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\|Copyright © 2005– by CCLA. \| All rights reserved. How To ... \|— A Beginner's Guide —\| • Rules of Chess\| • Board and Chessmen • Initial Position • Touch-Move Rule • Chess Notation • FEN Notation • Movement of the Chessmen • "En passant" Pawn Captures • Pawn Promotion • Three Phases of a Game • Table of Relative Values • Theory of Exchanging • Mating Attack • Position Play • Drawn Games • Winning a Chess Game • The Four Basic Checkmates • Basic K+P vs. K Endgame • Suggestions for Further Study Learn the Rules! It should be obvious that someone cannot play chess (or any other game) without understanding the rules, yet beginners frequently attempt to play without having studied all the Official Rules of Chess. Well-meaning but unskilled players often omit important details or pass along misinformation which beginners accept unquestioningly, contributing to their difficulties later on. The following topics are designed to help new players transition from reading to understanding chess rules and fundamentals. Board and Chessmen Chess is played between two opponents on a board divided into 8 rows and 8 columns, a total of 64 squares of alternating colors. The board is called a chess board, never a checker board. Squares form patterns called ranks (horizontal rows), files (vertical rows), diagonals, and larger groups such as the center, the extended center, the wings, the king-side, the queen-side and so forth. Chess boards for tournament play are wood, wood-grain folding boards or else vinyl roll-up boards; colors are brown and buff or green and eggshell to minimize eye strain. Hint: do NOT bring a red and black checker board to a chess tournament. Despite their uniform (other than color) appearance, novice players soon realize all squares are not equal. An individual square may have strategic significance, such as an outpost square for an advanced piece, a "hole" in a pawn formation or a "stop" square to prevent a passed pawn's advance. Similarly, a group of squares may form a critical area such as the center, an open file, the seventh rank or a "weak square complex." It is the rules of chess, the movements of the various chessmen and the geometry of the chess board that combine to give the game its charm and complexity. Chess is played with a chess set of 32 pieces. The set may be wood or plastic, but only the Staunton pattern chess set (pictured below) is allowed in official tournaments such as those played under FIDE (int'l) or USCF (USA) rules. (Hint: do NOT bring your prized Civil War generals, Aztec gods or Star Trek chess set to a tournament.) Each player begins a game with 16 chessmen: 1 king, 1 queen, 2 rooks, 2 bishops, 2 knights, and 8 pawns. Pieces is a term often used collectively to mean all the chessmen; technically, pieces are different from pawns. The major or heavy pieces are the queen and rooks; the minor pieces are the bishops and knights. White has the lighter colored set of chessmen, Black has the darker colored set. Chess sets come in a variety of styles, materials and colors, but for the sake of uniformity the two sides are referred to as "white" and "black". A piece that looks like a medieval tower is called a rook, not a "castle". The chess terms "castle" and "castling" involve the one-time movement of a king and a rook together and are explained under "Castling" below. The piece that looks like a horse's head is called a knight, never a "horse." Initial (Starting) Position White always makes the first move of the game, then players take turns until the game ends. A player may not make two moves in a row. A player may not skip his turn. While it may be desirable, even necessary, to "lose" a move (turn) players must make a legal move each time it is their turn to move. All moves must be legal moves. If it is discovered later on in a game that an illegal move has occurred, the position just prior to the illegal move is restored, the guilty player must make a legal move (see Touch-Move Rule) and play resumes from that point. If the position cannot be restored, the game is annulled and a new game is begun. If such a situation occurs in a tournament, players must seek assistance from the tournament director with regard to verifying the position, re-setting time clocks and/or starting a new game. The Touch-Move Rule In tournament chess, whichever piece or pawn a player touches first must be moved. As long as the player has his hand on it, he may move that piece to any legal square, but move it he must. Also, there are no take backs in chess; once his hand releases the piece, it must stay on that square, no matter what the consequence. Note: players may not make illegal moves. If a move is determined to be illegal, touch-move requires that the piece touched must be moved to a legal square. If it is determined the touched piece has no legal moves, then the player may make any legal move. Do your thinking before you move, not during the process of making your move on the board. When it is your turn and before you make your next legal move, if you wish to adjust any chessmen on the board, you must say j'adoube ("I adjust" in English) to your opponent before touching anything. \|How Chess Games are Recorded\| The system for recording and publishing the moves of chess games is called chess notation. There have been several notation systems throughout the history of chess, but today the universal standard notation is Algebraic Notation, so named because the board is divided into a matrix or grid, with numbers 1-8 designating the ranks (from white's point of view) and the letters a-h designating the files, starting from white's extreme left with "a," etc. As shown in Diagram 24. below, each of the 64 squares on the board has a unique letter/number coordinate. Compared with Descriptive Notation, Algebraic Notation reduces but does not totally eliminate the possibility of ambiguous notation of moves. When two of the same kind of piece can move to the same square, typically knights and rooks, it is necessary to add "qualifiers" to the move's notation. For example, (white has knights on the a1 and a5 squares), the move 20. Nb3 is ambiguous because we don't know which knight moved to the b3 square. It is therefore necessary to add a "qualifier" such as 20.N1b3 or else 20.N5b3 to distinguish between the two possibilities. Similarly (white has knights on the a1 and c1 squares), 20.Nb3 would be ambiguous and must be written 20.Nab3 or else 20.Ncb3. Typical chess font used in diagrams Figurine (algebraic) notation just substitutes chess diagram symbols of pieces and pawns for the English letters K,Q,R,B,N,P. Publishers of chess books and magazines use chess fonts to make their books understandable in all languages. Chess fonts even appear on web sites and blogs. \|Algebraic Notation - coordinates\| Below is a sample game. If you are just learning Algebraic Notation, try playing through the game manually using the blue triangle control rather than auto-play (triangle in circle.) As you step through each move on the board, it is highlighted in the pgn below and you see the correct notation. Forsythe-Edwards Notation, or FEN, is a shorthand system to record a chess position. While there are technical standards, the average player can get by with the following. The ranks are recorded in descending order, starting with black's back rank and moving down the position to white's first rank. In algebraic notational terms, rank 8 to rank 1. Each rank or row must total 8, a combination of piece symbols and numbers representing unoccupied squares, written left to right. FEN positions are always recorded from white's side of the board. Ranks are separated by a forward slash ("/"). The symbols for white's pieces are K,Q,R,B,N,P and for black's pieces, k,q,r,b,n,p. One should also note which player is on the move (side to move.) The FEN string is quite useful for adjourned games at tournaments, so that players do not need to play through an entire game score to set-up the position for the next playing session. The first letter (w) after white's first rank alignment tells the software which side is on the move and the final number is the current move number. The FEN string for the final position of the sample game above is: Movement of the Chessmen When moving a chessman, it is placed in the center of a square, not on the intersection of squares (see "jadoube" rule.) Only one chessman may occupy a square at one time. Capturing is optional unless it is the only way to get one's king out of check, or it is the only legal move. Capturing is done by displacement; the captured piece or pawn is removed from the board and the capturing piece or pawn replaces it on that square. The knight does not capture pieces or pawns it jumps over; only the piece or pawn that occupies its landing square is captured. A player may not capture his own men. The diagrams below show White's knight capturing the enemy bishop. Diagram 1 is the position before the capture, Diagram 2 is the position after White has played Nxe6, capturing the bishop. A king may move one square in any direction, except the king cannot move into check and cannot move next to the opposing king; there must always be one empty square between them, horizontally, vertically or diagonally. These two restrictions placed on the king's movement are the basis of the fundamental checkmates outlined below (see Basic Checkmates.) Diagram 3 shows all possible moves for the kings. The White king has five legal moves, to any square designated by a white circle; the Black king also has five legal moves, to any square designated by a black circle. Neither king may move to a square marked with an "X", because of the requirement that one square must always separate them. The two kings in Diagram 3 stand "in direct opposition," meaning they are one square apart on a line; two kings can be in opposition on a file, rank or diagonal. The king whose turn it is to move loses "the opposition"; no matter where he moves, the opposing king will be able to occupy at least one of the squares previously designated "X." When two or more squares separate the kings they are said to be in "distant opposition." If there is an odd number (1, 3 or 5) of squares between them, the side not on the move holds the distant opposition. If there is an even number (2, 4 or 6) of squares between them, the side on the move will gain the distant opposition by moving forward, changing the square count between them to an odd number. Diagram 4 shows how a king's mobility decreases as it moves from the center to the perimeter of the board. The black king in the middle of the board has eight possible moves, to any one of the squares marked with a black circle, while the white king in the corner has only three legal moves, to any one of the squares marked with white circles. This lack of mobility (move options) is the reason most checkmates (see section on "Winning a Chess Game") occur at the edges or on the corners of the board. It's much easier for the aggressor to control three to five squares than eight squares. The queen may move across as many open squares as there are in a straight line, horizontally, vertically or diagonally. The queen may not jump over any pieces, either its own or enemy units. Diagram 5 demonstrates the black queen on an open board can move to any one of the 27 squares designated with a black circle. In diagram 6, however, we see the black queen's mobility reduced to 12 squares by the presence of other pieces. Note the queen can move up to or including a square occupied by an enemy unit, in which case the queen would capture that chessman. The rook may move across as many open squares as there are in a straight line, horizontally or vertically but never diagonally. The rook may not jump over any pieces, either its own or enemy units. Diagram 7 demonstrates the black rook on an open board can move to any one of the 14 squares designated with a black circle. Note: the mobility of the rook on an open board does not diminish as it moves away from the center. No matter where you place the rook on an open board, it will have 7 squares horizontally and 7 squares vertically to which it can move. Diagram 8 shows the mobility of a rook is reduced by the presence of other chessmen; here the white rook has a total of seven legal moves, including two captures, to squares marked with a white circle. The bishop may move across as many open squares as there are in a diagonal line, never horizontally or vertically. Each player starts off the game with a "light-square bishop" and a "dark-square bishop." A bishop is limited to the 32 squares of it's own color. In Diagram 9, the "light-square" black bishop has 13 squares to which it may move, marked with black circles. The bishop may not jump over any pieces, either its own or enemy units. In Diagram 10, white's "dark-square" bishop has a total of 8 squares to which it may move, marked with a white circle, with one being capture of the enemy knight. The knight's "L-shaped" movement is two squares up or down vertically, then one square to the left or right horizontally, or else two squares horizontally, then one square up or down vertically. Note: the knight always ends up on a square the opposite color from the square it started from. In Diagram 11, the black knight can move to any one of the 8 squares marked with a black circle. The knight is the only piece that may jump over other chessmen, either those of its own color or those of the enemy. As was noted in the section on capturing, the knight does not capture pieces or pawns that it jumps over; only the piece or pawn that occupies its landing square is captured. In diagram 12, white's knight has five legal moves, the squares marked by a white circle, two of which are captures of enemy units. The pawn moves forward on its file, one square at a time. The exception is the pawn's first move in the game; each pawn has the option of advancing one or two squares on its first move only. Thereafter, it may only move one square at a time. This option cannot be saved for later use - it only applies to each pawn's very first move in the game. If another piece or pawn stands on its file, it is said to be "blockaded" and may not move forward until such blockade is removed. Unlike the other pieces, the pawn can never move backwards. In Diagram 13 below, all white's pawns may move one or two squares forward except the pawn that has already moved; this pawn is blocked by a black pawn and cannot advance until the blockade is removed. When that happens, the pawn can only move forward one square at a time. The same applies to the black pawn pictured here. A pawn captures diagonally, on the square(s) one square ahead; a pawn cannot capture anything directly in front of, beside or behind it. After a capture, the pawn moves ahead on its new file, one square at a time. Two pawns of the same color on the same file are said to be "doubled." The only way to "un-double" them is for one of those pawns to capture something on an adjacent file, or itself be captured by an enemy piece or pawn. Diagram 14 shows a "before" and "after" picture of a pawn capture. On the left, diagram 14.a, we see the more advanced white b-pawn unable to advance on its own file, but able to capture (bxc4) the enemy pawn one-square ahead on the diagonal. On the right, diagram 14.b, we see the new position of the white pawn after bxc4. White's c-pawns are now "doubled." \|Diagram 14.a Diagram 14.b\| Two additional features of pawn play, "en passant" (in passing) pawn captures and "pawn promotion," are explained next. Instruction for beginners often refers to these as "special moves," giving the false impression they are not part of the regular game, or only apply in special circumstances. Nothing could be further from the truth! En passant pawn captures and pawn promotion are defined by the Rules of Chess and are fundamental parts of the game. "En Passant" Capturing of When a player's pawn occupies its 5th rank, and an opponent moves a pawn two squares forward, from the second rank to the 4th rank on an adjacent file, the player with the advanced pawn has the option to capture that pawn, just as though it had only moved to the 3rd rank. The player wishing to make an "en passant" capture must do so immediately, or forfeit the option to capture that particular pawn by "en passant." A player's pawn on the 5th rank may still capture "en passant" if another adjacent pawn is moved to the 4th rank. In Diagram 15.a, we see black's pawn on its 5th rank, an adjacent white pawn on its original square. In diagram 15.b, white has exercised his option of moving the pawn two squares forward. In Diagram 15.c, we see black's pawn after it has captured the white pawn "en passant." Only pawns may be captured "en passant;" other pieces may not be captured this way. Capturing by "en passant" is optional unless it is the only way to get the king out of check. \|Diagram Diagram Diagram\| \|15.a 15.b 15.c\| When a pawn reaches it's 8th rank, a player must immediately remove his pawn and replace it with the same-colored piece of his choice (Q, R, B, or N) as part of the same move. A player may not have more than one king. The pawn may not remain a pawn. A pawn's promotion may not be deferred. The effect of promotion is immediate; for example, if the new piece attacks (checks) the enemy king, the king must get out of check. Because the most powerful (i.e., mobile) piece is the queen, in most cases a player will promote his pawn to a queen, hence the incorrect but commonly-used term "queening a pawn." Theoretically, a player could promote all 8 of his pawns, thereby having 9 queens (the original plus 8 new ones) on the board at one time. In Diagram 16.a, left panel, the white pawn on d7 has only one legal move (d8), as noted with a white circle, after which white must promote it to another piece. In Diagram 16.b, right panel, we see the effect of pawn promotion: white has played d8Q. \|Diagram 16.a Diagram 16.b\| Selection of a rook, bishop or knight (instead of a queen) is called "under-promotion". The value of under-promotion is where the new piece, often a knight, will enable an otherwise stalled attack to continue, will effect checkmate more quickly than a queen or perhaps because promotion to a queen would create a stalemate. In Diagram 17, it's White's turn to move and he has a passed pawn on the 7th rank. If he "queens" this pawn by 1. f8Q without thinking, he loses the game because black replies 1 ... Re1# and white's king is checkmated. Instead, white can under-promote the pawn to a knight (1. f8N#) and black's king is checkmated! Although opportunities for under-promotion are rare in actual play, they do occur. Equally important, when promoting a pawn players must always be alert for a stalemate condition. Examples of under-promotion follow, several from actual tournament play. The Ware-Ryan game is a "textbook example" of being careful to choose the correct piece for promotion. The Alapin-Rubinstein game is similarly instructive. The main purpose of castling is protection of the king. In the opening phase of a game, a king in the center of the board may be vulnerable to attack due to movement and exchange of some of the pawns, opening lines of attack. After castling, the king is again shielded by a wall of pawns. A secondary purpose of castling is to connect the two rooks for mutual support. In order to castle, all the following conditions must be met: Castling is a maneuver in which the king and a rook are both moved; although two pieces are involved, the maneuver counts as one move or turn. Each side may castle only once during a game. Castling may be done to either side of the board and is commonly referred to as "king-side castling" or "queen-side castling," referring to the initial position. Castling is done correctly by moving the king first, two squares to the left or right, then placing the rook next to the king on the opposite side. For the reason behind always moving the king first, see "touch move rule." Diagram 18 shows both sides ready to castle. Diagram 19 shows both white and black after castling king-side; there is one empty square between the kings and the edge of the board. Diagram 20 shows both white and black after castling queen-side; there are two empty squares between the kings and the edge of the board. Diagram 21 shows white castled king-side, black castled queen-side. This is known as "opposite wing castling" and usually signals a "sharp" (highly tactical) game where both sides advance the wing pawns away from their own king, attempting to open files to the enemy's castled king. Novice players are sometimes confused about the legality of castling. In Diagram 22.a, black to move, white is threatening Nxc7+, forking King and Rook. Black would like to defend his pawn by castling queen-side. Is castling in this position permitted by the rules? Diagram 22.b shows the position after 1. ... 0-0-0; now the King protects the c-pawn. Note: the square b8 was attacked by white's knight, but only the Rook crossed this square. Black's King did not move into check during the castling maneuver, therefore 1. ... 0-0-0 is a legal move (per condition 4. above.) In Diagram 23.a below, white to move, black is threatening ... Rxh1+ followed by ... Rxb1, winning two pieces. White cannot castle queen-side, which would connect the Rooks, because the white knight sits on b1; all the squares between King and Rook must be empty in order to castle to that side, per condition 5 above. However, white may castle king-side. Even though the Rook at h1 is under attack, the white King will not move into check during the castling maneuver. Diagram 23.b shows the position after 1. 0-0. The Three Phases The opening is the first few moves of a chess game, characterized by the fight for control of the center and completion of development: moving as few pawns as possible in order to get minor pieces off the back rank and onto good squares and getting the king castled. Over the centuries, distinct patterns of pawn formations and piece deployments have acquired commonly accepted names. There are no standardized names for some openings; what they are called depends upon the nationality of the annotator or author. Some variations are named after their supposed originators, others for the players who popularized the lines, and still others for the tournament sites where they were first played. Today such claims and disputes over which name is proper have been relegated to chess historians. Collections of chess games in PGN (Portable Game Notation) are indexed by NIC (New In Chess), Chess Informant (Savovski Informator) or ECO (Encyclopedia of Chess Openings) codes rather than traditional names. Collections of best Master games and analyses for each opening variation constitute opening theory. Chess opening theory is still published in traditional print media but is equally likely to be distributed on cd's or dvd's, downloadable databases and internet web sites and blogs. Opening play that follows published theory is called a book opening, and a grand variation may run 15-20 moves deep, well into what is normally considered the middle game. A new move, or or an old move resurrected by analysis is called a TN (theoretical novelty.) Whether a TN is merged into mainline theory, or relegated to a footnote, depends upon what success it enjoys among top players. Staying au courant is a large part of any player's tournament preparations, as opening theory is in a constant state of flux. The middle game occurs when development has been completed, or nearly so, and opposing forces are joined in battle. It is characterized by attack, defense and maneuvering as both sides try to further their own plans while resisting those of the opponent. Middle game play may consist of quiet maneuvering or violent tactics, and usually features involvement of the heavy pieces (queen and rooks.) Combinations and mating attacks most often occur in the middle game. Players must learn how to analyze a position accurately. Careful assessment of the five basic elements (force, space, time, pawn structure and king safety) will enable a player to develop a plan that is appropriate for the position at hand. But chess is dynamic; every move alters the previous position, even if only slightly. Above all, a player must be flexible, willing to revise or even discard a prior plan in favor of a new strategy. An endgame usually presents a somewhat simplified position, with fewer pieces and pawns due to exchanges in the opening and middle game. The kings become active pieces, especially in positions without queens, where there is less danger of a mating attack. Endgames also have strategy and tactics; pawn promotion is the objective of some endgames, while direct assault on the enemy king is featured in others. Many endgame positions are recurring and have their own published theory, making them amenable to study and to extraction of principles which may be applied to future, similar positions. To make any kind of meaningful progress in chess, a player must expand his knowledge of endgames. Values of the Chessmen The basis for determining the value of the chessmen is their relative mobility or power. The more squares a piece can reach, the greater its mobility. Giving the pawn a value of "1" leads to the following traditional chart of relative values: \|king\|\|4.5 points \| Obviously the king is never captured or exchanged and has infinite value: if the king is lost (check mated) the game is over! The 4.5 figure is a king's estimated mobility value in simplified end games. The chart above has universal appeal because it's not complicated and is easily remembered. However, many famous players (including several world champions) have proposed slightly different "weightings" of the pieces, including Staunton, von Bilguer, Lasker, Evans, Fischer, Kauffman, Euwe, Berliner and others, not to mention chess engine evaluations which deal in "centipawns" (1/100's of a pawn.) Novice players should realize it is a table of "relative" values - a guide to exchanging. When a piece (other than a King) or pawn is threatened with capture, a player must decide whether to capture the attacker, retreat, or defend that unit in place. In general, when a piece of higher value is attacked by one of lesser value, defending is not an option and the higher-value piece must retreat to a safe square. Defending an attacked piece with one of less value than the attacker is the most efficient defense. In Diagram 24, white's knight on e5 is attacked twice (black's rook and queen both threaten to capture the knight.) In Diagram 25, white has defended his knight by advancing the f-pawn two squares. Even though the knight is attacked twice and defended only once, black dare not capture the knight with either piece because he will lose a rook (5 points) or a queen (9 points) for a knight (3 points) and a pawn (1 point.) Obtaining three pawns for a minor piece (a bishop or a knight) is said to be an "even" exchange. The exchange of bishop for knight, or knight for bishop, is considered an "even" exchange, although some charts list the bishop at 3.5 points. The bishop has greater mobility than the knight on an open board, but can only reach the 32 squares of its own color. The knight can eventually reach all the squares on the board. A knight will be more valuable in closed positions, especially vs. a "bad bishop" blocked behind its own pawns. The bishop pair is almost always considered a positional advantage versus any other combination of minor pieces, so perhaps the bishop should rate higher. Pundits frequently refer to obtaining bishop for knight as winning "the minor exchange." Two minor pieces for rook and pawn is an even exchange. When one player obtains a rook for a minor piece, he is said to win "the exchange." Exchanging queen and pawn for two rooks is often difficult to evaluate. Exchanging a queen for three minor pieces is also difficult to assess. While "rules of thumb" are helpful guides, there are always exceptions and a player must evaluate each new position carefully. Experience plays an important role in deciding whether to exchange. As we have seen in the section on how the pieces move, on an open board a queen, rook or bishop has greater "theoretical" mobility than a king, knight or pawn. But chess games are rarely played on an open board, and so actual mobility of all the pieces must be constantly re-evaluated during a game. Actual mobility of any piece is, of course, greatly influenced by the presence of other pieces and pawns on the board, particularly the latter. In the opening, the pieces have very little mobility. In the middle game, after pawn moves, piece deployment and exchanges, the board becomes less crowded and mobility of the remaining forces increases. In the ending, the few pieces and pawns remaining attain maximum mobility. Theory of Exchanging The concept of force (material) is fundamental to understanding chess; with very few exceptions, superior force wins. It is therefore vital that players not drop or hang (lose) material, or sacrifice material without obtaining sufficient compensation. If a player obtains only one or two pawns for his minor piece, he needs to gain positional (non-material) compensation such as better development, control of key squares or the initiative (accumulated threats which limit an opponent's choice of replies.) This is the idea behind opening gambits and positional sacrifices, voluntary surrender of some material (usually a pawn, sometimes a whole piece) to obtain other compensation. Ultimately, compensation must yield at least recovery of the sacrificed material, successful attack on the king or a won ending. If the balance of material cannot be restored, or checkmate given, then the player down in material faces an uphill struggle, most likely a lost ending. Our sample game (see "Chess Notation" above) illustrates these points very well. Black offers a pawn with 8 ... d5, the famous Marshall (Counter) Attack in the Ruy Lopez opening, ECO code C89. As compensation, continued top of next column . . . \|[return to homepage]\| Black obtains a lead in development, control of the center and, most important of all, a strong initiative due to multiple threats by mobile pieces bearing down on white's king position. It comes as no surprise that Black is able to strip away the White king's defenders, sacrificing a bishop for two pawns (16 ... Bxg3) which quickly leads to checkmate. In the final position, notice White's queen-side pieces, still on their original squares, helpless spectators. This is what can happen when time is wasted "pawn hunting" in the opening instead of first developing all one's pieces. Beginning chess players are often observed exchanging pieces willy-nilly ("chopping wood" in chess jargon), just to be doing something. Unless you have a material advantage or a very favorable pawn formation (offside pawn majority, protected passer, etc.), simplifying into an endgame is most likely a bad idea. A better strategy is to evaluate the mobility of each of your pieces (and also your opponent's) in relation to the pawn structure of the position. Exchange the opponent's best positioned piece for your least-effective piece, if possible. Maneuver your worst-placed piece or pieces to better squares. Retreat, re-group, conserve your forces. What is a "Combination"? A combination is a sequence of planned moves, usually involving sacrifice, designed to attain an objective by force. The objective could be checkmate, win of material and/or improvement in one's position (as in gaining a positional advantage.) Combinations can also be defensive; some of the most dramatic combinations result in a draw, thereby salvaging a badly played game by gaining a half-point instead of a loss. Purists require sacrifice to be part of the definition, preferring to label a sequence of forcing moves without sacrifice a maneuver. A combination can be anything from a simple one-two punch, to gain material or checkmate the opposing king, to complicated sequences of moves such as the next example. The following tactical gem was played by Emmanuel Lasker, five years before he became World Champion. Black has just played 14 ... Nxh5; instead of recapturing the knight with the routine 15. Qxh5, Lasker unleashes one combination followed by a second, decisive combination a few moves later. What is a "Mating Attack"? A mating attack is a forcing sequence of moves whose main objective is to checkmate the enemy king. Frequently the planned sequence includes sacrifice of one or more pieces. A mating attack requires precise calculation, especially where a player must wreck his pawn structure and/or sacrifice material to conduct such an attack. Sometimes a mating attack cannot achieve checkmate against the best possible defense, but the aggressor has an alternative plan that either wins material or recovers sacrificed material "with interest." A "mating net" is the driving of the enemy king to squares where checkmate can be forced against all possible defenses. \|Mating Attack, Example 1.\| \|PGN Viewer courtesy of ChessTempo.\| \|PGN Viewer courtesy of ChessTempo.\| \|Dravnieks - Gassin, corres 1969\| What is Position Play? If force is the quantitative, tactical aspect of chess, then the positional elements (king safety, space, time and especially pawn structure) are the qualitative features of a position, the sign-posts for discovering a successful strategy. Many general treatises on chess provide explanations of "position play," usually offering lists of "the elements" with examples from master games. One such volume is Point Count Chess by I. A. Horowitz and Geoffrey Mott-Smith (Simon & Schuster, 1953). While not much credence is given to the authors' "point count" (borrowed from bridge) approach, the book offers a comprehensive explanation of all the elements of position play, conveniently summarized in one place. One can extract most of these concepts from Nimzovich's trilogy (My System, Praxis and The Blockade), but it's much easier to use this list as a starting point, a guide for further study: Horowitz and Mott-Smith's \|• Control of the center\| \|• Pawn on fourth v. pawn on third\| \|• Mobile pawn wing\| \|• Strong outpost station\| \|• Superior development\| \|• Greater space\| \|• Bishop v. knight\| \|• Half-open file\| \|• Control of useful open file\| \|• Rook(s) on the seventh rank\| \|• Passed pawn\| \|• Outside passed pawn\| \|• Protected passed pawn\| \|• Advanced pawn\| \|• Qualitative pawn majority\| \|• Advanced chain\| \|• Advanced salient\| \|• Better king position\| \|• Offside pawn majority\| \|• Backward pawn\| \|• Doubled pawn\| \|• Isolated pawn\| \|• Hanging pawns\| \|• Hanging phalanx\| \|• Crippled majority wing\| \|• Weak-square complex\| \|• Compromised king-side\| \|• King held in center\| \|• Cramped position\| \|• Bad bishop\| It is noteworthy that pawns constitute 20/32 (62.5%) of the categories, with 10 in the plus column and 10 in the minus column (four of the items under "weak squares" are really about pawn weaknesses: weak square complex, holes, weakened king's position and bad Bishop.) The pawn truly is the "soul of chess" (Philidor). No position is completely one-sided; each side will likely have some pluses and some minuses. What is needed is to understand these elements - playing "positionally" is playing to accumulate pluses and eliminate / minimize the minuses from one's position. A draw is scored a 1/2-point for each player. A great deal of endgame technique involves the superior side playing to avoid the draw, the inferior side playing to force one. There are 5 ways a game may be drawn: Many players claim a draw by "perpetual check," but there is no such thing in the rules. An endless series of checks will be covered by conditions (4) or (5) above. Why do we discuss drawing a chess game before winning a chess game? Because it is crucial to first understand how games are drawn. In the section on basic checkmates, the player with the advantage (in material and/or position) must know what to avoid in order to achieve a win. The player at a disadvantage (in material and/or position) must know how to maximize his chances for a draw. Ill-advised exchanges and speculative sacrifices in the opening or middle game can result in endgames that are difficult if not impossible to win. Understanding how games are drawn helps players avoid such strategic errors. Winning a Chess Game The one and only goal of the game is to checkmate the opposing king. It is not to capture all the opponent's pieces and pawns, as beginners are want to do. When a king is attacked (liable to be captured on the next turn) it is said to be "in check." A player may not move his King into check, or move another piece or pawn if such a move places his King in check. The king may not castle to get out of check (see section on "Castling".) A check cannot be ignored; the rules require a player to get his king out of check immediately. If a king is in check and cannot escape, it is said to be "checkmated" and the game is over. Unlike other pieces or pawns, the king is never physically captured; to win the game it is sufficient to force the enemy king into a checkmate situation. In addition to checkmate, a player wins the game if his opponent resigns. It is good sportsmanship to resign the game when you can calculate that your king will be checkmated, or you are so far behind in material that further resistance is futile. Among Master class players, the advantage of a single pawn is usually sufficient to force a win. Grandmaster Reuben Fine's maxim, "A rook ahead wins by force," is sufficient for amateur play. Beginners can be observed battling on in hopelessly lost positions and that is excusable, as they are learning and experience is often the best teacher. The Four Basic Checkmates Complicated (many pieces and pawns) endings can be reduced to simpler, more manageable positions. This is accomplished by purposeful exchange of pieces and pawns, a process called simplification. Knowing when and how to simplify comes from experience and in-depth knowledge of end games. Without such accumulated wisdom, advantages will be frittered away and many a winning position will deteriorate into a draw or (even worse) loss of game. Every player must be thoroughly familiar with the following basic checkmates. These are forced wins; even with best play by the weaker side, the superior side should win. Why doesn't the weaker side resign such endings immediately? In tournament play where games are contested under strict time limits, the superior side may be short of clock time and have difficulty recalling the winning procedure, or accurately playing a lengthy sequence of moves before his flag falls. As we noted in the section on drawn games, a mistake or two and the inferior side escapes with a draw due to the 50-move rule; this is particularly true of the rarely encountered K+B+N vs. K endgame. The superior side may also blunder, losing a piece or creating a stalemate position, allowing the inferior side to escape with a draw. K+Q vs. K. Using the opposition plus checks by the queen, the basic strategy is to drive the enemy king into a confined space, either the edge of the board or a corner, and then give a final check with the queen. Both king and queen must cooperate to effect checkmate; merely chasing the enemy king around the board with unending queen checks will result in a draw. The danger for the superior side is accidentally creating a stalemate. Great care must be exercised to always leave the enemy king two squares upon which to move, until ready to deliver the final check. An example of how to achieve this checkmate is given below: K+R vs. K. The same strategy used for K+Q vs K is employed in the K+R vs. K endgame. This ending generally requires more moves because a rook controls fewer squares than a queen, plus the enemy king can attack the rook directly. If the inferior side is determined to put up a lengthy resistance, hoping for a draw under the 50-move rule, the superior side must remember to "lose" a tempo (move) to gain the opposition. A small mistake or two by the superior side can normally be tolerated, with checkmate still possible within the 50-move rule. Of course the superior side must guard against creating a stalemate position. The techniques are demonstrated below: K + 2B's vs. K. This checkmate is almost as easy as K+Q vs. K. Placed on adjacent squares, the two bishops create a barrier the enemy king cannot cross. It is a simple process to drive the king to the edge of the board (taking care to leave the king at least two squares,) bring up the king to establish the opposition and then give the final checks with the bishops. The techniques are demonstrated below: K+B+N vs. K. This endgame has the reputation of being very difficult. It is certainly more complex because the superior side must coordinate three pieces to drive the enemy king and the process is lengthy, meaning the superior side cannot make many errors and stay within the 50-move limitation. Checkmate can only be forced on a corner square of the same color that the bishop controls, or on a square adjacent to that corner square; checkmate can be given by the bishop or the knight. The checkmate process consists of two phases: step one is to drive the enemy king to an edge of the board, step two is forcing the king into the desired corner. The player on the defensive will strive to keep his king in the middle of the board or, failing that, move his king to the wrong-colored corner square. Besides the 50-move rule, the inferior side also has two other drawing possibilities, stalemate and capture of one of the pieces, resulting in insufficient mating material. Several strategies have been described to assist players with this checkmate. Interested players may search the internet for the "W" method, which describes the pattern of the knight's movements, and Daniel Deletang's "triangles," entrapping the king in successively smaller triangular areas of squares. The following example involves a "W" pattern (Nf7-e5-d7-c5). Note: K+2N's vs. K is a draw. Although two knights can checkmate, they cannot do so by force; the defender has to make a mistake: starting with Diagram 26, 1. Nc6+ Ka8??? (1... Kc8! and the king escapes) 2. Nc7#. Many authors point out that K+2N's+P vs. K is a forced win, as the extra unit enables the superior side to gain a critical tempo. Indeed, the win is trivial with any pawn except the a or h-pawns, which require a particular technique (see explanation for Diagram 29 below). In Diagram 27, white only needs one of the knights (any extra piece or pawn would do!) to gain a tempo and the ending transposes to K+Q vs. K: 1.d7+ Kd8 2. Nf3! (not 2. Kd6??? stalemate) Kc7 3.Ke7 Kc6 4.d8=Q and it's mate-in-five (4... Kc5 5. Qd4+ Kb5 6. Kd6 Ka6 7.Qb4 Ka7 8. Kc6 Ka6 [or 8... Ka8 9.Qb7#] 9.Qa4#.) In the case of the a- or h-pawn, white's king cannot get control of the promotion square as in the previous example. Instead, the superior side must advance the pawn to the 6th rank and then use the knights to drive the enemy king away from the corner. From Diagram 28 above, White wins by 1. Nc7+ Kb8 2. a7+ (or 2. Nc6+ Kc8 3. a7 Kd7 4. a8=Q Kd6 5. Qd8#) Kc8 3. a8=Q#. The two knights do not force checkmate. The extra pawn wins because it actually becomes a queen. However, in Diagram 29, White can utilize the extra tempo to mate with the two knights: 1... Kb8 2.a6 Ka8 3.Nc8 Kb8 4.Nd4 Ka8 5.Kd8 Kb8 6.Nc6+ Ka8 7.Nb6#. In Diagram 30, White can administer checkmate with the pawn: 1.Kc6 Kb8 2.Kb6 Ka8 3.Nc7+ Kb8 4.a7#. A much more interesting endgame is where the inferior side possesses the pawn; this is essentially a K+2N's vs. K+P ending. Diagram 31 is a trivial example but it shows the basic idea: White will immobilize the Black king on purpose, forcing Black to make meaningless pawn moves while the second knight maneuvers to a checkmating square: 1. Ne7! (if either knight captures the d4 pawn, we have the same situation as Diagram 26 = draw) d3 2. Ng5 (or 2. Nd8) d2 3. Nf7#. There is an incredible amount of theory for this endgame; whether or not the two knights can win depends on the particular square which the pawn occupies, whether it can be blockaded by a knight and, when the blockade is released, whether that knight can give checkmate before the pawn reaches the 8th rank, promotes to a queen and starts giving checks. Interested students can research the "Troitsky position" in advanced endgame manuals or on the internet. The Basic "King and pawn vs. King" Ending Underpromotion to Rook rarely if ever figures into the strategy of the basic K+P vs. K endgame. Examples in this section will assume the objective is to queen the passed pawn. For composed positions, we will also adhere to the convention of using White as the superior (has an extra pawn) side, Black as the inferior or defending side. Positions taken from actual tournament games are identified as such. Counting and Pawn Promotion In simplified positions players often count up the number of moves required to promote a passed pawn, the number of moves the opposing King needs to intercept the pawn, and compare the difference to determine who will succeed. Simple enough when only a few moves are involved, but it's easy to make a mistake if a large number of squares must be traversed, especially if the King has several paths it can take. The following section describes a better way. Rule of the Square It is usually stated the "rule of the square" only applies to King and pawn endings. True enough, but the concept also has value for deciding where, and when, to simplify into a K+P endgame. For example, if the calculation is not in your favor, the next step might be to look for a way to reverse that. Perhaps some zwischenzug, check or series of checks can force the enemy king away from "the square." Then, after pieces are exchanged, the opponent has a lost ending. Such calculations are easier, and less prone to error, when you have determined "the square" beforehand. In Diagram 32. below, the target is the promotion square (b8.) "The square" is a hypothetical square defined by the number of squares the pawn must travel to reach the promotion square (be sure to include the square the pawn occupies now and the target square) and the same number of squares across the board toward the enemy King. In this example it is the 5x5 "square" outlined in red. The rule states: if black's King is in "the square" or, if it's black's turn to move and his King can enter "the square," then it can catch the pawn and prevent it from promoting. If the black King cannot enter the "square" on its next move, the pawn will be promoted. Here, having the move the black King can enter "the square" and the game will be drawn if white tries to advance his pawn unaided. As our final example (Diagram 45) will show, however, it seems every rule has an exception. \|Diagram 32. Black to move\| \|Diagram 33. Black to move\| In Diagram 33, 1... Ke8 (or 1... Ke7) and black's King has moved inside "the (4x4) square." So white's King must escort the pawn. But now the issue of "key squares" looms large. As will be explained in the next section, for a white pawn on b5, the six key squares are denoted by white circles. 2. Kd5 Kd7 (black has the opposition, but ...) 3. b6! (and black must yield control of the key square c6) Kd8 (or 3... Kc8 4. Kc6! transposes) 4.Kd6! (white takes the opposition, not 4. Kc6? Kc8 5. b7+ Kb8 draw) Kc8 5.Kc6 Kb8 6.b7 (zugzwang) Ka7 7.Kc7 Ka6 8.b8Q wins. For white b,c,d,e,f or g-pawns on their 2nd, 3rd or 4th ranks, the key squares will be the three adjacent squares two ranks directly ahead of the pawn. For white pawns on their 5th or 6th ranks, the number of key squares doubles to include the three adjacent squares immediately in front of the pawn, plus the three adjacent squares two ranks in front of the pawn. And for a white pawn on its 7th rank, key squares are the five squares adjacent to the pawn: the two squares beside and the three squares directly in front of the pawn. The reverse is true for the black pawns. If a King can occupy any one of the key squares and retain the opposition, the pawn will queen no matter what moves the defender plays! When a passed pawn is escorted by a king, having the opposition is crucial to gaining control of a key square. For the defending King, it's not enough to get in front of the passed pawn. The defending King also needs the opposition in order to draw. Note: it is the king, not the pawn, which must occupy a key square. In order to do this, the King must lead the way, not follow behind. If the defending King is blocking the pawn and the other King is following its pawn, a draw will result. In Diagram 34, as we saw in our previous example, the winning move is b6!, denying Black's king access to key square c7. But suppose White plays something else, such as 1. Kc5? There will follow 1 ... Kc7 (black keeps the opposition and prevents White from getting his King in front of the pawn) 2. b6+ (after any King move, black plays ... Kb6) Kb7 3. Kb5 Kb8! (the king must move straight back - any other move loses, for example 3 ... Kc8 4. Kc6 Kb8 5. b7 zugzwang) 4. Kc6 (or 4. Ka6 Ka8 5. b7+ Kb8 6. Kb6 stalemate) Kc8 5. b7+ Kb8 6. Kb6 stalemate. Key squares aside, the superior side must still play accurately to nail down the win. Let's see how young Bobby Fischer handled this type of ending; Fischer-Bisguier, U.S. Championship 1958. In Diagram 35, GM Arthur Bisguier has just played 81... Rd7, offering to trade Rooks, apparently believing the simple K+P ending is drawn. 82. Rxd7! Kxd7 83. Ka5! For an interior pawn on the 5th rank, key squares are a6, a7, b6, b7, c6 and c7. White must not allow Black's king to reach the b7 square. 83... Kc7. Rook pawns (pawns on the a- or h-files) have their own version of key squares. The key squares are b1 and b2 for black's a-pawn, b7 and b8 for white's a-pawn. Key squares are g1 and g2 for black's h-pawn, g7 and g8 for white's h-pawn. In Diagram 36, Seirawan-Alburt, Berkeley 1984, the key squares are b1 and b2 (marked by black circles). \|Diagram 36. Position\| after 67 ... Kxe5 The game continued 68. Kf3, entering "the square" and easily catching the lone pawn if advanced. 68 ... Kd4! Black seizes the "knight opposition" (keeping a knight's move between Kings) which he can maintain all the way across the board, and white resigned. If 69. Ke2 Kc3 70. Kd1 Kb2. Black's King occupies a key square and the black pawn cannot be stopped. The Defender's King It seems every "rule" has an exception. Here's the one for key squares. \|Diagram 37. Position\| after 85 ... Kg8 Diagram 37. is Golombek-Pomar, London 1946. Play continued: 86. Kh6! (not 86. Kf6, Kh8 87. g6? the (dreaded) exception to the rule: white Knight pawn on the 6th rank and black's King in the corner. If the white King occupies a square adjacent to the pawn on the 7th or 8th rank and black has the move, the position is a stalemate.) 86 ... Kh8 87. g6 Kg8 88. g7 Kf7 89. Kh7 1-0. Rather than trying to memorize such exceptions, a disciplined player always looks for stalemate situations before making a move. Developing such habits will avoid this and similar pitfalls. \|Diagram 38. Position after 60. Kh3\| Diagram 38. leads to the same situation with colors reversed. Maroczy-Marshall, Monte Carlo 1903, continued 60. ... g4+ 61. Kh2 Kf2 62. Kh1 Kg3! (not ... g3? stalemate) and white resigned due to 63.Kg1 Kh3 64. Kh1 g3 65. Kg1 g2 zugzwang 66. Kf2 Kh2 etc. and the pawn queens. The opposition is a key element in winning vs. drawing King and pawn endings. And, of course, the opposition is the key to the basic checkmates. The novice player must understand opposition: what it is, how to determine who has it, how it can be gained or lost, and especially what can be accomplished with it. The opposition is not an end in itself, but the means to an end: penetrating the position with the King, seizing more space (especially key squares) and ultimately forcing the opposing King to abandon (zugzwang!) its blockade of the \|39a. 39b. 39c.\| When only one square separates them, two Kings are said to be in direct opposition. Diagram 39a. shows direct opposition on a file, 39b. is direct opposition on a rank and 39c. is diagonal (direct) opposition. The yellow squares form a "no man's land" which neither King may occupy. The side which does NOT have the move holds the opposition; the side on the move cannot advance toward the enemy King and must give way. Note: in 39a and 39b, the King who has the opposition will be able to occupy at least one of those yellow squares after the opponent moves his King. Diagonal opposition (39c) may not result in such an immediate gain, but eventually will resolve into one of the other two types. At the very least, diagonal opposition forces the opposing King to take "the long way 'round" while trying to reach an Diagram 40a. demonstrates distant opposition. If two Kings oppose each other on the same line (file, rank or diagonal) at a distance, we determine who will hold the opposition by counting the squares between them. If an odd number (1, 3 or 5), the side which does NOT have the move will hold the opposition as the two Kings approach each other. If an even number of squares (2, 4 or 6) separates them, the side whose turn it is to move will hold the opposition. That's pretty straightforward, but what if the Kings are far apart and not aligned for easy counting? Zugswang is a German chess term meaning "compulsion to move." A player is in zugzwang when his position cannot be improved, but he is compelled by the rules of the game to take his turn. A player in zugzwang must make a move that weakens his position and/or loses the game. Diagram 41. above is a classic zugzwang endgame position. If white has the move, the game is drawn, either 1. Kb6 stalemate, or 1. K-any other legal move and there follows 1... Kxb7, draw due to insufficient checkmating material. If Black has the move then he is in zugzwang and must play 1 ... Ka7 and there follows 2. Kc7 Ka6 and mate in three: 3. b8Q Ka5 4. Qb3 Ka6 5. Qb6#. Diagram 42. is another example. Key squares for the c4-pawn are b6, c6 and d6. If white has the move he can make no progress. Black will take the direct opposition no matter where white moves his king and the position will be drawn by repetition. Or (after 1. Kd5 Kd7) White can push his pawn: 2. c5 Kc7 3. c6 Kc8 4. Kd6 Kd8 5. c7+ Kc8 and we've reached a drawn position. However, with Black to move in Diagram 41, White has the opposition and wins: 1 ... Kb7 2. Kd6 (or 1 ... Kd7 2. Kb6 etc.) Kc8 (2 ... Kb8? 3. Kd7!) 3. Kc6! Kb8 4. Kd7 White controls the queening square c8 and the pawn cannot be stopped. Triangulation and the Reserved Tempo When we speak of triangulation, people immediately think of a King maneuvering on three adjacent squares that form a "triangle," while the opposing King can only move "back and forth" on two squares. Thus, the king with three squares is able to gain the opposition, reaching the identical position but with the opposing King now forced to move. Indeed, we saw the white King triangulate to seize a key square in the solution to Diagram 33. above: Kd5-Kd6-Kc6 (moving directly to c6 would result in a draw.) A pawn move that forces the opponent's King into zugzwang will gain the opposition, too. "Triangulation" doesn't describe the forward movement of a pawn, so we refer to such a move as a reserved tempo (a move in reserve.) In a basic K+P vs. K ending, "losing a move" can be accomplished by the King or the pawn! Some examples follow: \|Diagram 43. White to move\| Diagram 43 above, White to move. White can make no progress with King moves because Black holds direct opposition. So white must play 1. c4!, "losing a move" and now black is in "zugzwang" because white has gained the opposition. The winning process should be quite familiar by now: if 1 ... Kb7 2. Kd6 (or 1 ... Kd7 2. Kb6 etc.) Kc8 (2 ... Kb8? 3. Kd7!) 3. Kc6! Kb8 4. Kd7 White controls the queening square c8 and the pawn cannot be stopped. Diagram 42. is also an example of why leading with the King (and not the pawn) is the correct procedure. By not pushing a passed pawn too soon, the superior side has one, sometimes two "extra" moves stored up. Reserved tempi are like money in the bank ... spend them only when you need to. Position after 65 ... Ka6 Diagram 44 is Botvinnik-Flohr, Moscow 1944. King moves are futile because black holds direct opposition. There followed 66.b4! Ka7 67.b5! Kb8 (if ... Ka8 68. Kc7 Ka7 69. b6+ Ka8 70. b7+ and queens next move) 68.Kb6, gaining the opposition and black resigned due to 68 ... Kc8 69. Ka7 (or ... Ka8 69. Kc7) Kc7 70. b6+ and the pawn advances to b8. \|Diagram 45. White to move\| In Diagram 45. above, Black has just played ... Bc7, preventing Nd8 or Ne5 after which Nf7+ is an unavoidable smothered mate. But White has a reserved tempo; the winning move is h6! and now Black is in zugzwang - he must move his Bishop and give-up control of d8 or e5. \|Diagram 46. White to move\| In Diagram 46. we have K + N vs K + RP. White holds the opposition; his task is to force Black to "burn" his final reserve tempo, instead of moving his King back and forth on the a-file to obtain a draw. But the pawn is no match for the mobile knight, which can gain / lose a tempo at will. White wins by 1. Nf3 Ka1 2. Nd4 Ka2 3. Ne2 Ka1 4. Nc1 (zugzwang!) a2 5. Nb3#. \|Diagram 47. Black to move\| In Diagram 47, black has the move. White's King is well within "the square" and so black's King must support the g-pawn's advance. The key squares are f4, g4 and h4. Black only needs to occupy one of them to make progress. If 1... Kf7? 2. Ke3 Kf6 3. Kf4! draw. However, after 1. ... Kg7!, the black King is two files closer to the key square h4 than is white's King. 2. Ke3 Kh6 3. Kf4(or 3. Kf3) Kh5! black's King has out-flanked his opponent's King. 4. Kg3 (4. Kf3 Kh4 5. Kg2 Kg4 6. Kh2 Kf3 7. Kh1 Kg3 8. Kg1 g5 9. Kh1 Kf2 10. Kh2 g4 11. Kh1 Kg3 12. Kg1 Kh3 13. Kh1 g3 14. Kg1 g2 15. Kf2 Kh2 16. Kf3 g1Q) Kg5 5. Kg2 Kg4 6. Kg1(6. Kh2 Kf3 7. Kh1 g5 8. Kg1 g4 9. Kh2 Kf2 10. Kh1 Kg3 11. Kg1 Kh3 12. Kh1 g3 13. Kg1 g2 14. Kf2 Kh2 15. Kf3 g1Q) Kg3 7. Kh1 g5 8. Kg1 g4 9. Kh1 (9. Kf1 Kh2 10. Kf2 g3+ 11. Ke3 g2 12. Ke4 g1Q) Kf2 10. Kh2 g3+ 11. Kh1 (11. Kh3 g2 12. Kg4 g1Q+) g2+ 12. Kh2 g1=Q+ 13. Kh3 Qg3#. The final example is not technically K+P vs K, but it further illustrates the idea of out-flanking in a typical "king and pawn" endgame. Richard Réti published an endgame study in 1921, demonstrating how a lone king, hopelessly out of "the square," nevertheless can get into "the square" by making threats which gain tempi (moves) for the defender. This technique became known as the "Réti Maneuver," and is another form of out-flanking. \|Diagram 48. \| Position after 59 ... Kxb1 Diagram 48. is Yates-Marshall, Karlsbad 1929. Marshall utilizes Reti's theme in an actual tournament game. White would like to play 60. f4, as black obviously cannot catch the pawn. But black has a powerful counter-threat, a passed pawn much closer to the a1 square than white's pawn is to f8. Play continued 60.Kb4 (forced) Kb2! (not 60. ... Kc2? 61. f4 wins. The text threatens ... a3 and black's pawn, now protected, will queen first.) 61.Kxa4 (forced) Kc3 62.f4 Kd4! and Black's King is inside "the square." The white King has been out-flanked and cannot come to the aid of its pawn. Here a draw was agreed. Six Rules for the Basic 1. Lead (do not follow) the passed pawn with the King. A corollary is do not get in a hurry to push the pawn; instead, play to get the King in front of the passer where it can fight for the opposition. Another corollary: if the weaker side can maintain the opposition, preventing the opposing king from getting in front of its pawn, the game will be drawn. We have briefly mentioned the opening, middle game, endgame and, of course, basic checkmates. Although we divide a chess game into these arbitrary phases for convenience of study, a chess game is an integrated whole. One cannot play the opening without regard for the middle game to follow, and similarly, what will transpire in the ending is greatly influenced by preceding middle game play. Unfortunately, novice players often rush to study tricks and traps in the openings, or else concentrate on middle game tactics, combinations, and mating attacks. Among players of equal skill, games are rarely decided in the opening or middle game. It is in the endgame that advantages accumulated during opening or middle game play are either brought to fruition or neutralized. John W. Collins, an American master who mentored young Bobby Fischer and co-authored an edition of Modern Chess Openings, called the endgame the North Star for opening and middle game play. Endgames should be studied first; after proficiency with the basic checkmates, master the basic King + pawn vs. King endgame . Next, begin a systematic study of pawn endings followed by rook and pawn endings (we have given introductory explanations of two well-known KRP vs KR endings, the Lucena and the Philidor positions, in the glossary.) After that, study endgames involving various combinations of queens, rooks, and minor pieces, with and without pawns. Next tackle middle game theory, especially analysis of position, as this is what tells a player when to attack, when to defend or when to transition into a favorable endgame. Tactics training, developing an "eye" for mating attacks and combinations, can be started any time and should be a daily activity for active players. Finally comes the in-depth study of opening theory (to develop one's opening repertoire) and master games. This last phase remains an ongoing process throughout a player's career! Chess is inexhaustible; the more we learn, the more we realize how little we know of its secrets. The ancient Hindu proverb sums it up nicely: "Chess is a sea in which a gnat may drink and an elephant bathe." \|[return to homepage]\|	221,904
Steve Ayers is quickly becoming the most prolific newspaper reporter of geologic-related stories in Arizona. His latest piece in the Verde News is a history of the Camp Verde meteorite. It was reportedly discovered by a pot hunter who uncovered a burial cyst in ~800-year old Sinagua ruins above West Clear Creek in 1927 (although some sites say it was 1915). Wrapped in a feather blanket was the 135 pound piece of iron that ultimately was determined to be part of the Canyon Diablo meteorite that created Meteor Crater. It was named the Camp Verde Meteorite by famed meteor collector Harold Nininger who acquired it in 1939 and eventually sold it along with his large collection, to ASU, where it sits now. Archeologists speculate that the presence of the meteorite so far from where it apparently impacted, is evidence of the indigenous peoples respect for the object, something supported by it's reverent burial in the ruins. Tarbellastraea raulini Coral Fossil 3 days ago	40,902
