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Understanding RMF | The driving force behind every AC machine
Every AC machine uses a rotating magnetic field, an invention that kicked off the industrial revolution. Can you guess how the RMF reached this stage! we’ll travel through the minds of the geniuses behind the development of RMF.
The greatest contribution can perhaps be attributed to Nikola Tesla, considered by many as the pioneering father of modern engineering. To understand how the design theories evolved over time, our trip will take us all the way through to a glimpse of modern-day winding techniques and RMF production.
Do not forget to share your opinion with us to provide you with the best posts ! | <urn:uuid:6a5d21b6-4779-4360-986b-17874d9e9c57> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.blog.sindibad.tn/understanding-rmf-the-driving-force-behind-every-ac-machine/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570977.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809124724-20220809154724-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.93497 | 134 | 2.234375 | 2 |
Learn Spelling Rules: Sound Out Words Using Phonic Sounds (7-11 years)
About This Product
Learn Spelling Rules: Sound Out Words Using Phonic Sounds
Revise phonic sounds in spelling - including single letter sounds, double letter sounds, triple letter sounds and middle sounds.
Sports people train hard to get to the top of their game. Zoggy says that children must work hard to learn to spell. In this first challenge he revises phonic sounds, single letter sounds, double letter sounds (sl) and triple letter sounds (shr). Then he looks at the 44 middle sounds (oo and ee). These pages provide lots of practice to help children remember the rules.
With 'Learn Spelling Rules Packs' spelling need not be dull. These work packs can be used at school or at home, to reinforce spelling rules in a fun way.
Our character, Zoggy, the friendly alien, is a genius when it comes to spelling. He encourages the children to join him in his spelling workout. In other words, they must train and learn the spelling rules.
These packs consist of challenges in spelling, focusing on words formed using spelling rules. For example, dropping 'e' in words like 'take' to make 'taking'. Each pack focuses on a different rule and the packs may be used in any order.
These packs are essential to help correct common errors in spelling. They also help avoid bad habits forming in spelling.
Each pack contains lots of practice to help the children remember the rules.
you may also like...
Check out these other great products | <urn:uuid:339264d0-a848-4b5f-9c3c-47892d0acff1> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://teachsimple.com/product/learn-spelling-rules-sound-out-words-using-phonic-sounds-7-11-years | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.905987 | 338 | 3.953125 | 4 |
100 Facts Plant Life is bursting with detailed images, fun activities and exactly 100 amazing facts. Children will learn everything they need to know about our green planet.
100 Facts Plant Life contains key topics about the plant kingdom in mind-blowing numbered facts. Each fact is accompanied by beautiful illustrations and photographs, which add visual meaning to the information for kids. This is a fascinating plant book for kids aged 7+.
Edad: 6– 12 años.
Pasta blanda: 40 paginas. | <urn:uuid:05c86abe-07e6-4ef8-b221-41322a0d94db> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://hombredelamanchakids.com/products/plant-life | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570977.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809124724-20220809154724-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.849224 | 120 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Featuring the 4th Annual Beth Waters Memorial Lecture
Date: Thursday, December 8, 2011
Location: Philadelphia Marriott Downtown
1201 Market Street
Franklin Hall 11 & 12
At Global Health Vaccines: Shaping Policy to Accelerate R&D, public and private stakeholders will examine current barriers to vaccine research and development, especially those that disproportionately affect vaccines for use in developing countries. Discussions will focus on regulatory issues, innovative financing and incentives, and partnerships. The event will serve as an opportunity for stakeholders to collaboratively identify common obstacles and propose unified solutions to stimulate vaccine R&D for global health vaccines.
Dr. Peter Hotez, President, ASTMH and Founding Dean, National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, will begin the summit by delivering the 4th Annual Beth Waters Memorial Lecture. This will be followed by an interactive panel discussion and breakout groups that will develop policy recommendations surrounding vaccine R&D issues. The recommendations will then be presented to all attendees for discussion.
This event is open to all ASTMH Annual Meeting registrants and Global Health Council members. Please register using the link below.
Lunch will be provided at 12:30pm and the Beth Waters Memorial Lecture will begin promptly at 1:00pm.
To register, click here: http://my.globalhealth.org/ebusiness/events/default.aspx?pid=573 | <urn:uuid:db9bd099-e6d4-4f27-adfa-9d3f8f9506ab> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://aphaih.org/tag/astmh/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573699.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819131019-20220819161019-00265.warc.gz | en | 0.886112 | 300 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Over the weekend, Germany did something amazing: It produced so much renewable energy that the cost of electricity actually went negative for a few hours.
Yes, companies were actually paying some people to use electricity.
Normally, Germany's renewable sources contribute an average of 33% of the country's total power consumption. But thanks to a particularly sunny and windy day, the country's various solar-, wind- and hydro-power planets were supplying 87% of the total energy consumed.
That big dip in the graph below is where the prices went negative:
This is an incredible achievement, but it revealed a big problem: The country doesn't have a good system in place to take coal, nuclear and gas plants offline when a renewable surplus happens.
That's why some industrial customers actually earned money from power companies. The problem is partly because it's hard to shut down something like a nuclear power plant and then crank it back up, Quartz reported.
Still, Germany will have to find a way to correct the problem: It's planning to operate on 100% renewable energy by 2050.
Some believe 100% renewable energy isn't possible because of natural decreases in sunlight and wind power, but in 2015, Costa Rica ran on 100% renewable power for 75 days. And Denmark regularly hits 100% and exports its excess power to neighboring countries.
Renewable energy is the future. When will America enact the policies to make it happen? | <urn:uuid:e4bc226b-1b70-4885-b1a3-6260c55bf4d7> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.mic.com/articles/143202/germany-generated-so-much-renewable-power-electricity-prices-went-negative | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.955836 | 295 | 3.34375 | 3 |
On March 29, 2022, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) launched its two-year $9.5 million Advancing Nutrition Activity to improve the nutritional health of citizens in Bauchi, Kebbi, and Sokoto states.
The activity will address the immediate and underlying causes of malnutrition, provide technical support, share innovations, and conduct research to improve nutritional outcomes. The launch was also an opportunity to showcase the USAID/Nigeria Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Strategy (2020-2025), which was developed in partnership with the Government of Nigeria and other key stakeholders.
In his remarks, USAID Health, Population, and Nutrition Office Director Paul McDermott said, “Malnutrition has a far-reaching impact on the most vulnerable populations, especially children, adolescents, and women.” He added, “Addressing malnutrition is critical to improving health, education, and economic development.”
According to a 2021 UNICEF report, malnutrition is the underlying cause of nearly half of deaths of children under age five every year in Nigeria. | <urn:uuid:6e287c8c-1b56-4b6c-8c0b-b90ee1f6ac75> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://talkmediaafrica.com/2022/04/05/usaid-launches-9-5-million-advancing-nutrition-activity-to-fight-malnutrition-%EF%BF%BC/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.945434 | 223 | 2.484375 | 2 |
The legal formalities for the proper execution of a Will in England and Wales require that a person (the testator) signs it in front of two witnesses, present at the same time as the testator. The witnesses should then sign the Will after the testator has signed and in his or her presence.
Signatures are being witnessed in a variety of novel ways, including through car windscreens, windows and patio doors, while social distancing requirements remain in place.
In family homes, loved ones named in a Will are not permitted to witness a Will (nor is the spouse of such a family member able to witness the Will) as this would void their entitlement.
There are no current plans to relax the rules relating to the execution of Wills, even though the need for social distancing and the restriction on people’s movements present considerable challenges at a time of heightened anxiety (which itself has resulted in an increase in people wishing to draw up a Will at short notice).
In hospitals, visitors are not permitted at present and doctors and nurses are not allowed to bring potentially tainted documents to a bedside (and they are concentrating on medical treatment in any event).
This does mean that someone in hospital could pass away without being able to write a last minute Will.
There are rules about who inherits an estate when somebody dies without a Will. The rules of intestacy should mean that a spouse or children should be entitled but the rules determining a beneficiary’s entitlement may not be in accordance with the wishes of the person who has died.
Further, under the intestacy rules, a partner who is not married or is not in a civil partnership with the person who has died is not automatically entitled to a part of the estate.
For advice on Wills, inheritance and private matters, please contact our team on email@example.com.‹ Back to news | <urn:uuid:c252482d-338a-4ff9-8e4b-1d02a84f495a> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://jolliffes.com/news/wills-covid-19/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.970794 | 388 | 2.03125 | 2 |
ARAB MIGS VOL. 6: October 1973 War Part 2
Autore: Tom Cooper
Arab MiGs Volume 6 continues Harpia Publishing’s renowned coverage of air actions by Arab air forces during the October 1973 Arab-Israeli War. After researching in the Middle East for more than 40 years, interviewing and discussing the fighting in detail with pilots, participants and eyewitnesses from almost every unit involved, the authors provide the first ever coherent narrative of this air war. While it has often been argued that air power did not play a dominant role in the conflict, it eventually proved critical to its outcome. Moreover, thousands of combat experiences that were learned during this war — and paid for in blood by both sides — proved extremely influential for the development of new aircraft types and new weapons systems. The October 1973 conflict was one of the best examples of the ever increasing importance of electronic warfare and unmanned aircraft upon the modern-day battlefield, and therefore prompted fundamental changes in the tactics and strategy of the dominant air powers across the globe during the late 20th century. As well as enabling the reader to gain a clear insight into the nature of the air operations by all involved air powers – and the Arab air forces in particular – and the weaponry deployed, this book contains a detailed cross-examination of claims from both sides, analyses aircraft losses on both sides and lays bare the over-claims, regardless of whether officially confirmed. Descriptions based on the reminiscences of veteran aircrews provide an unprecedented insider’s view of key aircraft and operations, illustrating how developments in technology and information warfare added a new dimension to the history of air warfare. Supported by a plethora of background information, more than 300 photographs, colour profiles, maps and diagrams depicting the action, aircraft, camouflage patterns, markings, and weaponry deployed, Arab MiGs Volume 6 is set to become the standard reference work on the subject.
Riccamente illustrato con foto, mappe e artwork a colori
21 x 28 | <urn:uuid:fcbe3b55-83fe-4c98-b402-5d49c0468936> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://milistoria.it/Apps/WebObjects/Milistoria.woa/wa/XDirectAction/viewProduct?id=77938&lang=ita | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570977.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809124724-20220809154724-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.940056 | 422 | 1.929688 | 2 |
New PEPFAR-Supported Household Survey In Nigeria Measures HIV Prevalence, Viral Load Suppression In Country, Reveals Disparities Between Women, Men
PEPFAR: Large National Survey Shows Smaller HIV Epidemic in Nigeria Than Once Thought and Highlights Key Gaps Toward Reaching HIV Epidemic Control
“The Government of Nigeria released new data today from the Nigeria HIV/AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS), one of the largest population-based HIV/AIDS household surveys ever conducted. The NAIIS directly measured HIV prevalence and viral load suppression and was primarily funded by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). According to the NAIIS results, the HIV prevalence in Nigeria is lower than previously thought, allowing the country to focus on providing services to the areas of greatest need to control the HIV epidemic…” (3/14). | <urn:uuid:f2df15af-fbe4-46a5-a593-48f51230fc2e> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.kff.org/news-summary/new-pepfar-supported-household-survey-in-nigeria-measures-hiv-prevalence-viral-load-suppression-in-country-reveals-disparities-between-women-men/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570977.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809124724-20220809154724-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.870288 | 194 | 1.875 | 2 |
Dr. Monte Sanford is an advisor and consultant to indigenous tribal nations. He specializes in tribal cultural history and protection of sacred sites. Several of his projects have been featured in National Geographic Travel and PRX.
His work on Bahsahwahbee (Sacred Water Valley) has been instrumental in its long-term protection, including:
Designation as a National Historic Property;
Contribution to a first-of-a-kind legislation (signed into law) in Nevada to protect Bahsahwahbee for indigenous people;
Testimony on a senate resolution that passed unanimously to support a National Monument designation; and
Expert testimony in the largest water rights trial in Nevada's history which led to a historic ruling in the protection of Bahsahwahbee.
Designated by three Tribal Nations, Sanford is the Tribal campaign director for the Proposed Bahsahwahbee National Monument.
Also an author, Sanford has a new book that will be published in the coming months. It is a startling and provocative discovery of four monks from ancient India who ignited spiritual movements that penetrated the far corners of the world and have survived into the modern age.
Sanford received a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Nevada, where he was also a post-doctoral researcher. He has received many awards from universities, foundations, nonprofit groups, and the National Science Foundation.
Monte was a prolific traveler before the global pandemic. He has visited over a thousand ancient temples, sacred sites, museums and libraries around the world. He used to split his time between Asia and America. Currently, lives in the beautiful mountains of Idaho, USA. | <urn:uuid:a36c0564-093b-4aa1-979b-d5aa9f7d2e3e> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.montesanford.com/bio | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.960657 | 348 | 2.265625 | 2 |
- Solar Solutions
- Our Company
Schools and Universities teach by embracing solar energy across California
Schools have high energy bills, but ample roof and parking lot areas for solar electric systems. In most cases, schools have strong operating budgets which makes projects eligible for affordable financing options for designing and building solar power systems.
Schools and universities can go solar without any capital funding through Sun Light & Power's Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs). Also, the California Clean Energy Jobs Act (Prop. 39) channels hundreds of millions of dollars to public education, energy efficiency, and renewable energy studies are now being funded for schools across the state. With a solar installation:
We create certainty around your future energy costs.
We help you enhance your educational mission about the environment and climate change.
We help you set a good example for your students and community.
We reduce your overall carbon footprint.
PPAs are a unique financing option
Sun Light & Power teams up with innovative California-based solar energy finance firms to provide schools with unique PPAs designed to reduce long-term operating expenses by providing a declining cost of energy once the solar system costs have been covered.
The school pays only for the electricity they use, not for the full cost of the system.
This PPA option allows schools to gain long-term access to clean and affordable solar power with little or no capital investment.
To our knowledge, there is no other PPA provider that operates in this way, and the savings that schools can achieve with this financing instrument are compelling.
We applaud California schools for taking an active role in teaching the next generation about the real benefits of renewable energy.
Start today to enhance your scholastic mission and savings! Fill out the form for a complimentary assessment.
“CUSD is committed to sustainable facility construction and operations. Part of that commitment is the environmental and fiscal savings afforded by solar electricity generation. Money not spent on utility bills can go back into the general fund to support education programs for students.
-Doug Williams, LEED AP – Construction Manager, Measure G, Campbell Union School District
Modesto Junior College
This Modesto University shows northern California the beauty of solar panels and solar savings!
Why Go Solar?
When it comes to combining solar energy with your business operation, think of solar as an investment that actually provides a return. A custom designed solar PV system or solar thermal hot water heating system will reduce your operating expenses, protect you from volatile utility costs, show your commitment to the environment and the green business movement, and can even increase the reliability of your electrical system.
More School & University Solar Projects
Here are a few of the installations we have completed that allow schools to benefit from a shared solar system. | <urn:uuid:6d2fcd23-46ba-4445-b0c6-f39d9c6999b6> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.sunlightandpower.com/service/schools-universities | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.916219 | 575 | 1.9375 | 2 |
The Daily Climate Show: Sky News launches prime time programme dedicated to global crisis
The head of Sky News says "there has never been a more urgent need to report accurately on the climate crisis".
Sunday 21 March 2021 11:31, UK
Sky News is set to launch the first daily prime time news show dedicated to climate change.
First airing on Wednesday 7 April, the show will also highlight solutions to the crisis and show how small changes can make a big difference.
John Ryley, head of Sky News said: "There has never been a more urgent need to report accurately on the climate crisis and to bring this story to new audiences.
"In this critical year for action ahead of COP26, The Daily Climate Show from Sky News will feature forensic data-journalism, expert analysis and eye-witness reporting and look at the solutions to climate change."
COP26 president Alok Sharma said: "I'm delighted to see how Sky, a Principal Partner and Media Partner for COP26, is informing and engaging its viewers about the climate crisis, and the need for urgent action, through the Daily Climate Show.
"Businesses, including media organisations, have a key part to play on the road to Glasgow and in helping us all build back greener."
The 15-minute programme will run on the Sky News website and app, on YouTube and Twitter and is broadcast at 6.30pm and 9.30pm Monday to Friday.
A weekly digital edition will be published across all of Sky News' social platforms, including Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram.
A companion podcast, Climatecast, will go into more depth on issues covered in the week and a "digital dashboard" will give Sky News viewers and consumers a live real time minute to minute view of how power is being generated and used, and how close the planet is from reaching a potentially catastrophic temperature increase.
Sky News is a founding member of the albert News Consortium which provides a platform to share sustainable production practice among news organisations.
Michelle Whitehead, special projects manager for albert said: "It's fantastic to see Sky yet again taking decisive action to further its environmental commitments.
"We have no doubt that The Daily Climate Show will really help audiences to understand the climate issues we face but equally feel empowered to make positive changes in their own lives and beyond." | <urn:uuid:1b8af995-f0c7-4018-8a7f-4c5d2f9e402b> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://news.sky.com/story/the-daily-climate-show-sky-news-launches-prime-time-programme-dedicated-to-global-crisis-12252536 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570767.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808061828-20220808091828-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.936992 | 478 | 2.046875 | 2 |
The problem with kids today is that they never had to participate in the Krypteia.
August 6th was the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. Many people posted about it. Many people pointed out that it was a heinous act because an estimated 39,000 to 80,000 people, most of whom were civilians, were killed.
Meanwhile the firebombing campaign against Tokyo, which resulted in the death of approximately 100,000 civilians, is seldom mentioned.
My point here isn’t to judge people for mentioning one without mentioning the other. It’s to illustrate that the psychological impact of the atomic bomb was so great that we still feel compelled to discuss the matter today even when we don’t have the same compulsion towards other acts that lead to even great losses of life.
I’m a fan of Roman historical memes, especially ones that are somewhat clever:
Backing the thin blue line, at least in Minnesota, is an expensive proposition:
Over the past 11 years, at least $60.8 million has been paid out statewide to people who have made misconduct allegations, according to data compiled by the Star Tribune.
From 2007 to 2017, jurisdictions in Minnesota have made at least 933 payouts to citizens for alleged misconduct. And they’re on the rise. The average has grown from about 50 payouts per year to around 100.
It’s just a few bad apples though!
If so much money is spent on police misconduct, why hasn’t the government made efforts to restrain its law enforcers? I think history can illustrate the core problem here. Let’s rewind to Ancient Rome. Ancient Rome, like pretty much every regime throughout history, declared that individuals within its territory owed it taxes. Unlike the modern United States though, Ancient Rome had no government tax collectors. Instead it contracted the job out to publicani. Tax collection contracts required collectors to raise a specified amount of money to send to Rome. What made these contracts lucrative was that the collectors were allowed to keep any additional money that they raise for themselves. If, for example, a contract required collectors to collect 1 million sestertii and the collectors collected 1.5 million sestertii, they were allowed to keep the extra half million. As you can imagine, this system was rife with corruption. Tax collectors squeeze every sestertius they could from the population. While the populations being bleed would often complain to Rome, Rome was reluctant to restrain its primary revenue generators so the abuses continued.
The same holds true for modern governments. Law enforcers are a major revenue generator for governments. While $60.8 million may sound like a lot of money even spread out over 10 years, it’s certainly a paltry sum compared to the amount of revenue generated by Minnesota law enforcers in the same span of time. Until the amount being paid out for misconduct allegations exceeds the amount being generated by law enforcers, that status quo will continue.
I’ve been on a huge Roman history kick for the last several months. Currently I’m reading Rubicon by Tom Holland. I’m a bit over 200 pages in and it has been an excellent read. The history itself is fascinating but the various parallels between the twilight of the Roman Republic and the United States are also worth noting. For example, the Romans had a similar strategy when it came to justifying war. From page 152:
The Republic was never so dangerous as when it believed that its security was at stake. The Romans rarely went to war, not even against the most negligible foe, without somehow first convincing themselves that their preemptive strikes were defensive in nature.
Like the Roman Republic, the United States never performs a preemptive strike without first convincing itself that its target is an eminent threat even if there is no plausible threat. Furthermore, the Romans had a similar attitude towards the “rights” of its citizens. From pages 202 and 203:
At stake was the issue of what to do with Catiline’s henchmen. Many were of good family, and it was forbidden by the severest laws of the Republic to execute any citizen without a proper trial. But did the state of emergency entitle Cicero to waive this sacred injunction? Caesar, still nervous that the hysteria might sweep him away, proposed the novel idea that the conspirators should be imprisoned for life; Cato, opposing him, demanded their execution. Here, in the clash between these two men so matched in talent, so opposite in character, was the opening salvo of a struggle that would eventually convulse the Republic. For now, it was Cato who emerged triumphant. A majority in the Senate agreed with him that the safety of Rome was more important than the rights of individual citizens. And besides, who ever heard of imprisonment as a punishment? The conspirators were sentenced to death.
Like in the Roman Republic, the rights of Americans end where the politicians’ perception of safety begins.
The Founding Fathers put a lot of effort into emulating the Roman Republic and that effort wasn’t wasted. As the United States marches into its twilight it continues to emulate the Roman Republic as it marched into its twilight. Perhaps the next stage of the United States will be a monarchy as well.
Trump recently announced that the United States will return to the moon:
President Donald Trump signed his administration’s first space policy directive yesterday (Dec. 11), which formally directs NASA to focus on returning humans to the moon.
But the question remains, how will the United States return to the moon without Nazi scientists?
I thought it would be fun to use this announcement to segue into an interesting footnote in history. The interesting parts of history are too often skipped over in school so while most people are familiar with the early space program many people are unaware that the space program received a significant boost from Operation Paperclip. Operation Paperclip was a secret United States program to recruit Nazi scientists after World War II. There was a brain race at the end of the war between the United States and the Soviet Union. Both sides wanted to claim as many Nazi scientists as possible. Many of those claimed by the United States worked in rocketry and aeronautics and they found their way into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
This interesting tidbit of history has lead to some fun jokes. For example, Sputnik is often referred to the time where, “Their Nazi scientists outdid our Nazi scientists.” It also lead to some embarrassing situations such as the Strughold Award, an award named after the pioneer of space medicine that was the highest award that could be granted by the Space Medicine Association, being retired when the Wall Street Journal unveiled that Strughold was a Nazi scientist.
It probably won’t surprise anybody to find out that I’m a language nerd. Although I’m only fluent in English at this point and have a decent understanding of both Esperanto and Latin, I love to learn about all of the different mechanisms that humans have developed to communicate with one another. I especially love learning about ancient languages. Earlier this year I read a book on cuneiform, the earliest known writing system, and was fascinated by how the systems worked (it’s a real hodgepodge compared to the written alphabet we use for English today).
For the last 90 years scholars at the University of Chicago have been compiling an Akkadian dictionary. That near century of effort has finally bore fruit. The University of Chicago has released its 21 volume Akkadian dictionary and best of all the PDFs are free (buying the physical volumes will set you back over $1,000). If you have any interest in learning about Akkadian, head over to the University of Chicago’s website and start downloading all of the volumes.
There are certain constants in the universe. Extremely massive bodies will have gravitational pull, for every action there is an equal but opposite reaction, and people will work for beer. A 5,000-year-old table was discovered and translated. What did this ancient tablet have to tell us? That people worked for beer. The tablet, as with many tablets in Mesopotamia, was a receipt:
Writing in New Scientist, Alison George explains what’s written on the 5,000-year-old tablet: “We can see a human head eating from a bowl, meaning ‘ration,’ and a conical vessel, meaning ‘beer.’ Scattered around are scratches recording the amount of beer for a particular worker.” Beer wages were by no means limited to Mesopotamia. In ancient Egypt, there are records of people receiving beer for their work—roughly 4 to 5 liters per day for people building the pyramids. And in the Middle Ages, we have several records of the great fourteenth century poet Geoffrey Chaucer being paid in wine. Richard II generously gave Chaucer an annual salary that included a “tonel” of wine per year, which was roughly 252 gallons.
Today you can buy the assistance of friends to help fix your vehicle, move your stuff, or perform other forms of manual labor using this ancient tradition of paying in beer.
One of my interests as of late is the history of human languages. Cuneiform, the writing used for the beer receipt, was the first writing system we’re aware of. Interestingly enough it, like most things, was a product of the market:
The Sumerians first invented writing as a means of long-distance communication which was necessitated by trade. With the rise of the cities in Mesopotamia, and the need for resources which were lacking in the region, long-distance trade developed and, with it, the need to be able to communicate across the expanses between cities or regions.
Trade is the mother of invention. Remember what I said about many of these tablets being receipts? This is because Cuneiform was originally developed as a method of communicating trade information over long distances. Many of the tablets recovered from Mesopotamia discuss business transactions. Over time writing became used in more areas of life and today we plaster our languages over everything.
I was busy with a CryptoParty meeting last night so I didn’t have time to write up any posts. To compensate you fine reader I’ll leave you with this fascinating story about how Kodak accidentally discovered atomic bomb testing:
The ground shook, a brilliant white flash enveloped the sky, and the world changed forever. Code name “Trinity,” the bomb test at dawn on July 16, 1945 in Alamogordo, New Mexico was the first large-scale atomic weapons testing in history. Only three weeks later two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan.
More than 1,900 miles away from Alamogordo, at the Rochester, NY headquarters of Eastman Kodak, a flood of complaints came in from business customers who had recently purchased sensitive X-ray film from the company. Black exposed spots on the film, or “fogging,” had rendered it unusable. This perplexed many Kodak scientists, who had gone to great lengths to prevent contaminations like this.
Julian H. Webb, a physicist in Kodak’s research department, took it upon himself to dig deeper and test the destroyed film. What he uncovered was shocking. The fogging of Kodak’s film and the Trinity test in New Mexico were eerily connected, revealing some chilling secrets about the nuclear age.
I’ve tried to ignore the recent Internet controversy surrounding the Confederate flag. It’s the exact same argument as last time and my opinion on the matter hasn’t changed. Flying the Confederate flag is stupid for the exact same reasons flying the United States flag is. But this time the controversy has reached some stupendously stupid levels.
Remember the Dukes of Hazzard? Not the shitty remake but the original show. It started the General Lee and some humans nobody cared about. The General Lee was an orange Dodge Charger that had a Confederate flag pained on the roof (because the show took place in the rural South which is otherwise indistinguishable from the rural North). There was nothing racist about the show. But the powers that be at Warner Brothers has decided to cease production of all toy General Lees. I can’t wait for the next Dukes of Hazzard remake where the General Lee is replaced with the General Sherman, a car with a United States flag painted on the roof.
Toys aren’t the only thing getting pulled. Do you like historical strategy games that strive for accuracy? Too bad! Apple has pulled Civil War strategy games on account of Confederate sides displaying, get this, Confederate flags. I bet people are really going to flip their shit when they find out that there are World War II strategy games that let you play as Germany.
Of course no controversy would be complete without somebody at Slate writing an absolutely idiotic piece. It’s titled The Confederate Flag Doesn’t Belong in a Museum and it’s stupid because the Confederate flag does belong in a museum because that’s exactly what museums exist for. The title is clickbait though because the author feels that the Confederate flag could be put in a museum but only if a mountain of conditions are met:
What might such an exhibit look like? It would need to tell the history behind the flag. It is a symbol of white supremacy, and museums should acknowledge it as such. The designer for the second national flag of the Confederacy described it as a representation of the fight to “maintain the Heaven-ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race.” The exhibit should also acknowledge the role the flag played in South Carolina’s past. The flag that’s captured national attention this week came to Columbia in 1962, as a reaction to black people fighting for and winning rights during the civil rights era.
Effective museum interpretation would not stop there. It would address the reoccurring questions surrounding this symbol. Why do people find the flag offensive? Why are other people so attached to the flag? Why do some people who embrace the fullness of Southern pride, including the Confederate flag, not see themselves as racists?
Furthermore, a complete interpretation of the Confederate flag would need to make clear that black people have always resisted white supremacy and fought for the demise of institutional racism.
Why the hell isn’t the United States flag subjected to these same conditions? That flag not only represents slavery, racism, and war but it also represents the almost complete extermination of this country’s indigenous people, dropping nuclear weapons on civilian populations, placing people in concentration camps because of their race, and a whole lot of other really shitty things.
It’s one thing to say the Confederate flag shouldn’t be flown in front of government buildings (but hypocritical if the advocate doesn’t believe the United States flag should also be taken down) but it’s an entirely different thing to attempt to erase it from history. To quote George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” | <urn:uuid:cf36ae7b-ffdd-43ee-ba05-bf2b877c11a6> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://blog.christopherburg.com/tag/history/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573699.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819131019-20220819161019-00265.warc.gz | en | 0.967478 | 3,145 | 2.4375 | 2 |
by Andy Johnson
Walking along Fleetham Lane on New Year’s Day I was surprised to see four hares cavorting around showing signs of mating. Normally hares breed from early spring into autumn. Ancient Britons regarded them as magical and they were associated with spring rejuvenation and the moon. Hares spend much of their day in woodland, except in the breeding season when they emerge into arable fields and grassland where they create their “forms” and give birth to leverets.
Although there has been a huge reduction in hare numbers nationally, we have a good local population, and last June I counted 13 near the Swale. Hares can damage young trees and shrubs and in the past “hare drives” reduced their numbers. A local farmer recounted that as a boy he was at one drive which took place between Morton Bridge and Far Fairholme. The farmers, workers, boys and dogs ‘beat’ a large area and drove the hares towards a loop in the Swale, thus enclosing them. Today the biggest danger to hares, other than foxes and badgers, are poachers and illegal hare coursing. | <urn:uuid:4f3d2cbe-cde0-43de-8173-5126fd66f235> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.scruton.net/nature-notes-february-2022/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.980347 | 243 | 3.0625 | 3 |
| July 22, 2020
In our first Election 2020 update, we have gleaned the following insights from our Presidential Election Media Monitor. Read this article on how the situation is shaping up for Trump and Biden, with an in-depth analysis on states like Florida.
It has been a full two and a half months since our model showed Donald Trump leading Joe Biden - since then Biden has led Trump, without fail, on every single day.
The last day Trump led in the polls was actually May 6, and looking at the news and zeitgeist at the time, his brief spell of last-gasp popularity may have something to do with his support for lifting lockdown measures - a broadly popular stance with the quarantine-weary and financially under pressure electorate, and given the U.S.’s proud history of upholding civil liberties.
This suggests his popularity may be closely linked to the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic and his response to it.
The bottom line for Trump, it could be argued, is that the sooner he can get things back to normal, the sooner his support is likely to return to pre-coronavirus levels. Yet this seems increasingly unlikely as individual governors begin locking their states back down as cases resurge in a second wave.
Of course, lockdown is not the only factor affecting Trump’s approval ratings - his handling of the George Floyd protests also negatively impacted ratings - yet it does seem to be a major driver.
The discovery of a vaccine would be the single biggest step to returning life to normal and potentially aiding a Trump recovery, and yet most estimates place the development of such a vaccine in late 2020, which doesn’t really give the President enough time to return the economy back to normal or even to play the ‘COVID savior’ role to its fullest. That said, a recent breakthrough by scientists at Oxford University suggests we are now much closer to developing a vaccine than seemed the case before.
All in all, despite improvements in the outlook for a vaccine and things returning to normal, Trump’s chances of recovering his prior lead seem pretty low.
The election monitor continues to show Joe Biden leading the race to the White House and being the likely winner if the election were held tomorrow. At the time of writing it forecasts a 78 electoral vote lead for Biden, with a win of 308 to 230 electoral votes, with a probability of winning of 93.9%.
In addition, over the last 24hrs Biden has extended his lead in the two swing states of Wisconsin and Michigan, as well as North Carolina.
One of the key inputs into the monitor’s forecasting model is news sentiment and this is showing Biden clearly leading by 67.4% to Trump’s 32.6%.
The level of election-related ‘Media Attention’, however, which is another key input into the monitor’s forecasting model, is actually showing Trump with higher levels overall, and by state.
Opinion polls are painting more of a mixed picture, although even here Biden is leading by 49.5% to 40.5%, and in our experience, when both polls and our model projections are in agreement the forecast is more robust, reinforcing Biden’s likelihood to win.
It is also interesting to note how all the states where Biden is projected to win are also all showing him leading in the polls - without fail.
Yet for Trump the opposite is true, and in no less than 6 states our model’s projections are at odds with the polls, which historically has suggested the result may not be clear-cut.
These 6 states are shown in the table below, with related values:
The biggest divergence is in Nebraska where the model is projecting a hands-down victory for Trump with a 95.0% confidence level, whereas the opinion polls are telling a different story with Biden leading with 51.0% versus Trump’s 44.0%.
Georgia promises to be something of a battleground state too, with Trump winning with a 78.9% confidence according to the model but trailing in polls by a percentage point at 46.0%.
Florida has always been one of the most difficult states to call. In the 2000 Bush-Gore election it was the subject of repeated recounts, delaying the end result by over a month. The winner of Florida eventually had to be decided in a Supreme Court with judges voting by a slim 5 to 4 margin to hand the victory to Bush.
Florida is increasingly looking like it could be the site of another close battle in 2020, according to leading election information websites like 270towin, The Cook Political Report, Sabato's Crystal Ball, The Economist, and our own news analytics platform, showing it as the most co-mentioned with words associated with marginality, such as “toss-up”, “battleground” and “swing”.
As far as the election news monitor goes, it is showing Biden leading in Florida, but by only a sliver of a 51.0% chance over Trump’s 49.0%.
Interestingly our model projections confirm opinion polls, which also show Biden leading Trump in Florida, although by 48.3% to 42.3%.
As has already been mentioned, in our experience, when both polls and our model’s projections are in agreement the forecast is more robust, reinforcing Biden’s likelihood to win in this key state - although we are still at an early stage in the race.
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We find stronger, more predictable market reactions when the words of company executives agree with their actions.
We have gathered 12 insights from 2021 research that can be leveraged in 2022. | <urn:uuid:c7b04e1d-364a-4e4d-b3da-4d675a128fc4> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.ravenpack.com/blog/trump-to-return-things-to-normal-biden-ahead-florida-too-close | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570977.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809124724-20220809154724-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.962267 | 1,364 | 1.59375 | 2 |
- Poster presentation
- Open Access
P04.57. Music therapy in the treatment of cancer patients: a systematic review
BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine volume 12, Article number: P327 (2012)
Creative therapies like painting, speech therapy, healing eurythmic dance therapy and music therapy are frequently used in the treatment of cancer patients. Particularly in the last decade, several studies have concentrated on the investigation of effects of music therapy in cancer patients.
The following databases were used to find studies of music therapy in oncology: AMED, CAIRSS, EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsychINFO, and PSYNDEX. The search terms were [“Study OR Trial” AND “Music Therapy” AND “Cancer or Oncology”]. Included studies were analysed with respect to their study design and quality, setting and interventions including date of publication, indications, patients and main outcomes.
We found a total of 12 clinical studies conducted between 2001 and 2011 including a total of 922 patients. Eight studies had a randomized controlled design and four studies were conducted in the field of pedeatric oncology. Both type and grading of cancer were heterogenous thoughout all studies. Active music making (n=7) as well as listening programs (n=5) were mostly enrolled after surgery or chemotherapy to improve the patient’s situation. Studies reported on short term improvements in patient’s mood, relaxation, lowering exhaution and anxiety as well as in coping with the disease and cancer related pain.
The use of music therapy in the integrative treatment of cancer patients is a therapeutic option, whose salutogenetic potential is shown in many case studies. Study results however did not draw a conclusive picture on the overall effect of music therapy. Research therefore should investigate the underlying mechanisms to come to a more conclusive hypothesis.
About this article
Cite this article
Ostermann, T., Boyde, C. & Linden, U. P04.57. Music therapy in the treatment of cancer patients: a systematic review. BMC Complement Altern Med 12, P327 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6882-12-S1-P327
- Cancer Patient
- Alternative Medicine
- Control Design
- Music Therapy
- Speech Therapy | <urn:uuid:b324b611-4abd-4958-b1ea-28c4d1ace3ce> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://bmccomplementmedtherapies.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1472-6882-12-S1-P327 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.92526 | 549 | 2.359375 | 2 |
Tactical Agriculture (TAg) Train the Trainer Workshop
Wise, K.; Waldron, J.K.; Dennis, J.
Workshops were held to teach northeast region extension educators use of a proven educational approach called Tactical Agriculture (TAg). While most extension educators conduct in-field workshops to disseminate current information and strategies relative to integrated crop management (ICM) and integrated pest management (IPM) to producers, most educators do not design programs in such a way as to maximize advantages of sound educational design for adult learners. The TAg program specifically is an experiential, hands-on season-long training program for small groups of field crop producers in local areas. The TAg program has been used successfully in New York State to teach producers to better manage field crops, protect the environment, reduce health risks, and enhance their own long-term viability by implementing specific targeted IPM and ICM practices. Producers are actively integrated into the growing-season-long educational program, which focuses on the collection of data from their fields in conjunction with meetings to discuss critical pest and crop management issues that arise during the growing season. The program has had remarkable success in encouraging participants to adopt IPM and ICM strategies. Impacts of the program are measured by pre- and post-testing of subject matter and an exit survey to determine the percentage of adoption of IPM and ICM practices taught to producers. Two separate 2 day workshops were held on design, teaching, and evaluating an effective TAg program. The workshops were very well received with 15 out of 20 participants conducting or developing new TAg or TAg-like programs in the Northeast.
New York State IPM Program
Agricultural IPM; Communication | <urn:uuid:685a939a-2d26-4ecc-ba8f-a163cf2c174a> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/42652 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.949871 | 383 | 2.359375 | 2 |
By a Newsnet reporter
The bright future ahead of Scotland’s oil and gas sector has been highlighted this week as the CEO of Oil & Gas UK made clear that he personally expects North Sea reserves to be higher than current estimates of 24 billion barrels.
During a conference at the University of Aberdeen on the politics of the oil and gas sector, Malcolm Webb made clear his personal view that the estimated 24 billion Barrels of Oil Equivalent (BOE) remaining in the waters off Scotland’s coast is an “underestimate”.
Mr Webb also noted that oil and gas was “by far” the most highly taxed of all UK industries. The tax revenues currently go in their entirety to the UK Treasury.
The industry head criticised the UK government’s “awful political decisions”, which he described as “capricious”, and which have had a negative effect of the industry. This is believed to be a reference to the one-off tax imposed on the industry last year by Chancellor George Osborne at the instigation of Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander.
However the chief of Oil & Gas UK praised the political consensus which has begun to emerge between the industry, the Scottish Government and the UK Government, and stressed that the industry should not become a “political football”.
On Scottish independence, Mr Webb said that he believed the oil and gas industry should adopt a “studied neutrality”, as the constitutional future of Scotland is a matter for the electorate, and said that the industry had a duty to live with whatever outcome results from next year’s independence referendum.
Contrary to the claims from anti-independence parties who have said that the independence debate is damaging to Scottish business, Mr Webb said that there is no evidence that the referendum campaign has had any negative effect on the oil and gas sector.
Mr Webb also confirmed the critical role that the oil and gas sector plays in the UK’s balance of payments and made clear that he does not believe that the reliance of an independent Scotland on oil and gas revenues would be “overwhelming”.
Commenting, SNP MSP Mark McDonald said:
“These measured and sensible comments from one of the key figures in the oil and gas sector could scarcely contrast more with the hyperbolic negativity towards the industry that has become the hallmark of the No campaign.
“The oil and gas industry clearly shares Malcolm Webb’s confidence in the future of the North Sea, with the sector investing a record £13 billion this year alone in improving production.
“With some £1.5 trillion in wholesale revenues remaining in these waters – and potentially much higher depending on oil prices – it is essential that Scotland gains the opportunity to use these resources to the benefit of people living here.
“With the powers of an independent Scotland we can use these resources to build a more prosperous Scotland, rather than squander the revenues to prop up the failures of Westminster Chancellors.
“Only a Yes vote in September 2014 will give us that opportunity to ensure that the benefits of the sector are felt in Scotland for generations to come.”
The comments from the CEO of Oil & Gas UK follows news this week that new estimates based on Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) forecasts shows that the total revenue still to come from Scotland’s oil and gas sector could be as high as £4 trillion.
OECD economists at the Paris based Organisation have forecast that the price of a barrel of oil will rise to between $150 and $270 throughout the coming decade. The OECD envisages a baseline value for a barrel of oil of $190 which, the new report will say, will lead to an independent Scotland benefiting to the tune of between £2.25 trillion and £4 trillion.
The Scottish government’s own estimates, based on a more conservative price for a barrel of oil of $100, suggests that there is at least £1.5 trillion worth of oil and gas still to be extracted. | <urn:uuid:fb37000f-94f9-4491-920d-f92197970d89> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://newsnet.scot/archive/oil-and-gas-reserves-may-be-greater-than-forecast-says-industry-chief/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.966987 | 835 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Ribbon of Highway
BY BILL RUBIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Woodrow Wilson (Woody) Guthrie, the folk singer who found inspiration from the Dust Bowl era, may be best remembered for writing This Land is Your Land. A key line in the ballad is, “As I was walking that ribbon of highway, I saw above me that endless skyway.” The term, ‘ribbon of highway’ creates a dark image of desperate Okies from Oklahoma migrating to California on bad two-lane roads during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
St. Croix County’s ribbon of highway is Interstate 94. It’s a show piece and workhorse, carrying as many as 85,000 vehicles a day at the border with Minnesota. Back in October 1959, a 59-mile segment of I-94 opened from Hudson to Menomonie, and later to Eau Claire, impacting this region’s destiny forever. America successfully transitioned from two-lane highways to four-lane super highways as more and more segments of the interstate system opened.
