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Airline rules regarding carry-on toiletries and laptop computers continue to change. Some airlines banned the batteries of certain laptops because of the risk of a midair explosion. As of this writing, rules for each were easing. But other perils threaten those who travel with electronics. If your laptop or BlackBerry acts up while on the road, you can try to sleuth the problem yourself, call a tech-savvy colleague, access your company’s IT department remotely, or see if the hotel you’re staying at has an IT person who can help. Another option is to use an online repair service. PlumChoice Online PC Services (http://www.plumchoice.com) can solve computer problems remotely by viewing your computer screen through the Internet and controlling your keyboard and mouse while you watch. To take advantage of it, of course, your computer and Internet connection can’t be completely trashed. One company that does offer rescue services to travelers whose laptops or PDAs conk out is RESCUECOM Corp. (http://www.rescuecom.com). Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Syracuse, N.Y., it has 95 franchises around the country. Those franchises are concentrated on the East Coast and in California, but it also has a fair number in the Midwest and Texas as well as other large cities. RESCUECOM provides 24/7 emergency on-site service, which you can access with a contract or without by phoning 1-800-RESCUE7. The company’s main selling proposition is its fast response time. If you request and pay for it, RESCUECOM will guarantee a 1-hour response. “Traveling can be stressful, and technology should make your trips easier, not add to that stress,” said David A. Milman, founder and CEO of RESCUECOM. The company offers general technology tips such as these to make your trip successful: If you’re working on a critical presentation and experience a computer glitch late at night, solving it quickly can mean the difference between a successful trip and a wash-out. - Check the airline’s rules. Airlines such as Virgin Atlantic, Qantas, and Korean Air banned certain Dell and Apple laptop batteries on their flights because of concerns about overheating and potential explosions. - Load up. Don’t get caught without a needed program. Particularly if yours is a company computer, make sure you have all of the programs you’ll need installed and working properly. - Power up. Fully charge your laptop before traveling. Bring all of your chargers and adapters, not only for your laptop but also for your handheld, cell phone, and other electronics you may be packing. It can be smart to have spare batteries, and make sure you charge and pack them as well. - Look for outlets. Save your battery power for when you need it. Some airplanes provide electrical outlets, accessible with an adapter. The same applies for some hotel lounges and coffee shops. - Check with your hotel. More and more hotels provide high-speed or Wi-Fi Internet access, but not all do. Visit your hotel’s Web site, or phone to confirm. - Check with your wireless phone/PDA provider. You want to make sure you’ll have voice and data access along your route. Several cellular phone providers, for instance, have come out with internationally compatible cell phones in recent years (most using the GSM standard). But many phones only work in the U.S., so you may have to rent a phone if you’re traveling abroad. - Protect your data. In case of theft, encrypting and password-protecting your sensitive files will ensure that your data is safe. Don’t conduct confidential business over a Wi-Fi connection in the airport or at your hotel because it may not be secure. One option for conducting important business through e-mail while on the road is to have your IT department or computer support consultant set up a virtual private network. - Consider a USB thumb drive. These handy little drives, about the size of your thumb, are becoming more and more popular for storing and transporting presentations and other important files. If you’ll have a laptop waiting for you at your destination, you can save space by traveling without your own. Make sure that you also encrypt and password-protect sensitive data stored on the computer. - Have fun. Movies, games, and audio books can make a long flight or an unexpected layover less stressful. - Respect others. Using noise-reducing headphones when tweaking a presentation or watching an in-flight movie will prevent you from disturbing others. Reid Goldsborough is a syndicated columnist and author of the book Straight Talk About the Information Superhighway. He can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org or http://www.reidgoldsborough.com.	137,470
Easy PHP Debugging in Ubuntu (using Xdebug and Vim) by Liam McDermott, 1 August 2007 - 11:54am A debugger helps greatly when testing or bug fixing in PHP, when working with complicated code, or fixing difficult problems: a debugger is an invaluable tool. This article shows how to set up a PHP debugger in Ubuntu (tested on both Feisty 7.04 and the upcoming Gutsy 7.10) using Xdebug and Vim. This is aimed at developers who may be good at coding but are not necessarily familiar with GNU+Linux in general, therefore everything is explained simply and step-by-step. Installing LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) Firstly open a terminal by clicking Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal. Do not be frightened of the terminal though, it is one of GNU+Linux's most powerful tools; in this case it makes working through the article easy, all the reader has to do is copy and paste from article to the terminal. Firstly select then click Edit -> Copy on the line below: sudo apt-get install apache2 php5 php5-gd mysql-server php5-mysql apache2-dev php5-dev php-pear make vim-full python2.5 Then click Edit -> Paste in the terminal. Note: when the tutorial says Copy or Paste, Ctrl-c (for copy) and Ctrl-v (for paste) can be used as well. Just as in other operating systems, middle-click also works for copy/paste operations. Press Enter and fill-in the administrator password. This will install the software required for later steps. Next open the /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini file by selecting, then clicking Edit -> Copy on the text below: gksu gedit /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini & Edit -> Paste this into the terminal and press Enter, opening a text editor. Do not do anything with this yet, return to the terminal, it will be required later. Download and Install Xdebug Select then Edit -> Copy the following: sudo pecl install xdebug-beta Then click Edit -> Paste to download and install Xdebug (the PHP debugger). This last command will spew lots of data into the terminal, in the last few lines is a note showing where Xdebug has been installed. It will look similar to: Select the /usr/lib/php5/20060613+lfs/xdebug.so part in the terminal with the cursor, then click Edit -> Copy. This line may vary for different versions of XDebug, particularly the part which is a date, if in doubt select from /usr/lib/ up to (and including) xdebug.so. Bring back the text editor opened earlier, search through the file (pressing Ctrl-f then entering ‘module settings’ works) and find the section marked: ; Module Settings ; Click the empty line beneath it (or create one) and enter: Then click Edit -> Paste to paste the location of Xdebug into the file. The zend_extension line should look similar to: Having done this press Enter afterwards to create a new line (there are more settings to be pasted into the file). Select the text below, and Edit -> Copy: ; Remote settings ; Trace options Return to the php.ini file in the text editor. Edit -> Paste beneath the zend_extension line, this should put the lines copied above into the php.ini file. Next click File -> Save, and close the text editor. Select then Edit -> Copy the following and Edit -> Paste into the terminal to restart Apache: sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart Configure Vim for PHP Debugging Now a plugin for Vim which enables PHP debugging is required . Firstly Vim needs a directory for plugins: from the main menu click Places -> Home Folder, this should open a new file browser window. From this window, click View -> Show Hidden Files and check whether a directory named .vim exists (note the full stop at the start of the directory name), if not right-click, select Create Folder (and enter ‘.vim’) to create it. Open a Web browser and go to this address: Download this script—currently named debugger.zip—to the .vim directory (hidden files can be shown in the save as box by right-clicking in the file list and selecting Show Hidden Files). From the file browser opened earlier double-click the zip file, then in the window that appears right-click the plugin directory and click Extract. Click Extract to extract the plugin to the .vim directory (check the extract file selection box has defaulted to the .vim directory before extracting, if the files are not in that directory the plugin will not work). The PHP debugging script for Vim should now be installed. To check the plugin is where it should be, navigate to the: .vim/plugin/ directory using the file browser. Inside this directory should be two files: PHP Debugger Testing To test the debugger start Vim by pressing Alt-F2 on the keyboard, type gvim in the box provided, then press Enter. Note: there is a main menu entry for Vim, but it is hidden by default. Right-click on the main menu (top-left of the screen) and click Edit Menus to rectify this. Also required is a PHP script (on the local machine). Open the script in a Web browser but add ?XDEBUG_SESSION_START=1 on the end of the URL (as usual Edit -> Copy/Paste can be used to copy/paste from this article). For example, the URL might look similar to: Press F5 in Vim, then quickly switch to the Web browser and press the Reload button. This must be done within five seconds or Vim will display an error. Don't worry if it does though, just press F5 again. When successfully debugging Vim should stop on the first line of PHP code in the file, it also shows help on how to step-over, step-into, and run etc. use that to learn the commands. The screenshot below shows Vim debugging PHP. Note: if Vim does nothing when F5 is pressed, it has not been setup correctly, check that the plugin has been installed correctly. To discuss, ask questions or comment on this article please see the Webmaster Forums discussion on debugging PHP with Xdebug and Vim on Ubuntu. - Using vim and xdebug DBGp for debugging Drupal (or any PHP application). - Debugging PHP on Ubuntu Feisty Fawn.	271,702
King Roland II is a major character in the Disney Junior series Sofia the First, voiced by Travis Willingham . He is the King of Enchancia, husband of Queen Miranda, father of Princess Amber and Prince James and stepfather of Princess Sofia. He also has an older sister named Matilda, more commonly known as Tilly. His mother is also shown to be still alive. Personality and Traits He is regal and imposing, yet kind and welcoming. He cares not for background, but rather for character, seeing as he married Miranda (a shoemaker) for true love and he was happy that Sofia accepted him as her new father. Due to his father Roland I being reportedly too busy with royal affairs, leading to him and Tilly being raised chiefly by their mother, he tries to focus his attention on his family. When Miranda and Sofia enter his life, he desires to make them feel as happy as possible, sometimes, in the case of Sofia, making Amber jealous in the process. He also has a sense of humor, when he suggested Sofia calls him "Roland" or "Hey! You with the crown!" He left "Dad" for last, as he didn't want Sofia to feel obligated to do so. Roland can be commanding and authoritative. Roland is also helpful and insightful. Recently, Roland has revealed a protective side, when Sofia was going into the "great outdoors" with her Buttercup scout troop and ordered Baileywick to accompany them and warned him that Sofia had better return without so much as a scratch (not even a single one) and disregarded Sofia and Miranda's assurances that such measures were unnecessary, given Sofia had long been a Buttercup before she became a princess. Still, he apologized to Baileywick (after the poor man had a nasty case of rashes from a poisonous flower) and also to Sofia after Baileywick told the king how Sofia took charge and showed real leadership. Roland has been shown trying to make things fair for everyone, despite name, rank, or such. One example was, raising Gwen's position from kitchen maid to royal inventor, to show his thanks for her help. He encourages his children in their endeavors and tries to share an equal amount of time with each child. He creates events for children, villager and royal, to get together and have a good time. Roland is shown to be a bit naive and clueless when it comes to magic because unlike his mother, sister, and youngest daughter he doesn't really understand it and is unaware of the magical objects and passageways in his own home. He also isn't keen when it comes to what his sister and mother really do or like. Role in the Series King Roland II first appears when Sofia and Miranda arrive at his castle to deliver him new slippers. It's love at first sight for Roland and Miranda and the couple soon marry. When Miranda and Sofia arrive at the castle, he accepts Sofia as his new daughter immedetely. To make her feel welcome, he tells her he's throwing her a Royal Ball in honor of her Royal Debut. Later, Roland overhears a coversation between Miranda and Sofia with the little girl telling her mother about her discomfort with her new life and how she doesn't want a Ball. To ease Sofia's concerns, he gives his new daughter a lovely amulet that he says is special. He also tells her about Royal Prep and how she'll learn all she needs for the Ball there. On the night of the Ball, Roland becomes one of the many victims of the sleeping spell that teaches Sofia not to mess with magic. When he wakes back up, he dances with his new daughter who calls him "Dad" instead of "Your Majesty" for the first time. He then dances with his whole family. As the King of Enchancia, Roland is a major character in the series. Roland is shown to be very mature and responsible. He takes his responsiblities as the King of Enchancia seriously to the point where he tries to teach James to follow suit. Because of this, he is hailed as the best King Enchancia has ever had. He's also kind and insightfull as shown at the Tri-Kingdom Picnic when he started playing badly on purpose to show Emperor Quon that no matter what he could have fun playing the games. This indirectly helps Sofia teach James good sportsmanship. He's also a devoted parent to his children especially Sofia. He's shown throughout the series to be much nicer and more open-minded than Amber but not as much as James and Sofia. This is because of certain flaws of his own. He shows many times throughout the series that he takes things at face value, has a tendency to jump to conculsions without even trying to get the facts first, and stubornly stick with them even when evidence to the contrary appears. The flaws have the added effect of giving him poor detective skills and making him gullible when it comes to disguises especially ones created by magic. Luckily, he has Sofia by his side to help him realize his mistakes. Roland is aware of this as shown when he tells Sofia he's lucky to have her since she's always looking after him. Roland is devoted to Sofia to the point where he's overprotective of her as shown in "The Buttercups" when he insisted that Baileywick accompany her on her hike despite Sofia and Miranda both telling him such a thing is unnessacary and in "Princesses to the Rescue!" when he agreed with Quon that the rescue mission to the Jade Jaguar's cave is too dangerous for her. In "Dads and Daughters Day" Roland shows that he has become aware of Sofia's vunerable side and the fact that she feels the need to prove herself as shown when he tells her not to take mistakes she has been making so hard. When Sofia runs off during the Sing Along, Roland goes after her and gets her to tell him what is wrong: That she sees her mistakes as confirmation that she does not belong on the Dads and Daughters field trip because she is just his stepdaughter and not his real daughter like Amber. Before Roland can make her feel better they see the rest of the group being attacked by pelicants, who knock them down a gully. When Sofia sees a picture of her in his watch, Roland tells her that just because he was not her father when she was born does not mean she is not his real daughter and that he loves her now and forever. Roland truely loves his wife and goes out of his way for her often. Princess Amber and Prince James Roland loves his twin children to the point where he finds it hard to say no to them. Roland loves his youngest child Sofia dearly. Like the rest of his family, Roland doesn't like Sofia's secrecy or when she tries to do anything all by herself and is very protective of her. - In "When You Wish Upon a Well" it is revealed that Roland is allergic to cats. - He's overprotective of his children, especially his stepdaughter Sofia. - He, like his twins, had a love of big things as a child. - Although he rides a Flying Horse coach, It is revealed in "New Genie on the Block" that Roland is afraid of riding Magic Carpets. - Roland did not pay attention in Professor Popov's dance class. As a result, he is not a very good dancer, accidentally stepping on Sofia's toes at her debut ball.	199,150
- In 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) created a new classification category for objects in solar system called ‘Dwarf Planets’. - A dwarf planet is a celestial body that: - Orbits the sun - Has enough mass to assume a nearly round shape - Has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit - Is not a moon - IAU recognised five dwarf planets in our solar system. They are (1) Eris (2) Ceres (3) Pluto (4) Makemake and (5) Haumea. - Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930. - It was long considered the smallest and ninth planet in our solar system. - After the discovery of similar planets in Kuiper Belt, Pluto was expelled from planets and reclassified as dwarf planet in 2006. - Pluto takes 248 years for revolution and 156 hours for rotation. - Pluto has a thin atmosphere of nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide. - The five known satellites of Pluto are Charon, Hydra, Nix, Kerberos and Styx. - The largest satellite, Charon, is so big that Pluto and Charon orbit each other like a double planet. - NASA launched first mission to Pluto named New Horizons in 2006 which passed close by in July 2015. - The name ‘Pluto’ was suggested by a 11 year old girl Venetia Burney of England. It is named after Roman God of underworld. - Eris is the second largest dwarf planet in the solar system. - It evolves around the sun beyond Pluto. - It was discovered by Mike Brown in 2005. - Dysnomia is the satellite of Eris. - Ceres is the only dwarf planet in the solar system located in the inner solar system (between Mars and Jupiter) - Ceres is also an asteroid and the largest object in the asteroid belt. It is now classified as a dwarf Planet. - While it is the smallest of the known dwarf planets, it is the largest object in the asteroid belt. - Ceres is named for the Roman goddess of corn and harvests. - Guiseppe Piazzi discovered the first and the largest asteroid Ceres, orbiting Mars and Jupiter. - ‘Dawn’ spacecraft of NASA was launched in 2007 to study about Ceres and Vesta, another object in asteroid belt. When Dawn arrived in 2015, Ceres became the first dwarf planet to receive a visit from a spacecraft. - It is the only dwarf planet with no satellites. - Makemake is the largest object in Kuiper Belt. - It was discovered in 2005 by a team led by Michael E. Brown. - The name was adopted from the mythology of Rapa Nui people of Easter Island. - Haumea is about one third mass of Pluto and was discovered in 2004. - It is the least spherical of all the dwarf planets. - It is named after Hawaiian Goddess of childbirth. - It is the third brightest object in the Kuiper belt, after the dwarf planets Pluto and Makemake. Haumea has a ring around it. - Haumea also has two moons named Hi’iaka and Namaka. DO YOU KNOW? As of now, there are five artificial objects achieved the escape velocity that will allow them to leave the Solar System. These are Voyager-1, Voyager-2, New Horizons, Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11. Voyager 1 was the first human-made object to leave our Solar System when it crossed into interstellar space in 2012. Voyager also made it to interstellar space in 2018. New Horizons is are still active and will eventually transition to the space between the stars. Pioneers 10 and 11 also have reached escape velocity, but both spacecraft have been inactive for many years. Voyager -1 is the first space craft to leave solar system to reach interstellar space in 2012. It was launched in September 1977, flew past Jupiter in 1979 and Saturn in 1980, making a special close approach to Saturn’s moon Titan. The probe passed the heliosphere (the area of influence of sun) on 25 August 2012 to enter interstellar space and is still active. Voyager-2 is the only spacecraft to study all the four outer planets of solar system at close range. It was launched in August 1977, flew past Jupiter in 1979, Saturn in 1981, Uranus in 1986, and Neptune in 1989. Voyager 2 left solar system and entered interstellar space on December 2018, making it second human made object to do so. New Horizons: The Primary mission of this spacecraft was to study Pluto and a secondary mission to fly by and study one or more other Kuiper belt objects (KBOs). Launched in 2006, the probe flew past Jupiter in 2007 and Pluto on 14 July 2015. It is currently headed towards a Kuiper belt object (486958) 2014 MU69 (nick named Ultima Thule). The flyby will occur in January 2019, which will make it the farthest object in the Solar System ever to be visited by a spacecraft. WHAT IS KUIPER BELT ? Also known as Kuiper – Edgeworth Belt, it is a disk-shaped region in the outer solar system, extending from the orbit of Neptune to around 50 Astronomical Unit from the sun. This region consists of bits of rock and ice, comets, and dwarf planets. These are also called Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs). The Kuiper Belt is named after a scientist named Gerard Kuiper. In 1951 he proposed the idea that a belt of icy bodies might have existed beyond Neptune when the solar system formed. The dwarf planets Pluto, Makemake, Eris and Haumea are found in this region. Several dwarf planets within the Kuiper Belt have moons. The first mission to explore the Kuiper Belt is New Horizons. It flew past Pluto in 2015. In 2018, a dwarf planet nicknamed the Goblin has been discovered well beyond Pluto. It is officially known as 2015 TG387 by the International Astronomical Union. Sedna and 2012 VP113 are the two other dwarf planets discovered