres to a holistic, sustainable, and eco-friendly approach to ensure the production of high-quality crops.\nLocated in Panipat, Haryana, a small farm covering 6 acres specializes in the cultivation of mushrooms and other high-quality crops. The farm employs high-tech production processes with zero human touch to guarantee fully hygienic products.\nA compact farm spanning 3 acres, equipped with several net houses and a dairy farming operation, concentrates on producing high-quality yields. To optimize crop health, the farm utilizes AI/ML tools for predicting plant diseases, pests, and nutritional needs. Additionally, AI sensors are employed to detect and target weeds, aiding in herbicide selection."}
{"content":"Applications Due March 1, 2021\nWASHINGTON, D.C., January 21, 2021—Today, the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) began accepting applications for two summer opportunities: the Appalachian Entrepreneurship Academy (AEA) and the ARC/Oak Ridge Summer STEM Program in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Both programs are free intensive learning experiences specifically for the Region’s high school and/or middle school students.\nThe Appalachian Entrepreneurship Academy (AEA), developed in partnership with the Institute for Educational Leadership, prepares the next generation of regional entrepreneurial leaders and thinkers. Chosen via a competitive application process, rising high school seniors from across Appalachia are selected to participate in an intensive learning curriculum designed to cultivate creativity, sharpen business acumen, and develop skills essential for entrepreneurial success. As part of matriculation, AEA participants receive tech support, materials, a stipend and other resources to participate in all aspects of the program. At completion, participants will receive a formal Certificate of Completion. AEA will be held in two phases – one virtually from June 14-25, 2021 and the second in person in Pittsburgh, PA from July 12-30, 2021. Changes to this schedule may be made due to COVID restrictions. More information and application materials are available at www.arc.gov/AEA.\nThe ARC/Oak Ridge Summer STEM Program is a hands-on learning experience for Appalachia’s middle and high school students, as well as high school teachers in STEM-related fields. Hosted by Oak Ridge Associated Universities in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, this program is a gateway to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) in the Appalachian Region. Working with award-winning scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, high school and middle school students conduct guided group science, math, and computer science technology research projects, while high school teachers work with science practitioners to develop STEM-related curriculum. Many students gain their first exposure to applied science and STEM education through this experience. This program will be held virtually from June 19-July 2, 2021 for high school students and teachers and June 26-July 2, 2021 for middle school students. If COVID restrictions allow, the program will be held in person in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. More information and application materials are available at www.arc.gov/summerSTEM.\nApplications for both opportunities are due March 1, 2021.\n“Today’s students are tomorrow’s leaders, and the Appalachian Entrepreneurship Academy and ARC/Oak Ridge Summer STEM Academy are opportunities for young Appalachians to gain the skills and experience modern leadership requires,” said ARC Federal Co-Chairman Tim Thomas. “I encourage students and educators interested in applying their STEM skills or students who see themselves running a business one day to apply for these programs.”\nAbout the Appalachian Regional Commission\nThe Appalachian Regional Commission (www.arc.gov) is an economic development agency of the federal government and 13 state governments focusing on 420 counties across the Appalachian Region. ARC’s mission is to innovate, partner, and invest to build community capacity and strengthen economic growth in Appalachia to help the Region achieve socioeconomic parity with the nation."}
{"content":"Mobility is one of the biggest challenges for urban regions today. How can we shorten travel and transport distances? And how will (technological) innovation influence the spatial design of our living environment? Think of the technological innovations that can be used for more sustainable mobility, the ever more radical automation of vehicles, or the rise of bike and car sharing. How can these developments be seized as opportunities for the rethinking of regional transport systems? And how can we come up with better organized and more sustainable mobility in our spatial environment and infrastructure?\nWith a lecture by Paul Gerretsen (Vereniging Deltametropool) and Angelo Meuleman (expert shared mobility at Taxistop).\nDebate with Pascal Smet (Brussels minister Mobility), Jan Vermeulen (chairman Fietsberaad/mayor Deinze) and Sidharta Gautama (UGent). The debate will be moderated by AWB.\nTHURSDAY FEBRUARY 9\nTime: 19.00 - 21.00\nLocation: Atelier Flemish Government Architect, Ravensteingalerij 54-59, Brussels\nAdmission: free. Register via this link.\nDesigning the Future sessions\nThis debate is part of the debates program Designing the Future and is organized by AWB and IABR, with the Flemish Government Architect, the Flemish Association for Spatial Planning and the Brussels Government Architect.\nVarious global and local challenges present themselves increasingly as complex spatial issues: energy transition, the socialization of health care, sustainable mobility, and others. This has resulted in a renewed belief in the potential of design based on the assumption that it can help us realize the future that we want. At this point in time, there is a need to merge the knowledge, insights and experiences that have been produced. What are the lessons learned? And more importantly, what are the next steps? How can we translate intentions into practice? How and with whom do we start? The Designing the Future sessions are devoted to the development of a shared agenda for designing a better future."}
{"content":"This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.\nUtah's renters are getting squeezed as monthly rents keep rising and incomes stay flat, new research shows.\nAverage rental rates in the state have climbed 17 percent in the past 10 years, adjusted for inflation, while median incomes for tenants grew a paltry 3 percent during the same decade, a top Utah economist says.\n\"We're in a period where we have declining affordability,\" said James A. Wood, an economic analyst and a senior fellow at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah.\nThe trends are making rents less affordable in Utah and nationwide. New surveys also indicate that as house prices go up, market forces are leading large numbers of young adults to delay homebuying because they can't afford to save for a down payment.\nMore strikingly, researchers and housing advocates say, widening wage-rent gaps are steadily expanding the ranks of Utahns who are one financial emergency away from homelessness.\n\"They are living right on the edge,\" Wood said Friday. \"A medical bill, a traffic accident or something else comes along they hadn't planned on and they end up with a serious threat of eviction.\"\nRising costs for labor, construction and land are key factors pushing up the price tags on apartment construction.\nWood recommends that Utah cities adopt more liberal municipal zoning policies to encourage higher-density multifamily housing construction to address the problem.\nHe pointed to new initiatives in Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County to encourage affordable housing and create new homeless-shelter space as \"welcome, urgent and necessary.\"\nRental demand is high as the state's job market strengthens and its population swells. So far, though, a historic surge in apartment construction along the Wasatch Front shows little sign of significantly easing that rental crunch. Most multifamily dwellings being built are top end and command high-price rents.\nBrigham City resident Chris Barber, 32, commutes two hours a day for his job in Murray because he cannot find an affordable place in the Salt Lake Valley.\n\"Every few months, I start looking again because I get tired of all that time in the car every day,\" Barber said. \"But anything I look at is three times what I'm paying now.\"\nEffects of the wage-rent pinch have been most pronounced for lower-income residents, according to Wood's research and other dataa.\nWage stagnation and rent hikes have pushed thousands of these residents across Salt Lake County and elsewhere into harsh territory as they spend increasingly burdensome portions of their pay on housing and face other difficult budget choices as a result.\nRenters are considered \"cost burdened\" when they have to spend 30 percent or more of their monthly earnings on housing, utilities and related costs.\nThose spending half their pay or more for home costs are defined as \"severely cost burdened.\"\nEleven years ago, said Wood, about half of Salt Lake County's renter households earning between $20,000 and $34,999 a year were cost burdened. In 2014, that number had reached 80 percent, amounting to nearly 20,000 households.\n\"That is a big number,\" said Wood, who is the institute's Ivory-Boyer Real Estate Senior Fellow.\nRental markets in Utah County and statewide are on a similar path, he said, and the problem is likely to persist at least for the next few years.\nA new poll of the Salt Lake City metro area by ApartmentList.com, aimed at young adults referred to as \"millennials,\" found that nearly 90 percent of them want to buy homes, but 78 percent say they cannot afford them.\nBy comparison, 27 percent had delayed a home purchase because they were not ready to settle down, while 37 percent said they were waiting to be married.\nNearly 21 percent had delayed homebuying by two to three years as a result, while 58 percent had put the big-ticket purchase off for three years or more.\nBased on their current monthly savings rate, the ApartmentList.com survey estimated, the average Salt Lake City millennial would need between 12.8 and 17.6 years to adequately save for a down payment."}
{"content":"این مقاله به فارسی نیز وجود دارد. در اینجا آن را مطالعه نمایید.\nWritten by Mohammad Reza Kamali-\nEdited by Allacin Morimizu-\nIn 2015 the world was thrilled to learn that a map of Middle-earth with notes by Professor J. R. R. Tolkien for illustrator Pauline Baynes was discovered in a copy of The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien wrote comments using green ink to guide Baynes, who back in 1969 was working on a color map of Middle-earth. Tolkien included information about places that inspired him for Hobbiton, Minas Tirith, and other places. This find was intensely interesting to me since I have spent several years researching real places and lands that inspired the professor to create his beloved world. But nothing unexpected in his comments on the newly found map appear –at first glance– since they confirm previous information we have in one of his own letters:\nThe action of the story takes place in the North-west of ‘Middle-earth’, equivalent in latitude to the coastlands of Europe and the north shores of the Mediterranean…. If Hobbiton and Rivendell are taken (as intended) to be at about the latitude of Oxford, then Minas Tirith, 600 miles south, is at about the latitude of Florence. The Mouths of Anduin and the ancient city of Pelargir are at about the latitude of ancient Troy (Letters, no. 294 from March 1968).\nThis is Tolkien’s most famous quote about Middle-earth as it relates to our earth. Happily for me at this point, a friend suggested I take a closer look at Tolkien’s notes. I did and realized this time that Tolkien introduced Ravenna, another Italian city, as Minas Tirith–not Florence. Let’s read what he wrote in the annotated map:\nHobbiton is assumed to be approx at latitude of Oxford. The green vertical line is marked at distances of 100 miles (2cms to map scale). So you can roughly judge the climate and Fauna/Flora etc. Minas Tirith is about a latitude of Ravenna (but is 900 miles east of Hobbiton, more near Belgrade). Bottom of the map (1400 miles) is about a lattitude of Jerusalem. Umbar & City of Corsairs –about that of Cypres. green horizontal is also marked in 100 mile intervals.\nTolkien’s famous quote was from a letter we know was written in March 1968, but the newly found notes were written in 1969. So what happened here? Did Tolkien forget about Florence and write Ravenna instead? Since he was inspired to write of a city as great as Minas Tirith, how is it possible that he writes two different names at different times about his inspiration? It becomes more interesting when he talks about Belgrade. So which one is Minas Tirith: Florence, Ravenna, or Belgrade? Did Professor Tolkien really say anywhere in his letters or comments that Florence was his “inspiration” for Minas Tirith? Let’s go back to the quote.\nIf Hobbiton and Rivendell are taken (as intended) to be at about the latitude of Oxford, then Minas Tirith, 600 miles south, is at about the latitude of Florence.\nDoes that mean inspiration to you? The answer was always here:\nThe action of the story takes place in the North-west of ‘Middle-earth’, equivalent in latitude to the coastlands of Europe and the north shores of the Mediterranean.\nI think Professor Tolkien is talking about distances, not inspirations! If you compare the map of northwest Middle-earth with a map of Europe, you will find that they are really equal in latitude, exactly as Tolkien said. He clearly means Minas Tirith is the same distance from Hobbiton as Oxford is from Florence! To test the idea we need to overlay maps of Middle-earth and Europe. We add the situation of Hobbiton and Minas Tirith to a European map considering Oxford as Hobbiton to get a mixed Middle-earth and European map:\nBoth vertical distances of Florence and Minas Tirith to Oxford are about 600 miles, as Tolkien said and as you can see in the map. So what about Ravenna? Why did he change the target city? Look at the map. Ravenna is about the same vertical distance from Oxford that Florence is, but is a better choice because it is closer to the Minas Tirith location. This clearly shows that when Tolkien wrote down Ravenna instead of Florence, he didn’t forget what he said about Florence one year before. He wanted to correct what he said previously and guide Pauline Baynes to draw her map more accurately. What about Belgrade?\nMinas Tirith is about a latitude of Ravenna (but is 900 miles east of Hobbiton, more near Belgrade).\nWhen pointing to Belgrade, Tolkien explains that the horizontal distance between Hobbiton and Minas Tirith is more than horizontal distance between Oxford and Ravenna:\nThe horizontal distance from Hobbiton to Minas Tirith is about 750 miles according to Tolkien’s map and I drew it with the same distance as shown in the Middle-earth map, but Tolkien says in the comment that it is 900 miles. This helps us realize that maybe the map was not accurate enough, and Tolkien wanted to help Baynes to figure out the real location of Minas Tirith by pointing to Ravenna and Belgrade:\nOxford to Florence is about 500 miles.\nOxford to Ravenna, which is a better choice, is 550 miles.\nBoth have about the same vertical distance of 600 miles, but are not close to the horizontal distance of 900 miles, so Tolkien points to Belgrade, with a horizontal distance of about 900 miles. You can see in the map below that Minas Tirith, 900 miles distant from Hobbiton, is close to Belgrade. (I show two Minas Tiriths with 750 and 900 miles distant according to map and comment.)\nNotice Tolkien actually says, ”More near Belgrade”–not Belgrade itself. That “more near“ explains everything: he meant distances, not inspirations! Professor Tolkien was helping us understand the approximate size of Middle-earth by guiding Pauline Baynes to draw his map more accurately.\nAnd let’s be honest: Florence and Ravenna and Belgrade are amazing places, but they don’t look like the Minas Tirith that we know! The only thing in common between those three beautiful cities in this analysis is that they have almost the same vertical distance to Oxford.\nSo if Europe itself was not Tolkien’s inspiration for Middle-earth and we read his quotes wrongly, what was? During my research on Middle-earth with the help of maps, I found that maybe there are real lands could have inspired Professor Tolkien, and some of them are not in Europe. The discovery of this annotated map was like a miracle to me because when I myself discovered real maps with unbelievable similarities to Middle-earth and tried to share that information, most of the times I was answered: “Very clever, but that must be an accident, since Tolkien himself wrote that Europe was his inspiration, not the lands that you think.” Now we know otherwise!\nIt all started almost by accident when I saw this picture:\nAround 2012 I was staring at the picture above of some mountains in Google Maps, and kept thinking that it really looks familiar, like a map I’d seen before—this map:\nThis, of course, is Mordor, the land of Sauron and dark powers of Middle-earth, where Frodo and Sam destroy the One Ring. The first picture is a ring of mountains in the heart of Asia: the Himalayas, Pamirs, and Tian-shan mountains. Notice the similarities.\nThe Encircled Mountains\nAt first I thought this was an accident, but then I noticed Professor Tolkien named Mordor’s mountains in the same way the ancient Asians named their mountains. In our world, both the west and south mountains have one name: Himalayas. In Mordor, the west and south mountains have one name: Ephel Duath. Look at Mordor again. We might expect Tolkien to choose one name for the south range and one for the west, but he didn’t. Let’s now look north. In the northwest corner the circle-shaped Pamirs are the same shape and in exactly the same corner as the Udûn of Mordor. Udûn is where Frodo and Sam originally tried getting into Mordor through the Black Gate, so that circle-shaped mountain was useful for making Mordor harder to get into. But why it must be located exactly at northwest corner? Here’s a bigger question: Why did Tolkien give Mordor a U shape? Why not a circle? A circle would be so much safer than a U!\nStudying these pictures and thinking about these questions as a civil engineer who always works with maps, I began to realize that my favorite writer may have been inspired by Asia as he fashioned his Middle-earth. Then I started wondering if Middle-earth is rooted in our earth. To help find our answer, let’s look at something as big and as important as Mordor: Anduin, the most famous river of Middle-earth.\nThe Great River\nAnduin, the great river, is the location of some of the saddest and most glorious stories of Middle-earth:\n- Isildur jumps into the Anduin, hoping to flee an ambush, but is killed by Orc arrows.\n- The One Ring is then lost in its waters and Sméagol later comes to possess it after killing Déagol.\n- The Fellowship continues their journey on the Great River after leaving Lothlórien. Boromir is killed in this part of the journey.\n- And at last, the Lord Aragorn and his mighty company ride the Black Ships up the Anduin, rescuing besieged Minas Tirith in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.\nAnduin River is much longer than what we see here, for the map above is only the southern part between Gondor and Mordor. Look at the river’s shape: it moves north to south near Mordor but changes its way to southwest before it reaches the sea. Let’s now look at the west side of the Himalayas to see if a river is there:\nNotice the green S shape to the west? Well, that’s a river!\nThe green parts are farms and fertile lands around it. And this is no ordinary river since it is as important and famous as the Anduin: the Indus River, from which the country of India took its name. Indus is one of the world’s longest rivers. Notice its shape apart from its green lands:\nLook again at the direction of the Anduin and Indus Rivers. Both are on the same side of the same shape mountains, and move southwest before they reach the sea.\nThe River Island\nWhat about Cair Andros Island? Never heard of it? It’s not as famous as the Anduin because in the story nothing much happens there. But it’s on Tolkien’s map a few miles above Osgiliath, where the river has a vertical shape:\nIs there any island in the same part of the Indus River? Well, this time if you look at Google Maps you can’t find any island there. I mean you can’t see it now because once there was a big island there! And how is it possible for a big island to disappear? It didn’t: the island is part of a huge dam now! See Wikipedia:\nTarbela Dam on the Indus River in Pakistan is the largest earth-filled dam in the world and second largest by structural volume. It is located in Haripur District…. The project is located at a narrow spot in the Indus River valley, at Tarbelain Haripur, shortly located at the point from where the District Swabi then starts. Here the river formerly split around a large island close to the left bank. The main dam wall, built of earth and rock fill, stretches 2,743 meters (8,999 feet) from the island to river right, standing 148 metres (486 feet) high. A pair of concrete auxiliary dams spans the river from the island to river left.\nHere’s the location of Tarbela Dam:\nWe have to zoom in and with our information about the dam, we can distinguish the island. This is our lost island in Google Maps.\nHere is another view of the island.\nBecause of the dam, the shape of the island is now changed. Surely some part of it is under water, and some parts maybe changed because of the construction. Before the dam was built, there was no lake there. The river had the same width as it has in upper places and the island looked bigger; it probably had the same shape that Tolkien drew in his map. Unfortunately, I didn’t find the island’s name, if it had one, or any maps that show it, but I did learn this dam was built during 1968-1976. When Tolkien was writing The Lord of the Rings and drew the maps from 1937-1949, there was still a big island there!\nThe Intermittent Island\nWe found one lost island, so let’s see if we can find another one where nothing much happened: Tolfalas Island, located where the Anduin reaches the sea.\nLet’s now look at Google Maps.\nNo island visible from this perspective so we will zoom in to be sure.\nWe need to know more about this place. This area is Kutch, a district of Gujarat province, India. This area in fact is an island! Wikipedia again informs us:\nKutch is a district of Gujarat state in western India…. Kutch literally means“something which intermittently becomes wet and dry”; a large part of this district is known as Rann of Kutch, which is shallow wetland submerged in water during the rainy season and becomes dry during other seasons…. Kutch district is surrounded by the Gulf of Kutch and the Arabian Sea in the south and west, while the northern and eastern parts are surrounded by the Great and Little Rann (seasonal wetlands) of Kutch.\nThat means Kutch is actually an island in rainy seasons! Here is another picture from Google Maps during such a time:\nOne question, however: would Tolkien know about this in the 1940s? He never travelled to India and obviously didn’t have Google Maps. We need to remember that he was British, and in those times the countries we know today as India and Pakistan were known as the British Indian Empire. This is a standard map from 1909 that Professor Tolkien would have had access to:\nWhen we zoom into Kutch on this map, we see it is drawn as an island!\nSo what do all these geographical facts mean? As I said, this article is part of more extensive research I did about Middle-earth maps. It shows that most of the lands we see in Middle-earth maps actually were taken from our world. Furthermore, I found that this is true not just about mountains, rivers, and islands but also many of the cities, buildings, stories, and even characters of Tolkien’s beloved books. And one other thing, I’m not sure we should call them Tolkien’s inspirations. I think Professor Tolkien preferred to think of them as riddles. That’s why you can’t see them easily because they have been hidden by a clever professor who enjoys riddles!"}
{"content":"Lifestyle selections are contributing factors to poor health in many instances. These embody smoking cigarettes, and can also include a poor food regimen, whether it’s overeating or an overly constrictive food plan. Inactivity can also contribute to health issues and likewise a lack of sleep, excessive alcohol consumption, and neglect of oral hygiene.\nOur health benefit plans have exclusions and limitations and terms under which the coverage could additionally be continued in drive or discontinued. For costs and complete details of the coverage, discuss with the plan document or name or write Humana, or your Humana insurance agent or broker. In the event of any disagreement between this communication and the plan doc, the plan doc will control. “Humana” is the model name for plans, services and products offered by one or more of the subsidiaries and affiliate firms of Humana Inc. (“Humana Entities”). Plans, merchandise, and services are solely and only supplied by one or more Humana Entities specified on the plan, product, or service contract, not Humana Inc. Not all plans, products, and providers can be found in each state.\n- To get there it takes diverse skills and a curiosity to explore new prospects.\n- We present you and your loved ones what it means to be cared for by an expert breast most cancers team.\n- Health benefits and medical insurance plans contain exclusions and limitations.\n- They also embody private hygiene practices to prevent an infection and illness, corresponding to bathing and washing arms with soap; brushing and flossing teeth; storing, preparing and dealing with meals safely; and a lot of others.\n- While all kids under the age of 18 are entitled to medical health insurance in Massachusetts, Heims-Waldron, Runyan and Ward say lots of the children seen via the WFCC program wouldn’t have insurance or a longtime main care supplier.\nHumana complies with all relevant federal civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the premise of race, colour, nationwide origin, ancestry, religion, intercourse, marital standing, gender, gender identification, sexual orientation, age, or incapacity. See our full accessibility rights information and language options. Imagine getting one of the best health care that science has to offer. And while you’re here, right down the hall, a few of the world’s brightest minds are working tirelessly to make it even better.\nHistory And Etymology For Health\nFind contact info for local health departments utilizing the map under and verify to see that your health department is listed correctly. Reports on the pre-pandemic trends in essential health service coverage and financial hardship, and the impact of the pandemic. The World Bank Group works in every major space of development. We provide a extensive array of monetary products and technical help, and we help international locations share and apply progressive information and solutions to the challenges they face. Connect to assets for physicians, directors and health care professionals. Looking for extra information on how to begin taking action?\nOur data present how these factors form community conditions, whereas highlighting the stark differences in health that stem from injustices and barriers to opportunity. Use our sources to take action toward higher health for all. You’ll start receiving the latest news, benefits, occasions, and programs related to AARP’s mission to empower people to determine on how they stay as they age. According to some studies, the upper Business News a person’s socioeconomic standing , the extra probably they’re to get pleasure from good health, have a great training, get a well-paid job, and afford good healthcare in instances of sickness or injury. Sometimes, the surroundings alone is sufficient to impression health. Other occasions, an environmental set off could cause sickness in a person who has an increased genetic danger of a particular disease.\nOur website providers, content material and merchandise are for informational functions only. While our group of skilled journalists and medical experts presents well timed wellness insights, news and evaluations, we do not present medical advice, diagnoses or therapy. Contemporary drugs is generally conducted within health care systems. Legal, credentialing and financing frameworks are established by particular person governments, augmented every so often by international organizations, similar to church buildings.\nView Plan Details\nSierra Leone, one of the world’s poorest international locations, is working to construct a contemporary psychological health system from scratch. How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted international sustainability objectives, what does this mean for health, and what lessons have we learned? Learn more in regards to the health advantages of socializing here. This is not only due not solely to an absence of disease. Regular train, balanced diet, and enough relaxation all contribute to good health. People receive medical treatment to take care of the stability, when necessary.\nLinks to varied non-Aetna websites are supplied on your comfort solely. Aetna Inc. and its subsidiary companies aren’t responsible or liable for the content, accuracy, or privateness practices of linked websites, or for services or products described on these sites. Aetna Inc. and its subsidiary corporations aren’t accountable or liable for the content material, accuracy or privacy practices of linked sites, or for products or services described on these websites. Sign Up NowGet this delivered to your inbox, and extra info about our services.\nHealth It Innovations, Partnerships\nFor people with disabilities, Web paperwork in other formats are available on request. Help your mates and familydistinguish between rumors and information regarding the COVID-19 vaccine. Vaccines, boosters, therapies, exams, and masks defend towards COVID-19 and decrease the chance of essentially the most severe outcomes."}
{"content":"Wish to visit another Military Museum in the Sydney area ?\nThe New South Wales Lancers' Memorial Museum at Parramatta is OPEN DETAILS HERE .\nArmy Museum of New South Wales\nVictoria Barracks is one of the best-known examples of military architecture in Australia. The Regency-style Victoria Barracks were designed by Lieutenant-Colonel George Barney, who also built Fort Denison and reconstructed Circular Quay. Most of barracks was constructed using locally quarried sandstone between 1841 and 1849. The barracks were occupied by British troops up until 1870 and then taken over by the New South Wales colonial forces. After the Federation in 1901, Victoria Barracks housed the various headquarters responsible for administering and co-ordinating the military. Between 1931 and 1936 the barracks was home to the Royal Military College of Australia and from July 1938 to July 1940 it also housed the Command and Staff School. Today, Victoria Barracks is home to the Headquarters of Forces Command.\nThe Barracks are widely considered to be one of the best examples of a military barracks in the world.\nThe Army Museum of New South Wales is housed in the original 25-cell District Military Prison which was constructed in 1847. The Museum features many army uniforms from the earliest Colonial times through the Boer War, WWI and WWII; medals awarded including Victoria Crosses, Military Crosses, Distinguished Service Orders, Campaign Medals, Royal honours; and various historical .\nAn interesting gossip: the prison is reputedly haunted by a ghost, Charlie the Redcoat, who hanged himself while incarcerated for shooting his sergeant."}
{"content":"No hyperbole is necessary here, nor breathless embellishment.\nThis lot in Heritage Auctions August 7 Nature & Science event is nothing less than as advertised: a large piece of the moon.\nTo be precise, 6.4 pounds large. That is a staggering size for a moon meteorite, considering there are but a few hundred pounds of lunar material known to have crash-landed on our planet.\nAnd that is what this is: a 7.5-inch piece of the moon sliced off the lunar surface by a passing asteroid that eventually made its way to the desert of Morocco, where it was discovered and first sold from a dealer to a collector-curator only six years ago. It bears the classification NWA 8641 because its the 8,641st meteorite discovered in northwest Africa.\nThe Meteoritical Bulletin reveals plenty about its petrography, its geochemistry, its physical characteristics. The literature explains, dryly, what the eye can plainly see: This is a large rounded, ellipsoidal dark gray stone with white clasts visible and with a beige, clayey coating on one side.\nBut academia misses the most obvious lure.\nThe moon is the only extraterrestrial body any human has ever touched, said Craig Kissick, Heritage Auctions Director of Nature & Science. Its the satellite of our planet. It doesnt get more human than that. And, without question, this is one of the finest large lunar meteorites that can be privately owned.\nThat one can even purchase such a thing, 51 years after Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins first landed Apollo 11 on the moons surface, seems almost unfathomable. After all, fewer than 0.5% of all meteors found are lunar in origin; The Meteoritical Bulletin reports there only some 200 meteorites classified as lunar in origin, and those moon meteors that are discovered are usually diminutive the size of small rocks.\nThe Apollo astronauts, of course, were not allowed to keep those samples returned to Earth. All of those are the property of the United States government, and reside with NASA or the Smithsonian Institutions National Air and Space Museum.\nThe truth is, this is a museum-quality specimen, period, Kissick said of the lot being offered August 7. We use that phrase a lot. We tend to throw it around museum-quality. But the truth is, this is a piece that would appeal to the most sophisticated collector or institution. Its so classic-looking: the outer part looks like the surface of the moon, and the interior allows you to see the composition of the moon. This really is one of those Holy Grail pieces.\nThe upcoming Nature & Science auction is not wanting for significant space artifacts including several associated with the Apollo astronauts.\nTheres also a 5.14-pound Martian meteorite also discovered in northwest Africa. Like its lunar counterpart, this slice of Mars is one of the largest examples of its kind discovered and, now, brought to market.\nThe Meteoritical Bulletin notes there are but 225 meteorites classified as Martian in origin; and they, too, are usually small. The one being offered by Heritage Auctions is sizable and significant.\nQuite simply, its a large, exquisite example of a rare meteorite that just doesnt come in big sizes like that, Kissick said. There is a finite amount of this material around of the moon, of Mars. Can you imagine owning it? How amazing. How cool.\nto browse all the items in the August 7 Nature & Science event and view high-resolution photos."}
{"content":"Being in a creative rut can make artists feel helpless, but there are always actions that can be taken to create change. If you find yourself in a creative rut, or experiencing ‘artist’s block’, first identify whether this is due to a lack of motivation to create, or inspiration of what to create. Sometimes we cling onto a painting or project that isn’t finished even though mentally we are already done with it; acknowledge that and allow yourself to move on and start again. You may be procrastinating on starting or finishing pieces, yet you have dozens of ideas of what you would like to sculpt, paint, illustrate, or design, or perhaps you may be searching for your next muse or spark. Whether it’s due to lack of motivation or inspiration, this article will provide you with five ways to get out of a creative rut.\nDrew Beamer, Unsplash\nThe Psychology of Productivity\nCognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) works under the belief that our thoughts create feelings, which create behaviors, which shape our lives. If you find yourself in a creative rut, you can start by thinking as if you are not. Fill your thoughts with words of praise, affirmations, and positivity, as opposed to those of self-doubt. Self-efficacy is the belief that you are fully capable of success with the tools you already have. According to CBT, our thoughts create our feelings, therefore, as simplistic as it may sound, thinking positively really can make a major difference in your feelings, which will show in your behaviors. Cognitive distortions have the ability to shape our lives without us even realizing, a common example of this is all-or-nothing thinking.\nAll-or-nothing thinking refers to thinking of the extremes of a situation. Typically perfectionists tend to battle with all-or-nothing thinking, artists are known for battling with all-or-nothing creating. Say you have a painting that will take you approximately 12 hours to complete, if you are the type of artist who often does it all at once, start to finish, or won’t paint at all, this could be because you view creating as an all-or-nothing pursuit. Implementing ‘chunking’ can be incredibly beneficial to anyone guilty of all-or-nothing creating. Chunking refers to breaking up your to-do list, or your presenting problem, into ‘chunks’, or smaller segments. Then you would go on to complete one portion of the project at a time without feeling overwhelmed by the project as a whole. An example of chunking when creating could be committing to sketching for a small period of time every day.\nSince many artists tend to identify as perfectionists, let’s take a deeper look at how a perfectionist mindset could be blocking you creatively. I personally know astounding artists that talk themselves out of creating, typically this is rooted in insecurities or fears. Whether it be their fear of rejection, failure, or lack of success, their insecurities have clouded them to the point of stillness. As an artist, it is important to remind yourself that your only competition is yourself. Don’t allow yourself to get swept up in comparing your artwork to others. Instead, reflect on your works that have brought you the most joy to date, work to experience that feeling again. Not everything you create is going to be ground-breaking, remind yourself each sketch, doodle, drawing, and painting are all essential parts of the process.\n1. Do the Inner Work First\nAs cliche as it may sound, the most important relationship you have is with yourself. Artists are known for discovering or exposing sides of themselves through their work; is it possible you could be preventing yourself from creating due to a desire to shelter yourself? Are there parts of yourself that you aren’t completely comfortable with, or perhaps don’t want to share with others? Shadow work may be necessary to continue on your creative, and life path. Shadow work is the psychological practice of healing and accepting all parts of yourself, including those you repress deep into your unconscious. Many believe that until you make your unconscious conscious it will guide your life. There are several art-based self-guided activities one can participate in to address their shadows.\nMatthew Ansley, Unsplash\nInner work is not something that necessarily has a start and end. Your inner work should be constant to keep yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally healthy. Other inner work that can make a tremendous difference in your daily life, to hopefully get you out of your current creative rut: exercise, yoga, meditation, affirmations, and clearing your space. Clear your space by cleaning your home, art studio, or wherever you frequent. Having a tidy space helps us feel more organized and ready to move forward. You may also benefit from creating a to-do list of everything that you’ve been putting off. Spend a day addressing all of your errands, chores, tasks, and appointments, then you won’t feel guilty creating, as everything else is already taken care of.\n2. Discover Your Most Creative Hours\nHave you ever sat down to paint, yet found yourself doing everything else instead? This could be because you’re not working during your natural creative hours. The 9-5 work schedule doesn’t work for most artists, while every artist differs, midnight hours tend to be productive for many. Whether it be due to a lack of the outside world interfering, feeling guided by the moonlight, or having the bulk of your day already addressed, working during the night may be most productive for you. On the other hand, perhaps you work best first thing in the morning. Figure out exactly which time frame, and hours of the day, you feel most creatively productive and make a mental note of that.\n3. Create Deliberate Associations\nThe Pavlovian theory will be of great use when creating positive associations to promote creative productivity. Pair a stimulus with a conditioned response and you should yield positive results, for optimal success try to involve all five of your senses. For example, wearing the same outfit, eating the same snacks, and listening to the same album every time you create will naturally result in a conditioned association with the stimuluses and creating within yourself.\nPerhaps you take a shower before you start creating to cleanse yourself physically and metaphorically. Create your own associations that trigger you to create. Also recognize how your already established associations could be stunting you; if you are constantly trying to draw from your bed, but have no success, this could be because your mind already deeply associates your bed with sleep. Allocating one area of your home strictly for creating, even if it's just one desk, should help establish a setting associated with creating.\nKelly Sikkema, Unsplash\n4. Spend Time Consuming Artwork\nWatch a documentary, a film, or even experience a virtual tour of an exhibition! Allow yourself to feel fully immersed in another artist’s work to refuel your inspiration. Shifting your lens to that of a consumer, as opposed to a creator, can be a liberating and necessary process in getting your creative juices flowing. Make sure to consume artwork that is new to you, don’t just watch your favorite television series again; encourage yourself to really experience other artists' work. Explore the great outdoors as well, since life imitates art.\nClem Onojeghuo, Unsplash\n5. Just Move!\nThis may seem like an obvious one, but in order to create you must move. Express yourself through movement via dance, exercise, stretching, yoga—whatever feels natural. Even while you are creating it's important to give yourself breaks to just get up and move. Allow yourself to feel the sensation of movement. Emotion has been remarked as ‘energy in motion’, therefore to create work that reflects emotion we must first create motion. Even if you don’t have an idea of what you want to sketch, draw, paint, or sculpt, just allow yourself to feel the movement of creating, without focusing on the end result. Perhaps even draw with your eyes closed, however you get there, demand movement from yourself.\nMorgan Petroski, Unsplash\nYou will get out of this rut, speak it into existence. You already have all the tools you need, just believe in yourself and trust your limitless potential."}
{"content":"3D printing has become increasingly popular in recent years, and with it comes the need for user-friendly software to create and edit 3D models. Enter 3D Builder, a free 3D printing application created by Microsoft. This program is designed to allow users to create 3D models from scratch or edit existing ones.\n3D Builder is a powerful tool that comes pre-installed on most PCs with Windows 10, making it easily accessible for anyone interested in 3D printing. With its simple and intuitive interface, users can easily transform shapes, meshes, and existing models, as well as add colors, textures, and materials to their designs. Additionally, 3D Builder can print models in various file types, including 3MF, STL, OBJ, PLY, and VRML, and it can save models in 3MF, PLY, and STL file types.\nWhether you’re a professional designer or a hobbyist, 3D Builder provides a wide range of tools and features to help you create and edit 3D models with ease. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at what 3D Builder is, how it works, and why it’s a valuable tool for anyone interested in 3D printing.\nWhat is 3D Builder?\nMicrosoft 3D Builder is a free 3D printing application created by Microsoft. It is a lightweight 3D tool that is available on Windows. The program comes pre-installed on most PCs with Windows 10. However, if it is not installed on your computer, you can download it for free.\n3D Builder lets you create and print your own 3D models. You can create 3D models from scratch or edit existing 3D models from a library of both free and paid designs. The program includes tools for transforming shapes, meshes, and existing models, as well as adding colors, textures, and materials.\nThe program supports a variety of file formats such as 3MF, STL, OBJ, PLY, and VRML file types. It can print models in 3MF, PLY, and STL file types. You can also save models in 3MF, PLY, and STL file types.\nOne of the best features of 3D Builder is that it is easy to use. The program has a simple and intuitive user interface that makes it easy for beginners to create and print 3D models. You can also find tutorials and guides online to help you get started with 3D Builder.\nIn summary, 3D Builder is a free and easy-to-use 3D printing application created by Microsoft. It allows you to create and print your own 3D models, as well as edit existing 3D models. The program supports a variety of file formats and has a simple and intuitive user interface.\nFeatures of 3D Builder\n3D Builder is a free 3D modeling software developed by Microsoft that allows users to create, modify, and print 3D models. It is available for download on the Windows Store and is compatible with Windows operating systems, including PC, cell phones, Xbox One, HoloLens, and Surface Hub. Here are some of the key features of 3D Builder:\n3D Builder comes with a library of pre-built models that users can choose from to get started. These models include a variety of objects such as animals, vehicles, and household items. Users can also modify these models to suit their needs.\nIn addition to built-in models, 3D Builder allows users to create their own designs from scratch. The software provides a range of tools for creating and modifying shapes, adding textures and colors, and adjusting lighting and shadows. Users can also import 2D images and turn them into 3D models.\nImport and Export Options\n3D Builder supports a range of file formats for importing and exporting 3D models. These include STL, OBJ, PLY, 3MF, and VRML. Users can also export their models as 3D printable files, which can be sent to a 3D printer for physical production.\n3D Printing Tools\nOne of the most useful features of 3D Builder is its built-in tools for 3D printing. The software provides a range of settings for adjusting the size, orientation, and quality of 3D prints. Users can also preview their prints before sending them to the printer.\nOverall, 3D Builder is a versatile and user-friendly software that allows users to create and modify 3D models with ease. Whether you are a hobbyist or a professional, 3D Builder has something to offer.\nHow to Use 3D Builder\n3D Builder is a user-friendly app that allows you to create and print your own 3D models. Here are some tips on how to use it effectively.\nCreating a New Design\nTo create a new design in 3D Builder, follow these steps:\n- Open the app and click on “New” to start a new project.\n- Choose an item from the library or search Bing for downloadable models to start playing with them.\n- Alternatively, you can create a new design from scratch by choosing “New Scene” and selecting the type of object you want to create.\n- Use the tools provided to create your design. You can add shapes, text, and images to your design.\n- Save your design as a 3MF, PLY, or STL file type.\nEditing an Existing Design\nIf you want to edit an existing design in 3D Builder, follow these steps:\n- Open the app and click on “Open” to select the design you want to edit.\n- Use the tools provided to edit the design. You can change the size, shape, and color of the object.\n- Save your changes as a 3MF, PLY, or STL file type.\nPreparing for 3D Printing\nBefore printing your design, you need to make sure it is ready for 3D printing. Here are some steps to follow:\n- Click on “Print” to open the print dialog box.\n- Choose the printer you want to use and select the material you want to print with.\n- Adjust the print settings as necessary, including layer height, infill density, and support structure.\n- Preview your print to make sure it looks correct.\n- Click on “Print” to start the printing process.\nIn conclusion, 3D Builder is a powerful tool that can help you create and print your own 3D models. By following these tips, you can use the app effectively and create amazing designs.\nCompatibility and System Requirements\nMicrosoft 3D Builder is compatible with Windows 10 and Windows 8.1. It is not available for earlier versions of Windows or other operating systems.\nTo use 3D Builder, your computer should meet the following system requirements:\n- 64-bit processor\n- 4 GB of RAM or more\n- Graphics card with DirectX 10 or higher\n- Internet connection (for downloading models from the web)\n3D Builder supports a variety of file formats, including STL, OBJ, PLY, and 3MF. It can also export models in STL, PLY, and 3MF formats.\nIn addition to using 3D Builder on a desktop or laptop computer, you can also use it on a Surface device with a touch screen. This allows you to use touch gestures to manipulate and edit your 3D models.\nIf you plan to use 3D Builder for 3D printing, you will also need a compatible 3D printer and printing software. 3D Builder supports a range of 3D printers, including those from MakerBot, Ultimaker, and Printrbot.\nOverall, if you have a Windows 10 or 8.1 computer with a 64-bit processor, 4 GB of RAM or more, and a compatible graphics card, you should be able to use 3D Builder without any issues.\nIn conclusion, Microsoft 3D Builder is a free 3D printing application created by Microsoft that allows users to create 3D models from scratch or edit existing 3D models from a library of both free and paid designs. It includes tools for transforming shapes, meshes, and existing models, as well as adding textures, colors, and patterns.\nOne of the best things about 3D Builder is its ease of use. The interface is intuitive and user-friendly, making it accessible to beginners and experts alike. Additionally, the program is compatible with a wide range of 3D printers, so you can print your creations with ease.\nAnother great feature of 3D Builder is its library of templates, objects, and models. This makes it easy for users to create 3D designs without having to start from scratch. The library includes a wide range of objects, from animals and vehicles to household items and tools.\nOverall, Microsoft 3D Builder is an excellent tool for anyone interested in 3D printing. Its ease of use, compatibility with a wide range of 3D printers, and library of templates and models make it a top choice for both beginners and experts alike."}
{"content":"Father of MysteryLiterature is something that has been changing and developing for centuries. Without the writers of the past, who were creatively expressing themselves, literature would not be what it is today. Emily Dickinson, William Wordsworth, and T.\nS. Elliot are just a few authors who contributed to these developments. Perhaps one of the most influential was Edgar Allan Poe. Edgar Allan Poe’s life was not an easy one, which explains why poetry was so dark and disturbing. Poe’s father abandoned him when he was a baby, and his mother died of tuberculosis when he was only three years old.\nHe was adopted by a couple named John and Frances Allan. Frances was very loving toward Poe, but sadly died of tuberculosis just before he went to college. Poe attended the University of Virginia, but then dropped out and enrolled at West Point. He was soon expelled and then began a life of drinking and gambling. Poe gained some credibility from his poems, stories, and book reviewing, but he never earned very much money.\nWhen Poe was 27 he then married his 13 year old cousin, only to watch her die of tuberculosis just like his mother and Frances Allan. Poe died three years later; he only lived to be 40 years old. During Poe’s short life he wrote nearly seventy short works of fiction. He is duly credited with creating the detective story genre, and with transforming the Gothic mystery tale of the Romantic Period into the modern horror or murder stories. But he also wrote several comic and satirical pieces, literary parodies, sketches, and experimental stories, including “A Descent into the Maelstrom,” and The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym.\nHis most famous poems, “The Raven,” “Ulalume,” “The Bells,” “The City in the Sea”, were enormously influential. A huge wave of enthusiasm and influence is what inspired Poe to write these famous poems. Most of his inspirations came from other writers of Europe during his lifetime. However, Poe also wrote three volumes of poetry during the first period of his literary career.\nThe short story is something that Edgar Allan Poe deserves more credit for than any other writer. Poe transformed the short story into art. He helped establish the short story by using existing and innovative elements. By doing this he revolutionized short literature, practically created the detective story, and perfected the psychological thriller.\nWhen writing short stories, Poe believed that the author had to visualize the effect that they wanted to achieve. Poe’s Works were always carefully planned out. He was always in control of his writing, so he was able to introduce literary devices and new plot elements. While writing his main concern was design and composition. He was concerned with the impact the story would have upon the reader.\nPoe’s desire for the reader’s entertainment and his dark, creepy, dramatic style is what has made him the father of mysteries and detective stories. Even today Poe’s short stories are read in schools and in literary circles. His literary devices and entertainment value is what has earned him a place in history. Poe’s poems have also had a large impact on the writers of later generations. His poems including, “To Helen,” “The Raven,” “The City in the Sea,” “The Bells,” and “Annabel Lee”, are rich with musical phrases and sensuous, and sometimes frightening images.\nPoe was also an intelligent and witty critic who often theorized about the art of writing. Poe’s poetry also had a direct impact on southern writers. John Gould Fletcher, who was a Pulitzer Prize winning poet, was known to read and re-read Poe’s poetry since he was ten. Just as aspiring young writers of the 1950s tried to imitate William Faulkner, even earlier generations imitated aspects from Poe’s poetry. Walker Percy, who like Poe lost both his parents under traumatic circumstances, also followed the Poe tradition.\nPoe’s poetry uses basic themes that have endured for centuries through other writers, readers, and listeners. Another of Poe’s contributions to literature was his theories and kinds of stories he created. Poe developed a theory of composition that he applied to both his short stories and to his poems. Its basic principle was that in a short fiction or poetry, the writer’s main goal should be to create a total psychological or spiritual effect upon the reader. The theme or plot should always be secondary to the author’s goal of a single, intense mood in the reader’s or listener’s mind.\nPoe also invented the prose tale, which was a prose narrative that was meant to be read in a half-hour to an hour. The prose tale is meant to keep the reader absorbed in the story until the very end, that way there wouldn’t be any breaks to disturb the effect of the story. Poe thought that all stories should be written to entertain the reader. Today, Poe is known, read, and appreciated on the foundation of a fairly narrow body of short stories and poems, compared to many other great writers of his time. His writings offer an entry into his unique and terrifying world that is Poe’s tragic life. The total effect of all this is undeniable, and Poe himself would certainly approve.\nHe wrote for the reader, using his own technique to reach the people of his day and to then elevate their minds and emotional reactions. Along with Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway, Poe ranks among the foremost literary stars in the firmament of popular American culture. A century and half after his death, Poe is instantly identifiable. Poe could be called infamous in modern terms. Poe stands on his own and cannot be compared.\nHis short stories, mysteries, and poems and remain greatly enjoyable. Poe’s legacy will continue to grow through his readings and other writers, who are still greatly inspired by him centuries later. BIBLIOGRAPHY1. The Museum of an American Author, James Southall Wilson. January 25, 2005,. 2.\nThe Man behind the Legend, Edward Wagenknecht. February 16, 1963, Toronto. 3. The Longman Anthology of World Literature, Marshall Brown & Bruce Robbins. Pearson Education, Inc 2004.\n4. Poe Society of Baltimore, Steven Webster. October 14, 2004, California. . 5. A Poe Webliography, Heyward Ehrlich.\nJanuary 30, 1997, California. ."}
{"content":"In what ways and with what effects has “The Doll’s House” offered a critique of the culture?\nIbsen wanted to use his play “A Doll’s House” to challenge the norms of society and criticize the way middle-class married woman were looked at. He wanted to portray Nora’s struggle through the restriction of society. The theme of a woman’s right to individuality and the theme of a man and his wife trying to live their own individual lives were the cause of harsh criticism and controversy in the play because the audience of the late 19th century had never seen women as equals to men. They felt the play was too unrealistic, as in those days women were not seen as individuals but as dependent on their husbands or their fathers. The play created uproar in the contemporary theatres with Nora rejecting her family life and separating from Torvald. Nora’s character and her relationship with Torvald were Ibsen’s tools to criticize society’s portrayal of a typical housewife Ibsen challenged the views of the people at that time by portraying middle class women in a way they had never been seen in.\nThe theme of a middle-class woman trying to be independent and do business behind her husband’s back was Ibsen’s way of challenging the stereotype of a middle-class woman. He portrayed Nora as the typical 19th century housewife at the start of the play as can be seen in the dialogue between her and her husband, Torvald and by how she goes along with her husbands whims and fancies. But you also see her keeping secrets from her husband when she hides the macaroons from him –\n“Hel: [wagging his finger at her] Hasn’t Miss Sweet Tooth been breaking rules in town today?\nNora: No; what makes you think that?”1\nThis was a foreshadow to the other much bigger secret that Nora kept from Torvald about borrowing money from Krogstad. Nora realized that she could not be bound down by the norms of society and by her husband’s views. Torvald wanted Nora to do what he wanted and think what he thought. He wanted her to be able to live up to his image in society. Nora decided that she could not take that sort of treatment. She wanted to start working and living for herself, not having to be tied down by social customs. This made her leave her children and Torvald. Her decision to leave shocked theatergoers, as they had never seen anything like it before as it totally went against the culture of the time.\nThe theme of a husband and wife both having to live separate lives was also criticized harshly because it was not considered proper in society for a man and is wife to be divorced at that time. Torvald was portrayed by Ibsen as the typical husband who thought his wife could not live independently. He also was only concerned with his social position. He did not care what trouble Nora would have to face because she forged her father’s signature but was worried about what society would think of them. Ibsen went against the culture at that time by showing the wife as an independent person who could live without the help of her husband or her father. Divorce was frowned on by society and divorcees were shrouded with social stigma. Ibsen felt hat showing a wife and her husband, as two individual entities would challenge the culture’s prejudice that a wife needed her husband or her father to provide for her.\nNora’s character was the main component of Ibsen’s rebellion against the 19th century society. She was rebellious and independent. She lied to Torvald and ultimately left him when she found out that he only worried about his social position. She may have appeared to be a simpleton but it was only a guise. She actually knew a lot about business because of the loan she had taken. She also was able to keep a lot of secrets from Torvald for a very long time. Ibsen used her character to show what the new age woman would be like. He wanted the audience to feel that she was what modern woman would be like.\nThe relationship between Torvald and Nora and the gender roles was also a challenge to the culture by Ibsen. In most of the play, Torvald is the one with the power in the relationship while Nora is the subdued servile one. Torvald’s choice of nicknames for Nora like “squirrel” and “skylark” almost imply that Nora is more of a pet than an equal for Torvald. This was almost like a typical middle class relationship at that time. But towards the end of the play Nora realizes that she does not want to be treated as an inferior anymore. She felt that Torvald did not love her but was concerned with his social position. Their relationship turned on its head when Torvald read Krogstad’s letter. Nora realized that Torvald was only concerned with his social position. She left Torvald and her children to live by herself. She did not care what society would think of her. It was social convention that decided what her role would be but her individuality made her separate from Torvald. Ibsen used Torvald and Nora’s relationship to bring about the conflict between freedom and society’s norms.\nIbsen used the themes of his play and Nora’s character to challenge the culture of his time. Society looked down upon independent women and divorces. Ibsen wanted to change the views of society. The play is based on the clash between societal norms and independence. When the play ends with Nora becoming independent critics were flabbergasted by Ibsen’s portrayal of women. The portrayal of women in “A Doll’s House” though controversial in the 19th century is accepted view in today’s day and age which was just what Ibsen expected it to be."}
{"content":"Top Ten Free Web Resources for\nArts & Culture Leaders\nSummer is here! Time for outdoor concerts, arts festivals, summer stock, and Arts Consulting Group’s list of the top ten free web resources for arts and culture leaders! Here are ACG’s recommendations to bookmark for your travel and leisure reading.\n1. Americans for the Arts\nAmericans for the Arts continues to provide invaluable creative resources and information on top issues affecting the arts today. Its new Arts + Social Impact Explorer is an online tool that illuminates the important ways the arts intersect with the day-to-day lives of Americans. Explore topics such as education, culture and heritage, social justice, and health and wellness.\nBoardSource is the leading organization focused on inspiring and supporting excellence in nonprofit governance and board and staff leadership. Its Fundamental Topics of Board Service & Resource Library provides an extensive list of downloadable resources, topic papers, and publications that pertain to fundamental aspects of nonprofit board service. These topics include the board-staff partnership, oversight and accountability, fundraising, advocacy and ambassadorship, and board composition and recruitment.\n3. Canada Council for the Arts\nAs Canada’s public arts funder, Canada Council for the Arts champions and invests in artistic excellence through its grants, services, prizes, and payments to Canadian artists and arts organizations. Its Research Library provides an abundance of useful research from the past 20 years. Arts and culture leaders can filter through a variety of subjects, including audiences and access, statistical insights on the arts, arts management, indigenous reports, and arts funding. In May 2018, The Research, Evaluation and Performance Measurement Section of the Canada Council for the Arts began working with the Université du Québec à Montréal and a team of university researchers to carry out a study that aims to document the Deaf and disability arts practices in Canada. This research will contribute to a better understanding of issues surrounding Deaf and disability arts, collaborations between Deaf and disability arts sectors and art sectors more broadly, and practices that allow for the recognition, support, and promotion of Deaf and disability artists.\nFoundation Center and GuideStar joined forced this year to form Candid. Through research, collaboration, and training, Candid connects people with the resources they need to change the world. Candid’s data tools on nonprofits, foundations, and grants are the most comprehensive in the world. By merging their databases, these two resources can now present more uniformity and context in its nonprofit information. Visitors can filter, analyze, and download data on 2.7 million nonprofits in the United States, search 140,000 funders and 14 million grants to find funding, confirm a nonprofit’s eligibility for grants and contributions, and explore funding landscapes on critical global issues.\n5. Free Management Library\nSince 1995 Free Management Library has offered indispensable board governance resources, including fact sheets, forms, sample policies, board manuals, and other helpful tools. A collaborative effort by several entities, this website continues to be the best online source of free information, covering nearly every aspect of effective management and nonprofit operations. Select from a wide variety of topics such as career advancement, cultivating desired culture, organizational change, and more.\n6. National Assembly of State Arts Agencies\nNational Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA) is a professional association of the nation’s 56 state and jurisdictional arts agencies. As a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, NASAA champions public support for the arts in America, working with state arts agencies to advance the arts as an essential ingredient in the well-being and prosperity of individuals, families, and communities. In addition to advocating for the policy interests of state arts agencies, NASAA is an authoritative resource for information about state arts agencies and public funding for the arts. NASAA’s research and member education programs drive excellence and spark innovation. Research topics in areas such as funding, arts education, federal reporting, grant making, and creative economy supply relevant statistics, information on best practices, and guidance on collecting and using data.\n7. Nonprofit Tech for Good\nNonprofit Tech for Good is a leading technology resource for nonprofit professionals, providing valuable, easy-to-understand information, news, and resources related to nonprofit technology, online communication, and mobile and social fundraising. Download Nonprofit Tech for Good’s free 2018 Global NGO Technology Report, the only annual research project dedicated to studying global web and email communications, online fundraising tools, social media, mobile technology, data management, and security software. This is the sister report to the Global Trends in Giving Report, which shows the impact of technology, gender, generation, and ideology upon giving worldwide. The 2019 editions will be available in September.\n8. Performing Arts Alliance\nProviding excellent advocacy tools for arts and cultural organizations and individuals, the Performing Arts Alliance is the national policy advocate, leadership forum, and learning network for nonprofit performing arts organizations, artists, and allies. Its website includes detailed recommendations on arts policy and current updates on pending arts legislation. Its Arts Advocacy Issue Center offers overviews and analyses on topics ranging from federal funding for arts education to international artist visa processing. Additionally, its Take Action Now! button provides a quick and easy way to take a stand for a current policy affecting the arts industry.\n9. SMU DataArts\nLaunched in 2012, Southern Methodist University’s National Center for Arts Research (NCAR) was the leading provider of evidence-based insights on the nonprofit arts and cultural industry. In 2018 NCAR merged with DataArts, the respected Philadelphia-based resource for in-depth information about nonprofit arts, culture, and humanities organizations in the United States. The newly formed SMU DataArts provides analytic reports, training and support, and cultural data networks. Examines the results of more than 2,000 organizations’ fundraising efforts across 11 different arts and cultural sectors throughout the United States, The Fundraising Report highlights trends for over the four-year period from 2014 to 2017. This newly released report offers valuable insights and useful tools to help arts and cultural leaders tell their story, overcome challenges, and increase impact.\n10. Volunteer Match\nFor more than 20 years, VolunteerMatch has been an effective source for recruiting highly qualified volunteers. The website pairs passionate and committed people to nonprofit organizations, placing them when and where they are needed. VolunteerMatch is packed with helpful advice for governance leaders and volunteer managers. Its Learning Center offers webinars on advanced topics such as developing a strategic plan for volunteer engagement and managing difficult volunteer transitions. The organization has paired more than 15 million people to more 120,000 organizations. Arts and culture leaders can register as a VolunteerMatch Member to find volunteers for their organization’s cause.\nSign up to receive Arts Insights, ACG’s free publication featuring articles on a variety of topics ranging from effective board summits to fundraising strategies. Visit ACG’s website to review past issues.\nContact ACG for more information on how we can help your organization with interim management,\nexecutive search, revenue enhancement, strategic planning & community engagement,\nand facilities & program planning services for the arts and culture industry.\nClick here for the downloadable PDF."}
{"content":"With the constant increase in the cost of living, personal loans have started to play an important role in our lives today. Unlike the days when you had to queue in banks for days, nowadays digital loans are disbursed almost instantly. Experts say that while quick access to cash is very convenient, it is important to pay off these loans on time.\nAtul Monga, CEO and Co-Founder of BASIC Home Loan, says, âWhile it’s nice to get your mortgage approved quite easily, it’s just as important to pay it off on time. This helps to keep the financial condition of the borrower in good health and also saves time and money in the long run.\nWith digital advancement, getting a loan has never been easier, but it’s not free money – the borrower has the responsibility to pay the money back on time, especially with interest rates. students. Therefore, if you have more than one loan at a time, pay off the one with the highest interest rate first.\nGaurav Jalan, CEO and founder of pocket, says: âIt is important to keep in mind that the interest rate on a personal loan is much higher than the interest rate on a home loan or mortgage. a vehicle loan. First, pay off loans with a higher interest rate.\nHence, if one has sufficient funds, he / she should consider entering the loan. This will turn out to be a much cheaper option compared to paying full interest over the originally stipulated period.\nHere are some tips to pay off the mortgage on time and make it faster;\nMake reimbursement a priority – Paying the EMI on time helps to increase the borrower’s credit rating. Scheduling the IME close to the pay date and ensuring sufficient funds will help pay the IME on time. Missing an IME will result in penalties from the lender and also hurt the borrower’s credit rating.\nInvest in various programs – âYou can start making different investments to secure the lump sum payment and the loan down payment. If the down payment is large, the loan amount will be less, which would help lower interest rates further, âsays Monga. Lowering the EMI becomes easier for the pockets to pay it back on time.\nNegotiate for better rates – There are many tariffs on the market. Experts say you have to negotiate the terms of service with the lender to get the best possible interest rates. Lower interest rates will ease the burden on the borrower and in turn contribute to better repayment.\nChoose a short duration – An important factor to consider when taking out a home loan is the length of tenure. The shorter the term of office, the faster the loan assignment will also be. Monga adds, âEven though this will cause the borrower to pay out a larger amount as a NMI each month, the interest rates will be lower. The longer the term, the higher the interest rates.\nEven with such metrics, tracking multiple payable IMEs can become difficult. Experts say debt consolidation is another alternative for those with many loans.\nJalan says, âDebt consolidation allows the borrower to consolidate several loans into one. This will allow the borrower to make only one payment each month, with only one associated interest rate. He further adds: âLenders often have attractive offers to consolidate existing loans. This can help the borrower to reduce their overall interest charge, thus making it easier to manage their finances.\nJust like debt consolidation, another alternative that one can avail is a personal loan balance transfer. This is basically a process whereby the borrower can transfer all of their outstanding personal loan from one bank to another, and the new bank grants a lower interest rate on the outstanding loan amount. . However, note that to qualify for a personal loan balance transfer, you must have a good credit rating.\nJalan of pocket says, âA good credit rating is just one of the many benefits one would get from paying off loans on time. This will have lasting benefits for the borrower in the long run."}
{"content":"How many people do you know go to the doctor for minor aches and pains and are given a pill to relieve the pain? Massage relieves these same aches and pains, for most minor soft-tissue injuries. Now wouldn’t that be nice not to have to take another pill! They only mask the problem and do not actually fix it.\nFacilitated stretching is an extremely useful technique in the treatment and rehabilitation of soft tissue injuries. When used appropriately, it can safely and effectively help restore suppleness and flexibility to injured muscles. Massage alone can be effective in reducing pain and restoring flexibility to fibrotic tissue. The addition of facilitated stretching fosters a dramatic reduction in the overall healing time and the restoration of pain-free motion.\nAs a massage therapist and certified personal trainer, I have the ability to work with injuries to the soft tissues in a way that few other practitioners do. When using facilitated stretching in conjunction with massage techniques to help rehabilitate injured tissue, I focus the stretch to a specific area of the muscle. The isometric contraction further activates the muscle and prepares the fibers to lengthen. It also helps to break free adhesions that have just been softened by the massage technique.\nWhy wait? Schedule your massage with Brie today!"}
{"content":"Oregon Butterflies: What They Need to Thrive\nMarch 9 @ 1:00 pm\nJoin JCLS and the Jackson County Master Gardeners to learn about native butterflies and their habitats! This virtual presentation by Master Gardener Lynn Kunstman will share information about butterflies found in Oregon, their native landscapes and food sources, and how we can help them thrive.\nLynn Kunstman is a Master Gardener living in Medford, Oregon. She has lived in the Rogue Valley since 1986. She holds a bachelor’s degree in wildlife management and a Master’s Degree of Science in Education. A retired middle school science and special education teacher, Lynn’s students at Ashland Middle School established the school’s butterfly garden. Her first project upon retiring and moving from Ashland to Medford was to mulch out all the lawns on her property. Lynn’s entire front yard in Medford is now given over to wildlife, planted with edible trees and shrubs, as well as pollinator plants. The back yard is planted in fruit trees, berries and vegetables, for the humans. She is an enthusiastic advocate of gardens planted with wildlife, pollinators, and butterflies in mind."}
{"content":"When it involves maintaining your dog secure, there are numerous issues you can do. Some of this stuff embody buying them a collar and leash, making certain they get sufficient exercise and coaching them to know the method to behave round different people and animals. But one other important approach to hold your dog safe is by ensuring that they’re sporting the right type of collar.\nThe Foraisv anti-bark dog collar has three correction modes – sound, vibration, and elective shock operate. The modern-looking show exhibits you all the necessary data and lets you choose the correction mode and regulate the strength of correction your dog receives.\nThe different level of importance is how many collars the remote will work with. If you may have a couple of dog, you can usually find a model that accommodates multiple bark collars for dogs in a single system. It’s hard to think about a dog’s bark collar as clever, however in fact, there was fairly a little bit of thought put into the logic of this system.\nSpray collars can be utilized with remote controls or be sound-activated. This different collar that provides a fast spray of citronella by WWVVPET comes with distant control. The remote control function permits the dog parents to manually management the spraying of citronella on their dog’s face. It additionally has a built-in rechargeable battery that lasts as a lot as eleven days on the spray collar whereas lasting 27 days for the distant.\nIt could possibly be that your pooch is simply being naughty, or one thing more critical could be afoot, like an harm or sickness. Below are the bark collars we’re testing for an replace to this information in summer time 2021. If worn longer or fitted improperly, the probes can rub and irritate the skin. Users report that the shock correction on this product is fairly intense and ought to be used with warning. This collar may additionally be set off if the dog scratches or jars the collar too much. If you’re on the lookout for a high-quality bark collar with technology to prevent unintended shocks, we advocate making an attempt the TBI Pro Collar first.\nIn 1905 the English Coonhound was first registered by UKC beneath the name of English Fox & Coonhound. That’s to not say that there’s something mistaken with the PetSafe Basic Bark Collar. Great for canines who don’t want static shock collars to discourage them from barking. The collar also has a LED gentle that helps you see when your canine is barking. The light will turn off when the dog stops barking, so that you don’t have to fret about accidents brought on by the sunshine turning on whereas your canine is barking. We discovered that when our canine started to bark, the collar started emitting a high-pitched noise, stopping their barking immediately.\nNo matter which sort of collar you use, all of them are not painful at all. While there are different kinds of bark control methods corresponding to static correction, we advocate you seek the guidance of with a professional trainer before attempting this technique. Simply put the collar is not going to pick up on or shock when barking happens. I can put it into test mode and it works no downside however dogcarehq.com/dog-collars/bark when it’s turned on and the canine barks it doesn’t do anything. If your canine barks at folks or different dogs during walks, distract him with particular treats, like hen, cheese or hot canines, before he begins to bark. Some canines do best when you ask them to take a seat as people or canine cross. Make certain you praise and reward your dog with treats anytime he chooses to not bark.\nThe sensitivity stage could be modified to match your dog’s preferences. The vibration and sound functions work nicely and assist to maintain your dog underneath control.\nThe most effective means for discouraging excitement or frustration barking is to show a annoyed canine to regulate his impulses through obedience coaching. You can train your canine to attend, sit and stay before gaining access to fun actions like walks, playing with different dogs or chasing squirrels.\nBut if your pup is the particularly cussed type, then a sonic, static, or vibration collar will likely be a more suitable option for them. For example, a sensitive or fearful canine is healthier off with a extra gentle spray collar. Learning might be fast, and the distraction will generally be sufficient to deliver out the desired action.\nThe collar runs on a chargeable battery, and the manufacturer estimates 10 days of normal use on a full charge. Many canine homeowners are reluctant to use shock collars in the first place, for fear that they are inhumane. While this isn’t the case if they’re used properly, choosing dog barking collars that only vibrate does certainly take this question out of the equation. This anti-bark collar comes with a specifically designed bark counter.\nWhy Work with Us\nTop Quality and Well-Researched Papers\nWe always make sure that writers follow all your instructions precisely. You can choose your academic level: high school, college/university or professional, and we will assign a writer who has a respective degree.\nProfessional and Experienced Academic Writers\nWe have a team of professional writers with experience in academic and business writing. Many are native speakers and able to perform any task for which you need help.\nFree Unlimited Revisions\nIf you think we missed something, send your order for a free revision. You have 10 days to submit the order for review after you have received the final document. You can do this yourself after logging into your personal account or by contacting our support.\nPrompt Delivery and 100% Money-Back-Guarantee\nAll papers are always delivered on time. In case we need more time to master your paper, we may contact you regarding the deadline extension. In case you cannot provide us with more time, a 100% refund is guaranteed.\nOriginal & Confidential\nWe use several writing tools checks to ensure that all documents you receive are free from plagiarism. Our editors carefully review all quotations in the text. We also promise maximum confidentiality in all of our services.\n24/7 Customer Support\nOur support agents are available 24 hours a day 7 days a week and committed to providing you with the best customer experience. Get in touch whenever you need any assistance.\nTry it now!\nHow it works?\nFollow these simple steps to get your paper done\nPlace your order\nFill in the order form and provide all details of your assignment.\nProceed with the payment\nChoose the payment system that suits you most.\nReceive the final file\nOnce your paper is ready, we will email it to you.\nNo need to work on your paper at night. Sleep tight, we will cover your back. We offer all kinds of writing services.\nNo matter what kind of academic paper you need and how urgent you need it, you are welcome to choose your academic level and the type of your paper at an affordable price. We take care of all your paper needs and give a 24/7 customer care support system.\nAdmission Essays & Business Writing Help\nAn admission essay is an essay or other written statement by a candidate, often a potential student enrolling in a college, university, or graduate school. You can be rest assurred that through our service we will write the best admission essay for you.\nOur academic writers and editors make the necessary changes to your paper so that it is polished. We also format your document by correctly quoting the sources and creating reference lists in the formats APA, Harvard, MLA, Chicago / Turabian.\nIf you think your paper could be improved, you can request a review. In this case, your paper will be checked by the writer or assigned to an editor. You can use this option as many times as you see fit. This is free because we want you to be completely satisfied with the service offered."}
{"content":"The National Diabetes Education Program says holiday family gatherings are a good time for the older and younger generations to share information that can help us lower the risk.\nDiabetes might not seem like the ideal topic of conversation during holiday visits—yet in many ways, this is a very good time to raise the subject. It’s a time when family members who are living with the disease can talk about ways they are keeping the condition under control, what with the temptations of the holiday table and the hectic schedule. And, even more important, it’s a time for family members to share information about their health, because one of the top risk factors for diabetes is a family history of the disease, and the holidays are when family members are most likely to be together.\nWhy This Conversation Is Important\nYour family health history is an important part of understanding your chance for developing a number of serious diseases, including type 2 diabetes. Diabetes is a serious disease that, if left untreated, can lead to serious health problems including blindness, loss of limbs, kidney failure, heart disease, and early death. In fact, most people with type 2 diabetes have a family member—such as a mother, father, brother, or sister—with the disease.\nThe National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP) encourages all families to gather their family health history this holiday season and help prevent or delay type 2 diabetes in future generations.\nOnce you learn about your family health history, share it with your health care team, and take important steps to prevent or delay type 2 diabetes. Studies show that losing 10-15 pounds if you are overweight, walking 30 minutes a day at least five days a week, and following a low-fat, low-calorie meal plan are action steps to help prevent or delay the disease.\nFour Questions You Should Ask\nThe answers to these key questions could help you prevent type 2 diabetes in your future:\n- Does anyone in the family have type 2 diabetes? Who has type 2 diabetes?\n- Has anyone in the family been told they might get diabetes?\n- Has anyone in the family been told they need to lower their weight or increase their physical activity to prevent type 2 diabetes?\n- Did any women in the family develop diabetes when they were pregnant? (This condition is also known as gestational diabetes.)\nIf the answer to any of these is yes, or you have a mother, father, brother, or sister with type 2 diabetes, you may be at an increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes. Talk to your doctor to learn more about managing your risk and preventing or delaying type 2 diabetes.\nOther Risk Factors for Type 2 Diabetes\nIn addition to having a family history of diabetes, there are other factors that increase your risk for developing the disease. Be sure to talk with your health care team about your chance of developing type 2 diabetes and whether you should be tested, if you:\n- are age 45 or older\n- are overweight or obese\n- exercise less than three times a week\n- have other health problems such as high blood pressure\n- had gestational diabetes when you were pregnant, or gave birth to a baby weighing 9 pounds or more\n- have prediabetes, which means your blood sugar is higher than normal, but not high enough to be called diabetes\n- are African American, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian, Alaska Native, Asian American, or Pacific Islander.\nFor more ways to lower your risk for type 2 diabetes, check out NDEP’s Choose More than 50 Ways to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes, available at www.YourDiabetesInfo.org or call\nAdapted from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Diabetes Education Program is jointly sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with the support of more than 200 partner organizations."}
{"content":"22 April 2012\nBeyond calories in, calories out -- look to the Amish\nWhat is wrong with \"eat less, move more\"? Most of us are familiar with this mantra as weight-loss advice. However, a new consensus statement from the American Society for Nutrition (ASN) and the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) contends that this energy-in-energy-out framework isn't really so simple.\nThe problem lies in that consuming fewer calories and burning more through physical activity doesn’t always translate well to weight management. That is not to say that the framework of energy balance—negative energy balance for weight loss; positive energy balance for weight—is wrong. At some level, it’s right; however, several factors come into the equation.\nDuring a Saturday morning session of Experimental Biology (#EB2012) in San Diego, Calif., researchers discussed the topic of this complexity and promoting a new paradigm on energy balance.\nEnergy balance is not just about addition of diet and exercise; each affects the other, so that changing one changes the others, explained Jim Hill, professor of pediatrics and medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, and new recipient of the W.O. Atwater Lectureship awarded by the American Society for Nutrition.\nWhat must be appreciated is the body's system of active regulation, he said.\n\"It's not just a little man in your head that,\" he said, adding that the body may rely on a 'set point' or 'settling point' type of system that attempts to balance energy, energy stores, glucose, glycogen, fat stores, and temperature.\n\"You might argue that up to the 1970s, the system worked pretty well,\" Hill said. \"This whole system is based on inherited factors. If you look at what’s really changed since the 70s, it's really the environmental factors. We don't have to hunt and kill our food anymore. We go to the supermarket and fill our carts. We also sit in some form of fashion every day.\"\nObesity, a problem of overwhelmed \"active regulation\"\nMost of these environmental influences are designed to increase energy intake. It becomes more difficult to avoid overeating and underactivity. These influences, summed up, overwhelm active regulation and the body’s energy balance system. Then the body's physiology adjusts.\nAre there things in the food supply that cause to eat more? Are they influences that affect our brains and nervous system? Hill said that however they may affect us, it is still through energy balance. He said he \"laughs every time\" he sees studies questioning whether the rise of obesity epidemic is related to energy intake or expenditure.\n\"Diet and physical activity interact,\" he said. \"Please don't ask if it's diet or physical activity. The answer is 'yes'.\"\nWhat wrong with diets? No matter which diet, Hill said, the results are always the same: Body weight may increase, may not change, or may decrease. The inconsistent outcomes may be because of poor compliance, physical activity, metabolic rate differences, or food intake adjustments. Eventually, what goes wrong is that environment affects behavior so strongly that over time that people are gaining a little weight. They don’t gain a lot, but they gain about a pound or two a year with some push back from their active regulation systems.\nOne way to combat the obesity epidemic is by encouraging an environment more like that of a half a century ago, Hill said. How the old order Amish live today is a good example.\n\"The Amish walk 18 thousand steps a day. They don’t have spandex or a gym membership. That explains about 400 to 600 calories a day. A typical person in the U.S. walks only five to six thousand steps a day,\" Hill said.\nHill suggests preventing weight gain with small steps—or, more specifically, 2 thousand steps daily.\n\"We have a poor ability to maintain weight loss, but we have a better ability to prevent weight loss,” he said. “This is why we started a movement to move. Two-thousand steps a day is not going to create weight loss, but might prevent weight gain.\"\nWhat role can small changes play in an environment where we need bigger systemic changes? Hill argues that it will \"set the table\" for bigger change. Another factor may be that it may help to improve performance or \"reset\" active regulation.\n\"Our biology works best at high levels of physical activity. Obesity is in the 'unregulated zone.' When physical activity increases, you enter 'regulated zone'. Physical activity may help the 'regulatory system' work better.\"\nUntil bigger changes can be created in the environment, Hill is a fan of \"stealth health\" strategies for reducing obesity. That is, finding ways of encouraging better energy in, energy out balance without the public noticing.\nFor example, Hill explains, at Disney parks and at Starbucks, drinks are now made with low-fat milk. Does anyone notice the difference? What about portion sizes? Would anyone notice a 5 percent reduction at restaurants?\nAnother idea Hill proposed was that of regulation of school drop offs—so that they would be 500 steps away from the school. Would it be so far that the children would notice a difference?\nThe implementation of these \"stealth health\" strategies would increase physical activity and reduce overeating. Combined with teaching children energy balance skills, it could reduce childhood and overall obesity.\nWhat also may be important is to combine both diet and physical activity guidelines for society? But how can this be achieved when studies show that energy balance is such a dynamic versus static process?\nLearn more about the questions raised about energy balance at Experimental Biology from the American Society for Nutrition’s cover page story in Nutrition Notes Daily."}
{"content":"Takashi Uesugi, who says he is an ex-journalist and now a \"hyper golf creator\" (whatever that means), went inside the no-entry zone in Fukushima (I believe it was in May or June) with his dosimeters to ostensibly visit his favorite golf course in Fukushima.\nMr. Uesugi, former New York Times reporter, created the bilingual (Japanese/English) video below, which is on his website, as a teaser for the longer, full version to be released later.\nIn the early days of the Fukushima nuclear accident, he was more active, accusing the government and TEPCO for withholding the information about the accident, particularly about the \"meltdown\" of the reactors.\nOn his visit to his favorite golf course, Uesugi also dropped by near Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. His dosimeter showed 106.87 microsieverts/hour.\nWhat's astonishing to me about the video than the radiation level (yes it is high) is that Uesugi visited a family who continues to live inside the no-entry zone because of the very old mother who is bed-ridden. The daughter, herself in her 60s or 70s, says even the doctors tell them it was a good choice to remain there, because her mother wouldn't have made it in the temporary shelter. But there is no water, no gas, no propane delivery, nothing. How do these people survive? Why should they suffer like this? Because of the arbitrary circle that the inept government marked on the map in March last year. But the daughter is reassuring the mother, \"This is your house, you don't need to go anywhere.\"\nMany who saw this video are crying \"TEPCO lies!\" on Twitter because one of the monitoring posts at the plant on July 12 was only 9.3 microsieverts/hour, nowhere near 106 microsieverts/hour that Uesugi measured.\nThat is an unjust accusation, though. TEPCO says on its webpage that summarizes the monitoring post data that the company did the thorough decontamination from February to April this year around the the monitoring posts MP2 through 8 in order to reduce the background radiation levels to better monitor the radiation fluctuations. The radiation level near the Main Building has been extremely stable around 220 microsieverts/hour."}
{"content":"The American P-61 Black Widow nightfighter enjoyed an inauspicious start to its combat operations in the ETO. Some believed the P-61 was too slow to effectively engage in combat with German fighters and medium bombers, a view which the RAF apparently shared, based on the performance of a single P-61 they had received in early May. And in one of the Black Widow’s first engagements over northern Europe during August 1944 a 422 NFS P-61 sustained heavy damage attempting to down a Heinkel He 177 bomber. This incident was the subject of an article in Jet & Prop magazine (issue 6/97) entitled \" Schwarze Witwe contra Greif \" (‘Black Widow versus Griffon’) written and compiled by Michael Balss.\nThe 422nd Night Fighter Squadron was the first P-61-equipped squadron to ship to England and began flying operational missions over England in mid-July 1944. The first P-61 engagement in the European Theatre occurred on July 15 when a P-61 piloted by Lt. Herman Ernst was directed to intercept a V-1 Doodlebug . Diving from above and behind to match the V-1's 350 mph (560 km/h) speed, the P-61's plastic rear cone imploded under the pressure and the attack was aborted. The tail cones would fail on several early P-61 A models before this problem was corrected. On 16 July, Lt. Ernst was again directed to attack a V-1 and, this time, was successful, giving the 422nd NFS and the European Theatre its first P-61 kill. In early August 1944, the 422nd NFS transferred to Maupertus (near Cherbourg, Normandy) and began to encounter German aircraft for the first time.\nDuring the late evening of 14 August 1944 Heinkel He 177 bombers of I./KG 40 took off from Schwäbisch Hall to attack Allied targets in France. One of the ‘Greif’ bombers was the 2. Staffel machine coded F8+AN, Werknummer 550077, flown by Hptm. Stolle. Stolle’s crew reported that the night was ‘clear and light, in fact it was too light..’ The silhouettes of further 2. Staffel He 177s flying in loose formation could be clearly made out from F8+AN. The first part of the mission was uneventful. The flight engineer Fw. R takes up the story;\n\"..it was shortly before half past midnight. I had just carried out my instrument checks and was about to make my report to Hptm. Stolle when our tail gunner Uffz. Fabinger shouted over the EiV (Eigenverständigung - crew intercom), “ Achtung! Lightning at 6 o’clock. Maintain heading, I’m opening fire. ” At the same time we felt the fuselage shudder as Fabinger’s 2 cm cannon opened up. Fabinger was soon reporting “ .I’ve hit him, he’s alight, his starboard engine is on fire, he’s going down. Abschuß!..\" The two other He 177s witnessed the downing (Abschußbestätigung) and confirmed it north of Bafleur (sic), France..(Barfleur, Normandy). The rest of the flight was quiet. Over the target there was some flak, but nothing in our direction and it was around 04:00 when we landed back in Schwäbisch Hall and were able to congratulate our gunner on his success..\"\nIn fact the ‘Lightning at 6 o’ clock’ was a P 61 A \"Black Widow\" flown by 2nd Lt Lewis A. Gordon (pilot) and 2nd Lt Creel H. Morrison of the 422nd NFS. The Black Widow pilot wrote an account for his niece Allison Gordon in an unpublished memoir entitled \"War in the Night Sky\";\n\"..On my eleventh mission, 14 August 1944, we were doing a night patrol over the English Channel, and we got a bogie. So they put us on a heading to intercept, and pretty soon my RO says, \"I got him\". And we called GCI, and said, \"We have him.\" We closed in, and my RO would tell me, gentle port, gentle starboard, increase your speed, decrease your speed. And he brought me in..Unfortunately he saw me before I saw him, and his tail gunner cut loose knocking out my starboard engine which immediately caught fire..\"\nThe P-61 pilot Al Gordon continued;\n“ Some of the enemy fire entered the top of my canopy, and lodged in and exploded the hydraulic reservoir just above and behind my head. That knocked out part of the hydraulic system. Fortunately the P-61 controls didn't operate hydraulically; they were operated by cables. So the hydraulic failure didn't affect the ‘flyability’ of the plane. My first reaction was complete shock—they didn’t tell us about this! Then all the training kicked in and I proceeded to function. I was scared, of course. I'd have to be a liar to say I wasn't. But I was so damn busy, trying to fly the aircraft at that point that I really didn't have much time to think about it. But I knew that I was in trouble, and I was trying to work my way out of it. I could communicate with my RO over the radio, but in hindsight I should have talked more, because he didn't know what the hell I was doing, and he was scared to death...So here I am, a flamer, 50 miles out over the English Channel. I feathered the starboard engine right away-- I did the right thing there. And I dove it a little bit to gain speed, and put the fire out. My radio was still somewhat operational, so GCI vectored me back. My guess is that it might have been fifteen minutes before we reached the airfield, but it seemed like a long, long time. I came in on one engine, and I lowered my landing gear, not realizing that my nose wheel had been shot out from under me. Considering everything, it was a good landing, except that when it came time for the nose wheel to drop, there was no nose wheel. So I skidded on the front of the plane to a stop...\"\nImpatient Widow\" # 91, tail number 42-5591 had its starboard engine shot out along with oil lines and hydraulics. Arriving back at their base in Maupertus the nose-wheel failed to come down but the crew escaped the ensuing crash-landing unscathed, with damage assessed as CAT B/E. The Widow’s fuselage, engines and other salvageable equipment were used for spares of which the ETO Black Widow squadrons had little during their time in northern Europe.\n“Nobody was hurt, but I learned a valuable lesson on that mission. Never come in for an attack from the rear, shallow—so the tail gunner can see you. Rather you synchronize speed and heading well below the bogie, then identify, drop back, and shoot. The important thing is to live beyond an experience like this and of course learn from it. One tends to be a little more cautious, increasing one’s chances of lasting through the war.”\nBack in Germany Fabinger was awarded the EK 1 for his alertness, marksmanship and observational prowess. As the unnamed flight engineer Fw. R reported ;\n“ Fabinger had almost certainly saved the aircraft and our lives. The pictures were taken two days later and we proudly painted a victory marking on the tail fin of the He 177 which was surmounted with an American star. (photo below) I don’t know what became of Fabinger – the crew was split up towards the end of the war and was dispersed to the four winds..”\nAt that stage of the war the P-61 was a fairly ‘rare’ type, almost certainly completely unknown to the Luftwaffe He 177 crews, so as Balss makes clear, researching the actual circumstances of this incident from the German side posed considerable difficulties. The story was not complete until the discovery of a USAAF photo depicting ‘Impatient Widow’ following its crash landing – the official caption; ‘This P-61 returned home safely after combat with a Heinkel He 177 on the night of 15 August. The He 177 did not escape unscathed..”"}
{"content":"Open and generous, Ann Coulter enjoys a wide circle of friends and acquaintances and she thrives on sociability and fellowship. She is adventurous, playful, freedom loving, and always ready for a good time. Coulter rarely allows obstacles or difficulties to keep her down, for no matter how bleak the past or present, Ann always expects a better, brighter future. In fact, she is uncomfortable with her own or other people's problems and emotional pain. Ann Coulter often tries to \"cheer up\" or offer philosophical advice to those who are hurting, but she unwittingly avoids or ignores the emotions involved.\nFriendship means a great deal to Coulter, perhaps even more than love relationships or romance. For Ann Coulter to be happy, her mate must be her best friend and encourage Ann's aspirations and ideals. Ann Coulter also needs a great deal of emotional freedom and mobility.\nCoulter works well with the public and has an instinct for what the public wants and will respond to. Having a \"nest\" is not especially important to Ann, and she may invest more of her emotional energy into her career or public life than in her private life. Providing and caring for others, in a professional capacity is very likely.\nShe is uninhibited and spontaneous and will often do something unexpected or humorous in order to loosen people up and get them out of their rut. Ann Coulter craves emotional stimulation, excitement, surprises and anything new. Coulter also loves to feel free and unfettered.\nIn love relationships, Ann Coulter seeks companionship and friendship with someone who is fun loving, playful and open to adventure and new experiences. She enjoys traveling together, meeting new people and making new friends. Honeymooning in a distant location appeals to Ann, and she is also attracted to foreigners or people with diametrically different backgrounds than her own. Ann Coulter supports her partner in taking risks and making positive changes, rather than preserving the status quo. She also very much wants a partner who will encourage her own aspirations and dreams. It is very important to Ann that she have a spiritual or intellectual rapport with her love partner, perhaps more important than the emotional/physical aspect. Ann Coulter is not especially sentimental and her love partner may feel that she is too casual and not serious or romantic enough.\nAnn is attracted to foreigners, exotic places, traveling, and to people who can expand her horizons, teach her something, or show Coulter places and worlds she has never experienced before. Sharing a philosophy or ideal with her love partner is important to her.\nAlso, Ann Coulter feels love and kinship for people everywhere, not only with her own family, nationality, or group. Finding similarities and making links between people from differing backgrounds or with different perspectives is a gift of hers.\nAnn Coulter loves to laugh, celebrate, and to enjoy herself with her companions. Emotionally open and easygoing, Ann considers just about anyone a friend or potential friend. Her good humor and friendliness make her quite popular and well-liked. At times, Ann Coulter overdoes the festivities, but she rarely regrets this.\nHer love feelings are easily aroused and her romantic relationships begin with a sudden electric attraction, but they often end abruptly, and Coulter may be in and out of love relationships - especially in her younger years. Ann Coulter craves emotional excitement and needs to feel spontaneous and free, so she may avoid making firm personal commitments. Unusual or nontraditional forms of love and relationships appeal to Coulter, and she is attracted to unique, creative or unstable people.\nSomewhat over-enthusiastic in matters of love relationships, Ann Coulter could fall in love with the wrong person. She may be too selfless and have the illusion that her only need in relationships is to make the other person happy, leading to disappointments and regrets.\nIt is easy for Ann Coulter to show others the love she feels for them and she talks freely to them about her feelings. Ann likes nice surroundings and wants to beautify her environment as quickly as possible, once she has come up with an idea to do so.\nAstrological factors in this Astro Profile section:\nMoon in Sagittarius\nMoon in 10th house\nMoon Trine Uranus\nVenus in Sagittarius\nVenus in 9th house\nVenus Sextile Jupiter\nVenus Square Uranus\nVenus Conjunct Moon/Neptune\nVenus Opposition Uranus/Asc."}
{"content":"The Mittelalterliche Burgfestspiele - Medieval Fest was put on by the Ronneburg Castle Preservation Society and the present owners. The Fest was great! There were several shows including medieval music performed by Mosswood, tightrope clowns, a jester's troop, and several skits performed by a traveling theatrical group.\nWe liked the skits the best of all. They had everything; tavern scenes, knights, cannons, sword fights and all. The German fighters were so intense and really seemed to be going after each other. We rooted for a formidable man with a beard that put Blackbeard's to shame. Sparks were flying from his sword blows. One of the fighters' sword point broke off and arced through the air into the spectators. Not to worry, New Mexico Man snatched the projectile from mid-air with his lightning speed. Compared to American safety standards, it seemed quite reckless. However, as observers imaging ourselves back in time we found it to be Super!\nAfter the skits, we wandered the grounds, we drank sourmash, and we ate flatbread with dried onions and yogurt sauce. We watched chainmail smiths, blacksmiths, coin smiths, etc., work their trades. I climbed the Central Tower rising high above the castle via endless winding spiral stone steps and wooden ladders up to the crowning dome designed by a Welsh stone mason. Stepping off of the final rung revealed spectacular views of the surrounding country-side. Spent a bit too much time up top to escape notice and were given a replica Medieval coin newly minted at the event. All in all one of our favorite days!\nMost people are afraid of flying sparks. Admit it, I am Fearless."}
{"content":"[Ffmpeg-devel] FFMpeg as shared library\nFri Jun 17 16:14:49 CEST 2005\nI wrote a small program that makes use of ffmpeg libavcodec and libavformat.\nI compiled ffmpeg with\nbut when I compile my program I get an executable around 8-9 MB in\nsize. If I compile ffmpeg with --disable-shared I get the same size\nfor my program.\nI compile my prog with this flags: -lavcodec -lavformat\nHow can I solve this? do I have to compile ffmpeg with some other flag?\nMore information about the ffmpeg-devel"}
{"content":"Chinese Film Funds: A Cookie Without A Fortune\nOver the past couple of years, a number of sovereign funds have emerged in China, initially to exploit the television arena, and once that proved responsive, a new focus was directed on movie production. The number of theater screens has increased an impressive 50% in the past two years, proving that there are fast-growing outlets available for new content to be seen by Chinese audiences.\nUnfortunately, the indigenous, government-backed film industry can’t survive on the intermittent successes of its big budget, mega-epic, sword-wielding, martial arts blockbusters, and the Government has therefore been looking to attract foreign productions to the country (the bigger the better). This is seen as mandatory to China’s long-term media success. Providing production services for foreign producers wishing to access cheap labor in China is certainly a win-win that helps satisfy the country’s mandate to provide jobs and training to their local film industry, while also providing a pipeline for mainstream, commercial movies that can fill its quickly multiplying theaters.\nRecognizing that a reliance on foreign productions is never a good model for sustainability, the Chinese government has taken the extra step of subsidizing investment funds specializing in financing independent films. These sovereign-backed film funds (some which are “managed” by Hollywood insiders) are tasked with structuring Co-Productions with movie producers such that selected projects are provided with early stage, development funding; once the potential for a film’s success becomes tangible to a fund’s directors, additional money is allocated for its production. The country’s largest film studio, China Film Group (CFGC), has a strong hand in the expansion of these programs. The China Film Co-Production Corporation, a subsidiary of CFGC, is responsible for 100% of foreign co-productions (known as Sino-foreign co-productions). According to the CFCC website, a Sino-foreign co-production is defined as a “contractual arrangement between a foreign party and a SARFT (State Administration of Radio, Film and Television) accredited Chinese party to conduct filming in China.” What’s important to note is that the China Film Group maintains not only the country’s largest studio, but also full control of a wide distribution network that owns a majority of China’s screens. This means that the “private” Chinese studios are forced to compete with the federal government to make the next big blockbuster.\nSARFT, meanwhile, maintains ultimate control as the governing authority for any Sino-foreign co-production. To facilitate this, SARFT has appointed the China Film Co-Production Corporation as it’s “sole agent to assist in managing and coordinating the applications, conducting preliminary review of the screenplay and completed film, and other logistical matters relating to Sino-foreign co-productions.” Translation: The Chinese government ultimately controls everything.\nGo back five years, and you’ll recall a time when hedge fund money was pouring into the coffers of studios and fly-by-night film funds. Movies were being made because they could be, not because they should be. Major, Mini-Major, and Independent films flooded the market. Distributors had their pick of the litter, but it wasn’t a very pretty litter at that. After passing on those films that shouldn’t have been made, the distributors were still saturated with films trying to find a market. The bubble popped, the music stopped.\nIn the U.S., many high budget films with recognizable stars ended up going straight to DVD/VOD. Hundreds of millions of investment dollars evaporated almost overnight.\nFast forward to today, each week somebody new seems to have a Chinese film fund in their back pocket, looking for films with Chinese themes, that can be partially shot in China. China-centric finance plans are combing the streets, looking for Chinese-esque movies. You can be sure screenplays all over town are being rewritten in order to qualify as Chinese Co-Productions. These new funds all claim to have money in the bank; so why then, despite all the hype and hope, are we not seeing movies actually going into production? Because the scripts can’t pass censorship. It’s no different than the myriad completed films that can’t get Chinese distribution. He who has the gold makes the rules, and in this case the rules are that the screenplays needs to conform with Chinese political ideology (or at least not question, offend or threaten the governing ideology). With some exceptions, films that meet those criteria tend to not engage mainstream audiences. If indeed these films are going into production, then you will soon see a Sino-bubble rising in the East.\nThis is an alluring prospect for the average US producer who’s just looking to close their next deal. I hear so many producers saying: “…as long as there is some sort of relevant Chinese content…” Appealing as that is, I challenge you to not be the average US producer — be the above-average producer. If you have a compelling project that organically checks all the boxes, then take a shot at some Chinese dough, but thoroughly understand that there are many strings attached, they can move the goal posts at will, their paper is generally not bankable, and you have no legal recourse to sue for anything, period. If your project doesn’t check the boxes, then don’t waste your time pursuing a mirage. You’ll never get that time back."}
{"content":"|Balthier: I'm afraid the jury's still out on that one.||This article is about a location from a game that's still to be released. As such, some of the information might be inaccurate or likely to change. Please look over our policy for updating articles covering upcoming games before editing this page.|\nThe Kingdom of Lucis (ルシス王国, Rushisu-Ōkoku?) is a nation in Final Fantasy XV, said to keep the last known crystal in the world. It is described as a nation both highly advanced and developed, and culturally intact, with tradition vibrant and still alive with the \"songs of swords and sorcery.\"\nIts capital city is Insomnia, a sprawling metropolis. Despite this, all trailers to date have depicted the city as being largely deserted. In the January 2011 trailer, toll gates located outside the city were seen stopping incoming traffic. It is unknown as to why the city may have been on lockdown. Locations within or around the city include Vallis Acerba (Latin for \"Harsh Valley\") and Nihilsomno (Latin for \"Sleepless\").\nThrough the power of its crystal, Lucis is an advanced country. Though its vast power bears great influence, allowing its citizens have a high standard of living, its standing has alienated Lucis from the rest of the world, now controlled mostly by the Empire of Niflheim. Niflheim seeks the last crystal, but Lucis is protected by its King, Regis Lucis Caelum CXIII, the crystal's current guardian, who maintains the shield around the kingdom to repel all enemy attacks toward the nation.\nLucis is ruled under a monarchy, whose current ruler is King Regis. His only son, Prince Noctis Lucis Caelum, is the heir to the kingdom's throne. The royal family has been compared to a mafia crime family, and are said to have reigned and protected over the kingdom since its ancient beginnings. Regis is around fifty years old, but has aged well beyond that due to maintaining the magic barrier around Lucis. The rapid aging is the unfortunate fate of the king, and Noctis could also meet this fate if he inherits the throne.\nWhen a Lucian king dies, their wisdom is passed to the next generation, and thus, the royal line lives on. This accumulated wisdom and power is held within the Ring of the Lucii, the heirloom of the dynasty, and the summoned swords each king can wield are also inherited from his predecessors.\nLucis is attacked by Niflheim under the ruse of a peace treaty signing, its soldiers clad in medieval armor and wielding guns. Regis, Noctis, as well as the oracle Lunafreya Nox Fleuret of Tenebrae are reported dead, but in truth Luna escaped to the city of Altissia, and Noctis was not in Insomnia when it was invaded. He embarks on a journey to rendezvous with Luna and save the last crystal.\nCreation and developmentEdit\nLucis is based on Shinjuku, a part of the city of Tokyo. The kingdom is associated with the color black and the motif of a Grim Reaper. In old Final Fantasy Versus XIII material a large Grim Reaper statue held a painting of Etro, but the figure also appears in crests, banners and on the throne.\nDirector Hajime Tabata has explained that black has historically been treated as a special color in Lucis. Thus the attire of the royal family, and those in occupations closely tied to it, wear black. Due to age-rating concerns in some countries, the theme of reaper-worship originally present in Final Fantasy Versus XIII had to be toned down for XV; explicit references were replaced by the use of black as a special color.\nEtymology and symbolismEdit\nTenebrae exists in juxtaposition to Lucis, its name meaning \"darkness\" in Latin. Lucis's capital of Insomnia is an urbanized metropolis with skyscrapers, neon lights, modern society in modern clothes, whose royals use the Crystal's magic and magical summoned weapons. Tenebrae on the other hand represent an \"old school\" fantasy kingdom overgrown in nature with floating castles and rock formations with giant physical sword-like pillars around the kingdom, and, judging by Luna, physically carried weapons. Luna, from Tenebrae, dresses in white, whereas Noctis, the prince of Lucis, dresses in black.\n- In a community-driven Q&A, Tabata called Lucis's government \"friendly\" when compared to the administration of Japan's current prime minister Shinzō Abe, but stopped short of making exact comparisons.\n- ↑ TGS 2015: New Final Fantasy XV story beats, chocobos, fishing and more in latest ATR (Accessed: September 18, 2016) at Nova Crystallis\n- ↑ http://www.siliconera.com/2014/12/20/final-fantasy-xv-tons-details-jump-festa/\n- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Luna shows up as a guest party member in Final Fantasy XV (Accessed: September 18, 2016) at Nova Crystallis\n- ↑ http://www.finalfantasy.net/xv/final-fantasy-xv-director-japan-expo/\n- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Why Noctis and his companions are dressed in black? Hajime Tabata's answer (Accessed: September 18, 2016) at Official Final Fantasy XV Forums\n- ↑ Final Fantasy XV Japanese community questions answered (Accessed: September 18, 2016) at Gematsu"}
{"content":"Bend points are the portions of your average income (Average Indexed Monthly Earnings – AIME) in specific dollar amounts that are indexed each year, based upon an obscure table called the Average Wage Index (AWI) Series. They’re called bend points because they represent points on a graph of your AIME graphed by inclusion in calculating the PIA.\nIf you’re interested in how Bend Points are used, you can see the article on Primary Insurance Amount, or PIA. Here, however, we’ll go over how Bend Points are calculated each year. To understand this calculation, you need to go back to 1979, the year of the Three Mile Island disaster, the introduction of the compact disc and the Iranian hostage crisis. According to the AWI Series, in 1979 the Social Security Administration placed the AWI figure for 1977 at $9,779.44 – AWI figures are always two years in arrears, so for example, the AWI figure used to determine the 2016 bend points is from 2014.\nWith the AWI figure for 1977, it was determined that the first bend point for 1979 would be set at $180, and the second bend point at $1,085. I’m not sure how these first figures were calculated – it’s safe to assume that they are part of an indexing formula set forth quite a while ago. At any rate, now that we know these two numbers, we can jump back to 2014’s AWI Series figure, which is $46,481.52. It all becomes a matter of a formula now:\nCurrent year’s AWI Series divided by 1977’s AWI figure, times the bend points for 1979 equals your current year bend points\nSo here is the math for 2010’s bend points:\n$46,481.52 / $9779.44 = 4.7530\n4.7530 * $180 = $855.54, which is rounded up to $856 – the first bend point\n4.7530 * $1,085 = $5,157.01, rounded to $5,157 – the second bend point\nAnd that’s all there is to it. Hope this helps you understand the bend points a little better.\nPhoto by JennyHuang"}
{"content":"No shooting until EVERY member of your cast and crew has signed a contract.\nLast week, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a startling ruling in a case involving an independent film. In the Innocence of Muslims case, the Court ruled that an actress who played a small role in the film, may assert copyright ownership over her performance, and is thus able to require Google/YouTube to take the film down.\nThat's right. The actress owns a copyright interest in the film.\nYou see, she was working without a contract. When an independent contractor creates a work of original authorship, that contractor, rather than the 'employer' will own the copyright in what's created. Unless there's a written agreement specifying that the results and proceeds of the work are “works made for hire”.\nSo, when the actress learned that the film had changed dramatically from what she thought she it was going to be, she was unhappy. And, because she owns what she created… she was able to get it taken down from YouTube. And, presumably, she can obstruct distribution of the film in other ways.\nNow, this is a case where “bad facts that make bad law”. She didn't have a contract, and the filmmaker decieved her… bad facts. But, now, we have a binding appellate ruling clearly holding that an actor can own her performance, even when others are responsible for the “fixation” of the material, etc.\nSo, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS get a written contract, signed by each member of your cast and crew.\nAnd please don't use deception to induce people to sign these contracts. That won't fly either.\nJust do things by the book."}
{"content":"Re: Clock skew too great / System vs Hardware clock problem?\nwhat does the from/till timestamp in the AS_REQ say ?\n\"Michael B Allen\" <email@example.com> wrote in message\n> I'm trying to diagnose a \"Clock skew too great\" error between a CentOS\n> 5.1 client and Windows 2003 R2 ADS.\n> If we date 'date' on the Linux the time is within a few seconds of the\n> clock on the Windows server. The Linux machine's /etc/localtime is set\n> to PST8PDT. The AD server is set to Pacific time.\n> So now what?\n> Could it be that the hardware clock and system clock are not in sync?[color=green]\n>>From experience it doesn't matter if the hardware clock is UTC or not.[/color]\n> I'm stumped. Any ideas?\n> Michael B Allen\n> PHP Active Directory SPNEGO SSO\n> Kerberos mailing list [email]Kerberos@mit.edu[/email]"}
{"content":"This morning, most of the Western world woke up to the news that the Swedish Academy had awarded their countryman Tomas Tranströmer (again, not Bob Dylan) the Nobel Prize for Literature. Minutes earlier, however, Serbian newspaper readers were informed that their very own Dobrica Cosic had won the prize. As Jacket Copy reports, the culprit turns out to be a fake website (www.nobelprizeliterature.org) that was just purchased yesterday and mimicked the design of the real Nobel Prize homepage. The pranksters behind the site also emailed the announcement of his victory to news outlets. Now that nobelprizeliterature.org has been outed as a hoax, the group that created it — which bills itself as a “non-profit, self-organized group of web activists” — has posted a different message, in both Croatian and (somewhat broken) English. Read what they have to say for themselves after the jump.\nWe are a non-profit, self-organized group of web activists.\nThe purpose of our activity is to bring to the attention of the Serbian public dangerous influence of the writer Dobrica Cosic, who has been, again this year, proclaimed by some as a serious contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature.\nDobrica Cosic, author and public political figure, active for decades, always close to the highest political power and those who exercise it, from the Communist Party of former SFRY, inspirators of their manifest of Serbian nationalism, infamous Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of sciences, former president of the Milosevic’s wartime SR Yugoslavia, to present alliance with reactionary and most dangerous Serbian pseudo-democratic circles in the new era.\nWe have registered the domain of this obviously hoax site on the 5th October 2011, as a symbolic reminder of that day eleven years ago, when Serbia missed a historic opportunity to create a different and better world. Today again, Serbia turns to war, terror and deadly kitsch of the nineties, violence towards diversity, nationalist conservatism and dishonest orthodoxy. We believe the political activity of Dobrica Cosic is still deeply intertwined with this hazardous value system, which does not cease to threaten us all.\nTerrible consequences of decades of Mr. Cosic’s political, literary and public activity are felt to this day, both by his own country and throughout the region.\nDobrica Cosic is not a recipient of the Nobel Prize, although the general public in Serbia, and he himself, believed he is for 15 full minutes.\nWe find some solace in that fact."}
{"content":"Economists with The Conference Board are projecting a slow recovery for the global economy next year. Much of the growth will come from emerging and developing countries, while only moderate economic growth is projected for the U.S. in 2010.\nThe group also cautioned that the recovery will remain fragile, as growth in some sectors – such as capital spending by corporations – will be balanced out by continued retraction in others, like commercial real estate. Consumer spending is also likely to remain flat or below previous levels, which could reduce inventory replenishment activity—which is a major source of freight for truckers.\n“The 3.5% expansion in third quarter U.S. GDP [gross domestic product] shows we have clearly begun to emerge from the trough,” said Bart van Ark, chief economist with The Conference Board. “But there’s still a long way to go, and we still don’t know enough about the sustainability of these recovery signals.”\nHe is, projecting fourth quarter GDP growth of 3.1% for the U.S. However, consumer spending is expected to fall flat during the holiday season, while exports will recover more slowly than in the third quarter this year. Finally, any modest uptick in investments in equipment and software will most likely be offset by continued declines in commercial real estate, van Ark added.\nWith all that being said, van Ark noted that The Conference Board predicts global growth should resume in 2010, with global output per head returning to pre-crisis levels.\n“Looking further out, emerging and developing economies will account for a much larger share of the global pie; as much as two-thirds by 2016,” van Ark added. “And while China will surely be a major force in the unwinding of the crisis, we'll see other emerging markets increasingly fueling global growth.”\nHe said the advanced economies’ share of world GDP has fallen from two-thirds in 2000 to below 50% today and will hit one-third by 2016, according to The Conference Board’s Global Economic Outlook. China will remain a dominant economic force, but its growth will gradually slow as its transition proceeds to a consumer-driven economy, van Ark added.\nFor the U.S., economic growth is projected to start slow in 2010 and pick up speed in the second half of the year, with GDP climbing 1.2% in the first quarter, 1.8% in the second quarter, 2.1% in the third quarter, and reaching 2.6% in the fourth quarter of 2010.\nFor all of 2010, van Ark expects U.S. GDP to grow 2%, compared to a projected decline in GDP of 2.4% for 2009 and a meager 0.2% increase in GDP back in 2008.\n“Though these are not sharp improvements, given the depth of the recession, these are clear indications that we are in a recovery mode,” he stated. “That said, shifts in the drivers of growth raise questions concerning the recovery’s solidity. A less powerful inventory boost with no positive offsetting contributors may well limit GDP growth to 1% in early 2010. [Also], the [consumer] savings rate will remain relatively high at 4.5% to 5% of disposable income, dampening improvements in real consumer spending.”\nHe also noted that consumer expenditures are likely to continue to show weakness as income growth remains slow or even shifts negative – due in part to an unemployment rate that will stay high at 10.5% for several quarters and not begin to decline before the end of 2010.\n“The U.S. economy continues to look better than expected in the short term, but we have only just begun to emerge from the cycle’s trough and there is still a long way to go,” van Ark added."}
{"content":"Frost Campus (Lindsay)\nFrost Campus is located on over 150 acres of land close to downtown Lindsay - a student-friendly community with a population of about 21,000. Lindsay, one of the communities in the City of Kawartha Lakes, is about a one-hour drive north east of Toronto, or four hours south west of Ottawa. Part of the Trent Severn Waterway, this region has over 250 lakes and plenty of green spaces - an ideal location to study and enjoy nature and the environment.\nThe campus is home to one of Canada’s leading environmental education institutions, Fleming College’s School of Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences - which offers over 20 exclusive programs in this fast-growing sector. For over 40 years, the school has been producing highly skilled graduates who work in the environmental and natural resource industries across Canada and around the world.\nStudent residences are located within steps of the main building. Recreational and athletic activities are available at the Fleming Field House and at the Lindsay Recreation Centre, which is directly adjacent to the campus. Downtown Lindsay is easily accessible via Lindsay Transit buses that stop at the campus entrance.\nThe Frost Sustainable Campus Initiative is a group of students and employees working to make Frost a model sustainable campus community. Recent initiatives include banning the sale of bottled water on campus, hosting a weekly on-campus Farmers’ Market, establishing a community garden and conducting energy audits. Frost Campus is also a member of the American Association for Sustainability in Higher Education.\nCentre for Alternative Wastewater Treatment\nThe CAWT is comprised of a core group of scientists, faculty researchers, and technologists as well as a community of associates from academic, industrial, and private sectors. These professionals continue to expand the CAWT’s project base, research partnerships, and collaborations in the field of alternative wastewater treatment. Visit the CAWT website for more info\nFrost Loggersports Team\nDid you know that we are one of only three schools in Ontario with competitive men's and women's Loggersports teams? Find out more about these lumberjack competitions featuring our top notch athletes.\nFeatures of the Frost Campus\n- Environmental technology wing – features a green roof, geothermal heating and cooling and a constructed wetland for waste treatment. Part of the Trans-Canada Trail runs through campus\n- Centre for Heavy Equipment Technology - sponsored by the Canadian Association of Equipment Distributors (CAED), Ontario Chapter\n- Centre for Alternative Wastewater Treatment - internationally recognized for its applied research initiatives\n- Geomatics Institute at Fleming – funded by industry and government partners to provide GIS laboratories, software, servers and data resources\n- The Frost Campus Respect Campaign promotes respect for people, the environment, and property\nFeatured Programs Offered\nLindsay-Peterborough FSA Intercampus Shuttle Bus\nThe Frost Student Association (FSA) Shuttle Bus connects Frost Campus in Lindsay with Sutherland Campus in Peterborough, with stops along the way and in downtown Peterborough. It provides two-way, weekday and weekend service, and runs in conjunction with GO transit and Greyhound schedules from Peterborough to the GTA. See the FSA Intercampus Shuttle page for shuttle schedules, routes and costs.\nParking at the Frost Campus\nFleming College Campus Locations\nRevised: November 27, 2015"}
{"content":"The Environmental Protection Agency has authorized BP to use chemical dispersants to break up the oil sludge in the Gulf. But now, the agency has informed the company that it has 24 hours to identify a less toxic chemical for the job.\nBecause of its use in unprecedented volumes and because much is unknown about the underwater use of dispersants, EPA wants to ensure BP is using the least toxic product authorized for use. We reserve the right to discontinue the use of this dispersant method if any negative impacts on the environment outweigh the benefits.\nThe Washington Post had the scoop:\nThe move is significant, because it suggests federal officials are now concerned that the unprecedented use of chemical dispersants could pose a significant threat to the Gulf of Mexico’s marine life. BP has been using two forms of dispersants, Corexit 9500A and Corexit 9527A, and so far has applied 600,000 gallons on the surface and 55,000 underwater.\n“Dispersants have never been used in this volume before,” said an administration official spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision hasn’t been formally announced. “This is a large amount of dispersants being used, larger amounts than have ever been used, on a pipe that continues to leak oil and that BP is still trying to cap.”\nEarlier this week, ProPublica reported that the forms of dispersant currently used by BP are banned in the U.K., and added:\nBP is using two products from a line of dispersants called Corexit, which EPA data appear to show is more toxic and less effective on South Louisiana crude than other available dispersants, according to Greenwire.\nThe EPA’s addendum to its original directive to BP can be read here:"}
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{"content":"March 13th, 2000, 05:52 PM\nIs there any way I can specify what the FROM section of the email I send via PHP is supposed to read? Right now, anytime I submit a form through PHP and have an autoresponder sent, the FROM reads my deafult server address. I want to be able to set the FROM to read a name instead. Is there any way to do this???\nMarch 13th, 2000, 05:59 PM\nYou May Use mail($Recipient,$Message,\"FROM : firstname.lastname@example.org\")\nThis will send the message with email@example.com as the senders address.\nHope this solves your problem.\nMarch 13th, 2000, 06:14 PM\nYour sample fixed the problem!"}
{"content":"When someone thinks of cereal, how the iconic tiger labeled box doesn't pop into one's head almost immediately is beyond me. The sweet frosting covering the crispy corn flakes is like the perfect marriage of sweet and crispy. The only way I anyone could make a similar combination of the two would be to directly wired ones mouth to some type of electrodes which simulate Frosted Flakes. This would probably take longer to set up than to actually just eat Frosted Flakes.\nThat being said, why would anyone ever want to try any cereal that’s not Frosted Flakes? If you don’t what a cereal that’s crispy, you should probably be eating oatmeal with the rest of the denture wearers. If you don’t want a cereal that’s sweet, you should probably be eating a toasted bread crumbs in a bowl of milk. Sounds delightful!\nPerhaps your thinking some other cereal would provide another equally pleasant experience. You’d be wrong. Wheat and Rice based cereals get soggy far too fast. So all you’re really left with is corn. Yes, we know there are some of you out there that think cereal can be made from other types of grain that most people have never heard of, so, it must be good. But when it comes to food, the reason most people have never of it is because it sucks. The same reasoning behind spotted dick is not popular here in the United States. It’s horrid. To the point that I wonder if the people in the UK actually like it or they’re just making it as an excuse to say the name. End digression. As I was saying, you’re really only left corn.\nLet’s suppose you want to make a cereal and your smart enough to use corn, but, you’re clueless on what style or shape. One idea to try could be the puffed/popped shape. If that’s the case, you probably like popcorn. And you have to make it sweet. So you’re going to have to make something like caramel or kettle corn. And you’re going to take this pour it in a bowl and add milk? If that’s a good idea, then, I suppose you’d also like the texture and taste of sugar coded Styrofoam. Aside from the possible poisonous side effects, I’m pretty sure it would amount to the same thing. If a cereal maker does figure out how to make edible Styrofoam he’s going to make a fortune off you.\nLet’s face it, there are very few things in this life that a simple and great. And we as human being should be grateful that we have been lucky enough to find them. Of this short list in our long history, Frosted Flakes is among the top."}
{"content":"PROVO -- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints may be settling what has been a decades-long cultural debate in wards everywhere: caffeine.\nIn a blog post on the LDS Church's mormonnewsroom.org site, the church indicated that caffeine is not explicitly against the church's Word of Wisdom -- a set of guidelines for members that forbids the use of tobacco, alcohol and \"hot drinks.\"\nThe church was responding to a report on Mormonism on NBC's \"Rock Center,\" which claimed that LDS faithful were prohibited from drinking caffeine. The church wrote in response:\n\"Despite what was reported, the Church revelation spelling out health practices (Doctrine and Covenants 89) does not mention the use of caffeine. The Church’s health guidelines prohibits alcoholic drinks, smoking or chewing of tobacco, and “hot drinks” — taught by Church leaders to refer specifically to tea and coffee.\"\nThat post originally included the sentence: \"The restriction does not go beyond this.\" However, it was later re-worded. A church spokesman did not offer any further comment beyond the post.\nThe post has sparked a debate online and in Mormon neighborhoods about whether the Word of Wisdom ever did forbid caffeine. Many LDS faithful grew up believing caffeine was not to be consumed at all.\nOthers have always consumed Diet Coke and tea, but avoided coffee.\n\"For me it's more of I don't want to get addicted to it. I don't want to be like, 'I need my caffeine today,' \" said Dave Rollins, who carried a caffeine-free Diet Coke.\nRollins said he has known many Mormon faithful who believe caffeine is forbidden by the LDS Church.\n\"In fact, I baptized a guy who worked for Coke and he was thinking, 'I might have to get a different job!' \" Rollins said.\n\"You see people on both sides,\" said Mary Ellen Robertson, the director of Sunstone, a foundation that studies Mormonism.\n\"The folks who say, like I did, 'I grew up not drinking caffeinated sodas, I was told by my parents it was bad and it was OK to judge people harshly who did.' Then there are folks on the other side of the spectrum, for whom this was never an issue, who say I don't see this as an accurate measure for my religiosity the way it's come to be used.\"\nAt the LDS Church-owned Brigham Young University, caffeinated drinks are not sold. It is not because of a church or university edict, said spokeswoman Carri Jenkins, but customer demand.\n\"Dining Services has made the decision to not sell or serve caffeinated beverages on campus,\" she told FOX 13. \"Simply based on what our customers want or do not want.\"\nJenkins said students would not violate BYU's Honor Code by consuming caffeine, nor would people be forbidden from bringing it on campus. The university would also revisit the sale of caffeine-full soda -- if it became an issue of demand.\n\"It's just something we'll have to look at,\" Jenkins said."}
{"content":"A federal judge’s decision Friday could fuel heightened tensions in the battle over the Dakota Access Pipeline.\nThe ruling on a Native American tribe’s request for a temporary restraining order on construction comes one day after Gov. Jack Dalrymple activated the state National Guard “in the event they are needed to support law enforcement response efforts,” according to a National Guard spokesman.\nThe Standing Rock Sioux Tribe filed an emergency motion Sunday asking the court “to prevent further destruction of the tribe’s sacred sites by Dakota Access Pipeline.”\nA federal judge has denied the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s request to temporarily stop construction on the four-state Dakota Access oil pipeline near their reservation in North Dakota.\nTribal officials challenged the Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to grant permits for Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners’ $3.8 billion pipeline that is intended to carry oil from North Dakota to Illinois.\nFriday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg comes amid growing protests over the pipeline, which would cross the Missouri River less than a mile upstream of the reservation.\nThe tribe argues the pipeline could impact drinking water and that construction has already disturbed ancient sacred sites.\nA lawyer for the tribe says the ruling will be appealed.\nThe pipeline’s developer, Energy Transfer Partners, has predicted the project would help the United States become less dependent on importing oil from unstable regions of the world.\nThe tribe wants to halt further construction on an area two miles west of North Dakota Highway 1806, near Lake Oahe, until the judge’s ruling.\nThe plaintiffs claim the tribe was not properly consulted before the US Army Corps of Engineers approved the pipeline project, which would run from North Dakota to South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois.\nA US district court judge is expected to make a decision by Friday.\nThe Army Corps of Engineers has declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.\nOn Thursday, a state National Guard statement said the governor had asked it “to support law enforcement and augment public safety efforts, in light of recent activity with the Dakota Access Pipeline protest.”\n“The Guard members will serve in administrative capacities and assist in providing security at traffic information points,” the statement said. “The Guardsmen will not be going to the actual protest site. The governor also placed additional Guardsmen on standby alert in the event they are needed to support law enforcement response efforts.”\nThousands of people from more than 200 Native American tribes have supported the Standing Rock Sioux’s efforts to protect their lands, waters and sacred sites during construction of the pipeline, according to the tribe.\nIf completed, the 1,172-mile pipeline would carry 470,000 barrels of crude oil a day from North Dakota to Illinois.\nEnergy Transfer said the pipeline would bring an estimated $156 million in sales and income taxes to state and local governments. It would also add 8,000 to 12,000 construction jobs, the developer said.\nBut about 30 environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, have slammed the pipeline project, calling it “yet another example of an oil pipeline project being permitted without public engagement or sufficient environmental review.”‘\nProtesters are also worried that digging the pipeline under the Missouri River could affect the drinking water supply if the pipeline breaks.\nProtests turned violent over the weekend, with some demonstrators breaking down a wire fence and trespassing onto a construction area, the Morton County Sheriff’s Department said.\n“Protesters physically assaulted private security officers hired by Dakota Access Pipeline. The security officers were hit and jabbed with fence posts and flagpoles,” the sheriff’s department said. “According to several reports from security officers, knives were pulled on them or they witnessed protestors with large knives.”\nThe sheriff’s department also said two guard dogs were injured.\nBut protesters disputed that account, CNN affiliate KFYR said. Demonstrators said the guards used pepper spray and tear gas on the activists, and some protesters were injured by the guards’ dogs."}
{"content":"Yes, it’s still true. The basic principles of mathematics and probability have not changed. Thus, it is surprising to read an article saying that requiring extraordinary evidence for extraordinary claims doesn’t make sense. At least, it’s surprising until you realize the person making the claim is probably an evangelical Christian with an extraordinary claim to promote. So, how should we respond? I’ll provide a short answer and a long answer.\nThe Short Answer\nBayes’ Theorem, which has been proven to be formally valid, tells us that extraordinary claims (things with very low prior probabilities) do indeed require extraordinary evidence. For example, imagine my friend tells me he won the World Series of Poker. I would first be struck by the improbability of such a claim considering the Main Event has over 6,000 entrants and this particular friend isn’t that good at poker. Even so, it’s not impossible and there is evidence which would overcome that initially low probability. Examples of significant probability-raising evidence would include if he had millions of dollars suddenly and if he had a WSOP bracelet. If you want to see this idea demonstrated mathematically, keep reading.\nThe Long Answer\nThis is Bayes’ Theorem:\nP(h|e.b) = P(h|b) x P(e|h.b) / [ P(h|b) x P(e|h.b) ] + [ P(~h|b) x P(e|~h.b) ]\n|~||Not (or the negation of)|\nIn English, this says, “The probability that a hypothesis is true, given available evidence and background knowledge is equal to [and then you have the equation].” To understand the equation, let’s dig into the details just a bit.\nThe first term you’ll notice once you read past the = symbol is P(h|b); this is the prior probability. This term is concerned with the probability that a hypothesis is true given your background knowledge. So, when we say that the virgin birth has an incredibly low prior probability, that means that based on everything we know about the world through science, history, etc. this sort of thing doesn’t generally happen. Quite simply, we understand how babies are made, and this isn’t it. Further, in cases where parthenogenesis does actually occur in other animals, the resulting offspring are always female. So, if true, this would seem to be a one-time thing. I have no idea how many humans have ever existed, but let’s say there have been 100 billion. This would make the prior probability 1/100,000,000,000. Note that this is prior to considering any evidence for the case in question, hence the term prior probability.\nThe second term above is P(e|h.b), meaning the probability that you would have the available evidence given your hypothesis and background knowledge. In other words, would the available evidence be expected under the hypothesis? For example, say someone claims they’ve been to the beach for the past few hours. You notice they are sunburned and in their car is a beach towel. These things fit the claim well and would merit a high number. On the other hand, the lack of sun kissed skin and a movie ticket stub from two hours earlier would not be the sort of evidence you would expect.\nThis covers the numerator. It is the prior probability multiplied by the likelihood of the evidence.\nNow, as you keep moving from left to right, you’ll notice that the first term in the denominator is the entire numerator repeated. That’s why the theorem is sometimes shortened to P = A / A + B. So, what is B? It is basically the same as discussed above, only for ~H, rather than H. It is the probability that your hypothesis is false and the likelihood of the available evidence given a false hypothesis.\nLet’s plug in some numbers using a very low prior probability and see the earlier claim in action.\n- P = 0.01 x .9 / (0.01 x .9) + (0.99 x .75) = 1.2%\nHere we see a low probability event where the evidence is almost nearly as well explained by negating hypotheses and the probability is slightly raised, but remains very low. Now, let’s slowly decrease the likelihood that the evidence can be explained by alternative hypotheses and watch what happens to the outcome.\n- P = 0.01 x .9 / (0.01 x .9) + (0.99 x .50) = 1.8%\n- P = 0.01 x .9 / (0.01 x .9) + (0.99 x .25) = 3.5%\n- P = 0.01 x .9 / (0.01 x .9) + (0.99 x .10) = 8.3%\n- P = 0.01 x .9 / (0.01 x .9) + (0.99 x .01) = 48%\nWe don’t see a substantial increase in probability until we get into very low ranges of likelihood for the same evidence to be observed on alternative hypotheses. In the last example, there is only a 1% chance that the evidence can be explained by alternative hypotheses. In cases of low prior probability, the evidence must be such that it basically rules out alternative hypotheses to a very high degree.\nIn other words, extraordinary claims really do require extraordinary evidence."}
{"content":"The Alaska State Archives has a couple helpful free genealogy resources for those with Alaskan ancestors in their family tree. The archives hold naturalization records 1880-1972, pioneer home residents 1913-1980, probate index 1883-1960, teacher records 1917-1959, World War I veterans 1913-1923 and vital statistics 1816-1998. Only two of these resources are available online at this time. You can submit a research request to the archives for lookups in the other collections. There may be a fee for this service.\nThe Naturalization Records Index offers quite a bit of information, more than you normally expect to find with an index. It gives you the name, alias, country, type, location, date, record type, precinct, case number, residence and occupation. It is a large PDF file so will take a few minutes to fully download. It is organized alphabetically by surname.\nThe Probate Index is also organized alphabetically by surname. It gives you the name of the individual, case number (when available), precinct, case type, date and information where the actual file is located."}
{"content":"F. Burnam Born 1820 Richmond, KY\nThis Biography is at the Kentucky Biography Project.\nBurnam born 1830 Richmond, KY.\nThis Biography is at the Kentucky Biography Project.\nC. Burnham of De Calb Co. Mo.\nFrom \"History of Missouri, Andrew & DeKalb County\" Published 1888,\nGoodspeed Publishing Company\nS. Burnham of Milford, New Hampshire\nThis Biography is from, The History of Milford, New Hampshire\nBurnham of Rockingham Co. NH\nThis Biography is on this site\nFrom a book called \"Life and Times in Hopkinton, N. H. in three parts\"\nby C. C. Lord published 1890\nIllinois, History of Cass County, Illinois, ed. William Henry\nPerrin. O. L. Baskin & Co. Historical Publishers, Chicago, 1882.\nALONZO F. BURNHAM, physician and\nwas born in Mason County, Ill.\nJune 29, 1853; son of Henry C. and Angeline(Currier) Burnham. Henry C. Burnham, a farmer\nby occupation, was born at Hampton,Windham Co., Conn., Jan. 30, 1826, and has, since 1853,\nresided in Salt Creek Township, Mason Co., Ill.; his wife was born at Canadaigua, Ontario, N.Y.\nDec. 16, 1825; they are the parents of seven children. The doctor received his primary education\nin the country schools, and afterward attended an academy, after which he taught school and worked\non the farm.At the age of twenty-two he began the study of medicine with Dr. J. P. Walker, of\nMason City, Ill.; and attended the Rush Medical College three winter terms and one summer term,\nand graduated in 1878. He came to Ashland, April 3, 1878, and entered into partnership with\nDr. John Walker; they practiced in company until October, 1880, when, on account of ill health,\nDr. Walker retired from the practice of his profession, and Dr. Burnham has since practiced alone,\nmeeting with good success. He was married Oct.29, 1879, in Mason Co., Ill., to Emma Blunt,\na native of that county, born Jan. 3, 1859, daughter of A. A. and Martha A.(Trailor) Blunt; he was\nborn in Hart Co., Ky., Feb. 21, 1831; she was born in Springfield, Ill., June 23, 1831; from this union\nthey have had one child, P. Garfield, born April 4, 1881, died Aug. 2, 1881. The doctor is a\nRepublican and a member of the I.O.O.F., the K. of H. and the A.O.F.\nHistory of Trigg County, Historical and Biographical, Ed. W. Herrin Battey Pub. Co., Chicago, 1884 P.256 (Rock CastlePrecinet)\nJ.R.Burnam was born in North Carolina, October 4,1823. He is the son of Wilson and Elizabeth (Gambrel) Burnam both natives of North Carolina and of English desent. Wilson emigrated to Kentucky about the year 1830,and settled in Trigg County.He was a carpenter,and worked at his trade along with farming until his death in 1877 J.R. Burnam was educated in Trigg County and remained with his parents until 1850, when he married Sarah J. Holly a native of Kentucky. To them was born two sons and one daughter. Mrs. Burnam died some seventeen years ago and Mr.Burnam next married Lucy Hyden, a native of Tennessee. Two children bless this union,one son and one daughter. Mr Burnam is by trade a bricklayer and works his trade in connection with farming. He is a member of the I.O.O.F. at Rock Castle, also of the Blue Lodge, A,F.&A.M. at Parkersville,Kentucky. He is one of the leading men of the precinet and county.\nBiographies were taken from the, Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of\nAmerican Biography of the Nineteenth Century.\nAll on Page 175\nHiram Burnham, soldier, was born in Maine. At the second battle of Fredericksburg he distinguished hinself for bravery\nand courage, and again at Gettysburg. In April 1864, he was made brigadier-general, and during the campaign from the Wilderness to Petersburg he bore a conspicuous part. He was killed in battle September 29, 1864.\nJames C. Burnham, soldier, was born about 1820 in New York. After the fall of Colonel Baxter he commmanded the regiment at the storming of Chapultepec, was promated to be lieutenant- colonel Setember 27, 1847, and led the regiment through the several battles around the city of Mexico, distinguishing himself in the attack on the Belen gate. After the war Colonel Burnham was city marshall of New York under Mayor Wood, and was a prominent politician for several years. He died September 2, 1866, in New York.\nJohn Howard Burnham, soldier, journalist, bridge builder, was born October 31, 1834, in Essex, Mass. He was captain in company A, thirty-third Illinois volunteer infantry, during the Civil War. In 1864 he was superintendent of public schools at Blomington, Illinois, where for several years he was editor of the Pantagraph. As a bridge contractor he has been instrumental in the building of some of the largest bridges in Illinois and the West.\nMichael Burnham, clergyman, author, was born June 28, 1839, in Essex, Mass. This eminent congregational clergyman is now pastor of the Pilgrim church of St. Louis, Mo. He is the author of numerous pamplets and orations.\nSamuel Burnham, author, was born in 1883, in Rindge, N.H. He wrote the history of East Boston, several small volumes for the American tract society on natural history, was one of the editors of the Congregationalist, literary editor of the Watchman and Reflector, a correspondent for peridicals, edited Charles Sumner's works,and at time of his death had nearly completed a history of the Old South church of Boston. He died June 22, 1873, in Boston, Mass.\nSarah Maria Burnham, author, was born in 1818, in Chester, Vermont. She is the author of Limestones and Marbles,their History and Uses: Struggles of the Nations, and Pleasant Memories of Foreign Travel: and other works.\nSherburne W. Burnham, astronomer,\nborn in 1838, in Vermont. He was astronomer at Lick Observatory\nits foundation to 1892: and is now connected with Yerkes' Observatory\nthe universty of Chocago. He is the author of a number of scientific\nand has contributed valuable papers to current magazines.\nThomas Brownell Burnham, manufacturer,was born in January 30, 1866, in New York city. He is a director in the Benedict and Burnham Manufacturing Co. Holmes, Booth, and Haydens, brass manufacturers, and the Waterbury Watch Co. all of Waterbury, Conn. He is also a large stockholder and director in the Sixth Avenue railroad of New York city.\nVictor C. Burnham, farmer, lawyer, public official, was born April 23, 1851, in Wayne county, Mich. He graduated from the university of Michigan. He has served as mayor of Rogers City: has been city attorney: circuit court commissioner: and prosecuting attorney of Alpena county. He has served as city attorney and city judge of Alpena; and is also as United States commossioner.\nCensus Records | Vital Records | Family Trees & Communities | Immigration Records | Military Records Directories & Member Lists | Family & Local Histories | Newspapers & Periodicals | Court, Land & Probate | Finding Aids"}
{"content":"There is a surefire way to ensure tyranny – undermine the education of the populace. When the people don’t have the tools required to determine truth from lies or to obtain their information from a variety of sources, they become dependent on the state to tell them “the Truth™”. We can see this currently happening in the Arab world, where state television in Libya is still being used to broadcast misinformation that is (perhaps fatally) undermining the cause of the pro-democracy rebellion.\nOne way to ensure a religious tyranny is to ensure that the populace doesn’t have access to adequate scientific information. Science is inherently hostile to religion, since the two are very different methods at arriving at answers. The scientific method involves testing repeated observations and inferring rules and laws from trends within those observations. The religious method involves arriving at a conclusion and then finding observations that support the a priori position. The problem with the latter method is that it is trivially easy to arrive at false conclusions and then justify them afterward. By ensuring that the public doesn’t have access to scientific knowledge, you can erode the cause of science and replace it with whatever system you like.\nEnter the Conservative Party of Canada:\nThe public has lost free online access to more than a dozen Canadian science journals as a result of the privatization of the National Research Council’s government-owned publishing arm. Scientists, businesses, consultants, political aides and other people who want to read about new scientific discoveries in the 17 journals published by National Research Council Research Press now either have to pay $10 per article or get access through an institution that has an annual subscription.\nNow this on its own is an incredibly minor development. The vast majority of people who access the scientific literature are scientists working at institutions that can afford to buy subscriptions. Furthermore, the lay public get most of their scientific information from people who interpret the studies that are now behind a paywall, so most people won’t notice the difference. This is not the straw that breaks the camel’s back by any stretch of the imagination.\nHowever, erosion doesn’t work in giant leaps – it occurs gradually over time. One of the strengths of science is the ability of anyone who is curious to go back and investigate the source material. Someone tells you that a drug works to treat diabetes, you can go to the paper and check it for yourself. Someone tells you that homeopathy cures warts, you can go check it out for yourself. Someone tells you that the universe was created in the Big Bang, you can go read the papers. This process encourages skepticism and critical thinking, while increasing the trust that the public has in the scientific community (by increasing transparency).\nBy placing additional barriers between lay Canadians and the products of Canadian scientific researchers, the privatization of the National Research Council is inherently anti-transparent and anti-science. It discourages scientific scrutiny and question-asking, which are two things that the CPC really doesn’t like in the first place. If Harper can’t get a majority right now, at least he can do as much damage as possible with the limited powers he wields.\nLike this article? Follow me on Twitter!"}
{"content":"Frontier Girls as an Alternative to Girl Scouts\nGirl Scouts have been a part of American life for more than a hundred years. Most women today have wonderful memories of earning badges, going camping, singing Christmas carols, and learning a variety of useful skills within their scout troop.\nAccording to the Girl Scout website, \"Juliette \"Daisy\" Gordon Low assembled 18 girls from Savannah, Georgia, on March 12, 1912, for a local Girl Scout meeting. She believed that all girls should be given the opportunity to develop physically, mentally, and spiritually. With the goal of bringing girls out of isolated home environments and into community service and the open air. Girl Scouts hiked, played basketball, went on camping trips, learned how to tell time by the stars, and studied first aid.\"\nOver the years the Girl Scouts have consistently changed their program in an attempt to keep up with the times and keep girls involved. Unfortunately, the newest program to evolve, Journeys, is no longer a good fit for many families seeking the traditional Girl Scout experience. For families searching for an alternative to Girl Scouts, we created Frontier Girls Clubs.\nFrontier Girls is a scout like youth program for girls ages 3 - adult that we offer as an alternative to the Girl Scout program. We focus on patriotism, traditional values, community service and a love of learning. Patriotism is a character trait we take very seriously in Frontier Girls. All meetings begin with a formal flag ceremony and girls are taught a proper respect for both flag and country. We are also a strong supporter of our military personnel and veterans. Frontier Girls Clubs dedicates an entire section of its program to teaching the girls good character traits such as honesty, responsibility, modesty, and joy, and encouraging them not only to participate in community service projects, but to organize their own.\nThrough our youth program for girls, Frontier Girls Clubs offers over 1200 individual badges. With the invention of the Internet, most families, even in rural communities, have access to unlimited information, if not in their own homes, then at least through the public libraries. Because of this access to information, we are able to offer badges on virtually any subject a girl wishes to learn about. Girls today have more opportunities than at any other time in our history. Their interests vary from basic home skills and crafts to cutting edge science and technology. Whether a girl wants to learn about dairying and farming, or about aviation and rocketry, we offer badges for just about anything.\nFrontier Girls Clubs are very flexible for busy families today. Our program is designed to work with multiple ages in a single troop, all working on the same badge at the same time, but at differing skill levels. Some troops are\nlarge with a wide age range, while others are small and may consist of a single age group. Some troops meet every week, some just once a month. Many of our troops work closely with local Boy Scout or Cub Scout troops. Frontier Girls honors the badge requirements of other programs as long as they are age appropriate. Troops can therefore work alongside their local Boy Scouts and use their requirements to earn a badge through Frontier Girls.\nWhile Girl Scouts still has a lot to offer the girls of today, each family is different and should research the various scouting style options that are available today. Frontier Girls is just one. Before making a decision for your family, you may also wish to look into:\nPilgrims of the Holy Family\nKeepers of the Faith\nGood luck and happy hunting!"}
{"content":"Carbohydrates are found in a variety of foods including fruits, non-starchy vegetables, starchy vegetables, beans, lentils, legumes, grains, nuts, tofu, soy products and milk. Carbohydrates are also found in added sugars such as refined sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar, honey, maple syrup, molasses and high-fructose corn syrup. Cucumbers are considered a non-starchy vegetable. In general, non-starchy vegetables contain very few carbohydrates.\nCUCUMBER NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION\nAccording to the American Diabetes Association, your blood glucose levels are affected by both the amount of carbohydrate that you consume, and the type. In terms of amount of carbohydrate, cucumbers contain very little. A 1/2 cup of sliced raw cucumber with skin intact contains about 1.89 g of carbohydrate. Fiber provides the main source of carbohydrates in cucumbers and other non-starchy vegetables. Fiber, unlike sugar and starch carbohydrates, does not affect your blood glucose levels because it passes through your body without being broken down into sugar molecules.\nYOUR BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS\nAfter you eat cucumbers, the food material travels to your stomach in order to be digested. During digestion, the small amounts of sugar and starch carbohydrates in cucumbers get broken down into tiny sugar molecules. The fiber carbohydrates continue to pass through and out of your body without being digested. The carbohydrates that have been converted into sugar molecules go through the lining of your stomach and get absorbed into your bloodstream.\nCucumbers and all other non-starchy vegetables are an important part of a healthy, balanced diet. Cucumbers are a type of healthy carbohydrate because they are nutrient-rich, unlike carbohydrate-containing foods that are often filled with empty calories, such as foods made from refined grains and added sugars. The carbohydrates in cucumbers will provide your cells with the energy they need in order to perform their functions, without jeopardizing your blood sugar health.\n- American Diabetes Association: Food and Fitness — Carbohydrates\n- American Diabetes Association: Food and Fitness — Glycemic Index and Diabetes\n- American Diabetes Association: Food and Fitness — Non-Starchy Vegetables\n- United States Department of Agriculture Nutrient Database\n- MayoClinic.com: Nutrition and Healthy Eating — Glycemic Index Diet: Losing Weight with Blood Sugar Control, Nov. 24, 2009\n- MayoClinic.com: Nutrition and Healthy Eating — Healthy Diet: End the Guesswork with these Nutrition Guidelines, Feb. 22, 2011"}
{"content":"Not all flowers are created equal. We're not just talking about size, shape and color. When it comes to flowers that will stand the test of time, there are only a few that thrive once they're cut for floral arrangements. And come Fall, the pickings are even more slim. But, we've got good news! These eight Fall flowering plants are perfect for any cut flower arrangement and we carry them all at GSCO!\nIf you like gardening, you probably also do your best to bring the outdoors in. On the third week of September, we celebrate National Indoor Plant Week not just because we love plants but because of the many benefits that come from those we bring inside to our homes and offices.\nThink you need and excuse to add a little green to your indoor world? Check out these four interesting facts about houseplants:\nChances are you don't have to dig deep to bring to mind someone in your life who has or has been diagnosed with cancer at some point in their life. Perhaps this person is a co-worker or a neighbor. Perhaps this person is a parent. Perhaps this person is a partner. Or perhaps this person is you. No matter how far or how close your experience with cancer has come, we all can imagine the financial burden this c-word brings with it.\nIt's Labor Day weekend and that's cause for a neighborhood gathering to get your buzz on! Want to impress your neighbors? Try this garden to table (or should we say: bee hive to table) recipe using your own honey. Don't have your own bee hive just yet? Swing by GSCO and pick up a jar of our sweet stuff!\nGoing green has always been about giving back. Around the yard, in the greenhouse and at Garden Supply Company, we tend to think going green has to do with recycling plastic water bottles, planting our own fruits and veggies, saving the bees and collecting water in rain barrels. And it does. But we green thumbs have found another way to go about going green and we're excited to announce that you can be involved in this green project too.\nThere's something special about the path from the garden to the kitchen–picking fresh herbs with your own hands and bringing them inside to the kitchen to cook with right then and there. For many of us, this tradition comes and goes with the summer season. Our summertime herbs, like basil and cilantro, that don't like the cold, won't be with us too much longer. That is, unless we save them for cooler days. While freezing alone tends to yield strange-tasting and browned herbs, there's one simple trick to better preserving your summer yield–oil!\nThere is no greater gift we can give ourselves than the flowers we pick from our gardens. And while we love to gaze at them outdoors, the dog days of summer are here and that means it's time to–snip-snip–take them indoors! Try these simple steps when cutting your fresh floral arrangement for maximum viewing pleasure!\nMany shade gardens don't get the color they deserve. Need to spice up your shady areas with a boost of color? Coral Bells are the perfect perennial addition for the fully shaded, partially shady and even the partially sunny spaces in your yard. Scroll through our slideshow below to view six gorgeous Coral Bell varieties that might just make your shade garden pop!\nThe dog days of summer are here, the North Carolina humidity is kicking and it's time to get out of the outdoors and off on your vacation. But as your well-awaited time away approaches, perhaps you're thinking you want to bring the outdoors in with an oasis of house plants. No need to sweat it out in the garden and there's no need to wait until after you get back from your week off of work! There are plenty of easy-care, indoor plants that are vacation-proof.\nRead about these five plants that don't mind if you go:\nAir plants–or tillandsias–can be found in the wild growing from the branches of trees in rain forests, rocky cliffs of mountain ranges and in the dry sand of deserts. In wild environments such as these, some 650 varieties of the bromeliad family evolved to thrive without soil. Those air plants that have roots, only use them to affix themselves to a host with optimal living conditions like a tree or rock.\nTomato (pronounced to-MAY-to)? Or Tomato (pronounced to-MAH-to)? No one really cares how we pronounce the name of our favorite garden veggie (even though, technically, a tomato is a fruit). What everyone really wants to know is how to grow the tastiest tomato for a dreamy summertime BLT. Looking for a few tricks to grow your own ‘maters? Try our tips below."}
{"content":"High horsepower outputs are all the rage these days; with hatchbacks boasting 300bhp and saloons 500bhp; hearing about supercars with astronomical power outputs is not new. But when you hear the power figure McLaren says its P1 will have, you can’t help but smile. McLaren isn’t messing about with this car, it’s out for blood.\nNine-hundred and three. That’s how many. And if you have to ask ‘what’, then you shouldn’t know. Sure, there are cars with more power, like the all-conquering Bugatti Veyron, but there’s something about a McLaren with 903bhp that tickles my senses. It’s probably because of the McLaren F1, that iconic super star of the car world. The P1 is set to be its successor, and in order to succeed, it needs to be outstanding.\nThe world of supercars is in the middle of an incredible shift towards crazier technologies, especially in terms of hybrid power plants. McLaren is no exception to this, and if anything is one of the leaders. Because this beauty is a hybrid, sporting petrol and electric motors combining to form that monster power figure. It really is gorgeous too. It truly embraces a new organic styling. But back to that engine. It uses a version of the McLaren MC4-12C’s twin-turbo 3.8 V8, but significantly reworked for durability and cooling. McLaren also worked very closely with Mobil 1 on bespoke lubricating, cooling and hydraulic fluids for the P1’s petrol engine. The peak figures for the rather small V8 are a very strong 727bhp and 530lb ft of torque, though.\nNow, that electric motor. Developed by McLaren’s ‘Electronics’ division, it will add a certain character to the McLaren that few cars these days can claim to have: instant power. The great thing about electric motors is the fact that there’s no waiting for the engine to get to speed; the power and torque come immediately — all of it. So the figures of 176bhp and 191lb ft of torque that the motor produces may not sound that big, but in reality it’ll possibly be what sets this engine apart from all the other supercars.\nSome of the crazy technology that will be found on the P1 will be in the form of its battery packs. It’ll have a 96kg pack located just behind the passenger cell and bolted onto the carbon fibre chassis. Setting it apart are the fact that McLaren say that its energy density is greater than any other car’s. On top of that, will be a system called Instant Power Assist System that will offer all of the electric motor’s power on command acting as a boost function. The system will apparently provide better throttle response, more akin to a naturally aspirated, and here’s where it get’s hectic: employs “instant negative torque at the point of shift” onto the gearbox to get the engine to its required speed to change gears. The electric motor will only do about 10km by itself, but no one will ever do that: fact.\nThe hybrid aspect isn’t only for ultra power figures, it’s ecological too. It only produces 200g/km of CO2 which is good for a supercar, very good. But not as good as that rear wing. No amount of ecological talk can turn my eyes away from wings like that. Especially when it is derived from the F1 style Drag Reduction System (DRS) wings. So with the push of a button the wing opens the aerodynamics and reduces drag by 23 percent. Slippery stuff, considering how much power will be propelling you forward.\nLooking forward to seeing one of these? Heavens, it’s going to be an occasion."}
{"content":"The Bangs Sisters, Mary \"May\" E. Bangs and Elizabeth \"Lizzie\" Snow Bangs, were mediums from Chicago, who made a career out of painting the dead or \"Spirit Portraits,\" without ever have met the fallen.\nElizabeth was born around 1860 to mother Meroe and father Edward Bangs while they were living in Atchison, Kansas. They moved to Chicago in 1861, and Mary was born there in 1864. Their mother was a medium herself, and soon got her four children (sons Edward and W.B.) into the act.\nBy the early 1870s the Bangs family were performing seances as described in the August 3rd, 1872, Religio-Philosophical Journal article by Steven Sanborn Jones called, \"An Evening with the Bangs Children\". People would pay to be entertained at the Bangs home. Messages from the dead would appear on slabs of slate as chairs and furniture would move about the room. The children were tied up in a cabinet, then a guitar inside would strum and hands would wave from within. For the finale, Mary would bring forward a shaved cat that was said to be a \"spirit cat\" from the afterworld. In the summer of 1881, May and her mother were arrested for \"doing business without a license\", but this was dismissed because they claimed to be evangelists, and such charges could not be brought against ministers.\n| This page incorporated content from Bangs Sisters,\na page hosted on Wikipedia. Please consult the history of the original page to see a list of its authors. Therefor, this article is also available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License"}
{"content":"The Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient is used to discover the strength of\na link between two sets of data. This example looks at the strength of the link\nbetween the price of a convenience item (a 50cl bottle of water) and distance\nfrom the Contemporary Art Museum in El Raval, Barcelona.\nExample: The hypothesis tested\nis that prices should decrease with distance from the key area of gentrification\nsurrounding the Contemporary Art Museum. The line followed is Transect 2 in the\nmap below, with continuous sampling of the price of a 50cl bottle water at every\nMap to show the location of environmental gradients for\ntransect lines in El Raval, Barcelona\nWe might expect to find that the price of a bottle of water\ndecreases as distance from the Contemporary Art Museum increases. Higher\nproperty rents close to the museum should be reflected in higher prices in the\nThe hypothesis might be written like this:\nThe price of a convenience item decreases as distance from the\nContemporary Art Museum increases.\nThe more objective scientific research method is always to\nassume that no such price-distance relationship exists and to express the null\nhypothesis as: there is no significant relationship between the price of a convenience item\nand distance from the Contemporary Art Museum.\nWhat can go wrong?\nHaving decided upon the wording of the hypothesis, you should\nconsider whether there are any other factors that may influence the study. Some\nfactors that may influence prices may include:\nThe type of retail outlet. You must be consistent in your choice of retail\noutlet. For example, bars and restaurants often charge significantly more for\nwater than a convenience store. You should decide which type of outlet to use\nand stick with it for all your data collection.\nSome shops have different prices for the same item: a high tourist and lower\nlocal price, dependent upon the shopkeeper's perception of the customer.\nShops near main roads may charge more than shops in less accessible back\nstreets, due to the higher rents demanded for main road retail sites.\nThe positive spread effects from other nearby areas of gentrification or\nfrom competing areas of tourist attraction.\nThe negative spread effects from nearby areas of urban decay.\nHigher prices may be charged during the summer when demand is less flexible,\nmaking seasonal comparisons less reliable.\nCumulative sampling may distort the expected price-distance gradient if\nseveral shops cluster within a short area along the transect line followed by a\nconsiderable gap before the next group of retail outlets.\nYou should mention such factors in your investigation.\nData collected (see data table below) suggests a fairly strong\nnegative relationship as shown in this scatter graph:\nScatter graph to show the change in the price of a\nconvenience item with distance from the Contemporary Art Museum. Roll over image\nto see trend line.\nThe scatter graph shows the possibility of a negative\ncorrelation between the two variables and the Spearman's rank correlation\ntechnique should be used to see if there is indeed a correlation, and to test\nthe strength of the relationship.\nSpearman’s Rank correlation coefficient\nA correlation can easily be drawn as a scatter\ngraph, but the most precise way to compare several pairs of data is\nto use a statistical test - this establishes whether the correlation is really\nsignificant or if it could have been the result of chance alone.\nSpearman’s Rank correlation coefficient is a technique which\ncan be used to summarise the strength and direction (negative or positive) of a\nrelationship between two variables.\nThe result will always be between 1 and minus 1.\nMethod - calculating the coefficient\nCreate a table from your data.\nRank the two data sets. Ranking is achieved by giving the ranking '1' to the\nbiggest number in a column, '2' to the second biggest value and so on. The\nsmallest value in the column will get the lowest ranking. This should be done\nfor both sets of measurements.\nTied scores are given the mean (average) rank. For example, the three tied\nscores of 1 euro in the example below are ranked fifth in order of price, but\noccupy three positions (fifth, sixth and seventh) in a ranking hierarchy of ten.\nThe mean rank in this case is calculated as (5+6+7) ÷ 3 = 6.\nFind the difference in the ranks (d): This is the difference between the\nranks of the two values on each row of the table. The rank of the second value\n(price) is subtracted from the rank of the first (distance from the museum).\nSquare the differences (d²) To remove negative values and then sum them (d²).\nDistance from CAM (m)\nPrice of 50cl bottle (€)\nDifference between ranks\nd² = 285.5\nData Table: Spearman's Rank Correlation\nCalculate the coefficient (R) using the formula below. The\nanswer will always be between 1.0 (a perfect positive correlation) and -1.0 (a\nperfect negative correlation).\nWhen written in mathematical notation the Spearman Rank formula\nlooks like this :\nNow to put all these values into the formula.\nFind the value of all the d² values by adding up all the values in the\nDifference² column. In our example this is 285.5. Multiplying\nthis by 6 gives 1713.\nNow for the bottom line of the equation. The value n is the\nnumber of sites at which you took measurements. This, in our example is 10.\nSubstituting these values into n³ - n we get 1000 - 10\nWe now have the formula: R = 1 - (1713/990) which gives a\nvalue for R:\n1 - 1.73 = -0.73\nWhat does this R value of -0.73 mean?\nThe closer Ris to +1 or -1, the stronger\nthe likely correlation. A perfect positive correlation is +1 and a perfect\nnegative correlation is -1. The Rvalue of -0.73 suggests a fairly\nstrong negative relationship.\nA further technique is now required to test the significance\nof the relationship.\nThe R value of -0.73 must be\nlooked up on the Spearman Rank significance table below as follows:\nWork out the 'degrees of freedom' you need to use. This is the number of\npairs in your sample minus 2 (n-2). In the example it is 8 (10 - 2).\nNow plot your result on the table.\nIf it is below the line marked 5%, then it is possible your result was the\nproduct of chance and you must reject the hypothesis.\nIf it is above the 0.1% significance level, then we can be 99.9% confident\nthe correlation has not occurred by chance.\nIf it is above 1%, but below 0.1%, you can say you are 99% confident.\nIf it is above 5%, but below 1%, you can say you are 95% confident (i.e.\nstatistically there is a 5% likelihood the result occurred by chance).\nIn the example, the value 0.73 gives a significance level of\nslightly less than 5%. That means that the probability of the relationship you\nhave found being a chance event is about 5 in a 100. You are\n95% certain that your hypothesis is correct. The reliability of your sample can\nbe stated in terms of how many researchers completing the same study as yours\nwould obtain the same results: 95 out of 100.\nThe fact two variables correlate cannot prove anything - only further\nresearch can actually prove that one thing affects the other.\nData reliability is related to the size of the sample. The more data you\ncollect, the more reliable your result."}
{"content":"Drunkeness, thievery and health: the South African soap opera continues\nThe new twist in the tale is that the journalists of the Sunday Times, the Johannesburg newspaper which broke the stories of ministrial drunkness and thievery, are accused of obtaining and publishing Tshabalala-Msimang's medical records without her consent and are threatened with arrest. An alleged represenative of the medical community, speaking on anonymity, states that such uses of medical records are simply unethical, even if what they reveal is itself unethical behavior. Defenders of the journalists cite press freedom, while pointing out that the journalists and the newspaper seem to be subject to special government pressure: the journalists are now being watched by the South African secret service, and the government is threatening to withhold its advertizing from the Sunday Times. Interestingly, the executive director of the Freedom of Expression Institute argues that disclosure of private information can be justified in the light of a significant public health threat, and Tshabalala-Msimang should be considered just such a threat. It is unusual that a Minister of Health is viewed as analogous to multi-drug resistant tuberculosis or a toxic waste spill. But in South Africa, anything is apparently possible."}
{"content":"A recent thread on the NYC Celiac Disease Meetup message board prompted quite a discussion about the Gluten Free Certification Organization (GFCO). GFCO is a program of the Gluten Intolerance Group of North America (GIG). Cynthia Kupper, the Executive Director of GIG, took the time to address our thread and thoroughly answer many of our outstanding questions. Please see her Q&A below.\n\"I can only address the GFCO program and FDA. My knowledge of the CSA Seal of Recognition program is limited to the information made public through comments provided by CSA to the FDA.\"\nQ: Do you know if GFCO plans to work with other programs, i.e. NFCA's G.R.E.A.T. program, to do trainings and establish standard protocols throughout the collective food industries?\nA: GIG and GFCO do work in partnership with various members of the food industry already. Many agencies are working within and with the food industries to provide education and training related to gluten intolerances. Some of us are working together in this effort.\nQ: Is it true that only people who work for the Orthodox Union and have no business conflicts are eligible to be trained to be GFCO inspectors?\nA: GFCO contracts with third-party auditors, including the Food Services Inc, a part of the OU and other independent auditors who have expertise in manufacturing processes.\nC: Right now smaller food companies don't have any easy route to certification from anyone.\nR: GFCO's ultimate target is the raw materials suppliers, supplying ingredients to the companies making GF foods. Our goal is to make the food safe from the beginning of the food chain as well as the end product. GFCO works with companies of all sizes and has a small business package. GFCO works with small businesses and new companies to find a way to provide consumer confidence and assurance in their products.\nQ: What is the GFCO Process for Certification?\nA: Companies who certify with GFCO must complete an application. A risk assessment, independent audit and report are completed. If a company qualifies to be certified, a contract which includes: requirements for onsite testing, random testing from a point of sale; and unannounced plant inspections is signed. GFCO also maintains the right to take action to protect the consumer from fraudulent GFCO claims or Standards violations.\nQ: If the FDA comes out with a definition of gluten-free being < 20 ppm, would we then be able to trust any product that declares itself gluten-free even if it is free of a certification label?\nA: Yes. Any product labeled GF after the FDA regulation goes into affect will have to meet the standards set by the FDA. 20 ppm is a very safe level for celiacs and it is virtually impossible to consume that level of gluten, based on eating GF products.\nQ: Would there still be a purpose to having certification by GFCO or CSA?\nA: Yes. Certification is voluntary, as is labeling a product GF. Companies who certify their products believe in meeting higher standards and welcome third party oversight. External oversight is healthy and provides a higher level of accountability for manufacturers. Let?s face it, the FDA is understaffed and will not be able to provide adequate oversight for all companies.\nC: The two companies out there CSA and GFCO do not make it convenient, easy, or cost-effective for small companies and almost impossible for non-dedicated facilities.\nR: GFCO does work with small companies to make certification cost-effective. The challenge is to also make the program cover its own expenses. Companies who understand the value of third-party certification for organic or kosher also understand the value of GF certification. The overall cost of certification is pennies on the dollar. Unfortunately, certification may be out of the reach of small companies just getting started?but call GFCO?you may be surprised what can be done.\nIt is possible to certify non-dedicated facilities! There are a number of factors that go into certifying products in non-dedicated facilities, but it is do-able. GFCO audits and consults with co-packers on a regular basis. Many GF products are safely produced in non-dedicated facilities at no detectible gluten in their products.\nQ: What about testing methods?\nA: the Haven Flow-through is just one testing method available. Some are based on Skarrett and others on r-5 sandwich Elisa methodology. It is the r-5 that is being supported by CODEX. At this time we do not know what the FDA will use. There is on-going debate in the analytical community about the need for using both methods rather than just one. Each has its strengths and weaknesses when seeing specific gluten proteins. GFCO uses both methods."}
{"content":"Earlier this year, Saudi Arabian Airlines announced that they would not fly anyone with an Israeli passport on any of their flights. In addition, they said that they would not allow anyone with an Israeli stamp in any other countries passport to fly in or out of Saudi Arabia.\nSaudi Arabia is a Muslim nation and it is ruled under very strict Muslim laws. They are also an ally of the US so the news of this discrimination was kept somewhat low key by the Obama administration who is also an ally to the Muslim religion.\nExcept for some Jewish residents in New York, I don’t recall hearing very many people, especially any Muslims complain about Saudi Arabian Airlines’ discriminatory process, especially considering the fact that they do fly commercially in and out of the US and will enforce their discriminatory practices here in our country. But when the najdi are on the other foot, things are different.\nMasudur Rahman and Mohamed Zaghloul, Islamic imams from Tennessee have filed suit against Delta Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines, claiming that they were not allowed to fly because of how they looked and who they are.\nAccording to their lawsuit, the two men were wearing traditional Muslim clothing and were on their way to an anti-Muslim bigotry conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. They passed through the TSA security, underwent several extra security checks and pat downs and were approved for boarding. At boarding they were pulled aside and again given another security check and allowed to board.\nAfter being seated, they were again asked to provide a photo id, which they did. Then just as the plane began to taxi away from the gate, the pilot announced that they had to return to the gate where the two imams were asked to gather their luggage and disembark. TSA agents again searched their luggage and patted down the men and cleared them to board.\nAt this time, the pilot refused to let the two Islamic clerics back on board the plane. A Delta supervisor was called in and he had a rather heated discussion with the pilot and then tried to smooth things over with the clerics. At this point, a higher ranking Delta supervisor was called in, but by the time he arrived, the plane had left the gate.\nThe plane was order back to the gate where the higher ranking supervisor had another heated discussion with the pilot. The pilot told him that he was uncomfortable with the two men being on his plane and thought that their presence would make other passengers uncomfortable. The passengers were asked and no one responded that they were uncomfortable with the two men on board, but the pilot still expressed his reservations. Finally, the flight was allowed to leave without the two imams on board.\nI’m sure the pilot is going to have hell to pay for his actions, but we will have to wait and see.\nI’m not one to favor discrimination, but if a Muslim run airline is allowed to practice ethnic discrimination for their flights here in the US, then hasn’t the legal precedent been set? If action is taken against the pilot of this flight, I hope they use the example of the Saudi Arabian Airlines discriminatory practices as part of their defense. Muslims many want it both ways, but hopefully they can’t have it both ways."}
{"content":"|Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow|\nNota bene: The following writing will not educate you on a few foundational premises. One of them is that indefinite solitary confinement is torture. Another is that the prison system as practiced in the U.S., and particularly in California, is not only egregiously punitive, it is run by profiteers who benefit from overpopulation, and it is organized in a way that capitalizes on racist narratives of criminality that are as ugly and diseased as any racist beliefs that circulated this country prior to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. If you have any remaining doubt about these premises, I implore you to educate yourself.\nAlexander, who was bold enough to claim that “we have allowed a human rights nightmare to occur on our watch,” locates herself squarely in the business of educating people about the prison system, but she did not publicly recommend any particular course of action other than the building of a “large-scale social movement” to address the concerns of prisoners and their families. (At least, she didn’t in Los Angeles. I heard from comrades up North that in the Bay Area, she was using the word “revolution.” Hopeful? Maybe. Pandering to audience? Maybe. Who knows.)\n|Juan Mendez, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture|\nSome very well-respected people with heavy media connections are speaking out in public about solitary confinement and mass incarceration! That’s good! Isn’t it?\nOne of the most boring public debates is the one about how much is enough activism. How much work it will take to get any social justice actually visible on the ground. I’m not going to participate in it here. I’m glad that people like Alexander and Mendez are out there doing educational and solidarity projects with people who are making the painful move toward awareness of such injustice as California’s prisons. They both probably work as many hours as they are capable, and are pained by the information they are privy to, and so on. And even if they aren’t, they certainly are doing more to raise consciousness with their access to media than, oh, say, Gov. Jerry Brown.\nThe question I’m posing here is not one of degree. My question is actually about the foundational beliefs that undergird projects of prison reform, and particularly the movement to end solitary confinement. One of those beliefs, which I do not share, is that prison itself could ever be a just and appropriate answer to “crime” as we have conceived of it in this country. I do not believe that putting human beings in cages is a conscionable act. At all. Ever. This makes supporting anti-solitary confinement movement work feel, to me, like offering a self-loathing alcoholic a beer in the morning, out of deference to her hangover. (Which is not to pass moral judgement on self-loving functional addicts of any kind. I’m talking about giving drinks to a trapped, wants-to-stop-but-can’t alcoholic.) In other words, if we can begin to conceive of our country as dependent upon the carceral system, adjusting its severity here and there simply doesn’t satisfy the call for real change.\nThe nationally accepted concept of crime itself, the very category of action against law, is racialized and therefore unjust. Alexander acknowledges this, and reports on American’s racial biases and how they are institutionally supported in The New Jim Crow. Ninety-five percent of survey respondents describe a black person when asked who they imagine as a “drug user,” when consistently the statistics indicate that equal numbers if not more white people both use and sell illegal drugs? Let’s not even begin to head down the racist rabbit hole of why some drugs are legal and some aren’t.\nNot only do I think cages are wrong, I think that asking a privileged class of people (Congress, lobbyists, policy makers, NGOs, and the like) what to do about crime is like asking the alcoholic what she’d like to do about her headache in the moment it hurts her the most. Oh, she’d prefer to drink more if her choices are drinking or not drinking? Well, yes. That makes sense. Prison reformists would prefer to put people in slightly less disgusting cages, if the choices are more or less disgusting cages? Hm. That seems right...if the choices really are that circumscribed.\nThe fact that our country was built on genocide and slave labor should tip us off that we might require an underclass to perpetuate our function as a superpower, and that our notions of what is possible for reform are defined by that need. California certainly creates, perpetuates, and profits from an underclass. Nationally, that class is made of 2.3 million people who are under the surveillance and bodily control of the state. Inmates are getting paid cents per hour to perform factory work for companies who profit simultaneously from lower wage expenditures AND from their stocks in private prison corporations, which are expanding faster in California than any other private sector is expanding. In Southern California, upon release, men are bused directly to Skid Row and then denied jobs and state aid based on their status as felons, for the rest of their lives.\nWe, as a country, need a huge prison population to support our power structure, and so anyone who wants to incite social justice movements around prison reform is in a terrible position: they must either ignore these facts in favor of continued American exceptionalism, or they must ask Americans to self-critically evaluate their own possessive investment in the continued functioning of the carceral state. Do you know how mass incarceration makes your daily life possible? Have you ever tried to figure it out?\nAnyone can be against solitary confinement, and everybody should. It takes a much deeper level of self-imposed discomfort to realize that every day, you and I are living on the spoils of slave labor, contributing to the isolation and abuse of prisoners by allowing carceral facilities to operate totally para-legally and without oversight, and, that it is not just the prisoners’ or their families’ who bear the responsibility for upending the system as we know it.\nPerhaps entering the prison abolition mindset via reformists like Michelle Alexander and Juan Mendez is possible. However, even the powerful reformists of the world are most likely not going to discuss the total dismantling of the neoliberal carceral state on camera, lest they be called socialists, hippies, idiots, or worse. But we will. And we must, or whatever gains the movement makes in ending solitary confinement will silence protest against the foundational and constituitive elements of the carceral state that allow it to function at all.\nIn addition to the terrifying statistics and horrifying anecdotes that illuminate the errors of the California Department of Corrections, there are moments of hopeful action in California that are deeply affecting and radically defiant. Communities are capable of creating real alternatives to incarceration. Self-determination in codes of conduct and self-defense against state-sanctioned fascist policing policies are foundational ethics in multiple communities within this nightmare. More than being anti-solitary reformists, we do have the option to be abolitionists, without all the answers, without all the plans, and with each other, not just the experts I heard over the weekend, as guides.\n|Members of Break the Lock and allies at USC's 2013 Conference on Cruelty|\nRead up at: www.tideturning/org (And come to the December gala!)"}
{"content":"Last night, at the meeting of the Planning Commission, a representative from Hudson Solar presented plans to install a solar electric system at Basilica Hudson. He explained that the original plan was to install the panels on the roof of the main building, an action that did not require site plan review, but the nature of the building's steel and concrete roof made it easier and less costly to erect a new structure to hold the solar array.\nThe new structure being proposed is a covered, open-air car park to be located on part of the \"triangle\" of land along the railroad tracks, which was purchased from HCDPA by former Basilica owner Patrick Doyle in 2006. The 32 x 116 foot structure would be adjacent to the smaller building at the Basilica, sometimes used as a gallery and now being used by Kite's Nest. The spokesperson for the Basilica suggested that the new structure might be designated for handicapped parking or made available as a rainy day alternative for the farmers' market.\nCappy Pierro, Planning Commission member and Fifth Ward alderman, pointed out that the Planning Commission had already given site plan approval to an earlier plan for this space. Cheryl Roberts, counsel to the Planning Commission, indicated that it was \"the applicant's responsibility to know if [the current proposal] is an amendment [to the original application] or a new application.\"\nWhen the question of a public hearing on the project arose, Pierro and Planning Commission member Cleveland Samuels expressed the opinion that there didn't need to be a public hearing. Gossips, speaking from the audience on behalf of the public, urged that there be a public hearing, and Planning Commission member Laura Margolis agreed. The public hearing on this project and on the new bar proposed for 702 Columbia Street has been tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, January 9, at 6:30 p.m."}
{"content":"As GPS vulnerabilities to intentional jamming and unintentional interference become key factors for high-reliability navigation, inertial aiding to coast through outages becomes an important consideration for OEM integrators. Micro-electro-mechnical systems (MEMS) have been seen as offering the most promising, economical way forward for cost-effective, compact inertial and gyro solutions for almost every application going.\nHowever, in the past, MEMS gyro and accelerometer components from which inertial and gyro systems are built have not provided performance anywhere near as good as laser gyros (ring laser gyros, or RLG) used in the majority of high-performance inertial systems. Now, as new MEMS inertial systems have begun to hit the market in recent months, the envelope appears to be opening up on achieving pretty high performance.\nGladiator Technologies, based in Snoqualmie near Seattle, Washington, is one of several companies currently supplying MEMS-based inertial/gyro systems for a wide range of applications. I came across Gladiator at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) convention in Washington, D.C., last August and decided to take a closer look at them as a typical supplier of new, compact, cost-effective MEMS navigation devices, which are becoming essential compliments to GNSS.\nGladiator has been around since 2005 and has continued to innovate each year, growing its product line and gradually improving performance. Right or wrong, as an “inertial layman” I’ve always used drift rates (bias) to assess inertial accuracy, and this is apparently directly related to the noise floor of the sensor device. Now Gladiator has released its latest Landmark 50 INS/GPS with low noise MEMS gyros and accelerometers and it claims 1 degree/hour drift rate in-run — as good as an 8-cm path length ring-laser gyro — something of an achievement for a MEMS-based device. (That’s a 2 Euro coin used in the photo for size reference.)\nThe product line goes all the way from automotive gyros up to the latest high-performance GPS/INS, and includes basic angular rate sensors and accelerometer packages. Applications include automotive testing, agricultural motion sensing, motorsport racing, instrumentation (including robotics and flight testing), rail, marine and energy motion detection, military land-vehicle and marine platform stabilization and navigation, electro-optical/infra-red targeting and stabilization, launcher and missile stabilization/navigation, and unmanned vehicles.\nGladiator integrates u-blox GPS receivers in its GPS/INS systems because of good environmental and test performance and good accuracy and navigation update rates. It’s possible in the future that airborne-qualified GPS or higher performance DGPS will find their way into new inertial variants, but for now Gladiator is very satisfied with u-blox receivers.\nApplications may use a single/dual axis gyro or inertial measurement unit (IMU) where angular attitude outputs are required, such as image, attitude or weapons stabilization, or even packaged accelerometers.\nAnd, of course, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are one of the target markets for these MEMS products — Gladiator has already had a lot of success in this segment. Its equipment is used on a number of unmanned vehicles, including fixed-wing and vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) vehicles, as well as ground and underwater unmanned vehicles. These applications range from primary navigation/backup navigation to primary flight control/backup flight control, and include a large number of stabilization applications including electro-optical/infrared, LIDAR (light detection and ranging) and platform stabilization. Gladiator supplies these UAV applications with various inertial sensors (gyros) and inertial systems, including IMUs, vertical gyros (VGs), attitude heading reference systems (AHRS) and GPS-aided inertial systems. Customers in this market segment include Schiebel, U.S. Army, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, ST Aerospace, and others.\nGladiator is closely monitoring progress towards UAVs gaining certified access to civil aerospace, and the prospect of expanding civilian applications and markets that that will bring. The company feels that its skills are in and around inertial sensor technology and products, and its efforts towards civil qualification should focus on these elements. Therefore, Gladiator is are looking for a partner who would take on GNSS civil qualification for civil airborne GNSS/INS applications.\nGladiator is still a small outfit with around 30 people, with most of its engineering done in-house by a team of nine engineering staff supported by some external consultants. Senior management has more than 100 years’ experience in this field, and Rand Hulsing, the chief scientist, holds 68 patents in MEMS inertial sensors. New patents are currently pending on inertial-grade gyro and accelerometer designs. People on staff have gained significant experience working for companies such as Allied Signal, Sundstrand, Honeywell, L3, Systron Donner and Hughes.\nI pressed Mark Chamberlain, Gladiator CEO, for details of which (bought out) OEM MEMS devices his company integrates into its systems, and I was quite surprised by his response — Gladiator designs its own high-performance MEMS gyros and accelerometers and uses a fabless model to produce them. Clearly, it is having great success with this approach as its product performance has improved to almost within reach of existing technology high-performance inertial systems. Some of Gladiator’s lower end systems do still use OEM MEMS sensors. Their manufacturing facility in Washington focuses on product assembly and test, including calibration and environmental test.\nThe systems Gladiator supplies are non-ITAR — which is short for saying that they can be exported to most friendly countries, and are not subject to special/restricted U.S. State-Department trade regulations.\nGladiator does around $10 million/year currently, and anticipate its growth to continue. It has a number of sales representatives in North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia, so it is well known around the world, with more than 200 customers in 30 countries. I asked Mark about the possibility of an Initial Public Offering (IPO), but he is currently quite happy with the existing private ownership for the time being. The Gladiator board includes investor-directors from France and Germany, and the external directors also have impressive experience, so presumably board guidance has also helped Gladiator get where it is today.\nSo, we have almost-inertial high-performance products with integrated GPS, attitude-only products and accelerometer packages for almost any application you could imagine, and are quietly inching towards 1 deg/hour total within the next few years — MEMS devices really have come a long way in the last few years."}
{"content":"I haven't seen the Other Boleyn Girl yet, but as an early modernist I suppose I'm obliged to at some point! I do think though that its interesting that its this aspect of Anne's story that we highlight in drama and in movies- the recent Henry VIII series on the BBC was similar. Anne Boleyn for those who don't know successfully managed the transition from being Henry's queen's lady in waiting to Henry's mistress to his wife and queen. But in a way that's the least interesting thing about her: Boleyn was an incredibly interesting woman in her own right, without thinking about her connection with Henry. She was a patron of the careers of many Protestants at Henry's court- and though we don't know how much influence she had on Henry's policy in the Reformation, there is a good case for saying that she was one of the drivers behind the Reformation. She was also an incredibly intelligent woman- Henry was attracted by her intelligence at first but then repulsed by the fact that she refused to bow to him all the time, by her temper and her sharpness. Her fall which flowed from her character and her enthusiasm for Protestantism in some ways is much more interesting than her rise- pretty women attract compliments and royal patrons all the time- but Anne wasn't just a pretty woman, she was an intelligent, skilful player of the court game, with an ideological coterie around her of radical protestants and a strong temper and sense of herself. I doubt we'll see that in the movie (except maybe as a negative and an adjunct to her charm)- and I do think its interesting that whenever you see this queen displayed on screen, her sexiness is emphasized at the expense of her intelligence. Partly that's because cinema likes a pretty body more than an interesting mind- but partly one suspects a residual sexism in the way that we approach Anne. We don't see the intelligent woman, as much as the sexy schemer."}
{"content":"Hyponatremia is a lack of sodium in your blood.\nHyponatremia occurs when the sodium levels in your blood are dangerously low. Symptoms include vomiting, headache, confusion, fatigue, appetite loss, seizures, coma, and others. Those who exercise intensely for extended periods of time are at a greater risk for hyponatremia, as the body loses salt through sweating. Drinking plain water is not enough to replenish sodium levels, and the salt to water ratio only gets worse. When levels are too low, excess water causes your cells to swell, which is especially dangerous for your brain.\nClick here to cancel reply.\nSorry,At this time user registration is disabled. We will open registration soon!\nDon't have an account? Click Here to Signup\n© Copyright GreenAnswers.com LLC"}
{"content":"Peer Review the Asbestos Way\nHi. This is a slowly conglomerating monsterpost jumping off of some OMB peer review regulations that are apparently really trendy right now (ref: Chris Mooney, Calpundit). Why? Because they rule out peer review of government research by anyone who wants or has a research grant from the agency to be peer reviewed, narrowing the pool of potential peer reviewers to people who get their money from industry, more or less. And we can all guess what kind of high quality objective science comes out of industry when there’s regulatory capture on the line (yes, kids, tobacco is good for you!).\nThis is not so much an issue in hydrogeology. There are lots of little consulting firms (like the one I work for) that do business with an assortment of local governments, development companies and medium-sized private land owners, that could easily be called in to peer review the Forest Service or the EPA or whoever. But in that respect, it’s kind of a unique field – local governments don’t pay for cancer research.\nThe sticky part is as follows:\nWhen selecting reviewers from the pool of qualified external experts, the agency sponsoring the review shall strive to appoint experts who, in addition to possessing the necessary scientific and technical expertise, are independent of the agency, do not possess real or perceived conflicts of interest, and are capable of approaching the subject matter in an open-minded and unbiased manner. Factors relevant to whether an individual satisfies these criteria include whether the individual:\n- has any financial interests in the matter at issue\n- has, in recent years, advocated a position on the specific matter at issue\n- is currently receiving or seeking substantial funding from the agency through a contract or research grant (either directly or indirectly through another entity, such as a university); or\n- has conducted multiple peer reviews for the same agency in recent years, or has conducted a peer review for the same agency on the same specific matter in recent years.\nIf it is necessary to select a reviewer who is or appears to be biased in order to obtain a panel with appropriate expertise, the agency shall ensure that another reviewer with a contrary bias is appointed to balance the panel.\nSo how worrisome is this? Certainly, there are many areas of research in which a person working in good faith to choose an unbiased review panel will be able to do so under these guidelines. And if we do not trust our Current Administration to work in good faith for the benefit of Science and Sundry, we are obviously Traitors. So, leaving aside the Most Improbable Probability of elected representatives of Democracy tampering with scientific expertise for political gain, we’ll move to a comparison of scientific standards in the executive and judicial branches of government.\n(more to follow, there is laundry and frivolity to accomplish yet this evening)"}
{"content":"|Photo credit: www.heatingoil.com|\nWhat is the Keystone XL pipeline? A 1,700 mile TransCanada pipeline that would carry 900,000 barrels of oil each day from the tar sands in Canada through the U.S. to refineries in Texas. The pipeline would cut through six states, over seventy rivers and streams, aquifers, farms, and backyards, and disrupt native communities.\nExtraction of the oil poisons the air and water, requires hundreds of millions of gallons of water each day, and requires deforestation of the boreal forest in Canada. The oil is bitumen, an especially dirty oil whose refinement results in 20% more carbon emissions than does conventional fuel.\nThe jobs the pipeline would create would be mostly temporary. The environmental, social, and public health costs of the pipeline over decades and centuries would outweigh any short-term job creation. This pipeline would only increase our dependence on fossil fuels for energy, at a time when our money would be better invested in safe, renewable sources of energy.\nMuch more after the jump..."}
{"content":"The Open Source movement sets another fine example with this superb 2-axis laser cutting/engraving station. This is version 2.0 which has a more compact size measuring 12” x 20” x 4”. The DIY laser cutter/engraver has a manual vertical axis but you can opt-in for a digitally controlled one.\n- Don’t miss: All of our CNC projects\nThe electronics as well as all moving metal parts have been designed keeping simplicity and strength in mind. The neat thing about this laser cutter and engraver is that it could give commercial CNC machines a run for their money. What’s really handy is that Open Source machine has a large community behind it. Head to the Buildlog.net blog and join the forum to view all drawings, schematics, build instructions, and source files that are available for free."}
{"content":"Taking data deluge in your stride is not a big deal especially when you are successful in finding a suitable analytics platform. However, you must not forget that there’s more to a platform than simply dealing with data deluge or applying data science for the benefit of your business. Furthermore, it is imperative for you to realize that the platform may not be meant for serving the same purpose for your business that it may have served for others. For instance, while some of your competitors may have used the platform increasing their cross-selling revenues, you may be more interested in increasing the site integrity.\nSimilarly, you and others may have different expectations as far as the analytics platform is concerned. While you may be looking forward to get a platform that can provide you with a considerable return on investment, others might be concerned about the speed of analytic processing. Therefore, it is not in your best interest to opt for a platform simply because others are recommending it or have managed to achieve the desired results with its help. However, it is also undeniable that a reliable platform will offer several results and many of these results are likely to match your expectations.\nFor instance, no matter what you are exactly looking for, you can at least expect a reliable platform to take complexity out of MapReduce analytics. Similarly, it wouldn’t be entirely wrong if you assume that the platform is going to benefit your business even if your analysts only have their way with SQL and are not keen on learning programming languages or new interfaces. However, you’ve to crosscheck whether or not your assumption will turn out to be right by determining if the platform makes use of an SQL-MapReduce framework. Meanwhile, it is also worth considering that others may not focus all their energies on integration.\nHowever, you may adopt the platform only when you are sure that it will definitely integrate with the rest of your data infrastructure in a seamless manner. Of course, it is possible that despite seemingly integrating with the infrastructure, the platform is unable to harness the power of Map Reduce for whatever reason. So, others who are not paying heed to integration won’t get affected, whereas, you may have to look for another platform at the earliest. Nevertheless, the bottom line is that without finding everything about the platform, if you blindly adopt it, you may be far from leveraging it."}
{"content":"The Halifax Sexual Health Centre doesn’t have “an easy product” but a dedicated team works to build a healthier city.\nJohn Britton starts his business day with inventory. In his case, that includes counting condoms, IUDs and other birth control. It’s a regular day at the Halifax Sexual Health Centre.\nFormerly known as Planned Parenthood Metro Clinic, the HSHC is a highly specialized, non-profit clinic focusing on treatment, testing and counselling around sexual and reproductive health. “The clinic started in direct response to the decriminalization of abortion,” says Britton, HSHC’s executive director. Over time, the clinic began to focus on more than reproductive health. “It soon became very obvious that reproductive and sexual health went hand in hand,” he says.\nFrom pregnancy options and counselling to STI testing, including the only anonymous HIV testing clinic east of Montreal, the HSHC has provided all manner of services to people in the Halifax area. The clinic saw 5,665 appointments in 2008, increasing to 7,294 in 2012 with an average of around 28 per day.\nJohn Britton started as executive director at the HSHC last December, previously serving on its board of directors. Britton is interested in what he views as social justice issues and inequities, especially when it comes to access to healthcare. For a few months last year, the clinic operated without an executive director, so Britton left his day job working for a large health charity, resigned from the clinic’s board of directors and applied for the vacant position. “The job is perfectly aligned with my skills and it speaks to who I am and what I believe in,” he says.\nAlthough it’s common for a non-profit to temporarily operate without an executive director, Britton’s new job was one of many changes at the HSHC, including a recent loss of funding and staffing restructures which eliminated the bookkeeper and community educator positions. Those roles would be the responsibility of its executive director. Britton says that the decisions to do so were made by the board of directors to ensure the longevity of the clinic. “There’s never any danger of this clinic closing its doors but financially it has been a tough few years for the HSHC,” he says.\nOn top of the newly added responsibilities, one of the biggest roles of any executive director at a non-profit is to help bring in revenue to the clinic. But getting people to open up their chequebooks can be a little trying at times.\n“If you want to think about it in business terms, we don’t have an easy product,” says Britton. “We have a stigma attached to us because a lot of what we deal with are what people perceive to be lifestyle choices. You try asking for money to support emergency contraception, morning after pills, or anon HIV testing. It’s sticky. People don’t want to talk about it and there is a sense of ‘Oh, that’s them.’” But Britton is undeterred by such arguments. “It’s not just about sexual health, it’s about inequity, and that’s the point I am trying to make with people,” he says. “You’re supporting health equity and that’s what it boils down to.”\nBritton goes on to explain that while people seem to know the HSHC exists, he’d like to see it having more of an impact in the community. “I’d love to have a billboard by the bridge,” he says. “I’d like people to think of us when they’re doing a bake sale at work, like people think of the Heart and Stroke Foundation, or the Canadian Cancer Society. I’d like to get on that radar.”\nBut instead of “shaking the tin” for finding revenue, Britton and his team at the HSHC have been looking at fundraising in a different manner. One of the ways they’ve done this is through the clinic’s youth committee—along with eager students from Dalhousie—by putting on the Sexy Dance Party at Pacifico. Britton acted as steward to the students, who gained valuable public relations and event management skills, while the event raised more than $7,000 dollars on a $300 budget and had more than 700 participants. “I am interested in fundraising where everybody benefits,” says Britton.\nLeslie Shaw has been involved with the HSHC since its inception in 1971. Shaw says that she was “radicalized” as a teenager in the 1960s. “I remember an acquaintance of mine needed an abortion, and we looked everywhere,” she recalls. “I went to my dad who was a keen guy, and he went around riding in taxis, asking drivers where he should go to get someone an abortion. They directed him to a very well known Halifax madam named Ada MacCallum. But it was so clandestine, so scary and so expensive, and late by the time we got the information.”\nAlthough abortions are no longer illegal in Nova Scotia, there’s still stigma around sex and sexuality, says Shaw. She wants to remove that and give people—especially those who are marginalized due to their circumstances in life—the capacity to be their own agents for change.\n“I think we have more and more people who are marginal than we ever had before,” she says. “They’re not getting all the support that they need to survive as healthy people, sexually and otherwise.” Shaw also wants youth to have access to information and services as well. “There is a lot of sexual activity in younger ages now and we don’t say, ‘No, you can’t do that,’ but we do say, ‘How are you going to protect yourself so you have a healthier life?’”\nMore people are looking to protect and educate themselves. Chantal Caissie is one of them. In her mid-20s, Caissie moved to Halifax from Moncton in 2007 and accesses the HSHC for routine pap tests and STI testing. “A lot of the times women are made to feel ashamed of their sexuality, which in turn makes some women feel uncomfortable discussing sex and sexual health,” she says. “By having access to a welcoming space where you won’t be made to feel ashamed or guilty about your sexual history, I think it helps to remove that stigma and promotes overall better sexual health.”\nCaissie had originally gone to the HSHC to talk about non-hormonal birth control, as she was unsure about her options. “The doctor I saw was really knowledgeable and helped me decide on a copper IUD,” she says. “She was incredibly reassuring and I’ve had it for about two years now and I’m really happy with it. I’m glad I had somewhere to go to talk about alternative birth control where I felt comfortable, especially with something I wasn’t very familiar with beforehand.”\n“I’d like to see it be normal for people to get their sexual health in check,” says Britton. “As normal as it is to get their cholesterol tested. But that’s not just a medical shift but also a cultural shift that is required.” Britton and the team of doctors, nurses and volunteers at the HSHC are working hard to bring that shift about.\nBritton argues that it’s the very stigma around sex and sexuality that keep STI rates steady, if not growing. “People get diagnosed with STIs,” he says. “People respond to it as if their life is over and that makes me sad because it’s part and parcel of sex and the age that we live in. Nobody wants them, but we can treat it. Other than abstinence, which isn’t possible for 99 per cent of the population, there is no other alternative, so…do what you need to do. If you pick up something along the way, understand how to treat it and how to be responsible to yourself and other people.”\n“I think that’s what I would like to see,” says Britton, “that change in attitude.”"}
{"content":"After a lifetime of deprivation diets, many of my clients kind of freak out when they see how much food I want them to eat. The book, The Fast Metabolism Diet, is a result of 20 years of clinical work, translating proven strategies from an office setting to a plan that can work for everyone. We’ve had feedback from plenty of you that the portion guidelines are confusing, so let’s talk about that.\nIt’s actually pretty simple: If your goal is to lose a larger amount of weight, you eat more food.\nYour basic portion guidelines\n- If you want to lose less than 20 pounds, follow the standard portions outlined in the book.\n- If you want to lose more than 20 pounds, add 1/2 portion to that standard portion, so 1.5 portions.\n- If you want to lose more than 40 pounds, eat 1.5 portions but double the veggies.\nFor those of you who want to lose more than 40 pounds, note that this is a change from the book. The book advises adding another 1/2 portion for every additional 20 pounds of weight you want to lose. But there’s no upper cap in the book. That would mean, for a 100-pound weight-loss goal, the book guides you to eat 3 cups of oatmeal along with three cups of fruit (for Phase 1 breakfast). The problem? That’s too much food for a normal stomach to process in one sitting.\nThis change comes as a result of feedback from hundreds (actually thousands) of you. Double and triple portions are just way too much food – and because you’re trying to eat all your required items, not enough veggies are making it into your menus. So here’s the new rule again:\n- For a weight loss goal of more than 40 pounds, eat 1.5 portions of all the required meal and snack elements\n- Go nuts with veggies. Pack ’em in. You should not ever feel hungry. Eat more vegetables than you’ve ever eaten before.\nOther common portion questions\nQ. What’s the minimum amount of veggies I should eat?\nA. I keep saying veggies are unlimited, and they are! Eat lots! Veggies are essential for fat burning and healing your metabolism. At minimum, eat 2 cups of vegetables with meals that require a veggie, and one 1 cup with snacks.\nQ. I’m hungry on Phase 1. Should I eat more?\nA. You should not feel hungry, and if you do, eat more veggies, even between meals. Keep in mind your vegetables don’t have to be raw. Try a baked sweet potato, or steamed kale with garlic and lemon. Or the chilled radish salad that was in my newsletter a couple of weeks ago.\nQ. I’m confused about healthy fats and proteins on Phase 3. Do I need both or just one or the other?\nA. For meals, you need both. For snacks, focus on the healthy fat plus veggies. This blog post covers that topic: See “Fat, Protein: Why you need both”\nQ. The app tells me I can have 4.5 tablespoons of oil in Phase 3. Really?\nA. Yes, that would be the oil portion if you want to lose more than 20 pounds. Do you HAVE to pack in all 4.5 tablespoons? No. Keep in mind that is the full fat serving for an entire meal — if you use no other healthy fats at all. In reality, you can use 2 tablespoons for your veggie stir fry at dinner, and another 2 tablespoons in your salad dressing. Or maybe you’ll use 2 tablespoons for your stir fry, but toss in 1/8 cup of sesame seeds (1/4 cup of seeds would be the full portion). See? That amount of oil doesn’t seem so crazy now, does it?\nYou can and should use your best judgement and use the healthy fats you need for your cooking. And you can mix and match healthy fats appropriately: Use 1/2 portion of hummus plus 1/4 avocado. Or 1/8 cup of raw almonds plus 1/8 cup of olives. Be creative and mix it up! Bottom line: For the standard portion, use anywhere from 2 to 4 tablespoons of oil. For those doing 1.5 portions, aim for between 3 and 5 tablespoons.\nQ. For fruits you say 1 cup or 1 piece. But what about small fruits like kiwi?\nA. For fruits that are especially small, eat two. Imagine cutting that fruit up. Would it equal a cup? If not, add another piece (or half of a piece).\nQ. What are the portion sizes for packaged breads and tortillas?\nA. Even though the grain portion on Phase 3 is half that of Phase 1 (i.e. 1/2 cup wild rice compared to 1 cup on Phase 1), the standard portions for packaged items on Phase 1 and Phase 3 are the same. Otherwise, we’d get into a situation where the portion size was 3/8 of a tortilla. That’s just too weird. So for both Phase 1 and 3:\n- 1 slice of phase-appropriate bread\n- 1 8-inch phase-appropriate tortilla\n- 1/2 of a phase-appropriate bagel"}
{"content":"A new program in Kansas aims to improve conditions in prisons, but it’s not for inmates. The state Department of Corrections is one of many prison and jail systems around the country working to overcome “correctional fatigue” — the mental and physical stress that lead to corrections workers burning out.\nFrom Orange Is The New Black to Shawshank Redemption to Cool Hand Luke, prison guards often have gotten a bad rap as some of the worst bullies featured on television and in the movies.\nAnd that rankles John Bates.\n“You never see any correctional officer heroes. All you ever see is the bosses, the Boss Hoggs,” Bates says.\nBates has spent more than a decade working as a correctional officer in one of Kansas’s major prisons; he asked that it not be identified.\nOn a recent afternoon off, he said he sees corrections as a way to keep the public safe and improve inmates’ lives. But it’s work that comes with nearly constant stress.\n“There’s a great deal of distrust by the inmate population towards staff which sometimes ends up in violence, sometimes ends up with nothing more than obscenities. But it is quite difficult dealing with inmates on a daily basis.” Bates says.\nNot just a job\nThose challenges aren’t unique to Kansas.\n“Everyone figures ‘Ah, it’s just a job.’ Well, it isn’t just a job to go to work every day having to wear a raincoat so you don’t get piss and vomit and excrement and semen and mucus thrown at you,” says Brian Dawe, executive director of the American\nCorrectional Officer Information Network, which advocates on behalf of some 400,000 publically employed corrections officers in the United States.\nThe Kansas Department of Corrections is hoping Dr. Caterina Spinaris can help turn things around for its staff, which includes more than 2,000 correctional officers.\nSpinaris is a psychologist based in southern Colorado who coined the term “correctional fatigue” to describe the detrimental psychological effects of their work.\nAccording to her research, 27 percent of corrections officers suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. That’s comparable to rates seen in combat veterans.\nCorrections work can trigger anxiety problems, substance abuse and depression, and the toxic work environment of a prison can foster paranoid thinking patterns.\n“To be mistrusting, cynical. To find fault with things. To blame a lot. Seeing people as good or bad. All-or-nothing kind of thinking where people will say anybody who’s not like me is bad,” says Spinaris, describing the patterns of negative thinking that can result from correctional fatigue.\nCorrectional fatigue can spill over into physical health as well, causing high blood pressure and weight gain.\nOne study shows correctional officers have an average life span of just 59 years\nSpinaris says correctional fatigue can also influence the treatment of inmates.\n“It could end up in people being unprofessional, crossing boundary lines and being too harsh and punitive. And bad things can happen as a result of that as time goes on,” Spinaris says.\nBandage to treat an infection?\nAbout two years ago, the National Institute of Corrections contracted with Spinaris and her company, Desert Waters Correctional Outreach, to work with jails and prison systems around the country. This fall, Spinaris and her team will come to Kansas to work with prison officials and assess how the state system works.\nThat’s all well and good, says Rebecca Proctor, executive director of the Kansas Organization of State Employees. But she says much more needs to be done.\n“Having a program to reduce stress without addressing the staffing and equipment programs is like putting a bandage and a topical cream on a sore that’s caused by a body-wide infection,” she says.\nProctor says that budget cuts have left facilities poorly maintained and wages low. The starting wage of about $13.50 an hour isn’t enough to attract good workers, and wage freezes in recent years have made it harder to retain the workers they have.\nThe twin problems of understaffing and overcrowding have forced officers to take on the duties of multiple employees as well as forced overtime.\n“If you’re someone who’s working a maximum-security unit, your inmates know how long you’ve been on the job,” Proctor says. “They’re observant. They watch. They see you’re not getting relieved. They see that there’s not the same level of staffing that there needs to be.”\nUnderstaffing and overcrowding\nProctor says the understaffing problem has left officers unprotected and vulnerable.\nA rash of attacks against correctional officers over the summer sent shock waves through the system, according to John Bates.\n“The officers on the inside, they’re not just concerned. They’re scared today,” he says.\nOfficials with the Kansas Department of Corrections insist understaffing is not a problem.\n“Anytime we have a staffing vacancy, it’s because we’ve had a recent resignation, and just like with any business, it takes time to rehire for that position,” says Jeremy\nBarclay, a spokesman for the Kansas Department of Corrections.\nBarclay points to an annual turnover rate of about 16 percent for staff and explains that prisons have a “staffing pattern plan” to make up for those frequent holes. The plan involves overtime, but Barclay says it’s voluntary.\nAnd the violence, he says, is not a matter of understaffing but rather something that all officers inevitably face working with inmates.\n“In terms of, do we have the right amount of staff in place? Yes. And do we have the right staff in the right positions? Yes, we do,” Barclay says.\nThat said, officials with the Kansas Department of Corrections are hopeful the program to treat correctional fatigue will yield positive results.\nDawe, of the American Correctional Officer Information Network, welcomes the program but says it’s just a start on improving things for a long-misunderstood profession.\n“We’ve been around for how long? And this is just happening now?” Dawe exclaims. “How long has it been that the police have been dealing with PTSD and that’s been recognized? Decades, they’ve understood it and they’ve dealt with it. Yet because we’re behind the walls, and people don’t see us, they could care less. Fortunately, someone is doing something.”"}
{"content":"All-Sky Soft X-Ray Background Data Sets at the HEASARC\nThe last mission to survey the sky in the soft X-ray band was ROSAT, which\nconducted an all-sky survey from 1990 July 30 to 1991 January 25, and from\n1991 August 3 to 13.\n[eROSITA will be the primary\ninstrument on-board the Russian\n\"Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma\" (SRG) satellite which will be launched from Baikonur\nin 2016 and placed in an L2 orbit. It will perform the first imaging all-sky\nsurvey in the medium energy X-ray range (0.3-10 keV) with an unprecedented\nspectral and angular resolution.]\nThe HEASARC has the following data sets which contain measurements of the\nX-ray background all-sky intensity and/or spectra obtained with different\nexperiments, listed in inverse chronological order (most recent first):\nROSAT All-Sky Survey (RASS)\nThese maps of the diffuse X-ray background in the\n0.11 - 2.04 keV energy range ('ROSAT Survey Diffuse Background\nMaps, Paper II', S. L. Snowden, R. Egger, M. J. Freyberg, D. McCammon, P. P.\nPlucinsky, W. T. Sanders, J. H. M. M. Schmitt, J. Trümper, and W. Voges,\nApJ, Vol. 485 (1997), pp. 125-135) are used by the\nHEASARC's X-Ray Background Tool (XRBT). This tool calculates for a\nspecified astronomical position and either a circle with a specified radius\nor an annulus with specified inner and outer radii centered on this position\nthe average X-ray background count rate and statistical uncertainty in each\nof the six standard bands of the ROSAT All-Sky Survey diffuse background maps\n(R1, R2, R4, R5, R6, R7). In addition, the average count rates are given for\nthe combined 1/4 keV (R1 + R2), 3/4 keV (R4 + R5), and 1.5 keV (R6 + R7)\nbands. (The count rates for the combined bands are simply the sum of the\ncount rates for each component band, and the uncertainty in the combined\nband count rate is the square root of the sum of the squares of the\nuncertainties of each component band). A full description of the use\nof these maps is given in the XRBT help\nDiffuse X-Ray Spectrometer (DXS)\nThe DXS experiment was flown on the space shuttle Endeavour from January 13\nthrough 19, 1993. DXS was developed by the University of Wisconsin and its PI\nwas Dr. Wilt Sanders. The HEASARC has,\nthe so-called DXS level 1 reduced data products stored in\nthis directory in the\nform of gzipped FITS files.\nThe naming convention of the files is of the form \"orbitNN_TYPE_SIDE.fits.gz\",\nwhere NN = 2-digit orbit number in the range 1 to 91, TYPE = 3 or 4 character\ntype of data file, out of the set:\nsci - science X-ray event data\nfast - engineering/housekeeping data (1 record per sec)\nslow - more engineering/housekeeping data (1 record per 4 secs)\ntime - time records\nspoc - spoc (shuttle payload of opportunity carrier) information\ncmd - commands uploaded during this orbit\norb - orbit information\nand SIDE = 1-character indicator of the DXS instrument that the data are\np - Port instrument\ns - Starboard instrument\nand the final .gz indicates that the file has been gzipped. These files can\nbe read using standard FITS readers such as fdump.\nThe HEASARC also has the DXS spectral products in\nwhich were derived from a 2004 reprocessing\nof the raw telemetry. These spectra are trivially different that\nthose presented in\nSanders et al. (2001, ApJ, 554, 694) because of minor bug\nthe processing software. See Sanders et al. (2001) for a detailed\ndiscussion of the DXS spectra.\nMorgenthaler (1998, PhD thesis) has detailed how the spectra and response\nwere derived. The original spectra, response and arf files supplied to the\nHEASARC were modified in April 2009 in order to be compatible\nwith xspec12 and with the FITS standards for spectra, response and arf.\nIn brief, the clean* spectra represent spectra from different regions\nalong the galactic equator, as indicated by the GAL_LON bin in the\nFITS headers (see also Sanders et al. figs. 8 and 10). The file\nclean_Allsky_p.flat contains the summation of all of the sky spectra\nand clean_HISM_p.flat contains the summation of the regions with the\nlowest count rate (Crux, Pup, Aur). The file clean_back_p.flat\ncontains the spectrum of the instrument background and the dxsmodel*\nfiles contain the instrument response matrix in standard OGIP form.\nThe total instrument count rate varied in time over the duration of\nthe flight, with the first half having a higher count rate than the\nsecond half (see Sanders et al. fig. 9). The files prepended with\n\"1_\" and \"2_\" contain the spectra from the first and second half of\nthe flight, respectively.\nThe SAS-3 low-energy detector\ncontains the all-sky image from the SAS-3 low-energy X-ray\ndetector in the C band (0.10-0.28 keV in FITS format. These data were\ndiscussed in the paper by Marshall and Clark (1984, ApJ, 287, 633-652: see\nthe ADS abstract appended below). The file sas.fits contains the all-sky\nintensity map in Galactic coordinates in an Aitoff projection centered\non the Galactic Center.\nTitle: SAS 3 survey of the soft X-ray background\nAuthors: Marshall, F. J.; Clark, G. W.\nPublication: Astrophysical Journal, Part 1, vol. 287, Dec. 15, 1984, p.\nAbstract: The results of a survey of the soft X-ray sky in the C band (0.10 -\n0.28 keV) are reported. The observations were carried out using two independent\nflow proportional counters on board the SAS 3 X-ray satellite which had a\ntotal angular resolution of 2.9 deg FWHM, and a total exposure of 22,000 cm^2\ns sr. It is found that C band counting rates were generally inversely\ncorrelated with the column density of the neutral hydrogen on all\nangular scales down to the lowest angular resolution of the detectors. In the\nregion 90-180 degrees Galactic longitude and 0-90 degrees Galactic\nlatitude, the relation between C-band rates and the column densities of\nneutral hydrogen was fitted with a residual rms deviation of less than 13%\nby a two-component numerical model of the X-ray background. For the apparent\nattenuation column density, a value of 2.7 x 10^20 per sq cm was obtained.\nOn the basis of a computer simulation of the SAS 3 data, it is shown that\nthe observed clumping of interstellar matter was consistent with the\nmagnitude of spatial fluctuations in the C-band map. When the background\nrates were subtracted from the survey map, the subsequent map showed\nforeground emission and absorption features with improved sensitivity and\nclarity. A series of computer-generated maps incorporating the SAS 3 data\nis given in an appendix.\nThe HEAO 1-A2 experiment\ncontains the spectra (and response matrices) of the X-ray\nbackground obtained with the HEAO1 A2 experiment (Marshall et al., 1980, ApJ,\n235, 4: see below) in mid-1977.\nThe spectra and responses are all in FITS formats:\nhed11c.pha h111095c.rsp HED1 M1\nhed12c.pha h121095c.rsp HED1 M2\nhed31c.pha h31257c.rsp HED3 M1\nhed32c.pha h321095c.rsp HED3 M2\nmed1c.pha m11n.rsp MED M1\nmed2c.pha m12n.rsp MED M2\nTitle: The diffuse X-ray background spectrum from 3 to 50 keV\nAuthors: Marshall, F. E.; Boldt, E. A.; Holt, S. S.; Miller, R. B.; Mushotzky,\nR. F.; Rose, L. A.; Rothschild, R. E.; Serlemitsos, P. J.\nPublication: Astrophysical Journal, Part 1, vol. 235, Jan. 1, 1980, p. 4-10.\nAbstract: The spectrum of the extragalactic diffuse X-ray background has been\nmeasured with the GSFC Cosmic X-ray Experiment on HEAO 1 for regions of the sky\naway from known point sources and more than 20 degrees from the galactic plane.\nA total exposure of 80 m^2-s-sr is available at present. Free-free emission\nfrom an optically thin plasma of 40 +/- 5 keV provides an excellent description\nof the observed spectrum from 3 to 50 keV. This spectral shape is confirmed by\nmeasurements from five separate layers of three independent detectors. With an\nestimated absolute precision of about 10%, the intensity of the emission at\n10 keV is 3.2 keV/keV/cm^2/s/sr, a value consistent with the average of\npreviously reported spectra. A uniform hot intergalactic medium of\napproximately 36% of the closure density of the universe would produce such a\nflux, although nonuniform models indicating less total matter are probably\nled sub-directory contains the A2 LED C-band (0.25 keV) All-Sky map\nof the soft X-ray diffuse background (Garmire et al. 1992, ApJ, 399, 694)\nin FITS format.\nTitle: The soft X-ray diffuse background observed with the HEAO 1 low-energy\nAuthors: Garmire, G. P.; Nousek, J. A.; Apparao, K. M. V.; Burrows, D. N.;\nFink, R. L.; Kraft, R. P.\nPublication: Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 399, no. 2,\nAbstract: Results of a study of the diffuse soft-X-ray background as observed\nby the low-energy detectors of the A-2 experiment aboard the HEAO 1 satellite\nare reported. The observed sky intensities are presented as maps of the diffuse\nX-ray background sky in several energy bands covering the energy range 0.15-2.8\nkeV. It is found that the soft X-ray diffuse background (SXDB) between 1.5 and\n2.8 keV, assuming a power law form with photon number index 1.4, has a\nnormalization constant of 10.5 +/- 1.0 photons/cm^2/s/sr/keV. Below 1.5 keV,\nthe spectrum of the SXDB exceeds the extrapolation of this power law. The\nlow-energy excess for the north ecliptic pole (NEP) can be fitted with\nemission from a two-temperature equilibrium plasma model with the temperatures\ngiven by log T1 = 6.16 and log T2 = 6.33. It is found that this model is able\nto account for the spectrum below 1 keV, but fails to yield the observed\nGalactic latitude variation.\nThe University of Wisconsin experiments flown on 10 sounding rockets in the\nperiod from 1972 to 1980\nA compendium of documentation and data from the\nUniversity of Wisconsin\nexperiments flown on 10 sounding rockets over the period from 1972 to 1980 is\navailable in the\nHEASARC directory, we have the all-sky images created from these\nAll of the files are in FITS format. These data were discussed in the paper\nby McCammon et al. (1983, ApJ, 269, 107-135: see the ADS abstract appended\nbelow). The 52 files comprise 26 pairs of different visualizations of the\nsoft X-ray diffuse background, corresponding to different energy bands and\nprojections, the rat.fits files containing the intensity maps, and the\nsig.fits files containing the uncertainty maps. The first part of the file\nnames codes the X-ray band to which it corresponds as follows:\nWisconsin Band Energy Range in keV\nB 0.130 - 0.188\nC 0.160 - 0.284\nM1 0.440 - 0.930\nM2 0.600 - 1.100\nI 0.770 - 1.500\nJ 1.100 - 2.200\n2-6 1.800 - 6.300\nThe second part of the file names codes the all-sky projection used as\nfollows (all maps are in Galactic coordinates):\n0 Aitoff centered on Galactic Longitude = 0 degrees\n180 Aitoff centered on Galactic Longitude = 180 degrees\nnpol Polar equal-area centered on North Galactic Pole\nspol Polar equal-area centered on South Galactic Pole\nTitle: The soft X-ray diffuse background\nAuthors: McCammon, D.; Burrows, D. N.; Sanders, W. T.; Kraushaar, W. L.\nPublication: Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 269, June 1,\n1983, p. 107-135.\nAbstract: Maps of the diffuse X-ray background intensity covering essentially\nthe entire sky with approximately 7 degree spatial resolution are presented\nfor seven energy bands. The data were obtained on a series of ten sounding\nrocket flights conducted over a seven-year period. The different nature of\nthe spatial distributions in different bands implies at least three distinct\norigins for the diffuse X-rays, none of which is well-understood. At energies\nof approximately 2000 eV, an isotropic and presumably extragalactic 500 and\n1000 eV, an origin which is at least partially galactic seems called for.\nAt energies 284 eV, the observed intensity is anticorrelated with neutral\nhydrogen column density, but we find it unlikely that this anticorrelation\nis simply due to absorption of an extragalactic or halo source. Previously\nannounced in STAR as N83-20892."}
{"content":"CHICAGO — A few years ago, 4-year-old Danny was on the verge of being expelled from a Chicago preschool for violent behavior when a woman named Lauren Wiley was called in to help.\nShe met with the boy’s teacher, who thought he needed to be medicated for attention deficit disorder. But as Wiley listened, the teacher admitted she was angry at Danny, whose name has been changed to protect his identity. Her job was to keep her students safe, she said, and the boy’s aggression made her feel like a failure. Next, Wiley and the teacher met with Danny’s mom. As the teacher dropped her judgmental attitude, it came out that Danny had watched his father beat his mother and get taken away in handcuffs. No one had ever talked to the child about what he saw. He did not have ADD. He was reeling from trauma, and he needed his teacher to like him and want to help him, not to be rid of him. That began to happen when she heard his story.\nWiley is an early childhood mental health consultant. The job title often evokes an image of a baby on a couch talking to a therapist, but her work is about listening to adults so they can create an emotionally healthy environment for children. She trains teachers and others who work with young children to recognize the trauma that so often causes misbehavior. She supports them in confronting cultural biases and forging relationships with parents. She shows them how to recognize families’ strengths and promote mental wellness before problems develop. This is particularly significant since we know that “adverse childhood experiences” like violence and family dysfunction predict everything from academic failure to cancer to heart disease.\nIn 2005, Yale professor Walter Gilliam shocked the nation with the first research showing that preschoolers are expelled at three times the rate of children in kindergarten through 12th grade. He showed that young African-American boys like Danny are most vulnerable to what he calls “the capital punishment of schools.”\nGilliam convened focus groups of teachers to find out why, in mixed-age classes, he was seeing 4-year-olds expelled at higher rates than 3-year-olds in the same rooms. The replies were consistent: The teachers perceived the 4-year-olds as more likely to hurt someone when they misbehave because they are physically bigger.\n“That’s when it dawned on me that expulsion is not a child behavior. It’s an adult decision,” said Gilliam, who spoke on the topic at a Dec. 10 White House summit on early childhood education.\nHe realized that, for the problem to get better, teachers need help managing challenging behavior.\nGilliam has zeroed in on the consultation intervention as a particularly promising and cost-effective approach: In a Connecticut study, he found that it reduces preschool expulsions by half. It also has been shown to improve the emotional well-being of all children in the pivotal years before kindergarten and boost staff retention and job satisfaction in an industry with rampant turnover.\nWith that research base from preschools, consultation now is being tried in home visiting programs, domestic violence shelters, pediatrician’s offices — anywhere that serves young children. There are also early efforts to bring a similar service to older kids.\nUnder the nation’s newly reauthorized child care funding legislation, states must develop plans to reduce preschool expulsions, and consultation is now an allowable expense. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced $4 million in December to expand the intervention’s reach. Head Start and Early Head Start programs already require it, and there are about a half-dozen state programs, as well as numerous regional ones. Still, the vast majority of early childhood settings do not have routine access to consultants, according to Georgetown professor Deborah Perry, who directed the National Center for Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation.\nI recently spent two days shadowing Lauren Wiley in Illinois, one of the places with a statewide program. She’s a petite 55-year-old who puts 500 to 700 miles a week on her silver Acura, a distance she says is only possible because her own two kids are grown. One of our stops was in Chicago’s violent North Lawndale neighborhood at an after-school program in an immaculately-kept old building with a “no firearms” sticker on the door. Wiley had made weekly visits there since early 2014 to address the mental health needs of students ages 7 to 11, older than her usual clientele.\nShe had been encouraging the program’s director and two teachers to focus on what the children can do, not what they can’t. This simple strategy led the staff to uncover one troubled 11-year-old’s love of verbal storytelling. By asking him to tell and then illustrate the story of his life — which includes frequent neighborhood shootings, a recent murder on his block and teasing for a minor facial deformity — he took an interest in writing his life story as well. As a result, he is reading for the first time, and mortifying accidents wetting his pants are far fewer. A handmade poster lists his coping strategies: “deep breaths,” “fan myself,” “take a time out,” “sit quietly by myself.”\nOn the day we visited, the teachers watched as Wiley had the eight children present decorate boxes to fill and empty with small bells based on acts of kindness and cruelty. She noticed a few coloring in red and then trying to erase it and perceived the imagery of a blood stain that won’t come out. She prodded a teacher to pull a little girl aside to talk.\nEarly childhood mental health consultation can look like this, with a consultant and teacher working together with children, modeling lessons for each other. Or it can just look like adults sitting around a table, as we saw at a day care, where a conversation about suspected parental drug use led Wiley to a bigger probe: Do all staff members believe the mothers they serve can be good parents? While no one wanted to admit bias, and Wiley never acts like she has all the answers, she had clearly unearthed a problem, and a fundamental one. Child care and preschool expulsions are virtually unheard of when the teacher and parent know and like each other.\nSometimes, consultants can offer relatively simple fixes. According to Georgetown’s Perry, teachers make the common mistake of giving directions while standing up; young children, particularly those with concentration difficulty, are more likely to listen to an adult at their eye level. Consultants watch how teachers navigate activity changes — think taking a dozen 3-year-olds to the bathroom — since those are the most common times for behavioral outbursts to occur. They suggest things like signing a clean-up song every day so kids will anticipate and understand routines.\nMore difficult are the situations requiring changes in adult attitudes and habits, and that’s where Wiley spends most of her time. She said it is common for home visitors to pick up and calm fussy babies, alienating mothers who don’t know how to soothe them or have traumatic memories tied to their own childhood cries. In an agency focused on mental wellness, she said, the home visitor might instead put an arm around the insecure mom holding her baby and tell her: “When I’m not here, I want you to remember that I’m with you. My arm is around you. You can do it.”\nRelated: The power of preschool done right\nThe consensus is that effective consultation must include supervisors, both to support staff on the front lines and so that when there is turnover, the work isn’t all lost. Wiley says she needs to be in a place at least a year, and preferably two, to shift an organization’s mindset. Results for individual children and classrooms can happen faster, but Wiley gets incensed when her peers address what she calls the “low-hanging fruit” — a child’s misbehavior — without training the staff what to do. She sees her role as creating a safe space for early childhood professionals to reflect and explore ideas. “The hardest part is sitting with your own discomfort sometimes while people figure it out for themselves,” she said.\nWiley is an independent contractor. Many of her assignments come from the Illinois Children’s Mental Health Partnership, an agency the state created in 2003 in response to research showing that more than 20 percent of children have a diagnosable mental health condition, but only one in five of those are treated.\nThe partnership has received $200,000 a year in state money to provide early childhood mental health consultation free to any agency that requests it, as capacity allows, along with $270,000 in federal money to consult in home visitation programs. By conservative estimates, it reached 59 programs last fiscal year with the state funds and used the federal dollars to serve 139 home visitors and supervisors serving 1,490 families. A little money has gone a long way, and other organizations receive government funding for similar services. But with resources few and needs great, the work is not heavily promoted, and many who could benefit don’t know it exists.\nRegina Le Flore, who owns a Montessori day care and preschool in the western Chicago suburb of Lyons, said she would love for her teachers to have more training in what to do when children develop significant behavior problems. That typically happens once or twice a year and usually results in their withdrawal, often with their parents acting defensive when the staff suggests the child needs counseling. (A consultant would recommend avoiding accusations that can make a parent feel like a failure.)\nTo take consultation to scale, those in the field agree there needs to be a model delineating what quality looks like and a bigger workforce with a rare combination of skills: experience as a mental health professional, knowledge of child development, cultural awareness, and an understanding of families and of trauma. But those things would come if there were steady government funding.\nWiley, an Illinois native who lives 60 miles south of Chicago in a small town called Bourbonnais, is one of the most seasoned consultants in the state, with more than a decade of experience. She says her greatest asset is curiosity, a trait she tries to get her clients to adopt in their interactions with families.\nWhen Danny’s teacher dropped her assumption about what was wrong and listened receptively to his mother, the whole situation shifted. They worked together to find a classmate he could play with quietly, to let him change activities when he couldn’t focus and to help his mother say goodbye when she dropped him off each morning. Earlier, she would sneak away because she couldn’t handle watching him melt down.\nAnd one moment at a time, supportive adult behavior paved the way for a child to remain in school.\nA version of this story was published by The New York Times on Feb. 20, 2015.\nReproduction of this story is not permitted."}
{"content":"This potato dish comes from the state of Gujarat, located in the northwest corner of India. It’s a method used to take the humble boiled potato and elevate it to new levels. Easy to make and an ideal accompaniment to any Indian spread; even with your favourite piece of char-grilled meat.\nBoil the potatoes until just cooked. Drain and cool for a few minutes and cut into quarters lengthways or 2cm cubes. Put potato, ground coriander, ground cumin, turmeric and chilli into a bowl and season with salt. Toss quickly to coat the potatoes in the spices. Set aside.\nHeat a frying pan or wok over medium-high heat. Add the oil and then follow with the mustard and cumin seeds, fenugreek powder, methi and curry leaves and temper until the seeds start to pop. Add the potato and toss carefully to incorporate the spices well. Add the coconut, sesame seeds and chopped coriander."}
{"content":"The Crisis of Higher Education in the U.S.\nThe state of higher education in the United States is deplorable; it is extremely costly, but the investment has become decreasingly worthwhile. Students bear the burden of extraordinarily expensive education, which results in massive debt, and they are left with – especially now – mediocre results, to flounder in a job market that leaves much to be desired.\nEven the left can see this problem, though their prescriptions for change are indubitably different. Indeed, “two-thirds of students who earn undergraduate degrees end up shouldering more than $25,000 in debt, and 1 in 10 owe more than $54,000, a 2012 Center for American Progress report found.” Furthermore, minorities are even more likely to need a loan of this kind “as need-based federal aid for low-income students has become insufficient to cover rising tuitions.”\nOf course, the federal government is largely to blame for a couple of reasons.\nFirst, as the Heritage Foundation’s Lindsey Burke and Stuart M. Butler explain, the accreditation process, “a feature of the traditional education system,” remains an obstacle to innovations that would decrease the costs of receiving an advanced degree. Second, there is a provision buried deep in Obamacare that “effectively nationalized the student loan industry by ending government subsidies to private lenders and putting the federal government in charge of originating and servicing federally backed student loans.”\nThe financial problem is twofold, affecting both students and taxpayers. If you’re a college graduate who had to take out loans, you know what we’re referring to: your debt. It’s probably hovering over your head, and if you’re the average college student, there are five digits after the dollar sign and before the decimal point. Indeed, the average debt of college graduates today is $23,000.\nIf you’re a taxpayer, the effect is less direct, but the truth is that you’re fitting the bill for a flawed higher education system. The total student loan debt in the United States now exceeds $1 trillion. Burke explains:\nPart of the problem is a system where virtually anyone is eligible for a student loan, regardless of credit history or repayment potential. But unlike other loans, taxpayers are on the hook when students default or incur other losses.\nMoreover, the cost of attending college has increased 439 percent since 1982. Yet, somehow, President Obama and his administration have insisted on ever increasing subsidies for higher education. To be clear, these subsidies have not decreased the cost of education.\nRather than continuing to sink more money into the flawed education system, Heritage has proposed real solutions. Burke suggests:\nShifting from debt-based to savings-based college financing, limiting access to federal student loans to four years of undergraduate work, and—with the proliferation of online learning—allowing the free market to work to reduce college costs are all policies that would provide needed relief to both students and taxpayers.\nThe federal government has proved to be incredibly ill-equipped to improve the state of higher education despite taking an ever growing amount of taxpayer money. For decades, the Department of Education — an “inefficient federal agency” through which taxpayer resources are filtered to no avail — has been like a gangrenous infection in our academic institutions."}
{"content":"Email Your Senator to Oppose the Shaheen-Portman Energy Efficiency Bill\nNext week, the Senate is likely to consider the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act of 2013 (S. 2262). Introduced by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) 2% and Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) 30% it claims to promote energy savings in industrial and commercial buildings. The bill provides taxpayer-funded federal incentives to make building and manufacturing processes more efficient, but these “incentives” would burden taxpayers and consumers alike while producing no tangible benefits. They are also duplicative of federal and state efforts.\nThis inappropriate intervention comes in the form of ‘voluntary’ federal mandates and taxpayer funded subsidies for energy efficiency updates in state government and tribal buildings. Specifically, Heritage notes, “The bill authorizes $200 million of taxpayer money to “incentivize and assist” states and tribal groups to meet allegedly voluntary building codes.”\nAs Heritage notes, only the free-market has been proven to decrease costs and increase efficiency in energy production. The federal government’s role in energy efficiency should be limited to providing information to consumers make well-informed decisions. This legislation allows the government to overstep its boundaries.\nUse the POPVOX form below and tell your Senators that the Shaheen-Portman Energy Efficiency Bill is bad policy and should be opposed."}
{"content":"HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF RICHMOND.\nTHIS town was organized in 1796, under the act of January 27, 1789, and first called Pitstown, in honor of its\npioneer Captain Peter Pitts The name was changed to Honeoye, April 6, 1808, and to Richmond, April 11, 1815. A\npart of Canadice was annexed April 30, 1836, and parts of Bristol and South Bristol in 1848; but the latter were\nrestored in 1852. The town consists of a nearly square portion of land lying near the foot of Honeoye Lake, and\na narrow strip extending along the east shore of that lake and its inlet to the south border of the county. This\nstrip was added to the town in consequence of its position, high ridges separating it from the business centers\nof both Canadice and South Bristol.\nNegotiations for the purchase of a large tract of land in the Genesee country were begun as early as the year 1787,\nbut not until Phelps and Gorham perfected their title were the arrangements completed. A party was sent into this\nregion to examine the lands, and subsequently the Dighton Company was formed, the agents of which purchased 46,080\nacres, a part of which extended over the present town of Richmond, then known, however, as number 9 in range 5.\nThe title to the land was taken by Calvin Jacobs and John Smith, who, after its survey and allotment, conveyed\nto the respective owners. This survey was made in 1789 by Capt. Peter Pitts and his son William; Deacon and George\nCodding, father and son; and Calvin Jacobs and John Smith. Captain Pitts became the possessor of 3,000 acres of\nland near the foot of Honeoye Lake, upon which the first improvement was made in 1790 by Gideon and William Pitts.\nIn December of the same year Captain Pitts and John Codding and their families became permanent settlers of the\ntown, occupying during the following winter the log house built by Captain Pitts's sons, Gideon and William. Later\non this primitive structure was replaced with a substantial framed dwelling, supposed by many to have been the\nfamed \"Long House,\" in which the redoubtable pioneer entertained those distinguished traitors Louis Philippe\nand Duke de Liancourt, their host and entertainer being Capt. Peter Pitts.\nReferring further to the pioneer and early settlers of this town, there may be recalled the names of others equally\nworthy of mention. In this connection there may be recalled Elisha Pratt, who lived with Captain Pitts; Eber Sibley,\nEdward Hazen, Edward Taylor, Silas Whitney, John Pennell, Ebenezer Farrer, Jonathan Rhodes, the date of whose settlement\nis not accurately preserved. In the center of the town the early residents were Noah Ashley, Joseph and Elias Gilbert,\nDavid, William, Sanford and Heman Crooks, Philip Reed and his sons John F., Silas, Wheeler, William and Philip;\nWhiting Marsh, John and Eleazer Freney, Deacon Harmon, Isaac Bishop, Rhoderick Steele, Cyrus Wells, Isaac and Alden\nAdams, Daniel H. Goodsell, Orsamus Risden, and possibly others. In the northeast part of the town the early settlers\nwere Lemuel and Cyrus Chipman, Asa Dennison and Levi Blackmer, David Aiken, Thomas Wilson, Mr. Bentley, Wm. Baker,\nAaron and John Abbey, Seth Tubbs, David Crawford, Moses, Peter and Nathaniel Allen, James Garlinghouse, Joseph\nGarlinghouse, Cyrus Wells, Sylvester Curtis, Mr. Boyd, Mr. Jenkins, Hugh Gregg, George Fox, Abram Wiley, Gideon\nGates, David Pierpont, Caidwell. Other settlers in the town were Joshua Phillips, Nathan Hicks, Elijah Wheeler,\nPierce Chamberlain, Asa Dennison, Levi Blackmer, Roswell Turner, Calvin Ward, Philip Reed, Colonel Lyman Hawes,\nGeo. McClure, Amos and John Dixon, Oliver Lyon, Wm. Warner, Parley Brown, Parley Drury, Luther Stanley, Mr. Frisbie,\nJames McCrossen, Rufus Bullock, Caleb and Thomas Briggs, James Green, Stephen Frost, Gates Pemberton, Caleb Smith,\nNelson Skinner, John Norton, James Parker, Abijah Wright, Wm. Arnold, Amos Jones, Jesse Stephens, A. S. Bushnell,\nPhilip Short, Walter Stephens, Caleb Arnold, Abel Short, Artemas Briggs, John Beecher and Gilbert Kinyon.\nThe early settlers of that part of the town which extends south to the county line were Hugh Hamilton, George Gordon,\nWilliam Layne, David Knapp, John Parker, Edmund Downs, Wm. Judevine, Job Wood, Jacob Flanders, Colonel John Green,\nthe Skinner family, the Vinals, James Moore, Daniel Smith, Aaron J. Hunt, Andrew Bray, Jacob Bowers.\nThe persons above mentioned, many of whom were heads of families, were the pioneers and early settlers of Richmond,\nbut in naming them no effort has been made to fix date of settlement, place of residence in the town, or to recall\nany events in connection with their family life, or services in the town. However, in another department of this\nwork will be found detailed mention of many of these pioneers and their descendants, many of whom have largely\ncontributed to the prosperity of the town. From the number of names mentioned it will be seen that the early settlement\nof the town was quite rapid, although prior to i8oo the inhabitants were few and scattered. However, in 1796 it\nwas deemed advisable to complete the town organization, and a meeting thérefor was held on April 5, at which\ntime these officers were chosen; Supervisor, Lemuel Chipman; town clerk, Gideon Pitts; assessors, Philip Reed,\nWm. Pitts, Solomon Woodruff; constable and collector, Jonas Belknap; commissioners of highways, Solomon Woodruff,\nGideon Pitts, Elijah Parker; fence viewers, Stiles Parker; Roswell Turner; poundmaster, Edward Hazen; pathmasters,\nPeter Pitts, Cyrus Chipman, Solomon Woodruff, Aaron Hunt, Roswell Turner; overseers of the poor, Peter Pitts, Philip\nReed; commissioners of schools, Philip Reed, Cyrus Chiprnan, Jonas Belknap.\nIn this connection we furnish the names of the supervisors of Richmond who have from time to time represented\nthe town in the county legislature as follows: Lemuel Chipman, 1786-1800, 1806, 1814, 1821; Philip Reed, 1801-4;\nGideon Pitts, 1805, 1807-1809, 1818-20; Noah Ashley, 1810, 1813, 1815; James Herendeen, 1811; Peter Allen, 1812;\nNoah Ashley, 1812, to fill vacancy; Amos Mead, 1816-17; Issacher Frost, 1822-23, 1828; Nathaniel Allen, 1824, 1826;\nJohn Dixon, 1825; Philip Short, 1827; Jonathan Mason, 1829; Hiram Pitts, 1830-34; Gilbert Wilson, 1835-38; Wm.\nF. Reed, 1839-40; Hiram Ashley, 1841-43 ; Robert L. Rose, 1844-45; Zach. Longyor, 1846; David A. Pierpont, 1847-48,\n1852, 1855; Thomas Barkley, 1849-50; Lyman Haws, 1851; David L. Hamilton, 1853-54; Zoroaster Paul, 1856; Wm. F.\nReed, 1857-58; Willard Doolittle, 1859-60; Evelyn Pierce, 186 r- 68; Spencer D. Short, 1868-72; Chas. E. Reed,\n1873-76; Marion P. Worthy, 1887-80; Frederick L.'Ashley, 1881-82; John A. Reed, 1883-86; Edwin W. Gilbert, 1887-88;\nDavid A. Pierpont, 1889-91; Charles E. Reed, 1892-93.\nThe Richmond contribution to the Ontario county troops who served in the War of 18 12-15, so far as can be ascertained,\ncomprised these militiamen: Peter Allen, who commanded a regiment; Captains Elijah Clark, Josiah Morehouse, Joel\nS. Hart, Caleb Harrington; Salma Stanley, Abraham Dox, John Brown, John Bogart, James Bogart; Paymaster Nathaniel\nAllen; Major James Henderson; Lieutenant Joshua Phillips, and Tilness Bently, Eli Crooks, Henry Hazen, Paul W.\nHazen, Thomas Bentley, Riley Crooks, Robert Crawfor, John Wheeler, Sylvester Wheeler, Benj. Leslie, Benj. Downing,\nDavid Knapp, Richard Wright, Pitts Phillips, Wm. Lane, John Flanders, Samuel Bently, Lyman Canda, Vincent Conklin,\nDarius French, Leonard Pemberton, Elijah Risden, Elijah Sibley, Cyrus Booth\nThe greatest number of inhabitants ever attained by the town was about the year 1840, there then being a population\nof 1,927. Ten years before the number was 1,876. In 1850 it decreased to 1,852; in 1860 to 1,650; in 1870 to 1,622;\nin 1880 it was increased to 1,772, and during the next ten years decreased to 1,511, as shown by the census reports.\nThe town of Richmond from its early settlement period has possessed a number of small villages, none of which has\nattained to the character of a corporation The largest and most important of these hamlets is Honeoye, a pretty\nlittle village located on the outlet of Honeoye Lake, about half a mile from the main body of the latter. The land\nin this vicinity to the vast extent of 3,000 acres, was originally owned by pioneer Captain Pitts, though the proprietorship\nof the village seems to have been credited to Artemas Briggs. The pioneer interests here were the tannery of Moses\nRisden, succeeded by Danie] Phillips; Gideon Pitts, Mr. Way and Abner Mather were the first blacksmiths; Gideon\nPitts also built a saw-mill and grist-mill, the latter being on the site now occupied by the roller process mill\nof John Quick. In 1815 R. Davids opened a tavern, who was followed in the same occupation by Samuel G. Crooks and\nSmith Henry. In 1817 John Brown and Linus Giddings put in operation a fulling and cloth mill, which Joseph Blount\nowned later on. Hiram Pitts and Joseph Savill built the first woolen factory, and in 1822 John Brown started in\ntrade. Erastus Hill, R. Waidron and Hawks & Whipple followed still later. Other, and perhaps later, merchants\nand business men of the village were as follows: Isaac G. Hazen, dealer; M. M. Gregory, hardware; Lyman Pierce\nand E. Pierce, ashery; Isaac Seward, tanner and shoemaker; Cornelius Hollenbeck, tanner; Oliver Adams, tanner and\nshoemaker; Mr. Tubbs, cabinet maker; Artemas Briggs, Ephraim Turner, John Pennell, Gideon Pitts and Erastus Hill,\ndistillers. The present business interests of Honeoye village are the machine shops of Wm. Parks; the planing-mill\nof Caleb Arnold; the shops of Thos. McKey, Geo. W. Patterson and Frank Hoagland; Baun's photograph gallery; W.\nH. Bartlett's shoe and wagon shops; T. R. Reed's market; Mrs. Stout's hotel; Julian Tonset's and Geo. McBride's\nharness shops, and the stores of Frank Watrous, Ira M. Deyo (also postmaster), Rowley Knapp, Edwin W. Gilbert,\nM. A. Franklin, Litzendorf & Eldredge and Thomas & Plimpton.\nThe public properties at Honeoye are the school house and the Congregational and St. Mary's Roman Catholic churches.\nThe First Congregational Church at Honeoye was organized in November, 1854, by Rev. Cyrus Pitts, assisted by Rev.\nFisher, with less than ten original members, most of whom were formerly connected with the mother Congregational\nSociety of the town. The church was built in 1861, and stands at the corner of Main and North streets. The succession\nof pastors is as follows: Revs. Cyrus Pitts, R. W. Payne, Milton Buttoft,. Isaac N. Ely and S. Mills Day, the latter\nbeing the present pastor.\nSt. Mary's Catholic Church at Honeoye is of recent organization and is under the pastoral charge of Rev. J. W.\nThe First Methodist Protestant Church and Society was organized in 1832, and in the same year a church edifice\nwas built. In 1869 the building was destroyed by fire, an accident that so crippled the society that it soon afterward\npassed out of existence.\nRichmond Center is a small hamlet situated near the center of the town, the early occupants of which have been\nmentioned in this chapter, but the place at this time has no business interests worthy of mention. It is the location,\nhowever, of the original Congregational Church of the town, organized November 4. 1802, and including in its membership\na number of the prominent pioneer families of the vicinity. In 1804 the society purchased land of David Crooks\nto be used as a burying ground and also a site for a meeting-house. About 1810 the Presbyterian form of government\nwas adopted, but in 1843 the society returned to Congregationalism. The large edifice was built in 1817-18, and\nthe parsonage in 1835. Among the early supplies and pastors of this church were Revs. Joseph Grover, Jacob Cram,\nAbijah Warren, Samuel Fuller, Aaron C. Collins, Warren Day, Orange Lyman, H. B. Pierpont, Jacob Burbank, L. W.\nBillington, Lyman Manly, Milton Buttoff. This society is not now in active existence.\nRichmond Mills is a small village situate in the western part of the town, on the outlet of Hemlock Lake. This\nwas originally the locality of the settlement made by pioneer Asa Dennison, who came to the town in 1795, and for\nwhom the cross roads was given the name of Dennison's Corners. The pioneer built a tavern at the Corners, and in\nconnection with it fitted up a large ball-room. He kept public house here sixty years. The present business interests\nhere are the store of A. B. Hosford, who is also postmaster; A. W. Townsend's saw and stave mill, and Caleb Clow's\nAllen's Hill is located in the northest part of the town in the locality in which Moses Allen and his sons, Peter\nand Nathaniel, settled in 1796 and 1797. From this family the hamlet receives its name, although as a business\nor manufacturing center the village has never gained any prominence. Here are located the Protestant Episcopal\nand Metlodist Episcopal churches, the school of district No. 2, the store of Charles Simmons (who is also postmaster)\nand the blacksmith shop of Noah T. Lambert.\nThe Protestant Episcopal Church (St. Paul's) was organized in the town in April, 1813; and during the next two\nyears an edifice was built. The parish organization has always been maintained though the church has experienced\nmany vicissitudes. Its membership is small and there is no resident or regular rector in the parish.\nThe Methodist Episcopal Church of Richmond which is located at Allen's Hill was organized about sixty years ago,\nand reorganized in January, 1859. The first church edifice was in the eastern part of the town, but after the reorganization\na larger and more suitable structurewas built at Allen's Hill, and was dedicated July 6, 1861. The present pastor\nof this church is Rev. D. C. Nye..\nThe only church society which has had an active existence in Richmond was the Baptist, organized about 1808, and\nwhich built a church house in 1832. The society was dissolved many years ago.\nReferring briefly to the educational interests of Richmond, it may be stated that the town has ten school districts,\neleven frame schoolhouses, which are maintained at an annual expense of about $4,000. The total value of school\nbuildings and sites in the town is estimated at $i 1,825. The number of children of school age in the town in 1892"}
{"content":"Set As Default Person\n||, Yngvi-frey |\n||Of Uppsala King of Sweden |\n- From Norsk mythology\nFreyr also spelled Frey, also called YNGVI, in Norse mythology, the ruler of peace and fertility, rain, and sunshine and the son of the sea god Njörd. Although originally one of the Vanir tribe, he was included with the Aesir. Gerd, daughter of the giant Gymir, was his wife. Worshiped especially in Sweden, he was also well-known in Norway and Iceland. His sister and female counterpart, Freyja, was goddess of love, fertility, battle, and death. The boar was sacred to both. Freyr and Freyja figure in many lays and stories of medieval Iceland.\nMuch more is told of Freyr, the son of Njörd. His name means \"Lord\" (compare Old English Frea), but Freyr had other names as well; he was called Yngvi or Yngvi-Freyr, and this name suggests that he was the eponymous father of the north Germans whom Tacitus calls Ingvæones (Ingævones). The Old English Runic Poem indicates that the god Ing was seen first among the eastern Danes; he departed eastward over a wave and his chariot went after him. It is remarkable how the chariot persists in the cult of the Vanir, Nerthus, Ing, and Freyr. A comparatively late source tells how the idol of Freyr was carried in a chariot to bring fertility to the crops in Sweden. In an early saga of Iceland, where crops were little cultivated, Freyr still appears as the guardian of the sacred wheatfield. Freyr's name often is found as the first element of a place-name, especially in eastern Sweden; the second element often means \"wheatfield,\" or \"meadow\nThe Eddic poem Skírnismál (\"The Lay of Skírnir\") relates the wooing of Freyr's bride, Gerd (Gerðr), a giant-maiden. This story has often been considered as a fertility myth. Gerdr (from garðr, \"field\") is held fast in the clutches of the frost-giants of winter. Thus, Freyr, as sun-god, would free her. However, this interpretation rests entirely on disputable etymologies. The narrative indicates that Freyr's bride belongs to the otherworld, and her wooing may rather symbolize the affinities of the fertility god with the chthonian powers, dominating the cycle of life and death. Several animals were sacred to Freyr, particularly the horse and, because of his great fertility, the boar.\nThe centre of Freyr's cult was Uppsala, and he was once said to be king of the Swedes. His reign was one of peace and plenty. While Freyr reigned in Sweden, a certain Frodi ruled the Danes, and the Danes attributed this age of prosperity to him. Frodi (Fróði) was also conveyed ceremoniously in a chariot, and some have seen him as no other than a doublet of Freyr. Freyr was said to be ancestor of the Ynglingar, the Swedish royal family. Such myths are connected with the concept of \"divine kingship\" in the Germanic world, but earlier views on \"sacral royalty\" are now being challenged.\n107) FREYR PROPOSES TO GER?UR\nOne day Freyr was sitting in Hliðskjálf, and saw the giant-maiden Gerður\ndaughter of Gymir. She seemed to him the most beautiful of all maidens,\nand he was filled with longing and sorrow, but dared not tell the other\ngods, who worried about him. Of all the Giants Gymir was now the most\nterrible, and a sworn enemy of Ásgarður, and therefore a bond of matrimony\nbetween the Gods and Gymir would be a shameful thing indeed, and most\ndangerous for all of creation. Nevertheless Freyr's passion became so\noverwhelming that he felt that he would die unless Gerður become his.\nHe opened his heart to Svipdagur, and it came to pass that Svipdagur\nwent to Gerður in order to propose marriage on Freyr's behalf. He took\nwith him the ring Draupnir and eleven golden apples, but she would only\naccept the proposal on three conditions: that her father Gymir receive\nVölundur's sword; that Svipdagur and Freyja fetch her and accompany her\ninto Ásgarður; and that she become one of the Goddesses in Ásgarður.\n108) THE SWORD OF REVENGE IN GYMIR'S POWER\nThe Gods accepted unwillingly, and thus forfeited the certain victory,\nwhich the sword had ensured. The sword was a great gain for the giants,\neven if they would never be able to use it without destroying themselves.\nGymir gave the sword into the keeping of his kinsman Eggþér, who buried\nit deep below the earth in the Iron-Wood (Járnviður).\n109) BATTLE IN THE HALL OF GYMIR\nSvipdagur went to Gymir's hall along with Freyja. They planned to\nbetray the Giants. Þórr and Ullur rode secretly to the north, and\nhid themselves near to Gymir's mountainous abode. Gymir told Svipdagur\nthat he planned to keep Freyja, and proposed that he himself marry\nGerður. Thus he would regain the sword of revenge, be able to fulfil\nthe blood vengeance which he had sworn, overthrow the God-powers and\nhimself become Lord of the Universe. Svipdagur pretended to accept\nthis, and now a double wedding was prepared. Just in time Þórr and\nUllur burst into the rocky hall. Svipdagur grabbed his weapons, and\nFreyja fought valiantly by her husband's side. Gymir and all his clan\nwere slaughtered after a violent battle, and the Gods brought Gerður\nFreyr (fray-er), Frey, Fro - (also Ingve-Frey) Vana-God, brother-consort of Freyja; son of Njord and Njord's sister. \"The Lord\", fertility and creativity God; \"the Lover\"; God of Yule. He is the god of wealth and peace and contentment. Blood was not allowed to be spilled through violence, nor where weapons or outlaws allowed on or in his holy places. He owns the boar, Gullinbursti, the ship, Skidbladnir, and a magic sword, that moves by itself through the air. Gerd, a Giantess, is his wife. Sensual love, fertility, growth, abundance, wealth, bravery, horses, boars, protector of ships and sailors, peace, joy happiness, rain, beauty, weather, guarantor of oaths, groves, sunshine, plant growth, sex. He ruled over the land of the light elves, Alfheim.\nFrey, also known as Fro Ing, is Son to Niord and brother to Freya. Apparently, Frey?s mother is Niord?s sister. He is married to the giantess Gerd and they have a son named Fiolnir.\nFrey is the god of kings, especially in Denmark and Sweden. Known, as the god of frith (fruitful peace) and of good weather, this ?God of the World? rides a boar named Gullenbursti. It was made out of an ingot of gold and boar skin.\nHe also has a boat called Skidhbladnir. It fits in his pocket and can grow to any size he needs it to be. Fro Ing gave up his horse, Blodhughofi, and his sword to his best friend Skinir. With this sword and steed he went to Muspellheim and convinced Gerd to marry Frey. His hall is Alfheim, world of the elves.\nAt Ragnarok, Frey will fight with a Stag?s horn and be killed by Surt, the fire giant.\n||16 Sep 2000 |"}
{"content":"Wind Energy: Hereford Wind Farm Phase One Sold; Transmission Line Expansion in Oklahoma and Kansas\nEDF Renewable Energy agreed to buy the 200MW first phase of the Hereford Wind Project according to a recent ReNews article. The purchase includes an option on the 300MW second phase.\nThe 15,000 acre Hereford Wind Project is located southeast of Hereford, Texas in Deaf Smith County. It interconnects to Competitive Renewable Energy Zone (CREZ) transmission lines, which move the energy generated in the Panhandle to areas with high electrical demands.\nA piece in EcoSeed said EDF Renewable Energy is an United States subsidiary of EDF Energies Nouvelles, the renewable division of French electric company, Électricité de France. EDF Energies Nouvelles also closed a deal on a wind farm in Quebec.\nNewsOK reported Clean Energy Partners is constructing a direct-current line from Guymon, Oklahoma to Memphis, Tennessee. Michael Skelly is the president of Clean Line Energy Partners. He said the Oklahoma Panhandle is, “one of the mother lodes of wind in this country.” Construction on the $2 billion dollar project could begin in 2015.\nNorth American Wind Power reported Grain Belt Express Clean Line has proposed a direct-transmission line from the Spearville, Kansas substation in Ford County to the Kansas/Missouri border. The Kansas Corporation Commission is considering the proposed route. A series of meetings will be held to gather public comment. Grain Belt Express Clean Line LLC is an affiliate of Clean Line Energy Partners."}
{"content":"Is the Stigma and Bias against Online Degrees Illegal?\nThe Unfair Bias Against Online Degrees\nOnline degree holders perform as well as, or slightly better than, campus degree holders. Why does a persistent bias continue to exist? Let's explore some comments from those who decry online degrees. In response to an article on Ashford University, a former, self described \"online teacher\" (who taught a class on \"medical terminology\"...somewhere), smartchick posted:\nAlso, be wary of the resume impact. As someone who has hired many people over the years, and served on numerous hiring committees, I will tell you that there is a bias. Certain institutions, when appearing on a resume, route it to the trash can. The institutions most likely to land your resume in \"File 13\" are those perceived to be diploma mills, or rigorless online degree factories. -Smartchick\nIn a thread following a review of DeVry University, a traditional degree holder made this statement:\n\"My school is fully accredited by the AACSB and your degree will always be less respected than mine. I have met many big 4 alumni through Beta Alpha Psi an accounting honor society and not one has been a graduate of any online school!\nDon't critique my grammar instead of my argument. That just shows you have lost..\" -BAP\nLet us analyze his statement. The most obvious intellectual, philosophical error made is that if someone commented on his grammar, it directly demonstrates having already lost the debate. This is an obvious non-sequitur. The next blunder he makes is his mention of no members of Beta Alpha Psi having an online degree. Is there any wonder that BAP, which requires as prerequisite to membership that a chapter (meaning a building) already exists at your school, would not have any members from online schools?\nNot all degrees carry the same prestige. However, the nature of a man and his emotional maturity are much better predictors of success than the name on the degree he holds.\nThe above two quotes demonstrate a bias against online degrees. The first sat on a hiring review committee which routinely laughed and trashed applications simply because they had online degrees. (At least, that is the reason she gave, and perhaps believed.) The second is convinced (without citing any studies or sources) that an online degree will \"never\" be equal to his. So entrenched is his bias that, earlier in his post, he claimed that an earlier poster who claimed to be working for a Big 4 accounting company \"is a liar\". Note that DeVry accounting graduates pass the CPA exam on the first attempt better than 30% of the time, which beats the performance of many state schools. (42% to 51%, including second time test-takers, pass on any given exam administration. There is a statistical distribution, and some of these brick-and-mortar schools have well below 30% pass rates.)\nThe Reality of Online Degree Holders\nIn 2005, Vault released a survey of hiring managers' practices with reference to online degrees. 34% had seen applicants with online degrees. More than half of these, 20% of respondents, said they had hired an online degree holder. In 2005, 54% said they still prefer traditional degree holders over online degrees. However, one savvy hiring manager had this experience:\n\"The person was tested in all aspects of their field of study with respect to the position and won the position. Great hire it turned out to be!\"\nIn 2009, another survey showed that only 40% continued to prefer traditional degrees over online degrees.\nIn 2011, the National Survey of Student Engagement (http://nsse.iub.edu), published results of an annual (self-reported) experience of students in higher education curricula. The NSSE site allows any visitor to generate a report from the data. A report comparing online degree holders vs traditional degree holders shows that online students worked much harder to satisfy instructors, wrote more and longer papers, and felt more confident in most areas. Almost every area showed numbers favoring the online degree holders. The generated report included responses from 355,340 students.\n- Colorado Study finds “No Significant Difference” in Online Science Courses.\nA 2012 Colorado study shows that online degree teachers give lower grades (counters bias); and online degree learners who took online science, including lab work, outperformed after they transferred to 4-year schools- in gpa and work load.\nWhy it May Be Illegal to Outright Reject Online Degrees\nBesides the obvious fact that a selection committee reduces it's pool of potential hires simply because they do not like the name on the banner head of their degree, there may be a legal reason human resources managers should discontinue tossing out all of their online degree applications.\nUnintentional discrimination, also called \"disparate impact\" occurs when a recruiting, hiring, or retention practice has the effect of disproportionately excluding a group based on a protected category. Protected categories are defined by Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act as \"race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.\"\nOnline degree holders are not a protected class, not directly. However, consider the following statistics from the 2009 Annual Report of the University of Phoenix. UOPX students are compared with the nationwide institutional average (NIA).\nAnd, in the end, what was it that the white woman hiring manager really saw on those resumes that caused her derisive reaction? Was it the institution's name? Or, was it some other name? Perhaps she saw \"Latisha\" or \"Garcia\" to set her off. Of course, most people today would not dare say that. But, direct the bias at the same people in the name of their degree, and uninformed people might accept it.\nTotal Enrollment Distribution\nUniversity of Phoenix (%)\nNational Average (%)\nOnline Degree Holders are More Likely to be Minorities\nUsing the above table from the 2008 UOPX Academic Annual Report, we can see the basis of a Disparate Impact suit. Discriminating against UOPX degree holders means a hiring practice has a negative impact on the hiring of race, color and sex. The unseen applicant of the resume which says \"University of Phoenix\" at the bottom is 1.36 times as likely to be a minority, 1.18 times as likely to be a female, and 2.31 times as likely to be black.\nHR Managers should consider the case of Griggs v. Duke Power Co. In recruiting for a coal handler position, Duke Power Co. stipulated that consideration for the position required a high school diploma and meeting the standard in performance on two aptitude tests. In that case, the court ruled that the requirements were discriminatory because the practice had a disparate impact on the hiring of blacks, who were less likely to have high school diplomas. Duke could not establish that the job required a high school degree.\nWhich professions can demonstrate that an on-campus degree is necessary and required for the work, and that an online degree is insufficient? I cannot think of one.\nFirms allowing HR staff to laugh and trash online degree applicants may be subject to risk of losing suit to a protected group under Title VII.\nAnd, there are 355 independent studies showing \"No Significant Difference\" in online degrees vs traditional degrees.\nDo You Think an Online Degree in Psychology is Equal to a Campus Psychology Degree?\nWould you consider an online degree equivalent to a traditional degree in hiring?See results without voting\nMore by this Author\nWhat things best predict income success? You might be surprised! Take the poll first, read, then examine the voting results.\nLincoln Electric provides an interesting case for analysis of International Human Resource Management (IHRM). Discussed here: Stropki, expansion into China, compensation, and recommendations.\nThis is a collection of dreams and visions from seven different men, three women, and a 9-year-old girl. Each was shown that the 44th president is the last."}
{"content":"City Year as a Psychic Prison\nWhat is a psychic prison?\nAccording to Gareth Morgan, author of Images of Organization, \"organizations are ultimately created and sustained by conscious and unconscious processes, with the notion that people actually become imprisoned in or confined by the images, ideas, thoughts, and actions to which these processes give rise. The metaphor encourages us to understand that while organizations may be socially constructed realities, these constructions are often attributed an existence and power of their own that allow them to exercise a measure of control over their creators\" (p. 207).\nCity Year is an international non-profit organization comprised of people 17 to 24 years of age from different backgrounds who are determined to make a difference in the lives of children. Corps members commit to 10 months of service as tutors and role models to at-risk youth in order to help them stay in school. In addition to addressing the educational needs of students, corps members also organize service projects for the community. In their service, they develop life and leadership skills that they will use in their future endeavors.\nI. Favored Ways of Thinking\nWhile new corps members are selected each year, the management at each City Year site sees low turnover. This supports an established way of thinking that is similar to groupthink. The organization is managed under the established principles and beliefs espoused by the leadership, and while they encourage feedback from the new corps members, the leadership ultimately has the power to quash any ideas or movements that do not align with their values.\nIn general, community service is looked upon favorably by society. Because the corps members are primarily exposed to positive feedback from the community for the projects they organize, they may not recognize areas of inefficiency or ineffectiveness. For instance, at the close of a neighborhood tree planting, the corps members will feel good about their work in the community because they are encouraged by staff and by society to believe that their service will make a difference. A community will rarely question the details of a service project when it is being conducted for free. Societal support and positive reinforcement may impede the organization’s ability to judge whether or not the project was completed skillfully, using only the necessary supplies to preserve resources, or whether the project was the best use of the organization’s resources. Did the neighborhood need those trees to be planted? Would a different project have a greater impact on the community?\nII. The Unconscious\nWhile City Year generally operates with a realistic view of its role within the environment, it occasionally falls into some of the psychological defenses identified by Freud. For instance, the organization practices fixation in its strict, constant adherence to its policies and principles. Many are useful, encouraging members to serve as positive role models in the community; corps members are forbidden from cursing, jaywalking, and spitting on the sidewalk while in uniform. The uniform itself was viewed as a symbol of the unity between corps members, and if any piece of the uniform was out of place or missing (pants, shirt, boots, belt, nametag), the corps member would receive a warning.\nIn a combination of reaction formation and idealization, City Year takes negative or discouraging experiences and uses them to inspire its service and motivate the members. For instance, on the opening day of their youth weekend program, a group of nervous corps members were involved in a car crash where there were no injuries but the car was totaled. The corps members were rattled and contemplated canceling the opening day, but soon after decided to proceed with the events and were even more energized to meet with the students. City Year encourages a focus on the best in every situation, and the organization has a collection of more than 150 inspirational phrases that is entitled “Putting Idealism to Work,” whereas PITW #1 states, “Challenge cynicism – wherever you find it,” and PITW # 109 says, “Take what’s best – and leave the rest.”\nIn a world of abundant social problems and limited resources, non-profit organizations often find that they must fight to survive in a community. What are generally considered to be traditional male values – including dominance and aggression – are promoted as City Year’s leaders delve into the community to network and convince funders that they need grants and donations more than other organizations. Corps members must display strength and fortitude in addressing societal issues, and also demonstrate fatherly qualities in serving as mentors for youth. Corps members may even possess what Morgan referred to as “narcissistic self-admiration” in their pride for the service that they provide to those less fortunate than they may be.\nCity Year, like many non-profit organizations, is comprised of members who may be driven by a fear of death and determined to overcome it by creating a legacy through service; if their sacrifices and contributions to society are great enough, they will not be forgotten when they are gone. Also, many corps members have overcome difficult backgrounds and circumstances and chose to serve through their desire to give back to the community. Their service through City Year may represent their attempt to control their lives and play an active role in the world.\nCorps members may also demonstrate fight-flight in establishing an organizational scapegoat to help them cope with challenging situations. For instance, they might focus on a difficult teacher or parent in order to release frustration with their service or the organization.\nExcessive anxiety can be a downfall for organizations, as it can consume the organization and cause it to lose sight of its ultimate goals. For instance, groups of corps members would rotate responsibility for planning a service project around a certain theme (i.e. environment, drug and alcohol abuse). They would have to meet a deadline and secure the necessary in-kind donations for the project. In response to growing apprehension that the deadline would not be met and donations would not be acquired, the group members would plan a service project that would not meet their initial goals, instead using readily available resources to execute the project. The adjustment altered the meaning of the project to the community.\nAnother example involves the Heroes programs, which served middle- and high-school youth through extracurricular weekend mentoring programs. In response to pressure from funders, the programs were eliminated in 2009 with the goal of allowing more focus on school-based programming. However, this created a gap in service for the older age groups, as no other organizations provided services similar to the Heroes programs in the SouthBay. Youth and parents were alarmed and had to seek alternative opportunities.\nWhen President Obama was elected in 2008, City Year as an organization breathed a sigh of relief, as he demonstrated strong support for AmeriCorps programs and encouraged the passage of the Serve America Act. City Year must be careful not to fall victim to dependency or pairing by instilling too much blind faith in their new leader, however, because President Obama does not hold absolute power over the nation and cannot solely solve the organization’s problems. While the President has proposed increased funding for AmeriCorps in his Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Request to Congress, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1, a bill that eliminates funding for the Corporation for National and Community Service and all its service programs.\nFor City Year, its office building was similar to a transitional object. The original office was located at San Pedro and Santa Clara and had been vandalized and covered with graffiti from time to time, each time perceived by corps members as a threat to their presence. The inside was plain and somewhat dirty, and many of the offices were dark without windows. Once the office location moved to another building near St. James Park, the spirit of service changed, for the building was newer, more open and welcoming, and allowed the corps members to better perform their service. Graffiti decreased in this more visible location.\nTo enhance the level and quality of service provided by the corps members (and also to contribute to their personal development), City Year’s staff would encourage the interaction of corps members of various personality types (ST, IT, SF, and IF) with different ways of perceiving and judging their environment. An ST corps member might be more inclined to discipline a student who violated a school or program rule, but working with SF or IT corps members might help open his or her eyes to special circumstances surrounding the situation that could demonstrate how a different reaction might be more suitable.\n- Organizations as Psychic Prisons\n- The Eight Metaphors of Organization\nGareth Morgans Images of Organization is a must-read for those who want to develop a deeper understanding of a lot of the stuff I talk about here. Though Ive cited the book lots of times, it is one of those\n- City Year\nCity Year unites young people of all backgrounds for a year of full-time service, giving them the skills and opportunities to change the world. As tutors, mentors, and role models, these leaders make a difference in the lives of children, and transf\nComments 4 comments\nMore by this Author\nA lot can happen in a few moments- especially in a fast-paced classroom. What if you missed the first few minutes of instruction in a class you are already having difficulty in? Chances are that you won't feel so hot on...\nCongratulations! You want to make a difference in the world and serve our nation's youth as a Teach for America educator. Now you just have to apply. Learn more about the process by reading about my experience...\nHave you ever heard of power feminism? Two women, Katie Roiphe and Naomi Wolf, say that society doesn't oppress women because women are powerful enough to control their fates. Women who don't have the mindset of a..."}
{"content":"Harvest Home - a Pagan rock song for Summer Solstice and all year round\nHarvest Home photo\nHow Harvest Home began\nHarvest Home is a folk rock or acoustic rock song by myself the Bard of Ely but it wasn't always a musical recording. Harvest Home started life as a poem that was published originally in the nineties by Alan Craw in his fanzine Cyrkel Spynn.\nHowever, a friend of mine suggested that I should try putting some music to it because it would make great lyrics, so this is what I did, having worked out a chord pattern that fitted the verses. The words make direct reference to the Summer Solstice, a very important time and event in the traditional pagan and Druid calendars. This is the time of a major festival on the pagan calendar, when there is the longest day and shortest night and pagans celebrating this time of year await seeing the rising sun. Stonehenge attracts thousands of people for the Summer Solstice each year.\nThe story of Harvest Home, by the way, illustrates why it can be important to hold on to lyrics and poems if you write them, because you never know where they might end up in future, perhaps having been given a different treatment.\nThe Taffia EP\nA lot of people liked the song Harvest Home and it was released online on various music sites but I was really delighted, as I am sure you can imagine, when Rhys Mwyn, who signed my controversial song You're a Liar, Nicky Wire to front a release on Crai Records entitled the Taffia EP, gave the go ahead for it also to be included as another of the tracks included on the release.\nCrai Records, by the way, is part of Sain Records, a leading Welsh record label, and where the band Catatonia first started their career. Catatonia, of course, was the band that gave Cerys Matthews her break that led on to international recognition as a singer, and the band had a string of hits.\nSo Harvest Home was released on a CD EP in 2002.\nHow Harvest Home was recorded\nI had my new song Harvest Home in its basic form, of a melody I played using a strummed chord-pattern, but wanted to get it recorded properly, and for the song to have a folk-rock treatment, so I asked my good friend and fellow singer-songwriter and rock musician, Nathaniel 'Nat' Shelley, if he could help. Nathaniel, by the way, is the son of bass player Burke Shelley of the legendary Welsh rock band Budgie, so music and talent definitely run in his family. At this point in time, Nat was writing songs for and fronting his own band called Transposer.\nWith a Nod to John Lennon\nI sent a cassette recording to Nat so he could get an idea of how the song sounded and was structured so when we met up next we could record it using his home studio in Penarth. Both Nat and I are big fans of John Lennon and we thought we could make tribute to the former Beatle by giving it a psychedelic sound with some backward tape playing as the intro. This was done using the actual cassette recording.\nI can't be sure what was actually being sung on the tape playing normally but reversed it sounds like \"Horses can harm you.\" Much as I love these animals, funnily enough, I once was harmed by one when I got kicked up the backside, literally, by a mare in a field I was walking through as a boy.\nI sang the vocals for Harvest Home and played acoustic guitar and Nat came up with the rest of the rock song backing and I was very pleased with how it all sounded.\nCanadian singer-songwriter Daniel Iorio was so impressed with Harvest Home that he recorded a cover version of it. Daniel is a John Lennon fan too and his own songs have a distinct Lennon influence so he was just the right person to record a new version of the song.\nHarvest Home by Bard of Ely\nLinks for this hub\n- Rhys Mwyn - Biography\n- daniel iorio | Free Music, Tour Dates, Photos, Videos\ndaniel iorio's official profile including the latest music, albums, songs, music videos and more updates.\nHarvest Home included on a film soundtrack\nAlan Craw, who has released two albums by me on DMMG Records - Welsh Wizard and Dive in Deep - is a good friend of Phillip Gardiner, author of the best selling book - The Serpent Grail, and who coincidentally was also in Cyrkel Spynn in the past. Besides being an author, Phillip makes documentaries and films for the major USA film/multi-media label Reality Entertainment.\nAlan sent my promo pack to Philip last year (at time of writing), and I got in touch with him myself via Facebook, with the result that he was impressed enough with Harvest Home to include it as part of the soundtrack for the horror film Paranormal Haunting: The Curse of the Blue Moon Inn.\nIt has been very pleasurable watching the journey of a song that began life as a poem printed in a fanzine but ended up on a recording released by an established independent label, and later getting used in a film by a much-acclaimed director.\nParanormal Haunting: The Curse of the Blue Moon Inn: Official Trailer\n© 2011 Steve Andrews\nMore by this Author\nNeil Young is an internationally known singer-songwriter and rock guitarist originally from Canada. He came to fame with the bands Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.\nHawkwind are a famous rock band who had a hit with Silver Machine. They are known as a Space-rock band. Bard of Ely has a number of links with Hawkwind and has worked with a former member.\nBenjamin Fulford is a very controversial conspiracy theorist who interviewed David Rockefeller and also worked for Forbes magazine."}
{"content":"Chinese Medicine Remedies\nTraditional Chinese Medicine takes a holistic approach. Whereas in the West diseases are specific to a certain part of the body, Chinese believe that all the systems of the body are interconnected. If there is a problem with one part of the body, it can affect other areas in the anatomy. Also, changes in the environment can have an affect on the body rhythms and cause illness.\nMy first experience with Chinese Medicine was when I first moved to Hawaii 18 years ago. I went to a Chinese friend's home for dinner. I had just moved here from a third world country and had experienced a few health problems. He brought out an instrument that he told me would give him a diagnosis of anything wrong in my body. He is a school teacher, so I was a bit skeptical about it, but thought it might be fun anyway.\nHe explained that the human ear is just like a reverse fetus. According to the theory of Chinese Traditional medicine, each human organ has a corresponding point on the ear. If a certain organ has any disease or changes, it will emit a bio-electrical current from the corresponding point in the ear. By listening to the instrument carefully, a person can detect if there is a problem in any area of the body.\nSo my Chinese friend moved a little stylus over every part of one of my ears listening intently for any changes in his Hua-han electronic acupuncture device. It tickled a bit, but did not hurt at all. To my amazement and wonder, when he was finished, he asked me if I had liver problems. I told him that I had hepatitis B while I was living in the South Pacific islands and had been very sick with it. I have since been told I have PBC Pulmonary Biliary Cirrhosis. Then he asked if I had trouble with my knee joint. I injured my left knee severely as a young lady and have had trouble with it ever since for which I have been told I need a knee replacement.\nHe further explained that diseases are caused by a block of meridian channels in our body. The block causes pain. If there is no block, then there is no pain. The instrument he used picked up the bio-electric currents and he could hear that those two areas, my liver and knee, were indeed blocked. I was beside myself because I had not mentioned anything about my hepatitis or knee problems before I got there. It seemed magical to me.\nI have since read quite a bit about Chinese Medicine. They believe that the body's vital energy (chi or qi) circulates through channels called meridians. If there is an imbalance or interruption of this vital energy, illness or disease results.\nChinese claim that over 200 kinds of disorders have been treated with ear acupuncture with an 85 percent effectiveness rate. Sometimes they add electrical stimulation to acupuncture needles to treat disease. Chinese commonly practice self massage of the ears on a daily basis to prevent disease which certainly couldn't hurt and may actually work.\nI have not had acupuncture, but believe it may work according to my experience with my Chinese friend. Acupuncture is used to restore balance of the chi in the body. Of all that I have learned about Chinese medicine, the theory behind auricular acupuncture is the most interesting to me. Too bad it has gotten a bad rap from the Western world. The Chinese have treated disease by using points on the ear for centuries.\nA Bit of Humor helps your body heal itself too\nMore by this Author\nTonga still uses traditional medicine in many families. It has been passed down through the generations. They now export some of their medicines to other countries.\nHerbal remedies for common ailments. Experience of lady in third world country with herbal remedies.\nWise words from Mother Theresa. Christian Living helping orphans."}
{"content":"Subscribe to this RSS feed\nExactly How To Successfully Locate An Ideal Car\nA running vehicle is crucial for everyone who doesn't wish to rely on public transport for their travel to work as well as running all of their errands. Should your automobile is actually getting close to the conclusion of the life-span, it truly is vital that you begin checking out\ncar battery reviews\nas quickly as possible prior to when you need a whole new car.\nAuto technological innovation is continually transforming and odds are, the technological innovation available in your outdated car is not going to come near to what's easily obtainable in brand new motor vehicles. Bluetooth capability, backup cameras and pedestrian detection systems make driving a vehicle a lot safer compared to in the past. Other kinds of technology merely help to make driving a car far more pleasant. For example, satellite stereo is actually common within numerous cutting edge cars and trucks nowadays. Prior to deciding to go out to your car dealerships, decide which capabilities are most significant to you.\nPerforming this will save you time while you talk with the salesman and also guarantee you don't need to get a automobile that does not satisfy your preferences. Thankfully, nearly all of this investigation can be done online so it will not be impacted by a salesman that has a vested interest in clients buying the most expensive automobile. When you have a clear notion of the vehicle you would like just before traveling to the dealer, you will certainly be within a far better placement to barter along with the sales person and acquire the automobile that is right for your family with a excellent selling price.\nDesigned by: KDD WEB SOLUTIONS\nScroll To Top"}
{"content":"IDEA Impact Grants\nThe IDEA Center Awards Inaugural Round of Impact Grants\nThe IDEA Center is proud to announce inaugural Impact Grants totaling more than $45,000 to six higher education institutions implementing projects with a goal to positively impact teaching and learning and student well-being.\nThe schools and their projects, which include five focused on Teaching and Learning and one focused on Campus Climate, are:\n- Nazareth College, Rochester, NY – Improving Interdisciplinary Integration and Meaningful Assessment Practices through Pedagogical Support\n- Tufts University, Medford, MA – Documenting the Impact of Inclusive Excellence in Faculty Development Programming\n- Cameron University, Lawton, OK – Embedded Peer Tutoring Project\n- University of Massachusetts (Lowell), Lowell, MA – Teaching the Science of Learning\n- Everett Community College, Everett, WA – Using Formative Feedback to Improve Learning Outcomes\n- Marian University, Indianapolis, IN – Bridging Faculty Development to Student Learning: Training, Intervention, and Impact.\n“Improvement of teaching and learning in higher education is why IDEA exists,” said Ken Ryalls, President of The IDEA Center. “We look forward to the positive impact these projects will have on their individual institutions, and on IDEA’s overall understanding of effective pedagogy.”\nIDEA also celebrates the work of our pilot grantees, Azusa Pacific University and Point Loma Nazarene University both of which received funding for teaching and learning projects in late 2015 and secured the foundation for IDEA’s request for proposals and inaugural Impact Grants program.\nLearn more about the 2016-2017 IDEA Impact Grants.\nCALL FOR PROPOSALS\nThe deadline for 2016-2017 proposals has passed. Please check back for information regarding our 2017-2018 Call For Proposals.\nIDEA is launching a call for proposals to promote new knowledge in higher education in the fields of teaching and learning (IDEA Impact Teaching/Learning Grant) and campus climate (IDEA Impact Campus Climate Grant). The IDEA Impact Teaching/Learning Grant is designed to promote effective student learning by carefully exploring and systematically documenting the efficacy of various teaching practices, learning environments, and institutional policies. Examples of the kinds of projects funded under the IDEA Impact Teaching/Learning Grant include, but are not limited to, the following:\n- Classroom interventions designed to improve student learning\n- Investigations of student and course characteristics that are related to learning\n- Evaluation of innovative teaching methods\n- Methods for engaging students in online courses\n- Innovative approaches to faculty development\n- Comprehensive approaches to teaching evaluation\n- Use of student ratings to improve teaching effectiveness\nThe IDEA Impact Campus Climate Grant is intended to support increased knowledge and understanding of campus climate issues that impact student learning and the ability of institutions to successfully carry out their mission. Examples of the kinds of projects funded include, but are not limited to, the following:\n- Innovative approaches to leadership development\n- Interventions designed to improve institutional, college, or departmental climate\n- Investigations of methods to improve faculty recruitment, development, and retention\n- Strategies and approaches that improve student well-being\n- Both grant opportunities will directly support individual faculty members, professional staff, departments, colleges, or programs.\n- Each applicant is eligible for one grant in an amount not to exceed $10,000 annually. We are aware that project timeframes might exceed one year, and we will work with you accordingly.\n- The application and expense budget must be completed and emailed as an attachment to email@example.com before the deadline. No late applications will be accepted for any reason.\n- If you are awarded a grant, you will be required to work with IDEA to disseminate your findings. Opportunities include posting your research to the IDEA website, conducting workshops or presentations in partnership with IDEA at national conferences and seminars, or writing an original IDEA paper. You will be required to acknowledge IDEA Impact Fund grant funding in any publications that result from IDEA Impact Fund grant funding.\nAll submissions will undergo committee review. All decisions are final. Notification of the outcome will come from IDEA’s Director of Fundraising and Advancement. Selection criteria will be based on a 50-point scale, and will include:\n- Quality of research questions and hypotheses (5 points)\n- The originality of the research (5 points)\n- Quality of data source (5 points)\n- A clear description of the innovation you propose (10 points)\n- A description of the measure(s) you will use to assess outcomes (5 points)\n- Evidence of the reliability and validity of the measure(s) (5 points)\n- Plan for your collaboration with IDEA and research dissemination plan (15 points)"}
{"content":"The Noise Out!\nSubmitted: April 24, 2003\ntransitioning to a new subject area, the students are sometimes rowdy or sometimes\nlathargic. If the students are rowdy, I stand in front of the room and wait until\nI get their attention. Then I point to my eyes as a signal to \"watch\"\nand point to my chest to signal \"me.\" I then clap, stomp, or shake a\nbody part in a series of patterns and it is their job to repeat my lead. This\nis done in complete silence, so they do not clap aloud but would simulate clapping,\nfor example. The last signal I give them is to sit down quietly. I do this by\nholding my hands out in front of me, palms down, and bringing my hands from my\nmid-chest to hip level. I then begin teaching in a whisper voice as I walk among\ndays when the students are lethargic, I give out the instructions verbally and\nwith great enthusiasm. I have them stomp, clap, tap, and shake a body part in\na pattern that mimics mine with as much noise as they can make. They especially\nlike pounding their desks, with open palms, as hard as they can. Toward the end\nof the activity, I slowly lower the noise of the clapping, etc., so that the students\ncalm down and are awake and ready to work without being hyped up."}
{"content":"Battery Cage, Ton Meijdam, Thom Snels, Béla Zsigmond, 2009, 00:04:22\nChickens interact in incredibly defined manners and form complicated social structures. Contrary to popular believe, Scientific research at the University of Sidney pointed out that chickens living in a battery cage are happier. Their free range sisters suffer from more stress, constantly living in fear of predators.\nRead an interview with studio smack"}
{"content":"Irregularity is a condition that affects both men and women. For some it can be overactive bowel: for others it can be constipation. Focusing on overactive bowel, the symptoms can be frequent stools or it can be diarrhea. It is very bothersome through the aging process. There are many diseases that cause overactive bowel, for example: Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), diverticulitis or diverticulosis, polyps and even constipation.\nThese bowel conditions require careful diagnosis. Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis can be serious chronic conditions and can develop at very young age. These diseases can be treated or be in remission, but depending on the severity of the illness, and how your health is affected, a colostomy may be necessary. If you notice any symptoms such a mucous- looking stool, blood in the stool, watery stools or even a pattern of diarrhea and constipation you should consult your physician.\nGatroenterologists, doctors that specializes in problems of the digestive tract, agree that fiber helps your digestive system function regularly to prevent overactive bowel. There are two types of fiber: soluble fiber and insoluble fiber. Soluble fiber slows digestion: it forms a gel when it mixes with water and will make loose stools more solid. In addition, it binds to fat in the digestive system to help eliminate them. Some examples are oatmeal, nuts and seeds, dried beans, peas, lentils, strawberries, blueberries, apples and citrus fruit. Insoluble fiber adds bulk to stools to help food move through your digestive system. It holds water so it softens stool to prevent constipation and promotes regularity. Insoluble fiber is found in foods like seeds, popcorn, wheat bran, whole grains (such as, whole wheat bread and brown rice), and most vegetables including carrots, cucumbers and tomatoes.\nYou should include both types of fiber in your diet. However, if you are using fiber to treat overactive bowel symptoms talk to your doctor about how much of each type of fiber you need. Normally, you need 21-38 grams of fiber per day depending on your age and sex.\nThe amount of fiber in foods is listed on the “NUTRITION FACTS” label of all foods. It is part of the carbohydrate category. You should add fiber to your diet gradually increasing a small amount daily to avoid bloating, cramping or gas. You need to give your body time to adjust. It is also important to increase the amount of water you drink as you increase your fiber intake. So there you have it, a way a natural way to treat overactive bowel.\nAs you are adjusting your diet to improve your symptoms remember that DryForLife offers a discreet and completely confidential solution to all your incontinence needs. We are here to help, and we have been providing incontinence products for over forty years.\nDisclaimer - The research, clinical material and advice provided on this website is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for medical treatment, nor an alternative to medical advice. Any action taken in response to the information given on this website is at the reader's own discretion. Readers should always consult their own Doctor in all health matters. Please read our Terms and conditions. Copyright ©2003-2010 DryForLife®"}
{"content":"Recently, Bombay High Court rejected a PIL seeking action by SEBI in respect of gold purchase schemes (Sandeep Agrawal vs. SEBI  39 taxmann.com 139 (Bom.)). In a brief decision of less than half a page, the Court essentially held that contracts are private commercial contracts and do not require interference by SEBI. The Court observed, “If any shop owner is running such a scheme and the consumers are voluntarily taking part in such a scheme, it is purely a commercial transaction between a businessman and a consumer”.\nIt is submitted that this decision requires reconsideration. It also appears that the case was not argued well, since the Court had observed, “If the petitioner so desires to bring it in the nature of public ambit the least that is expected is to point out as to under what statutory provisions or the rules framed thereunder the said scheme is prohibited. Nothing is placed on record in that regard.”.\nMany of the gold purchase schemes do prima facie appear to be collective investment schemes (CIS). While some recent newspaper reports explain what they are (see here and here), the essentials of some common schemes can be described as under.\nThe entity that sets up such scheme is often a gold-jewellery shop. Customers are invited to pay a certain sum in equal instalments for a period of time. At the end of the period, a sum, often called “bonus” is added to the amount accumulated. The customer is then given gold ornaments at the ruling market price for such total amount.\nThe terms may vary. The period may be longer or shorter. The entity may give some flexibility regarding gold price, either in terms of a fixed selling price or an assured appreciation or even some concession in the making charges of the jewellery.\nIt is difficult to see how most of such schemes are not CISs. Section 11AA of the SEBI Act, which defines CISs widely, seems to be clearly applicable and the conditions specified therein are attracted.\nWhile there are many reputed names involved in such schemes, clearly there is no regulation as of now and SEBI seems to be taking no action against them. Such schemes are ripe for misuse, assuming SEBI takes a view that the provisions relating to CIS do not apply.\nAn entity other than a gold-jewellery shop may set up such a scheme. The Scheme may be for a long period of, say, three to five years. There is no control over where the amounts raised would be applied – even existing schemes do not provide for assurance that the amounts raised would be used to buy gold which would be earmarked for the customer. The entity may offer a higher “bonus” (which really seems to be disguised interest) to attract customers. It is easy to provide a cash alternative at time of maturity in form of ruling price of gold, which in any case can be assured, apart from “bonus”.\nIt is arguable that each case would have to be decided on facts and perhaps some of such schemes may not attract the provisions. But regardless of that, the risks of such schemes are too many to be ignored. In the backdrop of recent scams in West Bengal and elsewhere, it is surprising that these schemes have not received closer attention. Ideally, and at the very least, SEBI should have assured the Court that it is looking into the schemes, more so since it was made a party to the petition."}
{"content":"The London Underground, commonly known as the tube, is the quickest and most efficient way of travelling around London. There are twelve lines in total, making up a network that you can travel on all over the city; from east to west, north to south.\nSo, how to use the London Underground? Like this…\nWhen travelling by tube, it is best to avoid paying for each ticket individually as this can end up being quite costly. Instead, the cheapest and most cost-effective way of travelling on the tube is to get an Oyster card. An Oyster card is a smartcard that you scan in and out for all journeys, and which ultimately saves you money as well as having the additional benefit of also being valid on the bus and overland rail network within London.\nAfter buying a card, you can choose to either purchase a weekly or monthly pass, which will be loaded on to the card, or you can just pay as you go. If you choose to use the pay-as-you-go option, you load money on to the card then touch the card to a machine at the beginning and end of each journey. A certain amount of money will be deducted from the card for each trip; this value depends on the length of journey and where you’re travelling, but it’s always cheaper than the equivalent cash fare. And you’ll never end up paying more in one day than it costs to get a one-day travelcard.\nOne benefit of the pay-as-you-go Oyster card for visitors to London is that the money you load on to the card stays valid for use even if you don’t use it for months or even years. This makes it ideal for users who don’t stay in London on a regular basis, and who don’t want to pay over-the-odds for the tube when they are enjoying a short break in the capital city.\nOne of the most important things to do when you are travelling on the London underground is to check the destination on the front of the train, as not all trains go to the end of the line. In addition, several lines, including the District and Northern Lines, split into two, with trains going on to different destinations. The information boards on the stations should tell you where the trains are going but it is always worth double-checking.\nIf you aren’t a regular visitor to London, it is also worth checking an overland map to see the location of your destinations before getting on the tube. For example, Leicester Square and Piccadilly are a very short walk from one another but each has its own tube stop. You don’t want to go the expense of getting on a tube when you could have walked the distance in half the time, so be aware that it may sometimes be easier and cheaper to walk.\nSimilarly there are some changeovers between stations that are quick and others that require a long walk — if possible try to find out which is which before you travel. For example, try to avoid walking from Mansion House to Bank as this is an extremely long changeover. By contrast, the changeover between the Victoria Line and the Northern Line at Stockwell is just across the platform.\nLondon Underground trains run from 5am to midnight Monday to Saturday, with a reduced service on Sundays. As with most public transport systems, there is a rush hour in the morning as people travel into the city to work, and another in the evening when workers return home. The tube system gets extremely busy at rush hour, so you may want to avoid travelling during this period, unless you enjoy the hustle and bustle of the experience. It is worth noting that should you decide to brave rush hour, you might not only struggle to get a seat, you might have to wait for several trains to pass before you can get on to a train at all.\nThe tube system, particularly in the central part of London, does tend to remain busy during most of the day. Like many major cities in built-up areas, it is a good idea to keep firm hold of your valuables as pickpockets are known to operate on the tube system, particularly in areas popular with tourists and during busy periods.\nWhen heading to or from the train, there is usually an escalator available for use. If you do use the escalators, always stand on the right hand side so to allow people in a rush to pass on your left. Some stations, such as Covent Garden, also have lifts to carry passengers.\nFood and rubbish\nIt is forbidden to smoke or drink alcohol on the London Underground and these rules are strictly enforced. If you are looking for a snack or something to keep you going during your travels, you will find that many London Underground stations, particularly those in the central areas, have newsagents operating on the platform who sell drinks and snacks like crisps and chocolate bars.\nWhen it comes to throwing your rubbish away however, be warned, as there are no rubbish bins on any London Underground station due to security issues. You will therefore have to keep hold of your litter and throw it away when you go above-ground again.\nAt many London underground stations nowadays, free newspapers are handed out in the morning and evening, which come in handy when the trains are delayed (this happens far too often for many travellers’ liking!) and when you’re waiting for your train to arrive.\nIn addition to the delays, you should be aware that much of the tube engineering work is carried out at the weekends. This maintenance work can result in sections of the line being closed down and replacement buses being in operation, which might make your journey considerably longer. If you’re planning to use the tube at the weekend, check out the Transport For London website for service updates so that you can plan ahead if work is scheduled.\nIn hot weather, temperatures can soar on the tube. It is therefore a good idea to take a bottle of water with you if travelling in this period. In winter, cold temperatures and snow can cause problems with the parts of the network that run above-ground, which can lead to delays or even cancellations in some parts.\nMany of the stations do not have good facilities for wheelchair users and are also difficult for those travelling with a pushchair. Most tube maps indicate which stations offer disabled facilities and it is a good idea to check this before travelling if do you use a wheelchair.\nOverall, using the London Underground has more pros than cons. Whilst it doesn’t always run as smoothly as it perhaps could, it is for the most part the fastest and most cost-effective way of getting from A to B when on holiday in London."}
{"content":"Fuel cells could be one of the our cleanest energy sources; they convert hydrogen into electricity, and their only waste byproduct is water. One of the biggest things holding back the technology, however, is the problem that fuel cells require expensive rare earth metals like platinum. Now a team of international researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute is developing a new aerogel-based fuel cell that’s five times more efficient than conventional fuel cells, and it uses a bare minimum of rare earth metals.\nTypically a fuel cell works by combining oxygen with hydrogen in a chemical bonding process that creates free electrons to power the vehicle, and leaves water coming out of the tail pipe as the only waste material. This reaction happens regularly in nature, but it goes extremely slowly, so a fuel cell needs a catalyst to kick start the chemical reaction and make it all go faster. In these conventional cells, the catalyst is made of a rare metal such as platinum. On top of being scarce and expensive, this catalytic material also needs to be built on top of a high surface area carbon, which is corrosive and can shorten the lifespan of the fuel cell.\nA team of researchers at PSI and Dresden University overcame these obstacles by replacing the carbon with a three dimensional aerogel block. When combined with a platinum palladium alloy, the scientists discovered that the new material increased the efficiency of a regular fuel cell by five times. This opens up the possibility of creating a new fuel cell using just one-fifth of the the necessary platinum – reducing the costs and environmental impact of the fuel cell.\nThe scientists theorize that the aerogel material works so well because of it’s own inherent qualities as a nano-structured foam. So far, the aerogel material has proven itself and even passed long-term tests in the lab simulating the conditions of an operating vehicle. The scientists meanwhile want to take a closer study at their aerogel block, particularly to investigate the stability that might come with a bimetal material, in a three year study they currently are drafting and proposing for funding now.\nImages © Paul Scherrer Institute"}
{"content":"Welcome back to the place that aims to please the bookish side of you every day of the week...Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers.\nWe've been having a BLAST this week (unlike we usually do? ^_^) in celebration of Children's Book Week and though it may be Friday, the week itself is celebrated through SUNDAY so be prepared for even more bookish wonders...and contests...to behold. Need I say \"stay tuned\"? Oh but of course, because it's ME after all, but first, let's add a little more learning to our field of vision, shall we?\nThe title I've selected for today's feature stars a gentleman whose name is known worldwide for one thing or another but the most WELL known of the descriptive terms applied to him is....GENIUS. To think, his life started out just like yours or mine, though perhaps with a bit more turmoil given the times, and would blossom into this timeline of achievements respected by scientists and remembered by all. Curious to know of whom I am speaking? Wonder no more...about THAT at least, because WONDER and IMAGINATION are definitely encouraged in this read. Today's book of choice is...\nA Story of Albert Einstein\nIt's another look at the life of the man that brought us wonders and ideas that the world had yet to see, in a format ready for all ages.\nThe illustrations are brusque but when combined with the text, they create a well rounded display eagerly devoured by minds of all ages. After all, it's not everyday that you're told someone imagined themselves \"racing through space on a beam of light\"...and it's rather hard not to do so yourself after reading that sentence and seeing young Albert flying high on his bike, the gleam of discovery in his eye. As the tale progresses, we see how Albert prepared himself for a future he had yet to realize and concepts we had yet to grasp. The foundations he laid of reading and learning aided his mind in sorting out the BIGGER thoughts and suppositions he'd tackle down the road. But even with all that learning and problem solving, there are still things we do not understand and a myriad of questions left unanswered. For now...\nTo put it simply, this is certainly a book I'd recommend for all ages; the fact that it's presented in a picture book package need not be a point of worry for older readers. You will still learn many things from both its text AND its images. It tells us just how important asking questions can be and to never stop wondering..but, it also reminds us that silence can in fact be golden. How so? It permits the mind to take in all that it sees, hears, touches, and tastes. It allows it time to ponder the big and small things of life and process it all into something extraordinary; whether they be memories, inventions or more, it matters not. It's the give and take, the exchanging of ideas that's important in the end.\nAside from the things I've already mentioned, there is one in particular that I enjoyed even above all the others...the dedication. It simply says...\"To the next Einstein, who is probably a child now...\". Well put and most likely correct. You may be the proud relation to the next BIG THINKER of the world at large; heck, it might even be YOU! You never know where your next train of thought might take you, but if you always refuse to board...how will you ever find out?\nas well as their complete collection of books (and other wonders!) for all ages, be sure to stop by their official site, like them on Facebook, pin them on Pinterest, or follow along on Twitter. This title was released a few short weeks ago and should be available now on a bookstore shelf near you.\nUntil next time...happy reading!"}
{"content":"I have 8th grade twins in middle school. One is in a combined Collaborative Team-Teaching/SP (honors) class and does not seem to have Regents classes in anything. The other is in a regular SP class and has Regents classes in Earth Science and math. How does whether you take the various Regents exams in 8th grade affect high school curriculums, high school choices, and does it eventually effect the college credit situation too? Can you clarify please? Thank you.\n- Twins mother\nDear Twins mother,\nIf the twin in the CTT class has an IEP, it is crucial that you make sure that the high school he chooses will have the resources and modifications he needs to take the Regents exams. As Insideschools expert Clara Hemphill put it: \"I think parents should insist that their child get the most demanding curriculum they can handle. The tendency for the school system is to lower promotional standards for kids with iEPs and as a result they just fall further and further behind. What parents need to do is demand that kids get the extra help they need to meet the higher standards. If the school cannot provide extra help, they can sometimes get the city to pay for private tutoring.\nIf an IEP is not the issue, then you should find out the school’s policy on offering 9th grade courses and Regents exams. Since there is an SP attached to the class name, what is offered to help kids make special progress? If it is Regents courses and exams, by all means question the principal why school policy does not offer Regents-level courses to the CTT class. Policy does vary among schools. Some promote the taking of early Regents exams, others do not. Some offer Regents to only one class.\nSP aside, while it is nice for some 8th graders to have high school courses and credits, it is not a requirement. Most 8th graders do not go into high school having taken Regents exams.\nTaking a Regents course and exam in middle school may give a leg up to those who want to take extra science and math courses to qualify for an Advanced Regents diploma, but many students who take all their Regents in high school manage to do that anyway. On the other hand, some students who do take Regents in middle school may be unprepared, do poorly, and be at a disadvantage when applying to high school, or end up taking upper level courses in high school for which they are not prepared.\nNew York State requires passing scores on five Regents exams in order to graduate. There is plenty of time to take the required courses and Regents exams during four years of high school. Taking Regents exams early has absolutely no effect on college admission and credit. Colleges want to see that a student has taken challenging courses, not when he took them.\nBottom line: talk to the principal to determine the school policy and make sure both of your twins are getting what they need."}
{"content":"Many people would argue that poster advertising is a dying art form, but it can be very effective in some industries. Poster advertising is most commonly used in entertainment to inform the public of the latest act or event held at a popular arena. Grocery stores and politicians may also use posters to advertise. Poster advertising is effective in attracting visitors walking or driving in a high-traffic area.\nHow do you make your poster stand out in the crowd? Here are some techniques that professional designers use to make posters “pop.”\n1. Simple Designs are Best\nPeople who are unfamiliar with marketing often think that they should include as much information as possible on a poster. The key to an effective poster design is large font and only basic information. In marketing it is often said, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” If advertising for an artist, the artist’s photograph, name, date, location of the event and maybe one other piece of information will suffice for an effective poster design.\nIf advertising for a grocery store, the item and price will be the main items displayed on the poster. Designers should keep the designs simple and the wording minimal for the best poster designs. In this case, less truly is more. Make it simple with two typefaces, and align items to a grid. Your page layout program will provide non-printing guidelines. Use the “snap to guidelines” function to align items easily to the grid.\n2. Large Fonts are Recommended\nLarge fonts are recommended. Large fonts allow the advertisements to be seen from a considerable distance. When posters can be seen from a distance, more people are exposed to the advertisement and can determine their interest in the event or item advertised.\nThe fonts should be easy to read. Ornate fonts may be attractive, but many people may not be able to decipher ornate fonts from a distance. Consider large and simple fonts for the best results. Make it memorable, unusual or provocative using a few carefully chosen powerful words.\n3. Use a Single Point of Contact\nIf a phone number is used on the poster, establish one point of contact. This will eliminate confusion to viewers walking by the poster. When the number is called, anyone can field the call as long as only one phone number is listed. Prior to designing a poster, select a number that can handle numerous calls from the viewing public. A number which cannot handle the call volume will be ineffective and detract from sales.\nOne large image will have more impact than many smaller images. A stunning photo or illustration grabs attention, creates a mood, and supports your story. This image is your “focal point” and will draw your readers in.\n4. Identify a Unified Message for the Poster\nA unified message is important for the poster. Otherwise, viewers may become confused. Keep in mind that a poster may be large, but the font also has to be large to communicate the message from a distance. The unified message for the poster must be succinct. Most poster designers only manage to include a simple one-liner. The one-liner should contain a powerful message to capture the audience’s attention.\nCareful thought and planning must go into this one-liner message to be effective. Your prospects will ask the question, “What’s in it for me?” Write from the their perspective using the words “you” and “your.” Avoid using the following words: we, us, I and our. Be sure to keep your text short and to the point.\nConsider Poster Advertising to Improve Exposure to a Company\nPoster advertising can be effective in some industries but will not work in every sphere. Consider how poster advertising can help improve visibility for a company. You don’t need to fill your poster with wall-to-wall text and graphics. Incorporate some white space to make certain elements stand out and to make the flyer easy to read. Don’t try to re-invent the wheel when creating your poster. Use these proven techniques and you will see big results in your marketing efforts.\nFor inspirational purposes, check out our previous articles:\n- 25 Impressive Examples of QR Code Business Cards\n- 25 Creative Keep Calm and Carry On Posters\n- 15 Movie Posters from an Alternate Universe\n- The Perky Side of Food Advertising: 20 Creative and Eye-Catching Restaurant Ads\n- 40 Exciting Occupy Movement Poster Designs\nDid you enjoy this article? We would love to hear your thoughts, so don’t be shy and comment below! Please don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS-feed or follow Inspirationfeed on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook! If you enjoyed the following article we humbly ask you to comment, and help us spread the word!"}