Business, industry, agriculture, tourism, and commuters all rely on I-94’s connections. But at nearly sixty years old, I-94 is tired and worn. Orange construction barrels now dominate the landscape, usually in three- to five-mile increments. Reinvestment in the interstate system here has been steady. Numerous overpasses and interchanges throughout St. Croix have been reconstructed, complete with round-about intersections at the top of each ramp. Road construction work in the Hudson area recently started, which will result in the addition of a third travel lane in both directions from the St. Croix River at Exit 1 to just past Exit 4. A new allocation totaling $144+ million was a late addition to the state’s biennial budget. I-94’s driving lanes will be further expanded between Exit 4 and State Highway 65 in Roberts as part of this new, seven-mile project.
St. Croix County’s residents could be nicknamed Road Warriors, travelling short and long distances for work, shopping, and entertainment. County residents commute in all four directions for employment, but the most popular destination is west into the Twin Cities. At dawn, I-94’s westbound lanes are busy, followed by heavy eastbound traffic in the afternoon. Semis, carrying raw materials and finished products, are important to commerce but their loads take a toll on the roads. Summer’s heat, winter plowing, followed by spring’s thaw and freeze, can be knock-out punches.
Reinvestment in I-94 is vital, whether it’s a three- or seven-mile stretch. The interstate is a lifeline. Traffic hums along at all hours. It’s an important component to economic development.
Mr. Guthrie, jump in for a ride. From California to the New York Island, that ribbon of highway is a little longer and faster than you may remember. | <urn:uuid:c80279b9-0516-4761-9d35-e2c451b55c29> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://stcroixedc.com/2017/09/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.938246 | 640 | 2.15625 | 2 |
Last week, on May 19th 2016 prof. dr. Marco Kalz and I have presented the SOONER project to the twelve project leaders who have been awarded funding for their open online education projects at SURF. It was a very nice opportunity to meet the people behind the project plans, to get some insight about their projects and ideas, and to share knowledge about open online education and surrounding topics. Additionally, we introduced the SOONER project with a focus on the accompanying research topic: we got to explain the way we would like to do systematic research within the SOONER project, how we will collect our data, and what we expect in terms of output and collaboration.
Recap: The SOONER project in a nutshell: The SOONER project focuses on fundamental and accompanying research about open online education (OOE) in the Netherlands. This project as a whole will enable systematic and long-term research on open online education from a macro-, meso- and micro-perspective. SOONER will be organized via four PhD-projects on 1) self-regulated learning skill acquisition in the context of OOE, 2) motivation and intentions as key to drop-out in OOE, 3) scalable support solutions for OOE including learning analytics and last but not least 4) OOE as means for organizational development and educational innovation. If you want to know more about this project, or take a look at our proposal, click here.
In the presentation of last week, we focused on the general goals of SOONER as well as the accompanying research line. Feel free to take a look at the slides.
The challenge of independence: In line with our accompanying research goals, every year, when a new batch of innovation projects is starts, we would like to collect data, and collaborate with the project leaders like we did with earlier batches. This implicitly means that we gain preliminary results from earlier project batches. Therefore, it is tempting and sounds logical to share this knowledge, and facilitate learning for the upcoming batches. However, this is not our role. We as a research team have to stay independent in order to do scientifically adequate research. We cannot influence our own data, since we would then influence our findings.
The challenge of the N: Since the accompanying research mainly focusses on the organization as a whole, we really depend on the number (n) of participants in order to make the research valid. If we for instance want to asses the culture in a university, we cannot base this on a low number of observations because this would give us an inaccurate view of the culture on an organizational level. Therefore, clear communication, collaboration as well as expectation management is very important. This was also the reason to be present at this kick-off meeting, and clearly explain what we are going to do. In advance, I would already like to thank the project leaders for their commitment.
The challenge of heterogeneous projects: What was really interesting to see, is that all projects serve different goals, adapted to a specific field (e.g. geology, writing, teacher development). Consequently, innovation in education in these projects take various forms. Some projects want to develop a platform to share short modules, others want to build massive online open courses (MOOCs), and others want to enrich their excursions with online learning solutions, or develop a way to improve laboratory education with online learning clips. As fun as this is, it is also a challenge. Especially for our fundamental research projects within SOONER (e.g. scalable support solutions for OOE) there needs to be some form of comparability between projects, or certain aspects that you only find in MOOCs, like scalability. A careful assessment of where to collect our data is therefore really important, and challenging.
All these challenges aside, this new batch of projects is also promising. All research lines a becoming more focused and clear. This means that also more challenges keep coming up, but that also helps to eventually obtain some insightful results.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. | <urn:uuid:55acd745-d3ba-4a91-9314-bb17364916a2> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://sooner.nu/nl/656-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.96189 | 834 | 1.742188 | 2 |
The eyes are the focal point during human communication. We pay so much attention to the eyelid skin surrounding a person's eyes during conversation and eye contact. Because of this, it is not surprising that every year one hundred thousand men and women choose blepharoplasty to improve their appearance. Aging changes of the eyelid can convey an inappropriate message of tiredness or sadness. In some cases, the eyelid drooping can be significant enough to block vision. Blepharoplasty corrects these problems and can remove puffiness and bags under the eyes.
What causes bags under the eyes? Sun damage is one pathologic process that contributes to this problem. Genetic factors may also contribute. The orbital septum and eyelid muscles are normally responsible for holding back the orbital fat. As they become weak, the orbital fat protrudes due to the action of gravity. Blepharoplasty is defined as excision of excessive eyelid skin, with or without orbital fat. The surgery has the effect of tightening the periorbital structures to give a more youthful appearance. The procedure is performed under local anesthetic as an outpatient or office procedure. In the past, surgical steel instruments were used but most offices now utilize modern radiosurgery or laser techniques.
How is blepharoplasty performed? For the upper lids, the surgeon first marks the individual lines and creases of the lids in order to keep the scars as invisible as possible along the natural folds. The incision is made and excess fat, muscle, and loose skin are removed. Fine sutures are then used to close the incisions and hide any scar within the upper eyelid crease. For the lower lids, the surgeon makes the incision along the lashline or can hide it completely by a transconjunctival approach. In either case, excess fatty material is removed. Under normal conditions, blepharoplasty can take one to two hours.
Eyelid surgery is the most common invasive cosmetic surgical procedure of the face. This is why there are such a variety of specialists who perform this including ophthalmologists, plastic surgeons, dermatologists, general surgeons, and basically any physician with a medical spa. Ophthalmologists are the best-trained group to perform cosmetic eyelid surgery. After a patient has had cosmetic surgery to look better, they want to have eyelids that work well and allow them to have normal vision. Most ophthalmologists will relay that cosmetic surgery of the eyelids is very different than plastic surgery on the rest of the body. There is a greater requirement for attention to fine detail and microsurgery. Patients need a good functional outcome for the long-term health of their eyes. | <urn:uuid:175aa66c-21cf-433d-8536-e5466d174533> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://americanhealthandbeauty.com/articles/3561/what-is-an-eyelid-lift | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570977.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809124724-20220809154724-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.952133 | 554 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Scotland is one of four part of the GB. In area Scotland is more than half as big as England. The principal cities of the country are: its capital Edinburgh and the main industrial center Glasgow.
Scottish towns look very different from English towns. Some words about Edinburgh. Edinburgh, capital of Scotland, is one of Britain’s most attractive cities. It’s a city for people who like to walk.
You are never far from green parks, gardens and hills - even in the main shopping streets. It’s a busy modern city, but the history is everywhere. At the top of the highest hill in Edinburgh is Edinburgh Castle. It was the home of Scotland’s royal family until 1603 when King James the 6th of Scotland became king of England and moved to London. The road which begins at the castle and goes eastwards is called Royal Mile. At the other end of the Royal Mile is the Palace of Hollyroodhouse.
It was built by a Scottish king before Scotland and England were united to make Great Britain. Now it is a second home for the Queen or her children, who usually visit Edinburgh in the summer. When the royal family is not there you can visit the palace and see a lot of interesting things. There are nine hills in Edinburgh. They are long-dead volcanoes. From the tops of them you can see two bridges : the modern road bridges an the old rail bridges which has carried trains to the Highlands for more than a hundred years. The highlands of Scotland is mountainous and wild.
In the winter it’s white with snow but in the summer it’s purple. Highlands are famous for the Scottish Olympics or the Highland games ( it’s real name ). These games are not only sporting competitions : music and different traditional games are very important too. While athletes throw the hammer at the one end of the arena, you can watch a dancing competition at the other end.
There is also a game for the strongest athletes - tossing the caber, which weights 60 kilos and is six meters long. These games are very popular in Highlands. Usually between the mountains are rivers and lakes. Scottish people like fishing very much, that’s why they say that Scottish rivers are good for two : fishing is one, the other is Scotch whisky. Whisky is made from water and barley. The method hasn’t changed for hundreds years. Scotch whisky is the best one. Scotland is also famous for it’s kilt, the most important part of national dress and bagpipes - the national instrument. I thing Scotland is very beautiful country and if you visit it you shall never forget it. | <urn:uuid:810aae1c-364a-44bf-97cf-3fabea5fb671> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://smekni.com/a/47487/scotland/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570767.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808061828-20220808091828-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.966878 | 548 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Giro d’Italia – The Story of the World’s Most Beautiful Bike Race, to give it it’s full title, is exactly what it says on the cover. It takes in all the major editions and events from the Giro’s 1909 birth right up to Nibali’s win in 2016.
O’Brien does a great job of telling how important the race has been and is to Italy, how it and its riders have ridden their course through the history of national events, from the first war to the rise and fall of Mussolini and beyond.
There are chapters on all the significant wearers of the maglia rosa, from Brunero, to Merckx, Roche and Pantani. There are chapters on the great Italian duels between Bartali and Coppi, and Moser and Saronni. The first and only woman ever to ride the men’s Giro, Alfonsina Strada, makes it in here too – how could she not? It’s not just the men and women, some of the major climbs get their own limelight too, such as Tre Cime di Lavaredo (still on my bucket list) and Blockhaus (sorry Geraint).
I particularly enjoyed the parts that focused on the arrival of the Americans of the 7-Eleven team, culminating in Andy Hampsten’s win in 1988. Some great anecdotes come out of O’Brien’s interview with Hampsten, including that as part of preparations for the infamous Gavia stage the entire 7-Eleven team covered themselves head to foot in lanolin in a bid to cope with the cold and wet conditions.
My only slight criticism would be that some of the chapters lost a little bit of focus (or I lost focus when reading them), hopping back and forth between editions of the race. That perhaps is what happens when you manage to fill one book with most of the significant events of 99 Giri.
The only thing that’s missing is a chapter on the 100th Giro (which took place after publication). No doubt O’Brien is already planning an update, and he’ll have plenty from that one edition to write about. As his book proves, the Giro is an amazing race with an endless supply of amazing stories | <urn:uuid:9c25722c-1673-46da-8ba0-f7902095aba6> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://rolfraehansen.com/2017/06/02/book-review-giro-ditalia-by-colin-obrien/?replytocom=71 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573699.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819131019-20220819161019-00265.warc.gz | en | 0.955485 | 482 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Why We Maintain Vegetation
Our vegetation management program is a thoughtful plan that balances the needs of reliable service to our customers and the natural beauty of our New England communities.
The program is run by arborists and other professionals with vast experience in arboriculture. Qualified line clearance contractors are also employed by Eversource, some companies with decades of experience in New England.
We continuously monitor power lines and equipment and periodically trim around the lines providing electric service to your neighborhood.
How Often We Maintain Vegetation
We schedule vegetation management along our electric distribution system in 4 to 5 year cycles, with occasional mid-cycle trimming for locations that cannot wait until the normal cycle.
We also track performance of different parts of our system, making note of and prioritizing tree trimming and removal in areas that routinely experience outages due to trees.
When crews perform tree trimming around power lines, clearance is determined based on common growth rates of the trees of New England. Our practices meet the standards of the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) and the American National Standard Institute (ANSI). | <urn:uuid:92e7bd97-9354-4911-bc56-ec911bbcf7c9> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://author.eversource.com/content/general/residential/about/reliability/vegetation-management/distribution-system-vegetation-management | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.940471 | 226 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Hundreds of millions of years ago life climbed out of the oceans and started the process of evolution that created the world as we know it. About 50 million years ago the cetaceans returned to the oceans never to walk on the land again. Descending from a small, four-legged, dog-sized mammal with a tail, cetaceans have evolved into a group of almost 80 species that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises.
The modern cetaceans are broken down into two main types based on the method by which they feed. Mystyceti, or baleen whales, are filter feeders who have large membranous plates in their mouths that hang down. These plates are covered in small hairs that trap microscopic lifeforms as hundreds of gallons of sea water are inhaled by the whale. Only 10 species within cetacea belong to the mystyceti group and all of them are whales. Odontoceti, or toothed whales, have teeth in both their upper and lower jaws. These toothed whales instead of filter feeding use their teeth to catch large prey. All dolphins and porpoises are members of the odontoceti group as are most whale species.
Cetaceans are all fully aquatic and have adapted perfectly to life in the water. Their rear limbs have fused together to create flattened tails that are used by all cetaceans as their main propulsion power. The front limbs have developed into flattened, paddle-like limbs called flippers that are held at the side of the body. In some species these also help with propulsion but are mainly for steering purposes. Unlike land mammals, whales have essentially developed to be fully hairless though some whales do have patches of hair and young whales do often have hair at some point of their development.
The range of size in cetaceans is quite vast. The smallest is the finless porpoise at 6 feet in length and 99 pounds, while the largest is the blue whale at over 100 feet and 200 tons. The whales tend to be the largest of the cetaceans with many species being very long and weighing several tons. Dolphins are usually smaller although the killer whale, which is actually a type of dolphin, is as large as some whales. The smallest of all cetaceans are the porpoises, which consist of just six species.
Members of cetacea are found throughout the world's oceans, from the frigid Arctic and Antarctic waters to the tropics. Some species are widespread such as the blue whale, which is found throughout the planet's oceans, while others may only be found in isolated areas. Most cetaceans live entirely in the oceans although many cases of whales and dolphins swimming up river have been recorded. There are also a few dolphin species that have adapted to live entirely in freshwater rivers.
All cetaceans are carnivores and need to feed on other lifeforms. The largest of all whales, the blue whale, is a baleen whale and ironically feeds on the smallest of all oceanic life. Fish, crustaceans and other ocean living life make up the diets of various cetaceans. The killer whale is one of the few which will feed on animals from the land and have actually been known to rush up onto beaches to snatch seals from dry land.
The order cetacea is very diverse and a representation of what evolution is capable of. Varying from leviathans of the deep to small, coastal-dwelling mammals, cetaceans draw our eyes to the oceans to watch them and marvel at their beauty. Many of them have faced over hunting throughout the centuries and some have come close to extinction. It is important to protect and treasure them for future generations. | <urn:uuid:835d2d3d-876d-42fc-9d57-64e6a12dafbf> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.sciences360.com/index.php/an-overview-of-cetaceans-3733/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573699.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819131019-20220819161019-00265.warc.gz | en | 0.969081 | 774 | 3.921875 | 4 |
President Biden has today signed the Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets.
This executive order is the first "whole-of-government" approach to regulating the cryptocurrency industry, and it aims to target a plethora of issues within the crypto space, including consumer protection, illicit finance, financial inclusion, and "responsible development."
"Growing development and adoption of digital assets and related innovations, as well as inconsistent controls to defend against certain key risks, necessitate an evolution and alignment of the United States Government approach to digital assets," the executive order reads.
Crucially, today’s executive order does not itself introduce new regulations or provide regulatory agencies with the administration’s position on what regulations, specifically, they ought to adopt. Rather, the order asks for federal agencies, such as the Federal Trade Commission, the SEC, and the CFTC, to coordinate their efforts with respect to their oversight of the crypto industry. It also calls for the Treasury Department to “produce a report on the future of money and payment systems.”
What’s in Biden’s crypto executive order
President Biden’s crypto executive order is broken down into 10 sections: policy, objectives, coordination, central bank digital currencies, consumer protection, financial stability, actions to address illicit finance in digital assets, international cooperation, definitions, and finally, general provisions.
Under section two—"Objectives"—the executive order lays out six key objective aims of the government as it pertains to digital assets.
Front and center is the need to protect "consumers, investors, and businesses in the United States."
"The unique and varied features of digital assets can pose significant financial risks to consumers, investors, and businesses if appropriate protections are not in place," the executive order reads, echoing similar warnings made frequently by Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler.
The second risk references protecting the U.S. from global financial instability, pointing out that the rapidly growing digital asset trading platform industry "may not be subject to or in compliance with appropriate regulations or supervision."
Third, the executive order points to the "illicit finance and national security risks posed by misuse of digital assets."
Biden’s order lists several illicit finance risks associated with cryptocurrency, including money laundering, cybercrime, ransomware, narcotics, human trafficking, and terrorism financing.
In recent weeks, the crypto industry has been under renewed scrutiny amid fears that Russia could use cryptocurrencies to evade economic sanctions, though there are individuals within the crypto industry that dispute this perspective.
Rounding off the six key objectives, the executive order commits the U.S. to reinforcing its leadership in technology, promoting access to safe and affordable financial services, and supporting "responsible development."
In a prepared statement published by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen—before the executive order was signed—Yellen praised the government's commitment to "responsible development."
"This approach will support responsible innovation that could result in substantial benefits for the nation, consumers, and businesses," Yellen said in her statement, which can be accessed via the WayBack Machine here.
What about the climate?
While the crypto industry's climate impact does not earn a specifically dedicated section, the U.S. government is taking this issue seriously, too.
Within 180 days of the order, Biden has instructed multiple leading authorities—including the Environmental Protection Agency—to submit a report to the president that will examine the "potential for these technologies to impede or advance efforts to tackle climate change at home and abroad."
Specifically, proof-of-work blockchain mechanisms like Bitcoin's may come under fire. These blockchains are secured by high-end computers which perform complex mathematical calculations—which, consequently, demand a high consumption of energy.
Other networks—such as proof-of-stake blockchains Avalanche and Solana—do not require the same amount of energy consumption, and thus have smaller carbon footprints.
According to the order, "The report should also address the effect of cryptocurrencies' consensus mechanisms on energy usage, including research into potential mitigating measures and alternative measures of consensus."
Get the best of Decrypt where you want it most. | <urn:uuid:84ee4bfc-c219-4926-9418-27f2f3da05c5> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://ipfs.decrypt.co/ipfs/QmVKYAR5PvNQ6a8x4zRyXeu2rK9ndk3cZwBCYb4JSqAgXY | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570977.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809124724-20220809154724-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.938204 | 851 | 1.742188 | 2 |
As the world is moving towards digitisation, businesses are embracing Technology to strive for the competitive world in the long term. The dawn of the digital age has raised a very important question for businesses i.e.
“Security or convenience?” Professionals are facing this challenge for many years. The existence of these two priorities hadn’t been possible at the same time; one always costed the other one.
The Current Situation
It is too difficult to provide frictionless customer experience while relying on tricky login credentials and security protocols. The multiple security checks and mandatory account creation for a one-time purchase frustrate the customers, especially in case of a forgotten password.
Resetting the password is one hectic process due to the restrictions of strict parameters around the news password. This is not just in case of one account, the process can extend to multiple online accounts.
On the other side of the equation, if we focus on customer experience by removing the barriers preventing customers from accessing the services and resources online – i.e, authentication checks – the customers won’t face any hindrances that might slow down online transactions.
But the main question is: Are organisations ready to incorporate this change? Are they inclined towards quick and accurate customer verification and authentication?
The lack of proper security protocols could result in fraud losses, hence negatively impacting the customers.
Face Verification – The Elusive Balance
With the invention of biometric technology, more specifically face verification, now there is no need to trade-off between two. By incorporating technology, businesses can achieve both simultaneously.
Face verification, based on Facial Recognition technology is gradually becoming a new verification parameter. Various industries such as retail, financial institutes, government organisations, etc. are integrating this technology to enhance their security protocols and user experience.
The traditional authentication checks based on passwords/pin codes and email/username are becoming a weak line of defense in this technology-driven world.
If on the one hand password resetting is a hectic process that frustrates users then, on the other hand, passwords are no more secure. How can you be sure that the user credentials are only entered by the authorised user?
With technology advancing, it is no more difficult for fraudsters to access or hack user credentials. Therefore, the traditional authentication methods need to be replaced with the latest one.
Face verification is slowing replacing the need for passwords. Now, instead of remembering passwords, users can verify their identities just by showing their faces.
Based on the Biometric Authentication System of a person, face verification is the safest way to authenticate the person’s identity; since biometrics can’t be stolen or exploited.
Over the past few years, there has been a significant increase in the frequency of identity frauds. The main factors fuelling the growth of identity theft are data breaches, weak password practices, and social engineering tactics.
Identity theft is eventually resulting in account takeover and credit card frauds. Face verification is an effective solution to combat fraudsters and prevent digital fraud.
By ensuring the remote presence of an individual through liveness detection, face verification authenticates the authorised user in real-time with zero effort from the user’ side. Moreover, it can also be very helpful at checkout time to deter unauthorised transactions.
Face verification has made user verification as simple as taking a selfie. Now the users don’t need to remember difficult passwords and worry about stealing.
Moreover, the effort of changing passwords timely is also eliminated. This ultimately enhances the verification process and business security, hence, improving the customer experience tremendously. | <urn:uuid:60d1df00-8327-406d-a13a-f3fbb2be21c8> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.whatiswhatis.com/face-verification-balancing-security-and-experience/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570977.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809124724-20220809154724-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.922714 | 755 | 2.171875 | 2 |
Is Gold Speculative Investment – Updated Review
- 1 Is Gold Speculative Investment
- 1.1 What Is A Gold Individual retirement account?
- 1.2 Regularly Asked Inquiries
Is Gold Speculative Investment
Gold has been used as a type of currency or shop of value because human world initial started over 4000 years ago. There is a reason societies throughout the globe that had no contact with each various other all valued Gold. While it might not have an excessive quantity of functional applications when compared to various other metals there are two variables that help to maintain its worth. Is Gold Speculative Investment
Gold is not a metal that damages down over time nor does it corrode. Many metals will damage down gradually that makes them inadequate choices to hold value. The 2nd and possibly essential aspect is that gold is rare. If there were an overabundance of it it would not be nearly as useful.
This is led lots of to ask yourself whether purchasing gold is a good idea for your retired life. This is a good idea. While it is important to branch out among different property courses gold is a excellent hedge versus rising cost of living and also other adverse economic results. Among the best means to purchase gold as a means to conserve in the direction of retired life is by opening up a gold IRA. However exactly what is a gold IRA?
What Is A Gold Individual retirement account?
A gold Individual Retirement Account is really similar to a regular IRA except that the account will certainly be moneyed making use of gold in the form of bars and also bullion instead of supplies or bonds. These are IRAs that are also available to buying other types of precious metals like silver or platinum also. There are a couple of cautions that can complicate the choice of whether to invest in this kind of make up your retired life.
The key benefit of an Individual Retirement Account is that it delays the tax obligations on any type of incomes from your investments. Gold does not produce any type of incomes nonetheless so it might not necessarily make good sense. This does not mean that it is a inadequate financial investment though there are still numerous reasons why you need to think about adding this to your portfolio. Gold And Also Rare-earth Elements For Retirement.
Of course among the most basic aspects of investing is diversification. It is ill-advised to put all of your eggs in one basket in a manner of speaking. As if the worth of this financial investment declines after that it can affect your entire profile. Below are a few of the top factors that you need to take into consideration diversifying your portfolio to consist of gold as well as various other precious metals. Is Gold Speculative Investment
Leading Reasons To Have Gold In Your Pension
- Can Hold Multiple Rare-earth Elements.
- Paper Property Investments
- Diversify Your Profile
- Hedge Against Rising cost of living
A regular Roth IRA is a sort of managed investment where you can choose the allotment percents of your portfolio yet does not have control over the specific details of the investments. While this is not necessarily a poor thing it does illuminate a little of flexibility from your option of spending choices. A gold IRA his totally self-directed definition that you select every single detail by yourself.
Can Hold Multiple Precious Metals
A gold IRA can holding more than simply gold. There are a variety of rare-earth elements that are allowed one of these investment accounts. In addition to gold, you can hold numerous types of silver, platinum, and palladium. This is great as it permits even additional diversification of your portfolio.
Paper Possession Investments
In addition to an actual physical collection of precious metals, it is likewise possible to buy details by-products and also exchange-traded funds that are based upon these precious metals. These are referred to as paper asset financial investments as well as they are in fact with the ability of producing earnings where the tax obligation can be postponed.
Diversify Your Profile
You have more than likely listened to the recommendations to diversify your profile sufficient to make you intend to draw your hair out. There is a reason so many individuals shout this at you during fundamental economic education. It is due to the fact that it absolutely is beneficial for your retired life as overtime different asset classes will certainly boost as well as reduce in worth however by diversifying you can minimize the hazardous impacts of this.
Hedge Versus Rising cost of living
Lastly among the greatest reasons that individuals acquisition gold as an investment in the first place is to safeguard themselves versus inflation. While paper currencies value increases and also decreases gradually gold is generally much more secure.
Gold IRA Providers
There are a few firms that provide the solutions of gold IRAs. Not all of them are made equivalent, nonetheless. Below are a couple of things to keep an eye out to ensure that you are working with a high-quality carrier. Is Gold Speculative Investment
Indicators A Gold Ira Carrier Deserves Dealing With
- Proven Performance History
- Excellent Customer Care
- Open To Comments
Proven Performance History.
Among the very initial points to keep an eye out for when you are looking around for a supplier is their record. Have they been helping customers in the industry for just a couple of months or four decades? Are the clients that have been with them satisfied with the solutions that they have gotten? If the response to these 2 concerns are of course there’s a good chance that this company deserves collaborating with.
Excellent Customer Care
There is more to a company than just a terrific record. Because they are going to be managing such an vital aspect of your monetary life it is essential that they are not a migraine to deal with. The best companies will certainly have excellent client service as well as make you constantly feel valued and appreciated.
While it is simple to assume that lots of people are already familiar with the details of their investments a top notch gold IRA provider will certainly head out of their method to make sure that you have all of the information you need. If you really feel that they are cleaning you off that is a significant warning. Ensure to ask lots of concerns throughout your initial meeting with them to obtain a feel for how prepared they are to help notify you.
Open up to Comments
Finally, the last point to watch out for is exactly how open to responses the company is. While they are certainly the experts and there is a likelihood that they have a better understanding of the market than you do eventually no one is best. If they hesitate to also hear your responses that is one more significant warning. Nevertheless, if they are open to go over any kind of responses you have you ought to really feel comfy collaborating with them.
Should You Have Gold In Your Retirement Account
It is difficult to give a blanket suggestion on whether these types of investment accounts are a great fit for your monetary goals or otherwise. This is constantly mosting likely to be a question that you must answer yourself. They are great during market recessions as gold traditionally outperforms supplies during economic hardship. Gold is additionally fantastic as a hedge versus rising cost of living. Inevitably whether those two variables are worth opening an totally new represent you is going to be for you to make a decision.
Regularly Asked Inquiries
Just how Great Of An Investment Is A Gold Individual retirement account
A gold Individual Retirement Account can be a excellent financial investment depending on your situations. If it resembles there is mosting likely to be a market slump after that the opportunities are that it would certainly deserve purchasing these as stocks will certainly lose value as these will certainly get value. If there are signs of inflation than there is also a excellent chance that it would be worth adding a little gold to your profile.
Is It Feasible To Own Gold In An Ira
Not only is it possible to own gold in an Individual Retirement Account that has tax-deferred profits however you can hold several various other sorts of precious metals. These steels consist of silver, platinum, as well as palladium. Is Gold Speculative Investment
What Are The Details Of A Gold Ira Rollover
In a gold Individual Retirement Account, you will have a custodian that holds the properties for you. The gold that is in your portfolio will be held at an IRS authorized depository. Any revenues that Scout creates will have every one of the tax-deferred till you withdraw.
Exactly How To Sell Gold That Remains In Your Individual retirement account
Typically the procedure to liquidate the possessions that you are holding in your gold IRA is rather straightforward. A lot of the moment all you will need to do is contact your broker agent and ask for the particular needs to market your gold. If you have actually met the needs after that all you will certainly need to do is ask them to proceed and sell your possessions. If there are demands you still need to satisfy you must finish those first, nevertheless. | <urn:uuid:6dd26b5b-0caa-4c95-81bd-02e27d69cd40> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.goldwynreports.com/is-gold-speculative-investment-updated-review/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.965138 | 1,839 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Allergy symptoms can really flare up during spring, summer and fall. It seems like the quest for relief is never-ending. A lot of contaminants can hurt your indoor air quality, like mold, pet dander and bacteria. You can get some relief from the allergy symptoms caused by these contaminants with germicidal lights.
A lot of people haven’t heard of germicidal lights but they’re an awesome way to boost the quality of the air in your house. The lights are contained within your HVAC system and keep germs from multiplying by emitting ultraviolet (UV) light rays that harm the cell walls of contaminants so they can’t grow or multiply. Even during the time when your system isn’t running, the lights are still destroying them.
Germicidal lights can also help your heating and cooling system run more efficiently, in addition to improving your indoor air quality. Mold, pet dander and other microorganisms can accumulate in your system and make it work harder than necessary. So, keeping your air clean keeps your family healthy, and your HVAC system healthy. It doesn’t get better than that.
Now that you’re aware of the indoor air quality benefits of having germicidal lights, ask your HVAC professional about them at your next air conditioner service appointment. Or, call Miller Climate Control LLC at 512-937-2001. There are a number of ways we can help you clean up your indoor air quality from air filtration and air purification to dehumidifiers. We will work with you to help determine what will help give you amazing indoor air quality and keep your home healthy and comfortable. | <urn:uuid:0d7303d1-3f9f-4050-814b-328fec475dcb> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.millerclimatecontrol.com/blog/germicidal-lights-can-help-reduce-germs-and-improve-your-indoor-air-quality | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570977.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809124724-20220809154724-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.937063 | 343 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Ten out of the 28 districts in Bulgaria are Covid-19 dark red zones, meaning a morbidity rate of 500 or more out of 100 000 population on a 14-day basis, according to the November 30 update by the unified information portal.
The 10 districts are Blagoevgrad, Varna, Vratsa, Gabrovo, Montana, Pernik, Rousse, Sofia district, Sofia city and Haskovo.
The morbidity rate is highest in the district of Vratsa, 723.81 out of 100 000. In the city of Sofia, the morbidity rate is 605.16 per 100 000.
Seventeen districts are Covid-19 red zones, meaning a morbidity rate from 250 to 499.9 per 100 000 population: Bourgas, Veliko Turnovo, Vidin, Dobrich, Kyustendil, Lovech, Pazardzhik, Pleven, Plovdiv, Razgrad, Silistra, Sliven, Smolyan, Stara Zagora, Turgovishte, Shoumen and Yambol.
One district, Kurdzhali, is a yellow zone, meaning a morbidity rate from 100 to 249.9 per 100 000 population.
The update said that Bulgaria’s national Covid-19 morbidity rate was 484.43 per 100 000 population on a 14-day basis, placing it at the level of a red zone.
For the rest of The Sofia Globe’s continuing coverage of the Covid-19 situation in Bulgaria, please click here.
The Sofia Globe’s coverage of the Covid-19 situation in Bulgaria is supported by the Embassies of Switzerland and Finland.
Please support independent journalism by clicking on the orange button below. For as little as three euro a month or the equivalent in other currencies, you can support The Sofia Globe via patreon.com and get access to exclusive subscriber-only content: | <urn:uuid:fef2305d-dd4f-4f1d-9486-3c72dbc2197c> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://sofiaglobe.com/2021/11/30/ten-districts-in-bulgaria-are-covid-19-dark-red-zones/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570977.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809124724-20220809154724-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.846267 | 411 | 2.09375 | 2 |
To tackle diseases like malaria, yellow fever and dengue, researchers have been studying the distribution, diversity, and abundance of mosquitos
Mosquitoes are the world’s deadliest flies. With over 3000 species, they pose numerous risks to humans through disease – the risks they pose to humans are only increasing with the threat of climate change.
The HumBug project, developing methods to identify different species of mosquitoes, used their acoustic signature – or sound – of their flight tones.
As captured on a smartphone, over five years’ worth of research was released with the data of acoustic mosquito flight tones of 36 different species, in over 20 hours of audio recordings the team labelled and tagged precisely.
Mosquitos are responsible for over one billion cases of disease, and result in over 1 million deaths each year
The study used sound to categorise different species, generating unprecedented levels of necessary high quality, spatially accurate mosquito occurrence and abundance data without any risk to survey participants.
The Humbug system takes the recordings, with their location and time, and uploads them on the app to a server which detects the sounds of the mosquitos and thus, identifying their species.
Co-Principal Investigator Professor Stephen Roberts said: “Making our extensive dataset openly available will prove hugely beneficial to entomologists and mosquito domain experts. The scale of the data and associated algorithms is unique.
“We hope it will enable a better understanding of mosquito behaviour, distribution and help manage the threat they pose to humans.”
Using algorithms to distinguish species according to their acoustic signature
This is the first large-scale multi-species dataset of acoustic recordings of mosquitoes tracked continuously in free flight.
The HumBug Project is supported by a grant awarded through the 2014 UK Google Impact Challenge, the ORCHID project and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. With data collection sites in Kenya, Thailand and Tanzania, the UK, and the USA, this research is to be presented at the 35th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems 2021.
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Must Read >> New mosquito control tools are critical | <urn:uuid:c494cc49-051f-41f0-9ebe-30752ed61592> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/mosquito-large-scale-acoustic-data/127108/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570977.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809124724-20220809154724-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.91401 | 439 | 3.75 | 4 |
Targeted nanoparticles that can cling to artery walls and slowly release medicine could offer an alternative to drug-releasing stents in some patients with clogged or damaged arteries, according to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Harvard Medical School.
Targeted nanoparticles that can cling to artery walls and slowly release medicine could offer an alternative to drug-releasing stents in some patients with clogged or damaged arteries, according to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Harvard Medical School. The research has been published in a January issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Coated with tiny protein fragments that enable them to stick to target proteins, the particles are known as ‘nanoburrs’. The nanoburrs target the basement membrane, which lines the arterial walls and is only exposed when those walls are damaged. According to the researchers, the nanoburrs can release their drug payload over several days and could be used to deliver drugs that target atherosclerosis and other inflammatory cardiovascular diseases.
Two of the researchers, Robert Langer, Professor at the MIT Institute, and Omid Farokhzad, Associate Professor at the Harvard Medical School, have previously developed nanoparticles that seek and destroy tumors. According to a press statement, however, the nanoburrs are the first particles that can target damaged vascular tissues.
Clogged and damaged arteries are usual treated via vascular stents. The nanoburrs could be used alongside these or used in areas not suitable for stents, such as near a fork in the artery.
In a news release issued by the MIT, Uday Kompella, Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Colorado (CO, USA), also explained that the nanoburr’s structure should be easy to manufacture because the targeted peptides are attached to an outer shell and not directly to the drug-carrying core, which would require a more complicated chemical reaction. The design of the nanoburrs also reduces the risk of the nanoparticles bursting and releasing drugs prematurely.
The lead author of the paper also added in the press statement that the particles can be injected intravenously, which would prevent repeated and surgically invasive injections directly into the area that requires treatment. | <urn:uuid:d72975af-fb65-4678-abf2-7b7eb794ab48> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.pharmtech.com/view/nanoburrs-offer-targeted-cardiovascular-treatment-0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.954325 | 467 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Ecosia – Search Engine with a Difference
How many of us think about our planet…EARTH ??
I Do…and the moment, I heard about this unique search engine which gives 80% of its profit in good cause…Tree Plantation…I thought to myself, still there are companies who care for our planet…Isn’t it a good move??
So, I too thought, why not write an article on Ecosia and do my bit of informing people, about this unique search engine, whose motive is to save Mother Nature.
We are so busy in evolving ourselves, in the field of technology, medicine and every other segment of life that one aspect we have neglected to such an extent that many species of trees have vanished from planet Earth. We are eradicating trees to build houses, factories and other materialistic things which would ultimately cause pollution and lead to eradication of human species. But, some companies still feel care our planet deeply and like to make a difference. And as human beings our approach would be to use this search engine and make that small change which would eventually bring a vast difference in how we would like to see our future generation.
Ecosia- What is it?
It is a search engine which was launched on December 7th, 2009 and is based in Berlin, Germany. It is owned by Microsoft. When you are using Ecosia, you are using the BING search engine. So, we can say that Ecosia is a tree planting search engine. Ecosia right now is doing projects in the following countries: Tanzania, Morocco, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Madagascar and Brazil.
How does it work?
The business model is similar to that of Google. Only thing is that it donates 80% of the profit from ads to the plantation of trees where the Earth needs the most. So, while you are searching the web, you generate revenues and Ecosia uses these revenues to plant trees. They are very transparent. They publish their financial reports monthly and also tree planting receipts.
How safe is your data?
Well, if we go as per their words, they respect our privacy and won’t sell our information to any third party vendors. They would dissolve your searches in one week, keeping your searches private.
So, I have become Ecosia user. I have done my bit, when will you do yours?
If You Want Change Then Be The Change
You may also like to read about: DuckDuckGo vs Google | <urn:uuid:50ebce92-3026-4a7b-a076-2a4796294b39> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://boringportal.com/ecosia-the-search-engine-with-a-difference/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.965393 | 515 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Mazatlán, Sinaloa.- In Sinaloa, it has already been detected that children from 8 years of age have already consumed their first drugs, in this case, alcohol and tobacco because they are legal, as reported by Eduardo Camacho Angulo, coordinator in Mazatlan of the Unit of Medical Specialties in Primary Care Centers in Addictions (Uneme Capa).
The specialist explained that, in the programs that are brought to public schools through talks, it is the children themselves who have opened up in revealing the consumption of their first drug, with alcohol being the main substance to be ingested, either because they saw parents do so or out of curiosity to see said substance in refrigerators like beer.
He explained that from being 14 years old the average age to experiment with alcohol, this has been decreasing and adolescent children have already had their first contact with a legal drug.
“Unfortunately, we have had cases of 8 and 9-year-old children who have already consumed alcohol, which we have detected in elementary schools where they have said that it was hidden from their parents or because the beer was left open and curiosity made them drink it by mistake. first time,” he said.
Camacho Angulo also explained that family customs, and particularly those from Sinaloa, have been the reflection for minors to try their first drugs, because from being the friends who intuited to consume them, now the family has become the main factor of example for that children or minors start drinking alcohol, either at family gatherings such as birthdays, baptisms and weddings, or simply having alcohol so close to them that curiosity enters their minds.
“Well, practically all behaviors are imitable, something that is learned from the first behaviors is at home, the first thing that is imitated is mom, dad, uncles, grandparents, then in an ideal scenario it would be that we are the first to set the example, unfortunately this already comes from generation to generation and it is precisely there where we want to try to break that inheritance of substance use”, he indicated.
The coordinator of Uneme Capa in Mazatlan reported that due to these situations, greater efforts have been made to bring prevention programs to schools to make them aware of the consequences of the consumption of the first drugs, indicating that once a child is detected, young or adolescent who consumes alcohol, a series of personal therapies are initiated to prevent it from becoming an addiction.
Eduardo Camacho Angulo pointed out that it is not about demonizing alcohol consumption, but rather raising awareness of excess and what it can cause in the short term if this substance is consumed at an early age. | <urn:uuid:5fc7cbc8-68bb-4890-bed8-f608d9c6f0e6> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://themazatlanpost.com/2022/04/05/8-year-old-children-begin-to-consume-alcohol-in-sinaloa-and-it-is-the-parents-who-induce-uneme-capa/?amp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570977.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809124724-20220809154724-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.976014 | 558 | 2.1875 | 2 |
The irony of getting away to a remote place is you usually have to fight traffic to get there. After hours of dodging dangerous drivers, you finally arrive at that quiet mountain retreat, stare at the gentle waters of a pristine lake, and congratulate your tired self on having “turned off your brain.”
“Actually, you’ve just given your brain a whole new challenge,” says Thomas D. Albright, director of the Vision Center Laboratory at of the Salk Institute and an expert on how the visual system works. “You may think you’re resting, but your brain is automatically assessing the spatio-temporal properties of this novel environment-what objects are in it, are they moving, and if so, how fast are they moving?
The dilemma is that our brains can only dedicate so many neurons to this assessment, says Sergei Gepshtein, a staff scientist in Salk’s Vision Center Laboratory. “It’s a problem in economy of resources: If the visual system has limited resources, how can it use them most efficiently?”
Albright, Gepshtein and Luis A. Lesmes, a specialist in measuring human performance, a former Salk Institute post-doctoral researcher, now at the Schepens Eye Research Institute, proposed an answer to the question in a recent issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It may reconcile the puzzling contradictions in many previous studies.