recently. Astronomers are searching for a possible planet that is suspected to be in orbit far beyond Pluto that might explain the strange orbits of several Kuiper Belt Objects. It is given the nickname Planet 9 or Planet X. The Oort Cloud is a theorised shell of icy objects that lie beyond the Kuiper Belt, in the outermost reaches of the solar system. It is a predicted, but undiscovered region of space. It is named after astronomer Jan Oort, who first theorised its existence. The Oort Cloud is roughly spherical. Objects in the Oort Cloud are also referred to as Trans-Neptunian objects. This name also applies to objects in the Kuiper Belt. Astronomers think that long-period comets (which take more than 200 years to orbit the Sun) have their origins in the Oort Cloud. Also the most short-period comets (which take 200 years or less to orbit the sun) have their origins in the Kuiper Belt. - Asteroids are small rocky celestial bodies revolving around the sun in elliptical orbit. Most of the asteroids are found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. - Asteroids do not have rings. - The largest asteroid is Ceres, which has a diameter of about 1000 km. It was discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi. It is now classified as Dwarf Planet. - Ceres encompasses over one-third of the estimated total mass of all the asteroids in the asteroid belt. - Asteroids that pass close to Earth are called Near-Earth Objects, or NEOs. - The first discovery of an asteroid-moon system was of asteroid Ida and its moon Dactyl in 1993. - Galileo was the spacecraft that visited two asteroids – Gaspra in 1991 and Ida in 1993. - Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR – Shoemaker) mission studied asteroids Mathilde and Eros. - The Rosetta mission encountered Steins in 2008 and Lutetia in 2010. - Dawn spacecraft of NASA was launched in 2007. It orbited and explored the asteroid Vesta for over one year and then headed towards Ceres, another asteroid and a dwarf planet. Dawn entered the orbit of Ceres on 23 April 2015. It was the first mission to explore a dwarf planet. Dawn is the first spacecraft to orbit two extraterrestrial bodies. It was retired on 1 November 2018. - In 2003, Japanese robotic spacecraft Hayabusa landed on near-Earth asteroid Itokawa. On June 3, 2010, Hayabusa successfully returned to Earth with a small amount of asteroid dust now being studied by scientists. - The spacecraft Hayabusa2 of Japan landed two robotic rovers, collectively named MINERVA II1 on the surface of the asteroid Rygu on Spetember 21, 2018. MINERVA-II1 is world’s first rover to land on the surface of an asteroid. - Natural satellites are celestial bodies that orbit a planet or a minor planet. - Natural satellites are sometime referred to as ‘moons’. - There are more than 150 known moons in our solar system and several more awaiting confirmation of discovery. - Johannes Kepler was the first person to use the term ‘satellite’. - They are generally solid bodies and few have atmospheres. - Out of 8 planets in solar system, six have their own satellites. - Mercury and Venus does not have any satellites. Earth has one satellite and Mars has two. Jovian planets have numerous satellites. - Jupiter has most number of satellites (67) Saturn has second highest number of satellites (62) - Ganymede is the largest satellite in solar system. It is the satellite of Jupiter. - Titan, the satellite of Saturn is the second largest satellite in solar system. It was discovered by Christian Huygens (1655). - Titan is the only satellite in the solar system with an atmosphere of its own. Nitrogen is the main component in Titan’s atmosphere. - The satellites of Saturn are named after Greek mythical characters. - The satellites of Uranus are named after characters created by William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope. - The largest satellite of Neptune is Triton. It revolves around Neptune in the opposite direction. - Charon is the largest satellite of Pluto. \|PLANETS\|\|NO. OF SATELLITES\|\|MAJOR SATELLITES\| \|Jupiter\|\|67 (12 more discovered, making it 79)\|\|Ganymede, Io, Europa, Callisto, Himalia Lysithea, Thebe, Elara\| \|Saturn\|\|62\|\|Titan, Prometheus, Pandora, Atlas, Helan, Thethys Phoebe\| \|Uranus\|\|27\|\|Umbriel, Miranda, Ariel, Titania, ophelia,Oberon\| \|Neptune\|\|14\|\|Triton, Nereid, Proteus, Larissa, Despina, Thalassa\| - Moon is the only natural satellite of the Earth. - It is fifth largest satellite in solar system and has a size of about 27% of the earth - Over 59% of Moon’s surface is visible from the earth. - The study of moon is called Selenology. - The highest point on the surface of moon is Mount Leibnitz (35000 ft), situated on the south pole of the moon - The volume of moon is only 2% of volume of earth and the mass of moon is 1.2% of that of earth - The escape velocity from the surface of moon is 2.376 km/sec. - The period of rotation and revolution of moon are almost same, meaning the same side is always taking the earth. - The force due to gravity at the surface of moon is only about one sixth of that on Earth (If an object weigh 60 kg on the surface of earth, it will weigh only 10 kg at the lunar surface. - The sky always appears black in moon due to the absence of atmosphere. No sound can be heard on the surface of moon and is unprotected from meteorites and solar winds. - Most abundant elements found on lunar surface are Oxygen, Silicon, Iron, Magnesium, Calcium and Titanium. - Ilmenite, the ore of titanium is found abundantly on the surface of moon. - The light will reach from moon to earth in 1.3 seconds. - The moon has a very thin and tenuous (weak) atmosphere, called an exosphere. - More than 100 spacecrafts have been launched to explore the moon. It is the only celestial body beyond Earth that has been visited by human beings. - The first space craft to reach the surface of moon was Luna – 2 (Russia). It is the first man-made object to land on another celestial body. - The first spacecraft to orbit the moon successfully was Luna -10 (the first artificial satellite of moon). - Apollo 11 mission of NASA carried three astronauts to moon in 1969. It was launched by Saturn V rocket from Kennedy space station, Florida. - Twelve human beings have walked on the surface of the moon. - Neil Armstrong was the first astronaut to land on the moon. He was followed by Edwin Aldrin. - Neil Armstrong described this as: “one small step for a man, a giant leap for mankind”. - The lunar module which they used to land on the moon was called Eagle. They landed on an area called ‘Sea of Tranquility’. - Eugene Cernan was the last man to have walked on Moon (1972). - Distance from Earth 384400 km - Orbital Velocity 3680.5 km/h - Density 3.344 g/cm3 - Diameter 3475 km - Mass 7.35 × 1022 kg - Circumference 11000 km - Maximum distance from earth (Apogee) 406000 km - Minimum distance from Earth (Perigee) 364000 km - Government of India approved ISRO’s proposal for the first Indian Moon Mission, called Chandrayaan-1 in November 2003. - Chandrayaan-1, India’s first mission to Moon, was launched successfully on October 22, 2008 from Sathish Dhavan Space Centre, Sriharikota. - The rocket used to launch Chandrayan-1 was PSLV C-11. Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram designed and developed PSLV-C11. - The spacecraft was orbiting around the Moon at a height of 100 km from the lunar surface - The spacecraft carried 11 scientific instruments built in India, USA, UK, Germany, Sweden and Bulgaria. - The payload (instrument) in Chandrayaan spacecraft that separated from it and hit on the surface of moon was Moon Impact Probe (MIP). Moon Impact Probe landed on Shackleton crater on the South Pole of Moon . - The payload in Chandrayaan spacecraft that detected the presence of water in lunar surface was Moon Mineralogy Mapper. - ISRO Chairman at the time of Chandrayaan launching was G. Madhavan Nair. - The mission was concluded when the communication with the spacecraft was lost on August 29, 2009 - ISRO is planning to launch Chandrayaan – 2, the country’s second mission to moon. It is expected to launch before October 2018. - The total cost of the Chandrayaan – 2 Mission will be about Rs 800 crore. Lunar Mare (singular: lunar maria) are large, dark plains on the surface of the moon. These basaltic plains are formed as the result of volcanic eruptions in the ancient period. Sea of Tranquility, Ocean of Storms etc. are some of the lunar mare. - The first artificial satellite in the world – Sputnik I (4th October 1957) - Sputnik I was launched by – Russia - The first animal sent to space – The dog name ‘Leika’ - The first man in space – Yuri Gagarin (Russia) - The spacecraft in which Yuri Gagarin travelled – Vostok – 1 - Yuri Gagarin went to space on – 12thApril 1961 - The person who was known as ‘Columbus of the space’ – Yuri Gagarin - The first woman in space – Valentina Tereshkova (Russia, 1963) - The first American space traveler – Alan Shepard - The first American woman in space – Sally K Ride - The oldest man in space – John Glenn (77 years) [He died on December 8, 2016) - The first person to walk in space – Alexi Leonov (USSR, 1965) - The first woman to walk in space – Svetlana Savitskaya - The first Indian in space – Rakesh Sharma (1984 – Soyuz T11)(138th space traveler in the world) - The space agency of America – NASA - The year in which NASA was established – 1958 - The rocket launching station of NASA – Cape Canaveral - The first satellite of America – Explorer – I - The first space station in the world – Salyut – I (Russia) - The first space shuttle in the world – Colombia (USA) - The first woman of Indian origin in space is – Kalpana Chawla (1997) - “The whole universe is my Native Land” words of – Kalpana Chawla - Kalpana Chawla was killed in the space shuttle Columbia disaster on – 1st February 2003 - The first Indian satellite to study about weather – Metsat (2002) - The Metsat was renamed as – Kalpana I - The second woman of Indian origin in space is – Sunitha Williams - The woman who holds the record of maximum number of space walks (8) – Peggy Whitson [Peggy Whitson breaks Sunitha Williams record of maximum number of space walks (7)] - The oldest woman to reach space Peggy Whitson (56 years, NASA) - First marathon in space was run by Sunitha Williams - Japan’s communication satellite launched by space X þ JCSAT 14 - The largest space station in the world – International Space Station - World’s largest radio telescope – FAST (Five hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope), China - The robotic spacecraft of NASA to be launched in 2020 to perform in – orbit satellite servicing in low Earth orbit – Restore L. Mission \|List of Space Agencies\| \|NASA\|\|National Aeronautics and Space Administration\|\|USA\| \|ROSCOSMOS\|\|Russian Federal Space Agency\|\|Russia\| \|ESA\|\|European Space Agency\|\|EU\| \|CNES\|\|French Space Agency\|\|France\| \|JAXA\|\|Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency\|\|Japan\| \|DLR\|\|German Aerospace Centre\|\|Germany\| \|ISRO\|\|Indian Space Research Organization\|\|India\| \|CNSA\|\|China National Space Administration\|\|China\| \|ASI\|\|Italian Space Agency\|\|Italy\| \|ISA\|\|Iranian Space Agency\|\|Iran\| \|UKSA\|\|UK Space Agency\|\|United Kingdom\| \|SUPARCO\|\|Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission\|\|Pakistan\|	226,389
Fort Pulaski National Monument offers visitors the chance to experience many interesting and exciting activities year-round. Fort Pulaski itself is a large-scale outdoor exhibit. The main structure, together with outlying works including demilune, drawbridges, ditches, and dikes, is a fine example of historic military architecture. Indoor exhibits highlight the history of Fort Pulaski from the fort's construction, to its eventual fall due to advancing military technology. Click on the links at left to learn more about the activities Fort Pulaski offers the entire family.	48,757
You will study the foundations of macroeconomics. Your studies will include an introduction to the economic principles of scarcity, opportunity costs, demand and supply, and comparative market structures. You will then focus on learning about the major macroeconomic elements impacting our economy. This includes Gross Domestic Product, unemployment and inflation, government spending and taxation, the Canadian banking system, foreign trade and other key macroeconomic variables. Saskatchewan Polytechnic reserves the right to revise or cancel programs or make other changes as Saskatchewan Polytechnic deems necessary at any time. INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS: At this time, international program students are unable to register online for Flexible Learning courses. Please see your Program Head to discuss your academic needs. International student tuition rates and fees will apply.	11
Have a question that we haven't answered? Contact Us! What is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu? Brazilian jiu jitsu is a grappling-based martial art whose central theme is the skill of controlling a resisting opponent in ways that force him or her to submit. Due to the fact that control is generally easier on the ground than in a standing position, much of the technique of Brazilian jiu jitsu is centered around the skill of taking an opponent down to the ground and maneuvering for dominant control positions from where the opponent can be rendered harmless or submitted. If you have seen a UFC or MMA fight, it is what is happening when the fight is taken to the ground. What should I expect for my first class? Stepping through the doors is one of the hardest parts of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Once you step inside the gym, take off your shoes, as we don't allow outside footwear on the mats. You should be greeted by one of the instructors or students. From there, you can get changed into shorts and a t-shirt or a gi and will be asked to join the rest of the team on the mat area. Our Kids and Fundamental classes follow the same format. We spend 15 minutes warming up with drills and exercises that help with your fundamental movement in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and ensure your muscles are loose. We then spend 45 minutes going over the technique of the day with time to drill each aspect of the technique. We then spend the remaining 15 minutes doing development drills to enforce the technique we learned with increasing resistance from our partners. For kids, we also play games that help with the fundamentals of BJJ which are fun and challenging for all ages. For advanced class, we follow the same structure as above but increase the class time by 30 minutes. These 30 minutes are used for positional sparring and full rolling. What is 'Rolling'? Rolling is another word for sparring. We use this time to use all the techniques we have learned with the goal of controlling and submitting your partner. Partners can 'tap' on the ground, on their partners, say the word "tap" or all 3 at once to instantly stop the rolling session. Your goal in rolling is to control your opponent and use techniques that apply leverage on their body that forces the partner to admit defeat by tapping or essentially making them say 'uncle' or 'mercy' like when we play wrestled as kids. Because we are a team, our partner's safety should always be the top priority when rolling. We roll to learn, not to win. Do I have to Roll? Can I choose who I roll with? In kids and fundamentals class, we do not focus on rolling but do focus on drills that take you through the techniques. Ultimately it is your decision if you want to roll and who you want to roll with. The goal is for you to become comfortable enough that you can roll with anyone. If you are concerned, talk to the instructor and they will partner you with a more advanced partner who can show you the correct movements without worrying about getting hurt. Do I need to be fit or have martial arts experience before attending a class? Not at all. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu will help you get fit and our fundamental and kids programs allows new students to start at anytime throughout the curriculum with no previous knowledge needed to attend. Can I try a class before I sign up? Yes, in fact, you can try a whole week of classes before you sign up. While everyone can do BJJ, it definitely isn't for everyone and we want to ensure everyone can try it and make an educated decision on if they like it or not before having to even think about paying money for classes. Do women train Brazilian Jiu Jitsu? Absolutely! BJJ is for everyone. We work hard to create a non-intimidating environment for all genders, ages, races and sexualities. So long as you bring a positive attitude to the team, we are happy to roll with everyone. Will I get hurt? While in Japanese, 'Jiu Jitsu' translates to 'the gentle art', it is still a physical sport and there are possibilities of being injured. At Rossland BJJ, we strive for a safe environment that focuses on using correct technique and leverage over force which minimizes potential injuries. BJJ is a unique martial art in that you can train realistically, using near maximum force, without hurting your training partners. What is a Gi? Do I need to wear one? A gi is the traditional robe that is worn during class. Our kids class and fundamentals program focuses on techniques that work anywhere so you don't have to wear a gi to these classes. For our advanced classes, we focus on both self-defence and sport techniques which include the use of the gi. It is recommended to purchase a gi and a belt in order for you to gain the full understanding of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. You will need a gi and a belt to receive promotions on your Jiu Jitsu Journey. What are Belts? Jiu-Jitsu uses a color system adopted from the Judo belt system to signify the level of knowledge of a BJJ practitioner. Each colour belt also has four stripes which measure progress through a particular rank. - White – all beginners start at white belt – you have to start somewhere, right? - Blue – a blue belt should have a firm grasp on the fundamentals and has usually trained for about two years. - Purple – at this level BJJ practitioners should be starting to use pure leverage rather than force. You can teach other students at this level. - Brown – brown belts have a skillful, precise, practiced, and proficient understanding of the sport. - Black – a black belt denotes an expert level of knowledge in BJJ. Should I wash my Gi? Yes! You should wash any gear that you used after every practice. Because this is a sport where our bodies touch it is important to wash your gear and yourself to stop potential bacterial infections such as staph or ring worm. Gis can shrink when put in the dryer, so ideally hang dry the gi for best results. How often do you clean the mats? At Rossland BJJ, we take pride in offering a clean environment to train in. Our mats are swept, vacuumed and mopped twice a day, everyday that we have classes. The mats are first swept, sweeping all dust and debris off the training surface. The collected dust and debris is then vacuumed and finally the mats are mopped using an athletic surface disinfectant that is effective against a broad spectrum of bacteria, is virucidal* including staph, ring worm, HIV-1, HCV & HBV and inhibits the growth of mold and mildew and their odors.	55,975
With Australia experiencing one of its worst droughts in history, many households need another supply of water for everyday use whilst stringent water restrictions are in place. Rain water tanks are a simple and effective solution to collect and store rain water which is typically run off from drainage gutters from the home, or garage, roof. Simple activities like supplying your garden with fresh water and flushing your toilet are now made so much easier with the ability to use and maintain your own water supply. There are many benefits for using a rain water tank and they are no longer the eyesore they once were, making them an important addition to any existing or new home. Rain water tanks are available in slimline, round, underground, aboveground models just to name a few and, are now more readily available to be used in urban properties with their new sizing and shape designs and colours. Benefits of using rain water tanks include: - They can be connected to your taps and hoses to be used to water your plants, wash your car and to top up your pool during water restriction periods. - They can be used for indoor applications such as the toilet and washing machine. This will need to be connected, by a qualified plumber, to your mains water supply and fitted with a backflow prevention device so as not to contaminate your water supply. - They can reduce your water bill by using the harvested water from your tank on high consumption activities such as washing the car and watering the garden. - They can lower your impact on the environment by reducing the amount of mains water you use. - They can reduce your storm water drainage run off and reuse it in an environmentally friendly way. Please be mindful, using water from your rain water tank as drinking water is not recommended. Furthermore, be sure to check with your local council about their rules and regulations on installing and using your rain water tank.	173,171
West Des Moines police are investigating three reported attempted child abductions over just two weeks. And in all three cases, the descriptions of the alleged abductors are different. Nine-year-old Rozalynn Downey and her little sister Kaileigh know exactly what to do if someone tries to get them to get into a car. “I will run,” seven year old Kaileigh says. “[Then] hide where no one can find me.” Since the beginning of the month three children, two 11-year-olds and a 10-year-old, have reported someone may have tried to abduct them. Police say, in each case, the children gave different descriptions of the person that allegedly tried to abduct them. “So we don’t think they’re connected but we are concerned about the frequency for this short amount of time.” says Sergeant Ken O’Brien with the West Des Moines Police. Police say it’s is a good time to talk with your children about how to deal with strangers. First, tell children to use the buddy system – avoid walking anywhere alone. Second, tell your children if someone is following you try to remember the license plate of his or her vehicle and immediately tell a trusted adult. Finally, trust your instincts – if you feel you are being followed or something is not right, seek help immediately. “If an adult approaches a child and asks them to either go somewhere or do some things they need to get away. Just get away and go to a safe place,” Sgt. O’Brien says.	297,926
\| Image courtesy John Rozum.\| In the 1960s, one of the most famous Rutgers alumni was the cartoon character Mr. Quincy Magoo. For years, the university wondered why. Had Quincy Magoo's creators or actor Jim Backus, the "voice" of Mr. Magoo, attended Rutgers? The answer turned out to be neither. Mr. Magoo went to Rutgers simply because—according to a Hollywood informant—his creators wanted him to be "a college alumnus who was still fired up with the old school spirit [and they felt] Rutgers was the embodiment of the 'old school tie' in America." For more from Rutgers Magazine on Mr. Magoo, click here.	240,282