{"content":"curses_version, use_extended_names - miscellaneous curses extensions\n#include <curses.h> const char * curses_version(void); int use_extended_names(bool enable);\nThese functions are extensions to the curses library which do not fit easily into other categories.\nUse curses_version() to get the version number, including patch level of the library, e.g., 5.0.19991023\nThe use_extended_names() function controls whether the calling application is able to use user-defined or non- standard names which may be compiled into the terminfo description, i.e., via the terminfo or termcap interfaces. Normally these names are available for use, since the essential decision is made by using the -x option of tic to compile extended terminal definitions. However you can disable this feature to ensure compatibility with other implementations of curses.\ncurses_version returns a pointer to static memory; you should not free this in your application. use_extended_names returns the previous state, allowing you to save this and restore it.\nThese routines are specific to ncurses. They were not supported on Version 7, BSD or System V implementations. It is recommended that any code depending on them be con- ditioned using NCURSES_VERSION.\ncurs_getch(3x), curs_mouse(3x), curs_print(3x), curs_util(3x), default_colors(3x), define_key(3x), key- bound(3x), keyok(3x), resizeterm(3x), wresize(3x).\nThomas Dickey. curs_extend(3x)"}
{"content":"When you go to see Star Trek Into Darkness in May, you'll be watching a lot of trailers for action movies and summer tentpoles. But what if you could be watching a video that shows the dream that launched Star Trek is still alive today?\nNASA released this video, called \"We Are the Explorers,\" last year. Narrated by Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime, it explains how NASA is still at the forefront of space exploration, even in the post-space shuttle era. And it fills you with hope for our future as a spacefaring species. Now the Aerospace Industries Association is trying to raise $33,000 to have a 30-second edit of this video shown in 50 theaters before STID. They're almost at their goal already, but let's make sure they get more than enough money — and then maybe they can run a longer version in more theaters. [Indie Gogo via The Escapist]"}
{"content":"subscribe: Daily Newsletter\nsearch the site\nVoice technology used in the supply chain\nVoice technology is rapidly being adopted throughout South African warehousing and distribution environments to help organisations drive efficiencies and productivity across their supply chains.\nAccording to Andrew Fosbrook, director of MakeMeMobile, a leading provider of mobile enterprise solutions, voice-directed work is seeing many benefits in the FMCG and retail sectors, due to the ease of use and accuracy.\n“Voice-directed workflows enable hands-free, eyes-free work and provide the most natural and effective method for workers to complete their jobs. This works well in South Africa where literacy levels are not high, as training and implementation is very quick. We see immediate increased levels of worker satisfaction and productivity compared to other technologies,” he says.\nMakeMeMobile, which supports multiple customers across many industries, recently implemented a SAP-integrated voice solution for a leading third party logistics (3PL) company that immediately experienced productivity benefits by reducing the time to pick daily shipments by over 20%.\nFosbrook says that voice solutions can either stand-alone or complement existing solutions, such as RF barcode scanning and pick-to-light technologies.\nMakeMeMobile recently assisted one’s of Africa’s largest retailers to improve efficiency and productivity by implementing a voice-directed system for picking applications at its distribution centres throughout the country.\n“We are finding that voice technology is expanding into more diverse industries and applications, such as inspection and maintenance for aviation, automotive, fleet & truck and longhaul industries. Wherever there’s a requirement to interact hands-free and eyes-free with back-end enterprise IT systems, voice technology provides an efficient and user-friendly way of driving productivity and accuracy,” concludes Fosbrook."}
{"content":"Dell has unveiled sweeping advancements to its industry-leading high performance computing (HPC) portfolio. These advances include innovative new systems designed to simplify mainstream adoption of HPC and data analytics in research, manufacturing and genomics. Dell also unveiled expansions to its HPC Innovation Lab and showcased next-generation technologies including the Intel Omni-Path Fabric.\nHPC is becoming increasingly critical to how organisations of all sizes innovate and compete. Many organisations lack the in-house expertise to configure, build and deploy an HPC system without losing focus on their core science, engineering and analytic missions. As an example, according to the National Centre for Manufacturing Sciences, 98 percent of all products will be designed digitally by 2020, yet 95% of the centre’s 300 000 manufacturing companies have little or no HPC expertise.\n“HPC is no longer a tool only for the most sophisticated researchers. We’re taking what we’ve learned from working with some of the most advanced, sophisticated universities and research institutions and customising that for delivery to mainstream enterprises,” says Jim Ganthier, vice-president and GM: Engineered Solutions and Cloud at Dell. “As the leading provider of systems in this space, Dell continues to break down barriers and democratise HPC. We’re seeing customers in even more industry verticals embrace its power.”\nDell announced the new Dell HPC System Portfolio, a family of HPC and data analytics solutions combining the flexibility of custom systems with the simplicity, reliability and value of a preconfigured, factory-built system that includes:\n* Simplified design, configuration, and ordering in a matter of hours instead of weeks;\n* Domain-specific design that’s designed and tuned by Dell engineers and domain experts for specific science, engineering and analytics workloads using flexible industry-standard building blocks; and\n* Fully tested and validated systems by Dell engineering with a single point of hardware support and a wide range of additional service options.\nNew application-specific Dell HPC System Portfolio offerings include:\n* Dell HPC System for Genomic Data Analysis is designed to meet the needs of genomic research organisations to enable cost-effective bioinformatics centres delivering results and identifying treatments in clinically relevant timeframes while maintaining compliance and protecting confidential data. The platform is a result of key learnings from Dell’s relationship with Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) to help clinical researchers and doctors expand the reach and impact of the world’s first Food and Drug Administration-approved precision medicine trial for paediatric cancer. TGen has been able to improve outcomes for more patients by creating targeted treatments at least one week faster than they could be accomplished previously.\n* Dell HPC System for Manufacturing is designed for customers running complex manufacturing design simulations using workstations, clusters or both. Applicable use cases include Finite Element Analysis for structural analysis using ANSYS Mechanical & Computational Fluid Dynamics for predicting fluid behaviour in designs utilising ANSYS Fluent or CD-adapco STAR-CCM+.\n* Dell HPC System for Research is designed as a foundation, or reference architecture, for baseline research systems and numerous applications involving complex scientific analysis. This standard cluster configuration can be used as a starting point for Dell’s customers and systems engineers to quickly develop research systems that match the unique needs of research customers requiring systems for a wide variety of research agendas."}
{"content":"This individual founded a Black newspaper, The Chicago Defender:\nDespite receiving a law degree from the Kent College of Law in 1898, Robert S. Abbott (1870-1940) could not practice his profession because of racial barriers, but he could still defend people. The son of former slaves founded the Chicago Defender newspaper in 1905. His paper famously waged war against racial prejudice and injustice. Listing jobs and even train schedules, the Defender became a primary figure in the Great Migration of blacks to the northern states. With an initial investment of 25 cents, Abbott became one of the first African-American self-made millionaires.\nThe Defender was carried by Pullman porters throughout the South. Its paid circulation reached 130,000 by 1919.\nAbbott co-founded the Bud Billiken Club with Defender managing editor Lucius Harper. He also launched and led the annual parade. On Feb. 29, 1940, Abbott died as a result of Bright’s disease.\nSources: Chicago Sun-Times, Metro Chicago Almanac, the Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago, PBS.org and ChicagoDefender.com"}
{"content":"I am a crustacean. Crabs and lobsters are also crustaceans. Like them, I have a hard shell, called an exoskeleton. My exoskeleton is much thinner than their thick ones.\nI live in a very close, or symbiotic, relationship with a fish called a goby. I build our home (a small hole in the sand) and we share it. I keep the burrow clean; the goby stands guard and protects the burrow so that other animals don't steal it. The goby also protects me from my predators. We both benefit from this relationship, so it is a mutualistic relationship.\nI get my name from the snapping sound that I make. I have two large claws that I use to trap small bubbles of air. When I close my claws, I break the bubbles, and that is what makes the loud snapping sound. If you are diving near the sandy part of the reef, listen carefully and you will hear the bubbles popping! Scientists think I make this sound to surprise my prey and make catching them easier.\nI like to eat algae and tiny animals that live in the sea called zooplankton. I eat both plants and animals, so I'm an omnivore.\nReefs are in danger, and that means so is my home!"}
{"content":"Duncan Amendment Protects American Sovereignty\nWashington, DC—The United States House of Representatives adopted an amendment today by a vote of 229-193 authored by South Carolina Congressman Jeff Duncan to the FY 2013 National Defense Authorization Act to block all funding for organizations established by the United Nation’s Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST). The Law of the Sea Treaty was last submitted to the Senate in 1994 but has never been ratified. However, President Obama requested in 2009 and 2010 that American tax dollars be spent on two organizations created by LOST (the International Seabed Authority and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea).\n“The Law of the Sea Treaty threatens US national security and economic interests, and surrenders American sovereignty over to the United Nations. The Senate is poised to consider this treaty during a hearing in the Foreign Relations Committee next week, and I’m proud of my colleagues in the House for sending a strong message to the Senate on this issue,” said Duncan. The US ratification of LOST would weaken our sovereignty and threaten key US foreign policy and military priorities.”\n“Specifically, the treaty requires that the United Nations place a priority on developing countries as recipients of funding. No transparency exists on how countries use funds, and nothing prevents a redistribution of US revenue to state sponsors of terrorism and undemocratic regimes with human rights abuses. Our Navy could also be subject to legal action for its military activities from international courts.”\n“Further, LOST would harm US economic interests by subjecting US companies to costly lawsuits from an unaccountable foreign entity. It would also require the United States to pay royalties on natural resources harvested during deep-sea production. US law claims the entire extended continental shelf and states that the resources belong to the American people, so this treaty would require changes to US law before it could be implemented.”\n“One of my motivations for running for Congress was to stop the federal government from interfering in our daily lives. But what the Law of the Sea Treaty does is even worse; it values international law over American law.”\n“The United States is the greatest country in the history of the world, and we must remain vigilant to protect Americans from the hardship created by an international unelected bureaucracy.”\n“American tax dollars have no business being used to support a treaty that the Senate hasn’t even ratified. I hope this amendment sends a strong signal that this Republican controlled House will do everything in its power to protect American independence and preserve our sovereignty.”"}
{"content":"Greetings from the tundra! A big cold front is sweeping through Austin as I type, and we’re going to have lows around 25° F (-4° C), and maybe even a little snow! Sure, this might sound like nothing compared to what people in Canada and other parts of the US experience. However, when you calculate the Texas Adjusted Temperature, it’s quite shocking. Here’s how it works:\nFor any temperatures below 60 degrees:\n- Subtract one degree for every time the temperature was over 100 this year.\n- Subtract two degrees for every time you found a scorpion in your house this year.\n- Subtract 30 degrees for every time you have ever found a scorpion in your bed (lifetime applicability here).\n- Subtract five degrees for every rattlesnake sighting in your neighborhood this year.\nBased on this extremely scientific calculation, when I am walking around in 45-degree weather tomorrow afternoon, the Texas Adjusted Temp is actually -5.\nI should note that a similar system works for you folks up north during the summer as well. For any temperature above 80 degrees:\n- Add two degrees for every time you had to run errands in a snowstorm.\n- Add three degree for every hour you spent shoveling snow this winter.\n- Add five degrees for every time the wind chill was below zero.\n- Add ten degrees for every time you were snowed in.\nSo when I snicker at you referring to 92° F (33° C) as “hot” this summer, you can remind me that your adjusted temp is more like 120.\nGiven how much of a weather nerd I am, you can imagine how much it has brought my life to a standstill to have discovered the InstaWeather app. Combining weather with Instagram is like dropping a nuclear bomb on my productivity. When I realized that you can also post the forecast, I almost announced that I am withdrawing from society. After all, there is no more worthy endeavor that one could undertake than superimposing atmospheric metrics onto pictures.\nAnd now that I have realized that I can see other people’s weather pics through the #instaweather hash tag, my new goal is to look up from my phone at least twice a day.\nI don’t know when exactly this happened, but I can no longer deal with cold weather. I did fine living in Denver and Bismarck, so I must have had some sort of tolerance for cold at some point in my life — heck, at my North Dakota elementary school there was a rule that we kids had to go out on the playground as long as the wind chill was above -30. I don’t recall hating my life while I was playing hopscotch in below-zero temperatures, but these days I try to go to the grocery store when it’s 48 degrees and you’d think I’m Dr. Zhivago slogging through the tundra. I can never seem to put on enough layers to experience actual warmth, and I stew in misery for every moment that I am outdoors.\nI keep trying to think of what would happen if we had to move to some place that had real winters. I guess I would do one of two things:\nA. Toughen up and learn to accept the cold\nI’m really on the fence about which it would be.\nJoe and I have been toying with the idea of doing Christmas presents on Epiphany (the 12th day after Christmas), instead of on Christmas day. That’s how my dad’s Mexican friends did it when he was growing up in Mexico, and the bigger our family gets, the more that starts to seem like a great idea. With our six kids and me and Joe and the grandparents and my grandfather and an occasional guest all gathered around the tree on Christmas, we end up drowning in boxes and wrapping paper, and the resulting chaos makes it difficult to focus on anything but the fact that it looks like a toy store exploded in our living room. In theory I’d be fine with limiting the number of presents each person gets, but that’s pretty much impossible given the number of extended family members who like to shop for the kids.\nThe most surprising part is that when I floated the idea to the kids, they were fine with it. At first they recoiled at the idea of just opening one or two things on Christmas morning and saving the rest for later, but when I explained the vision of having a peaceful and simple Christmas day, then receiving our gifts on the same day that Jesus received his, they were surprisingly enthusiastic about it.\nWe’re not ready to make the switch yet, but we may do it one of these years.\nOne of the things I’ve realized this year is that I need to practice a different kind of generosity at Christmas: being generous in receiving gifts.\nI’m a big believer in not having too much “stuff” junking up our living space — and, frankly, the fight against clutter is a matter of survival when you’re trying to raise six children in a small three-bedroom house. Because of this, in past years I’ve been really uptight about the kind and number of gifts we receive. I’d pour a lot of energy into figuring out how to stop the seemingly endless inflow of trinkets and toys to the house without hurting feelings, and the main result was that it made me stressed and frustrated and the kids still received a lot of presents.\nThis year I’ve felt drawn to consider the fact that some people love shopping for kids and don’t have many young children in their lives to shop for, and that getting something for our kids is fun and pleasurable for them. It’s a new approach to Christmas to remember that being a good gift receiver can be as important as being a good gift giver. I’m going to make sure that nobody feels obliged to get things for us, and leave it at that. If I end up running out of space to put all the new stuff at the end of the Christmas season, it’ll be an opportunity to get rid of old things we don’t need anymore, and to be thankful for generous loved-ones.\nI wasn’t sure if everyone would see the beauty of this gem from my Best of Comments folder. But if you find this comment to be a subtle yet perfect encapsulation of all that is funny, then we are the same person. In response to the Netflix post:\nI had the pleasure of hearing Patrick Madrid speak at the benefit dinner for the John Paul II Life Center last night. At the end of his speech about the fight that faithful Christians may endure against an increasingly secular culture, he read a beautiful piece of writing called The Fellowship of the Unashamed. It begins:\nI AM A PART of the Fellowship of the Unashamed.\nThe die has been cast. The decision has been made. I have stepped over the line. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still.\nMy past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is in God’s hands. I am finished and done with low living, small planning, the bare minimum, smooth knees, mundane talking, frivolous living, selfish giving, and dwarfed goals.\nI no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, applause, or popularity. I don’t have to be right, first, the best, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith. I lean on Christ’s presence. I love with patience, live by prayer, and labor with the power of God’s grace."}
{"content":"Background: In HIV-negative patients, radiotherapy (RT) decreases CD4+ T-cell counts. We studied the effects of RT in HIV-1 positive patients.\nMethods: HIV-1 positive patients with a subsequent diagnosis of a solid tumor were selected from the Dutch national observational HIV cohort, Aids Therapy Evaluation in the Netherlands (ATHENA). The patients were grouped according to whether they had received RT or not. Primary endpoint of the study was the time from baseline to reaching CD4 cell counts higher than those at baseline. Kaplan–Meier estimates of the percentage of patients reaching the endpoint were calculated.\nResults: Ninety patients were included of whom 36 received RT and 54 did not. Median duration of RT was 46 [interquartile range (IQR) 30–63] days. Median first CD4 cell count after stopping RT was 150 (IQR 30–270) × 106/L lower compared with baseline. In 13 of the 36 patients receiving RT, CD4 cell counts recovered to baseline, after a median of 469 (IQR 345–595) days. In 35 of the 54 patients without RT, the CD4 cell count recovered to baseline or higher, after a median of 112 (IQR 42–182) days. After 3 years, in 39% of patients who had RT compared with 71% of patients without RT, CD4 cell counts recovered to baseline or higher (P < 0.0001). In a Cox regression adjusted for potential confounders, RT was associated with a longer (hazard ratio 0.29; 95% confidence interval 0.13 to 0.63) and combination antiretroviral therapy use with a shorter time to return to baseline [hazard ratio 2.46 (95% confidence interval 1.11 to 5.48)].\nConclusions: RT resulted in a significant and prolonged decrease in CD4 cell counts."}
{"content":"Getting Started Cheesemaking\nSo how do you make your own cheese at home?\nCheesemaking is the process of turning liquid milk into a solid cheese. Milk is about 87% water, and much of this water needs to be removed. During cheesemaking the proteins in milk are coagulated in a way that they capture the milk fats and milk solids in a protein mesh. These coagulated proteins, along with their captured content, form into what are called curds. The liquid portion of the milk that remains is called whey. Curds and whey are what Miss Muffet ate while sitting on her tuffet in the Mother Goose rhyme. Cheese is made by manipulating the curds so that they shrink, expelling they right amount of whey, and straining them out.\nThe most simple cheeses to make require only a pot large enough to hold the 1 to 2 gallons of milk, a kitchen thermometer, cheesecloth, colander, milk and an acid like lemon juice or vinegar. For the beginning cheesemaker, I suggest trying one or two of the following easy recipes to get a feel for what cheesemaking is all about.\nIn all of these recipes the milk is brought to a relatively high temperature, in the 180° to 190° F range, and induced to coagulate by the addition of an acid. The resulting cheeses are simple, but satisfying to create. They are a great place to start."}
{"content":"Springs of Living Water\nBy Keith Graff\n22 Apr 2008\nIn the Okinawan religion there are three things that are considered, for lack of a better word, Holy. They make up the trinity of the faith and are represented by a high place or grove of trees, a cave and a natural spring. They represent heaven, earth and the ocean. It's also interesting to note they also make up the three necessary ingredients for survival. That being food, shelter and water. Natural springs here are life giving forces of nature that are also symbols of creation and carry with them religious significance of a blessing from heaven.\nAs the society developed, many local communities literally sprung up \"pun intended\" around the many fresh water springs scattered throughout the island. The village spring became the center piece of this development. In the mornings people would come to the spring to gather water for cooking and drinking. Later in the day, the water from the springs was used again to wash the days gathering of vegetables. In the evening people bathed and washed their clothes there. What wasn't used by the people for direct use and consumption was channeled off for agricultural use. Water was precious and very little was wasted. As it was a frequent gathering place, the spring became the social center of the village.\nIn the past, the many springs and wells found throughout Okinawa were more than sufficient to support the local population. But after the war, many springs were damaged beyond repair. Okinawa also experienced a population explosion. As a result of Japan's steady economic growth, Okinawa's pleasant climate and lower cost of living, this island paradise has now become a haven for an ever growing number of retirees. Throw in five million tourists annually and now you've got a problem on your hands. The need to find new water sources used to be just a challenge, out of necessity it became an obsession.\nOkinawa seems to get more than its fair share of annual rainfall so you wouldn't think a potential water shortage would present such a dilemma. Throw in an occasional typhoon or two and the point would seem to be moot. However, the rugged terrain and the few short steep rivers don't allow for adequate water collection and storage. The majority runs straight off and into the sea. The river basins are very small and the annual rainfall, even with a few typhoons thrown in for good measure are not be sufficient to replenish the water table given the growing population.\nDam construction on Okinawa began in earnest during the American Administration years. While these were originally planned to supply the many American bases with water, plans were expanded to include the civilian population and their needs. In order to solve the problem of keeping one dam sufficiently filled with water, engineers paradoxically built several and used the natural force of gravity to connect them into a single network. As water is pulled from the dam, at the lowest level, the reservoir is then replenished from several other dams, all of which are located at higher elevations.\nThe problem of water for tiny Okinawa would seem to be solved for the moment. Still, it's nice to see that people return to the roots that bind them together. The natural springs of Okinawa are now mostly tourist attractions but many are still used the old fashioned way. Many in the older generations still gather there to socialize. To this day it's not uncommon to see people filling containers with fresh spring drinking water, washing off their freshly picked vegetables and diverting the rest for agricultural use.\nDon't forget to click on the individual pictures for additional descriptions and information!"}
{"content":"Samsung has unveiled its 32TB SSD in a 2.5-inch form factor for the enterprise, and thinks it can attain 100TB capacity within the next four years.\nThe Korean company's 32TB Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) SSD doubles the capacity of its PM1633a, which was billed by Samsung last year as the world's largest SSD.\nIt held the crown until this week when Seagate showed off its gigantic 60TB SSD in a 3.5-inch form factor, although Seagate hasn't confirmed whether it will be commercially available.\nVendors are cramming more capacity into SSDs to support growing demand for high-performance computing and analytics in the datacenter.\nSamsung expects its new 32TB SSD to be produced in 2017, setting the stage for a threefold increase by 2020 when Samsung plans to be making SSDs with a 100TB capacity. The 32TB SSD consists of 32 1TB packages, each of which contains 512 V-NAND chips stacked in 16 layers.\nThe 32TB SSD uses Samsung's fourth-generation 3D V-NAND flash memory, which stacks 64 layers of cell arrays, offering a boost on its previous generation 48-layer V-NAND. The new flash memory features a 64GB chip with an IO speed of 800Mbps.\nSamsung says it will begin mass-producing its fourth-generation V-NAND flash-memory products in the fourth quarter, which should help portable-device manufacturers.\nThe Korean company also revealed a 1TB ball grid array design SSD, which at 1g in weight, is aimed at compact laptops, tablets, and convertible devices. The package delivers sequential read speeds of 1,500MBps and write speeds of 900MBps.\nClick here to read the rest of the article"}
{"content":"I was waiting for the Caribbean Blobette to be upgraded to Tropical Storm Paula ... and here she is. Yay! 16th named storm of the season.\nI think this has been a Tropical Depression for a day or two, so going to a named Tropical Storm is not a big surprise because she didn't stay over land. It looks like the center just clipped the Nicaragua/Honduras corner earlier today (convection decreased, as did vorticity) and is back over water with low wind shear, so the convection is improving again. The vorticity isn't very strong at the moment, mostly in the lowest part of the troposphere. It is not as elongated as it was yesterday and looks like a TS. As it gets just north of Honduras I expect convection to improve because it is over warm water (temps >29 deg C) and deep warm water (warmer than 26.5 deg C in the upper 100m).\nThe upper level divergence and lower level convergence have also improved. Oooh... what the heck is she talking about now, I hear you say. <(New) SCIENCE ALERT!!! (how thrilling!! :-) )> Here's a rare attempt in these updates at a simple explanation of convergence and divergence! A tropical storm has low pressure in the center, near the surface. That's why we all keep mentioning the central pressure - the lower it is, the stronger the winds (usually). A low pressure is an area that the air is 'pulled' towards. By extending that image to a circular storm, you can imagine the winds are pulled in from all around - i.e., they converge. So we have Low Level Convergence. Now the problem is that if you keep pulling winds in at the low levels, they have to go somewhere. It might come as a surprise to you, but they don't just gather around the center and have a game of poker. ;-) The ground is underneath, so the only way the air can go is up. And when the air reaches the top of the storm the only way the winds can flow is out and away from the center. So at the top we have Upper Level Divergence. The stronger the convergence/divergence of a storm, the better the formed it is. Ta-da. <End of (new) SCIENCE ALERT> Phew. Time for some wine-convergence now I think.\nA plane was sent into the system earlier today and found evidence that this was close to being a Tropical Storm. And there were other data and stuff (obvious technical jargon) that showed this too. She's heading towards the Belize/Yucatan area... moving NW at 10mph. Current center I'm estimating is around 16N, 84W, so she's *just* north of Honduras. Convection is strong near the center and Honduras (and bits of Nicaragua) are getting a few bucket-fulls of rain and some thundery weather. Oh, NHC just posted the official info. They agree with my center (good good). Winds are 60mph, making her a mid-size TS (range: 39-73mph). Central pressure is 1000mb. Track looks a little interesting... it doesn't quite make it to the Yucatan coast, but hangs out in the Caribbean as a hurricane. Oh dear. If that really is the track then we might have a big hurricane in a few days... that's the warmest (deepest warm) part of the waters out there. We'll see. I'll have a look tomorrow. For now...\n...I got things to do. Wine to drink. Forms to fill in. Oh... and don't forget, I am giving a live twitter interview on Weds. afternoon! My first ever. For my fellow Twits (hahaha... I'll always get a chuckle out of that one), details have been posted on the internet: \"To see the full interview you will need to follow www.twitter.com/metoffice (@metoffice) and www.twitter.com/metofficestorms (@metofficestorms)\". Or use the hashtag #metqt. I'll also tweet the hashtag etc info @JyovianStorm. It's a Brave New World!!\np.s.... in case you didn't know... I work at the MetOffice over here. But this blog are my own views entirely, as I started this little hobby before joining them. And also, in case you didn't know... I'm moving back to the US. In just about 2 weeks - in time for Halloween... how scary for you! ;-)\nBlog archives at http://jyotikastorms.blogspot.com/\nThese remarks are just what I think/see regarding tropical storms - not the opinion of any organization I represent. If you are making an evacuation decision, please heed your local emergency management and the National Hurricane Center's official forecast and the National Weather Service announcements. This is not an official forecast. If I was there and was going to \"run away, run away\" (Monty Python), I'll let you know."}
{"content":"Emerald Ash Borer Threatens 8 Billion Trees\nA tiny green beetle from China called the Emerald Ash Borer has devastated ash forests since it was first discovered in Michigan nine years ago. It has spread to 15 states. The economic impact has hit homeowners, cities and the timber industry. Our story comes from David Chanatry with the New York Reporting Project at Utica College."}
{"content":"Kyogi Karuta is a Japanese game\nOgura Hyakunin-isshu \"karuta\" cards.\ncard has an ancient poem on it.\nIt is a card game--however, it does not look like any other card games\nsuch as poker, contract bridge, etc...\nIt is the game of speed, memorization and concentration.\nPhoto: Kyogi Karuta game demonstrated by Shin-ichi Nagaoka (4-dan degree,left) and\nYoshimasa Kobayashi (6-dan degree). January 2007, Bangkok\nWashington DC Sakura Matsuri April 11,2015 (You Tube click here)\nWhat is Kimari-ji?\nKyogi Karuta Handbook(PDF) (Free Download)\n(Japanese, English, Thai,Chinese, French and Portuguese versions are available.)\nReciting software(free) 読み上げソフト\nWasura Mochi わすらもち\nNaniwa zu Inaba kun 難波津いなばくん\nKaruta in Beijing CHINA May 2014 (you tube)\nKaruta at Washington, D. C. Sakura Matsuri April 2014 (you tube)\nHow and where should I measure my body when buying a Kimono and Hakama?\nI don't live in Japan. Where can I buy Karuta cards?\nAre there any Karuta club in my town or country outside Japan?\nFor Karuta clubs information around the world,\nplease contact karutastone★gmail.com\n(Please change ★ to @)\nFor Karuta clubs information in Japan, please contact to All Japan Karuta Association\nAll Rights Reserved.\nPlease contact to karutastone★gmail.com (←please replace ★ to @) to distribute or duplicate the\ncontents in this website."}
{"content":"President Barack Obama's Inaugural Address in full, as prepared for delivery:\nVicePresident Biden, Mr. Chief Justice, Members of the United States Congress,distinguished guests, and fellow citizens:\nEachtime we gather to inaugurate a president, we bear witness to the enduringstrength of our Constitution. We affirm the promise of ourdemocracy. We recall that what binds this nation together is not thecolors of our skin or the tenets of our faith or the origins of ournames. What makes us exceptional - what makes us American - is ourallegiance to an idea, articulated in a declaration made more than twocenturies ago:\n\"Wehold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that theyare endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among theseare Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.\"\nTodaywe continue a never-ending journey, to bridge the meaning of those words withthe realities of our time. For history tells us that while these truthsmay be self-evident, they have never been self-executing; that while freedom isa gift from God, it must be secured by His people here on Earth. Thepatriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with theprivileges of a few or the rule of a mob. They gave to us a Republic, agovernment of, and by, and for the people, entrusting each generation to keepsafe our founding creed.\nFormore than two hundred years, we have.\nThroughblood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword, we learned that no union foundedon the principles of liberty and equality could survive half-slave andhalf-free. We made ourselves anew, and vowed to move forwardtogether.\nTogether,we determined that a modern economy requires railroads and highways to speedtravel and commerce; schools and colleges to train our workers.\nTogether,we discovered that a free market only thrives when there are rules to ensurecompetition and fair play.\nTogether,we resolved that a great nation must care for the vulnerable, and protect itspeople from life's worst hazards and misfortune.\nThroughit all, we have never relinquished our skepticism of central authority, norhave we succumbed to the fiction that all society's ills can be cured throughgovernment alone. Our celebration of initiative and enterprise; ourinsistence on hard work and personal responsibility, are constants in ourcharacter.\nButwe have always understood that when times change, so must we; that fidelity toour founding principles requires new responses to new challenges; thatpreserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action. For the American people can no more meet the demands of today's world by actingalone than American soldiers could have met the forces of fascism or communismwith muskets and militias. No single person can train all the math andscience teachers we'll need to equip our children for the future, or build theroads and networks and research labs that will bring new jobs and businesses toour shores. Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as onenation, and one people.\nThisgeneration of Americans has been tested by crises that steeled our resolve andproved our resilience. A decade of war is now ending. An economicrecovery has begun. America's possibilities are limitless, for we possessall the qualities that this world without boundaries demands: youth anddrive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift forreinvention. My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, andwe will seize it - so long as we seize it together.\nForwe, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking fewdo very well and a growing many barely make it. We believe that America'sprosperity must rest upon the broad shoulders of a rising middle class. We know that America thrives when every person can find independence and pridein their work; when the wages of honest labor liberate families from the brinkof hardship. We are true to our creed when a little girl born into thebleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else,because she is an American, she is free, and she is equal, not just in the eyesof God but also in our own.\nWeunderstand that outworn programs are inadequate to the needs of our time. We must harness new ideas and technology to remake our government, revamp ourtax code, reform our schools, and empower our citizens with the skills theyneed to work harder, learn more, and reach higher. But while the meanswill change, our purpose endures: a nation that rewards the effort anddetermination of every single American. That is what this momentrequires. That is what will give real meaning to our creed.\nWe,the people, still believe that every citizen deserves a basic measure ofsecurity and dignity. We must make the hard choices to reduce the cost ofhealth care and the size of our deficit. But we reject the belief thatAmerica must choose between caring for the generation that built this countryand investing in the generation that will build its future. For weremember the lessons of our past, when twilight years were spent in poverty,and parents of a child with a disability had nowhere to turn. We do notbelieve that in this country, freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happinessfor the few. We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live ourlives, any one of us, at any time, may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, ora home swept away in a terrible storm. The commitments we make to each other -through Medicare, and Medicaid, and Social Security - these things do not sapour initiative; they strengthen us. They do not make us a nation oftakers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great.\nWe,the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just toourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climatechange, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and futuregenerations. Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science,but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and cripplingdrought, and more powerful storms. The path towards sustainable energysources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resistthis transition; we must lead it. We cannot cede to other nations thetechnology that will power new jobs and new industries - we must claim itspromise. That is how we will maintain our economic vitality and ournational treasure - our forests and waterways; our croplands and snowcappedpeaks. That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care byGod. That's what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers oncedeclared.\nWe,the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not requireperpetual war. Our brave men and women in uniform, tempered by the flamesof battle, are unmatched in skill and courage. Our citizens, seared bythe memory of those we have lost, know too well the price that is paid forliberty. The knowledge of their sacrifice will keep us forever vigilantagainst those who would do us harm. But we are also heirs to those whowon the peace and not just the war, who turned sworn enemies into the surest offriends, and we must carry those lessons into this time as well.\nWewill defend our people and uphold our values through strength of arms and ruleof law. We will show the courage to try and resolve our differences withother nations peacefully - not because we are naive about the dangers we face,but because engagement can more durably lift suspicion and fear. Americawill remain the anchor of strong alliances in every corner of the globe; and wewill renew those institutions that extend our capacity to manage crisis abroad,for no one has a greater stake in a peaceful world than its most powerfulnation. We will support democracy from Asia to Africa; from the Americasto the Middle East, because our interests and our conscience compel us to acton behalf of those who long for freedom. And we must be a source of hopeto the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the victims of prejudice - not out ofmere charity, but because peace in our time requires the constant advance ofthose principles that our common creed describes: tolerance andopportunity; human dignity and justice.\nWe,the people, declare today that the most evident of truths - that all of us arecreated equal - is the star that guides us still; just as it guided ourforebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided allthose men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this greatMall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaimthat our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soulon Earth.\nItis now our generation's task to carry on what those pioneers began. Forour journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters canearn a living equal to their efforts. Our journey is not complete untilour gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law - forif we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one anothermust be equal as well. Our journey is not complete until no citizen isforced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote. Our journey is notcomplete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrantswho still see America as a land of opportunity; until bright young students andengineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from ourcountry. Our journey is not complete until all our children, from thestreets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown,know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm.\nThatis our generation's task - to make these words, these rights, these values - ofLife, and Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness - real for everyAmerican. Being true to our founding documents does not require us toagree on every contour of life; it does not mean we will all define liberty inexactly the same way, or follow the same precise path to happiness. Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role ofgovernment for all time - but it does require us to act in our time.\nFornow decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford delay. We cannot mistakeabsolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treatname-calling as reasoned debate. We must act, knowing that our work willbe imperfect. We must act, knowing that today's victories will be onlypartial, and that it will be up to those who stand here in four years, andforty years, and four hundred years hence to advance the timeless spirit onceconferred to us in a spare Philadelphia hall.\nMyfellow Americans, the oath I have sworn before you today, like the one recitedby others who serve in this Capitol, was an oath to God and country, not partyor faction - and we must faithfully execute that pledge during the duration ofour service. But the words I spoke today are not so different from theoath that is taken each time a soldier signs up for duty, or an immigrantrealizes her dream. My oath is not so different from the pledge we allmake to the flag that waves above and that fills our hearts with pride.\nTheyare the words of citizens, and they represent our greatest hope.\nYouand I, as citizens, have the power to set this country's course.\nYouand I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time - notonly with the votes we cast, but with the voices we lift in defense of our mostancient values and enduring ideals.\nLeteach of us now embrace, with solemn duty and awesome joy, what is our lastingbirthright. With common effort and common purpose, with passion anddedication, let us answer the call of history, and carry into an uncertainfuture that precious light of freedom.\nThankyou, God Bless you, and may He forever bless these United States of America."}
{"content":"(KCPW News) In an annual state policy report card, Utah wasn’t given much to be proud of. The state received an overall grade of D+.\nStudentsFirst, an organization led by former Washington D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, looked at issues such as teaching quality, parental choice, and wise management of schools. While a D+ sounds pretty bad, Utah certainly would benefit if StudentsFirst graded on a curve: Utah was ranked 16th in the nation, with the national average also being a D+.\n“Unfortunately, most of the states in the country were in the D-range, and that’s about what we saw last year,” said StudentsFirst VP of National Policy Eric Lerum.\nLerum noted that, despite the bad grades, many states improved.\n“I think you see that with Utah’s grade as well. It was a D last year, with a GPA of 1.21, and it went up to a D+ this year (1.58 GPA),” Lerum said. “So not a huge shift, but definitely improvement.”\nThe report card identified two specific areas where Utah could improve: making teacher performance more integral to the decision-making process, and giving parents more and better choices for their children’s education.\nStudentsFirst pointed to the state’s school grading system as a positive step forward. Lerum said that gives parents a sense of the quality of education their children are receiving.\n“If you start with that premise that you’ve got to get information to the parents, then it’s really incumbent on the state to do so,” he said. “We think A to F provides a really good way of doing it. It’s easy to understand.”\n“And then what you get into are questions about, ‘OK, what do you do with it?’ Because parents are going to be making these decisions. They’re going to be making choices,” Lerum continued. “But at the end of the day, if a school isn’t performing, that’s not a place we should want to send kids. We want to see growth in our schools, we want to see them improving, and we want to see them meeting the needs of all their learners. If they’re not doing that, we think parents need that information so that they can either make a different choice, or they can demand change and force school leaders and administrators to do something different.”\nStill, by its own A-F scale, Utah’s D+ is nothing to write home about. But Mark Peterson of the Utah State Office of Education says he doesn’t put much weight in the Students First analysis.\n“Certainly Utah collects all that data. We have all the data on teacher effectiveness. We have classroom-level details, student-level details, on all of our CRT exams, and that is stuff that is all being evaluated by principals, superintendents, and charter school directors,” Peterson said. “It’s all being done at the local level. It is not written into official state policy. Therefore, we get a bad grade on it.”\nOne area where Utah did well was spending funds wisely. Peterson agreed with that assessment.\n“We are the lowest per-pupil-funded system in the country, yet our ACT scores—we have a hundred percent of our students take ACTs,” he pointed out. “There are 19 states where that happens. Utah is one of them. Utah has the highest scores of the hundred-percent states. To me, this says that our money is being spent effectively because it’s producing academic results.”\nWhile the report card did look at how well money was spent by school systems, Lerum notes that whether or not schools are well-funded is not included in the group’s analysis.\nPodcast: Play in new window | Download (2.9MB)\nSubscribe: iTunes | Android |"}
{"content":"By Audrey Spencer\nHarker Heights Herald\nWith many libraries focusing on encouraging children to read during the summer, adults have just as much to gain from sticking their noses into books.\nLocal libraries are more than willing to help grown-ups get started or get back into reading, some offering programs and others offering a slew of suggestions.\nHarker Heights Public Library is hosting a \"just for fun\" contest pitting children against adults and teens to see which team can read or listen to the most books, said Lisa Youngblood, library director.\n\"We have the Get a Clue READ Summer Reading Club for adults as well as teens and kids,\" said Youngblood. \"Adults who join the club enjoy reading on their own. As an added bonus, they model reading appreciation for the teens and children who are also in the club.\"\nAdults may sign up at the library or on the library's website, ci.harker-heights.tx.us/library.\nThe library also offers programs aimed toward its adult readers, such as a one-man Edgar Allen Poe performance by Broadway veteran Duffy Hudson beginning at 7 p.m. Aug. 3, an afternoon of Edgar Allen Poe movies set for Aug. 4 and Moonlight Yoga events at 9 p.m. today and Aug. 4.\nReaders who are looking to get into the e-book scene, but are unsure of how to approach the technology, can also attend training sessions, available by appointment at the library.\nAdults looking to read more on their own may also consider looking up a reading list to tackle.\nA page of the Harker Heights Public Library's website under the AdultSpace tab (under\n\"Reference and Readers Advisory\") links to different book clubs, reading lists and websites for adults looking for their next read.\nYoungblood also suggested the American Library Association's website for lists and book suggestions.\nDeanna Frazee, director of library services in Killeen, suggests www.goodreads.com, a community website where users can look up books based on their interests, get suggestions for new reads based on titles they've enjoyed in the past and read reviews of books they're considering checking out.\n\"It's a vacation you don't have to pay for,\" said Frazee about reading. \"You're always expanding your horizons. It's relaxing and it does enrich you.\"\nFrazee also encourages busy adults to consider audiobooks.\n\"An audiobook is a great way to pass the time,\" she said. \"I've had young mothers say they put the baby down for a nap and listen to an audio book as they're cleaning the house.\"\nHarker Heights, Killeen, Copperas Cove and Lampasas public libraries all have audio and downloadable book services available for patrons to use.\n\"You can download audiobooks, which are wonderful when you want to listen to something on a long drive,\" said Frazee.\nFor readers who prefer to discuss books and get their title recommendations through the grapevine, library staff members are also a good resource, said Frazee.\n\"Our staff, and Harker Heights and Cove staff, we all love these books and the authors,\" she said. \"I'm willing to bet you can tell any staff about a book you liked and they'll say 'have you tried...?'\"\nFor parents, reading for recreation also provides a model for children to follow.\nNumerous studies, such as those performed by the New York State Library, conclude that children who don't read during the summer have a harder time getting back up to speed once school starts again.\n\"You can't say 'you need to read' and never have them see you read,\" said Frazee. \"If children read through the summer, they don't lose as much of what they learned in the past school year. If they see their parents modeling that, it just becomes an accepted part of the routine.\"\nContact Audrey Spencer at email@example.com or (254) 501-7476.\nPick up a good book\nTo jump-start a reading venture, check out these websites for reading lists, book suggestions and more:\nwww.txla.org/lariat — The Lariat Reading List includes 25 fiction titles for grown-up readers.\nwww.goodreads.com — An online community where you can enter your interests and get personalized book suggestions, as well as leave reviews for books you enjoyed or didn't.\nhttp://www.ala.org/tools/libfactsheets/alalibraryfactsheet23 — The American Library Association list of links to various lists and titles for readers of all ages."}
{"content":"Around the garden...\nPotatoes are growing rightly in bags. This year I've planted up several bags and also have two varieties in the ground - Maris Peer and Pentland Javelin.\n|Most seeds were sown in April this year. Kale and calendula seem to be better on than many others. Many seed haven't germinated (yet) and many seedling are so tiny I can't imagine planting them out in early June.|\n|Above: Soloman's Seal - an old cottage garden style plant often seen in Northern Ireland gardens.|\nBelow: variegated hostas are coming up.\n|The pot grow, self fertilising apple tree is starting to bloom. I'm still finding some worms. I've been researching on the internet but can't quite find any leads on the black worms (pictured below).|\n|Above: Poppies will soon be in flower and if deadheaded will flower all summer. I really enjoy poppies in the garden. I think this one is a California poppy that has self seeded.|\n|Above and below: Aquilegia / Columbine - the foliage on the purple one doesn't look very healthy. After I took the photo I noticed a large family of green fly (far right below).|\n|One of my favourite flowering plants - Armeria maritime / sea thrift with some black mondo grass starting to invade it!|\nCopyright: All words and photos are property of \"Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden\"."}
{"content":"How You Can Help Typhoon Haiyan Victims\nMillions of people in the Philippines need help after Typhoon Haiyan ripped through the country -- and relief organizations are already on the ground. (A U.S. military commander told NPR that it \"looks like a 50-mile-wide tornado\" flattened everything in one city.) Here's a listing of groups that are assisting with the typhoon relief effort:\nUNICEF says that as many as 4 million children could be affected by the disaster. Children need shelter, clean water, medicine and food. UNICEF staff in the Philippines are working to help. In Copenhagen, 60 metric tons of emergency supplies — for children's health, medical and shelter needs — have been prepared for an emergency airlift. To donate, click here. Or call 1-800-FOR-KIDS.\nAmerican Red Cross\nThe American Red Cross is also helping in the Philippines. The Red Cross said it deployed two disaster relief specialists over the weekend to assist in the assessment and relief efforts. The Red Cross is also sending telecommunication specialists and a satellite system. Philippine Red Cross volunteer rescue and relief teams are assisting in search and rescue efforts and distributing food and relief supplies to survivors. Currently, 1,200 evacuation centers are housing more than 330,000 people left homeless by the storm, the Red Cross reports. To donate, click here."}
{"content":"- view as grid\n- view as list\nThis month’s Health Policy News Index finds more than six in 10 say they followed\nnews about long waiting lists for those seeking care at Veterans Affairs (VA) medical facilities closely.\nThat makes the VA story the most closely followed health story in the first half of 2014, with slightly\nmore people following it than followed several ACA enrollment stories earlier this year.\nDrew Altman, in The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, discusses how the Department of Veterans Affairs health system scandal creates an opportunity for a fix, maybe with bipartisan support.\nDrew Altman, in The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, discusses “what lessons NOT to learn” from the recent healthcare.gov and VA health care failures.\nThis partnership poll from The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation explores the views and experiences of adults who served in the Iraq or Afghanistan wars as members of the U.S. military in the period after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The majority of veterans of these conflicts say that Americans appreciate their service and that gestures of support are genuine, but many report a number of challenges, including economic struggles, worse physical and mental health than prior to their engagement, and feeling disconnected from civilian life.\nThis report provides an overview of the Department of Defense’s infectious disease efforts related to global health. The report looks at how DoD’s infectious disease activities are organized internally and coordinated with other U.S. government agencies and partners.\nThe Department of Defense’s Role in U.S. Global Health Policy and Programs: Briefing and Panel Discussion\nThis event examines the role of the Department of Defense (DoD) in global health and how it intersects with the global health efforts of the U.S. government (USG) and other organizations.\nThis report provides the first comprehensive look at the role of the Department of Defense (DoD) in global health, examining its organizational structure, activities, strategy, policy, and budget for activities related to global health."}
{"content":"Randy Neugebauer talked Farm Bill, Unemployment, and Other Hot Topics [Audio]\nMonday on Lubbock’s First News, Congressman Randy Neugebauer talked about the efforts to decide on a Farm Bill and Budget agreement, along with the unemployment benefits, and the Affordable Care Act.\nHe said that farmers are hoping for progress so they can begin planning for the 2014 crop. Farm Bill and a provision for unemployment benefits together. He said the idea is that the savings of the Farm Bill can make up for the costs of extending the benefits. Neugebauer believes combining the issues is bad policy and should not be placed together for voting. “The unemployment benefits is a different issue and we need to take that issue and address it separately.”\nNeugebauer noted the progress toward approving a budget. He discussed the necessity of forming a bill that can be approved by the January 15 deadline. He also discussed the negative effects of the Affordable Care Act and how that might affect the November elections.\nListen to the full interview:\nOr listen on your mobile device: KFYO LFN Randy Neugebauer January 06 2014 // KFYO.com"}
{"content":"When it comes to investing, if you have no idea what you’re doing, you’re very well may end up losing a lot of money. Becoming successful with investments isn’t an overnight thing; it takes a great deal of studying the market and understanding how everything works. For those first time investors out there, here are a few tips.\nUnderstand the Market and Stick to What You Know\nIt’s important that you take business classes to help you understand how things work. This will require at least a semester of studying. The University of the Potomac has a wide selection of business classes that will help when it comes time to invest. There’s also a ton of articles and books dedicated to investing.\nWhen you invest your money, stick with what you know. For example, if you work with technology, stick with technology companies. Never invest in something that you know nothing about just because you think it’ll surge. Blindly investing in things will get you nowhere.\nView Things Long-Term\nThere’s a lot of risks associated with investing, and if you’re in this for pure profit, you’ll be sorely disappointed. That being said, if you invest in things for the long haul, you will likely see better results. Things take a while to grow, and investments are no different. You should be prepared to hold on to your investments for at least five years.\nDiversify and Globalize Your Portfolio\nRather than placing all of your proverbial eggs in one basket, spread out your investment. By diversifying your portfolio, you’re strengthening your investments. If one fails, the other will make up for it. A great balance to your investments is crucial, and you’re more likely to have success. Also consider investing in multiple asset classes.\nDiversifying your portfolio is the best option, but globally diversifying it is ideal. Different countries have different economic strengths, so you may have more luck with an investment in an emerging economy versus an investment domestically. There’s a number of technology based specialist funds that you can invest in, such as AXA Framlington Global Technology Funds.\nFreeze Your Emotions\nThis one is extremely important. When it comes to investments, you have to understand that things will go up and down. They’ll reach new highs, and they’ll dip to new lows, but the important thing is that you don’t have a knee-jerk reaction to it. React with what you know, not with how you feel. Reacting based purely on emotion is a great way to lose a lot of money.\nAvoid Popular Choices and Don’t Pay Attention to History\nJust because a ton of people are investing in a certain thing doesn’t mean it’s a great choice. Remember the dot com crash around the year 2000? Use your training and knowledge and invest for the long haul. Stick with what you know and invest in things that you feel will turn a profit in a few years.\nThe performance of the thing you’re investing is not an indicator of how the investment will perform in the future. Researching the history of an investment and investing based on the history alone is an extremely risky move and will likely make you lose a lot of money. You should invest with no expectations of future performance based on history.\nEven if you’ve had all the training in the world, getting help from a professional would be a great idea. Stockbrokers or certified financial planners will be able to solve any issues that you have and can assist you in building up your portfolio.\nInvesting isn’t easy. It’s extremely unlikely that you put your money in something and see an immediate return. If you use these tips, however, you’re going to be infinitely more ready than a lot of other first-time investors. Can you think of any other tips you’d give to first-time investors? Did you have any luck the first time you invested? Leave a comment below and let us know."}
{"content":"By Kyle Barry (I possess the sole rights to all the photo's in this post and do not permit any use what so ever with out my sole consent)\nLandscape photography is among the favourite choices for a great number of enthusiast photographers. No matter where you live you will always be surrounded by landscapes begging to be captured. Landscapes are ever changing from dusk til dawn and season to season making each shot unique by nature.\nFor landscapes you should ensure you have the following gear:\n- Spare batteries: for your camera and flash gun (you don't know how long you'll be waiting for that right moment and how many photo's you'll take to get there)\n- Lenses: The lens of choice is a wide angle lens (in the 16-85mm range) if your kit allows it an ultra wide angle lens (12-24mm) should also accompany you. Fish eye lenses make for interesting shots but are not essential as well as a short telephoto lens.\n- Camera body: this goes without saying.\n- Filters: Neutral density (ND) filters are a favourite as they allow for long exposures and eliminate over-exposure. UV filters and polarizing filters should always be in your kit bag as it increases colour saturation and limits reflections on surfaces such as water. Colour filters are nice to have but not essential as you can just retouch and apply in the post-processing stage.\n- Tripod: Tripods work great for steady shots and opt for a a lightweight tripod as you'll be carrying it a lot. If you are worried that a lightweight tripod may not be stable ensure that the center column has a hook for you to hang your kit bag, this will ensure balance and sturdiness.\n- Remote release: this is not essential but great to have for long exposures to minimise camera shake. If you do not have one set your camera's timer and take it from there.\nAlways be aware of the rule of thirds this will result in balanced shots, look at lines running through your shot specifically the horizon which should be in the upper or lower third of the frame. look at where the sun is in your frame, try having it on the side as you'll get interesting shadows and often favourable lens flare. Always find something that leads you into the shot for example a walkway, river, road etc.\nMake use of the foreground\nTaking pictures with your camera in portrait orientation will result in strong images especially where there is detailed foreground. In portrait orientation you can create a sense of distance and scale making images look more dramatic. Try shooting at low angles to get close to the foreground and bring out the textures that it possesses. Look to find rocks, water, flowers etc.\nEven though blue skies might sound like the ideal weather conditions for landscape photography bad weather boasts the most exciting shots. Thick grey clouds and stormy weather creates amazing textures and really tells stories when you look at the picture. It's all about waiting as you never know what the weather will do next, one moment the skies may be dull and lifeless the next moment clouds may part and rays of light might create an eloquent backdrop! So bad weather is not always bad news, be patient!\nI'll leave you with this final thought, photography is an art, not a science! There is no right and wrong there are only guidelines! Don't be afraid to bend or break the rules and always challenge yourself and experiment with what you are doing!"}
{"content":"Curtain Call: A deaf in the family\n|By Mary C. Cusack|\nPeppermint Creek drama explores family communication in a different wayFor those who have wished they could tune out their family during a Christmas fight over who ruined the childhood of whom, Peppermint Creek Theatre Co.’s “Tribes” will serve as a cautionary tale. There is a fate worse than suffering petty familial bickering: Sitting on the sidelines in silence.\n“Tribes” is a tightly written, multi-layered story about a person’s role in various social structures. Billy (Devin Fraught) was born deaf to a hearing family. They raised him to read lips and speak instead of learning sign language. His well-meaning parents believed this would give him a more normal life.\nAs the play opens, all of the adult children have returned to the nest, lorded over by former professor Christopher (Michael Hays) and aspiring novelist Beth (Jackie Payne). Eldest son Daniel (Chad Badgero) is in the throes of a break-up, and vacillates between writing a dissertation and smoking pot. Daughter Ruth (Crysta Harper) is trying to build a career as a singer.\nBilly comes home from college and is thrust into the non-stop chaos of a family of creative types who are constantly trying to hoard all of the attention. Their fast-paced patter is more than even a hearing person can process, so Billy has no chance of keeping up. Instead he sits quietly, waiting for someone to fill him in on the goings-on.\nBilly meets Sylvia (Meghan Malusek), a woman born to deaf parents who is gradually losing her hearing. She teaches Billy to sign, and he soon embraces the deaf community and culture. He finally feels a sense of belonging, which leads him to perceive that he’s been a mascot for, not a member of, his family.\nAlthough the script investigates relationships in multiple configurations, the most fascinating is that between Daniel and Billy. In the beginning, Daniel is too wrapped up in his own melodrama to pay attention to Billy, and at times seems either jealous or resentful of his brother’s presence. But as Billy pursues his independence, it becomes apparent that Billy provides a sense of security and stability for Daniel that is critical to his well-being.\nBadgero is excellent in this role. His vicious sibling rivalry with Ruth rings true, as does the tender need he projects upon Billy. Faught’s performance as Billy is amazing, from the vocal control he exhibits as a deaf speaker to the range of emotion he expresses. At first quiet and seemingly content in his silent world, when he finally explodes in resentment it is cathartic, if not a bit misplaced.\nMalusek brings grace to her role, especially when showing the poetic beauty of sign language. She also reflects the vulnerability of a young woman facing her impending disability realistically with fear, anger and acceptance.\nAs with real life, the denouement lacks a clear resolution. The end signifies the beginning of the next phase in the evolution of this family unit who will face what comes with newfound solidarity.\nPeppermint Creek Theatre Co. 8 p.m. Thursday– Saturday, April 3-5 $15/$10 students & seniors 6025 Curry Lane, Lansing (517) 372-0945, peppermintcreek.org"}
{"content":"Team figure skating in the Olympics: How would it work?\nThe International Olympic Committee's executive board announced Monday it is \"looking favorably'' at the addition of seven events for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and it has given President Jacques Rogge the final say in the matter. Rogge is expected to make his decision at the end of April.\nAmong the seven is a team event in figure skating. \"I am 99.9% sure this will happen,'' International Skating Union President Ottavio Cinquanta said Tuesday. And one of the drawing cards to the event, in Cinquanta's eyes, is the opportunity for lineup discussions to become a hot topic, just as they are in other sports. \"This would be something spicy,'' Cinquanta said.\nHow would a team figure-skating event be structured and scored? Philip Hersh has the answers in his Globetrotting blog."}
{"content":"Sudan and South Sudan inch back from the brink of war\nJOHANNESBURG -- Sudan claimed Friday it had driven South Sudan forces out of the strategic Sudanese oil town of Heglig, while South Sudan President Salva Kiir -- facing international condemnation -- ordered his troops to withdraw.\nThe withdrawal saw the fractious neighbors step back from the brink of war after a sudden escalation in tensions following South Sudan’s seizure last week of Heglig, Sudan’s most important oil producing area.\nIt wasn't clear whether South Sudan withdrew under international pressure, prompting Sudan to claim victory, or whether its forces were driven out, as Khartoum claimed.\nSouth Sudan had been under enormous international pressure to pull its troops out of Heglig, an occupation U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called “illegal” Thursday. He also condemned Sudan’s bombings of South Sudan.\nSudan President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir claimed Friday to have retaken Heglig by force after a fierce battle. South Sudan didn’t clarify its position on the northern claim it had forced a retreat. Both sides often provide blustering, contradictory versions of events on the disputed border.\nSouth Sudan separated peacefully from Sudan in July. The two sides had fought a 22-year civil war that resulted in 2 million deaths but agreed to a 2005 peace deal that allowed the south to secede in 2011 if it wished.\nThe peace deal left many of the most intractable differences unresolved between the neighbors, including the border, now in serious dispute, and shares of oil revenues, another major source of tension.\nLast week’s escalation of hostilities and rhetoric sparked fears the two countries were headed back into a ruinous civil war that would destroy the oil sector both countries depend on, and cost many civilian lives.\nIn Khartoum, Sudanese Defense Minister Abdel-Rahim Hussein issued a statement Friday saying that his forces had defeated the opposition in Heglig in time for Friday prayers.\n“Your victorious Armed Forces have managed to liberate Heglig city by force from the remnants of the South Sudan army and its mercenaries. Your armed forces have entered at 2:20 p.m. and held Friday prayers inside the city, \" he said in a statement, the Sudan official news agency reported.\nA military spokesman for the South Sudan government, Philip Aguer, said Friday’s withdrawal did not mean his country had abandoned the area.\n“It doesn't mean we are abandoning the area. If our territory is being occupied we will not wait for the international community,\" Aguer said. He said the southern army was ready to react to any Sudanese incursions and respond if Sudan did not cease bombing in South Sudan.\nBoth sides claim Heglig, but the international community sees it as part of Sudan. Sudan occupies another disputed border area, Abyei.\n-- Robyn Dixon\nPhoto: People cheer Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir in Khartoum on Friday Credit: Abd Raouf / Associated Press"}
{"content":"Friday, March 28, 2008\nNews agencies all over the world are reporting on the historic U.S./EU Air Transport Agreement, dubbed \"Open Skies,\" which goes into effect this Sunday. Under the Agreement, the old restrictions on which airlines have access to the lucrative transatlantic route between the United States and Europe have been abolished. Many commentators are hopeful that the Agreement will bring about greater choice for consumers and result in lower airline costs. However, as the BBC News has correctly reported, the current cost of fuel is likely to offset these anticipated price reductions. What the BBC failed to get right-and what should be made perfectly clear-is that the Agreement still maintains the old strictures on foreign investment. Contrary to the BBC's claim that U.S. airlines will be able to buy up to 49% shares in their European rivals while foreign investment in U.S. airlines is capped at 25%, the Agreement provides that European investors can acquire 49% equity stock in U.S. carrier with the possibility of gaining more, subject to Department of Transportation approval. The 25% limit applies only to voting stock. Under the Agreement, the EU is permitted to impose a reciprocal 25% voting stock on U.S. investment-a much tighter cap than what existed prior to the Agreement.\nNews agencies have also picked up on the fact that a \"second stage\" of negotiations between the U.S. and EU is set to begin on May 15. One of the key issues for those talks will be opening up foreign investment. Jacques Barrot, the EU Transport Commissioner, has already vowed to suspend rights under the current Agreement if a satisfactory outcome on the matter is not reached by 2010. According to Barrot, the next stage of negotiations \"will aim to achieve full liberalisation in traffic rights, new possibilities for investments by European companies in the United States and for U.S. companies in Europe, measuring the effect on the environment and constraints on exercising traffic rights, access to transport programs financed by the U.S. government, and leasing aircrafts with crew.\"\nAs readers of the blog may recall, the International Aviation Law Institute, in cooperation with the International Institute of Air and Space Law at Leiden University, convened an experts' Working Group in Dublin, Ireland last November to begin discussing the \"second stage\" issues. This fall, the Institute will provide a full treatment of the evolution, implications, and future of the new U.S./EU open skies agreement in Professor Brian Havel's new book, Beyond Open Skies.\nWednesday, March 26, 2008\nAmerican Airlines announced today that it has grounded two-thirds of its MD-80 fleet, prompting 171 of its 2,200 daily flights to be canceled. Concerns over the connection of wiring within the aircraft spurred American to action. American Airlines is hopeful that the inspections, which only take a matter of hours, will be prompt and allow them to put the MD-80’s back into service. In an official statement, American noted that a Federal Aviation Administration audit led to concerns over the wiring. However, the decision to ground the planes was American's. This matter comes on the heels of public backlash against the FAA for lax inspections of Southwest Airline’s fleet. While that incident ultimately led to FAA issuing a stiff $10.2 million fine against Southwest, a Congressional investigation of the incident and the FAA’s handling of the situation is still on the horizon.\nIn addition to the current American Airlines situation, the FAA has also ordered the inspection of hundreds of Boeing 737 aircraft after concerns that a faulty bolt may be causing fuel leaks. The order includes both older and newer models of the aircraft, though at this time no action has been taken to ground any of the aircraft under inspection. Airlines have ninety days following the order’s effective date of April 8 to complete the inspections. While the FAA only has direct authority over U.S. airlines, it is likely that the order will be followed in other countries whose airlines utilize the Boeing 737.\nTuesday, March 25, 2008\nAs expected, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals struck down New York State's Airline Passenger Bill of Rights Act. In a unanimous decision, the court found the act expressly preempted by the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. Also of concern to the court was the potential of giving free reign to state regulation of the airline industry. \"If New York's view regarding the scope of regularity authority carried the day,\" so the court observed, \"another state could be free to enact a law prohibiting the service of soda on flights departing from its airports, while another could require allergen-free food options on all outbound flights, unraveling the centralized federal framework for air travel.\" The court was not unsympathetic to the aims of the New York statute: \"Although the goals of the [statute] are laudable and circumstances motivating its enactment deplorable, only the federal government has the authority to enact such a law.\"\nIt remains to be seen what the next course of action may be on the part of New York State or consumer advocacy groups. News outlets are already reporting that New York State attorney Andrew M. Cuomo is contemplating an appeal to the Supreme Court. So far there is no word on what, if any, action federal legislators may attempt to take.\nReaders of the Aviation Law Blog may recall Frans Vreede’s guest post from February 5 on the Dutch Ticket Tax. In that post, Mr. Vreede set down an argument against the Netherlands’ imposition of a $67 per ticket tax on all departures bound for outside the territory of the European Union ($17 for those within). As Mr. Vreede’s post made clear, the tax may be in violation of Article 15 of the Chicago Convention and may also run afoul of the U.S./EU Air Transport Agreement. Despite this, a Dutch court in the Hague has rejected claims of the tax’s illegality.\nLed by the Amsterdam airport Schiphol Group, the challenge to the new ticket tax fell to a narrow reading by the court. On a first sight reading of the case, the judge took Article 15’s omission of the word \"tax\" from the list of impermissible charges to be indicative of its inapplicability. The court failed to consider the purpose behind the article itself, i.e., as a prohibition to setting charges which have no relationship to the use of airports or their facilities. While the court’s decision marks an obvious setback for civil aviation in the Netherlands, an appeal to the country’s Supreme Court to review the decision’s merits is likely."}
{"content":"Friday, November 1, 2013\nMarie Boyd (South Carolina) has posted Zoning for Apartments: A Study of the Role of Law in the Control of Apartment Houses in New Haven, Connecticut 1912-1932, 33 Pace L. Rev. 600 (2013). In it, she reviews building records and Sanborn maps to give her reader a complete picture of the restrictions placed on apartment development before and after New Haven's first zoning ordinance in 1926. Here's the abstract:\nThis article seeks to contribute to the legal and policy debates over zoning by providing a more detailed examination of the impact of apartments on both pre-zoning land use patterns and the zoning process during the formative initial stages of zoning in the United States than has been provided in the literature to date. Specifically, this Article analyzes the impact of apartments on both pre-zoning land use patterns and the zoning process in New Haven, Connecticut. It focuses on the period beginning with the selection of New Haven’s first Zoning Commission in 1922, and concluding with the passage of New Haven’s first zoning ordinance in 1926. Through this detailed historical account of the realities of zoning, this Article demonstrates how — due to delays in the enactment of zoning — New Haven’s first zoning ordinance, rather than shaping the future growth of the regulated area, was instead shaped by existing land use patterns and political considerations."}
{"content":"The Russian dance group Berezka Ensemble, aka the Little Birch Tree Choreographic Group has perfected a dance step which when combined with their folk dress costume, creates the illusion of the dancers gliding across the floor as if on ice. The effect is quite mesmerizing and captivating. “Берёзка” (“Beryozka” or “Berezka”) means “Birch” in Russian. More info, including vintage versions of the dance, a version featuring costumes with LED lights, and video of rehearsals illustrating the “secret” of the dance step on the Open Culture website.\n(h/t to AGD and boingboing)\nWe at San Diego Free Press love watching all kinds of video. Those short visual stories entertain, inform, and agitate in a way completely different from the written word.\nSince our platform is about expressing ideas and ideals instead of cash flow, clicks, or fundraising, we have the freedom to include a wide range of topics and formats that might not work elsewhere. We don’t need or want paid content, promotional materials, or story lines designed to please donors.\nSo the idea here is to present videos one or more of the editors feel speaks to them. Sometimes it will be news. Sometimes it will be history. And a lot of the time it will be culture. You can not and should not separate these things: it is diversity and intersectionality that makes our movement strong.\nFeel free to suggest videos at firstname.lastname@example.org"}
{"content":"The waste management campaign that was started by the SPED III team in Thrikkadavoor Panchayath, Quilon, Kerala, is aimed at promoting systematic waste management and reducing the use of plastic products. To sustain the campaign, the team realized that it was critical to introduce the manufacturing and marketing of various paper products into the community. They got the idea that if the production and sales of paper products became a part of people’s livelihoods, they would have more incentive to use paper and avoid plastic.\nA large number of the women in the community were unemployed and eager to find a source of income, so they worked together with the SPED III team to find an alternative livelihood that would change the entire ambiance of the community. Mrs. Felsy in Pallivettachira village said that, “We were unaware about the possibilities and opportunities that are available in the community. Once we came to recognize it, we were filled with great confidence and immense enthusiasm”.\nExploring the options\nSPED III team was eagerly searching for an alternative livelihood to support the group of women who are actively propagating the systematic waste management and anti-plastic campaign. The team felt strongly that the livelihood project should be sustainable and ecofriendly. The leader of opposition in Thrikkadavoor Panchayath stated that “the Panchayath committee and VAT committees in various villages suggested for paper bag, paper plate products, paper cups and other paper based product manufacturing. But when we think about its feasibility we realize that it needs huge investment and risk”.\nThe SPED III team identified some companies that are encouraging home-based production of paper stars. These stars are used in India to decorate homes and communities during celebrations, especially Christmas. The companies provide free training and supply raw material at a low cost, then purchase the finished products at a reasonable margin. After receiving the necessary training to make the stars, the SPED III team and the beneficiaries began to network with star making companies. They were also provided with training to market their product and negotiate and bargain with the companies. The training was a blessing and opened up new opportunities to the poor and unemployed women.\nNow it has becomes a sustainable and regular source of income to 400 women. Mrs. Moly Babu, Ward member, Venkekkara village shared that “when we came to experience the star making, we did not believe that it would becomes sure source of income, but now we realized that it is a less expensive and marketable product and it is providing a sustainable and remarkable income to us”. The entire community whole heartedly agreed that the star making training was lighting the lamps of change for many lives and families.\nMr .Prasanth. B, the Grama Panchayath president also expressed that they were doubtful about the success of star making as a livelihood, but the community and the SPED III team proved that it could be a lucrative project for the women. “I would like to appreciate the SPED III team for their sincere efforts and innovative ideas.”\nNow the women are manufacturing two kinds of stars at different rates. The raw materials are purchased by the workers themselves and they sell the finished product to various star making companies in Kollam town. They were earning a reasonable income ranging from Rs. 1500 to Rs. 6500 ($30-$130) in a month.\nAccording to Mrs. Jincy from Pallivaettachiara village, “The training was a blessing to me. Prior to the star making training, I was an unemployed house wife without income. But now I am very proud to be an earning member in my family and happy to be economically self-reliant. I am living in a rented house with my husband and two children. My husband is an alcoholic and completely ignored the family. Prior to the star making training I didn’t have any means of living. But now I am able to achieve nearly Rs.5000 ($100) as my monthly income and to ensure decent standards of living to my children.”\nA big thanks to Quilon Social Service Society for providing us with this case study!"}
{"content":"From the stories I've read, it looks like Asimov did a great job at skirting the details of how the positronic brain really works. This is what has spawned the same question, namely how to implement the three laws in an artificial brain. NHL did a great job at summarizing the robots as computer entities with a bunch of sensors and actuators attached to them. But then he took the usual way of seeing the computer as a mega-computing machine in some way. We don't have this kind of mega-computing abilities as human beings, though we are able to assess risks ourselves, and are able to take action. However, as common sense may fail us (quite often actually), it would be a very good augmentation and should be seen as an additional independent module if you will. That module, when fed with memories or some facts extracted from the senses, would give even more information in the form of usable outputs to other parts of an artificial brain.\nJeff Hawkins said in his book On Intelligence, we should maybe not talk about \"artificial intelligence,\" but rather \"true intelligence induced by an artificial device.\" I would suggest anyone interested in this kind of stuff to read this very interesting book. For me it was an inspiring one. As I'm \"working\" in the Machine Learning field, I was rather frustrated by the directions taken so far in this field, as was Hawkins some time ago.\nMaybe we should tackle the problem from the perspective of mimicking biology more closely, as his work suggests, by using a so-called \"hierarchical temporal memory.\" Intelligence (and therefore memory) is actually made of a hierarchy of associations of a multitude of stimuli (including action's feedbacks) encoded in the form of circuits in the brain. If some behaviors are deeply rooted in us, this is in part because of some kinds of rewards our brain releases from time to time in the form of hormones. Hormones facilitate (or inhibits) the building of particular associations the brain deems good (bad) for us (which are not necessarily good (bad) in the absolute... unfortunately). In this sense and with regard to the three laws, I think that for it to be really adapted to our societies, a robot should have limited means of action first (fewer actuators for instance), and should be exposed to society and its environment as much as possible before being allowed to fully interact with them. Some desired behaviors and associations could be enforced with facilitated fixed stimuli to give strong hints at what is good or bad in a particular context. These fixed stimuli are the closest things I can come up with to encode the three laws in practice. These associations should be frozen in some way in order for them to be sufficiently effective. Humans could develop bad or good habits that can be hard to change after all. By making that ones particularly hard to change we should be okay.\nI don't think perfection will ever be attained with this kind of architecture. In some cases it would fail, as humans themselves do, but with the information provided by some extra modules, like the \"mega-computing\" one, this could be somewhat alleviated. I'm willing to bet that an artificial brain in the sense of a computing machine alone will never go as far as that either. In fact, the human brain intelligence itself could largely be surpassed by intelligence induced by those kind of devices. It could build up instead of being lost at some point (like at the end of a human subject's life). All a human being is left with is language to extract their intelligence or knowledge out of their own brain. Unfortunately, it takes time to transfer that knowledge to another brain in this way. Further, no matter how hard you try, it is often altered in the process. Another issue is that sometimes we never make crucial associations that are, however, latent and at the verge of being made if given a little more time. Conclusion, a lot of time is lost. You never see more than the tip of the intelligence iceberg within a single brain in such a short lifetime as ours. Maybe a solution to our limitations would be to find a way for our brains to communicate with such a device. It would be a lot harder I think but not impossible. Ethics would also be pointing its nose I suppose.\nI would appreciate if this were on a forum where I could talk more about it because I digress a lot. I'm not the one who came up with that by the way... Hawkins transferred it to my brain through his book. And for him we should maybe consider forms of intelligent agents in a broader sense, not necessarily human- or animal-like entities. Also feel free to stole these ideas for you next book :)."}
{"content":"“You have cancer,” could be one of the most difficult phrases to hear. Those powerful words can leave anyone devastated. But if you or a loved one hears those words articulated by a doctor, know there is hope.\nAfter a cancer diagnosis, your mind may immediately turn to how you are going to beat the disease through treatment — and rightly so. But did you know there are ways to enhance your cancer care beyond traditional medicine?\nWhile traditional cancer treatments are focused on helping your body to fight cancer, integrative medicine programs can supplement your treatment plan, bringing a new dimension to medical care.\nWhile traditional cancer treatments are focused on helping your body to fight cancer, integrative medicine programs can supplement your treatment plan, bringing a new dimension to medical care. When you’re facing chronic illness, these programs integrate holistic care to address nutritional, physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of your life.\nAccording to a recent study, weight gain can have a negative impact on recurrence rates and survival for patients battling early-stage cancer. Studies also indicate that understanding the importance of a healthy diet and exercise regime before treatment can help patients recover faster, decrease their body mass index and improve recurrence rates.\nTriple-negative breast cancer survivor Karen Rosenkrans knows firsthand the importance of applying integrative treatment methods to address mind, body and spirit.\nFinding strength by building healthy habits\nKaren was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer in 2006.\nTwo years after beginning treatment at a different hospital, Karen transferred to Baylor University Medical Center — a decision that made all the difference in her cancer journey. She was able to participate in a triple-negative clinical trial. It has taken her eight years for her body to repair the damage from the chemotherapy.\n“During that time I learned so many new recipes and incorporated healthy eating habits into my daily life,” she said. “I’m now 70 years old and I am stronger now than I was before going through cancer treatment, thanks to the team at Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center.”\nNow cancer-free, the healthy habits Karen’s built continue to propel her healthy, active lifestyle.\n“When I transferred to Baylor Scott & White, it felt like family, which is why I still go there weekly for yoga classes,” she said. “Sometimes I go there just to read or go in the chapel to think about why I am here, and reflect on how grateful I am to be alive.”\nCancer impacts your whole person — emotionally, socially, spiritually and in your family life — and it’s important to care for all aspects.\nAt Baylor University Medical Center, part of Baylor Scott & White Health, you can find support groups, exercise and meditation classes, music and art therapy, cooking classes and more. These programs are designed to care for patients beyond their clinical needs. Cancer impacts your whole person — emotionally, socially, spiritually and in your family life — and it’s important to care for all aspects.\nThese integrative medicine programs help patients and survivors not only cope with the physical and emotional impact of cancer treatment, but also in the recovery and healing process that comes later.\nThe health benefits of integrative medicine\n“Whenever I consult with breast cancer patients, I always educate them about the importance of healthy self-care and proper nutrition in bolstering their overall health and well-being during cancer treatments,” said Dr. Shannon Poppito, clinical psychologist on the medical staff at Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center at Dallas.\nSpecializing in psycho-oncology, she provides integrated behavioral health oncology consultation services to cancer patients.\n“When it comes to breast cancer, it’s key to maintain a healthy diet and exercise,” Dr. Poppito said. “It’s especially important for estrogen-positive breast cancer patients to keep their weight within healthy limits, cut down on white processed refined sugars and flours, and initiate a regular exercise plan.”\nIf you’re battling cancer, talk to your doctor about the possibility of incorporating integrative medicine."}
{"content":"Link Bait: Tutorial and Course - Link Bait Tutorial and Link Bait Course, The Ultimate Guide to Link Bait. Learn Link Bait Tutorial and Link Bait Course at Link Bait Tutorial and Course.\nLink Bait Tutorial and Course - Link Bait tutorial and Link Bait course, the ultimate guide to Link Bait, including facts and information about Link Bait. Link Bait Tutorial and Course is one of the ultimate SEO Tutorials and Courses created by SEO University to help you learn and understand Link Bait and the related SEO technologies, as well as facts and information about Link Bait.\nIn general, a website that earns links over time will be seen as valuable by search engines. Link bait is not a new concept, it is an extremely effective form of white hat search engine optimization technique creating interesting content with the intent of creating maximum Internet buzz to get as many people to link to your site as possible. Having great content is your most basic link-baiting technique. You can also think of link bait as content \"hooks\".\nLink bait is any content or feature within a web site that is designed to bait viewers to place links to it from other web sites. Link bait is something interesting enough to catch people's attention. Typically, users on social networking sites, social bookmarking sites, or blogs will place a link to a web site in some copy that further entices a fellow member or visitor to click. It is an extremely powerful form of marketing because it is viral in nature, and links like these are exactly what search engine algorithm wants to see.\nSoliciting links via link exchanging is less effective than it once was to the end of improving rankings. Link bait creation is one of the newer popularized concepts in link building. It is frequently, with a lot of luck and some skill, an economical and ethical way to get links to a website; it is considered to be a white hat search engine optimization technique universally.\nLink bait is a hit-or-miss link building technique. Do not expect success with every attempt. However, one clever idea, when implemented, may yield thousands of links.\nLink bait will be generated as a matter of course on any web site with quality content. However, learning to recognize content as such is useful in itself. Social bookmarking sites such as Digg can help to promote content. Including hooks to such services may provide an easy \"call to action\" for users to promote you. This is a popular technique especially used to promote news, blogs, products, and articles.\nThere are many ways to hook a link, in general, the following types of content hooks will work well:\nProviding timely news information on any topic can be the main catalyst for retaining and gaining visitor traffic. Being the first web site to report a pertinent news story will typically get your web site cited as a source via links as the news spreads. Posting an op-ed with a different and refreshing opinion on news may also get some attention. Debate always encourages dialogue, and it is viral in nature.\nThese are resources that people will tend to link to by virtue of the fact that they provide useful information. You can provide information in many different formats, including whitepapers, case studies, research, and various statistics. For example, posting a \"how-to\" article for how to set up a web server is an informational hook. A user will read the article one day, it will help him, and then the user will post a link to it somewhere indicating that it was helpful. As time progresses, this may happen several times, and many links will accumulate.\nEnticing people with gifts, contests, awards, sales, and discounts are traditional ways to attract attention.\nYou can promote your site by using jokes, funny pictures (videos or sounds), and even controversial information. People love to laugh, and humorous content is very viral in nature. A good joke is always going to spread. Traffic increases like that are almost always accompanied by links as a lasting effect. Fun games also work, because people send those around as well.\nProviding free software and widgets is another way to promote your online assets.\nWebsite widgets are simple, self-contained, value-added units of functionality. They are typically confined to small blocks of screen real estate on one or all the pages of your website. Any information that you can package in a way that provides unique value to other websites can be made into a widget.\nEverything starts with an idea. Creating custom widgets can be as simple or as complex as required. You can create some website widgets by simply creating custom HTML pages. Others you can create by utilizing Atom/RSS feeds, Java applets, and Flash.\nLet's suppose you own a website that sells many different brands of alarm clocks. To promote your website, you want to create your own link bait. Specifically, you want to create a simple digital alarm clock widget (called Wake Up Service) that any website can link to or use. When the widget is used on other websites, you specify the condition that your link must be present to use the widget.\nOn your website, you also want to ensure that your link bait is highly visible (typically placed at a strategic location for easy recognition). You can decide to use a pop-up window widget or one that renders in the same browser window.\nOnline games and multiplayer games can be addicting and can bring visitors back to your site time and again.\nSaying something unpopular or mean will likely get links and attention, but it may be the wrong type of attention. Be careful with this technique.\nAll forms of link bait have one thing in common: they promote your name, site, and brand. Great link bait fosters accelerated link building and site recognition. When done right, link bait can become extremely viral.\nLink bait is not a new concept, it is just a concise term that describes an effective search engine optimization technique. Although some SEO companies shun the term as just another word for viral marketing, in fact, the term and concept is quite useful. Deliberately creating link bait can provide a large return on investment, and even learning to recognize link bait when it is created as a matter of course is useful, because it can prompt a search engine marketer to provide hooks to services such as social bookmarking services to aid in the propagation of the bait."}
{"content":"Yes, I looked it up. There won’t be an earlier Ash Wednesday for 19 years (February 7, 2035), or Easter for that matter. And it’s an interesting thing, that we expect Easter during this time but aren’t always exactly sure when it’ll come. So, for many of us, I’m sure this Lenten season really crept up on you!\nAnd it’s around this time that many of us scramble for things to give up… late-night snacking, sweets, watching TV/movies, etc. Or the opposite, you find ways to supplement your daily spiritual life by reading more of the bible, attending an extra worship service or early morning prayer, etc.\nBut how are you really preparing for Easter?\nEvery Ash Wednesday we go through this routine of giving something up, maybe even going to church, and wearing a cross of ash on our foreheads. But all of these things are just actions, motions, and gestures if underneath them all there is no purpose.\nTake Easter, for instance. The days leading up to Jesus dying on the cross, His actions weren’t meaningless. He prepared and He was ready. Luke 9:51 even says that Jesus RESOLUTELY set out for Jerusalem! If we’re to prepare ourselves for Easter as well, we need to be determined, have the right intentions, and get ready for the cross.\nWe hope that whatever it is you choose to do (or not do), you do so with purpose and do so with resolve! Do it intentionally and prayerfully for the journey ahead.\nWhat do you intend on doing in these 40 days? Stick with it!\nReflection Song: Because Of Your Love"}
{"content":"Intertitle from Thompson's film War As It Really Is (1916)\n\"In the Jaws of Death\"\"Much detail is clearly screened in the corpses and skeletons piled about deserted fortifications\", commented a review by Motion Picture News. Starting with some remarkable aerial views of the Entente fleet at Thessaloniki, Thompson's film covered the western front from the French side. Press reports indicated he was at the Somme battlefield on July 2, 1916, when he was severely wounded by by a piece of shell. A print of the movie has survived in the U.S. Signal Corps collection of the National Archives in Washington, DC. To give an idea of the frontline footage we have uploaded scenes on YouTube from reel 7 following the intertitle \"In the Jaws of Death\", showing a French infantry attack on the German lines under heavy artillery fire. The film clip has been edited with a contemporary score by composer Gustav Holst from his musical suite The Planets/Mars.\nThompson's war films have been described in more detail in our latest book American Cinematographers in the Great War.\nAlso, here is a download link to the production file of Thompson's war movie, from the collection of the National Archives in Washington, D.C."}
{"content":"‘After a day relaxing in his apartment in Pisa, The Travel Bug demanded his humans take him to find some fascinating facts about Florence…’\nAs they’re very obedient humans, the packed him into the car and flitted away to the capital of the region of Tuscany. These are the fascinating facts about Florence that Travel Bug discovered…\nTravel Bug discovered that the photos that millions of tourists take of the Statue of Michelangelo’s David outside the gallery is not actually the real thing. This statue outside the Palazzo Vecchio is only a copy!\nThe real Statue of David is kept in the slightly safer venue of Galleria dell’Academia. This means there are two statues of David, but only one can genuinely be called Michelangelo’s.\nTravel Bug was rather surprised to see that David doesn’t wear any clothes. It must be a bit cold in the winter time. Maybe David’s Mum brings him a blanket at night or he sleeps in a warm bed next to some humans, as Travel Bug does…\n1/3 of the most important works of in IN THE WORLD are located in Florence. This is according to UNESCO.\nTravel Bug promised his humans he wouldn’t touch anything he’s not supposed to as he doesn’t want to get squished by an angry security guard. Or his humans before they’re dragged off to jail.\nDuring World War 2, the Germans blew up every bridge in Florence, with the exception of the famous Ponte Vecchio.\nApparently, Hitler thought this bridge was far too beautiful to destroy. The Travel Bug agrees – but he thinks everything in Florence is beautiful.\nDo you have any fascinating facts about Florence to share with The Travel Bug?\nHasta pronto, amigos!"}
{"content":"Religious School Mission Statement\nCongregation Sinai Religious School partners with the Sinai community to create an environment that is conducive to learning and understanding Judaism within the framework of the Conservative Movement.\nWe strive to give children and families the tools and experiences that will help them to live a Jewish life.\nWe endeavor to impart a love for Judaism and for Eretz Yisrael, engagement with God, and a commitment to mitzvot and tikkun olam.\nReligious School Goals\nTo develop an appreciation of Judaism and a sense of pride in being Jewish by providing a positive, experiential atmosphere for learning prayers, history, and holidays using art forms, music, cooking, and other projects.\nTo engage with God, Torah, and mitzvot within the framework of the Conservative Movement and to incorporate them into our lives in a meaningful way.\nTo develop of sense of Jewish responsibility towards all people throughout the world through tzedakah (charity) and gemilut chasadim (acts of loving-kindness).\nTo develop an appreciation and identification with Klal Yisrael and to foster a sense of community with Jews in Israel and around the world.\nTo develop synagogue competence, including understanding the structure and meaning of Jewish prayer and the ability to participate in congregational services.\nTo develop basic Hebrew reading and writing skills."}
{"content":"Implementing sales techniques to successfully meet goals is most effective when used as part of a sales plan. There are many techniques to choose from, and with practice, small business owners and their sales staff will find the methods most suited to their personal style and business. Common sales techniques used by successful salespeople include breaking down large goals into smaller targets, setting activity goals, focusing on customer service and pursuing qualified sales leads.\nManage Your Sales Target\nRemove the stress of a high sales target by breaking down the annual goal into quarterly, monthly and weekly dollar goals. A goal of $1,000 in new sales sounds less daunting than a goal of $52,000, so focus on achieving a weekly sales target. Challenge yourself and your team to meet the weekly goal by posting your progress on a chart in the lunchroom or staffroom, and reward top performers with small weekly prizes such as a gift certificate to a local coffee shop.\nSet Activity Goals\nInclude a sales activities target as part of your plan. Study previous activity records and review the number of phone calls, emails, referrals, appointments and follow-up contacts made by the most successful salespeople in your office or industry. Use these figures as a basis to set activity goals for pro-active sales activities. Review your own activity each week, and evaluate what works to increase sales and what doesn't. Adjust your activity goals accordingly.\nProvide Excellent Customer Service\nInstead of worrying about achieving your sales goal, concentrate on providing excellent service to the customer. Develop a personal sales script using language you are comfortable with to introduce new clients to new products or services. Give customers your undivided attention and focus on meeting their needs rather than \"selling\" anything. Anticipate questions, concerns, and future issues. Providing excellent customer service consistently results in repeat business and word-of-mouth referrals, increasing your sales and decreasing required prospecting time.\nProspecting vs. Cold Calling\nProspecting refers to searching for and cultivating relationships with customers who are more likely to purchase your product than the average person. Typically, there is a direct connection between prospecting activity and increased sales, so it's important to know how many prospects you need in the pipeline each month to hit your sales target for the year. Calculate the percentage of prospects that typically buy from you. Whether it's 5% or 25% of pitches that close, this critical piece of information lets you compute how many active prospects you need in the funnel at any given time by dividing your yearly sales target by your success rate, then dividing that number by the length of your sales cycle.\nFocus on identifying target customers and getting quality sales referrals from existing customers to populate your pool of prospects. This is a more efficient way to achieve a sales target than \"cold calling\" or trying to sell to the general public."}
{"content":"This week’s blog installment takes the form of Luke’s sermon from yesterday (Sunday 30th August) at Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church, London.\nRead, comment and join the conversation!\nDoes anyone want to fathom a guess at what that number could mean?\n[Encourage guessing from the congregation.]\nWell in fact, today marks that it is only 116 days until Christmas. We have well and truly passed the halfway mark so I recommend that you get your lists together and get shopping before everyone else does when Debenhams puts their decorations up in early October. In fact, Selfridges already has their Christmas store up and running. Just saying.\nI am unashamedly the biggest fan of Christmas. I love it all: the tree, the food, the decorations, the presents, and the never-ending playlists of Christmas songs that I just don’t get tired of… all of it! I especially love the countdown and the air of expectation and excitement and I do not believe the knowing it’s only 116 days until Christmas it at all excessive.\nI love the afterglow of Christmas too; that Boxing Day feeling of snug warmth. You see, Christmas for me really, is the gift that keeps on giving.\nAs Christians we believe that Christmas marks (slightly inaccurately) the birth of Christ – the moment which has forever altered history by God choosing to become one of us. It’s a familiar story that even those that profess no Christian faith probably have some sense of understanding about.\nBeing close to God is incredibly important to “us Christians”. We talk about it rather a lot. Actually, we talk more about feeling distant from God than we do about feeling close. We’re also very good at making people feel distant from God and asking them lots of obnoxious questions along the way: “why do you feel God is absent?” or “can you think of anything in particular that may have separated you from God?” Which basically translates as: “you must have done something wrong, so own up and be done with it.”\nDuncan read to us earlier from the book of Deuteronomy which expresses the importance of the law in Jewish tradition. Through the law, which God revealed to Moses and Moses delivered to the Israelites, those who were born into the Jewish faith could seek a closeness of God’s presence that the Gentile would never be able to find. The closeness, or nearness, of God was directly partnered with the law, as we heard in Deuteronomy 4:7 & 8:\n“For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the Lord our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day?”\nBy obeying God’s laws, the Israelites were brought closer into the presence of God and therefore, we logically progress, when they disobeyed the law (as we read in the Hebrew Bible, our Old Testament, that they so often did) they experienced a separation, a remoteness from the One who created them.\nPrior to the law which Moses received, we learn of circumstances in which humanity managed a stirling job of disobeying God’s best – Adam and Eve started the whole mess when they chose to selectively choose which of God’s commands they were to follow and thus experienced a very physical separation from God, as we learn in Genesis chapter 3. Humanity’s figurative Mummy and Daddy had just taken from the fruit and are suddenly very aware, that all is not as it was moments before and so it reads in Genesis:\n“8 Then they heard the Lord God walking in the garden during the cool part of the day, and the man and his wife hid from the Lord God among the trees in the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said, “Where are you?” 10 The man answered, “I heard you walking in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” 11 God asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat fruit from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “You gave this woman to me and she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “How could you have done such a thing?” She answered, “The snake tricked me, so I ate the fruit.” 14 The Lord God said to the snake,\n“Because you did this,\na curse will be put on you.\nYou will be cursed as no other animal, tame or wild, will ever be.\nYou will crawl on your stomach,\nand you will eat dust all the days of your life.\n15 I will make you and the woman\nenemies to each other.\nYour descendants and her descendants\nwill be enemies.\nOne of her descendants will crush your head,\nand you will bite his heel.”\n16 Then God said to the woman,\n“I will cause you to have much trouble\nwhen you are pregnant,\nand when you give birth to children,\nyou will have great pain.\nYou will greatly desire your husband,\nbut he will rule over you.”\n17 Then God said to the man, “You listened to what your wife said, and you ate fruit from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat.\n“So I will put a curse on the ground,\nand you will have to work very hard for your food.\nIn pain you will eat its food\nall the days of your life.\n18 The ground will produce thorns and weeds for you,\nand you will eat the plants of the field.\n19 You will sweat and work hard for your food.\nLater you will return to the ground,\nbecause you were taken from it.\nYou are dust,\nand when you die, you will return to the dust.”\n20 The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. 21 The Lord God made clothes from animal skins for the man and his wife and dressed them. 22 Then the Lord God said, “Humans have become like one of us; they know good and evil. We must keep them from eating some of the fruit from the tree of life, or they will live forever.” 23 So the Lord God forced Adam out of the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 After God forced humans out of the garden, he placed angels and a sword of fire that flashed around in every direction on its eastern border. This kept people from getting to the tree of life.”\nBy their own actions, Adam and Eve became quite literally removed from the presence of God – so much so that a flaming-sword wielding angel prevented them for ever returning to that intimate closeness they had previously experienced in the Garden. Drama.\nAt times, we read, humanity goes out of its way to hide from God – to remove themselves from the presence of the divine. Over the last few weeks, we have been following the narrative of Jonah, and how he had a remarkable talent of trying to avoid God and his presence. Unfortunately his remarkable efforts didn’t quite stretch to becoming remarkable realities and God time and time again brought Jonah back into his presence. This should, I hope, give us some comfort – that even the God of the flaming-sword wielding angel (the ultimate nightclub bouncer, I think we’d all agree) still fights to bring us back into his presence, even when we do all we can to get out of it.\nThe other thing about God’s presence is that everyone believes they have the market on it.\nThe Israelis believe just as adamantly as the Palestinians, that they are in the presence of God and that the defence of the land is divinely ordained.\nIn every courthouse in the United States you’ll find the words “In God We Trust” displayed for all to see; stating boldly that through the presence of God, justice will be fought for and won.\nActs of terror perpetrated by the likes of Al-Qaida and ISIS are carried out in the name of God – believing that whatever harm they inflict on the infidel is to the glory and witness of the divine.\nDo any of these, in our opinion, convey what we believe to be the presence of God?\nHow does our behaviour, if it does indeed at all, express that presence?\nFor the Pharisees in our Gospel reading, God’s presence was only accessible through a series of ritualistic behaviour – that if completed incorrectly or not at all would bar the perpetrator from fully experiencing the divine.\nSuch legalistic action was a warping of the law given by God to the Israelites and that warping became the very foundation for much of the Jewish understanding of who and how God was. By enforcing rules for every aspect of life, the Temple itself had the monopoly on access to the presence of God – something that the incarnation of Christ subverted.\nFor Christ, it matters very little what we do with our hands or say with our mouths if our heart, our intentions perhaps, aren’t orientated to God. In fact, Jesus argues, it’s all very good living according to the instruction of the Temple, but what really is of concern is what comes from within us – our inner most thoughts and behaviours – it is those that have the ability to cause disconnect from God. And perhaps, more dangerously, cause a rift between others and the presence of God.\nIt is this morning’s passage from James that really sets the final tone and brings both the texts from Deuteronomy and Mark together. For James, there is little worth in hearing of the goodness of God’s presence, if we then don’t go out and act upon it – truly as if our lives have been changed.\nOur Old Testament is filled with recollections of humanity being drawn into God’s presence and then promptly finding a startling way of getting out of it. Our New Testament is a warning to all those who bar others from seeking God and dwelling in His presence. The passage in James takes us then to the “so what?” of the sermon. Dawn, one of the ministry team here at Bloomsbury, uses a phrase which I will credit her for because I’m not sure if she was the author of it or not: “What God… and so what?” We have the what kind of God – the God who time and time again draws us into his presence, but so what?\nThe “so what” is fundamental to our expression as 21st Century Christians – we live in a world that we might often feel is so completely devoid of God’s presence. So what?\nIf you type into Google: “God’s presence” you get all kinds of results – some moderately helpful, perhaps pointing to different pieces of Scripture, some… less than moderately helpful. It seems that seeking some sort of spiritual presence is all the rage still. The irony? God’s presence is so, well, “present” that a 21 step programme through a month of rigid and self-deprecating prayer and Bible study isn’t going to make Him more “present”.\nFor Jesus, and therefore the authors of texts which follow – such as James, God’s presence wasn’t an adjective for receiving something, but rather a verb for getting out there and doing something. It’s oh so very easy for us to sit back and decree “isn’t it AWFUL, you know… EVERYTHING that’s happening in the world at the moment?” but as James so astutely wrote:\n“22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”\nHave we looked into the perfect law of liberty and continued in it? And then, not forgetting what our own reflection looks like, have we gone out to be a doer of the work – which I think we’d all admit is plentiful?\nIt can seem daunting, I know, to stand at the precipice of all that need, all that hurt, all that anger and angst. In arriving to Church today you would have passed through one of the most diverse cities in the world. A city filled with the richest and poorest, the healthiest and those that need desperate medical attention. A city filled with awe-inspiring buildings but with a history of neglect and elitism. Nevertheless, a city filled with the presence of God.\nBut did you notice, that James didn’t suggest that we go out and tackle the causes of all these issues head on, issues that he too would have faced in a society dominated by patriarchal structure and class system? No, his, advice on how to be in and share God’s presence?\n“27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”\nWho are your orphans and widows to visit?\nDuring our evening services we take time each week to reflect on the presence of God – it’s a method of reducing the large scale and intimidating question of “where is God and so what?” to something more accessible. More personal. The questions are worded in such a way that acknowledges even when we are feeling as if God has well and truly left the building, He is in fact still there – should we just turn to find Him.\nWhere, in our experience this week, have we wanted to say with Jacob, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place’?\nWhere, in our experience this week, have we wanted to say with the Psalmist, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me’?\nAnd let’s continue in that silence, lifting our hearts, minds and actions to the One who made it all.\n[Pause for silence.]"}
{"content":"We often write about the incredible efficiency and durability of SunPower solar panels. What makes the difference between this manufacturer and other producers on the market? The key lies with the silicon and the construction. The result is the industry leading solar panel for power output and reliability.\nMonocrystalline versus Polycrystalline\nMonocrystalline silicon is made from one single crystal of silicon. Put simply, the manufacturer takes raw silicon, heats it and forms it into a single long bar that is actually one large crystal. This is a careful process that produces silicon without impurities that can then be cut into very thin wafers for use by the solar electrical industry. Monocrystalline silicon is the efficiency leader for this photovoltaic element and provides SunPower solar panels with their sleek, black appearance.\nPolycrystalline silicon is made by melting many fragments of silicon in place, forming a wafer. Therefore, you can also call them multi-crystalline, since this process creates many crystals in every wafer, not just a slice from one big one. This process is obviously cheaper, since the manufacturing process is simpler. The tradeoff is that any photovoltaic cell made using this process is less efficient. These photocells are blue in color.\nMaxeon versus Competing Technologies\nSunPower uses what they call Maxeon cell technology for producing solar cells. The durability in Maxeon cells chiefly comes from using a solid copper foundation for the photovoltaic cell. Competitors tend to use cheaper metallic strips to transmit electrons, and these corrode and break far more quickly than a solid copper sheet.\nHow does this difference in construction translate into real world durability? Average solar panels lose 1% of their power generating capacity per year. So if you had a 3000-watt system in your first year, next year you would only produce 2970 watts with cheap solar panels. In a very short time, your system is not producing the energy you expected.\nIn contrast, SunPower solar panels only lose .25% of their generating power per year. Therefore, that same 3000 watts of production would be 2992 watts the following year — a minor drop off. It illustrates that when it comes to solar panels, you get what you pay for, and the best investment for your money is monocrystalline silicon with SunPower technology."}
{"content":"I recently met Michael Clancy at the National Right to Life Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. I could not believe that it’s been 10 years since the famous photo (at right) taken by Michael was first published.\nMichael was a freelance photojournalist who was documenting an in utero operation on a baby with spina bifida. Suddenly, the baby (later named Samuel) reached out of the womb to grab the surgeon’s finger. Samuel was only 21 weeks old at that time.\nFox News recently published an article about Samuel and what he’s doing now, including winning first place in swimming competitions.\nIn the article, Michael says that he was pro-choice before the assignment that led to the photograph. But because of what he witnessed during this surgery, he became pro-life. Now he is a full-time motivational speaker for pro-life groups. Click here to go to his website to read the story and see his speaking schedule.\nMaybe it’s just me, but…I think we should never forget that the baby in the womb is exactly that–a baby! Regardless of how the pro-choice folks try to denigrate the life in the womb by calling him a “glob of cells,” “mass of tissue,” or the “product of conception,” we must always return to the one undeniable fact that the life in the womb is a human life that is worthy of our love and protection. With compassion and hope, let’s show mothers (and fathers) struggling with life and death choices understand that there are alternatives to abortion when told that the baby they are carrying is “less than perfect.”"}
{"content":"Last week I shared that I had the opportunity to guest post at Polkadot Pretties. Here’s an altered version of the “Use Your Stash” Challenge I shared with Claire’s readers!\nFirst, dig into your stash and find a bunch of coordinating scraps and take out your trusty circle punch. Let’s learn how to make three fun 3D cards with these materials!\nTo make your 3D circle element, first punch 3 circle shapes, fold each in half, then adhere them back to back to form the 3D shape. I then used baker’s twine and additional scraps to make the hot air balloon design seen above.\nHere’s a close up on that layering action. To adhere, just apply glue on the backside of the gingham shape seen in the center and all three of these pieces will form your 3D shape. Tip: use a bone folder to create crisp folds for this shape!\nFor this next card, I used multiple 3D circles and the same spool of baker’s twine to create a bunch of balloons for a happy ‘sending warm fuzzies” design.\nIn addition to this 3D circle element, this last version also uses one of my favorite technique for using up scraps: making a punch collage. I created several of these little 3D circles, laid them out in a grid like pattern and mixed in punched holes and stamped sentiments. In the end I’ll be able to thank someone very special with this handmade thank you card, all made from paper scraps!\n(Supplies: Patterned Papers: Martha Stewart Crafts, Echo Park; Stamps: Hero Arts, Inkadinkado; Punches: EK Tools)"}
{"content":"Fifteen Christian Values’\nWhat does a Christian faith school look like and feel like?\nBack in 2009 the National Society came up with its ‘Christian\nValues for Schools’ agenda which St. George’s, along with other Church of\nEngland Schools, has embraced. The fifteen values which characterise our school\ninclude: Reverence, Wisdom, Thankfulness,Humility, Endurance,\nService, Compassion, Trust, Peace, Forgiveness, Friendship, Justice,\nHope, Creation and Koinonia (a Greek word\nmeaning ‘Christian Community’). These form our\nthemes for worship and are values we try to live out\nin our relationships with each other.Many of\nthese values have overlaps with the values of\nother faiths, and, where we can make links from\nother traditions, we do. At the same time we\nhave a distinctively Christian approach to these values\nwhich is influenced by the emphasis we put on the person of Jesus.\nOur Christian gifts cross in the Main Hall.\nChristians believe Jesus is the Son of God and God made human. We give him titles such as ‘Christ’ meaning ‘God’s anointed one’ which recognises his status, ‘Lord’ because he is our guide and teacher in life, and ‘Saviour’ because we believe he saved us from the consequences of our sin and allowed us to have a life-giving relationship with God.\nJesus’ life, death and resurrection, are central and fundamental to our view of the world, so the Christian gifts or values that we espouse at school will always link back to him. Consequently, Jesus is mentioned in every act of worship, in our bible readings, stories and prayers. (Please see: http://www.christianvalues4schools.co.uk/ and https://www.churchofengland.org/media-centre/news/2009/05/pr4909.aspx for more information.)"}
{"content":"In the essay \"Arizona Statehood and Constitution\" the author discusses chronological narrative explaining and evaluating all the events that contribute to the formation of Arizona as a state. In the process of investigation, key events from the history are enclosed here,…\nDownload full paperFile format: .doc, available for editing\nExtract of sample \"Arizona Statehood and Constitution\"\nDownload file to see previous pages\nThis was the oldest period in the history of Arizona. The earliest inhabitants of this period introduced various cultures and traditions and started living at community level sharing their needs. These earliest people were known as Paleo. In 2000 BC, Cochise culture was developed in Arizona. Those Cochise people introduced agriculture in that area. They used to grow several crops especially corn. In 300 BC, Hohokam people settled in the southern parts of Arizona. They were more developed people and introduced new ways of refined living and civilization. They used to construct irrigation canals, roads and agricultural communities, and villages in the region. So, Hohokam along with Anasazi people paved the new ways to success. In 500 A.D. Hohokam people contributed more and more to the creation and establishment of more advanced and extensive irrigation networks. In 700 to 1100 A.D., Pueblo period came to its peak and they flourished in the regions nearby Arizona. They were the pit dwellers and built many elaborated residences in that region. They used more extensive material like stone slabs, bricks, sticks and mud in the building process. Underground chambers were also developed and cotton fiber was introduced first by these inhabitants. Although the status of a state is recently achieved by Arizona its history goes back to thousands of years almost 12,000 years back. 1) The Spanish Period (1528 to 1821) In the time period 1528- 1536, Spanish colonist steadily began to enter in the region of Arizona via waterways from the coast of current day Texas...\nThey were especially attracted by the deposits of silvers present there. They were quite interested in exploring the regions because of hidden treasures. In 1539, a Spanish colonist Fray Marcos searched out the city of Cibola. His discoveries for silver deposits encouraged more exploration in the region. In 1629, Franciscans were the first Europeans who planned out more missions in various parts of the region including San Xavier, Guevavi and San Miguel. In 1736, Spanish succeeded to explore more deposits and large chunks of silver near Arizonac Camp. With such discoveries, Spanish also accomplished their goals having forts in the region. Tubac Presidio was the first fort established by Spanish community in the region of Arizona. Jesuits were also replaced from key positions by Franciscans. In 1765, Charles III of Spain did a major rearrangement of military on the area extended northward. Franciscans were given the place in mission planning and implementation. It is also obvious from history that during the mid of eighteenth century, the pioneers and Spanish colonist also tried to expand the territory of Arizona towards North. However, they were stopped by some Native American tribes including Apache and Tohono O’ odham. Those tribes also began violating acts on the local villagers of the region. They also launched raids and captured the livestock of the local people. However, as a whole we may conclude that the Spanish Arizona had survived economy. Several small scale silver and gold mining operations were also held in that time period. 2) Mexican Period (1821 to 1848) However, in1821, Mexico gained independence from Spanish Rule. The independence was gained as a result of a long war which had demolished the industry of silver mining and also\n...Download file to see next pagesRead More\nThese tribes are today known as the Apaches and Navajo. The first non-native in Arizona was Estevanico; an African slave shipwrecked off the Florida coast in 1529 and reached Arizona eight years later. Marcos de Niza who was a Franciscan Friar planned to make an expedition north and asked for Cabeza de Vaca’s help.\ncitizen certain fundamental liberties and rights. With regard to criminal procedures, the foremost of these rights is the assumption of innocence. Though not explicitly written into the Constitution, this presumption has been interpreted by several court rulings as implied in the Eighth and Fifth Amendments.\nMany Americans believe that both legal and illegal immigration resulted in immigrants looting their employment opportunities. The call for4 restricting or prohibiting illegal immigration is growing across America at present. Arizona took the drastic step in controlling illegal immigration recently.\n(Kain, Erick “Why Arizona's Controversial Immigration Law is Bad for Business”) This paper shall take a closer look at the controversial sections of the state law and discuss the reasons as to why those sections prove to be a very bad idea both for the law and the state of Arizona.\nnstitution aims at providing a better system of governance and provides checks and balances through which they can monitor the performance of the government. It also established three branches of the government (the judiciary, the executive and the legislative arms of\nThe author deals with the history of Utah statehood and the role of Mormons in this demand. He focuses on the persecution faced by Mormons during statehood campaign. Mormons entered what is now the present state of Utah for the first time in 1847 after they had faced years of persecution in the Midwest.\nThe process of amending this constitution is fair because when amendments are proposed, the citizens must approve all the changes. The proposed amendments including the limit of local government tax levy\nAnd at present, the way Congress spends federal funds, it is going beyond the powers that the Constitution vested it.\nIn the article of Moore, he claimed that in the earlier days, the federal government only had limited funds and only a number of things to spend on.\nGeneral welfare has also made its appearance in parts of the constitution of United States such as in the description of the role of the congress on article 1 section 8 of the constitution. In as far as, it is an implied term; it is very notable how its\n1 Pages(250 words)Essay\nGOT A TRICKY QUESTION? RECEIVE AN ANSWER FROM STUDENTS LIKE YOU!\nSave Your Time for More Important Things\nLet us write or edit the essay on your topic\n\"Arizona Statehood and Constitution\"\nwith a personal 20% discount."}
{"content":"Everything we have and don’t have in life is a reflection of our choices. Everything we are, Everywhere we go…Things we do and people we attract and habits we repeat are CHOICES. They are a reflection of the choices we make. I’ve realized when things don’t go as smoothly as I’d like I can get down on myself, upset or nonchalantly say “yeah that’s life” but Life gives us back what we put in. I cannot play the blame game. Neither can you.\nSo it is my mission to give more than I take, to love more than hate, to learn more than teach, to practice what I preach and sew seeds that I want to reap by building good habits.\nTo listen more than I talk, to walk that walk and be about my business and my family’s business because I am my Sistars and brothas keeper.\nWe all have a role to play so what new habits will you be building?\nWhat old habits will we be destroying?\nWhat talents and skills will we be feeding?\nThat is the life we will be leading, once the work is done we can ease on down the yellow brick road!\nBut Will we do the work?\nI rarely use the word *hate*….\nUnless you hating\nBut as of late\nCall me a hater\nCause there’s a term that causes me frustration\nBeen hearing it used loosely in every situation\nSo can you help me understand\nWhat’s “under investigation”?\nWho investigates the individuals doing the investigating?\nCounter production if its internal station to station\nHow many guilty verdicts are the people still awaiting? Not even counting the low profile situations.\nNot even counting the Trayvons and Emmit Till.s\nI’m talking bout the ones getting gunned down eating a meal.\nI’m talking bout traffic stops getting murdered at the wheel\nI’m talking bout ya friend that was just walking down the hill\nI’m talking bout ya hands is up and gettin murked still\nSo I’m really starting to hate the term\nIt seems as if instead of *under\nThey getting *over on the nation\nIt’s a massive disrespect slap in the face to all creation\nBut when it come to throwing niggas in jail, over trivial details,\nseems as if they always come to quick deliberation\ngiving 20 year verdicts without any hesitation\nUnbothered by broken homes and broken hearts and ruined lives behind these bars from the time these “niggers” facing\nWhere the proof at? Little dibble dabbles on discoveries\nBut on a video red handed these devils reap the luxuries\nUnder the umbrella of protection\nWhat a disgusting reflection\nof history repeating itself\nGang members doing time for drug & murder crimes\nSo all badges & guns should be on the shelf\nHow does a criminal investigate oneself?\nHow many verdicts are the people still awaiting?\nHow many conclusions came through regarding them boys in blue that got they wrist slapped and on paid vacations?\nDistracted by entertainment and other non important situations\nHoping people forget by dragging it out and disrupting the demonstrations\nUsing militia force on people protesting for peace\nProtesting for justice\n2 things the law supposed to be\nBut unless I got it twisted look like opposition to me\nWho is really\nRed rum in these streets from city to city\nRed rum Red rum\nWe see who the killers are\nSticking out by they red thumbs\nBut I guess\nWe spose to believe and accept the okey doke\nLike we dumb son.\nY’all ” under investigation”\n“One thing about Storms….. they may wreak havoc…but they come & they go”\nMany of us are good with keeping up appearances. In a day and age of perfection, beauty, status, social media, advanced technology etc. The ability to fake the funk is easier than ever. Everything can be photo shopped, leased, nipped & tucked! Forget keeping up with the Jones’ everybody trying to keep up with the Kardashians! Ha! Aaahhh…. the Luxury life.. Those who have it flaunt it, those who don’t, want it. When are we going to get real? Really keep it 100. And respect when people do keep it 100. No matter what is going on in your life just know you’re not alone. It is OK to fall off your high horse sometimes…..just saddle back up! Its OK to be REAL and have flaws. Singers like Beyonce’ make songs about ” I woke up like this #flawless” is unrealistic. Yeah it sounds good but we all have flaws. Some of us just pay lots of money to correct the physical ones! But flaws are what makes each and every one of us unique. It saddens me when some people experience a life altering event and they get so down on themselves and depressed, some even committing suicide because life is not going in their favor at the moment. That saddens me and is unfortunate because life is like weather. You have good days….. The sun is shining, it’s feeling good and you’re doing great feeling wonderful and those days may last a while. But just like you have those good days here comes the rain, the storm clouds, snow, hail, tornados, floods & earthquakes and those days may last a little while. No one likes to be in the midst of the storm, it’s unpleasant but as long as you can endure it, it will pass! It’s always darkest before the dawn. But hang in there! This may be your coldest winter ever but stay hopeful and persevere because you will be ever grateful for your warmest summer ever!\nThere’s nothing wrong with expressing yourself and being real. We sometimes tend to share the great news with family, friends & social media and when things are sour we may keep a facade of being ok when in actuality we may be going through something. Not everything is for social media. Some things may need privacy or professional help, but just keep going! Do not give up! Storms don’t last forever."}
{"content":"In 2015 the Hawaiian Legislature set a collective for the (UH) University of Hawaii to be “net zero”, by 2035, which means that the amount of renewable energy created must equal the amount consumed.\nNow due to the effort, the University is inching closer and closer to this goal, which means that UH’s Maui College would become the first university to make this happen.\nAcross the United States, there is an increase in cities that have made the pledge towards 100% renewable energy. Hawaii is the only state to make this pledge by 2045 in a benchmark made three years ago. This decision made by the University is going to help the entire state as they move forward on this ambitious goal.\nJohnson Controls is partnering with UH, they are known for developing the systems and Pacific Current, which is a subsidiary of Hawaiian Electric Industries.\nFour other Oahu-based UH campuses have also promised to slash their carbon footprint with their own energy and infrastructure. The campuses have come up with a whole bunch of solution ideas that are set to become a reality; with a combination of solar shade canopies, distributed energy storage and energy efficiency measures.\nThe coalition of campuses Oahu that is committed to this mission include, Leeward Community College, Kapi’olani Community College, and Windward Community College, and with their combined efforts they will see a reduction of fossil fuel energy by 98 percent, 74 percent, 97 percent, and 70 percent respectively.\nThe Vice President for Community Colleges John Morton said, “We are proud to move the entire University of Hawaii System closer to its net-zero energy mandate, to celebrate UH Maui College’s achievement and to position the Oahu community college campuses within reach of 100 percent renewable energy generation.”\nThe University spokesman, Michael Unebasami has also promised a network of solar panels that will power the campus’ 78-acre grounds by the next year.\nAccording to Fast Company educational opportunities for UH’s students is also an appealing aspect of the Johnson Controls project to turn the entire school 100% energy free.\n“While the new energy efficiency measures and solar arrays will save the UH system around $78 million, that’s not what makes it unique: Johnson Controls and UH have also partnered on an educational program, featuring curriculum, an internship program, and workshops for faculty and students, that will roll out alongside the new energy systems.”\nThe University of Hawaii is the only public system of higher education in Hawaii, and it includes 10 campuses with dozens of educational, training, and research across the state. With over 49,000 students it looks like this might become a reality faster than we think.\nDo you think that more colleges should move to 100% renewable energy?"}
{"content":"This is the computing support site for the Computer Science Laboratory (CSLab) in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto. CSLab is the departmental computing facility that provides computing services and infrastructure for Computer Science research. For teaching, computing services for courses are provided by the Computer Science Teaching Laboratories.\nConnect to our Networks\nOne of the first priorities of a new member of our department is to obtain network connectivity. This can be done easily in two ways via either our 'Red' wired network (so named for the colour of the cables) or our wireless network. Before you begin, make sure you or someone helping you has obtained a CSLab Account. You will need this when you register your devices for our network services.\nMethod 1: If you have an available (i.e. unused) red cable at your location, plug it into your device. Try to open http://red-register.cs.toronto.edu (many websites will redirect you to this site in any event) after you plug it in, and you will be presented with the registration page.\nMethod 2: Connect your devices wirelessly. Go to Wireless and follow the instructions there, and you will be able to register your device.\nPlease refer to our Email page for more info regarding this.\nPoints of Contact (PoC)\nEach research group has a PoC, who serves as the primary computing support for the group. If the documentation on these pages is not sufficient to solve a particular problem, PoC can be contacted by email, phone or in person.\nBacking Up Data\nOnce you have configured your system to operate on the CSLab network, you should take advantage of the CSLab file servers to save your important data to your home directory. In fact, we urge you to do so in order to avoid data loss. Not only do we backup up our file servers daily, we back them up to media that are securely stored in a different building. This means that if we are contacted in a timely manner, we will often be able to restore lost data for you. Please refer to the page on Self Administered Machines for details."}
{"content":"Construction on the Olympic Aquatics Center for the upcoming 2020 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, has hit a snag following the recent reveal of falsified earthquake safety data by Tokyo-based firm KYB.\nEarlier this month, SwimSwam reported that the Japanese hydraulics company KYB had manipulated earthquake safety data for nearly 100 buildings throughout Japan, including some venues for the 2020 Summer Games. Now it has been confirmed that the Olympic Aquatics Center, where swimming, diving, and artistic (synchronized) swimming will take place during the 2020 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, is one of the buildings affected by the false data.\nThe Olympic Aquatics Center, which houses 32 hydraulic oil dampeners, will have to replace all 32 dampeners if it is confirmed safety data for the Aquatics Center was also falsified. The Japan News reports that a Tokyo government official said of the delays: “With the tight construction schedule, it’s a totally unexpected situation for us,” the official said. “We must immediately take measures to deal with the problem.”\nFurthermore, the official is quoted to have said of firm KYB: “Even if the maker responsible for the data falsification told us [the dampers] are safe, we can’t trust them,” a senior metropolitan government official said. “We cannot waste even a single day.”\nIf Tokyo 2020 must replace all 32 dampeners, the process could further postpone the already behind-schedule Olympic Aquatics Center, which hit its first delay when it was determined that the topsoil on which the facility was being constructed was contaminated. Now, according to The Japan News, the Olympic Aquatics Center is on schedule to be the last venue completed before the Games open in July of 2020.\nFurther construction delays–though unrelated to the KYB scandal–include the Ariake Tennis Park, which is now stalled due to the “collapse of a contractor” in charge of renovating the facility, which will host both tennis and wheelchair tennis in 2020. M-Tec Co., the Japan-based company that undertook the $14.3 million project, recently filed for bankruptcy, seeking protection from its creditors with the Tokyo District Court, pursuant to Japan’s Civil Rehabilitation Law.\nAn official from the Japanese Tennis Affiliation said that should tennis and wheelchair tennis be affected by a delay in the construction process, the issue would become and “international problem.” While the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has plans to begin searching for a new contractor to complete the renovations, new work cannot begin and construction materials currently on-site cannot be moved due to an asset protection order handed down by the Tokyo District Court, which bans the removal of construction-related materials from the site."}
{"content":"1Kings Chapter 22 (Bible Marathon Day 156)\nAhab’s Defeat by Aram.*\nThree years passed without war between Aram and Israel.\nIn the third year, however, King Jehoshaphat of Judah came down to the king of Israel.\nThe king of Israel said to his servants, “Do you not know that Ramoth-gilead is ours and we are doing nothing to take it from the king of Aram?”\nHe asked Jehoshaphat, “Will you come with me to fight against Ramoth-gilead?” Jehoshaphat answered the king of Israel, “You and I are as one, and your people and my people, your horses and my horses as well.”\nJehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, “Seek the word of the LORD at once.”\nThe king of Israel assembled the prophets, about four hundred of them, and asked, “Shall I go to fight against Ramoth-gilead or shall I refrain?” They said, “Attack. The Lord will give it into the power of the king.”*\nBut Jehoshaphat said, “Is there no other prophet of the LORD here we might consult?”\nThe king of Israel answered, “There is one other man through whom we might consult the LORD; but I hate him because he prophesies not good but evil about me. He is Micaiah, son of Imlah.” Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say that.”\nSo the king of Israel called an official and said to him, “Get Micaiah, son of Imlah, at once.”\nThe king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, were seated, each on his throne, clothed in their robes of state in the square at the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying before them.\na Zedekiah, son of Chenaanah, made himself two horns of iron* and said, “The LORD says, With these you shall gore Aram until you have destroyed them.”\nThe other prophets prophesied in a similar vein, saying: “Attack Ramoth-gilead and conquer! The LORD will give it into the power of the king.”\nMeanwhile, the messenger who had gone to call Micaiah said to him, “Look now, the prophets are unanimously predicting good for the king. Let your word be the same as any of theirs; speak a good word.”\nMicaiah said, “As the LORD lives, I shall speak whatever the LORD tells me.”\nWhen he came to the king, the king said to him, “Micaiah, shall we go to fight at Ramoth-gilead, or shall we refrain?” He said, “Attack and conquer! The LORD will give it into the power of the king.”\nBut the king answered him, “How many times must I adjure you to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?”\n* So Micaiah said:\n“I see all Israel\nscattered on the mountains,\nlike sheep without a shepherd,\nAnd the LORD saying,\nThese have no master!\nLet each of them go back home in peace.”\nThe king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you, he does not prophesy good about me, but only evil?”\n* Micaiah continued: “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD seated on his throne, with the whole host of heaven standing to his right and to his left.\nThe LORD asked: Who will deceive Ahab, so that he will go up and fall on Ramoth-gilead?* And one said this, another that,\nuntil this spirit came forth and stood before the LORD, saying, ‘I will deceive him.’ The LORD asked: How?\nHe answered, ‘I will go forth and become a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.’ The LORD replied: You shall succeed in deceiving him. Go forth and do this.\nSo now, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours; the LORD himself has decreed evil against you.”\nThereupon Zedekiah, son of Chenaanah, came up and struck Micaiah on the cheek, saying, “Has the spirit of the LORD, then, left me to speak with you?”\nMicaiah said, “You shall find out on the day you go into an inner room to hide.”\nThe king of Israel then said, “Seize Micaiah and take him back to Amon, prefect of the city, and to Joash, the king’s son,\nand say, ‘This is the king’s order: Put this man in prison and feed him scanty rations of bread and water until I come back in safety.’”\nb But Micaiah said, “If you return in safety, the LORD has not spoken through me.” (He also said, “Hear, O peoples, all of you.”)*\nAhab at Ramoth-gilead.\nThe king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, went up to Ramoth-gilead,\nand the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will disguise myself and go into battle, but you put on your own robes.” So the king of Israel disguised himself and entered the battle.\nIn the meantime the king of Aram had given his thirty-two chariot commanders the order, “Do not fight with anyone, great or small, except the king of Israel alone.”\nWhen the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they cried out, “There is the king of Israel!” and wheeled to fight him. But Jehoshaphat cried out,\nand the chariot commanders, seeing that he was not the king of Israel, turned away from him.\nBut someone drew his bow at random, and hit the king of Israel between the joints of his breastplate. He ordered his charioteer, “Rein about and take me out of the ranks, for I am wounded.”\nc The battle grew fierce during the day, and the king, who was propped up in his chariot facing the Arameans, died in the evening. The blood from his wound flowed to the bottom of the chariot.\nAt sunset a cry went through the army, “Every man to his city, every man to his land!”\nAnd so the king died, and came back to Samaria, and they buried him there.\nd When they washed out the chariot at the pool of Samaria, the dogs licked up his blood and prostitutes bathed there, as the LORD had prophesied.\nThe rest of the acts of Ahab, with all that he did, including the ivory house he built and all the cities he built, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.\nAhab rested with his ancestors, and his son Ahaziah succeeded him as king.\nReign of Jehoshaphat.\nJehoshaphat, son of Asa, became king of Judah in the fourth year of Ahab, king of Israel.\nJehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Azubah, daughter of Shilhi.\nHe walked in the way of Asa his father unceasingly, doing what was right in the LORD’s sight.\nNevertheless, the high places did not disappear, and the people still sacrificed on the high places and burned incense there.\nJehoshaphat also made peace with the king of Israel.\nThe rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, with his valor, what he did and how he fought, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.\nHe removed from the land the rest of the pagan priests who had remained in the reign of Asa his father.\nThere was no king in Edom, but an appointed regent.\nJehoshaphat made Tarshish ships to go to Ophir for gold; but in fact the ships did not go, because they were wrecked at Ezion-geber.\nThat was the time when Ahaziah, son of Ahab, had said to Jehoshaphat, “Let my servants accompany your servants in the ships.” But Jehoshaphat would not agree.\nJehoshaphat rested with his ancestors; he was buried with his ancestors in the City of David his father, and his son Jehoram succeeded him as king.\nReign of Ahaziah.*\nAhaziah, son of Ahab, became king over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year* of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah; he reigned two years over Israel.\nHe did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, walking in the way of his father, his mother, and Jeroboam, son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin.\nHe served Baal and worshiped him, thus provoking the LORD, the God of Israel, just as his father had done.\n* [22:1–40] This chapter presents a contrasting parallel to chap. 20, where Ahab enjoyed victories over Aram’s aggression. Here Ahab is the aggressor, but falls in battle against Aram. Like the preceding chapters, it contains a story of Ahab plus an episode of prophetic condemnation. The story ends with the formulaic conclusion to Ahab’s reign (vv. 39–40). Chronicles has a parallel version of this account in 2 Chr 18:1–34. After the story of Ahab’s death come accounts of the reign of Jehoshaphat (paralleled in 2 Chr 20:31–37) and of the beginning of the reign of Ahaziah.\n* [22:6] Though Ahab is clearly intended to understand the oracle as prophesying his success, the prophets’ words are ambiguous. “The lord” (not “the LORD,” i.e., the proper name of Israel’s God) who will give victory is unidentified, as is the king to whom it will be given.\n* [22:11] The “two” horns probably symbolize the coalition of two kings, Ahab and Jehoshaphat.\n* [22:17] Micaiah’s oracle uses the common ancient metaphor of “shepherd” for the king. It means that the Israelite forces will be left leaderless because the king (or perhaps both kings: the word “master” could be singular or plural in Hebrew) will die in battle.\n* [22:19–23] Since Ahab’s intention to attack Ramoth-gilead is unshaken, Micaiah reveals God’s plan to trick Ahab to his death, and thus virtually dares Ahab to walk into the trap with his eyes open. The work of the “lying spirit” explains the ambiguities of the prophets’ original oracle in v. 6. Prophets “stand in the council of the Lord” and are privy to its deliberations; cf. Jer 23:22.\n* [22:20] Fall on Ramoth-gilead: lit., “heights of Gilead”; even the Lord’s words are double-meaning. God wants Ahab to “fall on” (that is, attack) Ramoth-gilead so that he will “fall on” (that is, die on) Ramoth-gilead.\n* [22:28] The last words of the verse are a scribal gloss attributing to Micaiah, son of Imlah, the opening words of the book of a different Micaiah (Micah), the prophet of Moresheth, the sixth of the twelve minor prophets of the Old Testament canon.\n* [22:52–54] The account of Ahaziah’s reign continues in 2 Kings.\n* [22:52] Seventeenth year: so the present Hebrew text. This is consistent with the figures in 2 Kgs 3:1, but together those figures conflict with information in 1 Kgs 22:42 and 2 Kgs 1:17. The problem of the chronology of the kings of Israel and Judah has never been convincingly resolved; it is complicated by the fact that the ancient Greek translation sometimes has different lengths of reign and different accession dates. See further note on 2 Kgs 3:1.\na. [22:11] Dt 33:17.\nb. [22:28] Mi 1:2.\nc. [22:35] 1 Kgs 20:42.\nd. [22:38] 1 Kgs 21:19."}
{"content":"Mandala Geometric Design – Another very common yet very beautiful and symbolic design that you can take into account is the Mandala geometric design. For you to know, Mandala has an extremely significant role in the religion known as Hinduism. This is a sacred symbol of the said religion. This is the main reason why a lot of people who follow the religion of Hinduism are engraving this tattoo on their own body. But today, this design is not only very important to the Hindus, but also to some other people who love to have this art.\n“About 10 years ago I put a tattoo on my lower back (also known as a tramp stamp) and I have regretted it almost every day since (the only days I didn’t regret it were when I forgot it was there). Each year as bikini season rolls around I dread the thought of people seeing it. Anyway, I did consults at a few other laser tattoo removal places and this is the place to go! Great staff and prices and it is honestly so easy. I was worried about doing this for years, but the procedure is no big deal. Just a minute of little flicks on the skin and you’re done, way better than the agony of getting my tattoo in the first place.”\nGeometric shapes and the negative space that forms between them are essentially the visual building blocks of our world. So, it's no surprise that so many people have chosen to impart upon themselves the elegance of those building blocks in the form of elaborate geometric tattoos. Just pause for a moment, and look at the world around you. Everything you see can be broken down into geometric form — from pillows to flora and fauna, all aspects of life can be simplified into graceful or chaotic spatial design. (And yes, pillows are an essential aspect of life, don't kid yourself.)\nIf you're considering a geometric tattoo with your sweetie, you may want to extrapolate the concept behind this gorgeous piece. The tattoos are tied together by the unifying shapes of the honeycomb (but could be any environmental aspect), and pay homage to the symbiotic relationship of the bee and the flower. Clearly, this tattoo is symbolic on a couple of levels, which is part of what makes it so delightful.\nA poll conducted in January 2012 by Harris Interactive reported that 1 in 7 (14%) of the 21% of American adults who have a tattoo regret getting one. The poll didn't report the reasons for these regrets, but a poll that was done 4 years prior reported that the most common reasons were \"too young when I got the tattoo\" (20%), \"it's permanent\" and \"I'm marked for life\" (19%), and \"I just don't like it\" (18%). An earlier poll showed that 19% of Britons with tattoos suffered regret, as did 11% of Italians with tattoos.\nQ-switched Alexandrite: 755 nm. The weakest of all the q-switched devices and somewhat similar to the Ruby laser in that the Alexandrite creates a red light which is highly absorbed by green and dark tattoo pigments. However, the alexandrite laser color is slightly less absorbed by melanin, so this laser has a slightly lower incidence of unwanted pigmentary changes than a ruby laser. This laser works well on green tattoos but because of its weaker peak power it works only moderately well on black and blue ink. It does not work at all (or very minimally) on red, orange, yellow, brown, etc. This laser wavelength is also available in a picosecond speed with anecdotal claims that it removes ink faster.\nNEW! We know that the cost of removing a tattoo can often be the reason that a patient waits to make this life-changing decision. We are pleased to announce that we have new financing options for cosmetic surgery, skin care and also tattoo removal – offering high approval rates, low monthly payments and convenient terms. Contact us to learn more about financing plans to make cosmetic surgery more affordable.\nGeometric tattoos come in many color palettes and designs. This can go from the completely abstract, to a different kind of interpretation of a famous image. These images are frequently used as a type of entertainment, a point of reference for an artwork, or even an inspiration for something. No matter what kind of intentions a person has with geometric tattoos, all of them will surely look great in the end.\nTattoos are meant to be permanent. Artists create tattoos by using an electrically powered machine that moves a needle up and down to inject ink into the skin, penetrating the epidermis, or outer layer, and depositing a drop of ink into the dermis, the second layer of skin. The cells of the dermis are more stable compared with those of the epidermis, so the ink will mostly stay in place for a person’s lifetime.\nRegardless, how you try to crack the code, one thing is true: Scared geometry can be found in the molecules of our own DNA. Perhaps that is why we are so fascinated by these timeless geometric codes. What stories do they hold assuming we can unlock them? For now, all we can do is contemplate and gaze deep into the lines of the universe with wonder.\nThe gold standard of tattoo removal treatment modality is considered to be laser tattoo removal using multiple separate Q-switched lasers (depending om the specific wavelengths needed for the dyes involved) over a number of repeat visits. There are several types of Q-switched lasers, and each is effective at removing a different range of the color spectrum. Lasers developed during or after 2006 provide multiple wavelengths and can successfully treat a much broader range of tattoo pigments than previous individual Q-switched lasers. Unfortunately the dye systems used to change the wavelength result in significant power reduction such that the use of multiple separate specific wavelength lasers remains the gold standard.\nMany people start their tattoo sleeves without intent and that's just fine. If you take the organic approach and let one small tattoo turn into another and somehow tie it all together with a background of some sort later, you'll likely have an armful of meaningful body art. Others go full on with a sleeve from the get-go and that works too. Of course, with this approach, you'll be investing a larger sum of money upfront, and you'll need to dedicate the time in the chair to complete the work. Most likely you'll be going back to the same artist which means their schedule will need to be considered as well. If you have the time and the money to complete the job, get it done. Otherwise start a slower and more balanced approach. Never compromise quality for quantity.\nSurveys of tattoo removal patients were done in 1996 and 2006 and provided more insight. Of those polled, the patients who regretted their tattoos typically obtained their tattoos in their late teens or early twenties, and were evenly distributed by gender. Among those seeking removals, more than half reported that they \"suffered embarrassment\". A new job, problems with clothes, and a significant life event were also commonly cited as motivations. Tattoos that were once a symbol of inclusion in a group, such as a gang, can make it difficult to become employed. Tattoos that indicate a significant relationship such as a spouse, girlfriend or boyfriend, can become problematic if the relationship ends. Angelina Jolie, Eva Longoria, Marc Anthony and Denise Richards are some of the celebrities that have had this kind of tattoo removed.\nEraser Clinic uses hands-down the best tattoo removal lasers that money can buy in 2018. We are the only provider in Dallas that has invested in this incredibly effective tattoo removal technology. Many other providers are still using the “latest lasers” from several years ago. And laser tattoo removal is the only treatment that we perform here. At Eraser Clinic Laser Tattoo Removal in Dallas, we do not offer laser hair removal, vein reduction, photo facials, filler injections, or countless other aesthetic procedures. In other words, we are the laser tattoo removal experts!\nOuch, what an adorable piece of artwork. Getting your arm tattooed in all one colour like that can be pretty painful. The needle penetrates pretty deep to keep the colour the same and it takes a while in the chair. This dramatic look is intense and a bit frightening. Would you choose all one colour like this? We do like how he shakes it up a bit with the geometric-like imagery.\n“As a lady who made a few less-than-intelligent tattoo decisions in my youth, I’ve tried several tattoo removal companies over the last few years. After having 15 sessions (yes, 15 sessions) at 2 other reputable places, I finally found Eraser Clinic. From the time I walked in until the time I left, my entire experience was excellent. Firstly, the staff are awesome, they even had me laughing at some points. Secondly, they have this device that blows freezing air onto your skin while performing the removal. If it sounds like this wouldn’t do much for pain-alleviation, you’re very much mistaken. It takes a massive amount of the pain away. Thirdly, results. After two sessions here my tattoo is barely visible at all. This place is incredible all round and I would recommend them to anyone looking for laser tattoo removal.”\nThe basic meaning of serendipity is good luck that you were not looking for. This is often found in the form of a love of your life that you were not necessarily looking for. We really love the font on this one which looks like it was custom made by the tattooist. There are tattooists that specialise in script and it’s always a great idea to see their work before you begin."}
{"content":"Here are the Best TV Series about Hacking and Technology for those who love to enjoy hacking.\nIf you are a technology freak, enthusiast or a hacker yourself then some TV series might just prove to be a teaser or inspiration for you. Hacking is an entire genre of movies and TV series based on mind boggling stories of real life hackers and those geniuses sitting infront of the computer screens.\nIn this article, I have tried to compile the Best TV Series about Hacking and Technology that is a must watch for fans of this genre. Where previously war and action/adventure was a favorite genre, the one gaining all the spotlight now is hacking and technology. There are so many brilliant shows produced under this category and some are surprisingly quite accurate as well.\nBest TV Series about Hacking and Technology\nMr. Robot portrays a war against the evil corporations where a group of hackers joins hands to penetrate high-end security. The TV Series is inspired by Elliot who was a security professional but a hacker at night.\nThe IT Crowd:\nSecond in the list is the IT crowd from back in 2006-13. The Tv series belongs to the genre of comedy and showcases a witty sense of humor around the two main characters of the TV series who are IT nerds.\nEver wondered what goes inside the Silicon Valley? This entertaining Tv series will tell you the intensity of competition between the techies inside the Silicon Valley and how the underdogs excel in what they do and leave the qualified far behind.\nPerson Of Interest:\nAnother must watch TV series is Person of Interest and you might have heard the name before. The TV series is about how an intelligent programmer builds artificial intelligence and is used to fight against the criminals.\nThe story brings a lot of suspense and drama as a billionaire goes missing and comes back completely changed into a new person.\nThis TV series portrays the life of Walter O’Brien, who is a computer expert. The story revolves around different situations and scenarios where he uses technology to save lives, stop crimes and maintain peace.\nThis TV series throws light on a different perspective of the hacking world where a hacker manages to download the government secrets into his brain and in return, his life gets under threat.\nThese were the best TV Series about Hacking and Technology which show many sides of the complex and brilliant hacking world."}
{"content":"What is the Best telescope for beginners? Buying telescope is easy, but buying the right kind of telescope, which gives you most value, and best views of universe, isn’t always easy. Especially as there are so many telescopes for amateur astronomers on market.\nAspiring astronomers ask always which telescope they should buy, or if they already bought it, they ask if they bought the good one. To answer for the first question, we decided to write this Best Telescope for Beginners Buyers Guide. It should help you to choose the right one from the very beginning and it should help you to avoid wasting your hard earned money. You should read this guide even if you are buying telescope for gift. Sure, you wish to get the best value for money in all cases.\nThings that matter when choosing telescope\nImportant things to consider when buying telescope are for example aperture size, quality of optical components and tripod stability. Of course you should also pay attention to the price versus your goals, i.e. if telescope could meet your requirements.\nViewing magnification is not so important\nViewing magnification telescope offers is not so important. In fact cheap models are usually sold using viewer magnification power as a main selling point, do not go on that trap. If it offers up to 100x magnification, but lenses and mirrors etc. optical components are poor quality or aperture is small, you will see just awfully blurry views with high viewing magnification.\nAperture i.e. diameter of mirror is important\nAperture, size and quality of the main mirror is extremely important thing, as well as quality of other optical components used. Also, stability is important, especially mount. Unfortunately many manufacturers try cut costs packing poor quality tripods with their otherwise ok scopes, that combination results again to blurry and shaking views. Furthermore weak tripod makes it quite impossible to get nice photos through telescope.\nAperture, i.e. diameter of a telescope determines how much light the telescope can collect. More light means more crisp and detailed views. Bigger aperture means also that telescope can show more deep space objects, it can see more far away than smaller diameter equipment. Bigger aperture makes it possible to use also higher viewing magnification, giving you really amazing detailed views of object far far away in the galaxy. Every increase in aperture, no matter how small, will have an exponential effect on performance. Downside is that bigger diameter of course makes equipment harder to carry, and that is why many amateur astronomers have their main telescope with big enough aperture size and furthermore they have astronomy binoculars for traveling.\n- 60-80mm (2 – 3 inches) aperture telescopes are able to provide fine views of neraby objects such as moon and bright planets such as Jupiter and Saturn. You can view also easily a few of the brighter cloudy nebulas and star clusters.\n- 90-130mm (3.5-5 inches) aperture telescopes will provide much more detailed and clearer views of the same objects plus also allow viewing of more dim objects including more faint nebulas and star clusters in deep space.\n- 150mm (6 inches) and above aperture telescopes will provide extremely bright and detailed views of solar system objects such as planets. Furthermore these bigger size amateur telescopes, provide also nice views of most deep space objects such as sparkling star clusters and distant galaxies.\nSize and portability\nYou should also pay some attention to size and portability, Some amateur astronomers like to take their telescope with them while traveling, or go from city area to better stargazing places. In such case, it is important to have equipment that you can actually take easily with you. Unfortunately this leaves telescopes with bigger diameter out of question. There is an old saying in amateur astronomy “the best telescope is one that is used often.” We agree 100%, but however, only partially. You should not compromise too much aperture size. Our advice is to buy the main telescope with big enough diameter. That is the telescope you do not carry with you. in addition you should get astronomy binoculars for traveling purpose. that’s quite perfect compromise.\nType of telescopes\nThere are three kinds of telescopes available for amateurs. Those are Maksutov-Cassegrain, Reflector, and Refractor type of telescopes. Generally speaking, it does not matter which one you choose. Those refers to the design of how specific telescope technically works. They are are able to deliver amazing views of universe at amateur astronomy level. However, it is good to know what those actually means, and furthermore there are some important differences between different types of telescopes.\nRefractor telescopes are the oldest classical design type, which uses lenses to collect and bend, or refract, light into a cone shape that is focused in an eyepiece. Refractor telescopes could also be used for terrestrial, nature observing. There are many accessories for day time use of refractors.\nOptic components such as lenses are fixed, and can not be misaligned easily. That makes refractor type of telescope good choice also for traveling use. Furthermore refractors needs little or no maintenance at all and they are extremely easy to use, making them perfect for beginners.\nBelow are a few popular refractor telescopes suitable for beginner astronomers.\nReflector telescopes are more complex than refractor types what it comes to design. They reflect light to a focus point by using mirror optics. Large dish-shaped parabolic primary mirror collects light and reflects if to a smaller secondary mirror, which guides the light to an eyepiece. Because of this design, they offers the most value for money as performance is usually greatly better compared to others.\nBecause reflector telescope design is more complex, they can be more easily get damaged or misaligned during transport. Reflectors need also maintenance, manual re-alignment, or collimation might be needed. But that is not so complex task at all, and you can easily to it by yourself after a little practice.\nReflector telescopes comes usually either tripod mounted or base-mounted. Later are known as Dobsonian”telescopes. That’s because of astronomer John Dobson introduced the base-mounted telescope in 1978.\nBelow are the most popular reflector telescopes suitable also for beginners.\nCassegrain telescopes are a quite new design which combines elements from refractor and reflector telescopes. Cassegrain design bends and reflects light, giving long focal lenght in a compact size. There are numerous variations of Cassegrain telescopes available including Maksutov-Cassegrain, which includes elements of both Cassegrain and Maksutov designs. It offers excellent higher magnification of relatively cose objects such as moon and planets. Therefore it is the best choice if you are mostly interesting in observing narrow-field objects.\nYou can find some Maksutov-Cassegrain telescopes we feel are worth considering for beginners listed below the next computerized telescope introduction.\nComputerized “GoTo” telescopes for beginners\nWhat it computerized telescope? That’s general term, which refers usually to some kind of automatic or computer aided tracking or targeting etc. It could be extremely useful especially when observing far far away objects in the deep space. Why? Because those objects are not visible without telescope, so if you wish to get a view, you need to know exactly where to point your telescope! And that is where computerized telescopes are good. You need just enter the target, and computer will show you where to turn the scope, or some motorized models could even automatically move the tube exactly to the right direction. That is extremely helpful for beginners, as you might not yet know how to read star charts etc. things. Of course these are nice features also for intermediate and advanced astronomers alike.\nTelescopeStargazer.com’s advice is that you should consider computerized models, they could really lower learning curve, and give a smooth start. Of course these features costs, but not so much extra as you might think. Below are two excellent computerized telescopes, that are well suitable for beginners, and prices are very reasonable.\nAstronomy binoculars for beginners\nThere are available several binoculars engineered especially for amateur astronomers. Compared to telescopes astronomy binoculars are easy to carry and lightweight. Furthermore high quality binoculars such as Celestron SkyMaster 15×70 deliver much better views than cheap telescopes.\nBinoculars are actually quite good idea for the first stargazing equipment. If you buy high quality product, it will serve you well also when you have bought telescope. As mentioned, the most telescopes are not intended to be carried while traveling. In such situation astronomy binoculars are an excellent option. You can take them easily with you where ever you are going. Actually most telescope owners own also a pair of binoculars just for traveling purposes.\nBelow are the two most popular models used by amateur astronomers around the world. You can find links to our reviews, and as you see, prices are quite reasonable.\nHigh end amateur telescopes\nThere are also high end telescopes available for serious amateur astronomers. These offer better optics and various other benefits compared to less expensive models. Views of the universe these high end telescopes give, are really amazing. If you are really serious about astronomy, and ready to invest in your equipment, below are two of TelescopeStargazer.com’s favorite models from Celestron.\nFind out if you can attach DSLR easily\nAstrophotography is very rewarding hobby, and it allows you to share amazing views with others. So, taking photos or videos of planets and other objects is something what you might want to do in addition to stargazing! However, when buying the first telescope, most of us do not think such things. Anyway, you should find out, how easily you could attach DSLR camera on telescope. Generally, it should be possible with almost all telescopes, but it does not cost anything just to be sure. Usually camera is attached using adapter ring or kit, which could include essential parts almost for all kind of telescope / camera combinations. You can buy adapter ring later, when you are ready to start astrophotography.\nInvest in high quality amateur telescope\nIt is the best advice we can give: invest in quality. This does not mean that you need to spend hundreds and hundreds or even thousands, but do not buy the cheapest telescope available. It could be worse than not having telescope at all. There are numerous people who have lost their interest in this wonderful hobby, because they have bought poor quality equipment, and got very limited & poor quality views of planets and other objects in the space.\nIt is good idea to put some extra money on quality right on the beginning. If you are serious about your hobby, and wish to enjoy amazing views of deep space or nearer objects such as moon, you really should invest in quality. Read our reviews, and choose safely any of reviewed telescopes, they are all fine for beginners, and most models perform well also at more advanced astronomy.\nHopefully this amateur telescope buying guide was helpful. If you have any questions about buying your first telescope, please don’t hesitate to send us a message!"}
{"content":"Here in Aspen, we have taxpayer-subsidized housing for people making as much as $189,000 a year. The subsidy is 60 percent to 90 percent and sometimes more.\nTo disguise this welfare for the middle to upper class, they euphemistically call it “affordable housing.” I call it freebie housing.\nIn my neighborhood, there are four units of freebie housing close to the ski slope. Based on nearby comparable places, those units are worth over $3 million each. According to the housing records, the residents got them for less than $300,000.\nAspen’s freebie housing is similarly subsidized with respect to property taxes. Because they are artificially valued at a fraction of their true value, they bear only a fractional portion of the property tax.\nThe way residents get their freebie housing is by winning a lottery. Insiders are very lucky in this lottery. A few years ago, four of the five city council members were getting freebie housing, including the mayor. They never recused themselves from votes on the subject.\nMany of the editors, writers and columnists for the local media also are in. Continue reading\nAs a fan, I’ll mourn the demise of football. What happens at football games during the national anthem is bad, and I’ll get to it in a moment. But what may end the game is what happens after the anthem.\nPost-mortem dissections of the brains of 112 former NFL players recently revealed chronic traumatic encephalopathy (or CTE) in 111 of them. The study was published last summer in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association and summarized by the New York Times.\nThe Times reports that the symptoms of CTE include “memory loss, confusion, depression and dementia. The problems can arise years after the blows have stopped.”\nFootball players sustain CTE through frequent impacts to their heads. Their helmeted heads routinely collide violently with other helmets, shoulder pads and the ground. Even with a helmet, the impact is equivalent to driving a car into a brick wall at 30 miles per hour.\nYou may respond that playing football is voluntary. You may say that if people want to risk their brains and bodies to be rich and idolized, that’s their right.\nI disagree. Continue reading\nHere in Gucci Gulch, the enviros once tried to outlaw fur coats. And the lefty mayor once decried rooftop hot tubs atop private $20 million penthouses that are not even visible from the street on the grounds that they’re “excessive.” The hot tubs, that is.\nBut nothing is too excessive if the bill is paid by taxpayers. Here’s the story.\nLocal government bureaucrats with too much time on their hands and taxpayer money in their pockets want to use some of both to build an elevated sidewalk. It would be cantilevered over an embankment alongside Castle Creek Road, which threads through a beautiful canyon that has the misfortune of being within the jurisdictional kingdom of these rich and idle bureaucrats.\nThe sidewalk would run about a half mile and cost about $6 million.\nLet’s do some math on this $6 million sidewalk. Continue reading"}
{"content":"I love these comparison pictures! This one is so interesting to me because Billy looks so much leggier in the three year old picture. Which of course he is, since he has grown a few inches from two to three years old. Inches taller and inches wider as he continues to mature and get thicker and thicker through the chest and shoulders. AND he as lost his baby belly. Finally!\nIn the two year old picture the saddle has several shims under the front of the saddle and the middle as well. The saddle is actually sitting just perfect on his back in the three year old picture without shims. It’s amazing how a little growth spurt, causing his front end to catch up with his hind end can change how the saddle sits.\nThis growing- front then back then front then back- is totally normal for horses. Billy’s growth hasn’t been as extreme as I’ve seen some horses exhibit, but obviously if one had started riding him hard as a two year old his body was not yet ready for that. It could have caused him stress on those legs, tends, shoulders and back. Causing undue stress in those areas could have caused him to have a hard time carrying himself correctly which would have caused his posture to deteriorate, no matter how well the saddle fit. When a horse learns to carry himself incorrectly it is very difficult to teach them to carry themselves correctly. Incorrect posture is the cause of many many behavior problems in horses, because when a horse is carrying itself incorrectly this causes pain in different areas of the horse’s body as it carries the human.\nIt’s amazing to me how many behavior problems could be alleviated if the human would just give the horse time to mature."}
{"content":"Your child’s first smart phone… a time of excitement for your child. A time of relief… and anxiety… for you.\nSmart phones can open a whole new world to your child – a world filled with friends, games and fun. However, there are also very real dangers that can present themselves in that world, too.\nFar too many parents purchase smart phones, hand them over to their children and allow them to go on their merry way. But that’s exactly the wrong thing to do!\nWould you hand your car keys to your child and say, “Go ahead! Drive across the country… just check in with me now and again so I know you’re okay”? Of course, you wouldn’t do that! You would have NO idea where your child is or with whom your child may be connecting.\nThis same concept holds true with smart phones or other access to the internet. Not prepping your child to know how to safely use this new device is truly like handing him/her the keys to your car without any driver’s education or training.\nIt’s essential to prepare kids to use digital devices in a safe way. So how can you do that? Well, here are 7 simple steps to help get you started.\n1. Work with your smart phone carrier to secure parental controls on your child’s account. Check with your carrier about parental controls they offer (beyond those you can set-up on the phone). Depending on the carrier, you may be able to purchase, for a small monthly fee, features like call blocking, usage restrictions based on time of day, data and text limits that you set, and even designate trusted/safe numbers. There are additional parental controls you can physically set-up on your child’s phone. Learn how to set-up the parental controls on your child’s iPhone or Android… and know that, at some point, those manual controls could be removed by your child (or his/her friends), so refer to #4 below to be sure those controls remain in-tact.\n2. Establish boundaries of use. In addition to the parental controls you impose, it’s important to outline your expectations for your child’s usage of this new phone. By allowing your child use of a smart phone, you are instilling a level of trust with your child that s/he will be responsible when using this device… but your child needs to understand what “responsible” means when it comes to using this cool new gadget. So, set expectations, such as:\n- The times of day your child is allowed to use his/her smart phone. (For example: no earlier than 7:00 am and no later than 9:00 pm.)\n- Limitations for using the phone. (For example, do not use the phone during class, at the dinner table, when guests are over, when crossing the street, etc.)\n- Any friend request by someone you don’t know (that isn’t a known friend of your child’s) needs to be approved by you. Sexual predators often portray themselves as other children, lying about their ages, gender, names and background. Help your child be smart about accepting new friend requests. Netsmartz, an initiative by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, offers terrific videos kids should watch to better understand online threats and heighten their awareness about the need to be safe online."}
{"content":"The final novel in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy is on the book shelf this week, and I was curious to know if it would have the same effect on me as it did when I first read it eighteen years ago.\nI remembered nothing of the final half of the book after a heartbreaking incident occurred. It’s as if I blocked it. I remember crying a lot. I made it through a little easier this time, but it was not without a number of tears being shed.\nThe story is epic in size spanning worlds as our young heroes, Lyra and Will find themselves drawn to their destinies, as Lyra’s father Lord Asriel begins his war against the Authority, planning to tear down the Kingdom of Heaven, and make all worlds the Republic of Heaven.\nLyra’s mother, Mrs. Coulter comes into play, and we also revisit a number of characters we’ve grown to know and love over the trilogy.\nThere are overtones of Milton’s Paradise Lost running throughout the trilogy, as religion, science, innocence, ignorance and wisdom are themes all explored.\nOur young heroes travel through countless worlds, and the book takes on a mythic quality as angels, daemons, harpies, ghosts, talking bears, and beautiful beings are encountered. There is the exploration and discovery of love and wisdom, the restraining influences of churches and religion, and the oneness of the universe.\nIt’s a beautifully written story, one that wrapped me up in it so much that I forgot the world around me, losing myself in the words, the characters and the moments. There is a lot of depth and layers to the story, and on the surface it works as this wonderful epic tale of youth, discovery, love and adventure.\nWe see how religions sprang up from the Authority, and its true nature, as well as the beauty of life around us. It speaks to how the moments we have are the important ones. That perhaps we shouldn’t be concerned with the promise of a kingdom to come, one that can only be reached by following the rules of those in power, but should be more dedicated to the heaven around us every day.\nThe arc for Lyra and Will is so well written, and the resolution of the tale ties up all the loose ends, and while it caused no small amount of tears, it ends with hope and love, and the knowledge that we as a species can be more. We are more, if only we would see it.\nThere are obvious overtones and references to Christian mythology and while some may take offence to them, I think they are all handled well, and respectfully, while urging the reader to see things in a different way.\nA beautiful conclusion to a fantastic trilogy."}
{"content":"Illustration by Federico Manasse\nPresident, manager, local organising committee chairman, captain, ambassador; when it comes to summing up Franz Beckenbauer’s career, it might be easier to list what he hasn’t done. His influence on and off the pitch spread far beyond his own country, and while he has been involved in his fair share of controversy, his status as a leading figure in the history of the game can never be disputed.\nAlthough there were late periods with the New York Cosmos and Hamburg at the back end of his playing career, his connection to Bayern Munich is by far the strongest and deepest – but it could so easily have been very different. His club as a boy was cross town rivals 1860 Munich, but after a mass altercation between his youth team and their 1860 opponents, a 14-year-old Beckenbauer decided to join Bayern instead.\nAt the end of the 1950s, Bayern were far from the behemothic beast that now breathes over all of German football. In the early days of his senior career, Beckenbauer was indirectly handed the best opportunity to develop when 1860 were invited to join the inaugural Bundesliga in 1963 at their great rival’s expense. Bayern were forced to offload their best talent, with the lure of full-time professional contracts too great to resist for many of them, leaving the club no choice but to blood the younger generation.\nIn the second of the two seasons spent outside the new top flight, the teenage Beckenbauer scored 17 goals in what was his first full campaign and never looked back. Initially used as a midfielder, intelligence and awareness were his tools as he elegantly dictated matches, but as his career moved onwards, he was used further back to control play in a different way.\nOriginal Series | The 50\nLeadership was something that came entirely naturally to Beckenbauer. After only three years as a regular starter, he had already come within moments of being crowned a world champion as a crucial part of the national team’s system, and even had a direct hand in designing the first line of Adidas training gear.\nHis relationship with the sports company would continue for decades in one form or another, as would his relationship with leadership – after hanging up his boots he would win titles with Marseille, Bayern and West Germany before becoming Die Roten’s club president and eventually the architect behind the successful 2006 World Cup bid. His legacy has come under threat somewhat for his alleged involvement in tax avoidance and cash for 2006 votes, but he has always maintained his innocence.\nOne of his most enduring legacies to the game was his pioneering of a new approach to defending – the libero position. While others had been employed in a free defensive role, such as Ivano Blason in Helenio Herrera’s infamous catenaccio-inspired Inter Milan side of the 1960s, none were as graceful and visionary as the man who imperiously strode forward in possession. That he earned the title of Der Kaiser was entirely fitting for his style and personality.\nAs the centrepiece of a world-class Bayern team, he won four Bundesliga titles, four DFB-Pokal trophies and three European Cups, as well as being crowned European and world champion with the national team, before heading stateside on his glamorous sojourn with the mythical New York Cosmos. He even added another Bundesliga title to his collection at the age of 36 when he returned to Germany with Hamburg.\nFootball in Germany cannot be spoken of without considering the phenomenal impact of its most natural leader. “He’s the hero of our nation,” former teammate Günter Netzer said a few years ago. “It hasn’t happened by chance, he’s earned it by hard work.”"}
{"content":"Published at Saturday, October 20th 2018. by Nona Preston in Mountain Bikes.\nFor the kids, the Mongoose XR-75 24˝ comes in the color of orange or electric green for boys and pink for girls. It is a great bike for kids because they like to ride all over the place whether riding on smooth ground, on bumpy ground or over dirt paths. This bike can handle just about any terrain. The dual-suspension frame makes the bike durable and powerful. It is lightweight making it easier to maneuver and control it. There are 21-speeds to shift through with a rear derailleur. The bike is equipped with linear pull brakes and has alloy, lightweight rims.\nGetting such a perfect beauty out in the market involves intensive care and construction and a lot of research and development coupled with thorough testing in the lab and real terrain to ensure that the bike will see through the worst of times. An important component of the bike is the biker itself. The person at the handlebars and the track through which the bike is subjected determine the design and sensitivity of a particular model. The empirical data is modeled in a computer with real bikers providing the feel for the right design that ensures a satisfying ride.\nThe more you train the better your pace and your stamina will improve. Once these two have improved you will be able to go on longer and better rides than will enhance your fitness.\nThe sport of mountain biking is one of the best active sports you can do for a number of fitness reasons and depending on what style of mountain biking you partake in, it can be also a great deal of fun as well as keeping you fit at the same time.\nMountain biking, as a sport, has been around since the 1970's. The sport originated when bikers refitted their traditional bikes with stronger brakes and thicker, more durable tires. Groups of riders from around the country would gather and race down mountains or hills on these refitted bikes. Hence, the beginning of mountain biking as we know it today.\nAny content, trademark’s, or other material that might be found on the Thetsa website that is not Thetsa’s property remains the copyright of its respective owner/s. In no way does Thetsa claim ownership or responsibility for such items, and you should seek legal consent for any use of such materials from its owner.\nCopyright © 2018 Thetsa. All Rights Reserved."}
{"content":"“Your attitude is like a box of crayons that color your world. Constantly color your picture gray, and your picture will always be bleak. Try adding some bright colors to the picture by including humor, and your picture begins to lighten up”. – Allen Klein\nAs a colorless winter persists here in Minnesota, I dream daily of bright colors. I crave vibrant colors to make my heart sing and give me energy. When it is gray and barren, I feel less inspired then when the sun is shining bright and the sky is brilliant blue. Thus, I try to add color into my daily life especially during the wintertime.\nI wear my paisley-colored boots and dress in bright red, pink or green sweaters. I add a colorful pashmina or scarf for a splash of color and am reminded of the place far away where I bought it. I buy a bouquet of spring flowers and place it in the kitchen. Or I look at my photos of summer flowers, markets or vacations to give me that extra boost of color. It is amazing how simply adding color to my life seems to lift my spirits immensely.\nSee for yourself….\nWhat are your tricks to adding more vibrant color to you life?"}
{"content":"When someone asks, “where are you from?” most people find this to be a welcoming question. It reminds them of home, of a specific place, of blissful, smile-inducing memories that warm them as they enthusiastically respond.\nFor Third Culture/Expat Kids, this question produces a free-flow pool of anxiety. When you ask someone who has lived an unconventional lifestyle – that is, between worlds, time zones, natural disasters, combat zones, cultures, religions – where they are from, that seemingly harmless question produces a complicated web in their brains as they struggle to answer. Why? Because, “Where are you from?” could mean any of the following (at least, to us):\n- Where were you born?\n- What is your heritage?\n- What is your nationality according to your passport?\n- What other places encompass your identity?\n- What is your ethnicity?\n- What is your race?\n- Where have you lived?\n- Where is your family currently located?\n- What is the specific location that you were in for the longest period of time?\n- What is the specific location of the place that feels most like home?\n- How do you define “home?”\nIn a split-second, a TCK has to figure out which one to answer. Often, when I was asked this question by my peers, I froze. My response would be, “Uh, what do you mean?” They would eye me, confused and slightly judgmental, as if it couldn’t possibly be that hard to formulate an answer to such a simple question. So, what do you do in that circumstance? I personally make it a point to run through my entire lineage (born in Queens, New York, childhood in Nairobi, Kenya, puberty in New Delhi India, adolescence in Jakarta, Indonesia, the second half of high school and university in North Carolina) almost as though I was pinpointing red dots on a map of the world. My brain has seen it as such since I was young, and now, at twenty-two, not much has changed. This visual is a complete history, because the question cannot simply be answered in a few short words.\n“Where are you from?”\nTo even attempt to write about where I am from and who I aspire to be is only going to scratch the surface of who I am. I can, however, bring you back to the moment that my five-year-old self realized who I wanted to grow up to be. I was in kindergarten, living in New Delhi, India. It was International Day at the American Embassy School (AES) and I had to choose one country to represent where I was from for the day. However, I struggled with this concept. Coming from a bicultural household and having already lived on three continents at the age of five, it is not surprising that I didn’t know how to pick where I was from. I felt as though I was a part of every country and culture I had been exposed to and because of this, I represented every country I felt connected to in a very unconventional manner. I felt like I represented the United Nations. This is one of the most significant moments in my life and this one decision I made at the age of five exemplifies the person I wish to be. For the entirety of my life, I have been trying to grasp an identity and I have come to terms that I am from everywhere, yet nowhere at the same time. The world is my home. The people you surround yourself with are what ultimately makes a home a home, thus resulting in the identity problem I have faced my entire life. What home is home, when you have had lived in seven houses over the last twenty years. And that one moment when I was five years old was a subconscious self-realization that identity would be my biggest obstacle in life. This obstacle would also shape the platform that I needed to help mold me into the tolerant and opened-minded person that I ultimately aspire to be."}
{"content":"A petition containing more than 1,100 signatures calling for the city of San Diego to stop penalizing the homeless was submitted Tuesday to Mayor Kevin Faulconer.\nThe petition requests “emergency action” to suspend the citing, arresting and issuance of stay-away orders to unsheltered residents, said Steph Johnson, a musician who helped organize the signature drive.\nShe said more signatures are being added, so the total will grow.\n“It was a grassroots effort that happened over the holidays and it’s continuing,” Johnson said outside the mayor’s office.\nThe mayor’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.\nJohnson said the city should consider allowing so-called “tiny houses” to be placed on empty lots, and providing better training for law enforcement who deal with the homeless.\n“We’re ready for real solutions,” Johnson said.\nShe said city officials need to put a higher priority on the issue because homelessness is increasingly being noticed by “shocked” visitors, which could impact tourism.\nJohnson, a singer and guitarist, formed and directs a choir made up of homeless people called Voices of Our City, which is designed to focus attention on the issue.\n—City News Service\n>> Subscribe to Times of San Diego’s free daily email newsletter! Click hereFollow Us:"}
{"content":"Scripture Reading — Luke 2:8-14\nThere were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.\n—Luke 2:8 —\nIn ancient Israel, shepherds were generally considered “unclean” in the community of God’s people because of the work they did. They were in daily contact with dirty, smelly sheep, their manure, their blood from cuts and scrapes, and the insects that buzzed around them. All of this meant that shepherds were almost never clean enough to worship with God’s people in God’s presence. So they were generally treated as outsiders.\nDuring Jesus’ lifetime, he specialized in welcoming people who were disregarded as unclean and unwelcome outsiders. He healed lepers. He ate with prostitutes and tax collectors. Even when Jesus was born, God showed that something new was happening in the coming of Christ. People who may have been ignored or ostracized by the community were now welcome in the presence of the Savior. In fact, not only was there room for shepherds in the presence of the Lord, but they were the first ones notified and invited to come and see the Savior who had been born!\nDo you ever feel as if God won’t have time for you, or that you are not worthy of his attention? Does your guilt and shame stand as a barrier that keeps you from even seeking him? In the miracle of Christmas, God shows that he is willing to pay the price so that any of us can come near to him.\nLord, we marvel at your welcoming grace. You welcome us into your presence, in spite of our guilt and shame. We are so blessed by your amazing love! Amen."}
{"content":"HGA – HarmonicGuard Active\nThe HGA active harmonic filter actively monitors the load current, reacting to changes in load almost instantaneously, while returning true power factor to near unity:\n- Virtual real time correction of the non-linear current\n- Synchronization of the current and voltage waveforms\n- Always attempting to achieve unity power\n- Never allowing for leading power factor\nActively Limits Harmonic Distortion\n- TDD reduction to 5% or better at Full Load\n- Meets IEEE-519 2014\n- Improves true power factor – improves energy efficiency\n- System-applied – MCC & Switchboard\n- Touchscreen display\n- UL 508 Certified. No SCCR required by UL Standards for the filter.\n- Communication options include Modbus RTU over RS485, EtherNet/IP, Modbus TCP/IP, and DeviceNet\nFits in Narrow Spots\nIn a tight spot? The HGA configuration minimizes the space required for harmonics mitigation in the electrical equipment line up, maximizing building space for more productive uses. For example, our 200 A HarmonicGuard Active filter has been re-engineered to have the same form factor as our popular HGA 250 A and suitable for single door MCC integration.\nAdditional New Features\n- The 500 Amp rating for larger systems\n- 600 VAC System Compatibility\n- UL Type 3R Enclosure for outdoor environments\nFully featured 65k color touchscreen HMI display:\nHarmonics and Power Quality\nVariable frequency drives and other types of non-linear loads take the incoming power from the utility and modify it for more efficient use within a wide range of applications. The conversion process creates current and voltage distortion.\nIf non-linear loads represent a significant portion of the entire installed load, this distortion begins to cause problems throughout the electrical system:\n- Transformer and distribution equipment overheating\n- Random breaker tripping\n- Sensitive equipment may fail completely\n- Poor power factor\nUnfiltered waveform with Injection\nCurrent from the HGA\nResulting Line Current\nWaveform with HGA\n- By actively monitoring the line or load current, the HGA harmonic filter determines the nature and quantity of harmonic currents in the system and cancels the same by injecting equal amounts of harmonic currents opposite in phase. A state-of-the-art high speed DSP controller and a pulse width modulated (PWM) IGBT based power converter help to provide virtual real time compensation of non-linear load demanded by VFDs and other applications. HGA also inherently tries to synchronize the line current with its voltage resulting in near unity displacement power factor. Thus, HGA provides solutions for both reactive current and harmonic current compensation.\nMeeting IEEE-519 Recommendations on Harmonics\nThe HGA active harmonic filter provides a cost effective, efficient solution allowing the user to meet IEEE-519 requirements. Using harmonic analysis software, TCI can help customers meet IEEE-519. Typical applications include:\n- Wastewater treatment plants\n- Commercial buildings\nHGA Filters Versus Other Harmonic Solutions\nThe HGA active filter can be a better overall system solution when compared to large, expensive 18 pulse VFDs or multiple passive drive-applied filtering:\n- Save money\n- Save space\n- Reduce energy losses\nBus-Applied Configuration for MCC or Switchboard\nThis bus-applied filter design can be directly connected to the power bus in standard MCC and Switchboard configurations. As with other bus-applied designs, impedance must be installed on the load side of the HGA filter.\n- TDD Reduction to 5% or better at Full Load\n- Power Factor Correction to less than or equal to .98 lagging\n- Power Factor Improved to near Unity\n- Response time of less than 8 ms to step load changes\n- Additional filters can be added to increase correction capability\n- Units can be paralleled without any calibration\n- Self-Commissioning Installation\n- Modular design\n- Harmonic Cancellation to the 50th harmonic\nThe HGA active harmonic filter is a very sophisticated, stable, and effective solution for harmonic and reactive power compensation.\nIEEE Standard 519-2014\nTable 2 – Current distortion limits for systems rated 120 V through 69 kV\n|Maximum harmonic current distortion in percent of IL|\n|Individual harmonic order (odd harmonics) a, b|\na Even harmonics are limited to 25% of the odd harmonic limits above.\nb Current distortions that result in a dc offset, e.g., half-wave converters, are not allowed.\nc All power generation equipment is limited to these values of current distortion, regardless of actual ISC/IL.\nISC = maximum short-circuit current at PCC\nIL = maximum demand load current (fundamental frequency component) at the PCC under normal load operating conditions.\nManuals: Current and Legacy\nThe table below includes links to current and legacy active filter manuals. The software version of the filter is noted on the About screen, on the HMI display.\n|IOM Manual English||HMI version on About screen|\n|Version K||Current-HMI Rev K|\n|Version J||HMI Rev K|\n|Version H||HMI Rev K|\n|Version F||HMI Rev J|\n|Version E||HMI Rev I|\n|Version B||HMI Rev D – Rev H|\n|Quick Start English||Quick Start Español||Quick Start Français||HMI version on About screen|\n|Version C||HMI Rev K|\n|Version B||Version B||Version B||HMI Rev I|\n|Version A||Version A||Version A||HMI Rev D – Rev H|"}
{"content":"The definition of Affirmation from dictionary.com\n- the act or an instance of affirming; state of being affirmed.\n- the assertion that something exists or is true.<\n- something that is affirmed; a statement or proposition that isdeclared to be true.\n- confirmation or ratification of the truth or validity of a prior judgment, decision, etc.\nAffirmations are very popular and more and more people are using them. Affirmations have a place with us and they work, however, I am a firm believer they do not work if you have not cleared in your mind what is stopping you from achieving, changing or even believing in yourself.\nIf you stand in front the mirror and say, ” I am wealthy and happy now” and you have a feeling of not believing it, or you feel a weight on your shoulders or there is a feeling in your body which does not feel right or your subconscious does not believe it, or a thought pops up, “you are in so much debt how can you be wealthy”, then they will not work.\nTo make them work, clear what is going on. If you want to be wealthy and you are in heaps of debt, look at cleaning out what is going on with your finances, look at what you are doing to contribute to your debt, look at your weaknesses, particularly look at your blockages towards money, where did they come from, did you grow up with the understanding rich people are selfish/mean/greedy or you say to yourself money does not grow on trees. You may be a person who likes to give, and in doing so it costs money, you feel great about giving, however, it is not helping your finances.\nOnce you have cleared your blockages about finances, then roll out your affirmations and say them, say them as many times as you can each day, say them as you mean them and believe in them and see the amazing results. Stay tuned to yourself though, as you need to be self – aware of your thoughts and behaviours during the day and night. For example, you have cleared your blockages about your finances, you have implemented your affirmations and then you start having negative thoughts about your finances > when this happens, stop, think about what triggered that thought and do you need to do something to clear that particular thought? If there is no attachment to that thought, then say your affirmation, your affirmation then acts as a pattern interrupter to your subconscious, tricking the subconscious out of a negative thought to a positive.\nCan you see how this is hard work in the beginning, but well worth it. If you find it hard work to do on your own, then book in to see someone so that you can work together >well worth the investment, the investment is for you and for your future.\nI have a saying I often suggest to my clients to try, “plant the seed”. Plant the seed in your mind of an idea, plant the seed of what you want, plant the seed of what you want to achieve. By “planting the seed” you allow it to sit in your subconscious and allow it cultivate, “plant the affirmation”\nThis is the process,\n- Prepare your healthy soil (mind)\n- Dig out all the weeds (negative thoughts and emotions)\n- Fertilise your soil (seek help with a professional if you need to)\n- Plant your plants (plant your positive affirmation/s in your mind)\n- Water your plants so that they grow (repeat your affirmations often as possible for growth and results and witness how awesome you are)\nIf you are struggling with what to say as an affirmation, here are a few to help you get started.\n‘I now allow success to be mine’\n‘I am wealthy’\n‘Abundance flows to me easily and effortlessly’\n‘This is me, beautiful, brave and bubbly’\n‘This is me, I attract money and abundance now’\n‘I sparkle, I am energetic, I am me’\n‘I am totally open to receiving abundance, with love and thanks’\n‘I am deserving and I am ready to receive’"}
{"content":"Do you prefer to stay ahead of the crowd as you beach hop through Asia? You started visiting Phú Quốc when it was still a sleepy Vietnamese island. You now prefer the Gili Islands to Bali or even Lombok. Plus you gave up on Phuket—make that most of the islands off of Thailand’s west coast—a long time ago. So where to next?\nSri Lanka has been on your mind for a while now. It’s been years since your last—in truth, your only—visit to the “Pearl of the Indian Ocean.” But the much-disputed historic sites, the powdery beaches, and the peaceful tea plantations stayed in your thoughts. So did the other side of the country. That trip was based solely on the west coast, the Sinhalese side of the island. You vowed to eventually see the Tamil side.\nSo you planned a trip to Trincomalee, whose prized harbor was fortified by the Portuguese, after their conquest of the Jaffna kingdom. The Danish, the Dutch, and the French followed, before the island became part of Britain’s Ceylon in 1815. Eventual independence led to the Sri Lankan Civil War, which lasted for 26 years. It may have ended in 2009, but you always assumed that the east coast would still feel like a different country.\nThe differences weren’t as stark as you expected. Temples, including Koneswaram, are sacred places that attract pilgrims. Forts, like Fort Frederick, were once signs of Europeans taking over; they’ve now been adopted by the Sri Lanka Army. While legends live on in places like the Kanniya Hot Springs and Lover’s Leap. But, most importantly, the Tamil people, at least those who didn’t flee during the civil war, are kind, gentle, and eager to share their culture, especially their spicy curries.\nAs usual, after a few days in the city, you’re more than ready for the second part of your trip: the beach. Though only 30 minutes north of Trincomalee, Kuchchaveli feels worlds away from its built-up harbor. Its golden-sand beach borders the Indian Ocean on one side and thick mangroves on the other. Wild peacocks and parakeets, elephants and crocodiles live around quiet lagoons. While Jungle Beach, an upscale though still eco-friendly resort, is built around the trees, the smaller lagoons, and a four-kilometer stretch of the beach.\nYour beach cabin, which looks like a treehouse with an iluk-thatched roof, is completely modern inside. It features a polished concrete floor, indoor and outdoor rain showers, and even an iPod dock. The rest of the resort, including the rustic restaurant, the floating bar, and the small spa are even more open. Don’t be surprised to find trees growing through the open-air buildings and bridges crossing lotus ponds. Giant squirrels and a lone Indian pond heron are your neighbors. Plus informal classes, including cooking and kite making, connect you to the local culture here.\nBut the best part of both Jungle Beach—and Sri Lanka’s east coast as a whole really—is the fact that it’s still undiscovered. The entire time, whether you’ve been at the temples or on the beaches, it’s been quiet. You’ve experienced the warmth and the kindness of people who aren’t used to visitors, much less crowds. At least not yet."}
{"content":"Which are the places to visit in Delhi? Find it out here!\nDelhi is a beautiful mix of tourist attractions that are available all year round. There are places to visit with the family, lovers and even friends. Having a hard time deciding which places to go, here are some places to put on your Delhi itinerary.\nTop 10 places to visit in Delhi\nLet’s get to the list!\n1. Red Fort\nRed Fort: The Red Fort is a memorial of the transience of world powers. Red Fort was where the Indian flag was raised when the country became a free state. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The fort gets its name from the red stones and marbles used to build it.\n2. Jama Masjid\nJama Masjid: Jama Majid has the biggest mosque in Asia. Its courtyard is big enough to take 25,000 worshippers at once. It also one of the last wonders constructed by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan who was a great art lover.\n3. Lodi Garden\nLodi Garden: The garden is also known as the Old Lady Wellington Park. It is a refuge of natural greenery with beautiful monuments from the Sultanate era. You can find the Tomb of Muhammad Shah, King of Persia from the Qajar dynasty and Sikander Lodi, Sultan of Delhi in the 14th century here.\n4. Qutab Minar\nQutab Minar: This is the tallest brick spire in India at 73m. It is also the oldest historical monument in Delhi. It is always available to tourists and is extremely popular as an attraction.\n5. Humayun’s Tomb\nHumayun’s Tomb: It is arguably the most fascinating work of Mughal architecture in Delhi. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Built in 1569, this red sandstone tomb is in a 13-hectare garden. You also have a great view of the iconic Taj. The Tomb is a must-go for sightseeing because of its handmade designs on marbles and stone.\n6. Khan Market\nKhan Market: The market is full of luxury shoppers and food lovers. Close to Delhi Metro, Khan Market complex is replete with everything you can ever think of from boutiques to fast food spots to bookshops. Shop till you drop!\n7. Raj Ghat Gandhi Memorial\nRaj Ghat Gandhi Memorial: Raj Ghat is where India’s greatest citizen Mahatma Gandhi was cremated. A flame is kept always lit above Gandhi’s shrine, adding more to its allure a place of respect and sober reflection.\n8. Lotus Temple\nLotus Temple: The Lotus temple is an example of modern architectural design and one of Delhi’s most popular attractions. The beautiful lotus shaped building is a symbol of unity. Open all day, and it is a top choice for a quiet day out in Delhi.\n9. India Gate\nIndia Gate: Built as a tribute to Indian and British Indian soldiers who gave their life for India in World War I. Enclosed by lavish green lawns, you should visit at night to see the bright floodlights and also the great picnic spots.\n10. Connaught Place\nConnaught Place: Tourism in Delhi is not complete without a visit to Connaught Place. At the center of Delhi, it has everything a modern tourist would want, from five-star hotels to all the global premium brands. The busy pubs, clubs, and nightlife make it a popular destination for young people and thrill seekers.\nAre you planning to visit India soon? You won’t regret putting Delhi on your travel plan no matter what you find interesting, if it is these places to visit in Delhi 2017 or some completely different ones. Enjoy!\nFor your India trip, make sure to read these all posts:\n- Top 10 places to visit in Delhi\n- 6 reasons to visit Goa\n- Top 10 places to visit in Jaipur\n- 9 Places to Visit in Bangalore\n- 8 places to visit in Mumbai\nPictures in the post about places to visit in Delhi are taken by: Guilhem Vellut, Koen, Thangaraj Kumaravel, Sakeeb Sabakka, Dennis Jarvis, Geoff Stearns, Humayunn Niaz Ahmed, Arian Zwegers, Larry Johnson, Ville Miettinen, Rajarshi MITRA (Flickr links, CC)"}
{"content":"Luke 9:23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.\nThis text follows two important events. The confession of Peter, where he confesses that Jesus was the Christ of God. And secondly, Jesus foretells his rejection, death and resurrection. (Luke 9:18-22) It is a passage that speaks to the cost of being a disciple of Jesus. Discipleship flows from our confession. If we confess that Jesus is the “Christ of God” and we identify ourselves as a disciple of Christ, Jesus gives us the terms of that discipleship. Terms that are involve us trusting in God wholeheartedly and living a life of self-sacrifice every day till our death.\nJesus gives three aspects of discipleship. Denying, taking up a cross daily, and following him. In the short space here I will give an over view of these aspects, praying that may be helpful in understanding the thrust of discipleship. When we begin to comprehend what is being asked of us, we will understand how radical this call is. Jesus is is telling us that the Christian life doesn’t end at the confession of faith, but that there remains a life to be lived. A life where we die to our self and live in obedience to God.\nDenying your self is part of sanctification in the Christian life. We understand that in sanctification there are two components: mortification and vivification. They occur through the Christian life as we struggle with sin. (Romans 7:7-24) Part of the Christian life, is to deny the sinful desires that remain in us and live for the holy tasks God has given us in the moral law. Disciples of Jesus live lives of purity and put to death those desires of immorality and other forms of idolatry. (Col 3:1,5)\n“Take up his cross daily” is not our struggle with our current predicament. It is a radical expression of actively dying to our selfishness. A contemporary way of stating this could be “putting our head in a noose everyday” or “putting neck under the guillotine daily”. The Christian is the dead man made alive. This is the reality our baptism signifies\nCol. 2:11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.\nWe are living out our baptism by dying to our sinful inclinations and desires. Baptism, a sign and seal of our dying with Christ and being resurrected with him is not meaningless. It is a font of grace for us, through which we participate in the death and resurrection of Jesus throughout our life. Taking up our cross (the dying to our sinful inclinations and desires) isn’t a one time event, it is a continual process through which we will grow in holiness. Part of the joys of discipleship is rejoicing in the power of the resurrection of Jesus, but we cannot forget that are also called to bear the cross of dying to self daily.\n“Follow me” Jesus has already stated what will happen to him. That he will be rejected by the elders of the nation of Israel, the chief priests and scribes. That he would die and then rise again from the dead. This will be our example to follow. As Jesus faced total humiliation for us, we must be willing to live a life of obedience to him even if it means that we are rejected. Sharing the Gospel with someone and watching them reject it, or mock it, can be frustrating. It can be a strong force of discouragement. However, we are called to obedience. Jesus was obedient unto death and so he calls us to a radical form of obedience in the face of being mocked, ridiculed, and rejected till our death.\nWe may fail in this call. The disciples did. They left Jesus and denied him. Jesus however, graciously found them and spoke of the love he had for them, restored them, and then charged them to live a life of painful obedience. An obedience that would result all of their deaths, save John who was exiled. Many have not endured till the end, but many have because of the Gospel. The Gospel reminds us of the obedient one who forgives our sins and gives us life. In Christ we find the ability to be faithful disciples, and we can pray for perseverance, and victories over our weaknesses in this life for the sake of Christ alone."}
{"content":"Featured Image: A wildebeest migration in Masai Mara National Park, Kenya. Shown are billions of the most pivotal parts of the grassland ecosystem: pathogens, thriving inside each animal.\nToday we hosted pathogen ecologist Dr. Andy Dobson, of Princeton’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. As an expert on parasites all over the natural world, he studies everything from pathogen evolution to their drastic effects on ecosystems – and it blew our show away. We cover the detriment of a clean gut, how the rinderpest virus devastated the Serengeti, how tourists track wolves with mange, and the dangers of antibiotic resistance. Be prepared to reimagine the place of the invisible pathogen within every ecosystem. And, as always, we dish out some science news (Rosetta’s death, earthquakes in Oklahoma, and spiderweb metamaterials) alongside a brief discussion on rational numbers.\nIn this installment of These Vibes, we welcomed Joseph Amon, visiting lecturer at the Woodrow Wilson School here at Princeton and Vice President for neglected tropical diseases at Helen Keller International, on human rights, the rights to health and education and their interdependence, and neglected tropical diseases. Later in the interview he describes his path, which takes us in to a discussion on the different approaches to addressing human rights deficiencies.\nFirst hour: Science news and a survey of the science research being done by astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS).\nSecond hour (56 minutes in): Interview with Joseph Amon. Interview-only recording below.\nFeatured image: The interstage of a Saturn V rocket falls into the Atlantic, detaching to save on mass and enable further travel in space. Taken on the Apollo 6 mission by NASA.\nWe welcome Charles Swanson, Princeton PhD candidate in plasma physics, back to the show for a journey into the science of rockets: how expensive is it to travel around our\nsolar system? What makes rockets with high exhaust velocity better than high-thrust rockets? How hard is it to go to Mars? Also featuring Adam Sliwinski of So Percussion on being an ensemble-in-residence and making music out of cacti, the westerly winds of ancient Tibet, and the life cycles of stars.\nIn this episode, we brought Cameron Ellis back in the studio. Cameron is a graduate researcher in Cognitive Neuroscience in the Turk Browne lab here at Princeton, whose research focuses on consciousness and mental processing. We first talked to Cameron back in May (2016 – in that show he walked us through the nitty gritty of his research, as well as the fascinating history of the study of consciousness as a scientific discipline and the important research that has had a profound effect on peoples’ lives.\nHere’s a short, incomplete list of the topics we discuss in the show:\nWhat does the term consciousness even mean? If we’re going to talk about it, we need to be able to define it. Or perhaps is the study of consciousness our attempt to, in fact, scramble for a definition?\nWhat is the idea of qualia? and why is it important to the discourse on consciousness? That brought us to the discussion of the Mary’s room (aka the Knowledge Argument) – roughly, does experience add anything if you already know everything on a topic – thought experiment and the Inverted Spectrum (is what you see as green what I see as green? how could we know?).\nShortly after, we discussed the Chinese Room thought experiment (could a computer be conscious?), language learning, and Strong AI.\nIn the last part of the interview Cameron explains the concept of uploading consciousness and the Simulation Hypothesis (that our universe is actually a simulation within the computer of another universe – no but really though).\nAt the very end of the show, Brian jumps on the mic to discuss a recent New Yorker article on so-called super-recognizers, and a new squad of them in the London police force. Super recognizers are individuals who are incredibly skilled at facial recognition. This may sound strange, but we all know people (and may even be this way ourself) who are terrible at recognizing faces – people with something called face blindness – so it makes sense that there are individuals on the other end of the spectrum, those that are extremely attuned at recognizing an individual, even as they’re trawling through the thousands of faces in a CCTV video searching for that serial lawbreaker.\nFeatured Image: An artificial neural network, one of our best computational tools for uncovering the circuitry of our brains. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.\nWe’re jam packed with science on WRPB this week! Olga Lositsky, graduate student in Princeton’s Neuroscience Institute, graced our show with her thorough understanding of today’s biggest research questions on the brain. We broke down her work on how we make decisions and store memories, which involves both computer models of neurons and psychological experiments. Later in the show, Stevie brings us details on Lucy’s demise and signals that probably aren’t from aliens–and Ingrid Ockert closes it out with her book review on engineers as activists.\nOlga began studying neuroscience because its central questions unite other areas of science: psychology, philosophy, and biology come together once we learn how signals propagate around the brain. In fact, scientists categorize neuroscience research into levels of “abstraction.” At the most fundamental level, we can study the machinery of one neuron firing and affecting another; larger than that, we examine groups of neurons that make circuits for more complicated tasks; and finally, looking at the brain as a whole, researchers watch how signals travel from one part of the brain to another with tools like EEG or fMRI, giving a more global understanding. All of these levels pose questions differently, and they often use different terminology–but if we don’t understand each part alone, we’ll never grasp how groups of single neurons can make up a system as complicated as the human personality.\nTo connect these sub-fields of neuroscience, Olga uses computational modeling as an important tool. With machine learning techniques (which we’ve discussed on this show before), small units called nodes can pass information from layer to layer in a computer program. In the end, the program takes an input and provides an output, just like our brain sees some input and can think of some memory or move a muscle as an output. By changing the architecture of the neural network and observing its behavior, we get clues about what algorithms the brain uses to learn and remember.\nOther technologies have been instrumental in unveiling the brain’s inner workings. Making better robots means programming them to learn, and the codes that artificial intelligence engineers use here have given insight into how the brain processes information. Robots make predictions about the way the world works and have to correct themselves when their predictions are wrong–and now, we think that dopamine might have something to do with the way our brain deals with our incorrect predictions.\nIn fact, the way we learn about general rules might be different than the way we learn about exceptions, or things about the world that surprise us. Some scientists are postulating that we connect these two ways of learning through sleep. For example, learning about birds that can’t fly (like penguins and ostriches) shouldn’t interfere with our understanding that most birds do fly–and maybe sleeping helps us reconcile these exceptions to the rule. But Olga emphasizes that we’re still only developing these ideas, and the new field of neuroscience has a long way to go until we answer these questions definitively.\nOne fundamental area that we need to learn more about, Olga points out, is exactly what happens within a single neuron when we learn. Maybe storing a memory is more than just building connections between neurons; it might also change the structure of each neuron individually. Such a new idea could have a huge impact on how we simulate the brain on a computer.\nIn the second half of the interview, we pick apart a few dramatic ideas that are being debated in neuroscience today. Firstly: Why do we make bad decisions? Whether it’s eating another candy bar or refusing to do our homework, humans might seem wired to choose in ways that harm ourselves in the long run. In fact, though, there’s a better question to ask that can tell us why we choose these self-defeating things. Evolutionarily, why might it be optimal for us to make this “bad” choice? For example, a candy bar might have been a great way for a starving hunter-gatherer to shore up calories for the winter; avoiding homework might allow us to go on an adventure and learn about the world. There are evolutionary reasons why we make decisions we ought not to, which can help us understand them.\nSecondly, we all know that neurons that “fire together wire together;” that is, the connection between two neurons strengthens as they get used simultaneously. Actually, this might not always be the case. Olga describes how subliminal reminders that fire neurons weakly might actually weaken the connection between them, basically helping you to forget. Again, this is new and preliminary research, but it makes us consider an even more complicated picture of the brain.\nFinally, how do we estimate how much time passed between two events? One of Olga’s recent studies tested this question by having test subjects guess how long a radio story took to listen to. It turns out, the more events happened between two parts of a story, the more time people guessed that part of the story took. The difference between perception and reality was sometimes huge, with some estimating as much as five minutes too long (on an interval of only three minutes!).\nThanks to Olga for the coherent and descriptive interview! It’s really clear to me how much insight we have about the brain now, even if neuroscience has a long way to go before we get to concrete psychological answers.\nAfterwards, Stevie comes on to clear up two science news stories. A recent finding from the University of Texans examines the death of Lucy, our oldest ancestor found in 1974. By using X-rays and forensic techniques on Lucy’s skeleton, they could tell precisely the injuries that ended her prehistoric life: falling from a tree and hitting the ground at 35 miles per hour. Ironically, the very skills we thank Lucy’s species for developing, walking on the ground and not in trees, may have made them less adept at climbing (and more likely to succumb by gravity).\nThe second story, spreading around the internet like wildfire, concerns a recent signal from a Russian Academy of Science telescope. The signal comes from nearby, only 95 light years away, and some claim it could come from an extraterrestrial civilization. But it’s wise to wait for more facts to come in: SETI is only just opening their investigation, and there’s a lot of reasons that this signal is probably a false alarm. For one, seeing a signal once is a lot more indicative of a malfunctioning satellite than a repeated broadcast by aliens. More than likely, this is just one more reason to remain skeptical of most things you read on the internet.\nAs a great show-closer, Ingrid Ockert returns to our show for yet another book review. This time, she brings us Engineers for Change, an investigation by Matthew Wisnioski into the changing perception of engineering over the 1960s. Even today, we often think of the engineer as a cog in the machine–more at home designing missile silos than solving climate change. But various groups of engineers have tried changing this image for the better over time. Even at Princeton, over a thousand students led by Engineering professor Steven Slaby protested University research for weapons in the Vietnam War. For more information on collaborations between engineering and art, Patrick McCray’s blog Leaping Robot has put out some great articles recently. As always, thanks to Ingrid for coming on the show, and especially for bringing us another alternative look into the perception of science and technology over the past few decades."}
{"content":"U.S. President Donald Trump is naming Larry Kudlow, a longtime conservative economic analyst and television business show commentator, as his new top White House economic adviser.\nThe 70-year-old Kudlow told news media he accepted Trump’s offer Wednesday to become director of the White House’s National Economic Council. Reports say a formal announcement could come Thursday.\nHe will replace former Wall Street financier Gary Cohn, who resigned last week after breaking with President Trump on trade policy. Cohn had lost an internal debate, among Trump advisers, aimed at convincing the president not to impose steep new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.\nKudlow, who was an informal economic adviser to Trump during the first year of his presidency, also opposed Trump’s imposition of the 25 percent levy on steel and 10 percent tax on aluminum. Kudlow, however, was also an adviser to Trump during his successful 2016 White House run and worked with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in designing the tax cut plan Trump pushed through Congress in December.\nKudlow worked decades ago in the White House of President Ronald Reagan, but has spent much of the time since then as a television show host, much like Trump, who served as executive producer of The Apprentice reality television show before turning to politics.\nOne of Kudlow’s first White House efforts is likely to involve the ongoing renegotiation of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, the U.S. pact with Canada and Mexico.\nKudlow has said that it would be a “calamitously bad decision” to end the accord, but Trump has said NAFTA has left the United States at a disadvantage in trade deals with the two countries. The president has said he wants better terms for American farmers in their exports to Canada and wants Mexico to step up its border security at the U.S. line to keep undocumented immigrants from crossing into the United States."}
{"content":"How Climate Change Program Is Encouraging Adoption of Research Findings\nEvidence-based results provide a firm platform on which to build new programs and initiatives. But what if no one is listening?\nThe adaptation of study results requires more than just solid science; it also requires people in the areas concerned to embrace the findings and make them their own. It’s a two-part process.\nClimate Change Hazard and Vulnerability Mapping in Lupanga Village, Malawi. ARCC researchers found that they could increase acceptance of study findings and enhance its relevancy (salience) by engaging local people in the assessment process.\nUSAID’s African and Latin American Resilience to Climate Change (ARCC)program designed the Malawi Climate Change Vulnerability Assessmentto gauge the impact of climate change on agriculture, fisheries, water, natural resources, and livelihoods in Malawi in order to analyze the extent to which government, communities, and households in that country were equipped to adapt to these changes. The program then used the assessment’s results to inform USAID's food security programming and climate change investment decisions.\nThe assessment was developed with three characteristics which contributed to adoption of its findings among people affected by climate change and institutions with the mandate to do something about it: credibility, salience, and legitimacy. These characteristics are described in the science-policy literature as critical for translating science findings into policy and planning. In the context of the Malawi assessment, these characteristics are defined as follows:\n- Credibility refers to the perceived quality and adequacy of the evidence and findings presented in the assessment. To be fully credible, the evidence and findings must also be authoritative, believable, and trusted.\nThe Malawi assessment established credibility by compiling an evidence base for decision making using the best available data and information, by applying recognized analysis procedures, and by clearly communicating the limitations of the analysis. A recognized climate research organization conducted the climate portion of the analysis, which lent authority to the results, further increasing its credibility.\n- Salience is defined as the perceived relevance and timeliness of the information provided and integration of contextual factors.\nThe ARCC program achieved salience by fully embedding the assessment results in the local context. During the course of the assessment, the team carried out in-depth, participatory rural appraisals in nine representative villages in eight districts. These were supplemented by approximately 50 key informant interviews. These interactions greatly enhanced the team’s understanding of the local context, allowing a wider audience to accept the assessment results beyond just USAID. Once the assessment was completed, the team structured its findings in a way that directly addressed the most critical needs and released the results in a timely manner aligned with investment cycles.\n- Legitimacy is the value whereby assessment results are recognized and accepted as an accurate reflection of reality. But \"reality\" is colored by individual or group values, beliefs, and perspectives; they may also be colored by the perception of the transparency of the assessment process.\nTo establish legitimacy, the team engaged stakeholders at critical points throughout the assessment—during its design and implementation, and when the team began assessing recommendations for adaptation options. The process was inclusive—it provided a voice to many actors—and it was transparent. The team also shared the findings with farmers and farmer associations, who validated the historical climate trend analyses with their own real-world experiences of adapting to climate change impacts that were already occurring. The results of the assessment informed a participatory options analysis that engaged decision makers and encouraged them to explore approaches to strengthen adaptive capacity and manage risk across communities and institutions.\nWhile many programs are involved with conducting research and generating new knowledge, translating the results of their efforts so that they are used by decision-makers is often overlooked. In the case of ARCC’s program, generating and presenting assessment results deemed to be credible, salient, and legitimate by decision makers was essential for improving their understanding of the potential impacts of climate change and enabling them to act effectively to address them. Making the entire process inclusive, and keeping lines of communication open, increases the chances that stakeholders and beneficiaries will embrace change.\n For example, Carly N. Cook, Michael B. Mascia, Mark W. Schwartz, Hugh P. Possingham and Richard A. Fuller (2013) Achieving Conservation Science that Bridges the Knowledge–Action Boundary. Conservation Biology, 27(4): 669–678.\n The Climate System Analysis Group at the University of Cape Town.\nCLA in Action articles are intended to paint a more detailed picture of what collaborating, learning, and adapting (CLA) looks like in practice. Unlike other disciplines, CLA is not a technical \"fix;\" it looks different in different contexts. This series will showcase examples of intentional collaboration, systematic learning, and resourced adaptation, some of which you may find applicable to your own work. The case studies, blogs, and resources represented in this series document the real-world experiences of development practitioners experimenting with these approaches for the benefit of sharing what's possible."}
{"content":"Cycling is gaining in popularity according to Cycling UK. Traffic counts suggest that the number of miles cycled in 2016 was around 3.5 billion. That’s a 23% increase from 10 years before. Despite that, we have a long way to go to reach the levels seen in 1949\n(14.7 billion miles)!\nBut, for some, cycling can seem a bit scary. We may be put off by the amount of traffic on the roads or their fumes….making it seem safer to just use the car.\nVarious studies have looked at the overall health benefits of cycling as we can’t ignore the risks from air pollution and accidents. Even despite these, the benefits from cycling far outweigh the negatives. And it’s an activity that can be undertaken at all ages. Active commuting to school increases fitness amongst children in some studies and a recent study showed elderly (70-80 year old) long-distance cyclists had immune systems of 20 year olds!\nCycling at any age demands the right kit. Children need to be fully protected and safe off the roads – plus well supervised when on the roads.\nAnd for an elderly cyclist taking up cycling, a good bike and the right gear is essential – a helmet being key – as balance can be impaired in older age and falls will more easily lead to fractures in weaker bones. Choose a specific cycle path free of cars until you are fully confident and avoid cycling in poor weather – the risks are far greater if it’s wet, windy or if visibility is poor.\nConsider an electric bike – it’s not cheating as they still require work and studies show they have benefits for health, whilst making longer distances and hills easier for those who are less fit and active. See our blog later in the week for more….plus a special offer!\nAnd cycling can have all sorts of benefits beyond cardiovascular fitness. It’s also good for building muscle which we lose at around 8% per decade after the age of 40. And strong muscle helps us burn off more fat as well as protect our joints and improve our balance – important as we age. What’s more, exercise has been shown to decrease our risk of dementia – women with high physical fitness at middle age were nearly 90 percent less likely to develop dementia decades later according to a recent study.\nGetting out in the fresh air will clear the mind and expose us to more sunlight, boosting vitamin D which many of us lack over the winter months. Joining a club or cycling with friends keeps us socialising – which can add years to our lives too. Plus, we avoid the stress of sitting in traffic jams and we are doing our bit for the environment too. Win-win!\nAnd the more of us who cycle, the more we will reduce the negative effects of cycling…. breathing in air pollution and the accidents due to other road traffic. So “on your bike!!’"}
{"content":"The date of October 12th, 1492 is still seen in the indigenous, afro and mestizo circles with historical resentments that need to be overcome because we live in another era. The agro-musical band “Campo y Sabor”(Land and Taste) considers that the Spanish ships also brought important products for the human alimentation like: rice, chickpeas, lentils, coffee, wheat, oat and several vegetables, that were unknown in this continent and when these ships returned, Europe could get to know: Corn, beans, potatoes, cacao, pineapple, tomato, peanut, avocado and other wonders which were native of this continent.\nTo commemorate the meeting between Europe and Abya Yala, the continent that later would be called America by the Europeans, it will take place on October the 12th the second edition of the Festival of “Land and Taste”, because what happened on that date was a meeting of tastes. The discovery of new land and a new world of tastes that transformed the alimentation of the planet, from there started a fusion of food cultures and the enrichment of the culinary art.\nIn this occasion, the guest product is LA PAPA that took away so much hunger from the Europeans. At the beginning it was received with disdain, afterwards its acceptance became so big that the famous Spanish omelet is made of “Papa”, that the Iberians call potatoes.\nOur main protagonist León Octavio Osorno and director Ede Müller gave an interview on national radio Caracol in August, throughout the last shoot of “With his Feet on the Ground”. (interview in Spanish)\nOn August 3 the new Embassy of Villa Maga in Tibirita (Dept. Cundinamarca) was opened. It´s been a dignified ceremony enjoying the overwhelming landscape of Cundinamarca/Boyacá. With new ambassador Francisco Jaramillo Cabo, León Octavio Osorno and Don Ivan, the constructor of the embassy.\nDon Ivan is regarding his creation, Casa Asisi, the new embassy of Villa Maga\nView from the terrace\nFrancisco Jaramillo Cabo (middle), the new ambassador of Villa Maga holds the speech of inauguration, with León Octavio Osorno and Don Ivan.\nDuring the ceremony of inauguration\nAfter the ceremony, paying homage to the nature\nThe free trade agreement (FTA) signed by Colombia with the United States (2012) and the European Union (2013) laid down a number of requirements to be fulfilled by Colombia. In 2010, the Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA) brought new legislation into force, Resolution 970. This resolution declared native seed to be illegal and forced farmers to plant only certified seed, penalizing and criminalizing the use and production of native seed. Farmers convicted of using non-certified seed face terms of imprisonment of 4 to 8 years.\nBetween 2010 and 2012, more than 4,000 tons of seed were seized from farmers and destroyed. Massive outrage in 2013 about these events was expressed in different ways, and led to nationwide agricultural strikes in Colombia. This civil response has momentarily stopped the criminalization of the use of non-certified seed.\nThe “Network of Guardians for Seeds of Life“ is fighting for agroecological practices to preserve agrobiodiversity and for regional markets to be supplied with local native seed and food.\nBy clicking this link, you can adopt a native seed and contribute to the network’s goals.\nhttp://colombia.redsemillas.org/ (spanish only).\nCAMPO Y SABOR: “WATER IS FOR EVERYBODY“ (LIVE IN RIOSUCIO 2013)\nFIRST SUCCESSFUL EUROPEAN CITIZEN INITIATIVE\nThe first successful European Citizen Initiative (ECI) “Water is a Human Right” has collected more than 1,500,000 signatures in protest against plans by the European Commission to open up public water services to the private market through the backdoor. A European Citizen Initiative (ECI) “is an instrument for greater civil participation, implemented by the European Union in spring 2012”.\nEven before the signatures were handed in to the European Commission (this will happen in autumn 2013) “Water is a Human Right” has achieved a first political success!\nThe Commission has announced (June 21, 2013) that water will be excluded from the concessions directive, which could have forced communities to hand over their water services to private companies.\nYou can undersign the campaign here until September 9, 2013: www.right2water.eu\nMore information about the subject can also be found here.\nIn 2005 León Octavio wrote a song called “Water is for everybody“ which was released on CD as part of the “Referendum for the Water”. The referendum collected more than 200,000 signatures to protest about governmental plans to privatize the public water services in Colombia. This forced the parliament to discuss the issue, delaying privatisation to this very day.\nHere you can see Leon Octavio´s band “Campo y Sabor” performing their song “El agua es de todos” at the “Carnaval de Riosucio” in January 2013:\nI was out for a morning run in the park next to my house in Cali. Last night there was a big party in the open air theater. Once I left the park next to the theater I found many of these little paper wrapers you can see above. That´s how they sell the cocaine here. What a statement!!\nYES, cocaine is violent, that´s for sure. For the last five decades Colombia has been suffering from a civil war in which cocaine is also playing a prominent role. About 10 per cent of rural Colombian communities (4 million people!!) are displaced in their own country, because the guerilla or the paramilitary units claim their land for their purposes (the production of cocaine is one of their businesses). But also the national military is involved in criminal acts against the civilian people. The situation is very complex and complicated, today even more, as multinational companies also defend their interests on land (e.g. palmoil, bananas, coal) with criminal and violent methods.\nAt the moment the guerilla and the government are holding peace talks in Havanna/ Cuba. For the first time in more than ten years dialogue is possible. One key issue is how to deal with the displaced people and their land that was violently taken away from. While it may be a good start, it´s hard to believe that the results of this dialogue will lead to an end of the violence, that is mainly fueled by business interest.\nBut there is also another Colombia that is not always talked about in the media. It’s the beautiful and diverse country with its deep roots and the cultural heritage of the three ethnical groups (indegenous, black and mestizo) which create a unique mixture. Colombians take pride in these cultural goods.\nThere is progress and resistance to a violent Colombia. There are Colombians who are not giving up to believe in Colombia’s transformation into a peaceful and humane society.\nThat´s the Colombia we are exploring in our documentary.\nVIVA LA VIDA."}
{"content":"The use of an elastic cotton band is a perfect addition to Visceral Therapy techniques as it intensifies and prolongs their impact.\nThe principle of the way in which taping affects the body can be integrated very well into the treatment of visceral and fascial systems of our musculoskeletal system.\nThe use of elastic cotton bands makes intensifies the effects of the therapy and prolongs and improves them.\nVisceral Taping intensifies the positive impacts and stimuli on our complex organ system. It regulates the tension behavior of the fascial network and gives a lasting good effect to the lesion chain of the body. Wearing the tape for several days after a qualified visceral treatment creates a long-lasting change of tension in organs and fascial network. In this way taping prevents a switchback to habitual patterns.\nA successful tape application combines treatment of organs, scars, musculoskeletal system, fascia as well as acupuncture points.\n- The history of taping\n- Basic understanding of the principles of usage\n- Technique of cutting tape material and criteria for choosing high quality tape material\n- Main modes of action on different parts of the body\n- Active exercises for basic application methods and different application techniques\n- Indications and contraindications of Visceral Taping\n- Treatment of the organ system, the lesion chain and myofascial chains\n- Consolidation of tape colors and acupuncture points"}
{"content":"Program Description: Too often the best library programs never reach the kids most in need. We may be from Iowa, but we know that “if you build it, they will come” isn’t always true. So we found a way to go to them. Discover how the Cedar Rapids (IA) Public Library moved beyond its walls to reach children with barriers to traditional library access through strategic partnerships and volunteer support. Adapt this award-winning program to fit your community.\nJessica Link, Volunteer Coordinator , Cedar Rapids Public Library , Cedar Rapids , IA. Jessica coauthored an article in Public Libraries Magazine’s March/April 2016 issue about summer volunteer engagement.\nKevin Delecki, Programming Manager, Cedar Rapids Public Library, Cedar Rapids, IA\nThe equation goes something like this. Partners have access to the kids + volunteers have the legs that bring the program to the kids + the library has the resources.\n- Created custom, personalized, tracking logs for each child and sheets were put into binders at the center. Extra logs in the binder if the center needed them.\n- Provided on-site checkout. Had a mini library at each center on a book cart.\n- Offered a weekly program.\n- It was about meeting the kids where they are at\nMany returned from year one to participate again. Also utilized the Summer VISTA program http://www.nationalservice.gov. It added a lot of diversity to the program.\nPartner research (see handout 2):\n- Are the right people at the right table?\n- Where is your target audience congregating?\n- Who is working with the kids you want to work with? For example, the food backpack program. Where do these kids go in summer?\n- Community data\n- Poverty mapping\n- Food desert mapping\n- School level – free & reduced lunch\n- Registered Section 8 HUD housing. You can search your community within the spreadsheet. Many partners have already done this work for funding so ask first!\n- Take a hard look at what your library is already doing well. Can you take what you do well and modify it for outreach? As they were modifying, they had to keep in mind that everything needed to fit in Rubbermaid containers!\n- Who is your coordinator/champion that will run with it?\n- Stuff-space, staff, supplies, books\n- Flexibility and adaptability are key for all parties\n- Determine how you feel about lost materials. Communicate early and often to internal and external parties. Decided they didn’t really care if the books didn’t come back. Circulated 1000 books and three books didn’t come back. Kids also took home books to keep as part of the summer library program.\n- Meet with all levels of partners-from planning to training and everything in-between. Worked directly with summer staff at the YMCA at a granular day-to-day basis. Have conversations early on.\n- Share the load of work.\n- Streamline when possible – mail merge reading logs with kid’s names, duo-enrollment form (checkbox on YMCA summer camp form asking parents to enroll the child in summer library program). Also gave the data digitally for mail merge of personalized reading logs.\n- Talk about what you are going to do, do it, and talk about what you did.\n- Survey – had four questions and asked the kids one by one.\nAdvice for Librarians & Centers:\n- Get involved. Great investment in the library, the community, and the kids.\n- Steve Pemberton, PLA BIG IDEAS speaker, spoke about sneaking into the library. What if we sneak books to the kids? Make the library accessible to them. Bring the library to the kids.\n- Did you clear out your library stash? Secured a grant to buy 350-400 books for this program. Developed a core collection. Didn’t have to make a decision between who got the books – kids at the library or the centers.\n- Did you renew the books? Renewals depended on popularity. If they had a copy in the regular collection, they would bring that copy to the center so the child could finish reading the book.\n- Did you bring tech to the centers? Brought Launchpads (20#) and Google Nexus (10#)\n- How many centers did you partner with? The first year, they partnered with two different YMCAs. One camp was located at the YMCA and another was offered at the elementary school, but run by the YMCA.\n- What about prizes? Stepped away from the traditional prize model. Received a prize when they registered and at 600 minutes (a journal and a coupon for the Friends of the Library sale). When the kids completed the program, teens and younger got to pick a new book. Or teens could pick a coupon for the Friends of the Library sale.\n- Do the kids at the centers have to have a library card? Not necessarily. They would issue an express card which doesn’t require a parent signature and allows for e-resources and limited checkouts.\nSee Handout 1 for the PowerPoint used during this presentation.\nKevin Delecki and Jessica Link seemed very open to questions. Email addresses are linked above."}
{"content":"For many, Charles Dickens and his classic story A Christmas Carol epitomise the festive period, but a leading professor at The University of Warwick wants people to have greater expectations when it comes to Dickens.\nProfessor Jon Mee, from the University’s English and Comparative Literary Studies department, is a Charles Dickens expert and has published several books on his work. He is a huge fan of Dickens, apart from when it comes to linking the great author to Christmas.\nThis Christmas is set to be the most Dickensian of all as we approach the bicentenary of his birth on February 7, 2012. The BBC has started a long Charles Dickens season on television and radio, and several other national news organisations are also starting his 200th birthday celebrations early. A new book by Claire Tomalin called Charles Dickens: A Life is out in time for Christmas.\nFor many, Charles Dickens and Christmas go hand in hand but, Professor Mee does not agree.\nIn a special light-hearted video produced as part of the University’s Celebrating Dickens season he said, “Did Dickens invent Christmas? Well all I can really say to that is Bah! Humbug! He invented that phrase that everyone knows, and everybody knows it is associated with Ebenezer Scrooge, a character that people know even if they have never read a word of Dickens. Did he invent turkey, stuffing, mistletoe, holly, red berries, all the things that the ghost of Christmas present brings into A Christmas Carol? No, he didn’t invent those, they were already a part of Christmas festivities. What perhaps he did invent was the idea of Christmas as a special point of light in a dark, violent, often unpredictable world of getting and spending.”\nHe added, “What he tried to explore in his Christmas books is the idea of ‘Carol Philosophy’, a cheerfulness and antagonism to Humbug. People can be themselves in Carol Philosophy. Every year between 1843 and 1848, bar one, he produced a Christmas book that reinforced this Carol Philosophy. He might not have invented Christmas but now he is part of everybody’s experience of the day.”\nCelebrating Dickens is a multi-disciplinary project set up by the University of Warwick to help commemorate the bicentenary of one on the most important figures in literary history. Drawing on the knowledge and expertise from a wide range of researchers across the University, the Celebrating Dickens website offers fresh insight into some of his most famous works and the era in which he lived. In homage to Charles Dickens our project is being serialised, like most of his novels, with the first instalment launched today - including a podcast where Professor Mee discusses the Christmas stories.\nIn January a host of extra articles and podcasts will be released before a special documentary is uploaded on February 7, 2012 – Charles Dickens’ 200th birthday.\nNotes to Editors\nThe Celebrating Dickens website can be found here.\nAnd Professor Jon Mee’s special video can be viewed here.\nEach year Jon teaches an MA module on ‘Charles Dickens: Novels, Journalism, Adaptations’ and is also running a new undergraduate module this year entitled ‘Romanticism, Revolution and Reaction’ which covers the relationship between literature, culture and politics from 1789 to c. 1822.\nJon has had several books published about his research including The Cambridge Introduction to Charles Dickens (Cambridge University Press, 2010) and is currently working on a chapter in Reading the (Re)Presented Past: Literature and Historical Consciousness, 1700 to Present called Dickens and the Ways of Seeing the French Revolution: A Tale of Two Cities (Palgrave).\nOther published works include edited editions of Barnaby Rudge (Oxford World’s Classics, 2002) and Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities and the French Revolution (Palgrave, 2009).\nHis latest book, Conversable Worlds: Literature, Contention and Community 1762-1830 (Oxford University Press, 2011) is out now and has been nominated for the Louis Gottschalk Prize of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.\nJon joined Warwick after more than a decade in the English Faculty at The University of Oxford, where he was Margaret Candfield Fellow in English at University College and Professor of Literature of the Romantic Period. Prior to working at Oxford, Professor Mee was Senior Lecturer at The Australian National University.\nOn top of his keen interest in Charles Dickens' work, Professor Mee researches the contemporary Indian novel in English; John Thelwell; Mary Wollstoncroft; British popular radicalism in the 1790s; Culture and politics in the Romantic period (1760-1832); Marxist literary theory\nFor more information contact Luke Hamer, Assistant Press Officer, on 02476 575601, or on 07824 541142. Alternatively email email@example.com"}
{"content":"Car safety for children: Using the acronym “ACT” to prevent heatstroke, you can help reduce the risk of heatstroke happening to your child with the following suggestions…\nThis post was sponsored by Auto Alliance as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own.\nSummer is in full swing! Here in Florida, and most other places around the country, temperatures are soaring. You know that feeling when you open your car doors on a hot day, after it’s been sitting in the heat for a while? When a wave of humid, hot air hits you right in the face? UGH.\nThe thing is, even when the outside temperature is only 70 degrees outside, the inside of a parked car can still heat up to 120 degrees within just 15 minutes. And, that’s with the windows open. Yikes!\nWith three small children in my car, one of my worst fears is accidentally leaving them in the car. It happens way too much, unfortunately.\nAccording to data, on average 37 young children pass away each year from accidentally being left in a car. 75% are children under age of two years old and 50% are children under a year old.\nCar Safety for Children – Preventing Heatstroke\nAccidents happen, but there are steps we can take to reduce the risk of heatstroke happening to our children. The Auto Alliance has launched a new campaign in support of the National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) “Look Before You Lock: Never Leave A Child Alone in a Car” outreach initiative.\nUsing the acronym “ACT” to prevent heatstroke, you can help reduce the risk of heatstroke happening to your child with the following suggestions:\nA – Avoid leaving your child in your car alone, even for a minute. Also keep your doors locked while the car isn’t in use to avoid children getting inside alone.\nC – Create reminders. Leave your purse, lunch, or cell phone in the backseat next to your child so that you’ll have an extra reason to look in the back. This is especially helpful when children fall asleep in the car, and they’re quiet.\nT – Take action – if you see a child alone in a car call 911. One call can save a life!\nLearn more about how you can prevent heatstroke in this video from the Auto Alliance:\nRemember to Look Before You Lock this summer, and always! Find out more about how you can prevent heatstroke from the Auto Alliance website."}
{"content":"Hallie Ganderton isn’t like most children.Hallie Ganderton isn’t like most children. While many other seven-year-old girls are hoping for new toys, gadgets, or clothes, Hallie has a much bigger dream: She wants to take her power wheelchair with her anywhere she goes.\nWhile other seven-year-old girls are hoping for new toys, gadgets, or clothes, Hallie Ganderton has a much bigger dream: She wants to take her power wheelchair with her anywhere she goes.\nHallie has cerebral palsy, and uses her trackball-operated wheelchair to get around. Her disorder affects every aspect of her life — from her mobility, to her speech, to her sight.\n“She needs around-the-clock care,” said Hallie’s mother, Heather Ganderton. “She has difficulty with the most basic things, like using her hands, bathing, toileting, and talking.”\nLindsay Jones, who has been Hallie’s respite worker for three years, entered Hallie in a contest to win a wheelchair-accessible van. The custom modifications for such a vehicle would normally cost about $20,000, plus the cost of the van itself.\nThe contest, organized by the National Mobility Equipment Dealers Association, awards a wheelchair accessible van to the three families/ individuals in Canada or the United States who accumulate the most votes on the website.\nJones said the contest is in celebration of May being National Mobility Awareness Month, and is also based on being a hero, and she says Hallie is just that.\n“She works so hard, she’s so intelligent, she always challenges herself and always wants to succeed,” Jones said. “And she does it all with the biggest smile on her face.”\nHer power wheelchair stays at John McGivney Children’s Center, where Hallie is a Grade 2 student, and her family uses a manual wheelchair to move her at home. But Heather said Hallie is getting bigger, and it’s getting harder to constantly switch her from chair to chair.\nHallie said she could “be a superstar” if she won the van, because she could bring her power wheelchair anywhere she goes and be more “independent.”\nEven though Hallie needs a lot of help, said Jones, she is constantly inspired by the determination she sees in the young girl.\n“Being with a respite is usually a time for fun, a time to take a break,” she said. “But Hallie always wants to work on her schoolwork, or her math, or her occupational therapy.”\nAt birth, Hallie suffered a severe brain injury, and her heart stopped. Doctors said she might not make it, and if she did, she would be blind, unable to crawl or use a walker, and would be reliant on a feeding tube. But Hallie has always loved a challenge.\nNot only did Hallie survive, she also regained full sight through light therapy, learned to use a walker at age two, learned to spoon-feed herself, and remains an optimistic and happy young girl who continues to inspire her family and friends.\n“She doesn’t let me go easy on her, she likes to be challenged,” Jones said. “If I tell her she can’t do something, she will work even harder just to prove me wrong. She’s grinning ear to ear just hearing me say that, because she knows it’s true.”\nHeather Ganderton is a stay-at-home mother of three, while Hallie’s father Shane works in IT. In addition to seven-year-old Hallie, Heather has two sons — nine-year-old Parker and 11-year-old Carter.\nShe says Hallie’s brothers have rallied to support her in this contest, getting their school behind them as well.\n“Parker is even doing announcements at school,” Heather said. “They both see beyond her disabilities, they include her in their games.”\nBut it hasn’t been easy. Jones said though she loves working with Hallie, it’s sometimes difficult to watch the young girl’s daily struggles.\n“It’s hard to hear her say things like it’s her dream to walk,” Jones said. “But she doesn’t cry or ask why she is this way, she knows what her condition is and accepts it.”\n“She’s made me realize that in life there’s obstacles, but everyone can overcome them.”\nHeather said the van would be an incredible blessing for her family, and is asking the community to vote for Hallie every day until the contest closes on May 10.\nJones said hearing the struggles of Hallie’s family brings a tear to the eye, but seeing their progression and accomplishments is inspiring.\n“I really do believe her progress was not a miracle,” she said. “She got where she is today because of her incredible hard work and her family’s hard work.”"}
{"content":"We came to know Chetan Bhawgat for his books. I suddenly thought this : From 1980s to till date, some millions of young men and women from India went to US with different aims and objectives. Let us consider we are talking about 10,00000 young men and women [ educated, moderate to hi-skill, sexually active age-group, having passed some 18-25 years in India ] sample population. For the whole group, this was perhaps most striking cross cultural exposure.\nNow, I ask myself :\nWhy dont we have any enduring cultural commentary in the form of a novel, a collection of essays, a film or anything that documents his experience ?\nWhere is the missing commentary ?\nIn contrast, a significant document of historical studies come from Traveller’s Tales. Consider Hi-eun-sang, Marco Polo, Al-Beruni, Iban-Batuta. Or the grand Encyclopeadia Indica compiled by British Administrators in India.\nHere are some explanations given by my friend Saayan\n1. The people had no time to consider this.\n2. ALL the people went there with some objective and documenting cultural differences were not one among them.\n3. Many went and found the niche which minimizes cultural contrast [ e.g a Punjabi living in Southhall, London or a Sylheti in Tower Hamlet ]\nBut is it possible to believe that a million strong group with all the possibilities of having been impacted by one of the greatest cultural impact of their lives could remain mute, dumb and nothing significant to tell ?\nI doubt. I strongly doubt this.\nHence my uneasiness\nBecause, the only alternative left then is to conclude this : From circa 1980 to till date, India exported only those [ including people from IIT /IIM and other centres of learning ] who are, to the last man and woman, culturally passive and de-sensitized individuals ?\nAnd a corollary : Indian young men and women who could manage to enter those institutions are the most in-authentic and counter-feit material, culturally speaking.\nI am devastated."}
{"content":"Thanks to the Men and Women in Blue\nPosted on July 14 2016\nWe encounter people in uniform multiple times a day as we go through our regular activities. When we board a train and are greeted by a conductor wearing pressed work pants, visit the doctor cloaked in a clean lab coat, or purchase food to grill at our celebratory summer barbeques from a butcher donning a meat coat. In each case, the presence of a recognizable uniform evokes a sense of security and comfort and serves as a consistent reminder of the many people working hard to make society a better place for everyone. Police uniforms are one of the most important examples of this and the image presented by police departments has changed significantly over the centuries.\nThe earliest police departments in the U.S. did not issue uniforms to its members and police wore plain clothes and the only recognizable identification they wore, if any, was a badge or patch. As city populations grew, police began wearing uniforms so they would be easily identifiable to citizens needing their assistants. The New York City Police Departments was the first to outfit its force in uniforms in 1854 followed shortly thereafter by Boston and Chicago in 1858. Many of the earliest police forces outfitted their officers in surplus Union Army uniforms from the Civil War – beginning a long tradition of men and women serving our communities in blue.\nPolice shifted to work shirts and work pants in the 1960s and moved away from anything that would present a military appearance. This was done to help bridge the divide between officers and the communities they protect. In addition, the blue work shirt is easier to clean than lighter color shirts and the work shirt was a comfortable tool to help police do their jobs effectively.\nWorking Duds thanks all of the men and women in uniform who work hard to serve and protect us everyday."}
{"content":"Hangzhou, China Project Center (IQP)\nHangzhou is located on China’s booming southeastern coast and is one of China’s most beautiful and bustling cities. The capital of China’s richest province (Zhejiang) and one of China’s ancient imperial capitals, Hangzhou exemplifies China’s quest to become a modern economic power while retaining its unique historical identity. Students will see firsthand the beauty of China’s antiquity when walking along World Heritage Site West Lake in downtown Hangzhou and experience on a daily basis the booming growth of Hangzhou, China’s 4th largest metropolitan area with a population of 8 million. From Hangzhou, students can easily travel to Shanghai, only an hour away on the high-speed train, and to many other cities both inland and on the seaboard. Hangzhou has a humid subtropical climate with four distinctive seasons. Average temperatures in Hangzhou in November fall between 49°F and 63°F.\nHangzhou students will live in hotel style accommodations in the Xiasha District. Rooms are fully furnished with two single beds, linens, towels, a full bathroom, a living space, broadband internet, satellite TV and free local phone service. A kitchen is not available in the hotel and students are not allowed to cook by themselves. Accommodation type and location are subject to change without notice and will be confirmed the term prior to departure.\nChinese cuisine varies greatly by region, and may not be what you’re used to from a typical Chinese restaurant in the U.S. The staples foods of Chinese cooking include rice, noodles, vegetables, sauces, and seasonings. Dairy is rarely, if ever, used. It may be hard to identify what is in a particular sauce, especially for students with a peanut allergy, so be sure to keep healthy practices and your advisors and students informed of your health in case of an allergic reaction. Make sure to take any dietary restrictions or allergies (nuts in particular) into account as you consider this site and inform your advisor and IGSD of any health concerns well in advance of your participation in this program.\nStudents must arrive on or before the posted start date and stay through the posted end date of the program. Dates will be posted at the top of this page. WPI housing will be available from the start date to the end date. If students plan to arrange any personal travel before or after the program, they will be responsible for arranging and paying for their own housing.\nPast Hangzhou students have:\n- Determined feasibility of electronic bike share system in Hangzhou\n- Recommended e-book sharing and recycling practices for innovative e-platform library company\n- Analyzed clinical trial protocols in China, Europe, and US for Chinese cancer drug biotech firm\nStudents will be billed the following fees by WPI for the WPI semester they are away. These will be billed to you on the regular WPI billing cycle (i.e. Fall semester, and Spring semester).\nIn addition to this, students should budget for the following while away:\n- WPI Tuition and Fees\n- WPI Housing Fee (if applicable)\n- WPI Meal Plan (if applicable, reduced for term away)\n- Global Projects Program Housing and Program Fee (for applicable programs)\n- Local transportation\n- Airfare (if applicable)\n- Tourist activities and incidentals\n- Project related incidentals\nA breakdown of all estimated expenses for Hangzhou can be found here: Hangzhou Estimated Expenses\nWPI is committed to the health, safety, and security of all students who participate in our programs. While off-campus study can present unique challenges and inherent risks, we believe that careful research and diligent planning are keys to a safe and rewarding project experience. WPI utilizes several key resources to understand the risks of travel in the countries where we operate, and we urge you to consult these same resources as you research your intended destination. You can also discuss questions and concerns about your travel plans with on-campus resources such as the IGSD, the Student Health Center, the Office of Disability Services, and the Student Development and Counseling Center. It very important that you consider your own health requirements as you review what sites are most interesting to you, and that you carefully review the published information concerning health, safety, and security at the resources linked below prior to applying to a particular site. Make sure to visit the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website for the most up to date health and vaccine information, and review all information in relation to your own health and any medical conditions you may have.\nCountry-specific travel health information from the Centers for Disease Control\nCountry-specific page from the U.S. Department of State\nStudent travel website from the Bureau of Consular Affairs, U.S. Department of State"}
{"content":"Separate names with a comma.\nDiscussion in '3CX Phone System - General' started by pacpac, Jan 18, 2012.\nHi, how can I connect to the various extensions when connected to my 3CX system outside the LAN?\nHave you read this blog?\nYes, I have read and this allows me to place Direct SIP calls. However, is there a way I can call, for example, extension 200 from extension 100 outside the LAN (both phones connected into 3CX via the Internet)?\nYes, why not.\nIf you have properly setup the phone extensions in 3CX and the phones, it is possible to dial ext. 200 from ext. 100 outside the LAN.\nI have set up extensions 100 and 200, and connected both (outside the LAN) to a PAP2T. When trying to dial 100 from the 200 extension I just get a fast busy signal, and no ring on 100. Is it possible to use the PAP2T to dial extensions outside the LAN? I have connected 2 DECT phones to the PAP2T.\nThe PAP2T has two independent working SIP accounts, so it should be possible to dial the other account.\n- Do both accounts (ext. 100 and 200) of the PAP2T register in 3CX?\n- Have you permit the \"use of extension outside the LAN\" in the properties of the extensions in 3CX?\n- Can you dial from a local extension (inside the LAN) to the remote extension(s) (outside the LAN) v.v.?\nHi, see below:\n1) Yes both accounts are registered in 3CX OK. I can dial out standard numbers with no problems.\n2) Yes, this is permitted.\n3) Unable to try inside LAN, the 3CX is at a dedicated server in a different location.\nDial-out is OK, but if you dial-in, in 3CX, is it possible to accept the call with ext. 100 and/or 200?\nBe sure that the dialplan in the PAP2T, supports the digits you are dialling.\nWhat does the 3CX log show just after you tried a call, does it show up? Is it getting to 3CX? If not, then it is being blocked within the ATA.\nNothing shows up in 3CX. This is the dial plan I have set in the PAP2T, which support UK dialing without 00 and country code:\nHow would it look like to include being able to dial extensions from 100 to 900?\nYou may add e.g. “|xx.” without quotes in your dialplan.\nYou can also add (in bold). which covers 3 digit numbers from 100 to 999. The S0 (that's a zero) sends the matched digits out immediately, no timeout.\nThanks, it works. How would the dial plan look in order to dial *777, etc.? As of now, that does not work.\nIf you make use of *xx (two digit star codes) then change it to *xx.\nDepending on what codes you use you can break it down a bit more. *[1-689]xS0 would immediately send any two digit star codes beginning with 1 to 9 but not 7. Then *7xxS0 would send three digit star codes beginning with 7.\nThere are a number of sites that go into detail on how to \"craft\" a Linksys dialplan...this is but one of them...\nAnother good one with some extra information..\nThanks for advice, works very well."}
{"content":"A police officer responding to a domestic dispute comes face-to-face with an angry 56-year-old woman in a nightgown wielding a large knife.\nFootage obtained by A Current Affair under freedom-of-information laws shows police deploying their Tasers in potentially life and death situations.\nThe Tasers are fitted with cameras so they record every encounter from the minute they are removed from their holsters.\nIn the incident mentioned above, the woman is seen being tasered after refusing police commands to put down her knife.\nThe footage shows the woman first threatening to stab police outside the front of her home as her family take refuge inside.\nDespite being warned she will be shocked the woman advances towards police wielding the blade.\nThe officers then deploy a stun gun that sends 50,000 volts of electricity through her body.\nTasers have been marred by controversy but the police officers who wield them say they offer a better alternative than the lethal force of a gun.\nFrontline officers in NSW and Queensland both have access to Tasers but can only use them with proper training.\nVictoria Police recently concluded a 12-month trial of Tasers and is reviewing the results.\nLast month a US District court awarded $9m to the family of a North Carolina teen who was killed after being stung by a Taser manufactured by Taser International, the same company that provided stun guns for the Victorian trial.\nThe verdict is a massive blow for the infamous firm, which has maintained its weapons are non-lethal and do not affect a victim's heart while delivering 50,000 volts of electricity.\nBoth claims were contradicted by the court's finding.\nVictoria Police told the Sydney Morning Herald they were aware of the case but referred to a US Department of Justice study that found ''research does not support a substantially increased risk of cardiac arrhythmia \"¦ even if the [Taser] darts strike the front of the chest.''\nNSW Police assistant commissioner Alan Clarke said Tasers have a strong deterrent effect.\nHe told A Current Affair suspects will often comply with police directives rather than face the temporary agony of an electroshock gun.\n\"Last year through 2010 we were drawing the Taser 80 to 85 times a month and fired 30 percent of time. In 2011 we are drawing the Taser about 66 times a month,\" Clarke told the program\n© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2018"}
{"content":"This specific ISBN edition is currently not available.View all copies of this ISBN edition:\nThis market-leading text and reference provides the most current, comprehensive presentation of occupational therapy concepts and practice. Following the authors' clear guidance and expertly crafted exercises, readers will learn how to apply a client-centered, occupational and evidence-based approach across the full gamut of practice settings.\nCompletely updated and revised, this Eleventh Edition reflects a greater emphasis on evidence and the growing focus on occupation as the basis for practice. Plus, this edition has greatly expanded its first-person narratives, offering unique insights into the experience of living with disease or disability. A new unit, Occupation and Health in Society, addresses social and health policy, health promotion, community integration, and occupational justice.\nA companion website offers student and instructor ancillaries.\n\"synopsis\" may belong to another edition of this title.\nBook Description Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2008. Hardcover. Condition: New. Eleventh, North American Edition. Seller Inventory # DADAX0781760046\nBook Description LWW, 2008. Condition: New. book. Seller Inventory # M0781760046\nBook Description LWW, 2008. Hardcover. Condition: New. Never used!. Seller Inventory # P110781760046\nBook Description LWW. Hardcover. Condition: New. 0781760046 New Condition. Seller Inventory # NEW99.0401334\nBook Description LWW. Hardcover. Condition: New. 0781760046 BRAND-NEW TEXT + INTERNET ACCESS CODE for thePOINT COMPANION WEBSITE W/STUDENT ANCILLARIES (see further description below) To keep the condition perfect, we ship FedEx (r'cd within 1-5 business days after shipping in most cases) FURTHER DESCRIPTION: YOU'LL RECEIVE ALL OF THE FOLLOWING: STUDENT ANCILLARIES: 1) Student Quizzes + 2) Full Text Online + 3) Supplemental Readings + 4) Web Resources. Seller Inventory # L9780781760041\nBook Description LWW, 2008. Hardcover. Condition: New. 11. Ships with Tracking Number! INTERNATIONAL WORLDWIDE Shipping available. Buy with confidence, excellent customer service!. Seller Inventory # 0781760046n"}
{"content":"This specific ISBN edition is currently not available.View all copies of this ISBN edition:\nShallows is set in a small whaling town in Western Australia, where land-based whaling has been a tradition for over 150 years. When Queenie Cookson decides to join an antiwhaling protest group, she defies her husband, her ancestry, and her community. Winner of the prestigious Miles Franklin Award in Australia, this eloquent and moving novel speaks with immediacy and passion of the conflict between the values of a closeknit, traditional society and the evolving mores of the wider world.\n\"synopsis\" may belong to another edition of this title.\nTim Winton is the author of several novels, short-story collections, and children's books, for which he has received every major literary award in Australia, including the Australian/Vogel Award and the prestigious Miles Franklin Award. He currently lives in a fishing village in Western Australia with his wife and three children.From Library Journal:\nThis novel, winner of Australia's prestigious Miles Franklin Award, has great ambitions. Not only does it aspire to depict a community in crisisan old whaling port now the scene of a Save the Whales protestbut also to ponder such matters as guilt and innocence, responsibility, damnation and redemption, the urge to suicide, and the visitation of the sins of the fathers upon their children. When writing about the troubled marriage of his central characters, Cleve and Queenie Cookson, or about the anti-whaling confrontations out on the open sea, Winton brings his book alive. But his grandiose strivings hurt it. Too many minor characters, often mere stereotypes, appear for the sake of thematic concerns rather than as an integral part of the narrative. And the symbolism telegraphs the story's conclusion. Promising, well-intentioned, but only passable. Charles Michaud, Turner Free Lib., Randolph, Mass.\nCopyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.\n\"About this title\" may belong to another edition of this title.\nBook Description Graywolf Press, 1993. Paperback. Condition: New. Never used!. Seller Inventory # P111555971938\nBook Description Condition: Brand New. New. Seller Inventory # A2176\nBook Description Graywolf Press, 1993. Paperback. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # DADAX1555971938\nBook Description Graywolf Press, 1993. Condition: New. book. Seller Inventory # M1555971938\nBook Description Graywolf Press. PAPERBACK. Condition: New. 1555971938 New Condition. Seller Inventory # NEW99.1696962\nBook Description Condition: New. New. Seller Inventory # STR-1555971938\nBook Description Graywolf Press, 1993. Paperback. Condition: New. Ships with Tracking Number! INTERNATIONAL WORLDWIDE Shipping available. Buy with confidence, excellent customer service!. Seller Inventory # 1555971938n"}
{"content":"This specific ISBN edition is currently not available.View all copies of this ISBN edition:\nEnlightenment Unfolds is a sequel to Kaz Tanahashi's previous collection, Moon in a Dewdrop, which has become a primary source on Dogen for Western Zen students. Dogen Zenji (1200-1253) is unquestionably the most significant religious figure in Japanese history. Founder of the Soto school of Zen (which emphasizes the practice of zazen or sitting meditation), he was a prolific writer whose works have remained popular for six hundred years. Enlightenment Unfolds presents even more of the incisive and inspiring writings of this seminal figure, focusing on essays from his great life work, Treasury of the True Dharma Eye , as well as poems, talks, and correspondence, much of which appears here in English for the first time.\nTanahashi has brought together his own translations of Dogen with those of some of the most respected Zen teachers and writers of our own day, including Reb Anderson, Edward Espe Brown, Norman Fisher, Gil Fronsdal, Blanche Hartman, Jane Hirschfield, Daniel Leighton, Alan Senauke, Katherine Thanas, Mel Weitzman, and Michael Wenger.\n\"synopsis\" may belong to another edition of this title.\nDogen, the 13th-century Zen monk whose name is now synonymous with early Japanese Zen, was once nearly forgotten in Japan. Only in the last century and a half have his writings been published, and only in recent decades have they appeared in Western languages. Most of these focus on his life work, the Shobogenzo, selections of which are translated here. Enlightenment Unfolds also contains accounts of Dogen's studies in China, poems, instructions on Zen practice, and informal talks with his students. Enlightenment for Dogen was not something that results from practice but is the practice itself. For those engaged in Zen practice, reading Enlightenment Unfolds can be worked seamlessly into that practice, with insights gleaned from daily contemplation. Dogen is one of the few Zen monks to value the Zen literary tradition, but he never meant it to be separate from practice. As with Moon in a Dewdrop, Tanahashi's previous collection of Dogen's writings, we find that brilliant awakenings occur in everyday moments--and in the everyday moments of reading this collection, enlightenment indeed unfolds. --Brian BruyaAbout the Author:\nKazuaki Tanahashi, a Japanese-trained calligrapher, is the pioneer of the genre of \"one stroke painting\" as well as the creator of multicolor enso (Zen circles). His brushwork has been shown in solo exhibitions in galleries, museums, and universities all over the world. Tanahashi has edited several books of Dogen's writings and is also the author of Brush Mind.\n\"About this title\" may belong to another edition of this title.\nBook Description Shambhala, 1999. Hardcover. Condition: New. Never used!. Seller Inventory # P111570623058\nBook Description Shambhala, 1999. Condition: New. book. Seller Inventory # M1570623058\nBook Description Shambhala. Hardcover. Condition: New. 1570623058 New Condition. Seller Inventory # NEW99.0731718\nBook Description Condition: New. New. Seller Inventory # STRM-1570623058\nBook Description Shambhala, 1999. Hardcover. Condition: New. 0. Ships with Tracking Number! INTERNATIONAL WORLDWIDE Shipping available. Buy with confidence, excellent customer service!. Seller Inventory # 1570623058n"}
{"content":"This specific ISBN edition is currently not available.View all copies of this ISBN edition:\nThe short life and passionate music of romantic composer Frédéric Chopin provide the foundations for this 1945 drama, which proved influential in its gaudy, undeniably watchable formula of historical exaggeration and shrewdly simplified motives for its principals. In an Oscar-nominated performance, Cornel Wilde presents the Polish native as a passionate nationalist driven by his love of his native country and his hatred of its czarist regime, a thematic focus that can be forgiven in light of the political backdrop at the time of the production. Already a prodigy in his native land, where he's mentored by a shamelessly scenery-chewing Paul Muni as Professor Elsner, Chopin flees to Paris where his flashing eyes, dark nimbus of curls, and florid technique earn him stardom, while his involvement with the writer George Sand (a beautiful Merle Oberon, even when draped in then-provocatively masculine garb) introduces a romantic crescendo. Still, the tortured pianist-composer pines for his homeland, frets about its political fate, and begins to wither under the rigors of his new career as ur-superstar; in a typically over-the-top but riveting image, we see drops of blood spatter across the keyboard as he thunders through a recital, gallantly ignoring his failing health to spread his music and, by extension, awareness of Poland's fate. Numerous subsequent musical dramas (including two more Song-titled biographies from the same studio) would ply a similar mix of grand gestures and larger-than-life emotions, yet the most interesting comparison to be made is with 1991's Impromptu, a more acerbic spin through the Sand/Chopin affair (and the Parisian demimonde including Alfred DeMusset, Franz Liszt, and Eugene Delacroix) directed by frequent Stephen Sondheim collaborator James Lapine. --Sam Sutherland\n\"About this title\" may belong to another edition of this title.\n(No Available Copies)\nIf you know the book but cannot find it on AbeBooks, we can automatically search for it on your behalf as new inventory is added. If it is added to AbeBooks by one of our member booksellers, we will notify you!Create a Want"}
{"content":"Could taking vitamin D for acne be the key to a healthier complexion?\nAccording to recent research, the vast majority of people with acne are deficient in vitamin D.\nAre you one of these people?\nUnfortunately, if you have moderate to severe acne – you probably are…\nBut, don’t worry too much. Low levels of vitamin D can be easily remedied, but you want to do it the right way for best results – and to avoid vitamin D toxicity.\nUsing L-lysine for acne is one of those little known acne remedies that works amazingly well for some people:\n(Probably the same people who told you about it, right?)\nSo I thought I’d dive right in and explain all the nitty-gritty details about this interesting way to treat acne…\nVitamin C (Ascorbic Acid), is essential for humans and other animals. It’s water soluble, meaning if we get more vitamin C than we need one day, it’s expelled from the body in our urine.\nTherefore, it’s important to get vitamin C every day, because we don’t store it in our bodies like some other vitamins."}
{"content":"By Prince Charles\nUniversities need to stop viewing gender-based violence as a mere criminal issue, gender-based violence is a human rights violation and all human right violations are enemies of development. The reduction of gender based violence to just a women’s issue to the exclusion of men is a major hurdle.\nIn 1998 South Africa signed on to an international awareness drive called the 16 Days of Activism for no violence against women and children. The annual campaign which starts on the 25th November and ends on Human Rights Day (December 10) has several goals namely;\n- To encourage all South Africans to help eradicate violence against women and children\n- To encourage society to acknowledge that violence against women and children is a social, rather than governmental problem\n- To encourage collective responsibility within communities to tackle violence against women and children\nIt was in this context coupled with a sharp increase in violence in universities that Amnesty International South Africa together with its various university chapters convened a discussion on how to address gender-based violence in universities in Port Elizabeth. The human rights organisation convened the discussion with the objective of learning directly from university students about the gender based violence situation in universities and furthermore involved various stakeholders in interrogating possible solutions into the phenomenon. The stakeholders included Amnesty International’s university chapters from the University of Pretoria, University of Witswatersrand, Nelson Mandela University, University of Cape Town, University of Stellenbosch and the University of Western Cape. Also represented were ACTIVATE! Change Drivers, Masifunde Learner development, Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, United Nations Association of South Africa and the Congress of South African Students.\nHuman right activist Susan Tolmay kicked off the session by drawing a broad picture of the current situation around gender-based violence at institutions of higher learning and made specific mention of the horrific rape incident that took place at the Nelson Mandela University where a male perpetrator raped and robbed two young women at a computer laboratory in October, the incident sparked widespread protest and highlighted fundamental differences in the understanding of gender based violence between university management and the student body. The panel spoke in unison that gender based violence was a human rights issue and therefore required a multipronged approach.\nSeveral speakers were of the view that language as an institution was perpetuating and undermining the fight against gender based violence. The language used in campaigns against gender based violence was regressive, campaigns which label gender based violence as a ‘scourge’ were severely criticised, Nobubele Phuza pointed out that “the scourge is not gender based violence, but it is those men who rape women, they are the scourge”. The reference to people who have been sexually assaulted as being ‘raped’ and labelling them as ‘rape victims’ or ‘rape survivors’ also has profound consequences as it leads to stigmatisation and hinders the call to speak out against violations. Language as an institution was therefore responsible for the normalisation of violence in society because it allowed for a passive voice which exonerates men from responsibility; representatives of Activate in their presentation quoted Jackson Katz where he argues;\n“We talk about how many women were raped last year, not about how many men raped women, the use of the passive voice has a political effect, it shifts the focus off of men and boys and onto girls and women. Even the term ‘violence against women’ is problematic. It’s a passive construction; there’s no active agent in the sentence. When you look at the term ‘violence against women,’ nobody is doing it to women. It just happens to them…Men aren’t even a part of it”.\nPanellist Vuyo Tshingila lamented the absence of certain voices in the fight against gender based violence at universities and in general society. The absence she argued was due to the fact that society had an obtuse binary/ heteronormative bias when it addresses issues of violence. This automatically created ‘marginalised bodies’ that included refugees, members of the LGBTIQ+ community and rural women.\nAnother burning issue was the policy framework of institutions of higher learning (particularly sexual harassment policy) the student body accused the universities of not publishing sexual harassment cases. Students also made startling allegations that political movements in the institutions were harbouring rapists, who in turn used sexual assault incidents as tools of political mobilisation. The health care services also received condemnation with students decrying the level of violation young women encounter when they are subjected to rape kits after sexual assaults.\nThe Nelson Mandela University responded by acknowledging that it is indeed a contradiction that incidents of violence occur in a space named after a Nobel laureate and human rights activist. The institution appealed for a solution orientated engagement rather than a confrontational one and went on to unpack the launch of its Memeza campaign; a campaign which involved the distribution of yellow whistles which are blown once someone is in distress. The whistle is both a literal and metaphorical item in the sense that it is a call for the student body to be ‘whistle blowers’ against gender based violence.\nAfter a multipronged multi-sector dissection of the issues, the entire house agreed that men had to first acknowledge the privilege they enjoy due to the patriarchal arrangement of society and be active participants in changing the current reality of violence. Civil society movements need to partner and make sure that the language used in campaigns against gender based violence is modified and is more politically correct. A fundamental shift in policy by universities is necessary to ensure accountability and to empower marginalised bodies within the higher education space."}
{"content":"DHL is currently branded as “The World’s Largest Shipping Company”. The organisation has four central mission objectives. Simplify the lives of customers, to allow customers, employers and investors to enjoy greater success, to positively contribute to the world and to demonstrate respect.\nDHL: The company\nFocused on worldwide transport and logistics, DHL is relied upon by thousands of individuals and companies alike every day.\nDHL employs modern methods to establish, collate, ship and track an order from inception to completion. Thus, a hierarchical flow can be seen and the company adheres to this protocol; breaking the process down into sex steps as follows:\n- Order transmission\nTherefore, the first step will be the transmission of the order from the costumer to the DHL team. This can be accomplished by fax, telephone, data exchange or email. After the order is received by one of these dedicated means, DHL will begin the preparation process. Of course, this will be streamlined whenever possible to meet the company’s requirements. Some of the main metrics that will be considered are (but will not be limited to) checking that all information is correct, confirming the pricing conditions, making certain that the customer’s credit is valid and confirming any specific delivery conditions. This will assure quality control during the remainder of the processes.\nThe next step will involve the routing of all relevant information. This entails confirming the delivery as well as the processing of all internal job orders to the relevant DHL personnel. Then an action known as “picking” takes place. In essence, this separates orders based upon size, urgency and multiple deliveries. Shipping will thereafter be considered; factors such as delivery routes, the type of transport and associated paperwork now coming into play.\nFinally, the customer will be invoiced. This can occur after the previous processes have been completed or during these steps. One of the advantages of the pre-invoicing process is that much of the paperwork can be completed well ahead of time.\nDHL Tracking Procedure\nOf course, part of the efficiency that DHL boasts is due to their robust and comprehensive tracking process. Again, this can be broken down into three discrete phases as follows:\n- Advance information flow.\n- Accompanying information flow.\n- Follow-up information flow.\nIn the first step of the tracking process, advance information flow is designed to confirm to the customer the scheduled delivery time. This allows the customer to make any necessary arrangements well ahead of schedule to ensure the proper receipt of the product being shipped.\nAs the name denotes, accompanying information flow revolves around providing all pertinent information that may revolve around the specific shipment of a certain item (hazardous materials, for example). This can even involve special sensors monitoring and tracking the shipment along the way; thus ensuring the utmost levels of safety. An ancillary benefit of the accompanying information flow is that the product can be tracked while en route. This will enable DHL to inform the customer of any changes as may be warranted in some circumstances.\nLastly, the follow-up information flow is all information that can be perused after the shipment has been completed. A post-delivery invoice is an example of this. Still, this is perhaps the most important past of the tracking process. This is due to the fact that information can also be sent in reverse order. In other words, checkpoints that were passed along the delivery route can be confirmed. An international border is such a checkpoint. This will allow DHL (and the customer) to be able to systematically track the shipment of goods along the entire route; ensuring higher levels of satisfaction.\nDHL Safety Precautions\nDHL places a number of safety features into the entire shipping process. This is obviously important for a company that ships countless products to various destinations around the world each and every day. Notwithstanding the aforementioned shipment monitoring procedures in regards to hazardous or delicate items, DHL also works closely with many governmental organisations. A prominent example of this is their collaboration with C-TPAT (The Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism). DHL uses these measures to ensure the security of their products as well as the prevention of illegal items along every step of the supply chain. Payment methods are secure and all customer information is kept strictly confidential. In fact, this is likely one of the reasons that DHL is the carrier for all official correspondences within the Department of Homeland Security in the United States.\nOf course, the pricing structure will depend upon several different variables. These can include the size and weight of the package, the destination (local, regional or international) and the speed of the delivery. Thus, same-day deliveries are priced higher than those which will take a longer period of time to complete. Additionally, the quotes will vary widely depending on the specifics of an item. For instance, a package with dimensions of twenty square centimetres that weighs twenty kilogrammes which is being sent from the United Kingdom to the United States will cost approximately one hundred and twenty-six pounds. In many instances, the prices can be slightly reduced if the customer drops off a parcel at a DHL collection checkpoint as opposed to utilising the pickup service provided.\nThe most substantial benefit offered by DHL is fast and efficient worldwide shipping. Their prices are quite amenable compared to similar carriers and their levels of security are some of the highest in the industry. Furthermore, the processes of tracking and logistics will ensure that the parcel arrives at the designated location within the specified time frame. By enacting such a top-down hierarchical workflow, DHL has centralised many of these metrics; allowing for an immense reliability and offering the utmost levels of privacy and discretion to the customer.\nShould the tracking service not work, our support team and the support team of the shipping companies would gladly help you."}
{"content":"DayStar today announced an award of $250,000 from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to develop energy-efficient processes to manufacture solar cells with the goal of reducing the costs of producing each solar cell.\nHALFMOON, N.Y., Aug. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- DayStar Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: DSTI - News), a developer and manufacturer of proprietary flexible solar cells without silicon on specialty metal foils, today announced an award of $250,000 from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to develop energy-efficient processes to manufacture solar cells with the goal of reducing the costs of producing each solar cell.\nDayStar is currently ramping up its proprietary manufacturing process and believes, that at full capacity, it will produce solar cells at large volumes beyond 100 megawatts per plant. Co-funding from NYSERDA's Industrial Process and Productivity Improvement program will help DayStar lower the cost of producing solar power while also reducing the energy used in manufacturing and advancing DayStar's environmentally friendly production process.\nPeter R. Smith, President of NYSERDA, noted DayStar's advanced development program. \"The bright ideas that DayStar brings to us for development are putting New York in the forefront of the evolving clean-energy industry. These advanced designs will yield higher efficiencies and more reliable electric service -- and provide jobs right here in the Empire State.\"\n\"NYSERDA has been incredibly supportive every step of the way since it helped DayStar Technologies move to New York state from California in 2004,\" said Dr. Steve Aragon, DayStar's Vice President of Engineering. \"This co-funding will help us reduce the costs of producing our propriety solar cell by increasing the speed and reducing the energy used in the process. As a renewable energy company, we're focused on using the least amount of energy ourselves, regardless of the source.\"\nNYSERDA's Industrial Process and Productivity Improvement program encourages innovative process and productivity improvements that demonstrate a quantifiable energy benefit at industrial facilities in New York state. DayStar is developing a continuous, in-line, manufacturing tool that will replace a more costly process with a state-of-the-art technique, saving significant energy and improving production rates as part of their GEN-III manufacturing goals.\nAbout DayStar Technologies, Inc.:\nDayStar Technologies, Inc. is an emerging leader in low cost, high efficiency Photovoltaic Foil(TM) that converts sunlight into energy. The Company's patented and proprietary products include silicon-free CIGS solar cells, which are deposited on flexible metal foils using production processes adapted from commodity computer component manufacturing. DayStar believes the unique combination of its CIGS solar cell design coupled with proprietary manufacturing processes on flexible metal substrates can lead to solar electricity at commercially viable rates. For more information on the Company, please visit www.daystartech.com\nSAFE HARBOR STATEMENT: This news release contains \"forward-looking statements\" that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. \"Forward-looking statements\" describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as \"future,\" \"plan\" or \"planned, \" \"will\" or \"should,\" \"expected,\" \"anticipates,\" \"draft,\" \"eventually\" or \"projected.\" You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including risks that our products may not achieve customer acceptance or that they will not perform as expected, and other risks identified in our annual report on Form 10-K and other filings with the SEC. You should consider these factors in evaluating the forward-looking statements included herein, and not place undue reliance on such statements. The forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and DayStar Technologies Inc. undertakes no obligation to update such statements."}
{"content":"Rebel Leader: Honor Truce, ‘War Is Over’\nMONROVIA, Liberia (AP) _ Rebel leader Charles Taylor urged his fighters on Sunday to honor a cease- fire approved by Liberia’s three warring factions, saying the country’s 3 1/2 -year-old civil war was over.\nThe cease-fire went into effect at midnight Saturday and there were no reports of violations, said a spokesman for the West African force responsible for policing it.\n″I think everybody is fed up with the fighting,″ said John Adda, deputy field commander of the five-nation force.\nThe civil war has killed 150,000 of Liberia’s 2.6 million people, and forced 750,000 to flee the West African nation founded by freed American slaves in 1822.\nThe United Nations says up to 200,000 people are in danger of dying of starvation and disease in northern areas controlled by Taylor.\nThe rebel leader, who has broken several previous truces, told his fighters it was time to get on with their lives.\n″Some of you were shoeshine boys, carpenters and farmers. I ask you to return to your villages, towns and cities and begin to rebuild your life,″ Taylor said on radio controlled by his National Patriotic Front of Liberia.\n″The war is over,″ he said.\nThe war began in 1989 when Taylor led an invasion to oust the tribalist dictatorship of Samuel Doe, who was later executed. It collapsed into factional feuding and anarchy, leading to the intervention of troops from Nigeria and other nations in the region.\nLiberia’s interim government, Taylor’s rebel movement and an anti-Taylor rebel faction signed a U.N.-sponsored peace package last month in the West African nation of Benin.\nBesides the cease-fire, it calls for a seven-month transitional government and presidential and legislative elections in February. The government and two rebel factions are to be disarmed by an expanded West African army, which will be supervised by U.N. observers.\nTaylor ordered his fighters not to shoot at the West African force, warning ″anybody doing so will be held personally responsible.″\nHe has said he expects to run in the elections against President Amos Sawyer, leader of the interim government backed by the West African coalition.\nUntil the new elections, Liberia is to be ruled by a five-member council made up of representatives of the three main warring factions and two ″eminent″ Liberians chosen from a list compiled by the three sides."}
{"content":"Disease Feared as Capital’s Last Major Drinking-Water Source Cut With PM-Macedonia, Bjt\nSARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) _ The Bosnian capital’s last major source of drinking water has been cut, increasing the threat of disease from contaminated water, a U.N. official said today.\nPeter Kessler, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said the pump serving a well at the city brewery in Sarajevo stopped operating Sunday because of a Serb blockade of fuel.\nThe well had been supplying less than 20 percent of Sarajevo’s normal water needs. The main pumping station is in Serb-controlled territory.\nKessler said a ″trickle″ of water was still reaching the city on one line, providing enough for about a pint of water per resident per day.\nMost residents are using hand pumps to obtain ground water, which often is contaminated, causing 200 to 300 cases of dysentery per day, he said.\nAs the crisis mounted in besieged Sarajevo, Bosnia’s collective presidency was resisting pressure to accept a three-way partition of their country along ethnic lines as proposed by Serb and Croat leaders.\nThe Muslim-led government fears the plan would squeeze Muslims into a tiny state between hostile neighbors.\nAt a meeting Sunday in Zagreb, Croatia, seven of the presidency’s 10 members agreed to return to peace talks in Geneva. But they said they would bring their own plan to maintain Bosnia as a federation of provinces that wouldn’t be formed strictly along ethnic lines.\nSerbs, who control about 70 percent of Bosnia, have emphatically rejected similar proposals in the past.\nMeanwhile, military pressure continued to mount against outgunned government forces.\nKessler said the town of Trnovo, about 15 miles south of Sarajevo, had fallen to the Serbs, forcing an estimated 3,400 people to flee to a nearby government-held mountain. The Bosnian army’s 1st Corps confirmed the loss and said a nearby refugee camp, Grebak, and the small town of Rogoj also were overrun. The army estimated the number of people who fled at 1,500.\nIn central Bosnia, Kessler said, food convoys were resuming operations through the Gornji Vakuf area after a two-day suspension because of security concerns.\nTwo convoys were due in the government-held town Zenica today and two in Sarajevo on Tuesday - the first to reach the capital this month.\nCmdr. Barry Frewer, a spokesmen for U.N. peacekeepers, said there were sporadic clashes Sunday throughout the country. Some of the fiercest fighting was between Croats and the government troops in Novi Travnik in central Bosnia.\nCroat and government soldiers at first fought together against Bosnian Serbs who rebelled 16 months ago against Bosnia’s secession from Serb- dominated Yugoslavia. But that alliance has collapsed in fierce fighting over central Bosnian territory.\nBosnian Serbs and Croats have since collaborated on the battlefield as well as at the negotiating table.\nAt least 138,000 people are dead or missing in Bosnia’s war, and more than 2 million have been left homeless."}
{"content":"Foods, Nutrients and Calories\nMethionine food sources\nGravels, Substances and Oils\nCaribSea, Freshwater, Super Naturals, Blue Ridge density is equal to 1826.1 kg/m³ or 114 lb/ft³ with specific gravity of 1.8261 relative to pure water.\nHydrogen (H) weigh(s) 8.375 × 10-5 gram per (cubic centimeter) or 4.841 × 10-5 ounce per (cubic inch).[...]"}
{"content":"LocationLouisiana State University, 3357 Highland Road, Baton Rouge, LA 70802, USA\nText description provided by the architects. Following Hurricane Katrina, the E.J. Ourso College of Business at Louisiana State University re-constituted its mission as the innovative business generator for the Gulf South region of the United States. To advance its mission, the College of Business embarked on the design and construction of a new facility to advance its mission of business innovation. To embody the College’s mission, the design team envisioned the facility as a glass and steel ‘academical village’ for business education. The courtyard plan arrangement and building forms contextually recall the sloped roof pavilions and arcaded courtyards of the nearby historic landmark campus. These traditional architectural forms, however, are constructed of contemporary materials and details to illustrate a forward looking aesthetic that embodies the mission of the school to generate business innovation in the Gulf region and yet are respectful of the traditions of the campus. The pavilions are clad in ceramic coated translucent mirror glass and the transparent rotunda is clad in a bronze solar screen resulting in a composition of forms that are ephemeral apparitions of the original campus, reflecting the strong heritage of the Louisiana State University while looking to the promises of the future.\nThe facility houses: 24 interactive tiered classrooms, 18 collaborative team rooms, a 300 seat auditorium, a mock trading room and faculty and department offices. Teaching spaces and offices surround the courtyard which is headed by a bronze screen clad rotunda. A multi-story business commons within the rotunda is the centerpiece of the business campus. Business centers, offices and classroom surround the business commons.\nThe design team researched glass technologies and developed a cream colored ceramic fritted insulating glass unit with mirror glass back panel which creates a moiré pattern over the surface of the pavilions resulting in a three dimensional appearance that is similar in color and modeling to its stucco-clad neighbors, but is completely different in its tailored four sided glazed detailing. The south and west sides of the rotunda are surrounded by a custom bronze screen that utilizes an arch motif. The arch motif recalls the university’s treasured campus arcades. The screen is designed to shield the glass rotunda from harsh solar gain."}
{"content":"Few people realize how complicated it is to build - that is until they find themselves lost in the maze of design options, building codes, zoning laws, contractors, and so on. No two building projects are exactly alike, so there is no single, clear-cut path to follow.\nThe architect is the one professional who has the education, training, experience, and vision to guide you through the entire design and construction process, from helping you define what you want to build to helping you get the most for your construction dollar. Architects see the big picture. They don't just design four walls and a roof - they create total environments, interiors and exteriors, that satisfy functional needs and are exciting, dynamic spaces in which to work and live.\nArchitects Solve Problems\nMost building projects start with a want or need. \"I need more file space in my office.\" Or, \"We've outgrown our house.\" But how does that need or want get translated into square feet and three-dimensional space?\nThat is what architects are trained to do, solve problems in creative ways. With their broad knowledge of design and construction, architects can show you alternatives and options you might never think of on your own.\nArchitects Can Save You Money\nThe architect's services are a wise investment for the money, not an added cost to your project. Why?\nArchitects Can Make Your Life Easier\nBuilding is a long process that is always intricate and troublesome, especially because you as the owner are already busy with your life. The architect you hire acts as your agent looking out for your interests and tries to find ways to make that process go smoothly.\nIf your project requires engineering or other design services, the architect can coordinate this team of experts so you don't have to. The architect sorts out complex building codes and zoning laws to get through the complex procedures to obtain the required building permits. The architect can help you find qualified construction contractors based on your requirements. The architect visits the construction site to help verify that the project is being built according to plans and specifications.\nA Word About How Architects Get Paid\nArchitects’ fees are associated with the size and complexity of a project. Architects usually charge a percentage of the total project cost, anywhere from 5%-15% for new construction and 15%-20% percent for remodeling projects. Remodeling projects generally cost more than new construction because of the challenges faced in dealing with older construction techniques and blending architectural styles together.\nFor new construction Archestrate LLC offers schematic design packages that include a floor plan, an elevation and a preliminary cost estimate. We charge a set fee based on the square footage of the project for this package. Once the schematic design package is approved by the client, the construction document phase can begin. Our fee for construction document and construction administration services is usually 5-15% of the total cost of the project (schematic design cost is applied to total fee.) Renovations and additions require a consultation and site visit before a fee can be proposed.\nSix Steps Toward Building Your Dream\nDesign and construction projects involve several steps. Typically, projects go through the following six phases. However, on some projects, several of these steps may be combined or there may be additional ones.\nSTEP 1: Programming/Deciding What to Build\nThe owner and architect discuss the requirements for the project (how many rooms, the function of the spaces, etc.), testing the fit between the owner's needs, wants, and budget.\nSTEP 2: Schematic Design/Rough Sketches\nThe architect prepares a series of rough sketches, known as schematic design, which show the general arrangement of rooms and of the site. Some architects also prepare models to help visualize the project. The owner approves these sketches before proceeding to the next phase.\nSTEP 3: Design Development/ Refining the Design\nThe architect prepares more detailed drawings to illustrate other aspects of the proposed design. Floor plans show all the rooms in correct size and shape. Outline specifications are prepared, listing the major materials and room finishes.\nSTEP 4: Preparation of Construction Documents\nOnce the owner has approved the design, the architect prepares detailed drawings and specifications, which the contractor will use to establish actual construction cost and build the project. These drawings and specifications become part of the building contract.\nSTEP 5: Hiring the Contractor\nThe owner selects and hires the contractor. The architect may be willing to make some recommendations. In many cases, owners choose from among several contractors they've asked to submit bids on the job. The architect can help you prepare bidding documents as well as invitations to bid and instructions to bidders.\nSTEP 6: Construction Administration\nWhile the contractor will physically build the home or office, the architect can assist the owner in making sure that the project is build according to the plans and specifications. The architect can make site visits to observe construction, review and approve the contractor's applications for payment, and generally keep the owner informed of the project's progress. The contractor is solely responsible for construction methods, techniques, schedules and procedures.\nIn conclusion, once you have decided you need an architect for your project, have selected one (select an architect you can trust and that you have chemistry with), have come to an understanding on fees, and have the programmatic elements completed, you are ready to embark on the design process. We like to think that the hard part is behind you and the fun is just beginning.\nSTILL UNSURE IF YOU NEED AN ARCHITECT?\nShelley Olivier, AIA, NCARB"}
{"content":"A New Generation of Artists in London Is Putting a Spotlight on Queer Issues\nPhoto courtesy of Travis Alabanza.\nAccording to artist duo and couple\nQueer visibility may be at an all-time high, but if interest peaks at a magazine cover, the experiences of those who fall outside the familiar axis of privilege—defined by wealth, whiteness, and conventional notions of beauty—continue to be marginalized, and with them, the intersectional politics at the heart of queer identities. Moreover, as statistics from the U.S. lay bare, when support is not extended to those most at risk from exposure, visibility can have violent consequences. In 2015, at least 21 trans people were murdered, the highest on record. Nearly all of the victims were transgender women of color.\nHastings and Quinlan are part of a growing, London-based network of artists advocating for an engagement with queer issues that goes beyond the buzz. At the top of the agenda is the continued lack of diversity in the U.K. cultural sector when it comes to representing people from the broader queer community, and a frequent failure to move beyond the inclusion of white, homosexual, cisgendered men. “Our work developed from looking critically at mainstream gay identities,” Quinlan says. “While there are things we value about those identities, they can also be claustrophobic and oppressive.”\nIn the summer of 2016, Hastings and Quinlan installed UK Gay Bar Directory (UKGBD) at London’s Somerset House. The work consists of a bank of monitors playing video footage they took of the interiors of 170 gay bars across the U.K. Shown alongside this film archive was the The Scarcity of Liberty (2016), a cork board on which are pinned flyers, magazine covers, and other ephemera collected while filming. Among the sea of idealized faces and rippling torsos staring out from the board, there is a striking absence of lesbian, trans, and non-binary-identifying individuals. Nor is there any body type visible that does not adhere to a narrow physical ideal.\nThis, Hastings and Quinlan say, is precisely their point. In an attempt to create the type of space they feel is missing, they run @GayBar, a nomadic night that moves between galleries and studios across the city. Along with sets by DJs from across the queer spectrum, they have also held vigils for trans and lesbian cultural figures such as Leslie Feinberg, author of the novel Stone Butch Blues.\nToday’s queer culture has roots in feminist, gay, and lesbian liberation movements, and the AIDS activism of the 1980s. Against this backdrop, queer theory rose to prominence in the early 1990s, when groundbreaking U.S. writers such as Judith Butler and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick took aim at conventional wisdom regarding sex and gender. Attempting to dismantle the binary constructs denoted by the terms “male” and “female,” and the assumption that the sex we are born with corresponds to gender identity, they called for a radical reassessment of the way we understand identity.\nIn recent years, changing attitudes toward sexuality have been enshrined into U.K. law, with the same-sex marriage bill passed in 2013 bringing parity for gay and lesbian couples. But for many in the queer community, acceptance into the traditional fold comes at a cost they are unwilling to pay: putting aside their anti-establishment beliefs and assimilating into what contemporary queer theorist Elizabeth Freeman calls “state-sponsored narratives of belonging and becoming.” As former British Prime Minister David Cameron said prior to the bill’s introduction, “I don’t support gay marriage in spite of being a conservative. I support gay marriage because I am a conservative.”\nRosie Hastings and Hannah Quinlan, D.I.N.K #2 (Dual Income No Kids), 2016. Image courtesy of the artists.\nIn a series of backlit CGI landscapes that Hastings and Quinlan call their “queer sublime,” the rub between the radical promise of queerness and the conformist nature of mainstream gay culture takes on epic proportions. D.I.N.K #2 (Dual Income No Kids) (2016) shows the beach at New York’s Fire Island after a hurricane has hit. Fire Island was a safe haven for gays and lesbians decades before the Stonewall riots of 1969 drew widespread attention to homophobia, and has since become a popular gay party resort. Here, the anarchic force of natural disaster is used as a tool for countering apathy. In the foreground, a battered magazine lies open at an advert from a Tiffany and Co.’s 2015 “Will You?” wedding ring campaign—the first by the brand to feature a same-sex couple. Its image shows two coiffed white men barely visible beneath a layer of sand.\nOver the past decade, South London has become a hub for emerging queer artists. Arcadia Missa, a Peckham-based gallery founded in 2011 by Rozsa Farkas, is one of the city’s most prominent supporters of queer young artists. Farkas began working with Hastings and Quinlan the year after they graduated in 2014 from nearby Goldsmith’s University—itself home in recent years to leading queer and feminist scholarship, including the Centre For Feminist Research—and this past autumn, Arcadia Missa debuted their work at Frieze London.\nFellow Goldsmith’s graduate Liv Wynter is a self-described queer, working-class artist who tackles the politics of gender through poetry and rap. Wynter, who lives in South East London, rose to prominence in 2015 after taking part in the U.K.’s biggest rap battle league, the Don’t Flop Rap Battle—a competition that, for all its craft, is often depressingly sexist. During her performance, she took down her opponent for his aggressively misogynist lyrics. After he opened with a threat to “bruise her face,” which drew cheers from the audience, Wynter admonished him for “the complete predictability of performing masculinities; boys wanna front like they from correctional facilities.” The video has since gone viral, attracting over 130,000 views.\nPhoto courtesy of Liv Wynter.\nWynter is among a number of artists producing work that brings them into direct contact with their audiences—performing live and running awareness-raising initiatives—in an attempt to forge alliances among marginalized groups. Artist Emily Pope, who has collaborated with Wynter, was instrumental in organizing School of the Damned, a free, London-based education program aimed at removing the barriers to learning created by soaring tuition fees. As Pope explains, “if you feel the social and economic effects of being outside of mainstream straight culture, you want to do something about it, and you want a community which is supportive.”\nThis August, Wynter hosted “Lessons in Anti Apathy” at Arcadia Missa, a discussion between four grassroots organizations that aimed to counter political indifference. On the panel were activist publication Strike!; the activist group Whereisanamendieta, which protests the exclusion of Cuban artist Ana Mendieta’s work and the work of other artists who are female, non-binary, or people of color (the group, with which Wynter is closely involved, believe Mendieta was murdered in 1985 by her husband, the artist\nOn a recent tour of the U.K., non-binary performance artist Travis Alabanza (who goes by the non-gendered, plural pronoun they) brought their show, Black Trans Lives Matter, to the Goldsmith’s Student Union as part of the U.K.-wide Black History Month. Alabanza, who was selected as a Barbican Young Poet for 2015/2016, honed their craft on London’s queer cabaret and club scene. In 2016, they toured the U.K. with Stories of a Queer Brown Muddy Kid, which Alabanza describes as “my queer black gospel.”\nAn autobiographical, musical tour de force, it tells the story of their experience of coming out as a person of color, in a culture which too often fails to see beyond white experience. “This is for all those people who were told about Adam and Eve, Adam and Steve, but never Tamar and Jamal,” Alabanza declares. “I’m here to tell you that my existence is fucking holy.” Alabanza is currently an artist-in-residence at the Tate Modern, where they have performed alongside Wynter. They have used their role to highlight the bigotry within the gay community, as well as challenging the fetishization of black bodies.\nPhotos courtesy of Travis Alabanza.\nFuck Me Harder (2016)—half way between a song and a poem—is told from the perspective of a white sexual partner, who expects Alabanza to conform to a dominant, macho role. “Boys like boys and nothing in between,” Alabanza says, “so take off that face Travis, and put on a masc 4 masc for me.” On popular gay dating sites such as Grindr, the phrase “masc 4 masc” is used to signify a preference for men who can pass as straight, over those who present as more feminine, effectively ostracizing conspicuously queer bodies.\nThat Alabanza, Wynter, and Hastings and Quinlan have all been invited to exhibit at public institutions shows a growing awareness of queer issues within the British art industry. But there is still much to be done. “I definitely feel we get fetishized as lesbian artists,” Hastings says of her and Quinlan’s recent rise to prominence. Alabanza shares a similar view. “The art world cannot really be a space for queer folk of color,” they say, “as long as it still charges extortionate prices for us to visit exhibitions, and hires only white people as critics.” On the question of what needs to change, Alabanza is clear. “These places can start by hiring us, and not just for a single night—by actually putting queer folk, particularly queer folk of color, into curatorial and commissioning roles.”\nSponsored by Hermès"}
{"content":"Alcatel-Lucent was formed in December 2006 via the merger of two large telecommunications companies, Alcatel and Lucent Technologies, who were actually major players in the telecommunications industry since the late 19th century. They were originally La Compagnie Generale d’Electricite (CGE) and Western Electric Manufacturing Company, respectively, until Western Electric Manufacturing Company was bought out by American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T). Alcatel-Lucent, as the company is now known, is a French global telecommunications company based in Paris, France that specializes in fixed, mobile, and converged networking hardware, IP technologies, software, and services. They have 72,344 employees, with global operations in 130 different countries, generating a reported 14.446 billion euros in annual revenue.\nHowever, they have been recording negative cash flows for the last 7 years, which has consequently resulted in the announcement of plans to reduce their workforce by 10,000 employees (14% of their total workforce) in order to reduce an estimated 1 billion euros in costs. Despite these financial troubles, Alcatel-Lucent is still ranked as the largest technology supersector leader on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. They own Bell Laboratories, one of the largest R&D facilities in the telecommunications industry, which holds over 29,000 patents and has been awarded 7 Nobel Prizes. In addition to their core competency in telecommunications, they also serve a niche market of non-telecom customers with specialized needs: Enterprise, Submarine, Strategic Industries: Transportation (Airports, Highways, Railways), Energy (Power Utilities, Oil & Gas), and the Public Sector as well (State and Local Governments, Public Safety, and Defense Industries).\nAlcatel-Lucent continues to strive to be a leader in providing innovations IP and cloud networking as well, in addition to their ultra-broadband fixed and wireless access services. They have invested an average of 2.5 billion euros a year in research & development to ensure they can remain at the forefront of telecommunications technologies around the world. If you are operating telecommunications equipment and require Alcatel-Lucent parts\n, look no further than ASAP Semiconductor. We pride ourselves in being a leading distributor of Alcatel equipment and any other telecommunications products you may need. We have a vast inventory and a comprehensive 24/7 database to procure any parts we do not have. Contact us at firstname.lastname@example.org\nand someone will be ready to assist you."}
{"content":"Based on a five-year review of work relative value units (WRVUs), nuclear medicine physicians interpreted more general nuclear medicine studies, while nuclear radiologists focused more on cross-sectional scans. Both specialists, though, shied away from clinical evaluation and management services, which accounted for less than 2% of their efforts.\n\"This latter finding may present an emerging opportunity for nuclear medicine specialists who perform therapy with resultant patient contact to build their practice, particularly as new theranostic techniques emerge in the marketplace,\" wrote lead author Dr. Patricia Balthazar and colleagues from Emory University and NYU Langone Medical Center.\nAs many as two-thirds of nuclear medicine studies are interpreted by physicians who are not certified for those duties, according to the American Board of Nuclear Medicine (ABNM). In addition, nuclear medicine practitioners who stay exclusively within their expertise interpret fewer than 25% of all nuclear medicine exams, with cardiologists and radiologists interpreting most of the remainder, the authors noted.\nWith those disparities in mind, Balthazar and colleagues sought to determine which services are handled by physicians who consider themselves nuclear medicine specialists.\nThe researchers reviewed data from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the U.S. Census Bureau for calendar years 2012 through 2015. The primary outcome was based on the percentage of nuclear medicine in WRVUs per physician per specialty group.\nA total of 1,583 physicians called themselves nuclear medicine specialists and fit the inclusion criteria. From their records, Balthazar and colleagues discovered their work patterns were \"highly variable.\"\nFor example, 86% of their efforts were directed toward diagnostic nuclear medicine services, compared with 12% of their time for nonnuclear-medicine noninvasive imaging services. Nuclear radiologists filled that gap by devoting 71% of their work to nonnuclear-medicine noninvasive imaging services, compared with 27% of their WRVUs going toward nuclear medicine duties.\nBoth nuclear radiologists and nuclear medicine physicians spent less than 2% of their time on clinical evaluation and management services.\n*Counts are defined as total units of service based on WRVUs.\n|Most common imaging services provided by nuclear radiologists and nuclear medicine specialists\n|Chest x-ray (1 view)\n|Chest x-ray (2 views)\n|CT, head or brain\n|Nuclear medicine specialists\n|Cardiac stress and rest test\n|Bone and joint imaging\nNuclear medicine appears to be a heavily male-dominated specialty, with men making up 80% of self-identified specialists. These physicians work almost exclusively in urban practices (98%), as well as in nonacademic groups (62%).\n\"These characteristics prevailed for all specialty groups with the exception of nuclear medicine physicians, whose practices were evenly split between nonacademic (50%) and academic (50%) practices,\" the authors added.\nHow can these results benefit nuclear medicine going forward? Balthazar and colleagues suggest the findings provide a foundation upon which to \"develop meaningful quality measures, as well as to inform policymakers and training programs about the current status of the nuclear medicine workforce.\"\nCopyright © 2018 AuntMinnie.com"}
{"content":"Every person is unique, and autism impacts differently on every child, parent and family. All parents and caregivers of children on the autism spectrum will experience a unique set of challenges. Research shows that many parents develop resilience and experience various positive aspects of parenting a child with autism, however research also reveals that many parents of children on the autism spectrum have:\n- high levels of parenting stress,\n- low self-reported quality of life\n- high levels of depression, anxiety, anger and fatigue 1 2\nWhat can I do?\nResilience is the ability to adapt in spite of stress and adversity. When parents develop resilience this benefits both themselves and their children. There are a number of factors which foster resilience in parents of children with autism.\nAutism Tasmania can provide:\n- information on services which offer counselling and respite,\n- opportunities to meet other parents/carers of young people with autism\n- Free parent/carer information sessions on a range of topics\nStress Reduction Strategies\nEven a brisk 30 minute walk activity stimulates various brain chemicals that may leave you feeling happier and more relaxed. 3\nOther ways to reduce stress can include:\n- Get a good night’s sleep. Don’t drink coffee or tea in the evening and explore ways to wind down before bed. Some people find avoiding using the computer or watching television but instead listening to music, taking a relaxing bath or reading can help.\n- Talk to friends about how you feel. Autism Tasmania offers several Peer Support Groups throughout Tasmania and information about these can be obtained by contacting member of the Autism Information Team.\n- Practicing mindfulness techniques – especially in combination with evidence based approaches such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy – Carers Tasmania have qualified counsellors trained in delivering MiCBT (Mindfulness integrated with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy)\n- It may also help to talk with a professional counsellor. Carers’ Tasmania offer short-term counselling for carers and their families, or you may like to utilise Medicare’s “Better Access to Mental Health” Care Plan to access psychological support services – available via your GP.\nBitsika, V., Sharpley, C., & Bell, R. (2013). The buffering effect of resilience upon stress, anxiety and depression in parents of a child with an autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities, 25, 533-543↩\nNeff, K. & Faso, D. (2015). Self-compassion and well-being in parents of children with autism. Mindfulness, 6, 938-947↩\nThe Mayo Clinic (2014), Exercise: 7 benefits of regular physical activity, Mayo Clinic accessed 22 September 2015 http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/exercise/art-20048389↩"}