The primary day of faculty can also be disturbing for youngsters of every age, however specifically kindergarteners, whether they’ve dipped their feet in the study room waters of preschool or daycare. The Kingston Town College District’s Kindergarten Academy used to be designed to modify all of that. Remaining week, fundamental colleges around the KCSD held Kindergarten Academies, with incoming scholars have the danger to get a really feel for his or her new faculty forward of the hustle and bustle of the beginning of the college 12 months. Assistant Superintendent for Basic Schooling Stacia Felicello mentioned this system began a number of years in the past, the usage of Identify I investment to open a Kindergarten Academy in George Washington and John F. Kennedy fundamental colleges, either one of which fall between the 70-80 p.c poverty vary. “We felt we in point of fact sought after to present the scholars and households a transition to university,” Felicello mentioned. “This system used to be designed to run per week of part days the place the kindergartners may come into the study room, turn out to be acclimated with the college, and discover ways to simply navigate easy such things as the lunch line. The ones issues are simply new to kindergarten scholars.” The Kindergarten Academy additionally offers folks a possibility to invite questions and notice how kindergarten will paintings for his or her youngsters. “It’s designed to get our folks as companions early on and feature them turn out to be a part of the college neighborhood,” Felicello mentioned. Because the district persevered growing transition systems for college kids making the jump from one degree of schooling to the following, it additionally started increasing the Kindergarten Academy to its different fundamental colleges. “We discovered that the transitional years have been in point of fact tricky for our scholars,” Felicello mentioned. This 12 months, the Kindergarten Academy operated all through the final complete week of August, with colleges with the best wishes — George Washington and J.F.Ok. — going 4 days. Crosby, Chambers and Edson fundamental colleges each and every presented a two-day Kindergarten Academy, whilst Graves and Myer went for at some point each and every. “I do know the entire colleges would love the 4 days, however we prioritized it in keeping with the decided wishes from the State (Schooling Division),” Felicello mentioned. Scholars arriving for the Kindergarten Academy meet with their trainer and educating assistants, in addition to the college nurse. They get acclimated to the study room with introductory initiatives and discover ways to navigate the college construction. Felicello mentioned easing kindergartners into the college enjoy will get their instructional 12 months off to a excellent get started. Felicello, previously a foremost at each George Washington and Chambers fundamental colleges, mentioned even then she spotted how neatly Kindergarten Academy scholars — and their folks — adjusted to their new setting. “It went from 5 – 6 scholars who have been hysterically sobbing, and oldsters sobbing, at the first day of faculty or the primary week to actually none,” she mentioned. “It took away that nervousness, which, you understand, helps to keep our scholars from in point of fact adjusting. It took away the worry.” As a result of the Kindergarten Academy, Felicello mentioned, scholars arrive for the primary day of faculty able to take at the global. “They know some buddies of their lecture room already, they know their trainer, they know their setting,” she mentioned. “They know what to do once they walked in. And our folks know what to do once they’re bringing their scholars to university. They weren’t so fearful about strolling them to the study room. It simply in point of fact places everybody’s thoughts comfy.” Felicello mentioned the Kindergarten Academy is a two-way boulevard, making the transition more straightforward for educators as neatly. “It’s been in point of fact, in point of fact superb for even the principals,” Felicello mentioned. “They get extra time to only meet the households, communicate to them about how you can be an concerned mother or father, speak about what they may be able to do to reinforce their kid at house.” The primary day of faculty is Wednesday, September 7.	72,464
All-in-one Amiga computers (500, 600, 1200) have metal shielding surrounding the mainboard. It is in two parts, one below the mainboard and one on top. The mainboard is physically linked to the lower part by the hex bolts that are either side of most of the rear I/O ports and the screws that attach the mainboard to the lower plastic outer case. Then the upper part of the shielding attaches to the lower part by bending small metal tabs to hold it in place (a bit like the metal tabs on the back of most types of picture frame). What are the consequences of not fitting and using the metal shielding? Either no shielding at all, or fitting just the lower shielding and removing the upper part. I expect that this means that it would probably fail some EMI emissions tests in some countries, meaning that the manufacturer would not get permission to sell the computer. Let's disregard this aspect since the manufacturer is no longer making and selling these computers. What are the practical aspects that I, as a user, would see? - Would the computer still operate normally with either or both parts of the shielding removed, or is the shielding necessary for operation? (e.g. by connecting electrical ground to different parts that require it) - Would the computer still be reliable, or would EMI interference cause noticeable effects such as crashes? - Would other nearby electrical devices be affected in any noticeable way by the Amiga's EMI emissions?	66,294
Krista Dalton wrote an article for Ancient Jew Review about using Harry Potter to explore canon. Here is an excerpt from the article: The exercise generated intuitive criteria that the students used to construct their canon lists. I did not have to tell them to think about authorship, divine inspiration, or antiquity; they felt the intuitive pulls themselves. They found themselves weighing what they meant by authorship and what forms were deserving of canonicity. They were torn by the interjection of “outside” voices weighing in on the persona of Harry and frustrated by new technological mediums. Even the quietest students suddenly had something to say about textual canons, when the subject was Harry Potter. I strategically used this moment of unguarded interest to humanize the process of writing, compiling, and canonizing scriptural texts. The authors and compilers of antique Jewish and Christian literature were just as invested in the biblical ecosystem as the authors and fans of the Harry Potter wizarding world. In short, the students experienced just how impassioned and fraught canon lists can be. Using modern fan cultures to teach the formation of the Bible is a dynamic tactic to breakdown the rigid presence of canon. It is difficult to suspend modern teleologies informed by religious traditions and the printing press in order to engage the porous canon processes of the ancient world. By expanding the definition of sacred from stable text to imaginal world, we are better able to teach the relationship of ancient readers and hearers to a wide textual corpus prior to rigid canon boundaries. Further, thinking through the lens of modern canon debates demonstrates how canons remain living entities, ever-evolving as fans choose which texts to emphasize and which to ignore. Fans of Harry Potter and fans of the biblical ecosystem have more in common than our students would immediately recognize, making this activity an excellent way to bridge the modern and ancient worlds. Click through to read more details about the assignment that was used and how students responded. I think I should write a piece about Canon: The Card Game and pedagogy for AJR. It seems like a perfect fit. The only question is what, if anything, still can usefully be added after Dalton’s article…	16,530
Country Program Evaluation: Mexico (1990-2000) Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) This report (RE-259) presents the Office of Evaluation and Oversight's evaluation of the Bank's program with Mexico from 1990 to 2000. This evaluation is based on the standard evaluative criteria adopted by the Evaluation Cooperation Group of the multilateral development banks: relevance, efficiency of delivery-implementation, focus, and effectiveness. The purpose of the exercise is to improve the development effectiveness of the Bank's program. From the evaluation are drawn out recommendations as inputs to the discussion of how to improve the Bank's performance in the country. Our evaluation of the Bank's Mexico program, despite some positive experiences, identifies shortcomings in each of the evaluative dimensions; and these findings should have implications for subsequent programming cycles. Five core recommendations are offered for consideration in subsequent programming cycles: improve knowledge transfer, define priorities, specify results and introduce accountability, re-emphasize completeness of project design and progress data, and introduce a pro-poor tilt to all Bank operations.	203,555
The prime minister is due to meet with Governor General Julie Payette at 1400 GMT and ask her to dissolve parliament Justin Trudeau on Wednesday will officially kick off what is set to be a grueling campaign for a second term as he takes on surging rivals in Canada's October 21 national elections. The prime minister is due to meet with Governor General Julie Payette at 1400 GMT and ask her to dissolve parliament. The election campaign can then officially begin, although political leaders and parties have already been wooing voters with pre-election ads, announcements and whistle stops in key battlegrounds across the country. Elected in 2015, Trudeau and the Liberal Party will be battling to hold onto a majority in parliament against untested rivals Andrew Scheer of the Conservatives and New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh, as well as the strengthening Greens led by Elizabeth May. Voters will choose all 338 members of the House of Commons, with the latest poll on Tuesday showing the Liberals reclaiming a slight lead over the Tories. Accusations of Trudeau meddling in a criminal prosecution sent the Liberals' popularity tumbling at the start of the year. Climate change and affordability are widely predicted to be the main issues in the campaign. This is the best that Canada can do for leadership ... WOW. https://t.co/611QvJIssp— James D. W. Lush (@JamestheLush) September 10, 2019 The Canadian economy is strong, posting second-quarter growth of 3.7% and almost half a million new jobs created in the last year. But the economic gains have not been widely felt, and Canadians have increasingly expressed concern about a rising cost of living. The Bank of Canada also warned last week that the economy, facing international headwinds, will slow in the second half of the year, with economists worried about a prolonged trade war between the world's two biggest economies, the US and China. Trudeau's mixed first term Throughout his first term, Trudeau cast himself as a champion in the fight against global warming, while Scheer has vowed to roll back a federal carbon levy as his first act in office, if elected. The Liberals over the past four years legalized cannabis, boosted Canada's resettlement of refugees, negotiated a new continental free trade deal with the US and Mexico, and concluded trade pacts with the EU and Pacific nations. The Trudeau government also oversaw the largest military procurement in Canadian history, to replace aging warships and fighter jets. But Trudeau's political agenda was often sidelined by crises, including diplomatic and trade rows with the US, India, Saudi Arabia and China. China has detained two Canadian nationals in apparent retaliation for Canada's arrest of a Chinese tech executive on a US warrant. As host of the 2018 G7 summit, Trudeau found himself the target of accusations of weakness and dishonesty by US President Donald Trump after the US suddenly pulled out of the joint final statement. Nationalizing an oil pipeline to salvage the construction project after years of delays due to protests and legal challenges also drew the ire of environmental activists that year. But Trudeau's golden boy image suffered the worst hit after he expelled from the Liberal Party two senior ministers -- both women, one of them Canada's first indigenous attorney general -- for criticizing his alleged meddling in the prosecution of engineering giant SNC-Lavalin to try to save jobs. The move undercut his feminist appeal and soured reconciliation with indigenous peoples. In recent months, the Liberals managed to claw back some of that lost support. According to Mainstreet Research, the Liberals now have 38% support, versus 34% for the Tories. The survey of 1,876 Canadians was conducted from September 6 to 8, with a 2.3% margin of error. The polling data also showed that the Green Party, with 11% support, could leapfrog the New Democrats at 8% to claim third place in parliament for the first time. The Greens currently have only two seats in the lower house. The second was only won in a by-election in May.	263,278
\|Life Magazine. 16 Feb, 1948.\| An american construction company employed a 25 year old ex-G.I. from Brooklyn named Russell K. Haight Jr. who during World War 2 had been a non-combatant in France fighting for Canadian Army. After a fall from a cliff, he decided to head back home.But a chance encounter with officials operating the war in Kashmir took him to the Poonch front in southwestern Kashmir where he took part in fighting for two months. At that time all he knew was that Kashmir had a Dogra king and he didn't like that. With his american no-fuss attitude he was soon promoted to brigradier general in the tribal army, a rank he later claimed was given to him as a joke by British army officers. On the front he learnt to handle the maundering and looting tribals by playing upon their vanities and tribal rivalries. But his big american dream of action-adventure did not last long. He got into a fight with Pathans over some machine guns recovered from a downed Indian Air Force place. He killed the guys and became a fugitive. After arriving back in America via Karachi, in an interview with Robert Turnball for New York Times, he created a few ripples by claiming that the fighting in Kashmir was managed by Pakistan Army, that the land proclaimed as Azad Kashmir was managed by a puppet of Pakistan. That there had been assasination attempts on his life for criticizing the way the war was being handled. And yet he remained sympathetic to the "cause". After the news spread, a communist paper in India claimed him to be an american spy and proof of American meddling in internal affairs of other countries.Around the same time an american author from New York named Nicol Smith (Golden doorway to Tibet, 1949) claimed there was some pro-Russia activity happening in Leh, that the Yarkhandi traders in Leh may be Russian agents. He claimed that there was a chance that the king of Leh may seek help from Russia and seek a separate way out. The old great game just kept going on with old and new players. In 1967, Russell K. Haight retired from U.S. army as a sergeant-major after a long career of fighting in Korea, Germany, Bolivia and Vietnam. After he passed away in 2006, there was small news item in an Indian paper on the american man who fought for the other side. The Limits of influence: America's Role in Kashmir by Howard B. Schaffer (2009)	242,994
U.S. soybean markets have been supported by robust trade with China. Current commitments to China are 75 million bushels higher than last year, but down for nearly every other country. Clearly, the U.S. is carefully monitoring China’s seasonal move to South American supplies and the weather reports from South America. The price support from Chinese demand is vulnerable to a seasonal shift to South American supplies and the Chinese fulfilling their stock-building agenda. The industry is questioning the price-supporting potential, due to lower wheat and cotton acreage. Still, soybeans are expected to need a substantial increase in acreage to meet projected demand.	93,433
Ovation: Facebook Reunites Sisters After Seventy-Two Years. As of October 2012, social media juggernaut Facebook reached one billion users. Like me, you’re probably one of them. Facebook has become a wonderful tool in many of our lives, a way to reconnect with friends from the past, keep in touch with distant relatives and to meet new friends. We share pictures, play games, read the news or just complain. Facebook has changed since it was first introduced and will continue to evolve as users grow and their interests change. Many have complained about the company since it went public last year and worry that Facebook will turn from pleasing users to pleasing investors. Many recent changes have upset the fan base and worries about privacy are frequently in the news. Personally, I’ve had enough of friends inviting me to share my birthday. Facebook can often be quite frustrating. But it’s certainly made a positive difference in at least two lives. Sisters from Bosnia, 88-year-old Tanija Delic and Hedija Talic, 82, recently found each other after spending 72 years apart. Facebook was instrumental in reuniting the sisters who were separated from each other in 1941 during World War II. Their family was fleeing their hometown of Budimlic Japra in northwestern Bosnia at the time, when then 11-year-old Talic became lost and was taken in by an orphanage. It wasn’t until decades later, when Talic’s son began searching for his family roots online, that she became close to finding the location of her long-lost older sister — someone who, as it turns out, was living only about 130 miles away. The two plan to continue their online search for other family members, particularly hoping to locate their brother. Social media can sometimes be frustrating. But, if it can help reunite sisters after seventy-two years, imagine what else it can do. Like this post? Follow the blog and get involved in discussions! Find “Follow via Email” on the right side of the page and click “Follow.” Buttons for Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook are there, too! Copyright © 2013 www.DiatribesAndOvations.com From → Ovations	270,813
Doc’s Talk by Andrew Laurence: A teleological question: Why do our eyes point straight ahead? Think about it, next week Dr. Scaff will give you the answer. Believe it or not, this all relates to running in the long run. Dr. Scaff talked about heat, how it benefits us, how it hurts us. In previous weeks, Dr. Scaff likened your body to an engine or a car: You have a motor, a carburetor, a distribution system, fuel, and of course the byproduct or work is always heat. You cannot work without heat, and just like a car can overheat, you can overheat. At rest your temperature is somewhere between 98°F and 99.4°F. As we start exercising, our core temperature starts to go up. After about an hour your temperature is between 100°F and 101°F, and that is the optimal temperature for exercise. However, the byproduct of work is further heat and as temperature starts to increase you start to get into problems. When the temperature reaches 104°F, heat stroke can occur. Heat stroke, untreated can be 90% fatal. When your temperature gets to about 107° it is fatal. Long distance running is one of the few sports where we can train you to run through the signs, i.e. we can train you to kill yourself. After you have run an hour or 2 your temperature is 100°F – 101°F, and then you stop your temperature slowly decays back to normal over 5 or 6 hours. During that time, your basal metabolic rate is higher, you are burning more calories, so you are burning your own fat. It is a wonderful, wonderful situation to be in as long as it is not too good a situation. You don’t want to be running with a temperature of 99°F and you don’t want to be running with a temperature of 104°F. Temperature starts to increase as you excessively sweat. When you have lost about 5 – 10% of your body weight, core temperature starts to increase, there is just not enough fluid in the veins and arteries to dissipate heat. So just figure out what 5% of your body weight is (5 lbs if you are 100 lbs, 7.5 lbs if you are 150 lbs). If you’ve lost more than that you are losing too much. So water balance is extremely important. And although it is said that you should not drink until you get thirsty, that is a fatal approach. For more information on heat, heat stroke, and related topics, read Your First Marathon – The Last Word In Long Distance Running, by Jack H. Scaff Jr., M.D., F.A.C.S.M., available for purchase at the Honolulu Marathon Clinic on Sundays and online at: http://yourfirstmarathon.net/buy-online-today/ Next week: Heat exchange. To read full, unabridged summaries of the Doc’s Talks: 1) Go to the Honolulu Marathon Clinic web site (http://honolulumarathonclinic.org/) 2) Look under the “Categories” listing. 3) Click on “Doc’s Talk”. Thanks to staffers Donna May and Tamara for doing another great job at table duty! As usual, everything was great! Advanced Group by David FitzPatrick (Pace < 9:00 min. per mile) Hi folks! The advanced group welcomes everyone. Our goal is to run the marathon under 4 hours. To accomplish this you must run a 9:00/mile pace or faster. You should be running a minimum of 30-35-mile/week at this time, with speed work and hill training during the week. Please remember the 10% rule: all racing, intervals, and sprints should not exceed 10% of total mileage. The advanced group met at Kawaikui Beach Park at 6:15 am, ran about seven miles at an 8:30 min/mile pace to hear Doc’s talk. We ran back to the beach park for a total of about fourteen miles. Same workout next week as we gently build endurance. Good luck to our friends tapering for the North Shore marathon next week. Nancy and I will try to fill Les Young’s role going forward, and we really appreciate Les’s guidance and wisdom. As a reminder: Rules of the road: 1) No headsets. 2) Run single file when encountering pedestrians and bikers. 3) Stop for traffic signals. 4) Do not step on utility covers if avoidable. 5) Keep one eye on the running path and one eye ahead. 6) Carry ID and emergency contact info. 7) Follow the Staff Leader. Pre-run check: 1) You passed the Pee Test. 2) You are properly covered with sunscreen and a cap if you don’t have enough hair protection. 3) You ate a runner’s breakfast. 4) You are not running with pain. Running attire: 1) Correct running shoes. 2) Golden Rule-No Cotton. Pink Group by Rosie Adam-Terem: (9:45-10:45 min. per mile) The Pink group has split up temporarily because our usual leaders are unavailable for various reasons. There is a sub-group of Pink runners who start at 6 a.m. and end in time for Dr. Scaff’s talk. They run earlier in the summer and as the runs get longer. Rosie will be on the injury list for an unknown length of time (skiing is great, falling not so much!) but will come down to the clinic to meet with the group on Sunday. The shoe talk was informative today, and affords attendees a 20% discount on footwear from the Running Room. Thanks Gaston for your support! Don’t forget the first picnic on May 5th. Sign up for your potluck contribution and come with $1 on the day for a feast among friends. The Pinks should be running 6-8 miles on Sundays in April with two to three weekday runs in between. In May, we will start 8-10 miles for our long runs at a 9:45 -10:00 moving pace Silver Group by Lynnae Lee: (Pace- 11:00 – 12:00 mi. per mile) Volunteer staff leader Alberto returned to clinic finally, but wanted to take it easy on a “test run” at a slower pace. So he and Mickey set out with their own small group. Thus, the Silvers joined the Gray group again. Andy, Ron, and Ivie were very gracious in welcoming the Silvers for today’s run. Andy and Ron gave a brief tutorial on how to run hills, immediately followed by opportunities to test out their theories (Andy admitted that his theory needs to undergo further testing). The large group of 30 split at Triangle Park, with half the group going to the Shoe Talk, while Jess and Mindy lead the rest to the gas station for 8 miles. The weather conditions felt like July!!! We could feel every bit of the 98% humidity in the air. I was glad that today’s run was short because the heat made it really uncomfortable. We discovered the best part about hills – the downhills. The Shoe Talk was very informative and provided a good opportunity for HMCers to ask questions. The snacks were also a welcome treat! It became apparent that volunteer staff leader Ron is a wealth of information; we can pick his brain on any aspects of running as the year progresses. HOMEWORK: Continue to do 2 homework runs of 60 minutes minimum duration with a rest day in between. Speed and pace do not matter at this point. You just want to get your body used to being in motion for a set duration. I’m still recycling shoe boxes for needy children, and will gladly accept your donation. Bring them on April 21st or later. They will be decorated and filled with goodies for kids for the holidays. Good luck to those HMCers participating in the Boston and North Shore marathons next week! Have a good run. White Group by Blair Hoashi (Pace – 12:00 – 13:00 min. per mile) Our largest group to date, 52 members, made up our group today. A few were members of the Blue Group whose staff leader Andy is still juggling his schedule between tennis competition and work. Leaders Val and Blair were fortunate as our “senior regulars” (experienced regulars) Diane, Gary, Russell, and others assisted in leading and organizing the large group. At Triangle Park, Blair led about one third of the group back to attend the shoe talk. Diane and Val continued on and did the usual 6 miler with the rest of the group. A few of our other members joining us this morning were Quen, Monica, Jann (welcome back; where’s Sondra?), Glenda, Clyde, Dayna, Stacey, the two ladies back from our 2007 group, and Gary. I will get to know more of you as long as you continue showing up on Sunday. Guru Sam should be back next week and also hope that leader Dwight will rejoin us soon! We continue our 6 milers for the time being. As usual, Gaston’s Shoe Talk at the Running Room was informative and entertaining. I didn’t know that they had a 30 day return policy (within reason, of course). (All walking speeds and 13-minute mile > running pace.) Sweet Sixteens by Cliff Hand It was a nice day for our first ascent of the formidable Mt Diamond Head. Leader Cliff (returned from cross training on the ski slopes of Idaho) challenged the group to pick up the pace going up the hill. And guess what? Nobody complained! After that it was a piece of cake. Our group numbered sixteen and included returnees Jespah, Linda, Chien-Wen and Phyllis (sorry if I missed anyone). Others included Rowan, Alan, Andrea, Kris, Melissa, Frank, Camille, Lynn, Sheila, Dawn, and a few others whose names I haven’t learned yet. Enthusiasm is high! The Green 15’s by Louis Crompton: Green 15 had 12 attending today as we went out for a 4.8 mi excursion… we overshot the 15 min / mile time by 40 seconds… couldn’t have been the heat, humidity and vog, we’re tougher than that… let’s blame it on the LONG red light. Lou [this time wearing his costlier $14 walking shoes] was out in front, Bailey breathing on his neck, Scott guarding the flank, and Karen protecting the rear. Good grouping, we all made it back safely and hardly breaking a sweat. Next week: about the same distance, around DH loop and a jaunt past KCC to see what’s happening there on a Sunday morn. Plan to be back in under 1-15 if you have a date… Be sure to do your two 1 hr homework runs and be careful… See you all next Sunday, bring a friend. Aloha. Gold Group 14’s by Dean Takeshige: This is the first week of April and we had 26 in our group. The morning was hot humid and voggy. This month we are keeping the mileage the same at 4 miles but changing the route. We are doing our favorite part of the Marathon route coming down Diamond Head road. For the first timers remember what it feels like going up Diamond Head, this will get easier. If it doesn’t then come see me and ….. Today was the second shoe talk geared for the advanced runners and anyone who couldn’t make the first talk 2 weeks ago. We had about 4 who were planning to attend the talk. We had them turn around at the first water stop going up Diamond Head road and head back so they would have enough time to get to the shoe talk. For the rest of us we continued to Triangle park. We had a good run, still working on our hand signals for single file, watch out for hazards and we will be stopping. We ran 4.21 miles in 1 hour and eleven minutes and burned 403 cals. Do your homework, 2 runs for at least an hour. We will see you next Sunday. Da Comment Corner: Doc on KZOO: Japanese radio station KZOO AM 1210 interviews Doc, Sensei Norm and Maile about the Clinic this Friday at 6 p.m. There is also video streaming at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/kzoo-radio-shirokiya-studio. Let’s all tune in! The broadcast is held at Shirokiya at Ala Moana Center so check them out if you are in the neighborhood. See you at the water stops,	46,054
Poker is an immensely popular activity. However, if you want to become a successful player you need to understand how it works. The goal is to make as much money as you can, and to win consistently. You can learn more about poker by using the many online resources available. Here are some of the top resources: These resources will help you understand poker and its rules, and will help you become an excellent player. IDNPoker has numerous skins, but the most popular ones include ShenPoker, SiamPoker, and Pokerdee. These sites are known for their two-factor security and secure payments. In addition, they fight against bots and unfair games. In addition, the IDNPoker client is fully translated into English. Poker is an exciting game, but it’s easy to get lost in the excitement and suspense. You can learn how to play poker through online resources and blogs. Poker forums, blogs, and videos are an excellent source of information about the game. You can also watch poker live streaming videos through Twitch. Learning how to play poker is much easier when you’re learning from a trustworthy source. There are many ways to win at poker. You can choose to play single-player or multi-player games. The more challenging and interesting games require more knowledge and strategy. Fortunately, there are plenty of free online resources for beginners and advanced players. In addition to learning how to play poker, you can try your luck in online tournaments. IDNPoker first opened its doors in Asia in 2010 and quickly rose to the second position in the PokerScout rankings. As a result, IDNPoker has a strong focus on the Asian market. While other online poker sites have international marketing efforts, IDNPoker only has one website, and focuses on the Asian market. IDN Poker is a game popular in Indonesia. It’s played on servers located in Indonesia, and has a long history. In Indonesia, it’s played on several online poker sites. To be a successful player, you need to know where to find the best IDN poker servers. You can also learn the rules for playing poker in Indonesia. Poker is a game of technique, observation, and planning. If you don’t have the right skills, you will likely lose money. However, if you can master these fundamentals, poker is a great way to earn money. The house edge is low, and the odds favor you. In fact, more people are learning how to play poker professionally.	261,542
Although they both work with the same organthe brain the Western tradition represented by neuroscience and the Eastern tradition represented by meditation seemed to have little to do with each other until Richard Davidson started collaborating with the Dalai Lama. Davidson is a researcher at the University of Wisconsin and a pioneer in the exciting frontier of mind-body medicine. At the university's W.M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior, he is correlating mental and emotional states with observable patterns of brain activity. His best-known work focuses on neuroplasticity, the capacity of the brain to develop and change throughout life, something Western science once thought impossible. By wiring up Tibetan Buddhist monksmasters of the art of dispassionately observing the inner workings of their own mindsDavidson, 54, has been able to demonstrate precisely how meditation alters brain function. His research legitimizes, for scientists as well as monks, the study of internal states of consciousness by linking them to the objective reality of electrical activity in the central nervous system. It also gives us a handle for understanding spiritual experiences that have heretofore seemed purely subjective and beyond the reach of scientific investigation. For example, his work identifies the left prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain behind the left forehead, as a locus of neural activity strongly associated with deep meditation. Davidson's tools are the new technologies of brain science: quantitative electrophysiology, positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging. By identifying interactions between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala (a key center for processing memory and emotion), his studies may lead to new therapeutic approaches for mood and anxiety disorders. Who knows? They may also reveal, we can hope, strategies for protecting ourselves from age-related memory loss and cognitive decline. East and West not only meet in Richard Davidson's laboratory; they are also starting to exchange a great deal of useful information about human experience and human potential. Weil is a TIME columnist and the author of Healthy Aging	23,459
States Unite On Reopening Economies: 'Science — Not Politics — Will Guide' Decisions The governors of New York and California — two of the largest economies in the U.S. — have formed alliances with their respective neighbors to coordinate an eventual easing of COVID-19 shutdowns, posing a potential new obstacle to President Trump's plans to restart the national economy. In separate announcements, the governors said they've agreed to let science, not politics, determine when to lift social and business restrictions. "Any plan to reopen society MUST be driven by data and experts, not opinion and politics," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said shortly before announcing the move. He added, "We will work together as a region." The governors say the measures they're taking to combat COVID-19 and slow its spread won't be effective unless they're all on the same page. But the president — who had previously spoken of restarting the U.S. economy by Easter — insists that he has the authority to open states' economies. One of the coalitions aligns New York with New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Delaware. In the other, California is collaboratingwith its coastal neighbors, Oregon and Washington, to decide when they will lift stay-at-home orders and other restrictions. Hours after Cuomo and his fellow governors announced their plans, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker became the first Republican in either coalition, aligning his state with its neighbors in the Northeast. "Our residents' health comes first," Govs. Gavin Newsom of California, Kate Brown of Oregon and Jay Inslee of Washington said in a joint statement. "As home to one in six Americans and gateway to the rest of the world, the West Coast has an outsized stake in controlling and ultimately defeating COVID-19." "Health outcomes and science — not politics — will guide these decisions," the Western governors said. They cited goals such as protecting vulnerable people from both COVID-19 and the effects of shutdown orders; ensuring health care systems can care for those who may become sick; and developing a system for testing, tracking and isolating people who have been either infected by or exposed to the coronavirus. The governors in the Eastern coalition say they're forming a council that will judge potential steps toward restoring business as usual, with each state contributing three people to the group: one public health expert, one economics expert and the governor. "New Jersey is the densest state in America, and we're in that corridor that is so unique," Gov. Phil Murphy said during a conference call. "It was imperative not to just do the things that we needed to do within our four walls as we closed our state down, but to do it in close coordination with New York and Pennsylvania and Delaware and Connecticut." Trump responded to reports earlier Monday about governors being the ones who decide when to "open up the states," saying via Twitter, "Let it be fully understood that this is incorrect.... ....It is the decision of the President, and for many good reasons. With that being said, the Administration and I are working closely with the Governors, and this will continue." The president, who faces a reelection vote in less than seven months, has shown an eagerness to restart the U.S. economy, which has suffered an extraordinary and painfully swift downturn because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the past three weeks, some 17 million people have filed for unemployment benefits. As the governors announced the new coalitions, some of them characterized the moves as an example of how states, not the federal government, have led the U.S. response to the coronavirus. "Throughout the crisis, the governors are the ones who have been showing great leadership and taking action to keep our residents safe," Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo said. "I think it's only appropriate that we do the same thing now by coming together and showing regional leadership to reopen the economy." More than 570,000 people in the U.S. are confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus. Of that total, 23,000 people have died, including more than 10,000 in New York, according to a COVID-19 dashboard created by Johns Hopkins University's Whiting School of Engineering. New Jersey is reporting some 65,000 cases, followed by Massachusetts and Pennsylvania — each with around 25,000 cases. Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.	81,431
COSSAR participated in and provided membership information to visitors at the Annual Scottish Festival in Highlands Ranch, south of Denver. Color Guard members were located with the Living History section of the festival and demonstrated flintlock firearms preparation and actual firing of black powder blanks with visitors. In addition, mock battles and gun salutes were held. The COSSAR encampment & new enlistments at the Rocky Mountain Scottish Highland Games August 14-15, 2010. Below is shown one of the many firing demonstrations with Colonials, Continentals, Yankees, Confederates and WWII Army living history participants. The command: "Gentlemen, after the first volley, fire at will!" (One of the shirkers replied, "Who's Will?"). Included were members of the Northern Colorado Fife and Drum Corps, Sons of the American Revolution, Sons of Union Veterans, Sons of Confederate Veterans, and the 10th Mountain Division.	239,896
Why is anti-Semitism, at least in its new “respectable” form of anti-Zionism, now found predominantly on the Left of the political spectrum? Why in particular is this new form increasingly common among intellectuals? If we begin by tackling the second question first, we find a curious paradox. Anti-Semitism is one of the oldest and most persistent forms of human irrationality; yet its theoretical basis has always been the work of intellectuals. The paradox can be explained. It is true that intellectuals seek to understand phenomena by reason. But in their search for radical explanations, which excite the mind by their audacity and comprehensiveness, they tend to stumble into gigantic fallacies. Inside many intellectuals there is a conspiracy theory of the universe struggling to get out, and sometimes succeeding. And anti-Semitism is the father of all conspiracy theory. The first layer of anti-Semitism, itself a form of anti-Zionism, was laid down by Manetho, a priest from the intellectual community of Heliopolis in Ptolemaic Egypt, about 280 B.C.E. He presented the Jews as wanderers by nature, descendants of an outcast tribe of lepers, who had no natural land of their own. His theory underlay the response of Hellenistic intellectuals to the disquieting phenomenon of Judaism: they argued that the Jewish rejection of Greek syncretism and universalism was a form of misanthropy; the Jews were a dislocated people without true territorial title deeds, and their Diaspora was a conspiracy-against humankind. This was the intellectual justification for the first systematic persecution of Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes in the 2nd century B.C.E. In Roman times a second layer of theory was added by both Greek and Latin writers: Lysimachus of Alexandria; Apion; Nero’s tutor Chaeremon, who inspired the second great wave of persecutions; and by Horace, Martial, Tacitus, and Juvenal. A third layer was contributed by Christian writers, including some of the greatest doctors of the church, such as Gregory of Nyssa, John Chrysostom, Ambrose, Augustine, and Gregory the Great. Some Christians taught that the deicidal Jews were in both local and universal conspiracies with Satan, a notion later explored in innumerable plots and sub-plots by the investigators of the Inquisition. The writings of Luther added yet another layer of anti-Semitic theory which became the pattern for prejudice in Protestant Europe. When the intellectuals of the Enlightenment came to undermine Christianity in the 18th century, they produced the first secular layer of anti-Semitism: Diderot and still more Voltaire engaged in the most virulent attacks on Judaism, partly as an indirect but safer way of attacking the more dangerous target of Christianity. This meant that the intellectual foundations of the modern world were warped by anti-Semitism, for virtually all modern writers were influenced, directly or indirectly, by Voltaire. So at a time when the old Christian myth of the Jews in conspiracy with the Devil was losing its force, at least in Western and Central Europe, anti-Semitism acquired a non-religious dynamism. It was at this point that a connection between the Left and anti-Semitic theory was first established. The early French socialists linked the Jews to the new Industrial Revolution and the vast increase in world commerce which marked the beginning of the 19th century. In a book published in 1808, François Fourier identified commerce as “the source of all evil” and the Jews as “the incarnation of commerce.” The same line was taken by Pierre Joseph Proudhon: in a world poisoned by greed and materialism, the Jews were “the source of evil,” who had “rendered the bourgeoisie, high and low, similar to them all over Europe.” “We should send this race back to Asia or exterminate it.” Fourier’s pupil, Alphonse Toussenel, worked out in detail the notion of a worldwide financial conspiracy against humanity, run by Jews. These ideas of the early French socialists became part of the mainstream of French anti-Semitism, later reflected in the propaganda of Edouard Drumont and Charles Maurras’s Action Française. They were also an early prototype for the National Socialism of Hitler’s Germany. Equally important, however, they formed part of the background to Karl Marx’s notions of how the world economy worked. The main element in Marx’s intellectual formation was, of course, German idealism. Thanks partly to Voltaire, this had always possessed a certain anti-Jewish coloring. As Robert Wistrich has pointed out, the antagonism toward the Jewish religion of the German idealists underwent “a progressive vulgarization,” through Kant, Fichte, Hegel, and then Ludwig Feuerbach and the Young Hegelian Bruno Bauer, the last of whom was Marx’s particular mentor. It was Marx’s sinister achievement to marry the economic anti-Semitism of the French socialists to the philosophical anti-Semitism of the German idealists and so to construct a new kind of anti-Semitic conspiracy theory which was to be an intellectual rehearsal for his general theory of capital. Here it is not amiss to reflect on the rational frailty of intellectuals. The moment they emerge from one form of obscurantism, they plunge eagerly into another. In the second quarter of the 19th century they were stripping away, as they saw it, the accumulated layers of millennia of religious superstition. But almost in the same moment they substituted new, secular ones. Satan was dead but lo! legions of new devils were everywhere conspiring against mankind. In Italy it was the Freemasons, in France it was the Protestants, in Germany it was the Jesuits; and always, everywhere, it was the Jews too. If one conflated these various conspiracy theories, the Jews were revealed as simultaneously in league with Freemasons, Protestants, and Jesuits. Satan might be dead but Rothschild had taken his place. Jewish intellectuals abandoning their Judaism were almost as prone to these fantasies as Christian intellectuals abandoning their Christianity. It was Heine who coined the characteristic epigram of the epoch: “Money is the God of our time and Rothschild is his prophet.” Marx, the self-elected scourge of all superstition, religious or secular, the paladin of rationality, who set out to sweep away all the cobwebs of the past from the face of the world, and to reveal it as it really was, might not Marx of all people—himself descended from long lines of rabbis on both sides—have disposed of this particular superstition once and for all, and finally rid the world of its two-thousand-year-old burden of anti-Semitic fantasy? In fact he did the opposite. He reinforced it. He gave it a whole new lease on life, and new, respectable garments of pseudo-rationality, calculated to appeal to the young of successive generations. There can be no doubt that as a young man Marx was anti-Semitic. He got his theoretical anti-Semitism from Bruno Bauer, a lifelong anti-Semite. In the early and mid-1840’s, when Marx was in his twenties, his anti-Semitism was acute. It is true that, later, anti-Semitism ceased to be, for Marx, one of the keys to the universe. But there is ample evidence that his prejudice remained. In 1861, to quote only one significant example of many, we find him in a letter to Engels repeating as “proved” Manetho’s original claim that the Jews were a race of lepers, a rootless people without a country—what might be called the primeval matrix of anti-Semitism. Like most cases of anti-Semitism, Marx’s was based on ignorance, reinforced by a personal experience from which he generalized. His father was baptized a Lutheran the year before Marx was born. His education was classical, not Jewish, and took place mainly at a former Jesuit academy whose other pupils were predominantly Catholic. Marx knew very little about Jewish religion, history, or culture and never showed any desire to acquire any knowledge. He knew very few Jews. His mother remained more attached to Judaism than his father, and when Marx married a Christian girl in 1843 he quarreled with his mother about this and about money. When Marx wrote about the Jews in 1843—44, this quarrel gave a personal edge to his anti-Jewish prejudice, which otherwise was based on the common anti-Semitism of the cafe and the university, and on certain specific writings, such as Bauer’s. Shorn of its Hegelian idealism, Marx’s tract, “On the Jewish Question,” had the same factual basis as Toussenel’s philippic, published the following year, entitled Les Juifs, rois de l’époque: histoire de la féodalité financière (“The Jews, Kings of the Era: A History of Financial Feudalism”)—the work which later inspired Drumont to write perhaps the most influential of all anti-Semitic books, La France juive. I find it hard to believe that those who deny Marx’s anti-Semitism can have read this essay, or at any rate progressed beyond the first part. As Wistrich has pointed out, the attempts by later Jewish socialists, like Rosa Luxemburg, to present it as a scientific demystification of the Jewish problem can only be sustained by deliberate misquotation or willful misunderstanding of what Marx wrote. In any case, the word “scientific” is absurdly misplaced since Marx wrote without any attempt at an objective inquiry. The second part of Marx’s essay is almost a classic anti-Semitic tract, based upon a fantasied Jewish archetype and a conspiracy to corrupt the world. Marx says he is concerned with “the real Jew: not the sabbath Jew . . . but the everyday Jew” (Marx’s emphasis throughout). He asks: “What is the profane basis of Judaism? Practical need, self-interest. What is the worldly cult of the Jew? Huckstering. What is his worldly God? Money.” This point is repeated again and again. What was “the basis of the Jewish religion? Practical need, egoism” and “the god of practical need and self-interest is money. Money is the jealous god of Israel, beside which no other god may exist. Money abases all the gods of mankind and changes them into commodities. . . . Money is the alienated essence of man’s work and existence; this essence dominates him and he worships it. The god of the Jews has been secularized and has become the god of this world. The bill of exchange is the real god of the Jews.” The Jews, Marx maintained, had corrupted the Christians, indeed the whole world. Jews did not need emancipating since the Jew “has already emancipated himself in a Jewish fashion” by using the power of money. Marx quoted with approval Bauer’s assertion that the Jew already “determines the fate of the whole [Austrian] empire by his financial power . . . [and] decides the destiny of Europe.” Indeed, he adds, the Jew “by acquiring the power of money” has turned money itself into “a world power.” There are, needless to say, fundamental confusions in Marx’s reckless analysis of the world’s ills. He says that the characteristics of the Jew are to be explained “not by his religion, but rather by the human basis of his religion—practical need and egoism.” Hence the problem is a cultural one. On the other hand, he seems to be arguing that, since the essence of the few is not his religion but his attitude to money, by abolishing property, society would automatically destroy the Jewish religion, and in so doing free not only the Jews but all mankind: “In emancipating itself from hucksterism and money, and thus from real and practical Judaism, our age would emancipate itself.” Marx’s essay on the Jews thus contains, in embryonic form, the essence of his theory of human regeneration: by abolishing private property society would transform human relationships and thus the human personality. Marx’s form of anti-Semitism was a dress rehearsal for Marxism itself. Later in the century, August Bebel would coin the phrase, much used by Lenin: “Anti-Semitism is the socialism of fools.” Behind this revealing epigram lay the following crude argument, which might be paraphrased thus: We all know that Jewish middlemen, who never soil their hands with toil, exploit the poor workers and peasants. But only a fool blames the Jews alone. The mature man, the socialist, has grasped the point that the Jews are only the symptoms of the disease, not the disease itself. The disease is the religion of money, and its modern form is capitalism. Workers and peasants are exploited not just by the Jews but by the bourgeois-capitalist class as a whole—and it is that entire class, not only its Jewish element, which must be destroyed. Thus understood, the militant socialism Marx adopted in the later 1840’s can be seen as an expanded and transmuted form of his earlier anti-Semitism. The Jewish world-conspiracy theory is not so much abandoned as extended to include the entire bourgeois class. Marx retained the fundamental fallacy that the making of money through trade and finance is essentially a parasitical activity, but he now placed it, not on a basis of race or religion, but of class. The refinement or enlargement does not improve the validity of the theory. It merely makes the theory more dangerous, if put into practice, because it expands its scope and multiplies the number of those to be treated as conspirators, and so victims. Marx is no longer concerned with specifically Jewish witches to be hunted, but with generalized human witches. The theory is still fundamentally irrational, but it has a more sophisticated appearance. To reverse Bebel’s epigram, if anti-Semitism is the socialism of fools, socialism is the anti-Semitism of intellectuals. An intellectual like Lenin, who clearly perceived the irrationality of anti-Semitism, and would have been ashamed to be heard defending a pogrom, let alone conducting one, nevertheless fully accepted its spirit once the target was generalized into the capitalist class as a whole—and went on to conduct pogroms against the bourgeoisie on an infinitely greater scale, murdering hundreds of thousands not on the basis of individual guilt, but merely membership in a condemned group. It is misleading to contrast the activist violence of Lenin with the theoretical abstractions of Marx, who seems to have imagined that the capitalist class would be eliminated by the painless process of historical determinism. Marxist theory cannot be divorced from the verbal violence with which Marx expressed it. Nor is it possible to make absolute distinctions between violence against a race and violence against a class—between genocide and class warfare. They were in fact confused in Marx’s own mind. As he saw it, races, peoples, nations were subjected to the same Hegelian processes as classes. He often discussed with Engels the notion of inferior or superior nations or races, and of races in the process of decay and disappearance, what Engels called “dying nationalities.” Engels liked to quote a saying of Hegel’s that “residual fragments of peoples” always become “fanatical standard-bearers of counterrevolution.” Thus you could have a reactionary people as well as a reactionary class—a thought which appealed strongly to Stalin as well as Hitler, and indeed to Mao Zedong too when he dealt, in 1950, with that reactionary little people, the Tibetans. Engels wrote in Marx’s newspaper, the Neue Rheinische Zeitung: “The next world war will result in the disappearance from the face of the earth not only of reactionary classes and dynasties, but also of entire reactionary peoples. And that, too, is a step forward.” Thus Engels, who specifically repudiated political anti-Semitism in 1879, saw Marxism as a sufficient warrant for genocide as well as class warfare. Equally important, I think, is that the emotional tone remained similar both in Marx’s anti-Semitic essay and in his subsequent writings about the capitalist class as a whole. The archetype Jew was replaced by the archetype capitalist, but the features of the caricature were essentially the same and the venom with which Marx portrayed them was, if anything, greater. Take, for instance, the presentation of Marx’s capitalist monster in Das Kapital (Volume II, Part VII, Chapter 22, Section 3): Only insofar as the capitalist is personified capital has he a historical value; only as such has he that historical right to exist. . . . Fanatically bent upon the exploitation of value, he relentlessly drives human beings to production for production’s sake. . . . Only as the personification of capital is the capitalist respectable. As such he shares with the miser the passion for wealth as wealth. But that which in the miser assumes the aspect of mania, is in the capitalist the effect of the social mechanism in which he is only a driving wheel . . . his actions are a mere function of the capital which, through his instrumentality, is endowed with will and consciousness, so that his own private consumption must be regarded by him as a robbery perpetrated on accumulation. Could such a weird personification of inhumanity ever have existed? Did Marx actually believe in such a creature? But then, when had an anti-Semitic propagandist believed in the archetypal hate figure he presented as a living person? That Marx still, in his mind, saw the capitalist archetype as essentially the Jewish archetype is suggested to me by the footnote he added to this passage. It deals with the usurer, whom Marx terms “the old-fashioned but perennially renewed form of the capitalist.” Marx knew that, in the minds of most of his readers, the usurer was the Jew—as Toussenel put it, the terms usurer and Jew are interchangeable. Most of the footnote consists of a violent quotation from Luther who, as Marx was well aware, was among the most furious anti-Semitic writers. A usurer, Marx quotes Luther as saying, is a double-died thief and murderer. . . . Whoever eats up, rots, and steals the nourishment of another, that man commits as great a murder (so far as in him lies) as he who starves a man or utterly undoes him. Such does a usurer, and sits there while safe on his stool when he ought rather to be hanging on the gallows, and be eaten by as many ravens as he has stolen guilders, if only there were so much flesh on him, that so many ravens could stick their beaks in and share it. . . . Therefore is there, on this earth, no greater enemy of man (after the Devil) than a gripe-money and usurer, for he wants to be God over all men . . . such a one would have the whole world perish of hunger and thirst, misery and want. . . . Usury is a great huge monster, like a werewolf. . . . And since we break on the wheel and behead highwaymen, murderers, and house-breakers, how much more ought we to break on the wheel and kill . . . hunt down, curse, and behead all usurers! I find it suggestive that Marx should quote this brutal exhortation to kill from an anti-Semitic writer, in a work purporting to be scientific—suggestive, that is, both of Marx’s own violence and of the emotional inationality which expressed itself first as anti-Semitism and then as generalized anti-capitalism. The origins of Marxism in anti-Semitic conspiracy theory can never be wholly erased. Whatever guise Marxism may take, it retains this stigma, like a mark of Cain; sometimes palimpsest, sometimes brazen. Marxism always was, and it remains, a theory and practice which will not accommodate the Jews as they are. Lfnin not only repudiated anti-Semitism but took steps to stamp it out. How then could such a tradition carry with it, uncured, indeed undiagnosed and untreated, the anti-Semitic virus? The answer is that the secularized or non-Jewish Jews who were among the principal architects of the Leninist state shared with Lenin a fallacy almost as egregious as the fallacies of traditional anti-Semitism, or the variety peddled by Marx in 1844. They did not see the Jews as a world conspiracy but went almost to the opposite extreme: they denied that Jews had any cultural particularity at all. The notion of Jewishness would simply disappear after the revolution. The Jew, and his Doppelgänger the anti-Semite, were transient phenomena to be erased by the ineluctable logic of history. Hence Jewish socialists were not entitled to their own Bund, or party. Still less were Jews, as a nation or race, entitled to their own nationality status in the socialist community, and least of all to their own Zionist state. Most of these non-Jewish Jews, though socialists, knew nothing about the proletariat as it actually existed. Like Lenin, they had no direct experience of working-class society. They came from Poland and Russia but they had left the ghetto; they led the lives of students, café agitators, political activists in a middle-class or bohemian environment far from the Jewish masses. By denying the undoubted fact of the Jewish proletariat, of Jewish society, of Jewish culture, they made trouble inevitable. For facts that are denied by authority yet obstinately make their reappearance are liable to be treated as hostile or malevolent phenomena. Hence when, in the Soviet Union, Jewish religion and culture, and even Zionism itself, far from disappearing, persisted and sought to express themselves, they were interpreted by the ruling elite, above all by Stalin but to sonie degree by all his successors, as a conspiracy. Thus anti-Semitic conspiracy theory was revived, within the wider conspiracy theory of Marxism itself. Stalin termed the new Jewish conspiracy “cosmopolitanism.” He thus reunited two streams of anti-Semitism, which had diverged in Napoleonic times but now flowed together again. As we have noted, the crime of “rootlessness” was the oldest of all accusations hurled against the Jews, from Manetho to Marx. The socialist progeny of Voltaire saw the Jewish threat as a conspiracy of rich exploiters. But the French Revolution and empire, in provoking reactions among the traditionalist forces in Europe, brought into existence yet another variety of anti-Semitism. Like all children of the Enlightenment, Napoleon sought a rational “solution” to the “Jewish problem.” He liberated Jews just as he liberated nations. He also conceived the idea of convoking a “Grand Sanhedrin” in Paris in 1807 to help him solve the “problem.” The idea was unfortunate because it did nothing for the Jews but set up terrifying vibrations among their conservative enemies. Traditional anti-Semitic conspiracy theory had been kept alive by the ecclesiastical Inquisitions of Spain and Rome. When they fell in the revolutionary convulsions, the torch was handed to the new and growing secret-police forces of the European empires, especially Austria and Russia. They saw all Jews as potential or actual partisans of Napoleon and took a close interest in covert Jewish activities. The idea of the Grand Sanhedrin fed their paranoia. So, in addition to the radical anti-Semitic conspiracy theory of the type favored by Marx, there grew up a “reactionary” theory of Jewish elders meeting in secret to overthrow established society. The actual Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion were forged by the czarist secret police who also arranged for their publication in 1905. When Stalin took over Russia he inherited a country which had not only practiced anti-Semitism as systematic state policy from 1881 to 1917, but whose political police had deliberately fabricated the materials of anti-Semitism. The resumption of anti-Semitism in Soviet Russia from 1937 onward, culminating in the terrible years 1949—53, was not therefore surprising. Stalinist anti-Semitism had much in common with the Nazi variety. Stalin’s hatred of “cosmopolitanism” ran parallel with the Nazi distinction between culture, associated with the best qualities of the German race, and “civilization,” which the Nazis associated with Jewish internationalism and the materialistic capitalism of the West. The Nazis hated big cities, huge factories, the impersonality of large-scale finance capitalism, which had no home and knew no frontiers; it “alienated” man from his own homeland. All these malign forces they attributed to the Jews. This is not very far from the Marx of 1843—44. Indeed, the Marxist and Nazi concepts of alienation, a source of anti-Semitism in both, are similar, and this is hardly surprising for each had its origin in Hegel. Hitler regarded both Marxism and capitalism as Jewish conspiracies. Had not Werner Sombart, one of capitalism’s defenders, “proved scientifically” in 1911 that the origins of capitalism were in all essentials Jewish? This book paid generous tribute to Marx’s 1844 essay, which helped to inspire it. Yet Marx’s notion of the Jewish attitude to money slowly infecting Christianity, then the whole