Apr 7, 2016 = Day 0. Plants started from seed (Park Seed Co.). Seeds sowed in 1.5-inch rockwool cube in 2-inch net-pot. Moistened with dilute fertilizer solution: 1.2 mL (1/4 tsp) Dyna-Gro Liquid Grow, 0.8 mL pH Down per gallon of tap water. N-P-K (in ppm): 22-12-13. pH = 6.0. Apr 10 = Day 3. Plant germinated, placed directly under a fluorescent light (2 ft. T8 bulb, 17W, 6500k) for 16 hours per day. Apr 19 = Day 12. Installed plant into 5-gallon bucket. Hydroponic solution composed of 5 gal (18.9 L) tap water, 10 g MasterBlend 4-18-38, 10 g calcium nitrate, 5 g magnesium sulfate, 1 mL Dyna-Gro Pro-TeKt, 5 mL pH Down. N-P-K (in ppm): 103-41-168. pH = 6.0. Plants moved to indoor grow room, receiving 9 hours LED grow light per day, plus 3 hours sunlight per day. May 13 = Day 36. The Dragon’s Tongue arugula plant was originally residing in the same container as some mustard plants. However, the mustard plants are growing much faster than the arugula, which is causing the fluid level in the container to drop too quickly, which could be stunting further growth of the arugula. Therefore, the arugula needs to be moved to its own container to have success. The plant was moved to a 1-gallon plastic container, containing 14 cups (3.3 L) fresh hydroponic fluid as described above. May 28 = Day 51. Plant is still not growing well. Harvested all leaves.	125,781
Earlier this year, I shared a mantra I’ve been using that revolved around learning, growing, and staying curious. It really helps to look on that and remind me to keep moving forward. Lately, I’ve been working on a new, much shorter mantra to help me with my problem of people pleasing. I’m really hard on myself when it comes to pleasing other people. I want to be helpful. I want to support others. I want to show other people that I care about them and love them. And the way to do that is to make them happy, right? Sometimes this manifests itself in the form of volunteering too much, or not saying no when I probably should. But the harshest form of people pleasing for me are the critical people in my life. You know those people who always seem to have these expectations for you that you never seem to meet? Or the ones who constantly feel the need to one-up you? The ones who constantly move the finish line on how they think you should live your life or express your love or care for them? The “you don’t truly care for me unless you…” kind of people, whether they say this exactly or their actions speak this to you in some way. They feed into my insecurities, make me feel like I’m not enough and they have it all together. And it’s easy for me to believe the lie, to tell myself that their critiques are really improving me, pushing me to strive for better. But that’s not actually the reality. And it doesn’t even have to be a legitimate person, the voice in my head gives me more criticism than all my people critics could combine. So, here’s the mantra that I’ve been telling myself when the critical speak rears its head at me. I had a professor in college who once said at the beginning of the semester. “When you turn in a paper or take a test, don’t tell me that you could have done better. In that situation, with your resources and distractions, you did the best you could.” At first, I thought he just didn’t want to hear whining or complaining, but really, he was giving us the freedom to grow and learn. I don’t talk to myself the way I talk to a friend. I don’t give myself the grace and space that I give my friends. And I need to start being a good friend to myself. I mean, if I knew someone who had lost three babies, deals with bouts of anxiety and depression, and still gets up in the morning and tries her hardest to make other people happy. I would think she is a rock star. Sure, she has imperfections. Sure, she loses her temper or her patience or both. Sure she has her cranky days. But I would tell her she isn’t defined by her good or her bad, but by her God. I don’t have everything figured out. I’m still learning and growing as a person. Hence, the mantra I tell myself every morning. Today, in this situation, with the resources, and talents and knowledge I have, with all of the distractions and criticisms and anxieties and depressions I will sift through today, I am doing the best I can. And that is true for my friends, my critics, and for you. In whatever situation you find yourself in today, give yourself grace and space and just do the best you can. And whatever we can’t do, God will handle.	68,270
Jesse Willms: Don’t Forget To Honour Remembrance Day Posted by Jesse Willms on November 02, 2010 Remembrance Day, November 11, is just around the corner. I know that for a lot of people Remembrance Day is simply a day off of work to spend time with your family and friends. But, it really should be more than that. Remembrance Day was created to honour the men and women who have served this country in our armed forces. Many of them paid the ultimate price in battle in order for us to live in our great free society. Setting aside one day a year to remember them and thank them for their service doesn’t seem like a lot to ask. So, I hope you will keep them in your hearts and minds. I know I will. In fact, in their honour I have just made a $1,000 donation to the Greater Edmonton Poppy Fund. The Poppy Fund is administered by the Royal Canadian Legion to assist veterans and their dependents. It provides dental and eye care, medical equipment, prescriptions, shelter, clothing and other assistance for those who need it. What I like about this fund is that the money goes directly to helping people in our Edmonton community. The people who benefit from the Poppy Fund are our local friends and neighbours who have sacrificed themselves for our country. It seems to me like the least we can do is offer them a helping hand when they need it. After all, they took a stand to help protect our way of life and literally put their lives on the line for us. That’s why I’m happy to use this November as a time to start my partnership with the Greater Edmonton Poppy Fund. In addition, on Remembrance Day itself I’m going to head down to the ceremony at the University Pavilion and lay down a wreath in honour of our departed service men and women. I’m happy to do so. This is all part of my long-term effort to find ways to help people in the Edmonton community live better lives. I have always believed that our primary responsibility as human beings is to be good neighbours. That’s why I’ve supported World Vision, the Bissell Centre, Santas Anonymous, The Mustard Seed and Habitat For Humanity. I also encourage you to find out what you can do on Remembrance Day to show your support for our troops. If you can’t give money, I understand. Simply telling other people about the Greater Edmonton Poppy Fund helps spread the word and makes it easier for them to get their job done. UPDATE (Nov 13/2010): Here are some photos from the ceremony at the Butterdome.	189,056
Extract from Glasgow And Its Clubs; (1857) by John Strang LL.D. Mr John Dunlop was the younger brother of Mr Dunlop of Garnkirk. He was originally a merchant in Glasgow, and attained the dignity of Lord Provost of the City He was afterwards appointed Collector at Borrowstounness. and ultimately Collector of Customs at Port-Glasgow, where he died He was a man of sound sense, considerable wit and humour sang beautifully, and possessed in fact every qualification calculated to render him a delightful social companion He had a considerable talent for versification and contributed many gems to what may be called the theatre of mortality. Among these are two given in the "Cottness Collections," printed by the Maitland Club, the first Intended for a tablet, designed by Lady Frances Stewart for that connubial arbour at Coltness, which was the favourite retreat of her husband and herself in the bright days of their early love, and again in the mellow calm of their declining years, and the second the appropriate and feeling tribute to the memory of Lady Frances herself, the last of which appeared in a privately-circulated collection of similar effusions, by the same author As a fair specimen of his elegiac powers, we give the latter ;— For beauty and for youth let others weep, Laid by the hand of death in life's last sleep. Their fate lament, their merits blazon o'er, Lost to the work) that ne'er shall see them more. Tho' neither youth nor beauty slumbers here Yet age and virtue claim the parting tear A tear to grace the spot where wisdom lies, Wit without malice, truth without disguise Here rests religion, void of vain pretence, Founded on reason and matured by sense With every Christian attribute adorr'd, By all who knew, who felt its Influence, mourn'd. Blest be the heart that heaves the generous sigh, Sacred the drop that springs from sorrow's eye, Yet reason shall our selfish grief restrain. And check the tear that now must flow In vain Far, far removed from sorrow's sighs and tears. Thy holy spirit dwells in heavenly spheres, Welcomed by angels to their high abode Pure as themselves, and reconciled to God." Mr Dunlop did not confine himself altogether to epitaphs, but at times indulged in the gayer music of the lyre. Among the many lyrics which he penned, we may merely mention the well-known songs of "Here's a health to the year that's awa'," and "Dinna ask me gin I lo'e ye?" both of which still keep their place among the most popular songs of the day On talking lately to my venerable trend Principal Macfarlan, respecting Mr Dunlop, with whom he was acquainted, he mentioned that at the first meeting of the Sons of the Clergy which the Principal attended, which was in 1795, Mr Dunlop sat as being then the Provost of Glasgow, on the tight hand of the Chairman, Dr Porteous, and showed himself well worthy of holding that distinguished office. It may be stated that Mr Dunlop was father of the well-known Sheriff of Renfrewshire whose work on 'The History of Fiction" justly gained for its author the highest credit and reputation.	189,724
Jock Itch (cont.) What causes jock itch? Comment on this Causes of jock itch include the following: - Moisture, warmth, and skin friction in the groin folds - Tight, occlusive clothing and undergarments that trap in sweat - Infections caused by fungus and yeasts: Candida (yeast), Trichophyton, and Epidermophyton (fungal molds) - Infections by bacteria Generally, diet does not seem to affect jock itch.	39,196
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia - In entomology, a group of tipularian or nemocerous dipterous insects, the larvæ of which have usually a well-differentiated head. - n. In ornithology, a genus of humming-birds, so called from the beauty of the head. E. grayi is a fine Ecuadorian species, with blue head and golden-green body. Sorry, no etymologies found. Sorry, no example sentences found.	73,530
Weird, Grouse Foods I always love experimenting new recipes. So I searched in the internet various kinds of food that I could prepare for my family or my friends. And I have discovered weird and strange cuisine, and some looks so grouse. But I still want to try these kind of dishes. 1)Kinilaw na Isda (Spicy Raw Fish) Philippines Wash the tangige (be sure it is fresh), then cubed the fish meat, season with chopped ginger, red onion, red chili, and calamansi or lemon juice. Add vinegar and season with salt and dash of pepper. This is optional. May add cucumber cubes or radish. Burong Nasi and Ningnang Bulig , Pampanga, Philippines Burong Nasi (fermented rice for a week with combined raw tilapia or mudfish) that’s why it smells stinky. Ningnang Bulig (grilled mudfish) and usually served with boiled eggplant, bittermelon (Ampalaya or amargoso) and fresh mustasa leaves. 2) Sea Cucumber Most sea cucumbers are found at the bottom of the sea-sandy floor. Sea cucumbers are slimmy but a delicacy in some parts of the Philppines, Japan, Korea and China. In the Philippines, they clean the sea cucumber, remove the inner organs and blanch with hot water. After few minutes, slice the “balat” or sea cucumber, and prepare for kinilaw or adobo. 3) Gooey Duck or Geoduck Geoduck or Gooey duck, are part of aquatic mollusk and have 3 kinds of gooey duck: the Gastropoda, Cepalopoda and Bivalvia commonly found in saltwaters. Geoducks are the larger form any clam family, that dig deeper into the sand, but because of long siphon you can pull them out from the mound of sand. 4) Sharks Fin Soup Shark fin’s soup is a luxurious cuisine in China, and believed that eating this soup enhances hormones to human body. This soup comes from various kind of shark’s fin. The skin and fins are removed and trim in in shape before drying the fins and skin sharks, using hydrogen peroxide. Buddha Jumps over the Wall or Fo Fiao Qiang, a variety of shark fin’s stew, delicacy in Canton and Fujian cuisine. Prepared of non vegetarian ingredients, and prepared in two days. Recipes include sea cucumbers, abalone, scallops, shark fins, quail eggs, chicken, Jinhua ham, ginseng, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, taro and pork tendon, with 12 condiments and 30 ingredients. 5) Pig Bloods Cake, Taiwan Pig’s blood or Ti-Hoe-Koe, is prepared with sticky rice. The pork blood will become solid and coat with peanut powder and cilantro for aromatic result. Then dip the blood cake into prepared dipping chili sauce. A delicacy, Korean Spicy blood sausages. Morcilla Cocida or Spanish blood sausage, a delicious spicy sausage famous in Spain and Latin America. The deboned whole chicken, stuff inside the duck, and thee deboned whole duck, and stuffed inside the whole turkey. The chicken is stuff with mixture of breadcrumbs and meat of sausage. Can be braised, grilling or barbecue and roasting. They serve during Thanksgiving day. Haggis recipe contains sheep’s internal organs such as liver, heart, lungs, and mixed with chopped onions, raw beef or mutton’s fat (suet), salt, spices, and stuffed in the sheep’s intestine as sausage, and simmer inside the animal’s stomach for 3 hours. Boerewors Sausage, South Africa Boerewors sausage are the main dish prepared by African tribes. The main ingredients are grilled cow or sheep’s intestine, herbs like cactus and Aloe Vera. This African food are said to have disgusting taste, but when you are hungry, maybe you will have to eat this weird food. 9) Live Octopus, Korea The famous raw dish in Korea, the Sannakji is a live octopus prepared and cut alive in restaurants in Korea, and serve while moving and squirms in your table. Eating Sannakji should be chewed well, since the suction of the tentacles might stick in your mouth and throat. 10) Silkworms Kabob and Crispy Silkworms, China According to legend, the silkworm was discovered by a Chinese Empress, when the silkworm fell into her cup of tea. Now the silkworms are cultivated and breed in factories. And because of over production of silkworms, they are sold in local markets for frying, seasoning and boiling and eaten. They are quite bitter and best for people who have adventurous and strong stomach. 11) Bear Claw Stew, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan The bear claw’s soup, a delicacy in China, in Hong Kong and Taiwan. This expensive soup are sold for hundred dollars. Cooked till very tender. Tourist from Korea, Taiwan and China go to Thailand’s restaurants just to eat this famous Bear Claw’s cuisine. But the environmentalist are protesting this practice since the bears are being tortured before killing the bear infront of tourists diners, believing that it makes the bear meat taste better. 12) Starfish Barbecue, China The street foods in Beijing, China you can find barbecued starfish, scorpions and seahorses. 13) Horshoe Crabs The horseshoe crab belongs to the Arthropod family, living in shallow ocean waters on muddy or sandy bottom of the water.This crabs had no edible parts except the roe or the eggs. Eating the wrong organ may cause ‘high feeling’ (mabuk). Grilled and served with mango and kerabu. 14) Duck Tongues, China Duck tongue are the two pointy bits from the back end . Bite and separate the meat from the bones. 15) King Snake Steak, China Snake like Phytons are delicacy in China and other Asian countries. Snake are cooked as steak, but snakes had a lot of small bones, so it should be eaten slowly. 16) Stinky Tofu or Choudoufu, China The ‘Choudoufu’ or stinky tofu, looks like cubed-lemon custard and looks delicious, but when it passes your nose, it stinks like rotten fish. 17) Live Shrimps Cuisine, China Squirming shrimps served with brown sauce. It is served alive and pour brown sauce on it as served. 18) Corn Fungus or Corn Smut, Latin America Corn smut or corn fungus, are diseases of crops like corn, also called ‘huilacoche’ in Latin America. Usually prepared as filling in Quisadillas or “Huitlacoche Quisadillas”. 19) Cuttlefish For Sashime Prepared raw meat of cattle fish, prepared for Sashime. Cuttlefish are mollusk species like the squid and octopus. 20) Snake Wine, Vietnam Snake wines are alcoholic drinks with infused whole snake inside the wine bottle, in grain alcohol and rice wine. The Vietnamese believe that the Snake wine can cure and give more energy. This Chinese Traditional wine can be found in China, not only in Vietnam and throughout Southeast Asia. Mezcal Worm Tequila, Mexico Mezcal Tequila, is a distilled alcohol drink, coming and produced by Maguey plants, a form of Agave plant, that grows in the dry land of Mexico. The Hypopta Agavis Larvae, are soaked inside the bottle of Tequila. In a drinking group, whoever consume the bottle of Tequila is awarded to eat the larvae, that usually stays in the bottom of the bottle.	25,668
Why is it that so many utopian visions take the shape of islands? From the ancient Greek myth of the island Atlantis, its modern adaptation by Francis Bacon (New Atlantis), Thomas More's Utopia, Aldous Huxley's Island, to - most recently - the dreams of Silicon Valley billionaires of create floating islands as solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems. The Western strand of utopian thought, at least, is obsessed with islands. There are many possible approaches to explaining this phenomenon. It is important to point out, for example, that the European utopian imagination was shaped by the onset of European colonialism and imperialism, the contrast between “mainland” Europe and the faraway “islands” that were “discovered” during this historical period. But there is another interesting aspect to be considered: the influence of epidemics on the Western utopian imagination. Lothar Müller argued in a recent article for the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung that much early utopian literature was deeply influenced by the spread of the plague in Europe, an epidemic that had killed about 30-60 percent of the European population in the fourteenth century, and which continued to recur until the twentieth century. Take Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe, one of the most famous island utopias of the eighteenth century. Defoe did not only write Robinson Crusoe, he was also the author of A Journal of the Plague Year, in which he recalls the outbreak of the Plague during his childhood in London 1655. As a journalist, Defoe even regularly published articles reporting on the plague, including an outbreak in Marseille 1722, calling for prevention and quarantine measures. Müller further argues that Thomas More´s Utopia and Francis Bacon's New Atlantis, too, were designed “bulwarks” against the plague. Visitors to Bacon's Utopian island, Bensalem, for example, who happen to have an illness, are put in quarantine until they have recovered. In the wake of the outbreak of the covid-19, many have pointed out that the twenty-first century will be yet another century shaped by epidemics – not least due to the influence of climate change. In an article for Time magazine, Justin Worland asks: “When Arctic permafrost melts, what pathogens that have been buried for millennia will be released into the atmosphere—and can we combat them? What will the loss of entire communities, countries and ways of life do to the human psyche? How far will disease-carrying mosquitoes currently isolated to the tropics roam as their range shifts?” Under such circumstances, insular visions are likely to come to the fore once again. We are going to hear such rhetoric not only from the political right, which for a long time has embraced a politics of the “armed lifeboat”, of militarising borders, criminalising migration and mobilising racist and nationalist rhetoric. The latest incidents at the Greek border is just one expression of this logic: police and fascist militias are hunting and shooting refugees (many of whom are fleeing climate-related conflicts for which the bear absolutely no responsibility), and are backed by a European Commission that prides itself for passing a “Green Deal”. If we are not cautious, a similar logic of “insularity” is also going to gain a foothold in the language of the political Left in the guise of a rhetoric of “rootedness”, “community” and the “local”. Such an escapist vision of Utopianism that focusses on cutting oneself of from an unhealthy and unsustainable society rather than attempting to change it is not only morally questionable but is also unlikely to succeed. There surely isn't anything wrong with being rooted and connected to a place, but ecovillages, communes, political groups and movements must be careful to reject a language that justifies strong physical and other barriers. Because if history has shown us anything then it is that insularity is ultimately an illusion. The utopian writer Ernst Callenbach acknowledged this in his work Ecotopia, which describes a utopian ecological community. The Ecotopians in Callenbach's book have made great progress, yet they are powerless in facing pollution from their neighbouring states. We ought to recognize that ecosystems and humans are interconnected, no matter how hard we try to split them up. The repeated failure of utopian communes and projects in the anarcho-utopian tradition also shows that we might be able to escape a place or a society, but it is much harder and sometimes impossible to escape the attitudes that we were raised with. Alienation is hardly overcome by means of separation. Thus, in devising future visions in an age that is likely to be characterized by the climate crisis and epidemics, let us not resort to a language of insularity, as deeply as it may be anchored in the Western utopian tradition. We need a vision that works for everyone, not just our own communities. The good news is that the very process building a world of solidarity rather than insularity is likely a very effective remedy for another kind of epidemic that seems to have accompanied the advent of neoliberal capitalism – the mental health crisis. Philosopher Rupert Read calls this a “beautiful coincidence”: “The beautiful coincidence is that the very things we need to do in order to address the climate and ecological emergency are in almost every case the very things we need to do in order to improve our lives and livelihoods from the sorry state—indexed by the huge increase in mental ill-health over the last two generations—that they are currently in.” Elias König is a philosophy student at the Free University of Berlin. His research is in non-Western environmental philosophy. Image: More's Utopia. British Library.	35,989