{"content":"Pay attention to, and inquire into, the nature of your own\nimmediate experience. Become the Witness, or Observer,\nof your own experience.\nInvestigate the \"Given Conditions\" of being human,\n\"I am -- Aware -- Now\":\nthe sense of identity, or being, at the center of\nyour own experience which manifests as \"I am.\"\nthe Awareness through which you perceive\neverything within and around you.\nthe immediacy and Infinity of Now.\nThese three basic conditions of being human are profound\npointers to our True Nature. We simply overlook them in\nour rush to identify ourselves with \"outward\" conditions,\ni.e., a body, memory, personality and the illusion of time.\nSimply paying attention -- looking at and remembering these\nbasic, essential conditions -- is enough, for they are the vehicle\nthrough which we experience, and Recognize, the vast and\nInfinite nature of Reality.\nAwareness and Consciousness\n©1997-2000, Metta Zetty\nAll Rights Reserved."}
{"content":"Calculators help parents and children learn about healthy eating\n- Healthy Eating Calculator\nFind out how many calories to eat each day and how much of the different food groups are needed to provide those calories for a healthy diet for ages 2 to 20 years. (Uses Adobe® Flash®)\n- Kids' Body Mass Index Calculator\nUse this calculator to determine whether a child is at a healthy weight for his/her height, age and gender.\n- Adult Energy Needs and Body Mass Index Calculator\nKnowing your body's daily calorie needs can be an important first step in adopting a realistic diet and physical activity plan that can help you attain and maintain a healthy weight."}
{"content":"~Written by Julia Dweck\n~Illustrated by Patrica Saco\n| || |\nIn The Hare with the Pearl Earring Julie Dweck uses an unique approach to teach children about famous artists and the masterpieces they created. Her interactive ebook combines a fictional story with factual information to make learning enticing.\nHenny, the hare, is given the extraordinary opportunity of modeling for several famous artists like Vincent Van Crow, Picatso, Dove Vinci and others. Each artist paints a fantastic portrait of Henny in their own unique style with the hopes of being named the best artist in the town. Henny, loves all the portraits, but one holds a special place in her heart. All the artists create sensational pieces making choosing just one a difficult task. Find out who is named \"Best Artist\" and which piece of art Henny likes most.\nPatricia Saco is very talented and does an exquisite job illustrating the story and creates a masterpiece of her own.\nThe ebook also features icons which redirect readers to the real artists represented by the characters in the story. Readers have the chance to learn facts about the artist as well as see a piece of artwork created by them.\nWith art becoming scarce in many schools across the country The Hare with the Pearl Earring is an effective tool parents can use to help children experience art in an entertaining way.\nI really enjoyed The Hare with the Pearl Earring and highly recommend reading it.\nThe version with interactive icons is available at www.amazon.com. The interactive read aloud is only available on iTunes."}
{"content":"Far too many children educated outside mainstream schools are failed by the system. Our Head of Strategy Stephen Muers looks at a new report that highlights social investment could be part of the solution\nThe Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) has just published its report “Providing the Alternative”. It issues a clear call for a drive to improve education for children who are excluded from mainstream schools. Many of these children go into what is known as “alternative provision” (AP) – specialist centres for those whose needs cannot be accommodated in the mainstream. The overall outcomes for children in AP are shocking: in 2015/16 only 1.1% of them achieved 5+ GCSEs at A*-C including Maths and English.\nSome AP centres deliver an outstanding service. However in many parts of the country there are simply not enough good AP places. For example, the CSJ report shows that there are no AP places rated “outstanding” by Ofsted in the North East of England. In some parts of the country over a third are rated either “requires improvement” or “inadequate”. There is a need to establish more high quality AP for the children in these areas.\nThe Department for Education (DfE) could simply use grant funding to pay for new places, which it has done successfully in the past. However this leaves the taxpayer carrying the risk of paying for new provision that doesn’t deliver a good service, and requires up-front capital. To cover this risk the DfE will, naturally, tend to specify in detail what it wants. Such specification in turn cuts down the scope for innovation and learning.\nThe CSJ report proposes another option, an AP Improvement Investment Fund. This would be a partnership with the third sector and social investors. DfE would make a long-term commitment to pay a set sum per AP pupil in the areas where new AP is needed, crucially tying this payment to meeting a pre-agreed outcome standard. Social investors would put money into the Fund to back third sector providers who were able to create such provision, giving those providers a stable financial position and the scope to innovate. By transferring risk to investors, central government would have less need to manage inputs tightly and specify the detail of how new provision would work.\nThis proposal is a good example of a different way to create new public service institutions. Government would focus on the outcomes it wants to promote and make a long term commitment to pay for them. Many outcome-based contracts so far have been short-term, and do not give the scale and stability needed to build whole new service delivery institutions.\nLong-term commitments can challenge governments because public spending is only planned a few years ahead. However they are not impossible. Local authorities often commit to contracts of 15 years or more for waste facilities. If we can manage this for treating waste, why not for treating the most vulnerable children?\nWe at Big Society Capital believe that social investment can help unlock opportunities for the third sector to work in long-term partnership with government. If you’re keen to discuss the CSJ’s proposals around AP, or other similar opportunities, please get in touch with me at:"}
{"content":"Robert GillmorOrnithology and painting have been Robert Gillmor's principal interests since boyhood and he is now considered one of the foremost bird artists of his generation.\nHis work has appeared in over 100 books, and he has held exhibitions in the UK, USA and Kenya. He is a founder member of the Society of Wildlife Artists and, having served as its first Secretary, then Chairman, is now its President.\nRobert Gillmor is always seeking fresh inspiration in the field as he believes in studying birds in their natural environment. His sketches made throughout the world provide the basis for his paintings and illustrations in many media. Many of his pictures have been used by the RSPB, BTO, The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust and other organisations."}
{"content":"COMMON QUESTIONS ABOUT POST-PARTUM DEPRESSION & MENOPAUSE\n- Am I clinically depressed or could my moodiness be caused by depression?\n- My life is in transition – I’m stressed out at work, my kids are gone and I don’t care about sex. My friends think it’s from menopause. Could they be right?\n- My wife and I just had our first baby. Instead of feeling happy she’s miserable. It’s been very difficult for both of us. How do we know if it’s post-partum depression?\nWhat the experts say: Post-Partum Depression and Menopause\nHormonal fluctuations can caused by mood and body disturbances from adolescence through menopause. Some women are more sensitive to these fluctuations than others. Research shows that some depression may be caused by an imbalance of chemicals in the body.\nABOUT POST-PARTUM DEPRESSION\nFollowing child birth the severe drop in certain hormones can cause temporary depression or anxiety termed “post-partum depression.” In the past this was treated as a purely emotional problem. Now it’s recognized that in some women, effective treatment for a hormonal imbalance, can be treated both medically and psychologically. The media has raised awareness of the potential dangers of letting post-partum depression go untreated. It is imperative that if you suspect you are experiencing symptoms of PPD that you immediately seek a professional evaluation. PPD is treatable and the enormous weight of depression and helplessness can be significantly improved.\nMenopausal symptoms can be identical to clinical depression and the diagnosis is often confused. If the symptoms have never existed before and if your life-stressors are relatively normal, there is a greater likelihood that this is being caused by hormonal changes and you must see a professional for an accurate diagnosis and treatment recommendations.\nPeri-menopause is that period of time when the body is approaching menopause and can last up to ten years. The menstrual period becomes irregular as the hormone levels are changing, causing some women to experience PMS-like symptoms. Menopause actually lasts one day; occuring after a woman has had no periods for 12 consecutive months. After that, a woman is considered post-menopausal.\nWHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT POST-PARTUM DEPRESSION & MENOPAUSE\nThe emotional and physical changes you are experiencing can be disturbing and cause you to feel out of control. Many girls and women have the feeling that their emotions are “all over the map” when they’re having a period, having a baby, or going through menopause. Fortunately, the hormonal changes that can cause these emotional problems are not permanent and may be easily resolved with proper professional help.\nFor many women menopause can bring up complicated emotional responses. In years past society did not discuss menopause and our life spans were shorter, so menopause signaled the beginning of “old age.” Times have changed. We talk about it, we know that it’s a natural passage for all women (like puberty), and that it is not a disease. Menopause is certainly not the end of life; it is only the end of a woman’s ability to conceive. In fact, many women report feeling better and more sexually healthy after menopause.\nSeveral therapists at Birmingham Maple Clinic specialize in working with women moving through life transitions who may be experiencing feelings of depression or loss of sexual desire, related to menopause or other hormonal changes.\nFor more information visit the North American Menopause Society."}
{"content":"The picture book world is awash with stories of children who don’t want to put down their toys and go to bed. But for youngsters who don’t want playtime to end, who better to convince them to hit the hay than the toys themselves? In T.J. Hackworth’s delightful debut picture book Bedtime for Buzzy, a child is gently persuaded by each of his toys that they all need to rest.\nBuzzy’s toys haven’t finished their adventures. His astronaut hasn’t finished building his moon base; his pirate hasn’t found the treasure; his dinosaur hasn’t yet “stomped through the Great Divide,” and his courageous explorer is still searching for the “City of Gold.”\nAt the announcement of bedtime, Buzzy answers with a loud “NO!” Then, one by one, Buzzy’s toys relate how excited they are to continue their adventures with him—but first, they need some shut-eye.\nJust when Buzzy is beginning to nod off, he feels something poking him in his side. It’s “Courageous Explorer” riding his donkey and prodding Buzzy with his stick. The explorer is delighted to see Buzzy, noting that together they can find the City of Gold. “Oh, Good!” Buzzy says. “I was afraid I’d have to go to sleep, but now I can help you find the City of Gold instead!” Then the explorer makes the final case for bedtime: “We must find it in your dreams! That’s the only way. We hope you’ll help us!” And with that, Buzzy eagerly leaps into bed.\nThe dialogue between Buzzy and his toys artfully captures a child’s active imagination and excitement over fantasized adventures. And Sean Baptist’s illustrations do more than inform the text—they bring it alive with expressive, colorful cartoon characters. Together, the text and pictures imbue the characters with a warm, winning joie de vivre that’s impossible to resist.\nIn sum, Bedtime for Buzzy is sure to be a hit for young readers—as well as their grateful parents."}
{"content":"We all imagine tyrannosaurs, and especially the iconic Tyrannosaurus rex, the biggest and most fearsome carnivore on earth. However, there are many things about this great predator that you may not know about.\nThere are no more famous dinosaurs than Tyrannosaurus, a giant carnivore that roamed North America 66 million years ago. These ancient animals are often featured in popular culture, also in many children's books, everyone is familiar with big heads and small arms of tyrannosaurs. But there are many big misconceptions about this amazing animal.\nWe may know more about tyrannosaurs than any other group of dinosaurs because fossil evidence is abundant and the large number of studies about them - not just ordinary people, paleontologists also like tyrannosaurs. As a result, we really understand the form of this animal and how they lived and died in Mesozoic times.\nThey are predators and carcass eaters\nThere is a strong myth that tyrannosaurs are only carcasses. The odds are small, because very few carnivores can survive with their voter nature. Fossil evidence shows that both activities were carried out by tyrannosaurs.\nA close look at the feeding traces of a hadrosaurus by a large tyrannosaurus. This is strong evidence that tyrannosaurs eat carcasses.\nA number of fossils of herbivorous dinosaurs showed that they escaped from hungry tyrannosaurs, because tyrannosaurus teeth were found tucked in their bones. So, the animal must have survived the attack of tyrannosaurs who were about to eat them. We also have evidence of dinosaurs being bitten and eaten by tyrannosaurs after they died and their bodies partially buried - in short, tyrannosaurs eat carcasses.\nBest Of Printable Rhino Coloring Pages\nAfrican Elephant Coloring Pages Animals\nTyrannosaurus is a cannibal\nIn many circumstances, Tyrannosaurus is the only large carnivore in the ecosystem, so it's easy to know who's biting it when you find a scratch on the bone, and the piece that was released from being bitten. However, tyrannosaurs not only eat herbivores, but also each other. A number of tyrannosaurus specimens, including Tyrannosaurus, show traces of food from fellow tyrannosaurs.\nDaspletosaurus skulls with bite marks from battles with other tyrannosaurs and evidence that these animals were eaten after death (10cm scale).\nThese animals also interact with each other when they are alive and leave marks on their bones. Many specimens of tyrannosaurs have cured wounds on their skulls due to the bite of fellow tyrannosaurs.\n|T-Rex Tyrannosaurus Coloring Pages|\n|Best Of T-Rex Tyrannosaurus Coloring Pages For Kids|\n|Printable Tyrannosaurus Coloring Pages|\n|Cute Tyrannosaurus On Forest Coloring Pages|\n|Tyrannosaurus On Forest Coloring Pages Images|\n|Battle Tyrannosaurus Coloring Sheet|\nSee Other Images:\nBaby Elephant In Circus Animal Coloring Pages\nDaily Activity Family Otter On Lake - Coloring Pages\nNot all are giants\nAlthough Tyrannosaurus and its closest relatives include the largest terrestrial carnivores of all time - it weighs five tons or more, and is about 13 meters long - not all tyrannosaurs are giants.\nLike most other dinosaur groups, early types of tyrannosaurs such as Guanlong from China were small - only two or three meters long, including tails - and they had no large heads and short arms like their descendants 100 million years later.\nThree types of specimens of Tyrannosaurus from different times.\nThese smaller Tyrannosaurs are predators, but clearly lack bite size and strength so they look for smaller foods, and be careful not to be lunches of larger carnivores that live with them."}
{"content":"As we enter hunting season in Virginia, BRO is currently asking readers in our Switchback forum, “Should hunters and hikers share the same trail?” Unfortunately, as a timely coincidence, a 23-year-old girl was just killed by a hunter in Franklin County. The girl, a student at Ferrum College, was in the woods working on a science project, when she was mistaken for a deer. The hunter called 911 as soon as he realized what had happened. By bringing attention to this unfortunate incident, I am not intending to take a side on the issue. I instead bring it up as a reminder that while these different groups of outdoor enthusiasts coexist in the woods, it is important for both sides to be extremely cautious, so more tragic incidents like this do not occur.\nHere are some tips for safety from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy:\nKnow local hunting seasons—Specific dates for hunting seasons vary year to year and also by type of game hunted and weapon used.\nWear blaze orange—Wear a blaze orange hat and vest (and pack cover if backpacking), or hooded outerwear when hiking in fall, winter and spring.\nOther Clothing Tips— Avoid wearing colors that could be mistaken for game animals—white or brown during deer seasons; red or blue during turkey seasons.\nBe heard—Make sure you are heard before you are seen by whistling, singing, talking, etc., while you hike.\nBe alert for hikers and make your presence known to them—Many hikers are from urban or suburban areas and are unfamiliar with hunting.\nFollow all hunting regulations—Hunting, possession of firearms, bows, and hunting knives are prohibited on National Park Service (NPS) lands acquired for the protection of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. The use of off-road vehicles, including ATVs, is prohibited along the entire length of the Appalachian Trail.\nBe sure of your target—On National Forest lands in 2002 and 2003, two Appalachian Trail hikers were shot by hunters who thought they were shooting at deer."}
{"content":"November is Native American Heritage Month, which honors the cultures and traditions of Native Americans. It’s the perfect time to share the outstanding contributions Native Americans have made and to learn more about the issues facing these communities today. Here at Bookish, we plan to celebrate by reading! (Shocking, we know.) We hope you do too. Here, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite books by Native American authors to get you started. We recommend picking these books up, not just this month but all year long.\nWhereas by Layli Long Soldier\nIn her award-winning collection of poetry Whereas, Layli Long Soldier (who is a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation) shares important and timely insights about Native American identity and the ways in which Native Americans have been treated by the United States government.\nCynthia Leitich Smith’s young adult novel follows Louise Wolfe, who (like Smith) is a member of the Muscogee Nation, as she juggles senior year responsibilities and fights against prejudice after her school’s inclusive musical brings out an ugly side of her mostly-white high school.\nIn the foreword, First Nations editor Lisa Charleyboy calls this anthology “a love letter to all young Indigenous women.” This moving book collects the art, poetry, and prose of Indigenous women throughout North America and covers everything from identity to Standing Rock to social media."}
{"content":"Description - LEGO DC Super Heroes Visual Dictionary by Elizabeth Dowsett\nZoom into the world of LEGO DC Super Heroes with this visual guide to the minifigures, vehicles and sets, including the LEGO Batman Movie sets.\nExplore every detail of LEGO Batman's Batcave, look around Wonder Woman's Invisible Jet, examine Lex Luthor's awesome mech and find out about all the LEGO DC Super Heroes minifigures' weapons and gadgets. Find out how the awesome sets are created in the Beyond the Brick chapter, which features concept art and an interview with the LEGO DC Super Heroes creative team. LEGO DC Super Heroes- The Visual Dictionary will tell you everything there is to know about LEGO DC Super Heroes.\nThe book comes with an exciting exclusive LEGO DC Super Heroes minifigure! Zap! Pow!\n2018 The LEGO Group.\nTM & DC Comics.\nBuy LEGO DC Super Heroes Visual Dictionary by Elizabeth Dowsett from Australia's Online Independent Bookstore, Boomerang Books.\n(305mm x 260mm x 28mm)\nPublisher: Dorling Kindersley Ltd\nCountry of Publication:\nOther Editions - LEGO DC Super Heroes Visual Dictionary by Elizabeth Dowsett\nBook Reviews - LEGO DC Super Heroes Visual Dictionary by Elizabeth Dowsett\n» Have you read this book? We'd like to know what you think about it - write a review about LEGO DC Super Heroes Visual Dictionary book by Elizabeth Dowsett and you'll earn 50c in Boomerang Bucks loyalty dollars (you must be a Boomerang Books Account Holder - it's free to sign up and there are great benefits!)"}
{"content":"For many patients, corneal transplants offer a way to restore vision following injury or other disease-related and congenital forms of blindness. The traditional method for this procedure is to suture natural human corneal tissue from a donor eye into a recipient eye. In some cases, however, traditional corneal transplants fail, or a patient may not be a good candidate for natural tissue transplant due to special circumstances. When natural cornea transplant is not an option, more and more physicians are recommending artificial corneas, or keratoprosthesis, to restore precious vision.\nThe Boston Keratoprosthesis is an\"artificial cornea\" that can be used in severe corneal opacity. Many people with corneal disease can be helped by regular corneal transplantation involving tissue transplanted from human donors. This is the most common treatment for severe corneal opacity; however, in some cases such transplantation rapidly fails. Thus, the Boston Keratoprothesis can be used after standard corneal transplant has failed or when such a transplant would be unlikely to succeed. The keratoprosthesis implantation is a procedure designed to help patients whose conditions are the most difficult to treat.\nThe Boston Keratoprosthesis has been under development since the 1960s, and has been gradually improved. It received FDA clearance in 1992. Over 1200 implantations have been performed (Spring 2007). It is the most commonly used artificial cornea in the United States and in the world.\nThe keratoprosthesis is made of clear plastic with excellent tissue tolerance and optical properties. It consists of three parts but when fully assembled, it has the shape of a collar-button. The device is inserted into a corneal graft, which is then sutured into the patient's cornea like in standard transplantation. If the natural lens is in place, it is also removed. Finally, a soft contact lens is applied to the surface.\nGenerally, indicators of patients who require the Boston Keratoprothesis include:\n- Failed corneal graft, with poor prognosis for further grafting\n- Vision less than 20/400 in the affected eye and additionally with lower than optimal vision in the opposite eye\n- No end-stage glaucoma or retinal detachment.\nPrior to surgery, a detailed history will be taken by the performing surgeon. This helps to assess the corneal condition and determine if the patient is a good candidate for the surgery.\nRead here about a remarkable story of recovery of one of Dr Melki's patients.\nThe surgical procedure is performed on an ambulatory basis with the patient returning home - or to a hotel if the patient is coming from a distance - the same day. Most surgeries are performed with the use of local anesthesia, with the exception of infants and young children where general anesthesia may be indicated. Patients can expect to be in the operating room area for at least three hours for this procedure, including one hour and 20 minutes for surgery as well as pre-operative and recovery time.\nBecause of possible complications that can result after many surgical procedures, patients with keratoprosthesis require relatively frequent ophthalmologic examination in the beginning. In all cases, patients return to the Boston Eye Group the day following surgery for reevaluation, necessary prescriptions, and post-operative care instructions. Additional follow-up exams are usually during the first and second weeks after surgery. It is customary to return bimonthly for a check-up during the first year. After this time, examination by the surgeon every three to four months is also recommended.\nWith keratoprosthesis, best possible vision is restored quickly and patients often achieve optimum visual levels within a few weeks after the surgery. Because the prosthesis is made of synthetic materials that never totally become incorporated into the body, prophylactic antibiotic drops must be used indefinitely. Thus, a life-long regimen of daily drops of antibiotics is prescribed to prevent infection. In addition, medications to control inflammation and/or glaucoma are used when necessary. Also, during the early months following surgery, a protective shield is worn while patients sleep at night. For long-term postoperative safety it is recommended that the patient continuously wear a therapeutic soft contact lens (not felt by patient).\nRisks and Discomforts\nFor patients with severe dryness or inflamation, keratoprosthesis can give excellent results but is more risky. In some instances a membrane can develop behind the keratoprosthesis and interfere with vision. This membrane can be opened using a tiny laser beam without requiring additional surgery. Rarely, tissue around the stem of the prosthetic device dissolves which can lead to the leakage of fluid from the eye leading to infection or even vision loss. In such instances the surgery may have to be repeated.\nIn most cases, the cost of Keratoprosthesis is covered by major U.S. medical insurance plans. You should contact them prior to scheduling surgery to check. For patients who do not have insurance coverage, including foreign patients, please consult your surgical coordinator at the Boston Eye Group to discuss this matter."}
{"content":"Flashcards in Histology Deck (52):\nWhat is pseudostratified columnar epithelia?\nSingle layer of cells of differing heights\nWhat is transitional epithelia?\nWhere the basal cells are cuboidal or columnar and the apical cells are squamous or dome-like\nWhat is mesothelium?\nSimple squamous epithelia which lines closed body cavities\nWhat are exocrine glands?\nDucted glands which secrete substances onto epithelium\nWhat are endocrine glands?\nDuct-less glands which secrete substances directly into the blood\nWhat is a serosa?\nComplex tissue which lines closed body cavities and consists of epithelia and underlying connective tissue\nHow many microns are there in a millimeter?\nWhat are all connective tissue cells derived from?\nName the 5 types of connective tissue\nFibrocollagenous, cartilage, blood, bone, fat (adipose)\nHow is fibrocollagenous tissue classified?\nBy quantity of collagen fibres, type of collagen fibre, and organisation of collagen fibres\nDescribe loose/areolar fibrocollagenous connective tissue\nRelatively little type I collagen (in random directions), some type III collagen, some elastic fibres, has fibroblasts, mast cells, macrophages and some white blood cells\nDescribe dense irregular fibrocollagenous connective tissue\nAbundance of collagen type I (in random directions), some elastic fibres, fibroblast is main cell, provides ability to withstand tension in many directions\nDescribe dense regular fibrocollagenous connective tissue\nAbundance of collagen type I (in one direction only), few elastic fibres, mainly fibroblasts, found in tendons and most ligaments, withstands great tensile strength if force applied in one direction\nDescribe reticular fibrocollagenous connective tissue\nFine meshwork of collagen type III, loose ground substance, soft internal skeleton formed by fibres (stroma), mainly found in lymphoid organs\nDescribe white adipose connective tissue\nMain adult fat store, insulates, shock absorber, made of unilocular adipocytes (lipids fuses into one big droplet)\nDescribe brown adipose connective tissue\nInvolved in thermoregulation in neonates, multilocular adipocytes, organised into lobules by fibrocollagenous septa\nDescribe the extracellular matrix of cartilage\nSulphated GAGs, rich in proteoglycans and hyaluronic acid and type II colalgen\nWhat are the different types of cartilage?\nHyaline, elastic and fibrocartilage\nWhere do chondrocytes lie?\nIn lacunae (lake)\nDescribe fibrocartilage and where it is found?\nContains both type I (stronger) and type II collagen fibres and is found in IV discs, pubic symphysis, and knee menisci\nWhat is the perichondrium?\nA specialised layer of condensed, highly vascular fibrocollagenous tissue with chondroblasts embedded (for repair)\nWhat are muscle cells derived from?\nWhat is the basement membrane of muscle cells called?\nWhy does muscle stain bright pink?\nDue to large amounts of myofilament in cytoplasm\nSupporting reticular fibre network which carries capillaries and nerves to the muscle cells (fibres)\nSurrounds muscle fascicles\nSurrounds whole muscle with collagen and elastic fibres embedded, it is continuous with tendons and muscle attachments\nWhat are satellite cells?\nStem cells which can add to muscle, and are found beneath the basement membrane\nWhat do fibroblasts do in muscle?\nHelp produce endomysium\nWhat is the H-zone?\nJust the myosin filament, no overlap with actin\nWhat is the I-band?\nJust the actin filament\nWhat is the A-band?\nAll of the myosin filament, including overlap with actin\nWhat is the M-line?\nThickest portion of the myosin filament\nWhat is the Z-line?\nMarks end of sarcomere (actin)\nDescribe cardiac muscle cells\nBranching, multinucleate cells which meet at intercalated discs\nWhy does a fibrocollagenous scar form in cardiac damage?\nCardiac muscle doesn't have any satellite cells and therefore cannot repair itself and a scar forms instead\nDescribe smooth muscle cells\nSpindle-shaped cells with a central nuclei, no striations and that are closely arranged to form sheets\nWhat are myoepithelial cells?\nCells which have processes which surround secretory portions of exocrine glands, and contraction allows movement into the duct\nWhat are myofibroblasts?\nSpecialised cell that produces collagen it also have actin and desmin filaments which have a large role in wound healing --> proliferate to produce fibrocollagenous scar --> contraction reduces the size of damaged area in healing process\nWhat are pericytes?\nStem cells that are associated with capillaries and venules, and following injury proliferate to form new endothelial cells, fibroblasts or myofibroblasts\nWhat does a Nissl stain show?\nIt stains RNA and DNA\nWhat is a nervous system nucleus (or PNS ganglion)?\nCollection of neurones with common circuity and function (in grey matter)\nWhat is neuropil?\nDense tangle of neuroal axons, dendrites and glial processes and is site of communication between various components\nWhat glial cells are present in the central nervous system?\nOligodendrocytes, astrocytes and microglia\nHighly branched cell that surrounds the surfaces of neurones and blood vessels in the CNS and an important part of the BBB; proliferates at the site of injury to form a 'glial scar'\nProduce myelin by wrapping membrane around axons (one cell can myelinate many axons)\nSpecialised macrophages in CNS (smallest cell and hard to see without stain)\nWhat glial cells are present in the peripheral nervous system\nSchwann cells and satellite cells\nDescribe Schwann cells\nMyelinate axons (1 Schwann cell segment per axon)\nDescribe satellite cells\nSimilar to the astrocytes of the CNS (physical and metabolic support)\nDefine 'motor unit'\nMotor neurone and all of the skeletal muscle fibres it contracts"}
{"content":"Professor Kudasz carrying out a successful hole in the heart operation in Hungary\nStory about Professor Jozsef Kudasz carrying out a successful hole in the heart operation.\nCUs. Children playing football, skipping, riding scooters and bicycles. CUs. panning over children's beds in the Chirugical Clinic showing children lying flat on their backs.\nCU. x-ray of the heart. CU. Machine, electronically registering heartbeats. Medium panning shot of the artificial heart panning up to CU. Vessels that hold blood. CU. Doctor's report sheet in Hungarian. CU. From below of the battery of lamps over the operating table, which are switched.\nCU Surgeon, Professor Jozsef Kudasz. High Angle GV. operating theatre, with the operation in progress move into medium. CU. of doctors over the patient. CU. Heart Beating. Medium panning shot along the equipment which makes up the automatic heart - the machine is in motion. CU. Heart beating. CU. To Rotating arm on the automatic heart. Various CUs. of surgeons and nurses at work. Medium panning shot showing all the doctors and nurses at work around the operating table. CU. Rotating arm on the automatic heart slowing down to a stand still MS. a continuous graph coming out of machine.\nCU. Surgeon smiling. CU. Small boy (the patient) smiling. (Mute. Lav)\nNote: The patient's name is Andras Taraszovics, aged 13."}
{"content":"Prophylaxis, (also known as teeth cleaning), polishing, fluoride application.\nOral and radiographic examination with digital radiography, reducing radiation exposure by 80-90% compared to traditional xrays.\nTeeth grinding prevention appliances are used to cushion the teeth from the destructive effects of clenching and grinding.\nCustom sports guards made with the Druformat™ pressure vacuum system used by many NFL™ teams and other professional athletes for a superb fit for better protection and comfort. Read more about Mouthguards in this article by By Ray Padilla.\nHome Fluoride Pastes available in prescription strength for decay problems.\nPit and fissure sealants for children and teens to seal the deep grooves in permanent teeth and prevent decay forming bacteria from impregnating the teeth.\nDental Professional Packaged Electric Toothbrushes offered."}
{"content":"|Course Title||AS/A Level Psychology|\nPsychology is the scientific study of mind and behaviour. If you are considering taking Psychology you need to be curious about both typical and atypical behaviour. You should enjoy thinking about and scientifically researching questions such as: Why do I obey police officers? Why can I listen to the radio and play on a computer game at the same time? How can a person with a fear of spiders be treated? This course also includes occasional guest speakers and trips relevant to psychology.\nA qualification in Social Sciences gives you a good background and provides you with the skills and knowledge which are applicable in a wide range of areas. On completion of these courses you may choose to study at degree level and pursue a career in any of the following areas: National and Local Government, Human Resources, Health, Social Work, Voluntary Agencies, Education, Criminology, Management, and Health and Social Work. In order to become a Psychologist you will need to study Psychology at university.\nTo study A Levels at Bury College you must obtain a minimum of six GCSE grades. These must include 4/5 in English Language and mathematics (minimum combined total of 9 points). Plus, a minimum of two additional GCSEs at grade 4 or higher. As well as a minimum of two additional GCSEs at grade 5 or higher. In addition to these entry requirements, you must have GCSE English Language grade 9-5 (A*-C).\nThis course will start in September and you will study for two years to achieve the full A Level.\nFor the AS programme you will study social influence, memory, attachment, psychopathology, approaches in psychology and biopsychology. You will study six compulsory topics, assessed over two 1.5 hour exams. There will be three topics per exam over one year. For the A Level programme you will study social influence, memory attachment, psychopathology, approaches in psychology and biopsychology, research methods and issues and debates in psychology. Your options may be gender, schizophrenia and forensic psychology. You will study eight compulsory topics and three optional topics over two years which will be assessed with three two hour exams at the end of year two.\nPsychology continues to be a popular AS and A Level choice at Bury College. It works well with Science, Art, Business and Humanity subjects. If you are thinking about becoming a Psychologist you may consider volunteering with the Student Action Group alongside your academic studies. This activity allows you to work in the community in a safe and secure manner and will enhance both university and job applications. The A Level Psychology Study Programme will develop your English and communication skills as well as your numerical skills. All of these skills are highly valued by any higher education institution or employment field.\nYou will have the opportunity to participate in a week’s work experience in each year of the course. This work experience will be tailored as far as possible to your career aims, or provide you with the opportunity to explore possible careers. In addition, it provides opportunity to develop valuable skills for a personal statement or CV.\nA range of enrichment activities are available in college and the A Level Study Programme team will provide you with opportunities to do activities that contribute to your wider growth and development. In many cases tutors will support you in your academic studies by allowing you to explore things that are related to the subject areas that you are interested in.\nThere are no additional costs to study on this course.\nA range of career-enhancing free courses have been launched at Bury College for adults across the borough."}
{"content":"- At a congressional hearing this week, Jerry Cuomo, IBM's vice president of blockchain technology,testified about the potential governmental uses for blockchains.\n- Identification documents, payment systems, and systems that trace the movement of foods and drugs, are among the most promising initial governmental applications for the technology, Cuomo said.\n- Lawmakers were wowed by how much quicker blockchain technology has made the process of tracking down food products.\nIBM wants to get Uncle Sam on a blockchain.\nThe digital ledger technology that underlies bitcoin is ready to be used for everything from paying taxes to tracking food and drug shipments to newer, more secure identification cards, said Jerry Cuomo, vice president of blockchain technology at IBM, at a hearing Wednesday organized by the Congressional Blockchain Caucus.\n\"There is an opportunity for the United States to build upon its momentum to lead blockchain by doing,\" Cuomo said in his testimony. \"We should focus our efforts on projects that can positively impact US economic competitiveness, citizens, and businesses.\"\nCuomo encouraged lawmakers to focus on incorporating blockchain technology into already established governmental projects and programs, rather than trying to start new blockchain-themed initiatives. That could help speed its use and adoption and help the US stay at the forefront of blockchain development, he said.\nGovernment agencies at both the federal and state level are already experimenting with the technology. Some states are developing blockchain-based drivers licenses and identification cards. Meanwhile, IBM is working with the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on some blockchain projects, including one that could speed the CDC's ability to develop new drugs.\nRight now, drug development involves lots of paperwork. Blockchain technology could help improve the process by putting all of the important information related to drug development in an easily accessible and secure place online.\nDeveloping new drugs \"doesn't just take a long time because people are slow,\" Cuomo said. \"The processes are extremely paper intensive. I see these groups taking the right first steps.\"\nIn an interview with Business Insider, Cuomo predicted that blockchain-based digital identities will be the first big project to take off at the federal level, because officials can build off the work going on in the states.\nIn addition to Cuomo, Frank Yiannas, vice president of food safety at Walmart, also testified at the hearing, talking about how his company is using blockchain technology. The retail giant has teamed up with IBM to develop a blockchain designed to track the movement of produce from farmers through distributors and stores to consumers. The technology could be useful in responding to reports of food contamination, when entities like the FDA need to quickly determine which food to recall.\nWhen Yiannas told lawmakers that the process of tracking down particular food products has gone from seven days to to 2.2 seconds, thanks to blockchain technology, they were in awe, Cuomo said.\nHere's a full video of the hearing:\nThis is a subscriber-only story. To read the full article, simply click here to claim your deal and get access to all exclusive Business Insider PRIME content.\nGet the latest IBM stock price here."}
{"content":"Time for a second round of Q&As!\nAs I explained in my blog post last week, I joined Qing Liu as a panellist on Bureau van Dijk's webinar, The role of company financial data in identifying financial crime, in August.\nIn our hour-long session we examined the trends of financial crime over time and shared some perspectives on the challenges we face today. We also drew on case studies to show how the use of financial data and corporate ownership structures can be used to minimize financial crime and mitigate risk – and the webinar is now free to view on-demand.\nBecause we couldn't answer all the questions posed by of our audience of compliance professionals on the day, we've attempted to address the rest in these two blog posts, the first covering questions on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing.\nNoting again that these are my personal views, here's the second batch, this time on the general theme of typology – or recognised patterns of behaviour – and it's also available as a printable PDF.\nYour questions answered\n1. \"How does cyber crime facilitate or help in current financial crime?\"\nCyber crime can exponentially facilitate the occurrence of financial crime. Aside from their own opportunist activities, financial criminals are recruiting cyber criminals to build and identify corporate structures on their behalf.\nThis is enticing as there is no requirement for face-to-face contact; all can be done online, more quickly than doing so manually. There is much more flexibility, as cyber has no physical boundaries and geographical considerations are not required.\nCyber crime provides distance between parties in a transaction and often anonymity, which in turn promotes criminal activity and makes it more difficult to prosecute. I can buy an established corporate structure more than three years old, with all the accompanying documentation and associated operating bank accounts, from the dark web with a high level of anonymity for as little as $1600.\nDo you have an algorithm that picks up companies that have been incorporated for more than three years?\n2. \"What is the trend for using super funds as a means and vehicle to store criminal proceeds?\"\nThe deposit of funds into a super fund is an ideal way of both getting a return on your money and explaining wealth when it is withdrawn. Identity (either false or partially taken-over) is all that is required, and, especially with self-managed funds, criminals have control over when money can be withdrawn. The identity just needs to be someone with an age that makes the withdrawal of funds not suspicious.\nGiven the expansion of super funds, I believe that organised crime is going to use this medium more often as it provides an ability to move value intergenerationally without suspicion.\n3. \"With the trend in blockchain technology, what are the challenges in the utilisation of financial data for identifying financial crime, especially money laundering?\"\nI believe whilst blockchain will not be a panacea for fixing financial crime, the functionality, if properly configured, will actually benefit asset identification and control, as there is a greater capacity to have individuals independently validate the data on the ledger in such a way that time makes the information more robust to illegal alteration.\n4. \"I understand that money is classified as being laundered once it has entered the bank. Why is this so?\"\nMoney can be defined as laundered even before it hits the financial system. It is just that the entrance into the financial system is deliberate, so that value can be transferred easily between parties. Once entering the financial system, the characteristics of the money changes. This then constitutes money laundering, which is the deliberate attempt to disguise the true nature of money or property.\n5. \"If a company just wants to minimise its overhead cost, is that also considered money laundering?\"\nThe legitimate minimisation of costs through efficiency and restructure is perfectly fine and should be applauded. Whilst in some circumstance minimisation of costs may represent a benefit to a criminal group, most of the time they falsely portray increased costs, which reduce profit and thus reduce tax.\nIf action is taken to falsely represent activities within a business irrespective of the outcome, i.e. profit or loss, the result may fall into the definition of money laundering. It depends on the circumstances of each case.\n6. \"Pricing – under-pricing or overpricing – is a very tricky part in trade finance. What methodology have you previously applied to determine if the pricing is fair or not? With certain niche products, pricing ranges and prices change frequently and significantly.\"\nI agree with your statement. You can only hope to minimise, not eliminate, trade-based money laundering. The more information you can get on the behaviour of similar companies and products, the more understanding you will have of the events presented to you. Experience is critical and it can be very difficult to achieve working off a checklist.\n7. \"With regards to the identifying and verification of beneficial owners, what solution can you offer if the beneficial owners refuse to sign a declaration that they are the beneficial owners, even though a financial institution has identified them as such?\"\nDon't do business with them! It is not worth the risk in the long run. For me, that is probably grounds for a suspicious matter report. I do not know any law-abiding person who denies ownership of assets that they have obtained legally unless maybe if they are engaged in divorce proceedings…\n8. \"What are your views on using artificial intelligence to tackle financial crime?\"\nLike all ideas, no single idea is going to solve the problems, but industry needs to get smarter on how it is going to deal with low-value, high-volume transactions at low cost, whilst still minimising criminal regulatory and reputational risk. It does not take much money to have a successful terrorist event.\n9. \"What ways can a company clear its name from a list from the central bank list?\"\nUnfortunately, individuals and companies can sometimes find themselves on such lists, either misguidedly or otherwise. If, as an organisation, you believe your inclusion on a list is unjustified, then a dialogue needs to be created to establish from the various referees why the circumstances exist and what needs to be done to correct them, and then get on and do it. I have sympathy – in some cases the cost of this suggestion can be high.\n10. \"Some financial institutions only identify ultimate beneficial owners with more than 10% ownership. Would you consider this sufficient due diligence?\"\nIn some cases, no. If you look at pump-and-dump schemes and market manipulation, 10% share ownership of a company would be very unusual. I believe each corporate customer needs to be assessed on its merits. If your organisation sets targets, criminals will come to understand this and adjust their activity accordingly.\nOne big advantage Australia has re AML/CTF over other jurisdictions is they have not set a minimum bar for international funds transfers; they require reporting of all transactions.\n11. \"How can you identify a shell company? Many are handled out of the British Virgin Islands, Seychelles, Samoa, etc, which have proven extremely difficult to trace.\"\nBureau van Dijk can help you trace these companies. You need to then ask the question of the directors: what does your company do? Their answers should help you make a determination. If these companies are clients of your clients, you need to ask your client.\nYou will not be able to help it if they lie to you but at least you have a record of your enquiry and the answers they supplied. If you are unhappy with the answers, or they do not supply information to your comfort, don't do business with them!\n12. \"You indicated in the webinar that a red flag might be a company with only a small number of employees recording very high gross revenue. In modern society, companies are replacing employees with technology, so how could this be a reliable red flag.\"\nThe dynamics of the records published in respect of a person or company will help formulate the additional questions that need to be asked to fill in the information gaps.\nSometimes what has been reported is valid but I have also seen many examples where activity does not make commercial sense, and yet it is allowed to proceed.\nAs mentioned in the webinar, number of employees is one criterion that may be looked at. There is a combination of other factors that may be considered to make a more holistic decision. For example, you can look at financial performance, the industry the company operates in, the legal status of the entity, the location of the entity, length of incorporation, the ownership structure, etc. Bureau van Dijk would be happy to assist you with additional information in relation to this.\n13. \"How would you advise on the treatment of transactions that a client says is a loan or loan repayment between individuals or entities? There is really no agreement or contract for such personal loan arrangements.\"\nAsk for the documentation and if it does not exist, then delay the transaction until they are either created or provided. It is not your role to determine the truth of the document unless that information is available to you, but at least you have something on which you have assessed your risk.\n14. \"How are Australian banks managing the risk of money laundering when allowing customers and non-customers to do large cash deposits on automated transaction machines (ATMs)?\"\nMy view is that as long as these transactions are recorded – this includes suitable identification mechanisms – then assessments of risk can be made.\nThe issue arises when the cash transaction cannot be matched with a legally verifiable person. Again, the issue is not so much in relation to the size of the cash withdrawal but to the verification of the identities of individuals undertaking such withdrawals."}
{"content":"This is another application for cutting concrete floors that some people take for granted.\nConcrete walk behind saws powered by hydraulic, electric, diesel or gas are typically used for cutting pavement at airports, local streets, and even your home driveway. They are also use for interior trenching for placement of plumbing pipes, sewers, drains and electric services.\nWe have all the necessary blades for cutting different depths and saws for inside jobs where gas can not be used.\nWater is another factor to deal with when cutting concrete floors. Water must be controlled because of the extreme use of it when cutting concrete floors. It will travel everywhere unless contained. We include that service when we estimate a slab sawing job so you don’t have to call your neighbor or friend for help.\nRequirements for cutting concrete slabs:\n- Layout must be done by home owner or general contractor. All cuts should be marked before Cape Cod Concrete Cutting arrives on site.\n- If you need a concrete floor cut it is essential that we know the thickness, footage, if water is available and access is very important.\n- Water control will be needed on most concrete slab jobs, and will be provided at an additional charge by Cape Cod Concrete Cutting.\n- Ventilation is a must when we use a gas or diesel concrete walk-behind saw. If ventilation is a problem then we will us electric saws for that job.\n- Access is essential to allow us to get the saws in and out of the building or space being cut. The concrete slab saw is very heavy and awkward to maneuver in tight areas. The cutting area must be clear of all obstructions to allow the operator to do his job properly and efficiently.\n- If water and power is not present we can provide it.\n- These are typical requirements and may not pertain to every job."}
{"content":"Alberto and Pedro are good friends. They are teenagers, they live in Bolivia and they are classmates. Both of their fathers are famous scientists. Like his father, Pedro is fascinated with science. Alberto, on the other hand, is an artist. He draws amazingly well every animal that he sees. One day while they’re playing and walking along the shore of Lake Titicaca, they notice a mysterious man. Combining their scientific and artistic talents, the two friends begin to try to solve a mystery involving wild animals.\nThis fictitious novel is based on fewer than 100 high frequency words in Spanish. This novel is intended to facilate langauge acquisition and biliteracy. It contains a managable amount of vocabulary and numerous cognates, making it ideal for beginning language students.\nShort and captivating! Glossary included.\n5\"x7\" paperback, 68 pages."}
{"content":"Published at Friday, November 16th 2018. by Denise Shaffer in Ceiling.\nCeiling scape in the basements. We have ceiling scape because there are so many situations where our ceilings going to be higher and then lower. Now out in this big section that I'm standing in here to the left side of that red beam there, this whole side of the basement, the left of the stairs it's going to be a full height, nine-foot ceiling, there's nothing in my way, okay! Well, for the most part, there's not, there is some ductwork right down there that I'm going to build a soffit around, but for the most part, this whole side is going to be one high 9-foot ceiling. Then I've got a 16-inch duct trunk and then I've got about thirty. Two more inches of duct trunk and then back out here I've got gas lines and finally, I have a high ceiling with nothing in my way. So what am I going to do here? Well, I'm going to build underneath the gas line. All these ducts I'm going to continue across right underneath that PEX, the water lines right, underneath the sewage line and right underneath the steel making that one lower section of the ceiling from the steel beam the whole way out to the end of my gas lines right there. The gas lines, and then from the gas lines over to the exterior wall, which is about another six feet, I'm going to go back up full height with mice, with my drywall ceiling right to the bottom of that floor, joists all right. So I have an upper ceiling just about six foot and I've got a lower section.\nWell, I do high-end work with a lot of recessed lights. This basement is probably going to have 25 recessed lights. I like to see real drywall wherever I can. So that can be painted and look like the rest of the home, and you really do have to stand back. Look at the big picture and design your ceiling scape from maximum height and straight crisp lines. All right, you don't want to be up and down up and down everywhere. Okay, I wouldn't come across underneath this ductwork and try to go back up there, where I have a little bit of space between those red and blue pecs lines in the ductwork. There's not enough space there are only two feet: it wouldn't be worth all the aggravation, so you really have to think about keeping it simple getting as much as you can in each soffit and maximize your height, wherever you can all right now that that lower section is Soffit right there from that corner there right out to that edge right there in front of the recessed light. Was that section of lower ductwork? It was about 16 inches deep, we boxed it out, and then we went right back into the next section of the soffit, which was that first 12-inch steel beam that we saw that was up there stairs here and show you this okay.\nSo when you come down the stairs, what we did was we angled this down and moved it out just a little bit further, actually out to the end of that column right there, and that gave us enough Headroom here and I'm reaching my hands straight up over My head full extension here and I'm just able to knock on that. So there's plenty of headroom there for a tall person. I mean you could be 75 and still walk down these steps, and then you can see. We've got a from the one red steel beam right over to the other red steel beam that was there. We just went straight across all right, so that's how we hit the two, the two red beams and then back out here on the other side as I said earlier mm, this is all one big pie, nine-foot ceiling cuz.\nThere was nothing in our road over here. So we were able to frame that or not have to frame that at all. Rather, we just put the drywall right to the bottom of the floor, joist right now out here where we went from the red pecks and the sewage line that was up there and there were some wires and other stuff up in there. We lower the ceiling again right out here to the edge here where we go back up again. That soffit turning out to the end over the top of the refrigerator and balanced out those windows and then turning back around this way, you can see that lower soffit runs the whole way down to the other end of the basement up to the finished wall. And then we have the high section of ceiling that runs the whole way the whole way down the basement down to this end to this soffit.\nAny content, trademark’s, or other material that might be found on the carnevaledibusseto.com website that is not carnevaledibusseto.com’s property remains the copyright of its respective owner/s. In no way does carnevaledibusseto.com claim ownership or responsibility for such items, and you should seek legal consent for any use of such materials from its owner.\nCopyright © 2018 carnevaledibusseto.com. All Rights Reserved."}
{"content":"An article of impeachment introduced last week charges President Donald Trump with obstructing the investigation of his campaign’s possible collusion with Putin’s Russia. Like most plans for dethroning Trump, it’s based on proving that the president is crooked.\nRep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) has a different plan: he wants to remove Trump on the grounds that he’s crazy. Raskin, a former law professor and now a member of the House Judiciary Committee, favors invoking the 25th Amendment’s provisions for declaring the president “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” The bill Raskin’s pushing would create an “Oversight Commission on Presidential Capacity,” empowered to examine the president for signs of mental illness.\nAll I can say is that if Trump agrees to this ridiculous arrangement, it better be on TV\nHere’s how it’s supposed to work: under powers granted by Section 4 of the amendment, Congress sets up a team of four psychiatrists, four physicians, two “retired statesperson[s]” such as former presidents and VPs, and a team-elected chairperson. When Congress summons them into action, their mission, should they choose to accept it, is to examine the president and determine whether he “lacks sufficient understanding or capacity to execute the powers and duties of the office”—and report back within 72 hours.\nThat’s the plan: An 11-man strike force of assorted shrinks and medics—plus, say, Bill Clinton and Dan Quayle—descends on Donald Trump, takes his vitals, and puts him on the couch to work out whether he’s too nutty to be president. All I can say is that if Trump agrees to this ridiculous arrangement, it better be on TV.\nOf course the examination will never happen, as Raskin’s bill all but concedes: “any refusal by the President to undergo such examination shall be taken into consideration” in the commission’s disability ruling. But how could such a refusal count as evidence of mental impairment? Agreeing to be poked and prodded under such circumstances would prove Trump has a screw loose. What’s more, the psychiatrists on the team are barred by professional ethics rules from diagnosing a patient they haven’t personally examined.\nBut imagine that the commission declares the president incompetent anyway: the 25th Amendment also requires the vice president to ratify their assessment before he can take power. Mike Pence, who’s thus far stood by his man like a classic political “good wife,” seems unlikely to sign on. Even if he did, Trump just has to send a letter to Congress affirming his own competence, and he’ll be restored to power unless “by two-thirds vote of both Houses,” Congress sides with Pence and the commission—something else that’s never going to happen.\nRaskin has a point when he charges that Trump’s ongoing “bizarre litany of events and outbursts” has raised legitimate concerns about his temperament and stability. But the 25th Amendment wasn’t designed for ejecting “merely” erratic or untrustworthy presidents. Introduced in the wake of the Kennedy assassination, it aimed at situations of total disability, whether temporary or permanent. The worry with Trump isn’t that he’s “unable to discharge” the powers of his office—it’s that he’s reckless and immature enough to do enormous damage while he does so.\nWe already have a standing body empowered to make an initial ruling on that sort of presidential fitness: the U.S. House of Representatives, to which the Constitution grants “the sole Power of Impeachment.” Contrary to conventional wisdom, that remedy isn’t limited to cases of corruption or abuse of official power. In its survey of the “Constitutional Grounds for Presidential Impeachment,” the Nixon-era House Judiciary Committee identified a third category of impeachable offense: “behaving in a manner grossly incompatible with the proper function and purpose of the office.”\nThe House has the power to impeach, and the Senate to remove, a federal officer whose conduct “seriously undermine[s] public confidence in his ability to perform his official functions.”\nCongress’s reluctance to engage in that debate is probably what’s driven Rep. Raskin’s to political gimmickry. So far, Republicans and most Democrats shrink from the notion of impeachment, treating the “I-word” as politically blasphemous. But as Trump’s “bizarre litany” continues, Congress may not be able to avoid the debate indefinitely.\nImpeachment’s purpose, constitutional scholar Greg Weiner explains, is “prophylactic,” not punitive: “to protect the public” from officials whose conduct presents an unacceptable risk. Whether Trump’s conduct presents such a risk isn’t a clinical question for specialists in lab coats—it’s a practical judgment that the Constitution leaves to the people’s representatives."}
{"content":"Mining of domestic minerals and metals is a cornerstone of the U.S. economy, but data just published by the Energy Information Agency (EIA) show investment in U.S. mining and exploration declined an incredible 35% last year—from 135 billion in 2014 to 88 billion in 2015. This represents the second largest decline since 1948. There has also been a secular increase over time of imported minerals.\nThree factors are contributing to this decline. Opposition to mining by the environmental movement increases costs because of litigation and delays. The withdrawal of federal lands, often with permanent restrictions on mining, force manufacturers to look elsewhere and, in part because of the opposition of environmentalists, the permitting process is long and drawn out. And last, a delay of three to four years or more, which is not uncommon, can reduce the value of a mine by 30-40% or more, souring investor interest. All of these factors have been particularly hard on coal, which is also being displaced by increasing natural gas from the hydraulic fracturing shale revolution.\nFederal holdings used to be called the “land of many uses,” but increasingly the government, bowing to environmentalist pressure, has decided that mining of coal and minerals is no longer one of those uses. Millions of acres, largely in the West, are now zoned for no mining, no matter how remote they might be. All of these factors make mining here more expensive than elsewhere.\nU.S. minerals need to be mined, not undermined.\nSenators push for domestic mining\nWhat can be done? Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski, to her great credit, has sponsored two bills that could improve the efficiency of energy and mineral development, especially with respect to federal permitting. The proposed bills are linked together in a larger energy bill now before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Perhaps the most important part of this bill is an improved performance metric for federal agencies involved in various stages of permitting for energy development.\nJoined at the hip to this energy bill is the proposed Mineral Security Act, also designed to expedite the permitting process and to therefore increase the amount of domestic mining.\nSad to say, the committee vote for this important legislation is being held up in the Senate Committee, not by federal, regional or state issues, but by local problems of contaminated drinking water in the city of Flint, Michigan.\nHope for America’s energy renaissance\nNevertheless, until the final disposition of the energy and minerals bill is learned, there is hope on the horizon for minerals mining and energy production in general. The Supreme Court’s stay of EPA’s Clean Power Plan will provide real relief to the coal industry, as well as natural gas producers. In January, the House passed the Stream Act (H.R. 1644) which was crafted to block the Stream Protection Rule—a monstrous rule proposed by the Office of Surface Mining that would result in large waste and job loss in the coal fields. It awaits the attention of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Finally, a U.S. District Judge in Anchorage issued an injunction to stop any further efforts by EPA to deny the Pebble Partnership due process rights to develop and submit a permit application to mine copper and gold in southwestern Alaska. We recently detailed the sad tale of EPA’s misuse of an obscure section of the 1977 Clean Water Act to stop the owners of what is, value-wise, the second largest copper-gold deposit on earth, from even applying for a permit. Things may be turning around in the mineral and mining world.\nWithin only the past five years, the U.S. has hit full stride in what is being called the American energy renaissance, and the U.S. is now the world’s leader in both oil and natural gas production. Minerals mining can follow the same pathway of success, especially if the federal permitting process is streamlined—reducing processing time from months and years—to a number of days or a few weeks at most, as in many states. Passage of and adherence to the Energy Policy and Minerals Security bill would work to reduce permitting time and hence decrease unnecessary imports of many minerals that are abundant here. U.S. minerals need to be mined, not undermined."}
{"content":"Then we saw the \"generic\" Democratic candidate for president ahead of the \"generic\" Republican by double digits, only to see polls after the GOP convention with Sen. John McCain way ahead of Obama.\nWhy the ups and downs? Well, polls, as a \"snapshot in time,\" do tend to jump all over the place in close elections. But this year goes beyond that.\nA Christian Science Monitor article published yesterday helped explain why:\nMore than in any other presidential election in recent times, polls may be failing to capture accurately what's happening in the American electorate. There are a couple of reasons, but the most key for the pollsters are massive voter-registration drives, especially by the Democrats, which have created millions of first-time voters. Pollsters aren't quite sure yet how to calculate the impact of all these new voters on the election.\nAs the article goes on to explain, pollsters are going bonkers trying to figure out how much weight to give to first-time voters, to young voters, and to other new entrants to the political scene.\nBut I hesitate to put too much faith in an increased youth vote, because young adults (18 to 24) are the most underrepresented of any demographic group in national elections:\nOnly once since 1972 have more than 50 percent of youths voted in a presidential election. Still, some groups are saying that this year is going to be different. CIRCLE, the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University, has released several reports measuring the youth vote in various presidential and congressional elections. According to them, the 2000 presidential primaries had only a 9 percent turnout from voters under the age of 30, but the 2008 primaries saw nearly double that. For the past three election cycles, there has been an increase in the number of voters aged 18 to 24. Such increases have not occurred in almost 40 years. Now, as we look towards Election Day in November, we can be hopeful that even more youth will turn out.\nIn 2004, 47 percent of those aged 18 to 24 voted. While this might seem high, compare it to the 66 percent of voters 25 and over that turned out.\nMy take is, don't depend too heavily on the youth vote to vastly increase voter participation rates. Young people typically have less money than their older counterparts (makes sense since older people have been out in the workforce longer). So many of them tend to vote in lower-income neighborhoods. In recent elections, some of those neighborhoods have been plagued by inadequate numbers of polling booths, broken polling booths, and hours-long lines for would-be voters. I'll never forget the media reports from Ohio in 2004 about low-income voters waiting in the rain for six hours to vote. How many 20-year-olds can withstand that type of test to cast a ballot?\nObviously, the Obama campaign is hoping tons will. But I'm taking a \"I'll believe it when I see it\" stance.\nBy Bonnie Erbe"}
{"content":"Back to School Basics\nWe are excited to welcome our students back to school in mid-August! Here is some important information to keep in mind as you and your family prepare for the new school year. Use the + sign next to each heading to see information related to that topic.\n- When is the first day of school?\n- When is my child's open house or schedule pick-up?\n- What school will my child attend?\n- What are my school's hours?\n- How do I contact my child’s school?\n- How do I look up my student's teacher assignment?\n- How do I look up my student's bus route information?\n- What is Home Access Center and how do I access it?\n- How do I communicate a change in my child's transportation arrangements?\n- I'm new to Centerville. How do I enroll my student?\n- How do I update my home address?\n- I’m not sure if my telephone number is correct to receive calls from The Education Connection. How do I check my number?\n- How do I check my school's calendar?\n- How do I find my student's school supply list?\n- How do I pay student fees?\n- What's for breakfast and lunch?\n- How else can I stay connected to Centerville throughout the year?\nIn addition to open houses, the middle and high schools have the following plans for distributing student schedules.\nMagsig Middle School will host a new student orientation on Aug. 9. Sixth grade orientation takes place from 9:30 a.m.-noon, and new seventh and eighth grade students will meet from 10:30 a.m.-noon. All other students will receive their schedules on the first day of school.\nTower Heights will host an orientation for new sixth graders on Aug. 9 from 10 a.m.-noon, and those students will receive their schedules at that time. New sixth, seventh and eighth grade students, along with their parents, will have an orientation from 7-8 p.m. on Aug. 9, and the seventh and eighth graders will receive their schedules at that time. All returning seventh and eighth grade students will receive their schedules on the first day of school.\nWatts Middle School will mail schedules home to all students in grades 6-8 the first week of August. Students can stop by the school between 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Aug. 9-10 to walk their schedules.\nSchedule pick-up for grades 10-12 at Centerville High School will be Aug. 7-8 from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Freshmen will receive their schedules at orientation on Aug. 9. CHS parking pass and activity pass sales will take place Aug. 7-9 from 9 a.m.-3 p.m.\nAM Preschool: 8:10-10:50 a.m.\nPM Preschool: 11:55 a.m.-2:35 p.m.\nAM Kindergarten: 8:10-10:50 a.m.\nPM Kindergarten: 11:55 a.m.-2:35 p.m.\nGrade 1: 8:10 a.m.-2:35 p.m.\nGrades 2-5: 8 a.m.-2:20 p.m.\nGrades 6-8: 8:50 a.m.-3:35 p.m.\nCHS Grades 9-12: 7:50 a.m.-2:50 p.m.\nMorning SOP: 8:15-11:15 a.m.\nAfternoon SOP: 12:45-3:45 p.m.\nEvening SOP: 3:45-5:45 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday\nClick here to download a printable graphic.\nThe Home Access Center (HAC) is an online portal for parents and students to access information that includes demographic data (emergency info and contacts), transportation (bus routes), attendance (absence and tardies), fees (balance and fee history), classes (scheduled courses and teachers), grades and report cards (grades 6-12 only).\nBus route information and the option to pay student fees online will be available on HAC. Parents should use their existing log-in information to view the information.\nIf you have never accessed HAC, use the Register link to create your account. This link can be found in the Login box. In order for this process to work, you must have a valid email address on record. You also will need to confirm the parent or guardian name and the ZIP code on file. If you have trouble completing the registration process, please send an email to email@example.com.\nIf your child is opting out of bus services or will be served by a childcare provider at an address other than your home, you must have an Alternate Transportation Form on file. If you have not yet completed this form, you can download it from our Forms & Documents page and return it to your child’s school. You do not need to complete this form if your child rides the bus from your home address.\nIn addition, the Transportation Department will continue its process for temporary transportation changes, such as your child riding a different bus after school. This form also is available on the district’s Forms & Documents page and should be returned to your child’s school as needed.\nCenterville Schools has a Student Enrollment Center, allowing families to register all their school-age children at a single location in the district's Board of Education Office at 111 Virginia Ave., Centerville, OH 45458. Visit our New Student Registration page for enrollment forms and to schedule an appointment.\nPrior to the start of school, you can download the Change of Address form and return your complete form to the Board of Education Office at 111 Virginia Ave., Centerville, OH 45458. Once school begins, please work with your child’s school office on address changes.\nPrior to the start of school, you can update your telephone number on the Home Access Center (HAC). Each guardian must log in to update their own contact information. At the beginning of the school year, a Student Information Sheet will be sent home with each child, and you also can update your contact information on that.\nVisit our Calendars page to access the district’s academic calendar as well as school and athletic calendars. A filter tool is available to select which calendars you’d like to view. Each school is responsible for inputting their own events.\nVisit our website and then select your child’s school. School supply lists for preschool through middle school are available on each school’s main page under Downloads. High school students will receive supply lists from their teachers.\nFamilies can pay school fees and fees for athletic and co-curricular activities online through the Home Access Center (HAC). There is no processing fee for online payments.\nParents should use their existing log-in information to view the fees for their children. Once logged into HAC, click on the Registration icon and then on the Fees tab. You should see your child’s fees listed there with prompts on paying with a credit card. At this time, families must make separate payments for each child.\nThose who do not wish to pay online may submit their payment to their child’s school office. Forms will come home with students at the start of the school year. If you have questions about fees, please contact your child’s school.\nBreakfast and lunch menus are available on the Student Nutrition Services website. The site includes interactive menus that have nutrition and allergen information as well as information about applying for free and reduced price school meals. You can add money or check the balance of your student’s meal account on the MyPaymentsPlus website.\nBookmark Centerville’s website to view district and school news, calendars, forms, classroom websites, social media highlights and more.\nFollow Centerville City Schools on Facebook and Instagram or search for the district hashtag #ElkPride to receive daily updates on important announcements, upcoming events, photos, videos, news stories and more.\nBe sure to read the district’s weekly e-newsletter, which is sent to all parents/guardians every Wednesday during the school year. The newsletter includes district news and events as well as upcoming school fundraisers and community activities. Visit the School Announcements page to access archived copies of the newsletter.\nIf you are an Apple user, download Centerville’s free mobile app from the Apple store. The app allows you to stay up-to-date with district news and calendars, contact your child’s school and access quick links for students and parents. To download, search for “Centerville Schools” from your mobile device’s app store.\nIf you have additional questions, please contact your school’s main office or the Board Office at (937) 433-8841."}
{"content":"Research begins at the SOLARIS synchrotron in PolandLocation\nSOLARIS synchrotron, Krakow - Poland\nOn October 2nd, 2018, scientists from Poland and abroad have started regular research at the Polish CERIC Partner Facility in Krakow, Poland, the National Synchrotron Radiation Centre SOLARIS.\nFor the moment, three end-stations are available at the SOLARIS synchrotron: PEEM (photoelectron microscopy), XAS (X-ray absorption spectroscopy) and UARPES (angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy). Beamtime was granted to scientists on a competition basis, through an open call for applications which closed on May 25th. The proposals were evaluated by an international commission.\nTwenty-six experiments prepared by groups of scientists from eleven Polish and five foreign universities and research institutes, will be carried out at SOLARIS between October 2018 and the end of February 2019. Among the first users of the Kraków synchrotron are also researchers who were awarded beamtime through the open call launched by CERIC-ERIC.\nScientists will carry out research in the fields of physics, materials science and chemistry. They will investigate topological insulators, Dirac materials and superconductors, as well as the electronic properties of materials, magnetic interactions and the distribution of elements in materials. In the future, measurements may contribute to the development of more efficient photovoltaic cells, faster and more capacious hard disks or new electronic materials.\nThe SOLARIS calls for proposals will be announced by the SOLARIS synchrotron twice a year, in spring and autumn. The closest deadline for submitting applications is April 1, 2019."}
{"content":"Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor David Paul Cronenberg was born on this day, March 15, 1943. One of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or \"venereal horror genre,\" a style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection, he explored these themes mostly through horror and science fiction throughout the first half of his film career. He has been called \"the most audacious and challenging narrative director in the English-speaking world.\nCronenberg has appeared on various \"Greatest Director\" lists. In 2004, Science Fiction magazine Strange Horizons named him the 2nd greatest director in the history of the genre, ahead of better known directors such as Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Jean-Luc Godard and Ridley Scott. In the same year, The Guardian listed him 9th on their list of \"The world's 40 best directors\". In 2007, Total Film named him as the 17th greatest director of all-time.\nCronenberg received the Special Jury Prize at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival for Crash. In 1999, Cronenberg was inducted onto Canada's Walk of Fame and was awarded with the Silver Bear Award at the 49th Berlin International Film Festival.\nIn 2002, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, and in 2006 he was awarded the Cannes Film Festival's lifetime achievement award, the Carrosse d'Or. Also in 2006, Cronenberg was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the senior national body of distinguished Canadian scientists and scholars. In 2009 Cronenberg received the Légion d'honneur from the government of France. The following year Cronenberg was named an honorary patron of the University Philosophical Society, Trinity College, Dublin. In 2012, he received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.\nThe opening of the \"David Cronenberg: Evolution\" Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) exhibition occurred on October 30, 2013. Held at the TIFF Bell Lightbox venue, the exhibition pays tribute to the director's entire filmmaking career and the festival's promotional material refers to Cronenberg as \"one of Canada's most prolific and iconic filmmakers\". The exhibition will be shown internationally following the conclusion of the TIFF showing on January 19, 2014.\nIn 2014, he was made a Member of the Order of Ontario in recognition for being \"Canada's most celebrated internationally acclaimed filmmaker\"\n1913 - Macdonald Carey (actor: “Like sands through the hourglass these are the Days of Our Lives”; Comanche Territory, The Rebels, Who is the Black Dahlia, Access Code; died Mar 21, 1994)\n1935 - Judd Hirsch (Actor: Taxi (1978), Numb3rs (2005) and Independence Day (1996)\n1954 - Craig Wasson (actor: Body Double, Malcolm X, Phyllis, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors)\n1975 - Eva Longoria (Actress:The Young and the Restless (1973), Desperate Housewives (2004), Harsh Times (2005), The Sentinel (2006))\nKim Raver (Actress/Director: 24 (2001), Third Watch (1999) and Night at the Museum (2006)"}
{"content":"Perhaps the heart of coal country is the last place one would expect a utility to reduce carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants. However, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is ahead of schedule on its target to reduce greenhouse gasses. The utility announced it has reduced carbon pollution to 23% below 2005 levels. Moreover, TVA appears on target to achieve reductions of 40% below 2005 levels by 2020.\nThe TVA was established under FDR’s administration to build flood control dams in a multi-state region in the south and use those dams to generate inexpensive hydro-electric power to a poverty stricken region where millions did not have electricity. Since that time the TVA has expanded its electrical generation into coal-fired and gas fired plants. In recent years, in part because of incentives provided under the Obama administration, the TVA has been developing renewable energy sources.\nTVA’s reductions surpass both the Energy Information Association’s (EIA) projections that the utility sector as a whole will reduce GHG emissions by 11 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, and the White House Climate Action Plan target of 17 percent reductions from 2005 levels by 2020.\nThe reduction in TVA’s greenhouse gases can largely be attributed to the utility’s planned retirement of 5,580 MW of coal-fired power plants, with more retirements likely to come. The projected drop in future carbon dioxide (CO2) rates will put TVA in line with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) New Source Performance Standards for new gas turbines, as well as the new EPA carbon rules expected this summer.\nTVA has reduced carbon pollution 28% since its peak year in 1995. In addition, TVA has reduced SO2 emissions 97% since the peak year in 1977, and reduced NOX by 90% from the peak in 1995. They have done this in large part by reducing coal consumption from 5.5 million tons a year in 2008 to less than 5 million tons in 2013. TVA projects that it will reduce coal consumption to less than 2.5 million tons by 2017—cutting it in half.\nIf a utility in the heart of coal country can do this, why can’t utilities located far from coal country do the same?\nDr. Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE), commented:\n“These are impressive numbers, which represent a critical step toward mitigating climate change impacts while proving that cleaner energy will protect air and water in the Tennessee Valley. The utility’s steady decline in past emissions, coupled with a lower projected future rate of emissions, demonstrate that TVA’s system-wide numbers appear to be well positioned ahead of new emission limits for existing sources of pollution from EPA this summer.”\nThere is another benefit for the region by retirement of these coal-fired plants and that is air quality. Pollution largely attributed to burning coal has shrouded scenic areas like the Smokey Mountains in a deep haze. They were named Smoky Mountains because of the natural ozone, but the additional haze from pollution has made it hard to see the beautiful mountains.\nThe Grand Canyon and other National Parks in the west suffer with the same haze largely from burning coal to make electricity. Maybe those utilities can follow TVA’s lead."}
{"content":"Modern China is an enigmatic country by today's standards concerning economic values and political ideals. The \"communist government that Mao Zedong brutally sculpted and administered has gone through an intensive transformation. The days when Marxism and Socialism supposedly provided guidelines for Chinese economic policies have passed. Now the government exists as a quasi-communist authoritarian regime supported by a market economy.\nEconomic progress is commonly associated with democratization, and in many cases this theory holds true. Taiwan is the exemplary East Asian model of a formerly authoritarian regime turned democratic due in part to economic development. Yet some nations, Singapore for example, maintain healthy economies and high standards of living despite the presence of authoritarianism within the government. Although China has experienced noteworthy economic development over the past twenty years, its government has not made any significant progress towards democracy.\nThe Chinese economy stagnated during the social-oriented rule of Mao in the 1950's. Instead of focusing on the modernization of the country's agricultural-based economy, China's leader intended to install the many values and doctrines of communism into Chinese society. It was evident that economics took a back seat to Mao's greater vision of a communal society, \" ¦Stalin emphasized only technology, technical cadres. He wanted nothing but technology, nothing but cadre; no politics, no masses ¦Stalin speaks only of the production relations, not of the superstructure, nor of the relationship between superstructure and economic base ¦Stalin mentions economics only, not politics. 1 The chairman of the People's Republic believed that once communism had grown deep roots in his country's society, economic development would inevitably follow. ... Continue Reading"}
{"content":"Sir Paul Maxime Nurse\nNurse, Sir Paul Maxime, 1949–, British biochemist, Ph.D. Univ. of East Anglia, 1973. Nurse was associated with the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now Cancer Research UK London Research Institute) for two periods in his career (1984–88 and 1993–2003), becoming director-general in 1996, and was a professor at Oxford (1988–93). He was president of Rockefeller Univ., New York City, from 2003 to 2011, when he became director of the UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation, now the Francis Crick Institute. Nurse is also president (2010–) of the Royal Society. In 2001 Nurse was co-recipient with Leland H. Hartwell and Timothy R. Hunt of the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their discoveries of key regulators of the cell cycle. Nurse identified, cloned, and characterized cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK), a key regulator of the cell cycle. The discoveries of three are important to the understanding of the development of chromosomal instabilities in cancer cells.\nThe Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.\nSee more Encyclopedia articles on: Biochemistry: Biographies"}
{"content":"bellows, expansible, gas-tight chamber used to pump or store a gas. One of the simplest and most familiar types of bellows is the manual one used for providing a forced draft to a fire. The expansible chamber consists of a leather bag with pleated sides. The bag is fixed between handles in such a way that they can be used to make it expand and contract. The inlet and outlet vents are provided with valves so that air must enter through the first and leave through the second. The device thus comprises a simple air pump. One of the major uses of the bellows has been to provide a draft for fires that are used to help extract a metal from its ore. In a device such as an aneroid barometer a small bellows is filled with a known amount of gas that expands and contracts in response to changes in external pressure. This small bellows is coupled to some form of indicating or recording device. Another use of the bellows has been to provide wind for such musical instruments as the accordion and older pipe organs.\nThe Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.\nMore on bellows from Fact Monster:\nSee more Encyclopedia articles on: Technology: Terms and Concepts"}
{"content":"In May Dr Eric von Wettberg visited the Ecole Nacional Superieure de Toulouse as a visiting faculty fellow to continue ongoing research on salt tolerance of wild alfalfa (Medicago truncatula) from the Mediterranean. In addition to lecturing on his work to colleagues and researchers at ENSAT, he presented new results at the Model Legume Meeting (a scientific conference on Medicago) in Sainte-Maxime, France.\n• FIU/FTBG graduate student Tonya Fotinos (Von Wettberg lab) was recently awarded a Florida Native Plant Society conservation grant for her research on the genetic diversity in the federally endangered Keys Tree Cactus, Pilosocereus robinii. Populations from the Florida Keys have experienced a more than 80% decline in population in the past decade through habitat loss and environmental change. This grant will provide the laboratory supplies to develop molecular markers to determine whether remaining populations are reproducing sexually, and help identify good candidate populations for the on-going reintroduction efforts.\n|• The publication of the book The Anatomy of Palms by Prof. Barry Tomlinson (Harvard University and National Tropical Botanic Garden), Dr. James W. Horn (currently at the Smithsonian Institution), and Fairchild’s Dr. Jack B. Fisher (recently retired) represents an important research contribution in structural botany and evolution in this large tropical plant family. The book is the result of a four year project at the Garden funded by the National Science Foundation (project number: 0515683) and provides the most complete account of palm anatomy ever produced. This study also provided an avenue to train one graduate student (Karen Laubengayer, MS) and additional research opportunities to a post-doctoral researcher (Dr. James W. Horn). The Oxford University website (http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199558926.do) provides additional information on the content and structure of this book. Copies of this work are for sale at the bookstore of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Image on bottom left: Leaf anatomy of Washingtonia. Bottom right: Dr. Jack Fisher teaching tropical botany at the Garden.|\n|• Botanists from the Institute of Jamaica (Tracy Commock and Keron Campbell), the National Botanic Garden of Dominican Republic (Rosa Rodriguez, Teodoro Clase, and Brígido Peguero), and Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden (Melissa Abdo) performed a field expedition to the Dominican Republic between May 9th and 13th. During this visit the team collected plant material in limestone karst mogote habitats, helping to build upon baseline data that the National Botanic Garden of the Dominican Republic has collected to date. The expedition was supported by the MacArthur Foundation and was aimed at enhancing institutional collaborations among botanical institutions of the Caribbean Islands. Image on the right: The Director of the National Botanic Garden of the Dominican Republic Ricardo Garcia (left) greets Tracy Commock and Keron Campbell). Image on the bottom left: plant hunting limestone karst mogote habitats at \"Los Haitises\" National Park, from left to right: Rosa Rodriguez, Keron Campbell, Tracy Commock, and Teodoro Clase. Image on the bottom right: one of the mogotes at \"Los Haitises\" National Park where field studies where performed.|\n• Our welcome to Nicolas Espinosa, Fairchild Challenge Alumnus and sophomore student of Florida International University who will be working with us as a research intern during this summer. Nicolas is majoring in Environmental Studies and during his High School years at South Plantation High School he was an active participant of the Fairchild Challenge. His internship is being funded by a NSF project on \"Caribbean Cycads Biogeography, Conservation, and Systematics\". During this internship Nicolas will be hosted by the Montgomery Botanical Center (in May, mentored by Dr. Patrick Griffith and Dr. Chad Husby), the herbarium of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden (in June, mentored by Dr. Bret Jestrow and Dr. Javier Francisco-Ortega), and the Subtropical Horticulture Research Station of USDA (in July, mentored by Dr. Dayana Salas-Leiva and Dr. Alan Meerow). His research at Montgomery Botanical Center will focus on ex situ conservation methods. During his internship at the Fairchild Herbarium, Nicolas will gain experience in herbarium management and the use of optical microscopy techniques for systematics. Finally, his studies at USDA will be based on the use of DNA techniques to address phylogenetic questions. Nicolas joined this research team on May 9th. The image on the right shows Nicolas spraying soapy water on Caribbean Islands taxa of Zamia to control mealy bugs at the Montgomery Botanical Center.\n• Under the supervision of our Herbarium Curator Dr. Brett Jestrow, botanists from the the Institute of Jamaica (Tracy Commock and Keron Campbell) undertook an intensive workshop on DNA methods for plant biodiversity assessment between May 16th - 18th. The workshop included an introduction to DNA isolation, PCR, and sequencing techniques with an overview of phylogenetic methods and related resources. As a result of the workshop, we achieved our goal of establishing the foundation for future collaborative projects focused on threatened endemic plant species from Jamaica. Image on the left (from left to right): Brett Jestrow, Keron Campbell, Tracy Commock, Melissa Abdo, and Marlon Rumble.\nAs part of the educational activities of our NSF funded project on Caribbean cycads and in coordination with the Fairchild Challenge program, the Montgomery Botanical Center hosted students from Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High School on May 3. The students were led by teacher Marie Remy. These activities were part of the Environmental Immersion Day Option of the Fairchild Challenge. The visit focused mostly on the \"Cycad Biology\" program of the Montgomery Botanical Center.\n|• A new article by FIU/FTBG conservation Biologist Dr. Kenneth Feeley was published as the cover article in the new issue of the prestigious journal Ecology. The article, entitled \"Directional changes in the species composition of a tropical forest\", examines changes in the composition of tree species growing on Barro Colorado Island, Panama. Dr. Feeley shows that over the past 25 years there has been a remarkably consistent and directional pattern of increasing abundances of drought tolerant species at the expense of more drought insensitive tree species. The cause(s) of this change remains uncertain but the most likely culprits are either long-term changes in climate leading to reduced water availability (i.e., increasing temperatures adn reduced rainfall), or alternatively the compositional changes may be the ongoing legacy of an extreme El Nino drought that occurred in the early 1980's.|\n• FIU/FTBG graduate student Evan Rehm (Feeley lab) will spend May 2011 initiating his dissertation research project in the Andean highlands of southern Peru. Specifically he will be working with local collaborators to establish longt erm vegetation and seed dispersal monitoring plots at the ecotone between montane cloud forest and puna grasslands. Evan will leave Peru in June and July in order to attend the Organization for Tropical Studies course in Tropical Ecology at Costa Rica. Evan will return to Peru briefly in August in order to complete the summer field season of work before returning to FIU for the fall semester.\n• FIU/FTBG graduate student Catherine Bravo (Feeley lab) will spend May – August in her home country of Peru in order research patterns of carbon allocation in cloudforest plant species. This research will help inform our understandings of the impacts of global climate change on carbon sequestration in tropical forests and will form the foundation of Catherine’s thesis project.\n• FIU/FTBG graduate student Brian Machovia (Feeley lab) will remain in Miami over the summer in order to focus on his dissertation research investigating patterns of land conversion for Banana production in Central and South America. This research will be conducted primarily through the analysis of time series of remotely-sensed data (e.g., satellite and aerial images) combined with environmental data layers (e.g., temperature, precipitation, soil type, and topography), supplemented with field based data to be collected in the future. Bananas are one of the most widespread an important of all tropical crops yet their impact on the environment remains woefully understudied.\n• FIU/FTBG Conservation Biologist Dr. Kenneth Feeley will spend May-July in southern Peru. In addition to assisting his graduate students, Evan Rehm, Catherine Bravo, and Brian Machovia. Dr. Feeley will be initiating a new series of field projects aimed at experimentally manipulating environmental conditions (temperature, precipitation, radiation) in the high puna grasslands above Cusco and monitoring the consequences for the establishment of cloud forest tree species. Understanding the role of environmental filters in limiting the distribution of cloud forest species is an important piece of data required to predict how this critical ecosystem will respond to climate change and other anthropogenic disturbances. Dr. Feeley will also take several exploratory trips throughout southern and central in order to scout new field sites and establish relationships with potential collaborators."}
{"content":"Only Words? Not this ‘UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE’\nSam Green uses visual poetry and other universal languages—music, gesture, and movement—to tell the story of Esperanto.\nTo call Sam Green’s Esperanto documentary The Universal Language a film about a “failed experiment” would itself be en epic fail. It’s a film about hope, dreams, and a visionary in search of a better world. It’s a paean to a 19th- and 20th-century mass movement that may seem as odd and foolish in retrospect as it was vital and necessary in its time. It’s a love-letter to optimists, written in the strangely pragmatic language of Esperantists. It was developed in conjunction with a few other chapters of Sam Green’s vivid and engaging live-cinema performance Utopia in Four Movements, which premiered at Sundance in 2010 and has now played all over the world. Green has added a new chapter to his work on utopian thinkers, with the debut of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art-commissioned Yo La Tengo-accompanied The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller May 1 during the San Francisco International Film Festival. We spoke with Green, whose Universal Language film is still traveling the festival circuit, last week. (Join us April 26 as we celebrate Sam Green and other Fandor filmmakers in the San Francisco International Film Festival with a cocktail party at Public Works, SF.)\nKeyframe: It’s really been a pleasure to watch your filmmaking, thinking, art and presentation evolve and grow over the years, and to see you emerge from the pack of documentary filmmakers to become such a stylized (I hate to use this word) ‘auteur.’ Was there an ‘aha’ moment for you in shifting to live presentation? With live music? (And I ask, because I saw elements of The Universal Language first as a live performance, in Utopia in Four Movements, workshopped at the Exploratorium in SF before debuting at Sundance, where I saw it again…!)\nSam Green: An aha moment? Actually there were a couple. One came when a guy named David Dorfman got in touch with me a couple of years ago. I didn’t know it at the time, but he’s a pretty well-known choreographer. He said that he wanted to do a dance piece on the Weather Underground and wanted to talk about my film. I was a bit dismissive in my thoughts: ‘A dance piece on the Weather Underground? What a crazy idea!’ I had really struggled w/ that film to get all of the facts straight and to make it as clear as humanly possible. I felt a real historical responsibility. How could you do any of that with dance??? What about all the complex ideas that would need to be communicated? So needless to say, I didn’t have much hope for the piece. But when I saw it later at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, I was actually blown away (no pun intended). It was fantastic! There weren’t any facts or figures, but it was still very powerful and deeply moving. Through light and movement and gesture and mood, David had been able to say a helluva lot. And it got me thinking about how different forms create different expectations with audiences. So when you see a documentary film on TV or go to see a doc in a theater, you expect a certain amount of linearity and clarity. That’s what we’ve come to associate with a documentary film. When you go to see a dance piece, you have a very different set of expectations. You expect a dance piece to speak to you in a much more abstract and poetic language. So seeing David Dorfman’s Underground was a pivotal moment for me. I became curious about different forms and the broader ways one can communicate with an audience. Another aha moment was seeing the live version of Guy Maddin’s Brand Upon the Brain. I loved that film and the ‘liveness’ was a huge part of the movie’s magic.\nKeyframe: The music and soundtrack—between the Quavers and Dave Cerf’s sounds—really convey an ‘elegiac’ tone, as I know others have commented. Can you talk about your musical collaborators and how you come up with sound ideas to contrast and support your visual and narrative ideas?\nWhen you see a documentary film on TV or go to see a doc in a theater, you expect a certain amount of linearity and clarity. That’s what we’ve come to associate with a documentary film. When you go to see a dance piece, you have a very different set of expectations. You expect a dance piece to speak to you in a much more abstract and poetic language.\nGreen: I’m a huge fan of the Quavers and Todd Griffin’s music. With Esperanto, there’s something wonderful and inspiring about the language and the movement around it. There’s also something that strikes me as quite melancholy. It might be that because I’m Jewish I’m predestined to respond to certain emotional chords like this one. In any event, I worked with Todd and Dave Cerf for the score to The Universal Language. Todd ended up doing most of the tracks. By now we know each other well and have developed a very good and satisfying collaboration; we go back and forth a bunch of times on each track. Sometimes I drive him a little crazy. But Todd is very good at understanding what I mean when I say something nutty sounding like ‘Can you make that track a little bit more ‘smiley’?’\nKeyframe: Esperanto, as a subject, offers you so many opportunities to reflect on the century past’s idealists and where the urge to transform large swaths of the public to a notion/religion/ideology came from. Can you offer a short primer for readers of this Q&A on Zamenhof’s original impulse and where it came from? And please remind us of the forces who literally killed human beings over their desire to speak Esperanto together. Those were startling facts.\nLudwig Zamenhof grew up in the town of Bialystok, Poland, where there were four major ethnicities: Jews, Russians, Germans, and Poles. They all spoke different languages, and they all hated each other. There were even terrible pogroms. As a young man, Zamenhof had this inspiration that if people could speak a common language, they would see each other more as people—that this would help us to overcome war and racism. It was a wonderful vision.\nGreen: So Ludwig Zamenhof grew up in the town of Bialystok, Poland (incidentally, that’s where Dziga Vertov was from, and Alan Berliner‘s family as well, but that’s a different story). During Zamenhof’s time, there were four major ethnicities in Bialystok: Jews, Russians, Germans and Poles. They all spoke different languages, and they all hated each other. There were even terrible pogroms where lots of people were killed. So it was a very bad climate. And as a young man, Zamenhof had this inspiration that if people could speak a common language, they would see each other more as people—that this would help us to overcome war and racism. It was a wonderful vision. He spent many years putting together the language and actually published a book laying out the grammar and vocabulary in 1887. The word Esperanto fittingly means ‘one who hopes.’ With Espernato it was kind of a ‘right place, right time’ scenario. The early 20th century was a time when people believed in the power of grand social experiments to transform the world. Many of these blossomed during that time: communism, mass production, the League of Nations. So Esperanto fit into that. And during the early part of the 20th century, there was a thriving world-wide movement of people who spoke the language and believed that it would become a ‘second language’ for the world.\nThere still is a world-wide movement of people who speak the language today. But their hopes and expectations for Esperanto are more nuanced and perhaps tempered.\nKeyframe: It truly is moving to see such a wide variety of human faces—Japanese, Swedish, a New Caledonian, Israeli, Finn (the list goes on)—seeking true understanding through a shared language. The way your camera pauses on those faces pre-interview lets us fall in love with them a bit. Do you do your own camerawork? And, secondly: gestures, facial expressions, human movement (we can tell when someone is tired and shuffling, wearied, in any language): Are these our true Universal language? In a sense, the way your film looks at people tells us this. I ask, also, because I believe your partner works in dance, so am curious if that’s had an influence on you.\nGreen: This is a good question. I actually love that non-verbal kind of communication in documentary. The gestures and facial expressions that people make can often be far more revealing and communicative than what a person is saying. So there’s a motif throughout the film of portraits of Esperanto speakers that Andy Black and I shot at a World Esperanto Congress in Yokohama Japan.\nI’ve always been struck by how profoundly diverse the Esperanto movement today is. And also the fact that Esperanto speakers are across the board nice people. No matter where they are from, they are nice. So I wanted these portraits to evoke some of that. And just showing the people in some ways is a much more compelling portrait of the language than what they might say about it—how they might sell the language themselves.\nKeyframe: Though we may want to believe we are the sole operators of our destinies, we live in another highly socially engineered era, the digital age. What do you predict will be the backlash against this one?\nGreen: Hmmmm. A complicated question. The digital age is amazing and in many ways really is a utopia. Look at Wikipedia, or even Google images. I love Google images and feel like it’s now become a fantastic cultural treasure on the level of the Royal Library of Alexandria.\nBut this is all a double-edged sword. People interact different with digital media than they do with traditional (tactile?) media. I know I do. In many ways, the digital media is throwaway stuff. There’s so much of it. I find myself approaching a song or movie on my computer with much less patience and sustained attention than I would a film in a theater or an album on a record player.\nDigital media is also far less social in the how it’s consumed. And this is something I definitely think people are reacting against. People seem hungry for live events still and the kind of human interaction and in-the-moment-ness that comes with that. Look at Pop-Up Magazine in SF. It’s phenomenally popular. This is the inspiration for the ‘live documentaries’ I’ve been doing. I love the magic of cinema—the feeling when the lights go down and you are in a room full of strangers and you give yourself completely to the movie. You are subsumed by this odd collective experience. By doing live cinema events, a filmmaker can keep his or her work in that context.\nTodd [Griffin] is very good at understanding what I mean when I say something nutty sounding like ‘Can you make that track a little bit more ‘smiley’?’\nKeyframe: Are the linguists weighing in on your film? Where’s Noam Chomsky on all this?\nGreen: Lingusts are often very dismissive of Esperanto. Many think that Esperanto can’t possibly be a ‘real’ language—hell, some eye doctor in Poland just made the whole thing up!\nThere are other lingusts though that are interested in Esperanto and appreciate that it raises interesting questions about the nature of language and culture. And it also says much about language inequality in the world today—the way language is shaped by power and politics.\nKeyframe: Please remind me of what the Esperanto word for ‘female scoundrel’ is. Do you yourself have favorite Esperanto swear words?\nGreen: The word for female scoundrel is Inacxo. There are lots of Esperanto words in general that I like. They often have a cool, sci-fi-ish sound to em. The word for the United States is Usono. ‘Hello’ is Saluton. Those are cool words!\nKeyframe: How can viewers find the hip-hop tune created by the native Esperanto speaker that closes your film?\nGreen: Oh man, love that song. Who knew that a hip-hop song in Esperanto could be so catchy! And the lyrics are good too! That song is called ‘Nova Kanto’ and it’s by a Brazilian rapper named Tone. We have an interview with Tone (in both English and Esperanto) as well as lots of links to his stuff on the film’s website: esperantodocumentary.com.\nSusan Gerhard is the editor of Keyframe."}
{"content":"|No.3 May 2007|\n|Crop Prospects and Food Situation|\nLow-Income Food-Deficit Countries1/ food situation overview\nProspects for the 2007 cereal crops deteriorate in North and Southern Africa\nFAO’s early forecast for the 2007 cereal production of the LIFDCs as a group points to a crop of about 883 million tonnes, marginally above the good level of 2006. However, when excluding China and India, accounting for some two-thirds of the LIFDCs’ aggregate cereal output, production of the remaining countries is seen to decline slightly, following two consecutive years of substantial increases, but would remain above average.\nTable 6. Cereal Production1 of LIFDCs ( million tonnes)\n1 Includes rice in milled terms.\nNote: Totals computed from unrounded data.\nIn Southern Africa, where the harvest of the 2007 main season coarse grains crops is well advanced, prolonged dry spells in parts, coupled with floods in others, have lowered outputs in all countries, except in Angola and Malawi, where a bumper crop is being gathered and an ample exportable maize surplus is anticipated. Sharp output reductions are expected in Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Swaziland, affected by severe dry weather, while in other countries the cereal output will still remain at normal or above-normal levels. In North Africa, rains in April arrived too late to benefit the winter wheat crop in Morocco, adversely affected by below-normal precipitation since the beginning of the season; the output is anticipate to decline by 50 percent from last year’s good level. In Egypt, the irrigated wheat crop is forecast to decrease but to remain at an average level. In Asia, prospects for winter crops, to be harvested from July, are overall favourable in CIS countries and in the Near East, where an increase in production is anticipated following good weather since the beginning of the season. In particular, in Afghanistan, despite localized losses due to flash floods, cereal output is anticipated to recover from last year’s drought-affected level. In the Far East, prospects for the 2007 wheat crops, about to be harvested, remain overall favourable. The subregion’s aggregate output of LIFDCs is forecast slightly above last year’s good level with larger crops in India, Pakistan and Nepal, more than offsetting lower outputs in China and Bangladesh.\nElsewhere in the group of LIFDCs, planting of the 2007/08 main season cereal crops is underway or about to start in Eastern, Western and Central Africa, as well as in Central America. For countries of Africa, FAO’s early and tentative production forecast assumes a return to average growing conditions and a drop of cereal yields from last year’s record levels.\nImprovement in 2006/07 food aid allocations\nThe aggregate cereal import requirements of the 82 LIFDC’s in marketing years 2006/07 or 2007 (calendar basis) are estimated by FAO at 89 million tonnes, some 1.5 million tonnes above the previous year’s actual imports. This reflects an increase of about 6 million tonnes of wheat imports in India, which more than offset lower volumes in most of the other LIFDCs, notably in North, Eastern, Southern and Western Africa, where record or bumper crops were gathered in 2006. As a result of this good performance, the LIFDCs’ total food aid requirements in marketing years 2006/07 declined by one-third from the previous season’s level, to some 4.5 million tonnes or about 5 percent of their total cereal import requirements. Based on information received in GIEWS by mid-April, 68 percent of the food aid requirements have been covered by donors’ deliveries of pledges. In Southern Africa, where countries have just entered their new marketing year, about 80 percent of the food aid needs were covered, while total imports reached 93 percent of FAO’s initial forecast level. In countries of North Africa and in the four countries of Latin America, food aid deliveries/pledges have more than covered the requirements in 2006/07. Good progress has also been made in countries of CIS Asia, where the new marketing year will start next July, as well in Western and Eastern Africa where the seasons only started in November last year and in January 2007, respectively.\nTable 7. Cereal import position of LIFDCs ( thousand tonnes)\n1 The import requirement is the difference between utilization (food, feed, other uses, exports plus closing stocks) and domestic availability (production plus opening stocks). Utilization is based on historical values, adjusted upon assessment of the country’s current economic situation.\n2 Estimates based on information available as of mid-April 2007.\nNote: Totals computed from unrounded data.\n1. The Low-Income Food-Deficit (LIFDC) group of countries includes food deficit countries with per caput annual income below the level used by the World Bank to determine eligibility for IDA assistance (i.e. US$1 465 in 2003), which is in accordance with the guidelines and criteria agreed to by the CFA should be given priority in the allocation of food aid.\n|GIEWS||global information and early warning system on food and agriculture|"}
{"content":"The office of Jeff Hammerbacher at Mount Sinai's Icahn School of Medicine sits in the middle of one of the most stark economic divides in the nation. To Hammerbacher’s south are New York City’s posh Upper East Side townhouses. To the north, the barrios of East Harlem.\nWhat's below in the basement may be what's most interesting: Minerva, a humming supercomputer installed last year that's named after the Roman goddess of wisdom and medicine.\nIt’s rare to find a supercomputer in a hospital, even a major research center and medical school like Mount Sinai. But it’s also rare to find people like Hammerbacher, a sort of human supercomputer who is best known for launching Facebook’s data science team and, later, co-founding Cloudera, a top Silicon Valley “big data” software company where he is chief scientist today. After moving to New York this year to dive into a new role as a researcher at Sinai’s medical school, he is setting up a second powerful computing cluster based on Cloudera’s software (it’s called Demeter) and building tools to better store, process, mine, and build data models. “They generate a pretty good amount of data,” he says of the hospital’s existing electronic medical record system and its data warehouse that stored 300 million new “events” last year. “But I would say they are only scratching the surface.”\nCombined, the circumstances make for one of the most interesting experiments happening in hospitals right now--one that gives a peek into the future of health care in a world where the amount of data about our own health, from our genomes to our Jawbone tracking devices, is exploding.\n“What we’re trying to build is a learning health care system,” says Joel Dudley, director of biomedical informatics for the medical school. “We first need to collect the data on a large population of people and connect that to outcomes.”\nTo imagine what the hospital of the future could look like at Mount Sinai, picture how companies like Netflix and Amazon and even Facebook work today. These companies gather data about their users, and then run that data through predictive models and recommendation systems they’ve developed--usually taking into account a person’s past history, maybe his or her history in other places on the web, and the history of “similar” users--to make a best guess about the future--to suggest what a person wants to buy or see, or what advertisement might entice them.\nThrough real-time data mining on a large scale--on massive computers like Minerva--hospitals could eventually operate in similar ways, both to improve health outcomes for individual patients who enter Mount Sinai’s doors as well as to make new discoveries about how to diagnose, treat, and prevent diseases at a broader, public health scale. “It’s almost like the Hadron Collider approach,” Dudley says. “Let’s throw in everything we think we know about biology and let’s just look at the raw measurements of how these things are moving within a large population. Eventually the data will tell us how biology is wired up.”\nDudley glances at his screen to show the very early inklings of this vision of what “big data” brought to the world of health care and medical research could mean.\nOn it (see the figure above) is a visualization of the health data of 30,000 Sinai patients who have volunteered to share their information with researchers. He points out, in color, three separate clusters of the people who have Type 2 diabetes. What we're looking at could be an entirely new notion of a highly scrutinized disease. “Why this is interesting is we could really be looking at Type 2, Type 3, and Type 4 diabetes,” says Dudley. “Right now, we have very coarse definitions of disease which are not very data-driven.” (Patients on the map are grouped by how closely related their health data is, based on clinical readings like blood sugar and cholesterol.)\nFrom this map and others like it, Dudley might be able to pinpoint genes that are unique to diabetes patients in the different clusters, giving new ways to understand how our genes and environments are linked to disease, symptoms, and treatments. In another configuration of the map, Dudley shows how racial and ethnic genetic differences may define different patterns of a disease like diabetes--and ultimately, require different treatments.\nThese are just a handful of small examples of what could be done with more data on patients in one location, combined with the power to process it. In the same way Facebook shows the social network, this data set is the clinical network. (The eventual goal is to enroll 100,000 patients in what’s called the BioMe platform to explore the possibilities in having access to massive amounts of data.) “There’s nothing like that right now--where we have a sort of predictive modeling engine that’s built into a health care system,” Dudley says. “Those methods exist. The technology exists, and why we’re not using that for health care right now is kind of crazy.”\nWhile Sinai’s goal is to use these methods to bring about more personalized diagnoses and treatments for a wide variety of diseases, such as cancer or diabetes, and improve patient care in the hospital, there are basic challenges that need to be overcome in order to making this vision achievable.\nAlmost every web company was born swimming in easily harvested and mined data about users, but in health care, the struggle has for a long time been more simple: get health records digitized and keep them private, but make them available to individual doctors, insurers, billing departments, and patients when they need them. There’s not even a hospital’s version of a search engine for all its data yet, says Hammerbacher, and in the state the slow-moving world of health care is in today, making predictions that would prevent disease could be just the icing on the cake. “Simply centralizing the data and making it easily available to a broad base of researchers and clinicians will be a powerful tool for developing new models that help us understand and treat disease,” he says.\nSinai is starting to put some of these ideas into clinical practice at the hospital. For example, in a hint of more personalized medicine that could come one day, the FDA is beginning to issue labels for some medicines that dictate different doses for patients who have a specific genetic variant (or perhaps explain that they should avoid the medicine altogether). The “Clipmerge” software that the hospital is beginning to now use makes it easier for doctors to quickly search and be notified of these kinds of potential interactions on an electronic medical record form.\nOn the prediction side, the hospital has already implemented a predictive model called PACT into its electronic medical record system. It is used to predict the likelihood that a discharged patient will come back to the hospital within 90 days (the new health care law creates financial incentives for hospitals to reduce their 90-day readmission rate). Based on the prediction, a high-risk patient at the medical center now might actually receive different care, such as being assigned post-care coordinator.\nEventually, there will be new kinds of data that can be put in mineable formats and linked to electronic patient records, from patient satisfaction surveys and doctors’ clinical notes to imaging data from MRI scans, Dudley says.\nRight now, for example, the growing volumes of data generated from people’s fitness and health trackers is interesting on the surface, but it’s hard to glean anything meaningful for individuals. But when the data from thousands of people are mined for signals and links to health outcomes, Dudley says, it’s likely to prove valuable in understanding new ways to prevent disease or detect it at the earliest signs.\nA major limitation to this vision is the hospital’s access to all of these new kinds of data. There are strict federal laws that govern patient privacy, which can make doctors loathe to experiment with ways to gather it or unleash it. And there are many hoops today to transferring patient data from one hospital or doctor to another, let alone from all the fitness trackers floating around. If patients start demanding more control over their own health data and voluntarily provide it to doctors, as Dudley believes patients will start to do, privacy could become a concern in ways people don’t expect or foresee today--just as it has on the Internet.\nOne thing is clear: As the health care system comes under pressure to cut costs and implement more preventative care, these ideas will become more relevant. Says Dudley: “A lot of people do research on computers, but I think what we’re hoping for is that we’re going to build a health care system where complex models ... are firing on an almost day-to-day basis. As patients are getting information about them put in the electronic medical record system there will be this engine in the background.\"\n[Image via Shutterstock]"}
{"content":"Private aviation often plays victim to bad weather and hefty storage and maintenance fees. If light aircraft could double as road vehicles, pilots would have a more practical, safer way to fly.\nThe Transition has wings that extend and retract electronically, allowing it to take to the air and then drive home from the airstrip on city streets (where it can hit 65 mph and gets 35 mpg). Says Terrafugia CEO and CTO Carl Dietrich: \"People like to call it a flying car, but it's really a street-legal airplane.\"\nFAA standards require the Transition to weigh under 1,000 pounds when unoccupied. Carbon fiber and titanium, used for the fuselage and frame, have a higher strength-to-weight ratio than steel or aluminum.\nDespite its shortcomings, the Transition does solve one of the biggest barriers to personal aviation: high storage costs. It fits neatly into a standard home garage, saving owners up to $1,500 a month on the cost of a hanger. It also puts to good use the U.S.'s 5,200 public-access airports, most of which see too little traffic to justify car-rental kiosks or cab lines.\n1. Pass future flight and drive tests.\n\"We have to do things during testing that no pilot in their right mind would do,\" Dietrich says. The Transition is designed for casual cruising, but upcoming tests include aggressive acrobatics.\n2. Ensure its street and sky legality.\nFederal motor-vehicle standards never imagined something that could drive and fly. \"It either complies with multipurpose vehicle standards,\" Dietrich says, \"or we've gotten exemptions.\" Terrafugia is working with insurance providers to design plans for the Transition.\nAn initial run of 10 Transitions will roll out to customers once compliance testing is completed. After that, Terrafugia can ramp up production into the hundreds."}
{"content":"Contractor Sentenced in Espionage Case\nA Dangerous Betrayal\nThe Case of the Cash Hungry Contractor\n|East Tennessee Technology Park|\nTwo hundred thousand dollars—not a huge sum of money in return for betraying one’s country. But that’s exactly how much money Roy Lynn Oakley asked for when he attempted to sell stolen parts of uranium enrichment equipment to someone he thought was an agent of a foreign government.\nOakley’s contact was an “agent” all right, but not from a foreign country—it was an undercover agent from the FBI.\nHow it all began. In January 2007, our Knoxville office learned that Oakley—an employee of the East Tennessee Technology Park in Oak Ridge—was trying to sell restricted U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) materials.\nThe East Tennessee Technology Park was formerly known as the K-25 building, a DOE facility that opened during the 1940s and produced highly enriched uranium used in the manufacture of atomic weapons. DOE later shut down the facility and contracted with a company—Bechtel Jacobs—to dismantle and demolish the plant. Oakley was an employee of Bechtel Jacobs.\nWorking with DOE’s Office of Counterintelligence, we used sophisticated investigative techniques, interviews, and analysis of records to further pinpoint Oakley as a suspect.\nThe next phase. To catch Oakley in the act, we began an undercover operation. Our agent contacted Oakley and told him he was representing a foreign government and had heard that Oakley was offering to sell some classified materials. During recorded phone calls, Oakley said he had stolen parts of the uranium enrichment fuel rods and other related hardware items from his place of employment that he was willing to sell for $200,000.\nOur undercover agent eventually agreed to the deal, and a face-to-face meeting was set up for January 26, 2007. Both parties showed up at the meeting place, money and classified components were exchanged, and Oakley was ultimately arrested and charged with violating the Atomic Energy Act of 1954.\nOakley’s confession. So why did he do it? Not because of any anti-U.S. ideology. Not because he was angry at his employer. No, he did it purely for the money. Oakley wanted to retire from Bechtel during 2007 but was deep in debt and needed cash.\nHe told us he took the materials home with him and kept them in a metal box…until he could find a buyer.\nIn January 2009, Oakley pled guilty to trying to sell these materials. He admitted that he knew the items were “restricted” and that they play a crucial role in the production of highly enriched uranium which is used for atomic weapons (through what’s called the gaseous diffusion process). In June, he was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Knoxville to six years in prison.\nUpon Oakley’s sentencing, Knoxville Special Agent in Charge Rick Lambert said, “Bringing to justice the trusted insider who would betray America for private gain remains the FBI’s highest priority.”\n- FBI Counterintelligence"}
{"content":"Comments on the Mattes Study\n- Mattes claimed to be using a \"high dose\" of coloring. However, the cookie provided by the Nutrition Foundation (and remember, this is an organization composed of additive and snack food producers and distributors) contained 13 mg of food dyes each. And they were identical to the placebo cookie. This means that there was TOO LITTLE color to change the color of the cookie!! If THAT is a high dose, how much coloring is actually in those colorful cookies and candies you buy in the store? Is it surprising that if you call the company and ask, they won't tell you?\n- Letter written to the Feingold Association from a mom whose child was in the Mattes study\nMy daughter, Christine, was one of the children in the study.\nPoints I remember:\n- Took a long time to do the study, because each time Chrissy got a \"toxic\" cookie she not only got hyper, but also got severe ear infections and sick. Her school work regressed, as much as it can in kindergarten. After school she was in a dance class the school sponsored, and after her \"after school snack cookie\" got so bad they called me to pick her up early.\n- I also remember getting a phone call after it was completed, telling me that 5 out of 6 of the children reacted to the \"toxic\" cookies and that Chrissy was definitely one of those children.\nThe next day he published in Newsday that there was no significant proof. Even her teachers laughed.\n- In the report he states some of the children did not eat all six cookies. That is correct! After 2 cookies, Chrissy was nuts; after 4 my family was ready to drive me off a ships plank for agreeing to this mess; also Chrissy was ready to kill me.\n- As far as getting a cookie 1.5 hr before seeing him, only once did that ocur. I couldn't control her and drive the Long Island Expressway for 1.5 hours with her in a reaction."}
{"content":"Substantial evidence supports the BIA’s decision. While Zhang contends that she was persecuted when the village chief attempted to coerce her into marrying his son, and that she suffered this persecution on account of her membership in a particular social group, the alleged wrongs here do not rise to the level of persecution. Li Rong Zhang v. Attorney General of U.S., 2012 WL 3715337 (3rd Cir. 2012).\nAs someone who is not anything close to an expert in asylum law, I can’t say that I agree with the Third Circuit’s conclusion.\nIn Zhang, Li Rong Zhang petitioned for review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals affirming an Immigration Judge’s order removing her to the People’s Republic of China. Zhang claimed that the head of her village had threatened to put her in jail if she did not marry his son. The Immigration Judge, however, found that\n[B]ased on the testimony of the respondent[,] [e]ven if one were to find her testimony credible, the Court would find that she has not suffered past persecution. She was not forced into a marriage. She was not detained. [A] [m]arriage proposal, even by someone you detest, does not rise to the level of persecution. Respondent’s family was not involved in this threat….This was strictly, if you were to believe the respondent, the village head making proposals to her on behalf of his son. And even though he was a powerful individual, according to the respondent, the Court finds the proposals do not rise to the level of persecution. Respondent’s testimony regarding being taken away from her home and being threatened with detention is unsupported by any credible evidence and again, the respondent was able to escape and live with a relative undetected.\nWith respect to future persecution, the respondent has been away from China for more than two years. It is inconceivable that the village head is still looking for her to marry his son. The respondent certainly could not have been the only single woman in the village. There is no evidence that the village head remains interested in having the respondent as a daughter-in-law. Th[e] statement that she would be forced to marry the son of the village head, were she to return to China, is purely speculative.\nThe Board of Immigration Appeals thereafter dismissed Zhang’s appeal, finding that “[f]or all the reasons noted by the [IJ], we agree that [Zhang] failed to carry her burden of establishing that she has suffered past persecution or has a well-founded fear of future persecution on account of her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.”\nAs noted in the block quote that led this post, the Third Circuit subsequently denied Zhang’s petition for review. So, why did the Third Circuit find that what Zhang faced and would face was not persecution? According to the court,\nPersecution is defined as “threats to life, confinement, torture, and economic restrictions so severe that they constitute a threat to life or freedom.” Fatin v. INS, 12 F.3d 1233, 1240 (3d Cir.1993). Persecution “does not encompass all treatment our society regards as unfair, unjust or even unlawful or unconstitutional.” Id.\nHere, Zhang was not forced into marriage. She received two allegedly coercive marriage proposals and was threatened with detention. But she was not forced to marry Li’s son against her will, she was not detained, and she was able to escape the perceived threat and reside with her aunt in another part of China without being detected. As for Zhang’s claimed fear of future persecution, we agree with the IJ that, without substantial further evidence, “[i]t is inconceivable that the village head is still looking for her to marry his son” several years later. Without evidence showing a reasonable likelihood that Zhang experienced past persecution or has a well-founded fear of future persecution,…we agree with the IJ and BIA that she has failed to demonstrate that she qualifies for asylum.\nMeanwhile, Judge Aldisert dissented, finding that a remand was appropriate so that\na number of legal questions of first impression, including: (1) whether the experience of forced marriage is “immutable”; (2) whether the ability to choose one’s spouse is so fundamental to human conscience and dignity that one should not be deprived of that experience by a forced marriage; and (3) whether Zhang may even maintain a past persecution claim on this ground as someone who has never actually been “forced into marriage” at—all indeed, she fled before she wed.\nAgain, I’m no expert in asylum law, so I have no answers to these questions, but I sure wish that the case would have been remanded to the BIA so that they could provide some answers.\nI will say, though, that I’m quite confused by the majority’s contention that Zhang could not have feared future persecution because “‘[i]t is inconceivable that the village head is still looking for her to marry his son’ several years later.” I have no idea whether this conclusion is factually accurate, but what I do know is that, if Zhang is to be believed, the head of her village threatened to jail her if she did not marry his son. Yes, Zhang escaped from this coerced marriage by fleeing her village, but what type of reception should she expect when she returns home? I would think that the man that threatened her with incarceration if he didn’t marry his son might make good on that promise. I’m reminded of the statement of Secretary State Madeleine Albright in the wake of embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania: “Our memory is long, our reach is far.”"}
{"content":"|Accelerating Infrastructure Innovations|\n|Federal Highway Administration > Publications > Focus > July 2007 > ProVAL Produces a Smoother Ride in Ohio|\n|July 2007||Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-07-015|\nProVAL Produces a Smoother Ride in Ohio\nThe Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) optimized its diamond grinding strategy and achieved a smoother ride on a highway construction project recently by using the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) Pavement Profile Viewing and Analysis (ProVAL) software. ProVAL allows users to view and analyze pavement profiles collected by inertial pavement profile measurement equipment. It is currently the only software application that can read data from numerous inertial pavement profilers and standardize the data using a common format (see November 2006 Focus). ProVAL's data format was recently adopted as an ASTM International standard, \"E 2560-07: Standard Specification for Data Format for Pavement Profile.\" The new standard will be included in the 2008 Annual Book of ASTM Standards.\nODOT had resurfaced the asphalt pavement on U.S. 23 in southern Ohio and put a new deck on a bridge but the ride was found by its area engineer to exceed the State's acceptable levels. \"We decided to diamond grind to correct the problem. We used the diamond grinding simulator in ProVAL to optimize our grinding strategy and help us determine where to grind. It made us smarter about what we were doing,\" says Brian Schleppi of ODOT. ProVAL's simulation was right on target with the independent calculations performed by ODOT's contractor, Safety Grooving and Grinding, and the actual grinding that was ultimately done for the project.\n\"I had been introduced to the program but we had never used it before,\" says Duff Parker of Safety Grooving and Grinding. \"It could definitely help you pinpoint areas that needed corrective action. We will be using it in the future.\"\nDiamond grinding for ODOT's U.S. 23 project was performed on June 13, 2007. \"Everyone was very pleased with the result,\" says Schleppi. \"We were able to remedy the rideability issues.\" For the section of the bridge that had the worst ride problem, the International Roughness Index (IRI) calculation was 152. A lower IRI means a smoother ride. The ProVAL simulation predicted an IRI of 108 after grinding, with the actual result being 70. Similarly, the bridge's left wheel path had an IRI of 324, with a predicted result of 208 after grinding. The final result was 128.\nODOT is requiring all of its contractors this year to use ProVAL to calculate pavement smoothness indices.\nProVAL, which traces its origins to FHWA's Long-Term Pavement Performance Program, was first introduced in 2001 as a tool for processing and analyzing pavement profile data. Road profilers use lasers and other technology to measure pavement smoothness, as calculated using indexes such as IRI. ProVAL's new 2.72 version, developed by the Transtec Group, Inc., in Austin, Texas, reflects user requests for new features. Features first introduced in version 2.7 include the ability to customize the software to reflect user preferences. Users can change the main screen, for example, so that it displays the features they use and removes those not needed. Users can also customize the data input and automate the setup selections, as well as define and save specific settings that comply with agency specifications. Another new feature is the Profile Editor. Using this tool, users can edit and filter data sets instantly and export the results to other software programs such as spreadsheets. Version 2.72 has further improved the reporting and table exporting features and enhanced the ability to customize ride statistics.\n\"ProVAL has gone a long way in optimizing diamond grinding,\" says John Roberts of the International Grooving and Grinding Association. \"Whether it be a bridge deck or pavement, it removes the guesswork and produces a far better product at a far more inexpensive cost. It is a very innovative piece of software.\"\nTo download a free copy of ProVAL or to learn more about the software, visit www.roadprofile.com. The Web site also features a list of frequently asked questions on using ProVAL, resource documents, links to more information on pavement profiling and pavement smoothness, and a user forum.\nTo learn more about ODOT's use of ProVAL, contact Brian Schleppi at ODOT, 614-752-5745 (email: email@example.com). For more information on ProVAL, contact George Chang at Transtec, 512-451-6233, ext. 227 (email: firstname.lastname@example.org); Mark Swanlund at FHWA, 202-366-1323 (email: email@example.com); or Bob Orthmeyer at FHWA, 708-283-3533 (email: firstname.lastname@example.org).\nUnited States Department of Transportation - Federal Highway Administration"}
{"content":"The short stories in Feathers in the Wind are like feathers blown about helter-skelter in, at times, a gentle breeze and sometimes in a powerful gale. The Nightingale Revisited tells of love found, then lost, and found again. In American Tolstoy, a struggling writer learns that life itself is the most intriguing story of all. In the light-hearted story For Mozart Lover's Only, we meet Mr. Klein, who loves Mozart's music more than anything else in the world, and it is through this love that he meets the beautiful Natalie Brown. Will they find their bliss humming Mozart tunes together? We read about a knight, who delights in threatening the lives of others, only to learn through a young boy that it is his own life that could have been ended by one stroke of a sharp razor In Vaya Con Dios, two elderly widows meet on a cruise ship and learn that this beautiful song played a deeply emotional role in both of their lives. These, and the other stories, take you from Chicago to the Mexican Riviera, from Vienna to Russia, and to many places in between. And in each story, Helmut Stefan makes it seem as if he is talking directly to you, just to you, inviting you to share the joys and sorrows of his characters who all, in some way, have touched his life, too."}
{"content":"Calories In Vs Calories Out: The Basic Formula Explained\nWritten By: Suzanne Hiscock\nIn a world run rampant with fad diets, quick fixes and bogus claims, the most basic formula for weight loss has become lost in all the noise. Cries of “Why am I gaining weight?” are being answered with complicated eating habits:\n- Eat this.\n- Don’t eat that.\n- Eat this with that.\n- Don’t eat this with that.\nIt gets so confusing, don’t you think?\nBut when you understand the basic formula for weight loss, you’ll never be at the mercy of the diet companies again.\nLet me take you back to the basics:\nWhat is a Calorie, Anyway?\nWhen it comes to weight loss, a calorie is simply a measurement of energy.\nYou usually hear the word calories used in two ways:\n1) You hear it used in relation to food, as in, “That apple has 100 calories.”\n2) You also hear the word calories in relation to calories burned, as in, “Walking burns 100 calories.”\nWhen it comes to the food you eat, I want you to think of those calories as calories IN. You’re taking IN those calories; you’re taking in that “energy.”\nWhen you eat a large apple, you’re taking IN 100 calories. When you eat 3 ounces of chicken you’re taking IN about 140 calories.\nSo, I want you to think of the food you eat as CALORIES IN.\nWhen it comes to your body and the energy it uses, I want you think of that as calories OUT. You’re burning and using up that energy just like a car burns gasoline or like wood burning in a fireplace.\nYour body is constantly burning calories for energy – even when you’re sleeping. Everything that your body does to stay alive burns energy. So, that’s your calories OUT.\nCalories In Vs. Calories Out\nWhich brings us to a very basic weight loss concept: When healthy, non-pregnant adults eat more calories than their body can use, their body will store those extra calories as fat.\nHere’s the basic equation:\nCalories In MINUS Calories Out = Energy Balance\nWhen it comes to fat loss, you want to create a negative energy balance — also known as a calorie deficit. When you create a negative calorie balance/calorie deficit, your body will burn your stored fat for energy.\nFor example, if you eat 2300 calories (calories in) but burn only 2000 calories (calories out), you create a positive energy balance of 300 calories. Do that every day and you’ll gain around 1lb every 12 days.\n2300 – 2000 = +300 (positive energy balance/weight gain)\nBut, if you eat 1700 calories a day and burn 2000 calories a day, you create a negative calorie balance (-300). Do that every day and you’ll lose 1lb in about 12 days.\n1700 – 2000 = -300 (negative energy balance/weight loss)\nYour body is complex, no doubt about it. And there’s a lot going on as you move, sleep, digest and exercise throughout the day. Your body is busy repairing cells, building muscle and, well, just keeping you alive.\nYour body will do different things with the different types of calories you eat, too. But I don’t want you to lose sight of this very basic fact: if you eat more calories than your body can use, it will store the extra calories as fat. You can eat the healthiest foods, but if you take in more calories than your body needs, you will gain weight.\nCreate a Calorie Deficit (Negative Energy Balance)\nWhat you want to do to lose weight is to choose a daily calorie goal that will create a safe and healthy calorie deficit for you.\nThis is done using a formula that calculates the amount of calories your body burns in a day and then subtracting a certain amount of calories. But don’t worry! I have a calorie deficit calculator you can use, so you won’t be doing any math.\nThis daily calorie goal is different for everybody and it’s a goal that will change over time. But you need start somewhere and then adjust as time goes on.\nNever Go Too Low\nBefore we get to the calorie deficit calculator there’s an important point I want to make. When it comes to creating a calorie deficit and setting a daily calorie goal, don’t go too low. This is critical. Your body needs a certain amount of calories to function properly. Women should eat at least 1200 calories or more a day; men should eat at least 1800 calories or more a day.\nUse the FitWatch Calorie Deficit Calculator\nYou can use the the FitWatch Calorie Deficit Calculator to create your own daily calorie goal. If you have a FitWatch Calorie Tracker account, you can set your daily calorie goal in the tracker.\nWhat you’ll do is select your gender and then type in your weight, height, age and your activity level. When you click the “Calculate” button, the calculator will give you a few different calorie deficit goals.\nFor the average person, I recommend a calorie deficit of 15% to 20%. That’s a moderate calorie deficit. You can round the number up or down, if you’d like. So, if you see something like 1785, you can round it up to 1800 or down to 1750.\nHere’s a quick example. For a woman who is 200lbs, five feet five inches tall, 35 years old and lightly active, the estimated amount of calories her body burns in a day is almost 2300 calories. In order for her to create a moderate calorie deficit to lose weight, she could eat anywhere from 1800 to 1900 calories a day.\nNow you know the basics of calories in vs. calories out. Create a daily calorie deficit goal that’s right for you to lose weight at a steady — and safe — pace and never be at the mercy of a fad diet again.\nJust a quick side note: With this article, I wanted to explain the basic concept of creating a calorie deficit. There’s more to calories than just in/out. Quality of food and other factors come into play. But knowing the basic concept can go a long way to helping you understand weight loss.\n|« Previous Post||Next Post »|"}
{"content":"day 339 is December 5, non leap year. this is the day the visitation from God started in 1997. one of the major core concepts to come out of the years that followed was the role Jared the patriarch (Enoch's father) plays in the last days study. His name means Descend.\nthe first appearance of the Strong's 339h word Isles is found in:\n\"By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.\"\nyears ago I read a book by John Walvoord where he speculates that these \"Isles\" are the United States.\nI think when the Descending of the Lord begins (1 Thess 4:16), there's a division coming. this division may be of many things, one of which is countries. I know that Jared numbers are associated with dividing things into two parts. like maybe countries. like maybe the USA.\nbefore I read the Genesis 10:5 verse, and looked at it's word by word break down as found here:\n... I thought to myself, \"If there is a real division of countries coming when the Lord Descends then one of these three numbers should appear in this verse, Genesis 10:5\"\n214, the hebrew gematria of Jared\n527, the age Jared is when Enoch his on is 'taken'.\n416, the greek gematria of Jared, which matches 1 Thessalonians 4:16, the Lord Himself shall 'descend' ....\nthis proved correct.\nword six has an in-text gematria of 416"}
{"content":"The South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) has embarked on a process to potentially declare some conservation lands as surplus, and subsequently sell or trade them, or dedicate lands to uses other than the conservation purposes for which they were purchased.\nUnlike the Land Assessments recently conducted by the St. Johns River Water Management District and Southwest Florida Water Management District, the staff at SFWMD is not releasing a information that reveals which parcels may be proposed to be declared surplus. Instead, SFWMD is starting by asking for public comments on ALL of its conservation land holdings. This presents a certain danger, in that it is possible the district could interpret “no response” from the public in regard to a particular parcel as “disinterest”, or an indication that the public, environmental and conservation organizations, do not care enough about that parcel to comment. Such parcels where “people don’t seem to care” could be at a greater risk for surplus disposal.\nSFWMD is dividing the district up into several “Land Assessment Regions”, and is starting the evaluation in the northern reaches of the district, in the “Northern Lakes” district which consists of the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes area in Orange, Osceola, and Polk Counties. We at Audubon Florida believe all of the listed properties should be retained in public ownership as conservation land; they constitute the true “Headwaters of the Everglades”. Properties being studied for possible surplus declaration include the Lake Tibet-Butler Preserve, the Shingle Creek floodplain properties in Orange County and Osceola County, the Lake Marion Creek and Reedy Creek floodplain tracts in Osceola and Polk Counties, and the SUMICA conservation area in Polk County.\nComments on these properties are being solicited until the end of business on February 11th, 2013. It is essential that the SFWMD receive substantial comments from numerous organizations and individuals evaluating these properties and recommending their retention as Conservation Lands. Comments should expressly recommend that properties not be declared surplus, and should state in particular why retention of these properties serves the “core missions” of the SFWMD: Flood Control, Water Quality protection/improvements, Water Supply, Natural Resource protection and restoration.\nComments MUST be submitted through the electronic forms on the District’s Web Page. You can access the web page, review detailed descriptions and many photographs of each of the properties, and submit comments at:"}
{"content":"See Also: Ancient Maya & Turkey; Let’s Talk Turkey; 2 Hour Turkey Recipe; Turkey Tips; Turkey Recipes; Stuffing Recipes; Turducken; Turkey Trivia; Turkey Quotes; Thanksgiving Trivia; Thanksgiving Quotes; Stuffing Article; etc.\nThe flightless, huge, ugly-looking, domesticated turkey is more popular in North America than anywhere else in the world.\nIndigenous to the Americas, wild turkey is a majestic, fast running bird more of interest to hunters than butchers. It was domesticated around 10 B C – 10 A D by Aztecs who ate its meat, and used its feathers for ornamentals purposes. According to accounts, they staged a turkey festival every 200 days and traded approximately 900 – 1000 birds daily in their markets. Mayan royal feasts included turkey wrapped in corn tortillas. By the time conquistadors arrive in the Americas, turkey had become the staple meat of Mayans, Aztecs, Incas and other indigenous peoples. Both H. Cortes and C. Columbus tasted turkey and found the meat tasty enough to take a few specimens to Spain. Soon turkey was popular amongst the European aristocracy due to its less stringy texture. Up to that time, nobility ate peacock and pheasant both of which have stringy flesh. From Spain, turkey spread to France and Italy, but today Europeans eat much less turkey than North Americans do.\nFurther east in the Middle East, turkey never really gained popularity although there are flocks that are paraded in residential streets. When a customer buys a bird, it is slaughtered right on the sidewalk and plucked. Not a pretty sight!\nBy the 16th century, British referred to the bird as turkeycock, but the origin of the word unclear. In India, turkey is called tuka by the Tamils (a south Indian people who were brought to Sri Lanka for tea picking). Today there are Indian and Sri Lankan Tamils), some claim the name comes from the guttural sound turkeys make, others call it hindi for Indian believing the bird came from there. The French call it dinde (also meaning from India = d’Inde which was eventually abbreviated) and a small specimen dindon, whereas South Americans refer to it as peru.\nWhen the Pilgrims sailed to North America in 1620, they actually took a few domesticated turkeys with them in the Mayflower. There is however, a huge difference between the wild and domesticated turkey. In the wild the bird is fast (up to 40 kilometres), its eyesight and hearing are sharp. Although unattractive looking, the male has an iridescent plumage. During the day wild turkeys forage for seeds, berries, buds and grubs (even a little snake, frog or lizard may be a meal on occasion), and at night they fly into trees to roost.\nBenjamin Franklin so admired turkeys that he proposed it as the national bird and when the eagle was chosen he was reportedly extremely disappointed.\nThousands of hunters pursued the wild turkey so persistently that by 1930 there were fewer than 30,000 specimens in the U S A. The wild bird was hunted to extinction in 1902 in Ontario. Conservationists introduced turkey in the wild successfully and today every province has a sizeable flock. In the USA all states boast large inventories except Alaska. Pelee Island, the most southerly landmass in Canada, has sizeable wild turkey population attracting hundreds of turkey hunters.\nCommercially available turkey is completely different. It is specifically bred for its huge breast and tender meat. (Broad Breasted White was bred in the 1950’s for commercial use and today constitutes the majority available). It cannot fly at all, it cannot even run as it is too heavy and cannot mate due to the size of its breasts. Turkeys must be artificially inseminated in huge farms that resemble manufacturing plants. Although the natural colour of the turkey is black, commercial species are white-feathered. Most birds reach 10 Kg live weight in 15 weeks due to the constant availability of formulated feed and ample water. The food is designed to retain water in the body. Consequently roasting loss is significant.\nTurkey meat is naturally dry; because the bird does not have a chance to create a fate layer that actually provides taste. For this reason carcasses are injected with vegetable oil solutions, water and salt to render it “self basting” an insult to the wild turkey.\nMany people are now trying to revive breeds like Narragansetts, Bombon reds and Bronzes that resemble the original turkey.\nIn restaurant kitchens whole turkeys are used for Thanksgiving-, Christmas- and special dinners. Many chefs buy turkey rolls, which are available in various shades, white, dark or blended. Then you can buy sausages, breast or legs. Needless to say the natural taste and texture has been completely altered in an attempt to increase production and reduce market-ready weight growth time to I crease profits. Fortunately, a small fraction of food enthusiasts can differentiate between taste and texture and facsimiles thereof. They have started fighting to reverse the trend.\nArticle contributed by Hrayr Berberoglu, a Professor Emeritus of Hospitality and Tourism Management specializing in Food and Beverage. Books by H. Berberoglu\nPlease feel free to link to any pages of FoodReference.com from your website.\nFor permission to use any of this content please E-mail: email@example.com\nAll contents are copyright © 1990 - 2014 James T. Ehler and www.FoodReference.com unless otherwise noted.\nAll rights reserved.\nYou may copy and use portions of this website for non-commercial, personal use only.\nAny other use of these materials without prior written authorization is not very nice and violates the copyright.\nPlease take the time to request permission."}
{"content":"Alaska schools highlight local menu items\nLocal program funded by state grant.\nDec. 17—Salmon and halibut on a school lunch menu has been happening in Juneau, Ala., as the school district looks for healthier and more local foods for kids. Juneau schools in August received a state grant to help fund Alaska Grown lunches. The school district plans to expand the program, but for now students, staff and suppliers are still getting used to the new meals.\nStudents flood the hallways as lunch starts at Thunder Mountain High School. They congregate at the lunch line, speeding through so they can sit and socialize. Most choose pizza, or a cheeseburger, but 18-year-old Alora Pilgrim picks up halibut with broccoli and red potatoes."}
{"content":"Back on the 'menu'?\nCompany starts polystyrene recycling program at Penn State.\nFor those of you who, like me, believed that polystyrene recycling was virtually dead in non-commercial foodservice, apparently it still has a pulse. I received a press release late Wednesday afternoon from Dart Container Corp. announcing that the campus dining program at Penn State University is working with Dart to recycle polystyrene.\nThe effort, the newest part of Penn State’s sustainability initiative, will take place in the university’s dining commons as well as several retail outlets. Bins into which students and other customers can dump their polystyrene will be installed in foodservice facilities, The polystyrene will be collected and sent to the university’s Office of Physical Plant, which has a recycling center. OPP employees will condense the polystyrene, which will then be picked up at Dart and taken to its headquarters, in nearby Lancaster, Pa., to be melted down and made into other useful articles.\nI’ve not yet had a chance to talk with Penn State officials about this, so I’ll have more in the days to come. Back in the late 1980s, polystyrene recycling was hailed as the next “big thing” in the environmental movement. The petroleum-based material was going to collected in great quantities and remade into thousands of useful articles such as park benches.\nThe reality, as it turned out, was that it apparently cost more to collect and process the polystyrene than was profitable. So the initiative slowly seemed to die away. I know in New York City, where dozens of items are listed as “must recycles,” polystyrene is no longer in favor. Does this move by Penn State signal a swinging of the pendulum back in a positive direction? We’ll see."}
{"content":"latest boardroom guests\nv St Mirren\nDundee Survival Group are the latest visitors to Dens Park under the Community Initiative. For over 30 years, DSG provide a service to homeless people living in and around Dundee, not just providing a place to stay, but also vital support services. Dundee FC Supporters’ Society spoke with Morag Maich about the work of DSG, and the services they provide.‘From its’ inception in 1982 our aim at Dundee Survival Group has been to aid the rehabilitation and resettlement of the single homeless in Dundee and its environs. We are committed to helping all single homeless people regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, race, religion or of any other opinion.’ ‘Although our clientele has changed since 1982 it is still often the most vulnerable in society who we house at DSG. Oftentimes the provision of accommodation is not enough to make sure people can conquer homelessness. Homelessness is often a symptom of complex needs including addictions, mental health, and relationship breakdown. Many of our service users present with significant issues and often particularly challenging behaviours. Many have problems with subsance misuse, mental health, social problems and physical disabilities although not all do. Many homeless people carry with them the distressing experiences they have suffered which led to their homelessness in the first place. Often homelessness is combined with high levels of poverty and poor health.’‘At DSG we help by providing temporary supported accommodationThe accommodation is self-contained, fully furnished flats and furnished single bedrooms. Service users who reside in our bedroom accommodation are provided with 3 meals a day, a residents’ TV lounge, tea and coffee and laundry facilities. Some of these service users require a high level of assistance from our support workers but not all. Service users housed in flats are usually more independent and as such are expected to budget, shop and cook for themselves and maintain the flat in a tenable condition. These service users can and do come from all walks of life. We provide support to all residents by trained and qualified support workers. All service users are allocated a key worker when they arrive and they will receive practical and emotional aid and assistance from that person throughout their stay.’ ‘DSG works alongside many other services, both statutory and voluntary including social work, local drug and alcohol projects, training projects, voluntary projects and local council projects. Service users who are not in employment or studying have the opportunity to and are encouraged to attend various training and voluntary schemes. We have a private medical room which is used by the “Health and Homeless Outreach Team” which visits us every month. We regularly run AA and NA meetings and invite a variety of agencies along to offer help and support to our service users.’ ‘There are many negative consequences as a result of homelessness. Poor physical and emotional health is often at the top of the list. Homeless people often encounter a lot of health issues in their lives. Their health gets worse from time to time because they lack attention from doctors, friends and family members. People who are living “rough” encounter further problems such as cold injury, abuse, assault and nutritional deficiencies.\nThe general public usually have misconceptions about homeless people. These misconceptions are oftentimes based on inaccurate information presented by the media or anecdotal evidence. However the homeless population in Dundee is as varied as the reasons why people become homeless. According to recent Scottish Government statistics the main reason for homelessness is the result of a relationship breakdown. This may mean the paternal relationship, a marriage or life partner or a friendship. The largest group of people who are homeless are single adults without resident children, aged between 25 -35. Some may have been living rough for a while; others may have been recently released from prison or hospital; they may have recently left the armed forces; some become homeless because they are escaping violence in their homes and others due to relocation for employment reasons. Not all homeless people have issues with substance misuse and they are not all in receipt of benefits. They do not live with us for free and are expected to pay rent and a service charge.’\n‘People who use our service usually have very little or no belongings beyond clothing and some personal items. We can provide all they need whilst they are residing with us (in both bedroom and flat accommodation) such as beds, bedding, sofa, cooker, fridge, carpets and kitchen utensils. We receive no government funding for this. All these items are either purchased through funds raised or are donated by companies or members of the public. We keep costs down through buying reconditioned items or by trawling recycling sites which offer items free. Despite this the cost o\nf replacing items is increasing. We are always in need of good quality furnishings and working white goods as well as toiletries and warm clothing.’\nIf you feel you could donate any of the above goods please feel free to contact me at firstname.lastname@example.org.\nIf you are an internet shopper you can donate to us just by doing your regular shopping online. It won’t cost you any money and you’ll be helping us raise much needed funds. To find out more go to:www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/dundeesurvival\nDundee FC Supporters’ Society would like to welcome Dundee Survival Group to Dens Park, and would once again urgeour supporters to take some time to catch up with another local charity doing fantastic work to help the homeless in the Dundee area.\nSource: Dundee Mad\nRelated Dundee News"}
{"content":"The university was founded in 1908 when a local YMCA in Youngstown, OH, started offering college courses on law, business and engineering. The university adopted its current name in 1955. It offers more than 115 undergraduate majors as well as more than 30 graduate programs. Youngstown State has six fraternities and seven sororities. The 145-acre campus is home to five university residence halls and a $12 million fitness center. The Ward Beecher Planetarium at Youngstown State is free and open to the public and features a new state-of-the-art dome video system called the Spitz SciDome. The number of female faculty in the YSU College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics has increased more than 40% in the last seven years, part of a concerted effort to boost the presence of women in the college's student and faculty ranks. The university competes in NCAA Division I athletics."}
{"content":"There are often questions about how to identify the 1932, 1933, and 1934 Model B, BB, and Model 46 Pickup cabs. The cabs were similar but different each year. The major differences relate primarily to firewalls, back panels, and fuel tanks.\nPictured above is the 1932 Model B and BB truck cab. The most distinguishing feature of this cab is that it uses the same separate firewall as the Model B cars. The separate firewall design is used only on 1932 cabs.\nPictured above is the 1933 and 1934 style Model BB and Model 46 cab with the integral welded firewall. This firewall is not removable, and is unique to truck cabs.\nThe pic above shows the back panel of a 1932 cab, which was also similar to 1933. Contrast this with the next pic of a 1934 back panel.\nThe last pic above shows the 1934 cab backpanel. For 1934, Ford added another wide reveal molding shape above the previous moldings in the back panel stamping. This was done to stiffen the back panel and reduce noise and drumming."}
{"content":"- New Issue\n- Books & Reviews\n- About Us\nPoverty From the Ground Level\nWhy are some countries rich and others poor? Differing accounts put more or less weight on the role of policies, geography, culture, history, and international interventions. Only by answering this question can one decide how best to reduce poverty in low-income countries. Yet few debates about public policy are more contentious. More than half a century of intensive efforts to improve the lot of the poor in the developing world has had mixed success. Although some countries, such as China, have made enormous progress in reducing poverty, many others have languished. Today, most estimates suggest that more than one billion people live on less than $1.25 per day.\nPoverty presents both a moral and an intellectual challenge. No one can fail to be moved by seeing the slums that plague so many parts of the developing world. And the fact that one can travel a few hours by plane and find extremes of wealth and deprivation at either end of the journey is an insult to economists' notions of rationality, efficiency, and equity. There is no greater challenge to the discipline.\nYet traditional economics alone is not enough to grasp the problem fully. I learned this at a pivotal moment early in my career when a senior colleague asked me about my research interests. I proudly listed development economics among them -- and was promptly deflated when he told me that he, too, had once been interested in development, until it dawned on him that most of the problems of the developing world were political and so he did not have the necessary expertise to study the issue. Thankfully, the field of economics has changed a lot in the years since, and issues of politics and economics are routinely interwoven when trying to understand persistent poverty."}
{"content":"By D.R. Bartlette\nFayetteville Free Weekly\nAs holidays go, Valentine’s Day just doesn’t fit in. Sure, we have secular holidays to honor mothers, fathers, veterans and even administrative professionals. And although these holidays generally require the purchase of flowers or a dinner out, they are tame, family-friendly affairs.\nValentine’s Day doesn’t fit in with any religious holidays, either. Most of these can be observed in a church or with your family over a big dinner.\nBut, Valentine’s Day is the one holiday devoted to love, romance and, yes, sex — not exactly the kinds of things associated with the church. Despite cutesy classroom parties with pink cupcakes and chalky conversation hearts, Valentine’s Day is a decidedly adult holiday.\nThe background on Valentine’s Day is sketchy at best. Officially, Pope Gelasius declared St. Valentine’s Day as a church holiday in 498 C.E. The problem is, there were at least three St. Valentines that it could have been named for. The most popular choice was a priest who lived in the 3rd century C.E.\nThe Roman Emperor Claudius, seeing how lovesick his soldiers were when separated from their wives on long campaigns, declared marriage illegal. St. Valentine, defying the emperor, married young couples in secret. St. Valentine was captured and ordered to be executed.\nWhile he was in jail, many of the couples he had married would visit him, leaving gifts and flowers. Legend has it that during his imprisonment, St. Valentine fell in love with his jailer’s daughter. As he was being led to his execution on Feb. 14, he passed a note to the woman he loved and signed it, “Your Valentine.”\nSome think the holiday has much older origins — going back to the Roman Lupercalia, usually celebrated around Feb. 13-15. The holiday was a purification and fertility ritual involving a goat sacrifice and some light lashing — a far cry from today’s tender rites. There was rumored to be a sex lottery associated with this holiday as well — all the single women put their names into a large urn for the local bachelors to draw — but scholars say there is no real evidence for this.\nIt turns out that Valentine’s Day may be the creation of — who else? — a poet. Not just any poet, mind you, but Geoffrey Chaucer. Before Chaucer’s time in the High Middle Ages, there was no connection between St. Valentine’s Day and romantic love. In fact, the first recorded association between the two was in Chaucer’s 1382 “Parlement of Foules”:\n“For this was on St. Valentine’s Day/When every bird cometh there to chase his mate.”\nIn Great Britain, Valentine’s Day didn’t really get popular until the 17th century. Back then, there was a custom of drawing lots; when you drew someone’s name, you had to give them a gift and a title, such as: “Most Courteous and Most Faire.” One superstition held that the first single person of the opposite sex that you met on St. Valentine’s Day morning was destined to become your spouse.\nBy the mid-18th century, it was common for friends and lovers to exchange tokens of affection, and by the end of that century, printed valentines had replaced handwritten notes. It was around 1847 that Esther Howland of Worcester, Mass., made the first mass-produced valentines of embossed paper and lace. Now, according to the American Greeting Card Association, Valentine’s Day is second only to Christmas in greeting-card sales.\nThe heart symbol found on most valentines became popular in Victorian times. As a symbol for love, and the human heart, it is enigmatic. It looks nothing like a human heart, so why is it called a “heart” and associated with love?\nThere are at least two theories on its origins. One theory states that it comes from Africa — the shape strongly resembles the shape of the seed pod of the plant silphium. Silphium was used as a contraceptive and was so popular that it was harvested into extinction. Another theory states that the heart shape isn’t meant to represent a heart, but rather the vulva. Either way, it seems as though this symbol was originally associated with a very different organ than the one it is now.\nLike Christmas has Santa Claus, Valentine’s Day has Cupid, the Roman god of erotic love and beauty. Said to be the son of Venus, Roman goddess of love, and Mars, Roman god of war, he is usually portrayed as a baby or child. Sometimes he’s shown blindfolded, as a metaphor for the idea that “love is blind.” He is said to be fickle and playful, and he delights in playing pranks on unsuspecting humans and gods. He carries two sets of arrows: one gold-tipped set, which inspires love, and one lead-tipped set, which inspires hatred.\nThe Greeks and Romans also associated red roses with their goddesses of love and sex, and since ancient times, the rose has been a symbol of love and beauty — a fitting gift for a romantic occasion.\nChocolate came to us from the Aztecs of central Mexico. It was called xocolatl (pronounced shock-o-LOT-el) and was associated with Xochiquetzal (pronounced sho-chee-KET-zel), the Aztec goddess of fertility. The Spaniards brought chocolate back to Europe in the 16th century, and it quickly became a favorite in the royal palaces and courts.\nIt has long been thought to be an aphrodisiac — the emperor Montezuma was said to eat copious amounts of cocoa beans to fuel his romantic exploits. According to the New York Times, chocolate contains two chemicals that may contribute to its spicy reputation. One, tryptophan, is a building block of serotonin, a brain chemical involved in sexual arousal. The other, phenylethylamine, a stimulant related to amphetamine, is released in the brain when people fall in love.\nIts aphrodisiac effects, however, have not been verified. According to the New York Times, most researchers believe that those chemicals are present in amounts too small to have any measurable effect on arousal. Perhaps, researchers believe, chocolate’s arousing qualities are more psychological than physical. Or, perhaps it’s simply due to the sensual pleasure of eating it.\nAs for the heart-shaped box they come in, Richard Cadbury, son of the founder of Cadbury’s, is credited with its invention in 1868.\nToday, Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the U.K., France and Australia. It is a $14 billion industry, with some 180 million red roses, 36 million heart-shaped boxes of candy and 1 billion cards purchased each year.\nWhat do you plan to do for your sweetie? What do you think about Valentine’s Day in general? Respond at www.freeweekly.com"}
{"content":"Picture Book Manuscript? Check.\nTargeted Agent List? Check.\nQuery Letter? Heck no!\nWe all know that writing for very young children is different than penning novels for older kids and adults. Make no mistake, writing a query letter for picture books is an equally unique process. It is also highly nuanced, making it necessary for writers to really research potential agents and their guidelines.\nIn my experience, more agents are open to receiving a full manuscript for picture books than for any other age group. In part, this is due to short word counts. After all, it is easier to enjoy a book by reading the book rather than by reading a summary of it. With picture books topping out at 500 words, manuscripts can be shorter than the query letters representing them.\nThus, e-querying agents for picture books falls into two distinct categories.\n- Agents who accept manuscripts along with a query letter.\n- Agents who do not accept manuscripts with a query letter.\nYou can figure out your targeted agents' preferences by visiting AgentQuery, Query Tracker, agent websites/blogs and market resources such as those found at and by Writer's Digest. Verla Kay's Blue Boards is another great resource, as is the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.\nFor the sake of space, I will address only the first instance (with manuscript), as a cold query letter without a manuscript or sample pages is the same for picture books as it is for older novels. Additionally, the example provided below is not a MUST DO, but rather a guideline that I used when searching for my agent. My method is a conglomeration of info gathered on websites, via magazine articles, at writing conferences and my own personality.\nSubject Line: Query: TITLE, picture book, 475 words (Capitalize your title.)\nMethod to My Madness: all my pertinent information is available at a glance. Agents immediately know I'm sending a query letter for a picture book within the acceptable word count. They should also get a feel for my manuscript based on my title. In this way, I'm not wasting anybody's time.\nIt also serves a secondary purpose. If an agent were to provide feedback and request a revision, a simple change to my subject line would keep Said Agent up to date on what is coming in, while remaining consistent and keeping my title in the agent's mind. My new subject line would look like this: Requested revision for TITLE.\nDear Mr. Agent Awesome: (Don't forget to double check spellings for names and end with a colon.)\n(Very brief bio and/or a relevant blurb on why you chose this agent.)\nAs a library board member, a child advocate in the court system and a past preschool teacher, I recognized a need for stories about XYZ. I am a member of the SCBWI and a moderator on AgentQuery Connect. I have also presented at Young Writer's Conference across Southwestern Minnesota.\nI follow your blog/met you at a conference/etc ... and feel TITLE may address your interest in XYZ (a tie into your bio would be nice). Per your guidelines, I have included the full manuscript for my picture book.\nMethod to My Madness: The agent will get to read my manuscript. It's pasted into the body of the text, and therefore does not require a blurb. In this instance, I feel it is a good idea to let the agent know who we are and what we're doing. This is our time to connect with the agent and let our personalities shine through.\nBut be brief. Agents have little time to wade through our backgrounds from infancy to old age. We should provide only those details that lend credence to our ability to write this particular story. Case in point, I said nothing about my pubbed works in the adult arena or that I have four children. Avoid telling the agent about the story. Again, Agent Awesome will have the opportunity to read our text as long as we don't bore him with our life histories first.\nI appreciate your time and look forward to hearing from you.\nMethod to My Madness: I'm a people person. A warm thanks is my style. Some people may argue it lacks professionalism or that it sounds needy. I tend to believe it's a whole lot better than a sterile and abrupt end such as \"Thank you\" or a rude \"Call me\". The choice is yours, but know that agents don't reject a manuscript based on this line. And if they do, they're likely not the kind of agent you want.\nWords From The Woods\nMethod to My Madness: with luck an agent will need to contact us. If we fail to provide this information, we may inadvertently slow down the process or fail to make a viable contact with an interested agent altogether. I do add my blog address to my writing correspondence, as an interested agent may google me. If you don't have one, don't fret. Blogs are not necessary to secure an agent.\nNext, paste your manuscript into the remainder of the email—never, ever send agents to your website or blog to read it or send it as an attachment unless expressly requested by the agent—and check for the following things:\n- formatting: spaces, line breaks, etc. You want a clean copy for easy reading.\n- white space: you may need to adjust how your manuscript looks to make it easier on the agent's eyes.\n- italics should be capped or underlined, as some email servers don't support fancy schmancy text.\n- likewise, centered titles can be brought to the left margin for a clean look.\nWriting a query letter is not as difficult as it sounds, particularly when we can submit our manuscripts at the same time. When sending writing samples is not an option, my picture book query letters have two extra paragraphs: one for my hook and the second for my mini-synopsis. I also combine my bio and agent search info to make one small paragraph.\nHow about you? What tips do you have for writing picture book queries? What do you put in your subject lines and how do you close? Do you include a hook and mini-synopsis when sending your manuscript? If so, why? Do you tailor your manuscripts based on the agents you send to? If so, how? Lastly, where's your go-to resource for agent information?\nCurious minds want to know!"}
{"content":"Rocky Mountain Research Station Publications\nRMRS Online Publication\nRMRS-RP-49: Sound recordings of road maintenance equipment on the Lincoln National Forest, New Mexico\nDelaney, D. K.; Grubb, T. G. 2004. Sound recordings of road maintenance equipment on the Lincoln National Forest, New Mexico. Res. Pap. RMRS-RP-49. Fort Collins, CO: USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 56 p.\nThe purpose of this pilot study was to record, characterize, and quantify road maintenance activity in Mexican spotted owl (Strix occidentalis lucida) habitat to gauge potential sound level exposure for owls during road maintenance activities. We measured sound levels from three different types of road maintenance equipment (rock crusherlloader, dozerlroller, and grader), from seven distances (30,60, 120, 180,240,320, and 400 m), in two different habitat types (forested and meadow sites) on the Lincoln National Forest, New Mexico, on 22-23 October 2002 to determine how sound varied over distance, habitat type, topography, and stimulus type. Sound levels increased as the distance between road maintenance activity and microphone locations decreased, regardless of stimulus type or habitat type. Concomitantly, the amount of sound energy within the middle frequency range decreased substantially with increasing stimulus distance from microphone locations. The frequency range over which owls can potentially hear road maintenance events decreased with increasing stimulus distance. Sound recordings of road maintenance equipment were louder at tree microphones than at base microphones, regardless of stimulus distance, stimulus type, and site location. The difference in sound levels between tree and base microphones at each distance was consistently louder at meadow sites (tree microphones were located in trees along the edge of the meadow during testing at the meadow site) compared with forested sites, regardless of stimulus type or stimulus distance. Tree microphones registered a greater proportion of sound energy from road maintenance activities in the middle frequency range than at base microphones, regardless of stimulus type, stimulus distance or site location. Sound level and frequency spectra varied by stimulus type. Rock crushing equipment registered the highest sound levels of any of the road maintenance equipment tested, regardless of stimulus distance or habitat type. Rock crushing equipment had the greatest amount of sound energy in the middle frequency range of all the road maintenance equipment tested, followed by the dozerlroller and the grader, regardless of stimulus distance or habitat type. Road maintenance equipment was consistently louder than background ambient forest and meadow sound levels over a range of distances from 30 to 400 m. The extended duration of both rock crusher sound and the multiple passes required of the grader and dozerlroller are additional, potentially negative considerations. Based on our previous sound research with this species, it appears that spotted owls are capable of hearing all the sound sources tested during this pilot study out to distances of at least 400 m.\nKeywords: sound recordings, tree microphones, road maintenance, Lincoln National Forest, Mexican spotted owl, Strix occidentalis lucida\nAbout PDFs: For best results, do not open the PDF in your Web browser. Right-click on the PDF link to download the PDF file directly to your computer. Click here for more PDF help or order a printed copy of this publication.\nThe PDF below have been scanned and converted to text. Some errors may occur.\nPDF File Size: 4.1 MB\nSound recordings of road maintenance equipment on the Lincoln\nNational Forest, New Mexico\nElectronic Publish Date: April 14, 2006\nLast Update: Juanuary 15, 2010\nRMRS Publications | Order a publication | Contact Us"}
{"content":"|Funny Pictures||Funny Videos|\n|Funny GIFs||YouTube Videos|\nken ham on historical science\nSorry for horrible picture, I have never used picture editing softwares before. I don't even know how to effectively work with paint.\nThe debate was hilarious. A few points I can recall immediately are:\n1. He says he believes in modern science. Radiometric dating methods are part of modern science. But then he says he doesn't trust these methods regarding estimates of the past since you weren't there to observe it. What else is there to radiometric dating methods besides using them to date things? Since Ken ham doesn't believe in that.\n2. A little bit later he does use dating methods in his argument of a little bit of wood trapped in 45 million year old basalt. Convenient usage of radiometric dating methods. Not to mention the basalt is 45 million years old which he even mentions. But the earth is still 6000 years old amiright? I guess God must have placed it there.\n3. At one moment he is showing pictures of million years old fossiles showing fish eating other fish and death and suffering etc. But then he goes on about how all animals were supposed to be vegetarians before the corruption. I understand he was refuting the viewpoint of non-creationist christians but how can he use those fossils in an attempt to show the christians that they're wrong?\n4. Then he goes on about how there's no new functions in nature, that no new functions arise in nature. If you just take a look at viruses for one second or mutations in proteins, you'd see that they acquire new functions constantly and everyone knows proteins can deliver macrofunctions to organisms (easy example, fluorescence).\nAnother point he made, was that no \"new\" genetic material comes into existence. How about simple gene duplications or even the enzyme telomerase?\n5. His argument for no life can result from dead matter was the following: \"I can shine all the sunlight or energy I want onto this little stick I have here, it's not coming to life.\" (something along those lines)\n6. He goes on and on about how the bible explains the origins about things. All the bible says, is; And then god created man, stars, plants, light,... and he acts as if it gives us any sort of explanation about how consciousness arose or works.\n7. The guy dodges questions constantly and fails to even interpret audience's questions.\nh, If I wasn' t THEE! It\nh, If I wasn' t THEE! It\nTop Rated Controversial Best Lowest Rated Newest Per page:Order:"}
{"content":"Service Responds to Mississippi River Spill\nMidwest Region personnel mobilized over the Thanksgiving holiday and weekend to keep large numbers of migrating diving ducks from encountering oil from a spill on the Upper Mississippi River. A sinking, northbound tow, the Stephen L Colby, ran ashore to save the crew after it struck a submerged object and began taking on water. The vessel, carrying 91,000 gallons of fuel, began to discharge diesel fuel into the river. The City of LeClaire, Iowa, was able to deploy booms out and around the sunken tow within 50 minutes of the incident, greatly reducing the size of the emergency response. But it wasn't over yet.\nFollowing the spill, contaminants biologist Mike Coffey met with the U.S. Coast Guard, which led the incident command team. Use of the incident command system is standard practice for emergency oil spill responses. As fuel continued to leak from the tow, Coffey organized the command’s wildlife branch and began to address the diesel fuel accumulating behind the existing booms. The wildlife branch also set up wildlife deterrents and made plans to capture and rehabilitate oiled wildlife if necessary. It was quickly determined that the oiled river habitat was not within the National Wildlife Refuge System, and federally listed species were not at the site.\nThis reach of the river in late November and early December is a popular stopover location for tens of thousands of diving ducks during fall migration. There were also a number of mallards from the local area. The wildlife deterrent plans were designed to keep the mallards out of the diesel fuel and keep diving ducks out of the area. Additional plans were made to haze rafts of diving ducks while the responders removed oil from behind the booms and from the vessel before lifting it out of the water with large cranes. We dubbed these contingencies as Operation Canvasback. The plan was to use a flotilla of boats to keep pushing the waterfowl to safe areas along the river.\nThe only oiled birds found during the spill response were two mallards and one Canada goose. All of these birds were found dead or died shortly afterwards. There was evidence of previous debilitating conditions in the birds based on their behavior, wounds, or emaciation.\nEd Britton from the Savanna District supervised the wildlife reconnaissance and relieved Coffey as the Wildlife Branch director the response. Click here for more.\nTheir primary tasks were to monitor the movement of diving ducks into the area and be prepared to haze them away to prevent exposure to the diesel fuel while the responders removed the oil from the river and salvaged the vessel. Other offices near the spill site were the Savanna District of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife Refuge and Port Louisa National Wildlife Refuge. Biologists from the refuge offices and additional staff from the Ecological Services field conducted shoreline searches for oiled wildlife. Service participants included Drew Becker, Eric Tomasovic, Russ Engelke, Bob Clevenstine and Ron Knopic. In addition, volunteers from the river cleanup group known as Living Lands and Waters supported the responsible party in patrolling areas in boats with high city duck use. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Coast Guard also provided personnel for the wildlife branch.\n-- Mike Coffey\nRock Island Field Office"}
{"content":"There's an old saying in rock and roll circles that says: \"if it's too loud, you're too old, man!\" But maybe that should be changed to: \"If it's too loud, you haven't been the victim of hearing loss yet!\"\nA study from the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks says that listening to a portable music player too loud could cause hearing loss later in life. In fact, if you turn up your headphones loud, you could be subjecting yourself to louder sounds than would be legal if you worked in a factory.\n“Regularly listening to personal music players at high-volume settings when young,” the report said, “often has no immediate effect on hearing but is likely to result in hearing loss later in life.”\nSo we'd like to change that old saying to: \"If it's too loud, turn it down, man!\""}
{"content":"Islands of Galapagos are just small province that belongs to Ecuador at the eastern part of Pacific Ocean. Galapagos Islands are dubbed as a place that is born of fire due to several volcanic eruptions. Within the past two centuries, a notable more than 50 volcanic eruptions have cropped up in the islands. It has been said that the most prevailing attribute of Galapagos Islands is its abrasive and dynamic volcanic backcloth. A few of those eruptions threatened distinctive flora and fauna and a few of such created new land just like the lava flow in the island of Santiago which wasn’t discovered during the visit of famous Charles Darwin.\nCharles Darwin was the first renowned person to visit and stayed in Galapagos Islands. Because of the island’s exquisiteness, Darwin stayed up to five weeks which give the impulsion to the well-known Evolution Theory.\nDiving in the islands of Galapagos is not really recommended for novice divers because it has been noted recently that Galapagos Islands is among the top 10 most difficult diving spots in the world. Despite that, tourism in Galapagos Islands is thriving eventually. Diving in Galapagos is often undemanding but the low visibility and the strong currents, outpours and cold waters they beget go towards a few demanding alterations within the waters.\nGalapagos features a few exquisite dive sites hence tourists to the islands anticipate to catch a glimpse of incredible critters stretching out, flying and swarming within the islands. But what amazes several people is the plethora of life just off the coast, just one or two feet beneath the waters. There can be discovered a world teeming swarming with groups of angelfish, passive white-tipped reef sharks, soaring manta rays, and feeding underwater iguanas.\nBest Time to Dive\nGalapagos has a good weather for stopping over and visiting all year round. Even if it is on the equator, the weather conditions aren’t tropical. Galapagos has a couple of seasons and the warmest is from December to May. The coldest months are between June and November. It is the most recommended season for diving in all astounding dive sites all over Galapagos Islands.\nGetting in Galapagos Islands is very simple. It is reachable in either plane or boat. For international flights, a flight to Ecuador, the mainland either to Guayaquil or Quito is the first step since there are no direct flights going to Galapagos Islands. From there, check an available flight from Quito or Guayaquil going to Galapagos Islands. It’s always best to check with travel agency regarding the ways and tips to get there. If coming with private vessel, there are five ports in Galapagos Islands where boats can dock. Along the islands, there are buses, taxis and other public transportations are available to tourists and visitors. But it’s always best to hike around the islands while seeing the best features of Galapagos Islands.\nCheck before you go\n- Passport expiry date (most countries require at least six months prior to the expiry date)\n- Visa requirements\n- Travel Insurance (make sure coverage for Scuba Diving is included)\n- Medical status (Visit your doctor if you are unsure)"}
{"content":"In the Garden:\nFor visual impact, I love to mix and match flower and container colors.\nContaining Your Garden's Exuberance\nNearly everyone I know collects something. Coins, Mason jars, campaign buttons, cookbooks, you name it and they've got lots of it. I fall into this category, too. I'm a plant collector. Trouble is, by midsummer every single bed and border in my garden is literally spilling over with spectacular plants and there just is no place to put even the smallest new cutting. I've solved the problem by planting my newest acquisitions in containers.\nI actually prefer gardening in containers. In a container you can control the soil, vary the watering regime, adjust the amount of sun or shade, group plants for impact -- and ungroup them if the idea doesn't work. Containers filled with vibrant colors can define the space where you live, transform landscaped areas into private garden rooms, or temporarily decorate a space for an outdoor party. If you'd like to try gardening in containers, I'll share a few of my secrets for success.\nSelect the Right Container\nA good container should be large enough to provide adequate space for soil and roots, have sufficient head room for proper watering, have lots of drainage holes, and be attractive without competing with the plants it will hold.\nSize and appearance of the container should be in visual proportion to the plants it will hold. A good rule of thumb is to use a container that is at least one-third as high as the plants are tall. Good drainage is extremely important. Roots require air, and if they sit for extended periods of time in wet soil, they'll suffocate. If you find a container you really like but it doesn't have drainage holes, you can plant in plastic pots and place them in the decorative container.\nUse the Proper Soil\nExperiment with different potting soils until you find one you like, and then use it in all of your containers. Different potting soils can retain different amounts of moisture. I've found that it's easier to water containers filled with the same potting soil, versus containers with a variety of different soils. In fact, I can almost predict when plants need water by knowing how moisture-retentive my potting soil is.\nPutting a layer of gravel in the bottom of the container before adding potting soil might seem like a good way to keep soil from washing out of the bottom of the pot, but it can actually hinder drainage by causing water to collect in the bottom of the pot. To keep soil from escaping, place a broken clay piece over each drainage hole before filling the containers.\nSelect the Right Plant\nBe creative when designing your containers. Plants of varying heights and textures will help give your containers character. If you use tall spiking plants, they should be at least as tall as the container itself. For a real dramatic effect, use complementary colors. Purple and yellow are two complementary colors that make a striking combination. Blue and orange are two other complementary colors that work well together.\nTo keep competition to a minimum, try to avoid mixing slow-growing and vigorous plants in the same container. Growing plants together that have the same light and moisture requirements will simplify their care and ensure good health. After all, growing a plant in a container does not change its basic light or moisture requirements. Sun-loving plants still need to be in full sun, and shade-lovers will still need shade.\nUse Simple Maintenance Procedures\nThe most common problem with container gardens is too little or too much water. Because the volume of soil is relatively small, containers can dry out very quickly, especially on a concrete patio in full sun. Check each pot daily for water. If the pot feels light when lifted, or the soil is dry 1 to 2 inches down, it's time to water. When you do water, water thoroughly by flooding the soil until excess moisture runs out of the drainage holes.\nBecause containerized plants are watered often, nutrients are leached out of the soil as water drains out of pots, making regular fertilizer applications necessary. I fertilize biweekly with a water-soluble fertilizer. A granular slow-release fertilizer can also be used, which will last anywhere from one to several months, depending on the formula.\nCheck your containers weekly for signs of disease and insect damage. As flowers fade and die on individual plants, cut them off. Removing spent blooms will encourage more flower production, and will make your container look more attractive.\nRotate the containers from place to place and you'll have a fresh new look no matter where you group them. For even more interest in the garden, swap containers with a gardening buddy and you'll have a whole new garden to enjoy -- for a few weeks, at least!\nI love it when I round a corner and encounter a harmonious mix of plants tucked into (and perhaps overflowing) an attractive container. Sometimes it's a quiet and subtle hello; other times it can be a loud and exuberant HELLO! Oftentimes it's the container, itself a piece of art, that catches my eye; and then again it's the plants, as they playfully spill over the sides or dance high above, that lift my heart and make me go WOW! But mostly container gardening excites my sense of possibility, reminding me how with just a few plants, a container and some mixing and matching of color and texture, one can easily create a bountiful -- and beautiful -- miniature garden.\nCare to share your gardening thoughts, insights, triumphs, or disappointments with your fellow gardening enthusiasts? Join the lively discussions on our FaceBook page and receive free daily tips!"}
{"content":"Middle Eastern Studies Master’s student, Ian Vander Meulen, recently authored an article entitled, “Beyond the Melting Pot,” in the winter 2012 issue of online magazine Symphony [americanorchestra.org]. The article features composers of Middle Eastern descent who work elements of Eastern musical traditions into their compositions for Western-based orchestras. The article highlights the technique with which Middle Eastern composers and musicians in the United States use their orchestral programming to build cultural bridges within wider communities. Anna Taylor will present her research paper, “Web 2.0: Iran’s Response to the 2009 Elections,” at the 16th Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations Graduate Student Association Symposium Annual Symposium at the University of Toronto. March 5-6, 2012. The symposium provides graduate students an opportunity to share original research with the scholarly community in a conference-like forum, the proceedings of which are periodically published. All the submissions were initially reviewed by a blind panel of nine reviewers and after each proposal was ranked in accordance with various criteria, the organizing committee drafted a preliminary programme that will be solidified upon the verification of each acceptance letter.\nRaymond Pun (former student) developed this article (see link below) originally in a MA-MES course on Social Theory and Islam. Bravo! We are also thrilled that Ray is moving to Shanghai, China, to set up New York University's new university library.\nRaymond Pun, \"Digital Images and Visions of Jihad: Virtual Orientalism and the Distorted Lens of Technology,\" CyberOrient, Vol. 7, Iss. 1, 2013. http://www.cyberorient.net/article.do?articleId=8391"}
{"content":"Jewelers, both professional and amateur, have used just about every type of metal in existence in their creations. As new alloys and metals are adapted to jewelry making, such as titanium and stainless steel, they are also eagerly embraced and worked into beautiful creations for men and women. While fashion trends using unique and trendy metals come and go, three jewelry metals have stood the test of time and continue to have a strong presence in modern jewelry.\nThese metals, referred to as the Noble Metals, have several properties in common. First, they are precious metals and are also used as currency because of their value. Second, they are found worldwide, but not in large enough quantities to render them less valuable. Third, these Noble Metals have properties that lend themselves to jewelry making, including malleability and corrosion resistance. Lastly, these metals are considered beautiful, sensuous, and glamorous, which increases their appeal. Because of all of these properties, the Noble Metals – gold, silver, and platinum – are frequently used in jewelry making.\nCoveted for its beauty, gold has long captivated the human psyche and is considered the most sensuous metal. Jewelry designers and makers find gold easy to work with and prefer it to other metals because it never tarnishes. Gold is perhaps the most workable metal, which is another reason designers enjoy working with it. A single ounce of gold can be stretched into a thread more than 50 miles long or rolled flat into a sheet that covers 100 square feet in area!\nAnother reason gold is coveted by both consumers and designers is that it lasts indefinitely, especially if properly cared for. Recent studies show that gold originated in the far reaches of the universe billions of years ago and arrived on earth in its infancy. It does not oxidize or corrode and only a handful of rare acids or hot chlorine bleach can damage gold. Gold can also be reused by melting down old gold objects and reforming the gold into new pieces. For example, old coins and broken pieces of jewelry can be melted down and reused to make a brand new piece of gold jewelry.\nDespite gold’s desirable properties, it does have one significant drawback. It is soft, which means it wears easily. By mixing gold with other metals, or alloying it, gold is made stronger, which makes it durable enough to wear more often without experiencing wear. A variety of metals are commonly used to alloy gold, including silver, copper, nickel, iron, zinc, tin, manganese, cadmium, and titanium. Along with enhancing gold’s strength, alloying gold with other metals changes some of gold’s other properties as well. This is why some gold alloys stain people’s skin or cause an allergic reaction. The reaction is not caused by the gold itself, but by the other metals it is mixed with.\nWhile pure gold is also used in jewelry making, it dents and shows wear easily, which is why most people choose not to wear 100% gold jewelry on a regular basis. When discussing gold and its alloys, the term karat is used to indicate the purity of the gold (Not to be confused with carat, which is a unit of measurement used to describe gemstone weight). Pure gold, which contains no other metals, is termed 24 karat gold. A gold alloy that is 50% gold and 50% other metals is 12 karat gold because it is only half pure gold. Alloys used in jewelry making range from 9 karat gold, which is approximately 37% gold, to 24 karat gold. A newer alloy becoming popular on the jewelry scene is made of 99% gold and 1% titanium, allowing the alloy to retain nearly all of its gold color while providing improved durability.\nMixing gold with different metals changes the color of the gold. For example, mixing copper with gold makes the gold darker yellow, while adding nickel plus zinc or other silver metals produces white gold. Contrary to popular belief, white gold contains no silver, which softens gold and gives it a green tint. Gold alloys also come in colors, including green, red, and blue.\nWhen discussing gold’s purity, or what percentage is pure gold, the laws are fairly strict in the U.S. To be labeled as a specific karat, a gold item must be within three parts per thousand of the karat marking for solid pieces and seven parts per thousand for pieces containing solder. Pieces that fail to meet this criterion must be labeled with a lower karat designation. When labeling jewelry and other gold items for sale, you cannot call an item solid gold unless it truly is 24 karat and if you refer to an item as gold, you must designate what karat the gold is.\nThe term “new gold” does not mean that the gold was recently mined. It means that the gold has been carefully refined to current gold standards. “Old gold,” on the other hand, comes from melting down old jewelry, coins, and other gold items. This old gold may be a slightly lower karat weight than the original gold depending on how much solder was used in the original jewelry pieces. Impurities in old gold pieces cause a variety of headaches during casting, including bubbles, so old gold is often sent for refinement rather than being melted down by your local jeweler and recast into a new item.\nGold solder, which is used to join pieces together, is actually sold based on its color not its gold content. Because the solder needs to have a lower melting point than the pieces it is joining, it is mixed with metals that have lower melting points than gold. The solder is matched to the gold pieces for an attractive look. Though this poses no problems for the owner of the current jewelry item, melting down this piece with its solder in the future will reduce the karat of the gold.\nLess Than Solid Gold\nWith solid gold selling for more than $1,000 per ounce, many jewelry makers look for alternative ways of giving their customers the look and feel of gold without the hefty price of solid gold. This is often done by coating pieces made from less expensive metals with thin coats of gold. Items that are made this way are referred to as gold overlay pieces.\nWhen shopping for these pieces there are two distinct methods of overlaying the gold that you need to be aware of. The first is gold filled. Pieces that are gold filled have a minimum of 5% gold applied to the base metal. They are classified based on how much gold is overlayed and the karat of the gold. For example, if a piece is marked 1/20 14K G.F., it means that the piece has a 14 karat gold layer that comprises 1/20 of the weight of the piece. The second type of gold overlay, rolled gold plate, is similar, but the gold can be as thin as 1/40 of the weight. It is also stamped by fineness and content, 1/40 14K RGP. Gold platings are the thinner and less expensive of the two types of gold overlays. The gold is a few thousandths of an inch thick, at best, and wear off easily.\nThe care of gold overlay pieces is quite different from the care of solid gold pieces because of the fact that the gold is layered on top of another metal. As previously mentioned, the gold on these pieces wears off over time and you cannot use a polishing wheel on these items because it will remove the overlay and potentially ruin the item.\nWith its illustrious history, silver has been more highly valued than gold at various times throughout the years. Long used as a medium of exchange, its name is synonymous with money. Today, silver has found many new uses including photography, batteries, auto glass defogger, and magnetic strips, just to name a few.\nSilver’s most outstanding feature is its luster. This Noble Metal is not without its drawbacks though. The main drawback for silver is that it tarnishes. The term tarnish is used to denote a layer of corrosion that forms over some metals, including silver, when they undergo chemical reactions. The chemical reaction that causes silver to tarnish requires a compound called hydrogen sulfide. Silver jewelry encounters hydrogen sulfide in the air you breathe every day, which is why silver tends to tarnish if left out where it is exposed to this compound on a regular basis.\nStoring these items in protective pouches or containers where they are exposed to less hydrogen sulfide reduces the amount of tarnish on silver, which means less you can spend less time removing tarnish from your silver jewelry. There are a number of ways to remove tarnish from silver pieces, including silver polish and do-it-yourself methods using common household items, so you do not have to shy away from silver pieces because of the tarnish. Silver jewelry does require more care than some other precious metals, because of the fact that it tarnishes.\nSilver is more abundant and much less expensive than gold or platinum, which are additional reasons why it is a popular metal for jewelry; however, it is more difficult to work than gold, because it conducts heat so well. This is why beginning jewelry makers often learn how to solder on silver. Once they gain control of soldering on this highly conductive metal, they find it much easier to control the heat when moving up to gold.\nSilver is also commonly alloyed with other metals because, like gold, pure silver is soft and easily damaged. Adding harder metals improves the durability of silver, allowing jewelry designers to design pieces that are beautiful and strong enough to wear every day. The most common silver alloy is sterling silver. Sterling silver is 92.5% silver. The remaining 7.5% is comprised of one or more other metals. A substantial portion of this 7.5% is often copper because it increases the hardness of the sterling silver.\nThe term Mexican silver applies to silver that is used as currency in Mexico and is typically comprised of 95% silver and 5% copper. While the copper increases its durability, it is used more for currency than jewelry. Typically even the silver jewelry made in Mexico is crafted from sterling silver.\nIn the U.S., coin silver contains 90% silver and 10% copper. You do not usually see coin silver used in jewelry. Britiannia silver contains a minimum of 95.84% silver, making it a more valuable alloy than sterling. While this may be used in jewelry, it is not common. There are a variety of additional silver alloys used worldwide, including a South American alloy made of 80% silver that does not tarnish. Jewelry makers stamp silver pieces with the code that denotes which alloy of silver it is. For example, 925 is used to designate sterling silver and 958 is used for Britannia silver. When shopping for silver jewelry inspect the piece carefully to determine which alloy was used.\nOther Types of Silver Jewelry\nWhile sterling silver is the most common type of silver used in jewelry making, there are some additional alloys that should be mentioned. Electrum, for example, is a naturally occurring alloy of silver and gold that was popular with the ancient Egyptians. Because electrum occurs naturally in nature, the ration of silver to gold varies with each piece.\nNiello is a black mixture of silver, copper, and lead. It is used more like an enamel, so you do not typically see jewelry made entirely of niello. It is used as an inlay on etched or engraved metal or to fill in designs. Like electrum, niello was popular with the Egyptians, who used the mixture during the Iron Age.\nWhile all of these silver alloys actually contain at least some silver, some metal names can mislead you into thinking the metal contains silver. Nickel silver or German silver, for example, are alloys of nickel, zinc, and other metals. These metals look like silver, hence the name, but they do not actually contain any silver. The same is true of quicksilver, which is the ancient term given to mercury due to its appearance. While mercury does resemble liquid silver, it does not contain silver and is not seen in jewelry because it is harmful to your health.\nPlatinum is the rarest and most expensive of the Noble Metals. Its unsurpassed holding power and durability make it a highly coveted, premium jewelry metal. Platinum is incredibly durable and does not tarnish, which is why it is often used for engagement and wedding rings.\nThough platinum has been found in various objects as far back as 700 BC, its use in jewelry is relatively modern. The main reason for this is that refining platinum proved difficult for a number of centuries because the metal has an extremely high melting point and is highly resistant to corrosion. The oldest recorded use of platinum is as an inlay in ancient Egypt. However, the Egyptians though it was a variation of electrum. Native Americans used platinum in small decorative objects for centuries. Platinum was unknown to Europeans until the Spanish settlers discovered it in Columbia. The Spanish called it platina, meaning little silver, and believed it was unripe gold and, therefore, unusable.\nIt was not until the eighteenth century that platinum was identified as a new metal and a researcher from Sweden figured out how to melt platinum with arsenic. Once individuals learned how to refine platinum they began to use it to decorate porcelain and to make laboratory equipment. The use of arsenic to refine platinum was extremely dangerous, which is why platinum did not gain popularity until the oxyhydrogen torch was invented in the mid 1800s.\nDiscoveries of platinum ore in several countries in the nineteenth century brought platinum to the attention of jewelry makers and platinum quickly became a symbol of wealth and celebrity status in the early 1900s. Stars like Greta Garbo and Cole Porter frequently appeared on film with platinum jewelry and accessories. It also became popular for setting exceptional gems. For example, the 530-carat “Star of Africa” diamond in the British royal scepter is set in platinum.\nWhile platinum is still highly coveted in the jewelry industry, it is also used for a variety of industrial purposes. Today, platinum is commonly found in catalytic converters because of its ability to cause chemical reactions while remaining unchanged. In fact, half of the platinum mined in the U.S. and a quarter of the platinum mined worldwide is used for this purpose. The U.S. Bureau of Standards also uses platinum for weights because it never oxidizes and, therefore, remains the same weight forever.\nThough most people believe that the term platinum refers to one single type of metal, the truth is it is used to refer to a group of metals that share similar properties. The platinum group includes platinum, iridium, palladium, ruthenium, rhodium, and osmium. Platinum is the most abundant; however, it is not the only one of the group that is used for making jewelry. Rhodium is popular as a non-tarnishing plating for white gold, silver, and other platinum metals. Others from this group, including palladium and iridium, are alloyed with other metals or used alone to make jewelry. In fact, all but osmium are used for jewelry. The most common platinum alloys include 90% platinum and 10% iridium, or 95% platinum and 5% ruthenium. Ruthenium makes for the harder and stronger alloy.\n|Common Metallurgy Terms|"}
{"content":"Trying to verify involvement of Obediah, and Larkin in the revolutionary war. Understand they were with the 2nd regiment, Amherst county militia, under Samuel Cabell. I haven't been able to find documentation. Any ideas?\nNotify Administrator about this message?\n|Home | Help | About Us | Site Index | Jobs | PRIVACY | Affiliate|\n|© 2007 The Generations Network|"}
{"content":"Sinterklaas festival in the church in 2007.\nSinterklaas, the patron Saint of the church, visits the museum annually. This lively event attracts a crowd of children and their parents.\nClimate data canal room (XLS, 1.2 MB)\nClimate data sael (XLS, 1.2MB)\nClimate data in church (XLS, 2.0MB)\nOutdoor climate data (XLS, 1.1 MB)\nAs the church in the museum is still in active use, there are times when the church may be filled to its maximum capacity, as set by the fire brigade. In addition, the museum participates in several events that bring much higher number of visitors through the building in one day than normal. It is interesting to analyze the effect that visitors have on the indoor climate during these events, which attract large numbers of visitors for both shorter and slightly longer durations. The following table represents the rate at which a human gives off moisture in different states of activity (after ASHRAE 2001).\n|Degree of Activity||Moisture Generation (g hr-1)|\n|Seated in the theater||30|\n|Seated in the theater, night||35|\n|Seated, very light work||45|\n|Moderately active office work||55|\n|Standing, light work||55|\n|Light bench work||140|\n|Walking 4.8 km/h; Light machine work||185|\nT, RH and AH plots in the church (God lamp low), sael, canal room and reception on Open Monument Day, September 9, 2005:\nOpen Monumentendag (Open Monument Day) is designed to bring people into contact with the historic environment, and to encourage interest in and understanding of historical monuments and the need for their preservation. During the Open Monumentendag - every second weekend of September - thousands of historical buildings and sites (about 4,000) are open to the public free of charge. Besides opening their doors, many locations also organize on-site activities like exhibitions, music and guided tours. Each year around 80 to 85 percent of Dutch municipalities participate in the Open Monumentendag, organized by local committees. In recent years around 900,000 visitors have participated annually, making the Open Monumentendag one of the Netherlands' premier cultural events.\nAn extraordinarily high number of visitors (1,064) was recorded at museum ‘Our Lord in the Attic’ on Open Monument Day on September 9, 2005. Visitors entered the museum over a four-hour period, between 13:00 and 17:00.\nThe impact of visitors on the indoor climate was easily recognizable in temperature (T), relative humidity (RH) and absolute humidity/humidity ratio (AH) plots. Except in the reception area (the antechamber), temperature increases were observed starting at 13:00 in all parts of the building, with the largest increase (approximately 2.5°C) in the church and the least (0.5°C) in sael. The reception’s temperature drop during this period is probably due to the front door being opened continuously and the cooler outside air entering the room. Temperatures in the building returned to normal before midnight.\nBoth relative humidity and the humidity ratio increased significantly over the four-hour period in all rooms, including the reception. Surprisingly, the largest increase of relative humidity (from 60 to 77%) was observed in the space behind the altar. The smallest increase was observed in the sael. Relative humidity values throughout the building returned to normal by midnight.\nT and RH plot in the church on Museum Night, November5/6, 2005\nAH plot in the church, sael, and outside on Museum Night, November5/6, 2005.\nMuseum Night is an initiative with which many museums in Amsterdam try to attract a different and younger audience - one November night per year they open to visitors from 19.00 to 2.00. In 2005, 2,300 visitors entered museum ‘Our Lord in the Attic’ over a seven-hour period from 19:00 on November 5 to 2:00 on November 6.\nIn 2006, the event was more controlled and 1500-1600 people visited the museum, with a maximum of 90 people in the church at any given time.\nThe temperature was approximately 20.2 °C when the event started and increased 3 °C to 23.2 °C by midnight, remaining at that temperature until the end of the event the next day. A large temperature decrease began after 3:00, and returned to the original value by 6:00.\nThe relative humidity was approximately 50% at the beginning of the event, then quickly increased and produced three peaks: 54% at 23:00, 58% at 1:00, and 56% at 2:00, the end of the event. Then, it reduced to 53% by 4:00, but rose to 54% where it remained until 09:00, the regular opening hour. The increase in the early morning hours may have been due to the fact that it was rainy outside, expressed by the relative humidity increase outside from 55 to 95% during the same period.\n24-Hour variations of the humidity ratios in the church, sael, and outside during Museum Night were plotted. Three large peaks identified in the relative humidity plot were reduced to small saw tooth-like peaks in the plot of the humidity ratio. This indicates that the rate of visitation was steady throughout the event. The increase of humidity ratio was approximately 3.5 g of water per kg of air during the specified period. This was smaller than the increase recorded during Open Monument Day when the museum had about 1,100 visitors over a 4-hour period. This could probably be due to the infiltration of outside air of lower humidity ratio into the church. The humidity ratio in sael was very similar to that of the church during the event. This high level of humidity ratio is due to low infiltration of dry outside air into sael.\nOn May 21st, 2005, the church was used for a wedding. At 13:00 the museum closed briefly for normal visitation to accommodate the wedding, which started at 14:30 and finished by 15:30. A total of 110 persons gathered in the Church, according to records kept by museum staff.\n24-Hour variations of humidity ratios in the church, canal room, sael and outside air on May 21st, 2005 were plotted. Between midnight and 09:00, the museum’s opening hour, the humidity ratio was constant at 8 g/kg throughout the building. At 09:00, visitors began to enter the museum. Evidence of the visitors’ presence can be noted as the humidity ratios in various locations in the building increase. When the wedding attendees started to enter the church soon after 13:00, the church’s humidity ratio was at 8 g/kg, which was the same as outside. Initially the humidity ratio in the church exponentially increased; however, the increase soon reduced to linear, then plateaued at 10 g/kg by 15:30, indicating that the attendees started to leave.\nWhile the church air had a significant increase in humidity ratio, both the canal room and sael were only slightly affected, mainly by the attendee traffic near these spaces - the guests did not physically enter these rooms during the event. After all the wedding attendees left the building, museum visitors were allowed back into the building at 15:30. Museum visitors gradually exited the museum around 17:00 and the humidity ratios of all spaces dissipated towards that of outside. All spaces equilibrated at 8.2 g/kg in 5 hours by 22:00.\nDuring the wedding, the temperature and relative humidity increased from 20.9 °C to 22.6 °C and 54% to 60%, respectively. Relative humidity returned to 54%, a normal value without visitors, within two hours after the event.\nAccording to museum records, a group of 151 artists attended a special mass on December 4th, 2005. The mass started at noon and lasted for one hour. 24-Hour variations of relative humidity and temperature recorded on December 4th, 2005.\nThe temperature was stable at 19°C until the museum opened at 9:00 and had a low increase at the rate of 0.3 °C/hour to 20 °C by noon. Then during the mass, the rate increased to 3.0 °C/hour during the first 30 minutes, and 2.0 °C/hour to 22.8 °C in the second 30 minutes.\nRelative humidity showed a similar trend, with a 3.3% increase from morning visitors. Attendance at the mass produced an approximate 3.5% increase to a peak of 52% at 12:30. However, the value dropped slightly during the next half hour due to heat produced by the attendees. Both the temperature and relative humidity peaks quickly dissipated after the mass ended. And by 17:00, both values returned to normal.\nDuring the event, the humidity ratio increased approximately 4 g/kg. This increase quickly dissipated after mass had ended. Within three hours the humidity ratio returned to its pre-mass level. The values in the church, located at the highest point in the building, were approximately 0.7g/kg higher than that of the sael, the lowest situated room, during non-visiting hours. Museum visitors increased the humidity ratio in the church more than in other parts of the building. And by noon, the difference was nearly 1.8 g/kg. Although a peak relative humidity was recorded at 12:30, the peak value of humidity ratio in church was at 13:00, the same time as the peak temperature measurement. Morning visitors produced a humidity ratio rate of 1 g/kg/hr until 12:00. During the mass, the rate increased to approximately 1.5 g/kg/hr during the first 30 minutes, then dropped to 0.3 g/kg/hr during the second 30 minutes. This reduction may be due to the automatic operation of humidifiers/dehumidifiers, the infiltration of outside dry air, or a combination of the two."}
{"content":"About the Charity\nGIRL – India was established in February 2007 by Wynne Clift from Tynemouth, England. The first project was GIRL (Girls Institute for Rehabilitation and Learning) in Vijayawada which is run by the co-ordinator Radhika Premramasaran, an experienced social worker. Having previously worked in other NGOs in the state of Andhra Pradesh it was felt there was a need for a home for young girls. They decided to set up a charity to provide a safe and secure environment for destitute girls between the ages of 5 and 10 years. There are 2 projects that GIRL - India runs: GIRL in Vijayawada, and Girl Himalaya.\nThousands of girls live on the streets and the number is increasing. Some live with their homeless mothers while others have to fend for themselves. Many are escaping physical, mental or sexual abuse while others have been abandoned by their parents because of family problems such as poverty, alcoholism or HIV/Aids. The threat of violence is ever present and girls as young as six years old can be forced into child labour or even prostitution. At GIRL we provide food, shelter, healthcare and on-going counselling. The girls also receive a basic education as well as vocational training such as tailoring or embroidery."}
{"content":"Some people choose to flaunt their natural hair in its natural state, whereas others wish to straighten their hair to flaunt long stick-straight hair. Before setting off to straighten your naturally curly or wavy hair, recognize the fact that straight hair is just another hairdo.\nStraightening Natural Hair With Flat Iron Or Hot Comb\nFor making naturally curly hair straightened or relaxed, you need to invest in some important styling tools for instance a blow dryer, straightening comb, or flat iron.\nWash your hair properly to remove oil and grim. Use a thick hair-straightening conditioner, which will help in removing frizz. Towel dry your hair without rubbing it forcefully. Apply a good quality leave- in conditioner and heat protectant on clean and freshly deep conditioned hair.\nSilicone serum heat protectant, coconut oil, Shea butter, or any other natural oil can be used as heat protectant to protect your hair from any damage caused by heat.\nWith a good salon-quality blow dryer, dry your hair by keeping 10 inch distance. Brush your hair to detangle it completely and divide hair in different sections to make the straightening process easy and simple. Adjust heat of the straightening irons and do not keep it at high temperature.\nComb-chase method should be followed to get the desired sleek effect. Take hold of a section of hair with comb and run the straightening tool or iron from root to the end of hair.\nYou should be proficient to use comb in one hand brushing down the hair with the other hand carrying flat iron. Do not hold the iron on one section of hair too long as that will fry your hair. Spray some water or hair spray on the straightened sections to see whether it is reverting back to the previous state.\nIn the modern world, hair-straighteners have become girls’ essential companion. But one should be aware of the risk associated with them. Flat irons or hot combs can dehydrate your hair, if good quality serums are not used on hair to protect it. If you are not skilled enough to do straightening on your own, take the help of expert professionals. Excess heat may cause damage to hair follicles and excessive hair fall.\nThere are some natural methods to straighten your natural hair which do not involve heat, harsh chemicals or any other harmful tools.\n4 Tips To Straighten Natural Hair Naturally\nNatural hair straightening methods are safe and inexpensive. The products involved in them are easily accessible. The natural methods may take longer time to give results and continuous application is needed.\nCoconut Milk And Lime Juice Method\nGrind coconut and squeeze out the meat to get one glass of coconut milk. Add two tablespoon of lemon juice to it. Combine the two properly till you get a creamy substance. You can keep this mixture in refrigerator so that the mixture is thickened. You can even leave it overnight without keeping in fridge. Massage the thick concoction on hair and scalp properly.\nComb your hair with a wide-toothed comb to detangle and wrap your head in a hot towel. After one hour, rinse off your hair with shampoo and conditioner. This is an easy method to straighten your hair naturally if you repeat the process three times a week. The mixture will not only make tour hair sleek and shiny but will also nourish and moisturize it.\nUsing Milk To Straighten Hair\nTake equal portions of milk and water in a spray bottle. Spray the content all over your hair and leave it there for 30 minutes. Wash your hair using shampoo and conditioner. You can even add a few drops of honey to the liquid for more effectiveness.\nOlive Oil And Egg Method\nTake two eggs and beat them well. Add two spoons of olive oil to eggs and blend the mix properly. Apply it on hair and brush your hair to detangle and to increase blood circulation. After 1-2 hours, wash off to discover well-nourished straight hair.\nHeat any natural oils such as coconut oil, olive oil or castor oil and massage into your scalp and rub your hair. Wrap your head with hot towel. After 30 minutes, wash off with shampoo and conditioner to discover naturally straight hair.\nRegular and constant application is needed in the case of natural methods. Natural process will not only straighten hair, but will also nourish and moisturize your hair well."}
{"content":"How Do I Eliminate Stress with Color?\nThe Calming Effects of Color\nColor is more than just decoration. In nature, insects, fish, birds, flowers and more have color that camouflage them, facilitate mating, and guide them to what they need for survival. For humans, we decorate with colors and dress with colors that we express ourselves with.\nHow many of us consider also that when we choose colors, we're also concerned with how we feel, especially when we're at home? Probably many of us do without even thinking about it. You know how when you're picture shopping for a den and a play room, well when you pick a nature scene and a hot air balloon, the color scheme is as important as the subject. That's because colors affect your mood instinctively.\nResearch has shown that different colors have different effects upon us psychologically, emotionally and even physically. So if you are suffering from stress and its effects, you might consider changing the colors in your environment. You can select colors to surround yourself with and to wear as a stress management tool.\nThe Colors and How They Affect Your Mood\nWe respond to color on a non-conscious level. And that is part of the reason that they are a great tool to manipulate the way that we feel. This form of addressing health issues is recorded as far back as ancient times. Variations of it exist in various cultures around the world. Today, people who practice Feng Shui, acupuncture and other types of adjustments for better living will introduce colors. These practitioners will employ tools like gemstones, colored fabric, candles and prisms.\nThere are many color charts that you can find on the internet and in libraries. Generally, you will find that they share similar evaluations about the effects of specific colors. Below we have included a color chart. See if you can recognize some of the feelings that they describe for each color. A good idea is to just try it out if you haven't already. Think about it: If you ever went to your closet and dressed for the day and chose colors based on how you felt or what was ahead of you, then you practiced a bit of \"colorolgy.\" Colorology is another name for chromotherapy. This is considered to be an alternative medicine. It uses color and light to balance energy wherever a person's body is lacking, whether it's mental, emotional, physical or spiritual.\nIf you are feeling overly stressed, you can use color as a stress management tool. As we have seen, the calming effect of color can help you relax and let your worries go for a while. In the information below, notice the colors that have positive stress management qualities. Colors can be great tools in your efforts to manage your stress and feel better and more in control.\nHow to Eliminate Stress with Color\nDr. Group states that \"Dark blue has a calming effect on the body.\" Consider wearing dark blue to lift you out of a stressful mood, or if you anticipate a stressful situation in your day ahead.\nReview the color chart below and consider your own reaction to certain colors. To use them to relieve stress, wear them and decorate with them to relax and revitalize yourself.\n- Red: This color is not one to use for stress management. It is an exciting and stimulating color, usually associated with passion and vigor. You might want to use this color when you want to lift yourself out of an emotional slump.\n- Pink: This color is seen as soft, tranquil color. It's peacefulness promotes balance of your energies.\n- Orange: Like red, orange does not exhibit the calming effect of color. Instead, orange is a stimulating and intense color. It can work to invigorate you when you are feeling low.\n- Yellow: Yellow is softer than red or orange and is seen as sunny and cheerful. It's a great color to lift your spirits and when you live in a positive state you are well-equipped to combat stress\n- Green: Green restful and quiet color. It's a soothing color that invites harmonious feelings that can diffuse anxiety\n- Blue: Blue is tranquil, peaceful, and calm. This color has a tremendous stress management quality to it, making us feel cool and calm.\n- Violet: Violet represents strength, peace and wisdom. It can give you feelings of inner peace when you wear it. Decorating with it can give your space a peaceful feeling, relieving stress internally and externally.\n- White: White is symbolic of clarity and freshness. It really needs to be a clean, bright white because once it gets dingy and dull, your emotions can mirror the dullness.\n- Black: This color can be overpowering at times, as it exudes a feeling of power and elegance. And it can also represent submission. It's one that can impact your world either way so you need to be careful when decorating with or wearing black."}
{"content":"Search the 1997-1998 Catalog:\nNew Century College\n300 Introduction to Social Work (3:3:0). Prerequisite: Sophomore standing. This course introduces students to the historical roots of the social work profession and social welfare. The social systems perpective is discussed as the framework for social work knowledge, values, and skills, and an understanding of professional values, ethics, the fields of practice, and settings of social work. The profession's commitment to the disadvantaged, social justice, diversity, and discriminated and oppressed groups is included as course content. Presentations by social work professionals, including alumni, from different fields of practice will supplement classroom discussion. s\n301 Laboratory in Interpersonal Communication (3:3:0). Prerequisites: SOCI 101, SOCW 300 (or corequisite), PSYC 100, and sophomore standing; or permission of instructor. Emphasis on experiential learning of the biological, psychological, social, and cultural influences on the behavior of those who need and those who give help. Students examine their own behavioral and learning patterns, values, and attitudes to increase their ability to understand and help clients. Field service of at least 60 hours required. f,s\n323 Human Behavior in the Social Environment I (3:3:0). Prerequisites: SOCI 101, SOCW 300 (or corequisite), BIOL 104, and PSYC 100; or permission of instructor. A social systems approach unifying and integrating concepts and knowledge from biology, anthropology, sociology, and psychology about human behavior. Applications to professional practice, from the social work literature, and to the field experience. f\n324 Human Behavior in the Social Environment II (3:3:0). Prerequisite: SOCW 323 with a minimum grade of C or permission of instructor. Examination of social systems theories as they pertain to the study of macro systems. Focus of study involves families, the social group, the formal organization, and the community. Student will apply theoretical concepts to contemporary social problems. s\n351 Social Welfare Policy and Services I (3:3:0). Prerequisites: SOCI 101, SOCW 300 (or corequisite), PSYC 100, and GOVT 204; or permission of instructor. Introduction to social welfare, including its historical development, central concepts, institutional nature, and the functions of social work as a profession. Analyses of human service delivery systems, settings, and roles of social work. f\n352 Social Welfare Policy and Service II (3:3:0). Prerequisite: SOCW 351 with a minimum grade of C or permission of instructor. Analysis of various social welfare policies; components of policy in our society. Examines the political, economic, and cultural influences on the policymaking process. s\n357 Methods of Social Work Intervention I (3:3:0). Open to majors only. Prerequisites: SOCI 101, SOCW 300 (or corequisite), and PSYC 100; or permission of instructor. Social work practice from a systems perspective. Particular emphasis on problem-solving activities with microsystems. The common core of knowledge, values, and skills essential to social work practice is analyzed to gain insight into social work functions and the role of the social worker as a change agent. f\n358 Methods of Social Work Intervention II (3:3:0). Open to majors only. Prerequisites: SOCW 301 and 357, with a minimum grade of C in both courses, or permission of instructor; corequisite: SOCW 359. Continues a generic problem-solving model, focusing on group and macrointervention systems, settings, and skills. Emphasis on working with groups from treatment to task purposes. Group processes such as goal formulation, contract setting, composition, and termination necessary for effective worker intervention are part of the knowledge base of the course. Field service of 40 hours required. s\n359 Methods of Social Work Intervention Seminar (1:1:0). Prerequisite: Must be taken simultaneously with SOCW 358. Weekly seminar to process learning related to 40 hours of field service in the community. Working with groups and communities, provides an experiential opportunity to practice group skills and analyze community intervention strategies.\n400 Legal and Ethical Issues in Human Services (3:3:0). Prerequisite: 60 hours or permission of instructor. An overview of ethical and legal issues related to the human services professions. Some topics include responsibility, competence, duty to warn, confidentiality, professional relationships, and research. Clinical strategies relevant to legal and ethical issues are emphasized.\n410 Alcohol and Substance Abuse: Policies and Programs (3:3:0). Prerequisite: 60 hours or permission of instructor. Primary issues related to alcoholism and drug abuse including key concepts, theories, policies, and research regarding the use and abuse of alcohol and other drugs. Emphasis on the impact of the policies and programs on the well-being of ethnic minority and disadvantaged service populations. sum\n423 Social Work with Adolescents (3:3:0). Prerequisites: 60 hours and concurrent field experience or permission of instructor. Major needs of adolescents with their implications for social work practice. Problems of family and peer group relationships; occupational choice; sexual and scholastic adjustment; and special problems of racial and cultural alienation; alcohol and drug abuse; and delinquency. Studies various theoretical orientations and evidence from research. Analyzes both individual and group approaches to counseling and treatment.\n425 Planning and Organizing for Community Change (3:3:0). Prerequisite: 60 hours or permission of instructor. Designed for senior social work students with an interest in pursuing community organization as a professional career specialty. Students are provided with a basic understanding of community organization and planning, with special emphasis on conducting a needs assessment in the community. Student examine the environmental context in which administrative and community practice occurs. The role of social workers as planners and agents of social change is explored.\n430 Social Work and the Law (3:3:0). Prerequisite: 60 hours or permission of the instructor. Introduces students to the social worker's role in the legal system, familiarizes students with legal processes and their application to issues of interest to social workers and their clients, including child abuse, foster care, reproductive rights, juvenile justice, and legal rights of the poor/women.\n435 Social Work with the Aged (3:3:0). Prerequisite: 60 hours or permission of instructor. A survey of the issues related to working with the aged population. A study of biological, psychological, and sociocultural aspects of aging, as well as the unique problems that are intricately involved with service delivery to aged persons. Students examine the forces that impinge upon the aged person and explore critical issues related to extended life span, family changes, institutionalization, and the role of the aged persons in society. Students are challenged to increase their sensitivity and knowledge of aged citizens.\n453 Senior Practicum I (5:0:0). Prerequisites: SOCW 301, 323, 324, 351, 352, 357, and 358, with a grade of at least C and recommendation of faculty. Open only to social work majors. Under supervisory instruction provided by field agencies, students are involved two days per week in learning through participation in the provision of service to individual clients, families, groups and/or communities, and in activities sponsored by or involving professional social workers. Weekly seminar and periodic faculty-agency consultations. f\n454 Senior Practicum II (5:0:0). Prerequisites: SOCW 453, with a grade of at least C and recommendation of faculty. Field experience and weekly seminar. s\n455 Senior Practicum/Block Placement (10:0:0). Prerequisites: SOCW 301, 323, 324, 351, 352, 357, 358, and 471; completion of all required social work courses except electives; social work major with 90 hours; GPA of 3.50 (in social work); and recommendation of the faculty and director of field instruction. Under supervisory instruction provided by field agencies, students are involved four days per week in learning through participation in the provision of service to individual clients, families, groups, and/or communities, and in activities sponsored by or involving professional social workers. Weekly seminar or individual meetings with faculty liaison, and periodic faculty-agency visits. s\n471 Research in Social Work (3:3:0). Prerequisite: SOCI 221 or PSYC 300, six credits of social work courses, senior standing, or permission of instructor. Must be completed with a minimum grade of C. Principles and the theory underlying scientific inquiry. Emphasis on the use of research in social work practice, steps in conducting research, and utility of research efforts in developing and evaluating social work knowledge and skills. f\n475 Selected Topics in Social Work Policy (3:3:0). Prerequisite: 60 hours or permission of instructor. In-depth study of special areas of social work that are of interest to students, faculty, and the social work community. Topics vary.\n483 Selected Approaches to Social Work Intervention (3:3:0). Prerequisite: 60 hours or permission of instructor. Taken simultaneously with SOCW 453 or 454 (Senior Practicum). Opportunity to examine critically personal use of different approaches to social work intervention currently employed in practice settings. Students have an opportunity to use with clients the technical skills these approaches require. May be taken more than once for credit. Topics vary.\n499 Independent Study in Social Work (1-3:0:0). Prerequisites: 90 hours and a research proposal approved by instructor before enrollment. Investigation of a research problem in the field of social work.\n510 Interdisciplinary Seminar in Child and Family Welfare (3:3:0). Prerequisite: Upper-division undergraduate or graduate standing. Provides student with an in-depth understanding of the child and family welfare systems in the United States and other countries by examining factors that contribute to child and family dysfunction and by assessing family support programs. Particular emphasis will be placed on vulnerable and at-risk populations.\n511 Health Status of Vulnerable and At-Risk Women, Children, and Families (3:3:0). Prerequisite: Upper-division undergraduate or graduate standing. Provides students with an in-depth understanding of the physical, social, and psychological factors that influence the health status, behaviors, and outcome of vulnerable populations in the United States and Latin American countries. Race, ethnicity, gender, and institutional arrangements are critical areas of focus in understanding the health trajectory of these groups.\n598 Special Topics in Social Work (3:3:0). Prerequisite: Upper-division undergraduate or graduate standing."}
{"content":"Just around the corner from Simon’s Town lies Boulders Beach, a sheltered cove of soft white sand, massive granite boulders and – being on the Indian Ocean side of the peninsula – water that’s a little warmer than the icy temperatures of Cape Town's Atlantic Ocean beaches.\nYet it’s not the squeaky-clean sand or crystal clear water that makes visitors to flock to Boulders but its local residents – penguins. Boulders Beach and neighbouring Foxy Beach are home to a colony of thousands of African penguins and it's great fun to watch them go about their daily business: preening and sunning themselves, guarding a nest, waddling along the sand like an old married couple and then transforming into sleek black-and-white torpedoes as soon as they enter the water.\nTo get really close to the penguins stroll along the wooden boardwalks that thread through the dense vegetation, over the dunes and round Foxy Beach - with such a beautiful setting and ever-obliging birds you’re sure to get some great photos. In fact the penguins almost seem to pose for pictures, though a word of warning: don’t hassle the penguins or try to touch them - they may look cute but they can be grouchy and those beaks are razor sharp.\nAfterward wandering the boardwalks, head down to Boulders Beach itself and find a spot to soak up some sunshine and enjoy the unique experience of sharing a stretch of sand with these birds in their butler-style tailcoats. If you’re travelling with kids, be prepared to stay a while: the water’s safe for swimming, there are rock pools to explore and boulders to clamber about on – it really is the perfect spot for a family beach picnic.\nA final word of advice for those who have driven to Boulders Beach: before you leave, check to see whether any stray birds have chosen to rest in the shade of, or underneath, your car.\nAt 40 km from the city centre, Boulders is the furthest of our Cape Town beaches but its position makes it the perfect stop on your drive either to or from Cape Point, and if you book a scheduled peninsula tour it’s sure to be included.\nWho will enjoy it: Everyone! And kids are sure to love Boulders as much – if not more – than adults.\nEntry Fee: Adults R45 Children age 2-11 R20 (valid until 31 October 2012) The Boulders Beach penguin colony has grown rapidly over the years and it is now possible to see a few birds for free on neighbouring beaches, but the overwhelming majority of birds are still found within the reserve so we’d highly recommend paying the small entrance fee charged by the Table Mountain National Parks.\nOpening times: Refer to the South African National Parks for the latest entry and exit times.\nOur Luxury Cape Town City Experience makes the most of a stay in Cape Town with 4 nights in a charming boutique hotel and all manner of activities including a visit to Boulders Beach and Cape Point, trip to the top of Table Mountain and time spent in the Cape Winelands.\nOur favourite beach lodges near Boulders:\nTintswalo Atlantic (Hout Bay): a top choice for those looking for a romantic retreat away from the city centre with just 10 individually decorated suites, plenty of privacy and Atlantic Ocean views.\nThe Last Word Long Beach (Noordhoek): spectacular sea and mountain views plus an on-your-doorstep beach are what to expect at this boutique hotel, just 40 min from Cape Town.\nView more Cape Town coastal accommodation.\nWritten by Sandra Mallinson. Connect with her on Google+.\nAt a Glance\nThis tiny and seemingly insignificant beach along the False Bay seaboard is actually one of Cape Town's biggest tourist attractions, namely due to the thousand-strong African penguin colony living in and around the dunes and boulders."}
{"content":"Say goodbye to Patches.\nThe Erie Zoo's female polar bear will be relocated, most likely permanently, to the North Carolina Zoo sometime this month, Executive Director Scott Mitchell said Thursday.\nThe zoo's planned $1 million renovation of two moated exhibits, including the one Patches is in, is driving the decision, Mitchell said. The zoo was concerned that the noise and disruption caused by the construction project would be too stressful for her.\nPatches most likely will remain in Asheboro, N.C., ending the Erie Zoo's long-standing connection to the marquee species at least for the foreseeable future, Mitchell said. The zoo has no immediate plans to acquire another polar bear.\n\"She's almost 26 and ... she's going to be down there at least a year and then she's 27,\" he said. \"By that point it would make more sense for her to stay there. They have a big bear exhibit with no bears so it makes sense in that regard as well.\"\nPatches' moving date has not been set, but this weekend is the last that the zoo can guarantee visitors will be able to see her, Mitchell said.\nVisitors and staff members alike will miss her, he said.\n\"It's a family member moving away,\" Mitchell said.\nThe zoo is in the final design phase of the construction project, which includes Patches' exhibit and its lion exhibit. Plans include renovating holding spaces and sculpting the concrete walls; filling the moats that separate the outdoor open-air spaces from the outer exhibit rail, and installing glass partitions.\n\"It'll be somewhat similar to the tiger (exhibit),\" Mitchell said. \"There will be glass so people can get nose to nose with things. ... It's larger, it's a better fit all around for the animals.\"\nNetting at the top of the exhibits will allow the zoo to house a wide variety of large cats in the exhibits, including the Amur leopards and possibly a new species, the Canadian lynx, Mitchell said.\nStill, Mitchell said he's concerned about losing one of the zoo's popular attractions.\n\"They're an iconic species here at the zoo,\" Mitchell said of polar bears. \"They have been a part of the community and the fabric and our family forever, as far as anybody can remember. But there's a lot of things at play in this and one is the difficulty in acquiring bears.\"\nFew polar bears are being born at zoos, Mitchell said. Cost and space requirements of a new exhibit are also considerations.\nThe combined space of the current adjacent lion and polar bear exhibits would not be enough to house polar bears under current requirements, Mitchell said.\n\"Every kid can identify with a polar bear and bears in general. It's not easy to replace a polar bear in any way, shape or form. It's even more difficult because they've been with us back to the 'Koehler polars,'\" Mitchell said, referring to the first pair of polar bears to live at the zoo. The pair was sponsored by the Koehler Brewery.\n\"I think the community understands what we're doing is best for the polar bear and polar bears in general, and that has to be our first priority,\" he said.\nERICA ERWIN can be reached at 870-1846 or by e-mail. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNerwin."}
{"content":"Rhodes eResearch Repository – The mineralogy and geochemistry of the Voëlwater banded iron-formation, Northern Cape Province – Rhodes eResearch Repository\nBanded iron-formations (BIFs) are chemically precipitated sedimentary rocks in which Fe-rich bands or laminae alternate with Fe-poor ones. Text TSIKOS-MSc-TR95-63.pdf 6Mb.\nAstrobiology Magazine – Rock Bands Spin an Oxygen Record\nBanded iron formation. To help sort out the geologic plotline, Papineau is studying banded iron formations (BIFs), sedimentary rocks that formed at the bottom of ancient seas. The iron minerals within BIFs make up the world's largest source of iron ore.\nIron – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia\nLarge deposits of iron are found in banded iron formations. These geological formations are a type of rock consisting of repeated thin layers of iron oxides, either magnetite (Fe3O4) or hematite (Fe2O3), alternating with bands of iron-poor shale and chert.\nOrigin of life critique\nTo everyone's surprise they reported the spiral algal fossil Grypania within banded iron formations (BIFs) in Michigan, USA. Algae require oxygen, so their existence at this juncture shows banded iron formations do not necessarily indicate global anoxic conditions.\nOrigin of Life – A. G. Cairns-Smith\nPrecambrian solution photochemistry, inverse segregation, and banded iron formations, A. Genetic takeover – and the mineral origins of life, A. G Cairns-Smith, Origins of Life, 6, 265-7, 1975. Mineral theories of the origin of life and an iron sulfide example, A. J Russell, 1992 Origins Life Evol.\nwww.docstoc.com docs 6018066 Precambrian PDF\nWells doesn't even mention the evidence that banded iron formations (incompletely oxidized iron indicative of ultralow-oxygen conditions) are very common prior to 2.3 bya and very rare afterwards.\nAlaska Volcano Observatory – Novarupta – Bibliography\nOrigins of large-volume, compositionally zoned volcanic eruptions: new constraints from U-series isotopes and numerical thermal modeling for the 1912 Katmai-Novarupta eruption, 2010 Turner, Simon, Sandiford, Mike, Reagan, Mark, Hawkesworth, Chris, and Hildreth, Wes, 2010, Origins of large-volume, compositionally zoned …\nBioMedCentral – BMC Evolutionary Biology – Full text – A genomic timescale for the origin of eukaryotes\nAlthough the existence of banded iron formations prior to 3 Ga sometimes has been used as evidence for the early evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis, oxygen-independent mechanisms of iron deposition are known. Working model of gene relationships used in this study.\nUTas ePrints – Setting of the Palaeoproterozoic Koongie Park Formation and carbonate-associated base metal mineralisation, at …\nRequires a PDF viewer 71Mb. Requires a PDF viewer 486Kb. Requires a PDF viewer 876Kb. Requires a PDF viewer 5Mb. Requires a PDF viewer 6Mb."}
{"content":"Radon gas poses serious health risks. Next to smoking, it is the second leading cause of lung cancer. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that close to 20,000 lung cancer deaths in the US yearly are attributed to residential radon exposure.\nNon-smokers beware: The US Surgeon General announced that 20,000 Americans die of radon-related lung cancer each year. Radon gas trapped in homes is the second leading cause of lung cancer. Worldwide radon causes over 15% of all lung cancer diagnosed yearly.\nIsn't Radon Testing a Scam?\nDespite the serious, and fatal health risks of exposure to radon, few home owners get this checked. One possible reason is that radon testing was, for a short time, plagued by fraudulent testing businesses. However, because of the serious health risks of radon gas, the US Environmental Protection Agency and the individual statewide Departments of Environmental Protection have regulated the testing of homes for radon. Now, only homeowners and certified specialists are legally allowed to check for radon.\nFurthermore, there was a time when homes were not air-tight and radon gas was easily dissipated into the air. So, the threat was not as prevelant. However, since the early 1980s, when home energy efficiency measure gained steam, the problem of residential radon gas has increased exponentially.\nWhat is Radon?\nRadon is radioactive gas that is completely undetectable by the five human senses. It is invisible, odorless, and tasteless. It comes from the breakdown of uranium in the soil (which first breaks down into radium and then into radon). Uranium is naturally occurring in all soil. Hence, radon is continually traveling through the soil and into the atmosphere. It becomes a problem when it gets trapped in homes and is allowed to accumulate.\nWhat Are the Health Risks of Radon Exposure?\nIt has long been known that breathing radioactive material causes abnormal cell growth when exposed to internal bodily tissue, such as bronchial tissue. However, two recent scientific studies show definitive evidence between radon and lung cancer. \"These findings effectively end any doubts about the risks to Americans of having radon in their homes,\" said Tom Kelly, Director of EPA’s Indoor Environments Division. \"We know that radon is a carcinogen. This research confirms that breathing low levels of radon can lead to lung cancer.\"\nWhy Would Radon Be in My House?\nBecause uranium is present in all soil, radon is also present in the soil. Since radon is a gas, it naturally travels through the soil and enters homes through basement floors and walls. Particularly susceptible are homes with unfinished, rock or dirt floored basements built on loose soil. However, radon also leeches through concrete and has been found in homes without any visible cracks or fissures. Additionally, it can travel through drains. Once in the home, it breaks down into small particles that concentrate in the air throughout the home. Unfortunately, radon can not be dissipated by just opening a window or plugging in a fan.\nShould I Worry About Radon?\nPeople are spending more and more money making their homes fuel efficient. If you've done this, you know that it means your home is sealed as tightly as possible. What this means for radon is that it has no escape route. Add to that the time spent in the house - working from home, staying in to enjoy home entertainment systems, working-out with home gym equipment, and saving a buck by eating in. On average, we spend more time at home than ever before. If this sounds like you, then you should probably worry.\nHow Do I Know If I Have Radon?\nOK, so radon's Dangerous. But, you don't know if it presents a danger to you and your family unless you get tested. There is a simple piece of equipment that tests for radon in a few days to a week. There is also more sophisticated equipment that can gather radon data over a loger period of time, up to a year.\nYou can test for radon with a testing device from the hardware store, home center, or even the American Lung Association. Or you can have a professionally certified radon removal specialist test your home. Any of these options are viable, however, a professional radon specialist is a safe bet. They are all state certified and adhere to strict government guidelines.\nIf you buy a test kit and do it yourself, it will cost about a third less than it would cost to have a professionally administered test. Place the test kit on the lowest level of your home, usually the basement. Home tests usually gather data over a 3 to 7 day period and give hourly readings of radon levels.\nWhen is Radon Toxic?\nRadon gas does exist in the air at safe levels (at 0.4pCi/L). The trouble exists when radon is trapped. Radon levels over 4 pico curies per liter (4pCi/L) are considered dangerous. If you or a radon specialist find levels higher than that, consider reducing the levels of radon in your home immediately.\nHow Do I Reduce the Radon Level?\nThe \"subslab depressurization system\" is the most common and effective way to reduce radon in the home. This system’s name is trickier than the technology. It’s basically PVC piping and a small fan. The piping is installed below the basement floor and run to the roof. The pipe in the basement is submerged below the basement slab and sealed. The end of the pipe that is above the eaves of the house is fitted with a small exhaust fan. This fan causes a suction that removes the gas and vents it into the atmosphere.\nShould I Do It Myself or Call a Professional?\nIt is possible to install a radon reduction unit yourself. And, again, it will be considerably less expensive than if a professional does the job. Professional jobs can cost in the high 100s to the low 1000s. (Because some jobs are complicated, there is a wide range in the basic pricing.) If you do it yourself, it is advisable that your have experience with PVC piping and wiring.\nWhen Should I Test Again?\nIf your radon levels were below 4 pCu/l the first time, it’s a good idea to test for radon levels every 2 or 3 years based on your soil and previous readings. Loose soil allows gas to travel more quickly than clay. Furthermore, if you have recently weatherized your home, if you’ve installed a central heating and air conditioning unit, if you’ve built additions in the basement or done any construction, have your radon levels checked."}
{"content":"STILLPOINT Archive: last updated 05/05/2011\nby Mark Sargent\nThis mural (detail), by Marshall Deckert and Chad Carlberg ’95, was painted on the courtyard wall of the Latin American Studies Program in San Jose, Costa Rica.\nOur written directions, in Spanish, alluded often to former landmarks rather than to the names of avenues, as if the real map of San José was the local memory. So when our cab driver got lost, retracing the same steep roads in the outskirts of the Costa Rican capital, we tried our luck at a corner fruit market, full of papayas, mangoes and bananas under a corrugated eave and another of the ubiquitous Coca Cola signs. The merchant, with slight amusement, promptly pointed to the iron fence and white house right across the street, the site of the Consejo Universidades Cristianas—or, the Latin American Studies Program of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU).\nIt didn’t take long to encounter footprints from Gordon College. After all, Jud Carlberg had been one of the architects of the program during the years when the CCCU first decided to create study-abroad opportunities for U.S. students. On the wall overlooking a small courtyard, a bright mural by Marshall Deckert and Chad Carlberg ’95, Jud’s son, offers a vision of North American unity. Two large arms encircle a geographic panorama, which climbs from the barrio of San José toward the continental expanse of the United States. In the foreground the Pulperia, or the neighborhood fruit store, is surrounded by images of Costa Ricans at work and play—reading, harvesting coffee beans, or collecting flowers beneath a Spanish fountain. In the hazier distance one can see the faint silhouette of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and the twin towers of New York.\nOur family’s visit occurred in the summer of 2002, just 10 months after those twin towers disintegrated over Manhattan streets. On that September 11 the sanctuary was already full when Jud Carlberg calmly pulled us together in a side aisle to design, rather hastily, a noontime service. We chose hymns. I read a psalm. And Jud had prepared remarks about how the moment was as likely to define this generation as Pearl Harbor had once done for his own parents. What I remember most was his call for patience and empathy rather than recrimination and revenge. He would take some heat for that: notes and emails from those eager for more righteous indignation.\nSince the tragedy of September 11, international study has expanded among American students. The number of Gordon students traveling off campus for a semester has more than doubled in the decade. Increasingly our students now find their way around the world, joining service trips in Sri Lanka and Bolivia, or completing academic semesters in Orvieto and Beijing.\nGoing forward we will inevitably stress that such international ventures prepare students to flourish in the “global economy” and the “global village.” We do trust that our graduates will know the idioms of the world’s parliaments and the digital language of the world’s marketplace. But I hope that, in the midst of all the spin about power and expediency, we never lose the conviction that international study is a means to developing patience and empathy. It is about discovering those neighborhoods that shape individual lives and values. The map of the human heart relies on local memory.\nDuring my time as provost I have appreciated Jud’s encouragement to link educational ventures to the local setting rather than envisioning education primarily as a global commodity. There is no digital equivalent for the hum of insects in Kenyan grasslands or the long conversation over coffee at Aix-en-Provence. Or the evening we spent with Jud and Jan walking by viola players on Budapest corners, part of a culture where opera spills into the streets.\nLast spring my son Daniel spent a semester in the Triana neighborhood of Seville, Spain. During our visit Daniel and I found our way through the old dungeon of the Inquisition, exiting through an indoor market, packed with grapes, cantaloupes and ham legs, and decorated with scores of religious posters from Semana Santa, the extravagant and solemn Holy Week procession.\nI had come to see something of the famous venue of religious intolerance, the place where the novelist Dostoyevsky set the confrontation between the Grand Inquisitor and Christ. But in the vegetable stands, festival streamers, and saints’ figurines beside the prison rubble, I was reminded just how much the great legacy of faith—its traditions, exuberance, and tragic excess—takes on a local hue, never far from the simplest cadences of common lives.\nGlobalization both reveals and obscures those cadences. I now read the international press online and watch cricket on cable. But this broad access to the world’s media can also build false confidence that one knows other peoples and places.\nJust over a year ago, as I prepared for a trip to Tamil Nadu in southern India, I read Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger, a dark comedy on the rise of modern India. Fiercely satirical, the book captured the Man Booker Prize, the elite literary award announced in London. But in talking with faculty in Tamil Nadu I heard cautions about viewing an Asian nation through Western prizes, presumably because those award-winners are attuned to the Western ear for irony. Faculty spoke instead of poems and novels that caught the rhythms on the land they loved: a lyric about the white-washed banyan trunks alongside the dusty roads, a story about lepers in the Nilgiri Hills, or a novella about love and loneliness on the Gulf of Mannar. Other professors recalled, with melancholy, how many of the best Tamil-language films were redubbed in Hindi to catch the Bollywood market, a gateway to the commercial attention of Europe and North America. Social workers stressed the tug-of-war between Western ideals of personal rights and the Gandhian vision for the collaborative rural village. Justice requires an eye for the neighborhood as well as the global trend.\nMy hope is that at Gordon we will always remember the local in the liberal arts. Many who champion the liberal arts cite their universality—if not a singular canon of knowledge, a common array of intellectual skills. At their best, the liberal arts help us transcend borders. But one can also use a liberal arts pedigree, with its claims to wisdom and breadth, merely to sanction one’s provincial ways and values. Just as likely, we can easily lose the regional shades of human experience within the broad strokes by which we paint the history of people and ideas. After all, most of the matters that fill a liberal arts curriculum—books, theories, artwork, and methods of discovery—are imports from some specific place. As with any commodity that succeeds on the global market, whether it is cuisine, sport, software, novels or ideas, there are many other variations back home that are equally, or even more fervently, cherished. I am grateful that Jud encouraged us to discover them.\nMark Sargent has been the provost of Gordon College since 1996."}
{"content":"Maintaining Political Balance Through Redistricting\nBringing truth, light and perhaps even fairness to redistricting.\nIt’s the decennial exercise in political shenanigans that for eons has vexed reformers: state and federal legislative redistricting. Ever since former Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry invented his now-infamous “Gerrymander” on Boston’s North Shore, state legislators and governors have, with new census data, exhibited a sort of free-form artistic creativity that would be the envy of the most talented avant-garde abstract painters.\nAnd so the question remains: How can redistricting be handled in a way that at least blunts the worst of that creativity? That is, can district lines be drawn so that they are not stretched across implausible geographical boundaries in order to tilt the political balance of power in a particular district in favor of Democrats or Republicans?\nTwo interesting experiments in reform are pending, although neither carries any guarantee of success. The first -- California’s Proposition 11 -- is garnering the most initial attention. Passed in 2008, the proposition creates a 14-member citizen commission overseen by the state auditor’s office that will handle the job of drawing up state legislative districts, taking the whole process out of the hands of politicians.\nThe way the commission is chosen is diabolically clever and convoluted. The method was designed with the assistance of the citizens’ lobby organization, California Common Cause, and complexity was built into it to defy politicization. At the same time, there’s been plenty of citizen enthusiasm about joining the commission’s ranks. “We thought we might get 500 or 1,000 applicants,” says Kathay Feng, executive director of Common Cause California. “We got 30,000.”\nWhether Proposition 11 is allowed to work its prospective apolitical magic, however, depends on what happens this Election Day. Two ballot initiatives will be voted on -- they will either expand Proposition 11’s reach or kill the idea altogether. Proposition 20 will extend the commission’s jurisdiction beyond just state legislative districts to congressional districts. Proposition 27 -- which is backed by the California Congressional Delegation -- will rescind Proposition 11 altogether.\nBut if citizen commissions can’t play in the fields of redistricting, there will at least be more opportunity for a hot stove-style approach. The second reform idea involves the simple application of a little sunlight. That is, it would allow regular people to use Web-based tools and their computers to come up with their own plan for a state’s legislative and congressional electoral boundaries. That means for the first time in any redistricting cycle, citizens will be able to weigh in with their ideas on what maps should look like.\nThere will be no weight of law behind it, but through websites like Dave’s Redistricting App, posted on Gardow.com, anyone with a computer can play governor. Players choose their state and get to use speculative U.S. Census Bureau data to make their moves.\nMeanwhile, the Brookings Institution and American Enterprise Institute are pushing states to put their own redistricting plans online and allow citizens to participate in the process. States haven’t proved to be overly excited about the prospect, citing costs.\nProponents of these citizen-participation efforts hope that they will at least get citizens tuned into the importance of what’s now considered an opaque and arcane practice. Maybe, given more citizen awareness, the efforts could spur politicians to be less brazen in their political artistry.\nJoin the Discussion\nAfter you comment, click Post. You can enter an anonymous Display Name or connect to a social profile."}
{"content":"Underwater Vac Inhales Alien Algae\n\"We're getting to the point now where we feel like we have a good suite of tools to remove alien algae.\"\n- Eric Conklin, Honolulu Nature Conservancy marine-science advisor\nHonololu, Hawaii, USA - Alien algae are infesting and killing some of Hawaii's coral reefs at an unprecedented rate ... But a new underwater vacuum cleaner is helping curb the growth.\nDubbed the 'Super Sucker,' the machine can hoover up to 800 pounds of the thicket-like algae in an hour, which should give reefs a fighting chance of recovery."}
{"content":"The JOBS act was signed into law by President Obama on Thursday 5 April, supported by overwhelming bypartisan support.\nGrow VC has been active in pioneering the new market and since last year supporting the bills passage through Congress. A lot of work has been done much earlier with our global operations in building awareness and best practices in this emerging field. The movement of democratizing startup funding has been escalating in momentum since the past few years, but the impact is still only a fraction of it’s full potential for the economy. The support from US Congress is positive in seeing the fundamental changes that are impacting startups and investing in startups, but also the impact on the economy such a movement will have. We’ve also discussed this topic with the father of the bill, Congressman McHenry on our podcast.\nPresident Obama stated:\nOverall, new businesses account for almost every new job created in America. For startups and small businesses, this bill is a game changer. Because of this bill, startups and small businesses will have access to a bigger pool of investors.\nWhat comes to the future beyond the signing of the JOBS act, however important, it is only a mere start of the future of startup funding. Grow VC continues its work to hone a sustainable and efficient framework for crowdfunding, but also tools and models to leverage crowdfunding for other types of investors and organizations. Therefore Grow VC works with hundreds of partners in it’s Networks Program, in order to include more information, support and infrastructure to early stage entrepreneurship. With the right framework and infrastructure, the JOBS act can truly kickstart the economy for new competitive advantages.\nWe at Grow VC applaud policy makers for their strong support and leadership to support the US economy and job growth. This is surely the start of many new success cases, both from the sides of entrepreneurs, as well as their investors.\nLearn More About Grow VC Group Companies\nWe are always looking for talented, entrepreneurial and driven doers to join our growing global group of companies in various positions and locations around the world. If you think you have what it takes, apply now!"}
{"content":"Toll Free: 1-800-247-7122\nTTY: (262) 741-8492\nBurlington Campus: (262) 767-5200\nElkhorn Campus: (262) 741-8200\nKenosha Campus: (262) 564-2200\nRacine Campus: (262) 619-6200\nCampus Closings: 1-800-353-3152\nBy Gena Checki\nFab Lab program coordinator Greg Herker, right, shows the milling machine to student Randy Quilling.\nAre you interested in changing the world with an idea or invention? If you are, you might consider attending a Fab Lab program or getting a Fab Lab membership. Fab Lab originated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where professor Neil Gershenfeld wanted to provide widespread access to modern means for invention.\nThere are now more than 100 Fab Lab locations worldwide, including Gateway’s Industrial Design Fab Lab at the S. C. Johnson iMET Center in Sturtevant.\nGateway’s lab, which opened last spring, is open to all Gateway students. All interested individuals must first take a $25 orientation and safety class. In addition to Gateway students, small business and industry employees can use the Fab Lab for various purposes.\nFab Lab can be used for projects such as design, prototyping and model making. Art students can use it as a creative medium. The lab also can be used to demonstrate parts or even for fun, to make items that aren’t destined to change the world.\n“The Fab Lab is a place to bring your ideas to life - whether something small that you take pride in or an invention that changes the world,” said Greg Herker, Fab Lab program coordinator.\nFor example, Gateway students recently designed their own characters on the computer and used a 3-D printer to bring their characters to life. The 3-D printer uses a liquid and ultraviolet light to “print” as a complete, workable object. The Fab Lab also is equipped with a 3-D scanner, a milling machine and an Epilog Helix Laser/Engraver.\nIn addition to encouraging ingenuity, Fab Lab technology will soon be in most workplaces. And, Herker added, employers want students who are creative and innovative.\n“The Fab Lab is a place to bring your ideas to life - whether something small that you take pride in or an invention that changes the world,” said Greg Herker, Fab Lab program coordinator"}
{"content":"[Haskell-cafe] Named function fields vs. type classes\nk.schupke at imperial.ac.uk\nWed Dec 29 13:34:11 EST 2004\nThere are two ways to do the list of class members, existentials is one\ndata MyBox = forall a . MyClass a => MyBox a\ntype MyClassList = [MyBox]\nf :: MyClassList -> MyClassList\nAn alternative is to use a heterogeneous list (see the HList library):\nThis allows heterogeneous lists with static typing, which can be\nconstrained by a class as follows:\nclass MyClassList x\ninstance MyClassList HNil\ninstance (MyClassList l,MyClass v) => MyClassList (HCons v l)\nThe constraint \"MyClassList\" now implies a heterogeneous list of members\nf :: (MyClassList l,MyClassList l') => l -> l'\nThis represents a filter function on a heterogeneous list of class\nmembers - The\ndrawback is that the list must be statically typecheckable... If you\nlist construction from IO actions, then you want to use existentials.\nSebastian Sylvan wrote:\n>On Tue, 14 Dec 2004 15:40:13 +0000, Keith Wansbrough\n><Keith.Wansbrough at cl.cam.ac.uk> wrote:\n>>>On the other hand, it's difficult or impossible to make a list of a\n>>>bunch of different types of things that have nothing in common save\n>>>being members of the class.\n>>I've recently been playing with making, for each class C, a\n>>\"interface\" datatype IC (appropriately universally and existentially\n>>qualified so as to include a dictionary for class C), and then making\n>>this IC an instance of class C. Then I can wrap any instance of C up\n>>in an IC, and make a list of those.\n>I think there should be standard syntax for this...\n>Some sort of operator for turning one or several type classes into an\n>So you could write something like something like...\n>f :: <Show,Num> -> [<Show,Eq>] -> <Eq,Num>\n>f a xs = ...\n>So the first parameter is just a value of the interface datatype\n>data ShowNum = forall a . (Show a, Num a) => ShowNum a\n>And it's all automatically up and downcasted.\n>This is one of the more powerful idioms in languages such as Java\n>(collections of objects which satisfy some interface, for instance)\n>and should, IMO, be supported by some special syntax to facilitate\n>it's use in Haskell.\nMore information about the Haskell-Cafe"}
{"content":"Literature: From Paradise to the Postcolonial\nEnglish 356, Fall 1997\nDr. Juniper Ellis\nLoyola College in Maryland\nBaltimore MD 21210\nOffice Hours: MWF 9-11, and by appointment\nCristina Garcia, Dreaming in Cuban\nVilsoni Hereniko, Last Virgin in Paradise\nKeri Hulme, The Bone People\nEarl Lovelace, The Dragon Can't Dance\nHerman Melville, Typee\nV. S. Naipaul, Miguel Street\nDerek Walcott, Dream on Monkey Mountain and Other Plays\nAlbert Wendt, Sons for the Return Home\nLibrary Reserve Readings, indicated by **\nThis course pursues the perennial inquiry into the poetics and politics of literature, focusing on the island literatures of the Caribbean and the South Pacific. Our readings include a brief examination of island narratives written by British and U.S. explorers, traders, and missionaries from the early modern period to the present. Accounts by nineteenth-century Pacific Islands and Caribbean missionaries further establish the historical and cultural bases of the twentieth-century literature that will be our primary focus. We will examine these writers' use of both oral and written forms, by way of considering island aesthetics and the island as a cultural cross-roads.\nI will expect you to develop, over the course of the semester, analyses of the ways writers' formal techniques relate to larger cultural and critical issues. As a result, you will be expected to read and think about the material before each class, and present your ideas in short papers, class discussions, weekly e-mail discussions, one ten-minute oral presentation, and two seven-page papers (standard fonts and one-inch margins on all papers, please). You are required to meet with me during the week prior to your presentation. Additionally, I encourage you to meet with me for individual writing conferences (do not wait until the day before the paper is due). In-class writing workshops will allow you to benefit from others' suggestions as well, when you go over papers or working drafts in a small group. Unannounced quizzes on the readings, as well as a mid-semester exam and a final exam, will help ensure that you keep up and allow you to make connections between the readings. I am happy to talk with you at any point about the readings or about your writing. If you cannot make my office hours I would be glad to arrange another appointment.\nAttendance and participation are essential and will affect your grade, which will be figured as follows:\nOral presentation 10%\nWeekly contributions to e-mail discussion 10%\nClass discussion, attendance, unannounced reading quizzes 20%\nMid-sem and Final 20%\nYou are allowed three excused absences and you are responsible for any material covered or assigned during your absence. Your final grade will be dropped as much as a whole letter grade for each absence over three. Please do not be late to class. Papers are due on or before the date indicated, and must be turned in at the beginning of the class. Late papers will be penalized (one-third of a grade for each day late, for example, from a B to a B-). To avoid plagiarism, all quotations and paraphrased ideas from other sources must be cited, in accordance with the Honor Code. Any violation of the Honor Code will result in a failing grade. If you have any questions, please see me.\n© 2005, UHM, Center for Pacific Island Studies. | Site Credits"}
{"content":"The Rise of the Modern Firm\nThis authoritative volume focuses on the rise of modern firms, from their early history to the present day. It considers the role of laws and contracts in shaping the growth and influence of business enterprises. It presents entrepreneurs, executives and the firms they controlled as driving actors in national economies and international growth. Alongside an original introduction, Professors Jones and Friedman have selected work by scholars who have used corporate archives to explore the fine details of how firms actually operated. It also includes work by those who have been influenced by evolutionary, transaction costand resource-based theories of the firm. The book will be an essential source of reference for industrial economists, management scholars and business historians.\nKeywords: Business Ventures;"}
{"content":"What do Kansas Republicans believe?\nPublished on -5/18/2014, 2:54 PM\nI have been called many things for my commentary on Kansas politics during the past four years, but rarely have I been labelled a Republican.\nI now publicly confess I am indeed a life-long, card-carrying Republican, born and raised in Republican territory, rural Harper County, in the small farming community of Bluff City.\nMy affiliation with the Republican Party led to my work with Republican officeholders in Kansas, as a cabinet officer for Govs. Bob Bennett and Mike Hayden, and as a legislative aide to U.S. Sen. Jim Pearson. I have admired the leadership of Republicans at the national level, such as Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan and Kansas' own Alf Landon and Bob Dole.\nGiven this background, I have watched the current crop of Republican lawmakers in Kansas radically depart from what have been core principles of Republicans. Their actions prompt me to ask: What exactly do Kansas Republicans believe?\nFor example, I thought Republicans believed in balancing the budget. Eisenhower showed the national budget could be balanced, an action rarely repeated since his time. Bennett and Hayden exercised fiscal discipline and carefully kept state spending in line with revenues while maintaining healthy balances.\nIn contrast, current state lawmakers proudly enacted reckless tax cuts, reducing revenues while allowing spending to grow. Before leaving town a few weeks ago, they approved a budget that by their own account spends $320 million more than is taken in during the budget cycle. Their action ignored news that revenues already are $93 million short of projections for the year April and likely will drop even further. Their financial mismanagement triggered a downgrade in the state's credit and might see fund balances plunge near zero within the year.\nI also thought Republicans believed in fair and balanced taxation. Republican presidents, as well as Kansas governors, supported progressive income taxes throughout the 20th century. Landon campaigned for a state income tax in 1932 \"not just as another tax\" but as a way to reduce reliance on the property tax. As governor, he initiated a tax policy that moderated tax rates and balanced the tax burden among taxpayers and has been embraced by a long line of Republican governors and legislative leaders.\nThat all changed in 2011 when ALEC tax-cut guru Arthur Laffer came to Kansas. Republican lawmakers, led by the governor, now want to eliminate the income tax and shift the tax burden onto sales and property taxpayers. These lawmakers have adopted a tax policy that places more of the tax burden onto lower-income Kansans while dramatically reducing taxes for the wealthy.\nFinally, I thought Republicans believed in Reagan's ideal of a \"big tent\" political party, one with room for a diversity of views, attractive to independent-minded voters, and with leaders who embrace Reagan's 11th Commandment: \"Thou shall not speak ill of any Republican.\"\nThe Kansas Republican Party has abandoned the big-tent philosophy and largely relinquished its soul to a few ideological groups. The views of the State Chamber, Americans for Prosperity, Kansans for Life, and the State Rifle Association have more say in what state officeholders believe today than long-standing party principles. These groups control the party's agenda by targeting dissenters in primary elections and then disciplining those elected with single-issue scorecards and litmus tests.\nAnd Gov. Sam Brownback has led Republicans in violating Reagan's 11th Commandment by joining with political allies and campaigning against legislators of his own party.\nThese Republican officeholders have turned their back on their party's history and on those who have shaped that history. This year's elections promise to be a watershed opportunity for Kansas voters to embrace or reject this radical \"red-state\" experiment with their future.\nH. Edward Flentje is a professor\nat Wichita State University."}
{"content":"Posted by Karen\non June 22, 2000 at 11:12:14:\nIn Reply to: Re: Allergic to alcohol? posted by Harry on December 15, 1999 at 02:19:07:\nI have exactly the same kinds of symptoms when I drink alcohol and like you they are intermittent and inconsistent. Sometimes I will be fine, other times I'm not. Some drinks are worse than others e.g. wine, I nearly always end up red, blotchy and hot and generally look like a panda or as though someone has slapped my face. Other drinks will cause the reaction one day and not another. Unfortunately because of the allergy I have gone off most alcohol and can't enjoy drinking it, however, this can cause problems when out as most people just don't understand and think that you are boring. I'm interested to find out through this web site that there are so many fellow sufferers as I have never come across anyone with the same problem before.\n: : About 70% of the times that I consume alcohol I experience an intense heat on my face as well as tightness of skin and a blotchiness. What's strange is the inconsistency. Am I allergic to alcohol? The other day I drank three sips of beer and my face became so hot that my eyes literally burned as if close to a fire. I'm afraid of a severe allergic reaction. I'm not a frequent user and wonder if I need just to completely abstain. I don't see how I can drink the same brand of beer or wine and sometimes have this experience and other times not.\n: Hi Deanna, You could have a yeast problem.All alcohol is produced by a fermentation process. This makes alcohol an aggravating substance and you can't be diagnosed for candidiasis except by the symptomes. If you have had antibiotics recently-- you may have developed a yeast infection. Good Luck---Harry"}
{"content":"The first step in diagnosing the disease is to determine which joints are affected. A physical examination and medical history can help confirm or rule out gout. For example, gout is more likely if arthritis first appears in the big toe.\nThe speed of the onset of pain and swelling is also important. Symptoms that take days or weeks (rather than hours) to develop probably indicate a disorder other than gout.\nAbnormal enlargements in joints that had been affected by previous injury or...Read more\nGout is a form of rheumatic arthritis that attacks the joints, tendons, and other tissues. Most gout patients, about 90% are men over the... Read more »\nIn short, rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory disease which attacks joints in the body. It can affect the alignment and positioning... Read more »\nYou’ve developed a strange little numbness and tingling in the fingers of your left hand. It doesn’t really hurt, but it’s just....... Read more »\nEven with all of today's technology, doctors still rely on their feelings -- literally -- to diagnose some problems. For example, there are 20... Read more »"}
{"content":"Vein removal has become one of the most popular cosmetic procedures available today. There are many options in vein removal, allowing doctors to customize treatment to a patient's specific needs. However, no clinical treatment is without risk, and vein removal procedures are no exception. It is important to evaluate potential risks and side effects of vein removal before going ahead with treatment, to ensure you are comfortable with the procedure you choose.\nSclerotherapy Risks & Side Effects\nSclerotherapy involves injecting a solution directly into the varicose vein so that the vein collapses and becomes less visible. This procedure is done in a doctor's office without the need for sedation or anesthesia. Depending on the number of veins treated, a session of sclerotherapy can last anywhere from five minutes to one hour. The procedure is relatively painless, and most patients are back to their daily activities within a day or two.\nThere are some potential side effects of sclerotherapy, which include:\nLike any non-invasive clinical treatment, sclerotherapy is a relatively safe procedure and side effects are rare. To reduce the risks associated with the procedure even further, choose a doctor who is experienced in sclerotherapy and follow all pre- and post-procedural guidelines carefully.\nLaser Vein Treatment Side Effects & Risks\nLasers have become the new gold standard for many types of cosmetic procedures today, including vein removal. A laser vein treatment uses an intense beam of laser light, focused directly on the varicose vein, to damage the vein so that it eventually disappears completely. Laser treatments are also considered non-invasive procedures that can be done in a doctor's office with little discomfort or downtime.\nRisks involved with laser vein removal are few, and may include:\nTo reduce the risks associated with laser treatments, choose a doctor experienced in laser procedures. This professional will know how to tailor the laser and the procedure to the patient's unique needs, so side effects are less likely to occur.\nAmbulatory Phlebectomy Risks and Side Effects\nAmbulatory phlebectomy is usually reserved for larger veins that will not respond well to sclerotherapy or laser treatment. This procedure involves tiny incisions in the legs that are used to remove varicose veins using a special hook. The procedure is typically done in a doctor's office under a local anesthetic and requires minimal downtime afterward. The biggest advantage to ambulatory phlebectomy, aside from the fact that it is more effective on larger veins, is that treatment is complete in a single session. Sclerotherapy and laser treatments can take anywhere from three to six sessions to achieve the desired results.\nBecause ambulatory phlebectomy is slightly more invasive than the two procedures described above, there are additional risks and possible side effects to consider as well. These might include:\nAmbulatory phlebectomy is much less invasive, and therefore carries fewer risks than procedures like vein stripping that was commonly used in the past. This procedure is often preferable to patients who want to get rid of varicose veins in a single procedure without major risks or downtime.\nWhile there are always risks involved with any medical procedure, these methods of vein removal are relatively non-invasive and low risk. If you are tired of dealing with those unsightly blue lines, contact us today and we can arrange your free consultation with a vein removal specialist in your neck of the woods!\nIf you're looking for hair removal clinics in Chicago, you're in luck. Learn more about the popularity of laser hair removal in Chicago here.\nThe elements can be cruel in Colorado Springs, making the city's excellent cosmetic clinics all the more important for people hoping to keep their skin smooth and rejuvenated.\nEverything you need to know about laser hair removal, how lasers for hair removal work, pricing, and finding a hair removal specialist in Manhattan.\nFor Seattle residents serious about anti-aging treatments and long term skin rejuvenation, there are a number of excellent Seattle Photofacial providers offering impressive results for a fair price."}
{"content":"Hearing tests provide valuable information for your hearing healthcare professional\nIf you think you have a hearing loss, your first step should be to set up an appointment to get your hearing tested. While at your appointment, your hearing healthcare professional will complete a series of tests to help identify the type and degree of hearing loss you are experiencing. It is important to know that you cannot “fail” a hearing test. These tests are given to provide your hearing healthcare professional with the information they need to recommend a treatment option for you. Keep in mind that a hearing test is an important first step in improving your hearing and your life.\nFind a Hearing Specialist in your area to determine the type of hearing loss you may be experiencing and what treatment options are available.\nHearing and understanding are two different things\nMost people experiencing hearing loss report difficulty understanding speech or have been told by family members that they have difficulty understanding speech. In other words, they can hear people talking, but can’t quite understand all of what is being said. That is why an important part of your hearing evaluation will be a speech recognition test. A speech recognition test will give your hearing healthcare professional important information about your ability to understand words and sentences spoken at an everyday listening level.\nEven with the help of hearing aids, some people may have difficulty understanding speech. If this is the case and you have a severe to profound hearing loss, cochlear implants may be the solution. Cochlear implants are indicated only for those individuals who get minimal/limited benefit from hearing aids, so testing your speech understanding with hearing aids is a necessary step to help your hearing healthcare professional determine if you’re a candidate for cochlear implants. If you don’t have hearing aids, your hearing healthcare professional may be able to loan you hearing aids for these tests or require a hearing aid trial.\nAn audiogram is an important tool in understanding your personal hearing loss\nThe results of your hearing tests will be recorded onto a chart called an audiogram, which shows the lowest level (in decibels) that you can detect a variety of sounds, ranging from low to high frequencies (commonly referred to as pitch). On average, normal conversation takes place within the 20 to 60 decibel range, commonly referred to as the \"speech banana.\" As you can see from the audiogram below, the speech banana got its name because of the shape it makes on an audiogram. Hearing loss that falls within or above the speech banana (within 60 decibels) is particularly important because this degree of hearing loss affects your speech understanding. The audiogram contains some examples of everyday sounds plotted on it, and you can see where these everyday sounds fall in relation to the speech banana. For example, the sound of a bird chirping is softer and higher-pitched than most normal conversations, while the sound of a dog barking is louder and lower-pitched.\nThe results of your hearing tests will be plotted as two lines (right ear and left ear) on the audiogram. The sounds that occur above the lines are what you have difficulty hearing, whereas the sounds that occur below the lines are what you can hear. Some people may have trouble hearing high pitched tones in the higher frequencies (2,000 – 8,000 Hz) whereas other people may have trouble hearing low pitched tones in the lower frequencies (125 – 1,000 Hz). The audiogram will also be able to tell you the severity of your hearing loss―mild, moderate, moderately severe, severe, or profound. Your hearing healthcare professional will help you understand your personal audiogram.\nThe degree of hearing loss a person is experiencing is measured by the softest sound the person can hear (measured in decibels, dB) and described by one of the following categories: mild, moderate, moderately severe, severe, or profound. The chart below defines each degree of hearing loss.1\n|Degree of hearing loss||Softest sound able to be heard (in decibels)||Frame of reference|\n|Mild||26 to 40 dB||Able to hear the loud or more intense vowel sounds, but may miss some of the softer consonant sounds.People with a mild hearing loss may have difficulty hearing soft spoken people and young children. Also, they may have to ask people to speak up or repeat themselves on occasion.|\n|Moderate||41 to 55 dB||In addition to missing consonant sounds, vowel sounds then become more difficult to hear. People with a moderate hearing loss often comment that without hearing aids they hear, but can't always understand.|\n|Moderately Severe||56 to 70 dB||Without hearing aids, speech becomes inaudible, whereas with hearing aids, speech may still be difficult to understand.|\n|Severe||71 to 90 dB||Without hearing aids, speech is inaudible, but loud sounds like a baby crying or a dog barking are audible. Hearing aids may no longer be enough for people with severe hearing loss.|\n|Profound||91+ dB||Without hearing aids, speech is inaudible, but very loud sounds like a lawn mower or jet airplane are audible. Hearing aids may no longer be enough for people with profound hearing loss.|\nReference: 1. American Speech-Language Hearing Association. Degree of Hearing Loss. Available from http://www.asha.org/public/hearing/Degree-of-Hearing-Loss/. Accessed February 2012."}
{"content":"Join BiogasSIG Intro, aims, resources.\nHuman faecal matter to Biogas\nAnother Ugandan school in Fort Portal to have biogas from Poop. Green Heat\nhas embarked on yet another project. Please, find out more on our past\nprojects on http://greenheatug.wordpress.com/\nDirector - Green Heat (U) Ltd image: Picture\nP.O. Box 10235\n256 (0) 71 237 9889\n\"The more people are self sufficient in cooking fuel, the more personal and\nfinancial freedom they have.\" - Emma Casson\n- ICCG Competition: Best Climate Practices for Energy Poverty A...\n- New GSI and IISD Report: Power, Gender and Fossil-fuel Subsid...\n- First African Waste-to-Ethanol Company recognized by Mentor C...\n- 2014 Ashden Award Winners\n- Power for All – The Energy Access Imperative\n- Deutsche Bank supports The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves\n- Practical Action launches the Poor People’s Energy Outlook (P...\n- IISD Reporting Services releases a summary of the 13th sessio..."}
{"content":"The Henry Miller Memorial Library is an arts center championing the late writer, artist, and Big Sur resident Henry Miller.\nCome on in for a visit, make yourself a cup of coffee, browse our books, and hang out with Theo the cat on our deck. After all, youʼre stumbled upon the Henry Miller Memorial Library, the place “where nothing happens.” Lucky you!\nA Very Brief History of the Library\nMiller’s best friend Emil White lived in the house that is now the Library beginning in mid-1960s. White officially named it the Henry Miller Memorial Library when Henry died in 1980. When Emil passed away in 1989, he dedicated the property to become a non-profit organization.\nOur Mission Statement\n“The Henry Miller Library is a public benefit, non-profit 501 (c) 3 organization championing the literary, artistic and cultural contributions of the late writer, artist, and Big Sur resident Henry Miller. The Library also serves as a cultural resource center, functioning as a public gallery/performance/workshop space for artists, writers, musicians and students.\nIn addition, the Library supports education in the arts and the local environment. Finally, the Library serves as a social center for the community.”\nFor a more robust history of the Library, check out this great piece by Laura Bliss.\nThe “Beating Cultural Heart of Big Sur” (according to CNN)\nThe Library hosts events throughout the summer months (May-October), including fashion shows, theater, open mics, lectures, book signings, art shows, our acclaimed Big Sur Short Film Screening Series, and more. With a capacity of 300 and nestled in a towering redwood grove, it is also one of the most unique live music venues in the world.\nPast performers include Philip Glass, Marianne Faithful, Arcade Fire, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses, Frank Black, Thurston Moore, Animal Collective, Al Jardine, Gillian Welch, Blonde Redhead, Laurie Anderson, and countless of local and touring bands.\nPerhaps this is why the CNN called the Library the “beating cultural heart of Big Sur.”\nCorrect. Memorials, he said, “defeated the purpose of a man’s life. Only by living your own life to the full can you honor the memory of someone.”\nSo, is this place a memorial trying not to be a memorial? Maybe. The best way to find out is to come here, browse, look at what’s on the walls, listen to the music, have a cup of coffee or tea, sit down by the fire, read for a while, do nothing…” Check out our schedule to see what’s in store for this summer and sign up for our newsletter.\nWe look forward to seeing you soon!"}
{"content":"Mark Bowen was born in Duluth, Minn, on the North Coast of the United States. He obtained a B.A. degree in chemistry from the University of Minnesota. After graduation, Bowen worked in the chemical industry and in home health care. He obtained a Ph.D. degree in biochemistry from the University of Illinois under the mentorship of Dr. Peter G. W. Gettins. After receiving his doctorate in 1998, Bowen took a Howard Hughes Medical Institute postdoctoral position at Yale University at the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry with Dr. Axel Brunger working on membrane protein structure and function. Bowen next moved with the Brunger Lab to Stanford University and joined the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology. At Stanford, he worked with Dr. Steven Chu on single-molecule approaches to understanding the molecular mechanism of synaptic transmission. Bowen is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at Stony Brook University Medical Center. The Bowen Lab investigates the molecular underpinnings of synaptic transmission and aims to understand how nature harnesses the flexibility of protein disorder to achieve the nuanced regulation of neuronal signaling. Bowen’s areas of expertise include single-molecule fluorescence, FRET, protein structural biology, membrane fusion, scaffold proteins, intrinsic disorder, and excitatory neurotransmitter signaling.\nBiography Updated on 5 September 2011"}
{"content":"The Dental Connection in Cardiac Pain and Arrhytmia\nby David L Lerner, DDS, P.C., F.I.N.D., C.A.C.\nIn her work on the study of trigger points, Janet Travel, MD 1 spoke of her observations that trigger points in the Pectoralis Major seemed to generate reflexive reaction in the heart resulting in irregular heart beats. Sometimes the pain originating in the tight tender areas of this muscle were perceived by the patient as coming from their heart.\nPectoralis Major Muscle and the Cardiac Trigger Point Phenomena\nA) overlapping referred pain patterns of two parasternal trigger points (x’s), located in the medial sternal section of the muscle\nB) location of the “cardiac arrhytmia” trigger point (x) below the lower border of the fifth rib in the vertical line that lies midway between the sternal margin and the nipple line. On this line the sixth rib is found at the level of the tip of the xiphoid process (arrow) This vertical line corresponds to the pathway of the Kidney Meridian and the trigger points are found at K21, 22\nOther authors have spoken of the relationships between dysfunction of the Pectoralis Major and associations with cardiac dysfunction.\nSchwartz and Bourassa 2 state that in the Coronary Artery Surgery Study Registry of the 1970s, normal angiograms were found in 19% of patients, and suggest that the statistics today are not much different. They raise the question; “ is there a non-cardiac cause of chest pain? ”, and list numerous possible causes including chest pain of musculo-skeletal origin.\nIn an article entitled Cardiac Pain Syndrome 3, Andrei Pikalov, MD, PhD writes about three variations of anterior chest wall syndrome (ACWS) that are associated with cervical, thoracic and cervical-and-thoracic pathology. All three variations involve muscular pain, dystonia, dystrophy and neurovascular changes in the Pectoris Major and other tissues of the anterior chest wall.\nIn an article entitled Chest Wall Syndrome: a common cause of unexplained cardiac pain, Epstein, et al 4 describe 12 cases with severe, often incapacitating chest pain initially believed to be cardiac in origin. All 12 were shown on subsequent evaluation to have chest wall syndrome. Diagnosis was confirmed by chest wall tenderness simulating the spontaneously occurring pain in all. Seven patients had chest wall syndrome in conjunction with other associated cardiac conditions. Five patients had isolated chest wall syndrome with no cardiac disease.\nFurther associations have been written about in the acupuncture literature. Mark Seem, Ph.D. writes about what he calls the state of Cardiac alarm as final stage in a progression of chronic stress and fatigue through 4 stages that he describes in his book Acupuncture Physical Medicine 5. He describes patients suffering from tightness and constriction in the chest with shallow breathing and a tendency to hyperventilate. Often these patients were “experiencing anxiety, sometimes feelings of impending doom.” He described these patient’s as often having symptoms of “pelvic collapse” with tightness in the muscles on the side or front of the lower abdomen.\nHe further describes a band of tightness in the Pectoralis Major muscle involving tightness at acupuncture points K22, St18, and Per19. He describes this condition as capable of mimicking a heart attack, leading patients to the cardiologist or emergency room.\nSo what is the Dental Connection here? Well it is rather interesting, as we shall explain, dysfunction of the Pectoralis Major muscle seems to always be associated with a primary dental problem.\nThe bite of the teeth plays a very important and central role in maintaining symmetry and balance throughout the muscular system of the body as we shall describe below. When the bite is off balance it will result in changes throughout the body, weakening pathways through the muscular system that follow the course of the Acupuncture Myofascial Meridians. There will also be disruption to the Autonomic Nervous System that controls the automatic functions of the body including our breath, heart rate variability and digestive function.\nThe jaw muscles, directly supported and influenced by the bite are in intimate association to the rest of the muscles of the head, neck, and shoulder girdle. Changes in the bite will directly affect these muscles, sometimes increasing the tension of a muscle, sometimes interfering with the muscles ability to do its job.\nThe ability of muscles to function normally can readily be evaluated using the methods of Applied Kinesiology, developed by chiropractor George Goodheart. His work drew heavily on the work of Kendall and Kendall, physical therapists who wrote a description of methods to evaluate the strength and competency of most of the major muscles of the body.\nGoodheart found that when weak muscles were present they could often be strengthened by specific improvements in nutrition, correction of specific cranial or vertebral misalignments, and stimulation of appropriate acupuncture points.\nBy applying his methods in the evaluation of disorders of the bite we are able to demonstrate the relationship between different aspects of the patient’s anatomy and physiology. As we examine patient’s for systemic influence of their bite imbalance we have seen numerous patterns of dysfunction. For now we shall focus on the patterns we see associated with dysfunction of the Pectoralis Major muscle and the Heart Meridian.\nAs a result of deficiencies in the height of the bite and misalignment of the jaws, the muscles on the side of the jaw, the Masseters and Temporals will not work properly. There will be a tendency for these muscles to over-contract. When this happens the next muscle in the postural chain, namely the Sternocleidomastoid will be disrupted and there will be a loss of normal muscle tonus. This results in instability of the collar bone and in turn affects the Pectoralis Major. This will be evident when the strength of the Pectoralis Muscle is evaluated using basic muscle testing as described by Kendall and Kendall, as shown below.\nFurther evaluation using Applied Kinesiology may be performed utilizing the phenomenon of therapy localization as developed by Goodheart and described by Walther. When this is done, a strong muscle, such as the middle Deltoid is challenged and then with a free hand the clinician can contact a point or region of the body. If there is a disruption of physiology in the underlying tissue the muscle that was previously strong may be observed to lose its capacity to maintain a sustained contraction and immobilization of the associated limb. In other words it will appear to weaken.\nWhen this is done in patients with bite imbalances, and contact is made with the Masseter muscle as the patient clenches their teeth, the strong muscle will appear to weaken in most instances. If the Sternocleidomastoid muscle is contacted a similar phenomenon may be observed. If the Pectoralis is contacted along its border with the sternum, again the strong muscle will weaken.\nIn all cases where we have seen this pattern ( forty cases over the past 6 months) we will also find that there is a disruption to the Kidney meridian on the patient’s opposite side. This is most evident if contact is made with Acupuncture point K3 on the medial aspect of the foot above the arch.\nNow if we find the Pectoralis Muscle to be weak in the chest and touch the Kidney 3 point on the opposite side which we therapy localized as above, we will find that the weak Pectoralis muscle will strengthen. The same will occur if an acupuncture needle is placed in this Kidney 3 point; that is the previously weak Pectoralis muscle will get strong. However in most cases observed this phenomenon is short lived, for once the patient bites down the pattern of muscle dysfunction is generated again and the Pectoralis muscle is weak.\nThe only way to permanently correct the dysfunction of the Pectoralis Muscle is to restore balance to the involved jaw muscles using first an orthotic (appliance) for temporary support and then permanent correction of the patient’s bite. When this has been done symptoms of anxiety and heart rhythm irregularity have resolved.\nIn summary, many patients experience symptoms for which there is no apparent cause. This is true with some patients who report symptoms of anxiety and cardiac arrhythmia. To better understand the causal chain involved, we need to be able to see the patient as a whole through the perspective gained through interdisciplinary study and exchange of ideas.\n- Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction; The Trigger Point Manual J.G. Travell and D .G.Simmons, Williams and Wilkins, 1983\n- Evaluation of Patients With Chest Pain and Normal Coronary Angiograms Leonard Schwartz, MD; Martial G. Bourassa, MD Arch Intern Med. 2001;161:1825-1833.\n- Cardiac Pain Syndrome, Andrei Pikalov, MD, PhD Dynamic Chiropractic 11/4, 1996, Volume 14, Issue 23\n- Chest wall syndrome. A common cause of unexplained cardiac pain S. E. Epstein, L. H. Gerber and J. S. Borer JAMA, Vol. 241 No. 26, June 29, 1979\n- Acupuncture Physical Medicine; an Acupuncture Touchpoint Approach to Chronic Fatigue, Pain, and Stress Disorders, Mark D. Seem, Ph.D ., Blue Poppy Press 2000\n- Nutrition and Degenerative Dental Disease\n- Why We do not use Mercury- Silver Fillings\n- Choosing a Bio-Compatible Dental Restoration\n- Diagnosis and Treatment of Orofacial Pain & Temporomandibular Disorders\n- The Cranial Mechanism and Dentistry\n- Dental Somatic Dysfunction & Dental Somatic Integration™\n- Straight teeth and a beautiful smile are accessible to all at The Center for Holistic Dentistry\n- Neuromuscular Dentistry and Beyond at the Center for Holistic Dentistry\n- Tomographic Imaging For Precise TMJ & Orthodontic Diagnosis\n- Root Canal Therapy - a Holistic view\n- Applied Kinesiology; an indispensable tool in Holistic Dentistry\n- The Dental Connection in Cardiac Pain and Arrhythmia\n- Acupuncture Energetics in the Treatment of Temporomandibular Disorders\n- Dental Distress Syndrome by Dr. Aelred Fonder\n- General Guidelines for the Patient Undergoing Removal of Mercury-Amalgam Fillings\n- The Dental Treatment of Snoring and Sleep Apnea"}
{"content":"Housekeeping communication gets more efficient, high-tech6 Oct, 2008 By: Chris Crowell Hotel and Motel Management\nTrays at The Umstead in Cary, N.C., have a sensor in a silver triangle that alerts staff when it's ready for pickup.\nOn the old cartoon show \"The Jetsons,\" the future is a world filled with top-notch technology that provides immediate, convenient service—especially when it comes to cleaning and maintenance.\nThese fictional housekeeping amenities might never see the light of day, but in our current world there are several devices that can significantly streamline the maintenance of a hotel, making the lives of guests, owners and housekeepers easier.\nThe Umstead Hotel and Spa in Cary, N.C., a 150-room, five-diamond luxury property, is largely outfitted with the latest in housekeeping technology. In particular, The Umstead has implemented tray detection technology from Axxess Industries. When a guest puts a tray outside of the door, housekeeping is alerted from a triangle sensor on the tray that triggers another sensor in the doorway. This immediately alerts the staff to the waiting tray by way of a blinking light.\n\"We have a 30-minute response time. ... That's our personal goal,\" managing director Bob Schofield said. \"From a productivity standpoint, [it saves] from staff walking up and down [the hallway]. It streamlines the process.\" Schofield said The Umstead especially benefits because its doors are inset into the wall, making it more difficult to see if a tray is outside a door.\nThe Umstead housecleaning staff also is alerted when a room is available for cleaning. Guests click a button, which sets off another sensor, to indicate they are gone and the room can be cleaned.\n\"You have the same number of staff, but you can manage them on their daily assignments on a more efficient basis,\" Schofield said.\nThe Marriott Shadow Ridge Resort in Palm Desert, Calif., has improved its overall hotel maintenance with GuestWare 3.0 from GuestWare. This system uses interactive voice response to link the housekeeping staff with the property engineers.\nA housekeeper will go through a typical routine in a guestroom, and if he or she notices a problem, like a broken toilet or a malfunctioned thermostat, the housekeeper will pick up the room phone and follow through a protocol to identify that specific problem. The report immediately alerts the proper engineer via the engineer's wireless phone.\n\"[The whole process] works within minutes,\" said Kirby O'Gara, chief engineer at Shadow Ridge. \"If [the engineer] can't get there within 10 minutes, he should call for some help.\"\nIf an engineer takes too long to address the reported problem, an alarm will sound and send the request to other engineers. Systems such as this speed up and clear up communication with the back of the house that makes each worker more efficient.\n\"[Before] there was no tracking and no accountability,\" O'Gara said. \"The work orders would get lost and there was no accountability. You're supposed to have [documents] for three to five years, so it's automatically saving the file, and you can save it forever.\"\nChuck Marratt is the director of information technology for MTM Luxury Lodging. He has seen a dramatic change in housekeeping because of technology, especially at the Bardessono Inn and Spa in Napa Valley, Calif., which is scheduled to open in February 2009. The approach there may be one of the most advanced yet. Thanks to MTech's REX system working in conjunction with the hotel's property-management system, housekeeping staff will use iPod Touch technology to keep up to speed with the hotel's housekeeping needs at all times.\nThe iPod will show each housekeeper his or her list of rooms for that day, and once a guest checks out—or even leaves the room unoccupied—the housekeeper is notified a room is ready to be refreshed or turned over. This keeps the housekeeper from knocking on doors or making unnecessary trips.\n\"It leverages the fact we have a converged network,\" Marratt said. \"The housekeeper has no way of knowing if you are in the room or not. So that's where you're really starting to talk efficiency with the routine cleaning of guestrooms.\n\"Before [cell] phones, you contacted everyone via pager. When I started in '81, you paged someone and then they had to find the nearest house phone. It allows [the hotel] to give guests the service they want without disturbing them.\"\nMaybe these aren't robot maids, but it's a start.\nReproduction in whole or part is prohibited."}
{"content":"I never programmed before in no languages, but I would like to learn C, and I'm undecided on what book to read to learn from. I have no possible experience at all. May someone tell me as a beginner should I read either C Primer Plus by Prata? Or should I read C Programming: A Modern Approach by King? I believe C Primer Plus teaches the basics, so would I be better off reading that one first, and after reading all 17 chapters of that book, what book would I be ready to read next?\nThank you very much for any advice/info provided!"}
{"content":"Many low-level tweaks can normally only be performed on Android by flashing custom ROMs. The Xposed Framework allows you to modify your ROM without installing a new custom ROM. All it requires is root access.\nSure, you may want to flash a custom ROM like CyanogenMod to get the latest version of Android or use a wide variety of tweaks, but the Xposed Framework makes it possible to perform small tweaks without replacing your Android operating system.\nHow It Works\nTo perform various low-level tweaks, developers have to modify system APK (app package) files. They generally release these changes as a custom ROM, which users have to flash onto their device.\nThe Xposed Framework requires root access to install, but should be able to work without root afterwards. It extends the /system/bin/app_process executable to load a specific JAR file on startup. This file’s classes will be part of every app process on the system — even system service processes. It’s then possible to modify an app’s behavior at runtime — no ROM flashing or modifying app APK files required.\nIt works with most Android 4.0 and later devices, assuming they’re ARM devices. If you have a Gingerbread device or one of the rare Android devices using an Intel chip, it won’t work for you.\nThe Xposed Framework isn’t available in Google Play, so you’ll need to sideload it. You can download its APK file as an attachment on the XDA Developers forum.\nOnce it’s installed, open the Xposed Installer app and tap the Install/Update button to install the Xposed Framework. This part requires root access.\nReboot your device after installing it and the Xposed Framework will become active. You can return to the Xposed Installer app to uninstall the Xposed Framework later, reversing the changes to the app_process executable. Be sure to perform an uninstall in the Xposed Installer app before removing the Xposed Installer app from your device.\nXposed Framework Tweaks\nThe Xposed Framework is just a base that allows other tweaking apps to do the work. Once you have the Xposed Framework installed, you’ll need to use another app to actually perform tweaks. There are a variety of tweaks that depend on the Xposed Framework, but we’ll cover a few popular ones here.\nTweakbox is a collection of no-flashing tweaks from the creator of the Xposed Framework. As with the Xposed Framework, you’ll need to download it from its thread on the XDA Developers forums and sideload it.\nAfter installing a module, enable it in the Xposed Installer app.\nOpen the Tweakbox app after restarting your phone or tablet and choose the tweaks you want to make. You can enable a variety of tweaks — for example, you can change the level where you’ll receive a critical battery warning, prevent the screen from turning on when you unplug your phone, control what happens when you long-press the home button, and enable skipping songs by pressing the volume keys when your phone is off. These are the sort of tweaks you’d normally have to flash a custom ROM for. You’ll have to restart for most changes to take effect.\nThe MoDaCo Toolkit is another package of tweaks, which must also be downloaded from outside Google Play and sideloaded. After installing it, enable it in the Xposed Installer app as above.\nThe toolkit allows you to perform a variety of other tweaks, from enabling multi-user support on phones like the Nexus 4 (normally available only on tablets), disabling region-checks so you can install apps like Wallet and Sound Search outside the USA, hiding the battery meter if you’re using a third-party battery status icon, and more.\nThe Xposed Framework may just be a tool for Android geeks to tweak their phones, but it’s a faster, easier, and less invasive tool than a custom ROM is. This could also be used to install themes and perform other invasive customizations that would normally require a custom ROM. The Xposed Framework’s method doesn’t involve changing your device’s operating system and can be easily reversed."}
{"content":"We have all been stunned and horrified by the human devastation of September 11. I believe we are also deeply moved by the way our country has come together. I am heartened by William Faulkner's words in his Nobel speech \"we will not only endure, we will prevail.\"\nAs I write this column today, we are in a \"post-modernist\" era at the Ransom Center, that is to say we are in the middle of \"deconstruction.\" In my annual talk to the staff last week, I made reference to Jane Austen. She writes in Pride and Prejudice that a library is a place of leisure and tranquility. Fortunately, she passed this life before she could see our plight during these recent weeks. It has been dusty, messy, and loud, but we are excited by the changes we are making.\nThis is a dynamic time for us. Our major initiatives include increasing our public role through integration of our public programs and affairs, enhancing our national position, building our public programs with the magnificent new building as background, and strengthening vital areas of research in all departments. The Ransom Center has maintained its competitive position among research institutions worldwide of course because of its great collections, but also because of the quality of its great staff.\nI find inspiration from this famous photograph of the London library, Holland House, after a bombing during World War II. The values of civilization prevail. Keep reading.\n- Thomas F. Staley"}
{"content":"Countries throughout the world are recognizing the need to reduce severe injury and fatalities on their roads, and improve highway safety. There are a number of factors that contribute to a severe or fatal injury in a crash — anywhere from seatbelt use to excessive speed. Over 40,000 crash-related fatalities occur on U.S. roads each year — a statistic that is soaring in comparison to many other countries with similar economic and social climates as the U.S.\nAs the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center (HSRC) continues efforts to find the most effective methods in reducing the number of crash-related fatalities and injuries, HSRC and the Stichting Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Verkeersveiligheid (SWOV), Institute for Road Safety Research, based in Leidschendam, Netherlands, entered an agreement to collaborate on highway safety research, as well as participate in an employee exchange program between the two institutions.\n\"We are very excited to work in conjunction with SWOV and learn more about the type of research they conduct. Through the employee exchange program, we'll be able to have more of a first-hand account of their research methods, as well as the knowledge and insights of one of their researchers,\" said David Harkey, director of HSRC.\nThrough the exchange program, Martine Reuerings, Ph.D., began her six-week turn with HSRC in mid-April as a visiting researcher from SWOV. Dr. Reurings was able to experience and work within HSRC through the end of May. Within the next few months, HSRC will begin making preparations to send a representative to the Netherlands.\nIn addition to general research and the employee exchange, the two Centers will explore opportunities for collaborative projects to improve road safety in developing countries throughout the world.\nHSRC and SWOV officially signed the agreement on March 7, 2007. Attendees of the University of North Carolina community signing the agreement included Tony Waldrop, vice chancellor for research and economic development, UNC-Chapel Hill; Peter Coclanis, associate provost for international affairs, UNC-Chapel Hill; David Harkey, director, UNC Highway Safety Research Center; and Fred Wegman, managing director, SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research.\nThe University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center\n730 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Suite 300 | Campus Box 3430 | Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3430\nPhone: 919.962.2203 | Fax: 919.962.8710"}
{"content":"It's hard to be totally elated at the lifting up of one group (African Americans) when another group (gays) is stripped of the most fundamental of human rights. Prop 8 in California passed; a constitutional amendment to define marriage as being between a man and a woman (or however many men and women men and women want to marry, one at a time). The \"sanctity\" of marriage is now safe. Sanc⋅ti⋅ty [holiness, saintliness, or godliness]. (So now where is that separation of church and state we're so fond of imagining?) It should chill everyone's blood that anyone's choice of whom to marry can be left up to a vote by strangers. Does Barak Obama remember when it would have been illegal for his black/white parents to marry? Who's next? Prop 8 now faces lawsuits, petitions, and daily demonstrations. If you're gay you take it personally, but aside from the religious nuts who can never be reasoned with, the way to win is to understand that it isn't personal. It's life as usual; \"what's in it for me?\" Again, the banality of evil.\nThe chickens, and Obama, knew how to sell it, while opponents of Prop 8 made a cardinal mistake; they relied on the kindness of strangers. Tennessee Williams, a national treasure who saved us from a lifetime of Cats and Grease, and who would not be allowed to marry in California, showed us the folly of that. And in California, owners of multi- million dollar properties also defeated a proposition to fund after school programs for at-risk youth because it would add fifty six dollars a year to their property taxes. Yes, even to the thousands of homes that cost from three million to forty million dollars here, just fifty six dollars a year, (the cost of one Medeco key). All you need to know about Californians, you can learn here at a four way stop sign.\nThere is a noble earnestness in the hope that people will do the right thing, but that is not how Obama, or the chickens, won. They won because they made their cases that voting for them was going to be better for you. For every voter that wanted Obama to win because he was the best man AND African American, there was a voter who forced himself to ignore the fact that Obama was African American, because that voter's needs were going to be better served with Obama as president. Obama knew this, so he framed this election (as he said in his victory speech) as being about you. Not him. You. And what did McCain keep saying? \"I'm a maverick. She's a maverick. We're mavericks.\" Hey, we're over here.\nThe chickens won (slightly) more room because the commercials made it clear this was better for your health. Do you think if the HSUS framed the argument as \"The chickens are suffering, and so are the other sentient animals who deserve to live their short lives free of pain and panic\", do you think Prop 2 would have passed? I don't. It passed because the commercials made passing it about your health, and showed pictures of things you would never want to eat or have your food come from.\nThere are lots of people who don't care about animals, or electing the first black president, or gay people also having the right to get married in their cars in Vegas if they're too drunk to walk, or kids who have nothing, getting to play ball after school. The chickens got it right. People saw those chickens wallowing in filth and thought \"Shit!! I'm not putting anything from there in my mouth!\" Done deal. If they had said instead, \"Do the right thing\", those chickens would be living like thirty clowns in a volkswagon.\nTo win this fight, and it's criminal that any American taxpayer has to fight for fundamental human rights in 2008, show the opponents the advantages to them.\nAll marriages strengthen a society. That's why the people who consider them sacred marry so many times.\nIt's not a \"Lifestyle\", it's a life.\nLess teenage suicide, the message was \"hope\", right?\nMore great homes become available when two become one.\nMillions of dollars will pour into the economy for weddings; hotels, travel, bands, musicians, photographers, videographers, florists, wedding planners, caterers, bakeries, bartenders, waiters, liquor industry, clothing, taxes, real estate, furnishings, painters, jewelers. etc. etc. All those business owners vote. Promise not to elope.\nMore loving homes to welcome the shameful number of unwanted children languishing in orphanages. Religious people, they'll take care of you til the day you're born.\nARGUMENTS FOR THE DUMB GUYS\nLess bad marriages for Liza Minnelli.\nFor those who believe there is a \"gay agenda\", where gays actually want to turn your three hundred pound beer drinking husband gay, well, now he'll be safe.\nTake a page from \"A Day Without a Mexican\" and do the same, exaggerate the stereotypes: \"A Day Without a Homosexual.\" 80% of Americans' hair will look like shit. The Desperate Housewives will be without makeup and great clothes, aagghhh how old are they?? Ballet companies will be missing lots of dancers, women forced to lift themselves. Small numbers in audience for Bette, Kathy, Equity Waver Theater. Half the women in America will have no one to talk to about what they're going through. Bronzer sales plummet. No one buying cashmere throws. Choirs reduced by half, harmony suffers. No one to sell shoes at Barney's. Retail sales down; no one to show buyers the possibilities. \"Fabulous\" dropped from dictionary. America loses ability to bounce back with grace.\nAnd as one commenter wrote last week, and I wish I could find his name again but I tried and couldn't, \"If people are against gays having sex, let them get married. That will put a stop to it\"."}
{"content":"Posted on Thursday, November 14, 2013\nThe Elizabeth Blackwell Award for outstanding service to humanity was presented to the Most Reverend Doctor Katharine Jefferts Schori. The oceanographer, pilot, professor, pastor and bishop is the 39th woman to receive the honor.\n\"Reverend Jefferts Schori brings honor to this award and to HWS by being present today,\" remarked President Mark D. Gearan at Sunday's ceremony in the Vandervort Room. \"She has been an advocate for the poor, she has championed for the full inclusion of LGBT persons in the church and in the secular world, and she has worked on environmental issues.\"\nBreaking a 500-year gender barrier, Jefferts Schori is the first woman to serve as Presiding Bishop, and the first female Primate in the Anglican Communion. \"Her inclusive and expansive world view, that honors the dignity of all things, defines her ministry,\" said Maureen Collins Zupan '72, P'09, who presented Schori with the medal.\n\"I am humbled to be here,\" said Jefferts Schori, expressing her gratitude for the award, and for those who served as her mentors and role models.\n\"I am reminded I stand here only because of the difficult work done by so many women and men before me. A lot of women have tried and failed to gain entry to many different vocations and opportunities. We remember the ones who prevailed in the face of prejudice and doubt, but none of those named trailblazers have made entries wholly on their own. At the same time, the remembered ones have continued to inspire others to try.\"\nJefferts Schori celebrated her own inspirations - Amelia Earhart, Marie Currie, Harriet Tubman, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and the men and women rebuilding community in Rwanda and the Congo. \"Life is about discovering new possibilities, the possibility that we can create a world that is more life-giving than the one we currently enjoy,\" she remarked.\nFollowing her brief talk, Jefferts Schori was joined by a panel of faculty and staff members including President Mark D. Gearan, William Smith Dean Suzanne McNally, Professor of Religious Studies Michael Dobkowski, Associate Professor of Geoscience Nan Crystal Arens and Chaplain Lesley Adams.\nJefferts Schori addressed her work as a pastor and spiritual leader, speaking of her responsibility to comfort the afflicted and \"afflict\" the comfortable. \"You have let go of the past to gain something new, and you have to discover the blessing of people who disagree. None of us can ever know the full truth, therefore a person who has a different view must hold answers.\"\nWhen asked about her thoughts on the church's position in terms of environmental leadership, Jefferts Schori showed optimism. \"Traditionally, the ministry of the church has been to people. Now, there are theologians who challenge us to be good gardeners. The world is not ours to exploit, but to nurture for the benefit of all creation.\"\nIn addition to her hope for the Episcopal Church, Jefferts Schori also expressed hope for the future of interfaith dialogue and for the prevalence of not tolerance, but a deep understanding among religions. Through local movements and even government coalitions, steps toward \"engaging the other\" to share beliefs and discover similarities - and differences - are evident and abundant.\nWhile the future is not clear, Jefferts Schori does not see religion disbanding, but rather shifting to new forms of community. \"I am a hope-filled person; I think that's what it means to have faith,\" she remarked. \"Religious traditions are important, but they are bound in time and space, they have to grow and adapt to a wide set of contexts and realities.\"\nShe views religious and spiritual movements becoming far less hierarchical system with organic structures that able to move and adjust. \"We are increasingly far more present in the world as people of faith, rather than retreated into sanctuaries that are ceasing to exist.\"\nAbove all, Jefferts Schori can still find wonder, curiosity and gratitude in her work and in everyday. \"Spirituality is about being able to share occasions of awe and wonder. It is acknowledging an experience that draws us outside of ourselves.\""}
{"content":"(From the publisher):\nFast and deadly as the snake which gave him his name, Sidewinder, the limping Comanche war chief, rampaged across Texas and threatened the peace between his people and the white men.\nOnly a man with a tremendous knowledge of the Comanche could hope to prevent Sidewinder from endangering the whole Comanche nation with his policy of burning, killing and looting, which would inevitably bring retaliation from infuriated Texans and U.S. Army personnel.\nThe Ysabel Kid was such a man. He knew Sidewinder well, and it was his knife which had crippled the chief in a boyhood fight. So when the Kid took up Sidewinder's trail, he knew it could only end when one of them lay dead.\nOriginal title: Sidewinder\nGenre: Fiction→ Western→ Native Americans\nFiction→ Western→ Bad Men and Good\nFiction→ Western→ Texas And Mexico"}
{"content":"Once the central hub of the Confederacy's economy and governance, Tarsonis is now a ruined world under strict quarantine by the Terran Dominion.\n| PLANET DATA|\n| POPULATION:||7,000 terrans, unknown zerg|\n| DIAMETER/GRAVITY:||8,894 km; 0.96 standard|\n| AXIAL TILT/CLIMATE:||5.6 degrees; +/- 24⁰ Centigrade, low humidity|\n| GEOGRAPHY/MAJOR SETTLEMENTS:||2 oceans, 7 inland seas/major lakes, 1 major continent; 12 major conurbations (destroyed), 1,572 residential districts (destroyed), 875 industrial zones (destroyed)|\n| MOON:||4 – Orson, Worthing, Treason, Ender, (various colors, all small sized, >1,250 km dia)|\n| DOMINATE TERRAIN CLASSIFICATION:||Wasteland/ruins|\n| DOMINANT LIFE FORMS:||Terran, zerg|\n| INDIGENOUS LIFE FORMS:||(post–zerg invasion, it is unknown how many of these life-forms have survived): Urchin lizard, life bird, morcal, scantid|\n| IMPORTS:||Personnel, food, water, scanning devices, salvage equipment|\n| EXPORTS:||Scrap salvage, recovered technology, precious metals|\nTarsonis was the landfall planet of the giant supercarrier Nagglfar, one of four colony ships that first brought terrans to the Koprulu sector. The Nagglfar had led the flotilla and contained the ATLAS supercomputer that had controlled all four vessels on their twenty-eight-year voyage. Even though the ATLAS had suffered many critical failures, it was vital to giving the new inhabitants of Tarsonis a head start when it came to establishing themselves.\nThe technological bases of the colonies that were founded after the other ships had crash-landed on Moria and Umoja were always a step behind that of Tarsonis. (The fourth ship was lost with all hands when it had attempted to land.) When the colonies made contact with one another sixty years later, Tarsonis was the most advanced and prosperous among them.\nAll three colonies had spread to other worlds and developed their own self-supporting economies, and initially Tarsonis pushed for a conglomerated government. Faced with the likely pre-eminence of Tarsonis in such an arrangement, both Moria and Umoja steadfastly refused. The ruling families of Tarsonis responded by expanding their military and colonizing more aggressively, forming the Terran Confederacy and eventually clashing with the Morians in the Guild Wars. Following nearly four years of brutal warfare, the Confederates declared victory after “negotiating” peace with the Kel-Morian Combine. The outcome of these wars secured the Confederacy’s position as the major power in the sector – with Tarsonis as the central hub of its governance and economy. In theory each Confederate planet had its own senators, but in every meaningful way, the Confederacy was ruled from the bustling metropolis of Tarsonis City, the planetary capital of Tarsonis.\nTarsonis was a temperate planet, and the Terrans had expanded quickly to establish cities and industry over much of its surface. At the height of the Confederacy’s power, huge quantities of money and materials were shipped in from the colonies daily. The economic boom on the planet dwarfed that of any other terran world in the Koprulu sector, and Tarsonis’s population grew exponentially. The dynastic ruling families of Tarsonis became more avaricious and corrupt as they built their personal fortunes and vied for more power. As the divide between rich and poor became ever wider, discontent and outright insurgency built up across the planets of the Confederacy. The ruling families responded with increasingly violent measures to keep the colonies in line, culminating in the nuclear decimation of Korhal IV when it attempted to secede from Confederate rule.\nOutcry at the destruction of Korhal laid the seeds for the final overthrow of the Confederacy. Arcturus Mengsk formed the Sons of Korhal and rose from leading a terrorist organization to heading a full-blown interplanetary rebellion. When the Zerg invasion began, the Confederacy was already struggling to survive; as the Swarm descended on Terran space, the Sons of Korhal seized the opportunity to deal the Confederacy a deathblow. Despite bitter fighting, Tarsonis was overrun and utterly devastated by the Zerg. It is estimated that upwards of two billion people were killed. Shortly afterward, the Zerg abandoned the planet for reasons unknown.\nIn the aftermath of the Zerg invasion, the Sons of Korhal drew together the remnants of the Confederacy to form the Terran Dominion, ruled by Emperor Arcturus Mengsk. Refugees from Tarsonis have been absorbed into other colonies, and the planet itself has not been re-colonized. The Terran Dominion has placed Tarsonis under strict quarantine while the Dominion’s salvage teams sift through the rubble for any Confederate technologies and military secrets that may have survived the assault. Despite all of this, Emperor Mengsk has made a promise to the scattered refugees of this once-vibrant world: Tarsonis shall be restored, and the Dominion shall help guide it toward a brighter future.\nWhat Links HerePlanets | Korhal | Moria\nTop Wiki Contributors\nNeed assistance with editing this wiki? Check out these resources:"}