Previously, scientists expected that extended exposure to a novel environment would make you better at detecting its subtle details, such as the slow motion of waves on that lake. Yet those who tried to confirm that idea were surprised when their experiments produced contradictory results. “Sometimes people got better at detecting a stimulus, sometimes they got worse, sometimes there was no effect at all, and sometimes people got better, but not for the expected stimulus,” says Albright, holder of Salk’s Conrad T. Prebys Chair in Vision Research.
The answer, according to Gepshtein, came from asking a new question: What happens when you look at the problem of resource allocation from a system’s perspective?
It turns out something’s got to give.
“It’s as if the brain’s on a budget; if it devotes 70 percent here, then it can only devote 30 percent there,” says Gepshtein. “When the adaptation happens, if now you’re attuned to high speeds, you’ll be able to see faster moving things that you couldn’t see before, but as a result of allocating resources to that stimulus, you lose sensitivity to other things, which may or may not be familiar.”
Summing up, Albright says, “Simply put, it’s a tradeoff: The price of getting better at one thing is getting worse at another.”
Gepshtein, a computational neuroscientist, analyzes the brain from a theoretician’s point of view, and the PNAS paper details the computations the visual system uses to accomplish the adaptation. The computations are similar to the method of signal processing known as Gabor transform, which is used to extract features in both the spatial and temporal domains.
Yes, while you may struggle to balance your checkbook, it turns out your brain is using operations it took a Nobel Laureate to describe. Dennis Gabor won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Physics for his invention and development of holography. But that wasn’t his only accomplishment. Like his contemporary Claude Shannon, he worked on some of the most fundamental questions in communications theory, such as how a great deal of information can be compressed into narrow channels.
“Gabor proved that measurements of two fundamental properties of a signal-its location and frequency content-are not independent of one another,” says Gepshtein.
The location of a signal is simply that: where is the signal at what point in time. The content-the “what” of a signal-is “written” in the language of frequencies and is a measurement of the amount of variation, such as the different shades of gray in a photograph.
The challenge comes when you’re trying to measure both location and frequency, because location is more accurately determined in a short time window, while variation needs a longer time window (imagine how much more accurately you can guess a song the longer it plays).
The obvious answer is that you’re stuck with a compromise: You can get a precise measurement of one or the other, but not both. But how can you be sure you’ve come up with the best possible compromise? Gabor’s answer was what’s become known as a “Gabor Filter” that helps obtain the most precise measurements possible for both qualities. Our brains employ a similar strategy, says Gepshtein.
“In human vision, stimuli are first encoded by neural cells whose response characteristics, called receptive fields, have different sizes,” he explains. “The neural cells that have larger receptive fields are sensitive to lower spatial frequencies than the cells that have smaller receptive fields. For this reason, the operations performed by biological vision can be described by a Gabor wavelet transform.”
In essence, the first stages of the visual process act like a filter. “It describes which stimuli get in, and which do not,” Gepshtein says. “When you change the environment, the filter changes, so certain stimuli, which were invisible before, become visible, but because you moved the filter, other stimuli, which you may have detected before, no longer get in.”
“When you see only small parts of this filter, you find that visual sensitivity sometimes gets better and sometimes worse, creating an apparently paradoxical picture,” Gepshtein continues. “But when you see the entire filter, you discover that the pieces – the gains and losses – add up to a coherent pattern.”
From a psychological point of view, according to Albright, what makes this especially intriguing is that the assessing and adapting is happening automatically-all of this processing happens whether or not you consciously ‘pay attention’ to the change in scene.
Yet, while the adaptation happens automatically, it does not appear to happen instantaneously. Their current experiments take approximately thirty minutes to conduct, but the scientists believe the adaption may take less time in nature. | <urn:uuid:fb09d541-47a5-45c0-9341-fbd42094384d> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://scienceblog.com/62265/your-brain-is-a-mathematical-genius/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570977.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809124724-20220809154724-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.951991 | 1,357 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Parent Technical Support Email:
The School Safety Patrol Pledge
I promise to do my best to ...
report for duty on time, perform my duties faithfully,
strive to prevent accidents, always setting a good example myself,
obey my teachers and officers of the patrol,
report dangerous student practices,
strive to earn the respect of fellow students.
Safety Patrol Reminders
- Look, act and be alert
- Report for duty on time
- Always set a good example, know and practice safe walking rules
- Never stop cars!
- Perform your patrol duties faithfully
- Be neat and clean while on duty
- Be dependable and trustworthy
- Be courteous and polite at all times, treat others as you would like to be treated
- Wear you belt and badge proudly
- Remind students of safe walking rules without being "BOSSY"
- Give correct crossing signals to classmates
- Obey rules of the patrol, school and home
- The three main functions of a patrol are:
- Do not stand or walk on the bus while it is in motion
Safety Patrol Criteria: Are you willing and capable of performing the following duties?
- Being alert
- Reporting for duty on time
- Learning and practicing safe walking rules
- Performing your duties faithfully
- Being neat and clean while on duty
- Being dependable and trustworthy
- Being courteous and polite
- Being cooperative
- Give directions without being bossy
- Learn to give correct crossing signals to classmates
- Obey rules of the patrol, school, community and home
Safety Patrols are lead by Mr. Dorfman, our physical education teacher, and are chosen from the 5th grade student body.
4th grade students will have the opportunity to go through the patrol selection process just after Spring Break. We will have a meeting in the gym during recess to explain the process.
Patrol Leadership Camp
The School Safety Unit of the Traffic Division of the Montgomery County Department of Police offers a week long overnight Leadership Camp. The purpose of the school safety patrol camp is twofold: 1) to have fun in the camp environment by making friends and enjoying the activities provided, and 2) to become trained in the proper techniques needed to become a good safety patrol.
The camp is located in Emmitsburg, MD and the cost is $325.00. Online registration starts on March 16, 2020.
Campers will learn the various responsibilities of being an effective safety patrol, they will also learn leadership skills, teamwork, traffic safety awareness and how to be a positive role model. This camp teaches a variety of safety skills and character building experiences for any interested rising 5th grader.
For more information visit the School Safety Patrol Leadership Camp website. | <urn:uuid:09b76027-a7a2-44dc-8654-3fb0171d1e04> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/greatsenecacreekes/safety/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882572833.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817001643-20220817031643-00265.warc.gz | en | 0.930194 | 600 | 2.125 | 2 |
Parenting Tips for Strong-Willed Children
Kids can never be compared- some needs opinion from parents irrespective of their age others are self-opinionated right from their childhood, they are bold, resistant, courageous and rebellious. Which in a way is good and bad at the same point, as it does get difficult for parents to manage their kid’s strong behavior.
Strong-willed children can be a challenge when they’re young, but if sensitively parented, they become terrific teens and young adults. Self-motivated and inner-directed, they go after what they want and are almost impervious to peer pressure. Strong–willed kids are spirited and courageous.
Dealing with situations gets difficult for parents and they don’t know whether to accept it or commute to modify it.
Parenting the strong-willed child is a challenge.
There are numerous challenges with strong-willed children while their growing years. They do get shroud and stubborn. Finding balance with their tantrums is a task for parents.
The equipoise has to be maintained by parents by refusing to their undue demands with proclivity and positively instead of bringing them near to shame or awkwardness.
Those who have experienced the strong-willed child they exactly know that parenting the strong-willed child is no less than a drudgery.
Everyday basic things come to parents like a challenge with a strong-willed kid like-studying, taking bath, eating, going out and more. Strong-willed children are hard to raise but if parenting is done right, they bloom with shining colors. They are competitive and that makes them a great LEADER.
What are the Strong-Willed Child characteristics?
- Act bossy: Strong-willed children act bossy in their routine as they can’t see anyone taking charge of things.
- Why: They raise questions about every possible thing and want you to answer what they wish to hear.
- Lack of Patience: patience and strong-willed child are not good friends. They lose temper in just a snap.
- Back Answer: they are always ready to argue, back an answer and prove their point no matter what.
- NO: Their favorite word is mostly NO. They hardly agree on things as they are the strong head. They refuse immediately when asked to perform.
◊ Teaching Kids About Forgiveness Read our Article
Dealing with a Strong-willed toddler is as same as dealing when they are teens. Once you know that your kid is strong-willed then you must gather the right techniques to handle them.
Tips for parenting a strong-willed child
- Do not get into an argument: Leave them unanswered but there is a difference between unanswered and ignorance. Make them realize their loud behavior is and will not be accepted anywhere.
- Handle situations with maturity: Get your things done smartly, for instance, they don’t want to study then let them know your experience when you did the same. Make them understand as an adult. Talk about it.
- Listen to them, give them all your ears: This will make you understand why do they behave aggressively and get agitated. To know what’s going inside them, let them open up and you be a good listener.
- Let them take the authority but do that wisely: You let them take charge only when they are right or make sense if not put your point and then allow them to take a decision.
- The positive side should be enhanced: In such a manner that they are ready to change for good. Basic human nature is when you listen to good things about yourself, you feel good and eventually, you behave well.
How to discipline a Strong-Willed Child?
- Set up a sleeping routine: set up their routine, ask them to follow a certain routine and let them take the charge to set it.
- Be polite: Try and adopt reverse psychology with them, be polite with then even if they act impulsive, your positive approach will change their behavior with time.
- Respect them: Give them respect and the same will come back to you. Give them choices rather saying NO to everything they come up with.
Practice these simple techniques for raising a strong-willed child and you will see the difference in them and yourself. Build a healthy relationship with your strong-willed child.
By: Neha Gandhi
An aspiring writer. Yan Can Follow her on Facebook.
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- Be A Playful Parent: 7 Ways To Add Active Play In Your Kids Routine
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- 7 Practical Benefits of Gardening with Kids
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- Why Family Vacations are Important for Mom-Dad & Kids
- What can Fathers do to make the world a safer place for Children?
- The Importance of Music in Child Development
- Importance of Unstructured Outdoor Play For Kids
- Benefits of Outdoor Play | Ways to Encourage Kids to Play Outside
- Tips Every Parent Should Know To Raise Healthy and Happy Kids
- Things Kids Can Say and Do To Stop Bullying | <urn:uuid:cdb37a6f-a5ac-4c08-8626-7442263601c9> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://socialkids.ca/tag/dealing-with-a-strong-willed-toddler/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570977.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809124724-20220809154724-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.947127 | 1,204 | 2.671875 | 3 |
A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman has blamed U.S. forces for a near-miss of planes over Syria earlier this month.
U.S. officials said this week that a Russian plane came close enough to a warplane from the U.S.-led coalition for its wake to be felt by the other pilot.
The officials said the incident, which occurred October 17, did not appear to be threatening, but rather caused by the Russian pilot losing "situational awareness."
But Major General Igor Konashenkov on October 29 dismissed that assertion, saying an American E-3 radar plane had unexpectedly descended during the October 17 incident.
He said that brought the American plane within 500 meters of a Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jet.
With scores of aircraft flying sorties over Syria, the Russian and U.S. military operations in Syria have communication procedures to reduce the risk of mishaps or midair collisions.
Still, the incident also follows more intentional close encounters between Russian and American planes.
Last month, a Russian fighter jet came within 10 feet of an American spy plane over the Black Sea. | <urn:uuid:27f478b3-7c65-4be8-a78c-7ab6125001a7> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-blames-u-s-near-miss-syria/28082573.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573699.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819131019-20220819161019-00265.warc.gz | en | 0.966942 | 229 | 1.75 | 2 |
1) Solar Concentration
Long rows of reflective troughs focus sunlight on liquid-filled tubes, which can reach up to 500 degrees. The hot fluid is then converted to steam, which heats oil for cooking. The steam is then returned to the solar troughs, in a closed-loop system.
These solar-cell panels convert sunlight directly into electricity.
3) Water-Recovery System
Frito-Lay captures wastewater from manufacturing lines and cleans it to drinking-water quality by removing bits of corn and potato, passing it through a bioreactor to remove broken-down starches and sugars, then filtering and disinfecting it using ultraviolet light and reverse osmosis. The clean water is then used again to wash potatoes, cook corn, and make snacks.
Frito-Lay’s Production Line
4) Co-Generation System
Frito-Lay’s Killingly, Connecticut, and Kern, California, plants operate independently of the electricity grid, thanks to a natural-gas-powered turbine that creates electricity and high-temperature heat converted to steam.
5) Biomass Boilers
Frito-Lay uses by-products from nearby industries (for example, pecan shells, cottonseed, and wood waste such as sawdust and broken pallets in its Topeka, Kansas, and Arizona plants) as fuel for its biomass boilers, which generate heat and electric power.
6) Stack Heat Recovery
When potatoes, which are 80% water, are sliced and fried, the water escapes as steam. Equipment captures the steam to preheat wash water and warm the building in the winter. When the water condenses, it’s used to clean other spuds.
Over the past five years, Frito-Lay has eliminated 150 square miles of packaging by reducing the materials by 10%. This year, it’s introducing the first fully compostable chip bag with its SunChips line.
8) Food-Scrap Recycling
Almost every piece of waste generated at the plant is reused or recycled. The 20 million pounds of potato peelings and corn husks are sent to livestock farms for use as feed, and Frito-Lay consumes 150,000 tons less paperboard each year simply by reusing its shipping cartons five or six times each. | <urn:uuid:050683ce-af83-4fee-8f26-bae312bb2da8> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.fastcompany.com/3017925/28frito-lay | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.905731 | 491 | 3.421875 | 3 |
Comparing Watts Bar with Lakes in Nearby States Operating with Plant Management Plans Comparing Watts Bar with Lakes in Nearby States Operating with Plant Management Plans
Comparing Watts Bar with other lakes and reservoirs listed above:
|Size in Acres||Lake||Affected by Invasive Plants (%)||Links to View Invasive Plant Management Plan|
|171,000||Santee Cooper (Marion, Moultrie), SC||20%||South Carolina management plan governing invasive aquatic plants of all the state’s waterways: http://dnr.sc.gov/invasiveweeds/draftplan.html#http://www.dnr.sc.gov/invasiveweeds/draftplan.html SC reports that Santee Cooper lake’s infestation of invasive aquatic weeds, including hydrilla, watermilfoil, and naiad, impairs boating, swimming, public access, potential electric power generation, and potential irrigation water withdrawals.|
|68,000||Guntersville, AL||25%||TVA: https://www.tva.gov/Environment/Environmental-Stewardship/Anglers-Aquatic-Plant-ID/How-TVA-Manages-Aquatic-Plants; https://www.tva.gov/file_source/TVA/Site%20Content/Environment/Environmental%20Stewardship/Aquatic%20Weeds/Guntersville.pdf Stakeholder: http://lakeguntersvillestakeholders.org/index.php/plan|
|60,000 (total in 17 lakes)||George Power Company lakes||(varies)||http://georgiapowerlakes.com/northgeorgialakes/aquatic-vegetation-management/ (plans are similar throughout the system)|
|46,000||Eufaula, GA / AL||??||http://sam.usace.army.mil/Portals/46/docs/recreation/WFG/docs/2016%20Aquatic%20Plant%20Management%20Plan.pdf (managed by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which released grass eating carp into the lake on two occasions)|
|39,000||Watts Bar Lake, TN||Survey Planed||https://www.tva.gov/file_source/TVA/Site%20Content/Environment/Environmental%20Stewardship/Aquatic%20Weeds/Watts%20Bar.pdf|
- Lakes above have either a governing body that is taking a lead on the control of invasive species or a stakeholder group that is coordinating a comprehensive plan. The Watts Bar Ecology and Fishery Council (WBEFC) has been established and is working toward developing a comprehensive plan.
- Integrated management plans above tend to have two or more components: herbicide management, harvesting (cutting/removing), native plantings and habitat modification (i.e., use native plantings near shoreline and reduce the use of fertilizer near lakeshore) to encourage native aquatic plants, release of sterile grass carp (to reduce hydrilla). Watts Bar has one component at this time, herbicide control.
- Like lakes in severely affected areas in South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and North Carolina, Watts Bar has been recently identified as having three invasive species (including two invasive species that weren’t here before—hydrilla and naiad) which severely impairs all recreation in addition to having a major negative effect on the ecology and fishery of the lake. | <urn:uuid:e2c93c88-5360-4e9d-9804-bd29f722ee5d> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://wbefc.org/surveys/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00265.warc.gz | en | 0.850208 | 831 | 2.328125 | 2 |
Pregnancy and breastfeeding
The COVID-19 vaccine is strongly recommended in pregnancy.
- It is important for pregnant women to get both doses of the vaccine, and the booster dose, to protect themselves against COVID-19.
- The COVID-19 vaccine can be given at any stage during pregnancy.
- Make sure you know as much as you can about the COVID-19 vaccines and the risk of COVID-19 in pregnancy. More information at nhsinform.scot/covid19vaccinepregnancy
- The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has advised that the COVID-19 vaccine can be given to women who are breastfeeding.
- If you are breastfeeding, or planning to breastfeed, you can continue breastfeeding after vaccination. You can continue breastfeeding as normal after vaccination.
- There is no evidence to suggest the COVID-19 vaccine will affect fertility in women or men.
- If you are thinking of getting pregnant, the vaccine is the best way to protect yourself and your baby against the known risks of COVID-19 in pregnancy.
- You do not need to avoid pregnancy after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. | <urn:uuid:a84c4e46-0289-4c50-a352-ab1e0a86829a> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.nhsfife.org/news-updates/campaigns-and-projects/coronavirus-information/covid-19-vaccination-programme-in-fife/pregnancy-and-vaccination/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.934868 | 251 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Excalibur, The Dog Exposed To Ebola, Is Euthanized
Update: At 2 p.m. ET, our correspondent in Madrid informed us that Excalibur had been euthanized, reportedly inside the couple's apartment; the body was then transported to an incinerator.
The latest victim of the Ebola panic has not been tested for the deadly virus. But he lived with someone who has it.
Amid fear over the virus's possible spread in Europe, Spanish authorities say they'll take no chances. They will not test him. Instead, to play it safe, they will kill him.
This latest victim ... is a dog.
Excalibur, a sandy-colored mixed-breed mutt, belonged to a Spanish nurse who was the first case of Ebola to be transmitted outside Africa.
María Teresa Romero Ramos, 40, helped treat two Spanish priests who had contracted Ebola in West Africa, where they worked. They were repatriated to Spain for treatment but died in August and September.
Doctors say Romero entered one of the infected priests' rooms just twice: once to help treat him, and once after his death, to collect some of his belongings. She was wearing a protective suit but somehow became infected. Today she told Spain's El País newspaper that the problem might have been when she removed her protective gear.
Laid low by a fever, Romero hung out with her dog in her apartment, in a southern suburb of Madrid, for about a week before checking herself into a hospital this past Monday. Her husband has been placed in isolation as well, as a precaution, though he has no Ebola symptoms.
Madrid's regional government issued a statement Tuesday saying that rather than follow the same procedure with the couple's dog, it would euthanize the pet. It said the procedure would be carried out in such a way as to minimize his suffering, and that his body would be incinerated.
From his hospital room, the husband, Javier Limón, responded in a video posted on YouTube.
"This is a call to the population to help me save my dog, Excalibur," Limón says. "They want to kill him."
More than 325,000 people have signed an online petition to try to save the dog.
A bewildered Excalibur had been left alone in the couple's apartment until medical workers arrived early this morning to disinfect the apartment. Dozens of animal lovers, many carrying their own pets, turned out to try to block them.
"Murderers!" they yelled at medical workers who pulled up in an ambulance.
The science on whether pets can transmit Ebola to humans is unclear. The virus can infect mammals. In the current West African outbreak, the source is believed to have been an infected bat. In previous outbreaks, people may have caught the virus when they handled the carcasses of infected gorillas, chimpanzees or other non-human primates.
"There is one article in the medical literature that discusses the presence of antibodies to Ebola in dogs," CDC Director Tom Frieden said at a news conference Tuesday. The study, from 2005, looked at several dogs in Gabon who'd eaten Ebola-infected dead animals. The authors reported, "This study suggests that dogs can be infected by Ebola virus and that the putative infection is asymptomatic."
"Whether that was an accurate test and whether that was relevant, we do not know," Frieden said. But, he added: "We have not identified this as a means of transmission."
And even as the world begs for the dog to live, there is the question of context. Edu Madina, a Basque politician, posted this tweet:
Un perro en Madrid ha generado más movilización y noticias que miles de muertos por ébola en África. Para reflexionar.
— Edu Madina (@EduMadina) October 8, 2014
"One dog in Madrid has generated more mobilization and news than thousands of deaths from Ebola in Africa. Something to reflect on."
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | <urn:uuid:516dc911-0a68-4173-bf36-c142d83405b7> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.upr.org/2014-10-08/excalibur-the-dog-exposed-to-ebola-awaits-his-fate | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.967973 | 857 | 1.859375 | 2 |
African Wedding Practices
Marriage customs in Africa differ greatly between districts because of the variety of religion and culture along the continent. Africa provides a very large people of more than 1 ) 2 billion dollars individuals spread around 52 countries. The majority of Africans are Christians but there are several Muslims and members of other made use of also promote this sacred establishment. Traditionally, marital relationship is a practice that is performed by elders only. Marriages in several regions in Africa today are organized either by the family or perhaps tribal frontrunners.
Photography equipment marriage practices typically start with the groom’s parents launching to all the relatives that he’s going to get married to his little girl. He then visits meet his bride who has agreed to get married to him supplied https://mailorderbrides-online.com/africa/gambia/ that he promises not to put pressure on her territory. The wedding is generally held in a o place for example a church or maybe a lodge or possibly a family clan hall. It is actually mostly classic, that only the girl’s family is present at the marriage ceremony but nowadays both bride’s as well as the groom’s family members may come jointly for the marriage.
The wedding feast is usually traditionally famous in a specialized way in Africa. The various meats is cooked properly and then the dessert is divide with fresh fruit and normal water. This is as well as dancing, vocal and music. A girl will take care of washing and planning the food and after that the few will go their very own https://www.affilistars.com/category/uncategorized/page/118/ independent ways.
A traditional means of breaking the wedding apart through making a wish to god as to what they want anytime. If the bride and the groom consent then the relationship is considered to be covered and they get their split ways. Otherwise, they split when husband and wife and continue all their marital your life.
In some parts of Africa where farming is usually prevalent, the wedding ceremony is normally not whole without a etiqueta fire which can be lit by hand. The bride and the groom lumination the fire mutually. The bride then throws seven loose change to the flame, which symbolizes the seven numerous years of their marital relationship. This is then the throwing of various things such as are usually, incense, flower petals and leaves. The wedding is considered completed if the groom kicks the sulfur ashes.
The Photography equipment wedding traditions tend not to end with these ceremonies. There are many more elaborate ways of planning and carrying out the wedding that involves a lot of money. However , it is every worth it as the bride plus the groom will always have the remembrances of their big day. This will become something that they will look back on for a very long time. Consequently , if you are planning to get married in Africa make certain you take your buddies along and make the most of the feeling.<< Back | <urn:uuid:cb41cc7b-5f64-4133-9e1f-f0354ae34f76> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://textileprograms.com/african-wedding-practices/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.978138 | 604 | 2.40625 | 2 |
A Portland teen’s d’var Torah on marriage freedom has gone viral, getting more than 100,000 hits in its first two weeks online.
Duncan McAlpine Sennett, who became a bar mitzvah at Congregation Beth Israel on Nov. 9, delivered his d’var Torah about parashat Vayetzei, which details Jacob’s marriage to Leah and Rachel. Duncan notes that gay marriage opponents frequently say their opposition is based on the biblical definition of marriage as the union between one man and one woman. Yet in Duncan’s Torah portion, Jacob marries two women.
In his d’var Torah, Duncan supports the freedom for everyone to marry the person they love. After Oregon United for Marriage approached Duncan about sharing his d’var with mainstream social media, Beth Israel posted the video Nov. 26 on YouTube (visit www.youtube.com and search for “Duncan bar mitzvah”). In just two weeks, the video had more than 100,000 hits and the story had appeared on state, national and Israeli media sites. It also landed Duncan an invitation to speak at the Union for Reform Judaism Biennial held in California in mid-December.
Duncan is amazed and absolutely thrilled at the reception his d’var received. He’s excited to be working with the Oregon United for Marriage Campaign and hopes his speech helps to promote marriage equality in Oregon. “I really like activist work,” he says. “Maybe that’s what I want to do when I grow up!” | <urn:uuid:cf08e80b-96ed-48a2-98b8-25ae53eb4dd3> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://orjewishlife.com/marriage-freedom-video-cyber-hit/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.963009 | 334 | 1.726563 | 2 |
The Schengen Visa has made traveling between its 25 member countries (22 European Union states and 3 non-EU members) much easier and less bureaucratic. Traveling on a Schengen Visa means that the visa holder can travel to any (or all) member countries using one single visa, thus avoiding the hassle and expense of obtaining individual visas for each country. This is particularly beneficial for persons who wish to visit several European countries on the same trip. The Schengen visa is a “visitor visa”. It is issued to citizens of countries who are required to obtain a visa before entering Europe.
The purpose of the visit must be leisure, tourism, or business. Upon the issuance of the visa, the visa holder is allowed to enter all member countries and travel freely throughout the Schengen area. It is strongly recommended to plan your journey within the timeframe of the Schengen Visa as extensions can be very difficult to obtain, thus forcing you to leave to stay in compliance with the Schengen rules and regulations. A Schengen visa allows the holder to travel freely within the Schengen countries for a maximum stay of up to 90 days in a 6 month period.
Important: The Schengen Visa holders are not allowed to live permanently or work in Europe. Schengen Visa holder only have the right to travel as a temporary visitor to the member countries.
This page was last modified on 20 November 2020 at 05:58.
Total number of written articles in Encyclopedia: 817;
Baltic Legal[w] solely sponsorship.
Business encyclopedia© is a trademark of the Baltic Legal attorney, a profit legal enterprise.
Baltic Legal (law office): Contact Us
Author: Artis Zelmenis | <urn:uuid:9215f9f1-fd21-4b5d-86f2-a6699c6ba37d> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://wiki.baltic-legal.com/schengen-visa/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570767.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808061828-20220808091828-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.913108 | 387 | 2.109375 | 2 |
BOISE, Idaho — Lawmakers have approved a new administrative rule for Idaho’s prison system designed to ensure secrecy surrounding the source of the state’s lethal injection drugs.
It’s not yet clear if the rule will interfere with an ongoing lawsuit brought by University of Idaho Professor Aliza Cover, who sued the Idaho Department of Correction seeking access to lethal injection documents under Idaho’s Public Records law two years ago. Cover largely won at the state court level, but the department appealed, and the Idaho Supreme Court is expected to hear the case at some point this year.
Like previous versions, the rule forbids the Idaho Department of Correction from disclosing “under any circumstance” information that Department Director Josh Tewalt determines could jeopardize the department’s ability to carry out an execution. The new version also specifically forbids the release of information that could potentially identify both past and future suppliers of lethal injection drugs.
Cover, ACLU Policy Director Kathy Griesmyer, and a lobbyist representing the Idaho Press Club testified against the rule on Wednesday, each telling lawmakers that they were concerned the rule limits government transparency.
“The Idaho Press Club looks critically at any policy that reduces transparency and potentially erodes the Idaho Public Records Act,” lobbyist Ken Burgess told lawmakers.
He said the rule gives prison officials “unprecedented discretion and authority,” and said the Idaho Press Club is worried that approving the rule sets a dangerous precedent for future rule changes.
But Tewalt said the rule aims to ensure that the integrity of the execution process is maintained.
“Most details that anybody could want are already publicly available,” Tewalt said. He added it was important for the state to protect the source of execution drugs from disclosure, because maintaining the department’s access to the drugs is critical to the execution process.
Prison officials have maintained that releasing the source of execution drugs would potentially subject the source to negative attention or protests, potentially causing the source to no longer be willing to provide the lethal chemicals.
“This is a heavily litigated area,” Tewalt said. “We’ve had recent incidents across the country where you’ve had executions ... referred to as being ‘botched.’”
The Board of Correction decided to change the rule partly in response to the problems elsewhere, he said.
“Part of it, on our end, is an insistence on learning what we can from other people on what we can do” to ensure the integrity of the process, he said.
But Cover noted the rule seems to be in opposition to a judge’s ruling last year, which directed the department to reveal the source of the lethal injection drugs used in a recent execution.
“Idahoans, whatever their view on the death penalty, have an interest in knowing how their officials are obtaining those drugs and how they are using taxpayer dollars,” she said. “It seems now the Board of Correction is seeking not to increase its transparency but to limit it further.”
(by Rebecca Boone) | <urn:uuid:975e104d-5ffa-49cf-ae53-6c4e5a2e3260> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.kivitv.com/news/idaho-lawmakers-approve-execution-drug-secrecy-rule | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.956037 | 642 | 1.664063 | 2 |
We are excited to bring Transform 2022 back in-person July 19 and virtually July 20 – 28. Join AI and data leaders for insightful talks and exciting networking opportunities. Register today!
Data is precious – so it’s been asserted; it has become the world’s most valuable commodity.
And when it comes to training artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) models, it’s absolutely essential.
Still, due to various factors, high-quality, real-world data can be hard – sometimes even impossible – to come by.
This is where synthetic data becomes so valuable.
Synthetic data reflects real-world data, both mathematically and statistically, but it’s generated in the digital world by computer simulations, algorithms, statistical modeling, simple rules and other techniques. This is opposed to data that’s collected, compiled, annotated and labeled based on real-world sources, scenarios and experimentation.
The concept of synthetic data has been around since the early 1990s, when Harvard statistics professor Donald Rubin generated a set of anonymized U.S. Census responses that mirrored that of the original dataset (but without identifying respondents by home address, phone number or Social Security number).
Synthetic data came to be more widely used in the 2000s, particularly in the development of autonomous vehicles. Now, synthetic data is increasingly being applied to numerous AI and ML use cases.
Synthetic data vs. real data
Real-world data is almost always the best source of insights for AI and ML models (because, well, it’s real). That said, it can often simply be unavailable, unusable due to privacy regulations and constraints, imbalanced or expensive. Errors can also be introduced through bias.
To this point, Gartner estimates that through 2022, 85% of AI projects will deliver erroneous outcomes.
“Real-world data is happenstance and d … | <urn:uuid:815a72ef-e3b2-45af-b29c-31d90745b274> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.rocketnews.com/2022/06/why-synthetic-data-makes-real-ai-better/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570767.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808061828-20220808091828-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.927873 | 399 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Note: Some links on my site and on my blog will redirect you to Amazon.com. These links usually provide me with referral fees when you purchase products I recommend, review, or highlight in some manner. The referral fees don't increase the cost of your product, but do help me maintain my site and blog.
The Fisherman by Brigid Malloy is a children’s book that is remarkably fun, contains some really amazing art, and also teaches a lesson. Our society is based on the concept that winning is everything and that failure is always awful. I’ve talked about this issue before in my Defining the Benefits of Failure post. However, this book takes an entirely different twist on the topic by viewing a failure as a success. I thought it was a pretty amazing lesson to teach younger people who are used to hearing that they must be first in absolutely everything. In fact, I’d recommend more than a few adults read this book too.
I read this story to my 9 year old grandniece and she was quite taken with it. She thought the fisherman was quite funny and kept pointing out various elements of the art that weren’t immediately apparent to me (mostly because I was reading the text). She remained engaged for the entire story, which says a lot for a child that is sometimes distracted by absolutely everything. Most important of all, she got it! The story helped her understand that success isn’t everything and she liked the idea that the fisherman was happy and comfortable at the end.
Is this a good book? Yes, it’s a great book! This is one of the few times I find myself at a loss to say anything whatsoever negative about a book except that it’s not available for sale on Amazon. You must currently go to the author/illustrator’s website to buy a copy (see link in the first paragraph).
After I had discovered that this information was a joke, I had meant to remove two sentences from the book, but somehow they stayed intact. The two sentences in question appear in the “Understanding the Changes in Pointers for C++ 20” section:
Readers who already know something about pointers need to be aware of the changes in pointers for C++ 20, which is why it appears first. The essential thing to remember as you move to C++ 20 (where new is deprecated) and then to C++ 23 (where new is removed) is that pointers are going to change.
If you find any other references in the book that state that new is deprecated or removed, they too will be modified or eliminated during the next printing. I apologize for any problems that the error has caused, especially to readers who are new to C++, and have submitted an errata to the publisher so that the error is fixed during the next printing. If you have any questions at all about the book, please contact me at email@example.com.
I hope that each of you enjoys the book and will provide a review of it on Amazon. Thank you for your support, it’s really important to me. Your reviews will help other readers as well. If you have any questions at all about the book, please contact me at firstname.lastname@example.org.
I’ve just released a new book, C++ All-in-One for Dummies, 4th Edition, and I’d love to give five people in the US a chance to read it for free (I can’t accept requests from other countries due to the amount of postage required to send a book to you). There’s only one catch. In exchange for the free book, I’d appreciate your review of it on Amazon.com. Your reviews are important because they give other people some idea of what the book is like outside of my opinion of it.
This new edition contains an amazing amount of changes from the 3rd Edition, many of which you requested. Of course, I started by updating everything, so you see the latest version of Code::Blocks used in this book. Working with Code::Blocks makes C++ coding a lot easier, but Code::Blocks tends not to hide the details or add any odd background code like some IDEs do. In addition to the updates, you can expect to see these changes:
Instructions on how to use your mobile device to write C++ code.
Updates on how to work with for loops.
Using functional programming techniques.
Employing new operators, such as the spaceship operator.
Understanding modifications to the Standard Library.
This new edition of the book comes in at a whopping 912 pages, so there is no expectation that you’ll read it cover-to-cover. What I would appreciate is your honest viewpoint on the topics that appeal to you most. If you’d like to participate in this drawing, please contact me at email@example.com by 8 March 2021 by email with a subject of “C++ Book Drawing”. I need your name and address. I’ll post the winners of the contest (sans email addresses) in a future blog post. | <urn:uuid:ea77af73-a9dc-46ce-891c-9a234a290d2c> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://blog.johnmuellerbooks.com/2021/02/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571538.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812014923-20220812044923-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.96898 | 1,071 | 2.09375 | 2 |
We know it’s not always easy to put the requirements of the Public Records Act 2002 into practice. An important and sometimes challenging part can be working out what a public record is in the first place!
We developed our What records do I need to keep? cheat sheet to help make the process of identifying records easier. During that process we asked the simple question – how DO you know what records you need to keep?
Really it comes down to two things:
It sounds fairly easy, but what does that mean when applying it in the real world?
We’ve tried to keep it simple by reducing the criteria for knowing what records to keep down to four key areas – if you answer yes to any of below four questions then you need to keep records.
Our one page cheat sheet (including record examples) is a great tool for your office area to have on hand as a quick reference when making, using and deleting records.
You can download it and edit it to suit your business. You can change the examples and tailor it to the types of records and information you create. You might even create multiple variations for different parts of your business e.g. HR and Finance.
For more information you can visit our getting started with records management page on our website. | <urn:uuid:ef78e30a-dca0-4ef9-8ab3-474c61cc7328> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://grkblog.archives.qld.gov.au/2021/08/20/what-records-do-i-need-to-keep-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.940992 | 261 | 2.078125 | 2 |
|Guide Particulars :|
Training Manual on Energy Efficiency for Small and Medium Enterprises
With the rising prices of vitality and issues about international warming, it’s crucial that international locations undertake essentially the most environment friendly vitality conservation measures and applied sciences. Energy conservation should evolve as a lifestyle in growing international locations within the Asia-Pacific area given the restricted availability of assets.
If we’re to share business vitality equitably throughout all sections of society, it’s essential to preserve vitality and use it effectively. Industries can change into globally aggressive when their manufacturing course of consumes the least quantity of vitality.
For this function, vitality audits and conservation research have to be carried out at common intervals in all industries. One of many most important bottlenecks in conducting these research is the dearth of technical data on numerous kind of apparatus and how vitality efficiency must be measured.
The Working Manual on Energy Efficiency in SMEs is an try to deal with this difficulty in a sensible method. The handbook is the result of a collection of tasks organized by the Asian Productiveness Group (APO) comprising e-learning programs, worldwide workshops organized with the Nationwide Productiveness Council, New Delhi, India and in Kish Island, Islamic Republic of Iran with the Nationwide Iranian Productiveness Middle (NIPC) and nationwide workshops carried out by the creator in 2008/09, throughout which the sensible elements of vitality effectivity have been mentioned.
The handbook explains vitality effectivity elements for adoption by SMEs from numerous elements, and is supposed to supply the data wanted for vitality effectivity adoption within the SME Sector as a complementary useful resource to the APO’s not too long ago printed handbook Energy Auditing.
The Working Manual on Energy Efficiency for SMEs was developed by the APO to advertise the vitality effectivity ideas in order that industries within the area can carry out complete vitality audits and change into extra aggressive. I hope that it’s going to discover large acceptance amongst trade professionals within the AsiaPacific.
Download Training Manual on Energy Efficiency for Small and Medium Enterprises simply in PDF format for free. | <urn:uuid:fbff6bc3-df69-4424-92b3-9748380aa2b5> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://www.freepdfbook.com/training-manual-on-energy-efficiency-for-small-and-medium-enterprises/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570977.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809124724-20220809154724-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.897631 | 459 | 1.703125 | 2 |
6 Jan 2014: Lillis A, Eggleston DB, Bohnenstiehl DR (2014) Correction: Oyster Larvae Settle in Response to Habitat-Associated Underwater Sounds. PLOS ONE 9(1): 10.1371/annotation/b04bc087-808a-4edc-ae2a-08932bff360c. https://doi.org/10.1371/annotation/b04bc087-808a-4edc-ae2a-08932bff360c View correction
Following a planktonic dispersal period of days to months, the larvae of benthic marine organisms must locate suitable seafloor habitat in which to settle and metamorphose. For animals that are sessile or sedentary as adults, settlement onto substrates that are adequate for survival and reproduction is particularly critical, yet represents a challenge since patchily distributed settlement sites may be difficult to find along a coast or within an estuary. Recent studies have demonstrated that the underwater soundscape, the distinct sounds that emanate from habitats and contain information about their biological and physical characteristics, may serve as broad-scale environmental cue for marine larvae to find satisfactory settlement sites. Here, we contrast the acoustic characteristics of oyster reef and off-reef soft bottoms, and investigate the effect of habitat-associated estuarine sound on the settlement patterns of an economically and ecologically important reef-building bivalve, the Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica). Subtidal oyster reefs in coastal North Carolina, USA show distinct acoustic signatures compared to adjacent off-reef soft bottom habitats, characterized by consistently higher levels of sound in the 1.5–20 kHz range. Manipulative laboratory playback experiments found increased settlement in larval oyster cultures exposed to oyster reef sound compared to unstructured soft bottom sound or no sound treatments. In field experiments, ambient reef sound produced higher levels of oyster settlement in larval cultures than did off-reef sound treatments. The results suggest that oyster larvae have the ability to respond to sounds indicative of optimal settlement sites, and this is the first evidence that habitat-related differences in estuarine sounds influence the settlement of a mollusk. Habitat-specific sound characteristics may represent an important settlement and habitat selection cue for estuarine invertebrates and could play a role in driving settlement and recruitment patterns in marine communities.
Citation: Lillis A, Eggleston DB, Bohnenstiehl DR (2013) Oyster Larvae Settle in Response to Habitat-Associated Underwater Sounds. PLoS ONE 8(10): e79337. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0079337
Editor: Simon Thrush, National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research, New Zealand
Received: July 18, 2013; Accepted: September 29, 2013; Published: October 30, 2013
Copyright: © 2013 Lillis et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Funding: Funding was provided by National Science Foundation Grants OCE-1234688 and DDIG-1210292. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Most bottom-dwelling marine organisms have a biphasic life cycle, consisting of a dispersing larval phase that develops in the plankton prior to settlement into seafloor habitat and a sessile or sedentary adult phase. Successful recruitment of marine larvae, beginning with larval settlement into quality habitat, is fundamental to replenishing populations and structuring benthic communities . Central to understanding marine population and community dynamics is knowledge of the physical, behavioral and physiological processes that influence variation in the arrival and settlement of planktonic larvae into suitable nursery habitats –. Larval responses to environmental cues, including salinity, depth, turbulence and chemical compounds, can have a substantial influence on their dispersal trajectory and subsequent settlement location , , . Orientation, habitat selection and settlement in response to physical and chemical stimuli have been demonstrated for larvae of a variety of taxonomic groups, and larvae likely integrate a suite of sensory cues at multiple spatial scales to successfully locate preferred settlement substrates , , . Studies of larval invertebrate settlement cues have focused largely on chemical compounds , and habitat characteristics, such as surface texture or near-bottom hydrodynamics –, but these stimuli are only detectable by larvae that are in close proximity of the seafloor , . While a combination of habitat characteristics, such as local flow patterns, chemical exudates, light intensity and substrate topography are used by benthic invertebrate larvae in small-scale habitat selection, it is still unclear how larvae effectively locate discrete patches of bottom settlement habitat as they disperse over kilometers, especially for species that are relatively weak swimmers compared to surrounding currents.