Utility rates are going up for customers of Colorado Springs Utilities at the beginning of next year. The new rates will start in January 2014. The Colorado Springs City Council voted Tuesday to approve an increase to utility rates. Colorado Springs Utilities explains the breakdown for the typical monthly bill for residential customers like this: With current prices a typical household pays about $199 per month for their utility bill. Under the new monthly rates, that monthly bill will be about $207, an overall increase of a little more than $8. Council member Joel Miller voted for the increased rates reluctantly, saying he regrets having to support an increase in cost of living for residents. "The large portion of the increase is due to capital investment for meeting federal EPA standards for our coal-fired power plants, which are still by far cheaper than the alternatives," Miller said. The rate increases passed with a 7-2 vote, with council president Keith King and council member Helen Collins voting no. “Two hundred and forty-nine utilities employees are paid more than $100,000,” Collins said. “I find that raising rates and then giving everyone raises is not a good idea. " Colorado Springs Utilities has a rate calculator that can help customers figure out what their bills will look like. To use the calculator, click the to the right of the article. KKTV firmly believes in freedom of speech for all and we are happy to provide this forum for the community to share opinions and facts. We ask that commenters keep it clean, keep it truthful, stay on topic and be responsible. Comments left here do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of KKTV 11 News. If you believe that any of the comments on our site are inappropriate or offensive, please tell us by clicking “Report Abuse” and answering the questions that follow. We will review any reported comments promptly.powered by Disqus	134,359
Module 14 goes into more detail about telephone interviews and the different formats of video interviews, what to expect and how to prepare. Work your way through the Video and telephone interviews Module, completing the activity. If you are a teacher or trainer delivering this module to young people, you can use the PowerPoint presentation, which includes notes, activities, tasks/discussion points and estimated timings. There are also teacher/trainer notes, which outlines delivery requirements, aims, outcomes, career management skills and senior phase criteria. Activity 1 involves watching a YouTube video. Therefore, if you are completing this module as a paper-based exercise, the activity can be completed at another time.	273,982
Cervical cancer diagnosed as stage II disease is commonly detected from an abnormal Pap smear or pelvic examination. Following a staging evaluation of cervical cancer, a stage II cancer is said to exist if the cancer has extended beyond the cervix to the upper portion of the vagina (stage IIA) or to the tissues next to the cervix, called the parametria (stage IIB). Patients with stage II cervical cancer are generally treated with a combination of radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Some patients with stage IIA disease can undergo a radical hysterectomy, sometimes followed by a course of radiation therapy. The following is an overview of the treatment of stage II cervical cancer. The information is intended to help educate you about treatment options and to facilitate a shared decision-making process with your treating physician. Stage II cervical cancer is currently best managed by a combination of radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Radiation therapy is treatment with high energy x-rays that have the ability to kill cancer cells. Radiation therapy can be administered via a machine that aims x-rays at the body (external beam radiation) and/or by placing small capsules of radioactive material directly into and near the cervix (internal or implant radiation). Most patients will receive both types of radiation therapy during their course of treatment. External beam radiation therapy (EBRT) for cervical cancer is administered on an outpatient basis for approximately 4 to 6 weeks.1 During or immediately following the external beam portion of radiation therapy, patients may also undergo an implant radiation procedure. Placing the radiation within the cervix allows a high dose of radiation to be delivered to the cancer, while reducing the radiation to the surrounding normal tissues and organs. During a procedure in the operating room, a small device is placed into the cervix and vagina and later is “loaded” with radioactive material. The radioactive material is left in place while the patient stays in the hospital for 1-3 days. This process may be performed once or twice during the course of treatment. The addition of chemotherapy (anti-cancer drugs) has improved long-term outcomes in patients with cervical cancer.. Chemotherapy has the ability to kill cancer cells and make radiation therapy more effective at killing cancer cells. The strategy of administering chemotherapy concurrently with radiation treatment is appealing because chemotherapy and radiation therapy may act together to increase the killing of cancer cells. Chemotherapy may also destroy cells independently of radiation therapy. Clinical studies performed in patients with locally advanced cervical cancer utilizing concurrent chemotherapy and radiation therapy have improved remission rates and prolonged survival.1 Radiation therapy plus concomitant chemotherapy appears superior to radiation therapy alone. The 5-year survival rate of patients with stage IB, IIA, or IIB cervical cancer was 77% for patients treated with concurrent radiation therapy and chemotherapy, compared to only 50% for patients treated with radiation therapy alone. Concurrent chemotherapy and radiation therapy were well tolerated except for minor gastrointestinal and hematologic side effects, which were reversible. Other clinical studies have confirmed that treatment of locally advanced cervical cancer with concurrent Platinol®-based chemotherapy and radiation therapy is superior to radiation therapy alone.1,2 Even with combination chemotherapy and radiation treatment, approximately 20-40% of patients with stage II cervical cancer experience recurrence of their cancer because cancer cells may have survived near the cancer despite the radiation therapy or small amounts of cancer may have spread outside the cervix and were not treated by the chemotherapy. These cancer cells cannot be detected and are referred to as micrometastases. The presence of these microscopic areas of cancer or surviving cancer cells can cause the relapses that follow treatment. Strategies to Improve Treatment The progress that has been made in the treatment of cervical cancer has resulted from improved development of treatments in patients with more advanced stages of cancer and participation in clinical trials. Future progress in the treatment of cervical cancer will result from continued participation in appropriate clinical trials. Currently, there are several areas of active exploration aimed at improving the treatment of stage II cervical cancer. New Adjuvant Chemotherapy Regimens: Platinol® chemotherapy administered concurrently with radiation improves the survival of women with stage II cervical cancer. Evaluation of new chemotherapy drugs in addition to or in place of Platinol® that can kill cancer cells more effectively are now being tested as adjuvant therapies. Neoadjuvant Therapy: The practice of administering treatment before surgery is referred to as neoadjuvant therapy. In theory, neoadjuvant chemotherapy can decrease the size of the cancer, making it easier to remove with surgery. With the development of new chemotherapy regimens and radiation therapy, clinical trials of neoadjuvant therapy performed in patients with cervical cancer are currently ongoing. The use of radiation prior to a simple hysterectomy is being evaluated in clinical trials for patients with larger stage IB cervical cancers. This combination of treatment appears to reduce the chance of a cancer recurrence in the area of the cancer by removing cancer cells that may have survived through the radiation therapy. Newer Radiation Techniques: External beam radiation therapy can be delivered more precisely to the cervix by using a special CT scan and targeting computer. This capability is known as three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy, or 3D-CRT. The use of 3D-CRT appears to reduce the chance of injury to nearby body structures, such as the bladder or rectum. Immunotherapy: The immune system is an elaborate network of cells and organs that protect the body from infection. The immune system is also part of the body’s innate disease-fighting capability to treat cancer. With cancer, part of the problem is an ineffective immune system. The immune system recognizes cancer cells as foreign and up to a point can get rid of them or keep them in check. Cancer cells are very good at finding ways to hide from, suppress, or wear out the immune system and avoid immune destruction. The immune system may not attack cancer cells because it fails to recognize them as foreign and harmful. The goal of immunotherapy is to help the immune system recognize and eliminate cancer cells by either activating the immune system directly, or by inhibiting mechanisms of suppression of the cancer. General types of immunotherapy include interferon, interleukin, and colony stimulating factors (cytokines), which generally activate the immune system to attack the cancer. These general immunotherapies however are not specific and their activation of the immune system can cause severe side effects by attacking normal cells along with cancer cells. Immunotherapy treatment of cancer has progressed considerably over the past 30 years and has evolved from a general to more precisely targeted immunotherapy treatment. Examples of precision immunotherapy include checkpoint inhibitors, CAR T cells, and vaccines. In an attempt to improve the chance of cure, immunotherapies are being tested alone or in combination with chemotherapy in clinical trials. 2 Duenas-Gonzalez A, Zarba JJ, Alcedo JC, et al. A phase III study comparing concurrent gemcitabine (Gem) plus cisplatin (Cis) and radiation followed by adjuvant Gem plus Cis versus concurrent Cis and radiation in patients with stage IIB to IVA carcinoma of the cervix. Presented at the 2009 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, May 29-June 2, 2009, Orlando, FL. Abstract CRA5507.	248,419
LETTER OF HIS EMINENCE CARD. ANGELO SODANO Your Excellency, Ambassador Patricio Zuquilanda, On the occasion of the 34th General Assembly of the OAS, His Holiness John Paul II has charged me to convey a cordial greeting to you, Your Excellency, to their Excellencies the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the American States and of the Caribbean, to His Excellency Dr. César Gaviria, General Secretary of the Organization of American States, and to the Representatives of the Countries with Observer status. Almost 25 years have passed since 6 October 1979, when the Holy Father visited the headquarters of the OAS in Washington that was to become the first of many international organizations and institutions - since his Visit to the United Nations - to which he had the opportunity to address his Message of peace and friendship. On that occasion the Pope, "with absolute respect" and in a "spirit of service", voiced certain thoughts on the international situation beginning with an observation that has lost none of its timeliness: "Peace is a most precious blessing that you seek to preserve for your peoples. You are in agreement with me that it is not by stockpiling arms that this peace can be ensured in a stable way. Apart from the fact that such accumulation increases in practice the danger of having recourse to arms to settle the disputes that may arise, it takes away considerable material and human resources from the great and peaceful tasks of development that are so urgent" (Address to the OAS, 6 October 1979, n. 2; L'Osservatore Romano English edition [ORE], 29 October 1979, p. 13). In these past years, for obvious sad reasons, world attention has been focused on the problem of security. The OAS, at the end of the Special Conference on Security that took place last 28 October in Mexico City, also approved a Declaration on this subject. Among other things it said that peace is a value in itself, based "on democracy, justice, respect and human rights, solidarity, security and respect for international law" (cf. Declaration on Security in the Americas, art. 3). These "pillars of peace" have a common foundation: the right to life. This right demands for its full exercise a dignified standard of life: food, housing, education, health care, work, freedom, etc. To guarantee these conditions, immense financial resources are required which are unfortunately too scarce. Yet, how much wealth is continuing to be squandered today on more and more sophisticated instruments of war, while human beings do not even have what they need for their integral development. But in many nations of the world, too many arms are being circulated when there is a far greater need for housing, schools, roads, electricity, drinking water and medicines. It should be recognized that the OAS has also been a pioneer organization in this field. Indeed, it was the first regional institution to adopt the "Inter-American Convention against the Illicit Manufacture of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives and other Related Materials" (10 June 1998), which recently held its first Conference to examine its application (Bogota, 8-9 March 2004). The phenomenon of the arms trade, often related to other illegal trafficking, seriously hinders the integral development of the world. Although it may be an important first step, it is nevertheless not enough to equip ourselves with technological and juridical instruments if we do not insist on the ethical dimension of human dignity. This consideration must be based on a peace-building process that goes to the root of the scourge of the violence found in human hearts today. As the Holy Father said in his above-cited Address to the OAS: "When we speak of the right to life, to physical and moral integrity, to nourishment, to housing, to education, to health care, to employment, to shared responsibility in the life of the nation, we speak of the human person.... All that you do for the human person will halt violence and the threats of subversion and destabilization" (ORE, 29 October 1979, nn. 5-6, ibid., p. 14). Only knowledge of the sacredness of life, therefore, and full respect for it at every stage of its development from conception to natural death, can lay the foundations of an authentic "city of peace". In turn, full respect for the right to life also involves the essential but enormous task of doing away with all that prevents people from experiencing it with dignity, in other words, poverty with its many causes and numerous victims. Some countries are in urgent need of international aid to survive difficult moments and to finance development projects. The Holy See is often asked to recommend or support investment or development initiatives. I take this opportunity to invite the donor countries and financial institutions to make a generous contribution, in the knowledge that a donation today can be a consistent saving in the future and can help in building peace and security. All that remains for me is to express to all the participants in this General Assembly my best wishes for a fruitful and serene meeting, and I am pleased to express to you, Your Excellency, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, my respects and my deep esteem. *L'Osservatore Romano. Weekly Edition in English n.28 p.9.	61,187
There are more than one million gynecologic cancer survivors in the United States today. Additionally, more than 78,000 women will receive a new diagnosis of gynecologic cancer this year. At Lahey Hospital & Medical Center, our department of gynecology offers physicians who specialize in gynecologic oncology and work together to develop treatment plans for each individual's needs, including looking for risk factors and symptoms. Gynecologic cancers are the uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells that originate in the female reproductive organs (cervix, ovaries, uterus, fallopian tubes, vagina and vulva). Gynecologic cancers should be treated by gynecologic oncologists, board-certified obstetrician/gynecologists who have specialized training in treating gynecologic cancers. Depending on the type and stage of cancer, gynecologic cancers are usually treated through surgery, radiation therapy or chemotherapy. Lahey gynecologists have access to the latest techniques in the management of gynecologic cancers and are experts in minimally invasive and robotic surgery. Our gynecologists work in a multidisciplinary approach with specialists in radiation oncology, medical oncology, and the Familial Cancer Risk Assessment Center in developing a course of treatment for each patient.	204,808
\|Other:\|\|WordPress.org \| SVN\| \|Support:\|\|This plugin is no longer actively maintained\| This plugin provides the ability to run HTML Tidy through all your posts, pages, and comments, generating a report on just how dirty your code is. Should you want to, the plugin can also automatically update your database with the cleansed data. If you are unaware of its existence, HTML Tidy is a wonderful little tool that is embedded into almost everything nowadays. Its purpose is to take potentially malformed HTML code and produce clean XHTML. Tidy Up does not require any special PHP configuration. As long as you have the ability to run executables then the plugin will work. Currently the plugin contains Tidy executables for: - Mac OS X It is likely that your web host runs one of these. Installation is just like any WordPress plugin: - Download Tidy Up - Upload to /wp-content/pluginson your server - Activate the plugin - Give tidy.linux, tidy.osx, tidy.exe, or tidy.freebsd execute permissions for the web server (generally means giving ‘x’ permission to group/other) - Use Tidy Up from the Manage/Tidy Up menu You can find full details of installing a plugin on the plugin installation page. To produce a report of all your posts or comments you need to go to the Tidy Up page of the Manage menu. Here you will be presented with the following interface: Choose your source (posts/pages or comments) and select your input and output formats. Then press either the ‘Report’ or ‘Clean’ button – report will just generate a report without making any modifications, while clean will save all modifications back to the database. When you write a post in WordPress you generally don’t need to think about HTML formatting. You type your text, enter a blank line for a new paragraph, and write as you would normally. WordPress, being the clever chappy that it is, is aware of this and will automatically reformat your writing when it comes to viewing your blog, and everything displays correctly. What’s happening behind the scenes is that WordPress is adding HTML paragraph markers around your sections of plain text. While this is great for you (no need to think about HTML), it is a nuisance for am HTML verifier. To get around this, the plugin allows you to specify the input and output formats. The input format is the current format of your data: - Default WordPress – Posts are stored without HTML paragraph formatting - Raw XHTML – Posts are stored with HTML paragraph formatting As an extension to the input format, this allows you to tell the plugin whether you want the cleaned code to be stored with HTML paragraph formatting or without. Why bother with all this input/output formatting malarky? Flexibility. You may want your data to be cleaned, but you want it stored in the paragraph-less WordPress format. You may want to convert from HTML paragraphs into WordPress format. It’s up to you. Tidy Up Single Post As well as bulk-reporting on all posts, you can individually clean a single post. When the plugin is enabled, a new column will appear in the Post management screen. Clicking on this will produce a Tidy report on that post, with the capability of then saving it back to the database. A report will contain entries for each post that was checked: Clicking on ‘tidy’ will clean that item (saving to the database). Clicking on ‘edit’ will open an edit box above the messages where you can update the text directly. Some people may want their data cleansed in different ways. HTML Tidy has many configuration options, and these are provided to you through two files located in the plugin directory: wordpress.config– Tidy options when converting to WordPress format xhtml.config– Tidy options when converting to XHTML format You are free to modify these according to your own preferences and the HTML Tidy documentation. Due to the nature of the plugin it’s possible that a scan of your HTML will result in a PHP timeout error. If your webserver is so configured then there is now around this other than using the command line version of the plugin. For this you will need SSH access to your web account: - Change to the php tidy_console.php source input [output] >report.html output is optional and will cause the cleaned data to be written back to the database in the format specified (‘wordpress’ or ‘xhtml’). The console version will output an HTML report to the screen. If you want, you can redirect this to a file ( >report.html), and can then view it in your web browser at: php tidy_console.php wordpress xhtml >report.html I will accept no responsibility for any damage caused to your data. It is possible that the cleansed HTML code breaks existing formatting, corrupts your posts, or starts a feedback loop leading to the breakdown of the universe. You have been warned. Support & Bugs This plugin is no longer actively maintained	182,707