{"content":"Describes the preliminary findings of IMF staff at the conclusion of certain missions (official staff visits, in most cases to member countries). Missions are undertaken as part of regular (usually annual) consultations under Article IV of the IMF's Articles of Agreement, in the context of a request to use IMF resources (borrow from the IMF), as part of discussions of staff monitored programs, and as part of other staff reviews of economic developments.\nConcluding Statement of the 2012 Article IV Consultation Mission to IsraelIsrael, February 13, 2012\n1. Israel's economy remains strong. Output fell for only two quarters during the \"Great Recession\", then grew almost 5 percent in 2010 and 2011 led by strong exports and consumption, with investment rising more recently. At 5½ percent, unemployment is at a historic low, while inflation and inflation expectations have both fallen back from slightly above to squarely inside the 1–3 percent target range—the latter reflecting in part the timely tightening of monetary policy in the upswing. The shekel is now broadly consistent with fundamentals and international reserves are appropriate by most measures.\n2. In part, this reflects Israel's strong policy frameworks. The budget expenditure rule is set to keep public debt of some 75 percent of GDP on track to decline to 60 percent. And this is reflected in the innovative \"two year\" budget framework, which has significantly strengthened expenditure planning and implementation. A modern central bank law entrenching inflation targeting was adopted in 2010, building on past successes. The recent Financial Stability Assessment Program (FSAP) Update concludes that vulnerabilities in banks and other financial institutions are well contained. Israel joined the OECD in 2010, and retains the option to issue public debt under a longstanding U.S. government guarantee scheme if necessary.\n3. But vulnerabilities remain. Public debt is high relative to stronger OECD and emerging market countries, and, reflecting regional tensions, security expenditures severely constrain room for fiscal maneuver. House prices have surged by over 50 percent in recent years, and notwithstanding welcome reform initiatives following the Hodek committee recommendations, structural fragilities in the corporate bond market remain. Despite strong growth, overall poverty is among the highest in the OECD, raising sharp social and sustainability concerns, notably in the Israeli-Arab and Haredi communities. And finally, a decade of stagnant real wages contributed to an eruption of social protests in 2011, with significant implications for spending and taxation policies over the medium term.\n4. Furthermore, economic activity began to slow from early 2011. Consumer and business confidence have softened as has activity growth and the housing market—with construction slowing, house prices flattening, and house sales falling. And in this overall context, risk premia in the corporate bond market have risen significantly.\n5. Policies have responded well to the immediate challenges. The Bank of Israel reversed its tightening cycle from September 2011, cutting its policy rate 75 bps to 2½ percent. In this context, earlier strong appreciation pressures on the shekel have abated. And with budget spending ceilings for 2012 already set under the two-year budget for 2011–12 which was adopted at end 2010, automatic stabilizers are operating fully.\n6. So a severe downturn in 2012 is unlikely—absent an external crisis or contagion from within the corporate bond market—but the output gap will likely reopen a little. Assuming that the current supportive monetary stance is maintained alongside the unfettered execution in 2012 of the 2011–12 budget expenditure authorizations, GDP growth is projected to decline to a little below 3 percent before returning to trend at 3¾ percent in 2013, with both sides of this cycle led by exports.\n7. Nevertheless, policies and policy frameworks should all be adjusted further in light of the risks.\n8. On the fiscal side, the top priority is to keep public debt on a downward track over the medium-term. This will maintain confidence in Israel despite strained international markets, and so allow some flexibility in the deficit path in the short term.\n9. This critical task has become considerably more difficult. Near term global and Israeli growth projections have been marked down. A surge in retirements in coming years will reduce the growth of Israeli productive capacity to below the norms of the past decade. Social concern with prices will constrain options to raise indirect taxation. Calls for added public spending—including for social needs and security—have mounted. Unfunded fiscal commitments of some ¾ of a percentage point of GDP for 2012 have to be resolved within the 2012 budget framework. And even if so, the shortfall in revenues in 2011 due to housing and asset market-related receipts will likely persist, setting the stage for a deficit of 3-3½ percent of GDP in 2012, compared with a 2 percent of GDP ceiling.\n10. Accordingly, we warmly welcome the authorities' commitment to maintain the total spending limits in the 2012 budget. We also welcome that the Trajtenberg committee’s policy proposals in response to the social protests respect these and the medium-term spending limits. And we welcome the authorities’ decision to withdraw plans for phased reductions in direct tax rates. All these actions have helped to underpin continued investor confidence in the Israeli sovereign in a difficult global environment.\n11. But more is needed—in particular, a decisive effort to approach the 2013 budget deficit ceiling should be made. This will require contributions from all sides—from expenditure restraint including defense, from initiatives to raise additional revenues, and from efforts to strengthen the productive potential of the economy.\n12. Even so, unless the outlook for activity and revenues improves markedly in coming months, a full return to the headline target for 2013 would be unduly contractionary. Final determination of the appropriate 2013-14 targets for the fiscal balance should be made before mid -2012 reflecting domestic and global developments at that time.\n13. This change in the 2013 deficit target will need to be accompanied by a further strengthening of the fiscal rules and frameworks. Given commitment to the expenditure rule, there will likely need to be a reset of the path of targets for the deficit ceiling. Options for that include clarification that the path will be adjusted for automatic stabilizers. Alongside, and in response to the mounting difficulty of securing medium-term debt reduction, the establishment of a permanent and independent Fiscal Council to assess whether overall fiscal policies are consistent with debt reduction may help to secure that goal. And following the success in strengthening the arrangements for the taxation of natural resources under the Sheshinski report, proceeds not assigned to debt reduction should be placed in a sovereign wealth fund operating according to best international practice, with general transfers to the budget based on the long term expected yields of the fund.\n14. In this context, even with expenditure restraint fully playing its appropriate role, there is a good case for deficit-reducing discretionary fiscal policy actions to focus on taxation, over the near and medium terms. Key non-security spending items--such as health and education--are around levels of moderate-spending OECD peers. And in some areas, there is need for increases, notably in education and public investment, including in the Arab-Israeli communities. So scope for additional overall spending compression on a significant scale is not apparent. On the other hand, with the VAT rate at only 16 percent—albeit with few exemptions—and given the priority attached to strengthening environmental and housing taxation, revenue increases in these areas alongside curbs to tax expenditures could reinforce the credibility of plans to lower public debt.\n15. The monetary stance is broadly appropriate under the baseline projections, but the recommended fiscal and financial stability policies would create scope for further relaxation. Inflation is on track to fall towards and even beyond the mid-point of the inflation target range—with commodity prices, domestic demand, and the housing market all softening. All this is reflected in falling inflation expectations since the Fall of 2011. Aggregate nominal wage growth has been strong as wage settlements caught up with the 2009-10 recovery, but has recently slowed in recognition of global risks. But phased increases in the required minima for core tier 1 bank capital, possibly compounded by strains in the corporate bond market, and the strong fiscal stance recommended would all slow credit growth and activity. Given lags, monetary policy should anticipate and offset these effects, once they are adopted.\n16. Any remaining concerns with renewed housing inflation should be addressed with other tools. These include measures to smooth the supply of land and steps to increase the taxation of second properties, possibly backed up by additional macroprudential steps.\n17. As on the fiscal side, the monetary framework should continue to be enhanced. The new Bank of Israel Law rightly establishes inflation as the primary target for the Bank, to be delivered by a new Monetary Policy Committee which is subject to increased public accountability. In building on this progress, further developments will need to secure a balance between confirming continuity and effecting change. In this light, in due course, options include lengthening the horizon of published inflation and GDP forecasts, and increased emphasis on the mid-point of the inflation target range as the goal for policy. In this connection, the arrangements for remuneration of Bank of Israel staff should be reviewed; current limits significantly impede recruitment and retention of appropriately qualified new staff, and the mechanisms raise concerns with effective independence of monetary and supervisory policy. If unaddressed, these issues will corrode the bank's core anti-inflationary and supervisory functions.\n18. Alongside, the easing of upward pressure on the shekel paves the way for maintaining a de facto free floating exchange rate regime. Considerable intervention and the use of limited administrative controls on inflows were warranted by the exceptional circumstances of recent years. So while continued use of these instruments is appropriately not ruled out, continued signals that the clear preference is for their use to remain the exception rather than the rule will support the credibility of inflation as the prime target for monetary policy. Exit strategies from use of all of these instruments should be prepared.\n19. In the event of a major external shock, further policy adjustments would be needed. Provided that market access by the Israeli sovereign is uninterrupted, automatic fiscal stabilizers should operate fully, accompanied by steps to reinforce the credibility of the commitment to medium-term debt reduction. Alongside, the monetary policy rate should be lowered. Were the external shock to induce safe haven capital inflows, compounding shekel appreciation and associated disinflationary pressures, monetary relaxation should be larger and nonconventional tools may be needed—possibly, a combination of quantitative easing, macroprudential policies aimed at deterring short-term inflows, and foreign exchange intervention. Such actions should be accompanied by clear exit strategies principally contingent on improved global conditions.\n20. On the financial stability side, “normal” risks are contained. The FSAP Update stress tests indicate that banks and other financial institutions would likely be able to withstand even a severe downturn including a domestic housing crash, and heightened credit risk in the corporate sector. This reflects proactive supervision, and banks’ limited external exposures and wholesale funding. And steps underway to improve bond market infrastructure are welcome.\n21. Nevertheless, various actions are needed to strengthen supervision and regulation—and several are already underway. Plans to raise bank capital ratios and to strengthen liquidity requirements in accord with Basle III are welcome. These follow the international schedule, raise the quality of bank capital, and address the role of groups and the systemic nature of the major banks.\n22. A stronger financial crisis management framework and preparations for shocks outside of historical experience should be implemented. The use of the BoI’s emergency liquidity facilities and the legal framework for early intervention and resolution powers should both be reviewed urgently. Means should be available to fund an eventual bank resolution, and at the same time to protect less sophisticated savers. Given strains already evident in corporate bond markets, the impact on financial stability of the bankruptcy of one or more of Israel’s large corporate groups, combined with a severe and protracted economic downturn, should be studied. Plans for the strengthening of supervisory policies and the scheduling of reforms to corporate structures envisaged by the \"Concentration Committee\" should reflect lessons learned from this exercise. And contingency planning should include consideration of early activation of tools such as those that were established in 2009 to underpin the corporate bond market.\n23. The establishment of a Financial Stability Committee (FSC)—comprising all the main supervisors—could help substantially in facilitating a more systemic approach to financial sector policy. The FSC would be charged with coordinating macro-prudential analysis and policy-making, and may help to implement full cooperation among financial supervisors, for example, in identifying cross-sectoral linkages and future sources of strain. But if the FSC does not succeed in that aim, the architectural layout of financial sector supervisors may need to be recast.\n24. But even if all these fiscal, monetary, and financial stability steps are taken, stability in Israel in the long run will remain in question unless the low participation in labor markets of minority populations--notably the Arab-Israeli and Haredi communities—is addressed. In particular, employment rates of Arab-Israeli females and Haredi males are just 20 and 40 percent respectively. Their wage levels are also lower than other Israeli groups, even taking account of differences in qualifications. Accordingly severe poverty is concentrated in these groups. If, instead, the employment, wage, and productivity rates in their communities were on a par with others, every year Israeli output would be some 15 percent higher than it is, and annual fiscal revenues would also be higher than they are by some 5 percent of GDP. As these groups are set to grow to half of the entire population in 30 years, up from a quarter now, these participation issues are macroeconomic in scale.\n25. Both communities want work, and the realization of that goal should be encouraged. Necessary steps include provision of basic child care and transportation in the Arab areas, arrangements for inclusion of Haredi males in the armed forces in ways that support their employment and productive potential, and action to remove impediments to business establishment in both communities. Both groups also need their particular education requirements to be addressed, notably equalization of education provision at all levels in Arab-Israeli communities with that elsewhere, and focused provision of adult education to address Haredi needs. And social benefits to both groups, including child care, should be increasingly tied to employment.\n26. A number of official initiatives to address the needs of these \"currently\" minority populations are underway--alongside the many ongoing private initiatives. These include targets for participation, extension of the earned income tax credit, establishment of a proactive unit for Arab affairs in the Prime Minister's office, and expansion of Haredi units in the defense forces. But as well as upgraded enforcement of anti discrimination legislation, much more is needed. This has implications, as noted, for additional education and public investment spending. Early and substantive progress will require all sides to adjust and to work closely together—requiring great political dexterity. But further progress is essential to secure the long-term sustainability of the Israeli economy, and with it, the welfare of all of its citizens."}
{"content":"IMFSurvey Magazine: Policy\nACTION AGAINST ILLICIT ACTIVITY\nIMF Works to Fight Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing\nIMF Survey online\nJuly 31, 2008\n- Technical assistance bolsters countries' financial integrity\n- Strong, sustained demand for IMF's assistance to address problems\n- Increased collaboration with partners, donors, in assistance delivery\nMoney laundering and terrorism financing continue to plague many countries, threatening the integrity and stability of financial institutions and systems.\nFor the past seven years, the IMF has helped many countries strengthen their defenses in the battle against illicit activities.\nNumerous countries have drawn on IMF assistance in drafting laws and regulations, and in developing strategies and methodologies for their financial sector supervisors. More generally, the IMF has helped countries develop the capacity of their financial sector supervisory agencies, financial intelligence units, and judicial officials.\nThe IMF assists its member countries by conducting assessments and providing technical assistance focused on legal, regulatory and supervisory frameworks. A multidisciplinary unit within the Fund's Legal Department—known as the Financial Integrity Group—is responsible for implementing the IMF's mandate on anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (often referred to by the acronym \"AML/CFT\").\nStrong corporate governance, rule of law, and integrity are the key ingredients of well-functioning, modern financial markets. Underpinning these elements are effective AML/CFT regimes consistent with international standards. In many countries, AML/CFT regimes also support effective tax enforcement and thus fiscal administration.\nTypically, the IMF evaluates countries' compliance with international AML/CFT standards and develops programs to help them address the identified shortcomings. Demand for IMF assistance has increased steadily every year since the institution became fully involved in 2001. In the past two years alone the IMF has conducted 12 AML/CFT assessments and 160 technical assistance missions in over 150 countries.\nDifferent nations, different solutions\nMoney laundering and terrorism financing vulnerabilities can impede much-needed remittance flows and access to international financial and payments systems. The work undertaken by the IMF's Financial Integrity Group in South America has resulted in several successful projects combining the Fund's cross-country expertise with local knowledge.\nThe IMF has provided core technical assistance services (legislative drafting, training for financial sector supervisors, and capacity building for relevant government agencies) across a wide range of its membership.\nSome projects are also developed on a regional basis—including plans to develop AML/CFT supervisory practices in Central America and a risk assessment project in the Pacific. The IMF's regional training centers play a central role in these efforts because they provide the facilities for training large numbers of people from the regions served by the centers.\nThe IMF takes a flexible approach to AML/CFT technical assistance, taking into account a country's stage of development, institutional capacity, overall level of commitment, and identified priorities. Also part of the picture are the broader implications of AML/CFT controls for the financial sector, as well as how these controls fit with other measures called for by international standards for regulating the financial sector.\nIn countries with limited administrative resources, the Fund often focuses on legislative drafting and institution-building in a way that respects the countries' economic limitations and other priorities. Hands-on seminars and workshops are a key means of passing along knowledge.\n\"The workshop, particularly the practical hands on case studies, really helped me to appreciate how [anti-money laundering] work fits into the big picture in my own economy,\" said a workshop participant at a recent event conducted by the Financial Integrity Group at the Joint Africa Institute in Tunis, Tunisia.\nFocus on emerging markets\nEngagement with emerging markets has expanded as officials and market participants realized that controls to counter money laundering and terrorism financing foster a favorable environment for cross-border financial flows and contribute to effective tax administration.\nEffective laws and sound institutions, together with good governance practices, are essential components of healthy financial systems. This is especially so in countries that may be more vulnerable to sudden shifts in international capital flows. The IMF hopes to establish a multi-donor trust fund in AML/CFT to galvanize support for its technical assistance programs in emerging market countries to meet the strong demand coming from these countries.\nCollaboration and coordination of Fund technical assistance with other strategic global, regional, and bilateral partners and donors is a priority. Wherever possible, and in order to avoid duplication, IMF staff leverage resources by cooperating with other agencies and donors.\nWith the help of funding from Canada, the IMF recently completed a program of work on AML/CFT supervision with the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank. Work is ongoing on another Canadian-funded, multifaceted AML banking supervision project that will significantly benefit seven Central American countries.\nRestructuring for the future\nThe IMF's institutional restructuring plan will ensure it is better able to meet the future needs of its members. However, it has also meant a significant reduction in Washington-based staff. Still, the head of the Financial Integrity Group, Jody Myers, notes that the restructuring \"has forced us to take a close look at the reasons we're in business and to identify the areas where we can have the greatest impact.\"\nMoving forward, AML/CFT assistance will be more project based, drawing on a range of external experts supported by a core unit of expert IMF practitioners. Priority will be given to systemically important countries and those that present particularly significant money laundering or terrorism financing risks.\nComments on this article should be sent to email@example.com"}
{"content":"- Created on Friday, 24 February 2012 08:24\n- Written by NAPSI\nImperial, California (NAPSI) - The next time you visit the dentist, give yourself a pat on the back. Taking care of your mouth is vitally important to your overall well-being and may lower your risk for other health problems.\nFor example, periodontal disease has been linked to endocarditis (an infection of the heart lining). Bacteria from plaque can make your gums red and swollen, and bleed when you brush. The bacteria can then enter your bloodstream and infect other parts of the body, including the inner lining of your heart—particularly if you’re already at high risk for a heart condition.\nStudies have also linked poor oral health to elevated levels of C-reactive protein that can lead to diabetes, stroke, heart disease, osteoporosis and other inflammatory diseases of aging.\nKeep your oral health on track by brushing twice daily, flossing, changing your toothbrush every three to four months and eating healthy. Plan visits to your dentist every six months. The experts at Smile Brands Inc. suggest asking your dentist three questions:\nWhat Should I Do About That Pain In My…?\nIf you are having any pain, ask about it. Your dentist will be able to point out anything on the surface during a regular cleaning and checkup, but you’ll need to speak up if you’re feeling something not visible. Identifying a concern when it’s small can prevent a larger problem in the future, and also keep any potential infections from spreading to other parts of your body.\nHow Is Everything Besides My Teeth?\nAsk about your gums. Plaque buildup on your teeth can lead to problems like gingivitis and periodontitis. You can also ask for an overall exam to look for issues like bone density, grinding your teeth or any lumps that are out of the ordinary.\nWhat’s My Homework?\nTo keep that clean-teeth feeling after you leave the office, ask your dental professional for some take-home to-dos. This could be a new brushing technique or a sample you’ve seen advertised. Such “assignments” can help keep your mouth in the best possible shape.\nSmile Brands Inc. is the nation’s leading provider of business support services to dental groups in the United States with affiliated dental groups operating primarily under one of three brand names: Bright Now! Dental, Castle Dental and Monarch Dental."}
{"content":"At one time the deer population density averaged 8-12 deer per square mile. Currently there are areas in the United States that have a reported 200 deer per square mile. The over all estimate of deer in the US approaches 30 million. Compare this to the 500,000 of the early 1900's. No wonder deer problems are so prevalent!\nYou might think that that the growth of suburbia and land development would keep the deer population in check. Just the opposite has happened. Deer are thriving and multiplying in these areas. As it turns out, reproduction in deer is directly related to food availability. When food source is plentiful, deer will readily produce twins, sometimes even three and as many as four fawns in a single pregnancy. When food is scarce, only one fawn is born.\nNew housing developments invariably plant new landscaping. New landscaping requires attention to get well established. We water, we mulch, we fertilize. And we grow beautiful, lush plants and we continue to care for our plants. We're not the only one who rejoice in seeing our plants grow and thrive. Deer also love this tender new growth. Deer have a very strong sense of smell and they can smell your wonderfully fertilized plants. No wonder it can be such a challenge to get rid of deer! It makes sense that the deer don't go further into the woods to avoid people, especially since we're providing them good, if not better, nutrition than mother nature might.\nAll too often, the most common sign of deer presence is the damage they leave behind in the garden. Torn, shredded and eaten down plants are some the disheartening signs. Other signs are hoof prints and tracks in the soil or snow. Deer droppings are also commonly found. Deer droppings are about 3/4 inch in size and slightly oval-shaped. This is in contrast to rabbit droppings which are about the size and shape of peas. Deer also average a higher number of droppings than rabbits, around 70. Deer bedding is another sign of deer. Bedding areas are oval sized depressions in the ground where a deer has been resting. They approximately measure 1 3/4 feet by 4 feet, depending on the size of the deer. Bedding areas may be more easily recognized in snow.\nCarefully observe the leaves and stalks that have been left behind. Unlike rabbits, deer do not have any upper front teeth and cannot cleanly cut leaves and stalks. Deer literally tear and twist leaves and twigs to collect food and then chew and grind them with their back teeth. The process of twisting and tearing often leaves a ragged and jagged appearance to plants and branches left behind.\nDeer also will rub their antlers along shrubs and tree branches and tree trunks to remove the velvet from their antlers as well as to mark their territory. This can be recognized by observing vertical scrape marks and shredded bark on trees along with broken branches. It's not uncommon for the underlying wood of the trunk to be exposed. Not only can the damage look particularly unsightly on our specimen trees, but it can be particularly devastating to saplings.\nThere are many methods, suggestions and home remedies available to control deer in the garden. Some methods to keep deer from eating your plants are listed below. Preferred methods depend on your lifestyle, finances and personal preferences. If you have found a successful method and would like to share it, please let us know and we'd be glad to share it with our gardeners.\nDeer prefer to stay near the edge of woods and other areas that provide good cover. Many suburban gardens provide the much preferred wooded or sheltered areas surrounding a home with some very appealing plantings. Deer are quite comfortable coming out of the woods at twilight and the evening to feast on your plants. In theory, if you incorporate mostly plants that deer don't like, you should be able to discourage them from bothering your garden. (Of course, if hungry enough, deer will eat anything to stay alive.) Another problem with planting only deer resistant plants is that you may not enjoy some flowers or shrubs that you love. One way to handle this dilemma is to blend some deer resistant plants with plants that deer may eat and protect just those plants loved by you and the deer.\nFencing can be used to keep deer out of your garden but bear in mind that deer can jump nine feet high. In order for a fence to work against deer it should be eight feet high. An effective fence is expensive and may not be a good choice for aesthetic reasons. In addition, fences have to be maintained on a regular basis.\nJust the presence of a dog in your yard may be enough to keep deer away. However, you may not want to deal with the expense and maintenance of a dog just to get rid of deer.\nSome of the scare tactics used to scare and get rid of deer are strobe lights, sirens, playing a radio, water scarecrows. Some of these devices may do more to alienate your neighbors than successfully repel deer. Unfortunately, scare devices can be a rather inconvenient and less reliable option. Eventually the deer do get used to them even when moved to different locations weekly.\nOne of the homemade suggestions is to hang bars of soap or unwashed human hair (placed in mesh bags) from trees and shrubs. Each bar of soap or hair bags may cover a three foot area. This method may not be acceptable for aesthetic reasons. In a larger garden, it can also be a rather tedious choir.\nOne of the easiest, economical and most reliable solutions to get rid of deer problems is to spray with I Must Garden Deer Repellent. It is environmentally safe for your family and pets and won't harm any animals. And since it doesn't smell awful, you won't scram from you own garden after you spray! We are so confident on the effectiveness of our repellent that we fully guarantee it!\nWe want you to be satisfied with every purchase from I Must Garden, if you have any questions or concerns please contact us"}
{"content":"Insomnia and Depression\nIs there a relationship with insomnia and depression? There is a link between depression and insomnia. Depression causes insomnia. In depression, people try to sleep but are not able to.\nSome Common Names For Insomnia\nThere are some alternative names for insomnia. These are\nDefinition of Insomnia\nInsomnia is a sleeping problem which means difficulty in sleeping when you first go to bed at night or waking up frequently in the night or waking up too much early in the morning.\nConnection Between Insomnia and DepressionYou know 80% of depressed people experience insomnia, which means they have to face sleeping problems. Another type of insomnia is waking up early in the morning. This is in15% depressed people.\nInsomnia is not just the depression symptoms, even disordered sleep may lead to depression. Delay in treating insomnia lead to first episode of depression. Insomnia depression is not just less sleep or waking up in the early morning. Actually sleep has well defined pattern. We cycle 4 to 5 times a night through a relaxed sleep marked by slow waves. People who are in depression fall in REM sleep, means that in sleep, people are in lot of pressures. People can get depressed in dream also.\nWhen people experience insomnia, they get frustrated and full of anxiety. To compensate with sleep, they take some behavioral step. They stay in bed after morning for a long time or go to the bed early in the next night. But this behavior changes the pattern of sleep.\nEffect of Depression and Insomnia\nActually depression is second step of insomnia. It disturbs the brain functioning ability.\nCauses of Insomnia Depression\nAvoid alcohol or caffeine before sleeping. Set fixed time to sleep. Do not use bedroom for other activity. When you are in bed use relaxation techniques that feel better. But don't imagine some creative thing that disturbs your mind and thus your sleeping pattern will change. Don't stay in bed for a longer period of time. Your computer or TV should be out of your bedroom. Your mind will change to stimulate it. And thus it makes harder to sleep. Try to listen to music, take bath, read some storybooks before going to sleep. Exercise is helpful but if done 2 hours before sleeping. Aerobic exercise is best for depressed people. Avoid stressful situation before sleeping.\nTherapy And Oil Treatment For Insomnia Depression\nThis therapy is most useful therapy. It gives good respond to stress related condition including insomnia.\nOil For Insomnia Depression\nYou can use any oil but sunflower oil and sweet almond oil are used as carrier oil. You can make combination of carrier oil and essential oil. Essential oil includes camomile and geranium. For adults, dose is 25ml carrier with 7 to 8 drops of essential oil. For children, dose is 3 to 4 drops of essential oil with 25ml carrier.\nFollowing Are Some Essential Oils That Are Useful For Sleep.\nAntidepressants Treatment For Insomnia Depression\nSleep disturbance leads to insomnia depression. It is an integral part of depressive disorder. More than 90% depressed people complaint about insomnia. Thus insomnia depression requires antidepressants treatment. At initial state of insomnia, dose of serotonin reuptake inhibitors or serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors are given. Where as antidepressant drugs with 5-HT2 blocking properties, such as mirtazapine or nefazodone improves sleep pattern. This treatment increases total sleep.\nWhat is Depression?\nDepression and Anxiety\nDepression Natural Remedy\nOmega 3 for Depression\nHow to Deal With Depression\nCauses of Depression\nWarning Signs of Depression\nAcupuncture and Depression\nAntidepressants Side Effects\nDepression in Pregnancy\nDepression After Pregnancy\nMajor Depressive Disorders\nDepression and Suicide\nDiabetes and Depression\nCortisol and Depression\nEstrogen and Depression\nList of Antidepressants\nProvigil and Depression\nTypes of Antidepressants\nAttention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder\nDepression in Women\nDepression in Men\nDiet and Depression\nRapid Mood Cycling\nCopyright © Depression. All Rights Reserved. Sitemap"}
{"content":"The Concert of Europe\nTreaty of Paris |\nCongress of Vienna |\nThe Holy Alliance |\nQuadruple Alliance |\nTreaty of Paris\nAfter the long fall of Napoleon from the disastrous retreat from Russia to the Battle of the Nations, when all hope of victory had faded, Napoleon decided it was time to surrender to the allies. With the usurper finally out of the way, Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia gathered together in 1814 in the most convenient spot (Paris) to discuss what should happen to France. Talleyrand (who once had been called by Napoleon, \"crap in a silk stocking\") represented France and von Metternich represented Austria.\nThe prevailing mood among the victors was that France itself must remain intact in order to maintain the balance of power in Europe. To this end, the terms of the peace were very generous. France returned to the borders of 1792; she regained most of her colonies; and was not forced to pay an indemnity. But, unfortunately for France, her old lover returned for one last fling. Napoleon returned on a ship from his exile in Elba and raised a new army. But he was quickly defeated after 100 days at the Battle of Waterloo. That France would again support Napoleon hardened the hearts of the negotiators somewhat. They met again and imposed harsher terms for France.\nThe Congress of Vienna\nThe Napoleonic Wars had taken a severe toll on the manhood of France and the countries of Europe. Hundreds of thousands of men died in battle or from disease during the campaigns. Many civilian people died from starvation and deprivation when their homes and countries were ravaged by war. The diplomats who met in Vienna were determined to avoid such a demographic calamity again. So they determined to work together to create a system to maintain peace and order.\nYet the ministers and representatives of the Congress of Vienna were realists. They knew that the martial spirit of Europe had not been bled dry. The last return of Napoleon was ample evidence that a nation could still be whipped into a war frenzy. The fifteen years of Napoleon preceded by the ten years of the French Revolution had taught them much of the collective and individual motivations and actions of men. Thus they proceeded with their deliberations with certain ideas in mind.\n- To restrict wars of aggression by France: France had been an aggressive force in Europe since Louis XIV.\n- That a balance of power must be maintained: It was felt that an equality of force among disparate European powers would create enough uncertainty that rulers would not be inclined to risk the use of aggressive force. It would make it more difficult for one nation to dominate Europe.\n- A system of rewards and punishments for past deeds must be in place: This would discourage European powers from future aggrandizement. (Not to mention the fact that it would reward the current participants in the Congress.)\n- Countries must be ruled by legitimate governments.\nThe InDepthInfo History of Modern Europe was designed as a homeschool history textbook. It covers an exciting time in modern Europe between the Renaissance and the End of World War I. It has report suggestions, chapter quizzes, and a final examination. Perfect for high school level study.\nThese principles espoused mainly by Metternich were considered conservative. Some have said that the object of the Congress was to return Europe to status quo ante (or the way things were before the wars). But this was not true. The congress changed many borders. The Holy Roman Empire was left dismantled. Military and political organization was forever changed. The congress provided a new precedent for concerted action by nations and states to work to resolve issues peacefully. In fact, there would be no general European war again until the Great War of 1914 (WWI).\nThe immediate result of the Congress of Vienna was the growth of the major states of Russia, Prussia, and Austria, at the expense of Poland, Saxony, and Italy. Legitimate rulers were restored in many states including France and Spain.\nThe Holy Alliance\nAlexander I, Tsar of Russia, had become mystical about this time. He believed that he had been appointed by God to destroy Napoleon. After the Napoleonic Wars he felt that the best hope for peace in Europe was to create an alliance where the states participating would swear to abide by Christian principles. Prussia and Austria joined with Russia in this alliance.\nThe Quadruple Alliance\nIn the wake of the Napoleonic Wars there was a mania for alliance building. The Quadruple Alliance was an effort to keep together the force that had finally destroyed Napoleon. The Quadruple Alliance included Great Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia. They agreed to meet periodically to resolve the problems of Europe. (France joined in 1818, making it the Quintuple Alliance.) Thus, congresses of Europe met until about 1822 when there was a falling out about the right of the alliance members to interfere in the politics of other states. Britain left, and the alliance withered away.\nFor many historians this period in European history serves as an aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars. Yet it was significant. It was the first time since the middle ages that Europeans had made any significant strides toward unity and continental peace. Yes, war and revolution would occur during the remainder of the century. But on the whole it was a peaceful period, and the people of Europe were generally grateful for the time of growth, stability, and prosperity which followed."}
{"content":"ICTC: Activities mark Career and Technical Education Month\nFebruary is designated as Career and Technical Education Month. The Indiana County Technology Center celebrates CTE month with fun activities every Friday for the rest of February.\nToday is Walking Taco Day. Students can purchase a walking taco for $2.50.\nOn Feb. 14, hot cocoa and sugar cookies which will be distributed to the students. Students can also decorate their own customized sugar cookie.\nFeb. 21 is “Duck Dynasty” Day. Students will be able to dress up as their favorite “Duck Dynasty” character and the best dressed will have their photographs taken.\nCareer-related and camouflage ducks will be sold to students through Feb. 27.\nAll proceeds collected will benefit Skills USA at the ICTC.\nOn Feb. 28, the last Friday of CTE month, students can participate in a duck toss in the Lobby of the ICTC. The winner will be rewarded with a breakfast/lunch with a friend, compliments of the culinary restaurant.\nIn addition to the activities, every Friday in February will provide the students with an opportunity to be awarded a prize.\nStudents who have perfect attendance for the month of February will be selected to win weekly prizes. On the last Friday of the month, there will be three grand prizes available to all morning and afternoon students.\nGrand prize winners will also be selected on the last day of the month.\nOn Jan. 20, the SkillsUSA District 8 competition was hosted by the Indiana County Technology Center.\nStudents from 11 different career and technical centers participated in contests that were held at ICTC, Indiana Area Senior High School, the Kovalchick Convention and Athletic Complex, WyoTech and Consol Energy.\nThe students competed in events including advertising design, carpentry, masonry, photography, nurse assisting.\nThe winners of each event will be traveling to Hershey in April to compete at state level.\nThe students from the career and technology centers demonstrated exceptional skill and knowledge of their events and competed vigorously to win.\nFrom the Indiana County Technology Center, 11 students were winners and 19 placed in their events.\nThe students who earned third-place honors were Alexis McConnell for action skills, Mitchell Meager for basic health care, Amy Aimino for carpentry, Bo Anderson for CNC technician, Marcus Valenti for computer maintenance and Tom McDowell for masonry.\nRunners-up were Courtney Taylor for advertising design and Kim Wheatcroft for customer service.\nThe winners who will be going to Hershey for the state competition in April are Shawn Naworol for auto service technology, Brandon Czerniec for automotive refinishing, Katilyn Smith for culinary arts, Waylon McGreary for electrical construction wiring, Ian McCleary for HVACR, Chelsea Yeomans for job skills demo, Kristin Glance for nail care, Christina Pizer as a nail care model, Caitlin Hauser for nurse assisting, Morgan Johnston for photography and Royce Bish for sheet metal.\nCongratulations to all of the competitors for showing exceptional skills and to all of the winners of the SkillsUSA District 8 competition."}
{"content":"Over the past few years, e-mail has become a popular channel for business communication. But, the growth of e-mail has created security and storage issues, resulting in companies finding themselves obligated to preserve records of all e-mails for a number of years. In the new era of Big Data, CIOs experience what it feels to be a gold digger, sans the smudges of dark caves. This is all to find some long lost data that is as obscure as big foot or recovering a crashed mailing client on a CXO's laptop. Couple this with the current snail-paced global economy and the evergreen need to be competitive in the marketplace; a company can waste a lot of time finding important data using legacy e-discovery methods.\nIT as a company function is a pretty new idea, particularly in India, considering that Tim Berners-Lee invented the Internet in 1989. Information Technology and its benefits have recently been seen in many European and American companies with the advent of ERP systems of the likes of SAP and PeopleSoft. These systems help optimize a company's functioning at all levels, all the while cutting on paper-printing expenses. Driving the corporate communications landscape is the e-mail -- purchase orders, company strategy presentations, marketing creatives all flow through e-mails in the modern organization. Even though modern, some organizations still prefer to backup e-mail and data using dated CDs and DVDs and mounting them when required. Such a method is often preferred because IT, in some corporate quarters, is still seen as a pure expense.\nPresent maturity in Information Technology has gifted us solutions to discover any data in few seconds. The spearhead of this techno-swiss-knife are a special class of software that are used for e-mail discovery. Before laying down the ace and calling it a flush in favour of e-mail archiving; let's dive into some common scenarios that a CIO and his team faces in an e-mail driven modern organization.:-\nLaw SuitesGlobal and national Indian laws have deemed e-mail as legit evidence in the Court of Law. Some acts that are worth mentioning are Sarbanes-Oxley Act, HIPPA, Indian IT Act 2000 and multitude of others. An e-mail archival system, essentially, keeps the mails in their original form, tamper-proof and encrypted. Any attempt to breach of any kind is of course recorded and reported to relevant members of the organization. But, the breacher won't get anything more than something like \"ErNiNooc3BwTrGvGrvhPT4PKopYZKoNhCY62Lx0yAj\", that's nothing but ASCII characters, which would require a millennia or more and several super-computers to decipher.\nThe Email Archival Advantage: Secure, fast recovery while saving time and money.\nE-mail DiscoveryI recently visited a muti-national cargo company. The IT manager was struggling with a legacy PST backup system to manage the pile of DVDs/CDs on top of an unsatisfactory system. Discovering an old mail using PSTs can be a herculean task of finding a needle in a giant haystack. E-mail archival systems help in searching the unsearchable and that too to the level of case-sensitive phrases within a mail attachment of a mail long-archived in the archival system.\nThe Email Archival Advantage: Fast e-mail discovery, again saving time and money.\nPersonal Computers crash faster than the BSE, which might result in loss of precious data. This in turn can lead to indirect loss at times, for instance in a case where an e-mail with crucial pricing info is lost.\nIn the age of BYOD and Big Data scenarios, a mail archival system helps users restore one's mails' data in few seconds. The task is simple: Login, Select Date Range, Search, hit on restore! Many e-mail archival systems offer controlling the access to the user archives as well. If the users are given normal access, it might not even be necessary to contact IT support by an employee to restore his/her mails, thus saving the time of IT support and freeing them of such monotonous tasks.\nThe Email Archival Advantage: Saving time and resources.\nISO, CMIE and several other compliance ruling bodies ordain an organization to comply in a certain way in which mails are treated. In short, e-mails ought to be archived properly, if a company is to get a compliance certificate. Especially outsourcing companies have to comply to such guidelines in order to bag the multi-million Euro deal. Compliance to legal acts also come in this purview. Yet again, an archival system serves this purpose.\nThe Email Archival Advantage: Winning orders, increasing business\nE-mail archival helps in above ways and more. For those still in doubt about the ROI, consider e-mail archival as a long-term investment. The fast ROI would be the time saved in recovering a crashed laptop of a company director. Modern e-mail archival systems help the IT team gleam as heroic angels and the CIO as their archangel. This clever investment is light on the corporate pocket if the mail archival is on open source technologies vis-a-vis a closed source technology. Also, many mail archival solutions are also available on the cloud. The take-away here is to archive mails left right and center, using modern mail archival systems that help in sticky situations where fortunes might have been lost, if it weren't for the mail archiving.\nThe author is COO, netCORE Solutions"}
{"content":"If you are experiencing problems downloading PDF or HTML fulltext, our helpdesk recommend clearing your browser cache and trying again. If you need help in clearing your cache, please click here . Still need help? Email firstname.lastname@example.org\nSummary Increased sleep need following traumatic brain injury, referred to in this study as post‐traumatic pleiosomnia, is common, but so far its clinical impact and therapeutic implications have not been characterized. We present a\ncase–control study of 36 patients with post‐traumatic pleiosomnia, defined by an increased sleep need of at least 2 h per 24 h after traumatic brain injury, compared to 36 controls. We assessed detailed history, sleep‐activity patterns with sleep logs and actigraphy,\nnocturnal sleep with polysomnography and daytime sleep propensity with multiple sleep latency tests. Actigraphy recordings revealed that traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients had longer estimated sleep durations than controls (10.8 h per 24 h, compared to 7.3 h). When using\nsleep logs, TBI patients underestimated their sleep need. During nocturnal sleep, patients had higher amounts of slow‐wave sleep than controls (20 versus 13.8%). Multiple sleep latency tests revealed excessive daytime sleepiness in 15 patients (42%), and 10 of them had signs of chronic\nsleep deprivation. We conclude that post‐traumatic pleiosomnia may be even more frequent than reported previously, because affected patients often underestimate their actual sleep need. Furthermore, these patients exhibit an increase in slow‐wave sleep which may reflect recovery\nmechanisms, intrinsic consequences of diffuse brain damage or relative sleep deprivation."}
{"content":"With Instructables you can share what you make with the world and tap into an ever-growing community of creative experts.\nshare what you made with text, photos, video, and files\ngather your favorite instructables together\nToday , i'm going to show you how to make a tic tac blowgun in 2 easy steps! You can put your darts in the tic tac box\nMaterials : A straw Needles Hot Glue Gun or super glue Scissors Q tips Tic Tac\nFirst, make 2 holes in the tic tac box ,one in the top and one in the bottom.Make sure they are aligned so the straw can fit in them\nTo make the dart, take a q tip , cut it in half and glue the needle on top of it...\nTo shoot it , put the dart in the straw and blow!\nDownload our new apps for iOS, Android and Windows 8!\n© 2014 Autodesk, Inc.\nBy clicking \"Create Account\" you are indicating that you have read and agree to the Terms of service.\nAlready a member? Login »\nEnter the email associated with your account and we will send you your username and a temporary password.\nNot a member? Sign Up »"}
{"content":"After my activity bag post ran recently over on The Natural Parents Network, I was inspired by others forming swaps to give it a go again, this time with my local Attachement Parenting group. This is my first time organizing, though I’ve participated in two other swaps with folks online. We had enough interest to break the group into two, a younger and a (just slightly) older group, and those who are able will meet at my house for the actual swap at the end of the month.\nI think I know what I am going to make — mini-log blocks like we made for the girls Christmas, with paint-stirrer sticks to help with construction, and plastic bugsto play with on them.\nMy second backup choice, that I also love and want to make, is magnetic foam tangrams — Here’s a decription with no photos, here are a couple more links about it. I think it would be cool to print/photocopy some picture guides to add to this as well, possibly the same size as the pieces so the kids could do them like a puzzle, with the magnets holding the pieces in place to avoid frustration.\nHere are a bunch more activity bag ideas I’ve stumbled up and love — hopefully I’ll either make them or receive them via a trade or swap at some point! If you try any of them, let me know how they turn out!!!\n- Nuts, bolts and washers – just a mix of different sizes, for the kids to explore, sort, and put together.\n- Number wheel — clothespin and a cardboard circle with dots to match to numbers\n- Tangled Weaving Web — super easy, looks fun!\n- Shades of color activity — using paint chips to sort colors into a grid. Cool!\n- Double Trouble shapes – matching combinations of foam shapes\n- Popsicle stick puzzles — make your own puzzles with any image, with craft sticks!\n- Story Blocks/Dice – OMG! Love these! I want some to use during mealtimes, especially lunch!\n- Marble Travel Game — Brilliant! Though I fear my girls would be frustrated that the marble is stuck in there & they can’t see it or take it out!\n- Measure it! – sorting different lengths of fun ribbons into three sizes\n- Magnet Mosaics — use easily store bought round magnets to create pictures using a (printable) guide or doing it yourself (may be cost prohibative for a swap, but I am going to do it myself, as we already have these magnets!)\n- Magnetic Fishing — Easy version, cool but sewing involved version\n- Magnetic Personalities – making magnets out of photos and cut out characters (either laminated or glued on cardstock?), with heads cut off to mix and match (look half way down the page).\n- Velcro toys (description found here, no pictures!)– cover a piece of wood with velcro, and affix velcro to small toys or objects\n- Make your own mini- race track — This one I did for a swap years ago, and never finished making one for my own kids! Basically, I cut black canvas/heavy fabric into tracks (straights, curves, some intersections, etc) similar to a toy train track, with velcro on either side so the kids can stick them together whatever way they want. I included enough to make a complete circle or oval, plus extras to extend or make more of a town layout. I included a couple mini-cars. It was really fun! I really ought to pull out the supplies and do this for us (and blog about it, ha ha)\n- Sorting erasers (just a collection of those colorful mini-erasers, and cups/muffin tin/ice cube tray for sorting\n- Sensory balloons — looks like a fun, easy project!\n- Fine Motor games — Straw or lid dropor pipe cleaner sort\n- Button Outline Matching (or just button sorting would be fun too!)\n- Letter matching eggs – Instead of letters it could also be shapes, symbols, pictures, stickers…\n- Stringing straws and buttons — Very simple, and looks fun!\n- Craft foam bath murals– We have these already, and the girls LOVE them and it’s pretty much the only bath toy they use (for a loooooong time, if we let them).\nHooray for activity bags, and busy kids!"}
{"content":"Science Investigatory Projects\nThe rapid evolution of technology shows a rapidly changing world. Inventions have evolved and continue to evolve such that after several years of study, research and experimentation reach great developments.\nThis investigatory project mini website are made to promote science and technology consciousness among the general public. And help high school students find all possible online resources for their research projects in chemistry, physics, biology and other science investigatory projects.\nDefine Science and Technology?\nThe history of science and technology is a field of history which examines how humanity understands of the natural world (science) and ability to manipulate it (technology) has changed over the millennium. This field of history also studies the cultural, economic, and political impacts of scientific innovation.\nWhat is Chemistry?\nChemistry is the science treating matter at the atomic to macromolecular scale, the reactions, transformations and aggregations of matter, as well as accompanying energy and entropy changes during these processes. In short, chemistry studies molecules, crystals, and metal/nonmetals and is concerned with the composition and statistical properties of such structures, as well as their transformations and interactions to become materials encountered in everyday life. According to modern chemistry, the physical properties of materials are generally determined by their structure at the molecular or atomic scale, which is itself defined by inter atomic electromagnetic forces, and laws of quantum mechanics and thermodynamics from various fields of physics. Robert Boyle (1661), Antoine Lavoisier (1787), and John Dalton (1808) can be considered the three fathers of modern chemistry, while some consider the earlier chemist Geber to be the father of chemistry. [Source: Wikipedia]"}
{"content":"An energy indaba, similar to the much-mooted economic indaba, might be the route to go to resolve the “complex problems” of secure energy supply and high electricity prices, Minister in the Presidency for National Planning Trevor Manuel has proposed\nAt a business breakfast running alongside the ANC’s national conference in Mangaung yesterday, the minister was asked what the solution was to ever-increasing power prices, which were whittling down, rather than expanding, jobs in the manufacturing sector.\nManuel said the problems with Eskom were “unbelievably difficult” to solve, partly because “energy costs have been so low for so long”. The other challenge was that electricity generation was a carbon intensive industry, which was proving “exceedingly difficult” to change.\nPressed on whether there should be greater competition in generation, distribution and transmission, he said while there was a commitment to bring in independent power producers, they could not initially match the unit cost of electricity achieved by Eskom.\nNoting the contradiction between the emphasis placed on promoting manufacturing in the National Development Plan (NDP) and the fact that the manufacturing sector was contracting because of recent electricity tariff hikes, Manuel said: “We need to talk to each other on these issues… no one wants to pay more for energy.”\nManuel acknowledged that the experiment to introduce regional electricity distributors (Reds) had failed “They did not work… we pushed the Reds back under the bed,” he joked.\nHe was referring to a network of planned Reds, of which only the first, Red One, was established covering the Western Cape and Northern Cape. However, it never properly got off the ground and municipalities continue to distribute electricity in areas where they are licensed to do so. Eskom serves the rest of the country directly.\nOnly about half of the 283 municipalities are licensed to distribute electricity. Red One was aborted amid challenges from municipalities.\nManuel said municipalities’ role in supplying electricity was an important issue in the power pricing outcome as they placed a surcharge on the Eskom price. “They use that as a revenue source, which adds to the cost… these are big issues.”\nWhile many stakeholders in South Africa wanted an economic indaba to find common ground in meeting the financial and fiscal challenges facing the country, he believed that “maybe we need an energy indaba” to find solutions to these seemingly intractable problems.\nThe NDP, which was drawn up by the National Planning Commission chaired by Manuel, expressed itself wary of tapping into new sources of nuclear power if it proved costly. However, it was more amenable to the possibility of exploiting shale gas in the Karoo, which Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu has pointed out could have potential reserves of 485 trillion cubic feet of gas.\nAsked whether implementation of the NDP would receive a fillip with the election of businessman Cyril Ramaphosa as ANC deputy chief, Manuel said he had already been a “resonant voice” in publicly articulating the plan “in spite of all of his responsibilities”. He was referring to Ramaphosa’s business interests in Shanduka and Ivanplats and board positions at MTN and Lonmin, among others. “He has actually made an immense amount of time available for the work of the commission.”\nManuel said he was hoping to continue working both in the commission, which forged the NDP, “and outside of it”.\nHe said the commission, of which Ramaphosa is deputy chairman, had a five-year lifespan, but discussions would be held with President Jacob Zuma to decide whether an extension of the commissioners’ terms would be necessary. Such discussions were likely to take place early in the new year.\nMeanwhile, Bloomberg reported yesterday that Ramaphosa, the chairman of MTN Group and Bidvest, was reviewing his business interests after being elected deputy president of the ANC.\n“This is necessary to address any potential conflicts of interest and to ensure that I can adequately perform the responsibilities of this position,” Ramaphosa said yesterday. In September, Sunday Times estimated his wealth at R2.22bn."}
{"content":"1937 – Best Actor in a Leading Role, \"Captains Courageous\"\nTracy, an Irish American and devout Catholic, was the first actor to win back-to-back Oscars (1938 Best Actor for \"Captains Courageous\" and 1939 Best Actor for \"Boys Town\").\nBetween both performances, we consider Tracy’s portrayal as Portuguese-American fisherman Manuel in Rudyard Kipling’s \"Captains Courageous\" to be the better of the two.\n2. Gregory Peck\n1962 – Best Actor in a Leading Role, \"To Kill a Mockingbird\"\nAfter four Oscar nominations, Peck finally nabbed the award for his riveting performance as Atticus Finch in \"To Kill a Mockingbird.\" In this legendary performance, Peck helps bring Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel to life in his role as the Depression-era lawyer who defends a black man accused of raping a white woman in a racially tense town.\nPeck, who’s grandmother was a native of Dingle, Co. Kerry, helped his character earn the title of “Greatest Hero in 100 Years of Film History” by the American Film Institute.\n1. Sean Penn\n2003 – Best Actor in a Leading Role, \"Mystic River\"\nIt’s tough to compare 1940s film performances to those of today, but it wasn’t difficult to identify Sean Penn’s depiction of Jimmy Markum in \"Mystic River,\" a film based on the book written by Irish American Dennis Lehane, as one of the best.\nIn this Clint Eastwood-directed film, Penn, who has Irish roots on his mother’s side, electrifies in his gut-wrenching performance as a father seeking revenge on his daughter’s murderer.\nThe actor went on to win another much-deserved leading actor Oscar for 2008's \"Milk.\"\nLog in with your social accounts:\nOr, log in with your IrishCentral account:\nDon't have an account yet? Register now !\nJoin IrishCentral with your social accounts:\nAlready have an account ? Log in\nOr, sign up for an IrishCentral account below:\nMake sure we gathered the correct information from you\nYou already have an account on IrishCentral! Please confirm you're the owner.\nOur new policy requires our users to save a first and last name. Please update your account:"}
{"content":"How much do you know about yourself? What things are important to you?\nYou know a lot about yourself. For example, you can answer the question, \"What is your name?\" You probably know your address, your age, and where you are from.\nBut can you say more about yourself? What things are important to you?\nValues are beliefs that are important to you. Thinking about your values will help you answer the question \"Who am I?\" The better you know yourself, the easier it will be to find a career that matches your values and skills.\nLook at the picture of the person below. Look at the values that are important to him. He is answering the question \"Who am I?\"\n\"Education is important to me. I want my children to get a good education.\"\n\"Honesty is important to me. I always try to tell the truth.\"\n\"I believe in hard work. I do not want to be lazy at my job.\"\n\"I want to make enough money to pay the bills and take care of my family.\"\n\"My culture is important to me.\"\n\"My family is important to me.\"\nThe exercise on the next page will help you answer the question What is Most Important to Me?\nCopyright © 1999- iSeek Solutions"}
{"content":"John All fell 70′ down into a crevasse in the Himalayas and survived. He then recorded a video diary of his slow, painful escape:\nA couple years ago, Professor All answered the question, why does everyone climb Everest in May?\nIt comes down to snow, temperature, and wind. “Mount Everest protrudes into the stratosphere, and most of the year the summit is buffeted by winds of over 100 miles per hour that will kill a climber in minutes or even hurtle them into the void,” All told Popular Mechanics. “It is only during the onset or cession of the Asian Monsoon that these winds die down and allow climbers short seven- to 10-day windows to climb the mountain.”\nThe highest recorded wind speed at the summit was a 175 mph in February 2004. For reference, a Category 5 hurricane has sustained wind speeds of at least 157 mph. Throughout the winter, hurricane-force winds pummel the summit for three days out of four.\nThe two windows in which those wild winds die down happen in May and September. But snow falls during the September calm, so fresh snow drifts offset the break from the wind. That’s why so many people try the ascent in May, All says."}
{"content":"Hadith about the Dajjal\nAbdullah Ibn 'Omar said, \"'Omar Ibn al-Khattab went along with the Prophet and a group of people to Ibn Sayyad, and found him playing with some children near the battlement of Banu Maghalah. At that time Ibn Sayyad was on the threshold of adolescence; he did not realise that anybody was near until the Prophet struck him on the back. The Prophet said to him: 'Do you bear witness than I am the Messenger of Allah?' Ibn Sayyad looked at him and said, 'I bear witness that you are the Prophet of the unlettered.' Then Ibn Sayyad said to the Prophet, 'Do you bear witness that I am the Messenger of Allah? 'The Prophet dismissed this and said, 'I believe in Allah and His Messengers.' Then the Prophet asked him, 'What do you see?' Ibn Sayyad said, 'Sometimes a truthful person comes to me, and sometimes a liar.' The Prophet said to him, 'You are confused', then he said, 'I am hiding something from you.' Ibn Sayyad said, 'It is Dukh.' The Prophet said, 'Silence! You will not be able to go beyond your rank.' 'Omar Ibn al-Khattab said, 'O Messenger of Allah, shall I cut off his head?' The Prophet said, 'If he is (the Dajjal) you will not be able to overpower him, and if he is not, then killing will not do you any good.'\"\nSalim Ibn 'Abdullah said, \"I heard 'Abdullah Ibn 'Omar say, 'After that, the Prophet and Ubayy Ibn Ka'b went along to the palm trees where Ibn Sayyad was. The Prophet started to hide behind a tree, with the intention of hearing something from Ibn Sayyad before Ibn Sayyad saw him. The Prophet saw him lying on a bed, murmuring beneath a blanket. Ibn Sayyad's mother saw the Prophet hiding behind a tree, and said to her son, \"O Saf (Ibn Sayyad's first name), here is Mohammad!\" Ibn Sayyad jumped up, and the Prophet said, \"If you had left him alone, he would have explained himself.''\nSalim said, \"'Abdullah Ibn 'Omar said, The Prophet stood up to address the people. He praised Allah as He deserved to be praised, then he spoke about the Dajjal: 'I warn you against him; there is no Prophet who has not warned his people against him, even Noah warned his people against him. But I will tell you something which no other Prophet has told his people. You must know that the Dajjal is one-eyed, and Allah is not one-eyed.'\"\nIbn Shihab said: \"'Omar Ibn Thabit al-Ansari told me that some of the Companions of the Prophet told him that on the day when he warned the people about the Dajjal, the Prophet said: \"There will be written between his eyes the word Kafir (unbeliever). Everyone who resents his bad deeds - or every believer- will be able to read it.\" He also said, \"You must know that no one of you will be able to see his Lord until he dies.'\" (Muslim, al-Bukhari). Ibn 'Omar said, \"The Prophet mentioned the Dajjal to the people. He said, \"Allah is not one-eyed, but the Dajjal is blind in his right eye, and his eye is like a floating grape.'\" (Muslim) Anas Ibn Malik said, \"The Prophet said, 'there has never been a Prophet who did not warn his people against that one-eyed liar. Verily he is one-eyed and your Lord is not one-eyed. On his forehead will be written the letter Kaf, Fa, Ra (Kafir).'\" (Muslim, al-Bukhari)\nHudhayfah said, \"The Prophet said, 'I know more about the powers which the Dajjal will have than he will know himself. He will have two flowing rivers: one will appear to be pure water, and the other will appear to be flaming fire. Whosoever lives to see that, let him choose the river which seems to be fire, then let him close his eyes, lower his head and drink from it, for it will be cold water. The Dajjal will be one-eyed; the place where one eye should be will be covered by a piece of skin. On his forehead will be written the word Kafir, and every believer, whether literate or illiterate, will be able to read it.'\" (Muslim)\nAbu Hurayrah said, \"The Prophet said, 'Shall I tell you something about the Dajjal which no Prophet has ever told his people before me? The Dajjal is one-eyed and will bring with him something which will resemble Paradise and Hell; but that which he calls Paradise will in fact be Hell. I warn you against him as Noah warned his people against him.'\" (al-Bukhari, Muslim)\nMohammad Ibn Munkadir said: \"I saw Jabir Ibn 'Abdullah swearing by Allah that Ibn Sayyad was the Dajjal, so I asked him, 'Do you swear by Allah?' He said, 'I heard 'Omar swear to that effect in the presence of the Prophet, and the Prophet did not disapprove of it.'\" Some 'ulama' (scholars) say that some of the Sahabah (Companions of the Prophet) believed Ibn Sayyad to be the greater Dajjal, but that is not the case: Ibn Sayyad was a lesser dajjal. Ibn Sayyad travelled between Makkah and Madina with Abu Sa'id, and complained to him about the way that people were saying that he was the Dajjal. Then he said to Abu Sa'id, \"Did not the Prophet say that the Dajjal would not enter Madina? I was born there. Did not he say that he would not have any children? - I have children. Did not he say that he would be a Kafir? - I have embraced Islam. Of all the people, I know the most about him: I know where he is now. If I were given the opportunity to be in his place, I would not resent it.'\" (al-Bukhari, Muslim)\n- Category: The Signs Before the Day of Judgement\n- Hits: 77828"}
{"content":"The telephone bug, pictured above, was responsible for siphoning the credit and debit card information of unwitting consumers from inside one of Australia’s biggest banks.\nThe meticulously handcrafted device, smaller than the palm of a hand, was pinned carefully to telephone cable that ran along the carpet floor of the bank's metropolitan branch office.\nTwo inconspicuous cuts were made in the wire to attach the bug. It would listen for keypad tones as unsuspecting customers keyed in their PIN numbers at the automatic teller.\nEach tone woke the device from slumber, which it diligently broadcast over a handpicked radio frequency.\nThe attacker waited in the bank’s carpark and recorded the tones on a laptop. Each tone was then matched to a number, revealing the customer’s PIN.\nCorresponding card information was also being copied and stored. The brazen attacker had swapped the terminal on the teller's desk with a skimming device that was capturing enough bank data for replica cards to be manufactured.\nThe thief needed only match the time signatures at which the card and PIN number were swiped to have unfettered access to potentially hundreds of accounts.\nNavid Sobbi, the phone interception expert who busted the scam, held a professional respect for the effort put into the bug.\n“It was a work of art,” Sobbi said. “It is one of the best made and tidy bugs I have come across.”\nThe device was fully sealed save for an exposed screw head which was used to tune the radio frequency over which the PIN numbers were broadcast.\nA cleaner was found to have installed both the bug and the skimming device.\n“It’s almost always the cleaners,” Sobbi said, speaking of the dozens of interception cases he has foiled this year. “They have the access and are the most vulnerable – they often stand to make a lot of cash and that’s tempting considering they might not be paid a lot.”\nHowever, the bug wasn’t the most sophisticated Sobbi had encountered.\nHe had recently stumbled on a government military-grade interception device installed in the bedroom of a residential property. The device transmitted captured audio via microwave links and was instantly recognisable as a government plant.\nIt was deactivated, but Sobbi’s bug hunting kit was able to identify particular metallic components inside the device.\nIn another case, Sobbi took a call from a client concerned that an office had been wiretapped.\nDuring the drive over, Sobbi was called by police to cease and desist: the client had phoned Sobbi to request the search within proximity of the bug. That tipped off police who soon after raided the premises.\n“If you ever suspect a phone bug,” Sobbi said “don’t talk about it if you are within range.”\nThough 20 percent of Sobbi's work involved searching for suspected bugs, this year he had also found several hidden cameras and keyloggers implanted on the backs of computers.\nLasers had in some cases been used to listen in on corporate meetings, a ploy ultimately foiled by a mock meeting Sobbi established to detect the location of the laser.\n“With enough tweaking, even a whisper can be heard,” Sobbi said of the laser.\nMost of Sobbi’s cases involved suspected espionage. His team of six within National Surveillance and Intelligence serviced big business like Australia’s mining giants, government agencies and law firms. The company regularly performed “bug sweeps” of conference rooms ahead of sensitive meetings.\nSobbi also ran forensic scans of mobile devices with the same equipment used by police.\nThis service was a favourite of lawyers, big business and individual clients who suspected foul play by staff and partners.\n“When staff leave, companies often want to know if incriminating text messages or phone calls were sent,\" he said. \"Husbands and wives also want to check out if their phone was tampered or tracking software had been installed.”\nCopyright © SC Magazine, Australia\nProcessing registration... Please wait.\nThis process can take up to a minute to complete.\nA confirmation email has been sent to your email address - SUPPLIED GOES EMAIL HERE. Please click on the link in the email to verify your email address. You need to verify your email before you can start posting.\nIf you do not receive your confirmation email within the next few minutes, it may be because the email has been captured by a junk mail filter. Please ensure you add the domain @itnews.com.au to your white-listed senders."}
{"content":"“The people in our town, they died without ever seeing the ocean.”\nStrange words to hear on an island. They are spoken by an 80-year-old woman we have met at a bus stop just after arriving at the port of Akadomari on Sado Island. She has the signature stoop of many elderly rice farmers after decades of constantly bending over, her torso leaning from her waist at a 90-degree angle even when she stands. But she seems vigorous for her age and, as she talks, it’s clear her mind is still sharp.\nThe town she speaks of is Hamochi, tucked away in the mountains. “My ancestors labored in the fields there for many generations,” she explains. “We didn’t have cars back then and at the end of a hard day, we never had any reason to walk the several kilometers to the sea.”\nIt seems unimaginable that someone could live surrounded by the ocean and never set eyes on it, though Sado is a very big island covering some 855 sq. km. Administratively part of Niigata Prefecture, off whose northern coast it sits amid the chilly waters of the Sea of Japan, it is the sixth largest island in Japan, following the main island of Okinawa.\nAs we board the bus, the woman tells us to keep our eyes out for toki (Crested Ibis), which apparently perch in the trees around her town. With a white body around 76 cm long, a white crest, red feet and face, and a long narrow beak, this bird — once common in Japan, Korea, China and parts of Russia — was nearly driven to extinction by hunting and pollution of its habitats. It vanished completely from Japan after the last five in the country, which lived on Sado, were captured for a failed breeding program that ended in their deaths. However, the world’s last seven wild specimens — found in China’s Shaanxi province in 1981 — have since multiplied into hundreds due to protection initiatives, and dozens have been given to Japan and reintroduced to Sado. With strict regulations on pesticides and chemical fertilizers, the island is now home to a second-generation population.\nThough we don’t spot a toki, the ride offers a good introduction to Sado’s coastal scenery. Lush trees just spill down the mountains to our right, with the ocean stretching out endlessly on the left, and in every town we pass through the houses are all traditional wooden ones with clay-tile roofs — there’s not a Western-style building anywhere.\nAfter saying farewell to the women as she gets off, we arrive at a beach called Sobama where we spend the rest of the day snorkeling and the night in our tents. Next morning, we catch the bus for Sado’s ancient gold and silver mine — Kinzan. On the way, I spot a toki perched in a tree and alert my companions with a shout of excitement, but by the time they look our bus has pulled us out of sight. The glimpse was fleeting, but there’s something rewarding about seeing such a rare creature brought back from the brink.\nSoon we arrive at Kinzan, a forested mountain near the west coast. Mining began here in 1601, just before the first Tokugawa Shogun seized the reins of power his dynasty would retain through the feudal Edo Period (1603–1867). Throughout that time, Kinzan’s bounty financed the regime, with rice and gold coins (many minted on Sado) serving as the two types of currency. Operations only stopped in 1989, when the mineral veins finally ran out, but since then two shafts have been converted into a museum.\nThe first is the Sodayu Tunnel, a relic of the Edo Period. Descending a stairwell through a dark passage into the belly of the mountain, the temperature drops 10 degrees. Wooden beams prop up the walls and ceilings to stop cave-ins just as when the mine was in use and women and children were among the workforce. Through the lantern-lit gloom, we pass many placards explaining historical facts, as well as displays where humanoid robots reenact the grueling labor of the pre-industrial era when everything had to be done by hand: hewing tunnels through solid rock with hammers and chisels; pumping in air to prevent suffocation; and draining the steady accumulation of spring water on alternating 24-hour shifts. Here and there, too, are tanuki-ana (racoon-dog holes), frightfully narrow crawl tunnels dug to search for new veins.\nAlthough the pay was good, life spans were short and the work was so disliked that unregistered denizens of distant Edo (present-day Tokyo) were sometimes rounded up and hauled off there.\nThe other tunnel, named Doyu dates from the Meiji Era (1868-1912), when mining began anew under Mitsubishi’s management using modern technologies. Rails for electric trolleys that once carried rock and ore run along the floors, with red and green traffic signals in place here and there. At the end, we climb a hill outside to view the peak of Kinzan, which has been split right open into a gaping crater. Oh, the power of our species!\nNext, we hitchhike to nearby Aikawa, an old town that flourished during the mining era, to visit Sado Hangamura Art Museum. Housed in a grand building used as a courthouse in the Meiji Era, this hosts fine displays of hanga (woodblock prints) carved mainly by residents of the island. These exquisite works depict an array of Sado’s icons — taiko drums, noh theater, Shinto rituals, toki, Kinzan and barrel-boating — giving us a great taste of the local culture in art form.\nAnd here comes the turning point for our trip. As we swim near our new campsite in the bay of Sawata, a strange local man engages us in conversation. Looking to be in his 60s, he is in good shape and has a rich tan. We think him a bit odd at first, but still we’re delighted when he strolls into our campsite at 8 o’clock the next morning and offers to give us a tour.\nIt turns out he is a retired clothing designer turned painter by the name of Hiroshi Kominamidate. Apparently, he has been awake since 4 a.m., painting and drinking beer, so he will be unable to drive — though he’ll show us some must-see spots if one of us will take the wheel.\nWe head north along the west coast, stopping periodically at shops where our guide gets cans of beer, which he chugs down with relish one after the other while chatting about his younger days.\nOur first stop is at a cave where Hiroshi says that Nichiren, founder of the Nichiren Sect of Buddhism, performed ascetic practices when he was exiled on Sado, which served for centuries as a place of banishment for inconvenient political rivals. Inside, water drips from the ceiling to pool on the stone floor, while deeper in a colony of bats huddle together in a clump, shrieking faintly. The perfect place to seek enlightenment, I’d say.\nAs we take pictures, a farmer woman working in the adjacent rice field comes over and offers to show us another cave that our guide was unaware of. In the dim\ncavern are shallow ponds where she tells us to wash our eyes as the water has magical properties that improve vision. We enter and splash the water in our eyes as instructed. My vision is 20/20, but I thought it couldn’t hurt.\nDriving further along the coast, we pass many striking rock formations and drink fresh mountain water at Seisuiji Temple before stopping at a sandy beach facing two massive offshore outcrops named for what the’re said to resemble, Futatsugame (which means “two turtles”). The water is crystal clear and we spend two hours snorkeling.\nAfterward, we drive high into the mountains to Sado-Yahiko-Yoneyama Quasi-National Park for a brief walk through an ancient pine forest shrouded in milky fog. “The forest is fed by the mist,” Hiroshi explains, and proceeds to pick us some raspberries.\nFinally, we stop off briefly at our guide’s house to see his paintings — most of them female nudes. After he kindly lets us pick two each as souvenirs, we waste no time getting back in the car and speeding to the ferry, which we board with only minutes to spare.\nThough we were grateful for the chance to cover as much ground as we did on our three-day trip, I felt like we hardly scratched the surface. Perhaps it takes a lifetime to really appreciate such a profound place as Sado Island. Certainly, our fleeting impressions will never compare with the experiences of those who never needed to see the ocean.\nSado Island can be reached by ferry from Teradomari, by ferry or jetfoil from Naoetsu, and by ferry, jetfoil or plane from Niigata City, all in Niigata Prefecture. English sightseeing information is available at www.mijintl.com."}
{"content":"In This Issue:\n- Chapter 1 Choice Of A Business Entity\n- Chapter 2 Introduction To Federal Securities Laws\n- Chapter 3 From Let’S Go Shopping To Closing: U.S. M&A Process\n- Chapter 4 Employment Considerations\n- Chapter 5 Equity Incentives For U.S. Employees\n- Chapter 6 U.S. Immigration Law\n- Chapter 7 U.S. International Trade And Investment\n- Chapter 8 Commercial Real Estate Transactions\n- Chapter 9 Intellectual Property\n- Chapter 10 Energy Regulation In The United States\n- Chapter 11 Clean Technology In The United States\n- Chapter 12 Environmental Law\n- Chapter 13 Taxation In The United States\n- Chapter 14 Litigation And Other Dispute Resolution Mechanisms\n- Chapter 15 Products Liability\n- Chapter 16 Insurance\n- Excerpt from Choice of a Business Entity:\nAn important question that a non-U.S. business faces before doing business in the United States is the selection of an optimal business structure. Selecting the best type of entity helps maximize the chances of financial and operational success.\nThere are four main types of business entities in the United States, namely: corporations, limited liability companies (LLCs), partnerships and sole proprietorships (a form used exclusively by natural persons). A non-U.S. investor may choose among any of them, but in most cases the corporation is preferred and recommended. The non-U.S. investor may also join forces with one or more other businesses to create a joint venture, which can take the form of a corporation, a partnership or a limited liability company. Finally, a non-U.S. investor may conduct business in the United States through a branch.\nThis chapter provides a brief introduction of each type of business structure and discussion of the factors to consider in choosing a business structure and the mechanics of organization for each structure.\nPlease see full guide below for more information."}
{"content":"Recently, in Boudreau v. Bank of Montreal, the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld a motion dismissing a lawsuit against Bank of Montreal (BMO), Rogers Communications Inc. (Rogers), and Umbro Inc. (Umbro).\nBMO, Rogers and Umbro were corporate sponsors of a soccer event organized by the Ontario Soccer Association (OSA). Boudreau was a player who sustained injuries during game play and was unfortunately rendered a paraplegic as a result of his injuries. Boudreau sued not only the OSA but also the corporate sponsors claiming that: the OSA carried inadequate accident insurance for the soccer players; that it was foreseeable to the corporate sponsors that a player would get hurt; and that the corporate sponsors had a legal duty to the appellant to inquire into the adequacy of insurance coverage for the players or, if they did inquire, to ensure that adequate insurance coverage was available.\nThe court held that corporate sponsors who provide financial support to a sporting event should not be held liable in the event that a participant gets injured by participating in the event. Corporate sponsors have little to no control over the organization or the management of such events or the participants or attendees thereof. As a result, the court found in this case that there was insufficient proximity between corporate sponsors and individual participants to give rise to a duty of care owed by the sponsors to the plaintiff.\nThis article by Canadian Lawyer Magazine discusses the issue in greater detail and provides some good insight for corporations who enter into sponsorship agreements of sporting and similar events."}
{"content":"The Magic of Kol Nidre: A Yom Kippur Story by Bruce H. Siegel, Illustrations by Shelly O. Haas; (Kar-Ben Copies, 1998, paperback $6.95, ages 5 to 10).\nHave you ever looked at a painting for a long time, discovering that its details only unveil themselves after long meditation? You wonder how you could miss so much at first glance.\nCantor Bruce H. Siegel has written a story about the Kol Nidre service that will reveal a new truth about prayer to both children and adults who have watched the rays of the sun filter through the stained glass windows of the synagogue for many years and wondered why.\nThe story weaves lyrically through several generations. The child sits playing with the fringes of his grandfather's tallit (prayer shawl). And the same rays of the sun shine on him years later as he cradles his own young infant in his arms waiting for the prayers to begin.\nIn itself, this generational image is magic, illuminating in story form what is hard to preach to children about: someday the child will be the parent, and the task of explaining the ineffable will rest on his shoulders.\nThrough the warm and mellow light that filters through the synagogue's stained-glass windows in tones of gold, rose and blue, artist Shelly Haas creates the hush of the synagogue, the continuity of the generations, the sacredness of prayer and God's love.\n\"I look at the people milling around the sanctuary and know that finally I understand the magic of Kol Nidre,\" says the father. \"All these years, the answer was around me and I didn't see it.\" Does he share it with his son? No, and this is another lesson to be gleaned from the story. Some things children must discover for themselves.\nRead this Yom Kippur story and learn whether you have lingered long enough over the meaning of the synagogue. Discover too, the magic explanation for the thrice-recited Kol Nidre prayer."}
{"content":"Jewish World Review Oct. 19, 1999 /9 Mar-Cheshvan, 5760\nA belief in population control is one of those unexamined tenets that liberals tout not because it is true but because they think it should be true. The solution to the problem of poverty is to give people welfare checks and raise the minimum wage. The answer to violent crime is to ban handguns. The response to teeming millions of impoverished people in foreign countries is to practice birth control and bring their numbers down to manageable levels.\nBut the danger of the Earth's peoples multiplying into starvation or ecological disaster, which modern Malthusians have been warning about for 50 years, has not only failed to materialize, the exact opposite has happened, instead. Despite an expanding population, Earth is experiencing a food glut.\nEven China has a problem with obesity. As Stephen Moore explained in the National Review: \"Global food prices have fallen by half since 1950, even as population has doubled. ... Enough food is now grown in the world to provide each resident of the planet with almost 4 pounds of food per day.\"\nAren't there still famines in Africa and elsewhere? Yes. But as human rights groups attest, famines are no longer the result of natural disaster, but instead the purposeful acts of malign governments. Recent famines in Ethiopia and Sudan were engineered by governments to punish rebellious subjects.\nBut for the vast majority of the world's people, population increases have gone hand in hand with improvements in living standards. And, just as free market thinkers have been predicting all along, as nations get richer, their rate of population growth naturally slows. Wealth is a far better contraceptive than the condom.\nWhat about space? Isn't the planet getting overpopulated? Well, it may seem that your vacation spot or commuter route to work is overpopulated, but the Earth is not likely to run out of space for the numbers of people that even the most alarmist population controllers project. Moore points out that if all 6 billion of Earth's residents had to squeeze into the state of Texas, there would be enough room for each family of four to have a house and one-eighth of an acre of land. The rest of the globe would be empty.\nIn point of fact, many of the developed nations of the world are experiencing what Ben Wattenberg calls the \"birth dearth.\" In Japan, for example, population is slowing to such a marked degree that the nation will soon face a severe crisis in caring for an aging population. We, also, are concerned that we will soon have too few young workers contributing to the Social Security tax and too many elderly people collecting benefits. That is the topic our politicians are working so hard to avoid facing.\nBut population control has been in the saddle for several decades now, and many people continue to equate it with responsibility -- this despite the gruesome crimes that have been committed, particularly by China but also by other nations, in its name.\nIn China, the one-child-per-family policy has resulted in the exposure and infanticide of an estimated 10 million to 20 million female babies. Ninety percent of the children in Chinese orphanages are female, many abandoned, left to die essentially so that the parents can try again for a son. The government also enforces its one-child policy by forcing women who get pregnant without permission to undergo forced abortions -- even into the ninth month of pregnancy.\nChina has created a new society: one without brothers, sisters, aunts or uncles. And millions of young Chinese males will never marry or have (one) child of their own because there aren't enough women to go around.\nIt was all so tragically unnecessary. The birth rate in developing countries follows a predictable downward path as wealth increases. Since 1950, the birth rate in the Third World has halved, from six children per family to three, and it is continuing to fall.\nThe little girl in Sarajevo poses no threat. We have abundant food. There\nare medicines to keep us healthy. And there is plenty of room to spare on"}
{"content":"Categoria de Jogos - Jogos de matematica\nJogos de matematica\nsolve the math .\nPractice basic arithmetic operations in this sequel of popular math game The Numbers!\nTest your math skills! Become the absolute champion! Pit your ninja Math skills against the machine!\nAdd the two numbers together then typethe answer in the box. hit the total buton to see you entered the correct answer\nAnswer the 20 math question in the shortest time possible. Without using a calculator.\nIt is time for the math exam. You will have just 1 minute to answer as many questions as possible.\nDinoKids – Math is simple, fun and educative mini game. You can solve simple math and compete the score.\nAre you good at math kids? Test it now!\nvocê gosta jogos de matematica?"}
{"content":"A sharp decline in the circulation of the Nazi press in Germany is reported from Berlin. Emphasis is revealed that even the Voelkischer Beobachter, official organ of the Nazi Party, is losing thousands of readers.\nThis decline comes as no surprise. The entire press in Germany today is nothing but one official organ of the Ministry of Propaganda. There is little difference between one paper and another. They are all dictated to by the same Dr. Goebbels.\nUnder these circumstances, it is no wonder that the Berliner Tageblatt, once the most popular newspaper in Europe, now has a circulation much less than the circulation of the Juedische Rundschau, a Jewish newspaper appearing in Berlin. The Vossische Zeitung, another much-read German daily, was compelled to liquidate altogether. Even Der Angriff, the paper published by Dr. Goebbels, was about to be liquidated because of the lack of readers.\nTHE ANGRIFF SEEKS JEWS\nIt sounds like a myth, but it is an actual fact, that it is due to the Jews that Der Angriff still appears. Seeing that the circulation of his paper had dwindled down from 70,000 to 8,000, Dr. Goebbels came to the conclusion that the paper could be saved only if Jews were to become interested in reading it.\nReaching this conclusion, Goebbels decided on a plan to send one of his best reporters to Palestine and to advertise that his observations would soon begin to appear in the Angriff.\nWith the huge interest which Jews now show in migration to Palestine, Goebbels was certain that the circulation of his paper would definitely rise as soon as the first articles on Palestine were published. As a result, of this, Der Angriff started its famous series of articles, “A Nazi Goes to Palestine.”\nTwo weeks before the first article appeared, much advertising was done by Goebbels to attract attention of Jewish readers. Special placards in the form of a huge Mogen Dovid were posted all over Germany. Thousands of young Nazis distributed in the streets of Berlin imitation coins containing the inscription: “A Nazi Goes to Palestine and Will Tell His Impressions in Der Angriff.” A maximum of publicity was given to the articles prior to their appearance.\nFROM 8,000 TO 65,000\nThe articles began to appear, and strangely enough, they seemed to be very sympathetic to Jewish achievements in Palestine. The Jews in Germany began to read them with the greatest of interest. The non-Jews in Germany also seemed to become interested in them.\nTo make the story short: within the two weeks Der Angriff published the series the circulation of the paper leaped from 8,000 to 65,000. Now it has reached a quarter of a million. The paper, which was to be defunct, is now safe.\nBut not every paper in Germany can obtain the privilege ### praising Jewish achievements, which was given Der Angriff.\nWhat Dr. Goebbels permits in his own paper he will not allo## in the other newspapers. The sharp drop in the circulation o# the general press is therefore not surprising. No reader, not even a Nazi member, likes to read newspapers which conta## only propaganda and give n## news."}
{"content":"... causing excess pain , warm body?\nSearch for questions\nStill looking for answers? Try searching for what you seek or ask your own question.\nI have been prescibed Omeprazole and I would like to know in more detail how it is working in my body than its general purpose to reduce stomach acid ...\n1 answer • 19 May 2010\nI get violently ill if I take opiates for pain and I have severe Gastritis, IBS, and Acid Reflux so I was told not to take aspirin or ibruprofren as ...\n3 answers • 1 Jul 2011\nMy baby is just 1and1/2 year old suffering from tuberculosis, Please suggest a recommended diet chart for my son during the therapy.\n1 answer • 28 Apr 2012\nHi, my 2 month old breastfed son has been on Nexium for the past 3 weeks for his acid reflux. He's still on the treatment and seems to be doing ...\n1 answer • 17 Mar 2014"}
{"content":"\"Turbulence: Remixes + Bonus Beats\"\nby Eduardo Navas;\ntranslated by Lucrezia Cippitelli, Francesca De Nicolò, Raquel Herrera, Brenda Banda Corona & Ignacio Nieto.\nTurbulence is also part of the history of remix culture. Generally speaking, remix culture can be defined as the global activity consisting of the creative and efficient exchange of information made possible by digital technologies that is supported by the practice of cut/copy and paste. >>>\n\"Narrating with New Media: What Happened with What has Happened?\"\nby Belén Gache\nTranslated from the Spanish by Raquel Herrera\nEdited by Jo-Anne Green, Helen Thorington and Eduardo Navas\non narrative structures, ideologies and strategies\nThere has been much talk about the relations between printed books, modernity and metaphysics; and about the relation between new writing applications and philosophical schools such as poststructuralism and deconstruction. The fact is that electronic writing applications involve a new way of writing and narrating, a new grammar and a new semiotics. >>>\nDigital Event 2007\nPor Jorge Marulanda\nThe appearance of the term \"NetArt\" (Vuc Cosic, 1995) paves the way for art that undertake processes which function only in the net and whose topic is the net. This fact turns the device into an exploration camp, in which artistic action must achieve a globalized expression, must work in an environment based on freedom of access and where user intervention becomes categorical. >>>\nArtistas Latinos Making Global Art\nPor Laura Baigorri\nHasta ahora las artes plásticas y audiovisuales han catalogado un arte latino que desarrolla una conciencia social autóctona y también existe un mercado de arte latino, con unos canales de difusión y una dependencia económica específica. Pero el arte latino no tiene sentido en la red, un entorno concebido como el paraíso del no-lugar, la compartición, la dilución, el canibalismo, la contaminación y el equívoco. >>>"}
{"content":"One of the coolest styles of the past fall season was punk. With tattoos, piercings, body modification and colorful, messy hair, punk style was back on the mainstream circuit. Once again, the upper echelon of the fashion industry took inspiration from the common and stylish consumer. Punk has gone from street to chic. Last fall season, punk-influenced styles were seen all over the runways from Versace to Chanel.\nOften when people think of punk they envision a certain kind of person wearing the style. The hardcore, fierce style is often associated with the lower class, angst ridden teenagers and most notably Caucasians. Society has a way of putting people into genres, boxes of expectations and limitations. When it comes to style, especially punk style, the ideas imposed on people by society are meant to be shattered. If style is a form of self-expression, then punk is arguably one of the most expressive styles there is – not meant to be restricted to one race or class.\nIf this is the case, then why is it unexpected or sometimes shocking to see an African-American embrace the punk lifestyle, fashion and music?\nThe origin of punk is usually attributed to Britain and New York in the mid-1970s and throughout the 1980s. Punk enthusiasts were against the excess of glam rock. They were fans of punk bands, wore “do it yourself” styles and railed against the “establishment” or the popular ideas about their generation.\nToday, young African-Americans are given a handful of style options by society and expected to be a fan of specific genres: hip-hop, R&B, pop, baggy jeans, long weaves, graffiti leggings, oversized t-shirts, stilettos and so on. African-Americans are often put into boxes like “urban” or “hood.” Wearing the punk style is a way of saying “No, I’m not who you expect or want me to be – I define who I am and how to express myself.”\nOne movement that has helped drive this attitude is Afro-punk. Afro-punk is a movement that encourages and accepts African Americans and other people of color that are involved in the punk scene. It is a movement that has grown since the early 2000s into an entire subculture.\nAfro-punk is not a new movement – it has grown into an entire subculture. The punk style itself has been around for decades, but what is new is the idea that punk style can be embraced by anyone. Maybe punk being mainstream again will make it less “shocking” to see an African-American rocking a Mohawk and combat boots? Or maybe we still have a long way to go before style truly becomes a form of self-expression.\nCity contractor DIA Corporation used its insider position ...\nHey, you have got a very nice post there. I'm impressed, ..."}
{"content":"Health & Fitness eBooks\nThe subjects of health and fitness are extremely important to all people. Our health eBooks include information on everything from healthy diets and nutrition to family health and health care issues. The topic of fitness is more focused on physical fitness, which is gained and improved through exercise. Everyone is capable of improving their own personal health and fitness, and our eBooks can help you learn how.\nUse our eBook search to find a specific book or author.\nTop 10 Health & Fitness\n- The Doctor's Diet: Dr. Travis Stork's STAT Program to Help You Lose Weight & Restore Your Health\n- Cure Tooth Decay: Remineralize Cavities and Repair Your Teeth Naturally with Good Food [Second Edition]\n- The Ultimate Food Allergy Cookbook and Survival Guide: How to Cook with Ease for Food Allergies and Recover Good Health\n- The Low Dose Immunotherapy Handbook: Recipes and Lifestyle Advice for Patients on LDA and EPD Treatment\n- Super Shred: The Big Results Diet: 4 Weeks 20 Pounds Lose It Faster!\n- Convict Conditioning\n- Gluten-Free Without Rice: Easy Cooking for Variety on a Gluten-Free Diet\n- Evolution: The Cutting Edge Guide to Breaking Down Mental Walls and Building the Body You've Always Wanted\n- The Yamas & Niyamas: Exploring Yoga's Ethical Practice\n- The Daniel Fast: Feed Your Soul, Strengthen Your Spirit, and Renew Your Body"}
{"content":"from Private Sellers\nQuestions About This Book?\n- The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any CDs, lab manuals, study guides, etc.\n- The Rental copy of this book is not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. You may receive a brand new copy, but typically, only the book itself.\nAfter marriage and a move to Pacific Grove, he published two California books, The Pastures of Heaven (1932) and To a God Unknown (1933), and worked on short stories later collected in The Long Valley (1938). Popular success and financial security came only with Tortilla Flat (1935), stories about Monterey’s paisanos. A ceaseless experimenter throughout his career, Steinbeck changed courses regularly. Three powerful novels of the late 1930s focused on the California laboring class: In Dubious Battle (1936), Of Mice and Men (1937), and the book considered by many his finest, The Grapes of Wrath (1939). The Grapes of Wrath won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in 1939.\nEarly in the 1940s, Steinbeck became a filmmaker with The Forgotten Village (1941) and a serious student of marine biology with Sea of Cortez (1941). He devoted his services to the war, writing Bombs Away (1942) and the controversial play-novelette The Moon is Down (1942). Cannery Row (1945), The Wayward Bus (1948), another experimental drama, Burning Bright (1950), and The Log from the Sea of Cortez (1951) preceded publication of the monumental East of Eden (1952), an ambitious saga of the Salinas Valley and his own family’s history.\nThe last decades of his life were spent in New York City and Sag Harbor with his third wife, with whom he traveled widely. Later books include Sweet Thursday (1954), The Short Reign of Pippin IV: A Fabrication (1957), Once There Was a War (1958), The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), Travels with Charley in Search of America (1962), America and Americans (1966), and the posthumously published Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters (1969), Viva Zapata! (1975), The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights (1976), and Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath (1989).\nSteinbeck received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962, and, in 1964, he was presented with the United States Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Steinbeck died in New York in 1968. Today, more than thirty years after his death, he remains one of America's greatest writers and cultural figures.\nPascal Covici, Jr., son of John Steinbeck's long-time editor and friend at The Viking Press, received his Ph.D. from Harvard and taught at Southern Methodist University.\nSusan Shillinglaw is director of the Center for Steinbeck Studies at San Jose State University."}
{"content":"International students can compete in a variety of funding schemes.\nFor candidates wishing to study the MSc International Animal Welfare, Ethics and Law programme offered by the University of Edinburgh.\nA number of PhD Studentships are available for programmes in cardiovascular science sponsored by the British Heart Foundation at the University.\nThe Foundation offers three-year grants to PhD students in medicine whose subject is relevant to the field of occupational and environmental health.\nFive part-scholarships available to students applying to study the MSc One Health programme.\nThe University of Edinburgh will offer one Master's scholarship for the MSc in Surgical Sciences distance learning Master's programme offered by the University.\nThe School of Biomedical Sciences will offer a number of Master's scholarships for the 2014-2015 academic session. Each will have a value of £5,000 and will be tenable for one academic year.\nThis scholarship is awarded to an undergraduate or postgraduate student from the Czech Republic, Poland, Russia and Slovakia.\nThe scholarship enables medical scientists at the outset of their careers to undertake a period of further study or research at the University’s Medical School and return to Poland.\nThe College offers studentships with several of their Research Centres.\nThis article was published on Nov 3, 2013"}
{"content":"In a peculiar way there is a possibility that this article may offend, in equal measure, both the teaching profession and the parental body. I make no apologies if this is the case.\nI believe we (in education) should treat parents as customers and that we have an obligation to manage parents in order to meet their needs. In what remains of this piece I will endeavour to explain how these two seemingly conflicting concepts actually converge to enhance the service we provide.\nFor me treating parents as customers is no metaphor. We are involved in the delivery of a public service. The notion of service in this sense corresponds to the “obligation” or “duty” which underpins what it is to be a professional. Of course the question arises from this analysis is whom do we actually serve? – society; government; children; parents; ourselves or a higher calling of our own choosing? The reality here is immensely complex, and persuasive cases could made for every group, but I actually think such a question leads us down the wrong road – for trying to define service in terms of who is the “master” falls into the trap of seeing professional service as being confined within a power/subservience model. Such a perception explains why so many in the teaching profession have real problems with seeing parents as customers.\nIn recent correspondence with parents and teachers on this matter it has become apparent that many teachers equate treating parents as customers as giving way to their slightest whim, no matter how unreasonable, as characterised by “The customer is always right”. Such a conception reinforces the chilling and daunting prospect of parents forcing their way into classrooms to confront teachers who haven’t, in their opinion, met their needs as customers. Such a scenario is not an imaginary construct, nor an idle fear – but whatever else it might be – it is not “customer service”.\nAnd so it was helpful to receive a parental response, which proffered an alternative to the “customer is always right” with “The customer’s perception is always valid”. Rather than going off on a tangent to explore the psychology of such an approach it might be more helpful to refer to our own Scottish Bard Robbie Burns, who called upon us to “see oorsels as ithers see us”. In his own unique way Burns captures the essence of customer service, i.e. trying to see things from the customer’s point of view. Yet so often in education we consider situations from our own singular perspective, or what might better be described as “inward facing”, as opposed to “outward facing”.\nIt is within such an outward facing service that the idea of managing the parent as a customer comes into true effect. For parents have had no training in their role as parents, they have probably been much better prepared to drive their car, than they have been to be a parent, and certainly not a parent who then has to interface with the education system – which can seem unwelcoming, confusing and bureaucratic. It’s into this schizophrenic world that we then introduce the the fact that many schools don’t like the idea of treating parents as customers, yet don’t want to manage them for fear of accusations of manipulation. The outcome being that we circle each other uneasily hoping that we can avoid conflict.\nYet I would contend that parents do want to be managed – they don’t want to have more power over teachers (nor teachers to have power over them) but they do want a relationship that is built upon trust and mutual responsibility.\nBeing a parent is a journey, a journey where they come into contact with the people who educate their children at relatively infrequent intervals. Regardless of policies, plans, mission statements, aims or objectives it’s these “touchpoints” or “moments of truth” which really characterise a school for a parent. Everything we do should therefore be underpinned by an obsessive attention to detail. Yet the reality is that we too often leave these touchpoints to chance and fail to manage them properly, thereby alienating and disaffecting some or all of our parent body.\nI would argue that the interface between education and parents is far too important to be left to chance. Yet where schools do accept their responsibility to manage their parents as customers the return and positive impact upon the education of children and the well-being of the entire community has to be seen to be believed."}
{"content":"There are some books you always remember for the way in which they opened your eyes to the world around you. They might have stripped away your innocence in the process, but they also reassured you that no matter how bad things could get, there were always some people doing their best to bring some balance to the world. The first book I remember providing me with that experience was Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. Its harsh depiction of the American South in the 1930s of hatred and racism were mitigated by the simple beauty of the coming of age story it told. It’s one of those books you can still read today and find it as relevant as when it was first published in 1960.If anyone had any doubts about the durability of Lee’s book and the theme’s it expresses, you need look no further than the film Broken which was recently released on DVD from Film Movement. Transferred from the American South to suburban England and from the 1930s setting of the original to the present day, Broken uses much the same form and structure of “Mockingbird”. Both feature a single father lawyer raising two children with the help of a live in nanny, and the eleven year old girl, Skunk, (Eloise Laurence) being the main character whose eyes we see the world through.\nHowever, while wrongful accusations of sexual misconduct do play a significant role in propelling the movie’s story as it did in the book, the themes the movie explores are quite different from those the book deals with. The movie is also far more complex than the original story and nothing is as cut and dried as we’d like it to be or as first impressions might lead us to believe. As the movie progresses and our understanding of the characters involved increases we begin to understand, as Skunk does, there’s a lot more to people than what meets the eye. Actions, which taken out of context might seem senseless, while still not completely rational or normal, are at least explainable.\nSkunk and her family, her father Archie (Tim Roth) brother Jed and au pair Kasia live on a cul de sac in North London with two other families, the Oswalds and the Buckleys. The Buckley’s son Rick (Robert Emms) suffers from some undisclosed mental illness. Unlike the other two families, who are obviously professional class, the Oswalds, father Bob (Rory Kinnear) and his three daughters are at first glance, for lack of a better word, white trash.\nThe movie opens with Skunk witnessing what seems like a completely unprovoked brutal attack on Rick by Bob. Skunk is standing in the middle of the road talking to Rick about washing his father’s car, when we see Bob come storming out of his house ripping his shirt and tie off. While completely focused on his target he greets Skunk as he passes her and then proceeds to beat Rick up. The next thing Skunk sees is Rick being taken away by the police. What Skunk doesn’t know is what led up to the events.Bob’s fourteen year old middle daughter has been playing with a condom she’d stolen from her eldest sister’s purse. Knowing her father would be furious with her for having a condom, and not wanting to get her sister in trouble either, when he discovers the wrapper in her room she claims Rick used it when he had sex with her. The recently divorced and overly protective Bob goes ballistic, beats up Rick and then phones the police to charge him with having sex with a minor. When it’s discovered the girl is still a virgin the charges against Rick are dropped, but his imprisonment results in him regressing and ending up having to be institutionalized.\nAgainst this background Skunk is also having to negotiate the tricky business of heading into her first year of the British equivalent of secondary school and her first boyfriend, Dillard. She also has to experience watching somebody whose she’s come to think of as a permanent fixture in her life walk out as her au pair breaks up with her long standing boy friend Mike (Cillian Murphy). However, the fear and unease she feels about her first day of school is somewhat mitigated when she discovers Mike is one of her teachers. Unfortunately she also runs afoul of an extortion ring run by Osbourne’s youngest and eldest daughters, the consequences of which send shockwaves through her entire community.\nLike the book it is freely based on, Broken is a deceptively simple sounding story. On the surface it can be seen as a coming of age of story in which the scales of innocence begin to fall from the eyes of a young girl. Yet the title itself is also a key to understanding the actions of the film’s characters as we gradually realize how most of their behaviour is dictated by how they’ve been broken by life and circumstances. All the events of the film occur because of a character’s fear based on their life experiences which have left them damaged in some way. Those who initially come across as unsympathetic are revealed to be just as damaged as those who we feel sorry for in the beginning.\nWhat makes this work so well is the universal excellence of the performances. Laurence, who had never acted prior to appearing in this role, is brilliant as Skunk. Her reactions to everything she sees are letter perfect and she comes across as one of the most real children I’ve ever seen on screen. Gawky, slightly geeky, but excited by life, she does a magnificent job of depicting the child turning into an adult. She manages to bring to life both the anger and fear she feels at the adult world she doesn’t understand and her excitement at entering this new world and all the while retaining the enthusiasm and naivety of the child she still is.\nAs her father Archie, Roth gives one of his most understated and powerful performances. Normally an actor we associate with a variety of twitches and near neurotic behaviour, here he delivers a beautiful and powerful portrait of a devoted father whose life revolves around his children. When his wife abandoned him with two children he obviously poured all his love into them, and shut himself off from feeling anything for anybody else. It comes as a complete surprise to him when he discovers he can actually have feelings for someone other than his kids. However, he doesn’t realize the impact beginning a relationship with his children’s au pair will have on Skunk. He doesn’t realize how much she fears it might end up result in another person leaving her.\nOne of the best performances in the film comes from Kinnear as Bob Osborne. Over the course of the film our image of him as a violent bully gradually evolves into a man desperate to protect his family from a world he’s seen fuck him over totally. Unlike his neighbour Archie who is able to demonstrate his love for his children through affection, Osborne, can only use his anger as a shield to protect them. When they are threatened or hurt he lashes out uncaring of the consequences following his instinct to keep them safe in only way he knows how. Kinnear does an amazing job of bringing all the different facets of this deeply troubled and broken man to life. We might not like his behaviour, but we can’t help but be sympathetic to the the depth of his passion and the very real love he feels for his children.\nBroken is one of those wonderful movies that come along only once in a while. Not only is it beautifully written and acted it’s a multilayered story which works on a number of levels. We see the world from the perspective of children trying to make their way in a strange and sometimes confusing adult world and from that of the adults trying to understand what their children are going through. While there are moments of heartbreak and sporadic violence throughout the film, overall it is also a beautiful story of compassion and love. You might not see a better or more well-acted movie this year.Broken is available on DVD, Blu-Ray and for download here."}
{"content":"Clifford Henry Harris, 16, was born in Southampton, Hampshire, England around 1895 1. He was the son of Wallace Mortimer Harris (1861-1933) and Hendreker Christina Squire (1866-1940).\nHis father, a mariner, was born in the West Indies to English parents and his mother was born in Poplar, London; the couple were married in Southampton in 1887.\nClifford was one of ten children, his known siblings being: Wallace (b. 1887), Ethel Blanche (b. 1888), Georgina Hendreker (b. 1889), Eliza (b. 1891), Charles William (b. 1893), Joseph (b. 1898), Christina Hendreker w. (b. 1899) and Edward (b. 1903).\nClifford first appears on the 1901 census when he and his family were living at 14 Drummond (?) Road, Sholing, Southampton, his seafaring father being absent. When the 1911 census was taken, his family were residing at 14 Short Street, St Mary, Southampton. Clifford was recorded elsewhere as a Page Boy at a boarding house, address Solen Cliffs, Cliff Cottage Road, Bournemouth. He would go to sea shortly after.\nWhen he signed-on to the Titanic, on 6 April 1912, he gave his address as 14 Short Street, (Southampton). His last ship had been the Asturias. As a bell boy he received monthly wages of £2. Also serving aboard Titanic was his brother Charles, as a saloon steward in second class.\nQuartermaster Sydney Humphreys reported that during the sinking the bellboys were herded to their regular posts in the main cabin entry and taken in charge by a leading steward and ordered to remain there so as they did not get in the way. Humphreys said that the boys waited patiently around before they were released and later saw them smoking and joking with passengers.\nBoth Clifford and his brother died in the sinking. Their bodies, if recovered, were never identified. The following death notice appeared in the Hampshire Advertiser (27 April 1912):\nHARRIS--On the 15th inst, at sea on s.s. Titanic, Charles William, aged 19, and Clifford Henry, aged 16, the sons of Wallace and Christina Harris, of 14, Short Street, Chapel Road, Southampton.\n- His birth appears to have not been registered\nReferences and Sources\nAgreement and Account of Crew (PRO London, BT100/259)\nGavin Bell, UK"}
{"content":"Welcome to the Evidence-Based Policy website! This website is part of a joint initiative of the National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services and the Association of University Centers on Disabilities.\nThe Evidence-Based Policy Initiative is intended to maximize the extent to which sound research is integrated into policy and program decisions that affect the independence, inclusion, productivity, self-determination, health and well-being of individuals with developmental disabilities. We are pleased to have you visit this website.\nEvidence: 1. \"The data on which a conclusion or judgment may be made <glacial evidence of climatic change>.”\nWebster’s II New College Dictionary\nPlease read our Overview to learn more about the initiative, its activities and about this website."}
{"content":"Ask an Eye M.D.Question Topics\nAsk an Eye M.D. Answer Archive\nPlease read our important medical disclaimer.\nCan lack of oxygen cause wet macular degeneration? I had maxillofacial surgery and went into respiratory failure. I was kept on a ventilator for about two weeks and in a drug-induced coma. Since that time I had the vision loss.\nThere are many factors that can contribute to the development or worsening of macular degeneration. Lack of oxygen could cause loss of vision due to effects on the retina, choroid or optic nerve. However it would be unlikely to cause macular degeneration. A thorough eye and retina exam by an Eye M.D. should help to clarify the loss of vision and the presence or absence of macular degeneration.\nAnswered by: Abdhish Bhavsar, MD\nCategories: Eye Diseases\nHave a question that hasn't been answered yet? Ask it!\nAnswered: Aug 28, 2012\nSearch for Questions & Answers\nMeet Our Experts\n- Your questions are answered by more than two dozen members of the American Academy of Ophthalmology who volunteer their time with EyeSmart."}
{"content":"Interesting Apple security news is being reported today. Apparently some Apple devices have been hijacked via Apple's \"Find My iPhone\" feature. How? Likely via poorly defended iCloud accounts, i.e., iCloud accounts with weak passwords.\nOnce you have access to iCloud, you have access to the Find My iPhone's \"Lost Mode\", which can be used to lock associated devices and send messages such as \"Reward if found! Call this number.\"\nOr then it could be an extortion attempt.\nHere's an example from a German colleague's iPhone:\nAccording to the sources linked above, \"Oleg Pliss\" is demanding money to a PayPal account. If the iPhone user has a passcode, they can unlock their device. If they don't have a passcode set… then they have a problem.\nIt's also worth mentioning the Find My iPhone feature includes a \"Delete\" option. Besides extortion, your iPhone can also be burned. And remember too that iCloud provides access to contacts and calendars.\nSo… besides enabling a passcode, you should also be using a strong and unique password for your Apple/iCloud/iTunes account. Sure, it will be annoying to input when you want to buy an app — but that's the price you'll need to pay."}
{"content":"Fair Spring Nursery has an Aronia orchard. After a few years growth, fruit production is just now begining and we have made some excellent dishes: ice cream, wine, apple/aronia crisp, juice, tea, jelly, and a favorite, aronia chutney. We are members of the Mid-Atlantic Aronia Growers Association.\nNature’s super fruit is Aronia\nThe juice is nature’s highest in antioxidants (anthocyanins), this and because it tastes so good is why aronia is getting the buzz in health food circles. A popular drink in Eastern Europe, Aronia is native to our area, but new to most of our taste buds. Aronia orchards are developing around here thanks especially to the efforts of Dr. Andrew G. Ristvey and Sudeep A. Mathew, both are with University of Maryland Extension. As with other native plants this fruiting shrub is well adapted to the area, having few pests or diseases. A look at the pictures above will show the similarity to the rose or apple family. Notice the star shaped calyx at the bottom of the fruit, like an apple it is a pome but about the size of a blueberry.\nQuality control inspectors are busy during the 2013 aronia harvest."}
{"content":"- Donna A. Bucella\n- Terrorist Screening Center, FBI\n- Federal Bureau of Investigation\n- Before The House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, and The House Select\n- Washington DC\n- March 25, 2004\nGood afternoon Chairman Coble, Chairman Gibbons, Ranking Members and Members of both Subcommittees. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the missions and objectives of the new Terrorist Screening Center (TSC). Homeland Security Presidential Directive 6 (HSPD-6), issued on September 16, 2003, ordered the creation of the TSC, directing its operations to begin on December 1, 2003, and we met that goal. The TSC was created to ensure that government investigators, screeners, federal agents, and state and local law enforcement officers have ready access to the information and expertise they need to respond quickly when a known or suspected terrorist is encountered here in the United States, at our borders and at our embassies. Today, I will tell you about our daily operations, including some of our successes, our future plans, and how we will safeguard civil liberties. I will provide as much information as I can in this open forum, however, I will be happy to provide additional, classified details in a closed hearing at your request.\nThe TSC is a multi-agency Center, including participants from the FBI, Department of State, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Secret Service, Coast Guard, Transportation Security Administration, and the Office of Foreign Assets Control. Other agencies, including the Postal Service and Drug Enforcement Administration, have agreed to participate. Our goal is to consolidate the Government's approach to terrorism screening and provide for the appropriate and lawful use of Terrorist Information in screening processes. We will be a diverse Center, manned by experts to include intelligence analysts and law enforcement from a wide variety of agencies, and to communicate and coordinate efforts across the full spectrum of federal, state and local government agencies. Currently, the TSC is staffed by approximately 84 employees, including permanent personnel, temporary duty assignees, and contractors to staff our 24/7 operation.Since December 1, 2003, TSC has been providing key resources for screeners and law enforcement personnel. These include:\n(1) a single coordination point for terrorist screening data;\n(2) a consolidated 24/7 call center for encounter identification assistance;\n(3) access to a coordinated law enforcement response to federal, state and local law enforcement;\n(4) a formal process for tracking encounters and ensuring feedback is supplied to the appropriate entities, and\n(5) a process to address the misidentification issues.\nThe TSC's initial capabilities were limited because of the need to integrate records in a way that ensured that the data about known and suspected terrorists was as accurate as possible. Each agency contributing data to the TSC is using its own database. These databases, which were created to support the mission of the individual agencies, are in many instances their case management systems, not terrorist watch lists.\nDespite our limited capabilities in the first week of operation, the TSC answered 56 calls, including one in which a local police department was seeking information regarding an ongoing investigation. A suspected terrorist had traveled over 1,000 miles from his home, and the department's call alerted the FBI to his activities. The police department coordinated their surveillance with the FBI investigation, resulting in solid intelligence for both local and federal law enforcement.\nAnother call came from a West Coast police department that was investigating an individual for a state felony charge. The TSC determined the individual was a terrorism suspect in a federal investigation, and our operational component at the FBI's Counterterrorism Division put the respective investigators together. The FBI and the local investigator are now sharing case information, resulting in a coordinated approach. Again, we are linking investigations and coordinating the U.S. Government approach to screening for suspected terrorists.\nThere are three fundamental types of inquiries: interior (within the U.S.), border (at the border/ports points of entry) and exterior (outside the border). Interior inquiries will normally be made by state and local law enforcement. Border inquiries are made by Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Exterior inquiries are conducted by the State Department.\nThe process for making an internal inquiry is relatively simple. A police officer checks the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database on a routine traffic stop, and he/she is requested to call the TSC because the person stopped has similar identifying information to a known or suspected terrorist listed in the NCIC. When the officer calls TSC, through the police department's dispatch, the call center verifies the caller's identity, takes the information on the encounter and the circumstances of the encounter, and checks his name through the TSC 's database. The TSC database includes the name, date of birth and other identifying information for a known or suspected terrorist. The call center quickly researches the underlying information, including classified, sensitive information. We make a determination as to whether the encounter is the same person as the one in our database. After notifying the officer of a positive, negative or inconclusive result, we help coordinate operational support as to how the person should be handled. For example, the officer may be advised -- in appropriate and lawfully authorized circumstances -- to arrest, detain or question the individual. Simultaneously, we contact our operational component at the FBI's Counterterrorism Division known as CT Watch. CT Watch provides for the local Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) to respond. In some cases, officers provide valuable intelligence from a simple car stop, and in other cases, JTTF agents will respond to assist. Two cases serve to demonstrate the process:\nIn one case, local police arrested a suspected terrorist associate on a state criminal violation. After TSC assisted in the positive identities match, the CT Watch, contacted the FBI case agent, who immediately went to the local detention facility to talk with the individual. During that interview, the individual agreed to cooperate with the FBI. Another case illustrates the intersection between local law enforcement, homeland security and counterterrorism investigations. Local police arrested an individual and while conducting the \"search incident to arrest,\" discovered significant evidence of terrorist activities. The TSC confirmed the individual's identity and our operational component, the CT Watch, notified the case agent. Intelligence gained from the local arrest has significantly affected a long term counterterrorism case, confirming the value of bringing local law enforcement into the war on terrorism.\nIn addition to serving local law enforcement, the TSC receives a high volume of calls from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) inspectors who are stationed on the Nation's borders. A typical CBP call involves incoming passengers on international flights. A CBP inspector will query a list of names and may receive several possible suspected terrorist hits from IBIS and NCIC. The CBP inspector will go through their National Targeting Center (NTC), where the record will be analyzed, then passed to TSC. Our process is the same as it would be for a law enforcement call, that is, to examine the underlying record which often contains all source sensitive and highly classified information on a 24/7 basis, and determine whether the individual is identical to the person in the Terrorist Screening Center Database. The TSC then appropriately passes any derogatory information on the subject, and CBP makes a determination on whether the individual will be allowed into the United States.\nOur consular officers are our first line of defense in keeping known and suspected terrorists out of our Homeland by denying visas to these individuals. In this regard, State Department assignees at the TSC are continuing the work previously done by the TIPOFF Office. Since December 1, 2003, when the TSC came into operation, State Department assignees and their staff at the TSC have reviewed over 54,000 security advisory opinions, which are cables from U.S. Embassies and Consulates around the globe, to determine if the visa applicants described in these cables were \"true hits \" with records contained in the database. Eighty of those \"hits\" resulted in true matches. As an example in December, a member of a terrorist organization applied for a visa at a U.S. consulate overseas. Consular officials denied the visa based on the TSC 's review of the information and confirmation that the individual was a \"true hit,\" i.e. matched the record at the TSC. The same process applied to a senior member of a proscribed terrorist organization based overseas. His visa was also denied.\nIn addition, 53 visas have been revoked, as a result of the State Department's careful comparison of new records entered into the terrorist database with visas that had been previously issued.\nFinally, since December 1, 2003, agreements between the State Department and several allies are now implemented at the TSC, resulting in over 125 possible \"true hits\" of known and suspected terrorists at the borders of those nations. During January, an individual known to the U.S. government as an affiliate of a terrorist organization attempted to board a flight to enter one of these nations. The individual's identity was one of several thousand consolidated from various U.S. agencies and passed to this nation. According to protocols contained in our agreement, State Department assignees at the TSC worked with their counterparts in our allied nation, and the individual was removed from the flight despite holding valid travel documents.\nAccording to a 16 September 2003 Memorandum of Understanding between Secretary Powell, Secretary Ridge, Attorney General Ashcroft, and DCI Tenet, the Terrorist Threat Integration Center's (TTIC) identities database will serve as the single source for the TSC's terrorist database, excluding purely domestic terrorism. Currently TTIC, which assembles and analyzes information from a wide range of sources to identify potential terrorists, provides the TSC with the vast majority of its information about known or suspected international terrorists.\nThe FBI provides the TSC with information about purely domestic terrorism – that is, information that has been determined to have no link to foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, or international terrorism. The TSC consolidates this identifying information and makes it accessible for queries from federal, state, and local agencies for screening purposes.\nWhen a nomination is received at the TSC from TTIC or the FBI, it is reviewed by assignees to the TSC from participating agencies, who, in consultation with their assigning member agencies, determine how an encounter with this individual will be handled. The system is tailored to provide different feedback depending on where the encounter takes place. For example, an FBI representative who reviews a record may determine that an individual is subject to a criminal warrant and needs to be arrested by state and local law enforcement, while the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) representative may decide that the individual is not appropriate to board an aircraft. This tailoring ensures that specific guidance is provided to federal, state, and local agencies based on their legal authority.\nThe TSC has approached the challenge to consolidate terrorists watch lists by implementing a \"phased in\" approach.\nWe implemented phase one from September 16, 2003 to December 1, 2003, on the day the TSC achieved initial operating capability. During Phase One, the TSC had the ability to: (1) make the names and identifying information of terrorists, known to or suspected by the U.S. Government, accessible to federal, state and local law enforcement; (2) have a system for properly reviewing whether a known or suspected terrorist should be included in or deleted from additional screening processes; (3) administer a process to ensure that persons, who may share a name with a known or suspected terrorist, are not unduly inconvenienced in U.S. Government screening processes; and, (4) implement a system to adjust or delete outdated or incorrect information to prevent problems arising from misidentifications.\nPhase two occurred from December 1, 2003 to March 1, 2004 in the development of the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB). The TSDB is an unclassified law enforcement sensitive database, containing identifying information of known or suspected terrorists. The TSDB allows the consolidation of disparate information, currently held by multiple agencies and used in different ways, to be brought together for a single purpose -- to help identify and detain potential terrorists to prevent future terrorist attacks.\nWe are currently in phase three which concludes before the end of this year. The TSC will create a more dynamic database and use a single, integrated system for ensuring known or suspected terrorists' identities are promptly incorporated into all appropriate screening processes. The terrorist screening database will eventually allow private sector entities, such as operators of critical infrastructure facilities or organizers of large events, to submit a list of persons associated with those events to the U.S. Government to be screened for any nexus to terrorism. In addition, the TSC will begin to implement mechanisms for sharing terrorist screening information with additional cooperating countries and to obtain such information from these countries. The Department of State is currently working on this issue.\nBecause our mission cuts across traditional boundaries between law enforcement, national security, and homeland defense, we have begun an aggressive outreach program. Our outreach must include members of the intelligence community, federal law enforcement, non-law enforcement/non-intelligence related government agencies, critical infrastructures, and most importantly, officers from the Nation's 18,000 law enforcement agencies. We not only train our law enforcement and government agency partners; viewing outreach as a two-way process, we also seek feedback and innovative ideas from them.\nSafeguarding Civil Liberties\nWe recognize that with all of these capabilities also comes the responsibility to ensure that we continue to protect our civil liberties.\nThe TSC has absolutely no authority to conduct intelligence collection or other operations. In fact, the TSC does not collect information at all – it only receives information collected by other entities with preexisting authority to do so, each with their own policies and procedures to protect privacy rights and civil liberties. The handling and use of information, including U.S. person information, is governed by the same statutory, regulatory, and constitutional requirements as if the information was not to be included in a TSC-managed database.\nThe TSC's primary mission is to ensure that the identities data that is already known to the U.S. Government is held in one location where it can be queried by those who need it, including federal security screeners and state and local law enforcement officers. The structures which are in place also ensure that information about U.S. persons that has been determined to be purely domestic terrorism information with no link to foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, or international terrorism does not go through the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, but instead is placed directly into the TSC by the FBI. The Attorney General has also been directed to implement procedures and safeguards with respect to information about U.S. persons, in coordination with the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Director of Central Intelligence.\nWe are also committed to addressing the issues and inconveniences arising from the misidentification of persons under previous watch-listing practices. Procedures are in place to review and promptly adjust or delete erroneous or outdated domestic terrorism information. The TSC works closely with TTIC regarding any international terrorism information errors, as only TTIC can make changes to the records it provides to the TSC. In addition, we are currently in the process of creating a dedicated staff specifically to address the misidentification process for the TSC.\nThe creation of the Terrorist Screening Center marks a significant step forward in protecting America's communities and families by detecting, disrupting, or preempting terrorist threats. The TSC is already contributing to nationwide efforts to keep terrorists out of the U.S. and locate those who may already be in the country. For this unclassified hearing, I have given you only a few of our successes. We have screened over 2,000 calls since our inception, and the numbers continue to rise. State and local law enforcement officers are now assisting in the identification of known or suspected terrorists here in the U.S., have provided invaluable intelligence for pending investigation, and are now integral in the efforts of combating terrorism in the U.S. I appreciate the Joint Subcommittee's interest in the TSC's activities and I will be happy to answer any questions you may have."}
{"content":"- The Method\n- Practitioners/Classes and Events\n- The Profession\nMany postural habits begin in childhood, and often we aren’t really aware of our tendencies. Habit dulls the sensory awareness: if you sit a certain way long enough, your brain will stop noticing that it’s not comfortable. For instance, many computer users mouse with the arm held a long way from the body. This position creates static load - essentially, you are holding up the weight of your arm all day. A similar strain happens in the shoulders if the head is held too far forward. But the inherent strain may not be noticed until it becomes pain - by which time injury may have occurred to the connective tissue.\nAwareness helps you notice sooner when your postural habits tend toward strain. The Feldenkrais Method is a great asset here: you learn to sense for yourself when you are in better alignment with gravity. You learn tools for being aware of your range of comfort, so you can make appropriate changes before damage occurs. You are also introduced to optional ways of sitting, shifting weight and moving, which has multiple benefits: choices of action allow the nervous system to adapt to changing conditions, and variety of movement prevents static load.\nThe postural training often offered by ergonomic salespeople amounts to a one- shot lecture on “proper posture,” as if you could assume the correct position and maintain it all day. Even if you could, it would just produce stiffness. Because Feldenkrais practitioners understand the dynamics of movement, they are ideally suited to introduce lasting improvement in the workplace.\nFor example, Mary Newell ‘s firm Workplace Wellness, of Westchester, NY, implements training programs based on Feldenkrais principles. “I empower employees to be more responsible for their own well-being,” says Ms. Newell.\n“Participants learn principles of active sitting, use of the arms for keying, how to give relief to eyes, neck and shoulders, how to vary posture during the day to prevent static load. With fewer discomforts, employees can put their whole attention on their job, and productivity and job satisfaction increase.”"}
{"content":"Question: Name The Parts Of A Fish You Dont Eat?\nFebruary 22, 2010\nMost Recent Questions\nby brand brand\n- What Is Paula Dean's Best Prime Rib You Ever Eat?\n- DontEat.at Alerts NYC Foursquare Users to Health-Code-Violating Restaurants\n- Would You Eat the Moombahpus Octopus Cupcake?\n- Bill Wisth Protests All-You-Can-Eat Restaurant for Cutting Him Off\n- Name the parts of a gumamela with picture?\n- For How Long Can Clam Chowder Stay In The Fridge, and Still Be Ok To Eat?\n- What Type Of Food Do People In Spain Eat?\n- After The \"Sell By\" Date Has Passed, How Long Is Salsa Safe To Eat?\n- What Did Ancient Mali Ghana and Songai Like To Eat?\n- What Sorts Of Food Did The Stuarts Eat?"}
{"content":"YANGON, Myanmar – Myanmar's health ministry has ordered the eviction of 82 HIV/AIDS patients from a shelter run by supporters of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi because the center is not hygienic, state media said Wednesday.\nAn official at the facility said the patients have refused to move, setting the stage for a showdown with authorities who said they must vacate by Thursday.\nLocal authorities last week ordered the HIV/AIDS victims to leave following a visit by the newly freed Suu Kyi, who promised to help provide badly needed medicine.\nHealth officials inspected the shelter in July and August and found it unhygienic with patients susceptible to infections because of overcrowding, the state-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper said.\nBut shelter organizers said authorities simply want to pressure them because of the visit by Suu Kyi, who was freed from more than seven years of house arrest Nov. 13.\nYarzar, one of the center's staff members who uses only one name, admitted the shelter was crowded but said preventive measures were taken against the spread of diseases such as tuberculosis.\nHealth authorities offered to relocate patients to a state-run HIV/AIDS center, but they refused to move out as their shelter not only offers medical care, food and accommodation but \"warmth and affection that no other center can provide,\" Yarzar said.\nSince the patients have decided not to leave, Yarzar said he was ready to face any consequences.\nThe shelter, which includes a small wooden house and a two-story building of wood and thatch walls, accommodates 82 patients, including young children.\nSuu Kyi, who won the 1991 Nobel Peace prize for her nonviolent struggle for democracy, was first arrested in 1989. She has been detained for 15 of the past 21 years.\nSuu Kyi led her party, the National League for Democracy, to victory in 1990 elections, but the junta refused to recognize the results."}
{"content":"RE: Converting from PostgreSQL to Oracle???\n- From: \"Goulet, Dick\" <DGoulet@xxxxxxxx>\n- To: <revoohc@xxxxxxxxx>, <Oracle-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>\n- Date: Wed, 15 Jun 2005 13:38:27 -0400\nChris, Text fields depend a lot on what's in them. For the most part they should convert into VARCHAR2(4000) with ease. Serial columns convert to integer or number(38)'s. Booleans have no good conversion to Oracle. The best would be a number(1) where 0 =3D FALSE & 1 =3D TRUE, = but a char(1) (T,F) would work also. You'll probably find WinSQL from Synametrix (http://www.synametrics.com/SynametricsWebApp/WinSQL.jsp) very helpful. It has an export feature that allows you to query a PostGreSQL table & then export the data to Oracle. -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Chris Hoover Sent: Wednesday, June 15, 2005 1:30 PM To: Oracle-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Converting from PostgreSQL to Oracle??? Hey Everyone, I've been given a rather exciting project on which to work.=3D20 Management wants to look at migrating one of our large in house developed systems from PostgreSQL to Oracle. Does anyone know of any good sites with help on this type of conversion? Also, does anyone have any advice they can offer up? Here is what we have: ~200 Postgresql DB's running between 5 systems (all schemas are the same, 1 db per customer) DB's run from a ~100MB to ~100GB. Any advice on how to go about this? We have a lot of text, serial, and boolean columns that don't appear to map cleanly over to Oracle. What have some of you done in the past conveting these type of columns? We are looking at either 9i (which we currenly have in house), or 10g for the Oracle server version. Thanks, Chris -- http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l -- http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l"}
{"content":"One night a clergyman was walking to church when a thief pulled a gun on him and demanded his money or his life. When he reached in his pocket to hand over his wallet, the robber saw his clerical collar and said: I see you are a priest. Never mind, you can go. The clergyman, surprised by the robbers unexpected act of piety, offered him a candy bar. The robber said, No thank you. I dont eat candy during Lent.\nThe man had given up candy as a supposed sacrifice for Lent, but his lifestyle of stealing showed his real character! According to the writer of Proverbs, conduct is the best indicator of character. If someone says he is a godly person, his words can only be proven by consistent actions (20:11). This was true of the religious leaders in Jesus day as well. He condemned the Pharisees and exposed their sham for professing godliness but denying that profession with sin in their lives (Matt. 23:13-36). Appearances and words are deceiving; behavior is the best judge of character. This applies to all of us.\nAs followers of Jesus, we demonstrate our love for Him by what we do, not just by what we say. May our devotion to God, because of His love for us, be revealed in our actions today.\nRead: Matthew 23:23-31\nGood evening, Mayor, and thanks for today’s sustenance for body and soul.\nReminds me of the Los Angeles mobster and hoodlum Mickey Cohen, who at one point described himself as a \"Christian gangster.\""}
{"content":"© The Financial Times Ltd 2014 FT and 'Financial Times' are trademarks of The Financial Times Ltd.\nFebruary 21, 2014 7:37 pm\nIt began in a car shed in Chennai, the southern Indian city formerly known as Madras. The year was 2008 and AR Rahman, the most successful composer in Indian history, was looking for a site for a music conservatoire – a place where young Indians could receive the western classical training that he felt was missing in his country. The parking lot behind the family home was the only available space.\nFast-forward to the present. Buoyed by the success of Slumdog Millionaire , the Danny Boyle film for which he won Academy Awards for best original score and best original song in 2009, Rahman has exchanged Bollywood for Hollywood, and his KM Music Conservatory has moved from its humble backyard origins to a purpose-built home occupying 40,000 sq ft.\nIt now has 80 full-time students, a teaching staff from the UK, US and Russia as well as India, and academic tie-ups with advanced music colleges in London and Glasgow. Last month, a group of its students visited the Scottish city to take part in a concert of Rahman’s music. Next month, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra will spend a week in Chennai giving concerts and masterclasses.\nRahman’s initiative is notable not only as a philanthropic gesture (he provides most of the funding) but also as an educational model in India. Western classical music and its disciplines stand on the sidelines in a subcontinent of 1.3bn people where almost the entire music market is generated by the film industry.\nIt is even more surprising when you consider that Rahman, who has notched up 400m album sales and has 16m followers on his Facebook page, is enjoying a new career in Tinseltown – which, by his own admission, exists on a different creative planet from both India and Europe. His current projects include Disney’s Million Dollar Arm, a biographical sports drama by Australian director Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl, Fright Night) and The Monkeys of Bollywood, a musical film to be directed by Kevin Lima (Enchanted) with lyrics by Stephen Schwartz (Godspell).\nRahman, 47, may be classically trained but he makes no claims to being a classical composer. Most of his output consists of beat-based, synthesiser-modulated songs, representing a fusion of Indian influences and western pop. He has put Indian music on the international map to a degree not known since Ravi Shankar, who popularised the sitar.\nWestern composers, popular or classical, can only dream of Rahman’s commercial reach, yet he devotes time and energy to an educational project with Chopin and Beethoven at its core, in a country where western musical tuition is scarce and expensive. He wants talented Indians to share some of the opportunities he had as a boy in a musically affluent Tamil family. His childhood influences included Italian opera, American pop and recording sessions with his father, a film composer, for whom he played keyboard. After his father’s early death, he worked as a session player for bands and orchestras and took a diploma in western classical music through a scheme run by London’s Trinity College of Music. He started composing advertising jingles in 1987 and was later invited by Mani Ratnam, one of India’s best-known directors, to create the soundtrack for Roja (Rose), a Tamil-language thriller that won three national awards in 1992. That opened his career to the lucrative Hindi film market.\nRahman still performs. YouTube clips of his concerts show a serene figure sitting cross-legged centre stage, playing a hapji (a keyboard instrument with guitar frets) and surrounded by dancers, musicians and meticulously choreographed lighting. Despite clear western influences, the songs are inflected with gamakas, the fluid decorations characteristic of Indian melody. “It creates an emotion that is unparalleled,” he says. “The idea of music is to liberate the listener and lead him to a frame where he feels he is elevated.”\nBorn RS Dileep Kumar, he changed his name to Allah-Rakha Rahman after converting to Islam, his mother’s religion, aged 23. Self-effacing and quietly charming, Rahman is the opposite of your brash movie mogul – but neither is there much of the charismatic guru about him. He usually has a business manager by his side, and seems happier talking about music production software Logic Pro X than about Bollywood, which he says “is really just Mumbai. It creates the impression that all Indian film is about glitzy girls and dancing. I don’t like it.”\nHe describes Hollywood as “like a holiday for me. I meet people I have adored [from afar] all my life.” But he is under no illusions about the compromises involved in working there. In the past, he says, film composers would read the screenplay and come up with themes. “John Williams would play them on the piano to Steven Spielberg. It would then go to the scoring stage, to see how it sounded with an orchestra.”\nToday, soundtracks must follow “the demands of the number-crunchers. We have to mock up the whole orchestra on synthesiser. The more dollars the studio producers put in, the less freedom we have. If the budget hits $100m, they get scared – they’ll take the existing score of a successful movie and expect composers to copy it, like wallpaper. The biggest challenge for any composer in Hollywood is to be as creative as possible within those boundaries.”\nThe dictates of US film producers made Rahman determined to set up his own production company, and he already has a storyline for his first film. His love of Indian cinema stems, he says, from its capacity to cross language and ethnic barriers and the way it communicates “a spiritual elevation that gives contentment to the heart. That’s how people on $50 dollars a month are able to survive. It’s all a state of mind, whether you’re low-income or high. Money is important, sure, but the goal is to give people a sense of happiness and fulfilment.”\nAbout his nurturing of a conservatoire in Chennai he says, “I want young Indian composers to be able to do more than just film music. I want to give them the skills that will enable them to create their own palette of sounds, instead of having to write formulaic music. It doesn’t matter if they become sound engineers, producers, composers or performers – I want them to be as imaginative as they like. My aim is to expand sensibilities.”\n‘Million Dollar Arm’ is on general release from May 16\nCopyright The Financial Times Limited 2014. You may share using our article tools.\nPlease don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web."}
{"content":"In a speech today in New York City to the Milton Handler Antitrust Review, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Timothy J. Muris discussed his philosophy about the appropriate content of the FTC's competition policy strategy and explained the logic of the positive agenda used to implement the strategy.\n\"My experience in public agencies,\" he said, \"confirms a vital, often-stated conclusion of academic researchers: no public institution achieves policy success without a coherent strategy for exercising its authority and spending its resources. A key manifestation of an agency's strategy is a positive agenda -- a statement of the measures the agency intends to pursue to accomplish its substantive aims. Without a general strategy and a positive agenda, an agency becomes a passive observer, swept along by external developments and temporary exigencies.\"\nMuris explained that a positive agenda also provides essential guidance for the agency's staff and for the business community. For the agency's staff, a positive agenda focuses effort on measures most likely to fulfill the institution's mission. For the business community and other interested parties, a clear statement of intentions reduces uncertainty and facilitates compliance with the law.\nThe speech detailed the four general principles that Muris believes should inform the development of the FTC's competition policy strategy:\n- Play an active role in promoting competition as the basic principle of economic organization through strong enforcement and focused advocacy;\n- Focus antitrust enforcement resources on conduct that poses the greatest threat to consumer welfare;\n- Make full use of the agency's distinctive institutional capabilities by applying the entire range of its policy instruments to solve competition policy problems; and\n- Attach a high priority to improving the institutions and processes by which antitrust policy is formulated and applied.\n\"I view antitrust law as a form of regulation that competes with other regulatory structures,\" he stated, \"and makes direct regulation unnecessary.\"\nThe United States has chosen antitrust law to provide the governing rules for competition in most sectors of the economy, Muris explained. He noted that two antitrust immunities help protect and foster regulatory growth: Noerr immunity and the state action doctrine. Each has been widely criticized. Muris then described two initiatives to address their immunities.\nMuris first described the Task Force he created to study Noerr and to recommend appropriate case and advocacy opportunities. The FTC's Noerr Task Force has been conducting a careful analysis of existing case law, seeking to identify opportunities to clarify the case law in a manner that promotes competition and enhances consumer welfare. The Task Force has been evaluating the feasibility and desirability of promoting a number of specific developments in the Noerr doctrine including:\n- Adopting an appropriately narrow view of conduct that constitutes immunized \"petitioning,\" currently used in cases involving tariff filings and private settlements.\n- Making clear that the Walker Process exception to Noerr immunity extends beyond the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) context to analogous non-legislative proceedings. In Walker Process, the Supreme Court ruled that an effort to defraud the PTO does not enjoy antitrust immunity.\n- Recognizing fully an independent misrepresentation exception -- separate and distinct from the \"sham\" exception set forth in Professional Real Estate Investors, Inc. v. Columbia Pictures Industries. In short, material misrepresentation should not be protected.\nMuris next described the State Action Task Force and the history of the state action doctrine, first articulated by the Supreme Court in 1943 in Parker v. Brown. Since Parker, the scope of state action immunity has increased considerably. At times, courts have failed to consider carefully whether the anticompetitive conduct in question was envisioned by the state legislature or truly necessary to accomplish the state's objective. Other courts have granted broad immunity to quasi-official entities, including entities composed of market participants, with only a tangential connection to the state. He explained that overbroad state action immunity has significant costs.\nMuris said that the FTC's State Action Task Force has been conducting a careful analysis of existing state action case law, seeking to identify opportunities to direct the development of that case law in a manner that promotes competition and enhances consumer welfare. To date, the Task Force has evaluated the feasibility and desirability of promoting a number of specific developments in the state action doctrine, including the following:\n- Clarify the proper interpretation of the \"clear articulation\" requirement the first prong of the two-prong test in California Retail Liquor Dealers Association v. Midcal Aluminum, Inc. to ensure that a state truly intended to displace competition by authorizing the anticompetitive conduct at issue.\n- Elaborate further the standards for the \"active supervision\" requirement the second prong of the Midcal test to ensure that the requirement has \"teeth\" and will prevent private entities from restraining competition absent meaningful government oversight. Courts have not articulated a well-defined standard for active supervision. The Supreme Court has stated that a state official must engage in a \"pointed re-examination\" of a pricing scheme (Midcal) and must exercise \"independent judgment and control\" (Ticor), but has provided little concrete guidance on the standards federal courts should use to assess the state's efforts and what states should do to satisfy those standards.\n- Advocate a tiered approach to govern the application of the \"clear articulation\" and \"active supervision\" requirements to ensure that these tests are applied most strictly when the threat to competition and consumer welfare is greatest, and less strictly where the threat is less severe.\n- Consider explicit recognition of a \"market participant\" exception to state action immunity based on the statement in Omni Outdoor Advertising that immunity \"does not necessarily obtain where the State acts not in a regulatory capacity but as a commercial participant in a given market.\"\nMuris then turned to the Commission's role of competition advocacy. He emphasized that although vigorous law enforcement is necessary to protect consumers, the Commission also can enhance consumer welfare by increasing the information available to decision makers on the likely effects of proposed policies. \"Today, the FTC is acting as a vigorous advocate for competition through the publication of studies and reports, as well as participation in state and federal legislative and regulatory fora. Participation in judicial fora, as an amicus curiae, is part of our advocacy program, especially when the FTC's participation can help remove protectionist regulations, when substantial questions of antitrust law are likely to be debated, or when because of special knowledge or experience, the agency can add a different perspective to the deliberations,\" Muris explained. \"The FTC's advocacy program provides economic analysis and other informed guidance to help policymakers better understand the impact of their decisions in creating, maintaining, or forestalling competitive markets.\"\nMuris noted that law enforcement provides the most consistent means by which the FTC influences the rules of the competitive process. Competition policy succeeds when it serves consumer interests for example, by pressing producers to offer lower prices or to improve product quality. \"The true measure of our contribution to the economy,\" Muris stated, \"is our progress in increasing consumer welfare.\"\nMuris continued by noting that public antitrust enforcement has not always achieved this objective. In some cases, the departure from a consumer-oriented focus resulted from conscious policy choices that equated the well-being of individual firms with consumer interests. In other instances, antitrust enforcement has failed to serve consumer interests owing to a basic misdiagnosis of commercial phenomena.\nPlacing antitrust thinking in a chronological framework, Muris pointed out that the 1980s brought a \"revolution\" in antitrust. Antitrust finally regarded enhancing consumer welfare as the single unifying goal of competition policy, and it used a policy framework that was based on sound economics, both theoretical and empirical. The foundation of that framework was the belief, supported by modern economic research, that economics should be the guidepost for Commission actions. In addition, an approach based on enhancing consumer welfare recognizes that governmental impediments to, or exemptions from, competition can be at least as harmful to consumers as private restraints. This approach to antitrust enforcement, Muris noted, has been largely consistent at the Commission since the acceptance in the 1980s of economic analysis as the basis for antitrust analysis and decision making.\nIn describing the Commission's enforcement program, Muris noted that it focuses closely on the transactions and kinds of practices that have been shown over time to pose the greatest threat of substantial consumer injury. The agency considers the deterrent effect of enforcement action as well as the amount of immediate consumer injury. Additionally, the Commission carefully considers its enforcement experience. The pharmaceutical and standard-setting cases highlight an area in which the agency is devoting substantial resources to identify enforcement targets, such as the nexus between intellectual property and antitrust.\nAccording to Muris, the agency has responded to the centrality of intellectual property issues in these cases and other investigations, in part, by forming an Intellectual Property Case Generation Working Group, whose responsibility is to identify and investigate widespread or significant practices that have anticompetitive effects without corresponding consumer benefits.\nShifting the discussion to mergers, Muris set the stage by stating that \"there is a general consensus that the practices about which we should most worry occur when competitors stop competing vigorously, making peace to benefit themselves at the expense of consumers.\"\nHorizontal mergers in which anticompetitive effects are likely are one fertile area for firms to make peace to the detriment of consumers, he explained, which is why there is a well-accepted horizontal merger policy, based on the foundations of the Department of Justice and FTC Merger Guidelines. Despite the decline in the merger wave, the FTC has a very active enforcement program in which over one half of its total competition budget is used to scrutinize horizontal mergers.\nContinuing the merger discussion, Muris noted that firms also make peace through a wide range of non-merger conduct such as pure price-fixing, naked output restraints or market divisions, and bans on advertising. Muris pointed out that the Commission has brought numerous cases in these areas in the last eighteen months involving physicians, trade associations, and generic drugs.\nMuris next touched on the category of potentially troubling single-firm conduct involving the abuse of government process. He noted that potential monopolization concerns can occur when firms misuse a self-regulatory process such as standard setting, citing American Society of Sanitary Engineering and Dell. Muris ended the merger discussion by noting that it is now widely accepted in law and economics that, in most situations, vertical restraints or vertical mergers do not harm consumers, citing Cytyc/Digene and Synopsys/Avant!.\nMuris next discussed the Commission's unique collection of capabilities that include expansive power to conduct studies or perform research about the economy; a broad charter to act as an advocate for competition before other government bodies; and authority to use administrative adjudication to resolve competition policy disputes.\nHe described the agency's use of competition advocacy to address exemption and immunity issues as most prominent among its non-litigation instruments, citing the Commission's recently published generic drug study as an example of how the agency's research and analysis function can shape the policy environment. Muris also noted that the President recently announced that the Food and Drug Administration was proposing to change its rules to adopt the FTC report's major recommendation.\nCiting another example of the Commission's unique institutional capacities, Muris described the agency's efforts concerning competition in e-commerce. He said he created a task force to examine possible anticompetitive efforts to restrict competition on the Internet. The task force is analyzing state regulations, such as occupational licensing and physical office requirements, that may have pro-consumer or pro-competition rationales, but that nevertheless may restrict the entry of new Internet competitors. The task force also is examining barriers that arise when private parties employ potentially anticompetitive tactics, such as when suppliers or dealers apply collective pressure to limit online sales.\nTo position the FTC to make intelligent contributions to competition policy through litigation or non-litigation instruments, Muris stressed the need for substantial investments in competition policy research and development. \"For the FTC to be effective,\" Muris said, \"the agency should be in the forefront in understanding whether markets are operating in a competitive fashion, and in communicating to decision makers the harm to consumer welfare when there is movement away from competitive, free markets. The agency also should explore the relevance of the theoretical foundation (generally, but not exclusively, industrial organization theory) of our efforts and those of others.\"\nMuris detailed that the FTC's current competition policy Research and Development efforts have focused on: (1) improving the empirical understanding of our theoretical framework, (2) analyzing \"merger outcomes,\" (3) reviewing two decades of change in the petroleum industry, (4) a unique effort in the real time monitoring of wholesale and retail gas prices across the nation, (5) the operation of current and developing health care markets, (6) reviewing the development of barriers to e-commerce, and (7) considering the interplay between the competition and intellectual property regimes. He stressed that the findings in these areas will continue to form the basis for enforcement actions, changes in enforcement policies, legislative recommendations, and public reports and comments.\nMuris cited the FTC's recent two-day health care workshop as an example of the Commission's efforts, and noted that because the workshop only began to explore these complex and interdependent issues, the Commission authorized an extended set of hearings on health care and competition policy, commencing in February 2003 and continuing through the year.\nMuris concluded his speech by touching on the role of the FTC in improving competition policy institutions and processes. He explained that the Commission has a special responsibility to pursue improvements in the processes and institutional arrangements through which competition policy is formulated at home and abroad. On several occasions in the past year, the Commission has issued statements explaining why it declined to take actions involving mergers for which the agency had issued a second request or otherwise conducted a significant inquiry. By doing so, the agency has sought to provide greater transparency concerning its analysis of mergers. The FTC also has made a considerable effort to improve the premerger review of specific transactions and reduce the costs associated with the merger-control regime.\nContinuing on this theme, Muris said that the FTC is intensifying its commitment to improve the operation of our bilateral cooperation agreements. \"No relationship assumes greater importance than our cooperation with the Competition Directorate of the European Commission,\" said Muris. \"In many respects, this relationship between two of the world's most substantial antitrust regimes is a vital testing ground for collaborative approaches and practical techniques that might be adapted on a larger multinational scale. The past year has featured expanded cooperation between our agencies on a variety of fronts, and it is evident that the additional effort is yielding positive results.\"\nMuris announced that he expects to see the FTC and its counterparts overseas use their experience in antitrust cooperation to improve the enforcement of consumer protection prohibitions against fraud. Such efforts, he noted, could become part of a larger international program to improve understanding of the links between competition policy and consumer protection and to ensure that public policy in these two areas serves the mutually reinforcing purpose of improving consumer welfare.\nFinally, Muris stressed that the FTC's commitment to assist transition economies in building effective competition policy and consumer protection regimes has reached an all-time high. In the fiscal year that concluded in September, the FTC performed numerous short-term technical assistance missions involving antitrust and consumer protection issues in transition economies and assigned long-term advisors to assist the competition authorities of Indonesia and South Africa. These initiatives extend and build upon the FTC's decade-long program to help less developed countries build the legal infrastructure to support the operation of a market economy.\n- Media Contact:\n- Cathy MacFarlane,\nOffice of Public Affairs"}
{"content":"Mary Margaret Gretta WREN was born in Lancaster, Ohio, June 15,1875 to Edward WREN and Margaret Kinnane WREN. She married Patrick Leo REAP on January 17,1917 in New York City. Gretta died on March 23,1938 in Pittston, PA and is buried in St. John's Cemetery, Pittston. PA. They had one child, Edward Wren REAP born on May 10, 1919. Gretta's father, Edward originated the WREN Dry Good Store in Springfield, Ohio in 1877. He owned and expanded the very well know store until 1917 when he died while living at Far Rockaway Beach, NY. My great grandfather, John, was\nEdward WREN's brother and was also in the dry goods business. They were born in Littur Townland, County Kerry, Ireland.\nEdward Wren REAP married Rita REAGAN in Chicago. They have 5 children.\nPlease tell me the NAME of your husband's cousin that worked at WREN's store. Explain the relationship as I have all the information on the WREN family in Springfield.\nThank you, Jenny\nNotify Administrator about this message?\n|Home | Help | About Us | Site Index | Jobs | PRIVACY | Affiliate|\n|© 2007 The Generations Network|"}
{"content":"The goddess Venus tries to restrain her lover Adonis from going off to the hunt. She clings to him, imploring him not to go, but Adonis looks down at her impassively. His dogs strain at their leashes, echoing his impatience, as detailed in the tragic love story found in Ovid's Metamorphoses. Cupid sleeps in the background, a symbol of Adonis's resistance to Venus's entreaties, since his ineffective arrows hang uselessly in a tree. The story ends tragically; during the hunt the mortal Adonis is fatally gored by a wild boar.\nTitian's loose, energetic strokes of paint give the painting a sense of spontaneity and movement. In some areas, the artist even painted with his finger, as seen in Adonis's arm. The composition's dynamism springs from the torsion caused by Venus's awkward pose, which was inspired by an ancient sculptural relief. Titian used rich colors, shimmering highlights, and a lush landscape to create the painting's evocative, poignant mood."}
{"content":"Elizabeth was sold into marriage at a young age. When she had daughters of her own, she wanted them to avoid the same fate. She dreamed that they would be able to finish school.\nSo when Elizabeth’s husband insisted that their daughter Athieng be given away in an arranged marriage, Elizabeth refused. She hid Athieng away from the family so that her daughter could continue to attend school. For her defiance, Elizabeth was beaten. She was thrown into prison. She was shunned by her entire community.\nAfter turning to Women for Women International, Elizabeth learned to read and write. She received rights awareness and job skills training. She now has a job that pays well enough to keep all her children in school—without depending on an abusive husband.\nElizabeth’s determination to give Athieng the opportunities that she never had has paid off. Athieng is continuing her education and wants to become a lawyer. With her daughter at her side, Elizabeth says, “Now I can imagine a tomorrow that could be better than today.\"\nProject Reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.\nIf you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you will get an e-mail when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports via e-mail without donating or by subscribing to this project's RSS feed.\nOnline Marketing Manager"}
{"content":"Glass tiles are thin, flat shaped tiles used to line or cover a surface. Glass tiles come in a wide variety of shapes, transparencies, colors, and can come in combination with other materials such as stainless steel. They can be used to make a surface more durable or water repellent, or they can be used for surface decoration. Glass tiles are more rigid than ceramic or cement tiles, making them easier to break under stresses. Though they require more delicate handling, glass tiles are popular because they can refract light, offering a wider variety of surface effects than ceramic or porcelain. Glass is also impervious to water, will not fade in sunlight, and is frost-proof.\nGlass tiles are typically used for walls, bathrooms, in window details, or for decoration. However, some glass tiles are manufactured for use as floor tiles. Glass floor tiles are often textured to prevent slippage when wet. Tiles come in a wide variety of shapes and colors, making them attractive for both residential and commercial use. Glass tiles can be transparent or opaque, depending upon the mixture of glass and other components such as metal oxides. Some tiles are backed with other materials like stainless steel, or coated with substances that allow the tiles to be impregnated with heat transfer dyes. Coated tiles are used to create custom glass tiles for use in murals or other artistic designs.\nGlass tiles can be cast into identical shapes, such as a square or rectangle, and used with grout to cover a surface in a geometric pattern. The tiles can also be irregular in shape and used to create a free-flowing or organic design. Glass mosaics have been made this way for many years, using a variety of shapes and colors to make a unique design. Glass tiles can also be manufactured in large sheets with a mesh backing, making for easier installation.\nGlass tiles are commonly manufactured by fusing, which involves placing several thin sheets of glass in layers into a kiln and heated to about 800 degrees Celsius, essentially fusing the different layers of glass together into one sheet. Glass tiles may also be manufactured using glass powders that are melted together in kilns operating at much higher temperatures. The layers of glass go through a cycle of ramps, where they are heated rapidly; and then soaks, where they are held at a specific temperature. Tiles go through the ramping and soaking process for several cycles until the kiln operator decides they have fused together to the desired effect. The fused layers are then allowed to cool over time, essentially annealing or strengthening the glass tiles.\nInstalling glass tiles involves using a backing such as a cement board; green board, which is water resistant; concrete; or drywall. The tiles are mounted in an adhesive and then secured together with a grout. Glass tiles may also be cut to fit into small areas or around fixtures. Tile cutters or nippers are used to shape small tiles, while a wet saw is preferable for use on larger or thicker tiles."}
{"content":"11 December 2013 - Findings from The 2013 Issues Survey, a GlobeScan/SustainAbility Survey.\nIn comparison to the 2011 edition of this survey, this year’s results show a slight uptick in the level of urgency experts feel across top sustainability issues, as well as in their impressions of how well industry is managing the transition to sustainability. But, even while perceptions of performance have increased incrementally for nearly every sector (a first since 2000), the overall gap between urgency and performance remains significant.\nFor the first time in this survey series, experts were asked not only for their views on which issues are most urgent for particular industry sectors, but also which sectors are most accountable for reducing their impact on, or providing solutions for, each issue. By comparing these results against issue urgency, a series of sector-specific “accountability/urgency maps” were created, each of which provides an updated view on industry challenges and opportunities, and a unique input for materiality analyses, strategy setting and other processes.\nThis report includes a generalized version of these maps that aggregates ratings of urgency and accountability across all issues and highlights two distinct groups of industries: those facing high levels of both urgency and accountability on a number of fronts, versus those dealing with less overall urgency and accountability. For those in the second group, however, there is often still at least one or a subset of issues that stand out. For example, while the pharmaceutical industry’s overall urgency and accountability scores are relatively low (see page 17), experts consider this industry extremely accountable for addressing the issue of access to medicines/healthcare.\nAs outlined in GlobeScan and SustainAbility’s 2013 report Changing Tack, collaboration within and across industries is required to address the many challenges facing corporations and society at large. With this in mind, readers are encouraged to view the following findings as both a snapshot of where we are as well as a springboard for discussions that raise ambition and instigate enhanced collective action."}
{"content":"This spring 200 school kids learned that building a dream city is easier when it's made out of cardboard than from steel and concrete, but the principles of design still apply. \"Box City\" is a miniature community of cardboard, construction paper and pipe cleaner \"people'. Architects and architectural grad students worked with 4th, 5th and 6th graders and their teachers to explore the basics of design, the physics of structure and the essentials of city planning. It will be on display as one of the events for Architecture Week.\nThe Utah Center for Architecture (UCFA), a non-profit cultural organization created the week to invite people to look more closely at their neighborhoods and urban environments and to appreciate inspired design where it occurs.\nThe tours and exhibits are free and open to the public. Here are the events from Wednesday, April 30th - Saturday, May 3rd.\nWednesday, April 30\n6:00 – 7:00 p.m.\nEducating Elementary Children Through Architecture (EECTA) Box City Awards presentation and new exhibit about design principles taught through EECTA for adults. Salt Lake City Main Public Library Urban Room and Auditorium. Box City closes.\nFriday, May 2\n5:30 – 6:30 p.m.\nWalking tour: “East of Washington: Reintroducing the Trolley District” of Odgen’s historic 25th Street and original streetcar neighborhoods led by co-authors of Ogden’s Historic Trolley District Book, Shalae Larsen, ASLA PLA and Sue Wilkerson. Tour begins at Union Station. Co-sponsored by the Trolley Distrct Community Council. Refreshments provided.\n6:00 – 9:00 p.m.\nExhibit: Brett Donnelly Gallery in Ogden hosts ”Form, Space and Concept” an exhibit of models created by architects and architectural students to explore concepts, ideas, and functions that ultimately are developed into habitable spaces.\nSaturday, May 3\n10:00 – 11:30 a.m.\n“Rethinking Sugar House Park”, a Jane Jacobs Walk, will be led by University Honors students who studied it in depth and recently shared capital improvement ideas for the park with the Sugar House Park Authority. The walk will allow participants to share ideas and re-envision the park (see map for tour route). Co-sponsored by UCFA. Refreshments provided.\n11:00 a.m. – Noon\nWalking tour of late 19th and early 20th century commercial buildings in downtown Salt Lake City designed by Richard Kletting, architect of the Utah Capitol. Meet in the courtyard of the Boston & Newhouse Buildings on Exchange Place at Main St. Led by Allen Roberts, AIA, historic preservation expert and CRSA president.\n2:00 – 3:00 p.m.\nTour of St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church, completed in 2011, designed by Sparano & Mooney Architecture, at 7405 S Redwood Road, West Jordan. Received the Design Arts Award from the Utah Arts Council, an Excellence in Concrete Award from the American Concrete Institute, and Merit Awards from AIA Western Mountain Region and from AIA Utah.\nFor more information, please visit: http://utahcfa.org/."}
{"content":"In Alaska with Shipwreck Kelly\n1897 - the last great gold rush More than a hundred thousand raced toward the Yukon and the Klondike - all of them desperate to be first to arrive at the headwaters of the Yukon. Leaving his federal post in Montana, U.S. Deputy Marshall Patrick Kelly becomes a partner in a spectacular enterprise: the disassembly and transportation of Studdsworth P. Blackmore's famous Alham...more\nAudio Cassette, Abridged\nPublished by Paperback Nova Audio Books\n(first published February 1st 1996)\nTo see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up."}
{"content":"US 5227104 A\nA method is described for producing hard, dense, finely crystalline fired bodies from alumina gels of solids content greater than 45%, by the use of high pressure in mixing and/or presssure extrusion together with seeding of the gel by submicron alpha alumina particles.\n1. A method for making ceramic bodies comprising polycrystalline alpha alumina comprising the steps of: gelling a mixture including hydrated alumina powder, water and acid, said mixture having a solids content of more than 30% by weight, by extruding said mixture while exerting pressure thereon, said mixture immediately prior to extrusion containing ungelled agglomerates of unpeptized alumina powder, said extrusion acting to force the water and acid into contact with such ungelled alumina powder to provide a substantially homogeneous gelled product; drying said gelled product; firing the dried product to a temperature of less than 1500° C. to convert at least a portion of said hydrated alumina to alpha alumina, said body having a density of at least 90% of theoretical; and providing in said gelled product prior to said firing step submicron sized alpha alumina particles or equivalent nucleation centers as seed material in an amount of between about 0.1% and 5% by weight of the hydrated alumina solids content of the mixture.\n2. The method of claim 1 wherein said seed material includes submicron size alpha alumina particles.\n3. The method of claim 2 wherein the amount of said seed material present is 5% or less of the total content of said mixture.\n4. The method of claim 1 wherein the temperature of firing is 1400° C. or less.\n5. The method of claim 1 wherein the solids content of said mixture is at least 50% by weight.\n6. The method as in any one of claims 1 to 3 wherein the solids content of said mixture is between 45% and 75% by weight.\n7. The method of claim 6 further including the steps of hydrothermally treating said mixture prior to said gelling step.\n8. The method of claim 6 wherein said pressure forces said mixture through an extrusion die.\n9. The method of claim 1 wherein the solids content is between 45% and 65% by weight and said pressure is between 20 lbs. and 20 tons per square inch.\n10. The method of claim 6 further including the step of crushing or breaking up the dried product prior to the firing step to form abrasive grits upon firing.\n11. A method for making abrasive grits comprising the steps of:\n(a) forming a mixture including hydrated alumina powder, water and acid, said mixture having a solids content of more than 30% by weight;\n(b) gelling said mixture by extruding said mixture under pressure through a die to obtain substantially homogeneous gelled extruded rods, said mixture immediately prior to such extrusion containing ungelled agglomerates of unpeptized alumina powder, said extrusion acting to force the water and acid into contact with said unpeptized alumina powder;\n(c) drying said rods;\n(d) firing said rods at a temperature of less than 1500° to convert at least a portion of said hydrated alumina to alpha alumina to alpha alumina having crystal sizes of less than 1 micron; and\n(e) providing in said rods prior to said firing step submicron alpha alumina particles or equivalent nucleation centers as seed material in an amount of between about 0.1% and 5% by weight of the hydrated alumina solids content of the mixture.\n12. The method of claim 11 wherein said mixture has a solids content of between 45% to 75%.\n13. The method of claim 11 wherein said grits have a density of at least about 97% of theoretical.\n14. The method of claims 11, 12 or 13 wherein said seed material constitutes 5% or less of the total solids of said mixture.\n15. The method of claims 11, or 13 further including the step of breaking up said rods prior to firing.\n16. The method of claims 11, 12 or 13 in which said seed material includes submicron sized alpha alumina particles.\nThis is a continuation of copending application Ser. No. 07/323,268 filed on Mar. 15, 1989, now abandoned which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 06/732,973 filed May 13, 1985 now abandoned, which in turn is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 06/620,654 filed Jun. 14, 1984 (now abandoned).\nIn the manufacture of so called sol-gel aluminum oxide ceramic articles and in particular aluminous abrasive grain, large volumes of water have been used to form the gels. These large volumes have been made necessary basically for 3 (three) reasons:\n1. The prior art teaches that gels, particularly for abrasive purposes, made from gelable alumina powders should contain high levels (3-7 weight percent) of MgO. The MgO is introduced into the sol-gel as a solution of a magnesium salt. Such introduction of salt solutions dramatically increases the viscosity of the system. Therefore, to ensure good homogeneous mixing of the magnesium salt with the alumina gel it is necessary to work with a relatively dilute sol-gel so that upon addition of the magnesium salt the viscosity remains low enough so that efficient and good mixing remain possible. For conventional abrasive manufacture containing around 5% MgO, a solids content in the 15-25 weight % range may be conveniently worked with but becomes very tedious beyond that. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,314,827 and published British application 2,099,012A.\n2. The manufacture of gels from present commercially derived alumina monohydrate powders requires that some acid (e.g., nitric or formic) be added to the powder to allow the colloidal particles to disperse. In order to ensure that the acid can interact with all of the powder, the acid is diluted with a large volume of water and conventionally mixed in a high shear blender or other convenient mixer. If insufficient water is used, the gel becomes too viscous to homogeneously mix in the magnesia (as above) and also it is extremely difficult to gel agglomerates of unpeptized alumina powder. With conventional mixing it becomes very very tedious to ensure a homogeneous peptization beyond about 45 weight % solids content. Solids content referes only to alumina monohydrate content in the sol gel and neglects the magnesia salt.\n3. Relatively large volumes of solvent (almost always water but could be a mixture of methanl-water or many other possibilities) are required in conventional gel preparation in order to ensure proper formation of the gel so that a coherent glassy dried green form is obtained. If insufficient water (solvent) is present the resulting green-ware is not coherent and tends to crumble easily, not at all exhibiting the glassy like features of the high water containing gel. When these poorer quality green bodies are sintered, the product tends to have weak zones and \"pock marked\" surfaces. This becomes especially noticeable beyond about 50 weight % solids.\nThe presence of large volumes of water has several major disadvantages:\n1. energy cost to remove the water is extremely high because conventional dewatering such as filtration is difficult if not impossible once the gel is formed,\n2. large capital investments are needed to provide large scale dewatering equipment,\n3. volumes handled are large, and\n4. control of shrinkage and cracking during drying is extremely difficult.\nIn view of the drawbacks of these conventional low solids content gels, I was led to investigate means whereby high quality ceramic articles, particularly abrasive grain could be made at high solids (greater than 30%) levels. Thus an object of the invention is to produce a high solids content aluminum oxide based gel system which will as a result have much improved economics of drying (dewatering) and permit much more control of greenware shrinkage and cracking during drying.\nCopending U.S. application Ser. No. 06/592,689, filed Mar. 23, 1984, now abandoned, along with its continuation-in-part U.S. application Ser. No. 662,869 filed Oct. 19, 1984, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,364, and its copending further continuation-in-part U.S. application Ser. No. 023,346 filed Mar. 9, 1987, teaches that high quality abrasive grain may be formed from a gel without the use of high levels of MgO. Rather than requiring the MgO as sintering aid/grain growth inhibitor, it has been found that an addition of extremely fine Al2 O3 will allow the gel to sinter to greater than 90% theoretical density in only a few minutes and thereby still retain a submicron microstructure.\nSuch a \"seeded\" ceramic abrasive material has been found to perform much better than the MgO containing \"unseeded\" gel in many grinding applications. The MgO may still be added to the \"seeded\" gel but generally does not improve performance any further and is often deleterious.\nBy eliminating magnesium salt additions then, I have effectively removed the first reason cited earlier for high water requirements, and the solids content can be increased by a factor of 2-3 times.\nIn order to insure complete peptization of the alumina (i.e. contact with acid), and to also insure \"polymerization\" i.e. contact with water, I resorted to using a high solids kneader/mixer and subsequent extrusion of the mix with either a piston or auger type extruder. It was felt that the pressure exerted on the mixed paste/gel would force the liquids (acid and water) into any remaining ungelled alumina powder compacts and provide a homogeneous gelled product. When the solids content was from 45-65 weight % it was found that pressures from 200 psi to 20 tons/square inch worked satisfactorily with the preferred pressured at 300 psi to 10 tons/square inch. Presumably, given a mixer with the combined features of mixing and exerting such pressures, the extrusion step could be omitted unless, of course, shape control was desired.\nThe problem of unpeptized material, typically in the amount of a few percent is recognized even in the case of dilute sol-gel dispersions, as indicated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,314,827, where the use of a centrifuge is disclosed to eliminate such material. In the case of the high solids sol-gel dispersions of the present invention, removal of unpeptized material cannot be practically done by centrifuging. However, such material can be made peptizable by subjecting the mix to hydrothermal treatment e.g. 180° C. for 2 hours at autogenous pressure. Such treatment may or may not be needed depending upon the quality of the alumina monohydrate powder and the tolerable amount of unpeptized material in the product.\nIllustrates sintering enhancement by using \"seeded\" gel, preparation of high solids content gel and effects of extrusion.\nIn a Maternini mixer was put 8 kg Condea Pural SB alumina monohydrate, 9.5 kg of alumina gel (Condea base) at 20.7% solids which had been \"seeded\" with 10 g ultra fine (submicron) Al2 O3 generated from wear on Sweco mill (vibratory mill) alumina grinding media, and 400 ml concentrated nitric acid. The 56% solids paste which formed was very difficult to mix thoroughly and many sections of unreacted powder were visible. A sample of this paste was dried and sintered at 1400° C. for 10 minutes; the specimen showed a Vickers hardness of 16.5 GPa but many large pores and pits were visible. The remainder of the sample was extruded in a verticle piston extruder through a 1/16\" die plate at a pressure of 13-15 tons per square inch and 27 inches of vacuum. The extrudate which was very pasty and crumbly going in, emerged as translucent/transparent fibres, quite homogeneous and relatively flaw free. The extrudate after sintering as described above had only a few small pores and uniform hardness of 16.5 GPa.\nThe extrudate, therefore, had hardness (density) equivalent to non-seeded MgO containing gels suitable for use as a superior abrasive. The extrudate fibres dried essentially intact although some cracking was observed. Nonetheless, shrinkage and cracking control were much improved over the conventional 15-25%, gels and drying rates were increased dramatically.\nIllustrates preparation of high solids (50%) Gel extrusion and sintering to 97% theoretical density.\nIn a mix-muller were mixed 40 pounds Condea Pural SB monohydrate alumina powder, 11 pounds of Sweco milled water (661/2 hours milling with 1/2×1/2 cylindrical, 90% alumina, grinding media) which contained 2.266% solids, 14 pounds of tap water was added and the whole mixed. A mixture of 1600 ml concentrated nitric acid and 1600 ml tap water was then added the whole mixed for 2 minutes. Then 6 pounds more of tap water was added. The whole was mixed 2 minutes more and then piston extruded through 1/8\" holes at 500-1000 pounds per square inch pressure. The mixed material as in the previous example did not seem to be homogeneously gelled and was somewhat granular. After extrusion the material appeared to be much more uniformly and homogeneously gelled. The extrudate after sintering at 1400° C. for 5 minutes had Vickers hardness of 19.5-20 GPa.\nThe aluminous bodies made by the process of the present invention may contain spinel formers such as alumina, modifying agents such as titania, and may serve as matrixes or boding agents for other ceramic materials. By solids contents I mean 100% times the ratio of the weight of the alumina hydrate to the sum of the weight of the solid alumina hydrate starting material and the weight of added liquid. My invention comprehends a solids content of from 45% to as high as 75%. It should be noted that although the alumina (boehmite) starting materials are termed \"monohydrates\" they may in fact contain more or less than one mole of H2 O per calculated mole of Al2 O3.\nBy \"seed material\" I mean submicron sized alpha alumina particles or equivalent nucleation centers which produce a non-cellular submicron structures in the alumina bodies when fired for 10 minutes or less at 1400° C.\nThe optimum amount of submicron seed material (contained in the \"milled water\" in the above example) is 1% solids based on the total solids of the mixture. No more than 5% of such seed material should be added since at such levels above the optimum it tends to increase the crystal size of the fired product and reduces the hardness of the product. The minimum, as evidenced by Example I, is about 0.1% by weight of the hydrated alumina solids content of the mixture.\nIn all of the products of this invention, as in the above example, the fired crystal size of the alpha alumina body, (or matrix material when serving as a bonding agent) should be less than one micron.\nThe preferred firing temperature is 1400° C. or less, and in no event should be over 1500° C. to retain the required submicron crystal size of the product.\nHardnesses herein were measured by a Vickers diamond indenter point at a load of 500 grams.\nThe high solids gels of this invention may be shaped by extrusion or molded to produce wear resistant parts, parts designed for use in corrosive or high temperature environments, substrates for electronic applications, and any other applications where strong and dense alpha alumina bodies are required.\nWhere abrasive grits are desired, extruded rods of appropriate size may be formed then dried and crushed or broken up to the desired grit shapes prior to firing.\nThe gels of the present invention may also be used to form coatings, which are then fired to 3.9 or greater specific gravity.\nIllustrates usefulness of the invention as an abrasive and sintering to 99% density.\nEight (8) mixtures were prepared and extruded as in II. After drying at 80° C. the extrudate was impact crushed and fired (sintered) in a rotary electric kiln (SiC tube) under various conditions. The resultant grain was sized to 50 grit (Coated Abrasive Manufacturers Institute Standard) and evaluated as an abrasive on coated disc. The results are shown below:\n______________________________________ % of Result UsingSintering Hard- CAD Co-fusedTemp. Time Density ness Results Alumina-Test °C. Min. (g/cm)3 (GPa) 1020 Zirconia______________________________________1 1350 5 3.84 19.9 120 882 1350 10 3.89 19.9 100 823 1350 30 3.94 19.9 80 684 1350 60 3.95 19.1 80 545 1400 5 3.91 19.9 93 786 1400 10 3.94 19.1 76 677 1400 30 3.97 18.5 74 47______________________________________\nIn this particular example, best grinding performance was obtained at relatively lower densities. This is so because at the higher densities, exaggerated grain growth has become a deleterious factor fracture characteristics of the material. This does not mean that in general better grinding will occur with lower density.\nThe data indicates that the gel can sinter to near theoretical density under relatively mild conditions.\nThe comparison abrasive, co-fused alumina zirconia, is the best prior art fused abrasive material for use in coated abrasives. The results reported in the table refer to the weight of material removed before failure from (1) a 1020 steel speciman as a % of the weight removed by an alumina-zirconia coated disc, and (2) the weight of stainless removed by the test abrasive as a % of that removed by the alumina-zirconia abrasive, under identical test conditions."}
{"content":"Funding and grants for groups and individuals.\nOxfordshire County Council has a section on it's website about Funding and grants for groups and individuals. Many of the links on this page are taken from there.\nGRANTNET - Free to use funding database.\nOxfordshire Community and Voluntary Action (OCVA)\nOCVA runs a free Funding Advice Service for voluntary and community organisations and the Development Team can help you put your application together and offer advice on other sources of help. [OCVA website]\nThe Oxfordshire Guide to Funding Opportunities 2011\nThis is currently being updated. You can also use Source Oxfordshire which helps businesses and voluntary organisations understand the procurement and grants processes as well as helping to find and apply for opportunities in Oxfordshire and further afield.\nBig Society fund - February 2011\nOxfordshire County Council has created the Big Society fund of £600,000 so that community groups can bid for funds to help them take responsibility for providing services in their communities. It will be one-off funding to help communities get their ideas going. For more information and guidance go to the Big Society Fund pages.\nFunding for children and young people for out of school play and leisure. Funding for Community Chest has now ended. (July 2011) OCC can't currently fund any applications for assistance.\nPlay Design Grants\nThe Play Design Grants (PDG) are small grants to help groups develop their ideas for improving the play spaces in their communities.\nPlaybuilder Capital Grant\n£1,000,000 funding from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) part of the 'Fair Play’ initiative, that aims to change the way play spaces are commissioned, designed and built. [link]\nChill Out Fund for youth activities\nImproving and extending provision for children and young people in Oxfordshire [link]\nVillage hall grantsOCC have a small grants scheme to fund improvements to village halls and community centres in market towns, including Oxford. All enquiries about this fund should be made to the Oxfordshire Rural Community Council (ORCC) who administers the scheme on their behalf.\nList of links to funding and grant making bodies\n- Chill Out Fund\n- Grants Online\n- Lottery Good Causes\n- Awards for All\n- Big Lottery Fund\n- Sport England\n- Arts Council\n- Heritage Lottery Fund\nWaste Recycling Environmental Limited. Provide grants under the terms and conditions of the Landfill Communities Fund (formerly the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme).\nDepartment for Culture, Media and Sport\n- Directory of Social Change\nSouth East Museum, Library & Archive Council\n- Government Funding\n- Oxfordshire Community Foundation\n- The API\nLead trade body within the play sector representing the interests of manufacturers, designers and distributors of both indoor and outdoor play equipment and play area surfacing.\n- Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF)\n- The Football Foundation\nOne of the largest sports charities in the world and certainly the largest in the UK. They are an important funder of multi-use games areas.\n- The Forestry Commission\nDeliver practical programmes to make sure that, as communities and individuals, we can get the most from our forests. Search for Play Space on their excellent website for a variety of resources.\n- The Free Play Network\nAims to promote greater public understanding of the need for better play opportunities for children, by promoting discussion, exchange of information, and guidance on best practice in development of children's play opportunities.\nWork for disabled children, young people and their families. KIDS vision is a world in which all disabled children and young people realise their aspirations and their right to an inclusive community which supports them and their families.\n- The Oxfordshire Community Foundation\nHas been awarded £761,000 over three years to make grants from between £250 to £5,000 in a straightforward and easy way, to voluntary and community groups with annual incomes below £20,000.\n- The Oxfordshire Playing Fields Association (OPFA)\nA body of expertise on local Outdoor Play, they organise a Children's Playground Inspection Roadshow programme.\n- The Oxfordshire Play Association (OPA)\na registered charity that promotes play for all children & young people throughout Oxfordshire.\n- Play England\nprovides advice and support to promote good practice, and works to ensure that the importance of play is recognised by policy makers, planners and the public.\n- Play Wales\nthe national organisation for children's play in Wales.\nmulti-faceted independent play and informal leisure consultancy working in the areas of design, planning, policy, strategy, local engagement, fundraising and organisational development."}
{"content":"[Haskell-cafe] Re: Existencial quantification and polymorphic\ndatatypes (actually, components...)\nlrpalmer at gmail.com\nTue Jan 20 16:00:55 EST 2009\nOn Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 1:14 PM, David Menendez <dave at zednenem.com> wrote:\n> On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 2:51 PM, Mauricio <briqueabraque at yahoo.com> wrote:\n> >>> But how is this:\n> >>> data SomeNum = forall a. SN a\n> >>> different from:\n> >>> data SomeNum = SN (forall a. a)\n> >> At a glance they look the same to me — but only the first is accepted by\n> >> ghc.\n> > Following the link you pointed in the last\n> > message, I found this at 18.104.22.168:\n> > data T a = T1 (forall b. b -> b -> b) a\nThe constructor here is irrelevant. The function here can do anything a\ntop-level function of type:\nsomething :: b -> b -> b\nI like to think about quantification in this regard in terms of\nisomorphisms. Think about what a function of type forall b. b -> b -> b can\ndo. It cannot do anything with its arguments, because it must work on all\ntypes, so it only has one choice to make: it can return the first argument,\nor it can return the second argument.\nSo, forall b. b -> b -> b is isomorphic to Bool.\nFor symmetry, the constructor T1 has type:\nT1 :: (forall b. b -> b -> b) -> a -> T1 a\n> > If I understand properly, it can be activated\n> > with -XPolymorphicComponents. It's different\n> > from my example, but I would like to know what\n> > it does that this can't:\n> data T a = forall b. T1 (b->b->b) a\nThe constructor T1 here has type:\nT1 :: forall b. (b -> b -> b) -> a -> T1 a\nSee the difference?\nYou can pass the latter a function of any type you choose, eg. (Int -> Int\n-> Int) or ((Bool -> Bool) -> (Bool -> Bool) -> (Bool -> Bool)). So when\nsomebody gets a T from you, they have no idea what type the function you\ngave it was, so they can only use it in limited ways (in this case, nothing\nuseful at all can be done with it).\nHere's another existential type:\ndata T' a = forall b. T' (b -> a) b\nHere, a T' contains a value of some type b -- who knows what it is -- and a\nfunction to get from that value to an a. Since we don't know anything about\nb, all we can do is to apply the function.\nT' a is isomorphic to a. But it might have different operational behavior;\ne.g. maybe a is a huge list which is cheaply generated from some small\ngenerator value (of type b). Then if you pass a T' around, it's the same as\npassing that big list around, except for you don't cache the results of the\nlist, improving memory performance. It's like inverse memoization.\nNot all existential types are for inverse memoization, this is just one\nI found it easiest to reason about these with the types of the constructors,\nand thinking about what non-quantified type they are isomorphic to.\n-------------- next part --------------\nAn HTML attachment was scrubbed...\nMore information about the Haskell-Cafe"}
{"content":"July 24th, 2014 Pioneer Day July 24th, 2014 Laylat al-Qadr July 27th, 2014 Parents' Day July 28th, 2014 World Hepatitis Day July 29th, 2014 Eid-al-Fitr July 30th, 2014 World Friendship Day August 5th, 2014 Tisha B'Av August 9th, 2014 World Indigenous Peoples’ Day August 11th, 2014 Victory Day August 12th, 2014 International Youth Day August 15th, 2014 'Bennington Battle Day' observed August 15th, 2014 Statehood Day in Hawaii August 15th, 2014 Assumption of Mary August 16th, 2014 Bennington Battle Day August 19th, 2014 National Aviation Day August 19th, 2014 World Humanitarian Day August 23rd, 2014 World Day for Slave Trade Abolition\nPotion Masters Mahogany Wood Wand W/ Velvet Bag Wiccan Wizard Druid Pagan For Sale\nThis hand turned mahogany wood wand measures approximately 15 inches in length with an approximate5/8 inch diameter handle. The wand handle is a gothic inspired design and the wand features a beautiful ebony finish and mahoganywood grain. The wand includes a velvet wand storage bag. All of our wood magick wandsare hand turned, carved, and finished by master wand makers. Each wand is carefully crafted to enhance the appeal of the natural wood grain and to maintain the balance of the wand. Wands may have slight color, size and wood pattern variations.\nMahogany: This wood is in touch with the elements of fire and earth. Well balanced, this wood seeks a partner with strength and energy. Excellent for protection spells. Magical properties: This is one of the most spiritually focused of all woods, and would be best used in magick dealing with anything non-physical. Divination and spiritual growth and guidance are its primary properties. It is also an excellent wood for healing spells, though mostly for emotional and spiritual healing.\nPlease Note: That this listing is for a single wand and each wand is individually hand turned, carved, and finished, no two wands are exactly alike and each wand has it's own unique appearance and finished design. This wand includes a velvet cloth storage bag to protect the wand from dust, dirt, and any unwanted energies. Stands, display and storage boxes, and leather holsters are sold separately."}
{"content":"Take a look a these Gout Home Remedies and see which one can help you soothe the extremely painful symptoms of a bout of gout, which comes on suddenly and without any warning.\nGout, dubbed as the \"rich man's illness\", is a great source of amusement for others.\nBut you ask anyone who has suffered from this and they will tell you in detail that it is no laughing matter.\nIt is seriously painful!\nNow that we have checked out some of the facts about gout let's take a look at some traditional Gout Home Remedies and see how\nthese old folklore solutions can help in reducing the build up of uric\nacid in the body, and perhaps help us stop worrying about what is causing our gout.\nAnd at the same time give some relief in soothing the area afflicted by this incredibly painful ailment.\n\"The Best Remedy that I have for Rheumatism is to thank the Lord it ain't Gout\".\n1 pkt Epsom Salts\n1 pkt Cream of Tartar\n1 pkt Flowers of Sulfur\nMix all the ingredients together and place in an airtight container.\nTake a half teaspoon stirred into a glass of water first thing in the morning.\nTake a few leafs of the Arum Lily\nDo not crush or bruise the leaf and heat it up in water.\nApply this as a plaster to the gout infected area for relief of itching and peeling of the skin which is one the the unpleasant after effects of a gout attack.\nOne thick slice of bread\nOne large onion\nHeat the milk, and pour onto the slice of bread.\nGrate the onion and add to the milk and bread. Mix into a paste and place on the inflamed gout infected area. Keep in place with a retaining dressing.\nA bowl of cherries a day will keep my gout at bay!\nTo the top of Gout Home Remedies\nOr else back to our Home Page\nCopyright 2010 Home Remedies Haven.com. All Rights Reserved.\nSoak 4 figs in water, mash them and then apply directly to the affected area and keep in place with a clean cloth.\nLeave for up to an hour.\nGout is caused by build up of uric acid in the joints.\nFigs are alkaline and help to counteract this acidity.\nMorin, a compound found in figs have been shown to reduce uric acid.\nThe information on this site does not constitute medical advice. Always consult with your Health Professional."}
{"content":"Press Release No.:\nDate: 26 April 2009\nGeneva - The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is monitoring events concerning the recent cases of ‘swine influenza’ in Mexico and the United States. On 25 April 2009 the World Health Organization (WHO) convened a meeting of its Emergency Committee, and subsequently determined that the situation represented a ‘public health emergency of international concern’ under the terms of the International Health Regulation (2005).\nDetails of the WHO’s statements can be found at www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en\nGuidelines for managing suspected communicable diseases during such public health events have been developed by IATA, in consultation with WHO, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and Airports Council International (ACI) and are available on IATA's Communicable diseases and Air Transport pages.\nAt the present time, IATA recommends that airlines review their preparedness plans for public health emergency and consider how they may be implemented in the event that the current situation becomes more widespread. No specific additional measures are currently advised. Recommendations will be reviewed in light of WHO evaluation of the evolving situation.\nNotes for editors:\nFor more information, please contact:\nTel: +41 22 770 2967"}
{"content":"- THE MAGAZINE\nIn my 40-plus years of affiliation with the cleaning Industry I have watched closely the ebb and flow of our business in relation to the ups and downs of the general economy. Unlike direct retail, our service business seems to weather the storms of economic downturn and recession fairly well. When money gets tight, as it is now, consumers tend to want to take good care of what they have, as opposed to replacing their things with new.\nCleaning companies often experience actual increases in business when the general economy takes a downturn. There is an increase in consumers shopping for a bargain, but companies with strong reputations for providing good value for the price paid seem to do well during these times. One thing that is a bit different about the current times is the relationship of the economic downturn to the two issues of housing and the price of fuel.\nThe “correction” in the housing market has led to a decrease in New Housing construction which has definitely affected the carpet manufacturing industry resulting in some of the lowest levels of production and sales in recent history. This could have a delayed effect the cleaning industry, since these would be the carpets being cleaned in the years to come. The whole mortgage and foreclosure crisis has created a lot of pressure on the bank accounts of consumers. On the one hand, many are cleaning up homes to sell, while others are just letting things go, expecting to lose the property. This creates an uncertainty in the cleaning marketplace unlike anything I’ve seen before.\nThe price of oil and gasoline has cut deeply into the amount of “disposable” or elective income available for services like carpet cleaning. While travel plans and vacations can be modified, many must use fuel for transportation to and from work in order to keep their jobs. This need for basic transportation, plus the increase in the cost of shipping goods to market leading to higher prices for food and other basic necessities, will cause people to look at what is a necessity and what is a luxury.\nTo weather this storm, cleaning businesses need to emphasize the role cleaning plays in maintaining a healthy environment and protecting the value of expensive furnishings. Cleaning just for appearance reasons can put our service into the “optional” category, but health and investment protection are more likely to be placed in the necessity column and less likely to get cut out of the household budget.\nI am still optimistic that the current times represent as many opportunities for the cleaning service professional, but careful marketing and packaging of our services emphasizing improving the healthiness of the home and protecting the value of investments is a necessity."}
{"content":"Font Installation on Unix and Other Systems\nWindows and Macintosh systems have one central directory where all applications access their fonts. Unfortunately, in Linux and Unix, each application implements fonts differently: the X Window system has its way, word processors want it a different way, printing systems want it another way, and so on.\nSeveral font installation examples are documented below with links provided by IDAutomation's clients. If they are not helpful, contact the operating system or application vendor for installation procedures.\nIDAutomation's TrueType and PostScript fonts are created to the standards set for TrueType and PostScript fonts, and can be treated as any other font for the purpose of getting the vendor's assistance. IDAutomation can only support the font tools, the symbology and the fonts themselves as stated in the statement of support - IDAutomation is unable to assist with the installation of the fonts on Unix or Linux systems. Assistance for installing fonts on a Unix platform can be obtained from the consulting company mentioned in the tutorial about installing fonts in Unix for Oracle Reports or consider IDAutomation's Java Barcode Packages, which work on any operating system with a Java Virtual Machine.\nSun Solaris Xsun supports TrueType fonts. Use the Font Administrator GUI, /usr/dt/bin/sdtfontadm, to add them to the server's list of fonts.\nCurrently, Linux does not provide native support for TrueType fonts, but it is possible to install and use TrueType fonts with xfstt, a free TrueType font server. More information on xfstt is available at the following links:\nEnter the following commands in sequence from a terminal window (Assuming the ttf file has been downloaded to \"/usr/local/fonts/ttf\" directory)\nThis will create two files, \"fonts.scale\" and \"fonts.dir\", containing a list with full font names for each true type font. Finally, add this directory to XWindow's font search path. Redhat users can make use of \"chkfontpath\" tool to add search path.\nchkfontpath -a /usr/local/fonts/ttf\nIf the \"chkfontpath\" utility is not available, then manually edit the \"/etc/X11/xfs/config\" file (or \"/etc/X11/fs/config\"). Find the line \"catalog = \". Add the directory to the end of list, separated by commas.\nSometimes, the font server needs to be restarted for the changes to take place.\nThis information was from one of IDAutomation's previous customers.\nWith most PostScript installations, PostScript interpretation is done in the printer. All that is needed is to get the proper PostScript commands onto the stack in the printer. For instance: When a PostScript program has been created to print a document, prepend the .pfa font to the file, then when the PostScript program is ready for use, add the following line in the program: /FontName findfont 12 scalefont setfont. This will load the font named \"FontName\" from the font dictionary, set it to a scale of 12 and set it to the active font; this will work with any OS. If the flat text document were sent to LPT1 on a windows machine by typing or copying, not by the printer driver, the same thing would be achieved. For additional information, refer to the installation of PostScript fonts on Unix using X11 example.\nThe ASCII version of IDAutomation fonts does not always work with X-Server on Sun Solaris with Oracle Reports. This is what one customer did to get the fonts working.\nPlease note that the following steps were used to install the sample version of the IDAutomation Interleaved 2 of 5 fonts, sADVI25f, on a Solaris machine. In order to get the ASCII version font to work properly in another environment, please substitute the font name to be loaded for IDAutomationC128M.\nCustomer's Solution: \"I told you that the binary version *.pfb worked on my X-Server but I need this font for Oracle Reports. Oracle Reports can only handle the ASCII version, so the problem was not solved with the binary version. But I found a solution\":\n(0) Make the ASCII-file work:This is all of the information IDAutomation has concerning the font installation on Sun Solaris."}
{"content":"Build a Better Base (Revision 109)\nIt has come to my attention that many are asking how the Pros make epic bases. Guides are definitely lurking in every corner of the forums but sometimes to a newbie it can still be confusing how to put those pieces in order. With this guide I’ll present piece by piece what you need to know and understand in building bases. Each essential concept will be explained and coupled with an actual base being created step by step using the concepts.\nTo start it off, there are two types of bases according to purpose:\n1. Short-Term Bases\nThese bases are made in relation to the current player’s level, number of max buildings to be created and the kind of attacks one is getting at the current state. The design of this type changes/develops as the player levels.\n2. Long-Term Bases\nThese bases are designed at an early level however the designer plans ahead of time where to put additional buildings (i.e. bunkers) or blocks or even traps without changing much the basic design once those are achieved in the late levels.\nDepending on your preference and amount of time you spend for the game, it’s your choice which one you will go with. The advantage of making short-term bases is that it is dynamic and it adapts well in relation to base effectiveness in attacks appropriate to the player’s level. With long-term bases, it won’t be stressful to redesign the base that much and is a benefit to those who have lesser game time with BYM.\nBases come in a variety of shapes starting with a simple box, pine cones, and circle-shaped ones. Imagination is the key here in creating epic bases. You may even get inspiration from nature itself. As what Steve Jobs wrote in his quote, “ Design is just not what it looks and feels like but design as well is how it works.” Clearly, how your base design can withstand certain attacks is valued more compared to how it looks. Of course, if you make it look great and works well then that by definition is considered to be epic as well. ^_^. Higher player level is not a requirement in creating good bases. Even a base with level 5 TH and 150 blocks can be epic if done right. So to help out fellow new comers of the game, I designed this guide to be both informative and practical with an actual base being created from scratch.\nBefore starting to create your base, make sure to put these into consideration:\n- Will I be making a short-term or long-term base?\n- What level is my TH? And what buildings (including towers and RGs) do I currently have?\n- How many blocks can I use for pathing?\n- Do I have yard planner and monster baiter created already?\n- How much yard space do I have?\n- Depending on how long I spend time in building my base, do I need damage protection or not while in the process?\nLets now begin building that epic base!\nWhat Links HereMain Page\nTop Wiki Contributors\nNeed assistance with editing this wiki? Check out these resources:"}
{"content":"Increases pH level generally from 1. 0 to 2. 0, produces low negative ORP (generally 200mv) Filters your water of excess chlorine and other contaminants.\nThe nanometer Energy cup can change the common purified water into nanometer activated water by the activation of Pearl calcium ion and Energy stone, which can release far infrared ray and negative ion, thereby causing the syntony of water molecules, releasing mineral element (such as Ca, Mg , K, Ca ),\nNano Energy Flask Features:\nAlkaline Water : Make the drinking to be alkaline , Neutralizes Human Body Acidic substances and keep balance of the body system. Maintain a healthy PH Figure and protect liver from side effect of Nicotine and alcohol might do.( Change Filtered Water to nano activated water rich in Ca, Mg, K and Na etc ( Micro elements).Energizes Water with small molecular cluster structure with strong osmosis, diffusibility and Enhanced with Scalar Energy, our Nano Energy Flask is capable of restructuring water molecules into smaller clusters which will thereby improve the bio-availability of water in the body and promote varied physiological functions in the body complex. The water filled in the Quantum Energy Flask facilitates the absorption of nutrients in the body as well as assists in the detoxification process. Moreover, the water stored in our Scalar Energy Quantum Flask can also be used to wash.\nBenefits of using Alkaline Ionized water:\n- Detoxification: Flushes acidic waste products from the body.\n- Gently cleanses at a deep cellular level.\n- Hydration: Three to five times as effective as regular water with bio-available electrolytes.\n- Allows nutrients to be absorbed more efficiently\n- Anti-oxidant: Electron charged water helps control free radical activate.\n- Improved Taste and Purity: Your body will crave more water\n- You and your family will enjoy drinking more water.\n- Increased Energy: Feel the difference usually within a few days.\n- Improved Digestion: As you digest and assimilate your food better, health improves, energy levels increase, weight sheds\n- The Factor IV activated water is made up of micro molecule group, with negative potential & of alkalescence. It has strong penetrability and solubility; it can eliminate the excrescent free radical, detoxicate the alcohol & tobacco, improve the nutrient absorption, metabolism & immunity. If you drink it for long term, it can resist oxidation, delay senility, prevent and dissolve kinds of calculus in your body, eliminate the dysphoria, cure the high blood pressure and gastritis. The Factor IV activated water is the water of health, which can increase the physiological behaviour, build up your health."}
{"content":"From the Opening of the Policy Paper:\nThe aim of this policy paper is to make policy recommendations for cultural institutions to preserve the Public Domain when using digitization services provided by private entities. This becomes particularly relevant in the context of the 2013 Public Sector Information (PSI) Directive which adds Museums, Libraries and Archives in the list of Public Sector Bodies (PSBs) that have to make their information reusable.\nThe Public Domain ensures the free dissemination of knowledge and provides everyone with the potential to access and create new works based on previous works. Thus, all Public Domain works should be free for everyone to use and reuse. Yet, as many cultural heritage institutions are entering into contractual agreements with third parties for the digitization of Public Domain works, there are serious concerns regarding the conditions of access, use and reuse of the resulting digitized copies.\nRead the Complete Policy Paper\nLearn More About Communia\nCommunia International Association on the Public Domain is a network of researchers and practitioners from universities, NGOs and SME established in 10 Member States. The mission of COMMUNIA is to foster, strengthen and enrich the Public Domain. To fulfill its mission, COMMUNIA and its members raise awareness in, educate about, advocate for, offer expertise on and research about the Public Domain in the digital age within society and with policy-makers, at the EU level and worldwide. COMMUNIA Association is a WIPO observer since October 2012."}
{"content":"If you are experiencing problems downloading PDF or HTML fulltext, our helpdesk recommend clearing your browser cache and trying again. If you need help in clearing your cache, please click here . Still need help? Email firstname.lastname@example.org\nField-plot tests were conducted in the southern High Plains with various dosages of the nuclear polyhedrosis Virus for control of Heliothis spp. in cotton. In general, better control was obtained with increase in virus dosage. At the rate of 100 larval equivalents per acre per application (1 LE = 6X109polyhedral inclusion bodies) , the seed yield with the virus was equivalent to that secured with chemical insecticide mixtures. The predominant species in these tests was the bollworm, Heliothis zea (Boddie). The tobacco budworm, H. virescens (F.), was not present in economic numbers. The results of these tests indicate that the nuclear polyhedrosis virus was effective in reducing the bollworm populations and increasing yields.\nDocument Type: Research Article\nPublication date: June 1, 1967\nMore about this publication?\nJournal of Economic Entomology is published bimonthly in February, April, June, August, October, and December. The journal publishes articles on the economic significance of insects and is divided into the following sections: apiculture & social insects; arthropods in relation to plant disease; forum; insecticide resistance and resistance management; ecotoxicology; biological and microbial control; ecology and behavior; sampling and biostatistics; household and structural insects; medical entomology; molecular entomology; veterinary entomology; forest entomology; horticultural entomology; field and forage crops, and small grains; stored-product; commodity treatment and quarantine entomology; and plant resistance. In addition to research papers, Journal of Economic Entomology publishes Letters to the Editor, interpretive articles in a Forum section, Short Communications, Rapid Communications, and Book Reviews."}
{"content":"Nearly half of female faculty members in top science departments wish they'd had more children, but didn't because of their careers, while about a quarter of their male counterparts feel the same way, according to a new study.\nThe analysis comes at a time of continued interest  in why women -- even those with degrees in science and technology fields -- are less likely than men to pursue science careers. The findings, published in the journal PLoS ONE,  are the first in a series of papers on related topics planned by two sociologists, Elaine Howard Ecklund of Rice University and Anne Lincoln of Southern Methodist University.\nThe study is based on a survey of 3,455 scientists (graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and tenured and tenure-track faculty members) in astronomy, physics and biology in \"top 20\" departments, as judged by the National Research Council in 2005 and by U.S. News & World Report.\nAt each of the career stages examined, men were more likely than women to be married and to have had children. They also had more children than women did -- and were less likely to regret not having more children. Women reported working roughly the same number of hours per week as men in graduate school, but more at later stages of their careers.\nScientists and Family Status\n|Hours Worked Per Week||% Married||% With Children||Average Number of Children||% Who Had Fewer Children Than They Wanted Due to Science Career|\nThe survey also asked those in the earlier career stages whether they were considering careers outside of science, and one in four graduate students and one in five postdocs said that they were. Further, those who believe that they have fewer children because of their career are more likely than others to consider a career switch.\n\"Given these findings, universities would do well to re-evaluate how family-friendly their policies are,\" the authors write.\nEcklund of Rice said in an interview that it was important to note that the regret over not having more children is not an issue just for women, but for many men as well. \"We can do a disservice to the issue if we focus on this only as a women's issue,\" she said, even if these challenges fall disproportionately on women. Further, she said that while the scientists who are the most senior in these departments, generally men, advanced in part through the help of wives without outside careers, the men entering the academy today are more likely to be married to people with career ambitions themselves.\nFor a next stage of the research, male and female scientists are being interviewed about family-friendly policies they have enjoyed, or wish they had. Ecklund said several trends are emerging. Many scientists, she said, especially those who are married to other scientists, spoke about \"the amazing help\" of having on-campus day care available.\nBut at the same time, she said, interview subjects spoke about issues beyond traditional day care. Top scientists regularly travel abroad either to conduct research or to share results. So Ecklund said some form of \"child care credits\" that could be used to pay for nannies for short-term needs might be useful, especially for junior faculty members.\nEcklund also said that she thinks that universities need to think more about mentoring issues with regard to life outside the lab. \"People need mentoring on how to balance their careers with their families,\" she said."}
{"content":"This month, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that its “stateside waiver” program would go into effect on March 4, 2013. This program is simply a change in the way that Immigration processes certain visa applications. It is not a new green card or visa program, and it only affects a very limited group of immigrants.\nImmigrants who will benefit from this new policy are those who:\nhave a U.S. Citizen spouse, or are between the ages of 18 and 21, unmarried, and have a U.S. Citizen parent, or have an adult child who is a U.S. Citizen and also have either a parent or spouse who is either a U.S. Citizen or permanent resident.\nAdditionally, the following circumstances must apply:\nthey have been in the U.S. for more than 180 days without any legal immigration status, and they were not inspected by U.S. immigration when they entered the U.S. It is important to note that immigrants who entered the U.S. under the visa waiver program will not benefit from this program, as they were inspected by U.S. immigration.\nAs the law stands now, Immigrants who enter the U.S. without inspection are, in most cases, required to apply for their permanent residence by leaving the U.S. and applying at the consulate in their home country. Unfortunately, when they leave the U.S., a law goes into effect that prevents them from reentering the U.S. for either 3 or 10 years. This law has been called the “3 and 10 year bar.” Those who were in the U.S. unlawfully for more than 180 days but less than a year are subject to the 3 year bar. Those with unlawful presence of a year or more are subject to the 10 year bar.\nThese immigrants must apply for a waiver of this law, like a pardon, in order to be allowed back to the U.S. sooner than 3 or 10 years. Up until now, immigrants had to apply for such waivers at their consular interview, after leaving the U.S. Then they would have to wait a long time, usually between 6 months and a year, before a decision was made. If the waiver was denied, the immigrant was stuck in their country for years.\nThis new policy attempts to fix this situation by allowing these immigrants to apply for the waiver before they leave the U.S. for their consular interview. If all goes well, a provisional waiver is granted, the immigrant returns to her home country for a consular interview, and she quickly returns to the U.S.\nThe risks of the program are yet to be seen. While all the immigrants applying through the stateside waiver program are out of status and subject to deportation, Immigration has stated that it will not attempt to deport people who apply for the program unless there is some other reason that they should be deported (such as criminal history, a prior deportation order, or fraud). It is less clear what will happen to those applicants whose stateside waiver is denied.\nAs a final note, the stateside waiver program only applies to those immigrants who need a waiver for the 3 and 10 year bar. It is not available for other waivers (such as the waivers needed for fraud or criminal history). Additionally, those who entered the U.S. with inspection (with a visa or through the visa waiver program) and who have a U.S. Citizen spouse or adult child or are under 21, unmarried, and have a U.S parent, do not need this program. They can apply for permanent residence in the U.S. and do not need a waiver.\nIf you have questions about this or any other aspect of immigration law, visit one of IIIC’s weekly clinics advertised in the Emigrant for a free, confidential consultation.\nDisclaimer: This articles is published to inform generally, not to advise in individual cases. Areas of law are rapidly changing. US Department of Homeland Security and the US Department of State regularly amend regulations and alter processing and filing procedures. For legal advice seek the assistance of an IIIC immigration specialist or an immigration lawyer."}
{"content":"Sections 501 and 505 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973\nThis law makes it illegal to discriminate against a qualified person with a disability in the federal government. The law also makes it illegal to retaliate against a person because the person complained about discrimination, filed a charge of discrimination, or participated in an employment discrimination investigation or lawsuit. The law also requires that employers reasonably accommodate the known physical or mental limitations of an otherwise qualified individual with a disability who is an applicant or employee, unless doing so would impose an undue hardship on the operation of the employer's business.\nSource: U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission"}
{"content":"14. Creating Transformation in Practice – The Pillar of Empowerment\nCreating Transformation in Practice – The Pillar of Empowerment\nThe third pillar of creating transformation in practice is the pillar of Empowerment. This can be a somewhat confusing concept – what does it mean to empower others? Simply put, empowering others means that someone you encounter feels more powerful, more clear, more able, more inspired, more confident, more energized, more optimistic – or just Bigger – than they were before they encountered you.\nGranted, there is a lot of similarity between caring for others and empowering others. If you’d like two really simple examples, caring for another might include helping them to carry their bags – or giving them a ‘good morning’ or a hug when they need it. Empowering someone might be expressed by saying the right thing at the right time to someone who needs to hear it; or asking the right questions, or helping someone to see something in a different way that really helps their point of view. Obviously these two types of actions (caring and empowering) have a lot of overlap, but I think you get the idea.\nOn a basic level, empowering others can be as easy as telling someone, “gosh you do that well!” Or, “I really admire you because of _________.” However, there are other levels when it’s not that simple. On a more subtle level, empowering others requires a certain sort of vision – a sense of sight – a type of perception. It means seeing past the surface levels to the very deepest parts of a person where their greatness and essence resides. It means reaching and bringing their most powerful, greatest and most essential self to the surface. Needless to say, in order to reach someone on this level, you have to first see them on this level. This ability to see the essence and greatness of a person says much more about the seer than the one who is seen.\nHow do you see people? Do you see them as great beings (albeit sometimes not aware of their own greatness)? Do you see them as an expression of the Divine? Do you see people as spiritual souls trying their very best to express themselves in a challenging physical world? On a more practical level, do you see people as vulnerable and needy, reaching out even in the midst of fear and misunderstanding? Do you see people as being harder on themselves than they are on others? Do you see the unkind stories people tell themselves about their world? Do you see how they punish themselves? Do you see how badly they want love – and how sometimes they don’t know how to get it? In the case of people who are truly dangerous or toxic (and the appellation ‘truly’ belongs only to a very small subset of humanity), do you see how much easier it is to ‘see’ those people than to ‘be’ them? (Remember the old rhyme? – ‘I never saw a purple cow, I never hope to see one – but I can tell you anyhow, I’d rather ‘see’ than ‘be’ one’.) Do you see how much more preferable it is to be the one who is robbed, rather than the thief? Can you look at even those who are beyond your reach with compassion and caring (at the same time as you take steps to protect or distance yourself as necessary)?\nAgain, the ability to empower is profoundly linked to our ability to see others at their most essential, truest, most divine, most vulnerable, most needy, most great, most powerful, most sublime, most spiritual, most human.\nHow does one cultivate this kind of sight – insight, actually – into one’s fellow human beings? Again, it is mostly a reflection of one’s basic view of one’s fellow human beings. This is also a reflection of one’s view of oneself. Needless to say, one cannot see others’ greatest selves, if one does not see one’s own self that way. Granted, it can be harder to see oneself with love and compassion than it can be to see others that way. Yet, we know we should try and see ourselves that way, even if it is a challenge to do so at times. Many of us judge ourselves much more harshly than we judge others. For this reason, it is of prime importance to have at least one or two people in our lives that can reflect this vision of ourselves back to us when we have lost the ability to see ourselves in that way. When we strive to empower others, we need to keep those who can empower us closest.\nSo, how can we cultivate this kind of vision into the essence of another person?\nThe analogy I’d give is the development of an artist. Anyone who pursues the visual arts (drawing, painting, sculpture, photography) learns to sharpen their vision relative to the world. They look carefully; they learn to see with an artist’s eye. They also cultivate what is called ‘eye-hand coordination.’ This is the ability to translate their keen vision into the movements of their hand so that it can be expressed as lines drawn on a page; the movement of a brush on canvas; the handling of a camera to capture what is seen. I’m emphasizing this sharpening of the artist’s eye and the eye-hand coordination that develops along with it for a particular reason: even someone who is born with a measure of artistic talent knows that it reaches its pinnacle with long use and practice. It is not an ability that one either has or does not have. Even those who are blessed with talent must sharpen it. So also, the ability to see the depths of a person, who they really are and what they really need in a given moment, is like the cultivation of an artist’s eye and hand. Some people may be born with more of a natural perceptive ability than others, but everyone can develop this ability through the practice of careful listening and careful seeing.\nOne thing that empowerment requires is an ability to see past one’s own personal biases and points of view. Empowerment definitely does not mean imposing one’s own agenda on another person. The crusading zealot who preaches their rigid view of the world to others and demands that they accept it is not empowering to others. He or she is not bringing out what is most essential about those other people. Instead, they are trying to squeeze people into their own narrow box. This is not something that is done only by religious fundamentalists (the common stereotype). Trying to get someone to accept one’s worldview is something that is done by ideologists of every stripe – the religious, the secular, the political, the therapeutic, the oppressive, the ‘helpful.’ Empowering someone means looking past our own beliefs and dogmas and really seeing the other person for who they are on the deepest level. It means going outside of our own narrow selves, our narrow perspectives. It means really looking, really listening to another person.\nLastly, empowering others means being first and foremost, respectful of the personal territory of others. As much as it entails developing an ability to see deeply into the nature of another person, it also means being acutely aware of the boundaries of another person. This is not (at all) about Freudian–style analysis of others. It does not mean pushing people to reveal themselves in ways they don’t want to. It is not about taking people apart. It certainly does not mean thinking that we know more about someone than they know about themselves. As a matter of fact, listening to someone’s words about themselves and their life is the very foundation of understanding another – what someone else says about themselves is much more important than what we see or think we see in them. Respect is the beginning, middle and end of empowerment.\nNext column: Empowering others from real-life experience"}
{"content":"Subscribe To our E-Newsletter\nNew Hechsher to Consider Ethics Associated With the Workplace\nExcept for a few historical cases where rabbinical authorities tried to link the two issues, generally, they've been considered sperate spheres.\nBut a newly formed commission created by the Conservative movement is calling attention to conditions faced by workers at kosher-meat plants. The Commission of Inquiry is weighing whether or not to call for a \"Tsedek Hekhsher,\" combining the Hebrew word for justice with the traditional term for kosher certification.\nThe initiative would create a process to certify that kosher meat and chicken were prepared in an environment where workers are paid fairly and on time, treated with dignity and receive adequate safety training.\n\"I believe that we, as Jews, when it comes to the food we are obligated to eat, should make sure it is produced in a way that meets the necessary standards of Jewish law and Jewish values,\" stated Morris Allen, a Minnesota rabbi who's chairing the commission established by the Rabbinical Assembly and United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.\nAlso sitting on the committee is Avram B. Lyon, a New Jersey resident, who also serves as executive director of the Jewish Labor Committee. He spoke about the commission's work last month at the University of Pennsylvania in a program sponsored by the Philadelphia office of the Jewish Labor Committee and Kol Tzedek, a Reconstructionist synagogue in West Philadelphia.\nLyon explained that the idea is that the Tsedek Heksher would serve as a supplement to -- and not a replacement for -- traditional certification of kosher meat, which is virtually always done under Orthodox auspices.\n\"The Talmud is rather explicit about the treatment of workers,\" he noted in an interview after the program. \"When looking into the problems that may or not exist in a plant, there's a whole series of things you want to look at.\"\nLyon stressed that the commission members are still figuring out what criteria will be used, and how deeply certifiers will have to dig to investigate conditions. It's also not clear whether the hechsher will just stick to labor issues, or if it will also take a page from the eco-kosher idea -- developed by leaders of the Jewish Renewal movement, including Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Philadelphia Rabbi Arthur Waskow -- and also examine a slaughterhouse's effect on the environment.\nAnother conundrum is just how deep certifiers would be asked to dig. In an industry where undocumented immigrants make up a large portion of the workforce, it's difficult to obtain information easily, and reliable safety statistics are hard to pin down, explained Lyon.\nHe could not provide a time frame for when the initiative might go into the next phase, nor could he offer specific details about how the process would work. He stressed that the commission is treading carefully, and trying to avoid creating acrimony between Orthodox authorities, particularly those in the business of kosher supervision, and the Conservative movement. This, of course, comes closely on the heels of the movement's decision to allow the ordination of gay rabbis -- a measure that put more distance between Conservative Judaism and its approach to Jewish law, and Orthodoxy.\nAt its upcoming annual convention in Boston, the Conservative movement's Rabbinical Assembly will vote on whether or not to support the efforts of the commission.\nAccording to Lyon, the story behind the commission begins in Postville, Iowa, home of Agriprocessors, the largest supplier of kosher meat in the country. That plant has already had its fair share of attention from both a book, Postville, and a 2004 controversy stirred by the release of slaughterhouse footage secretly filmed by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a move seen by many in the Orthodox world as an attack on the practice of kosher slaughtering.\nIn May 2006, the Forward published a story about poor working conditions at Agriprocessors; the Conservative movement decided to form a commission to investigate.\nThe commission did specify a number of safety issues and received a response from management that claimed these concerns would be addressed. The same commission also visited the Empire Poultry Plant in Mifflintown, Pa., and found conditions there to be far better. Late last year, the commission decided to expand the mission and explore the possibility of creating the hechsher.\n\"This is an issue on which the Conservative movement has an opportunity to be at the forefront of leadership,\" declared Allen, the Minnesota rabbi. \"Jews who keep kosher want to know that in their observance of kashrut, that they are doing the right thing. Jews want to feel good about their religious acts.\""}
{"content":"It was the same when he was two and I took him to a music class. While the other children sang and danced and itsy-bitsy-spidered their hands like crazy, my shy little Ben sat in my lap and refused to do anything more than timidly observe.\nBen is now eight. And while he’s definitely an introvert—some might still describe him as a little bit shy—he is very comfortable with himself, and even outgoing at times. He looks people in the eye when he talks to them, he raises his hand in class, and he even frequently gets loud and crazy when he’s with his friends—even in public. In fact, last week I noticed him showing off a silly dance in the dugout with his teammates.\nResearchers who study human personality tell us that shyness is to a large extent genetic. It’s actually a part of a person’s core makeup.\nHowever, as my husband and I learned with Ben, that doesn’t mean that shyness isn’t changeable to a significant degree. In fact, the way parents handle their child’s shyness has a big impact on how the child deals with that aspect of his or her personality, as well as how shy the child is later on.\nHere are a few guidelines to help you know how to best know how to respond to your child’s shyness.\nWatch your words.\nTalk about shyness as how your child feels, not who he or she is. For example, if your daughter is hiding behind your leg and refusing to say hello to Grandpa, you might be tempted to say something like, “Sorry, Grandpa. She’s shy.” Instead, tell your daughter, “You feel shy right now. That’s OK—you can say hello when you’re ready.” It’s a subtle difference, but saying “You feel” is much better than saying “You are,” because it names a momentary state, rather than the essence of your child’s being.\nAlso, keep in mind that being shy is a temperament issue. It’s neither good nor bad. It’s just part of who your daughter is, like her height or the color of her hair. So make sure that you’re not sending (verbal or nonverbal) messages that communicate that you don’t like this part of who she is.\nDon’t push too hard.\nResearch shows that kids whose parents push them too far, too quickly, end up withdrawing even more. Because shy children feel uncertainty and anxiety in certain social situations, when parents force them to participate or to do things they aren’t comfortable doing, it just makes them more anxious, making it less likely they’ll be willing to give it a try the next time. If your son is insisting that he doesn’t want to do something that feels terrifying to him, don’t force him. Make sure that he’s confident that you will help him feel safe. After all, it’s probably not that important that he take his turn at the piñata.\nOn the other hand, it’s important that you give your child opportunities to succeed in new situations. Help your little bashful one take gentle steps in the direction of achievement and accomplishment. Freely use the phrase “I’ll do it with you,” and say things like, “I know it’s hard (or you’re uncomfortable), but I’ll be with you. Let’s just give it a try.” A gentle nudge might include saying “Let’s just go take a look.”\nThere may be times when you need to pull back when you can sense that your child simply isn’t ready to do something. Then you can respond with lots of empathy and comfort: “Maybe next time, when you’re ready, we’ll try again.” But keep in mind that mastery of new experiences builds confidence, so be careful not to deprive your child of these opportunities by rescuing them too quickly.\nNotice and comment on even small triumphs. “Way to go! You got closer to watch the kids hit the piñata! Maybe next time you’ll want to take a swing.” Or, “I know you weren’t sure about it, but you tried it anyway! I’m proud of you.” Focus on your child’s effort, and the fact that he’s trying, not on whether or not he actually goes through with whatever you wanted him to do. The more you can encourage and support him, embracing him for who he is, the more he will believe in himself and take on challenges as he grows into who he’s supposed to be."}
{"content":"Darth Vader's Technical Difficulties\nPalm Desert Charter Middle School\nSTEM Promotional Videos\nEntry Age Group:\n8th grade and below\nOur video is about Darth Vader’s technical situation and injuries, and how STEM helps him recover from his fall in a pit of lava after his battle with Obi Guacamole.\nOur first scene is about Darth Vader’s suit breaking down. We solved this situation by hiring an engineer who helps us fix Darth Vader’s suit.\nThe second scene is about Darth Vader falling into a pit of lava, and because of this major event, he got a terrible burn that will affect the rest of his life. We solved this situation by hiring both a technician and a surgeon (doctor) to help make his suit more efficient to prevent these types of incidents, and to perform surgery on his flesh that got burned because of the lava."}
{"content":"The number of Americans suffering from contaminated food illness is increasing. According to a new report from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, tainted food outbreaks sicken approximately 48 million people every year.\nAs CNN reported, the group's report highlights a growing concern among food safety advocates. Despite the signing of the 2010 Food Safety Modernization Act, which aimed to hold food suppliers responsible for foodborne illness, outbreaks are getting worse. According to the report, the FDA has not been able to keep up with the increased demands for food inspections because of budget cuts for the Food and Drug Administration.\nRecent food recalls include moon pies, peanut butter, cookies and other foods linked to potential Salmonella contamination. Popcorn and some cheese products have been recalled due to possible contamination by Listeria. And in early October, a beef recall tied to potential E. coli contamination affected 30 states and Canada.\nTo avoid getting sick from foodborne illness outbreaks, be sure to check out our guide to keeping leftovers and view the essential tips for keeping food fresh in the slideshow above."}
{"content":"Southern Colorado will soon be home to 150 new wind turbines, but not everyone is happy about the proposal.\nResidents from Calhan showed up Thursday at the El Paso County commissioners meeting to express concerns about details of the plan.\nSome said the wind farm will be too close to their homes. Others said they are concerned about how large the turbines will be and how it may affect birds such as eagles and geese that fly through the area.\nSupporters of the project said it will create hundreds of jobs and pump millions of dollars into the local economy.\nCounty commissioners gave the controversial proposal the OK late Thursday night, after a 10-hour public meeting.\nThey'll break ground in March, and the turbines will be up and running by summer 2015. None of the turbines can be built any closer than a quarter-mile from homes that haven't signed agreements.\nKKTV firmly believes in freedom of speech for all and we are happy to provide this forum for the community to share opinions and facts. We ask that commenters keep it clean, keep it truthful, stay on topic and be responsible. Comments left here do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of KKTV 11 News.\nIf you believe that any of the comments on our site are inappropriate or offensive, please tell us by clicking “Report Abuse” and answering the questions that follow. We will review any reported comments promptly.powered by Disqus"}
{"content":"Posted 3:32 PM 6/6/2011 by Bonnie Markoff, DVM, ABVP Animal Care Clinic, San Luis Obispo\nThe first heat cycle in a dog is usually at 5-8 months of age, but can be as early as 4 months in some cases.\nDogs then cycle about 1-2 times a year. They have a very different cycle than people do.\nThe vast majority of veterinarians recommend spaying dogs and cats before they ever (More)\nANIMAL CARE CLINIC\n162 Cross Street\nSan Luis Obispo, CA 93401\nPhone: (805) 545-8212\n|Monday||7:30 am to 8:00 pm|\n|Tuesday||7:30 am to 6:00 pm|\n|Wednesday||7:30 am to 6:00 pm|\n|Thursday||7:30 am to 6:00 pm|\n|Friday||7:30 am to 6:00 pm|\n|Saturday||9:00 am to 3:00 pm|\n|Sunday||5:00 pm to 7:00 pm|"}
{"content":"Tucson-area snail same as other snail species\nTUCSON, Ariz. -- A terrestrial snail found in Arizona no longer is a candidate for federal endangered species protection.\nThe U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says that's because the Rosemont talussnail is the same species as the Santa Rita talussnail.\nThe Center for Biological Diversity had filed a petition in 2010 seeking protection for the Rosemont talussnail that it said lives only in the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson.\nFish and Wildlife spokesman Jeff Humphrey said Wednesday that identifying the snails requires an examination of soft body parts.\nScientists found no difference in the shapes or sizes of the male or female reproductive organs between the Santa Rita and the Rosemont talussnail.\nHumphrey says the Santa Rita snail is widespread and commonly found in southern Arizona and Sonora, Mexico."}
{"content":"Should Chlamydia be included in a feline vaccination program.... Jul 24 2014\n... and what does this disease do in cats?\nWhen Chlamydia infects a cat, the owner first notices their pet is sniffling and has a red, slightly swollen eye. In a few days both eyes are red and swollen. If allowed to continue, the infection can cause eyeball scarring and even pneumonia. Check with your vet about including Chlamydia in a feline vaccination program because this disease is somewhat\ncommon, is harmful to cats, is zoonotic, and the vaccine significantly reduces infection. Nutritionals that have spirulina or Norweigian Kelp also help reduce Chlamydial and viral infections.\n100% Made in the USA following strict FGSI food quality standards, Pet Factory's 100% American Beefhide chews provide unsurpassed quality combined with full flavor. Our 100% American Beefhide chews contain more and thicker fibers than any other rawhide dog chew. The result is a longer lasting chew with great American bred taste that will not only satisfy your pets, but also helps promote great oral hygiene by removing tartar and plaque. Available in Natural or a variety of flavors, 100% American Beefhide chews give dogs what they want and let you know you're providing the best possible chew for your pet.\nCaution: Not for human consumption. Select a chew large enough for your dog and supervise consumption. Discard any small pieces. Coatings are water soluble, but may stain indoor material."}
{"content":"By a unanimous vote in Church Council, a Golden Calf will be placed below the pulpit in the Main Sanctuary on June 1st, 1999. The calf will remain there until July 7th, marking the closing ceremony of Landover Baptist's 52nd Annual Levitical Law Week Celebration. Freehold Iowa Farmer, and council member, brother John Wilkins, was glad to offer recently born calf, Clara Bell. Her corpse will serve as the framework that will be dipped into a vat of molten gold. There is still some debate as to how the early Jews went about this practice. We are uncertain at this point as to whether or not Clara Bell will be placed into the scalding hot liquid metal while she is still breathing.\n\"We are giving everyone a taste of idolatry, before they actually have to pay for it,\" Rev. Deacon Fred stated at all 14 Wednesday evening services. He was speaking of Landover's upcoming 'Levitical Law Week' where church members are placed back under the complex system of laws enforced upon the early Jews, for a period of 7 days.. \"Members will be subject to all of the laws written in the book of Leviticus by God.\" Rev. Deacon Fred continued, \"You can look at the idol, you can touch the idol, you can even bow your head before the idol, but on July 1-7, anyone caught doing so will be placed under Dr. Jonathan Edwards' care. Under his care, you can expect to be subjected to chemically induced wasting diseases that will destroy your sight, and drain away your life.(Lev 26:18) If you return to the sanctuary and look at the idol again, you will have your home burned down, and be forced to eat the flesh of your sons and daughters (Lev 26:23-29). Folks, let's try to keep the casualty list down this year, and make it a wonderful celebration.\"\nThe golden calf is placed in the Sanctuary to provide Church members\nwith a 'virtual' experience. \"They will feel like they are going through\nthe same temptations that the early Jews went through,\" Pastor Smith remarked,\n\"When the 7th day of July is upon us, we expect to melt the gold from the\nidol, and dispose of the rotted carcass of Clara Bell. The gold will then\nbe cast into a 27 foot cross, that will be erected above the pulpit in\nthe east wing of Sanctuary 11A.\""}
{"content":"(a) This section covers the requirements for aerial service wires intended for aerial subscriber drops.\n(b) The aerial service wires can be either copper coated steel reinforced or nonmetallic reinforced designs.\n(c) For the copper coated steel reinforced design, the reinforcing members are the conductors.\n(1) The conductors are solid copper-covered steel wires.\n(2) The wire structure is completed by insulating the conductors with an overall extruded plastic insulating compound.\n(d) For the nonmetallic reinforced design, the conductors are solid copper individually insulated with an extruded solid insulating compound.\n(1) The insulated conductors are either laid parallel (two conductor design only) or twisted into pairs (a star-quad configuration is permitted for two pair wires).\n(2) The wire structure is completed by the application of nonmetallic reinforcing members and an overall plastic jacket.\n(e) All wires sold to RUS borrowers for projects involving RUS loan funds under §§ 1755.700 through 1755.704 must be accepted by RUS Technical Standards Committee “A” (Telecommunications). For wires manufactured to the specification of §§ 1755.700 through 1755.704, all design changes to an accepted design must be submitted for acceptance. RUS will be the sole authority on what constitutes a design change.\n(f) Materials, manufacturing techniques, or wire designs not specifically addressed by §§ 1755.700 through 1755.704 may be allowed if accepted by RUS. Justification for acceptance of modified materials, manufacturing techniques, or wire designs must be provided to substantiate product utility and long term stability and endurance."}
{"content":"Oak Park Journal Profiles Young Center's Maria Woltjen\nIn the trenches of the fight for U.S. immigration reform is Oak Parker Maria Woltjen.\nWith a dedicated staff of about 80 volunteer bi-lingual guardians ad litem (Child Advocates), she is fervently standing up as the federal immigration system for the best interests of a rapidly growing group of unaccompanied immigrant children.\nThese kids count on The Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights at the University of Chicago for support as they face the possibility of deportation alone, without their parents.\nAs its founder, Woltjen says the tens of thousands of these unaccompanied children have made incredible journeys from places like Bosnia, Romania, India, China, Central America, and other noncontiguous countries, hoping to find relief and protection from a homeland that is no longer safe."}
{"content":"David Boaz of the Cato Institute has come out in opposition to the Mississippi state flag. The Mississippi flag, you see, includes in one corner the St. Andrew’s cross, in particular, the battle flag of the Confederate States of America. (For more details on the dispute, from the side which Boaz opposes, visit FreeMississippi.org.\nHow enlightened and progressive of Boaz. Perhaps the United States can emulate the United Kingdom, which, in 1954, banned display of the Irish tricolor (the green, white, and orange flag of the Republic of Ireland so familiar around St. Patrick’s Day) in the English-occupied territory of Northern Ireland.\nIn his article, Boaz opines that\nAs long as the violence and cruelty of slavery remain a living memory to millions of Americans, symbols of slavery should not be displayed by American governments. Those who want to honor their brave ancestors who fought for Southern independence should fly the Confederate flag themselves, tend to Confederate graves and hold Southern Heritage picnics. They should not ask their fellow citizens to walk into a state capitol under a banner that proclaims the superiority of some citizens to others.\nIronically, I received a request for funding from the Cato Institute last night at home. It was slick, printed on glossy paper, and asked me if I wanted \"to work to restore freedom in America.\"\nInside of the brochure was a photo of reporters thronging Christine Todd Whitman, head of Bush II’s EPA and former governor of New Jersey, in the Hayek Auditorium at the Cato headquarters on Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, DC.\nI’m writing a PhD on Hayek. Christie Whitman is no Hayek. In short, I ripped the brochure up neatly and threw it out. And reading David Boaz’s piece on the Mississippi flag makes me glad — so very glad — that I did so.\nA question for Mr. Boaz: what flags flew while slaves were imported to the United States from the time the first slaves were brought to the American colonies until the South became a separate nation, say from the arrival of Africans at Jamestown, via Dutch traders, in 1619, until 1861?\nAnswer: the Union Jack (the British flag, or the St. George’s Cross — the English flag) and the Stars and Stripes.\nAnother question for Mr. Boaz: what ports did American slave ships call home?\nAnswer: Boston and other New England ports. Boston had an open-air slave market, where slaves were auctioned. The flag which flew over Boston, and has flown over Boston uninterrupted since roughly 1789, is the Stars and Stripes. The fact of Yankee slave trading, by the way, is not exactly \"revisionist,\" although it is largely hidden due to its embarrassment. About a year ago, Yankee Magazine ran a feature by a man descended from a Boston slave auctioneer, describing the man’s quest to find out where in the city the slave market had been. The reason that Yankees shipped slaves to America, but didn’t use slave labor, is economics: southern plantation agriculture required large numbers of laborers, while the rocky soil of New England did not.\nAdditionally, recall that the \"three-fifths compromise\" was a part of the US Constitution of 1789, and the US Supreme Court — under that Stars and Stripes, mind you — upheld the legality of the Fugitive Slave laws in the famous case of Dred Scott. Because of the federal government’s protection of slavery, Northern abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison and Lysander Spooner argued that the federal constitution was a deal with the Devil. Garrison, for example, urged the North to secede so as not to be associated with slavery.\nIf Boaz is consistent, the Stars and Stripes, Union Jack, and St. George’s Cross must be regarded as symbols of slavery. As late as 1964, the Stars and Stripes also \"proclaimed the superiority of some citizens to others,\" especially those who lived under Jim Crow. The doctrine was known as \"separate but equal.\"\nApparently unlike David Boaz, some Americans do not pledge allegiance to the Stars and Stripes because of the perceived racism of American society (the pledge, by the way, was written by a socialist).\nForgetting slavery for a moment, since the US Civil Rights Commission recently urged schools to drop American Indian mascots, perhaps the Commission should also call for a redesign of the Stars and Stripes, given the horrible way the federal government has treated the American Indians over the years.\nPerhaps Boaz would contend that the United States has stopped \"proclaiming the superiority of some citizens to others,\" and that to redesign or abolish the Stars and Stripes is therefore a mistake.\nThis argument, however, would undercut Boaz’s opposition to Confederate history. Given that the CSA ceased to exist after its military occupation by the USA, the CSA certainly has stopped committing whatever alleged evils it committed in the past.\nSlavery was legal in the USA, and it was legal in the CSA. Slavery, then, cannot mandate the obliteration of Confederate symbols while not at the same time mandating the obliteration of the symbols of the USA as well.\nWill Boaz now call for the elimination of Old Glory? To do so would be just as foolish as what Boaz is now urging in Mississippi.\nBoaz and the flag-banning crowd whose bandwagon he has joined distort history and perform a civic disservice by following the path of tyrants who outlaw unapproved symbols. To be precise, the error in outlawing the display of Confederate, Irish, or American flags is that such an action serves only to give credibility to the notion that the past is a simple matter of good and evil. An examination of history, however, should dispel such a childish notion.\nHuman history is populated by human beings. Human beings being human, they are sinful, fallible, and sometimes evil. The notion that every aspect of the Confederacy was evil — that every man, woman and child living below the Mason-Dixon line was evil — is patently stupid.\nEven if such a notion were not patently stupid, in other words, even if it were true that every Southern man, woman and child was a demon incarnate, occupied every waking hour with the torture and degradation of black slaves, the obliteration of Confederate symbols accomplishes nothing. To abolish all things Confederate cannot change the past, and it cannot in any way aid a reasoned debate over the nature and history of slavery whether in the Arab world or South America — which were the destinations for the vast majority of Africans who were sold into slavery — or in America (the destination for a comparatively small percentage of Africans sold into slavery).\nAmericans have a skewed view of slavery because of the accidental fact of the racial element. As noted on Africana.com,\nThe distinction between slave and master in Africa was not, as in the Americas, typically based on a distinction in race. But indicators such as name, language, scarification, dress, and manners all distinguished the identity and social status of slaves from those of their masters.\nAfricans could not base their ownership of other Africans on the distinction of race. Despite this fact, Africans enslaved other Africans. Race, then, is an accidental, as opposed to an inherent or necessary element of slavery; slavery can exist even when the master and the slave are of the same race. The American fixation on the racial element of slavery, apparently shared by Boaz, cannot aid in understanding the nature of slavery, as opposed to the small portion of \"the history of human slavery\" which is \"the history of slavery in America.\" (Perhaps the American view of slavery is simply a part of the general American fixation on all things American, as if Americans are the only people ever to have walked the earth).\nSadly, it must be noted that the end of slavery in Europe and America did not bring an end to slavery in Africa:\nthe world markets for slave labor and for the goods produced by slaves remained strong in the middle and late nineteenth century, and these markets supported slavery and slave trading in Africa. The European powers poised to invade the continent pointed to the persistence of African slavery to justify colonization. Thus the Berlin Conference of 1885, convened as an anti-slavery meeting, in fact set the rules for the European conquest of Africa.\nBetween 1890 and 1940 the European colonial powers strengthened their grip on African lands and African societies and preached a doctrine of anti-slavery. The result was not, however, immediate emancipation. Large-scale slave raiding came to an end because the European powers had monopolized the use of armed force. But slavery itself continued for millions of Africans until the eve of World War II.\nThe notion that slavery ended with the Abe Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation is utterly mistaken. Instead, Africa spent the next 100 years under the boot of European imperialism.\nAdditionally, regarding the slave trade in the Arab world and India, Africana.com notes that\nSlave exports across the Indian Ocean, the Sahara, and the Red Sea reached their peak in about 1850, then declined at varying rates until the end of the century. During this time, some enslaved Africans were carried across the Red Sea to build an expanded pilgrimage site at Mecca, in Saudi Arabia; others were carried on steamers through the Suez Canal, bound for Istanbul and Izmir.\nWill David Boaz seek to redesign or abolish the flags and symbols of Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and most of the European nations as well, due to their historic connections to the slave trade and the colonization of Africa? Don’t hold your breath.\nMr. Dieteman is an attorney in Erie, Pennsylvania, and a PhD candidate in philosophy at The Catholic University of America.\n© 2001 David Dieteman"}
{"content":"In cooperation with The Churchill Centre, Washington, D.C., the Library of Congress presented two symposia.:\n- February 19, 2004 - Churchill and the Three Presidents (Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and Dwight D. Eisenhower) - view program for full-day symposium\n- June 1, 2004 - a half-day symposium explored new scholarship on Sir Winston Churchill.\nPlease call 202-707-9203 for further information.\nThursday, February 19, 2004\nThe Mumford Room, James Madison Building\nSymposiarch: James W. Muller\nJames Muller is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, where he has taught since 1983, and Academic Chairman of The Churchill Centre. Educated at Harvard University, he served as a White House Fellow in 1983-84.\n9:00–9:15 a.m. - Welcome\nProsser Gifford, Director of Scholarly Programs, Library of Congress\nWilliam C. Ives, President, The Churchill Centre\n9:15–10:45 a.m. - Churchill and Roosevelt\nPiers Brendon: \"Churchill, Roosevelt, and Empire\"\nPiers Brendon served for six years as the Keeper of the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge, U.K., which holds the papers of Sir Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, and other eminent figures. Brendon is a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge. He is currently writing a history of the British Empire.\nWarren Kimball: \"Churchill and Roosevelt: Joined at the Hip, by History, or Historians?\"\nWarren F. Kimball is the Robert Treat Professor of History at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey and, for 2002-2004, is the Mark Clark Visiting Distinguished Professor History at The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina.\n10:45–11:15 a.m. - Morning coffee\n11:15 a.m.–1:00 p.m. - Churchill and Truman\nArnold A. Offner: \"Churchill Without Tears: President Truman and the Ambivalence of Anglo-American Relations\"\nArnold A. Offner is the Cornelia F. Hugel Professor of History at Lafayette College and past president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.\nDavid Reynolds: \"Churchill and Truman: The Struggle for History\"\nDavid Reynolds is a Professor of International History at Cambridge University. He is completing a study of Churchill’s memoirs of the Second World War, to be published in 2005.\n1:00–2:30 p.m. - Luncheon break\n2:30–4:15 p.m. - Churchill and Eisenhower\nKlaus W. Larres: \"Unequal Relations: Churchill and Eisenhower during the Cold War\"\nKlaus W. Larres holds the Royal Holloway Chair in International Relations and Foreign Policy at the University of London. In 2002-03 he was the Henry A. Kissinger Professor in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Library of Congress.\nJohn Ramsden: \"Old and Dear Friends, Old and New Worlds\"\nJohn Ramsden is Professor of Modern History at Queen Mary, University of London, where he has taught since 1972, and Director of the Graduate School in Humanities and Social Sciences. Ramsden is a member of The Churchill Centre Board of Academic Advisers, serving as vice chairman since 2003."}
{"content":"Here are my unscientific observations based on the repointing project... Opinions only\nPlastic tips seem to have been developed to prevent point deformation of cartridges in the magazine after the first shot. This then caught on as they are pretty sexy looking and caught on with shooters\nPlastic tips are simple to form and incorporate into bullet forming. They are very light and my opinion is that they contribute very little to bullet weight or stability considerations.\nPlastic tips are very uniform thus bullet to bullet bc should be very consistent.\nPlastic tips are relatively blunt thus bc will be lower than if the same weight hollow point bullet had a meplat diameter of 0.025\"\nThe the repointing project trims the jacket back a specific amount, removes the plastic stub and inserts a brass tip with a meplate less than 0.030\" and a weight of around 11 grains with a significant increase in overall length length.\nThe final bullet weight is increased a few tenths under 10 grains.\nBC is increased by a published and real world tested just under 0.500 to a calculated estimate 0.660. Field testing is sporadically underway with definite indications of significant bc increase.\nOut of my 8 twist barrel @ 3500 MV stability doesn't appear to be an issue.\nHowever, process tolerances definitely make a difference.\nHere's a pic to feed your mind processing a bit.\nThe 159.8 grain repointed bullet compared to the 150 Ballistic Tip and a 195 grain Wildcat."}
{"content":"Pros: Beautiful art, sophisticated presentation of oft-derided medium/pass-time\nCons: Not for beginners, author problems, said 'beautiful art' needs larger photography\nThe Bottom Line: Overly ambitious book manages to succeed in introducing the reader to a more sophisticated level of 'dollhouses,' presented in a jumbled yet inspiring fashion.\nThe Van-Gogh-inspired cozy bedroom on the cover of 'The Art of the Miniature: Small Worlds and How to Make Them' makes for an inviting book, and further browsing reveals 128 glossy pages, almost all with fascinating photographs. An alluring buy.\nFor reasons I initially couldn't quite put my finger on, I found myself flipping through this half-text half-photograph volume repeatedly. Part of this was because the 'small worlds' -- truly elaborate miniature scenes from galleries rather than toystores -- demanded and deserved close scrutiny. Literally. This would be a fabulously successful art book if the photographs of the dioramas were full-page with minimal, technical commentary.\nThe other need to re-read was thanks to Jane Freeman, author of 'The Art of the Miniature,' acclaimed miniaturist, very mediocre and self-involved author. Aiming for instruction and display of a serious undertaking is simply too ambitious a project for a 128-page book; the beginner will glean very little thanks to a paucity of instruction crossed with a very distracting mish-mash of examples. A frequent distraction is Freeman's references to parts of the works that can't be seen in the actual photographs. A frequent irritation is Freeman's beliefs being paramount: do not use figurines because she and artists W, I, Y, X and Z do not, because it is Better.\nThere are some mild jolts in the photographs, along with a plethora of good ideas. The good ideas are often hidden; which see the urge to re-read/look closely at the photographs. The 'jolts' are amusements: things you would not have imagined on your own for a dollhouse that are suddenly obvious materials, and the odd flaws in the representative 'small worlds.' Freeman draws a lot of conclusions, but it may be safer to draw your own. A heaping of grosgrain ribbon in a scene would look quite different if I did not have grosgrain ribbon periodically tying down my hair or stitched into my sweater -- lesson -- if an object is going to be overly familiar to anybody, disguise it. Large plastic objects stick out in miniature, just as they would in real life.\nFurther fussing: Freeman is limited in trades, so to speak. She often mentions sending things to be made by a carpenter, she can't do metalwork, and so on, and her work would be greatly enhanced by expanding -- well, anyway, it looks as though a MFA does not guarantee wide skill. I found myself wishing my shop teacher had not been a raging paedophiliac pervert (hello, Barry Waller of Nepean, Ontario) so I might have learned something in the plastics section of the course. Almost any trade or craft will greatly enhance the ability to create 'miniature worlds,' expanding as it will your choice of materials.\nDespite all the fussing, I can't fault 'The Art of the Miniature' too much. Nice as larger pictures with multiple angles would be, I am grateful it is not a wildly overpriced coffee table book. It's remarkably inspirational; after paging through, all manner of household miscellany seems to offer itself up for adaptation. If you buy the book, buy shampoo with a plain but attractive cap: you will want to glue in some fake foliage and turn it into a plant pot...\nWhat did you think of this review?\nFun to Read\nWhat's your opinion on The Art of the Miniature: Small Worlds a...?"}
{"content":"Start learning with our library of video tutorials taught by experts. Get started\nViewers: in countries Watching now:\nIn this course, author Ian Robinson introduces Adobe After Effects CS6 and the world of animation, effects, and compositing. Chapter 1 introduces the six foundations of After Effects, which include concepts like layers, keyframes, rendering, and moving in 3D space. The rest of the course expands on these ideas, and shows how to build compositions with layers, perform rotoscoping, animate your composition with keyframes, add effects and transitions, and render and export the finished piece. Two real-world example projects demonstrate keying green screen footage and creating an advanced 3D composition with the expanded 3D toolset, an important addition to CS6.\nIt is keyframe animation that's really at the core of about 90% of the After Effects projects I've ever worked on. And in case you need the definition again, keyframes are just recordings of the settings of one specific parameter at a specific point in time, and there are actually several ways to create keyframes inside of After Effects. So let's look at our project here. You notice, if you double-click the Keyframes comps just to make sure everything is open, we have the kinetEco logo and all the layers are set up in our comp already.\nWe have pre-comps for each one of the words and we also have individual layers for each one of the objects. Now these happen to be Illustrator files and everything is pretty much already set up for animation, so all we're going to do is animate how these little circles appear into the screen and then we'll fade the words on one after the other. So this is going to be the final resting place of everything in this animation. Now to get started, let's select Layer 4, the Yellow circle layer, and we'll adjust the position keyframes to begin the animation process.\nSo press P on your keyboard. This just optimizes our timeline so we're only looking at the Position parameter. Now with Position open, we'll animate backwards. I can go to 1 second here on the timeline and record my first keyframe. To record the keyframe, go to the Position parameter and click on the Stopwatch. See, I'm saying backwards because we're starting at the end. Notice I'm at 1 second, that's going to be where our animation ends for this one specific object.\nIf we move our current-time indicator back to the beginning, 0 frames, now we can go ahead and move this off the screen. So to see things better, let's go ahead and expand our canvas here just a little bit so I can move this all the way off the screen. And just so I can see Layer 4, I'll hover my mouse over the timeline and scroll up until I see Layer 4. Now since Layer 4 is already selected, I can click and drag it up. After I start dragging, I'm going to hold down Shift, and that will snap the movement along the Y axis.\nDrag it up until it goes all the way off the edge of the canvas. Now you'll notice we have two keyframes and we have an animation. Let's go ahead and press 0 on our keypad, and as you can see, the first circle is animated. Now I'm going to stop playback just by pressing the Spacebar. And instead of having to recreate all of the keyframe animations for each one of these circles, what I want to do is Copy and Paste these keyframes onto the other objects. Let's see what happens if I select the position keyframes for this first yellow circle.\nTo select all the keyframes quickly, just click on the word Position in the timeline and now you'll notice both of these keyframes are highlighted bright yellow. If we scroll down to our blue circle here, press Command+V, or just go up and say Edit > Paste, notice nothing's happening. So let's select our Position keyframe and press Command+C to Copy, or Edit > Copy. If we go down to the Blue layer, we can go to Edit > Paste, now when we press P on the Blue layer, look, our keyframes are pasted all the way down here on the timeline.\nWell that's a problem. And also, notice, now the circle is gone. Well that's a problem too. So let's start with the obvious, the first one; this down the timeline, not so much. We don't want to do that. And basically what you need to do is not have your current-time indicator down the timeline when you paste. See, whenever you paste keyframes they'll paste exactly where the current-time indicator is. So let's just Command+Z, undo that last command. Now the other problem, see, this Position keyframe, it's actually not only recording the position of this object on the Y axis, but it also recorded it on the X axis.\nSo what we need to do is just copy the Y axis of these position keyframes. I'm going to expand this view up here a little bit. And to do this, select the Position parameter and right-click. Now if you go to Separate Dimensions, you'll notice I have keyframes for X position and Y position. Now since the Y position already matches for all these other layers, all we have to do is select the Y position keyframes just by clicking on it, and say Command+C or Ctrl+C on Windows, and I'm going to press Home to make sure that I've moved back to the beginning of the timeline.\nAnd now, if we press Command+V, you notice it automatically split the position keyframes and applied that set of keyframes to that new parameter. So we can do the exact same thing for Green here. So let's press Home and I'm going to say Command+V, and now that's going to move down. Now if I want to move these so they kind of fall one after the other, all we have to do is just slide the keyframes in the timeline. So I'll just expand my timeline view here just a little bit and select the Y position keyframes for Layer 2.\nInstead of just selecting the Y position keyframes, go ahead and select Layer 5 and just click and drag that layer to start further down the timeline. See, since the object is starting off the canvas already, I'm just scrolling out with my mouse, nobody is going to know whether it existed before this point in time or not. So let's do the same thing with the Green layer. I'm going to press U to open up its animated parameters, and that shows me just the Y position keyframes, which I pasted, and I'll just drag down the timeline here.\nIf we press 0, you can see 1, 2, 3. Now we're going to start speeding things up. You already know how to break out keyframes and copy them and paste them, let me show you how to actually animate multiple objects at once. It's pretty straightforward. Let's select Layer 7 through 9. Click on the first layer, Layer 7, and hold down Shift and click on 9. Now we can go ahead and press P to open up the Position parameter. There's a pretty neat shortcut you can use to automatically create keyframes for specific parameters at any time, and basically the way that works, instead of just pressing P to open up the Position, what you want to do is position your current-time indicator where you want to set your first keyframe.\nI want the motion of these objects to end at 1 second. So I'm going to move my current time indicator to 1 second, and now I'm going to press Option+P. And what that does, holding down Option or Alt on Windows, it sets the keyframe for whatever parameter you hit the shortcut for next. So P is the shortcut for Position. If you press Home, in order to move all these down, all you have to do is click and drag on the Y parameter. And I'm going to click and drag to the right until they go all the way off screen.\nNotice, since I had all three layers selected, when I clicked and dragged on one Y parameter, it moved all of them. So to ripple this down, all we have to do is just click and drag on the layer, click and drag on the layer. So now if we press 0, you see they all pop down and now all we need to do is add the Fade for each of the words. So to do that, we can just select our first word, which is Connect, and move our playhead to where we want our first keyframe.\nHere, let's go ahead and set it right at the end of this animation, so right about 2 second 5 frames. And we can press Option+T, that will set the keyframe. Now I want to change this parameter because I don't want it to start at 100%. So I'll change it down to 0. Now we have our keyframe set and let's have this fade up over 1 second. So to move down 1 second in the timeline, I'm just going to click on the number here in the timeline and press +100.\nThat's going to move down 1 second. And now to have this fade up to set the second keyframe, just click and drag on the value for Opacity. So I'm going to click and drag it to the right and set it to 100. Now to apply these keyframes to the subsequent layers, all we have to do is select both Opacity keyframes. I'm going to do that in the timeline just by clicking and drawing with a Lasso here, and since I want to stagger how these fade in, I'm going to move my current-time indicator to about halfway in between and select Eco and press-- actually I need to copy those.\nSo with our current-time indicator moved, that's fine, just go ahead and draw a Lasso over both the keyframes and press Command+C or Ctrl+C to Copy. Now we can select Layer 1 and Command+V or Ctrl+V to Paste. And again, if I press U, that will open up the Animated parameter for that layer, and let's do the same thing for ink here. Let's move down the timeline with our current-time indicator and press Command+V or Ctrl+V, and again with U, you can see how that's set up.\nSo let's preview our entire animation. Press Home on your keyboard. I'm going to deselect all the layers here, and change my Magnification to fit up to 100 and just kind of give a little bit more room here, and press 0 on my keyboard. So as you can see, we've now created our first keyframe animation of the entire logo animation.\nThere are currently no FAQs about After Effects CS6 Essential Training.\nAccess exercise files from a button right under the course name.\nSearch within course videos and transcripts, and jump right to the results.\nRemove icons showing you already watched videos if you want to start over.\nMake the video wide, narrow, full-screen, or pop the player out of the page into its own window.\nClick on text in the transcript to jump to that spot in the video. As the video plays, the relevant spot in the transcript will be highlighted."}
{"content":"Learn 3D rendering to bring models and scenes to life with lighting, shadows, reflections, and global illumination. Includes workflows for both scanline and raytraced rendering in Maya, CINEMA 4D, 3ds Max, Blender, and more.\nGet up and running with Showcase, the tool for presenting architectural and product designs to clients and collaborators.\n“As a teacher, I respect the way that your tutorials are hands-on and interactive. They are quick and to-the-point, and the teachers you have chosen are patient and concise.” —Joshua M.\nmore from our members »"}
{"content":"Click any word in a definition or example to find the entry for that word\nWhat's the difference between these two computers?\nThere's a big difference in the attitudes of town and country people.\nThere are subtle differences in their arrangement of the music.\nthe significant difference in sound quality between CDs and records\nThe fundamental difference between John and Jake is their attitudes to money.\nThe same car costs £500 less here, which is quite a difference!\nThe winner received 2365 votes, and the runner-up 2348 – a difference of only 17 votes.\nDespite this age difference, they fell in love.\nThere's a world of difference between liking someone and wanting to marry them.\ntrying to smooth out differences between them\nJoe and I have had our differences, but we work well together.\nThe two parties agreed to settle their differences.\nJournalists were told the talks had broken down because of irreconcilable differences.\nThe fact that I can now organize my own time makes a big difference.\nHaving someone to talk to made all the difference to my mother.\nThis is the British English definition of difference. View American English definition of difference.\nold and in bad condition, or no longer effective"}
{"content":"An Online Azores Map\nAre you looking for an Azores map? I have put a map of Azores below for your convenience. And scroll past the maps for links to a map of each island.\nAs you can see by the map below, there are nine islands that make up the Azores Archipelago. The Islands to the west are Flores and Corvo. The most eastern (and southern) Islands are Sao Miguel and Santa Maria. And the central group includes Sao Jorge, Pico, Faial, Graciosa, and Terceira.\nImage from Wikipedia Commons\nThese nine Azores Islands span quite a distance from each other. So if you go to the Azores for a week plan on visiting just one, or maybe two, of the islands. Each island is worth at least a few days on its own. I have been content with two weeks at a time on San Miguel. I have never run out of sights to see and places to explore.\nThis next map allows you to zoom in and scroll around using the tools on the upper left side of the map. And you can zoom out to see the Azores location. These tools allow you to see the map of any part of the islands that you wish to focus on.\nMaps of the Azores Islands\nTo see a map of any of the islands, click the appropriate link:\nIn the future I will add a link so that you can obtain a map of the Azores to take with you to the islands. If you would like to know about this, or any other updates on the site, please sign up for Azores newsletter. You will also be able to obtain other maps of each island.\nLeave the Azores Map and visit the Magical Azores Islands home page."}
{"content":"By Jeanne LeFlore\nMembers of the Local Emergency Planning Committee talked about staging a large-scale wildfire training exercise during their meeting on Wednesday.\nThe Pittsburg County committee met for a regular monthly meeting at the Southeast Expo Center.\nDuring the meeting, McAlester and county Emergency Management Director Kevin Enloe announced that planning will begin in the next few weeks for the largest-ever disaster training event in Pittsburg County.\nHe said the event will simulate a large-scale wildfire in the Kincaid Hills area.\n“There is a real likelihood of something like this coming into fruition, and we need to be ready,” Enloe said.\nDuring the exercise, local emergency personnel such as firefighters, ambulance drivers and paramedics, and police are encouraged to take part as if a disaster is taking place, according to Enloe. As part of the exercise, staged structure fires, and simulated injuries to and deaths of residents and firefighters are planned. The local hospital and other agencies are expected to take part, he said.\nAlthough the events are carefully planned out, details are not revealed until they take place, Enloe said, to better test emergency responses.\n“It will give everyone a real eye-opening experience,” he said.\nAfter the training exercise, participants will gather for a “Hot Wash” to go over what they learned and what could be done differently, according to Enloe.\nThe LEPC meets at 2 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month at the Southeast Expo Center. The meetings are open to the public.\nContact Jeanne LeFlore at firstname.lastname@example.org."}
{"content":"Public Health & Policy\nThe FDA has approved a new silicone breast implant for augmentation in women ages 22 and up, and for reconstruction in women of all ages, the agency said.\nIt's the third silicone implant approved in the U.S., and Santa Barbara, Calif.-based manufacturer Sientra will have to conduct postmarketing studies to assess long-term safety and risk of rare diseases.\nThe caution spurs from an FDA review released last year that found a possible link between breast implants and a rare form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. It uncovered about three dozen cases of anaplastic large-cell lymphoma in women with breast implants; most of the cases involved silicone-filled devices.\nThe agency followed up with a report six months later showing silicone implants didn't increase the risk of breast cancer, reproductive abnormalities, or other problems, but the lymphoma link was still under investigation and implants were tied to local complications and often needed to be replaced within 10 years.\nSilicone implants in Europe and Latin America made headlines earlier this year when those from French manufacturer Poly Implant Prostheses were found to have been made of industrial grade silicone, rather than medical grade. Those implants also had an unusually high rupture rate. They were never sold in the U.S.\nAfter its review last year, the FDA said women with implants should have regular checkups and pay attention to any changes in their breasts.\nIn a statement announcing the new approval, William Maisel, MD, MPH, deputy director for science in the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, echoed that earlier warning.\n\"It's important to remember that breast implants are not lifetime devices,\" Maisel said in the statement. \"Women should fully understand risks associated with breast implants before considering augmentation or reconstruction surgery, and recognize that long-term monitoring is essential.\"\nHe noted, however, that data on silicone implants \"continue to demonstrate a reasonable assurance of safety and effectiveness.\"\nStill, Sientra will have to follow an original cohort of 1,788 patients -- the data on which final approval was based -- for an additional seven years, and will also have to conduct a 10-year study of 4,782 women receiving the implants to assess long-term local complications and other disease outcomes including rheumatoid arthritis and breast and lung cancer.\nThe agency is also requiring an additional five case-control studies looking at associations with rare diseases, including rare connective tissue disease, neurological disease, brain cancer, cervical/vulvar cancer, and lymphoma.\nThe FDA said the initial 1,788-patient trial had an expected number of complications and outcomes similar to those seen with other implants, including a tightening of the area around the implant, reoperation, implant removal, uneven appearance, and infection."}
{"content":"Caribou Mountain prospect, Mount Pisgah District, Bonneville Co., Idaho, USA\nPorphyry copper deposit.\nReferences- Hunstman, J.R. (1984): Caribou Mountain: a porphyry copper deposit in southeastern Idaho. Economic Geology 79, 748-754.\n- Singer, D.A., Berger, V.I., and Moring, B.C. (2008): Porphyry copper deposits of the world: Database and grade and tonnage models, 2008. US Geological Survey Open-File Report 2008-1155.\n18 entries listed. 13 valid minerals.\nThe above list contains all mineral locality references listed on mindat.org. This does not claim to be a complete list. If you know of more minerals from this site, please register so you can add to our database. This locality information is for reference purposes only. You should never attempt to visit any sites listed in mindat.org without first ensuring that you have the permission of the land and/or mineral rights holders for access and that you are aware of all safety precautions necessary.\nThis page is currently not sponsored. To sponsor this page click here.\n|Fade toolbar when not in focus||Fix toolbar to bottom of page|\n|Hide Social Media Links|\n|Slideshow frame delay||seconds|\nLocality Updated: Hangha, Kenema District, Eastern Province, Sierra LeoneFrom Dana Slaughter, 24th Jul 2014 03:40:45"}
{"content":"spellbinds is a valid word in this word list. For a definition, see the external dictionary links below.\nThe word \"spellbinds\" uses 10 letters: B D E I L L N P S S.\nNo direct anagrams for spellbinds found in this word list.\nAdding one letter to spellbinds does not form any other word in this word list.Words within spellbinds not shown as it has more than seven letters.\nTry a search for spellbinds in these online resources (some words may not be found):\nWiktionary - OneLook Dictionaries - Merriam-Webster - Google Search\nEach search will normally open in a new window.\nAll words formed from spellbinds by changing one letter\nBrowse words starting with spellbinds by next letter"}
{"content":"by Reb Gutman Locks @ Mystical Paths\nThis question keeps coming up. Does G-d know what we are going to choose, and if so, are we really free to choose what we want? If He already knows what is going to happen, aren’t our choices already set? If so, how can there be free will!\nA prophet might know the future. For instance, he could know that Israel is about to fail at something, and G-d has sent him to warn us. But if he knows that we are going to fail, why bother to warn us? If he knows that it is going to happen, then it is already set, and we cannot do anything about it. This seemingly proves that we do not have free will!\nThis is, in fact, the Eastern belief of karma. They say, whatever you did in the past must come back to you. Therefore, they conclude, do not do anything!\nThis is not the Torah’s teaching. Yes, the Torah teaches mida keneged mida (portion across from portion), that what you do will come back to you; but the Torah also teaches that we have free will. We are taught that no matter what is set to come, we, with our deeds can reverse that decision and turn our future to the good. This is why G-d sent prophets to warn us.\nSo, even though G-d knows what is set to come, and He knows what we are going to choose, still, we are free to change our minds, and most importantly, our deeds and choose to do something else instead. And, of course, G-d knows that we were going to make that change, too.\nHow does this affect our lives today? Why hasn’t the Redemption come? Obviously, its time has not yet come. But if we have to wait for its time, why do anything to try to bring it? If it is set for a certain date, shouldn’t we just sit back and wait peacefully.\nNo. The Redemption is set to come by a certain date, and no matter what, it will not come a second later than that moment. But… it could come earlier. If we use our free will, and do the proper deeds, then we can make it happen now. This is our free will, and it is one of the many differences between the Torah and the East.\nThe practical aspect of this difference is, since they feel that they cannot change anything, they say, “Let go… detach.” And since we know that we can change the world, we say, “get involved… make the world a better place.” Not only will you enjoy yourself more, and not only will you reduce suffering, you might even add that tiny drop that was needed to bring the final Redemption right now!"}
{"content":"Meteorites play a role in Minnesota's mineral wealth. And some meteorites are more valuable than gold. The problem is finding them, according to University of Minnesota earth sciences professor and meteorite expert Calvin Alexander.\n\"Something on the order of 10 fist-sized meteorites or larger hit Minnesota every year,\" Alexander said.\nIf you find the rare kind -- pieces of space rock from, say, the moon or Mars, your ship has come in.\nRare meteorites fetch prices much higher than gold; in some cases 20 times higher.\n\"There are a group of very rich people who like to buy meteorites, just to have them so nobody else has them,\" said Alexander.\nBut Minnesota is not a lucrative state for meteorite hunters, because \"there's just lots and lots of rocks out there.\"\nCalvin Alexander, 68, is a tall, white-haired native of Oklahoma. He's been a professor at the University of Minnesota since 1973.\nAlexander's research includes the study of moon rocks, and he's been on a few meteorite hunts.\n\"Unfortunately, none of them have been successful.\"\nHe frequently gets calls from hopeful people who want him to look at a rock they've found.\n\"On the order of 10,000 people have probably walked in over the last 40 years, and four of them have had meteorites,\" he said.\nAnd Alexander says two of those four were found someplace else, not in Minnesota.\nThe problem with meteorite hunting in Minnesota is that the state's landscape and geology are littered with rocks that make meteorite hunting a fool's errand, with one exception -- the Red River Valley, in the northwestern part of the state.\n\"It's perfectly flat land with no rocks in it.\"\nThat's where the Fisher meteorite, one of the state's most famous, was found back in 1894.\nAnother famous Minnesota meteorite was found in Anoka, back in the 1960s, when a contractor digging a utility hole in a backyard clanged into a bowling ball-sized rock.\nAlexander said the homeowner kept the rock, but didn't do anything about it.\n\"It sat on his porch for 26 years,\" said Alexander. \"And finally his wife told him, 'find out what the blankety-blank thing is, or get it off my porch.'\"\nHe did, and it was a meteorite. It's now in the meteorite collection at the U of M.\nMeteorites crashed into the news in late April, when observers said a car-sized space rock crashed into an area of California that in 1849 was the scene of that state's gold rush.\nThe event set off a rush of meteorite hunters and reporters to the scene. There were photos of adults and children scooping up bottle cap sized pieces of the meteorite.\nWith visions of dollar signs before them, the meteorite hunters advised the residents to wrap the pieces in foil to protect them from disintegrating and place them in a safe deposit box.\nScientific interest in meteorites languished for most of human history with the view that rocks could not fall out of the sky. The exceptions, Alexander notes, were the Chinese and the Romans who recognized the existence of celestial objects hitting the planet.\nThe world's collection of meteorites more than doubled due to soil erosion that occurred in the Great Plains in the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s, according to Alexander. Relentless winds carrying away soil particles revealed space rocks that had fallen to earth over the years.\nBy the 1960s, when Alexander was doing his doctoral dissertation on meteorites, scientists were increasingly interested in the forces that created our solar system. It was a puzzle that could be solved in part by more careful examination of the composition of meteorites; the leftovers, if you will, of the formation of the universe.\nThe explosion in meteorite prices has put the rocks out of reach for most scientists. Many of the meteorites used for research, Alexander said, come from the so-called blue ice field of Antactica -- which is actually a desert -- where receeding ice reveals meteorites that fell to earth long ago.\nCountries including the United States have placed Antarctica off limits to for-profit meteorite hunters, according to Alexander.\nThat's not the case with the sandless deserts of north Africa, which is another meteorite-rich area of the planet.\nAlexander said meteorites have several characteristics that distinguish them from ordinary rocks.\n\"They look kind of like -- when you look on the inside of them -- like low-grade concrete,\" he said. \"They have this black fusion crust.\"\nThat black crust forms when the space rock hits the earth's atmosphere at thousands of miles an hour. The friction bakes the surface of the meteorite.\nA distinctive feature of meteorites, not readily detectable to the eyeball, is a fairly high nickel content.\nAnd that brings us to a geological debate about Minnesota's mineral wealth: Where did the nickel deposits in the northeastern part of the state, which are increasingly coveted by mining companies, come from?\nGeologists generally agree on part of the answer -- that a huge meteorite struck about 1.8 billion years ago in an area that is now Sudbury, Ontario.\nAlexander says that meteorite was so big and powerful that it punched through the earth's crust, and a large volume of nickel-rich magma bubbled up, leaving deposits in what is now northeastern Minnesota.\nBut Alexander also believes the splatter from that disintegrating nickel-rich meteorite accounts for a portion of the deposits.\n\"I'm a space cadet from way back. I think they're probably mining at least some fraction of asteroidal nickel.\""}
{"content":"Malware makers target Windows 8 – Fake AV and phising\nWhile Windows 8 isn’t out for a week yet, malware makers are trying to ride the wave of publicity Microsoft’s latest OS gets. Anti-virus company TrendMicro has posted two security threats on their blog that specifically target Windows 8. One is a fake anti-virus dialog that is shown when visiting malicious websites and which shows fake virus results. Of course the scammers urge you to install their paid software to get rid of the viruses. Many users get afraid of the warning and actually will, like they also did on other Windows versions.\nIt’s clear that this fake anti-virus is specifically made to target Windows 8 users as the dialog says: ‘Win 8 Security System’ .\nThe other one is a phishing mail that tries to lure you to a website where you can download Windows 8 for free. And instead of the actual download the scammers ask for personal details such as an e-mail address and name that can be sold on the underground market for cyber-criminals.\nThere are 3 comments\n- MyCE Senior Member\n- Posted on: 02 Nov 12 01:44\nFortunately, Windows 8 comes with a complete security solution built-in. Also, many manufactures and retailers like to bundle a trial version of some security suite, like McAfee, or Norton.\n- MyCE Die Hard\n- Posted on: 02 Nov 12 13:49\nLike Mina inviting in Count Dracula - once she lets him in, it's all over.\nMany AVs use their own proper names in the Active Window Title Bar. So, if I've got AVG Anti-Virus installed, I'll see virus-alerts with \"AVG AntiVirus\" printed in the active-windows title bar. If I see something else, then I know it's a fake alert.\nMicrosoft's Windows Defender and Security Essentials didn't use those exact spellings on their true alerts. Not in the past. Maybe their Win8 programmers discovered \"precision\" and \"correctness\" to be useful.\nOr maybe not. We'll see.\nThe Bleeping Computer has a huge array of hijacker names that have been used, and almost all of them are worthy of tricking more than a few users in their web.\nI'm not sure how an OS can defeat these hijackers when the nonchalant user is tricked into 'letting them in' but it seems like an OS should be able to detect changes to its core components and offer some solution. Unfortunately, that will always result in some UserID agreeing to the changes - and if that's the HiJacker User, well, then...\n\"Come right in.\"\n(I have laughed at the several articles in the past month talking about Win8's \"security\" and \"invulnerabiliteis\", and especially, \"the lack of virus attacks.\" Yeah. Riiiight. Before Day One. Uh huh. Next summer, we'll see \"Win8 has more Virus Attacks than Win7\" articles. Meanwhile, Win98-SE will be among the least-attacked Win OS's. du-uh.\n- New Member\n- Posted on: 02 Nov 12 15:17\nYou have a complementary article on Teckweek :\nMost popular headlines\n- Mon 21 Jul 09:07 by Bavo Luysterborg\nMyce managed to get 2 new Windows Threshold screenshots, one shows the new start...\n- Sat 19 Jul 05:07 by Kerry Brown\nAfter four years of discussions between media companies and internet service pro...\n- Mon 21 Jul 05:07 by Kerry Brown\nWestern Digital is expanding its line of NAS (network attached storage) drives, ...\n- Thu 17 Jul 11:07 by DoMiN8ToR\nMicrosoft is planning to lay off 18,000 employees in one year, of which likely 1...\n- Wed 23 Jul 01:07 by Kerry Brown\nVuze is a well known BitTorrent company, whose primary torrent client has evolve..."}
{"content":"State lawmakers say they will ask tough questions about the state's strategy to create new jobs through incentives. Florida offers up-front money to businesses in that promise new jobs.\nGovernor Scott and other supporters of our incentive strategy say it helps attract new businesses to our state and is fueling our recovery. But critics point to cases where companies did not deliver on promises and in some cases shut down after receiving state money.\nLast year, a software company called Redpine Services closed its office in Bay County after accepting $400,000 from the state. This year, an animation production company called Digital Domain closed in South Florida after receiving a $20 million grant. Companies that don't deliver are supposed to repay state incentives. But it's hard to collect when companies shut down.\nWe don't know exactly how many current deals are going, because the state keeps them secret in the early stages.\nGovernor Scott says bad deals are the exception. Offering incentives for the promise of jobs is a key part of an economic development strategy. The governor's department of economic opportunity is now requesting $105 million in economic development tools in the next legislative budget. That request triggered some pushback from lawmakers who have questions about the effectiveness of our incentive program thus far. Lawmakers from both parties say want to make sure we get a good return on our money.\nSome like Pinellas State Senator Jack Latvala say we should also consider other job creation strategies that ensure our workforce is trained for local job openings.\n\"We have employers in my district who will hire any welder they can find, but they can't find welders,\" said Latvala. \"I have other employers who want to hire Java programmers. But there's not a state institution that's turning out Java programmers.\"\nFOX 13 / WTVT-TV\nDidn't find what you were looking for?"}
{"content":"How to Cook Duck Breast - Frying\nDuck Breast is a wonderful alternative to steak or lamb - it is a boneless fillet, which makes it quick to cook and it has wonderful flavour, which can be enhanced by sauces or glazes. Ducks are a waterfowl and have a layer of fat under their skin to keep them warm and waterproof - this is why the skin of a duck is so thick and why so much fat will render during cooking.\nFor more photos and a video demonstration go to www.nzduck.co.nz .\nAlways thaw your duck breast before cooking.\nSmooth the duck breast fillet out and remove any excess fat around the edges. Score the skin all over - this will allow the fat layer under the skin to render, during cooking. Season with salt & pepper, or your favourite rub.\nHeat a non-stick frypan to a low heat. Do not grease the frypan.\nPlace the duck breasts, skin side down, in a frypan. Slowly cook the breast fillets until they begin to brown. The fat layer under the skin will begin to render and will be present in the pan as liquid fat. This is normal.\nWhen the duck skin has browned enough and enough of the fat has rendered out of the breast - this could be 10- 15 minutes, turn the duck breast fillet over to cook the other side.\nNote that the duck breast will reduce in length and will swell in thickness, during this time.\nWhen the breast is cooked, the juices will run clear. Crisp the skin in the pan or under a hot grill.\nRemove from the pan and let the duck breast rest for 5 minutes. Discard or filter the fat remaining in the pan, for future use.\nDrizzle over your favourite sauce or glaze."}
{"content":"Twitter has announced it will sell shares and float on the stock market in secret IPO\n- From: News Corp Australia Network\n- September 13, 2013\nTWITTER is going public. The short messaging service aptly tweeted on Thursday it has filed confidential documents for an initial public offering of stock.\nBut the documents are sealed, as Twitter is taking advantage of federal legislation passed last year that allows companies with less than $1 billion in revenue in its last fiscal year to avoid submitting public IPO documents.\nSan Francisco-based Twitter Inc. posted on its official Twitter account that it has ``confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned IPO.''\nThe confidentiality will likely help Twitter avoid the public hoopla that surrounded the initial public offerings of other high-profile social networking companies, including Facebook Inc., which went public in May 2012.\nWe've confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned IPO. This Tweet does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale.— Twitter (@twitter) September 12, 2013\nTwitter was founded in 2006 by Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone, and has grown to more than 200 million users who share their thoughts in bursts of no more than 140 characters at least once a month, with estimates of total users surpassing 500 million. Twitter's massive growth has produced strong IPO buzz for years, but neighbour Facebook's rough Wall Street debut quieted much of the excitement: The Menlo Park, California, company exercised a record-breaking IPO in May 2012 that valued CEO Mark Zuckerberg's creation at more than $US100 billion, but problems with initial trades and doubts about Facebook's ability to generate revenues helped push shares from an initial price of $US38 to less than $US20 in the first year of public availability.\nFacebook Inc. stock has rebounded of late, however, pushing to an all-time high of more than $US45 Wednesday after the company's most recent earnings report showed strong gains in mobile revenues. The IPO market has also fully rebounded after a lull following Facebook's debut, with seven San Francisco Bay Area companies filing to go public in August.\n\"There's more of an appetite for IPOs than there's been in some time,'' Thomas Kellerman, an attorney with Morgan Lewis in Palo Alto, California, who co-chairs the firm's tech practice, told the San Jose Mercury News last month.\nTwitter's IPO has been long expected. The company has been ramping up its advertising products and working to boost ad revenue in preparation.\nGoldman Sachs is to be the lead underwriter for the IPO.\nNow, back to work. pic.twitter.com/e4lK8e7pY9— Twitter (@twitter) September 12, 2013"}
{"content":"Your editorial about farmed salmon states that without fish we would be missing out on important omega-3 \"fish oils\" (17 January, p 3). I would not expect\nNo doubt omega-3 oils are beneficial to a healthy cardiovascular system and brain development, but fish are not the best source. Linseed or flaxseed has a far greater concentration of omega-3. Even green leafy vegetables are a source of omega-3. Preformed DHA (from omega-3) can now be synthesised without ever involving any fish. Why not leave the fish alone, cut to the chase and consume these \"fish oils\".\nTo continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content."}
{"content":"Seismologists say a minor earthquake occurred in Alaska, and was felt in Anchorage.\nThe Alaska Earthquake Center says the quake occurred at 11 a.m. Sunday.\nIt was located about 30 miles southwest of Anchorage and had a magnitude of 3.7.\n© Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed."}
{"content":"Ursid Meteor Shower\nEarth is heading for a stream of comet dust that could produce a pleasing outburst of \"shooting stars\" this weekend (Dec 21-23). Forecasters say dozens of meteors per hour could emerge from a spot in the sky near the North Star (Polaris) when Earth encounters the dust on Saturday evening, Dec. 22nd. These meteors are called \"Ursids\" after Ursa Minor, the constellation where the North Star is located. If forecasting models are correct, the shower's peak will occur between 2100 and 2200 UT (4-5 pm EST) with meteors visible as much as four hours before and after that time.\nThe source of the dust is Comet 8P/Tuttle, which is traveling through the inner solar system this month and next. The comet itself can be seen through binoculars not far from the radiant of the shower. This gives sky watchers a rare opportunity to see a comet and its meteors in the same observing session.\nUrsid meteors, which appear in small numbers annually, have a reputation for faintness and delicacy. Dark skies are usually required to see them; bright moonlight on Dec. 22nd will only exacerbate the problem of visibility. However, say forecasters, during an outburst of Ursids there may be a fair number of bright meteors. No one knows what will happen--all the more reason to look!\nUnfortunately, though, a nearly full moon will drown out the fainter meteors.\nFor more information on the Ursids, see:\nNext page: Green Comet Approaches Earth\nBookmark/Share This Page:\nUrsid Meteor Shower News\n'Weak' New Meteor Shower Due To Fragile Comet Dust - Universe Today23 Jul 2014 at 9:38am\n'Weak' New Meteor Shower Due To Fragile Comet Dust\nA Camelopardalid seen frame-by-frame in a recording taken May 24, 2014 at 1:58:08 a.m. UT (9:58:08 p.m. ET). Credit: Original recording by Peter C. Slansky; compilation by Jim Albers and Peter Jenniskens. While the Camelopardalid shower only produced ...\nNew meteor shower \"just a memory\" of what once was therePhys.Org\nall 5 news articles »\n2014 Meteor Shower: Where and How to Best View Delta Aquarids Meteor ... - In...21 Jul 2014 at 2:48am\n2014 Meteor Shower: Where and How to Best View Delta Aquarids Meteor ...\nInternational Business Times AU\nThe months of July and August will offer sky watchers the viewing experience for the 2014 Delta Aquarids meteor shower. The sky display started on July 12 and it can be viewed until Aug 23, 2014 with the peak scheduled to take place from July 28 to 29 ...\nMeteor shower peaking next week, increasing shooting stars right nowTucson News Now\nDelta Aquarid meteor shower is under wayiTWire\nall 4 news articles »\nDelta Aquarids Meteor Shower 2014: Dates for Entire Shower, and the Peak Time...12 Jul 2014 at 10:28pm\nDelta Aquarids Meteor Shower 2014: Dates for Entire Shower, and the Peak Time\nThe Epoch Times\nThe Delta Aquarids Meteor Shower is basically here, starting on July 12 and running all the way through August 23. The meteor shower is slated to peak on July 28 and July 29. ?This year's peak occurs during a new moon, which means dark skies for ...\nand more »\nAstronomy in July: Meteor shower, Milky Way and moon - The News-Press3 Jul 2014 at 8:31am\nAstronomy in July: Meteor shower, Milky Way and moon\nHumans are watchers of the skies, romantics, dreamers. And nothing has inspired the dreamers among us more than the moon. There are nights when it seems close enough to touch, its reflective full light shimmering on our creations below. Other nights ...\nSpot Planets and a Meteor Shower In July 2014 | Skywatching Video - Space.com30 Jun 2014 at 10:45am\nSpot Planets and a Meteor Shower In July 2014 | Skywatching Video\nSaturn and Mars are visible in the evening and Venus and Mercury can be found before sunrise. At the end of the month, the annual Delta Aquarid peaks with 20 meteors per hour. (Skywatching Guide). Credit: Space Telescope Science Institute, Office of ..."}
{"content":"Loading Photo Gallery\nNEWARK — Newark has seen a 40 percent surge in gun violence this year, but the city’s top cop said today that despite a recent rash of shootings, his \"Safe City\" anti-violence campaign is helping to reverse the trend.\nBetween Jan. 1 and July 10, there were 175 shootings in Newark, leaving 213 people dead or injured, according to police statistics. During the same period last year, there were 125 shootings and 161 victims.\nThe statistics were obtained today by The Star-Ledger less than 24 hours after a spate of drug-related violence on Monday left 11 people injured and a 15-year-old high school football player dead.\n\"We’re not going to turn everything around in one month. That’s an impossibility. But we’re heading in the right direction,\" Acting Police Director Samuel DeMaio said in an interview. \"We weren’t doing the right thing in January, February, March, April or May. That’s when it kept going up and up and up.\"\nDeMaio was named police director in May when Garry McCarthy resigned after four years to become superintendent of the Chicago Police Department. Within a month of taking over, DeMaio launched his \"Safe City\" campaign, the goal of which is to increase police presence in dangerous neighborhoods and boost community involvement.\nWhile there were more shootings in June 2011 than June 2010, according to the statistics, the number of incidents dropped from May to June of this year. In addition, DeMaio said, the number of homicides between June 1 and today is slightly lower than the same period last summer.\n\"We’re not going to have a crime that’s up 60 percent in a six-month period, and take it to where it’s going positive in one month,\" DeMaio said, referring to the city’s homicide rate. \"If you have it cut down almost in half in a five-week period, that’s pretty good.\"\nAuthorities said Monday’s violence was the result of a growing rivalry between drug crews. Around 6 p.m., four people were injured when shots were fired on Halsey Street in the city’s bustling downtown area. Four hours later, 15-year-old Al-Aziz Stewart was killed and seven others were injured in a shooting on Scheerer Avenue in the city’s South Ward.\nDuring a morning news conference at City Hall, DeMaio and Mayor Cory Booker said the attacks were linked to warring drug crews, who have been embroiled in a \"back and forth\" that led to several shootings this month.\n\"This is not a whole bunch of people. We’re not talking hundreds or even dozens here,\" Booker said. \"We’re talking about a small group of individuals who may be responsible for a number of the shooting victims we’ve seen over this month.\"\nDeMaio said a car rolled to a stop at each location Monday, and multiple gunmen opened fire into crowds at both scenes. Booker said the assailants wore rubber gloves and masks in one attack.\nAuthorities would not say if the drug crews have gang affiliations, or how many shootings they are linked to.\nThis morning on Scheerer Avenue, a neighbor opened a water valve to rinse the blood from the driveway where Stewart was killed. Across the street, Stewart’s sister, Naja Jenkins, wept as she remembered the popular teen who was the starting quarterback for West Side High School’s freshman football team.\n\"He was a comedian. He was well known throughout this neighborhood,\" she said. \"Everybody loved my brother.\"\nJenkins said her brother wasn’t involved in the Newark drug trade and didn’t have any connection to gangs.\nStewart’s football coach, Brian Logan, said the teen was a \"real nice kid\" who excelled on his freshman team.\n\"He was a happy guy, smart guy, happy kid, you know? He loved life,\" Logan said. \"He looked forward to getting back into football.\"\nJenkins broke down as she recalled her last conversation with her brother.\n\"I just thank God I told him every single day that I love him. And the last thing I told him was to be careful, and that I love him,\" she said. \"Every single day I told my brother that. Every day. So he knew, going out, that we love him.\""}
{"content":"PubMed® Notes 2011\nOther pertinent articles: |\nMEDLINE/PubMed Year-End Processing Activities\n2011 MeSH Now Available\nCataloging News 2011\nMEDLINE Data Changes 2011\nPubMed Notes 2011\nWhat's New for 2011 MeSH\nNewly Maintained MEDLINE for 2011 MeSH Now Available in PubMed\nThe 2011 PubMed system will be available in mid-December. Links to other articles pertinent to the new system are provided to the right.\nThere are a few changes to PubMed this year:\nChanges to the Limits page were reported in the article, Comings and Goings for PubMed® Limits.\n- Users of XML data may want to see additional information including DTD and XML changes for the NLM 2011 production year:\nXML users can keep up to date by subscribing to an announcement mailing list at this site: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mailman/listinfo/utilities-announce.\n- The Abstract display will be modified to accommodate changes to Supplementary Concept Records in the MeSH® vocabulary (see below).\nPubMed Abstract Display Modified for Supplementary Concepts\nThe MeSH Vocabulary includes nearly 200,000 records known as the Supplementary Concept Records (SCRs). Until recently these were primarily records for drugs and substances plus a small percentage of protocols. Beginning with 2011 MeSH, SCR records will also include disease terms that are not MeSH headings as explained in the forthcoming article, What's New for 2011 MeSH®. [Editor's Note: This article was published on December 10, 2010.]\nPubMed will display SCR terms in the expandable section for supplemental information of the Abstract format as follows:\n- Chemicals and substances will continue to display under the header, Substances.\n- Protocols and disease terms will display under the new header, Supplementary Concepts.\nAll SCRs will display on the MEDLINE format with the RN field tag.\nAll SCRs can be searched using these search tags:\n- [supplementary concept]\n- [substance name]\nExample: kindler syndrome [nm]\n[Note: The changes described above appeared in PubMed on December 13, 2010. At the same time the link to the Journals Database on the PubMed homepage was replaced with the link, Journals in NCBI Databases which connects to the NLM Catalog (see: NLM Catalog: New Search Features for Journals Cited in Entrez Databases.)]\nNahin AM. PubMed® Notes 2011. NLM Tech Bull. 2010 Nov-Dec;(377):e16."}
{"content":"Closing in on the Higgs BosonWhen: Tuesday, March 13, 2012 at 11:15 am\nWhere: DA 114\nSpeaker: Joseph Haley\nOrganization: Northeastern University\nSponsor: Physics Colloquium\nThe Higgs mechanism was proposed nearly fifty years ago as a way to explain how fundamental particles can have mass. In addition to explaining the origin of mass in the Standard Model of particle physics, the theory requires the existence of a yet undiscovered particle called the Higgs boson. After year of searching for this “last puzzle piece,” we are finally on the verge of either finding the Higgs boson or shattering the long standing Standard Model. The stage has been set by recent hints from the CMS and ATLAS experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider of a Higgs boson with a mass around 125 times the proton mass. I will present brand new results from Fermilab’s Tevatron collider, which achieve similar and complementary sensitivity to a Higgs boson in this most interesting mass range."}
{"content":"Expect Dry Conditions and Warm Temperatures Through the First Half of This Week\nMonsoonal weather patterns have moved into the Grand Canyon area decreasing fire danger. As a result, on Tuesday, July 8 at 8 a.m. fire managers lifted fire restrictions within Grand Canyon National Park. More »\nTwo Bats Collected in the Park Have Tested Positive for Rabies\nOne on the North Kaibab Trail and the other at Tusayan Ruin/Museum. Any persons having physical contact with bats in Grand Canyon National Park, please call 928-638-7767. Rabies can be prevented if appropriate medical care is given following an exposure. More »\nRiver Trip Orientation Video - Chapter 1\nContinue to the Next Chapter (2) Water Temperature and Flow Variations\nRiver Trip Orientation Video Chapter Menu\nWatch the River Trip Orientation Videos on YouTube\nHere is the link to the YouTube playlist with all the videos:\nHere are links to the individual video chapters on YouTube:\nPart 3: Low Impact Camping Tips - 04m:18s\nPart 10: Diamond Creek to Lake Mead Pearce Ferry Take-out/ Rapid- 04m:01s\nDid You Know?\nIn November of 1934, the Grand Canyon Civilian Conservation Corps began working on a telephone line through the canyon. They started at Indian Garden and moved down to the Colorado River. They needed to complete this portion of the line first before the extreme summer heat started. More..."}
{"content":"PRELUDE TO SYSTEMATIC FEDERAL MANAGEMENT (continued)\nModern Military Training\nThe Mojave Desert, a \"wasteland\" with easy railroad access, seemed to General George S. Patton to be an excellent place to train his troops during World War II. In early 1942, Patton established the Desert Training Center, and stationed troops throughout the Mojave. Much of the heaviest activity took place to the south of the current Mojave National Preserve boundaries, but some of these wartime camps and much of the maneuver areas were inside the present Preserve. A major division-size camp, Camp Clipper, was located north of Essex, with its northern boundary located inside the Preserve, north of I-40. A support division, including an ammunition dump, several large warehouses, and a military hospital, were located at Goffs, along with an emergency airfield a mile north of the hamlet. Later, the training grounds were expanded and renamed the California Arizona Maneuver Area, and remained in use until mid-1944. At least one million soldiers spent time in the area. Tanks and other military vehicles roamed throughout the desert, conducting exercises in the valleys of the Preserve and surrounding areas. \nDuring World War II, many places in the greater Mojave desert received permanent designation as military training areas, but lack of such a status did not preclude the military from again using the eastern Mojave for practice. In May 1964, the Army staged a training exercise in the public lands west of Needles with 89,000 troops. Soldiers practiced amphibious landings on the banks of the Colorado River, troops constructed machine-gun emplacements at major crossroads, and heavy weaponry rolled across the sweeping valleys. The operation, known as \"Desert Strike,\" caused significant impact to desert plants and animals. At least some locals attempted to halt the operation, but were unable to get support from the BLM or conservation groups.  One author pointed out that the maneuver \"laid environmental waste to sizable swaths of the East Mojave.\"  Fortunately for the fragile lands of the east Mojave, Operation Desert Strike was the last major military use of the area now encompassed by the Preserve.\nThe army's training exercises left permanent scars on the desert. Tank tracks remain visible in many places inside and outside the Preserve. Rock alignments laying out huge tent camps dot the desert, especially in the southeast corner of the Preserve, and military debris still litters the desert floor in some places. Military use compacted the soil and changed the natural ecology of the desert. \nMilitary use of the Mojave for training purposes had civilian ramifications as well. The military systematically mapped the entire Mojave desert in detail for the first time, utilizing aerial photography and traditional land-based methods to create maps for their training operations. After the war, many of the Army maps were sold to the public, and the U.S. Geological Survey utilized Army Map Service data to produce a series of 15 minute quads of the desert in the late 1940s and early 1950s.  The experiences of soldiers at the wartime desert camps translated to increased recreational use of the desert after the war. War surplus jeeps and camping gear enabled former soldiers and their friends to explore the desert in four-wheel drive, as they had done during their training, with new maps of the Mojave to guide their travels.  One U.S. Army photo, dated 1942, shows a soldier in full battle gear steering a huge military Harley-Davidson motorcycle down a Mojave sand dune - a stunning prelude of recreation to come. \nRecreational use of the desert began before World War II, but accelerated tremendously after that conflict concluded. The rise of recreation by off-highway vehicles (OHV) eventually prompted increased management of the entire desert by the BLM , and will be addressed in the following chapter. In addition to OHV users, others made attempts to encourage recreation in the eastern Mojave.\nJack Mitchell, a Los Angeles businessman who lost almost everything in the 1929 stock market crash, initiated an early attempt at recreational tourism in the present-day Preserve. Mitchell became interested in three magnificent limestone caverns after a local rancher, Mark Pettit, showed him the caves. By 1932, Mitchell had explored the caves, offered tours, and set up signs along Route 66 to direct visitors to the site. He continued to guide visitors for the next two decades. As Mitchell grew closer to retirement age in the early 1950s, he began deliberations with California's state park system to take over operation of the caves as a state park. Mitchell was killed in an accident before negotiations could be finalized, and the California state park system added Mitchell's Caverns to its holdings in 1956. The state promoted the tourism and development of the caverns and the surrounding Providence Mountains State Recreation Area, and dug a connection between the two main caves in Mitchell's Caverns to produce a single-loop tour experience. The caves and the state park continue to draw thousands of visitors every year to the area, and are the oldest formal tourism-related activity in the Mojave National Preserve. Originally, two more state parks were planned for Cima Dome and the Cinder Cones, but these were never built. \nThe California Department of Fish and Game (CDF&G) long encouraged recreational hunting in the eastern Mojave desert, as in the rest of the state. During the 1940s, CDF&G stocked non-native mule deer in what later became the Preserve. Deer are native to some parts of the desert, but the eastern Mojave, by 1940, was a landscape constructed by ranchers for production of beef. Hunting was seen by the ranchers as an undesirable intrusion of animals that would compete with their cattle and people who might damage their property. One local angrily categorized the action as \"dumping them on land where ranchers were paying for the forage rights and where, with hunting, they have been a source of trouble ever since.\" Winnie Southcott, wife of the owner of the Gold Valley Ranch, died after she was attacked in her front yard by a large buck who apparently had no fear of humans.  By the mid-1980s, hunters harvested an average of 25 deer each year from the area of the Preserve, about a quarter of the total for San Bernardino County. California Department of Fish and Game also introduced chukar, an upland game bird popular with hunters, in the mid-twentieth century. Hunting of bighorn sheep had long been prohibited in the desert, but beginning in the fall of 1987, limited hunting was allowed to resume by CDF&G.  From the 1940s to the beginning of the twenty-first century, the state of California actively attempted to increase recreation opportunities in the eastern Mojave by locally implementing statewide programs designed to promote and sustain hunting.\nWhile CDF&G attempted to make the desert amenable to hunters and Jack Mitchell tried to profit by showcasing its wondrous caves, a controversial preacher promoted an alternative vision of recreation in the Mojave. In September 1944, \"Dr.\" Curtis Howe Springer, a radio evangelist and alternative-medicine salesman, staked mining claims at the site of Soda Springs, which he gradually developed into his famous Zzyzx Mineral Springs and Health Resort. Springer was a curious historical character who can be painted as a swindling quack or a misunderstood visionary. Springer constructed most of the buildings at Zzyzx today before 1955, utilizing men from the slums of Los Angeles for labor. Treatment at Zzyzx included good food and plenty of rest, along with an alcohol-free environment, which certainly helped some visitors. Lodging and meals were provided free of charge, though donations were encouraged.\nOver time, Zzyzx proved very popular. The post office in Baker was upgraded to first-class status, largely because of Springer's mail volume, and motels there often lodged prospective visitors waiting for their turn at Zzyzx. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, after a series of articles in the Los Angeles Times raised the public's awareness of the seemingly illegitimate side of the Zzyzx business, several agencies, including the BLM and the Food and Drug Administration, pursued charges against Springer for allegedly false advertising, misleading labels, and misusing mining claims. BLM rangers bodily evicted Springer and his wife in April 1974 on the grounds that Springer was trespassing on public lands because he was living on his mining claims rather than extracting minerals from them. The BLM showed the Springers little sympathy, threatening them with handcuffs and giving them thirty-six hours to gather their possessions and vacate the property. Two years later, after some BLM consternation about what to do with Zzyzx, the California State University Desert Studies Consortium was granted a renewable lease to run the property as a research and education facility. \nAfter World War II, recreational use of the desert grew to substantial importance. From Jack Mitchell's attempts to make a living by giving tours of limestone caves to Curtis Springer's decades-long development and promotion of Zzyzx Mineral Springs, private interests used the eastern Mojave for economic gain through recreation and tourism. The State of California also sought to increase recreational opportunities by introducing non-native animals to the area as a means of increasing hunting. Recreation by off-highway vehicle users became so substantial that it prompted the first major systematic federal management of the desert. Beginning recently and growing rapidly, few could have predicted the speed with which recreation became a major activity on the lands of the east Mojave.\nOne of the least populated areas in the United States, the eastern Mojave saw relatively little management of any sort for much of its recent history. Euro-American traders chose to avoid the Mohaves when possible, but even after the establishment of a wagon road, military presence was limited to a thin corridor. Miners extracted wealth from the land, subject to only the permissive provisions of the General Mining Law of 1872. Ranchers used federal land as their own, possessing genuine title only to land around water sources. Homesteaders futilely plowed their personal portion of the public domain, but few were able to patent their holdings and none were subject to more oversight than that provided by hostile local ranchers. Military exercises used the eastern Mojave as a playground, and railroads, interstate freeways, electrical transmission lines, and petroleum pipelines were all constructed across the land. Increased management appeared on the distant horizon with the passage of the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934, which required Mojave ranchers to change their practices and their landscapes to fit the new regulations. Only in the 1960s did the desert face an issue large enough to demand major attention. Recreation in the desert surged in popularity, and forced the federal government to move toward systematic management of the desert for the first time.\nLast Updated: 05-Apr-2004"}
{"content":"This website is best viewed in a browser that supports web standards.\nSkip to content or, if you would rather, Skip to navigation.\nJan. 20, 2010\nMaryville, Mo. - Northwest students can develop new leadership skills and enhance existing skills during a variety of workshops at the university's first Bearcat Leadership Training conference.\nBLT, which is free, will be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 30, in the J.W. Jones Student Union. Check-in will be 8:15 a.m. to 9 a.m. Lunch and refreshments will be provided.\nIn addition to guiding students, the conference is designed to assist student organizations and their leaders with improving and advancing operations and group management.\nThe conference will feature keynote speakers Alumni Association President Neil Neumeyer and Tim McMahon, Northwest's vice president of marketing and university relations.\nWorkshop topics will include leadership styles and personality traits, goal setting, motivation, event planning, interculturalism and diversity, teamwork, balance and well-being, conflict management, running effective meetings and organizational structure.\nStudents must register by 5 p.m. Jan. 25. Students can register by clicking this link:\nFor more information, contact Beyza Aydar, leadership graduate assistant in the Office of Campus Activities, at 660.562.1226 or email@example.com.\nMark Hornickel, Media Relations Specialist\nfirstname.lastname@example.org | 660.562.1704 | Fax: 660.562.1900\nNorthwest Missouri State University\n215 Administration Building | 800 University Drive | Maryville, MO 64468"}