Underwater sounds produced by physical and biological processes are increasingly recognized as a potentially effective signal for larvae of benthic organisms to locate patchily distributed—yet acoustically distinctive—settlement habitat, such as coral reefs and other subtidal habitats –. For example, biological sounds produced by conspecifics, prey-species, or habitat-forming species dominate the underwater soundscape of certain benthic habitats , , and could reliably indicate proximity to appropriate settlement sites. Compared to other sensory stimuli, such as light and chemical compounds, sound is unique in having relatively long-range transmission, a presence at all depths, and propagation that is independent of currents , . Field experiments of replayed reef sounds have demonstrated sound-enhanced settlement rates in fish and crustacean larvae from coral reefs and rocky habitats, and provide convincing evidence that these animals use acoustic cues in orientation and settlement , –. Coral reef fish were attracted to specific frequencies of reef noise signals and exposure to the sounds of settlement habitats, but not to the sounds of other habitats. Specific sound frequencies also affected larval behavior, settlement, and metamorphosis of crab larvae in lab experiments , . Many taxa of invertebrates possess mechanosensory structures capable of serving as sound receptors –, and there is growing evidence of a role for underwater sound in the behavior and settlement of larval echinoderms, cnidarians and mollusks –. Larvae of a coral species were shown to move toward reef sounds in playback experiments , and vessel noise was found to induce larval settlement in the New Zealand green-lipped mussel .
The majority of habitat-associated soundscape characterization has occurred in a single region in New Zealand , , and ambient sound as a settlement cue has been studied primarily for a handful of rocky reef and coral reef species in the Southern hemisphere. Compared to the knowledge of tropical coral reef soundscape characteristics and their influence on larval stages of reef species , , , the habitat-related soundscape of most estuarine and coastal systems and the role of these sounds in larval processes is unknown. Estuaries and coasts in sub-tropical and temperate regions represent vast areas of critical nursery and adult habitat for a multitude of commercially and ecologically important species. Though little studied, the estuarine soundscape is likely to have considerable sonic variation related to the discrete habitats and associated communities present, such as seagrass, salt-marsh, oyster reef, and unstructured soft (sand or mud) bottoms.
Here, we use the oyster reef soundscape as a novel study system to examine the possibility that habitat-related sound characteristics influence larval settlement processes. Oyster reef soundscapes are of particular interest as a larval cue because reefs are patchily-distributed and productive habitats that harbor many sound-producing organisms (e.g. sciaenid fish, snapping shrimp) , , and provide structure for a multitude of obligate reef-dwellers with dispersing larvae , . Inhabitants of an oyster reef create sound during their activities (e.g. feeding, reproduction, courtship, movement, defense), and the relatively high density of soniferous organisms, along with the physical structure of the reef itself, will produce a higher level of sound with distinct characteristics compared to less densely populated and differently structured environments, such as soft sediment bottoms. In addition to species that purposefully produce sound, animal activity, such as crushing of shelled prey or burrow excavation, is likely to contribute substantially to the unique soundscape in a densely populated reef habitat.
While larvae of certain bivalves can respond to acoustic stimuli , , habitat-associated underwater sound as a settlement cue has not previously been investigated for a bivalve or estuarine species. Moreover, the potential for an estuarine soundscape, particularly oyster reef sound, to act as a larval settlement signal has not been considered. The overall aim of this study was to compare the acoustic characteristics of two common estuarine habitat-types (oyster reef and off-reef soft bottoms) and to investigate the role of soundscape cues in the settlement of a reef-forming larval bivalve, Crassostrea virginica, to determine if habitat-related sound affects settlement.
To determine whether the estuarine habitats of interest differed in their acoustic spectral characteristics, and therefore represented a potential settlement cue, field recordings of ambient sound on oyster reef and nearby soft-bottom habitats were conducted several times during the peak oyster settlement months. Using laboratory and field experimental approaches, we then examined the settlement response of oyster larvae to natural ambient sound associated with suitable (oyster reef) and unsuitable settlement habitat (unstructured soft-bottom) to test the hypothesis that oyster larval settlement would be higher in the presence of sound associated with their preferred settlement habitat compared to sounds of other habitats. In laboratory experiments, we quantified oyster larval settlement in cultures exposed to two estuarine soundscapes (oyster reef vs. unstructured soft bottom), as well as a no sound control. Because acoustic stimuli matching field conditions are particularly difficult to produce in small laboratory tanks , , we conducted a field experiment to test if oyster larval settlement was higher in larval “houses” anchored above oyster reefs compared to above unstructured soft bottom. Permission to conduct field work in Pamlico Sound waters and the West Bay oyster reserve was granted by the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries permit numbers 708396 and 1012889.
Estuarine soundscape measurements
During 2010, oyster reefs and nearby soft-bottoms (∼ 2 km from oyster reefs) at two sites in Pamlico Sound, North Carolina (Fig. 1) were acoustically sampled simultaneously over dusk and nighttime periods during new moon (± 3 days) periods in July, August and September to quantify differences in habitat-related sound. West Bay and Crab Hole are two oyster reserves within Pamlico Sound that form part of a network of no-take reserves throughout the estuary established by the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries in 1996. These two reserve sites are separated by 100 km and were selected because they represent a range of variability in oyster reef size and structure in our system – West Bay reef is relatively small (8093 m2) and sheltered compared to the larger (55 400 m2) and more exposed Crab Hole reef. Continuous recordings of ambient habitat sound were collected using underwater recording systems consisting of a SQ26-08 Sensor Technology omnidirectional hydrophone, with an effective sensitivity of −169±1 dB re 1V/μPa over the 0.1–28 kHz frequency range. The hydrophone was positioned 1 meter from the seafloor and connected to an M-Audio Microtrack II digital recorder (sample rate: 48 kHz) in a waterproof housing at the surface. For reef recordings, hydrophones were stationed within the reserve boundary but on unstructured bottom approximately 25 meters from reef structure.
Oyster reserves at which sound recordings were made are marked (CH = Crab Hole; WB = West Bay). Field-based settlement experiment was conducted in West Bay.
Digital recording samples were analyzed in MATLAB using purpose-written code. Spectrograms were first inspected for anomalous transient or anthropogenic noise and acoustic power spectra for concurrent recordings were produced to make comparisons of the acoustic characteristics of the two habitat types.
Source and maintenance of oyster pediveligers
Prior to each laboratory- or field-based settlement trial, eyed Crassostrea virginica pediveligers (i.e., competent to settle) were dry-shipped on ice overnight from the Horn Point Laboratory (HPL) oyster hatchery (University of Maryland) where broodstock was obtained from Chesapeake Bay oyster populations. Following arrival to the laboratory in North Carolina, USA (Raleigh for lab experiments and Morehead City for field experiments), larvae were warmed in dishes of 10 µm filtered seawater at a salinity matching HPL's rearing conditions (10–15 psu), and held at room temperature (23–25°C) for the duration of the experiments. Twice in 2011, larvae were available from a local NC hatchery (Bear Creek Shellfish Hatchery), and were obtained for use in a laboratory trial and a field trial, following the same protocol as other trials.
Larval settlement experiments (Laboratory)
The field soundscape sampling effort described above generated a library of 4-to-5-hour-long recordings of reef and off-reef sounds from which experimental playback treatments were selected. Sound treatments used in laboratory larval settlement experiments consisted of replaying the habitat sounds recorded in situ at oyster reef and adjacent off-reef soft bottom habitats at West Bay and Crab Hole sites. Prior to use in experiments, waveforms and spectrograms of the candidate recordings were visually inspected using Audacity™ software to ensure the absence of anthropogenic or anomalous noise.
In the four trials comprising the first laboratory settlement experiment in September 2010, a 15-minute recording of dusk-time oyster reef sound was played continuously as the sound treatment. The 15-minute reef sound-clip was selected from a September recording of the West Bay oyster reserve on a new moon, contained no anthropogenic noise, and was typical of reef sounds recorded within Pamlico Sound reef habitats. For the second set of laboratory experiments in July and August 2011, in which both reef and off-reef sound treatments were applied, pairs of simultaneously recorded audio clips were used in each trial. The recordings used in the five trials of experiment 2a were 15-minute samples from recordings made at the West Bay oyster reef and off-reef sites at dusk in July 2010. To avoid concerns of pseudoreplication associated with the use of a single recording in experimental playback experiments , several candidate recordings were selected from multiple oyster reserves for use in experiment 2b. Three 15-minute July recordings, two from the West Bay reserve and one from the Crab Hole reserve, were each used in three of the 9 trials. Recordings from these times were selected for treatments to match the timing of each lab experiment and also because oyster settlement typically occurs between mid-June to late-September in the Southeastern United States, with peaks often occurring in early July and September .
Prior to the start of experimental trials, in-tank recordings using a calibrated omni-directional hydrophone (Sensor Technology SQ26-08) and digital recorder (M-Audio Microtrack II) were used to adjust the speaker levels in sound treatments to reflect typical oyster reef or off-reef sound pressure levels, and to the degree possible, match the acoustic spectrum of the original recordings. For these calibrations, the hydrophone was placed just below the water surface where the experimental jars used in trials were located. Hydrophone recording in the no sound (control) tanks also confirmed the absence of substantial noise from these treatments. Additional measurements of particle motion were made after the experiments were concluded to ensure that the total acceleration during the playbacks approximated far-field conditions. Particle acceleration measurements were made following the methods of Glade and others , , , using the pressure gradient measured between two closely space Brüel and Kjaer (B&K) 8103 miniature hydrophones (sensitivity of ± 1 dB re 1V/μPa over the 0.1 Hz to 20 kHz frequency range). The hydrophones were mounted with a 2.0 cm vertical separation near the top of the tank and recorded digitally with a single B&K LAN-XI Notar system. At high frequencies, as the acoustic wavelength becomes small compared to the hydrophone separation, this method of measuring sound intensity becomes increasingly biased . We therefore limited the frequency bandwidth of our acceleration measurements to the range of 0.1–6 kHz.
Initial trials to test the effect of underwater sound on oyster larval settlement occurred in September 2010. Oyster settlement (the proportion of oyster larvae settled at the end of a trial) was measured for groups of larvae randomly assigned to tanks with or without playback of continuous oyster reef sound. During this preliminary experiment, a series of four trials were conducted, each lasting between 2–5 days as part of method refinement to determine the most appropriate trial length to ensure measurable settlement rates. Trials were conducted in complete darkness to remove any effect of light on settlement behavior, as experimental light conditions have been implicated in producing contradictory results in studies of oyster settlement response to physical factors . Dark conditions were also intended to encourage settlement and reduce trial length, since higher settlement rates have been found in dark or low light conditions for Crassostrea virginica , .
At the beginning of each trial, groups of 100 actively swimming pediveliger larvae were randomly assigned to a 20-L glass experimental tank where they were housed 0.2 m off-bottom in a 100 mL plastic container (1.5 mm clear polystyrene, Sterilin® 185BP) filled with 10 µm filtered seawater (Fig. 2a). Each tank also contained a submerged speaker (Altec Lansing BXR1220) held in a watertight plastic bag. Tanks were randomly designated as reef sound or no sound (control) treatments, and each trial consisted of 3–5 replicate tanks depending on the amount of available larvae and audio equipment. Sound treatments continuously played a recording of ambient oyster reef sound from a laptop media player for the duration of a trial. At the end of each trial, larval containers were removed from experimental tanks and examined under a dissecting microscope to count the number of settled (attached to sides or base of the container) and unsettled (swimming or crawling) oyster larvae. A pipette was used to gently agitate larvae to confirm whether they were attached to the container surface. The response variable was proportional larval settlement in each replicate. An ANOVA was used to test for a sound treatment effect, with trial as a fixed factor and a trial by treatment interaction term. For all analyses, assumptions of normality and homoscedasticity were verified by inspection of plotted residuals versus fitted values and a Levene's test of equal variances, respectively.
a) Side view schematic diagram of a replicate experimental tank (0.25 m×0.5 m) used in lab-based settlement experiment 1, showing the placement of a submerged speaker and container housing oyster larvae within a water bath, and b) Cylindrical treatment tank (20-L, 0.3 m water depth) used in lab experiment 2 containing an underwater speaker and five larval culture jars containing groups of actively swimming larvae. Larger view of larval culture jars with and without substrate is shown. No additional substrate was provided in experiment 1 and 2a; oyster shell discs were placed in the bottom of containers in experiment 2b.
A second set of experiments was conducted in 2011 to expand upon the scope of the preliminary experiment by including an additional off-reef sound treatment, increasing replication, and improving the quality of laboratory sound playbacks through the use of cylindrical tanks and underwater speakers. Three experimental arenas were constructed, each consisting of a 20-L cylindrical water bath with an underwater speaker (Clark Synthesis Aquasonic AQ339 Underwater Loudspeakers, frequency range: 20 Hz–17 kHz) placed on the bottom 0.2 m below larval culture containers (Fig. 2b). Speakers were connected to a laptop with an audio player. Soundproofing foam was used around and beneath each tank to reduce sound transfer. Using this setup, the effect of distinct habitat sounds (reef vs. off-reef sound) was compared in a set of laboratory larval settlement experiments conducted with three treatment levels (no sound, reef sound and off-reef sound) using a randomized block design with trial as the blocking factor. A total of 14 trials were conducted, 5 trials using larval containers with no added substrate (Experiment 2a) and 9 trials wherein larvae were provided a 3-cm diameter oyster shell disc as settlement substrate (Experiment 2b). All trials were conducted under complete darkness for 48-hour periods.
For each trial, 15 groups of 100 actively swimming pediveliger larvae were placed in 80-mL containers and randomly assigned to an experimental tank (5 larval cultures per tank). The experimental tanks were randomly designated as reef sound, off-reef sound or no sound treatments prior to each trial, and for sound treatments a recording played continuously for the duration of the trial. As in experiment 1, oyster settlement at the conclusion of a trial was measured in each container under a dissecting microscope as the proportion of individuals attached to the substrate or container surfaces, and the mean proportional settlement for each replicate was calculated. For each of the two experiments, randomized block ANOVAs were used to test for a difference in the response variable (mean settlement) amongst sound treatments, blocked by trial. Significant differences in mean settlement among the sound treatments were identified with a Tukey's Honestly Significant Differences test.
Larval settlement experiments (Field)
To further overcome limitations related to the reproduction of sound using speakers in small tank experiments , , a field-based settlement experiment was conducted on oyster reef and adjacent off-reef habitats that served as ambient sound sources for cultures of hatchery-reared oyster larvae. Four trials were completed in June and September of 2011 and July and August of 2012. An oyster reserve in West Bay, Pamlico Sound, North Carolina served as the “reef sound” site and the “off-reef sound” site was a soft sediment bottom located ∼ 800–1000 m from the reserve (Fig. 3a). Off-reef sites were also selected to match the reef site depth of approximately 3 meters.
a) Map of field experiment site in West Bay. Circles denote locations of “off-reef” replicates, and squares are “reef” replicates. The extent of the West Bay oyster reserve is indicated by the box bordering the reef replicates. Inset shows experiment location in West Bay, b) Schematic of the larval housing placed at each replicate in off-reef sites and c) in the reef site. Larval cultures were suspended at 1 m above the seabed at each location, with the two habitats providing the ambient sound treatments.
In each of four trials, four replicate “larval housings” were placed at each site. Larval housings consisted of sample jars identical to those used in laboratory trials and each jar contained an oyster shell disc as settlement substrate. The number of larval cultures used in each replicate larval housing varied among trials (1–4 jars per replicate) based on availability of larvae and logistical constraints. As in laboratory settlement experiments, groups of 100 larvae were placed in the tightly sealed jars prior to deployment at the habitat sites, thereby exposing larvae to habitat sounds while excluding other potential habitat-associated cues such as differences in water chemistry. Larval housings were suspended 1 meter above the seabed (Fig. 3b, 3c). At the reef site, larval housings were deployed within the reserve boundaries, but on sand bottom adjacent to oyster reef structure to minimize potential differences in light or visual cues between the reef and off-reef habitats. Each experimental trial lasted 48–72 hours, determined by field site deployment and retrieval logistics during a given trial period. After a trial, larval housings were retrieved via scuba divers, and settlement discs preserved in 95% ethanol and transported to the laboratory to measure settlement as the proportion of larvae in a culture. The response variable, mean proportional settlement, was calculated for each replicate. An ANOVA model was used to test for differences in mean proportional settlement between the habitat treatments, with trial as a fixed factor and a trial by treatment interaction term.
The different soundscapes of oyster reef and off-reef sites at West Bay were well-characterized prior to this field experiment, providing support for the assumption that the sites could provide distinct sound treatments for the experimental units (see soundscape measurement results below). Recording equipment to monitor the site acoustics during field experiment trials was unavailable until the final trial in August 2012, for which a long-term acoustic recorder (DSG-Ocean, Loggerhead Instruments) was deployed at each site on a recording schedule of 1 minute every 15 minutes at a sampling rate of 50 kHz. Each DSG consisted of an individually calibrated HTI-96-MIN hydrophone (Hi-Tech Inc), with the frequency-amplitude response of the system being flat (+/− 0.2 dB) over the range of ∼ 100–25,000 Hz.
Estuarine soundscape measurements
The spectral composition of oyster reef sound was consistently different compared to nearby soft bottom habitats for the July, August and September sampling periods at the two field sites (Fig. 4). The difference between habitat types was more distinct at the West Bay site than the Crab Hole site (Fig. 4a), but both sites showed consistently higher levels of acoustic energy in the 1.5–20 kHz range at reefs compared to the simultaneous recordings made at off-reef locations. The acoustic spectra suggest that acoustic characteristics of the estuarine soundscape can vary over relatively small spatial scales (kilometers) related to habitat structure. The oyster reef recordings consisted primarily of the high energy broadband “snaps” produced by snapping shrimp (Alpheus heterochaelis) , as well as sounds in the 150–1500 Hz frequency range associated with the calls of common sciaenid species living within reefs such as oyster toadfish, weakfish, croaker and spotted seatrout , . Off-reef recordings were characterized by the relatively lower frequency (100–800 Hz) sounds associated with abiotic sources such as wind and waves, as well as 100–1500 Hz sounds associated with the vocalizations of drumming fish aggregations , and a low level of sound in the higher frequency range typically derived from invertebrate sources , .
Power spectral density for sounds recorded on and off-reefs taken monthly July-September at (a) West Bay and (b) Crab Hole. Because the field recordings differed in total length, each multi-hour recording was shortened to a one-hour sample that began at sunset.This produced six pairs of recordings collected simultaneously in each habitat type. The displayed data represent the median spectra for each hour-long sample calculated from a series of non-overlapping 10-sec duration windows.
Larval settlement experiments (Laboratory)
The conventional computer speakers placed in waterproof bags and used in laboratory experiment 1 to replay oyster reef sounds produced a sound spectrum that generally matched the sound pattern of the original field recordings; however, there was a somewhat limited ability to reproduce all frequencies consistently (Fig. 5). In particular, there was a reduction in sound level in the 300–500 Hz and 2–5 kHz range. Nevertheless, the reef sound treatment did capture components of the higher frequency range of the original recordings that were associated with high frequency pulses of snapping shrimp sound, which provided a distinct sound treatment for the oyster larval cultures in laboratory tanks. The mean sound level produced in treatment tanks was 121.8 dB re 1 µPa, which was reasonably consistent with the mean sound level of the original field recordings (123.8 dB re 1 µPa), and was within the typical ambient sound level range for oyster reefs sampled in Pamlico Sound.
The black line represents the spectrum of the original in situ recording from West Bay oyster reserve that was replayed in reef sound tanks. Power spectral density estimated via Welch's method (Hamming window, 1-sec averages with 50% overlap).
The reef and off-reef sounds used as treatments in experiment 2 were distinct in their spectral composition (Fig. 6a), with reef recordings composed of higher levels of sound at higher frequencies (> 2 kHz) compared to off-reef recordings, which showed peak levels between 100–500 Hz and a sharp decrease in sound at frequencies above 1 kHz. The power spectra of the sound treatments broadcast by underwater speakers in experimental tanks were similar to the in situ recordings in their general pattern (Fig. 6b, 6c). The replayed off-reef sound (Fig. 6b) matched the original recording with more consistency than the reef sound replay (Fig. 6c) for which certain higher frequencies were more difficult to reproduce. Overall, the experimental tank sound treatments differed substantially in terms of frequency composition, with reef sound treatments exposing larvae to the relatively higher sound levels at the higher frequencies measured at our field sites.
a) Reef and off-reef sounds recorded simultaneously in West Bay, NC in July 2010. b) Comparison of in situ off-reef sound, replayed off-reef sound in experimental tank and no sound tank spectra. c) Comparison of in situ reef sound, replayed reef sound in experimental tank and no sound tank spectra. Power spectral density estimated via Welch's method (Hamming window, 1-sec averages with 50% overlap).
For the on reef treatments, broadband rms sound pressure levels ranged between 114.4 and 128.0 dB re 1 µPa and the measured rms acceleration in the 0.1–6 kHz band varied between −45.0 and −37.8 dB re 1 m/s2. For the soft bottom treatments, broadband rms sound pressure levels ranged between 109.2 and 120.3 dB re 1 µPa and measured rms acceleration in the 0.1–6 kHz band varied between −50.33 and −37.0 dB re 1 m/s2. These replayed sound levels closely matched (within 1–4 dB) the broadband rms sound pressure levels of the field sound recordings.
Oyster larval settlement was significantly higher in response to the reef sound treatment compared to no sound (Control) treatment in the 2010 laboratory experiment (Fig. 7; ANOVA: F1,20 = 28.75, p<.0001). There was no significant interaction between trial and treatment (F3,20 = 2.75, p>.05).
In the second laboratory experiment, oyster larval settlement was significantly higher when exposed to the reef sound treatment (with and without preferred substrate) compared to both the off-reef sound treatment and no sound treatment (Fig.8; Randomized block ANOVA: Expt. 2a: F2,8 = 20.12, p<.001, Expt. 2b: F2,16 = 15.59, p<.001). Mean oyster larval settlement for the off-reef sound treatment did not significantly differ from the no sound treatment (Tukey's HSD test, p>.05).
Larval settlement experiment (Field)
The sound levels and frequency composition in the field varied between oyster reef and off-reef sites during the August 2012 field experiment (Fig. 9). The mean rms sound level at the reef site (120.06±1.24 dB re 1 µPa) was higher than the more variable off-reef site sound level (114.62±3.55 dB re 1 µPa). Consistent with the habitat-related acoustic measurements described above, the spectral composition of sound at the reef site provided a substantial contribution of higher frequency (1.5–20 kHz) sounds relative to the off-reef site, which was dominated by lower frequency (0.1–1.5 kHz) sounds (Fig. 9). Based on spectral analysis, the elevated sound levels between 100–1000 Hz at the off-reef location were most likely influenced by sciaenid fish species known to be acoustically dominant in NC estuaries , , while the reef location spectrum consisted of the higher frequency (1.5–20 kHz) invertebrate-generated components.
a) Spectral composition of sound recorded at the reef and off-reef field sites during the field larval settlement experiments in August 2012. Power spectral density estimated via Welch's method (Hamming window, 1-sec averages with 50% overlap). b) Comparison of broadband root-mean square sound levels (in dB re 1 µPa) measured at the reef and off-reef site for the duration of the August 2012 field settlement experiment. The root-mean-square sound level was calculated in a series of non-overlapping 10-sec duration windows.
Oyster larval settlement.
In agreement with the laboratory results, oyster larval settlement in larval housings suspended in oyster reef habitats during the field-based experiment was significantly higher compared to larval settlement in off-reef sites (Fig. 10; ANOVA: F1,24 = 15.13, p<.001). This overall treatment effect was apparently driven by the June 2011 and July 2012 trials; however, because the statistical model did not find a significant trial by treatment interaction (F3,24 = 2.20, p>.05), data were pooled across trials for the overall treatment effect test.
The results of this study provide the first evidence, to our knowledge, that ambient underwater sound associated with adult habitat could be a cue for settlement-stage larvae of an estuarine bivalve mollusk. This has important implications because it is the first study to demonstrate that differences in acoustical characteristics between estuarine habitats have an effect on the larvae of a key ecosystem engineer. Because oyster larval settlement was enhanced in the presence of oyster reef sounds, but not off-reef soft-bottom sounds, it suggests that oyster larval responses are tuned to their preferred settlement environment and that the specific quality and quantity of habitat-related sound is important. The threshold sound levels and component frequencies of oyster reef sound to which oyster larvae respond remain unclear at this initial stage of investigation. An essential extension of this work will be to measure settlement in response to various sound intensity levels relevant to field soundscape measurements and component frequency bands, as has been done to determine the relevant acoustic stimuli for certain fish and crustacean larvae , .
A number of physical and chemical cues associated with adult habitat, such as rugosity, surface composition, conspecific-produced chemical substances, and bacterial surface films can induce settlement and metamorphosis in larvae of Crassostrea virginica . These cues likely act on a small scale (centimeters) to affect habitat selection and induce attachment to the substrate. In contrast, acoustic signals could be useful at a relatively broader spatial scale (meters to kilometers) to facilitate initial orientation to and subsequent encounter with preferred substrate. Given the large distances that larvae can travel from adult spawning habitat to eventual adult oyster settlement habitat (10 s km; ), there is clear adaptive value in the use of a reliable signal of appropriate settlement habitat to descend upon, rather than aimless searching of vast swathes of unstructured bottom habitat.
There are several possible mechanistic explanations for the enhanced settlement of oysters in the presence of habitat sounds. While strong swimming larvae such as fish and crustaceans may have the ability to, under certain current flow conditions, navigate by directing their horizontal movement in response to environmental stimuli such as sound , , weak swimmers such as bivalve veligers are more likely to exhibit “partial navigation” by vertical movement that facilitates transport to settlement habitat . Because habitat-related sounds should reliably indicate close proximity to suitable settlement substrate, elicitation of sinking or downward swimming behavior by these cues could increase the efficiency and success of settlement. Delayed settlement and metamorphosis until encounter of specific settlement cues also represents a mechanism of larval habitat selection that is characteristic of most groups of benthic invertebrates . The increased settlement observed in cultures exposed to oyster reef sounds in this study could represent an alteration of development trajectory or stimulation of physiological changes that promote response to other settlement inducers, as was recently implicated in a study of the response of sea urchin larvae to turbulent shear . Additionally, while sound should be most valuable as a broad-scale cue that facilitates encounter with settlement habitat, habitat sound characteristics could serve an additional habitat selection function if larvae use this information to settle under certain acoustic conditions that reflect high quality habitat. For example, a more productive and higher density oyster reef may be more soniferous than a degraded reef in which settling would be less advantageous.
There are numerous ways that habitat sounds could improve settlement outcomes by providing both early signals to aid larvae in substrate contact, and as an indicator of habitat quality. The elevated sound levels and frequencies of the oyster reef soundscape could trigger both behavioral and physiological changes that expedite the settlement process, thereby increasing the measured settlement in our experimental cultures exposed to reef sound. Given that our experiments were conducted in small containers and with sufficient time for all larvae to be able to encounter settlement substrate without the aid of a cue, it is not surprising that the effect of the sound treatments was modest. Nevertheless, the relatively small effect size does not diminish the possibility that habitat sound plays a significant role in oyster settlement. These findings demonstrate that exposure to sounds of adult habitat influences oyster settlement, and that the underlying mechanism of this sound-mediated response, as well as the ecological relevance, warrants further study. Future laboratory experiments will extend the current work by examining larval behavioral responses (e.g. swimming activity, sinking rate) to habitat sounds, and by investigating the threshold sound levels and frequencies that elicit settlement responses. The effect of artificial rearing conditions on larval responses is an important consideration in the interpretation of experiments using hatchery animals, particularly in light of evidence that reef fish larvae are influenced by previous acoustic experiences . Unfortunately, obtaining sufficient numbers of wild-caught oyster larvae for use in laboratory experiments is unfeasible. To address this and other concerns associated with artificial lab environments, future field replay experiments will aim to elucidate the ecological significance of sound on natural settlement rates for wild larvae.
The experiments presented here expand our understanding of underwater sound as an influence on ecological processes in marine environments, and highlight the need for a better understanding of a variety of topics related to sound-mediated larval behavior and settlement. The specific sensory mechanism for the larval response to acoustic stimuli remains unknown for this species and the other invertebrates that have shown behavioral or physiological responses to sound , –, . Thus, the study of larval mechanoreceptors represents a key area for future investigation in this field. It is also important to note that for most marine environments, the relevant spatio-temporal scales of acoustic variation have yet to be explored from the perspective of larval dispersal and settlement, and information specific to the soundscape of estuaries, key settlement and nursery habitats for a multitude of species, is extremely limited. In the context of marine conservation, the emerging evidence of the importance of soundscapes in recruitment processes for a variety of species suggests that protection or restoration of habitats that harbor relatively high densities of sound-producing animals (e.g., snapping shrimp, drumming fish, etc.) also may enhance larval replenishment of sound-receptive benthic species. The potential that larval responses to acoustic cues may be a widespread phenomenon both taxonomically and geographically suggests a need to better understand not only the relevant spatio-temporal soundscape patterns and larval responses, but also how alterations to the natural soundscape (e.g. noise pollution) affect settlement and recruitment of key species such as oysters.
We thank R. Dunn, J. Peters, B. Puckett, H. Eggleston and B. Gericke for assistance with field experiments. Experimental organisms were generously provided by S. Tobash at University of Maryland's Horn Point Laboratory and by A. Barton of Bear Creek Shellfish Hatchery. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for valuable input that improved the manuscript.
Conceived and designed the experiments: AL. Performed the experiments: AL. Analyzed the data: AL DRB. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: DBE DRB. Wrote the paper: AL DBE DRB.
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- 53. Simpson SD, Meekan MG, Larsen NJ, McCauley RD, Jeffs A (2010) Behavioral plasticity in fish: orientation is influenced by recent acoustic experiences. Behav Ecol 21: 1098–1105. | <urn:uuid:9fc2a7c4-c093-41a6-a176-5e76351a5346> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0079337 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570977.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809124724-20220809154724-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.923864 | 11,387 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Stenkrith Bridge, just outside Kirkby Stephen on the road to Nateby, is actually a combination of several bridges where the Eden both bends and falls: road bridges and footbridge, over river and (former) railway track; plus the remains of the old railway bridge over the river, of which only the foundations survived the line closure. [...]
Rivers of the Eden Valley
As we\’re talking about the Eden Valley it should come as no surprise that our main theme is the River Eden. The Eden itself, however, has a number of important tributaries. The most important is the Eamont, which flows out of Ullswater. Further downstream are the Caldew, Petteril and Irthing whilst upstream from the Eamont are the Lyvennet, the Belah and several significant becks which after heavy rainfall can equal many a small river, for example Scandal Beck and Colby Beck. Pages on these will be added as the site builds.
To many people who from time to time drive between the Stainmore Pass and Penrith along the A66 east-west trunk road, Warcop may be synonymous with military training at the Warcop Training Centre. For more than seventy years tanks and other fighting vehicles have been a feature of the landscape, and at nearby Appleby Golf [...]
If you ask in Brough where Hellgill is you might just be misunderstood and be pointed up behind the village towards Hall Fell. There’s Hellbeck Hall up there and there’s a civil parish called “Hellbeck”. But that’s not where we’re going today. If you clarify your question you might then be told, “Oh, you mean [...] | <urn:uuid:c4e2238f-a6e5-42bb-b4fb-26251e44f4e7> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://edenvalleycumbria.co.uk/category/rivers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.956608 | 358 | 1.75 | 2 |
Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) has been culturally important in the northeast United States (US) for hundreds of years. This research estimates a hedonic model of cod prices in the Northeast US from 2005–2011. While large fish typically receive premium prices, the largest cod receive prices that are approximately $0.20 per pound lower than fish in the next largest market category. A moderate premium for freshness is found: cod caught on trips that last four days receive $0.04 less per pound than fish that is caught on shorter trips. This discount rises to nearly $0.15 per pound for trips lasting 10 days or longer. A similar discount exists for fish that are stored for two or more days after landing. The premia estimated by the hedonic price model are quite different from the group mean premia, suggesting that bioeconomic models that incorporate price heterogeneity should consider more sophisticated price models.
JEL Codes: Q22, Q50, D40. | <urn:uuid:33a6eba6-d772-4052-bdee-28b4e4f07675> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://complete.bioone.org/journals/marine-resource-economics/volume-29/issue-3/677769/Hedonic-Pricing-of-Atlantic-Cod--Effects-of-Size-Freshness/10.1086/677769.short | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.945436 | 199 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Aug 7, 2017
Published in: Health Affairs , Volume 36, Number 8 (August 2017), pages 1469-1475. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2017.0205
Posted on RAND.org on August 11, 2017
Better working conditions for clinicians and staff could help primary care practices implement delivery system innovations and help sustain the US primary care workforce. Using longitudinal surveys, we assessed the experience of clinicians and staff in 296 clinical sites that participated in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) Advanced Primary Care Practice Demonstration. Participating FQHCs were expected to achieve, within three years, patient-centered medical home recognition at level 3 — the highest level possible. During 2013–14, clinicians and staff in these FQHCs reported statistically significant declines in multiple measures of professional satisfaction, work environment, and practice culture. There were no significant improvements on any surveyed measure. These findings suggest that working conditions in FQHCs have deteriorated recently. Whether findings would be similar in other primary care practices is unknown. Although we did not identify the causes of these declines, possible stressors include the adoption of health information technology, practice transformation, and increased demand for services. | <urn:uuid:215db3aa-2926-42c9-9225-a15d0cd12ab8> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.rand.org/pubs/external_publications/EP67268.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.935262 | 261 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Learned mate preferences may play an important role in speciation. Sexual imprinting is a process whereby mate preferences are affected by learning at a very young age, usually using a parent as the model. We suggest that while the origins of learning appear to lie in the advantages of individual recognition, sexual imprinting results from selection for recognition of conspecifics. This is because efficient early learning about one’s own species is favoured in the presence of heterospecifics. If different species are hybridizing, both sexual imprinting and learning to avoid heterospecifics during adulthood promote assortative mating and hence speciation. As a result of sexual imprinting, speciation may also be completed in allopatry when divergence between populations is sufficient to prevent interbreeding when the populations reunite, even in the absence of genetic evolution of mate preference. The role of behaviour and learning in completing the speciation process is relatively overlooked. In particular the evolution of sexual imprinting as a result of selection against hybridization warrants more study.
Sexual imprinting has been defined as the means by which a young bird learns species-specific characteristics that enables it to find a conspecific mate when adult (Bateson, 1966; Clayton, 1993). These characteristics are usually learned from the parents. Mating preferences acquired as a result of sexual imprinting are often difficult to modify by subsequent experience (Lorenz, 1937; Bateson, 1966). Sexual imprinting is widespread, having been demonstrated in over half the orders of birds (Ten Cate et al., 1993), and similar processes are observed in other taxa (Hinde, 1961; Immelmann, 1972; Kendrick et al., 1998). Immelmann (1972); p. 166 summarizes the prevailing view on the role of imprinting: ‘the most important function of sexual imprinting is to enable the birds to recognize members of their own species and thus to ensure that, under natural conditions, sexual behavior and pair formation displays are restricted to conspecific mates.’ The emphasis on species recognition suggests a key role for imprinting in the speciation process itself (Immelmann, 1975; Laland, 1994; Grant & Grant, 1997a,b, 1998).
We review the role of imprinting and other forms of recognition learning in speciation. This is a neglected area, and some of the more relevant contributions were made more than 100 years ago. Howard (1993) refers to a series of papers by J. Gulick in the 1890s who discussed how behavioural differences leading to the partial isolation of populations create conditions ripe for further population divergence. Spalding (1873) cogently outlined how learned recognition behaviours could evolve into innate recognition mechanisms as a consequence of selection, a process now known as assimilation (Waddington, 1953, 1959; Fear & Price, 1998). While the importance of behaviour in speciation has been addressed in many more recent publications, the emphasis has been on how behavioural changes initiate the speciation process. First, novel behaviours such as the exploration of a new environment can place new selection pressures on a population (Mayr, 1970; pp. 363–364; Wcislo, 1989). Secondly, behavioural traits involved in courtship and mating diverge between populations as a result of drift and selection (Martens, 1996; Price, 1998). These studies are more concerned with how traits suitable to be used in species recognition diverge between populations, and less with how the recognition mechanisms themselves arise. By considering the role of learning in recognition we are examining the last stage of speciation, whereby complete premating isolation becomes established between divergent populations.
One reason to consider behavioural mechanisms in speciation is that they potentially affect the rate at which species can form. Felsenstein (1981) noted that there were few ecological constraints preventing population divergence and asked why speciation was not more common than it appears to be. He investigated possible genetic reasons that might limit speciation rates. He started with a model where some postmating isolation between two populations is present, and asked how easily premating isolation could arise and spread. There are two conditions in which premating isolation might readily spread. These are (i) if genes promoting premating isolation are tightly linked with, or identical to, those promoting postmating isolation, and (ii) if the same allele in each population promotes assortative mating on the basis of those traits that separate the two populations. Both of these conditions may occur in nature. For example, experiments of Rice & Salt (1990) meet condition (i) where the genes promoting premating isolation (habitat choice) are the same as those causing postmating isolation. The evolution of sexual imprinting meets condition (ii) because an allele that causes stronger sexual imprinting is selected in both populations during speciation. This process results in the creation of two species where the mechanism of imprinting does not constitute a genetic difference between the species (Seiger, 1967).
We focus on the role of sexual imprinting and other learning in causing assortative mating and thus promoting speciation. However, behavioural mechanisms of mate choice also place a limit on the rate of speciation. Hybridization can result from adaptive mate choice of heterospecifics when there are few conspecifics available (Grant & Grant, 1997a; Nuechterlein & Buitron, 1998) or occasional misimprinting on the wrong species (Grant & Grant, 1997a). Even if there are neither genetic nor ecological constraints on rates of speciation, behavioural mechanisms of mate choice can slow the rate of species formation.
We concentrate on speciation in birds, the group in which sexual imprinting has been most completely studied. First, we consider the role of learning in species recognition and mate choice. We show that although sexual imprinting is generally important, choice of mate can be modified somewhat as a result of experiences with other species and individuals in later life. Next, we consider two basic ways of generating premating isolation between populations. These are (i) complete population divergence in allopatry without any sympatric interaction and (ii) speciation by reinforcement, whereby species recognition is strengthened as a result of selection against hybrids [Dobzhansky, 1940; Howard, 1993; the model of Felsenstein (1981) is an example]. Finally, we ask how recognition mechanisms may facilitate or hinder speciation by these processes.
Sexual imprinting establishes a ‘sort of consciousness of the species in the young bird’ (Lorenz, 1937) which is then used in mate choice. It can be quite inflexible. Lorenz relates one story about a male bittern which was raised by a zoo-keeper. Although the bittern was maintained with a female of its own species and eventually paired with it, the misimprinted male would drive the female away whenever the zoo-keeper approached, and try to get the keeper to come into the nest to incubate the eggs. Subsequent controlled experiments have confirmed the power of sexual imprinting. For example, Oetting et al. (1995) allowed young male zebra finches Taenopygia guttata to be reared by Bengalese finches Lonchura striata until they were 40 days old and then kept them in isolation for another 60 days. Males subsequently briefly exposed to a female Bengalese finch always strongly courted Bengalese finches in choice tests; males briefly exposed to a female zebra finch still showed stronger preferences for female Bengalese finches than female zebra finches. Several cross-fostering experiments in the wild have resulted in hybrid pairings attributed to sexual imprinting on the foster parent (Harris, 1970; Fabricius, 1991).
Sexual imprinting arises as a consequence of learning about individuals and can create mate preferences within species. Male zebra finches prefer females with similar characteristics to their mother (Vos, 1995). Assortative mating in snow geese (Cooke & McNally, 1976) and mate choice in pigeons (Warriner et al., 1963) and mallard ducks (Lorenz, 1937; Kruijt et al., 1982) are affected by colour of the rearing strain. The effect of this sort of early experience extends across species in nature. Grant & Grant (1997a) show that hybrid pairings in Darwin’s finches most commonly occur when parents of the hybridizing bird have similar morphology and/or songs to the heterospecific. Sexual imprinting thus appears to be a result of learning about parents, and generalizing out from those parents to other similar individuals (Fig. 1a,b).
The earliest manifestation of learning in many bird species is seen in filial imprinting, defined as the ‘learning process accompanying the following response of nidifugous birds’ (Hinde, 1962; Bateson, 1966). For example, chicks readily become imprinted on a red box, and will follow it to the exclusion of other objects. Filial imprinting is separable from sexual imprinting, but the processes are similar in many ways (Hinde, 1962; Bateson, 1966; Immelmann, 1972). In filial imprinting, once the young bird has formed an attachment to a particular object it avoids novel objects (Bolhuis, 1991; p. 310). There are conflicting pressures on the young bird to readily recognize and follow its parent but also to recognize and avoid other adults, as well as heterospecifics that are potential predators (Hinde, 1961). Such conflicting pressures in filial imprinting resemble those involved in sexual imprinting and mate selection, when it is advantageous to distinguish conspecifics from heterospecifics.
Filial imprinting is thought to be widespread because of the importance of individual recognition, and in particular recognition of the parent. For most species the importance of recognizing individuals does not stop with the parent. Hinde (1962) stressed the role of contingency in the development of preferences, with an animal building on its past experiences. Individual recognition is established in flocks, territorial songbirds recognize neighbours, and individuals recognize their mates (e.g. Schimmel & Wasserman, 1991; Temeles, 1994). Therefore, selection favouring learning of individual characteristics is present throughout life, and mate choice is one manifestation of the general advantage of the ability to identify conspecifics in a variety of social situations.