Wood and Baseball Bats The wood that craftsmen use to make base ball bats has changed over the years. The preference of major league hitters tends to cycle through various hard woods as do the general shape and form of the bats. In baseball’s early developmental period and its golden era with players such as Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth the bats were largely crafted from hickory. Hickory bats had the advantage of being extremely hard but were also extremely heavy. Over the past several decades, ash was the wood of choice for baseball bat manufactures and the science of ash bats even considered the region from which the ash was harvested depending on such factors as slow growth or fast growth trees. The speed at which a tree grows affects the density and other factors of the wood which in turn affects the hitting qualities of the bat. Recently ash bats have given way to maple as the wood of choice for many major leaguers and hitters such as Barry Bonds have used maple bats to set many hitting records. Maple wood is dense and fairly light making it ideal for hitting major league fast balls. However, alternative woods for baseball bats have recently been employed and one of the most promising new woods of choice is birch and particularly Yellow Birch, for use in making birch bats. Maple wood has become more difficult to source and thus more expensive to use in the manufacture of baseball bats. By contrast, birch wood is a hard wood which can be crafted to the demanding specifications of major league players who typically demand fewer grains implying a higher density wood. Thus, the cyclical nature of baseball and baseball bat science is now turning to the use of birch bats to supply the next generation of hardwood bats for today’s and tomorrows baseball players. Robert Elias. “You’re Never too Young to Dream: The Craftsmanship of Baseball Bats.” Nine, 12/2(2004): 123.	67,319
The skin is the body’s largest organ. Its functions are to protect the body, keep the body at a good temperature, and allow for the sense of touch. It is the only organ that is always exposed to the external environment. There is over 20 square feet of skin on an average human adult. The skin is made of three layers. The innermost layer is made of subcutaneous fat. This layer helps the body to stay warm. The middle layer is called the dermis. The dermis contains nerve endings, oil and sweat glands, and blood vessels. The upper layer is the epidermis. This layer is made up of mostly dead skin cells. Any time the skin is irritated, it can become itchy. Itching is a common feeling that all people and animals get at some point in their lives. Around 20 per cent of adults experience some kind of itching on a regular basis. It can be a very discouraging and uncomfortable feeling. It is known in the medical field as pruritus. It leads to a desire or reflex to scratch the area that is itching. Itching is a defense mechanisms which tells the spinal cord and then the brain when something is touching the nerve endings of the dermis layer of the skin. Scratching is the immediate response to the stimulus. Scratching has one goal and that is to remove whatever is bothering the skin. Itching brings on a feeling similar to that of pain, except that instead of the withdrawal reflex that pain leads to, itching leads to a scratch reflex. Itch receptors are also more sensitive than pain receptors. Causes of Itching There are over 1000 things that can make a person itch. For the most part, these things include anything that can touch and irritate the skin and certain diseases. An itch can be caused by something physical or neurological. An itch can come on by skin irritation or as a symptom of another disease. Just thinking about itching can make a person want to scratch themselves. Itching can come on without any symptom at all when the skin is irritated. Itching can also be associated with dry skin, bumps, spots, blisters, or redness. On a human, there are many small insects that can be the cause itching, whether by the presence of the insect or by its bite or sting. These include: - Head lice - Pubic lice - Body louse - Mosquito or chigger bites. - Spider bits - Parasitic infections Other things that cause itching include: - Urticaria, commonly known as hives, which is a common allergic reaction - Fungal infections - Certain skin conditions, such as dermatitis, psoriasis, scabies, and tinea infections. Tinea infections are commonly called ring worm, jock itch, or athlete’s foot. - Hodgkin’s disease - Xerosis, commonly called dry skin. This is more common in the winter time or after frequent hot baths. - Scab healing or scar growth - Development of moles, pimples, or ingrown hairs - Chicken pox - Psychiatric diseases - Certain medications - Malignant or internal cancer - Dry air - Withdrawal from certain drugs - Chronic stress - Some internal diseases such as liver disease, kidney failure, celiac disease, iron deficiency anemia, certain types of cancer, diabetes, or thyroid problems. In these cases, the itch usually includes the entire body. Prevention of Itching - If your skin is sensitive, take extra precaution when washing. Take baths instead of showers. - Use bath oils to keep the skin moisturized. - Use mild soaps. Supper fatted or oil based soaps are less likely to cause dryness, but should not be used all the time. - Use moisturizer on your hands often. - Use sunscreen when outside. - After you get out of a bath or shower, immediately put on moisturizer. - Use mosquito repellant. - Drink lots of water. - Don’t wear wool or acrylic fabrics. Cotton and silk clothing are good for itches. - Use unscented and mild laundry detergent. - Don’t scratch. While scratching can solve some of the less serious itches, it can also cause problems. For the most part, avoid scratching. Long term scratching can lead to a condition called neurodermatitis. Neurodermatitis is characterized by thick, leathery skin. Scratching can also cause bacterial infections and permanent changes in skin color or even scaring. Treatment of itching Since itching is such a common problem, and is usually not serious, there are many remedies that can be done at home to soothe the itch. Some of these remedies are: – Baking Soda. Baking soda can be used many different ways to relieve itches. One cup of baking soda can be added to a bath to soothe all over itches or itches that are hard to reach. A baking soda paste can also be made out of one part water and three parts baking soda. This paste is applied directly to the skin, but shouldn’t be used if the skin is broken. - Oatmeal. One or two cups of ground oatmeal in a warm bath tub can soothe itches. - Evaporated Milk. Add one can to a bath and let it soothe away the itch. - Apple cider vinegar. One tablespoon in a bath can help an itch. - Ice can often relieve the itchy area. If ice is not readily available, cold water can help. - If it’s the hands or feet that are itching, and the reason is dryness, apply a layer of petroleum jelly and wear gloves or socks. - Cut your nails short to avoid irritating the skin if scratching is a problem. - If itching is caused by dry skin, a simple moisturizing lotion may be the solution. Treating itches using herb - Peppermint or yellow dock in a bath tub is supposed to help itches - Burdock root oil applied to the skin will stop itching and heal rashes - Fresh chickweed – Soak two large handfuls in water until it softens. Allow it to cool then apply onto the itching area. - Cloves and Juniper berries – American Indians were known for using these two things to stop an itch. The berries have anti-inflammatory properties and the cloves numb nerve endings. To make this concoction, melt three ounces of unsalted butter. In a different pan, melt about two tablespoons of beeswax. - Basil – Basil also contains a nerve numbing agent. To use on itches, place a half ounce of dried basil leaves in one pint of boiling water. Cover it and allow it to cool. Use a cloth to spread the tea onto the itch. - Mint – mint contains substances that are both anti-inflammatory and anesthetics. Place one ounce of mint leaves in a pint of boiling water. Cover and wait until it cools. Strain the tea and use a cloth to spread the tea onto the affected area. - Thyme -Thyme also has anesthetic and anti-inflammatory properties. Make a thyme tea using one half ounce of dried thyme in a one pint jar of boiling water. Just like the mint and basil tea, cover it and allow cooling. Strain the tea and use a cloth to spread onto the affected area. In China, this mixture will often contain an ounce of dandelion root as well. Over the counter and store bought remedies for itching Most over the counter medications for itching fall into two categories. They are either oral antihistamines or corticosteroid creams. Here is a list of some of the popular over the counter solutions. - Aloe Vera Gel – Aloe vera gel is made from the aloe vera plant. When a leaf of an aloe vera plant is cut or crushed, a transparent fluid comes out. This fluid has soothing properties. It is commonly used for burns, but it also helps to relieve itching feelings. It is available for about five dollars a bottle. - Ivarest – Ivarest temporarily relieves itching. It, like Benadryl, also blocks histamines. It can cause mild skin irritation. - Calamine Lotion – Calamine lotion works well for itching that is associated with poison ivy, chicken pox, insect bites, and sun burns. It can occasionally irritate the skin or cause a rash. It can be bought for as little as $2 a bottle. - Aveeno anti-itch concentrated lotion or cream – This lotion or cream brings quick relief to itches caused by minor skin irritations, insect bites, and chicken pox. There are no known side effects of the lotion. It can be bought for around $5 for an ounce of cream or $5 for 4 ounces of lotion. There are many Benadryl products that can stop itching. Benadryl produces an anti itch cream that can be applied right onto the itch. It should not be used for chicken pox, measles, or on a large area of the body. Some people experience skin irritation when using the Benadryl cream. If an allergy or hives is what caused the itching, an oral Benadryl product can work to stop the itch. Benadryl is an antihistamine. Histamines are what the body produces during an allergic reaction. Histamines cause swelling and sometimes itching. Benadryl blocks the histamines. Oral Benadryl has many side effects. Some of them include: tiredness, dizziness, coordination problems, heartburn, and thickening of bronchial secretions. All Benadryl products are available in most grocery or drug stores for under $15. Doctors and Itching If itching doesn’t improve in about two weeks, it is time to see a doctor. It is also good to seek medical attention if the itching is so severe that it distracts you from day-to-day activities. Unexplained itching or itches that include the entire body, or if the itch has other symptoms with it are also reasons to see a doctor. When you see a doctor, the doctor will ask specific questions to determine the cause of the itch. The doctor may also perform certain tests if he or she thinks the cause of the itching is an internal problem. If the doctor finds an underlying cause for the itching, he or she will treat that cause. When the cause is treating, the itching will go away. There are other ways that doctors may suggest treating itching. They include: - Over the counter medications - Light therapy – This is also known as phototherapy. During this procedure, the skin is exposed to specific wavelengths of ultraviolet light. Multiple sessions may be needed to get itching under control, and each session can be very expensive. - Wet dressings – This is a process where medicated creams are put on the itchy area and then covered with a damp material made of cotton. The cotton is usually soaked in water before being applied.	72,978
Tuesday Slice of Life can be found at the Two Writing Teachers blog I believe our new head of school must have been a very good teacher because we had our first staff retreat with him last Thursday evening and all day Friday, and it was a memorable experience. I had fun with colleagues, playing and working. I learned something and didn’t feel too much pressure to work or think fast. We came away with goals completed and plans for next time. There are good parts I can bring away from the days to apply to any lesson. On the retreat, we have the pleasure of spending the night in a beautiful place at the YMCA of the Rockies outside of Estes Park, Colorado. They have several kinds of places to stay according to the group’s size. We stay in what is called a family cabin. Just imagine a regular-type cabin—rustic fireplace, wood beams and walls, leather sofas and chairs—but one that houses fifty plus people. It has the beautiful mountain views, so special in the fall, elk roaming through the land outside the cabin(s), chipmunks, and lots of mountain birds. Most staff members leave right after school ends on Thursday for the two-hour drive up, but some of the administration staff have gone earlier to take the food for snacks and all the meals. All the rest of us provide the drinks we wish to have and to share. We have read a few articles in preparation for the coming day of conversations on Friday, are excited to be a part of this important work we do on this day, only wishing it was more than one day. It’s important for teachers to give students lead-time to prepare for the work planned in class, especially if there is content to be read, studied and considered. Also, even for a lesson within one class period, giving students time to think before discussing or answering questions posed – wait time – is critical for ensuring every student has a chance to get ready for an activity. Thursday evening is relaxing and fun, time to sit with staff members we rarely see for long conversations, to laugh and play games, for some to bring their guitars and sing with us, to relax and enjoy each other for the hours we usually don’t have during the regular school week. We are fortunate to have this opportunity. We rested our brains for the more difficult thinking to come. Even in a short few minutes at the beginning of a lesson, offering the chance for the class to share personally or to celebrate a special something helps to relax the brain to get ready for its next workout. Friday morning, all of us gather for the work of the day. In the past we have had a day of conversations about the asynchronous qualities of giftedness and meeting those challenges, racial and economic diversity-when we developed a rubric for self-evaluation, and writing-when we spent the day experiencing the beginning of a staff writing workshop (which I had the privilege of leading with a colleague). Today we will tackle a new topic, one that has been chosen as a priority for the year, creating a new model for professional development and evaluation. We were given an agenda well ahead of time so we would know what to expect of the day. Although there are times when changes are appropriate or needed, keeping to an announced schedule helps everyone keep on task and to get ready mentally for what’s next. The meeting for the day held three parts, with every staff member included, divided into groups of about twelve. We had challenges as icebreakers, getting to compete for the prize of a standing ovation by the losers. Because of time constraints, this might be similar to the sharing time discussed earlier. But when there is a longer period of time available, even at different times during the year, it is important for the class to play together, with different people and in different groups. Building community in shared experiences is important for successful learning to take place. We had quiet reading time to read and annotate articles concerning recent research that show the attributes of current and successful models of professional development and evaluation. This gave us additional topic knowledge as a reference when we talked. If all must be done in class, teaching students how to prepare for an activity (read and annotate with sticky notes, highlight key points, familiarize oneself with available materials, etc.) and giving time to prepare is important for optimal success. We met and brainstormed lists of different traits that were thought to be important to include in our model, and then we argued, explained, talked some more, found examples, and finalized the list. Each group had a designated facilitator, who then reported the group’s conclusions to the larger staff when we gathered after each session. Each person in the individual groups contributed to the conversations whether new staff or veterans. The facilitators chosen were mostly new staff. Giving students in a class experiences with new kinds of groups, or random groups with different people taking leadership roles changes the dynamic of the group, offering chances to those that don’t always contribute. Finally, all the notes were written, reports given, and our head gathered the notes from each leader, with the purpose of synthesizing the notes from all the groups into some kind of whole document, to be examined and discussed again at the next staff meeting. At the end of a lesson, it’s good practice to end with the future plan, what will come next. At our school, what’s good for the staff is good for the students, and vice versa. There is an emphasis to giving lots of choices at school, which I have written about in an earlier post here. Personal input will occur during the final goal-setting for each staff member, just as each student is considered unique in consideration of personal needs and wants. The retreat days gave us the time to reacquaint ourselves as a community, and to devote quality time in determining what will work best for the culture of our school and for each staff member. WE HAD A GOOD TEACHER!	71,320
Paul McJones' History of Lisp has been blogged before (here, here, here, and here), but it keeps getting new content. It's gotten PDFs of 3 early Lisp books from the 1960's, chronologically: Lisp 1.5 Programmer's Manual (1962) (the year I was born) The Programming Language LISP: Its Operation and Applications (1964) LISP 1.5 Primer (1967) I had read all of them in 1980 when I entered college and went scouring through the university's library for any books on Lisp. I've got the first two, as Amazon still sells the Programmer's Manual new and the second book you can get used. Modern day Lispers should definitely take a look at these and see how much the language has changed. Especially take a look at "Lisp 1.5 Primer". This was what I actually learned Lisp from. The horror. It starts off with a couple dozen pages on dotted notation, there's no quote reader macro, you don't start defining functions until page 66 or so, and factorial doesn't get defined until page 96. It took a lot of effort to wade through all of that. I remember trying to code up some of the examples in some weird Lisp 1.5 variant that was on the PDP-11/70 at the time, which was different enough from "real" Lisp 1.5 to make the process exceptionally painful. But look at that second book and be amazed at how much people got done with Lisp 1.5 in the early 1960's, and remember that they didn't have Emacs at the time, they punched this all in on paper cards and submitted them to the mainframe. Imagine trying to get the number of closing parenthesis right for an expression many cards back. Some of the programs are advanced even for today, although we would implement them far differently today. Those pioneers in the 1960's didn't shy away from the hard problems because they didn't have a fancy IDE with syntax coloring or auto-completion. Note that you may have heard of some of the contributers: Daniel G. Bobrow and L. Peter Deutsch (who was only a teenager when he wrote the implementation for the PDP-1).	185,688
Properly storing food in a home freezer Avoid cross-contamination with these freezer storage tips. It’s important to properly store food in freezers. This will help reduce the chance of cross-contamination between foods, especially during a power outage. Cross-contamination can occur in many different instances; however, the focus of this article is limited to the freezer. Cross-contamination occurs when liquid drips from one food to another and that liquid contains bacteria. In order to avoid the likelihood of this happening, please take care when storing foods in your freezer. Use the list below as a guide to help you stack food in your freezer, in the order shown. - Ready to eat foods should be placed at the very top of the freezer (cakes and ice cream) - Next, frozen vegetables - Cooked meats - Raw steaks, pork, seafood, fish and eggs - Raw ground meat - Raw poultry should be placed at the very bottom of the freezer Other helpful tips for storing food in the freezer are to label each item with identifying information especially if it is removed from the original packing. On the label be sure to include the date and item name. Try to keep food frozen for shorter periods of time to ensure that the taste and texture are at its best. If food becomes freezer burned it doesn’t mean that the food has gone bad. It just means that the taste and texture may have been compromised. The food is still edible and can be properly defrosted and prepared to your liking. Once the item has been defrosted it is okay to cut the freezer burned parts off if you’d prefer. For more information on food safety and frozen foods please visit Food Safety’s storage times chart.	58,580
Gertrude E.H. Bustill Mossell was a teacher, author and journalist born on July 3, 1855 in Philadelphia. The daughter of Charles and Emily Bustill, she came from a prominent family. She attended public schools in Philadelphia and eventually the Institute for Colored Youth and the Robert Vaux Grammar School. Upon graduation, Bustill delivered the class oration entitled, “Influence.” “Influence” so impressed African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Bishop Henry McNeal Turner, editor of the denomination’s newspaper, The Christian Recorder, that he published the oration there and invited Bustill to contribute poetry and essays to the newspaper. During the 1870’s Bustill taught for seven years at public schools in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky. She also simultaneously maintained her career in journalism; Bustill was a contributor to the Philadelphia Press, Philadelphia Independent and Philadelphia Echo on issues related to African American women. Eventually she contributed to the New York Age, the Indianapolis World as well as the A.M.E. Church Review. In 1883 Bustill married Nathaniel F. Mossell, a prominent Philadelphia physician. The couple had two children. The demands of marriage and raising a family resulted in a brief absence from journalism, but by 1885 she incorporated journalism into her life again when she became woman’s editor for the New York Age. In 1889 she left the Age and became the woman’s editor of the Indianapolis World from 1891 to 1892. Throughout her career, Mossell encouraged the growth of black newspapers and suggested that the African American press had a special mission within black America and therefore needed to excel in reporting and attempt to reach a larger audience. She suggested the latter could be achieved through a more extensive national network of news dealers, agents, and selling of papers by newsboys. Mossell was also concerned with attracting women to journalism. In 1886, she wrote columns urging women to submit articles to publications. Her success in the field of journalism led her to publish two books; The Work of Afro-American Women in 1894 and Little Dansie’s One Day at Sabbath School in 1902. The Work of Afro-American Women, her most prominent publication, looked into the future to project women’s roles in the twentieth century, particularly in suffrage, journalism and higher education. In addition to her career in journalism, Mossell was involved in social welfare activities, including her role as charity fund director for the Frederick Douglass Hospital in Philadelphia. In 1895 she led a successful fundraising drive of more than $30,000 for construction of the main hospital building. She also founded the Bustill Family Association and organized the National Afro-American Council’s branch in Philadelphia. Gertrude E.H. Bustill Mossell died on January 21, 1948 in the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital in Pennsylvania. Rayford Logan and Michael R. Winston, eds., Dictionary of American Negro Biography (New York: W. W. Norton, 1982); Roger Streitmatter, Raising Her Voice: African-American Women Journalists Who Changed History (Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky: 1994). BlackPast.org is an independent non-profit corporation 501(c)(3). It has no affiliation with the University of Washington. BlackPast.org is supported in part by a grant from Humanities Washington, a state-wide non-profit organization supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the state of Washington, and contributions from individuals and foundations.	187,662