of society, was akin to Hitler’s nightmare of the “Jewish bacillus” getting a grip on the world, using both Bolshevism and international finance capital as its carriers. Hitler, a romantic who saw himself as an idealist and an anti-materialist, hated the capitalist system, though he was prepared to use it on his terms, just as Lenin, then Stalin, used state capitalism. Where the two forms of anti-Semitism differed was in the intensity of Hitler’s paranoia and the central position the Jews occupied in his thought and strategy. That was what made the Holocaust possible. In Soviet demonology, by contrast, Jewish cosmopolitanism was only one of many enemies. But even there, from the end of 1948 onward, there are signs that it had begun to obsess Stalin, to the exclusion of other hostile fantasies. The “Doctors’ Plot” of 1952-53, just before his timely death, suggests that his reign too—had he lived longer—might have culminated in a general assault on Soviet Jewry. This episode reminds us that all totalitarian systems based on conspiracy theory are prone to anti-Semitism, the oldest conspiracy theory of all. It is latent in their ideology and is liable to become active without warning in moments of “crisis,” real or imaginary. Socialism, both in its nationalist and its Marxist-Leninist form, cannot escape the deformation of its origins, which lie in a grotesquely oversimplified explanation of how capitalism originated and functions. Societies built upon irrational premises must be expected to act irrationally when they feel threatened. So no Jewish minority can ever be wholly safe in a non-democratic socialist society, especially one based on Marxist dogma, which itself evolved from a primitive anti-Semitic model. Equally significant is the way in which Marxist conspiracy theory lends itself to the new and virulent anti-Zionism which is the contemporary expression of anti-Semitic irrationality. Hatred of Zionism fits neatly into Marxist-Leninist theory at two levels. Lenin, having denied Jewish particularism, and therefore the validity of Zionism, was bound to attack it once he seized power. At that time Zionism was by far the strongest element within Russian Jewry, with 1,200 local groups totaling over 300,000 members. From September 1, 1919 onward, Lenin used the Cheka (secret police) and the Yevsektsia (the Jewish section of the propaganda department of the Communist party) to destroy Zionism systematically. Its conspiratorial object, it was argued, was “to corrupt Jewish youth and throw them into the arms of the counterrevolutionary bourgeoisie in the interests of Anglo-French capitalism.” Any Soviet Jew who asserted his essential Jewishness was thus a Zionist and an enemy of the state. As Zionism was an affront to Marxist-Leninist logic, it followed that an actual Zionist state could only be an artificial creation promoted by the bourgeois powers to serve the interests of capitalism, and of its international superstructure, imperialism. At this second level, there was no difficulty in finding “evidence” for this new conspiracy theory, which might well have appealed strongly to Marx himself. For the Jews, it seemed, had a leading role in imperialism too! In 1900 the English economist J.A. Hobson published his book, The War in South Africa, Its Causes and Effects, which contained an entire chapter, “For Whom Are We Fighting?,” proving that this imperialist war had been promoted by Jewish financial interests. Two years later he broadened his thesis in his famous work, Imperialism: A Study, which showed that international finance capital was behind the drive to colonize backward people all over the world. His chapter “Economic Parasites of Imperialism,” the heart of his theory, contains this key passage: These great businesses—banking, brokering, bill discounting, loan floating, company promoting—form the central ganglion of international capitalism. United by the strongest bonds of organization, always in closest and quickest touch with one another, situated in the very heart of the business capital of every state, controlled, so far as Europe is concerned, chiefly by men of a single and peculiar race, who have behind them many centuries of financial experience, they are in a unique position to control the policy of nations. No great quick direction of capital is possible save by their consent and through their agency. Does anyone seriously suppose that a great war could be undertaken by any European state, or a great state loan subscribed, if the house of Rothschild and its connections set their face against it? It was Hobson’s book which formed the basis for Lenin’s own economic theory of colonialism, set out in Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916). This conspiracy-theory explanation of colonialism, derived from Hobson, not only became official Soviet doctrine but in time helped to shape the views of the ruling intelligentsia in large parts of the so-called Third World. In this irrational stew, the notion of the Zionist state as an aggressive local projection of “American imperialism” was a natural ingredient. In this area, Soviet and Third World conspiracy theory coincide perfectly. Needless to say, the historical facts of Israel’s creation reveal the theory as nonsense. The only explanation they do support might be termed “accident theory.” Israel climbed into existence through a fortuitous window which briefly opened in history. In terms of Realpolitik it did not then seem in America’s interests to promote a Zionist state, as Roosevelt in his last months was beginning to see. David Niles, FDR’s pro-Zionist assistant in the White House, was probably right when he later testified: “There are serious doubts in my mind that Israel would have come into being if Roosevelt had lived.” It was Harry S. Truman, with his need for Jewish swing-state votes in the forthcoming 1948 election, his distrust of those he termed “the striped-pants boys in the State Department,” and above all his strong and simple sense of justice, who pushed the partition scheme through the United Nations and gave immediate de-facto recognition to the new state. The constituent elements of “American imperialism” were all hotly opposed. The State Department prophesied disaster for American interests. Max Thornburg of Cal-Tex, speaking on behalf of the U.S. oil industry, claimed that Truman had “extinguished” the “moral prestige of America.” Echoing the views of the armed forces, Defense Secretary James V. Forrestal denounced the Jewish lobby which had been “permitted to influence our policy to the point where it could endanger our national security.” Even more destructive of the “imperialist” conspiracy theory of Zionism was the actual behavior of the Soviet Union. For tactical reasons, Stalin abandoned anti-Zionism, in practice though not in theory, between 1944 and the autumn of 1948. He seems to have thought that a socialist Israel would operate decisively against British and U.S. interests in the Middle East. At all events, Russia played a part in the creation of Israel second only to America’s, as Andrei Gromyko survives to testify (if he would!), for it was he, as Deputy Foreign Minister, who cast the first major Soviet vote at the UN in favor of Israel’s creation. Semyon Tsarapkin, head of the USSR’s UN delegation, offered members of the Jewish Agency the toast, “To the future Jewish state,” before voting for partition on October 13, 1947, and in the General Assembly the entire Soviet bloc followed suit on November 29. During the spring of 1948 Soviet policy was more pro-Israel than America’s, and Soviet recognition of the new state, following America’s by four hours, was not just de facto but de jure. Above all, it was the Czech government, on instructions from Moscow, which made Israel’s physical survival possible by defying the UN arms embargo and turning over an entire military airfield to fly arms to Tel Aviv. Five months later Stalin reversed his policy, but by then Israel was established. These facts demolish the myth of Israel as an imperialist creation. But when have facts been allowed to interfere with conspiracy theory, above all one which reflects an underlying anti-Semitic pattern? By the 1970’s, the historical record of Israel’s birth had long been buried by the Soviet Union and its satellites and conveniently forgotten by the Arab world. Leaders of many Third World countries, who systematically voted against Israel because its caricature fitted into their own paranoid theories of how the world works, were ignorant or uninterested. In the West, many intellectuals had come, without much inquiry, to accept Israel’s conspiratorial role as an imperialist bridgehead. For, as noted, intellectuals have a weakness for such theories. But those Western intellectuals who embrace anti-Zionism, whether on its merits or as a substitute for an anti-Semitism which is now unavowable in their own societies, find themselves in strange company. I will end by giving just one suggestive example. The history of hostility to the Jews over more than two millennia is rich in episodes of human cruelty and folly, but it contains few such disgraceful scenes as that enacted at the United Nations on the occasion of the state visit by President Idi Amin of Uganda, on October 1, 1975. By that date he was already notorious as a mass murderer of conspicuous savagery; he had not only dispatched some of his victims personally, but dismembered them and preserved parts of their anatomy for future consumption—the first refrigerator-cannibal. He had nevertheless been elected President of the Organization of African Unity, and in that capacity he was invited to address the UN General Assembly. His speech was a denunciation of what he called “the Zionist-American conspiracy” against the world, and he demanded not only the expulsion of Israel from the UN, but its “extinction.” This blatant call for genocide was well-received by Marxist, Arab, and many other Third World delegations. The Assembly awarded him a standing ovation when he arrived, applauded him periodically throughout his speech, and again rose to its feet when he left. The next day the UN Secretary General and the President of the General Assembly gave a public dinner in his honor. That is where the ineluctable logic of radical anti-Zionism leads. As such it is firmly rooted in irrational Marxist conspiracy theory.	231,732
Historical perspectives on plant developmental biology The pre-plant developmental biology era Historical perspectives on plant developmental biology MIEKE VAN LIJSEBETTENS* and MARC VAN MONTAGU Department of Plant Systems Biology, Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), Ghent University, Gent, Belgium *Address correspondence to: Dr. Mieke Van Lijsebettens. Department of Plant Systems Biology, VIB2-Universiteit Gent, Technologiepark 927, B-9052 Gent, Belgium. Fax 32-9-331-3809. e-mail: email@example.com Around 1950, B. McClintock’s and P. Peterson’s analyses in maize led to the description of mobile DNA in the genome. McClintock correlated chromosome breakpoints at specific positions with mobile DNA elements, called Dissociator (Ds) and Activator (Ac), that caused specific changes in phenotypes explained by the altered expression status of known gene loci such as the C locus (McClintock, 1950). This new vision of the genome being dynamic was confirmed in bacteria, animals and other plant species. The molecular basis of mobile DNA in several plant species was demonstrated later (Fedoroff et al., 1983; Döring et al., 1984; Pohlman et al., 1984; Pereira et al., 1985). The cloning of the bronze locus in maize with the Ac transposable element was one of the first examples of «gene tagging» in plants (Fedoroff et al., 1984). Moreover, the Ac/Ds and En/Spm elements, endogenous to the monocotyledon maize, were shown to be active in the dicotyledonous tobacco (Baker et al., 1986; Masson and Fedoroff, 1989; Pereira and Saedler, 1989). These studies pioneered the use of mobile DNA in large-scale mutagenization programs of the plant genome for gene discovery. Introduction of mobile DNA into heterologous plant genomes required a transformation step that was solved by the study of the tumor-inducing (Ti) principle of the plant-colonizing bacterium, Agrobacterium tumefaciens. In 1974, it was demonstrated that a plasmid was present in oncogenic Agrobacterium strains and absent from non-oncogenic strains (Zaenen et al., 1974). It resulted in the hypothesis that this plasmid was the Ti principle and it was indeed shown that a fragment of the plasmid, the socalled T-DNA was transferred to the plant genome (Chilton et al., 1977; De Beuckeleer et al., 1978). The T-DNA contained a number of genes, the so-called oncogenes, encoding plant hormone- synthesizing enzymes that were driven by eukaryotic promoters that became active in the plant cell upon infection (Joos et al., 1983; Zambryski et al., 1989). Only the T-DNA borders and the virulence genes on the Ti plasmid were essential for T-DNA transfer and integration into the plant genome. All the T-DNA genes could be replaced by chimeric selectable marker genes or other genes and stably integrated and expressed into the plant genome (Bevan et al., 1983; Fraley et al., 1983; Zambryski et al., 1983; De Block et al., 1984; Horsch et al., 1984). The T-DNA was further engineered as a versatile vector for plant transformation and such vector construction is still ongoing today (Karimi et al., 2002). The plant transformation procedures benefited from earlier research on in vitro propagation and regeneration of explants on sterile mineral salt solutions (Murashige and Skoog, 1962) that contained different ratios of phytohormones to promote either callus, root, or shoot growth from explants (Linsmaier and Skoog, 1965). Digestion of explants to single protoplasts and subsequent regeneration into fertile plants was a great advancement because these regenerated plants were clonal (Nagata and Takebe, 1970; Nagy and Maliga, 1976; Lörz et al., 1979). The integration of the protoplast regeneration procedure with Agrobacterium infection opened the way to produce clonal transgenic cell lines in tobacco at first (Márton et al., 1979). Some plants appeared to be recalcitrant to in vitro regeneration and Agrobacterium transformation. It took more than a decade to succeed in a wide variety of plant species. Efficient Agrobacterium tumefaciens - mediated transformation methods that were tissue culturebased and accessible to the entire academic community were established for the model plants Arabidopsis thaliana, Oryza sativa and Zea mays (Valvekens et al., 1988; Hiei et al., 1994; Frame et al., 2002). In the meantime, a number of important technological breakthroughs were made in molecular biology, such as the cloning into plasmid vectors, the determination of the DNA sequence of the first viral organism (Fiers et al., 1978) and gene expression analysis (Kamalay and Goldberg, 1984). The subsequent automatization of the sequencing technology resulted in the whole genome sequence of the first flowering plant, namely that of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis Genome Initiative, 2000). High density micro-arrays allowed for quantitative genome-wide expression analyses and contributed to the systems biology approach of biological questions (Lipshutz et al., 1999). The in vitro DNA amplification via the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) revolutionized plant biology because the large genomes were made accessible for experimentation (Mullis and Faloona, 1987). The β-glucuronidase gene of Escherichia coli was the first reporter gene adapted for use in plants (Jefferson et al., 1987) and was replaced ten years later by the green fluorescent protein (GFP) from jelly fish because of its application in living explants using confocal microscopy (Haseloff et al., 1997). A timeline is presented in Table 1. Source: Int. J. Dev. Biol. 49: 453-465 (2005) © UBC Press Printed in Spain www.intjdevbiol.com Milestones in plant developmental biology Milestones in plant developmental biology Milestones during the last 25 years were the cloning of genes corresponding to mutations affecting key steps in developmental processes (forward genetics), their molecular analysis and the study of their genetic interactions in order to build genetic models for a given process (reviewed for Arabidopsis by Somerville and Koornneef, 2002; Van Lijsebettens et al., 2002). This moleculargenetic approach is now replaced by a large-scale functional genomics approach in which the function of all members of a gene family is analyzed by reverse genetics. In the following sections, we will exemplify a number of specific cases, with milestones listed in Table 1. Embryogenesis Embryogenesis in plants starts with the asymmetric division of the zygote resulting in an upper cell that will develop into an embryo and in a lower cell that generates the suspensor, which is the connection to the maternal tissue. For ease of conceptualization approximately 20 stages have been distinguished in embryo formation of which the early ones are important for axis formation and patterning and the later ones for growth and maturation. Mature plant embryos have a very simple body plan, in which the apical-basal and radial axes are specified. At the end of the apicalbasal axis the root and shoot apical meristems (SAM) are situated that become active upon germination and generate the primary root and shoot, respectively. Along the radial axis, patterning in progenitor tissue layers occurs during early embryogenesis. One of the key questions has been the identification of regulators that control the switches from globular to heart stage or from heart to torpedo stage. However, such master switches have not been detected despite extensive mutagenization programs for embryolethal (emb) mutants in Arabidopsis (Meinke and Sussex, 1979a, 1979b; Franzmann et al., 1995; McElver et al., 2001) and in maize and extensive studies of the Daucus carota embryogenic cell suspension (Giuliano et al., 1984; De Jong et al., 1992). Currently these structures are assumed to arise progressively. Approximately 750 EMB loci have been described to date that are essential for embryogenesis (Franzmann et al., 1995; McElver et al., 2001). Some of these genes are important in the communication between suspensor and embryo, in the control of cell number in the embryos and in the control of embryo maturation. A number of them will reveal essential enzymes for primary metabolism and numerous loci correspond to unknown proteins (Berg et al., 2004). A comprehensive database has been developed containing information on genes that give a seed phenotype upon mutation in Arabidopsis (Tzafrir et al., 2003). The conclusion is that the development of the zygote into the embryo is a progressive process in which the action of many genes together is required. Key regulatory genes that control axis formation have been identified: phenotypes predicted from defects along the apicalbasal or the radial axis were obtained upon mutagenization and screening for seedling lethals (Mayer et al., 1991); their corresponding genes are involved in cytokinesis and auxin transport (Shevell et al., 1994; Lukowitz et al., 1996; Hardtke and Berleth, 1998; Assaad et al., 2001). These studies confirmed the model for embryo formation obtained through cell biology and clonal analyses describing the different domains and boundaries within a developing embryo and the embryonal origin of the different parts of the germinating seedling (Dolan et al., 1993; Scheres et al., 1994). The self-regulatory shoot apical meristem The SAM has an embryonic origin based on the expression of the SHOOTMERISTEMLESS (STM) SAM marker gene and the stm knockout phenotype that produces seedlings without SAM (Barton and Poethig, 1993; Long et al., 1996; Long and Barton, 1998). The STM gene is the orthologue of the maize KNOTTED1 (KN1) homeobox gene that upon ectopic expression in maize leaves reverts the determinate to the indeterminate state, resulting in the production of knots (Vollbrecht et al., 1991). KN1 was the first plant protein for which plasmodesmal trafficking has been shown to occur (Lucas et al., 1995); this report was one of the first to emphasize the importance of plasmodesmal cell-to-cell communication in developmental processes. After germination, the SAM starts to produce the lateral organs and stem tissue that are organized in the so-called phytomers. The SAM consists of zones that are distinct with respect to their cell division activity and developmental destination and was subject of early developmental research in plants and is still today (Vaughan, 1952; Steeves and Sussex, 1989; Potten and Loeffler, 1990; Laufs et al., 1998) (Figure 1A). In the central zone, stem cells stay in an indeterminate state. Upon division, stem cells replenish themselves but also produce daughter cells that are displaced into the peripheral zone where they are recruited to initiate leaf primordia or into the rib zone where they contribute to the formation of stem tissue. The SAM is also layered: L1, L2 and L3 layers that are the progenitor of epidermal tissue, of palisade and spongy parenchyma (and the sporogenic cells) and of vascular tissue, respectively. A genetic model has been proposed for the self-regulation of the SAM. The CLAVATA (CLV ) genes are responsible for the repression of the growth in the central zone (Clark et al., 1993, 1997; Fletcher et al., 1999; Brand et al., 2000) and encode components of a signaling cascade that regulates WUSCHEL (WUS ) activity (Laux et al., 1996; Trotochaud et al., 1999; Schoof et al., 2000). WUS is a homeodomain protein that keeps stem cells in their indeterminate state through a negative feedback loop with CLV3 (Mayer et al., 1998). The site of expression of the WUS domain, just beneath the stem cell zone is called the «organizing center» and is comparable to the quiescent center in the root apical meristem (van den Berg et al., 1997; for review, see Weigel and Jürgens, 2002).Leaf phyllotaxis, initiation and polarity Leaf primordia initiate at the SAM peripheral zone and have a multicellular origin because cells are recruited from the different SAM layers. The leaf initiation site or phyllotaxis is delineated by molecular markers, such as ASYMMETRIC1, whose position at the periphery of the SAM depends on the position of previously formed primordia. Phyllotaxis is species specific, can be opposite, decussate, or spiral according to the mathematical Fibonacci series (Mitchison, 1977). «Biophysical forces» regulating local epidermal cell wall extensibility was one of the mechanisms proposed to explain phyllotaxis (Green, 1996; Fleming et al., 1997). Recently mutational analysis and pharmacological tests combined with micro-manipulation have demonstrated that the hormone auxin is crucial in determining the leaf initiation site (Reinhardt et al., 2000, 2003). At the leaf inception site, no STM expression fits the exit from the proliferative state into a differentiation state of the primordium founder cells with a de-repressed AS1 gene activity. AS1 in Arabidopsis (Byrne et al., 2000), its orthologue PHANTASTICA (PHAN) in Antirrhinum (Waites and Hudson 1995; Waites et al., 1998) and ROUGH SHEATH2 (RS2) in maize (Timmermans et al., 1999; Tsiantis et al., 1999) are important for promoting adaxial fate in leaf primordia, their function being conserved in monocots and dicots. Upon recessive mutation of the AS1/PHAN/RS2 genes, some of the KNOX genes are ectopically expressed in the leaves where they are normally inactive (Schneeberger et al., 1998; Byrne et al., 2000; Ori et al., 2000). Microsurgical experiments on the potato shoot apex have shown that the SAM communicates with leaf primordia and that a signal is required to induce polarity in the leaf primordium. Incisions between the SAM and the primordium resulted in radial symmetrical rather than dorsoventral asymmetrical leaves (Figure 1B) (Sussex, 1951, 1955). Although the signal is still not known today, the genetic factors for polarity have been identified: these are AS1 and transcription factors of the HD-ZIPIII and GARP class (Sawa et al., 1999; Siegfried et al., 1999; Kerstetter et al., 2001; McConnell et al., 2001). Analysis of their genetic interactions resulted in a model for dorsoventrality in leaves (for review, see Bowman, 2004).Organ size and shape A very intriguing question in organ formation is how size and shape are determined. Cell expansion and its direction have been considered for a long time to be the major determinants. However, recent work has demonstrated that cell division activity, rate of cell division and termination of division activity are also important determinants for organ morphology as shown by mutational analysis and manipulation of the cell cycle. Two theories have been postulated: the Cell Theory which states organ size and shape are merely determined by their building blocks, the cells; in the Organismal Theory, cells just fill up the organ form that is determined by higher order control (for review, see Tsukaya, 2002; Beemster et al., 2003). The leaf has been exploited as a model to study the genetic and environmental factors that control size and shape. Early leaf growth is mainly due to cell division processes that cease gradually from the tip to the base of the organ, from its margin to the midvein and from the ventral to the dorsal side of the lamina (Figure 1C) (Pyke et al., 1991; Van Lijsebettens and Clarke 1998; Donnelly et al., 1999). Interference with early growth by modulation of cell cycle regulatory genes has resulted in changes in leaf size and shape (De Veylder et al., 2001; Fleming, 2002; Wyrzykowska et al., 2002; Dewitte et al., 2003). The AINTEGUMENTA transcription factor controls organ size by regulating the number and the extent of cell divisions during organogenesis (Mizukami and Fischer, 2000). Later growth is assumed to be due to polar and non-polar cell expansion processes. Expansion growth is perturbed by modifying the expression of genes coding for enzymes involved in hormone biosynthesis or cell wall composition and results in altered leaf size and shape (Fleming et al., 1997; Kim et al., 1999; Cho and Cosgrove, 2000; Pien et al., 2001; Fleming, 2002). ANGUSTIFOLIA, a transcriptional co-repressor, is required for polar cell expansion (Folkers et al., 2002; Kim et al., 2002). Over 100 gene loci have been identified to date with a function in the making of the leaf, of which 94 originate from an ethyl methane sulfonate mutagenization program (Berná et al., 1999; Tsukaya, 2002). The systematic cloning and molecular-genetic analyses of these genes will further our knowledge on the molecular mechanisms directing organ formation. In addition to the above-mentioned internal factors, leaf growth is also modulated by environmental factors, such as water, light and CO2 availability, that affect leaf size and shape. These parameters influence the number of cell cycles during leaf formation In Arabidopsis, mutational analysis showed that leaf growth is controlled at the transcriptional level not only by transcription factors but presumably also by chromatin modification. Functional analysis of structural components and a putative regulator of the Elongator histone acetyltransferase complex, associated with the RNA polymerase II transcription elongation complex resulted in plants with a leaf phenotype (Nelissen et al., 2005), suggesting that the chromatin status is important during organogenesis (Figure 2). Universal flower model Flowers consist of four types of organs that are arranged in whorls. The genetic control of flower organ identity was a major discovery of plant developmental biology in the nineties and was based on the study of homeotic flower mutants with normal floral organs at ectopic positions, which replace the flower organs usually present. Such mutants were described in a number of species in ancient literature all over the world. Homeotic mutants and their genetic interactions have been studied extensively in snapdragon (Carpenter and Coen, 1990) and Arabidopsis (Komaki et al., 1988; Meyerowitz et al., 1989). This research resulted in the famous ABC flower model (Bowman et al., 1989; Schwarz-Sommer et al., 1990; Coen and Meyerowitz, 1991). In this model, floral organs are specified by the action of A, B and C genes, the so-called floral organ identity genes, that are active in two subsequent whorls. From 1990 on, the genes corresponding to the flower homeotic genes were cloned in Antirrhinum, Arabidopsis and Petunia by making use of the first mutant collections tagged either with endogenous transposable elements (Carpenter and Coen, 1990), with the Agrobacterium T-DNA (Azpiroz-Leehan and Feldmann, 1997), with the endogenous transposon dTph1 in petunia; or using reverse genetics strategies (Vandenbussche et al., 2003a, 2004). The first homeotic genes cloned were the C function gene AGAMOUS in Arabidopsis (Figure 3B) (Yanofsky et al., 1990) and the B function gene DEFICIENS in snapdragon (Sommer et al., 1990; Schwarz-Sommer et al., 1990). In the following years all the floral homeotic genes were cloned and appeared to be MADSbox transcription factors, except for APETALA2 that identified a plant-specific transcription factor class (Jofuku et al., 1994). The ABC model has been verified by double and triple mutants, overexpression constructs and gene expression analyses; it still stands today even though it has been extended with D and E function genes (Colombo et al., 1995; Pelaz et al., 2000; Honma and Goto, 2001). The identity of the floral organs has been postulated to be specified by tetrameric complexes of floral organ identity gene products that bind to promoters of downstream targets thereby activating or repressing their activity and resulting in specific floral organ identities (Honma and Goto, 2001; Theiβen and Saedler, 2001). ABCDE genes were identified in a lot of species of flowering plants, monocots and dicots, confirming the conservation of the overall molecular mechanism of flower organ formation in evolution (for recent review, see Ferrario et al., 2004). All genes, except for A-type function, are present in gymnosperms indicating ancient mechanisms for reproductive organ formation (Tandre et al., 1995; Theissen et al., 2000). In a-b-c- triple mutants, every flower organ is converted into a leaf and overexpression of B and D function genes is sufficient to transform rosette leaves into petals, which is genetic proof of leaves being the ground state (Figure 3C) (Weigel and Meyerowitz, 1994; Honma and Goto, 2001). von Goethe (1790) had already pointed out that different types of organs, such as leaves, petals and stamens, were variations on a common underlying theme. His theory was also based on the study of abnormal flower morphologies in which one organ type was replaced by another one. Symmetry The famous botanist C. Linnaeus (1749) noticed that occasionally individuals of a plant species had altered flower morphologies. He described a naturally occurring mutant of Linaria vulgaris (toadflax) with radial flower symmetry instead of dorsoventral asymmetry; the mutant flower was called peloric (Greek for monstruous). Similar mutations have been obtained in Antirrhinum from the large transposon-mutagenized population generated at Norwich (Carpenter and Coen, 1990; Coen, 1996). In the mutant flowers, the bilateral symmetry was converted into a radial symmetry with ventral-type of petals and stamens, indicating that a dorsalizing factor had been affected. The dorsalizing factor represented two closely related genes, CYCLOIDEA (CYC) and DICHOTOMA (DICH) (Luo et al., 1996; Luo et al., 1999), both members of the so-called TCP class of plant-specific DNAbinding proteins (Cubas et al., 1999a). The peloric mutant described by Linnaeus had an epigenetic mutation in a CYC orthologue (Cubas et al., 1999b). The CYC and DICH genes are expressed very early in flower meristems before flower organ initiation. Superimposition of a dorsal domain onto the radial symmetry of the flower meristem is necessary to create dorsoventral asymmetry. Differences in flower morphology between the closely related species Antirrhinum and Mohavea have been explained by ectopic expression patterns of the CYC and DICH genes (Hileman et al., 2003), which is one of the first examples that explains evolutionary morphological divergence in terms of variations in gene expression. The cellular organization in the primary root The development of the primary root has been neglected for a long time and it was only until Arabidopsis started to be a model that people got interested in root biology. Until then, the root was mainly studied for its role in gravitropism. The root is a good model for cell biology because it is transparent (no chlorophyll) and, hence amenable to confocal microscopy on living explants by using fluorescent dyes or reporter genes. Tissue patterning and cellular communication have been studied extensively and with great success in the root. Clonal analyses showed the embryonic origin of the root meristem initials and its radial organization in a constant cell number with root cell initials giving rise to one or two cell layers (Dolan et al., 1993; Scheres et al., 1994). The root meristem consists of quiescent center cells that keep the surrounding initials in an indeterminate state (van den Berg et al., 1997). The daughter cells of the initials differentiate into specific tissue, the identity of which is reinforced by signals from more mature cells (van den Berg et al., 1995). Patterning in the root epidermis was subject to cell biology and genetic analyses (Dolan et al., 1994) and a number of regulatory genes have been identified (Larkin et al., 2003). Mutagenization programs were initiated to look for regulatory genes of root cell specification (Benfey et al., 1993; Scheres et al., 1995). SCARECROW and SHORT ROOT are essential for the asymmetric cell division in the generation of the cortex/endodermal tissue layers (Di Laurenzio et al., 1996). A huge number of marker lines exist with cell typespecific expression in the root, which have been obtained by promoter trapping with a modified GFP reporter gene (Haseloff et al., 1997). A major breakthrough technology was the use of these marker lines in cell sorting to purify specific cell types and study their transcript profiles (Birnbaum et al., 2003). The technology will become applicable to a large number of cell types or cell domains in planta that can be distinguished by marker genes. Cell differentiation studies were restricted in plant research because in vitro culture of a specific cell type has not been achieved so far. This restriction has been alleviated by the above-mentioned approach. Perspectives in plant developmental biology Although the survey of milestones is far from complete it is obvious that in the past 15 years a lot of progress has been made in the identification of the genetic control of pattern formation during embryogenesis, organ (leaf and flower) formation and in tissue differentiation. Many of the transcription factors involved have been cloned and studied, however much less effort was investigated so far in the study of the upstream signaling cascades and intrinsic and external stimuli that direct these patterning processes through transcription factor activation or repression (Hay et al., 2004). It will be a future challenge to link the genetics to the physiology of the plant. A lot of research needs to be done on the communication processes between the cells of the multicellular plant as well as between its different tissues and organs. Hormones have been shown to be important to direct developmental processes at the whole organism level, but the molecular mechanism of their circulation through the plant is still poorly understood. In addition other signaling molecules have been recognized as important communicators such as small peptides, oligosaccharides and metabolites such as salicylic acid. The peptides appear to have crucial functions in tissue domain interaction such as CLV3 in the regulatory loop for self-maintenance of the SAM and in cell-cell interaction such as SCR in the self-incompatibility response (Matsubayashi, 2003). A lot of small open reading frames are out there in the genome and their function remains to be solved. The role of volatiles such as jasmonic acid in plant development needs to be further explored. The regulation of plasmodesmata formation and closure between cells and tissue domains has been shown to be important in communication and needs further attention. Another big question to be solved is how organ size and shape are determined. Over the last years it became clear that not only cell expansion but also cell division is important. At some point in development cells in meristems need to know when to leave the cell cycle and start the differentiation process. The signals and molecular mechanisms need to be determined that control the switch between cell cycle entry and exit during development and in response to environmental cues (Gutierrez, 2005). It took a decade to functionally analyze 10% of the Arabidopsis genes using forward genetics. In the meantime large mutagenized seed collections have been generated that are exploited for reverse genetics of gene families. Within the next five years of Arabidopsis research the aim is to uncover the function of every gene; the National Science Foundation 2010 project is the leading initiative. This will be possible because there is a shift to largescale experimentation in which not a single gene but rather its whole gene family is functionally analyzed. From the genome sequence, all the members of a given gene family can be retrieved; by reverse genetics, mutations can be looked for in the available collections and be analyzed for their phenotype. The function of large gene families such as the cellulose synthase-like genes (Bonetta et al., 2002) or myb-type transcription factors (Meissner et al., 1999) are analyzed by reverse genetics. In large gene families functions might be redundant because of recent gene duplication resulting in the lack of phenotypes by single gene knockout. In order to define functions, double or even triple mutant combinations of knockouts will have to be made in the respective paralogs. A few nice examples illustrate this approach, such as for the MADS-box SEPALLATA genes (Pelaz et al., 2000) and the B-function genes in petunia (Vandenbussche et al., 2004). Unknown proteins for which a mutant phenotype has been obtained are analyzed for their interactions with other proteins by means of yeast-two-hybrid analysis or TAP tagging to get a clue to their molecular function. A number of unknown proteins identified by embryo-lethals are studied in this way (Berg et al., 2004). The wealth of information on gene function in model systems will serve to improve plant product quality and adaptation of plants to changing environments. Genes from model systems have been overexpressed in other species with success (Weigel and Nilsson, 1995); however, they mainly serve to isolate and study the orthologs in crops (Byzova et al., 2004). The synteny of large chromosomal domains between related species has been exploited to use gene knowledge obtained in model systems such as Arabidopsis for molecular breeding in related crops such as Brassica species (Lagercrantz et al., 1996). Synteny between cereal genomes is high and the rice genome sequence is used as reference to aid for instance in positional cloning of genes in maize (Devos, 2005). Quantitative trait loci analysis is an approach to identify and clone genes that contribute to complex phenotypes such as seed weight or leaf size and shape and has been successfully used in a number of plant species (Alonso- Blanco and Koornneef, 2000; Pérez-Pérez et al., 2002; Morgante and Salamini, 2003; Tanksley, 2004). More model species for developmental studies are emerging such as Medicago truncatula to study nodule formation upon symbiosis with Sinorhizobium (Cook, 1999; Young et al., 2003) and the tree model Populus to study wood formation and, more recently, cambium activity (Bhalerao et al., 2003; Brunner et al., 2004). These model systems fulfill a number of criteria such as diploidy, easy transformation, small genome, ongoing genome sequencing, big consortia for coordinated international research and maintenance and availability of genetic resources. In this new research tendency the diversity in plant developmental processes is recognized to exceed the potential of just a few model systems. Soon there will be a shift from the model species to a wide range of species to study species-specific development or morphologies as for instance the «cluster» root (Shane et al., 2004) and to study processes for which Arabidopsis is not a good model such as for domestication, mycorrhizae interaction or nodule formation. With the increasing functional analyses of genes from model species, comparative analysis will become more important and powerful. DNA sequencing technology is automated and its efficiency has improved tremendously over the last five years, so that not the amount of work but rather the cost and bioinformatics tools will be the limiting factors for sequence analysis of a specific species in the near future (Venter, 2004). New areas of research, such as comparative genetics, will exploit this sequence information and couple it to questions related to gene function conservation or divergence. A well-studied case is the homeobox gene function divergence between plants and animals (Meyerowitz, 2002). The conclusion is that similar processes of pattern formation are used in plant and animal developmental programs; however different classes of regulatory genes have been recruited for it during evolution. Comparative genetics relies on DNA sequence information and aims at studying a genetic trait within a plant family or even between incompatible species and overcomes the genetic barrier of crossing inhibition. Another emerging field is evolutionary developmental biology the so-called “Evo-Devo” that also exploits DNA sequence information to explain morphological diversity. Function conservation of key regulators in development, such as the MADS-box transcription factors with a role in flower organ specification, begins to explain the main aspects of flower morphology in different species, such as the different floral organ types and the floral whorls. Gene duplication and function divergence by coding sequence changes in addition to ectopic expression patterns clarify the diversity in flower morphology in a number of cases (Kramer and Irish, 1999; Vandenbussche et al., 2003b; Ferrario et al., 2004). Evolutionary developmental biology studies have investigated some aspects of diversity in leaf morphology as well (Cubas et al., 1999b; Bharathan et al., 2002; Kanno et al., 2003; Hileman et al., 2003; Tsiantis and Hay, 2003). Bioinformatics research showed that diploid genomes, such as that of Arabidopsis and other model systems contain large genome duplications (Arabidopsis Genome Initiative, 2000; Simillon et al., 2002; Blanc and Wolfe, 2004). Genome duplications have been postulated to allow for diversification in gene function and to be the major mechanism to achieve morphological diversity in the flowering plants and also in the animal kingdom in combination with natural selection as postulated by C. Darwin in the late 19th century (Darwin, 1859; Ohno, 1970). Computational approaches to unveil ancient genome duplications are under development and may contribute to new insights into evolutionary genetics (Van de Peer, 2004). Significant progress in the unraveling of molecular networks is to be expected from the systems biology approach in which the entire transcriptome, proteome, or metabolome is analyzed upon perturbation rather than single genes. The aim is to identify the complex networks responsible for biological processes and their mutual interactions (Gutiérrez et al., 2005). Integration with computational science and mathematics will be indispensable to interpret the large data sets, generate network visualization and build models. The number of computer programs for visualization and integration of different data sets, such as MAPMAN (Thimm et al., 2004) is increasing and is a prerequisite to understand the biology. The integration of biological data into regulatory networks will allow further testing and predictions (Ideker et al., 2001; Davidson et al., 2002). Models on plant growth and development are being generated for plant architecture, organs and tissues and incorporating genetic regulatory networks. These models are an integration of mathematical modeling and computer simulations with biological components such as modules for architecture, growth parameters for organs and tissues, or genes and their domains of action and genetic interaction for regulatory networks (Rolland-Lagan et al., 2003; Kwiatkowska and Dumais, 2003; Gielis, 2003; Prusinkiewicz, 2004). Future goals are the integration of models for architecture with those for organs and tissues and for genetic regulatory networks in order to obtain in-depth understanding of the mechanisms of plant development from genes to phenotypes (Prusinkiewicz, 2004). Plant cell sorting has recently been achieved by several groups to purify living cells of the same type with cell-specific GFP markers, or alternatively small tissue domains with laser technology (Kerk et al., 2003; Birnbaum et al., 2003). Plant cell sorting is a breakthrough technology since research on cell differentiation in plants was limited to molecular-genetic analysis because of the inability to culture differentiated plant cells in vitro unlike in mammalian systems. The genome-wide profiling techniques are applied to this sorted plant material and the results will undoubtedly further our knowledge on the progressive process of cell specification to differentiation and cell function. Increasing the resolution of sorting and systems biology up to single cell level will open up new opportunities in the study of cell specification. Then, genetic programs would be analyzed that distinguish, for instance, between the different fate of the daughter cells after asymmetric cell division, such as in the case of the first zygotic division or upon lateral root induction or in stomatal development. Another challenge for future research on plant development will be to understand other mechanisms besides the transcriptional control of genetic programs exerted by transcription factors. Recently, microRNAs have been discovered in plants and a number of them are complementary to transcription factors with a function in developmental processes (Reinhart et al., 2002; Rhoades et al., 2002; Bonnet et al., 2004). For instance in leaf development several transcription factors, such as PHABULOSA, PHAVOLUTA and CINCINNATA -like genes are targeted by miRNAs (Nath et al., 2003; Palatnik et al., 2003; Juarez et al., 2004; Kidner and Martienssen 2004). Temporal and spatial regulation of expression of miRNAs is of utmost importance for the proper destruction of transcription factor mRNAs during developmental processes and it is based on the silencing pathway (Baulcombe, 2004). However, the regulation of expression of the miRNAs is still unknown and needs to be explored because it adds another level to gene expression regulation and it may contribute to the delineation of boundaries and domains in developing organisms. Protein degradation through the ubiquitination pathway is an important control mechanism for developmental pathways. E3 ubiquitin ligases target specific substrates for degradation at the proteasome and more than 460 are represented in the Arabidopsis genome (Stone et al., 2005). A number of their targets will be important in developmental control and their nature will be revealed in the coming years by functional genomics. Epigenetic control of developmental transitions and morphogenetic processes needs to be further explored (Reyes et al., 2002). The naturally occurring peloric mutant of Linaria vulgaris described by Linnaeus more than 250 years ago has an epigenetic mutation in a CYC ortholog (Linneaus, 1749; Gustafsson, 1979; Cubas et al., 1999b). Other well-studied epimutations are at the P locus in maize and at the SUPERMAN locus in Arabidopsis (Das and Messing, 1994; Jacobsen and Meyerowitz, 1997). From these studies it became clear that the DNA methylation status has a great impact on gene expression and can be transferred to subsequent generations in plants. As mentioned, the DRL1 and ELO genes studied in our unit (Nelissen et al., 2003, 2005) identified a histone acetyltransferase complex, named Elongator that associates with the RNA polymerase II transcription elongation complex. The drl1-2 and elo mutants have a narrow leaf phenotype indicating that leaf form is also regulated by reversible chromatin modification. The drl1-2 and elo mutants have in addition reduced root growth, a stunted inflorescence and an altered phyllotaxis (Figure 2). Reversible histone modifications,such as acetylation/deacetylation, are of critical importance to make DNA available for transcription or to repress transcription. A well-studied case is the vernalization-dependent deacetylation and, hence, inactivation of the FLOWERING LOCUS C gene that codes for a repressor of flowering (Sung and Amasino, 2004). A number of histone acetylases and deacetylases (HDAC) are present in the plant genome, amongst them the plant-specific HD2 subfamily of HDACs (Lusser et al., 1997; Pandey et al., 2002). It will be a challenge to find out about their upstream signaling, downstream targets and function in plant development. On the longer term, more than 10 years from now, it is difficult to predict the future because a major input of technology and expertise from other disciplines in biological research is to be expected. The biology-driven research relies to a great extent on breakthrough technologies to take the research to the next level. No doubt, technology will have a huge impact on experimentation and thinking in biological research in the next decade. The early studies of plant growth and development focused on embryogenesis. In the past twenty five years, it became possible to successfully analyze many more developmental processes, hence plant developmental biology became the generally accepted terminology. It refers to a multidisciplinary approach using expertise and tools from genetics, molecular biology and cell biology to study processes in development also beyond the formation of the embryo. Around that time, initiatives were taken to address biological questions in just a few model systems, such as Arabidopsis thaliana, Zea mays, Antirrhinum majus and Petunia hybrida, while the «old» model systems, i.e. potato, tobacco, used in regeneration and grafting experiments, were increasingly abandoned. International research programs were initiated in Arabidopsis at first to create stock centers and databases to proceed faster with the scientific research and to get deeper insight into plant biology. During the last five years the maize community made tremendous progress in developing tools and resources for their system. Milestones in plant developmental biology discussed relate to the molecular-genetic approach to study embryogenesis, autoregulation of meristems, leaf and flower initiation, leaf and flower formation and cell specification in the root. Developmental biology changed the research from descriptive to causal resulting in a number of genetic models. Future developments in research will focus on the study of a specific gene activity in a genome-wide context. The building of molecular networks will allow computer modeling of biological processes and its use for predictions and further experimentation. Sequence information derived from the multiple genome projects will be exploited in comparative biology. KEY WORDS: model plant, regulatory network, forward and reverse genetics, evo-devo, systems biology and modeling We thank Marc De Block and Tom Gerats for critical reading of the manuscript and helpful suggestions and Martine De Cock and Karel Spruyt for help in preparing it. This work was supported in part by grants from the Interuniversity Poles of Attraction-Belgian Science Policy (P5/13) and the European Community’s Human Potential Program under contract HPRNCT- 2002-00267 (DAGOLIGN). ALONSO-BLANCO, C. and KOORNNEEF, M. (2000). Naturally occurring variation in Arabidopsis: an underexploited resource for plant genetics. 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(1995). phantastica : a gene required for dorsoventrality of leaves in Antirrhinum majus. Development 121: 2143-2154. WAITES, R., SELVADURAI, H.R.N., OLIVER, I.R. and HUDSON, A. (1998). The PHANTASTICA gene encodes a MYB transcription factor involved in growth and dorsoventrality of lateral organs in Antirrhinum. Cell 93: 779-789. WEIGEL, D. and JÜRGENS, G. (2002). Stem cells that make stems. Nature 415: 751-754. WEIGEL, D. and MEYEROWITZ, E.M. (1994). The ABCs of floral homeotic genes. Cell 78: 103-209. WEIGEL, D. and NILSSON, O. (1995). A developmental switch sufficient for flower initiation in diverse plants. Nature 377: 495-500. WYRZYKOWSKA, J., PIEN, S., SHEN, W.H. and FLEMING, A.J. (2002). Manipulation of leaf shape by modulation of cell division. Development 129: 957-964. YANOFSKY, M.F., MA, H., BOWMAN, J.L., DREWS, G.N., FELDMANN, K.A. and MEYEROWITZ, E.M. (1990). The protein encoded by the Arabidopsis homeotic gene agamous resembles transcription factors. Nature 346: 35-39. YOUNG, N.D., MUDGE, J. and ELLIS, T.H.N. (2003). Legume genomes: more than peas in a pod. Curr. Opin. Plant Biol. 6: 199-204. ZAENEN, I., VAN LAREBEKE, N., TEUCHY, H., VAN MONTAGU, M. and SCHELL, J. (1974). Supercoiled circular DNA in crown gall inducing Agrobacterium strains. J. Mol. Biol. 86: 109-127. ZAMBRYSKI, P., JOOS, H., GENETELLO, C., LEEMANS, J., VAN MONTAGU, M. and SCHELL, J. (1983). Ti plasmid vector for the introduction of DNA into plant cells without alteration of their normal regeneration capacity. EMBO J. 2: 2143- 2150. ZAMBRYSKI, P., TEMPÉ, J. and SCHELL, J. (1989). Transfer and function of TDNA genes from Agrobacterium Ti and Ri plasmids in plants. Cell 56: 193-201. Fig. 1. Shoot apical meristem organization and leaf development. (A) Drawing of an Arabidopsis thaliana median longitudinal histological section of the SAM with the different zones (FLM, flank meristem; CIZ, central initiation zone; CLZ, cambium-like zone; FIM, file meristem) (according to Vaughan, 1952). (B) Microsurgical incisions, represented by the white lines, in the potato SAM (top view) have an effect on the symmetry of the next leaf primordium (I1) to be formed (according to Sussex, 1955). (C) Paradermal section through an expanding Arabidopsis thaliana leaf lamina showing gradients of cell division at the basal zone and cell expansion at the tip (according to Pyke et al., 1991). Fig. 2. Developmental phenotypes of the drl1-2 mutant affected in the DRL1 gene that is a putative regulator of the plant Elongator histone acetyltransferase complex. (A,B) Full grown rosettes of wild type, resp. drl1-2. (C) Primary root growth kinetics. (D,E) Inflorescence architecture of wild type, resp. drl1-2. (F,G) Scanning electron micrograph of a wild type, resp. drl1-2 SAM. (H,I) Longitudinal section through a 6-day-old shoot apex of wild type, resp. drl1-2. (J,K) Transverse section through 12-dayold shoot apices of wild type, resp. drl1-2 (according to Nelissen et al., 2003). Asterisks indicate the SAM. c, cotelydon; DAG, days after germination; hy, hypocotyls; p, leaf primordium; p1 to p4, first to fourth leaf primordium; Bar in F,G = 25 μm; in H to K, 50 μm. Fig. 3. Homeotic flower mutants. (A) Wild-type Arabidopsis thaliana flower. (B) Arabidopsis agamous c- mutant (according to Yanofsky et al., 1991). (C) Arabidopsis a-b-c- triple mutant (according to Weigel and Meyerowitz, 1994). Source: Int. J. Dev. Biol. 49: 453-465 (2005) Source: Int. J. Dev. Biol. 49: 453-465 (2005)	195,500
Skip to Content Siemens AG / Energy Sector / Wind Power The installation of the first two 6 megawatt wind turbines in the offshore wind power plant Gunfleet Sands III with the specially designed installation vessel SEA INSTALLER marks an important milestone for Siemens. The company is in the vanguard in the field of offshore wind turbine technology and has also played a pioneering role in the challenging area of offshore installation of wind turbines. Its purpose in all these endeavors is to further reduce the costs of wind energy and so enable wind power to compete with traditional energy sources. Apart from innovations such as the new gearless six-megawatt wind turbine, another important leverage factor is the systematic industrialization of offshore logistics. 2:00 PM CET	50,253
I’m in the 4th grade of primary school. 8 in the morning, in the schoolyard. We are all in lines waiting for a student to start his tilawat of Quran. You see, in Iran, at schools, it is mandatory to start the day with tilawat of a surah of Quran. Usually done by a student or a teacher who’s a qari. They recite a short surah in a microphone to annoy the neighbours while students stay in lines silently, and pretend they listen to the words of Allah. Well…I couldn’t! As a kid I always found it difficult to stay at one place or concentrate on one thing, particularly when that thing was Quran, which I did not understand, neither did give a shit about. My whole life was focused on how many Panini cards I had or what my best score in Sonic the hedgehog was! Mostly earthly matters just like other nine year olds I assume. So, the student is reciting the Quran into a microphone and I am talking and laughing with my friends. Then, the qaari says “kun” which is both an Arabic and a Persian word with very different meanings! In Persian it means a butt. As a kid, it was hilarious to hear “kun” in that serious tone of the qari reciting the word of Allah. I start giggling and am trying not to laugh too loudly when something hits the back of my head hard and my eyes go black! After a few seconds, I realize that it’s the principal’s hand. A chubby hairy hand as big as a shovel. Then, he kicks me in the leg as I try to dodge, but I fail and his black boot hit my hip bone like a ramming train. It was so painful that made his other hits quite insignificant . The whole school’s watching as I am getting absolutely destroyed by the principal’s rage. Apparently, he has some sort of an MMA fighter inside him that he decided to unleash upon me. Throwing his hands and feet at me with utter disgust and hatred, he forces me out of the line into his office. -“You little clown! What is it that you think is funny? Do you know it’s a sin to laugh while Quran is being recited? What’s your name you ass?” I will never forget his disgust towards me. My whole body is pain from the kicks, my ears are ringing from the smacks, and I am already planning my revenge on him, which would never happen of course! I mumble “Bozorgi” while I try to focus on any sudden movement so I can evade. “Well… Mr. Bozorgi, you won’t be able to talk today!” He says with a grim which is hardly noticeable under that bush of a beard on his dirty ugly face, takes a roll of black duct tape out of his desk drawer, cuts a big piece, and duct tapes my mouth! Like a hostage! Then, he presses his big fat smelly fingers, which looked like Frankfurters that have gone off, on the edges to make sure it won’t come off “If you remove it, I will call your parents, now you can go to class.” I am petrified, don’t know what to do, if I leave his office with that duct tape on my mouth, everyone will laugh at me forever! And if I remove it, they will call my parents which is even worse! (It wasn’t) So I cry ,a lot of course. Principal is quite content with his disciplinary action and he escorts me back to class triumphantly. I enter the class and am greeted the way I expect, with a wave of laughter. However, my classmates are more empathetic than my teacher. My teacher and the principal exchange a smile and a proud look as they have arrested the most notorious criminal of Iran. Fun times! Having told you the story, I want to pinpoint how sacred Quran is Iran. Quran is the most important artifact of Islam. It is considered as divine and sacred. Not only the meaning and what it says, but the book itself. The book as a physical object and the words that have been printed by a photocopy machine. Everything is sacred about Quran in Islam. To the extent that you have to be “clean” while you handle the Quran. So, since I’m an atheist and considered as “unclean” in Islam, I cannot touch the Quran. A woman going through her period is not allowed to touch the Quran as she is “unclean” and the list goes on. Recently, I have seen a challenge started by some Iranians. It’s called burning the Quran challenge. Although, I don’t agree with burning a book, I totally understand the symbolic value of this movement which is to break the bubble of sacredness around this book. This book is an idol. We take it with us to our new house and car to bring us good fortune. We kiss it and touch it, when we are going on a journey to keep us safe. We all have one in our home. However, we have never questioned it!	64,436
State-operated mobile crisis services provided by the Crisis Assessment and Stabilization Team (CAST) is housed at the North and South State-Operated Stabilization Training Assistance Reintegration (STAR). The CAST is designed to provide partnerships, assessments, training and support to individuals continuing to experience crises after regional centers have exhausted all other available crisis services in their catchment areas. CAST also serves individuals who are at risk of having to move from their family home or out of home placement and admitted to a more restrictive setting. CAST is in development and services are proposed to begin in the Winter of 2020. Last modified: January 20, 2021	301,745