Discrimination of heterospecifics may also result from learning. We reviewed 10 studies of song recognition between congeneric species of birds in which responses in allopatry and sympatry were compared (Table 1). These are mostly aggressive responses by males to male songs. In none of the cases does the song or call vary significantly between sympatry and allopatry but in nine of the 10 cases there are large differences in response between sympatry and allopatry. In five cases the response was greater in sympatry than allopatry, and this generally reflects interspecific territoriality. In four cases there was the opposite pattern, with the response greater in allopatry than sympatry. While there are two patterns here, all of these cases of different responses in allopatry and sympatry are likely to represent learned reactions to the presence of another species. In several of the cases in Table 1 the sympatric and allopatric areas were often only a few hundred metres apart, making a genetic explanation unlikely.
Learning is thought to be advantageous either because it saves time and energy spent interacting with individuals which do not pose a threat (in the case of decreased response in sympatry), or because it enables a threat to be more readily recognized (in the case of increased response in sympatry). For example, Lynch & Baker (1990) argue that common chaffinches and blue chaffinches have learned to not respond to heterospecific songs in sympatry because the two species use different ecological resources and do not hybridize. In an example of the opposite pattern, Emlen et al. (1975) reported that indigo and lazuli buntings respond aggressively to heterospecific song in sympatry but not in allopatry. They attributed this to a learned response to an ecological competitor. These two species hybridize, so heterospecific males are also competitors for mates.
How do birds learn to recognize or discriminate against heterospecifics? We suggest that this behaviour is a continuation of a learning process that develops throughout the life of the bird. We now consider the mechanisms of this process, which begin with filial imprinting. A chick learns an assemblage of traits (e.g. shape, colour, call) when imprinting on a parent, and more readily learns these traits when they are presented at the same time rather than singly (Bolhuis & van Kampen, 1992). Learning continues through subsequent encounters with the parent. As noted by Hinde (1961) a parent appears in many shapes and sizes and against many backgrounds, and this must result in a distribution of perceived traits that result in recognition (Fig. 1a). In laboratory experiments using artificial objects, presentations close together in time (Honey et al., 1994) or similar in appearance (Bolhuis, 1991; pp. 316–318) are more likely to be classified by a chick as the same object. One consequence can be modifications of filial imprinting to follow different, but similar-looking, individuals. Kent (1987) showed that chicks exposed to live hens for 3 days preferred them over unfamiliar hens in choice tests, but that the preference could be lost after four hours separation from the familiar hen and reversed by further exposure to another hen. These sorts of updates and use of multiple cues may be important in generalizing from filial imprinting on a single individual to conspecifics in social situations later in life (Fig. 1a,b).
In both filial and sexual imprinting, a young bird makes associations between multiple traits, such as colour and call, that distinguish individuals or species. These associations, which reflect true correlations between traits of conspecifics, make it possible to use a single trait in recognition. For example, in many species the chick recognizes the parent’s call and will respond to it but not to the call of other conspecifics even in the absence of any visual presentation (Halpin, 1991; pp. 235–240; Aubin & Jouventin, 1998). This is also likely to apply in the case of recognition of heterospecifics by adults. For example, response to an unusual but acceptable song could lead to interactions with an individual of unacceptable plumage, which then could result in learned avoidance of the unusual song in the future (e.g. Fig. 1c). Gill & Murray (1972) argued that the lower response of blue-winged warblers to the song of golden-winged warblers in sympatry than in allopatry (Table 1) results from ‘behavioural experience of the birds’ and ‘learning that a particular song represents a particular plumage type.’ Gil (1997) attributes the higher aggression between short-toed and common treecreepers in sympatry to a bird’s ability ‘to recognize and respond to the song of those heterospecific birds it encounters foraging in its niche.’ Learned associations between different forms of signals (call, plumage, movement, etc.) allow an individual to use one of them to recognize individuals that vary in the others.
To summarize this section, we suggest that learned mate recognition results from selection for both individual recognition and species recognition. The benefits of recognizing other individuals are present throughout life, ensuring that the ability to learn traits of others is always in place. This learning process (Fig. 1) can be used for species recognition. Sexual imprinting occurs early in life because parents are reliable models of species-specific characteristics. Mate preferences remain flexible because (i) suitable mates differ from the parents (ii) different individuals provide different benefits, and (iii) heterospecifics should be avoided when hybridization is costly (Grant & Grant, 1997a, 1998). We now consider how sexual imprinting and learning are involved in speciation.
Two modes of speciation
After reviewing the experimental literature Rice & Hostert (1993) suggested two main modes by which speciation can be completed through the evolution of prezygotic isolation. The first is when premating isolation arises as a correlated response to population divergence in various traits, driven by natural and sexual selection (Fig. 2, left). The second is when premating isolation between populations is generated by selection against hybrids (Fig. 2, right). This mechanism of speciation has been controversial (Howard, 1993), because both experiments (Rice & Hostert, 1993) and theory (Liou & Price, 1994) show that hybrid fitness must be very low or zero for premating isolation to evolve. Even when there is no gene flow between populations because postmating isolation is complete, we consider the evolution of premating isolation to be part of the speciation process (cf. Butlin, 1987; Rice & Hostert, 1993; Liou & Price, 1994). In birds in particular many hybrid pairings produce fertile offspring (Grant & Grant, 1997b) but these hybrids may sometimes suffer reduced viability and reproductive success for various ecological and social causes. If postmating isolation arises for such environmentally contingent reasons, it can easily break down (Grant & Grant, 1996). The only factor maintaining the species as separate entities would then be any premating isolation that had evolved. Thus we follow Howard (1993) in defining the term reinforcement as the evolution of pre-zygotic isolating barriers in response to selection against hybridization, whatever the level of hybrid fitness (as implied also by Dobzhansky, 1940).
Howard (1993) searched for evidence of reinforcement by reviewing studies that compared closely related pairs of species in sympatry and allopatry. Divergence in courtship signals or increased discrimination of those signals in sympatry is predicted under a reinforcement hypothesis: the pattern of increased divergence in sympatry is termed reproductive character displacement (Howard, 1993; cf. Butlin, 1987; Liou & Price, 1994). In 33 of 48 (69%) possible examples Howard (1993) detected reproductive character displacement. Because many of the species still form hybrid pairs the pattern is support for a process of reinforcement. Eighteen of the 48 possible cases concern displacement in discrimination of signals rather than in the signals themselves (they include one case which is in Table 1). Fourteen of these 18 (78%) show reproductive character displacement. Patterns of reproductive character displacement in discrimination appear to occur at about the same frequency as those in courtship traits (chi-square test, χ21 = 0.5, P > 0.4). Gerhardt (1994), Noor (1995) and Rundle & Schluter (1998) present additional examples in which reinforcement appears to be a result of increased discrimination in sympatry rather than any change in male courtship traits. However, not all cases of increased discrimination in sympatry are attributable to learned mate recognition. For example, Gerhardt (1994) tested (sympatric) female tree frogs drawn from some ponds where the heterospecific male was absent, and Noor (1995) maintained his naturally sympatric Drosophila pseudoobscura stocks in the lab for several generations before testing.
Learning and speciation
Complete divergence in allopatry
It is easy to see how sexual imprinting, by promoting assortative mating, could result in reproductive isolation if allopatric divergence has been sufficient so that the preference curves are not overlapping (Fig. 2, left e.g. Laland, 1994). This has been most elegantly demonstrated by Clayton (1990), who studied two subspecies of zebra finch. The subspecies are currently separated by 600 km of ocean and are unlikely to have ever been in sympatry, but mate assortatively by subspecies when placed together in large cages (in no-choice situations they hybridize and produce viable, fertile offspring). Cross-fostering experiments were used to show that assortative mating is due to imprinting. When Clayton placed cross-fostered young together in an aviary they all paired with mates resembling their foster parents. Much of this effect is due to females imprinting on attributes of their foster-father, rather than any change in song or plumage of the cross-fostered males.
In general, the presence of heterospecifics in the environment seems to provide the stimulus for increased mating discrimination (Ratcliffe & Grant, 1983; Grant, 1986, chapter 9; Noor, 1997). When the increased discrimination can be attributed to interactions between hybridizing species it may promote reinforcement (Fig. 2, right). The nine examples in Table 1 in which responses in sympatry and allopatry differ are not all clear examples of reinforcement for three reasons. First, some pairs may never have hybridized, although hybrids have been recorded in three of the interacting pairs. Secondly, the increased discrimination itself may not result in reduction of hybridization. However, Gill & Murray (1972); p. 292 suggest that in the case of the blue-winged and golden-winged warblers learning to avoid heterospecifics does retard the rate of introgression between the two species. Thirdly, the male–male interactions summarized in Table 1 lead to both increased and decreased aggressive response in sympatry. However, even if males respond to each other, females are often more discriminating and therefore avoid heterospecifics during pair formation. For example, male indigo and lazuli buntings respond aggressively to each other in sympatry (Table 1), but hybrid pairs are rare (Emlen et al. 1975).
The probability of speciation by reinforcement is reduced by a high level of hybridization, which can cause massive introgression between incipient species or extinction of the rarer species (Liou & Price, 1994). Therefore, whenever learning reduces hybridization it should facilitate reinforcement. We suggest that selection for increased premating isolation between incipient species causes sexual imprinting on the parent to become less modifiable by later experience, or recognition to become directly inherited from parent to offspring (Spalding, 1873). A possible consequence of the reinforcement process is that learning to avoid heterospecifics during adulthood is replaced by an inherent avoidance mechanism, and the avoidance behaviour itself is thereby assimilated into the genotype. The basic genetic and selective mechanisms underlying this kind of assimilation are discussed in further detail by Waddington (1959) and Fear & Price (1998), fig. 6. Strengthening of sexual imprinting, while being a likely result of reinforcement during one speciation event (Grant 1986, chapter 9), may also increase the likelihood of future speciation events. This is because stronger sexual imprinting reduces the amount of divergence in male traits necessary to prevent interbreeding between populations. Hence, successive speciation events in which reinforcement plays a role may have a cumulative effect on the rate of speciation.
The process we outline in the previous paragraph, while plausible, has never been studied. Nevertheless a role for learning in reinforcement may be widespread. In laboratory experiments Kim et al. (1996) show the importance of social interactions with other closely related species for the refinement of mating preferences in Drosophila paulistorum. The innate reinforcement of premating isolation documented in D. pseudoobscura (Noor, 1995) may have originally been a learned mechanism that has become assimilated.
Our main conclusion is that learning likely plays a major role in speciation in birds, because sexual imprinting is such an important means of identifying conspecifics. Sexual imprinting is a trait whose degree of expression has likely been modified by selection for efficient species recognition, as implied in the writings of many students of behaviour (e.g. Lorenz, 1937; Bateson, 1966; Immelman, 1972; Clayton, 1993). When speciation is completed by reinforcement, learning about heterospecifics later in life may facilitate the process, but this needs study. What is clear is that learning is of widespread importance in species recognition. In birds at least, this apparently arises out of the advantages of recognizing and responding to individuals through a learning-based system throughout life. Individual recognition mechanisms can be easily co-opted into species recognition mechanisms.
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We thank M. Dantzker, P. Grant, J. Irwin, M. Kirkpatrick, T. Langen, M. Noor, A. Pomiankowski, A. Suarez and an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments.
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Irwin, D., Price, T. Sexual imprinting, learning and speciation. Heredity 82, 347–354 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.hdy.6885270
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The EU referendum
UK in a Changing Europe (UKICE): Could you start by telling us exactly what the British Chambers of Commerce is?
Adam Marshall (AM): The British Chambers of Commerce is one of the UK’s biggest and deepest business organisations and has been around in some way or another for over 150 years. Some of the first chambers of commerce founded in UK cities are celebrating their 200th anniversary, or even more.
The Association of British Chambers was founded in 1860. So, all of the local chambers got together to create an association that would lobby for their interests at the heart of government. That is what morphed over the years into today’s British Chambers of Commerce.
Now the BCC is a network with 53 chambers covering every region and nation of the UK, and it’s also built over recent years a British Chambers network around the world, where I believe 75 markets and counting now have a British chamber that is part of that family too. The two things that chambers have always been involved in are international trade – helping businesses trade around the world – and economic development, trying to make sure that the places where they do business can thrive and succeed.
If you look at the British Chambers family today, you’ve got over 80,000 businesses who are involved and engaged as members, and another couple hundred thousand businesses who do some sort of work with a chamber each and every year. Between them, those businesses employ over six million people. So, it’s a really significant chunk of the UK private sector with that bias, as I was saying, towards international trade and export. For me, it was a privilege to be involved with that organization for nearly 12 years. I spent 7 years in the ‘Number 2’ role in the business as the executive director for policy and external affairs and then 5 years as Director General. My tenure finished this year, on 31 March 2021.
UKICE: Before the referendum, was Europe a big issue amongst British Chambers of Commerce members? Was there irritation at European regulation or concern about the speed of Single Market completion? What was the mood, say, at the time David Cameron made his Bloomberg speech?
AM: In the early noughties, there was significant business concern about the European Union, specifically on the regulation agenda. There were quite a number of new EU directives and regulations that were coming down the track, and many of them came with very significant business costs. That would be things like the Agency Workers Directive, for example, and others.
In some cases, I think that concern was justified, because the European directive or regulation itself was a problem. It was inflexible, it was expensive. In other cases, it was the transposition of those directives or regulations into UK law, and the way that UK government departments chose to put them into force in the UK, that actually riled the businesses.
What I always said through those years was it was important for businesses not just to say, ‘It’s European regulation’, but to try to get under the skin a little bit and figure out if this is a problem that’s come from Brussels or if it’s a problem that we’ve created for ourselves through gold plating or something else thereafter. Both types were to be found over the years. There was definitely some business frustration, I think, building around the issue –and in particular amongst small and medium sized businesses who felt that the cost and the difficulty of implementing some of this stuff was disproportionate to their scale.
UKICE: Then when we move towards the referendum campaign, you did a survey of members in the run-up to the referendum which found that they split roughly 60/30 in favour of Remain. Did that surprise you? In light of that, how hard was the decision you took to officially remain neutral in the campaign, rather than support one side or the other?
AM: We did a number of surveys through the years of members on their views around EU membership. There were one or two surveys that returned a fairly significant majority of 60/30, as you said. There were others that returned far closer numbers, around 55 to 45, for example, which was extremely interesting. Because of the strength of feeling that we saw and because of the closeness of some of those numbers and the potential for this issue to really seriously divide business communities around the country, we did what we had done in the Scottish referendum campaign. That was to go out and say, ‘We need all the facts on the table, and we want to present all of those facts to business people, so they have the maximum amount of information as individuals on which to take that decision. But we are not going to get involved and campaign on one side or the other.’
It was a similar strategy to the Scottish referendum period, and it was on the basis of the fact that there was a closeness in Chamber membership between those who were in favour and those who are against remaining in the European Union, and on the importance of providing businesses with that impartial and non-biased information. After all, it’s not the businesses that voted in that referendum, it was individuals themselves.
UKICE: One casualty of that neutrality stance, if you like, was your former Director General, John Longworth, who made some high-profile interventions in favour of Brexit while you were officially remaining neutral. How difficult was it for you to take over in those circumstances? Was that a big existential moment for the Chambers of Commerce?
AM: We had a settled policy of neutrality through that campaign period, and John (Longworth) was part of that policy. Until the day at our annual conference when he decided to speak out in favour of Brexit, we had carried on with that policy. About 48 hours later, I found myself running the organisation on an acting basis after John resigned over the course of a weekend.
It was, I can’t lie, a difficult moment. It was difficult because we had built up our reputation and our brand around this impartiality and around the provision of good information to businesses. It was difficult as well because, as a federated organisation, many of our local chambers of commerce had leaders, both executive and non-executive alike, who had very strong views on the subject themselves. I had to spend a significant period of time, in the aftermath of that, rebuilding some relationships and ensuring that our neutrality in the referendum campaign shone through.
What certain individuals chose to do thereafter is of their own choice and probably their story to tell rather than mine. But I was pleased that, as we came into the referendum itself, we were again demonstrating our impartiality as an organisation. I went into the referendum day itself knowing that we had done everything we could to provide businesses, and indeed onward to their employees, with as much information as we could so that people could take an informed choice.
UKICE: As somebody who wanted the referendum decision made, as you said, based on an informed choice and with the facts out there, I wondered if you had any thoughts about how the issues of the economy and potential business impact played out during the campaign, and some of the claims and counterclaims that there were? Did you find any of the messages particularly resonating with your businesses? Were you concerned about some of the ways in which the possibilities post-Brexit were presented?
AM: I was incredibly frustrated with both sides in the referendum campaign. I was incredibly frustrated at the way they tried to sometimes pass off their position or their view as fact or truth rather than an opinion. I was frustrated that each tried to scare the population in different ways rather than inform it, which is why I saw it as our mission to try to be level-headed, practical and informative.
When it came to the economy, some of the claims made by both sides were wildly out of kilter. Some of the Leave campaign posters about Turkey joining the European Union and the consequences that might have for the labour market, for example. Some of the forecasts made by the Treasury and indeed by the Remain campaign about the scale of economic damage also felt very much out of kilter. I think the numbers that we’ve seen so far also demonstrate that.
So, the alarmism in the campaign really bothered me a lot. It wasn’t level-headed. It was led entirely by emotion rather than by facts. I suppose it just demonstrates the old adage, doesn’t it, that people buy emotionally and justify intellectually. In this case, they bought emotionally, and many have been trying to retrofit some intellectual arguments to what they bought on an emotional basis.
UKICE: Given that the BCC is a body to help businesses, and raise business issues with government, did the Government consult you before or after the campaign? Did they pressurise you to take a more active stance, given that the Government was campaigning to Remain? Was there anything at all in the suggestions that I think came from the Vote Leave side, that it was government pressure that led to John Longworth’s suspension?
AM: John chose to leave our organisation of his own choice after making his intervention, and I have nothing more to say on that subject.
Of course, there were people in government who would have liked organisations that took an impartial stance to come down on one side of the fence or the other as the process progressed. Organisations like ours were being lobbied by both sides to say, ‘Come on, support us’, and that’s normal in any kind of situation like this. I didn’t see that as abnormal in any way, shape or form.
Interestingly though, the level of consultation on the issues and the practicalities happened after, rather than before. Because, as I said, people buy emotionally and justify intellectually. They found themselves having to go back in and look at the detail after the decision was taken. I think, to my own great regret, that neither of the campaigns entered into that detail beforehand, which led to a lot of the politics, the drama and the difficulty that we then all faced during the ensuing three and a half years.
UKICE: If we come then to the night of the 23 June, going into early morning of 24 June, were you surprised at the result? Where were you when you found out?
AM: I was sitting at home in London, having stayed up to watch some of the developments. When I saw the first results coming in from places like Sunderland and then I saw results from places like Birmingham, I knew which direction it was likely to be heading in. I was completely and utterly unsurprised by the result.
The reason for it is because, when you work with an organisation like the British Chambers of Commerce, your roots are not inside the M25 or the South East. Your roots are literally all across the UK. We could go and see in our business communities some bitter divisions; the business community in Birmingham, I would say, was very divided, right down the middle. Then, in some other areas which voted Leave but where the business community was very pro-Remain, such as the northeast of England, we could see these divides emerging. We could see the strength of the different campaigns in different parts of the country. So, it didn’t come as a huge surprise to me on the morning of the 24 June.
What dawned on me at that moment was the incredible complexity and difficulty that we had ahead of ourselves.
Early engagement with the May Government
UK in a Changing Europe (UKICE): Faced with the incredible difficulty and complexity of Brexit, how did you go about thinking, ‘Well, this is going to be a very big issue for us and for all members over the next two, three, five years’? What do you do as a business organization, suddenly faced with this massive issue landing on your plate, with the government in a degree of disarray and with David Cameron resigning?
Adam Marshall (AM): The very first thing that we did was gathered as a team and said, ‘What are we going to be about in the phase after this?’ The words that we alighted on was that we were going to be resolutely practical and pragmatic. ‘Practical and pragmatic.’ The number of times I heard and repeated that phrase over the ensuing 5 years – it’s probably the only thing I said some days of the week.
Why practical? Well, businesses, once political decisions are taken, basically just say, ‘Okay, whether I like this or not, this is reality. I have got to get on and do stuff, and I need to know how I can do it’. And pragmatic because we knew that there was going to be a lot of negotiation ahead, and we needed to be ready to roll with the punches a little bit, but also to say, ‘These are the priorities that businesses need addressed’.
Pretty soon thereafter, we put together what we called our Business Brexit Priorities list. Many Brexit watchers will be familiar with it, and indeed many Cabinet ministers were carrying it around inside their red folders. It was a single sheet of A4 paper with the 30 or so top areas where businesses required clarity in order to be able to continue to trade successfully. That was everything from, ‘What does British migration policy look like?’, through to, ‘Who’s my regulator?’, through to, ‘Will I have to pay for mobile phone roaming when I go abroad?’. All incredibly practical questions that companies were facing.
I would not be exaggerating if I said that it then turned into our Bible for the next three and a half years. It had red, amber and green ratings for the different areas, and we pummelled away at it relentlessly until we got the level of detail and the level of clarity that we required in the different areas.
I bet if you pulled it out right now, even today in the aftermath of the deal and the pandemic and everything else, there probably still be a couple of flashing ambers and reds on that list. Because, of course, this is a process that doesn’t end with an agreement. It’s a process that lives on, and we see it not just in the headlines of our newspapers, but in our businesses day after day.
UKICE: Did you actually have any more active discussion with ministers, particularly in the early stages in the run up to the Theresa May party conference speech or indeed Lancaster House, about what sort of Brexit they were envisaging? Some of the choices, like leaving the Single Market and customs union, had huge implications for your membership. How did government run its relationships with business during this period?
AM: We were in and out all the time. The conversations were continuous. I think in that interregnum period between the end of the Cameron administration and the beginning of the May administration, there were a lot of people talking about the different options, but there was certainly no grip on which one we might go for. You had different ministers or different individuals who had different personal priorities, given their own ideological bent or their own interest through the period of the referendum campaign itself.
So that was a very worrying and unsettling time in a lot of respects, because businesses were saying, ‘Well, okay, it’s Brexit, but what does that mean? What is Brexit? How is it going to affect me?’ We couldn’t answer those questions, of course. We were just as much in the dark as many of them were.
When Theresa May became Prime Minister, the drumbeat of that engagement did go up very significantly. There were a number of individuals in the Government, and indeed a number of individuals in the Civil Service, that pushed very hard to build an engagement machinery to say, ‘We know we need to talk to business a lot more and a lot more clearly. Let’s figure out how to do it’. So, there were an enormous number of conversations. That said, the Prime Minister then gave the Lancaster House speech. I remember sitting in the audience and going, ‘Okay, we may have all this engagement apparatus and things like that, but she has just set out a very clear set of red lines that I’m sure will get an interesting reaction in the business community’.
It felt like we had that engagement, we had those conversations going. But then, of course, the Government decided on a particular course of action which limited how much those structures of engagement might actually be able to add.
UKICE: Do you think ministers and officials, and maybe the Opposition as well, fully understood the implications for business of the Lancaster House decision? A lot of people interpreted it as saying, ‘That definitely means we’re leaving the Single Market and the customs union, with those red lines. That’s now clearly off the table if you’re talking about a bespoke future deal’. But some weren’t sure that ministers quite internalised what that really meant.
AM: We have a problem in the United Kingdom, and that problem is that our politicians love to make the announcement about a policy first and then fill in the detail later, rather than bringing something carefully crafted and constructed to the table for people to consider. That is exactly what happened across many of the big decision points around Brexit: an announcement was made about the direction that we were going in, and then my business communities looked up and said, ‘But have they considered any of the detail?’. The carmakers of the West Midlands and the North East were saying, ‘Have they considered what this means for integrated supply chains across the continent?’.
The service providers, the financial services sector in the city or professional services all around the country, were going, ‘What does this mean for passporting arrangements?’. The questions just came in thicker and faster after that, because, no, I don’t think enough thought was given to the implications of some of these announcements and decisions before they were taken.
UKICE: Do you think there was a greater understanding in, say, the business department under Greg Clark? We had David Davis, I think at around the time of Lancaster House, saying that they would do a deal with the ‘exact same benefits’ as businesses had as part of the Single Market and customs union. Were there different levels of understanding and engagement, and was that affected by the stance that ministers had taken in the referendum?
AM: There were some ministers who both understood and engaged actively in the importance of the detail, and I would single out Greg Clark here for his attention to that detail. We would speak with Greg sometimes daily, sometimes on a weekly basis, and with his entire ministerial team over a long period of time, trying to ensure that that detail and the questions around it were fed into the system and part of what was being considered at political level and amongst the top civil servants.
There were some who are very seized of the detail like that, and there were others who were very much of the, ‘Don’t worry, it’ll be alright on the night’ variety. Our business communities didn’t have much faith in the latter because, of course, they’re sitting there saying, ‘I need to take an investment decision’, or, ‘I need to decide whether I’m going to focus my energy on sending my stuff to Argentina, or whether I want to send it to Belgium’. They didn’t have much truck for that. They wanted engagement on the detail. So, their preference was very much for those who were willing to talk about the crunchy stuff.
UKICE: 2017 was a time of big events. We had the general election, Theresa May lost the majority, we saw the starting of the withdrawal negotiations, and all that period leading up to the joint report. But this was very much not focusing on the future relationship. Was that a difficult time for business? Was it a bit of stasis and frustration?
AM: It was a difficult time for business, and it was a challenging time for those of us who were charged with representing business and trying to get results and outcomes from government. The general election was seen by most of our business communities as a distraction and as something that was taking precious time and attention away from the more pressing issue of what our future relationship with the European Union would look like. Many of them were very scathing at the time about why this was what was taking place, and saw it as a problem.
Then, of course, the triggering of Article 50 itself before a clear view was formed in government, and around the nation, as to what sort of future relationship we wanted was also viewed with real concern too. There was quite a lot of frustration during that period.
Interestingly, I think the two points of most frustration were during that year, in 2017, and then during the repeated peaks and troughs in the negotiations, coming to a crisis point and then an extension that we saw in late 2018 and 2019. It was one of the hardest times, I think, for our business communities.
UK in a Changing Europe (UKICE): Were these flucturations in business frustration reflected in the course of engagement you had with government ministers? One of the things we were repeatedly told by businesses was that government was very much in sponge mode: you could send your messages in, but there was very little positive engagement coming out of actual discussions. So, open to listen, but not to engage and discuss.
Adam Marshall (AM): You could make the argument that many businesses would still today say government is often like that. It’s very happy to take the inputs, but then fails to take those inputs and drive through to a clear outcome. One has to wonder whether that’s a single failing of the British system of government, or whether it is a neuralgic issue around Brexit, whereby they’re willing to listen, but then they take their own decisions and do what they want. That’s been seen in some of the conversations about implementing the deal even.
It was difficult and sometimes frustrating. The door was always open there. We were literally in and out of Number 10 all the time, in and out of key departments all the time, having weekly meetings in some cases with senior Cabinet Ministers across a range of portfolios on some of the issues arising. There were not that many cross words exchanged.
These were usually civil engagements and conversations about the issues and there was a reasonable amount of listening being done, and active listening at that. But then, when it came to translating that into a decision or an outcome, the system sometimes failed. Very often we’d have to report back, ‘We know they heard us, yes, but we don’t know what’s going to happen next.’ There’s truth in that.
UKICE: Did you invest much time and effort in the devolved governments, or indeed in thinking, ‘How on earth are we going to operate in GB and on Northern Ireland trade?’
AM: By nature as a federated business organisation, there is great proximity to governments at sub-national level. The Chambers of Commerce in Scotland did huge amounts of work with the Scottish Government during that period. The two chambers we have in Wales did similar work with the Welsh Senedd and the Welsh Government.
In Northern Ireland, it was a little bit different because I think in the first phase, when we were talking about the Chequers arrangements, for example, and the notion of some sort of bespoke deal, the Northern Ireland aspect of this didn’t quite have the salience that it then took on later, when it became clear we weren’t going to go for that arrangement and the possibility of the hard border emerged. Then, all of a sudden, the Northern Ireland Chamber and the business interests in Northern Ireland more generally had to become more actively engaged, because it became an existential question for them.
I think there was a time difference as to when each of the devolved administrations was front and centre for their business communities, as they as they realised which way the political wind was blowing in certain cases.
I don’t think, though, that businesses much appreciated either Westminster or individual devolved administrations using this incredibly complex issue for domestic political purposes. We saw a huge amount of that, of course, over the whole of this period. Businesses in each of the devolved nations where there was a different colour of governments to what there was at Westminster said, ‘We’re really tired of this becoming part of UK political ping pong. We actually want to focus on the substantive issues around Brexit’.
I think history will be rather unkind to those politicians, whether UK politicians or indeed individual devolved administration politicians, who basically used this as a wedge issue rather than focusing on the ground-level impact. We will have to see what that verdict actually is over time.
UKICE: Throughout this period, the UK Government seemed to harbour the belief that, at some point, economic interests in Europe, all those references to German car manufacturers and things like that, would come to make the EU see that it needed a very favourable trading arrangement with the UK, because we were such a significant market.
Did your contacts in European business organisations bear that out? Were they focusing on lobbying from an economic point of view with their governments?
AM: It was extremely interesting because some of the things that Westminster politicians were saying about German carmakers or Italian and French agricultural producers didn’t turn out to be where we found the most support for a pragmatic approach. In fact, the support for pragmatism came primarily from smaller, more small ‘L’ liberal-minded countries, in particular around the North Sea, where we did have support for some sort of bespoke, pragmatic arrangement.
We were working very closely with our counterparts in the Republic of Ireland, in Belgium, in the Netherlands, in Denmark, all of whom were extraordinarily receptive to trying to support some sort of practical and pragmatic arrangements for the future. It did become harder, though, with others who would occasionally take a very purist view of what the European Single Market was. You would hear lines around ‘no cherry-picking’ or ‘no undermining of the four freedoms in any way’, even from people in some business lobbies.
The kinds of coalitions that we were able to form to try to influence not just our side, but the other side of the negotiating table, weren’t what I originally expected in certain cases. That said, we did work pragmatically with opposite numbers in all the European countries on trying to get to a practical and pragmatic conclusion, because in business we wanted to keep on trading. That was the ultimate objective, ‘How do we keep businesses trading between the UK and the 27 in future?’. At both national level and at European level, we worked closely with our colleagues to try to say, ‘Look, we’ve got to come up with some sort of arrangements that enables this to happen’.
No deal preparations
UK in a Changing Europe (UKICE): In 2018, it started to become clear that there might not be a finalised Withdrawal Agreement, even before it got bogged down in Parliament. The Government started focusing a bit more on preparing for a no deal Brexit. How do you think that went? Do you think preparations started too late? Did the Government do a reasonably good job? And, how did they involve business in those no deal preparations – particularly on how the border might function after no deal Brexit?
Adam Marshall (AM): First of all, those preparations did start way too late. There’s no question about that. I remember that a significant slug of money was pumped into it with great fanfare, and you saw billboards all over every station in the country and every road junction in the country saying, ‘Get ready for Brexit’, and things like that, ahead of that first crisis point.
Those preparations started late, and Whitehall seemed congenitally incapable of coming up with the sort of practical information that businesses needed in order to actually prepare. They would start up a website and say, ‘Here’s where we’re going to answer all of your questions so that you can prepare in the event of a no deal Brexit’, and it would include ridiculous statements like, ‘On intellectual property, take legal advice’, or, ‘On a judicial conflict between yourself and a business in another EU member state, take legal advice’.
You’d get these circular answers to questions that didn’t satisfy businesses at all and that was incredibly frustrating. I remember saying to several senior ministers, ‘Listen, if you don’t have decent information to put up there, don’t attempt to answer the question at all. Just be honest and say we don’t know because it’s all up in the air with negotiation but come back here repeatedly and we will put up as much practical information as we can as and when we do’. It felt like they were trying to paper over it a little bit, and that really raised hackles with lots of businesses at that time.
UKICE: The Government did try and bring some in some businesses, particularly on the border, and made them sign non-disclosure agreements to share confidential information. Did you think that sort of process worked well? Did you have reservations about dealing with government on that basis?
AM: No, I was not one of the organisations that signed a non-disclosure confidentiality agreement around this, because I thought as a business organisation, we needed to be free to put our point of view, not just to government, which we did repeatedly on border functioning and border issues, but indeed be able to explain it more widely out in public as well. So, we were not part of that group.
I did think, though, that secrecy around some of this stuff could have possibly hampered wider contributions that could have helped deal with some of the practical and pragmatic questions emerging. I also felt that, at the time, there were some very loud voices out there that government was listening to on some of this stuff just because they were the loudest voices, not necessarily the ones that knew how best you could prepare for business to be able to operate successfully, and that was that was a concern. That’s why in the lead up to the end of the transition period later, and in conversations with Michael Gove as the minister in charge at that time, repeated conversations about aspects of border design and operation remained important, literally right up to the end of the transition period.
UKICE: Do you think government basically understood the needs of big business better than smaller businesses?
AM: Well, I don’t know. I mean, as a business organisation that has all of the top companies in its membership and some very small start-ups in its membership, we had both ends of that particular spectrum. It’s true that bigger businesses can often fend for themselves in these conversations, and yet some of them were just as frustrated by the lack of clarity and lack of information as some of their smaller business counterparts. The one thing that they could do more, however, was throw money at a potential no-deal scenario and supply chain resilience; for example, what they would need, what sorts of hiring changes they might need to make. They were able to throw money at the problem.
You look at the City, for example, who threw money at the problem and was in a relatively good position at the end of the transition period regardless of what happened. It’s hard to believe I’m saying this after a year and a half where the pandemic has decimated that industry, but aviation was also prepared very well for a no-deal outcome and would have been fine, I think, if that were to happen, even to the point of having some bridging agreements in place between the two sides so the planes could keep flying.
Some industries were able to do that on the basis of spending and having enough information in order to plan accordingly. Others weren’t. Manufacturers and continental supply chains wondering about customs issues were not able to do that particularly well. Indeed, if you’re a big multinational OEM with a significant presence in the United Kingdom, quite a lot of variables were up in the air right up until the last moment.
UKICE: Did quite a lot of your members think that a no deal was not going to happen? There were stories that Philip Hammond and Greg Clark were giving that message, with the May government saying, ‘This isn’t going to happen’ in meetings with businesses, that it’s a bit of a mug’s game to spend money preparing for no-deal because government wasn’t going to pursue it anyway.
AM: We had three groups in business – I remember talking about this quite a lot with senior ministers and with the media at the time. We had those that were as prepared as they possibly could be, and many of those will have been those big multinationals I was talking about a moment ago. The second group was those who were very seized of the issues, but putting it off until such point in time as they had a little bit more information and a little bit more clarity to ensure that their spend went in the right direction, or their resource in terms of people went in the right direction.
Then we had the ostriches with their heads in the sand, who literally said, ‘Right now all I’m going to do is fill my boots. I’m going to keep on doing business, do as much as I can, and then I’ll deal with whatever comes out the wash, when that happens and make adjustments accordingly’. That threefold typology continued right through the process and indeed, in the aftermath, it was very easy to see who was prepared, who was partially prepared and who had to do it all from scratch.
UKICE: One of the things that made it more difficult for businesses in deciding whether to invest in no deal preparations was that the May vision of the future relationship morphed during 2018, to look like something that would render a lot of that no-deal prep nugatory spend. if Chequers and possible future customs arrangements to supersede the Irish backstop became policy.
What did you think when you saw the Chequers proposals emerging, with a common rulebook designed at least to try to preserve frictionless trade in goods? It was seen by quite a lot of people as a success for the business lobby in moving the government from its initial positions.
AM: All of the proposals that came up were of great interest, because indeed each of them represented a possible set of answers to the questions businesses have been asking for two or three years at that stage of the game. Regardless of whether they were perfect or imperfect, a lot of businesses seized on those because they said, ‘Okay, this gives us a route map. It would give us something to plan on’. I always remember saying to our colleagues and our business community, ‘Let’s just remember one thing, this stuff has got to get past Parliament and it’s got to get past the European Council. Both of those are very, very high barriers here. so I wouldn’t get too excited at this stage of the game. It’s still early days.’
I remember having to say that a few times to people saying, ‘Don’t get too excited, this isn’t over yet’. Indeed, that proved to be the case. I thought things got a little bit easier, actually, when the Johnson Government set out its belief as to what sort of arrangement it was looking for, because then most of the no deal spend and preparation was needed anyway. A lot of businesses at that point in time were able to say, ‘Okay, I need to do this anyway. It might be that 5 or 10% or 20% of it is rendered unnecessary by provisions in a potential deal but I’m going to need customs capacity. I’m going to need changes in my supply chains’. Whether they liked it or not, at least it represented a form of greater clarity.
The May and Johnson Withdrawal Agreements
UK in a Changing Europe (UKICE): Theresa May finally managed to land her Withdrawal Agreement, albeit not a future relationship, that at least would guarantee some sort of transition period and guarantee avoiding the immediate risks of a no deal Brexit and very rapid change.
What was the BCC’s attitude then? What were your interactions with parliamentarians on business’s view of the Withdrawal Agreement and whether they passed it?
Adam Marshall (AM): I think in the in the first instance we had to spend a lot of time ensuring that businesses understood some of the implications of that Withdrawal Agreement because, of course, that set of arrangements was incredibly complex, wasn’t it? The backstop provisions and various other things are extraordinarily complex for a lot of people to understand. As we said, that was one of the times when it became apparent in Northern Ireland, for example, that they needed to be paying very close attention to what was going on.
I think we then had individual chambers who were talking to their Members of Parliament and trying to understand and gauge where their MPs were. I think what fascinated and frustrated many of them was that most of the politicians hadn’t departed much from their pre-referendum position, whatever that was, in taking a view on the proposed Withdrawal Agreements. That was what let us know that this was in for a rollercoaster ride in Parliament, really. We knew it would be difficult to get through because so many people were very hard and fast in their views. Generally speaking, those that had pursued a hard Leave position really didn’t like it and those that had pursued a hard Remain position thought that it was vaguely palatable.
We knew that the divisions were going to be severe. I don’t think what we anticipated was how many times votes would come back and forth, the various types of parliamentary procedure that were employed, and just how fast the rollercoaster was going to run and how many times it was going to run.
UKICE: Did you actually find during that period that any MPs, or indeed members of the Government, were at all interested in talking to you about anything you might do to try to help break that impasse by lobbying, or were you basically just complete bystanders in that?
AM: Of course, we were encouraged, just as we had been during the referendum campaign by both sides of the argument, to take a position and take a view on it. It’s a political vote at the end of the day and businesspeople, generally speaking, want the political vote to be clear and dry so that they can then get on and do what they have to do in their business. So, a lot of them were concerned about taking a position one way or another. There was a very strong desire, of course, in our business communities to have a Withdrawal Agreement, because the biggest fear that we had throughout the process was that business does not want a messy and disorderly exit. That was the fear.
So, if you had if you had, I don’t know, bought a wheel of cheese and written ‘withdrawal agreement’ on it and said to businesses, ‘This is this is now the withdrawal agreement, would you accept it over a messy and disorderly exit?’, the answer would have been yes. Almost regardless of the provisions that it contained, they would have gone for it because the no deal alternative was too difficult and too disruptive for many to contemplate. That was the majority point of view, certainly.
UKICE: Were you worried that so many MPs were flirting with a no deal exit at that stage?
AM: Yes, of course we were concerned about it, because we had spent so much time impressing upon them the costs of that to businesses, to livelihoods, to their constituencies and the difficulty that was sure to cause. I persist in the belief that if there had been a messy exit like that, we would have seen both short term economic effects and some scarring effects that would have persisted for a very long time.
UKICE: Theresa May deal’s doesn’t get through, and she announces she’s standing down. We then have the change of government and the arrival of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, and a really big change of personnel in charge of different government departments. What difference does that make for business engagement with government?
AM: Yes, it was it was very different. One of the things that I have always hated, after working in this area for a very long time, is that every new government comes in and decides, ‘let’s junk the mechanisms we had previously and do it all differently’, regardless of whether we were in the midst of a national crisis or not. That happened on this occasion as well. The May years had seen a number of Prime Minister’s Business Councils set up that actually were working through a few of the Brexit issues, but more importantly, also on what the UK’s economic future could look like beyond the EU.
Those points of engagement disappeared with changes of minister in a number of departments. There was a review of arrangements and the frequency of conversations, the depth of conversations, the number of times we got together also changed quite a bit. It was an unsettling time for that to happen because, of course, we were up against a deadline yet again, and that was that was concerning.
To their credit, a number of the incoming ministers realised that they needed to have those deep and continuous conversations, and belatedly invested in them once they put their own stamp on them. I thought that was helpful. But, yes, there was a big change with the change in personnel at the top of government, in the way businesses and business groups engaged.
UKICE: The Johnson government seemed to be much more willing to contemplate no deal than the May Government had been, and was obviously a Cabinet that was prepared to go for no deal as far as we understood it. Michael Gove took control of those no deal preparations.
We also had the leak of the Operation Kingfisher paper, making clear that the Government had no proper plan for Northern Ireland, and a big ratcheting up of the public information campaign on getting ready for Brexit. What was it like doing business in that period? Was this a period of very intense preparation that become better focused and a more effective?