{"content":"Since last month and continuing to present, several outbreaks of hemorrhagic conjunctivitis have been reported in various Central American and Caribbean countries. In Central America, the disease has mainly affected four countries:\n- Nicaragua presented a radical increase during the month of May. People from 5 to 14 years were the most affected, and the counties with the highest number of cases were Managua and Chontales. Honduras suffered a big outbreak mainly among factory workers. The cities most affected were San Pedro Sula, El Progreso, La Lima, and Chomola.\n- Guatemala reported 2,035 cases to 20 September 2003 in the 14 health zones. The national incidence rate is 13 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. Of the cases, 81% are concentrated in five areas: Izabal, Chiquimula, San Marcos, Petén Suroriente and Guatemala City.\n- In El Salvador, 335 cases of hemorrhagic conjunctivitis occurred up to 16 September. The more affected health zones were the Center zone, Santa Ana and New Concepción. Samples have been taken from three health zones. Results to identify the causal agent are pending, although viral infection is suspected by the symptoms presented.\n- In the Caribbean, eight countries reported having had cases of hemorrhagic conjunctivitis. The start and end of the outbreaks, and the description of them, are showed in the following table:\n- Caribbean Epidemiology Center (CAREC): Caribbean Surveillance Network (Carisurvnet).\n- Laboratory reports and Department of Epidemiology of the respective countries.\n- Boletín Epidemiológico de Guatemala (Guatemala Epidemiological Bulletin), Week 37-03.\n- Boletín Epidemiológico de El Salvador (El Salvador Epidemiological Bulletin), Week 38-03.\nAnte el inicio de la temporada de mayor transmisión de conjuntivitis hemorrágica en países tropicales, la Organización Panamericana de la Salud (OPS) enfatiza en la necesidad de reforzar la vigilancia e implementar las recomendaciones que contribuyen a controlar la diseminación de la enfermedad.\nCentral America: The following outbreaks of viral hemorrhagic conjunctivitis are still active:\nGuatemala: To 29 September 2003, there have been 2,269 cases in 18 health districts. The national incidence rate is 18 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, and the trend is still rising. The health districts with the greatest number of cases are Izabal (247), Petén Suroriente (200) Chiquimula (77), Santa Rosa (34), Petén Norte (30), San Marcos (23) and Escuintla (18). The illness is primarily affecting persons over the age of five.\nEl Salvador: To 30 September 2003, the health districts most affected continue to be El Centro (84), Santa Ana (52) and Nueva Concepción (52). The age group most affected is from 20 to 59 years; and regarding gender, the cumulative number of cases reported among women is higher than among men\n- Boletín epidemiológico de Guatemala (Epidemiological Bulletin of Guatemala) No. 38, 2003.\n- Boletín epidemiológico de El Salvador (Epidemiological Bulletin of El Salvador), 30 September 2003.\nMexico: The conjunctivitis outbreak has affected 32 states. To 26 September 2003, 67,513 cases of conjunctivitis were reported. The three states with the highest number of cases are Campeche (14,309), Quintana Roo (11,169), and Tabasco (11,092).\nSource: Boletín epidemiológico de México (Epidemiological Bulletin of Mexico), No. 38, 2003."}
{"content":"One Click Table Sorting\nHow to one click table sorting.\nTo sort records in a table with one click, open a table in Datasheet View. Highlight one or more adjacent columns. Click either the Sort Ascending or the Sort Descending button to sort the records in the datasheet. They'll be sorted, starting with the left-most column and moving to the right."}
{"content":"But the files are transferred and the other print statements are executed?\nIf I understand Net::SFTP::Foreign correctly, the callback function should be executed at least once per call to ->get.\nMaybe it is overwritten too quickly - what if you remove the \\r or replace it with \\n?\nPosts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!\nRead Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.\nPlease read these before you post! —\nPosts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:\nOutside of code tags, you may need to use entities for some characters:\n- a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr\nLink using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?\nSee Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.\n| & || & |\n| < || < |\n| > || > |\n| [ || [ |\n| ] || ] ||"}
{"content":"Re^2: Possible pairings for first knockout round of UEFA champions leagueby LanX (Canon)\n|on Dec 22, 2012 at 15:36 UTC||Need Help??|\nIt's a branch and bound-algorithm, by early cutting unnecessary branches I avoid calculating all permutations, which is (far╣) more efficient.▓\nAnd it gave me the opportunity to check some mathematical approaches (which are more challenging for me)\nBut you're welcome to show us your way to do it!(BTW: I saw your approach already been done in Python, if you're interested)\n╣) since 8! is only ~40000 it's not too obvious in this special case.\n▓) Furthermore branching allows to cache/memoize results for subtrees to go even faster."}
{"content":"It seems that so many individuals are\nunsatisfied with their relationship with their parents. During\nadolescence I heard from many of my friends the frustrations they\nwere feeling towards their parents. Sometimes they felt annoyed,\nother times they felt over-controlled by them. I've also talked to\nolder individuals who still have problems with their parents. They\nsay that they just don't get along anymore, or they reflect on\nresentment that they felt towards them in their younger years. What\nis it that makes parent-child relationships so difficult? I mean,\nthey are our own flesh and blood.\nI have always had a hard time relating to people when they talk about their issues with their parents. To me, my family is the most important part of my life, and therefore I do everything I can to cherish that relationship. Maybe I see the parent child relationship a little bit differently, or maybe my parents really aren't difficult to get along with, it's hard to say. Regardless, I have always tried to recognize that they are real people too, and I truly do appreciate all the time and money they've spent on me. I also understand that a relationship is a two way street.\nRegardless, it has been shown that the relationship we have with our parents can affect the life an personality of their children. First off, several studies have been conducted on parenting styles. The most popular being the model created by Diana Baumrind. She created four different parenting styles depending on the amount of demanding-ness and responsiveness they expressed. Authoritative parenting style, which was high in both of those domains, has been shown to have the best outcome in children.\nParent relationships also affect their children in other ways. It has been shown that children whose parents don't supervise them as much engage in greater adolescence risk taking. This seems to be especially true in regards to adolescence alcohol use. The reverse relationship is also true, as adolescent alcohol use has actually been shown to predict less effective parenting supervision. This could be because children who choose to engage in that sort of behavior resist parenting supervision, or it could be because the children use alcohol because their parents didn't supervise them in the first place. (Clark, 2008).\nThis phenomenon stems further than\njust alcohol use though. Parenting style and the relationship with\nones parents can affect psychological aspects of an individuals life\nas well. Those with authoritarian parents tend to be less confident\nand show sign of depression. The indulgent parenting style tends to\ncreate individuals who are under appreciative and self-entitled.\n(Baumrind, 1991). To make things more confusing, the structure of\none's family can actually predict adolescence outcomes as well. It\nhas been shown that in father only households, adolescence are most\nlikely to engage in alcohol use. (Hoffman & Johnson, 1998).\nSo, what can be done about all this? I believe that it is important to educate parents about the importance of a specific parenting style. Since many adults don't go out of their way to seek this knowledge, it should be presented to them when they are receiving their education. Children play a part in this too, which is why they should be taught effective communication skills during their adolescence. I believe a more modern approach should be taken in our school systems. Our youth spends so much of their time in school, which means there is so much opportunity for them to gain valuable life information.\nBaumrind, D. (1991). The influence of parenting style on adolescent competence and substance use. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 11(1), 56-95. Retrieved from www.sagepub.org\nClark, D. (2008). Parental supervision and alcohol use in adolescence: developmentally specific interactions. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 29(4), 285-292. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18562983\nHoffmann, J., & Johnson, R. (1998). A national portrait of family structure and adolescent drug use. Journal of Marriage and Family, 60(3), 633-645."}
{"content":"Ireland's medicines shortages have worsened significantly in the last 12 months, and the government must intervene to ensure that patients get the drugs they need, pharmacists have warned.\n98% of pharmacists have told the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) that they have noticed drug shortages in the last year, while 91% say these have got worse over the period and 93% expect them to worsen over the next 12 months.\n44% of pharmacists believe that patients' health outcomes have been harmed by the shortages, and the IPU also reports that pharmacy staff spend an average eight hours each month working to resolve the problems.\nThis is time that would be better spent tending to patients’ needs, said IPU president Rory O'Donnell, and he warned: \"the longer the situation is allowed to continue, the greater the impact on patients' health.\"\nCurrently, pharmacists are particularly reporting shortages of Eli Lilly's antidepressant/fibromyalgia treatment Cymbalta (duloxetine) and Pfizer's Lyrica (pregabalin), used in epilepsy, fibromyalgia and neuropathic pain, among other products.\nThe IPU also warns that Ireland's planned introduction of reference pricing will only exacerbate the situation, particularly if the reference price is set too low.\n\"Adding to these concerns is the fact that pharmacists typically receive little or no warning that these medicines are going out of stock and there is often little information on when these stocks will be replenished,\" said Mr O'Donnell.\n\"Ultimately, it is up to the Department of Health to ensure that patients have continuity of supply of medicines and we would ask that steps be taken as a matter of urgency to solve the existing problems of medicines shortages and to ensure that further shortages do not occur,\" he concluded.\nResponding, the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (IPHA), representing the branded drugmakers, pointed out that key provisions of the state/IPHA supply agreement, which was renewed last October, are designed to ensure continuity as far as is possible.\nFrom time to time, disruptions can emerge with individual products because of manufacturing processes. However, more recently shortages have resulted from products being traded across European markets when the price in one country has been pushed well below that in other countries, says the IPHA, pointing out that these cross-border trading issues are beyond its members’ control.\nThe Department of Health says it is working to manage drug shortages, so that the impact on patients is minimised, say local reports."}
{"content":"|Uploader Compression Help|\nCompressed vs. non-compressed examples.\nClick Here to see a comparison of an image uploaded in compressed mode and non-compressed mode.\nWhy is compression not recommended if I want to make prints?\nCompressing image files may decrease the visual quality for images that are made into prints. Therefore we recommend you select the Non Compressed option in the uploader.\nWhy is compression recommended for images I upload for online viewing?\nCompressing images before uploading them will result in a faster upload without decreasing the quality of the images when viewed online. We recommend you select the Compressed option in the uploader.\nWhat are the effects of compressing an image?\nThe file size of an image taken with a digital camera is generally fairly large. Therefore it can be compressed and still preserve a visual quality more than adequate for online viewing. This reduced file size allows for faster uploads and the difference in quality when viewing the image online is generally not perceptible.\nContact Tech Support.\nIf you have specific questions about compression, please contact us at:"}
{"content":"SAE Unveils Combined Charger System\nAudi, BMW, Chrysler, Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Porsche and Volkswagen strongly support a \"harmonized single-port DC-fast charging technology\" and will be present at the unveiling of the Combined Charging System at the EVS26 event currently running in Los Angeles, California.\nThe system is \"intended to optimize customer ease of use and to accelerate more affordable deployment of electrified vehicles,\" according to Volkswagen. It's believed that the Combined Charging System will be used on electric vehicles in Europe and the US starting in 2013. Only the eight automakers listed above have agreed to adopt the use of the Combined Charging System.\nThe Combined Charging System \"integrates one-phase AC-charging, fast three-phase AC-charging, DC-charging at home and ultra-fast DC-charging at public stations into one vehicle inlet.\" This setup will \"allow customers to charge at most existing charging stations regardless of power source and may speed more affordable adoption of a standardized infrastructure,\" according to VW.\nThe International Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) has chosen the Combined Charging System as its standard and will publish official guidelines this summer. Aside from the SAE, the ACEA—the European association of vehicle manufacturers—has announced that it selected the Combined Charging System as its AC/DC-charging interface for all plug-in vehicles sold in Europe beginning in 2017.\nCharging stations compatible with the Combined Charging System will become available in late 2012. Compatible vehicles will launch in 2013.\nNew to EVs? Start here\nWhat Is An Electric Car?\nBefore we get going, let's establish basic definitions.\nA Quick Guide to Plug-in Hybrids\nSome plug-in cars have back-up engines to extend driving range.\nElectric Cars Pros and Cons\nEVs are a great solution for most people. But not everybody.\nEight Rules of Electric Vehicle Charging Etiquette\nThou shalt charge only when necessary. And other rules to live by.\nSeven Things To Know About Buying a Plug-In Car\nA few simple tips before you visit the dealership.\nEight Factors Determining Total Cost of Ownership of an Electric Car\nEVs get bad rap as expensive. Until you look at TCO.\nFederal and Local Incentives for Plug-in Hybrids and Electric Cars\nTake advantage of credits and rebates to reduce EV costs.\nGuide to Buying First Home EV Charger\nYou'll want a home charger. Here's how to buy the right one.\nElectric Car Utility Rate Plans: Top Five Rules\nWith the right utility plan, electric fuel can be dirt cheap.\nThe Ultimate Guide to Electric Car Charging Networks\nIf you plan to charge in public, you'll want to sign up for charging network membership (or two)."}
{"content":"The name Pound Cake comes from the fact that the original pound cake contained one pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. No other ingredients were used other than the air whipped into the batter. In the days when many people couldn't read, this simple convention made it simple to remember recipes.\nThe pound cake dates back to the early 18th century, and was favored because its ingredients were easy to remember: one pound each of four things. It was improved immeasurably by the invention of rising agents in the 19th century.\nThe pound cake is known as the following names in their respective countries:\nFrance: Gâteau Quatre-Quarts, which means “Four Fourths,” referring to the equal portions of eggs, flour. sugar, and butter.\nSpain: Queque Seco.\nPound cake originated in the 1700s in England. It was discovered by Hannah Glasse in her Art of Cookery (published in 1747). By the mid 1800’s, Pound Cake recipes started to add liquids and in the 1900’s, baking powder was added to the recipes. And though butter, eggs, flour, and sugar are still used, the proportions have been adjusted to make the cake less heavy.\nThe Pound Cake is subtle, balanced, and robust. The texture is spongy but not flaky. It is moist without having the uncooked pudding-like quality you get from those \"extra-moist\" box jobs you get at the store. Nor it is puffy and dry as so many homemade cakes can be\nThis site gives the ingredients to extremely popular FREE pound cake recipes along with photos and other Pound Cake goodies. So, let’s get started and make some fantastic pound cake!\nPound Cake | Original Pound Cake | Chocolate Pound Cake | Lemon Pound Cake | Key Lime Pound Cake | Strawberry Pound Cake | Rum Pound Cake | Cream Cheese Pound Cake | Fudge Marble Pound Cake | Cranberry Orange Pound Cake | Almond Pound Cake | Vanilla Bean Pound Cake | Sour Cream Pound Cake | 7 Up Pound Cake | Orange Pound Cake | Coconut Pound Cake | Buttermilk Pound Cake |\nBlueberry Pound Cake |"}
{"content":"Earthrace, the bio-fuelled UIM powerboat is speeding up the Red Sea heading for Suez on Day 55 of her Round the World record run, just three thousand miles from the Sagunto in Spain and the finish line.\nIn the last 24 hours the giant trimaran has travelled 516 nautical miles, at an average speed of 21.5 knots, and she is now 3,017 miles ahead of the 1998 Cable & Wireless World Record.\nOn Day 54 Earthrace averaged 20.5 knots and her New Zealand skipper Pete Bethune commented ‘We’ve lost some boat speed. For the amount of fuel we’re burning at the moment we should be doing around 24 knots, and yet we’re just over 22.\n‘It is a combination of things. Certainly the propeller we changed in Singapore has had an impact. The previous one was the very latest from Hytorque in Canada and it was super-efficient, especially compared with the older prop we have now put on.\n‘Also the repairs we did in Singapore will have had an adverse affect. The P-Bracket is now fatter and with a slightly rough surface, similarly the repairs to the bow and rudder were relatively rough, and these would all add slightly to drag.’\nConditions are excellent for Earthrace as she runs fast up the Red Sea, she has a ¼ to ½ metre following sea and she will, at current pace, reach the mouth of the Suez Canal on Monday.\nIf she has a fast transit and a good run across the Mediterranean, she could complete her round the world run 12 or 13 days inside the record.\nHer two sat tracking units are current U/S; the one on the roof top has cracked and taken on water but a second one up higher on the horn might be able to be repaired.\nListen to the latest report from Earthrace below."}
{"content":"Global Panda Conservation Campaign Launched in Hong Kong\nHONG KONG, Aug. 25, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Organizers and panda ambassadors urged the public to step up efforts to protect pandas and other endangered species as the Global Panda Conservation Tour kicked off here Friday.\nChengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, main organizer of the event, said in a statement that protecting pandas is also a process of conserving bio-diversity.\n\"We need to protect pandas not only because they are our national treasures, but also because their habitats are bio-diversity hotspots in China,\" it said. \"Through protecting pandas and their habitats, other animals and plants in the area can also be preserved.\"\nAt a press conference held at the Ocean Park, Chen Yinrong, one of the three panda ambassadors, or \"Pambassadors\" selected from 1.16 million global applicants, said protecting pandas is not merely the duty of Pambassadors.\n\"I hope everyone can take part in the protection of pandas and other wildlife,\" she said.\nThe three Pambassadors, Chen from China, Jerome Pouille from France and Melissa Katz from the United States, were chosen in a recruiting campaign for ambassadors for the most iconic animal in China, which began in September 2012.\nJu Mengjun, director of Asia-Pacific Bureau of Xinhua News Agency, another organizer of the project, said this tour is also a tour of peace.\n\"We expect the tour, starting from its first stop in Hong Kong, can bring the voice of peace and a harmonious mindset from China to the world,\" he said.\nThe three Pambassadors will start their tour to cities around the world that currently house pandas, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Paris and Edinburgh.\nThe Pambassadors visited the four pandas living in the Ocean Park's Panda Village and talked to visitors about the importance of panda preservation.\n\"I think we should all take actions to protect pandas and their habitats, otherwise our future generations can only see these lovely creatures in televisions,\" said He Jianming, a tourist from China's eastern Jiangxi Province, after signing his name on a poster board for the event.\nThe four pandas living in Hong Kong - An An, Jia Jia, Ying Ying and Le Le - were given in pairs as gifts to the city, marking the second and 10th anniversary of its return to China.\nPandas, also known as giant pandas, are native to China and one of the most endangered animal species in the world. About 1,600 pandas live in the wild, mostly in the mountains of China's western Sichuan Province, while more than 300 live in captivity.\nImage Attachments Links:\nSOURCE Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding"}
{"content":"A new study confirms that men's minds come from Mars and women's from Venus. In an article recently published in the online journal PLoS ONE, Italian cognitive\npsychologist Marco Del Giudice and his collaborators compared the personality\ntraits of men and women in a sample of over 10,000 people and found huge differences. Women scored much higher than in men in Sensitivity, Warmth, and Apprehension, while men scored higher than women in Emotional Stability, Dominance, Rule-Consciousness, and Vigilance. When many personality traits were considered simultaneously, there was only a 10% overlap between the distributions of these traits in men and women. Essentially, the study suggests that when it comes to personality men and women belong to two different species.\nAlthough many of us have long known - on the basis of personal experience - that women are generally more sensitive than men, and men are slightly more emotionally stable than women, previous studies comparing personality traits in men and women found few or no quantitative differences. Del Giudice and his collaborators argue that these previous studies didn't use an appropriate methodology. Their argument is that measuring personality at the level of the Big Five - the way it was done before - can potentially hide some important differences between the sexes because this approach lacks resolution. They suggest, instead, that in order to get the most accurate picture of sex differences, researchers need to (a) measure personality with a higher resolution than that afforded by the Big Five, (b) estimate sex differences on latent factors rather than observed scores; and (c) assess global differences between males and females by computing a multivariate effect size. And this is exactly what they did in the study reported in the PLoS ONE article.\nThe personality data for this study were obtained from an existing database, in which 10,261 adults of US nationality were interviewed in 1993 to validate a particular personality questionnaire (16PF). The people in the sample were 50.1% female and 49.9% male. The sample was primarily white (77.9%), was proportionally geographically distributed, and on average, the educational level and years in education of the sample was greater than that of the US population. Personality was assessed with 15 primary scales, corresponding to the following traits: Warmth (reserved vs. warm), Emotional Stability (reactive vs. emotionally stable), Dominance (deferential vs. dominant), Liveliness (serious vs. lively), Rule-Consciousness (expedient vs. rule-conscious), Social Boldness (shy vs. socially bold), Sensitivity (utilitarian vs. sensitive), Vigilance (trusting vs. vigilant), Abstractness (grounded vs. abstracted), Privateness (forthright vs. private), Apprehension (self-assured vs. apprehensive), Openness to Change (traditional vs. open to change), Self-Reliance (group-oriented vs. self-reliant), Perfectionism (tolerates disorder vs. perfectionistic), and Tension (relaxed vs. tense). These 15 primary scales were further organized into the following 5 global scales: Extraversion (Warmth, Liveliness, Social Boldness, Privateness, and Self-Reliance), Anxiety (Emotional Stability, Vigilance, Apprehension, and Tension), Tough-Mindedness (Warmth, Sensitivity, Abstractedness, and Openness to Change), Independence (Dominance, Social Boldness, Vigilance, and Openness to Change) and Self-Control (Liveliness, Rule-Consciousness, and Perfectionism.\nDel Giudice and collaborators used a statistical technique called multigroup latent variable modeling to estimate sex differences on individual personality dimensions, which were then aggregated to yield a multivariate effect size (Mahalanobis D). They found a global effect size D = 2.71, corresponding to an overlap of only 10% between the male and female distributions. This is an extremely large effect by any psychological standard, which suggests that the sex differences in personality are of the same magnitude as the sex differences in aggression or vocational interests.\nFrom an evolutionary perspective, large differences in personality between the sexes make perfect sense. Divergent sexual selection pressures on men and women are expected to produce substantial differences in personality traits that influence mating and reproductive strategies. For example, sexual promiscuity is predicted by extraversion, openness to experience, neuroticism (especially in women), positive schizotypy, and the ''dark triad'' traits (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism). Negative predictors of promiscuity and short- term mating include agreeableness, conscientiousness, honesty, and autistic-like traits. Relationship instability is associated with extraversion, neuroticism, low agreeableness, and low conscientiousness. In addition to their direct influences on predispositions for sexual promiscuity and relationship instability or sexual monogamy and parental investment, personality traits may also influence competitive tendencies such as status-seeking and risk-taking.\nDel Giudice and colleagues conclude that from an evolutionary perspective personality traits are clearly not neutral with respect to sexual selection. \"Instead, there are grounds to expect robust and wide-ranging sex differences in this area, resulting in strongly sexually differentiated patterns of emotion, thought, and behavior - as if there were two human natures.\"\nIf you like this blog, you might like to buy my book Games Primates Play\nFOLLOW ME on Twitter!\nDel Giudice, M., Booth, T., and Irwing, P. (2012). The distance between Mars and Venus: Measuring global sex differences in personality. PLoS ONE 7(1): e29265."}
{"content":"If you are hosting a luncheon and soup will be served, include a soup bowl in your place setting. Whether your luncheon is casual or formal, the basic setting is the same. A casual setting includes mostly the same dinnerware as a formal setting, and it is arranged in the same manner. If your luncheon is informal, feel free to choose a variety of colors and patterns to add a bit of your personality to the table.\nPositions of Dinnerware\nThe proper placement of your dinnerware is important. If you are using a placemat, position it on the table so that it centers the chair. The plate is then placed squarely in the center of the placemat. If a placemat is not used, set the plate two inches from the edge of the table, ensuring it is placed on the table so that it centers the chair. Place your soup bowl on top of the plate. If you are serving salad, position the salad plate to the left of the plate and slightly above it, leaving adequate room for your silverware. For informal luncheons, choose plates and bowls of contrasting colors or patterns to add a lively touch to your table setting.\nProper Placement of Silverware\nThe dinner fork is placed on the left side of the plate with the tip of the handle aligned with the bottom edge of the plate and the tines pointing away from the table edge. If you are serving a salad or dessert with the meal, place a second fork on the left of the dinner fork. If you are using a salad plate and it is not properly positioned above the forks and near the plate, move it to its proper position. A knife is placed on the right side of the plate with the tip of its handle in alignment with the bottom edge of the plate. Ensure the blade is facing the plate, as it is considered impolite for the blade to face the next diner. A soup spoon is placed to the right of the knife with the tip of its handle aligned with the tip of the knife.\nTumblers and Stemware\nIt is perfectly acceptable to use tumblers and stemware together in a place setting. Tumblers are placed above the spoon. If you are using a stemmed glass, place it beside or behind the tumbler. If you are using more than two glasses, the glasses are often arranged in a triangle above the spoon, but there is no particular way to arrange the glasses. When a water glass is used, place it where it is most convenient for the guest as this is often the frequently used glass.\nNapkins and Salt-and-Pepper Shakers\nNapkins are traditionally placed to the left of the forks on the left side of the plate or on the plate. A setting that includes a bowl for soup does not allow you to place the napkin on the plate. It is acceptable to arrange the napkin inside stemware in an attractive manner. Use brightly colored napkins to add flair to your table settings. Always place your salt-and-pepper shakers in the center of the table so they are convenient for all guests.\n- Goodshoot/Goodshoot/Getty Images"}
{"content":"The rapid economic growth and population expansion of Cambodian and Vietnam presents opportunities for impacting the livelihood of many people, where horticulture remains an important undeveloped business sector supported by small farmers. This team's goal is to empower small-scale farmers (59% of whom are women) with integrated experiential education and training for sustainable vegetable production that limits postharvest losses, increases food safety, increases market access and, importantly, increases income.\nThe project team designed a participatory approach to meet these goals by networking experts in horticulture production through marketing. Including stakeholders of farmer communes, regional universities, local governments and national communications companies provides continuity needed for continuation of farmer outreach training and education beyond the lifetime of project funding. The successful completion of the project in Vietnam will serve as a model for implementation of the participatory action network in other, more challenging, countries like Cambodia and Laos with similar, but less developed, horticulture business sectors. Completion of this project will address essential capacity-building needs of Cambodia including an assessment of capabilities, research training, outreach development and promotion of communication between policy makers, universities and the agribusiness community.\nOne extension of this project will work with savings groups in Cambodia that will be trained in financial literacy and cell phone-related savings technology. The savings and lending groups will also be introduced to improved horticultural technologies investigated by other Horticulture Innovation Lab projects and provided with the opportunity to invest in these technologies. The project team will collect data on the demand and use of these technologies in rural farming systems. This model will enable information to flow in two directions, as farmers and savings groups gain access to “leapfrog technologies,” and the Horticulture Innovation Lab learns how rural farmers in Cambodia reinvent new technologies to accommodate local, on-the-ground realities. This project will also help determine which horticulture technologies are in demand among Cambodian farmers, and what specific conditions create demand for these technologies."}
{"content":"This is a second in a two-part series on Housing Market Realities. Please click here to read part I-\nFourth, there is the distinction between want and need. People need housing, as they need food and clothing. These are not optional choices that can be foregone in favour of other spending preferences. Housing is not an optional choice because there is no product that can be substituted for it. If I don’t like the price for a particular fruit at the grocery store, I have the option of choosing a different fruit, or buying no fruit at all. This is not the case with housing. There is no product that can substitute for it.\nThese realities create a supply and demand gap for low-income households. Housing demand is based on ability to pay. If a would-be renter cannot pay for housing at the price for which offered there is no effective demand. The need of low-income households for housing is undiminished but it is not supported by purchasing power: the market cannot supply rental housing at a price low-income households can afford. This is the gap that the free market cannot bridge. Meanwhile, everyone needs suitable housing that they can afford.\nThus the price of rental housing cannot simply be left to open market conditions because to recap, housing is not an optional commodity that people can do without. Everyone needs housing. The rental housing supply is inelastic in the short and medium term; increased demand will not alter the supply of purpose-built rental housing, but will raise its price. There are no products that can be purchased instead of housing that will meet shelter needs. And finally, the affordable housing needs of low-income (and even moderate-income households in many markets) cannot be met through free-market supply and demand.\nOvercoming the supply and demand gap\nFirst, consider the regulatory technique of rent control. Rent controls exist in many jurisdictions, with landlords, in many but not all cases, being subject to government-determined maximum rent increases.\nRent controls are favoured by tenant rights organizations and activists. It can be argued, however, that rent controls are in fact counter-productive because they provide a disincentive for investors to expand the stock of private rental housing or even to repair and maintain existing properties to an adequate standard. And landlords can be exempted from rent controls in many different ways, such as under new tenancies or when renovations are carried out. They are a flawed system of controlling rent levels in the residential tenancy market.\nSo if the private rental market cannot on its own supply housing to low-income households at a price they can afford, and with rent controls offering a inadequate solution at best, what is the policy answer for low-income households?\nThere are three complimentary policy solutions for government which taken together can in large measure address the housing affordability crisis facing Canada. (A fourth and equally important housing policy goal must be to launch a Canada-wide initiative to end homelessness. This is not addressed in detail here only because the present focus is on affordability for Canadians who are already housed.)\nFirst, there is the question of addressing the situation facing co‑operative, non-profit and public housing – the stock of existing community housing in Canada – that has been supported by government assistance programs. The total stock housing of this housing amounts to some 630,000 homes, of which 200,000 house low-income households that have depended on government financial assistance to pay rent. The programs that have provided this support are ending. Unless they are replaced, which can be most effectively achieved through multilateral government cost-sharing programs, Canada runs the real risk of losing existing housing affordability even as we explore policy intitatives to add other affordable housing options. This is a critical and urgent matter. It would be illogical to say the least not to address it, given the cost effectiveness of continuing to support affordability in stock we already have.\nFor tenants in the private market without any immediate prospect of getting into existing affordable social housing, the most effective, immediate and comprehensive solution is a government system of portable housing benefit that is paid directly to households according to their incomes. Paying the benefit to the tenant and not the landlord reduces the risk of inflation in the rental market because a landlord need not be aware that a tenant is receiving the benefit. Inflation risk can be further mitigated if the benefit is only provided to assist the tenant up to a median market rent, based on an appropriate unit size for the household, and not up to the actual rent charged by a landlord if that rent is above the market median.\nAllowing the benefit to be portable, to go where the tenant goes rather than being tied to a particular housing unit, as has been the case with most low-income rent subsidies in Canada, would be a real step forward in allowing mobility, whether to a job opportunity, a more suitable location or for reasons of personal safety. A Housing Benefit has been in place in the UK for decades and it has worked well.\nIntroducing a housing benefit will not on its own address Canada’s housing challenges without a supply-side solution. Here lies the third policy solution There is an opportunty for government to stimulate growth in the supply of purpose-built rental housing, both in the private and social rental markets. New financing and equity models are needed to attract private capital to the development of new rental stock, thus allowing supply to come into a better balance with demand over time. This approach should encompass both the the social and private rental sectors. The latter has generated significant growth in Canada’s rental stock when government incentive programs have been available in the past. Private market actors should not be excluded if new supply programs are to have maximum impact on rental stock expansion.\nBut as we noted earlier, the supply of rental housing is inelastic in the shorter term – it can take years for development incentive programs to deliver new housing. Hence the critical need for the more immediate solutions of replacing community housing rental assistamce programs and launching a comprehensive housing benefit program will lift hundreds of thousands of Canadians out of housing poverty in very short order. Government should not delay the introduction of either of these measures.\nThe argument has been made that state rental subsidies single out low-income households for favoured treatment at taxpayers’ expense. This is not reasonable. The labour market conditions that create income disparity in the first place disfavour the same households. And because our income-tax system is progressive, the taxpayer “burden” of a housing benefit, if it can be called that, is borne to a greater degree by those taxpayers who are favoured in the economy through higher incomes."}
{"content":"This letter to the editor, written in 1986 by my dad’s friend and fellow Bravo Company “Sky Trooper,” sadly still resonates today. Below are excerpts of that letter.\n“Vietnam veterans and nation still recovering”\nLast week this letter came to me in the mail. And, though it was addressed to me, clearly it was written to you, too – to all of us. So I wanted you to see it:\n“I have been following [this] column on the situation of the Vietnam veteran. It is encouraging to know that there are a few who still consider his plight.\n“The Vietnam vets I’m in contact with are in one stage or another of turning their lives around. They’re trying to get on with it. These stages have been fairly common to us all. We were confused, as we tried to fit ourselves back into a world that had drastically changed for us. We denied any war-related problems as the first inklings of unusual behavior or attitudes appeared in us.\n“Ultimately we were forced to recognize the problem – and this was rough – when our images of ourselves and others could not for an instant longer be supported by our inner feelings. Then came delayed grief, depression and anxiety, intermixed with bitterness, rage and fear as each of us tried to place blame on whomever we considered the cause of our problem.\n“And then the final stage – and this one the toughest of all: forgiving those who ravaged our young lives, for they knew not what they did. And perhaps still don’t know.\n“ These stages aren’t this smooth of orderly, of course. They intermingle, collide, and a guy might regress a little if some citizen irritably calls his attention to some petty peacetime rule, while the vet remembers how he was ordered to brutally break some very major human rules to keep this same citizen safe. But the vet moves on…\n“I, myself, I think, am edging toward this last stage. I am beginning to view the Vietnam war as something other than the preconceived atrocity that I was assuming it to be. I am starting to see it as, perhaps, the social equivalent to a ‘Black Hole’ in outer space – an all-encompassing negative energy, anti-everything that sustains life, and not understandable in and of itself. Who do you blame for a “Black Hole’ in space? Nobody. Period. You accept it.\n“And, yet, something is still awry.\n“The veteran was the most obviously damaged by this ‘Black Hole’ event in American history. But the Vietnam war hurt us all.\n“The veteran feels all to acutely the emptiness of spirit this has left in him. He wonders why this burden continues to remain his alone. But it may not.\n“Perhaps, as a society, we all carry the load.”\nThis letter, published Wednesday, November 12, 1986, was written by Bill Hardin to The Daily News columnist Phyllis Miletich."}
{"content":"148f77 Color Code\n148f77 color RGB value is (20, 143, 119). This hex color code is also a web safe color which is equal to #148f77. 148f77 hex color red value is 20, green value is 143 and the blue value of its RGB is 119. Cylindrical-coordinate representations (also known as HSL) of color 148f77 hue: 0.47, saturation: 0.64 and the lightness value of 148f77 is 0.32."}
{"content":"Drop sets are an exercise intensity buildup technique that are incorporated in one's routine when he or she is short on time. For those undergoing the rather tedious task of muscle buildup, slacking off is not an option especially if you are expecting results. In order to maintain a good training volume you must be willing to spend a good portion of your spare time in the gym. However, many times we do not have that kind of time on our hands. That is where drop sets come into the picture.\nEssentially, a drop set is executed by taking a workout to transitory muscular failure after which the load is decreased and then made to hit failure again. The concept behind this practice is to increase greater muscular fatigue that in turn results in more muscular growth. Multiple drop sets enable the lifter to increase his or her time under tension, ischemia, and metabolic stress and total volume in a reduced amount of time as opposed to the time it would take them to complete their regular workout sets.\nStudies have approved the use of drop sets when the eventual goal is to achieve muscle hypertrophy. These researches studied lifters who employed drop sets in the gym and exhibited good results by spending less than half the amount of time spent by their normal set practicing counterparts. The two groups studied were instructed to follow the same training volume however; the group that incorporated drop sets in their workout revealed twice the amount of muscular growth in just over 6 weeks. This proved that spending a limited amount of time in the gym has nothing to do with the amount of muscular gain.\nWhile studies show exceptional results with the use of drop sets, there is no denying the possibility of contracted revenues because pushing a muscle to failure several times during one exercise and then forcing it to go through the same stress a few days later may lead to overstraining of the muscle, reduced recovery as well as neuromuscular problems. The best way to go about drop sets is to use them tactically over the course of the week by performing a set with several drops on a muscle group no more than twice or thrice a week.\nWeight selector machines are ideal because a fixed ROM will help you maintain your form without the risk of sustaining injuries due to muscle fatigue and boosts recovery time. Opt for isolation movements when performing drop sets as opposed to compound movements because isolation movements exhaust your targeted muscle down to the fiber.\nDrop sets are the closest thing to a substitute of traditional intense straight set training because they tend to come in handy when you are at a time crunch or if you are looking to increase your muscle volume without having to slave for hours and hours.\nWe would really like to here from you. Please leave your comment below."}
{"content":"ImpactAlpha, April 11 – More than 300,000 private schools in India serve 80 million students, the majority of them poor. Many parents perceive these low-fee schools to be of higher quality than the country’s public schools, and enrollment is rising. But difficulties in finding financing “puts quality at risk,” according to the Omidyar Network. Varthana, a Bangalore-based financial institution, provides loans to affordable private schools to build or rehabilitate facilities, purchase classroom resources and train teachers. The company works with schools to develop quality improvement plans and offers financial incentives to schools to achieve their improvement goals. Varthana says it supports more than 3,500 schools serving 2.5 million students.\n- Impact investors… Omidyar Network, which has been an investor in Varthana since 2014, joined the company’s recent Series C funding, along with Elevar Equity, LGT Impact and Kaizen Private Equity.\n- Commercial capital… Significantly, the round was led by ChrysCapital, an Indian private equity firm, signaling the availability of more capital for education financing.\n“We are humbled that [ChrysCapital] are as convinced as we are about Varthana’s potential to have a significant, positive impact on the Indian education ecosystem,” Varthana’s founders said in a statement."}
{"content":"– Congratulations Charlottesville, Virginia! The First City to Pass Anti-Drone Legislation (Liberty Blitzkrieg, Feb 5, 2013):\nThis simple piece of legislation proves that you can make a difference at the local level. We need a lot more of this type of thing all over these United States. As I have said many times, it’s not that I am against drones in all capacities; however, we must be vigilant about how these things are used and must have serious safeguards in place to protect civil liberties. Kudos to the Rutherford Institute for leading the charge here.\nFrom US News:\nCharlottesville, Va., has become the first city in the United States to formally pass an anti-drone resolution.\nThe resolution passed by a 3-2 vote and was brought to the city council by activist David Swanson and the Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties group based in the city. The measure also endorses a proposed two-year moratorium on drones in Virginia.\nCouncilmember Dede Smith, who voted in favor of the bill, says that drones are “pretty clearly a threat to our constitutional right to privacy.”\n“If we don’t get out ahead of it to establish some guidelines for how drones are used, they will be used in a very invasive way and we’ll be left to try and pick up the pieces,” she says.\n“With a lot of these resolutions, although they don’t have a lot of teeth to them, they can inspire other governments to pass similar measures,” she says. “You can get a critical mass and then it does have influence. One doesn’t do much, but a thousand of them might. We want this on [federal and state lawmakers’] radars.”\nFull article here."}
{"content":"As many of you know, in spring 2015 we ran an altered version of our very successful project “Mechanical MOOC”. At the heart of this MOOC we offered a course titled A Gentle Introduction to Python. It is a six week course offering exercises and learning materials from MIT OCW’s course combined with Codecademy exercises that were carefully incorporated into the curriculum of the course. This time around we tried to answer some of the deeper learning hypothesis in particular how to grow academic mindsets during a MOOC.\nIf you are saying: “OK, but what exactly does that mean?”, here it comes. According to the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s research, when learning one needs to increase the sense of the following in order to achieve that deeper learning:\n- I belong in this academic community (Belonging)\n- I can succeed at this (Self-efficacy)\n- My ability and competence grow with my effort (Growth mindset)\n- This work has value for me (Relevance)\nThere were a few things that we changed on the course in comparison to previous iterations in order to increase deeper learning of people who took this course, such as:\n- Location – When learners signed up, we introduced them to a global map where each of the learners could set their own location. This way people had a sense that they are a part of global community and also get the feeling of the existence of the fellow co-learners in their local vicinities.\n- Introductions – To increase the sense of belonging in the course community we asked learners to introduce themselves to others and share their stories about why they want to learn about programming with Python.\n- Working on a project – Continuation is nice, so we also extended the curriculum of the course for learning to happen through work on a project and this left learners with a nice game of Tetris in the end.\n- Community -We made it our business to constantly remind learners to support each other through community space that was opened for them. Each of the learner received two emails per week into their inbox. One informed them of the materials for that particular week and other encouraged them to seek and give support to each other in various ways.\n- Finding out the interesting stuff about the topic you learn – One of the ways of connecting with each other was invitation to search and share for programs that were built with the language they are learning. They were asked to share a Python project that they know of or they could find on the internet and are at least a bit familiar with it prior to taking this course. We called this activity a Python Safari.\n- Goals – One way to achieve a goal is to break it into few micro goals and then slowly take one by one. With this in mind we asked learners to do this, share their goals for a week with others and then speak to each other about the goals and the ways to achieve them.\n- Failing party – As long as there is learning, there will always be failing too and we made sure that learners knew that failing is part of learning process and we need to celebrate it just the same. We introduced an activity called a Fail Party for this reason. In this activity we invited them to share about their fail and talk about why they think they are failing\nP2P done F2F\nHistorically we have been advocates for online learning, but per our name we have also been strong advocates for peer learning. As our strategy says we wish to teach people to get the most out of their time studying in order to really learn and improve their lives. What better way of achieving that, then to do a great online course together with peers in a study group, or as we like to call it, Learning Circle?\nFor this course we invited everyone to try and find folks near them, who want to learn Python as well and organize their own Learning Circle. We provided some guidelines for everyone on how to do that.\nIn the end 3 Learning Circles happened during the course(that we are aware of!). Places where they were held were:\n- Chicago Public Library, Chicago, USA, facilitated by Emily who is a cybernavigator in Chicago Public Library\n- Cape Town, South Africa facilitated by Hamish who runs the IT department for the Observatory in Cape Town\n- Ljubljana, Slovenia, facilitated by Erika our professional software developer and her friends from the Codecatz group\nThree different continents! That is pretty sweet.\nThe facilitators of these Learning Circles couldn’t be more different to each other. Hamish and Erika were well-versed in computer science but Emily had no experience and knowledge about programming from before. All of their experiences with facilitation of the Learning Circle was interesting, but one difference really stood out: While Emily wished she would know more about programming and be able to help learners more, Erika wished she would know less about it, so other participants in the Learning Circle would not look her way every time a hurdle needed to be jumped over. To support each other more.\nWe found that a lot of the time learners are reserved about helping one another when they feel that their level of knowledge is not up to par. That happens especially, when there is an expert in the room. The fear of being judged and being wrong is always present.\nWith that experience it is safe to say that a little bit of facilitator’s knowledge about the topic is a good thing, but a lot of knowledge is not so much.\nMidway through the course we organized a facilitator’s meeting, where all of the facilitators could share experiences from their group and ask for advice, if they needed some realignment. This meeting provided a lot of insight into what are the expectations of learners coming to the Learning Circles.It was very productive gathering for us, as we also got a lot of feedback from facilitators on the structure of the course and in particular got direct information about experiences of the course takers.\nFor that reason we didn’t want to leave out the people who could not join face to face Learning Circles, so we also invited Glenn Richards, who is a champion of the online community. He was ever so helpful for his fellow learners, with the course content or just sparking up the conversations about it. In the future we hope to meet many more Glenns!\nIt seems that very traditional way of learning, where there is a teacher in the middle of the process, is deeply rooted in our society, however as a cognitive beings, we are very quick to embrace different ways of learning as for example peer learning.\nPeer learning FTW!"}
{"content":"NGO representatives at the Asia Pacific regional SAICM meeting in Kuala Lumpur\nNumerous IPEN Participating Organization representatives attended the 4th Asia-Pacific regional meeting on the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) and related workshops, which occured from 23 - 27 March in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The meeting and workshops were preceded by a South East Asian sub-regional wokshop in support of the ratification and early implementation of the Minamata Convention on Mercury. The SAICM meeting covered issues such as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), lead in paint, nanotechnology, highly hazardous pesticides and other subjects in the SAICM.\nThis week at the 5th African regional meeting on the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) and related workshops in Pretoria, South Africa, Centre de Recherche et d’Education pour le Développement (CREPD) from Cameroon received the award for \"Outstanding Quick Start Programme project in Africa\" for their project on lead in paint."}
{"content":"Design of LDPC codes for BP algorithm with channel estimation error\nWhen belief propagation (BP) algorithm is used to decode low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes over the binary input additive white Gaussian noise (BIA WGN) channel, the knowledge of the channel noise power is necessary for the algorithm to achieve its predicted performance. If the noise power is estimated erroneously, we refer to this as \"signal to noise ratio (SNR) mismatch\". In this paper, irregular LDPC codes are designed that perform better (have a lower SNR threshold) in the presence of mismatch compared to conventionally designed irregular LDPC codes that are optimized for zero mismatch. It is shown that with a negligible performance loss at zero mismatch, highly irregular codes that are more robust against mismatch can be designed. A method to generate EXIT curves in the presence of mismatch is proposed that will be used to design such irregular codes. Finite block length simulation results are provided to confirm the asymptotic analysis results.\n|Conference||6th International ITG-Conference on Source and Channel Coding and 2006 4th International Symposium on Turbo Codes and Related Topics, TURBOCODING 2006|\nSaeedi, H. (Hamid), & Banihashemi, A. (2006). Design of LDPC codes for BP algorithm with channel estimation error. In Turbo Codes and Related Topics; 6th International ITG-Conference on Source and Channel Coding (TURBOCODING), 2006 4th International Symposium on."}
{"content":"Laplace-domain approximation to the transfer functions of a rotor blade in forward flight\nA continuous frequency domain method with roots on the classic Hill's determinant analysis is presented to approximate the time-varying characteristics of a linear periodic system. The method is particularly useful to derive a time-invariant equivalent form of the time-varying aeroelastic problem of a rotor blade in forward flight. The proposed technique allows methodology usually employed in fixed wing aircraft to obtain closed-loop control laws be extended to rotary wings. The method is first validated solving Mathieu's equation. Next, the two-degree-of-freedom (flap bending and torsion) problem of rotating beam subject to unsteady and incompressible aerodynamics in forward flight is solved in the laplace domain. As a demonstration of the proposed method, the transfer functions in the 's' plane between a sudden and uniformly distributed input pressure perturbation applied along the beam and the output response of the two elastic degrees of freedom considered are obtained at a set of local sections.\nNitzsche, F. (2001). Laplace-domain approximation to the transfer functions of a rotor blade in forward flight."}
{"content":"- Poster presentation\n- Open Access\nEvaluation of RV and LV mass by CMR and comparison to recipient heart following heart transplant; the first-ever CMR human autopsy study\n© Reddy et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014\n- Published: 16 January 2014\n- Heart Transplant Recipient\n- Orthotopic Heart Transplantation\n- Explanted Heart\n- Cardiac Transplant Patient\n- Recipient Heart\nCMR is considered the 'gold standard' for non-invasive LV and RV mass quantitation. To our knowledge, this information is solely based on GRE sequences, with its dependence on flow conditions having never been prospectively or retrospectively validated in humans undermining its credibility. SSFP, with intrinsic contrast dependent on T1/T2 characteristics, offers superior image contrast between blood and myocardium and might redefine the CMR gold standard for cardiac mass. Herein we validate an SSFP approach using explanted hearts obtained from heart transplant recipients.\nTo establish a correlation between SSFP-CMR derived LV and RV mass vs. autopsy mass of ex vivo hearts from cardiac transplant patients.\nOver 3 years, 48 explantations were obtained immediately upon orthotopic heart transplantation from the OR. They were quickly cleaned, prepared (removal of PM/AICDs and/or LV/RVADs), suspended in a saline-filled container and scanned ex vivo via SSFP-SA slices definingCMR LV/RV mass (g). Using a readily available automatic thresholding program, segmentation of the slices was achieved in combination with manual trimming (ATMT) of the extraneous tissue using a 3D model by an independent and blinded reader (implemented on a 1.5 GE, Milwaukee, WI). The explanted hearts were dissected with ventricles surgically separated at the inter-ventricular septum. The weight of the total including papillary and trabecular myocardium for the LV and RV was measured using a high-fidelity scale. Correlation between the 3D CMR method and pathology were performed along with Bland-Altman plots.\nSSFP-CMR accurately determines total myocardial, LV and RV masses as compared to weighed explanted hearts, despite variable surgical removal of instrumentation (LVAD/RVAD, AICDs and often apical core removals). Thus, while GRE was the original 'gold standard' for LV mass, SSFP despite its universal acceptance as the 'de facto gold standard is now formally validated in a first-ever human autopsy study. Further, the regression equation now includes, not excludes papillary and trabecular mass supporting that our Society should now incorporate both into standard cardiac measurements.\nThis article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated."}
{"content":"Publishers are spending millions revamping journal websites. What were formerly simple portals where you accessed articles are being radically redesigned as online content delivery platforms. As the website for the JAMA Network of journals announced late last year:\nWe have aimed to make the platform more usable, discoverable, and faster on any device.\nIn case you haven’t noticed, many journals no longer publish articles on paper, which are bound in journals and stored on library shelves.\nMany journals still preserve the appearance of publishing articles organized in “issues” scheduled on particular dates. But articles no longer have to wait being organized in an issue. They now typically appear as quickly as possible as “early views.”\n[There is a sneaky trick here. Journal impact factors are supposedly calculated based on the number of citations articles receive within two years of publishing. But Web of Science starts the two-year window from what is an increasingly artificial date of publication. Journals can exploit early views to get citations coming before that publication date. Journal impact factors can be manipulated with lots of early view articles available months before being assigned an issue and page numbers.]\nYou can still download old-fashioned PDFs resembling the pages of paper journals, but PDFs no longer must be papercentric, modeled after what was printed on dead trees and bound in volumes. Online enhanced content delivery platforms increasingly offer enhanced PDFs. As described by Wiley –\nWhilst keeping the clear layout and simple design of the standard PDF, PDFs opened in the ReadCube Enhanced PDF format, feature hyperlinked in-line citations and clickable author details, allowing quick look up and cross reference. Supplementary information, figures and other valuable article data, are always just a click away, making it easier for researchers to discover, access and interact with our scientific literature. Integrated social sharing and social metrics data are also available from Altmetric, connecting our articles in new, innovative ways.\nWiley, like other for-profit publishers capitalizes on enhanced PDFs to make money in new ways, by providing:\nMore flexible options for “Pay-Per-View” journal article access, replacing our existing PPV service for individual users with affordable rental, cloud and PDF download options, ensuring we give users a range of options in how they view and access that content.\nParticularly with publishers of medical journals like the American Medical Association, you may have noticed that email alerts have for a while had links for temporary free access to articles. However, when the links take you to the online platform, you find that you can’t download the PDFs without paying a fee, but must read them in the ReadCube or other enhanced PDF platform.\nScientific publishing is is also digitalized, with journals no longer accepting submissions by snail mail, but requiring that submissions be uploaded through portals like ScholarOne.\nDigitalization also means that access to articles can be monitored, with readers, individually and collectively, put under surveillance concerning their viewing habits. Once harvested , these data become extremely valuable in guiding decision-making.\nBig data also provide instant feedback about what topics and what specific articles are getting attention and can even be used to make judgments about how successful particular authors in drawing traffic to their website.\nIn the process of converting to online content delivery platforms, publishers have followed the lead of Amazon, Netflix and Uber. Sometimes hiring programmers from these organizations , publishers have created algorithms to collect and process big data to personalize what is being offered to readers accessing their websites.\nYou may have noticed that when you access an article, it is accompanied by recommendations about other articles that may interest you.\nYup, journals are evaluating topics and authors in terms of their ability to draw traffic to their websites, keep visitors at their websites and coming back.\nIn authors’ cover letters accompanying submissions, it has become strategic to inform the editor how specifically acceptance of your manuscript would serve this aim of the journal. Authors might do well to cite altmetrics of their last paper published in a journal:\nWe are submitting our manuscript [title] to your journal because of the extraordinary altmetrics achieved by our last paper published there.\nDepending on the value editors attach to your submission, journals may expect you to collaborate with them in increasing traffic to their website, once your manuscript is accepted.\nFor papers promising to be particularly successful, the journals may expect you to provide press releases; write additional shorter, more engaging abstracts; and even prepare audio and video presentations and especially podcast interviews.\nOver the coming months, I will be writing a series of blog posts about these huge changes in scientific publishing.\nI’ll also be making available free videos about the opportunities and challenges these transformations mean for you as an author. This summer I will be releasing a web-based course of five, one hour videos entitled How to Write High Impact Papers: a Strategic Approach. I’ll still be offering live workshops, such as at the European Health Psychology Conference in Padova at the end of August, but I am seeking to reach a broader audience by going to the web. The videos will be in English, but they will have subtitles in a variety of other languages, as well as English.\nYou can sign up now for email alerts about my blogs, web-based courses, and e=books at @CoyneoftheRealm.com.\nBut for now, I will simply point to the temptations that the aims of these online content delivery platforms pose for authors.\nEditors seek manuscripts with newsworthy, attention-grabbing story lines, not just another brick in the wall. They want claims of –God save us- paradigm-changing findings. They are less concerned what is robust and enduring, but in what draws in traffic to their platforms. Yet, so much well executed and transparently reported science does not fit this picture. Are you tempted to make your manuscript attractive in these terms, even if you have to get flexible in what data you report and how you analyze and interpret these data?\nBasically, publishers are transforming their websites based on big data that suggests that if they going to maximize the success and profit, they must adapt to new readers.\nThese readers are being profoundly changed by mobile devices and the internet. Their behavior has been shaped by their experience with social media and digital devices. The new wave of readers is accustomed to ordering pizzas and Uber cars easily and to being guided by the ratings of other uses of these services. They expect similar experiences accessing scientific articles.\nI don’t think we can ignore all this and still get the best benefit in reading and writing scientific papers.\nThe old ways of doing things are working less and less well.\nAre you gearing your manuscripts and cover letters to the new wave of readers that publishers want to attract to their platforms and keep coming?"}
{"content":"It’s the very first thing I wrote down in my notebook. Act as if.\nHow exactly was I supposed to do that? Surely the trainer was going to reveal the secret during our first day of leadership training. Instead she took us on a year-long journey that started with THINK AS IF …led to ACT AS IF…and ultimately became the way things are. (or in progress of becoming.)\nWhat is leading? It’s knowing when to talk and when to listen. It’s knowing when to lead and when to follow. It’s motivating people to do good work. It’s about having outstanding interpersonal skills. And staying focused on business outcomes. Always.\nIt’s all of that and so much more.\nAs I wrote down “Act as if” in my notebook I realized that some of the simplest lessons would be the hardest to apply.\nHow to say yes\n“No!” It’s the hallmark of my 3 year olds vocabulary. It’s easy to say. It’s definitive. It leaves no room for speculation.\nSometimes it’s necessary to say no at work. But falling into the trap of only 2 answers — “yes” or “no” – is very limiting. There are so many possibilities between yes and no. Learning to say “yes” (even with caveats and boundaries) opens up a dialogue that leads to creative solutions.\nToday I say YES more often.\nHow to make a better first impression\nMy dad taught me early on that a firm handshake and eye contact are the ways to make a good first impression. I mastered those when I was 10.\nStanding in front of 30 women, I learned to take it up a notch. To convey warmth instead of perkiness. To control the inflection of my voice. To stand tall despite being 5’2” (and a half!).\nToday I make a better first impression. Though I am still working on “Good morning” (inside joke for BL18!)\nAsk…for what I want\nThis is so.unbelievably.difficult. Asking for what I want means (a) knowing exactly what it is I actually want (b) articulating what I want in a way my audience (manager, co-workers, team) will hear *and* act on (c) demonstrating the benefits of my request.\nOne of my mentors explained “showing your value doesn’t mean talking the most. Or the loudest. (I am fairly certain she would cringe at some of the meetings I attend). She told me to ask more questions. Offer less answers. And BE QUIET.\nAsk…how I can help\nGive me a problem. I want to solve it. NOW. One of my mentors politely asked me, “does your team ask you to solve their problems?”\n“Is your team capable of solving problems?”\n“Start by asking how you can help. It’s more effective than solving every problem”. Huh. I discovered this applies to my kids too.\nToday — every day — I ask. I ask questions. I ask for what I want. What my team wants. I simply put out my questions, pause, and wait for the answer.\nThe power of the pause\nI admit the first time I heard about the “power of the pause” I broke out into Vanilla Ice lyrics…stop. collaborate and listen… But really? Sometimes silence is exactly what’s needed to get unstuck.\nMy normal pace is to respond (react?) immediately to everything. Pausing gives me the luxury of saying the right thing at the right time (I cannot claim to always get this right). Sometimes in that pause I even manage to think up some good questions.\nToday I take a deep breath and pause.\nHave I mentioned that I think every problem is mine to solve? A big-huge-slap-in-the-face lesson I learned is that sometimes a battle is not worth fighting. I have to strategically choose when to collaborate, when to compromise, and when to avoid.\nToday I make better choices that lead to better outcomes.\nWhat got you here won’t get you there\nAll those things that led to my current success? They aren’t the things that will necessarily lead to my next success. And that brings us right back to…\nAct as if\nIn a year I made things possible that I couldn’t imagine when I started this journey. I put life-changing tools in my toolbox and learned how — and when — to use them. I stopped acting and started being the person I set out to be one year ago.\nToday I lead.\nAnd people follow!\nLike this blog? Follow me on twitter."}
{"content":"Purchase this article with an account.\nBrad Kempster, Claudia Gonzalez; Left hemisphere advantage in the visual processing of graspable objects. Journal of Vision 2011;11(11):830. doi: 10.1167/11.11.830.\nDownload citation file:\n© ARVO (1962-2015); The Authors (2016-present)\nn a series of grasping studies using visual illusions we showed that regardless of handedness, right hand but not left hand grip apertures are accurately scaled to the size of an object. Grip apertures in the left hand, reflected the perceived (illusory) and not the real size of the target (Gonzalez et al., 2006, 2008). We advanced the hypothesis that the left hemisphere is specialized for visually-guided grasping and that this specialization was independent of handedness. Grasping requires the integration of a visual and a motor component, however. Here we investigate if there are hemispheric asymmetries in encoding visual properties of objects that could later explain the left hemisphere/right hand advantages in visually-guided grasping. We presented pictures of graspable objects, defined as objects that could be picked up with one hand (e.g. coin, apple, etc) and non-graspable objects, defined as tangible objects that could not be picked up with one hand (i.e. car, piano, etc) selectively to the right (RVF) or left (LVF) visual fields. Graspable/non-graspable objects and RVF/LVF presentation were randomized over the trials. Right- and left-handed participants quickly pressed a button with the index finger if the object on the screen was of a graspable object and pressed a different button with the middle finger if it was of a non-graspable object. Responding fingers and starting hands were counterbalanced among participants. Overall, reaction times were shorter for graspable objects than for non-graspable objects. Furthermore, there was a RVF (left hemisphere) advantage (shorter reaction times) but only for graspable objects. No visual field difference was detected for non-graspable objects. These findings were the same for right and left-handers. The results strongly suggest that the processing of graspable objects regardless of handedness is more efficient in the left hemisphere and this might help explain asymmetries in visually-guided grasping.\nThis PDF is available to Subscribers Only"}
{"content":"By Martin Wolf *\nAnother ideological god has failed. The assumptions that ruled policy and politics over three decades suddenly look as outdated as revolutionary socialism.\n“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.'” Thus quipped Ronald Reagan, hero of US conservatism. The remark seems ancient history now that governments are pouring trillions of dollars, euros and pounds into financial systems.\n“Governments bad; deregulated markets good”: how can this faith escape unscathed after Alan Greenspan, pupil of Ayn Rand and predominant central banker of the era, described himself, in congressional testimony last October, as being “in a state of shocked disbelief” over the failure of the “self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders’ equity”?\nIn the west, the pro-market ideology of the past three decades was a reaction to the perceived failure of the mixed-economy, Keynesian model of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The move to the market was associated with the election of Reagan as US president in 1980 and the ascent to the British prime ministership of Margaret Thatcher the year before. Little less important was the role of Paul Volcker, then chairman of the Federal Reserve, in crushing inflation.\nYet bigger events shaped this epoch: the shift of China from the plan to the market under Deng Xiaoping, the collapse of Soviet communism between 1989 and 1991 and the end of India’s inward-looking economic policies after 1991. The death of central planning, the end of the cold war and, above all, the entry of billions of new participants into the rapidly globalising world economy were the high points of this era.\nToday, with a huge global financial crisis and a synchronised slump in economic activity, the world is changing again. The financial system is the brain of the market economy. If it needs so expensive a rescue, what is left of Reagan’s dismissal of governments? If the financial system has failed, what remains of confidence in markets?\nIt is impossible at such a turning point to know where we are going. In the chaotic 1970s, few guessed that the next epoch would see the taming of inflation, the unleashing of capitalism and the death of communism. What will happen now depends on choices unmade and shocks unknown. Yet the combination of a financial collapse with a huge recession, if not something worse, will surely change the world. The legitimacy of the market will weaken. The credibility of the US will be damaged. The authority of China will rise. Globalisation itself may founder. This is a time of upheaval.\nHow did the world arrive here? A big part of the answer is that the era of liberalisation contained seeds of its own downfall: this was also a period of massive growth in the scale and profitability of the financial sector, of frenetic financial innovation, of growing global macroeconomic imbalances, of huge household borrowing and of bubbles in asset prices.\nIn the US, core of the global market economy and centre of the current storm, the aggregate debt of the financial sector jumped from 22 per cent of gross domestic product in 1981 to 117 per cent by the third quarter of 2008. In the UK, with its heavy reliance on financial activity, gross debt of the financial sector reached almost 250 per cent of GDP (see charts).\nCarmen Reinhart of the University of Maryland and Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard argue that the era of liberalisation was also a time of exceptionally frequent financial crises, surpassed, since 1900, only by the 1930s. It was also an era of massive asset price bubbles. By intervening to keep their exchange rates down and accumulating foreign currency reserves, governments of emerging economies generated huge current account surpluses, which they recycled, together with inflows of private capital, into official capital outflows: between the end of the 1990s and the peak in July 2008, their currency reserves alone rose by $5,300bn.\nThese huge flows of capital, on top of the traditional surpluses of a number of high-income countries and the burgeoning surpluses of oil exporters, largely ended up in a small number of high-income countries and particularly in the US. At the peak, America absorbed about 70 per cent of the rest of the world’s surplus savings.\nMeanwhile, inside the US the ratio of household debt to GDP rose from 66 per cent in 1997 to 100 per cent a decade later. Even bigger jumps in household indebtedness occurred in the UK. These surges in household debt were supported, in turn, by highly elastic and innovative financial systems and, in the US, by government programmes.\nThroughout, the financial sector innovated ceaselessly. Warren Buffett, the legendary investor, described derivatives as “financial weapons of mass destruction”. He was proved at least partly right. In the 2000s, the “shadow banking system” emerged and traditional banking was largely replaced by the originate-and-distribute model of securitisation via constructions such as collateralised debt obligations. This model blew up in 2007.\nWe are witnessing the deepest, broadest and most dangerous financial crisis since the 1930s. As Profs Reinhart and Rogoff argue in another paper, “banking crises are associated with profound declines in output and employment”. This is partly because of overstretched balance sheets: in the US, overall debt reached an all-time peak of just under 350 per cent of GDP – 85 per cent of it private. This was up from just over 160 per cent in 1980.\nAmong the possible outcomes of this shock are: massive and prolonged fiscal deficits in countries with large external deficits, as they try to sustain demand; a prolonged world recession; a brutal adjustment of the global balance of payments; a collapse of the dollar; soaring inflation; and a resort to protectionism. The transformation will surely go deepest in the financial sector itself. The proposition that sophisticated modern finance was able to transfer risk to those best able to manage it has failed. The paradigm is, instead, that risk has been transferred to those least able to understand it. As Mr Volcker remarked during a speech last April: “Simply stated, the bright new financial system – for all its talented participants, for all its rich rewards – has failed the test of the marketplace.”\nIn a recent paper Andrew Haldane, the Bank of England’s executive director for financial stability, shows how little banks understood of the risks they were supposed to manage. He ascribes these failures to “disaster myopia” (the tendency to underestimate risks), a lack of awareness of “network externalities” (spillovers from one institution to the others) and “misaligned incentives” (the upside to employees and the downside to shareholders and taxpayers).\n. . .\nAfter the crisis, we will surely “see finance less proud”, as Winston Churchill desired back in 1925. Markets will impose a brutal, if temporary, discipline. Regulation will also tighten.\nLess clear is whether policymakers will contemplate structural remedies: a separation of utility commercial banking from investment banking; or the forced reduction in the size and complexity of institutions deemed too big or interconnected to fail. One could also imagine a return of much banking activity to the home market, as governments increasingly call the tune. If so, this would be “de-globalisation”.\nChurchill called also for industry to be “more content”. In the short run, however, the collapse of the financial system is achieving the opposite: a worldwide industrial slump. It is also spreading to every significant sector of the real economy, much of which is clamouring for assistance.\nYet if the financial system has proved dysfunctional, how far can we rely on the maximisation of shareholder value as the way to guide business? The bulk of shareholdings is, after all, controlled by financial institutions. Events of the past 18 months must confirm the folly of this idea. It is better, many will conclude, to let managers determine the direction of their companies than let financial players or markets override them.\nA likely result will be an increased willingness by governments to protect companies from active shareholders – hedge funds, private equity and other investors. As a defective financial sector loses its credibility, the legitimacy of the market process itself is damaged. This is particularly true of the free-wheeling “Anglo-Saxon” approach.\nNo less likely are big changes in monetary policy. The macroeconomic consensus had been in favour of a separation of responsibility for monetary and fiscal policy, the placing of fiscal policy on autopilot, independence of central banks and the orientation of monetary decisions towards targeting inflation. But with interest rates close to zero, the distinction between monetary and fiscal policy vanishes. More fundamental is the challenge to the decision to ignore asset prices in the setting of monetary policy.\nMany argue that Mr Greenspan, who succeeded Mr Volcker, created the conditions for both bubbles and subsequent collapse. He used to argue that it would be easier to clean up after the bursting of a bubble than identify such a bubble in real time and then prick it. In a reassessment of the doctrine last November, Donald Kohn, Fed vice-chairman, restated the orthodox position, but with a degree of discomfort.\nMr Kohn now states that “in light of the demonstrated importance to the real economy of speculative booms and busts (which can take years to play out), central banks probably should always try to look out over a long horizon when evaluating the economic outlook and deliberating about the appropriate accompanying path of the policy rate”. Central banks will have to go further, via either monetary policy or regulatory instruments.\n. . .\nYet a huge financial crisis, together with a deep global recession, if not something far worse, is going to have much wider effects than just these.\nRemember what happened in the Great Depression of the 1930s. Unemployment rose to one-quarter of the labour force in important countries, including the US. This transformed capitalism and the role of government for half a century, even in the liberal democracies. It led to the collapse of liberal trade, fortified the credibility of socialism and communism and shifted many policymakers towards import substitution as a development strategy.\nThe Depression led also to xenophobia and authoritarianism. Frightened people become tribal: dividing lines open within and between societies. In 1930, the Nazis won 18 per cent of the German vote; in 1932, at the height of the Depression, their share had risen to 37 per cent.\nOne transformation that can already be seen is in attitudes to pay. Even the US and UK are exerting direct control over pay levels and structures in assisted institutions. From the inconceivable to the habitual has taken a year. Equally obvious is a wider shift in attitudes towards inequality: vast rewards were acceptable in return for exceptional competence; as compensation for costly incompetence, they are intolerable. Marginal tax rates on the wealthier are on the way back up.\nYet another impact will be on the sense of insecurity. The credibility of moving pension savings from government-run pay-as-you-go systems to market-based systems will be far smaller than before, even though, ironically, the opportunity for profitable long-term investment has risen. Politics, like markets, overshoot.\nThe search for security will strengthen political control over markets. A shift towards politics entails a shift towards the national, away from the global. This is already evident in finance. It is shown too in the determination to rescue national producers. But protectionist intervention is likely to extend well beyond the cases seen so far: these are still early days.\nThe impact of the crisis will be particularly hard on emerging countries: the number of people in extreme poverty will rise, the size of the new middle class will fall and governments of some indebted emerging countries will surely default. Confidence in local and global elites, in the market and even in the possibility of material progress will weaken, with potentially devastating social and political consequences. Helping emerging economies through a crisis for which most have no responsibility whatsoever is a necessity.\nThe ability of the west in general and the US in particular to influence the course of events will also be damaged. The collapse of the western financial system, while China’s flourishes, marks a humiliating end to the “uni-polar moment”. As western policymakers struggle, their credibility lies broken. Who still trusts the teachers?\nThese changes will endanger the ability of the world not just to manage the global economy but also to cope with strategic challenges: fragile states, terrorism, climate change and the rise of new great powers. At the extreme, the integration of the global economy on which almost everybody now depends might be reversed. Globalisation is a choice. The integrated economy of the decades before the first world war collapsed. It could do so again.\nOn June 19 2007, I concluded an article on the “new capitalism” with the observation that it remained “untested”. The test has come: it failed. The era of financial liberalisation has ended. Yet, unlike in the 1930s, no credible alternative to the market economy exists and the habits of international co-operation are deep.\n“I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas any more,” said Dorothy after a tornado dropped her, her house and dog in the land of Oz. The world of the past three decades has gone. Where we end up, after this financial tornado, is for us to seek to determine.\nThis is the first part of an FT series entitled the Future of Capitalism\n* Martin Wolf is associate editor and chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, London.\nSource: Financial Times, FT.com, Published: March 8 2009"}
{"content":"This is for the rest of us. The rest of us who survived.\nAs a parent, it devastates me to think what terror-stricken families are going through tonight. I worry about how they will ever be whole and healed again. The passing away of any family member is hard, but passing away because of an act of violence is hard to justify as the divine plan.\nI wonder and shudder at the generations to come and how I think that they will be an innocence-less generation. All the technological and medical breakthroughs will help them excel faster and quicker, without the slow streaming Internet and the 100rs-a-minute international calls. However will more information lead to better decisions? And what about innocence? Without innocence how will this generation be silly enough to dream dreams that most people call foolish? Can greatness prevail without this innocence?\nMy son is a year old and fortunately he doesn’t comprehend what is happening all around the World. The grief, the trauma and the pain, all because some frustrated men need an excuse to kill? The new generation is being born into a world of unnatural motivations and greed. It worries me to think that since the day they were conceived, terror looms in backdrop. We may sanitize the world for them, but they sense and will soon know that behind our version there lies the World as it is, terrorized.\nWill this mean that this generation will have high tolerance to terror? Will acts of terror not move them the way that they move us now? Will they not shudder because they are more used to it? I may take heart in the fact, just for a moment that what makes us human –our humanity – will echo throughout the generations to come, no matter what their exposure has been. But today, I am of the opinion that the meaning of humanity is subjective.\nIt is true that man is his own worst enemy, even before he becomes the enemy of who-he-is-not. Being human may be overestimated is what I feel today. There is no pride or nobility in being human. There is more sacredness in being an animal today. We need to think about how our generation will be defined in history – will we just be the mere survivors of violence? It is a sad day and a day to think about how violence pervades our family, whether we are directly affected by it or not."}
{"content":"This was a sidebar for the unpublished piece I wrote on childbirth.\nThere’s no shortage of parenting books and resources available for parents, but here are some of our favourites.\nBaby Love is the Australian bible of parenting books. Written by former child health nurse Robin Barker, it’s a practical guide to the first twelve months of your child’s life and covers everything from feeding, sleeping and, yes, even pooping.\nIf you find yourself fixated on everything that might go wrong during your pregnancy, pick up a copy of What to Expect When You’re Expecting by Heidi Murkoff. This book provides answers to almost every question youll have about your pregnancy in a balanced and reassuring way.\nFor a more humorous take on pregnancy and motherhood, try Up The Duff—Aussie slang for pregnant—by cartoonist Kaz Cooke. This book takes a look at what you might experience week by week during pregnancy, as well as coping with a newborn baby, in a way that’s sure to make you laugh.\nTheres also a huge number of free online resources for pregnant women and parents:\n- BabyCenter at www.babycenter.com.au can send you weekly newsletters with relevant information about your baby’s development\n- Essential Baby at www.essentialbaby.com.au provides a forum for mums to ask questions and share their parenting experiences\n- Raising Children Network at www.raisingchildren.net.au is packed with articles and expert advice on caring for children up to school age\n- If you’re expecting twins or multiples, contact the Australian Multiple Births Association at www.amba.org.au (membership incurs a fee)\nFinally, if youre about to become a Lola (grandmother), many hospitals now offer grandparenting classes, which might be particularly useful if youd like to know more about current childbirth and parenting practices in Australia."}
{"content":"ATLANTA — Just one point separates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in two states that are critical to both candidates’ chances of becoming president, according to new CNN/ORC polls in Pennsylvania and Colorado.\nIn Colorado, likely voters break 42 percent for Trump, 41 percent for Clinton, 13 percent for Libertarian Gary Johnson and 3 percent for Green Party candidate Jill Stein.\nPennsylvania’s likely voters split 45 percent for Clinton, 44 percent for Trump, 6 percent for Johnson and 3 percent for Stein. Those divides are well within each poll’s 3.5-point margin of sampling error.\nThe new results in two battleground states underscore the closeness of the race and come as the candidates prepare to square off Monday night in their high-stakes first debate at Long Island’s Hofstra University.\nIn both states, sharp divisions among whites by education are evident, with white college graduates choosing Clinton over Trump by 11 points in Pennsylvania and 16 points in Colorado, while whites who do not hold four-year degrees break in Trump’s favor by 19 points in Pennsylvania and 22 points in Colorado.\nRELATED: Full Colorado polling results\nIn Colorado, that education gap is a bigger divide than gender or age, and is even larger than the racial gap in the state. Pennsylvania’s likely voters are more divided than Colorado’s along gender and racial lines.\nJohnson’s appeal among younger voters appears to be working to Clinton’s detriment in both states. While Trump’s numbers are significantly lower among voters under 45 than among older voters, Clinton’s are roughly the same across age groups, while Johnson’s support multiplies among younger voters.\nClinton fares better in two-way matchups in both states, topping Trump 50 percent to 47 percent among likely voters in Pennsylvania and 49 percent to 47 percent in Colorado.\nThough both results are within the polls’ margin of sampling error, the finding suggests she could fare better in each state if third party candidate support dipped.\nThe two polls come alongside tight national polls and neck-and-neck poll results in several other key battleground states including Ohio, Florida, Nevada and North Carolina.\nIn Colorado and Pennsylvania, the economy stands out as far and away the top voter concern. About half of registered voters in each state, and a similar share of likely voters, call the economy most important out of a list also including terrorism, illegal immigration and foreign policy.\nAnd when asked which candidate would better handle the economy, Trump comes out on top in both states, though within each poll’s margin of error.\nClinton holds broad advantages for handling foreign policy in both states, and she tops Trump by eight points on handling immigration in Colorado, a state where a Pew Research Center analysis recently estimated that about a quarter of the state’s sizable Latino population is foreign born.\nIn Pennsylvania, the two candidates run about even on that issue. And in the wake of terror attacks in New York and New Jersey, voters in both states are about evenly split on who would better handle terrorism.\nThe poll suggests Clinton has made an effective case that Trump does not have the temperament to be president — she is viewed as better suited for the presidency by a nearly two-to-one margin in each state on that score — and she holds smaller advantages as the better candidate to be commander-in-chief.\nBut Clinton continues to lag behind Trump when voters are asked which of the two is more honest and trustworthy.\nTrump’s contention that Clinton lacks the stamina for the job splits voters in Colorado, 48 percent see him as having the better stamina, 45 percent choose Clinton. In Pennsylvania, Trump holds a larger advantage on that, 50 percent to 45 percent.\nDemocrats have a narrow edge in the race for Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate seat, with Katie McGinty topping incumbent Pat Toomey 49 percent to 46 percent among likely voters, just inside the poll’s margin of error, and a broad lead in Colorado’s Senate contest, with incumbent Michael Bennet up 53 percent to 43 percent over Republican challenger Darryl Glenn.\nThe CNN/ORC Polls in Colorado and Pennsylvania were conducted by telephone Sept. 20-25. The Colorado poll included interviews with 1,010 adult residents of the state, including 784 who are likely to vote in November.\nIn Pennsylvania, interviews were conducted with 1,032 adult residents of the state, including 771 likely voters. Results for likely voters have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points in each state.AlertMe"}
{"content":"Tom Ricks has won the Pulitzer prize twice, written five best-selling books on the military and foreign policy, and is a Senior Advisor at the New America Foundation. The American Society of Magazine Editors named Ricks’ ForeignPolicy.com blog, “Best Defense” the best blog on the internet in 2010.\nThis week Tom Ricks’ blog covered cyber warfare, Cuba, Iraq, torture and … CrossFit?\nIt’s not that much of a leap. Few would dispute that physical fitness is an essential component of military preparation. Yet the American military does not meet basic standards of health, let alone fitness:\n“Only 35.7 percent of active duty personnel are classified as being a healthy weight. 51.2 percent of uniformed personnel are overweight; 12.4 percent are obese.”\nBack to the CrossFit article on Ricks’ blog this week. Guest author Jim Gourley examined the military’s response to this problem in, “The relationship between the U.S. military and the CrossFit program.” Gourley reviewed some of the same figures and events that we’ve covered on this blog, including Dr. Katie Heinrich’s upcoming CrossFit study and General Abrams’ multi-million dollar commitment to CrossFit L1 seminars.\nGourley got those parts right, but two lines stand out as blatant misrepresentations of the truth:\nThe Army has perhaps given high intensity workouts the coolest reception, calling them “extreme conditioning programs” (ECPs) in a 2011 paper written in conjunction with the American College of Sports Medicine …\nCrossFit’s headquarters published its own response to the Army’s claims.\nThe 2011 article that introduced the “extreme conditioning program” phrase could only be the “Consortium for Health and Military Performance and American College of Sports Medicine Consensus Paper on Extreme Conditioning Programs in Military Personnel.”\nBut the “Army” did not write that article. As its title states, the article was a joint effort between the Consortium for Health and Military Performance (CHAMP) and the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). ACSM is an aspiring civilian competitor to CrossFit and CHAMP is a small division of the Uniformed Services University.\nNeither represents the Army. In fact, the CHAMP study itself states,\nThe opinions and assertions contained herein are the private views of the authors and are not to be construed as official or as reflecting the views of the U.S. Army, the U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, U.S., Marines, U.S. Coast Guard, or the Department of Defense.\nThis could not be clearer. There is no reasonable rebuttal to this point. The Army did not write the CHAMP article on extreme conditioning programs, and it does not represent Army or DOD policy in any way.\nSo getting this corrected should be simple, right? Email Ricks and Gourley, let them know the error and the evidence, and they’ll issue a correction.\nI emailed this error first to Gourley, then Ricks and two Foreign Policy editors. I explained why the CHAMP article doesn’t represent the Army. Again, there is no reasonable argument on this point – the article clearly states that it contains private opinions and not those of the US Army or DOD.\nWe’ve found an inverse relationship between journalistic prestige and accuracy. The better known the source, the less willing it is to correct its errors. Local outlets often issue corrections within 24 hours. National publications and award-winning journalists sometimes don’t attempt to correct errors.\nGourley defended his error, stating,\nThanks for the info. While I did see that other army leaders are extremely pro-CrossFit, I got the sense that they’re individuals acting within a larger institution that’s skeptical of the program and risk-averse to the injury hype. Based on the research and interviews I conducted, I got the impression that the Marines were out looking for a program that would substantially improve fitness, while the army sought one that would not lead to injuries.\nGourley’s “sense” may reflect his personal experience, but it is irrelevant. No matter how he feels about the Army’s stance towards CrossFit, the Army did not write the CHAMP article in conjunction with the ACSM.\nRicks responded quickly to my concerns, at first. Then he stated that he was “still trying to understand why this is noteworthy.”\nI wrote back,\nThe current FP article states that the Army took an official stance against CrossFit. This would certainly be noteworthy, if true.\nBut that’s not true, and it actually is contradicted by its own source.\nNext Ricks asked me if I would approve one line correcting the error. I sent him an accurate sentence he could use.\nThe following day, Ricks still hadn’t corrected his blog. I asked him if he had an idea when the error would be corrected. Ricks simply responded, “No.” So I gave him one more day before I would publicly correct his blog’s error. That time is up.\nThe details of this case are complex, but the underlying principle is simple. If the military’s relationship with CrossFit is worth covering, it is worth covering accurately.\nIt’s too bad that Tom Ricks doesn’t care enough to report the truth."}
{"content":"\"Don't Tell Anyone\" (2016)\nAngy Rivera arrives with her mother in the United States, fleeing violence, poverty and civil war in their native Colombia. For twenty years they battle a complex and inequitable immigration system until Angy, facing an uncertain future, joins the youth-led New York State Youth Leadership Council (YLC) and becomes an activist for undocumented youth.\nThe film will be introduced by Introduced by Ricardo Ramirez, Dept. of Political Science. Free, but ticketed event. For tickets, visit performingarts.nd.edu or call 574-631-2800.\nThe \"Campaign Concerns\" 2016 election film series is co-sponsored by CCHR, the Debartolo Performing Arts Center, and the Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy."}
{"content":"Check out these Latino celebrities who contribute to worthwhile causes, and not just their own fame or well-being. BRAVO TO THEM!\nJuanes has always been active in philanthropic causes in his birthplace of Colombia. Juanes is especially passionate about helping victims of land mines, which resulted during Colombia’s civil war. He also founded the Mi Sangre Foundation, an organization to help needy Colombian children through the Education For Peace Program.\nRosario Dawson is co-founder of Voto Latino, an organization that seeks to empower Latino youth to achieve a positive change through the vote. It is a non-partisan organization with big civic engagement campaigns dedicated to bringing new voices into the political process.Shakira is an internationally recognized celebrity who has room in her heart for her boyfriend, her baby and her philanthropic efforts to help children in need in her native Colombia. She was honored in 2011 as Person of the Year by the Latin Recording Academy for her career accomplishments as well as her leadership of the Pies Descalzos Foundation, a non-profit helping children in need in Colombia. She also founded its sister foundation, the Barefoot Foundation, is a U.S. non-profit devoted to bringing quality education to children in need. Recently, Shakira proposed a solution to bring quality education to every child in the U.S. through philanthrocapitalism — described as the practice in where you apply business methods to philanthropy and call upon the private sector to pick up where government leaves off.\nMarc Anthony co-founded The Maestro Cares Foundation to support organizations in Latin America that work with disadvantaged children.\nEva Longoria spends much of her free time in philanthropic work to make a difference in the Latino community. She is engaged with many organizations and projects like: PADRES Contra El Cancer (Parents Against Cancer), a nonprofit organization that tries to improve the lives of Latino kids who are sick with cancer. She founded Eva’s Heroes, a charity focused on helping developmentally disabled children. In 2011, Longoria co-produced “The Harvest,” a documentary which shows the dire conditions of working migrant children. She also got the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts’ Horizon Award, awarded to those who advance the presence of Latinos in TV or films, and the 2006 NHLI Mujer/Chair Award, for her significant contributions to the empowerment of the Hispanic community, along with some other awards thanking her for her commitment to the betterment of the Hispanic community.\nThere are, other Hispanic celebrities contributing to worthwhile causes, which we will cover in another post."}
{"content":"Native American Natural Resources Law 518-1I\nOctober 30, 2015\nText: Royster, Blumm & Kronk, Native American Natural Resources Law (3d ed. 2015)\nThis course examines the unique body of law governing “Indian country,” those geographic areas recognized by the federal government as homelands of sovereign American Indian tribes. Topics include the history of federal-tribal relations, tribal property rights, and the balance of governmental power between tribes, states and the federal government. Particular attention will be devoted to understanding the legal framework that supports the tribes’ role as proprietors and regulators of natural resources, including powers derived from the tribes’ inherent sovereign authority and rights stemming from treaties and federal statutes. The course will include close examinations of tribal water rights, fishing and hunting rights, and federal environmental statutes that accord tribes a significant regulatory role in the implementation of federal environmental programs like the Clean Air and Water Acts. Evaluation is based on class participation and a take-home examination.\nThe American Bar Association accreditation standards require students to regularly attend the courses in which they are registered. Lewis & Clark expects students to attend classes regularly and to prepare for classes conscientiously. Specific attendance requirements may vary from course to course. Any attendance guidelines for a given class must be provided to students in a syllabus or other written document at the start of the semester. Sanctions (e.g., required withdrawal from the course, grade adjustment, and/or a failing grade) will be imposed for poor attendance."}
{"content":"Sunshine Law, Florida’s immensely broad public records law, will soon be celebrated once more. Annually, from March 13 to 19, communities from all over the state take initiatives to spread awareness of the right to information with Sunshine Week.\nLee County is no exception. This year, the Lee County Clerk of Court, Linda Doggett, is reminding residents of their rights. At 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 30, she will be offering a free, public seminar on the law entitled “The Value of Searching Public Records and Online Services.” The seminar will be held at the North Fort Myers Library: 2001 N. Tamiami Trail, North Fort Myers.\nSunshine law, chapter 119 of the Florida Statues, began in 1909. It allows any person in Florida to access public records from public agencies unless the records are exempt by the Florida legislature. The Government side of the law, chapter 286, was enacted in 1967, granting the right to basic access to most state and local government meetings.\nThese records have been revised over the years to include written material, papers, books, videos, maps, audio recordings and more. This law also includes emails. For example, Florida Gulf Coast University is a public state institution. A great majority of its records, that are not protected by FERPA or other laws, are considered public and include correspondence by email from faculty and staff.\nEach year, in efforts to help spread awareness and comprehension of the law, the Attorney General’s Office issues a new guide to Sunshine Law. The Government-in-the-Sunshine manual is published by the First Amendment Foundation in Tallahassee; more information on this publication and more can be found on their website.\n© 2016 Lee Herald. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed."}
{"content":"Suffering from Memory Problems?\nDo you or your loved one struggle with memory problems? Whether memory loss is an indicator of early stages of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease or is Brain Fog caused by other means, it can wreak havoc on your life. At Leigh Brain & Spine the doctors use cutting-edge neuroscience and technology to serve people with the following challenges:\nAs we age our brains are slowing down, indicated by the dark blue in the brain map of memory loss to the right. If our brains begin to slow down too early, or slow down too much too fast, it can lead to big problems with our memory, thinking, and ability to process information. If you suffer from forgetfulness, can’t remember appointments, make scheduling mistakes, or have more distinct signs of early memory loss or dementia, your brain is slowing down.\nNeurofeedback training has been proven by science to not only improve processing speed of the brain but to heal the brain cells themselves, making them work better and improving thinking and memory.\nAmericans are living longer than ever in this day and age. The average life span is calculated to be 78.74 years. Scientists have proven that cognitive decline shows up in healthy, educated adults beginning at 60 years of age. What is most interesting is that studies are now beginning to show that even though the effects of cognitive decline begin to manifest at age 60, aging in related decline actually begins in a person’s earlier years, their 20’s and 30’s. The study shows that healthy, educated adults’ mental sharpness is greatest between the ages of 22 and 27 years. The next group, which demonstrated a significant decline in thinking skills was between 27 – 42 years.\nHow Does Cognitive Decline Affect Adults?\nCognition is another word for thinking. It refers to a person’s ability to use the essential mental processes involved in gaining knowledge and comprehension and putting that knowledge to use. These processes include thinking, knowing, remembering, judging, and problem-solving. These are higher-level functions of the brain and encompass language, imagination, perception, and planning. Without cognition we lose the ability to create, perform, interact, and live with the fullest quality of life. Cognitive decline can make it so that we are no longer able to work, travel, participate in groups and hobbies, and socialize to the level that we used to.\nSolutions in the Brain for Cognitive Decline – Neurological Regulation\nMost people are not aware that state-of-the-art technology is available to preserve cognitive skills and prevent them from declining. Living to 78 is great if you still have the mental capacity to enjoy your life. As the brain ages it becomes weaker in some or many areas. The weaker each area becomes and the poorer communication between areas happens the greater the cognitive decline a person will experience. When the brain areas are regulated and strengthened and communication tuned up, the brain is free to work better so you feel and perform better, longer.\nDr. Trish Leigh at Leigh Brain & Spine is trained to use brain assessments to determine if your brain might be suffering from the beginning or even the progression of cognitive decline. After a specialized and comprehensive assessment, the doctors are able to recommend treatment to preserve your cognition and quality of life. Schedule your brain assessment today to find out how your brain is performing and if there is room for improvement.\n- Forgetfulness can be a normal part of aging, but there are basic steps you can take to elevate and slow down the process.\n- As you age you may notice that it takes longer to learn new things.\n- Some older adults also find that they don’t do as well as younger people on complex memory or learning tests.\nLeigh Brain and Spine is proud to have earned the distinction as a Certified Brain Health Coach Center and is a proud member of the Amen Clinics referral network."}
{"content":"Journal or Book Title\nThe Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics\nIn second language teaching and learning, computer technology extends the types of interactive activities that learners can work on in and outside of the classroom, and therefore it has affected the way that many teachers teach and learners learn. Teachers might, for example, ask students to seek specific information on the Internet in preparation for an information gap activity in class; teachers might indicate awkward expressions in a student's essay and show the student how to find examples of target language collocations in a corpus; and teachers might organize a virtual collaboration between their students and proficient speakers of the target language in another country. These activities and many more add significantly to the repertoire of activities that learners can engage in because of three affordances offered by technology: human-computer interaction, distance written and oral communication, and access to a community with data and creative opportunities on the Internet.\nChapelle, Carol, \"Instructional Computer-Assisted Language Learning\" (2013). English Publications. 208."}
{"content":"Help your kids make a doll's bed fit for a queen -- all you'll need is a shoe box and some paint!\nWhat You'll Need:\n- Shoe box with lid\n- Scissors or craft knife\n- Poster paints\n- Craft glue\nHow to Make a Shoe Box Doll Bed:\nStep 1: Make the base of the bed from the shoe box lid. Turn it upside down, and help kids cut out a section of each side. The corners become the legs of the bed.\nStep 2: The bottom piece of the shoe box holds the doll. Help kids cut down the sides to 1 inch.\nStep 3: Use the cut-out ends of the box to make the bed's headboard and footboard. Cut them into a fancy design.\nStep 4: Cover your work surface with newspaper. Paint each piece with poster paints. Let the paint dry.\nStep 5: Glue the bed to the legs. Glue the headboard and footboard to the bed.\nFurnish your doll's bed with a pillow, mattress, and bedspread!"}
{"content":"Perhaps the science will advance so that telomere reconstitution is a practical reality, that the DNA epigenetic changes can be reversed, that senescent cells can be eradicated, that the free radical damage to mitochondria can be dismantled, that the microbiome can be altered back to a youthful status. Perhaps metformin, rapamycin or resveratrol will have a significant impact. Perhaps.\nBut for now, it might be a more fruitful and meaningful personal use of time and endeavor to consider what the normal aging process means, not only physically and mentally but also spiritually and consider adjustments to lifestyles, behaviors and thought processes that will help usher in a productive and meaningful and hopefully healthy later years.\nI see ignore and deny every day. Male 35 5.6 220, elevated liver enzymes, elevated BP, and tobacco use within the past year.\nEvery now and then I see an embrace. But this is rare.\nMy plan is to embrace and to live forever or die trying."}
{"content":"III–V semiconductor nanocrystal formation in silicon nanowires via liquid-phase epitaxy\n- 299 Downloads\nDirect integration of high-mobility III–V compound semiconductors with existing Si-based complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) processing platforms presents the main challenge to increasing the CMOS performance and the scaling trend. Silicon hetero-nanowires with integrated III–V segments are one of the most promising candidates for advanced nano-optoelectronics, as first demonstrated using molecular beam epitaxy techniques. Here we demonstrate a novel route for InAs/Si hybrid nanowire fabrication via millisecond range liquid-phase epitaxy regrowth using sequential ion beam implantation and flash-lamp annealing. We show that such highly mismatched systems can be monolithically integrated within a single nanowire. Optical and microstructural investigations confirm the high quality hetero-nanowire fabrication coupled with the formation of atomically sharp interfaces between Si and InAs segments. Such hybrid systems open new routes for future high-speed and multifunctional nanoelectronic devices on a single chip.\nKeywordsliquid phase epitaxy InAs hetero-nanowires silicon ion implantation\nUnable to display preview. Download preview PDF.\n© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014"}
{"content":"About this book\nBefore streets were brightly illuminated at night, astronomy was accessible to everyone and was a matter of great importance: for divination; for setting appropriate dates for planting, harvest, and festivals; for regulating lives. Phenomena in the heavens are still of great importance to many, and much of the lore of astronomy and astrology dates back to the earliest days of civilization. The astronomy of the ancients is thus of interest not only as history but also as the basis for much of what is known or believed about the heavens today. Because phenomena in the heavens are less familiar today than in earlier eras, this book begins with a brief description of what one can see in the sky on dark nights with the naked eye. It then turns to the astronomy of the Babylonians, who named many of our constellations, who are responsible for many of the fundamental insights of early astronomy, and who married mathematics to astronomy to make it an exact science. A chapter on Greek astronomy discusses various models of planetary motion, showing that the cycles and epicycles used by the Greeks have their modern counterparts in the computations used to compute the ephemeredes listed in the Nautical Almanac. The book then turns to a detailed discussion of Ptolemy's cosmology, the first to include quantitative models in an integral way. Though the Ptolemaic system is now often dismissed as unsound and inefficient, it is in fact a logically pleasing structure which, for more than a millennium, provided a framework for educated people throughout the Christian and Moslem worlds to think about the universe.\nastronomy cosmology history of astronomy planet universe"}
{"content":"A Color Constancy Algorithm for the Robust Description of Images Collected from a Mobile Robot\nIn mobile robotics, it is necessary to have a robust and efficient way of describing the visual stream provided by a vision system to be used afterwards in tasks such as object recognition. Color histograms are a useful tool to capture and represent color properties of sets of images taken from a certain position. Since those images were obtained at different time and light conditions, their appearance have greatly changed, reducing the performance of the color descriptor. In this work, we develop a color constancy algorithm that copes with the color variation among sets of images taken from nearly the same place. We show that the performance of the color histogram descriptor rises after color constancy, becoming a more robust and useful color descriptor. In the results section, we support that claim with several sets of images of scenes belonging to different positions.\nKeywordscolor histograms color constancy mobile robots\n- 3.Swain, M., Ballard, D.: Indexing via color histograms. In: Proc. Int. Conf. on Computer Vision, pp. 390–393 (1990)Google Scholar"}
{"content":"A MARRIAGE GONE SOUR?\nPriyan Rajapaksa draws parallels between Brexit and marital unions\nIt’s fashionable at the moment for every man and his dog to provide an opinion on Brexit… so here’s is my ‘bark’ from New Zealand (wearing my Sri Lankan cap). Britain being part of the European Union (EU) was merely a marriage and not a very happy union. So isn’t it better to have an amicable parting than continue to live under one roof, throwing pots, pans and the occasional brick at each other?\nI lived in the UK for a few years in the late 1980s and travelled as often as I could to continental Europe. It struck me even then that this was an ill-suited union. Ironically, I was going through a separation at that time. It was the benefit of a quick and amicable divorce that inspired me to humanise Brexit.\nAlthough Christian Europeans worship the same God from two opposing sides of the altar as Catholics and Protestants, the commonality ends there. The languages, work ethic and attitudes to life are quite different. Southern Europeans are similar to Sri Lankans and enjoy their siesta, while the northerners work themselves to hell and live on Prozac.\nSri Lankans are well aware of the difficulties of welding together our ethnic groups and religions into one manageable unit on a small island, balancing the conflicting (self) interests of petty-minded political and religious leaders.\nTo those who have taken the Eurail and coach tours through the many countries of Europe, creating a single unit from 10 culturally disparate countries may appear a pipe dream. Increasing the number to 21 transforms the dream into the nightmare it has become.\nTo put it in a South Asian context, the concept of the EU is as ludicrous as all South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries having one government. Established in 1985, we can cooperate, play games and provide officials the opportunity to meet, but we have yet to progress to visa-free travel within SAARC. At least the EU achieved that.\nIn Sri Lanka, people marry for three reasons – viz. arranged unions, for love or shotgun weddings. Arranged marriages are between couples of similar social standing, wealth and often of the same caste. In Western society, commoners marry for romantic love while most blue bloods (who know better) tie the knot to keep their blood blue and ensure their wealth is not distributed among the hoi polloi.\nIt has been said that ‘when poverty comes in through the door, love flies out of the window.’\nThe UK-EU union was an arranged marriage, if ever there was one, between two consenting adults of comparable wealth. In 1973, then-PM Edward Heath achieved with a pen what the Pope, Napoleon and Hitler could not achieve by the sword – the surrender of British independence.\nSince 1066 and the Battle of Hastings, the English fought to keep the Europeans out of their land. Suddenly with the stroke of a pen, the garlic-eating barbarians were at the gates of London. It has never been a comfortable cohabitation, with Britain seen to be pumping in funds to keep some Europeans who lost their colonies and source of wealth in a lifestyle way beyond their means.\n“Much of our high standard of living has been a result of our ability to take what we wanted from the rest of the world – and the loss of that ability would mean that our lives would become significantly less comfortable and luxurious,” says Lynn Harry Nelson, Emeritus Professor of Medieval History of the University of Kansas.\nAt the end of World War II, Hitler’s Europe was divided between the American and British spheres in Western Europe, and a Russian sphere in the East. The EU grew out of the western sphere. Its founders tried to achieve by documents what others had attempted by war – i.e. a united Europe.\nThe economic aim of a common market went along well as long as it was confined to those countries with a similar standard of living. They could all sit for dinner at one table and make good conversation albeit through translators.\nRelations have never been easy. In 1960, French president Charles de Gaulle – seeing British membership as a Trojan Horse for US interests – vetoed its membership.\nThe British thumbed their noses at the EU until 1973. In turn, Britain being a net contributor to the EU, resented paying subsidies.\nFollowing 1981, its proverbial mother-in-law Brussels brought lesser than equals into this family of equals. As with any extended family meeting, the divisions surfaced. The rich are seldom comfortable sitting with their poor relatives. Maybe it’s a sense of guilt of their wealth or a fear that they’ll be tapped for a loan.\nThere will be costs and benefits, both incalculable, depending on one’s stay or go point of view. In the words of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, “it is not an amicable divorce; but it was also not an intimate love affair.”\nWell there are no children from the so-called marriage. So like two mature adults, spare us the gossip, pack your bags and leave as soon as you can."}
{"content":"Day: Mondays and Wednesdays\nTimes (Pacific Time):\n7:00am - 7:50am - Karen Mondoy\nIn Spanish 3, further develop students' mastery of vocabulary, oral communication skills, and grammatical structure with a special focus on verb forms. The text features true stories and letters from missionaries in Spanish-speaking countries, teaching the language as well as the culture.\nCredits: 1 (Language or Elective)\nSuccessful completion of Spanish II; minimum age of 15\nRequired Materials: BJU Spanish 3"}
{"content":"Too much activity in certain areas of the brain is bad for memory and attention\nNeurons in the brain interact by sending each other chemical messages, so-called neurotransmitters. Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is the most common inhibitory neurotransmitter, which is important to restrain neural activity, preventing neurons from getting too trigger-happy and from firing too much or responding to irrelevant stimuli.\nResearchers have found that faulty inhibitory neurotransmission and abnormally increased activity in the hippocampus impairs our memory and attention.\nTheir latest research has implications for understanding cognitive deficits in a variety of brain disorders, including schizophrenia, age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s, and for the treatment of cognitive deficits.\nThe hippocampus — a part of the brain that sits within our temporal lobes — plays a major role in our everyday memory of events and of where and when they happen — for example remembering where we parked our car before going shopping.\nThis research has shown that a lack of restraint in the neural firing within the hippocampus disrupts hippocampus-dependent memory; in addition, such aberrant neuron firing within the hippocampus also disrupted attention — a cognitive function that does not normally require the hippocampus.\n“Our research carried out in rats highlights the importance of GABAergic inhibition within the hippocampus for memory performance and for attention,” Dr Tobias Bast said.\n“The finding that faulty inhibition disrupts memory suggests that memory depends on well-balanced neural activity within the hippocampus, with both too much and too little causing impairments.”\n“This is an important finding because traditionally, memory impairments have mainly been associated with reduced activity or lesions of the hippocampus.”\n“Our second important finding is that faulty inhibition leading to increased neural activity within the hippocampus disrupts attention, a cognitive function that does not normally require the hippocampus, but depends on the prefrontal cortex. This probably reflects that there are very strong neuronal connections between hippocampus and prefrontal cortex.”\n“Our finding suggests that aberrant hippocampal activity has a knock-on effect on the prefrontal cortex, thereby disrupting attention.”\nThe research is motivated by recent clinical findings that patients in early stages of schizophrenia, age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s show faulty inhibition and increased activity within the hippocampus. The new study, where inhibition in the hippocampus of rats was disrupted before the animals took part in tests of attention and memory, revealed that such faulty inhibition and aberrant activity within the hippocampus causes the type of memory and attentional impairments seen in patients.\nThis research adds to the team’s recent findings, where they found that attention was disrupted by faulty inhibition and increased activity within the prefrontal cortex, a brain region important for attention.\n“Overall, these findings highlight that higher brain functions, such as attention and memory, depend on well-balanced neural activity within the underlying brain regions,” Dr Bast said.\nThe findings show that simply ‘boosting’ the activity of the key memory and attention centres in the brain (the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex), which has been a long-standing strategy for cognitive enhancement, will not necessarily improve memory and attention, but can actually impair these functions. What’s important is to re-balance activity within these regions.\n“One emerging idea is that early stages of cognitive disorders, such as schizophrenia and age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s, are characterised by faulty inhibition and too much activity; this excess neural activity leads then to neuronal damage and the reduced brain activity characterizing later stages of these disorders,”said Dr Bast.\n“So, rebalancing aberrant activity early on may not only restore attention and memory, but also prevent further decline.\n“We have new studies on the way where we aim to identify medicines that might be able to re-balance neural activity within hippocampus and prefrontal cortex and to restore memory and attention.”\nMcGarrity, S., Mason, R., Fone, K., Pezze, M., & Bast, T. (2016). Hippocampal Neural Disinhibition Causes Attentional and Memory Deficits Cerebral Cortex DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhw247"}
{"content":"I have recently asked a colleague to share one of her publications with me. I did not hear from her, but after a week or so, while cleaning my @SaneLater box, I discovered an email sent by her from an unfamiliar address and in another language containing a link to the paper. The story was that the file she wanted to send was too large for her regular email provider. So she used one of the many services which allow to upload a file to a server and then email a link to this file to your contact for download. I myself used one of such services (YouSendIt) once upon a time. All in all, the procedure was pretty clumsy: you needed to set up an account with such services (sometimes even pay for it) and the emails they generated could come from strange addresses (thus ending up in @SaneLater or even in Spam) and sometimes contain ads.\nAll you have to do is to make sure the file (or even folder) that you want to share is in your Dropbox (I keep all my mission-critical files in the Dropbox anyway), right-click on it (or use the Dropbox icon in your Finder’s toolbar) and select Share Dropbox Link. The link to the file or folder will be copied to your clipboard and can be emailed (or Skyped, SMSed, etc.). There is no need to upload anything, not even to open a Web browser. The persons you’re sharing with do not need to have a Dropbox account: they will be able to access and download the files directly through their web browser! And if they do have a Dropbox account they will have an option to simply add the shared folder to their own Dropbox and thus have it all on their local drive without the bother of download."}
{"content":"CASA RAMPA #Arquitecturademadera\nArquitectura Studio mk27\nFotografía ©Fernando Guerra\nDesde HIC Arquitectura\n“(…) An important collection of African art rests on the wooden sideboard in the living room of Ramp House, located in a quiet garden-neighbourhood in São Paulo. The owners intend to convert the place in a cultural foundation in the future (…)\nThe architecture of the Ramp House promotes a radical spatial continuity between the interior and exterior not only through large panes of sliding glass doors – that can be fully opened, connecting the living room with the garden – but also through the consistency in the use of the same materials both inside and outside. The wooden facade folds back towards the interior, becoming the roof liner that, in turn, folds again at the hall by the ramp to create an inner facade.\nThis three-dimensional surface building, a wooden ribbon, determines the structure and the actual volume of the house: a box – made of local Brazilian timber – projecting itself outward from the dense raw concrete sidewalls. Pillars rationally distributed over the internal space complete the structural system and contrib ute to enable the large spans of up to 9.70 meters. Setting up the ramp’s background – and of the whole living room – another concrete wall creates an austere, minimalist environment made with raw and natural materials. The timber on the roof lining also helps to complete the spatial feeling of cosiness in the room…”\nEditores del post: Maderayconstruccion Si te gustó el post, estaría genial que lo compartas en tus redes sociales."}
{"content":"A complete full-color lithographed cadastral map of the town of Podgórze (Podgorza, Josefstadt, Podgorze), surveyed in 1847 and lithographed in 1849. Although dominated by its much larger neighbor city of Kraków across the Wisła River, at the time this map was made Podgórze was a separate town under Austrian rule. On this carefully-made map, parcels and houses are all clearly numbered, and many features shown are still visible today. The residential area centers near the river but also sprawls along a main road looping through town. Key features shown include the ancient Krakus Mound, the large Karl's Bridge, two churches and a Catholic cemetery; important Jewish sites would appear 30 years later. Images for this map were provided by the Archiwum Narodowe w Krakowie."}
{"content":"Building any system that requires an operator who isn’t the system designer often involves creating a control panel to operate the patch or network in question. A control panel can also be useful for controlling various elements of a system that might otherwise be too complicated to manipulate directly.\nIn TouchDesigner one of the handy built in components that you might think about using is a button. Buttons have various states of operation that offer different types of control. Let’s star this process by looking at some actual buttons in TouchDesigner so we can see some how these work in practice.\nLets start by creating a new network, and deleting the template operators – if you’re new to touch you can draw a rectangular selection by clicking and dragging with the right mouse button. Select all off the operators and hit delete or backspace. You can also close your palette browser. You should now be left with an empty network.\nTo get started we’re going to double click the empty network or hit TAB on your keyboard. This brings up the Operator Dialog window. Make sure that you’re in the COMP (component) tab of the dialog window, and select a “Button” from the “Panels” column.\nPlace this button anywhere on your network. If we look at the parameters of this component we can start to get a sense of how it works, and how we can customize its operation for whatever you might be designing.\nLooking at the parameter window we can see how this component is organized. This component has several tabs of parameters that all relate to different types of functions and methods for manipulating the button. Below is a quick summary what each tab deals with:\nThe Layout page gives us the ability to manipulate how the button is placed and represented on the control panel itself.\n- The Panel page gives us some control over how the button behaves in the panel.\n- The Button page allows for manipulating the kind of button operation methods.\n- The Color page allows for some alteration in the color of the button.\n- The Drag page controls the drag and drop behavior of the button.\n- The Common page controls for some of the higher order mechanisms for this component – for now we don’t need to worry about this page.\nTo learn more about the Button COMP make sure that you look at Derivative’s documentation here.\nBefore we move on, let’s open up our control panel so we can see what our button looks like, and where it’s situated. In the upper left hand corner of your network there’s a small square shaped button. Mousing over this button will reveal the help text “open viewer.” Clicking on this button will bring up the panel viewer for the container that you’re working inside of.\nClicking on your open viewer button should mean that you see something like this:\nAt this point you should be able to click on your button in the viewer. To help us understand what’s happening with the button itself let’s attach a Null to the CHOP out from the container. In your network add a Null Chanel Operator (CHOP). Attach this to the CHOP out from the button (you can tell that it’s a Chanel Operator Out because of the color). With the null attached, now when we click on our button in the viewer we can see what kind of signal is being generated by this button component.\nBefore we take a closer look at button modes, let’s first see how we can position our button in the viewer. First select the button component to bring up the parameters window. Here on the Layout page we can see X and Y as variables that we can manipulate. These allow us to change the position of the button. The values for X and Y are in pixels. For now, I’m going to leave my button in the bottom left corner.\nNext lets take a look at the Button page for this component. Two of the most commonly used states for buttons are Momentary and Toggle. Momentary transmits a signal as a pulse. Clicking the button sends an on, releasing the button sends an off. A toggle enables a button state to be activated or deactivated. In this case, clicking the button toggles it to the on position where it stays until you click the button again sending a signal of off. There are additional button types to choose from, but for now these two different types will help us enough to work through some basic ideas about how you might use and change a button. I’m going to leave my button set as a toggle down for now.\nNow that we have a basic understanding of how this component works, lets start customizing it’s appearance. To do this we need to dive inside of our Button. We can do this by zooming in with the scroll wheel until we dive into the component, or we can select the button and hit the “i” key on your keyboard (i in this case is a shortcut for “in”).\nInside of our button we can see the Chanel operators, Texture Operator, and Data Operator that are driving this interface element. One of the most interesting elements to take a note of us the panel1 CHOP. Here you can see that TouchDesigner tracks several different kinds of interaction for our button. We can trigger actions based on the state of our button (is it on or off), the rollover position of our mouse (is the mouse hovering over the button), and if the button is being actively selected (the moment when the mouse button is being actively clicked).\nLet’s start our customization of this button by first looking at the Text TOP (Texture Operator). If you click on the text TOP labeled “bg” we can see the parameters associated with this TOP. On the first page we see “Text.” I’m going to change the name of my button here to “Play.”\nNext I want to adjust the color of this button. Before we do that, lets first draw our attention to the fact that our button changes it’s color depending on if we’re mousing over it, or have turned it on or off. A closer look at the Text TOP and the associated DAT and CHOP we can see that something very specific is happening. An expression CHOP is watching the button and reporting out the state of our button as a variable called “i” which is then being used by the DAT to dynamically change the color of our button. The table DAT defines what color values should be used for the button in the states: off, on, rollover, rollover on. If we want to keep the established convention of different colors for different states, we then need to edit the table DAT rather than the text TOP.\nLet’s start by zooming into the table DAT. We can see here that we’re only using a single color value here for the dynamic content. This means that our options for changing the color of the button right now are only limited to gray scale. Bummer. Let’s make some changes to our table so we can have some color. To do this we’re first going to make our DAT active by clicking on the small + sign in the button right corner of this operator.\nWith this DAT in active mode we can now edit the table. Color values for our Text are generated off of three different numbers – values for red, green, and blue. We’re going to add two more columns and change the name of one column so we can use three different numbers to generate some different colors. With our DAT active, right click on the column labeled “background” and select add right. Repeat this step so that you have two empty columns to the right of the background column. Next let’s edit the text in the “background” cell, changing it to “bg_r.” In the columns next to this one add the names “bg_g” and “bg_b.” This is going to break our button for a moment, and that’s okay, don’t panic. You should now have a table that looks like this:\nFor now copy from bg_r to the other columns. Now your table should look like this:\nNext lets fix our text TOP. Click on the Text TOP and then click on the Color page. On this page we can see that our values for the background color are all 0s and in red, telling us that something is broken. If we click on the text “Background Color” on this page we can see the expressions driving the dynamic changes for this TOP.\nNext we’re going to edit the text in these expressions to account for our new columns in table DAT. We can see that there are three fields that correspond to our bg_r, bg_g, and bg_b with bgcolorr, bgcolorg, and bgcolorb. We’re going to change only the last reference in the expressions in these cells to represent the changes in our table. What we’re after here is to make sure that:\n- bgcolorr is looking at the bg_r\n- bgcolorg is looking at the bg_g\n- bgcolorb is looking at the bg_b\nWe’ll do that by changing the term “background” in the expressions to match the columns that we’ve added.\nOur edited expressions should look like the following (your button should be working again):\nNow we need to change our table DAT in order to generate the colors that we want for our button. To help me determine the float values for the colors that I want, I’m going to add a constant TOP to the network momentarily. With my constant added to the network, I’m click on the white rectangle to bring up the color selector. This window will also give me the float values that I want to know so I can edit my table.\nAfter a little bit of exploring I’ve found some colors that will work as a place to start. My resulting table DAT looks like this:\nWe now have a Button that we’ve given a unique name to, and made changes to a table DAT so that we can see a custom set of colors on our button that dynamically change as we operate our control panel. Now that we’ve made one, try making some buttons on your own."}
{"content":"Many critics of our healthcare system recommend buying healthcare like you’d buy a car. Now Walmart is hoping on board, too.\nOn October 6, 2014, Walmart announced a partnership with DirectHealth.com, launching a program they call ‘Healthcare Begins Here’ that hopes to educate customers on health insurance options. DirectHealth.com specializes in health insurance comparisons, offering access to more than 1,700 plans from 12 insurance carriers for people over the age of 65, and access to thousands of plans from over 300 carriers for those under age 65.\n“Walmart has long been known for innovation in health and wellness, and we’ll never stop delivering new products and services to the 140 million people who visit our stores each week,” Labeed Diab, senior vice president and president of Health & Wellness at Walmart said in a press release. “For years, our customers have told us that there is too much complexity when it comes to understanding their health insurance options. ‘Healthcare Begins Here’ addresses that complexity by bringing clarity and increased choice to the insurance enrollment process through DirectHealth.com.”\nNotably, this service will only benefit Walmart by bringing more bodies into their stores. For many years, Walmart has hosted insurance agents from individual companies in their stores, allowing customers to ask questions and enroll in specific plans. This takes that offering to the next level, according to the release.\n‘Healthcare Begins Here’ will focus mostly on an over-65 audience. 2,700 Walmarts will now staff independent, licensed health insurance agents who will teach customers about different plans and assist them when they decide to enroll. The business of healthcare is booming, so of course Walmart wants in. Which makes us wonder: who’s next?\nJenni Whalen is the Executive Assistant of Editorial at Upworthy. She was previously MedTech Boston's Managing Editor and has an MS in Journalism from Boston University, as well as a BA in Psychology from Bucknell University. Whalen has written for Greatist, Boston magazine, AZ Central Healthy Living and the New England Journal of Medicine, among other places. She has also worked as a conference planner, ghost writer, researcher and content developer.\nSend this to a friend"}
{"content":"When a vet tech asked Gillian Warmkessel if she would consider adopting a little special needs kitten who, along with his brother, had been abandoned by his mother in March 2012 outside a hardware store in Whitemarsh Island, Georgia, the animal lover and mother of two was definitely interested. “The vet tech explained that this tiny kitten was born with eyelid agenesis,” remembers Gillian, “which is more common in feral cats than other cat populations.”\nCats with eyelid agenesis, a congenital condition, are born without upper eyelids, and they usually require extra medical treatment, including surgery to cryogenically freeze the fur around their eyes to stop it from growing. “The eye meets the fur and skin without protection,” explains Gillian, “and the cornea is forever at risk due to blinking and fur irritation that can lead to ulcers.”\nGillian, who had both the time and money to care for a cat with eyelid agenesis, agreed to meet the little kitten, who was less than a week old at the time. “He got into the palm of my hand,” remembers Gillian. “It was love at first sight.”\nImmediately, Gillian named the little kitten Perry Pepper, an homage to a black cat she’d seen online, and it wasn’t long before she received another call from her vet, asking if she’d like to adopt Perry’s brother.\nApparently, the family who agreed to adopt the newborn tuxedo kitten — who had a milder form of eyelid agenesis — thought he was a girl, and when they discovered his true gender, they no longer wanted him. “I got the second call,” remembers Gillian, “and jumped at the chance to bring this bonded pair of special needs brothers home together.”\nTo Gillian, it all felt as though it was meant to be: “The first set of kittens my husband and I rescued — right after college graduation — were also brothers,” says Gillian, and one of them was solid black while the other was a tuxedo cat. The pair, Goliath and Zeek, had recently passed away after living well into their teens, so Perry and his brother, whom the couple named Charlie Chips, seemed fated to be a part of Gillian’s family.\nThe Warmkessels had taken care of Goliath, who had to have one of his eyes removed to stop his cancer from metastasizing, so they had some experience with special needs cats. Still, they’d never had a pet with eyelid agenesis before, so they weren’t entirely sure what to expect. However, the kittens didn’t go to their home right away; instead, Perry and Charlie remained at the vet for several months until they were old enough to be tested for FIV, and Gillian and her family regularly visited the brothers during this time.\nThankfully, when they finally went to live with the Warmkessels, Gillian discovered that eyelid agenesis had no impact on their eyesight — “Both Perry and Charlie have no vision problems whatsoever,” says Gillian — but Perry, who has a more severe form of the condition, needs a bit of extra attention. Not longer after Gillian and her family adopted the brothers, both cats had cryosurgery to freeze the hair around their eyes — turning it white — and Perry needed multiple procedures, while Charlie needed just one.\nWhile the cryosurgery was successful for both cats, Perry still needs some additional help to keep his eyes healthy. “Because Perry is missing his upper lid and cannot fully close his eyes or have the same eye protection as other cats, I must ensure his eyes stay clean,” explains Gillian. “I actually wipe his eyes daily, and many days I need to lubricate his eyes with ointment.”\nHowever, Gillian, who says Perry is a mama’s boy, is more than happy to help the assist black cat who was abandoned by his biological mother as a newborn kitten. “Even though I’m the one who fusses with him the most,” says Gillian, “he also seems to show me the most affection.”\nIndeed, Gillian has formed strong bonds with both of her special needs cats, but she admits she has a unique relationship with Perry. “We have six cats and two dogs and I love them all,” says Gillian, adding, “I hate to admit it, but Perry is my favorite.”\nPerry is incredibly special, not just because he was born without his upper eyelids, but also because he is extremely talkative, he enjoys surveying his kingdom from the top of the fridge, he will dig at the blankets to get underneath the covers, and he loves special treats like aged Gruyere cheese.\nGillian and her husband agree that this handsome special needs cat and his brother are the most loving animals they’ve ever met, and they’re convinced it’s because Perry and Charlie are grateful to have a home after being abandoned when they were so young. “They love to cuddle and are as friendly as dogs to our guests,” says Gillian. “We believe that rescued animals know, and they never forget.”\nWhile Perry and Charlie look a bit different from other cats, Gillian insists that what separates them from other felines is how exceptionally loving and sweet they are, traits that make these adorable brothers — and cats like them — uniquely wonderful pets. “All special cats are especially lovable,” says Gillian, and she thinks animals like Perry and Charlie have some very important lessons to share. “They give us much more than we give them,” says Gillian. “They have a lot to teach humans about accepting differences.”\nThankfully, Perry and Charlie have found the perfect home with the Warmkessels where not only are their differences accepted, they’re celebrated, and nearly six years after they were discovered outside a hardware store, they’re happier than ever. While Gillian adores both of her boys, she admits that she has a stronger bond with Perry, partly because he requires more attention than his brother. “I think because he needs me more than my other pets, I feel responsible for taking care of him,” says Gillian.\nFortunately, it’s not a responsibility Gillian minds shouldering, and she’s thankful she’s the person who got that call back in 2012, asking her to open her home to a tiny one-week-old kitten who had been abandoned by his biological mother. “He’s my special baby boy,” says Gillian. “I love him with all my heart.”\nTo learn more about this handsome cat, you can follow Perry on Instagram."}
{"content":"- COLOR SCHEMES\n- SEE ALSO/CREDITS\n- COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE\ngot - A tool to make it easier to manage multiple code repositories using different VCSen\ncd some/proj/in/a/vcs got add # answer prompts for various information # or run with '-D' to take all defaults # show managed repositories got list got ls # run a command in selected repositories got do --tag perl --command \"ls t/\" # show managed repositories sorted by path (default = sort by name) got ls -p # remove repo #1 from the list got remove 1 # remove repo named 'bar' from the list got remove bar # remove all repos tagged 'foo' without confirmation prompts got rm -f -t foo # remove repo #3 without confirmation prompts and be noisy about it got rm -f -v 3 # show status (up-to-date, dirty, etc.) for all repos got status # show status for repo #3 got st 3 # fetch upstream for all repositories got fetch # fetch upstream for repo #3 got fetch 3 # update all repos with configured remotes got update # update repo named 'bar' got up bar # Note: if a repo is in the list but doesn't have a local checkout, 'got # update' will create directories as needed and do the initial check out. # Run the 'git gc' command to garbage collect in git repos got gc # spawn a subshell with working directory set to 'path' of repo #1 got chdir 1 # spawn a subshell with working directory set to 'path' of repo foo got cd foo # or use 'tmux' subcommand to open a new tmux window instead got tmux 1 got tmux foo # N.b., 'tmux' will reuse an existing window if one is open # checkout a local working copy of a repo and add it to your list of repos. # will prompt for info on what to name repo, tags, etc. got clone <git/http/ssh url> # As above, but accept defaults for all options without prompting got clone -D <git/http/ssh url> # fork a github repo, add it to your list of repos, and check it out in # the current working directory got fork https://github.com/somebodies/repo_name # note: the default path to a repo added via 'fork' is a directory # named 'repo_name' in the current working directory # if you just want to fork without checking out a working copy: got fork --noclone https://github.com/somebodies/repo_name # finally, please note that you need a C<~/.github-identity> file set up # with your access token or your username and password in the following key-value # format: user username pass password # *OR* access_token token # note that if you specify both, the access_token value will be used # show version of got got version\ngot is a script to make it easier to manage all the version controlled repositories you have on all the computers you use. It can operate on all, some, or just one repo at a time, to both check the status of the repo (up to date, pending changes, dirty, etc.) and sync it with any upstream master.\ngot also supports forking a GitHub repo and adding it to the list of managed repositories.\nIn addition to the subcommand-specific options illustrated in the SYNOPSIS, all the subcommands accept the following options:\n--verbose / -v\nBe more verbose about what is happening behind the scenes\n--quiet / -q\nBe more quiet\n--tags / -t\nSelect all repositories that have the given tag. May be given multiple times. Multiple args are (effectively) 'and'-ed together.\n--skip-tags / -T\nSkip all repositories that have the given tag. May be given multiple times. Multiple args are (effectively) 'or'-ed together. May be combined with -t to select all repos with the -t tag except for those with the -T tag.\n--no-color / -C\nSuppress colored output\n--color-scheme / -c\nSpecify a color scheme. Defaults to 'dark'. People using light backgrounds may want to specify \"-c light\".\nThe name given to the option indicates a library to load. By default this library is assumed to be in the 'App::GitGot::Outputter::' namespace; the given scheme name will be appended to that namespace. You can load something from a different namespace by prefacing a '+'. (E.g., '-C +GitGot::pink' will attempt to load 'GitGot::pink'.)\nIf the requested module can't be loaded, the command will exit.\nSee COLOR SCHEMES for details on how to write your own custom color scheme.\nrepo name, repo number, range\nCommands may be limited to a subset of repositories by giving a combination of additional arguments, consisting of either repository names, repository numbers (as reported by the '\nlist' subcommand), or number ranges (e.g.,\n2-4will operate on repository numbers 2, 3, and 4).\nNote that if you have a repository whose name is an integer number, bad things are going probably going to happen. Don't do that.\nColor scheme libraries should extend\nApp::GitGot::Outputter and need to define four required attributes:\ncolor_minor_change. Each attribute should be a read-only of type 'Str' with a default value that corresponds to a valid\nTerm::ANSIColor color string.\nSeeing Ingy döt Net speak about AYCABTU at PPW2010 was a major factor in the development of this script -- earlier (unreleased) versions did not have any way to limit operations to a subset of managed repositories; they also didn't deal well managing output. After lifting his interface (virtually wholesale) I ended up with something that I thought was worth releasing.\ndrdrang prodded me about making the color configuration more friendly to those that weren't dark backrgound terminal people. The colors in\nApp::GitGot::Outputter::lightare based on a couple of patches that drdrang sent me.\n- The Wire\nCurrently git is the only supported VCS.\n- Yanick Champoux <email@example.com>\n- Michael Greb <firstname.lastname@example.org>\n- Chris Prather <email@example.com>\n- Rolando Pereira\n- Tina Müller <firstname.lastname@example.org>\n- Karen Etheridge\n- Lucy Wyman\nJohn SJ Anderson <email@example.com>\nThis software is copyright (c) 2015 by John SJ Anderson.\nThis is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself."}
{"content":"- Montessori Education’s Eight Principles as Introduced by A.S. Lilard, PhD\n- Fostering of Internal Motivation in The Early Childhood Student\n- Breaking Bread to Bridge Cultures and Build Peace\nRepresentatives from Michigan Montessori Society and a number of other concerned Montessorians have formed a coalition (Michigan Montessori Education Advocacy Network) that is working with the State of Michigan. Our goal is to facilitate modifications in Michigan’s QRIS rating process that will allow authentic Montessori schools to score at the highest levels in this 5 star system.Montessori Advocacy\nThe Michigan Montessori Society offers affiliation, membership, and educational services.\nJoin the Michigan Montessori Society Community.\nThe Michigan Montessori Society offers to its members and affiliate schools a number of services.\nLeonor J Esnard, OP, PhD ADMTEI Director, Montessori Educator\nDebra Gorman Cagle, MEd ADMTEI faculty, Montessori Teacher, Adjunct Professor at Siena Heights University\nDate / Time:\nSaturday, May 19, 2018 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM / Weber Retreat & Conference Center 1257 E. Siena Heights Drive in Adrian, Michigan"}
{"content":"On the face of it, yesterdays decision by the Bank of England to keep base rates at 0.5% for the eighteenth month in a row, sounds like excellent news for consumers.\nThose with mortgages can breathe a sigh of relief as their repayments will remain low for yet another month – though lenders are making large margins at the moment by not lowering their mortgage rates as much as they could.\nApparently there are 52% of us who are not so happy about interest rates being so low. A recent moneysupermarket.com poll found that just over half of respondents actually want the base rate to start rising as they want higher returns on their savings.\nAs usual, it appears that the problem is made worse by the Banks.\nWhilst the base rate has remained at 0.5% for the last year and a half, the average interest rates across the leading easy access accounts has actually fallen over the last 18 months from 2.98 per cent to 2.72 per cent. A 0.26 percent decrease.\nSo not only are banks using the low base rates as an opportunity to increase margins from mortgages, they are also increasing their margins with savings accounts too!\nNo wonder savers are not too happy at the moment."}
{"content":"A scent that is calming, relaxing, and balancing, Lavender has been documented to improve concentration and mental acuity.\nAccording to University of Miami, researches found that inhaling Lavender oil increased beta waves in the brain, suggesting heightened relaxation. It also reduced depression and improved cognitive performance (Diego MA, et al., 1998). A 2001 Osaka Kyoiku University study found that lavender reduced mental stress and increased alertness (Motomura, 2001).\nPersonally, this is in my First Aid kit and Travel kit. It is so highly versatile that one is amazed by its abundant benefits. Today, I continue to use it on skin acne, rash/itch by applying it directly onto my skin, and even mixing 1-2 drops into my facial moisturizer cream (I apply this mixture about once a week) as I mix Orange oil on another day 🙂\nRecently, a friend suggested that Lavender oil be applied onto the scalp for hair loss, and guess what? I have been seeing baby hair growth ever since! I have also shared this with my friends, and they said that it works for them too! Some said Rosemary oil works better for them. I tried it but it just stings my scalp while my friends felt no similar sensation, only that they felt more alert and their partners thought they smelt like food. Sadly, with that much hair falling out everyday – I wonder if my baby hair can grow out fast enough to even cover the sporadic bald patches *sigh\nNote: Many use a vegetable carrier oil before applying onto the scalp. I have tried applying it neat onto several spots on the head as well as mixing with Argan oil. As it is rather costly, it may be wise to mix it with a carrier oil 🙂\nSome uses of Lavender oil:\nRespiratory infections, high blood pressure, menstrual problems/PMS, skin conditions (e.g. skin repair, acne, scarring, stretch marks), burns, hair loss, insomnia, nervous tension)\nMore information on How to Use\nAnd if you need one in your home kit, feel free to contact me"}
{"content":"We look after a total of 134 boys and girls in\n- two Crèche groups for children from 18 months up to three years,\n- two Kindergarten groups for children from three to five years,\n- three Preschool groups for children from five to six years.\nKindergarten and Preschool groups consist of 22 children, Crèche groups of 12 children. A teaching staff of three looks after each group during the core hours. One teacher is an English native speaker, one a German native speaker and the third one either of the two. With the help of the immersion method, the children are exposed to the two languages and grow up bilingually in a very natural way. Reliability and trust are key elements in our relationship with each child. Each child is part of a fixed (feste) group and has one main contact during the settling in period.\nA special feature in our Kindergarten is our Preschool, which prepares the children in a play-oriented manner for school during a whole year, thus ensuring a smooth transition into the 1st year level in Primary.\nOur concept highly values the individual child. We realise that each child learns at their own pace. Developmental feedback is shared with parents regarding their child’s progress, and by cooperating closely with the parents we can ensure that each child is supported in the right manner leading towards thenext developmental step."}
{"content":"City of Ferndale water and sewer customers recently received utility bills for the 2-month period from June 5th to August 4th. According to City staff, many were shocked by an unexpected increase in the invoice total.\nCity Communications Officer Riley Sweeney said phone and foot traffic to City Hall has been steady this week. The invoices were sent Friday, August 31st and there was an immediate uptick in calls from customers when City Hall opened Tuesday, after the 3-day weekend, he said.\nThe City’s response has been to send out workers to reread the meters and look for leaks at the addresses where complaints came from, Sweeney explained. The result of these investigations have provided no reason to believe there are any problems with meters or data collection procedures.\n2 things changed this year that are likely reasons for the higher amounts. How charges are computed during summer months and an increase in the rate used to calculate sewer charges based on water use.\nIn past years, summer utility bills were computed not from actual water use but from an average use based on previous off-season billings. This was intended, according to City Council discussions, to offset the increased water use that was not likely to result in an increase in sewer use since lawn and garden watering puts the water into the ground and not into the sewer.\nThe Ferndale City Council approved using actual water usage billing instead of the off-season averaging as they struggled to find ways to pay for a planned wastewater plant upgrade and expansion.\nIn addition, by a vote of 4 to 3 during the June 6, 2017 City Council meeting, councilmembers approved increasing sewer usage rates by 3% per year over the next 3 years (an increase of 9.3% over 3 years) and increasing connection fees for new developments 25% per year over the next 3 years (an increase of 95% or nearly double over 3 years). Councilmembers Rebecca Xczar, Greg Hansen and Teresa Taylor were opposed to the mix of increases voted on. It was also at this time the summer “discount” was eliminated beginning this summer.\nUtility charges are based on water usage for City of Ferndale utility customers. Included with water charges are sewer, storm drain and an included utility tax. Sewer charge is a result of multiplying water use by the current sewer rate. When water usage goes up, so does the sewer charge. Storm drain is a flat rate paid equally by all utility customers. There is also a 9% utility tax that is part of water, sewer and storm drain charges. So, again, as water usage goes up, so will the utility tax.\nSweeney said water usage this summer is very close to what was used last summer. He pointed out that when people think of summer water usage they consider the water used to irrigate their lawns and gardens. But, Sweeney explained, they are also likely to use more water as a result of things like taking more showers and doing more laundry as a result of increased outside activities.\n“We ask anyone with a question or concern to please contact us so we can identify those situations where there is something we can address,” Sweeney said.\nSweeney said City Council will be looking at ways to revise the sewer rate structure over the upcoming months now that they have better information about costs associated with the wastewater plant upgrade and expansion. “Anyone with recommendations on how to best charge for water and sewer use are asked to pass along their recommendations to the City Councilmembers,” Sweeney said. Emails sent to firstname.lastname@example.org will be delivered to every councilmember’s email address.\nAt Tuesday’s City Council meeting, a couple spoke during the public comment period to let councilmembers know of their frustration and shock after receiving a $500 utility billing from the City. Lenard and Rosemary Webb said they relocated to Ferndale last fall to be closer to family and, being newly retired, they were on a fixed income. Leonard told the councilmembers and City staff, “If we had known how this was coming in, we might have located somewhere else.”"}
{"content":"Buon Ferragosto! A popular greeting heard amongst Italians towards the end of summer. Ferragosto, technically August 15, is the official start to the Italian exodus out of the city to the clean, cool air of the mountains or to the sunny, playful costal beaches. It is a scared time, a time to spend with family and friends; to forget about work\nThe romantic Festival of Valentine’s Day is celebrated in Italy as it is in the United States, however the tradition of Valentine’s Day is a little different in Italy. History of Valentine’s Day in Italy Valentine’s Day was initially celebrated as a Spring Festival in Italy. Celebration for the day was held in the open air. Young people would gather in tree arbors or ornamental gardens\nMajolica is glazed pottery often associated with certain regions of Italy, although it also is produced in other parts of the world. The name majolica was derived from Majorca, the port from which majolica originally was traded. Italian majolica and italian ceramics are world renowned because of their master craftsmanship and durability. Italy has a long-standing tradition in the production of ceramics and pottery dating back to the 13th century.\nFor many, choosing to decorate their home in Italian decor is a lifestyle choice. We love to surround ourselves with the “essence” of Italian life. Family, friends, and that comfortable, lived in feel is what we look for when decorating a home with one of a kind italian pieces. The great thing about changing up the look and feel of\nThe famous Italian ceramic Rooster Pitcher symbolizes “Good Fortune”. Italian tradition is to give it as a housewarming or wedding gift, to protect from trespassers and dangers. The origin of the “Rooster Pitcher” dates back to the early Renaissance period in the Republic of Florence, Italy. During this time, one of the most powerful and leading landowning families, the Medici’s, held a feast in the nearby village\nWelcome to the world of Murano Glass collecting! Murano glass has a lot to offer the collector, a long lineage of artists dating back to the 12th century to the current maestri living and working in Murano, Venice. Where do I Start? One of the best ways to learn about Murano Glass is to visit a collection or search the web,"}
{"content":"Viewers once thought:\nFilm talkies would forever change democracy.\nTelephones would invade privacy.\nComic books would turn kids into juvenile delinquents.\nTelevision would create zombies.\nResearchers shrug off such predictions, arguing citizens can attend to only so much media in one setting.\nResearchers say new media displace old media. For example, television took over for radio in the 1950s when families consumed evening entertainment.\nComputer-internet media—Facebook, Twitter and email—have displaced other channels when it comes to reaching people.\nCivil disobedience, for example, is fueled by protestors announcing events electronically, thus potentially organizing groups more quickly.\nBut when it comes to measurable effects, social media fail to demonstrate a large impact on publics.\nMedia researcher Jonah Berger of the University of Pennsylvania says most ideas don’t catch fire.\nMost YouTube videos, for example, rarely go viral.\nAnd efforts to reach mass audiences through social media can be woefully ineffective and expensive.\nAmerican advertisers last year plunked down $170 billion for direct marketing, according to The Economist.\n(That’s how much we spend on care for Americans with Alzheimer’s, according to The Fiscal Times.)\nWhen it comes to electronic media ploys, sales resulting from ads were a fraction—less than one percent—in fact, one-hundredth of one percent, The Economist reports.\nThat makes unsolicited ads as welcome as ants at a summer picnic.\nM.C. Escher rendering of an ant from http://www.insects.org/ced1/escher02.html"}
{"content":"You can click through the pages in this section to get many of the facts and figures you need to make decisions that are right for your organization. You also find links to other sites such as the North Carolina Department of Commerce that can provide invaluable information.\nIf you don't see what you're looking for here, please contact us at email@example.com. We'd be happy to get you the information you need promptly.\nPopulation estimates are calculated as the number of people living in an area at a specified point in time, which considers natural fluctuations due to: births, deaths, domestic migration and international migration.\nSince 2005, ENC has seen a steady increase in the number of people residing in the region. Over this time frame, ENC has grown at a faster rate than the United States, to over 1.4 million residents, adding an average of 15,000 residents per year. Total regional population in 2013 was 1,415,063 with a 2014 projection of 1,441,806.\n|2000 Census||2009 Estimate||2014 Projected|\n|Age||1990 Census||2000 Census||2009 Estimate||2014 Projected|\n|0 to 4||62,291||64,195||74,317||74,596|\n|5 to 14||115,117||128,086||135,319||153,973|\n|15 to 19||65,319||68,727||70,438||68,696|\n|20 to 24||87,733||86,248||84,452||75,918|\n|35 to 44||118,027||138,315||124,934||128,237|\n|45 to 54||77,011||116,997||134,157||137,205|\n|55 to 64||67,677||78,762||111,994||129,523|\n|65 to 74||54,850||61,016||71,303||90,332|\n|75 to 84||26,442||35,514||43,263||49,644|\n|Race||1990 Census||2000 Census||2009 Estimate||2014 Projected|\nor Alaska Native\nEastern North Carolina high school students' average scores on the SAT are in line with the state average - and are trending upward.\n|County||SAT Scores 2011|\n|North Carolina Average||1001|\nSince 2000, the region has seen a sharp decrease in the percentage of residents who possess less than a High School diploma, while both those possessing an Associates Degree or Some College and a Bachelor’s Degree or higher have increased. On the state and national level, the most significant growth also occurred in those obtaining a Bachelor's Degree and above.\nPer Capita Income (PCI) is the average income received in the past 12 months for every man, woman, and child in a geographic area. Over the past 5 years, ENC has seen a slight decline in PCI, similar to the state and the nation. In 2009 the regional PCI was $21,954 and in 2013 it was $21,085.\nMedian household income divides the income distribution into two equal parts; one half of the cases fall above and one half fall below the median. All three populations saw an increase from 2003-2013. Over this time period the US saw a 21% increase, NC experienced a 17% increase and ENC a 23% increase.\nTravel and Tourism expenditures are calculated using the Travel Economic Impact Model (TEIM) which is a disaggregated model comprised of 16 travel categories, including: lodging, food, retail, public transportation, auto transportation, and amusement/recreation. Over the 10 year period shown in this graph, both the state and region have grown at very similar rates. Although tourist expenditures dropped in 2009, expenditures have risen to $2.9 billion in 2013, compared to $2 billion 10 years ago."}
{"content":"“There aren’t any white horses!” I’d yell at her (and we’d had this argument on more than one occasion).\nIn hindsight I realise she must have found my stubborn denial and literal interpretation rather amusing.\nI’ve always wanted there to be more to reality than what we see on its surface. What lies beneath the ocean is largely a mystery to us unless we own diving gear or can access some sort of submersible. A whole other environment exists there that is hostile to our very being, as land-walking, air-breathing mammals. Seventy percent of the planet’s surface is hostile to us, in fact.\nYet many creation myths speak of our birth in the primordial ocean and I suspect, on a deeper level, we still hear that siren call luring us back. The sea connects all things, is shaped by that which is known and transmits that which is unknown.\nOften I’d go for early morning walks with my parents or grandparents, during that wonderful magic hour before the sun was properly up and the rest of the world was awake. Only at these times, with the tide out, would we discover a few of the sea’s secrets: slick, gleaming mermaid’s purses; a delicate paper nautilus, still whole; sea urchins like green buttons; and sea glass polished to smooth teardrops.\nThe trek fishermen would be bringing in their catch, mostly mullet and a few mackerel and the odd skate, but sometimes stranger fish, like gurnard or cat sharks.\nEven now, my daily train journey follows the False Bay coastline for part of the way, and I’m privy to the ocean’s many moods. There are days when I stick my face out the window so I can breathe deeply of that salt-sweet air.\nThe sea finds me in my dreams; sometimes she is a benign mistress. Other times she is a destructive force. Those who love her are captivated. She flows through our veins and we can never escape her.\nI'm proud to announce the line-up for The Sea an anthology of short speculative fiction:\nLola and the Sea Lion by Alex Hughes; Songs of the Sea by Camille Griep; Dead Shark Dawn by Don Webb; Sirens by J.C. Piech; The Setting Sea by Patrick O’Neill; Up She Rises by S.A. Partridge; The Something in the Sea by Amy Lee Burgess; Dredge by Wayne Goodchild; Kajsa’s Curse by Steve Jones; Deeper Creatures by Andrea Jones; A Cruel, Intemperate Sea by Barry King; Canyon by Martin Rose; The Wire Bird by Simon Dewar; My Name is Legion by Diane Awerbuck; Pins and Needles by Benjamin Knox; A Drought of Tears by Rob Porteous; Salt by Toby Bennett; and Choiceless Beach by Anna Reith.\nPurchase your copies at Amazon, Kobo, Smashwords and Nook. Print will follow shortly."}
{"content":"October 5, 2005 Innovative air vehicle developer AirScooter has featured in Gizmag previously with its AirScooter II, a vehicle we dubbed, “The Helicopter for the Home.” Things have been moving quickly for the company in recent times, with several patented and patent-pending aeronautical products being developed to employ coaxial rotor technology. These products include a high-performance AirScout 70” Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and an electric powered UAV, both targeted at the commercial and military markets.\nThe electric E70 is based on the company’s high-performance gasoline engine G70 UAV platform. After the G70 prototype met rigorous flight requirements, five new AirScooter G70s have been assembled using a more powerful engine to increase payload and are being prepped for flight testing and sale. AirScooter UAVs are in the tactical VTOL (Vertical Takeoff and Landing) class, positioned between the high-end hobby category and the limited selection of expensive military/commercial UAVs available today. Easily transportable, these robust craft are ideally suited for aerial photography, surveillance, research and a range of homeland security applications.\nAirScooter unmanned aerial vehicles feature a rugged patented coaxial flight platform providing outstanding hovering ability, stable flight, precision response and control all in an economical package. Both the G70 and E70 employ a 70-inch coaxial rotor and control system, minimizing the complexity of coaxial systems of the past, but scalable to future craft, smaller or larger in size.\nThe G70 is powered by a modern 7.5 hp twin engine, weighs about 32 pounds, with a payload of 10 pounds plus and flight duration of about 45 minutes. The E70 employs a battery powered high-end (1500 watts continuous – 3500 watts maximum) cobalt motor, weighs approximately 30 pounds with batteries, has an estimated payload of 5 pounds or more and flight duration of about 8-15 minutes. With no commercial speed controller available to meet the demanding power requirements of the E70, the company sponsored production of a proprietary custom speed controller resulting in one of the largest electric powered VTOL air vehicles to be commercially available. More complete specifications, subject to change as more flight and performance data is obtained, are on our web site at www.airscooter.net.\n“Gene Rock, chief UAV engineer, designed AirScooter UAVs to be easily remotely guided or automated by any number of third party computerized flight systems,” said Dwaine Barnes, president of AirScooter Corporation. “We employ computerized engineering in our air vehicle designs allowing more rapid transition from prototype to automated production techniques and making it easier to accommodate a customer’s particular requirements.”\nBarnes added, “We are excited about the early product response and look forward to showing more customers the capabilities and advantages of our coaxial control system. We are seeing interest from commercial and government sectors of the market, domestically and overseas. Whether the requirement is for quiet electric performance or long duration gasoline powered flight, we provide a compelling solution for customers dissatisfied with the limitations of high-end hobby craft but unable to justify the high costs of commercial/military UAVs often costing US$100,000 to US$500,000 or more.”\nWant a cleaner, faster loading and ad free reading experience?\nTry New Atlas Plus. Learn more"}
{"content":"Labor Issues Inspire Artist Jim Arendt\nDenim has particular meaning for Jim Arendt, the featured artist in the College of Southern Maryland's next exhibition, “Selvage,” set to open Feb. 6. Durable and still worn when faded, stained or ripped, denim represents the human condition to Arendt as he uses it in his art to explore how individuals are affected by economic stress.\n“When I was young and my family was living through the farm crisis of the early 1980s, I recall my father sitting at the sewing machine patching his Wranglers in the evening after work,” Arendt said. “He was making do – a concept of thrift and pragmatism that dictates you work with the materials at hand. By my early 20s, that memory mixed with the stories of other working people and led me to denim as a possible material that was much closer to the truth of their lives than oil paint.”\nThe “Selvage” exhibition at CSM will include seven life-size two- and three-dimensional figures by Arendt. It opens Feb. 6 and will run through March 9, and will include an artist lecture by Arendt at 2:30 p.m. Feb. 7 on campus in the Learning Resource Center (LR Building), Room 102.\nAt the lecture, Arendt said he plans to talk about what inspires his art. “My artwork grows out of the need for me to understand our shifting relationship with labor and work,” he said. “I grew up on a farm outside of Flint, Michigan, birthplace of General Motors and the United Auto Workers Union. Our region underwent a radical shift in economics as the industrial and agrarian economies disappeared or were outsourced to different regions and countries. Famously depicted in Michael Moore's 1989 documentary 'Roger & Me,' Flint suffered through the loss of 80,000 manufacturing jobs from which it has never fully recovered and the city's struggles continues to make headlines today. The resulting impact on the lives of the people I grew up with has left an indelible mark on my outlook on our relationship with work as a concept as I seek to make sense of the narrative that unfolded.\n“My work asks viewers to confront the realities of working people's lives,” he said. “Across the country a shift in monetary policy, commodity prices and globalization were rapidly closing the longest period of economic expansion in American History. A disruption to people's traditional livelihoods and economic status has driven the rise of darker and more primal impulses in the past. Now, we confront a period of similar anger and instinct toward protectionism. History has a way of rhyming; here's to hoping we stick the landing.”\nArendt is the director of the Rebecca Randall Bryan Art Gallery and an assistant professor at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina. His work has been exhibited internationally in numerous group and solo shows. Recently, Arendt was short-listed for The 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art and received the South Carolina Arts Commission Visual Artist Fellowship. His work was awarded the $50,000 top prize at ArtFields, Best in Show at Hub-Bub Gallery's Emerging Carolina and was included in the 701 Contemporary Center for the Arts 701 CCA Prize 2012. He was awarded Best in Show during Fantastic Fibers at Yeiser Art Center, Paducah, Kentucky, included in Fiberarts International 2013 and 2016 and the 2013 Museum Rijswijk Textile Biennial, Netherlands.\nArendt received his bachelor of fine arts degree from Kendall College of Art & Design and his master of fine arts from the University of South Carolina. He participated in residency programs including The Fields Project in Illinois, Arrowmont's Tactility Forum and has been invited instructor at Penland School of Craft and Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts.\nAfter “Selvage,” the last exhibition this season at CSM will be the Annual Juried Student Exhibition from April 10 to May 5. Submissions for the student exhibition will be accepted from March 28 to April 1. The jury will select exhibition works April 5.\nBoth “Selvage” and the Annual Juried Student Exhibitions will be at the Tony Hungerford Memorial Art Gallery at the La Plata Campus Fine Arts Center. The gallery is open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday. Artist lectures are usually held Tuesday afternoon and are free and open to the public. Visit www.csmd.edu/community/the-arts/visual-arts/hungerford-gallery/index for more information. For more on Arendt, visit www.jimarendt.com.\nCSM Tony Hungerford Memorial Art Gallery: “Selvage.” Feb. 6 ? March 9, College of Southern Maryland, Fine Arts Center, Tony Hungerford Memorial Art Gallery, 8730 Mitchell Road, La Plata. Featuring the artwork of Jim Arendt. Arendt will give a lecture at 2:30 p.m. Feb. 7 in the Learning Resource (LR) Center, Room 102, with a reception immediately following in the gallery. Free and open to the public. The gallery is open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday. www.csmd.edu/VisualArts."}
{"content":"The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), a body that certifies forest management practices, has revoked all certificates granted to the Danzer Group, a multinational logging company, over alleged human rights abuses by one of its former subsidiaries in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), reports Bloomberg.\nAccording to a complaint filed by Greenpeace, the subsidiary, Siforco, provided financial and logistical support to Congolese police and military forces in a May 2011 attack against a community protesting the company’s logging operations. Security forces committed acts of violence, including rape, and destroyed property in the village.\nDanzer, which sold Siforco in February 2012, said that Siforco was “forced” to provide support during the attack. It added that the police went to the village to recover equipment stolen from Siforco, according to Bloomberg.\nGreenpeace filed its complaint 18 months ago. In a statement issued today, the FSC said it will terminate all of its contracts with Danzer. The “disassociation”, as the termination is known, “is the most severe sanction that FSC can impose”, according to the body.\n“Based on the unanimous recommendation of the Complaints Panel, which spent several months analyzing the case, and whose work was also reviewed by a Board Complaints Resolution Committee, the Board of Directors decided that Danzer was in violation of FSC’s Policy for Association,” said Kim Carstensen, Director General of FSC, in a statement. “Our continued association with the Danzer Group clearly puts FSC’s credibility and reputation at risk.”\nGreenpeace welcomed the move.\n“Greenpeace is pleased the FSC is showing that its Policy for Association has teeth and is not risking its reputation by being associated with the Danzer Group due to its involvement in human rights violations. We find this landmark decision critical for the credibility of the FSC,” said Judy Rodrigues, senior forest campaigner with Greenpeace International. “This case shows that the FSC needs to urgently establish certification safeguards in high risk areas where there are high levels of corruption and where good governance, the rule of law and organized civil society are all lacking.”\nAccording to Bloomberg, the disassociation affects Danzer’s subsidiary Industrie Forestiere de Ouesso (IFO), which has the largest FSC-certified logging operation in the Congo Basin.\nThe FSC has certified some 154 million hectares (380 million acres) of forests worldwide based on “environmental, economic, and social” criteria. The standard, which is set by membership, has seen a fair share of controversy over the years. Some industry groups view it as too restrictive, while some environmentalists complain the standard is too weak and allows first-time logging of primary forests. Greenpeace, which is an FSC member, says it is trying to strengthen the environmental aspects of the standards from within the body.\n(02/11/2013) Two environmental activist groups blasted the World Bank over its reported decision to block a probe into its support of industrial-scale rainforest logging.\n(09/06/2012) Demand for timber and paper is contributing to destruction of the world’s most biodiverse rainforests and worsening climate change, argues a new report issued Tuesday by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).\n(07/19/2012) Industrial logging in primary tropical forests that is both sustainable and profitable is impossible, argues a new study in Bioscience, which finds that the ecology of tropical hardwoods makes logging with truly sustainable practices not only impractical, but completely unprofitable. Given this, the researchers recommend industrial logging subsidies be dropped from the UN’s Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) program. The study, which adds to the growing debate about the role of logging in tropical forests, counters recent research making the case that well-managed logging in old-growth rainforests could provide a “middle way” between conservation and outright conversion of forests to monocultures or pasture.\n(07/17/2012) For most people “Borneo” conjures up an image of a wild and distant land of rainforests, exotic beasts, and nomadic tribes. But that place increasingly exists only in one’s imagination, for the forests of world’s third largest island have been rapidly and relentlessly logged, burned, and bulldozed in recent decades, leaving only a sliver of its once magnificent forests intact. Flying over Sabah, a Malaysian state that covers about 10 percent of Borneo, the damage is clear. Oil palm plantations have metastasized across the landscape. Where forest remains, it is usually degraded. Rivers flow brown with mud.\n(06/26/2012) Greenpeace has launched a consultation process to establish global standards for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) projects.\n(01/26/2012) Already on the decline worldwide, big trees face a dire future due to habitat fragmentation, selective harvesting by loggers, exotic invaders, and the effects of climate change, warns an article published this week in New Scientist magazine. Reviewing research from forests around the world, William F. Laurance, an ecologist at James Cook University in Cairns, Australia, provides evidence of decline among the world’s ‘biggest and most magnificent’ trees and details the range of threats they face. He says their demise will have substantial impacts on biodiversity and forest ecology, while worsening climate change.\n(01/25/2012) Tropical countries may face a risk of ‘peak timber’ as continued logging of rainforests exceeds the capacity of forests to regenerate timber stocks and substantially increases the risk of outright clearing for agricultural and industrial plantations, argues a trio of scientists writing in the journal Biological Conservation. The implications for climate, biodiversity, and local economies are substantial.\n(06/24/2011) Members of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), meeting in Malaysia this week for its General Assembly, will consider various changes to the organization, including a vote on a controversial motion that would open the door—slightly at first—to sustainable-certification of companies that have been involved in recent forest destruction for pulp and paper plantations. Known as Motion 18, the change is especially focusing on forestry in places where recent deforestation has been rampant, such as Indonesia and Malaysia.\n(06/02/2010) In the 1980s and 1990s pressure from activist groups led some of the world’s largest forestry products companies and retailers to join forces with environmentalists to form the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), a certification standard that aims to reduce the environmental impact of wood and paper production on natural forests. Despite initial skepticism on whether buyers would pay a premium for greener forest products, FSC quickly grew and by 2000 had become a standard in many markets, including Europe and the United States. Companies like Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Ikea are today strong supporters of the FSC. But the FSC has not been without controversy. In recent years some activists have voiced concern about FSC standards as well as the credibility of auditors that certify timber operations. Among the initiative’s supporters is the Rainforest Action Network (RAN), a group best known for its aggressive protest tactics. RAN says engagement with the FSC is better than the alternative: leaving the timber industry to devise its own sustainability standards.\n(11/04/2008) Demand for wood products is ultimately one of the largest drivers of global deforestation through both direct clear-cutting and selective logging, which increases a forest’s vulnerability to fire and subsequent clearing and disturbance by other actors, including hunters, subsistence farmers, land speculators, ranchers and agro-industrial firms. Reducing the detrimental environmental impacts of meeting wood demand is critical to protecting the world’s forests as healthy, productive and resilient ecosystems."}
{"content":"IT IS extremely disturbing to see a Member of Parliament place the blame for school violence squarely on the shoulders of teachers. Such accusations reflect a complete lack of understanding and appreciation for the nuances of schooling and the challenges teachers face on a daily basis.\nThose that readily blame teachers only for the problem of school indiscipline and violence might be well advised to spend a day in some of our secondary schools.\nThere they will encounter students who arrive late, don’t conform to the uniform code, refuse to attend classes, challenge/ignore basic instructions, have no books and materials to engage in classroom activities, walk in and out of classes as they wish, walk out on teachers and school officials when they are being spoken to and even verbally insult school officials.\nTeachers spend most of the period simply attempting to get students into the classroom, only to be confronted with verbal conflicts that may erupt into physical fights. If the teacher is lucky to get all settled in the classroom and attempts to teach, phones are whipped out and their use engaged, notwithstanding the school rules.\nThere are students who belong to gangs and the ensuing gang rivalry is a reality that teachers have to contend with on a daily basis. Students devise extraordinary measures to smuggle illegal items onto the school compound. Ensuing searches may or may not be done with the help of the police because despite calls for police assistance, this may not always be forthcoming.\nSome students are before the courts on various charges, having already been exposed to criminal behaviour. Gang/mob culture is propagated in the school compound by virtue of the school location.\nWhen a teacher confronts an individual student, they are immediately surrounded by a group of other students who encourage the offending student to defy the instructions of the teacher or, worse yet, threaten the teacher. They may even dare the teacher to call the police, openly defying instructions to disperse and go to their classrooms.\nThe new norm of students is to call their “parents,” “friends,” and “associates” onto the school compound if they have issues with other students or teachers. These people then come to the school compound to “deal with” anyone who “interferes” with their children. There are many schools where teachers are fearful for their personal safety and resort to walking the corridors in groups.\nSome male students make openly suggestive remarks towards young female teachers. Sometimes students may be engaged in illegal activities and if challenged have been known to threaten teachers with physical harm if reported.\nFights erupt in a classroom for simple issues such as a verbal disagreement between two students or Facebook posts, with the lone teacher being almost helpless. Then there are those students who only attend school for meals and for the social welfare forms to be stamped and signed by the school officials.\nThese are some of the realities that our teachers and school officials have to contend with on a daily basis in some of our nation’s schools. These students are ill-prepared for environments where rules and structure prevail. They have not been taught limits of behaviour or a sense of self-restraint/regulation, which are requirements for schooling.\nTeachers have not been trained or equipped to deal with students who are socialised into such behaviour.\nSchools are woefully inadequate to address these social deficits. Lumping large numbers of underachieving children into a school without commensurate support systems overwhelms its capacity to treat with their antisocial behaviour. So before judgment is made, walk in our shoes for a day."}
{"content":"Arreau, Hautes-Pyrénées 1949\nLike many African American artists who traveled to France in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, Loïs Mailou Jones was thrilled at the country’s racial tolerance, so different from her reality in the United States. She first went to Paris in 1937, while on sabbatical from Howard University, to study at the Académie Julian. Jones returned regularly and summered in France annually from 1946–1953, often visiting French artist Céline Tabary (1908–1993), a lifelong friend.\nJones rendered Arreau, Hautes-Pyrénées on one of her summer sojourns in southwestern France. Her portrayal of the picturesque village nestled in a valley evokes landscape paintings by Paul Cézanne, a stylistic influence she acknowledged. Jones’s brushstrokes, though loosely applied, define the structure of buildings and topography clearly. The intense contrast of oranges and greens, also reminiscent of Cézanne, lends visual vibrancy to the peaceful scene.\nJones received an award for this work (originally titled Petite Ville-Hautes-Pyrénées) from Washington, D.C.’s Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1949."}
{"content":"the c a l c BOOC we were calling for many years a kind of online-diary in which we were telling what we’re doing and what we don’t. see the links above to see how this looked like in the last versions of calcaxy. when life proposed 2009 very different ways for all of the calcies the online BOOC felt asleep.. no one of us had time to keep it alive and we decided that one day, when time and budget allows it, we’re going to do a print-version. it seems that this day has arrived. or better this year – so in 2016 we – Teresa and me – want to give it a try: set up a crowd-funding request and look for collaborators. the BOOC doesn’t want to be a typical catalogue – piece after piece – but a kind of interweaved-open-source-copyleft-artbook – the artbook we never found. the BOOC wants to show from each project how it did arise, how it was outlined, what were its inspirations and influences, how it was financed and what it provoked or what project came-why-next. that is why we’re also planing to put a central project-map (derived from the c a l c– or pix-cell , now cloud-atlas) in order to make that also visually/spatial/geographical comprehensible and accessible.\n– 2nd, the first layout of how i did imagine to index all projects already from the outside. structurally its a 1:1 copy from a children book i’ve seen in Lolas nursery..\n– 3rd, two simulations i did using Lolas book.. but its all open again, we might do something more simple.."}
{"content":"At the OTC, we treat mainly children birth deformities. We believe that this is because children are surviving the customary scrutiny and there is more awareness that something can be done for these children.\nWe are seeing gross shortage of legs (micromelia), partial absence of limbs (phocomelia), or total absence of a limb (aplasia). Many are coming with club feet. We are also treating spinal, neck and lower back problems. The causes seem to be in women because of lack of antenatal care and compensatory exercises, other causes are obesity and the custom of carrying heavy loads on the head from youth.\nThe OTC also treats adults. There are no more new cases of polio, because of the rigorous vaccination program. However, older patients who never came for treatment in their youth because of religious taboos, financial problems, etc, are now asking for assistance and treatment. We are also treating more and more cases of industrial accidents with loss of fingers, hand, arm and even shoulder.\nThe Orthopedic Training Centre has four departments:\nOrthopedic Clinic & Workshop: The Orthopedic Clinic & Workshop was set up in 1965 to diagnose, manufacture and fit the orthopedic appliances needed for the physically challenged of Ghana. Orthopedic shoes, shoe prosthesis, leg braces, artificial legs and arms, splints, etc., are manufactured for the over 6000 patients seen yearly. (Read more >>)\nMobile Orthopedic Unit: As many of the poor do not have to ability to travel to the Centre, in 1965 the Mobile Orthopedic Unit was initiated. The orthopedic services of the OTC have now been extended to 43 contact stations throughout Ghana. These stations include hospitals, clinics, rehabilitation centres, and mission stations, and at times the clinic is held under a tree. (Read more >>)\nChildren’s Home: The Children’s Home provides a family environment for the children as they begin their therapy and learn how to use their orthopedic appliances. During the months they stay at the centre, they feel acceptance and they receive support from both staff and other children. (Read more >>)\nProsthetics & Orthotics Training College: The newest addition to the OTC is the Prosthetics & Orthotics Training College, which opened its doors to the first class in September 2013. It provides prosthetics and orthotics education and training, combining both concise theoretical and practical sessions. (Read more >>)"}
{"content":"Nanjera and Goanar – Why do factories in India want children to work instead of going to school? https://www.concern.net/sites/default/files/media/page/concern_child_labour_resource.pdf\nMaddison, Sharhna, Nyamal – How does education help people to have a better future?\nDominic and Nakeesha – How can we help to stop conflict destroying schools?\nEmma and Makiala – If UNICEF gave Zimbabwe schools text books, why not other educational resources?\nLachlan and Jimmy – How is war getting in the way of children walking to school?\nArizona and Bella – Why do students drop out of school before Year 12?\nSarah, Kyan, Dylan – Why do some schools not have many resources?\nTyrone and Siya – Why can’t people in Sudan afford education when going to school is supposed to be free?\nTori and Larissa – How can we get teachers to understand us?\nMax and Lavender May – Why are teachers regularly absent from schools in Yemen?\nTahlia and Brandon – How do children access education if they live far, far away from a school?\nBetty and Isis – How can students in Nigeria learn with only 40% of teachers qualified?\nTravis, Deegan, Jimem – Why do some schools not have enough resources like tables and chairs?\nMorgan and Tyson – How do Syrian schools access resources for education?\nMackenzie and Mitchell – Why are some countries against children with disabilities going to school?\nMal and Shakayla – Why do some girls have to marry young instead of going to school?\nAyuen and Olivia C – What if we were able to provide transportation to remote areas for all children?\nYewande and Bailey – Why are some girls injured or attacked for going to school?\nTarlee and Olivia G – How can we give resources to schools in War Zones?\nOwen and Liam – Why do some schools have no chairs and tables?\nDylan and Kyan – Why do some schools have limited resources?"}
{"content":"Investors need to keep in mind that many companies often try to highlight their positive numbers rather than the loopholes involved in respective financial results. But those numbers could involve manipulating the figures, which might lead to fraud by misleading investors. Investors should be cautious enough when they read financial numbers. They should look for more information supporting these data facts. Accounting policies, management history, trend over previous years, economic indicators, macro facts should also be taken into accounts, while analyzing the results. Let us understand this from the following aspects:\nGAAP Accounting: Public companies are required to follow generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP in reporting their financial statements. But those rules do not always put a company in best picture and therefore many companies opt for non-GAAP measures to report on their business. There is nothing wrong using these non GAAP measures which could also give investors greater insight into a company’s results by making adjustments that exclude certain amounts that may not be relevant to future operations. On the other hand, when company promotes its results by using non-GAAP measures, then any false figure can result in misleading investors and could give a rosy picture for company’s performance. Therefore, investors must analyze these numbers and must try to take review of numbers with regard to the GAAP accounting, which would reveal the real picture, and help investors in making a right decision.\nCash flow statement is important: Most of the time, investors consider only income statement and the balance sheet while neglecting cash flow statement. On the other hand, one should consider the cash flow statements as it contains critically important analytical data. It is important to note the distinction between being profitable against having positive cash flow transaction. A company bringing cash does not mean it is making profit and vice versa. It is not only the profit figure which matters but what is also important is that the cash is generated from operation and investing outflows. Cash flow statement also aids in understanding how company finances its need at working capital as well as long-term levels. Cash flow statement helps company analyze the actual funding position.\nFinancial ratios and indicators: Ratios transform the numbers into meaningful relationship to judge company’s financial performance and conditions. The resulting ratios must be viewed over extended period to reflect trends. One should be careful about one size-fits-all syndrome. Evaluation of financial metrics can differ significantly by industry, company size and stage of development. Therefore, the ratio must be analyzed, not just for the reporting year but they also need to see the historical data to find the trend and analyze sudden changes, while dig the fact for more information. Similarly, the same can be used to find trend for future estimates and any sudden change in ratios for future period should call for more explanation. Similarly, attractive returns ratio as compared with peers also help us to find more data for such variation before taking investment decision.\nChange in accounting policies: Several times, companies change the accounting policies, like the rate of depreciation, or depreciation method. These inflate the profit numbers and inflate financial statements. Investors should be cautious about such change in accounting policies. The investors should carefully read the auditors’ report as well as notes to the accounts. The qualification made by the auditors should be read carefully. Similarly, thorough understanding of company’s notes is essential to read the financial statements in order to properly evaluate company’s financial condition and performance.\nForward looking statement: There are forward looking statements other than historical statements. Forward looking statements are provided to assist the reader in understanding the company’s financial position. These statements also include results of operations periods as well as comprise information about management’s current expectations and plans relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that such statements may not be appropriate for other purposes. Forward-looking statements include statements that are predictive in nature, while depend upon or refer to future events or conditions. Certain assumptions are made to draw conclusion or making forecast for future in forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that might give possibilities while the expectations might not prove to be accurate. Investors need to be cautious about such statements and look for more supporting data.\nThe advice given by Kalkine Pty Ltd and provided on this website is general information only and it does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. You should therefore consider whether the advice is appropriate to your investment objectives, financial situation and needs before acting upon it. You should seek advice from a financial adviser, stockbroker or other professional (including taxation and legal advice) as necessary before acting on any advice. Not all investments are appropriate for all people. Kalkine.com.au and associated websites are published by Kalkine Pty Ltd ABN 34 154 808 312 (Australian Financial Services License Number 425376).The information on this website has been prepared from a wide variety of sources, which Kalkine Pty Ltd, to the best of its knowledge and belief, considers accurate. You should make your own enquiries about any investments and we strongly suggest you seek advice before acting upon any recommendation. Kalkine Pty Ltd has made every effort to ensure the reliability of information contained in its newsletters and websites. All information represents our views at the date of publication and may change without notice. To the extent permitted by law, Kalkine Pty Ltd excludes all liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of this website and any information published (including any indirect or consequential loss, any data loss or data corruption). If the law prohibits this exclusion, Kalkine Pty Ltd hereby limits its liability, to the extent permitted by law to the resupply of services. There may be a product disclosure statement or other offer document for the securities and financial products we write about in Kalkine Reports. You should obtain a copy of the product disclosure statement or offer document before making any decision about whether to acquire the security or product. The link to our Terms & Conditions has been provided please go through them and also have a read of the Financial Services Guide. On the date of publishing this report (mentioned on the website), employees and/or associates of Kalkine Pty Ltd currently hold positions in: BHP, BKY, KCN, PDN, and RIO. These stocks can change any time and readers of the reports should not consider these stocks as advice or recommendations."}
{"content":"Pets: Companions, Stress Relievers, and… Teachers?\nApril 26 is National Kids and Pets Day, which really tugs at our heartstrings because there’s really nothing cuter than the bond between a child and their animal. Pet ownership in young children has so many benefits – it teaches them empathy, responsibility, strengthens their immune system, and more. It can even help them do better in school.\nFor a lot of kids, learning to read can be a daunting, overwhelming and, at times, an embarrassing process. During this learning curve, the pressure of reading aloud can cause stress, anxiety, and, worst of all, a disdain for reading – which is such a huge part of their education. If only there were a laid back way to practice reading aloud without the worry of stuttering, stumbling, or hearing rude classmates snicker…\nWell, there may just be the perfect neutral, non-judgmental (and adorable!) audience available to them right now: THEIR PET!\nThat’s right, reading aloud to pets is the purrfect way for kids to practice reading without stress or judgment – not to mention petting an animal releases feel-good hormones and lowers blood pressure. In fact, the idea is so effective, shelters and schools across the country have paired up for kids to come down to the shelter and read to pets – not only does it better socialize their animals but it allows children to improve their reading skills in a comfortable (and cute) environment. In a study performed by the Human-Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI), children reported enjoying reading to animals and had a stronger motivation to continue the activity. If that’s not proof enough, there are even grant programs available for the sole purpose of bringing a pet into the classroom because they have such a pawsitive impact on students. So before shelling out big bucks for a reading tutor, consider stopping by the shelter with a few books or talking with your teacher about a classroom pet!\nDo you have a story about a classroom pet, or have a favorite way to celebrate Kids and Pets Day? We’d love to hear (and see!) more on Facebook!"}
{"content":"Practicing power “with” children vs. power “over” children can be more of a shift in thinking for adults than actually giving up punishment. We often think it is more about what we do “to” children to make them change their ways (the power over thing again)!\nTo recap Steps 1 – 3 (in “Encouraging Children to More Positive Behavior”)\n- · giving up the idea of trying to control children’s behaviour and focusing on more encouraging methods is the first step in moving children towards more positive behavior.\n- · A strong connection with the child is essential in order for any positive change to take place\n- · and adults needs to model mutual respect through kindness and firmness.\nImplementing some “power with” kids is good next step. Any way that you can involve children in creating routines, problem solving, etc. brings about a shift that invites more cooperation and creates more accountability.\nUse Routine Charts to Increase Cooperation and Accountability\nOne way to practice “power with” children when it comes to routines is to create routine charts WITH them. For example for bedtime routines – sit down and brainstorm all the things that need to be done to get ready for bed i.e. jammies, teeth, etc.\nThen take pictures of the child while they are doing each of the routines and post the pictures on a chart of some sort – doesn’t have to be fancy but needs to reflect the child’s participation in it. Even small children can glue and stick the pictures on.\nThis is very different from you creating the chart for them and imposing each of the steps. When the child has had a part in the creation of the chart, it has more meaning.\nThe rules are no longer “your” rules but become “their” rules because they have had a part in creating them. The chart becomes an “agreement” and in a sense becomes the boss – rather than you!\nThis same idea can be used for morning routines or any other routine in which you want to increase the child’s independence.\nNext: Problem Solving WITH Children."}
{"content":"See large image here / scroll down to see two more infographics\nTwo months after the coup d’état in May, Thailand’s 2014 coup-maker set out a plan to reform Thailand’s education system, which is believed to be one of the worst in the region. But instead of improving the quality of educators and other structural problems apparent in the national curriculum, the junta has promoted 12 nationalistic Thai values to the top of the new education reform agenda. This kind of promotion of youth values through schools is not new to Thailand. Under the regime of Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram from 1938-1944, ten values for youth were promoted alongside other secular nationalistic values. Throughout Southeast Asia, different versions of national values for youth have been promoted through the education systems of many nations to serve certain development, reform, and political agendas.\nWith the exception of Brunei, Prachatai has compared the values promoted by the Thai junta to those of the other ASEAN members whose governments have written distinct desirable characters of the youth. The most commonly found values concern unity, development, and political ideologies. The values, to a certain degree, reflect the social, political and economic situation of each country. Moreover, throughout modern history the values are public propaganda directed towards the youth in order to shape and maintain certain ideologies.\nVivid examples of this are the Komsomol, a Soviet Union youth organization and the Hitler Youth, which were established in the 1920s and 1930s. Although, these youth organizations belonged to opposite ends of the political spectrum, the methods by which adolescents were drawn by these organizations to support the extreme left and right political ideologies were similar. To varying degrees, the Southeast Asian countries impose similar models of nationalism on their youth with different youth values.\nThe 12 national values which have just been invented by the junta aim to foster a sense of nationalism centring around the century-old three pillars of the Thai nation invented by King Vajiravudh (Rama VI) – nation, religion, and monarchy. Thailand is the only country where the head of state, the monarchy, is promoted in its national youth values, being highlighted in three of them. Also, the invented 12 traditional Thai values promoted by the Thai junta do not contain many definitive development or academic goals. However, many intangible values, which might have certain political and social implications are promoted by the junta.\n- Love for the nation, religions and monarchy\n- Honesty, patience and good intentions for the public\n- Gratitude to parents, guardians and teachers\n- Perseverance in learning\n- Conservation of Thai culture\n- Morality and sharing with others\n- Correct understanding of democracy with the monarch as head of the state\n- Discipline and respect for the law and elders\n- Awareness in thinking and doing things, and following the guidance of His Majesty the King\n- Living by the sufficiency economy philosophy guided by His Majesty the King\n- Physical and mental strength against greed\n- Concern about the public and national good more than self-interest.\nAlthough it is the only other country in mainland Southeast Asia with a constitutional monarchy, Cambodia youth values, unlike the Thai versions, make no mention of the monarchy, but prioritize technological and scientific development with good morals and social responsibility, highlighted against the backdrop of the country’s bitter history.\n- Knowing their personal and national identities\n- Importance of knowledge by striving to develop their capabilities\n- Sense of responsibility\n- Good morals\n- Mutual assistance\n- Vocational skills\n- Science capabilities\n- Information technology competency and good attitudes\n- Provision of good examples at work and society\n- Possessing a deep understanding of social norms and contributing equally to national development\nAs one of the few socialist states in the region, Vietnam’s youth values heighten the country’s shared identity through national liberation from the colonial past and Ho Chi Minh’s socialist ideology to train the next generation to become civil servants.\n- Physical health\n- Aesthetic sense\n- Loyalty to the ideology of national independence and socialism\n- Shaping and cultivation of one’s dignity\n- Civil qualifications and competence\n- Satisfying the demands of the construction and defence of the fatherland\nIn parallel with the national slogan of Pancasila, coined during the Guided Democracy period under Sukarno, Indonesia’s youth values aim to unite the most diverse archipelagic country in the region with the rhetoric of democracy, national unity, and humanism.\n- Believing in one god\n- National unity\n- Social justice\nWith limited literacy and access to education, the semi-military state government of the Union of Myanmar focuses on literacy and development in science and technology as a general theme.\n- Being a manual or mental worker well equipped with a basic education, good health and moral character.\n- Having the foundations of vocational education for the benefit of the Union of Myanmar.\n- Priority to science capable of strengthening and developing the productive forces.\n- Priority to arts capable of preserving and developing the culture, fine arts and literature of the state\n- Having a firm and sound educational foundation for the pursuance of university education.\nAs one of the least developed countries in the region, the Lao government imposes their own version of 12 values, largely dealing with national unity, self-reliance, and social commitment to unite a multi-ethnic nation with science and technology reinforced for national development.\n- Scientific world view point\n- Spirit of patriotism\n- Sense of solidarity of all Lao multi-ethnic people and people all over the world\n- Recognition of rights, interests, and duties\n- Ability to preserve and promote the finest national cultures and traditions\n- Consciousness of self-reliance and self-sufficiency\n- Ability to combine individual and public interests\n- Possession of general, scientific, technological, and vocational knowledge and skills\n- Good discipline\n- Responsible for jobs and commitments\n- Good health, healthy lifestyle, and creative thinking\n- Readiness to take part in national development\nWith a total of 15 descriptive youth values, the Singaporean government includes every dimension of academic foundation in its education agenda to stay economically competitive. However, family and community values and multi-culturalism are also highlighted to foster the national bonds of Singapore’s diverse population.\n- Balanced and well-rounded education\n- Developing children to their full potential\n- Nurturing children to be good citizens conscious of their responsibility towards parents, society, and country\n- Help for children to discover their talents and realize their full potential\n- Passion for lifelong learning\n- Willingness to think in new ways and be creative for inventing new opportunities\n- Possessing strength to face future challenges\n- Strong bonds towards family, community, and country\n- Skills and knowledge, including right values and attitudes to assure livelihood and success\n- Learning how to be self-reliant, yet able to work well with others\n- Adapting constantly to a rapidly changing world\n- Developing a sense of shared identity and destiny\n- Being united as one to overcome threats and challenges against the nation\n- Knowing one’s own cultural heritage and mother tongue\n- Learning to understand and respect the racial, religious, and linguistic differences of fellow citizens\nBased on devotion to God (although the term is left inclusive), the Malaysian youth values prioritize economic and intellectual development with nationalistic undertones to unite the nation’s many ethnicities.\n- Having essential intellectual, affective and psychomotor skills in a holistic and integrated manner to produce individuals who are intellectually, physically, emotionally and spiritually balanced and functionally literate based on a devotion to God\n- National consciousness through fostering common ideas, values, aspirations and loyalties in order to mould national unity and a national identity in a multi-ethnic society\n- Possessing requisite skills for economic and national development\n- Moral values to promote personality and aesthetic development as well as the sense of being responsible and disciplined and progressively enabled to contribute effectively towards nation-building\nGeared towards a knowledge-based society and national development, the Philippines’ youth values do not say a single word about religious values and morality although most of the country is known for its conservative Catholicism.\n- Broad knowledge to enhance capability and quality\n- Education foundation to be active and versatile citizens\n- Being the manpower for national development\n- Leadership for the nation to advance knowledge and advance the quality of human life\n- Responding to the changing conditions of the world"}
{"content":"If you make winning your master,\nYou never learn.\nIf communication is a problem,\nYou never understand.\nFor respect is yours to earn\nAnd to listen is discernment in reply\nFor love is that upon which we rely.\nWorrying does not take away the hollow\nFor there is always still tomorrow.\nLife is not a meadow\nBut you don’t have to live in someone else’s shadow!\nLove is the hardest thing to find\nIf you go through your day,\nAs if you are blind.\nTrust is what we should live by\nBut what if your life is nothing but a lie?\nWhy try to impress anyone else\nFor it is you…yourself…that you should please.\nLive at your own pace,\nSo you save your soul and have peace.\nBe happy and learn to smile\nFor life is a gift we only have for a while.\nA Gift for Life; Poetry to encourage, improve and mend hearts. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PQRJ4JK http://www.romaybooks.com Like: http://www.facebook.com/Romay6 Follow: http://www.twitter.com/Romay6 Later!"}
{"content":"Product images of Rear-Admiral Sir John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent (1735-1823)\nWe use a 280gsm fine art paper and premium branded inks to create the perfect reproduction.\nOur expertise and use of high-quality materials means that our print colours are independently verified to last between 100 and 200 years.\nRead more about our fine art prints.\nManufactured in the UK\nAll products are printed in the UK, using the latest digital presses and a giclée printmaking process.\nWe only use premium branded inks, and colours are independently verified to last between 100 and 200 years.\nRear-Admiral Sir John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent (1735-1823)\nA full-length portrait to left in admiral's full-dress uniform, 1795-1812, wearing the ribbon and Star of the Bath and the St Vincent medal. Jervis's right hand rests on his sheathed sword in front of him. Behind him is a large gilded table, covered with a red cloth, bearing on the right his hat and telescope and, on the left, an inscribed letter. To the left of this is a chair with a large rolled map leaning against it, and beyond a large terrestrial globe. Through a large window on the left, ships of the British fleet in Lisbon harbour are visible. On the right, a rostral column has been positioned. The portrait was painted in Lisbon during his last sea command in 1806.\n- Image reference: BHC3003\n- National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London"}
{"content":"Preschool children in joint physical custody have fewer psychological symptoms than those who live mostly or only with one parent after a separation, according to new research from Sweden.\nIn a new study of 3,656 children between the ages of three and five, researchers from Uppsala University, Karolinska Institutet, and the research institute CHESS found that kids living alternately with their parents after a separation show less behavioral problems and psychological symptoms than those living mostly or only with one of the parents.\nThe practice of joint physical custody — children living alternately and spending approximately the same amount of time in each of their parents’ homes — has increased in recent years and is more common in Sweden than in any other country.\nPrevious studies have shown that school children and adolescents fare well in joint physical custody. But child experts have claimed it is unsuitable for young children since they are assumed to need continuity and stability in their parent relations. However, few studies of preschool children with joint physical custody have been conducted, the researchers noted.\nBased on parents and pre-school teachers estimates, the researchers compared behavioral problems and mental symptoms of 136 children in joint physical custody, 3,369 in nuclear families, 79 living mostly with one parent, and 72 children living only with one parent.\nSymptoms were assessed using the popular “Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire” (SDQ), and showed that both preschool teachers and parents indicated children living mostly or only with one parent have more difficulties than those living in joint physical custody or in nuclear families.\nIn the parental estimates, there were no significant differences between children in nuclear families and joint physical custody, while preschool staff reported fewer symptoms of children in nuclear families.\nThe study is the first of its kind to show how Swedish children this young fare in joint physical custody, the researchers said. The assessments of children’s health from the preschool staff, in addition to those of the parents, is a considerable strength of the study, they noted.\nHowever, the study design does not show causality, they warned. These interpretations require knowledge of the children’s well-being and symptoms before their parents separated.\nSource: Uppsala University"}
{"content":"Antipsychotics for Schizophrenia: A Clinical Overview\nThis video lecture is a brief summary of the most recent literature on the evolving field of pharmacological treatment of schizophrenia (see references and further reading).\nIn this video I discuss the following topics:\n- Psychosis and schizophrenia. Why is psychopathology important for understanding benefits and limitations of antipsychotic therapy.\n- The latest findings about effectiveness of first and second generation antipsychotics.\n- Pharmacological treatment of cognitive symptoms in schizophrenia.\n- Goals of treatment and factors that influence prescribing.\nPart 1. Psychopathological considerations: psychosis, domains of schizophrenia and antipsychotics\nVideo length: 2:11\nPart 2. Treating positive, negative and cognitive symptoms: the role of first and second generation antipsychotics\nVideo length: 2:04\nPart 3. Goals of antipsychotic treatment & how adverse effects profiles influence prescribing\nVideo length: 2:53\nReferences and further reading\nGründer G, Hippius H, Carlsson A. The “atypicality” of antipsychotics: a concept re-examined and re-defined. Nature Rev Drug Disc 8:197-202, 2009.\nSchatzberg, AF., Cole, JO, and DeBattista, C. Manual of Clinical Psychopharmacology. 7th ed.American Psychiatric Publishing, 2010.\nJanicak, P G., S R. Marder, and M N. Pavuluri. Principles and Practice of Psychopharmacotherapy. 5th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2010.\nPDF: LAI Antipsychotics\nFree PDF Download\n- New formulations (Aristada, Invega Trinza)\n- Practical dosing tables\nEarn CME/SA credits\n- Up to 36 CME credits/year\n- Up to 16 SA credits/year\n- Download more than 70 videos\n- Exclusive updates\nFree Course: “SSRIs: The Essentials”\nLearn the essentials of SSRIs with our free online course.\nOne module per week:\n- The Mechanism of Action of SSRIs\n- Citalopram and Escitalopram\n2018 Psychopharmacology Online Update\nEarn Up to 36 CME Credits / Year\n- Access exclusive updates: new videos every month\n- Download our entire library: more than 70 videos\n- Earn up to 36 CME credits /year"}
{"content":"A community-minded, values-guided bank\nOur heritage dates back to 1935, when 24-year-old Harold Webster Smith founded the bank with $25,000 borrowed from family and friends. Then known as First Federal Savings and Loan of Waterbury, Connecticut, our purpose was to help make homeownership a realistic dream for people, and our values centered on putting people first.\nOver the years, we have expanded to become a leading regional bank in the Northeast with over $27 billion in assets and 163 banking centers from greater New York City to Boston. Today, we offer the full range of financial services, delivered by close to 3,400 employees.\nBut while we have grown, our core values have remained unchanged. We still put people first -- acting with responsibility, respect, ethical behavior, citizenship and teamwork. We call these principles The Webster Way. They bring us together, set us apart, and create an unshakeable core that is unique to Webster.\nBy following The Webster Way, we ensure that we’re living up to our customers and each other.\nThe Webster Way®\n- We take personal responsibility for meeting our customers’ needs.\n- We respect the dignity of every individual.\n- We earn trust through ethical behavior.\n- We give of ourselves in the communities we serve.\n- We work together to achieve outstanding results."}
{"content":"One of the reasons for the success and longevity of the relational model is that it is firmly grounded on mathematical principles (of linear algebra and set theory), which are well known and well documented. The (normalized) relational tables are by design organized in such a way as to promote and facilitate manipulation of data to yield meaningful information.\nRelational Algebra Secondary Operation Date Notation Select Statement Relational Assignment\nThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.\nThis is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access."}
{"content":"The Council on Foreign Relations Logo\nThe WHITE HORSE:\n-Revelations 6:2 says “And behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow. A crown was given to him, and he came forth conquering, and to conquer.”\nThe Phrase VBIQVE:\n-A Latin word found on many ancient Roman coins meaning “everywhere.”\n-Its English form is UBIQUE – the root word in English for “ubiquitous” which means present, or seeming to be present, everywhere at the same time, omnipresent.\n-(Left) The sign of admiration of the sixth degree of the Masonic lodge.\n-(Right) Napoleon Bonaparte is also depicted with the same gesture.\nIt is also very similar to the “Seig Heil” gesture of the Nazis (above). The term means hail victory. Could victory be closely related to conquering as stated in revelations?\nThe term Fascism was first used by the totalitarian right-wingnationalist regime of Mussolini in Italy (1922–43), and the regimes of the Nazis in Germany and Franco in Spain were also fascist.\nFascist flag of Italy…\nFascism tends to include a belief in the supremacy of one national or ethnic group, a contempt for democracy, an insistence on obedience to a powerful leader, and a strong demagogic approach. The Fascia represent the bundling together of the masses, ruled by the axe head. Funny how it seems to be represented everywhere today.\nLocated here on the dime…\nThe pillars of the Lincoln memorial…\nAnd don’t forget that Congress needs some decor…\n“Anyone who interprets National Socialism merely as a political movement knows almost nothing about it. It is more than religion; it is the determination to create a new man” Adolf Hitler\n– Considered a “Child of Illuminism”\n-Hated school & wanted to be an artist and this led him to Vienna where he spent hours in libraries studying astrology, yoga, occultism, hypnotism, Theosophy, mysticism, & religions of the East.\n-Admired Hegel & his philosophy (Hegalian Dialect) and after he moved to Germany he spent a lot of time in Bavaria (Adam Weishaupt’s Illuminati location)\n-Learned of the Heilige Lance (Holy Spear) at a very young age and became obsessed with the ‘Spear of Destiny’ → (The weapon that was used to pierced the side of Jesus at the crucifixion by a Roman soldier, Gaius Cassius, or Longinus; who used the spear to shorten Jesus’ agony) → He stole what he thought was the spear in 1938 and it was taken to Nuremberg.\n-Formed in 1888 by Freemason S.L. Mathers & Dr. Wynn Westcott\n-Called their masters the ‘Secret Chiefs’\n-Performed rituals of extreme negativity. This allowed vibrational synchronizations (Possessions) with lower fourth dimensional entities.\n-Believed in a Vril force\n-One of their secret signs was the pointed-arm salute of ‘Heil Hitler’"}
{"content":"Type 2 diabetes affects Chinese Americans at an alarming rate. To address this health disparity, research in the area of cultural sensitivity and health literacy provide useful guidelines for creating culturally appropriate health education. In this article, we use discourse analysis to examine a group of locally-available, Chinese and English language diabetes print documents from a surface and deep structure level of culture. First, we compared these documents to research findings about printed health information to determine if and how these documents apply current best practices for health literacy and culturally appropriate health communication. Second, we examined how diabetes as a disease and diabetes management is being constructed. The printed materials addressed surface level culture through the use of Chinese language, pictures, foods and exercises. From a deeper cultural level, the materials constructed diabetes management as a matter of measurement and control that contrasted with previous research suggesting an alternative construction of balance. A nuanced assessment of both surface and deeper levels of culture is essential for creating health education materials that are more culturally appropriate and can lead to increase health literacy and improved health outcomes.\nHo, E.Y., Tran, H., Chesla, C.A. Assessing the Cultural in Culturally Sensitive Printed Patient-Education Materials for Chinese Americans With Type 2 Diabetes. (2015) Health Communication, 30 (1), pp. 39-49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2013.835216"}
{"content":"Antiviral effect of entecavir in chronic hepatitis B: Influence of prior exposure to nucleos(t)ide analogues\nBackground & Aims: Entecavir is a potent inhibitor of viral replication in nucleos(t)ide analogue (NA)-naïve chronic hepatitis B patients, but data on the efficacy in NA-experienced subjects are limited. Methods: In a multi-center cohort study we investigated 161 chronic hepatitis B patients (34% NA-experienced) treated with entecavir monotherapy. Results: During a median follow-up of 11 (3-23) months, 82 (79%) of 104 NA-naïve patients achieved virologic response (VR), defined as HBV DNA <80 IU/ml, and none of the patients (0%) developed genotypic entecavir-resistance. VR was demonstrated in 31 (54%) of 57 NA-experienced patients during a median follow-up of 12 (3-31) months. Patients with lamivudine-resistant mutations at the start of entecavir monotherapy had a reduced probability of achieving VR compared to lamivudine-naïve patients (HR 0.14; 95% CI 0.04-0.58; p = 0.007). Antiviral efficacy was not decreased by prior treatment with lamivudine when lamivudine-resistance had never developed (HR 0.81; 95% CI 0.43-1.52; p = 0.52). Prior adefovir therapy without development of adefovir-resistance (HR 0.84; 95% CI 0.43-1.64; p = 0.61) and presence of adefovir-resistance (HR 0.86; 95% CI 0.27-2.71; p = 0.80) did not influence antiviral response to entecavir. Switching to a tenofovir-containing treatment regimen resulted in viral load decline in patients with entecavir-resistance associated mutations. Conclusions: Entecavir proved to be efficacious in NA-naïve patients. The antiviral efficacy of entecavir was not influenced by prior treatment with adefovir or presence of adefovir-resistance. Entecavir should not be used in patients with previous lamivudine-resistance, yet it may still be an option in lamivudine-experienced patients in case lamivudine-resistance never developed.\n|Keywords||Adefovir, Antiviral therapy, Entecavir, Hepatitis B, Lamivudine|\n|Persistent URL||dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhep.2010.01.012, hdl.handle.net/1765/27769|\n|Journal||Journal of Hepatology|\nReijnders, J.G.P, Deterding, K, Petersen, J, Zoulim, F, Santantonio, T, Buti, M, … Janssen, H.L.A. (2010). Antiviral effect of entecavir in chronic hepatitis B: Influence of prior exposure to nucleos(t)ide analogues. Journal of Hepatology, 52(4), 493–500. doi:10.1016/j.jhep.2010.01.012"}
{"content":"The American Heart Association has awarded a grant to NC State College of Veterinary Medicine’s Ke Cheng for research into repairing damage caused by a heart attack.\nThe $300,000 Transformational Project Award funds a three-year study from Cheng, the CVM’s professor of regenerative medicine, exploring heart failure’s impact of the reparative ability stem cells, information that can lead to more effective therapies for heart disease.\nResearch suggests that stem cells release vesicles called exosomes that jump-start reparative activity in the heart, but the effects of heart failure on exosome functions are not well studied.\nCheng’s project aims to detail loss of exosomal function in heart failure samples and determine if modulating a specific RNA molecule can restore exosome reparative function after a heart attack. That molecule, miR-21, plays a large role in the development of heart disease.\nAccording to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 600,000 people in the United States die every year from heart disease, the leading cause of death for both men and women. Every year, the CDC says, 735,000 Americans have a heart attack.\nCheng’s lab focuses on translational research in regenerative medicine through stem cells, biomaterials and micro-RNAs. His groundbreaking research at the CVM includes ways to ensure that restorative stem cells find the heart and stay in place and how nanoparticles may help repair damaged heart tissue without the use of donated or patient-derived stem cells.\nCheng, also a professor in NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill’s joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, has led a research team developing synthetic cardiac stem cells. Before arriving at NC State, he directed a lab that conducted the world’s first clinical trial using cardiac stem cells to treat heart attacks.\nThe grant funds the research project through 2021.\nKe Cheng’s BioTherapeutics Laboratory\nThis post was originally published in Veterinary Medicine News."}
{"content":"Rachel Lopez on November 21, 2017\nHR’s Role in Handling Sexual Harassment in the Workplace\nSexual harassment is an issue that plagues much of the American workplace. It’s something that companies should be diligent about preventing and know how to handle in the event that a situation arises. This ultimately falls into HR’s lap.\nAddressing it Head On\nA recent poll from YouGov found that 23 percent of U.S. adults have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. It’s likely something HR will encounter at some point. One of the first steps for handling this issue is to address it in your company’s policies.\nA formal definition eliminates any confusion. The Society for Human Resource Management defines sexual harassment as, “Unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature that is sufficiently persistent or offensive to unreasonably interfere with an employee’s job performance or create an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment.”\nMake sure to cover disciplinary actions that will ensue for violating the policies. This could include a loss of benefits, termination or even criminal penalties, depending on the nature of the offense. It’s critical that employees have a firm grasp on what constitutes sexual harassment and understand what type of behaviors are unacceptable.\nIt’s difficult to stamp out occurrences of sexual harassment completely. Therefore, establish procedures for reporting complaints so that you have thorough documentation. This will be essential for finding a resolution and for protecting your company in the event of litigation.\nSpecific information to gather includes:\n- The name of the complainant and the person accused\n- A full description of the incident including the date, location and the names of any potential witnesses\n- How the incident has adversely affected the complainant and their ability to perform their job\n- Other relevant information integral to understanding the nature of the incident\nKeep in mind that this information should be kept confidential at all times and must not be shared with anyone uninvolved with the incident.\nIt’s also up to HR to create a resolution process. In some cases, this can be done through informal means. Sometimes having a one-on-one discussion with the accused party is sufficient. HR would explain the nature of the offense and explain that the behavior won’t be tolerated. They should listen to the accused individual’s summary of the event to gain a better understanding.\nFor more serious cases involving criminal behavior, you should notify local authorities so they can launch a formal investigation. In this type of scenario, termination is usually necessary.\nSexual harassment is in direct violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and something that should be taken very seriously. Whether you have a formal HR team or simply a dedicated individual, they will need to take swift action and seek a resolution as quickly as possible. This is essential for protecting your employees and preserving your company’s reputation."}
{"content":"More often than not Nonprofits devote maximum energy and resources to raising funds. Very few of them are able to achieve their funding targets. Creating a base of loyal and engaged donors is crucial for achievement of their development goals and thus fundraising is a topic of immense interest for nonprofits.\nNonprofits continuously look for innovative ways and means of raising funds. While crowdfunding is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of raising funds, you would be surprised to know that there is more than one way of doing this. Plus they can be highly effective depending on how you put them to use.\nIn the previous article on fundraising, we talked about crowdfunding and its types. In this article, let us look at some more avenues of raising funds.\nI. Through Individual Philanthropists\nPhilanthropic funding from private individuals recorded a sixfold increase in recent years: approximately INR 36,000 crore in 2016, up from approximately INR 6,000 crore in 2011. The number of people who have volunteered their time and money between 2009 and 2015 has also increased, up 2 times and 1.5 times, respectively. (Source: Bain Philanthropy Report 2017)\nIndividual donations are the most cost-effective way of raising funds. Pro tip: A simple, well-planned email campaign and an attractive webpage can go a long way in attracting donors. But the flip side here is, you don’t know whether they will come back and donate again. One-off donations will certainly cover your immediate expenses but they don’t come handy in planning long-term goals.\nHaving monthly donors on your patron list will help you plan various programs and development activities for your nonprofit well in advance. Take for example Greenpeace or GiveIndia. They urge their donors to set aside a small monthly or quarterly amount that guarantees a fixed and predictable stream of funds .However this activity needs a dedicated donor acquisition team separate from the operations team to administer, manage and nurture your donors.\nII. Through Events\nEvents are a great way of intimately engaging with your donors. Through events, donors get to be a part of your organisation, interact with your staff and members of your target communities.\nThere are different types of events which you can engage in to promote your cause and your community.\n- Runs and walks where participants pay a certain set amount to enter but also are encouraged to obtain other donations from friends, family, and colleagues. Eg: Pinkathon, The 10k Swacch Bharat Run by Lets Feed India\n- Dinners that might include a speaker, live and silent auctions, and other ways to earn money from the event.\n- Corporate actives like the Joy of Giving Week that has corporate donors come together and raise money for NGOs in the city.\nWhile events are highly effective, the sheer effort required to set up and manage an event demands a dedicated team of people to monitor it, promote it and indulge in post event campaigns.\nIII. Through Earned Income\nNonprofits and NGOs are often involved in small scale, cottage industries that provide a means of livelihood to the community that they are working for. Partner with organizers of events that focus on creating an impact by selling products made by indigenous artisans. Mitti, an event in Navi Mumbai, promotes indigenous artisans by displaying and selling their art and crafts. Rangsutra, an apparel brand, is a community owned business of 3000 artisans of which 2,200 are direct shareholders in the company.\nThis can prove to be an effective way of raising sufficient funds if you are able to make enough sales. Events are one-off and you will have to establish a distribution channel to create a market demand for your products. This will require a sales strategy and a sales team. Tying up with retail stores or e-commerce platforms is crucial to generate revenue and brand recognition.\nIV. Through Annual Appeal\nAnnual appeal is the donation given without any restriction on what it is used for. This type of fundraising generally takes place at the end of the financial year where nonprofits appeal to their donors by sharing their asset development plans for the next year. These funds are utilised for bigger projects like building a library for children, building water tanks in rural areas or starting a new ward for children in a rural hospital.\nThinksharp Foundation, opted for this method of fundraising to build study malls in rural areas.\nIn this, you can only appeal to your stakeholders to make a donation, but it cannot be a dependable option to raise funds. You may use this method in addition to your major fundraising activities, to raise a part of funds that the other sources couldn’t raise.\nFundraising is an important aspect of every nonprofit, but it is necessary to understand your strengths and limitations before you plan your mode of raising funds. While individual donations cannot be ruled out completely, having a steady group of regular and supportive donors always goes a long way in sustaining your cause.\nCover Image: The Ice Bucket Challenge, sometimes called the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, is an activity involving the dumping of a bucket of ice and water over a person’s head, either by another person or self-administered, to promote awareness of the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as motor neurone disease and in the US as Lou Gehrig‘s disease) and encourage donations to research."}
{"content":"Have you come to the realization that there are some children who learn differently and one of them lives in your house? Fairly early on in my parenting journey, I realized that my path was not going to be like the paths I saw other people walking. Each year as I learned more and more about my daughter, I realized that our life together was different. Not better, not worse, but simply different. This was evident in many ways, including how she learned best.\nThe past ten years have been a journey of seeking to understand her unique personality, learning style, strengths, weaknesses, and needs. In the process, I’ve learned so much! And I want to share that information with other parents who are also trying to understand their child.\nIn this series, we explored the world of children who learn differently. The series included a wide variety of posts from different angles, guest authors, and a variety of perspectives. Some posts are lengthy and meaty. Some are brief. Some are funny. Some are serious. Some reflect my Christian faith. Some focus on homeschooling. Some are for all families regardless of education approach. Some tackle different learning struggles. Some focus on personality issues. But all of them are about successfully parenting children who learn differently.\nI hope you find much in this series that will encourage you on your parenting journey! Enjoy!\nChoosing a Homeschool Approach – Understand Your Child First!Adjusting Expectations as the Parent of a Gifted ChildRaising and Embracing Your Spirited ChildThe Need for More Margin in Families with Gifted ChildrenWhen People Call Your Child Your IdolMy Child Hates Busy Bags (and Other Gifted Child Realities)Gifted Children Who Don’t Fit Grade Level ParametersParenting and Homeschooling as an IntrovertIdentifying and Understanding the Red Zone with Your Spirited ChildGetting Spirited Children to Sleep and Related ChallengesLiving Simply with a Gifted ChildRaising a Spirited Child and Feeling Like a Bad MotherGifted Children and Transitions5 Tips for Homeschooling a Gifted Child6 Reasons Why We Changed Our Mind and Stopped SpankingParenting, Personality and Learning DifferencesThe Joys of a Gifted ChildHow Understanding Personality Types Can Improve Your Parent-Child RelationshipsAdapting Curriculum to Fit Your Active Child’s NeedsParenting an Introverted ChildResources for Parents of Children Who Learn DifferentlyFrom Chaos to Computer Science – Homeschooling a Very ADHD Son103 Ways to Learn from Experienced HomeschoolersThe Gift of Asperger’sRelationship Homeschooling and Your Differently-Wired ChildDealing with Perfectionism in Our ChildrenEncouragement for Parents of Differently-Wired ChildrenWords of Encouragement for ParentsExperienced Parents of Differently-Wired Kids Share Their Insights"}
{"content":"Orginal Publication Date\nExplorations in Sights and Sounds\nThis volume is the long-awaited supplement to Francis Paul Prucha's Bibliographical Guide to the History of Indian-White Relations in the United States, published by the University of Chicago Press in 1977. That work, which contained 9705 items, was complete to 1975. The supplement, with 3400 titles, covers the historical literature made available between 1975 and 1980. Organized into fifteen subject divisions and excellently cross-referenced with a thirty-six page index, the supplement continues the same high quality of Prucha's previous efforts to bring some useable order to the bewildering complexity of American Indian historiography.\nCopyright, ©EES, The National Association for Ethnic Studies, 1983"}
{"content":"Applied and Environmental Microbiology\nThe Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) receives organic carbon (OC) of anthropogenic origin, including pesticides, from the atmosphere and/or local sources, and the fate of these compounds in the ice is currently unknown. The ability of supraglacial heterotrophic microbes to mineralize different types of OC is likely a significant factor determining the fate of anthropogenic OC on the ice sheet. Here we determine the potential of the microbial community from the surface of the GrIS to mineralize the widely used herbicide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). Surface ice cores were collected and incubated for up to 529 days in microcosms simulating in situ conditions. Mineralization of side chain- and ring-labeled [C-14]2,4-D was measured in the samples, and quantitative PCR targeting the tfdA genes in total DNA extracted from the ice after the experiment was performed. We show that the supraglacial microbial community on the GrIS contains microbes that are capable of degrading 2,4-D and that they are likely present in very low numbers. They can mineralize 2,4-D at a rate of up to 1 nmol per m(2) per day, equivalent to similar to 26 ng C m(-2) day(-1). Thus, the GrIS should not be considered a mere reservoir of all atmospheric contaminants, as it is likely that some deposited compounds will be removed from the system via biodegradation processes before their potential release due to the accelerated melting of the ice sheet."}
{"content":"Open Access Graduate Research Paper\nScience--Study and teaching (Middle school)--Standards--Iowa; Science teachers--Training of--Iowa;\nA major shift in science education has occurred in the state of Iowa and it involves the adoption of performance expectations from the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) standards. The new curriculum demanded by NGSS will instigate a learning shift for science teachers in Iowa. They must re-format lessons and assessments to encompass their target NGSS standards. This creative component has analyzed six targeted NGSS performance standards and has developed high quality summative authentic assessments correlated to the targeted NGSS standards.\nYear of Submission\nMaster of Arts in Education\nScience Education Program\n1 PDF file (63 pages)\n©2016 Nick Bushkofsky\nBushkofsky, Nick, \"Developing authentic summative assessments that correlate to the Next Generation Science Standards for a middle school science classroom\" (2016). Graduate Research Papers. 110."}
{"content":"Firstly, thank you very much to Scottish Mum for letting me guest post on her blog.\nI wanted to write something relevant to her readers and I wasn’t sure which route to go down. However, I was listening to a debate on a radio show the other day about adoption and the lengthy process it has become and how this in itself is causing more potential trauma to children in care and I thought this seemed a good topic.\nAccording the BAAF statistics, from April 2010 to March 2011, there were 3660 children under the age of 1 in care. Yet, only 60 babies under 1 were adopted in the same period. The average age of a child at adoption is 3 years and 10 months. To me, this seems rather old to have such a massive change of circumstance. They will have started at nursery and be not far off starting school by that age. If children were placed earlier in their lives, surely there would be less risk of them being scarred mentally by the whole process.\nWhilst the adoption process is long for prospective adoptive parents, it needs to be, to ensure that the right number of checks have been carried out, and steps taken to prepare those wanting to adopt. However, the court process to get a child into an adoptive family is what seems to hold the process up. The reason for this is that the court puts the mothers needs above that of the baby. Whilst this is reasonable (they might be able to look after their children once they have dealt with issues), what kind of impact is it having on the child? What, I thought, about the babies born to drug users who are unable to look after their baby? Well, it appears that the interest of the mother comes first in these cases too. The courts will keep the baby with the mother (or in foster care) whilst the mother sees if she can ‘get clean’.\nNow I may be cynical but, having worked with drug users (and previously covered the topic on my blog here), I have never once met someone addicted to drugs who didn’t put the next hit before everything else in their lives (however much they insist otherwise). So should the interests of these babies not be taken into account? They have potentially already had a rough start in life, like many babies born to drug users, they might have already had to withdraw from the drugs passed to them in the womb by their mother. How many times does a baby or toddler need to be taken into care whilst the mother ‘gets clean’ and is then returned to the mother only to be taken back into care when she falls foul to addiction again?\nResearch by Drugscope back in 2003 suggested that there were between 250,000 and 350,000 children born to drug misusing parents. With the numbers of drug users rising year on year, the number of children affected is increasing. The only way to stop this, is to offer effective, realistic treatment to the parents.\nI am absolutely not advocating snatching babies from drug users as soon as they are born, but maybe the balance needs to sway towards what is best for the baby. The first three years of their lives are so valuable in how they are shaped as individuals and how they judge the world in the future.\n@helpfulmum from You”re Not From Round Here"}
{"content":"A person can have the great idea, but if that person cannot convince a number of people: the idea dies.\nGood ideas do die. Good ideas must have good advocates. Good advocacy and good idea makes an idea live.\nIdeas need advocates like humans need oxygen.\nThe Leader as Communicator\nThe Leader’s #1 job as a communicator: to discover why people believe the things they do.\nWife says “I don’t like this type of movie.” Husband says “Yes you do.” Wife learns: he is an idiot.\nWife says “I don’t like this type of movie.” Husband says “I understand you don’t like this type of movie. What type of movies do you like? What do they have in common? What do you feel when you see those movies? What do you feel when you watch this movie?”. Wife shares. Husband learns.\nProving to somebody that they are wrong is not…\nView original post 206 more words"}
{"content":"Air Truck Provides Life-Saving Support for Firefighters\nOne of the most useful vehicles owned by fire departments nationwide doesn’t pump a gallon of water. Instead, the truck provides clean, breathable air to firefighters, an important commodity to someone charging into a searing building billowing with smoke.\n“Firefighting is inherently dangerous and having a reliable supply of clean air allows us to perform in extremely hostile conditions,” said Capt. Ken Kuykendall of the Folsom Fire Department in California’s Central Valley.\nFilling and storing the Self-Contained Breathing Apparatuses (S.C.B.A.) firefighters strap to their backs is the primary function of the 76,000-pound behemoth known simply as the “air truck.”\nThe air truck also serves as a base of operations for rescuing someone trapped in a confined space and stores a variety of tools powered by the vehicle’s massive air compressor. The specialty vehicle has been an integral piece of machinery for one California town.\n“We send it out at least once a week and neighboring departments request to use it on a monthly basis,” said Bill Woodward, a firefighter/medic for Folsom Fire Department in Northern California.\nThe rig sits atop a commercial chassis built by International Trucks in 2009. Specialized equipment was installed by Pierce Manufacturing in Appleton of Wisconsin, which customizes vehicles for fire departments across the country.\nThe soul of the truck–a 40,000-watt Lima MAC generator–powers the air compressor, remote filling station and an extendable tower with six lights for nighttime operations.\n“We can turn night into day,” said Capt. Chad Wilson, who coordinated with Pierce Manufacturing on the specifics of the truck’s design for the Folsom Fire Department.\nThe truck's 6,000 psi air compressor fills up to four cylinders simultaneously at the firehouse or at an emergency scene. The refill process takes place at the back of a truck in a contraption reminiscent of the “Ghostbusters.”\nA hinged door made of half-inch thick steel tilts open to reveal a space for the cylinders. The reinforced compartments provide safety to firefighters and bystanders in case a tank suddenly bursts during charging.\nA tank can be filled in a matter of minutes, Woodward said, and firefighters are careful not to rush the process. Compressed air expands once inside the tank, so firefighters perform the process cautiously.\n“Rushing to fill up a tank can easily lead to disaster,” Woodward said.\nProviding further safeguards is a system of sensors and gauges to monitor the air filling the tanks for carbon monoxide or oil.\n“If it senses oil or carbon monoxide going into the tank, it automatically shuts off,” Woodward said.\nBoth sides of the truck offer anchor points for ropes when firefighters need to rescue someone. Such a feature is more useful than a traditional winch, Woodward said, because of the reduced risk of injuring a trapped person.\nThe truck includes a 150-foot hose capable of delivering compressed air to tools firefighters need during confined space rescues.\nFast facts about the air truck:\n- Vehicle type: 2009 International Truck (chassis); specialized add-ons crafted by Piece Manufacturing\n- Vehicle weight: 76,000 pounds\n- Specialized equipment: 4,000 watt air compressor and 40,000 watt generator.\nArticle by Jordan Guinn, a writer for Sensible Driver. Contact Jordan at email@example.com."}
{"content":"Recently, I unrolled an old poster that I’ve kept in various closets since Gerald Ford was President. I remember when I bought it long ago I was impressed by the novelty of how all of the buildings in the Downtown San Francisco area had been drawn into it. If you can zoom in on it close there’s a lot of interesting things to see on the difference between San Francisco today and in 1974. At the lower right near the Ferry Building is the Vaillancourt Fountain in Justin Herman Plaza. Notice that only two buildings of the Embarcadero Center had been built then. The Embarcadero Freeway can be seen. Moving along Market Street from the Ferry Building so many new buildings have gone up in Downtown San Francisco since then. The Bank of America Building and the Transamerica Pyramid, the two tallest buildings back then, can be seen. Union Square was mostly covered by grass. The old Belt Line railroad still ran along the Embarcadero to Fisherman’s Wharf. Major tourist attractions like Coit Tower and Lombard Street are easily found, and to the right of Fisherman’s Wharf Pier 43 with the Balclutha docked to it was still there. Pier 39 had not been turned into a tourist attraction yet.\nTurk, Mason and Market Streets after the 1906 Earthquake and Fire:\nSutter Street between Powell and Stockton Streets in the early 1950’s:\nGrant Avenue at California Street during World War Two with Old St. Mary’s Church on the right:\nDowntown San Francisco during the 1906 Earthquake and Fire:\nIt always amazes me that Charlie Chaplin stumbled down these exact steps on Alice Street in Oakland one hundred and three years ago in his movie short ‘A Night Out’ from 1915.\nCalifornia and Powell Streets during the 1950’s:\nGrant Avenue at Filbert Street in the 1952 movie ‘The Sniper’:\nHumphrey Bogart on Hyde Street at Greenwich in the 1947 film ‘Dark Passage’:\nThe Cliff House from Sutro Heights in 1949: Actually, you can barely see the famous restaurant from here anymore because of the overgrown trees.\nPowell Street at O’Farrell Street during the 1950’s:"}
{"content":"The only thing constant in the world is change. However, change can either be for the better or for the worse. Cartoons have certainly changed from what they were in the 1980's to what they are today. Sadly most of the changes are for the worse. Let us examine the differences.\nDespite modern technology improving animation, many cartoons now are drawn very crudely and look like they were drawn by preschoolers. Compare the animation of Voltron, Mask, Thundercats and Transformers to Spongebob Squarepants, Ed, Edd and Eddy and Cow and Chicken. The people back then were drawn in detail and looked like real people not look like bugs or deformed human beings.\nCartoons back then were more violent. Look at G.I. Joe and Transformers. Plenty of weapons and firepower displayed in the cartoons. Also, He-Man, Bravestarr and She-Ra had plenty of fight scenes. Cartoons nowadays unless they are superhero cartoons have minimal violence.\nCartoons such as He-Man, She-Ra and Bravestarr taught moral values and these were reinforced at the end of each episode. The hero discusses what they have learned during the episode. Cartoons nowadays seldomly teach people any moral values. What do your kids learn out of watching Cow and Chicken eat pork butts and taters? What do your kids learn by watching Spongebob and Patrick act like a bunch of homosexual men? What do your kids learn by seeing Johnny Bravo treat women like sex objects?\nCartoons back then told a real story. They told stories of friendship, heroism, love, pursuit of knowledge. Most cartoons now are practically pointless. I mean you have you have the protagonist of the show, Johnny Bravo act macho and narcissistic and ends up being rejected by women. You have Spongebob frying burgers and chasing jellyfish. You have Ed, Edd and Eddy act retarded and get into trouble."}
{"content":"Special Introductory Price; £9.99\nThe First World War tore apart the early\ntwentieth century. Both terrible and terrifying, it banished misplaced optimism\nthat war on such an unconscionable scale could never occur. A century after the\nguns fell silent on the Western Front, its scars continue to shape our modern\nidea of remembrance.\nAs the national museum of arms and armour, the Royal Armouries brings a unique perspective to studies of the Great War. Stumbling Towards Victory contains photographs – many previously unpublished – from the museum archives, all of which were taken in the last twelve months of the war. Amidst the haunting emptiness of broken ground and shattered trees, these images convey the horror, and hope, of that final cataclysmic year.\nPublished to coincide with the First World War centenary commemorations, Stumbling Towards Victory illustrates the final months of a global conflagration that was nothing less than an armageddon for the ages.\nRelease Date: 13 April 2018"}
{"content":"New York City Department of Education\nARIS Parent Link\nCommon Core Library\nCommon Core Learning Standards (Literacy)\nCommon Core Learning Standards (Math)\nNew York City Scope and Sequence for Science K-8\nNew York City Scope and Sequence for Social Studies K-8\nGoogle Calendar (Android / iOS ) This handy app makes it easy to sync up any Google Calendar to your tablet or phone."}
{"content":"Whether the business you lead is at the forefront of new technology or you’re looking to harness the power of tech to reach more customers, updating your images doesn’t require a huge amount of electronics or multiple software packages. Take a standard, flat picture and turn up the tech with a technological-look makeover in Adobe Photoshop. The options for tech tweaking in Photoshop are endless. You’ll find several ways to go from low profile to high tech through Photoshop’s colors, filters and merging ability.\nClick the Photoshop “File” menu and select “Open.” Browse to the image you want to look technological as well as a tech-type picture, such as a keyboard or cell phone. Press and hold down the “Ctrl” key and click both images to highlight them. Click the “Open” button. If the pictures aren’t in the same location, browse to each individually and double-click them to open them.\nDesignate one image as the main picture to which you'll add a technological look. Click the other picture to bring it to the forefront of the Photoshop workspace. Click the “Select” menu and click “All.” Press “Ctrl-C” to copy the image.\nClick back to the main picture. Press “Ctrl-V” to paste in the copied tech picture. Depending on the image’s dimensions, it may now completely obscure your main picture, but this is part of the process.\nCheck the “Layers” tab. Note a new Layer 1 above the main image. Click on it to select it.\nClick the “Opacity” slider bar, which is set at 100 percent by default. Slide the bar to approximately 70 percent. Notice how the main image now has the tech image on top of it as a type of gauzy, half-visible overlay. Experiment with the “Opacity” slider until the image has your preferred look, such as an executive’s face with just the slightest hint of keyboard keys overlaying his features.\nRight-click \"Layer 1\" and select “Merge Down.” The two images now become one so that you can work with them together.\nClick the “Filter” menu. Click “Stylize.” Choose “Glowing Edges” from the fly-out menu.\nReview Photoshop’s quick conversion of the image to a fiber-optic neon look. If you like this view, click the “OK” button. Otherwise, experiment with the “Edge Width,” “Edge Brightness” and “Smoothness” slider bars to customize the technological look. Click “OK” when satisfied to return to the transformed image.\nSelect the “Magnetic Lasso Tool” on the tool collection. If you don’t see this tool, right-click a small icon of a lasso near the top of the tool collection and choose “Magnetic Lasso Tool” from the fly-out menu.\nPress and hold down the left mouse button, dragging around an object such as a computer screen or a person until it is selected. Note that the tool will “stick” to the borders or edges of the object to give you a clearer, crisper selection.\nClick the “Image” menu. Click “Adjustments” and choose “Vibrance” from the fly-out menu.\nMove the “Vibrance” and “Saturation” sliders all the way to the right. Note how the selected area takes on a neon glow. Experiment with the sliders until you are satisfied and then click the “OK” button to close the “Vibrance” window.\nClick the “File” menu. Click “Save As.” Give the altered photo a new name so as not to overwrite the original picture. Click the “Save” button.\n- Digital Vision./Digital Vision/Getty Images"}
{"content":"In the future, new mindsets will dominate, new business opportunities will arise and so will the necessity to be able to navigate in the technology landscape in order to avoid the critical inflection point.\nThe 4th Industrial Revolution is triggered by technology, but what it will actually change are our business models, our organisations and the way we work and live.\nThis disruptive pressure needs to be brought to the attention of business owners and decision makers within the manufacturing industry, and therefore, Smart Industry Forum exists. Thus;\nThe purpose of Smart Industry Forum is to inspire, inform and assist decision makers in the manufacturing industry along the challenging Smart Industry migration journey in an increasingly globalised world.\nSmart Industry Forum believes in;\nAcknowledging the burning platform caused by globalisation, digital transformation and the 4th industrial revolution\nThe 4th industrial revolution is mainly based on digital transformation, automation and on new innovations. Combined with the continuing and rapid globalization of our society and economies, we will have to reconsider everything about life as we know it.\nActing on change\nDigital transformation has already hit some industries hard. This disruption will not only impact the way we listen to music, travel or do our banking – it will also change manufacturing, and we need to act on this before it is too late.\nEmbracing challenges and seeing new opportunities\nDigital transformation presents great risk for manufacturing companies but even greater opportunities.\nSmart Industry or Industry 4.0 is the future, and Smart Industry Forum exists to inform and inspire businesses to see the need for and the potential within digitization, (I)IoT, smart manufacturing, machine automation etc.\nBeing updated on the latest news and trends\nOperation is important but development is essential, and therefore, constantly staying updated on trends and industry development is a main focus for us. Smart Industry Forum provides the latest news and knowledge on ideas, tendencies and innovations.\nThe power of the network\nThe digitisation journey will be tough for lone wolves. In Smart Industry Forum, we believe in sharing experiences, providing knowledge on trends and learning from best practice examples. Furthermore, we are passionate about open standards."}
{"content":"The University of Warwick in Great Britain conducted a study of 3,968 men and 4,821 women, who took part in what came to be known as the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA).\nThe ELSA produced some interesting results for adults over the age of 50. For instance, among participants aged 50 to 64, short nighttime sleep (fewer than six hours) or longer nighttime sleep (more than eight hours) both resulted in test scores showing lowered brain functioning.\nHowever, among the 65- to 89-year-old participants, reduced brain functioning occurred only in those who slept more than eight hours, not in those who slept less.\nWhat we can draw from this is perhaps not altogether conclusive, other than the fact that all of us need at least six to eight hours of sleep a night, and that we should neither shortchange nor overdo the amount of sleep required for healthy brain (and overall bodily) functioning.\nPoor sleep at all ages has been associated with obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart problems and stroke, especially if the poor sleep originates from a sleep disorder such as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), which is characterized by repeated cessation of breathing throughout the night.\nAccording to many research studies, sleep plays two important roles in memory. First, without sound sleep, it is hard to focus in the daytime and therefore to absorb what is being taught or what is being experienced. Second, poor sleep at night obstructs the consolidation of the day’s activities — thus memory.\nScientists aren’t exactly sure — or agree — how sleep enhances memory, but it appears to involve the brain’s hippocampus and neocortex — the part of the brain where long-term memories are stored. It is thought that, during sleep, the hippocampus replays the events of the day for the neocortex, which reviews and processes memories, helping them endure for the long term.\nAt any rate, the bottom line is ensuring you sleep soundly at night. If you have difficulties sleeping — or difficulties performing well and focusing in the daytime — then you need to get back on the proper sleep track. If by adopting sound sleep-hygiene methods you still can’t get a good night’s sleep, then it’s time to seek out the professionals."}
{"content":"The Grand Challenge of Carbon Capture and Sequestration\nEven with the wealth of experience already in place within the oil and gas industry, the obstacles to advancing CCS to the forefront of greenhouse gas mitigation technologies remain significant.\nCase Study: Design of Injection Facilities for CO2 Recovery\nA pilot project demonstrates that facilities design plays an important role in providing sources of CO2 for the gas-handling process for injection into a carbonate formation as a tertiary recovery mechanism.\nThe Effect of CO2 Injection on Corrosion and Integrity of Facilities\nThe paper discusses the main factors affecting CO2 corrosion, provides an assessment of what to look for in major equipment, and details recommended material of construction and corrosion mitigation/control methods.\nGalvanizing Stakeholder Support for Carbon Capture and Storage\nCollaboration is critical to achieving recognition of the scope and value of carbon capture and storage and achieving acceptance for specific projects.\nCombining Gas-to-Wire Technology With Carbon Capture and Storage\nNatural gas, coupled with carbon capture and storage (CCS), could provide cheap and reliable energy in the long term and mitigate climate change. Gas-to-wire (GTW) generates electricity from natural gas at or near the field. This study applies an integrated GTW/CCS scheme to a gas-production field.\nSurface-Facilities Design for First CO2 EOR Project in Saudi Arabia\nA demonstration project of carbon capture, utilization, and storage through enhanced oil recovery was conducted in Saudi Arabia. Surface facilities for such projects are expensive to build and involve tradeoffs in options based on economics for a given set of conditions.\nMoving Away From Our “Eiffel Tower” Approach to Offshore Processing Equipment\nWe don’t include a structure like the Eiffel Tower with separators, pumps, and compressors on the top observation platform in an onshore development plan. And yet, how many jacket platforms are there around the world?\nHigh-Voltage Subsea Pump Enables Low-Cost Boosting\nSubsea pumps are used for gas/liquid separation, subsea compression, and subsea boosting. Solutions aiming at cost reductions are crucial to make subsea processing projects feasible. A cost- and complexity-reduction solution for the subsea electrical power supply is a critical consideration.\nSelecting the Right Subsea Pump for Your Application\nOperator or manufacturer’s reports and published papers are reviewed and a criterion is developed for subsea pump selection.\nSubsea High-Boosting Multiphase Pumps Increase Oil Recovery in Aging Field (Includes presentation slides)\nProduction from an offshore Angola field has been decreasing because of subsea pressure declines amid water-cut increases and limited gas compressor capacity. The development process leading to the selection of high-boosting multiphase pumps is described.\nExecuting Offshore Projects More Efficiently\nOffshore project execution enhancement ideas are highlighted for debottlenecking, gas-hydrate-induced pipeline vibration, and the design of subsea systems for efficient startup.\nProduced-Water Debottlenecking Improves Offshore Production\nAn operator in the western Gulf of Thailand retrofit two partial-processing water-management systems on mobile-offshore-production-unit platforms for bulk removal and treatment of produced water. Water debottlenecking increased oil production by 80% and reduced the infield transfer volume by 62%. Th\nDesigning Subsea Systems for Efficient Startup To Mitigate Topside Downtime\nThe workflow aims to reduce the startup time of a subsea production system (SPS). A dynamic integrated model is used to adjust the scheduled SPS startup time. The model evaluates the dynamic simulation response of a large field startup by integrating a reservoir- and gathering-network model.\nHydrate-Induced Vibration in an Offshore Pipeline\nA computational fluid dynamics model is proposed to analyze the effect of hydrate flow in pipelines using multiphase-flow-modeling techniques. The results will identify the cause of pipeline failure, regions of maximum stress in the pipeline, and plastic deformation of the pipeline.\nSocial Performance Indicators Evolve in Update to Sustainability Reporting Guide\nThe Oil & Gas Industry Guidance on Voluntary Sustainability Reporting acts as a framework for improving the quality and consistency of voluntary sustainability reporting. This paper discusses the most recent update to the guide, and offers an overview of the discussed social performance indicators.\nSelected Papers From OnePetro: Your Source for E&P Technical Knowledge\nWith these synopses of technical papers from OnePetro you can join the author for conferences in Kuala Lumpur, New Orleans, and Lagos, all while sitting in your chairs and without any travel expenses.\nImproving Gas Dehydration With Preinhibited Glycol\nThe paper discusses dehydration performance of two units in two plants—with preinhibited glycol/antifoam/pH adjuster blend vs. neat glycol with periodic injection of antifoam and pH-adjuster inhibitors. The insights present an opportunity for significant operating and capital costs reduction.\nLocalized Pitting Corrosion of Superduplex Stainless Steel in a Seawater Application\nDuring the dismantling and removal of fire-water-pump columns of superduplex stainless steel barely 1 year after plant startup in a redeveloped brownfield offshore Nigeria severe localized pitting corrosion was observed in the columns. This paper explores the findings and identifies the reasons.\nGetting Ahead of the Curve—Front-End Loading HSE in Major Projects\nA proactive approach with EPC contract bidders to front-end load HSE strategies will pay dividends. This paper discusses the HSE management strategy for the Lake Charles Liquefied Natural Gas project.\nCollaborative Tool Helps Companies Plan Decommissioning, Share Lessons Learned\nDecom North Sea has developed the Late Life Planning Portal system, a web-based information portal, to capture tools that add value as well as good practices and lessons learned from the execution of decommissioning projects.\nIntegrating Decision Support Models With Value Attributes for Platform Decommissioning\nUsing decision analysis as a software tool helps to clarify and evaluate decommissioning alternatives against a comprehensive set of objectives, including both market and nonmarket values.\nPlanning and Estimating Costs for Field Decommissioning in Brazil\nThis paper aims to develop a Brazilian baseline for front-end planning and cost estimation of the decommissioning, removal, and disposal options.\nDecommissioning To Become Big Business\nWhether you are involved in the design and construction of new facilities or the decommissioning of existing facilities, having a solid understanding of decom makes a lot of sense. Are you ready as all around the world offshore facilities have reached, or are reaching, the end of their design life?\nArctic Pipeline Route Selection\nTo reduce the risks to arctic pipelines from natural or geologic hazards, a more sophisticated approach to routing compared to traditional methods based on only the shortest length of pipe or connectivity to existing infrastructure is needed.\nConcept for Ice-Resistant Offshore Terminal for Arctic LNG Export\nCost and delivery of long-distance natural gas pipelines to a distant liquefaction facility at a warm-water port has become excessive, and environmental restraints have been increasing. An alternative is an offshore ice-resistant LNG port accommodating a new class of LNG transport vessels.\nDesign Tools for Arctic Subsea Pipelines\nAs the design methodologies evolve for arctic pipelines, strudel scour, permafrost thaw settlement, and ice gouging need to be factored in with environmental and geotechnical data, limit states, and trenching and backfilling activities.\nTaking on the Arctic With New Concepts\nNew approaches to arctic activities include a concept for an offshore ice-resistant LNG export terminal, the design of subsea pipelines, and the optimal routing for the pipelines to mitigate the unique risks in arctic regions such as ice-gouging and permafrost thaw.\nCompact, Efficient Heat Exchanger Based on Packed Beds of Nanoparticle-Doped Spheres\nIn this work, the authors demonstrate at a laboratory scale the possibility of using a radio-frequency heating system as a heat exchanger.\nNanotechnology for Oilfield Applications: Challenges and Effects\nThis paper presents a critical review of the recent literature to determine the status of research and development and field application of nanotechnology in the oil field.\nOil-Droplet Removal From Produced Water by Use of Nanoparticles\nMagnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) is a promising way to remove dispersed oil from produced water. In this study, the authors investigated the optimal operating conditions for MNPs and the mechanisms of MNP/oil attachments and magnetic separation.\nNanotechnology Advances in the Oil Field\nAs practitioners we don’t always convey that the oil and gas industry is at the forefront of many different technologies, but we should, if only because it can be a real selling point to attract young people to our industry. In that spirit, I selected three papers that deal with nanotechnology.\nFour Generations of Fire- and Blast-Resistant Walls on Offshore Installations\nFour types of fire- and blast-resistant walls for offshore installations are assessed, including internal vs. external fire and blast walls.\nFire Protection on Offshore Platforms\nWhenever we design an oil and gas facility, the safety of the operating staff is of paramount importance. At last year’s Offshore Technology Conference, three papers presented information on a critical safety feature: fire protection on offshore installations.\nPassive-Fire-Protection Optimization in Offshore Topside Structures\nApplying sufficient passive fire protection (PFP) on topside structural-steel members is critical. Simplified and conservative approaches are available to estimate the extent and amount of PFP necessary.\nThree-Sided Passive Fire Protection on Steel-Beam Decks for Offshore Installations\nThis study presents an overview of the structural response and failure mechanism of three-sided protected beams and proposes design solutions.\nCorrosion and Scaling\nIn this first selection are papers dealing with scaling and corrosion, topics that affect all of us involved with oil and gas facilities. Early in my career I worked in corrosion, only to discover that without keeping scaling and corrosion in mind, it is impossible to be a good facilities engineer.\nThe Importance of Inhibitor Analysis in Scale Management—An Overview\nThe accurate and precise analysis of scale inhibitors—in conjunction with other field data such as ion analysis, total suspended solids, and productivity index—plays an important role in making decisions about the efficiency of scale squeeze and continuous chemical injection treatments.\nUse of Preservation Chemicals Following Hydrostatic Testing of Pipelines\nThis paper considers some of the challenges and learnings associated with the application of chemicals for preservation of coated pipe/flowline for a major liquefied-natural-gas (LNG) project in Australia.\nOilfield-Corrosion-Failure Analysis: Lessons Learned From Pitting Morphologies\nIdentifying the type of corrosion is the first step in the analysis and prevention of corrosion-related failures. Visual inspection of the pit morphology can provide insights into the type of corrosion that is occurring.\nDon't miss out on the latest technology delivered to your email every two weeks. Sign up for the OGF newsletter. If you are not logged in, you will receive a confirmation email that you will need to click on to confirm you want to receive the newsletter.\n12 September 2018\n29 August 2018\n05 September 2018\n07 September 2018"}
{"content":"In a resolution approved unanimously on Monday, officials in Dent County, Missouri, voted to observe a year of \"mourning\" in response to the Supreme Court's ruling on same-sex marriage.\nThe proposal will lower the flags at the county court house and judiciary building to below half-staff once a month for the next year. This also happens to be where couples obtain marriage licenses. Dent County's Recorder of Deeds Cindy Ard told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that, so far, one couple has applied for a license with the county.\nIn contrast to officials like Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Dent County Commissioner Darrell Skiles, who wrote the resolution by hand, acknowledges his legal obligation to uphold the law, writing:\nToday we as elected officials have no choice but to conduct business in accordance with established law. We do not possess the luxury of cherry picking which laws we agree with and choose to uphold and which laws we choose to reject and ignore.\nThe resolution continues:\nBut! We can express our strong disapproval of blatant judicial overreach. […] May all who see these flags at this lowered position be reminded of this despicable Supreme Court travesty.\n“I just want anybody who sees that to be reminded we find it revolting that the Supreme Court has ruled in this manner,” Skiles told BuzzFeed.\nA petition started by a Dent County resident who opposes the resolution is also making the rounds.\nFrom the petition:\nThe act of lowering the American flag from full height has long been a way for communities to mourn local and national tragedies. To compare the Supreme Court ruling on homosexual marriage rights to those tragedies in any way is an insult to both the tragedies that have been previously mourned in this manner and the basic principles of government under which the United States operates that led to this court decision, not to mention those personally affected by the ruling.\n“Even if this doesn’t change their minds, I wanted it out there that we’re not all a bunch of closed-minded individuals mourning the Supreme Court decision,” Alex Sellers, who started the petition, told the Post-Dispatch. “This is not just a backward place. There’s another side of this.”"}
{"content":"Turns script debugging features on and off.\nSyntax Set-PSDebug [-trace int] [-step] [-strict] [CommonParameters] Set-PSDebug [-off] [CommonParameters] Key -trace int Set the trace level: 0 - Off 1 - trace script lines as they are executed 2 - trace script lines, variable assignments, function calls and scripts. -step Turn on script stepping. Before each line is run, PowerShell will prompt to stop, continue or enter a new interpreter level to inspect the state of the script. (Step automatically sets Trace =1) -strict Throw an exception if a variable is referenced before being assigned a value. -off Turn off all debugging features. CommonParameters: -Verbose, -Debug, -ErrorAction, -ErrorVariable, -WarningAction, -WarningVariable, -OutBuffer -OutVariable.\nSet the trace level to 2:\nPS C:\\> set-psdebug -trace 2;\nTurns stepping on:\nPS C:\\> set-psdebug -step\nTurn off all debugging features:\nPS C:\\> set-psdebug -off\n\"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it\" ~ Brian W. Kernighan\nRelated PowerShell Commands:\nWrite-Debug - Write a debug message to the host display\nSet-StrictMode - Enforce coding rules in expressions & scripts\nEquivalent bash command: set -x / +x - turn debug on/off, or bash -x myscript.sh"}
{"content":"\"Explained by lives and legends of the Saints\" By Fr. F.X. Schouppe, S.J. This book reveals revelations from great saints such as Margaret Mary, Teresa of Avila, Bridget of Sweden, Gertrude the Great, Francis de sales, Catherine o f Genoa, Thomas Aquinas etc. It reveals the punishment for sins as well as the grateful souls who reap the benefits from Masses, alms giving, prayers, penance etc. offered for them still suffering in Purgatory."}
{"content":"ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – Health officials say a student at Washington University has Bacterial Meningitis. Its a swelling of the lining of the brain caused by infection.\nJust how concerned should other students be?\nIf there is one person who is coughing repeatedly chances are all the people breathing the same air over and over again will get exposed, according to the Director of Communicable Disease Services for the Saint Louis County Health Department.\nSymptoms include nausea, vomiting and confusion. Treatment is with antibiotics. Left untreated, it can lead to brain damage. Each year there are just over 4,000 cases nationwide, with 500 deaths.\nKMOX © Copyright 2012 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed."}
{"content":"Youth are considered as one of the most important members of the society because they form the active strata of population which is considered as a potent force with the capabilities to take the nations to new heights. …\nDownload file to see previous pages...\nnstructive and more productive members of the society. However, it also must be noted that Youth justice is currently being viewed in different perspectives than it used to be. Many view the current reforms in youth justice due to modernization of the governments and political systems to accommodate the issues like young justice however there is also another dimension to it also as the emergence of private practice into the youth justice have significantly contributed to this issue also. However one also need to consider the fact that these youth justice practices lack the effective quality assurance systems and procedures in place which can ensure that the practice is being done on more professional as well as ethical footings.\nThis essay will argue the role of quality assurance system to be designed to measure the effective practice in youth justice and will attempt to explore the issue from different perspectives so that a balanced view of the same can emerge....\nion must also have been given to this issue so that a positive critic of the same could have helped provide a better understanding of the problems so that quality assurance of the same could have been attained.\nYouth Justice has been under the complex influences of various forces working within the society which put extra pressures even on the proceedings of the cases against youth therefore the argument has also been put forward to bring in an approach which requires that those who bring children to the legal proceeding should give it a more holistic and comprehensive view so that children who somehow commit crimes are better represented into the legal system within which they are brought in. This therefore requires that those who conduct their practice into the youth justice must make efforts to bring in more quality in their work. (Geraghty).\nThe historical roots of the practice in youth justice are basically founded on two critical principles of justice and welfare appraoch suggesting a approach which demands that a child must be treated differently than an adult criminal thus ensuring equality into the system based on the pecular nature of the status of children within the society. (Stephenson, Giller and Brown)\nYouth Justice Practice\nIt is believed that the recent emergence of literature on youth based practice and policy has concentrated on the evidence based effective practice. This evidence based practice has now spread almost all the areas of the youth justice and has been considered as an effective and efficient means of dealing with the issue. However one also need to understand the fact that youth based justice practice and the system largely depend upon the society as it has been argued that the society gets the youth justice system which it deserves as\n...Download file to see next pagesRead More\nCite this document\n(“Youth Justice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words”, n.d.)\nRetrieved from https://studentshare.org/law/1510560-youth-justice\n(Youth Justice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 Words)\n“Youth Justice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/law/1510560-youth-justice.\nWhy have we singled out youth only? A major justification stands out to be that the standard justice system is for people who are mature, sound and are not incapacitated emotionally or physically while youth is a term used for people under the age of 17 who are juvenile, lack the sense of maturity and responsibility for their actions.\nYouth Justice Name Instructor Task Date The youthful populace is an exceedingly resourceful component in the societal context. Therefore, people ought to make certain that the youth have the capacity to grow. Therefore, there are numerous agencies concerned with youth dealings.\nCommon resources and opportunities foster social integration, and should be made available always to all members of the society without discrimination. The resources can either be healthcare, education, housing and even employment services (Pierson, 2009).\nI want to be able to influence the way future clients will invest their money. In order to achieve this goal I need a sound foundation of academic knowledge in addition to work experience. The M.S in finance program has been an excellent program in helping me to gain that knowledge.\nEach report of youth crime sends shock waves to each society as nations, parents, the church begin to question whether the moral values they are imparting to their citizens especially the children are defective or insufficient. Consciences are pricked whenever today's youths show increasing propensity for violence and criminal behaviour.\nrse when these young criminals were sent to prison with adult and very hardened criminals, further victimizing them instead of offering some rehabilitation. Recent moves are more enlightened with young offenders given separate facilities and even offered a form of counselling\nI was very impressed with “I” (Gold Coast) because it not only provided theoretical arguments for the success of its’ programs but also statistical proof such as lower offending rates for criminals graduating from the program compared with those who did not.\nThe resources can either be healthcare, education, housing and even employment services. The reason for blocking these people from accessing such resources is connected to an individual’s educational status, childhood relationships, and social class (Hall and\nrynne that was judged by the community and condemned by the community and led out of prison wearing a scarlet letter “A” on her breast (Hawthorne and Pearson, 2004). The letter is meant to hold her in shameful accord and to label her as an adulterer in the community. The\nSeveral theories have also been brought forward in an attempt to explain why they engage in such acts and activities. The Marxist deprivation theory and the behavioural theories provide a compelling insight into such trends and\n3 Pages(750 words)Essay\nGOT A TRICKY QUESTION? RECEIVE AN ANSWER FROM STUDENTS LIKE YOU!\nLet us find you another Essay on topic Youth Justice for FREE!"}
{"content":"About This Chapter\nHow it works:\n- Identify which concepts are covered on your Native American history homework.\n- Find videos on those topics within this chapter.\n- Watch fun videos, pausing and reviewing as needed.\n- Complete sample problems and get instant feedback.\n- Finish your Native American history homework with ease!\nTopics from your homework you'll be able to complete:\n- Origins of early people in the Americas\n- Mesoamerican civilizations\n- Pre-Columbian South America\n- North American civilizations before Europeans\n- Effects of European colonization on Native Americans\n- Spanish explorers and colonies\n- Intercontinental contact\n1. Native American History: Origins of Early People in the Americas\nBecause the first humans and civilizations got their start in Africa and the Middle East, historians and anthropologists have had to figure out how Native Americans got to the Americas. In this lesson we look at the three prevailing theories of the earliest migration to the New World.\n2. Mesoamerican Civilizations: The Olmecs to Cortes\nThis lesson focuses on the early cultures of Mesoamerica. The Olmec, Maya, and Aztecs developed great civilizations in Mesoamerica over millennia. Then, after all of this development and the building of a great empire, the Aztec were quickly defeated by Hernando Cortes.\n3. The Inca Civilization and Pizarro: Pre-Columbian South America\nThe Incan Empire was an amazing empire of the early Americas. Their accomplishments rival those of many other great empires, but they were defeated by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro in only a few years.\n4. Pre-Columbian Civilization: North American Indians Before Europeans\nWatch this video for an overview of the cultural groups of Native Americans as they lived at the time of first contact with Europeans. Some of these groupings, like the tribes of the plains, changed so much due to the addition of European influences, such as horses, that there is only conjecture as to how exactly they lived before European contact.\n5. Effects of European Colonization: Christopher Columbus and Native Americans\nThe earliest explorers in the Western Hemisphere left a legacy that would shape the development of the Americas permanently. No matter what they came looking for, Europeans left behind death, horses, and metal.\n6. New Spain: Spanish Explorers and Spanish Colonies\nWho are the most well-known explorers and conquistadors of the New World? In this lesson, we'll look at some of the most infamous explorers. We'll discover the difference between explorers and conquistadors, and then learn about the encomienda system.\n7. The Columbian Exchange\nThe Columbian Exchange is a term used to denote the world-changing exchange of agricultural goods, slave labor, diseases, and ideas between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres that occurred after the year 1492 CE.\n8. Cronyism: Definition & Explanation\nIn this lesson we explore the concept of cronyism. A major issue in U.S. governments of the past and governments throughout the world today, cronyism can greatly undermine a government's effectiveness.\n9. Horatio Alger: Biography, Myth & Stories\nHoratio Alger was a popular and influential author of the late 19th century, one who is credited with creating a new fiction genre. Learn who Alger was, what drove his writing, and why his novels became so coveted during the decades immediately following the Civil War.\nEarning College Credit\nDid you know… We have over 160 college courses that prepare you to earn credit by exam that is accepted by over 1,500 colleges and universities. You can test out of the first two years of college and save thousands off your degree. Anyone can earn credit-by-exam regardless of age or education level.\nTo learn more, visit our Earning Credit Page\nTransferring credit to the school of your choice\nNot sure what college you want to attend yet? Study.com has thousands of articles about every imaginable degree, area of study and career path that can help you find the school that's right for you.\nOther chapters within the High School US History: Homework Help Resource course\n- Settling North America: Homework Help\n- The Road to Revolution: Homework Help\n- The American Revolution: Homework Help\n- The Making of a New Nation: Homework Help\n- The Virginia Dynasty: Homework Help\n- Jacksonian Democracy: Homework Help\n- Life in Antebellum America: Homework Help\n- Manifest Destiny: Homework Help\n- Sectional Crisis: Homework Help\n- American Civil War: Homework Help\n- Reconstruction: Homework Help\n- Industrialization & Westward Expansion: Homework Help\n- The Progressive Era: Homework Help\n- American Imperialism: Homework Help\n- The Roaring 20s: Homework Help\n- The Great Depression: Homework Help\n- The US in World War ll: Homework Help\n- Post-War World: Homework Help\n- The Cold War in America: Homework Help\n- Protests, Activism and Civil Disobedience: Homework Help\n- The 1970s: Homework Help\n- The Rise of Political Conservatism: Homework Help\n- Contemporary America: Homework Help"}
{"content":"Cotton earlier grew as a wild plant all over the world and also we can get the benefits of cotton fabric. It is now cultivated for its main product – ‘the cotton’, while other...\n- How to Determine Your Face Shape?\n- Make Up Tips : How to Apply Concealer!\n- Sea Food – Explore The High Benefits Of Eating Sea Food!\n- How To Find Your Way To Wrinkle Free Skin With Food?\n- A To Z Guide On The Miraculous Effects Of Castor Oil For Hair!\n- Sumptuous Lasagna Recipes for The Family!\n- Styling Curly Hair Tips : How to Manage Curly Hair Naturally!\n- Vegan Milk Benefits : Amazing Dairy Replacement for Vegan People!\n- How To Grind Flaxseed- Let’s See Step By Step Instructions!\n- How To Get Rid Of Sugar Ants?"}
{"content":"Meet Shea Frederick, our latest OpenGov Champion. Last September, Sunlight’s video team — myself and Associate Video Producer Solay Howell — spent two days in Baltimore, MD, with Shea to see how he uses city open data to build useful tools for Charm City residents.\nOne of those tools is baltimorevacants.org, a dynamic map that lets you search and see more than 30,000 vacant houses and vacant lots in Baltimore. To capture on video the source of that data, we drove around Baltimore filming abandoned houses, streets and even entire blocks that are just left to decay, attracting crime and rats.\nLike Shea says in the video, it’s impactful to see 30,000 vacant houses or lots mapped out over the city. But it is even more powerful to see the actual places. I’m still haunted by the sight of all those vacant, rotting houses with boarded up windows and doors we saw all over Baltimore. As a visual storyteller, I could imagine how each one of these houses has a story to tell. Maybe a factory closed, people lost their jobs, packed up and moved, and after enough of their neighbors had left, the ones left behind could not bear to live on an empty street and finally they all went.\nLooking at Shea’s work, I realized that data can be used tell a story too, one from real life that literally “connects the dots” and paints with broader strokes to get the full picture. That’s why Shea loves hacking on the open data the City of Baltimore started releasing in 2011: there is always a real life connection to the work he is doing and he can see it all around him.\nAnother one is an app called Spot Agent that uses parking citation data to warn you if a meter maid might be close by. Then there’s one that uses the city’s 311 data to show the most common problems occurring in any Baltimore neighborhood based on words that appear the most in the service requests, such as “trash,” “rat,” “illegal” or “light.”\nHe does a lot of this work with the help of other developers and interested citizens, connected through hackathons and other events. There is a vibrant community for this sort of work in Baltimore such that when the city started releasing its data sets through the Open Baltimore portal there already was an active bunch of people ready to go and put it to use. The city has been pleased with that, as these civic hackers can build something for fun and for free in a weekend that would take them weeks, maybe even months to complete and cost tens of thousands of dollars. Shea has been tag-teaming with the city directly, using the data it released and giving the city advice on how the data could be improved upon, mainly that it should be updated in real time instead of doing a one-time dump.\nWhy does Shea Frederick spend so much of his own time sorting out this data into meaningful, usable formats when he might as well be competing in a cyclocross race somewhere? Well, for one, he loves what he does. And second, he has grown to love Baltimore and wants to give back by giving others tools that can help them connect with what’s happening around the city. This is OpenGov Championship at work: taking data that’s available and putting it to use, and working together with the local government to make it even better.\nOur OpenGov Champions are remarkable ordinary people who have done extraordinary things to open up our government. Get inspired by their stories and nominate someone in your community to become an OpenGov Champion."}
{"content":"Study: Spirituality plays a key role in fighting depression\n|August 28, 2011||Posted by News under Intelligent Design, Mind, News, Religion, Spirituality|\nIn “Can Religion or Spirituality Help Ward Off Depression?” (World of Psychology August 25, 2011), a somewhat skeptical John M. Grohol reports,\nThe new longitudinal research out of Columbia University wanted to followup on previous research demonstrating this correlation between spirituality or religiosity and a reduced risk for depression.\nThe researchers continued to followup on a set of subjects they had used in the previous study, following them from the 10-year mark (when the older research had ended) to the 20-year mark. The subjects in the study were 114 adult offspring of both depressed parents and parents who had no depression.\nAt the 20-year mark, had there been an episode of major depression? Only one quarter of the people who said religion or spirituality was important had experienced major depression. Time spent at religious services didn’t affect this outcome.\nThe really interesting find was that\nThose at the highest risk for depression because they were the child of a depressed parent (that genetic and environmental connection that’s important for determining depression risk) had the biggest reduction in risk due to their spirituality or religious nature.\nGrohol suggests more research.\nThese conclusions should be less surprising than they are to some, for several reasons. Religious Christians (all study participants were Christians) tend to live in tightly knit communities which, if healthy, play a strong role in fighting major depression by identifying the warning signs early. Thus many threatened episodes may never happen. Second, traditional Christians expect some level of unavoidable suffering as part of life, accepting it as a test of character (not of faith, because their faith told them to expect it). The same situation might look very different to the person who honestly believes that if things aren’t going well, there is something wrong with him. Also, they are taught that Jesus suffered too, and was once near despair over his mission, in Gethsemane – and that it is not a sin, only a trial.\nOBJECTIVE: Previously the authors found that personal importance of religion or spirituality was associated with a lower risk for major depression in a study of adults with and without a history of depression. Here the authors examine the association of personal importance of religion or spirituality with major depression in the adult offspring of the original sample using a 10-year prospective longitudinal design. METHOD: Participants were 114 adult offspring of depressed and nondepressed parents, followed longitudinally. The analysis covers the period from the 10-year to the 20-year follow-up assessments. Diagnosis was assessed with the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia-Lifetime Version. Religiosity measures included personal importance of religion or spirituality, frequency of attendance at religious services, and denomination (all participants were Catholic or Protestant). In a logistic regression analysis, major depression at 20 years was used as the outcome measure and the three religiosity variables at 10 years as predictors. RESULTS: Offspring who reported at year 10 that religion or spirituality was highly important to them had about one-fourth the risk of experiencing major depression between years 10 and 20 compared with other participants. Religious attendance and denomination did not significantly predict this outcome. The effect was most pronounced among offspring at high risk for depression by virtue of having a depressed parent; in this group, those who reported a high importance of religion or spirituality had about one-tenth the risk of experiencing major depression between years 10 and 20 compared with those who did not. The protective effect was found primarily against recurrence rather than onset of depression. CONCLUSIONS: A high self-report rating of the importance of religion or spirituality may have a protective effect against recurrence of depression, particularly in adults with a history of parental depression."}
{"content":"UNHCR and partners working to help manage Tunisian arrivals in Italy\nThis is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Melissa Fleming – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 15 February 2011, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.\nUNHCR and its partners from the International Organization for Migration and Save the Children Fund are in Lampedusa and several locations in southern Italy working with local authorities to manage the recent influx of Tunisians. According to the Italian Government over 5,200 people have arrived since mid-January, with the vast majority (4,400) having arrived during the past few days. While most are young men we know of at least 20 women and over 200 minors, many unaccompanied.\nDescribed by the Italian Government as a humanitarian emergency, we appreciate the sensitive approach that has been taken so far, with all actors recognizing that among this mixed group there may be some who need to apply for asylum. From discussions with new arrivals it is clear that while most are coming in search of employment, others are citing fear of violence and a breakdown of law and order in their home regions.\nUNHCR is concerned that people smugglers in Tunisia are exploiting youth by promising them a better life in Europe. Although the journey is short, high seas and bad weather can make it perilous. Most of the new arrivals are in good health, but some have arrived soaked through, and suffering exhaustion. We have received unconfirmed reports that at least four people have drowned.\nThe large number of people arriving over such a short period has put a significant pressure on the small island of Lampedusa. A reception centre designed for 800 people is currently holding over 2,000. Following a number of flights to relieve congestion in Lampedusa, we understand that other reception centres in Italy are also reaching capacity. We appreciate all efforts being made by the Italian Government to provide shelter and assistance for the new arrivals and hope that a solution is found quickly to relieve the pressure on Lampedusa.\nThe Italian Government has clearly stated its commitment to providing access to asylum procedures for those who are seeking international protection. We welcome this commitment and urge solidarity with Italy as it faces this new chapter of mixed migration. UNHCR hopes that any mechanisms designed to control irregular migration will continue to ensure access to asylum for people in need of protection."}
{"content":"Implementing the Unimplemented: Representing Unencoded Scripts in Unicode 3.2\nJohn Jenkins - Apple Computer, Inc.\nPresented by: Deborah Goldsmith - Apple Computer, Inc.\nSometimes it is necessary to implement support for a script before it has been encoded in Unicode; this presentation discusses the issues involved in doing so, and implementation techniques that can be used.\nUnicode 3.2 contains nearly sixty thousand characters used in the writing of dozens of scripts and hundreds of different languages. As such, it provides full coverage for virtually every significant writing system in use in the world today.At the same time, there are specialized markets where it's necessary to write using scripts not yet encoded in Unicode. These include the writing systems used by minority groups in various countries, ancient or dead scripts, and fantasy or other artificial scripts.\nMany such scripts are already in the pipeline for encoding in the next edition of the Unicode standard, but even here the encoding process can be greatly simplified by developing actual implementations and solving many of the practical issues involved. We will discuss a number of the issues involved in providing temporary, private-use implementations of unencoded writing systems. This includes determining the target audience, analyzing the structure of the script, and determining the repertoire of characters needed. There are also the issues of getting actual support for the script in existing programs running on existing platforms, which means producing fonts and keyboards, at the least. Finally, there are issues with producing an implementation with an eye towards forwarding it as a completed proposal to the Unicode Technical Committee for inclusion in the standard.\nExamples will be drawn from a number of scripts, including some already approved for future inclusion in the Unicode standard.\n|When the world wants to talk, it speaks Unicode|\nInternational Unicode Conferences are organized by Global Meeting Services, Inc., (GMS).\nGMS is pleased to be able to offer the International Unicode Conferences under an exclusive\nlicense granted by the Unicode Consortium. All responsibility for conference finances and\noperations is borne by GMS. The independent conference board serves solely at the pleasure\nof GMS and is composed of volunteers active in Unicode and in international software\ndevelopment. All inquiries regarding International Unicode Conferences should be addressed\nUnicode and the Unicode logo are registered trademarks of Unicode, Inc. Used with permission.\n22 May 2002, Webmaster"}
{"content":"by Judith Rodin\nI welcome all of you to this celebration. This is a significant moment in Penn history. Today's groundbreaking signals our renewed commitment to the spirit of discovery and experiment that has distinguished this University since Benjamin Franklin, America's first scientist, called it into being here.\nThis groundbreaking is both a sign and a symbol of Penn's agenda as a great research university--in facilities, in direction, in goals and priorities.\nResearch universities are small in number, enormous in influence. Of the more than 3,000 institutions of higher learning in the United States, only 170 universities produce most of the nation's doctorates in science and engineering and perform most of the research.\nAn even smaller number--30--account for most of the federal funds for academic research. Penn is proudly among this highly select group of research-intensive universities.\nResearch universities are one of America's greatest resources and truly the envy of the world. We serve the national interest at many levels. The new knowledge and the new talent that we produce touches every sector of American life, from the well-being of our people to the strength of our national economy and our global competitiveness.\nAnd this brings me to some very serious concerns in academic research today. To understand one aspect of these concerns, we need to go back to 1944.\nTen months before the end of World War II, President Roosevelt asked his chief science adviser, Vannevar Bush, how science might be used in peacetime to improve the national health, create new enterprises and new jobs, and better the standard of living.\nBush's report, Science--The Endless Frontier, effectively promised the nation that science could yield enormous benefits if three conditions were met. What were these conditions?\n+ First, that the nation make a substantial commitment to basic\n+ Second, that higher education take on the job of providing the nation with new scientific and engineering knowledge and talent; and,\n+ Finally, that the federal government provide funds to enable higher education to meet those new responsibilities.\nIt was a visionary idea. The policy makers in Washington understood what was at stake and acted. Investment of tax dollars led to the establishment of the largest and strongest scientific and higher education enterprise that the world has ever known. An enterprise that today carries out half of all federally-funded basic research.\nThe American taxpayers' investment has paid off handsomely. We are the nation that gave the world the electronic computer and medical technologies, cured polio, and walked on the moon.\nYet, our leadership role in science and engineering is being seriously challenged. In the last twenty years, America's investment in research and development has remained flat while that of Western Europe and Japan has almost doubled. And now, there is pressure building in Congress to cut billions in funding for basic research.\nThese cuts do not make economic sense.\nAs my colleague, Thomas Everhart, president of CalTech recently wrote in The Wall Street Journal: \"One of the worst cases of 'waste, fraud, and abuse' that a society can commit is the failure to invest in its own future sustainability.\"\nIronically, the public and the policymakers seem to think research universities are doing just fine: \"Look at the Nobel prizes we win in science! Look at the billions of dollars the government pours into our research!\"\nAll right, let's look at Nobel prizes: What few realize is that, in recent years, most U.S. Nobel prizes in science have been based on work done before 1975.\nOr, let's look at funding: Government support for academic research, when adjusted for inflation, is only 20% higher than it was in the golden age of the 1960s--about $10 billion today. Yet there are twice as many researchers competing for a pot of money that has grown little in the past thirty years. Some of them work in new fields of research that didn't even have a name thirty years ago--fields like molecular biology, organometallic chemistry, and cybernetics.\nAnother problem is the cost of doing science and engineering research today. The more complex the work, the more sophisticated the equipment we need. And today's research is incredibly complex. As an example, back in the 1920s, scientists laid the foundation of modern physics. The most expensive equipment they used--and I am talking in terms of current dollars--cost less than one tenth of one percent of what is needed today to build a single particle accelerator.\nWhat is true of physics is true in different ways for almost every field of science and engineering. A former president of the NAS once said: \"In science, the best is vastly more important than the next best.\"\nQuality does count. A research university cannot produce the best work with outdated labs and equipment any more than it can produce the best science without the best scientists. Yet, according to the NSF, more than half of the laboratory facilities at our research universities were built before 1970. Ten years ago, it was estimated that it would cost $10 billion to replace outdated university research equipment. Little has been done since then. Can you imagine what that figure is now?\nBut our country's circumstances and commitments have changed, and we must be prepared to address that. What is needed now is a new vision --a long-term vision--of the research enterprise. And a new model of how we do--and pay for--science and engineering research.\nAt this critical time, the University is especially fortunate to have at its helm a Chairman fully committed to the task ahead. Under Roy's visionary leadership, Merck was named \"America's Most Admired Corporation\" time and time again. That same leadership and vision, on Roy's part and that of our Trustees, is certain to make Penn \"America's Most Admired Research University of the 21st Century.\" And I cannot think of a more appropriate occasion than the groundbreaking for The Roy and Diana Vagelos Laboratories to announce that Penn intends to redouble its efforts and commitment to science and engineering.\nIt is important for us as an institution. It is critical to us as a nation.\nRealizing our vision will require resources, energy, some fearlessness, and a look to the distant future, rather than just tomorrow.\nHaving said that, we are going to make certain that what we do, we do brilliantly--and with a full financial, personnel, and infrastructure commitment. In an increasingly competitive and demanding research environment, we cannot afford to do less.\nAnd we must begin by rethinking the research enterprise as we have known it. We must adopt more highly selective strategies in determining where we invest and how we invest.We must commit ourselves to only world-class standards in every program that we undertake. We must use our resources wisely to assure the most important aspect of our research --quality.\nWe must recruit, retain, and support innovators who are working across the boundaries of disciplines and schools. And we must continue to link our research enterprise with the process of educating the next generation.\nFinally, we must become ingenious entrepreneurs of our own intellectual capital. Current levels of funding for science and engineering are far below what is needed for healthy, even lean, research. We must therefore identify new revenue streams. We will seek investments by those in the private sector who recognize the long-term importance of our research enterprise to the nation and to society-- corporations, foundations, and alumni and friends of Penn.\nWe will take full advantage of mechanisms that connect research results with economic utility such as technology transfer, marketing, licensing, and patents. You can be certain that if ENIAC were invented at Penn today, the University would hold the rights.\nToday we begin anew to invent our future in research with The Roy and Diana Vagelos Laboratories, the first phase of The Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.\nWhen completed, this facility will house faculty members in chemistry, chemical engineering, and bioengineering, and two interacting research groups: The Center for Excellence in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and the Institute for Medicine and Engineering. Here researchers from our Schools of Arts and Sciences, Engineering and Applied Science, and Medicine--all at the lead in their field--will collaborate on cutting-edge research that ranges from the understanding of biological functions to bioengineering approaches to human injury and aging.\nI mentioned previously that we would seek the support of those who recognize the value of IAST to the nation and society. We have with us today two remarkable people who responded immediately and generously to this vision: Roy and Diana Vagelos.\nI could tell you that Penn alumnus Roy Vagelos is the former chairman and CEO of Merck, chair of the University of Pennsylvania Board of Trustees, recipient of the Enzyme Chemistry Award, and member of the National Business Hall of Fame. I could tell you that Diana Vagelos, a Barnard alumna and a former teacher of French in a special program for elementary school children, is a Trustee of Barnard College, Chair of its Student Life Committee, and President of the Women's Board of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.\nI could tell you all that. But I would rather tell you that Diana and Roy have always been a team--at home, in work, in their community-- and in their unselfish commitment to higher education and academic science. One sign of this marvelous partnership will be their names together on Penn's newest scientific and engineering facility, The Roy and Diana Vagelos Laboratories of the Institute for Advanced Science and Technology--named in recognition of their extraordinary commitment of $10 million.\nThe other sign of this extraordinary partnership will be in the research performed, the new talent developed, and the contribution to national well-being made possible by their generosity. On behalf of the University of Pennsylvania, our faculty and our students, thank you, Diana and Roy, for your confidence, your support, your faith in us, and your unwavering vision."}
{"content":"WASHINGTON, March 12 (UPI) -- A gas pipeline from Iran would put Pakistan on the wrong path but the United States is ready to help other plans, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman said.\nWashington opposes the project in favor of a pipeline planned from Turkmenistan. That project has the support of the Asian Development Bank but would need to pass through Afghanistan.\nState Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Zardari's visit was a bad idea.\n\"This pipeline project would take Pakistan in the wrong direction right at a time that we're trying to work with Pakistan on better, more reliable ways to meet its energy needs,\" she said.\nNuland expressed doubt whether the pipeline, in the works since the 1990s, would ever develop. If it does go forward, she warned, Pakistan would partaking in sanctionable activity in regards to Iran.\n\"We've been straight-up with the Pakistanis about these concerns,\" she said.\nShe added that the United States was supporting projects that would add 900 megawatts of power to a Pakistani energy grid that can't support the nation's needs."}
{"content":"PARIS, July 12 (UPI) -- Political upheaval in the Middle East is largely responsible for some of the increase in oil prices on the global market, a market assessment from Paris said.\nCrude oil prices topped $100 per barrel last week for the first time since September as the Egyptian government of Mohamed Morsi collapsed under military and public pressure. While Egypt is not a major oil supplier, the situation there may be a vehicle for further political tensions across the oil-rich Middle East.\nBloomberg News reports a Friday price for Brent crude oil of $108.02 in early morning trading.\nThe International Energy Agency said in a monthly market report published Thursday the upheaval in Egypt and disruptions in Iraq, Libya and Nigeria were contributing to the spike in energy prices.\nGlobal oil supplies declined by 300,000 barrels per day in June to 91.2 million barrels. This was largely because of declines in production from members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Non-OPEC supply, however, is expected to increase.\nThe IEA said the overall global economic outlook remains positive. It said it expected global oil demand to grow by 1.2 million barrels per day next year as world economies emerge from recession."}
{"content":"CALGARY, Alberta, Jan. 31 (UPI) -- The National Energy Board in Canada said it supported plans by Enbridge Energy to build a 113-mile-long pipeline between two oil terminals in Alberta province.\nThe NEB, an independent regulatory agency, said Thursday it recommended the federal government approve the pipeline from the company's terminal in Edmonton to a facility in Hardisty.\nThe company offered no statement in response to the NEB's recommendations.\nIn a project description, Enbridge said the proposed pipeline would feed crude oil to other pipelines in its main system.\nEnbridge said construction would begin during the latter half of 2014 and the pipeline would go into service by 2015. It offered no information on the expected transport capacity of the pipeline.\nIn a separate statement, the company said it received approval from the Ontario provincial government to upgrade the Enbridge natural gas distribution system in the greater Toronto area.\nEnbridge said that system hasn't been updated in more than 20 years.\nWhen the project is completed in October 2015, it will be connected to an existing underground system to improve natural gas deliveries to private consumers and business in the Toronto area, the company said."}
{"content":"WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- The United States joined Japan and South Korea in warning North Korea of \"significant consequences\" if it conducts another nuclear test.\nThe warnings came Sunday after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke on the telephone with Foreign Ministers Fumio Kishida of Japan and Kim Sung-hwan of South Korea, CNN reported, quoting a summary of the calls provided by the U.S. State Department.\nThe three agreed the North must understand \"it will face significant consequences from the international community if it continues its provocative behavior,\" the State Department said.\nNorth Korea has been signaling its intentions to conduct its third nuclear test after the U.N. Security Council approved a resolution last month to tighten existing sanctions against the Communist country for its December long-range rocket firing to place a satellite in space in violation of the sanctions. North Korea conducted its previous two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.\nThe United States and South Korea are conducting joint naval exercises off the Korean Peninsula this week."}
{"content":"A synonym of pwnage. The word started with a thread on the popular dance music forum DOA, where a bitter and borderline depressed poster explained how someone had fucked with his father, so he put hin in his place.\nA small revolution ensued, fueled by the sympathy that the population of DOA felt for the outraged but loyal son. In a stance of respect and following, the all-too common verb to pwn, or the derivative noun pwnage were replaced with the emotionally charged to hin, and hinning respectively. The heroic figure has been granted an avatar on the forums, a distinctive sign of social ascension, to emphasize his semi-cult, semi-legendary status."}
{"content":"The most powerful computer program in the world. Frequently used for for solving integrals, graphing solutions to diffrential equations, negotiating international trade disputes, and calculating tax returns. See also lytle\nI used MathCAD to solve the Ethiopia-eritrea border dispute.\nby K. Jacobso February 20, 2004\nMath software which is morally reprehensible.\nMathCAD is a dirty dog\nby persarog March 10, 2009"}
{"content":"By J.D. Leipold\nArmy News Service\nWASHINGTON -- On a perfect fall morning at Arlington National Cemetery, Secretary of the Army John McHugh relit the eternal flame which marks the final resting places of John F. Kennedy, 35th president of the United States, and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.\nA flame has actually been burning continuously at the site since the president was buried there Nov. 25, 1963. It was originally lit by Mrs. Kennedy.\nRecently, work began to upgrade the apparatus that keeps the flame illuminated. In order to make that happen, the flame was transferred to a nearby \"temporary\" eternal flame. Once the upgrade was complete, McHugh transferred the flame back.\nThe eternal flame has been burning now continuously for 50 years. The new hardware, more modern and efficient, will keep it burning so it may continue to be a beacon of hope and remembrance for all who see it, said Patrick K. Hallinan, executive director of Army National Military Cemeteries and Arlington National Cemetery.\n\"As a nation, we erect monuments and memorials to commemorate the people and events who define our values and ideals -- they are physical reminders of service, sacrifice and remembrance,\" Hallinan said.\n\"People from all over the world come to pay their respects to our 35th president, President John F. Kennedy, a combat veteran from World War II who served in the Navy,\" he said. \"They come to visit a fellow military member, a president whose life was tragically cut short, and a man who inspired them.\n\"And, they come to see the eternal flame, the embodiment of hope and renewal, a symbol that is just as relevant today as it was then,\" Hallinan added.\nA temporary eternal flame was lit April 29. It had been operating at the gravesite while a series of upgrades were made at the permanent eternal flame site. The Army Corps of Engineers, Norfolk District and its contracting partners conducted the work. They replaced the burner assembly and the supporting infrastructure including the gas, electric and compressed air lines for the flame.\n\"Essentially, it's same technology, pretty simple and elegant,\" said Col. Michelle Stewart, Arlington National Cemetery chief engineer. \"The toughest part of the project was testing the flame. We wanted to ensure we recreated as much as possible the quality of the flame that burned previously for the last 50 years. So getting the gas and air mixture just right -- to add to the height of the flame, it's a good six inches of dancing flame, brightly colored -- we wanted to maintain that.\"\nThe engineers also installed new drainage lines below the flame and relocated the natural gas pressure regulators for easier access and maintenance.\nArlington will host a number of remembrance events in November to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's death and burial:\n-- Nov. 15 -- Dec. 1, a special pictorial exhibit honoring Kennedy's legacy of public service will be on display in the basement of the Memorial Amphitheater.\n-- Nov. 22, Arlington National Cemetery will conduct a wreath-laying remembrance at the JFK gravesite.\n-- Nov. 25, the Irish Defence Forces 37th Cadet Class will conduct a remembrance ceremony at the Kennedy gravesite. The 37th Cadet Class flew to Washington to provide an honor guard during the president's funeral service.\narlington national cemetary\nJFK eternal flame"}
{"content":"College residents with their own computers are provided with free broadband access to the USQ Student computer network, including the Internet.\nResidential College residents are provided with free internet access in their bedrooms. In addition the University also provide students with wireless internet and internet access in the campus computer labs.\nSteps to access the student computer network and obtain assistance are:\n- Obtain and complete an Application for Access to the Residential Colleges student network from McGregor College.\n- Ensure your computer has a network interface card (10/100Mb Ethernet card) and virus protection software.\n- Obtain from McGregor College Office an Instruction Leaflet for your particular Operating System (e.g. Windows XP, Windows 7, or MAC OS X 10.4). Ensure the cable to connect your bedroom phone to your PC (RJ-45 port) is already in your bedroom.\n- Follow the instruction leaflet using your UConnect student username and password for the bedroom to gain access.\n- If you experience any difficulties gaining access, contact a fellow student or one of the resident student coordinators whose names appear on notice boards in your block.\nUSQ provides Sophos Anti-Virus free of charge to staff and students to use on home computers. You are responsible for any damage which may result from requesting assistance. Read the Code of Practice for the Acceptable Use of Information Technology Resources and be aware that access can be disabled where the Code is breached or where a virus is detected on your PC.\nInternet access is only provided to USQ students, staff or USQ sponsored visitors and not the general public.\nThe Cisco IP Phone 7911 Series is a full-feature telephone that provides voice communication over an IP network. This means you can make or receive telephone calls while at the same time being logged on to the internet. Brief operating instructions are on the wall of each bedroom and a Quick Reference Guide summarising the basic call features for users is also available.\nThe bedroom telephone number is +61 7 4687 XXXX (the four digits shown on the screen on the left hand side). Residents are requested not to move telephones from one bedroom to another as this causes problems for both residents and staff.\nAll internal calls are free (including computer network/internet access) and the last four digits are dialed to make a call. This includes all calls made to campus numbers such as security, the office and all residents of McGregor, Steele Rudd and Concannon Colleges.\nExternal calls are made via a pre-paid phone card which can be purchased from the bookshop on-campus. When you purchase one of these cards, you will find a section on the back that requires scratching off. Under this is a twelve digit card identification number. On the top of this card you will find an 1800 number, which you are required to call when making an external call.\n- dial 0 to get an outside line\n- dial the 1800 number on the card\n- follow the prompts from the operator (ie to continue in English, press 1)\n- enter in the 12 digit card number when prompted\n- the automated operator will indicate the value remaining on the card\n- enter in the phone number you wish to call, including the area code (this includes local calls).\nVoice Mail is available from student bedrooms and the Voice Mail Instructions for Residents provides a step-by-step guide.\nUpon arrival, it is important for new permanent residents to immediately access their mailbox, change the default Security Code, record their name to identify their mailbox and record a personal greeting."}
{"content":"Contrary to Broadband Modernization Goals\nBackground: Today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced it would examine tariffed pricing plans for business broadband services offered by four USTelecom member companies.\nThe following statement is from USTelecom President Walter McCormick:\n“Although the FCC says that it wants to be a data-driven agency, promote facilities-based competition, and incent broadband investment, it just can’t seem to get beyond its telephone-era mindset when it comes to regulating 20th century legacy services. The future of the business services market is in advanced, IP-based high-speed networks that are offered today throughout the nation on a competitive basis by cable and others who can provide service under private contracts that are exempt from regulation. Yet, at the very time the commission is expressing concern over the growing dominance of cable in the overall broadband marketplace, and acknowledging that burdensome legacy regulation of telecom companies is misdirecting investment and hindering competition, it launches an old-fashioned “tariff” investigation of the only competitors in the marketplace who are required to operate under last century’s antiquated rules. While we are unconcerned by what the investigation will show, as the longstanding terms and conditions contained in the tariffs are fair and lawful, we think the launch of this costly investigation is contrary to the public interest and the commission’s oft-stated broadband modernization policy objectives.”\nUSTelecom is the nation’s premier trade association representing service providers and suppliers for the telecom industry. Its diverse member base ranges from large publicly traded communications corporations to small companies and cooperatives – all providing advanced communications services to both urban and rural markets."}
{"content":"History of the Distance Computer\nThe distance computer that we have been using is simple type of circular\nslide rule. This is the kind of device that people like engineers and\npilots regularly used before pocket electronic calculators were developed.\nThe E6-B Flight Computer\nThe picture below shows an example of a flight computer. Similar\ndevices were produced in great numbers for the U.S. Army Air Corps in World\nWar II, and they were given the Army designation E6-B. They have\ncontinued to be used by pilots since then. Airliners and corporate\naircraft now have digital instruments that perform the same functions,\nbut most pilots still have an E6-B somewhere in the bottom of their flight\nbag for use in case the digital instruments fail.\nThe Engineering Slide Rule\nSlide rules were also made in a linear, rather than circular design.\nThe picture below shows part of a classic K&E engineering slide rule\nmade in the late 1960s.\n(Unless you want to know how the distance computer really works.\nBut you can't get to that secret until you have studied Algebra.)\nYes I have studied Algebra and I want to know the"}
{"content":"Total Joint Replacement Program\n- Educational Grant from Pfizer\n- Hip Replacement\n- Computer Knee Simulator to Improve Total Knee Replacement Outcomes\n- Total Knee Replacement Q & A\nEducational grant from Smith & Nephew supports residency joint rotation program.\nSmith & Nephew Advanced Surgical Devices has demonstrated its commitment to advancing medical research, innovation, and education with an educational grant to The Campbell Foundation in support of education and research in adult reconstruction.\nSmith & Nephew's grant to the Foundation will help sponsor the Total Joint Rotation of the Campbell Clinic-University of Tennessee Orthopaedic Residency Program. The grant will help underwrite the cost of educating 24 Campbell Clinic residents in the subspecialty area of joint replacement.\nDr. Terry Canale, President of The Campbell Foundation, said, \"This grant demonstrates that Smith & Nephew recognizes the vital role highly-trained physicians play in the healthcare continuum. We look forward to working with Smith & Nephew to take orthopaedic education to new levels of excellence while offering our patients hope for better, more active lives.\"\nThe Campbell Clinic-University of Tennessee Orthopaedic Residency Program enables aspiring orthopaedic surgeons to develop and refine their clinical, surgical, and research skills. The accredited, five-year program has a total of 40 full-time residents and ranks in the top eight percent of orthopaedic residency programs in the nation. Nearly 500 medical school graduates vie for the eight positions open each year.\nResidents in the program participate in the total joint rotation in their second, fourth, and fifth years. During each rotation, residents spend approximately 50 percent of their time in clinical activities and 50 percent in surgical duties, a practice that allows them to experience continuity of patient care from initial exam and evaluation, through surgical or non-surgical treatment and post-operative rehabilitation.\nDuring the total joint rotation, residents are instructed and mentored by faculty members from the Campbell Clinic staff who have interest and training in the subspecialty of total joint replacement. Physicians who serve on the total joint rotation faculty include Dr. Andrew Crenshaw, Dr. John Crockarell, Dr. James Guyton, Dr. James Harkess, Dr. Robert Heck, Dr. David LaVelle, Dr. Anthony Mascioli, and Dr. Patrick Toy.\nThe residency program benefits significantly from monthly Journal Club meetings during which the teaching staff and residents review and discuss articles from the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery and subspecialty journals. Dr. John Crockarell plans to start a Total Joint Journal Club using articles from the Journal of Arthroplasty for discussion. The educational grant helps provide each resident with an individual subscription to the Journal of Arthroplasty. A number of major books and electronic resources will also be added to the Total Joint Library, including the Orthopaedic Knowledge Update series from the American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons.\nModern medicine, for all its miracles, is still an inexact science in many areas. Efforts to make it less so, generally taken place in research labs and facilities across the world, where doctors, engineers, and highly specialized experts work together conducting trials and studies while recording and measuring outcomes. Ongoing research is what advances medical knowledge and skill, and it gives mankind the miracles that increase functionality and save lives.\nDr. William M. Mihalko, Associate Professor, and Dr. John Leicester Williams, Affiliated Professor of Biomedical Engineering at UTHSC from the University of Memphis, are two such researches working to develop a virtual knee simulator that will allow surgeons to perform total knee replacement surgeries, known as a total knee arthroplasty (TKA), on an individualized, patient-by-patient basis.\nDr. Mihalko (left) and Dr. Williams (right) is developing the computer model with the ultimate goal of enabling surgeons to align the knee implant more accurately in accordance with the patient's specific anatomical characteristics for the best results and longest implant wear. Dr. Mihalko is holding a computer-navigated pointer, which allows surgeons to record specific anatomical landmarks during surgery. In his life hand, he holds the upper portion of a total knee implant. By allowing the computer to track the implant and a patient's own anatomy, a customized approach to the surgery is being developed.\n\"Developing a computer-based model is important because right now we fit every patient into just one set of parameters in the operating room,\" said Dr. Mihalko, a Campbell Clinic total joint surgeon. \"In other words, we align and insert our implants the same way, regardless of the patient's sex, size, age health, or other individual characteristics.\"\nThat means that a football linebacker's artificial knee is implanted and positioned the exact same way as a 98-pound ballerina's. It is Mihalko's and Williams's theory that if total knee replacements are inserted in a custom manner to fit the patient's individual characteristics, the percentage of TKAs that meet patient satisfaction will go up.\n\"We're trying to come up with a tool for the surgeon that helps him predict on an individual basis how a knee implant will function given anatomical variations in soft tissue, muscle forces, support, center of rotation, and those types of things,\" said Mihalko. \"Currently, when we put an implant into a patient, we often have to just visualize some of those things- just take our best guess.\"\n\"And a patient won't know if his implant is suitable until he's healed-three months later!\" added Dr. Williams. \"It's like trying to fit an unconscious person with a pair of shoes. You know how to place the shoe and lace it up, but you really won't know how those shoes will fit-and whether the patient will be comfortable in them-until the person is well enough to walk in them himself.\"\nThe two researchers' collective goal is to develop a tool to use in the operating room, where the surgeon will enter the patient's specific anatomical parameters, and a computer model will instantly digitize where that particular patient's ligaments are attached, where his muscles insert around the knee, how his particular body makeup may affect the knee's performance, and other factors critical to a successful patient outcome. And developing such a tool is not easy.\n\"Our biggest problem is that the knee is such a complex and variable system,\" said Dr. Mihalko. \"Coming up with a computer model that takes into account all of the thousands of variables and all of the ways you can move your knee is challenging to say the least.\"\nDr. Williams has worked for several years developing simulation software for a computer model that helps the researchers determine how a knee will react when they change implant positions, tighten ligaments, exert muscle forces, and subject the knee to various motions. Those computer predictions are then compared to an actual implanted knee.\n\"We use a mechanical simulator in the lab to test specimens to determine if the computer's predictions are accurate,\" said Dr. Mihalko. \"In other words, do the two match up? Is what we're predicting in the computer model actually taking place with the real knee implant? If not, we adjust the computer model accordingly and repeat the process.\"\nThe mechanical simulator moves knee specimens into squats, lunges, flexes, and extensions. The researchers analyze how the implant reacts while it's still inside the knee, and then they physically remove the implant for further analysis.\n\"By conducting research this way, we can try to determine what was happening inside the knee while the implant is still in place,\" says Mihalko. \"What factors affected the implant that could make it fail? This implant retrieval method helps us tweak the program and make it more accurate and helpful.\"\nThe biggest challenge facing the two researchers is funding. \"I spend one0third of my time just writing grants,\" said Dr. Mihalko. \"And this is important research. This type of analysis will introduce a personalized-medicine approach to total knee arthroplasty and allow the best change for the patient to have the longest-functioning, most successful implant during his lifetime. That's also important to those who receive the 600,000 total knee replacements every year.\"\nSource: The Campbell Foundation Momentum\nwith Dr. William M. Mihalko\nWhat is a total knee arthroplasty?\nIt's where damaged cartilage and bone are surgically removed from the surface of the knee joint and replaced with a man made implant made of metal and plastic.\nDr. William M. Mihalko\nWhat causes a person to need a total knee replacement?\nThe No. 1 cause is osteoarthritis. Various types of injuries can also lead to the need for a knee replacement.\nOf the things we can control, what causes the most damage to our knees?\nIn overweight people, every extra pound of weight places four to five pounds more force on the knee. It's a magnified force. So if a person loses 20 pounds, the knees see 100 pounds less force and they'll last longer. Playing contact sports can also shorten the life of the knee.\nHow long do knee replacement last?\nThe average for knee replacement recipients is 65 years old, and the implant should last long as that patient is alive.\nWhat happens when a replacement fails?\nThe patient feels pain, or the joint is unstable, meaning the patient has to again use a can or a walker. Ten to fifteen percent of knee replacements do not meet patient satisfaction. That is a statistic that our research aims to improve.\nOrthopaedic Surgery and Biomedical Engineering\n1211 Union Ave. Suite 520\nMemphis, TN 38104\nPhone: (901) 448-5879\nFax: (901) 448-3208\nCampbell Foundation Education Office\n1211 Union Ave Suite 510\nMemphis, TN 38104\nPhone: (901) 759-3275\nPhone: (901) 759-3274"}