Rebekah - Women of the Bible Genesis Chapters 24 - 27 The wife of Isaac. A woman of godly character but not without her human weaknesses. Abraham, Isaac's father, had sent his trusted servant back to his country and people to choose a wife for his son. Remember Abraham was now living in the land of Cannan. Abraham's servant went back to Abraham's country, sought God for guidance and immediately came in contact with a very godly young girl (Genesis 24). Rebekah, inspired by nothing more than a caring heart, drew water, not only for the servant but also for his carmel's. Supplying water for thirsty camels is a very demanding job. Rebekah, who was described as very beautiful, put her self through a lot of hard work for no apparent gain. She was a woman of godly character. Something of great worth in God's sight (1 Peter 3:3-4). As a woman of God, the greatest investment you can make in your life is that of a godly character (1 Timothy 4: 7-8). Let the word of God remould your life. It's in seeking God that you will find fulfilment(1 Timothy 6: 6). As you seek the kingdom of God all other things will be added unto you (Matthew 6:33). This is the secret to a fulfilled life that so many women have missed. The godliness in Rebekah is what opened the door to her destiny. She was not sitting there complaining of her situation, but rather allowed the love of God to shape her life. As the fruit of the spirit takes root in your life so shall the favour of God follow (Galatians 5:22). As you draw close to God, God will draw close to you. When God is close to you favour will follow (James 4:8) After providing Abraham's servants with water, Rebekah assured him that there was enough room in her parents house to accommodate him and his carmel's for the night. Again, her kind heart led her to help a stranger. This again exposed her to the blessing of God (Hebrews 13:1-2). After Abraham's servant made his mission clear to Rebekah's parents they agreed to give her hand in marriage. Notice that she was consulted about this decision and it was only her consent that made it possible. Her discernment led her to make the right choice (Genesis 24:47-60). According to the culture of the day, Rebekah's initial accepting of the nose ring (Genesis 24:47) was a clear sign of the servant's intention and her acceptance of it. Woman of God. There are many decisions in life that you are going to have to make. Sometimes making the right one is vital. The closer you get to God, the better the chance of you have of making the right choice. Rebekah followed the servant back to Isaac and became his wife (Genesis 24:66). A close relationship between a man and a woman in marriage is vital. Together you can lift one another up spiritually, physically and emotionally. When one is down the other can lift the person up. This was true of Isaac and Rebekah. Rebekah was barren and Isaac prayed for her and God heard his prayer (Genesis 25:21). Couples need to lift each other up in prayer. There are times when it is your prayers that will help your partner. Rebekah was a woman of prayer and had no less access to God than Isaac did. Indeed we see her seeking God's face over the issue of her children and getting a clear answer (Genesis 25: 22-25). Maybe she had gained her confidence back after becoming pregnant. Couples need to support one another. Taking support from your partner is not a sign of weakness. Rebekah could certainly hear from God directly, nevertheless she still allowed Isaac to do it when it regarded child birth. My guess is that they had both been praying for children together and as discouragement set in Isaac took it up more aggressively. Notice that this was not an easy period for the couple. Even with Isaac's prayer it still took twenty years of marriage before Rebekah had her children (Genesis 25:19-21,26). Patience is always necessary in receiving from God. Patience is human endurance coupled with God's grace which combines to give us the ability to seek God's face in prayer, without giving up, until the answer is received (James 5: 7-8). Rebekah was a woman of patience. She was also a woman who knew when to lean on her husband. This was part of her strength. God's favour continued to abide with Rebekah. Being a beautiful woman she soon ran into the same problem Sarah faced. God protected her (Genesis 26: 7-11). Incidentally Isaac showed the same weakness that was in his father Abraham. He too cowardly lied about the true identity of his wife. A godly woman should know the weaknesses in her husband and pray about them. Do not allow them room to affect or even destroy your marriage. Every human being has weaknesses. We should not resent the weaknesses in our partner but rather prayerfully guard against them. Rebekah was soon to show her weaknesses. It was Rebekah who pushed Jacob, her son, into deceiving his father and stealing his brothers blessing (Genesis 27:2-13). This resulted in great conflict in the home (Genesis 27:41-43). Isaac and Rebekah made the same mistake that many parents make; they chose favourites among their children. This is something that all parents should guide against. The results of such actions can cause conflicts in your home that can go on for many years. You have been warned! 1. What good qualities do you see in Rebekah? 2. What is godly character? 3. What are the merits of allowing God to refine our characters? 4. How did Rebekah cope with unanswered prayers in her life? 5. What does it mean to have patience? 6. What is the danger of having favourites among our children? 7. What weaknesses did you notice in the life of Rebekah? 8. How should couples support themselves during times of hardship?	24,583
As previously reported, Australia has taken Japan to the International Court of Justice in The Hague over Japan’s annual whale hunt in the Southern Ocean. Australia has been arguing in the international court that this practice cannot be justified as science, as Japan consistently maintains. The case has now concluded with Japan asserting that the court has no authority to decide what is or isn’t science. The Japanese government told the international court that it was supposed to be a court of law, not a “medieval inquisition”, according to The Guardian. Australia is seeking to prevent Japan from carrying out further whaling, saying the whale hunting is not for purposes of scientific research, which is allowed in a loophole of the 1946 whaling convention, but rather for commercial reasons. Japan has argued that Japan is gathering scientific information on the basis of which it might be able to ask for the moratorium on commercial whaling to be lifted, and asserting that “This is a court of law not a court of scientific truth.” On conclusion of the case from both sides, it is up to the court when it will deliver a decision. Even though Japan said it thinks the court has no authority to decide what is science and what isn’t, both nations have said they will abide they the decision of the International Court of Justice, whatever that may be. Image CC licensed by Jeremy Keith: Whale meat, Japan	303,518
The latest Census reveals that the population in NYC is around 7,333,000. With an area of 800 sq km or 308.9 sq mi, the city is nicknamed The Empire City or the Big Apple. The NYC metropolitan area or the NYC city and surrounding communities have a population of 16,626,000. The ethnic composition consists of 63.9% white, 28.7% black, and 7% Asian & Pacific Islanders. NYC consists of five divisions or boroughs. The aforementioned article provides information on the New York City in the United States. Tourism is a major income earner in NYC. More than 25 million people visit NYC every year for tourism purposes. There are historic landmarks, fine dining, varied shopping experiences, and a host of other attractions in the city. Some of the best places to visit in NYC include the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, Rockefeller Center, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Broadway and the Theater District, and the Empire State Building. Inside Secrets Of Online LPN Snippets We Found On The Web For Online LPN In addition, attending a physical college often requires extensive travel. You may need to allow for a considerable number of hours travel each week, this can put a burden, not only on your time but also on your finances. These are just a few of the reasons why opting to acquire qualifications online can be an attractive and successful option. These Classes Are Easy And Affordable Programs For LPNs Online If you have always wondered, ‘Can you become LPN online?’ the short answer is yes. However, it is important to realize that it is not completely online since you will still have to attend physical classes to learn more about the physical side of things in your nursing career. If you’re looking for a rewarding career with a wealth of opportunities, you should strongly consider nursing. You may want to become an LPN. If you take LPN online courses, you’ll be able to start working in nursing in no time. Here are a few things you should know before signing up for online course. Because this position is sought after by adults of many different ages it may well be that you need or want to maintain a part-time or full-time job while going through the necessary schooling to get your license, so you should strongly consider enrolling in an online program that will be far more flexible with the hours you can study and achieve your goals. Here we’ll take a look at exactly what LPN online needs. There are many different accredited online programs that allow you to receive LPN training. However, even though there are a lot of programs out there, these programs may not be an option for you. Your options will vary based on your location. It’s possible that there may not be an accredited program in your area. The common duties of LPNs include: Are you interested in entering the satisfying and rewarding field of nursing? If this is a career path that you feel passionate about you likely already know that becoming a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) can be a very effective step. However, what are LPN requirements? Allow us to provide you with a brief overview. LPN training programs come at a coast. Since many of the courses take only one year to complete the price is not normally extravagant. That being said, prices can certainly vary so it worth the time and effort to consider all of your options before making a final choice. Of course, any potential student should ensure that they are in a position to pay for the training course before they commence.	225,809
Most managers know about the water cooler effect. However, not enough understand the meaning of the concept and how it relates to performance and collaboration. People thinking about how to support collaboration and performance need to keep in mind the simple fact that employees don’t only gather around the water cooler or coffee pot to get a drink. They often use getting a drink of water, or a cup of coffee, as a pretext for taking a break, and information sharing happens incidentally as they interact in that informal process, sometimes playfully, with their peers and, in exceptional organizations, their managers. A couple of studies released this summer dealing with performance and collaboration in teams merit consideration in this regard. Not so much for what they specifically say about performance and collaboration as much as what they imply about the importance of social relationships to both. The consulting firm RW3 recently released a study of distributed teams, reporting that “40 percent of members on virtual teams believe their groups are underperforming”. We previously discussed such distributed teams, noting that team members often disagree with team leaders about who is, and is not, on the team. Michael Schell, CEO for RW3, noted in Chief Learning Officer magazine that, of the teams studied, “Half of these teams never meet in person…They don’t get time to create any kind of rapport, which is very important when you’re working across cultures.” While the RW3 research points to a salient issue in distributed teams, it fails to acknowledge that merely recognizing and talking about the impact of cultural variation on performance and collaboration, whether in informal online meetings or in training, fails to address the main issue. Members of distributed teams perform more effectively when they understand one another as people as well as employees. Specifically, Collaboration means getting to know that other employees possess expertise on this or that topic, but also developing comfort with one another by sharing significant symbols relating to self, family, friends, and social activities, thereby understanding one another as people. Merely orchestrating virtual water cooler meetings on a regular basis does not address the issue, especially when management coordinates the meetings. As I observed in a previous post on the importance of empathy and collaboration to social business design, People who identify with one another are more likely to share information proactively, without waiting for others to ask for it, because they understand how their own work relates to that of other people and see the flow of work from multiple points of view, spanning silos. Too many social computing experts view collaboration from within a command and control prism, assuming people collaborate because coordination and communication are part of their job description. Effective collaboration really requires proactively sharing information with those it affects, not simply reacting to information requests. It means anticipating the future impact of actions you take on the responsibilities of other employees or business partners, or the needs of customers. People really don’t do this well unless they see other employees, and customers, as people too. Indeed, this is one of the main reasons that social networks increase in importance as collaboration decreases as a face to face activity. Recent research on collaboration, performance, and job satisfaction in co-located teams provides useful findings to consider in thinking about what social networks add to the mix in distributed teams. On the Importance of Gossip to Performance Benjamin W. Waber and Alex “Sandy” Pentland of the MIT Media Lab recently used RFID and Bluetooth tracking devices engineered as sociometric badges to study the patterns of communication among employees at two different companies. The first company was an IT services firm. Following the patterns of communication among employees evidenced by the sociometric badge data, the researchers concluded that ”social support in the form of cohesion (how much time do the people you talk to spend with each other) was strongly positively associated with productivity.” The badges used in the research are capable of the following: - Recognizing common daily human activities (such as sitting, standing, walking, and running) in real time using a 3-axis accelerometer… - Extracting speech features in real time to capture nonlinguistic social signals such as interest and excitement, the amount of influence each person has on another in a social interaction, and unconscious back-and-forth interjections, while ignoring the words themselves in order to assuage privacy concerns… - Performing indoor user localization by measuring received signal strength and using triangulation algorithms that can achieve position estimation errors as low as 1.5 meters, which also allows for detection of people in close physical proximity… - Communicating with Bluetooth enabled cell phones, PDAs, and other devices to study user behavior and detect people in close proximity… - Capturing face-to-face interaction time using an IR sensor that can detect when two people wearing badges are facing each other within a 30°-cone and one meter distance… (p. 1) The second company was a call center for Bank of America. After a few weeks, the research data indicated that customer service representatives who talked to more co-workers were getting through calls faster, felt less stressed, and had the same approval ratings as their peers. “Informally talking out problems and solutions, it seemed, produced better results than following the employee handbook or obeying managers’ e-mailed instructions.” The MIT research findings shouldn’t surprise us since numerous psychological experiments show that people are reluctant to share uncertain or sensitive information in formal meetings, especially when they think they alone possess it. As a result of their preliminary findings, Waber and Pentland advised the following organizational intervention, One simple intervention is to give workers more opportunities to socialize in groups. Currently we are implementing a strategy at a call center for a national bank chain where we are changing the break structure of the employees. Previously each employee on a team of around 20 people had a separate 15 minute break in order to reduce the need to shift call loads to other teams, although in practice this issue is not terribly important. This makes it very difficult for cohesive relationships to develop, since groups of friends will by design have limited opportunities for shared interactions. To create more of these opportunities we changed the break structure of two of the four teams that we had studied previously so that all of the employees on a team are given a break at the exact same time. The patterns of social interaction changed dramatically after the intervention, and Bank of America reported productivity gains worth about $15 million a year. So, what do these findings indicate about the importance of social networks in collaboration and performance for distributed teams? When asked about how the culture of Zappos was affected by its growth, and the acquisition of the company by Amazon, Tony Hsieh responded that managing the change to preserve the social relationships in the Zappos culture was his priority. He noted that the acquisition itself didn’t pose as much of a challenge as Zappos’ own growth. As a result, …we’ve begun tracking employee relationships. When employees log in to their computers, we ask them to look at a picture of a random employee and then ask them how well they know that person — the options include “say hi in the halls,” “hang out outside of work,” and “we’re going to be longtime friends.” We’re starting to keep track of the number and strength of cross-departmental relationships — and we’re planning a class on the topic. My hope is that we can have more employees who plan to be close friends. The key fact behind the Zappos example is that using social networking as part of business design is a way of cultivating shared experience among employees rather than a mere means to an end, or goal, alone. Achieving the latter is in fact, as the research above indicates, increased by cultivating shared experience through social relationships. No doubt, developing such shared experience among members of distributed teams takes longer than it does when employees meet in the hallway or on breaks. Nevertheless, shared experience, not just shared information, is fundamental to the social networks underlying collaboration and community. Many, if not most, employees don’t only need to get to know one another through reputational systems, like who tags whom or rates them as possessing expertise. Comfort with one another is needed to develop a shared experience where trust increases the likelihood that needed information is shared, or that the need itself is anticipated. This simple fact about people is too often overlooked. Posted by Larry R. Irons	45,255
Voting rights advocates are girding for a series of crucial battles that will play out over the next twelve months in Congress, in the courts, and in state legislatures. Victories could go a long way to reversing the setbacks of the last year. Defeats could help cement a new era in which voting is more difficult, especially for racial minorities, students, and the poor. Despite some scattered efforts by states to improve voting access, the right to vote took a big step backwards last year. Republican legislatures in states across the country continued to advance restrictive voting laws, while a major Supreme Court ruling, Shelby County v. Holder, badly weakened the Voting Rights Act (VRA). Wendy Weiser, who runs the Democracy program at the Brenan Center for Justice, called Shelby “the single biggest blow to voting rights in decades.” Perhaps the key voting rights showdown of 2014 will take place on Capitol Hill, as the push to update and strengthen the VRA gathers momentum. The Shelby ruling, which freed areas with a history of discrimination from federal oversight, “leaves a big hole in our voting rights law that Congress will have to fill at some point,” said Dan Tokaji, an election law professor at Ohio State University. There’s disagreement about just how it should do that. Some want an improved VRA to mimic the existing law by continuing to center on barring racial discrimination in voting. That might be the best way to crack down on the kind of under-the-radar schemes to reduce minority voting power that we’ve seen lately on the local level in places like Beaumont, Texas, and Augusta, Georgia. “Eighty-five percent of objections under Section 5 were to local-level changes,” said Spencer Overton, a law professor at George Washington University. “From a pure policy standpoint, being accurate about the problem, these local jurisdicitons present significant problems.” Others, including Tokaji, argue the fix should also—or instead—approach the issue more broadly, perhaps by trying to codify standards that guarantee the right to vote for all. That approach would acknowledge that tactics like voter ID laws are often as much about partisanship as race. But the debate may be irrelevant. Despite cautious optimism from some voting rights advocates, passing anything looks to be an uphill battle, given Republican obstructionism. “I’m not optimistic about any legislation getting through the current Congress,” Tokaji said. It may be more likely that Congress will act on a different opportunity: taking up the recommendations of President Obama’s bipartisan commission on voting, which early next month will unveil its report on how to fix long lines at the polls and modernize the voting system. The proposals are likely to focus on relatively non-controversial ideas, like getting better technical tools and expertise to local election administrators. But election experts say steps like that could lead to much smoother elections, after some voters waited eight hours or more in Florida last year. Other crucial skirmishes will be fought in the courts. Voter ID laws are being challenged in Wisconsin and Texas, and the outcome of those cases will offer a key signal of whether and when, Section 2 of the VRA—the major pillar of the law left in tact after Shelby—can be used to stop voter ID and other restrictive measures. North Carolina’s sweeping voting law, also being challenged under Section 2, won’t go to trial until 2015, though it could be blocked from going into effect for the 2014 midterms. “It’ll really send a signal as to how strong the protection of Section 2 really is going to be against discriminatory voting changes,” said Weiser, referring to all three cases. In advance of these cases, the Justice Department is adding muscle to its voting rights arm. The White House announced in November that it will nominate Debo Adegbile, a highly regarded former top lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, to serve as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, a post that includes oversight of DoJ’s voting section. And it reportedly will appoint Pamela Karlan, a Stanford University law professor and prominent voting rights advocate, as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in charge of the voting section. In Wisconsin, where a ruling is expected in January, lawyers for the civil rights groups challenging the law are said to be optimistic. Whatever the outcome, the case is likely to be appealed. That could offer one prominent judge the chance for a high-profile do-over. Judge Richard Posner, who sits on the federal appeals court that would hear the case, drew headlines in October when he admitted that he erred by approving an Indiana voter ID law in 2008, saying he was unaware at the time of evidence that such laws discriminate against minorities (Posner later attempted a partial walk-back.) Another upcoming case has received less attention but could have an even greater impact. Kansas and Arizona are suing the federal government for the right to require people to provide proof of citizenship when they register to vote. A win for the states could not only make it much harder to register voters in those places—after all, few people carry their birth certificate when they leave home. It would also do major damage to Congress’s authority to establish minimum national standards for voting—a power that’s crucial for any effort to improve elections. “It is critical that we don’t undermine Congress’s power to do that, which we need to actually move our system into the 21st century,” Weiser said. “So that’s a real legally significant case.” Republican-controlled states are poised to continue the push for regressive voting laws. Next month, perennial swing state Ohio will likely pass measures that cut back on early voting, end same-day registration, and make it harder to vote absentee. That’s a recipe for longer lines at the polls, threatening a re-run of 2004, when some Ohioans waited over 10 hours to vote. A voter ID bill is also said to be in the works, though its chances of passage are far less certain. In Missouri, three separate photo ID bills have been “pre-filed.” Restrictive voting bills also are likely to be introduced in Michigan and Colorado. And Iowa’s Republican Secretary of State, Matt Schultz, has pushed voter ID legislation there, though Democratic Senate leaders look unlikely to bring it to a vote. But there are also efforts to expand access to the ballot, according to a roundup by the Brennan Center. In Kentucky, three bills have been pre-filed that would restore voting rights to those with past criminal convictions. A similar one was pre-filed in Virginia. And in Florida, which in recent years has cracked down on voter registration activities, two measures would move in the opposite direction, making it easier for eligible citizens to register to vote. Still despite those more positive moves, voting rights rights expect to play whack-a-mole as new threats pop up around the country. “Unfortunately the push to restrict voting continues,” Weiser sais. “We need to keep pushing back against these unfair efforts to restrict the franchise.”	185,291
A LEAK at a test nuclear reactor in Caithness that the Defence Secretary last week claimed had caused no environmental pollution led to a tenfold rise in radioactive gas emissions, official figures reveal. The figures from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) came after Philip Hammond admitted to MPs on Thursday that there was a leak from the test reactor at HMS Vulcan near Dounreay. Opposition MPs yesterday demanded an inquiry and First Minister Alex Salmond accused the Ministry of Defence of subverting democracy. Mr Hammond’s statement on Thursday was the first time the UK government had admitted to a problem with the reactor, which is a test version of the ones used in the Vanguard and Astute class submarines. But he insisted there had been “zero risk” to the public and environment from the problems. He told MPs there had been “no measurable change in the radiation discharge” from the site. “That is the important point for people living in those communities,” he said. However, official figures show that emissions of the gases to the atmosphere rose from 0.19 gigabecquerels of radioactivity in 2011 to 2.16 Gbq in 2012. Mr Salmond said: “This is a flagrant abuse of Crown immunity, and shows total contempt for parliament and subverts the democratic accountability of Scotland.” Meanwhile, Scottish environment secretary Richard Lochhead said he would make a statement on the leak to Holyrood tomorrow. He said: “There must be complete openness and transparency on any nuclear related incident of this nature that relates to activities on Scottish territory given the potential environmental impact. “It is therefore totally unacceptable for the UK government to keep the Scottish people, the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government in the dark on the incident at Dounreay’s Vulcan establishment. I plan to raise our concern in a statement to the Scottish Parliament this week.” He added: “It is important that the public and Scottish Parliament are kept informed and it is unacceptable for the Ministry of Defence to put Sepa in such a difficult position once they were eventually notified by asking them not to make information about this situation more widely known for security reasons.” Opposition politicians have also called for a UK parliamentary inquiry into the handling of the radiation leak. Public confidence has been damaged by the incident, according to Labour shadow defence secretary Vernon Coaker and shadow Scottish secretary Margaret Curran. They said there were “significant questions” about the handling of the incident, particularly the two-year delay in making it public. In a letter to MP James Arbuthnot, Tory chairman of the Defence Select Committee, they said: “It is critical the public, particularly those who live close to facilities in Dounreay, have complete confidence in the safety regime that is in place.” An MoD spokesman said: “Sepa was not ordered to withhold information from the Scottish Government and it is absolutely wrong to suggest otherwise. Having been told about the situation, Sepa themselves chose not to inform ministers based on their expert view that the local community and environment is not at risk.”	233,530
Our hearts go out to anyone who falls victim of a natural disaster. We hope that you and your families are safe. Natural disasters may occur without any warning. So how can you prepare? Michael Rubin shares some important tips to help safeguard documents before one strikes. Several times in the last few years, living in New Hampshire has provided me the opportunity to dread being without electricity – or worse. From the well-publicized Superstorm Sandy (which largely stayed to our south) to Hurricane Irene (which took a shocking detour to Vermont at the last moment), we’ve certainly been spared the brunt of the worst recent storms. Still, we’ve had our share, including the “Great Ice Storm” and the “Mother’s Day Flood,” not to mention several nor’easters of varying intensity each winter. Despite that declaration, I’m probably not as prepared – from a record-keeping standpoint – as I should be. As I now recognize that crossing my fingers and hoping for the best isn’t a compelling strategy, I’ll share the steps I plan to take to rectify my situation. Also, I’ll provide some thoughts for you to consider if you’d like to increase the odds you’ll be prepared if a severe storm or other calamity were to come your way. 1. A “Grab and Go” Folder Sometimes you receive warning about a potential disaster. Other times, you don’t. Sometimes a disaster means you should huddle down and absolutely not leave the house. Other times, an impending storm can mean you should get out and get out quickly. To increase my preparedness for a quick evacuation, I am going to prepare a folder that contains copies of the following key items: - Homeowner’s insurance policy - Auto insurance policies - My and my wife’s driver’s licenses (front and back) - Social Security cards for the entire family - Credit cards (front and back) - Key phone numbers, including those of friends who are not in the immediate neighborhood yet who would probably be close enough to be able to help us. Also, the phone numbers of family who live in different areas of the country and are unlikely to be affected by whatever is ailing New Hampshire. - A list of additional things to quickly add to the “grab and go” folder if I need to actually grab and go with this folder. On this list will be my checkbooks and the small amount of cash I typically keep in the house. 2. Safe Deposit Box I’ll rent a safe deposit box too. My first step in doing so will be to decide where. While I could choose the nearest branch of my primary local bank (which is only two miles away), doing so increases the odds that if something were to happen at my home, there might be a big problem at my bank too. I’ll probably pick the branch closer to my office (15 miles away). Once I open my safe deposit box, I’ll put copies of the following items inside it: - Birth certificates - Marriage license - Home deed - Car titles 3. Digital Back Up In addition to the paper back-ups, I’ll make a digital back up by scanning or otherwise typing the following information into a Word file or PDF: - All of the items that will be in my grab and go file and in my safe deposit box - Financial account numbers (e.g., 401(k), IRA, brokerage, bank accounts, etc.) and related contact information - Tax Returns - Our wills and other estate planning documents (e.g., powers of attorney) I’ll save this digital backup in a few places. I’ll put it in my Dropbox account so it will accessible by me anywhere there is an internet connection. I’ll also put it on a zip disc that I will keep in the safe deposit box. Last, I’ll send a digital copy to my mother in Florida. Make a Movie We will also need to take a video of our home and its contents so that we have proof of what we own should there be a sizable homeowner’s insurance claim. I’ll store that video in the safe deposit box. The stills I take of the household items I’ll put in my Dropbox. It might sound like a lot, but for those who were unable to access their money or easily find the contact information of their insurance carrier after one of the big recent storms, doing so would have been a good investment of time. Keeping all of the above updated won’t be too time consuming either, so I view this as a sizable one-time project followed by less than 30 minutes a year of maintenance. What steps did you take to prepare for the worst that I have not discussed above? Do you feel prepared?	260,682
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that with the distance, develops a distrust in context of relation with the regulator. Minister’s prompt reply came while addressing the Global Fintech Festival in Mumbai on a question about building a relationship of trust between the industry and the government. “Cut the distance down, and have greater engagement with the government,” she had said. During this question-answer session, Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys, highlighted the importance of trust in the industry. He stated, “Trust is one of the key components in building a sustainable ecosystem and affordable architecture”. Gopalakrishnan went into ask, “Can you tell us how do we ensure that the trust in the various players - industry, business, regulators and government and the security aspect of financial transaction can continuously be enhanced?” The co-founder is currently functioning as the chairman of Axilor Ventures. He is also acting as the chairman of the GFF Advisory board. Sitharaman answered, “I don’t want to sound cliched but distance brings distrust. So cut the distance down, have greater engagement with the government. This is the government, whether it is the Prime Minister, ministers, group council of ministers or NITI Aayog, [all] are constantly available for engagement, discussion, exchange of ideas”. “So greater the engagement, the greater the trust which gets built up. So, I think one sure shot way of retaining and building on trust is to keep the constant engagement going”, she reiterated.	208,163
Once radio arrived on the scene, early in the 20th century, the accuracy of chronometers became less critical, because broadcast time signals allowed shipboard timepieces to be reset periodically. But until then chronometers were essential to accurate navigation, as the following story illustrates. In 1893 the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen set out towards the north pole (located in the ice-covered Arctic Ocean) in a specially strengthened ship, the “Fram." Having studied the currents of the Arctic Ocean, Nansen allowed “Fram" to be frozen into the polar ice, with which it slowly drifted across the water. Nearly two years, later, realizing that the course of “Fram" fell short of the pole, Nansen (who had prepared for this possibility) left the ship with his colleague Johansen and attempted to reach the pole by sleds over the ice. About 400 miles short of the pole they had to turn back: they wintered on a desolate island, in a hut they built of stones and walrus hides, and the following spring they headed for the islands of Svalbard (Spitzbergen). They had been in the icy wilderness for more than a year, completely out of touch, but they always knew exactly where they were, because each man carried a spring-powered chronometer. Then disaster struck --- in a moment of distraction, both forgot to rewind their chronometers and allowed them to run down. Suddenly, they were lost! Based on their last recorded positions, they made a guess and reset their timepieces, but the rest of their journey was clouded by uncertainty. Luckily, they did not have much further to go, and as chance had it, they encountered a British Arctic expedition which took them home. “Fram" broke free from the edge of the ice at about the same time; it is now on public display in Oslo.	138,040
Once upon a time, traditional Armenian costumes, taraz, were only seen in black and white photographs. Nowadays, social media is full of bright pictures of men, women and kids wearing taraz. It has become a trend among many locals and tourists to be photographed in these traditional costumes. Since being established five years ago, Photo Atelier Marashlyan has become very popular among the Armenians and non-Armenians. It is certainly a tourist attraction for anyone visiting Yerevan. “When the photo atelier was established, I imagined our clients would be mainly Diasporan Armenians, – says founder and photographer Emma Marashlyan. – But just in a couple of years we got really popular among locals as well.” Marashlyan family repatriated to Armenia in 2010. Working as a pharmacist in Moscow, Emma Marashlyan practiced photography only as a hobby. After moving to Armenia, she decided to change her profession, doing what she genuinely loved, and established the photo atelier which not only became the most popular one in the city, but managed to make traditional costumes and family style photographs trendy again. “It is very important for us to have authentic design and high quality costumes, – notes Emma Marashlyan. – To ensure the quality, we conduct detailed research in the archives and work with highly professional designers and tailors.” Marashlyan says, that people often ask for a costume from a specific region of Eastern or Western Armenia. “It is very symbolic for many of them to be photographed in the taraz from the place of their ancestors.” One of the most memorable and emotional photoshoots took place in Western Armenia in 2017, in Ani, Van, Moush and Karin. Armenia with Own Face Project Photo atelier is always looking for new ways of popularizing the Armenian culture. In 2017, together with make-up artist Bella Grigoryants, they created an exhibition depicting works of famous Armenian artists, including Martiros Saryan and Minas Avetisyan, painted on the faces of the models. The exhibition was presented both in Modern Art Museum of Yerevan and in the Armenian Museum of Moscow. The photo atelier also collaborates with the State Tourism Committee of Armenia, Yerevan Municipality, and other international and local organizations, by actively participating in exhibitions, touristic and cultural fairs in Armenia and abroad. Text : Karine Ghazaryan Photo : Photo Atelier Marashlyan	193,729
\|Photo: Anna Yatskevich\| \|Photo: Marek Lasarki\| The title track, a hymn composed by Alexander Johnson (1791-1832) in 1816, closes the album. The musicians respect the original melody but also open it up to interpretation. Why not? That's what they do all throughout "Devotion". Dave Douglas, Uri Caine, and Andrew Cyrille are master musicians and communicators. We are the beneficiaries of their hard work, interactions, and, yes, devotion. For more information, go to greenleafmusic.com. Here's one of the delightful tracks: Kono also has a quintet to play his original music. An earlier version of the group (guitarist Pete McCann, pianist Henry Hey, bassist John Hébert, and drummer John Hollenbeck) is featured on Kono's 2011 debut recording "Crossing" (1918 Records), an album that received great praise (including my review - click here) not just for the musicianship but also for quality of the compositions. There are several overtly political songs but also pieces dedicated to family and the many places Kono had visited as a child and as a young adult. Iron Eyes Cody to the extinction of many species including the dodo and the passenger pigeon plus deforestation. The song titles and explanations take a somber approach to the present as well as the possibilities of a future while the music roars, shimmers, shudders, dances, and moves inward. Pieces such as "Last Flight of the Dodo" and "River of Fire" have a tremendous urgency thanks to the insistent percussion and the powerful bass lines. "River..." has a stunning guitar solo plus Kono's bass clarinet-through-an-amplifier sound that emulates Jimi Hendrix. 2 levels in the atmosphere....in 1958! Te song would be out of place on a Blue Note Records album from the mid-1960s i.e. Wayne Shorter or Herbie Hancock. Kono's powerful tenor leads the way and takes in a free-for-all with the band (especially McCann and Hey) near the close of the piece. Meanwhile, the short "Spirit Animal" pieces are dedicated to the marmot, the condor, leviathan (whale), and beluga - three of the four are played on English Horn (double-reed woodwind) with "Leviathan" on bass clarinet. The album closes with hope in the form of "Renewal." McCann's acoustic guitar supports Hey's piano work with Kono playing the theme on flute. At the close of the piece, one hears a tape of the leader's daughter Sami sings the simple melody that served as the impetus for the composition. Yes, the song titles carry a power of their own. But, even without knowing the inspiration for each song, "Don't Blink" is filled with attractive melodies, impressive solos, fine interaction, and a mature yet adventurous attitude of on the part of Ben Kono and the ensemble. There are many of us who believe that the half-steps forward and full steps backward taken by the last two Presidential administrations (with the support of the Senate and the House of Representatives) have not come close to solving the issues inherent in the song titles. But, listener, keep an open mind when approaching this album - the rewards are many. For more information, go to dontblinkmusic.org. If you purchase the physical through Ben Kono's Bandcamp page - benkono.bandcamp.com - 50% of purchase price will be donated to Riverkeeper.org and the Sierra Club. Here's a track to pique your interest: \|Photo: John Rogers\| For even more information, go to www.mattmitchell.us.	48,124
DEPARTMENT OF INSURANCE [Constitution, Article V, Section 12; NDCC 26.1-01] As evidenced by the vast number of laws and other requirements, the regulation of the insurance industry from the 1880s to the present has been a matter of intense interest to the Legislative Assembly of Dakota Territory and the state of North Dakota. Prior to statehood, regulation of the insurance industry was the responsibility of the Territorial Auditor. Beginning in 1883, insurance companies organizing in the territory were required to file a declaration of intention with the Territorial Auditor (S. L. 1883, Ch. 69). The same legislation also provided standards for the investment of funds by insurance companies and the responsibilities of agents. Laws passed in 1885 and 1887 established standards for county mutual insurance companies and required public buildings in the territory to be insured (S. L. 1887, Ch. 68). The insurance regulatory duties of the Territorial Auditor were transferred to the office of the Commissioner of Insurance in 1889. The office of the Commissioner of Insurance was created by the North Dakota State Constitution in 1889. The Commissioner of Insurance was elected to a two-year term and had responsibility for enforcement of state insurance laws, filing of articles of incorporation and reports of insurance companies operating in the state, and reporting violation of insurance regulations to the Attorney General. In 1911 the State Hail Insurance Department was created to insure growing grain in the state from hail damage (S. L. 1911, Ch. 23). The State Hail Insurance Department was originally under the jurisdiction of the Commissioner of Agriculture and Labor and was transferred to the Commissioner of Insurance in 1915 (S. L. 1915, Ch. 166). Passage of a constitutional amendment in 1918 and amendment of the state hail insurance law in 1919 allowed the state to tax farm land to pay part of the cost of providing hail insurance. The State Hail Insurance Department was repealed in 1967 (S. L. 1967, Ch. 232). In 1913 the Commissioner of Insurance was required to supervise the State Fire Marshal (S. L. 1913, Ch. 169). The Commissioner of Insurance was designated the ex-officio State Fire Marshal in 1937. Supervision of the State Fire Marshal was assumed by the Attorney General in 1967. The Commissioner of Insurance was made the ex-officio secretary of the State Board of Electricians in 1917 (S. L. 1917, Ch. 118) and was replaced in 1919 by the State Fire Marshal (S. L. 1919, Ch. 123). The Commissioner of Insurance was again made an ex-officio member and secretary of the State Board of Electricians in 1941 (S. L. 1941, Ch. 227) and was removed from that position in 1977 (S. L. 1977, Ch. 399). Over the years, the Commissioner of Insurance assumed other duties, including the management of special state insurance funds. The State Investment Board has had the authority to establish standards and policy for the investment of monies maintained by the State Bonding Fund for the bonding of public employees [NDCC 26-23]. Authorized in 1913 (S. L. 1913, Ch. 194) and placed under supervision of the Commissioner of Insurance for the purpose of collecting bonding fees and issuing surety or fidelity bonds for public officials the bonding fund provides blanket bond coverage for public employees and all public officials. In 1919 the State Fire and Tornado Fund was created and administered by the Commissioner to insure all public buildings against loss or damage. The fund provides low cost property insurance coverage for political subdivisions and insures all public buildings and their contents against loss or damage caused by fire, tornado, wind, explosion, or other specifically named disasters [NDCC 26-24]. The office also works with the Unsatisfied Judgment Fund consisting of a fund established as protection for North Dakota residents against financial hardship caused by uninsured motorists. Also the Patient Trust Fund is required in nursing care facilities and guarantees that the principal will use patient trust funds in accordance and compliance with the law. In 1953 the Boiler Inspection program was under the Worker's Compensation Bureau when the State Legislature authorized the appointment of a State Boiler Inspector (S. L. 1953, Ch. 351) to inspect and certify boilers in the state and establish rules and regulations for the proper installation, use, and operation of boilers. In 1993 the Insurance Commissioner became manager of the Fund and responsible to appoint a Chief Boiler Inspector who had at least five years of experience in the construction, maintenance, repair, and inspection of boilers. This included anhydrous ammonia facilities. The statewide boiler inspection program provides mechanical inspection of boilers and pressure vessels and their components. Inspections are conducted on a recurring basis to safeguard the lives of those exposed to vessels under pressure, to protect persons and property generally, and to place by reasonable regulation responsibility for compliance with the owner and user. The Petroleum Tank Release Compensation fund which was created to help pay for cleaning up spills was required by the federal government and requested that all owners of underground petroleum tanks prove their financial ability to clean up petroleum contamination resulting from a spill. The Commissioner of Insurance through the Insurance Department has seen that all laws of this state respecting insurance companies are executed by administering North Dakota’s insurance laws and code, if there is a violation of law the case is sent to the Attorney General. Responsibilities also include protection for policy holders by examining and licensing insurance companies, officers, agents, brokers, and solicitor agents for business conduct and financial stability. Additionally to conduct a periodic review including inspections and examinations of licensed insurance companies and audit North Dakota based companies to assure financial soundness and compliance with state laws and evaluate the premium rates companies propose to change to assure that the premiums are not excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory. Other duties include assisting in a program that connects qualified people with discount drugs direct from the manufacturer and the State Health Insurance Program where volunteers assist those with questions about Medicare and related health insurance policies and examinations. Another responsibility is the drafting of legislation and administrative rules proposed by the Department and giving advice to department staff about laws, administrative rules, and the implementation of agency policy. Headquarters for the North Dakota Insurance Department are in the State Capitol in Bismarck. Qualifications for the Commissioner include being qualified elector of the state and at least twenty-five years old. From 1889-2013 the citizens of North Dakota have been served by twenty Commissioners. During the gubernatorial term of Eli Shortridge, Democrat-Independent James Cudhie served as Commissioner and after one term was defeated in the November 1894 general election. Sixteen Republicans have been elected as Commissioner of Insurance. Sveinung A. Olsness was Commissioner for seventeen years from 1917-1934 and was defeated in the June, 1934 primary election. Among the four Democrats to serve are Earl Pomeroy who was succeeded his brother Glenn. Duties of the Commissioner and the Department are listed in the Century Code [NDCC 26.01-01]. 1883 The Territorial Auditor had responsibility for regulating insurance companies (T. L. 1883, Ch. 69). 1887 Public buildings were required to be insured (T. L. 1887, Ch. 68). 1889 The Office of the Commissioner of Insurance was created by the State Constitution (Constitution 1889, Article III, Section 82). 1890 The duties and records were transferred to the Commissioner from the Territorial Auditor (S. L. 1890, Ch. 73). 1911 The State Hail Insurance Department was created and was supervised by the Commissioner of Agriculture and Labor (S. L. 1911, Ch. 23). 1913 The State Bonding Fund was created and managed by the Commissioner of Insurance (S. L. 1913, Ch. 194). The State Fire Marshal was under the supervision of the Commissioner of Insurance (S. L. 1913, Ch. 169). 1915 The State Hail Insurance Department came under management of the Commissioner of Insurance (S. L. 1915, Ch. 166). 1917 The Commissioner of Insurance was made the ex-officio secretary of the State Board of Electricians (S. L. 1917, Ch. 118). 1919 The State Fire and Tornado Fund was created and managed by the Commissioner of Insurance (S. L. 1919, Ch. 159). The Commissioner of Insurance was removed from the State Board of Electricians, but served on the State Auditing Board from 1919 to 1923. 1937 The Commissioner of Insurance was designated the ex-officio State Fire Marshal. 1941 The Commissioner of Insurance was again made ex-officio member and secretary of the State Board of Electricians renamed the State Electrical Board (S. L. 1941, Ch. 227). 1947 The Commissioner of Insurance administered the Unsatisfied Judgment Fund-a fund established as protection for North Dakota residents against financial hardship caused by uninsured motorists. 1963 The State Investment Board was given the authority to establish standards and policy for the investment of monies by the State Bonding Fund [NDCC 26-23]. The State Bonding Fund (supervised by the State Investment Board) was maintained for the bonding of public employees. Since 1963 the Commissioner of Insurance has served on the State Investment Board and supervised by the State Investment Board. 1965 The term of the Commissioner of Insurance was lengthened to four-years (S. L. 1965, Ch. 475). 1967 The Attorney General assumed supervision of the State Fire Marshal (S. L. 1967, Ch. 162) and the State Hail Insurance Department was abolished (S. L. 1967, Ch. 232). 1975 The Insurance Department and the State Health Department were authorized to license health maintenance organizations (S. L. 1975, Ch. 262). 1977 The Commissioner of Insurance was removed from the State Electrical Board (S. L. 1977, Ch. 399.) The Commissioner of Insurance administered the Patient Trust Fund that was set up for the benefit of patients suffering damage caused by negligence of health care providers (S. L. 1977, Ch. 251) The Commissioner served as a member of the Commission on Medical Competency. 1983 Additional duties were defined and a deputy commissioner was appointed. General provisions concerning insurance companies doing business in North Dakota were addressed (S. L. 1983, Ch.332). 1985 Legislation related to the authority of the Commissioner including cease and desist authority and governance regarding qualifications and procedures [NDCC 26.1-26-01] for the licensing of insurance agents, brokers, consultants, limited insurance representatives, and surplus line insurance brokers (S. L. 1985, Ch. 316). Legislation allowed the Commissioner to change fees and renewal fees (S. L. 1985, Ch. 324). 1987 A new section added to the Century Code related to the establishment of and definitions for the Insurance Regulatory Trust Fund and the Investment Trust Fund for the agency (S. L. 1987, Ch. 58). 1989 Legislation addressed penalties for violating North Dakota insurance laws (S. L. 1989, Ch. 342) and fees charged by the Commissioner (S. L. 1989, Ch. 343). Legislation also concerned two new subsections and a new chapter relating to the premiums for insurance finance companies (S. L. 1989, Ch. 344). 1991 A new subsection added to the Century Code related to termination of coverage and to the requirement for insurance companies submitting annual statements (S. L. 1991, Ch. 301). 1993 The act related to group health and small employer coverage, copayments, preventative services, and the repeal of the small employer and employee health insurance coverage (S. L. 1993, Ch. 311). Legislation also addressed fire district map information showing the property location and the fire district serving that property (S. L.1993, Ch. 288) and an amendment relating to the Insurance Regulatory Trust Fund (S. L. 1993, Ch. 1). 1995 Legislation related to the transfer of cash balances from the Insurance Regulatory Trust Fund to the General Trust Fund (S. L. 1995, Ch. 278) and the addition of a new subsection to the Century Code relating to boiler inspections (S. L. 1995, Ch. 276). 1999 Public health laws [NDCC 23-25] revisions and definitions were implemented (S. L. 1999, Ch. 242) and penalty violations including a section on unlawful grounds of declination were addressed (S. L. 1999, Ch. 251). 2001 The Commissioner was given authority to employ an attorney (S. L. 2001, Ch. 10). Annual reports were sent out upon request (S. L. 2001, Ch. 261) and a change was made to the eligibility requirement for participation in a fund created from the premium tax on fire insurance companies. The Commissioner of Insurance was named the Insurance Commissioner (S. L. 2001, Ch. 210). 2009 Legislation related to consultant fees (S. L. 2009, Ch. 243) and allowed the Commissioner to change fees (S. L. 2009, Ch. 242). A new subsection for state agencies and political subdivisions covered bond purchases (S. L. 2009, Ch. 248) and legislation concerned continuing education requirements and exceptions (S. L. 2009, Ch. 252). 2011 Legislation added two new sections to the Code relating to annuity transaction practices (S.L. 2011, Ch. 217). Public Law 111-148 required the Commissioner to ensure compliance of health carrier procedures for external or internal appeals and enforce provisions in compliance with federal legislation by health insurers (S. L. 2011, Ch. 211 and Ch. 218). Additions were made to practices prohibited by insurance businesses (S. L. 2011, Ch. 214) and to legislation defraying the expenses of the Insurance Commission. Payments from insurance premium tax collections were set aside for fire departments (S. L. 2011, Ch. 36). The application date effecting amendments of member insurers to the North Dakota Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association included powers covering limits and the authority and duties of the Association (S. L. 2011, Ch. 220). 2013 A subsection to the Code concerned criminal history checks on insurance producers by requiring the Commissioner to make arrangements for a new law (S. L. 2013, Ch. 232) and another section related to confidentiality of records received by the office of the Insurance Commissioner that related to consumer assistance (S. L. 2013, Ch. 228). There were also penalties for insurance fraud (S. L. 2013, Ch. 229). Additionally a new section addressed health insurance enrollment periods for individual plans and the role of the Insurance Commissioner (S. L. 2013, Ch. 234) and a new section to the Code related to definitions for short term auto insurance (S. L. 2013, Ch. 235). Legislation addressed the use of insurance premium tax collections for firefighters (S. L. 2013, Ch. 178) and amended laws relating to company policy and the geographic territories of county mutual insurance companies (S. L. 2013, Ch. 230). Non-profit mutual insurance companies were restructured (S. L. 2013, Ch. 231) and a foreign language insurance policy was offered (S. L. 2013, Ch. 233). The Insurance Commissioner was included as a member of Legislative Management Committee to study health care reforms (S. L. 2013, Ch. 415). 31091 Administration. Commissioner’s Files. 30744 Administration. Court Case Files. 30741 Administration. Insurance Commissioner’s Record. 30887 Administration. Insurance Agent Register. 30733 Administration. Audit Reports. 30734 Administration. Audit Reports of Domestic Insurance Companies. 30735 Administration. Audit Reports of North Dakota Municipalities, Park Boards, and School Districts. 30736 Administration. Register of Insurance Companies Doing Business in North Dakota. 30737 Administration. Register of Fraternal Beneficial Associations in North Dakota. 30743 Administration. Insurance Company Merger File. 30890 Administration. Certificates of Authority. 30745 Administration. Annual Statements of Domestic Insurance Companies. 31425 Administration. Domestic Insurance Company Files. 31323 Administration. Domestic Insurance Company Policies and Rate Schedules. 30889 Administration. Certificates of Existence and Personnel Reports of Fire Departments. 30738 Administration. Record of Securities Deposited with the Commissioner of Insurance. 30495 State Bonding Fund. State Bonding Fund Files. 30742 State Bonding Fund. Claim and Process Record. 30740 State Bonding Fund. State Bonding Fund Bond Record. 30753 State Bonding Fund. State Bonding Fund Journal. 30296 State Bonding Fund. Income Register. 30297 State Bonding Fund. Record of Bonds Issued to Municipalities. 30298 State Bonding Fund. Record of Bonds to State Agencies and Institutions. 30299 State Bonding Fund. Record of Bonds Issued to Counties. 30300 State Bonding Fund. General Ledger. 30301 State Bonding Fund. Records of Bonds Issued to Townships. 30302 State Bonding Fund. Record of Bonds Issued to School Districts. 31433 State Bonding Fund. Balance Sheets. 30304 State Fire and Tornado Fund. Income Register. 30303 State Fire and Tornado Fund. Journal. 30305 State Fire and Tornado Fund. General Record Book. 30306 State Fire and Tornado Fund. Insurance Reports. 30307 State Fire and Tornado Fund. Risk and Rate Register. 31432 State Fire and Tornado Fund. Balance Sheets. 31566 State Fire and Tornado Fund. Investment Ledger. 31095 State Hail Insurance Department. Claims Investigations Files. 30308 State Hail Insurance Department. General Ledger. 30309 State Hail Insurance Department. Expense Register. 30310 State Hail Insurance Department. Policy Register. 30311 State Hail Insurance Department. Hail Tax Ledger. 30312 State Hail Insurance Department. Hail Insurance Tax Record. 31220 State Hail Insurance Department. Payroll Ledger. 30313 State Hail Insurance Department. Scrapbook. 30314 State Hail Insurance Department. Storm Map Book. 31860 Company Division. Document File. 31903 Company Division. Agent Master by Company Files. 31904 Company Division. Agent Master by Name Files 31925 Company Division. Insurance Company and Agent Hearing File. 32065 Company Division. Domestic Policy Filings. 32164 Administrative Division. Journal, 1935-1937. (Vol. 14) 32165 Administrative Division. Ledger, 1939-1942. (Vol. K) 32175 North Dakota World Trade, Inc. Records. Gray, David P. Guide to the North Dakota State Archives, 1985. Laws of Dakota Territory. Legislative History of North Dakota State Agencies: Richard J. Wolfert State Librarian. State Library Commission, 1978. North Dakota Century Code. North Dakota Insurance Department Website. North Dakota Secretary of State Blue Book. North Dakota State Legislature Session Laws. 612 East Boulevard Ave. Bismarck, North Dakota 58505 State Museum and Store: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. M-F; Sat. & Sun. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. We are closed New Year's Day, Easter, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. We will also be closed on Christmas Eve this year. State Archives: 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. M-F, except state holidays; 2nd Sat. of each month, 10 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. State Historical Society offices: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. M-F, except state holidays.	83,642
Sorry I didn’t get this out earlier. Watch PBS tonight (February 26, 200) for what promises to be an interesting program on dying languages. Thursday, February 26, 2009 10 – 11:00 pm – PBS This special chronicles the race of two scientists—David Harrison and Greg Anderson—to document languages on the verge of extinction. In Siberia, India and Bolivia, the linguists confront head-on the very forces silencing languages: racism, humiliation and violent economic unrest. Their journey takes them deep into the heart of the cultures, revealing communities at risk when a language dies. (CC, Stereo, HD, 5.1)	5,388
Title: A quantum mechanical problem reduced to a classical problem: quantum ground states and tilings Liza Huijse - Sept 07 2009 A long standing challenge in condensed matter theory is the understanding of strongly correlated electron systems. This is particularly challenging when the kinetics and interactions of the electrons have to be treated on an equal footing. We study a lattice model which describes precisely this regime, but is tuned to have a rich mathematical structure: supersymmetry. This property provides us with a powerful toolbox to study this model. I will show how we employed this toolbox to reduce a quantum mechanical problem of counting the quantum ground states of the model to a classical problem of counting tiling configurations.	124,233