AM: It certainly became more focused, because the Government was negotiating in a way that was probably more understandable to the way a business would negotiate: you either get a conclusion or you walk away from the table. I think a lot of them understood that. They were scared about it. They didn’t like it, of course, but there was a level of understanding.
I think Michael Gove taking control of those no deal preparations was of importance to business because, again, he was seen as one of those individuals who was capable of engaging with the detail. It took time, but eventually he built an infrastructure in the Cabinet Office that was actually doing something about some of those matters of detail that we brought forward. When we had the conversations about customs arrangements and the need for deferments because, of course, we had no infrastructure at the border, you started to be able to have sensible discussions about some of those things. When there were cross departmental issues that required another government department to do something, you could see the Cabinet Office making the wheels turning a bit faster than perhaps they might have done previously.
I think that was an important piece of the of the puzzle, and it also created the vehicle to put all of those points of detail and unresolved issues into the system. Not all of them came out with an answer, but more did than perhaps had done previously.
UKICE: Were there any particular blind spots, any areas that that you were deeply, deeply concerned about lack of readiness for?
AM: I mean, we were deeply, deeply concerned about many areas and a lack of readiness across the board. Because the British Chambers of Commerce and Chamber Network are so involved in international trade, we spent quite a lot of our time on customs and related issues and the lack of readiness at the border to deal with inevitable customs procedures, either in the event of a deal or in the event of a no-deal scenario. Everything from whether Trusted Trader status would be recognised when you were taking loads back and forth, through to who’s going to do UK SPS checks and then customs documentary checks, if we don’t have enough customs officers? Those were the sorts of conversations that really worried us.
I remember there was a point in time when a senior minister said, ‘Well, if it’s no deal, it’s full import customs controls from day one’. I just remember thinking to myself, ‘Who’s going to run this, how is this going to work? How is it going to happen? It’s not actually possible’. Of course, we were proven right because the implementation of the UK controls for imports into the UK were delayed, and some of them are still in periods of delay now.
UKICE: With all this renewed impetus and focus behind no deal preparations in Autumn 2019, along with the political backdrop of the Benn-Burt Act, prorogation, the Supreme Court decision, were you surprised that the Prime Minister finally signed up to his Withdrawal Agreement? Did you look at what he signed up to on Northern Ireland and think, ‘Well, this is going to be difficult’, or, ‘This is a brilliant solution to a problem’?
AM: Once again, the announcements of, ‘Look, I got Brexit done’, came before consideration of the detail, as had happened under previous administrations. The Johnson Withdrawal Agreement was like an onion – the more you cut, the more you cry – particularly in terms of the implications for GB-NI trade and for business in Northern Ireland. I would have expected some deeper understanding and preparation prior to entering into that sort of arrangement.
I remember having conversations with Ann McGregor, who ran and still runs the Chamber of Commerce in Northern Ireland today, and making the distinction between the volume of trade, which is often very high across the land border from north to south, and the high value of trade going east-west, across the Irish Sea. We discussed how the economic impact of that trade being disrupted, was so extremely significant. For my colleagues in Northern Ireland, it felt like they’d gone overnight from being the favourite child under a certain set of arrangements to being the outcast under the new ones. That hurt in the Northern Irish business community, and amongst those companies that had intensive trade links across the Irish Sea.
So real concerns that emerged over the deal that was ultimately done in the Withdrawal Agreement.
UKICE: What did you and your members make of things like hearing the Prime Minister say, ‘There won’t be checks or if they make you fill in forms, just bin them’. Did that make you worry about the extent of government commitment to this agreement, or the uncertainty that they really grasped what they’d signed up to?
AM: Well, it did seem incongruous, because we understood what the legal implications were of an international agreement signed under international law. We also understood that under WTO rules, with the interaction of two customs systems, there is paperwork to be done. It didn’t give out the right message, did it?
I think we as a business community would have preferred a little bit more levelling and a little bit more honesty at that stage of the game that, ‘Look, this is going to involve some changes to the way we trade. It could involve some additional paperwork. We will do everything in our power to minimise that. But this is one of the consequences of the compromise that we’ve had to strike’. That level of honesty, I think, would have been welcome not just in Northern Ireland, but in GB as well.
The Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA)
UK in a Changing Europe (UKICE): Clearly the Prime Minister got the Withdrawal Agreement, had an election, passed the Withdrawal Agreement Implementation Bill, and then moved on to starting up the negotiations of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement. Covid came in relatively soon, almost in parallel with the launch of those initial negotiations, and clearly made those even more difficult.
Did the new team under David Frost have any engagement with business about what your priorities for the TCA might be? It’s a much more conventional free trade agreement. We know that the Government does not want to sign up to a relationship which involves a dynamic alignment, or any role for the European Court of Justice, but businesses usually are quite engaged in negotiating free trade agreements. Were you asked what you wanted the government to prioritise?
Adam Marshall (AM): Of course, we were asked, we were involved. We had conversations both with the existing architecture of departments and with Taskforce Europe and others. I think, though, that there was an issue arising at the time about the secrecy of negotiations and how open they were to business input. We always argued that it was very important to have businesspeople in the next room to the negotiations, so that government could come out and say, ‘Look, this is the compromise position that seems to be emerging. What does this mean practically for you?’.
I don’t think we ever felt like that was achieved to the extent that we would have liked, in the infrastructure that was set up around this. It’s relevant to negotiations around new free trade agreements that are now being done. I think the Department for International Trade has done a good job at putting in place a number of different forums and structures to take business input, but we don’t have that seat in the next room, as it were, during a live negotiation.
I think that was an issue during that period. I also think that, by that point in time, business expectations weren’t necessarily as lofty as they might have been in previous phases. Remember, we’d been beaten down by four years of this by this point in time, three or four years of this by this point in time. People were just saying, ‘Look, we want at least a basic agreement with the EU so that we have some clear terms of trade for the future, and so that we can avoid some of the worst of tariffs and quotas and various other things. But beyond that, we’re not going to set lofty ambitions for this’.
So, they weren’t quite as emotionally invested and engaged, perhaps, as they had been previously.
UKICE: Just before Covid really preoccupied a lot of the business community, as well as government, David Frost made his big speech in Brussels where he said that he thought that the worry about non-tariff barriers was massively exaggerated, and people didn’t have to worry nearly as much, and that getting rid of those parts of a trade agreement that would constrain UK sovereignty was really what mattered. Did you push back at all on that approach, or did you think that’s what we expected from the Johnson Government?
AM: I think we expected a ‘sovereignty-first’ argument from the Government, but that doesn’t mean we would simply accept the notion that non-tariff barriers didn’t matter because, non-tariff barriers for most of our businesses are much, much, more important and much more salient than tariff barriers are. If you look at what tariff levels are in many, many sectors these days, they’re pretty much at a de minimis level. Of course, there are some high tariffs in sensitive areas, and there were also questions around tariff rate quotas and things like that. But the layers and layers of bureaucracy and complexity that come with non-tariff barriers were preoccupying lots of businesses. Politicians weren’t straight with people on this.
Again, that was a point where a little bit more pragmatism, I think, would have been helpful. If someone had said, ‘Look, we are not trading the right to make up our own decisions on what future regulation looks like in return for easier passage of goods and services through borders’, that would have at least been honest. You could then have had an argument about whether there’s a spectrum from a purist position through to something much more dovish, as it were. We could have argued, ‘What is the appropriate amount of sovereignty that one gives up in any international negotiation in order to have the best terms of trade?’. That would have, I think, been a probably a better argument for us to be having in that negotiation.
UKICE: Did you expect the Government to ask for an extension, given that it couldn’t have forecast when it first said it wanted to get the negotiations completed by the end of December 2020 that it would suddenly be hit by a pandemic, which delayed some negotiating runs? Clearly it had preoccupied the Prime Minister and various critical cabinet ministers.
AM: We didn’t lobby for an extension. We didn’t expect one either at that stage of the game, I think because we’d seen several already. We’ve also got to remember another dynamic, which was that for businesspeople, the first extension made a heck of a lot of sense. The second extension still made a lot of sense. By the time you’re looking at the third or the fourth, the value of that to businesses set against clarity and certainty was diminished. We started to see more coming through in our surveys and our comments, ‘No more extensions, just get it done, whatever it is. Please let it be over’.
UKICE: Did you think it was realistic to do a full scale, full blown free trade agreement at that time, that was unprecedented in any other EU trade negotiation?
AM: I think it was a significant achievement to do it in that period of time. Regardless of what one thinks about the content or the conclusion of that agreement, simply concluding one in a hostile political environment that quickly is impressive. Now, granted, there was a starting point where there was broad alignment in terms of rules and various other things and you’re actually negotiating how you decouple from something rather than get closer to it. It was a different dynamic to what we’d seen previously.
We were, of course, very pleased to see the Christmas Eve conclusion and the deal emerging. But then, of course, another horror dawned on many of our businesses: ‘this thing comes into force provisionally in 7 days, and we don’t know what the hell that means for us’. A mad scramble set off in the middle of the Christmas holidays and people were not best pleased about that. Some had, of course, taken the decision to avoid the period in December 2020 and January and February 2021 entirely by pausing exports and imports, not moving things around. Indeed, some even closed manufacturing sites in certain cases. But for others, it was a mad scramble.
We in the British Chambers network had a mad scramble as well, because we had been working to build up the capacity to support businesses with customs declarations and we had to bring that system live. We were ready to go to help businesses with customs declarations on the 1st of January, and we had to be sure that that system worked too.
Both in terms of my own business and in terms of the scramble in the business community, I will always remember that as having been a mad dash to the finish line.
UKICE: I think at various points you were critical of some of the gaps in the Government’s border operating model, with teams taking forever to produce a border operating model for the GBNI border for various reasons. Did you think government got how important actually knowing how this would work in granular detail was for business?
AM: I think they understood it belatedly, and were playing catch up for the remainder of the period. I remember posing some very simple questions about personnel at the border and the chain of command at the border, for example, which were hugely important to businesses. What if one person at the Port of Larne decides to shut the gates to the port and not let something through because they’re not convinced that it can roll onto the streets of Northern Ireland because it’s at-risk of continuing into the Republic? What was the chain of command to get that released? Because, of course, that’s going to create a domino effect and a backlog, that will be felt back to Stranraer. Who’s in charge and who do you ring to get your shipment released, for example? There were no answers to questions like that for a very long time. And that’s where the frustration really lay for us.
Being able to point to what you do in a live operating business scenario at borders was a problem and a lot of that came on stream extremely late in the day. They knew it was a problem; the senior civil servants who are working on that sort of stuff were very, very seized of the issue and were trying to sort it. But they were working against the clock. In some cases, the derogations that we saw thereafter, and the decisions to delay enforcement or delay collection of customs declarations were an acknowledgement of the fact that more time was needed to get it right.
UKICE: Did you get the impression member state governments and the Commission were doing a better job of preparing their businesses, particularly those exposed Northern European businesses, for Brexit than the UK government was?
AM: I would make the distinction between those European governments preparing their borders and preparing the way that they operated, versus preparing their businesses themselves. I think a number of countries, and both France and the Netherlands come to mind here, did a good job of preparing a clear border operating procedure and actually sharing that. You knew if you were coming into the port of Rotterdam what it was that you had to do, you knew if you’re coming into Calais what it was that you would have to do. I thought that was good.
Now, does that extend to them having prepared their domestic business populations well for trading in this new era? Not necessarily. Some businesses got to grips with it very quickly. Others have had some difficulties. I think both on the UK side and on the EU27 side, helping businesses grapple with the new reality has been a challenge. I don’t think that’s unique just to the UK.
UKICE: We talked a lot about borders, which obviously matter enormously for goods, but if we look at the TCA, one of the criticisms of it is that there’s not much in it for the UK services sector. There was quite a restrictive mobility agreement, that might affect the ability of some service businesses to function once border restrictions go, and a lot of small businesses are having to grapple with being sponsors if they want to bring in labour from overseas, as opposed to just asking people to show a European passport.
What did you think of where businesses ended up by the end of the year, with a combination of the new services regime, albeit with outstanding decisions on data, the provisional agreement, and nothing much on financial services equivalence?
Did businesses have a good discussion with government about all those implications? Do you think government understood business’ needs there?
AM: Our mantra was always that we need to know that businesses can trade goods across borders, that they can move their people across borders as it was required, and that they could move data and information across borders as was required. Those were the three key areas for us. For all of our services, businesses across all of the sectors, it was about people and data first and foremost.
There were plenty of vertical trade associations who would be focused on specific sectors, who would be worried about the detail of the interaction of complexity in financial services regulation, for example. That wasn’t for us. For us, we were focused on the horizontal issues around people and data.
When I read the TCA, I was shocked at the level of restrictions and qualifications put by many EU member states around some of the mobility provisions. There may be 100 pages of those reservations in the TCA. I thought to myself, ‘When business travel gets back to normal, that’s going to be a real shock for people’. That’s not something that people are going to have anticipated.
I was concerned that data would become a sword of Damocles hanging over our heads at some point in time, in terms of going from the provisional application through to a formal decision on data adequacy. It could come back to haunt us in some way, shape or form and become an issue, as our own data regime evolved. We were still having to talk to businesses about the possibility of using multiple contract clauses and standard contract clauses and things like that, to deal with some of the issues arising.
We were concerned about some of the provisions around services. I think we’re now starting to see the consequences of some of the decisions taken on mobility, in both the way businesses move around for meetings, at conferences, specialised work servicing equipment, for example, and also in terms of the broader labour market, and shortages in many entry level positions in certain sectors. It’s going to take some time to work that out.
My hope is that having a points-based immigration system means that we can flex our immigration system as needed, in order to make sure that we can get the skills and the people that are required in this country. That system has yet to be tested properly because of the pandemic. It’ll be very interesting to see post-pandemic whether it is supple enough to ensure that the UK can meet its needs. That will be seen not just in sectors like farming, but in retail, hospitality and many more besides.
UKICE: What’s your verdict now that we’re almost 6 months beyond the TCA being signed? How have the first 6 months gone?
AM: It’s impossible to tell, isn’t it, because we’ve been in the midst of a global pandemic at the same time and we’ve seen huge disruptions to global trade and UK-European trade that would have happened because of the pandemic, regardless of the Brexit scenario. So, we still don’t have a good sense of how the new arrangements will operate in an equilibrium scenario, where things are operating relatively normally in other parts of the economy. That’s still to be to be seen.
We’re starting to get the first reports now of people being turned away at borders for not having the right paperwork or the right visas or the right justification for business visits. That will probably increase further as things normalise and travel starts to resume again. Obviously, there’s a polemical debate at the moment about whether imports and exports are back to normal. There was a point in time when the Government was counting the number of lorries transiting rather than the value and volume of the goods that were actually in them. But now as we get more statistics through, what does the new normal look like?
I think this is the sort of thing that we will see over the space of years rather than months. It’s too early to make a formal prediction as yet.
UKICE: You mentioned that the Government was very keen on a ‘sovereignty first Brexit’, and the TCA reflects that sovereignty-first demand. But the point of ‘sovereignty first’ was to be able to strike an independent trade policy, and to be able to take control of UK regulation.
We’ve just seen the publication of a report by the Taskforce that the Prime Minister set up, advertising for a new ‘Director of the Brexit Opportunities Unit’ in the Cabinet Office, to work with Lord Frost to realise those opportunities.
Do you think the Government is actually doing what it should be doing- is it making the most of those new opportunities? Has it got a clear strategy for how to do that?
AM: I can’t speak for the British Chambers of Commerce any more, no longer being their Director General.
What I would say is this: there is not a strategy for the future opportunity economy yet. We saw the phrase ‘Industrial Strategy’ being set aside after 5 years, which was deeply disappointing to many businesses, because I think businesses hear about something after a year, engage with it after 5, and really feel comfortable with it after 10. An industrial strategy was just getting to the point where people were engaging with it, and then it was scrapped.
I think we do need to see more of an overarching plan that brings together domestic economic policy, our global trade strategy, and our drive towards net zero and climate mitigation, under one roof. I am afraid that in my personal view, the Plan for Growth that was put out by the Government earlier this year is not that strategy. It is neither detailed enough, nor clear enough, as to the direction we are trying to move the country in, and it feels very tactical and very short term in nature. I am concerned about that.
In terms of opportunities for the future, I remain an optimist about this country and what it can achieve, no matter what its trading arrangements are around the world. In my mind, there is something in the new regulation report, which is hugely important, which is that the UK should seek to be the best destination globally for emerging sectors and have the best regulatory welcome for emerging sectors. Britain should be the place where tomorrow’s industries want to put their testbed, the country that creates space to try new things out, that develops proportionate and light touch regulation as new sectors emerge. That’s where we can be nimble and use the freedom of Brexit to best effect.
It is not about going back, looking back at the existing rulebook and creating some sort of bonfire of European regulation in existing sectors. I find that incredibly facile and boring in nature. There may be a few things that could be changed now that we have some distance from the EU, where it’s very obvious that the transposition of EU regulations is really hamstringing our businesses in some way, but not that many. For most of us, it’s about how we regulate for the future and how we use nimbleness and flexibility to our advantage.
If we get that right, we can actually have a lot of success in future. Then it will be about the EU trying to copy the flexibility of our regulation rather than perhaps us copying out theirs, as we did as we decoupled. That’s where I have some positivity.
So, whether it’s fintech or health technology or many of the other sectors that have been identified as industries of the future, that’s where we’ve got to put our attention, I think.
UKICE: If you look back over this entire period, your tenure in multiple capacities at the British Chamber of Commerce and now having left, do you have any final thoughts on what this episode has told us about government and the way governments deals with and understands business?
AM: I hope that when the history books are written that they will show that this episode helped politicians realise that details matter, and that you can’t get away with skating over them when dealing with a systemic change that’s this complex and this big.
I hope that governments will one day take pride in being across those details, attentive to them and reacting to them, knowing that they’re doing so in the best interests of their business community, because where our governments failed throughout this process was when they skated over the detail. In doing so, they probably harmed the economic prospects of the country. | <urn:uuid:00de886d-59aa-4d0a-a10f-d83eb800b730> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://ukandeu.ac.uk/brexit-witness-archive/adam-marshall/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573172.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20220818063910-20220818093910-00265.warc.gz | en | 0.985808 | 14,260 | 1.695313 | 2 |
If we told you that high school students can earn high school credits while taking hands-on skill training that prepares them for high-wage, high-demand careers, would you say that sounds too good to be true? It’s true, it happens in every state, and it’s called “career and technical education,” or CTE.
CTE programs provide training in a wide variety of fields. They are offered in high schools, community and technical colleges, career centers, and four-year colleges. Programs are developed within a framework of 16 different career clusters:
- Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources
- Architecture & Construction
- Arts, A/V Technology & Communications
- Business Management & Administration
- Education & Training
- Government & Public Administration
- Health Science
- Hospitality & Tourism
- Human Services
- Information Technology
- Law, Public Safety, Corrections & Security
- Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics
- Transportation, Distribution & Logistics
When students complete programs and their high school education, they may go on to work right away, but many pursue further technical training, certifications, or a two- or four-year degree.
CTE program results
The statistics for participants are impressive—high school students involved in CTE are more engaged, perform better and graduate at higher rates:
- Graduation rates for students in CTE programs is 93 percent; the average for all students is 80 percent.
- More than 75 percent of CTE students pursue higher education or training shortly after high school.
- About 30 percent earn college credit and/or an industry certification while they’re in the program.
How does it work?
Program designs vary, but students might spend two afternoons each week in a training class, and three afternoons a week in a real work setting, learning technical and employability skills in the career field of their choice. Students typically have a mentor or supervisor on site to guide their skill development.
Frequently, CTE programs find corporate business partners that provide projects, equipment, and supervision for the hands-on component of CTE. Projects could include volunteer service, internships, job shadowing, presentations, or creating an event. There might be guest instructors from professional fields, and tours or site visits to a variety of work settings. In addition to developing technical and employability skills, students gain knowledge that helps to determine their future career preference or direction.
Examples of CTE activities
Students in CTE programs across the country have:
- Earned a culinary arts and restaurant management certification
- Studied for, practiced, and earned, Red Cross certification
- Obtained a certification for CNA, EMT, or basic firefighting
- Operated a radio station and created a cable television program
- Staffed a greenhouse and livestock facility
- Developed a marketing plan for a small business
- Managed a school store and run a coffee shop
- Designed and built a house
- Gained work experience and training in physical therapy, dental care, radiology, and veterinary services
- Wrote computer code to program robots for a manufacturing process
- Learned blueprint reading, metal varieties, and cutting tools for machinist training
- Studied aircraft maintenance and flight electronics
- A few programs even own their own fleet of aircraft and offer a pilot training program approved by the Federal Aviation Administration.
To explore careers in each of the 16 career clusters, check out CareerOneStop’s Occupation Profiles or Career Videos. You can also find information on professional certifications for a wide variety of occupations, and research your local training resources.
The Association for Career and Technical Education is the largest national education association dedicated to the advancement of CTE programs. CareerOneStop will attend their annual conference, CareerTech VISION 2017, December 6-9 in Nashville, TN. If you’ll be at the conference, please stop by our booth #143 for a visit. | <urn:uuid:d014d290-c7df-403b-b8cc-c56875b37e02> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://blog.careeronestop.org/career-and-technical-education/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.943614 | 831 | 3.359375 | 3 |
The speed at which we are advancing technologically is causing a skills disruption. Skills disruptions aren’t new but the frequency at which they are happening is unprecedented. For example, there’s not a need for bank tellers as we move to mobile and ebanking. When I started in the legal industry, there were clearly defined roles for secretaries and paralegals. But now these traditional roles no longer exist and technology has played a huge role.
Since, globalization and technological advances aren’t slowing down, more investment in the training and development of employees is very important. The report says, upskilling and reskilling of existing employees is one way to make sure that the workforce is equipped with the skills for the future.
Helping people upskill and adapt to a fast-changing world of work will be the defining challenge of our time. Those with the right skills will increasingly call the shots, create opportunities and choose how, where and when they work.
The report describes the importance of learnability which is the “desire and ability to learn new skills to stay relevant and remain employable.”
In the Skills Revolution jobs in the following area are expected to increase: IT, HR and Customer Facing Roles.
Click the link to download and read more about The Skills Revolution: manpowergroup.com/workforce-insights/world-of-work/the-skills-revolution | <urn:uuid:3cb3cdeb-d245-44ce-8dad-eec2673f6d93> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.carryonfriends.com/prepared-skills-revolution/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.952125 | 292 | 2.28125 | 2 |
ABP brings in bonus grid for Beef Group
A NEW bonus grid has been introduced for the 1000 active members of ABPs Traditional Beef Group.
Producers who deliver cattle that classify E3 and 4L to the companys Ellesmere, Shropshire, plant will get £10 rather than £6 a head, and there will be higher payments on other animals that meet specifications.
Price discrimination against eligible heifers is also to end, which could increase producer returns by 4p/kg, or £12 a head.
General manager David Fleet-wood told the groups annual meeting that work was advanced on a new payment system based on yield of saleable products rather than the EU carcass classification grid.
Results from cutting thousands of beef carcasses were being evaluated to find a reliable way of predicting actual yield of every cut. This would ensure that producers of the most profitable carcasses could be rewarded.
"Breeders will have more information about what they should aim for when selecting breeding and store cattle," Mr Fleetwood said.
Richard Cracknell, head of ABPs UK operations, urged producers to lobby for the continuation of the subsidy to renderers, and warned that without it the extra cost of removing offals would be the equivalent of 6 or 7p/kg, or £20 a beast.
Welcoming the decision by McDonalds to buy British beef again as a "marvellous morale boost", he also complimented the MLC for promotional activity during the crisis. But he described the calf slaughter scheme as a terrible thing that was damaging the beef industry.
MLC economist Jane Connor confirmed that beef imports continued to have a big impact on the market. Imports in 1996 totalled 32,224t compared with 20,384t the year before. The average GB cattle price in May was 11.5% down on 1996, but the fall in Ireland was 19.4%, and French producers received 18.93% less.
But she predicted some European supplies would be diverted to other markets after the start of the new GATT year on July 1.
There should be some firming in price as a result. More prime cattle would be slaughtered during 1997, but more of these would be heifers producing lighter carcasses. * | <urn:uuid:a5450040-7b0d-4e58-aa57-99cf976a70cd> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.fwi.co.uk/news/abp-brings-in-bonus-grid-for-beef-group | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.971216 | 469 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Book Review - Learning Transfer at Work
Learning Transfer at Work by Paul Matthews is a look I definitely recommend to every learning and development practitioner who wants to improve the effectiveness of their l&d interventions. Three chapters into the book I was already sold on the importance of learning transfer and why we need to take it very serious. Accoring to Paul the main aim of the book is twofold:
To convince us and those we work with that the learning transfer elephant (or problem) is real.
Introduce processes and activities that help to deal with the elephant.
This is not a big book as it has just 240 pages and 14 chapters split across 2 parts in which Paul challenges us about why we must take learning transfer serious and how we can go about doing that.
The first section introduces us to the issue of learning transfer and some crucial things we need to consider to begin to tackle it. The second section is morepractical as it presents 166 tips, ideas and questions we can apply to start introducing learning transfer to our interventions. This larger part of the book will give you some actionable learning transfer ideas.
Following is a brief review both parts of the book.
Part 1 - Overview
What is learning transfer?
In this chapter Paul gives us a good introduction of what Learning transfer is using some straightforward definitions, one of which is:
The translation and application of the learnt knowledge, skills and attitudes into effective action that improves job performance, is sustained over time and is beneficial for the output of the workflow.
But this chapter doesn't just focus on defining learning transfer, it expantiates on the ineffectiveness of l&d interventions because of poor or even no learning transfer. To be honest some of the data cited is quite sad reading and you wonder if our roles are not at risk of being taken over by AI or some other technological advancement if we are this ineffective. I do like the fact that Paul pointed out people wanting to reduce training when the real issue is dealing with the problem of learning transfer.
Why do we avoid it?
I'm sure like me you will find this chapter very interesting and in some cases hilarious, but it is one to reflect on. Here Paul has outlined 12 reasons why we avoid learning transfer. Three of them are:
- Our job is to train people. We deliver the training and that's our job done. Learning transfer is not our respobsibility.
- L&D has outsourced the training and the external training provider is only interested in selling training.
- We do some stuff on learning transfer and it doesn't seem to make any difference.
Taking the time to read and think about these reasons why l&d does not do learning transfer and reflecting on them is really crucial because it will help us to question ourselves about why we may not be doing it.
The subject of accountability is also touched on. So who is responsible for learning transfer? For sure it's not just l&d, but being open about accountability, accepting the responsibility and doing something about it is necessary because if we don't, nothing will change. We will keep on investing in training which generates little or no returns.
But we already do learning transfer!
You've probably heard that one before or it may be what you say. So which of these are you familiar with?
- We leave learning transfer to the manager
- We send delegates emails and texts messages on facts about the training after it's ended to remind them.
- We give people access to a portal with lots of information.
- We run action learning sets.
There are more suppossedly learning transfer strategies listed which we may be using, but the lesson here is that they often don't work and that's because they are planned and used in isolation of the learning intervention. Learning transfer strategies not planned as part of the overall intervention will feel disjointed and fail. There are some great lessons to learn from this chapter which include the importance of realising that a training course doesn't just consist of the delivery, but also what happens before and after and it forms a whole workflow into which learning transfer should be integrated.
Also it is important to clearly identify the stakeholders that will have any influence on a learning programme and their level of influence because they will be instrumental to the programme's success and that includes helping learning transfer work.
Where does it start?
Where does your training start? Does it start on a strong or shaky foundation? Training that starts on a strong foundation is training that is needed and can be justified. A key to that is being able to do effective performance consultancy which is discussed briefly in this chapter. Performance consultancy differs from learning consultancy as it aims to identify performance gaps and what is needed to plug it. It also helps to identify whether or not a learning intervention is needed. It is only if the need for an intervention is identified that we can move into learning consultancy to decide how to design and develop the intervention. All that and more are discussed in this chapter which should really make us think about whether the training courses we put on are really needed. This is important because you can't do learning transfer on a course people don't really need.
The subject of informal learning is important to learning transfer because for learning transfer to happen, learning must happen beyond the classroom. We've all heard about 70:20:10, one of the most popular models within the l&d sphere inferring that 70 percent of Learning happens informally, but despite this there still isn't much we do to emphasize informal learning. The point of this chapter is that informal learning is important to learning transfer and purposely planning for informal learning to happen after an intervention will certainly aid learning transfer if done properly.
The Learning Stack
In this chapter, Paul presents a five-step model he calls the learning stack to help us understand how reflection aids learning, afterall reflection is important to learning transfer and behavioural change. The five steps are:
- Unconscious reflection which involves practising something without really thinking about it.
- Conscious reflection where we consciously think about something.
- External reflection when we externalise our reflection such as writing them down or telling someone.
- External reflection with consequences is when we think about what will happen if externalise our reflections.
- Teaching someone else something, which is a great way to learn.
The higher up the learning stack, the better the reflection and of course the possibilities of learning transfer. Another lesson in this chapter is the importance of retrieval of information from our memory. The author discusses some practices that we can use to facilitate retrieval - based learning. The AGES model developed by Josh Davis and colleagues originally in 2010 is discussed to illustrate memory retrieval. The AGES model which stands for Attention, Generate, Emotion and Spacing focuses on four principles that help new learning to stick.
Triggers that work
In this chapter the Foggs Behavioural Model defined by the equation B = MAP where B is Behaviour, M is Motivation, A is Ability and P is Prompts is discussed. According to the model these three factors must be present for behaviour to occur. So for someone to use what they learnt on training, these three must be present, if just one is absent the behaviour will not occur. Another important aspect of the model discussed are the three steps that B.J. Fogg believes helps to change behaviour which are:
- Get specific
- Make it easy
- Trigger the behaviour
In 2006 Carol Dweck, a Psychology professor at Stanford University published the book, Mindset - The New Psychology of Success: Changing the Way You Think to Fulfil Your potential, in which she describes the fixed and growth mindset. Those with a fixed mindset see ability as fixed and need to do the best with what they've got. People with a growth mindset believe it is possible to learn and grow and improve our talent and abilities. In relation to learning transfer, triggering new behaviours is really important and people's mindset does play a major in whether people will change behaviour. Paul spends some time exploring those two mindsets and references other information related to mindset including a TED talk and BBC programme. I definitely will be getting my copy of Carol Dweck's book.
Near and far transfer
Near and far transfer learning model is one of the most common learning transfer models. In describing the model Paul writes that, "the extent to which information learned in one situation will transfer to another situation is determined by the similarity between the two situations. The more similar the situations are, the greater the amount of information that will transfer. Similarly, if the situations have nothing in common, information learned in one situation will not be of any value in the other situation.
What this model infers is that far transfer is more difficult than near transfer. This is significant to learning transfer in that it helps us think about how we design learning interventions to facilitate learning transfer by making the situation where the intervention takes place or the intervention itself to be as similar as possible to the real life situation. Paul discusses another model, the low road and high road transfer of learning which goes a bit further to explain what needs to happen for learning transfer to take place. While I won't go into detail explaining what the model suggests, I do believe these two models are worth researching as they will give us more insight into doing learning transfer more effectively.
Creating new habits
In this chapter Paul looks at something very necessary for learning transfer, habits.According to him, "doing something a significant number of times means we enter the realm of habits. So, let's look at habits to help us understand how they can both help and hinder us in our quest for learning transfer." That statement summarises the aim of this chapter. Some theory on habits is discussed, such as the CEOS theory which stands for Context, Executive and Operational Systems and Borland who published a paper on the CEOS theory does present a practical aspect in the discussion of the process of behaviour change which consists of four overlapping phases which are:
- Problem diagnosis
- Goal setting
- Taking action
- Maintaining change
On a more interesting note Paul helps us to understand the "it takes 21 days to build a habit" school of thought. The truth is it doesn't take 21 days. Dr. Maxwell Maltz's quote which is, "these, and many other commonly observed phenomena, tend to show that it requires a minimum of about 21 days for an old image to dissolve and new one gel", was later misquoted and taken totally out context.
This is a really useful chapter as it gets us thinking about how to do learning transfer in reality. Paul makes one thing clear, the person doing learning transfer is the trainee, but they will need support to do it. That is where this chapter really shines as it introduces us to a very practical model that can help us think about how to support learning transfer called - The 12 levers of transfer effectiveness. This framework was developed by Dr Wienbauer-Heidel after years of intensive research and it presents us with 12 learning transfer levers levers split across 3 domains. I have summarised them below.
Levers for trainees
1. Transfer motivation - yes, I want it
2. Self - efficacy - yes, I can
3. Transfer volition - achieving transfer success with willpower
Levers for Training Design
4. Clarity of expectations - Making goals transparent
5. Content Relevance - Learning what is needed
6. Active Practice - learning by doing
7. Transfer Planning - step by step to implementation success
Levers for the Organisation
8. Application Opportunities - everyday work is full of possibilities
9. Personal Transfer Capacity - we (don't) have the time
10. Support from Supervisor - the boss and transfer success
11. Support from Peers -other people's influence
12. Transfer Expectations in the Organisation - transfer results as a new finish line.
More information on how you can learn more about this framework is presented as Dr Wienbauer-Heidel has written a detailed book on the subject titled - What makes training really work: 12 Levers of Transfer Effectiveness. She also has a website (www.transfereffectiveness.com).
This chapter tackles a really thorny issue for l&d. The key question here is, how do we know what we are doing is working? How do we measure the impact of learning transfer? And even more, are we measuring what is important? A number of resources are referenced to highlight the importance of measurement and how crucial it is to building an effective l&d offering. The Learning Measurement Study by Brandon Hall Group is cited saying that very few l&d teams collect metrics linking learning to performance. Information from Brinkerhoff's Success Case Method and Thalheiner's Learning-Transfer Evaluation Model are referenced as measurement frameworks. The section ends on a positive note with the author suggesting some actions l&d practitioners can take to improve their measurement strategies.
The brand of L&D
Another shock-in-the-system section, this time on branding, a subject most l&d people would not be able to put a couple of sentences together about. After all we don't work for the marketing department. But in all honesty, branding is important to l&d. This section of the book throws out a challenge to us. Think about it - What do people say about l&d in your absence? Not much probably. Research by Josh Bersin of Bersin by Deloitte rated l&d at a -8 Net Promoter score. This is extremely low and cause for alarm, but why? A reason is people's perception that training does not make much difference and a key culprit for that is (you guessed it) poor learning transfer. Therefore improving learning transfer is directly proportional to improving the l&d brand.
Part 2 - The Practical Stuff
This part of the book is all about ideas that you can learn from and use. The author suggests we consider all the ideas, try some of them and identify what works. On purpose there is not a lot of text for most of the ideas, since there are 166 of them. I believe the author leaves space for us to use our imagination in deciding how best to select and implement ideas. Following are 20 areas that these practical ideas focus on:
- Focus on the action that produces results.
- Changing culture so it's friendlier to learning transfer.
- Importance of the manager to learning transfer.
- Getting support from the necessary stakeholders.
- Identifying limiting beliefs.
- Onboarding and learning transfer.
- Experience and expertise.
- Barriers trainees anticipate.
- Access to digital platforms.
- Blame culture.
- Involving managers in Learning design.
- L&D strategy.
- What do people really need to learn?
- Buying in generic training.
- Handouts and training manuals.
- Experiments and activities.
- Adult versus child learning.
- Agile development of learning programmes.
What is my verdict on Paul's book? Read it. Please read it. Be mindful that you will need to use it as a reference that you can dip into time and time again. This book contains lots of tools and tips that we can use to support learning transfer and while not all of them will work when we use them, Paul leaves us with no excuse of not knowing what to do
My final words go to the author, Paul Matthews. Thank you Paul for writing a book full of insights and revelation about learning transfer. Hopefully because of this book our learning transfer efforts will be much better. | <urn:uuid:7e6160be-ae3d-4300-872f-0fdc5a700f2b> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/community/blogs/bolaowoade/book-review-learning-transfer-at-work | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.952084 | 3,232 | 1.5 | 2 |
The system does not replace the parking brake. When you leave your vehicle, always apply the parking brake.|
You must remain in your vehicle when the system turns on. At all times, you are responsible for controlling your vehicle, supervising the system and intervening, if required. Failure to take care may result in the loss of control of your vehicle, serious personal injury or death.
The system will turn off if a malfunction is apparent. Failure to take care may result in the loss of control of your vehicle, serious personal injury or death.
Auto Hold uses your vehicle's brakes to hold your vehicle at a stop once your vehicle has reached a standstill condition. For example, Auto Hold can assist you while stopping at traffic lights or while in traffic jams by holding the brake pressure for you once you bring your vehicle to a stop.
Switch Auto Hold off during vehicle or trailer towing.
In case of a malfunction in the system while Auto Hold actively holds the vehicle (for example, low power supply), a message appears in the information display asking you to press the brake pedal. If you see this message, press the brake pedal immediately.
Auto Hold only activates if the system recognizes it is applying enough brake pressure. On a steep hill or incline, you may need to make sure the brake pedal is pressed sufficiently to activate the Auto Hold system.
In some cases, Auto Hold might hand over to the parking brake. When the parking brake applies, the red brake lamp appears. This is normal. When you press the accelerator pedal, the drive away release feature releases the parking brake.
Auto Hold works on all road grades.
Press the Auto Hold button to switch the system on and off. The Auto Hold indicator light illuminates in the Auto Hold button when the system is on.
You can only switch Auto Hold on if you close the door and fasten your seatbelt.
Auto Hold remembers the last on or off setting when you start your vehicle.
When in reverse (R), Auto Hold does not function.
When Auto Hold is off, your vehicle behaves the same as a vehicle without Auto Hold.
There is an Auto Hold indicator lamp in the instrument cluster that has two modes, active and unavailable:
The Auto Hold (ACTIVE) indicator light illuminates in the information display when the system holds your vehicle stationary. When in active mode, press the brake pedal and the Auto Hold button to switch Auto Hold off.||
The Auto Hold (UNAVAILABLE) indicator light illuminates in the information display when the system is on but unavailable to hold your vehicle (for example, during Active Park Assist, Stay in Neutral Mode, or when you do not fasten your seatbelt or close the door).|Note:
Make sure you switch off Auto Hold or use the Stay in Neutral mode before you enter a car wash. See
Using Auto Hold
- Bring your vehicle to a stop by pressing the brake pedal. After coming to a stop, the green Auto Hold (ACTIVE) indicator lamp illuminates in the information display.
- Release the brake pedal. The Auto Hold (ACTIVE) indicator light remains illuminated in the information display and Auto Hold will hold your vehicle at a stop.
- When you press the accelerator pedal, Auto Hold releases the brakes and you will be able to drive off. Once you drive off, the green Auto Hold (ACTIVE) indicator no longer illuminates in the information display.
The Stop/Start system (if equipped) may stop the engine when you press the brake pedal. If this occurs, it will restart once you press the accelerator pedal. Auto Hold still holds your vehicle at a standstill with the engine off. | <urn:uuid:f0472c7d-e1b3-4ef0-9ed1-2998ed104127> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.fordservicecontent.com/Ford_Content/vdirsnet/OwnerManual/Home/Content?variantid=4643&languageCode=en&countryCode=USA&Uid=G1767714&ProcUid=G1767715&userMarket=USA&div=l&vFilteringEnabled=False | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.854265 | 801 | 2.171875 | 2 |
Here is a quick and simple Valentine craft which can be adapted to suit the materials you have to hand and the ages of the children.
You will need:
Card, paper, stickers and other decorations
Glue stick, stapler
Cut strips of paper to make a band which will encircle the child's head, and staple together securely.
Cut heart shapes out of coloured paper and decorate the band to make your very own Valentine Crown.
Heart stickers can make this a very quick and clean activity if you don't want a mess.
Provide card templates of different heart shapes and sizes, or stencils, for older children to trace for extra practice.
Show your child how you can make a symmetrical heart by folding a piece of paper in half before cutting.
Decorate with glitter or sequins for a glamorous effect.
Why not make a special Valentine crown for a favorite doll or teddy too? | <urn:uuid:cf473c39-c442-45a7-a0f9-7b1e9bb4833a> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.activityvillage.co.uk/valentine-crown | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.906095 | 201 | 2.25 | 2 |
26.06. 2022 – 19.03.2023
Who has the authority to interpret Jewish culture?
The exhibition “Stuffed Jews?” in the Jewish Museum Hohenems, curated by Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek and Hannes Sulzenbacher, deals with the history, present and future of Jewish museums.
The exhibition examines the self-image of the more than 120 Jewish museums worldwide, which all have very different orientations, and what perspectives they see for the future of their program work.
It is also about the question of who has the authority to interpret what Jewish and Jewish culture is today and what social role it can play in different parts of the world in the future.
The bitterly-laconic title of the exhibition is borrowed from a response from the then chairman of the Jewish cultural community, Paul Grosz, who once asked what he thought of the founding of a Jewish museum with a counter-question: “Whether Jews there “like stuffed Indians” should be admired?” …
History, Present and Future of Jewish Museums
26.06.2022 – 19.03.2023
Jüdisches Museum Hohenems | <urn:uuid:0cecaddf-4ca0-4efb-849d-7b7c3f74c413> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.creativeaustria.at/en/2022/05/30/stuffed-jews-judisches-museum-hohenems-vorarlberg/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.920835 | 271 | 2.46875 | 2 |
Remember the first time you saw a Möbius strip (the ring-shaped surface with only one side) and it felt like your world had been turned upside down? The hexaflexagon tends to have a similar effect. Only more so.