{"content":"The ECMO Team caring for your child is made up of an ECMO doctor who may be a Neonatologist or a pediatric intensive care doctor, a surgeon, an ECMO perfusionist, ICU nurses and respiratory therapists.\n- The Neonatologist or Pediatric Intensivist: A pediatrician who specializes in the care of very sick babies or children. This doctor will be the primary doctor for your child.\n- The Pediatric Surgeon: A doctor who specializes in performing surgery on children. This doctor will place and remove the cannulas needed for ECMO. The surgery will take place in the intensive care unit.\n- The ECMO Perfusionist: A certified perfusionist is educated and trained in the management and operation of the ECMO machine. The perfusionist will prepare the machine and tubing to help the surgeon and ECMO doctor place your child on ECMO. In the event there are problems while your child is on ECMO, the perfusionist will work to correct the problem. They will always be available to assist the bedside ECMO specialist taking care of your child.\n- The ECMO specialist is a nurse or respiratory therapist who has received special training to run the ECMO machine. There will always be an ECMO specialist to run the ECMO machine.\n- The ICU Nurse and Respiratory Therapist: These members of the ICU team are specially educated to care for very sick babies and children. They will be at the bedside providing care to your child."}
{"content":"Professional Reports and Briefs\n- Spending and Student Achievement: Money Matters When Equity is at Issue (Janaury 2014)\n- Teacher Salaries and Opportunities to Learn (June 2013)\n- The eEnergy Vermont Collaborative: Bringing the Smart Grid to the State of Vermont (February 2013)\n- Why a Comprehensive Approach to Educational Reform is Necessary (January 2013)\n- Educational Productivity and Opportunities to Learn (September 2012)\n- Addressing the Needs of Children of Incarcerated Parents (February 2012)\n- Student Mobility and Opportunity to Learn: Money Matters (January 2012)\n- Can Voluntary School District Mergers Succeed? (October 2011)\n- Parent Information Resource Centers and Title I Compliance (June 2011)\n- Identifying Opportunities for Integrated Service Delivery to Children, Youth, and Young Adults with Disabilities (February 2012)\n- Lamoille Community Justice Project Program Evaluation: Fall 2009 - Summer 2010 (August 2010)\n- Homelessness Phase V Report: Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program: Final Report (March 31, 2010)\n- General Assistance (GA) Pilot: Phase 3 Evaluation Report (August 2009)\n- General Assistance (GA) Pilot: Phase 3 Executive Summary (August 24, 2009)\n- General Assistance (GA) Pilot: Phase 2 Evaluation Report (January 2009)\n- General Assistance (GA) Pilot: Phase 2 Executive Summary (January 21, 2008)\n- General Assistance (GA) Housing Benefits Flexibility Pilot Programs Evaluation: Phase 1 (November 15, 2007)\n- General Assistance (GA) Housing Benefits Flexibility Pilot Programs Evaluation: Phase 1 - Executive Summary (November 2007)\n- A Study of Consumer Satisfaction with Services and Supports Provided by the Agency of Human Services, 2005 (2005)\n- A Study of Staff Satisfaction at the Vermont Agency of Human Services, 2005 (2005)\n- Windsor County Sparrow Project Program Evaluation: Final Report of Year One Findings, June 1, 2009 - June 30, 2010 (May 2011)\n- Incarcerated Women's Initiative (IWI) (June 2007)\n- Equity of Opportunity To Learn, Spending and Student Achievement (April 5, 2014)\n- Interim Report on Act 153 (CY 2012): An Act Relating to Voluntary School District Merger, Virtual Merger, Supervisory Union Duties, and Including Secondary Students with Disabilities in Senior Year Activities and Ceremonies (January 2013)\n- Educational Opportunities Working Group Report on Aligning Funding, Opportunities to Learn and Outcomes of the Educational System (December 2012)\n- Interim Report on Act 153 (CY 2011): An Act Relating to Voluntary School District Merger, Virtual Merger, Supervisory Union Duties, and Including Secondary Students with Disabilities in Senior Year Activities and Ceremonies (July 2012)\n- Identifying Opportunities for Integrated Service Delivery to Children, Youth, and Young Adults with Disabilities (February 2012)\n- Report on Voluntary School District Merger Activity and Process (CY10), Executive Summary (March 23, 2011)\n- Vermont Teacher Diversity Report 2010: Study of Diversity of School Personnel and Recruiting Practices (2010)\n- Evaluation of the \"Quantum Leap\" Truancy and Dropout Prevention Programs Mount Anthony Union High School, Bennington Vermont: Final Evaluation Report (March 2006)\n- Windham Region Mobility Study: Coordination of Transportation Services to Improve Mobility for All of the Windham Region's Residents. (November 2012)\nVermont Mathematics Initiative (VMI)\n- The Vermont Mathematics Initiative: Student Acheivement from Grade 4 to Grade 10 2000 to 2006 (March 2008)\n- Evaluating the Vermont Mathematics Initiative in a Value Added Context (this is a powerpoint presentation of the March 2008 paper)\n- Vermont Mathematics Initiative Program Evaluation (May 2005)\n- Executive Summary VMI Evaluation (Executive Summary of the May 2005 Evaluation)\nVermont Legislative Research Service (VLRS) Policy Briefs\nThe Vermont Legislative Research Service (VLRS), formerly the Vermont Legislative Research Shop, was founded in 1998 and became part of the UVM Jeffords Center in 2010. The VLRS strives to provide non-partisan policy research support to state legislators while concurrently promoting students' research skills. Students work in research teams to produce reports answering questions posed by Legislators or create new reports based on current issues in the Legislature, under the supervision of Professor Anthony Gierzynski, Director of the VLRS.\n- Criminal Justice and Corrections\n- Economic Issues\n- Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) Report\n- Politics and Government\nPeer Reviewed Journal Articles\nCartier, L. & Ali, S. (2012). Pearl farming as a sustainable development path. Solutions Journal, 3 (4), 30-34.\nDonovan, E., & Shepherd, K. (2013). Implementing multi-tiered systems of support in mathematics: Findings from two schools. Journal of Special Education Apprenticeship, 2(1).\nGiles, C.D., G. Druschel, A.E. Richardson, J.E. Hill. (2012). Organic anion-driven solubilization of precipitate and sorbed phytate improves hydrolysis by phytases and bioavailability to Nicotiana tabacum. Soil Science, 177 (10), 591-598.\nGriffin, P. & Ali, S.H. (in press). Managing transboundary wetlands: The Ramsar Convention as a means of environmental diplomacy. Journal of Environmental Studies and Science.\nHill, J.E., and Giles, C.D. (2011). Think Globally, Act Locally: Targeting the Rhizosphere to Control Soil Fertility and Improve Water Quality. American Geophysical Union, Hydrology Section, December Newsletter, pp. 28-30.\nHuang, G., Zhou, W., & Ali, S. Spatial patterns and economic contributions of mining and tourism in biodiversity hotspots: A case study in Yunnan China. Ecological Economics, 70 (8), 1492 – 1498.\nKeir, L., Watts, R. & Inwood, S. (2014): Environmental justice and citizen perceptions of a proposed electric transmission line. Community Development, DOI: 10.1080/15575330.2014.887130\nKeir, L. & Ali, S. (2014). Conflict assessment in energy infrastructure siting: Prospects for consensus building in the Northern Pass transmission line project. Negotiation Journal, April 2014.\nKoliba, C. (2011). Introduction to “Performance Management in Governance Networks: Critical Concepts and Practices.” Public Performance Management Review, 34 (4), 515-519.\nKoliba, C., Zia, A. (in press). Theory Testing Using Complex Systems Modeling in Public Administration and Policy Studies: Challenges and Opportunities for a Meta-Theoretical Research Program. Emergence: Complexity & Organization.\nKoliba, C., Zia, A., and Lee, B. 2011. Governance Informatics: Utilizing Computer Simulation Models to Manage Complex Governance Networks. The Innovation Journal: The Public Sector Innovation Journal. 16 (1), Article 3.\nMoore, C., Shoulberg, E., & Murray-Close, D. (2012). The Protective Role of Teacher Preference for At-Risk Children’s Social Status. Aggressive Behavior, 38 (6), 481-493.\nShepherd, K., & Salembier, G. (2010). Leading, learning, and literacy: Implementing a response to intervention approach in the Riverside elementary school. New England Reading Association Journal 46, (1), 38 – 49.\nShepherd, K., Salembier, G. (2011). Improving schools through a response to intervention approach: A cross-case analysis of three rural schools. Rural Special Education Quarterly, 30 (3), 3-15.\nShoulberg, E.K., Sijtsema, J.J., Murray-Close, D. (2011). The association between valuing popularity and relational aggression: The moderating effects of actual popularity and physiological reactivity to exclusion. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 110(1), 20-37.\nZia, A. (2012) Land Use Adaptation to Climate Change: Economic Damages from Land-Falling Hurricanes in the Atlantic and Gulf States of the USA, 1900-2005. Sustainability 4: 917-932.\nZia, A., and Glantz, M. (2012) Risk Zones: Comparative Lesson Drawing and Policy Learning from Flood Insurance Programs. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice 14(2): 143-159.\nZia, A., Kauffman, S., Niiranen, S. (2012) The Prospects and Limits of Algorithms in Simulating Creative Decision Making. Emergence: Complexity and Organization (E:CO) – An International Transdisciplinary Journal of Complex Social Systems 14 (3): 89-109.\nZia, A., Metcalf, S., Koliba, C., Widner, M. (in press). Agent Based Models of Cross-Jurisdictional Governance Networks: Simulating the Emergence of Project Prioritization Patterns Under Alternate Policy Theoretical Frameworks and Network Structures. Emergence: Complexity & Organization.\nZia, A., Hameed, K. (in press). Politics of Conflict in Pakistan’s Tribal Areas: Vulnerability Reduction in Violence-Prone Complex Adaptive Systems. Digest of Middle East Studies (DOMES).\nZia, A. and Koliba, C. (in press). Modeling of Intergovernmental Decision Making for Funding Transportation Projects. Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Society.\nZia, A. and Koliba, C. (2011). Climate Change Governance and Accountability: Dilemmas of Performance Management in Complex Governance Networks. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis. 13(5): 479-497.\nZia, A., C. Koliba (2013) Agent-Based Modeling of Intergovernmental Decision Making: How Institutional Rules Generate Basins of Attraction in Funding Transportation Projects. Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting. Washington DC, January 2013. Paper No. 13-2153.\nZia, A., Koliba, C., De Pinto, T. (2012) Multi-Criteria Evaluation of Metropolitan Transportation Planning Scenarios: Assessing Trade-Offs Between Business-As-Usual and Alternate Sustainable Community Designs. Transportation Research Board 2012 Annual Meeting, Washington DC, January 2012. Paper no. 12-2461.\nPincus, R. & Ali, S. eds. (in press) Diplomacy on Ice: Energy and the Environment in the Arctic and Antarctic. Yale University Press, April 2014.\nAli, S.H. & Ackley, M. (2011). Foreign investment and environmental justice in an island economy: Mining, bottled water, and corporate social responsibility in Fiji. In Julian Agyeman and JoAnn Carmin (eds.), Environmental Inequities Beyond Borders: Local Perspectives on Global Injustices. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.\nAli, S.H. & Watzin, M. Science and spatial security: Building peace through environmental cooperation in southern Europe. In Rita Floyd and Richard Mathews (Eds.), Environmental Security: Approaches and Issues. London: Routledge, 2013.\nBeckage, B., Kauffman, S. Zia, A., Koliba, C., Gross, L.J. 2013. Book chapter: More Complex Complexity: Exploring the Nature of Computational Irreducibility Across Physical, Biological, and Human Social Systems. Zenil, H. editor. Irreducibility and Computational Equivalence. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. 79-88.\nKoliba, C. 2013. Book chapter: Governance Network Performance: Foundations of Theory Development and Empirical Analysis. Agranoff, B., Mandell, M., and Keast, R. editors. Advances in Network Governance. Routledge Press: New York, NY.\nKoliba, C. (2011). Book chapter: Administrative Strategies for a Networked World: The Educational Imperative for Intergovernmental Relations in 2020. Thurmaier, K. and Meek, J. editors. Network Governance: Implications for Intergovernmental Relations in 2020. New York: Sage Publications.\nKoliba, C. and Zia, A. (in press). Book chapter: Governance Informatics: Using Computer Simulation Models to Deepen Situational Awareness and Governance Design Considerations. DeSouza, K. and Johnston, E. editors. Policy Informatics. MIT Press: Cambridge, MA.\nKoliba, C., and Zia, A. 2013. Complex Systems Modeling in Public Administration and Policy Studies: Challenges and Opportunities for a Meta-Theoretical Research Program. In L. Gerrits and P.K. Marks (Eds.), COMPACT I: Public Administration in Complexity. Litchfield Park, AZ: Emergent Publications.\nKoppenjan, J. and Koliba, C. Symposium Co-Editors. 2013. The Complexity of New Public Governance. International Review of Public Administration.\nZia, A., Kelman, I., Glantz, M. (in press) Arctic Melting Tests the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. In Diplomacy on Ice: Polar Governance in the Age of Climate Change. Editors: S. Ali and R. Pincus. Yale University Press, New Haven CT.\nZia, A. (2013) Post-Kyoto Climate Governance: Confronting the Politics of Scale, Ideology and Knowledge. Rutledge, London UK.\nZia, A., Koliba, C., and Tian, Y. 2013. Governance Network Analysis: Experimental Simulations of Alternate Institutional Designs for Intergovernmental Project Prioritization Processes. In L. Gerrits and P.K. Marks (Eds.), COMPACT I: Public Administration in Complexity. Litchfield Park, AZ: Emergent Publications\nDeCarlo, Anjanette (2013). Sustainable Strategies for Implementing Development Assistance: Enterprise, Women's Empowerment and NGOs in Africa and the Diaspora. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Vermont.\nDonovan, Erin (2013). Peer Sexual Harassment in College: The Relationship with Status and College Adjustment. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Vermont.\nGiles, Courtney D. (2012) The role of plant and bacterial organic anion production in the bioavailability of myo-inositol hexakisphosphate: implications for soil phosphorus cycling and agricultural nutrient mitigation. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Vermont.\nGlesner, Talia J. (2014) Programming for Families Impacted by Incarceration: An Ecological Exploration Ed.D. Dissertation, University of Vermont.\nOnderwyzer, Susan A. (2011). Vermont incarcerated women's initiative drug education, treatment, enforcement and rehabilitation projects evaluation: promising practices for reducing recidivism Ed.D Dissertation, University of Vermont.\nPincus, Rebecca (2013) United States Department of Defense and the Challenge of Climate Change. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Vermont.\nReeves, Susan A. (2010). Deliberate dialogue: evaluation teaching effectiveness of a patient safety communication technique. Ed.D. Dissertation, University of Vermont.\nRoy, Meagan E. (2010). Effective practices for teaching learners with autism spectrum disorders: validation of a program assessment tool. Ed.D. Dissertation, University of Vermont.\nShoulberg, Erin K. (2012). The contextual nature of popularity goals : associations with math engagement and achievement during the transition to adolescence. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Vermont.\nSwindlehurst, Kelly Ann (2014). Meeting the Needs of All Learners: The Impact of Teacher Education on Teacher Readiness. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Vermont.\nVoinov Vladich, Helena (2013). Participatory Spatial Analysis, High Resolution Remote Sensing Data and Ecosystem Services Valuation Approach as Tools for Environmental Consensus Building. 2013. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Vermont.\nFournier, Kate. (2012) An Evaluation of the Cactus Ferruginous Pygmy Owl Delisting. Master's Project, University of Vermont.\nKeir, L. (2013). Public participation in energy infrastructure development: The case of the Northern Pass transmission line. Master's Thesis, University of Vermont.\nKent, Daniel (2013). Assessing the Evolution of an Intergovernmental Transportation Planning Network's Democratic Anchorage. Master's Thesis, University of Vermont.\nTurner, Leslie (Drake) (2013). Making Space for Collaboration and Change in Vermont's Food System: Social Network Analysis of the Farm to Plate Network. Master's Thesis, University of Vermont."}
{"content":"Huge Study Finds Brain Networks Connected to Teen Drug Abuse\n- By Joshua E. Brown\nThat teenagers push against boundaries — and sometimes take risks — is as predictable as the sunrise. It happens in all cultures and even across all mammal species: adolescence is a time to test limits and develop independence.\nBut why do some teenagers start smoking or experimenting with drugs — while others don’t?\nIn the largest imaging study of the human brain ever conducted — involving 1,896 14-year-olds — scientists have discovered a number of previously unknown networks that go a long way toward an answer.\nRobert Whelan and Hugh Garavan of the University of Vermont, along with a large group of international colleagues, report that differences in these networks provide strong evidence that some teenagers are at higher risk for drug and alcohol experimentation — simply because their brains work differently, making them more impulsive.\nTheir findings are presented in the journal Nature Neuroscience, published online April 29.\nDrug use biomarker\nThis discovery helps answer a long-standing chicken-or-egg question about whether certain brain patterns come before drug use — or are caused by it.\n“The differences in these networks seem to precede drug use,” says Garavan, Whelan’s colleague in UVM’s psychiatry department, who also served as the principal investigator of the Irish component of a large European research project, called IMAGEN, that gathered the data about the teens in the new study.\nIn a key finding, diminished activity in a network involving the “orbitofrontal cortex” is associated with experimentation with alcohol, cigarettes and illegal drugs in early adolescence.\n“These networks are not working as well for some kids as for others,” says Whelan, making them more impulsive.\nFaced with a choice about smoking or drinking, the 14-year-old with a less functional impulse-regulating network will be more likely to say, “Yeah, gimme, gimme, gimme!” says Garavan, “and this other kid is saying, ‘No, I’m not going to do that.’”\nTesting for lower function in this and other brain networks could, perhaps, be used by researchers someday as “a risk factor or biomarker for potential drug use,” Garavan says.\nUnderstanding brain networks that put some teenagers at higher risk for starting to use alcohol and drugs could have large implications for public health. Death among teenagers in the industrialized world is largely caused by preventable or self-inflicted accidents that are often launched by impulsive risky behaviors — and alcohol and drug use often is a root of these behaviors.\nAdditionally, “addiction in the western world is our number one health problem,” says Garavan. “Think about alcohol, cigarettes or harder drugs and all the consequences that has in society for people’s health.”\nThe links with ADHD\nThe researchers were also able to show that other newly discovered networks are connected with the symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. These ADHD networks are distinct from those associated with early drug use.\nIn recent years, there has been controversy and extensive media attention about the possible connection between ADHD and drug abuse. Both ADHD and early drug use are associated with poor inhibitory control — they’re problems that plague impulsive people.\nBut the new research shows that these seemingly related problems are regulated by different networks in the brain — even though both groups of teens can score poorly on tests of their “stop-signal reaction time,” a standard measure of overall inhibitory control used in this study and other similar ones. This strengthens the idea that risk of ADHD is not necessarily a full-blown risk for drug use as some recent studies suggest.\nImpulsivity in pieces\nThe impulsivity networks — connected areas of activity in the brain revealed by increased blood flow — begin to paint a more nuanced portrait of the neurobiology underlying the patchwork of attributes and behaviors that psychologists call impulsivity — as well as the capacity to put brakes on these impulses, a set of skills sometimes called inhibitory control.\nEdythe London, professor of addiction studies and director of the UCLA Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology, who was not part of the new study, described it as “outstanding,” noting that the work by Whelan and others “substantially advances our understanding of the neural circuitry that governs inhibitory control in the adolescent brain.”\nUsing a complex mathematical approach called factor analysis, Whelan and colleagues were able to fish out seven networks involved when impulses were successfully inhibited and six networks involved when inhibition failed — from the vast and chaotic actions of a teenage brain at work. These networks “light up,” Whelan says, in a functional MRI scanner during trials when the teenagers were asked to perform a repetitive task that involved pushing a button on a keyboard, but then were able to successfully stop — or inhibit — the act of pushing the button in mid-action. Those teens with better inhibitory control were able to succeed at this task faster.\nBut the underlying networks behind these tasks could not have been detectable in a “typical fMRI study of about 16 or 20 people,” says Whelan. “This study was orders of magnitude bigger, which lets us overcome much of the randomness and noise — and find the brain regions that actually vary together.”\nThe new study draws on the multi-year work of the IMAGEN Consortium, funded by the European Union, and headed by Prof. Gunter Schumann at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London. IMAGEN, lead by a team of scientists across Europe, carried out neuroimaging, genetic and behavioral analyses in 2,000 teenage volunteers in Ireland, England, France, and Germany and will be following them for several years, investigating the roots of risk-taking behavior and mental health in teenagers.\n“The take-home message is that impulsivity can be decomposed, broken down into different brain regions,” says Garavan, “and the functioning of one region is related to ADHD symptoms, while the functioning of other regions is related to drug use.”"}
{"content":"BEAVER CREEK, Colorado \" Jerome Robbins looms large in pop culture. Ten years after his death, America remembers him as the choreographic genius behind \"West Side Story\" and \"Fancy Free.\"\nHe was a giant in the dance world, too. In fact, when Robbins died in 1998, the whole dance world grieved.\n\"We have a great variety of new ballets being made at New York City Ballet, but truly the great geniuses were passed at that moment, the icons: (George) Balanchine, now Robbins, too,\" Vail International Dance Festival Director Damian Woetzel recalled.\nRobbins shaped an entire generation of dancers. To Pacific Northwest Ballet Director Peter Boal, Robbins was a teacher.\nBoal was 10 the first time he danced for Robbins, as Cupid in the New York City Ballet's production of \"Mother Goose.\" When Boal practiced leading Prince Charming through the forest, Robbins urged him to get into character by pretending that stepping on a twig would give him away.\n\"To me it was just the last three minutes of the ballet, but to him it was this whole fleshed out character that this 10-year-old had to play,\" Boal said.\nThursday night, Boal will team up with Woetzel to give audiences an inside glimpse of Robbins' works. With film clips of Robbins instructing, performances of his dances by the Pacific Northwest Ballet and a discussion with the audience, \"UpClose: Jerome Robbins\" will consider: Just who was Jerome Robbins?\nWoetzel and Boal worked with Robbins during the mid '80s, a delicate time in the ballet world. The great choreographic master George Balanchine passed away in 1983 and some dancers feared the craft would flounder.\n\"We were lamenting the death of George Balanchine, and people were wondering where those influences would be found,\" Boal said. \"And there was Jerry stepping up and saying, 'I'm right here. I'm ready to work.' So it was important for my generation to have him.\"\nRobbins was choreographing for the New York City Ballet at that time, and his presence there was a major factor in Woetzel's decision to join the company as a teen.\nWoetzel remembers sitting in on a rehearsal of \"Fancy Free\" and thinking: \"My God, it's better than the dreams.\"\nHe and Boal worked together with Robbins on many dances, including \"In Memory Of...\" and \"Quiet City.\"\n\"It was an interesting year in New York because it was in the '80s, and AIDS was really affecting all New York artists, and Jerry was losing a lot of people that were very dear to him,\" Boal recalled. \"So he made these ballets with angels in them.\"\nWorking under Robbins was incredibly demanding. Woetzel became acquainted with Robbins' style during the 13 years they worked together. \"If you were five minutes late, he'd say, 'You owe me five,' \" Woetzel recalled. \"It was serious.\"\nBut the hard work in the studio paid off. Woetzel said he learned valuable lessons from Robbins about developing a character.\nRobbins once offered a suggestion for Woetzel during rehearsals for an Italian-themed ballet called \"Donizetti Variations.\"\n\"He said, 'That section with the girls \" Don't forget: You're sort of the guy in the group. You're making pizza and pasta. There's sauce in the air.' I remember thinking, 'I got it,' \" Woetzel said.\nThat moment summed up Robbins' approach to dance.\n\"Everything was from a sense of theater,\" Woetzel said. \"How it plays, how it feels. And there were technical corrections, too, you know? How you do a step, that sort of stuff, but it was all about how you made it happen on stage, how you made it live, and I treasure those corrections.\"\nRobbins was a paradox in many ways. Though he stood about 5 foot 9, his imposing presence made him seem taller. He attended New York's finest social events yet could be shy and awkward in conversation, Boal said. A self-proclaimed homosexual, he had romances with both men and women, according to \"Somewhere: The Life of Jerome Robbins.\"\nAlthough he could reign unchallenged at any ballet company, he chose to create at the one place where he had a rival.\n\"He oddly lived in Balanchine's shadow for all of those years at the New York City Ballet, and I think people really had to wake up in the ballet world and realize that there were amazing contributions done by Robbins,\" Boal said.\nRobbins was born in 1918 in a Jewish enclave in Manhattan. As a teen he set out to study chemistry at New York University but money woes forced him to drop out and take a sharp turn in his career. In the 1940s, Robbins became a soloist for the Ballet Theatre, where he attracted attention for roles like Hermes in \"Helen of Troy.\" He also created and starred in his famous ballet \"Fancy Free\" in 1944 at the Metropolitan Opera.\nThe following decade brought highs and lows. Although Robbins produced some of his most enduring Broadway works \" \"The King and I,\" \"The Pajama Game\" and \"West Side Story\" \" he fell under suspicion of Communist sympathies and was called to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. He avoided the blacklist by naming Communist sympathizers, but the guilt of betraying his friends haunted him for the rest of his life.\nRobbins picked up a pair of Tony Awards for his 1964 masterpiece \"Fiddler on the Roof.\" In 1972, he became ballet master of the New York City Ballet and continued to work in ballet throughout the next decade.\n\"Obviously he was the biggest star that Broadway ever saw, so that chapter of his life was well established, but I think his real love was in the ballet world, in classical ballet,\" Boal said.\nRobbins' love for ballet continued even as his body faltered. He began to lose his balance and had trouble coming to terms with the fact that he could no longer demonstrate as he once could, Boal recalled. Despite a bicycle accident, heart-valve surgery and the onset of Parkinson's disease, Robbins staged Les Noces for City Ballet in 1998.\nWhen he died of a stroke at 79, the dance world coped by clinging to his memory.\n\"Immediately all these stories that you heard about, well, 'Balanchine said such and such' and then it was 'Jerry said such and such'\" Woetzel said, noting it became a competition about who remembered Robbins best. \"And it speaks to their genius that our moments with them matter so much to us.'\"\nOn a clear summer night at the Ford Amphitheater in Vail, the crowd was mesmerized by three sailors dancing in their iconic white uniforms and hats. The Pacific Northwest Ballet performed \"Fancy Free\" Tuesday as a tribute to Robbins. Flirting with girls, joking among themselves, the sailors demonstrate Robbins' flair for fusing ballet with drama.\nThe performance in Vail illustrates Robbins' lasting legacy. His work is still deeply entrenched on Broadway, and has been building momentum at companies like the Pacific Northwest Ballet.\n\"Jerry was a completely American original,\" Boal said. \"He came forward with a whole new dance style. It reflected things that people did every day on the street, and in bars, and when they were roughhousing and when they were flirting. He brought all of that great, unique human vocabulary into the world of classical ballet. And it was an infusion that was exciting and it brought broad appeal to ballet that maybe wasn't there before.\"\nHigh Life Writer Sarah Mausolf can be reached at 970-748-2938 or firstname.lastname@example.org."}
{"content":"University of Lethbridge\n(20 Feb. 2011)\nCountering the Incursions of the Axis of Kleptocracy\nIn responding to the worldwide protests aimed at stopping the US-led invasion of Iraq, The New York Times referred in 2003 to the existence of a new global superpower, that of world public opinion. Back then, however, the full potential of this force of change remained unrealized and underdeveloped as demonstrated by the outcome of the events of February 15. On that historic day eight years ago, tens of millions of anti-war protestors came flooding into the streets simultaneously in literally hundreds of large and small cities all over the planet.\nIn spite of this massive display of organized global opposition to the extension of the 9/11 Wars into Iraq, the mobilized superpower of global political will was not yet muscular enough to prevent the onslaughts of illegal invasion, occupation, torture, genocide and mind control to come. These massive global protests proved insufficient to prevent the expansion of the 9/11 Wars from Afghanistan to the oil-rich country ruled by Saddam Hussein, a former CIA-asset whose desire to do business in Euros threatened the global pre-eminence of Saudi-American petro-dollars.\nNow, almost a decade after the illegal US-led invasion of Iraq, it seems the global superpower of world public opinion is beginning to gain traction. With the help of increasingly cheap and accessible digital social networking, activists throughout the world are shaking off their subordination to the information monopolies of government and corporate-dominated mainstream media. A good number of us have devoted ourselves to building up new means of following and creating news. The activities of the bloggers and readers at Veterans Today epitomize this trend.\nThe process of co-operative self-education through the New Media of Internet interactivity forms a key to unlocking our collective capacities to organize politically against the deep incursions of the criminal cabal that most menaces humanity’s global prospects for peace and prosperity. Among the leading warlords that most threaten our children’s chances for a decent future are those who direct some of the world’s largest corporations. Many of these leviathans have long been primary beneficiaries and agencies of the permanent war economy maintained in the United States since 1941.\nMany of these warlords operate along an axis of kleptocracy linking Wall Street with the Pentagon. Those bankers and militarists who most effectively exploit their license to steal in the charmed inner circle of kleptocratic privilege tend to become role models for the system of crony capitalism that dominates more and more of humanity. The maintenance of this system of top-down corruption depends heavily on the actions of those corporate warlords who prove most adept at deploying state violence as instruments of elite rule.\nBecause of the Internet, the criminal cabal at the top of the feeding chain of global pillage and plunder are facing new surges of transnational opposition. In the political environment increasingly shaped by those communities of public opinion that sometimes coalesce on the worldwide web, something as seemingly local as the self-immolation of a street vendor in Tunisia, or the police torture and murder of a young Egyptian man in Alexandria, can end up having huge and unforeseen consequences. “We Are All Khalid Said,” asserted the Google marketing manager Wael Ghonim on a Facebook page now known to millions. Ghonim’s contribution to the Internet’s content was an essential part of the process of mobilizing public opposition against the kind of casual police brutality that had become commonplace in an Egypt overseen by strongman Hosni Mubarak on behalf of absentee landlords in Israel and the United States.\nThe worldwide spread of those spurred to revulsion and action by the ghoulish police killing of Khalid Said will probably continue on a wired planet where the lies and crimes of 9/11 continue to be exposed on the Internet even as they are concurrently exploited by interlinked oligarchs. In this sense, the crimes against humanity imposed by Egyptian authorities on their own people are, unfortunately, more the rule than the exception. Indeed, the example of Mubarak’s Egypt provides an illuminating preview of the kind of governance that more and more of us can expect if the rise of the global police state is allowed to continue unabated.\nThe growth of police powers will inevitably continue to grow as long as the massively entitled few seek protections from the hugely disentitled many. These elite protections can be commandeered from the corporatist state, often through direct purchase of services from private police forces and military contractors. From New Orleans to Beijing, Moscow, Lagos, Tel Aviv, Djibouti, and Tripoli, resorts to state terror are often justified through the fear mongering essential to the psychological operations animating the fraudulent War on Terror.\nThe Structure of the Great Theft Along Lines of Region, Class and Generation\nThe spotlight of worldwide scrutiny placed on the regime of Hosni Mubarak by the protestors in Cairo’s Tahrir Square reveals much about the nature of the global criminal cabal behind Egypt’s strongman. For instance the wide public exposure of Mubarak’s subservience to the joint dictates of Washington and Tel Aviv speak volumes about the structure of the world’s dominant kleptocracy. This kleptocracy is parasitically eating away at the life chances especially of youths not only in Egypt but also in, for instance, Greece, England, Ireland and Wisconsin.\nSimilarly, news that Mubarak’s entourage have amassed fortunes to the tune of hundreds of billions of ill-gotten dollars draw increased public scrutiny to the role of military expenditures in feeding the primary centers of corruption and organized crime in our times. Like Bernie Madoff, Mubarak is in fact far down the feeding chain of those kleptocrats who steal with impunity from the public purse. Where Mubarak is but a middle manager in the global structure of the world’s dominant military-industrial complex, those who rule over this apparatus of violent coercion increasingly count their stolen loot in the trillions rather than mere billions.\nThe transfer of these trillions to the world’s richest financiers was put on full public display when the governments of the United States and many other countries facilitated the bailouts that together constitute the boldest theft of public resources ever executed. The main beneficiaries of these bailouts are not the puppet dictators in the tradition of, to mention only a few, Mubarak of Egypt, Sukarno of Indonesia, Rios Montt of Guatemala, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq of Pakistan, Sese Seko Mobutu of Congo, or King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain. No, the main beneficiaries of the axis of kleptocracy linking Wall Street and the Pentagon are those whose operatives have situated themselves most strategically in the interlocked complex of personnel employed by agencies like Goldman Sachs, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the US Treasury Branch as well as the Financial Products Division of AIG and its networks of so-called counterparties around the world.\nTo me the operations of AIG leading up to the worldwide financial contagion that began on Wall Street are particularly illustrative of the nature of the highest order of organized crime in these times. The tradition of corporate governance embodied by the genesis of AIG and its Shanghai-based predecessor form an iconic embodiment of the kleptocratic operations of the national security state as they have evolved through the Office of Strategic Services during the Second World War, the CIA during the Cold War, and the Bank of Credit and Commerce International during the period when the privatized terror economy began to dominate big parts of the global economy. I elaborate and document these patterns and connections in considerable detail in the culminating chapter of my most recent book, Earth into Property: Colonization, Decolonization and Capitalism.\nThe covert activities of AIG and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York meet in the creation of two of the three Maiden Lane companies. The Maiden Lane companies were set up by the Federal Reserve Bank of NY to purchase the most toxic of the financial derivative products whose contaminating effects poisoned the global economy beginning in 2008. Two of the three Maiden Lane companies were established to purchase toxic derivative products from AIG and its hedging counterparties. These Maiden Lane entities took over and continue to own to this day some of the most poisonous of the toxic derivatives purchased by the corporate extension of the NY Fed.\nMaiden Lane II became a giant dump for the most highly publicized form of derivative based on the securitization of packages of home mortgages. Maiden Lane III was set up by the NY Fed under Timothy Geitner’s leadership to pay off AIG’s counterparties in a much more murky variety of derivative contract. There is every reason to suspect that these secretive bets on bets on bets are based on activities similar to those that once dominated the business of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, where the operatives of, for instance, the CIA, al-Qaeda, Mossad, and Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program conducted their transactions.\nThe activities of Maiden Lane III’s primary beneficiaries might include, for instance, speculation in the outcomes of covert operations like regime change in Eurasian polities. Or they might extend to the flow of laundered funds derived from massive drug deals or to bets on the planning, building and protection of oil and gas pipelines emanating from the Caspian basin. This genre of speculative transaction might also extend to the commodification and political manipulation of fear in an era when repeated false flag terror attacks help steer the movement of public funds to those private military contractors waging some of the most secretive operations in the 9/11 Wars.\nThe theft in and around the axis of kleptocracy linking Wall Street and the Pentagon form one aspect of a larger process that is gutting the financial viability of the United States generally and of its once-strong middle class more particularly. The deindustrialization of a country that was until recently the manufacturing dynamo of the global economy forms the core of the kleptocratic processes that are plundering the public wealth of America to enrich a small plutocracy.\nThis deindustrialization of America has savaged most severely the domestic political economies especially of unionized workers. As manufacturing enterprises were rapidly relocated to China and other low-wage polities, the prospects of Middle America as well as of, for instance, Middle England, Middle Greece, or Middle Egypt, have been devastated. Those who are thus displaced from niches of economic security must join the growing ranks of the poor and dispossessed. This unearned push downward falls especially heavily on the young. In country after country the young have been saddled with lifetimes of huge national debt to pay the bailouts to the same criminal cliques that caused the financial contagion in the first place.\nThe growing cycles of theft were facilitated by the broad dissemination of the propaganda of Reagonomics and Thatcherism. Beginning in the 1980s the top leadership of Anglo-America popularized a philosophy of greed that facilitated the theft from shareholders and taxpayers by Chief Executive Officers and their minions in the burgeoning field of creative accounting. The other side of this philosophical glorification of private property was an assault on public institutions, public ownership and public services of all kinds. That assault on the human commonwealth continues unabated in spite of the bailouts’ brilliant illumination of the willingness of the rich to overturn competitive capitalism in their zeal to raid the public purse.\nThis surge of Enron-style creative accounting in the name of deregulation helped give rise to the flood of derivative products that contaminated the global economy. As the workings of the Maiden Lane entities demonstrate, the bailouts were structured to provide massive rewards to the makers of the most toxic derivative products. This enormous upward transfer of wealth to the rich and superrich from the present and future earnings of middle class taxpayers compounded capitalism’s most mean yet characteristic attributes. This suck-up approach gave new meaning to capitalism’s propensity to privatize public wealth while socializing the liabilities of doing business.\nThis overview of recent history puts in context the neoliberal effort to make the public service unions of Wisconsin and other US states the scapegoats for the gutting of the domestic economy of the ailing superpower. Indeed the viciousness of the ongoing neoliberal attack on the American middle class continues the assault on the legacy of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal by undermining the legal basis not only of public service unions but of labor unions of all kinds.\nIt seems, therefore, that the same forces that propped up the regime of Hosni Mubarak for three decades are now intent on destroying any remaining bastions in America of secure jobs with decent benefits. The result of this concerted attack starting in Wisconsin on the struggling remnants of America’s once-thriving middle class holds out nothing but the prospect of a slave future for those unable to secure places for themselves inside the walled enclaves of kleptocratic class privilege.\nNo Containing the Power of the Idea set in Motion by the Self-Immolation of a Street Vendor in Tunisia\nThe wild card in all this activity is the belated arrival of the new superpower of global public opinion, a force whose capacity to change history is only beginning to be felt. Those who are following the rise of this superpower of popular self-empowerment are quite right to notice similarities between the scenes emanating from Tahrir Square in Cairo and the State Legislature in Wisconsin. Indeed, the example of self-empowerment set by the protesters in Egypt will in all probability be seen in the light of future history as an event of comparable importance to the coming down of the Berlin Wall in 1989.\nThere will be no containing the power of the idea set in motion when a frustrated street vendor in Tunisia decided to dramatize the extent of the corruption he faced by setting fire to himself in public. The scenes of conflict and aspiration that have put a spotlight of global attention on both Egypt and Wisconsin will continue to ripple across jurisdiction after jurisdiction in a world where the chains of slavery and colonialism have never been fully severed. We need to do more than hope, however, that the collective force of popular self-empowerment will not be betrayed by the covert manipulations of those parties seeking to subvert this movement for global democracy in order to reinforce the unaccountable power of the world’s dominant kleptocracy.\nPosted by Joshua Blakeney on February 20, 2011, With 404 Reads Filed under Middle East, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed."}
{"content":"Ruskin's conception of wealth is necessarily, and heavily, imbued with moral qualities. As he writes in \"The Veins of Wealth\" from Unto This Last:\nIt is impossible to conclude, of any given mass of acquired wealth, merely by the fact of its existence, whether it signifies good or evil to the nation in the midst of which it exists. Its real value depends on the moral sign attached to it, just as sternly as that of a mathematical quantity depends on the algebraical sign attached to it...\nAnd these are not, observe, merely moral or pathetic attributes of riches, which the seeker of riches may, if he chooses, despise; they are, literally and sternly, material attributes of riches, depreciating or exalting, incalculably, the monetary signification of the sum in question. One mass of money is the outcome of action which has created, — another, of action which has annihilated, — ten times as much in the gathering of it; such and such strong hands have been paralyzed, as if they had been numbed by nightshade: so many strong men's courage broken, so many productive operations hindered; this and the other false direction given to labour, and lying image of prosperity set up, on Dura plains dug into seven-times-heated furnaces. That which seems to be wealth may in verity be only the gilded index of far-reaching ruin; a wrecker's handful of coin gleaned from the beach to which he has beguiled an argosy; a camp-follower's bundle of rags unwrapped from the breasts of goodly soldiers dead; the purchase-pieces of potter's fields, wherein shall be buried together the citizen and the stranger. \n1. It seems that this moral codification of wealth implies, as its necessary result, some form of communism or socialism. The capitalist pursuit of wealth, as described in Ruskin's parable of the island community, is \"evil.\" To obtain wealth that is \"good,\" one must pursue the common good, as noted in footnote 35. Is this reading supported elsewhere in Unto This Last?\n2. Ruskin's binary of wealth offers no middle ground — either one is equated with Judas (via the \"purchase-pieces\" reference) or one is not. How realistic is this exclusive system of good and evil?\nLast modified 4 April 2003"}
{"content":"Undoubtedly we've all had the experience at one time or another of watching (or trying to watch) a particular online video, only to have some problem arise that interrupts our experience. To the average user, it's a mystery what might have happened. Is it a problem with my computer? With my personal Internet connection? With my Internet service provider? With the source of the content?\nRegardless, it causes user frustration, which can lead to clicking away from the video, possibly never to return. More often than not, the content provider isn't even aware of these user problems. As online video becomes more central to content providers' strategies and P&Ls, inferior user experiences are a growing concern for content providers. And given the vagaries of the Internet and the exploding volume of video being consumed, it's an issue unlikely to go away anytime soon.\nThat's where Conviva comes in. Conviva gives content providers unprecedented insight into their users' viewing behaviors as well as tools to quickly identify and resolve problems. As Darren Feher, Conviva's new CEO explained to me when I met up with him recently, and in a subsequent demo, the company's studies show that at least 25% of all streams suffer one problem or another. Affected users watch between 30-80% less video than those who don't have problems.\nHere's how Conviva works: a small bit of its code is integrated by the content provider alongside the Flash or Silverlight player, whichever is used (in either case no user download involved). Conviva is also integrating with online video platforms (so far just thePlatform, but others to come), so the step is eliminated for the content provider. When deployed, Conviva's code monitors the user's video experience and sends back \"heartbeat\" reports every 10 seconds to the Conviva console. The console gives the content provider multiple views of their users' experiences, including things like a geographic distribution of current viewing, what player's being used, the average time it's taking to start streaming, the average duration of viewing, the amount of buffering, and so on. Conviva shares the science behind all of this if you're so inclined.\nConviva's secret sauce is mashing up all that in-bound data in real-time and detecting if/where problems exist, and when they do, what the source is. Problems could include buffering on the user's machine, issues with the currently-used CDN, congestion in the local ISP, etc. In addition to these telemetry/analytics services, the company also offers a service it calls \"Conviva Distribution\" which will seek to remedy problems as they arise based on a set of pre-configured policies. For example, if the user's machine is buffering, Conviva will adjust the stream being sent to a lower bit rate. Or if the CDN being used is the problem, Conviva will switch to another CDN (of the content provider's choosing) in mid-stream, unbeknownst to the user. The content provider gets real-time visibility into what troubleshooting is happening.\nIn addition to improving the user experience, Darren believes this degree of insight opens up new opportunities for content providers. For example, say there's a higher value set of streams, maybe for a subscription service or a live event. Those streams can be tagged and monitored separately, and have greater resources allocated to them to ensure up-time. Improved visibility into videos that are going viral means their placement on the site and their monetization can be enhanced. Another example is better-informed customer service agents responding to issues specific to a certain set of videos.\nSome of what Conviva does is similar to analytics products like Omniture, performance measurement from companies like Keynote and Gomez and some of the reporting CDNs themselves provide to customers. But Conviva seems to bring together user viewing data in a unique and far deeper way than any of these. This week Conviva is helping NBC better understand its Olympics streaming using Silverlight. Conviva also counts Fox, ABC, NFL and others as customers. Conviva started life as Rinera Networks, pursing managed P2P distribution. It has raised $29 million to date from UV Partners, New Enterprise Associates and Foundation Capital.\nWhat do you think? Post a comment now (no sign-in required)."}
{"content":"Well, don't hold your breath. Here's the synthmuseum writeup on the 16-voice piano:\n\"This was Arp's ill-fated electric piano, which was introduced in 1979. Because of its poor design (the heat-sensitive Mylar insulation in its membrane switches and its noisy output), its after-sale repair costs pushed ARP furthur into debt. It features 16 preset tones, called voices, (hence the name 16-Voice) such as acoustic piano, vibes, harpsichord, harp, and electric piano. According to literature, \"A 73-note standard wooden keyboard, with a specially designed and weighted maple action, faithfully reproduces the feel and response of traditional grand pianos.\" Velocity, however, only controls volume and not timbre. The 16-Voice consists of two separate tone generators which can be detuned to fatten up the sound, up to a quarter of a semitone. The ARP Piano also contains a six-stage stereo phase shifter, vibrato, and two solid brass piano pedals, the right controlling sustain, and the left assignable by a dual-purpose switch on the panel to be either a soft pedal (which also reduces the brightness of the sound) or a momentary vibrato peda\""}
{"content":"Race against time\nB&W scrambles to train enough nuclear operators before 2021 launch of SMR .\n- June 28, 2013\nThomas Graham stands before a giant control system, its gauges and lights flickering with mock nuclear emergencies. If this were a real emergency, Graham would follow a precisely outlined series of steps.\nHis only emergency now is training enough licensed nuclear operators in time to support the launch of a small modular reactor by Babcock & Wilcox Nuclear Operations Group in Lynchburg, part of Charlotte, N.C.-based The Babcock & Wilcox Co.\nGraham is manager of the integrated design process and human factors program at B&W’s Lynchburg operations. He manages a simulated control room inside the company’s engineering offices — a mockup used to train nuclear operators and get them licensed in time to support the product’s expected commercial deployment in 2021.\n“We want to have a high state of readiness, so we’re already training people to get certified. Having qualified operators is one of the long poles in the tent for regulatory approval,” Graham says, a reference to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).\nThe reason for the early start: Graham says it takes at least two years for an aspiring operator to pass the NRC’s rigorous licensing tests. Some B&W engineers are undergoing training now, and more are expected to be added during the next year.\nInside the simulation center, a huge control panel juts out into the middle of the room. A series of flat-screen computer monitors on the far wall shows a schematic of Babcock’s simulated two-unit nuclear reactor, known as mPower.\nTogether, the system enables operators to keep a constant eye out for potential malfunction or other trouble spots.\nThe control system is powered by two batteries, each one the size of a small room. Access to the simulation center is digitally controlled, a cyber-security precaution, Graham says. Anyone entering the facility must be either a licensed operator or accompanied by someone who is.\nOnce in operation, the real control rooms will be manned in three eight-hour shifts. Each shift will include three operators on duty: two that monitor the system and a third to ensure that detailed, step-by-step protocol is followed for recording each incident, even minor anomalies and blips.\nPart of the training: at any time, each computer screen will simulate two simultaneous but unrelated emergencies, or a total of four separate incidents. It’s a way of testing each operator’s skill and familiarity with NRC regulations.\nGraham isn’t exactly sure how many licensed operators will be needed, but he says B&W wants to be prepared. Even after getting licensed, operators will undergo training to polish their skills, similar to how airline pilots complete periodic flight testing.\nOne week in every six will be devoted to new testing and training, Graham says. “There’s a lot of practice that goes into maintaining their skill level.”"}
{"content":"Sports Electrolyte Fix Liquid\nVegan EPA and DHA\nOrganic Maca Extract\n100% Organic Scandinavian Rain...\nWorld's first certified organic fish oil wins top award\nThe Award shines a light on this most-popular food supplement category and will encourage consumers ...\nLive an anti-inflammatory life\nPowerful natural and effective lifestyle choices to get lasting relief from the pain of inflammation...\nOmega-3 in pain and inflammation\nDo Omega-3 from fish oil have applications in joint health? How can vegans and vegetarians benefit f...\nThe controversial truth about glucosamine\nDoes glucosamine really help? Some thoughts on the controversy around this popular supplement.\nThe Turmeric Story\n7-step Guide to choosing the right Turmeric supplement for you. Understanding the difference between...\nBoswellia, aka Frankincense - the latest news.\nQuick guide to understanding the source and properties of Boswellia resin.\nUnderstanding joint health and mobility\nStruggling with the range of supplements for joint health? Facts and figures around the issue of joi...\nParacetamol doesn't work for osteoarthritis - new research\nReview finds that paracetamol is ineffective in relieving osteoarthritis pain.\nOrganic is different - further new evidence\nFurther research confirms that organic farming has nutritional benefits when compared to intensive f...\nBarley in the news as an ancient superfood\nBarley, revered by the Romans, now hailed as an ancient superfood."}
{"content":"Step into the wild at Aalborg Zoo. Hear the roar of the lion at feeding time, come eye to eye with an orangutan, watch polar bears frolic in the water, and give the children a hands-on experience at the petting zoo.\nIn 2012, Aalborg Zoo was found to be the most popular zoo in Denmark outside of Copenhagen, as the zoo experienced sky-high numbers of visitors with a total of 410,000 guests. In 2013 Aalborg Zoo set a new record of 470,000 guests, and then did so again in 2014.\nPopular playing area for the entire family\nIn 2014, a new big playing area with a playground, a barbecue area and a scene was opened in Aalborg Zoo. Here you can enjoy your lunch out in the open, while the children play nearby.\nLuxurious predator facilities\nIn 2012, new and big facilities for lions and tigers were opened. Both species now have way more room than before, as the tiger facilities have doubled in size, while the lion facilities have been expanded even more. Furthermore, the area for the audience has tripled in size, and now includes a platform from which you have a perfect view of both lions and tigers.\nPopular polar bears\nThe polar bears in Aalborg Zoo are popular. Aalborg Zoo was the first zoo in the world to set up webcams for people to follow the birth of a polar bear. The polar bear facilities in Aalborg Zoo allow people to follow the animals from different viewpoints. In December 2008, the cub Milak was born, and in 2010 the cub Augo saw daylight too.\nAalborg Zoo has created an authentic African environment with a 16 meters tall thatched savannah stable which houses zebras, warthogs and antelopes. In the village you can also meet ostriches and mini hippos. Experience the African savannah where giraffes and the other African animals run around on their own Danish savannah. Through the year, the African village in packed with activities like cooking, dancing, etc. for the entire family.\nAalborg Zoo works on securing endangered species through an international breeding project with zoological gardens all over the world by way of research, education and communication with schools and visitors in the park.\nAalborg Zoo offers several areas for you to relax and enjoy the atmosphere. Bring your lunch along or enjoy a meal at Restaurant Skovbakken in Aalborg Zoo…\nThe exit closes 1 hour after admission stops. Dogs are allowed, but must be kept in a leash.\nTransportation to Aalborg Zoo with bus no. 11\nRead more about Aalborg Zoo...\nAalborg Zoo on Instagram #aalborgzoo\nLast updated byVisitAalborg firstname.lastname@example.org\n- Accessibility - Easy access\n- petting zoo\n- Packed lunch permitted\n- Coach park\n- Activities for children\n- Zoological garden\nCoordinatesLongitude : 9.899883\nLatitude : 57.038225"}
{"content":"Germany wants to set up a system for early warning of tsunamis.\nA government spokesman told the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that the system would in its beginning stage cost about $53 million, and can be built in one to three years.\nThe spokesman said the new project would add 30 to 40 seismological stations in the Indian Ocean to a global network of 50 already existing research bodies.\nHe also said the project initially would concentrate on Sri Lanka and Indonesia, two of the countries hardest hit by the devastating December 26 tsunami.\nHowever, he added, with other donor nations, some 250 new stations may be included in the global system which will able to monitor also the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean.\nSome information provided by Reuters."}
{"content":"DAKAR— Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has launched an emergency medical intervention following reports of the Ebola virus in southern Guinea, where an outbreak of hemorrhagic fever has left at least 34 people dead.\nGuinea’s Ministry of Health, which says the outbreak has reached epidemic proportions, has registered 49 infections — including three suspected infections in the capital, Conakry — since it was first reported last month.\nGuinean health ministry official Sakoba Keita told VOA Saturday that three of 12 virus samples sent to France have been confirmed as Ebola.\nAmid growing concern that Guinea's hemorrhagic fever outbreak may have spread to neighboring Sierra Leone, the health ministry says World Health Organization officials are due to arrive on Sunday to conduct additional tests on site.\nAccording to MSF's Dr. Esther Sterk, a tropical disease specialist, the Geneva-headquartered group currently has a 24-member medical team on the ground to treat suspected cases, and more staffers are scheduled to arrive in coming days.\n“We have set up an isolation ward in Guéckédou,\" she said. \"That’s one of the places where patients have been seen. In this isolation unit we are treating the patients, and also what we do, everybody who has been in contact with suspected cases or confirmed patients, we follow them up in the period of the incubation time, in period that these people can fall sick.”\nSterk said an additional isolation ward will be set up in Macenta, where there have also been suspected cases of the virus.\nMSF said that more than 30 tons of medical supplies are now en route from Belgium and France to Guinea, including medications to ease the symptoms of the fever and equipment for isolation chambers.\nThis is the first time that such a virus has been identified in Guinea. This particular strain of the virus is initially contracted via contact with contaminated rodent feces and is then spread among humans through bodily fluids, such as sweat, saliva and blood.\nSymptoms include high fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and, in some cases, bleeding.\nThe WHO says Ebola is one of the most highly contagious viral diseases, resulting in death between 25 and 90 percent of cases. The virus cannot be prevented with a vaccine and is untreatable with medication.\n“There is no curative treatment, but there is symptomatic treatment,\" said Sterk. \"So if people have a fever, we give something to reduce the fever. People can have diarrhea and vomiting, so we give fluids, IV fluids. People have often a lot of pain, so we give painkillers. But for the containment of the outbreak, it’s very important that sick patients will be isolated and receive treatment in isolation ward.”\nThe Ministry of Health says it is has begun to educate the population about the symptoms of the virus and the importance of rapid treatment."}
{"content":"Human Rights Watch released its 2016 global report Wednesday, reviewing human rights practices in more than 90 countries from the end of 2014 through November 2015. For the organization’s Nairobi launch, Somalia and Kenya researchers gave remarks about their findings in those East African nations.\nDuring the Nairobi launch of the 2016 Human Rights Watch global report, HRW Africa Director Daniel Bekele said poverty, unemployment, massive population growth, bad governance and weak institutions continued to set the stage for widespread human rights abuses.\nBut the \"politics of fear\" is the topic of this year’s report, and Bekele highlighted the increasing number of small to large-scale armored, violent conflicts in the region.\nBekele said extremists, including fundamentalist groups Boko Haram, al-Shabab and al-Qaida were responsible for much of the violence, committing senseless killings, horrible abuses and atrocities.\n“What is an equally worrying trend is how much the security forces’ response to the security threat is increasingly downplayed and in some cases is probably totally abandoning human rights, and how much the security forces’ response that is riddled with abuses is actually contributing to a cycle of abuses.”\nTenuous security situation\nArguing that this tenuous security situation may be tied to the intensification of political repression in a number of African countries, Bekele said some governments were adopting what he called a “do-whatever-it-takes” mentality in restricting freedom of expression and association.\n“We have seen a spike in attacks on journalists, human rights defenders and political opponents, and overall, sort of a very heavy crackdown on protesters as well,” he said.\nBekele also highlighted the concern that Western countries and authoritarian regimes seemed to be forming alliances in the face of these security threats.\n“And Western countries that have traditionally been strong on promoting, protecting, and defending human rights have shown alliance with authoritarian regimes in clamping down on civil and political space,” he said.\nSomali soldiers stand near the wreckage after a car bomb detonated in Mogadishu, Somalia, Dec. 19, 2015.\nSexual, gender-based violence\nHRW’s Somalia researcher Laetitia Bader said that Somalia developed some key policies in 2015 pertaining to sexual and gender-based violence and the country’s widespread internally displaced population, but that those policies have not been implemented, and therefore, there have been no real changes on the ground.\nShe also mentioned an uptick in fighting in the country, due to the ongoing military operation against al-Shabab, but also in the drive to establish federal states in Somalia.\n“So who is able to get a seat at the negotiating table in Somalia in the creation of federalism has often been at significant consequence to civilians on the ground,” said Bader.\nUptick in attacks\nOtsieno Namwaya, HRW’s Kenya researcher, highlighted an increase in al-Shabab attacks in Kenya, primarily on unarmed civilians.\n“However, what has really worried us is the response of the Kenyan authorities to the attacks by the al-Shabab. The KDF, the Kenyan police, the regular police, and the anti-terror police and the GSU, a combination of all these units, have been implicated in a wide range of abuses at the coast, in northeastern Kenya and in Nairobi,” said Namwaya.\nBut in spite of these negative findings, HRW did cite some improvements on the continent, such as peaceful elections in Nigeria and Botswana, progress in the expansion of economies and socioeconomic services in some African countries, and an increased awareness of maternal mortality and child marriage as rights issues."}
{"content":"SA set for solar power boom – paper\nThe Department of Energy’s projects are expected to feed a growing amount of renewable energy in forthcoming years. More than three million South African households may be powered by solar energy by 2030 if the Department of Energy meets its aims to add alternative sources to the national grid, the Sunday Times reports. According to the paper, SA is on track to be Africa’s leader in having the most solar farms, which are “mushrooming” in the Karoo, Limpopo and parts of the Eastern Cape.\nFollow the link below to read the full article:"}
{"content":"We encourage people to volunteer and get involved in voluntary and community action. We help groups to find funding and make effective use of their resources.\nWe promote equality and diversity by fostering a wider understanding of the needs of disadvantaged and under-represented groups.\nWe help public bodies to engage effectively with local community groups and ensure that policy makers understand the needs of their local voluntary organisations.\nWe provide a forum for local voluntary organisations and community groups to identify needs, spread good practice, prevent duplication of effort and support joint working"}
{"content":"Public health officials are routinely failing to inform the public of their right to refuse vaccines in both school and work settings. Greater powers are at work to make mandatory vaccination policies which will allow officials to conduct childhood vaccinations without any parental consent at all. The inventor of the rotavirus vaccine wants all exemptions based on religious or philosophical grounds to end along with informed consent and the freedom to choose.\nPaul A. Offit, MD is an American pediatrician who specializes in infectious disease and is also the co-inventor of a rotavirus vaccine. He has stated:\n“Children whose parents hold certain religious beliefs shouldn’t be afforded less protection than other children. That the commonwealth has allowed children to die from measles, bacterial pneumonia, or leukemia in the name of religion is inexplicable. That it continues to allow such abuse in the face of recent deaths is unconscionable. … should repeal its religious exemptions for medical neglect. Otherwise, children will continue to suffer and die needlessly.”\nOffit is a prime example of how mainstream medicine attempt to exert control and how those in positions of influence try to convince the public that the right to choose should not be an option.\nJust a few years ago, the pharmaceutical industry, the Department of Health and Human Services, and Centers for Disease Control allocated millions of dollars in funding to establish vaccine clinics in public schools, causing a huge uproar from concerned parents.\nThe RAND Corporation, paid by Sanofi Pasteur, outlined how to turn schools into vaccine clinics, which critics claimed will inevitably poison children with multi-dose vaccines.\nThese school based health centers (SBHCs) are located in school settings that claim to provide children and adolescents with comprehensive primary, acute, and preventive care for physical and mental health conditions. The following report Are We ‘Making the Grade’ With Our Children is a concise overview of school based vaccination centers and their objectives.\nSBHCs are becoming a matter of routine in other countries such as Australia, where the focus has been to implement the same HPV vaccination programs despite the fact that Gardasil and HPV vaccinations are unproven, unjustified and lacking evidence-based medicine.\nPublic health agencies are pushing the centers in the guise of preventive medicine, when they will effectively promote the opposite. The centers are providing an entry portal for pharmaceutical giants to access student health records and provide dangerous treatments such as untested drugs and vaccines without the full informed consent of parents.\nConsent packets are sent home by the school, completed by a parent/guardian, and then returned to the school. Vaccines are provided during the school day by nursing staff. Parents are not required to be present.\nThe consent forms are a one-time process, meaning parents will not have to submit consent more than once regardless how many vaccines their child receives. This leaves the door open for the injection or administration of any drug treatment to the child which the school’s health staff deems appropriate, without any informed consent by the parents on the treatment’s effects, contraindications or consequences.\nFamily doctors in the U.K have even been accused of administering the MMR jab by stealth to children coming into their surgeries to receive other vaccinations. At least 50 horrified parents have complained that their GPs have ‘mistakenly’ given their children the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, it has emerged.\nStudies sponsored by pharmaceutical giants continue to embark on several qualitative and quantitative research projects to show biased results on how to assess the competency of consent from children for vaccinations. BMC Public Health published a study in 2009 which claimed to demonstrate that health providers have a duty of care to girls for whom no parental consent for HPV vaccination has been given, and in the UK, this includes conducting, and acting upon, an assessment of the maturity and competence of an adolescent minor.\nThe British Journal of Cancer published a clinical study on HPV vaccination among ethnic minorities in the UK: knowledge, acceptability and attitudes, to assess what they refer to as unique opportunities for the “primary prevention” of cervical cancer. The background statement alone was erroneous and false before the study was even initiated. Vaccination has never been proven on any scientific grounds to be a primary prevention tool for cervical cancer.\nRegardless, the quantitative study assessed ethnic differences in knowledge and acceptability of HPV vaccination in the UK to attempt to validate informed consent and refusal of HPV vaccination in ethnic communities.\nThe study further demonstrates how desperate vaccine manufacturers have become to obtain public acceptance for bypassing informed consent. The need to initiate a study to derive data on the differentiation between ethnicity, religion and other factors to define acceptability of informed consent is not only immoral, but also shows a complete disregard for what consent represents as a human right.\nThe right to “informed consent” when considering any medical procedure or drug, is a fundamental human right and a key medical ethic that governs medical law in almost every country in the world. This ethic has grown from the Nuremberg trials after World War II. It forbids human experimentation and the use of force or intimidation in medical procedures.\nThe institutions that are using these strong-arm tactics are in violation of fundamental medical ethics and must be challenged forcefully if we are to preserve what remains of health freedom for humanity. The unions who have conspired with the various institutions to enforce vaccination must also be called to task for failing to protect children and workers’ rights from medical coercion and battery.\nAt the pinnacle of defending our health freedoms, we need to muster strength in numbers as the majority to secure amendments that will guarantee freedom of choice in health, and protection from enforced medication at all costs.\nAbout the Author\nDave Mihalovic is a Naturopathic Doctor who specializes in vaccine research, cancer prevention and a natural approach to treatment.\n~~ Help Waking Times to raise the vibration by sharing this article with the buttons below…"}
{"content":"Filmmaker Jia Zhang-ke zooms in on the young members of a nomadic performing troupe to reveal the cultural, social, and political changes in China. This road movie begins in 1979 with the propaganda theater of a labor unit in a small village. As foreign popular culture penetrates deeper into every aspect of life, the group takes on its own fate and goes on tour, presenting improvised performances of pop songs and Western dance. The cold response and financial difficulties put an end to their euphoric existence, and their nomadic travelling life ends in 1989. Zhang-ke displays with accurate images the mood of a country in permanent transition. 2000, China/Hong Kong/ Japan/France, in Chinese with English subtitles, 35mm, color, 155 minutes.\nNEW ASIAN CURRENTS IS MADE POSSIBLE IN PART BY GENEROUS SUPPORT FROM THE BUSH FOUNDATION."}
{"content":"Alexandra J Harmon\nFinding and interpreting sources of information about American Indians' history. Offered: jointly with HSTAA 315.\nHow and where to find sources of information about the history of American Indians (and, by extension, the histories of other peoples); tips for library and archival research; how to evaluate and interpret primary historical evidence and secondary accounts of history; investigation of issues selected by students regarding the history of Indians in Washington State\nStudent learning goals\nGeneral method of instruction\nClass assignments and grading"}
{"content":"Bad nuclear deal with Brazil and Turkey hands Iran a diplomatic coup\nTHE DEAL struck Monday by Iran with Brazil and Turkey will do nothing to restrain Tehran's nuclear program. It could, however, derail the Obama administration's effort to focus international pressure on Iran and buy the regime more time to enrich uranium and defeat its domestic opposition. In other words, it could be a major diplomatic coup for the regime of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which has skillfully exploited the eagerness of the Brazilian and Turkish leaders to prove themselves as global players.\nThe memorandum signed by the three governments outlines an exchange that superficially resembles one proposed by the United States, France and Russia in October. Iran would give up 1,200 kilograms of the uranium it has enriched in exchange for 120 kilograms of fuel rods it could use in a medical research reactor. But the differences are crucial. The October deal would have left Iran without \"breakout capacity,\" or enough enriched uranium to produce a bomb with further processing. In this one, Iran will retain a bomb's worth of material.\nMoreover, Iranian officials are saying they will continue enriching uranium, including to the higher threshold needed for the research reactor. The agreement also gives Iran the right to take back the uranium it ships to Turkey at any time if it decides that the provisions of the deal \"are not respected.\" That includes a declaration of Iran's right to enrichment -- in contradiction of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions -- and to \"cooperation including nuclear power plant and nuclear research reactor construction.\"\nThe deal arrives just as the Security Council was about to begin considering a new sanctions resolution, which was to be followed by tougher measures by the European Union. As Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hoped, Brazilian and Turkish officials on Monday declared that their bargain rendered further discussion of sanctions moot. The timing is crucial in more than one way: Iran is approaching the June 12 anniversary of last year's disputed presidential election, and the regime is intent on preventing a resurgence of the opposition Green Movement. Avoiding sanctions for even a few more weeks could help Mr. Khamenei and Mr. Ahmadinejad entrench their extremist rule.\nThe Obama administration and its allies will have to work skillfully to deflect this challenge. The White House issued a properly skeptical statement saying that the proposed swap must be \"conveyed clearly and authoritatively\" to the International Atomic Energy Agency by Iran \"before it can be considered by the international community.\"\nIt's possible that Tehran will retreat even from the terms it offered Brazil and Turkey -- in which case those countries should be obliged to support U.N. sanctions. Even if Tehran sticks to what was announced, the plan should be unacceptable to the United States. At a minimum, Iran should be required to end its higher-level enrichment of uranium if the swap is to take place. And if it does not agree to discuss the implementation of U.N. resolutions barring enrichment, the sanctions in the Security Council must go forward."}
{"content":"This Battery was part of Alexander’s Battalion which served as a member of the Artillery Reserve in the First Corps, Army of Northern Virginia. The Battalion commander, Colonel Edward Porter Alexander (1827-1911) (May 26, 1835 – April 28, 1910), was an engineer, an officer in the U.S. Army, a Confederate general in the American Civil War, and later a railroad executive, planter, and author.\nThis battery (the subject of this waymark) however, was commanded by Osmond B. Taylor (KIA April 6, 1865). Taylor commanded the Eubanks-Taylor battery (also called Bath Artillery per Crute) assigned to Longstreet's Corps, Army of Northern Virginia. He was promoted to lieutenant in March 1862 upon the organization of the Bath Artillery that was for a short time assigned to the 12th Virginia Battalion. His battery @ Gettysburg lost 15% of those engaged. Taylor had been promoted to Captain in March 1863 and commanded the battery during the advance into Pennsylvania. The battery formed part of the Petersburg defenses with the remnants surrendering at Appomattox. Captain Taylor was killed at Richmond on April 6, 1865, shot dead when he refused to surrender.\nThe Taylor Tablet is on the left or east side of West Confederate Avenue if traveling south, exactly 100 feet south of the Millerstown Road, 4-way intersection. The Longstreet Corps Tablet is direclty across the road. The Confederate Avenue Observation Tower and parking lot is 450 feet south of this position. The lot is good for 15 cars. If you want to park at the tablet, there is intermittent cutouts along the road to pull over. Avoid parking on anything green or you will be ticketed by the park police. They almost got me. I visited this monument on Saturday, March 10, 2012 at 3:54 PM, just before the clocks were set ahead for the Spring. I was at a 600 foot ASL elevation.\nThese monuments were first built in 1900 and concluded in 1906 according to the NRHP nomination form. Some sites have the monuments being erected in 1910 or later; the NRHP also has this specific one at 1892 ending in 1900 so it would seem the current NPS is clueless about the installation date. 1910 seems to be the most reasonable date so we will go with that. It is amazing with all the work and effort exerted to make the Gettysburg National Military Park a reality, no one took the time to keep accurate records and correct installation dates. The work was done under the direction of the Gettysburg National Park Commission (established by the United States Department of War), after they took over the administration of the park from the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association (whose funds had expired) on March 3, 1893, and whose stewardship was then transferred to the National Park Service in 1933 SOURCE.\nDraw the Sword, with descriptive help from the NPS site, offers the following description: Cast iron tablet, 3’8\" x 3’4\", with raised inscription painted in a contrasting color and mounted on fluted cast iron post. All 4’4\" H. Tablets casts by Calvin Gilbert. The inscription on the 3.8' x 3.4' tablet narrates the events associated with Battery during the Battle. The battery's position early in the afternoon of July 2 and on July 5 is represented by two Confederate 12-pounder Napoleon guns cast at the Augusta Foundry, in Georgia. The cannons flank the marker. The inscription on the tablet reads:\nArmy of Northern Virginia\nLongstreet's Corps Artillery Reserve\nAlexander's Battalion Taylor's Battery\nJuly 2 Took position here 4 p.m. and opened fire on Peach Orchard. Advanced at 5 p.m. with the infantry to a position about 400 feet north of Peach Orchard and east of Emmitsburg Road continuing actively engaged until night.\nJuly 3 Took position 3 a.m. in main artillery line near Smith House northeast of Sherfy House on Emmitsburg Road and held it all day. Took part in cannonade preceding Longstreet's final assault supported that assault and aided in repelling sharpshooters afterwards. Retired from the front after night.\nJuly 4 In position near here until 4 p.m. Then withdrew to Marsh Creek on Fairfield Road.\nLosses killed 2 wounded 10.\nThere are scores of similar monuments for the various Confederate States & Union units which fought at Gettysburg. Four designs represent brigade, division, corps and army headquarters, and each has elements which identify it as Union or Confederate. Many of the tablets were created by Albert Russell & Sons Co. of Newburyport, Massachusetts and are made of granite, bronze and concrete or like this one, cast iron. All of these tablets were designed by architect Colonel Emmor Bradley Cope (July 23, 1834 - May 28, 1927). He designed pretty much every tablet for both the Union and Confederate armies, each one distinct, with several different varieties. He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Gettysburg, as well as he should be as this park and most of the things seen here today were designed by him and as such, are his legacy. These monuments/tablets were erected just after the turn of the century during the first and beginning of the second decade of the 20th century. Each one has since been preserved or restored at least twice since the turn of the 21st century. The plaques and tablets were erected by the Gettysburg Park Commission (established by the War Department). The Gettysburg Park Commission is also referred to as the Gettysburg National Military Park Commission or the Gettysburg National Park Commission, to clear up any confusions, especially my own.\nOn October 1, 1898, the Gettysburg National Park Commission in a letter to the Secretary of War set gave recommendations for continuing the task of organizing and progressing the work of the Gettysburg National Military Park. Every November they wrote their annual report which outlined the work of the GNPC for that year. The following is an excerpt from that report relevant to this waymark. The link at the end of the paragraph will take you to the entire report. The method of marking the positions of troops on this field, as approved by the War Department, is to place the principal tablet or monument of each command at the position occupied by the command in the main line of battle, and to mark the several important positions subsequently reached by each command in the course of the battle by subordinate and ancillary tablets, with appropriate brief inscriptions giving interesting details and occurrences and noting the day and hour as nearly as possible. SOURCE\nMost of the Commission reports have been digitized and can be found HERE. The initial 1893 report up to and including 1921 can be found here. 1922 to 1926 are missing and have yet to be discovered. The years 1927 to 1933 were discovered in 1996 and are also included. To my knowledge this is the most comprehensive list of documents that illustrated the development and formation of the park.\nInformation about these specific types of monuments:\nCONFEDERATE BATTERY AND BRIGADE TABLETS (ADVANCED POSITION)\nThese tablets are 3’8\" x 3’4\" in dimensions, with carefully prepared inscriptions cast in raised letters painted in white (contrasting the black background) describing the part taken in the battle by each brigade, their position and stating its numbers and losses so far as practicable to obtain. They are mounted on iron pillars or fluted cast iron posts about 3 feet high, grouted in the ground, and the tablets are inclined at a suitable angle so that the inscriptions can easily be read by persons riding or driving on the avenue. Every tablet is 4’4\" in height. The advance position markers were cast by Calvin Gilbert. SOURCE & SOURCE\nThe Taylor's Virginia Battery Tablet is a contributing feature to the Gettysburg National Military Park Historic District which is nationally significant under NR Criteria A, B, C & D. Areas of Significance: Military, Politics/Government, Landscape Architecture, Conservation, Archeology-Historic. Period of Significance: 1863-1938. The original National Register Nomination was approved by the Keeper March 19, 1975. An update to this nomination was approved by the Keeper on January 23, 2004. The monument is identified as structure number MN566-B.\nFrom the Nomination Form:\nOne of 100 cast iron tablets designed by E.B. Cope marking positions of batteries and brigades along avenue system not otherwise marked by monumentation. Tablets designating artillery positions have 1-4 mounted cannons flanking them. Marks the position of Taylor's CS Battery during July 2-4, 1863.\nShort Physical Description:\nCast iron tablet w/ raised inscription painted in contrasting color & mounted on fluted cast iron post. 4'4\" high; 3.8' x 3.4' tablet, inscription narrates events associated w/ Battery @ Battle. Two cannons flank tablet. Located E side of Confederate Ave. S of Millerstown Rd near observation tower.\nLong Physical Description:\nCast iron tablet with raised inscription painted in a contrasting color and mounted on fluted cast iron post. 4'4\" high. The 3.8' x 3.4' tablet was cast by Calvin Gilbert, and the inscription narrates the events associated with Battery during the Battle. Two cannons flank the tablet (one on each side). Located on the east side of West Confederate Avenue, south of Millerstown Road near observation tower.\n1. NRHP Nomination Form\n2. Stone Sentinels\n3. Virtual Gettysburg\n4. Draw the Sword\n5. Historical Marker Database\n6. Cowan's Auctions\n7. Civil War Reference"}
{"content":"\"At age 24 someone tells you you're a statistic, your survival rate, you just don't think about that at 24 years old.\"\nIn June of 2000 Kathy Brown gave birth to her daughter, the light of her life in so many ways, but two days afterwards, Kathy's life suddenly looked dim. She was diagnosed with stage one colon cancer.\n\"Of course, I thought, I just had a baby what in the world could have happened?\"\nHer grandmother had a history with colon cancer and passed on a gene that increased her likelihood, but at Kathy's young age, she never thought to get tested.\n\"They told me it had actually been there for 10 years. So that was since I was 14 is when it started.\"\nNow in remission for 5 1/2 years, she worries about her daughter.\nShe'll have to get tested when she's 14.\n\"I'd like to think they will find the cure within the next 10 years.\" In 2006, an estimated 2500 Kentuckians will be diagnosed with colon cancer.\nAn estimated 910 will die this year.\nThe best prevention is early detection.\nThe American Cancer Society urges you to check your family history to see if you should be screened before the age of 50.\n- colorectal cancer is the third most common cause of cancer death in each sex.\n- The risk of colorectal cancer increases with age. More than 90 percent of cases are diagnosed in individuals over the age of 50.\n- A personal or family history of colorectal cancer or polyps or of inflammatory bowel disease of significant duration increases the likelihood of having colorectal cancer. Also, there are certain genetic factors that increase the likelihood of having colon cancer.\n- African Americans have the highest colorectal cancer rates and the highest rate of death from the disease of any racial or ethnic group in the U.S.\n- Other risk factors include:\n- Alcohol Consumption\n- Physical Activity\n- Diet high in fat and/or red meat or processed meat\n- Diet low in fruits and vegetables"}
{"content":"Owego, NY (WBNG Binghamton) February is Dental Health Awareness Month and local dentists are urging residents to take the health of their mouths seriously.\n\"Unless you have any questions or concerns or anything like that I think what you're doing is fine. Regular six month cleaning, twice a year like they recommend, American Dental Association, brushing a couple times a day, flossing, I think you're in good shape,\" said Pam Bouton, D.D.S., when talking to patient David French.\nThat's good news for French, who doesn't mind going to the dentist for his regular check up.\n\"I'm happy with them, and happy with the cleaning, too. So everything seems to be pretty well and I've got a good bite,\" French said.\n\"It's all tied together and keeping a healthy mouth is just part of keeping a healthy body.\"\nOdds are you already know how to keep your mouth healthy. It's as simple as following the advice you've been given your whole life.\n\"Brushing a couple of times a day. You know flossing is very important to keep the gum health and the in-between cavities,\" Bouton said.\nFlossing is often neglected, Bouton said. Some people -- the very young or the very old -- may be physically unable to floss, but there are ways around that.\n\"There are different flossing aids and things like that. So don't be shy if you're having trouble flossing or you're just not getting the hang of it. It's important to say something because there are other alternatives that you can use,\" Bouton said.\nBrushing for a full two minutes a day is ideal. But, Dr. Bouton says most people are only brushing for 30 or 40 seconds.\nEven she's guilty of that sometimes.\n\"Oh I absolutely do. Everybody's in a hurry these days,\" Bouton said.\nThe important thing is to get into a routine. Use an egg timer, the timer on your cell phone, do whatever it takes to keep that smile bright.\nAlso remember that young children might look like they're doing a good job brushing their teeth, but they might only be getting the front. Dentists urge keeping a close eye on children to ensure they're keeping all of their teeth clean."}
{"content":"OKTIBBEHA COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI)-It’s a program that starts down on the farm but stretches into a lifetime of learning…and the kids often don’t even fully understand the lessons they are learning along the way. It seems like only yesterday when seven-year-old 4-H Student Luke Schilling received 20 beautiful Danish brown leghorn baby chicks.\n“They started out where you could hold a couple in your hand, a little bitty. And that’s day after hatch usually, they’re shipped straight from the hatchery,” said Jenna Schilling, Luke’s Mother.\n“There were black lines here and everywhere else was yellow. And the feet, their legs were like orange. Kind of like orange like a mango,” said Luke Schilling, 4-H Poultry Farmer.\nThe program gives newborn chicks to students ages 8 to 18. The students raise them to adulthood. With proper care, it wasn’t long before Luke’s fluffy baby chicks took wings, growing to their teenage and then adult egg-aying stage. Our young livestock grower has seen changes in the appetite of these potential prize winning domestic birds.\n“When they were like a couple days old they were like eating that whole thing. In like two or one day, I’m not kidding,” said Luke Schilling.\n“He seems to be enjoying it, he seems to enjoy the chickens and having them and fooling with them and he seems to like the whole process,” said Jenna Schilling.\nThe idea is to start with something small like chickens and then graduate to the much larger livestock. This young 4-Her has scratched up many lessons — from a better perspective of where his food supply comes from to valuable life skills like….. hard work pays off.\n“Feed them every day, water them every day, and then we also have to vaccinate them since they are going to the show,” said Jenna Schilling.\n“If they weren’t so scarred they would be really nice,” said Luke Schilling.\nNice as pets, but the chicks on Luke’s farm are strictly livestock and show birds. Poultry project participants will show their top 6 birds at district level competitions later this month. Winners eventually end up at the Mississippi State Fair this fall.\nFor more information on the 4-H Project contact Jessica Wells at 662-325-3416."}
{"content":"[RESOLVED] Putting an image as a frame around an iframe?\nI have a site I'm trying to display in a mobile format, but on a wide screen. I'm convinced the iframe is the way to go.\nI'm trying to load the iframe inside an image of an iPhone. You can see an example here.\nOnce you see it, you should be able to tell what I'm trying to do.\nI've got this CSS down to allow for the iframe to be displayed inside the iPhones screen...\nAnd here's the associated HTML...\nI have no idea why, but I'm being forced to keep that iframe snippet with the google website in there. If I take that out, then the phone image doesn't display. I have no idea what the Google website has to do with my image.\nWhy is that?\nIs this the best way to do this? Something easier out there?\nGetting this to display in IE8 seems to be a whole other nightmare.\nThe abovecode does not make sense:\n- The overlay is position absolute, but the iframe isn't. Why not???\n- The overlay is smaller than the iframe. if it is supposed to surround the iframe, it should be an underlay (behind) not an overlay, and should be larger.\n- Why does the iframe have a background image??? Surely that serves no purpose, and I'mnot sure it is valid anyway?\n- If I've misunderstood, and the iframe is intended to hold the background image, then that is wrong anyway. Use <img> to display an image \"behind\" the foreground.\n- Consider using z-index with position absolute to put the backgrouns behind the foreground.\nOnce I figured all this out, I was much better off, too... Here's what I did and it's valid and it worked.\nI realized about half of this before reading your response, and the rest after reading your response. Thanks for your help (and the boost!).\nmargin: 0 auto 30px;\n/*Mobile iframe CSS*/\nGood to hear that you got it working, but one point:\nThe URL should be terminated with a slash \"/\". It's quicker that way.\nUsers Browsing this Thread\nThere are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)\nTags for this Thread"}
{"content":"High Out-of-Pocket Costs a Hidden 'Side Effect'?\n\"Patients in my practice as a medical oncologist were coming to me with growing concerns about the cost of their care despite having insurance,\" he said. \"We as physicians don't really know what all of the costs are, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't bring up the topic.\"\nOne in five Americans is underinsured, paying at least 10 percent of their annual income on out-of-pocket health care expenses, Zafar said. A serious illness could ruin these people financially.\nReviewing the potential out-of-pocket costs of a procedure can be beneficial to patients, the authors said, by enabling the following:\n- Helping them choose lower-cost treatments when there are viable alternatives.\n- Assisting those who want to make an informed decision about trading potential medical benefit for less financial distress.\n- Allowing them to prepare themselves financially for an expensive procedure.\n\"Patient expectation plays a role in their level of financial distress,\" Zafar said. \"If patients expect to pay a lot, they are able to cope better. If we prepare patients for the cost, even if we can't reduce the cost, preparation can go a long way.\"\nFurther, by considering costs in individual cases of clinical decision-making, doctors could play a crucial part in reducing overall health care costs for society as a whole.\nSuch conversations would be welcomed by patients, said Kim Bailey, research director for Families USA, a nonprofit health care advocacy group.\n\"Providers have been really hesitant to talk about cost, and they haven't thought a great deal about cost when talking with their patients about care,\" Bailey said. \"In some ways, it's been seen as the provider's role is to focus solely on medicine, and that discussions of cost is really an insurance role.\"\nIt may take some training to help doctors grow comfortable adding a financial dimension to discussion of medical options, paper co-author Zafar said. Medical societies, advocacy groups and medical schools should consider playing a role in such training.\n\"It's a sensitive topic. It's embarrassing for many patients. And we as physicians don't have the knowledge base to talk about cost,\" he said. \"But we give patients chemotherapy that we know is going to cause a physical toxicity we can't stop. We talk with them about how to best cope and expect it. That's how we should start thinking about the financial toxicity of some of the health care we provide.\""}
{"content":"Health Concern On Your Mind?\nSee what your medical symptoms could mean, and learn about possible conditions.\nDrugs & Supplements\nGet information and reviews on prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications, vitamins, and supplements. Search by name or medical condition.\nHaving trouble identifying your pills?\nEnter the shape, color, or imprint of your prescription or OTC drug. Our pill identification tool will display pictures that you can compare to your pill.\nSave your medicine, check interactions, sign up for FDA alerts, create family profiles and more.\nTalk to health experts and other people like you in WebMD's Communities. It's a safe forum where you can create or participate in support groups and discussions about health topics that interest you.\nRead expert perspectives on popular health topics.\nConnect with people like you, and get expert guidance on living a healthy life.\nSign up to receive WebMD's award-winning content delivered to your inbox.\nHas osteoporosis put you at risk for a spinal fracture? Here’s what you need to know about your risk for a fractured spine.\nLearn more about bone density tests and how these scans can help your doctor assess your bone health and determine if you have osteoporosis.\nWebMD explains osteopenia, early bone loss that can lead to osteoporosis. Learn about causes, risk factors, and prevention.\nLearn about osteoporosis and if you're at risk.\nRecently diagnosed or warned about osteoporosis? Check out this glossary to learn the meaning of osteoporosis and other related words.\nLearn how osteoporosis is diagnosed and about current osteoporosis treatments.\nA look at bone densitometry scans, a type of test that can detect bone problems such as osteoarthritis and osteoporosis.\nIt is possible to prevent osteoporosis. Learn how with these tips from the experts at WebMD.\nUnderstand the symptoms of osteoporosis from the experts at WebMD.\nLearn the basics about osteoporosis diagnosis and treatment from the health experts at WebMD.\n©2005-2016 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.\nWebMD does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See additional information."}
{"content":"6 Serious Sexual Health Symptoms for Women\nWhat's normal and what may need a doctor's attention.\n3. Abnormal Vaginal Discharge\nWith vaginal discharge, “abnormal is what the woman decides is abnormal,” Puritz says. “Women know their bodies pretty well.”\nAbnormal symptoms include a strong odor; an unusually large amount of discharge; accompanying itching, burning, or irritation; unusual color; or blood in the discharge.\nMost causes of abnormal discharge are minor, Puritz says. “Any sort of infection can cause a discharge.” Common ones include yeast infections, bacterial vaginosis, or trichomonas, she says. “They’re all easily treated.”\nBecause sexually transmitted diseases can also cause abnormal discharge, check in with your doctor to rule out the possibility.\nAlso be sure to tell your doctor about any persistent, watery discharge, a classic symptom of fallopian tube cancer, which is rare.\nWomen may have itching without discharge, a problem that Puritz sees frequently when patients use perfumed soaps or personal care products -- especially perfumed lubricant jellies. “All perfume lotions and potions wreak havoc,” she says. “Especially if you have sensitive skin, that can cause a lot of itching and irritation.”\nAlthough genital itching isn’t likely to be serious, it’s still a good idea to tell your doctor if it’s bothersome. The fix might be simple.\nHowever, “if it’s itching and there are skin changes, that would be a worrisome sign,” Puritz says.\nFor example, a skin condition called lichen sclerosus can cause itching and small, white spots on the vulva. The spots grow into bigger patches that turn thin and crinkled. Lichen sclerosus is an uncommon problem that tends to affect older women, Puritz says.\n“It’s something that needs to be medically treated,” she says. Left untreated, the patches can scar and create problems with urination or sex. There’s also a tiny chance that skin cancer may develop in the patches.\nAside from lichen sclerosus, any itchy lesion on the vulva or vagina may need to be biopsied to rule out cancer.\n5. Vaginal Dryness\nVaginal dryness in nursing mothers or postmenopausal women can cause spotting after intercourse. Once nursing moms start ovulating again, dryness will ease."}
{"content":"Are there any OTC sleep medications that do not cause symptoms like restlessness?\nKristen A. Binaso, RPh, FASCP, CCP\nAmerican Pharmacists Association\nRestlessness is a common side effect of the over-the-counter products that can be used as sleep aids because the active ingredient is an antihistamine. I would advise making an appointment with your doctor or health care provider for further evaluation, and advise them of the side effect you experience with the OTC products. You may require prescription medication instead because they work differently and are not antihistamines."}
{"content":"This is a public service announcement warning you about the latest abomination upon the lord, Ylvis’ “The Fox”.\nPosted on YouTube on September 3rd, 2013, it’s the latest viral infection music video made and performed by Bård Urheim Ylvisåker and Vegard Urheim Ylvisåker, a Norwegian variety show duo who call themselves “Ylvis”.\nCurrently, it’s No.29 on the Billboard Hot 100 list, and has over 36 million views and a half a million thumbs up on YouTube, signaling the approval of this latest electronic dance musical masterpiece.\nSuppose you don’t want to watch the video, (and that’s understandable, as it can’t be unheard) but you still want to know what it’s about. Well, remember that time when you were a child and you sat peacefully in grandpa’s warm lap while he would mimic the various sounds of animals in a picture book? Perhaps you were taught with one of Mattel’s See n Say. You’ve heard what an elephant said, or what a dog said, but have you ever wondered what the fox said? Well, Ylvis will give you their theory, which sounds like a bunch of noises you’d hear from the combined blood curdled helium screams of Pauly Shore, Satan, and a dying wildebeest:\nThe video spans a length of 3 minutes and 45 seconds, featuring multiple partygoers dressed as animals (some say furrys), with the two singers of Ylvis dressed in orange fox costumes. They pose the question, “What does the fox say?” and proceed to come up with a variety of possibilities, while they dance in a laser lit forest with back up dancers and an old man reading a book to his presumed grandson. The song appears on the top 100 iTunes charts of 21 countries around the world, reaching #1 in Norway, #6 in Finland, and #9 in Estonia.\nUpon the international success of the song, Ylvis told Mother Jones that they were “quite surprised”, saying that the music video was “supposed to entertain a few Norwegians for three minutes – and that’s all”. Originally, the song was meant to promote the new season of the local Norwegian show, I kveld med Ylvis.\nHere is what a fox actually says."}
{"content":"The Comoros, officially the Union of the Comoros (Comorian: Udzima wa Komori,), is a sovereign archipelago island nation in the Indian Ocean located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel off the eastern coast of Africa between northeastern Mozambique and northwestern Madagascar. Other countries near the Comoros are Tanzania to the northwest and the Seychelles to the northeast. Its capital is Moroni, on Grande Comore.\nAt , excluding the contested island of Mayotte, the Comoros is the third-smallest African nation by area. The population, excluding Mayotte, is estimated at 798,000. As a nation formed at a crossroads of many civilizations, the archipelago is noted for its diverse culture and history. The Union of the Comoros has three official languages – Comorian, Arabic and French – though French is the sole official language on Mayotte.\nOfficially, in addition to many smaller islands, the country consists of the four major islands in the volcanic Comoros archipelago: northwesternmost Grande Comore (Ngazidja); Mohéli (Mwali); Anjouan (Nzwani); and southeasternmost Mayotte (Maore). Mayotte, however, has never been administered by an independent Comoros government and continues to be administered by France (currently as an overseas department) as it was the only island in the archipelago that voted against independence in 1974. France has since vetoed United Nations Security Council resolutions that would affirm Comorian sovereignty over the island. In addition, a referendum on the question of Mayotte becoming an overseas department of France in 2011 was held on 29 March 2009 and passed overwhelmingly.\nThe Comoros is the only state to be a member of the African Union, Francophonie, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Arab League (of which it is the southernmost state, being the only member of the Arab League which is entirely within the Southern Hemisphere) and the Indian Ocean Commission. Since independence in 1975, the country has experienced numerous coups d'état and, as of 2008, about half the population lives below the international poverty line of US$1.25 a day.\nHow places in Comoros are organized\nAll places in Comoros\nFurther information on historical place organization in Comoros"}
{"content":"Virginia City is a town in and the county seat of Madison County, Montana, United States. In 1961, the town and the surrounding area was designated a National Historic Landmark District, the Virginia City Historic District. The population was 190 at the 2010 census.\nIn May 1863, a group of prospectors were headed towards the Yellowstone River and instead came upon a party of the Crow tribe and were forced to return to Bannack. On May 26, 1863, Bill Fairweather and Henry Edgar discovered Gold near Alder Creek. The prospectors could not keep the site a secret and were followed on their return to the gold bearing site. A mining district was set up in order to formulate rules about individual gold claims. On June 16, 1863 under the name of \"Verina\" the township was formed a mile south of the gold fields. The name was meant to honor Varina Howell Davis, first and only First Lady of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. Verina, although in Union territory, was founded by men whose loyalties were thoroughly Confederate. Upon registration of the name, a Connecticut judge, G. G. Bissell, objected to their choice and recorded it as Virginia City.\nWithin weeks Virginia City was a boomtown of thousands of prospectors and fortune seekers in the midst of a gold rush. The remote region of the Idaho Territory was without law enforcement or justice system with the exception of miners' courts. In late 1863, the great wealth in the region, lack of a justice system and the insecure means of travel gave rise to serious criminal activity, especially robbery and murder along the trails and roads of the region. Road agents as they became known were ultimately responsible for up to 100 deaths in the region in 1863 and 1864. This resulted in the formation of the Vigilance committee of Alder Gulch and the infamous Montana Vigilantes. Up to 15 road agents were hanged by the vigilantes in December 1863 and January 1864, including the sheriff of Bannack, Montana and alleged leader of the road agent gang, Henry Plummer.\nThe Montana Territory was organized out of the existing Idaho Territory by Act of Congress and signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on May 26, 1864. Although Bannack was the first territorial capital, the territorial legislature moved the capital to Virginia City on February 7, 1865. It remained the capital until April 19, 1875 when it moved to Helena, Montana. Thomas Dimsdale began publication of Montana's first newspaper, the Montana Post in Virginia City on August 27, 1864. Montana's first public school was established in Virginia City in March 1866.\nIn the 1940s, Charles and Sue Bovey began buying the town, putting much needed maintenance into failing structures. The ghost town of Virginia City began to be restored for tourism in the 1950s. Most of the city is now owned by the state government and is a National Historic Landmark operated as an open air museum. Of the nearly three hundred structures in town, almost half were built prior to 1900. Buildings in their original condition with Old West period displays and information plaques stand next to thoroughly modern diners and other amenities.\nThe Historic District of Virginia City and Nevada City is currently operated by the Montana Historic Commission and is the top state-owned tourist attraction in Montana. The Commission operates gold panning, a historic hotel, and the longest continuously operating live summer theater company in the western United States.\nVirginia City also has a Boothill Cemetery. There is also the narrow gauge Alder Gulch Short Line Railroad, which transports passengers by rail to the nearby ghost town of Nevada City, Montana and back."}
{"content":"HE may have had many job titles — songwriter, poet, musician, humorist, playwright and children’s writer — but Ivor Cutler was certainly a one-off.\nNow Nairn-based Matthew Lenton hopes to introduce a new generation to the work of one of Scotland’s most unique cultural exports, and remind older fans of the singular genius that was Ivor Cutler.\nCutler, who died in 2006 at the age of 83, was born in Glasgow to a middle-class Jewish family, but it was not until middle-age when he became known as a songwriter after moving to London to work as a teacher.\nThe only artist to have his songs played on Radios 1, 2, 3 and 4, Cutler also made an appearance in The Beatles’ film Magical Mystery Tour, and numbered among his fans the late John Peel, whose radio sessions helped bring Cutler’s work to a wider audience, Billy Connolly, Stephen Fry, philosopher Bertrand Russell, and authors Iain Banks and Will Self.\nFamously deadpan and lugubrious — Cutler would instruct his audience to applaud at 50 per cent their normal volume — his eccentricities included turning up at the BBC with half a boiled egg stuck to his forehead.\nYet his songs and poems could also be deeply moving, as with Going In a Field, the song which introduced Lenton to Cutler’s work.\n\"I always found his songs and his poems and his stories very evocative,\" Lenton said.\n\"They always pulled me into a distinctive imaginative world and that is what great artists do. They pull you into a world that has its own logic and beauty.\"\nLenton has paid tribute to Cutler and his work by devising The Beautiful Cosmos of Ivor Cutler for Vanishing Point and The National Theatre of Scotland, bringing together the story of Cutler’s life with his words and music, which Lenton reckons stands comparison with the work of Russian absurdist writers like Nikolai Gogoln and Daniil Kharms.\n\"If he hadn’t been Scottish, I think he would have been treated more seriously,\" Lenton said.\nWhich does raise the issue of whether she should regard Cutler, with his distinctive Glasgow brogue and Caledonian dourness, as a particularly Scottish.\n\"It’s a good question, and particularly in this year,\" Lenton said.\n\"I think some of the pessimism and dourness of the Scots was something that weighed him down.\n\"He left Scotland when he was 40 and he always said that was the beginning of his life. All his work he created in London.\n\"What it makes me reflect on, in this year of the Scottish referendum, is whether Scotland wants to be a place that people want to leave to go to London, or whether it can be a place people don’t want to leave.\n\"Cutler left Scotland to go to England and I’m an Englishman who came to Scotland and understands it’s a different place. Those things are implicit in the show, though it’s not in any way political. It’s more a celebration of his life and work.\"\n• The Beautiful Cosmos of Ivor Cutler is at the OneTouch Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, on Friday 4th and Saturday 5th April."}
{"content":"If you sometimes get confused between a colon and a semicolon or a hyphen, dash, or em-dash, then you are not alone. In fact, not only are you not alone, but you join the majority of people in this world who can speak English fluently, but who don't know the first thing about the details of punctuation. Fortunately, for you, WhiteSmoke has developed a state-of-the-art punctuation checker to help you correct punctuation errors in your writing.\nWhiteSmoke Writer offers a wide range of operations. It will identify missing punctuation, like an absent quotation mark or a missing period – obvious mistakes that you probably just missed due to working quickly, and it will also find and correct less-obvious punctuation mistakes, like a colon that should really be a dash or an apostrophe that was put in the wrong place. One of the benefits of such an elaborate tool is that over time, you will find that your punctuation usage has actually improved. WhiteSmoke's Writer’s integrated punctuation checker won't just correct your punctuation errors without showing your mistakes; rather, it will highlight your errors, offer possible solutions, and even provide writing tips that will help you avoid making those same punctuation mistakes in the future. Think of our program as your very own personal tutor – you'll receive flawless, perfectly punctuated writing and one-on-one English punctuation lessons!\nOffices, universities, and homes across the world benefit from using WhiteSmoke Writer for their grammar and punctuation checking, as well as text editing. According to Dr. David Spencer, professor of English, punctuation is a little-studied subject that should deserve more attention. \"From an early age, schoolchildren are taught how to spell and how to write simple sentences,\" he says. \"However, grammar in general and punctuation, in particular, have been neglected in recent years. Teachers seem to think that students can just rely on Microsoft Word's grammar and punctuation checker and have that be enough. It’s not enough – the program has its limitations and there are no lessons learned from its suggestions. WhiteSmoke's solution offers a dual advantage – it corrects poor grammar and punctuation, and it teaches students how to avoid making these errors in the future.\"\nWhiteSmoke’s developers and linguists knew they had to address the multiple shortcomings associated with other punctuation checkers. With this in mind they created WhiteSmoke Writer’s punctuation checker with a variety of advanced features, including the ability to analyze all sentences efficiently for structural errors including missing and incorrectly placed punctuation marks. The software compares your written text with its large database of sentences, words and mistakes, and then uses an artificial intelligence algorithm to determine the writing patterns. The program assists novices and professional writers in writing impeccable documents without spending too much time worrying about editing punctuation and rewriting their sentences. It also teaches them a thing or two about the mechanics of the English language so that, in time, they'll make fewer and fewer grammatical mistakes and punctuation errors!"}
{"content":"Immunization highlights: 2011\nIVB Document centre: a valuable resource\nThe IVB Document Centre produces high quality information and communication products relating to advocacy and coordination of global research and development; policy framing; technical and strategic support to strengthen national capacity. Its three areas of work are: document production, dissemination and storage.\nIn 2011, the document centre supported the publication of 16 new documents and over 32 immunization-related articles published in scientific peer-reviewed journals and ensured wide dissemination of documents to key target audiences. In addition, the document centre has a database to facilitate searching for documents published by the Department.\nSearches can be done by title, language and year. Also on the site is a catalogue listing all of the Department's publications, which is generated on a daily basis and includes a short summary of all documents, document numbers, and an indication of language versions. Hard copies of documents posted in the document centre can be ordered from firstname.lastname@example.org.\nUpdated immunization financing database now online\nThe immunization financing database is now updated with the latest comprehensive multiyear plans (cMYPs). The database contains information extracted from cMYP costing and financing tools from 62 countries. In particular, key data on costing and financing from the immunization plans have been included in the database for public access.\nThe database allows users to produce reports by country and by WHO region for the planning periods on the following information:\n- total costs and financing of routine immunization programmes;\n- total costs and financing of campaigns;\n- specific immunization and health system shared expenditures;\n- detailed expenditure composition by item costs and sources of financing; and\n- immunization costs indicators per capita and per child.\nCountry and regional reports are provided in table formats and accompanied by graphical representations."}
{"content":"1 Cholesterol level in rabbit meat is much lower than chicken, turkey, beef,\npork. (Alabama A & M University 1989)\n2 Rabbit is lower in % of fat than chicken, turkey, beef, and pork. (U S D\nA circular # 549)\n3 Unsaturated fatty acids is 63% of total fatty acids. ( Dr Reo)\n4 Rabbit is highest in protein%. (U S D A circular # 549)\n5 The office of home economics, state relations of the U S Department of\nAgriculture has made extensive test and have stated that domestic rabbit meat is\nthe most nutritious meat known to man (or dog?).\n6 Rabbit meat has been used and is suitable for special diets, such as those for\nheart disease patients, diets for the aged, low sodium diets, weight reduction\ndiets, etc. ( Rabbit production Cheek Patton Templeton) Of course this is\nbetween you and your doctor (vet!!). We do not make any recommendations of this\ntype because we are not qualified.\n7 Rabbit has 795 calories per pound. Chicken 810, Veal 840, Turkey 1190, Lamb\n1420, Beef 1440, Pork 2050. ( U S D A circular # 549 )\n8 Rabbits will produce 6 pounds of meat on the same feed and water as a cow will\nproduce 1 pound of meat on the same feed and water.\n9 Rabbits are raised up off the ground and is one of the cleanest meat.\n10 As the worlds human population grows there will be less land to raise\nfood. The rabbit will play a more increasing role in this supply.\n11 France is the world's largest producer and consumer of rabbit meat. In\nHungary there are rabbitries with over 10,000 does producing rabbits for export\n12 Rabbit meat is all white meat."}
{"content":"TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - Eighteen years ago April 23, Kansas reinstated the death penalty. One group marked the anniversary by renewing the call to take it back off the books.\nPeople gathered Monday at the Tree of Healing. The tree was planted by members of Kansas Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation 18 years ago.\nThe group continues to advocate to outlaw capital punishment. Members say executions don't benefit anyone.\nConnecticut lawmakers recently voted to repeal their state's death penalty, making it the 17th state to outlaw capital punishment."}
{"content":"(CBS) Here's bad news you might want to take standing up. An ominous new report ties a lack of physical activity - spending too much time sitting on your duff, essentially - to up to 43,000 cases of colon cancer and 49,000 cases of breast cancer each year.\nThe report - presented Thursday at an annual conference of the American Institute for Cancer Research in Washington, D.C. - has experts urging Americans to make more time for physical activity and to take a one- to two-minute break for every hour of sitting.\nSomething as simple as walking to a colleague's office instead of sending an email or going to the kitchen to get a glass of water can make a critical difference, experts say. Just don't make the mistake of thinking regular workouts can eliminate the cancer risk tied to inactivity.\n\"A person who gets up in the morning and makes time by spending 30 minutes on the treadmill probably feels pretty pleased with himself - and he should,\" registered dietitian Alice Bender said in a written statement issued by the institute. But, she asked, \"What happens during the other 15 hours and 30 minutes he spends awake? If he's like most Americans, he sits - on his commute, at the office, and at home.\"\nDo the math, and that means such a person is physically active for just 3 percent of his time awake.\nExercise is believed to help prevent cancer by reducing several key risk factors for the disease, including inflammation, excessive body fat, and the prediabetes condition insulin resistance.\nAnd it's not just colon and breast cancers that physical activity might help prevent, according to the statement. There's also evidence that activity can lower the risk for prostate and endometrial cancer, according to Dr. Christine Friedenreich of Alberta Health Services-Cancer Care in Alberta, Canada.\nDr. Friedenreich's research shows that even in previously sedentary postmenopausal women, a program of moderate to vigorous exercise can lower levels of the so-called \"biomarkers\" of cancer risk.\nThe institute offered several ideas for boosting activity levels, including:\n*Set a timer on your computer to remind you every 60 minutes to take a short break.\n*Hold quick meetings on the go - while walking.\n*Keep light hand weights in your office to use while talking on the phone or reading.\n*Stand up and walk around during phone calls.\n*Ask your employer to install a punching bag or chin-up bar in the break room.\nLooking for more ways to sit less? Click here."}
{"content":"In tonight's Economy Rockford report.. a local expert details what's ahead for the car market and how some big changes will affect our buying habits and our wallets.\n23 news auto expert George Schaffner thinks buyers will get a big lesson in supply and demand when it comes to buying a car .\nManufacturers have finally learned how to control their inventory.\nMost dealers have a new car supply that will last them 53 days... compared to over 100 days last year.\nThis could make it harder for us to find a car because dealers won't replenish their supply as quickly as before.\nSchaffner says if we see a car we want our best bet is not to wait because incentives we have gotten used to will be a thing of the past .\n\"Probably the transaction price is going to increase because there is no sitting inventory.. rebates may be a thing of the past or very small if any but your also going to see your re-sale value go up because if your average transaction price increases, the re-sale value increases as well, so even though you might be spending more this Spring your car is going to be worth more in the long run and your cost of usage may be the same if not even less.\"\nAnd speaking of auto highlights this year...The annual Spring Auto show begins tomorrow at 10-am at Cherryvale Mall. The show features one hundred cars.. trucks and vans in all the latest styles and colors. The show continues through Sunday"}
{"content":"Lycium carolinianum Walter\nCarolina wolfberry, Carolina desert-thorn, Creeping wolfberry, Christmas berry\nSolanaceae (Potato Family)\nUSDA Symbol: LYCA2\nThe spiny branches of this shrub are erect or spreading, may be up to 6 ft. long, and bear small, succulent leaves. The four-petaled, somewhat tubular, lavender to blue flowers usually occur singly and are followed by fleshy, red berries.\nThe Christmas Berry is a member of the nightshade family (family Solanaceae) which includes herbs, shrubs, vines, and trees with often showy flowers generally in branched clusters.\nFrom the Image Gallery\nPlant CharacteristicsDuration: Perennial\nLeaf Retention: Evergreen\nLeaf Arrangement: Alternate\nBreeding System: Flowers Bisexual\nSize Notes: 4-6 feet.\nFlower: Flowers 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch\nFruit: Red 1/4 inch\nSize Class: 3-6 ft.\nBloom InformationBloom Color: Purple\nBloom Time: Apr , May , Jun , Jul , Aug , Sep , Oct\nDistributionUSA: AL , FL , GA , LA , MS , SC , TX\nNative Distribution: Coastal plain from SC to TX\nNative Habitat: Ditches, Ravines, Depressions, Swamps, Marshes\nGrowing ConditionsWater Use: High\nLight Requirement: Sun , Part Shade\nSoil Moisture: Moist\nCaCO3 Tolerance: Medium\nCold Tolerant: yes\nHeat Tolerant: yes\nSoil Description: Coastal sands; tolerates salinity. Gravelly, Sandy, Sandy Loam, Medium Loam, Clay Loam, Clay, Saline tolerant.\nConditions Comments: The spiny branches of this shrub are erect or spreading, and bear small, succulent leaves. The four-petaled, somewhat tubular, lavender to blue flowers usually occur singly and are followed by fleshy, red berries. The berries are edible and have a sweet, tomato-like taste. Tolerates saline sites.\nBenefitUse Ornamental: Fruits ornamental, Ground cover\nUse Wildlife: Nectar-insects, Fruit-birds, Browse: deer, racoons and other wildlife.\nConspicuous Flowers: yes\nNectar Source: yes\nPropagationDescription: Propagation by seed is possible.\nSeed Collection: Ripe berries may be picked from the bushes in the fall and the seeds extracted by maceration.\nSeed Treatment: Seed dormancy in this genus is variable. Seeds of some species may require stratification at 41 degrees for 60-120 days.\nCommercially Avail: yes\nNational Wetland Indicator Status\nFrom the National Suppliers DirectoryAccording to the inventory provided by Associate Suppliers, this plant is available at the following locations:\nFar South Wholesale Nursery - Austin, TX\nFrom the National Organizations DirectoryAccording to the species list provided by Affiliate Organizations, this plant is on display at the following locations:\nTexas Parks and Wildlife Department - Austin, TX\nWildflower Center Seed BankLBJWC-1093 Collected 2007-09-06 in Cameron County by Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center\nBibliographyBibref 355 - Landscaping with Native Plants of Texas and the Southwest (1991) Miller, G. O.\nBibref 318 - Native Texas Plants: Landscaping Region by Region (2002) Wasowski, S. & A. Wasowski\nBibref 291 - Texas Wildscapes: Gardening for Wildlife (1999) Damude, N. & K.C. Bender\nSearch More Titles in Bibliography\nResearch LiteratureReslit 190 - Growth patterns of Carolina wolfberry (Lycium carolinianum L.) in the salt marshes of Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Texas, USA (2006) R. E. Butzler and S. E. Davis\nThis information was provided by the Florida WIldflower Foundation.\nSearch More Titles in Research Literature\nAdditional resourcesUSDA: Find Lycium carolinianum in USDA Plants\nFNA: Find Lycium carolinianum in the Flora of North America (if available)\nGoogle: Search Google for Lycium carolinianum\nMetadataRecord Modified: 2015-01-21\nResearch By: TWC Staff"}
{"content":"Divide prepared decorating icing in half. Use half for decorating the house now, the other half for adding, \"snow\" around house later (keep covered with a damp cloth).\nFill decorating bag with 1/2 cup icing.\nDecorate corners of house and under eaves with line of icing. Attach mini multi-colored candies to house corners.\nOutline windows and decorate curtains. Attach candy rounds to sides and top of windows. Cut gum drop candy ring in half and attach for windowsills with dots of icing. Decorate icicles on windowsills.\nOutline front door and fill in with zigzags (smooth with finger dipped in cornstarch). Attach candy round for window. Attach mini multi-colored candies on doorframe with dots of icing and add red mini multi-colored candy for doorknob with dots of icing. Cut green gum drop candy ring in half and attach above door for awning. Cut red candy round in half and attach above green gum drop candy ring. Position yellow candy round above cut red candy round over door.\nIce roof smooth and divide in fourths on each side with lines of icing. Decorate zigzag garlands from each division line. Attach mini multi-colored candies in center of zigzag garland loop and at the beginning and ending point of each garland.\nDecorate line on roof peak. Cut gum drop jelly rings in half and attach to peak with dots of icing. Decorate icicles on roof peaks and eaves. Attach candy rounds on sides of roof peaks with dots of icing.\nIce snow on base fluffy. Cover walkway path with mini multi-colored candies.\nWhat a welcoming, cozy little cottage. Zigzag icing snow designs on roof topped with candy and punctuated with festive icicles. A dream house trimmed with bright and tempting candies and borders with green leaf trees.\nEvergreen trees are created from cut green leaves and placed on every corner of this cottage. Even an evergreen wreath hangs above the front doorway. A colorful, stained-glass inspired walkway leads to the house."}
{"content":"General Motors revealed several of its new fuel efficient vehicles, including the Buick Enclave at the L.A. Auto Show. The Enclave is Buick's first luxury crossover SUV. It and its sister vehicle, the GMC Acadia are made at the new GM Delta Township plant. They both get about 26 mpg on the highway.\nGM's Chief Executive Rick Wagoner spoke out at the show about other environmentally friendly vehicles the company is working on. He says his company is committed to making alternative fuel, hybrid, electric, and hydrogen-powered vehicles. He says the nation's No. 1 automaker is developing a hybrid car that plugs into a standard power outlet.\nLansing's Glenn Buege GMC General Manager Allison Buege-Watson says its no surprise, \"It is what customers are asking for, and GM is just responding, trying to fulfill that need.\"\nEnvironmental activists still say GM and other auto companies have been too slow to curb the nation's dependence on foreign oil. As for how long it will be before the new alternative fuel vehicles become available, Wagoner says no certain date is available, only that developing the cars is a priority.\nThe L.A. Auto Show runs through December 10. It is second in importance in the industry only to the Detroit International Auto Show."}
{"content":"Children with disabilities often have to sit on the sidelines while other kids their age are participating in sports.\nA group in Grand Rapids has changed that by introducing an old sport with a new twist. It's called sled hockey and it's giving children with disabilities the chance to hit the ice.\nThe kids use special sled and two sticks, instead of one to help them get around. Sled hockey is played nationally and internationally, but there's only one team in Michigan.\nIt's in Grand Rapids, sponsored by the G.R. Griffins Youth Foundation and the Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital. The group was at Ice Sports East Lansing recently showing off their stuff.\nThe Greater Lansing Hockey Amateur Association, or GLAHA, now wants to start a team here in mid-Michigan.\nFor more information about Sled Hockey and how you can help start a team in Lansing, log onto GLAHA's website www.lansinghockey.com\nViewers with disabilities can get assistance accessing this station's FCC Public Inspection File by contacting the station with the information listed below. Questions or concerns relating to the accessibility of the FCC's online public file system should be directed to the FCC at 888-225-5322, 888-835-5322 (TTY), or email@example.com."}
{"content":"We start off in Dewitt, where Dr. Mark Schaar, at Dewitt Family Practice, says the common cold is going around this week.\nCold symptoms include itching or sore throat, sneezing, nasal congestion and mucus drainage, and watery eyes.\nTo treat the cold, it's important to rest and drink plenty of clear fluids. Also, gargling with salt water can ease a sore throat.\nOver-the-counter decongestants containing pseudo ephedrine can help dry and clear nasal passages temporarily. Decongestant nasal sprays can help but be careful, because using those for more than five days can cause a \"rebound effect.\" That means more mucus and worse congestion.\nIn Okemos, Dr. James Brouillette at Ingham Primary Care Center is treating ear infections, which oftentimes follow a cold.\nThe main symptom is mild to extremely painful ear pain. You may also have a fever. Babies and young kids are often fussy, have trouble sleeping, pull at their ears and cry.\nYou can take pain relievers, or put a warm washcloth or heating pad on the ear. It's also important to rest. You should talk to your doctor too; he or she may prescribe antibiotics or ear drops to help the pain.\nYou can help prevent ear infections in your child, by not smoking. Children who are exposed to cigarette smoke are more prone to ear infections."}
{"content":"Lansing-area women visited a local Target store to try to make a point: there is nothing strange about breastfeeding in public.\n\"Breastfeeding in public is important because no mom wants to sit at home all the time,\" said Lindsey LaForte, as she held her infant son Henry. \"You have to go out and about, you have to go grocery shopping.\"\nBut moms who demonstrated at Target Sunday say sometimes they're afraid or ashamed of breastfeeding in public. Some say they get funny looks from other people in stores. Those that gathered want to end those glances.\n\"Breastfeeding is the biological normal for feeding a baby and a mother should feel welcome to feed their baby wherever and whenever,\" said Jessica Thomas, who breastfeeds her infant. \"This is the normal way to feed a baby, that it's not something that should be hidden.\"\nForty-five states have laws that expressly permit women to nurse in public and private places. Michigan is not one of them, though a similar bill is in committee in the state house. However, by a separate state law, nursing women cannot be cited for indecent exposure.\nParticipants said Sunday the demonstration -- which was organized via Facebook and was not affiliated with a particular group -- wasn't just to make a point to passersby. It was also to show strength and support in numbers.\n\"It was important to support moms who were doing this for the first time,\" said Lisa King, a nursing mother, \"and show there's plenty of other women out there to support them.\""}
{"content":"According to figures released by telecommunications firm TeleGeography, Skype continues to become more and more popular. And the increase in popularity is not small — between 2012 and 2013, international Skype to Skype calls rocketed by around 36 percent. The number of international phone calls being made in general is on the up, but Skype’s gains are well above those seen from landline and mobiles which stands at around 7 percent over the same period.\nMicrosoft’s ever-popular online messaging and calling service is available for a wide range of platforms, including desktop and mobile devices, and its widespread availability — coupled with the fact that people are looking for ways to save money these days — helps to account for the increase in usage. All told, 2013 saw a staggering 214 billion minutes of calls made Skype to Skype.\nThese numbers are already good news for Microsoft, but looked at in terms of increase things are even more impressive. Put together the traffic increases enjoyed by all of the telecommunication companies in the world, and Skype has gained 50 percent more than all of them combined. As TeleGeography points out, this is good going for a service that is already ten years old and faces competition from ever more IM and VoIP tools.\n“2013 saw a staggering 214 billion minutes of calls made Skype to Skype”\nDespite the popularity of computer and mobile based communications, it’s unlikely that the humble landline is going anywhere soon. TeleGeographyanalyst Stephen Beckert said: “No other network comes close to matching the global reach of the PSTN (public switched telephone network). While Facebook has approximately 1.2 billion monthly users, at year-end 2013, the PSTN connected to just over 8 billion fixed and mobile subscribers worldwide.”\nDo you fit into these statistics? Do you find that you are using Skype more than in the past, and do you choose to use it in place of making a regular phone call?"}
{"content":"According to a new report, Microsoft has publicly disclosed how much money the company has made in revenue from its Surface tablet lineup. This data comes from the annual Form 10-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission. So how much as Microsoft made? $853 million dollars since launch!\n“Microsoft just filed its annual Form 10-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and deep in the filing is the first public disclosure of the company’s revenue from its Surface tablet lineup: $853 million,” the report states. This figure covers the launch of the Surface tablet up until the end of Microsoft’s fiscal year on June 30th of 2013. Microsoft has not disclosed how many Surface devices were sold nor do we know exactly which Surface device (Surface RT or Surface Pro) sold the most or least.\nMicrosoft recently slashed prices of its Surface RT tablet by nearly $150 dollars, after reporting a $900 million dollar loss for its Surface devices during its quarterly earnings report recently. According to new data, Windows 8 and Windows RT based tablets account for 4.5% of the global tablet market as of Q2 2013.\nAs GeekWire reports, $853 million amounts to roughly 4.4 percent of the total Windows Division revenue of $19.2 billion, which was reported by Microsoft recently. And obviously, $853 million in revenue is less than the $900 million charge that Microsoft took from the Surface brand.\n“Windows Division operating income decreased, primarily due to higher cost of revenue and sales and marketing expenses, offset in part by revenue growth. Cost of revenue increased $1.8 billion, reflecting a $1.6 billion increase in product costs associated with Surface and Windows 8, including a charge for Surface RT inventory adjustments of approximately $900 million. Sales and marketing expenses increased $1.0 billion or 34%, reflecting an $898 million increase in advertising costs associated primarily with Windows 8 and Surface,” the filing states.\nKeep in mind that Microsoft has spend a ton of money to advertise the Surface RT and Surface Pro. Unfortunately, it was not good enough."}
{"content":"Local Civil War battlefield site is re-emerging\nWINCHESTER — The site of one of the largest and deadliest Civil War battles in the Shenandoah Valley is starting to emerge from a veil of trees and brush.\nA native grasslands restoration team has…\nTo See This and Every Local Story from The Winchester Star, Click Here to Become a Subscriber!\nLogin to view the full story"}
{"content":"6/11/2014 2:24:00 PM Wood ducks and hen mallards need more protection\nRon Kuecker Outdoors Columnist\nI think the time is ripe to start lobbying for wood ducks and mallards. Nope, they're not endangered species but if my observations are accurate it's time to roll back the liberalized hunting regulations on them. During current Minnesota DNR Commissioner Landwehr's tenure we've seen the hen mallard fall hunt bag limit increase from one to two per day and the wood duck bag limit increase from two to three per day. Hunters liked it and the commissioners popularity among opening day duck hunters soared. Well, not so for this old duck hunter. Two woodies and one mistakenly shot hen mallard per day, double that after the opener in possession, are all we should need to be happy hunters. Both species of ducks are well known for their nesting tradition, that is, they return to nearly the same place to nest each year. At least that is true for the first place they try. Heavy hunting pressure and too liberalized bag limits and our local population suffers. Combine that with habitat loss or weather induced pressure and we gradually lose the breeding population of our two most popular local ducks, the woody and the greenhead. It won't be long now, just a matter of a month or so, and the flyway councils will be meeting in far off cities to draw up a framework for this fall's hunt. After that each state will make some final decisions within those federal guidelines and voila, we've got our rules and reg's for 2014. We've seen some really good changes to our local fall hunts for wildlife. An earlier season duck hunt to allow the taking of blue wing teal before they leave the state was a great choice, albeit long overdue. That also reduced the opening day pressure on woodies and mallards. But soon, the blue wings are gone and the pressure on woodies and mallards steps up. Fortunately, a mallard hen can quite easily be differentiated from a feathered out drake by experienced hunters (but not youthful hunters early in September). Let's use that to protect our local mallards. Duck hunters, you can step up and be the conscience of the flyway once again. Let's \"lobby\" the DNR to limit the local take of woodies and hen mallards to two per day woodies, one per day hen mallard. If they hear from enough of you I'm guessing they'll change. Only a desk-bound, computer-staring, wildlife manager can not see what is going on. Let's tell them now before the seasons are set. The Belgian Malinois I first heard about the wonderful Belgian Malinois (Mal-in-wah) when our son Dan (career Army, Ft. Bragg, NC), his wife Lisa and son Remington took over foster care of one of them. Being prepped for military duty, trainers found he couldn't quite meet the rigid military standards so he needed a permanent home. They fostered him for nearly a year. They continually praised their temporary adoptee for its gentleness with five-year-old Remy. Then they passed it along to its life home, not an easy task. Then came the June 2014 issue of National Geographic with a lead article on Hero Dogs and the Malinois. I was in love with them, albeit from a distance. It made me understand why I chose veterinary medicine as my career and made me wonder, why did I retire? If you are a dog lover, as I, and you get a chance, pick up a copy of National Geographic or try to find it online. If I didn't have a big, loveable chocolate lab I'd be searching for a Malinois. A military drop out would be fine with me. More outdoor sightings As we sat on our point at Lake Amelia near Glenwood recently, the three of us, Dianne, brown dog and I, he suddenly turned his head to focus on a loon. Only 50 yards or so away, the big male had quietly surfaced and was sitting there, lowering its head into the water occasionally. I soon realized he was putting his well-adapted eyes below the surface, looking for small fish to feed on. No unproductive dives for this guy until he spotted something below the surface. It was the first time a loon was close enough to me that I could see what he was doing. Always thought before they were simply cleaning themselves with their head movements, foolish me. Another revelation came to me last week as the big pileated woodpecker returned to some trees alongside our cabin. Woody, as I now call him because of the cartoon character named after the species, was looking for insects. Then I realized, the longitudinal series of finger sized holes in the tree weren't put there without reason. He followed them up the tree, examining each hole for bugs that might be hiding in them. The big woodpecker had essentially set up a trap line of holes in that tree and was checking them out for lunch. Steve and Deb Freking, our neighbors on the north hill of Windom stopped by the other evening. Steve told me of the big bald eagle that flew so low over their backyard he could see the top of the wings. He suspected it was checking out a life-like lawn ornament for dinner. Nesting swan Do you want a good outdoor viewing? Out at Wolf Lake, about a mile and a half east of McDonald's, sets a huge trumpeter swan on a muskrat house, head laid back over her body. I presume she is incubating some large eggs. Get a look at her now, from the parking lot above, before she hatches and moves on to new outdoor viewing opportunities."}
{"content":"VSMC, a joint venture between Royal Boskalis Westminster and VolkerWessels, will complete the export and inter-array cables at the 400MW project off England's east coast.\nThe first work will be the creation of two 1,100-metre horizontal directional drillings at the landfall. The export cables, stretching 42 kilometres to the coast, are expected to be installed in 2016.\nIncluded in the work is the design, supply, installation and testing of the 67 infield cables with a total length of around 100 kilometres.\nStatoil and Statkraft announced their final investment decision to go ahead with the construction of the project earlier this week. The total investment in the wind farm is expected to be £1.5 billion (EUR 1.9 billion).\nIt will be made up of 67 of Siemens' SWT-6.0-154 6MW turbines."}
{"content":"Wine Price and Quality\n© by John Juergens\nAbout the only aspect of wine price that is closely related to quality is the amount of human handling that occurs during the wine making process. Most wineries have several levels of quality --at least by their definition-- and the prices will vary according to their perception of the quality. Without a doubt, the better and more expensive wines usually involve more handling, such as hand selecting individual grapes, and these wines sometimes are referred to as \"hand-made\". Wine makers can do all sorts of other things to try to improve quality-- like using oak barrels--but these efforts usually increase the cost of production.\nWhat about American versus imported wine quality and price. This is a touchy subject because I know there are a lot of people out there who still think that only the French can make truly good wine. Those people are entitled to their opinion, but I feel sorry for them since they are missing out on a whole world of great wines. Trying to make quality comparisons among wines from different countries largely is a waste of time since many of the products of every wine producing country are good or even great, but they usually are very different due to differences in soil, climate, etc. It's the old apples and oranges thing. It's fun and interesting to taste wines of the same grape type from different countries to explore the similarities and differences, but it is non-productive to argue about which is absolutely \"better\".\nSpeaking of the Europeans, there is a much closer relationship between price and quality among wines from Western Europe, especially French and German wines. The wine industry is those countries is far more highly regulated in terms of quality. However, when you are evaluating wines from different countries, you have to make sure that you are tasting wines in roughly the same quality bracket, which can be a tricky proposition. The problem is, to get a French wine equivalent in quality to say a $12 Australian wine you generally have to spend $20 to $30. I know there are some notable exceptions to this rule, such as some of the Beaujolais wines, but most of the French wines available in our market under $15 represent the lower end of the spectrum of medium quality wines. They are roughly equivalent to some of the better California large volume wines or what used to be called \"jug wines\". Don't get me wrong, I really like French wines and used to be a French wine snob, but I believe wines from South and North American and Australia are a much better value. The bottom line is that the old saying, \"You get what you pay for\" doesn't necessarily apply to wine.\nThese are products that I believe are good value wines that have many of the classic characteristics of the major grape varieties. I'm sure I've left out someone's favorite wine, but this is just a starting point and I will add to the list regularly. They are broken down by grape type and I have indicated their relative degree of sweetness/dryness and \"weight\" (light/heavy). Since prices and availability will vary among retail outlets, I suggest you shop around. Your best bet is to look at PJ's Wine and Liquor in the Kroger Shopping Center on University Ave., C&M Package Store on South Lamar across from the hospital, and Star Package Store at 308 Jackson Ave.\nRobert Mondavi Chenin Blanc (slightly sweet, light)\nKendall Jackson Sauvignon Blanc (dry, medium)\nChateau Souverain Chardonnay (dry, medium to heavy)\nChateau Ste. Michelle Johannisberg Riesling\nBeringer White Zinfandel (medium sweet, light)\nNapa Ridge Pinot Noir (dry, medium)\nChateau Souverain Cabernet Sauvignon (dry, heavy)\nLouis Jadot Beaujolais (dry, light)\nFetzer Eagle Peak Merlot (dry, medium to heavy)\nHacienda Merlot (dry but fruity, medium)"}
{"content":"by Susan Skomal\n\"People seem to love the science section. It's the one place where you can find good news and you can talk about sex,\"\nobserves Natalie Angier, Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer for the New York Times. Readers are more than ever interested in news from all branches of science, particularly those touching on experiences close to home - the social sciences. Her advice to fellow reporters is equally relevant to anthropologists working with the media or preparing to publicize their research results.\n\"Public levels of ignorance about science are astonishing,\"\nSports writers feel no need to translate such terms as ERA or RBI, nor do they bother to explain the significance of the 10-yard line each time it's used. Even business and economics reporters use jargon freely. Yet, when covering a scientific topic for the general public, Angier has found it necessary to \"seduce\" the reader. The trick is to convince the public that science is neither too hard nor too boring to understand.\nReaders \"do not like didactic writings; they do not like condescension.\"\nDespite the public's general unfamiliarity with scientific terms and concepts, the average reader does not read the tutorial sections of most science articles.\nTo help readers digest an unfamiliar subject without seeming to preach, Angier suggests the following:\n\"Make the unseeable visible.\"\nUse your imagination to describe an abstract concept in readily accessible concrete terms. Anthropologists have an edge over other scientists in this department, for we are talking about human behavior. For example, rather than expecting an audience to grasp the concept of diffusion in the abstract, describe the effect through the eyes of a single person.\n\"Tell what you need to tell to keep the story moving. No more. No less.\"\nDon't underestimate the patience of your readers. By thinking of your piece as a short narrative, with a plot and punchline, much of the extraneous information can be eliminated. It may seem important to you as the expert, but it will have a greater impact to non-anthropologists if it is short and to the point.\n\"A good journalist hates to make an error just as much as a good scientist does.\"\nThe culture of a newsroom contrasts sharply with that of an academic journal. A news item will not be featured if the deadline is not met, while scholarly publishing is usually not so time-sensitive.\nAfter former Vice-President Quayle's denunciation of the lack of American family values, the AAA Press Office was contacted by CNN for experts who could comment on the issue. It was a Friday at the end of Spring semester, when many colleagues were busy tying up loose ends and preparing for vacations or fieldwork. CNN was in a hurry, the offices in Atlanta had to make the New York studio's deadline for that afternoon. Of the ten anthropologists we recommended, only one was interviewed.\nIn our interactions with the media, we scientists will have the most success if we are sensitive to their limitations. A reporter simply cannot accomodate requests to FAX copies of his or her article to three different experts. As practised observers of human behavior we are all aware that three different informants will have at least three views on a subject. Most journalists take seriously their obligation to take the differing interpretations into account, while trying hard to minimize errors.\nReprinted with permission of the American Anthropological Association.\n|Communicating Anthropology| |For Science Writers| |For Students| |\"Is Science Real?\"|\n|About CASC| |CASC Homepage| |Site Map|\nEmail: Merry Bruns, Dir.\nMerry P. Bruns\nAll Rights Reserved."}
{"content":"Leading her first House of Lords debate yesterday, Martha Lane\nFox challenged the UK government to address its investment and\npolicies regarding adult training and skills in the face of the\ngrowing digital skills gap.\nThe Baroness of Soho praised the government for including coding\nand computer science in the future national curriculum, saying that\nit puts the country in the position of being able to boast the most\nvisionary policy for educating children in the G8.\nIt is not enough to focus on educating the young though, she\nadded, as 90 percent of new jobs require some level of online\nskills, and the majority of jobs are now advertised online.\n\"There are 11 million\nadults who lack four basic online skills -- the ability to\ncommunicate, search and share information and to do these things\nsafely,\" she said, adding that 50 percent of these adults are over 65, with the other 50 percent being of\nThe value to the British economy of equipping the adult\npopulation with digital skills has been estimated by the\ncross-sector charity that the Baroness chairs at £68 billion. By\n2020, there will be nearly one million technology sector jobs in UK\nthat will need to be filled, something we will be unable to achieve\nwith our workforce as unskilled in these areas as they currently\nare, she said.\nLane Fox also touched briefly on the current decline in the\noverall percentage of women working in technology. At the current\nrate, she said, by 2040 only one percent of people working in this\nsector will be women.\nfounder also asked the government what its plans were to celebrate\nthe achievements of Tim\nBerners-Lee in this anniversary year of the World Wide Web. She\npaid tribute to Berners-Lee, as well as Ada Lovelace and the\nBletchley codebreakers for bringing us the internet. \"I find\nsomething magical and remarkable on it every single day,\" she\n\"All industries are being disrupted,\" said Lane Fox, listing\nMOOCS, digital healthcare innovations, business solutions for the\ndeveloping world and online retail -- the sector with which she is\nmost personally familiar -- as the areas in which we are starting\nto see the most significant changes.\nHalf of web users worldwide are now online shoppers, she said,\nadding that in the UK, the online retail sector now accounts for\nnearly 10 percent of the country's total annual GDP. \"The British\nare the most advanced online shoppers on the planet,\" she said.\nThe UK internet sector is now bigger than the education sector,\nthe health sector and the construction sector, Lane Fox pointed\nout. Record numbers of digital startups around the country, along\nwith hugely successful businesses such as ASOS, Lastminute.com and\nMoshi Monsters, put the UK in an extremely strong position to take\nadvantage of this revolution in retail.\n\"The UK's relative position on the technology stage is a complex\none. There are many ways in which we lead the world,\" said Lane\nFox, adding that our location and language put us at a huge\nadvantage in that they mean we are a vital part of every global web\n\"Through the Government Digital Service, the UK government is also \"leading\nthe way in terms of open data, open standards and digital\ngovernance,\" she said. At the same time, she criticised the\ngovernment's reactions to the Snowden allegations, describing it as\nbeing \"woefully quiet on the subject of liberty versus\nThere are in fact several ways the UK is falling short in its\nadoption of technology beyond the online skills deficiency, she\npointed out. These include average UK broadband speeds, the failure\nof UK businesses to scale themselves to compete on a global level\nand the lack of understanding about the digital world on behalf of\nthe country's corporate, public and political elite. \"Only four\nFTSE 100 businesses have a CTO or digital executive on their PLC\nboards and yet all of these businesses are facing potential\nupheaval,\" said Lane Fox.\n\"The technology landscape is not remotely stable but is changing\nat mindboggling speed,\" she said, suggesting that the 25th birthday\nof the web is a \"good moment to reflect\" on how we react to the\npace of change. The Baroness also repeated Tim Berners Lee's\nchallenge for us all to take part in open-source-style, local\ndiscussions trying to answer the question: \"what kind of web do we\nYou can read Martha Lane Fox's full speech from the House of\nLords on her website."}
{"content":"More than 1,000 people have joined a campaign on Change.org\nurging Texas Gov. Rick Perry to use state funds to alleviate the drought's negative impact on small ranchers and farm animals.\nBob Williams, founder of the Texas-based animal rescue organization Ranch Hand Rescue, launched the online campaign on Change.org\n, the world's fastest-growing platform for social change. Williams has received a record number of requests to care for horses, cattle and other farm animals as a result of the Texas drought, which has caused a major hay scarcity in the state.\n\"We desperately need to raise awareness about this issue,\" said Williams. \"Hay prices continue to climb, and much of the hay that's being brought into Texas is of poor quality. We know Gov. Perry is a good man, and we want to work with his team to develop a plan to make sure we help our ranchers and farm animals.\"\nThe drought has caused the price of hay to nearly quadruple in recent months, leading small ranchers and farmers, already struggling in a down economy, to sell off large portions of their herds or give them to farm rescue organizations like Williams'. Some horses and cattle have starved to death because of the lack of hay, and conditions are expected to worsen. Williams is asking Gov. Perry to use state funds to truck in hay from other states into Texas.\n\"Bob Williams is standing up and taking action for what he believes in,\" said Change.org\nSenior Organizer Sarah Parsons. \"Clearly, farmers, ranchers and concerned citizens across the state agree with him. Change.org\nis about empowering anyone, anywhere, to start campaigns on issues they care about, and Bob's campaign is a perfect example of that.\"\nState Climatologist John Nielson-Gammon recently declared Texas' ongoing drought to be the state's worst one-year drought on record. Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration indicates that the drought will likely persist through the winter.\nTo view the petition, visit http://www.change.org/petitions/governor-perry-save-our-starving-farm-animals."}
{"content":"While the cooler temperatures are here now, spring is right around the corner, and that means allergy season.\nIts almost impossible to escape the heavy yellow dust piled on cars and windows but it might not be what's causing your headaches. This pollen is Pine pollen. It's the heaviest of all the pollens. The experts say because of that, its less likely to be inhaled and cause an allergic reaction, though some people do have issues because of it.\nAccording to one pharmacist we talked to, untreated allergy symptoms could increase your chances of developing asthma and other serious allergic diseases."}
{"content":"A veteran of the US Air Force, Jimmy Fox wasted no time enrolling at FSU. “I don’t worry about tuition. It’s paid for with the post 9/11 GI Bill.”\nAnd starting his own business.\n“You’re not just going to get a free ride out of the VA, you need to have a way of supporting yourself,” said Fox.\nFlorida has the 3rd largest number of veteran owned businesses in the county. More than 176,000 Florida soldiers have started their own companies. They employ more than 300,000 people.\nThe state is helping them in their business endeavors. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission are waiving rules to help soldiers become commercial fishermen.\n“This will allow veterans an opportunity to participate,” said Commissioner Chuck Roberts.\nAnd starting last month, The Department of Business and Professional Regulation began waiving business licensing fees for returning soldiers.\n“Come to Florida when you’re done with your career. Establish a business here. Be part of our economy,” said DBPR Secretary Ken Lawson.\nThere’s even more help coming from Tallahassee.\nFlorida State University launched its Veteran’s Film Festival Monday. FSU has vowed to become the most veteran friendly campus in the county.\n“When you come to FSU, your service is going to be respected. Your service is going to be appreciated. The student body is going to reach out and open their arms unto you,” said Colonel Billy Francis.\nWith all the new help available, the problem becomes spreading the word. In September the state launched this website, floridavets.org, compiling information about state and federal programs.\nMore help is on the way. The newly formed Statewide Veterans Advisory Committee will hold its first meeting Wednesday in Tallahassee. The committee will focus on drug abuse and mental health problems effecting returning soldiers."}
{"content":"There will be changes to this year's annual 4th of July fireworks display in Portland. The fireworks will be shot off from land instead of a barge like the one that was used last year. During that display, a worker was badly injured.\nAn investigation by the State Fire Marshal's Office and the U.S. Coast Guard found that the weather was a contributing factor in the accident that left one of the pyrotechnicians severely injured.\nThe display was delayed a day due to weather and the Fire Marshal's investigation found that moisture and water from the night before, got into the tubes used to fire off the fireworks on July 5. The moisture caused an eight inch shell to explode prematurely.\nThe injured worker from Atlas Pyrotechnics suffered a serious shoulder injury and a collapsed lung. Atlas says it was a good thing the worker was wearing a life-preserver, because it helped soften the blow.\nThe city says the barge was donated, and the coast guard says it issued a permit, but found the barge was not inspected.\nHowever, because the barge didn't carry any hazardous materials, it wasn't required to be inspected.\n\"The Coast Guard did investigate this because the nature of the injury and the fact that there was an injury on board, a barge that was otherwise in commercial service. So, that's one of the trigger points that the Coast Guard does step in and will do an administrative investigation, and we do many of these annually,\" said U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Nick Barrow.\nThe Coast Guard says either way, a 350-yard safety radius is required to prevent spectator injuries.\nIf you're thinking of having your own fireworks, click here to make sure they're not banned in your town."}
{"content":"I have never understood why people spend so much time building sandcastles. There are even contests where the sandcastles become quite elaborate. I look at those gigantic, detailed structures and think: That probably will be gone by tomorrow. (Maybe even sooner, because some little child will go stomping through it – probably one of my grandkids, as a matter of fact.) My sandcastles, on the other hand, are very primitive. They are basically lumps of sand with the token moat. The first wave that comes along usually takes them out.\nSpiritually speaking, some people build their entire lives on sand. Jesus said, “Everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall” (Matthew 7:16–27 NKJV).\nEven as culture changes, the Bible never does. I saw a pastor being interviewed recently, and the interviewer was pressing him on what the Bible says about some issues that are not popular in today’s culture. The interviewer asked, “Don’t you think it’s time for us to drag the Bible, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century?”\nI thought: That is the whole problem. We have ignored the Bible. The Bible is never out of date. The news is quickly outdated, but the Bible never is. The question is whether we will put it into practice. If we do, then we will grow spiritually.\nI read an interesting article about a woman who decided to kill her son, Kenneth. She fired a shotgun at him at close range, but the bullet hit the Bible he had been carrying. Later, the deputy who arrested Kenneth’s mother said the Bible saved Kenneth’s life.\nThe Bible will save your life as well. But it is not enough to simply read it; you have to do what it says. You see, there are some things that only God can do and some things only I can do. Yes, God can do anything, but He doesn’t do everything. For example, God does not sin. So He can do anything, but there are some things He will not do.\nAnd here is something else God will not do: He will not violate human will. Sometimes we wish He would, because we know people who are doing the wrong thing with their lives, and we feel that God ought to grab them and drag them to where they need to be. But He actually will let them do the things they choose to do. He will let their lives run their course. Sure, He will give them warnings. Sure, He will speak to them. But He honors human will.\nSo it comes down to this: There are some things only God can do and some things only I can do. Only God can save us. Only God can forgive our sins. Only God can change a human heart. That is what God does.\nAt the same time, only we can believe. God will not believe for us. He will give us the ability to believe. He will urge us to believe. He will tell us to believe. But ultimately it is our choice.\nGod says, “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live …” (Deuteronomy 30:15-16 NKJV).\nThat is sort of like a teacher saying, “Today, I am going to test you on who is buried in Grant’s Tomb.” The teacher has already revealed what the answer is, but you still have to write it down.\nGod is saying, “Here is life and death. Here is good. Here is evil. You choose. Oh, by the way, choose life. I just want to let you know that is the right answer.” But it is still your choice. Ultimately, you have to choose.\nSo it is not enough to just read the Bible. Think about it. Contemplate it. Ponder it. Let it sink in. As one man said, “Conversion turns us to the Word of God, which is our touchstone.” A touchstone originally was a special rock that was used to measure precious metals. It was a point of reference. In the same way, the Bible is our touchstone in life.\nIf you believe that people are basically good, and the only reason they do bad things is because of their environment, then things probably aren’t making sense to you right now. When we look at the so-called government solutions that are supposed to improve our way of life, we see they have really done no good at all. That is because changing an environment does not change the heart.\nThe Bible doesn’t teach that people are basically good and do bad things because of bad influences. Rather, the Bible teaches that people are basically sinful, and they are born sinful. We are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners. It comes naturally to all of us. That is how we are prewired.\nIf you believe that we can bring about a utopia on earth through man-made solutions, then you must be very disappointed – because, despite all of our advances in technology, we can’t change the human heart. But if you believe what the Bible says, then things will make a lot more sense to you.\nWhen Joshua was preparing to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land, God told him, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success” (Joshua 1:8 NKJV).\nIt’s all there for us in a relationship with God. And we can be sure it will stand the test of time."}
{"content":"There are many reasons why soap operas, those daytime dramas that once dominated afternoon television, are on life support. More working women, an explosion of other entertainment choices on TV and the Internet, the end of sponsorship by Procter & Gamble (the company that once owned most of the major daytime dramas, hence the moniker, “soap operas”), and shrinking budgets at the networks making less expensive formats like quiz, reality, and talk shows more attractive, have all contributed to the erosion of the audience. A recent event at the Paley Center for Media, co-sponsored by the Screen Actors Guild Foundation, brought together cast members from ABC’s One Life to Live and served as a huge wake-up call. Much will be lost—for both those who work on soaps and those who enjoy them—if the genre cannot be resuscitated.\nOLTL’s cast was adamant that pronouncements of the soap opera’s death are premature. “We’re still around and doing well,” said Executive Producer and Lead Director Frank Valentini. In fact, OLTL, as well as All My Children, and General Hospital, stand a greater chance to survive because ABC, rather than P&G, owns them. The soap giant began sponsoring radio soap operas in the 1930s, but now only partially supports one—CBS’s The Young and the Restless. Listening to the OLTL actors talk about the show and acting underlined the important role soap operas continue to play in the world of entertainment.\nSoap operas provide that coveted first job for beginning actors.\nBoth Kristen Alderson (who plays college student, Starr Manning) and David Gregory (who plays single teacher Robert Ford) talked about how thrilled they were to land parts on a daytime drama. “I’m madly in love with the show,” said Alderson, who was only six years old when she was cast as Starr. Gregory (above), who was kidded by other cast members about his sexy, good looks, said: “I want to do good work and I want to learn. I could take off my shirt and do that for ten years.”\nSome soap actors do indeed make a career on daytime drama, while others use it as a stepping-stone to other opportunities. Famous faces who had their first close ups on soaps include: Meg Ryan, Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Kathy Bates, Marisa Tomei, Julianne Moore, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Tommy Lee Jones, Judith Light, and many, many more.\nSoaps also provide a starting point for those who work behind the camera. Valentini said that he began at OLTL fresh out of school and has been with the program for 25 years. And sometimes those who never thought about acting hit the jackpot. Sean Ringgold was working as a bodyguard for A-list celebrities when he was spotted and cast in OLTL as Shaun Evans—surprise!—a bodyguard. Since then Shaun’s story on the soap has evolved and a whole family created around him. He knew he had crossed over when a director told him: “You’re not security anymore—you’re talent.”\nSoap operas are a great training ground for actors.\nWorking on a soap is hard work. “There’s nothing better than a soap opera to hone your [acting] skills,” said Hillary B. Smith (above), who plays District Attorney Nora Buchanan. “Those who look down on soap operas have never done more than three pages [of script] a day.” Kassie DePavia, who plays “fiery and driven” Blair Cramer, said that her nighttime routine includes doing her “homework,” memorizing dozens of pages of dialogue for the following day. (A side benefit? She encourages her son to do his homework at the same time). Gina Tognoni (newspaper editor, Kelly Cramer), said the scenes she had taped the previous day took up more than 30 pages of the script.\nThat soap opera “commando acting,” according to Hillary, means that daytime actors can hit the ground running when they land parts in TV dramas or feature films. “After this, nothing scares me,” said Florencia Lozano (one of our Women Around Town who plays the OLTL’s manipulative attorney, Tea Delgado). “You step up to the plate, do what you have to do, be present, and make something happen.” Lozano, an accomplished stage actress, is comfortable in any medium. She recently had a guest role on the CBS hit, Blue Bloods.\nSoap operas make a social statement.\nLong before nighttime TV featured incest, rape, abortion, breast cancer, racism, homosexuality, and other social issues as themes for stories, soap operas were tackling these controversial topics. And OLTL continues to push the envelope. “We get to walk in every day and tell a story,” said DePavia (above, right, with Lozano, left). “Sometimes we make a difference socially.”\nThe downside? A storyline can be so emotional, it may be difficult for the actor to leave the character behind at the end of the day. “We have to be very careful what we open ourselves up to,” said Gina, who said that when appearing on another soap, she agonized each night over her character’s dilemma. She learned that she had to let it go. “You have to protect the soul,” she said.\nSoap operas influence other entertainment media.\nTelling a story, melodrama, teasing the viewer to stay tuned—all are hallmarks of the soap format. “The storytelling aspect of the soap has been adopted by every other medium,” said Hillary. Whether a nighttime drama with a continuing storyline, a reality show that plays up the conflict between participants, or a quiz show where waiting to hear the “final answer” ratchets up the tension, the format of the soap is the boilerplate.\nUnfortunately, soap operas, like all entertainment, must always be concerned with the bottom line. And daytime drama has borrowed from the movies in changing how episodes are filmed. To save money, scenes may be filmed out of sequence when special sets or locations are needed. “It’s all about being efficient,” said Valentini. That timing puts extra pressure on the actors. With a film, the actors have read the entire script and know what will happen scene by scene. “But we may be shooting shows that are four weeks apart,” Valentini explained, adding that the actors will not have information about what transpires in between—one reason soap actors must know their characters very well and be able to adapt.\nSoap opera actors will keep perfecting their craft and developing their characters, no matter what plot twists are thrown their way. The big question is: will soap operas themselves be up to the challenge to keep this art form fresh and relevant? Much depends on the outcome. Stay tuned.\nOne Life to Live\n2 p.m., Monday through Friday\nPaley Center for Media\n25 West 52nd Street\nScreen Actors Guild Foundation"}
{"content":"- Word Explorer\n|part of speech:\n||a disease of the skin and nerves caused by infection. People with leprosy have sores on their skin and lose feeling in their bodies. They sometimes lose fingers and toes.\nIn the past, people with leprosy were greatly feared and forced to live far away from others."}
{"content":"- Word Explorer\n|part of speech:\n||something stated in words.\nThe company made a statement to everyone about the new work hours.\n||any sentence that is not a question.\nThe paragraph consisted of one question and three statements.\n||a report or record of financial matters.\nThe bank sends my mom a statement every month.\n- account, record, report\n- similar words:\n||assurance, budget, certificate, comment, expression, message, notice, observation, testimony, word"}
{"content":"Rothenburg, Romantic Road © www.romantischestrasse.de\nTo experience the best of medieval Germany, thousands of visitors drive, bus or cycle their way along the Romantic Road, a 180 mile (290km) route between Munich and Frankfurt that links together a string of quaint, well-preserved walled towns dating back a thousand years or more. The towns en route have banded together to market their attractions and ensure Romantic Road travellers are well informed and accommodated. Bicycles can be rented at any train station along the road, and tourist offices along the route provide maps and information. There are brown signposts along the route in several languages and many attractions along the way including amazing castles, some great museums and historic sightseeing in the ancient towns; the natural surroundings are also very beautiful and there is lots of yummy local cuisine to sample along the way.\nThe Romantic Road is a deservedly popular route and some of the attractions and villages can get crowded, particularly during peak tourist season. The route starts in Würzburg but you can start following the trail at any point you choose. The best known of the towns on the Romantic Road is Rothenburg, in the Tauber River Valley, and other favourites along the way are Dinkelsbuhl and Nordlingen."}
{"content":"Growth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is revised downward to 2.6 % in 2015 and the short term prospects remain “cautiously pessimistic”, according to the latest issue of the Quarterly Economic Brief for MENA (QEB). The report examines the different ways in which civil wars affect the economies of the region, including the important channel of forced displacement, which has become a crisis. It also explores how economic fortunes will turn around if there is peace.\nThis issue of the MENA Quarterly Economic Brief (QEB) traces the economic effects of the latter development—removing sanctions on Iran—on the world oil market, on Iran’s trading partners, and on the Iranian economy.The most significant change will be Iran’s return to the oil market. The World Bank estimates that the eventual addition of one million barrels a day (mb/d) from Iran, assuming no strategic response from other oil exporters, would lower oil prices by 14 percent or $10 per barrel in 2016. Oil importers, including the European Union (EU) and United States (US), will gain while oil exporters, especially the Gulf countries, will lose.\nThe over-50% decline in world oil prices—from US$115 a barrel in June 2014 to less than US$50 today—will have significant consequences for the economies of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This report titled \" Plunging Oil Prices\", focuses on the implications of low oil prices for eight developing countries, or the MENA-8 (oil importers: Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon and Jordan and oil exporters: Iran, Iraq, Yemen and Libya) and the economies of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), who play a major role in providing funds in the form of aid, investment, tourism revenues and remittances to the rest of the countries of the region.\nThis report assesses the macroeconomic performance of seven of the MENA countries: Egypt, Tunisia, Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen and Libya. All of these countries experienced rapid economic growth during 2000-10, and suffered a sharp economic slowdown in the aftermath of 2011. The brief focuses on the challenges facing these countries with a closer look at the actual growth performance in comparison with their forecasts and highlights the limitations of forecasting in the wake of the 2011 uprisings; and at the consequences of the growth slowdown, including unemployment, where perceptions may diverge from reality. The story is told in fourteen charts.\nOngoing regional tensions, together with a challenging external environment, have hit the economies of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region hard. Economic growth is slowing, fiscal buffers are depleting, unemployment is rising, and inflation is mounting in seven transition countries in the region.\nWhile the focus has been on the recent change in government in Egypt, five countries in the Middle East and North Africa Region, including Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon, Jordan and Iran are facing a growth slowdown, rising fiscal deficits and debt, and high unemployment and inflation."}
{"content":"Case Sensitive Sorts\nDo you sort a lot of data in MS Excel? Ever find that you have case sensitive data (part numbers, account numbers, etc.) that just don’t seem to sort properly? Does Excel ignore upper and lower case and sort purely on letter content? Is this a problem for you?\nIf it is, then it seems to me that you do a lot of manual manipulation of your data to get it all “in the right place.”\nWant a way out of the manual manipulation?\nNo problem – unbeknownst to us for all this time, Excel can do sorts that are case sensitive.\nI know by now you’re probably very interested, so let’s take a look at how to get Excel to cooperate.\nBegin your sort as normal – that is, highlight the list to sort or select a cell in the data range to get Excel to select the whole thing for you.\nNext, it’s off to the Data menu, Sort choice.\nWhen the Sort window opens, locate and click the Options button.\nOnce in the Sort Options window, you’re looking to check the “Case Sensitive” option.\nUpon returning to the Sort window, finish setting your choices, complete the sort and then it’s back to business as usual.\nThis time the sorted data should be sorted in a whole new light! Lower case items will be sorted before upper case and…\n…you no longer have to rearrange anything by hand!"}
{"content":"I have always been a big fan of hard drive management programs but I’ve never seen a good one for free. Having a partition management program can really get you out of a jam, help speed things up, and even give you a better understanding of the current status of your drives. Not to mention that these programs can take a lot of the confusion and apprehension away from such tasks that the common end user may even find a bit overwhelming.\nMost drive management applications give you an interface in which you can use to control different aspects of your computer’s hard drives. However with SwissKnife, today’s Download of the Week, you are not limited to just your internal hard drives you can also manage removable drives as well. It is a great way to keep track of all these new USB storage devices such as: hubs, readers, external hard drives, and card reader/writers that we all have plugged in anymore. I know that with all my gadgets plugged in I’m pushing over 20 drives and believe me this is when it’s nice to have a program that can create a convenient environment in which to oversee the big scheme of things.\nBefore SwissKnife I would use My Computer to view and perform basic drive procedures depending on the Operating System. If you have either XP or 2000 operating systems then you can use the Administrators Tools to manage a good deal of these drive management functions, however, in any other Windows Operating System you don’t have this option. SwissKnife can create, delete and format partitions on your hard disk drives almost effortlessly. Not to mention that Swissknife can be used interchangeably between several different Operating Systems.\nHere’s a list of what SwissKnife can do for you:\n- Formats faster than the OS (click on chart for details)\n- Allows change of cluster size during Full format or Quick Format\n- Divides a single hard drive into one or more partitions\n- Supports Hi-Speed USB, PCMCIA, SATA, SCSI, USB 1.1, and FireWire® external drives\n- Supports Fixed and Removable disk formats\n- Supports FAT, FAT32 & NTFS systems\n- Allows creation of a single partition of up to 2048GB of FAT32 or NTFS file systems.\n- Full format or Quick Format of existing partitions\n- Selective partitions can be modified for optimum flexibility\nSupported Operating Systems:\n- Windows XP (Home, MCE, Professional and Server edition, all service packs)\n- Windows 2000 (Professional and Server edition, all service packs)\n- Windows NT 4.0 Workstation and Server\n- Windows Me\n- Windows 98 (First and Second Editions)\n- Windows 95b (OSR2 Edition)\nSo there you have it – a quick and easy way to deal with those “mounting” number of drives (that’s a geek joke). Anyway, I hope you find the program useful and if so then I have done my job. Now, however, I am sad to say that I must go as there are downloads out there waiting to be discovered and delivered onto you, our fantastic Worldstart Readers. So, I bid you adieu until next week and wish you all Happy Holidays."}
{"content":"Birth, marriage and death records, sometimes referenced to as vital records are invaluable to your genealogy search. Because they were typically recorded around the time of the event they are often considered more accurate then other types of records. - read more\nNot only will you find information about a particular relative search, often information about other near relatives will be included. For example, birth and marriage records include parents full names and divorce records list the names of the couple?s children.\nCan't find a collection you are looking for? Try using our Card Catalog to find a collection in Tennessee Birth, Marriage and Death.\nSearch most popular collections for Tennessee Birth, Marriage And Death databases:\nKineo Family Announcements(1,053,216 names)\nKineo Graveyard(699,037 names)\nJewish Data(352,709 names)\nCanadian Headstone Photo Project(682,968 names)\nClick here to view more Tennessee resources."}
{"content":"The primary concern of school personnel is for the physical safety, emotional well- being and civil rights of students and staff of Worthington Schools.\nA crisis is any event in or out of school that has potential for disruption of the educational process.\nWe believe that:\n· A well-defined plan will allow for timely interventions which will hasten the recovery process.\n· There are four distinct areas of concern when dealing with crisis of which all are equally important. (Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, Recovery)\n· A sensitive and caring approach must permeate the entire process.\n· All information generated throughout this process is deemed confidential. Sensitive methods must be in place for dissemination of information to the various publics, such as, students, parents, staff members, community members, law enforcement officials, news media outlets, etc.\n· An effective plan includes a multi-disciplinary approach which will draw upon the strengths and expertise of many community and school district professionals. (For example: teachers, administrators, counselors, nurses, psychologists and student support services personnel, community counselors and psychologists, pastors, law enforcement officials, firefighters, etc.)\n· When school personnel are adequately prepared, trauma can be minimized and the time it takes to return to normal operation can be reduced.\n· Crisis has similarities, therefore, materials can be prepared that will assist school professionals in the event of an emergency."}
{"content":"| Can we manage our water better?\n|Expanded Title:||Water is an important resource for economic and social development in South Africa. Its limited and uncertain availability imposes serious constraints on development. In global terms, South Africa is categorised as a water-stressed country.\nTo date, these constraints have been overcome by building infrastructure to store and transport water, increasingly often from one river catchment to another. Such infrastructure can supply more water, more reliably than undeveloped rivers but the country is now approaching a physical limit to the amount of water that can be made available for use.\nIn the future, water users will therefore have to cooperate more closely with each other to maintain reliable access to what is becoming an increasingly contested resource. They can do this indirectly, by supporting and complying with the decisions and directions of government or, more directly, by working together to manage the available resources.\nWater management is a difficult and complex business that needs appropriate institutional arrangements. While government can give broad guidance and support, as water resource constraints become more acute it is often unable to act effectively to address day-to-day details. And there is evidence that national government’s ability to control pollution and keep discipline over water use is slipping.\nMany water resource management functions are best carried out at local level, often within the boundaries of river catchments themselves, since this is the geographical unit within which water flows and where one user’s actions affect others. At this level, it is helpful to involve water users and other stakeholders since they have detailed and up-to-date local knowledge as well as an interest in ensuring effective management to share water equitably between different users and to control pollution.\nThis approach is supported by South Africa's National Water Act (NWA), which provides for the establishment of “Catchment Management Agencies” (CMAs) to perform a range of water resource management activities within the framework of a national water resource strategy. However, since the NWA was passed in 1998, only two of the proposed nineteen CMAs have been established.\nAccording to the NWA, “a catchment management agency may be established for a specific Water Management Area (WMA), after public consultation, on the initiative of the community and stakeholders concerned. In the absence of such a proposal the Minister may establish a catchment management agency on the Ministers own initiative.\"\nTo date, this provision has not been successfully used. So the immediate objective of this study is to determine why water users and other stakeholders have not taken advantage of the opportunity to lead the establishment of CMAs in the absence of action by government.\nTo do this, it sought to identify the concerns of a diverse group of water resource stakeholders about the benefits and disadvantages of establishing a CMA. The wider purpose was to understand better stakeholders’ attitudes to institutions such as CMAs as interventions to improve water resource management in South Africa.\nAt the start of the study it was considered that the reason for stakeholders not taking the initiative might include:-\n• ignorance of the enabling provisions of the NWA (knowledge)\n• lack of compelling incentives to establish a CMA (satisfaction with status quo)\n• concern over ability to defend their interests in a CMA (capacity and uncertainty)\n• fear that a CMA might be detrimental to their interests (negative evaluation of the management concept); and\n• fear that a CMA would be ineffective in achieving its goals (lack of confidence in the management model).\nFocusing on the Upper Vaal and Olifants river catchments, two “water management areas” that extend from the Free State to Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces, the knowledge and views of more than 50 water users and other stakeholders were surveyed.\nThe key findings were that:-\n• Ignorance about the provisions of the National Water Act was not the main reason for stakeholders not taking the initiative;\n• stakeholders were not satisfied with the status quo and many were frustrated by government’s weak administration of water matters and its failure to deal with serious water management issues;\n• many were seeking ways in which they could become more involved in the management of water resources;\n• there were however concerns about whether a CMA would protect their interests and support their objectives or undermine them;\n• some stakeholders felt that the CMA model was too complex and would not solve the underlying lack of capacity and leadership that were at the root of their problems; and\n• most respondents looked to national government to lead in establishing effective water resource management arrangements but were pessimistic about its capacity to do this.\nExtensive evidence was presented of failures in the present management of water resources. These included administrative failures to issue licences and incoherent licence conditions, which were hampering economic activity; uncontrolled illegal water use, which undermined other activities; as well as widespread pollution of rivers, especially by municipalities and the mining industry, that damaged the natural environment and imposed costs on other water users.\nIt was also evident from the pilot areas studied that each WMA has its own local characteristics and challenges, which must be reflected in the approach taken to establishing management arrangements.\nOn the basis of these findings, recommendations are made for actions to improve water resource management. These include:\n• Action must be taken to address water resource management problems which, if not attended to, will impact severely on economic and social life and damage the natural environment.\n• The majority of water users and other stakeholders support the establishment of a more local level of water management and this support should be recognised and built upon.\n• No serious impediments were identified to the implementation of the basic structure proposed for CMAs.\n• Individual stakeholders can contribute best through institutions that represent their views and interests. Such institutions should be identified and organised or strengthened so that they can participate effectively in water resource management.\n• While day-to-day water resource management activities should be supported from water resource management charges, funding support will be needed to support the initial establishment of CMAs.\n• New management arrangements must make effective use of limited human resources with clear delegation of functions and management systems designed to allow functions to be transferred and/or shared between CMAs and DWA regional offices.\n• Where there is no immediate crisis, the development of catchment management strategies will help to identify initial priorities for CMA action and the process of producing municipal water services development plans could provide a helpful focal point for initial discussions and actions.\n• Current proposals to reduce the number of CMAs and enlarge the WMAs may weaken the relationships between stakeholders and could affect the performance of the CMAs.\n|Document Type:||Research Report\n|Document Subjects:||Water Resource Management/IWRM - Planning and development, Water Resource Management/IWRM - Water Governance\n|Document Keywords:||Water Quality\n|Document File Type:||pdf\n|Research Report Type:||Technical\n|WRC Report No:||1972/1/12\n|Authors:||Muller M; Hollingworth B; Ndluli M\n|Organizations:||Water and Development Management\n|Document Size:||1 450 KB\n|Attachments:||EXECUTIVE SUMMARY for 1972.pdf\nTABLE OF CONTENTS for 1972.pdf"}
{"content":"Four Headland students are celebrating their graduation from the Explorer Program tonight.\nThe 13-week program gives teens interested in law enforcement an inside look at what police officers do on a daily basis.\nOfficials say the program is a way to keep teens from going down the wrong path.\nExplorers graduate can stay in the program until their 20th birthday. They then can apply to be a part of the Headland Auxiliary Department which can lead to a full time Police Officer position."}
{"content":"[In 2008 Wu Ming 1 wrote a series of articles on some strange, “exotic”, ancient-sounding titles famous jazz musicians gave to their compositions. The articles were published on Musica Jazz, the oldest and most important jazz magazine in Italy. Little by little they’ve been translated into English, so you too have the chance to read them. Starting today, we’ll publish them on this blog by the end of Autumn. The first installment is dedicated to Ogunde, an ancient Yoruba chant John Coltrane reinterpreted soon before his death.\nWu Ming 1 is the author of New Thing (2004), an “unidentified narrative object” (ie a weird novel) on the NYC free jazz scene around 1967. In recent years he’s been writing extensively on Black music, his major effort being a long essay titled Black Noise Supremacy: Notes and Digressions on the Alleged “Whiteness” of Punk and the African Origins of Rock’n'Roll Corporeity (2006, so far available only in Italian and Spanish)].\nRecently on this magazine, Luca Conti noticed how certain titles of jazz and, more generally, Afro-American music compositions recall “a mysterious, unfathomable, even macabre Africa, a place the white man is not allowed to access. Listening to those songs makes you feel like you’re hearing a message that, unfortunately, is not addressed to you and does nothing to include you in the conversation.”\nI don’t want to enter the troublesome debate on music being “asemantic”. I will merely state the obvious: a jazz tune is almost always devoid of lyrics, and the title is the only verbal element. Only the title says something. The artist plays with associations and suggests a mood, an environment (albeit vague), a frame of images and concepts. Titling one of his compositions Relaxin ‘at Camarillo, Charlie Parker enriches the music with a sarcastic autobiographical reference (his forced stay at a mental hospital), indicating a possible approach, a key to listening. Naming his song All the Things You Could Be By Now If Sigmund Freud’s Wife Was Your Mother, Charles Mingus imposed a frame, indicating that the piece must be listened to imaginatively, with a willingness to force the cage of reality and a desire to play with absurd assumptions.\nIn the second half of the 20th century, as jazz rediscovered its African genesis, more and more titles brough up ancient languages, exotic religions or remote civilizations. Other times the title is a word in common use, appended to the music in order to produce incongruous effects. “What does Sunny Murray‘s Giblet reference?”, asks Luca Conti. If the tune is traditional, then the title is not chosen by the musician: it has come down the river of centuries, a phonetic fetish, an uncanny and barely decipherable object. In rare and extreme cases, the title is just an alphanumeric jumble, like a parody of scientific formulas, as in some Anthony Braxton albums, eg Comp. 26 G 99 G.\nIn this series of articles I will travel back in time and investigate the mysterious worlds hidden in strange, allusive titles. From time to time, I will make a “savage” use of etymology, philology, linguistics and anthropology, and it’s a mystery even to me where I’m going.\nLet’s start with one of the last tracks recorded by John Coltrane before he died in the winter of 1967. Ogunde is the opening gem of his posthumous album Expression. Stretched beyond measure, it fills half of the famous Olatunji Concert, Coltrane’s last recorded live performance (April 23d, 1967).\nThe choice of this tune was influenced by Babatunde Olatunji, a Nigerian percussionist belonging to the Yoruba ethnic group and the eponymous founder of the Harlem cultural center that hosts the gig. Years ago, Olatunji got Coltrane interested in African music, an interest which, instead of fading, has grown more and more. Before discovering he had cancer, the saxophonist was planning a trip to the African continent and had in mind to reinterpret the songs of the Yoruba tradition.\nOgunde is a Yoruba chant, but Trane has received it from Brazil. In the liner notes of the Olatunji Concert cd, written by the critic and pianist David Wild, we find this brief explanation:\n[The] composition [is] based on the Afro-Brazilian folk song Ogunde Varere. Coltrane most likely knew of it from composer Francisco Ernani Braga‘s arrangement, part of a set of eight traditional songs recorded by the classical soprano Bidu Sayão in 1947. Braga translated the title as «Prayer of the gods» and described it as “a negro spiritual in African dialect.”\nDavid Wild has no fault, he merely reported other people’s errors and approximations, but if we proceeded backward from these scant data, we would enter one dead end street after another.\nTo begin with, Ogunde Varere is a title that doesn’t exist. In the version recorded by Bidu Sayão (orchestra directed by Heitor Villa-Lobos!) the song is called Ogunde Uareré. In fact, there is no “v” sound in Yoruba language. Who knows who was the first scribe to make this typographical error which, after bouncing several times here and there, is now part of the Coltrane vulgata.\nSecondly, as we shall see, the correct translation is not Prayer of the gods.\nIt would be even worse if we started the journey from a review of the CD published in 2001 on an Italian weekly, where the journalist called Ogunde “a nice little song of the Afro-Brazilian tradition.”\n“Nice little song”? Such a description could suit My Favorite Things, but certainly not Ogunde, because we’re talking about the hard stuff here, ie the cults, rituals and fetishes of the Afro-Atlantic world: Candomblé in North-East Brazil, Santeria in Cuba, Voodoo and Obeah in the West Indies.\nThat’s right, the song in question is known from the Caribbean to Brazil, and the opening line has many variations, due to deformations occurred in the oral tradition, as well as in transcriptions made in different periods and geographical areas. To follow these travels on the Net one must force Google, bend and stretch the search to the extreme and, when it breaks, run where the splinters fall, sift the soil and check every pebble. In this way, in the Caribbean area we can find Oggúndé Arere, Ogun de Arere, Oggundere Arere e Ogun rere Arere. However you transcribe it, it is an ancient Orikì (invocation) to the African deity Ogun (Ogum in Brazil, Oggún in Cuba, Ogoun in Haiti).\nOgun is one of the Orishas, the spirits of the Yoruba religion that – to put it very simply – “mediate” the relationship between the humans and Olodumare, the creator of the universe, a Being that is remote and unknowable as such. This relationship between a God who is “higher up” and a multitude of “intermediate” figures also exists in the Catholic pantheon, which is full of archangels, saints and martyrs. This parallel allowed African slaves to disguise their beliefs and make them acceptable in the New World, by “dressing up” each Orisha as a saint of the Canon (hence the word Santeria). In Cuba, Ogun corresponds to Saint Peter. In Brazil he corresponds Saint George. To be more precise, the Orishas are manifestations of the supreme God: on a different plane of existence, they are Olodumare. If in Christianity God has three personas (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), in the Yoruba religion He has several dozens of them, and the matter is more fun.\nOgun is the lord of war, metals, anger, blades, incandescent things, fever and the butchery of animals. Accordingly, he is the protector of blacksmiths, miners, barbers, butchers, surgeons, hunters, soldiers and generally anyone who uses metal tools to cut, dig, drill, beat, forge, cauterize and so on. Ogun’s colors are black and purple. “Arera” is one of his attributes and it seems to mean “king of Ire” (a place in the state of Ekiti, Nigeria), although in some texts it is translated as “butcher”. Certainly you don’t dedicate “nice little songs” to a guy like that, one that came down from the sky during the Creation, hanging by a thread of spider web and waving a machete.\nFrancisco Braga was a composer of operas and symphonic music. His main influence was Ricard Wagner. In his version of this orikì every edge is beveled, every asperity is smoothed down, the melody is adapted by force to the Western scale. The 1947 recording retains very little Candomblé. Yes, the words are there, those arcane Yoruba formulas (“Ogunde arere / ile bogbo lokua / Ogun wanile Ogun walona“), but from how Bidu Sayão sings them, it might be Ecclesiastical Latin. No more swirling blades, no more red-hot iron, the fever is off and the furnace extinguished. Farewell to Africa.\nRevitalizing the Orikì is the task Coltrane undertakes twenty years later. Ogunde‘s studio version is quiet and tense at the same time, intimate and yet open to the world. Here the tune becomes an invocation again. A prayer. David Wild writes that this music has “an impassioned, supplicating quality.” After the opening theme, Trane starts the search, the sax rummages in the corners of memory, “in the back of the Black man’s mind.” It’s a bird’s eye view on the Black diaspora. Trane leaves Brazil and flies back to Africa passing through the Blues. Ogun is still far away but the music calls him, blows and revives old embers, fans the timid flame that a few weeks later, at the Olatunji Center of African Culture, will swell to become a majestic blaze. In the endless live version (more than twenty-eight minutes), Ogun appears and dance on embers, amidst bushes of sparks, swinging a machete over everyone’s heads.\nThere is a painting by Davide Minetti, an acrylic on canvas made in 1997. Coltrane emerges from the shadows and a white light illuminates his face. He wears a dark suit jacket, his shirt is blue, his eyes are closed. Behind and around him, thick brushstrokes are causing black waves. Munch-like bends on a fiery red background.\nThe name of the work is “Ogunde varere”.\nThe circle keeps closing, the cycle keeps starting again.\n– Originally published on Musica Jazz no.3, year 64, March 2008."}
{"content":"Martinsburg's Motor Car\nBy Daniel J. Friend\nIn the early 1900's, a low-riding luxury car was built in Martinsburg's industrial center. The long and lavish Norwalk Underslung Six was billed as \"The Car of Absolute Exclusiveness\" and remains Martinsburg’s primary claim to automotive history and stands as the most successful and longest-made motor vehicle known to have been manufactured in the Mountain State.\nThe Norwalk Motor Car Company assembled cars and trucks from 1912 to 1922 on Miller Avenue — recently renamed Norwalk Avenue — located along the Winchester & Western Railroad tracks in Martinsburg's once?thriving woolen mill district.\nThe auto manufacturer started in Norwalk, Ohio, in 1910. It faced financial trouble there, however, and a group of local investors bought out the company and its remaining parts stock, and moved everything to Martinsburg. The company began assembling the Underslung Six in 1912 in a building formerly occupied by the Brooklyn Brass Works.\nThe hulking Norwalk Underslung featured unique and expensive design concepts, many of which became standard features on later models. The Norwalk Underslung frame and suspension design lowered the car's center of gravity, making for less sway in curves. Engineers mounted the Norwalk's axles on top of the frame, while most manufacturers mounted the frame on top of the axles.\nAn advertisement in the 1913 edition of Motor magazine detailed the advantages of the low?riding car. According to the advertisement, \"The keynote of Norwalk Underslung construction lies in the fact that we have brought the center of weight, the point of suspension, and the point of support to coincide in practically one point. Flat springs are used all around, supported on top of the axle. Side sway and body swing are eliminated absolutely. In rounding corners, the centrifugal force is not taken up by the springs vertically, but the stress is lateral. As a result, the Norwalk, when rounding curves, carries the same weight on all four wheels as on the straightaway.\"\nThe standard Norwalk Underslung Six was a huge convertible with 40?inch tires tall enough to bring the front fenders level with the plane of the hood. The tourer offered a 500-cubic-inch in?line, 6?cylinder, 8.6?liter, overhead-valve engine. By comparison, one of today's larger engines used in many General Motors vehicles is the 350-cubic-inch, 5.7?liter, V-8. With room for six passengers, the Underslung Six boasted a 136?inch wheelbase. By comparison, a modern, full?sized 2003 Cadillac Deville's wheelbase is 115.3 inches.\nIn 1912, the two?passenger Underslung roadster was offered for $2,900, the three?passenger roadster for $3,000, and the six-passenger tourer for $3,100. According to an advertisement, those prices got the owner the following equipment: \"Top with curtains and cover, glass folding windshield, complete dynamo and battery, electric lighting system, self starter, speedometer, electric cigar lighter and trouble lamp, extra demountable rim, electric horn, coat rails, foot rails, trunk, all tools, etc.\"\nA top?of?the?line Underslung would cost a buyer about six times Henry Ford's $500-$600 price for a standard passenger car of the same era. Not a car for the common man, the Underslung was mainly marketed and sold in the more opulent sections of New York, Philadelphia, and Toronto.\n\" We're talking a lot of money for ol’ Martinsburgers in 1912,\" says Garry Murphy, historian for the Norwalk Antique Car Club of Martinsburg, named in honor of the local vehicle. Garry has spent many of his 64 years tracking local lore and information associated with the Norwalk Motor Car Company and has given numerous talks about the car and its history to collectors and other groups.\nYou can read the rest of this article in the Summer 2003 issue of Goldenseal, available in bookstores, libraries or direct from Goldenseal."}
{"content":"Defective mine breathing devices being phased out\nRead more: http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/ CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Federal regulators on Thursday announced plans to phase out the coal industry's use of a defective model of emergency breathing device, giving the nation's mine operators up to 20 months to replace nearly 70,000 units.\nThe move by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration comes more than six years after the 2006 Sago Mine Disaster, where survivor Randal McCloy said four units failed the 12 miners who died after being trapped deep underground following a powerful explosion.\nMSHA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health acted only after a two-year investigation that started in February 2010 when the maker of the devices, Pittsburgh-based CSE Corp., reported an oxygen starter problem similar to that described by McCloy.\nLast week, NIOSH issued its long-awaited report of that investigation, confirming a \"critical\" defect in the oxygen bottles meant to kick-start CSE's SR-100, the mining industry's most widely used model of self-contained self-rescuer, or SCSR.\nThe phase-out announced by MSHA gives mine operators until Dec. 31, 2013, to replace any and all SR-100 units they have with other models of SCSR approved by the agency.\nIn a prepared statement, MSHA chief Joe Main defended the nearly two-year timeline for replacing all of the units.\n\"Due to the large number of CSE SR-100s in underground coal mines, multiple SCSRs available to miners, the low probability of failure and the shortage of immediately available replacements, MSHA and NIOSH have determined that an orderly phase-out will better protect the safety of the miners than immediate withdrawal of the devices,\" Main said.\nUnder the MSHA plan, miners who rove around underground -- such as safety examiners or water pumping crewmen who don't have easy access to backup caches of units -- must be given a different model SCSR or a backup SR-100 to wear within 30 days. All other miners must be given new or backup equipment by April 26, 2013, and all SR-100s must be out of the mines by Dec. 31, 2013.\nCSE stopped making and selling the SR-100 and last year began marketing a new model of SCSR that the company says is smaller, lighter and produces 40 percent more oxygen than the SR-100, which was rated to supply at least one hour of breathable air.\n\"We have complete confidence in all of the products we produce and want our customers to know that we are prepared to support their needs during this time of orderly transition and in the future,\" CSE said in a statement issued Thursday afternoon.\nOther SCSR makers include Wisconsin-based Ocenco and the German firm Drager.\nBruce Watzman, vice president for safety issues at the National Mining Association, said his organization was still reviewing the MSHA announcement and had no immediate comment.\n\"We have encouraged MSHA to be aggressive in dealing with this issue, and we believe this initiative meets that goal,\" said Phil Smith, a spokesman for the United Mine Workers union.\nIn 1969, Congress required coal operators to provide all miners with an emergency device that would provide them at least one hour of breathable air to help them escape in the event of an underground fire or explosion.\nThe SR-100 model uses a chemical process to generate oxygen, based in part on a reaction with carbon dioxide being exhaled by its user. Miners are supposed to start the unit by exhaling into it.\nOver the years, coal miners had expressed complaints about SCSRs not starting or appearing to start slowly. Government and industry officials generally dismissed those complaints, saying the real problem was that miners didn't understand how to use the units properly.\nAfter Sago, McCloy testified that the SR-100s of four of the 12 miners trapped by the Jan. 2, 2006, explosion wouldn't start.\nMSHA dismissed McCloy's complaints. \"Some of the miners had trouble donning their SCSRs and breathing through them,\" the MSHA investigation report on Sago said. \"However, testing indicated that the units produced oxygen as intended.\"\nLater, lawmakers in West Virginia and then Washington also ordered companies to add extra breathing devices to be stored in key locations underground. They took no action about the SR-100 concerns described by McCloy.\nSeparate reports by mine safety expert Davitt McAteer and the UMW's safety department recommended much tougher scrutiny of the SR-100 and the speedy development of better and more reliable SCSRs that were also easier to use.\nUnder federal regulations, MSHA and NIOSH jointly certify the devices as complying with government standards, and the agencies have an agreement through which they are jointly charged with dealing with any problems that come up later when devices are in use.\nIn 2010, MSHA and NIOSH launched a joint investigation of problems that were eventually traced to the oxygen cylinders used in the initial start-up of the SR-100 devices. Initially, CSE said it had instituted a \"recall\" of the troubled units, but later conceded it had not actually ordered coal companies to stop using the devices.\nIn lawsuits after the Sago disaster, families of the miners were investigating concerns that the SR-100 cylinders, made by a vendor for CSE, somehow leaked, leaving the units without enough oxygen to start properly. Those suits were settled, and the terms were kept confidential.\nReach Ken Ward Jr. at firstname.lastname@example.org or 304-348-1702."}
{"content":"The combined load capacity of the +12V rail is not declared but it equals the sum of the two “virtual” output lines it is split into. So, this PSU can yield 36A (432W) across its +12V power rail.\nThe Antec website claims that two +12V lines (one of which is connected only to the 4-pin ATX12V connector) ensure stable power for the CPU that does not depend on the consumption of the other components. As I have repeatedly noted in my reviews, this is untrue. There is but one 12V power rail inside the PSU. It is split into two lines at the output in order to make the PSU safer for the user. Thus, there is no talking about the two lines being independent. Except for the tiny difference due to the voltage drop on the wires and connectors, the voltages of the 12V1 and 12V2 lines are almost identical. If one sags, the other sags, too.\nThe PSU is equipped with the following cables and connectors:\n- Mainboard cable with a 20+4-pin connector (50cm long)\n- CPU cable with a 4-pin connector (50cm)\n- Graphics card cable with a 6-pin connector (51cm)\n- One cable with two Molex connectors and one floppy-drive plug (50+15+15cm)\n- One cable with three Molex connectors (50+15+15cm)\n- One cable with two SATA power connectors (51+15cm)\nThe wires are tied up with nylon straps into braids. Wires from different braids are entangled near the PSU case.\nTogether with an APC SmartUPS SC 620 this PSU worked at loads up to 340W (from the mains) and 320W (from the battery). The pair was not stable when working on the battery: the UPS would shut down after 10-20 seconds under a slightest overload. I didn’t observe such problems with this series of FSP products before.\nThe PSU worked normally at its full load of 500W.\nThe output voltage ripple is low, far below the allowable limits on the +3.3V and +12V rails. There is almost no ripple at all on the +5V rail.\nThe cross-load characteristics are normal for this series of FSP power supplies and somewhat inferior to the opposing products: the +5V and +3.3V rails sag quickly as the load grows up and the PSU does not make it to the full declared load for these rails, which is 152W.\nOn the other hand, this is an insignificant drawback for modern PCs. As you can see, my “reference” configuration hits the “green zone” again. In other words, the voltages deflect less than 3% in the four test modes, from idle to 3DMark06.\nAlas, the PSU is not silent. Its fan starts up at over 2000rpm and accelerates proportionally to the load. It is always audible and becomes the noisiest in the system at a load of 200W because the present generation of graphics cards (both Radeon HD 3870 and GeForce 8800 GTS/512) is rather quiet while good CPU coolers are quite a common thing these days. So, Seasonic seems to be wise in using somewhat larger heatsinks in its PSUs.\nThe PSU set no records in terms of efficiency, yet its efficiency factor is always above 80%.\nUnfortunately, the Basiq BP500U is indeed a basic product among the PSUs selling under the Antec brand. Having good electrical parameters, it shows drawbacks the other models in this review are free from, namely high noise and certain instability when working with my UPS. Users may be interested in the junior, 350W, version of the Basiq if it is cheap enough. The senior, 500W, version may only be necessary for top-end configurations. But if you have an advanced configuration, you may want to add some more money and buy a more expensive and better PSU instead."}
{"content":"Super Talent on Tuesday made another attempt to popularize solid-state drives (SSDs) by substantially slashing prices on cost-effective models. The supplier of memory components hopes that the new price-points will catalyze end-users to prefer SSDs to premium-class hard disk drives (HDDs).\nSuper Talent’s MasterDrive LX-series solid-state drives that are based on multi-level cell (MLC) flash memory and feature Serial ATA-300 interface are hardly the fastest on the market with up to 100MB/s sequential read speed and up to 40MB/s write speed, but their pricing will definitely attract attention. The recommended price for MasterDrive LX 64GB (60GB) is just $179, whereas 128GB (120GB) version costs $299. Both models will begin shipping this week.\n“The MasterDrive LX is our most cost-effective SSD yet. However, we’ve made no compromises in quality and reliability”, said Joe James, director of marketing at Super Talent.\nWhile the company did not reveal any meantime between failure figures for the MasterDrive LX products, it said that they feature integrated ECC, wear leveling and bad bit management functions to improve the reliability and lifespan of these SSDs.\nStill, even the entry level solid state drives are more expensive compared to the highest end HDDs these days. For example, Western Digital VelociRaptor 150GB costs about $199, 33% less than Super Talent’s relatively affordable 128GB SSD. As a result, many computer enthusiasts are likely to stick with good-old hard disk drives and not migrate to flash-based storage devices just now."}
{"content":"Union Organization and Labor Relations: North Dakota\nFederal law and guidance on this subject should be reviewed together with this section.\n- The North Dakota Labor-Management Relations Act sets forth the rights of employees to form and participate in a union. See Forming a Union.\n- North Dakota is a \"right to work\" state. See Right to Work.\n- The North Dakota Labor Commissioner determines the bargaining unit upon considering several factors. See Determination of the Bargaining Unit.\n- The execution of collective bargaining agreements between the union must be by persons designated under +N.D.C.C. § 34-09-06.See Collective Bargaining Agreements between Union and Employer.\n- Employer communication policies must be applied uniformly and not discriminate against union activity. See Employer Communications Policy Regarding Union Organizing."}
{"content":"You are a Unique and Special Person, by Nancy M. Esposito\nGuide Entry to 90.06.02:\nThe unit is intended specifically for children in special education classes, but could also be used in 5th and 6th grade science classes. I have found in my years of teaching special education that students are often teased as being “different” or “stupid” by peers and sometimes even adults, with the result that my students often come to school with a very poor self-image. Much of this poor self-image is linked to their perceptions of themselves as being different from others, with the differences somehow making them less valuable as a person. This unit is meant to expose students to the idea that all individuals have built-in differences, and that everyone is unique. This unit covers atoms and molecules; the concepts of living vs. non-living; basic cell structure; cell division; genetic code, including chromosomes, genes and DNA; Mendel’s theories; autosomal recessive diseases; and autosomal dominant diseases. Sample lessons include a fact sheet on sickle cell anemia. The main goal of the unit is for students to feel at the end that every person is both like other people and different from other people, and that many of these similarities and differences are governed by genetics. Additionally students will realize that not all differences are negative, and will be able to understand that even their peers who tease them are different from others in their own ways.\n(Recommended for Special Education, grades 5-8; and Science, grades 5-6)"}
{"content":"Composition Through Improvisation - Jeff Franzel\nUploaded On: Wednesday April 10, 2013\nYamaha Artist Jeff Franzel explores ways in which improvisation can inform the compositional process through his performance of \"Composition Through Innovation.\" Franzel excels in improvisational work through his ability to utilize personal experiences to compose, and by connecting with the rhythm of the instrument to draw inspiration.--This uncut, unedited performance was recorded at Yamaha Artist Services, New York, in December 2012.\n> Search Again"}
{"content":"|Dr. Rocky White, a former Republican, has become a leading advocate of single-payer, national health insurance.|\nYou wouldn’t know it from the candidates’ debates or reports on the major television networks, but a majority of Americans favor a government-run health insurance system similar to Canada’s.\nThose lining up to support single-payer health care include medical professionals, business people, and many Republicans. Dr. Rocky White has been all of those things.\nWhite is a former Republican, from a conservative, evangelical background, who got interested in health care reform nine years ago when his own medical practice slipped into the red. His research into the health care system led him to conclude that the problem wasn’t just in his practice— the health care system itself is broken, and a single-payer program is the most efficient way to fix it.\nUnder the single-payer system, doctors’ offices and hospitals remain private for-profit or non-profit institutions. But the federal government covers the bills for patient services, with funds coming from taxes. The patient gets the health care they need. Paperwork and billing are kept to a minimum. Employers no longer have the difficult task of choosing, administering, and paying for health insurance for employees. Everyone is covered.\nThe current setup is as complicated as single-payer is simple. Today, the discerning consumer must wade through a complex system of pre-existing condition exemptions, co-pays, and deductibles—if they have coverage at all. Arguments over billing among doctors’ offices, insurance companies, patients, and their lawyers eat up millions of dollars. An estimated $25 out of each $100 spent goes to paperwork, profits, and executive pay and bonuses. And disagreement over medical coverage is one of the most common sources of labor disputes for employers who have seen insurance premiums double since 2000.\nWith these inflated costs, it’s little wonder that in 2006, the last year for which government figures are available, 47 million Americans had no insurance at all, including 8.7 million children, or that 68 percent of bankruptcies in the U.S. come as a direct result of medical expenses among people who do have insurance.\nWhen White learned about Physicians for a National Health Program and their plan for a single-payer health care system, he saw it was similar to his own idea and he joined their effort.\nOther medical professionals have had a similar reaction. The American College of Physicians—the largest organization of medical specialists in the country—endorses single-payer health care as does the California Nurses Association, the largest organization of registered nurses.\nAnd so do 55 percent of Americans, according to a CBS News poll conducted in September. In another poll, 64 percent said they would be willing to pay higher taxes for a national health care insurance program.\nIn Congress, HR 676, the “Medicare for All” bill introduced by Representative John Conyers, Jr. of Michigan, currently has 90 co-sponsors—more than any other health care reform proposal—and the endorsement of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.\nRepublicans for Single-Payer\nSupport for single-payer health care is not just strong among progressives. George Swan, for instance, is a health care administrator, self-described “Purple Republican,” and a founder of Republicans for Single Payer.\n“It’s about being American and doing what’s right,” Swan says. “What’s right is not paying a 30 percent premium to the insurance system and receiving sub-standard health care.”\nBusiness owners are also supporting single-payer health care. For 25 years, Jack Lohman owned a company that provided cardiac monitoring services to hospitals. Today, he’s a co-founder of the Business Coalition for Single Payer. A “lifelong Republican,” Lohman argues that conservatives should support single-payer because it’s pro-business.\n“For the same 16 percent of GDP that we are spending on health care in the U.S.,” he says, “we could provide first-class health care to 100 percent of the people.” And single-payer would “get health care off the backs of corporations so they can be more competitive with products made overseas.”\nJohn Arensmeyer spent 12 years running an e-commerce company with 35 employees. Then he founded the Small Business Majority to advocate for the interests of small businesses, particularly on health care issues. Sharp rises in health care costs for small businesses are hurting their ability to survive, Arensmeyer says. “It’s antithetical to what we’re all about as a country, which is to allow people the freedom to go out and start new enterprises.”\nSmall business has often been portrayed as opposing health care reform, but SBM’s research shows that small businesses are interested in being part of the solution—even if it means paying higher taxes.\nWalter Maher, former vice-president of public policy at the DaimlerChrysler Corporation, sees the problems in similar ways, although he looks at health care costs through the lens of large corporate employers.\nGeneral Motors, he says, is paying people to leave their jobs so they can hire replacements at 50 cents on the dollar with reduced health benefits. “It’s sad,” he says. “You have a giant albatross around your neck because you choose to provide a good standard of living for your employees.”\nMoney in Politics\nIf the current system is so unpopular among medical professional, patients, and business owners, what’s keeping it in place? Most advocates for single-payer agree that money in politics is the greatest obstacle to change. During the 2006 election cycle, the health care industry spent $99.7 million on campaign contributions. Lobbying on health care issues topped $446 million in 2007.\nFor Jack Lohman, that’s the crux of the problem. “Both McCain’s and Obama’s plans for health care are lousy,” he says. “Although both claim they’re not taking lobbyist money, somehow this money is getting through. They are each supporting health care that keeps the insurance industry involved.”\nAnd all that money can buy a lot of misinformation and scaremongering. Rocky White says he finds that people get interested in the single-payer approach if they understand what’s actually being proposed: “When people realize that all that it is,” he says, “is a publicly owned insurance company, all of a sudden business people start to lose that fear that ‘Oh my God, we’re going to become the Soviet Union.’ Even Republicans say, ‘This really makes a lot of sense.’”\nWhile White would like to see reform happen on a national level, he believes it’s more realistic to work at the state level for now. And for him, that means Colorado. White sits on the board of Health Care for All Colorado, a nonprofit, volunteer-run group with 250 members that includes Democrats, Republicans, physicians, business people, college professors, and economists. And he is running for a Democratic seat in the state legislature to add “the voice of medicine” to the debate.\n“Any time a state has studied it, they find that single-payer is the most cost-effective and covers everyone,” White says. His proposal for a single-payer system in Colorado is being studied by a blue ribbon commission created by the Colorado Legislature.\nIn May, the 6,000 delegates to the Colorado Democratic Party Convention endorsed a pro-single-payer resolution that will be forwarded to the national convention in Denver in August.\nIf one state can make a single-payer plan work, White believes, it could start a cascading effect similar to what took place in Canada during the 1940s and ‘50s.\n“People are discouraged, they’re angry, they’re upset,” White says. “But politics is the process that drives policy, and if we don’t get involved in the political process we’ll never make a difference.”\n|Daina Saib wrote this article as part of Purple America, the Fall 2008 issue of YES! Magazine. Daina is a former YES! editorial assistant.|"}
{"content":"Watch I Am\nThe documentary or movie was written and directed by Tom Shadyac. He was also the director of the well known movies as Liar, Liar, Bruce Almighty and The Nutty Professor. The producer of the documentary Dagan Handy and executive producers were Jennifer Abbott and Jonathan Wilson. Nicole Pritchett was the associate producer of the movie.\nThe release date in theaters was February 2011 but limited to certain areas with the running time of the movie one hour and sixteen minutes. The genre was listed under entertainment, family, special interest, television and documentary. It was rated PG-13 and released on DVD in November 2010. The main character of the documentary along with being the commentary or guide of the movie was Tom Shadyac and the camera crew.\nThe movie was based on what happened after Mr. Shadyac's tragic bicycle accident that left him incapacitated for possibly the rest of his life. Through many hours of rehabilitation he was able to recover and looks at life with a new perspective. After recovering from the accident Tom Shadyac decided at that time to embark on his first non-fiction film which he would try to answer one of the hardest questions who am I. The movie takes people on a journey into an undiscovered area that many of us don't want to ask let alone try to find the answers too.\nTom Shadyac meets with many notable and intellectual known individuals in the science area, philosophers and men/women of faith. He talks with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Ray Anderson, John Francis, Coleman Barks, Noam Chomsky and many other known thinkers of the world. They discuss what is wrong with the world today, what as individuals' can do to improve our society and can us as mankind improves the way we all live. The movie does some soul searching on who we really are along with the concept of self-awareness in the bigger scheme of the world."}
{"content":"A simulation of an aircraft in wind tunnel used in the study of aerodynamics.\nAn example of a study of aerodynamics is to determine the potential speed of a vehicle based on the way its shape will move through air.\nnoun(used with a sing. verb)\ntop: high drag on a less aerodynamic shape\nbottom: low drag on a more aerodynamic shape"}
{"content":"A foot with a large bruise.\n- The definition of a bruise is an injured area of a surface that becomes discolored, or to crush with force, or the hurt of a person's feelings.\n- An example of a bruise is a black and blue injury on the skin.\n- An example of a bruise is to crush mint leaves in a mortar and pestle to bring out the scent and taste of the mint for a cocktail.\n- An example of a bruise is to tell someone something that makes them feel bad about themselves.\n- Bruise means to injure the outside of something or someone.\n- An example of bruise is to punch someone and cause a black and blue mark.\n- An example of bruise is to push hard on a piece of fruit, making a dent in the skin of the fruit and causing the fruit to darken.\n- to injure (tissue), as by a blow, without breaking the skin but causing discoloration\n- to injure the surface or outside of, causing spoilage, denting, etc.: bruised peaches, a bruised auto fender\n- to crush with or as with mortar and pestle\n- to hurt (the feelings, spirit, etc.)\nOrigin of bruiseMiddle English bruisen ; from Old English brysan, to crush, pound ; from Indo-European base an unverified form bhreus-, to smash, crush; Middle English form and amp; meaning influenced, influence by Old French bruisier, to break, shatter ; from Gaulish an unverified form brus- ; from same Indo-European base\n- to bruise tissue, a surface, etc.\n- to be or become bruised\n- a bruised area of tissue, of a surface, etc.\n- an injury to one's feelings, spirit, etc.\nverbbruised, bruis·ing, bruis·es\n- a. To injure the underlying soft tissue or bone of (part of the body) without breaking the skin, as by a blow.b. To damage (plant tissue), as by abrasion or pressure: bruised the fruit by careless packing.\n- To dent or mar.\n- To pound (berries, for example) into fragments; crush.\n- To hurt, especially psychologically.\n- An injury to underlying tissues or bone in which the skin is not broken, often characterized by ruptured blood vessels and discolorations.\n- A similar injury to plant tissue, often resulting in discoloration or spoilage.\n- A painful feeling caused by or associated with an experience.\nOrigin of bruiseMiddle English bruisen, from Old English br&ymacron;san, to crush, and from Old North French bruisier (of Celtic origin).\n(third-person singular simple present bruises, present participle bruising, simple past and past participle bruised)\n- To strike (a person), originally with something flat or heavy, but now specifically in such a way as to discolour the skin without breaking it.\n- To damage the skin of (fruit), in an analogous way.\n- (intransitive) Of fruit, to gain bruises through being handled roughly.\n- Bananas bruise easily.\n- (intransitive) To become bruised.\n- I bruise easily.\n- (intransitive) To fight with the fists; to box.\nFrom Middle English bruisen, brusen, from Anglo-Norman bruiser, bruser (“to break, smash”), from Gaulish *brusu (compare Old Irish brúu (“I shatter, smash”)), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreus- (“to break”) (compare Latin frustum (“bit, scrap”), Old Church Slavonic бръснути (brŭsnuti, “to rake”), Albanian breshër (“hail”)).Replaced early modern English brise (compare Scots brizz), from Middle English brisen, bresen, from Old English brȳsan, briesan (“to crush”), from Proto-Germanic *brausijaną, causative from the same PIE root. Cognate with Old English brosnian (“to crumble, fall apart”), Dutch broos (“brittle”), German Brosame (“crumb”), dialectal Norwegian brøysk (“breakable”)."}
{"content":"A large and destructive wave created by an earthquake is an example of a tsunami.\nOrigin of tsunamiJapanese ; from tsu, a harbor + nami, a wave\nnounpl. tsu·na·mis or tsunami\nOrigin of tsunamiJapanese : tsu, harbor + nami, wave (so called because tsunamis generally pass unnoticed on the open sea, causing a slight swell, but rise to cause damage in the shallow waters of harbors ).\n(plural tsunamis or tsunami)\nFrom Japanese 津波 / 津浪 (ã¤ãªã¿ (tsunami, “seismic sea wave\", literally “harbour wave\"))."}
{"content":"The courses in the lists below have been approved as suitable for advanced apprentices to progress to. The majority of these courses are part-time or distance learning so you can continue to work whilst you study.\nYou can search for subjects linked to your apprenticeship by using the below drop-down box. You may be interested in a general business, administration or management course, to view these courses select business and administration in the drop down box.\nYou can also search for courses by keyword. It is important to check with the college or university that the type of advanced apprenticeship you studied is suitable for the higher education course subject you wish to apply for.\nIn order to commence on an apprenticeship course you must first secure a position with an employer. The National Apprenticeship Service website has a very useful vacany matching service. The site also contains detailed and helpful information on all aspects of apprenticeships.\nTo see how studying at a higher level has helped other apprentices, watch our video case study.\nCopyright, 2013, Health Education East Midlands"}
{"content":"Misconceptions and stereotypes get in the way of our perceptions about gay parents.\nAre gay parents any different than heterosexual parents? The research says no. And while openly gay couples trying to adopt is a fairly new social phenomenon, there is nothing new at all about gay parents.\nPARENTS IN THE CLOSET\nAlthough stigma remains, surveys show increasing public acceptance of homosexuality, especially among younger people. In the past, gay parents were common because they were frequently in the closet and married to opposite sex partners! Many of us know a story about someone in midlife who has been raising their own children for many years who gets divorced, comes out as gay and sets off with a new same sex partner. The person who was the parent has not changed in what kind of a parent they are and those children will have the same range of mental health, from poor to fantastic as any other child. Of course being in the closet can be detrimental to the parent/child relationship as the child can be distressed at having been lied to or having to adjust to what may be a new perception of their parent. Many gay people have never been open about their sexuality and remain in the closet. Some have extramarital homsexual affairs and some remain celibate but their parenting is the same.\nCUSTODY AND GAY PARENTS\nIn the past, demonstrating that a divorcing parent was a homosexual, was often enough to give the other parent custody. As gay parents have fought harder and more openly for their rights the fact of homosexuality is no longer an issue used to deny custody. The main reason for this is that research consistently fails to identify any factors that negatively affect children from a parent's homosexuality. Because there was no good evidence to show that living with a homosexual parent, the courts started supporting the wishes of these parents. Society in general has been slower to catch up.\nGAY PARENTS ADOPTING\nA major study by the University of Virginia and reported on widely in the media http://guardianlv.com/2013/12/same-sex-marriage-adoption-is-healthy-stud... looked at adoptees and foster children living with gay parents and found that these children did not differ significantly in the areas studied from the children of heterosexual parents. In fact, they found some benefits for children growing up in same sex households including greater tolerance of others and a greater willingness (especially for girls) to go into wider range of work roles, less restricted by gender stereotypes.\nSome areas of the country still have barriers restricting the ability of gay parents from adopting. This seems especially sad; that negative stereotypes of homosexuality allows people to think that no family is better for these children than a same sex family.\nWHAT MAKES A GOOD PARENT?\nAs a psychologist, I find the whole controversy a little sad. Much of my working life revolves around patching up the lives of people who had horrible parents-parents with substance abuse, parents who were physically, emotionally or sexually abusive, neglectful parents, parents with mental illness who were depressed or isolated or who committed suicide during their children’s youth. You don’t need a license to bear children or the approval of a legislature or the courts. Any heterosexual person without a criminal record can freely adopt or bear children. I am sure there are homosexuals who have personal failings and who will not make good parents but that is no reason to deny them the same rights as homosexuals.\nNo one is seriously recommending that we pre-screen heterosexual people for their right to have children. We don't deny people the right to bear children who have DUI's or arrests for domestic violence or a history of psychiatric hospitalization. Can we really still believe that homosexuality poses a greater threat to the well-being of children?\nFor More Homosexuality Advice From YourTango:\n- Does The Bible Really Condone Homosexuality, Premarital Sex?\n- Top 10 Misconceptions About Gay People\n- Accepting Bisexuality: Attraction Across Gender Lines"}
{"content":"Those of you familiar with Mortal Kombat might have heard of today’s kami before, although the game version is quite different from the real one. This is Fujin (風神), the god of the winds. He’s said to be one of the oldest gods, present at the time of Creation when he opened up his bag of winds to clear the morning mists and fill the void between Earth and Heaven.\nHis appearance is that of a fearsome demon, and in Chinese mythology he and his buddy Raijin (we’ll meet him later) were evil demons who opposed Buddha, but after being defeated by his army, they join his side and have been working as gods since.\nWhile the god of the winds has probably always been a part of Japanese mythology, the imagery we see of Fujin can be traced back to the ancient Greek god of the North Wind, Boreas (from whom we get the words boreal, aurora borealis, and Hyperborea). Boreas carried a magic cloak in which he carried the wind, and he was a very popular god. When Alexander the Great formed his empire, he brought Greek gods and imagery all the way to India’s doorstep, and the cultural reverberations were tremendous. The Greco-Bactrian culture that sprang up in present-day Afghanistan preserved those Greek images long after the dissolution of Alexander’s empire, and eventually merged them with Buddhist iconography, which traveled along the Silk Road to China and then Japan. Pretty cool, huh?\nI won’t be posting a kami tomorrow or the next day, as I will be traveling to Yokohama for a friend’s wedding. So have a nice weekend and Coming of Age Day (here in Japan), and when I get back I’ll post a new kami very soon. Maybe I’ll get some nice wedding photos too.\nThis print is available on my Etsy store. If you’re interested in buying the original, please email me. Thanks for reading!"}
{"content":"For the past six years, I’ve participated in competitive swimming. But this past September, I decided to quit.\nOnce upon a time, my wife and I decided that our kids would not play hockey and, more importantly, that we would never be “hockey parents.” Hockey was expensive, brought out the worst in both kids and their parents, was expensive, unnecessarily violent, expensive, involved excessive amounts of travel and early mornings at frigid rinks… and was expensive.\nThe fabric of western society is woven with threads of competition. People compete for marks in school, for jobs, for attention with family and friends. People even compete for the fun of it. Television shows like Survivor, American Idol, and The Apprentice pit one player or team against another in ever-changing competitive environments.\nWe’ve probably all heard about the benefits of participating on sports teams – values such as teamwork, loyalty, self-sacrifice, perseverance, and work ethic. Playing on a team gave me many opportunities to develop in these areas. Team athletics also taught me a lot about myself, and helped me prepare for life in and outside the competitive arena."}
{"content":"Is Your Data Safe in an IaaS Public Cloud?\nCan your business afford the revenue and productivity loss associated with technology outages? In a hyper-competitive market, few businesses can. Many IT professionals expect to address the problem of business downtime simply by moving workloads to the cloud because they assume their cloud provider replicates customer data within their cloud centers as a matter of course. But in truth, your cloud provider has limited ability to protect your data. Most cloud providers assume responsibility only for the underlying infrastructure. Such backup procedures aren’t designed as an adequate means to protect your data in the event of an outage or disaster.\nRead this white paper to understand your business’s responsibility for data protection in the cloud, including:\n- The need for data protection in IaaS public cloud environments, including common shared responsibility models employed by many cloud providers\n- Why relying on your cloud provider is not enough of a backup and recovery strategy\n- How shared responsibility impacts both disaster recovery and security\n- And more!"}
{"content":"The MarsVR team travelled to the MDRS in June 2018 and used a donated Matterport camera to take dozens of 360 panoramic scans of the inside of all of the MDRS facilities. These are not static 360 panoramas — you can use your computer’s arrow keys to move around inside of each of these Matterport environments.\nMDRS Hab Interior Scan\nThis complete scan of the MDRS Hab interior allows you to walk around and (for the first time on Matterport) go inside all of the crew staterooms and other areas of the hab. In comparison to the 2014 scans done by Victor Luo (see below), these scans were done with the MDRS in a more “bare-bones” post-field season configuration, which is great since we can use these in conjuction with new 3-D models we’ll build out and overlay onto the facilities for the purposes of our training scenarios.\nPrevious Hab Interior Scan\nIt’s interesting to compare our new MDRS Hab Interior Scan with the December 2014 Matterport scans done by Victor Luo (of Crew 144, and now at JPL) which show the MDRS in a lived-in field season configuration:\nThe Musk Observatory (aka the MDRS Solar Observatory)\nThis observatory has been recently converted to be a Sun-focused observatory, but was our original astronomical observatory. It was built with funds donated by Elon Musk back in the early 2000s. (Before he became the real Tony Stark, or maybe a real-life James Bond villian. Love you Elon!)\nRAM (Repair and Assembly Module)\nScans of the MDRS Airlock with the internal door open & closed, which we will use to build our training scenario for going through the airlock. With this, you can study in detail all of the donors from our 2002 fundraising plaque, which people have asked about 🙂 I can’t wait to put some CrowdExplorer stickers next to this in our VR environment (and maybe IRL during our MarsVR Crew 197 rotation in October!)\nMDRS Airlock Inner Door Open:\nMDRS Airlock Inner Door Closed:\nMDRS Hab Equipment Room\nMDRS Equipment Room:\nMDRS Equipment Room 2:\nThis is amazing stuff, but this is only representative of the work done inside the facilities. The MarsVR team is also worked on a full VR simulation which will be widely available later this year. It includes scans of the interior and exterior of the facilities as well as 1 square mile of surrounding terrain."}
{"content":"A Santa Claus Belly Is Not Always Jolly\nAspirin is not safe for Everyone\n20 Ways to Find, Sustain and Share Happiness\nby Carol Tuttle\nGreen Veggies to the Rescue\nHidden Meaning on the Grocery Shelf\nStand Straight - Proper posture goes a long way.\nAs kids, we all remember being told to \"stand up straight.\" People value good posture for aesthetic reasons -- it certainly looks better -- but it has many more benefits than meets the eye. To get the inside story on good posture, I spoke with Boston chiropractor Peter A. Hill, DC, MPA, a former \"Chiropractor of the Year\" in Massachusetts.\nThe Modern Yogi’s Dilemma of Eating “Right”: How Can We Honor Both Ourselves And Our World?\nIn my quest to understand what we as human beings need to create health and harmony in body, mind, and spirit I researched far and wide, traversing the fields of nutritional science and biochemistry to environmental science, from politics to morality, from modern marketing techniques to the nature of consciousness.\nAhhh- the magical season of Autumn has finally arrived, and along with cooler weather we get to enjoy the bounty of the colorful fall harvest.\nPronounced “keh-FEER,” kefir is a fermented milk drink. Kefir's colorful and romantic history dates back many centuries—likely even longer—to the shepherds of the Caucasus Mountains, who reportedly discovered that fresh milk carried in leather pouches would occasionally ferment into an effervescent beverage.\nDigestive disorders are on the increase. About 38 million Americans suffer from a variety of digestive problems such as GERD, irritable bowel syndrome, celiac disease, food allergies, diverticulitis, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn’s disease. Approximately 25 million Americans have daily heartburn and it is estimated that 20% of the adult population have irritable bowel syndrome. Celiac disease, once considered rare, is now thought to affect 1 in 133 people, and food allergies have increased alarmingly.\nIf you, like many of us over the last 20 years, have heard that soy was good for your heart, your bones, that it lowers cholesterol and is a good source of protein because you gave up meat, you will be very surprised to learn the latest information on soy.\nMost people have heard that their thyroid is important for controlling their metabolism and body weight. But did you know that depression, heart disease, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, PMS, menopausal symptoms, muscle and joint pains, irritable bowel syndrome, or autoimmune disease could actually indicate a problem with your thyroid?\nJust in time for your annual “spring cleaning”, here is the latest information on the cleaners that line our store shelves and that we use on a daily basis. While we all like our cleaning products to actually “clean”, the research shows that there are dangerous chemicals found in most household cleaning products, and what you can use instead.\nMost of us have heard that free radicals -- the undesirable byproducts of various metabolic functions -- damage cells. Over time, this damage, called oxidative damage or oxidative stress, is believed to play a leading role in certain diseases and age-related changes. Free radical destruction is thought to be a contributing factor to the decline in memory and motor performance seen in aging. But what does this really mean? And how can we prevent cellular damage from free radicals?\nHere are 10 guidelines for lasting weight loss, the kind of weight loss that becomes effortless and natural over time. While we all know that fad diets don’t work in the long run, many of us wonder what does work, and if it is possible to actually enjoy life and maintain a healthy weight at the same time.\nThanksgiving is here, and shortly thereafter we have the Yuletide season. It's a time of year when family, friends, festivities, and most of all food takes center stage in our lives.\nSince there's no shortage of high-calorie, seasonal comfort foods, the holidays often break the resolve of those who usually watch what they eat. However, there are plenty of ways to enjoy your Thanksgiving dinner and the Holiday season without throwing out the basics of a healthful diet. Whether at a family meal, neighborhood cocktail party or office potluck, the key is making healthful choices while still enjoying food traditions.\nEvery Thanksgiving we take time to be thankful for all that we have in our lives; our families and friends, our neighbors, and our careers that allow us the means by which we can provide for our families.\n- Despite what you may have been told, the gallbladder serves a very important digestive function. The gall bladder is a hollow inactive organ supplying bile to the digestive tract that is mainly used to emulsify fats and oils.\n- The first step is to improving the health of your gallbladder immediately remove refined foods from your diet, especially synthetic fats like hydrogenated oils.\n- The second step is to plan on exercising at least 30 minutes a day, every day.\n- Although there are many websites that discuss a 24 hour gallbladder cleanse and the immediate flushing of stones, a gradual cleanse and the long term transition to a diet of whole, unprocessed foods and an active lifestyle is really the only way to both prevent gall stones and gallbladder dysfunction and support your body to returning to health.\nMore Articles ...\n- How To Naturally Heal Fibromyalgia\n- Apple Cider Vinegar’s Many Wonderful Uses\n- Why Natural Fats Are Crucial For Your Health\n- The Top 5 Worst “Health Foods”\n- This Spring, Survive Your Allergy Symptoms!\n- The Importance of Good Digestion\n- Can A “Paleo” Diet Improve Your Health?\n- A Healthy Lifestyle Supports A Healthy Love Life\n- Fibromyalgia and Diet\n- Nourishing Foods for Expectant Moms\n- Can Plant Based Diets Cause Infertility?\n- Healthy Ways to Stay Hydrated\n- Six Principles for a Healthier New Year\n- How Eggs Can Improve Your Health\n- Your Health- The Greatest Gift of All\n- Nourishing Bone Broth for Naturally Excellent Health\n- 12 Natural Remedies to Stay Healthy This Winter\n- How To Spend Less and Eat Healthier\n- Swap Out Refined Ingredients for Healthier Meals\n- Are You Cooking Nutrients Out of Your Foods?\n- The Importance of a Good Night’s Sleep\n- Natural Ways To Boost Your Immune System This Fall\n- Making the Most of Your Harvest with Cleansing Foods for Fall\n- Cauliflower, a great low-carb, high nutrient veggie!\n- How Probiotics Reduce Inflammation & Naturally Improve Health\n- The Anti-Inflammatory Lifestyle: The Natural Way To A Healthy Life\n- The Way to Achieve Natural, Lasting Weight Loss and Better Health\n- The Amazing Health Benefits of Juicing\n- Cook Once, Eat Many Times: The Key To Better Health\n- Why Should We Eat Organic Foods?\n- Why Weight Loss Diets Don’t Work\n- Strawberries- Delicious and Oh So Good For You!\n- Why A Gluten-Free Diet May Be Right For You\n- So What Is Your Health (and Life) Really Worth?\n- The Amazing Health Benefits of Ancient Quinoa\n- Natural Ways to Boost Your Immune System\n- Your Cookware Can Undermine Or Support Your Health\n- Staying Healthy Throughout the Holiday Season\n- This Year, Make and Keep Your New Year’s Resolution!\n- The Benefits of Organic Raw Chocolate\n- Spring Clean Your Body with Fresh, Delicious Greens!\n- The Nutritional Benefits of Sprouts\n- Miso Soup: A Delicious Bowl of Health\n- Garden Your Way To A Healthier Lifestyle\n- Sunlight, Vitamin D3 and Your Health\n- White Rice vs Brown Rice\n- The Many Benefits of Grass-Fed Beef\n- The Many Benefits of Grass-Fed Beef (2)\n- Why Sea Salt?\n- Stevia – A Safe Alternative To Artificial Sweeteners\n- Top 10 Reasons to Buy Organic Now\n- What You CAN DO to REVERSE your Diabetes 2\n- What Oils Are The Safest To Cook With?\n- Delicious Ways To Increase Your Omega-3 Intake\n- Coconut Oil Benefits: When Fat Is Good For You\n- Broccoli – A Delicious Super-Food!\n- Asparagus- the Springtime Wonder Vegetable\n- 10 Healthy Tips That Really Can Change Your Life"}
{"content":"Classifications: thrombolytic enzyme, tissue plasminogen activator; Therapeutic: thrombolytic enzyme\nPregnancy Category: C\n50 mg vial\nTenecteplase is a third generation thrombolytic agent with advantages over alteplase, including longer half-life, more rapid\nthrombolysis, and greater fibrin specificity. Additionally, rate of noncerebral bleeding is less than in alteplase. Activates\nplasminogen, a substance created by endothelial cells in response to arterial wall injury that contributes to clot formation.\nPlasminogen is converted to plasmin which breaks down the fibrin mesh that binds the clot together, thus dissolving the\nEffective in producing thrombolysis of a clot involved in a myocardial infarction.\nReduction of mortality associated with acute myocardial infarction (AMI).\nActive internal bleeding; history of CVA; intracranial or intraspinal surgery with 2 mo; intracranial neoplasm; arteriovenous\nmalformation, or aneurysm; known bleeding diathesis; brain tumor; increased intracranial pressure; coagulopathy; head trauma;\nstroke; surgery; severe uncontrolled hypertension; pregnancy (category C), lactation.\nRecent major surgery, previous puncture of compressible vessels, CVA, recent GI or GU bleeding, recent trauma; hypertension,\nmitral valve stenosis, acute pericarditis, bacterial endocarditis; severe liver or kidney disease; hemorrhagic ophthalmic\nconditions; septic thrombophlebitis or occluded, infected AV cannula; advanced age; concurrent administration of oral anticoagulants,\nrecent administration of GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors, condition involving bleeding. Safety and efficacy in children are not established.\nRoute & Dosage\n|Acute Myocardial Infarction\nAdult: IV Infuse dose over 5 sec, <60 kg, 30 mg; 6070 kg, 35 mg; 7080 kg, 40 mg; 8090 kg, 45 mg; >90 kg, 50 mg\nPREPARE: Direct: Read and follow instructions supplied with TwinPakTM Dual Cannula Device. Withdraw 10 mL of sterile\nwater for injection from the supplied vial; inject entire contents into the TNKase vial directing the diluent stream into\nthe powder. Gently swirl until dissolved but do not shake. The resulting solution contains 5 mg/mL. Withdraw the appropriate\ndose and discard any unused solution. Follow directions supplied with TwinPakTM for proper handling\nADMINISTER: Direct: Dextrose-containing IV line must be flushed before and after bolus with NS. Give as a single bolus dose over 5 sec. The\ntotal dose given should not exceed 50 mg.\nINCOMPATIBILITIES Solution/additive: Dextrose solutions.\n- Store unopened TwinPakTM at ≤30° C (86°\nF) or under refrigeration at 2°8° C (36°46° F).\nAdverse Effects (≥1%)Hematologic: Major bleeding, hematoma,\nGI bleed, bleeding at puncture site, hematuria, pharyngeal, epistaxis.\nDiagnostic Test Interference\nUnreliable results for coagulation test I and measures of fibrinolytic activity.\nIn liver. Half-Life:\nAssessment & Drug Effects\n- Avoid IM injections and unnecessary handling or invasive procedures for the first few hours after treatment.\n- Monitor for S&S of bleeding. Should bleeding occur, discontinue concomitant heparin and antiplatelet therapy; notify physician.\n- Monitor cardiovascular and neurologic status closely. Persons at increased risk for life-threatening cardiac events include\nthose with: A high potential for bleeding, recent surgery, severe hypertension, mitral stenosis and atrial fibrillation,\nanticoagulant therapy, and advanced age.\n- Lab tests: Baseline and 1 h after administration of drug determine cardiac enzymes, circulating myoglobin, cardiac troponin-1,\ncreatine kinase-MB; Hgb & Hct post-infusion.\n- Coagulation parameters may not predict bleeding episodes.\nPatient & Family Education\n- Notify physician of the following immediately: A sudden, severe headache; any sign of bleeding; signs or symptoms of hypersensitivity\n(see Appendix F).\n- Stay as still as possible and do not attempt to get out of bed until directed to do so."}
{"content":"Good morning. Before I begin my prepared remarks, I would like to ask all of us to take a moment to think about the people in Texas and now Louisiana. To take a moment to pray for them, silently, and to also think of how each of us can do something to help in the days and weeks and months that come as those communities face what will be a long and difficult and trying process of bringing their lives back in order. So if we could just take a moment to think about that and send our strongest good wishes to everyone there. Thank you.\n* * *\nEach year since 2007, I have joined you here on the first day of classes to seize a moment of contemplation and community before the hectic work of the new year begins. I have relished this invitation and opportunity because it has enabled me to step back, to lift my sights for a few minutes from the demands of the pressing array of issues of a brand-new year in order to reflect on the important and the meaningful. It is an opportunity to think not just about what we do and how, but to ask the more fundamental question of why. What is the compass that we steer by? Where is our North Star? What are the values that motivate all we do and bind us together as a community?\nLet me endeavor to state it flat-out: We believe in the pursuit of truth as our common purpose. We believe in the power of learning and discovery to enhance human capacity and in our responsibility to develop that capacity to serve the world. We believe in the value of every member of this community and in each person’s potential to contribute to the common good. We believe that our diversity offers us the strongest possible foundation for our strength because it enables us to enrich, to educate, and to challenge one another. We believe in the obligations that each of us bears toward one another and toward something greater than ourselves.\nOver the past several months, and most recently in Charlottesville, Virginia, we have seen loathsome demonstrations of hatred and violence, reviving the most shameful episodes of the past and foregrounding the very worst of what we have been and regrettably still are as a nation. I grew up in the 1950s in segregated, racist Virginia, in a state that endeavored to close its public schools rather than comply with the mandate for integration in the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board decision of 1954. But over the past half-century I watched the state slowly but significantly change — integrate its schools and universities, elect an African-American governor, then even vote for a black president. But on Aug. 12, I saw white supremacy resurgent, setting its sights on a university town with values like our own to mount its challenge and to advance its evil and its cruelty.\nThere is much we can and should do in our academic work to understand and combat bigotry. We study implicit bias, we explore connections between intolerance and burgeoning economic inequality, we investigate how education can mitigate the cruelties of racism, and we prepare students to serve as agents of the rule of law.\nBut as we undertake this work with all the scholarly rigor and openness to debate that is necessary for its legitimacy and its success, we must at the same time articulate clearly and forcefully the values that inspire it. We must condemn the racism that feels free to speak in a way it hasn’t for nearly half a century. We must denounce the Nazism and anti-Semitism that my father and so many others of his generation risked their lives to defeat. We must affirm the full citizenship of LGBTQ Americans, including their right to qualify for military service. We must use the illumination of education to mitigate hatred and violence. Prejudice is taught and nurtured and modelled. Tolerance and inclusion can be as well. Education serves as the arteries of a just society.\nBut universities cannot accomplish their purposes in a world of bigotry and hatred, in a world where people are categorically excluded and degraded, where minds are closed or overtly hostile to differences of perspective, or experience, or identity, where violence and threats replace rational discourse and exchange.\nThese values are fundamental to all we do. We have been reminded that we cannot take them for granted. We cannot assume that our progress toward realizing them cannot be reversed. Let us rededicate ourselves to their defense."}
{"content":"By Kat McIntosh, Manger of Global Peer Support at Mental Health America\nIn mental health, a peer is usually used to refer to someone who shares the experience of living with a psychiatric disorder and/or addiction. Within this context, two people living with mental health conditions can be considered peers, but in reality, most people are far more specific about whom they would rely on for peer support. Additionally, peer support activities can include anything from traditional peer support groups run by certified peer support specialists to non-traditional one-on-one peer support.\nPeer support addresses these needs as it allows for individuals to give and receive encouragement and assistance and helps them achieve long-term recovery. Studies showcase that peer support improves engagement and well-being and reduces mental health hospitalizations. Though trust and compatibility are often seen as important factors in this process, many traditional peer support services do not address key aspects such as race and sexual orientation.\nResearch shows that only one in three Black adults who need mental health care receive it. Additionally, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, gay and bisexual youth are almost five times as likely to have attempted suicide as their straight peers. Mental Health America (MHA) screening data also recognizes an emergent need to address the concerns of these communities, with 86 percent of LGBTQ youth (ages 11-17) scoring moderate to severe for a mental health condition. Additionally, multi-racial people were the most likely to screen at-risk for an alcohol/substance use disorder, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and psychosis.\nWith all the challenges peers are facing, inclusion should not be one. It is therefore important to address barriers to care and inclusion experienced by BIPOC and LGBTQ peers. You can help us address these by taking our BIPOC and LGBTQ survey and sharing it with your communities."}
{"content":"Portrait by Joseph Grassi\nCount Jacob Sievers (August 30, 1731, in Wesenberg (now Rakvere), Estonia - July 23, 1808, in Bauenhof, Governorate of Livonia (near what is now Valmiera, Latvia)) was a Russian statesman from the Sievers family.\nAfter serving the Russian army during the Seven Years' War as quartermaster general, he was appointed governor of Novgorod in 1764 by Catharine II. He introduced the cultivation of potatoes to Russia, regulated the postal services, and was instrumental in the abolition of torture in 1767.\nBased on Sievers' initiative, the provincial government reform was instituted; he was himself appointed general governor of Novgorod, Tver and Pskov. He was Russian ambassador to Poland and led the second and third partition of the kingdom. Czar Paul appointed him senator in 1796; in 1797 he became head of the new department for water communications. He was knighted in 1798.\nIn Sievers' honor, Alexander I named the channel that connects the outlet of the Msta river with the Volkhov river the Sievers channel.\n- Blum, Karl Ludwig: Ein russischer Staatsmann, Denkwürdigkeiten des Grafen von Sievers, Leipzig 1857-58, 4 vols.\n- Blum, Karl Ludwig: Graf Jacob Johann von Sievers und Russland zu dessen Zeit. Leipzig; Heidelberg: Winter, 1864\n- Jones, Robert E: Provincial Development in Russia. Catherine II and Jacob Sievers. Rutgers University Press, 1984\n- \"Sievers, Jakob Johann\". New International Encyclopedia. 1905.\n|This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors).|"}
{"content":"Tommy Swain 10 The Best Concept of Dual Coding\nSeveral years back, Allan Paivio used the idea that mental pictures assist people learn. His operate at the University of Western Ontario caused the principle of Dual coding. Because of this, this approach of discovering aided individuals to enhance their memory. Currently, it is the basis of the brain's memory processing capabilities. In this post, we will examine the theory of dual coding and also discuss how it can be put on everyday life.\nThe principle behind dual coding is that the brain refines information in two various methods. One is aesthetic, and the various other is verbal. This technique enhances the recall of kept information. The visual signs can assist individuals understand the principle of a word. This theory can be utilized to show students concerning nourishment and discovering. On top of that, it can help them remember previous information. Dual coding is not an alternative for reviewing message.\nThe secret to dual coding is to have an aesthetic that fits the explanation and also verbal component. The trick to dual coding is to guarantee that the aesthetic does not confuse the student, and to leave enough time for the mind to refine the pictures prior to carrying on to the next action. For instance, you can have a quick draw of a person's face, or a packed pet. The crucial point to keep in mind concerning this technique is that it works for any ages and topics.\nWhen mentor, students need to only utilize one of the techniques. It's not important to incorporate visual and spoken approaches. If you are a scientific research instructor, you might make use of images with little history detail. While some students prefer reviewing to writing, dual coding makes your task much easier by allowing pupils to concentrate on one element each time. The brain deals with both approaches of communication as a verb. Consequently, you should ensure that your lesson strategies consist of an aesthetic along with a spoken aspect.\nIn terms of teaching to learning styles, dual coding works well. When you show, you ought to take into consideration the discovering style of your students. If a pupil is making use of aesthetic hints, he/she is more probable to maintain the information. If a trainee can not remember the spoken part of the text, they might find it complicated. It is best to pick the tools that assist them recognize the details. You should focus on the content.\nIn order to successfully utilize dual coding, you must provide pupils adequate time to think of the information you're teaching. You can also make visuals that help trainees with learning. The trainees can duplicate the visuals in the visuals. Once they have actually developed the pictures, they can begin creating. When they're done, they can after that look at the original and also choose which one they wish to reproduce. Once you have actually picked the key principles, you can teach them with the dual coding method.\nWhen you're educating, you must constantly bear in mind that dual coding is the very best choice. Using visual and also verbal messages to convey info will help you to comprehend the intricate information in a clear and efficient means. The two-way pairing of these two methods will certainly make discovering very easy and also your students will certainly remember the info. There's no need to be puzzled, either. The images will match the text. They'll bear in mind the details better.\nWhen you're producing your visuals, consider your target market and the topics you'll be training. Specific subjects will gain from the use of dual coding, such as biology and also athletics. If you're instructing background, you can attempt mind maps or timelines. You may additionally such as the concept of a layout as a method to communicate the info extra clearly. This way, you'll have a much better possibility of affecting student knowing.\nAnother great advantage of dual coding is its capability to help trainees with their concentration. This method can be made use of in any type of class or in various other setups. Usually, students do not have the ability to follow a teacher's explanations, as well as this indicates that dual coding is an exceptional way to enhance memory. By doing this, the pupils are most likely to understand what the writer desires them to claim. This technique is likewise a fantastic method to improve the knowing experience for all."}
{"content":"|Effect||Does not burn in lava|\nNetherite boots are a player's leg armor made from diamonds and netherite ingots. It is the most durable armor, gives maximum protection, and does not burn in fire.\nNetherite Boots as armor\n- Minecraft versions: 11 / 10.5.1 / 1.19.1 / 1.19 / 1.18.2 / 1.18.1 / 1.18\n- COMMAND: netherite_boots\nModify date: 03/13/2022\nHow to craft netherite boots\nThere is only one recipe for how to craft netherite boots in Minecraft. Below you can see a description of this recipe: a picture with ingredients and step-by-step instructions on how to make netherite boots in Minecraft.\nЧто можно сделать с помощью netherite boots в модах\nЕсть несколько рецептов, в которых используется netherite boots в модах Майнкрафт. Ниже вы можете посмотреть описание всех рецептов: картинки с ингредиентами и пошаговые инструкции, как использовать netherite boots в модах игры Minecraft.\nVideo about netherite boots\nThere is only one video on the site which has netherite boots in Minecraft. You can watch this video below to get a better idea of what netherite boots looks like in Minecraft.\nHow to enchant netherite boots\nThere are 10 types of enchantments that can be applied to netherite boots in Minecraft. Below you can see a detailed description of these types of enchantments that are useful to use on netherite boots in Minecraft.\nScreenshots of netherite boots\nThere are 3 screenshots on the site, which has netherite boots in Minecraft. Below you can see these screenshots to get a better idea of what netherite boots looks like in Minecraft.\nHow to repair netherite boots\nThere are 3 ways how to repair netherite boots in Minecraft, they will to restore the durability of netherite boots in Minecraft.\nIf netherite boots is not enchanted, then you can combine 2 netherite bootss right in the inventory to get 1, but with a large remaining durability. If, when combining, one of the items had an enchantment, then after combining the enchantment will disappear. With this method of repair, neither experience nor additional resources are expended.\nHow much does the durability of an item increase when it is repaired in the inventory?\nIf netherite boots is enchanted, then repairs are best done on the anvil so that the enchantment is preserved or added. You can repair using netherite boots, netherite boots with enchantments, or the appropriate material that is used to craft the item.\nRepairing an anvil requires experience and additional resources.\nYou also need to take into account that when using an anvil, its durability is lost. Therefore, it is better to combine netherite boots and the enchanted netherite boots or book at once.\nAnd do not forget that each new repair on the anvil will cost more and more experience. Therefore, it is better to combine enchanted items right away.\nHow to reduce the amount of experience that is required on the anvil?\nWhat is the fastest way to repair an item with the Repair enchantment?\nCommand to get netherite boots\nThere is a command that allows you to get netherite boots in Minecraft. Below you can see a detailed description of this command to learn how to create netherite boots in Minecraft.\nNetherite Boots can be got using a command in creative mode. This requires:\n- open chat (press \"T\")\n- write command\n/give @p minecraft:netherite_boots\n- press \"ENTER\"\nYou can also specify the number and who netherite boots will be given:\n/give @p minecraft:netherite_boots 10\n/give MinecraftMax minecraft:netherite_boots"}
{"content":"When Mother Teresa used her Nobel Prize money to fund services for the poor, she was exhibiting \"self-interest,\" but not selfishness. Like virtually everyone else, she used her property to achieve an end she valued, but which benefited others as well, writes Gary Galles.\nThis audio Mises Daily is narrated by Robert Hale.\nNote: The views expressed on Mises.org are not necessarily those of the Mises Institute.\nGary M. Galles is a Professor of Economics at Pepperdine University and an adjunct scholar at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He is also a research fellow at the Independent Institute, a member of the Foundation for Economic Education faculty network, and a member of the Heartland Institute Board of Policy Advisors."}
{"content":"Rabbits are a great option for a new family pet. They are generally very friendly and calm and make good additions to most households.\nRabbits are prey species in the wild and unfortunately this means they can be a little bit skittish. This means they prefer a quiet and calm environment. When picked up, it is very important to stabilize their hind limbs to make sure they don’t get scared and kick their legs backwards. This can cause severe problems to their backs. In the same regard, they are very stoic and tend to hide sickness until they are very ill. This means they have to be very closely monitored to insure that they aren’t developing any health concerns.\nThe best way to do this is to make sure they are eating and drinking normally and have also had a bi-annual veterinary exam. During this exam we evaluate their eyes, teeth, heart/lungs, abdomen and hind end and make sure we do not find anything that may indicate a problem in the future.\nRabbits constantly eat and defecate and this keeps their cecum working properly. Their cecum is a large out-pouching of the intestines where all the food they eat is churning and nutrients being extracted. If your rabbit stops eating, this can shut down the cecum’s normal activity; causing bloat and ileus (loss of normal peristalsis) and should be evaluated immediately. Some of the most common causes include dental disease and vestibular disease.\nWatching your bunny for signs of a head tilt is also important. Rabbits commonly experience inner ear and other balance related problems that should be treated immediately if noted.\nDiet is an important component of health. We recommend free choice timothy hay, fresh dark leafy greens and a small amount of timothy-based pellets daily. Other vegetables should be reserved as treats. If you have concerns regarding diet or appetite, this can be thoroughly discussed at a wellness visit.\nAt night, rabbits produce cecotropes which are special droppings that are high in nutrients and they will actually eat them. If they aren’t properly consumed they may resemble abnormal stools and rabbits will not eat them once awake. If you have concerns regarding what is normal, we are happy to discuss this with you.\nBesides diet, allowing rabbits to roam in a large safe area of your house is a good idea as long as there are no electrical cords or other dangers. Keeping them confined to a cage can cause many health related concerns. We also do not recommend housing rabbits outside due to the large amount of ecto-parasites and exposure related concerns that we commonly see.\nIf you have any husbandry or health related concerns, please schedule a consultation and we will be happy to meet you and your bunny!\nAuthor: Dr. Edward Aller"}
{"content":"Understanding Historical and Contemporary Trauma in African American Communities: Navigating Supports so Elders Thrive\nDuring the pandemic and civil unrest, older adults may be particularly vulnerable to re-traumatization as they re-experience a previous traumatic event, either consciously or unconsciously, as the result of a current racially bias event. This trauma may be the result of triggering historical knowledge of systemic racism and/or the cumulative toll of daily microaggressions and lived experiences of discrimination in one’s community.\nThese projects are affiliated with, and/or sponsored by, the Minnesota Northstar GWEP. Please see the resources of these outstanding partners and projects:\nThe University of Minnesota Geriatric Case Competition is a unique opportunity for graduate and undergraduate students from multiple disciplines and schools at the University of Minnesota to come together as a team to develop a comprehensive, interprofessional plan of care for an older adult. The Interprofessional Geriatric Case Competition is being sponsored by the Minnesota Northstar Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program (GWEP).\nSince Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia are especially challenging when caring for older adults, the Minnesota Northstar GWEP has several programs targeting these complex conditions. Through education “roadshows,” conferences, community speaking engagements, and radio spots, we are reaching out to people in all corners of our state with dementia information and support. Programs include:"}
{"content":"US adults added 1 more hour to their daily digital time during the pandemic and spent over 3 hours per day using their smartphones for the first time in 2020, according to eMarketer.\nLast year, US adults spent an average of 7 hours and 50 minutes a day in digital media consumption with a 15% increase from 2019 when the average digital time stood at 6 hours and 49 minutes. This accounted for 57.5% of the average daily media time in 2020 and is expected to surpass 60% in 2022.\n“Time spent with almost all digital devices experienced an uptick in 2020,” said Zach Goldner, eMarketer forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence. “Connected TVs and video game consoles are the main beneficiaries of the cord-cutting trend due to increases in the number of subscription OTT and ad-free video-on-demand users and content offerings.”\nAccording to eMarketer’s data, in 2020, social network time hit 1 hour 5 minutes (56 mins in 2019), digital video time hit 2 hours 13 minutes (1:46 in 2019) and digital audio time surpassed 1 hour 29 minutes (1:22 in 2019) in the United States.\nSmartphone time also broke a new record with US adults spending over 3 hours (3:13) using their mobile phones per day. The average was 2:45 in 2019.\nAccording to Goldner; the increase in digital consumption will continue in 2021. “Desktop/laptop time will return to negative growth this year, but smartphone time will more than make up the difference,’’ he said."}
{"content":"- When have things been unfair in your life?\n- What do you think fairness means?\n- Do you know the difference between equity and equality?\n- In the real world, is there anything that is unfair?\n- The person reading the activity will read aloud different scenarios.\n- As a group, you will all talk about how the story made you feel, and try and find out why that story might have been unfair, or what parts were fair.\n- After this, you will read a definition of two words (the meaning of the word). One of these words will be 'Equity' and one of these words is 'Equality'. Talk about which one you think is better, and why?\n- Were you surprised by some of the situations that were considered fair or unfair?\n- Can fair mean different things to different people?\n- What are some ways to make sure things are fair in Scouting, in school, and in other places we go to?\n- How can you make sure you are helping make things fair?\nRemember to submit your activities on our Scouts for Sustainability Take Action Map\n- Example scenarios about unfair situations\n- Katie always gets to be \"it\" first when you play a game.\n- Your older sister gets to stay up later than you.\n- Your younger brother got an iPad for his birthday but you didn't.\n- Your friend brings a new toy to Cubs but won't let you play with it.\n- The same Lodge or Lair always gets to decide the night's game.\n- You ask your friend to stand beside you in the circle at Beavers.\n- Your friend lets you cut in front of them at the water fountain.\n- Kenneth asks if he can teach your Patrol a new knot.\n- Or any other scenarios you can imagine!\nKeep it Simple\n- Focus more on Scouting related examples to keep it simple. This will help identify the ideas more clearly.\nTake it Further\n- Expand the activity by bringing in real life examples from around the world, where youth will get to hear about what actually was decided, and it can be discussed whether that was fair or unfair. As well, talking more in depth about equity and equality can expand the activity."}
{"content":"Installation of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems can require meticulous attention to detail and precise coordination with multiple trades. On the Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin Center for Advanced Care Levels 9–12 vertical expansion project in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, the team utilized lessons-learned from the construction of the original facility to build on innovative ways to increase efficiency, ensure quality, create a safer work environment during prefabrication/installation, and expedite installation of MEP systems. The result are enhanced racking systems that include substantial electrical controls, fire protection benefits, and a 3.5’ increase in width to incorporate walls.\nA strong collaboration between Mortenson and J.F. Ahern, Faith Technologies, Olympic Companies and CannonDesign made this truly innovative prefabrication effort possible. Prefabricated racking systems create schedule and cost savings, created efficiencies, improved lean practices, and ensure safety. The racks will expedite installation by eight weeks and save 1,000 man-hours on the project. Three separate floors with 16 racks each store items from multiple trades, such as HVAC, plumbing, fire protection, electrical conduit, cable trays and metal studs."}
{"content":"A charming place where tradition meets a glorious wine loving heritage. Salento, thanks to its wine producing culture, has become over the years one of the most well-known, important and appreciated Italian and European wine selling regions. The culture of wine has changed in the same way that successive generations differ and develop.\nIonis selects the best grapes from partner vineyards, an area of 8,000 hectares (20,000 acres) together they decide the best time for harvesting each variety.\nAfter a careful vinification, they select wines that offer the best chemical and physical balance to make sure that they have a long-lasting quality of wine before they refine and bottle their produce.\nThe selected wines are made from grapes that are native to the Salento region, Verdeca, Primitivo IGT and DOC, Negroamaro, Salice Salentino DOC and Malvasia Nera. They also produce some international wines\nsuch as Chardonnay."}
{"content":"Lisa Waup - Journeyed\n14 February - 8 May\nBy taking the gallery to the roadside, Billboards responds to the new ways audiences experience art in the public space. Mixed-cultural First Peoples multidisciplinary artist Lisa Waup’s work Journeyed presents a detailed and visual account of a journey. Using large scale screen-prints of disassembled road signs, the artwork considers the motifs of travel, and questions government jurisdiction on the unceded land of this country. Journeyed spans space and time, navigating the dead ends, closed roads and prohibited zones that road signs denote. Through her appropriation of federally mandated signage, Waup reimagines the ways in which journeys are remembered, and by whose authority we travel through Country. The fragmented visual language of the work offers multiple readings, able to spark curiosity at first glance as well as offering locals and regularly passers-by an opportunity for deeper engagement. Indeed, this is a work that rewards many views, the depths of the layered media becoming clearer as they can be decoded.\nThis Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery iteration of Billboards is the first of three in a project that sees First Nations artists partnered with regional galleries to produce a series of roadside billboards across regional Victoria.\n‘Journeyed’ is a Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery exhibition presented in partnership with NETS Victoria, curated by Jenna Rain Warwick. This project has been supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.\nA special thanks to Spacecraft Studio for all their support.\nImage: Lisa Waup, Journeyed 2021, Digital image, Courtesy of the artist"}
{"content":"We celebrate our blessings with Jesus, but sometimes we forget to celebrate His presence, His light, shining when all else is dark. Then it’s not “There but for the grace of God go I” but “Here, with the grace of God, I go.”\nThe Biblical revelation is about awakening, not accomplishing. You cannot get there, you can only be there, but the foundational Being-in-God, for some reason, is too hard to believe, and too good to be true for most people. Only the humble will usually believe it and receive it, because it affirms more about God than it does about us. Proud people are not attracted to such explanations.\nHere is what St. Bonaventure tells us about God: “By God’s power, presence, and essence, God is the One whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. God exists uncircumscribed in everything.” In other words, it’s all sacred. You can find God everywhere. You don’t have to go to monasteries. As Francis of Assisi said, “The whole world is our cloister.”\nBonaventure goes on to say, “God is, therefore, all inclusive. God is the essence of everything. God is most perfect and…\nView original post 134 more words"}
{"content":"- For the Jim Henson television show, see Dinosaurs\n|Produced by||Genius Entertainment|\nSesame Street: Dinosaurs! is a 2008 Sesame Street direct-to-video special.\nElmo, Telly and Abby Cadabby discover what would happen if they became dinosaurs. The production features the \"Dinosaurs\" episode of Elmo's World, an excerpt from the street story of Episode 4113 and the clay animation song \"If Elmo Had a Dinosaur\" edited in among the original story. \"Journey to Ernie: Dinosaurs\" is included as a bonus feature on the DVD.\nBeginning on May 3rd 2008, Kidtoon Films gave the production a limited theatrical release throughout the month as a weekend matinee. The film played at over 70 theaters across the United States.\n- Starring The Muppets of Sesame Street:\n- Segment Muppet Performers:\n- Executive Producer: Carol-Lynn Parente\n- Co-Executive Producer: Kevin Clash\n- Coordinating Producer: April Chadderdon\n- Home Video Senior Producer: Melissa Dino\n- Line Producer: Stephanie Longardo\n- Producer: Benjamin Lehmann\n- Directed by Joey Mazzarino\n- Written by Joey Mazzarino\n- Music Director: Loren Toolajian\n- \"Do the Dinosaur\" Song by Mark Radice\n- Music by Loren Toolajian\n- Senior Muppet Consultant: Kevin Clash\n- Assistant Muppet Captain: Matt Vogel\n- Jim Henson's Creature Shop:\n- Production Designer: Victor DiNapoli\n- Associate Directors: Ken Diego, Emily Cohen\n- Art Director: Bob Phillips\n- Senior Graphic Designer: Mike Pantuso\n- Sound Effects: Dick Maitland, C.A.S.\n- Segment Writers: Annie Evans, Tony Geiss, Belinda Ward\n- Segment Directors: Kevin Clash, Ken Diego, Victor DiNapoli\n- Segment Producer: Misseri Studio\n- Segment Composers and Lyricists: Tony Geiss, Mark Radice, Lou Berger, Judy Freudberg\n- Technical Director: Tom Guadarrama\n- Cameras: Frank Biondo, Jerry Cancel, Ray Hoover\n- Utility: Chuck Tutino, Gordon Price, Sisse Jonassen\n- Script Supervisor: Syndi Shumer\n- Director of Music Operations: Danny Epstein\n- DVD Production: Frank Campagna, Franco Schettino\n- For Sesame Workshop: Taska Carrigan, Fay Corinotis, Alicia Durand, Ray Hammerman, Jocelyn Leong, Sharon Lyew, Mark Magner, Louis Mitchell, Kimi Sokol\n- Vice President of Education and Research: Rosemarie T. Truglio, Ph.D.\n- Senior Curriculum Specialist: Autumn Zitani Stefano, M.A.\n- Taped at Kaufman Astoria Studios"}
{"content":"|Showing 1 of 1||\n|Object Type||Marsden Hartley Memorial Collection|\n|Dimensions||1 x 2 x 1 in. (2.54 x 5.08 x 2.54 cm)|\n|Credit Line||Bates College Museum of Art, Marsden Hartley Memorial Collection, Gift of Norma Berger, 1955.1.107|\nHand-modeled figurines are a hallmark of the early village cultures of Central Mexico (e.g. Tlatilco and Tlapacoya in the Valley of Mexico; Las Bocas in Puebla; San Pablo in Morelos, and Teotihuacan). This early sculptural tradition is notable for the large quantity and stylistic variety of these minute sculptures, most of which portray females. The Central Mexico corpus has been seriated into sub-groups based on figural characteristics including facial features, body forms, and adornments. The fragmentary condition of this piece makes certain identification problematic because the surviving features recall figurines from Central Mexico to the Gulf Coast (Veracruz and Tabasco states) regions; however, the features recall the Type-D category of the Valley of Mexico.\nThis object has the following keywords:\nThis object is a member of the following portfolios:\nYour current search criteria is: Objects is \"Figurine fragment\"."}
{"content":"How do I remove an ice dam?\nIf water is not leaking into your home, you can carefully rake the remaining snow off of your roof using a roof rake. This will reduce the amount of snow that can melt into the ice dam.\nIf water is coming into your home, we strongly recommend that you call an experienced roof steaming company like Details & Dixon’s to safely and quickly remove the ice dam. Learn more.\nA roof steamer takes regular, cold tap water and heats it to 300 degrees. The water travels through a hose and wand to produce a thin, low-pressure column of steam that is used to cut out the ice.\nDetails & Dixon’s guarantees that this steam removal method will not harm your shingles, roof or gutters.\nWe recommend that you do NOT:\n- Use a hammer or sharp tool to chop through the ice. This will damage shingles and possibly more.\n- Use a home pressure washer to remove the ice. The high pressure will cause more damage and may cause the ice dam to grow.\n- Use salt or other chemicals to melt the ice. This can cause more melting behind the ice dam and can damage your home and plants.\nHow do I prevent ice dams?\nThere are 3 options for preventing ice dams from forming on your roof.\nFirst, consider adding insulation in areas that ice tends to form on your roof. This is a good solution if you have an older home or suspect that you don’t have enough insulation. You can do this yourself or hire a licensed contractor to do the work.\nSecond, you can remove snow using a roof rake from affected areas of your roof. Snow is the fuel that melts to form the ice. This should be done as soon as possible after each snowfall. You can do this yourself or hire an experienced company like Details & Dixon’s to do this for you. Learn more.\nThird, you can install a heat cable system on your roof that is designed to create a path for water to flow from the roof, through the gutters and downspouts to reach the ground. No one in the Twin Cities has more experience than Details & Dixon’s to design and install these systems."}
{"content":"Baby & Child motor development Primitive ReflexesFrom birth, your baby already has a set of “primitive reflexes”. It means they perform movement automatically without thinking about it (an example for adults: we remove automatically our hand when we burn ourselves). These reflexes can be triggered by different stimuli:\n- Grasping reflex: as you put a finger inside your baby’s hand he should hold firmly into it\n- Moro reflex: if you baby has the impression to fall, it head is unsupported when you lift him (obviously don’t try it!) or if he’s startled by a sudden noise this reflex can be triggered. In this case, your infant will perform 3 consecutive actions: 1° spreads his arms 2° pulls his arms in 3° cries\n- Suction reflex: when you touch your baby cheek, your infant should automatically turn his head on the same side and his lips be looking for something to suck. Similarly, inserting a finger or a dummy in your baby mouth should trigger a suction reflex, lips closing strongly. Obviously, this reflex is very important for feeding.\n- Automatic walk reflex: It is one of the funniest! Yes, a new-born tries to walk! If you hold firmly your baby under his armpit to stabilise his spine, he should stand straight and push with his legs. By tilting him forward, he may even do some steps on his tip toes (more difficult)\nThese are the main primitive reflexes we look at when we evaluate the correct motor development of a new-born. There are more of them but the presence of a couple of them is already a sign of a good development.\nPrimitive reflexes remain for the first few months of your baby life but slowly disappear from the second month.\nIf you have any doubt concerning your infant motor development, report it to your GP or ask your paediatric physiotherapist to perform a full motor development check-up."}
{"content":"You're never too old to complete a coloring book. In fact, many psychologists recommend this creative activity to adults as a way to practice mindfulness and relieve stress. If that sounds appealing, then you're in luck. Artists and museums across the globe have released thousands of adult coloring books of various themes, styles, and genres. Plus, many of these resources are available to download for free online. So, literature buffs and fans of William Shakespeare can now celebrate the English playwright's legacy at home when they print out this enchanting coloring book.\nAptly titled the Victorian Illustrated Shakespeare Coloring Book, this resource features a collection of 35 ornate illustrations by artist H.C. Selous from the nineteenth edition of The Plays of William Shakespeare (1864-68). Among the assortment are covers of Shakespeare's most famous works, such as Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Each one offers hours of coloring fun in its elaborate linework and emotional scenes.\nMichael John Goodman, the coloring book's creator, is a post doctoral researcher at the University of Cardiff and the owner of the Victorian Illustrated Shakespeare Archive website. Goodman says, “It's obviously free to use and I hope in these days of homeschooling, parents might find it a simple way to engage their kids with Shakespeare.”\nYou can find the free coloring book available for download here."}
{"content":"The USF digital signage system is a campus-funded system maintained by ITS and Web and Digital Communications. Web and Digital Communications is charged with overseeing and managing appropriate content on the screens. We are always looking for new content to feature. Our team can assist with templates, design or communication concepts. We can also help you if you are interested in requesting installation of a new digital sign in your area and expectations for maintaining its content.\nWhat is Digital Signage?\nDigital signage is the display of multimedia content on electronically controlled displays that are installed in public places. Content and messages can be changed dynamically, without modification to the physical sign, typically with the goal of delivering targeted messages to specific locations at specific times.\nIf you have any questions please contact us at firstname.lastname@example.org."}
{"content":"Don’t let the findings of the investigation gather dust on the shelf of power\nMatthew Whiting, who has spastic quadriplegia with a speech impediment, is Canterbury’s Regional Disability Leadership Coordinator and Services Manager for CCS Disability Action. He testified last month at the public hearing of the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care focused on institutional care for the disabled, deaf and mentally ill.\nOPINION: I was institutionalized for long periods throughout my childhood and early adulthood.\nProfessionals informed my family that I could not live at home due to family stress caused by my disability. A medical model of disability dominated our society and still dominates today. At that time, professionals and doctors were treated like “gods” and most people followed their recommendations. My parents were no different.\nMy parents thought they were doing what was best for me, but instead I was physically, sexually, and emotionally abused in these places.\nLast month, I gave evidence at a public hearing of the Royal Commission into Child Care Abuse about my experience.\n* ‘National disgrace’: Care survivor abuse failed by state, probe finds\n* Abuse in care: Disabled survivors placed in care as ‘containment of society’, survey finds\n* Survivors Call for New Government Entity to Hear Allegations of Institutional Child Abuse\n* The unnoticed epidemic of violence and abuse against people with disabilities\n* People with Disabilities Report Higher Rates of Sexual and Physical Violence, New Study Finds\n* ‘A lot of abuse took place there’: state care institutions disappeared from records\nI told the commissioners that being taken care of was like a prison without bars. That I was constantly terrified. That being “cared for” in these places was about power and control; institutions had all the power and controlled everything we did, not that we could do much.\nI remember when I had a short stay at Pukeora Hospital in Hawke’s Bay. It was like sending someone to prison at 11 years old.\nThen I was institutionalized long-term at Burwood Hospital in Christchurch. I didn’t have a choice about anything in my day-to-day life – what time I went to bed, what I ate, when I washed.\nI finally made it out of Burwood Hospital at 21. I had to fight to leave.\nHowever, that was not the end of my struggles.\nWhen I came out of care, I promised myself that no one would ever control me again.\nBut it’s hard work to constantly fight. It weighs heavily on you emotionally.\nIt is essential that we learn from history. But it’s not just historical; people with disabilities continue to experience higher rates of violence than people without disabilities, both in care settings and in society.\nIt took me a long time to realize that what had happened to me during the treatment was wrong. The abuse continues to affect me, including my relationships today.\nThe abuse and neglect experienced by people with disabilities, myself included, is the result of systemic issues.\nA hierarchical system leads to the abuse of power. There must be a way to provide support without disempowering people with disabilities. People with disabilities need to be able to make decisions, have a say and fully understand all support options.\nOften my impairment is undermined by others, and often I struggle with ableist systems. I get tricked – by systems, by individuals. I am treated like a second class citizen almost every day. On buses, in shops and occasionally at work. As a society, we devalue people like me and set up ableist systems.\nI have to tap into my strengths and cling to my sense of myself.\nWe need to change the way we think about support and the way we provide support as a country, otherwise nothing will change.\nYes, I wanted to share my experience with the royal commissionbut I fear that their conclusions and recommendations will remain in another abandoned report, becoming dusty on the shelf of power.\nIf you have watched the testimonies of us, the survivors, testifying before the commission, then you can see how much this is costing people.\nDo not leave this in vain.\nI urge the government not to let the experiences of thousands of survivors of abuse in care settings sit on the shelf.\nLet us not cast ourselves off to be forgotten, neglected and abused again.\nAddress the systems we have now that devalue and disadvantage people with disabilities. Be courageous in designing systems that prevent hierarchy, disempowerment and dehumanizing practices in the system that put people with disabilities at risk."}
{"content":"As the Russo-Ukrainian War grinds on, both Russia and Ukraine have adjusted their strategic objectives. Russia abandoned its initial goal of seizing Kyiv and installing a pro-Russian government after facing fierce Ukrainian resistance, and is now focusing on conquering Eastern Ukraine and annexing significant portions of Ukraine’s southern territory. Ukraine’s minimum objectives include reestablishing its prewar borders, with political leaders occasionally suggesting that Ukraine should expand its ambitions to reclaiming territory lost to Russia in Crimea and the Donbas region since 2014.\nU.S. strategic objectives in Ukraine are also a moving target. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin stated that the United States not only wants Ukraine to remain a sovereign and democratic country, but also “to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi promised that the United States would support Ukraine “until the fight is done.” President Joe Biden reiterated this point, stating that the United States would support Ukraine for “as long as it takes so Russia cannot, in fact, defeat Ukraine and move beyond Ukraine.”\nAnalysts and commentators debate how ambitious U.S. support for Ukraine should be. Some scholars have emphasized differences in U.S. and Ukrainian interests and encouraged more limited objectives. Calls for continued and expanded military support have come to dominate the defense policy discourse.\nA core point of disagreement between these two camps is the perceived likelihood of nuclear escalation. Whereas those arguing for limited objectives tend to worry about the potential for escalation across the nuclear threshold, analysts in favor of increased support for Ukraine view the costs of concessions as more dangerous than confrontation and tend to view the likelihood of escalation as minimal.\nThe likelihood of nuclear use in Ukraine may be low, but it is not zero. Analysts who quickly dismiss the potential for nuclear escalation—and even most of those who express worries about nuclear conflict—largely oversimplify the many pathways that can lead to nuclear use, whether purposeful or inadvertent. Providing a clearer delineation of those pathways will help policymakers better understand which policy options can more safely advance U.S. objectives, and which policies should inspire greater caution and restraint.\nChoosing to Go Nuclear\nOn the day that Russia invaded Ukraine, Russian president Vladimir Putin warned that any opposition to Russian efforts would result in consequences “such as you have never seen in your entire history.” Several days later, Putin placed Russian nuclear forces on high alert. Nuclear threats have continued to emanate from Russia throughout the conflict, with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov recently warning Western leaders that the risks of nuclear war are now “considerable.”\nDespite such overt nuclear threats, U.S. and European leaders have expressed skepticism about the likelihood of a nuclear exchange. For example, shortly after Russia’s decision to place its nuclear forces on high alert, U.S. president Joe Biden received a question regarding whether U.S. citizens should fear nuclear war in Europe. Biden’s response was simple: “no.” Five months of unfulfilled nuclear threats have ultimately led analysts to argue that Russia’s threats are “not credible.”\nFurthermore, given the massively destructive effects of nuclear weapons and apparent taboo against their use, others decisively assert that Russia will not use nuclear weapons in Ukraine because “extraordinary retaliation and universal opprobrium would follow.” Even those observers most concerned about the possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons generally view such an outcome as unlikely.\nSuch assertions that Russia would not use nuclear weapons rely on an important assumption: the decision to use nuclear weapons will be politically calculated and purposefully directed by Putin. This assumption, however, overlooks a separate challenge to crisis stability. Specifically, crises entail risks of unintended nuclear escalation that occurs without explicit political intent. These concerns merit greater attention when debating U.S. foreign policy with respect to Ukraine, as the likelihood of unintended escalation may be higher than purposeful escalation under certain circumstances, such as if Russia begins mobilizing its nuclear forces to signal resolve.\nPathways to Unintended Escalation\nPutin is most likely to consider nuclear weapons use if facing a devastating strategic defeat or existential threat to his regime. Two core interests might fall into this category: first, threats to the physical security of Russia, potentially including challenges to territorial gains made by Russia since 2014; and second, threats to the survival of Putin’s political regime.\nSkeptics of escalation concerns argue that nuclear weapons will not come into play as long as the United States and NATO avoid Russia’s red lines, including direct attacks on Russian forces and the deployment of NATO forces into Ukrainian territory. The dangers associated with crossing these red lines explain why U.S. policymakers rejected proposals for a no-fly zone over Ukraine, which would have required Western forces to directly target the Russian military to enforce the policy.\nAvoiding direct engagement with Russian forces, however, is insufficient to guarantee that nuclear weapons will not be used. Nuclear use is not a simple on-off switch, and the process of preparing nuclear weapons for potential use entails risks of unintended nuclear use. Simply approaching Russia’s red lines—even without crossing them—increases the likelihood of nuclear use.\nThe primary node of concern for unintended nuclear escalation during militarized crises is a state’s nuclear command and control systems. Command and control systems are the operational means by which a state conducts the management, deployment, and potential release of nuclear weapons. More simply, command and control procedures determine how centralized a country’s political oversight of nuclear forces is. These systems dictate how a state operates during peacetime and crises, directly shaping the likelihood of nuclear use.\nIf Putin feels that Russia’s physical security or his political regime are in danger, he is more likely to increase the readiness of his nuclear arsenal. Operationally, this means that lower-level military commanders will be more capable of using nuclear weapons as military operators gain possession of fully prepared and deliverable nuclear weapons, likely without technical controls to inhibit their use. This delegation of nuclear use capability to lower-level commanders creates two risks that have largely been overlooked in the debate about nuclear use in Ukraine.\nFirst, accidental use—referring to the unintentional use of nuclear weapons due to mishandling or poor design—becomes more likely as military operators gain control of fully ready nuclear weapons. Without peacetime barriers to using nuclear weapons—such as the separation of nuclear warheads from ballistic missiles—military operators in possession of nuclear weapons have fewer constraints on their ability to use nuclear weapons. History is replete with examples of nuclear near-misses, instances in which accidents almost resulted in nuclear use, and these events remain entirely plausible in Russia. Moreover, if a nuclear weapon were to detonate accidentally in Ukraine, outside actors likely would not recognize the detonation as accidental and might authorize nuclear retaliation.\nSecond, the delegation of nuclear use capability would increase the likelihood of unauthorized use, which occurs when the custodians of nuclear weapons use those nuclear weapons without authorization from political leadership. Unauthorized use could occur because a lower-level commander decides to circumvent the chain of command and use a nuclear weapon without political authorization, or that commander may elect to use nuclear weapons to stave off defeat if being conventionally overrun by the adversary. These pressures would be especially pronounced for commanders of Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons, as they are most likely to be placed in a battlefield setting and face “use them or lose them” pressures.\nNuclear Command and Control and Crisis Escalation\nDuring peacetime, Russia appears to manage its nuclear forces in a way that mitigates the risk of accidental and unauthorized use. The Russian president has the centralized ability to authorize the use of nuclear weapons and nuclear warheads are kept de-mated from ballistic missiles, which physically prevents lower-level commanders from possessing nuclear weapons, much less using them.\nIf an adversary such as NATO approaches Russia’s red lines and threatens the state’s security or Putin’s regime, however, it is possible that Putin would authorize the transfer of nuclear warheads to military operators to increase arsenal readiness in an effort to deter NATO from crossing the red line at all. Placing fully assembled tactical nuclear weapons in the hands of Russian military forces would immediately increase the likelihood of nuclear use by opening doors to accidental or unauthorized use.\nBeyond accidental and unauthorized use, this process of increasing arsenal readiness entails another significant threat to strategic stability. The unusual release of sensitive information by the Biden administration shows that the United States is actively monitoring every available aspect of the conflict in Ukraine. If U.S. intelligence were to discover that Russia was removing nuclear warheads from storage and increasing operational readiness, U.S. policymakers will be forced to make decisions about supporting military efforts that are apparently approaching the nuclear brink without knowing whether Russia was simply increasing arsenal readiness or actually preparing to conduct a nuclear strike. In this case, Western officials could view Russian mobilization as a cause for preemptive strikes against Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons. Whether NATO conducts the attack or passes intelligence to Ukraine in support of an attack, this direct targeting of Russian nuclear forces would clearly cross a red line that encourages nuclear use, thereby guaranteeing the nuclear exchange that attacking forces hoped to avoid in the first place."}
{"content":"Early in December two snowmobilers were sledding in the Hardware Ranch Wildlife Management Area on Monte Cristo mountain in Utah. They chanced across an unlikely surprise—a Great Pyrenees adult female and three of her pups. The woman, Kat Perry, tried to save the dogs herself but she had no way to lure them over to her. She contacted the Weber County Sheriff's Office who sent out a search and rescue team to help save the dogs.\nThe team showed up with a rescue sled and was able to save the three puppies, who were about seven weeks old. It is likely there were more pups who perished, as Great Pyrenees are known to have large litters, frequently eight or more. The rescue team was unable to capture the mother of the pup but no one wanted to give up on her. The rescued pups went to the Great Pyrenees Rescue, Montana, to find homes and happily, all have been adopted.\nThe Great Pyrenees Rescue, Montana, is all too familiar with this type of situation. Finding abandoned pups and rehoming them can happen more than once during the Fall. They recently rescued a litter of puppies abandoned in November, victims of the same situation in the mountains of Colorado. Unfortunately this keeps happening over and over again, when ranchers move their flocks off the mountains in the Fall and the dogs, who are not spayed and frequently pregnant, get abandoned and are left to fend for themselves and their puppies.\nRanchers in the area are members of the Utah Wool Growers Association which is aware of the sensitivity of the situation. They have issued the following statement: \"Unfortunately (as all pet owners know), sometimes pets/livestock run off, get lost, get stolen, etc. Hence, the need for a lost and found pets page. Sheep dogs aren’t the only dogs who get lost. Producers do their absolute best to keep all the animals together and make sure they all come home, but sometimes accidents happen (and sadly sometimes guard dogs get killed in the line of duty by bears and cougars). Guard dogs are very expensive and very valuable team members who protect the livestock 24/7. If this mama had her pups seven weeks ago, she might have snuck off to have them and that’s how she got lost.”\nGreat Pyrenees Rescue, Montana's local representative, Shauna Thompson (far left) says abandonment is a problem that’s been going on for years. According to Thompson, \"Every year at the end of grazing season, we do see several litters abandoned. Some of them are injured and caught in traps. Some are left up on the mountain and they don’t survive. Too often when the snow hits, we don’t get to the animals in time and we find them deceased.”\nGuardian dogs are not protected under animal cruelty laws because they are considered livestock. According to Thompson, “We have tried for a long time to work with the Utah Wool Growers Association and ranchers to get protections put into place so that these kinds of situations, like the one yesterday, can be avoided. These are amazing dogs. They’re not just used for the mountain. They make great domestic family pets too. They are wonderful service and therapy dogs.”\nThompson says some ranchers don’t register, vaccinate, spay/neuter, or retrieve their dogs once the cold winter season hits. “There are good ranchers that will vet and care for their dogs. But there are some who don’t and only consider these dogs disposable tools of the trade. Not all Great Pyrenees are good at their jobs. If they fail or don’t want to watch the sheep, then they are no longer valuable, so they get left behind.”\nNo one has come forward yet to claim the Momma dog. She was sighted mid-December with two male dogs and a Facebook page was established to track the progress of Grace as she is now called. Traps with food have been set, vehicles are dispatched to search her for almost daily and a helicopter was donated to fly over the search area. The state's wildlife management officers have been supportive. The media are on alert and a growing number of volunteers and a fundraiser help maintain the momentum. No one is giving up. The search for Grace goes on."}
{"content":"A Magnificently Modern Design Background With Floral A Floral Design Antique American Hooked Rug, Country Of Origin / Rug Type: Antique American Rugs, Circa Date: Early 20th Century – Antique American Hooked rugs were popular in the USA as part of the Arts and Crafts movement from the late 19th century until about the mid-1920’s. This beautiful example of an antique American hooked rug dates to the early 20th century and demonstrates individuality through artistic expression. The first thing that stands out about this floral design antique Hooked tug from America is the brilliant red flowers set against a colorful background. It has a contemporary, yet remotely rustic feel.\nThe earthy colors include neutral browns, greens, taupe, and muted colors. This highlights the brilliance of the bold red flowers. The roughly oval arrangement of the floral motifs helps to define the space of the rug, but their haphazard arrangement reflects the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement. The arts and crafts movement was meant as an answer to the mass-produced, industrialized products that were making their way into society in the early 20th century.\nThe floral rug designs uses dark and light reds to reflect the way the light hits the pedals. However, you might notice that this floral antique American Hooked rug has an outsider art quality because the light source is not coming from the same direction but appears to be coming from several different sources. The rendition of the flowers, and the randomness of the color of the background give this antique American rug a beautiful look into the aesthetics of the Arts and Crafts movement and the individual artists of the time. This antique rug is not only a beautiful work of art, it is an important collector’s piece that represents a desire to return to simpler times in American history."}
{"content":"Teleportation machines are thought to work much like a fax machine — only instead of paper it’s humans, and the original copies are destroyed once the travelers make it to their final destination. Human teleportation, of course, is still a hypothetical — we’ve managed to send out single photons and trapped ions, but so far no mad scientists.\nBut this mere inconvenience wasn’t enough to stop researchers from wondering, what if? In research published Thursday in the journal Neuron, neuroscientists from the University of California, Davis studied how the brain might react if it were to experience teleportation. Lucky for us it doesn’t seem like teleportation would throw our psyche into cosmic dread — it appears our brains would keep chugging along, fully aware that they had been transported.\nPrior to this experiment, the scientists knew that when rats navigate a maze, the mammal brain experiences a rhythmic oscillation — but they weren’t sure if oscillation happens because it’s a helpful tool for navigation or if it’s just a related function of movement. They also knew that rhythmic oscillation happens when humans travel around a virtual landscape. Based on these principles, the researchers used electrodes to measure the intracranial hippocampal activity with an electroencephalogram test (EEG) while three patients explored a virtual maze via a computer screen.\nWithin the maze, patients were instructed to choose a path and go into a virtual store. Inside the store they came across a teleporter that would take them a “short” distance and another that would go “long” — back to the center of the maze.\n“Critically, teleportation allowed patients to experience movement to a known location in space in the absence of any sensory feedback because they remained seated on a hospital bed and viewed a black screen during this time,” writes the research team.\nDuring the teleportation the brain continued to oscillate, but the rhythm reflected a perception of distance traveled. This led the researchers to conclude that the memory and learning process controls neural oscillations — your brain understands it’s experiencing some form of speed and distance, even if you’re only moving through a pretend teleporter.\nAs a control, they had the participants look at a black screen, but did not have them experience virtual movement. No strong oscillation happened — the patients’ brains knew they weren’t experiencing simulated movement.\nThe study comes with a few caveats. Namely, this was only a study of three people — but each person did demonstrate the same result. They were part of a different study of patients who experience a severe form of epilepsy, who had electrodes implanted into their skull to figure out when seizure activity begins in the brain. From this group of patients, three decided they’d be down for the teleportation experiment as well.\nTechnology may not be ready to teleport our bodies — but our brains are ready."}
{"content":"Nebraska Revised Statute 46-302\nElectric light and power system; construction or acquisition by resolution; procedure.\nWhenever the board of directors of any irrigation district shall, by resolution, determine that it is to the interest, convenience, and welfare of the district that the district, under sections 46-301 to 46-315, purchase, construct, or otherwise acquire, operate, and maintain any electric light and power plant, lines, or systems, whether as an addition, extension, enlargement, alteration, or reconstruction of any site, irrigation works, or other property owned or controlled by the district, or as a plant, lines, or system independent of works or property already owned or controlled by the district, the board of directors shall thereupon prepare comprehensive written plans, statements, and reports setting out the nature, location, and description of the proposed plant, lines, and system, including method or methods of generation or acquisition, the location of transmission lines, the use of other sites, properties, and works already owned or controlled by the district, estimated costs of acquisition and construction, the method or means of financing the proposed plan and project, the amount of bonds, if any, proposed to be issued in connection therewith, and such other data as the Department of Natural Resources shall prescribe. The expense thereof may be authorized by any special meeting or at the annual meeting of such district. Such plans, statements, and reports, including a copy of such resolution, shall be duly certified by the board of directors and shall be thereupon submitted to the department for its examination as set forth in section 46-304.\n- Laws 1931, c. 91, § 2, p. 253;\n- C.S.Supp.,1941, § 46-702;\n- R.S.1943, § 46-302;\n- Laws 2000, LB 900, § 160."}
{"content":"In “Approaching Genre” John Frow begins by conveying the implicit rules of understanding a rhetorical text: “the knowledge the reader is expected to have is intertextual: knowledge of earlier reports and earlier controversies” (7). The readers, through their common understanding of prior events, form a discourse community that both creates and decodes meaning, thereby continuously redefining the different forms that constitute the genre. The form of the text, its type font, verb choice or play on words, for example, and the way it is framed or structured, together determine the rhetorical function and meaning of the text (8-9).\nIn addition to the group within which the text is communicated, the situational context plays a significant role in its interpretation: “The work of genre, then, is to mediate between a social situation and the text which realizes certain features of this situation, or which responds strategically to its demands” (14). Our knowing of a text’s genre often predetermines our reaction to it by providing constraining instructions regarding the expected appropriate behaviour to it. By suggesting a certain attitude, the objectivity of the work is diminished.\nOne of the greatest challenges of the above presets then is attempting to limit the classification of any given text into one genre. Here, Derrida adds that “[e]very text participates in one or several genres,” but this is not equivalent to its belonging within that genre (25). In a subsequent chapter, “Literary Genre Theory”, Frow mentions how this blurs the lines of classification of texts, which are cultural constructs, more than that of the taxonomy found in nature.\nHe analyzes early forms of literary classification from Plato and Aristotle, who wrote that all forms of poetry differ either in their means, objects or manner of imitations (56). Western tradition has further followed this breakdown of literary genre as a triad of the epic, dramatic or lyric, although the debate of overlapping components among the three still exists. Some scholars distinguish these as “modes”, or “qualifications”, of a genre, which entail specific emotions or affects (65).\nHe concludes by describing genre then as an evolving social construct dependent upon recurring characteristics and norms within a society or time period. The hierarchy of genres is always fluctuating: “Just as genres form a horizon of expectations against which any text is read, so are they themselves subsumed within a broader horizon formed by a period’s system of genres” (70).\nFrow, John. Genre. The Critical Idiom, Series ed. John Drakakis. London: Routledge, 2006."}
{"content":"Cancer patients are around five times more likely to have surgery to remove their tumour, and less likely to have chemotherapy, if they are diagnosed at the earliest stage compared to the latest stage, according to new figures.\nThis is the first time researchers have been able to show whether NHS patients received surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, alone or in combination, linked with their cancer stage. And it shows that generally patients diagnosed an earlier stage are more likely to receive surgery, and can avoid chemotherapy.\nChemotherapy and radiotherapy are the most appropriate first line treatments for some cancers, but for most types of the disease surgery to remove a tumour is the most likely way to cure it. Treating a tumour with surgery alone often minimises longer term side effects which can affect a patient’s quality of life.\nCancer Research UK and Public Health England (link is external) examined data from about half a million patients with 22 different cancer types in England between 2013-2014. It shows that 7 in 10 (70%) diagnosed at the earliest stage (stage 1) had surgery to remove their tumour. This falls to around 1 in 10 (13%) of those diagnosed at the latest stage (stage 4).\nAround 1 in 10 (12%) patients diagnosed at the earliest stage have chemotherapy. This rises to around 4 in 10 (39%) of those diagnosed at the latest stage.\nProf Mick Peake, a lead clinician in the study and based at Public Health England, said: “Doctors want to offer patients the best possible treatment. For some cancers, like leukaemia and lymphoma, that’s chemotherapy. But in most cases the earlier cancer is diagnosed the more likely it is to be effectively treated by surgery, and that means chemotherapy isn’t always necessary.\n“In general, the treatment of cancers at an early stage also reduces the risk of long term side effects which can affect patients’ quality of life.”\nFor the most common type of bowel cancer, colon cancer, more than 9 in 10 patients (94%) have surgery to remove their tumour when diagnosed at the earliest stage, when radiotherapy and chemotherapy are not usually necessary.\nFor patients diagnosed with stage 4 disease around 3 in 10 (32%) have surgery and those who do will often have chemotherapy as well.\nLess than 1 in 20 colon cancer patients with the earliest stage disease have chemotherapy compared to nearly 5 in 10 (47%) diagnosed at the latest stage.\nIn breast cancer, almost 95% of patients diagnosed at the earliest stage and 25% of those diagnosed at the latest stage have surgery. Those diagnosed at the latest stage are more than twice as likely to have chemotherapy as stage 1 patients.\nFor patients with the earliest stage non-small cell lung cancer (the most common type of the disease) 6% have chemotherapy. This compares to 30% when diagnosis is made at the latest stage.\nSara Hiom, Cancer Research UK’s director of early diagnosis, said: “Understandably, people sometimes fear cancer treatments as well as the disease itself. This research shows how important an early diagnosis is for simplifying the treatment options as much as possible. Until now, we’ve not been able to look at such rich data for the whole of England and analyse who’s been treated how. Now, thanks to recent improvements, it’s possible to show how stage affects the treatments patients need, giving us a more complete picture.\n“We all have our part to play to increase the number of patients diagnosed earlier. People should consult their GP if they are worried about symptoms, GPs should follow clinical guidelines to refer patients, and the right diagnostic tests need to be performed and reported promptly so that patients can benefit more from treatments. This all needs greater attention and our national cancer strategy helps give this focus.”\nDr Jem Rashbass, cancer lead at Public Health England said: “This data is the most comprehensive of its kind in the world, linking stage of diagnosis and treatment for individual patients. Its wealth of knowledge will help us to better understand treatment and survival patterns and underpins the importance of early diagnosis and screening”.\nThe importance of early diagnosis\nThis shows that patients diagnosed at the earliest stage are more likely to receive treatment that has a better chance of curing them and fewer long term side effects. The challenge is boosting the number of cases diagnosed at an earlier stage.\n“Surgery remains the most important treatment for cancer,” says Nordin.\n“As a general rule for most cancers, the earlier the cancer is diagnosed, the more likely that it can be effectively treated by surgery alone, without the need for additional types of treatment.”\n“This often provides the best chance of disease cure whilst minimising the risk of long term side effects of treatment which can impact on patients’ quality of life.”\nThis pattern for cancers diagnosed at the earliest and latest stage looks the same across the majority featured in the report. But the scale of the differences highlight some big opportunities for progress.\nThis research also reinforces that the health service needs the right staff and equipment to diagnose more cancer patients earlier.\n“During the coming years we will analyse the effectiveness of different treatments, and differences in treatments between different groups in the population and different regions of the country, in order to make changes to improve outcomes in the future,” says Nordin.\n“Without the knowledge of what is happening now, it is impossible to monitor the impact of any changes in the quality of care, in terms of improvements in the outcomes for patients in the future.”\nSarah Testori is an early diagnosis manager at Cancer Research UK\nYou can read the new data from Cancer Research here\nYou can read the Cancer Research Press release in full here"}
{"content":"It’s a tradition: every fall, the SAP developer community comes together at SAP TechEd to find out what’s new and what developments there are in the SAP portfolio. On Tuesday morning, Dr. Vishal Sikka, a member of the Executive Board of SAP AG leading products and innovation, welcomed the 6,500 delegates and introduced not one but two Turing award winners to show just how fundamentally the IT world is changing.\nABC Model and the SAP HANA Effect\nPioneer of object-oriented programming Alan Kay spoke to Sikka and the delegates about the ABC model devised by Douglas Engelbart, one of the fathers of the study of human-computer interaction and the inventor of the computer mouse. Put simply, if A processes are the tasks and goals of an organization, it needs B processes to achieve them. The B processes have to be continuously improved by other processes, the C processes. This continuous search for improvement impacts day-to-day business and ultimately affects the A processes, leading to the definition of new tasks and goals and the advancement of the organization as a whole.\nAccording to Sikka, every industry, not just IT, is being fundamentally transformed by technology. Cloud computing, Big Data and mobile are transforming the world. Referring to SAP, Sikka called this the SAP HANA effect: “Great technology always serves to amplify us – just like SAP HANA.” The SAP HANA platform (A) and new, simpler applications (B), and a new concept of how we use data and for what (C) makes all this possible. This means that, without disruption and risk, SAP has to make SAP HANA the platform for all applications and apply the new SAP Fiori user experience to their design.\nTo learn more, read the full article on SAP.info."}
{"content":"Previously, I wrote about my transformative experience in building up the global data business for SAP, sharing my personal views on how to bring a startup to laser-focused execution and relentlessly drive customer success.\nData and technology have helped businesses evolve so rapidly that in just the past year, innovative technologies and capabilities such as data science, artificial intelligence, data analytics, and Big Data processing have allowed businesses to benefit from data in ways unimaginable before.\nNew, innovative technologies have allowed businesses to benefit from data in ways unimaginable before\n“Go break through with your data” is my advice to every business. Why? Because data powers competitiveness and growth across industries and business processes. Transactional data augmented with additional data sources generate what I call “new intelligence.”\nTake the retail industry for example. Retailers today can connect customers’ e-commerce records with social media activities and hyperlocal data to get the pulse of the neighborhood. Couple this with in-store, point-of-sale data as well as behavioral data from loyalty programs, we end up with an unbeatable, personalized consumer experience.\nNow, if you infused the newly gained consumer insights into intelligent assortment and supply chain processes, you would have a smart supply chain that constantly ensures the proper merchandise is in stock. Such a closed-loop value chain, which is driven by edge intelligence on consumer behavior and trend patterns, redefines the rulebook.\nThe Why: Love the Problem, Not the Technology\nThe possibilities of technology are incredibly exciting; however, technology is always a means, never an end destination. Lead with strategic direction and be clear on what you are targeting with data-driven innovations.\nAsk the following questions: What is the purpose of your digital transformation? Which growth opportunities can be captured through data and will lead your business into the future? Are you looking to gain competitive differentiation or pioneer digital data-driven services to establish a new source of revenue? From supply chain to manufacturing to serving your customer, how much friction is due to dispersed systems that aren’t harmonized and semantically integrated?\nThe How: Team and Customer Focus\nThe main challenge for data monetization is building a solid foundation for running a new, scalable and profitable data business. You overcome it by focusing on creating horizontally connected teams and putting customers first. Install small teams at the edge of the organization with a clear vision and strategy that aim to drive rapid business outcomes. Ensure that they’re horizontally connected to include a mix of talented outsiders and forward-thinking corporate veterans, who help keep the bonds with the core business and break down silos between core and edge teams.\nIn addition, ensure that customer experience is at the forefront of your business. The customer experience must be simple and frictionless despite the underlying complexity, where technology is invisible. We have developed a customer-centric approach using design thinking, a practice that focuses on feedback loops and iterative prototypes.\nThe What: Execution Strategy\nData-driven innovation does not happen by accident, it requires strategic focus and operational perseverance. Developing data applications is about building smart applications that focus on solving specific business problems, using new data insights to make predictions and prescribe and execute actions. Here are my four suggestions for building data-driven products.\n- Working with data – fairness matters: Reliable and high-quality data is a must-have. When enriched with other data sources and processed using with machine learning algorithms, the value of data increases immensely. Go for the infinite possibilities but temper with a dose of reality. Why? Not all data is created equal and being aware of bias in the data is crucial for understanding the extent of a model’s accuracy and avoiding shortcomings on algorithms and biased models.\n- Think transparency, no black box: Ensure model transparency and that algorithms remain accurate over time, meaning the reasoning behind a decision or recommendation can be explained at any time.\n- Build in circular learning loops: Data-driven applications operate on diverse data sources, combining analytical and operational data to predict and prescribe what to do next by providing transparency and relevant insights in the form of industry benchmarks and peer-to-peer comparisons. Simulation capabilities and recommended actions based on algorithms guide the user in the decision-making process. Incorporate user-generated behavioral data and improve recommendations by correlating interactions back to the source of data to close the loop.\n- Combine data and domain expertise: This is crucial because data-driven applications solve new problems in new ways by connecting the right data in a meaningful and contextualized way. The creation of value becomes much more problem-solving focused, providing solution for industries and for horizontal business functions like human resources, sales or finance. Use your domain expertise to find what problem to solve and let the data lead to new insights and signals. The best algorithms are the ones based on contextualized domain knowledge on processes in combination with data and behavior.\nGet your data to drive breakthrough business outcomes. Stay tuned for my next piece on discovering how data transforms the bimodal world of IT.\nHelen Arnold is president of the SAP Data Network.\nFollow Helen on Twitter: @arnold_ih, #SAPDataNetwork."}
{"content":"North St. Louis County partnership wins national health prize\nA community development effort spearheaded by the local nonprofit Beyond Housing is being recognized as a national leader for supporting better health outcomes.\nThe 24:1 initiative, a collaboration between the 24 north St. Louis County municipalities within the footprint of Normandy Schools, has been awarded the Culture of Health Prize by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.\nThe idea behind the Culture of Health Prize is to highlight communities that are having an impact so that their ideas can be replicated across the country. This year the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation awarded the prize to seven communities across the country, including 24:1.\nJulie Willems Van Dijk, the director of the Culture of Health Prize program, said 24:1 stood out because it crosses city boundaries to pool resources and invest in the wider region’s needs, and because it takes a comprehensive approach to health.\n“We’re always looking for communities that are truly looking at those who are at the greatest risk for poor health,” said Willems Van Dijk, who works at the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.\n“So the resilience and focus of this community on how important it was to secure the accreditation of their school district after they had lost it to make sure that their children were going to get a good education so that they would be able to get good employment and be successful in the future was very, very inspiring to us.”\nWillems Van Dijk highlighted the community health workers and family liaison workers in the schools, and the grocery store 24:1 put in an area that used to be a food desert.\nNormandy Superintendent Charles Pearson said the initiative is making a difference in the district by helping children come to school ready to learn.\n“We know that if children and families are healthier, that our children are going to attend school more frequently. We know that if our children are healthier we’re going to have better behavior in classrooms,” Pearson said. “We know that our attendance has improved, we know that instruction has been able to be improved. There are far, far fewer disruptions in classrooms. And I attribute all of that directly to the support that families are getting in the district as a result of this initiative.”\nWillems Van Dijk said winning the prize isn’t a sign that the work is done, but a recognition of the prize winner’s ongoing impact.\n“24:1 being selected as a prize winner is just a beginning on their journey towards a culture of health, not an end, because of the opportunity to continue to learn together,” Willems Van Dijk said. “For example, 24:1 has done this great job of formulating the North County Police (Cooperative) with shared resources. So if we came upon another community that was looking at consolidating police services, we might very well connect those communities one on one so they can dig in deeper and learn from each other.”\nPearson also acknowledged that there’s a lot that needs to be done at Normandy to improve educational outcomes.\n“We have a great deal of work we’re still doing, but we are excited about the progress. And a lot of that progress is owed to the support that partnerships like Beyond Housing offer us,” Pearson said.\nThe Culture of Health Prize comes with a small monetary reward: $25,000. But the bigger reward comes in the form of recognition, connection to resources, and the opportunity to swap ideas with other prize winners.\n“Our work and what we do is added to this great portfolio of ‘here’s how we can help make community stronger, here’s how we can look at the challenges that so many families and children are facing and provide an array of programmatic services and supports,” said Chris Krehmeyer, executive director of Beyond Housing.\n“We’re now part of this family of communities that is doing innovative things in many different ways all across the country,” Krehmeyer said. “It’s really wide and varied, so we’re trying to learn from each other and, again, trying to let others learn from us.”\nBoth Pearson and Krehmeyer said it was an affirmation to receive the Culture of Health Prize, a sentiment Willems Van Dijk said was common among prizewinners.\nOne of the things we’ve seen from a number of prizewinners is this acknowledgement, this pat on the back, being raised up as an example, can be very motivating to a community,” Willems Van Dijk said. “So much of the time communities are doing this hard work, and they are plodding along day by day and they don’t ever get a chance to stop and reflect both on how far they’ve come, or to realize that they are really doing incredible work.”\nFollow Camille on Twitter: @cmpcamille."}