by KTNA Staff ~ August 5th, 2013 Red squirrels can be pesky, but their nocturnal, endearing cousins, the flying squirrels, are rarely seen. Volunteer Earth and Beyond host and producer Robin Song tells about recent interactions with both of them, and some of the goings-on at Birch Creek Ranch. Audio is 9:15. Photos by Robin Song. The summer of 2013 has been a roller-coaster ride for me. While the weather has been spectacular, with week after week of seemingly endless sunshine, for this cold-weather gal, it’s been trying. The long hours of heat and humidity has forced me to stay in the cabin, doing what I can to keep cool. In June I built an outdoor cage under the May Day tree for my two doves and I would put them in it for a couple of hours each day. Songbirds working the tree for insects would hop amongst the branches near the cage, peering down at the doves, which would peer back at them. I wished I could tune in to what the birds were thinking as they looked at each other. When the temperature would start to descend to something decent in the evenings, I would take Lyra for a walk out in the hayfields. I would have to slather down with my usual concoction of sunblock and bug repellent, still being followed by a cloud of hungry skeeters. The late spring had made several of the migratory bird species keep heading on north, so the forests and hayfields were down in both populations and species of birds. I didn’t get to see any flickers, kingfishers or Wilson’s warblers this summer. The light-morph Harlan hawk, which has followed the haying machines the past three summers in a row, was also absent. I only heard a few Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Swainson’s Thrushes, and snipes, whereas in years past I’d hear many more throughout the season. Some of the birds seem to have left early, too. By mid-July I was no longer hearing the song of the Myrtle Yellow-rumped Warbler, and the winnowing of the snipes was absent at night. Of course fledgling time is always a high-point of the summer for me. Seems like one day the area around the cabin is suddenly full of fledgling juncos, siskins, chickadees and white-crowned sparrows following their parents about, begging food. With the population explosion of rusty-tussock moth caterpillars, the birds had plenty of food to bring to their voracious youngsters. Fledglings are curious and they would visit the cabin porch, landing on the railings, unafraid of my comings and goings. They picked amongst my potted flowers and hanging baskets, keeping my pair of budgies entertained from their vantage point inside the cabin, watching through the open screen door. Thanks to all the birds, my porch garden was kept fairly clean of caterpillars. A pair of mated but non-nesting Sandhill Cranes visited the ranch all summer, keeping everyone charmed and entertained. This was the first time cranes had come near the buildings, walking along the drive, flying in to land inside the currant nursery, gleaning food from the mowed grass. Often I stepped out onto the porch in the mornings on my way to the barn, to find the cranes striding past my car, calling in their ancient voices before taking wing and flying out to the hay fields. Red squirrels kept me particularly busy this summer. Normally there are a couple of resident squirrels. They have a family and the offspring move out into the forest. But over this past winter several squirrels moved into the territory by the cabin. There were more squirrels than I could handle. I counted seven and they were causing all kinds of mischief. In particular they seemed to enjoy digging in my hanging baskets. I would discover holes next to the plants, and dirt scattered onto the porch under the baskets. Sometimes the roots of the plants had been exposed overnight after the squirrel had been digging, and I lost several sensitive plants. This was just one of the problems the squirrels were creating and I decided it was time to take action. I set up the live trap, baiting it with peanut butter and nuts. Over the course of a couple of weeks, I live-trapped five squirrels and drove each one a few miles down the road to a place I had chosen carefully for their new home. I had thought I was done with catching squirrels after number three had been captured, but upon returning and pulling up in front of the cabin, I stared in amazement to find- not one but two- squirrels on the porch! Apparently I was catching the dominant squirrels, and as soon as they were gone, the subservient squirrels moved into their territory from the forest. I took comfort in knowing all five squirrels were being reunited in their new home, and that they had plenty of time to settle in before winter. Disaster came in the form of an opportunistic horse. I let the mare out of her corral each night to go graze in the hayfields. Jody discovered a gap in the garden fence one night and had herself a vegetable feast. On another night a greenhouse door was left open and she went inside, with alarming results. After the damage was assessed, morale was low, for a few days. Then an unexpected gift arrived. I was up late, working on an art project, on July 30th. As the clock moved towards one a.m., I heard a noise on the porch. Lyra didn’t alert like she would if she smelled a bear or a moose, so I got the camera and opened the cabin door. I looked around but didn’t see anything, at first. Then a movement caught my eye and I looked up. A squirrel was clinging to a crossbeam under the eaves on the west side of the porch. I played my flashlight over the form and my heart skipped a beat. This wasn’t a red squirrel. I was staring at a Northern Flying Squirrel!! Over the next twenty minutes I took photos and made a couple of videos of the squirrel, admiring its beautiful markings and flat, rudder- like tail. I put out a treat cup with nuts, apples, raisins and peanut butter, leaving it on the beam near the squirrel. The next morning I showed the photos to the Kingsburys. They were as delighted as I that a flying squirrel had finally been documented at the ranch, for the first time in over thirty years of their residency. Like me, they knew that the presence of flying squirrels means that the forest is healthy and old growth. A primary food source for flying squirrels is the fungi referred to as ‘truffles’. These squirrels need a large territory-nearly twenty acres per squirrel- and they’ll make several drays, often traveling between them during their nightly forays, and sleep in them during the day. In winter, when the temperature drops, flying squirrels will forsake their solitary ways and two or more will come together in a dray, witches’ broom or tree cavity, curling up close and entering a semi-hibernation state called “torpor”, until the cold snap passes. Doing some research, I discovered that flying squirrels are omnivores, and their diet includes insects, nestling birds, fungi, lichens, vegetation, berries, carrion, and tree seeds. They live an average of four years, and females raise two to eight young a year during their short lives. 50% of the young fall prey to predators. Babies are born pink and hairless, blind, deaf and completely dependent upon mama. Their eyes open 25 days later. They nurse for about 60 to 70 days. They are fully-grown 240 days after birth and indistinguishable from their parents. Predators of flying squirrels are owls, hawks, and martens. Being nocturnal, this species is not nearly as vocal as their daytime ‘cousins’, the red squirrels. Their best defenses are their light-sensitive eyesight and silent stealth. If pursued by a predator, they have one more trick up their squirrel sleeve- they can launch off a tree limb, spread their four legs, stretching out the fold of skin between their front and hind legs, and glide- surprising distances -to safety. The night after I discovered my special visitor, I put out some peanut butter and nuts on the porch’s beam. Just after midnight I heard a soft thud on the porch. My guest had arrived. I carefully opened the cabin door, camera and flashlight ready. The light played over the beam and lit up my visitor sitting under the eaves, chowing down on my peanut offering. It was much less nervous on this second visit, having learned that I am not a threat. After finishing its peanut, I watched, transfixed, as the squirrel darted across the beam, stopped briefly at the east end, then sailed off into space, legs spread, skin stretched taut. It glided down to the ground, landing in amongst the native Alaskan plants and scampered up the nearest tree. It gave me one final gift- I heard it’s soft song come back to me from the trees. Very different from the noisy chatter of the red squirrel. Its gentle voice befitted this creature of the night, which must always be on the lookout for nocturnal predators. The genus name of the Northern Flying Squirrel also befits it well: Glaucomys –glaukos from the Greek, meaning “silver, or gray”, and mys meaning “mouse”, Sabrinus– from the Latin, meaning “river nymph” (referring to the squirrel’s tendency to live near streams or creeks), and Yukonensis, referring to its northern home range across North America. There it was: this 4.9 ounce “silver mouse river nymph” had made its presence known on the ranch, and brought smiles to everyone here once again. Like the other gifts of this extraordinary summer, this one was memorable, indeed. By Robin Song	17,990
- Cazères (7 km from campsite), is an old fortified town from the Middle Ages who was surrounded by walls, battlements and towers. Now, it is a lovely typical village from the region, located on the edge of the Garonne river, and it carries its heritage of the 13th century. – It stands at the foot of the "Petites Pyrénées" and right next to the Comminges and Plantaurel, which makes it a great location to do sport leisure activities and outdoor activities. – You will get to enjoy its numerous restaurants, traditional stores and Cazères's cinema. The Cazeres campsite Le Moulin is ideally placed for . Come and discover all the charms of the Occitanie region and its capital, Toulouse. Leisure and activities not to be missed – Take a walk along the Garonne river banks that you may also find from village alleys. You might be able to find traces of the feverish shipyards' activity of the 19th century. – Saturday morning's open air market gathers around 100 shopkeepers, mainly local producers and craftsperson. During high season, don't miss the organic market on Wednesday night. – La Maison Garonne, a free cultural site that will make you discover a part of the town's history, which was once a determining in the Garonne's inland waterway transport : most of the boats sailing on the river were built in Cazères. – The watersports centre offers the opportunity of canoeing, buoy towed, boat trips and water-skiing. – Mountain biking and horse riding circuits. – The 14th century Church of Notre-Dame de l'Assomption, a typical bastide-style church, located in the main square of the village. It is built of the small bricks very typical of our region, and we notice its distinctive facade with its clock and its two bells. Visit the treasure of the church, its statues, church furnitures and its baptistery: visit tourist office's website – The 17th century Capucin cloister and its flowery gardens. – The half-timbered tourist office's frontage. The Cazeres campsite Le Moulin is just 5km away from the free A64 motorway: you can easily visit marvellous cities like Carcassone, Albi, Cores sur Ciel, Saint Antonin Nobleval. A l'année, en vacances ou le week-end, profitez pleinement d'un hébergement ou d'un emplacement dans un camping 4 étoiles de qualité proche de Toulouse. Dans un écrin de verdure, profitez de la nature tout en bénéficiant de la proximité de Toulouse et toute sa richesse culturelle, artistique et touristique. Camping Toulouse Le Moulin Sites et Paysages – 31220 Martres-Tolosane (France – Occitanie – Haute Garonne ) – 05.61.98.86.40	221,322
Again, God has allowed one of his soldiers to enter into eternal rest. Brother T.J. Sampson affectionately known to all of his grandchildren and great grandchildren as “Parge”, short for partner, began his life’s journey on June 10, 1922. He departed this life on March 27, 2014. Two sisters, Mrs. Roberta Smith, Mrs. Minnie Washington and one great-grandchild, Marcus Dwight Swift Jr., preceded him in death. He was born to the late Jim and Patty Elijah Sampson in Oak Ridge, La. He confessed his belief in Christ at the young age of 8 years old at Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church in Oak Ridge, under the leadership of Rev. D. Miller. He served as a Junior Deacon in his early years and in his adult life continued his service to the church on the Senior Deacon Board under the leadership of Rev. F.M. Moore. He continued in this capacity until he moved to Pine Bluff, Ark. in 1958. He was educated in the schools of Oak Ridge in Morehouse Parish. He married his childhood sweetheart Alice Pitts in 1941. To this union nine children were born, two boys and seven girls. He was always sharing his life lessons with all of his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren as well as his nieces and nephews. He was employed by the International Paper Company in both Bastrop, La. and Pine Bluff. He started as a part time Laborer and continued to work holding many other positions. At the point of his retirement in 1987, he had reached the status of Operator. During his tenure at the Pine Bluff Mill he also served as a Representative of the Black Labor Union. He leaves to cherish his memories: his wife, three brothers, Hardy Sampson, Sr., and George Sampson, both of Bastrop, La. and James Sampson of St. Louis, Mo.; Two sons, Joe and Donald Sampson of Pine Bluff, Ark.; daughters, Sadie Sampson Rowe( Alvin) of Minneapolis, Minn., Emma Sampson Swift, Pine Bluff, Ark., Dorothy Sampson Reynolds (Ronald) of Pine Bluff, Ark., Betty Sampson Ramey of Milwaukee, Wis., Pearl Sampson Freeman of Pine Bluff, Ark. Geraldine Sampson Earl (William) of Carrollton, Texas, Linda Sampson Litzey (Rickey) of Hot Springs, Ark.; one niece who was like a daughter, Bernice “Bunny” Rogers of Dallas, Texas., 23 Grandchildren; 35 Great-Grandchildren; 7 Great-Great-Grandchildren; a host of nieces, nephews, relatives and friends. Funeral Services will be at 1:00 p.m. Thursday, April 3, 2014 at the New St. Hurricane Baptist Church, Reverend L. R. Jones, is officiating. Burial will be at New St. Hurricane Cemetery by Brown Funeral Home of Pine Bluff. Visitation/Family Hour will be Wednesday at 5:30 – 7 p.m. at Brown Funeral Home. The body will lie in-state at 12:00p.m. until service. The family will be at 2220 Louisiana Street, Pine Bluff, Ark. 71601 Online Register: www.brownfuneralhomeandmortuary.com.	214,632
Woodcraft workshops aim is to help re-connect people with the natural environment providing a fun, educational experience, giving knowledge and something tangible they have created themselves to take home with them. We use materials provided freely by the natural environment. We provide education and hands on experience in a workshop and forest environment. We have created and offered workshops making; didgeridoos; drums; flutes; bird boxes; walking sticks; bee hives; wood / chainsaw sculpture and garden furniture. Workshops running this year (2017) – Flute making, didgeridoo making, walking stick, penny whistle, and puppet making. Information and booking details can be found on the website using the link below. Woodcraftworkshops became a member of Stanmer Organics in 2008 Number of employees: 1 Volunteers 2	203,582
At Belmont Abbey College, students quickly discover that we seek to educate the whole person, to strike a crucial balance between the specialized knowledge required of a specific discipline, and the broad education we expect of all our graduates. Classes are taught by seasoned professors, with more than 80 percent of the faculty holding doctoral degrees from institutions that include Marquette, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, Chicago, Rutgers, Boston College, UNC Chapel-Hill, and the University of Virginia. Classes themselves generally range from 10 to 20 students, making it easy to jump into the dialogue, voice opinions, ask difficult questions, and get direct answers. The Abbey curriculum is divided equally between core requirements and major courses. Our core curriculum, rooted in the liberal arts tradition, gives all students the intellectual skills and moral discernment needed for success in all professions and, more importantly, in living the good life in the best and deepest sense of the word. The core curriculum culminates in a course in Ethics and one course in the "Great Books," which challenge students to apply the insights they have acquired in their college career to some of the perennial issues faced by the great minds of the past. Each major provides a broad introduction to the student’s chosen field of study, which prepares students either for graduate studies or for a career, with the flexibility to adapt to rapid change and to continue a lifetime of learning. To academically gifted students of any major, the Honors Program offers especially challenging intellectual work and research together with opportunities to attend a variety of cultural events in and near Charlotte.	120,194
Thursday, April 28, 2011 Nagercoil - Heavy rain lashed for more than half hour continued with long drizzles !! Posted by Rakesh R at 7:03:00 PM A forecast outlook from India Meteorological Department (IMD) indicates that the summer heating of extreme northwest India has started in right earnest. Arrival of a spoilsport western disturbance has been factored in, but its influence would not extend beyond Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. Mainly dry weather is expected to prevail over the plains of northwest and adjoining west and central India. The westerly system would be able to do no more than cap the heating trend in the northwest, according to the outlook. Strong surface winds would prevail over Gujarat, Rajasthan and the Indo-Gangetic plains until Friday. No significant change in temperatures is seen over parts of the plains of northwest India and adjoining central and west India until Friday, the IMD said. Meanwhile, maximum temperatures recorded on Tuesday ranged between 40.0 deg Celsius to 44.0 deg Celsius at many parts of Rajasthan, west Madhya Pradesh, north Gujarat and Vidarbha. Global models had indicated earlier that the core heating would cross the northwest border into the western parts of India from this week. This is where the ‘heat low’, a peculiar phenomenon triggered by sustained heating of the land surface develops locally. This in turn leads to the creation of an elongated area of lower pressure extending from the West Asia desert across Pakistan and into northwest India. This is unlike the usual pattern when heating of the land assumes the sinking motion of air and therefore higher pressure. The ‘heat low’ is a crucial cog in the wheel of the monsoon system, helping draw, as it would, moisture-laden southwesterly winds from the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. Even as the northwest is heating up, the IMD said maximum temperatures were below normal by 2 to 6 deg Celsius over Gangetic plains and Tamil Nadu on Wednesday. They were near normal over rest of the country except parts of Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and interior Maharashtra where they are above normal by 2 to 3 deg Celsius. The highest maximum temperature of 45.2 deg Celsius was recorded at Ganganagar in Rajasthan. During the day on Tuesday, scattered rain or thundershowers occurred over Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand and isolated over east Uttar Pradesh, sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim and Kerala. Satellite imagery early on Wednesday morning showed the presence of convective (rain-driving) clouds over parts of south and east-central Bay of Bengal, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur and southeast Arabian Sea. The IMD traced a trough extending from west Rajasthan to southwest Bay of Bengal across interior Maharashtra, interior Karnataka and Tamil Nadu with embedded upper air cyclonic circulations over west Madhya Pradesh and southwest Bay of Bengal. Another trough lay extended from an upper air cyclonic circulation over west Madhya Pradesh and ‘telescoped’ into a counterpart circulation over Gangetic west Bengal. In the process, the trough passed over east Madhya Pradesh, north Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. A weather warning said that isolated thunder squalls would occur over Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal, Sikkim and the Northeastern States until Friday. A short-term outlook said that fairly widespread rain or thundershowers would occur over Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep until Friday. Scattered rain or thundershowers may break out occur over south and coastal Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu during this period. Scattered rain or thundershowers would unfold over the Northeastern States, West Bengal, Sikkim, Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh. It may relent later over Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh from Friday. Isolated rain or thundershowers are likely over Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh from Friday. An extended outlook until Sunday said that scattered rain or thundershowers would occur over northeast and adjoining east and south peninsular India. Chennai - touched a max of 33.5 C (9:37am) and now 3:39pm also it's around 33 deg C.. mild breeze from E-S-E Posted by Rakesh R at 3:41:00 PM 3pm, Thunder showers erupting over S. tip Tamilnadu and S. Kerala Posted by Rakesh R at 3:28:00 PM RT @asury: @weatherofindia " light drizzle has started in bangalore" (3:04pm) Posted by Rakesh R at 3:27:00 PM A fresh W.D is closing in over W. Kashmir.. will start from tonight ! Posted by Rakesh R at 1:06:00 PM RT @guruthinks: Today is hot and humid in coimbatore . expectin rain . . (12:17pm) Posted by Rakesh R at 12:34:00 PM RT @rajugana: Baroda 9.50am, Yestday burning 43-25C, however heavy wind in the night brought some relief. (CDN - 33 days to SWM!!) Posted by Rakesh R at 12:01:00 PM RT @akshaydeoras: 43C expected today in Nagpur Oops ... IMD models suggest that the present S-W Bay UAC will move N-E and then West and zig-zag over W.central Bay till 5-May..! Posted by Rakesh R at 11:35:00 AM	850
Basic agreement is a written instrument of understanding, negotiated between an agency or contracting activity and a contractor, that: (1) contains contract clauses applying to future contracts between the parties during its term and (2) contemplates separate future contracts that will incorporate by reference or attachment the required and applicable clauses agreed upon in the basic agreement. A basic agreement is not a contract.« Back to Glossary Index	168,027
I, like many, have been wrestling with the contradiction of what the church (in broad strokes) appears to be, versus what it is intended to be. Largely, why is it that Jesus calls us to love God and neighbor, while the church seems to be dressed up to look good in politics and social clubs? Why does the church seem to get mired in things that the scriptures seem to be largely silent about or unconcerned with, while avoiding a life of kindness, truth, conviction, graciousness… love? I have been thinking about Luke 7:36-50, which is the place to start for this sort of consideration, I believe. The story is simple: Jesus is invited by a Pharisee named Simon, to Simon’s house for a meal. A sinful woman catches wind of this and breaks in to cry tears on Jesus’ feet, wipe said feet with her hair, and then follow up with kissing His feet. Simon is put off by the display, both in its gratuitiousness and by the fact that said act is committed by a known sinner. Jesus knows what Simon thinks and feeds him some food for thought. He poses to Simon a simple parable: Two people owe a moneylender, money (strangely enough). One of them owes more than he probably makes in a year and a half, the other owes what he generally earns in less than two months. The debts are both forgiven, and so the question at hand is simply this: Who loves the moneylender more? Simon, with his vast Pharasaical expertise, “supposes” that the one with the bigger debt did. Jesus gives him a gold star for answering correctly. And then the meaning is revealed to everyone. Jesus compares the love that has been shown Him by the sinful woman to the treatment that Simon has given Him. The woman has been wild in her affection and love for him, casting aside any propriety that would prevent her from expressing her love. Simon has failed at the basic levels of hospitality, much less love. Jesus simply draws it together in verse 47, “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” And here is where I get confounded. Why is it that the Christian church, people who walk in the grace of God’s forgiveness, are so often without any profound love for either God or people? One piece of the puzzle is laid out here in this passage. The whole thing of whoever is forgiven little, loves little. So, we are claiming on the one hand to have the forgiveness of God, and yet, we struggle with loving God or other people. Let’s break it down a bit. According to scripture, we are always assured of Jesus’ forgiveness, as long as we honestly ask for it, as He is “faithful and just to forgive us from all unrighteousness.” There is no withholding, shaming, condemning, or earning. Forgiveness is freely given to all who ask. But what about our asking/repentance? Is it possible that we are flawed in the way that we engage that? Simply confessing my sin to God and believing that I am forgiven does not seem to be enough. It is quick, it is easy, and it is not helping me to love God or others better. Why? There is a difference between saying I am sorry and hoping that I won’t do it again, or wishing that I didn’t struggle with XYZ and owning my sin, my brokenness, my failure before God. I can be ashamed that I am lustful and angry and cowardly and wish that I wasn’t, or I can say that I am, in fact, a lustful, angry, and cowardly man. And in that admission I start to not only realize the depth of my need for God, His kindness in loving me despite these failings, but also that in experiencing the lovingkindness of God in the midst of my depravity, I learn to be kind to myself and then to others even as God is kind to me. Will we learn to own the truth of who we are and learn to be kind, to love because of it? I hope so. I am trying.	113,402
Navitas is the Latin Word for Energy Navitas Naturals was founded in 2003 to bring energizing superfoods to North America to invigorate the modern ‘Western’ diet. Our organic superfoods come from ancient cultures around the world where they are traditionally used for both nutritional and medicinal purposes. Health-conscious people choose our nutrient-dense superfoods because they are an abundant whole-food source of antioxidants, protein, essential fats, vitamins, minerals and other key nutrients. Pure & Simple Nutrient-rich whole foods are at their best when they’re produced by organic agriculture and minimal processing. That’s why all our products are certified organic and use methods such as freeze-drying and low temperature processing to ensure maximum nutrition and flavor. What is a Superfood? A superfood is a nutrient-dense fruit or vegetable that contains a high content of antioxidants, protein, omega-3, minerals, fiber or other essential nutrients that have proven health benefits. Nutrient density is the ratio of calories to micronutrients – the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytochemicals that are essential to health, wellness and feeling great. Nutrient-dense foods, like most vegetables and fruits, have a high amount of valuable micronutrients and a low amount of calories. To protect the ‘super’ quality and nutrient integrity, a superfood must be certified organic and minimally processed.	64,302
Writer/Artist: Chester Brow Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly With a flood of new comics hitting the shelves of our friendly local comic emporium every week, it's easy to forget the simple fact that a lot of hard work goes into making each and every comic published. Good, bad and indifferent, they all require massive effort to actually get into print. With their greater length, even more work goes into the average graphic novel. But even this substantial workload is smaller than that required by quality historically based graphic novels. Whether dealing with fact or fiction - and we are currently stuck with the term graphic novel to cover both fact and fiction long-form comics - well-researched books set in any historical period require the creators to invest a great deal more time and effort before they can even begin to set pencil to paper. With all this extra work, it is perhaps not surprising that there are so few graphic novels that take place in a specific historical setting, and fewer still that are well researched. Thankfully though, Chester Brown has put the considerable effort necessary for such as feat into LOUIS RIEL, a historical biography of the Canadian rebel and statesman. Few outside of Canada are perhaps even aware of who Riel was, or his achievements, but I'm hopefully not spoiling anyone's enjoyment by saying here that Riel was a member of the Métis, people of mixed European and Indian heritage. The Métis lived on land claimed by the Hudson Bay Company, outside of the borders of the newly formed dominion of Canada. At the time, Canada was keen to expand its borders westwards, bringing it into conflict with the Métis. As it says on the cover, this is a 'comic-strip biography', and as such it is a very different animal to standard text biographies, which typically cover their subject's whole life from birth to death. In comics, space is at more of a premium, forcing the author to pare down the key points of their subject's life, literally choosing what to illustrate. In LOUIS RIEL, Brown has chosen to focus on his subject's involvement in the Métis rebellions against the Canadian government. This focus on these events lends the book a quality perhaps more akin to a TV dramatisation. But if it is less exhaustive, this biography of Louis Riel is also sleeker and more engaging because of its focus. We first meet our title character in the Metis's Red River Settlement, where he has recently returned to run the family farm. Far from portraying him as an everyman, Brown swiftly reveals Riel to be a complex character, as he finds himself facing overwhelming pressure from within his own community and threats to his life from the Canadian government while he seeks to safeguard the rights of his people. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Riel's tale is that, as a result of this pressure, he suffers from a period of mental illness. From this illness follows a religious conversion that culminates with him developing the conviction that he had become 'David', God's prophet in the new world. As in his previous work, MY MOTHER THE SCHIZOPHRENIC, Brown does not shy away from the subject of mental illness, and portrays its influence on the rebel leader's thoughts and decisions to excellent effect. While it is impossible to credit Brown with creating the facts of Riel's life, his skill shines in his ability to communicate them effectively. Brown's rendition of both Riel and Canadian Prime Minister John MacDonald both bear fittingly strong resemblance to the historical persons they represent, and the depth of Brown's research is evident throughout. The style of his art also marks something of a departure for Brown, as he acknowledges the influence of LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE cartoonist, Harold Gray. However, if Brown's work owes any major debt, it is to history itself, and it is a debt the author is keen to pay off in full. Following the example set by Alan Moore with his extensive annotations in FROM HELL, Brown goes to great pains to show where he got his references from. To this end, he includes not just annotations, but a bibliography and index sections as well. These sections highlight areas that Brown says he has had to simplify things to fit the confines of a graphic novel. These sections add the weight and authority of history, and it is this as much as the accessibility of the comic that will make the book worth studying in years to come. Unfortunately, Brown's scrupulously honest and earnest attempt to stay as close to the established facts of Riel's life as possible has a further side effect. It sacrifices most of the drama that exists in the events, leaving the narrative quite dry as a result. The characters appear to have no interior lives, no hopes or dreams outside those that are sanctioned by the historical record of their actions. This is a real shame, because it could add significant depth to what is already a compelling story. The problem of a lack of drama is compounded by Brown's decision to employ a strict 2x3 six-panel grid, which unfortunately flattens both the emotional impact of the events it portrays, and the overall pace of the narrative. Seconds, weeks and months elapse in the same physical space. Although a softcover edition is planned, Louis Riel is currently only available in a hardcover format. Happily enough, the fantastically high production values on the hardcover are well worth the cover price. The quality paper used in particular adds to the overall package, making it a beautiful artefact in itself. A lot of hard work went into this book, and it shows on every page. It might not be as full of engaging three-dimensional characters as it could have been, but it does render the life and struggles of an important, if often overlooked, historical figure into a finely crafted and accessible book - a book that's a worthwhile read without being too worthy. This article is Ideological Freeware. The author grants permission for its reproduction and redistribution by private individuals on condition that the author and source of the article are clearly shown, no charge is made, and the whole article is reproduced intact, including this notice.	252,779
The Laboratory of Avian Medicine & Pathology has a long history of service to the poultry industry of Pennsylvania, going all the way back to the early career of Dr. Evan L. Stubbs, when the state diagnostic laboratory was located in Philadelphia. During this 70-year period, the laboratory was a one-man operation, and the service offered related to the efforts and abilities of a single faculty member. The laboratory has undergone significant growth since 1978 when a residency training program was initiated that provided for a graduate veterinarian to study avian medicine and pathology. This was followed by the addition of a research professor position, a second faculty position for a clinical educator and an additional residency position. Additional technical staff have been added to support the expanded diagnostic, field investigations and research efforts. To provide the best possible diagnostic service to Pennsylvania and regional poultry producers, hatcheries, service personnel, feed companies and breeder companies, the Laboratory of Avian Medicine and Pathology has three distinct missions: Service, Teaching and Research. The University of Pennsylvania poultry diagnostic service is a recognized state and regional resource. Many cases also are brought in from New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware. Submissions include chickens, turkeys, pigeons, waterfowl, game birds and many pet bird cases, which are submitted by regional veterinarians and pet shops. The faculty and residents not only provide diagnostic information, but also advise on the treatment, control and eradication of infectious diseases. A significant amount of time is also devoted to serving on county, state and regional poultry disease advisory committees. Field investigations are done to assist producers with an individual farm problem or the industry in control and prevention of new or emerging diseases. We are also actively involved in eradication and control of AI and LT outbreaks, and in the development and modification of the on going PEQAP Program. While the number of diagnostic cases remains fairly level, the complexity of these cases continues to increase. The submission of single, definitive problem cases, while useful for teaching purposes, are being replaced by complex multiple etiologically problems requiring a significant increase in diagnostic effort and sophisticated approaches in problem solving. In many cases, there is a need for field investigation to define the problem and to correlate the lab and field findings. These field/lab investigations provide the best insight to identify disease problems needing new research. A significant effort is also directed toward serological surveillance for influenza and toward ELISA Flock Profiling for other common poultry diseases. In excess of 30,559 serological tests are done in this laboratory each year. Farm visits are made to define disease problems as identified in the laboratory and by invitation from producers with specific problems. We are also committed to investigate serious disease problems in poultry in Pennsylvania. These have included Mycoplasma gallisepticum, infectious bronchitis, reticuloendotheliosis, avian influenza, Salmonella enteritidis and laryngotracheitis. The laryngotracheitis control program in Pennsylvania is a cooperative effort between our laboratory, industry and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. To provide for the avian medicine teaching program for Penn Vet veterinary students, residents and industry personnel, the Poultry Pathology Laboratory is responsible for teaching one required and two elective courses in avian medicine for veterinary students. The second-year class is required to take a course in Introductory Poultry Medicine. The advanced poultry course is an elective, which usually has 25-40 students. An additional elective permits senior students to spend two full weeks in the diagnostic laboratory. Courses are being developed for the new food animal curriculum.	257,561
The Official Website of the Louisiana Department of Revenue BATON ROUGE - As of April 29, 2001, collection of the state’s consumer use tax totaled $263,380, or more than six times the $41,650 average collected in each of the last six fiscal years, says Revenue Secretary Cynthia Bridges. Louisiana residents are required by law to pay a consumer use tax on all of their catalog, Internet, or other out-of-state purchases when the seller has no legal presence within the state and is not required to collect the Louisiana sales tax. Bridges says one reason collections are up so dramatically is the convenience this year of using the state’s individual income tax return to report and pay the consumer use tax. “This year, we added a specific use tax line on the front of the individual income tax return,” Bridges says. “This eliminated the need for the taxpayer to fill out and mail a separate worksheet form.” Using the new line on the tax return, taxpayers need only compute a total price for all qualified purchases and multiply that figure by 8%. The date of purchases, descriptions, and individual purchase amounts are not requested, Bridges says. Louisiana residents may still report and pay their use tax at any time during the year, not just on the individual income tax return, Bridges points out. She says a Consumer Use Tax Worksheet can be downloaded anytime from the Department’s website at . The worksheet is found under ‘Tax Forms,’ in the subcategory of ‘Sales Tax.’ Although out-of-state retailers cannot be required to collect the state’s sales tax, many voluntarily register with the Department and collect sales tax at the time of a sale. Louisiana Revised Statute 47:302(K) was enacted in 1994 and allows out-of-state dealers who solicit sales into the state by catalog or the Internet to collect 8% use tax. Bridges says the 8% tax rate represents a 4% state use tax plus a 4% local tax, which is distributed to local governments. Developed and Maintained by Louisiana Department of Revenue	8,590
Safety shall be given top priority during rigging operation as lack of knowledge or carelessness may lead to fatal accidents. In order to promote safe rigging habits, the most common hazards associated with rigging are listed in this article. Safe Working Load Limit Never exceed the Safe Working Load (SWL) limit / Rated Capacity. The safe working load is the maximum load which should ever be applied to the product, when the product is new and when the load is uniformly applied for straight line pull only. Safe working load limit will reduce for side loading. All ratings are based upon usual environmental conditions, and consideration must be given to unusual conditions such as extreme high or low temperatures, chemical solutions or vapors, prolonged immersion in salt water, etc. Such conditions or high-risk applications may necessitate reducing the safe working load limit. Safe work load limit will not apply if product has been welded or otherwise modified. Matching of Components Components must match. Make certain that components such as hooks, links or shackles, etc. used with wire rope (or chain) are of suitable material and strength to provide adequate safety protection. Attachments must be properly installed and must have a safe work load limit at least equal to the product with which they are used. Keep out from under a raised load. As per the Notice in National Safety Council Accident Prevention Manual (USA): All employees working on cranes or hoists or assisting in hooking or arranging a load should be instructed to keep out from under the load. From a safely standpoint, one factor is paramount – Conduct all lifting operations in such a manner, that if there were an equipment failure, no personnel would be injured. This means keep out from under a raised load and keep out of the line of force of any load." Avoid impacting, jerking or swinging of load. Safe working load limit is based on static loading. A shock load is generally significantly greater than the static load. Inspect products regularly for visible damage, cracks, wear, elongation, rust, etc. Protect all products from corrosion. No product can keep operating at rated capacity indefinitely. Periodic inspections help determine when to replace a product and reduce rigging hazards. Keep inspection records to help pinpoint problems and to insure periodic inspection intervals. Frequency of inspection will depend on environmental conditions, application, storage of product prior to use, frequency of use, whether or not life, limb or valuable property are at risk, etc. When in doubt, inspect product prior to each use. Carefully check each item to be inspected for wear, deformation, cracks or elongation-signs. Rust damage is another potential hazard. When in doubt about the extent of corrosion or other damage, withdraw the items from service. Destroy, rather than discard, items that have been judged defective. They might be used again by someone not aware of the hazard of the defect. Follow all statutory and regulatory compliance. In India, as per Factories Act 1948, all lifting devices and pressure vessels in a factory need to be inspected every year by a competent person.	246,653
Two weeks after the 2022 Midterm Elections, we now have a clear(er) understanding of the balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate in the new Congress. With all but one Senate race yet to be called (Sen. Raphael Warnock is set for a December 6 runoff election against Herschel Walker) and 4 seats remaining uncalled in the House, the legislative branch will see divided control for the next two years – Democrats retaining the Senate and Republicans winning the slimmest House majority in almost a century, a margin currently sitting at R+6. What does this mean for the many pieces of tech legislation currently making their way through the two chambers? - Tech legislation will continue to be a priority for both sides of the aisle in the House and Senate - The Senate has seven new members joining the chamber – a majority of whom have criticized internet platforms for a number of reasons, including competition content, encryption and privacy - Senate committees with jurisdiction over tech will likely remain under the same Democratic leadership - House committees with jurisdiction will now be led by vocal tech critics, some of whom cosponsored tech legislation with Democrats in the 117th Congress With slim majorities in both chambers, reaching bipartisan consensus on tech legislation will be difficult, and many committees on the House side will instead use their time for oversight hearings on the Biden administration. - The Biden Administration passed several large spending bills in the 117th Congress, which included billions of infrastructure dollars and other programs to bridge the digital divide. Look for the GOP led House to use its oversight authority to dive into many of the activities funded by these bills. We anticipate FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and her fellow Commissioners will be repeat visitors to the House Energy & Commerce committee. What tech bills remain unpassed as the Congress begins its lame duck work? Here are a few of the bills both chambers still have outstanding: - EARN IT Act - Protect Speech Act - Justice Against Malicious Algorithms Act - American Innovation and Choice Online Act - Open App Markets Act Privacy & Security - Kids Online Safety Act - Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act - American Data Privacy & Protection Act - INFORM Consumers Act - SHOP SAFE Act With a stacked schedule of “must pass” legislation, it is likely many if not all of these bills will need to be revisited in the 118th Congress. Lastly, what do the caucus elections mean for tech legislation in the 118th Congress? Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced last week that she will not run for Democratic leadership in the House, ending her tenure which began over 20 years ago. Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer also chose to retire from Democratic leadership, a position he has held since 1989. This historic change will likely usher in a trio of Speaker Pelosi acolytes to the top three positions – Minority Leader candidate Hakeem Jeffries, Minority Whip candidate Katherine Clark and Democratic Caucus Chair candidate Pete Aguilar. Current Majority Whip James Clyburn is expected to run for Assistant Leader and stay in leadership as number four in command. Democrats will hold their election on November 30. The GOP Caucus already held its election even prior to clinching the 218 majority needed to win the chamber. There were few surprises: Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was nominated to be Speaker (the 118th Congress will need to formally elect him speaker in January), Minority Whip Steve Scalise was elected Majority Leader, outgoing NRCC Chair Tom Emmer was elected Majority Whip and GOP Caucus Chair Elise Stefanik remains in the same position. It remains unclear what historic new leadership in the minority will mean for Democrats’ efforts on tech policies, but with current Republican leaders taking power of the chamber, it is likely current tech legislation introduced by GOP members will receive more attention in committees. In the Senate, leadership is likely to remain the same in both caucuses. Republicans re-elected Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Whip John Thune to their positions. Democrats will hold their leadership after the December 6 runoff election in Georgia, but it is likely to be Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Majority Whip Dick Durbin at the helm of the caucus. With the status quo remaining in the Senate, tech legislation will remain a top priority in the chamber.	160,250
The mixer and IF subsystem receive the 38.9MHz IF input and provide RSSI (Receive Signal Strength Indicator) output (Voltage output) based on the signal strength of the IF input. For example, 40dBµV of signal input gives an RSSI of 1VDC while 60dBµV of signal input gives an RSSI of 2VDC, and so on. The RSSI is a linear voltage with respect to the input signal strength. The microcontroller detects the RSSI voltage through an external ADC and displays the strength of the RF signal on the LCD display. An FM IF demodulator block demodulates the audio signal from the IF output and provides the audio signal to audio amplifier. Typically, an 8- or 16-bit microcontroller is used for this application. External EEPROM on the board stores the last channel number as well as favorite channel numbers. The microcontroller displays the signal strength of the RF channel on the LCD or graphical display. The user can tune any single TV channel using the microcontroller and display the strength of the RF signal on the LCD display or the signal strength of all the channels can be displayed on a bar graph using a graphical LCD. The user can measure the different parameter of RF inputs (C/N ratio, TILT/SLOPE ratio) using the microcontroller and an external ADC, as well as measure the strength of audio carriers by re-tuning the tuner at the appropriate audio frequency. The user can hear the sound through the loudspeaker (1W) of any channel by tuning the tuner to the audio frequency of the particular channel. The user can hear the audible level tone in proportion to the level measured for hands-free operations. User can select any two channels above and below to discover undesired signal levels quickly. The microcontroller controls the volume of the speaker through an external 8-bit DAC (Digital to Analog converter). It will increase, decrease or mute the volume of the speaker through this external DAC and audio amplifier. Power Supply Block: The power supply block consists of a 9V/12V rechargeable battery as a power source. It uses an onboard LDO (Low dropout) regulator to step down the DC voltages. The microcontroller detects the battery voltage and provides status information (LOW BAT and CHARGING) using the front panel LEDs. Microcontroller in Optical signal measurement uses below blocks: . Microcontroller in Optical signal measurement application. Optical Input Section: The optical input section receives the optical input through a shielded optical cable (ST, FC, SC type). The optical signal input range is -94dBm to -27dBm. The photodiode supports wavelengths of 1300 nm – 1550nm, 2.5 GHz. The optical signal level meter measures optical power at 1310nm and 1550nm wavelengths, with the selection of 1310nm and 1550nm done by the microcontroller. The photodetector receives the optical signals at 1310nm and 1550nm wavelengths and convert them in to the RF signal; i.e., the photodetector converts the optical signal into a current output . This current output is converted into a voltage by external Transimpedance amplifiers (TIA). The microcontroller reads this voltage through external 8-/16-/20-bit ADCs. Typically, an 8-/16-bit microcontroller is used for this application. External EEPROM on the board store reference power levels for each wavelength. The microcontroller displays the signal strength of the optical signal (dBm, dB, µW, and mW) on the LCD or graphical display. Users can measure the different parameter of optical inputs (dBm, dB, µW, and mW) at 1310nm and 1550nm wavelengths, using an external TIA and ADC. The microcontroller controls the tone of an external buzzer using an internal PWM. Users can access optical signal information thorough a UART interface. The microcontroller detects the battery voltage and provides its status (LOW BAT and CHARGING) on the front panel LEDs.	125,628
Salemi was born in Corleone in Sicily on September 15, 1902. Salemi was the youngest of three sons and a daughter. He came to the United States in 1914 with his father. As a trombonist, Salemi played with Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland, but is best known for his recording work with the Gene Kardos Orchestra from 1931. He also played with various other big bands. - The Mississippi, "Pete Salemi: He Lives For Music" George A. Borgman, December 1997. \|This article on an American jazz trombonist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.\|	167,186
Union’s charming Main Street is a National Historic District. It’s not just Victorian brickwork buildings of the lovingly restored 1920s Historic Union Hotel, Union County Museum and Carnegie Library that appeal—Catherine Creek promises fine fishing and glorious hiking trails. Other attractions include golf and horseback riding in this unique town nestled between cattle ranches, farms and the state’s largest national forest. Union is located in Eastern Oregon, where miles of scenic byways, alpine wilderness, working cattle ranches and basalt canyons are still the place for explorers to make their mark. This area includes the nearby subregion: The Wallowas.	206,723
As regular readers know, sugar scolding—whether it’s calling the sweet stuff “the most destructive force in the universe” or demanding that sodas as we know them be sin-taxed or even prohibited altogether—is all the rage these days among the nation’s self-anointed food police. And thus even good news that Americans are making healthier decisions without a government cattle prod must be pooh-poohed. Just take a look at today’s report in the USA Today that added sugars contribute five percentage points fewer to Americans’ diets than they did in 2000. (And, contrary to the too-convenient talking points of soda tax activists, most of the sugars come from foods, not soft drinks.) Scolds note that the amount is still higher than they think it should be, and therefore regulation is needed. But shouldn’t activists instead promote the personal responsibility that has made progress and ask for more of it? Of course, if they did that they might have to recognize that their anti-food campaigns are abjectly failing at their supposed goal of reducing obesity in the absence of relying on personal responsibility and physical activity first and foremost. Recall the statement of former CDC obesity boss William Dietz from a few months ago in response to reports that children’s calorie consumption had declined (with our emphasis): The only way that we can explain the decline in calories and the increase in obesity in boys, flat in girls, is that physical activity has declined. And if that’s the case, that’s a real concern, because physical activity plays a major role in the prevention of chronic diseases, including obesity. The anti-food campaign is failing because it doesn’t sufficiently acknowledge the role of physical inactivity in causing obesity and fails to empower people to take responsibility for their own lives. By demanding even more government intervention to take choices away rather than educating people to make smarter choices about eating and exercising, the sugar scolding movement will not reduce America’s waistlines. And if their latest tactic, declaring foods the equal of real drugs like cocaine and heroin, is any indication, the scare-and-regulate activists haven’t learned any lessons.	69,762
"I believe my publisher has shown a great deal of faith in me over a lot of years but I'm not prepared to be so arrogant to say that the long-term literary value of my work would compensate them for a financial failure." "Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."Andrew Vachss on Theodore Roosevelt "I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying."Andrew Vachss on Michael Jordan "Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not the world is full of educated failures. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."Andrew Vachss on Calvin Coolidge "My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure."Andrew Vachss on Abraham Lincoln "Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important."Andrew Vachss on Steve Jobs "A kid in an abusive home has far fewer rights than any POW. There is no Geneva Convention for kids."	173,216
EARLY MADISON PARISH Coordinator Note: Many thanks go to Billie Grunden of Jasper, Texas for preparing this report. Billie has spent many hours researching the Moses Groves family, and Madison Parish is honored to have the benefit of her investigation on this website. Moses Groves was one of the earliest settlers and one of the largest landowners in the region, having come to the area from Mississippi before Madison Parish was created in 1838. Richard P. Sevier (firstname.lastname@example.org) November 2006. Little is known about the early years of the life of Moses Groves. The earliest recorded information is that a Moses Groves served in the Mississippi Territory command of Lt. Colonel Nixon during the War of 1812. Somewhere in Mississippi he became acquainted with the Cogan family. Patrick Cogan was one of the earliest persons to own land in Claiborne County, Mississippi, having received a grant of 400 arpents from the Spanish Government. His land grant was confirmed by the U.S. Government in 1805. This land was located 40 miles North of Natchez on Bayou Pierre. Patrick Cogan was affiliated with Thomas W. Cogan, but the relationship is not known. Moses Groves developed a close relationship with a young lady and on April 26, 1817, Thomas W. Cogan cosigned a marriage bond for Moses Groves, and on April 29, 1817, Moses Groves married Rachel Cogan in Claiborne County, Mississippi. Rachel was not the daughter of Thomas, but may have been a sister or niece. The following year, 1818, in Claiborne County, the first child was born to Moses and Rachel, a son they named Horace H. Groves. Moses Groves proved to be a successful planter, acquiring more and more land, some from the U.S. Government and some from individuals. Prior to 1830, his acquisitions were in Mississippi. His smallest purchase was one of the most interesting. He, along with Thomas W. Cogan and Lewis Powell, bought one acre in Claiborne County in 1826 to be used for the site of a Methodist Meeting House. The Meeting House was to be used by all “professions of Christianity” when not in use by the Methodists. By 1830, Moses was beginning to acquire land west of the Mississippi River. That year he bought several tracts of land on Bayou Vidal, which at that time was located in Concordia Parish. He borrowed money to buy land and slaves and to have operating capital that all plantation owners needed. In 1835, he mortgaged 2166 acres on Bayou Vidal for $30,000.00 to the Bank of Louisiana, the mortgage being recorded in Vidalia, Concordia Parish. In December of 1833, he paid $16000.00 for 18 to 20 slaves. In 1838, Madison Parish was created and most of his plantations were then located in Madison Parish. Many of his transactions were recorded in the Old Record Book and Notary Book A of Madison Parish. Some of his plantations had names recorded in a notary record, but some did not. His “Home” or “House” Plantation stretched along the north side of Bayou Vidal from the present community of Afton to within a few miles of King. It contained 5000 acres. It was upon this land that the Groves family burial ground was located in Section 1, Township 15 North, Range 12 East. The Basin Plantation contained 2350 acres, part north and part southeast of Roundaway Bayou, along current Highway 603. The 1600 acre Moses Groves King Place was neatly bisected by Roundaway Bayou, and now has Highway 603 through the west portion. It was a few miles north of the Basin Plantation. One plantation was simply referred to as the River Land Lots and lies along the west bank of the Mississippi River between plantations later known as Dahlia Plantation and Killiecrankie Plantation. Various other tracts of land owned by Moses Groves dotted the southern portion of Madison Parish and parts of Tensas Parish, some wholly owned, some undivided quarter or half interests. Outline of some of Moses Groves properties in 1848. From La Tourrette’s Map of Louisiana Moses Groves’ wife, Rachel, died sometime before November of 1839. A family meeting was held before Parish Judge Richard Charles Downes, and the heirs were recorded in parish records. Horace H. Groves, the oldest child, was the only child not considered a minor. The minor children were George W. Groves, Elizabeth Groves, Celia Ann Groves, Moses Groves, and Elijah Groves. A decision was made to sell the Basin Plantation, along with slaves, livestock, equipment, and 2000 bushels of corn. At auction it brought $78000.00 for the estate. Horace H. Groves received $6500.95 for his 1/12 part inherited from his deceased mother. Moses and Rachel Groves were very good friends with George W. Grove and his wife Celia A. King Grove (Grove spelled without an “s”) of Willow Glen Plantation. They may have been related, but that connection cannot be made at this time. However, the Moses Groves family was related to a King family. Moses and Rachel named a daughter Celia Ann and a son George W. When Moses Groves needed a witness, it was usually George W. Grove who signed with him. Other friends or relatives were Thompson King and Charles Carpenter. Ann Cogan, Rachel’s sister, married Charles Lee, and they owned a plantation in what is now Tensas Parish. As was the custom of plantation families during that time, their entertainment consisted of many social events such as balls, parties, and visiting one another, sometimes for several days at a time. The affluence and freedom from everyday chores enabled the people, especially the young ladies to focus on the latest fashions and fads. Tutors were hired to live on the premises to instruct the children in reading, writing, and arithmetic. Older children were often sent to a boarding school for more formal education. The children of Moses Groves were no exception. Daughter Celia married Alonzo Snyder, a lawyer, and Horace H. Groves married the daughter of Henry S. Dawson, another Madison Parish plantation owner. In 1850, Moses Groves, age 17, was a student at Oakland College in Claiborne County, Mississippi, which was not surprising since his uncle, Charles Lee, was one of the original trustees, and Thomas W. Cogan was one of the first to donate money to form the college. After losing his wife, Moses Groves did not have much longer to enjoy the fruits of his labor. He lived only about 2 more years and had passed away by February 1842. At that time, his estate was appraised and land held in community with his wife was valued at $122165.00; non community land, $5477.83; slaves, $53550.00; livestock, $5016.00; cotton and fodder, $7500.00; household furniture, $1000.00, for a total of $194708.83. There were notes payable to Moses Groves and when added to the inventory, produced a grand total of $207261.83 free of debt. Not a small sum for that day and age. Horace H. Groves was appointed administrator of the estate, a job he took very seriously. In 1850, the estate owned 124 slaves, among the top ten in terms of number of slaves owned in Madison Parish. Horace worked to keep the estate intact. Unfortunately, he became so angry with his brother-in-law, Alonzo Snyder, that on November 12, 1848, he wrote the following will: It is my last wish and request that my aunt, Mrs. Ann Lee, and James G. Gerden be my executors and they administer on the estate of my deceased father and mother and further pray and hope that Alonzo Snyder will NEVER (no way) have anything to do with my property and the property belonging to the estate. It is my wish that Volney King, my cousin, (after the debts are paid) receive five thousand dollars of my estate. Horace H. Groves The will was written before his marriage to Catherine Dawson. There is no record of any other will written after his marriage and birth of two daughters. The succession or probate records became an issue later when his daughters had to file a lawsuit to retain possession of the lands they inherited from their father. The records could not be found. Horace basically raised his younger brothers, especially Elijah who was only about 5 years of age when his father died. Horace did not marry until Moses and Elijah were old enough to be responsible for themselves, but he did not have the pleasure of rearing his own children, passing away in 1856 at the age of 38 years. Catherine Dawson married again to Sherrard Clemens, a lawyer and U.S. Congressman from West Virginia. Theirs was a life of affluence, thus Horace’s daughters, Rachel Lee and Catherine, grew up in Wheeling, West Virginia, with every privilege. Rachel Lee Groves Meanwhile, Elijah farmed the land that belonged to his nieces since he was the administrator of the Moses Groves Estate. He later sold his portion of the land but not that portion belonging to Rachel and Catherine. The next owner also cultivated their land. In the subsequent land sales, eventually their land was included in the deed of sale. From 1890 to the final settlement in 1895, their brother, James W. Clemens, worked diligently to give his sisters undisputed title to their land. By this time, Rachel had married a Madison Parish resident, James D. Gilpin, and had passed away, leaving four small children. Catherine, Horace’s daughter, was a widow living in Mississippi. A lawsuit was filed and won in Madison Parish, but was appealed to the Supreme Court of the State of Louisiana. The land was returned to the heirs of Horace Groves, but a crash in the value of real estate and the extensive expenses of the prolonged litigation, left them with nothing. Early and untimely deaths were common in Madison Parish due to yellow fever, typhoid, and other endemic health problems. All of the Moses Groves family died at a young age. In fact, George died in 1842 at age 19 years, and the sisters, Elizabeth and Celia Ann, passed away before May of 1852. In her will, Celia Ann gave her jewelry and trinkets to various friends and relatives, but her portion of the Moses Groves Estate was given to her husband, Alonzo Snyder. Thus, Horace was forced to deal with Alonzo. In 1857, Alonzo sold his undivided fourth part of the Moses and Rachel Groves Estate to a New Orleans man. Being the good lawyer that he was, Alonzo specified everything he was selling, right down to one fourth of the household and kitchen goods and furniture. This probably did not make the Groves family very happy, because in 1860, Elijah Groves bought the fourth part, particularly Dalmatia Plantation, and returned it to the estate. In the years following the Civil War, the economy worsened. Elijah Groves, who had married Julia Scott, was the only surviving heir that actively tried to manage the Moses Groves estate. In fact, he may have been the only surviving child of Moses and Rachel Groves. He had to bear the burden of seeing his parent’s estate, their little empire, fall on hard times and dwindle. He died before the age of 40, passing away sometime between 1870 and 1872. Eventually, the remaining lands were sold, some for taxes. The separate tracts were given other names, such as Tchoula, Point Clear, Waterford, Richland, and Kellogg by subsequent owners. Elijah and Julia had two daughters, Annie and Celia, thus Moses and Rachel had no male grandsons to carry on the Groves name. Today all that is left of the Moses and Rachel Groves Estate is the family cemetery. Once consisting of three acres dedicated to be a family burial ground forever by Elijah Groves in a deed recorded in 1860, it now contains a couple of above ground graves surrounded by broken tombstones pushed by farm equipment into a tiny area. Located in a cultivated field about a half-mile west of Watts-Sevier Road on Hwy 603, it is an unjust memorial for a pioneer family who worked so hard and was instrumental in making Madison Parish flourish in the days prior to the War Between the States. What remains of the Groves family tombstones	207,594