In this, her latest video, fast-thinking, faster-talking YouTube-maths-wizard Vi Hart presents us with the topologically fascinating hexaflexagon. First discovered in the 1930s by a daydreaming student named Arthur H. Stone, flexagons have attracted the curiosity of great scientists for decades, including Stone's friend and colleague Richard Feynman. Here, the ever-capable Hart introduces the folding, pinching, rotating, multifaceted geometric oddity with her signature brand of rapid-fire wit and exposition. She even shows you how to make your own.
Seeing as Hart has dubbed October "The Month of the Flexagon," it sounds like we can look forward to a few more similarly themed videos in the weeks ahead. We'll keep you posted. | <urn:uuid:afdd2305-4a35-4554-82f7-3aca02caabc0> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://gizmodo.com/meet-the-hexaflexagon-its-about-to-blow-your-mind-5947852 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.950994 | 218 | 2.65625 | 3 |
The Library of Congress
Manuscript Division, Library of Congress and Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
Search by Keywords | Browse Narratives by Narrator | Volume
Browse Photographs by Subject | Browse All by State
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and assembled and microfilmed in 1941 as the seventeen-volume Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves. This online collection is a joint presentation of the Manuscript and Prints and Photographs Divisions of the Library of Congress and includes more than 200 photographs from the Prints and Photographs Division that are now made available to the public for the first time. Born in Slavery was made possible by a major gift from the Citigroup Foundation.
The mission of the Library of Congress is to make its resources available and useful to Congress and the American people and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations. The goal of the Library's National Digital Library Program is to offer broad public access to a wide range of historical and cultural documents as a contribution to education and lifelong learning.
The Library of Congress presents these documents as part of the record of the past. These primary historical documents reflect the attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs of different times. The Library of Congress does not endorse the views expressed in these collections, which may contain materials offensive to some readers.
An Introduction to the WPA Slave Narratives by Norman R. Yetman
Voices and Faces from the Collection
American Memory |
Search All Collections |
Collection Finder | Teachers | <urn:uuid:e4ec1f35-a78b-4c8a-9855-e8733502afef> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://cybercemetery.unt.edu/archive/oilspill/20130103114124/http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snhome.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573699.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819131019-20220819161019-00265.warc.gz | en | 0.92602 | 391 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Snow squall watch issued for:
Parry Sound – Rosseau – Killbear Park,
Snow squalls expected tonight.
Lake effect snow off of Georgian Bay is expected persist throughout the day before strengthening to stronger snow squalls this evening. Under these snow squalls, 10 to 15 cm of snow accumulation will be possible.
Dangerous winter driving conditions will be possible tonight, particularly along parts of highway 400 between Parry Sound and Britt.
Snow squalls will shift south of the area by Tuesday morning.
Travel may be hazardous due to sudden changes in the weather. Visibility may be suddenly reduced at times in heavy snow.
Please continue to monitor alerts and forecasts issued by Environment Canada. To report severe weather, send an email to email@example.com or tweet reports using #ONStorm. | <urn:uuid:dfc470ec-7c2b-4e07-bd30-22f64dd44614> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://muskoka411.com/snow-squall-warning-continued-for-parry-sound-rosseau/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570977.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809124724-20220809154724-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.907775 | 169 | 1.640625 | 2 |
According to the case law of the boards of appeal, the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations governing procedure between the EPO and applicants requires that communications addressed to applicants must be clear and unambiguous, i.e. drafted in such a way as to rule out misunderstandings on the part of a reasonable addressee. A communication from the EPO containing erroneous information which misleads the applicant into taking action causing the refusal of his patent application is null and void in its entirety (J 2/87, OJ 1988, 330). An applicant must not suffer a disadvantage as a result of having relied on a misleading communication (J 3/87, OJ 1989, 3; J 23/14). On the contrary, if his actions were based on a misleading communication he is to be treated as if he has satisfied the legal requirements (J 1/89, OJ 1992, 17).
In T 2092/13 the board concluded that a communication from the examining division was ambiguous and had misled the appellant. In the circumstances of the case, the communication had created a realistic and reasonable expectation that any subsequent negative finding on the issue of novelty and/or inventive step was communicated to the appellant before any adverse decision would be taken. The appealed decision was set aside and the case remitted for further prosecution. See also T 1423/13.
The Legal Board suggested in J 17/04 that it was the EPO's responsibility to provide forms which catered for all procedural possibilities in a clear and unambiguous manner. In the case in hand the applicant was allowed to rely on a possible interpretation of the text of the EPO form in accordance with the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations even if another interpretation was more current. | <urn:uuid:9b7f49c2-d6f7-4401-ac3c-0b5a223b23af> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/html/caselaw/2019/e/clr_iii_a_2_1.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.967367 | 351 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Cyber Security Awareness Tips for Employees
If you are a business owner, the following is essential information to provide your team with. Make sure you share this with your employees so that your company can ensure greater protection and prevention.
1. Be on the Lookout for Phishing Attacks
Phishing attacks are one of the most common cyber security threats. They occur when a malicious actor sends an email or other communication that appears to be from a reputable source in an attempt to trick the recipient into sharing sensitive information or clicking on a malicious link.
2. Keep Your Mobile Devices Secure
Mobile devices are often targeted by cybercriminals due to the fact that they usually contain a wealth of personal and corporate data. When using your mobile device for work purposes, it is important to keep it secured with a strong password or passcode and to only download apps from trusted sources.
3. Use Removable Media Safely
Removable media, such as USB drives, can be easily lost or stolen. When using removable media for work purposes, it is important to encrypt the data and to only use devices from trusted sources.
4. Be Aware of the Risks of Working Remotely
Working remotely can pose a number of cyber security risks. For example, if you are using a public Wi-Fi network to connect to your corporate network, you may be putting your company’s data at risk. It is important to only use trusted networks and to ensure that your device is properly secured with a strong password or passcode.
5. Use Strong Passwords and Authentication Methods
One of the simplest ways to protect your company’s data is to use strong passwords and two-factor authentication whenever possible. This will help to prevent unauthorised access to your account and will make it much more difficult for cybercriminals to gain access to your company’s data.
6. Be Aware of Cloud Security Risks
The use of cloud-based services is becoming increasingly common, but there are a number of security risks associated with these services. It is important to only use trusted providers and to ensure that your data is properly secured.
7. Implement Physical Security Measures
If you have servers in your office, you should ensure that they are properly secured in a locked room or cabinet. In addition, you should consider implementing access control measures, such as badge readers or fingerprint scanners.
By following these tips, you can help to keep your company’s data safe and secure. Cyber security threats are constantly evolving, so it is important to stay up-to-date on the latest threats and to take steps to protect your company’s data.
If you need help securing your company, be sure to get in touch with Proximitum. We specialise in providing comprehensive cyber security solutions for businesses of all sizes. Contact us today to learn more about our services. | <urn:uuid:6ab803bb-2bee-41cb-b9cb-4056f58cefb6> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.proximitum.com/post/cyber-security-awareness-tips-for-employees | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.930193 | 589 | 2.34375 | 2 |
Wildlife in NRH
Wildlife that is common to our region includes rabbits, possums, armadillos, hawks, coyotes, skunks, snakes and other small animals. Residents may notice wildlife more frequently in area parks, neighborhoods and open spaces during certain times of year, or during times of drought as the animals seek out new sources of water, food and ground cover.
For your safety and respect of the wildlife, you should never approach, chase, capture, feed or harm any of the animals you see in local parks and neighborhoods. Although normally not aggressive, wild animals can bite if threatened or handled. If you or someone else is bitten by an animal, please seek medical attention immediately. The majority of bites result from people taking unnecessary or foolish risks.
Discourage visits from wildlife by removing two of the three things they are looking for on your property: a food source, a water source and shelter. Removing food and shelter is one of the most effective ways of discouraging wildlife from coming onto your property. Keep grass and vegetation around your home cut short and remove debris piles, including branches, leaves, boards, rocks, logs and wood piles.
Wildlife was here long before our community was developed and experts agree that it would be impossible to remove these animals from the area. When wildlife is removed, the area is repopulated with the same species within a short amount of time. Therefore, the City of North Richland Hills encourages residents to educate themselves about wildlife and to take the above steps to minimize encounters with wildlife. Questions about wildlife may be directed to the NRH Animal Adoption & Rescue Center at 817-427-6570. | <urn:uuid:52a49b2f-b7c3-4aac-9d51-912e8e88e40f> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://northeastnews.org/2014/07/10/wildlife-nrh/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571538.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812014923-20220812044923-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.952783 | 340 | 2.828125 | 3 |
If you have a dog, cat, or any other pets at home who may not be enjoying their food as much as they used to, they might refuse to eat, or maybe they just don’t seem to be getting all of the vitamins and minerals they need from their food, then investing in nutritional counseling for your pet may be very beneficial for their diet, weight, satisfaction with their food, and overall health.
Here at Ansede Animal Hosptial, we are proud to be able to offer pet nutritional counseling services to ensure that your pet stays healthy and happy, and ends up living a long life as well. One of the biggest issues with pet diets is that they commonly cause them to become overweight, which can lead to even more serious health issues as your pet ages. When given the proper diet, your pet should be able to meet their dietary needs and maintain a healthy weight for years to come. However, it can sometimes be hard to tell exactly what your pet’s dietary needs are because their needs can change throughout the various stages of the pet’s life. This is why we offer our nutritional counseling services, so that we can get an idea of the lifestyle of your pet and then create a diet plan for them that will be sure to fuel them with the right nutrients they need to stay at their optimal health.
The benefits of pet nutritional counseling
- You’ll know how much food you should be giving your pet and how many times per day they need it
- Plan a routine eating schedule
- Know the right type of food your pet should be eating to get all of the nutrients they need to support their optimal health and happiness
- Educates the pet owner on mistakes to avoid when feeding their pet
- Tips on how to extend your pet’s lifetime as long as possible
As you can see, nutritional counseling can be hugely beneficial for your pet and their overall wellbeing. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to We look forward to speaking with you. | <urn:uuid:05fad31c-3409-4b13-9c9b-e36eea08d334> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.jeuxdelavoiture.com/the-benefits-of-nutritional-counseling-for-your-pets.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570767.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808061828-20220808091828-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.977016 | 411 | 1.8125 | 2 |
The objective of this study was to compare the cases of COVID-19 deaths and cases in the United States and Europe. The area selected in the United States was parishes (counties) in Louisiana along the Mississippi River which is globally known as “Cancer Alley.” These parishes have been investigated in the past due to high levels of air pollution. The relationship of air pollution and COVID-19 was evaluated. The racial distribution of deaths, and mortality and case-fatality rates were determined in the 11 Cancer Alley parishes. Results indicated that infection, mortality, and case-fatality rates were higher in the 11 Cancer Alley parishes where chronic exposure to air pollution has occurred. The COVID-19 cases and deaths were higher in the 11 Cancer Alley parishes when compared to the remainder of the state. When stratified by race, infection, mortality, and case-fatality rates were higher among Blacks in the 11 Cancer Alley parishes. The risk of infection and mortality was higher in the 11 Cancer Alley parishes, as well as among Blacks in these parishes. Our research adds to others that document the effects of air pollution on COVID-19, as well as the historical patterns of health disparities and environmental injustices in Cancer Alley. We offer a set of progressive policy recommendations as a pathway to actions for sustainable change, which can inform risk mitigating strategies worldwide.
This research publication was published with the title, “Air Pollution and COVID-19: A Comparison of Europe and the United States”, in the March 2021 Ed. Of European Journal of Environment and Public Health. It is authored in collaboration by Peter J. Fos, Ph.D., D.D.S., M.P.H., Professor of Health Sciences and Research Professor, Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Center, Dillard University, Peggy A. Honoré, D.H.A, Professor, Health Policy & Systems Management Program, LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, School of Public Health & School of Medicine, and Lieutenant General Russel L. Honore, Louisiana Green ARMY, United States Army. | <urn:uuid:49e902d2-70af-4c46-a71c-789751f0b30e> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://sph.lsuhsc.edu/air-pollution-and-covid-19-a-comparison/?ajaxCalendar=1&mo=8&yr=2022 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.965673 | 436 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Why Protesting Postal Workers Chose A Hunger Strike
"I'm not even sure I'm going to get through the four days," Community and Postal Workers United organizer Tom Dodge tells The Salt. "I've never even fasted before."
The dozen postal workers and their allies involved in the strike, which is taking place largely in the halls of Congress, are protesting a series of measures they say would "starve" the beleaguered U.S. Postal Service. They want Congress to drop an annual mandate requiring them to prefund healthcare benefits for future retirees. But it's their method rather than their message that's garnering attention.
Dodge says that the group – a nationwide organization unaffiliated with any of the four major postal unions – decided to employ the strongest political statement it could come up with.
"Our unions just aren't doing enough," he says. "Their whole game is to lobby the Congress members, but they've been doing that for a year and half and it's not gaining much traction." There have been numerous rallies and marches in cities across the country since last September, Dodge points out, but Congress is not budging.
Using a hunger strike, he says, seemed symbolically significant and sufficiently dramatic.
Which it is, if only for the fact that its rareness (in the U.S., at least) makes it a rather extreme tactic. Sure, the strategy is not without precedents — after all, Ghandi succeeded by launching several hunger strikes to protest British rule and Indian caste representation.
But there are contemporary examples, too, though the efficacy of the maneuver in modern times has been mixed. Ongoing intermittent hunger strikes among California prisoners since 2011, for example, has failed to sway state policies.
But will it work in this case?
Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., who co-sponsored the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, tells The Salt that he's willing to weigh the group's message during current Congressional deliberations.
"I'm influenced and swayed by lots of things," he says. "It's a matter of us influencing each other. I certainly support the positions, opinions and decisions of the postal workers."
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | <urn:uuid:8ff2420e-f4c6-4b9c-a239-34fc453c6f21> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.upr.org/2012-06-26/why-protesting-postal-workers-chose-a-hunger-strike | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.966567 | 465 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Journal Club 5: V. Talanquer, When Atoms Want, Journal of Chemical Education, dx.doi.org/10.1021/ed400311x
How many of us have said something like the following when explaining why atoms form ions of a certain charge?
Sodium atoms want to lose one electron so that they can have a full electron shell.
Vincente Talanquer writes an interesting piece in Journal of Chemical Education this month on the (over)use of teleological explanations in science and chemistry education. A teleological explanation is one which uses the consequence of the event (to become more stable) to explain why the event happened (loss of electron). This is conferring a desire on the part of the sodium atom. I have to confess, I do this all the time, especially at introductory level.
Talanquer examined whether students chose teleological explanations to explain observations (they did, overwhelmingly), and also whether they chose teleological explanations over causal explanations. For example, a causal explanation for our dear sodium atom losing an electron would be:
Sodium atoms have one electron in a valence orbital with a higher energy than available valence orbitals in other atoms
Students chose teleological explanations over causal explanations in the range of questions posed. Finally, students over a range of levels (introductory to graduate) preferred teleological explanations.
The preference for teleological explanations is in part assigned to the fact that it offers a more easily understood explanation for an observed phenomenon, and as such learners are more likely to grasp onto it as a means of being asked to explain the observation. This probably explains why it is is prevalent at introductory teaching. However, Talanquer argues that their overuse might prevent students from examining the phenomenon more deeply; meaning that concepts such as equilibrium are difficult to understand. Talanquer writes:
Teleological explanations are problematic in education because they provide a cognitively cheap way of satisfying a need for explanation without having to engage in more complex mechanistic reasoning.
Therefore, in relying on teleological explanations, an event occurs because the substance involved wants it. This thought eliminates a more nuanced view of a process occurring, often in competition with other processes, which may cost more energetically, or be slower, and therefore less likely to occur. This probabilistic view is lost in the simplicity of the original explanation.
What to do?
I think these applications have a value, but perhaps as a first step in engaging learners into the fact that a particular observation is a routine occurrence (e.g. group 1 form 1+ charge). However, when we move on to more in-depth discussion, it’s important to bring learners along so that they don’t over-rely on their simplistic understanding. I think this probably aligns well with Bloom’s Taxonomy.
What do you think?
1. Do you use teleological explanations?
2. What value do you think they have, and do you agree with the arguments presented in the paper, that they may be overused? | <urn:uuid:d8e2b9cd-4ee7-44fa-af3c-49a165721ec9> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://michaelseery.com/atomic-desire-teleological-explanations-in-chemistry-education/?shared=email&msg=fail | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.938568 | 633 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Due to violence in Cameroon's Kousseri region, over 45 thousand people have been forced to flee to Chad.
Women and children make up the majority of the migrants. Some families have been forced to leave their homes before they could even take their belongings. Displaced families are in need of basic food items and shelter. We will urgently deliver food packages consisting of flour, rice, pasta, oil, tomato paste and salt to 1,500 families, as well as mosquito nets, blankets and mats. So, about 9,000 people will be able to get safe food and a place to live in the place they left.
Together, with your support, we can deliver aid to Cameroonian refugees. Let us not leave thousands of people alone.
If you would like to donate to this campaign from the bank, it is sufficient to indicate 15717 in the "Description" section. | <urn:uuid:1293ef06-a80e-40f4-a104-871847f0fd38> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://ihh.org.tr/en/donate/cameroon-emergency-aid | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.970514 | 180 | 1.578125 | 2 |
13 Sep 2018
by Orielle, Uncategorized
Can understanding the teenage brain help parents?
All of our brains have neurochemicals that work together (we call it the Brain’s Amazing Drugs Cabinet) to create different emotional states depending on how we are feeling physically, mentally and emotionally.
So your teenager has a mind of their own – no surprise there. The teenage brain is different from that of babies, toddlers, adults and the elderly. In all mammals the early years are focused on building the individual who can survive in the real world. So if you think your teen is being difficult, not listening and has to be told a hundred times, it’s their brain chemistry changing as they question and learn how to respond like an adult.
While everyone has these neurochemicals, in young people (adolescents and teenagers) the levels of these chemicals (and the triggers for releasing them) are always changing as they learn new experiences, such as relationships!
So we’ve picked out three of the brain drugs that we all share, that act differently in teenage brains.
1. Oxytocin(the Brain’s ‘Love’ Drug) promotes feelings of love and trust in nurturing relationships and safe environments such as when we’re with family and friends. In young people, Oxytocin is essential to help them to form bonds outside the family too – after all, we’re programmed by evolution to know that there’s safety in numbers.
Top Tip:Use Oxytocin to talk to your teenager about how they feel about being part of a group and how it feels to be on the outside of a group that appears closely bonded.
2. Dopamine(the Brain’s Joy Drug) creates a feeling of euphoria and heightens our sense of making experiences more pleasurable. It is released in high doses in teenagers (especially when in a group environment) because adolescents must learn to survive outside the family pack, forming new packs and alliances and learning to push the boundaries of what’s risky in order to learn what’s safe.
Top Tip:So while you can’t stop your teen from going against their evolutionary programming or biological brain chemistry you can talk to them about making positive choices in risky situations.
3. Adrenaline(the Brain’s Action Drug) is the drug over which our mind has the least control throughout our lifetime; after all we need Adrenaline to jump out of harm’s way even before our thinking brains have realised the danger is there. Adrenaline is the fastest acting brain drug so the affects for teens can feel overwhelming.
Top Tip:Talking about the role that Adrenaline has to play in anger (at a time when everyone is calm) is really useful. Reminding ourselves that Adrenaline is our brain and body’s way of protecting us can be a useful starting point.
To avoid Adrenaline overwhelming your system in conflict, practice some mindful breathing.
Discover more at https://scottishconflictresolution.org.uk/homunculus
SCCR images subject to copyright. Illustrations by Hannah Foley, Owling About. | <urn:uuid:cb3d113e-9094-4c2c-b296-b02c971fc790> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.noknivesbetterlives.com/understanding-the-teenage-brain/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.939915 | 659 | 2.828125 | 3 |
California Could Become a Sanctuary State — for Marijuana
By Carey Wedler
California could soon codify resistance to federal marijuana prohibition if state lawmakers pass a recently introduced bill. Assembly Bill 1578 seeks to bar law enforcement in California from cooperating with federal authorities in ways that violate the state’s cannabis laws.
Citing both California’s medical marijuana policy and voters’ recent legalization of recreational cannabis last November, the bill makes it clear it holds the state’s laws in higher regard than the federal government’s.
If passed, A.B. 1578 would prohibit a state or local agency from “taking certain actions without a court order signed by a judge, including using agency money, facilities, property, equipment, or personnel to assist a federal agency to investigate, detain, detect, report, or arrest a person for commercial or noncommercial marijuana or medical cannabis activity” that is otherwise allowed in California.
Widget not in any sidebars
State or local officials include but are not limited to “police, sheriffs, university police, and other campus police agencies.”
The bill, introduced by Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, lists a variety of police actions that would be prohibited unless permitted by a judge’s court order. These include “[r]espond[ing] to a request made by a federal agency for personal information” intended to investigate or punish an individual lawfully using marijuana in California.
State and local agencies and officials would also be barred from “[p]rovid[ing] information about a person who has applied for or received a license to engage in commercial marijuana or commercial medical cannabis activity.” Though the law would help to shield the robust, profitable industry by shielding legal marijuana businesses, it would not protect marijuana vendors acting outside the parameters of state-approved activity.
A.B. 1578 would also make it illegal to “[t]ransfer an individual to federal law enforcement authorities for purposes of marijuana enforcement or detain an individual at the request of federal law enforcement for conduct that is legal under state law.”
The proposed law is essentially an attempt to strengthen California’s already existing laws, which conflict with federal policy on the plant. According to the federal government, marijuana is still a dangerous drug. Though Attorney General Jeff Sessions has reportedly indicated to lawmakers in Washington D.C., that he does not intend to pursue marijuana offenses in states where it is legal, his past rhetoric against the plant has led some officials to take preemptive action.
Fears of a federal crackdown were also stoked after the DEA requested information regarding marijuana-related crimes in Colorado, claiming the data was “for the new administration.” Further, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has said “I do believe you’ll see greater enforcement” surrounding legal marijuana.
There are currently a variety of proposed bills in Congress that, collectively, seek to reschedule marijuana and set up a regulatory framework, protect state laws on cannabis, and even decriminalize the plant altogether. Around the country, state legislatures are increasingly approving marijuana use to varying degrees.
According to Dale Gieringer, state coordinator of California NORML, a pro-marijuana advocacy group, the introduction of A.B. 1578 in California is a positive development. “This is the equivalent of noncooperation on deportation and environmental laws — part of the larger California resistance to federal intrusion,” he told L.A. Weekly.
Nevertheless, the proposed California bill has been met with opposition from law enforcement. President of the California State Sheriffs’ Association, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood, expressed disapproval toward A.B. 1578. “It really is quite offensive,” he told the Los Angeles Times. Legislators want to “direct law enforcement how they want us to work.”
But California has previously resisted questionable federal law. Following the controversial passage of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, a federal law that allows for the indefinite detention of American citizens, the California legislature passed a law nullifying those provisions. Like A.B. 1578, the nullification bill barred local and state law enforcement from assisting federal authorities.
Currently, California lawmakers are pledging resistance to the Trump administration on everything from climate policy to immigration. As co-author of the bill, Assembly Rob Bonta, said, referencing California voters’ decision to legalize marijuana:
As this administration has threatened to defund California, we should not be expending scarce local and state resources to assist the federal government in ways that run counter to the crystal-clear wishes of California voters. | <urn:uuid:969e5fa5-80fe-4983-a656-ec4118fd2570> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.naturalblaze.com/2017/04/california-could-become-a-sanctuary-state-for-marijuana.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570767.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808061828-20220808091828-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.931032 | 956 | 1.539063 | 2 |
China and South Korea got angry after PM Shinzo Abe visited Yasukuni shrine that honors Japan’s war dead, including some convicted war criminals.
Shinzo Abe said his visit to Yasukuni was an anti-war gesture.
But China called the visit “absolutely unacceptable to the Chinese people”, and Seoul expressed “regret and anger”.
China and South Korea see Yasukuni as a symbol of Tokyo’s aggression during World War Two, when Japan occupied large parts of China and the Korean peninsula.
The US embassy in Tokyo said in a statement it was “disappointed” and that Shinzo Abe’s actions would “exacerbate tensions” with Japan’s neighbors.
China, Japan and South Korea are embroiled in a number of disputes over territory in the East China Sea.
It was the first visit to Yasukuni by a serving prime minister since Junichiro Koizumi went in 2006.
Shinzo Abe, who took office in 2012, entered the shrine on Thursday morning, wearing a morning suit and grey tie. His arrival was televised live.
“I chose this day to report [to the souls of the dead] what we have done in the year since the administration launched and to pledge and determine that never again will people suffer in war,” he said.
“It is not my intention at all to hurt the feelings of the Chinese and Korean people.”
Officials said Shinzo Abe visited Yasukuni shrine in a private capacity and was not representing the government.
But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said: “We strongly protest and seriously condemn the Japanese leader’s acts.
“This poses a major political obstacle in the improvement of bilateral relations. Japan must take responsibility for all the consequences that this creates.”
Japan made an unwritten agreement with China in the 1970s that serving leaders would not visit the shrine.
But now, Shinzo Abe appears to have broken that deal.
In August, Shinzo Abe sent a ritual offering to the shrine but was not among a group of dozens of Japanese politicians who visited Yasukuni.
During an earlier period in office between 2006 and 2007 he said he would not even discuss visiting the shrine “as long as the issue remains a diplomatic problem”.
Yasukuni commemorates some 2.5 million Japanese men, women and children who have died in wars.
But the souls of hundreds of convicted WW2 criminals are also enshrined there.
Fourteen so-called Class A criminals – those who were involved in planning the war – are among those honored. They include war-time leader General Hideki Tojo, who was executed for war crimes in 1948.
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Cancer is one of the most devastating diseases known to man, among several other bodily complications, it remains one of the worst catastrophes. For millennia, scientists and doctors have been experimenting with finding the cure for cancerous cells, with little success. Presently, regular screening can help detect a growth spurt of the cancerous cells and the patient undergoes minor surgery, and chemotherapy sessions to be rid of the cancerous cells.
Mesothelioma is one of the rare cancers that develop in the lining of the stomach, lungs, or the heart. It is caused by asbestos, and due to its aggressive nature, it has a very poor prognosis. You will need a mesothelioma attorney to help you get the proper mesothelioma claims from your employer or parties who exposed you to the asbestos.
The best mesothelioma attorney will help you receive your rightful compensation from lost wages to help you settle medical bills, and cater to other financial burdens in life. Here are some of the celebrities that have had it in the past and depending on how they were exposed to asbestos, they go and get the best mesothelioma attorney.
He was a musician, fashion designer, and was responsible for popularizing the punk movement.McLaren was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2009. McLaren was exposed to asbestos while tearing up the ceiling in order to modify his boutique and succumbed to the disease a year later.
Born in 1968, Sasser is widely known for his role in MTV’s 1994 hit show, The Real World: San Francisco. His moment of fame was when he exchanged vows with fellow cast member Pedro Zamora. Sasser was a HIV/AIDS activist, and he later went on to be a renowned pastry chef. President Bill Clinton appointed Sasser to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. Despite living with HIV/AIDS, Sasser died while working as a pastry chef in Washington D.C.
He is arguably the greatest actor of the 19th century and starred in magnificent films such as Bullitt, The Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven, among others. He was an avid rider and driver, and he made some of the most iconic moments in movies. It is believed that he was exposed to asbestos through the suit he would wear during his races, while other sources claims he was exposed when he served as a sailor in the US Marines. He died of a heart attack in 1980 while undergoing lung surgery in Mexico where he had gone in search of a mesothelioma cure. McQueen choice of treatments could not hold any grounds for a mesothelioma cancer lawyer to sue for damages and lost wages.
Heather Von St. James
She has made headlines for being a 12-year pleural mesothelioma survivor. She helps new patients as a mentor and a mesothelioma cancer lawyer, and helps them understand their legal and treatment options. Her story is not only inspiring, but she is pushing for a worldwide ban on asbestos. You can read up on her in many a mesothelioma book, as she is one of the few treated cases.
If you are exposed to asbestos, you ought to get the best mesothelioma attorney to help you with the mesothelioma claims. It would also be best to get a mesothelioma book, or website to know how to manage the condition. You can also get any other mesothelioma book detailing how celebrities and ordinary citizens have battled the cancer. how new treatments are extending the life expectancy as well as how an mesothelioma cancer lawyer ought to deal with getting you the mesothelioma claims you deserve. | <urn:uuid:dbb7cb5a-45c6-408e-8eea-9d24c3e9bf57> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.pressroomvip.online/index.php/2018/05/22/unbelievable-4-celebrities-mesothelioma-cancer/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.975223 | 782 | 2.015625 | 2 |
It includes a paraphrased thesis assertion and summarized arguments. In your ultimate words, inspire readers to proceed the investigation of the topic. There are three main features of the introductory paragraph. Firstly, there’s a hook to catch the readerâs attention.
The evaluate and contrast expository essay could be organized in a quantity of different ways. In the following part, youâll find a temporary description of every expository essay kind. Some notable features have been listed, and a instructed expository essay title has been provided for each. Analytical – An analytical essay paper breaks down an idea or problem into its key elements. It evaluates the difficulty or idea by presenting analysis of the breakdown and/or elements to the reader.
Focus on main thought, its detailed explanation, examples of introduced logical statements once performing introduction part. Expert articles require logical construction and eye-grabbing beginning. The purpose of an informative essay is to teach or inform a reader about a particular notion, concept, phenomenon, case, and so forth. There isn’t any want to specific your opinion or provide argument in informative essays. However, simply telling every little thing you know may also not make a good paper. You must make analysis and find basic and attention-grabbing particulars.
In the starting point we will indicate some advantages. After that we are going to talk about a few of https://essaywritercheap.net/category/secrets-of-homework-service/ the disadvantages of utilizing web as source of information. This Essay was written by one of our professional writers. Around 10% of Americans follow a vegetarian or vegan life-style, so discuss why that is in your essay. If you identify there are health benefits to vegetarianism, be sure to talk about how to avoid any potential problems with the lifestyle, such as lack of protein.
Nameâ then choose âacademic search complete.â This will permit you to search by way of the entire libraryâs on-line sources. You can even strive using âGoogle Scholarâ at scholar.google.com, it’s going to additionally give you a variety of reliable sources. Try to keep away from a daily Google or Bing search because it won’t offer you reliable information.
Unfortunately, we are not hiring writers now as a end result of low season. Try to integrate material into your writing by placing it in your individual words. In one sense, it is the least demanding sort of essay, because you aren’t required to hone your rhetorical abilities. You are the medium by way of which the related info flows. Writing like it will make an essay flow and imply it’s easier to know. A conclusion should always attempt to frame why the subject was essential, and in what context it was essential.
Donât know the best-kept secret behind writing an informative essay? Introduction â introduce the significance of the subject and write down a thesis statement. Demonstrates how completely different hooks or consideration grabbers can mix with a thesis statement to create the inspiration of an introductory paragraph. Color coded to indicate how the hooks and thesis go together. You ought to now have 3 to five potential informative paper topics that you’re thinking about and fit the necessities of the task and the trainer.
There is no set requirement for the number of paragraphs in an essay. The important level is that the argument is logically developed by way of a collection of well-structured paragraphs. Wrap up the factors which you’ve proposed within the body a half of the essay and narrate how the idea could be benefitted out of your points. Adequate preparation is needed before sitting down for an essay project. When you may have a plan for the work, you could simply organize the entire job by uniting the varied paragraph essay elements on paper. A comprehensive and useful guide to writing an expository essay. | <urn:uuid:a53fd61d-6209-4ea2-a5a1-b3afb5a3813c> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://fortunebrandcare.com/how-to-write-informative-essay/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.931882 | 798 | 2.25 | 2 |
According to news reports, Canada’s “Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau told his Israeli counterparts that the building of settlements, evictions, demolitions in East Jerusalem should cease to ease tensions and prevent another round of violence in the region”. Ah, if life could be that simple!
I read that, and I thought to myself, is Garneau unaware of reality? Does he really believe that Hamas showers rockets on Israel because it is concerned about the settlements in the West Bank or a few possible evictions in East Jerusalem? Does he really think that suspending these activities will prevent further attacks by Hamas?
A closer look at what Garneau said provides part of the answer. He said, “The continued building of settlements, and the evictions and demolitions in East Jerusalem should cease, and so that was the message we carried, because we think that is potentially provocative”. “Potentially provocative” does not convey a sense of immediate cause and effect which is what the word “prevent” implies. Garneau never used the word “prevent” as far as I can tell, yet that is the word that several media outlets used, giving a far stronger meaning to Garneau’s words than he seems to have intended.
The same media outlets also repeated the misleading claim that the latest Gaza-Israel fighting “was precipitated by clashes over Israeli plans to remove several families from Sheikh Jarrah, a predominantly Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem”. That was Hamas’ excuse, yes, which many people bought into without thinking, but Hamas attacks Israel for a much simpler reason — because it rejects Israel’s very existence. Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas chief, said it plainly: “We won’t discuss recognizing Israel, only wiping it out”.
It is often said that in politics, perception is reality, and nowhere is that truer than in the Israel-Arab conflict. The standard line in the Western media, which many in the population have bought into, is that Israel’s settlements in the West Bank are an obstacle to peace, but like many of the perceptions in politics, this is far from reality.
The obstacles to peace are many, but neither the presence of Jews in the West Bank nor the presence of Arabs in Israel is one of them. There is the fact that the Palestinians are deeply divided and unable to present a credible front to negotiate a peace agreement. There is the fact that generations of Palestinians have been taught to believe that millions of them will one-day “return” to Israel. There is the fact that Palestinian terrorism continues unabated and is rarely denounced credibly by the Palestinian leadership. And one could go on and on.
Does Garneau not know all this? I would be extremely surprised if he didn’t, and one indication of that is that far from sanctioning Israel for the settlements or East Jerusalem, Garneau wants to “modernize and expand” trade with Israel, and “Canada is tripling its annual contribution to the Canada-Israel Agreement on Bilateral Cooperation in Industrial Research and Development”.
So why the charade? Why not bluntly state what the obstacles to peace really are? It seems that Garneau, like practically all Western politicians, feels the need to repeat the standard line. It placates Canadian voters who believe that Israel is the villain, even if it doesn’t really satisfy them.
Would it be better if Garneau bluntly stated the truth, which is that the obstacles to peace are practically all on the Palestinian side and that while the settlements may be an irritant to the Palestinians, the Palestinians can cure that irritant if they first resolve their own issues so that they can negotiate a peace agreement with Israel?
If Garneau did that, however, he would create a firestorm of protest back in Canada. He would be accused of insensitivity towards the Palestinians. He would be accused of encouraging Israeli “crimes” against the Palestinians. The media would happily turn up the volume on the issue while reporting very poorly on the facts. The government of Canada would be forced to engage in major damage control, which might mean reversing its intention to expand trade with Israel.
So, in the end, did Garneau’s criticism of Israel really matter? It seems that to Israel, it didn’t matter. Both the Times of Israel and the Jerusalem Post said practically nothing about the visit, choosing to only mention that Israeli foreign affair minister Yair Lapid thanked Garneau for Canada’s support of Israel during the latest conflict with Gaza. Maybe that’s partly because Canada is a minor player in the region, or maybe it’s because Garneau’s criticism pales in comparison to many others.
Regardless, the truth is that when Garneau was criticizing Israel, his audience wasn’t Israelis or even Palestinians, it was Canadians. He had to check the box that many voters expect him to check. It’s hypocritical, but it’s the reality of politics. While Canada has practically no relevance to Israel, many Canadians somehow feel that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is very relevant to them. A recent example of that phenomenon is the Green Party of Canada; its new leader Annamie Paul, a Jewish and Black woman, could lose her job as a result of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Criticism of Israel is sometimes reasonable, but most often it is extremist rhetoric that is far removed from reality. It’s essentially antisemitism, in practice if not in intention. If only reasonable and proportional criticism was voiced by Western politician, the discourse on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be dramatically different. Lies and wild exaggerations about Israel have become the accepted standard in world diplomacy because of the need to appease anti-Israel extremists.
Systemic racism is often talked about these days, and for good reason. It is about racism being so ingrained in government and society that racist discrimination occurs even when the individuals who are perpetrating it are not intentionally racist. Systemic antisemitism, however, is never discussed, but it should be. It is so extensive that we have learned to not see it. It is part of the background. It colors the political discourse without politicians necessarily intending to be antisemitic. Without systemic antisemitism, it would be impossible to explain why the United Nations condemned Israel 17 times in 2020 while the UN’s combined condemnations of ALL OTHER COUNTRIES ON THE PLANET, including China which is engaged in a genocide of Uighur Muslims, amounted to only 6.
We must become aware of systemic antisemitism because it’s real and it’s toxic. We must talk about it, and we must fight it, at every political level, especially world politics. | <urn:uuid:cd217d24-fd7c-44f9-9016-c40caf8feecb> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.jewishpress.com/blogs/fred-maroun-blogspot/we-should-talk-about-systemic-antisemitism/2021/07/11/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.967364 | 1,404 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Aron Lund writes: On July 29, the United Nations special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, stood before the UN Security Council to explain his strategy for peace in Syria. The Swedish-Italian diplomat took office in July 2014, following the resignation of his predecessor, Lakhdar Brahimi, who had attempted to reconcile Syria’s warring parties at a high-stakes peace conference known as Geneva II. Held in two rounds in January and February 2014, these talks failed to produce any results.
Pessimistic about the chances for a countrywide peace deal, de Mistura first tried to negotiate a local ceasefire in the Aleppo area. It failed, for many of the same reasons that Geneva II had failed: lukewarm international support, attempts by President Bashar al-Assad’s government to water down and exploit the deal, and outright hostility from armed rebels who were, in any case, too divided to effectively enforce a ceasefire. In spring 2015, de Mistura gave up on the Aleppo plan, at least for the time being. Acting on instructions from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, he instead launched a series of consultative talks with the parties in April 2015, to prepare for a reboot of the peace process.
Meanwhile, the tide of the conflict turned. Assad had enjoyed battlefield success for much of 2014, but by March 2015, his hollowed-out economy and understaffed army began to buckle. The Iranian nuclear deal concluded on June 14, 2015, seemed set to strengthen one of Assad’s key allies. Several opposition conferences have taken place inside and outside of Syria during the year, some of them backed by the Syrian president’s other major ally, Russia, and many have speculated that these meetings are linked to “Geneva III,” as de Mistura’s efforts were inevitably dubbed.
Although de Mistura was reportedly pressured by some countries in the Security Council to convene another conference on the Brahimi model, he finally opted for a more cautious approach. Saying that he does not see any real chance for a peaceful political transition in Syria at this time, de Mistura declared on July 29 that he will try to engage the parties in a less contentious negotiating format, aiming to limit human suffering, identify areas of shared interest, and formulate common principles. If successful, these talks could pave the way for negotiations over core issues in the future. For now, four working groups will be set up to discuss “safety and protection for all, political and constitutional issues, military and security issues, and public institutions, reconstruction and development,” in the words of one news report.
How will de Mistura’s project affect Syria’s future and what is in store for the country in 2015? To answer these questions, I have asked a group of leading Syria specialists to explain how they rate chances of the UN peace bid and how they view Syria’s future more generally. I’m sad but not surprised to see the level of pessimism that prevails. [Continue reading…] | <urn:uuid:444e9e56-9e27-4a3a-949c-2792b1cc4432> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://warincontext.org/2015/08/06/grim-expert-assessments-of-syrias-peace-process/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.964092 | 627 | 1.75 | 2 |
UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design and Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Marta Gonzalez recently published the article A Simple Contagion Process Describes Spreading of Traffic Jams in Urban Networks at Nature Communications. Authors include: Meead Saberi (University of New South Wales), Homayoun Hamedmoghadam (Monash University), Mudabber Ashfaq (UNSW), Seyed Amir Hosseini (K.N. Toosi University of Technology), Ziyuan Gu (UNSW),Sajjad Shafiei (CSIRO), Divya J. Nair (UNSW), Vinayak Dixit (UNSW), Lauren Gardner (Johns Hopkins University), S. Travis Waller (UNSW), and Marta C. González (UC Berkeley): https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15353-2.
The spread of traffic jams in urban networks has long been viewed as a complex spatio-temporal phenomenon that often requires computationally intensive microscopic models for analysis purposes.
In this study, we present a framework to describe the dynamics of congestion propagation and dissipation of traffic in cities using a simple contagion process, inspired by those used to model infectious disease spread in a population. We introduce two macroscopic characteristics for network traffic dynamics, namely congestion propagation rate β and congestion dissipation rate μ. We describe the dynamics of congestion spread using these new parameters embedded within a system of ordinary differential equations, similar to the well-known susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) model.