Osopsaron formosensis is a bedazzling little fish that lives in the cooler waters of Japan and Taiwan. An unassuming little fish that sports neon colors throughout its body, the fish has a secret weapon to capture your attention if you haven’t already. Like a signal flag, the goby can erect, expand, and wave its sail-like dorsal fin to communicate with others of its kind. In the wild, these gobies live partially buried in the sand, waiting for food to float by. Attaining a maximum size of 5cm, this gobies would make for the perfect aquarium fish if only they were obtainable. The dorsal fin flagging is a spectacular phenomena to watch as demonstrated by these two videos. The dorsal spine is first lifts up, and two black membranes expands on opposite sides. What’s interesting is the dorsal fin appears to swivel around freely, by way of the fish controlling the direction it waves its fin at. We would love to share with you more about this amazing little fish, but unfortunately little information exists about the fish in the wild, and zero on the fish being available for the trade. Just goes to show how many gorgeous reef aquaria suitable fish are living out there, out of reach for the casual aquarist.	260,305
Street plays are fun. With minimal props and a stress on action and sounds, they can be enacted in a quadrangle, a classroom, a playground and ofcourse, a street.Here are complete scripts of two street plays and a mini-script that starts you off and lets you design your own play - Everybody's Water - Water Quest - The Borewell Song (mini script) Here are 2 plays, Pani bin jeevan nahin and Pani ki manmani enacted by the Jagran team at the India International Trade Fair, Delhi in November 2010. Do you have any street play scripts on water themes that you'd like to share with schools across the country? If you do, send it to us at email@example.com. Featured street plays will receive a gift from the Schools Water Portal.	157,653
Stirling L. Beath Biography: Stirling Leonard Beath, whose nickname was “Joe” was born on November 6, 1913, in Drake, North Dakota. He was the son of Philip Beath and Katherine Hamaire and as a child, his family moved to Buffalo, New York. It was there that he attended school, graduating from Buffalo Public High School. He also learned jazz rhythm tap dance there and begin his career as an entertainer. Joe travelled extensively to pursue his craft and was a part of the Woody Herman Orchestra. Variety Magazine listed him as one of the top 20 dancers in 1939 and 1940. Service Time: On July 14, 1941, Joe entered the service at Buffalo, NY, although his enlistment record lists his residence as Boyd County, Kentucky. As was normal with the Army, his enlistment record has his name spelled incorrectly as "Sterling". Joe was assigned to the 644th Tank Destroyer Battalion and at some point, while with the unit or possibly just prior, he was chosen for officer’s training. As a Second Lieutenant, he took his place within the unit as a TD Commander in their Reconnaissance Company. The unit shipped out on January 2, 1944, and arrived at Gourock, Scotland, on January 11. They disembarked at Utah Beach on July 11 and 12, equipped with M10's, and were committed to battle south of Le Haye Du Puits with the 8th Infantry Division on July 15. They participated in the Cobra breakout, beginning on July 26, and advanced into Brittany in August, helping to capture Brest in early September. The unit moved to Luxembourg in late September and fought in the Hürtgen Forest in November. Companies A and C moved to the northern Ardennes sector by early December and participated in the Battle of the Bulge, with Company B arriving later. They then joined in the elimination of the Bulge in early 1945. On January 8th, Joe was relieved from his position as platoon leader and assigned as the Liaison Officer #2. In this new position, he helped keep lines of communication and cooperation open between the 644th and the other units they were attached to and working with. The unit then joined the Roer River offensive in February, finally reaching the Rhine, south of Cologne, Germany, in March and crossing at Remagen, supporting the reduction of the Ruhr Pocket in April. Swinging eastward to the Elbe River, they moved toward the Baltic coast with the 82d Airborne Division, stopping in Schwerin. During one of the unit’s actions, Joe was meeting with a few personnel in a small building that was being used as the unit’s radio shack. The area was being shelled by German artillery and an 88mm shell hit the corner of the building, throwing the men and shrapnel throughout the building. Joe was hit in his leg and foot areas, injuries that would bother him for the rest of his life. He left the service at the rank of 1st Lieutenant and received credit for each of the unit’s campaigns of Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace and Central Europe. He received the Purple Heart and was awarded the EAME, WWII Victory, American Defense and the Good Conduct medals. He was also authorized to wear the Fourragere in recognition of the unit’s award of the Croix de Guerre. Joe returned to the U.S. and began working to continue his education. Utilizing the G.I. Bill, he entered Harvard University where he studied for approximately two years while trying to reignite his career in entertainment. He lived for some time in Los Angeles, seeking jobs in movies, and also spent much time in both Boston and New York. On February 20, 1948, Joe married the former Dorothy Fenton in Hampton, New Hampshire. Dorothy was born in Boston and was the daughter of John Fenton and Annette Sahahl. Joe continued working and achieved some success, including appearing in the Broadway show, Gypsy, along with Ethel Merman and Jack Klugman. The show was nominated for 8 Tony Awards. Sadly the dancing opportunities became more and more elusive. He worked other jobs as necessary, including as a salesman, to support his family. Joe’s first marriage ended and in 1960, he married the former Leslie Gayle Allen-Nieto, who was born in Snoqualmie Falls, Washington. The couple had one son, John, born in 1961. J oe returned to college and completed his degree, graduating in 1971, with a B.S. in English. He then put his talents and education to work by becoming a drama teacher at the Boston Campus of the University of Massachusetts. He later taught special needs children at the local high school in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Joe passed away on December 9, 1991, and was buried in the Forest Glade Cemetery in Wakefield, Massachusetts. I want to thank Joe’s son, John, for providing the information and photo for this tribute.	28,157
Autumn is the season for healthy appetites. A time to indulge in the bounty of the harvest and nourish ourselves for the cold months ahead. Check out five popular seasonal foods that symbolize hearty autumn eating in Japan – 1. Matsutake Mushroom Soup One of the more notable smells of autumn comes from a hearty mushroom soup called matsutake dobin mushi. The dish is served in a clay teapot called a dobin, enjoyed by pouring out the broth into a small cup and picking out the vegetables to enjoy. The soup consists of a bonito stock, seasonal vegetables, slivers of chicken or shrimp, and the star ingredient, aromatic pine mushrooms called matsutake, which contribute a unique smoky flavor. It can be complimented with a few drops of citrus, such as yuzu or the green-skinned sudachi fruit. While matsutake dobin mushi is available in restaurants around the country, the price range can differ depending on whether domestic or imported mushrooms are used—matsutake cannot be cultivated and are becoming scarce in Japan, leading to very high domestic prices. 2. Salt-Grilled Sanma Pacific saury, known as sanma in Japan, is the savory dish of fall; the sleek, silver fish is best enjoyed grilled with salt, called sanma no shioyaki, due to its distinctive oiliness and fatty content. Sanma no shioyaki is served whole, so you should start eating from the crispy skin, adding a squirt of lime juice, daikon radishes, or soy sauce to the flesh as a light garnish, and use chopsticks to pick out portions until only the bones are left. Salt-grilled sanma can be enjoyed in traditional pubs with a mild sake, but if you’re looking for an extraordinary street food experience, walking out the east exit of Meguro Station on the first Sunday of September will land you at the smoke-filled Sanma Matsuri, a festival where over 5,000 grilled saurys are given away to visitors to celebrate the hauls brought in from Iwate prefecture. 3. Steamed Shinmai Rice with Gingko Nuts The first harvests of rice in autumn, called shinmai, or “new rice,” are considered to have a completely different taste than the rice harvested year-round. Japanese will often say that new rice is moister, sweeter, and more aesthetically pleasing, something not to be missed if you’re visiting from late September towards the end of the year. Mushrooms, sweet potatoes and chestnuts are also popular toppings for those seeking a vegetarian meal, but gingko nuts are a subtle accompaniment to new rice that doesn’t overpower its well-sought flavor. 4. Sweet Potato or Pumpkin Croquettes To satisfy your fried food craving, you can sink your teeth into a sweet potato croquette. While croquettes are not considered an original Japanese food, the deep-fried delicacy evokes the image of an autumn comfort food for many across the country. Croquettes are often a homemade snack, but they can also be found in the food aisles of department stores such as the Tokyu Foodshow in Shibuya. Unlike the standard American sweet potatoes, Japanese sweet potatoes have a drier texture, but taste creamy. Pumpkins may not have the “cinnamon and spice” image you may be accustomed to, but the rich, butternut-squash-like flavor does not disappoint when combined with the croquette’s hot, crispy, breading. 5. Candied Chestnuts Candied chestnuts, or kuri-kinton, are a simple sweet treat in which chestnuts are steamed, mashed, and combined with a delicate confectionary sugar before being twisted into a bun shape using a cloth. Sweet potatoes may be added to heighten the flavor, and the snack is best enjoyed with a cup of hot tea. Boxes of kuri-kinton are popular gifts for friends and family in the autumn. They are available wherever traditional sweets are sold, but Nakatsugawa city in Gifu is exceptionally famous for the treat, with many specialty shops, some of which have been in operation for more than a century. Hello. Do you have any recommendations for great spots to have matsutake dobin mushi around Tokyo? Thank you for your help! Awesome blog! Looks very tasty add a little bit of lobster so it can taste great and noodles to softing it the flavor @Visit_Japan Autumn in Japan is so special. I took some amazing day trips last autumn and they are at the top of my awesome memories list. I love grilled sanma, except for what I assume is the liver, which to me is awful. Is there someway to remove it first?	227,940
There are numerous ways to express oneself artistically, and one captivating method involves creating artwork that showcases the breathtaking beauty of horses through techniques such as painting, woodcarving, and sculpting. Artists who specialize in painting have the ability to capture the grace and power of majestic horses with their expert use of the brush. With carefully crafted strokes, they bring to life the flowing manes, expressive eyes, and powerful physiques of these regal creatures on canvas. Through careful color selection and shading techniques, artists are able to convey the vitality and essence that emanate from these magnificent beings. On the other hand, wood carving provides a unique opportunity to transform a solid block of timber into a three-dimensional representation of a horse. The artist’s hands deftly manipulate carving tools, chiseling away layers of wood to reveal the intricate details of the horse’s shape. The textures of the mane, muscles, and even the delicate features of the face are meticulously carved, resulting in a sculpture that is both visually captivating and tactile. In the world of sculpting, artists use various materials such as clay, stone, or metal to bring the essence of horses to life. The sculptor’s hands shape the material, capturing the dynamic poses, sweeping curves, and motion of these magnificent creatures. Whether it’s a bronze statue frozen in mid-gallop or a clay sculpture that exudes serenity, the artistry in these creations is truly inspiring. Through painting, wood carving, and sculpting, artists delve into the realm of horses, capturing their beauty, strength, and grace. Every stroke of the brush, every chip of the carving tool, and every delicate touch of the sculptor’s hands pays homage to the noble spirit of these remarkable creatures. The resulting artworks stand as testaments to the profound connection between art and nature, inviting viewers to immerse themselves in the timeless allure of the equine world.	25,459
, coronary heart-nutritious consuming contains limiting the level of saturated and trans fats that you just try to eat. It also includes consuming fish high in omega-three fatty acids and vegetable oils which can help reduce blood cholesterol amounts and the risk of cardiovascular disease. Full Cholesterol. This is a measurement of every one of the cholesterol as part of your blood. Your possibility for vascular linked condition boosts with higher serum amounts of cholesterol. Two molecules of farnesyl pyrophosphate then condense to sort squalene via the action of squalene synthase inside the endoplasmic reticulum. Statins are encouraged for most people. Statins are the only real cholesterol-reducing drug course which has been immediately associated with a reduction in the potential risk of coronary heart assault or stroke. According to the lipid hypothesis, considering that cholesterol (like all fat molecules) is transported round the physique (inside the drinking water outside the house cells) inside lipoprotein particles, elevated cholesterol concentrations (hypercholesterolemia) perhaps present you with a reduced Price strategy to estimate concentrations of LDL particles; maybe even lower concentrations of purposeful HDL particles, each versions strongly associated with cardiovascular disease due to the fact LDL particles promote atheroma advancement in arteries (atherosclerosis).[citation essential] Scientific studies have demonstrated that whey protein provided as a nutritional supplement lowers both LDL and complete cholesterol check here along with blood pressure level. You can find whey protein powders in overall health food shops plus some grocery outlets. It's actually not clear whether or not food with plant sterols or stanols minimizes your danger of heart assault or stroke — Even though authorities suppose that foods that lessen cholesterol do decrease the possibility. Denise Taylor/Getty Pictures Should you be previously having a good amount of the following foods that decrease cholesterol Obviously, keep up The great operate! Summary Dark leafy greens are full of carotenoids, which includes lutein, which happen to be associated with a lower risk of heart disease and stroke. As you may now know, LDL cholesterol is commonly termed terrible cholesterol mainly because it can build up within the walls of your arteries and variety plaque, Placing you susceptible to a serious cardiovascular event, like a coronary heart attack, stroke, stent, or bypass surgical procedure. PCSK9 inhibitors bind to and inactivate a protein in liver in order to reduced LDL (lousy) cholesterol. They can be offered in combination that has a statin. Some names are alirocumab and evolocumab The needle covers on The one-use prefilled syringes and The within of the needle caps on The one-use prefilled SureClick® autoinjectors contain dry natural rubber. The single-use Pushtronex® process (on-system infusor with prefilled cartridge) just isn't manufactured with all-natural rubber latex. Fruit also contains bioactive compounds that enable avert cardiovascular disease together with other Continual ailments because of their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory results. The reference ranges on your assessments are available on your own laboratory report. They are typically uncovered to the appropriate of one's benefits. More Videos From فن الحياة	145,305
Best time to travel to Bhutan The ideal time for trekking is between late September and late November, when the sky is usually clear and visibility is good. March to May is considered the second best trekking time in Bhutan. There are more clouds and rain, but the wild flowers are in full bloom and numerous birds can be observed. There is a chance of rain every season but avoid the monsoon season from June to August, with average rainfall of 500mm in Thimphu and up to 1,000mm in the eastern mountains. Winter is a good time for tours in the west of Bhutan, bird watching in the subtropical, southern regions and white water rafting are particularly worthwhile. The days are sunny and cool, but it gets relatively cold as soon as the sun goes down. From December to February the road from Thimphu to Bumthang may be closed due to snowfall. It is best not to plan trips to these regions during this time. In recent years the tsechus (Buddhist festivals) in Thimphu and Paro have been very popular with tourists. If you focus on other cultural events, you will have much less problems getting flights and accommodation. Currency: 1 Ngultrum corresponds to 100 Chhertum Currency abbreviations: BTN (ISO code), NU – ABBREVIATIONFINDER.ORG banknotes are issued in the value of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, and 1,000 ngultrum, coins in amounts of 20, 25, and 50 Chhertum and 1 ngultrum. There are coins with a value of 5 and 10 chhertum, but these are rarely used. 1 US dollar = 47.0 BTN 1 euro = 69.1 BTN 1 Swiss franc = 45.7 BTN The ngultrum is tied to the Indian rupee in a ratio of 1: 1. Currency exchange: Common currencies are exchanged in the Bank of Bhutan and in the Bhutan National Bank. There are also exchange options at the airport and in upscale hotels. Cash: For larger purchases such as textiles or artifacts, it is advisable to have US dollars in cash. Most stores accept this currency and exempt you from the exchange effort. Credit cards: are hardly accepted in Bhutan. Credit cards are accepted in state craft stores and some of the larger hotels in Thimphu, but these transactions are often time consuming. The credit card companies charge high fees and the card can usually only be checked during the day. It is therefore impossible to pay your hotel bill at night or when you check out in the morning. ATMs: Although there are ATMs from the Bhutan National Bank, these can only be used with local cards. However, there are plans to set up ATMs that can be used to withdraw money using standard cards. Traveler’s checks: should be issued in US dollars by well-known companies such as American Express, Barclays, Thomas Cook, Visa or Citibank. Travelers checks are exchanged in the Bank of Bhutan, at the currency exchange counter at the airport, and in most hotels. The fee for cashing travelers checks is 1%. Stolen or lost travelers checks cannot be replaced in Bhutan. Bank opening times: Mon – Fri 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Some banks in the capital are also open on Saturday and Sunday. Bhutan has some great sights and attractions to offer. The absolute highlight of Bhutan’s sights is the Buddha Drodenma statue. The giant Buddha statue has been in the country’s capital, Thimphu, since 2008. It was erected on the Kuensel Phodrang mountain and from there watches over the city. The square of the bell tower is also worth a visit. The square in Thimphu was only recently restored. It is surrounded by several country and restaurants, as well as fountains and traditional Bhutanese Mani Lhalhor. Mani Lhalhor are prayer wheels. The first-class Hotel Druck is also located on the square. Don’t miss the Memorial Chorten. The building is the main feature of the Skykline Thimphus. The building itself was dedicated to Dorji Wangchuck, who had an accident while sailing. A visit to the National Library is not only recommended for bookworms among tourists. The library building was built in 1967 in the style of a Buddhist temple. The library has some interesting manuscripts in Dzongkha, classical Tibetan and English. There is also a large collection of religious books to be admired in the National Library. One of the highlights is the copy of the world’s largest published book. The National Post Office is worth seeing, but only because you can visit and buy the most important Bhutanese export hit – stamps. The national airline of Bhutan is Druk Air. The flight schedules are seasonal. However, there are regular connections to and from Bangkok (Thailand) via Dhaka or Calcutta (India). For a journey from Europe, for example, the route via London and Delhi is recommended. From there there are flight connections to Bhutan. Bhutan’s only international airport is Paro. It is located about six kilometers from the town of the same name in the Paro Valley. A visa is required to enter Bhutan. The two border crossings between Bhutan and India that are passable for foreigners are at Phuentsholing and Samdrup Jongkhar. Samdrup Jongkhar is on the border with the state of Assam. Phuentsholing connects Bhutan to the Indian state of West Bengal. All land routes from and to Bhutan via Phuentsholing lead via Siliguri in West Bengal, the most important traffic junction in northern India. From there there are connections to Calcutta, Delhi or to the Nepalese border to Kakarbhitta. In addition, travelers can conveniently travel on from there to the Indian mountain regions of Kalimpong, Sikkim (Gangtok) and Darjeeling. Bhutanese vehicles have free travel in India. Taxis and rental cars are available in both Phuentsholing and Siliguri. Several Bhutanese transport companies operate direct bus connections between Phuentsholing and Siliguri several times a day. Indian bus companies offer connections between Siliguri and the border town of Jaigaon on the Indian side of the Bhutanese border. The closest larger station to Phuentsholing is New Jailpaiguri. From there, travelers can get to Calcutta by train within twelve hours. A trip to Delhi takes about 33 hours. Travel in the country If you want to travel to Bhutan with your own vehicle, you should rent a vehicle and driver. Driving in Bhutan is exhausting. The streets are often very narrow and busy. Bhutan’s public buses are often crowded and old, but inexpensive. A bus ride can be quite uncomfortable on the winding roads. The minibuses are operated by the state-owned companies Dawa Transport and Bhutan Post Express as well as a number of other companies. Some private operators, such as Karma Transport or Leksol Bus Service, offer trips in more comfortable buses at higher tariffs. Buses run several times a day between the capital Thimphu and important centers such as Punakha, Phuentsholing or Paro. The upper areas of the Paro and Thimphu valleys offer good routes for traveling by mountain bike.	61,426