Against the backdrop of last weeks court verdict that virtually dooms music-swapping service Napster Inc., dozens of companies gathered at the OReilly Peer-to-Peer Conference here to demonstrate P2P applications that they said have viable business models. P2P networking pools PC resources by file sharing—text, audio and video files are sent via PCs instead of servers—and by distributed computing, in which many PCs combine their processing power to solve complex problems. At the show, two new content delivery companies, OpenCola Inc. and 3Path Inc., introduced technology that they said could prompt enterprises to look seriously at P2P. OpenCola, next month, will ship OpenCola Folders, which the San Francisco company describes as a distributed resource discovery application that can be used by Web content producers to acquire a larger audience. It consists of a desktop plug-in that uses machine intelligence to determine other users who share similar interests with a user. The software then spiders networks (such as the Web, Usenet and Napster) and fills up the OpenCola Folder with music and video files and Web pages based on what similar users liked. OpenCola said it hopes to drop the cost of marketing to zero by routing documents intelligently to places where they will be perceived as most relevant. The company will license its server software to media content providers, which will be free to charge a subscription fee to their users. Separately, 3Path, also of San Francisco, last week released an enhanced beta version of its Priority Communication Network with improved performance, easier registration and expanded publishing capabilities. The PCN service, which supplements e-mail and Web sites, enables business users to deliver messages, documents and other content directly to their customers and partners desktops. Early applications include one-to-one and one-to-many document delivery between home office and remote personnel. 3Paths target customers include market researchers, consultants and recruiters. Due in the third quarter, 3Paths PCN will cost less than $10 per month per user. Although undecided on whether OpenCola or 3Path have that killer application, developers such as Richard Braman are looking to use P2P to take advantage of the extended collaboration functions that P2P provides. "I want to use P2P to monetize our existing user base and attract new users," said Braman, vice president and co-founder of DesktopDollars Inc., a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., maker of desktop Internet tool-bar software with 1 million users.	194,629
Northern Village Environmental Policy We recognize that our use of technology can both negatively and positively impact natural environments. (These impacts, and some solutions, have been effectively summarized by the Carnegie Cyber Academy, which we encourage readers to review.) The technologies on which our business depends consume energy and resources. They also create ecological disruption, pollution and waste. We further recognize that technology is used to improve industrial processes, human health and the environment. It is our responsibility to use technology in as sustainable a way as possible. Environmental sustainability is at the heart of the values of Northern Village. We strive ensure a positive impact on the planet in everything that we do. Northern Village strives to be an environmental steward in the following ways. - Comply with relevant environmental legislation; exceed minimums wherever possible. - Effectively manage any significant environmental impacts. - Continually look for ways of improving our environmental performance. - Use green energy whenever possible and offset any energy that is not green. Virtual staff use the climate offset calculator (https://climatehero.me/offset/). NV purchases corresponding offsets. - Buy materials and resources from local and renewable sources. - Consider the life cycle of any products purchased to make sustainable choices. - Provide employees options for the purchase of sustainable products both for Northern Village and for personal use. - Aim for zero waste to landfill or ocean. - Maintain our technology to extend its use and reduce consumption. - Strive to maintain a paperless office including in virtual workplaces. - Encourage team members to dispose of e-waste and hazardous materials in a safe way. - When travel is required, use active transportation, use public transport, carpool or use non-fossil fuel transportation if possible. Promote Environmental Sustainability - Advertise our environmental practices online to encourage others to adopt similar practices. - Learn about suppliers’ environmental policies and practices, and thereby encourage them to have them. We opt for suppliers who have them. - When working with charitable client’s whose main mission is to improve the environment, support them with reduced rates and/or donations. - Participate in the B Corp Climate Collective. All team members receive the newsletter to help them be knowledgeable and engaged in environmental stewardship. E-Waste Recycling Sources Habitat for Humanity	179,324
Bibliographic record and links to related information available from the Library of Congress catalog. Note: Contents data are machine generated based on pre-publication provided by the publisher. Contents may have variations from the printed book or be incomplete or contain other coding. [pg 3] Table of Contents Introduction 4 The Domestication of Plants and Animals 6 The Hoe 8 The Plow 10 Irrigation 12 Crop Rotation 14 The Water Mill and Water Wheel 16 The Windmill 18 The Horse Harness 20 The Seed Drill 22 The Norfolk System 24 The Cotton Gin 26 The Steel Plow 28 The Reaper 30 The Grain Elevator 32 The Tractor 34 Fertilizer 36 Hybrid Crops 38 Pesticides 40 Genetically Modified Food 42 Important Dates in Agriculture 44 Glossary 45 Additional Resources 47 Index 48 Library of Congress Subject Headings for this publication: Agriculture -- History.	8,228
\|Figure 1. Left: Time- and longitudinally averaged wind-stress. Right: Contours of oceanic mass transport (in black) and contours of sea surface temperatures (in colors). The transport of sea surface temperatures by the oceanic currents creates a thermal front beneath the westerlies' maximum.\| The large-scale oceanic currents that redistribute heat, salt and momentum in the top kilometer of water are driven by the mechanical stress exerted by the winds at the air-sea interface. In turn, the surface winds are shaped by the north-south temperature differences in the atmosphere. The temperature gradients in the atmosphere, largely determined by the sun's differential heating, are mitigated by the poleward heat transport due to the oceanic currents and the atmospheric flows. Thus, the ocean and the atmosphere work together to make our planet livable. Understanding the partitioning of heat transport between atmospheric and oceanic components, and how fluctuations arise because of the mutual interaction of the two systems, is a crucial aspect of climate dynamics. One approach is to construct simple models based on fundamental conservation principles of heat, salt and momentum. An example of oceanic and atmospheric fields resulting from one such model is shown in figure 1. \|Figure 2. The time of arrival of the first maximum in SSH in response to a change in the northern North Atlantic is contoured in years. White areas are either continents or values outside the contoured range. (Top) A solution of a one-layer model of the World Ocean in simplified geometry, forced in the northernmost North Atlantic by a thickness anomaly with a period of 100 years. (Bottom) Corresponding results for the SSH anomalies in a three-dimensional OGCM forced by wind and buoyancy gradients. The SSH anomalies are the difference between a perturbed experiment (where deep convection is interrupted in the Labrador Sea by a local anomalous freshwater flux) and a control experiment (similar to modern observation). The anomalous freshwater flux is a sinusoid in time with a period of 100 years.\| The global adjustment of the upper ocean in response to localized anomalies is effected by planetary waves which propagate from one basin to another in several decades. Planetary ocean waves give rise to a global seiche, such that the volume of thermocline water decreases in the Pacific-Indian Ocean while increasing in the Atlantic Ocean. The propagation of a disturbance from the North Atlantic is illustrated in figure 2, where the arrival times of the first maximum of sea-surface height (SSH) are shown. From the source region in the North Atlantic a wave propagates equatorward along the American coast. At the equator it moves eastward and then splits into two waves moving north and south along the eastern boundary of the Atlantic. At the southern tip of Africa the wave turns eastward until it finds its way to the Indian and the Pacific oceans. The wave acts like the El Niņo, travelling eastward along the equator until it penetrates poleward along the eastern boundary. From there, the disturbance is radiated westward in the form of slower Rossby waves that 60 years after the initial North Atlantic anomaly fill the entire basin. A salt flux perturbation in the North Atlantic generates a global seiche which may trigger an El Niņo in the equatorial Pacific several	294,684
THAT VOICE IN YOUR HEAD NEEDS HELP People who hear voices in their heads are advised to seek psychiatric counseling. The guy who shot 12 people to death at a Navy yard in Washington D.C. heard voices in his head. He reported these phenomena to any number of places that may have helped him, but apparently nothing came of it. He wasn't locked up in a psychiatric ward or held for counseling. People who hear the voice of God in their heads, whatever that voice sounds like, are given a free pass by the rest of us because it's God, not some malevolent entity. Yet the voice of God can be just as malevolent as any other voice a person hears in his head. The Bible is loaded with retribution by God against people who've disobeyed his commandments even though they were granted free will to do so. How can God condone free will and then punish those who use it? If you have free will to reject belief in God then according to scripture you're out of the ballgame. When Judgment Day comes you'll be thrown into the fires off Hell and denied a free pass through the heavenly gates of Heaven, which sounds like the most boring dimension in the known universe, where for all eternity you'll be worshiping this egotistical tyrant who apparently can't go for more than a minute than demanding someone worship and acknowledge his greatness. Do you want to spend eternity bowing before this guy and walking around all day quoting scripture? How many people hear the voices of Satan in their head and if they say they do, should we incarcerate them because as the Bible instructs, Satan is a bad guy even though he used to be a good guy? And how do we know we'll burn in the fires of hell if we do Satan's bidding? Why would the entity Satan punish you for following his ways instead of those of God? Burning your ass in the fires of Hell sounds like inflammatory PR from God. If you follow Satan, or pay attention to what Satan commands why in the Hell would he punish you? Does Satan lease Hell from God and is therefore an obedient tenant? Whether it's the voice of your mother in your head or Al Capone or Jesus, something is going on upstairs in your attic that may want you to seek some counseling, maybe even some shock treatments? Besides, how do you know it's the voice of God in your head giving you driving instructions instead of something more cunning, more malevolent. You don't. I don't know what God's voice sounds like and neither do you. The Old Man hasn't visited us since Moses dropped those stone tablets down the mountain with the Ten Commandments engraved on them. Those tablets must have weighed 500 pounds or more a piece. How did Moses cart them down from the mountain? Super powers maybe? The same ones he used to impossibly part the Red Sea? If you hear voices in your head, seek out a shrink and get some meds or let him or her put you in the hospital. Don't have the gaul to tell the rest of us that it's okay. It's not. Whether it's God or Yogi Berra, you're nuts. Accept it and get help.	105,215
Retired State Trooper William “Bill” McGreal worked undercover in the drug and major crime units; he’s also the trooper who infiltrated George Jung’s drug organization back in the late 70′s and was able to bust him. Weymouth born Jung, brought the “mass marketing” of cocaine into the United States. Jung was a part of the Medellín Cartel, which was responsible for up to 89 percent of the cocaine smuggled into the United States. He was depicted in the 2001 movie “Blow” starring Johnny Depp. Jung was released from prison to halfway house on June 2, 2014 after serving nearly 20 years for drug-smuggling. This interview by WATD’s Christine James features not just the drug bust of George Jung, but more information about what was happening here on the South Shore and the area, crime wise and drug wise during that time. Also what happens when you go “undercover”. Plus, McGreal offers a perspective on the drugs that were around then and the ones prevalent now. McGreal receiving “Trooper of the Year” award in 1981 McGreal as an undercover officer Johnny Depp and George Jung Click below for archived newspaper articles and paperwork on William “Bill” McGreal: Christine James is the Managing News Editor, and anchor at WATD. She has been a fixture here since 1990. Along the way in her WATD newsroom journey, she has won numerous broadcast awards including the Associated Press and Edward R. Murrow National Award for "Best Newscast." Comments are closed. You will not be able to post a comment in this post. WATD is one of those seemingly impossible ideas which actually worked and has now endured for over three full decades. The idea for the station in Marshfield emerged as the result of a prospecting trip Carol Ebert Perry and Edward Perry made in December of 1972. Click here to learn more...	262,284
In a welcome (and surprising) victory for sanity and biological science, on Sunday, the International Swimming Federation FINA put an end to “Lia” Thomas’ and other “trans” swimmers’ domination of women’s swimming events by banning “trans” swimmers from women’s events if they haven’t completed their “transitions” by age 12. A spokesman said science (and common sense) has shown that males who “transition” after puberty have a number of unfair physical advantages over female swimmers. To be clear, he said, “They’re not saying everyone should transition by age 11, that’s ridiculous. You can’t transition by that age in most countries and, hopefully, you wouldn’t be encouraged to. Basically, what they’re saying is that it is not feasible for people who have transitioned to compete without having an advantage.” (Warning: just because it's "ridiculous" doesn't mean some people won't pick it up and run with it.) FINA also created an “open” category, where it is assumed that trans athletes could compete on a level playing field, but details have yet to be worked out. It will be interesting to see if Thomas and other trans athletes remain as eager to compete when it’s no longer a slam dunk.	185,486
centuries! Also learn about various periods of classical music of Western Civilization from the Middle Ages to Modern! Other Lap Book(TM) projects include vocabulary terms, a timeline, and an understanding of the eras as well as purpose behind the compositions. As an added bonus... Listen to 29 pieces and movements as you record information about each piece and illustrate a picture to go with it! Included in this Activity-Pak are music files for a variety of works, in MP3 format! Also included is the File Folder Display showing Orchestra Seating from four different periods. Watch how the orchestra grew and read about various instruments that were added to it! And finally, a set of cards with 20 composers matching information and their popular works make it a fun way to become familiar with the music and the masters! Use the cards for drill or for playing memory games! Beautifully detailed masters are provided for all printable projects! The "Directions Pages" will provide printing and assembly instructions. Also included are step-by-step illustrated directions for assembling the Lap Book(TM). - Type: Other () - Category: > Home Schooling - ISBN / UPC: 9780981552378/0981552374 - Publish Date: 3/1/2010 - Item No: 94947 - Vendor: Home School In The Woods	149,063
\|10.1: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, evidence of things not seen.” Years back, I worked as an administrative assistant for a rescue mission. People who used the services came from a variety of backgrounds, but they had all converged in a world where trust was not something easily offered. Near the end of my term there, I had regular contact with a young lad, named Cephas, who had run into some legal issues. He couldn’t drive, so I offered to take him to his court date. I waited for some time in the back bench for the judge to finish with him. Then, I dropped him off at a house. Before he exited the car, he asked, “Why are you doing this? Helping me out, I mean. Why are you being so nice to me?” Taken back a bit, I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t see it as an odd thing at all. In fact, helping out in that minor way seemed natural. I finally answered with something like, “It’s just a part of who I am.” I admit that for a moment, I thought I should have some sort of religious response. After all, I was a seminary student. Years later, in retrospect, I now realize that I did. Too often, “sharing one’s faith” is confused with telling people about the blood-sacrifice of Jesus. I now understand faith differently. To quote the King James Version of Hebrews, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things now seen.” (Heb 10.1) To put it another way, “faith” is the bond that ties me to a vision of the future that has enthralled me, and visions drive behavior inasmuch as they are truly claimed by me. When my vision for the future is reflected in my current behavior–thus realizing my hopes, dreams, and aspirations…at least in part–my spirituality has manifested itself in who I have become and what I am doing. It’s one thing to say “I believe.” To say, “I am becoming” is another thing entirely. “Show me your faith apart from your works,” says James (2.18b), “and I by my works will show you my faith.” A friend of mine once described james theology as saying “stick out your faith and say ‘ahh’.” Faith is incarnational. What religious and spiritual people actually do should never be seen as having little importance. Why do fundamentalists protest at the funerals of gays and lesbians? Why do soldiers kill in holy war? Why do people give of their time to soup kitchens? Why do families go to church? Why do millionairs give a portion of their income to charity? They do such things because this is (at least in part) who they are; this is how they share their faith. Whether one actively decides to share one’s faith is irrelevant. As an incarnational happenstance, faith cannot help but to be shared. it manifests in whatever we do. through the way we relate to others, our faith is realized. So the question we need to ask ourselves is, “Are we manifesting the faith we think we are?” And along with that, “Is it really worth the time and energy to enter more deeply into our vision for the future, so that we can help give birth to a new reality?”	178,177
New York Times from ProQuest Historical Newspapers offers full-text and full-image articles for significant newspapers dating back to the 18th Century. The database includes paper-cover-to-cover, with full-page and article images in downloadable PDF format. Search over 25 million digitized pages for the Revolutionary War rebel cause, Reconstruction after the Civil War, American industrialization into the 20th Century, both World Wars, the Civil Rights Movement, and the development of a globalized economy. Readers can search 21 different article types including: September 13, 2010	1,991
So you're riding along with a full head of steam and "kerPow" you get a flat. Now what? Do you know how to get the wheel off your bike? Yes? Good. Do you know how to get the tire off the wheel? Yes? Good. Did you bring along your spare tube, tire irons, patch kit and inflation device? No? Aaargh. The basic tire repair kit should include a tube (or two) to fit your tire/rim, tire irons, patch kit, inflation device (mini pump or Co2). You'll need to know how to take the wheel, tire, tube, off your bike to fix a puncture. You'll also need to know how to get it all back together SAFELY. If you don't have the basics listed above visit your local bike shop. Even if you don't know how to do the repair at least have the "kit" with you just in case somebody rides by who can help. Here's to another flat free ride.	197,346
Definition of sensitizers plural of sensitizer 1 The word "sensitizers" uses 11 letters: E E I I N R S S S T Z. Direct anagrams of sensitizers: Words formed by adding one letter before or after sensitizers (in bold), or to eeiinrssstz in any order: e - resensitizes Words within sensitizers not shown as it has more than seven letters. List all words starting with sensitizers, words containing sensitizers or words ending with sensitizers All words formed from sensitizers by changing one letter Other words with the same letter pairs: se en ns si it ti iz ze er rs Browse words starting with sensitizers by next letter Previous word in list: sensitizer Next word in list: sensitizes Some random words: pinwork	153,208
By a charter of 909 King Edward the Elder confirmed Frithstan, Bishop of Winchester in possession of Bradley, then part of the manor of Overton. By 1167 it was a separate manor and passed through many families and was inherited by Sir Bernard Brocas in 1395. Although Sir Bernard was executed at tyburn for treason at the accession of Henry IV the land was not forfeited and remained in the Brocas family until 1621, when it was leased to Thomas Taylor for 200 years. In 1629 the manor was taken into the hands of the king for a debt of £1,001 and leased by him to Sir Kenelm Digby and Sir John Savage. Thomas Taylor refused to deliver the manor and garrisoned the manor house. After four unsuccessful attempts by the sheriff to gain possession, 200 men and guns were sent from London and the house was destroyed. However, two years later the manor reverted to Thomas Talyor when the Court of Exchequer dissolved its injunction. The later history of the manor becomes uncertain and passed through many hands. The first mention of a church at Bradley is in 1291, and parts of the church date from the thirteenth century. The present church of All Saints was rebuilt in 1877 and dates mostly from the last century. Further information on attractions to discover in the area and other interesting villages to visit is available. For information on public services for Bradly please take a look at the Alresford local pages.	112,302
Aeons: The Search for the Beginning of Time (Text Only) The full story of man’s attempt to discover the moment that time began, from James Ussher’s confident assertion in 1650 that the world was 5,654 years old to the Hubble Space telescope’s images of a world 13 billion years old, with a starry cast of eccentrics, mystics, scientists and visonaries. The moment of the beginning of time is one of science’s Holy Grails, pursued by devotees and obsessives across the ages. Few were more committed than Bishop James Ussher who lost his sight in his 50 year quest, laboriously outlined in his 2000 Latin pages of Annals – a chronology of all known history – that is now famous only for one spectacularly inaccurate date: 4004BC, the creation of the world. Theology failed Ussher, just as it thwarted Theophilus of Antioch and many others before him. Geology was next to fail the test of time: the Comte de Buffon, working out the rate at which the earth was supposed to have cooled came up with age of 74,832 years even though he suspected this was far too little. Biology had a go in the eighteenth century in the hands of Johann Scheuchzer, who alleged that a fossil he had found was of a man at the time of Noah’s flood; regrettably what he had was a large salamander. And so science inched forward via Darwinism, thermodynamics and radioactivity – each new discovery being applied to the enduring mystery: when had time begun. Until now where telescopes of remarkable vision offer a glimpse of the answer, but the moment may prove to be indefinable just as we are on the verge of locating it. 320 pages; ISBN 9780007502974 , or download in Title: Aeons: The Search for the Beginning of Time (Text Only) Author: Martin Gorst The Craft of Research, Third Edition 2009 US$ 17.00 337 pages A Natural History of the Senses 2011 US$ 13.99 352 pages	238,076
This study investigated membrane fouling and biomass characteristics during water extraction from mixed liquor of an aerobic bioreactor by a submerged forward osmosis (FO) system. As the sludge concentration in the reactor increased from 0 to 20 g/L, fouling of the FO membrane increased but was much less severe than that of a reference microfiltration membrane. The results also indicate that aeration can be used to effectively control membrane fouling. By increasing the draw solute concentration, as expected, the initial water flux was increased. However, there appears to be a critical water flux above which severe membrane fouling was encountered. A short-term osmotic membrane bioreactor experiment showed build-up of salinity in the bioreactor due to the reverse draw solute transport and inorganic salts rejection by the FO membrane. Salinity build-up in the bioreactor reduced the permeate flux and sludge production, and at the same time, altered the biomass characteristics, leading to more soluble microbial products and less extracellular polymeric substances in the microbial mass. Additionally, the inhibitory effects of the increased salinity on biomass and the high rejection capacity of FO led to the build-up of ammonia and ortho-phosphate in the bioreactor.	34,481
by Margaret Edson "Now is not the time for verbal swordplay, for unlikely flights of imagination and wildly shifting perspectives, for metaphysical conceit, for wit." And nothing would be worse than a detailed scholarly analysis. Erudition. Interpretation. Complication. Now is a time for simplicity. Now is a time for, dare I say it, kindness." (Wit, p. 69) "Nothing but a breath--a comma--separates life from life everlasting." This remark about the last line of Donne's most famous Holy Sonnet is made by E. M. Ashford, D. Phil. to her student, a young Vivian Bearing, and is an early indication in this remarkable play that the story of Vivian's battle with cancer is going to be more than just one of doctors, medicine, sickness, and emotion. It will be a battle of wits and wit, mind and matter, the body and soul of Vivian against the destiny that nature has given her. Like all great plays, the reader is presented with questions, conundrums, and perhaps paradoxes if you will; presented in this case as they involve life and, ultimately, death. But does not all living, whether displayed on stage or lived as one's own life, ultimately involve the question of death? This play is almost a one woman show as Vivian Bearing, Ph. D., professor of literature specializing in the Holy Sonnets of John Donne, is on stage for the whole play. She is surrounded (I hesitate to say supported) by her oncologist and his chief clinician; but she is supported by the primary nurse who develops a bond with her that is unique in the play, for Vivian is alone in this world and must depend on her mind as she experiences "aggressive" cancer treatment. She eventually receives support from her nurse and a touching visit from her former professor and mentor. Among the questions raised by the play is one that contrasts the medical doctors with Vivian herself as they treat the cancer in a way that mirrors the methods used by Vivian to analyze and dissect the poetry of John Donne. Is it appropriate to treat the patient as a science project, a body that will provide evidence for some future paper? Is she no different than a work of literature? "What a piece of work is a man!" as Hamlet says, but in Wit we see the wonder, but not the humanity. The clinician, who has a vast knowledge of medicine, must refer to his notes to remind himself that his patient is a human being who deserves at least a minimal amount of polite concern. Vivian bears his lack of feeling with her own brittle stoicism. She consoles herself with the thought that "they always . . . want to know more things." But at the same time she buries her true emotions until she is too ill to respond in a way that is able to demonstrate any strength or depth. She has an epiphany when, upon completion of chemotherapy, she reflects: "I have broken the record. I have become something of a celebrity. Kelekian and Jason are simply delighted. I think they foresee celebrity status for themselves upon the appearance of the journal article they will no doubt write about me." But she immediately realizes that, "The article will not be about me, it will be about my ovaries." She goes on to relish the relief that returning to her hospital room will be, even as the play proceeds and her room slowly begins to resemble the inside of a coffin. This is a play filled with literary wit. It plays on the difference and the similarity of words and life. At one point Vivian thinks, "my only defense is the acquisition of vocabulary". She is learning and reflecting even as she is slowly losing the battle with cancer. Should we live our lives like Vivian, continually learning and thinking and growing, even as humans we all move closer to our own personal appointments with mortality? This reader says yes! Even so, this play reminds us that the road will be difficult, but that there are ways to face one's destiny that may not be known today. It is the ability to deal with this unknown and the possibilities of tomorrow that make the battle worth engaging and our lives worth living. View all my reviews	253,268
Make BYOD Work in Your Schools There are a variety of BYOD models used by schools and districts in Canada and the U.S. Some schools are bravely implementing BYOD, and doing their best to make it work. These are educators aware of the numerous challenges that may come with a BYOD policy, but due to the benefits of 1:1 computing, have come up with both simple and innovative ways to address these challenges. I will highlight some of these strategies, and will also provide links to resources which can support school administrators and districts interested in developing a BYOD model tailored to meet the needs of their students. The beauty of observing those who come before us is that we can learn from their successes as well as their mistakes. Canada: Peel District School Board and BYOD In an article published on March 28, 2012 in The Star entitled, In Peel schools, the policy is BYOD: ‘bring your own device’ , Kristen Rushowy reports that “Peel Region’s 153,000 public school students are being encouraged to bring their smartphones, iPads, tablets and laptop computers to class in what the board calls its “21st century learning plan.” The Peel Board recognizes the potential roadblocks that may emerge as BYOD is implemented in their schools, but address them in the following ways: - Funds that would have been used in the past to build traditional computer labs will go towards increasing bandwidth in schools; - All teachers are expected to make use of tech in the classroom and will be provided with training; - In order to address equity issues, laptops and tablets will be purchased for the students who cannot afford to bring their own devices; - Use the services of companies that will offer parents low-cost rentals or rent to own plans; - Use cloud based applications that work across different platforms and devices to share files (i.e. Google docs). The video below demonstrates how Treeline Public School in the Peel district delivers BYOD across classrooms. The video includes teacher and student testimonials, and is a good example of how BYOD can be successful. This next video explains how Peel District School Board’s landing page is used to support the BYOD initiative. It is a place where students can safely access web 2.0 sites, information, tools and cloud based files for their personal devices. United States – Forsythe County and BYOD In the article How to make BYOD work for your schools, posted on eSchool News on October 29th, 2012, Laura Devaney describes how BYOD is currently being implemented in Forsythe County in the United States. Some of the challenges posed by the introduction of a wide variety of digital devices in schools are addressed in the following ways, and worth noting: - “District officials have set up a separate BYOD network that is ‘segmented off’ from more secure areas. Students on the BYOD network cannot access student information, financial information, and so on.” - “George C. Marshall High School in Falls Church, Va., operates on a ‘Color Code Usage System’ for student devices… a red zone indicates that all electronic devices are prohibited; a yellow zone means that students can have possession of their devices, but they must be silent and out of sight; blue zones mean that devices are permitted for specific instructional use; and green zones indicate general and open use of devices, such as in the cafeteria” - Texting or messaging rules between students and staff are clear: - Parents grant written permission for each staff member to communicate with students electronically - A parent is copied on all messages - No messages after 9pm - Professional and appropriate language must be used Microsoft Bring Your Own Device in Schools whitepaper Microsoft has put together this report which lists a variety of BYOD models that schools or districts may implement, as well as the questions to consider before selecting one particular plan. The five BYOD models listed are as follows: - School-defined single platform laptop. With this plan, all students would use the same device, allowing teachers to plan lessons to meet the needs of one device rather than multiple devices. Parents and schools may be co-contributors, and there is the possibility of purchasing in bulk. - School-defined single platform laptop, plus another device. Along with the school laptop, students are allowed to bring a smartphone, e-reader, or tablet, allowing teachers to instruct students using a variety of tools. This poses a challenge to teachers who are less tech-savvy, as they may be unfamiliar with applications available across platforms. - School-defined multi-platform laptops. Parents and students have more choices in regards to personal preference, but teachers will need to be familiar with a variety of devices. - Student-choice of laptop or tablet; - Bring your own whatever connects to the Internet. Teachers must plan lessons which generally cater to the devices with the lowest capabilities. For either plan to work, teachers must be very flexible. Here are some questions (Found in Microsoft’s BYOD discussion paper) you need to ask yourself when you are considering implementing BYOD: - Does your school have a high level of expertise, resources and budget to effectively manage a variety of technologies across a variety of platforms and devices? - Does your funding model ensure equity for all students? - Does your BYOD program ensure that all students have access to devices and software that provides the same level of functionality? - Are your teachers comfortable and confident about managing a technology rich and diverse classroom? - Does your school support all aspects of self-directed learning, giving students a voice in how, what and when they learn and not just in the choice of a device? Kajeet for Education – Making Learning Mobile This is an organization that deals with BYOD policies and devices for schools and students in the United States. Visit ClassLink to download a free BYOD guidebook, and get additional information on BYOD and cloud-based education products. Visit this link to get information about Wi-Fi access and bandwidth requirements in schools. Xirrus is available in Canada through Enbridge.	90,060
The early history of WHYY, Inc. is tied to a series of physical moves, making it a pair of stations in search of the best facility possible to house diverse operations. Also, the roots of WHYY, Inc. were grounded in community cooperation -- a binding together of spirited public citizens, corporations, and foundations which nurtured the station then as now. In the beginning, the vision of what was to become WHYY, Inc. rested with a group of dedicated citizens, spearheaded by Dr. W. Laurence LePage, president of The Franklin Institute. The Metropolitan Philadelphia Educational Radio and Television Corporation was established in the early 1950s to provide educational and cultural programming to the citizens in the metropolitan Philadelphia area. It was a vision that was to retain its insistence on offering programming of quality, but it was to burst through its political boundaries to serve the entire Delaware Valley as geographical areas yielded to electronic opportunities. With the generous help of the Westinghouse Radio Stations, Inc., which donated a completely operational FM station, at 17th and Sansom Streets, Philadelphia, WHYY-91FM began broadcasting on December 14, 1954. Three years later, WHYY was airborne as Channel 35, the 23rd public television station in the country. Moments before WHYY-TV's signal was airborne, Philadelphia Mayor Richardson Dilworth hailed the event as "an example of the spiritual awakening of the city" and he praised "what citizens can do when they work together." Mayor Dilworth's "spiritual awakening" had taken flight in leased, renovated studios at 1622 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, the former headquarters for WCAU. The new Channel 35, a UHF station, was licensed in the City of Philadelphia under the leadership of the Board of Education and some 100 local cultural institutions. However, few television sets in the 1950s could receive UHF signals. Channel 35's experiments in evening entertainment and cultural programming had limited success. The challenge to improve was implicit. Then, an opportunity presented itself in 1963, when the VHF Channel 12 in Delaware, a defunct commercial station, was awarded to WHYY. It then became a regional public broadcasting station, serving the cornerstones of the Delaware Valley. On September 12, 1963, WHYY signed on the air as TV12 with studios in a renovated red school house at 5th and Scott Streets in Wilmington, Delaware. The first local news program for Delawareans was broadcast from the studios on September 16, 1963. The next year, WHYY again moved its Philadelphia studios and offices. Its new home at 46th and Market Streets was generously donated by Ambassador Walter Annenberg. This was the first building in the country designed specifically for television and was originally built for Channel 6, before it moved to its present studios on City Line Avenue. In Philadelphia, WHYY was in for another move. Through a special arrangement with the City of Philadelphia, in February 1979, WHYY moved its headquarters and Channel 12 administration to the former Living History Center Museum on Independence Mall. In August 1980, 91FM moved its new headquarters to the Mall. By April 1983, television and radio production and broadcasting -- and all of the corporation's Philadelphia activities -- were headquartered on But, even that was not to be the end. The City of Philadelphia remains eager to redevelop part of the land on which WHYY exists in Philadelphia, so once more the corporation is faced with a housing problem. That problem will require a solution shortly. In addition, a new WHYY facility -- studios and offices -- were opened in January 1990, at 625 Orange Streets, in Wilmington, Delaware. The coverage area, geographically, was expanded in 1986, when WHYY, Inc. took stewardship of WDPB, Channel 64, in Seaford, Delaware. With the help of a new microwave link, Channel 64 carries the WHYY-TV signal and, therefore, the TV12 programs are rebroadcast to the southern part of the First State. This means total coverage for Delaware. WHYY's steps forward are also tied to the ongoing telecommunications explosion. Think about it: there are very few homes, very few businesses, and very few schools that do not now have electronic display terminals, electronic storage systems and audio units . . . poised, waiting to receive audio and visual information, general broadcast programming from WHYY, Inc. Never before have there been so many varieties of electronic systems waiting to go into homes, businesses, and schools. These systems range from cable to direct broadcast satellite systems, from instructional television fixed service systems to multipoint distribution systems. In partnerships with Delaware Valley corporate and professional communities, school systems, and viewers and listeners, WHYY, Inc. is taking up the challenge and moving into the telecommunications era.	18,633
The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men Often Go Awry The Verge reports that Andy Rubin, Android’s head honcho at Google bent over backwards at Mobile World Congress this week to convince reporters that he will have nothing to do with Motorola Mobility, going as far as saying that Google has “literally built a firewall” between the two companies. Do you believe him? I’m not sure I do or if it’s even in Google’s best interest to make absolute statements of this sort. Google has gotten itself in hot water in the past by making similar blanket statements. Consider Exhibit A, ‘Don’t Be Evil.’ As Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land points out in a post today, that whole ‘Don’t Be Evil’ declaration was a bad idea from Day One: “The problem is, I think Google has failed to understand that along the way, it has become just another big company. It’s a big company that makes mistakes, like any big company will do. But unlike most big companies, the entire “Don’t Be Evil” mantra it created for itself years ago has given it farther to fall,” Sullivan wrote. Yet here they go again making another one. And the fact is it doesn’t matter if there’s a firewall or not. Partners are always going to be concerned that Motorola phones have a leg up on theirs because it’s part of the Google corporate family. In fact, I wrote about these concerns in this space when the deal was announced last August. Even if Rubin made the firewall statement with the best of intentions, it doesn’t mean that this statement won’t come back to haunt Google at some point. Sullivan called the ‘Don’t Be Evil” proclamation “incredibly dumb” in his piece. I think Rubin’s statement could eventually be seen in a similar light. As a publicly traded company under intense scrutiny from governments and consumer groups, Google should be treading very carefully when it comes to making any statements that suggest a fixed position, yet it seems to throw out them out there periodically with little thought to the possible consequences. Let’s fast-forward two years from now: In this purely fantasy view of what could happen, Motorola is struggling. The phones aren’t selling and stock holders are complaining about the $12 billion investment. The patent cache not withstanding because it was probably a significant reason for the buy, there might be some grumbling about giving Motorola more careful attention. After all, these are Android phones and Android is a Google platform. An order could come down from the executive committee (to paraphrase Ronald Reagan), “Mr. Rubin, tear down this wall.” But he made this very public statement two years before, and some jilted Android handset makers get miffed and go to court and they use Rubin’s very words as evidence. I’m not saying that it will happen this way, but why take a chance by making statements you could come to regret, or worse that could be used against you in a court of law. You would think Google would have learned that by now, but apparently not. Photo by t3rmin4t0r on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons License.	137,545
What do you do when the person next to you on the plane is reading Deepak Chopra? The title of this post pretty much says it all. I recently flew from South Africa back to the US after flying on four flights: Cape Town-Johannesburg-Dakar-Washington, DC-Boston. On the Johannesburg to Dakar leg, I was lucky enough to have the seat next to me empty, so I stretched out, enjoyed my two blankets and two pillows, and tried to sleep a little. The airplane landed in Dakar, Senegal to refuel, take on food and drink, and also take on a new crew and new passengers. I was a little disappointed when a man took the seat next to me on the plane, but he turned out to be a friendly man from Ghana who was well-educated (a degree in engineering as well as a PhD in business administration), well-spoken, well-traveled, and had interesting stories about his work for the World Bank over the past ten years or so. The man travels all over the world managing various projects for the World Bank, such as providing start-up money for coffee farmers in Ethiopia and managing various grants and investments in his home country of Ghana. About halfway through the 9 hour flight, the man took out the book he was reading. I was dismayed to see that he was reading “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success” by Deepak Chopra. I had to mask my momentary shock and disappointment when the man praised the book and said how he hoped it would make him more successful. I didn’t know how to respond, but I decided that the tactic of “Deepak Chopra is dumb, spiritual laws are dumb, and you’re dumb for reading this book” was not the right approach. The man sitting next to me on the airplane was far from dumb; he was very successful and intelligent and also doing very good, important work in Africa and other places around the world. So, I tried another approach. I inquired about the book and politely read the introduction and the description on the cover jacket. For those of you unfamiliar with the book, here is a description from wikipedia: The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success – A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams is a 1994 self-help, pocket-sized book from author and physician Deepak Chopra, freely inspired in Hinduist and spiritualistic concepts, which preaches the idea that personal success is not the outcome of hard work, precise plans or a driving ambition, but rather of understanding our basic nature as human beings and how to follow the laws of nature. According to the book, when we comprehend and apply these laws in our lives, everything we want can be created, “because the same laws that nature uses to create a forest, a star, or a human body can also bring about the fulfillment of our deepest desires”. The book has sold 1.5 million copies in the United States alone and about 3 million abroad, and appeared in the top 10 list of New York Times. I then handed the book back and said something along the lines of, “Well, this looks interesting, but I’m a little skeptical of both Deepak Chopra and of self-help books in general.” Yes, I used the word skeptical, but I tried not to sound too bitter or condescending. My tactic seemed to work– the man asked why I was skeptical and listened to my reply. I continued with something like, “Well, first I am not a fan of Deepak Chopra in general. He’s a medical doctor, but he often praises dubious alternative medicine. I feel that his writings about alternative medicine– which hasn’t been proved scientifically– can keep people from receiving real medical help. I don’t think he means to, but he harms people in this way. I also don’t like him because I think he’s often just out to make money. Many self-help books are just money-makers, and that makes me skeptical of their contents.” I decided to stop there, though I wanted to say some harsher words about Deepak and what I thought about “spiritual laws.” The man paused, took in my words, and asked me some more about Deepak’s medical beliefs. He apparently didn’t know much about Deepak Chopra. I told him some more about the alternative medicine rubbish and why I felt it was harmful, and the man seemed to consider that deeply. He frowned a bit and said he would look into it more. Eventually, he also said, “I still think these laws are good, though. But maybe they’re just more common sense. I don’t think Deepak was the first person to come up with these laws; maybe he is just trying to make money from them.” Again, I wanted to condemn the spiritual laws in stronger language, but I let it go, saying only “maybe.” I felt that shouting and stronger words would not necessarily help, and I felt that I had at least planted a seed of doubt about Deepak and the book. Hopefully that is enough for a smart, educated man to figure out the rest on his own. Time will tell, though perhaps I’ll never know. Though the man did leave his business card with me, so maybe I’ll follow up with him by email sometime to see what he thinks about Deepak in a few months. Let me just comment here quickly on the “Seven Spiritual Laws for Success.” I haven’t read the book in detail, but I think I have a good idea of the contents. Deepak says in the book that success is not a result of hard work, precise plans, or driving ambition. Rather, you just need to relax, help others, and give into the universe or some nonsense. Certainly, helping others and being a nice person in general can help your success in the long-term. People are more likely to help you if you help them, and if you’re friendly and nice to people this can help you make contacts, hear about opportunities, and so forth. So, the advice in the book is not all bad. However, if I can be considered successful in my career as a geologist (I guess so, though some days I don’t feel like the best student or geologist), it is not just from helping others or being friendly. No. I’ve had to work extremely hard, and I still work extremely hard. And not just in graduate school– I’ve worked hard in science and mathematics my whole life. Or at least since I was five or six or so. I was lucky that I was born into a middle class American family with a strong belief in the power of good education. I went to excellent schools, and my parents pushed me to do my homework well. I’ve also been ambitious and driven– I’ve applied for internships, research positions, graduate school. All that takes ambition and drive. All of this has also taken planning– filling out the applications on time, obtaining letters of recommendation, researching projects, and so on. My fiance– from a poor South African family and the first to go to college in his family (even his extended family)– would agree that success takes hard work, planning, and ambition. He did not have the same support and luxuries that I did growing up in middle class America, so he’s had to work even harder than me and be even more ambitious than me in order to be successful. So, yes, in my experience success requires hard work, planning, ambition, and some luck– though maybe in some cases it’s a Richard Wiseman sort of luck.	310,712
The Colbert Report Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes ,Political Humor&Satire Blog Eagleman is a masterful writer, taking complex, convoluted material and offering it in a format that is entertaining and almost entirely jargon-free. Unlike Michael Shermer's dense but fascinating Believing Brains is accessible to most readers. Both books, though, offer information that many people will not be willing to accept: the idea that we are not the masters of our own destiny, not in control. Eagleman attempts to soften this idea of reducing our identity to the vagaries of our neurobiology by writing that "[i]f there's something like a soul, it is at a minimum tangled irreversibly with the microscopic details. Whatever else may be going on with our mysterious existence, our connection to our biology is beyond doubt." Much of the book focuses on the neuroscience pointing to the reality that who we are, our conscious mind, is the tip of the iceberg, and that our thoughts and actions are not necessarily under our conscious control. In fact, the idea that we are simply a final arbiter of those competing zombie systems underlies Eagleman's book and moves the reader towards what Eagleman is really interested in presenting: the idea that our judicial system (and our society) must change to recognize that much of our behavior is not blameworthy--that our acts may not be under our control to stop, and that where these acts are not, punishment is a pointless exercise if the behavior is not modifiable. It is in this section of the book, that on blameworthiness, and Eagleman's ideas on how to reform the judicial system, that frustration kicked in. It's not that the ideals aren't worthy pursuing, but it seems hopelessly naive given the context that law enforcement and the judicial system today still give undue weight to eyewitness testimony and credibility to the polygraph. This section also seems out of place given the rest of the book's emphasis on relaying information about the current state of knowledge regarding the brain. It moves from factual, scientific information to speculation about how a responsive society and judicial system would deal with this knowledge. It undoubtedly felt organic to Eagleman and the clear end to where that new knowledge should lead us, but much like Simon Baron-Cohen's departure in his The Science of Evil into his ideal judicial system where psychopaths aren't put in prison but instead rehabilitated in a hospital setting, it is jarring and, I believe, will strike many as unlikely to ever occur. And that is because most people will ultimately reject this information, just as Shermer's books will not find favorable reactions from the masses. Our very wiring, our neurobiology, makes it almost certain that most will reject the idea that they are not in control, that their identity can be reduced to a three pound pink jello-like substance that is an electrochemical soup. Deepak Chopra's assertions about the mind will win over the masses far more readily than scientists like Shermer or Eagleman. There may be awe to be found in the reality, but it is a scary, terrifying reality for most people, even for those who accept it. No, Chopra's magical woo will no doubt be more appealing than the likelihood that the mind and the brain are one: "The mind is invisible, yet everything it thinks or feels requires a physical response in the brain. If you know what the brain is doing, you know what the mind is doing, or so the scientific method, based on materialism, holds to be true. But a huge mystery, known as the mind-body problem, is being begged. As long as we ignore the mind, we may be making profound mistakes about the brain." The idea that we are our mind and that our mind is not our brain allows us to continue with the fantasy that we are the masters of our destinies, imbued with free will and the ability to transcend our physical reality. Eagleman's work is an important one and well worth the read, but the reality is that it's likely that people who pick it up already knew a great deal of that information he presents and he may merely be preaching to the choir.	137,150