The proposed contagion-based dynamics are verified through an empirical multi-city analysis, and can be used to monitor, predict and control the fraction of congested links in the network over time. | <urn:uuid:bd2a992e-3880-4f6c-9f74-cc35c4e6ed24> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://its.berkeley.edu/news/simple-contagion-process-describes-spreading-traffic-jams-urban-networks | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573699.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20220819131019-20220819161019-00265.warc.gz | en | 0.859051 | 366 | 2.453125 | 2 |
Asked by Jim Shannon (Strangford)
Asked on: 29 November 2016
Department for International Development
“To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what funding the Government provides to the government of Pakistan to help improve educational standards in that country; and whether any such funding is provided to assist in ensuring positive portrayal of minority groups in school curricula.”
Answered by: James Wharton
Answered on: 06 December 2016
DFID provides funding to the provincial governments of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to help improve educational standards. Our investments help raise standards by increasing teacher and student attendance, improving school facilities, and improving children’s learning outcomes. In Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa DFID is also supporting government to revise textbooks and replace any content that promotes prejudice and discrimination against religious or other minorities. | <urn:uuid:0f33450a-d54c-45bf-91a8-9bc2884821ed> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.globaleducationappg.co.uk/pakistan-education-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570977.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809124724-20220809154724-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.930544 | 187 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Ocean plastic to treble within 10 years
Plastic estimated to outweigh all the fish in the sea by 2050
The amount of plastic littering the world’s oceans is expected to triple in less than a decade unless drastic measures are taken to deal with the problem, government scientists have warned.
The Foresight Future of the Sea report from the UK Government Office for Science says plastic is one of the biggest threats facing the world’s oceans, along with rising seas level, warming waters and metal and chemical pollution.
At least 70% of marine litter is non-degradable plastic and is projected to increase threefold between 2015 and 2025, according to the report.
The UK economy relies heavily on oceans, with 95% of trade travelling by sea, and experts say the Government needs to be more strategic in its approach in order to successfully halt some of the long-term pollution issues.
The report’s authors suggest efforts to reduce plastic pollution should focus on preventing it entering the sea, introducing new biodegradable plastics and public awareness campaigns about marine protection.
CNN says the issue of plastic pollution has become “a notorious environmental subject over the last several years” as researchers and activists have revealed it accumulating in areas of the sea and along once pristine coastlines.
The World Economic Forum claims around 150 million tonnes of plastic is already floating in the world’s oceans and it is estimated there will be more plastic than fish in the sea by weight by 2050 if current rates of plastic dumping hold.
A plastic garbage island floating in the middle of the Pacific is estimated to cover one million square miles, roughly the same size as Mexico.
But the international community is slowing waking up to the problem. Last year, 193 countries signed a UN resolution pledging to eliminate plastic pollution at sea. | <urn:uuid:99b3d9fd-1d68-4436-bfe1-2e0d2aad4353> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.theweek.co.uk/92449/ocean-plastic-to-treble-within-10-years | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570767.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808061828-20220808091828-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.939742 | 370 | 3.1875 | 3 |
A lure correctly tied to the fishing line is your first step towards a great catch. The alignment of the sinker and the skirt to the fishing line is critical. Otherwise, the lure might snap after the fish has swallowed the bait. Or, in a worst-case scenario, it could miss the Chatterbait altogether.
After buying a Chatterbait, I normally study it first to understand exactly how it works. This information gives the best basis on which you can correctly tie one to the line.
If you are a beginner fisher and have been having trouble tying your Chatterbait to the fishing line, well worry no more. I think I can be of great help with that. Being able to know how to tie a Chatterbait is a skill that has helped me time and time, and it could help you too.
In this segment, I am going to take you through the steps on how best to tie a Chatterbait to your fishing line. Any line always does it for me; it does not matter whether it is a monofilament, a braided or a fluorocarbon line.
1. Identify Where the Fishing Line Goes
A Chatterbait has three basic parts. There is a blade at the top with a hexagonal shape, then the hook, and finally the body used to hide the potent hook. The body of the bait comprises of several wires which produce the unique chattering property when casting in water.
If you look carefully at the blade, you will notice a wire with a circular loop on it. This is where the line is tied to the bait. There is a day I found one of my novice angler friends tying the fly line to the blade itself. Do not mistake the two. The line goes through the loop.
2. Insert the Line Through the Hole on the Wire to Create a Loop
Once the line has been threaded through the guides on the surf fishing rod, pull out enough line depending on extent you want the lure to be when you are done. There are various techniques you can use when tying the line to the looped wire.
In my case, I usually go for the Palomar knot, which I would regard as one of the strongest fishing knots out there. To tie this knot, thread the line through the eye of the hole on the blade. Thread back this end through the eye to form a loop.
3. Complete the Palomar Knot
To complete the knot, hold the looped end of the line and use it to form another underhand knot. Pass the free loop from where it starts through itself. Gently pull on the line ensuring that you leave enough size of the loop to pass the Chatterbait through.
While holding the underhand knot with your pointer and index fingers, flip the Chatterbait through the formed loop. Pull back all the lines without anything being caught up on the Chatterbait itself.
Another thing, as I normally pull the lines, I always lubricate the knot area with water or sometimes saliva. When the knot is tight enough, clip any tagline remaining using the pliers.
Putting the process into words is a little hard to follow, so I have provided a video on how you can go through this process. There is another type of knot that you could try out in case the Palomar one proves too complex.
4. Extend Enough Line to Meet Your Fishing Needs
You can customize the length of line that you would need for your fishing needs at this stage. For open waters, I normally secure about 4-5 feet of line before I can start reeling from the fishing rod. But if I am going to shallow waters, then 1-2 feet of line works just great.
In case you find these lengths to be too short or long, then use the cranking handle to adjust the lengths accordingly. Most importantly, you need to be able to retrieve and cast the ChatterbaitF with ease in any type of fishing zone.
5. Take the Chatterbait For a Test
At this stage, you should be done with the whole process. To determine whether you have done a good job or not, you need to take the newly tied Chatterbait for a spin. It does not have to be an actual fishing escapade (although an actual fishing exercise would be the best test).
Check to see how the bait moves in the water, how it retrieves and if it evades debris and other vegetation. Note if the knot you made loosens or stays on during the whole process. If you are lucky to catch an actual fish without any fuss, then you did a good job.
Essential Tips to Remember
When tying the line, stay clear of the hook. This part of the Chatterbait is sharp and pointed. It, therefore, presents a serious injury hazard. It has bruised my palms a couple of times, so you need to be wary and stay clear of it.
When you are done, check the sharpness of the hook again. The movements involved when tying the line might make it blunt. And a blunt hook will not do its job efficiently as it should. Try sticking it on your nail. If it slides, then its blunt, but if sticks, then it is still sharp.
There is a debate about whether to color the blade or not after you are done tying the line. Most people prefer to color the blade to match the type of food the fish eats or the environment you are fishing in. I’ll leave this decision to you since it works both ways, provided the vibrations and trailer are attractive enough.
Knowing how to tie a Chatterbait on your own is the first step towards being a seasoned angler. The good thing is that once you get it right, it sticks with you forever. You will even be able to tweak a few steps along the way. It’s an easy process and takes just a few minutes and you’re done.
Hi, I am John Campbell, an outdoor enthusiast. Just like you, I value the habitat, heritage and tradition of great outdoors. I do my best to make sure the correct research, writing, and photo are shown on Tacticalgearslab.com. Indeed, I am committed to preserving a great online experience for you. | <urn:uuid:97c73321-9f31-4dc7-85d1-e747c269cb6c> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.tacticalgearslab.com/how-to-tie-a-chatterbait/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570767.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808061828-20220808091828-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.929699 | 1,308 | 1.703125 | 2 |
World Literature (Argument Essay)
April 15, 2015 Is Passion The Key To Success?
“Passion has little to do with euphoria and everything to do with patience. It is not about feeling good. It is about endurance. Like patience, passion comes from the same latin root: Pati.
It does not mean to flow with exuberance. It means to suffer.” Mark Z. Danielewski once said.
This quote proves that success can not be achieved without passion, you have to bust your butt to get where you want to be.
When we think about what is needed to be successful in life and in our work, we usually think about characteristics like value, talent, ambition, intellect, discipline, persistence and luck.
What many people fail to include in the recipe for success is passion. The passion people have, or don't have, for their work should not be underestimated. Sometimes this ingredient could make the biggest difference of all. Many people (Athletes) and events in history have shown that success can be achieved through passion and education. People like Mia Hamm, Abby
Wambach, Michael Jordan, and Jackie Robinson.
Passion is the powerful feeling of enthusiasm that we all have inside of us. Everyone has to have something they are enthusiastic and passionate about. Our enthusiasm is very powerful.
When we can combine it with our work, we are setting ourselves up well for achieving true success. Passion is so important, when we are enthusiastic and proud of the work we do, the
better equipped we will be to overcome the many obstacles that will surely arise in the process of starting a business or moving up in a career or even setting records. Also being passionate about something can help you find your happiness. Success is, or at least should be, primary defined as an achievement of something desired, the most successful people are the ones who achieve the things the most desire.
Born Mariel Margaret Hamm on March 17, 1972, in Selma, Alabama, Mia Hamm is largely considered the best female soccer player in history. She was the youngest soccer player to play for the national soccer team at the age of 15. She continued to play for them 17 years after that, building one of the biggest fan bases of any american athlete. She won the women's world cup in 1991 and 1999, and took olympic gold medals in 1996 and 2004. Hamm held the record for most international goals scored until June 2013, when her record was broken by Abby
Wambach who I will be talking about later.
Mia Hamm once said “The vision of a champion is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion, when nobody else is looking”. The first thing you should think when you read this is “Passion”. Mia is not playing soccer for anyone except herself. Mia was not successful from just sitting on her butt doing nothing, she was successful because of the passion, love, drive, and dedication, she had for the game soccer. She did not reach the top by doing nothing. When she was young she would always play on boys teams to better herself. She got touches on the ball everyday 45 hours a day of hard work while maintaining good grades.
Which later on helped her get a ride scholarship to the University of North Carolina. Mia’s
Passion and dedication for the game really showed when she would stay in and and do her homework or take a trip to the fields when her roommates and friends would go out and party.
Mia did not care about having a social life. Mia’s unselfishness also played a huge role in her success. The highest all time goal scorer for the national team….. Abby Wambach. Abby is an american soccer player, two time gold medalist, and the 2012 FIFA world player of the year.
Abby has played for the United States Women's National soccer team since 2001. She played college soccer for the University of Florida Gators and helped the school secure its first NCAA division 1 women's soccer championship and was | <urn:uuid:7306f6e5-d8f1-4d79-a889-794a1c67c021> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.majortests.com/essay/Rachel-Yates-Argument-Essay-On-Success-593735.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570767.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20220808061828-20220808091828-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.971058 | 860 | 2.484375 | 2 |
Although we cannot collect food donated from individuals or households, we are happy to receive good quality, unopened grocery items within their ‘use by’ dates.
We accept donations of surplus food from wholesalers, farmers, supermarkets, manufacturers, importers and distribution centres. Our chefs bring surplus food together to cook more than 6,000 free nutritious meals a day for charities throughout Victoria.
Each year more than 100 businesses provide us with perfectly good food that would otherwise end up in landfill. These include Fonterra (dairy), Kinross Farms (eggs), Woolworths (meat), and Costa (fresh vegetables).
FareShare adheres to local and national food safety guidelines to ensure your donated food is received, stored, cooked, cooled and distributed in a safe condition. We operate a high volume cook-chill facility and run a fleet of refrigerated food transport vehicles that can collect donations at short notice within a time slot that suits you.
We aim to make donating as easy as possible for you.
Costa is proudly supporting FareShare’s mission to fight hunger by donating nutrient rich mushrooms to incorporate in some of the 6,000 free meals cooked each day.
In Australia, Costa grows, markets and delivers over 500 tonnes of mushrooms per week. Costa recognises that there are people in the community with challenging circumstances and a nutritious hearty meal is not always within reach.
Partnering with FareShare is not only an opportunity to work with a great charity, it also allows us to make our product available free of charge, enabling those less fortunate in the community to have access to healthy food that would otherwise go to waste.
Costa is committed to fighting food waste and hunger with Fareshare.
To support businesses that wished to donate food to charities, FareShare teamed up with the Law Institute of Victoria to lobby the state government to provide legal protection to food businesses that wanted to help the community.
In 2002 the campaign resulted in the passage of what has become known as the Good Samaritan law. This law protects food donors from legal action, where food is donated in good condition and in good faith.
The Good Samaritan law was the first of its kind in Australia and has been replicated in every state and territory since.
And here are the relevant sections of the legislation:
Wrongs and Other Acts (Public Liability Insurance Reform) 2002 – “Good Samaritan law”
Part VIB – Food Donor Protection
31F. Protection of food donors
(1) A person who donates food (the “food donor”) in the circumstances listed in sub-section (2) is not liable in any civil proceeding for any death or injury that results from the consumption of the food.
(2) The circumstances are:
(a) that the food donor donated the food,
(i) in good faith for a charitable or benevolent purpose; and
(ii) with the intention that the consumer of the food would not have to pay for the food; and
(b) that the food was safe to consume at the time it left the possession or control of the food donor; and
(c) if the food was of a nature that required it to be handled in a particular way to ensure that it remained safe to consume after it left the possession or control of the food donor, that the food donor informed the person to whom the food donor gave the food of those handling requirements; and
(d) if the food only remained safe to consume for a particular period of time after it left the possession or control of the food donor, that the food donor informed the person to whom the food donor gave the food of that time limit.
(3) For the purposes of this section, food is safe to consume if it is not unsafe food. | <urn:uuid:c8a9f4e1-383b-4da0-bcb5-0576efbc0e24> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.fareshare.net.au/donate-food-melbourne/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.946735 | 785 | 1.703125 | 2 |
The weather here in far Northern California is finally edging to warm and sunny, soon to be followed by blazing hot. Along with the rise in temperature comes a steady decrease in the desire for long cooked, slow braised or even warm foods.
To put it simply, we’re entering the salad, ice cream and smoothie months of the year around here. Milkshakes have replaced cakes, cookies and brownies as the dessert of choice and the kids clamber after the ice cream truck in the afternoons. Summer is coming to the North State and there is just no better afternoon pick-me-up than a frosty glass of silken fruity goodness.
Smoothies are a good way to get more fruit into my kids’ diets as well, since only my youngest will readily choose a banana, apple or any other fruit in favor of something else they probably shouldn’t have been going after. (Dad needs to stop buying that stuff… I need to talk to him about that.)
Most smoothie recipes call for banana, but my kids despise them in their smoothies. This recipe is all about the berries, but without the sweetness of the banana a little sugar may be needed to get the smoothy sweet enough to be drinkable. Fortunately that usually translates to less than they would get in a soda, though this particular batch of berries was pretty tart and required more than usual.
Do you have a favorite smoothie recipe? A favorite flavor combination? Is there something that you add that you don’t let your kids know about? We’d love to know, so drop a comment and let us in on your little tips for healthier snacks.
Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 498Total Fat: 3gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 13mgSodium: 689mgCarbohydrates: 115gFiber: 3gSugar: 108gProtein: 8g
What I would have done differently had I thought of it at the time:
I don’t really think these need much, Perhaps a little more honey so I could have used less sugar. I may also sneak a little silken tofu into the mix in place of some of the yogurt on the next round for a bit of added protein. (What the kids don’t know won’t hurt them, right?)
Links to other recipes like this: | <urn:uuid:1b10f535-3950-4d87-9a6f-449dca28d722> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.unclejerryskitchen.com/recipes/strawberry-smoothies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.94105 | 529 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Olive Oil Isn’t Health Food
Olive Oil and other plant oils are not a healthy alternative to saturated fat.
Animal fats and plant-based fats are unhealthy, but the concern is not so much the oil as it is animal-based proteins which are more hazardous than lipids (cholesterol and fatty acids).
Dr. Campbell also writes that, “It should be emphasized, however, that excess saturated fat in the diet, although not causal, is a very good indicator of an unhealthy dietary practice.”
The health concern is not the fat, the issue is the animal proteins.
Hypnosis for Health Lifestyle Change
I have been teaching weight loss hypnosis for healthy lifestyle change at Seattle Weight Loss Hypnosis with Roger Moore since 1997.
People throughout Puget Sound have been coming to my offices or meeting me online from around the world to lose weight, improve their health and make other healthy lifestyle changes.
If you are concerned about your health or want to lose weight, you too can learn hypnosis for weight loss.
For a free weight loss hypnosis consultation, give me a call or send me an email now and learn how you too can
Plant Oils Are Not a Healthy Alternative to Saturated Fat
T. Colin Campbell, July 21, 2016: “Focusing on fat as the main culprit of an unhealthy diet is seriously misguided for a variety of reasons.
- It detracts from the health problems caused by animal-based foods, which primarily owe their unhealthy properties to their protein content far more than their content of lipids like cholesterol or saturated fat.
- Blaming the prohibition of animal-based food on a false saturated fat (or cholesterol or total fat) argument actually led to attempts over several decades to remove fat, especially saturated fat, from these foods—as in skimmed milk and many other low fat products—and create a healthier alternative. Little or no health gain has been noted.
- Shifting to a healthier alternative to saturated fat, as with the use of plant oils (e.g., oleomargarine) and related synthetic products causes us to jump from the frying pans into the fire (almost literally!) only to suffer more and die earlier.
- Falsely focusing on saturated fat as a health villain, a widely held view, allows food and health policy boards to make relatively useless propositions on a relatively trivial concern thus diverting their attention away from what they ought to be doing.”
Your Hypnosis Health Info Hypnotic Suggestion for today:
I have a strong urge to eat only health-giving and nutritious foods.
Subscribe to my daily blog posts now, right there in the sidebar. | <urn:uuid:cb8174ca-3d0d-4df1-b818-c16203ca3cbc> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://hypnosishealthinfo.com/plant-oils-not-healthy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.944769 | 552 | 2.34375 | 2 |
Roy Snell – The Compliance & Ethics Blog – March 2016
When personal computers first came out, they called the underlying software an “operating system” and the first big improvement to that operating system was called “version 2.0.” When society decided we need a systematic approach to preventing, finding, and fixing ethical and regulatory problems, they called it a “compliance and ethics program” and named the person in charge a “compliance and ethics officer.” Naming new versions of something has a purpose: it helps those who are behind to know they are behind.
It’s been about 20 years since we first started using the terms compliance program and compliance officer. About a year ago I first started seeing the term “Compliance 2.0” used by Donna Boehme. She used it to describe organizations that had an independent compliance officer. Michael Scher used the term on the FCPA Blog to describe the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethic’s annual conference. He used the term Compliance 2.0 to describe an advancement in the understanding of the role of a compliance officer and the function of a compliance program. | <urn:uuid:f54a0bf6-0205-4eb1-ae18-239e2233e251> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://compliancestrategists.com/upgrade/tag/compliance-ethics-blog/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571538.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812014923-20220812044923-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.956621 | 240 | 2.09375 | 2 |
Essay Writing Suggestions – 6 Approaches to Compose a fantastic Essay
If writing a composition is just a daunting experience, grasping easy solutions to break up the task into several simple actions gives you the self confidence you will need to produce a fascinating, top quality bit of work. These details supplies a few essay writing tips which will allow you to get from a primary thought right to the finished product.
Select your subject cautiously
If your topic has a variety of elements, then an invaluable essay writing tip might be to narrow it down to a specific distinct area, and ensure you actually demonstrate that within your introduction. This produces definitely better reading than if you try to add everything, and will undeniably strengthen the caliber of one’s work. If you select your own subject, allow it to be anything you’ve a pursuit in. Like this the research will not be as difficult and your enthusiasm will ‘rub off’ on your own readers.
Seek your subject information
A different practical essay writing tip is always to ensure you commit enough time for evaluating most of the regions of your preferred subject matter. Study the maximum amount of appropriate material as you possibly can, and generate notes along the way so you don’t forget anything. At once make a note of where you’ve gotten your concepts from; i.e. author name, publication and / or document title and page number.
Write Down the chief Arguments
Once you’ve reviewed your subject, summarize probably the most crucial arguments and concepts you might have read. Don’t duplicate the other party’s words, just choose the fundamental issues and sum best writing essay service up each one of these in one’s own words and phrases. That is an essential essay writing tip – what you may do, make sure to don’t plagiarise another author’s work.Prepare the basic structure of the essay in dot point titles, using just a couple words to explain every principal point. Experiment with the framework before you believe the succession is correct. Place the key point first, accompanied by the subsequent most important point, et cetera.After that paste your research summaries under every heading (you can remove each one of these later on).
Complete the Body of the Essay
This is how you speak about in detail your ideas and thoughts about the chosen subject material, and ‘fill out’ the summaries you wrote earlier. Underneath every primary point, make evidence supporting your notions, along with justifications and any points you wish to appear with. An excellent essay writing tip is in fact to make sure they are thought provoking and intriguing, as well as informative.Conclude every section or segment with some form of ‘bottom line’, or ‘lead in’ sentence to the subsequent section.Now that you’ve got composed the principal body of the essay, you can go back to creating the ‘Introduction’, and then a ‘Conclusion’ ;.
Compose The Introduction
Using ways this really is the most important part of your composition. Probably one of many greatest essay writing tips is to use your introduction to snatch the reader’s curiosity and present them with a ‘taste’ of the knowledge ahead that’ll make them want to proceed with reading the whole document.Describe in brief precisely what your composition concerns, as well as your research sources, and make clear precisely what reader should get from perusing the essay. Complete the introduction employing a specific description of the viewpoint, or of the important thing essay concept.
Prepare The Conclusions
Begin this section by quickly summarising the outcome as well as the findings of one’s research. Enlighten the reader with precisely what most of your conclusion is, and why. Ensure you also have checked and formatted the task references which should go at the final outcome of the composition.An amazing essay writing tip should be to close the composition with a good, thought provoking assertion that somehow ‘sums up’ your conclusions.
If writing a composition is just a daunting experience, grasping easy solutions to break up the task into several simple actions gives you the self confidence you will need to produce a fascinating, top quality bit of work. These details supplies a few essay writing tips which will allow you to get from a primary… | <urn:uuid:69e68b82-489d-4257-a0e1-0e0d71ccc381> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://bathmatehydromaxofficial.com/essay-writing-suggestions-6-approaches-to-compose-a-fantastic-essay/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571538.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812014923-20220812044923-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.91771 | 894 | 2.359375 | 2 |
Hindrance # 12. Diminished Believe :
Energetic communication is you can if there’s common trust and you will respect involving the sender and also the recipient. About absence of trust, both content together with views is viewed suspiciously.
Burden # 13. Useless Views :
Viewpoints versions a critical element of the interaction process. On absence of viewpoints, it is hard to assess perhaps the created message reached the fresh new receiver. Instance, whenever an instructor takes a course and also the people have become quiet, it will imply (a) it knew what you otherwise (b) they knew nothing or (c) everyone in the classification try sleeping.
Inside deal with-to-face interactions, although not, though verbal views is inadequate or destroyed, you can look to possess nonverbal views. This is not possible regarding created telecommunications. Particularly, after you make towards lender asking for a halt- percentage towards the a and also you do not receive any viewpoints regarding the financial, you have got absolutely no way from once you understand if the commission try prevented.
Burden # 14. Hierarchy :
The brand new flow out-of communications can obstructed with the top from steps one exists inside an organization. Particularly, whenever there are multiple degrees of steps, this new communication is similar to the video game of “Chinese Whispers.” The message gets changed at each and every peak additionally the modern content is completely destroyed. And that, the crucial thing getting teams so that the latest totally free circulate from communications (both downwards and you may upward).
Hierarchical obstruction is additionally seen in the situations in which telecommunications takes place anywhere between a few persons regarding different hierarchies. Eg, if the a vp talks so you’re able to good junior director, the fresh new junior movie director is much more planning listen to-and you can, hence, recall the content conveyed by vp. The alternative, although not, isn’t necessarily genuine.
Furthermore, it has been the higher ranking one who initiates interaction, monopolizes interaction, as well as decides if individual is cam. Also beyond the organizational framework, this has been noticed the those who talk much more start so much more chat has deeper stamina and you will condition.
Hindrance # fifteen. Station or Average :
To have active interaction, you will need to ensure that the route or even the typical is free of charge out of congestion and you will noises. Channel audio might happen when it comes to illegible handwriting, blotchy printouts, stained or faded photocopies, static disturbances when you look at the telecommunication, firewalled age-emails, etcetera.
Barrier # sixteen. Psychological Interference :
Can you remember the past day your tried speaking with your own girlfriend/wife when she was emotionally damage and you can frustrated? It is not easy, will it be?
Extreme ideas hinder brand new correspondence procedure through us irrational and you can incoherent. I cure all of our capability to properly encode and you can broadcast the message. We tend to be defensive and can even comprehend excessive towards new texts and you can believe definitions when not one exists. Thus, you will need to to deal with thoughts when you find yourself communicating. Including, if the two persons was speaking and something or each other score psychologically energized up, it is the right time to call for a time-aside.
Unfortuitously correspondence is very have a tendency to impacted/distorted/blunted by the sounds that occurs primarily at alert level. Virtually the term ‘noise‘ form “disturbance that occurs during the a laws and suppresses you against hearing music properly”. It’s, ergo, the first biggest burden so you can communication. Inside a manufacturing plant, for example, in which you can find machines and you may motors making a reliable looks, oral interaction becomes difficult.
Blaring regarding loudspeakers up to will hinder all of our discussion, if or not face-to-face otherwise for the cellphone. In the sense a static about signal line, such as a negative cellphone commitment otherwise wrong Television cord, distorts the brand new voice indicators and you may has an effect on communication. | <urn:uuid:917bd036-c9f7-432a-b508-ef5dfceaddfa> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://wir-machen-viren-nass.de/2022/03/22/traps-of-correspondence-music-insufficient/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571538.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812014923-20220812044923-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.940582 | 875 | 1.875 | 2 |
By Sybil Erden, Founder – May 9, 2014
Recently I took my camera to The Oasis to take pictures of the birds at the sanctuary. Some of these birds I have known since before the inception of The Oasis Sanctuary. Many others have arrived in the past few years and I am continuing to get to know them. This is the story of one such bird I recently met….a little bird who has not had the easiest start to life.
I was visiting one of the “original” birds in the African Grey mini-flight, when I noticed a cage sitting in the middle of the flight. A very cute and curious little Congo Grey began making overtures of friendship toward me. I asked Staff who this might be and was told her name is Boodah Bird.
Now age 19, Boodah was born at the end of 1994 with a spinal abnormality assumed to have been caused by improper placement and rotation of the egg before hatching. At first she could not even hold her head up. Her loving caregiver, Mary Beisser brought her to an avian Vet and did her best to insure the best possible outcome for the little bird. So Boodah wore a specially constructed neck brace for several years. This situation and the efforts made to help her were so unusual that Boodah had an article with pictures of her in her brace in the June 1996 issue of the now-defunct Bird Talk Magazine.
In addition to the spinal problems, Boodah also has a misaligned beak that may have been caused by syringe feeding of the handicapped bird. This requires ongoing beak-trims, as her beak is not “naturally” ground down while eating and playing. Since she is handicapped, she also cannot bring her toes to her nose to clean her nostrils like a “normal” parrot would do, so Oasis Staff regularly have to clean her nares.
At some point in her life, due to balance problems caused by her spine, Boodah fell and injured her eye, causing fluid buildup and loss of some, if not all, of the vision in her left eye.
Boodah’s original caregiver, sadly, passed away in October 2005 when the little bird was 11 years old. Mary’s passing left behind 32 birds, mostly handicapped, who Mary had loved and nurtured. With the help of the Mesa Fire Department and volunteers from a local bird store, Cage World in Mesa, the birds found safety and new homes.
Boodah went to the home of a loving couple, the McGraw’s, where she lived for nine years. She bonded strongly with the husband. When away from him, she would scream and cry for hours on end. Although human-bonded, The Oasis agreed to take this handicapped little bird and see whether Boodah might do better in a small flock. Although she can fly somewhat, due to the eye injury and her spinal problems she has a hard time landing. She prefers to remain in the safety of her open cage in the flight she shares with five other Greys who are all friendly toward Boodah. When staff and visitors come, Boodah becomes excited to see people, but can become “nippy” so people exercise caution if handling her.
The McGraw’s still love and care for Boodah’s well-being. They come to visit her regularly and have helped support her care. But they and all of us here are pleased that Boodah is finding friends in her flock and settling into life at The Oasis. | <urn:uuid:3f9c0522-87b1-4d52-a9b1-7eb4fa7eac2f> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://the-oasis.org/boodah-the-african-grey/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.983145 | 753 | 1.96875 | 2 |
Airlines Will Be Cheered By Trump’s Proposal to Privatize Air Traffic Control
President Donald Trump is calling for privatizing the nation’s air traffic control operations in his budget proposal, a top priority of the airline industry.
The proposal says spinning off air traffic operations from the Federal Aviation Administration and placing them under an “independent, non-governmental organization” would make the system “more efficient and innovative while maintaining safety.”
Airlines have been lobbying vigorously for the change, saying the FAA’s NextGen program to modernize the air traffic system is taking too long and has produced too few benefits. Industry officials say that privatization would remove air traffic operations from the uncertainties of the annual congressional budget process, which have hindered the FAA’s ability to make long-term procurement commitments.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the union that represents the FAA’s 14,000 controllers, is also backing privatization. Union officials have complained that the FAA has been unable to resolve chronic controller understaffing at some of the nation’s busiest control facilities, and they say they’ve become discouraged by the modernization effort’s slow progress.
But FAA Administrator Michael Huerta told an aviation industry conference earlier this month that the agency has made “tremendous progress” over the past decade in updating its computers and other equipment in order to move from a radar-based to a satellite-based control system. The modernization program has already delivered $2.7 billion in benefits to airlines and other users of the system, and the FAA expects to produce another $13 billion in benefits by 2020, he said.
Airlines have an important ally in Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., the House transportation committee chairman. The committee approved an aviation bill sponsored by Shuster last year that would have removed air traffic operations from the FAA and placed them under the control of a private, nonprofit corporation.
Opposition to the bill from other powerful House committee chairmen who oppose ceding Congress’ oversight of the air traffic system to a private entity prevented Shuster from bringing the bill before the entire House for a vote. Lobbying groups representing business aircraft operators, private pilots and small and medium-sized airports also oppose privatization. They say they fear airlines will dominate the corporation’s board and that they’ll be asked to pay more to support the system while facing reduced services.
For more on the airline industry, watch Fortune’s video:
Shuster received $148,499 in airline industry campaign contributions in the 2016 election, making him the industry’s top recipient in the House, according to the political money tracking site Opensecrets.org. Shuster was also an early House backer of Trump’s presidential campaign, and campaigned with him in Pennsylvania three times. He has pressed Trump and White House officials since the election to back privatization.
The FAA would continue to provide safety oversight of the system under Shuster’s plan. There are about 50,000 airline and other aircraft flights a day in the United States. Both sides of the privatization debate say the system is one of the most complex and safest in the world.
In 1981, President Ronald Reagan fired the nation’s air traffic controllers after they went on strike. The current privatization debate is unrelated to that labor dispute. | <urn:uuid:dd8f76f6-0d7d-4772-9317-04c221163495> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://fortune.com/2017/03/16/donald-trump-budget-air-traffic/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.948135 | 699 | 1.703125 | 2 |
#Japan #ADA #Air Defense #USARPAC #Resilience #PACOM #U.S. Army #readiness #U.S.-Japan Alliance #U.S. Army Japan #94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command #Ready and Resilient #94th AAMDC #AMD #U.S-Japan Partnership #Indo-Pacific Region #38th Air Defense Artillery Brigade #Pacific Guardians #COVID-19 #Kill the Virus #Chaplain’s Neighborhood #Chaplain (Maj.) Mark A. Johnston #U.S. Army Chaplains Corp #Resiliency Talks
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Chaplain (Maj.) Mark A. Johnston talks peace through self-reflection
Chaplain (Maj.) Mark A. Johnston, Opp, Alabama native and 38th Air Defense Artillery Brigade chaplain, visits Peace Memorial Park, Itoman, Okinawa, where the final battle in Okinawa took place during World War II to speak about self-reflection as a means to gaining peace in Episode 22 of Chaplain’s Neighborhood Resiliency Talks. As he comes upon the names of those who perished during the battle of Okinawa, he asks you to reflect on how you will be remembered and what your lasting contribution to this world will be. The Peace Memorial Park is a symbol of eternal world peace.
Film Credits: Video by Sgt. Raquel Birk
38th Air Defense Artillery Brigade
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Common Tags: defense flash news,defense updates,military archive,military training,military exercise,military defense,combat footage,us military,us army,us air fore,us marines,Usmc,coast guard,special forces,marine Corps,air force,defense technologies,Aviation,military aircraft,gung ho vids,NASA,NATO,force recon,combat footage,corona virus,foreign policy,MARSOCUS,Marsocs,meu,artillery,iraq,afghanistan,iraq War,afghanistan War,Marines,U.S. Marines,Marine Corps,USMC,Marine,Devil Dog,boot camp,Marines in Afghanistan,Iraq,Afghanistan,Marines videos,U.S. Marines videos,Marine Corps videos,USMC videos,Marine videos,life in the Marines,marine firefight,marine combat,combat,firefight,shooting,combat training,drill instructors,military US,U,S,Navy,USN,Ship,Battle,jet,airplane,sailor,navy,sea,ocean,water,blue,marine,USMC,Defense,Aviation,Navy,afbluetube,USAF,US air force,army,marines,navy,Airman,B,2,B,1,C,130,F,16,F,22,F,35,F,15,iraq,Afghanistan,military,special operations,army,Reserve,Soldier,Leader,Career,Health,Air Force,Marine,Navy,Coast Guard,National Guard,NCO,Officer,doctor,mechanic,engineer,math,stem,science,ARMY,military,pentagon,dod,army,navy,marines,air,force,coast,guard,Iraq,Afghanistan,global,war,troops,soldier | <urn:uuid:3a9647d9-c99d-4a7c-8cf6-3fb6c9a78f46> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.veterans.us.com/chaplain-maj-mark-a-johnston-talks-peace-through-self-reflection/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570977.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809124724-20220809154724-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.761108 | 1,031 | 1.5 | 2 |
Peer Support Groups
Our Peer Support Groups are run by people with lived experience of medication problems who are now in recovery.
These groups aim to help people having problems with their medication use. Peer support groups are a safe place to share experiences, build supportive relationships and learn how to make positive changes in your life.
We welcome people who are experiencing other mental health issues, such as anxiety or depression. People having difficulties with alcohol or other substances are also welcome to attend.
MSRS Peer Support groups are open to anybody over 18 who is struggling with their use of prescription or over-the-counter medications.
It’s confidential and free to join a group, and you don’t need a referral to attend.
To find out more about the groups we’re currently offering, or to sign up, give us a call on 1800 931 101 or 9810 3080.
Groups we’re currently running:
A support group for people at all stages in their journey with medication use.
This group begins with a check-in then moves on to a weekly discussion topic (selected by members the week prior)
People struggling with alcohol or other substance use are also welcome to attend.
The Circle: Women’s Support Group
A group for women in recovery. This group offers a range of activities and resources, as well as a supportive place to talk about how you’re going.
Activities include discussion sessions, presentations and social/recreational activities.
Check in group
A relaxed weekly check-in group where everyone has a chance to talk about how they’ve been travelling.
The group discussion usually focuses on whatever themes come up that week.
Please note: arrangements will be made to transfer groups online if COVID-19 restrictions take effect. | <urn:uuid:f186a7f8-0921-4be6-a0c5-54eccfc3a0d1> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://msrs.org.au/peer-support/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.95198 | 408 | 1.601563 | 2 |
I am developing Filemaker databases and use it for my own business.
One of the cool thing you can do with Filemaker is to send an email from the database. It creates a message in the default email client with contact data taken from the database.
This works very well with Apple Mail and Outlook.
I am now testing Airmail and find it very nice to use. The one missing function is this link with Filemaker.
Is this something you can add in Airmail ?
Thanks you for attention.
Larry Omans commented
This is still the one reason I don't switch over to AirMail. Is there anything we can do to help?
No news on this? For me it's also the only reason NOT to use Airmail.
Sadly because Airmail is definitively better than Apple Mail....
One limitation is you can automate attachments with the open URL/mailto. This may be a deal breaker for me and I’m looking Airmail despite some it of its quirks. I was thinking it could be a replacement for Mail.app.
This is a FileMaker issue that is caused by them using a proprietary communication method with the OS bundled email apps on Mac and PC (Mail and Outlook). The workaround is to use the Open URL script step and the standards based MAILTO: url protocol. Be aware there are limitations to the mailto: protocol.
It does not work for me and gives me an error :
"Some of the files that are needed are either damaged or have not been installed. Please run the installer to correct this problem"
Any idea on how to make it work ?
I'm using FMPA14.0.4 and El Capitan 10.11.3
Scratch that; I see that SEND MAIL fails with Airmail.
You can send mail from FileMaker using Airmail; simply use the SEND MAIL script step, and it'll create a new email message in your default mail client, whether it's Airmail, Mac Mail or some other. | <urn:uuid:09eb9804-cc35-442f-87ce-f6234e5be5e7> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://feedback.airmailapp.com/forums/274948-airmail-for-macos/suggestions/11325993-filemaker-integration | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571538.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20220812014923-20220812044923-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.888378 | 486 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Both soccer and football refer to the game, which is technically known asAssociation Football. Because of this, the shortened term football, or its various translations, is more frequently used. Countries where the term soccer is in use, have another game known as football. They use the term to avoid confusion.
People also ask
Why is soccer called soccer in America?
Whilst in the rest of the world, the term soccer came into use alongside that of football, in America, the term soccer became the prevailing term for the game of association football. The reason for this is that it was necessary to distinguish it from the other form of football in the USA, American football.
What is the difference between soccer and football?
What is the difference between soccer and football? Depending on which side of the Atlantic you learned your English, the answer is either ‘There isn鈥檛 one’ or ‘It’s a completely different sport’. American English speakers call the sport run by the NFL and played mostly with the hands and always with an oval ball football.
Should the term 鈥榮occer鈥?be used in the UK?
Today, the term soccer is largely only used in the USA but the term is widely understood across the world as meaning football. However, in the UK especially, the term soccer can be problematic with some fans insisting that the term should never be used, believing the Americans are renaming 鈥榯heir鈥?sport to distinguish it from American football.
What is the difference between Rugby and soccer?
With rugby football softened being shortened to 鈥榬ugger鈥? a similar thing occurred with association football. Whilst in the rest of the world, the term soccer came into use alongside that of football, in America, the term soccer became the prevailing term for the game of association football. | <urn:uuid:43018f7d-a932-4da4-8fec-1bd7ff54d094> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | http://www.kasuie.top/is-it-soccer-or-football/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882570977.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20220809124724-20220809154724-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.977033 | 401 | 3.171875 | 3 |
Dutch Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher said that the European Union’s commitment to freedom of movement needs urgent reform to curb immigration and wage depression.
Free movement of people is the most controversial of the EU’s so-called four freedoms, which also guarantee free movement of goods, services and capital. Euroskeptics resent the inability to limit EU immigration and dislike of the policy contributed to British voters’ decision to leave the bloc.
Asscher told the BBC that free movement had led to cheap, imported labor undercutting workers’ wages. He added that the Brexit vote was a golden opportunity to change the rules.
“In essence [what] we have seen happening [is] that free movement has become synonymous with a race to the bottom, with undercutting of wages, with unfair competition in the labor market and that has to do with the rules Europe has produced itself,” Asscher said.
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“On the scaffolding [site] you can see a Romanian or Portuguese painter doing the exact same work as a Dutch painter right next to him that is allowed to earn two, three, four hundred euros less than the Dutch worker,” he added, referring to EU rules allowing companies to temporarily send workers to other countries without having to comply with local social-security obligations.
Asscher also said that enforcing the principal of equal pay for equal work would rein in EU migration.
The Netherlands’ far-right Freedom Party — which is gaining in the polls ahead of the country’s March election — is heavily critical of immigration and wants to withdraw from the EU.
Some see Asscher’s statement on freedom of movement as a way to boost his increasingly unpopular Labour Party, according to the BBC.
In a separate development, Asscher said that the Netherlands will block any trade deal with the U.K. post-Brexit that does not require the latter to sign up to stringent tax-avoidance rules.
“Let’s fight the race to the bottom for profits taxation together, which threatens to come into existence if it is up to the Conservative U.K. government,” he wrote to EU left-leaning party leaders, in a letter seen by the Guardian. | <urn:uuid:2225946c-e425-4ebf-826f-ec5168ea65bd> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.politico.eu/article/dutch-minister-urges-free-movement-reform/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.966158 | 462 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Plasterer Gervasio Bernardi, born in Bagni di Lucca, came from Italy in 1911 to work as a plasterer. Stucco decorations were popular in interior design at this time.
Gervasio Bernardi married Domenica Franceschi December 9, 1912 in the Catholic church in Göteborg.
They had four children in Göteborg and Gervasio may have had children in an earlier marriage in Italy, two of whom are in their household in the census 1940. At this time Gervasio had his own molding business.
There are still Bernardis living in the Göteborg area. They are presumably descendants of Gervasio, since he had several sons, and there are no other male Bernardis among the early immigrants. Someone may have immigrated later, of course. | <urn:uuid:0ab4bcef-500a-4b7c-9898-dc53b48881d8> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bernardi-1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571210.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810191850-20220810221850-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.959493 | 247 | 1.992188 | 2 |
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