Kitty Frances Cardwell Kitty Frances Cardwell was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1953, and grew up in Georgetown, Texas. She got a B.A. degree in botanical sciences with a minor in chemistry from the University of Texas, Austin, in 1976. From 1976 to 1977, she attended graduate school at Texas A&M. She was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nicaragua from 1977 to 1978, serving as an extension plant pathologist with the Instituto Bienestar Agropecuario, a USAID-financed agricultural project for small-scale farmers. Because of the revolution, the Peace Corps relocated her to Colombia in 1978 to work as a research and extension plant pathologist on chemical controls of rice blast and sorghum anthracnose with the Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario. During her Peace Corps travels, Dr. Cardwell met and married a Colombian farmer and from 1980 to 1985 was the phytosanitary manager of a 500-ha farm of upland rice. She was active in the farm community, the rice cooperative, and in assisting other farmers with disease diagnosis and control. She became a pivotal leader during an epidemic of hoja blanca, advising on vector control and crop management and finally serving as spokesperson for the Rice Federation. In 1985, Dr. Cardwell returned to Texas A&M to complete her doctorate and worked with Professor R. A. Frederiksen on the population biology of Colletotrichum graminicola. She received a grant to assess virulence patterns on differential sorghum nurseries in Texas, Georgia, Puerto Rico, and Brazil. She developed an innovative statistical approach to minimize error in pathogen population assessment caused by host genotype–environment interactions that was reported in Biometrics. In 1989, Dr. Cardwell became a plant pathologist and program leader for the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Nigeria and worked on Striga gesneriodes across sub-Saharan West Africa. Dr. Cardwell was asked to develop and take the lead in IITA’s multi-disciplinary Striga working group. In 1991, Dr. Cardwell began focusing on a serious downy mildew problem on maize caused by Peronosclerospora sorghi in seven states of Nigeria and spreading rapidly westward toward Benin Republic. She organized funding with the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Bank, and Ciba-Geigy for research and extension efforts, including disease screening and management strategies. Together with IITA and National Agricultural Research Maize Breeders, resistant cultivars were improved and deployed. A strategy to deploy mobile chemical seedtreatment equipment was developed. However, the loss of the chemical product in a maritime accident caused funding to be withdrawn. The Wall Street Journal’s report of this incident stimulated the World Bank to help with the distribution of downy mildew-resistant seed. A public awareness campaign on the cause and control of downy mildew was launched and reached 600,000 small-scale farms, and over a five-year period, the disease decreased from a chronic, endemic problem to a rare occurrence. The disease front was stopped 65 km from the Benin frontier. For this work, Dr. Cardwell was conferred an honorary fellowship of the Maize Association of Nigeria. In 1993, Dr. Cardwell received funding from the German government to open a new laboratory in the IITA Centre for Biological Control in Benin dedicated to studies on mycotoxigenic fungi. From 1993 to 2001, she led a large multinational research program on Aspergillus flavus and Fusarium verticillioides. They discovered that a common African strain of A. flavus produces both B and G toxins, whereas new-world strains produce only B toxins. This information is being used to develop biocontrol options for A. flavus in West Africa in conjunction with Peter Cotty at the USDA-ARS in New Orleans. Based on agroecological data on the prevalence of A. flavus and aflatoxin collected across sub-Saharan Africa, Dr. Cardwell devised a research initiative to study the impact of aflatoxin on child health. A recent article in the British Journal of Medicine describes the severe effects of aflatoxin on child health and development. This study is ongoing with the Leeds School of Medicine and the London School of Tropical Hygiene and Medicine, with the support of the German Bundesministerium fuer wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit, Ministry of Agricultural Cooperation. This work explains the higher morbidity and mortality in Africa before the age of five compared with the rest of the world and leads the way to meaningful remediation of the impact of foodborne mycotoxins on the physical and economic well-being of millions of Africans. Dr. Cardwell engaged Rotary International in a public awareness campaign to teach people how to avoid the adverse effects of aflatoxin exposure. This effort is expected to change policy-level decision making, as well as the food-handling behavior and cropmanagement perceptions of millions of farmers in Ghana, Togo, and Benin. Perhaps the most important aspect of Dr. Cardwell’s contribution in Africa was graduate student training of numerous African and international scientists to meet the challenges of African agriculture. One aspect of this effort was the discovery of the interaction of F. verticillioides with Lepidopteran stem borers of maize, causing contamination with fumonisin and other toxins produced by this fungus. It was discovered that F. verticillioides is not only vectored by insects, but actively attracts them to the infected plants. This line of research has led to numerous publications and a legacy of collaboration across Africa. Dr. Cardwell presently serves as the National Program Leader for Plant Pathology with the USDA-CSREES. She runs competitive grants programs on methyl bromide alternatives and citrus tristeza and is developing the National Plant Pest and Disease Diagnostic Network for homeland security. Dr. Cardwell recently was granted an embassy science fellowship, which in partnership with the State Department, took her to Costa Rica to work with the government of that country on understanding the U.S. guidelines and regulations concerning genetically modified crops and foods. Her diplomacy skills resulted in a very positive interaction with the Costa Rican technical ministries and advancement in understanding of the science-based thinking of the U.S. regulatory agencies. Dr. Cardwell is a long-standing member of the APS Office of International Programs (OIP), for which she chairs the Education Committee and writes the OIP newsletter.	271,704
If we claim to be Christians, then we should sound different than the world. People should look at us and the way we talk, and catch a glimpse of Jesus. But if they listen, and what they hear sounds entirely contrary to the faith we declare, then our claim of being a Christian turns sour. Instead of seeing Christ when they see us, they see a faith full of hypocrisy, and who would want to believe in that? I am not a bible scholar or a pastor. I don’t know Hebrew or Greek. I’m just a Christian trying to understand the bible, and how it should change me as a person and the life that I am living. Maybe that’s a good thing. I don’t have all the answers, so perhaps we can find them together. Sound Like a Christian James says, “If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless” (James 1:26). If you don’t control your speech, then you deceive yourself. When we become Christians, every part of us should change, and that includes our speech. We don’t get to pick and choose and be obedient in some ways and not in others. Our words should draw people closer to Christ, but many times our words become the reason people reject Christ. “If that’s what a Christian sounds like, then I want nothing to do with them.” All it takes is one off-hand comment, or a momentary lapse in self-control, and you’ve given someone ammunition to hold onto for years. Our words should not betray the heart change that we profess to have. We live in a world sharply divided over politics and religion. It can be so easy to get drawn into arguments, even with other Christians. We forget what it means to love like Christ and speak to others in a way that is loving. For me personally, I’ve had to stop engaging in most online discussions, because I can turn negative so quickly. The sole purpose becomes about being right, and if that happens, then loving like Christ takes a backseat. Even in person, we have to watch our words. Our friends and coworkers observe us, and when our words don’t match up with their expectations, it can solidify their doubts and reinforce their belief that Christians are hypocrites. Don’t Betray Truth for Acceptance Some of the things we believe are not super popular, and some people will reject Christianity because of what we believe. We can’t water down the message of the bible to make it more palatable to the culture around us. When we share the message of Christ, we need to do it in a loving way. Our words should be consistent with the truth that we are trying to share. Someone standing on an overpass with a sign about how people are going to hell grasps the severity of Christ’s message, but they’re ignoring the love and compassion in which he gave his message. My plea to Christians is not about marketing. I’m not suggesting we need to do some focus groups and figure out how we can make Christianity sound better. What I’m suggesting is that if we are truly following Christ, and the Holy Spirit is living inside of us, then we will be living differently. We don’t need to put on an act, because there has been authentic change in how we live. That should be apparent in the way that we speak to others. To the Skeptical Non-Christian On one hand, I don’t blame non-Christians that look at the way some Christians act, or what we say, and come to the conclusion that we’re full of it. I wish we were all Mother Teresa, but we’re not. We are flawed individuals, and we do and say stupid things. Accepting Christ and becoming a Christian is not about anything we have done. It’s about accepting something that we believe Christ did for us. It doesn’t make us better than anyone else, it doesn’t make us super smart, and it’s not an achievement we’ve worked for and gained. We’re still human, and we still make mistakes. When you see a Christian that you don’t think is living up to who you think a Christian should be, consider the possibility that they are flawed, and not the God they follow. Two things can be true at the same time. God is perfect, and I am not. My sin and screw-ups don’t make God imperfect or false, it makes me imperfect. Heart First, Words Second Whether you like it or not, when you accept Christ, you don the mantle of Christianity. You become a light to the world, and people will know you follow Christ by your love for one another. This is a responsibility we as Christians need to take seriously. I think most people look at Christians and want to see Christ. They want an explanation for this world, and most want nothing more than this Jesus thing to be real. Am I always taking this responsibility seriously? We should be “Quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry” (James 1:19). I’m really bad at the slow to speak part. Sometimes stuff comes out of my mouth, and then I spend the rest of the day thinking about all the repercussions it will have. The more time I spend in prayer, and the more I ask God to change my heart and the way I think, the better my speech will become. If I have a heart full of jealousy, then that will overflow in what I say. If I’m holding a grudge against someone, then that anger will come out when I see an opportunity. But if I can fill my heart and mind with Godly things, then it’s much more likely the words that come out of my mouth will be God honoring.	98,191
- This event has passed. A Footnote in History Adventure March 16, 2019 @ 10:00 am PDT featuring 16 year old debut author Sofia Blanco About the Event We can’t think of a better way to celebrate Women’s History Month than by introducing 16 year old debut author Sofia Blanco, at a FREE Footnote in History Adventure, at the new Mission Hills Library, where she will discuss her new book dedicated to “every girl making history in the past, present, and future.” Frustrated at the lack of women of color represented in her high school history books, Sofia initially planned to merely write a report for a class project. Stunned by the lack of material available during her research, she set off on a loftier mission to not only write that report, but, at the encouragement of her mother, award-winning San Diego author Marivi Soliven, decided to turn the project into a published book, complete with her own powerful illustrations. Here is your chance to come out and support a budding author with passion, talent, and the wherewithawl to make a difference at the tender age of sixteen. Learn about some renowned women of color with whom you may be familiar, and then allow Sofia to introduce you to others of whom you may not know. Your FREE Adventure includes a welcome song by Sofia, book discussion, Q&A, book signing, and the opportunity to meet the author up close and personal in an intimate setting. Snacks will be provided. We encourage book sales in support of this emerging talented writer. Keep in mind that books MUST BE pre-ordered below in order to be available for delivery and signing at the event. Books ordered on or after March 9, 2019, may not be available until after the event. About the Author and Book Sofia Blanco is a sixteen year old, junior high school student who enjoys singing at the School of Rock and drawing for a boutique retail shop. She wrote, illustrated, and self-published A Footnote in History for her Humanities class, which focuses on the concept of the female perspective in history and the present. The book includes notable figures such as Sylvia Rae Rivera and Sojourner Truth, and recounts their struggles of being remembered in the twenty-first century after standing in a man’s shadow for decades.	124,734
The following is a photo of a linen and wool screen curtain (velum) that comes from a monastery at Antinoë (Antinopolis), Egypt, and dates from the 5th-6th century. It is likely an artifact of the early Coptic Christians. It depicts a praying couple beneath an apse in a church or temple, with a Coptic inscription written in Greek script underneath. The apse of a church building is near the east end, where the altar is located. There are columns on the left and right, perhaps symbolizing Boaz and Jachin, pillars that flanked the entrance in the porch of Solomon’s Temple, and have come to symbolize the temple ever since. The figures are dressed in liturgical clothing, including what appears to be a mitre, a veil, and robes, and in the traditional early Christian attitude of prayer with uplifted hands. Size: 1.05 x 0.86 m. It is located at the Benaki Museum, Athens. (Thanks Chad!) I again return to a former post I wrote in 2008 about an obscure book I stumbled across entitled The Light of Truth as Revealed in the Holy Scriptures, published in 1916 by one Levi Rightmyer, a hefty book at 967 pages, and freely downloadable from Google. I have still been unable to find any more information more about this author Levi Rightmyer, unfortunately, and would be interested to know more about his background if anyone is aware. Although not LDS (although he does mention the Mormons once in the book), he came very close to approximating many of the more esoteric LDS beliefs regarding Melchizedek, the priesthood, the temple, the judgement, theosis or deification, and the afterlife. It seems that Levi had an experience similar to Joseph Smith, which caused him to turn to the scriptures to find the truth, this from the preface: Familiar with many of the conflicting religious beliefs of these and former days, Mr. Rightmyer was early filled with an earnest determination to search the Scriptures for himself, and if possible to find out the truth contained therein. (Preface) It’s been a long time coming, since September 2008 to be exact, and I’d like to finally complete this series of posts on the seal of Melchizedek. It is probably one of the most trafficked series of posts on this website. It’s drawn a lot of attention, and may have even been part of what compelled a BYU scholar, Alonzo L. Gaskill, to publish an article about it in The Religious Educator at BYU in 2010, which article I’d like to talk about. But first, there are a few other artifacts related to the symbol that I’d like to share. As I pointed out in Part 2, this seal is most prominently found as displayed in the mosaics and iconography in the basilicas of Ravenna, Italy. Indeed, this is very likely where Hugh Nibley saw this symbol originally, as perhaps did Michael Lyon, and where he may have coined the name the “seal of Melchizedek.” The symbol is shown on the altar cloths in these mosaics, shown next to Melchizedek, Abel, and Abraham, in making sacrificial offerings to God. The altar cloth also shows gammadia in the corners, right-angle marks like the Greek letter gamma, which is also very interesting, and worthy of a study in and of itself. To begin, I want to note again that to date I have not found any evidence for this symbol being called the “seal of Melchizedek” by any other scholar, historian, or historical figure in recorded history before Hugh Nibley and Michael Lyon. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, but it is likely a conception that began with the Latter-day Saints, making a logical connection between the symbol and the Biblical figure found adjacent to it in the mosaics. [Read more…] The Christmas story from Luke 2 reads in part: And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them. (Luke 2:8–20) Most of us are very familiar with these scriptures, as it is tradition in many families to read this story at Christmastime every year to remind us of the true meaning of Christmas. But who were the shepherds? Have you, like me, considered the angelophany to the shepherds in their fields something that was completely random? Were the angels announcing the birth of the Savior abroad in the land, and this was just one of the accounts that was recorded in scripture? Or was there a greater purpose to the angelic revelation specific to these shepherds? [Read more…]	41,880
Dark spots range in width from 50150 feet (1545 meters), lie hundreds of feet apart, and persist 24 months before disappearing until the next martian spring. Fan-shape features half a mile long often grow days or weeks after dark spots form. Because the fans open downwind, scientists suspected they formed as airborne dust fell back to Mars' surface. Spiders seem to be grooves in the martian surface that converge under a spot. "Once a spider becomes established, it affects the surface so that a vent will form in the same place the following year," says Phil Christensen of Arizona State University. The scientists found the markings result from seasonal deposits of CO2 frost. In winter, temperatures on Mars dip to 200° Fahrenheit (129° Celsius), which causes the frost to recrystalize and become denser. The frost sinks, taking dust and sand particles down with it. By spring, the frost layer transforms into a 3-foot-thick (1m) ice slab that rests atop the layer of sunken particles. Springtime sunlight heats the dark material, and the ice converts directly into a gas a process called sublimation. Pressure builds beneath the slab until the jets eject CO2 , dust, and sand back into Mars' atmosphere and onto its surface. The report appears in the August 17 issue of Nature to view how martian spiders form.	159,495
Passengers on a JetBlue flight attempting to depart New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport got a scare on Tuesday, when a false hijacking alarm prompted authorities to swarm the grounded plane. The Los Angeles-bound plane “experienced a radio problem” while taxiing before departure, according to a statement from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The malfunction caused air traffic controllers to lose contact with the pilot, CNN reports — so when the plane mistakenly transmitted a code signifying a security threat onboard, authorities leapt into action. Passenger Alexa Curtis, a blogger, told CNN that police surrounded the plane and SWAT officers boarded the aircraft, telling passengers to put their hands up and stow their phones. “People were, like, crying. Everyone’s texting their family, and we were on ground, so usually this would happen in the air if it was gonna happen,” Curtis told CBS Los Angeles. “People were ready to die.” In a statement provided to TIME, a JetBlue representative said the plane “experienced a radio issue impacting the crew’s ability to communicate and a false alarm was sent to JFK tower.” The statement adds that the crew regained communication through other channels, but law enforcement responded to the situation “out of an abundance of caution.” Officials later determined that there had been no security threat, and returned the plane to the gate for inspection, according to JetBlue. Passengers, who had been directed to return to the airport, eventually boarded a new plane to Los Angeles. “I feel, like, safe that that’s what their precautions are, I don’t care if it’s radio or not,” Curtis told CBS. “I just wish they had been more vocal about it.” The incident remains under investigation by the FAA and JetBlue.	157,865