by Corey Merchant \|Detecting and Containing IRC-Controlled Trojans: When Firewalls, AV, and IDS Are Not Enough by Corey Merchant and Joe Stewart, LURHQ Corporation Secure Operations Center last updated July 10, 2002 This paper discusses IRC-based trojans as a distinctly underestimated class of malicious activity, and how real time security event monitoring is the key to identifying and containing similar compromises. It discusses the general methodology used to discover, track, and stop such malicious activity by presenting a real-world case study. The firewall alerts, as shown in Table 1 began around midnight: prolific scans from a host inside one of our customers' perimeter to many Internet hosts for IRC (TCP 6667). Within minutes we had thousands of alerts. And in a few days we were well into exploring our attacker's methods, tools, and activities - an endeavor that would result in a greater awareness of what I now appreciate as a distinct class of attacks (IRC based trojans), and re-enforcement of the fact that firewalls, anti-virus software, and intrusion detection systems are not enough. Constant security event monitoring is the missing key to most information security infrastructures. Table 1. Firewall Logs Apr 25 18:15:14 customer_firewall unix: securityalert: tcp if=hme1 from xxx.xxx.xxx.43:3622 to 188.8.131.52 on unserved port 6667 Apr 25 18:04:32 customer_firewall unix: securityalert: tcp if=hme1 from xxx.xxx.xxx.43:3690 to 184.108.40.206 on unserved port 6667 Apr 25 17:55:15 customer_firewall unix: securityalert: tcp if=hme1 from xxx.xxx.xxx.43:4240 to 220.127.116.11 on unserved port 6667 Apr 25 17:56:48 customer_firewall unix: securityalert: tcp if=hme1 from xxx.xxx.xxx.43:4802 to 18.104.22.168 on unserved port 6667 ..and so on over thousands of hosts. The Attacker's Approach This attacker's code is probably unique, but the approach is not new or unique. Still, you seldom hear of it - the use of semi-custom trojan packages using IRC as a control channel. Some alerting organizations allude only to increases in IRC-based backdoors and malware, but do not mention the individual trojan package(s) used. And most virus protection packages catch very few tools like this. The reasons for this is that there are too many such tools, most are evolving, and their propagation is more deliberate and controlled, unlike newsworthy worms like Nimda and Melissa. There are likely hundreds, perhaps thousands, of these types of packages, which may really be considered crackers' tool kits - Swiss Army knives for cracking, if you will. They range from the collected and self-written scripts of individuals to collections of such tools available for download and use by less skilled attackers. Most work like this: This control code is what really defines this class of trojan package. The control code provides the attacker a means to run and control various utilities via IRC, backdoor access to the host, and some mechanism for file transfer. More sophisticated packages allow their victims, or zombies, to report back regarding the success/progress of attacks. This allows the attacker to control dozens and, in some cases, hundreds or thousands, of zombies with a great deal of flexibility and vision. A great majority are centered around a hacked version of mIRC, a common IRC client; and associated mIRC scripts. To summarize, the power of this approach is three-pronged. First, it uses commonly available tools to completely control victims. Second, it uses an array of intermediate victims to obfuscate the attacker's identity. And third, there are so many similar tool kits out there that they provide an overload of small moving targets for the good guys (virus protection vendors, firewall vendors, and security staffs in general). As an example, neither CERT nor the FBI were able to appoint any resources to this incident. Discovering the Compromise After the first wave of scans, we asked that the host be checked out thoroughly. It turned out to be the laptop of a remote worker with DSL who had remote access through a VPN (split tunneling disabled). The machine had current anti-virus software and a personal firewall. The user was described as non-technical, which led us to believe that the laptop had been compromised in one way or another, so it was sent in for a scrub down. Nothing was found. The group that did this said that the box was re-imaged, but when it came back up on the network we immediately began getting scans from it to many Internet addresses for Squid (TCP 3158) and SQL (TCP 1433). We asked that the box be sent to us this time. We set the machine up on on an outside network alongside a sniffer, booted up, and captured for an hour. At this time we notice that it was SYN flooding a Web server (see Table 2). Upon further investigation using Ethereal and other tools, we discovered that it and about 75 other zombies were taking part in a distributed denial of service attack, all controlled from an IRC channel on a server presumably in Kazakhstan. Therefore, we had to take the host off-line. But, we had enough captures to see that it was taking part in distributed scans for certain services (looking for new zombie recruits), was transfering and receiving files from its master (mostly scripts to perform all these tasks and to scuttle the host itself if necessary), as well as the DDOS activity mentioned. From the information gathered, we believe that the activity ties together something like this. The attacker: Table 2. DDOS Capture Decode # Stran is the op, our attacker. Here he sets the channel topic, which tells the # zombies who to attack, and on what port(s). :Stranemail@example.com TOPIC #rubik :!0pana www.gotocasino.com 80 # A zombie on attbi.com's net reports that it is "bOmBiNg" the victim. :xJ9XI58!~F107638I@rox-21043.atl.client2.attbi.com PRIVMSG #rubik :5,1[#4bOmBiNg#5]#0-#3[#09 www.gotocasino.com #3] # The same zombie reports back a successful attack :xJ9XI58!~F107638I@rox-21043.atl.client2.attbi.com PRIVMSG #rubik :14Attacked host #15: #4 www.gotocasino.com #14port #15: #4 80 # This goes on for many hosts, who continue to syn flood the victim. Table 3. Distributed Squid Scan # The channel op Stran, our attacker, tells the zombies to scan the addresses and ports in # in 3128.txt :Stranfirstname.lastname@example.org PRIVMSG #rubik :!0 play #rubik 3128.txt 2500 PRIVMSG Stran :##00X# #U##15nderstood Important notes here are that the network-based IDS missed this activity because there were no signatures for this specific trojan, the virus software on the host also missed it for similar reasons, and the alerts on the firewall looked upon first glance like standard internal network noise. However, the security staff, watching in real time, clued in that the source was a VPN network, and that the destination was a bit suspicious. Anatomy of the Trojan It is useful to understand what some of the standard pieces of one of these trojan are. The following is from Trend Micro's virus encyclopedia. It outlines what they said about the trojan after we had turned over the files. They and other virus vendors have since released pattern updates for this trojan. Upon execution, this backdoor malware extracts the following files: C:\Winnt\system32\ght.dll C:\Winnt\system32\hajr.drv C:\Winnt\system32\iexplorer4.cab C:\\Winnt\system32\Msboot.exe C:\Winnt\system32\msflxgd.exe C:\Winnt\system32\smtp.txt C:\Winnt\system32\syscribe.txt It then executes Msboot.exe, a file written in Visual Basic, which is a loader program. To allow itself to execute upon subsequent reboot, it creates a registry run key as follows: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsCurrentVersion\RunServices ?Microsoft ReBoot?= ?C:\Winnt\system32\Msboot.exe? MSFLXGD.EXE is a modified PE-Compact mIRC client. Upon execution, it drops a configuration script, netv.ocx (detected as IRC_SOER.A). With it and the other accessory scripts, it functions as a backdoor program connecting to the site Irc.Kamaz.Kz via port 7777. There, it joins a specific channel and sends messages to the hacker's nick. It also waits for specific keyword triggers that serve as commands for it process. When this program is running on the infected computer, the hacker can execute the following: In addition to the abilities that Trend mentions, we have seen the following: And, we have seen our attacker add and remove special-function scripts periodically. It appears that this attacker's primary means of propagating the trojan was by exploiting open MS-SQL servers running on Windows NT/2000 boxes. All zombies had SQL servers with SA accounts that had no password. We were able to recreate similar activity using the command shell provided by MS-SQL. All zombies were also attached to DSL routers or cable modems, so our attacker appears to be interested in bandwidth, as well. Our methods were: Table 4. SMTP Banners 22.214.171.124 Banner: 220 sediu Microsoft ESMTP MAIL Service, Version: 5.0.2195.4905 ready at Wed, 8 May 2002 14:59:08 +0300 126.96.36.199 Banner: 220 risnt7.lefrak.com ESMTP Server (Microsoft Exchange Internet Mail Service 5.5.2650.21) ready 188.8.131.52 Banner: 220 ramaposoftware.BEXTInc.com Microsoft ESMTP MAIL Service, Version: 5.0.2195.2966 ready at Wed, 8 May 2002 07:51:10 -0400 184.108.40.206 Banner: 220 computech-srvr.computechny.com Microsoft ESMTP MAIL Service, Version: 5.0.2195.4905 ready at Wed, 8 May 2002 07:52:43 -0400 220.127.116.11 Banner: 220 infoe.infoequation.com Microsoft ESMTP MAIL Service, Version: 5.0.2195.2966 ready at Wed, 8 May 2002 07:53:37 -0400 18.104.22.168 Banner: 220 server20002.DOMAIN2000 Microsoft ESMTP MAIL Service, Version: 5.0.2195.2966 ready at Wed, 8 May 2002 07:46:34 -0400 22.214.171.124 Banner: 220 minserver1 Microsoft ESMTP MAIL Service, Version: 5.0.2195.2966 ready at Wed, 8 May 2002 20:51:27 +0900 126.96.36.199 Banner: 220 webdemo Microsoft ESMTP MAIL Service, Version: 5.0.2195.4453 ready at Wed, 8 May 2002 04:54:29 -0700 188.8.131.52 Banner: 220 rational2.i-telco.com Microsoft ESMTP MAIL Service, Version: 5.0.2195.2966 ready at Wed, 8 May 2002 04:55:12 -0700 184.108.40.206 Banner: 220 SLIN.i-telco.com Microsoft ESMTP MAIL Service, Version: 5.0.2195.1600 ready at Wed, 8 May 2002 04:55:29 -0700 Finally, we e-mailed the most relevant contact available for the victim hosts we had on record, informing them of the activity we had seen and that they had vulnerable and compromised hosts. Anecdotal evidence based on activity we've seen on over 100 networks based solely in the United States, along with information gathered during this incident, suggests that these IRC-based trojans and similar tool kits likely account for a vast majority of deliberate, successful security breaches. Yet, most go unnoticed. Further, these are generally not that sophisticated. Merely taking the technique up one level of expertise - for example, by adding encryption and communication/control over port 443, which almost no one filters or inspects outbound, or encoding and tunneling in another valid protocol - makes the existence of the ongoing penetration nearly invisible. In a corporate or government espionage scenario, one can envision an attacker silently gathering proprietary information over a long period completely unnoticed. In a warez scenario, these kinds of zombie networks are the latest trend in storing, moving, and distributing pirated software and media. Given that the current standard security model for most organizations is product based, this type of activity is routinely overlooked. Most of these organizations bought firewalls and virus software during a big security push in the early 1990s, and intrusion detection systems later, but none of these products detected this trojan and none stopped it, and general awareness in security circles is surprisingly low. Mass media outlets are are inclined to cover large scale worm outbreaks, while most security types tend to focus on one dimensional attacks (e.g. someone is port scanning the firewall). As we've seen, there are a few components necessary for discovering and stopping this class of attack: However, none of these in isolation are effective. And, more importantly, the critical glue that binds these is active, real-time monitoring of security events 24x7. The diligent watching of trained security staff is the most effective real defense for this type of activity. This article originally appeared on SecurityFocus.com -- reproduction in whole or in part is not allowed without expressed written consent.	27,750
LatinaLista -- Arizona has a total population of 6,595,778. If you factor in the undocumented population, which is reported to be between 400-500,000, that still leaves over six million people. So, why is a telephone poll that surveyed 500 "likely voters" in Arizona being touted in news headlines and on news shows as representing the majority of Arizona citizens? It doesn't even come close. Yet no news organization to date, when reporting on the results of this poll, that surveyed Arizona residents and their feelings on the new immigration law, clarified that only 500 people were called. It makes a big difference when commentators and reporters declare that the majority of Arizonans favor the new immigration bill when, in reality, it's far from the truth. The poll in question is last week's Rasmussen poll that declared 70% of Arizona Voters Favor New State Measure Cracking Down On Illegal Immigration According to this same survey, 23 percent were opposed to SB 1070. The survey also revealed: Opponents of the measure, including major national Hispanic groups, say it will lead to racial profiling, and 53% of voters in the state are concerned that efforts to identify and deport illegal immigrants also will end up violating the civil rights of some U.S. citizens. Forty-six percent (46%) don't share that concern. With such a sensitive issue as immigration, it seems disingenuous for news outlets to herald this poll of 500 people as the definitive majority of the state. The plain and simple truth is it isn't. When using this poll, news outlets need to clarify that it was a poll of only 500 people or "likely voters" and only reflected the opinions of these 500. Too often, poll results are seized upon and publicized because they make sensational headlines in and of themselves. Latina Lista is as guilty of doing this as any blogger, journalist or news outlet. But depending on the issue polled and for whom it is speaking for, the total number polled makes a difference as to the credibility of that poll's findings. In this case, 500 people doesn't constitute the claim made so far that "the majority of Arizonans are for this immigration bill." It would be far more accurate to say that "the majority of the 500 people polled are in favor of this immigration bill." It may not create the great debate that news outlets love to sensationalize upon but it would reflect the greater truth of this poll rather than misleading people to believe otherwise, without the evidence.	274,098
Chief Executive Officer of Stratcomm Africa, Esther Cobbah has said flowers are a natural resource that Ghanaians can develop to improve their lives and generate income. ‘What we are doing is communicating a natural resource that Ghanaians can develop for their own welfare, improve livelihood and for national development’. She said this at the launch of this year’s Ghana Garden and Flower show expected to take place from the 29 th of August to the 8 th of September. The programme which will take place at the Efua Sutherland Park in Accra, seeks to improve and educate people on the need to cultivate the habit of gardening. It will also help create awareness about Ghana’s abundant natural resources and promote Ghana as a compelling investment destination. The programme will involve a series of exhibitions, workshops, a conference as well teen workshops that will introduce the younger generation to the world of gardening. Organizers of the programme, Stratcomm Africa, a communication and reputation management agency. The event seek to attract a wide variety of people both in the gardening and floral industry as well as institutions whose products and services are associated with gardening. The theme for this year’s show is Gardening for Value -Health, Beauty, Jobs and Income. Being its second year, the workshops will explore various avenues of generating value from gardens and flowers. Participants will be able to identify and take advantage of the numerous opportunities that abound in the commercialization of gardens and flowers. A new magazine called ‘Bloom’ will be unveiled at the show. Managing Director of FLOBEN’s Creation Designs, Mrs. Florence Benson encouraged the youth to take interest in the horticulture industry instead of waiting to be employed by government. Participants in last years’ show expressed excitement about this year’s show and recounted the many benefits they derived from participating in it. This article has 0 comment, leave your comment.	155,614
GRSAC was developed primarily to study a wide spectrum of core transient and heatup accident scenarios. It includes a detailed (~3000 nodes) 3-D hexagonal geometry T/F model for the core, plus T/F models for the RPV, SCS, and RCCS. The core T/F model consists of 163 radial nodes by 10 axial nodes for the fueled section (including the center reflector, if applicable). Axial coolant flows for the 163 channels are calculated independently; however, radial flows (which would occur more prominently in PBRs), are not accounted for. There are an additional 96 radial nodes for the side reflector, and two layers of axial nodes each for the top and bottom reflectors. There is an option to include neutronics (point kinetics), with xenon and samarium poisoning, to study accidents involving an ATWS. GRSAC also models air ingress accidents, simulating the oxidation of graphite core materials. The 3-D hexagonal geometry core thermal model allows for investigations of azimuthal temperature asymmetries in addition to axial and radial profiles. Variable core thermal properties are computed functions of temperature, and for prismatic core designs may also be dependent on block orientation and radiation damage. The annealing model for graphite can account for the increase in thermal conductivity occurring during LOFC accidents, which can have a significant effect on the predicted consequences. The primary coolant flow models cover the full ranges expected in both normal operation and accidents, including pressurized and depressurized accidents (and in between), for forced and natural circulation, for upward and downward flow, and for turbulent, laminar, and transition flow regimes. The primary loop pressure calculation can consider variable inventory (due to depressurization actions) and loop temperature changes, and use a simplified model for BOP temperatures and primary system pressure responses. The models for the RPV and the shield or RCCS are typically different for each of the various basic reactor models. FP release (for metal fuel) and Wigner stored-energy release models for graphite in the older model low-temperature gas reactors are also available.	244,582
Wed 7 Apr 2010 U.S. War-Fighting Numbers to Knock Your Socks Off Tom Engelhardt TomDispatch 4/06/10 In my 1950s childhood,Â Ripley’s Believe It or Not was part of everyday life, a syndicated comics page feature where you could stumble upon such mind-boggling facts as: “If all the Chinese in the world were to march four abreast past a given point, they would never finish passing though they marched forever and forever.”Â Or if you were young and iconoclastic, you could chuckle overÂ Mad magazine’s parody, “Ripup’s Believe It or Don’t!” With our Afghan and Iraq wars on my mind, I’ve been wondering whether Ripley’s moment hasn’t returned.Â Here, for instance, are some figuresÂ offered in aÂ Washington Post piece by Lieutenant General James H. Pillsbury, deputy commanding general of the U.S. Army Materiel Command, who is deeply involved in the “drawdown of the logistics operation in Iraq”:Â “There are… more than 341 facilities; 263,000 soldiers, Defense Department civilians and contractor employees; 83,000 containers; 42,000 vehicles; 3 million equipment items; and roughly $54 billion in assets that will ultimately be removed from Iraq.” Admittedly, that list lacks the “believe it or not” tagline, but otherwise Ripley’s couldn’t have put it more staggeringly.Â And here’s Pillsbury’s Ripley-esque kicker: the American drawdown will be the “equivalent, in personnel terms alone, of relocating the entire population of Buffalo, New York.” When it comes to that slo-mo drawdown, all the numbers turn out to be staggering.Â They are also a reminder of just how the Pentagon has been fighting its wars in these last years — like a compulsive shopper without a 12-step recovery program in sight.Â Whether it’sÂ 3.1 millionitems of equipment, or 3 million,Â 2.8 million, orÂ 1.5 million, whether 341 “facilities” (not including perhaps ten mega-bases which will still be operating in 2011 with tens of thousands of American soldiers, civilians, and private contractors working and living on them), or more thanÂ 350 forward operating facilities, orÂ 290 bases are to be shut down, the numbers from Iraq are simply out of this world. Those sorts of figures define the U.S. military in the Bush era — and now Obama’s — as the most materiel-profligate war-making machine ever.Â Where armies once had baggage trains and camp followers, ourÂ camp followers now help plant our military in foreign soil, build its housing and defenses, and then supply it withÂ vast quantities of food, water, fuel, and god knows what else.Â In this way, our troops carry not just packs on their backs, but a total, transplantable society right down to theÂ PXs,Â massage parlors, food courts, andÂ miniature golf courses.Â At Kandahar Air Base in Afghanistan, there was until recently a “boardwalk” that typically included a “Burger King, a Subway sandwich shop, three cafes, several general stores, a Cold Mountain Creamery, [and an] Oakley sunglasses outlet.”Â Atypically enough, however, a TGI Friday’s, which had just joined the line-up, was recently orderedÂ shut downalong with some of the other stores by Afghan war commander General Stanley McChrystal as inimical to the war effort. In Ripley’s terms, if you were to put all the vehicles, equipment, and other materiel we managed to transport to Iraq and Afghanistan “four abreast,” they, too, might stretch a fair way around the planet.Â And wouldn’t that be an illustration worthy of the old Ripley’s cartoon — all those coffee makers and port-a-potties and Internet cafes, even that imported sand which, if more widely known about, might change the phrase “taking coals to Newcastle” to “bringing sand to Iraq”? For all the sand Iraq did have, from the point of view of the U.S. military it didn’t have the perfect type for making the miles of protective “blast walls” that became aÂ common feature of the post-invasion landscape.Â So,Â according to Stephen Farrell of theÂ New York Times, U.S. taxpayer dollars floated in boatloads of foreign sand from the United Arab Emirates and Qatar to create those 15-ton blast walls at $3,500 a pop.Â U.S. planners are now evidently wondering whether to ship some of the leftover walls thousands of miles by staggeringly roundabout routes to Afghanistan at a transportation cost of $15,000 each. When it comes to the U.S. drawdown in Iraq and the build-up in Afghanistan, in fact, the numbers, any numbers, are little short of unbelievable. Â Believe it or not, for instance, U.S. commanders in our war zones have more thanÂ one billioncongressionally mandated dollars a year at their disposal to spend on making “friends with local citizens and help[ing] struggling economies.” It’s all socked away in the Commander’s Emergency Response Program.Â Think of it as aÂ local community-bribery account which, best of all, seems not to require the slightest accountability to Congress for where or how the money is spent. Â Believe it or not (small change department), the Pentagon is planning to spend an initialÂ $50 million from a “$350 million Pentagon program designed to improve the counterterrorism operations of U.S. allies” on Croatia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, all of whom, in the latest version of the Coalition of the Billing, just happen to have small numbers of troops deployed in Afghanistan. Â The backdrop for this is Canada’sÂ decision to withdraw its combat forces from Afghanistan in 2011 and aÂ fear in Washington that the larger European allies may threaten to bail as well.Â Think of that $50 million as a down payment on a state bribery program — and the Pentagon is reportedly hoping to pry more money loose from Congress to pay off the smaller “allies” in a bigger way in the future. Â Believe it or not, the Defense Logistics Agency shippedÂ 1.1 million hamburger patties to Afghanistan in the month of March 2010 (nearly doubling the March 2009 figure).Â Almost any number you might care to consider related to the Afghan War is similarly on the rise.Â By the fall, the number of American troops there will haveÂ nearly tripled since President Obama took office; American deaths in Afghanistan haveÂ doubled in the first months of 2010, while the number of wounded has tripled; insurgent roadside bomb (IED) attacksÂ more than doubledin 2009 and are still rising; U.S. drone strikesÂ almost doubled in 2009 and are on track to triple this year; and fuel deliveries to Afghanistan haveÂ nearly doubled, rising from 15 million gallons a month in March 2009 to 27 million this March. (Keep in mind that, by the time a gallon of gas has made it to U.S. troops in the field, its cost is estimated atÂ up to $100.) Â Believe it or not,Â according to a recent report by the Pentagon inspector general, private contractor KBR, holding a $38 billion contract to provide the U.S. military with “a range of logistic services,” has cost Washington $21 million in “waste” on truck maintenance alone by billing for 12 hours of work when, on average, its employees were actually putting in 1.3 hours. Â Believe it or not, the State Department has paid another private contractor, Triple Canopy,$438 million since mid-2005 simply to guard the massive, 104-acre U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, the largest on the planet.Â That’s more than half the price tag to build the embassy, the running of which is expected to cost an estimatedÂ $1.8 billion dollars in 2010.Â Triple Canopy now has 1,800 employees dedicated to embassy protection in the Iraqi capital, mainly Ugandan and Peruvian security guards. Â AtÂ $736 million to build, the embassy itself is aÂ numbers wonder(and has only recently had its sizeable playing field astroturfed — “the first artificial turf sports field in Iraq” — also assumedly at taxpayer expense).Â Fans of Ripley-esque diplomatic gigantism should have no fears about the future either: the U.S. isÂ now planning toÂ buildanother “mother ship” of similar size and cost in Islamabad, Pakistan. Â Believe it or not, according to Nick Turse of TomDispatch.com, nearlyÂ 400 bases for U.S. troops, CIA operatives, special operations forces, NATO allies, and civilian contractors have already been constructed in Afghanistan, topping the base-building figures for Iraq by about 100 in a situation in which almost every bit of material has to be transported into the country.Â The base-building spree has yet to end. *Â Believe it or not,Â according to theÂ Washington Post, the Defense Department has awarded a contract worth up to $360 million to the son of an Afghan cabinet minister to transport U.S. military supplies through some of the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan — and his company has no trucks.Â (He hires subcontractors who evidently pay off the Taliban as part of aÂ large-scale protection racket that allows the supplies through unharmed.)Â This contract is, in turn, part of a $2.1 billion Host Nation Trucking contract whose recipients may be deeply involved in extortion and smuggling rackets, and over which the Pentagon reportedly exercises little oversight. Believe it or not, the staggering logistics effort underway to transport part of the American way of war from Iraq to Afghanistan is now being compared by those involved toÂ Hannibal (not Lecter) crossing the Alps with his cohort of battle elephants, or to that ancient conqueror of conquerors, Alexander the Great (“the largest building boom in Afghanistan since Alexander built Kandahar”).Â It has become commonplace as well to say,Â as President Obama did at Bagram Air Base on his recent six-hour Afghan drop-in, that the U.S. military is “the finest military in the history of the world,” or as his predecessorput it even more emphatically, “the greatest force for human liberation the world has ever known.” The Ripley-esque numbers, however, tell a somewhat different story.Â If war were really aBelieve It or Not matter, or victory lay in the number of hamburgers transported or the price of fuel consumed, the U.S. military would have been the winner long ago.Â After all, it may be the most product-profligate military with the heaviest “footprint” in history.Â Though it’s seldom thought strange (and rarely commented upon in the U.S.), the Pentagon practices war as a form of mass consumption and so, not surprisingly, bears a striking resemblance to the society it comes from.Â Like the Taliban, it carries its way of life to war on its back. It’s striking, of course, that all this is happening at a moment when, domestically, small businesses can’t get loans and close to 10% of the population is officially out of work, while state governments are desperately scrabblingÂ for every available dollar (and some that aren’t), even as they cut what would once have beenÂ considered basic services.Â In contrast, the Pentagon is fighting its distant wars as if American pockets had no bottoms, the national treasury had no limits, and there was quite literally no tomorrow. And there’s one more small contrast to be made when it comes to the finest military in the history of the world: for all the private security guards, mountains of burgers, lakes of gasoline, miles of blast walls, and satchels of cash to pass out to the locals, it’s been remarkably unsuccessful in its pacification campaigns against some of the motliest forces of our time.Â The U.S. military has been fought to something like a draw by relatively modest-sized, relatively lightly armed minority insurgencies that don’t even pass muster when it comes toÂ shooting straight. Vast piles of money and vast quantities of materiel have been squandered; equipment by the boatload has been used up; lives have been wasted in profusion; and yet the winners of our wars mightÂ turn out to beÂ Iran andÂ China.Â The American way of war, unfortunately, has the numbers to die for, just not to live by. Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the American Empire Project, runs the Nation Institute’s TomDispatch.com. He is the author of The End of Victory Culture, a history of the Cold War and beyond, as well as of a novel, The Last Days of Publishing. His latest book, The American Way of War (Haymarket Books), will be published in May. To catch a special TomCast audio interview in which Jonathan Schell and Engelhardt discuss war and nuclear weapons from the 1960s to late last night, simply clickÂ here or, if you prefer to download it to your iPod,Â here. [Note on Sources:Â Let me offer a small series of bows to six websites I find invaluable for keeping up on America’s wars.Â Each is a regular morning stop on my tour of the Internet:Antiwar.com, a site full of surprises, which collects the most interesting reporting of the day on America’s wars and incursions; Juan Cole’sÂ Informed Comment which, for years now, has provided an analytic framework for, and a brilliant running commentary on, American war policy in the Middle East;Â the War in Context whose canny editor, Paul Woodward, recentlyaptly termed the American war in Afghanistan “a war of indifference”;Â Asia Times, a high-quality online publication that provides regular overviews on the Middle East and Asia; Noah Shachtman’sÂ Danger Room atÂ Wired, a must-visit for the latest in U.S. military developments; and Katherine Tiedemann’sÂ “Daily Brief” at the AfPak Channel which provides a daily summary of key mainstream reporting on the Afghan war. In addition, special thanks go to Christopher Holmes, my eagle-eyed volunteer copyeditor in Tokyo who keeps TomDispatch remarkably error-free, week in, week out.Â His is a major labor of love and, even though I don’t say so often enough, couldn’t be more appreciated day in, day out!] Copyright 2010 Tom Engelhardt	256,934
Firemen's Association of the State of New York The Firemen’s Association of the State of New York, more commonly known as FASNY, is an organization whose mission is to educate, serve and support volunteer firefighters in New York State. FASNY was founded in 1872 and its main headquarters are in Albany, New York. FASNY currently has more than 40,000 members. The Firemen's Association also maintains the FASNY Firemen's Home and the adjacent FASNY Museum of Firefighting in Hudson NY. Informing, Educating and Training the Volunteer Fire Service Since 1872. The Firemen’s Association of the State of New York (FASNY) provides information, education and training for the volunteer fire and emergency medical services throughout New York State. FASNY strives to recognize the true champions of these services through numerous awards programs. They also recognize educators for their work in fire prevention education. Additionally, FASNY provides legislative representation that monitors and takes action on topics of importance to the services. Training & Education Each year, FASNY provides training and education programs around the state on a variety of topics. Experts present training to thousands of emergency service providers across the State of New York. The purpose of the Training and Education Committee is threefold. First, the committee promotes FASNY as the voice of the volunteer fire service in New York State. The second purpose is to increase the membership of FASNY. The final and most important purpose is to reduce the number of injuries and deaths of fire and EMS responders by providing training in safety and other fire and EMS related topics. This training takes place via workshops and programs covering a wide range of fields: administration, Chaplain’s, Fire Police, Haz-Mat and emergency response. The FASNY Legislative Committee confronts issues on behalf of its membership on a regular basis, striving to resolve them and provide solutions to future questions and concerns through advocacy. Each year FASNY recognizes achievements in firefighting, EMS, teaching, fire safety education and community service. FASNY also helps recognize those volunteer firefighters who have achieved 50 years of service in New York State. - EMS Provider of the Year - FASNY Gerard J. Buckenmeyer Volunteer Scholarship - Firefighter of the Year - Firefighter Recognition 50/100 Year Award - Fire Safety Educator of the Year - Fire Service Community Achievement Award - Golden Trumpet - Teacher of the Year - Youth Group of the Year - Chaplains Committee - Fire Service Community Achievement Award Committee - Scholarship Advisory Committee - Emergency Medical Services Committee - Fire Chiefs Committee - Legislative Committee - Standards and Codes Task Force Committee - Membership Committee - Training and Education Committee - Firefighter of the Year Committee - Member Services Committee - Two Percent Tax Committee - Fire Police Committee - Public Relations Committee - Ways and Means Committee - Fire Prevention and Life Safety Committee - Recruitment and Retention Committee - Youth in the Fire Service Committee The FASNY Firemen's Home The FASNY Firemen’s Home is a 126,000-square-foot (11,700 m2) facility designed with the members’ comfort in mind. Specialized rehabilitation for both younger and older members includes health care, the camaraderie of socializing with fellow firefighters, and continued connections to firefighting activities. Licensed by the New York State Department of Health. FASNY Federal Credit Union The FASNY Federal Credit Union is chartered to serve the financial needs of members, immediate family members and employees of the Firemen’s Association of the State of New York (FASNY) and the Firemen's Home, volunteer organizations such as fire departments, districts, fire companies, EMS and ambulance squads. Also included are members of LAFASNY, as well as employees, State, Department, and Personal members of the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC). FASNY Museum of Firefighting The FASNY Museum of Firefighting is home to years of firefighting history in New York State. At the 51st State Firemen's Convention held in Hudson in 1923, a resolution signed by the Presidents and Secretaries of both the Volunteer Firemen's Association and the Exempt Firemen's Association of the City of New York said that if the State Association of the Firemen's Home would authorize the erection of a suitable building for a museum, four fire engines, one built in England in 1725, a Gooseneck more than one hundred years old, a piano-style engine 63 years old and a double-deck engine, would all be donated as the first pieces. So, amid much anticipation, the Museum was built with a center hall 49 feet (15 m) long with two adjoining wings 24 feet (7.3 m) long, amounting to 2,600 square feet (240 m2) of museum space. At 3 am on the morning of November 12, 1925, six large trucks brought the valuable collection up from New York City. The items were numbered and cataloged and then placed on display. The Museum was dedicated on Memorial Day 1926 with appropriate ceremonies. In order to accommodate the numerous donations to the Museum, additions were necessary. The first addition was added in 1957, 31 years after the initial opening. The second addition came in 1972, with another expansion in 1989, and yet another in 2000 adding to the current size, totaling more than 50,000 square feet (4,600 m2). In August 1872 as the parade moved along the main street of Auburn, N.Y., a state convention of a benevolent organization had just concluded one of its annual meetings and the members were passing review of the town folk. A group of local volunteer firemen stood on the curb watching, when one of them, whose name history does not record, spoke up, asking: “Why not have a firemen’s convention?” Little did any of those boys realize at the time that this chance remark would provide the incentive for the formation of what was to become one of the largest organizations in the state. Word was passed around in the various fire companies that they were to meet soon to consider organizing the details for a permanent Firemen’s Association. On September 2 the members of the Auburn fire department met at the courthouse. After “much free and uninterrupted discussion” it was agreed that each of the six fire companies at their next monthly meetings would select three members to act as a committee. This steering committee was to meet with the officers of the department on September 6 to present the report relative to forming a national firemen’s association. Three members each from Logan Hook and Ladder Co. No. 1, Neptune Hose Co. No. 1, Auburn Hose Co. No. 2, Niagara Hose Co. No. 3, Cayuga Hose Co. No. 4 and Union Hose Co. No. 5 were selected at the regular monthly meetings of the companies on September 4. This committee met the next evening and prepared a report, which was presented at the September 6th meeting of the entire fire department. The report was in the form of a resolution stating that the object of the association be “co-operative in nature and with the view to improve the general government of the fire departments, the discussion and adoption of modern and improved fire apparatus, as well as a general interchange of ideas and a discussion of important questions pertaining to the various duties of firemen.” The resolution also called for the appointment of an executive committee of three, with full power, and subordinate committees on finance, entertainment, and reception. It stated that at the convention there shall preside a president, six vice-presidents, one corresponding secretary and one recording secretary, also that each company in all fire departments be entitled to one representative in the convention, his expenses to be defrayed by his respective company. The report was again read and adopted by clauses. On motion, the following persons were appointed to the respective committees named in the resolution: Finance Committee George Milk-Logan and Ladder Co. Joseph H. Norris-Neptune Hose Co. George Friend-Auburn Hose Co. N.D. Kierst-Niagara Hose Co. Wright Milk-Cayuga Hose Co. Charles Tallowday-Union Hose Co. Reception Committee George Smith-Logan Hook and Ladder Co. A. Sanford-Niagara Hose Co. Wright Milk-Cayuga Hose Co. Lewis Montgomery-Union Hose Co. Entertainment William McEwan-Logan Hook and Ladder Co. Joseph Furness-Neptune Hose Co. H.P. Brown-Cayuga Hose Co. A meeting of the executive committee was held on September 11. At this meeting it was decided that the first annual Convention of the Firemen’s National Association be held in the City of Auburn on Tuesday and Wednesday, October 1 and 2, 1872. It was also decided that each fire company in every fire department in the United States be invited to send one delegate, and that the Chief Engineer of every department be requested to procure a list of the names of the delegates selected in his locality and forward the same to the secretary. As the day for the opening of the Convention drew near, interest and enthusiasm in the project grew by leaps and bounds. Eleven states sent letters indicating that they would send delegates, though when the Convention opened, only Paterson, NJ and Des Moines, IA were represented. The business community was generous in supplying funds to be used “toward carrying out the purposes of the Committee of Arrangements and the Reception Committee for the hospitable entertainment of all delegates, who will be cared for with a welcome to ensure their best comfort.” Plans for the first day called for the business of organizing a Firemen’s National Convention and “addresses from good speakers.” In the evening, a Grand Inauguration Ball would be held at the Academy of Music. The second day would be devoted to a parade and amusements. Visiting steam fire engines, hose and other companies would compete in tests, and a trial of the city water works would be given. As a special feature, arrangements were made for a half-mile race between Hose Co. No. 7 of Ithaca and Niagara Hose Co. No. 3 of Auburn. Invitations were sent to Syracuse, Ithaca and Oswego inviting fire engine companies to be present with their apparatus. For music, the 49th Regiment Band was engaged. The committee let it be known that contributions were being solicited for dinners of the visiting firemen and that baskets of refreshments of any kind should be left at the Academy of Music by 10:00 a.m. on the second day of the Convention. The morning session began an hour later than the scheduled time period. Only two pieces of business were enacted—the report of the Business Committee and the appointment of the first Executive Committee. Mr. Smith of Oswego, chairman of the Business Committee presented his report in the form of a Resolution, the main points being "That the firemen of Auburn did a wise and beneficent act in organizing the Convention" and that it was found upon assembling that only a portion of this and other states were represented, "Therefore, Be It Resolved: That this body be known as the Firemen's Association of the State of New York."	94,440
Hello dear students! As our program start date is getting closer, we hope you are getting prepared and excited! This post is to provide some additional packing tips to use in conjunction with the packing list (pages 31-35) in the Nepal Preparation Manual that you received from Dragons, which you should look at carefully. First off, you should know that there is no “one way” to pack, as everyone has different styles, wants, and needs. You know yourself and what will make you happiest, and to that end, you don’t need to follow these suggestions or the packing list verbatim if you have a different way of accomplishing the overall goal. The mantra for our trip is travel light. Please be judicious with your packing since you will often be carrying your pack during the program. If you bring too much stuff, it’ll get in the way of our group’s ability to travel easily. After all, it’s not the stuff that will make your trip. Students are often surprised how comfortably they can live with such few things, and it is very freeing to travel without too much stuff. Pack your bag with everything you think you will need, then walk around the block a few times. Is your bag too heavy? Will you be able to carry your pack around crowded cities, in and out of packed busses, and for multiple days in the mountains? Try to eliminate any extras to keep weight to a minimum. We have a request for you: try your best to fit everything you’re bringing into the one big backpack you’ll bring. We know that a day pack is on the packing list and it’s really tempting to fill that one up too. It’s a trap! Don’t do it! Your day pack should be more like a small spaceship that’s parked in the mothership at most times. It can be deployed during travel days and other times, but it should all fit into one package. One of the best things you can pack is empty space. When we’re moving a lot and packing every morning, it’s much easier to pack a bag that’s not completely full. No matter how many times we tell students this, at the end of every Dragons program, most students tell us they wish they had packed less. It is really important that you bring gear rated to what is advised in the program preparation manual. You arrive in Nepal during the last part of monsoon and will be here through autumn and some part of winter as well, so it will be chilly at times. It will also be cold during our trek in the high Himalaya and while living in rural areas where houses don’t have insulation or central heating. So the warm gear and clothes you bring will come in handy during both our homestays and during the trek. Being Culturally Appropriate: Nepal is a more conservative country than many of you have probably lived in before. Although you will see young people in the cities wearing all manner of clothing, we prefer our students to err on the side of dressing a little more conservatively. This is because we will be travelling through some smaller villages that still wear traditional clothing and interacting with many traditionally-minded local people (like your homestay families). Wearing conservative, neat, and presentable clothing will help you to build rapport and ingratiate and immerse yourself in the local communities. This means generally no tight-fitting shirts or pants (including yoga pants) and no tops that are very low cut or show your shoulders. Students can bring shorts perhaps to sleep in, but everyone should plan on wearing pants that are at least mid-calf length for all activities. Know there will be times when shorter pants will be inappropriate for all students so long pants that zip off or fold up into shorter pants are a smart packing choice. Leggings are only acceptable to wear in conjunction with a kurta (a dress or long shirt). Traditional Nepali tunics that fall to mid-thigh are beautiful and very comfortable to wear. You can have them made by tailors in Kathmandu if you’re interested. Dresses or skirts that hit mid-calf and are loose enough to squat in are fine. The packing list says that students should bring a skirt, but actually this is not required. You should bring a watch (with an alarm) to help make sure you are on time for activities and to help wake yourself up in the mornings since you won’t have a smartphone with you! (Cheap watches can be purchased locally in Nepal too). This is covered in the packing list in the Preparation Manual but there are a few things we want to emphasize: Some General Suggestions: Please BRING SOME NORMAL URBAN CLOTHING. You will want something you would feel comfortable wearing in the city. Keep in mind these should be culturally appropriate clothes. We will be many weeks in Kathmandu and Patan, in our urban homestays, and attending lessons and classes, so some “not camping” clothes are nice to have. Some RUNNING SHOES, sneakers or COMFORTABLE CITY SHOES. Most students will bring a total of 3 pairs of shoes (the other two being boots and sandals). I like to travel with EARPLUGS as there will be all sorts of new noises (think roosters and car noise) and also with an eye/face mask to block out light. Hopefully this has helped to clarify some packing questions you may be having. If you have any other questions about packing from this Yak or the packing list in the Preparation Manual, please feel free to post it here! Nine times out of ten, if you have a question someone else does too. Looking forward to seeing you all soon!	168,566
Chief Economist, World Bank Workshop on Macroeconomic Policies and Thursday, April 12, 2001, 7:30 p.m. Let me begin by offering a long excuse for the interpretation of macroeconomics that I'm going to take. When I talk about macroeconomics and poverty, what I'm actually going to talk about is medium-term growth and poverty, confident in the view that medium-term growth is indeed a large part of macroeconomics. In the sixties in Cambridge macroeconomics was Keynes; it was all about effective demand. The other thing young lads in the sixties doing Ph.D.s in economics did was growth theory. That's what I did. I worked with Jim Mirrlees and Bob Solow, so I was lucky. But then, just as I was finishing, growth theory seemed to stop. So I turned to teaching development economics, into which I snuck in quite a lot of the growth theory I had learnt—Harrod-Domar, Mahalanobis, Lewis, Solow. I soon realized that I was the only person teaching growth theory, whether it was Oxford or Warwick, or LSE or wherever. So if you wanted to do growth theory, you came to my development economics course. Then, about midway through the 1980s, I discovered that some of my friends teaching macroeconomics were also teaching growth theory. So I discovered that because I had stayed the same and macroeconomics had changed, I had become a macroeconomist. Growth theory, as it were, came back into macro, and I think it's rightly there and will stay there. I'll say a sentence about the demand side, which the record probably requires of me. I sincerely believe that high inflation is bad for poverty reduction. The evidence is overwhelming, and there is no need to elaborate on it here. That's the end of, as it were, the demand side of my discussion of macroeconomics and poverty. Now, what I am going to talk about is the strategy for economic development and how IFIs can affect it. To be specific: What does pro-poor growth mean and how we can bring it about? I'm going to say it in terms of two very simple sentences that actually are now part of the World Bank strategy. We have a Strategic Framework Paper that we have just shared with our Board, and in it, there are two key sentences. The first sentence is that the investment climate is crucial for investment, growth, and jobs. And the second sentence is that empowering and investing in poor people is crucial to their participation in the growth process. I think those two sentences explain what we mean by pro-poor growth. They are very different from sentences that sound similar. For example, the statement that "You've got to increase the savings rate and keep down the incremental capital-output ratio" would be one, as it were, vulgarization of the first sentence. And another—different—version of the second sentence would be that "You've got to invest in people's human capital so that their productivity goes up." I actually think that the two sentences I just gave are widespread vulgarizations, and that they miss a large part of what is important in the first expression of those two sentences that I gave. A great deal of the story of growth is about creating an investment climate. What does an investment climate mean? Well, the first thing it encompasses is macro stability and economic openness. If you look at the way that, for example, inflation and openness to trade have changed in the world over the last 15 years, you can argue that the increase in growth we are seeing in developing countries is coming in large part from those basic policy changes. Income per capita in developed and developing countries grew at roughly the same rate in the 1990s. I think we'll find income per capita in developing countries growing faster than that in developed countries over this coming decade. A fundamental part of that story is the improvement in broad macroeconomic stability and in openness that we have seen over the last 10 or 15 years. We who work in international institutions can claim at least some credit for that change. The second broad area is that of governance and the competition process. There is an enormous amount that certainly the World Bank can and should do in terms of improving the investment climate. It should not be all the forms of governance that we could possibly think of and might like as decent citizens. The focus that we should insist on is: "Which aspects of governance and promotion of competition and quality of the labor force and so on are really important to the investment climate?" There is a great deal that we can do empirically to answer that question. We can do it in terms of detailed surveys, which we are doing at the firm level. We can do it in terms of the experience of investors, be they international investors or domestic investors. So there is a great deal of evidence that we can gather, and are gathering, on the details of what we mean about what is important on the governance side. Third, there is, of course, the whole area of the infrastructure, which is crucial to the investment climate. The answers to what specific features of the environment matter for the investment climate will vary enormously from one country to another. Careful measurement and quantitative assessment through surveys of firms, such as the survey that we have carried out with the Confederation of Indian Industries, is essential to identifying specifics. In the Indian case, one key dimension of the investment climate is the reliability of power supplies. At the state level, the power doesn't go off in Maharashtra nearly as often as it goes off in Uttar Pradesh (U.P.). Ninety-eight percent of the firms we surveyed in U.P. had their own generators, versus 45 percent in Maharashtra. It's not surprising that Maharashtra is growing faster than U.P., and poverty is going down faster in Maharashtra than it is in U.P. So there are very profound differences. Another factor behind these differences is the intrusiveness of government regulation: the local authorities visit firms, including SMEs, at least twice as often in U.P. than they do in Maharashtra. The evidence is clear and quantitative, and you can talk about it, and you can do things about it. The whole area of governance in relation to investment climate is something that we can really be serious about, and the implications for growth and poverty reduction are serious. The story I have just told about the climate for investment, and particularly the role of small and medium enterprises, and so on, is very different from the Mahalanobis model with fixed coefficients, where you push up the savings rate and try to control incremental capital output ratios, and so on. It is a different spirit: the former is not in conflict with the latter, but it is much broader. The second sentence is also important: empowering and investing in poor people is crucial to their participation in growth. We all know that things work better if people are empowered to participate. We know that schools work much better if there is participation from the local community and from parents. It's not simply the odd observation of a case here and there. If you look at the District Primary Education Program in India, which now covers more than 55 million people, there has been an enormous change in the way in which education takes place. Local communities are now much more involved in the story. This translates into simple improvements like the building of toilets and so on, which enable Indian girls to go to and remain in school at much higher rates than they could before. In the field of rural infrastructure, now we have many more water users' associations involved in the irrigation projects we support. In the health field, there is now much more community involvement in the running of hospitals. In short, there is a whole range of areas where empowerment is important. We are getting much better in many parts of the world, India included, in land titling, which is an enormous improvement in the empowerment of poor people. If you look at those two sentences together—about the importance of building an investment climate and empowering and investing in poor people—you have a definition of what we mean by pro-poor growth, a definition that actually pulls together much of what we are trying to do. Now, a cynic could always justify anything he or she proposed in terms of the two priorities that I have just described. A little bit of creativity, and you can bring anything into that net. So there is an obligation, it seems to me, to insist fiercely on the content of what I have just described and actually make it quantitative and analytical. What we will have, then, is a theory of pro-poor growth. To have a strategy for an international institution, you have to add to that some understanding of the effectiveness of our institutions in bringing about the kinds of outcomes that I have just described. There again we have learned a lot over the last 10 or 15 years about how we can bring about improvements along these two very broad dimensions—the investment climate and empowerment. And essentially, it is a very, very simple proposition: the international institutions have to act as agents of change along these two dimensions. If we simply transfer resources, we are doing something close to zero. I mean, if you transfer resources into an environment where nothing changes, the borrowing capacity of the country hasn't gone up, and what you put in goes out somewhere else. It may be a little bit of help, because your interest rates or the terms of the loan are particularly favorable, but if you build a road from Bangalore to Mysore, and it doesn't change anything else that happens in that country, then that project—even though it is well-defined—is actually doing very little. So we have to be able to explain that our institutions are agents of change. What I want to describe next is some of the shifts in our instruments that follow from this logic. First, we have to do more economic and sector work (that is, country-focused analytical work) and do it better, because that, if done well, is about promoting change. A former Finance Minister told me that in the 1970s and 1980s, the World Bank documents gave him a serious and thoughtful analysis of what was going on in his economy, and that this analysis provided him with an alternative to whatever the public authorities, or his own civil servants when he was in office, were providing to him. Our emphasis, as we have put very clearly in the Strategic Framework Paper and the Strategic Directions Paper that we are taking to our Board around our budget right now, is that we have to improve the quality of the analytical and economic and sector work. This work really matters, and our investment in it has slipped in recent years. Reversing that trend is one part of acting as agent of change. The second is a shift over to more programmatic lending. What is programmatic lending? I think it has three dimensions. The first is that such lending has to cover a significant part of the economy. It is not just some isolated thing, like the road between Bangalore and Mysore. (I give that because they are my two favorite cities in India, so I can't be accused of being biased against these two places.) So there has to be something that is economy-wide or covers a significant fraction of the economy, and the District Primary Education Program in India would be one example like that. Second, the project or program has to lead to significant change. If we satisfy those two criteria—covering a significant part of the economy and bringing significant change—then that is what we understand by programmatic lending, and that is another aspect, in addition to the economic and sector work, of being an agent of change. A third point is that in most cases, it would be multi-year. The last thing is the demonstration project. There can be some projects that really change the way in which things happen through the demonstration effects that they have. A project with really powerful demonstration effects can indeed carry the kind of economy-wide change that I think we ought to be requiring of ourselves if we are to claim to be agents of change. Let me end my talk with some words about how the World Bank and the IMF might work together in this spirit, specifically in the design of crisis-prevention and -response programs. Structural and social reforms are usually an element of such programs, and these programs typically have to be worked out with the government in great haste. The question is, how do we come up with views about the appropriate reforms and necessary conditionality in the structural and social areas? It seems to me that it is reasonable to expect the World Bank country team to have well-considered views on this subject, and to be able to distill them down to the essentials on short notice. One, this list of reforms should include those new structural and social measures which we believe to be in the interests of both long-run development and crisis response. This can't include everything that's in the Country Assistance Strategy, because this is a time for choice: your back is against the wall, so you've got to make up your mind. So there ought to be a selection, within the framework of the CAS of course, of those structural and social measures that are crucial to resolving the crisis. Two, there should be a list of social protection, health, and education programs that we ought to fight to keep amongst the existing programs. This seems to me to be an area of collaboration where the IMF has a right to expect a response from the World Bank within the tight time frame of a crisis-response effort. There may be a note of optimism in what I have been saying that comes from being in the World Bank for only nine months. But I actually think that most of what I've described is real and do-able, and a lot of it is actually already in our strategy. Thanks very much. IMF EXTERNAL RELATIONS DEPARTMENT \|Public Affairs\|\|Media Relations\|	232,090
More than a dozen Chaminade students spent Friday at Ala Moana Beach taking their final for their Underwater Investigations workshop, a graduate studies offering held annually by Chaminade’s Criminal Justice program. The day at the beach was the culmination of the weeklong workshop offered by the university’s Summer Institute. Classes focused on underwater crime scene recovery operations. The students learned and practiced the scientific protocol that can and should be applied to “underwater crime scenes.” Methods and techniques to locate, recover and handle submerged evidence were covered, along with the handling of firearms, bodies and vehicles to prevent contamination or loss of forensic evidence. The summer workshop was taught by Ronald Becker, J.D., director of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Chaminade University, who has authored the widely used text Underwater Forensic Investigation and is nationally renowned as an expert in the field, and by Lt. Lynn Dixon, commander for the Texas Department of Public Safety Dive Team and assistant instructor at Austin Community College. Classes included not just lectures but also training with land drills, blind underwater search drills (pool), and concluded with the ocean dive this Friday at the west end of Ala Moana Beach Park. Participating throughout the week were nearly 20 students from Chaminade, New Mexico State University, law enforcement personnel from the Sheriff Division / Maui Section and the Micronesian Dive Association, as well as HFD firefighters, instructors from Guam Community College and Hawaii Pacific University. By the way, the former newspaper publisher Lee Webber, who now volunteers for Guam’s crime lab, also participated. For students looking to contribute to society through law, public safety, and service, Chaminade’s Master of Science in Criminal Justice Administration (MSCJA) program provides an exceptional foundation for influential work in local or national government or administration, with the option of professional certification in the growing field of Homeland Security Leadership Development. For students already working in the field or for those who cannot attend evening classes for any reason, this course of study is also conveniently available online. Grounded in judicial theory and practice for both civil and criminal arenas, graduates are prepared for managerial, research, and instructional positions within the criminal justice system, in both the public and private sectors. Educating students for life, service and successful careers, Chaminade University is a Catholic/ Marianist university offering programs of study grounded in the liberal arts with day, evening, online and accelerated courses. A Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander serving institution, Chaminade is located at 3140 Waialae Ave., Honolulu, HI 9681, which is its main campus. It also has nine satellite locations around Oahu. Chaminade University is a member of the U.S. Green Building Council and looks forward to increased opportunities to promote environmental sustainability. For more information, visit the Chaminade Web site at www.chaminade.edu or call (808) 735-4711. ### Earlier this week, the two land photos above were taken as students practiced techniques on the Chaminade campus oval near Waialae Entrance. Teams worked on techniques to uncover firearms and bodies that are submerged in clouded waters. Goggles were covered in duct tape to simulate clouded water. BELOW ARE PHOTOS FROM FRIDAY’S FINAL WHERE TEAMS PERFORMED PRACTICE DRILLS IN THE RETRIEVING WEAPONS AND OTHER UNDERWATER EVIDENCE 1. From left to right, Professor Ron Becker (Criminal Justice Program director), Gordon Knowles, Chris Nolan, Holly Hewitt, and Leedo Anderson 2. Ann and Robert Weber check equipment with Professor Ron Becker 3. Weapon found by team members included from left to right, Chris Nolan, Holly Hewitt, Lee Webber, Dumitru Vandici and Gordon Knowles. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE HONOLULU—May 24, 2013 MEDIA CONTACT: Kapono Ryan	92,230