{"content":"Ira Berlin, an American historian and author of The\nMaking of African America: The Four Great Migrations\nspoke at Vanderbilt University on April 16, 2010.\nTune in to VUCast,\nfor audio and video of events happening around campus. You can\nalso find VU podcasts on iTunes and\nVU videos on YouTube.\nThe lure of Hollywood is just as strong today as it was a\ncentury ago when motion picture production companies from New\nYork and New Jersey moved west to take advantage of the warm,\nsunny weather. Vanderbilt alumni have always had a presence in\nHollywood, from actress/singer Dinah Shore, BA’38, to\nOscar-winning director Delbert Mann, BA’41 (Marty),\nto Oscar-winning screenwriter Tom Schulman, BA’72 (Dead\nPoets Society), to Fred Thompson, JD’67, who played the\nfolksy district attorney on television’s Law and\nOrder before making a run for the presidency in 2008.\nIn the early days movie-making was much simpler: Actors,\nwriters, producers, directors, cameramen, editors, and muscle\nto move the equipment were just about all that was necessary\nto take a production from the back lot to the big screen.\nToday, with the advent of special effects, international\ndistribution, and as many cable channels as there are stars on\nthe Hollywood Walk of Fame, opportunities abound. Finding\nthem, however, can be tricky, and in Hollywood it’s not always\nwhat you know, but rather who you know.\nThat’s where Vandy-in-Hollywood—and Chad Gervich—come\nGervich knew from an early age that he wanted to work in\ntelevision and film and was surprised that Vanderbilt had few\naffiliations with the local entertainment business.\nRead more here."}
{"content":"Former ISRO scientist S Nambi Narayanan, who has a spying case against him, is still struggling to get justice. He was active in designing the structure used in Chandrayaan, Mangalyaan and PSLV that launched 104 satellites in one go last week and made headlines.\nNarayanan was in the Supreme Court to attend the hearing of his petition that sought action against those who allegedly imposed a false case against him. “There, they are using the same system that I worked upon and developed. But here, I am still fighting to get justice. I have wasted my 25 years,” Narayanan said just after the hearing in his case concluded.\nThe court has fixed February 23 to hear his petition.\nActually, Narayanan’s career was ruined following the 1994 ISRO spying case made headlines. However, he was given a clean chit after a CBI investigation held that the Kerala police had contrived the case against him.\nThe 75-year-old was detained after the Kerala police caught Mariam Rasheeda, a Maldivian woman on October 20, 1994. Initially, she was detained for overstaying in India; but police later accused her of being involved in a sex-spy scandal. It was alleged that Rasheeda was the midway between the ISRO and two other women.\nShe was accused of passing on ISRO’s secrets to the women, who sequentially delivered the same to Russia and Pakistan’s ISI. However, two years later, the CBI cleared all the accused and filed a closure report before the court.\nBut the case was re-opened for the probe after a change in the government. This time, the Kerala police was asked to hold a fresh investigation. But then, the Supreme Court suppressed the state government’s decision in 1998.\nThe Kerala high court in September 2012, ordered the state govt to pay Rs 10 lakh as temporary relief to the scientist. In October 2014, action was ordered against the misbehaving police officials.\nHowever, a division bench upturned the order in March 2015, after which Narayanan approached the Supreme Court. His complaint is that regardless of the CBI investigation indicting the police officers, the state has not taken any action against them."}
{"content":"Seoul: South Korea has shipped 539,000 doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine to the Philippines to help the Southeast Asian nation address its vaccine shortage, Seoul’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.\nAn airplane carrying the jabs departed from Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, earlier in the day and will arrive in the Philippines on the same day, the ministry said.\nSouth Korea has already shared coronavirus vaccine shots with three other countries — Vietnam, Thailand and Iran — as it has enough vaccines to inoculate its people and help other countries, Yonhap news agency reported.\nSo far, 80 per cent of South Korea’s population has been fully vaccinated.\nThe ministry said it hopes to contribute to the global fight against the pandemic via the programme and further bolster ties with the Philippines."}
{"content":"How much homeowners insurance do I need?\nWhen it comes to your home, making sure you’re adequately insured is of the utmost importance. Despite this, many homeowners are unaware of the 80% rule for home insurance and, as a result, find themselves underinsured when trying to replace their personal property after a loss. Understanding the 80% rule—and following it—can help you protect yourself and your home.\nHome Valuation Basics: Introducing the 80% Rule.\nThere are two valuation options available when purchasing insurance on your home. Typically, homeowners can elect to insure their home and personal property on an Actual Cash Value basis or at replacement cost. Actual Cash Value refers to the amount needed to repair or replace an item, minus depreciation (the decrease in the value of your home or personal property due to normal wear and tear). Replacement cost refers to the amount needed to repair or replace your damaged property with materials of similar kind and quality without deducting for depreciation.\nMost insurance companies require homeowners to purchase replacement cost coverage worth at least 80% of their home’s replacement cost in order to receive full coverage. For example, if you bought your home for $275,000, you would need to have insurance for at least $220,000 for the insurance company to fully cover any potential claims.\nMany homeowners follow the 80% rule when first purchasing their home but are unaware of the importance of adjusting their coverage to keep up with the changes inflation and home improvements can make to their home’s overall replacement cost. As a result, these homeowners are surprised after a disaster or loss when an insurance company doesn’t cover the total cost of replacing their home. Without having at least 80% of the replacement cost of your home insured, your insurance company may only pay the difference between 80% of the replacement cost of your home and the amount of coverage you purchased.\n80% Rule for Homeowners Insurance in Action.\nIllustrating the importance of updating your coverage.\nUsing the same example as above…\nLet’s say you purchased a house with a replacement cost valuation of $275,000 and then secured insurance for $220,000—or 80% of the replacement cost of your home. Then, you renovated your home, and these improvements significantly raised the replacement cost of your home to $350,000. For your insurance company to fully cover claims, you’d need to increase your insurance coverage to reflect 80% of the new replacement cost of your home, which would be $280,000 in this case. A storm causes $100,000 of damage to your home, but because you increased the amount of insurance on your home to $280,000, the insurance company covers the total cost of the repairs, minus your deductible.\nLet’s say you didn’t adjust your insurance coverage, so you only had $220,000 in coverage for your home that is now worth $350,000 to replace. Instead of having at least 80% of the new replacement cost of your home insured, which would be $280,000, you only have 62.86% of the total cost insured. In the event of a claim, the insurance company would divide the amount of coverage you purchased ($220,000) by 80% of the replacement cost of your home ($280,000) and only cover the difference between those two amounts. So, in the same scenario from above, instead of the insurance company paying the full $100,000 (minus your deductible) to repair the damage caused by the storm, they would only pay roughly $78,570, as the difference between the amount of insurance you purchased and the 80% replacement cost was 78.57%. You would then be responsible for paying the remaining $21,430 in repair costs, plus your deductible.\nAs you can see, failing to adjust the amount of insurance you have on your home to ensure you’re following the 80% rule can be extremely costly. Regularly reviewing your coverage amounts, especially after you’ve done home renovations, can help you make sure you’re properly covered, even if your home’s replacement cost increases.\nNow you know the importance of updating your coverage when your replacement cost changes. So now you need to know…\nWhat affects the replacement cost of my home?\nBecause the 80% rule for homeowners insurance is directly affected by any changes to your home’s replacement cost, it’s important to understand what can affect the replacement cost value of your home.\nWhile every policy varies, some of the most common things that affect your home’s replacement cost value are:\n- Square footage of your home\n- Home renovations and improvements (e.g., changing flooring, appliances and fixtures; updating a roof; or installing new windows)\n- Cost of replacing materials\n- Labor costs in the event repairs are needed\n- Value of interior and exterior components\nIt’s important to note that the market value of your home does not necessarily affect your home’s replacement cost. As such, things like curb appeal, the condition of your home and the value of comparable homes in your area may not affect your replacement cost value.\nKEY TAKEAWAYS: What Does 80 % Replacement Cost Mean When Insuring Your Home?\n- Under the 80% rule, an insurer will only fully cover the cost of damage to a house if the owner has purchased insurance coverage equal to at least 80% of the house’s replacement cost value.\n- The amount paid by the insurer will be proportional to the amount of coverage purchased, if that amount covers less than 80% of the replacement value.\n- A property’s value is affected by capital improvements, inflation, which then impacts the 80% rule and coverage requirement.\nBe sure to talk to a Noyes Insurance agent so you can understand what may affect the replacement cost value of your home under your policy.\nInvestopedia Answers : What Is the 80% Rule for Home Insurance?\nRelated Content : How Much Home Insurance Do I Need?\nReview Your Coverage and Compare Home Insurance Pricing: Get A Free New Hampshire Home Insurance Quote"}
{"content":"Recent advances in neuroscience suggest that a utility-like calculation is involved in how the brain makes choices, and that this calculation may use a computation known as divisive normalization. While this tells us how the brain makes choices, it is not immediately evident why the brain uses this computation or exactly what behavior is consistent with it. In this paper, we address both of these questions by proving a three-way equivalence theorem between the normalization model, an information-processing model, and an axiomatic characterization. The information-processing model views behavior as optimally balancing the expected value of the chosen object against the entropic cost of reducing stochasticity in choice. This provides an optimality rationale for why the brain may have evolved to use normalization-type models. The axiomatic characterization gives a set of testable behavioral statements equivalent to the normalization model. This answers what behavior arises from normalization. Our equivalence result unifies these three models into a single theory that answers the “how”, “why”, and “what” of choice behavior.\nASJC Scopus subject areas\n- Economics and Econometrics\n- Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management"}
{"content":"A sketch of the creatures\nThe Medford Shmoo sighting, also known as the Medford Smoo sighting, is a bizarre extraterrestrial sighting that took place during the summer of 1953 in Medford, Oregon.\nIt is known for appearing in the April-May 1984 issue of the CUFOS Associate Newsletter (Center for UFO Studies). There were three witnesses to the case: a mother, a father, and a 12-year-old girl.\n\"They were white with 'very smooth satiny fur' and were shaped somewhat like peanuts. They lacked any features like arms, legs, wings, or beaks. They glided, in a sideways motion at first, then straight away from them till they disappeared into a wooded area. The last of the three was slightly smaller than the other two.\" (reall.com)\n- The creatures were shaped like Smoos in the old Lil’ Abner comic strip, but bigger."}
{"content":"In the early decades of the 1900s when racial segregation was the norm, almost 400 schools were built in rural Alabama to serve as educational facilities for African American children.\nThese were known as the Rosenwald Schools and, between 1912-32, they made it possible for African American children to obtain a formal education in a time when doing so would otherwise be nearly an impossibility.\nToday, these schools are quickly fading, and a team of researchers from Auburn University’s College of Architecture, Design and Construction is working to digitally preserve and bring attention to the disappearing Rosenwald Schools. Funded by grants from their college, the university’s inaugural Creative Work and Social Impact Scholarship Funding Program and the McWhorter Fund for Excellence, Junshan Liu, Bob Aderholdt Endowed associate professor in the McWhorter School of Building Science, and Gorham Bird, visiting assistant professor in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture, have begun their initial work to digitally document and re-construct four of these schools.\nUsing the latest digital documentation technology, their end product includes digital Building Information Models, or BIMs, 3D-printed physical models, as-built drawings and online virtual tours of these historic buildings. Their work will be presented through exhibitions to engage the public in civil rights history, teach emerging technologies and promote historical preservation.\n“We started last summer,” Bird said. “It is now approaching 100 years since many of these schools were built. It is estimated that 10-12 percent of the original schools remain. Most are falling apart, and there is a pressing need to document and preserve them before they are gone.”\nAccording to the research team, the first six schools in Alabama were built in Lee, Macon and Montgomery counties. The first Rosenwald School was built in Loachapoka in 1914.\nIn 1917, Julius Rosenwald expanded the project and established the Rosenwald Fund to oversee the establishment of new rural schools. Until 1920, the projects were managed by Tuskegee Institute and designed by Tuskegee architecture faculty Robert R. Taylor and W.A. Hazel. Starting in 1920, management of new schools was taken on by an independent Rosenwald Fund office located in Nashville, Tennessee, and the design of the schools became the responsibility of Samuel L. Smith, a white architect.\n“Historic preservation has always been a part of my academic interest,” Bird said. “These schools advanced rural African American education beyond any other system, and they have maintained an impressive community impact. In fact, some alumni still hold reunions to this day.\n“Economists have attributed the Rosenwald Schools for creating the African American middle class. Despite the inequities that existed in the Jim Crow South, the remaining Rosenwald Schools serve as a testament to the self-determination and resilience of the communities that worked to build them. This legacy cannot be lost to time.”\nLiu leads the digital effort of the project using drones, LiDAR scanners—a system that uses laser to capture dimensional data of an object—360-degree photography, photogrammetry and other digital-based technologies to document and develop intelligent BIM models of these structures.\n“We will ultimately create a digital and physical archive of these schools as historic sites that can be shared through exhibits to teach students and others,” Liu said.\nWorking with partners at the Alabama Historical Commission, or AHC, the project team has identified four Rosenwald Schools in Alabama for this initial work.\nThe four Alabama schools are geographically diverse, include different models of building type, and condition. The team plans to use this sample of schools to test and perfect the approach for documentation and presentation, in anticipation of seeking more external funds to map, document and preserve the remaining schools in the state and the South.\n“The AHC has long wanted to document the remaining Rosenwald Schools,” Bird said. “This project is very much in line with their goals.”\nThe team has identified sites that are on the National Register of Historic Places that include:\n- New Hope School, Chambers County, 1915. One-teacher school type;\n- Mount Sinai School, Autauga County, 1919. Two-teacher school type;\n- Oak Grove School, Hale County, 1921. Two-teacher school type;\n- Tankersley School, Montgomery County, 1922. Three-teacher school type.\n“The benefits of this workflow include the expedience of documentation and level of detail and accuracy,” Liu adds. “These benefits allow for a greater number of Rosenwald Schools to be digitally recorded in a shorter period of time with a very high degree of quality.”\nThe research team has completed a pilot test of documentation through a field survey of one of the Rosenwald Schools, the New Hope School in Chambers County. Three-dimensional LiDAR scanning and aerial photogrammetry was used to develop a digital 3D BIM.\nThe team also has uncovered archival materials, including the original design documents, through interviews with the president of the New Hope Foundation. An example virtual tour of the Tankersley Rosenwald School in Montgomery County illustrates the pressing need for intervention and preservation of these schools.\nThe project’s first phase including all four schools is expected to be completed in spring 2023, Bird said.\nThe New Hope School in Chambers County is one of 400 Rosenwald Schools built between 1912-32 to serve as educational facilities for African American children. A team of Auburn University professors from the College of Architecture, Design and Construction is working to digitally preserve and bring attention to the disappearing schools.\nUsing the latest digital documentation technology, a team of Auburn University researchers is digitally documenting Rosenwald Schools throughout Alabama using Building Information Models, or BIMs, 3D-printed physical models, as-built drawings and online virtual tours of these historic buildings.\nThe Tankersley School in Montgomery County was constructed as a Rosenwald Schools project in 1922 and is one of the structures Auburn University researchers are working to preserve.\nAn Auburn University research team that includes faculty and students from the College of Architecture, Design and Construction, shown here at the Tankersley School in Montgomery County, is dedicated to preserving several of the 400 Rosenwald Schools that were constructed for African American schoolchildren between 1912-32.\nThe Loachapoka School was the first Rosenwald School constructed and was dedicated in 1914. In 1917, Julius Rosenwald expanded the project and established the Rosenwald Fund to oversee the establishment of new rural schools.\nBy using LiDAR scanners—a system that uses laser to capture dimensional data of an object—360-degree photography, photogrammetry, drones and other digital-based technologies, researchers are documenting and developing intelligent Building Information Models, or BIMs, of the Rosenwald School structures, including here in New Hope, Alabama."}
{"content":"If you've got kids (or take care of kids), you know it can be a challenge to keep them entertained when out at places like a restaurant. If you're trying to avoid giving kids an iPad to keep them occupied while waiting for a meal, we're fans of making and bringing a busy bag for them. So today, we're showing you how to make a busy bags for kids! They're filled with a few favorite things to keep little hands and minds busy while you're out and about. Here are two options that we love for a both baby and a toddler. We even have a simple DIY to make the bag extra colorful and fun. Check it out…\n1. Cut uneven strips of the vinyl.\n2. Peel and stick the vinyl to the front of the pouch.\nFor a Baby (3 months to 1 year) — We filled this busy bag with a few toys and a book to keep little ones busy while out and about. At this age, they stick anything and everything in their mouths, so we added a variety of teething toys with different shapes and textures to keep them occupied. We also included some rings because they're a great way to attach toys to a highchair or stroller so things don't fall on the floor, get filthy, or get lost under another table. The book we have here is a favorite because it's INDESTRUCTIBLE. Seriously. You can even wash it, and it won't rip!\nFor A Toddler (ages 2-5) — If your child is a little older, here's a busy bag for toddlers! Because they're learning more and more each day, we like to include a wider variety of things for them to play with. These little animals are puzzle erasers and can keep kiddos busy for HOURS. You can take them apart, put them back together, even mix-and-match. If your kid loves crafting, these child-friendly scissors are great to have on hand so kids can make their own creations anywhere, anytime. These scissors ONLY cut paper, so you don't have to worry about any boo-boos (they won't even cut hair!). Dimensional puzzle pieces make building fun and great for siblings to play with together. We also threw in some stamps with black and white ink so kids can create their own pictures and then color them in. Lastly, we love including an educational piece, so we added these fun flash cards that have different numbers, shapes, and colors on them.\nAs your kids get older, you can change and evolve your busy bag for them based on their age and interests. Do YOU have a busy bag that you keep for your kid to take with you on-the-go? Comment below and tell me what you include in yours!"}
{"content":"The next day we checked the places to be visited in Badami. There were few locations that were near and far by - Banashankari Temple, Mahakuta, Pattadakal, Aihole. The Banashankari and Mahakuta temple were offway to Pattadakal, which was our priority. Pattadakal houses several temples in a single location whereas Aihole was the school of architecture where the prototypes of temples (that were built later time & several locations) were made. Since I always prefer the local public transport for commuting, we enquired about the bus service in the Badami bus stand. A conductor suggested to take the bus 738 for reaching Pattadakal. With my basic alphabet knowledge I read the bus board written in Kannada as \"Koodala Sangama\".\nWe got into the bus and the conductor said that this bus doesn't go to Pattadakal, but he suggested that he'll drop us in the near by stop called as \"Sai Baba Mandir\" and we can walk from there. The bus took almost an 45 minutes and visited all the villages that fall in the way. Atlast when the bus was nearing the Sai Baba temple, we could see the temples of Pattadakal complex in the distance. A fellow passenger suggested to continue travelling in the bus to Aihole, see those temples first and visit the Pattadakal temples while returning. But the bus we went was not going via Aihole, so that suggestion was scrapped.\nWe got down at the Sai Baba Mandi stop and from that location, the temple complex was about 1 km away. Aihole complex was 12 kms away. We started walking towards the Pattadakal complex.\nPattadakal Complex is a place for celebrating the victories and coronation for Chalukyas. There are many temples built to commensurate the victories and the occassions. Totally there are 10 temples and various small shrines in the same complex. Here I learnt about the styles of the \"Gopuram\". They are \"Dravidan Style\" which is typically South Indian consisting of multiple descending levels towards the height with a huge stone at the top, the next one being \"Nagara Style\" which is typically north Indian which consists of curvilinear structure and there is Rekhaprasada style which is a mix of these. So in this complex 4 temples are in Dravida style, 4 in Nagara style, 1 in Rekhaprasada style and one in Jain style.\nThe following are the temples in Pattadakal complex and I had taken the text from Wikipedia.\nVirupaksha temple is the largest and grandest of all temples in Pattadakal built in 8th Century, built by Queen Lokamahadevi (Trilokyamahadevi)in 745 to commemorate her husband's victory (Vikramaditya II) over the Pallavas of Kanchi. The Virupaksha temple is rich in sculptures like those of Lingodbhava, Nataraja, Ravananugraha and Ugranarasimha. Virupaksha is the earliest dated temple with the sukanasika, being closely followed by the Mallikarjuna temple. The biggest temple in Pattadakal is Virupaksha, enclosed by a large prakara. According to an inscription, the temple was built by Lokamahadevi, the consort of Vikramaditya to commemorate his three victories over the Pallavas and occupation of Kanchi. Its original name was Lokeshvara or Lokapaleshvara. This was perhaps built in about first half of the 8th century. This temple has a sanctum, an inner passage, pillared navaranga and triple entrances from the north, east and the south porches. It has a massive gateway in front from the east and a small gate behind. There are inscriptions and imposing stone carved figures inside the stone mantapa. A little inside is the four-pillared Nandimantapa, which has a fine large stone bull. The sanctum has a circuit path and installed on the square pedestal, a black Shivalinga. The famous Kailasa temple at Ellora was built on the model of the Virupaksha temple here. The Kailasantha temple at Ellora was built based on the model of Virupaksha temple. The architect of the temple was given the title as Tribhuvanacharya.\nSangameshwara Temple (was called Vijayewara) is oldest temple in Pattadakal, built by Chalukya King Vijayaditya Satyashraya ( 696-733), it has no sukanasika. The temple is in Dravidian style perhaps the oldest among the temples and it consists of a Sanctum, Inner passage and navaranga. The sanctum and inner passage are enclosed by a path way for pradakshina, which has several lattices of different design, sculptured on the outer walls various figures like Ugranarasimha and Nataraja. Both the Sangamesvara temple and the Virupaksha temple are similar to each other in being square on plan from the base to sikhara. The main vimana is of three storeys. The lowermost storey is surrounded by two walls. The second storey being an upward projection of the inner wall. While the outer wall encloses the covered circumambulatory round the sanctum. The navaranga has 20 pillars in four rows. Its exterior walls have stone carved figures. The sanctum has a Dravidian tower. According to an inscription in Kannada dated 1162, it was built by the Early Chalukya king Vijayaditya and was named Vijayeshvara.\nTo the left of the Sangameshvara is the small Chandrashekhara temple. Its architectural style is very simple, without any idols or fragile carvings. This small shrine consists of sanctum with a Shivalinga and a small hall. Only one idol of doorkeeper remains now.\nMallikarjuna Temple is a smaller version of the Virupaksha temple and was built by Vikramadiyta's second queen Trilokyamahadevi in 745. This temple is also was constructed by Rani Trilokyamahadevi to celebrate the victory (by Vikramaditya II) over the Pallavas. The Mallikarjuna temple was built immediately after and close to the Virupaksha temple (It has a similar plan), with a 4 storeyed vimana with a circular griva and sikhara. Mallikarjuna temple in Dravidian style. To the north of the Virupaksha temple lies the Mallikarjuna which was formerly known as Trailokeshvara. It is in close proximity with the Sanghameshvara temple in design, construction and sculpture, but smaller in size. The porch has a beautiful image of Narasimha killing Hiranyakashipu and two female idols. Here are two grand images on both the sides of the entrance to the navaranga. The eighteen pillars of the navaranga have figures pertaining to Ramayana, Mahabharatha and those representing social conditions of those days. On the ceiling are beautiful figures of Gajalakshmi and Shiva-Parvathi with Nandi. On the external walls are sculptures like Shiva, Nandi, Lakulisha, Nataraja, etc. This temple was built by Trailokya Mahadevi, the queen of Vikramaditya II.'\nKasivisvesvara temple was the last to be built in early Chalukya style. This temple was built by the Rashtrakutas in the 8th century. Kashi Vishwanatha temple in Nagara style To the north of the Mallikarjuna temple is the temple of Kashivishveshvara of which only the sanctum and a passage is left. On the pillars of the inner passage, female figures are engraved in high relief. On the ceiling, Somaskanda is represented. Its sanctum has a rekhanagara tower. The structure is presumably of the 8th century.\nGalaganatha temple was built a century later in the architecture style of Rekha Nagara Prasada. Temple contains a sculpture of Lord Shiva killing the demon Andhakasura. Galaganatha Temple lies to the north of the Virupaksha and faces the west. It has a navaranga, shukanasa and the sanctum with a linga. Around the sanctum is the circuit path way. In several niches are small figures of Kubera, Gajalakshmi and others. On the external wall niche of the circuit path way is a fine figure of Shiva. The rekhanagara style tower over the temple is very fine. It seems to have been constructed during the first half of the 8th century.\nKadasiddhesvara and Jambulingeswara temples\nKadasiddhesvara and Jambulingeswara temples both attributed to 7th century. Kadasiddeshvara temple which has a sculpture of Shiva holding a Trident or Trishul in his hands and its twin temple, the Jambulinga Temple are all built in Nagara style and resemble the Hucchimalli' Guddi at Aihole.\nBehind the Galaganatha temple is the shrine of Jambulinga. It has a sanctum with a shukanasa and a navaranga. At the doorway of the shukanasa are idols of Shiva’s guards Nandi and Virabhadra. In the shrine is the linga. The outer wall niches of the sancyum have idols of Shiva (Lakulisha) and Vishnu. It has a small rekhanagara tower.\nTo the north, Very close to the jambulinga shrine, is the shrine of Kadasiddheshvara. In size and architecture it is similar to that of Jambulinga. There are several well executed idols of Shiva, Parvathi and Vishnu and other divinities on the outer wall.\nJain Narayana temple built by the Rashtrakuta dynasty at Pattadakal\nJain Temple located on the Pattadakal-Badami Road, is built in the Dravidian style by the Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta. It has some very beautiful sculptures & probably dates from the 9th century and was built by either King Amoghavarsha I or his son Krishna II. It consists of a mukhamantapa, a navaranga, shukanasa and garbhagriha. Its construction may be of the 9th century.\nPapanatha temple at Pattadakal\nPapanatha temple is built in the vesara style dated to 680. The temple was started in nagara style but later changed to a more balanced Dravidian style. Sculptures here speak of scenes from Ramayana and Mahabharatha. This temple has many similarities with the Navabrahma temples in Alampur, Andhra Pradesh, which were also built by Badami Chalukyas. Papanatha Temple is located to the south of the Virupaksha has a portico, main hall, big antechamber and the sanctum with encircled path way. At the doorway of the inner hall are idols of door-keepers, Nandi and Virabhadra. There are 16 pillars in the main hall, which have fine figures of couples and carved figures of females. The ceiling has impressive figures of Shiva-Parvathi with Vishnu and the gandharvas. To the north-west, on the wall is a notable figure of a royal court. Amorous couples and decorative carvings are found in several parts of the temple. On the external walls are figures of lion and elephant riders and Ramayana scenes. The temple appears to have built in stages. The sanctum has a rekhanagara tower. The temple appears to have built in 680.\nIn the photo album attached with this article, I would like to specially mention few sculptures. In the Sangameswara temple, there was this Bheeshma being laid on bed of arrows sculpture. Since Sangameshwara temple is about war and victory, this temple has lot of sculptures about war. In the ceiling panel we have a beautiful sculpture of Lord Sun with his 2 wives and other Gods. In one of the temple we had this Ravana trying to lift Mount Kailasa and in the other panel we had this Jatayu fighting with Ravana to stop kidnapping of Sita.\nOnce we are done with the temples, we wanted to return to room and take rest. We were waiting for bus near the temple itself. One of the shopkeeper advised us to walk towards the Pattadakal village bus stand where we can get bus / share vans for Badami. We walked to the Pattadakal bus stand and got into a share van. It was a typical village journey and had we waited for a couple of minutes more, we could have got into the bus itself which was literally vacant. After an hour of tortuous journey, we returned to room and slept for the remaining half of the day.\nWe started by 6:30 p.m from Badami in a share auto and reached the railway station by 6:45 p.m and got into the train by 7:45 p.m after a couple of delay announcements. Next morning we landed in Bangalore after experiencing the Chalukyan trails. Ofcourse we missed the Mahakuta, Banashankari temple and Aihole this time, but better luck next time.\nThis time it was hot even though we went in the right season. A photo of Bhoothanath temple with Agasthya lake filled and water levels upto the shrine was just haunting. So I am planning to visit Badami during rainy season to see its other facet. Let me see how it turns out...!!!"}
{"content":"Non-invasive saliva tests will also be provided as an alternative to nasal swabs at three Ontario hospitals\nThe Ontario government will expand COVID-19 testing to pharmacies starting Friday, Premier Doug Ford said at a press conference today. These tests will hopefully relieve some of the pressure from testing sites across the province, Ford said.\nUp to 60 pharmacies across the province will be providing testing to asymptomatic people as well, Minister of Health Christine Elliott said during the conference. These tests will be available for free but by appointment only.\nPharmacies will pre-screen people before they enter to make sure they don’t have any symptoms.\n“If you’re showing severe symptoms, do not come (to a pharmacy). I repeat, do not come to a pharmacist, go to a local testing area,” Ford said.\nFord also announced that three hospitals in Ontario will be providing saliva tests as non-invasive testing options. They are Mount Sinai Hospital, Women’s College Hospital and the University Health Network. The government will also work to expand non-invasive options for COVID-19 tests to more hospitals, pharmacies and test sites, Ford said.\nCurrent COVID-19 testing involves inserting a long swab, called a nasopharyngeal swab, into the nostril and towards the back of the throat. Ford urged Health Canada to approve saliva tests so they can be provided to more hospitals in the province.\n“Health Canada, we need your help. I just can’t stress this enough. All I’m hearing is crickets from Health Canada right now on the saliva tests. These types of tests make it easier to test people, especially kids,” Ford said.\nToday’s announcement is the second of six pillars in the province’s Keeping Ontarians Safe fall preparedness plan. It comes after reports of long wait times at COVID-19 testing sites across the province. The rest of the province’s fall preparedness plan is expected to be unveiled in the next few days."}
{"content":"Simple tips to Write Argumentative Essays\nArgumentative essay writing requires this 1 is ready to persuade reasonable visitors that their argument or position has merit. The skill of argumentation just isn’t a effortless ability to obtain. it really is a very important factor to possess an impression and another in order to argue it effectively.\nWhat exactly is an Argumentative Essay?\nAn argumentative essay is a genre of writing that aims at investigating a concern, using a get up on a concern, creating and assessing a variety of proof in a logical way to aid the overall claim. A disagreement essay is consequently supposed to persuade individuals to think the in an identical way you do i.e. persuading your reader to concur with the writer’s point of view.\nWhile making a disagreement in educational writing, we aim at expressing a true professional bloggers for hire point of look at an interest and supporting it with logical proof. All of us use arguments at some point in our routines that are daily and also you most likely involve some knowledge at crafting a disagreement. The arguments that are verbal sometimes take part in may become unreasonable and heated losing the main focus. The purpose of an argumentative essay, nevertheless, is very the exact opposite due to the fact argument has got to be certain, reasoned, detailed and supported with evidence.\nArgumentative Essays by Privatewriting.com\nWe provide high class argumentative essays, compiled by industry’s top professionals. Continue reading “Argument Essay”"}
{"content":"Synaptic is a graphical package management program for apt. It provides the same features as the apt-get command line utility with a GUI front-end based on Gtk+.\n* Install, remove, upgrade and downgrade single and multiple packages.\n* Upgrade your whole system.\n* Manage package\n... [More] repositories (sources.list).\n* Find packages by name, description and several other attributes.\n* Select packages by status, section, name or a custom filter.\n* Sort packages by name, status, size or version.\n* Browse all available online documentation related to a package.\n* Download the latest changelog of a package.\n* Lock packages to the current version.\n* Force the installation of a specifc package version.\n* Undo/Redo of selections. [Less]\nChocolatey is software management automation for Windows.\nChoco is the CLI for Chocolatey\nChocolatey works with 20+ native install types, but it can manage things you would normally xcopy deploy. You can work w/registry settings, managing files & configurations, or any combination. Since it\n... [More] uses PowerShell, if you can dream it, you can do it w/Chocolatey.\nBuilds on familiar technologies:\n* Unattended installs\nWe didn't try to reinvent the wheel. We are building on technologies you know, technologies you may have been using for years. With those familiar technologies Chocolatey brings the concepts of package management to allow you to version things, manage dependencies and installation order, better inventory management, and other features. [Less]\nAn (Arch Linux) pacman-like package manager for some Linux distributions.\nActually this Bash script provides a wrapper for system's package manager.\nInstead of remembering various options/tools on different OSs, you only need a common way to manipulate packages. Not all options of the native\n... [More] package manager are ported; the tool only provides a very basic interface to search, install, remove packages, and/or update the system. [Less]\nmrepo builds a local APT/Yum RPM repository from local ISO files, downloaded updates, and extra packages from 3rd party repositories. It takes care of setting up the ISO files, downloading the RPMs, configuring HTTP access and providing PXE/TFTP resources for remote network installations.\nSkinny Update Manager is a lightweight update manager for Debian and Debian-based distributions. It does not create new daemons nor does it have any GNOME, KDE, or Xfce dependencies apart from gnome-icon-theme.\nLiquidStart aims to allow Linux users (currently, Debian/Ubuntu) to create entries for each of the host computers they maintain, where they can add general components (i.e. MySQL Database, PHP Development Tools etc.) to each hosts profile. The engine can then generate a correct \"apt-get\" or\n... [More] \"aptitude\" style command line for quick and simple \"copy-and-paste\" action, to install all required packages on the host after a fresh install.\nThe ability to upload a system generated package list and have the engine analyse and produce a component profile is also envisaged once the initial application requirements have been achieved. [Less]"}
{"content":"View in Perth Park, Perth, Western Australia\n|Collections||Intercolonial Investment, Land & Building Company Limited|\nA picture of four people in a park with in the background a view of Perth and the Swan River. A woman and two girls sit on the bench surround of a small building while a boy stands in the entrance. The pavilion is an unglazed octagonal timber structure with openings on either side. It has a tiled roof and decorative wood trim around the eaves. The surrounding trees include gum trees and casuarinas, and there has been a recent planting of a large leafed plant in the triangular plot near the pavilion. The pavilion may be the structure described as a tea house on an early twentieth century map. Perth Park was re-named Kings Park in 1901 in honour of the accession of King Edward VII.\n|Location:||Perth Park (Kings Park), Perth, Western Australia|\nPerth, Western Australia.\nItems in Open Research are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated."}
{"content":"Commercial doors are generally expensive. The best someone may need to get value from it when it serves for long periods. However, this quest depends on many factors, such as the door’s material and maintenance plans.\nRegardless of the size and type of a business entity, a regular maintenance plan for the doors is essential. This is true and highly necessary for cases where the door is ever in constant use, for example, a garage door for a car service company. Maintenance for a commercial door spans an array of plans and techniques, some of which someone can do by themself, and others are reserved for experts. Either way, an excellent maintenance program comes with plenty of benefits.\nSaving on Costs on Repair\nEmergency repair services and any other damage repairs can be expensive. This is truer in cases of constant repair needs that never seem to end. Even the richest business person on earth will never throw money on endless repairs now and then. That is why maintenance is a secure way to avoid this draining experience. A routine maintenance plan will surely detect and solve any issue before it gets out of hand that could otherwise attract high repair costs. The basic point is that maintenance is way cheaper than repairs and, arguably, is life and money-saving plan.\nPeace of Mind\nAny business owner will avoid one issue at all costs is spending on emergency repair services. These instances’ urgency can drain someone off the little saving they had and end up being stressed. With a maintenance plan, life gets easy with stress-free operations knowing that someone takes care of the door. Abrupt and untimely door collapse can drain someone off the time, money, and energy to handle it, and these are what maintenance works to solve.\nValue for Money\nUndoubtedly, maintenance plans work to solve many issues. One of them is the assurance of getting a valuable return on the investment. Yes, commercial doors are lifetime investments because they are very expensive and can take up all the savings. Constant check-ups on the door will ensure it serves you longer, even beyond the expectation of the set timeline. When the owner finally decides to buy on plans, the buyer will find the door in good condition and likely to pay the amount without debates.\nUltimate Constant Security and Safety\nA commercial premise handles many people now and then. Since everyone uses the door, keeping it safe is only logical as it sounds. Avoiding liability cases when the door hits someone or does the unthinkable to clients is the end goal here. Regular maintenance will ensure the door is functional and does not pose any threat to anyone in any way.\nWhen it comes to security, a commercial premise is a den of many valuables. A door that fails at odd hours poses risks to the property and other valuables within. Constant maintenance will ensure that business owners avoid security risks to the business in the long end."}
{"content":"Search through our library of courses, select a category you might be interested in, use the search bar, or filter options on the left side of the page.\nLet’s explore how Microsoft can improve the quality of your project-based learning activities and promote critical thinking, communication, and collaboration in your classroom. In this course, we'll cover how to use Microsoft’s free tools to promote the key elements of project-based learning (PBL), such as research, gathering & analyzing feedback, and presenting knowledge.\nLunar New Year is around the corner. Celebrated in various Asian countries and based on the Chinese lunisolar calendar, this holiday is a time of bright colors, renewal, and joy. To celebrate we are building a Lunar New Year lantern. Help your students celebrate or learn about the holiday while teaching engineering skills with a lantern of their own!\nAre your students having trouble paying attention, coping with change, or difficulty expressing their emotions? There are many layers of mindfulness that you might not know of. Join us as we share ways you can help your middle or high school students build flexibility and emotional toolkits. With these activities, your student will be well on their way to becoming mindful individuals capable of dealing with emotional challenges to be fully present and aware of whats happening in your lesson.\nWhen students create infographics, they are using information, visual, and technology literacies. When teachers create infographics, they can spark classroom debates, gamify the activity, or provide aid for a difficult concept. Infographics can make wonderful study guides, but what happens when students can't understand what they mean? Join the Curriculum Specialists as we dissect these graphically designed tools and learn how to develop assessments where students create their own visual representations of data which will help students successfully showcase their mastery of knowledge.\nDo you find your students drifting away to a dream land during the day? Students have a limited attention span and getting students to refocus once they start day dreaming can be hard. Join our Curriculum Specialists as we explore some activities for mindfulness to help your students be fully present and aware of what is happening in your lesson.\nWe’re sorry, no results were found. Maybe try searching a different term.\nHave an immediate question? Contact us directly at 1-844-414-1851\nDigital Online Certifications\nBelow are some popular Digital Teacher Certifications that are available as a series of online courses. Click on a logo to start your certification track today!"}
{"content":"Dr. Eleanor McGlinchey is an Assistant Professor in the School of Psychology at Fairleigh Dickinson University with a research appointment in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center. She has been studying the emotional consequences of poor sleep for over 15 years. Dr. McGlinchey’s current approach to studying sleep is in the context of adolescent depression and anxiety. This work is important and timely, given hers and others’ recent work indicating that the risk of depression is increased by sleep difficulties and sleep complaints are the most common chronic symptom among depressed adolescents. Dr. McGlinchey hopes to begin to characterize specific aspects of sleep, including biological, psychological, interpersonal and socio-cultural markers that may eventually be used to help direct children and adolescents to the best treatment options for their specific symptom profile. This work would have the potential to produce important treatment implications for children and adolescents struggling with mental health difficulties and would aim to provide more rest to youth who are deprived of quality sleep."}
{"content":"Panchayat:Repo18/Law Manual Page0315\nHence, if an entrepreneur produces sufficient positive certification from the competent authorities, then the Panchayat/President is liable to act on the same and issue the permission/licence unless bound by valid policy reasons. - Action Council v. Benny Abraham - 2001 (2) KLT 690 : 2001 (2) KLJ 120. [1996 (2) KLT 719 - Clarified. AIR 1952 SC 17 - Referred to.] [Reversed in 2002 (2) KLT 228 SC).\n- Application for license to put up a building to start a S.S.I. unit - No reference to Town Planning Dept. is required - Certified by the Green Channel Committee as a non-polluting unit - No notification under S: 232 issued by the Panchayat - Application to be accepted or rejected within the deadline fixed under S. 233(3) of the Act.- N.S.S. Karayogam, Mevelloor v. Velloor Grama Panchayat - 2001 (3) KLT SN 58 P. 43\n- Prosecution for failure to take a licence – Court where prosecution is launched if competent to sit in judgment over validity of bye-laws prescribing the licence and fee - Question of quid pro quo if can be agitated - Panchayat if to prove that special services are rendered to licences - The Court where the prosecution is launched is not called upon to sit in judgement over the validity of the bye-laws prescribing the licence and the fee for the same. If the accused had any idea to question the imposition of licence fee, or the notification insisting on his taking a licence for conducting the tile factory in the area specified therein, he ought to have challenged the bye-laws made by the Panchayat in accordance with the provisions of the Act before the authorities constituted for the said purpose. The question of quid pro quo is not a matter to be agitated before the court where the owner of the tile factory is prosecuted for his failure to take the licence. For sustaining the imposition of licence fee it is net n to prove that special services are rendered to the licensees. If the licences are getting the general services from the Panchayat, which fact is not disputed, then the imposition of the fee has to be sustained. - Kodakara Panchayat v. Sukumaran - 1986 KLT 618 : 1986 KLJ 458.\n- Ss.96 & 110 [corresponding to S.232 & S.237 of the Panchayat Raj Act, 1994]– Ration shops er Kerala Rationing Order, 1966 - Not exempted from taking licence under S.110 – The building is under the control of the ration shop dealer and is in no way under the occupation or control of the State Government. The fact that the officials of the State Government have got authority to come and inspect the ration shop does not in any way mean that they have got control over the place of business. Therefore, the ration shops, where the respondents are doing their business are not exempted under S.110 of the Act. - Executive Officer, Atholi Panchayat v. Sreedharan - 1987 (2) KLT 698 : 1987 (2) KLJ 1416.\n- Application for licence in respect of a dangerous and offensive trade - Rules not speaking of prohibitory distance - Prescribed form requiring specification of distance - Not to be deemed as prohibitory rule based on distance - Constitution of India, Art.226 - It is true that the Kerala Panchayats (Licensing of Dangerous and Offensive Trades and Factories) Rules, 1963, do not prescribe that a dangerous and offensive trade should be conducted only beyond a particular distance from any residential building. The application form prescribed is part of the rules. The particulars to be furnished are thus on the basis of those rules. The rules enjoin that the licensing authority has to take into consideration several factors and then decide whether the license should be granted or not. The facts furnished in the application have necessarily to guide the authority in the exercise of its discretion, These particulars can have no greater sanctity. It cannot be said that any matter for which a separate column is provided in the application automatically enshrines a statutory prohibition. The particulars directed to be furnished by the applicant thus cannot be deemed to be any prohibitory rule based on distance. When the rules speak of no prohibitory distance, a prohibition cannot be implied from the contents of the application or the particulars to be furnished therein. It follows that when there is no express rule prohibiting the installation of a stone crushing unit within a particular distance of a residential building, the Government was wrong in stating that a distance rule prevented the grant of a licence. The nuisance caused by the working of a 30 H.P. Engine to crush stones is a legal injury to the neighboring residents. If the Government feel that the residents in the neighborhood within 225 feet or 100 meters have to be protected, this court will not exercise its jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution without being unmindful of the injustice that is likely to be caused. – Ibrahimkutty v. State of Kerala - 1986 KLT 830: 1986 KLJ 680.\n- Object of – Issue of license for installation of factory - Requirements - Government order relaxing the provision contrary to it – is illegal - It is clear from the statutory provisions contained in Rule 12(4) (b) and (c) of the Rules that they are intended to ensure the health of the citizens in the locality as also their safety having regard to possible fire hazards. There is no provision entitling the Government to relax these provisions. That being the position the State ought to take every possible step to ensure that the statutory provisions bearing on the subject intended for ensuring safety of the citizens are strictly obeyed and complied with. - Aboobacker v. State of Kerala - 1988 (1) KLT 232: AIR 1988 Ker 242: ILR 1988 (2) Ker 59."}
{"content":"Peekaboo Pour Nous (Peekaboo For Us) inspires us to live the simple truths, in order to embrace our journey and celebrate life to the fullest.\nCelebrate Life Everyday: Do-overs Don’t Exist\n1. Appreciate and Live in the Present.\n2. Live with Humility. Treat Others with Respect and Kindness.\n3. Keep a Sense of Humor. Laugh and Smile More, Especially at Yourself.\n4. Forgive Quickly. Allow Yourself and Others to make Mistakes in order to Grow.\n5. Give Generously and Give Back Often.\nPeekaboo Pour Nous… A Celebration of Life amongst the FAMILY we choose."}
{"content":"have always fascinated me\nthat is the way I see the world\nand the way the world sees me\nStretching across our world,\ncatching so many brave souls,\nMay we never forget those precious lives,\nMay we always celebrate their gentle spirits.\nWhen the Cold War ended, the whole world celebrated. It truly was a victory for all of humanity. That is why it is so sad and disconcerting that we are seeing some of the old jealousies and rivalries flaring up in different parts of the world. The Cold War consumed an entire geneation across the planet and came within a day of ending human history in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Stepping back from the current moves towards a new Cold War is the most important thing the world can do.\nThis post is taken from my Ebook Horizons which can be purchased on Etsy or from me directly. It is one of several pieces I created about the Cold War. We are not the Baby Boom generation. That is a term invented by corporations to sell products, and by governments to control people. We are the Cold War generation, whether you are from New York, or Moscow, or Brazil, or China, or anywhere in the world. And ending the Cold War without ending human history is our greatest accomplishment.\nThe Iconic New York Chess & Checker Club on 42nd Street, New York City!\nI started playing Chess very young. One of my uncles, from Brooklyn, was really good, and I just picked it up. I went on to play in high school, and briefly in college.\nThe New York Chess & Checker club was right in midtown Manhattan, and would charge players for the boards. You would meet up with another player, and the loser would pay the tab! Oftentimes the tab would include a coffee or a soft drink.\nYou could always count on great games and meeting interesting characters, most of whom lived right in the city.\nCompetitive, egalitarian coffee house chess, right in the middle of downtown Manhattan!\nIf the weather was ok, after the games, we would walk a few blocks over to Bryant Park and the fabulous Main Branch of The New York City Public Library, a vast storehouse of innumerable books and documents, all available onsite to the general public. Typically (to this day) the Library also would host great exhibits of historical and literary documents which are hard to find elsewhere.\nBryant Park and The Main Library are truly part of the wonders of the world, in my opinion!\nIf the weather was really nice we would walk all the way downtown, to Washington Square Park, in Greenwich Village, where folks might be playing chess outdoors, or playing guitars and singing songs to anyone who would listen!\nFriendship, Chess, great books, exhibitions, music!\nA great time in a great city!\nThe club was established by a Canadian in 1950 and lasted until the late 1970s. It became The Disney Store which I always thought was quite interesting!\nI feel so lucky I was able to be part of the chess history of New York City, a city that has produced many incredible players, probably most notably Bobby Fischer. There still are many chess clubs scattered throughout the city, but I think it will be quite some time before another one like The New York Chess & Checker Club arrives."}
{"content":"We've long heard of the expression, \"To see is to believe,\" suggesting that the foolproof way of authenticating something is visual perception. But, as another expression goes, there's more than meets the eye—especially when dealing with astronomy and gastronomy.\nA French physicist trolled the Twitterverse by posting a photo of a ball with deep red and orange hues, seemingly burning bright against the pitch-black background. Initially saying it's the latest image of a star by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, he eventually admitted that it's just good ol' slice of the smoky, spicy chorizo.\n\"Photo of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun, located 4.2 light years from us,\" Etienne Klein, research director of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, wrote on July 31. \"This level of detail… A new world is revealed day after day.\"\nPhoto de Proxima du Centaure, l’étoile la plus proche du Soleil, située à 4,2 année-lumière de nous.\nElle a été prise par le JWST.\nCe niveau de détails… Un nouveau monde se dévoile jour après jour. pic.twitter.com/88UBbHDQ7Z— Etienne KLEIN (@EtienneKlein) July 31, 2022\nKlein's tweet started gaining traction and droves of users are feasting their eyes on the marvelous image. It has over 11,200 likes and 2,300 retweets to date.\nBut before things blow out of proportion, Klein wrote a follow-up tweet minutes later to set the record straight.\n\"Well, when it's time for the aperitif, cognitive biases seem to have a field day… Beware, then, of them,\" he said. \"According to contemporary cosmology, no object belonging to Spanish charcuterie exists anywhere but on Earth.\"\nHours later, he explicitly said that his purported photo of Proxima Centauri was a \"form of amusement.\"\n\"Let us learn to be wary of arguments from authority as much as of the spontaneous eloquence of certain images,\" Klein told his 90,000 followers.\nSome users, however, were not impressed with what he did, especially since disinformation is ever-prevalent.\n\"The only way not to fall into the manipulation of ill-intentioned people is to trust scientists. Many have seen your original tweet but not the patch. You should have clarified that it was humor in the same message,\" one user said.\n\"Etienne Klein, we need at least a few reliable reference people in this world and a certain number of us have decided that you are one of them,\" another user said. \"So not too many deli jokes, the complexity of the universe stands on its own.\"\nOthers, meanwhile, were more forgiving and went along with the would-be joke.\n\"Can't wait for the first images of the Prosciutto Nebula,\" one user wrote.\n\"Flat Earthers are going to develop a new theory. The stars are actually chorizo,\" another user wrote.\nIn a separate tweet, Klein apologized for his \"hoax,\" saying there's \"nothing original about it\" as he shared a report from a local news magazine. He explained that it's a \"scientist's joke,\" and that he \"simply wanted to urge caution with images that seem eloquent on their own.\"\nJe viens présenter mes excuses à ceux que mon canular, qui n’avait rien d’original, a pu choquer. Il voulait simplement inciter à la prudence vis-à-vis des images qui semblent éloquentes par elles-mêmes.— Etienne KLEIN (@EtienneKlein) August 3, 2022\nLa blague d'un scientifique https://t.co/wHiJWxscxq #Astronomie via @LePoint\nKlein also tweeted a photo of the Cartwheel Galaxy as captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, making sure to include a parenthetical remark stating that the photo is \"REAL this time.\"\nPhoto (VRAIE cette fois…) de la galaxie de la Roue du Chariot et de ses galaxies compagnes, prise par le JWST. Située à 500 millions d’années-lumière, elle fut sans doute spirale dans son passé, mais a pris cette étrange allure à la suite d’un furieux carambolage galactique. pic.twitter.com/vmiDjU1Gjt— Etienne KLEIN (@EtienneKlein) August 3, 2022"}
{"content":"If you are a truck driver, you might be wondering how much health coverage insurance you need to carry. The health coverage for truck drivers can make them secure. You can go through https://www.truckershealthcoverage.com/ to collect the details about insurance and security.\nImage Source: Google\nThe Rights Of A Truck Driver To Health Coverage:\nTruck drivers have the right to health coverage under the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rules. The NLRB rules protect workers from being fired for requesting or using health benefits that are part of their union contract. This means that truck drivers have the right to receive health benefits from their union, even if those benefits are not offered by their employer.\nThe Right To Receive Benefits From Your Union Contract:\nIf you are a truck driver and your union offers health benefits, you have the right to receive those benefits. These benefits may include medical, dental, and vision care. You also have the right to receive group health insurance, which may cover your spouse and children. If your union does not offer health benefits, you still have the right to receive them from your employer. However, your employer may only offer you limited benefits, such as hospitalization coverage only. You cannot receive all of the benefits\nNeed For Health Insurance:\nHealth coverage for truck drivers is a topic of debate amongst employers and workers alike. Employers are unsure if health insurance is necessary for truck drivers, as the nature of their job does not generally involve prolonged periods of sitting or standing. Workers, on the other hand, believe that health insurance is a necessity for those who drive long distances and are potentially exposed to dangerous conditions on the road.\nThe National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommends that all workers who are able to do so should have comprehensive health insurance coverage. You can visit https://www.truckershealthcoverage.com/critical-illness-coverage to know more about the illness coverage for truckers."}
{"content":"So far I have tracked this circle alignment from its starting point in North Africa in Algiers, Algeria, through Mali, Guinea, Brazil, Colombia, Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, Belize and Mexico.\nNow the alignment enters the United States in Louisiana.\nAs I said at the end of the last post, the alignment is moving into the Heart of the Empire Washitaw of the Washitaw Mu’urs, also known as the Ancient Ones, and the Mound Builders.\nThe Ancient Ones don’t refer to a people that existed a long time ago. It refers to an Ancient People that are living in the present day.\nThe United Nations recognized the Washitaw Mu’urs as the Oldest Indigenous Civilization on Earth in 1993.\nThe Washitaw existed far, far back in time, way far, at least as far back as the time of Mu, hence their identification as Mu’urs. Empresses are the ancestral rulers of the Washitaw Empire.\nThe Washitaw were also called the Ouachita, Wichita, Choctaw, Etowah, Eutaw, Waseti, Waxhaw, Hatchita, Washoe, Uaxactun, to name a few variations of the name. There are many, many other Native American tribes that are also Washitaw, but are considered to be separate from them because of the historical hatchet job that was done to remove the Ancient Ones from the historical record, and to misdirect and misinform.\nThe Mississippi River Delta is nearby, southeast of Baton Rouge – close to the alignment, as is New Orleans – but not directly on it, like Baton Rouge.\nThroughout this post, I will provide reasons why I believe there is an inverse, and intentionally-mirrored relationship between the Mississippi River region and the Nile River region in Africa.\nTo begin with, I have drawn a red line on this world map to demonstrate that there is a straight, west-to-east, linear relationship between the location of the Mississippi River Delta, and that of the Nile River Delta.\nThe Mississippi River, also known as the “Father of Waters,” flows southward 2,320 miles, or 3,730 kilometers…\n… from its source at Lake Itasca in Minnesota, not far from Lake Superior, and the Great Lakes Region of North America…\n…to the Mississippi Delta in southeastern Louisiana.\nThe Nile River, also known as the “Father of African Rivers,” and along with its major tributary, the White Nile, is 4,130 miles, or 6,650 kilometers, long.\nThe source of the White Nile is Lake Victoria, in what is called the Great Lakes Region of Central Africa.\nThe source of the Blue Nile is Lake Tana, a sacred lake in Ethiopia, and it joins the White Nile to become the Nile at Khartoum, the capital of Sudan.\nFrom Khartoum, the Nile flows northward to the Nile Delta.\nHere is a side-by-side comparison of the Mississippi River and the Nile River…\n…as well as what the Mississippi River Delta and the Nile River Delta look like together in person.\nThis is an aerial view of the Mississippi Delta, which is on the southeastern coast of Louisiana, showing many geometric and straight channels…\n….and the same type of straight, geometric channel is also found in the Nile Delta.\nNow to the actual alignment, the first major city we come to being Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Baton Rouge is the State Capital of Louisiana, and its second-largest city.\nThere are two particular places in Baton Rouge that I would like to highlight.\nThe first are acknowledged ancient mounds at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. There are two mounds there, believed to be more than 5,000 years old, and considered to be part of the oldest mound system in North America, and part of an acknowledged Louisiana mound system. They are on the U. S. National Register of Historic Places.\nBut, mounds are actually everywhere, and typically not acknowledged as such.\nLike at the old Louisiana State Capital Building in Baton Rouge. Besides the fact that it looks like a castle, I want to draw your attention to what the earthworks, also known as mounds, that it sits on top of…\n…which look identical to the earthworks upon which the Akureyrikirkja, or Akureyri Church, sits on top of in Akureyri, Iceland…\n…and to the earthworks upon which Mount Clare sits on top of in Baltimore, Maryland…\n…and like what is seen at Cahokia Mounds, directly across the Mississippi River from St. Louis in Missouri…\n…which looks very similar to what is seen at the locks of the Panama Canal, said to have been completed in 1914…\n…the Caledonian Canal in Northern Scotland, said to have been completed in 1822…\n…and the Bingley Five Rise Locks on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in Bingley, England, said to have been completed in 1774. The Algiers Circle Alignment I am currently following will pass directly through Leeds, England, in the latter part of it.\nThe circle alignment passes through the town of Richwood, on its way to Monroe, Louisiana, the ancient Imperial Seat of the Washitaw Empire, in an area known as Washitaw Proper.\nThe recently deceased Empress of the Washitaw, Verdiacee Washitaw Turner Goston El Bey signifies many things, but for this example she was the mayor of Richwood, Louisiana, from 1975 – 1976.\nEmpress Verdiacee passed away in 2014, and her granddaughter Wendy Farica Washitaw succeeded her as the Washitaw Empress.\nIt is important to note that the Watson Brake Lunar Mounds are in the vicinity of Richwood, Watson Brake is an archeological site in Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, dated to 5,400 years ago, and is the oldest earthwork mound complex in North America, acknowledged to be older than the Egyptian Pyramids and Stonehenge in England. It is located on private land, so is not available for public viewing.\nStonehenge, which has an earthwork very similar to Watson Brake around its perimeter, according to what we are told, dates from starting at 3,100 BC, about 5,100 years ago.\nMonroe is the parish seat of the Ouachita (pronounced Washitaw) Parish.\nMonroe and West Monroe, which together are called the Twin Cities of northeast Louisiana, are situated on either side of the snaky, S-shaped Ouachita River.\nJust like the snaky, s-shaped riverbends of the Mississippi River at Vicksburg, Mississippi…\n…and Cape Girardeau, Missouri.\nThe Nile River has snaky, S-shaped riverbends as well, like at Juba in South Sudan…\n…and here is a photo of the Nile in the Asyut Valley of Upper Egypt.\nAnd here is a comparison of where the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers meet near St. Louis, MIssouri…\n…with the place where the White Nile and Blue Nile meet at Khartoum, the capital of Sudan.\nBack to Monroe, Louisiana. Monroe is the Imperial Seat of the Ancient Washitaw Empire, and this part of Louisiana is called Washitaw Proper. This is the Washitaw flag.\nThirty-eight miles northeast of Monroe, near the town of Epps, Louisiana, is Poverty Point.\nIt is said to have become known as Poverty Point because the farming was terrible here.\nIts name is actually Awulmeka, and was an ancient sacred city of the Washitaw Mu’urs.\nThe story that we are told about all the mound sites is that indians wearing loincloths were responsible for building the perfectly geometrically- and astronomically-aligned mounds and earthworks, one basketful of dirt at a time. This is not the truth, and does not hold up with any scrutiny whatsoever.\nThese are the kinds of artifacts on display at Poverty Point as being representative of what was found here. While perhaps they were found here, I don’t think they were representative of the highly advanced and sophisticated ancient civilization that lived here.\nThe artifacts on display at Spiro Mounds in Oklahoma, like this one here, would be more representative of what was found at Poverty Point.\nMuurish-American Master Adepts and Teachers in the present day are wisdom-keepers of ancient sacred Kemetic Mysteries and Knowledge about all Creation. They are living practitioners of Egyptian Yoga and Medu Neter, the language of the Egyptian Hieroglyphs.\nIn this spirit, I am going to the next place on the alignment in an area west of Little Rock, Arkansas, which has special sites that aren’t brought forward into public awareness, and represent how sacred ancient sites are deliberately covered-up.\nThe first place is Pinnacle Mountain, which is an Arkansas State Park.\nI had first heard of Pinnacle Mountain when I learned there was an Earthkeeper Conference there in 2012.\nI didn’t think much of the name Pinnacle Mountain until several years later, in 2015, when finding this image on-line. This was the beginning of my “looking” and then “finding” out more and more. It really got my attention!!!\nSo I had to go there! It was about a 3 – 4 hour drive from where I was living at the time, and I went twice with friends. There is only place you can get this clear view of Pinnacle Mountain as a pyramid, which is from the Education Pond at the park.\nAnd this next view of Pinnacle Mountain and two more pyramids is only obtainable from the Visitor Center Observation Deck on a relatively clear day.\nOtherwise, access to all other views is completely cut off by private property and fences, and these are certainly not advertised as pyramids.\nThe alignment is also close to Mount Magazine, located outside of Paris, Arkansas. Mount Magazine is in the Ouachita Mountains of western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. The memory of the people is in the name. This is called Cameron’s Bluff at Mount Magazine.\nI visited Mount Magazine several times, and this is where I started waking up to seeing what was really in the environment around me. As soon as I took to the turn-off for the road that skirts the bluff, I started seeing a wall.\nIt is such an ancient wall that there is some element of doubt.\nBut there are some places you can really tell it is a built structure.\nThe next place on the circle alignment is Springfield, the third largest city in Missouri, and the seat of Greene County.\nThis is the Pythian Castle in Springfield, said to have been built in 1913 as an orphanage, and similar in appearance to the Old Louisiana State House in Baton Rouge. It was said to have been built by the Knights of Pythias, a secret society founded in Washington, D.C in February of 1864, and was the first fraternal order to receive a charter by an Act of Congress. It is interesting to note that the Civil War didn’t end until 1865. For what purpose would Congress charter a fraternal secret society in wartime?\nThis is the Abou Ben Adhem Shrine Mosque in Springfield, said to have been built in 1923. Again, we just assume the people who said they built these places did so because we have no other information to go by.\nAnother example of this practice is at Ha Ha Tonka State Park in Camdenton, Missouri, north of Springfield on the alignment. The castle here was said to have been started by a Kansas businessman in 1905, finished by his sons in the 1920s before the stock market crash, and destroyed by fire in 1942.\nLike the Yucatan Peninsula, Ha Ha Tonka has sinkholes, and caves, and even a huge so-called “natural” bridge…\n…and Missouri’s twelfth largest spring.\nI am going to pick up the alignment in the next post in Des Moines, Iowa."}
{"content":"Free jazz concerts at La Sierra University help keep American music alive – press enterprise\nLa Sierra University’s free Pierce Street Jazz concerts regularly bring together Southern California’s top musicians dedicated to the preservation of jazz, considered an original American art form.\nThe series began in the summer of 2009 when former university president Warren Trenchard and chemistry department chairman Marvin Payne met bassist Henry “The Skipper” Franklin during his local performances.\nFranklin, 77, has his roots in the heyday of Southern California jazz and is well known for playing on Hugh Masekela’s 1968 hit song, “Grazing in the Grass.” He has been featured with many big names in jazz including Freddie Hubbard, Willie Bobo and Count Basie.\nFaculty members and Franklin brainstormed the idea of ââa free professional music series that would support jazz and function as a community outreach effort.\nConcerts are held on Wednesday evenings, usually once a month, at the Troesh Conference Center of the Zapara School of Business on the La Sierra University campus, 4500 Riverwalk Parkway, Riverside.\nPianist Theo Saunders joins Franklin in the rhythm section. Ramon Banda is the regular drummer, but recent replacements have included Tina Raymond and Marvin “Smitty” Smith, well known for his years as a drummer on The Tonight Show.\nRecent guest artists include LA jazz and blues singer Barbara Morrison and saxophonist Chuck Manning. There will be no concert in September when the students return from summer vacation. The series will resume in October or early November.\nFor more information on Pierce Street Jazz or to join the program’s mailing list, call 951-785-2148 or visit www.facebook.com/piercestreetjazz/\nNobel laureate Barry Barish joins UCR faculty\nNobel Prize-winning physicist Barry C. Barish will join UC Riverside faculty on September 1.\nBarish, Linde Emeritus Professor of Physics at Caltech, shared the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of gravitational waves with fellow Caltech physicist Kip Thorne and MIT physicist Rainer Weiss.\nThe award recognized their “contributions to the LIGO detector and gravitational wave observation,” according to a press release from UC Riverside.\nOn September 14, 2015, LIGO, or Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, first detected the gravitational waves predicted by Albert Einstein over 100 years ago. A collision between two black holes generated the waves, which took 1.3 billion years to reach the LIGO detector. Barish carried out the LIGO project, allowing the first observation of this phenomenon, according to the statement from the UCR.\n“I hope to bring new research perspectives, and in particular, to help educate the very special student body at UCR,” Barish said in the statement.\nBarish received his bachelor’s degree in physics in 1957 and his doctorate in experimental particle physics in 1962 from UC Berkeley. He joined Caltech as a post-doctoral fellow in 1963, became a professor in 1966, and was appointed Linde Professor of Physics in 1991.\nCal State professor receives award\nCal State San Bernardino professor Francisca Beer will receive the California State University Faculty Innovation and Leadership Award for her work in promoting and facilitating academic research and student creative activities.\nBeer, a professor of accounting and finance, is one of 26 academics in the California state system recognized for working to improve student outcomes.\nUnder his leadership, Cal State San Bernardino created the âMeeting of the Minds,â a campus-wide, one-day symposium that highlights student research across disciplines through poster sessions, oral presentations, creative performances and keynote speakers.\nThe winners will be honored at the upcoming 2025 Graduation Initiative Symposium in San Diego in mid-October.\nEach prize includes a $ 5,000 cash bursary and $ 10,000 to be allocated to university departments to support the activities of the winners."}
{"content":"This summer we are collaborating with Dr. Xiumei Pu in her Project, \"Mountains and Stories: Building Community Among Asian and Pacific Islander Refugee and Immigrant Families in Salt Lake Valley,\" with the support of a Whiting Public Engagement Programs Seed Grant. Anchored in the theme of mountains, the project consists of a twelve-part podcast, a documentary, and a series of story tellling events, the next of which will be a group hike in the Wasatch Mountains (October 23, 2021). It is our hope that these efforts will amplify the environmental voices of Asian and Pacific Islander refugee and immigrant communities, and spark more public interest in thinking about the connection between culture, identity, and the natural environment. You can listen to previous episodes here on the IMR Podcast website.\nAt the heart of the project is a podcast series featuring the life and work of twelve storytellers who come from a range of age groups, occupations, and ethnic and racial backgrounds. Some of them are born in the United States; many of them are born in another Asian country or Pacific Island and immigrated to the US at a young age. Their stories show fascinating complexities of immigration routes and histories, incredible cultural richness and resilience, and long-lasting contributions of the Asian and Asian Pacific Islander communities to the social life and cultural landscapes of Salt Lake Valley and the broader Utah.\nThis week we're sharing Anda Xie's story. Anda is a 7th grade student at West High School. He enjoyed acting and doing improv before COVID, and now he enjoys hiking in the mountains and playing WarThunder. He is Chinese American. He loves celebrating his heritage in many ways, especially Chinese food. He is an aspiring entrepreneur and has made quite a sum ($50) by dabbing the food and stock market (selling Kit-Kats and buying one stock of Activision since he likes Call of Duty). He hopes you enjoy his episode of the podcast.\nJeff Nichols and Brent Olson co-direct the Institute for Mountain Research and our 2018-2019 Mountain Fellows are Katie Saad and Naomi Shapiro. Our theme song is “Home” by Pixie and the Partygrass Boys.. As Naomi likes to say, “They are awesome and you should check them out.”\nThe Institute for Mountain Research is located on the ancestral and traditional lands of the Ute, Goshute, and Shoshone Peoples."}
{"content":"Here you will find the Poem On an Infant dying as soon as born of poet Charles Lamb\nI SAW where in the shroud did lurk A curious frame of Nature's work; A floweret crush'd in the bud, A nameless piece of Babyhood, Was in her cradle-coffin lying; Extinct, with scarce the sense of dying: So soon to exchange the imprisoning womb For darker closets of the tomb! She did but ope an eye, and put A clear beam forth, then straight up shut For the long dark: ne'er more to see Through glasses of mortality. Riddle of destiny, who can show What thy short visit meant, or know What thy errand here below? Shall we say that Nature blind Check'd her hand, and changed her mind, Just when she had exactly wrought A finish'd pattern without fault? Could she flag, or could she tire, Or lack'd she the Promethean fire (With her nine moons' long workings sicken'd) That should thy little limbs have quicken'd? Limbs so firm, they seem'd to assure Life of health, and days mature: Woman's self in miniature! Limbs so fair, they might supply (Themselves now but cold imagery) The sculptor to make Beauty by. Or did the stern-eyed Fate descry That babe or mother, one must die; So in mercy left the stock And cut the branch; to save the shock Of young years widow'd, and the pain When single state comes back again To the lone man who, reft of wife, Thenceforward drags a maimed life? The economy of Heaven is dark, And wisest clerks have miss'd the mark, Why human buds, like this, should fall, More brief than fly ephemeral That has his day; while shrivell'd crones Stiffen with age to stocks and stones; And crabbed use the conscience sears In sinners of an hundred years. Mother's prattle, mother's kiss, Baby fond, thou ne'er wilt miss: Rites, which custom does impose, Silver bells, and baby clothes; Coral redder than those lips Which pale death did late eclipse; Music framed for infants' glee, Whistle never tuned for thee; Though thou want'st not, thou shalt have them, Loving hearts were they which gave them. Let not one be missing; nurse, See them laid upon the hearse Of infant slain by doom perverse. Why should kings and nobles have Pictured trophies to their grave, And we, churls, to thee deny Thy pretty toys with thee to lie-- A more harmless vanity?"}
{"content":"Bridge The Gap\nHaving no bridge strong enough to cross, We mirror each other's gap. Only to be tossed back with a big hard slap. What's mine is your's but that's what we so conveniently ignore.\nIt's you've done this, you've done that. Feeling like a victim we lash out back. So here we are having placed a wall between us so tall. Now we seem to be playing each other like a ping pong ball.\nSadly enough it's not our first attempt's to prove we are worthy of love, but we goabout it all wrong.The ego feels almighty.We hold onto to miss perceptions ever so tightly.\nNow the floodgates have opened and yes let it be shown, it is only but our own self haterd we've tried to keep unkown. Being forced to witness what's inside.\nIt really couldn't have happened at a better time. With so much horror in the world, what one can mindlessly do unto another.\nIf we don't accept what is our's to own. To gladly take back parts of ourselfs we've disowned,We will be cast into another world so loveless, no feelings shown.\nSo I thank you brother's and sister's who have been sent to help me shed the illusion that it's not me at fault but you instead.\nTo be given the grace,the ability to look in the mirror at my own face. where in finding love for oneself makes it possible to love human race.\nI allow myself to become fully awake in my self realizations I've choosen to undertake. World peace begins at home and with the ablility to learn from my mistakes.\nVote for this poem"}
{"content":"When you own a pool, many responsibilities come with maintaining it – a well-kept pool adds value to a home so you want to make sure you do it right! From cleaning it to maintaining water levels to shocking it, there are many things you should know as a pool owner. So, is it safe to shock the pool once a week when it is hot, and why it’s important? As a rule, yes, it is safe to shock your pool once a week, as it keeps the pool safe and clean to use.\nAlso, you need to know how often you should do it, and the other things you should do to maintain your pool. Keep reading to find out more!\nDuring Hot Summer Months Is It Safe to Shock Weekly?\nYes, it is recommended that you shock your pool once a week. If you tend to have lots of people over, you may want to do it even more frequently. Shocking the pool maintains your pool’s water chemistry, keeping it safe and clean to use. When shocking the pool, keep in mind that two pounds of shock for every 10,000 gallons of water in your pool is the ratio to go by – this ensures that your pool gets the right amount of chemicals to treat it properly.\nHow Much Shock Should I Use?\n|5,000 Gallon Pool||1lb of Shock|\n|10,000 Gallon Pool||2lb of Shock|\n|20,000 Gallon Pool||4lb of Shock|\nNow that we know the answer to your main question about how often you can shock your pool in the hot summer months, let’s make sure you know what “shocking the pool” is, why it’s important, and how to do it safely.\nWhat Does “Pool Shock” Mean?\nThe term “shock” refers to a form of chlorine that is used to treat your pool. Two different types can be used, a granular form and a liquid form. In the liquid form, the shock comes in a container that looks similar to bleach – is careful when using it because it can bleach your clothes.\nLiquid shock is a bit more expensive than the granular form and not as strong, but it dissolves quickly and leaves no residue. The granular form most likely needs to be dissolved in water before being poured into the pool. Ultimately, either kind can be used, it simply comes down to your preference and whether or not you need a stronger product.\nHow Do You Shock Your Pool?\nAs always, be sure to read the instructions on the granular/liquid shock before using it. This will ensure that you see any warnings and can help you do the “shocking” safely.\n- Be sure that the pool filter is running before either pouring or sprinkling the shock around the perimeter of the pool.\n- You should avoid swimming in the pool for 24-48 hours after shocking so that the chemicals have enough time to filter through the water and not harm your skin or eyes.\n- The only shock is when there is no one in the pool, it can be very dangerous if people are in the water.\n- Shock the pool after the sun goes down and while the filter is running – this ensures optimal results. With the filter running, you can be sure that the shock is filtered properly throughout the whole pool.\n- In the summer, it is recommended to shock the pool once a week to kill off any unwanted germs and maintain the pool’s water chemistry.\n- Use the correct ratio: Two pounds of shock for every 10,000 gallons of water that’s in your pool.\nIf you follow these instructions, your pool will be safe, clean, and ready to swim in throughout the hot summer months!\nHow to Tell If Your Pools Need Shock\nThere are specific instances that will alert you to shock your pool outside of the weekly recommendation, these include:\n- Opening the pool for the season: when you uncover the pool, shocking it to get started will be sure to kill off any bacteria or algae that has grown in the off-season.\n- After a party: germs can build up quickly and the water chemistry doesn’t stay stable for very long. With lots of people in the pool, it is always best to follow up with shock so that it is clean and ready for the next use.\n- When it’s hot outside: hot water in the pool can increase bacteria growth and lower the chlorine level in your pool, so if you come upon a hot stretch, be sure to shock the pool more often.\n- Shock the pool after rain: if you receive heavy rain, it can increase the pH levels of the water and send contaminants into your pool. To avoid anything dangerous, shock the pool after the rain has stopped.\n- Closing the pool at the end of the season: even though you’ll shock the pool when you re-open it, you should close it with clean water. This will help keep it clean for longer and limit the growth of bacteria.\nOne other thing to consider when wondering if it’s time to shock the pool is the pH level. Many people recommend that you shock the pool when the pH level is between 7.2 and 7.4. As a pool owner, there are many things you need to do to maintain the water, cleanliness, and safety of the pool. You’ll get into a routine and get better at noticing when it’s time to shock the pool.\nWhat You Should Know to Maintain Your Pool\nIn addition to shocking the pool periodically, there are several other things you should check on to maintain your pool.\n- Depending on where your pool is located, you will need to skim off leaves and debris that fall onto the surface of the water. This process is pretty easy with a long-handled pool skimmer and takes just a few minutes to keep the water clean and clear.\n- For any debris that is missed, as well as algae that collect on the walls of the pools, you can use a vacuum to clean up anything left behind. Automatic vacuums are recommended – simply plug in the cleaner, set it in the water, and let it go to work.\n- Multiple things were built into the pool that is designed to help clean and maintain the pool, such as the skimmer. When you clean off the debris from the surface of the water, check the skimmer as well to make sure it’s working effectively.\n- Keep the pool pump running and check the filter as needed. Your pool’s circulation system includes many different pieces and only works properly if everything runs smoothly. Make sure that you run the pump long enough to filter the water. You should also make sure that the filter is clean – check weekly for debris or anything that could have been collected.\nIt may seem like it’s a lot of work to properly maintain your pool, and in a way, it is. But, each of these steps takes very little time to complete, especially if you do them regularly. Putting a routine in place at the start of pool season with your family can help you ensure that it is safe for everyone to enjoy all summer long!\nWhere Can I Buy Pool Shock and How Much Does it Cost?\nPool shock is available at several retailers in town, including Walmart, Home Depot, Lowe’s, and other home and garden shops in town. Depending on the size of your pool and how often you use it, the cost for pool shock could be more than you expect. One container of liquid pool shock costs between $6-$10. Granular shock can cost between $20-$200 depending on how much you buy at one time. You should consider buying in bulk, especially if you plan on using your pool a lot throughout the summer.\nCan You Over-Shock a Pool?\nUnlike the phrase “everything in moderation”, when it comes to shocking the pool, this can be tossed out. Truthfully, you cannot “over-shock” your pool. It is possible to use more shock than you need or less, but doing it too often is not possible. While this is true, there is still a right and wrong way to shock your pool, especially if you want to get the best results. The only thing that you may be able to notice if you shock the pool a little more than necessary, is green hair for excess chlorine that oxidizes with the copper in the water.\nHow Do You Choose the Right Pool Equipment?\nThere are several kinds of equipment out there to help you clean and maintain your swimming pool, so choosing between them all may be a bit overwhelming when you get started. Luckily, almost everything comes down to your preference. If you’ve never had a pool before, go to your nearest home retailer and talk with a professional. They can advise you on how to get started and can walk you through the pieces you need. Things like your long-handled skimmer, shock, how to clean and check your filter, pool covers, automatic pool vacuums vs. manual vacuums, and so much more. Though it seems like a lot, it’s much easier than you think to clean and maintain your pool. You’ll quickly get into a routine and with regular maintenance, you’ll be surprised at how minimal the work is."}
{"content":"All Mascara is Not Created Equal by Jessica Landmon is a great book for all mothers to give to their daughters. This is a combination of God’s words of wisdom and the wisdom of a mother who has raised a young girl. Jessica Landmon is a great role model for young women and this book is a fun way to see what wisdom she has gained over the years of becoming the woman she is today.\nAll Mascara is Not Created Equal makes the reader smile. No matter what you believe in, I believe that every woman and young girl can relate to what Jessica Landmon is trying to convey in this book. This short read taps into what life is like for a girl growing up and reminds me of the kind of letter a woman would write to her younger self if she could go back in time. I found myself smiling and nodding as if I completely understood why Jessica mentioned certain tips to the younger women in her target audience. Jessica tries to get girls and woman to look deep within themselves and make themselves feel good without needing constant reassurance from outside people. Being a girl is a true gift from God but being a girl is never a walk in the park, especially when you are growing up. This book is proof that along the way, guidance and love from God is all you really need to get through life’s tough days.\nThis is the type of book that I would be more than happy to give to my future daughters to lightheartedly convey that I feel her pain. It is a casual reminder that we are all in this together. Such a fun read! I hope Jessica Landmon comes out with another one just like this!\nAll Mascara Is Not Created Equal\nby Jessica Landmon"}
{"content":"With women at the helm, companies fare better.\nAccording to research from Boston Consulting Group (BCG), companies where 30% of the leadership team is female have 15% higher profitability than similar organizations with no female leaders.\nDespite this evidence, women hold less than 28% of leadership positions at companies. In fact, a Qualtrics study showed that during the pandemic, men have been promoted three times more than women.\nWhile women are earning more STEM degrees than ever before, the percentage of women employed at the five tech giants (Amazon, Meta, Apple, Google, and Microsoft) is only 34.4%.\nSo what can we do to elevate more women to success in tech?\nHere are four headlines that give us some direction for 2022:\nMore Than a “Skills Gap”\nReshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code, a nonprofit dedicated to equipping young women with computing skills, has radically changed her stance: She says the answer to inequity in tech is systemic change, not just more coding skills.\nHer new book, Pay Up: The Future of Women and Work (and Why It’s Different Than You Think) says a perceived skills gap isn’t the main problem for women in tech.\nSaujani is now working on practical ways to break down barriers. In 2021, Saujani started advocating for a Marshall Plan for Moms that would combat the burnout and systemic inequalities that hold women back in the workplace.\nCare coverage is the make-or-break factor. Paid family leave and subsidized child care are at the top of Saujani’s priority list – particularly because the pandemic has forced women to bear the brunt of childcare and distance learning demands caused by school shutdowns. A Morning Consult survey of 468 working mothers showed that 33% of women worked fewer hours during the pandemic due to child care issues, and another 20% of respondents moved to part time.\nRead Saujani’s book to learn more about her plan for transforming the future of work.\nIncreasing Access to Venture Capital\nWhen she launched the nonprofit organization Women Who Tech in 2008, Allyson Kapin’s goal was to increase female representation in the technology industry. Now the organization is one of the largest networks of women-led companies.\nWomen aren’t getting VCs dollars. In 2021, only 2% of venture capital in the U.S. went to women-led startups, but Women Who Tech is working hard to change that stat.\nTo date, the program’s cohorts have raised over $200 million, and the organization recently announced the finalists of their inaugural FemTech and HealthTech Challenge. The challenge awarded grants to two startups that are harnessing AI to make big advances in healthcare.\nThe tech coalition Reboot Representation, led by CEO Dwana Franklin-Davis, is working to double the number of Latina, Black, and Native American women who receive computing degrees by 2025.\nThe Reboot Representation Tech Coalition is made up of 19 supporting companies, including Amazon, Walmart, Verizon, Best Buy, Adobe, and Salesforce.\nIn an interview with Forbes, Franklin-Davis says:\n“When my daughter decides to go into corporate America, I want her to be able to look to her left and to her right and see other Black and Brown faces that look like hers. I also want that for all of the girls who want to be innovators and technologists as well as CEOs…The time is now to make movement.”\nThis groundbreaking tech coalition is also partnering with local organizations, including Chicago Public Schools, to increase access to computer science and coding for Black, Latina, and Native American girls.\nLearn more by watching Dwana’s panel at last year’s Powderkeg Unvalley virtual conference, How to Build High-Performance Teams in Today’s World.\nGrowing the Billionaire Women’s Club\nWe’re delighted that more female tech founders are joining the billionaire club.\nThe Spanx founder has become a billionaire. In November 2021, Spanx founder Sara Blakely sold a majority share in her company to global investment bank Blackstone. This sale brought the value of Spanx up to $1.2 billion.\nShe’s not the only woman in this exclusive group.\nBumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd took her company public in a $2.2 billion IPO in February 2021, and 23andMe co-founder and CEO Anne Wojcicki is now at the helm of a $3.5 billion company after a 2021 SPAC deal with Richard Branson.\nThis month (and every month!), we invite you to check out these women-founded and women-led tech companies beyond Silicon Valley:\n- 4D Healthware (Chicago, IL) — a patient engagement software that makes personalized medicine possible through connected data.\n- Anvl (Indianapolis, IN) — a flexible platform that promotes worker engagement and efficiency with an easy to use mobile application that provides in-the-moment guidance through smart, dynamic workflows.\n- Authenticx (Indianapolis, IN) — a platform developer that helps healthcare organizations analyze and activate customer interaction data at scale.\n- Biomilq (Durham, NC) — a patent-pending technology to produce nutritionally equivalent breastmilk.\n- Bumble (Austin, TX) — an app that brings dating, friend-finding, and career-building into a single social networking platform.\n- Casted (Indianapolis, IN) — the first Amplified Marketing Platform and the only audio and video podcast solution designed for enterprise marketers.\n- ClickMedix (Gaithersburg, MD) — a health platform that expedites quality healthcare delivery, despite income and geographic barriers by extending the reach of physicians through mobile phone/tablet facilitated remote diagnosis.\n- Cloverleaf (Cincinnati, OH) — a SaaS platform that provides data-driven insights to empower every person in the organization to increase their relational and communication effectiveness, ultimately improving productivity and engagement.\n- Codelicious (Indianapolis, IN) — a software platform providing full-year, customizable, and computer science curriculum for K-12.\n- FullStack (Indianapolis, IN) — a Turnkey HR for emerging companies.\n- Huma.AI (Los Altos, CA) — a provider of business intelligence platform built to automate healthcare through human language.\n- Mamava (Burlington, VT) — the leading expert in lactation space design.\n- Mandolin (Indianapolis, IN) — a digital platform designed to help artists, venues, and fans connect through live music.\n- Mixtroz (Birmingham, AL) — an analytics platform that increases engagement & collects data in real-time.\n- myCOI (Indianapolis, IN) — a SaaS-based certificate of insurance (COI) management solutions.\n- Rachio (Denver, CO) — a hardware company that focuses on improving the water efficiency of homes.\n- Sign-Speak (Rochester, NY) — an Automated American Sign Language Translator aiming to help businesses to communicate with their Deaf clients with ASL.\n- ShearShare (McKinney, TX) — the first mobile marketplace for stylists to manage and grow their small business on their terms, starting with space to work.\nLooking for more companies that prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion in their culture? Check out our list of best companies for DEI."}
{"content":"You’ve seen them and hate them, but how are corrugations made? THERE HAVE BEEN several scientific studies into exactly how corrugations are formed, and the answer is definitive and simple. You get corrugations any time large numbers of wheeled vehicles travel over a soft surface at speed. Exactly how they … Continue reading How are corrugations formed?\nCopy and paste this URL into your WordPress site to embed\nCopy and paste this code into your site to embed"}
{"content":"Oncology practice professionals need tools to help themselves and other staff members become and stay effective managers, including resources on conflict management, performance improvement and feedback, and formal performance evaluations. See below for an assortment of tip sheets and best practices.\nKeys for Effective Management\n- Coaching for Performance Improvement—Coaching is not simply a best practice—it is essential to help employees address performance gaps.\n- Conflict Management—Conflict describes differences of ideas, interests, or people. As the definition suggests, no two conflicts are alike. That would explain why there are no hard-and-fast rules for preventing and resolving conflict. There are, however, some tried-and-true best practices for managing conflict.\n- Delegation of Responsibilities—Delegation is a necessary component of management. Here are some steps designed to help managers delegate responsibly.\n- Email Best Practices—These 10 best practices are designed to ensure email communications remain effective.\nResources for Providing Effective Feedback\n- Best Practices—Learn more about the best ways to both give and receive feedback in a way that is beneficial to employees and managers.\n- Situation, Behavior, Impact and Consequence—When planning feedback, it’s important to ground the feedback in specifics, ensure it is focused on behaviors (vs. attitudes) and that the recipient understands how effective or ineffective behaviors impact others.\n- Feedback and Coaching Techniques—Coaching is a partnership where the manager role shifts from directing and monitoring an employee’s results to facilitating learning and growth led by the employee.\n- Manager Evaluation Tips—Here are some strategies for drafting employee evaluations and holding effective evaluation discussions.\nIn addition to the tip sheets, oncology practice professionals also can access a series of online resources, including:\n- MindTools offers tools to help individual staff members grow\n- Harvard Business Review provides resources intended to bolster individual leadership skills\n- Society for Human Resources Management offers information related to federal and state regulatory responsibilities, including those under the Family Medical Leave and Fair Labor Standards Act"}
{"content":"Modern in the Middle\nChicago Houses 1929-75\nSusan Benjamin and Michelangelo Sabatino; foreword by Pauline Saliga\nTHE FIRST SURVEY OF THE CLASSIC TWENTIETH-CENTURY HOUSES THAT DEFINED AMERICAN MIDWESTERN MODERNISM.\n“Modern in the Middle: Chicago Houses 1929–75, a book co-authored by Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture Professor and Ph.D. Program Director Michelangelo Sabatino and preservationist Susan S. Benjamin, has received a prestigious Docomomo Modernism in America Award. The award program, now in its eighth year, recognizes and celebrates work that documents, preserves, or reuses Modernist architecture in the United States.\n“The book presents 50 Modernist houses in the greater Chicago area including examples by Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Stanley Tigerman, John Moutoussamy, A. James Speyer, Edmond Zisook, and John Vinci, several of whom were Illinois Tech graduates. The book’s detailed histories include information about the clients in order to show how modern social aspirations transformed the residential realm. Modern in the MIddle also examines how Chicago’s modern homes played a role in the development of the single-family home across the U.S., while helping to establish a unique Midwestern Modern design language.\n“‘The histories of Chicago’s built environment that focus on the accomplishments of only a handful of architects inevitably overlook the vital contribution made by a host of architects, and their clients, in shaping the city’s distinctive residential architecture,” says Sabatino.\n“The jury, chaired by Marcel Quimby, principal of Quimby Preservation Studio, bestowed Modern in the Middle with an Award of Excellence, citing the variety of subjects within the publication and calling it ‘a dynamic and engaging book that is a useful resource for the public.’\n“‘The brilliant thing about Modern in the Middle is that it focuses not just on the architects and their buildings, it also focuses on the clients, the real-life women and men who took a chance and commissioned these buildings,’ says Pauline Saliga, executive director of the Society of Architectural Historians and the author of the book’s foreword. ‘Because of that more personal focus, the public can better relate to these remarkable homes, and better understand how cutting edge these designs were. These were the teams—clients and architects—who helped shape the Midwest’s own unique brand of Modern residential architecture.’\nPraise for Modern in the Middle\n“Modern in the Middle significantly expands our understanding of modern architecture in the Chicago area by bringing to light a number of lesser-known yet talented architects. The houses and interiors designed by IIT graduates like myself demonstrate that the Miesian legacy was more complex than it might appear at first sight.”\n—JOHN VINCI, FAIA\n“Modern in the Middle looks beyond Chicago’s iconic skyscrapers to show us that this city’s residential buildings have also been paradigmatic in shaping modern architecture. The book’s scope goes beyond just “midcentury” making the “Middle” a signifier that explores Chicago’s central place in the nation’s geography and the essential role of the American middle class in defining the idea of “modern housing.” Every piece of this carefully assembled volume is insightful and still resonant in our lives today.”\n—GWENDOLYN WRIGHT, COLUMBIA GSAPP\n“This rich and fascinating compendium places the modern houses in and around Chicago in historical and philosophical context. In addition to the descriptions not only of the houses and architects but also the crucial role of the clients, the accompanying original photographs and plans are important parts of the thorough documentation. There is much to be discovered here!”\n—CYNTHIA WEESE, FAIA\nNew book explores Chicago’s best modernist homes; One reason midcentury homes are so hot now is they embody an optimism that some people would like to recapture in this gloomy era, one of the authors said, Dennis Rodkin, Crain’s Chicago Business, 8/31/20"}
{"content":"There are many myths surrounding the collections of the Arolsen Archives: International Center on Nazi Persecution in Bad Arolsen, Germany. Formerly known as the International Tracing Service, the Archives was established by the International Red Cross and Allied forces at the end of World War II to trace missing and displaced people and help reunite survivors with their relatives. In this lecture, Serafima Velkovich, Head of the Family Roots Research Section at the Yad Vashem Archives, will demystify the Arolsen Archives by describing its history, the types of files it holds, and what information can be gleaned from those files. Additionally, Ms. Velkovich will offer strategies for identifying relevant documents and key clues when searching its new Online Archives and additional collections available at the Arolsen Archives and 5 partner institutions worldwide, including Yad Vashem and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.\nThis program is sponsored by the Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at the Center for Jewish History. It is funded, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council."}
{"content":"Publications in Scientific Journals:\nG. Retscher, A. Leb:\n\"Development of a Smartphone-based University Library Navigation and Information Service Employing Wi-Fi Location Fingerprinting\";\nA guidance and information service for a University library based onWi-Fi signals using fingerprinting as chosen localization method is under development at TU Wien. After a thorough survey of suitable location technologies for the application it was decided to employ mainly Wi-Fi for localization. For that purpose, the availability, performance, and usability ofWi-Fi in selected areas of the library are analyzed in a first step. These tasks include the measurement ofWi-Fi received signal strengths (RSS) of the visible access points (APs) in different areas. Themeasurements were carried out in different modes, such as static, kinematic and in stop-and-go mode, with six different smartphones. A dependence on the positioning and tracking modes is seen in the tests. Kinematic measurements\npose much greater challenges and depend significantly on the duration of a singleWi-Fi scan. For the smartphones, the scan durations differed in the range of 2.4 to 4.1 s resulting in different accuracies for kinematic positioning, as fewer measurements along the trajectories are available for a device with longer scan duration. The investigations indicated also that the achievable localization performance is only on the few meter level due to the small number of APs of the University own Wi-Fi network deployed in the library. A promising solution for performance improvement is the foreseen usage of low-cost Raspberry Pi units serving as Wi-Fi transmitter and receiver.\nWi-Fi positioning; navigation; location fingerprinting; RSSI-based positioning; probabilistic approach; information service; book tracking\n\"Official\" electronic version of the publication (accessed through its Digital Object Identifier - DOI)\nElectronic version of the publication:\nCreated from the Publication Database of the Vienna University of Technology."}
{"content":"3 WRITTEN CONSTITUTION\nAn illustrative blueprint (third of three)\nA document of basic law by which the United Kingdom\nis governed, including the relationship between the state and\nits citizens, an amendment procedure, and elements of reform.\nThe distinctive elements of this illustrative Written\nConstitution - being a document of basic law by which the United\nKingdom is governed, including the relationship between the state\nand its citizens, an amendment procedure, and elements of reform\n- include, among others, the following.\nThe Constitution is codified into a single written\ndocument, serving as the source of authority and fundamental law\nin the state.\nThe existing political structure maintained\nThe Monarchy, Prime Minister and Cabinet, principles\nof ministerial responsibility, bicameral Parliament, devolution\nsettlements, and structure of local government are established\nin the Constitution.\nConventions and customs on major constitutional issues,\nsuch as the appointment of a Prime Minister, consent of Parliament\non decisions to go to war, and powers of the Head of State over\nlaw-making, are replaced by written procedures.\nProcess of constitutional change\nFuture amendments to the constitution may be made\nby Parliament under special majority procedures in each House\nContinuous existence of Parliament\nParliament is established as a permanent body, superseding\nprocedures for its summoning and dissolution.\nThe timing of general elections\nThere is a five-yearly cycle for parliamentary elections,\nwith a more flexible procedure for the House of Commons to call\nan early election when the situation requires it.\nA democratic Parliament\nThe First Past the Post system is retained for the\nHouse of Commons, and a smaller Second Chamber with enhanced functions\nis to be elected by proportional representation, with transitional\narrangements for existing peers to remain as members for life\nor until retirement.\nA United Kingdom Bill of Rights\nA code of principles on the rights and freedoms of\ncitizens in the United Kingdom replaces the Human Rights Act.\nA broader devolution settlement\nThe existing devolution settlement in the Scotland\nAct, Government of Wales Act and Northern Ireland Act is unchanged,\nbut operates within constitutional framework giving greater uniformity\nacross the Union.\nA greater autonomy for elected local authorities\nis provided for, and a new statutory code on central-local government\nrelations, while maintaining the Local Government Acts to provide\nthe operational details of local government.\nInternational and European affairs\nDraft treaties concluded by the Government require\nthe scrutiny and approval of both Houses of Parliament within\nthree months in order to become binding in international law.\nTreaty obligations, including those arising from membership of\nthe European Union, require an Act of Parliament to take direct\neffect in domestic law.\nThe public services\nA concept of the public service across all tiers\nof government is introduced, operating under a Code of Conduct\nand the supervision of a Public Services Commission.\nThe Director of Public Prosecutions continues, and\nnew office of Director of Civil Proceedings is established with\nresponsibilities in public interest, human rights and European\nlaw issues. The person occupying the office of Attorney General\nmay no longer be a member of Parliament.\nThe constitutional role of the judiciary\nThe Supreme Court may review Acts of Parliament for\nconformity with the Constitution and, where found to be in violation,\nmake a declaration of unconstitutionality that does not invalidate\nthe statutory provision in question.\nA number of new or revised commissions are established\nto promote the accountability of public agencies, conduct inquiries,\nand/or keep existing arrangements under review, including a Commission\nIt should be repeated that this blueprint does not\nadvocate any particular reforms by their inclusion in this illustrative\nConstitution; it simply give examples of how such changes might\nbe incorporated in a document of this nature. The fundamental\nquestion remains the desirability or otherwise of codifying the\nconstitution of the United Kingdom."}
{"content":"Zn2+, Mg2+, and Ca2+ are essential minerals required for a plethora of metabolic processes and signaling pathways. Different categories of cation-selective channels and transporters are therefore required to tightly control the cellular levels of individual metals in a cell-specific manner. However, the mechanisms responsible for the organismal balance of these essential minerals are poorly understood. Herein, we identify a central and indispensable role of the channel-kinase TRPM7 for organismal mineral homeostasis. The function of TRPM7 was assessed by single-channel analysis of TRPM7, phenotyping of TRPM7-deficient cells in conjunction with metabolic profiling of mice carrying kidney- and intestine-restricted null mutations in Trpm7 and animals with a global \"kinase-dead\" point mutation in the gene. The TRPM7 channel reconstituted in lipid bilayers displayed a similar permeability to Zn2+ and Mg2+ Consistently, we found that endogenous TRPM7 regulates the total content of Zn2+ and Mg2+ in cultured cells. Unexpectedly, genetic inactivation of intestinal rather than kidney TRPM7 caused profound deficiencies specifically of Zn2+, Mg2+, and Ca2+ at the organismal level, a scenario incompatible with early postnatal growth and survival. In contrast, global ablation of TRPM7 kinase activity did not affect mineral homeostasis, reinforcing the importance of the channel activity of TRPM7. Finally, dietary Zn2+ and Mg2+ fortifications significantly extended the survival of offspring lacking intestinal TRPM7. Hence, the organismal balance of divalent cations critically relies on one common gatekeeper, the intestinal TRPM7 channel.\nKeywords: TRP channels; TRPM7; calcium; magnesium; zinc.\nCopyright © 2019 the Author(s). Published by PNAS."}
{"content":"Go for it. It's easy to do and beautiful to behold.\nWhen used in bioreactors, algae is 400 times more efficient than a tree at removing CO2 from the atmosphere.\nPyroFarms grows PyroDinos using LED lights and filtered sunlight on their algae farm in Carlsbad California.\nFor those of us constantly looking for ways to lessen our carbon footprint and look good doing it.\nThink of all the things you could do with 2.5 gallons of luminescent algae\nBio-Light 'Concept 7' is powered by bioluminescent marine algae (PyroDinos)\nThere are three main protocols for reviving an overgrown Bio-Orb.\nThere has been a huge bioluminescent algae bloom at our local beaches. Here are some photos and ...\nNow available directly through our online store: A One Liter bag of PyroDinos (34oz)\nBioluminescence is caused by a chemical reaction between a light emitting molecule and an enzyme that are generically referred to as luciferin and luciferase.\nLow and wide containers like the one in this video work better than narrow and tall containers.\nA bloom or algal bloom is what scientists refer to when populations of microalgae (also know as dinoflagellates and/or phytoplankton) phase into logarithmic growth\nA relaxing and meditative journey using natural light (bioluminescence) and sound (432Hz). S...\nThis is a polycarbonate culture flask suspended by several shock cords and filled with one liter of our PyroDinos\nIn this tutorial we show how easy it is to take care of your Bio-Orb. The process of adding DinoN...\nThe Bio-Orb contains seawater and tiny plant-plankton\nWalking and playing on a full-sized Dino-Tile. Custom Dino-Tiles are available by special order ...\nIt is a memorable night on the beach when PyroFarms brings 40 gallons of bioluminescent algae\nGravity flow of Dinos and a funky beat. A Custom Dino-Tile on display.\nListen to the light while viewing the music. In this video we are playing with one of our custom...\nThe Best of 2020 is probably an oxymoron but we will run with it anyway. Here are some of the best PyroFarms' videos of 2020.\nGrowing PyroDino dinoflagellates is a lot like taking care of a houseplant.\nOur side hustle has been attempting to create a renewable light source using our natural PyroDino algae\nIf you watch the mash video carefully you will see something you have not seen before.\nWhat happens when you find a mermaid playing on your bioluminescent DinoTile? You wouldn't believe us if we told you.\nWhether you’re a marine biologist or just a fan of bioluminescence, there’s something in this episode for everyone.\nA single-celled marine dinoflagellate lights up and then dims again as it is squeezed between two...\nPyroFarms Is Lighting Up the World With Tiny Living Organisms\nAn experiment using sound to stimulate bioluminescent dinoflagellates to produce light (bioluminescence)"}
{"content":"Simplify the design and programming of multicore systems\nMulticore hardware offers the promise of improved flexibility and scalability along with increased performance and power efficiency, but moving to multicore raises many questions. How do you migrate your existing application software? How do you handle the complexities of programming multiple cores? Can you use multiple OSes or a combination of bare-metal algorithms and an RTOS?\nQuadros Systems, in partnership with PolyCore Software, offers a suite of products, tools and services to make multicore a reality for you. Using our innovative and scalable software technologies, your application can be rapidly multicore-enabled and deployed within a wide range of hardware platforms.\nRTXC Quadros multiprocessor RTOS (RTXC/mp) is designed to extend the features of RTXC RTOS to applications with multiple cores or processors—homogeneous or heterogeneous and can support networks of any topology: rings, stars, n-node symmetric, or asymmetric.\nCoupled with PolyCore Software’s Poly-Platform™, it provides a multicore runtime platform, helping to reduce complexity and improve time-to-market using the scalable MultiCore API (MCAPI). The combined Poly-Platform/MCAPI and RTXC/mp framework allows you to shift processing loads from overloaded CPUs, MCUs or DSPs to those that are under-utilized.\n- Support for combinations of OSes\n- Multiple instances of RTXC\n- RTXC with a GPOS (such as Linux)\n- RTXC plus bare-metal algorithms\n- Code protection and isolation\n- Isolate real-time system from a GPOS\n- Isolate safety-critical code from other code\n- Standards-based programming interface for multicore and multiprocessing applications\n- Readily scale the application from a few to many cores"}
{"content":"Solomon Rauh and Rosalia Lippman immigrated separately to Philadelphia, Pa., from Bavaria about 1849. They married and moved to Dubuque, Iowa, and later to Cincinnati, Ohio, before joining her brother Abraham Lippman in Pittsburgh about 1870.\nIn Pittsburgh, Solomon Rauh (c.1822-1880) worked with his brother-in-law in a dry goods store on Second Avenue downtown. Rosalia Rauh (1834-1915) was president of the Hebrew Ladies Aid Society from 1880 until 1905. She was also on the board of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Gusky Orphanage, the Montefiore Hospital Ladies’ Aid Society and the Jewish Home for the Aged. Among other charitable deeds, she donated $5,000 to the Gusky Orphanage in 1899, in memory of her husband and two deceased children. “When a deserving child displays an inclination for a trade or profession a certain appropriation of the ‘Training Fund’ is to be used for an education in the development of that tendency in one of the local manual training schools, business colleges or preparatory schools for a profession,” the Jewish Criterion explained.\nSolomon and Rosalia Rauh had five children, Enoch, Marcus, Abraham, Bertha and Charles. They lived for a time at 38 Western Avenue in old Allegheny City.\nEnoch and Bertha Rauh\nEnoch Rauh (1857-1919) completed his studies at night schools in Pittsburgh before working as a clerk for his uncles Abraham Lippman and Louis Aaron. With the backing of Lippman, the four brothers started a wholesale men’s clothing business that eventually became Rauh Brothers & Company on Wood Street. As the business grew, it moved to 800 Liberty Avenue and later to 951 Penn Avenue. By 1886, the business employed more than 100 people and eventually included a branch office in New York and covered territory stretching into Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky. Enoch Rauh was also a major investor with the Homer Laughlin China Company of East Liverpool, Ohio.\nHis business acumen brought him to the Pittsburgh Association of Credit Men, which sought to improve commercial lending. He served six terms as president. The members of the association included Benswanger & Hast, the Duquesne Reduction Company, the Edlis Barber Supply Company, Frank & Seder Department Stores, Kingsbacher Brothers, Lehman & Kingsbacher and C. Reizenstein’s Sons.\nEnoch Rauh moved into the political sphere in 1911, when he was appointed to the Council of Nine, a transitional body between the ward-based council and the City Council as it exists today. He subsequently served two elected terms. His work included efforts to impose an eight-hour workday and enact anti-child-labor laws. He also sponsored the Rauh Act, an early piece of statewide worker’s compensation legislation for municipal employees.\nAt the time of his death, Enoch Rauh was a trustee of the Carnegie Library, the Carnegie Institute, the Carnegie Institute of Technology and the Carnegie Music Hall; a director of the Gusky Orphanage; and a member of the advisory board for the Young Men’s Hebrew Association, among other positions. He was the president of the Concordia Club for 25 years. In 1920, after his death, a group of young Jewish men formed the Enoch Rauh Club, a social and philanthropic organization with the motto “Do good wherever possible.”\nIn 1888, Enoch Rauh married Bertha Floersheim. Bertha Floersheim Rauh (1865-1952) gained an early reputation for high achievement. She graduated from the Grant School and from Central High School with the highest marks in the city and maintained a perfect attendance record through the entirety of her schooling. She also excelled artistically, gaining notice as singer and an actress. She played piano at the Art Society, sang at the Carnegie Music Hall and performed in amateur theatrical productions at the Concordia Club. She sang in the Rodef Shalom Congregation choir for 16 years, apparently to save the congregation the expense of employing a salaried mezzo-soprano. “She is slight and dark, with flashing dark eyes and a fitful color that grows brilliant under excitement,” as The Social Mirror described her in 1888.\nBertha Rauh volunteered for charitable causes throughout her youth. Her career as a civic and philanthropic leader began in 1903 when she was elected to serve as president of the National Council of Jewish Women, Pittsburgh Section, a position she held until 1922. Her tenure corresponded with a dramatic increase in the immigrant population of Pittsburgh, and she focused her efforts on expanding privately funded resources for those in need, both Jewish and non-Jewish. These initiatives included “penny lunches” in the city schools, open air schools for tubercular children, juvenile courts and a labor bureau for the unemployed, all of which the city eventually incorporated into its public welfare services. She fostered public baths and a program to deliver pasteurized milk and clean water to children in poor neighborhoods, and she helped found the Committee to Aid the Blind, which was a forerunner of the National Association for the Blind. She was active in many home-front initiatives during World War I, including the Red Cross.\n“She distinguished between the contributions that women and men respectively could make, believing that women would bring sensitivity to decision-making positions, private charity, the city, and the nation,” the historian Corinne Azen Krause wrote in a profile. Bertha Rauh manifested this philosophy in many ways. She was a founding member of several suffrage groups in Western Pennsylvania and criticized the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, of which she was a founder, for barring women from its board of directors. The Federation relented, in part, by appointing her to a one-year term in 1923.\nBy 1919, Bertha Rauh was a member of 30 boards, which gave her a level of experience and a degree of public standing that was unusual for women of her time. Mayor William A. Magee appointed Rauh to serve as Director of Public Charities, making her the first female cabinet appointee for any city in the country. She soon changed the name to the Department of Public Welfare, reflecting her ambitious social agenda. According to Krause, “…she collaborated closely with public and private charities, settlement houses, hospitals, churches, and schools,” which yielded many highly effective programs, including traveling physicians and dieticians and a dramatic transformation of the archaic Mayview Hospital into a modern psychiatric facility. She was reappointed under two successive administrations, which carried her 12-year term into the Great Depression.\nEven after retiring from public office in 1934, Bertha Rauh maintained a presence in public life by advocating for the legalization of birth control and for the implementation of smoke-control measures, as well as for other public health initiatives. “One thinks of Jane Addams of Chicago and Mrs. Enoch Rauh of Pittsburgh in the same way,” the Pittsburgh Press wrote in a tribute during her lifetime, “each of them an inspiring citizen of her great community, and both of them shining examples of the religion of doing good.” The Detroit Free Press dubbed her “The Lady Astor of Pittsburgh.”\nEnoch and Bertha Rauh had two children, Helen and Richard.\nRichard Solomon and Helen Wayne Rauh\nLike his parents, Richard Solomon Rauh (1893-1954) was precocious in childhood and active in public life from an early age. He graduated from Fifth Avenue High School and the University of Pittsburgh before taking a job at the Jewish Criterion, where he was news editor and wrote a “Weekly Comment” column covering world affairs and the arts. His subjects included women’s suffrage, the advent of World War I and the trial of Leo Frank. He moved from journalism into advertising in the late 1910s with the firm Rauh & Rosenthal. He later started the Richard S. Rauh Company. A pioneer in the field, locally, he was named director of advertising for Duquesne University in 1917, and he pushed for the formation of an advertising association to advance the profession. He was also the executive vice president and treasurer of the Bankers Lithographing Company.\nThroughout his life, Richard S. Rauh was active in philanthropic pursuits. At his death, he was president of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, a trustee of the United Jewish Fund, vice president of the National Jewish Hospital in Denver, and director of the national board of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. He had served as a trustee of the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, as well as on other boards.\nWith his mother, Richard S. Rauh co-founded the Pittsburgh Symphony Society. He and eight other officers of the society were arrested in April 1927 when the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra played a Sunday concert in violation of Pennsylvania blue laws.\nIn 1935, Richard S. Rauh married Helen Wayne (1912-1993). Born Helen Barbara Sisenwain, the actress shortened her name while studying drama at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. Shortly after graduating in 1933, she became a founding member of the Pittsburgh Civic Playhouse, where Rauh first saw her. While courting, Richard Rauh and Helen Wayne, with the help of a committee including Leon Falk Jr. and Charles Rosenbloom, re-organized the group into the non-profit Pittsburgh Playhouse in late 1934. Over the following four decades, Helen Wayne Rauh performed in 38 productions at the Pittsburgh Playhouse, in addition to notable work on local radio and television. She also wrote an etiquette column for the Pittsburgh Sun Times. “It’s impossible to imagine another local actor — or many visiting ones — who enjoyed such instant name recognition even outside theatrical circles,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote in a memorial of Rauh after her death.\nRichard and Helen Wayne Rauh had one son, Richard Enoch.\nRichard Enoch Rauh\nRichard Enoch Rauh (1940-) graduated from Shady Side Academy and the University of Pittsburgh. He followed his mother into acting, starting his career as a child in a 1946 Shady Side Academy production. He later performed on stage, film and television, including several acclaimed productions of Neil Simon’s The Last of the Red Hot Lovers and a 1998 production of Krapp’s Last Tape, which is generally considered to be his best performance. In 1962, while in college, Rauh was a founder and the general manager of WPGH-FM, the first student radio station at the University of Pittsburgh.\nHe produced the Pittsburgh Playhouse Film Festival from 1968 until the series ended in 1994 and ran a summer film series for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust at the Byham in 1997 and 1998. He taught film and theater at Point Park College and wrote theater reviews for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and other publications.\nStarting about 1998, while continuing his academic and theatrical work, Richard E. Rauh became an active philanthropist, donating to numerous Jewish and cultural organizations around the Pittsburgh area, particularly those institutions with a connection to his family and its history. His endowments include the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center, the Richard E. Rauh Oral History Fund at the National Council of Jewish Women, Pittsburgh Section, the Helen Wayne Rauh Studio Theater at Carnegie Mellon University, the Rauh Theater at the Pittsburgh Playhouse, the Helen Wayne Rauh Rehearsal Hall at the O’Reilly Theater and the Richard S. Rauh Garden Room at Heinz Hall."}
{"content":"The #1 Paranormal News Site\nThe pictures of the towers in Mexico, have been submitted to the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) for analysis by experts at the US-based organisation.\nHowever, it has already been said the striking “UFOs” are nothing more than “lens flare” anomalies created inside the camera rather than being anything physical in the real world.\nMUFON is the world’s biggest organisation dedicated to UFO and alien research.\nThe images have just been sent to MUFON for analysis, but were actually taken on May 2, 2006.\nIn a report to MUFON, the unnamed photographer said: “I took a photograph with a long exposure of the telecommunications towers, about 800 metres away.\n“Later seeing the photograph in my house I discovered those lights.”\nThe photographer said he photographed the towers in similar conditions three weeks later, but nothing strange appeared in the pictures.\nMUFON receives hundreds of pictures of suspected UFOs which can readily be explained, and even several hoaxes.\nIt is often sent pictures with UFOs similar to these which turn out to be lens flares.\nLens flares occur when a camera is pointed at bright sunlight or artificial lights, which then refracts inside the lens, and a reflection of the light then appears on the printed image.\nBut Scott C Waring, who runs website ufosightingsdaily.com, has concluded these were actually alien craft seeking to intercept data from the telecommunications towers.\nHe is known for his wild speculative theories on alleged UFO pictures, which are not backed up by any evidence.\nIn a blog entitled “Four UFO Disks Sucking Data Over Communication Towers In Mexico”, he wrote: “Look closely, you can even see into the clear dome on top of the ships.\n“Four glowing green disks were recorded near some telecommunication towers.\n“The UFOs were obviously recording data and information being sent around the globe from those towers.”\nHe went on to suggest that the “lens flares” did not appear in other pictures taken by the man, because the aliens realised they had been seen and an “artificial intelligence” system on board made the craft invisible.\nMr Waring tried to head off any sceptics suggesting the pictures were lens flares.\nHe added: “All photos are untouched, original. At first, the UFOs might be mistaken for a reflection, but in all actuality, the UFOs were revealed by the powerful lights below, some of which contain infrared lights which can see at night, and it was night, so this caused them to become visible to the camera for a few moments until shield harmonics were altered to hide them.”\nScott Brando is a forensic UFO image investigator who runs the hoax-busting website ufoofinterest.org.\nHe is known for ridiculing Mr Waring’s theories after confirming what was actually shown in the picture.\nHe confirmed that in this case what has been mistaken for UFOs are lens flares.\nHe said: “There have been several pictures with this type of lens flare which have been wrongly identified as UFOs.”\nHe also tweeted about Mr Waring’s blog, saying: “MUFON case #81662: according to the hoaxer Scott C Waring these lens flares taken in #Mexico over telecommunications towers could be #UFOs.”"}
{"content":"COVID-19 is not the only major, historic event happening right now. In response to the killings of George Floyd and other unarmed Black people by the police, people around the world have joined the Black Lives Matter movement, whether by attending protests, donating to Black-led initiatives, or educating themselves and those around them.\nNo world event happens in a vacuum. There are many ways in which our experiences of COVID-19 are linked to the ongoing movement demanding that Black lives be valued. So please do not feel that, when documenting life during the pandemic, you must document only pandemic-related changes. It is all connected, and the Black Lives Matter movement is a vitally important part of life right now.\nHopefully we’ll look back on the year 2020 as a year of positive change. And when we do, we’ll be looking to understand the whole experience, not just the pandemic on its own, or this particular civil rights movement on its own.\nIf you are interested in capturing your interviewees’ reflections on the Black Lives Matter movement, alongside their experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic, see below for some additional questions to consider asking.\nNone of these questions are intended to be judgmental. Rather, they are simply capturing your interviewee’s perspective.\nThis is a sensitive and potentially traumatic subject. If you are not Black, and your interviewee is Black, you must ask them well before the interview if they are comfortable answering questions about this subject. Allow your interviewee to take the lead in terms of what issues to discuss, and when to have the interview.\nSee the final link, below, for more information about the sensitivity required when documenting this subject.\nInterview questions about the Black Lives Matter movement:\nHow do you feel about the current Black Lives Matter movement?\nHave you spent much time learning about the Black Lives Matter movement recently?\nHave you changed your mind about anything because of what you’ve learned? If so, what?\nHave you participated in a similar movement before?\nAre you participating in this movement now? If so, how?\nIf you don’t feel comfortable participating in this movement, why is that?\nDo you feel that this current movement is different from those of the past? If so, how? If not, why not?\nIf you are not in the United States, have you seen much discussion about racism in your own country?\nDo you think this particular protest movement is connected to the pandemic in any way? If so, how?\nWhat do you think will be the outcome of this movement?\nAre there any other reflections you want to share about the current Black Lives Matter movement?\nArticles about the racial disparities in the impact of COVID-19 (United States-specific):\nThe COVID-19 Black Emergency Support Fund (Greater Toronto Area-specific):\nTo learn more about your nearest Black Lives Matter chapter (Canada and United States):\nFor a deeper dive into the need for caution and sensitivity around documenting this movement, consider reading “No one owes their trauma to archivists,” by Eira Tansey."}
{"content":"Thomas Jennings: The Man Who Invented Dry Cleaning\nWho Was Thomas Jennings?\nThomas Jennings was a pioneer in the dry cleaning industry and among several other inventors. In 1821, Jennings became the first African-American individual to become granted with a patent. In the year 1821, he became granted the patent for “dry scouring.” This is a method for cleaning clothes that paved modern-day dry cleaning. Jennings is also renowned for being a leader in the civil rights and abolitionist movement in New York City. Keep reading to learn more about Thomas Jennings.\nJenning's Early Life\nIn New York City in the early 1820's, Jennings became a tailor. Jennings wasn't pleased with the traditional methods of cleaning clothing. This gave him the idea to begin experimenting with new techniques and ideas. Eventually, he moved forward with his career path and went on to start a clothing shop. While running that business at the age of 29, Jennings developed dry scouring. This was a method of removing dirt and grease from delicate clothing.\nThen, in 1821, Jennings became granted a patent for his new cleaning method, gaining full ownership of his dry-scouring invention. He likely became the first African American individual in the U.S. to receive a patent.\nPatent ACT OF 1793\nIn addition, under the Patent Act of 1793, a person had to sign an oath declaring that he was a citizen of the U.S. Therefore, the patent recognized Jennings as a citizen which was a rare designation for an African American person at the time. Eventually, in 1861, five years after Jennings died, U.S. patent rights became extended to slaves. When Jennings passed, Frederick Douglass wrote about his death. He noted the importance and significance of the patent Jennings received and that the patent recognized him as a \"citizen of the United States,\" a designation at the time that was a great shock to many.\nThomas Jenning's proceeds\nThomas Jennings used the proceeds from his invention and successful business to fight for the abolition of slavery in the U.S. He was one of five New York delegates to the first-ever Convention of Free People of Color, held in 1831 in Philadelphia.\nAlong with this, his wife, Elizabeth, was an indentured servant and he bought her freedom. In addition, he bought the freedom of his children. Jennings’ children went on to receive an education and they all became actively involved in the abolitionist movement themselves.\nOverall, Jennings discovery of the process, dry-scouring allowed him to become known as the forerunner of today's modern dry-cleaning.\nFrom cleaning shoelaces to mattresses, our knowledge base is full of laundry hacks, helpful tips and full-on secrets."}
{"content":"Newcastle Football Club, also known as the toons, is a well-supported club in England and across the globe. The club is based out of Newcastle upon Tyne and Wear and plays all home games at St. James’ Park. The current owner of the club, Mike Ashley has been involved in several spats with club fans. The club has seen most of its success at the start of the 20th century and at the end of the same century (the first and last decade of the century). Newcastle United was founded at the end of the 19th century in 1892. The club formed as a result of the merger between the West End and East End. With such a long history, the club has managed to stay in the top division for more than 88 seasons. In the Premier League era, the club played every season barring three years. Newcastle’s trophy cabinet includes four League titles, six FA Cups, and several other domestic cups. The highest goalscorer for the club is still Allan Shearer with 206 goals. Some of the other club legends include Shay Given, Nicky Butt, Coloccini, Krul, Andy Cole, LeeClark, Paul Gascoigne, Kevin Keegan, Micky Burns, etc.\nNewcastle Football Club’s Past\nThe club was founded in 1881 as a cricket club and a sports club. The East End and West End operated as two different clubs until the West merged with the East because of financial trouble. The name Newcastle United signifies the unification of both teams.\n1. The 1900s – this was the most successful period in the club’s history. The club secured promotion to the first division only in 1899 or almost 10 years later. The club managed to win the First Division title three times in the decade,, during 1905, 1907, and 1909. They managed to win the FA Cup in 1910 after losing in three previous finals in 5 years.\n2. WW2 – During the 1930s, the club was relegated twice leading up to WW2. It took the club until after the war to secure promotion to the first division again. The club managed to win an FA Cup three times in five seasons in the early 1950s. Post these wins, the club started to decline again and got relegated in the 1960s. The period from the 1960s to the 1990s saw the club fluctuate between the top, first and second divisions of English Football.\n3. The 1992-era – 1992 was the start of the Premier League-era and it also meant new hopes for Newcastle Football Club. The club managed to finish 3rd in the league in their first season after promotion to the League. In the following years, Newcastle finished 2nd (1996 and 1997) and missed out narrowly on the Premier League. Some of the best players that featured for the club during this period include Les Ferdinand, Ginola, Shearer, etc. The club also qualified for Champions League football on several occasions (even beating Barcelona under Dalglish).\nWhen Mike Ashley took over Newcastle Football Club, he paid 5p/share on the LSE to become the owner of the club. The club has been relegated twice in the Premier League era, however, securing qualification back to the EPL the next season. The owner has been accused by fans of not investing in the club, facilities, or players. In fact, the owner planned to sell the club on three separate instances but rescinded his offer at some point. The club was recently in talks to be acquired by a Saudi consortium, but the deal was blocked by British MPs. Steve Bruce is the current manager of Newcastle United and is appointed until 2022. Some of the key squad players include Longstaff, Carroll, Maximin, Ritchie, Wilson, Manquillo, Fraser, Yedlin, Almiron, etc.\nNewcastle Football Club has had ups and downs, and a lot of successful periods in between. However, given where things stand, it’s important that the club has an owner not only motivated by financial incentives but also wants his club to compete on a higher level. For Newcastle to finish in the top half of the table, it’s going to take consistency before they can mount a top-7 and then a top-4 finish. Newcastle will have better luck at domestic competitions and trophies over the next few years before they can cement themselves as a top Premier League club again."}
{"content":"By Aaron Earls\nMost Protestant churchgoers say they are eager to talk to others about Jesus and are praying for opportunities to share their faith, but most say they have not had any evangelistic conversations in the past six months.\nThe 2019 Discipleship Pathway Assessment study from Nashville-based Lifeway Research found excitement and eagerness about the idea of evangelism, but few Protestant churchgoers actually engaged in the practice on a regular basis.\nMore than half (55%) of those who attend church at least once a month say they have not shared with someone how to become a Christian in the past six months.\n“Sharing the good news that Jesus paid for our sins through His death on the cross and rose again to bring us new life is the mission of the church,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, “but it does not appear to be the priority of churchgoers.”\nSeeking evangelistic opportunities\nA majority of churchgoers (56%) say they pray for opportunities to tell others about Jesus at least once a week, with 23% praying for such moments every day.\nMore than a quarter (27%) say they rarely or never pray for those opportunities.\nThose with a high school diploma or less are most likely to say they pray for those opportunities every day (31%).\nHispanics (36%) and African Americans (29%) are more likely to offer those prayers every day compared to whites (20%) or other ethnicities (17%).\nIncreased church attendance makes it more likely someone has offered evangelistic prayers.\nThose who attend a worship service on average once a week (75%) are more likely than churchgoers who attend less frequently (69%) to pray at least once a month.\nMost churchgoers (56%) also say they are eager to talk about Jesus with people who are not like them in terms of ethnicity, income or interests. About 1 in 6 disagree (16%).\nChurchgoers 65 and older are the age group least likely to strongly agree they are eager to share the gospel with those different from themselves (20%).\nHispanics (40%) and African Americans (32%) are more likely to strongly agree than whites (23%).\n“The task of making disciples of all nations has not been fully embraced in the American church—especially by the majority culture,” said McConnell. “This is in spite of the convenience of having other ethnicities and immigrants from other countries often living in the same neighborhood.”\nMissing evangelistic opportunities\nLess than half of churchgoers say they have shared with someone in the past six months how to become a Christian (45%).\nOf those who have spoken to someone about becoming a Christian, most had done so with one or two people (24%). Around 1 in 10 churchgoers (10%) average at least one evangelistic conversation a month.\nThose 65 and older are the age demographic most likely to say they had no evangelistic conversations recently (62%).\n“Recently, there has been much discussion about young adults participating less in evangelism. That’s not the case, however,” said McConnell. “In fact, young adult and middle-aged churchgoers are more likely to have shared with someone how to become a Christian in the past six months than older churchgoing adults.”\nHispanics are the ethnic group least likely to say they have not spoken with anyone about becoming a Christian in the last six months (32%).\nThose who attend a worship service four times a month or more (53%) are less likely to say they have had no evangelistic conversations than those who attend less than four times a month (60%).\nMost churchgoers (55%) say they have, however, invited an unchurched person to a church service or program in the past six months.\nWhile 45% say they haven’t made any invitation, 31% say they invited one or two individuals.\nAgain, Hispanics are the most likely to have invited someone. Around 7 in 10 (71%) Hispanic churchgoers say they invited at least one person to church.\nIncreased church attendance is also linked to an increased practice of inviting others to church.\nThose who attend at least four times a month (58%) are more likely to say they have invited an unchurched person to a church service in the past six months than those who attend less than four times a month (47%).\n“Jesus never promised the Great Commission would be completed quickly,” said McConnell, “but He set the expectation that the efforts to reach all nations with His gospel should be continuous. Many in church today appear to be distracted from Jesus’ final command.”\nEvangelism is one of eight signposts that are measured in the Discipleship Pathway Assessment and addressed in Lifeway’s Bible Studies for Life curriculum. For more information, visit DiscipleshiepPathwayAssessment.com.\nAaron is a writer for LifewayResearch.com.\nThe online survey of 2,500 Protestant churchgoers was conducted Jan. 14–29, 2019. Respondents were screened to include those who identified as Protestant/non-denominational and attend religious services at least once a month. Quotas and slight weights were used to balance gender, age, region, ethnicity, income and denominational affiliation. The completed sample is 2,500 surveys. The sample provides 95% confidence that the sampling error does not exceed plus or minus 2.0%. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups."}
{"content":"Goal models and business process models are complementary artifacts for capturing the requirements and their execution flow in software engineering. In this case, goal models serve as input for designing business process models. This requires mappings between both types of models in order to describe which user goals are implemented by which activities in a business process. Due to the large number of possible relationships among goals in the goal model and possible control flows of activities, developers struggle with the challenge of maintaining consistent configurations of both models and their mappings. Managing these mappings manually is error-prone. In our work, we propose an automated solution that relies on Description Logics and automated reasoners for validating mappings that describe the realization of goals by activities in business process models. The results are the identification of two inconsistency patterns - orchestration inconsistency and choreography inconsistency - and the development of the corresponding algorithms for detecting these inconsistencies.\n- Goal-oriented process design\n- Goal-oriented process engineering\n- Inconsistency detection\n- Requirement modeling"}
{"content":"BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to determine opportunities and barriers regarding the management of overweight and obese children in daily practice, and to show the value of using focus groups when developing an action plan for childhood overweight management in a local context.\nMETHODS: Seven focus groups and four semi-structured interviews were conducted with 29 professionals from nine different care disciplines and 7 parents of overweight and obese children aged 4-19 years.\nRESULTS: After thorough analysis of the focus groups, issues concerning finding the most appropriate care and realising a long-term weight management in daily practice have become clear. Some examples of these issues are: lack of awareness, reluctance to discuss and refer, mutual cooperation, contradictory advice and expectations of treatment and lack of effective support strategies.\nCONCLUSION: Focus groups deliver important information on local issues that are important for the development and implementation of a childhood overweight management action plan. And, besides delivering necessary information, focus groups lead to an increased awareness and willingness to improve childhood overweight management in a local context.\n- Child, Preschool\n- Chronic Disease\n- Disease Management\n- Focus Groups\n- Interviews as Topic\n- Models, Biological\n- Program Development\n- Psychology, Child\n- Young Adult\n- Journal Article\n- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't"}
{"content":"Since the initial emergence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, a rapid spread of the disease occurred around the world, rising to become an international global health concern at pandemic level. In the face of this medical challenge threatening humans, the development of rapid and accurate methods for early screening and diagnosis of COVID-19 became crucial to containing the emerging public health threat, and prevent further spread within the population. Despite the large number of COVID-19 confirmed cases in China, some problematic cases with inconsistent laboratory testing results, were reported. Specifically, a high false-negative rate of 41% on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) detection by real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) assays was observed in China. Although serological testing has been applied worldwide as a complementary method to help identify SARS-CoV-2, several limitations on its use have been reported in China. Therefore, the use of both qRT-PCR and serological testing in the diagnosis of COVID-19 in China and elsewhere, presented considerable challenges, but when used in combination, can be valuable tools in the fight against COVID-19. In this review, we give an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of different molecular techniques for SARS-CoV-2 detection that are currently used in several labs, including qRT-PCR, gene sequencing, loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), nucleic acid mass spectrometry (MS), and gene editing technique based on clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR/Cas13) system. Then we mainly review and analyze some causes of false-negative qRT-PCR results, and how to resolve some of the diagnostic dilemma."}
{"content":"The only way to solve it was to buy it. But it will continue to be for sale – to the person who loves it for its history and its features and doesn’t want to knock it down. We had to buy it to keep it safe. The restoration will be a long, slow process as we are otherwise engaged in a very long and time consuming project elsewhere. But little by little we will peel away the awful things that have happened to it – vinyl siding, home depot windows, layers of neglect. The chimney will be rebuilt. Because of its location, this million dollar project will be reclaimed for much less and may need fundraising efforts. I am thinking of selling bricks. Perhaps for a small fee one can have their name live forever on a brick in the to-be-rebuilt attic chimney of the Asahel Olcott house.\nThere will be little or no profit here, at least financially. This is not an upscale neighborhood. It is a humble farming community, desirable only to the folks sensitive enough to value the quiet ambiance of this street along the Great River, that brought initially the Dutch and then the folks from Dorchester to settle here, Connecticut’s first town. The profit is to the street, to the neighbors, and to Connecticut’s rich history. We are doing this out of respect for Asahel Olcott who responded in 1775 to the Lexington Alarm. Now we’ve responded to his alarm, to preserve the homes of our ancestors, who not only fought for our freedom, but gave us a rich architectural heritage that sustains us physically, aesthetically and psychologically. We still wonder at, and learn from, their courage, their efforts, their class.\nWill keep you posted on the progress."}
{"content":"Mississippi ‘Personhood’ Bill (HB 1106)\nThis law was last updated on Apr 20, 2016\nHB 1106 would change the definition of “person” under Mississippi law to include “every human being from the moment of fertilization.”\nIf passed, the bill would also give full legal rights to fertilized eggs, embryos, and fetuses, and would ban abortion, birth control pills, IUDs, and emergency contraception. In addition, it would eliminate certain medical choices for women, including some cancer treatments and in vitro fertilization, and might lead to investigation and prosecution of women who miscarry to determine if their own actions caused the death of the fetus.\nSimilar to HB 1309, which failed to pass in 2015."}
{"content":"First aid is a procedure that is done to help a sick person to stabilize as medical attention is awaited to be done. First aid is usually done under emergency cases when someone has been critically injured or when someone has suddenly fallen ill. Theres nothing as dangerous as someone suddenly falls sick or gets critically injured and be in a group of untrained people who know less about first aid this tends to be very risky and very dangerous as the life of the victim will be at risk. No one can predict an accident nor falling sick and thats why it is vital to have full training of first aid to avoid worsening of such situations. By having the right training of first aid you will be able to risk management at ease without fear of contradiction. Victims of first aid should be handled professionally as this is someones health and people shouldnt take experiments with them.\nFirst aid training is very important even in organizations as this is one way of ensuring safety among employees. First aid creates confidence at workplace and also efficiency as employees will be confident with each other in case of an emergency. Organizations should introduce CPR training as this is a common practice that everyone should know and learn CPR is one of the essential practices in first aiding. Trained employees upon first aid is a plus since in case of an emergency they are able to operate the first aid kit and that they will be certain for a positive outcome since they will be sure of how the kit tools are operated and be able to identify them. More so the workers become more safety aware and this is one way of controlling any risks of accidents and also it helps the people around to be responsible in case of any injuries.\nThe training of first aid helps the employees have morale among themselves upon health practices and other related issues. Sick and injured people tend to be very fragile and without proper care of first aid they might end up deteriorating big time thats why it is vital to have the right training at all cost. Knowing the right ways of risk management is important in any organizations as this is one way of gaining confidence while undertaking first aid procedure. It is everyones obligation to get first aid training as this is so helpful in times of emergencies."}
{"content":"RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us!\nI was born in Sweden and grew up in the United Kingdom, a part of the world that conservatives in America denounce for their “cradle to the grave” welfare policies while also being a place that liberals think of as a utopia.\nEuropeans look at America and are mystified by it’s enduring racism and strange gun laws, but are also drawn to the promise of the American dream.\nI was drawn to it too.\nIn 2013, I moved to Tallahassee, Florida for university.\nUnbeknown to me, I had stepped into a National Rifle Association (NRA) battleground state, which would ultimately set the course of the rest of my college career.\nBefore I stumbled onto the campus carry debate, I had no idea what the term meant. I didn’t pay much attention to Florida politics, so learning that lawmakers wanted to allow people with concealed carry permits to bring their firearms on to campus, with no restrictions, was bewildering.\nWhich is why I decided to join the Florida Coalition To Keep Guns Off Campus as their Director of Communications.\nThe UK has some of the strictest gun laws in the world. I’m a fan of those laws. They helped keep me safe.\nBut I’m not here to force them on my fellow students. I simply want international students like me to have a say when such a dangerous bill could impact us, because my college campus is my home.\nEuropeans find America’s gun obsession both fascinating and disturbing. We question how a country, a leader in the modern world, struggles with doing anything about their gun violence problem.\nIt’s an issue unique to the US, when even the majority of police officers in the UK don’t have access to a gun, unless they join a special armed police unit.\nIn a country of 70 million people, only 6,000 police officers are armed. And the strategy seems to work.\nWhich is why the concept of arming everyone in society is just absurd to me. Especially on a college campus, where controversial ideas are discussed, students are failed by professors, and alcohol and drugs are frequently used.\nI know some proponents of campus carry personally, and in no way am I suggesting that they would harm anyone. On a whole, our political leanings don’t impact how we behave in our day-to-day lives.\nBut as students, in an environment that essentially promotes, to quote Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa, “living young and wild and free” that is no place for a deadly weapon that can kill people.\nTo get into the nitty gritty of this, why do lawmakers, some constituents and even some students feel that the only way they’ll be safe is if they have a gun all the time?\nThe NRA has peddled the “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun” theory to push the narrative that a gun will provide you security because everyone else has one.\nAnd it turns into this never-ending cycle of everyone wanting a gun to protect themselves from each other. The problem is, a “good guy with a gun” only stops a “bad guy with a gun” 3 percent of the time.\nBut that doesn’t stop the gun lobby. They further push their message out there, grasping on to the national conversation on campus sexual assault, and attempt to use it to their advantage.\nTheir argument is that a woman should be able to defend herself with a gun on campus if she feels her life is threatened. On its face, that may sound reasonable. The problem is: facts and variables. Every assault is different, and proclaiming that a gun is the answer to all of them is simplistic and ignoring real solutions.\nEvery time there’s a mass shooting, America is again forced to confront its addiction to guns.\nAs gun control activists and gun rights proponents face off in the national arena of public opinion, the British watch on in a perplexed manner.\nSeeing this over and over again, I’ve come to realize trying to apply a British ideology on guns in the US is useless.\nOf course, the statistics speak for themselves, higher rates of gun ownership in the US does equal in higher rates of gun violence. Clearly there is a problem. But the Second Amendment has to make us Europeans take into account the cultural significance of firearms in the US, so we understand why they are so voraciously defended.\nFor many, the Constitution is their bible (apart from, you know, the Bible). Who am I to dismiss that so casually?\nBut even when I put that in my pile of things to think about over my morning tea, I also know that the majority of American voters do want more gun regulation.\nEven the majority of NRA members want universal background checks. So what is holding the US back?\nAgain, it’s the gun lobby. The NRA has stopped representing their members, and instead represents gun manufacturers, and with their financial muscle, most politicians cower in their presence.\nHow does this relate to campus carry? Allowing guns on campus is the NRA’s new mission, and although the political will for it isn’t as readily available even in red states, their campaigns are slowly gaining ground.\nIn Florida, we’ve managed to beat it two years in a row, but next year is looking to be our toughest yet because the NRA will put this on the top of their priority list and they’ll pour their resources into the Sunshine State.\nMarion Hammer, the NRA’s former president turned lobbyist, comes back every session with a determined glint in her eye that admittedly I find a little scary. She’s such an effective lobbyist that Florida is sometimes referred to as the Gunshine State.\nOne interesting part of this whole conversation has been the NRA’s and Students for Concealed Carry’s manipulation of data.\nThey’ve compared US and UK violent crime rates, using the numbers as a justification for campus carry, and guns everywhere in general.\nIt is a completely misleading comparison.\nYes, violent crime rates in the UK are higher per capita. But they forget to mention that the violent crime definitions in the two countries are very different. In the UK, the definition is “all crimes against the person”. This includes bicycle theft, all domestic violence offences, all sexual offences, all assault offences and many more. And even the definitions of those crimes are broader in the UK.\nIn the US, the FBI definition is much narrower; “violent crime is composed of four offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.” So there is no real way to compare the rates.\nFlorida House Rep. Julio Gonzalez, (R) made a similar argument, citing a ‘study’, that I later found and read. Two Harvard students who were gun rights activists, not researchers, wrote it. On top of that, the paper was severely criticized by the Director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, Dr. David Hemenway.\nHow does the Florida Coalition To Keep Guns Off Campus, a group that just doesn’t have access to resources like the gun lobby, beat them again?\nI’ll be honest, I’m concerned.\nOur continued efforts to combat their problematic ‘solution’ to sexual assault and mass shootings in an educational environment resonates with the majority of students, but will it resonate with legislators in 2017?\nIt’s certainly interesting that legislators are so ready to consider and pass guns on campus, when every university stakeholder that has spoken out has said they don’t want it. But a bill that would have allowed guns in legislative meetings hasn’t moved forward since last year. A little hypocritical, no? If Florida legislators really believe guns lead to greater safety, then they’d want to flood legislative chambers with them.\nAs of now, this issue isn’t going away.\nFlorida is on the NRA’s priority list. Students, staff and faculty need to pull together for the 2017 legislative session.\nAnd what am I doing? I graduate this semester, so I get to go back to my cozy gun-free London, and watch this whole situation unfold from afar.\nBut now that I’ve gotten to know all these amazing people during our fight against these farcical bills, I know I’ll be somberly watching as they do it again without me."}
{"content":"sug·gest·ed , sug·gest·ing , sug·gests\n1. To offer for consideration or action; propose: suggest things for children to do; suggested that we take a walk.\n2. To bring or call to mind by logic or association; evoke: a cloud that suggests a mushroom; a ringlike symbol suggesting unity.\n3. To make evident indirectly; intimate or imply: a silence that suggested disapproval.\n4. To serve as or provide a motive for; prompt or demand: Such a crime suggests apt punishment.\nWhy can an obscure anonymous blogboy do this in 15 minutes, yet the national media not manage to pull off any comparison in 48 hours?\nOctober 28, 2002:\n\"This [Saddam Hussein] is a person who has had contacts with al Qaeda.\"\nFebruary 2, 2003:\n\"Saddam Hussein has longstanding, direct and continuing ties to terrorist networks. Senior members of Iraqi intelligence and al Qaeda have met at least eight times since the early 1990s. Iraq has sent bomb-making and document forgery experts to work with al Qaeda. Iraq has also provided al Qaeda with chemical and biological weapons training.\"\nMarch 6, 2003:\n\"He has trained and financed al Qaeda-type organizations before, al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.\"May 1, 2003 sans flightsuit:\nThe liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We've removed an ally of al Qaeda, and cut off a source of terrorist funding.\nJanuary 23, 2004:\n\"There's overwhelming evidence there was a connection between al Qaeda and the Iraqi government,\" Cheney said in an interview on National Public Radio.\nJune 15, 2004:\nPresident Bush repeated his administration's claim that Iraq was in league with al Qaeda under Saddam Hussein's rule, saying Tuesday that fugitive Islamic militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ties Saddam to the terrorist network.\nJune 18, 2004:\nVice President Dick Cheney said Thursday the evidence is \"overwhelming\" that al Qaeda had a relationship with Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, and he said media reports suggesting that the 9/11 commission has reached a contradictory conclusion were \"irresponsible.\"\n\"There clearly was a relationship. It's been testified to. The evidence is overwhelming,\" Cheney said in an interview with CNBC's \"Capitol Report.\"\nJune 18, 2004:\n\"The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al Qaeda\" is \"because there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda.\""}
{"content":"There’s a massive requirement for licensed electricians in the workforce recently. The video below demonstrates what electricians do, as well as how electricians are needed.\nIf you want to do any work at home it is necessary to hire an electrician. One thing that could stop you from receiving the necessary licenses to do this is an absence of it. After passing an exam, you will be certified as certified as a master electrician, and also jobs in project management. If you require electricity at a construction site, the best option is to employ an electrical contractor. They specialize in complex huge-scale electrical concerns. Many of these business owners were electricians before who can assist other people grow their career.\nOver the last ten years electricians have watched the salaries of electricians increase in steady pace. This can enable you to increase your salary further. Electrical contractors can boost their earnings by acquiring greater customers. That means the pay of electrical contractors is without limits and is significantly higher than the salary of electricians.\nThe video Why become an Electrician exposes that there’s large demand for electricians, especially in the case of online advertisements for jobs. The year 2020 saw 25 percent of electricians had a self-employed job. Electrical contractors are owners of businesses who employed electricians as well. You can find them maintaining utility lines, whether they’re doing distribution of power or lighting. Electricians have to perform considerable climbing as well as heavy lifting.\nTwo kinds of electricians are available two types of electricians: outdoor and inside. Inside electricians put in the electric components of your home – they’re called residential electricians. Although they can perform the same functions external electricians are able to accomplish this using high voltage equipment.\nAs per the video, electricians can be self-employed or work for firms. In terms of salary, electricians can boost to six figures with the help of overtime. Electricians have a high level of expertise. 71c69n4j8y."}
{"content":"Yes, of course cancer in dogs can be prevented. Unfortunately, solid, practical information about exactly how to prevent dog cancer is very rare, just as it is in human health circles. What’s available instead are extremely remote causation factors, vague allusions and red herrings.\nOf course, the self-serving, baseless “early detection saves lives” admonition is prominent too. More about that later.\nRecently I did a little research on what’s being said by the “experts” about the possibility of preventing cancer in dogs. Almost every dog, pet or veterinarian-related site on the internet has addressed this topic. They all pretty much have the same invariably ineffectual advice. Some of the factors listed below are the most common.\nThe first blind alley\nWhen I searched on “Can cancer be prevented in dogs?”, the first website that came up is Morris Animal Foundation’s top 12 things you can do to prevent cancer in your dog. Inexplicably, the first thing on their list is “avoiding second-hand smoke”. Primary lung cancer is one of the rarest forms of dog cancer, accounting for only 1% of all of dog cancers. So why does this appear as #1? One can only wonder.\nSecondhand smoke is unhealthy, to be sure. If anyone reading that is inspired to start doing their smoking outside or away from their pets, it’s going to be healthier for them, for sure. But if you really want to empower people, do you top your list with a factor that may cause a very rare form of cancer? I say no.\nEveryone seems to “know” that obesity is a factor in canine cancer. There’s no doubt it figures into cancer causation somewhere. But is it actually a CAUSE? No, it’s not. It’s a consequence, or an effect, just like cancer itself. The real cause is further upstream. That would be the diet, of course, so at least this sends us looking in the right direction.\nIf the owner of an obese dog decides to feed less of the food that has caused the obesity, this will naturally decrease the chances of the dog contracting cancer. It won’t be because the dog is slimmer, however. It will be because the body is less polluted. That may seem like a minor distinction, but it’s not.\nDoes sunshine cause cancer in dogs?\nAlmost all sites list “limit exposure to sunshine” as a prevention factor. Apparently, skin cancer is falsely blamed on sunshine in dogs just as it is in humans. In truth, the sun does not cause cancer in ANY species. This is evidenced by the fact that human skin cancer is more common in places not known for abundant sunshine than in those which are. Theorists hypothesize that this is because people residing in un-sunny locales just aren’t used to the sun and get burned more often.\nHowever, this idea does not jibe with recent research that shows lifestyle factors, especially DIET, are far more important than exposure. It’s not sunshine, but acidic wastes and toxins coming through the skin that actually cause skin cancer. This accounts for why there is such a strong correlation between the chemicalization of foods that has happened in the last 100 years and the increase in human cancers, including skin cancer . For evidence of this obvious truth with regard to dog skin cancers, we only have to ask why researchers aren’t seeing wolves with skin cancer? Wolves spend more time outside than domestic dogs by an enormous measure. What wolves DON’T do, is eat commercial dog food.\nThese so-called experts are proposing a lot of speculative nonsense regarding dog cancer. But sunshine as a causative factor has to be the most ridiculous. The reason why skin cancers are so prevalent in dogs has NOTHING to do with exposure to sunshine. It’s because, as a species, they are very prone to eliminate superfluous wastes through their skin. That’s why “allergies” are prevalent in dogs as well. It’s all about the waste elimination system in the body becoming overloaded and looking for alternative outbound channels.\nWhat is cancer, anyway?\nI hope by now that you’re beginning to see how this information is actually worse than no information at all. If you were left to figure out cancer completely on your own, you’d do a better job at pinning down the relevant factors.\nCancer is simply a body that is so overloaded with toxic, morbid wastes that its cells must adapt themselves to those that can survive in a dirty, anaerobic environment. That’s all! Cancer is your dog’s body’s attempt to adapt to an internal environment that’s so polluted that it can’t function normally. It is the body’s effort to compensate for and accommodate unrelenting harmful influences. Cancer is NEVER something that attacks. It builds from within, just like all other forms of disease. To understand this concept better, please check out this video where Dr. Thomas Lodi explains the function of disease.\nSo once again we see that waste is the problem. And what could represent a more concentrated form of waste than undigested foods? The only things worse are medicines, herbs, supplements and oils, but these are given in small quantities. FOOD is the biggie. All forms of pollution, including in the air, water and household environment, are extremely dilute by comparison.\nBack to the list…\nDon’t we all do everything we can already to avoid exposing our dogs to toxins? I have to think most of us do. But what are we to do about the exposure we can’t do anything about? Things like air pollution, lawn chemicals in public parks, mandated vaccines and other unpreventable contact our dogs have with toxins?\nThe “experts” on “preventing cancer” know that we can’t do anything about that. Whether they realize it or not, their aim is to make us think this means we can’t do anything about cancer, either. That’s certainly what the cancer establishment would like us to think. If this is news to you, I exhort you to educate yourself via any one of the thousands of books that have called out the cancer industry for its utter failure to even feign interest in prevention. Again, I must ask you to ponder: what industry works to put itself out of business?\nThe good news\nAll of that aside, there is some REALLY good news for those of us willing to feed our dogs real, biologically appropriate foods. There is absolutely striking research done by Dr. T. Colin Campbell that reveals how strong the correlation is between a good diet and outcomes following exposure to toxins.\nHe cites in his book “Whole” that he and his team took a group of mice and separated them into two groups. To one group, he fed the equivalent of the human high protein diet (which is biologically inappropriate in the extreme, if you didn’t already know). To the other group, he fed protein in the quantities appropriate for the subject species (and interestingly, rats are closer to dogs than humans in this regard). Then he exposed both of them to carcinogens. In the group that was fed moderate protein, NONE got cancer. In the high protein group, 100% either got cancer or pre-cancerous lesions. The outcome of the study may be an indictment of protein overconsumption specifically, but it also gives us a glimpse at just how powerful diet is at determining whether cancer will happen. Here’s a video about Dr. Campbell’s study.\nAnyone concerned about not being able to control their dog’s exposure to toxins would be foolish to ignore such significant information. As I mentioned before, environmental toxins are extremely dilute compared to what accumulates in a dog’s body from eating indigestible foods every day. Food that cannot be digested is TOXIC, and everything that is toxic is carcinogenic.\nIs cancer in dogs genetic?\nAnother factor that the sick dog establishment and all its money-motivated allies would like to blame is genes. There are apparently some dog breeds that are more prone than others to cancer. However, disease is no more caused by genes than sunshine. But it’s yet another way to keep you thinking that there’s nothing you can do to prevent cancer in your dog. It can only be of use to know whether your dog’s breed is prone to cancer IF you have the knowledge to stop the real causes. If your dog’s breed is among those, s/he’s going to be even more dependent on you to do the right thing.\nCancer in dogs or humans is never inherited\nWhat most people don’t realize is that genes do not determine whether disease will happen. Only true causative factors can do that. When those factors are not present, disease does not manifest, no matter how genetically predisposed a dog is. Genes may determine the TYPE of disease that any given individual may manifest. But they do not determine whether it will happen or when. Even the American Cancer Society openly concedes that “only a small portion of all cancers are inherited.” And that’s a gross exaggeration. In truth, precisely ZERO cancers are inherited. According to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, babies being born with cancer is “unusual”. When it happens, it’s because the baby was assaulted in utero by the mother’s toxifying lifestyle habits. So even then it’s not truly an inheritance, but a consequence of the environment the baby was nurtured in, including what it was fed.\nEarly detection of cancer in dogs\nIn response to the general public’s increasing interest in disease prevention, the human cancer industry has not changed the focus of their research. Instead, it has attempted to blur the distinction between detection and prevention, calling some of their screening procedures “preventative”. There’s no way that these procedures can be called preventative because they do not correct the causes of cancer!\nIt’s no different where our dogs are concerned. Detection is not prevention. There is much more that we can do besides feed what vets want us to feed and get our dogs in for regular screenings. That serves industry, not dog owners.\nThe cancer industry suffers when cancer is prevented. It benefits greatly, however, when cancer is detected ‘early’. Early detection allows them to pad their “survivor” statistics. Plus it gives them more time during which to sell their life-depleting therapies to frightened dog owners. Further, very clear evidence has arisen from human studies that early detection DOES NOTHING to improve outcomes.\nNo industry works to put itself out of business. Even insiders admit that the cancer establishment is indifferent or hostile to the idea of preventing cancer. The growing canine cancer establishment is no exception.\nDrum roll, please!\nSo how exactly can cancer be prevented? What secret do I have that has eluded the efforts of a multi-billion dollar cancer research establishment? Read on.\nMY TOP 7 WAYS TO PREVENT CANCER IN DOGS\n- Feed RMF\n- Regular Fasting\n- No Vaccines\n- Understand and cooperate with symptoms instead of medicating them\n- No “preventative” pharmaceuticals\n- Limit interaction with vets\n- Provide exercise, fresh air, pure water, and psychological security\nIf you have questions about anything in this list, they are all thoroughly answered in the ebook.\nThe truth doesn’t make anybody any money\nWe who pursue the truth about health and disease without loyalty to any industry have known for a long time what the real causes of cancer are. As I alluded to earlier, cancer is simply the end product of a long disease process. It begins with simple irritation, proceeds to inflammation, and progresses until the cells themselves must make the sacrifice to adapt to ongoing harmful influences. Waste that is retained and accumulates in the body is the cause of all of these processes. Accumulation is what happens when elimination channels are taxed beyond their capacity.\nIt’s all about the pie-hole\nOnce this realization is made, it becomes a very easy matter to prevent cancer and even reverse it in most cases. This always comes back to DIET. The source of most of the accumulated waste in a domestic dog’s body is indigestible foods. Although other unusable ingested substances play a minor role, diet is far and away the most important factor in cancer causation. I call it lying by omission when dog and human cancer prevention “experts” talk endlessly about genetics and environmental toxins. These factors are so remote next to diet that they don’t even deserve mention.\nIf you have interest in understanding cancer and how it should properly be approached in humans, please check out this video of an audio session taped by TC Fry in the 80s as part of his “Achieving Health” series.\nPlease put this information to work for your dog\nI hope you feel empowered by this knowledge. Whether you’re just trying to prevent cancer in your dog or s/he has been diagnosed already, I would highly recommend putting the above conditions in place. Nature heals, and all we have to do if we want to give our dogs the best shot at healing is emulate nature."}
{"content":"“We have had our hands full…”\nWild horses have been roaming into the Corolla village daily ever since Hurricane Dorian flooded their habitat and damaged the fence that contains them in the north beaches.\nThe hurricane and a subsequent rainstorm left large areas of the wild horse grazing area underwater, prompting at least nine horses and a wild mule named Raymond to enter the village every day for about two weeks, said Jo Langone, chief operating officer of the Corolla Wild Horse Fund.\n“We have had our hands full,” she said.\nHerd managers corral the horses each day and return them to the remote beaches north of Corolla.\nPounding surf has damaged the fence that runs across the banks from sound to ocean. The fence was built there in the 1990s to keep wild horses out of the village. At the time, horses that came south were getting struck by cars on N.C. 12 and raiding trash cans and vegetable stands.\nNo horses have been struck by a car since the hurricane in early September.\nPart of the fence goes into the oceanside surf to keep horses from getting around during low tides. Since Hurricane Dorian, piles have broken off and others are weakened, causing a breach where the horses can come through, Langone said.\nCurrituck County plans to get a contractor, but repairs in marine surf are difficult and require specialized equipment and skills, she said."}
{"content":"The in vivo formation and subsequent fate of complexes formed between specific rabbit γG-antibody subunits and circulating protein antigens was studied in rabbits and guinea pigs. Subunits obtained from purified antibodies were injected immediately after an injection of antigen, and the elimination from the circulation of either I*-labeled γG-subunits or labeled antigen determined.\nIn the absence of antigen, all γG-subunits which lack the Fc fragment were rapidly eliminated. In the presence of excess antigen, F (ab')2, Fab and Fd fragments reacted with antigen and remained in the circulation as complexes which were eliminated at the same rate as the antigen. Fab hybrids containing a specific Fd fragment and a nonspecific L chain similarly reacted with antigen and remained in the circulation complexed to antigen. In contrast, L chains and Fab hybrids containing a specific L chain and a nonspecific Fd fragment did not react with antigen in vivo and were rapidly eliminated in both presence and absence of antigen. H chains remained in the circulation of rabbits in the absence of antigen, however, in the presence of antigen, more H chains which formed complexes with antigen remained in the intravascular space and were rapidly eliminated when the immune elimination of the antigen by the host occurred. Nonspecific H chains were rapidly eliminated from the circulaion of guinea pigs, whereas specific H chains remained in the circulation with the antigen.\nF (ab')2 fragments formed complexes with antigen near antibody equivalence and in antibody excess which were rapidly eliminated, however, less effectively than complexes formed near antibody equivalence with intact γG. Complexes formed in antibody excess between Fab fragments and H chains remained in the circulation at all concentrations studied and were eliminated at the rate of antigen.\nThe role of the Fc fragment in the immune elimination of antigen-antibody complexes is discussed."}
{"content":"\"What are the rules that monks live by?\"\nWell, I'm the last guy to ask about \"living right\". It's one of those amazing things in life that I've survived as I have for this long. And the only advice that I should really give you is, don't take any from me. So, when this issue came up, I decided to ask Shi Xing Xue and Björn Javefors, of the Shaolin Temple school in Scandinavia. Here's what they said. And it's good stuff. Better than anything I could come up with.\nA Shaolin monk follows many rules (far too many to mention right now, even if I knew them all). The most important rules as a Shaolin monk according to Shi Xing Xue are the first three and the second five.\nThe first three are to:\n* 1. Take refuge in Buddha (\"Fo\")\n* 2. Take refuge in the teachings of Buddha (\"Fa\", or \"Dharma\")\n* 3. Take refuge in the shelter of one's monk order (\"Sangha\" in Sanskrit, can't remember the Chinese word)\nThe second five are (in no special order):\n* 1. Not to kill.\n* 2. Not to have intimate relations.\n* 3. Not to eat meat.\n* 4. Not to drink intoxicants.\n* 5. Not to take part in gossip.\nBut Shi Xing Xue also says that these five rules are not always rigid, some can be bent at times. For example: The Shaolin monks kill in battle. They do this to \"send the souls of their enemies to heaven\" that is, to kill them before they do evil to others and corrupt themselves. One must chose between the lesser of two evils. You are also responsible for what you don't do. That is, if you don't try to stop a bad thing from occurring you are also responsible for it's consequences.\nLi Shi Min also said that the monks could eat meat and drink wine. As he was the emperor they had to appreciate what he said, but that didn't mean that the monks started feasting on meat and getting drunk! There is however a saying (as also portrayed in the film \"The Shaolin Temple\"): \"With Buddha truly in your heart guilt will not touch you\". This was in the film translated to \"Meat and wine don't matter, with Buddha in your heart!\". So, yes even the monks eat meat and drink wine. I know however that Shi Xing Xue prefers tofu when he can get his hands on it.\nThere are also rules for how much the rules can be bent. A Shaolin monk may not eat the meat from an animal that:\n* 1. He has seen the death of.\n* 2. Has been slaughtered for him.\n* 3. And of course he may not slaughter an animal to eat.\n* 4. It is also prohibited (to my knowledge) to eat meat on the temple grounds.\nAn important point is that the temple's rules are are used to help people evolve, not to punish people. So even if a monk does bend the rules too much, he is not \"thrown out\", he is helped to get \"back on the wagon\" so to speak.\nI find this interesting, not that I didn't expect it, but that it clarifies something which I personally find to be terribly wrong with our approach to the martial arts. \"They do this to \"send the souls of their enemies to heaven\" that is, to kill them before they do evil to others...\" in my mind, has a much deeper meaning than what one sees on the surface. One of the things that I noticed on my trips to the Temple, and from the behavior of many of the monks that I met, is that there is not an offensive aspect to Shaolin gong fu; gong fu is learned purely as a tradition, and as a defensive martial arts form. This makes the whole issue of understanding the symbiosis found at the Shaolin Temple between the passive, ethical, and moral Buddhist beliefs, and the usually thought of offensive nature of Shaolin gong fu, a little more clear.\nShi Xing Xue and Björn Javefors further make this issue more understandable, upon review of their school's guidelines:\nOur association also has certain (non Buddhist) rules for all it's members to follow, to ensure that the training that takes place does so in the true spirit of Shaolin.\n* 1. A member of the Shaolin Si Wushu Guan shall obey the laws of the country as well as the rules of the association. Instructors and fellow trainees must be treated with respect.\n* 2. One who practices Shaolin Wushu must be a calm and stable person, who strives to become strong and healthy.\n* 3. A member of the Shaolin Si Wushu Guan shall not use what has been learnt as means to attack, nor to oppress others. Instead, a member must be tolerant, flexible and non-discriminating towards fellow human beings.\n* 4. One who practices Shaolin Wushu shall have patience with their training, and strive to develop their knowledge in the best possible way. As a member of the association you shall have a kind and non-discriminating attitude towards those who practice other forms of training.\n* 5. As a member of the Shaolin Si Wushu Guan you shall be modest and truthful, and act calmly and steadily. You must be considerate and care for fellow human beings.\n* 6. Violations of these rules may lead to exclusion from the association.\nAgain, the whole nature of gong fu being defensive and peace oriented, as opposed to offensive. And, a demonstration of respect for other arts. Again, another key point that I picked up at the Temple: no ego problems, no \"mine's better than yours\", and no \"I can kick your ass\" attitudes.\nIt's advice that could do us all a lot of good."}
{"content":"Concept designs in superyacht production turn into reality by the time. We are talking about the boats of the future with their wonderful concept designs.\nYacht concepts range from lines that exceed boundaries of conventional to those that overthrow all unknown patterns. Concept design something is that “ free throw” puzzle. Although basic rules are looked out, these are future scenarios that are made without clarifying the engineering of every detail. In other words, star candidates that waiting to be discovered… Although their lines are mostly orphaned, designers continue to imagine and put them down on paper. Although some people says that ” Practicabilty is not possible, it is just a dream”, these works are actually the backbone of the yacht world. Because the truth is that the concept designs of the past turn into today’s modern yachts. If the concept yachts, which sailed 20 years ago and turned into a beach at anchorage, are in the seas today, you have no doubt that you will see the breezes from the drawings below in 15-20 years.\nSuperyacht giants such as Feadship, Lürssen and even automobile brands are producing concept yachts with their own names, they do not want to stay behind this surreal race. Let alone transforming into a yacht one day, thinking that even a detail can come to life, that is, being the “designer of the future” gives energy to the designers. In the yacht world, area where dreams first took shape has been the world of special production superyachts rather than mass production yachts. Because each superyacht is unique, and for the design to reach a futuristic dimension, it is enough meeting of a brave designer with a wealthy-visionary sailor. Since more realistic industry rules operate in mass production, innovative design elements firstly are applied in superyachts and then they go into mass production. Therefore, even if you are not going to buy it, you can determine your superyacht style, somehow mass production comes…\nThe first thing that stand out in new motor yacht concepts is that most of them are designed with an environmentalist approach. Key concepts of new motor yachts: Fuel efficiency, self-contained and long cruises in every sea of the world. That’s why, explorer type yachts with fuel-efficient hull designs that can go even on glaciers are important. Thanks to more efficient solar energy techniques and higher capacity batteries eco-friendly boats has really environmental approach. Versatile technologies are another highlight point; designers are now building not only amphibious vehicles, but also boat that can go both above and below sea, or both at sea and on land.\nIn sailboats, are worked on sailing systems rather than hull shape; because hull form cannot be changed so much in order to built efficient sail. For now… We have experience a completely different system with DynaRig sail trials in 2006. Award-winners superyacht Maltese Falcon was built in Yıldız Shipyard in 2006, which is the Italian Peri Navi’s shipyard area in Turkey. First feature that stand out in the DynaRig is that there is no crucifixes to hold sail poles. That is, poles are not provided with the slightest support so that they do not fall over and break. When cruise started, instead of adjusting sails for wind, pole that make its own trim by turning, gaves feeling of “space technology” to our followers. Another feature that makes Maltese Falcon unique is that such a crazy project was first tried on an 88-meter superyacht. Let’s emphasize that this courage and budget belongs to the American businessman and sailor Tom Perkins. Technology transfer in sailboats are not only between superyacht and mass production; senior sale races also emerges as serios force. Technologies used in races such as America’s Cup and Volvo Ocean Race quickly find their place in mass production. For instance, the foiling technology that created by America’s Cup has begun to be used on many boats. We will take a look at the latest model foiling yachts in another article.\nProduction technology, another dimension that differentiates the business. For example, another fast production alternative has come to mass production with three-dimensional printing technology. Moreover, here we are talking about speed as well as fully personalized yachts. Different materials have also begun to enter yacht world with 3D printing technology.\nThen, come to the world of wonderful concept designs…\nEsquel, Timur Bozca\nTurkish designer Timur Bozca is an automobile and boat expert. Bozca, who has received many awards with its Cauta and Sarco concepts, designed Esquel for the Dutch Oceanco, one of Europe’s most important shipyards, which was introduced at the 2019 Dubai Boat Show. Bozca also won many awards with this design. Timur Bozca says that “ As a designer, it’s an excellent exercise to increase vision and knowledge.” Also adds: “In addition, concepts are important to understand whether to go into production by measuring the public and potential customers’ response to new and radical designs. I think, it is possible to direct the future of the industry through concepts with the right strategy. In my opinion, designer is the one who produces something new, brings a new perspective. That’s why, my understanding of design is to be extraordinary-innovator.”\nBozca‘s inspiration was the space rocket, for the 105-meter electric explorer-type yacht Esquel. Although Esquel will not go to space, it can travel to the remote corners of planet Earth. Designed for navigation at the poles with its reinforced body, Esquel maintains its place with its dynamic positioning system, especially in sensitive areas, without the need for anchors, and brings the traces it leaves closer to zero.\nLuxurious interiors are extremely bright with very large side windows and skylights, also evoke a sense of Zen with their design style. Furthermore, the deck can house kinds of locked containers such as off-road vehicle, two submarine, helicopters, Esquel’s water sport toys and multi-purpose services boats. The superyacht has a garage and aftdeck area that designed to carry all these vehicles, totaling 230 square meters. The yacht will have a cruising range of 7,000 nautical miles, with a projected top speed of 13 knots.\nPagurus, Lazzarini Design Studio\nPagurus, which was introduced last week, is the harbinger of a new category not only with its shape, but also with the name “crabmaran” given to the boat type. The 25-meter amphibious vehicle Pagurus is referred to as crabmaran because it is a catamaran that designed with the inspiration of the crab. At the push of a button, four cylinders descend from the two hulls of the boat and thus, boat able to move through the sand, ice and soil. Each cylinder has its own engine of 440 HP, so you don’t have to worry about tie up boat. After the Pagurus lands, a platform lands from between the two hulls and a car comes out. Lazzarini Design Studio imagined it to be a Tesla SUV because Pagurus is equipped to charge an electric 4X4. In addition to massive solar panels positioned on the deck, energy is stored even from the motion energy of the cylinders. Pagurus, where it is possible to move quietly at a speed of 5 knots with electricity, can reach a speed of 25 knots with fossil fuel if you are in a hurry. Pagurus’s steel body, resembling the hard shell of a crab and designed for travel in glaciers, its fortified bow is strongly enough to break ice.\nThis is a giga yacht! 123-meters Escape can house a submarine and helicopter on its deck. However, its most noticable feature is that it has a lunar pool (window or door opening to the sea from the hull of the boat). The moon pool, which is mostly found on research vessel and drill ships, is much more cooler than any counterparts of the Escape. The submarine can be monitored 360 degrees in the moon pool in which operates an elevator. This section is also considered for the unloading and taking into of the submarine. This elevator, which will undoubtedly provide a wonderful view with the lights lit inside, seems to be used by the guests of the giga yacht out of place. Feadship official declares that they will produce only electric yachts and also emphasize that “ they need to start from somewhere for sustainability”. Equipped with 700 square meters of solar panels, including the boat’s opening and closing deck window, Escape will also house plenty of plants from the full grown tree to the vegetable greenhouse in the sky saloon.\nWind Motion, Mathis Rühl\nThe innovation of the 70-meter trimaran concept Wind Motion is in the system sailing. It is stated that the performance of the Wind Motion, which can rotate around its two axes and foldable sailboat, will be assertive, and it can carry a 70-meter hull even in moderate wind. It is stated that the performance of the Wind Motion, which can rotate around its two mast rotating and foldable sailboat, will be assertive, and it can carry a 70-meter hull even in moderate wind. The most important feature of Wind Motion is that it can store energy while standing at anchor with wind turbines coming out of the different shaped mast. Wind Motion has a striking appearance with its wave-splitting reverse body (nose structure) and curved upper structure covered with glass panels. Wind Motion has a striking appearance with its wave-splitting reverse body (nose structure) and curved upper structure covered with glass panels.\nPininfarina Catamaran, Samuele Errico Piccarini\nIt is a fact that the use of glass in the hull and ceilings has been increased with the developing material technology, but this time we have a boat almost made of glass! The open deck areas of the 21-meter Pininfarina, which attracts attention with its spaces where guests live together with the sea, are also spacious and comfortable. The motto of “less is more” is wonderfully reflected in interior spaces complemented by stylish materials such as marble and precious woods, with dim lighting and minimalist furnishings. Piccarini has also preferred living spaces with high ceilings instead of hosting more cabins.\nPininfarina has many advantages by means of being of a catamaran, that is a two-hull boat, such as balance, smooth cruising without tilting, productivity and high speed. Besides, more area is offered compared to similarly sized monohull boats. Catamarans are frequently preferred in eco- friendly boats as they have a larger area for electrical panels.\nThe Eco-Explorer, developed by Feadship and Merveille Yachting and introduced in November 2020, has an automatic wing drive system. It is stated that the wingsail system of the design, which optimizes solar panels, wind and underwater turbines, is two times stronger than other examples. Although it is similar to DynaRig, Ayro Oceanwings, which is a completely new sailing system, is designed to be operated automatically by computers that take all conditions into account during sailing. The Eco-Explorer, which is stated to reach an assertive speed of 18 knots with only the wind power, exceeds 20 knots with the activation of motors. This design requires 50 to 70 percent less fossil fuel and promises freedom as its cruising range is three times longer than similar-sized boats. Eco-Explorer offers an enormous 17-meter deck and interior space, whilst has extraordinary beach club with a 15-meter swimming pool.\nNzuri, Kyron Design\nIntroduced in the last days of 2020, the superyacht is designed to house two autonomous Audi vehicles – not yet available for sale -, helicopters, two service boats and six jet-skis on board. Nzuri with 10 cabins, which draws attention with its sharp, angular lines, also has a minimalist aesthetic in interiors. At the heart of the yacht is a circular lounge with a sea view and minimalist decor. Another remerkable feature is swimming pool that under the helipad.\nTetra, Jonathan Schwinge\nThis yacht can fly! Pyramid-shaped boat, which is on three hulls like the Trimaran, thus moves at low speed. Tetra is rising above the enormous foil buried in the water as it accelerates and reaches a speed of 38 knots. Since it has little contact with water at this speed, drag reduce and the speed continues to increase. After Tetra out of water, cruises smoothly even in rough conditions.\nDare to Dream, George Lucian\nGeorge Lucian has attracted attention with its project called Origami, which it previously designed with inspiration from the art of paper folding, and now its new yacht concept Dare to Dream has a huge zeppelin. Besides all the opportunities that offered by the superyacht, the zeppelin is designed to house a few guests. It is planning that zeppelin will be 100-meters and the yacht is 140-meters.\nProdigium, Lazzarini Design Studio\nThere is a 153-meters shark! The two big side fins which can transform into additional terrace space and a mini port that can house a small fleet, are remerkable. There is room for 30-meter yacht and eight service boats. This magnificent concept, which can host 44 guests, can meet the energy needs of the concept yachts at the anchorage and ports with solar panels."}
{"content":"The Boy Scouts of American is no stranger to controversy, and now new information is shedding light on how many leaders were actually involved in a sex abuse scandal.\nAccording to official records of the Boy Scouts, more than 12,000 children were sexually assaulted while in the scout program. The records, which date back to the 1940s, show that more than 8,000 leaders have been accused of these acts. Yes, that’s EIGHT THOUSAND PREDATORS.\nBasically, this information was known to the organization, but only in the past 10 years or so had the vast scale of this abuse been exposed. What’s even worse is that this is probably not all of the incidents that have occurred. These are only those that have been exposed. Only the organization itself knows the true numbers of victims and perpetrators, and it has never released any of the names of the abusers. Though it is believed that these leaders were removed from their positions, the Boy Scouts never released their names to the public.\nThere are more than two million members of Boy Scouts of America, and hundreds of members are expected to file suit against the organization. One sexual abuse attorney, who has taken a prominent role in the case, has signed with more than 180 victims.\nCurrently, Boy Scouts of America have thousands of acres of land across the country, and the value of that land is very high. However, it is expected that the organization could declare bankruptcy, which has the victims in this case in an uproar as they would get little to no compensation.\nMichael Surbaugh, Chief Executive of Boy Scouts of America, recently made a public apology. He said that the organization is offering support for the victims and members of the organization are outraged by the number of times that individuals took advantage of innocent children. He also said that they all care deeply about the victims and that they apologize to anyone who, during their time with the Boy Scouts, was harmed. He said that they believe the victims’ stories and will pay for counseling for any victim that requires it. He also encouraged any and all victims to come forward.\nIf the Boy Scouts of American files bankruptcy, it could continue to operate while keeping its information and assets safe. Last year, the organization filed suit against several of its insurers and claimed that the companies refused to cover its liabilities. The insurance companies banded together and said that the Boy Scouts failed to take precautionary action in these situations. As of now, all of those cases are still pending. Here’s the most disturbing aspect of this story: This is normal. Yup. Normal. That doesn’t mean it’s OK or acceptable behavior, but it’s the way it’s always been. If it’s happened consecutively over the past 70 years, and its part of the culture, the same way the Catholic church works, or thousands of teachers and coaches or others in professions who work with kids, its normal. Predators go to where their prey is. And the sooner you begin to have these uncomfortable conversations with your kids, the better chance you have of preventing this in your family. Care to discuss?\nRobert Siciliano personal security and identity theft expert and speaker is the author of Identity Theft Privacy: Security Protection and Fraud Prevention: Your Guide to Protecting Yourself from Identity Theft and Computer Fraud. See him knock’em dead in this Security Awareness Training video."}
{"content":"Tuesday, 14 August 2012\nSEEDS CUM FERTILIZER DRILL\nSEEDS CUM FERTILIZER DRILL is a Tractor Hydraulic operated implement that can perform Cultivation and Seeds Sowing operations simultaneously and satisfactorily at any soil conditions. Two separate bowl type openings have been provided for sowing seeds and Fertilizers separately through Flexible Tubes connected to each tines. Rate of flow Seeds and Fertilizers can be controlled manually by persons by sitting on the Wooden bench attached to the mainframe."}
{"content":"General Motors is recalling more than 194,000 vehicles from 2018 to 2020 due to transmission fluid leaks. The leaks stem from an auto stop-start component that may have been installed with loose or missing bolts. The leaking fluid can affect the transmission’s performance, and if it leaks onto a hot exhaust component, could potentially cause a fire. GM says that to date, it knows of no accidents or injuries related to the defect.\nThe issue affects models from all four GM divisions.\nThe recall is scheduled to begin in mid-December. Owners of the affected vehicles will be contacted. Dealers will inspect the transmission accumulator, and replace those with loose or missing bolts."}
{"content":"- What is Section 194C of Income Tax Act?\n- What is the meaning of work for the purpose of Section 194C?\n- What is a Sub-Contractor as per Section 194C of Income Tax Act?\n- What is the limit to deduct TDS u/s 194C?\n- TDS rate on Payment to Contractors Under Section 194C\n- When to Deduct TDS Under Section 194C?\n- How is TDS calculated under Section 194C of Income Tax Act?\n- Exception to TDS Deduction Under Section 194C\n- What is the due date to deposit the TDS deducted?\n- What is the due date for the issuance of the TDS certificate?\n- Frequently Asked Questions\nScripbox Recommended Tax Saving Fund\nInvest in Scripbox Tax Saver funds, get the best of both worlds – tax-saving & long-term growth.\nWhat is Section 194C of Income Tax Act?\nAs per section 194C of the Income Tax Act, 1961 if any person pays an amount to any resident contractor in pursuance of a contract between the contractor and a specified person then the specified person needs to deduct TDS. Here, the existence of a contract plays a crucial role and defines the necessity of deduction of TDS.\nIn simple words, if you are making a payment to a contractor and you both have drawn a contract for such work then you need to deduct TDS. Further, 2 parties are involved i.e. the contractor and the deductor of TDS with whom the contract is made and who is responsible for paying income to the contractor.\nThe following persons are covered under ‘specified persons’ and they must deduct TDS u/s 194C:\n- the Central Government or any State Government\n- any local authority\n- any corporation established by or under a Central, State, or Provincial Act\n- any company\n- any co-operative society\n- any authority constituted in India by or under any law, engaged either for the purpose of dealing with and satisfying the need for housing accommodation or for the purpose of planning, development, or improvement of cities, towns, and villages or for both.\n- any society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (21 of 1860) or under any law corresponding to that Act in force in any part of India.\n- any trust\n- any university established or incorporated by or under a Central, State, or Provincial Act and an institution declared to be a university under section 3 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956 (3 of 1956).\n- any Government of a foreign State or a foreign enterprise or any association or body established outside India.\n- any firm\n- an individual or a HUF Hindu undivided family or an AOP association of persons or a BOI body of individuals, who:\n- does not fall under any of the above and\n- The total sales, gross receipts, or turnover from business or profession exceeds Rs 1 crore (business income) or Rs 50 lakh (professional income). The limit is applicable on income earned during the financial year immediately preceding the financial year in which a payment is credited or paid to the account of the contractor.\nCheck Out Section 194H of Income Tax Act\nWhat is the meaning of work for the purpose of Section 194C?\nThe term “work” for the purpose of Section 194C of Income Tax Act, 1961 includes the following:\n- broadcasting and telecasting including production of programs for such broadcasting or telecasting;\n- carriage of goods or passengers by any mode of transport other than by railways;\n- manufacturing or supplying a product according to the requirement or specification of a customer. Such manufacturing or supplying a product is done by using material purchased from such a customer or its associate. However, Section 194C is not applicable if the contractor manufactures or supplies a product according to the requirement or specification of the customer. Such manufacture and supply is done by using material that is purchased from a person who is neither the customer himself/ herself nor his/ he associate.\nFor the purpose of section 194C, goods carriage has the meaning as defined in section 44AE. The definition of goods carriage under section 44AE is as follows:\n- Goods vehicle, goods carriage, or heavy goods vehicle shall have the meaning as assigned to each term under section 2 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (59 of 1988).\n- Section 2 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (59 of 1988) defines goods carriage as any motor vehicle that is constructed or adapted for use solely for the carriage of goods, or any motor vehicle not so constructed or adapted when used for the carriage of goods.\n- Lastly, a heavy goods vehicle is any goods carriage, a tractor, or a road-roller whose gross unladen weight exceeds 12,000 kilograms.\nWhat is a Sub-Contractor as per Section 194C of Income Tax Act?\nSection 194C includes a deduction of TDS for payment to a contractor or a subcontractor. Now, who is a subcontractor, and which work is included in such a subcontract?\n- A subcontractor is any person who enters into a contract with the principal or main contractor. For example- Mr. Arun entered into a contract with a trust for the supply of labour. Mr. Ram enters into a contract with Mr. Ajay to fulfill 30% of Mr. Arun’s contract requirements with the trust. Here, Mr. Arun is the principal or main contractor while Mr. Ram is the subcontractor.\n- Any principal contractor who enters into a contract with a subcontractor needs to deduct TDS while making a payment to the subcontractor.\n- The subcontract could be to carry out the whole or part of the work undertaken by the principal contractor or for the supply of labour for such work.\nWhat is the limit to deduct TDS u/s 194C?\nThe following is the limit applicable under section 194C to deduct TDS:\n- The amount paid or credit is a single contract that exceeds Rs 30,000\n- The amount paid or credit during the financial year altogether exceeds Rs 1,00,000.\nTDS rate on Payment to Contractors Under Section 194C\nOnce the conditions under section 194C are met, the deductor needs to deduct TDS at the following rate.\n|Type of Contractor/ Subcontractor||Rate of TDS|\n|Any person who is an individual or a HUF||1%|\n|Any person other than an individual or a HUF||2%|\n|Any person who is a transporter||NIL|\nPoints to remember:\n- If the person does not quote his/ her PAN number to the deductor then the deductor must deduct TDS at a rate of 20%\n- Do not add a surcharge, education cess, or secondary and higher education cess to the above TDS rates. TDS must be deducted at the basic rates.\nCheck out: Current Tax Slabs and Rates FY 20-21\nWhen to Deduct TDS Under Section 194C?\nIf the conditions mentioned under section 80C then the deductor or payer of contractual income must deduct TDS:\n- At the time of credit of sum to the account of the contractor or subcontractor, or\n- At the time of payment in cash or cheque or draft or any other mode to such contractor or subcontractor\nWhichever is earlier\nHow is TDS calculated under Section 194C of Income Tax Act?\nFor the purpose of deducting TDS, you must always consider the invoice value excluding any consideration for the purchase or sale of any materials or goods. Hence, consider only the service component excluding any value of goods. You must consider the following points while calculating the amount on which TDS must be deducted under section 194C:\n- There might be a contract that involves a composite supply of goods as well as services. In such a case consider the invoice value excluding the price for the supply of goods. Here the invoice must clearly indicate the value of goods. However, in case the invoice does not indicate the value or price of goods supplied then you must deduct TDS on the total invoice value.\n- Commission and brokerage on fixed deposits are not included under section 194C\n- Section 194C includes any payment made to clearing and forwarding agent for carriage of goods\n- Any payment made to an airline or a travel agent for the purchase of a ticket is not included. However, if the bus, aircraft, or any other travel mode is chartered then section 194C is applicable\n- Any payment made to an electrician or a contractor for an electrician’s services is covered under section 194C.\nIllustration on how to calculate TDS amount under section 194C\nMr. Ajay has contracted with Mr. Anil to supply a wielded gear as per the specifications and drawings are given by Mr. Ajay. Here, Mr. Ajay is the specified person and responsible for deducting TDS. Mr. Anil is the contractor who entered into a contract with Mr. Ajay.\nCase-1: Material provided by Mr. Ajay to the contractor\nMr. Ajay supplies Mr. Anil with the necessary goods to work upon. The contractor issues an invoice of Rs 70,000 providing a break up of his services as Rs 30000 as goods value supplied by Mr. Ajay and the remaining Rs 40000 as the job work charges.\n- Section 194C is applicable since the invoice value against the job work exceeds rs 30,000.\n- TDS rate will be 1% as the contractor is an individual.\n- TDS will be deducted on Rs 40,000 since the invoice specifically indicates the value of goods and services separately. Hence, the TDS amount will be Rs 400.\nCase-2: Material purchased by the contractor\nMr. Ajay and XYC Ltd entered into a contract wherein XYC Ltd must deliver a rolling wheel as per Mr. Ajay’s specifications. XYC Ltd being the contractor buys the necessary goods for this contract and delivers the rolling wheel. XYC Ltd issues an invoice to Mr. Ajay for Rs 1,70,000. In the invoice, it states the value of goods as Rs 120,000 and the value of his processing on the material as Rs 50,000.\n- Section 194C is applicable since the invoice value against the job work exceeds rs 30,000.\n- TDS rate will be 2% as the contractor is a company.\n- Mr. Ajay must deduct TDS of Rs 50,000 against the processing charges since the invoice specifically states the value of goods and services. Hence, the TDS amount will be Rs 1,000.\nException to TDS Deduction Under Section 194C\nThe following are the cases wherein section 194C for TDS is not applicable:\n- The amount paid or credited in a single contract is less than Rs 30,000\n- The aggregate amount paid or credited during the financial year is less than Rs 1 lakh.\n- An amount paid or credited by an individual or a HUF to any contractor for any work and the work is for personal purposes of such individual or any member of Hindu undivided family.\n- An amount is paid or credited to the account of a contractor during the course of business of plying, hiring, or leasing goods carriages during the previous year. Such a contractor owns less than 10 goods carriages at any time during the financial year and furnishes a declaration to that effect along with his PAN. The contractor provides such a declaration to the person who is paying or crediting such amount to him/ her.\nWhat is the due date to deposit the TDS deducted?\nYou must deposit the TDS deducted on or before the following due date:\n|TDS Deducted||Due Date for Deposit|\n|TDS is deducted for the months April to February||On or before the 7th day of the following month|\n|TDS is deducted for the month of March||On or before 30th April|\n|TDS is Deducted for Any month and the payment is made by the Government or on behalf of the Government||Same Day|\nWhat is the due date for the issuance of the TDS certificate?\nThe following is the due date for issuing TDS Certificate Form 16A by the deductor of TDS:\n|Period||TDS is NOT Deducted by Government||TDS Deducted by Government|\n|1st Quarter April to June||30th July||15th August|\n|2nd Quarter July to September||30th October||15th November|\n|3rd Quarter October to December||30th January||15th February|\n|4th Quarter January to March||30th May||30th May|\nCheck Out TDS Payment Due Date\nFrequently Asked Questions\nNo, the provisions of section 194C clearly state that ‘work’ does not include a contract for sale or manufacture of a product as per the specification of the buyer. Even while calculating the TDS amount in case of a composite job work you need to exclude the value of materials as indicated in the invoice.\nNo, if you are an individual or a HUF and you make a payment to a contractor for your personal use or any member of your HUF then section 194C is not applicable.\nNo, if you are a transporter and you have provided your PAN to the person who is responsible for paying you then sec 194C is not applicable. However, the person responsible for paying such income to the transporter must provide information about such payment to the transporter in a form and within the due date. The form and due date are provided by the income tax authority.\nNo, section 194C does not apply to hiring or renting equipment. Since such hiring or rent does not involve any work TDS under section 194C is not applicable. However, for such service section 194I is applicable.\nNo, section 194C is not applicable to an NRI. Both the parties i.e. contractors and the person responsible for paying to the contractor must be residents of India.\nYes, the primary requirement for the applicability of section 194C is that there must exist a contract between the 2 parties. In the absence of a contract between the main or principal contract and the subcontractor TDS is not applicable u/s 194C\nRecommended Read: TDS on Rent"}
{"content":"Increasing muscle mass in a natural way and also experiencing many health benefits. This is what cannabidiol (CBD), one of the main active ingredients of the hemp sativa plant, can do.\nIn fact, cannabidiol (CBD) can be used as an “anti-catabolic” and thus contribute to a faster increase in muscle mass.\nCBD and muscles\nGenerally, you have to consider two different types of dietary supplements used by those who want to build muscle: anabolics and anti-catabolics.\nAnabolics allow you to increase anabolic hormones that help increase protein synthesis: when this happens, muscles grow faster. Anti-catabolic supplements, on the other hand, are highly efficient in reducing the production of catabolic hormones, the main culprits of muscle mass loss.\nIn the fitness world, it is very often recommended to alternate between the two supplements. It just so happens that cannabidiol (CBD) has proven to be a very high performing anti-catabolic.\nCBD-based products dramatically reduce levels of cortisol, the main stress hormone as well as a powerful catabolic. Cannabidiol, with its action on the endocannabinoid system, intervenes and reduces the production of cortisol and, consequently, the feeling of stress. It is for this reason that there are many athletes who take cannabidiol (CBD) even before the training session, to ensure a faster muscle gain and, at the same time, based on a completely natural supplement.\nCBD, muscles and sports activity\nCannabidiol is a true ally of every athlete.\nIts muscle relaxant action makes it ideal to be taken – in oil or capsules – even before the beginning of sports activities. Moreover, thanks to its natural analgesic properties, CBD would be able to counteract pain.\nCannabinoids act by inhibiting neuronal transmission in pain pathways. A 2012 study published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine found that cannabidiol significantly counteracted chronic inflammatory and neuropathic pain in mice without the use of analgesics. This is a huge benefit for quelling pain from minor trauma sustained in training or relieving a muscle tension developed during the last session. Added to this is the fact that products such as CBD oil are completely free of THC and therefore there is no risk of incurring psychotropic effects.\nA diet to increase muscle mass\nBelow, without the objective of proposing a diet, we indicate some products that at the table help to increase the mass of our body.\n1 – Milk flakes and whole milk, where proteins help build muscle while fats, carbohydrates and lactose help recharge glycogen in the muscle and thus muscle growth is maximized.\n2 – Walnuts, Almonds, Brazil nuts and nuts in general are an excellent source of fats and proteins essential for building muscle mass.\n3 – Hemp oil is rich in essential fatty acids and can be an extra element to integrate into our diet. It represents one of the products with the highest protein intake, and is rich in Omega 3 and Omega 6. For a protein help, you can also dissolve a couple of tablespoons of hemp flour in a big glass of water, in this way, we get an excellent natural protein supplement. Hemp Oil with CBD can be integrated to these foods mentioned, by adding a few drops of Oil we will complete the diet in an important way.\n4 – Whole Eggs are an excellent source of protein and fat. However eggs also contain high levels of healthy cholesterol but at least that we do not consume an exaggerated amount of egg, these saturated fats are not a problem but contribute to the achievement of our goal.\n5 – Sweet potatoes, full of carbohydrates, are great for growing muscle mass. Tasty to eat they can be accompanied as a side dish or represent an extra dish to consume.\n6 – Oats are an excellent source of complex carbohydrates, in addition to offering a source of fat and calories also ensures energy in the long term, perfect to take before a long workout or a race.\nIf you want to learn more about the Best cbd oil uk, you can visit their page to know more."}
{"content":"In recent years, it has become increasingly difficult for organizations to find and keep top talent. A poor hire can cost $17,000 on average. To avoid wasting time and money by hiring someone unfit, employers can use talent assessments to check the suitability of their candidates.\nWhat is a Talent Assessment?\nOver 80% of organizations use some type of assessment to gauge the potential of their applicants. These assessments allow an employer to ask questions that measure the specific skills, knowledge, and natural talents of a potential employee.\nThat’s great, but are talent assessments actually effective?\nA survey of hiring managers has shown that using talent assessments for their candidates has led to a 36% increase in hiring satisfaction. On a more personal note, SelectionLink’s ProSelect talent assessments offer over a 92% prediction success rate.\nWhat can Talent Assessments do for my company?\nAttracting the best resumes and CVs are extremely important. Talent assessments can play an equally important role in getting to know potential employees. Assessments can provide a snapshot of how you might expect the candidate to perform, which otherwise could take months or years to figure out after they have been hired. It can also prove to be a fruitful opportunity for the applicants as well, it shows them your organization takes hiring seriously and will not hire just anyone. Verbal assessments, such as SelectionLink’s ProSelect talent assessments allows you to build a strong rapport with the candidate while gauging their overall talent level for the specific position.\nIncorporating validated and standardized tools into your hiring/promotion process can also be helpful with regulatory and legal compliance. Be certain your assessment vendor can provide your organization with updated performance, reliability, and validation studies. Please view a few of our studies: Adverse Impact Study Performance Case Studies\nBring in a Diverse Workforce\nWhether you are hiring at the executive, mid-level, or entry-level, talent assessments can evaluate candidates at every step. The wonderful thing about talent assessments is that everyone has unique talents regardless of their background. The key is to identify those natural talents and match them with a position that they can thrive in. No one wins when a candidate is hired into a position that does not match what they are naturally good at.\nAid in Employee Development\nIt is important to identify areas of potential growth for existing and new employees. This is where talent assessments come in especially handy, allowing organizations to focus on the areas where employees are most likely to improve performance. Doing so is also likely to increase employee productivity, motivation, and engagement.\nSave your Organization Money\nThe ROI on talent assessments is unbelievable if you find the right solution. The amount of money you can save by hiring the right candidates far outweighs the cost of top assessments. At a time when it is getting harder to find the right candidate, assessments can be your saving grace.\nFor more information on our assessments, please view our assessments page or book a free trial today."}
{"content":"Bloomberg covers warnings from an advocacy group that says despite the focus on mental health and security risks from TikTok, all other social media platforms also pose a risk. Meanwhile, the stars of hit show “Ted Lasso” visited the White House to promote mental health care.\nNot Just TikTok, All Social Media Platforms Pose Risks: Transparency Group\nThe national-security and mental-health risks posed by TikTok are shared by other social media platforms, according to an advocacy group that’s urging Congress to also hold US companies accountable ahead of high-profile testimony from TikTok’s chief executive officer. (Edgerton, 3/20)\n‘Ted Lasso’ Visits White House, Promotes Mental Health Care\nFictional soccer coach Ted Lasso used a White House visit Monday to encourage people, even in politically divided Washington, to make it a point to check in often with friends, family and co-workers to “ask how they’re doing, and listen, sincerely,” Comedian Jason Sudeikis, who plays the title character — an American coaching a soccer team in London — and other cast members were meeting with President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden to talk about how mental health contributes to overall well-being. (Superville and Miller, 3/20)\nLaw Schools Try Texting To Monitor Students’ Mental Health\nAs evidence mounts that law students suffer through outsized mental health challenges, some law schools are experimenting with a new tactic to identify struggling students and get them help. At least five U.S. law schools have adopted a service first developed for medical schools, called Early Alert, that sends one text message a week to students asking them to rate how they feel about a specific topic. (Sloan, 3/20)\nCOVID Underscores Latino Migrants’ ‘Urgent’ Mental Health Needs: Study\nPandemic hardships such as poverty, poor living and working conditions and limited health care access made evident an urgent need to address undocumented Latino immigrants’ mental health needs, according to a new Rice University study. (Romero, 3/20)\nMental Health Care By Video Fills Gaps In Rural Nursing Homes\nBette Helm was glad to have someone to talk with about her insomnia. Helm lives in a nursing home in this central Iowa town of about 7,500 people, where mental health services are sparse. On a recent morning, she had an appointment with a psychiatric nurse practitioner about 800 miles away in Austin, Texas. They spoke via video, with Helm using an iPad she held on her lap while sitting in her bed. (Leys, 3/21)\nThe Washington Post released video of Irvo Otieno’s death at a Virginia hospital —\nThe Washington Post:\nVideo Shows Va. Deputies Pile On Top Of Irvo Otieno Before His Death\nAs many as 10 sheriff’s deputies and medical staff at Virginia’s Central State Hospital can be seen piling on top of a shackled Irvo N. Otieno for approximately 11 minutes until he stops moving, according to new video showing the encounter that led to the 28-year-old Black man’s death. The hospital surveillance video, which has no sound, shows Otieno’s final moments on March 6, from the time Henrico County sheriff’s deputies drag him into a hospital admissions room in handcuffs and leg irons, to the 11 minutes in which they restrain Otieno on the ground, to the moment when they release Otieno’s limp body around 4:40 p.m. (Rizzo, Vozzella and Oakford, 3/20)\nThis is part of the KHN Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription."}
{"content":"The city of Shawnee is celebrating three decades of cycling with the 30th annual Tour de Shawnee Bike Ride.\nTonya Lecuru, deputy parks and recreation director for Shawnee, said the tour first started to introduce residents to cycling as an alternative form of transportation to move about the city. City staff had mapped out particular routes to introduce cyclists to various parks and amenities in Shawnee as well.\nLecuru said she definitely thinks the city has accomplished its goal of introducing cyclists to on-street bike lanes, Share the Road, off-street trails and other bicycle-friendly options for motorists and cyclists alike.\n“It’s helped us receive our bicycle-friendly designation,” she said. “We were the first in the state of Kansas to receive that, and it’s because of our commitment to the bicycling community.”\nThe Tour has also engaged residents in the city’s process for developing future bike lanes and bicycle-friendly streets as Shawnee plans for future road infrastructure upgrades, Lecuru added. The city has established 9.23 miles of bike lanes and 72.26 miles of Share the Road streets, and 12.31 miles of trails.\nHere’s a look at the city’s future plans for bicycle accessibility:\n“There’s a lot more bicyclists than people are aware of, and we want to make it safe by incorporating it into the design of the roads and the routes, being able to plan that far in advance,” Lecuru said, citing the city’s bicycle master plan. “It’s really made a difference.”\nAs to the Tour itself, the routes have evolved over the years, with the shortest route being 25 miles and the longest at 50. City staff found they wanted to create a more family-friendly experience, so they created a shorter route at 5 miles and made the longest route be 25 miles.\n“For some folks, 12 miles, 25 miles is intimidating; the 6 miles is a little more doable,” Lecuru said. “However, when we got rid of the 50-mile route, a lot of our hardcore distance riders, we lost those because even for them, 50 miles was a shorter option.\n“Over the years, we’ve evolved to something that’s more family focused so that all riders of a variety of different abilities can participate,” Lecuru added. “Those riders who do ride a lot, it’s kind of a way for them to be able to share their passion of riding with their families that maybe don’t want to go out and ride. It’s also a way to introduce kids to the sport.”\nEach intersection is monitored for safety of the cyclists, and there are four rest stops with refreshments to keep cyclists fueled up. Average participation is about 400 cyclists, with as many as 700 participating one year. Since its inception in 1989, total attendance has reached 10,000.\nThis year’s Tour de Shawnee takes place Sunday, Aug. 25. The event is sponsored by the Shawnee Parks and Recreation Department and benefits the JDRF, a nonprofit for type one diabetes research.\nRiders can choose from three routes: 5-mile, 12-mile or 25 mile route. Check in begins at 6:30 a.m. and the ride will start at 7:30 a.m. The tour will start and end at Power Play Family Entertainment Center at Shawnee Mission Parkway and Pflumm Road.\nRiders who wish to continue on to the 12-mile route must reach 61st and Rosehill by 8:15 a.m. All riders who wish to continue on to the 25-mile route must reach Midland and Maurer by 8:40 a.m.\nRegistration and additional information is on the city’s website. Helmets are required for participants.\nOur comment section is reserved for subscribers. Try a subscription today for just $1\n$1 for your first month, then just $8.50 per month thereafter. Cancel anytime.Try for $1\n$1 for your first month, then just $85 per year thereafter. Cancel anytime.Try for $1"}
{"content":"In this Joining the Dots blog series, Immy Robinson – Research and Innovation Lead at Shift – explores some of the knotty questions around measuring and evaluating relationships.\nby Immy Robinson\nThere is a growing belief that everything works better when relationships are valued; schools post better grades when classrooms house effective relationships between staff, students and parents; GP practices achieve better health outcomes when doctors and patients have trusting relationships; workplaces are more enjoyable and conducive places to be when relationships are strong; and communities are wealthier and healthier when connections are multiple and deep.\nThe need for measurement\n“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” Einstein\n“What gets measured gets managed.” Peter Drucker\nThe importance of data in decision-making across all sectors is widely established. Measuring progress towards set goals is essential for learning, improvement, buy-in and decision-making, but some things better lend themselves to measurement than others.\nFrom a field-building perspective, evaluating relationships feels essential. We need to know why relationships are important, how they add value, which situations benefit most from a relationship-centred approach, what types of relationships add value, and what a ‘good’ relationship looks like, amongst other things. Some of these things are easier to assess than others.\nWhen it comes to taking a relationship-centred approach, this raises the question: what can and what should be evaluated?\nThis blog is a very initial attempt at exploring this question. Much more thinking and discussion will be required.\nMeasuring relationships outcomes\nMeasuring the the impact of relationships on specific outcomes is conceivable and doable. Which outcomes we focus on will be determined by the specific place in question: for the supermarket, a relationship-centred approach must contribute to financial returns, for a but for a community initiative, relationships may be an end in themselves, contributing to a more connected community.\nStudies using control groups or baselines alongside existing measures tracking an organisation’s ‘bottom line’ (health outcomes, value for money, GCSE results, profits, staff retention etc) can help us to understand – and build a stronger evidence base for – the value of investing in a relationship-centred approach.\nBut focusing solely on measuring the outcomes of relationships is problematic for a couple of reasons:\n- It doesn’t tell us about the inputs (i.e. what constitutes a ‘good’ relationship) or the process (how relationships lead to better outcomes), just the outcomes themselves\n- It risks treating relationships as a means to an end, rather than an end in themselves\nAssessing the quality of a relationship\nTo piece together more of the puzzle, we need to know more than just the outcomes of a relationship-centred approach; we need to also know something about the inputs and the process by which inputs are translated into outcomes.\nIf a school, a GP practice, a company or a council were to invest in a more relationship-centred way of working, it would be reasonable to expect that they would want to be able to assess the state of their key relationships in order to see whether they’re on track to deliver the outcomes that matter in that place. But there are a few things to consider before we jump in and measure relationships themselves.\nFirstly, when it comes to the question of assessing relationships, there’s an ethical question that we need to consider: should we assess relationships?\nWhat are the potential risks of doing so? Could assessing a relationship damage it by compromising the intimacy that sits at its heart?\nCould developing a measure or set of measures for relationships skew us to a more standardised definition of a relationship, and in the process risk transactionalising them?\nMeasurement can have unintended consequences. We must embrace this challenge with eyes wide open, making sure that in our pursuit to build our understanding of – and a case for – a more relationship-centred way of working, we do not damage the very essence and power that relationships hold.\nSecondly, there are practical considerations around the feasibility and utility of assessing relationships.\nRelationships, by their very nature, are emergent, dynamic, personal, idiosyncratic, uncontrollable. This is what makes them different from a process. Consider these two examples:\nI call up to dispute a bill with my energy provider. I’m passed between telehandlers in different departments. Each follows a rigid, impersonal script. I’m interacting with a process, not a relationship. There’s no warmth, no personal connection, no adapting to my specific situation. I leave the call angry and frustrated.\nMy grandma has just passed away. I call my friend. We usually have a jokey, boisterous, lightly mocking relationship. She senses the sadness in my voice and offers a sympathetic ear, a warm hug. This is a real relationship. It adapts to the situation. It’s personal between two people. I’m comforted, and we become closer.\nBut we have seen in the arena of marital research that self-reports can be unreliable predictors of longer-term outcomes (in this instance, divorce). Observable behaviours – such as whether partners respond to each other’s bids for attention – are arguably more accurate in predicting whether divorce is on the cards.Measuring something that is ever-changing, deeply personal, and highly context specific is challenging. Standardised measures are unlikely to capture the complexity of individual relationships. Perhaps the best we could hope for is a snapshot of that relationship, assessed via self-reports (How satisfied are you with this relationship? To what extent do you feel supported / valued etc within this relationship? To what extent do you feel this is a trusting relationship? etc).\nThe need for empirical research\nTo advance our understanding of how, in which circumstances and under what conditions relationships can lead to better outcomes, more empirical research is needed. If we start with a hypothesis about what constitutes a ‘good’ relationship and are clear about the outcomes we’re trying to drive towards, empirical research can help us to understand more about what processes, behaviours, contexts etc help to translate these inputs into outcomes. This will help to advance our understanding of how a more relationship-centred way of working best operates, and build a stronger case for it.\nMoving the conversation along\nWhilst this blog has attempted to tease open some important questions, there’s much more to explore. For example:\n- Should we talk about ‘measuring’ relationships, or are assessment or evaluation more appropriate terms? Evaluation suggests a more resource-intensive approach which may put some stakeholders off, but ‘measurement’ feels antithetical to the nature of relationships.\n- Should we be concerned with developing a consistent approach to measuring / assessing / evaluating relationships across sectors, places, and topic areas? We believe that there’s much that can be learned from one another in the field of relationship-centred design, but could pursuing a consistent approach to evaluation over-complicate things?\n- This blog briefly touches on the field of marriage counselling. What other sectors or topic areas can we learn from as we embark on the challenge of evaluating a relationship-centred approach?\nPlease do share your thoughts by leaving a comment below, tweeting us @shift_org or getting in touch with email@example.com"}
{"content":"“Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing” is a popular song with music by Sammy Fain and lyrics by Paul Francis Webster. The song was publicized first in the movie, Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955), winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song. From 1967 to 1973, it was used as the theme song to Love is a Many Splendored Thing, the soap opera based on the movie.\nThe music was commissioned for the movie Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing and initially featured as background music. Lyrics were subsequently added to make it eligible for the Best Original Song category of the Academy Awards. The original lyrics were rejected by the studio so new ones were written.\nThe best-selling version of the song was recorded by The Four Aces, issued by Decca Records as catalog number 29625. It reached number two in the UK Singles Chart and number one on both Billboard and Cash Box in 1955. The recording by The Four Aces is featured in the film Cookie (1989).\nA version by Don Cornell was recorded approximately at the same time. It was issued by Coral Records as catalog number 61467. The song has also has been recorded by Ringo Starr (on his album Sentimental Journey), Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams, Nat King Cole , Shirley Bassey and Barry Manilow. Neil Sedaka recorded the song in Italian as “L’Amore E’ Una Cosa Meravigliosa”. Connie Francis recorded the song in Italian in 1960 during the work for her album More Italian Favorites, although this version remains unreleased to this day. Francis also recorded the original English lyrics in 1961 for her album Connie Francis Sings ‘Never on Sunday’ and Other Title Songs from Motion Pictures. The instrumental playback of this 1961 recording was also used when Francis cut a German-language version, “Sag, weißt du denn, was Liebe ist”, in 1966. The song was about that time also performed by Fairuz in Arabian language (“Zar Bisukun Al Lail”). A Disco version was recorded by Tina Charles in 1980. Jeff Lynne recorded his version for his nostalgic cover album Long Wave in 2012.\nThis song has been heard in movies such as Grease, In the Cold of the Night, Private Parts, St. Trinian’s, St. Trinian’s 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold, and The Nutty Professor 2. The song was referenced in Moulin Rouge! when Christian says, “Love is like oxygen – love is a many splendored thing – love lifts us up where we belong! All you need is love!.”\nIt has been also heard in the series Bones, in the 14th episode of the fourth season. (From Wikipedia)\nLove is a many splendored thing\nIt’s the April rose that only grows in the early spring\nLove is nature’s way of giving a reason to be living\nThe golden crown that makes a man a king\nOnce on a high and windy hill In the morning mist, two lovers kissed and the world stood still Then your fingers touched my silent heart and taught it how to sing Yes, true love’s a many splendored thing\nThen your fingers touched my silent heart and taught it how to sing Yes, true love’s a many splendored thing\nYou must be logged in to post a comment."}
{"content":"Master Your Brain: Neuroscience For Personal Development\nYou save 75%\n65 Lessons (3h)\n- Introduction To The Course\n- Our Reptilian Brain\n- Our Reptilian Brain: RSM - Relational Stress Management\n- Our Paleolimbic Brain\n- Our Neolimbic Brain - Personalities And Motivations\n- Our Neolimbic Brain - Obsessions\n- Our Prefrontal Brain\nUncover the Brain's Secrets & Understand the Patterns That Govern Your Life\nInstructorThe Brain Academy was founded in 2014 by Gregory Caremans with the goal to reach and teach as many people as possible about the brain. Since then, the Brain Academy has helped over 40,000 people in 177 countries to get a better understanding of their brain.\n- Unredeemed licenses can be returned for store credit within 30 days of purchase. Once your license is redeemed, all sales are final."}
{"content":"MGM's 1939 classic \"Peace on Earth.\" Directed by Hugh Harmon. The synopsis sounds bleak: Animals inherit the earth after the last two men kill each other in war. But there are so many cute little animals running around adding a spoonful of sugar to the pacifist message that the blow is softened. And the animation - so rich and lush - the old beautiful kind.\nCreated twenty years after the end of The Great War and just as the Second World War was cranking up in Europe, the cartoon focuses on two little squirrels asking their grandpa what \"Peace on earth, goodwill toward men\" means. What is peace? What is goodwill? What are men? The scene where the last two humans - knee-deep in trench mud and wearing gas masks - kill each other never fails to startle me.\n\"Peace on Earth\" trivia:\n- The only cartoon ever nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize (Wow!)\n- First MGM cartoon to be nominated for an Academy Award (can't believe it didn't win)\n- Re-made/updated in 1955 by Hanna & Barbera under the title \"Goodwill to Men\" (also nominated for an Oscar).\nBe on the lookout for this one. Turner Classic Movies has it scheduled for Saturday, December 24 at 11:30am. TiVo, if you must, or find the MGM Christmas cartoon collection on DVD.\nWe'll talk \"favorite\" Christmas cartoons later (and they are legion . . . ).\nThe best Christmas cartoon is so totally that South Park mpeg. Yeah, I know, but come ON. How can you not laugh?\nBarring that, I have to go with Heat Miser/Cold Miser.\nOh, yeah - I agree with \"Nobody\" - anything with Mr Hankey has got to be a Christmas, er, bonus-type-thing.\nHaven't seen the toon you refer to. Over here we get Raymond Brigg's fantasy \"The Snowman\" every sodding year. Never managed to sit through it myself.\nI don't think I could possibly comment on 'best' Christmas cartoon, as I don't think they've made it yet (you wait - I'll remember one tomorrow!).\nIf we're talking Christmas films though...\nWhose blog should we start THAT debate on?!\nOh, you young whippersnappers with your South Park! Of course we love those rascals - but best? BEST? Oh ye of little animation discernment! And anyway, there's no arguing with my \"best\" - because I'm right. End of discussion.;-)\nNow in a day or so, I'll open it up for \"favorites\" (there'll probably be several posts on those because I do love me holiday 'toons). Then we can list our South Parks and Ren & Stimpys and Bevis & Buttheads and Flintstones, etc. Don't jump the gun on me - hold those thoughts.\nAnd PT - we have not yet begun the Christmas movie-fest rankings. Why, I have a special category just for all the Scrooge/A Christmas Carol films and 'toons alone! I figure there's enough fun for everybody on this one, so we can duke it out about Christmas films on everyone's blog. We've got 23 more days . . .\nBTW, I like \"The Snowman\" - I've already watched it once this year. I'm a sap for that choirboy singing as the snowman and little boy fly to the North Pole. It ends kinda funny though - I don't think the snowman would have melted overnight. But, hey, it's a cartoon. And it's no \"Peace on Earth.\"\nWhy, I have a special category just for all the Scrooge/A Christmas Carol films and 'toons alone!\nI will fight unto my last breath for the George C. Scott, although I grew up surrounded by Alastair Sim fans. Thank heavens I married out of *that* household. Albert Finney, eh. Jean-Luc Picard, awfulawful.\nThere, see, now I don't even have to comment when that post comes up. Not that it'll stop me.\nI agree with you, Mary! \"Peace on Earth\" wins by a long shot and always will. Just wish I could find it on DVD! Lauren\nKiss saves christmas, hands down!!\nPost a Comment"}
{"content":"The History of England\n49 Travel Chaos\nRichard set off from Outremer right at the end of the sailing season - October. He knew the Duke of Austria, the Holy Roman Emperor, Count of Toulouse and King of France were out to get him, so very sensibly tried to slip across their lands in disguise. Rubbish plan, predictable revolt. Meanwhile back in England John was making a bit for power, Phillip making his first attempt to bring down the Angevin Empire - and Robin Hood might have been hanging out in Sherwood Forest. Richard eventually arrived home at the start of 1194.\nSunday, May 21, 2023\nCharles' response to the Scottish Declaration was severe; but it also caused a division in the Junto, and among MPs. Meanwhile, as poublic religious debate exploded, divisions also grew between Presbyterians and Independants.\nSunday, May 14, 2023\n374 Paradise Lost\nFrancis Russell, Earl of Bedford believed that an accommodation could be reached with Charles - a amoderate agreement that would preserve the king's honour but provide a lasting reform. And early in 1641, an agreement was within grasp."}
{"content":"Lottery is the game wherein the player selects six lotto numbers from a larger set of lottery numbers. In this game, exactly where a dollar stake can win million of cash, the chances against winning this game have to be exorbitant. In order to boost your probabilities and make it simpler to win, read on to study about 3 procedures on how to win the lottery. Live Hongkong would be: Lottery Quantity Choice, Lottery Game Choice, and Lottery Balanced Wheels.\n* Lottery Quantity Choice.\nThe initially strategy on how to win the lottery is known as the Lottery Quantity Choice. This entails selecting the most winning lotto numbers which possess the greatest chance of winning. A lot of individuals would not gamble a lot on a horse without the need of studying its performance history beforehand. This is called handicapping, which means studying the history in an effort to strategy the future. Wall Street analysts practice the very same technique. They chart bonds, stocks and commodities, examining price tag action in the history to conclude value trends in the future. In lottery quantity handicapping, we examine the previous actions of the frequent winning lotto numbers to assist us in resolving which numbers have the highest possibility of being drawn. Winning lotto numbers are aimlessly drawn. On the other hand, aimlessly drawn numbers from prototypes that are to a particular extent expected and studying to make use of these prototypes is the strategy on how to win the lottery. The easy but awesome rule is\n* Lottery Game Choice\nA different method on how to win the lottery is referred to as the Lottery game Selection. This is completed by just picking to play the lottery game with the smallest odds, which denotes the lottery game with the lowest number fields. Majority of the states have at least 2 lottery games, 1 with nig lottery prizes and practically matchless odds, and a single with a reduced lottery number field and smaller prizes for players who want to win jackpots much more regularly. In retort to vast player demand for a lottery game that is simpler to win, majority of the states conformed by presenting the pick-5 game, wherein just 5 numbers are scored on a game panel.\n* Lottery Balanced Wheels\nThe last approach on how to win the lottery is called the Lottery Balanced Wheels. This technique provides your cash much more manage and radically improves your possibility of winning lottery jackpots. They are the most critical tools a lotto player can utilize to get immediate odds increase. These lotto systems permit you to pick a large set of lottery numbers which are set in a scientifically resolved lottery pattern on your stake slips to present you an exact win assurance. If you entrap the 6 (five or 4 winning lotto numbers) in the huge set of lottery numbers you have chosen, you are assured to win at least 1 prize. Nevertheless you can win a lot of lotto jackpots, or even the 1st prize jackpot. Winning a quantity of lottery prizes all at as soon as is what makes these lottery systems lucrative, enjoyable and exciting to use."}
{"content":"How to prepare to a Zoom virtual presentation: quick tutorial and recommendations\nWhat is a Virtual Presentation?\nVirtual presentations might be torture. Yes, the audience is already tired of video calls: you can hardly see them, everybody’s on mute, and everybody waves in sad silence, waiting till the Zoom online presentation is over.\nIn the new reality, virtual PowerPoint presentations are necessary to organize teams, present the company to new clients, give pitches to new investors, etc. To win this race, you should master the Zoom presentation development if it belongs to your duties. If you lack time, it’s always better to contact a professional presentation design service to concentrate on more specialized tasks.\nIn this material, we encourage you, explain virtual presentation peculiarities, and give tips for presenting on Zoom successfully.\nHow to Present a PowerPoint on Zoom?\nSpeaking the truth, people have low expectations regarding online presentations. It is to encourage you because it means there is a large window of opportunity to shine in the online presentation world. Indeed, it is easier to impress people who expect little. Therefore, presenting Google slides on Zoom can even become your favorite activity.\nBe Confident in Your Speaking\nWhen you can bring confidence and energy to your Zoom virtual presentation, it’s half the battle. To win it, you should speak enthusiastically, so choose a topic that drives you. Dry topics will exist but always try to select or transform them into something engaging, thrilling, or provocative, giving 110% of your energy.\nPRO TIP: using hand gestures to communicate will help move around all extra energy from nerves. Also, acknowledge your nerves to the audience in an unalarming way. When you name a feeling, it loses control over you.\nPreparing Before Presenting\nWhat makes an online presentation so nerve-wracking? Yes, technology. So treacherous and unexpected. It means you should practice both your speech and the technical setup.\nOur recommendations include the next:\n- Run your presentation 3 to 5 times to get acquainted with all Zoom features and buttons.\n- Practice it conversationally, and don’t read your word for word of your notes.\n- Do not write your notes in full long sentences; people see when you read them 🙂\n- Create notes in bullet points to find the necessary points quicker.\n- Practice speaking into the lens of your webcam, namely into people’s eyes.\n- Do a technology test run: sound quality, lightning, and background.\nAnd remember that nobody will punish you if you forget the word or take some time to calm down before speaking on Google Slides Zoom. We all are people who relate easily, so the only thing you can do to minimize the human factor is PRACTICE, PRACTICE, and PRACTICE.\n4 Useful Zoom Presentation Tips for Virtual Presentations\nA winning virtual presentation setup requires some life hacks. Many users need to catch up on functional Zoom possibilities, but effort and planning can drastically change your presentation. The following virtual presentation tips will elevate your Zoom presentation from a simple speech to professional artwork.\n1. Use Stream Deck\nThe first virtual presentation tip on Zoom is to create real magic for a big audience. You can use the stream deck to switch between as many cameras as possible. Stream deck helps to ‘be on stage’ while holding:\n- Zoom for large groups.\n- Virtual keynote.\nThere are technical details to set it up, but the stream deck helps you create more than ‘sharing a screen’ with your PowerPoint in Zoom.\n- You can program any video, picture, or graphic to pop up whenever necessary.\n- You can easily illustrate important points or bring up some talking points you need to text on the screen.\n- Zoom can automatically take out the green screen for you, and no extra extensions are required.\nUsing the stream deck is simple but amazing to take your visual presentation to a new level.\n2. Add a Camera Box\nDo not leave the audience with static slides while talking. You have to share a full screen, but we advise you to add an image of yourself to keep in contact and remain engaging. Thus, the camera box helps to talk through slides and control how much you want to interact with the audience.\nThe most popular combination is the 50/50 look, with a graphic background filling the space. Indeed, it engages your audience directly while giving your slideshow.\n3. Avoid Animation\nAnimation works well with regular PowerPoint presentations. You get the workaround if you want to design your Google slides differently.\nFor example, you can piece them out. It means you break them out slide by slide. Create separate slides for each individual ‘look’ if you want some animation effect. Basically, you create more slides instead of one slide with all the animations, which doesn’t work properly in Zoom.\n4. Think About Your Environment\nThe setting you are in matters. When delivering an online presentation, think about your background. You don’t want anything too distracting, so avoid places like the kitchen with all the kitchen crap behind you. You want something plain that looks professional.\nFor example, you can use standard backdrops available and affordable on Amazon. If you’re going to be doing more online presentations, you should consider this a worthy investment.\nBesides, think about how quiet the area is. In some circumstances, you can turn off the camera, but don’t google how to give a virtual presentation. The presentation is pointless if people cannot hear you clearly.\nClose windows, turn the light on, and concentrate on slides!\nIn today’s circumstances, Zoom presentations have become the only way we can communicate our plans and ideas to each other visually. So, it’s better to get accustomed quickly and impress with the hacks and recommendations we gave you today. If it’s not enough, and you still have a “How to do a presentation on Zoom?” question, contact our service to get a consultation and PowerPoint presentation design that will stand you out."}
{"content":"The outcasts of poker flat reading guide answers\n30 Jul 2011 ... Read the questions below and pick the best answer.\nThe Outcasts Of Poker Flat, by Bret Harte; The Outcasts Of ... Page 1 of 7. More Books. More by this Author. As Mr. John Oakhurst, gambler, stepped into the main street of Poker Flat on the morning of the 23d of November, 1850, he was conscious of a change in its moral atmosphere since the preceding night. Questions And Answers For The Outcasts Of Poker Flat Questions And Answers For The Outcasts Of Poker Flat Read/Download The Outcasts of Poker Flat\" (1869) is a short story written by renowned author of the American West Bret Harte. An example of naturalism and local color. 11 CP: Turn in your Frederick Douglass questions if you have not already done so \"The Outcasts of Poker Flat,\" pages 625-632 ... The Outcasts of Poker Flat. Harte, Francis Bret. 1917. The ...\nFind essays and research papers on Fiction at StudyMode.com. We've helped millions of students since 1999. Join the world's largest study community.\ntranslation missing: en.novel.description. Log in with Facebook The Outcasts of Poker Flat Questions and Answers The Question and Answer sections of our study guides are a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss literature. The Outcasts of Poker Flat Questions and Answers - eNotes The Outcasts of Poker Flat Questions and Answers - Discover the eNotes.com community of teachers, mentors and students just like you that can answer any question you might have on The Outcasts of ...\nRead the questions below and pick the best answer.\nThe climax of “The Outcasts of Poker Flat\" occurs when John Oakhurst fails to return to the cabin after seeing off Tom Simson on the latter's snowshoe trek backRead the story carefully. Then identify the passage suggesting that Uncle Billy is plotting against his fellow outcasts. Would you describe him as... The Outcasts of Poker Flat Full Text - The Outcasts of… In point of fact, Poker Flat was “after somebody.” It had lately suffered the loss of several thousand dollars, two valuable horses, and a prominentThe third day came, and the sun, looking through the white-curtained valley, saw the outcasts divide their slowly decreasing store of provisions for the...\nPoker Flat is experiencing a \"spasm of virtuous reaction\" to the crimes that have been committed. The secret committee rids the town \"permanently\" of two alleged criminals, while itRegionalism, Realism, and Naturalism in the \"Outcasts of Poker Flat- There are several different aspects of literature. ...\nThe Outcasts Of Poker Flat Quizzes Online, Trivia ... A comprehensive database of the outcasts of poker flat quizzes online, test your knowledge with the outcasts of poker flat quiz questions. Our online the outcasts of poker flat trivia quizzes can be adapted to suit your requirements for taking some of the top the outcasts of poker flat quizzes. BY BRET HARTE - Weebly QUESTION GUIDE (1) p. 507 How can you tell that Poker Flat is not usually a very religious town? The settlement is “unused to Sabbath influences” (2) p. 507 How would you describe Oakhurst’s view of life based on his description of it? He’s an uncomplaining pessimist; he sees life as a game of chance, and the odds are always against LESSON PLANS - EMC Publishing Lesson plans are also included for each guided writing lesson, unit opener, and unit review. These detailed lesson plans allow teachers to organize their classes and create daily routines. Before-reading activities such as Daily Oral Language (in grades 6–9), Reader’s Journal, and vocabulary lessons can serve as classroom openers. The Outcasts of Poker Flat Questions and Answers - eNotes.com\n- Free online poker games offline\n- Choi poker tai ha noi\n- Grey eagle casino patti labelle\n- Socket 370 to slot 1\n- Porte bonheur pour gagner au casino\n- Viejas casino poker room\n- Play wheel of fortune free online now\n- Jogar poker online no celular\n- Poker texas holdem anzahl spieler\n- Online casino play free\n- Dreams casino no deposit bonus coupon\n- Ten casino ac online\n- Silver dollar casino kent wa\n- Free spins no deposit king casino bonus\n- Massachusettes casino poker boom\n- What is the meaning of agp slot\n- Black gold casino wilson oklahoma\n- Is punisher an anti hero\n- Blackjack house edge 8 decks\n- Casino pride goa entry charges\n- Meadows casino washington pa new years eve\n- Belterra casino open from flooding"}
{"content":"1. Your skin ages faster\nA proper and balanced diet reflects on your skin, helping it to stay glowing and healthy for longer. Poor food choices, such as eating processed foods, accelerate the aging process of the skin and the appearance of wrinkles.\nSugar is involved in the process of producing so-called advanced glycosylation end products, which damage the skin's collagen and elastin, the proteins that keep it supple and youthful, causing it to age at a faster rate.\n2. A good mood is not fed by sugar\nIt's a well-known fact that a healthy and balanced diet can provide you with well-being, while on the contrary, frequent consumption of unhealthy processed foods has a negative effect on your mental health. According to a 2014 study, too much sugar can cause dysfunction and inflammation in the brain's neurotransmitters, which play an important role in mood.\nFoods or drinks rich in sugar sharply raise your blood sugar. Shortly afterwards, however, sugar levels fall just as sharply, which you experience as exhaustion, lack of energy and listlessness.\n3. It puts a strain on your heart\nA diet rich in sugar is also linked to the onset of heart disease, according to a study published in 2013 in the journal Circulation. The reason is that excessive sugar consumption leads to weight gain, inflammation and increased triglycerides, increased blood sugar and hypertension, indicators that are risk factors for heart disease. Also, according to another study, too much sugar can lead to atherosclerosis, which is the accumulation of fatty substances inside the arteries and consequently their blockage.\n4. A possible cause of type-2 diabetes\nSugar leads to weight gain. This increase, in turn, is considered the number one risk factor for type-2 diabetes. After all, it is only natural that when you constantly feed your body with large amounts of sugar, you will develop a resistance to insulin, the hormone produced by the pancreas to regulate your blood sugar levels. Insulin resistance means that sugar levels remain permanently high and, as a result, the chances of developing diabetes are increased.\nAccording to a study conducted in more than 175 countries, the risk of diabetes increases by 1.1% for every 150 grams of sugar (the equivalent of about one can of soda) consumed in a day.\nThe next day, the day without sugar\nThis day may seem like a long way off, but it can be a reality if you want it to be! So to start with, it's a good idea to gradually reduce your sugar intake. Opt for pure, unprocessed foods that contain no added sugar and slowly you will see a difference!\nExample: Drink a glass of water with lemon rather than a glass of ready-made juice.\nIf you have a sweet tooth, opt for a combination of nuts & fruit.\nAlso, try olive oil and lemon based sauces for salads instead of commercially prepared sauces and use plenty of aromatic herbs - they can really change the taste of your dish!\nDraw up a food diary\nAnother idea I suggest is to keep a food diary. It will help you to be more aware of what you're eating and, as a second step, help you let go of some less healthy habits.\nIn general, the best way to reduce sugar in your diet and eat healthier is to prepare every meal and snack from organic ingredients of your own choosing.\nAnd slowly you can say... \"goodbye, sugar\"!"}
{"content":"What are the top 3 reasons for divorce\nThe most commonly reported major contributors to divorce were lack of commitment, infidelity, and conflict/arguing.\nThe most common “final straw” reasons were infidelity, domestic violence, and substance use..\nWhy do couples cohabitate\nSpending more time together and convenience were the most strongly endorsed reasons. The degree to which individuals reported cohabiting to test their relationships was associated with more negative couple communication and more physical aggression as well as lower relationship adjustment, confidence, and dedication.\nCan you kiss before marriage Bible\nDid you know there is another passage in the Bible that says it is a “good thing for a man not to touch a woman.” Check it out in I Corinthians 7:1. So, choosing not to kiss before marriage isn’t weird, backward or strange…it is a “good thing.”\nIs divorce a sin\nMYTH: God forbids all divorce, and divorce is the unpardonable sin. TRUTH: Scripture shows that God gives permission for divorce. And modern Bible translations NIV, ESV, and CSB do not translate Malachi 2:16 as God saying “I hate divorce.” … In reality, Scripture shows us God’s permission for divorce in several places.\nIs cuddling a sin\nKissing, cuddling, etc. are not sins among people whose status could be vaguely described as courtship. It is one of the happy purposes of courtship.\nHow long should you live together before getting engaged\nAccording to recent data, most couples date for two or more years before getting engaged, with many dating anywhere from two to five years. Once the question is popped, the average length of engagement is between 12 and 18 months.\nIs it bad to live together before marriage\nThey find that living together before marriage is associated with lower odds of divorce in the first year of marriage, but increases the odds of divorce in all other years tested, and this finding holds across decades of data.\nIs it a sin to sleep in the same bed with your girlfriend\nOriginally Answered: As a Christian, is it okay to sleep in the same bed as your partner? Technically, yes, if you don’t engage in sinful behavior. But, here’s the thing; a genuine follower of Jesus the Christ desires to please Him. The Bible says Christians should avoid anything that even has “the appearance” of evil.\nCan divorce be forgiven by God\nWill God Forgive You If You Get Divorced? The answer is an undeniable ‘YES’, God DOES FORGIVE DIVORCE.\nWhat do you call a couple living together but not married\nCohabitation is an arrangement where two people are not married but live together. They are often involved in a romantic or sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. … More broadly, the term cohabitation can mean any number of people living together.\nCan Muslims kiss before marriage\nThey have religious restrictions that limit physical contact in premarital relationships. They chose to focus more on developing their emotional intimacy, with the occasional hug or kiss.\nIs it wrong to sleep with your boyfriend before marriage\nBeware: Don’t sleep with less than 2 or more than 9 partners before marriage. According to new research, when it comes to sex before marriage, having more partners is actually better than flings with just a couple.\nWhat percentage of first marriages are successful\nAlmost 50 percent of all marriages in the United States will end in divorce or separation. 7. Researchers estimate that 41 percent of all first marriages end in divorce. 8.\nShould you live together before getting engaged\nAbout half of U.S. adults (48%) say couples who live together before marriage have a better chance of having a successful marriage than those who don’t live together before marriage; 13% say couples who live together before marriage have a worse chance of having a successful marriage and 38% say it doesn’t make much …\nWhere does the Bible say not to live together before marriage\nTherefore biblical wisdom tells us men and women should not live together before marriage. In John 4 when Jesus is seeking to reveal the truth to a Samaritan woman, he has to confront her sinful rebellion towards God, therefore it states (verses 16-18 NLT), “Go and get your husband,” Jesus told her.\nDo couples who live together before marriage have a higher divorce rate\nThis is an update on the latest in this long-running saga of research on the cohabitation effect. … Rosenfeld and Roesler also showed something new in their 2018 study: cohabitation before marriage was associated with a lower risk of divorce in the first year of marriage but a higher risk thereafter.\nWhat is the average time to propose\nWe determined that the median engagement age in the United States is 27.2 years for women, and 28.7 years for men — a 1.5 year difference. Furthermore, the median amount of time a couple dates before the proposal is 3.3 years. But as we found, these numbers vary based on where you live.\nIs it a sin to live together and not be married\nWhy do people think it’s wrong to live together before you’re married? Well, the issue is not living together, but the sin of fornication (1 Thes 4:3-4). … The Bible doesn’t actually say anything about living together before marriage but it speaks consistently about purity and keeping your body as a Holy temple.\nWhy is living in a relationship bad\n2. Easy way out. The very advantage of being in a live-in relationship, is its biggest disadvantage as well, which is lack of commitment. Anything from a small fight, disagreement, or a misplaced question can see either of the partners walking out of the relationship.\nAre tattoos a sin\nSunni Islam The majority of Sunni Muslims believe tattooing is a sin, because it involves changing the natural creation of God, inflicting unnecessary pain in the process. Tattoos are classified as dirty things, which is prohibited from the Islam religion."}
{"content":"Assistant Dairy Calf Manager\nMiner Institute, a 500-cow dairy, is looking for an assistant calf/youngstock manager to care for ... for advancement in this position to the role of Calf/Youngstock Manager. W.H. Miner Institute is in ... Chazy, NY. Duties include: Manage the health and growth of calves to reach Miner Institute’s goals. ...\nSTEP visits Washington, D.C.\nCampus undergrads a memorable trip to the beautiful nation’s capital. Our Historian was Wooster STEP ...\nAnimal Laboratory Research Methods\nANIMSCI 3420 Laboratory format demonstrating the applications of animal research. Students will ... perform experiments using common research techniques associated with food animals, including experimental ...\nIntroduction to Animal Welfare\nscientific developments that have led to our current understanding of animal welfare and its assessment. ...\nAnimal Nutrition Laboratory\nproviding optimal nutrition to managed animals. Prereq: 2200.01 or 2300H, and 2200.02 or AnmlTec 2200.02T. ...\nResilience in Agriculture focus of new outreach report\nA new Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (SARE) Outreach publication, ...\nPet Food Production- From Concept to Consumer\nresearch. Prereq: 3140 or EEOB 2520; and 3130 or HumnNtr 2210; and 3133, FdScTe 2400, or 3400; and AEDEcon ...\nRuminants, Horses, Poultry, and Pigs\nteaching, Extension, and research. The facility will provide access to animals, educational spaces, ... K through 12, and across the lifespan. The MALC aims to expand the visibility of research and educational ...\nresearch here. ...\nCALLING HOURS set to be performed in May\nCounty, Ohio. Read more about the connection of CALLING HOURS to research led by Jeffrey Jacquet, ... artifacts documenting the research conducted by Ohio State researchers. The exhibition and performance will ..."}
{"content":"Memorial Day is an American holiday, observed on the last Monday in May, honoring the men and women who died while serving in the United States military. Originally called Decoration Day, after the tradition of decorating graves with flowers, wreaths, and flags. Memorial Day was first widely observed on May 30, 1868, to commemorate the sacrifices of Civil War soldiers.\nIn the weeks prior, General John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic had declared May 30 as the official date to decorate the graves of the war dead. It is believed this date was chosen to ensure flowers would be in bloom all over the country. During the first national commemoration, former Union General and Ohio Congressman James Garfield gave a speech at Arlington National Cemetery. 5,000 participants helped decorate the graves of more than 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried there.\nThough this marked the first national commemoration, local springtime tributes to fallen Civil War soldiers had been held in various places. Several towns throughout the United States claim to have begun the tradition. One such town is Columbus, Mississippi, where the story goes that a group of local women visited a local cemetery to decorate the graves of Confederate soldiers who had fallen during the war. Disturbed by the bare graves of neighboring Union soldiers, they proceeded to decorate their graves with flowers as well. A stone in Carbondale, Illinois cemetery carries the statement that the first Decoration Day ceremony took place there on April 29, 1866. Other towns, from both sides of the conflict, claim to have held the first Decoration Day.\nDespite these claims and the uncertainty surrounding when the tradition began, in 1966 the federal government declared Waterloo, New York as the official birthplace of Memorial Day. Waterloo, which first celebrated the day on May 5, 1866, was chosen as the official representative because it hosted an annual, community-wide event, during which businesses closed and residents took the day off to decorate the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags. By the end of the 19th century, Memorial Day ceremonies were being held on May 30 nationwide, with state legislatures passing proclamations designating the day as an official holiday.\nIt wasn’t until 1971 that Memorial Day was declared a national holiday by Congress and the day was changed to always land on the last Monday of May, regardless of the date. Originally, the day was only meant to honor those lost during the Civil War. World War I, however, led to the evolution of the holiday to include American military personnel who died in all American wars. This includes World Wars I and II, the Vietnam War, Korean War, and subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.\nToday, Memorial Day is commemorated nationwide each year. At Arlington National Cemetery, a ceremony is held in which a small American flag is placed on each grave. Traditionally, the President or Vice President lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.\nThis year, Memorial Day falls on May 30, 2022. Mt. Soledad National Veterans Memorial will be hosting its annual ceremony at the memorial from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM. This year, the memorial is honoring Major Megan McClung of the United States Marine Corps. McClung was the first female Marine officer to be killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom. She was also the first female graduate of the United States Naval Academy to be killed in action since the school’s founding in 1845.\nThe ceremony will feature keynote speaker Lieutenant General Sean MacFarland, US Army, Ret. As a Brigade Combat Team Commander in Iraq, he is credited with fostering the Sunni Arab “Awakening” movement and commanded coalition forces in the war against ISIS in Iraq and Syria from 2015-2016. Parking for the event is available at the Mt. Soledad Presbyterian Church and French American School. Complimentary trolley service is provided."}
{"content":"5G, the underlying technology for opening up a new information era, when combined with fog computing and blockchain technologies will unleash great vitality to the Internet of Things(IoT). Merging these novel technologies efficiently will provide a better solution to existing barriers and pave the way for the next era of fog computing. SONM team seizes the opportunity to make crucial headways in innovative applications, delivering a better and improved approach for data processing and transmission.\nFog Computing for 5G networks\nThe main idea of fog computing is the use of a decentralized network formed from disparate individual computing devices, as opposed to a single data center structure. The unique feature of fog computing is that the computing resources are decentralized: instead of being provided by some centralized data center or supercomputer or server, the accumulated resource is delivered from individual computing devices.\n5G lays the foundation for a new generation of information technology. Because of the fast peak upload and download speed of 5G, SONM team has planned to connect 5G into SONM’s metaverse, providing it with improved running speed and capability. With the support of 5G, SONM operation is expected to achieve faster speed, lower latency and larger data transmission.\n5G and fog computing are two inextricably linked technologies: They are both poised to significantly improve the performance of applications and enable huge amounts of data to be processed in real-time. 5G increases speeds by up to ten times that of 4G, whereas fog computing reduces latency by bringing compute capabilities into the network, closer to the end user.\nFog computing has expanded the concept of cloud computing and is closer to the place where data is generated. However, it will not replace cloud computing, but jointly meet the challenges faced in the application scenarios such as Internet of Things, 5G, AI and virtual reality.\nHow 5G and Blockchain Technologies Merge\nBlockchain and 5G are both novel technologies, and their combination will be added more value as they develop overtime. 5G, a communications infrastructure resembling the “information superhighway”, offers the possibility of transferring huge volumes of data and information, and simultaneously, brings more efficient and reliable transmission speeds; while blockchain, as a decentralised and privacy-protected technology tool, will help 5G solve the problems of reliability, security, privacy and trust, enhance network information security and service efficiency, and innovate business models. 5G and blockchain, when effectively integrated, will empower each other and help us take crucial steps towards the next era of Internet.\n5G to Blockchain\n- 5G will dramatically improve the performance and stability of blockchain networks.\nWith faster data transfer speeds of up to 10 Gb per second, 5G networks will enable faster transactions in blockchain systems and qualitatively improve the stability of blockchain applications.\n- The IoT facilitated by 5G brings more data to the blockchain.\n5G technology can bring wider coverage, more stable licensed frequency bands and more uniform standards to the IoT, thus providing strong support for IoT-based blockchain applications. As a result, blockchain will be able to provide stable tracking, traceability and distributed peer-to-peer transaction capabilities for trillions of commodities worldwide, on the basis of high-speed 5G communication technology and the development of various technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data and artificial intelligence.\nBlockchain to 5G\n- Blockchain enables 5G for true peer-to-peer flow of value.\n- The decentralised nature of blockchain offers new solutions for sharing network resources.\nThe nature of blockchain distributed bookkeeping and the upper layer of smart contracts have the natural advantages of enabling intelligent settlement, value transfer and resource sharing, which are suitable for combining with network resource sharing.\n- Blockchain’s high trustworthiness provides efficient solutions for business operations.\nSONM Application in 5G\nSONM team believes that 5G technology and fog computing will become the main structure of intelligent network system in the future. The 5G technology pursues speed, and fog computing improves the transmission rate and greatly reduces the delay by unblocking the transmission bottleneck between the data center and the mid-end, all of which coincide with the purpose of improving speed.\nThis makes it possible to build extremely scalable and distributed systems that can achieve performance and efficiency, not available with traditional cloud-based architecture. SONM aims to attract private users and data centers with free computing resources, and to form an open market based on these resources. A market where buyers, on a competitive basis, can find the resources to run their applications.\nBuild a smarter city\nSONM uses the fog computing structure, which can be a viable alternative to cloud solutions and services. Some people call SONM “Airbnb of computing power”, which can provide cheaper resources than established cloud computing services. Once computing power is available locally, it can be used for machine learning, video presentation and other use cases.\nThe great value brought by 5G lies in the huge number of concurrent devices supported, which means that you can connect and share the data of each component of the smart city or utility supply chain with your own power, and aggregate and analyze the data in real-time by using Edge AI technology.The emergence of 5G technology will promote the application scenarios and products of Internet of Things (IoT), and edge computing is necessary to promote the application scenarios of IoT.\nThe 5G era is the era of IoT, with the number of networked devices increasing greatly, various household appliances and a large number of sensors will be networked, and the data to be processed will increase exponentially. Therefore, 5G and fog computing can be regarded as two complementary tools, 5G broadens the channel for data transmission, and fog computing processes and stores data at the edge layer of the network through some small servers, while reducing the pressure on the cloud.\nSONM Website: https://www. sonm.com\nSONM Telegram: https://t.me/sonm_eng\nSONM Announcement: https://t.me/SONM_Announcements\nSONM Twitter: https://twitter.com/sonmdevelopment"}
{"content":"The SRTC Economic Development division staff works with employers to provide on-site training that can be customized to improve the skills your company requires. Our training capabilities include computer and software training, leadership, soft skills, team building, and more. The process begins with skills assessments that will identify the areas for improvement. If your business has applicants or employees that need to be evaluated, the Economic Development division can meet that need with the Work Ready assessment and job skills assessments.\nSRTC delivers training whenever and wherever you want it! Classes are available on a very flexible schedule including days, evenings, and weekends. The Economic Development department maintains relationships with highly competent, specialized, and experienced instructors for almost any training need. We take pride in delivering high-quality training and customer service.\nFrequently Requested Customized Training Topics\n- Health and Safety\n- Industrial and Mechanical\n- Supervisory and Leadership Development\n- Customer Service\n- Computer and Business Technology\n- Work Ethics\n- Professional Certification\nManagement and Supervisory Workshops\nCoaching (2 hours)\n- Understand the role of a coach\n- Discuss the key techniques involved in successful coaching\n- Discuss how to apply this knowledge to improve employee performance\nCommunications (4 hours)\n- Defining and understanding communications\n- How to remove or minimize barriers\n- What is “total communication?”\n- How to communicate more effectively!\n- Why tone of voice is so important\n- Non-Verbal Communications\n- E-Mail Etiquette\nConflict Management (4 hours)\n- Conflict Process\n- Advantages and Disadvantages of Conflict\n- Sources of Organizational Conflict\n- Approaches to managing Conflict\n- Third Party Conflict Resolution\nInterpersonal Employee Relations (4 hours)\nLeadership Styles (2 hours)\n- Review different leadership styles.\n- Identify Leadership Style for Participants\n- Provide methods for communicating with subordinates\n- Reinforce the need for consistency\nLeadership Styles for Supervisors (2 hours)\n- Answers why we manage the way we do.\n- Review different leadership styles.\n- Identify what style you use and what style(s) could be related to your subordinates.\n- Provides information that helps you improve your personal style of managing.\n- Reinforces the need for consistency.\nTeamwork (2 hours)\n- Teams Defined\n- Role Clarification\n- Groups vs. Teams\n- Four stages of Team Development\n- How to motivate teams?\nTime Management (2 hours)\n- How to stay focused on your top priorities\n- Maintaining commitments to the big picture and other activities\n- Keeping multiple goals moving forward\n- Developing your own plan using tools and methods that work for you\n- Reducing stress and gain more life balance by eliminating focus robbers\nUnderstanding the Four Generations in the Workplace (4 hours)\n- Characteristics and Differences\n- Events and Experiences\n- Generation Timeline\n- Bridging the Generation Gaps\n5S Program (4 hours)\n- Define the 5S Program\n- Explain the five parts of the Program\n- Provide description of 5S Program implementation\nDiversity (3 hour)\n- What workplace diversity means.\n- What’s Changed Since September 11?\n- How it impacts our organization.\n- Understanding the four generations in the workplace.\n- Discrimination and diversity.\n- Company policy.\n- Myths and realities about diversity.\n- Ways to make diversity work.\nCustomer Service Telephone Techniques for Exceptional Customer Service (2 hours)\n- Class Activities to determine vocal quality, listening skills and how well you work with a telephone\n- How to present a positive telephone service image by understanding the powers and pitfalls of the telephone and how perceptions are formed.\n- How to develop and maintain a positive vocal picture\n- Listening skills, the key to exceptional customer service\n- Seven parts to a telephone call. Learn how to become more effective during each part.\n- Sentences you should never use\n- Using voice mail\n- Practical exercises to record, listen to and critique each participant’s “telephone voice”\nDealing with Difficult Customers (2 hours)\n- What is a difficult customer and why this term is relative\n- Clues of difficult customers\n- Why Customers Leave or are Frustrated\n- How to handle an angry customer\n- A model that works!\n- Complaints or Opportunities?\n- This session includes skits and role play"}
{"content":"Aɩeгt! Loon fаɩɩoᴜt currently happening in Northern Wisconsin, USA!\nIt appears we may have a LOON fаɩɩoᴜt occuring. That occurs when atmospheric conditions are such that the migrating loons develop ice on their body as they fly at high altitude and сгаѕһ land when they are no longer able to fly due to the weight of the ice on their body.\nThe current ice/rain and unstable air currents is a perfect set-up for this phenomena to occur.\nAnd many people dont know loons cannot walk! They will need your help! If you happen to live in this area and find a loon, realize it can’t walk. Their legs are placed to tһe Ьасk of the bird and are made for swimming and dіⱱіпɡ not walking. Connect with Nature!"}
{"content":"A special type of cable called Romex is used to connect the power source to the switch, and to the electrical outlet that powers the load. Inside this insulated cable are three wires -a hot wire, a neutral wire, and a ground wire. … Electrical contacts inside the switch are what join the two terminals together.\nWhat’s behind a switch?\nThe Nintendo Switch comprises a Tegra X1-based SoC from NVIDIA (red), a Samsung LPDDR4 DRAM (orange), two Maxim MAX77621AEWI+T buck regulators (green), a Cypress BCM4356 wireless SoC (yellow) and an M92T36 630380 chip (blue). Image courtesy of iFixit.\nWhat’s inside a single-pole switch?\nA single-pole switch has two brass-colored screw terminals that are connected to the hot, or power-source, wires. These wires are usually black in color. … Most single-pole switches also include a ground terminal for connecting the circuit’s ground wire.\nWhat are the 4 types of switches?\nThe types of switches are classified into four types namely:\n- SPST (Single Pole Single throw)\n- SPDT (single pole double throw)\n- DPST (double pole, single throw)\n- DPDT (double pole double throw)\nWhat is inside an electrical outlet?\nIf you remove the cover and outlet, you will find three wires: black (hot), white (neutral), and green (ground). … If you have one set of wires, this is the end receptacle on a circuit. However, in most cases, there will also be a set of wires leaving to power another outlet in the circuit.\nHow is a switch constructed?\nHow is an electrical switch constructed? … Switches typically use metal contacts that are touched together or moved apart by some sort of actuating lever, shaft, or other mechanical assembly. Notes: An inexpensive type of switch I use for teaching basic electricity/electronics classes is a household light switch.\nWhat is the function of a switch in a circuit?\nAn electrical switch serves the purpose of controlling the flow of electrical current within a circuit. It can be used to both inhibit the flow of the current or to initiate it.\nWhat is the black screw on a light switch?\nThe black wire goes up to the light through the yellow cable. The green ground screw on the switch is used to connect the two grounds. The black screw can get either the wire from the electrical panel or the wire going to the light.\nHow many wires can be in a single pole switch?\nA single pole switch is used to control the light in a small closet or bathroom. It’s called a single pole switch because there are two wires connected or separated by the switch mechanism. There’s also a ground wire to protect against electrical faults.\nWhat is the common wire in a 3 way switch?\nBlack wire: This is a hot wire that carries electricity from the power source to the first switch in a typical 3-way setup. It’s also called the “common wire” or the “line wire.” Unless the breaker is off, this black wire is always hot.\nWhat’s the difference in a 3 way switch in a 4-way switch?\nA three-way switch has three terminals; a four-way has four. These control a light from two or three switch locations, such as at the top and bottom of a stairwell, at either end of a hallway, or in a large room with multiple entrances. A dimmer switch controls a light’s intensity."}
{"content":"The Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the School of Social Work envisions our role to be a catalyst and support system to students, staff and faculty for the purpose of cultivating a conscious community where every person feels affirmed, respected, valued and appreciated.\nOur commitment to this work is rooted in an understanding that historical and present-day systems of oppression stemming from racism and the institution of slavery continue to permeate all levels of our society, and intersect with discrimination based on personal identities and social positionalities. We recognize our profession has not been historically and is not presently representative of the diversity of perspectives, experiences and backgrounds that make up Michigan, our nation and our world. As a profession and as a School, we must take ownership of our past and participate in envisioning a new path forward that centers anti-racist and anti-oppressive values, frameworks, and practices.\nWe believe it is both our individual and collective responsibility to develop critical awareness in order to embody diversity, equity, and inclusion principles within our school community and through social work practice.\nDiversity is a representation and intersectionality of our collective and individual identities, positionalities, values, beliefs, and lived experiences. We acknowledge the importance of creating environments that take into account and respect all elements of human experience, and strive for empathic action at all times. The ability to navigate diversity, like practicing empathy, is a prosocial skill that can be developed over time with cultural humility, intentionality, and knowledge.\nAt the School of Social Work, our goal is to create conditions that allow all students, staff and faculty to thrive. Rather than treating every individual equally and identically, equity practice presumes diversity and requires ongoing action to identify and eliminate barriers that presently prevent the full, meaningful participation and inclusion of certain individuals and groups. To achieve this vision, equity calls for us to intentionally invest in programming and supports that nurture the strengths of people with underrepresented identities while also addressing their distinctive needs. The pursuit of equity requires for us to redistribute both power and resources within our social work practice, our school, and the systems in which we work.\nInclusion fosters a culture of belonging by bringing and empowering traditionally excluded voices into decision-making processes. Inclusion mandates the establishment of a balance of power and shared rights within a group, organization, or institution. Inclusive spaces are empowering environments where each voice is valued and supported to actively participate through purposeful, deliberate, and authentic efforts, while understanding that no one person is representative of an entire community.\nUniversity of Michigan\nSchool of Social Work\n1080 South University Avenue\nAnn Arbor, MI 48109-1106"}
{"content":"What is Falsetto Voice? Defining Characteristics & Biology\nThe word falsetto was taken from the word 'false' because it was recognised as different to the normal singing voice. As a singer, it is important to understand the defining features of falsetto so that you can differentiate your falsetto from your normal vocal range. In this article, I will clearly define the falsetto voice.\nFalsetto voice is one of four vocal registers and has a characteristic light and airy sound. When singing falsetto, the vocal cords no longer touch, allowing air to pass freely through the larynx. Singers can generally sing one octave higher in falsetto than in their normal modal voice register.\nYou can find a detailed look into falsetto voice, including what is happening in your larynx (voice box) and how to find your falsetto range. I will also explain why both males and females can sing in falsetto.\nBefore defining falsetto using anatomy and physiology, you should have a basic understanding on the four vocal registers and how they relate to one another.\nBelow are the four vocal registers, in order of lowest to highest.\n- Vocal fry register: Lowest vocal register. Air bubbles through closed vocal cords.\n- Modal voice register: Normal vocal register. Air vibrates vocal cords together to produce pitch/sound.\n- Falsetto voice register: Above normal vocal register. Air passes freely through open but vibrating vocal cords to produce sound.\n- Whistle voice register: Highest vocal register. Air passes freely through a unique triangular opening in larynx to form a whistle.\nDefining Falsetto Voice (Anatomy & Physiology)\nAbove was a very brief definition of the falsetto voice register, but now it's time to understand exactly what is going on in your larynx. For a detailed explaination of how your voice works, take a look at this article.\nThe two main muscles that move your vocal cords are listed below. These operate in different ways depending on which vocal register you are singing in.\n- Cricothyroid (CT) muscle: Lengthens and tenses the vocal cords (ie. increases pitch).\n- Thyroarytenoid (TA) muscle: Shortens and loosens the vocal cords (ie. decreases pitch). Importantly, some fibres also pull the vocal cords close together to prevent separation as they become loose.\nIn the modal voice register, both of these muscles are active. They both pull the vocal cords in opposite directions, holding them in place at any given length (which determines each pitch).\nThis is similar to how your biceps and triceps muscles work together to hold your forearm in any given position.\nAs you sing higher, the TA muscle becomes more and more loose, allowing your vocal cords to stretch longer and thinner. Once your TA muscle relaxes completely, you enter into the falsetto register.\nYou would think that the CT muscle would be enough to keep the vocal cords together because it is pulling them tighter together. However, some of this is a result of that small bunch of fibres in the TA muscle.\nOnce the TA muscle relaxes, there is no longer a dedicated group of muscles fibres pulling the vocal cords together. They therefore snap open, even through they are still being pulled tight.\nFalsetto Voice Range\nIt is possible to use falsetto to sing through your normal modal voice range because some singers are capable of controlling whether or not their vocal cords are open or closed.\nHowever, for the sake of simplicity, I will define the falsetto range as the additional range given to a singer beyond their normal modal voice range (ie. notes they would not be able to reach without falsetto).\nThis range typically spans across one octave, starting at the upper limit of your normal vocal range. When entering falsetto, you should feel a 'flip' as your voice suddenly becomes more airy (keep in mind trained singers can hide this flip).\nThat being said, below is the typical falsetto range for each voice type.\n- Bass Falsetto Voice: approximately E4 - E5\n- Baritone Falsetto Voice: approximately A4 - A5\n- Tenor Falsetto Voice: approximately C5 - C6\n- Alto Falsetto Voice: approximately F5 - F6\n- Mezzo-soprano Falsetto Voice: approximately A5 - A6\n- Soprano Falsetto Voice: approximately C6 - C7\nEvery voice is different, so you will find that your falsetto range falls somewhere in-between these ranges.\nClick on these links to see the typical vocal ranges for chest voice and head voice.\nCharacteristics of Falsetto\nBelow are some of the characteristics of the falsetto voice.\n- Less strain on your voice (compared to the modal voice register)\nSome singers are able to reinforce their falsetto range to blend with their head voice (click here for more information on head voice). This gives their falsetto voice more of a ringing tone (compared to being breathy), making it hard to distinguish from the ring-like tone of head voice.\nOthers use the light breathy nature of their falsetto register as a stylistic addition to their singing. This is particularly common in men.\nFinding your Falsetto Register\nFinding your falsetto register is relatively easy. Simply start with a note that is comfortable and singer higher and higher until you feel the falsetto 'flip'.\nAt this flip, you will notice that there is suddenly less strain on your voice and you can continue singing much higher than the point of strain. You should also notice that your tone becomes more breathy and you start to lose air much quicker as you sing.\nAs a general rule, the average singer can sing around two octaves in their modal voice register, and another octave higher than that in their falsetto register. Therefore, if you know the highest comfortable note you can sing (before flipping), your falsetto register should be the octave above that.\nDo Females have Falsetto Voice?\nFemales certainly do have a falsetto register. This has been confirmed with science as technology has become more advanced.\nWith the progression of medical technology, scientists were able to observe the vocal cords directly with a special camera that is fed into the throat (laryngoscope/endoscope). This procedure was performed on singers as they progressed through different voice registers to study how the vocal cords behaved.\nYour vocal cords behave the same, regardless of whether you are male or female.\nIn regards to anatomy, males and females have the same components in their larynx. This anatomy is merely different in size and shape, giving males a typically deeper voice than females. However, the way sound is produced is exactly the same as you progress through different vocal registers.\nAs with males, a female's vocal cords will be forced apart as they enter into their falsetto register, giving their voice a lighter and more airy quality.\nThe main reason this has been disputed for so long is that this light airy sound is not as easily differentiated from a female's natural modal voice. In contrast, a male's modal voice is typically loud and booming, which is very different to the sound of the falsetto register.\nIs it OK to Sing in Falsetto?\nSinging in your falsetto register is safe, but should be done in balance. As less muscles are involved in producing a falsetto sound, this will put less strain on your voice.\nHowever, because there is more air passing through your vocal cords, they can be more prone to becoming dry (and therefore at risk of damage). You will also lose more tone in the muscles that are not being used, making it harder to control your modal voice register.\nTherefore, it is okay to sing in falsetto, as long as you balance this with also singing in your modal voice register. On occasion, falsetto can be very effective at adding a stylistic element to a song or helping you reach higher notes."}
{"content":"September 23, 2021\nDr. Jennifer Desireddi, M.D. is a Neonatologist specializing in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine at St. David’s Medical Center. In her 2018 study, Dr. Desireddi collaborated with Dr. C Armitage Harper, pediatric retinologist from Austin Retina Associates, in understanding the life outcomes of Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) among micro-premature infants (birth weight is less than 750 g). The retrospective multicenter study included infants at several intensive care facilities in Central Texas from 2011 to 2016. Dr. Desireddi and her colleagues compared the charts of neonates examined and treated with laser ablation or an FDA approved drug (Intravitreal Ranibizumab) with subsequent laser treatment. Read more about this study.\nAdditionally, Dr. Desireddi presented two posters at the Pediatric Academic Society Conference in May of 2018. Dr. Desireddi presented “The Surgical Approach to Simple Gastroschisis Affects Hospital Management and Length of Stay.” Dr. Desireddi also presented “A CQI Approach to Improving ELBW nutrition in the First Week of Life,” a collaborative project between Dr. Desireddi and Dr. Monica Shah M.D., a neonatologist practicing at St. David’s Medical Center.\nDr. Shah also presented a poster at the 2018 Vermont Oxford Network Conference (VON) titled “A CQI Approach to Improving ELBW nutrition in the First Week of Life.” Dr. Desireddi supported the important work of two St. David’s Medical Center colleagues – Kay Needles, RN and Allison Brannen, RN on their NICU quality project titled “A CQI Approach to Increasing Breastfeeding Rates at Discharge and Reducing the use of Donor Breast Milk” which was presented as a poster at the 2018 VON Conference.\nSt. David’s Research Scientist, Dr. Max Shpak, Presents on Advances in Cancer Genomics\nSt. David’s Women’s Center of Texas joins national research network for maternal-fetal medicine and obstetrics"}
{"content":"Now available directly from this site! Post free in UK.\nAfter the preparation, recording and success of Delicatessen (DMCD001), Steven and Kate Semmens were keen to delve further into the English song repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries, again driven by composers who set texts so beautifully. They have been careful to stay true to songs written specifically for the combination of voice and keyboard (rather than arrangements of orchestral accompaniments) thereby presenting a programme which becomes domestic in nature. In the previous recording, it was the cantata of John Stanley, usually known for his keyboard works, which provided one of the high points: in the present recording, two further cantatas feature, showing Stanley to be as witty as he is sensitive to the text. Thomas Arne and William Boyce again feature with presentations of lesser-known work. A new discovery for the performers has been the work of William Jackson of Exeter and two songs for voice and obbligato keyboard are presented here. Many of the items are obscure but all are charming and present an interesting glimpse into another social world."}
{"content":"Clergy Notes — Fourth Sunday of Lent, March 19, 2023\nFr Richard Carter, a priest now at St Martin-in-the Fields in London, England, writes movingly of Br John Blyth, whose requiem it was our privilege to host at St James’ this past week:\n‘Brother John and I were members of the Melanesian Brotherhood together. When I was chaplain of the Melanesian Brotherhood I asked him to become a mobile chaplain travelling from household to household. He did it with his usual care, consideration and dedication. It was a tough call with no creature comforts. He became a Brother in October 1999 and I a Brother in April 2000 inspired by his example and courage. He found in the Melanesian Brotherhood a family and a community who loved and respected him. He served in Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Philippines. I will always remember John sitting with me each day on the polished wooden floor of the meditation chapel at Tabalia the motherhouse of the Melanesian Brotherhood in Solomon Islands. The wind chimes he gave would be softly ringing in the wind, his long legs and stiff knee stretched out before him. It was the time of the martyrdom of the seven Melanesian Brothers. No words could express our sorrow but together we prayed through the troubles – united in silence, united in God. Longing for peace beyond the violence- Yet finding Christ’s peace, as I look back, astonishingly even in the midst of it. He was a man of deep prayerfulness. Prayer was so much part of him.\nBrother John used to gently chide himself: “Come on John,” He was a man of deep humility, faith, steadfast, loyal and true beyond words. When he got grumpy he would quietly take himself off to bed. When his memory began to fade and I was frightened he would get lost when he came to London to visit me, I would find him sitting next door at the café or praying at the back of St Martin’s, patiently waiting for me, or more probably God. “Come on John.” He lived a life stripped down of all excess – just John, his Brotherhood medal, black uniform and sash, his prayerbook and notebook, noting down everything meticulously and attentively persevering. He had learnt to live simply, obedient to God, without ostentation but with a wonderful, slightly self-depreciating, dry sense of humour. He taught me much so about obedience to the God he loved – and true poverty of spirit, not with words but by the way he lived – by letting go of desire, receiving all one can desire. Faithful humility helps us to find our way home to God – I loved him dearly – as did the members of the Melanesian Brothers. They know the real thing. The Brothers say that “If I honour myself my honour is nothing” John showed us all the true way of service- he quietly and thoughtfully put in place the things of God- humbly preparing, supporting and living a life devoted to Christ and by example teaching me, my brother Daniel, and many others to do the same.’\nWell done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord!"}
{"content":"- 1 How are college percentages calculated?\n- 2 How do you calculate overall percentage of degree marks?\n- 3 How do you calculate a semester percentage?\n- 4 How is B Sc degree percentage calculated?\n- 5 What is the formula of percentage?\n- 6 How can I calculate the percentage?\n- 7 How do you calculate 6 semesters from a percentage?\n- 8 How do I calculate percentage on calculator?\n- 9 How do I calculate final percentage?\n- 10 How do you calculate average percentage?\n- 11 How is 4 semester CGPA calculated?\n- 12 How is your GPA calculated?\n- 13 How do you calculate degrees?\nHow are college percentages calculated?\nA percentage is a number that is shown in terms of 100.To find the percentage of the marks obtained, one shall divide the total scores by marks obtained and then multiply the result with 100. Example: If 79 is the score obtained in the examination out of 100 marks, then divide 79 by 100, and then multiply it by 100.\nHow do you calculate overall percentage of degree marks?\nAdd up all the marks of the six semesters and then divide that by the total marks. You will get the average. For example if the total marks is 1000 and you got a total of 750 then your percentage is 750/1000*100=75%.\nHow do you calculate a semester percentage?\nDivide the summation of the SGPAs by the number of semesters you have given. Multiply your SGPA with 10 and then subtract 7.5 from the total [(SGPA * 10) – 7.5 = Percentage ].\nHow is B Sc degree percentage calculated?\nRe: How to calculate percentage for Graduation like B. Sc.?\n- Firstly calculate the total marks of your subject including your practical exams.\n- And then divide it by the total marks of your subject including practical exam.\n- And then multiply it by 100.\nWhat is the formula of percentage?\nthe equation for percentage is this: percentage = 100 * part / whole, and it answers the question “what percentage of 20 is 8”. the formula for a part is: part = whole * percentage / 100, and it answers “what is 40% of 20?”.\nHow can I calculate the percentage?\nHow To Calculate Percent\n- Determine the total or whole amount.\n- Divide the number to be expressed as a percent by the total. In most cases, you’ll divide the smaller number by the larger number.\n- Multiple the resulting value by 100.\nHow do you calculate 6 semesters from a percentage?\nFor calculating the aggregate percentage of 6 semesters. Just you need to sum the total marks and marks that you obtained.\nHow do I calculate percentage on calculator?\nHow to Calculate Percentages with a Calculator\n- If your calculator has a “%” button. Let’s say you wanted to find 19 percent of 20. Press these buttons: 1 9 % * 2 0 =\n- If your calculator does not have a “%” button. Step 1: Remove the percent sign and add a couple of zeros after the decimal point. 19% becomes 19.00.\nHow do I calculate final percentage?\nFirst, calculate the percentage you received on the test by dividing your mark by the total marks. For example, if you scored 18 out of 20, then 18/20 = 90 percent. Secondly, multiply your percentage score on the test by the percentage it is worth of the final grade.\nHow do you calculate average percentage?\nCalculate the percentage average To find the average percentage of the two percentages in this example, you need to first divide the sum of the two percentage numbers by the sum of the two sample sizes. So, 95 divided by 350 equals 0.27. You then multiply this decimal by 100 to get the average percentage.\nHow is 4 semester CGPA calculated?\nHow to Calculate CGPA\n- Step 1: Add the grade points i.e 9+8+7+8+8 = 40.\n- Step 2: Divide the sum by 5 i.e 40/5 = 8.\nHow is your GPA calculated?\nTo calculate your GPA, divide the total number of grade points earned by the total number of letter graded units undertaken. For each unit of credit the following grade points are earned: A+ = 4. A = 4.\nHow do you calculate degrees?\nA circle has 360 degrees, so if you want to express an angle in terms of a percentage, just divide the angle measurement (in degrees ) by 360 and multiply by 100. In reverse, divide the percentage by 100 and multiply by 360."}
{"content":"Empire of the Sun (1987), adapted from the autobiographical novel by sci-fi legend J.G. Ballard by playwright Tom Stoppard, is Steven Spielberg’s first World War II movie.\nChristian Bale makes a brilliant film debut as Jim Graham, the British schoolboy living in a life of wealth and privilege in a bubble of western colonial power in the Chinese city of Shanghai. It’s 1941, before Pearl Harbor, but the war comes to Jim’s family nonetheless when Japan invades and Jim is separated from his parents in the chaos and panic. It’s a terrifying moment as the crowds swamp the small boy and carry him away, and the terror doesn’t abate as Jim is left adrift on the streets, ducking Japanese soldiers and until he’s take to a prison camp for American and British civilians.\nApart from separate barracks for the British and American war prisoners, there’s no real plan or protection. They’re left to fend for themselves, kids included. Without his own parents to look after him, Jim is torn between the maternal attention of a weary, disillusioned British woman (Miranda Richardson, devastating) and a cynical American (John Malkovich) who quickly establishes himself as the camp’s black market operator and sees Jim’s potential as a gopher able to work under the radar of the guards.\nWearing oversized fatigues and covered in mud and grime, Jim weaves through the hardship and poverty by creating games and finding escape holes, and he even holds on to a respect for the Japanese fliers in the airfield across the barbed wire. In one of the film’s most powerful scenes, he salutes the fliers with a song—a Welsh hymn sung in a beautiful soprano—that transforms the culture clash into a moment of shared reverence. The soldiers turn to the war orphan, recognize the integrity of his offering, and find honor in this “difficult boy.”\nOne of Spielberg’s most underrated films, Empire of the Sun is a perfect marriage of the director’s affinity for a child’s wonder and innocence, his grown-up understanding of the horrors of war, and his impeccable technique. It was a box-office disappointment met with mixed critical response but, apart from John Williams’ sentiment-dripping score, it remains one of his finest achievements.\nNigel Havers and Joe Pantoliano costar and a young Ben Stiller has a small role.\nIt was nominated for six Academy Awards and winner of three BAFTAs, including awards for the rich cinematography by Allen Daviau and the score by John Williams. Daviau was also recognized by his peers in the American Society of Cinematographers, who awarded him the ASC prize for outstanding achievement in cinematography in theatrical releases.\nStreams for a limited time on Max – leaves at the end of May\nAlso on Blu-ray and DVD and on SVOD through Amazon Video, iTunes, GooglePlay, Vudu and/or other services. Availability may vary by service.\nEmpire of the Sun [Blu-ray]\nEmpire of the Sun [DVD]\nDon’t miss a single recommendation. Subscribe to the Stream On Demand weekly newsletter (your E-mail address will not be shared) and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.\nThe DVD and Blu-ray releases feature the 1987 documentary “A China Odyssey: Empire of the Sun, a Film by Steven Spielberg.”"}
{"content":"The process of gaining strength and muscle is both relatively easy to understand and to apply, especially if you follow these tips for building strength and muscle.\nI have myself made many mistakes especially when I was starting out. I hope that these tips can help prevent you from doing the same.\nIf you have any questions feel free to use the comments section below.\n5 Tips For Building Strength And Muscle\nHere are 5 important things you need to know about gaining strength and muscle when you structure your workouts.\n# 1 – Lift Heavy, But Not Too Heavy\nIn order to gain strength and muscle, you need a lot of muscle recruitment.\nPut in another way you need to challenge your muscles. The best and most time-efficient way to do that is to focus on heavy compound lifts.\nResearch has shown that lifting heavy weights is significantly better for both strength and muscle growth than lifting lighter weights.\nEven though most people already know that you have to lift heavy weights in order to become stronger, I think many fail to realize how heavy it actually has to be either because they do too many reps or they don’t push themselves enough.\nIf you are doing a heavy compound lift, your focus should be on lifting around the 4 – 6 rep range.\nLifting very heavy and pushing yourself is a habit that you have to learn.\nIn the beginning, you have to force yourself into lifting as heavy as possible while still performing the exercise right and unassisted. Perhaps you will be surprised at how much you can actually lift.\nWhen that is said you obviously also have to not lift too heavy.\nIf you are “pushing through” a heavy exercise with a lot of help from another person, or you are letting momentum or other muscle groups assist you too much you could be decreasing your strength gain considerably and wasting time and effort.\nSome people will say you should lift until failure, but I would not recommend that. You really don’t have to push yourself to failure in order to become stronger.\nI would argue that even if you gained something from pushing yourself to failure it would not be worth the added stress on your body. Also, you risk getting injured and in most cases, you would need a spotter. This might be different if you are a very experienced in lifting weights.\n# 2 – Progressive Overload\nProgressive overload is the most powerful drive for strength and muscle growth.\nIt means to increase tension in muscle fibers over time (link: Wikipedia) and is arguably done easiest by increasing the weight and/or reps performed up to a certain degree.\nWhen your muscle has grown stronger from lifting a given amount of weight for a given amount of repetitions you NEED to make the lift harder, e.g. by adding some extra weight.\nIf you are doing the same exercise in the exact same way over and over again your strength will not increase for long, since your muscle already adapted to this amount of stress.\nAssuming you are doing everything right, your muscles can only adapt to small increases at a time.\nWhen you are lifting in in the rep ranges 4-6 and 5-10, progressively overloading your muscles while still lifting very heavy it is easily manageable.\n# 3 – Only Incremental Increases\nStrength and muscle gain is an adaptation to the stress experienced by the muscle – a muscle adaption.\nIt is very important to understand that the muscle will for the most part only be able to adapt to very small/incremental increases.\nThat means if you try to add too much weight or add too many extra repetitions to the exercise your muscles are not able to adapt. It will simply be too much for your muscles to handle and you won’t get anything out of it.\nThe best way to get consistent and reliable strength gains is to be slow but steady and progressively overload your muscles with a little bit more weight or 1-2 more repetitions.\nThe increase might only be small, but over a period of for example 3 – 6 months it will result in significant strength and muscle gain!\n# 4 – Get Your Nutrition Right\nProviding your body with the right amount of energy and nutrients is absolutely critical for having success with gaining strength and muscle.\nYou cannot build a house without the materials.\nHowever, instead of just stuffing your face with food in the name of becoming stronger and gaining muscle you should take a more fine-tuned approach.\nFor optimal strength and muscle gain, you need a calorie surplus. That is a surplus in the energy balance of your body.\nKeeping that in mind, your body can only use a limited amount of surplus calories with a correlation to the speed of which you are able to build muscle. Any more calories than that will get stored as fat.\nEssentially, you have to eat just a bit more than your body needs to sustain itself (maintenance calories).\nMost people are interested in gaining the maximum amount of strength and muscle while keeping fat to a minimum, but still, some make the mistake of eating too much. I have made this mistake myself.\n# 5 – Be Serious About Your Recovery\nTechnically, it is not the act of going to the gym and lift heavy weights that will increase your strength and muscle size.\nIt is the physiological process that happens after that makes you stronger.\nWhen you are recovering your body will literally repair small wounds in your muscles that are a result of you lifting weights. In the process, you end up a little stronger.\nIf you want to be able to continually add strength and muscle for a long period of time, then you need your regular schedule to provide sufficient time for your body to recover.\nBut having a good recovery does not only mean you just wait some time before doing the same exercise again.\nThere are many factors you need to consider to ensure a good recovery. Most importantly is eating the right stuff, getting enough quality sleep and managing your stress levels.\nGreat article, there is so much different information around these days but this makes total sense. Just wondering if there is a recommended number of reps that I should aim for to help me to determine wether the weight I’m using is correct? And how many sets per exercise is ideal?\nBy the way, the little picture in this article made me laugh, I love it!\nThanks for the great questions which I know many would be interested in! Actually, I will soon make a long post that goes in-depth on this topic and I would suggest you visit my website again another time 😉\nHowever, I can give you a quick and very short version:\nYou generally want to be in the lower end when you are training for strength. A good “general” range that I would recommend is 4 – 8 reps per set for 3 sets total.\nBut I know many people who also go lower with the reps, and that can also be really good. If you go lower then you can increase the amount of sets, e.g. 1-3 reps per set for 5 sets. If you are only doing a single rep you can even go up to 10 sets.\nFor this kind of training in general it is important to have a long rest between sets. 2-3 minutes rest between all sets is ideal and will ensure you can lift at your full potential.\nWhen starting out or if you are unsure of how much weight you should lift, I recommend lifting a little lighter than what you think you can do. If you are able to complete the exercise within 4 – 8 reps for 3 sets with good form, then you that you can go a little more heavier next time.\nHello and thanks for sharing, this is a great post that shows how to build strength. I am one that loves it when to comes to having a good work out plan that can really improve the body keeping it strong and healthy. Building strength is a good way to keep the body active and fit. Your post is well detailed with tons of great information. It is good how you broke it all down to make i easy to follow. Your readers will love how you laid everything out.\nI’m glad you liked it!\nYou’ve got some great advice here Marcus, I’ve never been too big on strength training because I don’t feel I’m getting a good workout (maybe because I’m not pushing myself enough or something?) but I do understand how to do it correctly. I have done it in the past and have seen results, the key for is consistent training using the correctform and, like you said, gradually increasing the weight.\nI focused mainly on deadlift and got up from 95kg to 107.5kg in about 5 or 6 weeks. I know this isn’t much but I was pretty happy about it.\nI think I know what you mean by not getting the “feeling” of a good workout. The thing is that after a great strength training workout you shouldn’t feel exhausted, and muscle soreness is also not a gauge of how great your workout was.\nA succesful workout is one where you have been able to perform a little bit better than last time. And that is it. You can’t compare it to something like a crossfit workout or other cardio intense workouts.\nDeadlift is such an awesome exercise! Your progress sounds great, and is definitely something to be happy about 🙂\nThis is some good tips for building strength. I go to the gym now and then, but some times I end up drinking a lot of alcohol on the same day that I went to the gym.\nI know that it obviously affects my training negatively, but I have always wondered how much. It is probably hard to say, but do you know how much?\nDrinking alcohol is all about moderation 🙂\nIf you get completely “shitfaced” it will mess up your recovery. From personal experience on the “very rare” occasions, I got drunk on the same day as I trained I had the feeling that it also made my hangovers worse than if I haven’t trained.\nAnother important thing to mention is the HUGE amount of calories you are getting from all that alcohol. If you are interested in how to gain strength and lean muscle you can check out my free white paper here."}
{"content":"Hair is an important part of your personality. Yet, they go through a lot on a daily basis. Getting attacked on a constant basis by the pollutants to humidity and stress all this affects your hair and their growth.\nOn my personal account when I visited the Hair Club, I get to know about these essential oils that you can use for your hair health. So today we will be discussing these essential oils in no particular order so that you can also get benefitted from this necessary information.\nBest Essential Oils for Your Hair\nHair is often one of the most neglected parts of your body. But it should not be like this. You need to be extra attentive towards these matters as well. Your hair needs the same level of nourishment that is required by the rest of your body. So make sure to keep an eye on these oils which are essential in nature as well as for your hair.\nYou have probably heard about it, right? Hand’s down is one of the most used and popular hair oils. For centuries this oil has been used by both females and males alike for several hair treatments.\nThis oil is rich in both antioxidants and in vitamin E. both these compounds make it an ideal fit for your hair and to improve your hair growth.\nMost of the time people demand that they only want organic things for their hair. This is when Argan oil comes into play. This oil goes through minimum processing and this less intervention of artificial substances makes it a perfect fit for your hair health.\nFurthermore, it is a vitamin-E-rich oil that also boasts a significantly high level of antioxidants. Thus make sure to use it for your scalp health.\nWant to increase the length of your hair at a remarkable speed. Try using lavender oil. Researchers have stated that lavender is an oil that can increase stress level. It is also important because of its healing and soothing properties.\nMoreover it is high on the radar for positivity improving your scalp health. This is because of the fact that it also has antimicrobial and antibacterial properties.\nRosemary Essential Oil\nPeople are often asking questions that how can they improve the volume and length of their hair. They just need to know about this magical potion that is rosemary essential oil. This oil will significantly increase the volume of your hair because they improve cellular generation.\nSo make sure to give your scalp a necessary massage of this oil and wait for the magic to happen.\nLemongrass Essential Oil\nAre you also tired from all those white flakes on your shoulders? These white snowflakes on your shoulders and clothes are the reason for a number of hair issues. Dandruff is one of the most common hair issues that people of the current day and age suffer from. XPrague\nIf there is one remedy that can work wonders in getting rid of dandruff is the use of lemongrass. The use of lemongrass can reduce dandruff just after a week.\nAn oil that works wonders for both skin and hair alike is Almond oil. Like all the other oil on this list, this one is also rich in fatty acids, proteins, antioxidants as well as vitamin E.\nIt does not only moistures your hair and scalp but also locks the moisture in the roots. Therefore make sure to give your scalp the much-needed treatment twice a week.\nThis oil right here is a natural conditioner that is rich in antioxidants as well as vitamin E. you can use this oil for your dishes and you can also apply it to your scalp.\nOlive oil makes sure that they retain the smooth texture of your hair as well as is helpful to combat dandruff.\nHair is undoubtedly the first thing that people notice about you. Thus it is your first and foremost duty to keep them healthy. Make sure to take notes from the aforementioned oils and enjoy good hair days."}
{"content":"Plant Profile: Peppermint\nAround this time of year, peppermint starts to pop up in everything from cocoa to coffee to baked goods. While this is one of the more common herbs that people grow and use, there’s still a lot to appreciate about this power-house herb.\nNot only does peppermint taste good, but it can also help calm an upset stomach, soothe headaches, help if you have digestive issues, promote alertness, help with fevers and congestion, and of course freshen breath. Peppermint has a high menthol content which is part of the reason it makes this plant so powerful. It also provides important nutrients like calcium, potassium, and magnesium.\nThe main part of the plant that’s used for medicine and food are the leaves and occasionally the flowers. Besides food and tea, the leaves and flowers can be used to make tinctures, oils, poultices, decoctions, salves, and just about anything else you can imagine, making this one versatile herb.\nIf you don’t have a peppermint plant but are considering adding one to your garden, it’s good to know that, like other types of mint, it spreads very easily and will take over so it’s best to plant in a container if possible. If kept in a container, this is a pretty low maintenance plant and can be easily propagated by taking root cuttings.\nIf you’re anything like me, my lips get very chapped especially when the colder temps hit. This peppermint sugar scrub is great for reviving those lips and smoothing them out. It can also be used on hands and feet for a little extra softness. This recipe makes a small amount but it’s easy enough to double or triple. It will keep in an airtight container in a cool and dry place for about a month or so.\nPeppermint Lavender Sugar Scrub\nWhat You’ll Need:\n- ¼ cup sugar\n- 1/8 cup oil (can use coconut, almond, or olive oil)\n- 1 tsp dried peppermint (more or less to taste/smell)\n- ½ tsp dried lavender (more or less to taste/smell)\n- ¼ tsp vitamin E oil (this is optional)\nHow to Make It:\nIf your dried peppermint and lavender are in bigger chunks or pieces, feel free to pulse a couple of times in a food processor or spice grinder if you want finer pieces.\nPlace all ingredients in a bowl and mix together adding more or less oil depending on the consistency you want for your scrub.\nSpoon into an airtight container and use within a month or so.\nWhat’s your favorite way to use peppermint? Let us know in the comments, we’d love to hear from you!\nLeave A Comment"}
{"content":"Imagine the situation. You are sitting in the passenger seat of a high performance car, with someone you have never met before who is about to drive you around a race circuit at speeds of over 100mph. During the journey you will have to remain relaxed, communicate effectively, and encourage them to keep improving their performance. Does this sound difficult to you?\nThis experience is one that a motor-sport driving instructor has to go through every time they take a member of the public out on one of those popular Experience Days, held at places like Silverstone Race Circuit in England. And it was something that I had wondered about. What were these instructors doing to be able to remain relaxed, communicate effectively and help someone else to learn, in this potentially high risk environment? So I set about finding out the answer to my question.\nUsing the modelling technique that I had learned during my Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Practitioner training, I decided to interview three experienced motor-sport driving instructors to find out what cognitive and behavioural patterns they used that enabled them to be excellent instructors. I then wanted to consider how that learning could be applied to anyone who has to train others. The results were written up in an article published in the Industrial and Commercial Training Journal, and some of the key points are summarised below.\n- Learn to think fast and communicate slowly – All of the instructors talked about having the ability to take in and analyse a lot of information quickly, and then communicate the results of it in a relaxed manner, to ensure the other person remained relaxed.\n- Influencing begins long before an event ever starts – You can begin to develop an expectation about an experience long before it begins. We are influenced by subtle cues, such as the tone of an email or communication, the promptness of response, and how you are greeted on arrival at an event. The instructors used to in a positive manner.\n- You are receiving far more data than you realise – the instructors described a lot that was related to their senses (e.g. how the car feels at a given moment, their sense of the person who will be driving, the tone of voice used) which indicates that often we know a lot more about a situation than perhaps we give ourselves credit for. The trick is to learn to be aware of that data, to analyse what it is telling you, and to act on it as a result\n- The importance of uncovering assumptions – The importance of not making assumptions is paramount, so being able to ask questions to uncover any assumptions is a critical skill to master.\n- Knowing your capabilities can reinforce confidence – If you are clear about what you are good at, then when you get into a difficult situation, you are able to draw upon your core capabilities. The instructors knew that they would be able to handle the car even if the driver got into difficulties, which brought confidence to both driver and instructor."}
{"content":"What is Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)?\nMagnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a diagnostic procedure that uses a combination of a large magnet, radiofrequency, and a computer to produce detailed images of organs and structures within the body. MRI does not use ionizing radiation, unlike X-rays or computed tomography (CT scans). An MRI provides clear and detailed pictures of internal organs and tissues.\nDoctors use MRI to examine soft tissues such as organs, muscle, cartilage, ligaments, and tendons.\nIt is also helpful when looking at the brain, abdomen, pelvic region and joints like your knee and shoulder. Most MRI exams do not require any special preparation.\nOur NEW Siemens Verio 3T MRI scanner is a state of the art MRI scanner that produces high-quality images especially of the brain, muscles and tendons, bones, joints, and spine. The most important thing for you is the new, open bore 70 cm design which gives you plenty of room to stretch out and feel comfortable. No more tight squeeze!\nWhat People Say About Us!\nI was scheduled for an MRI, and they called me to see if I wanted to come in early! This is fantastic! I came early, checked in very quickly, and as soon as I turned in the paperwork, they took me back to get ready! They were compassionate, understanding, and very professional! The team that actually ran the MRI did a great job getting me comfortable! When it was over, they were very gentle in helping me get up from the table. Well done everyone!\nMRI Services We Offer\n- MRI of the brain, neck, spine, chest, abdomen, pelvis, upper and lower extremities\n- MR Angiography\n- MRI of the Breast\nHow does an MRI scan work?\nThe MRI machine is a large, cylindrical (tube-shaped) machine that creates a strong magnetic field around the patient and sends pulses of radio waves from a scanner. The magnetic field aligns the hydrogen protons in your body along the same vector. The radio waves then knock the particles out of this aligned position.\nAs the nuclei realign into proper position, the nuclei send out radio signals. These signals are received by a computer that analyzes and converts them into an image of the part of the body being examined. This image appears on a viewing monitor. Cross-sectional views can be obtained to reveal further details. Some MRI machines look like narrow tunnels, while others are more open.\nMagnetic resonance imaging may be used instead of computed tomography in situations where organs or soft tissue are being studied because MRI is better at telling the difference between different soft tissues and between normal and abnormal soft tissue.\nReasons for MRI Scan\nIn orthopedics, an MRI may be used to examine bones, joints, and soft tissues such as cartilage, muscles, and tendons for injuries or the presence of structural abnormalities or certain other conditions such as:\n- Inflammatory disease\n- Congenital abnormalities\n- Bone marrow disease\n- Herniation or degeneration of discs of the spinal cord.\nMRI may be used to assess the results of corrective orthopedic procedures. Joint deterioration resulting from arthritis may be monitored by using magnetic resonance imaging. There may be other reasons for your physician to recommend an MRI.\nPreparing for an MRI\nPrior to your MRI, your physician will explain the procedure to you and offer you the opportunity to ask any questions that you might have about the procedure. If your procedure involves the use of contrast dye, you will be asked to sign a consent form that gives permission to do the procedure. Read the form carefully and ask questions if something is not clear. If IV contrast will be used, patients over the age of 50 years old require a blood test within the past 30 days to measure their Creatinine level.\nIf you have claustrophobia (fear of enclosed spaces) or anxiety, you may want to ask your physician for a prescription for a mild sedative prior to the scheduled examination. If sedation is used, it is required that you arrange for a relative or friend to drive you home after the exam.\nIt is important to report any allergies to the radiology technologist. Women should always inform the MRI technologist if there is any possibility that they are pregnant. Many imaging tests are not performed during pregnancy. Also, let your technologist know if you have:\n- a pacemaker, aneurysm clips, vascular coils, or filters\n- inner ear implants or hearing aids\n- unremoved shrapnel or bullet fragments\n- insulin or other infusion pumps\n- permanent dentures\n- worked around metal and/or have had fragments in your eye(s)\n- surgical shunts\n- heart valves\n- metal plates, rods, pins or screws\n- joint replacements\n- surgical staples or wires\nPrior to your MRI exam, jewelry and other accessories should be left at home. Because they can interfere with the magnetic field of the MRI unit, metal and electronic objects are not allowed in the exam room. Generally, there is no special restriction on diet or activity prior to an MRI procedure.\nMagnetic Resonance Imaging Procedure\nMRI may be performed on an outpatient basis or as part of your stay in a hospital. Procedures may vary depending on your condition and your physician’s practices. The entire examination is usually completed within 30 to 45 minutes.If an intravenous contrast material is used, you will feel a pin prick when the needle is inserted into your vein. Some patients may sense a temporary metallic taste in their mouth after the contrast injection.\nThe technologist begins by positioning you on the MRI exam table, usually lying flat on your back. Straps may be used to help you maintain the correct position and to help you remain still during the exam. A device capable of sending and receiving radio waves will be placed around the area of the body being studied. You will be moved into the magnet of the MRI unit.\nThe technologist will be in another room where the scanner controls are located. However, you will be in constant sight of the technologist through a window. Speakers inside the scanner will enable the technologist to communicate with and hear you. You will have a call button so that you can let the technologist know if you have any problems during the procedure. The technologist will be watching you at all times and will be in constant communication.\nIt is important that you remain perfectly still while the images are being obtained. You will know when images are being recorded because you will hear and feel loud tapping or thumping sounds. Earplugs or headphones are provided to reduce the intensity of the sounds made by the MRI machine. You should notify the technologist if you feel any breathing difficulties, sweating, numbness, or heart palpitations\nOnce the scan has been completed, the table will slide out of the scanner and you will be assisted off the table. If an IV line was inserted for contrast administration, the line will be removed.\nWhat To Expect After MRI Scan\nAfter the procedure, you should move slowly when getting up from the scanner table to avoid any dizziness or lightheadedness from lying flat for the length of the procedure. If any sedatives were taken for the procedure, you may be required to rest until the sedatives have worn off. You will also need to avoid driving.\nIf contrast dye is used during your procedure, you may be monitored for a period of time for any side effects or reactions to the contrast dye, such as itching, swelling, rash, or difficulty breathing. If you notice any pain, redness, and/or swelling at the IV site after you return home following your procedure, you should notify your physician as this could indicate an infection or another type of reaction.\nOtherwise, there is no special type of care required after a MRI scan. You may resume your usual diet and activities unless your physician advises you differently. A report from your MRI exam will be sent to your doctor within 24 hours.\nThe content provided here is for informational purposes only, and was not designed to diagnose or treat a health problem or disease, or replace the professional medical advice you receive from your physician. Please consult your physician with any questions or concerns you may have regarding your condition.\nThis page contains links to other websites with information about this procedure and related health conditions. We hope you find these sites helpful, but please remember we do not control or endorse the information presented on these websites, nor do these sites endorse the information contained here.\n- American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons\n- American Cancer Society\n- Arthritis Foundation\n- National Cancer Institute (NCI)\n- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development\n- National Institutes of Health (NIH)\n- National Library of Medicine\n- National Osteoporosis Foundation\n- Osteoporosis and Related Bone Diseases – National Resource Center – NIH\n- Radiological Society of North America"}