U.S. takes second crack at GPS tracking target Back in January, alleged drug dealer Antoine Jones won a precedent-setting tech snooping case before the Supreme Court. Now his attorneys want to take the gains from that win even further. Lawyers want to suppress cellphone site data for an account belonging to an alleged co-conspirator, Denise Jones. The government attorneys in the case understandably oppose the move. Government lawyers are arguing that data collected by a third-party, such as a wireless carrier, isn't protected by privacy rights granted by the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. "[N]o reasonable expectation of privacy exists in the routine business records obtained from the wireless carrier in this case, both because they are third-party records and because in any event the cell-site location information obtained here is too imprecise to place a wireless phone inside a constitutionally protected space," the government asserted in a motion [PDF] filed with a federal district court in Washington, D.C. "A customer's Fourth Amendment rights are not violated when the phone company reveals to the government its own records that were never in the possession of the customer," it added. In their arguments to suppress the cell tower info from the trial, Jones' attorneys cited his case before the high court in which the government received a wrist slap for attaching a GPS tracking device to Jones' car without his knowledge and tracked his movements. That case is irrelevant to the suppression motion, the government maintains because "compelled production of cell-site location records 'does not involve a physical trespass to property.' " The records that the feds want to submit as evidence include for each call made or received by Jones: date and time of a call, telephone numbers involved, cell tower connected to at the beginning and end of a call and duration of the call. In addition, some records occasionally specify a particular sector of a cell tower used to transmit a call. That information, the government noted, has significant investigative value to investigators because, among other things, it helps them locate facilities used to store, package and process narcotics, and in conducting physical surveillance of suspected drug traffickers. Jones' Supreme Court victory was greeted with cheers by civil libertarians. "A majority of the justices recognize that new technologies make it possible to collect more and more information about Americans than ever before," ACLU staff attorney Catherine Crump told PCWorld at the time. "And [the Supreme Court justices] seem poised to deal with other forms of invasive tracking in the future."	231,529
In her second blog post, Penny discusses Leonato's relationships with other characters in the play, different aspects of Leonato's character and the work done on the text with the Master of Words. Transcript of Podcast We’ve been through the play two or three times now, each time with different objectives. It has been really useful to go through the play that many times and familiarize yourself with everything everybody does, not just concentrating on your themes. You become informed by your character and by what other people do and say in the play. On the other hand, it has delayed getting down to the scenes. I love really investigating the part, making the decisions about what you are doing and who you are, as well as resolving any bits of the play that you don’t understand. For instance, we have been talking about Sicily – where Messina actually is – and the fact that Don Pedro of Arragon is Spanish… we’re thinking about which wars the soldiers might have actually been fighting. I don’t think that there is documentary evidence specifying where they have been fighting or how long the war was, so we will make decisions about that. It's a learning process. Obviously, a lot of the action takes place in Leonardo's house and his garden. And it is very tempting to think that it takes place in the country side, but it doesn’t. It takes place very definitely in Messina, so that makes a difference. Leonato is governor of Messina. I expect this would be an appointed position not a heredity position but none the less I expect those positions were given to people of noble birth, so he is probably pretty rich. He has a nice house big enough to accommodate all those people who arrive in Act I, scene 1: dignitaries and their entourages. I think of his house almost as an embassy – it might be his own house, but it is definitely a place where visiting dignitaries like the Prince would stay. That's the sort of environment I imagine Beatrice and Hero growing up in. Don Pedro and the soldiers might have passed through on other occasions when Hero would have seen Claudio. That train of thought led me to think about Leonato's relationship with Claudio's uncle: I have decided that he and I are really good friends, along with Antonio. We all know each other very well. Perhaps if Claudio was orphaned, he would be the one who stepped into the parental role. I don’t know when his parents died – they don’t have to have died, that's what I’m thinking at the moment. I would have talked about Claudio many times with his uncle and had really good chats about him – how he's getting along, what he's been up to – so although Claudio doesn’t know me really well, I know an awful lot about him. Maybe Claudio visited his uncle a lot because the first thing that we hear in the play from the messenger is that he has already been to the uncle, told the uncle, and the uncle has cried with joy on hearing about Claudio's ennoblement. It's a possibility that Claudio has only just been made a Count as the result of his success in battle – perhaps he didn’t inherit his title. I’m not sure; it is not for me to say because it's not my part, but these are the possibilities that occurred to me looking at the situation from Leonato's point of view. This morning Penny [Diamond, Antonio] and I discussed the relationship between Leonato and his brother. It is early days but we think perhaps Antonio might be a widower. Leonato is a widower too; Shakespeare did start to write him a wife called Imogen but he thought better of it and she disappeared. That's quite interesting because it makes me think about Hero as a motherless child; Shakespeare perhaps didn’t set out to write that in the way he set out to write Beatrice as a motherless child. Beatrice status as an orphan is important to the story, but we assume that the fact that Hero's mother is dead is unimportant because Shakespeare was going to give her one, then he decided she was surplus to requirements… I suspect there are so many motherless children in Shakespeare because women were so much more difficult for male actors to portray on the stage, so why have one you didn’t need? You only had so many actors at your disposal, and it didn’t make sense to take one up with a character you really weren’t going to use. So I’m inclined to think that the reasons for this cut are practical; Imogen's absence doesn’t shift the direction of the play's story. It's just like the boy Leonato calls on in Act I, scene 2 How now, brother, where is my cousin, your son? Hath he provided this music? Antonio's son is brought in when he's needed and then he's suddenly disinherited when Leonato tells Claudio he must marry Antonio's daughter instead of ‘dead’ Hero To-morrow morning come you to my house, And since you could not be my son-in-law, Be yet my nephew. My brother hath a daughter, Almost the copy of my child that's dead, And she alone is heir to both of us. [V.1.286-90] Of course, that could all be part of the fiction surrounding Hero's pretend death. I’ve got lots of thoughts and lots of questions! Penny [Diamond, Antonio] and I have been working on the little scene [I.2] quite a bit over the last couple of days. We’ve done it several ways – today we did an exercise where we had to identify exactly what was being said and assign a word to each ‘section’ of text. So for the line How now, brother, where is my cousin, your son? Hath he provided this music? [I.2.1] We identified three sections of text [underlined, bold, and italicised]. I thought that Leonato was basically saying ‘For goodness sake, where is your son? He's in charge of this music – where on earth is he and why hasn’t he done it yet?’ We assigned the word ‘assail’ to the section ‘How now, brother’ [underlined] because I wanted to get that sense of catching someone's attention in a very determined way: there he is, quick, catch him!’ For the next section [bold], we chose the word ‘integrate’ and the final section [italics] was assigned ‘prodding’. It's not so much the words themselves that are important, but the affect: they remind me that what I’m doing is trying to have an affect on the other character. Instead of just coming on and saying ‘Hello, where's your son? Has he arranged for the music?’ I have to communicate the intention behind the words. You come on and you say ‘Come here, I need to talk to you! Whereon earth is he?! Has he done it yet?’ There has to be a clear reason for saying each line onstage and the reason ‘because they’re in the text’ isn’t good enough if you want to bring the words to life. You’re always reacting to what other characters are doing or saying. It's very easy to go and sit at home alone with your script and basically decide what you are going to do in isolation. If that happened, we’d all just be doing our own separate things in the same space when we onstage together. I learn my lines early on, because I can never wait to get started, but I think this means I have to be particularly careful not to decide too much in isolation. The exercises help you keep all the ideas you bring into the rehearsal room very flexible. When Hero has been denounced during the wedding scene, she says very little and that reminds me a bit of Cordelia in King Lear… there's something very stubborn about the silence of Lear's youngest daughter. Hero is a bit different but I think Shakespeare uses the same device: like Cordelia, she doesn’t really say much to defend herself at first and her silence is then misinterpreted. She questions what is happening but she doesn’t actually stand up and say ‘I didn’t do it’ until the Friar asks her directly. Her father is left to say ‘Well, she hasn’t denied it therefore I guess she is guilty.’ Leonato says he wishes that he had never had any children and that's a sentiment shared by Brabantio in Othello, when he regrets having Desdemona, and King Lear actually says something like that about his children: I wish I never had any. It's an incredibly powerful statement, breaking the bond between parent and child. I think what Leonato says at the wedding is extraordinary. He has a wonderful speech that's often cut, but you must need your head examined if you cut it. I’m not saying that just because I am playing Leonato; it is a seriously beautiful speech. Basically he says that he wants Hero to die. He asks her ‘why are you living? If I thought you were going to live – if I thought your spirit was stronger than your shame – I would kill you myself.’ Then I tell her that I wish I had taken up a beggar's child at my gate instead of having one of my own so I could say this dreadful shame wasn’t my blood: ‘It is sad but it has nothing to do with me, this issue is from unknown loins’. Imagine what he must be feeling to say that to his daughter who has just been through the horrendous experience of being jilted at the Alter. The lines that just break me up are near the end of this speech: But mine and mine I loved and mine I praised And mine that I was proud on, mine so much That I myself was to myself not mine, Valuing of her – why, she, O, she is fallen Into a pit of ink… [IV.1.134-8] I think the way Shakespeare's written the line is very clever… I don’t know how much of the punctuation is original but clearly the line breaks up ‘Valuing of her – why, she, O, she is fallen’ and it sounds as though Leonato himself is breaking up inside. Most of Shakespeare's lines gather momentum, but they do flow. When you get a little line like that, well, for me, that's the pinnacle of that piece. I said last time that I like to look at the whole play and get an idea of the arc of the story. Each scene and each speech has peaks too, so once you’ve got an idea of the overall arc of the story, you need to identify those other pinnacles along the way. I think in that speech, the emotional peak comes at the line ‘Valuing of her… ’ Maybe peak is the wrong word: I mean the point at which something breaks. Impact of being a parent We were chatting today about how interesting it is to play Much Ado About Nothing with an all-female company because when your character is a dad, you’re both a father and a mother. Like Leonato, I have one child and I can’t imagine ever saying anything like the alter-speech to him, no matter what he did. Life was different back then. I don’t think we can really begin to understand what a woman's honour meant in that society. A woman's marriage prospects were dependent on her honour and men made decisions about marriage for her. Look at the bit of the scene we did this morning [I.2], where Antonio tells me that his man overheard the Prince and Claudio talking and that the Prince is going to propose to Hero and marry her straight away. I don't think that Leonato really believes it. Later on he says to Hero ‘If the Prince does propose to you – you know what your answer is.’ If the Prince wants to marry you, you’ll marry him. He is the best catch around. That was what life was like. That doesn’t mean Leonato is a horrid dad – it means they lived at a different time with different rules. I think being a parent does have an affect on you when you are playing a part like that, because your own rules are different and you would have reacted in a different way, but the fact that I’m playing a father rather than a mother at the moment makes no difference to me. I think human beings feel pain whatever sex they are, just as Shakespeare's characters felt the same pain that we feel now, despite the four-hundred year gap. And that's one of the reasons why I think Leonato is so wonderful. He speaks to our hearts now. I also realised how good Leonato is at his job as the Governor of Messina. The way he talks to everybody is very courteous, even when he is getting a bit tired of people like Dogberry. He is very generous – he treats people very well, and I think that is also part of his job. To see this man of stature reduced to tears in the wedding scene makes it even more crushing. Normally he is so calm and balanced. At first of all he is just disbelieving anything like this could happen. He just can’t understand it. And then the prince says he has seen it with his own eyes. There's the shift: the prince has proof and he wouldn’t lie – and that is the crux… the prince wouldn’t lie so Leonato believes it, and he's vile to poor Hero. He interprets the lack of a direct denial as an affirmation of her guilt, but the Friar says ‘Look, tell us straight, did you do it?’ When Hero responds ‘No, I didn’t do it’ I am sure she would look to her father. Leonato doesn’t say immediately that he believes her because he doesn’t really know what to say. He is in such a state. However by the time you see him challenging Claudio and Don Pedro, he is pretty certain of his ground. Another shift; he's not having any of their accusations. Leonato might not understand why they lied about Hero but as far as he is concerned, Claudio and the Prince are to blame. When Leonato challenges Don Pedro and Claudio in Act V, scene 1, I think he believes that he presents a real threat to those young men. Antonio [Penny Diamond] and I were asked if we wanted swords to wear. It's too early for me to decide for sure, but I’m going to try to see if the scene works without a sword. I want to give Leonato's verbal threat some real force. We may change our minds, but that's the way I thinking at the moment. There's a tricky moment in that scene when Claudio goes for his sword and I say - Nay, never lay thy hand upon thy sword; I fear thee not. [V.1.54-5] Leonato is not frightened by this young man, and Claudio responds ‘In faith, my hand meant nothing to my sword’ [V.1.57] – I wasn’t going for my sword, honest! I’m not sure how those lines will work if Leonato doesn’t have a sword; old man didn’t wear swords as a matter of course (as young men did)… it's a choice we’ll have to make once we’ve seen how the lines work verbally. I’ve thought a lot about the relationship between Beatrice and Leonato over the last week. I’ve decided it will be more interesting if I play that he is really concerned about getting her married, because he's getting older and he wants to see her settled. That's difficult because she puts up obstacles all the time and makes it difficult for any suitor to get close. You could play it rather fondly by laughing at all her quips as though he's accepting the situation ‘Oh, you’re just awful to these men and you’ve always been this way’. But I think he really wants Beatrice to get married and really means it when he says By my troth, niece, thou wilt never get thee a husband if thou be so shrewd of thy tongue He is worried that she will never get married is she carries on like this and that will make her vulnerable when he's no longer around to make sure she's provided for. I was thinking it might be nice if we played that Beatrice's mother was the sister of Leonato and Antonio: we have a very close relationship with Beatrice and it would make sense for her to be our niece, though I don’t know what Yolanda [Vazquez, Beatrice] has decided yet. For now, I’m pursuing the line that her mother was our sister, who possibly died giving birth to Beatrice – there's that reference in Act II, scene 1 to the star that danced at her birth whilst her mother cried [ll.309-10]. It's interesting that after Beatrice says that, Leonato gives her an excuse to leave ‘Niece, will you look to those things I told you of?’ [IV.1.311]. It feels quite tactful, as though he's letting her leave the stage because references to the circumstances of her birth have upset her. Perhaps I let her go because she's upset about her mother. We have started to learn the steps to the pavane in our dance sessions, which I think we may use during the revels scene [II.1]. I am not quite sure what I will be doing in that scene – I probably will be having a little dance somewhere! We have also been working on the jig which is always a highlight, I think. I love the jigs but I do find it very difficult learning the steps. Sian [Williams, Master of Dance] breaks all the dances right down into steps – she introduces you to one step and you think ‘All right, I can manage this’. Then she makes it a little more complex so you think ‘Alright, this is the step we’ll be doing’. You are just getting your head around that when she says, ‘Okay, now we are going to do it twice as fast!’ I always think I am never going to get it right and I have to keep telling myself that's ok, it is only a small part of what I have to do in the play. But last year I managed most of it in the end. My feet will probably get there eventually! And even if you don’t get it all right every single time, well, they probably didn’t all the time in Shakespeare's day either! I shall do my best. Verse and prose A lot of Much Ado About Nothing is prose – I think Giles [Block, Master of the Words] says that less than thirty percent of it is written in verse. I think the parts that are written in verse inform what's written in prose. In verse you find lots of words like personal pronouns are almost never stressed. Also the word ‘not’ is very seldom stressed although it is sometimes (there are no hard and fast rules!) So you learn from that and you find that the same guidelines often apply for the prose as well: very often the same the pronouns are not stressed. Pronouns can lead you up the garden path. It is very tempting to stress them – we would in modern speech. We would say “you did this to me” where Shakespeare would say “you did this to me” and actually it is more powerful his way. I think of prose in terms of meaning rather than rhythm. Rhythm isn’t set in concrete. You still have to find the right words to stress. People often think prose is easier than verse but actually I think it's the other way around because so much of the work is done for you in verse. For instance, in the half-line Friar, it cannot be. Thou seest that all the grace that she hath left Is that she will not add to her damnation A sin of perjury… [IV.1.168-71] You’re tempted to say ‘Friar, it cannot be’ but I don’t think that's as good as ‘Friar, it cannot be…’ – the speech is about the impossibility of Hero's grace and emphasising ‘be’ rather than ‘Friar’ helps communicate that. We work on verse and prose with Giles [Block, Master of the Words]; five of us at a time, once a week for the six weeks of rehearsal. We don’t use Much Ado About Nothing as a text in these sessions because he doesn’t want to interfere with what's going on in rehearsal. We want to learn about how to serve the text best. For instance, Giles often says that is the second half of the verse line is usually more important than the first part. What that means is that you will ‘set up’ what you want to say then you will go through it, getting to the point very often at the end of the line. I always like to do an exercise for myself that I am only allowed two words in a verse line. I’m not allowed to say anything else, and those are the words I’ll emphasise, otherwise you can fall into the trap of stressing everything in the line! When you keep to the stresses it really helps with you with the meaning of a line. We just try different things out. Giles will point things out to do with stress and colour. I’ve noticed that Leonato's got one speech that uses the word ‘words’. I am talking to Antonio after the wedding scene; I tell him to stop trying to console me ‘I pray thee, cease thy counsel’ [V.1.4] because there is no point telling a sufferer not to suffer. When Benedick comes into the play earlier on and he has the tooth ache, Leonato says ‘oh for goodness sake that's not worth bothering about.’ He comes to understand later on when he says Give me not counsel, Nor let no comforter delight mine ear But such a one whose wrongs do suit with mine […] Then he gives a list of things and starts to make his conclusion: But there is no such man; for, brother, men Can counsel and speak comfort to that grief Which they themselves not feel; but, tasting it, Their counsel turns to passion, which before Would give preceptial medicine to rage, Fetter strong madness with a silken thread, Charm ache with air and agony with words. [V.1.1-5, 20-7] You have the word ‘words’ and you can colour that. We are going to meet with the Tudor Group this afternoon. They are extraordinary people that know a huge amount about Shakespearean life because that is what they do for short periods of time. They do spend time living just exactly like a Tudor family. They dress and eat as the Tudors would have done, and they’re going to come and share their experiences with us. I’m expecting this to be very helpful in terms of original practices; how to bow properly, the correct etiquette for handling swords, and how and when to wear your hat, for instance. I know from last year's session with the Tudor Group that the Tudors would have worn hats all the time. You took them off when you were in front of the king but apart from that you kept them on. I’ve got more costume fittings coming up too, and I’m looking forward to seeing how things have moved on. I’ve seen a picture of what my hat will look like but I never know exactly what it will look like until it appears on my head. These comments are the actor's thoughts or ideas about the part as s/he goes through the rehearsal process – they are simply his/her own interpretations and frequently change as the rehearsal process progresses.	235,187
Laugh, cry, love, gather and celebrate are the words for the 2017 annual Seattle Jewish Film Festival (SJFF), held March 25 – April 2, 2017. On its final-day, an exceptionally well-made documentary, “On the Map” with legendary Bill Walton narrating, will entertain audiences with a gripping account of the Israeli basketball team that took Israel’s honor to the court. This fast-paced suspenseful documentary, featuring Tal Brody, Israel’s great American-Israeli player, is about Israel’s attempt to triumph in the 1977 European Basketball League Championship. But the true climax of the documentary is when the Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team must first face off against the unrelenting Russian Red Army team. Their first hurdle, outside of the Russians’ brawn, height and formidable reputation, was that Russia was boycotting Israel. This meant Russia could not invite the Israelis to Russia for a game and their team could not go to Israel to play. Siding with Middle Eastern countries, the USSR (now known as the Russian Federation) regarded the formation of Israel, per United Nations vote, illegal. So how could it honor a game against a country they contended should not be in existence? Dani Mankin, filmmaker and two-time Israeli Academy Award winner, collaborated with Nancy Speilberg (Steven Speilberg’s sister) to document this story of Israeli fortitude in a David and Goliath contest fought on the courts rather than the battlefield. Needing a distraction from wars and random bombing attacks throughout the 1960s and ’70s, the Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketvall Team, provided Israelis some alternative news coverage. Documented with archival footage of the players and their games, Mankin and Speilberg have produced a film that shows how much one national team can affect a spirit and unite a country. Israel’s citizens were transfixed, watching all the games on tv or in the stadium. Government leaders, including Moshe Dyan, Israel’s Minister of Defense and then Minister of Foreign Affairs, regularly came to the games in person. The documentary is full of impossible 3-pointers, surprise assists and super-human teamwork. Israel’s favorite player, Tal Brody, presciently calls out in 1977, “We are on the map! And we are staying on the map – not only in sports, but in everything.” “On the Map” sets the stage for this year’s SJFF in presenting not only what it means to be Jewish but what it means to be a united as a community. The film festival also includes four separate food events: a traditional Jewish soulfood brunch, two separate dessert nights and an Italian tratori. Paired with each culinary event is a corresponding film. A happy hour and dessert party will open the SJFF with the showing of “Harmonia,” a riff on the Biblical story of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar with the contemporary influence of the Jerusalem Philharmonic. It will end, after a showing of “On the Map,” with wine/beer, food and dessert and a final film called “Big Sonia,” featuring Holocaust survivor, Sonia Warshawski. “On the Map” Credits: Director, Producer and Writer: Dani Mankin Producer: Jon Weinback Executive Producers: Ori Eisen, Roberta Grossman and Nancy Spielberg Associate Producer: July Hodara Featuring: Tal Brody, David Stern, Bill Walton and Aulcie Perry Runtime: 85 minutes Languages: Hebrew and English Screenings (click on Screenings in top menu): http://www.onthemapfilm.com/ Rankings: Rotten Tomatoes (8.2) and IMDb (7.6) . . . Join us on Facebook at	24,742
Dean Baker complains about Paul Krugman: Greece vs. Zimbabwe: More on Krugman and Deficits \| Beat the Press: Greece had very little choice in agreeing to the terms of the EU/IMF because it did not have its own currency. The United States will therefore always have the option to risk higher inflation to buy its own debt. Those who claim that we do not have this option are not being honest. The other reason why it is important that we are not Greece is that we do not have to worry about the psychology of the markets (i.e. the bond market vigilantes [BMV]) in the same way. The story goes that everything was going along just fine with investors willing to hold Greek debt at a very small premium over German debt. Then the BMV got freaked and suddenly interest rates on Greek debt went through the roof. In an analogous situation, the Fed could just step in and buy the debt that private investors were unwilling to hold. If the economy is fundamentally unbalanced (i.e. we are operating above full employment levels of output) then this will give us a serious problem of inflation, but if the fundamentals are essentially fine and the BMVs just freaked for nothing, then we don't have to worry. The Fed can keep interest rates at reasonable levels and eventually private investors will step in and buy our debt. It is also important to recognize that there are literally zero incidents of inflation just going through the roof in an advanced economy, absent war, natural disaster, or political collapse. Inflation rises through a gradual process; we don't have to worry that the inflation rate will jump from 2 percent to 20 percent overnight. This means that if the BMV bolted and the Fed filled the gap we would have the luxury of waiting and seeing whether this action was leading to higher inflation and then responding accordingly. The idea that we are sitting on a hairspring trigger that could go off at any moment is just nonsense. For these reasons it is important that the U.S. has its own currency. It can never be Greece. It may end up as Zimbabwe, but this sort of hyper-inflation would be the result of long period of badly failed policies in which our economy essentially unraveled... And Paul Krugman agrees: Paul Krugman on having your own currency and denominating your debt in it: The Euro Straitjacket : I think Dean Baker and I are converging on deficits and independent currencies. He asserts that having your own currency makes a big difference — you can still end up like Zimbabwe, but not like Greece right now. I’m fine with that. Specifically, the reason Greece (and Ireland, and Portugal, and to some extent Spain) are in so much trouble is that by adopting the euro they’ve left themselves with no good way out of the aftereffects of the pre-2008 bubble. To regain competitiveness, they need massive deflation; but that deflation, in addition to involving an extended period of very high unemployment, worsens the real burden of their outstanding debt. Countries that still have their own currencies don’t face the same problems.... [T]he US and the UK look as if they should be in a similar category with the troubled European peripherals; and Japan is literally off the chart. But having our own currencies makes a big difference. All I’m saying is that dollar or no dollar, fiscal solvency is still an issue — not now, not for some time to come, but not something we can always ignore.	232,124
On Twitter, it was billed as Qatif Today, a legitimate Android app that provides news and information in Arabic with a focus on the Qatif governorate of Saudi Arabia. But in fact, the shortened link came with a hidden extra—an advanced trojan wealthy nation states use to spy on criminal suspects and political dissidents. Citizen Lab, the University of Toronto group that monitors government surveillance in the digital age, analyzed the recently discovered instance of the fake Qatif Today app in a blog post headlined Police Story: Hacking Team’s Government Surveillance Malware. The account provides a rare glimpse into malware developed by "Hacking Team," a highly secretive outfit based in Italy that charges governments top dollar for extremely stealthy spyware that's often referred to as a "lawful intercept" program. The trojan is known as an Android implant because it cloaks itself inside a legitimate third-party app. People who are infected with it must first be tricked into obtaining the Android installation package (APK) from a non-authorized source, which in this case was this now-shuttered Dropbox location. Aside from that, victims may have little indication anything is amiss. To lend it legitimacy, the malicious APK was signed by a digital certificate that appeared to be related to Java and its original creator Sun Microsystems. Citizen Labs identified six other samples signed by the same certificate. Once installed, the app establishes contact with command and control servers located at 126.96.36.199 and 188.8.131.52, which are addresses Citizen Lab has seen used in previous Hacking Team campaigns. The implant also attempts to break out of its Android-imposed security sandbox by exploiting a vulnerability in older Android versions on specific handsets that allows apps to gain unfettered root privileges. The trojan next tries to access local files stored by a variety of social media, chat, and call apps including Facebook, Viber, WhatsApp, Skype, LINE, and QQ. The app has audio recording, camera, video, key logging, and "live mic" capabilities, as well as a "crisis" module that provides anti-analysis functionality. The researchers also found evidence of what appears to be location, screenshot-taking, and browsing activity modules. The implant even seems to have a filter to specify date ranges to narrow the mail and text messages it sends back to the control servers. (It's not clear what happens when the app runs on Android versions that have patched the rooting vulnerability.) "We also see information about how the implant exfiltrates data, along with its C2 servers," Tuesday's post reported. "Interestingly, it appears that the implant is capable of monitoring the devices' connectivity (e.g. Wi-Fi, cellular network), choosing connection type, and rate limiting the bandwidth. Note that these are the same servers we observed in the implant’s network communications." The Citizen Lab researchers provided an overview of the remote control system (RCS) architecture that works with Android trojans and trojans for other platforms. The architecture relies on a series of system administrators, technicians, and analysts to funnel information pulled off an infected device to the interested parties. Unverified screenshots an anonymous person provided to Citizen Lab show RCS works on computers running Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux. It comes with a dazzling number of capabilities, including: - Network Injection: via injected malicious traffic in cooperation with an ISP - Tactical Network Injection: on LAN or Wi-Fi - Melted Application: bundling a Hacking Team dropper alongside a bait application - Installation Package: a mobile installer - Exploit: document-based exploit for mobile and desktop - Local Installation: mobile installation via USB or SD card - Offline Installation: create an ISO for a bootable SDHC, CD, or USB. This option includes the ability to infected hibernated and powered off devices - QR Code: a mobile link that, when pictured, will infect the target - Applet Web: likely a malicious website (depreciated after v. 8.4) - Silent Installer: a desktop executable that will install the implant - Infected U3 USB: an auto-infecting U3 USB - WAP Push Message: the target will be infected if the user accepts the message (works on all mobile operating systems apart from iOS) Citizen Lab researchers wrote: The implant (“agent”) offers one-click functionality for requesting information from target devices. Technicians are encouraged to add functionality as needed. In addition, a more advanced approach can be taken, allowing a sophisticated technician to determine a specific sequence of module activation upon infection, using a graphical flow model. This allows the user to define events that trigger particular actions, sub-actions, modules, and sequences. The documents provide an example of such a sequence: Selection of available surveillance modules - Accessed files - Address Book - Applications used - Device Type - Files Accessed - Saved Passwords - Mouse Activity (intended to defeat virtual keyboards) - Record Calls and call data - Take Photographs with webcam - Record Chats - Copy Clipboard - Record Audio from Microphone - With additional Voice and silence detection to conserve space - Realtime audio surveillance (“live mic:” module is only available for Windows Mobile) - Device Position - URLs Visited - Create conference calls (with a silent 3rd party) - Infect other devices (depreciated since v. 8.4) Once an implant is operational its collection operations can be updated. In addition files can be sent to and received from the device. In addition, implants have a default cap on “evidence” space of 1GB on the target device. Recording of new material stops when the space is reached. Operators also have the ability to delete not-yet-transmitted data on the device. Programs such as RCS are marketed to governments as legitimate wares, but Citizen Lab points out that many countries have few legal guidelines and little oversight for the way they're used. "In light of the absence of guidelines and oversight, together with its clandestine nature, this technology is uniquely vulnerable to misuse," the report warns. "By analyzing the tools and their proliferation at the hands of companies like Hacking Team and Gamma Group, we hope to support efforts to ensure that these tools are used in an accountable way, and not to violate basic principles of human rights and rule of law."	80,482
Perceptions of Risk: How We Manage Emergencies study of risk management across a variety of domains is an essential part of policymaking today. From public health to national security, market analysis, and natural disaster emergency response, the question of how to assess and to respond to risks is of the utmost importance. Important questions pertaining to the public perception include: Does the public perceive risks accurately or are public perceptions distorted by cognitive biases? Should public perceptions of risk be taken into account in risk management plans even if they seem “irrational”? Should preparedness for disasters follow the same template as management of more ordinary risks? Should the management of risk in the public sector differ from that in the private? Should the risk of natural disasters, such as hurricanes, be handled in the same way as the risk of human threats, such as terrorism or criminal activity? Does a serious threat that persists over a protracted period of time, such as a daily threat of terrorism, still count as a security emergency? When are restrictions of civil liberties, such as quarantines or preventive restraint, justified to pre-empt risk of harm to the general The purpose of this Symposium, co-sponsored by CERL, is to foster multi-disciplinary and inter-professional conversation about risk perception and strategies of emergency management. The panelists will engage in a conversation about emergency preparedness and how our perceptions of risk factor into those efforts.	165,484
The manufacturing industry has seen many changes over the years. Today, industrial manufacturers face global as well as domestic competition. A company’s profit margin reflects management’s ability to control the top line costs, so executives still expect better-than-average results. Because of this, procurement is expected to play a much larger role and bring value to the entire business enterprise. Therefore, in addition to an uninterrupted supply of needed raw materials, procurement is also expected to find products and services that provide the most value. Strategic sourcing and the application of advanced supply chain management techniques enable companies to take advantage of opportunities, no matter where they exist. One such opportunity is the labor arbitrage that exists in the global economy. ISM published a CAPS Research study titled, “Sourcing in Emerging Markets” in November of 2015. In its research, CAPS noted that “sourcing in emerging markets (also known as low-cost countries) is an activity that is no longer considered an exception, nor is it solely used to source only low strategic spend categories.” There is a wide range of processes and tools available today to help you compete in your market. The offering ranges from cutting edge ERP applications, to strategic sourcing and supply chain management. We can help your company apply advanced procurement techniques and ‘best practices’ that gives you an edge and helps you achieve your business objectives. Transforming Procurement Operations. Today, procurement is expected to bring value to the entire business enterprise. Some organizations have difficulty migrating their legacy processes to more advanced procurement models. For more on this topic, please follow this link. Process Management. It is important to have ‘effective business processes’ in place. Otherwise it is very difficult to reach high performance levels. For more on this topic, please follow this link. Organizational Structure and Performance. Top performing organizations require structure, culture and resources to produce high performance. Departments designed around four areas achieve high performance levels. For more on this topic, please follow this link. Manufacturing and Supply Chain Services We are Manufacturing and Supply Chain Services, MSCS, specializing in enterprise wide production and operations management programs. Our company’s proprietary processes and services promote organization, control and cost reduction boosting your company’s bottom line. How can we help you? Learn more about MSCS’s procurement and supply chain programs.	92,156
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training has been administered to millions of people in the past 20-30 years. From elementary-age kids to senior citizens, people everywhere have the skills and credentials to help those in distress. Yet, according to a recent New York Times health blog, only about one-third of sudden cardiac arrest victims actually receive assistance before professional medical assistance arrives. So what’s going on? With significant CPR training, why aren’t more people getting life-saving help? There are many factors involved, but the two main reasons are: The Panic Factor. CPR training can prepare would-be rescuers, but real-life conditions are rarely mimicked in a controlled training environment. Someone trained in CPR knows what to do, yet surrounding circumstances – distraught family members, crowds and poor lighting, just to name a few – can have a negative impact on CPR efforts. The Yuck Factor. Let’s face it – the simple act of mouth-to-mouth contact with a complete stranger isn’t the most pleasant prospect in the world. For someone who received cursory CPR training or hasn’t updated their credentials, a sudden emergency (in their eyes) just isn’t worth the potential transmission of bacteria, disease or sickness. CPR is necessary to maintain life-sustaining activities before medical help arrives. It’s clearly a useful tool for saving lives, but diminished confidence and fear of germs & disease negatively impact CPR’s true potential. With a CPR valve, reason #2 becomes a non-factor. CPRValve.com is proud to offer the finest life-saving tools on the market. Our CPR valves feature exceptional quality, durable composition and excellent value. And there’s no need to sweat that Yuck Factor mentioned in the NY Times article. Our valves prevent reverse air flow, creating a sanitary environment for CPR (both training simulations and real-life emergencies). Interested in learning more about our CPR valves? Simply give us a call at (888) CPR-6622, or visit our contact page to send an email. CPRValve.com has helped training organizations and individuals with their training needs, and we’d love to hear from you. Thanks for reading our blog!	229,607
Alternate names: Lutomiersk [Pol, Yid], Lutamiersk. ussian: Лютомерск. לוטומיירסק [Yid]. 51°45' N, 19°13' E, 11 miles W of Łódź, 12 miles NNE of Łask. 1900 Jewish population: about 800. Yizkor: Pinkas ha-kehilot; entsiklopediya shel ha-yishuvim le-min hivasdam ve-ad le-aher shoat milhemet ha-olam ha-sheniya: Poland vol. 1: The communities of Lodz and its region (Jerusalem, 1976). Lutomiersk village in Pabianice powiat, Łódź Voivodeship in central Poland is the seat of the administrative district called Gmina Lutomiersk. The village is 17 km (11 mi) NW of Pabianice and 19 km (12 mi) W of the regional capital Łódź with population of about 1,500. Gmina Lutomiersk contains the villages and settlements of Albertów, Antoniew, Babice, Babiczki, Bechcice-Parcela, Bechcice-Wieś, Charbice Dolne, Charbice Górne, Czołczyn, Dziechtarzew, Florentynów, Franciszków, Jerwonice, Jeziorko, Kazimierz, Kolonia Bechcice, Legendzin, Lutomiersk, Madaje Nowe, Malanów, Mianów, Mikołajewice, Mikołajewice-Kolonia, Mirosławice, Orzechów, Prusinowice, Prusinowiczki, Puczniew, Puczniew-Leonów, Stanisławów Nowy, Stanisławów Stary, Szydłów, Szydłówek, Wola Puczniewska, Wrząca, Wygoda Mikołajewska, Zalew, Zdziechów, Zdziechów Nowy, Zdziechów-Kolonia, Żurawieniec and Zygmuntów. The cemetery was consecrated at the beginning of the 18th century when the Chevrah Kadisha was established. About 1750, a shelter for the poor was set up. In the early 1780's, a wooden synagogue designed by Hillel Beniamin from Łask was built and burned down in 1915. photos. Jewish history. [May 2009] US Commission No. POCE000684 The town is in the region of Sieradz at 57º45N 19º73E, 19 km from Todz. The cemetery is located in Warzyca, a suburban village. Present population is 1000-5000 with no Jews. The earliest Jewish community in the town was 18th or possibly 17th century. 1921 Jewish population was 775, 35.3%. The Jewish cemetery was established in the 18th century with the last known Orthodox/Conservative Jewish burial 1942. Other towns also used the cemetery. The isolated suburban rural/agricultural flat land has no sign or marker. Reached by turning directly off a public road, access is open to all with no wall, fence or gate around the cemetery. The size of the cemetery is about 2 ha. No stones are visible. There are no known mass graves. The municipality owns property used as cemetery and agriculture (animal grazing). Properties adjacent are agricultural and residential. Occasionally, organized Jewish groups, organized individual tours, private visitors and local residents visit. The cemetery was vandalized during World War II, but not in the last ten years. Security, pollution, and vegetation are moderate threats, weather erosion, vandalism, and development are slight threats. Adam Penkalla, deceased, completed survey in November 1992. He used private documentation and visited the site. \|Last Updated on Sunday, 14 June 2009 13:46\|	13,677
Siebel Service Handheld Guide > Using Service Handheld > Performing the Job with Siebel Service Handheld While performing an activity, the field technician performs the following tasks: - Checks off completed steps. As the field technician completes each step in the activity, she marks the steps as done. - Takes a reading. For tasks such as taking a utility meter reading or measuring hydraulic pressure, the field technician records a reading. - Installs and replaces parts. During a visit to a customer site, the field technician often needs to install and replace parts. There are two types of parts that can be replaced: parts with and without serial numbers. From the Activities view of the Activities screen, she selects an activity. Once the activity is selected, the procedures can be performed in any order. To check off completed steps - Select an activity in the Activities list, and from the Show drop-down list, select Time. - Start tracking your time by tapping the Start button and pick a type. - From the Show drop-down list, select Procedures. - Select the first step in the Procedures list. - When you have completed the step, select Done. - Enter any comments in the Comments field. - Complete the preceding steps for any remaining steps. - When you have completed the activity, select Time from the Show drop-down list. - Tap End to record the ending time for the activity. To take a reading for a measurement - Select an activity in the Activities list. - Tap the Activity # hyperlink to drill down to the Activity detail form. - Tap on the Asset # hyperlink to drill down to the Asset detail form. - Tap on the Measurements button. - Tap on a Measurement hyperlink to drill down to a measurement. - Tap on Take Reading button to take a reading for the measurement.	236,949
Definition of lassitude in English: A state of physical or mental weariness; lack of energy: she was overcome by lassitude and retired to bed a patient complaining of lassitude and inability to concentrate More example sentences - After five weeks in combat these soldiers sunk into a state of extreme exhaustion and lassitude. - The patient may also experience lassitude, have a pale complexion, a sore low back (where the Kidney is located), pale tongue body with thin white coating, and deep slow-weak pulse. - The patient denied lassitude, dyspnea, or fever. Late Middle English: from French, from Latin lassitudo, from lassus 'tired'. Words that rhyme with lassitudecrassitude What do you find interesting about this word or phrase? Comments that don't adhere to our Community Guidelines may be moderated or removed.	288,718
Product Type: Educator Guide - Additional Resource Audience: Educators, Informal Education Grade Levels: 7-9 Publication Year: 2008 The front and back covers, description, table of contents and a table of math topics covered by these problems make up this section of Space Math II. Space Math II - Introductory Pages [9MB PDF file] This document is part of Space Math II.	39,249
In the News Updates to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders V—often called the “psychiatric bible”—will be released next year with new definitions affecting health insurance, services and much more for those diagnosed with mental health disorders. Among the proposed changes receiving the most attention is the removal of Asperger's syndrome from the list of autism spectrum disorders. In this interview for “Eight Forty-Eight,” on National Public Radio affiliate WBEZ 91.5 FM in Chicago, Steven Migalski. Psy.D., Adler School Core Faculty in Clinical Psychology and a clinical psychologist, says many of his patients with Asperger’s feel disenfranchised. As a clinician, he feels it’s his responsibility to show compassion and respect while explaining how the changes will affect their day-to-day lives. Click here to download and listen to "Does the DSM-5 stigmatize human behaviors and emotions (again)?” About the Adler School The Adler School of Professional Psychology has provided quality education through a scholar/practitioner model for more than 50 years. Its mission is to continue the pioneering work of Alfred Adler by graduating socially responsible practitioners, engaging communities, and advancing social justice. The Adler School has 13 graduate-level programs enrolling more than 1,000 students at its campuses in Chicago and Vancouver, British Columbia. Director of Communications Adler School of Professional Psychology 312-662-4124 or via email	258,575
Few equatorial nations offer relief funds for Cincinnati heat emergency KENYA - After declaring a heat emergency in the strongest possible terms, the city of Cincinnati has been disappointed by a lack of donations and sympathy from the world’s equatorial nations. “I just hope these countries know that we’re gonna remember this,” said Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory. “Emergency is a very specific word. It means we need help. I’ve actually had to slightly loosen my tie a few times while walking outside it’s been so oppressive. And I switched to drinking iced coffee only. Yet, I’ve not seen a single dime from Sudan, Kenya, Brazil, not a one of them. Next time they have a famine or a genocide or something, they’d best not come running to the Queen City for help.” Officials in Nigeria also did not respond to the City’s declaration of emergency. Although, a representative of a Nigerian bank did send a letter to the mayor letting him know that he may be entitled to a large fortune. The mayor would not comment on the letter, except to say that he will be pursuing the matter privately, so Republicans do not attempt to take any of the proceeds away from him. Response has also been underwhelming here in the United States. “We were hoping to get some support from Alabama or Georgia or Mississippi,” said health department spokesman Kenneth Simpson. “But the only call we got was from Florida, and we’re pretty sure we heard someone in the background snickering the whole time.” While city officials wait for what they hope will be an influx of help and support during this emergency, they’ve also sent requests for aid to the United Nations, the European Union, as well as Sally Struthers and Marlo Thomas. - Cranberries CD cures woman's urinary tract infection - Amazon.com ironically not catching on amongst people of the Amazon. - Local family plans annual Christmas tree hunting trip to Drug Emporium. - Taste of Ludlow Kentucky features 200 varieties of edible meth - UPLIFTING COMMUNITY MOMENT: Back of the house employees allowed to meet front of the house employees at upscale restaurant - Cincinnati Public School student showed up this week.	86,696
Former Pittsburgh Steelers player Mike Webster suffered from dementia and depression for years. The National Football League ultimately ruled that multiple concussions he received during games caused degenerative brain disease that permanently disabled him. Soldiers coming home from Iraq after receiving multiple concussions during roadside blasts have been found to be more prone to suicidal thoughts than those who never had a concussion or who had only one. In an article in the Journal of Neuroscience Nursing, a nurse writes about the depression, memory loss and slowed thinking she experienced for a year after she received a mild concussion in a car accident. A concussion was once considered no big deal. But now health care workers know better. "Add the evidence from emergency room patients together with the evidence from the NFL and the military, and it's a pretty serious problem," says Charles Vacchiano, professor of nursing. "But how do you unmask potential cognitive dysfunction after a concussion?" Many people with concussions have normal brain scans and may perform normally on cognitive tests, even though they have localized damage. Maybe practitioners could intervene sooner if there were a way to reveal hidden deficits. Vacchiano is testing a simple way to do just that. During a 26-year career in the U.S. Navy as a nurse anesthetist and director of the Biomedical Sciences Division at the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory, Vacchiano learned a lot about how the brain behaves when exposed to certain stressors. To try to uncover concussion damage, he's harnessing a condition he's very familiar with -- hypoxia, or lack of oxygen. Hypoxia can hijack cognitive function and behavior in a few short minutes, causing people to become disoriented and process things more slowly, almost as if they were drunk. An example? "This goes way back, but have you ever seen a movie called An Officer and a Gentleman?" Vacchiano says. If you're a Richard Gere fan, you'll remember the scenes of flight training in which the Gere character's friend has a meltdown after a few minutes in a low-oxygen environment. "Remember how the guy went ballistic?" Vacchiano says. "The idea is, you are exposed to a hypoxic environment, and if you can't realize what's happening, recognize the symptoms, and put your mask back on and turn on your oxygen, then you fail. You're not going to become a pilot. That's what happened to that character. He was washed out of flight training." Parts of that movie were filmed at the altitude chamber in Pensacola, Fla., where Vacchiano has conducted studies, and where he went through altitude training himself. The chamber simulates what naval pilots flying at high altitude would go through if the airplane's systems suddenly failed. "At 40,000 or 50,000 feet, if cabin pressurization or the oxygen supply fail, you only have maybe 30 seconds of consciousness to take some sort of action, or you're going to crash," Vacchiano says. "So that's why the military trains pilots to learn to recognize hypoxia." Traditionally, during this training, some of the air in the altitude chamber is sucked out, which reduces oxygen pressure in the environment and the amount of oxygen that gets into the blood. In the early 2000s, the navy expressed interest in figuring out some other way to conduct altitude training, because the reduced air pressure carries a health risk, including ruptured eardrums or the bends, which is what happens to divers who go from high-pressure to low-pressure environments too quickly. Vacchiano's naval research lab was tasked with solving this problem. As an anesthetist, he was familiar with patients who became hypoxic in the operating room. "I thought, can't we just build a machine that dilutes the amount of oxygen that you breathe in while you're sitting right here in this room, rather than taking you to altitude? Doesn't that make sense? Just use a gas-mixing device," Vacchiano says. Working with an engineer, Vacchiano developed and patented such a machine, called the reduced-oxygen breathing device (ROBD). It delivers a custom mixture of oxygen and nitrogen through a mask, simulating any type of reduced-oxygen environment desired. Wired magazine called the silver and black rectangular machine "hypoxia in a box," and that describes it pretty accurately. It's much less expensive and safer than an altitude chamber, and the navy still uses it for refresher altitude trainings. Fast forward 10 years. Retired from the Navy and conducting research and teaching in Duke's nurse anesthesia program, Vacchiano began reading in the nursing literature about the need to better manage people with concussions. He decided to make use of his invention again. A brain that harbors damage from a concussion may function normally in the short term because it has some cognitive reserve; the undamaged parts compensate. Vacchiano has launched a study using his "hypoxia in a box" to temporarily disrupt that compensation mechanism. In a small exam room in Duke Clinic, Vacchiano hands a visitor a pulse oximeter, which uses the amount of different wavelengths of light absorbed by hemoglobin pulsing under the skin to measure the amount of oxygen molecules in the blood. "Clip this on your ear and let's see if you have any oxygen in your system," says Vacchiano, upbeat even at 8 a.m. He and clinical research coordinator Patricia Patterson are preparing for the arrival of a study participant, someone who's had a concussion in the last six months. She will don a mask connected to Vacchiano's gas-mixing device, then take a computer-based cognitive test. On one visit, the participant will take the test while breathing room air, then, on a different day, take it again while breathing air that's slightly oxygen deprived -- 13 percent oxygen. The pulse oximeter confirms that the machine is achieving the intended reduction in blood oxygen saturation. Most people don't notice the difference between the different oxygen concentrations, Vacchiano says, noting that the air you normally breathe is about 21 percent oxygen, and when you're on a commercial airplane, it's reduced to about 15 to 16 percent oxygen. But Vacchiano suspects that mild hypoxia may cause people who have small areas of concussion damage to do slightly worse on the cognitive test than those without a concussion. "If the hypoxia does what it should, which is eliminate that cognitive reserve, people with a concussion will have to use that part of the brain that's been damaged, revealing hidden deficits so we can take steps to treat them," Vacchiano says. Throughout his naval career, Vacchiano's novel ideas solved problems. He's hoping he can help solve this one. "These computerized tests are available anywhere, and the setup to deliver the mild hypoxia is not particularly difficult either," he says. "If we can develop a simple test to identify those people with concussions who need treatment and get them into it early, we can prevent some long-lasting deficits." The research is funded by the Tri Service Nursing Research Program, part of the Department of Defense.	36,495
In 1997 Eliyahu Goldratt published a business novel titled Critical Chain in which he introduced a new way of scheduling and executing projects similar to the more familiar Critical Path method. Goldratt's version removes many of the estimating games that go on between managers and their staff. This results in projects that typically deliver in about 75 percent of the normal time. In this column, Clarke Ching demonstrates some of the ideas from Critical Chain and will show how to use it easily within agile projects. In practice the Critical Chain technique has been used in multi-billion-dollar and multi-year projects, but I'll demonstrate the ideas using an extremely simplified example of a small project with just one developer and one project manager. The project manager and the developer have broken down the featureset into six tasks—A, B, C, D, E, and F—which can be performed sequentially. With the tasks identified, the project manager knows how long the project should take, so she asks the developer to estimate how long it will take to complete each task. The developer looks at task A and says, "I could probably do that in one to three days, but that's only a guess. With all the interruptions that go on around here it could easily take me four to seven days. Heck, it could even take as much as eight days, maybe even more." He thinks for a bit and says, "Eight days." The developer knows that although the project manager has asked for an "estimate," which is a range, she really wants a commitment in the form of a single date. After all, her project management software only takes a single date. Let's say, for the sake of this simple example, that the developer estimates that the tasks can be completed in about 8 days. The plan will then look like this: The total duration is 6 x 8 = 48 days. It's quite likely that the some project manager will automatically chop a bit of time off the high estimates but also keep some estimates as they are—as an informal contingency. These project managers won't tell their bosses; otherwise, they'd be accused of "padding." Let's just assume this doesn't happen. Let's see how our project manager would prepare the equivalent Critical Chain plan. Having been given eight days as the "estimate," she asks the developer if eight days is a commitment-level estimate (i.e., a date to which, most of the time, the developer could commit). If not, she would ask the developer to re-estimate. Then she would tell the developer—and this is extremely important—that she only needs this estimate for her planning and that she doesn't care if the developer takes longer than eight days or less. She even promises that if she ever penalizes the developer (even if it's just with a dirty look) for taking more or less than eight days that she'll buy the entire team lunch for a week. (Maybe she even records a video of herself making that promise.) But then she does something that will scare the developer the very first time he sees it happen: She chops all of the commitment-level estimates in half, and she takes the bits she's chopped off, puts them on the end of the project plan, and calls this time a buffer.	271,673

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