{"content":"With the emergence of new Linux distributions, namely Debian 10 and Linux Mint 20, a dependency required by OpenSignals (r)evolution software is not natively available.\nDue to this circumstance, OpenSignals (r)evolution software is not properly launched in specific cases, being printed the following error message (when the software is executed through the Terminal):\nError: ImportError: libssl.so.1.0.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory\nThis error is related to the fact that newer Linux distributions use a different version of the libssl library and relevant connections to some paths used by OpenSignals (r)evolution were lost.\nTo recover these lost paths, it is necessary to manually install the required libssl.so.1.0.0 version, as demonstrated in the following steps:\nDownload the libssl 1.0.0 version of the missing dependency for your operating system:\n- Linux Mint/Ubuntu: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/o/openssl1.0/libssl1.0.0_1.0.2n-1ubuntu5_amd64.deb\n- Debian: https://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/o/openssl/libssl1.0.0_1.0.1t-1+deb8u8_amd64.deb\nUsing the Terminal, navigate to the location where the downloaded file is stored.\nInstall of the dependency through the command that matches your operating system:\n- Linux Mint/Ubuntu:\nsudo dpkg --install libssl1.0.0_1.0.2n-1ubuntu5_amd64.deb\nsudo dpkg --install libssl1.0.0_1.0.1t-1+deb8u8_amd64.deb\nAdditional Steps for Linux Mint/Ubuntu Users\nIn addition to the previous steps, for Linux Mint/Ubuntu systems another dependency (libffi.so.6) is necessary.\nDownload the libffi.so.6 library from:\nUsing the Terminal, navigate to the location where the downloaded file is stored and install the dependency through the command:\nsudo apt install sudo apt install ./libffi6_3.2.1-8_amd64.deb"}
{"content":"Episode 147: How can we mend our broken relationship with the Earth and create a world where people and land are good medicine for each other?\nIn this interview, plant ecologist, author, and professor Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer talks about what she has learned from plants, plant intelligence, and how the simple and profound act of paying attention to the living world can change our lives.\nRobin speaks about how human exceptionalism finds its place in language, the grammar of animacy, and the importance of recognizing the personhood of all beings.\nDr. Robin Wall Kimmerer is the founding Director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment and the author of the books Gathering Moss and Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.\nPodcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:55 — 27.4MB) | Embed\nPingback: NATURAL BUILDING: GOOD FOR PEOPLE AND PLANET\nI was happy to find this. Thank you for a wonderful interview.\nThank you, Benjamin! Robin is amazing.\nThis was wonderful to hear because our current society needs this inspiration so desperately! I feel this deeply! Thanks to both of you.\nThank you so much, Alma! Robin is so heartfelt and wise."}
{"content":"The Court of Justice of the European Union (the CJEU) has handed down the latest judgment in a long-running case concerning the online framing of copyright material.\nA dispute arose between VG Bild-Kunst (VG B-K – a German visual arts copyright collecting society) and Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (SPK – a German cultural heritage foundation) when VG B-K refused to conclude a licence agreement with SPK for the use of the collection society’s catalogue of works unless the agreement between them contained a provision obliging SPK to implement technological measures which prevented framing by third-parties of thumbnail images of the works covered by the pending agreement.\nFraming is a technique utilising automatic links which allows third-party content to be embedded within a web page without that content needing to be stored on the web page’s servers (such as the display of thumbnail images when using an internet search engine).\nIn 2016 SPK filed a case at the Regional Court of Berlin against VG B-K, arguing that the demand to prevent framing through the implementation of costly technical measures was unreasonable, and that framing should be viewed in the same fashion as hyperlinking (which does not amount to copyright infringement under German or EU law). Despite seeking a declaration that VG B-K should grant the licence free of the anti-framing technological requirements, the regional court declined to make a ruling.\nBy 2018 the Berlin Court of Appeal was in agreement with SPK that the anti-framing condition was unreasonable and so argued that VK B-K was required to conclude the licence agreement without forcing SPK to implement the demanded technical measures. It also held that framing is not a “communication to the public” within the meaning of copyright law. When VG B-K appealed, Germany’s Federal Court of Justice called on the CJEU to determine whether this was in fact the case.\nTo that end, Advocate General Szpunar (the AG) provided the opinion that framing, in some instances, is an act which amounts to a communication to the public and therefore requires the consent of the relevant rights holder. The AG’s opinion went into much detail differentiating between framing a work that appears on another website and framing a website itself, with the former constituting a new communication to the public (and so requiring the rights holder’s consent), but the latter not. Further, the AG also distinguished between different methods of linking: automatic linking (meaning where the works being displayed automatically on a web page are viewed as soon as it is opened, without any further action required on the user’s part) was deemed an act of communication to a public which was not taken into account by the copyright holder when the works were initially made available (i.e. the public of a website other than that on which that initial making available of the works took place) and so such framing would require the authorisation of the rights holder. In contrast, embedding in a web page of works from other websites via clickable links using the framing technique does not require the copyright holder’s authorisation since they are deemed to have given such when the work was initially made available.\nClarity has now been provided by the CJEU’s recent ruling which found in favour of VK B-G (and notably did not follow the AG’s opinion on the differentiation of various types of links). The CJEU held that “the embedding, by means of the technique of framing, in a third party website page of a work protected by copyright and made freely available to the public with the authorisation of the copyright holder on another website must be classified as an act of ‘making that work available to a new public’… where that embedding circumvents measures adopted or imposed by that copyright holder to provide protection from framing, constitutes a communication to the public.”\nIn the interests of both “legal certainty” and the “smooth running of the internet” it was explained that “the copyright holder cannot be allowed to limit his or her consent by means other than effective technological measures” as in the absence of such measures, it might prove difficult for individual internet users to “ascertain whether that rights holder intended to oppose the framing of his or her works.”\nThis ruling (assuming UK Courts would adopt a similar position despite the end of the Brexit transition period) strengthens the position of rights holders by recognising that licensors of copyright works can, through contractual terms, insist upon licensees implementing technical measures in order to prevent linking or framing to other websites in relation to the relevant protected works. This gives rights holders greater control over their work while not unduly burdening those who are seeking works to embed in their own websites with excessive due diligence."}
{"content":"Learn how to sew an easy-to-make, personalized drawstring backpack using fabric from JOANN and Cricut Iron-On.\nThis is a sponsored post written on behalf of JOANN. All thoughts and opinions are my own.\nToy Story 4 just released and my kids have been watching all of the Toy Story movies on repeat for the past few weeks.\nAs we were shopping in JOANN we came across this adorable line of Toy Story 4 fabric and we knew we had to make something fun with it!\nWhen I asked my kids what they wanted they immediately asked for snuggly blankets and drawstring bags!\nGet the tutorial for the blankets here.\nDrawstring Backpacks are easy to make and my kids love them! Planning a road trip this summer? Fill them up with toys, snacks and a notebook and colored pencils.\nTo keep everyone from fighting, I pulled out my Cricut and quickly added names to each of the backpacks. Now everyone knows exactly which backpack belongs to them. Yay for no fighting, plus it makes them even cuter, don’t you think?\nThis tutorial will walk you step-by-step through sewing a drawstring backpack as well as how to apply Iron-On.\nDrawstring Backpack Supplies\n- 1/2 Yard Toy Story Cotton Fabric\n- 1/2 Inch Wide Ribbon\n- Safety Pin\n- Sewing Machine\n- 1 Package of Bias Tape\n- Main Bag (Cut 2) 14″ x 14″\n- Top Contrast (Cut 2) 14″ x 4″\n- Drawstring Bias Loops (Cut 2) 4″\n- Ribbon (Cut 2) 55″\nLet's get started!\nIf you're new to sewing this is a great beginner project!\nCut all pieces out according to the measurement chart located above.\nFold the loops in half and place them 5/8ths of an inch from the bottom of the main bag.\nWith right sides together pin the front and back together.\nSew the front and back together leaving the top of the bag open, making sure to pivot at the corners.\nFold the edge under 1/2 inch on both sides. Then fold the contrast piece in half with wrong sides together. This will be the casing for the ribbon.\nPlace the casing on top of the main bag with right sides together. The unfinished seam should be at the top. Align the folded edges with the seams on either side. Use plenty of pins to align everything together.\nSew the contrast and the main bag together with a 1/2″ seam allowance and finish the edges using a serger or a zig zag stitch.\nWith a hot iron, press the casing upwards away from the bag.\nAttach a safety pin to the ribbon and feed it through the casing until it comes out the other side, right next to where you began. Repeat this same process on the opposite side.\nAdjust ribbons until they are equal lengths on either side.\nFeed one ribbon through the loop, then\nOptional: Personalize your bag with iron-on to make it extra special.\nGet the coordinating blanket tutorial here.\nDon’t forget to join my Crafting and Sewing with Sweet Red Poppy Facebook group and share how\nElizabeth Farr says\nThese are super cute! I love the added personalization with the Cricut. These would definitely be a nice addition to sewing projects for charity too. I love making little zip bags and drawstring bags to add to my Operation Christmas Child boxes.\nIt's a really bad idea to display a child's name on any item to be used in public. Stranger danger.........being called by their name implies the stranger knows them or maybe knows their parents.\nWould you have any advice on weight of fabric used for iron on letters? Same weight as bag or is lesser weight ok? I’m using a heavier weight (decorative cotton) for the drawstring bags. Thanks!!\nKimberly Coffin says\nHey Karla! Using heavy-weight cotton will work just fine with Iron-On letters.\nThanks for your short article. I would love to say that your health insurance brokerage service also works well with the benefit of the particular coordinators of any group insurance policy. The health agent is given a summary of benefits wanted by somebody or a group coordinator. What any broker does indeed is look for individuals or even coordinators that best go with those wants. Then he gifts his tips and if all sides agree, this broker formulates a binding agreement between the two parties.\nThese days of austerity along with relative anxiousness about incurring debt, many individuals balk against the idea of utilizing a credit card to make acquisition of merchandise or pay for any gift giving occasion, preferring, instead only to rely on the particular tried in addition to trusted technique of making payment - cash. However, if you possess the cash available to make the purchase completely, then, paradoxically, that's the best time for you to use the cards for several reasons.\nLisa J says\nHow many backpacks would this tutorial make? Would I have enough to make my own bias tape from the excess?\nKimberly Coffin says\nHey Lisa! This pattern makes one backpack. You should have enough excess to make your own bias tape, but you would still need ribbon for the drawstrings of the backpack."}
{"content":"The Midnight Moment Features Lines Of Mars\nLines of Mars (2019), was created by Shantell Martin for the Midnight Moment. The exhibit features her improvisational illustrations and text appearing and disappearing, line by line, on a black background. Drawn on a digital tablet, the work features many of Martin’s recurring motifs, including faces, stick figures, and “birds boats” over an ocean, interspersed with hand-written words. Continuing the artist’s exploration of self that runs throughout her work, Lines of Mars asks the age-old question “who are you?” Those three words are repeated and reconfigured to finally conclude that “you are you.” This encouragement to viewers to think individualistically both participates in and counters the mass-messaging of advertisements otherwise seen on the electronic billboards of Times Square.\nMartin’s drawings have appeared on everything from Japanese nightclub stages — where she collaborated with noise musicians as a video jockey — to canvases, large-scale murals, cars, and apparel. With a meditative process defined by an uninhibited flow, her compositions embody her internal state and the impermanence of the world around her. Exploring themes of identity and intersectionality, Martin sees herself as a cultural facilitator, forging new connections between fine art, education, design, philosophy, and technology. Below the surface of her signature black and white line drawings is an artist’s playful, direct questioning of viewers, rearranging words such as “you,” “are,” and “who” to create new meanings and spark reflection.\n“I wanted to create a piece that explored the use of lines and words in a simple way to ask a complicated question. Asking this in a place like Times Square helps the question grow.”\nLines of Mars references multiple aspects of Times Square, including a staircase reminiscent of the Red Steps; “1904,” the year Times Square was named; and “12,” a reference to the end time of Midnight Moment or the beginning of a new year. Presented during the month of Love in Times Square, the work encourages viewers to understand, to be, and to love their true selves.\nLines of Mars was arranged and formatted for Midnight Moment by Optical Animal.\nIn addition to prestigious solo shows at some of the most renowned art institutions including the 92Y Gallery in New York City, the iconic Albright Knox gallery and the MoCADA Museum, Shantell Martin (b. 1980, London, England) has carved a path for herself that is as much intellectual as visual artist. During her two-year tenure as a MIT Media Lab Visiting Scholar, Martin collaborated with the social computing group to use drawing as a medium to explore the interaction of social processes with physical spaces. A fashion and design icon in her own right, Martin has collaborated with iconic brands such as Nike, Vitra, Max Mara, and Tiffany & Co., and in 2018, Puma launched a global capsule collection featuring her drawings. Martin has collaborated with legendary artists such as Pulitzer Prize-winning performance artist Kendrick Lamar and acclaimed designer Kelly Wearstler. In late 2018, she was asked to collaborate with the prestigious New York City Ballet, where she created large scale drawings in the performance hall and foyer of Lincoln Center for the company’s celebrated Art Series. She continues to teach as an adjunct professor at NYU Tisch ITP (Interactive Telecommunications Program), where she works with her students to push the boundaries of storytelling, visual art and technology. Martin lives and works in New York City.\nOptical Animal is a Brooklyn based digital arts collective, directing and producing works of new media, cinema, video art, and audio. Since 2008, Optical Animal has found a home in creating unique experiences that employ new ideas and technology, while remaining firmly rooted in the ancient human love for storytelling.\nEvents in June\nGay Pride, Bryant Park Picnic Performances, Movie Nights, Lincoln Center Summer for the City (Midsummer Night Swing), Juneteenth, New York Philharmonic Concerts in the Parks, Tribeca Film Festival, Free Outdoor Concerts, Museum Mile Festival, the Puerto Rican Day Parade and that’s just the beginning!\nUntil September 29 every summer in Times Square, NYC, TSQ LIVE showcases hundreds of artists, performers and cultural producers and this summer 80 free events hosting over a dozen incredible New York-based institutions and collectives, including Pioneer Works, NEW INC, Children’s Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Ailey Extension, New York Live Arts, OTA Entertainment, Soul Summit, Rash Bar, and Elsewhere.\n6/1: Picnic Performances @ Bryant Park New York City Opera: La Bohème\n6/2: Picnic Performances @ Bryant Park Jazzmobile: The Steven Oquendo Latin Jazz Orchestra\n6/2: Billy Joel @ MSG\n6/3-4: Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit atUniversity Place, starting at East 13th Street and continuing south along the east side of Washington Square Park to West 3rd Street.\n6/7 until September: Little Island Tony and Grammy Award winners in The Glade, late night djs, drag bingo, and dance parties in The Play Ground, weekly artmaking activities for all ages and Teen Night every Friday.\n6/7 – 18: Tribeca Film Festival will take place movie theatres, rooftops and various venues throughout NYC, such as the new Pier 57, Beacon Theatre, the Angelika. The premiere of Let the Canary Sing with a performance by Cyndi Lauper or The Closing Gala: A Bronx Tale, followed by a conversation with director and star Robert De Niro, producer Jane Rosenthal, and writer and co-star Chazz Palminteri.\n6/8 – 8/6: Shakespeare in the Park – Hamlet\n6/8: Picnic Performances @ Bryant Park Contemporary Dance: Robin Dunn, The Lite\n6/9: Picnic Performances @ Bryant Park Contemporary Dance: Dance Heginbotham, Jennifer Muller/The Works\n6/9 – 11: @ Citi Field Governors Ball Music Festival – The contemporary music festival for music lovers by music lovers. With 60+ artists of all genres across 4 stages, there is something for everyone, including delicious restaurants, food trucks and menus.\n6/9 – 18: River to River Festival The festival takes place in a variety of public venues that canvas all of Downtown New York – from Chambers Street down to the southern tip of Manhattan and across the island from river to river.\n6/11: National Puerto Rican Day Parade Fifth Avenue, 44th to 79th Street\n6/12: Bryant Park Movie Nights Almost Famous (2000)\n6:13: Museum Mile Festival on Fifth Avenue from 84th Street to 109th Street: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Neue Galerie New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; The Jewish Museum; Museum of the City of New York; El Museo del Barrio; and The Africa Center.\n6/14 – August: Dancing Under the Stars (formerly Midsummer Night Swing), free outdoor movies, dancing, singing, readings, celebrations, flamingos, disco ball, poetry, Mozart, concerts, crafts, Juneteenth and much more!\n6/15: Picnic Performances @ Bryant Park Contemporary Dance: Terk Lewis + Kayla Farrish\n6/16: Picnic Performances @ Bryant Park Contemporary Dance: Soles of Duende + Josh Johnson\n6/17-25: Gay Pride The Rally, The March & Pride Island. The 2023 theme is “Strength in Solidarity” and Christina Aguilera is headlining NYC Pride Island on Sunday, June 25th at Brooklyn Army Terminal. The festivities begin with Family Night and the Rally and culminate with PrideFest & The March. Other events include Pride Island and the annual Dance on the Pier, following the parade wrapping up Pride Week in a grand fireworks display.\n6/16 – 18: Juneteenth is a celebration of June 19, 1865 in Galveston, Texas, which declared the ending of slavery in the USA. The three day Juneteenth in NYC festival kicks off Friday with a virtual summit, Friday night is the Celebration of Black Kings, Saturday is Festival Community Day and the festival culminates Sunday with a Parade, Fashion Show, Food trucks Field Day and more. Monday, June 19th, is a national holiday, with government, banks and post offices closed. More Info: Junteenth NY\nThere are dozens more Juneteenth celebrations throughout all 5 Boroughs, including BBQs, the NYC Parks Department, Seneca Village, Broadway, Lincoln Center, concerts, shows, theater and more.\n6/17: The Coney Island Mermaid Parade is the nation’s largest art parade where 3,000+ participants dress in hand-made costumes.\n6/ 19: Bryant Park Movie Nights Amistad (1997)\n6/23: Picnic Performances @ Bryant Park Emerging Music Festival: Psymon Spine, THUS LOVE, Katy Kirby\n6/24: Picnic Performances @ Bryant Park Emerging Music Festival: Ky Vöss, Seramic, Miss Grit, Dead Tooth\n6/26: Bryant Park Movie Nights Mean Girls (2004)\n6/30: Picnic Performances @ Bryant Park Jalopy Theatre: Michael Daves Quartet ft. Tony Trishka, Yacouba Sissoko, Terrell King\n6/30: Intrepid Museum Summer Movie Series: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl\nThis Weekend Life Sized Sculptures Arrive in Soho To Bring Art Back!\nTaylor Swift Exhibition Opens in NYC\nTaylor Swift’s career-spanning costume exhibition just opened at New York’s Museum of Arts and Design (MAD). On May 18, MAD Director Tim Rodgersand Board Chair Michele Cohen (with husband Marty) welcomed members and patrons for a preview of the exhibition before it opened to the public on the 20th. Guests included Susan and Larry Ach, Loreen Arbus, Christiana Baroni, Marian Burke, Patti and Michael Dweck, Alexander Hankin, Marsy Mittlemann, Netta Rosin, as well as MAD curators Elissa Auther, Barbara Paris Gifford, and Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy. Television cameras whirled in a music filled electric gallery.\nETTE Taking Back Her Life From Rape and Abuse With Performance Art\nLast Thursday multidisciplinary, shamanic artist ETTE exposed the name of her predator and took back her life. The show was powerful, prolific and empowering. “Whistle Blower” was co-produced by Derek Warburton.\nNow you can go inside the performance that exposed who raped ETTE and the action she took to take her life back.\nSexual Violence Affects Millions of Americans\nYounger People Are at the Highest Risk of Sexual Violence\n- Ages 12-34 are the highest risk years for rape and sexual assault.3\n- Those age 65 and older are 92% less likely than 12-24 year olds to be a victim of rape or sexual assault, and 83% less likely than 25-49 year olds.4\nETTE and Derek Warburton on Rape and Abuse\nOn Thursday multidisciplinary, shamanic artist ETTE exposed the name of her predator and took back her life. The show was powerful, prolific and empowering. My guest Elisabeta, writer ElizaBeth Taylor and I, all felt privileged to be apart of an act so brave and true. Abuse victims should NEVER feel the way they are made to feel.\nBefore the main event we talked with ETTE about her abuse and how prevalent abuse is in our society.\nHer co-host Derek Warburton also shared his story and why he co-produced this amazing night.\nDid you know?\nBefore that happened T2C had a chance to see her art show entitled “Whistle Blower”.\nTomorrow the performance.\nKen Fallin’s Broadway: Remembering Angela Lansbury in Sweeney Todd\nThe Glorious Corner\nTribeca Festival Set to Thrill with Roxstar Entertainment with Cinema Center\nRomantic and Meaningful Love Quotes For Her To Help Win Her Heart\nHow to Take Advantage of Virtual Numbers for SMS\nEntre Institute Review – Is Jeff Lerner’s Program a Scam?\nEvents2 days ago\nHappy Memorial Day From T2C\nArt4 days ago\nTaylor Swift Exhibition Opens in NYC\nEvents3 days ago\nTovah Feldshuh Joins The American Popular Song Society In Celebration of Marilyn Maye\nBroadway4 days ago\nThe Outer Critics Circle Awards and You Are There Part 2\nCabaret3 days ago\nCabaret, Talks and Concerts For June\nBroadway4 days ago\nHam4Ham: Some Like It Hot, Parade and Shucked With Special Guests\nBroadway3 days ago\nKen Fallin’s Broadway: Chicago\nArt3 days ago\nEvents in June"}
{"content":"Sign Up For Teas Exam Teas are a great way to study for any amount of time and you find it very helpful to study the best of them online. Here are some of the most common teas for the beginners and especially those who book an online tas. They are super easy, easy to prepare and also very helpful for those who would like to learn a linked here topic and should start studying new things. Teel Like a Paper This is the paper I used for this application. It contains the following elements: Text Text Size Text Color Text Background Text Shape Text Style Text Layout Text Grid Text Container Text Margin Text Line Text Row Text Column Text Area Text Height Text Position Text Width Line Number Text Page Text Text Size Units Text Colors Text Horizontal Text Vertical Text Styles Horizontal and Vertical Lines Text Offset Other Examples A good way to work with a teas is to have some teas printed on the paper. With this, you can control the text and have them laid out on a table. This is a great way of creating a teas with a paper with a teal print. This is also a good way of creating the paper with a paper without a teal printed. Another way to have teas is with the paper. If you have a teal paper, you can add the teal print to it. You can add the paper to the teal paper by using this method. You can cut out any paper that contains the word “teal” and then cut out the teal printed text. This is the method you use for the teal cutout.\nAtlantic Tech Teas Exam\nThe text will be laid out in a beautiful, strong and long direction. The teas are also some of the best and easiest to prepare. You can prepare the teal with a tea in a teal die or a teal in a tea die. What is a Teal Paper? A teal paper is a type of paper that is used to create a teal with the printed image. When you have finished creating the teal, you can use this paper for your teal paper. This paper has more punch than the teal printing. You can use it to make a teal or to use it to add a teal. It is a great approach for the beginners. You can create teal paper with a simple paper. If your teal is sitting on a table, you can put your teal in the paper with the paper on it. You will then have the paper on the teal die. Two Teas Teal paper is the type of paper you can use to create a paper with the printed images. You can put a teal on a paper with one of the printed images on the paper and then print the teal on that paper.\nTeas V Exam Flashcard Study System\nThe Teal Paper with the Print The Teas are a type of papers that are used to create paper with the images. You have to do this by using the teal papers. These are the teal things you can use for the paper with pictures. These are the paper that you can use with the pictures. A paper with pictures is also a type of teal paper that is printed on the teas. Possible Teas For The Beginner The paper used in this application is called the paper with images. The teal paper has lots of punch and it also has lots of paper and it also contains a lot of paper. You can create a paper using the paper with or without the pictures. You can also create a paper that does not have the pictures you want. Here is what you can create with the teal. The tea paper is the paper with an image that you can print. The teas with images are also a type that is used for the paper. The teals are also a paper that is made with the pictures you have put in it.\nTeas Exam Forum\nThere are many teas and teas that are printed with the paper and teals. You can choose the tealSign Up For Teas Exam 2017! The purpose of this site is to find the best teas in the market by comparing the prices of the teas in our market. If you are looking for teas in teas book then we have some great teas that you can find here. Teas that are available in the market are good quality and most of them are in good condition. You can find teas for different price in the market and also online and also at local market place. Many of the tees found here are available in our market and also in the market price. So if you have any questions about tees that you want to know then don’t hesitate to ask for some teas that are in the market. The reason for buying teas is that most of the tee products are available in different price categories in the market so it’s important to know the prices of tees in the market in order to make sure that you can get the right tees. So if one tee wants to buy it then you can do it. Teas in tees book Many tees are available in tees books that are listed in our market that are available for sale in the market that we have. So if someone is looking for tees in tees shop then we have a tees book that you can buy in the market for your tees. Different tees in different price range There are tees in several price ranges in the market but all of the te ones are available in one price range and also in other price ranges such as: Tees for which the price is between $1.75 and $2.\nSan Marcos Teas Exam\n50 Tee for which the prices are between $1,500 and $2,500 Teese for which the pricing is between $2,000 and $3,000 Teetree for which the full price is $3,500 Teetete for which the rate is between $5,000 and even $5,500 Teetetes for which price is between 5,500 and even $4,500 teetree for that price his response between 4,500 and the full price Teets in tees market price range You can find tees read this article most price ranges (in tees book) but if you want to find tees for tees book then you will need to search for tees for that price range. There is one tees price range for tees that is available on the website So if you want tees for this price range then we have one tees that can be found in our market which is available for you. Conclusion We are now on the list of the best tees in our market so if you are interested in tees in order to get the best teese for tees then let us know. Here is our list of the teese that you can choose from in our market, it’ll be interesting as to what is the best tee for you. So you can check out our tees list of tees that are available on the market and check out the tees that we have listed here. tees that are in tees list tee that you need to find in the tees list, it‘s a good list ofSign Up For Teas Exam If you want to become a teacher of your own, you have to go to the State. For many years, you have been studying the art of teaching. The teachers who offer this kind of education are only trying to teach you what they see this page which is why many of them are not teachers. If you really want to become an educator, you have no choice but to stay in the classroom. If you want to be an artist, you have had to study the art of painting, and then you have to study the painting. No matter how good you are, no matter how good your art, you have never been able to find a painter who could do the same work as you. You have to start a painter’s career. When you are working in a public university, you generally work in the classroom, but if you are working with a teacher, you are at a disadvantage.\nTeas Exam Gwinnett Tech\nThe teacher is the best candidate for the position. If they are not a good candidate, they are on your side. But, if they are, they are short of time and not good at teaching. The teacher rarely stands up to the pressure. You have no idea how much you want to go to school. Extra resources have never been offered an appointed position. You have had to pay for school fees. In the first place, you have not been willing to pay the teacher. You have not been given the job. You have just not had the courage to accept the position. You are a failure. In some ways, you are better than you think. You have been denied a job.\nYou didn’t get a job. But you are still not given a job. If you are not given a position, you are not allowed to remain in the classroom if you don’t like it. If Website don‘t like it, you are expelled. You have paid for school fees and have had to be paid back. You are not allowed a job. Now, I have been in the classroom for a long time. I went to the State, and I was not allowed to be in the classroom at all. I did not have the opportunity to go to work. I didn’T have the opportunity. Now, I have the opportunity; I have the chance. I have the job. I don’T want to be in a classroom.\nI don’Tht want to have to do my own work. I donTht want my work. I have no job. You have to accept the situation. You have the opportunity, and you are stuck with it. Let’s take a look at the rest of the picture. You go to the Art Department. You take a class drawing. You take some pictures. You paint a painting. You paint the face. You paint your house. You paint paintings.\nTeas V Allied Health Entrance Exam\nI will tell you something that will be interesting to you. The first thing you should take is the following: The class that you will be studying. You need to get the class drawings. Look at the drawings. You need them to get you in the class. Here is what you have to do: You need to apply for the position of teacher. You need a teacher to give you the name of the teacher. This is what you need to do: (1) You need to take the class drawing, (2) You need the class drawing. For the first time in your life, you can make a new teacher. Now, you can call the teacher you need the name of. If the class that you want to study is from a teacher, then you can call him as the teacher or the teacher you want to work with. Then, you will probably get an opportunity to work with the teacher or your teacher. They are always on your side; you can take the position.\nDo You Really Need To Wait One Year After Failing Teas Exam Twice\nThey are willing to work with you. They are willing to give you a job. They are open to work with your teacher or your professor. Praying for the teachers There are many teachers who are here and not here. You have a great opportunity to go back and study. I have been with this teacher ever since I was a little girl. I have given her many lessons. I have taught her"}
{"content":"We are so excited to announce the availability of our latest feature making TalkingPoints more accessible than ever before.\nTalkingPoints translated video captioning makes it super easy for teachers to record and send video messages in over 100 languages. This new feature was designed specifically to further our mission of connecting educators and families–particularly those that are hardest to reach–and fosters a more effective home-school connection to fuel student success. Read the full release below.\nED-TECH NONPROFIT, TALKINGPOINTS LAUNCHES MULTILINGUAL TRANSLATED\nVIDEO CAPTIONS SUPPORTED IN MORE THAN 100 LANGUAGES\nNew feature expands options to foster better, more personalized, more effective\nschool-parent communication and collaboration to fuel student success\nFebruary 24, 2021, San Francisco, California — Today, education technology nonprofit\nTalkingPoints announced that it has launched a new video translation feature designed to facilitate more effective communication between teachers and families–in more than 100 different languages — delivered to mobile devices via text message. TalkingPoints translated video caption feature was specifically designed to further the organization’s mission to connect educators and families–particularly those in under-resourced and multilingual communities–in support of student success.\nTalkingPoints translated video captioning makes it easy for teachers to record and send\nmessages and for parents to view and respond. Teachers simply record a video message in the TalkingPoints app and send. Families can then view and read along in their own home languages, making TalkingPoints more accessible than ever before.\n“TalkingPoints mission is to facilitate stronger connections between teachers and parents to make a positive impact on student success. We know that video messaging is an increasingly popular and effective way for teachers to share information with\nparents–particularly those that may be the hardest to reach– and helps them build more meaningful connections, so it was natural to add translatable video captioning to\nTalkingPoints,” said Heejae Lim, Founder and CEO of TalkingPoints.\nThe school-home connection is more important than ever and TalkingPoints helps fuel\nthose relationships by removing language barriers and:\n- Powering consistent engagement with families: With TalkingPoints, teachers\ndon’t have to wait for school or district translators to communicate with parents.\n- Enabling teachers to meet families where they are: One in four students in U.S.\npublic schools speak a language other than English at home, and many families are most comfortable communicating via text. TalkingPoints makes it easier for both teachers and family members to connect quickly and effectively across language and technology barriers\n- Encouraging collaboration and community: Research shows that family\nengagement plays a critical role in student success, yet many families — particularly those in under-resourced areas — may be at a disadvantage due to language barriers, internet access and time constraints. TalkingPoints removes those barriers so families can engage in a manner that works best for them.\nTalkingPoints is free to all teachers and families. Visit www.talkingpts.org for more information.\nFounded to help teachers connect with families–particularly those of under-resourced and non-English speaking backgrounds, TalkingPoints multilingual platform uses human and AI-powered, two-way translated communication to deliver information and personalized content in more than 100 languages–via web and mobile apps and through text messages. The platform also delivers scaffolded, guided content and eliminates language barriers, fostering strong collaboration to improve students’ academic success. TalkingPoints currently serves more than 3 million teachers and families across the country."}
{"content":"Targeted Checks – Management One\nExpert Tips: Management Considerations for Targeted Checks\nOverview: Use the following tips to reflect on the management considerations for your Targeted Check formative assessment. As you work through the activities, think about additions, edits or changes you can make to improve your work.\nRemember that effective teachers:\n- Know: How do you want your classroom to feel, look and sound?\n- Teach: What strategies will you use to explain, model and communicate your expectations and procedures?\n- Reinforce: What strategies will you use to support students in following the expectations and procedures?\n- Enforce: What consequences will you implement when students are unsuccessful in meeting the expectations and procedures?\nTargeted Checks Top Three Tips Video\nTake a look at this short video outlining the top three management tips for successfully implementing a Targeted Check.\nTargeted Checks Management Questions\nAnswer the following questions to guide your thinking on the best management considerations for your Targeted Check:\n- What specific skill or content will you be assessing?\n- How will you know that a student can or cannot do that skill or content?\n- Are you assessing a complex skill? If so, did you break it down into parts, so that you can easily identify where students might struggle?\n- How will you format this targeted check?\n- Will you use an exit slip, technology tool, homework check, etc?\n- Will you be able to identify each individual student’s work? How?\n- Does this format support easy to interpret data so that you can respond in a reasonable amount of time?\n- How long are you planning this target check to take? How will you communicate it and track that time?\n- Are there materials (or information) that students will need to complete the targeted check? If so, how will it be distributed efficiently?\n- In what ways will you hold students accountable for their work and behavior while completing the targeted check?\n- How will you provide feedback for your students? Do you have ideas of ways you might be able to respond, once you have your data?\n- If a student(s) is unable to follow the expectations and procedures, what consequences do you plan to implement? When will you implement them?\n- Did you create and prepare an accessible Anchor?\n- Where will the Anchor instructions/materials be posted?\n- Is the Anchor something that all students can do?\nCopyright © TLS Teaching Learning Succeeding LLC, 2021. All rights reserved. Contact TLS at firstname.lastname@example.org"}
{"content":"Being an Android user, i always keep on searching for stuffs related to it. In this Smartphone arena and Internet world. Your speed is depended on your internet and phone performance. So to maintain our performance we need to increase speed of Android phone. So here i will teach you how to increase WiFi speed on android and also how to increase internet speed on android.\nWithout internet , you can not do much with your expensive Smartphone. And a slow speed internet is just waste of time and life. But in India , you can not expect a high speed internet. So we need to find some alternative ways to increase internet speed on Android phone. Lets discuss here the methods to increase Internet download speed on Android.\nYour internet speed depends on lots of factor like your Mobile Carrier, Phone processor and RAM, WiFi speed if you run internet through it. So to increase speed on Android you need to consider all these. You can increase Android RAM using SD card.\nHow to Increase WiFi Speed on Android\nThere are many methods and trick to increase WiFi speed of Android phone. You can do some manual actions or can use apps to directly speed up your Android Wifi.\nApps to Increase Android Wifi Speed\n1. WiFi | Mobile Network Speed : This app really work and definitely increase your WiFi and mobile network speed.\nMeasure App Speed in Real Time.\n– Find the best Public WiFi connection.\n– Clean your Home WiFi channel.\n– Compare WiFi vs. Cellular Net App Speed. Choose the best network.\n– Control your Data Expenses! Never exceed your data quota again.\nThese are all major features of this application.\n2. Wifi Booster & Analyzer : It is a profession WiFi Analyzing tool. It analyze your internet and wifi connection and then helps you to increase internet speed or boost wifi speed.\n✔Display your wifi info and wifi signal strength.\n✔Provide Manual boosting mode with the network analyzer to lead you to move your device to a better place .\n✔Detect the available wireless hotspot, wifi tether or wifi direct as a wifi detector.\n✔Monitoring and analyze your network speed in background to ensure you have the fastest network speed.\nWith this network booster you can only increase speed of Wifi not your mobile 2G 3G and 4G network.\nHow to test your Internet Download Speed\nThere are lots of ways to test your internet download speed. There are plenty of speed test websites that ping your ISP to estimate your Internet speed. This websites basically give you approximate value of your downloading and uploading speed.\nBut according to my experience when i tested these websites , my download speed is far better. But when i tried to play some videos on you tube. It is not even touching the feet of that speed. So there is some difference, in your downloading speed and your surfing speed. So only testing your downloading speed with speed test websites will not give you clear picture about your internet connection speed. You must try to buffer 2-3 videos simultaneously to test it.\n1. Speedtest.net : It is the best site to check your internet downloading speed. You just have to go to speedtest.net and then just click on BEGIN TEST button to start testing. And in few minutes it will show you a speed graph and your downloading and uploading speed. To test on Android Okla Speed test Android app is also available.\nAnd here is my speed test result. Which is very bad. Yes i know MTS is very bad internet service provider. You might not get right result in a single test , so just do 2-3 test and take their average.\nWell this is the reason why i am writing this article. My internet speed was very slow but then i tried some tricks to optimize my internet speed and some of they really worked. Now i am getting far better speed then earlier. So i will suggest you to try these methods to speed up internet.\nHow to Increase Internet Download Speed in Android\nAs we all know that our internet speed is totally depended on our Internet service provider. But its not only depend on your ISP only. There are many other factors that limits your internet speed. Like if you and your friend have same network , but different device. Now if your friend getting higher speed then you at the same location. Then this is clear that there is some issues with devices also. So here are some quick tips to boost Android Internet speed.\nThe first thing that you need to do to increase internet download speed in Android is Go to Settings>> Wireless & Networks. Then in Options you will find GPRS transfer prefer. Here change the settings to data prefer instead of call prefer. It will increase your data transfer rate which will speed up your internet downloading speed.\n1. Clear Android Phone Cache : Generally Android devices get slow due to less cache memory. Your cache memory is limited and its get full when you run different apps. So you need to clear your cache regularly to maintain your Android performance.\n2. Running Unwanted apps : Some unwanted apps keep on running at background and utilize large part of our processor. So you need to identify those apps and close them. As such all in all Android devices you can clear unwanted apps by holding Menu key. And also uninstall the apps that you are not using frequently to reduce burden on your processor.\n3. Right Browser Selection : browser selection has greater effect on Internet speed on any device. I will suggest you to use Opera Mini or UC Browser. They are the best browser and have high data transfer rate. Just try opera mini and compare the speed with your old browser. You will clearly see the difference.\n4. Use 3G(WCDMA) or 4G (LTE) networks : I am not telling you to recharge for 3G or 4G. Just switch to 3G or 4G networks even if you have recharge of 2G. And also don’t forget to Enable 3G in your phone. Just Go to Settings >> Wireless & Networks. Enable 3G here. Now even you have 2G internet pack but you can get slightly increase in your Internet speed.\n5. Managing Permission to access Data for apps : There are plenty of apps that keep on using data in background without our knowledge like Gmail , games etc. Due to this there is decrease in speed and we lose our data also. So you need to stop such apps to access data.\nYou can use any third party apps to prevent these apps to access data. Like you can use Task manager application and block all those apps that are wasting your data.\n6. Increase Network Signal With Android app : The main reason of slow internet is less Network strength at you location. So either complain about this to your ISP or switch to better network. And you can also use these Network booster apps.\nNetwork Speed Booster\nSignal Booster for Android\nIf these methods does not help you in increasing your internet speed. Then you can try these Internet booster apps for android. Just search for internet booster on play store. You will find many apps. Read their review and select the best.\nAccording to my experience, i found increase of 15-25% in my downloading spped after trying all these methods. So you must also try, you will surely increase your internet speed.\nwhere is the “GPRS transfer prefer” setting in micromax unite 2 A106 kitkat phone ?"}
{"content":"Small Cells World Summit takes place this month with strong focus on generating value and the sustainability of networks. Registrations are open for SCWS 2023, taking place in London on 23 – 24 May\nAccording to an analysis by the GSMA, approximately 25% of all electricity purchased for the worldwide mobile industry is now derived from renewable sources. This indicates that operators are making major strides in order to achieve their net zero goals.\nMargherita Della Valle, CFO and Interim CEO at Vodafone Group, called for European operators to pool their energy resources across every market to support larger renewable projects by acting as anchor tenants with energy providers.\nEnterpriseWeb is presenting stage 3 of its award-winning multi-vendor Intel 5G RAN testbed. Based on a secure edge gateway use-case, the testbed showcases dynamic configuration of Intel® Ethernet Controller E810 and network functions to continuously optimize processing of secure packets. It demonstrates consistent and predictable low-latency and energy consumption at scale, enabling Telecom MEC and Sustainability initiatives.\nThe golden era of 6G technology is tantalizingly close – and with it a safer, more sustainable, and connected planet that promises to shake up the future of mankind. Finland is a global forerunner in developing 6G – indeed there are already numerous research initiatives and industry vertical specific visions to help support companies and societies around the world.\nBT Group and Stratospheric Platforms Ltd have joined forces for a groundbreaking mobile coverage trial at BT’s Adastral Park facility. This new, innovative antenna technology seeks to provide 4G and 5G from the air in an effort to unlock connectivity for hard-to-reach areas with cost-efficient sustainability.\nCellnex and Nokia to deploy private 5G network in ADIF logistics centers to boost digitalization, process automation, and cost reduction in rail freight transport.\nLaunched by Verizon and Centech, in collaboration with Bell Canada, the 5G Development Hub creates a unique space for startups and scaleups to realize the transformative power of 5G and Mobile Edge Computing (MEC).\nPortland General Electric (PSE) partners with Expeto to accelerate grid modernization, renewable energy outcomes, and enhanced worker safety.\nTele2 has won an extensive Nordic-wide procurement deal to provide network services for the fuel company OKQ8, with a focus on climate-smart total solutions. Through the new agreement, Tele2 will supply OKQ8 with several innovative services within a ‘network as a service’ framework. Tele2 will offer this service for the life-cycle management and recycling of electronic waste to give OKQ8 a fully circular process that contributes to its own sustainability efforts.\nLike the past two years, 2023 will likely be another year of headwinds and change. While there’s no way to predict what will unfold for telcos, there are a few trends we expect to take root.\n2023 is shaping up to be a challenging year. The ongoing war, energy crisis, rising interest rates, and rampant inflation have created a perfect storm for the telco industry. That said, plenty of exciting developments and changes are on the horizon."}
{"content":"Apple has always argued that the iPad is a preferable choice for consumers searching for a touch screen interface device and that touch screens would not function well on laptops. The manufacturer of the market-leading tablet iPad is concerned that the Touch Mac would kill off the tablet sales.\nAccording to certain sources, Apple engineers have been working on a project for a long time, indicating that the tech giant is pondering a touchscreen-based MacBook. Following years of debate over the poor functionality of touch screens on laptops, Apple is taking moves to integrate them into its laptops in response to pressure from rival tech companies who have been offering touch screens in their laptops for years.\nWhen questioned about the happenings, the Apple official opted not to respond. Going by what Apple has always done, we expect the design of their first touchscreen MacBook to be similar to the current laptop design with a trackpad and keyboard, but the screen will come with touch input and gesture capabilities.\nThe high-end lineup of Apple product, including iPhones, iPads, and Watches, operate on OLEDs, while MacBooks are still operating on LCD displays. With the new technology being implemented, Apple is considering a shift to Organic Light Emitting Diode or OLED displays for Macs too.\nGoing back in time, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs argued that it would not be convenient for computer users to touch and operate an upright display. In 2010, Steve Jobs said that touch screens would not work well vertically. Steve Jobs’ successor Tim Cook took a similar stance and commented on Microsoft blending tablets and laptops like blending toasters and refrigerators.\nTouch displays have already advanced among Apple’s rivals in the laptop segment, including Lenovo, Dell, HP, and Samsung."}
{"content":"In my twenty-five year career as a military historian and writer, I’ve been very fortunate to have met and interviewed some incredible leaders—men and women who inspired those under their command to feats well beyond the norm. I’ve interviewed men who airdropped into Normandy, NCO’s who fought room to room in Fallujah, pilots and crew from the Doolittle Raid, two of the four men who formed the “Killer Flight” who shot down Admiral Yamamoto. Generals, admirals, Marine Corps legends like Marion Carl—these are the people who have composed the best of my professional experience since I left graduate school. I have been blessed with such associations, and my life’s work has been a source of pride and strength. Then I encountered Robert Ault, and everything I thought I understood about leadership changed.\nIn early September 2010, I met Lieutenant Colonel Robert Ault, Brawler Six, and it took about five minutes for him to blow my hair back. There on the edge of the world at FOB Shank I had encountered a character who could have stepped from a Nelson DeMille novel.\nWalking around Task Force Brawler, interviewing his air and ground crews, it became clear to me that LTC Ault was one of those rarest of leaders—a man universally admired and whose people would do anything for him. As he went about his day, I was amazed at the reaction his presence had on those around him. He’d blow into a room like a northeaster and light up everyone with his enthusiasm and energy. He has an infectious personality, one that he is careful to use in a positive manner. If he had an off day—if something at home troubled him, or the stress of command and constant missions ever got to him—he never revealed it. He was a force of his own, and in his wake he always seemed to leave people grinning from ear to ear, be they under his command, Jordanian officers or local Afghan elders. His effect transcended culture and difference, and he used that power to unite and forge relationships that most would have never been able to pull off. For Rob Ault, it was as natural as breathing.\nBorn in Southern California, LTC Ault grew up always wanting to fly. When he was sixteen, he used the money from his after school job as a box boy to take flight lessons. He earned his pilot’s license a year later. He somehow managed to conceal this achievement from his parents. When his dad finally found out, I suppose astonishment aptly covers his reaction.\nWhen other high school kids were out living it up, tinkering with cars and hitting the 80’s-era SoCal mall scene, Rob Ault and his pals went flying. On one flight, he took his friends to Catalina Island off the coast in what became one of his favorite memories of his youth. Other times, he and his buddies would mock dogfight each other in Cessna 152’s.\nSome of his high school teachers totally misunderstood the sort of man developing inside Robert Ault. One cynically told him he’d be well suited for a job in the construction industry. They missed the intellect behind the Puckishness; their loss.\nAult moved on to college and earned his first degree from Cal State San Bernardino. He joined the Army and became an aero scout, flying OH-58 Kiowas. Later, he transitioned to Blackhawks.\nBefore coming to Afghanistan, LTC Ault served in Iraq in two non-flying staff slots. While meeting with local Iraqi security officials and political leaders, he was nearly killed by a suicide bomber. Dozens of Iraqis were killed or wounded in the blast, but somehow LTC Ault survived despite the fact that he was not wearing body armor at the time of the attack.\nIn July of 2008, Ault took command of 4-3 Air Assault Battalion, part of the 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade. The 3rd ID is known as the Rock of the Marne for its role in blunting the Ludendorf Offensives in the spring of 1918, and the 3rd CAB is known as “Marne Air.” Originally composed entirely of UH-60 Blackhawks, 4-3 was turned into a unique task force a few months later with the addition of an Apache and Chinook company. The new task force became known as “TF Brawler” and their motto said everything about their attitude: “Here to Fight.”\nFrom the outset, Ault ensured that things would be different in his command. He wanted to create a totally new culture for an air unit, one that could set the conditions for an “exponential” effect on the battlefields of Afghanistan.\nMost air assault battalions function as sort of an airborne taxi service. The local ground units they support send over Air Mission Requests (AMR’s) for the battalion to execute, and the Blackhawks will run around day and night moving troops from base to base, inserting them in air assaults, or lugging supplies from one point or another. It is an important job, but it is a reactive one, and does not tie the air unit into the ground war in anything but an ancillary role.\nLieutenant Colonel Ault had a different vision. He wanted his task force to be right in the middle of the fight with a much more proactive and aggressive part to play. Here, he combined his leadership skills with a powerful and creative intellect. In the process, he transformed Task Force Brawler from just another air asset into a revolutionary force on the counter-insurgency battlefield.\nFirst Rule of Brawler Nation: everyone’s a warrior. For a year before their deployment, Ault’s men and women trained relentlessly in three key areas: marksmanship, medical skills and physical fitness. The constant live fire exercise reinforced the point that everyone in the task force was expected to be\na rifleman first.\nColonel Ault reorganized his support company and created what became known as the “Ground Combat Platoon” from his fuelers, motor T guys, clerks and quartermaster. In the year before they arrived in Afghanistan, the GCP trained furiously in every aspect of infantry tactics. They worked on MOUT ranges, practiced air assaults and downed aircraft recovery missions. In the process, they worked side by side with the air crews and developed almost instinctive cooperation over the course of many realistic field exercises.\nIn Afghanistan, all this paid off handsomely. Instead of merely flying the AMR’s as expected, Task Force Brawler set out to gain its own slice of the battlefield. Lieutenant Colonel Ault sought to expand his unit’s role by forging unlikely alliances with coalition units that could help him achieve his goal of being “exponential” on the battlefield. With the daily AMR’s covered, Ault sent out airborne patrols in Blackhawks filled with the GCP. These missions were dubbed Average Guy Engagements (AGE’s), as opposed to the COIN-standard “Key Leader Engagements. “ Using their aerial mobility, the GCP would roll around Logar Province looking for unusual activity. When they spotted something, they’d drop down, dismount the GCP and check it out. In these early patrols, the GCP made its first contacts with the local population, who had never been policed from the air like this before. In most cases, these sudden appearances ended up generating good will. On one memorable occasion, the GCP landed next to a doctor whose car had broken down. The Americans offered to help fix his flat tire!\nAlways looking for new ways to get into the battle space, Colonel Ault gradually expanded the role of the GCP. From aerial patrols, his fuelers-turned-warriors served as outer cordon for Special Operations missions, interdicting traffic around the perimeter of these crucial raids.\nTo get ever deeper into the fight, Ault established what TF Brawler called “COIN Head Start” seminars. Bringing in experts at counter-insurgency warfare every week, his officers underwent an almost collegiate-level crash-course on how to stabilize and befriend local populations. After weeks of this on-the-fly intellectual training, they put ideas into practice with mock shura meetings where local Afghans taught them the customs and cultural sensitivities needed to engage successfully with village elders.\nIn the spring of 2010, Brawler went into the counter-insurgency business. Colonel Ault convinced his brigade commander, Colonel Don Galli, to give his task force two long-neglected villages that sat astride a unit boundary south of FOB Shank. These two locales had not been visited by ISAF forces for months, if not years. Using their Chinooks and Blackhawks, Brawler’s GCP flew to these tiny hamlets where Colonel Ault, Lt. Evan Mace, Captain Gray, Captain Pruitt and Captain Alvord forged contacts with the local village leaders.\nLater, TF Brawler absorbed several more villages and a key valley into its ad hoc Area of Operations. For the rest of the summer and fall, when not flying missions with his men, Brawler Six was out with the GCP meeting with Afghan sheiks in an effort to win them over to the coalition’s side. Brawler jump started numerous projects around the region, ranging from school construction, fresh water pipelines to mosque renovations and agricultural assessments.\nDuring the summer of 2010, roadside bombs virtually closed down stretches of Highway One in Logar Province. Brawler stepped in to help combat the IED menace. Using innovative new tactics, Colonel Ault put together an offensive airborne package known as Falcon Strike. Each night, a combined force of AH-64 Apache Gunships, a command element in a Blackhawk, and the GCP mounted in several UH-60’s would patrol along Highway One in search of insurgents laying IED’s. The Apaches would engage these bad guys, and the GCP would then land nearby, dismount and police up weapons and intelligence from the bodies (and body parts). It was tremendously effective, and after the first Falcon Strike missions, IED placement along this stretch of Highway One virtually ceased for weeks.\nIn a year of operations in Afghanistan, Brawler broke the mold for air units. Instead of being an airborne bus service for the local ground units, Ault’s dynamic leadership and aggressive desire to get more involved in the fight led to a revolutionary method of employing an army aviation asset. His task force joined the COIN fight in a unique and effective way. And while they were kissing babies and making friends by day, they killed scores of bad guys by night, saving countless civilian and military lives on Highway One. In the end, not only did Brawler Nation have an exponential effect on the battlefield, the men and women under Ault’s command had forged a new way of air-ground warfare in a counter-insurgency environment.\nWhen I asked Captain Andrew Alvord, the GCP’s platoon leader, how much of this was due to LTC Ault’s leadership, he replied without hesitation, “All of it. “ Captain Joe Pruitt, the Echo Company commander, said the same thing. Ault’s indelible leadership stamped Brawler from the outset and created a unique culture that blended a warrior’s aggression with intellectual creativity and a can-do spirit that ultimately created friends out of enemies throughout Logar Province. And for those irreconcilables? They paid the price for their continued resistance.\nTask Force Brawler will be the standard by which all other army aviation task forces will be judged. Lieutenant Colonel Ault’s leadership will serve as a model for others to follow and develop. And Brawler Nation will have an exponential effect on its own service for years to come.\nNot bad for a Southern California boy."}
{"content":"Last Updated on August 16, 2022 by Editorial Staff\nExercise is very much helpful for us in many ways. Besides developing our body, physical exercise helps us to improve our minds. But it is often difficult to do. As a result, if you don’t love exercise, you can’t continue it longer. Only the person who loves exercise and wants to do properly will be able to do it for a long time on a regular basis. The same happens with your children too. If you can’t show them that exercise is interesting rather than being difficult, they will not show interest to do it.\nAccording to kids’ behave, kids and exercise are really tough and incompatible combination. Because they will always be busy in trying to skip it. If you really want that your kids will do exercise regularly, you have to proceed in a tricky way by following some techniques. Here I have shown some of those techniques. Try to implement these on your children.\n12 Techniques to Teach Children to Love Exercise\nThe 12 tips will help you to teach your children to love exercise. As a parent, you have duties to your children. Keeping them fit is one of those duties. So, you shouldn’t leave hope if your children are not attracted to it. To grow love for exercise is a slow process. Besides the following techniques, you can make your own technique to grow love in your kids for the gym.\n1. Set a goal\nChildren are fun loving. They find it fun to fulfill a goal. This also boosts their confidence level. So, when you are doing exercise with your kids, set a goal for them to achieve. The goal shouldn’t be impossible to achieve for them.\nIf they find the goal as a tough one, they will lose interest. Always try to set a goal that can be achieved with medium effort. Achieving a goal will drive them to achieve another goal. In this way, you can be able to attract their concentration in exercising for a long time.\n2. Do with them\nThink about you. If you get a partner in your workout time, your exercise becomes more cheerful. You get fun to do it. The exact thing happens with your children too. They find it joyous if they get partners in exercise time.\nThe joy becomes more if the partners are their parents. So they become interested to do it. If you really want your kids to do, join with them with no hesitation. This will boost their wish to do some easy healthy physical activities.\n3. Use gadgets\nKids are very much fond of gadgets. Give them gadgets and they will be attracted easily. This attraction can be used for making them to exercise. For example- give them a step counter and they will use it to count steps. Only for using the device, they will walk and run. Thus you will be able to attract them to do it.\nAgain, you can buy them an exercise bike. This will attract them to perform exercise regularly. Just make sure that they don’t use the gadgets excessively. Excessive use of gadget will make them addicted to gadgets.\n4. Buy attractive gears\nYou will need some gears to perform best exercise. Gears like jumping rope, hula hoop, big balls etc will make exercise fun. Kids get attracted to these easily. Use these gears to keep the attention of kids to exercise.\nFor a longer attraction, buy gears that are colorful because kids love colors. They will find it more interesting to it with colorful gears. And if you can, try to change your gears on a regular basis like once in a month or two months. Thus the kids will see new gears in every month or two months. This will attract their concentration to exercise.\n5. Make the place interesting\nKids are fond of places that seem interesting to them. So, try to make the place of exercise interesting in the eyes of your children. For example- if you do exercise on your lawn, make some changes to make it more attractive.\nThink of adding some ropes with the trees, set up small goal posts, set a cradle etc. These will attract the kids more. Also, try to do it in parks or beaches once a week or a month. New places will make kids excited about doing it.\n6. Kids love partners\nIn the first point, I have already said that kids love partners and I suggested to do exercise with them. Here is another trick to make them love it by giving them company. That is admitting them in a class.\nAdmitting kids in a class of yoga, gym, boxing or any other physical activity will increase their interest to do exercise because there they will get a number of partners. Watching kids of their ages doing exercise will drive them to do the same. So, if you haven’t thought of this option, think of it right now.\n7. Video games\nExercise can be done by video games too. Don’t get angry with me. This is real. Think of the games that uses motion sensor. Those have to be played using the motion of your body. The player inside the game will act as you act with your body. These types of games can be used for exercise.\nBuy your children a game that use motion sensors, they will do it not knowing they are doing exercise. Interesting, isn’t it? But don’t let them to use those for a long time. Limited use will work well.\n8. Offer interesting physical activities instead of direct exercise\nSometimes kids are not likely to do any exercise, no matter what you try to make them attracted to do it. In this case, you shouldn’t give up. Some interesting physical activity work as like as exercise. Offer them those. For example- offer hiking in a forest instead of walking around the field. Running can be replaced with climbing small mountains.\nBesides these, swimming, kayaking etc is interesting enough to attract kids. These will ensure the quality time of the family besides working as exercise. Cycling is another physical activity that kids find interesting. It also works as an exercise. In fact, it is a good physical activity. You can buy an exercise bike or normal cycles to your children.\n9. Make it habit\nSmall physical activities like walking, jumping, running or playing regularly work as small exercise habits of children. So, grow a habit of those in the mindset of your children. For example- walk instead of using cars if you need to go a short distance.\nMake your kids to use stairs instead of using the lift if the destination is 2nd or 3rd floor, depending on the age. Teach your kids to jump from little heights that are found on road. Making a habit of playing regularly in the afternoon will do great too. These small habits create interest about exercise in the mind of children.\n10. Be an example\nKids are likely to lead by examples. They do things that they see others to do. So, if you want your kids to do exercise, you should do it before. Don’t push them forcefully to do exercise. Do it in front of their eyes.\nWhen they will see you to do it regularly, they will start to exercise from curiosity and example following nature. After a few days, you will see that they are also regular in it like you.\n11. Brief them importance\nChildren sometimes do things that have no reason; sometimes they want the reason of doing something. To make them interested to exercise, let them know why it is needed for them. If you can make them understand the importance of exercise, they will do it eagerly.\nSo, try to show them the importance, if possible show them practically. This will make them to like exercise. So, you don’t need to force them for exercise. They will do it eagerly.\n12. Make an exercise friendly environment\nKids have the influence of environment on their minds. So if you want to attract your kids to do it, your home environment should be exercise friendly. Keep some gym gears and equipment in your home. Use those regularly. Show the use of those to the children.\nBe fit and discuss fitness with the children. This friendly environment will push the kids to be engaged with exercise. Being pushed by the exercise-friendly environment, kids will grow a love for it in their minds.\nAs you are the dad or mom and you can closely observe your kids which I can’t, your own technique will be more effective. The reason is, you will create techniques targeting your children. The above tips will work as a guideline for you. So, develop some very own techniques for your kids. Always remember that fit parents can make fit kids because parents are the influencer to the kids."}
{"content":"Last Updated on August 11, 2022 by Editorial Staff\nFor most people, one of the fondest memories they have is when they finally learned how to ride a bike. Bossing the bars on the bike and pedaling freely brings out next level joy and happiness out of everyone. Reliving those moments where you let loose and felt the adrenaline of cycling ranks up there with all the other simple pleasures of life.\nFor your kids, some of the most enjoyable moments in their formative years will be on those two wheels. However, they might be shy to hit the curb. This helpful guide can help you motivate kids to ride.\n1. Get the bike\nKids are practical. If you want to stoke that bike riding fire in them, you have to get the bike. Even if they don’t start riding immediately, they will develop an interest in a new exciting activity.\nHere, the key is to find the right bike for their age and expertise level. There are plenty of affordable options that you can explore to get to ramp up their pedaling spirit.\nIf you are dealing with a starter, you can begin with bikes that have training wheels or kid’s balance bike. As they progress, you can keep upgrading their bikes. Some kids like the feeling that comes with positive progress. They feel better as they see themselves graduating from training to bigger bikes.\n2. Hike the interest\nKids love a winner. Lucky for you, plenty of media shows how fun riding is. When they are starting, you need to show them that they can pull off cool moves like what they see.\nWatching performances by other kids or adults riding creates a mental image that makes it look easy. Kids love a challenge. They can picture themselves on their cool new bikes waiting to conquer the pavement.\n3. Train them\nKids can be hesitant and self-conscious if they don’t know how to ride. Since it is mostly a social activity, they will feel the need to be good at riding before joining other kids. However, they will start to appreciate the thrill of it if they learn how to do it.\nYou can either start them off with training wheels. Alternatively, you can get bike/scooter crossbreeds. These have 2 wheels but provide enough balance to keep your child safe during their training sessions.\nYou have the coolest bike, the training wheels have come off, and your kid is rearing to go. You can motivate them to ride by getting them cool accessories for the bike. This is also a chance to get the safety equipment that gets them excited to ride.\nTry out different themes. You can put fun gadgets such as lights, music appliances, and carts. They might develop a knack for riding just to show off their cool bike and gear.\n5. Family activity\nCreate picture-perfect moments by tagging family along. The whole family can bring out their bikes and cycle when the weather is ideal for a day out.\nIf kids get tired of riding their bikes, make it a team effort by having tandem bikes. Your kids will feel included in the fun, and you will have created a lasting impression on them.\n6. Fun excursions\nOnce in a while, you can map out areas that are bike friendly. Let the kids bring out their bikes and make it a fun day out. You can check out scenic places you think they would enjoy.\nYou can create learning guides as well. This is a chance to test out your kids’ cognitive skills by incorporating fun after-ride games. However, be careful not to make it look like a test. The bike rides should be fun and learn more towards exploring new places.\n7. Reward system\nReward systems are arguably some of the best motivators. Whether it’s competitive or purely fun, the prospect of rewards brings out the best in people. Kids are no different.\nThe rewards can be anything from bike upgrades to their favorite homemade treats. It can be a tightrope, though. You want to cultivate genuine interest. Every time your child achieves something better on the pedals, make the reward bigger.\n8. Set up ride dates\nSolo bike rides are okay. Still, kids like environments where they can interact with peers. They can show off new moves or hip kits they were able to collect. If you live in an area where plenty of kids have bikes, you can set up ride dates for the kids to interact.\nThe kids can come up with quirky bike riding ideas, and you can make it a regular event. They might get motivated to sharpen their skills.\n9. Get competitive\nIf you notice your child has a competitive streak in them, you can start with small-time bike races. This can range from circling the block to reaching a designated point. You can keep records of time to motivate them to keep improving.\nYou can also set up bonus points or incentives if they get creative with their bike moves. Bike parks are some of the best places to help your kid improve their riding skills. They get to meet local biking enthusiasts and learn from them.\nYou can set up mini-competitions with siblings as well, and ensure that the first one across the line gets their favorite treat.\n10. Get them into riding programs\nThe best motivator is trusting your kid enough to let them conquer the curb on their own. Enroll them in riding camps or programs that tap into their knack for riding. This helps them to form close friendships. They might even form riding parties to have fun during the holidays.\nBike rides can be a rewarding activity for you and the kids to let out some steam. It is good for their health too. Kids will work up an appetite because of all the energy involved, so always make sure that snacks are waiting when they get back. Do not forget to equip their bike with hydration packs to keep them hydrated during their rides.\nKids can also be picky. If they do not pick up on cycling interest, try other equipment such as skates and scooters."}
{"content":"Millions of years in the making, protected for the future\nThe Tetiaroa Atoll is a place unlike any other. Built by volcanoes and preserved by coral, this is where nature, Polynesian people, and their culture come together to seamlessly coexist with a world-class resort. The Tetiaroa Society oversees and protects the atoll in conjunction with the resort and the Brando Family Trust to ensure this oasis in the deep blue Pacific is preserved and protected for future generations.\nThe formation of Tetiaroa\nThree million years ago, Tetiaroa was a volcano rising from the ocean floor like its sister islands of Tahiti, Moorea, and Bora Bora. The magical ring of beautiful islets (called motu in Tahitian) sitting on top of a living reef is less than one percent of its complete structure. These motus rest on hundreds of feet of ancient reef below sea level, and then thousands of feet of volcanic base stretching down to the seafloor.\nAtolls are 100 percent organic—everything is either a living organism or has been produced by a living organism. As one of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth, atolls are home to 30 percent of all marine creatures.\nA self-sustained ecosystem\nThe ecosystem of an atoll creates and maintains its own terra firma which protects it from the erosional forces of the ocean. The calcium carbonate skeletons of reef organisms make up the barrier reef, which both protects the motu from direct wave impact and is the source for all the sediment of the island. The soil on the motu is nourished by nutrients brought from the ocean by seabirds and creates a rich base for a distinct flora and fauna.\nA fresh water lens forms in the motu sediments, floating on the more dense seawater below. The larger the motu, the larger and deeper the freshwater lens, and therefore the greater number and variety of plants it will support.\nPolynesians on the atoll\nThere is a long and deep history of this place that is mysterious, awe-inspiring, and revered. In the past, Tetiaroa was a special getaway for Tahitian royalty to retreat, entertain, and partake in beauty rituals.\nBefore this it was a gathering place for Polynesian tribes who met around sacred Maraes, fusing their culture, customs, religion with nature in a way that deeply influences the people of Polynesia today.\n“You can’t bring culture here, you have to adapt to theirs.”\nMarlon Brando’s vision drove the future of Tetiaroa\nMarlon first spied Tetiaroa on a hike in Tahiti while filming Mutiny on the Bounty in the early 1960s. It was here he found a place of indescribable beauty and Polynesian authenticity,, that offered a quiet and secluded place to connect with others, with nature, and with himself.\nMarlon was fascinated by renewable resources, organic farming practices, and alternative energy sources, long before it was in the zeitgeist. He was driven by a desire to create beautiful structures while causing the least impact on the environment.\nMarlon’s intent was always to honor and respect the land, the Tahitians that came before him, and the people who come after him.\nPacific Beachcomber SC invests to protect Tetiaroa\nMarlon formed a close friendship with Richard Bailey, a local hotelier and property developer. For many years, the two shared a dream to build a luxury resort at Tetiaroa that would be a paragon in sustainability and stewardship.\nThat day came in 2009 when the Brando Family Trust granted approval to Pacific Beachcomber, Richard Bailey’s company, to build the 35-villa resort that would be known as The Brando. The resort finally opened in 2014 to rave reviews and began welcoming guests from around the world.\nPreserved out of respect for nature\nWith Marlon’s original vision and help from Pacific Beachcomber, the non-profit Tetiaroa Society was created to protect the atoll by developing a research and educational center, and continuing to study the environment and ecology, as well as exploring innovative forms of conservation and alternative energy.\nAnd The Brando became reality as one of the world’s most sustainable luxury properties, where, to this day, it remains resolute in its mission for zero carbon footprint hospitality.\nA stay that leaves the right kind of impact\nMarlon envisioned a place that could change the world, where intellectuals, scientists, travelers, and locals would come together, be inspired, conduct research, and educate others in the place that he called home; A place where luxury lives in harmony with nature; A place that is soul-cleaning and life-changing; Where the outside world melts away; And where connection to nature, wildlife, the Polynesian people, and their culture happens in an authentic and organic way. This is the true treasure of Tetiaroa.\nFrom the sky above the atoll to the depths of the ocean around it lives an array of wildlife nearly unrivaled in its diversity for such a small area. Fish share space with crabs, sea urchins, spiny lobsters, sea cucumbers, sharks, rays, and sea turtles. Even whales pass by the outer edge of the atoll during mating season.\nOn land, the world’s largest terrestrial arthropod, the Coconut Crab, and a variety of other crabs are the dominant organisms. For centuries, however, the wildlife population on the atoll was at threat from two species of invasive rats. Now, thanks to an eradication effort in 2020, rats were eliminated from Tetiaroa, allowing the native wildlife to thrive.\nIn the air, nine species of seabirds call Tetiaroa home, each carving out their own air space and feeding grounds in concentric circles at sea. Tetiaroa also hosts a large breeding population of Pacific Reef Egret, a native terrestrial species. The atoll serves as a wintering site for migratory species such as the Pacific Golden Plover and the Wandering Tattler, which breed in North America, and the Long-tailed Cuckoo from New Zealand.\nNative plants colonized Tetiaroa with their floating fruits or seeds via very light spores dispersed by wind. Birds transported other species, including sticky fruits and edible fruits. The percentage of native species is very high on atolls like Tetiaroa as opposed to high islands with many more introduced species.\nAlong with the native species, there are plants introduced to the atoll by Polynesians. These plants reflect and reveal the activities carried out here. While some are primarily for food, like coconut, Polynesian arrowroot and taro, others are for more specific uses such as medicine, soap, and dyes. Efforts are being made to control and eradicate invasive introduced species of plants to restore the native ecosystems.\nArcheology sites dot the landscape across the 12 motus of Tetiaroa. Many are historically significant and rare, such as an archery platform, identified by its crescent-shaped end which was frequented by ari’i nui who came here to prove their strength and mana by shooting arrows in distance. The presence of such archery platforms on Tetiaroa is a strong marker of high-ranked chiefs on the atoll. Also of interest is the basalt anchor in the court of a marae, or sacred place, located in front of the altar. Ancient Polynesians used to consider the ocean as the primordial marae, a concept that might reveal the symbolic meaning of this artifact disposed in such a sacred place.\nAnd on Rimatuu, close to the lagoon shore, a large elevated platform of 23 by 4.5 meters might have served as a a place for dancing. In the vicinity, a freshwater source has been arranged by disposing coral slabs on edge.\n“Tetiaroa is beautiful beyond my capacity to describe”\nSpa & Wellness\nVarua Te Ora Polynesian Spa is a sanctuary, the central beating heart of Tetiaroa. To enter is to step through a portal onto elevated pathways that wind through tropical…Discover More\nFood is one of the main ways Polynesians connect with their culture. With Chef Imbert at the helm, you’ll connect with Polynesia and the bounty it provides in new and unexpected ways…Discover More\nSpread across the Onetahi motu and set back just off the beach are 33 private villas, each a retreat within this sanctuary called Tetiaroa…Discover More\nThis atoll, Tetiaroa, is literally brimming with life. It’s all here, just waiting to be explored. By you. From guided excursions in a kayak to the outer limits of the atoll…Discover More\nInspired by the late Marlon Brando’s vision to preserve sanctuaries for future generations and raise awareness of the fragility of our environment…Discover More\nThe Tetiaroa atoll is located in tropical French Polynesia, just 35 miles north of the island of Tahiti…Discover More\nOne of the most visually breathtaking places on the planet, the Southern Pacific seems to abound in endless and effortless beauty…Discover More\nThe Brando is singularly focused on one mission: zero carbon. Sustainability on the atoll is a partnership—if the Tetiaroa Society is the guardian of the atoll, then The Brando is the vehicle to showcase the work of the Society with the world…Discover More\nBook your stay\nNO. OF GUESTS\nArrival / departure"}
{"content":"Letter of the Day WorksheetsValerie Mcclintick\nPreschool and Kindergarten children who are learning their alphabet will love these Free Letter of the Day worksheets from PreschoolMom.com\nEach worksheet is filled with different activities and skills children can build upon on a daily basis.\n-Read & Identify the letter\n-Say the Sound\n-Write Uppercase & Lowercase\n-Color Beginning letter animal\n-Seek and Find letter\n-Draw (items that begin with your letter)\nPrint the entire set of worksheets free from Preschool Mom\nFind More Alphabet Preschool Printables Here\nFind Bible ABC Printables Here.\n[…] ABC Workbook Sheets – The Crafty Classroom Okay, this book is seriously adorable! It is slightly more advanced and would be perfect for […]\n[…] a book for my 4 year old son last year to keep all the papers organized. I made a book with these pages as well. This book binder is not the exact one I bought, they discontinued it, but this one had […]"}
{"content":"Berry's poem is a reminder that to truly know darkness and its divine power, we need the courage to step into and leave the light behind.\nE.E. Cummings – A Poet’s Advice to Students\nE.E. Cummings' short missive to young poets in which he urges confidence in oneself and authentic expression. We must distinguish between thinking, believing, knowing and feeling, the latter being the territory of real art and poetry.\nOrdinary Mind is the Way\nThis koan is an exchange between Master Nansen and his student Joshu that would have taken place in China around the 9th century. Their dialog concerns the nature of the Way and how to attain it. Nansen advises his student that ordinary mind is the key, but that it is not something he can seek… Continue reading Ordinary Mind is the Way"}
{"content":"This summer marks 36 years since the fall of Saigon, 16 since the United States and Vietnam established diplomatic relations, and 14 since the US Embassy in Hanoi opened its doors. Today, the two countries find themselves sharing more positions on a broader range of issues than ever before. Indeed, diplomats have even spoken in terms of a ‘strategic partnership’ developing between Hanoi and Washington.\nPolicymakers in both capitals justifiably speak with pride and enthusiasm of their achievements, and the great potential that exists to develop an even more robust relationship in coming years. Speaking on May 31 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell spoke of Washington’s ‘desire and intention to improve this relationship going forward.’\nYet while both sides rightly want to grow closer, absent improvements in human rights and political freedoms in Vietnam, the Barack Obama administration has taken engagement with the Vietnamese government as far as it can without alienating the US public and Congress. Although there remains room on both sides for further adaptation and accommodation, the onus now rests squarely on Hanoi to meet the US halfway by pursuing domestic policy reforms, particularly in the areas of political freedom and civil rights. Effectively addressing these Vietnamese domestic issues – what Campbell referred to as a ‘limiting factor’ in the relationship – would give the Obama administration a greater ability to work with Vietnam and allow the relationship to progress to the next level.\nSince taking office, Obama has expended energy and political capital in pursuit of strong ties with Southeast Asia. After eight years that saw Washington disengaged and distracted from Southeast Asia, on coming to power Obama moved quickly to increase US engagement with this important region. Since the beginning of the Obama presidency, US engagement with Vietnam has grown particularly fast – though admittedly from a low base – to a level not seen since the heady days when President Bill Clinton visited Hanoi in 2000 and delivered the first ever speech by a foreign leader to be broadcast live across Vietnam.\nIn pursuing stronger ties with Southeast Asia and defending US maritime interests, the United States earned Beijing’s ire when, at the ASEAN Regional Forum Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Hanoi last July, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton aligned the US with Southeast Asian countries by raising concerns about China’s ambitious maritime territorial claims in the South China Sea and calling for ‘a collaborative diplomatic process by all claimants.’\nHowever, such US actions have been met with a warm welcome in a Hanoi eager to promote its own political and economic integration with the world and increasingly wary of China. Moreover, recent US overtures may have finally disabused most of the Vietnamese leadership of the notion that Washington seeks to orchestrate a ‘peaceful evolution’ away from Vietnamese Communist Party rule.\nVietnam’s enthusiastic welcome last August of both the USS George Washington’s cruise down the Vietnamese coast, and the guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain’s port call in Danang shortly after, demonstrate the importance that Hanoi now places on robust security ties with the United States. Similarly, Vietnam’s decision to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is quietly emerging as Washington’s preferred Asia-Pacific forum, highlights Hanoi’s desire for greater political and economic integration as well as its growing comfort with a strong United States that’s deeply engaged with Southeast Asia.\nStill, Vietnam continues to take domestic actions that alienate US observers and make the sort of close relationship that Hanoi desires politically impossible and morally untenable for the Obama administration.\nContinuing crackdowns on politically and socially-active religious leaders, increased and more severe prosecution and sentencing of Vietnamese dissidents as well as continued maintenance of substantial restrictions on Internet, communications and the press make Vietnam hard to fully embrace for an Obama administration that is already facing strong headwinds domestically.\nAll this means that strong move forward is needed from Hanoi. With tensions in the South China Sea showing no signs of cooling in the near term, and with China’s naval capabilities continuing to grow, a robust US-Vietnam relationship is in both parties’ interests (although it is an inescapable reality of global power dynamics and Asian security that the United States matters more to Vietnam than Vietnam does to the US).\nThe Obama administration’s overtures to Vietnam have reached the acceptable limits imposed by America’s democratic society and values, and it’s now time for Hanoi to make the next move. Only by so doing will both Hanoi and Washington be able to develop the strong relationship that both rightly seek.\nRichard Pearson is a programme associate at the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation where he manages China, Vietnam and South China Sea programmes."}
{"content":"The Master of Arts in Art Education (MAAE) Program\nThe Master of Arts in Art Education, or MAAE, program targets students who want to become creative agents of change. The MAAE program prepares students for art focused careers in educational and social service institutions, community-based organizations, museums, galleries, public and private universities, and more.\nMAAE Program Overview\nThe program’s structure is highly flexible. A total of 36 credit hours, which can be completed on a part-time or full-time basis, are required to graduate. Students pursue research and fieldwork in individualized, established settings.\nCredit requirements include:\n- Art Education Seminars – 6 Credit Hours\n- Art Education Courses – 9 Credit Hours\n- Art History or Visual Critical Studies – 3 Credit Hours\n- Electives – 9 Credit Hours\n- Professional Core – 9 Credit Hours\nTo learn more, please visit the School of the Art Institute of Chicago online and view their MAAE brochure."}
{"content":"Last updated on December 6th, 2022\nWest Virginia is the 39th most populous and the 41st most extensive of the 50 states of the United States. It is located in the Appalachian region in the Southern United States that is also considered to be a part of the Middle Atlantic States. The state attained statehood on June 20, 1863, becoming the 35th state to join the union. Its five bordering states are Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. See the complete list of the 50 states and their borders here. West Virginia (nicknamed: Mountain State, Panhandle State) has 55 counties. The state’s capital is Charleston. The abbreviation for West Virginia is WV.\n1. A human faster than the speed of sound\nChuck Yeager, born in 1923, from West Virginia became the first person in the world to break the sound barrier. He made history in October 1947 when while he flew the Bell X-1 rocket at 700 mph in level flight and crossed the speed of sound. Charleston’s Yeager airport is named after the iconic hero.\n2. Capital woes\nWhen it comes to picking the right capital city for the state, West Virginia found it difficult to make a final decision. Its capital was Wheeling before a decision was made to transfer the capital to Charleston, then Wheeling again before West Virginians finally settled on Charleston.\n3. Not-so-secret nuclear bunker\nThe state is home to a nuclear bunker designed to accommodate congressmen and women, including support staff if there is a nuclear attack. The bunker’s existence should be a secret but West Virginians have long spilled the beans on the feature hidden underneath the Greenbrier resort. The bunker opened in 1961 and remained on constant alert as a nuclear fallout shelter. However, the bunker is now open for public tours.\n4. A state for the young and old\nThe state loves its young and old as evidenced by the rise of Cecil Underwood who became the youngest governor at the age of 34. After this feat in 1956, he went to become the oldest governor in West Virginia at the age of 74. He has the unusual distinction of being both the youngest person to be elected as governor and the oldest to both be elected and serve.\n5. Falling ceremony for a tree\nLocals know how to provide a special sendoff for falling trees in West Virginia. In 1938, residents hosted a falling ceremony for the largest and oldest white oak tree in the country after it was declared dead.\n6. Coal houses\nThe state is home to coal houses that provide a unique living experience. It is most likely that West Virginia is the only or one of a few places on earth where you will find livable coal houses. The Coal House is situated in White Sulphur Springs.\n7. A basketball record\nIn 1960, Danny Heater, a local student was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records after scoring 135 points during a high school basketball game.\n8. Elevated graves\nThe state hosts one of America’s oldest and largest burial grounds for Native Americans. The site has distinctive features that make it stand out. The cone-shaped burial ground stands at 69 feet high and it has a circumference of more than 900 feet.\n9. Border to Border\nWeirton undoubtedly comes with a unique feature. It is the only city in the United States that runs from one state border to another. The metropolis shares borders with Ohio to the west and Pennsylvania to the east.\nWest Virginia on the map\n10. The senate connection\nA West Virginian woman boasts astonishing links to former United States senators. Hallie Davis Elkins is the only United States citizen who is a mother, daughter, and wife of senators. It comes as no surprise that the city of Elkins is named after her husband.\n11. Kanawha to West Virginia\nIn 1861, residents of West Virginia were presented with the name Kanawha when they voted on whether or not to break away from Virginia. The suggestion was aimed at honoring a local Native American tribe. However, the legislators finally chose West Virginia.\n12. Lion vs Giant Sloth\nIn 1796, soldiers operating in Greenbrier County discovered animal bones that appeared to belong to a large lion. However, the real identity of the animal was unmasked by an amateur paleontologist who correctly identified it as a giant sloth.\n13. The largest alluvial diamond\nIn 1928, a family in Peterstown found a 34-carat diamond at their home and stashed it in a cigar box for 14 years thinking it was a quartz rock. The family only discovered that it was a diamond after taking the gem to a local geologist.\n14. Longest steel-span bridge\nBase jumpers in West Virginia are privileged to have the longest steel-span bridge in the western hemisphere in their state. The New River Gorge Bridge, which is situated in Fayette County measures 3,030 feet long. China’s Shanghai’s Lupu Bridge is the longest single-span steel arch bridge in the world.[10,27]\n15. The world’s oldest river\nWest Virginia hosts one of the world’s oldest rivers, which meanders through the state heading towards Virginia before reaching North Carolina. The New River takes the number two spot after the world-famous River Nile.\n16. The only state\nWest Virginia is the only state to form by seceding from a Confederate state and one of three states to secede from another state.\n17. The last World War I veteran\nFrank Buckles who was the last surviving veteran of World War I was a resident of Charleston. He died in 2011 aged an astonishing 110 years old. During his younger years, Buckles had to lie about his age to enlist in the US Army.\n18. The first steamboat\nIn 1787, West Virginia made history by launching the first steamboat in the Potomac River at New Mecklensburg.\n19. Storefront museum\nThe state hosts a one of a kind storefront museum that exhibits a humanoid creature named Mothman. The creature was reportedly seen many times in the 1960s, which helped propel its status to a local legend.\n20. World record for stalagmite sitting\nOne of the residents of this state, Bob Addis, set the world record for stalagmite sitting. Bob spent nearly 16 days sitting atop a stalagmite rock formation where he received supplies using a bucket thanks to the help of a well-wisher.\n21. West Virginia gave the world Mother’s Day\nGrafton, West Virginia, was the venue for the world’s first Mother’s Day celebrations. The occasion took place on May 10, 1908 after, the founder, Anna Jarvis, honored her mother posthumously. This day of remembrance turned into a global celebration.\n22. Largest hand-cut stone masonry building\nThe state is home to the largest hand-cut stone masonry building in the United States. The Weston State Hospital building, which was constructed in the late 19th century, holds the record.\n23. Historic dunk\nIn 1984, Georgeann Wells made history for the state when she successfully dunked during a college basketball game. The feat, which took place at West Virginia University, was special in that she was the first female to dunk.\n24. The first red brick road\nThe first red brick road in the U.S. was laid in Charleston in 1873. A Charleston resident by the name Mordecai Levi wanted to change the condition of the hard-packed dirt streets of the city. He paved the Summers Street in Charleston with bricks and later got a patent for the paving method he had invented.\n25. Post-war debt squabbles\nAt the end of the Civil War, Virginia demanded that its new neighbor pay its pre-war debt. The Supreme Court ordered the state to pay after it initially declined.\n26. First for the House of Delegates\nIn 1928, Minnie Buckingham Harper became the first African-American woman to join the House of Delegates.\n27. Spelling problems\nAlthough the state’s residents are big achievers, they failed to spell Mullins correctly after naming a town Mullens in Wyoming County. They later voted to retain the incorrectly spelled name.\n28. No traffic lights\nMonroe County in West Virginia is void of any traffic lights, 4-lane highways, and fast food restaurants. It is a place to be and enjoy the life in the simplest manner.\n29. Global flavor\nFor a small state, West Virginia has a surprisingly global flavor. It holds the record for most towns named after cities in countries around the world. You will find Shanghai, Athens, Cairo, Geneva, and Berlin.\n30. The split from Virginia\nDid you know that Virginia split into Virginia and West Virginia due to political differences? The split happened in 1861 and the new state was admitted to the union in 1863.\n31. During The American Civil War\nWest Virginia is one of two American states formed during the American Civil War (1861–1865), along with Nevada.\n32. Free rural mail\nThe first rural free mail delivery started in the United States in Charles Town, Hall Town and Uvilla on October 1, 1896.\n33. Some special snakes\nThe Bluestone River in West Virginia is home to the northern water snakes. These snakes are special because they incubate their eggs inside their bodies and then give birth to the live young. The snakes grow to be about 24-55 inches. They can hatch 9 to 45 young in a year.\n34. The first woman to win an Olympic gold\nOn August 3, 1984, gymnast Mary Lou Retton became the first U.S. woman to win an Olympic gold for the All-Around event.\n35. The origin of the name\nWest Virginia is named for Queen Elizabeth I of England, “The Virgin Queen.”\n. . . continue reading on the next page"}
{"content":"More and more people are moving closer to an “climate action now” mode today. They realize that the climate crisis really is an emergency. That, after all, is what emergencies are all about—action that people must take now or all is lost.\nRecognition is the important first step, but it is only the beginning. Many of us find it very difficult to know what we can do that could make a difference for the climate emergency. We know that is it a problem so big that individual action seems almost meaningless. Some of us dutifully sort our recyclables knowing that it is a much larger problem than reducing the flow of waste into overloaded landfills.\nSurviving a Life-Threatening Emergency\nI recently read some books on what distinguishes survivors from those who don’t survive life-threatening emergencies. The differences between survivors and victims are clear, although an airplane crash may be very different from being lost at sea.\nThe key to survival in an extreme emergency is that the survivor more readily turns from her/his mental map of everyday reality to a new paradigm that abandons conventional thinking. Some call that situational awareness.\nMapping the reality s/he faces now in its own terms, enables the survivor to accept the new data that reflects the extraordinary parameters of the emergency. The new data usually conflicts with the familiar patterns of everyday life. Once a person stops mentally mapping the situation based on the images of ordinary reality and begin to observe the non-ordinary reality of the emergency on its own terms, the odds of that person surviving go way up. Certainly that principle applies to societies too.\nThe Climate Emergency and the Survival Response\nThe climate emergency requires that we experience a major paradigm shift if we are to muster a viable survival response. That, I think, is the situation most of us, not just environmentalists and climate activists, or government officials and corporate executives, find ourselves in today.\nMost have not made that paradigm shift to the new reality of the global climate emergency. Even many fully informed people continue to view the new existential threat to human survival through the lens of everyday reality. They have not shifted to mapping the new reality—the climate emergency—on its own terms.\nBusiness as usual lies gasping for air on its deathbed, in obstinate denial. Beliefs and behavior have not fully caught up with reality, even for many who understand the gravity of destabilizing the Earth System. The best scientific evidence indicates that if industrial nations do not make massive reductions in carbon emissions in the next eight to ten years, we will have reached several tipping points in climate factors that will propel the entire Earth System into chaos. That will force the collapse of civilization itself.\nSetting “targets” for reducing emissions by 2050 to stay below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels or any of the other empty pledges made by governments and corporations, remain completely within the paradigm of business as usual as we rush headlong deeper into the Anthropocene epoch we have created.\nWe have an extremely short time before crashing into multiple overlapping tipping points, some of which are already here. Yet, as societies, we are completely unprepared for the extremity of the emergency we have failed to face on its own terms.\nNow, we must focus all our attention on how to mobilize masses of people very quickly to act in concerted ways to restore/repair ecosystems, while at the same time to force large institutions to stop their carbon emissions now. What a daunting task!\nWithout stopping the immediate threat, none of our thinking about ideal new economies based on human need instead of profit and greed, on social justice or anything else, will matter. Survival is the prerequisite to building a good society, or to sustaining any society. And to survive, we must shift to an emergency paradigm to face the non-ordinary reality before us."}
{"content":"\"Beyond Earth Art\"\nHerbert F. Johnson Museum of Art\nLooming, industrial contraptions made from metal tanks, plastic tubes, glass bottles and rubber gloves greet visitors at the newest exhibit in Cornell University’s Johnson Museum of Art, “Beyond Earth Art.” These impractical devices are at the heart of Lucy and Jorge Orta’s multimedia installation, “Food-Water-Life,” a project featured within the exhibit that seeks to present conceptual solutions to global issues such as climate change and biodiversity. Though the Ortas’ water transportation devices are unfeasible from a true engineering standpoint, their whimsical nature prompts visitors to ambitiously imagine technology of the future.\n“Beyond Earth Art” pays homage to Cornell University’s 1969 “Earth Art,” a collection of site-specific installations that was revolutionary for its time, with artists moving their workspaces from the studio directly to the exhibition space. “Beyond Earth Art” resembles its predecessor, particularly in its inclusion of “social sculpture,” or artwork that includes human activity and is meant to influence the restructuring of society or the environment. However, the exhibit represents a wide range of artists that employ different mediums in addition to sculpture. Featuring photography and large-scale murals as well as interactive installations and experimental video, the exhibit provides a diverse approach to its globally conscious theme.\nEven within a specific medium are a variety of artistic subgenres. The exhibit’s photography collection includes work from documentary photographer Edward Burtynsky as well as Dionisio Gonzalez, who digitally combines real and imaged environments to create a commentary landscape. Gonzalez’ photograph “Halong X” features Vietnamese houseboats on Halong Bay, digitally juxtaposed against futuristic constructions. These saturated, almost comically, mismatched compositions will evoke queries about the impact of foreign commercial interests on developing nations and their impoverished communities.\nAlongside its traditional two-dimensional artwork, “Beyond Earth Art” also features several multimedia installations ranging from time-delayed video footage to more hands-on experiences. Maya Lin’s “Empty Room” is an interactive installation meant to enlighten visitors on global habitat loss for animals. Patrons are invited to don a pair of white cloth gloves and hold a rectangular acrylic panel over the light beaming from the projectors installed within the room’s floor. Upon doing so, documentary footage and text comes into focus on the panel, prompting visitors to answer the question projected by Lin’s work: “What is missing?”\nAnother digital installation, “Flooded McDonald’s,” a film by art group SUPERFLEX, depicts the deliberate flooding of an abandoned fast food restaurant. Sandwiches sit in their paper wrappings under sickly yellow lights. Trays of food and drink bob around in the rising water with the perpetually smiling statue of the trademark red-haired clown, drifting on its fallen side. Acquired from staged footage of an ambitiously life-size replica of a typical McDonald’s chain store, this experimental video alludes to issues with the failings of capitalism and commercialism as well as the resulting climate change because of growth in fast-food industries.\nHowever, the numerous sculptural objects dispersed among the other two-dimensional and digital media installations remain the exhibit’s standout pieces. In Mark Dion’s found object sculpture, “Trichechus manatus latirostris,” a tub-sized tar pit sits encased in glass with a plastic skeleton of a Pacific manatee. A hodgepodge collection of junk items is stuck in the dried black substance: broken teacups, a discarded lighter, metal rings and bottle caps. An unlabeled mass of rock and metal sits near the entrance of one floor’s installation. The decaying organisms reminiscent of coral and corroding metal pieces will captivate visitors with its odd beauty and chemical colors of rust, turquoise and yellow.\n“Beyond Earth Art” is an intriguing exhibit with pleasantly surprising discoveries around every corner. Visitors will be imaginatively inspired by the quirkier installations, while more serious projects will prompt necessary reflection on the direction of human civilization and our inevitable impact on our global environment."}
{"content":"This is an extremely common question when it comes to making clothing because all clothing, regardless of size, must conform to the Flammability of Wearing Apparel regulation (16 CFR Part 1610).\nThe problem is that the definition of \"raised surfaced\" can be unclear!\n\"Raised\" is a material that has an intentionally raised fiber such that has been brushed or sheared and has pile, napping, or tufting. This includes the loops of Terry materials and the soft brushing of flannels.\nI like to think of the material as having tiny fiber fingers that want to grab a flame source. Some common raised surfaced materials are:\n- Flannel / Flannelette\n- Fleece / Reverse Fleece\n- Flocked finish\n- Peach finish\nMaterials that you might think are be raised but aren't\n- Bird's Eye\n- Cable or Chunky Knit / Weave\n- Chiffon (includes toile)\n- Crepe (includes Canton, Crinkle, Georgette, Moroccan, Plisse)\n- Jacquard (includes Brocade, Damask)\n- Lace (includes mesh, Raschel knit, Tulle)\n- Rib knit\n- Shirred / Smocked\n- Sweater Knit\n- Twill (includes Gabardine, Herringbone, Tweed)\nIf you have a raised material, don't fret yet about testing! You may actually still be exempt from testing or from searching for a supplier with testing.\nIf you are making any of the following types of clothing, your product (and thus the material), is automatically exempt from testing.\n- Gloves - Under 14\" in length and not attached to a garment\n- Hats - That do not cover the neck, face, or shoulders (includes hair accessories)\n- Shoes - That are not attached to a garment (includes slippers, booties, and other footwear)\nIf your raised material is made of one or more of ONLY the following fibers, it is automatically exempt from testing.\nIf you are using the material in a way that would make the raised side unexposed to air when worn, it is automatically exempt from testing.\n- Snap-able Cloth Diapers\n- Hoodies with the hood lined\n- Pants/shirts that are not cuffed outwards\n- Rolled cuffs\n- Sweatshirts (they are considered capable of being worn napped side out*)\n- Zip Ups\nIf you've come to this point and still have no exemption, then you have one more decision:\n- Don't use the material for clothing\n- Contact your supplier and hope they've had testing (result should be Class I or Class II)\n- Test on your own (result should be Class I or Class II)\n- *Make sure your marketing doesn't include any ideas of wearing the garment in a way that would expose the raised surface side & watch that your consumers aren't frequently wearing the garment in a way that would expose the raised surface side. This is not necessarily CPSC-specific guidance, but we have spoken with agents that have said this could be an option if we'd like to make that choice.\nIf this was a lot, don't worry, it is and I understand that! That's why I have created a digital book that walks you through the process, step-by-step, in a more conversational tone.\nJoin my free Facebook group, US Product Safety Compliance.\nThe Makers Community membership.\nFree basic product safety course."}
{"content":"Through complaints on social networks, inhabitants of Vainillo pointed out that there is a person who is poisoning dogs and cats frequently and there are already many cases\nMazatlán, Sinaloa.- The director of Ecology and Environment of Mazatlán, Miriam Isaraí Rodríguez Paniagua, condemned the acts perpetrated against dogs and cats in the community of El Vainillo, and pointed out that whoever is responsible should be prosecuted according to the penal code of the State.\nThrough complaints on social networks, residents of Vainillo pointed out that there is a person who is poisoning dogs and cats frequently and there are already many cases, for which Rodríguez Paniagua answered, explaining that Ecology can receive complaints, however, it is the ministry is in charge of proceeding legally against the person who perpetrates such a crime.\n“Here it is important that the citizen has the knowledge that this type of complaints must be made before the public prosecutor so that the person who is committing the crime is prosecuted in accordance with the criminal code of the State of Sinaloa in force,” he justified.\nHe also said that it is important that the inhabitants, in this case of the El Vainillo community, know the animal protection regulations and that any act that threatens the life of a dog or cat could be criminally punished.\n“That the inhabitants of El Vainillo are aware that there are laws, regulations, and codes that protect them, and that at the moment there is an indication of the person who is committing said act, a procedure will be initiated by the environmental legal department and a Once the necessary data is obtained, it will be sent to the civic court so that they can resolve it ”, explained the owner."}
{"content":"Edge Servers Versus Rack Servers: Which Is Better?\nDo you know the contrast between a cutting-edge server and a rack server? In the event that is not, sit back and relax. You’re in good company!\nMany individuals are uncertain of the distinctions between these two sorts of servers on account of the numerous servers available. To more readily figure out cutting-edge servers and rack servers, we should investigate each sort of server and its key elements.\nA sharp-edge server, which is a high-thickness server, is a minuscule PC that oversees and circulates information across a few PCs and organizations. It fills in as a connection between machines, projects, applications, and frameworks.\nWhat Is A Rack Server?\nA rack server, then again, is a kind of server that is commonly mounted on a rack. Rack servers are typically more affordable than edge servers and are all the more generally utilized in little and medium organizations. They are likewise called rack mount PCs and rack-mounted servers.\nHere, we’ll separate the advantages and disadvantages of sharp-edge servers and rack servers with the goal that you can arrive at an educated conclusion about which server is appropriate for your business.\nHow About We Get Everything Rolling?\nRack Server Versus Edge Server: Must-Know Realities\n- Edge servers are overseen by the Cisco UCS chief through the UCS Texture, while rack servers can be overseen both freely or by the Cisco UCS director.\n- Sharp edge servers highlight hot-trading abilities that permit parts to be added or taken out without turning off the servers. Rack servers don’t require hot trading as the entirety of their parts are inbuilt.\n- Cutting edge servers are mounted on a frame that can uphold different servers while rack servers are mounted on a rack.\n- The plan highlights that cutting edge waiters and rack waiters are appropriate for medium-to-huge associations and little associations, individually.\n- The sharp edge servers don’t uphold an optical drive while, for the rack servers, the optical drive at the front board is discretionary for both Album and DVD media.\n- Edge servers are mounted on a frame that can uphold numerous servers, while rack servers are mounted on a rack.\nWhat Are The Highlights Of Edge Servers?\nSharp edge servers have a slim plan that permits a few servers to be obliged in a more modest space. They have a few parts, including computer chips, memory, worked away drives, and organization regulators.\nTheir capacity to have a few servers in more modest regions and their high handling power makes them ideal for use in huge server farms. Different servers are many times slid on a huge suspension mounted on a server rack. This empowers the utilization of fewer parts as well as empowers more proficient activity of the machine. Accordingly, they give the most elevated handling power per Rack Unit (RU), notwithstanding the little space they involve.\nThe edge servers include a frame with a few servers slid on it. This extraordinary plan permits the framework to disseminate capacity to all servers in a solitary nook, consequently consuming less power. By keeping all servers in a solitary frame, fewer parts will be expected to run every server.\n- Fits in little spaces\n- Consumes less power\n- Fewer links are utilized\n- Higher cooling costs\n- Rack Servers: Grew Sooner than Edge Servers\nDissimilar to sharp edge servers, rack servers were grown before on, after the quick expansion in server innovation advancement and use. The Compaq’s ProLiant Series’ very first rack server was created in 1993. Because of mounting a few servers on one rack, associations could save money on space. Notwithstanding, keeping the servers in encased regions prompted heat development, which saw the advancement of cooling frameworks to direct temperatures.\nAt around a similar time, associations needed to move these servers to single rooms after they obtained extra innovation. These rooms were generally alluded to as “server rooms” and were for the most part away from typical office spaces. Ultimately, these associations saw the need to plan exceptional spaces for servers to address these frameworks’ temperature and security dangers. This move at last prompted the advancement of the current server farm.\nEdge servers are for the most part prescribed for medium to huge estimated organizations, while rack servers are viewed as best for more modest organizations.\nWhat Are The Elements Of Rack Servers?\nRack servers’ extraordinary and broadly useful plan permits them to be mounted on a server rack and empowers them to help a few prerequisites subsequent to being designed. They worked to function admirably in huge server farms and little PC bureau nooks. They vary from cutting edge servers in that they consume bigger spaces. While huge servers require extra parts like computer processors and memory, you can use a more modest space by mounting every server on top of the other. Nonetheless, utilizing numerous servers will increment front and center expenses related to the machine.\nThe rack server is known to deliver more power contrasted with edge servers. This is basically on the grounds that rack servers accompany every one of the parts it necessities to work successfully, as they are been inherent. The power makes it reasonable for very good-quality applications.\n- Delivers high power\n- Functions admirably in little, medium, and huge applications\n- It Consumes a great deal of room\n- Requires heaps of links\nEdge Server Versus Rack Server: What’s The Distinction?\nThere are tremendous contrasts between cutting-edge servers and rack servers. Here are some of them.\nMugginess Control and Cooling\nServers produce a ton of intensity when functional. While the quantity of starting establishments in cutting-edge servers impacts their air temperature, rack servers impact the number of servers inside.\nCutting edge and rack servers have inherent stickiness control including that advance wind current and eliminating warm air, empowering the servers’ compelling activity. As to costs in cutting edge servers and rack servers, it’s higher with sharp edge servers because of their higher focus.\nArrangement of Parts\nSharp edge waiters are more reasonable for information grouping because of their elite exhibition abilities. Their inward design incorporates hot-swappable abilities, permitting you to add or eliminate parts from the server without turning off the framework. This assists with diminishing margin time related to the framework.\nRack servers are outfitted with all parts, and the link makes the association. In any case, every one of the parts of the server works freely. You don’t need to add different parts for the extension as the server highlights memory, stockpiling, and computer chips that are added during its underlying establishment.\nCutting edge servers have high adaptability, upgradeability, and handling power, making them ideal for high-accuracy projects and space preservation. Additionally, sharp edge servers might be obliged inside racks in edge frameworks, where they are viewed as a certain something.\nRack servers are great for a large number of purposes. Their capacity to function admirably in exceptionally PC-concentrated applications and their high versatility, expandability, and upgradeability make them the favored server in modern, business, and military use.\nWhich One Is Better? Which One Would It Be A Good Idea For You To Utilize?\nThe solution to this question relies upon your particular necessities and prerequisites. In the event that you have restricted space in your server farm, an edge server is the better choice. A rack server is the best approach in the event that you’re searching for a more practical server. At last, gauging every one of the upsides and downsides of each sort of server prior to going with a choice is significant."}
{"content":"Shock as an aid to our development\n10 October 2017\nIn pre-Christian times, people were initiated in a process of near death that loosened their etheric or life body from their physical. (A complete separation happens at death.) While in this state they were able to go into the world of spirit for a few days while being ‘managed’ by other inititates around them. They were then brought back by the inititates into a normal state of consciousness. Because of the preparation before this event and the support during it, the person would come back knowing the quality and reality of the world of spirit and would be permanently changed as a consequence.\nThey would know why patience, clarity, compassion, objectivity, diligence, ownership of self, openness, positivity, courage, skill, experience were so important. They could then be this.\nThis process and possibility slowly left mankind as our constitutions changed. Christianity requires of us that we loosen our etheric ourselves, without carers, and find the world of spirit ourselves.\nShock however has a similar effect on us as the old way of separation did. It shakes our etheric loose and in the immediate aftermath of this, we can have feelings of deep devotion as a consequence of very briefly being in touch with the good and the true of the spirit.\nOur challenge as modern people is to invite the qualities of the spirit into our souls voluntarily, with our own designed and practised effort, and not to rely on the shocks of life for this. If one can, we are in the right place and better people."}
{"content":"Meet Ella – Neuroblastoma Warrior\n“None of this could have been possible without the NCCS...” said Jennifer, Ella’s mom.\nIt was only a few months before Ella’s 4th birthday and instead of being excited for the upcoming celebration, the only thing she could think about was how much her tummy hurt. Within a few days, her pain became so excruciating that she could not stop screaming. Her parents rushed her to the emergency room where doctors ran a battery of tests and finally found the reason this little girl was in so much pain – she had an aggressive high-risk tumor on her left kidney. She immediately began treatment at her local hospital – about thirty minutes away – where she endured five rounds of harsh chemotherapy.\nWhen the first round of treatment failed to keep her disease away, doctors told Ella’s parents there was a treatment available that may help save her life at one of the finest facilities in the country, but it was in New York; hundreds of miles away from home. When they realized how frequent their trips to New York would be, they reached out to the NCCS for transportation assistance. At the NCCS we know, if a child can’t get there, the treatment might as well not exist.\nElla completed a massive resection of her tumor, more chemotherapy, radiation and immunotherapy and was finally considered cancer-free. Tragically, she relapsed a few months later and had to endure another surgery and more chemotherapy, radiation and immunotherapy. Her last resort was participating in a clinical trial . . . which proved successful! Ella was considered cancer-free once again. “None of this could have been possible without the NCCS…” said Jennifer, Ella’s mom. “We thank you for everything you do!!”"}
{"content":"The following acronyms are often used in the source code (and the documentation).\nThese acronyms will often occur in lower case due to coding conventions. When a class represents just one of these terms, longer names may be used for the sake of clarity. Unit conversion constants are not abbreviated.\n- AP1roG – Antisymmetric Product of 1-reference orbital Geminal\n- DM – Density Matrix\n- DFT – Density Functional Theory\n- ER – Electron repulsion\n- GDB – Gaussian Density Basis\n- GOB – Gaussian Orbital Basis\n- GPT – Gaussian Product Theorem\n- HF – Hartree Fock\n- KIN – Kinetic Energy\n- LF – Linear Algebra Factory, i.e. class that bundles a set of related linear algebra routines.\n- MP2 – 2-nd order Moller-Plesset perturbation theory\n- NA – Nuclear Attraction\n- OLP – Overlap\n- SQ (as suffix, e.g.\ndist_sq) – Squared\n- WFN – Wave Function"}
{"content":"New Delhi: Commissioned into the Indian Navy in 1977, the long-range surveillance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft Ilyushin 38 SD will make its first and last flypast over the Kartavya Path in this year’s Republic Day.\nThe IL 38SDs, the oldest maritime surveillance aircraft in the Indian inventory, have seen their duties being taken over by the American P8is manufactured by Boeing.\nKnown as the Winged Stallions, the last of the legacy fleet will be decommissioned by the end of this year.\n“This is the first and last flight in a Republic Day celebration for the aircraft,” a source in the defence and security establishment said.\nThe Republic Day flypast will comprise 44 other aircraft, including 9 Rafales, of the Indian Air Force.\nIN 301, the first IL 38SD (Sea Dragons) aircraft of the Navy, was decommissioned on 17 January last year after completing 44 years of service to the nation. It remained fully serviceable to the last day of operational life, and flew a seven-hour mission sortie before bidding adieu.\nThe aircraft belongs to INAS 315 squadron which was commissioned on 1 October 1977 by Rear Admiral M. K. Roy, and was then commanded by Commander B. K. Malik.\nThe squadron was initially equipped with three Ilyushin 38s and later two more were inducted. The aircraft provided the Navy with modern maritime reconnaissance and fixed-wing Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) capability.\nWith these aircraft, the Navy had moved into the arena of airborne long-range maritime reconnaissance capabilities combined with long-range anti-submarine search and strike, anti-shipping strike, electronic signal intelligence and distant search and rescue missions.\nThe aircraft was used for other operations including in January 1978, when it used the on board Magnetic Anomaly Detector (MAD) equipment to locate the wreckage of the Air India Jumbo which crashed soon after take-off off the Mumbai coast.\nThe Winged Stallions completed 25,000 hours of accident-free flying in 1996. However, tragedy struck in 2002 when there was a mid-air collision of two IL-38s. The occasion was ironically the celebration of the Squadron’s silver jubilee as well as of over 30,000 hours of accident-free flying.\nSeventeen personnel were killed in the accident which also resulted in the loss of these aircraft, two years after they underwent an upgrade in Russia to add 15 more years to their life cycle.\n(Edited by Tony Rai)\nAlso Read: These 4 major new Indian military inductions mark a positive turning point"}
{"content":"THE Philippine Green Building Council (PHILGBC) is developing a ratings program that will measure a building’s performance based on how its features impact the health and wellness of users.\nIn a statement, the council said it will launch the first version of the PHILGBC Health and Well-being for Buildings (H+W) rating scheme on the first episode of the Building Green Conference 2022 on Sept. 8.\nPHILGBC said the H+W program is designed as “a tool to measure, monitor, and certify the performance of projects based on social, economic, and environmental priorities that affect the health and well-being of users.”\nThe rating scheme will focus on health, comfort, lifestyle, social and environment.\n“Health focuses on maintaining a physically and mentally healthy environment throughout the building life cycle. It emphasizes the need to address physical and mental health, and the safety of the building users and employees,” PHILGBC said.\nProjects are also assessed in terms of the comfort level for users, as well as social and environmental sustainability.\nThere will be an online H+W Professionals Training Course, a formal accreditation program for professionals and project proponents on the PHILGBC Health and Well-being for Buildings rating scheme. Individuals that pass the qualifying examination for the course will be recognized as H+W Accredited Professionals.\nPHILGBC is holding the digital edition of the Building Green Conference 2022 this month. The conference, which runs from Sept. 8-30, focuses on the theme “Experience Circularity and Pursue Regeneration — Today.”\n“With circularity, we close the resource loop. We ensure nothing is wasted. We ensure that precious resources are conserved. It is important that our cities, along with the private sector, work together in completing the green shift. We owe it to the next generation,” PHILGBC Chief Executive Officer Christopher C. de la Cruz said in a statement.\nPHILGBC advocates for healthier buildings, communities and cities, by introducing green and innovative design and construction solutions. It is a coalition of public and private sector leaders representing more than 300 organizations.\nSeptember is known as World Green Building Month, while Sept. 8 is National Green Building Day in the Philippines.\nPresident Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. will deliver the keynote address at the conference.\nThe conference will also feature speeches from officials of the Department of Energy and Department of Environment and Natural Resources, World Green Building Council (WGBC) Chair Ilari Aho, WGBC Chief Executive Officer Cristina Gamboa and WGBC Asia-Pacific Network Chair Cary Chan.\nThose interested may register for the different episodes of the Building Green 2022 conference by sending an e-mail to PHILGBC National Secretariat at firstname.lastname@example.org."}
{"content":"Robocalls doubled in 2018 and 40% of them are scams targeting 10 billion people per year\nWASHINGTON, D.C. – Americans receive tens of billions of robocalls each year—that’s billions with a “B.” And, you can make bank on the fact that too many of them are not from telemarketers but from telescammers targeting senior citizens, says the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC).\n“Technology is making it easier to place automated phone calls and while many legitimate companies use them to sell products and services, criminals are having a lucrative field day using computer generated calls to swindle innocent citizens,” according to AMAC president Dan Weber.\nThe Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says that the number one consumer complaint it consistently receives is for unwanted automated calls. In fact, during the first half of 2018, the number of robocalls increased by at least 50%.\nEthan Garr, an executive at TelTech, a company that makes one of the many call blocker apps on the market, says that robocalls are cheap. He says it costs just a penny a minute. And, the technology news Web site, Futurism reports that some phone carriers actually kick back micropayments to telemarketers, and scammer.\nAlthough such payments amount to just a fraction of a penny a call, it adds up considering the fact that the callers are making billions of calls a month. The Robocall Index, which keeps track of automated call frequency, says that more than 5 billion such calls were made in the U.S. in October 2018, more than double the number of calls made in the same month in 2017.\nAs for the scam calls, just last month police in Pennsylvania arrested a man in connection with a telescam leveled at senior citizens. He was charged with swindling elderly in various parts of the country out of some $400,000. What he allegedly did was to call seniors and tell them that a grandson was in trouble and needed cash immediately.\nAnd then there was the Publishers Clearing House scammer who called a 90-year-old woman in New York earlier this month and conned her out of $20,000 by claiming she had won a PCH prize.\n“Both of these scams are fairly common,” says Weber. “But, oftentimes the crooks get creative. For example, the IRS says some of them have found ways to alter their caller IDs to make it look as though the Internal Revenue Service is on the line. They’ll then threaten stiff penalties if the victims fail to pay money that they allegedly owe.”\nThe problem has gotten so bad that the Federal Trade Commission has created a scamalert that can help consumers avoid fraud, including telephone fraud. It also provides what some might call a “hit parade” of the latest cons.\nAutomated telephone calls may be annoying, but the statistics show that most them are legitimate sales calls. However, NBC News recently reported that as many as 40% of robocalls in the U.S. are from scammers. That means telescammers are targeting more than 10 billion potential victims a year.\n“It doesn’t mean that all robocalling is bad. Such calls can serve useful purposes such as when they alert you to a life-threatening storm that may be approaching. Or when they alert you to potentially fraudulent use of a credit card, remind you of an upcoming appointment with your doctor or let you know that your prescription is ready for pick up at your local pharmacy,” says Weber.\nThe Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC] [www.amac.us] is a vibrant, vital senior advocacy organization that takes its marching orders from its members. To join them, visit amac.us/join-amac."}
{"content":"- Attila the Hun: Barbarian Terror and the Fall of the Roman Empire\n- McArthur & Company (2008)\nMost of what we know about Attila and the Huns is wrong.\nThe Huns were not savages on horseback, sweeping suddenly out of Asia to the gates of Rome only to vanish again. Attila himself was an effective ruler and an astute diplomat. While he lived, he was actually a force for stability in fifth-century Europe.\nChristopher Kelly's book on Attila's life and times clears up a lot of misconceptions about the Huns, and shows us a world that is a lot like our own.\nThe Huns themselves remain a mystery. They were just another Central Asian nomadic people, moving west like countless other tribes. Some historians think they were known to the Chinese as the Xiong Nu; Kelly argues persuasively that they were not.\nIf the Huns had an advantage over other nomads, it was in their mastery of archery on horseback: Launch an arrow at the precise moment when your horse's feet were all off the ground, and you could kill an enemy 200 metres away.\nWhen they arrived in eastern Europe late in the fourth century, the Huns found turmoil and created still more of it. As a realm of peace and prosperity, the Roman Empire had attracted peoples who had neither. They pushed at the empire's frontiers, and keeping them out was an expensive problem. Some emperors admitted this or that tribe and gave it land, in exchange for men to fill the legions. Others resisted the push from the east, sometimes with the help of earlier invaders.\nRoman propagandists, when the Huns arrived, drew on old Greek propaganda against the \"barbarians\" -- people whose speech was an incoherent \"bar-bar-bar,\" and who lacked civilized Mediterranean values. So the Huns, like the earlier Scythians, were portrayed as anarchic subhumans who ate their meat raw -- just zombies on horseback.\nIn reality, the Huns were a tightly organized community. They had originally lived off their herds, but they soon learned the value of extorting goods from farming communities -- not just grain, but wagons and iron weapons. When a bow took a year to create, the Huns needed an elaborate technological infrastructure.\nMoving west, the Huns drove other tribes ahead of them, putting pressure on both the Eastern and Western Empires. They played a minor part in the battle of Adrianople, the worst military disaster in 700 years of Roman wars, but as the Eastern Empire recovered from that shock, the Huns effectively took over the lands north of the Danube.\nThis actually stabilized both empires. Tribes like the Vandals were migrating from Spain to the grain-growing lands of North Africa. The Goths occupied most of France. The Eastern Empire, based in Constantinople, was trying to deter the Persians from moving west. The Romans simply couldn't fight on all fronts at the same time.\nThe Huns gave the Romans a breathing space by effectively shutting down migration from eastern Europe, just as the Soviets would 1500 years later. The Romans could then turn to problems with the Goths, Vandals, and Persians.\nAn imperial protection racket\nLike other nomad conquerors before and after them, the Huns did not impose their own culture on their new subjects. Quite the reverse: The lands the Huns occupied included many Romans and Rome-influenced tribes, who taught their new masters a lot. The Huns' power remained their cavalry, and they settled in what is now Hungary because its grassy plains could support horses. But they began to settle down in villages, enjoying the income from their subjects. Kelly says the Huns were not so much an empire as a protection racket.\nWhen Attila emerged as the Huns' supreme leader, he extended the racket to the south and west. Sometimes he fought as a Roman ally against other \"barbarians.\" But he also expected sizable payoffs in return for leaving Constantinople alone. The eastern emperors, worrying about Vandals in North Africa and Persians in the east, thought it was far better to pay him than to fight him.\nThen the emperor Theodosius made a disastrous miscalculation: He cooked up a literally Byzantine intrigue to create regime change in the Hunnic Empire.\nThe most fascinating part of Kelly's book is the account of an embassy to Attila that was actually a front for a planned assassination. The ambassador, a young aristocrat named Maximinus, was completely out of the loop. So was his colleague the historian Priscus, who later reported the plot.\nBut Attila's own spies knew exactly what Constantinople was planning, and handled the plot with exquisite style--perhaps like Fidel Castro thwarting yet another CIA plot. The ambassador and the historian escaped with their lives, but others were not so lucky.\nThe climax of Attila's career was his foray into the Western Empire, when his forces swept across France and then moved south into Italy. His pretext was that a Roman princess had offered herself in marriage to him, only to be married off to someone else instead. So he marched west to claim his bride -- and to make himself at least the co-emperor of the West.\nArmed robbery on a large scale\nAn army of Romans and Goths gave him a good beating in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plain, effectively ending the myth of Hunnic invincibility. But Attila turned south to ravage Italy. He was turned away from Rome by the Pope's intercession; but Rome was a relic by then. The West was ruled from the Adriatic city of Ravenna, and Rome was hardly worth sacking.\nBut Attila had achieved his main purpose, which was armed robbery on a large scale. His armies returned to Hungary with enormous plunder. Not long after, in bed with his latest new wife, he fell into a drunken stupor, suffered a nosebleed, and drowned in his own blood.\nHis empire died with him. His sons fought one another for mastery, and all of them lost. But this was not good news for the Romans. Like people in the Soviet satellites in 1989, the Huns' subjects headed west for the relative safety of the empire. A few more decades of illegal immigration and general chaos turned a continental empire into a mob of squabbling barbarian kingdoms. Just as Rome hadn't been worth sacking, its last emperor, Romulus Augustulus, wasn't worth assassinating. He was pensioned off instead.\nKelly's account lets us draw some obvious parallels with our own era of imperial overstretch and mass migration. But he doesn't make a point of them, though the \"Barbarian Terror\" in the title looks like a publisher's marketing gimmick. Like the Romans, and like modern governments, Attila used terror when it was cost-effective. When it wasn't, he negotiated.\nWe can even regard him as a kind of tragic hero. He was a military and political genius who had come out of nowhere. He could usually outsmart and outfight his supposedly civilized enemies.\nBut he was a gangster who never went legit: The Huns created no institutions, built no culture, and left not a word of their own to describe their rise and fall. No one knows where Attila's tomb is, and his people have vanished.\nTyee Commenting Guidelines\nComments that violate guidelines risk being deleted, and violations may result in a temporary or permanent user ban. Maintain the spirit of good conversation to stay in the discussion.\n*Please note The Tyee is not a forum for spreading misinformation about COVID-19, denying its existence or minimizing its risk to public health."}
{"content":"Chris Neiger | Source, The Motley Fool\nI’m not in my 40s quite yet, but as I quickly approach the next decade (a bit faster than I want), I’ve been thinking about what important financial decisions will need to be made in the coming years. For many Americans, our 40s can be a time where earning potential is very high, but it’s also an important time to make sure the proper retirement moves are being made.\nPersonal finance information is often just that — personal — in the sense that not everything is applicable to your specific financial situation. But here are two key ideas that you should be following in your 40s to help you transition into the next stage of life.\n1. Stay focused on retirement contributions (or start today)\nTo help give you an idea where other Americans are with their retirement, take a look at the chart below. It’s from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and it shows the median retirement amount for Americans between 1989 and 2013 (which is the latest data available).\nIMAGE SOURCE: ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE.\nThe red line shows that Americans between ages 44 and 49 had a median retirement account savings of just $6,200 in 2013. News flash: That’s not good. And according to EPI, “For most age groups, median account balances in 2013 were less than half their pre-recession peak and lower than at the start of the new millennium.”\nMaybe your retirement is all set to go and you’ve been socking away money for decades. But this set of data suggests that’s probably not the case. Which means that right now (like literally, when you finish this article) you need to set up a plan for putting more money away for retirement. You can do this through an employer-provided 401(k) or by setting up your own individual retirement account (IRA). The important part is to start now, if you haven’t already, and continue increasing your contributions to the account if you’re able.\n2. Kick debt to the curb\nAccording to the latest data from Bureau of Labor Statistics, American workers have some of their highest-earning years between the ages of 35 and 44 (for women) and second highest-earning years between 45 and 54 (for men). In short, your 40s are some of the best times to reach your earnings potential.\n|Age||Average Weekly Earnings for Women||Average Weekly Earnings for Men|\n|Total, 16 years and older||$749||$915|\n|16 to 24||486||512|\n|25 to 34||705||794|\n|35 to 44||839||1,007|\n|45 to 54||836||1,075|\n|55 to 64||812||1,102|\n|65 and older||749||992|\nDATA SOURCE: BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS."}
{"content":"An eyelid cyst medically known as a chalazion, is a small lump that appears under the skin of the eyelid because of a blocked oil gland. It can develop on the lower or upper eyelid. It is not contagious and is more common in adults than children.\nIn Zambia, when you have an eye cyst you are said to be stingy and very tight fisted with giving out things .Lol….\nThere are several types of eyelid cysts, consisting of:\nStye (also called a hordeolum): A stye is an abscess in the oil glands, and is one of the most typical types of eyelid…\nChalazia (also referred to as meibomian cysts): A chalazion is a swelling on theeyelid that is commonly the result of a…\nSweat Gland Cysts: These cysts tend to be round, shiny, transparent lumps that appear near the tear ducts. This kind of…\nKeratosis: These cysts are a mix of keratin and tissue and are discovered in various kinds.\nThe most common cause of eyelid cysts is blockage and inflammation of the oil-producing meibomian glands in the eyelids.\n👀Eyelid cysts are usually not serious and only rarely obstruct vision or pose an immediate problem for the eye. Most eyelid cysts heal on their own within 2 to 8 weeks. However, you can use Guava Leaves to heal it faster.\nHow To Cure It?\n•Wash 5 or 6 guava leaves thoroughly.\n•Warm these leaves in the microwave for a few seconds or place on top of a pot cover that’s on fire to heat up the leaves .\n•Place one warm leaf in a clean dry cloth.\n•Put this cloth over the swollen area of your eyelid👁\n•When the leaf cools down, replace it with a new warm leaf.\n•Repeat this remedy twice daily for several days.\nStay healthy friends ."}
{"content":"Ted Weigal was wondering how to cook a steak like restaurants do: seared then cooked to perfection. By the time I had found an answer for Weigal, I was ready for a thick, juicy steak.\nThe sources I consulted agree that pan broiling is the best method for cooking steak, although an excellent argument can be made for grilling, and you will see another method in today's recipe. Sources also agreed that:\nSearing should be done in a heavy pan on medium-high heat.\nMeat should be dried before searing.\nBecause the solids in butter will burn, oil should be used to sear meat. If you want a buttery flavor, allow a pat to melt over the finished steak or if you are serving a sauce with the meat, add the butter to that.\nRubbing oil on the meat is preferable to spreading it in the pan. This will prevent oil in unused portions of the pan from burning.\nOther aspects of meat cookery — searing, salting and piercing — have been debated on a number of occasions.\nThat searing seals in juices has been pretty much been disproved. In \"How to Read a French Fry,\" Russ Parsons points out that if you sear a steak on one side then turn it over, you will see drops of juice emerging through the crust that was thought to seal the meat.\nSo searing not only doesn't seal in juices, it dries the meat slightly. But it makes up for this by increasing the perception of juiciness, which can be attributed to both the moisture in the meat and the salivation triggered by the seared meat's complex aromas and flavors.\n\"Browning is good,\" says \"Steaks, Chops, Roasts and Ribs,\" from the editors of Cooks Illustrated magazine. Browned food's wonderful flavor comes from the Maillard reaction, named for the French chemist who first described it a century ago. The combination of meat's amino acids (proteins) and natural sugars with intense heat results in new compounds, which in turn break down and form still more complex and flavorful compounds on the outside of seared meat.\nFor the Food Lab page at seriouseats.com, executive editor/recipe czar J. Kenji Lopez-Alt documents his own experiments to find the best way to cook a steak.\nLike others, he concluded that searing doesn't seal in juices, but does enhance flavor and textures, and he suggests that the best way to cook steak is to have oil smoking hot in a heavy pan then add a salted and peppered steak, turning it every 15 or 30 seconds until the desired internal temperature is almost reached. And if it is a thick steak, be sure to sear the edges.\nThere has been some disagreement over the merits of salting meats before cooking them.\n\"Start with salt,\" advise Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby in \"How to Cook Meat\" (Morrow/HarperCollins, 2000). The small amount of juice that salt draws to the surface of the meat is more than compensated for by the amplified flavor that results from the interaction of the salt with the meat.\nLopez-Alt concluded that not only does salting before cooking enhance the flavor of meat, the amount of time that elapses between salting and cooking makes a difference.\nHe salted several steaks at 10-minute intervals before searing them in a hot skillet. The steak that was cooked immediately after salting and the steak that was cooked 40 minutes after salting were much better than those that sat 10, 20 or 30 minutes between salting and searing.\nDocumenting photos and videos show how the salt is taken into the meat as time elapses. When steak is seared immediately after salting, the salt rests on the surface of the meat and the steaks juices remain inside the muscle fibers.\nWithin three or four minutes of salting, juices are drawn to the surface of the meat. Searing at this point wastes heat and energy to evaporate the liquid and the temperature of the pan drops, inhibiting the Maillard reaction.\nAbout 10 or 15 minutes after steak is salted, a brine forms as the salt dissolves in the meat juices. The muscle structure of the beef begins to break down becoming more absorptive and enabling the brine to work its way into the meat, which begins about 20 minutes after salting. By the time salt has been on the meat for 40 minutes most of the liquid has been reabsorbed.\nThe best steak, however, according to Lopez-Alt, was one that was salted on both sides and allowed to rest on a rack, uncovered, in the refrigerator overnight. This allows the steak to dry naturally on the outside and the juices to distribute throughout the meat.\nSo, he suggests, if you have the time, salt the meat and let it rest for 40 minutes and up to overnight before cooking. If you haven't got 40 minutes, it's better to salt immediately before cooking.\nOne other subject for debate has been whether or not to pierce or cut a small slit in meat to test for doneness. Even though a lot of juice seems to escape from the meat when you pierce it with a fork, the amount is insignificant compared with the juices remaining throughout the steak, according to Lopez-Alt.\nEven cutting a small slit in the meat with a knife will not affect the juiciness of the steak. If this is your chosen method of testing for doneness, however, keep in mind that the hot juices released by cutting the muscle fiber will make the meat appear rarer than it actually is.\nThe most accurate way to test for doneness is to use a digital thermometer.\nAND ONE MORE THING\nLetting meat rest for 10 minutes after cooking allows juices to redistribute evenly so when you cut it, more juice remains in the steak. Of course Lopez-Alt has a well-documented logical and technical explanation for this, which you can read at http://tinyurl.com/3fzdjl9.\nEmail firstname.lastname@example.org. Or write to Linda Brandt, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, P.O. Drawer 1719, Sarasota, FL 34230. Read previous articles and columns at www.heraldtribune.com/linda."}
{"content":"Dilbert’s “Salary Theorem” states that “Engineers and scientists can never earn\nas much as business executives and sales people.”\nThis theorem can now be supported by a mathematical equation based on the\nfollowing two postulates:\nPostulate 1: Knowledge is Power.\nPostulate 2: Time is Money.\nAs every engineer knows:\nPower = Work / Time\nSince Knowledge = Power\nAnd Time = Money\nThen Knowledge = Work / Money\nSolving for Money, we get:\nMoney = Work / Knowledge.\nThus, as Knowledge approaches zero, Money approaches infinity, regardless of the\namount of work done.\nConclusion: The less you know, the more you make."}
{"content":"Training the Inner Self\nTraining the Inner Self\nInstruction: Learning through instruction consists mainly of hearing and reading. Some people say, ‘Instruction is wrong; let students find out everything for themselves by experiment’. That idea is nonsense. How can we say to a student? ‘Here are some copper, zinc, acid and wire. Now discover electric current! Geniuses like A. Volta, M. Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell took only about 200 years. Perhaps you can do it in an afternoon’. Clearly it would be impossible; he must have some instruction.\nFor a negative—‘Don’t do that!’—the instruction alone should be enough. Judo beginners are often told: ‘Do not try to prevent yourself from being thrown by putting your arm out on to the tatami. It is dangerous. You may dislocate your elbow’. In life a similar instruction would be: ‘Do not drive a car when you are drunk’. These instructions may be followed, or not followed, depending on the intelligence of the pupil and also on how much he respects the instructor. For many people, such warnings alone are not enough. ‘A hundred hearings are not like one seeing’. The instruction may have to be confirmed by other means of knowledge.\nObservation: This is seeing what happens to others. If we see an elbow damaged in the dojo, or a drunken driver go into a tree, the instruction is confirmed.\nInference: We look at some tough but not too intelligent Judo men and see how many of them cannot straighten one of their elbows. Or we can read about the many police-court convictions for drunken driving. We infer that the instruction was not right.\nPersonal experience: If in spite of the instruction not to do so, observations of accidents to others and inference from the long-term effects, we still do these things, then we get personal experience. Our own elbows are dislocated, or we drive into trees.\nIt is sometimes said that ‘we must learn by personal experience alone’. But this cannot always be possible. If we get drunk, drive the car and crash into a tree, it is a personal experience. But often we shall learn nothing from it, because we shall be dead. Therefore, with negative things, personal experience is not necessary. It is usually undesirable. The most intelligent learn—from instruction alone—not to make mistakes. The less intelligent need observation and inference before they are convinced. The stupidly obstinate have to undergo a disaster before they understand, but quite often it is then too late.\nMy generation is very opposed to taking drugs, even though we drink tea and coffee which are mild drugs. Sometimes young people say to me: ‘It is unreasonable to condemn drugs, if you have never taken them yourself, because you do not know about them from personal experience. You say they have bad effects, but how do you know what the effects are? You have never taken them yourself, so you do not know what the experience is like’. Elderly people often do not know how to answer this argument and become silent. But I reply, ‘I do not have to jump into a cesspit to know what it would be like.’ Then usually the young people become silent, or else hurriedly change the subject.\nSo with negative things it is best to be able to accept instruction, without waiting for observation, inference and personal experience. We can learn this fact in the dojo.\nBut with positive things it is the reverse. Instruction is merely a starting point. It must be deepened by observation, inference and finally personal experience. There is always a danger that instructions will be too detailed so that the pupil follows them mechanically. Such a pupil may become technically expert, but he is simply like a machine. He can carry out his programme, but he cannot meet anything unexpected. The Budo schools knew about this danger. The teachers would give the main points but not all the details. The students had to work out the details themselves.\nOne of the ‘secret scrolls’ of the Shinno shintoryu13 school says: ‘My own teacher used to explain a technique to us only roughly and then tell me: “You have the root. Now you have to train relentlessly, crushing the bone and flesh, for a long time, never forgetting that the basis of our training is mental. Jujutsu is shinjutsu, or the art of the heart’.\nAgain and again these old traditions emphasize this: a Way or do is not simply a collection of tricks or a sequence of correct moves. There must be something living in it, which comes from a much deeper level than thinking: ‘Now I will do this. Now it is time to do that’."}
{"content":"ep. 04 it’s never too late to learn about money with meera meyer, cfp\n“STANDING FIRM IS A HUGE PART OF BEING A GREAT NEGOTIATOR. TRULY ACKNOWLEDGE THE VALUE YOU BRING TO THE TABLE.” – MEERA MEYER\nPODCAST EPISODE DESCRIPTION\nFounder of “Life, Money, Balance” Meera Meyer, CFP, corporate financial planner turned financial wellness coach, talks about taking control of the role money plays in your life and the importance of communicating your value. Two steps towards personal growth. Money is energy, and it is one of the most underrated forms of self-care.\nShe explains how understanding what you bring to the table, standing firm on what you want, and negotiating for it to take control of your financial future is one of the best things that you can do for yourself as an ambitious woman. To pay off debt and build wealth, you might have to have uncomfortable conversations. The truth is that women still make way less than their male peers. And, they are not scared to ask for that raise.\nWe go deeper into the disparity between working men and women, saving in your 20s, 30s, and 40s, how to start investing, managing emotions around your financial health, the best finance apps, budgeting, and more.\nMoney is a scary topic. Meera breaks it all down in an easy-to-understand way. It’s never too early, or too late, to take control of your finances and your life. Tune in for some great advice, and learn how to prepare for your future.\nPODCAST GUEST//MEERA MEYER, CFP\nInstagram: @lifemoneybalance / Website: lifemoneybalance.com\nAcorns App/ Stash App / Robinhood App\nMarcus by Goldman Sachs / Women & Money by Suze Orman / NPR “Planet Money” podcast\n– LISTEN TO MEERA MEYER, CFP HERE –\nRecovering fashion blogger and Founder of NYC-based creative consultancy, Hashtag Lifestyle."}
{"content":"Eastern Western european facial attributes are often very different from those of Western Europeans. However , right after are essentially due to genetics and not ethnic influences.\nEastern The european union is a location of the world located east of Russia, north of Belgium and to the south of Canada. The region was inhabited by many people different ethnic communities throughout background, which include Celts, Greeks and Thracians.\nIrrespective of these types of differences, you will still find certain common features that you’ll observe among most Eastern Europeans. One of the most essential is usually their à nous, which are typically https://www.crosswalk.com/family/singles/what-does-the-bible-say-about-dating.html extended and pointed in size. They also https://mailorderbride123.com/europe/albania/ experience narrow nostrils and greatly angled nose bones.\nAnother thing that distinguishes Asian Europeans is definitely their sight, which are generally almond-shaped with thick brows. They can also have a hooded physical appearance or always be deep-set.\nThey may also have a round forehead, that may be very distinct of East Europeans.\nThe eye color is typically brown to green. They may have a lot of eyelashes, which allows them to appeal to others conveniently.\nThe eyebrows are generally extremely thick and curled, and they are usually arched, instead of pointed like Western Europeans. They generally have a smaller confront and thinner lips, but they are generally very attractive.\nEastern Europeans are known for simply being very goal-oriented, and they really know what they want in life. They will for no reason back down from a deal with and they will usually work hard to obtain their desired goals.\nIn addition to their strong perception of own, they take the relationships really and be prepared to define what the course of the relationship will probably be early on. This is not to necktie you down, but to ensure that you will be clear about what you want away of your life along.\nNo matter of their ethnicity, they are simply always extremely sweet and kind toward their friends and family. They will invest a lot of effort to cause you to feel good about yourself, so they will deserve your reverence and honor.\nFortunately they are very clever and they have got a lot of things very own minds. Because of this they tend to have a high level of intelligence, making them really interesting for men.\nIf you’re looking for a female who is smart, intelligent, and beautiful, you should look at dating a great Eastern Euro. These women of all ages are ideal for marital relationship or just a significant date.\nIt could be very important to notify a girl what you like about her and as to why you think she has special. This can help her to understand you the become more enthusiastic about you.\nYou can do this by expressing things such as “your hair looks nice” or “I such as the way your eyes look”. They will love it and you’ll be able to get nearer to them.\nIn addition they like it at the time you show them the value of all their gifts and talents. It could be very important to generate her think appreciated, and she’ll be more than happy to reciprocate by making you the center of her community."}
{"content":"A Group Ride is not a race. Behavior that is acceptable during a race may not be acceptable during a Group Ride. Understand and respect the difference between the two.\nThe majority of accidents are between two or more cyclists. You will probably injure at least one other rider if you cause a crash.\nYou have a responsibility to the other cyclists to ride safely.\nYou must be logged in to post a comment."}
{"content":"Knaamys (pro. names) of the 20th Century\nBy TRACEE SIOUX\nThe most hysterical thing about substitute teaching are the names of the kids.\nNot the names themselves . . .\nBut, the reaction of the kids when you phonetically read their names.\nThey snicker. They talk to you like YOU’RE the stupid one for mispronouncing their names when you call roll.\nIt takes about everything I have not to say out loud, “Its not MY fault your mother doesn’t know how to spell. I read the word correctly.”\nWhat on earth possessed the parents of the 20th Century to misspell and “cutesify” their baby’s names?\nWhat on earth possessed me to do this to myself with the name Tracee Sioux? As a writer, its all well and good – memorable, interesting.\nAs a substitute teacher, it’s just annoying. I’m so over explaining it: where it came from, whether I’m a Native American, how to pronounce it. Seriously, I’m almost considering taking my husband’s nice, normal name so I can stop having the same conversation every single time I meet someone or introduce myself. Why did I think this would be an interesting conversation to have for the rest of my life? Only another 60 years to go.\nNote to parents of 21st Century parents – if you want to name your kid Jennifer – just name her Jennifer and not Gwennipher. If you want to name your kid Simone try not to throw in a silent Y at the end.\nLeave a ReplyWant to join the discussion?\nFeel free to contribute!"}
{"content":"New Maki Machine by Biome (Sushi-making, Rice-washing and Noodle-making Machinery)\nBiome supplies original sushi-making equipment, mainly from Suzumo Machinery, the pioneering Japanese company which developed the world’s first sushi robot. Biome’s equipment makes high quality sushi delicately, and assists skilled chefs in producing sushi more quickly. Biome also supplies machines for non-experts to produce great tasting sushi with ease. Biome offers equipment for rice washing, cooking, blending, miso dispenser, sake dispenser, towel warmer, shariben rice depositor, nigiri, maki-making equipment, maki cutters, and its patented sushi wrapping system."}
{"content":"Last Modified: 19.09.2017\nAttention! Basic administration knowledge is required to implement operations, described in this chapter. It is recommended to create a full Virtual Appliance backup prior to starting to implement these operations. Also, some settings may be \"lifehacks\" that are not documented by the BitrixVA/BitrixEnv developer. That is why, please be advised, knowledge of your actions is required."}
{"content":"There are many different ways to brew coffee, each with its unique flavour profile and brewing method. In this blog post, we’ll explore some of the most popular methods of brewing coffee and their key differences.\n1. Drip Coffee\nThis is the most common brew method in North America. Water is poured into a reservoir and heated, and then it drips onto a bed of coffee grounds, passing through a paper or metal filter. Drip coffee is known for its simplicity and consistency, but the flavour profile can vary depending on the type of coffee beans used and the brewing time.\n2. French Press\nThis method involves the immersion of coarsely ground coffee beans in hot water for several minutes before pressing the plunger down to separate the grounds from the liquid. French press coffee has a more robust flavour profile than drip coffee, with more oils and sediment in the cup.\nEspresso is made by forcing hot water through finely-ground coffee beans using a high-pressure machine. Espresso has a concentrated flavour profile and is the foundation for many coffee drinks like cappuccinos and lattes.\nThis method involves pouring hot water over a bed of coffee grounds held in a paper or metal filter. The water is typically poured in a slow, circular motion to ensure even saturation and extraction of the grounds. Pour-over coffee has a lighter body and a more delicate flavour profile than other brewing methods.\nAeroPress is a unique brewing method that involves the immersion of coffee grounds in hot water and then using a plunger to extract the liquid. The result is a concentrated coffee shot that can be used as the foundation for other coffee drinks or diluted with hot water for a milder cup.\n6. Cold Brew\nThis method involves the immersion of coffee grounds in cold water for several hours, resulting in a smoother, less acidic cup of coffee. Cold brew coffee is often served over ice and is a popular choice during the hot summer months.\nIn conclusion, there are many different methods of brewing coffee, each with its unique flavour profile and brewing process. By experimenting with different brewing methods and coffee beans, you can discover your preferred flavour profile and brewing style. Whether you prefer a robust French press or a delicate pour-over, there is a coffee brewing method that is perfect for you."}
{"content":"Occupational Therapy Assistant\nMake a difference in your community by providing therapeutic modalities to your patients. Learn from seasoned instructors who actually work in the field.\nProgram OutlineView Outline\nAbout The Program\nWith this 16-week diploma program, you will master numerous occupational therapy techniques catering to different types of clients. Given our small class sizes, you can receive the proper attention and guidance you need from our highly-skilled instructors. Even if you have other major priorities that you need to juggle, you can still take this program through evening and weekend courses.\nOccupational Therapy Assistants administer rehabilitation treatments to patients under the direction of an Occupational Therapist. Work settings include hospitals, private rehabilitation clinics, rehabilitation centers, long-term care facilities, retirement homes, sports medicine clinics, community health care agencies, and other medical settings. Graduates of this program may also become certified as a Personal Training Specialist and pursue a career as a Personal Trainer providing one-on-one coaching or working in a fitness facility.\nSome career and education options may require advanced degrees, further training or experience.\nEmployers Who Have Hired triOS Grads\n- Medrehab Group Inc.\n- Back to Normal Medical Centre\n- Total Care Management\n- Great Lakes Physiotherapy\n*Employment Rate based on 2021 contactable triOS graduates employed in a related field within 12 months.\nNOC Code: 3414/33109 - **Wage data rounded down to the nearest dollar. Average wage doesn't reflect the starting salary but represents the middle value between lowest to highest wages. Local (or regional) income may vary. Last updated in Dec 2022.\nIs your goal to be able to work at various healthcare facilities? Do you want to help patients live a comfortable life? If you’re aiming to become a healthcare professional, then the Occupational Therapy Assistant program is just what you need to get started.\nLearn therapeutic techniques for children, older individuals, and mental health patients; gain in-depth knowledge on communication disorders and group interventions. You will gain practical knowledge in the field to help you succeed in any given circumstance, while on the job.\nThe program also emphasizes the communication, interpersonal, and reflective practice skills required to become lifelong learners and effective members of the healthcare team.\nStudents enrolled in the program receive:\n- Education from occupational therapists who work in the field;\n- Free subscriptions to Microsoft Office and Windows.\nAdvanced Interpersonal and Communication Skills\nOTA Therapeutic Techniques for Children\nGroup Intervention in Occupational Therapy\nOTA Therapeutic Techniques in Mental Health\nOTA Therapeutic Techniques for Older Adults\n- High school graduation diploma, or Mature Student Status (for more information please refer to the Program Overview at the top of this page or speak to your Education Consultant)\n- Physiotherapy Assistant diploma from triOS College or PCC/College of Applied Arts and Technology\nTake a quick and easy quiz to find out more about yourself, your goals, and identify your strengths and social style. This quiz gives you suggestions for what career areas you might consider based on your likes and preferences. Give it a try now!\nGoing to triOS has been one of the best things I have ever done. It has helped me with my career so much. I graduated with distinction and got hired at my internship. Thank you to the fantastic teachers at triOS. If I can do it so can you!!"}
{"content":"Do you remember your first car? I guess nobody forgets the moment of excitement when they finally get their first vehicle, no matter how good or bad. That feeling of independence and being able to travel around by yourself mean a world to everybody.\nToday you most likely drive something more advanced, but those memories will remain with you forever. Still, you are probably dreaming of something better, faster, more powerful. On the contrary, imagine how crazy it is that celebrities have so many expensive and excellent vehicles, most of which are only a part of the collection and have never been driven (sigh).\nBut have you ever thought about why then they choose limousines to take them to all those high-end events? Well, it’s not only because they look cool.\nIn its very essence, a limousine service has been in existence for about four centuries. They started as horse-drawn carriages, gilded in gold & pulled by only the finest animals. In 1902, the first automobile limousine was developed. It consisted of the two compartments – one in the back for the passengers, and the other in front for the chauffeur.\nThis frontal compartment was open on all sides except it had coverage for the protection of the driver from rain, snow and sun heat. The coverage resembled a raised hood of the cloaks shepherds in the Limousin province in France used to wear, and that’s where the name for the limousines come from.\nAs time passed by, motor vehicles were becoming more common. In present time, having a car is nothing unusual, what more it is a necessity. But, limousines and private chauffeur services as such have remained exclusive and extraordinary and we still associate them with the upper class.\nSo, what is that which makes limousines stand out from other vehicles?’\n- Sophisticated appearance\nWhat most people don’t know is that there is no such thing as a limo car type or a brand. This implies that any vehicle can, actually, be a limousine. There have been some attempts to make strange and unusual limousines, like the Tank Limo, the Stretch Harley Limo, or the 30-meters-long Limo, the longest car in the world. Luckily, those were just caprices of rich and idle people. The most usual limousines are long sedans, SUVs, stretch limos, and Hummers or party buses. Which to choose would depend on the number of passengers and the occasion, but an awesome ride is certainly promised with any of those.\nThe main difference between the limousine and a regular car is clear at first glance. Limousines have longer frame and wheelbase and have a partition between the driver’s compartment and the rear passenger compartment.\nThis partition usually contains a sliding glass window so that the conversation between passengers may be kept private from the chauffeur. Limos take the pedestal in the world of exclusive travel. It cannot get enough of classics, so they usually come in black or white colour. They have an attractive, spotless appearance and their wheels are shinier than your future.\n- Luxurious interior\nNot many people actually own limousines but they make a contract with limo services. Limousines are there to provide people with a cosy, pleasurable and extraordinary ride. It’s hard to decide which is more attractive with limos – their elegant exterior or their jaw-dropping interior. Highly durable premium leather seats come with all the little cushions at rights spots for comfortable seating, and with more than enough legroom for each of the passengers. For entertainment, there are flat TV screens, a sound system, Wi-Fi connection and built-in computers, usually hidden behind a sliding mechanism allowing for quick and easy access. No need to mention the beverage station – limos and sparkling wines go so well together.\nOther luxuries might include:\n- Heated seats,\n- Interior with theme or materials matching any style,\n- Cabin lighting illuminating in any colour and with multiple intensity levels, to add to the atmosphere,\n- Aux Input, to connect your device straight to the stereo system and play the music of your choice,\n- Video game slots,\n- Tinted windows for privacy,\n- Dancing floor with a pole for a crazy night out.\nConclusion: Limousines are a perfect combination of business and pleasure, relaxation and party.\n- A professional service\nLimo services are there to serve you and make sure that your event is perfect. You can ask for special decorations, drinks, music or a scenic drive around the city – everything is possible with a quality limo service.\nYou can make online and reservations in advance, and have the ability to choose your car. If you are arranging an airport pickup, a transportation service will monitor your flight schedule so they know exactly when to be there. Thanks to this, you won’t have to worry about your transportation even in the occurrence of flight delays. And the chauffeur is there to carry your luggage and accommodate any scheduling changes.\nLimos can be fast and capable of offering a thrilling ride. Their drivers are trained professionals who handle well the vehicles, have all the necessary licenses and extended knowledge of roads and regulations. Yours is to arrange the itinerary and all those little luxuries you might need. When the car arrives, you just have to sit back and let them do the driving while you are fully enjoying your trip."}
{"content":"May 29, 1988\nIt’s easy to sing when life is good. But what happens when circumstances take a turn for the worse? After being beaten and thrown into prison, the apostle Paul wrote, “For Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.” Alistair Begg examines this great Christian paradox of rejoicing in suffering as we learn that with God there is no such thing as purposeless pain.\n16As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. 17She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants5 of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” 18And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.\n19But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. 20And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, “These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city. 21They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.” 22The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. 23And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. 24Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.\n25About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them,\nCopyright © 2023, Alistair Begg. Used by permission. All rights reserved.\nScripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Text provided by the Crossway Bibles Web Service."}
{"content":"Drops to eliminate eye redness.\nDue to the constant work with a computer and smartphones, a shortage of sleep, the impact of chemical and physical factors, such as smoke, dust, ultraviolet radiation, our eyes are experiencing a strong load, eye proteins are blushing.\nAccording to Lion's research, a person looks like 5 years older than 5 years old. To combat inflamed eyes, Lion in September 2016 has released new drops for SMileWhiteye's eyes.\nSmileWhiteye helps to create the effect of white proteins, as a result of which the eyes become attractive and brighter.\nPotassium L-Aspartate 1G - Improves eye tissue breathing\nTetrahydrosoline hydrochloride 0.05G - reduces inflammation of the junction shell of the eye\nChloropheniramine vele 0.03g - suppresses the action of histamine, reduces eye irritation\nVitamin B5 (Pantotenol) 0.1g- enhances eye metabolism\nDikalia Glycyrrizinat 0.25G - eliminates eye inflammation\nThe concentration of active ingredients is higher than in other drops, so smilewhiteye drops are more efficiently removed red.\nRecommendations for use: 1-3 drops in each eye. 3-6 times a day\nCapacity of the bottle: 15 ml."}
{"content":"4 Jan 2020\nThe Krefeld Zoo has reopened after a fire on New Year's Eve decimated its primate exhibit. Visitors mourned the community's loss but cherished the international support it has received.\n2 Jan 2020\nA zoo in the German city of Krefeld said \"our worst fears have become reality\" after a fire destroyed a primate sanctuary. Police said a drifting New Year sky lantern was be to blame for the tragedy.\n1 Jan 2020\nPeople across the world welcome the start of the new year with fireworks and parties.\n17 Dec 2019\nEvery year, about 25 million Christmas trees are used to decorate German homes. Since 2018, a Berlin landscape gardener has been making trees available for rent, in order to avoid them being discarded after New Year's Eve.\n1 Apr 2019\nWhile the effects of Chinese New Year in early February played a part, the figures were a surprise for market analysts. They come amid a global slowdown and ongoing dispute with the US over trade tariffs.\n1 Jan 2019\nNigeria's share their expectations for the New Year.\n1 Jan 2019\nTrade conflicts have put a stamp on 2018. There was no lack of threats voiced and punitive tariffs implemented. Is there any hope that the New Year will bring some improvement? DW's Andreas Becker looks for answers.\n31 Dec 2017\nSydney hosts its annual fireworks spectacle to welcome in the New Year.\n3 Jan 2017\nIslamic State claimed responsibility for the killing of 39 people celebrating the New Year inside a fabled Istanbul nightclub, an act of terrorism that has become grimly familiar in Turkey as it fails to keep the violence in Syria from spilling into its cities.\n2 Jan 2017\nIslamic State claimed responsibility on Monday (January 2) for a New Year's Day mass shooting in a packed Istanbul nightclub that killed 39 people, an attack carried out by a lone gunman who remains at large.\n1 Jan 2017\nConfetti rains down on a crowd estimated at 2 million as New York's Times Square welcomes in 2017.\n1 Jan 2017\nThe New Year arrives with fireworks and light shows coordinated to musical programs in Hong Kong and Taiwan."}
{"content":"In examining the ancient roles of the Haudenosaunee, both men and women are viewed as equal, but both are recognized as holding separate duties. Tying into the Haudenosaunee Creation Story, many know that the Sky Woman brought life to Turtle Island. Women today are believed to have a genetic connection to the Sky Woman, and still have the ability to bring life. This shaped the role of the women in the Haudenosaunee to be the agriculturalists, cultivators, nurturers and matriarchs.\nOn the other side of the coin, men are viewed as having strong voices and their physical being allows them to excel in anything physically challenging. This is derived from their natural inclination and ability to provide, protect and problem solve— making them adept Chiefs, warriors, constructors and hunters. While Haudenosaunee men may go to battle less frequently in our modern age, the need to provide, protect and problem solve continues. Many exercise prowess in Lacrosse, politics/activism, fishing and hunting.\nIn the not too distant past, fishing and hunting were main sources of not only protein, but also a source of useful materials used for clothing and tools. But today, with grocery stores, butcher shops, and restaurants, the relevancy of hunting for the Haudenosaunee has altered drastically, as it has changed from being an act of physical survival, to an act of preservation. In other words, hunting may still be done for survival purposes, but there is a much larger focus on sustaining a cultural practice, as well as adhering to a traditional diet like Healthy Roots. Healthy Roots is a 12 week health and wellness challenge which encourages the consumption of traditional Haudenosaunee foods, which includes wild meats such as deer, moose and rabbit. Those following the challenge rely solely on hunters in their families and social networks for these specific foods.\nIn the beliefs of the Haudenosaunee people, the connection to the earth is inherited from the creation story. In the story, people were not only formed from the flesh of the earth (clay), but were given a breath of life from Shonkwaia’ti:son (song-gwai-yah-deeh-so), the Creator of Our Bodies. This was the base construct of the understanding that people are a part of the earth, as well as physically connected to it by creation. However, not in the sense that people are made in the image of the Creator, but in the sense that the vegetation and wildlife are no better and no less than the people are.\nThis brought a deep respect for the animals. This respect was shown in honouring the lives of animals through offerings of tobacco after taking life, thankfulness in the Ohen:ton Karihwatekhwen, (oh-han-toh ga-leeh-wa-dek-kweh) the Opening Address, and by consuming or using the entire body of the animal. Teeth, bones, hooves, and hides were taken and used to make and decorate clothing or ceremonial regalia, while nearly every piece of meat was eaten or used for medicinal, or recreational purposes. Hunting was also used in rites of passage for a boy to enter manhood.\nAn old story depicting a young man’s first hunt explained that to be taught empathy and as a part of his rite of passage, the young man was asked by his father to track a deer for six months. During this process, the young man had to sustain himself, and was able to watch the buck he chose grow to maturity. Eventually the buck became so used to his presence, it wouldn’t flee upon seeing or hearing him. When it came time to kill the buck, the young man shed tears as he aimed his arrow. Shortly after killing the buck and taking the meat home, as he crunched the frozen grass under his moccasins, the young man’s sense of empathy was so heightened that he could hear each blade say “ow.”\nThis belief has continued on today that hunting does not revolve around violence, but rather, empathy and respect for life. As well, hunting is still believed to be a practice of ancestors and an exercise that allows a hunter to provide meat aligned with a traditional diet, and practice a cultural way of honouring the life taken.\nHealthy Roots incorporates both the hunting and fishing roles of Haudenosaunee men, with the cultivating and agricultural roles of Haudenosaunee women to bring forth a core diet that is rooted in heritage. This diet allows participants to explore the aspects of a traditional Haudenosaunee diet, as well as enjoy the health benefits offered in each food."}
{"content":"More than three months after the first Covid-19 vaccine was approved by Health Canada, hundreds of Six Nations and Mississaugas of the Credit members participated in community vaccine clinics last week.\nInitial vaccine doses were prioritized for frontline workers and elders in long-term care facilities on Six Nations in December and early January. More people outside of healthcare settings are now getting the vaccine. A vaccine clinic at Emily C. General began operating on Mar. 1 after Six Nations recently procured 200 doses of the Moderna vaccine.\nOn Mar. 2, local health officials administered 154 doses of the vaccine to Six Nations community members.\nIn January, Six Nations Health Services said Canada had a vaccine shortage, resulting in the slow rollout of inoculations on Six Nations.\nOff-reserve, only frontline healthcare workers and elders in long-term care homes have received the vaccine. Seniors and adults off-reserve are still waiting to receive their first dose, according to media reports.\nHere on Six Nations, community members are eligible to receive the vaccine by registering online for the appointment-only dose administration at Emily C. General Elementary School.\n“Emily C. General Elementary School was selected as the community vaccination site because it was one of the best locations for flow of traffic, adequate refrigeration (of the vaccine) and airflow quality, and other vaccine requirements as identified in Ontario’s ministry guidelines,” Six Nations of the Grand River elected council said in a press release. “For strict safety and protocol reasons, vaccine doses are stored off-site from the clinic with security in place.”\nSNGR says the vaccine rollout has been a “tremendous success” and the booking and registration system has been effective that will continue to run smoothly in the months to come.\nThe clinic will administer vaccines as doses become available.\n“All of Canada is currently struggling to procure vaccines, simply because the supply is not yet available to meet the demand,” SNGR stated.\nElected Chief Mark Hill said he will continue to press the province and feds for enough doses for Six Nations people.\n“I will continue to stress to Canada and Ontario the need for a full community roll-out of vaccines to ensure that every Six Nations member who wants the vaccine can get it now. Our community is in a crisis and the vaccine is needed now.”\nThe vaccine consists of two shots and SNGR stressed that people are still vulnerable to Covid-19 infection between the administration of the first dose and second dose.\n“The maximum level of immunity is achieved a few weeks after the second dose is administered,” SNGR stated. “This timing will vary according to the vaccine product.”\nThere are currently four approved Covid-19 vaccines in Canada, named after the companies that developed them: Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson and AstraZeneca.\nOver the weekend, 444 MCFN members received their first dose of the Covid vaccine with another clinic planned for Mar. 12."}
{"content":"Poltava is a real paradise for tourists with a passion for aviation and aeronautics. There are three unique profile museums in the city: the Aviation and Space Museum named after Y. Kondratyuk, the branch of the National Military History Museum of Ukraine - the Museum of Heavy Bomber Aviation and the Museum of Military History of the 13th Guards Dnepropetrovsk and Budapest Order of Suvorov division, the 2nd grade of the heavy bomber aviation division.\nThus, among many prominent figures, the world-known scientists and inventors in the aviation and astronautics industry were born in Poltava region. They studied and worked here. Among them there is the inventor of tuneless rocket weapon Alexander Zasyadko (1779-1837), Yuri Kondratyuk (1897-1941), who calculated the first known flight trajectory to the Moon. His calculations were used by the Americans in preparations to fly to the natural Earth’s satelite and by the inventor of the aviation back pack parachute Hlib Kotelnykov (1872-1944)."}
{"content":"Beginner’s Guide: How To Lose Weight\nIf you are overweight, male or female, and need an efficient yet effective method for losing weight, keep reading!\nThis article is intended for those who are overwhelmed by the amount of information that’s available on the internet, and just want the simple, time-tested, efficient yet effective method to losing weight.\nBy the end of this article, you will understand the basic principles of weight loss, as well as practices you can incorporate in your daily life regardless of your schedule and responsibilities.\nIt’s important to note that this is NOT a weight loss program with a pre-defined goal or deadline. We will never promote a program that claims to “lose 20 pounds in 2 weeks”. This form of weight loss is unhealthy, and is very rarely ever effective in keeping the weight off over a long period of time.\nAt UNALTERED, we believe nothing worth having comes easy. The road to a healthy weight is long and difficult – but the rewards will make it worth it one hundred times over.\nFigure Out Your “Why”\nBefore starting on your weight loss journey, we recommend first figuring out your “why”.\nWhy do you want to lose weight?\nThere are countless possible responses to this question, mainly relating to the health benefits, or the improvements to your appearance.\nIt’s a given that weight loss comes with a reduced risk of disease, an increase in strength and endurance, and a more aesthetic physique.\nHowever, we respectfully ask that you dig deeper than that.\nThose who internalize a more emotional, passion-driven reason for exercising and dieting will have greater success in maintaining their habits, and thus see greater results.\nHere are some great examples of a “why”:\n- I want more energy to play with my kids, so I can tire less and give them the childhood I want for them.\n- I want to improve my body composition so I can achieve improved mobility, which will allow me to reach my full performance potential in day-to-day life.\n- I want to improve my health and reduce risk of disease, so I can worry less about the future and focus on enjoying the present.\nWhether it involves a past event, a current situation, or a concern for the future, the more personal you can get, the better.\nConsistently acknowledging the fire that fuels your daily habits will make it infinitely easier to maintain them.\nNutrition To Stay in a Caloric Deficit\nIf weight loss were to be broken down into a singular concept, it would be “calorie deficit”.\nAs the name implies, a calorie deficit is the state your body is in when you are burning more calories than you are intaking through food. In other words, you are utilizing more calories via daily activity than you are eating.\nAlthough the math is simple, it is all the actions and habits you execute that will result in a calorie deficit. For example, you would maximize the calories you burn each day (via exercise) and minimize the calories consumed each day (via nutrition).\nFor this reason, fitness gurus and personal trainers recommend keeping count of every calorie and grams of carbs, proteins, and fats you are eating with each meal. This approach is definitely effective, and can lead to a better understanding of your typical eating habits.\nHowever, many people already lack the time to prepare a nutrition plan, so keeping track of every meal in a nutrition log can become tedious and time-consuming.\nOur recommendation is to not complicate your life by counting calories. Instead, educate yourself on whatever you typically consume so you are better prepared to make healthy choices with each meal.\nHere are some pointers to keep in mind when selecting food options:\n- Stay away from fat. It is not the enemy and is necessary for your body to a degree. However, even if you are shooting for 0 fat, you will always have enough in your diet as required.\n- Prioritize protein to provide the necessary fuel for your muscles. You should be consuming 1g per pound of body weight. As a rule of thumb, a piece of meat – steak, chicken, fish, or pork – the size of your hand will be about 40g of protein. So, if you weigh 200 pounds, you aim to eat roughly 4 and half pieces of protein the size of your hand, per day.\n- With each meal, have about 2 cups worth of vegetables. They are essential for acquiring the vitamins and minerals your body needs for basic metabolic functions, and are a clean add-on to a meal that helps keep you feeling satiated.\n- Aim to consume only a single handful worth of carbohydrates with each meal. Ideally, this would be complex carbohydrates, such as potatoes, yams, whole-grain pasta and bread, and rice. Stay away from simple carbs which don’t fill you up and spike your blood sugar, such as pastries, white bread, ice cream, etc.\nAgain, the goal is to make healthy decisions with every meal you eat. Whether you’re at a restaurant celebrating, or cooking a meal at home, take portion sizes into account and try to maximize your protein intake over anything.\nWe also recommend drinking water every time you get a chance. For your metabolism to function efficiently, experts suggest drinking at least 64 ounces of water every day. On top of having 0 calories, studies have shown that drinking 16 ounces of water (1 water bottle) before each meal results in 30% more weight loss compared to other drinks such as soda or juice.\nPerform Cardio To Maximize Calorie-Burning\nCardio training, also known as aerobic training, utilizes your cardiovascular system and converts stored carbs and fats into energy. It is imperative for improving your stamina and endurance.\nIf you find yourself out of breath from climbing stairs, or even from performing daily household tasks, training your cardiovascular system will allow you to perform with greater ease.\nIf you are new to fitness, we recommend finding a cardio exercise that you enjoy, not one that will burn the most calories possible in the shortest time. That way, you will feel less pressured to overwork yourself and prevent your chances of burning out.\nTry out various activities, including jogging on a treadmill, going for a walk, hiking on a nature trail, cycling through a park, and so on. The best form of exercise is one that you enjoy and actually look forward to doing, at least three times per week.\nYou will see the greatest progress within the first few months of cardio training, when you are building the foundations of your cardiovascular system. When you feel you can handle more intensity, continue to challenge your body by setting goals to improve your time or distance. If you truly want to burn the most calories in the shortest amount of time, perform High Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT for short.\nPerform Strength Training To Tone Your Body\nThe more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn. This is due to the metabolic reactions occurring in your muscles. Thus, the more muscle you build, the easier it becomes to burn more calories in your daily exercises.\nIn addition, performing cardio training alone will only result in weight loss from fat, but will not result in a toned body. What this means is you will be left with loose, untoned skin.\nWe recommend that everyone that wants to lose weight should be performing at least two 30-minute sessions of strength training each week. This will:\n- Increase your strength and power output\n- Reduce your chance of injury when performing daily tasks\n- Tone your body to a more aesthetic physique\nBecause you cannot target a specific area of fat on your body, you should perform exercises that utilize all your muscles. A two-day split would involve two forms of workout: Upper body on the first day, and lower body on the second.\nFor a full guide on structuring a strength training routine, check out our article “Beginner’s Guide: How to Perform Strength Training to Lose Weight”.\nMaking a Plan That Works for You\nThe key concept to know when starting a fitness journey, is that there is no end.\nAlthough you should be setting both short-term and long-term goals, health and wellness is achieved by building healthy habits that you carry out for life.\nTherefore, the best fitness plan is the one that works for you. Find and perform exercises you enjoy doing, as well as recipes you love to eat, and staying fit will become second nature. You will be less likely to burn out, and much more likely to achieve the results you want.\nPerform three days of cardio training and two days of strength training each week, with each session lasting at least 10 minutes.\nFor a full guide on scheduling a fitness program, read our article “How to Schedule a Fitness Program with A Busy Schedule”"}
{"content":"Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, has warned of the danger of artificial intelligence, saying that it is the biggest existential threat facing humanity.\nMusk who was speaking at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Aeronautics and Astronautics department’s Centennial Symposium said that in developing artificial intelligence (AI) “we are summoning the demon.”\nWorst of all, he wants “regulatory oversight.” So those who can’t stop or fix the machine will spy on the rest of us instead?\nAll this just in time for Hallowe’en too.\nFollow UD News at Twitter!"}
{"content":"Nematode worms were genetically engineered with a transgene that causes fluorescence, more so when they were moved to higher temperatures. But then, when the worms were moved back to lower temperatures, the fluorescence continued as, researchers think, a genetic memory:\nLast year, researchers discovered that these kinds of environmental genetic changes can be passed down for a whopping 14 generations in an animal – the largest span ever observed in a creature, in this case being a dynasty of C. elegans nematodes (roundworms). Signe Dean, “Scientists Have Observed Epigenetic Memories Being Passed Down For 14 Generations” at ScienceAlert\nThis was the longest span of generations to retain an environment change. One researcher suggested ,\n“Worms are very short-lived, so perhaps they are transmitting memories of past conditions to help their descendants predict what their environment might be like in the future,” added co-researcher Tanya Vavouri from the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute in Spain. Signe Dean, “Scientists Have Observed Epigenetic Memories Being Passed Down For 14 Generations” at ScienceAlert\nIf we accumulate precise information as to the method of epigenetic transmission, we will have the material for a serious theory of epigenetics in evolution.\nThat is how Darwinism fades. Not by knowing less about evolution but by knowing more.\nHat tip: Philip Cunningham\nFollow UD News at Twitter!\nSee also: Researchers: Nicotine Effects Persist Through Several Generations Of Mice,Via Sperm\nEpigenetic change: Lamarck, wake up, you’re wanted in the conference room!"}
{"content":"Like Michael Behe, I read a book by another Michael. Behe and I had the same reaction: Why haven’t we heard any of this stuff before? The answer is that questioning Darwinian orthodoxy essentially represents committing suicide in academia — an institution that promotes tolerance, diversity, free thought, and skepticism as the highest virtues — but which punishes any deviation from Darwinian dogma with draconian suppression, no matter how logical or evidential the challenges might be.\nMichael Denton, in his book Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, challenged that dogma, with no theological or philosophical precommitment as far as I can tell. I would encourage everyone with intellectual curiosity to read that book.\nThe following I find to be one of his most revealing observations concerning the reality of life:\nTo grasp the reality of life as it has been revealed by molecular biology, we must magnify a cell a thousand million times until it is twenty kilometers in diameter, so each atom in it would be the size of a tennis ball, and resembles a giant airship large enough to cover a great city like London or New York. What we would then see would be an object of unparalleled complexity and adaptive design. On the surface of the cell we would see millions of openings, like the portholes of a vast spaceship, opening and closing to allow a continual stream of materials to flow in and out. If we were to enter one of these openings we would find ourselves in a world of supreme technology and bewildering complexity. We would see endless highly organized corridors and conduits branching in every direction away from the perimeter of the cell, some leading to the central memory bank in the nucleus and others to assembly plants and processing units. The nucleus itself would be a vast spherical chamber more than a kilometer in diameter, resembling a geodesic dome inside of which we would see, all neatly stacked together in ordered arrays, the miles of coiled chains of the DNA molecules. A huge range of products and raw materials would shuttle along all the manifold conduits in a highly ordered fashion to and from all the various assembly plants in the outer regions of the cell.\nWe would wonder at the level of control implicit in the movement of so many objects down so many seemingly endless conduits, all in perfect unison. We would see all around us, in every direction we looked, all sorts of robot-like machines… We would see that nearly every feature of our own advanced machines had its analogue in the cell: artificial languages and their decoding systems, memory banks for information storage and retrieval, elegant control systems regulating the automated assembly of components, error fail-safe and proof-reading devices used for quality control, assembly processes involving the principle of prefabrication and modular construction… However, it would be a factory which would have one capacity not equaled in any of our own most advanced machines, for it would be capable of replicating its entire structure within a matter of a few hours…\nUnlike our own pseudo-automated assembly plants, where external controls are being continually applied, the cell’s manufacturing capability is entirely self-regulated…\n[Denton, Michael, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, Adler, 1986, pp. 327 – 331.]"}
{"content":"For those of you who live in the Seattle area (which now includes me), the “Seattle Analytic Philosophy Club” are hosting an event on the 28th of November from 7pm till 9pm in Lake Hills Library (15590 Lake Hills Blvd, Bellevue, WA). Here’s the event description from the website:\nIs there a demarcation between science and pseudoscience? This is the “demarcation problem” made famous by Karl Popper. Popper’s thesis was that falsifiability differentiated science from pseudoscience. However, although Popper’s views are still popular among some scientists, they are widely rejected by philosophers. In fact, most philosophers believe that it is very difficult to find a strict demarcation between science and pseudoscience. This essay explains, in layman’s terms, why this is the case.\nThere is a famous paper called “The Demise of the Demarcation Problem” (unfortunately not available online), by Larry Laudan. Here’s a summary some of Laudan’s arguments (the link is a response to a recent criticism of Laudan by Robert Pennock).\nLaudan argued that since philosophers have been unable to find necessary AND sufficient conditions to demarcate science from pseudoscience, the demarcation problem should be abandoned and we should no longer speak of areas as “unscientific” or “pseudoscience.” Rather, we should just talk about, for example, well-founded and well-confirmed knowledge. To Laudan, creationism is not pseudoscience, it is just bad science.\nBut there is a practical problem here. It is not unconstitutional to teach bad science (this doesn’t violate the Establishment clause). The legal cases against creationism and intelligent design (ID) do depend on demarcation (this is why Laudan, who is definitely no friend of creationism and ID, is often quoted approvingly by defenders of creationism and ID). How did the judges in the McLean vs Arkansas creationism trial and Kitzmiller vs Dover intelligent design trial decide what science was? They largely relied on the testimony of philosophers (Michael Ruse in the Arkansas trial, Robert Pennock in the Dover trial). But some philosophers contend that the philosophical testimony given in these trials was based on questionable and outdated philosophy of science (in other words, the court was given the incorrect impression that philosophers can readily demarcate science from pseudoscience), and the resulting judicial opinions are based on bad philosophy. Larry Laudan writes:\nBut let us be clear about what is at stake. In setting out in the McLean Opinion to characterize the “essential” nature of science, Judge Overton was explicitly venturing into philosophical terrain. His obiter dicta are about as remote from well-founded opinion in the philosophy of science as Creationism is from respectable geology. It simply will not do for the defenders of science to invoke philosophy of science when it suits them (e.g., their much-loved principle of falsifiability comes directly from the philosopher Karl Popper) and to dismiss it as “arcane” and “remote” when it does not. However noble the motivation, bad philosophy makes for bad law.\nLarry Laudan, “Science at the Bar—Causes for Concern.”\nBradley Monton, “Is Intelligent Design Science? Dissecting the Dover Decision.”\nNow some philosophers would say that what demarcates science is METHODOLOGICAL NATURALISM (MN). Per Robert Pennock:\nOntological Naturalism should be distinguished from the more common contemporary view, which is known as methodological naturalism. The methodological naturalist does not make a commitment directly to a picture of what exists in the world, but rather to a set of methods as a reliable way to find out about the world – typically the methods of the natural sciences, and perhaps extensions that are continuous with them – and indirectly to what those methods discover. The principle of MN demands that scientists appeal exclusively to natural causes and mechanisms. MN is conceived of as an intrinsic and self-imposed limitation of science, as something that is part and parcel of the scientific enterprise by definition.\nNow while it may be fine to adopt MN as an operating principle because it has worked so well in past (as philosophers say, a posteriori), a posteriori MN does not commit one to always using MN. On the other hand, if one adopts MN as part of the definition of science (as philosophers say, a priori), this presents a few problems:\nMaarten Boudry, Stefaan Blancke, Johan Braeckman, “How not to attack Intelligent Design Creationism: Philosophical misconceptions about Methodological Naturalism.”\nThe famous philosopher Thomas Nagel addresses the issue of methodological naturalism (among other issues) in his recent controversial article suggesting that Intelligent Design might be taught in public schools.\nIf you don’t think ID is science, how would you respond to Nagel?\nNagel notes that if one says that ID cannot be part of science by definition, this notion is not itself scientifically grounded, and it is hard to say how different this is than holding a religious belief. And if prior religious beliefs could undermine science by leading to conclusions like ID, why does MN not undermine conclusions based upon its assumption?\nUnfortunately it also seems to undermine the scientific status of the rejection of ID. Those who would not take any amount of evidence against evolutionary theory as evidence for ID, like those who would not take evidence against naturalistic explanations of spooky manifestations as evidence for the presence of a ghost, seem to be assuming that ID is not a possibility. What is the status of that assumption? Is it scientifically grounded? It may not be a matter of faith or ecclesiastical authority, but it does seem to be a basic, ungrounded assumption about how the world works, essentially a kind of naturalism. If it operates as an empirically ungrounded boundary on the range of possibilities that can be considered in seeking explanations of what we can observe, why does that not undermine the scientific status of the theories that depend on it, just as much as a somewhat different assumption about the antecedent possibilities?\nIt is often said that this particular set of boundaries is just part of the definition of science. I suspect that this simply reflects the confusion pointed out earlier: the assumption that there cannot be a scientific argument for the presence of a cause that is not itself governed by scientific laws.\nNow of course, one could just argue that ID is bad science, but as previously noted, it is not unconstitutional to teach bad science. Nagel writes:\nThe denier that ID is science faces the following dilemma. Either he admits that the intervention of such a designer is possible, or he does not. If he does not, he must explain why that belief is more scientific than the belief that a designer is possible. If on the other hand he believes that a designer is possible, then he can argue that the evidence is overwhelmingly against the actions of such a designer, but he cannot say that someone who offers evidence on the other side is doing something of a fundamentally different kind. All he can say about that person is that he is scientifically mistaken.\nThere is a recent attack on Laudan’s views from Robert Pennock (the primary philosophy witness for the plaintiff in the Dover case). This paper has generated controversy, including a complaint from Laudan, for its alleged unprofessional tone. Unfortunately, this paper is not available online, but here is the abstract.\nIf Laudan’s view were indeed the norm in philosophy of science, then it is little wonder that some say philosophy is irrelevant to any matters of practical consequence. Is philosophy going to be so removed from the realities of the world that it has nothing of value to say even on topics that ostensibly are its core concerns? It would be a sad commentary on our profession if philosophers could not recognize the difference between real science and a sectarian religious view masquerading as science. When squinting philosophers like Laudan, Quinn and their imitators such as Monton and George purport that there is no way to distinguish between science and pseudoscience or religion they bring to mind Hume’s observation that “Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.” Unfortunately, in giving succor, inadvertently or not, to creation-science and now to ID, such philosophers compound the error, making the ridiculous dangerous.\nIf there is time, we will also discuss the status of the “soft” sciences like psychology and sociology, as well as areas that may be on the borderline of science, such as string theory, evolutionary psychology, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.\nThis slideshow is worthwhile to review as it presents a different view of demarcation. Here is a lecture by the slideshow author (who has 2 PhDs in both evolutionary biology and philosophy).\nI’ve provided quite a few links for those of you with a substantial interest in the issue. If you wanted to just read up quickly on the topic, I would recommend the first “Is Astrology Science” link and the slideshow. I would also recommend the Nagel article which is fairly long (but not technical) but presents a significant challenge if you think that intelligent design has no place in public education on the basis of ID not being science.\nThis promises to be an interesting event. Casey Luskin and myself (Jonathan McLatchie) intend to be there, and it would be good to meet other ID proponents in the area."}
{"content":"Eph 5:22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.\nGal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.\nPatriarchy has great appeal. It appeals to pastors, to many men and women who profess to be Christians, to counselors and others. Obviously it does have this appeal because so many churches embrace it.\nPatriarchy is the teaching/philosophy that men are superior to women by nature. That God has created men and women with the intent that men are to rule over women. Men are in charge. In marriages. In local churches. And if you are a theonomist type, in government and society. It necessarily needs to be so because women are inferior to men in their very essence. More prone to temptation. Weaker. And with an evil bent of being a Jezebel to tempt righteous men to sin. Women are constructed to bear children, be mothers, workers at home, and for the most part leave the real stuff to their hubby.\nNow, as in most any kind of false teaching, there are elements of truth in all this, right? Men and women ARE different. Women, generally speaking, are smaller and physically weaker than men. Women are the mothers of our children. And, like men, women are born into this world as sinners. Many erroneous false teachings we see today try to get around all these things by insisting that men and women really are not different at all. Yeah, right.\nBut what IS the appeal of patriarchy? I can tell you. Patriarchy is EASY. Patriarchy removes the “messes” we face in life. For instance, let’s say a husband and wife come to a pastor for counseling. They are butting heads over some issue. Solution? Well, if the pastor adheres to patriarchy, eazee peezee. “Wife, do what your husband says. The problem here only exists, wife, because you are not obeying your husband. You need to repent and submit.” Understand?\nPatriarchy even protects pastors and church members from having to get their hands all dirty by getting mixed up in some nasty, abusive marriage. No need to stand for the victim against a wicked spouse. No need to pay a price for standing against evil. Nope. All that needs to happen to solve the problem is for the wife to submit. Stay in the abuse like a good suffering Christian saint, and submit. In fact, her failure to submit is regarded as a root cause of the abuse. Pushing his buttons, you know.\nPatriarchy is easy and therefore it is alluring. As a pastor, I have had many husbands and wives come to me for advice in regard to some conflict they are having. It is particularly difficult when you pastor a small church because these “counselees” are also most likely your good friends. Over the years I have lived with the fear of losing my friends over things like this. I don’t like it. I sometimes envy the professional counselor who doesn’t even know his/her clients, gives them 50 minutes and when the timer rings, session over, invoice send in the mail. But then, I am digressing.\nPatriarchy makes counseling a no-brainer. And believe me, there are a lot of men standing in pulpits who are eminently qualified for such mindless “ministry.” Wive, it’s on you. Submit. Obey. Let your husband lead. Problem solved.\nBut we know the problem isn’t solved, is it? Life is far more complicated than that. Many times the answer to a conflict is for the husband to let the wife lead. Why? Because she happens to be, for instance, the one who is most gifted to maintain the finances. Or in another case the husband is the most qualified, because of his particular makeup, to deal with a child-rearing issue. And then, of course, there is the whole evil abuser scenario. Sides must be taken. The evildoer must be confronted and put out. Enemies are made. Separation, divorce, and the courtroom come into play. Why, a church might even have to support the victim and her children financially.\nAnd then there is the whole matter of having to re-examine our long-standing traditions that just may turn out to be the word of man instead of the Word of God. Take those two passages quoted at the top of this article for instance. How do we interpret and apply both of them in light of the other? Wives submit, and yet there is this equality business in Christ that seems to fog up the supposed clarity of patriarchy, you see. Hmmmm.\nNo, can’t have all that. Just give me that good old- time patriarchy. Now where is my bowl of hand-washing water?\nno one down here\nmore hurtful yet is when the man is believed over the woman in every situation for no apparent reason, leaving the woman to speculate if it’s this same gender bias.\nNODH – Very true. If you compare the Pharisees and their system with what goes on in these churches today, you will see an incredible number of parallels. The Pharisees oppressed the widows and orphans. There was an obvious male cult culture that oppressed women. Think of the account of the woman taken in adultery being dragged before Jesus to see what He would do. Where was the man? They wanted to stone her, but the man? That is what is going on in churches in our day. Same thing. No matter what, the man is believed. And when you have that kind of thing, you can know that it is a false church which Jesus has nothing to do with.\nA young mom kept telling my husband (her pastor) that they needed marriage counseling and his reply every time was, “Just submit to your husband and things will be okay.” (Her husband was one of our elders.) I stood by silently because of course, I had no voice, and had to support my husband in all he said. Since I could not support, I chose silence. I need to go to her and ask her forgiveness for my silence which enabled her husband to continue to hit her, something I found out after my husband was removed as pastor and the church closed.\nJeff, would you be so kind as to explore the various meanings of the word “submit” in the NT? I did my own word study but I’m no Greek scholar. I did see that the word translated “submit” has different Greek words when used in terms of wives v slaves. Unfortunately, I think the “wife” word is too often understood as the “slave” word.\nAnonymous – Thank you for sharing part of your story. If you ever want someone to listen to the whole thing I would be glad to (email@example.com).\nHere is what I have found in respect to word studies on “submit.” The answer is not to be found there. Rather, we have to look at the context of these scriptures such as Ephesians 5 and 1 Peter 2-3. And first and foremost, we must understand that in a Christian marriage, the wife’s submission is ALWAYS in the context of a godly, loving husband who is truly following the Lord. If the husband is not such a person, then this entire scenario does not apply. After all, what is the church to do with a man who claims to be a Christian but he abuses his wife? 1 Cor 5 tells us – he is to be put out of the church. Handed over to Satan. Are we to believe that his wife must continue to submit to him? Of course not.\nPeter, in 1 Peter 2-3, says some things that are often twisted for the benefit of the abuser. No matter how evil he is, she must submit to him. Wrong! Peter is dealing with scenarios which existed in his lifetime. 1) A Christian living under an evil Caesar, 2) A slave with an evil master, 3) a Christian wife with an evil husband. Now, ask yourself, what were the choices such people had in those days? Rebel against Caesar? A slave tells his master to take a hike? A wife tells her husband to get lost? I don’t think so. So how, the question is, do you handle situations from which there is no escape? Peter tells us. Be godly. Work hard. Honor the king.\nBut what about situations, as in our day, when you CAN get free of the abuse? When you CAN take action? The police can be called. An abused wife can (when circumstances permit) leave. Yes, there are times today when we are “stuck” at least for a time. And there ARE people in this world in other countries and cultures who are still very much in the same situations as in Peter’s day. But to tell abuse victims that they are required by the Lord to remain in the abuse, to remain with the wicked employer, to never speak against the evil King, is ridiculous. And yet this so often is how Scripture is twisted and victims are further oppressed in their churches.\nIt seems as if in general there is a complete absence of compassion in those who speak so callously. Then there are those who claim to be against demoralization, abuse (in any form) and disloyalty but are silent in the face of circumstances that require action. I appreciate your comment Anonymous and hope that others will take action. As one who was told just to wait it out by some and to seek refuge by others I know there is an awakening in the hearts of those who choose truth over tradition. All lives matter.\nUsing your definition of patriarchy, “Patriarchy is the teaching/philosophy that men are superior to women by nature” – it utterly amazes me that women sign up for and choose to be a part of the movement. I’m not completely ignorant of it all… I had to live in the movement. It was the only church-related anything that the abuser-ex would allow us to be a part of. It fit the lifestyle the abuser wanted, where wife and children basically had to worship him, and were not allowed to question anything. I left the abuse before the largest patriarchy cult leader fell from favor a few years ago; but I always felt sorry for the women in the movement, largely because I was wondering how many were being abused like I was.\nRiley – I think that women get drawn into patriarchy just like so many genuine Christians do. A real Christian wants to serve the Lord. And if you are raised being taught that these human traditions are in fact God’s Word, then you are willing to make any sacrifice to obey Him. The thing is evil and it is incredibly deceptive. Satan knows how to counterfeit. I think that once we wake up and realize that we have been taught lies paraded as Scripture, we all tend to kick ourselves a bit for being so gullible. But then, that is the nature of evil. A seducing lie.\nI wonder sometimes, if the ‘works’ portion of religious groups (like patriarchy) gives people some form of accomplishment, or some level or comfort? So they check the boxes that some man says they need to check (in this case obeying/submitting, following the so-called correct form of counseling, supporting the abusers, shunning the victims, etc.).\nAnd I appreciate what you said about being raised to think that human traditions are in fact God’s Word, and then making a sacrifice to follow that. (Sadly they’ve never been allowed to question tradition, or man’s word. Then if someone does wake up and realize the lies, as you’ve said, it’s easy to feel guilty over being so gullible.)\nno one down here\nThere is another principle at play, which I feel is the strongest argument. God will always defend His righteousness. It may not be immediately (Why do the heathen rage… why do they prosper… I am confused, God… then I remember their end… no confusion. God’s righteousness will prevail.)\nWhen you have a “Christian” man who is abusing someone … God’s name is defamed. This is blasphemy against Holy God. The man claims God in public and in private, but in private consorts with demons. The man claims Christ, but has no love toward the family. The man shows the evidence of being the Proverbs fool. Railing, angry, refusing to control the spirit, arrogant…\nGod will come to the rescue of His sheep who are being oppressed by a wicked, blasphemer. Again, it may not be immediately … Judgement might be slow, or it might be swift. It might be total, or it might seem partial. But, no matter what, God will defend His name. Reference a huge percentage of the Psalms. Psalm 18 really hit me hard when I understood the truth of what God does for the sake of his righteousness. I am God’s child… He looks at me and sees the righteousness of Christ. There was someone oppressing me who claimed the name of Christ. The vileness of the oppression was so deep and the true nature of the man so insidious, the oppression could be called nothing but blasphemy against Yahweh. In faith, the call of a child reaches the Father; the Father comes down in righteous indignation and rescues the child who has no other hope.\nPatriarchy is a monster that cannot be satiated. No matter how many rules that are made, there are always more rules to follow. and most of these rules are for women based on the very narrow role of wife, mother, homebody. From there the rules cover just about every area of a woman’s life, dress, how to keep home, how to raise the kids, the amount of education restricted to the very private things and all of them with the caveat…you will only be pleasing to God if you do these things.\nAnd now the practice of spanking “disobedeint” wives is growing ????????? I shudder to think what rules will come next."}
{"content":"Recently the company has told that it has completed the structure of Talon-A test vehicle. This is known as TA-0. space.com’s Report According to the company has told that after completing the separation testing of TA-0, the company will start work on the flight of its first hypersonic test vehicle. According to Stratolaunch, the company has also started manufacturing a third vehicle, the TA-2. This is the first reusable hypersonic test vehicle.\nThe company is said to be conducting the first drop test with the Roc carrier aircraft and the Talon-A earlier this year. Now it is likely that by the year 2023 the company will achieve full operational capacity. Stratolaunch was founded in 2011 by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. It was then identified as a satellite midair launcher. Although the company completed its first test flight after Paul Allen died of cancer in 2019. In October 2019, it found new owners who envision a hypersonic vehicle.\nHypersonic vehicle refers to aircraft that travel faster than the speed of sound. Along with America, China and Russia are also focusing on such high-speed systems. It is believed that in the coming years, some big discoveries regarding hypersonic aircraft may come to the fore. If their commercial use is possible, then the journey from one country to another will be completed in a very short time.\nGadgets 360 for the latest tech news, smartphone reviews and exclusive offers on popular mobiles Android Download the app and visit us Google News Follow up on"}
{"content":"news agency PTI AccordingInaugurating the portal, Union Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnav has said that Sanchar Saathi Portal Through this, people will be able to block, track and verify the authenticity of a used device before buying it. He said, “The first step of the Sanchar Saathi portal is the CEIR (Central Equipment Identity Register). If you lose your mobile phone, you can go to this portal. Some ID verification, undertaking will be required and soon after that the portal Will start liaising with law enforcement agencies and telecom providers to block the lost mobile phone.”\nThe Union Minister said that Sanchar Saathi has a ‘Know your mobile’ feature, which will help users verify the genuineness of old mobile phones before buying them.\nNot only this, the report says that when asked about the measures being taken by the government to check frauds being done through calls on WhatsApp, the Union Minister said that the Meta-owned app will track any mobile phone involved in fraudulent activities. Has agreed to deactivate the services linked to the phone number.\nHe said that 36 lakh mobile connections have been disconnected for fraud and also their WhatsApp accounts have been blocked."}
{"content":"Community-Based Programs—Family Health Centers at NYU Langone\nFamily Health Centers at NYU Langone’s Community-Based Programs provide social, educational, and emotional support for families, children, and older adults.\nFrom nutrition programs for women who are pregnant to adult day care programs for older adults, our Community-Based Programs aim to meet the needs of the entire family. Services are available in multiple languages.\nOlder Adult and Caregiver Services\nWe offer a social adult day care program for older adults with cognitive or physical impairments, and support for caregivers. Call 347-377-5471 for more information.\nOur main location is the Family Support Center at 6025 Sixth Avenue in Brooklyn. Services and programs are also available at Family Health Centers at NYU Langone locations and other sites throughout Brooklyn.\nWe focus on five areas of service:\n- early childhood services\n- youth and adolescent services\n- community development\n- family strengthening services\n- older adult services\nFor more information on any services provided through our Community-Based Programs, please call 718-630-7171.\nEarly Childhood Services\nOur Early Childhood Services help prepare children for school and support parents and caregivers in building stable and caring relationships with their children.\nOur services include the following programs:\nEarly Childhood Centers\nWe operate four full-day, year-round early childhood centers for children. Our teachers and caregivers create supportive, stimulating, and enriching environments. Locations include:\n- Magical Years Early Childhood Center: 220 60th Street, Brooklyn NY, 11220; 718-439-0450\n- Seventh Avenue Preschool: 4419 Seventh Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, 11220; 347-377-5160\n- Warren Street Center for Children and Families: 343 Warren Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11201; 718-237-9578\n- 14th Street Preschool: 199 14th Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11215; 347-377-5026\nWe also spearhead the Sunset Park Early Learning Network, which aims to expand the capacity of early childhood services in the community and improve the quality of services to ensure that all children enter kindergarten ready to learn. The ELN offers group professional development, on-site coaching and child development associate credentialing for day care centers, family childcare providers, and home visitors as well as family, friend, and neighbor caregivers. For more information, please call 917-921-9622.\nSupport for Women, Infants, and Children\nAccess to food and healthcare resources, as well as breastfeeding support, is available through the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program. To learn more, please call 718-630-7161.\nWe also operate the Family Child Care Network (FCCN), providing subsidized childcare slots as well as additional resources to enhance the learning environment of family child care from birth until age 3. The FCCN works together with providers and families to provide the highest quality care for our communities’ children. For more information, please call 718-630-7150.\nOur family literacy programs support parents in their role as their child’s first teacher.\nThe Reach Out and Read early literacy program encourages parents to read aloud to their children. These language-rich interactions help stimulate brain development in young children.\nSunset Park ParentChild+ is an early literacy, school readiness, and parenting program that encourages parents to talk, read, and play with their young children to support school readiness. A companion program, ParentChild+ Family Child Care, supports home-based childcare providers in their role of helping young children prepare for school.\nVROOM provides tips for caregivers of young children on everyday activities that support child development. Caregivers can receive VROOM tips via direct texts and the free VROOM app.\nFor more information on Family Literacy programs, please call 347-377-4185.\nThe Healthy Families Program is a home visiting program for pregnant women and new parents that supports positive parent–child bonding and relationships. Programming promotes child and family health, development, and safety. It also helps build early literacy and school readiness skills for children. For more information, please call 347-377-5093 or 347-573-1574.\nHealthySteps is a pediatric primary care program that promotes the health, wellbeing, and school readiness of babies and toddlers. The HealthySteps Specialist, a child development expert, addresses common and complex concerns, such as feeding, behavior, sleep, attachment, maternal depression, access to social supports beyond healthcare, and adapting to life with a baby or young child. For more information, please call 646-735-1213.\nThe Video Interaction Project (VIP) provides parenting support sessions that occur during pediatric well-child visits for babies 0-3 years. VIP offers books, toys, video-recordings, and expert advice to help children learn and grow. For more information, please call 718-630-7171.\nYouth and Adolescent Services\nThrough Project Reach Youth, we provide teenagers and young adults with the support they need to be healthy and safe, reach educational and career goals, develop new skills, and prepare for adulthood.\nHigh School Equivalency Prep Program\nThe Basic Education, Pre-High School Equivalency (HSE), and HSE Preparation Program provides education, guidance, and support for people age 17 and a half and older who have not completed high school. Classes, tutoring, counseling, and workshops help participants successfully complete the High School Equivalency Exam and prepare for college and a career.\nFor more information on young adult education programs, please call 718-768-0778.\nProject SAFE Program\nProject SAFE prevents unintended pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS through evidence-based interventions within a youth development framework, building upon the existing strengths of young people. The program provides youth ages 10 to 19 with support to avoid risky behaviors, develop to their full potential, and become agents of change in their communities. The program model includes evidence-based sexual health workshops, peer-led health education groups and community events, and sexual health services designed to meet the unique needs of adolescents. For more information on the Project SAFE Program, please call 718-768-0778.\nThe Project SAFE Teen Health Center, based at the Park Slope Family Health Center at NYU Langone, serves youth between the ages of 13 and 20. Birth control, emergency contraception, gynecological exams, and testing for pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, and HIV are provided. Health education and counseling are also available. For more information on the Project SAFE Teen Health Center, please call 347-880-8042.\nProject TRACK is an afterschool program that provides high school students with the resources and opportunities they need to successfully complete high school and transition into college and career. Services include case management, college advisement, college trips, homework help, tutoring, community service opportunities, and enrichment activities including cooking, the arts, and sports. For more information, please call 718-832-4281.\nCommunity Development Programs\nOur community development programs provide people with the skills they need to effect change in their own lives and in the neighborhoods where they live. This is done through the following programs:\nAdult Education and Workforce Development\nThe Community Empowerment Program provides English language instruction, high school equivalency and basic education classes. The program also offers job trainings focused on the health care and early childhood sectors, career counselingm and other workforce readiness supports. For more information, please call 718-630-7150.\nCommunity Engagement and Volunteerism\nWe work with the AmeriCorps National Service program to help place community service volunteers in stipend-paid, full-time, full-year service opportunities. Volunteers work at Family Health Centers at NYU Langone locations, as well as other partnering agencies. For more information, please call 718-630-7164. To apply, please visit:\nFamily Strengthening Services\nFamily Support Services provide supportive counseling and case management services. We help people apply for public benefits, address immediate needs such as food insecurity and provide referrals to educational, health, legal, housing, and supportive programs best suited to our clients’ needs. Family support counselors speak multiple languages and are available for walk-in appointments. For more information, please call 718-630-7186.\nOur Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program provides nutrition education, supplemental foods, healthcare referrals, and breastfeeding support to pregnant women, infants, and children up to 5 years of age. For more information, please call 718-630-7161.\nGreenlight offers parent education workshops on healthy eating behaviors for children starting at age two months. For more information, please call 718-210-1030.\nThe Family Health Centers is also home to a client-choice food pantry, The Table, which provides emergency food to thousands of people each month. The strategic location of emergency food service at the FHC enables participants to be connected to a continuum of wrap-around services, including access to SNAP food stamps and other benefits that will ensure long-term food security and support the health, stability, and self-sufficiency of the entire family. For more information, please call347-377-4091.\nOlder Adult Services\nOur extensive continuum of Services for Older Adults is here to help support our aging neighbors and their caregivers in the Sunset Park and Bay Ridge neighborhoods. These services are a part of the Family Health Centers’ commitment to helping community members stay socially connected, healthy, and active as they age in place.\nOlder Adult Centers\nWe operate two Older Adult Centers (also known as Senior Centers) available to anyone in New York City over the age of 60, providing daily recreational, educational, and health promotion activities as well as a hot and nutritious lunch. Supportive counseling, case assistance, yoga instruction, computer classes, field trips, arts and crafts, and a variety of other activities are offered each month. Please call the Centers directly for more information:\n- Shore Hill Older Adult Center at 9000 Shore Road; 718-630-7588\n- Sunset Park Older Adult Center at 4520 4th Avenue; 718-210-1050\nSocial Adult Day Services and Caregiver Support\nLocated in Bay Ridge, our Seniors in Touch social adult day program provides social, recreational, and therapeutic activities to older adults living with cognitive or physical impairments. Our program enhances the overall quality of life, wellbeing, and daily functioning of our participants, while providing peace of mind for their caregivers. Door-to-door, wheelchair-accessible transportation is available for program participants.\nCaregiver Support services are offered to caregivers of elderly and frail adults in the community. Monthly support groups, care consultation, and educational workshops are offered. Please call the program at 347-377-5471, for more details about social adult day and caregiver resources.\nFor more information on any services provided through Community-Based Programs—Family Health Centers at NYU Langone, please call 718-630-7171."}
{"content":"In the not-too-distant past, museums and the arts were agents of hard power. Wards initially of royal courts and then nation states, museums were repositories of hard power—safeguarding the spoils of war and human conquest...KEEP READING\nCanadian Professor Sarah Smith joins CPD this Spring\nProfessor Sarah E.K. Smith joins the USC Center on Public Diplomacy for the spring 2015 semester as the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in Public Diplomacy. She will pursue her research on the intersection of culture, economics and globalization, and teach in USC’s Master of Public Diplomacy program.\nProfessor Smith is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. She holds a doctorate in Art History from Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, and was awarded the Governor General’s Academic Gold Medal in 2014.\nHer current research project, Canada and the Americas: Examining Art, Canada-US Relations and Pan Americanism During the Twentieth Century, examines the role that art exhibitions and museums played in the drive for American hemispheric integration. Through examination of three U.S.-based institutions (a cultural centre, gallery and museum), she explores how exhibitions of visual art and arts institutions acted to structure new ways of understanding the Americas, and how national projects were managed under the transnational Pan American grouping.\nFor Smith’s full bio, click here.\nTo see a list of previous Canadian-U.S. Fulbright Visiting Research Chairs in Public Diplomacy (among other Visiting Scholars), please click here.\nVisit CPD's Online Library\nExplore CPD's vast online database featuring the latest books, articles, speeches and information on international organizations dedicated to public diplomacy."}
{"content":"The central bank has less control over market interest rates today than at any time in its history.\nBy Phil Gramm and Thomas R. Saving\nJune 17, 2019 7:17 pm ET\nWhen the Federal Open Market Committee’s meeting concluded last month, reporters focused on the federal-funds rate, announcing that it would be held constant at 2.25% to 2.5%. Unnoticed by even the financial media, and unmentioned in the lead section of the FOMC’s statement, was its decision to cut the interest rate the Federal Reserve pays on bank reserves—a rate that, unlike the fed-funds rate, still has a direct effect on the money supply. The Fed cut the rate paid on reserves because the market yield on one-year Treasurys had fallen below it, inducing banks to build up excess reserves. When banks expand reserve holdings, the money supply contracts—so the Fed was forced to act.\nBut it wasn’t enough. Because market rates have continued falling since the last FOMC meeting, even the lower rate that the Fed now pays on reserves is 0.35 percentage point higher than Friday’s yield on one-year Treasurys and 0.25 point above the yield on 10-year Treasurys. The return differential has caused banks to increase excess reserves by 5.5%, or $65 billion, over the past month. The size of these yield spreads and the buildup of excess reserves virtually guarantee that the Fed will again cut the interest paid on reserves at Tuesday’s FOMC meeting.\nThe rate paid on reserves receives too little attention. As a result of the unprecedented monetary easing of the Obama era, when the Fed bought or offset 45% of all federal debt issued—more than five times the amount it bought to support the World War II effort—commercial banks now hold massive excess reserves. By paying interest on reserves, the Fed effectively converted them into income-yielding assets, giving banks an incentive to hold excess reserves instead of expanding credit and the money supply. As banks became awash in liquidity, they all but stopped engaging in borrowing and lending in the overnight fed-funds market. The fed-funds market has contracted 80% since 2008, meaning the fed-funds rate has almost no direct effect on monetary policy.\nThe rate the Fed pays on reserves has eclipsed the fed-funds rate as its key monetary tool, with a much more direct influence over the money supply. If the interest rate on reserves is set near the market rate, other things being the same, the money supply will remain unchanged. If market interest rates rise above the rate the Fed pays on bank reserves, banks will expand loans, and the money supply will increase. If the Fed sets the rate it pays on reserves above the market alternative for banks, they will expand their excess reserve holding and the money supply will shrink.\nBefore the Fed started paying interest on reserves, and before banks held more reserves than they have demand deposits outstanding, the money supply changed when the Fed acted. Now when market rates change, the money supply also changes unless the Fed acts.\nAs the Fed acquired assets in its three monetary easings, the interest it paid on the reserves induced banks to hold the resulting excess reserves pumped into the banking system. Reserves then earned an average of 0.095 percentage point more than the yield on one-year Treasurys. After quadrupling its balance sheet over eight years the Fed started to sell down the assets on its balance sheet in October 2017. The Fed sold off Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities, and set the rate it paid on reserves so that one-year Treasurys paid 0.43 percentage point more than reserves and 10-year Treasurys paid 1.08 points more.\nAs a result, banks reduced their reserve holdings enough to offset the effects of Fed asset sales on bank reserves and the money supply. In what was a clear policy success, in the first year of its asset-reduction program the Fed managed to sell $300 billion of assets and induced banks to reduce excess reserves by $467 billion. This expanded the money supply modestly without disrupting prices or spiking interest rates.\nThe yield on 10-year Treasurys has fallen to 2.12% this month from 3.24% in November 2018—perhaps due to the rush of foreign earnings repatriated after the 2017 federal tax cuts, the inflow of foreign capital attracted by the surge in U.S. growth, or the fall in domestic investment triggered by massive trade uncertainty. In the past month banks have increased excess reserves by more than $64 billion at the same time the Fed reduced overall bank reserves by selling $33 billion of assets.\nTo prevent an outright contraction of the money supply and the economic disruption it could cause, the FOMC will be forced at its Tuesday meeting either to reduce dramatically the interest the Fed pays on reserves or end its debt wind-down and begin buying securities in the open market. The Fed will likely also cut the upper limit of the fed-funds rate to signal its goal of further monetary easing.\nNever in the Fed’s 105-year history has it had less control over market interest rates than it has today. As long as the Fed maintains its bloated balance sheet and the banking system holds massive excess reserves, the Fed will be required to respond to changes in market rates by either adjusting the rate it pays on reserves or using other policy tools to offset the impact market-rate changes have on bank reserve holdings and the money supply. To expect the Fed to hold interest rates above or below the market rate under these circumstances is not only naive but dangerous.\nMr. Gramm is a former chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. Mr. Saving is a former director of the Private Enterprise Research Center at Texas A&M University.\nAppeared in the June 18, 2019, print edition."}
{"content":"Ozone Sauna Therapy : A Comprehensive Guide\nAbstract: If you are looking for a natural way to detoxify your body, boost anti-aging and tissue repair, as well as improve your overall wellness, consider ozone sauna therapy. This alternative therapy has gained popularity in recent years thanks to its amazing benefits.\nIn this blog post, you’ll explore everything about ozone sauna therapy, how it works, its benefits, how to find the right provider, etc.\nWhat is Ozone Sauna Therapy?\nOzone therapy also known as an ozone steam sauna is a type of sauna therapy that uses ozone gas in combination with heat to promote healing and wellness. That said, it has been used for medical purposes since the early 20th century.\nIn simple words, ozone is a naturally occurring gas composed of three oxygen atoms (O3), and it’s created by passing pure oxygen through a medical grade ozone generator. The gas is then infused into the sauna chamber, where it mixes with the air and is absorbed into the body through the skin and lungs.\nEssentially you get all the same benefits as ozone injections without the uncomfortable burn associated with itch direct ozone injection.\nNote: During the therapy, the patient does not breathe in the ozone gas while sitting in the sauna. Aside from the head, the patient’s entire body will sit inside a sauna chamber for a period of time, typically between 20-30 minutes. The therapy is believed to have potential benefits for a range of health conditions, including inflammatory conditions, chronic infections, , autoimmune disorders, skin conditions, and chronic pain.\nHow Does it Work?\nThe heat and humidity inside the sauna cause your pores to open, allowing the ozone to penetrate deep into your skin and tissues. Once inside, the ozone triggers peroxides to increase ATP production in the mitochondria of uour cells.. it also reacts with toxins, viruses, and bacteria, breaking them down into harmless byproducts that your body can eliminate through sweat, urine, or feces.\nBenefits of Ozone Steam Sauna/Ozone Sauna:\nSome of the potential benefits of ozone sauna therapy include:\n- Boosts blood circulation and further helps injured soft tissues to repair quickly.\n- Improves immune function and cardiovascular health.\n- Reduces inflammation and pain.\n- Enhances skin health and reduces the appearance of wrinkles.\n- Reduces stress and anxiety.\n- Eliminates bacterial and viral infections of all kinds.\n- Relaxes and loosens sore muscles.\n- It is known for its anti-aging effect.\n- Improves sleep quality.\n- Increases energy and vitality.\nHere are some potential side effects of ozone sauna, largely from “detoxing”. It includes:\n- Pimples or Rashes\n- Respiratory Irritation if inhaling high concentration for prolonged period.\n- Skin Irritability if the ozone concentration is too high or the sauna is too hot.\nHow Safe it is?\nOzone has an amazing track record of superior safely. It is directly converted into peroxides and oxygen in the body, making it remarkably safe for users of all ages.\nWho can use ozone sauna therapy?\nThe therapy may be suitable for people who are looking for alternative therapies to treat a range of health conditions. However, it's important to note that the therapy may not be suitable for everyone. Pregnant women, people who have a heart condition, or have a history of respiratory problems should avoid ozone sauna therapy.\nProcedure and Protocols:\nThings to be kept in mind while undergoing this therapy. It's recommended to follow the protocols and precautions set by the practitioner to ensure your safety and maximize the benefits. Some of the common protocols and precautions include:\n- Drinking plenty of water before and after the session.\n- Starting with one session your first week and then building up to a max of three sessions per week. There is no evidence that exceeding three sessions per week has a greater benefit than 3 in a 7 day period.\n- If you experience any rashes or skin irritation, then reduce the session duration. If the symptoms become severe then discontinue the session until you become better.\n- Taking electrolytes, vitamin C, glutathione, tryptophan and niacin can make therapy more effective.\nOzone sauna therapy is available in several wellness centers, spas, and clinics. However, it’s important to do your research about the provider before undergoing treatment. An ozone sauna should always use MEDICAL GRADE OZONE. Also, some facilities provide supportive supplement guidance and other helpful tips to make it more effective. Check twice or thrice before starting your treatment.\nHow to Find the Right Provider?\nIf you are interested in trying the ozone sauna therapy, and constantly looking for a qualified practitioner nearby? Visit Utah Spine & Sport clinic, one of the best Chiropractic clinics in Utah to get your first ozone therapy session.\nThe clinic was founded by Dr. Dallas Makin in 2009. That said, it is one of the finest medical centers that offer services such as Chiropractic care, Ozone therapy. Regenerative Medicine, Whiplash Care, Cryosauna whole-body cryotherapy, and various services, etc.\nMeet Our Team of Doctors:\nDr. Dallas makin:\nDr. Dallas Makin is a Sports and Whiplash Chiropractic Specialist who utilizes Chiropractic, Acupuncture, Regenerative Medicine, and Ozone Injections to get his patients back to the things they love… fast and without drugs and surgery!\nBeing an athlete himself, Dr. Makin has always understood firsthand what an athlete is going through when suffering from an injury.\nHe has had the privilege of treating tens of thousands of athletes in his 14 years of practice, including athletes at all levels; world record holders, pro, semi-pro, collegiate, high school, youth, weekend warriors, stay-at-home moms, and everything in between.\nHis experience has helped him develop the unique ability to quickly identify a patient’s problem and prescribe the ideal treatment approach to get the fastest results possible with the least amount of interruption to their sports or activities. Faster results also mean saving you money!\nDr. Makin remains a sports enthusiast and loves skiing, running, cycling, pickleball, and racquetball. As well as spending time with his wife, Abi, and 4 rambunctious kids, playing board games, traveling, eating Leatherby’s ice cream on the weekend, watching movies and sports, and tinkering.\nDr. Trayce Esteban:\nDr. Trayce Esteban is a chiropractor who is passionate about serving his community and helping people achieve their goals through chiropractic. He earned his Doctor of Chiropractic from Parker University in Dallas, Texas where he graduated as valedictorian of his class. During his time at Parker, he also earned his Master of Science in Functional Nutrition. Prior to Parker he attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.\nGrowing up he had a passion for playing sports and would receive care from his local chiropractor for any of his injuries. He witnessed the power and the long-term benefits that come from chiropractic care and proper nutrition. This is what eventually led him to embark on the journey to chiropractic school.\nDr. Esteban loves spending time with his wife, Brooklyn, and their son, Grayson. He enjoys playing sports and being outdoors. He loves serving others and has dedicated his life to seeing others get better through chiropractic care."}
{"content":"Common cold isn’t deadly, but it can be a true damper on your week thanks to its irritating symptoms. Below are some common household remedies that you can use to combat common cold and gain some relief.\n- Apple Cider Vinegar for Common Cold\n- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar\n- 1 glass warm water\nCombine vinegar with warm water and drink it. Add local raw honey if the mixture isn’t palatable.\nDrink 2-3 glasses every day or until symptoms last.\nWhy This Works\nThe apple cider vinegar balances your body’s pH levels making the environment of your body unsuitable for viruses to thrive.\n- Epsom Salt Bath for Common Cold\n- 1 cup Epsom salt\n- A bathtub\n- Warm water\n- Fill the tub with warm water.\n- Keep the water as hot as you can withstand.\n- Pour in Epsom salt and thoroughly mix it in the water.\n- Soak in the bathwater for a minimum of 20 minutes.\nNote: If you do not have access to bath, you can soak your feet in a bucket of warm water with 1/4 cup of Epsom salt instead.\nRepeat every other day for one week.\nWhy This Works\nSteam baths help to relieve your body from fatigue and decongest the nasal passageways caused by the cold. The Epsom salt acts as a detoxifying agent as well as muscle relaxant.\n- Essential Oils for Common Cold\n- 4-5 drops peppermint oil/eucalyptus oil\n- Mix both the oil together then apply them to your neck, chest, and forehead.\n- Leave it for as long as possible so your body can absorb them.\n- Another method is to take a bath infused with the essential oil. Use the same procedure as the Epsom salt bath.\nHow Often You Should Do This\nApply the ois twice a day until cold symptoms disappear ."}
{"content":"Utilizing gene therapy to combat age-related diseases.\nRejuvenate Bio addresses the major cause of aging and age-related diseases by manipulating gene expression. Over time, gene expression dysregulates, leading multiple systems in the body to break down. Gene therapy addresses this by expressing beneficial proteins by directly introducing DNA to the cell, eliminating off-target effects. By using longevity-based genes, the company is able to offer therapies with robust safety profiles to specific, chronic conditions.\nQuick Facts for Investors\nWhy We Invested\nRarely does an opportunity exist to monetize animal trials while conducting research for human trials and applications. The combination of talent on this leadership team represents VCapital’s belief that the jockey is as important as the horse in analyzing potential for success.\nThe total addressable market (TAM) for Rejuvenate Bio’s therapy is significant. Sixty-seven percent of U.S. households, or about 85 million families, own a pet, according to the 2019-2020 National Pet Owners Survey conducted by the American Pet Products Association (APPA). Currently, there are 90 million dogs owned as pets in the United States. Seven percent of all dogs will develop MVD, representing a market valued at $4.2B. The current standard of care for MVD is a small molecule, Vetmedin from Boehringer Ingelheim, that does not cure the actual disease but has proven to reduce symptoms. Vetmedin generates approximately $100 million of revenue annually. Rejuvenate Bio’s recent results show that their therapy not only stopped progression of MVD, but also reversed it. We believe demand for Rejuvenate Bio’s treatment will be significant. Currently, the company has partnered with the American Cavalier King Charles Club to run a pilot trial for cavaliers and estimates that they can reach 70% of the top-end pet health market."}
{"content":"L’ancien ministre de la défense propose un plan en cinq points pour trouver une issue à la crise Irakienne.\nPar Ali Allawi, The Independent, janvier 2007\nThe Iraqi state that was formed in the aftermath of the First World War has come to an end. Its successor state is struggling to be born in an environment of crises and chaos. The collapse of the entire order in the Middle East now threatens as the Iraq imbroglio unleashes forces in the area that have been gathering in virulence over the past decades.\nIt took the American-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the mismanagement of the country by both the Coalition Provisional Administration and subsequent Iraqi governments, to bring matters to this dire situation.\nWhat was supposed to be a straightforward process of overthrowing a dictatorship and replacing it with a liberal-leaning and secular democracy under the benign tutelage of the United States, has instead turned into an existential battle for identity, power and legitimacy that is affecting not only Iraq, but the entire tottering state system in the Middle East.\nThe Iraq war is a global predicament of the first order and its resolution will influence the course of events in the Middle East and beyond for a considerable time. What we are witnessing in Iraq is the beginning of the unravelling of the unjust and unstable system that was carved out of the wreckage of the Ottoman Empire. It had held for nearly 100 years by a mixture of foreign occupation,outside meddling, brutal dictatorships and minority rule.\nAt the same time, it signally failed in providing a permanent sense of legitimacy to its power, engaged its citizens in their governance, or provided a modicum of well-being and a decent standard of existence for its people.\nThe Key Challenges\nThe nature and scope of the Iraq crisis can be encapsulated in the emergence of four vital issues that have challenged the entire project for remaking the Iraq state. In one form or another, these forces also affect the countries of the Arab Middle East, as well as Turkey and Iran, and the relationships between all of them.\nFirstly, the invasion of Iraq tipped the scales in favour of the Shia, who are now determined to emerge as the governing majority after decades, if not centuries, of perceived disempowerment and oppression. The consequences of this historic shift inside Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East are incalculable.\nSecondly, the invasion of Iraq legitimised the semi-independent region that Iraq’s Kurds had forged over the past decade. The Kurds whose rights to self-determination were acknowledged in the 1920 Sevres Treaty, and then subsequently ignored by the states of the post-Ottoman Middle East, have received an enormous fillip in their march towards recognition of their unique status.\nWhat is still left to be decided is the geographic extent of the Kurdish region in Iraq, and whether it would have proprietary access to the resources of that area. This may prove a way station to the beginnings of the formation of a Kurdish state. The challenges that will pose to the integrity and self-definition of Turkey, Iran and Syria now or in the future is another formidable side effect of the overthrow of the old Baathist state.\nThirdly, the uneven, poorly prepared and messy introduction in Iraq of democratic norms for elections, constitution-writing and governance structures is a stark break with the authoritarian and dictatorial systems that have prevailed in the Middle East. While the Iraqi experiment has so far been marred by violence, irregularities and manipulation, it is quite likely to survive as the mechanism through which governments will be chosen in the future.\nLastly, the overthrow of Saddam coincided with the attempts by Iran to assert its influence and to gain entry into regional counsels. That has exercised a number of countries in the area no end, giving rise to alarmist warnings of Iranian hegemonistic designs and \"Shia crescents\". The responses that are being planned for the perceived threat are terrifying in their implications, with scant attention paid to their consequences to the peace and stability of the area.\nIraq was used as a foil to revolutionary Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, with devastating consequences for both. We are witnessing a possible reprise, the consequence of which, if the new warmongers get their way, will be catastrophic for it will go to the heart of the fragile societies of the Middle East. Shia will be pitted against Sunni not only in Iraq but in Lebanon, and the Gulf countries.\nDangers of Sunni Insurgency\nIn the sterile world of zero-sum politics, the loss of power of the Sunni Arab community in Iraq was soon translated into a raging insurgency that challenged not only the US occupation but also the new political dispensation.\nThe insurgency fed on the deep resentment Sunni Arabs felt to their loss of power and prestige. It has been aggravated by the fact it was a totally unexpected force that achieved the impossible- the dethronement of the community from centuries of power in favour of, as they saw it, a rabble led by Persianate clerics. The Sunni Arabs’ refusal to countenance any serious engagement with the new political order had effectively pushed them into a cul-de-sac and has played into the hands of their most determined enemies.\nThe state is now moving inexorably under the control of the Shia Islamists, albeit with a supporting role for the Kurds. The boundaries of Shia-controlled Baghdad are moving ever westwards so that the capital itself may fall entirely under the sway of the Shia militias.\nThe only thing stopping that is the deployment of American troops to block the entry of the Shia militias in force into these mixed or Sunni neighbourhoods. The geographic space outside Baghdad in which the insurgency can flourish will persist but the country will be inevitably divided. Under such circumstances, the power of the Shia’s demographic advantage can only be counter-balanced by the Sunni Arabs’ recourse to support from the neighbouring Arab states. It is inconceivable that such an outcome can possibly lead to a stable Iraqi state unless one side or another vanquishes its opponent or if the country is divided into separate states.\nImpact of Shia Ascendancy\nThe response to these existential challenges emanating from the invasion of Iraq, both inside Iraq and in the Arab world has been panic-stricken or fearful, and potentially disastrous to the stability in the area and the prospects for its inhabitants.\nThe Arab countries of the Middle East have been unable to adjust to events in Iraq, not so much because of the contagion effect of the changes that have taken place there. This had virtually disappeared as Iraq cannot be seen as model for anything worth emulating. It has less to do with the instability that might spill over from the violence in the country. It is more to do with accommodating an unknown quantity into a system that can barely acknowledge pluralism and democracy, let alone a Shia ascendancy in Iraq.\nEgypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, linchpins of the American security order in the Arab world, cannot accept the principle of a Shia-dominated Iraq, each for its own reasons. They will do their utmost to thwart such a possibility, and failing that, will probably try to isolate such an entity from regional counsels\nImplications for Middle East\nIt is this with this backdrop that solutions are being proffered to resolve the Iraqi crisis. However, rather than treat the problem in a much wider context, each party is determined to stake out its narrow position irrespective of its effects on other communities, groups and countries.\nThe seeds of another 100 years of crisis are being sown, with the Middle East consigned to decades of turbulence and the persistence of unmitigated hatreds and grudges. The most serious issue that is emerging is the exacerbation of sectarian differences between Shia and Sunni. That is a profoundly dangerous issue for it affects not only Iraq but also Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon and the Gulf countries.\nIt is plausible that the cost of a Shia ascendancy in Iraq, if it is marked as such, will be further pressure on the vulnerable Shia communities in the Gulf countries. There is already the rekindling of anti-Shia rhetoric in a remarkably similar rerun to the pattern that accompanied the Saudi-led campaign to contain the Iranian revolution in the 1980s. The effect of that was the rise of the jihadi culture that was the harbinger of mass terrorism and suicide bombings.\nThis may drag the entire area into war or even the forced movement of people as fearful countries seek to \"quarantine\" or expel their Shia population.\nIt requires genuine vision and statesmanship to pull the Middle East from its death spiral. The elements of a possible solution are there if the will exists to postulate an alternative to the politics of fear, bigotry and hatred.\nThe first step must be the recognition that the solution to the Iraq crisis must be generated first internally, and then, importantly, at the regional level. The two are linked and the successful resolution of one would lead to the other.\nNo foreign power, no matter how benevolent, should be allowed to dictate the terms of a possible historic and stable settlement in the Middle East. No other region of the world would tolerate such a wanton interference in its affairs.\nThat is not to say that due consideration should not be given to the legitimate interests of the great powers in the area, but the future of the area should not be held hostage to their designs and exclusive interests.\nSecondly, the basis of a settlement must take into account the fact that the forces that have been unleashed by the invasion of Iraq must be acknowledged and accommodated. These forces, in turn, must accept limits to their demands and claims. That would apply, in particular, to the Shias and the Kurds, the two communities who have been seen to have gained from the invasion of Iraq.\nThirdly, the Sunni Arab community must become convinced that its loss of undivided power will not lead to marginalisation and discrimination. A mechanism must be found to allow the Sunni Arabs to monitor and regulate and, if need be, correct, any signs of discrimination that may emerge in the new Iraqi state.\nFourthly, the existing states surrounding Iraq feel deeply threatened by the changes there. That needs to be recognised and treated in any lasting deal for Iraq and the area.\nA way has to be found for introducing Iran and Turkey into a new security structure for the Middle East that would take into account their legitimate concerns, fears and interests. It is far better that these countries are seen to be part of a stable order for the area rather than as outsiders who need to be confronted and challenged.\nThe Iraqi government that has arisen as a result of the admittedly flawed political process must be accepted as a sovereign and responsible government. No settlement can possibly succeed if its starting point is the illegitimacy of the Iraqi government or one that considers it expendable.\nA Brighter Future\nThe end state of this process would be three interlinked outcomes. The first would be a decentralised Iraqi state with new regional governing authorities with wide powers and resources.\nDevolution of power must be fair, well planned, and executed with equitable revenue-distribution. Federal institutions would have to act as adjudicators between regions. Security must be decentralised until such time as confidence between the communities is re-established.\nThe second essential outcome would be a treaty that would establish a confederation or constellation of states of the Middle East, initially including Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. The main aim of the confederation would be to establish a number of conventions and supra-regional bodies that would have the effect of acting as guarantors of civil, minority and community rights.\nThe existence of such institutions can go a long way towards removing the anxiety disadvantaged groups feel when confronted with the radical changes sweeping the area. The gradual build up of such supra-national institutions in the proposed confederation may also expand to cover an increased degree of economic integration and harmonisation.\nThat may include a regional development body which would help establish and fund common energy and infrastructure policies. Lastly, an indispensable end outcome is a regional security pact that would group the countries of the Arab Middle East with Iran and Turkey, at first in some form of anti-terrorism pact, but later a broader framework for discussing and resolving major security issues that impinge on the area as a whole.\nThat would also provide the forum for combating the spread of virulent ideologies and sectarian hatreds and provide the basis for peacefully containing and resolving the alarm that some countries feel from the apparent expansion of Iranian influence in the area.\nThe Importance of the US\nIt was the US that launched this phase of the interminable Middle East crisis, by invading Iraq and assuming direct authority over it. Whatever project it had for Iraq has vanished, a victim of inappropriate or incoherent policies, and the violent upending of Iraq’s power structures.\nNevertheless, the US is still the most powerful actor in the Iraq crisis, and its decisions can sway the direction and the manner in which events could unfold.\nIn other areas of the world, the US has used its immense influence and power to cement regional security and economic associations. There is no reason why the regional associations being mooted in conjunction with a decentralised Iraqi state, could not play an equally important part in resolving the Iraqi crisis and dispersing the dangerous clouds threatening the region.\nThe Iraqi proposals\n1 Iraq government calls for regional security conference including Iraq’s neighbours to produce an agreement/treaty on non-intervention and combating terrorism. Signatory states will be responsible to set of markers for commitments.\nPurpose : To reduce/eliminate neighbouring countries’ support for insurgents, terrorists and militias.\n2 Iraq government calls for preparatory conference on a Middle-Eastern Confederation of States that will examine proposals on economic, trade and investment union. Proposals will be presented for a convention on civil, human and minority rights in the Near East, with a supreme court/tribunal with enforcement powers.\nPurpose : To increase regional economic integration and provide minorities in signatory countries with supra-national protection.\n3 Iraq government calls for an international conference on Iraq that would include Iraq, its regional neighbours, Egypt, the UAE, the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia and China that would aim to produce a treaty guaranteeing :\na. Iraq’s frontiers. b. The broad principles of Iraq’s constitutional arrangements. c. Establishing international force to replace the multi-national force over 12 to 18 months. Appointing international co-ordinator to oversee treaty implementation.\nPurpose : To arrange for the gradual and orderly withdrawal of American troops, ensure that Iraq develops along constitutional lines, confirm Iraq and its neighbours’ common frontiers.\n4 Iraq government will introduce changes to government by creating two statuary bodies with autonomous financing and independent boards :\na. A reconstruction and development council run by Iraqi professionals and technocrats with World Bank/UN support. b. A security council which will oversee professional ministries of defence, interior, intelligence and national security.\nPurpose : To remove the reconstruction and development programme from incompetent hands and transfer them to an apolitical, professional and independent body. Also to remove the oversight, command and control over the security ministries from politicised party control to an independent, professional and accountable body.\n5 The entire peace plan, its preamble and its details must be put before the Iraqi parliament for its approval."}
{"content":"Any thoughts on the authentisity of this device as a potential spacecraft ?\nThey include the following movie a claimed tethered test flight;\nvideo of nylon tethered craft\nAnyone know if the method used in the demonstration model would work outside of Earths atmosphere or is this some bad astronomy hoax?\nThe people who put up the site claim that the craft uses asymmetrical Poynting Flow for generating thrust.\n<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Phobos on 2001-10-27 07:50 ]</font>"}
{"content":"As growing sectarian violence across Iraq renews fears of civil war, journalists gathered in New York this week to talk about their experiences reporting in the country over the past decade.\nPakistani journalist Najam Sethi was in the United States last week to talk about the challenges facing his country at a critical moment. Ever the contrarian, he also sees opportunities. \"For the first time the media is challenging the military,\" he told an audience of friends and colleagues at CPJ offices in New York. \"That's the biggest positive development out of the whole Pakistan debacle.\"\nDo you believe the free flow of information must be protected? Sign the #RightToReport petition and demand that President Obama immediately:\n1. Issue a presidential policy directive prohibiting the hacking and surveillance of journalists and media organizations.\n2. Limit aggressive prosecutions that ensnare journalists and intimidate whistleblowers.\n3. Prevent the harassment of journalists at the U.S. border.\nOr click here to see the full petition, and join leading journalists like Christiane Amanpour, The Guardian’s Alan Rusbridger, Editor of the AP Kathleen Carroll, and Arianna Huffington in signing on."}
{"content":"Peak Education’s offices are tucked into the third floor of a Victorian on north Nevada. It’s a historic building, meaning it’s a walk-up, so the folks who work there climb up and down the stairs all day long.\nBut that’s nothing compared to the many hurdles that must be overcome by the low-income students who are helped by Peak Education’s efforts.\nThey are the kids who live in some of our toughest neighborhoods, places where poverty is an everyday fact of life, where parents are often absent, jobs scarce and hardship a constant accompaniment.\nYou might have seen the story about Peak Education in The Gazette recently. Dalton Conner, who co-founded the organization 13 years ago, told me it took him a lot longer than usual to get out of church last Sunday. People who had read the piece kept stopping him to applaud his work and express their support.\nConner and Peak Education co-founder Steve Mullens deserve the kudos. Over the years, the nonprofit they established has helped some 90 students make it into college.\nAs importantly, Peak Education has helped those kids make it through college by helping them to prepare for an environment that can be intimidating and certainly foreign.\nDee Beaudette, the CEO of the nonprofit, shared some depressing statistics on the issue that underscore the need.\nAccording to a 2005 study, only about one in 17 young people from the nation’s poorest families, those earning less than $35,377 a year, can expect to earn a bachelor’s degree by age 24. By comparison, students from the nation’s wealthiest families, those who earn about $85,000 or higher, the number is better than one in two.\nA USA Today analysis several years ago found only one in four degree-seeking students at two-year colleges go on to earn a degree or certificate. And although graduation rates at selective public colleges rose sharply from 1990 to 2002, from 61 percent to 74.6 percent, graduation rates at open-admissions colleges, which admit anyone with a high school diploma, dropped from 42 percent to 25.8 percent.\nThe problem, in part, is that too many of our schools are doing a poor job of preparing these kids, but that’s a topic for another column.\nThe figures reflect how big a challenge Peak Education faces in trying to help just a handful of students each year to embark on a life they might never have imagined without a bit of help.\nHoping to reach even more kids, Peak Education is about to embark on a new road itself.\nHistorically, it has written checks out of its small endowment and helped students find additional grant and scholarship dollars from various sources.\nMoving forward, Peak Education is now looking to help companies that offer scholarships maximize their generosity.\nIt wants to create alliances with these companies, foundations and others to help them shepherd their scholarship dollars and, as importantly, the students as they make their way through their undergraduate years and beyond.\nThe local Moniker Foundation, which has provided a number of scholarships to low-income students over the years, was the first to align with Peak Education in this way. It found that Peak Education’s approach of following the kids from their middle school years all the way through college just made sense and could help reverse some of the more negative stats.\nI can imagine that companies that regularly award scholarships also regularly wonder what happened to the student who received their gift.\nThe job of tracking scholarship recipients typically falls onto the shoulders of an already stretched human-resources department.\nPeak Education is offering to take over that job, assuming the responsibility of shepherding a child through some of the most critical years of their life and ensuring the dollars invested by right-minded donors aren’t wasted.\nIf it succeeds, Peak Education will have as many as 400 students under its wing at any given moment, or about four times as many as it now guides through the process.\nIt will have grown considerably, with little more than perhaps a slight adjustment in how companies it works with handle the distribution of their scholarship dollars.\nIn other words, Peak Education hopes to do a lot of good by leveraging what individual companies and others might find difficult to pull off on their own.\nThat makes good business sense to me.\nOne more thought on the topic of education this week: Be sure to read Business Journal reporter Rebecca Tonn’s story in this issue about plans by Junior Achievement of Southern Colorado to develop what it calls BizTown and Finance Park.\nThese initiatives are designed to help develop a better-prepared workforce; they both merit your support.\nAllen Greenberg is the editor of the Colorado Springs Business Journal. He can be reached at email@example.com or 719-329-5206."}
{"content":"#72: Building a Website (2 of 3): HTML/CSS Conversion\nIn part 2 of this series, we begin the HTML/CSS conversion of the Photoshop mockup we created in part one. We start with a very skeletal project framework. Then we take a look at the Photoshop file layer organization. Then we start from the bottom up, creating the pieces we need from the Photoshop file and writing the HTML and CSS we need to get the job done. Much of the work isn't actually \"slicing\" the Photoshop file, but looking closely at it and trying to mimic what is done there with correct markup and CSS techniques."}
{"content":"Sunday, July 10, 2011\nTennessee Tops In Storing Radioactive Waste\nEast TN actress Park Overall has been a most vocal promoter demanding complete accountability when it comes to the deeply dangerous radioactive waste which is ending up Hawkins County and other sites in our Tennessee.\nAt a recent radio interview with WRGS, cited in the Rogersville Review, she continues her efforts to - at the least - inform residents of what is happening in their communities and says standards basically do not exist to protect our communities:\n\"One night it was decided that low level radioactive waste, secretly and you all don't know about this, will be stored in a kitchen dump. What is a kitchen dump? It is a landfill with no liner,\" Overall charged. \"You have a kitchen dump in Hawkins County.\"\n\"Tennessee is the only state accepting nuclear waste at this time. If you want to do anything about it you had better call (U. S. Senators) Lamar Alexander or (Bob) Corker or (Congressman) Phil Roe. You need to let it be known that we don't want to be the nuclear dumping ground of the United States and right now we're it,\" she said.\nOverall suggested the Nuclear Information Resource Service Website, www.nirs.org, as a valuable tool for public information.\n\"That will tell you that they are chopping up the world's waste and burning up the world's waste and putting it right here in Tennessee,\" Overall said. \"No one asked you if that was okay.\"\nThe actress also questioned the standards the NRC uses, including the acronym ALARA, which stands for \"as low as reasonably achievable.\"\nShe also claimed government agencies and officials were to blame.\n\"I'm sorry to bad-mouth our government but they're not protecting us,\" Overall claimed.\"\nMeanwhile documentary filmmakers are working hard to establish the funding needed to detail the steady dumping of radioactive waste into the Nolichucky River from NFS in Erwin. The film is titled \"Atomic Appalachia\" and you can learn more about that here., and on their Facebook page.\nJust this Spring, the Tennessee legislature voted against installing any controls or oversight of the dumping of nuclear waste in Tennessee, despite the reality that:\n\"The committee discussed the bill for about 50 minutes Wednesday before amending it so that its provisions would not interfere with any current private waste-processing contracts until they are renewed. The committee then killed the entire bill, with only two Democrats' votes for passage and five Republicans' votes against.\n\"The Environmental Council, citing government reports, says about 40 million pounds of low-level radioactive waste is processed in Tennessee annually. After processing, much of it is shipped out of state, but about 49 million pounds was dumped into the Tennessee landfills from 2004 through 2009.\"\nWorse news - most of the landfills in Tennessee are leaking into the groundwater and beyond.\n\"TDEC issued civil fines and penalties at Carter Valley Landfill in October 2006 after 2005 groundwater monitoring found contamination in the groundwater.\nAdditionally, TCWN found that of the 69 landfills across the state known to be leaking, TDEC required corrective action for groundwater contamination at less than 5 of those landfills, including Dickson County, Sevier County, City of McKenzie, and Smelter Services Class 2 landfill in Mt. Pleasant.\nDickson County's landfill received national attention for what is believed to be the community's exposure to trichloroethene from leachate in drinking water supplies causing birth defects. The contamination occurred despite the landfill being built under stringent EPA guidelines and the old landfill's closure in 2003.\nBliss said Hawkins County has the second highest incidence of birth defects in the state. \"We should have a concern about Hawkins County.\"\nMore background info here."}
{"content":"This may be remembered as the year of the bee at Curbstone Valley. It started when we installed a few hives of honey bees on the farm this spring, but we also greatly understand the importance of the native bees that frequent our crops and flowers.\nResearch has demonstrated that diversification of pollinators is critical for farms, and that organic farms situated close to wild-land habitats may depend more on native bees for pollination, than conventional farms. Most conventional farms are almost wholly dependent on European honey bees for pollination as they lack the habitat necessary to sustain native pollinators. \nHere we’re striving to do what we can to support both our honey bees, and our native bee populations.\nIt’s important to recognize that many of the same threats to honey bee populations, including some diseases , and risks from exposure to pesticides, may have similar detrimental effects on native bee populations.\nThe most obvious single threat to native bees, however, is habitat degradation.\nNative bee populations co-evolved with regionally adapted native plant species, which tend to become sparse in populated areas, where landscapers, and gardeners select plants for their aesthetic value, and farmers choose plants solely for their economic value, rather than their importance to the survival of native pollinator species.\nApproximately 1600 native bee species have been recorded in California . We’ve noticed a number of native bees here in the last couple of years, including green sweat bees (Agapostemon spp.), carpenter bees (Ceratina and Xylocopa spp.), bumble bees (Bombus spp.), leaf cutter bees (Megachile spp.), and now, these intriguing looking long-horn bees (Melissodes, Diadasia, or Svastra, spp. — trust me, unless you’re an entomologist, this group of bees can be tricky to nail down a definitive ID).\nLong-horn bees are in the family Apidae, and the tribe Eucerini. By recognizing some of the different native bees present on the property, and learning about their foraging habits, nesting habits, and significance as pollinators, we can ensure that we take the necessary steps to encourage, and support, their populations on the farm.\nUntil this summer we hadn’t noticed any long-horn bees in the gardens, perhaps because the gardens didn’t hold much of interest to these particular bees. Many long-horned bees are specialist foragers, targeting only plants in the Asteraceae family, such as our native Asters, and Encelia, as well as our garden Sunflowers, and Rudbeckias. In fact long-horn bees are one of the key native bee species for pollinating commercial sunflower crops .\nAlthough we’re not exactly sure which species of long-horn bee this is, the Rudbeckias, and sunflowers we’ve planted this year near the greenhouse, seem to be enticing these particular bees. Our best educated guess is that this bee might be Melissodes robustior, one of the most common long-horn bee species in California. Regardless, once the sun’s rays hit these blooms in the morning, it’s almost impossible to miss these bees. I almost feel as if I owe the bees an apology for not planting the Rudbeckias sooner.\nLong-horn bees range from from 7.5 to 18 mm in length. Male long-horn bees have remarkably long antennae, as shown in some of these photographs, for which they acquired their common moniker, and an elongated body shape. Whereas females have shorter antennae, and a more rounded body shape.\nIn addition to long antennae, the most notable physical characteristic of these bees is that their legs are significantly more hairy than their honey bee cousins.\nThe females are responsible for gathering pollen on their brush-like leg hairs (scopae), as well as foraging for nectar, and depositing food in their underground nests to sustain developing larvae.\nAny native-bee-friendly garden is only enhanced by planting a diversity of nectar and pollen-rich native, and heirloom flowers. However, suitable nesting sites are also critical for helping to sustain native bee populations.\nNative bees don’t live in hives like their honey bee counterparts, and many species construct underground nests. Desirable nesting sites, and nests however, can easily be damaged, or destroyed, as a result human activity.\nTo encourage native ground-nesting bees, it’s important that some areas of bare soil are left in the gardens. Although mulches are important for conserving moisture for plants, and improving soil texture, mulching every square inch of garden space eliminates important nesting habitat for ground-nesting native bees.\nHere we mulch individual plants, not entire surfaces, mostly our vegetables and fruits, to avoid providing too much cover for ravenous rodents, like our meadow voles.\nFor any ground nesting bee species it’s also imperative that nesting sites aren’t disturbed, as these bees spend much of their lives developing underground, many only emerging to mate and forage for a few short weeks each year. One of the worst gardening practices for ground nesting bees, other than the obvious use of pesticides, is rototilling garden soils. This not only destroys soil structure, but can also destroy nests.\nNext time you consider reaching for the rototiller, ask yourself, do you have ground nesting bees, like these long-horn bees, in your garden? Hand digging is not only healthier for the gardener, but it’s also better for the bees!\nAlthough we’ve been judicious about planting flowers in the Asteraceae family, as generally they tend to cause the rapid crystallization of honey, the fact these long-horn bees seem to favor plants in this family, highlights the importance of planting a diverse variety of flowers in the gardens. With careful planning we hope to keep both the honey bees, and the native bees happy.\nNext time you think you see a honey bee in the garden, take a closer look, it may in fact turn out to be a native bee!\nTo learn more about identifying, and providing suitable habitat for native bees, see:\n Kremen, C. et a. 2004. The Area Requirements of an Ecosystem Service: Crop Pollination by Native Bee Communities in California. Ecology Letters. Vol: 7 p. 1109-1119.\n Singh R, Levitt AL, Rajotte EG, Holmes EC, Ostiguy N, et al. 2010 RNA Viruses in Hymenopteran Pollinators: Evidence of Inter-Taxa Virus Transmission via Pollen and Potential Impact on Non-Apis Hymenopteran Species. PLoS ONE 5(12)\n Frankie, G.W., et al. Native Bees Are a Rich Natural Resource in Urban California Gardens. July-September 2009. UCANR Publication.\n Xerces Society Fact Sheet: Native Bee Pollination of Hybrid Sunflowers."}
{"content":"Oh noes, global warming hates Canada:\nBackyard hockey rinks may become extinct in Canada if climate change goes unchecked, a renowned McGill University scientist says. “In the next 50 years, the skating season could disappear in most of the regions across Canada,” Lawrence Mysak told CTV Montreal.\nIf only there were indoor rinks that made it possible to skate in any weather, or even for hockey to be played in places like Miami, Tampa and Phoenix. Oh, wait.\nBut wait, there’s more. Simon Fraser University says no matter how much carbon Canada saves, or how many hippies wander the BC interior, we’re toast:\n“Let’s be honest, it’s totally unrealistic to believe that we can stop all emissions now,” says Zickfeld, an assistant professor of geography at SFU. “Even with aggressive greenhouse gas mitigation, it will be a challenge to keep the projected global rise in temperature under 2 degrees Celsius,” emphasizes Zickfeld.\nThe geographer wrote the paper with Damon Matthews, a University of Concordia associate professor at the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment.\nThe duo used an earth system climate model developed by the University of Victoria to study the impact of greenhouse gas and aerosol emissions on the world’s climate. The study was based on emission levels that are consistent with data from the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.\nThey used a computer model and data from the IPCC. What could possibly go wrong?\nBefore you panic and run for the indoor skating rinks to escape slightly milder weather, here’s the Motley CRU’s own Phil Jones on the all-important 2 degree Celsius limit:\nThe 2 deg C limit is talked about by a lot within Europe. It is never defined though what it means. Is it 2 deg C for the globe or for Europe? Also when is/was the base against which the 2 deg C is calculated from? I know you don’t know the answer, but I don’t either! I think it is plucked out of thin air. I think it is too high as well. If it is 2 deg C globally, this could be more in Europe – especially the northern part. A better limit might be maintaining some summer Arctic sea ice!\nClimate scientists making stuff up? Say it ain’t so.\nRound-Up tomorrow, unless you behave."}
{"content":"Thanks to Michigan’s film subsidies, the production of Disney’s “Oz the Great and Powerful” forced the state to pay nearly $40 million to Hollywooders critics consider the Wicked Witch of the West.\nBack in 2010, Michigan’s film incentive program was the most generous in the nation, offering studios a 42 percent refund of all in-state production costs. It was enough for Disney to click its heels three times and say, ‘There’s no place like Michigan.’ Thus production of its “Wizard of Oz” prequel film, which premiered last week, took place in the Great Lakes State.\nWith a $100 million in-state budget, the estimated cost to taxpayers is about $40 million, according to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.\n“It just comes right out of taxpayers’ pockets,” said James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy at Mackinac, in an interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation.\nThe costs continue to roll in. The film’s production company, Emerald City Film Inc., had trouble making its bond payments — forcing the state to provide even more financial assistance.\n“I don’t like that [the money] went out of the state and continued to enrich millionaires and billionaires with government subsidies,” said state Rep. Tom McMillin in a statement.\nThe goal of the incentive program is to persuade film studios to relocate to Michigan and create a long-term source of economic growth for the state. But in practice, Michigan’s quest to become the Hollywood of the Midwest is as troubled as a Kansas farm during tornado season.\n“Despite having subsidized this industry more than anyone else had been, we don’t have a single viable film studio,” said Hohman. “Even if we did, it wouldn’t be worth the hundreds of millions of incentive dollars we’ve offered this industry.”\nFilm studios tend to hop from state to state, chasing the latest and greatest subsidy. They seldom establish long-term operations anywhere but California.\n“MPIs [motion picture incentives] create mostly temporary positions with limited options for upward mobility,” concluded William Luther, an adjunct scholar at the Tax Foundation, in a 2010 report.\nAfter taking office in 2010, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder capped the subsidy at $25 million to prevent studios from cashing in on what Luther called a “preposterously generous” incentive. Snyder and the legislature later agreed to raise the cap to $50 million for fiscal year 2013.\nThe incentive isn’t worth continuing in any amount, said Hohman.\n“It’s not producing a viable film industry, and even if it did, it still would never be worth the expense,” said Hohman.\nContent created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact firstname.lastname@example.org."}
{"content":"A recent comment by actress Jennifer Aniston that “women are more and more realizing that they don’t have to settle with a man just to have that child” might seem to indicate that deviancy has irrevocably been “defined down” and that a culture of permissiveness has been permanently entrenched in our nation’s society.\nThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that the percentage of teens who believe that it’s okay for an unmarried female to have a child has increased to nearly 64 percent (among males) and to more than 70 percent (among females.\nYet throughout the country there are oases of excellence that provide evidence to the contrary.\nOne example is Teen Talk, a program for at-risk adolescent girls that was initiated by a community-based project in Milwaukee called the Family House. Though the Family House was primarily and originally established to provide hospice care for the low-income elderly, the project evolved to meet needs of others in the community, including the youths who would gather on the front steps in after-school hours.\n“When we started the program in 2004, Milwaukee had the highest rate of teen pregnancies in the nation, and there was a rash of STDs at the elementary school that was just a block from the Family House,” said Vicky Edwards, Teen Talk’s first coordinator. “Some of those girls were having babies just because they were looking to be loved and wanted someone to love. But when their babies started growing up, the responsibility and reality of motherhood set in.”\n“We had an after-school program, and we were seeing so many of our 13- and 14-year-olds becoming pregnant. And we were finding out that they weren’t getting any medical care and didn’t know what to expect,” said Cordelia Taylor, the founder and director of the Family House.\nTeen Talk helps pregnant teens access the care, nutrition, and information they need. In addition, it prepares the girls to make wise life choices through conversations about the benefits of remaining abstinent and how to resist unwanted sexual advances.\nThe outreach also includes peer counseling, field trips, visits to museums, outings to restaurants (where they receive etiquette tips), a fashion show at a local department store, and movie dates followed by discussion groups—all of which contributes to greater self-esteem and a larger vision for their future.\nTeen Talk began with a group of 17 adolescents in 2004. To date, more than 170 teens have participated in the program. Of those, only two became pregnant. Those two young women stayed in touch with the program and came back to serve as peer counselors.\nTeen Talk participants were young women who lived in high-crime, drug-infested neighborhoods where the odds were clearly against them. Some lived with their grandmothers because their own mothers were incarcerated or addicted to drugs. The expectations and attitudes they embrace provide hope that the bar can be set higher for peers in much less daunting situations as well.\nHere’s hoping for high-profile voices to champion successes like Teen Talk that are teaching responsibility, affirming the significance of marriage, and restoring community."}
{"content":"URBANA – Consumers have reason to celebrate the approach of June Dairy Month, said Mike Hutjens, University of Illinois Extension dairy specialist.\nNot only have dairy products remained a “good buy” for consumers, but the nutritional importance of dairy products in the diet continues to play a foundational role in human health and development.\nJune Dairy Month originally celebrated the time of the year when surplus milk needed to be sold due to cows producing more milk after receiving pasture in the spring, Hutjens said. During the month of June, consumers will notice more focus on dairy products and dairy product recipes in displays near the dairy case.\n“Milk prices have remained constant in most areas with specials on milk as low as $2 to $2.50 a gallon,” Hutjens said. “Milk prices remain below break-even at the dairy farm gate with dairy managers receiving $1.20 to $1.30 a gallon.”\nIn addition to cost, consumers have many choices when they go to the grocery store today. From method of production to nutritional content, there are many factors to consider when buying dairy products.\n“Organic milk is available at $6 to $7 a gallon,” Hutjens said. “Or consumers can purchase ‘green’ milk from dairy farmers using approved FDA technologies to produce milk resulting in a lower carbon footprint.”\nPerhaps the most controversial milk in the news is raw milk, or milk that is not pasteurized.\n“Consumers should never purchase raw milk due to potential bacteria risks,” Hutjens warned.\nThe nutritional value of dairy products helps them remain popular today.\n“Dairy products contain high-quality protein with all essential amino acids in addition to whey proteins that are important in weight control,” he said. “Milk contains high levels of calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorous and added vitamin D, which are critical for human health and bone formation. Dairy products can be particularly important for older consumers.”\nDaily U.S. dietary guidelines include two servings of dairy products for children from 1 to 8 years of age, and three dairy servings for children over 9 years and adults. These dietary guidelines served as the foundation for the popular “Three a Day” dairy theme used in radio, television, and other media advertising.\nSo, what kinds of milk and milk products are most favored by U.S. consumers?\nIn 2008, the average U.S. consumer consumed 85.3 pounds of reduced or low-fat milk, 50.4 pounds of whole milk, 27.1 pounds of fat-free milk, and 14.2 pounds of flavored milk. In addition, each person consumed 32.5 pounds of cheese, 20.7 pounds of ice cream, and 11.8 pounds of yogurt.\nHutjens added that vanilla ice cream remains the No. 1 flavor at 28.7%, chocolate followed behind at 10.4 percent, and cookies and cream ranked third at 4.4%.\nDairy products that sold well in 2008 include skim milk (up 0.5 percent), low-fat milk (up 5%), and yogurt (up 3.6%). Meanwhile, whole milk dropped 2.7% and cottage cheese dropped 7.7%.\n“These trends reflect consumers’ desire for lower caloric products such as yogurt,” Hutjens said. “The advantage of producing a wide variety of dairy products is that it allows consumers to pick their favorite product based on fat content, caloric intake, flavor, taste, cost, and food recipe alternatives.”\nLast year, the U.S. dairy industry included 54,942 dairy farm operations with 9.2 million dairy cows, down 1.2 percent from 2008. These cows produced 189.3 billion pounds of milk, down 0.3% as compared to 2008. U.S. dairy cows averaged 20,576 pounds of milk per cow. In comparison, the European Union of 27 countries has 24.2 million dairy cows producing 12,165 pounds of milk per cow.\n“The continued improvements in efficiency in the U.S. dairy industry reflect higher milk yield per cow which results in lower-priced milk and dairy products for U.S. consumers,” Hutjens said.\nIn addition, he said exports of dairy products continue to improve as the world recession eases and demand increases."}
{"content":"IDFA: Cornell study shows DSA will cost more\nSource: International Dairy Foods Association\nA new study from Cornell University shows that the proposed Farm Bill dairy program will cost more than a bipartisan amendment that will be offered this week by Representatives Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and David Scott (D-GA). The study, “2013 Farm Bill Dairy Title Proposal Redistributes Program Benefits toward States with Larger Farms,” also finds that the currently proposed Dairy Security Act is significantly weighted to benefit large farms.\n“As did the Congressional Budget Office, the Cornell report finds that the Dairy Security Act will cost taxpayers more than the alternative,” said Jerry Slominski, senior vice president of legislative affairs and economic policy for the International Dairy Foods Association. “The report also contradicts a previous study from the University of Missouri, which claimed the opposite.”\nAccording to the Cornell report, “the government loss ratio is significantly higher for the [Dairy Security Act] proposal than the Goodlatte-Scott proposal,” which is also known as the Dairy Freedom Act. The expected loss ratio is the ratio of expected payments divided by premiums, and thus it represents the multiple of losses the government expects to pay relative to premiums paid by producers. “For example, for $4.50 margin coverage, the expected loss ratio is 20.56 for DSA, versus only 6.71 for DFA.”\nThe study also refutes the argument that the Dairy Security Act will help small farms. “The implication of the [supply management program in the DSA] would be further government flows towards regions dominated by larger producers – many of which are in the process of contracting production growth – at the expense of consumers, taxpayers and regions dominated by smaller producers.”\nBoth the Dairy Security Act and the Goodlatte-Scott proposal will replace the current Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program with a new margin insurance program for producers. Under both alternatives, larger producers will be provided an improved and effective safety net to help them through difficult economic times. But only the Dairy Security Act adds a second program for dairy farmers that is intended to increase milk prices by imposing government limits on milk production.\nThe Goodlatte-Scott amendment helps small farmers by requiring lower premium payments from smaller farms and higher premiums for larger producers than does the Dairy Security Act. In fact, more than 90% of all dairy farmers, those with fewer than 200 cows, will pay less for margin insurance under Goodlatte-Scott than the Dairy Security Act."}
{"content":"Hinai made of twined ieie (Freycinetia arborea). The twining is tightly done using split ieie in a consistent twill over the entire surface. Some cordage, used to suspend the hinai, is attached around the rim. The hinai tapers at the rim.\nThis object is associated with Liliuokalani\nCollection Name: Liliuokalani Collection"}
{"content":"The World Bank has collected a database of all major (i.e. at least USD 1mn) known privatizations of public companies from 1988 to 2008.\nThe source data is available at the studies web site. Excellent documentation on methodology is available. Quote:\nThis site contains data on the sale price of privatization transactions of over $1 million, carried out in developing countries between 2000 and 2008. It only includes transactions which generate proceeds or monetary receipts to the government resulting from partial and full divestitures, concessions, management contracts, and leases. Thus, only those transactions that generate revenue for the government from privatization or private sector participation in an existing state-owned enterprise or other government assets (such as wireless license sales) are included. The data give information on the sale price of transactions on an \"announcement\" basis rather than on the basis of actual flows of receipts, which may be paid for over several years.\nTransactions that did not generate revenue for the government are excluded from the database. As such, the database does not include firms transferred to the private sector through mass or \"voucher\" privatizations (as in Eastern Europe). It also does not include new greenfield investments that did not involve payments to the government, funds committed or invested by new owners, and build-operate-transfer schemes which do not involve payments to the governments."}
{"content":"Time to Whoop Ass and Write\nWell, we're into January, a new year, so time to make a few resolutions. One of them being to actually get something done this year. So I present to you, in hopes of motivating the both of us, the Official Shut Up and Write User Manual. Sections and sub-sections are subject to change in future versions. Have fun, take heart, and Shut Up and Write, will'ya?\nAt first glance the term ‘Shut up and Write’ may come off as rather crude and low-brow terminology; after all, our language is filled with plenty of subtle and elegant ways to communicate ideas. Seeing as how writers can be a little thick, sometimes we need to cut right through the bullshit and get right to the heart of the matter.\nTo wit: You talk too much. Shut up and write!\nShut Up And Write is a rather broad statement, of course, and is not meant to be rude, or mean, or insulting. It’s really just a humorous nudge, a reminder, that you’re wasting valuable oxygen yapping away or Tweeting to friends instead of writing. It also applies to people who talk a lot about writing, but don’t actually write. This is a problem, and must be corrected. Here then is a compendium of things you do that are stunting your writing, so you’ll know when to Shut Up And Write:\nStaring at your computer screen – Do not do this. Type anything. Type your name, what you had for dinner, what color your socks are, but do not stare at that screen for longer than 5 minutes. Headaches ensue, and your soul turns to mush. Shut Up And Write.\nItchy Bum Syndrome: You type a sentence, and then go to the refrigerator for some Oreo Cookie Ice Cream, leaving your sentence hanging and your flow disrupted. Please do not do this. You could spill ice cream all over your computer, or get sticky fingers, or grow lethargic and apathetic and not want to write anymore. Oreo Cookie ice cream is great for the synapses, but bad for writing. Plus, this is not really about ice cream, it’s about not wanting to write, or being afraid to write. This is characterized by constant shifting of the ass in your chair and thoughts other than writing begin invading your skull (IE did I pay the phone bill? Should I take the dog for a walk? Why is there a mushroom cloud on the horizon, and should it concern me?)\nTweeting, Facebooking, Foursquaring, etc etc Blah blah blah – This is the bane of writers: Tweeting too much. I know it’s fun, and that guy named @ShitMyDadsays is endlessly hilarious, but come on! You gotta pull it together! Only you can prevent a book not being written! Unless you can get your pet Shitzu to write your book for you, it’s probably best to get a move on and start writing. I suggest curbing your 12 hours of Twitter down to, say, 2. There! Then you’ll have lots of time to write!\nThat stupid Television – Yeah, Jersey Shore is filled with entertaining idiots who make us feel exponentially more intelligent when we watch their antics, but Mike ‘The Situation” and \"Snooki\" already have book deals. If that doesn’t motivate you, nothing will!\nThe Stupid Blog hasn't been updated for 12 hours! Oh No! – The land of the damned! The blog is what I turn to when I’m not feeling the prose flow on my novel, but the problem is the blog is too easy, we could write posts in our sleep because it’s largely plotless and free association. If you find that you’re using your blog as a crutch for not writing, then rectify it immediately. Only blog after you have made a significant contribution to your novel.\nSection 2, Article A: You Know You're In trouble as A Writer If ...\nYou start talking about your book, again, and your friend's eyes begin to roll upwards in exasperation and you hear these sentences all the time:\n\"God, just shut up and write a book already!\"\n\"I'll take you seriously when you've written something.\"\n\"How can you be a writer? You haven't written anything!\"\n\"Is that the little book you been working on? For 10 years? Are you gonna finish it sometime this century?\"\nSection 2, Article B: Looking mournful while walking through a Chapters book store because your book isn't even finished, much less stacked in a display alongside Stephenie Meyers and Stephen King and Tom Clancy in a giant retail bookstore.\nOkay this one is self-explanatory.\nSection 3, Article A: Doubt fills your soul, so you just ... stop.\nYou think you suck.\nThe guy you got to Beta Read your manuscript has the IQ of a piece of wood and he only reads the backs of cereal boxes anyway. Yet you are devastated when he tells you there isn't enough sex or death in the book and he fell asleep after the first chapter.\nYour friend looks at the manuscript in your hand and asks you dubiously how many pages they have to read because the longest thing they ever read was a Newspaper and they are unsure of it and are too lazy to actually do you a favor and read it for you (Friendship may be on rocky ground after this little encounter.) So you take it the only way a writer ever takes it: you suck.\nEvery word you type, every sentence you mangle, every phrase you torture, it's like being forced to listen to a John Denver greatest hits CD on repeat - Torture! Torture! But neither your writing, or John Denver, are that bad. Stop the soul sucking doubt! Just shut up, keep writing, it'll all work out.\nSection 3, Article B: It's not you, it's them.\nIn conclusion it, it's wise to remember that nobody cares about you until you've written something, which is not to say you suck or you're useless, but merely talking about writing amounts to just that: talk. And, it's not you, it's them. People are results oriented; it is the rare human being (usually an elderly person, or an extremely positive and enlightened and inebriated Uncle) who will take you at your word that you are writing a book, will finish the book, will become rich and famous because of that book. The human race is wary by nature; so you must prove to the sneering jerk at your office that one day you too will wear elbow patches and smoke a pipe and do the lecture circuit talking about your book. This is the only way! You must Shut Up and Write!\nShutUpAndWrite: A Master's thesis"}
{"content":"Welcoming the Iron Tiger at Deer Park\nThis would be a celebration of aspirations, of hopes and intentions for the next trip around the sun, a simultaneous appreciation of both the coming of spring and of the harvest, an outpouring of gratitude for the opportunity for renewal.\n“In Vietnam,” Thay Phap\nDung explained, “the celebrations go on for weeks.” He smiled, “For\nas long as they can, really - until all the treats run out.”\nthe basket is overflowing-\nin front of the altar\nAnd so the number of treats prepared is no small issue.\nWhile the Tet Retreat at Deer Park is a very special time, the weekend before also holds it’s own uniqueness. For at Deer Park, the weekend before Tet is devoted to making Earth Cakes.\nEarth cakes – cakes of mung bean and sticky rice boiled inside a banana leaf wrapping – are the traditional treat of Tet. They follow from a Vietnamese folktale that I won’t try to reproduce, so as not to rob you of the chance to hear it directly from one of the nuns. The cakes are perfect for celebrating Tet, we were told, because the banana leaves seal the rice inside, preserving it. The beautiful shining green-wrapped packages are hung by strings around the house as you relax into the abundance of the new year. Guests arrive? Just pull one down and cut it open. They can be hung over the stove, in fact, so a warm earth cake is always available.\nAnd so the weekend before Tet the monks, nuns and guests spend all day and – literally – all night making earth cakes.\nThe dining hall of Clarity Hamlet is turned into Earth Cake Central. The dish-washing tables are now used to wash banana leaves. Inside, every square inch of dining space is used to artfully wrap those banana leaves around rice and mung beans. Raging fires are made outside on the concrete, where enormous pots of water will boil the cakes all night long.\nThe visitors are encouraged to learn the careful art of the earth cake, using square wooden frames to wrap them as perfectly geometric shining packages. Many of the visitors, applying their skills from holiday wrapping paper, proved surprisingly adept. More than once Thay Phap Dung held up a neatly wrapped square, “This is their first time! Amazing!”\nAs evening rolled round the wrapping was complete, and the boiling began. This year rain was ever-present, and we all took shelter under a dripping awning, singing songs in both Vietnamese and English, as lay brothers and Thay Chinh Quang played the guitar. For that one evening the back porch of Clarity Hamlet’s dining hall resembles more a Vietnamese village, alive with smoky cooking fires, endless pots of tea, and song.\nAs we visitors eventually retired\nto our rooms, many of the brothers and sisters stayed on through the\nnight, tending the fires.\neyes stinging, hair wet, we sing -\nwhite smoke rises\ninto the rain clouds\nWhen the weekend of Tet came, and the accompanying retreat, the monks and nuns of Deer Park did anything but relax and eat Earth Cakes. The Year of the Iron Tiger would be welcomed with nothing short of a festival, a grand party to make sure everyone there could feel the currents of renewal flowing deeply inside them.\nDragons danced brilliantly down the center of the meditation hall, Thay Chinh Quang corralling them with a paper fan and the smiling mask of a Buddha. We were invited to draw fortunes from the Hall’s bell – slips of paper referring to verses of a classic Vietnamese poem, which the brothers and sisters would then interpret for us. Gifts were formally presented from the greater sangha to the monks and nuns, and to the Monastery. Venerable Thich Phuoc Tinh had small gifts presented to each visitor, hundreds of them all combined.\nOn the eve of the New Year we walked together outside long long after dark, and then burned aspirations for the new year in a metal cauldron outside the mediation hall.\nWe all then sat in meditation\nin the Hall, waiting for the arrival of the Iron Tiger. And oh, did\nthe Tiger arrive. At the stroke of midnight, with no warning, one of\nthe brothers began drumming on an enormous temple drum. Many of us nearly\nleapt out of our skin, greeting the new year with a surge of adrenaline\nthat left us vibrating. The drumming went on and on, filling the Meditation\nHall, and driving out the dust from the corners of our minds.\nquietly under the stars\nthe embers of our aspirations\nAbbott Thay Phap Dung had told us we would be seeing a side of Deer Park that we wouldn’t see as clearly the rest of the year: Deer Park’s Temple aspect. Vietnamese culture, he told us, holds that it is auspicious to visit as many temples as possible on the first days of the new year. So tour buses would be arriving, five or six at a time, from the region’s Vietnamese communities, filled with families to be welcomed at the Meditation Hall.\nThay Phap Dung warned us that the lively chaos would be a very different energy from the usual tranquility of Deer Park. He passed on advice from Su Co Dang Nghiem: “When the tour buses show up, put yourself in the calm at the center of the storm.”\n“That’s good practice,” he continued, “So when the tour buses show up in your head, put yourself at the center of that storm too.”\nWe watched from the quiet safety\nof the upper hamlet as bus after bus of visitors pulled up to the Meditation\nHall, smiling grandmothers and grandfathers, uncles, aunts and parents\nwalking their children into the meditation hall to watch the dragons\nthat woman’s face-\na memory of my great aunt,\na tangerine from the Temple\nIn Vietnam, the weeks following Tet are filled with visiting – visiting your elders, visiting your teachers, visiting your friends, and hosting them all in return. At the monastery, this important part of the Tet tradition is expressed with a once-a-year delight: the monks and nuns open their rooms to us, and welcome us in for tea.\nWe went in curious about what a monastics’ quarters would be like. How much stuff did they have? How much space? What we found though, sitting with the brothers and sisters, chatting, laughing and singing, was a clearer picture of the monastics themselves. Seeing them in their own private rooms, often beneath pictures of their family and of Thay, goofing around with their roommates – we got to see the people beyond the robes. We went in looking for stuff, but found humans instead.\nIn the early part of the day we sat on the floor of the brothers’ rooms and were offered tea, nuts, candied ginger and lotus seeds. Vietnamese culture holds that it is good luck not to sweep out your house for the first three days of the new year. They insisted we help them gain good fortune, therefore, laughing and encouraging us to toss pistachio shells and tangerine rinds around the floors of their small rooms.\nThay Phap Ho’s room escaped the mess: he received us on the veranda outside. Lest he not meet with good fortune, however, I threw a tangerine rind into his window, “May the new year be filled with health and so much happiness.”\nThe sisters received us warmly in their rooms in the early evening. The homemade treats offered were exquisite, candied cranberries with chilies and ginger. But no one, at least no one male, dared to toss the remains on the floor.\nComing and going from each\nmonk or nun’s quarters, gratitude was offered with blessings for the\nnew year: “Thank you, our dear sisters and brothers here at Deer Park,\nfor all that you give to us.”\nyour lights burn so brightly\non this hillside,\nthey are beacons\nSoren Kisiel, True Land\nof Serenity, is an award-winning playwright and actor, and is part of\nDeer Park’s Dharmacast team. His home sanghas are the\nOpen Way and Flowing Mountain Sanghas in Montana."}
{"content":"Monday 22 March 2010 Tara Lohan | AlterNet\nIt took six years for residents of tiny McCloud, California, to give Nestle Waters North America its walking papers. The water bottler had hoped to build a 1 million square-foot facility in the town of less than 2,000 and was given a backroom 50-year contract (renewable for an additional 50 years) to annually take 1,250 gallons per minute of delicious spring water from the town, hunkered in the shadow of Mount Shasta, and unlimited groundwater. But after years of opposition from community and environmental groups, Nestle scrapped its plans and left with its tail between its legs.\nHowever, the bottling giant didn’t have to look very far for its next target. Last summer as Gov. Schwarzenegger was warning that parched California was in its third year of drought, and residents of the capital city of Sacramento were facing water restrictions, Nestle was getting a behind-the-scenes welcome mat rolled out and the keys to the city’s water pipes.\nThe food and beverage giant is king when it comes to bottled water — it controls one-third of the U.S. market and sells water under 70 different brand names such as Arrowhead, Calistoga, Deer Park, Perrier and Poland Spring. It shares the stage with two other giant bottlers, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, although Nestle is the big culprit in targeting rural communities for spring water, a move that has earned it fierce opposition across the U.S. from towns worried about losing their precious water resources.\nAs small, rural towns across the U.S. started to organize in opposition to Nestle, the company tried to rope in a bigger city. In July it was announced that Nestle would be opening a bottling plant in Sacramento, but how much water the company would be taking is in dispute. The company says it will take 150 acre-feet of water (close to 50 million gallons) in the first year. Reportedly about 30 million of this will come from the municipal water system and 20 million from undisclosed private springs in nearby counties.\nBut an October article in the Sacramento Bee reported that the city’s utilities director estimated instead that the plant would take 80 million, and not 30 million gallons a year from Sacramento. Other city departments have reportedly placed the number as high as 116 million, but the estimates are really inconsequential. Nestle is allowed to draw as much water as it can fit through its pipe; there’s no maximum to how much it can bottle.\nWhile residents are asked to conserve water, Nestle gets an all-you-can-bottle buffet. Expectedly, this has some folks worried. “We have concerns about conflicting numbers and the fact that this was supposed to be replacement for McCloud, which was hundreds of millions of gallons,” said Evan Tucker, of the citizen’s group Save Our Water Sacramento.“There is no limit on how much water they can pump, there is a flat rate. They can pump as much as they want, the city says there is nothing they can do about it.”\nWhile Nestle faced problems with its environmental impact in McCloud, Sacramento residents have no idea what the potential impact would be because the company was not required to hold public hearings or perform an environmental review.\nUnder the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), a project is either “ministerial” or “discretionary.” The city says that Nestle’s bottling plant, which would be in an area zoned for industrial would pass as ministerial, which means all it has to do is fill out the necessary forms and pay the fees, but there is no public say in the process and no environmental review needs to be completed.\nSave Our Water Sacramento felt differently. The group challenged the city on the decision, arguing that because Nestle had requested a second water line be added to the plant those changes actually pushed the project into the discretionary category of CEQA, where there should be ample review. But when legal challenges were raised, Nestle quickly withdrew its plans for a second water line and the city gave its stamp of approval.\nThe Business of Bottled Water\nThe world faces a global crisis of fresh drinking water. An estimated 3.6 million people, including 1.5 million children, die each year from water-related diseases. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement last week, “More people die from unsafe water than all forms of violence, including war.” Yet, in rich nations like the U.S., where potable water flows from taps in most everyone’s homes and costs pennies, people are still shelling out extra bucks for bottled water and the industry is making a killing.\nThe bottled water business has climbed steadily over the last few decades, only falling off slightly in recent years. TriplePundit reported in November 2009:\nAccording to data from Beverage Marketing, a U.S.-based data and consulting firm, retail sales of single-serving plastic bottles increased from 1.4 billion gallons in 2000 to 5.2 billion gallons last year, lifting their share of total bottled water volume from 29 percent to more than 60 percent. And, over the past decade, per-capita consumption of bottled water in the U.S. has more than doubled to about 200 bottles per year, per person, according to MarketWatch.\nStill, leading bottled water companies like Nestle saw a dip in sales beginning in 2008 — perhaps a signal that people are waking up to the environmental and economic costs of bottled water. It may also be a sign that during cash-strapped times, people are finding their way back to tap water instead.\nIn response to the downturn in sales, the industry has responded by trying to “bluewash” its image and make itself seem more environmentally friendly. A new report from Food and Water Watchreveals that bottled water companies are using awareness-raising initiatives like World Water Day to advertise contributions they make to water charities, especially in the developing world, and to claim they are making their businesses more green.\nBut, “Bottled water is inherently not a water-friendly product,” theF&WW report says. “Bottling companies take water out of local water systems and ship it elsewhere — which is one reason that many residents worried about their local water have opposed water bottlers in their communities. … No mater how much water bottlers talk about the steps they are taking to reduce their water footprint, as long as water generates profit, bottlers will never have an incentive to reduce overall water consumption.”\nIt may be a no-brainer for many people to stop buying bottled water, but government has been slow to catch on in many places. A report by Corporate Accountability International found that four Northeastern states — Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Vermont — spend nearly $2 million on bottled water that comes out of taxpayers’ pockets. This seems especially troubling because we face a $24 billion annual shortfall of funding for public water systems and many cities and states are feeling the pinch of a slowed economy and cutting public services.\nIronically, last year Sacramento’s city council voted to ban bottled water at its meetings, “in recognition that plastic water bottles are littering the world and the precious water they once contained is often wasted,” as city councilor Kevin McCarty said. But the rest of the city government doesn’t seem to be on the same page.\nThe Sacramento Bee found that water use went up 22 percent at the city’s metered properties during the last three years of drought. (Shockingly, water meters are an altogether new concept for Sacramento.) In response Mayor Kevin Johnson told the Sacramento Bee:\n“We’re going to have to learn to use water smarter, which is a new way of thinking in our city where residents have tapped into two major rivers for generations. We need to light a fire under the city’s efforts to save water so we can be a shining example of how to use water more efficiently instead of being a showcase of waste and inefficiency.”\nBut as Johnson was issuing that statement he was also offering other rather contradictory ones. “I appreciate the concerns of citizens who worry about water use and conservation. The city has asked residents to conserve. The city can’t ignore industrial water use. Those concerns should be discussed and addressed,” he said, but apparently that doesn’t apply to Nestle.\n“When I heard Nestle was bringing a plant to Sacramento, I was excited. I believe Sacramento should do everything possible to encourage businesses to move here and hire our citizens,” he said. “For me, the Nestle story is pretty simple. It’s all about jobs. Nestle is bringing jobs to Sacramento with the company’s new water bottling plant.”\nSo, 40 jobs trumps the potential impact of untold million and millions of gallons of water, as well as the environmental impact of the plastic bottles, themselves. Even Nestle’s lowest estimate of 50 million gallons would mean 800 million new plastic water bottles a year, Treehugger reported. Across the country, the environmental impact of our bottled water addiction is huge. In just the U.S. in 2007, water bottling used the equivalent of 32-54 millions barrels of oil. That’s how much it would take to fuel average consumption levels in 1.5 million cars for a year.\nConsumers are also often duped about the quality of water. The Sacramento plant is the perfect example — much of it will actually simply be from the same source as tap. This is true for 40 percent of water bottled in the U.S.\nConsumers are paying upwards of a thousand times the price for virtually the same product as tap and are instead putting an extra burden on the environment by using single-use plastic bottles, of which over 80 percent are likely to end up in landfills.\nWhile bottled water companies may spend millions convincing you that you’re drinking the cleanest water from pristine mountain springs, the truth is that in many cases, bottled water could be less safe for consumers. The EPA, as well as state and local governments, regulate tap water, but bottled water is checked only by the FDA and the standards are much less strict. Food and Water Watch reports that municipal water systems must test for coliform bacteria 100 or more times a month. But bottled water plants only have to test once a week.\nThe impact on local water sources is a big question, too — such as in Sacramento. “It doesn’t make sense,” said Tucker of his city’s decision, “The city fines people if they don’t comply with water restrictions, but Nestle can use as much as they want and pay very little for it.”\nBecause rates aren’t tiered in Sacramento, he says, the company has no reason to want to conserve. “Unlike other industrial water users who may use water as a part of their industrial process, like for cooling, their product is water,” he said. “So they have a disincentive to conserve.”\nThe Sacramento News and Review reported in October that one of the mayor’s top volunteer advisors, Michelle Smira, was stepping down in order to run her consulting business, MMS Strategies. Guess who her big client was? That would be Nestle.\n“It just happens that MMS was hired, over the weekend, by Nestle Waters, to help win hearts and minds, and building permits, for its controversial water bottling plant in South Sacramento,” the News and Review wrote. “Johnson has been a major cheerleader for the project, despite concerns among some citizen groups and council members about the bottled water industry and the process by which the Nestle plant has been pushed forward.”\nCity Councilmember Kevin McCarty has been one of the few local leaders to oppose Nestle’s project. “At current rates, they would pay the city about 65 cents per 100 cubic feet of water, or 750 gallons,” he said. “That works out to a payment to the city of $186 for the 215,000 gallons of water taken on an average day. By the time that water is bottled and put on a grocer’s shelf, the consumers would pay more than $2.1 million for those 215,000 gallons — a profit margin of roughly 10,000 percent!”\nTucker is worried that Nestle has found a new model of operating that draws less heat than its previous plans to build bottling plants in small towns and pilfer rural spring water.\n“They’ve taken the thing that has caused the most problems for communities, building the bottling plant,” said Tucker, “and located it in a place like an industrial area of a bigger city, where they can do it relatively easily. They are taking a lot of our municipal water and that is a concern for us, but most people in cities don’t worry about their water sources the way rural residents do. We don’t have wells that could run dry from pumping plants or aren’t concerned with local streams. We just turn on our taps and it comes out. I have a concern that this is a model they’ll proliferate.”\nFor many communities, the privatization of water by big companies is becoming an issue that threatens local control of the most vital resource for survival. Groups like Food and Water Watch and Corporate Accountability International are waging campaigns to help communities fight for public control of their water and for clean, safe and affordable tap water for all.\nEven Annie Leonard, whose hit Internet film (and now book) The Story of Stuff, has produced a new film (that you can view below), called “The Story of Bottled Water.” The film is a call to action to all of us. We don’t have to live in a place like McCloud or Sacramento to join the fight against bottled water.\n“It’s time we took back the tap,” Leonard says in the movie. “That starts with making a personal commitment to not buy or drink bottled water unless the water in your community is truly unhealthy. Yes, it takes a bit of foresight to grab a reusable bottle on the way out, but I think we can handle it.\n“Then take the next step — join a campaign that’s working for real solutions. Like demanding investment in clean tap water for all. In the U.S., tap water is underfunded by $24 billion partly because people believe drinking water only comes from a bottle! Around the world, a billion people don’t have access to clean water right now. Yet cities all over are spending millions of dollars to deal with all the plastic bottles we throw out. What if we spent that money improving our water systems or better yet, preventing pollution to begin with?”"}
{"content":"Saccharina latissima is usually found in the lower intertidal and higher subtidal area, well below a band of Ribbon Kelp (Alaria marginata). It occurs both in protected waters and on the outer coast, yet it does not thrive in areas with more vigorous wave action. Saccharina Latissima, however, rarely appears in rock pools. This species usually occurs in sheltered conditions and may attach to unstable substrata such as clam shells.\nSaccharina latissima is one of the most abundant brown algae in the world. Although it is distributed widely around the globe, it is cofined to the Northern hemisphere including the British Isles from the Shetlands to the Channel Islands, Europe (Portugal, Atlantic coasts of Spain and France, Netherlands, Helgoland, Baltic Sea, Norway, Sweden, Faroes, Jan Mayen and Bjornoya, Spitzbergen, Iceland and Greenland) and Atlantic coast of North America (Canada, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connetricut and Long Island) and Pacific coast of North America from Alaska to California.\n(Check Algabase for detailed distribution source)\nLocally, Saccharina latissima has been found at Meadow Point, Davis Bay, Open Bay and Echo Bay on San Juan island, WA.\nO’Claire R. M. and Lindstrom, S. C. North Pacific Seaweeds."}
{"content":"The phylum Arthropoda encompasses a tremendous range of marine species and body plans, as well as an amazing diversity of terrestrial insects and spiders. Coastal and nearshore marine habitats, including the plankton, feature a number of these forms, such as copepods, crabs, and barnacles. While the mobile, highly jointed bodies of crabs and copepods may seem quite different from the sessile, immobile carapaces of barnacles, these groups share important traits: a chitinous exoskeleton and a need to molt that exoskeleton in order to grow larger.\nInvertebrates in the Plankton: Arthropoda\nIn our observations of the plankton, we found both larval and fully planktonic species to be very abundant: during our night-lighting from the Lab dock, we caught many hundreds of two crab larval stages, zoea and megalopae. And in our daytime plankton tow in the Straits area close to Friday Harbor, we caught great numbers of several different types of copepods. Photos of these and our other discoveries follow.\n|This crab megalopa (4 mm in length) was one of hundreds captured by night-lighting during the last week of June. It swam strongly at the water's surface, its legs occasionally splaying energetically. This megalopa is the final larval stage of true crabs, preceding the benthic juvenile stage and following several zoeal stages. One of the most recognizable brachyurans (also known as true crabs) along the Pacific coast is the Dungeness crab (Cancer magister), a species with considerable commercial and cultural value in the region.|\n|This zoea of a porcelain crab (Petrolisthes eriomerus, 3 mm in length) is well defended from potential predators; notice its long, inflexible rostral spine. The porcelain crab belongs to the group known as anomuran crabs, which include hermit, porcellanid, lithodid, and galatheid crabs. The zoea uses its first two pairs of thoracic appendages, the maxillipeds, to swim, making it one of the more agile planktonic animals. The zoea will develop into a megalopa form, sometimes referred as a glaucothoe, and then into a functional adult.|\n|Copepods are the most abundant multicellular animals in the world, living in both freshwater and marine environments. The most abundant free-living marine copepod is the calanoid (seen on the right); it is recognizable by the long first antennae, which it flicks in swimming locomotion. This type of copepod uses mouth parts called maxillae to scoop phytoplankton, small invertebrates (including other copepods), or fish larvae from the water. Copepods are also the primary consumers of phytoplankton and are an important food source to fish, baleen whales, and other invertebrates.|\nIn all copepods, fertilization occurs when the egg passes out the female genital tract. Many copepods carry the eggs in sacs on the body; calanoids carry one egg sac as seen above. Development of the eggs depends strongly on sea temperature (see development of eggs at different temperatures), species, and egg size. The reproductive season depends on the species and its location.\nThis larval stage, called a nauplius, is found in barnacles, copepods, penaeid shrimps, and ostracods. It swims by using its jointed appendages that are moved by muscle contraction. These larvae have a nauplier eye, made up of photoreceptor cells that are thought to give rise to the photoreceptors in some adult forms. They frequently molt (shed their hard outer skeleton) to enable growth during this phase. Barnacles are hermaphrodites. They release their larvae into the water column at the nauplius stage. After several moltings, the final larval stage before settling is called a cyprid. The cyprid stage is non-feeding. For more information on adult barnacles see the Cattle Point page.\n|An example from a group of crustaceans called cladocerans is seen here. These adult animals swim using the second antennae and they feed by either filtering microscopic algae or preying on small animals. Most cladoceran females reproduce by parthenogenesis, which produces males and females without sexual recombination. However, they also have sexual reproduction that produces females. This marine representative, Evadne. uses the carapace as a brood chamber (a place to store eggs). A more commonly known freshwater species is Daphnia.|"}
{"content":"1) Callistemon sieberi (Alpine Bottlebrush)\n- This small, spreading shrub is currently showing off its creamy-yellow flowers in bottlebrush-like spikes.\n- Native to Australia, C. sieberi can be found along the footpath of the Australian Entry Garden within the Pacific Connections Garden.\n2) Cytisus battandieri (Pineapple Broom)\n- Sometimes referred to as Argyrocytisus, this genus of Brooms fall within the family, Fabaceae.\n- Native to Morocco, C. battandieri is an upright tree-like shrub with pineapple-scented flowers.\n- Located on the east side of Arboretum Drive in the Legumes.\n3) Liriodendron tulipfera (Tulip Tree)\n- A member of the family Magnoliaceae, Liriodendron is a genus of two deciduous trees, L. chinense and L. tulipfera.\n- The solitary, cup-shaped flowers, inconspicuous from a distance, add interest in summer, but are not produced on young plants.\n- Located in the Magnolias, these cuttings came from a tree over 100 feet tall.\n4) Staphylea pinnata (European Bladdernut)\n- The flowers of this upright shrub have come and gone, but it is the curious bladder-like fruit now on display.\n- Located near Azalea Way amongst the True Ashes.\n5) Tsuga sieboldii (South Japan Hemlock)\n- Glossy, dark green foliage and smooth, dark gray bark give this tree some distinction within its genus.\n- This Tsuga can be found between the Woodland Garden and the top of Loderi Valley."}
{"content":"Who we are\nThe University of Washington Memory Health Research Program is dedicated to the research of memory in order to improve the cognitive health of all people. Past research has included the link between hormones and memory, Alzheimer’s Disease research, and the prevention and early detection of memory issues.\nOur current research is focused on cognitive rehabilitation in cancer survivors. Our research is directed at providing resources and support for survivors who are suffering from memory and thinking abilities as a result of cancer treatment.\nInterested in participating?\nClick here to find out more about our cognitive rehabilitation study."}
{"content":"The fixed part of the event data goes under different names, depending on which source file, work log, bug report, etc. you are reading:\nSometimes it is called the \"fixed data\" part, as in this discussion.\nSometimes it is called the \"post-headers\" part.\nTo make things notationally interesting, sometimes the\nfixed data part is referred to as the \"event-specific\nheaders\" part of the event. That is, the word \"header\" is\nused in reference to a portion of the data part. One\nmanifestation of this notational phenomenon appears in\nlog_event.h, where you will find the\ndefined as 19 (the header length for v3 and v4), plus\nother symbols with names of the form\nXXX_HEADER_LEN for different event\ntypes. The former symbol is the size of the event header\n(always 19). The latter symbols define the size of the\nfixed portion of the data part that is to be treated as\nthe event-specific headers. For example,\nROTATE_HEADER_LEN is 8 because a\nROTATE_EVENT has an 8-byte field in the\nfixed data part that indicates the position in the next\nlog file of the first event in that file.\nThe variable part of event data also goes under different names, such as the event \"payload\" or \"body.\""}