myBonzle menu: Add to my places Add picture Add story Add note Skip to map You'll find the Marakoopa Cave in Tasmania about 170km north-northwest of Hobart (show me). The entrance to the Marakoopa Cave is at an altitude of about 501m above sea level. Marakoopa Cave is located within the Mole Creek Karst National Park. King Solomons Cave is also in the Mole Creek Karst National Park. The nearest populated place is the village of Mole Creek which is 10km away with a population of around 210 (show me a map with Marakoopa Cave and Mole Creek). The nearest road to Marakoopa Cave is a sealed road that is un-named in our database and comes within 159m of Marakoopa Cave. The nearest sealed road to Marakoopa Cave is the Mole Creek Road (10.2km away). Bonzle users have described the condition of Marakoopa Cave as 'public access'. Is this description accurate? Do you know what condition Marakoopa Cave is in? Contribute your knowledge by clicking here. Bonzle users have said that the facilities at Marakoopa Cave include a drinking water, guided tours, picnic tables, public toilets and rubbish bins. Do you know of other facilities available at Marakoopa Cave? Is this list accurate? Contribute your knowledge by clicking here.	153,915
CONTACT: Stanford University News Service (650) 723-2558 Quilt display, candlelight vigil to mark AIDS Awareness Week STANFORD - A quilt panel display, candlelight march, lectures and dance performance are among the free public programs planned to mark AIDS Awareness Week at Stanford University, March 1-7. Organized by students in the AIDS Awareness Coalition at Stanford, the week aims to raise awareness about AIDS and HIV disease prevention, peer health education, treatment, activism and volunteer opportunities. The Stanford quilt panel - which eventually will be sent to the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt - will be sewn in White Plaza Feb. 25 and 26 to commemorate those lost to AIDS. It will be displayed from noon to 1 p.m. March 1-5 at the AIDS Awareness Week table in White Plaza. Red ribbons, to show compassion and support for people with AIDS and HIV disease, will be available at the table for a $2 donation. The candlelight march and service in memory of those who have died of AIDS and HIV disease will begin at 6:45 p.m. Monday, March 1 in the Inner Quad, followed by a memorial service starting at 7:30 p.m. in the Inner Quad. At 8 p.m., the vigil will proceed to White Plaza, where Cleve Jones, founder of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, is scheduled to speak. Events on Tuesday, March 2, will focus on medical issues surrounding AIDS. During the day, a poster exhibit will be on display at the Medical School. From 7 to 9 p.m., a panel discussion on Women and AIDS , focusing on epidemiology and prevention, will be held in Tresidder Union's Oak West Room. Speakers will include Dr. Ira Green, associate director of the AIDS Program at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, and Dr. Carol Kemper, associate director of the AIDS Program at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and clinical associate professor of medicine at Stanford and the University of California-San Francisco. Also featured will be two women with AIDS, who will speak about how the disease has affected their lives. Programs on Wednesday, March 3, will include a noon dance performance by the Women's Performance Collective in White Plaza, a Sexual Health Peer Counselors Outreach program at 5 p.m. in Cowell Student Health Center, and a talk by two women representatives from the ACT-UP activist group from 8 to 10 p.m. in Tresidder's Oak West Room. On Thursday, March 4, a "die-in" is scheduled at noon in White Plaza to raise awareness about the number of people who have died from AIDS and HIV disease. AIDS Awareness Week will culminate with a two-day peer health education conference - "Students Working for AIDS/HIV Prevention (SWAP)" - designed for students from Stanford and community colleges in Alameda, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz counties. Scheduled from noon to 6 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, the conference is sponsored by the universitywide AIDS Research Program, with matching funds from California College Health 2000. It will be followed by a dance party beginning at 9 p.m. in the Lagunita Courtyard. Tickets will be $10 at the door; proceeds will benefit the ELLIPSE Peninsula AIDS Services in San Mateo County and the ARIS Project in Santa Clara County. Other fundraising events to benefit ELLIPSE and ARIS include community outreach days in downtown Palo Alto Feb. 17-21 to ask for support and involvement from local businesses, and a contest to guess the number of condoms in a container in White Plaza. Among the dozens of Stanford students and staff members involved in organizing the week's activities are Phil Hwang, Thane Kreiner, Hsien-Hsien Lei, Chris Levinson, Jill McDonough, Molly Phelps, Carla Sanchez-Palacios, Jeff Shelby, David Thornton, Kimberly Young, and Carol Pertofsky, director of the Health Promotion Program at Cowell. More information can be obtained by calling the Stanford Health Promotion Program at 723-0821. This is an archived release. This release is not available in any other form. Images mentioned in this release are not available online.	51,761
Big, brutish and stupid - it's a commonly held view of our prehistoric predecessors; they were as wild as the animals they hunted. By Helen Sewell BBC News Online science staff But it's not one the science tends to support. Much can be gleaned from fossil evidence but much else remains guesswork New discoveries are revealing just how sophisticated some of our ancestors were and how much further back in time that complexity of behaviour existed - much earlier than we thought. This is the picture that emerges from the BBC's new television series Walking With Cavemen. It takes the viewer back three-and-a-half million years to show how modern humans evolved. The series follows the lives of individuals at each step in the evolutionary process, exploring their habits and behaviours and pointing out the traits we share today. "What intrigued me the most is how much of the caveman remains in us today and how much we are shaped by these bizarre creatures that have come before us" said director Richard Dale. "It makes you stop and think," added Peter Georgi, the series producer. "It makes you realise that practically everything you do comes from how these early creatures behaved, from the way they ate their food to the way they competed for attention." Actors take the part of our ancestors The study of early humans is one of the most hotly contested subjects in science today, and the programme makers consulted more than 100 scientists, from experts in weather and stone tool-making, to geneticists and primatologists. Palaeontologists have dug up a number of skeletons, from the earliest hominid that walked on two legs, Australopithecus arafensis, to Homo heidelbergensis, the first to survive by imagination and ingenuity. Bringing them back The skulls of different species have different shapes and sizes. Some have jutting brow ridges, others have larger or smaller teeth. What we know of their skeletal features gave the Walking With Cavemen team a good idea of early humans' anatomy and how they moved. HUMAN FAMILY TREE Scientists are trying to piece together the species relationships Animatronics experts and prosthetics makers used the fossil evidence to construct likely replicas of their bodies and faces. "What we've made is fascinating connections," said Richard Dale. "We have pooled together the best scientific evidence in the world to recreate our ancestors and make them look as realistic as possible, not in the Hollywood sense of the word, but as scientists know they looked." Peter Georgi added: "It's the most modern, scientifically accurate rendition of our modern human ancestors ever done for television or film." Filling in gaps But much of it remains pure guesswork. The fossil evidence is fragmentary; some of the interpretation is very speculative. Researchers have their pet theories and the arguments among scientists can be very fierce. This lack of definitive information about early human traits is something that frustrates Professor Clive Gamble, from the University of Southampton. He cites, as an example, the hair of Neanderthals. "We don't know if it was long and straight or short and curly, and we'll never know" he told BBC News Online. Homo heidelbergensis was an accomplished hunter He suspects that Neanderthals, which are portrayed in the series as rather unkempt, were likely to have been quite keen on grooming. He thinks their appearance may have been much neater, perhaps with slicked back hair. Some anthropologists believe their hair might even have been red. Live or die Some of the behaviour of our early predecessors, though, was easier to piece together than their facial features, with the skeletons yielding a large number of historical facts. Different types, or isotopes, of carbon atoms taken from the bones indicate whether a species ate primarily plants, meats or fish. Scientists have also managed to extract DNA from some bones, which can be compared with modern human DNA. Meaning: "Robust" boisei after US industrialist Charles Boise who funded discoverer Mary Leakey Time: This gentle vegetarian creature lived approximately 2.5-1m years ago Fossil: Leakey found a skull at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, in 1959. Further find at Koobi Fora, Kenya Meanwhile archaeological evidence of stone tools and wooden implements shows how each species lived and how they used their environment for getting food, whether hunting animals or gathering fruits. The series sees the ancient primates moving from their origins in East Africa across to the Middle East, Asia and China, and finally into the hardships of the Ice Age in Northern Europe and into a devastating drought in Southern Africa. The programmes show how they had to keep up with their changing environment or die. Species like Homo heidelbergensis, fierce hunters with sophisticated tools who lived in close-knit family groups, managed to evolve. Many scientists think they eventually gave rise to Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, modern humans - us. But those like the earlier species of Paranthropus boisei, whose behaviour was specialised for survival in only one niche, didn't manage to make it. Walking With Cavemen is a four-part series that starts on BBC One on 27 March	272,901
Sharing is caring! Did you know the giant pandas are on the edge of extinction? After a few years, the bears may completely vanish from the face of the earth. Evolution is one of the reasons but there are other causes behind extinction. China is doing a fantastical job in saving the adorable creatures and the panda reserve centers are remarkable examples. In this country, the panda bears have strong root to the cultural and economic value. Additionally, it is safe to say that they have become national treasures. For providing a close up look of the pandas, the travel agency has come up with a beautiful opportunity. It is now possible to be a part of the panda interaction in Chengdu. Every traveler who has served a day as a panda volunteer can recall how easy it is to fall in love with a panda. The bears have a pair of distinctive eyes. It is interesting to note that their eye patches can make the eyes appear bigger. And, everyone knows how cute big eyes can be! Even, it is pretty hard not to pay attention to the roly-poly body too. If you are a lover of such sheer cuteness, you cannot miss the awesome chance either. So, you can go through the rest of the article to know what to expect. Get Up Close and Personal with the Cutest Bears If you ever wanted to be a zookeeper just for the day, you must head to Dujiangyan. The base supervises the pandas closely and takes care of them. You can get adequate help from the panda keepers who ensure happy and healthy giant pandas on a daily basis. The basic task includes cleaning enclosures and preparing food. When you are going to finish the task, you can return home with an unforgettable experience. Of course, the experience of feeding the adult pandas by hand is something that you cannot forget ever. Moreover, you can go home with a certificate of recognition from the China Conservation and Reserve Center for the Giant Panda. Other Highlights of the Interaction Program For creating lifetime memories, you need to join the Dujiangyan volunteer program. Becoming a zookeeper just for the day can even enrich life in an unthinkable way. You can prepare the food following their special diet. In addition to the context, there is a great way to personalize panda cakes as you like. If your luck permits, there is an amazing chance to identify the celeb pandas like Taishan, born in Washington. The volunteers can witness the Asiatic black bears, a wide range of rare species of pheasant, and red panda. When you are done being a lovely and caring panda keeper, you can visit the Sichuan Cuisine Museum, Jiezi Ancient Town, and Dujiangyan Irrigation System. If you want to embark on this educational and beautiful journey, you should get your tickets as soon as possible. In the meantime, you can also keep an eye on the itinerary of China nature travel for a mesmerizing experience. Author bio: Wang Chiu is a popular blogger who has published many articles on the advantages of China nature travel. Here, he talks about the things to experience while being a part of panda interaction in China.	277,019
Las Vegas Records and Firsts The $8.4-billion CityCenter is the most expensive privately funded project in the western hemisphere. The Palazzo, with 65,000 tons of steel, is the largest steel construction job in America. The Las Vegas area has grown by 12.2% since the 2000 census and is the Fastest growing Metro area in the US Forum Shops at Caesars Palace is the nation's most profitable retail center -- generated sales of $1,400 per square foot. World's largest video display: The Fremont Street Experience is a video screen spanning four city blocks. Positioned 90 feet above Fremont Street, the attraction stretches 1,400 feet and consists of 12.5 million synchronized LED modules, including 180 strobes and eight robotic mirrors per block. It's capable of producing millions of color combinations, animation and video feeds, allowing the display to switch from a swirling ocean setting to a television broadcast in minutes. World's largest atrium: The Luxor's 30-story atrium measuring 29 million cubic feet can fit 13 Boeing 747 airplanes comfortably. World's highest thrill rides: The Stratosphere boasts the world's four highest thrill rides; the Big Shot, X Scream, the High Roller roller coaster and Insanity the Ride. World's largest sign: The free standing Las Vegas Hilton sign in front of the hotel on Paradise Avenue is the largest free standing sign in the world. At 279 feet tall, the sign boasts over six miles of neon and fluorescent lights, a total surface area of more than 70,000 square feet, and it's 40' thick. Think of a 70,000-sq. ft., four-story building on it's end. A larger sign that stood at the same location was blown down during a severe wind storm. While smaller than the original, the new sign is still the largest free standing sign in the world. World's most expensive resort: At $2.7 billion, the Wynn Las Vegas resort and casino will hold this record for a while. World's most hotel rooms: Gee, could it be...yes, you guessed it, Las Vegas Metro holds this record. For a city which ranks 30th on the US population scale, this is an impressive record. Last count 1/2007 yielded 132,605 rooms. World's most convention and meeting space: At over 9 million square feet and 3.5 million more by 2010, no other city comes close. World's Largest Gentlemen's club The Sapphire club in Las Vegas features "private party rooms" that can accommodate up to 1000 people as well as a 400-seat "showroom" and 13 "VIP Skyboxes" Worlds Largest glass sculpture: The Fiori di Como is housed in the Bellagio. The colorful ceiling sculpture, which can be seen in the lobby, measures 65' 7" by 29' 6" and was created by Dale Chihuly. It took some 40,000 pounds (about 2,000 pieces) of hand-blown glass. World's largest ball of string...just kidding World's Largest single gold nugget: The Golden Nugget displays the world's largest single gold nugget, the "Hand of Faith" which weighs 61 pounds, 11 ounces. World's Most powerful light beam: (and one of three man-made objects visible from space): The Luxor 's beam comprises dozens of lamps called Xenon lamps, which cost $1,200 each and will last up to 2,000 hours. Each lamp is 7,000 watts. Total, they are 315,000 watts. World's largest watch store: Tourneau Time Dome in the Forum Shops at Caesars recently was expanded from 1,100 to 17,500 square feet. More than 8,000 timepieces from more than 100 watch brands are showcased inside the store. Most fountains in a hotel: There are more than 1,000 fountains on the man-made lake at the Bellagio. The fountains, designed by WET Design, shoot water 243 feet in the air. World's largest slot machine win: What would a Vegas records list be without some mega winnings? On March 21, 2003, a 25-year-old software engineer from Los Angeles won $39,713,982.25 after putting in $100 in the Megabucks slot machine at the Excalibur hotel. Tallest chocolate fountain: Jean-Philippe Patisserie boasts a first-of-its-kind, 14-foot-tall freestanding fountain (although, in total, it measures 27 feet tall with its mechanics) of melted chocolate. The glass-enclosed, floor-to-ceiling chocolate fountain emerging from the patisserie displays a series of melted chocolate cascades. The fountain is housed in the Bellagio. Largest bronze sculpture in the United States: The 45-foot-tall lion that stands outside the MGM Grand weighs a hefty 100,000 pounds. It was cast in 1,600 individual pieces of half-inch-thick bronze plate, welded together and supported by an internal steel structure. Nation's tallest freestanding observation deck: At 1,149 feet, the Stratosphere Tower is the tallest freestanding observation tower in the United States and the tallest structure west of the Mississippi River. World's largest birthday cake: When Las Vegas celebrated its 100th birthday in May 2005, the city unveiled the world's largest birthday cake -- a 130,000-pound-plus confection that will make the Guinness World Records. The Imperial Palace on the Las Vegas strip is the nation's first off-airport airline baggage check-in service.	61,311
More than 83 percent of Americans live in cities or their surrounding metropolitan areas. In fact, our metro regions comprise 37 of the world’s 100 largest economies. As a consequence, the choices we make for our ”people habitat” have enormous impacts on our well-being, economy, and natural environment. The good news is that communities create efficiencies that reduce per-person resource consumption and pollution. They are critical to any credible approach to environmental quality. But for decades we have allowed our older communities to deteriorate while allowing our newer ones to gobble up the landscape with suburban sprawl. That must change: by making our neighborhoods, cities and metro regions stronger, more livable and more efficient, we can save money, protect natural systems and dramatically improve our quality of life. We have an important challenge, but also an important opportunity, right now: over the next 25 years, America’s population will grow by 70 million people (that’s equivalent to adding the population of Germany). And more than half the buildings that we will have in 25 years are not yet on the ground. This is our chance to get things right. What is a Sustainable Community? In its most basic form, a sustainable community is one that can continue in a healthy way into an uncertain future. More formally, a sustainable community reflects the interdependence of economic, environmental, and social issues by growing and prospering without diminishing the land, water, air, natural and cultural resources on which communities depend. Housing, transportation and resource conservation are managed in ways that protect economic, ecological and scenic values. For more on what an ideal sustainable community might look like, visit A Trip to Sustainaville. At NRDC, we address sustainable communities at three important scales: neighborhoods, metropolitan regions, and city systems. Most people experience "the environment" first in their neighborhoods. This is where incremental changes are constantly taking place. Sustainable neighborhoods are walkable, offer transportation and housing choices, conserve resources, and provide convenient access to shops, services, parks and schools. Local officials, citizens’ groups, and private business all have roles to play in creating better neighborhoods, and NRDC is helping. Read more >> Sustainable metropolitan regions The shape of our metropolitan regions – cities and suburbs – defines our footprint on the landscape, the length of our commutes, our ability to interact and function economically. A sustainable metro region replaces poorly defined sprawl and traffic congestion with strong central cities and suburbs, efficient transportation networks for getting around, and respect for natural systems. NRDC pursues good metropolitan planning that promotes the environment and economy, distributes infrastructure logically and efficiently, and minimizes intrusion on nature and the working landscape. Read more >> Sustainable city systems While it is critical to engage in holistic planning to improve our neighborhoods and metro regions, it is also important to address important specific issues that affect quality of life and the long-term health of our cities. Innovative approaches are now available to improve, for example, urban stormwater management, food access and health, transportation, waste management, park access, air quality, and other city systems. NRDC is at the forefront of developing and promoting these approaches. Read more >> Action Center and Solutions At NRDC, we develop and advocate sustainable solutions to the environmental challenges facing our communities. We place special emphasis on innovative approaches to improve older neighborhoods, inform plans for residential and commercial development, contain harmful suburban sprawl, and demonstrate sustainable practices for key urban components such as food systems, green infrastructure to prevent water pollution, and transportation. We work for the innovations of today to become the standard practices of tomorrow. Blog Posts from NRDC Experts - Fighting Poverty, Segregation is Part of Urban Resilience - posted by Shelley Poticha, 9/30/15 - Pope's Climate Week visit adds imperative to the growing progress on climate - posted by Amanda Eaken, 9/24/15 - Here's how we can cut petroleum dependence: use the Transportation Special Session to give Californians real transportation choices - posted by Amanda Eaken, 9/11/15 - Burlington, VT: Recognized by the United Nations as a Model of Sustainability - posted by Hannah Robinson, 7/15/15 What can you do today? - Get involved in community planning. - Commute car-free for a day – give transit a try. - Volunteer for a community garden. - Shop locally to support neighborhood businesses. - Sign up for car-sharing or bike-sharing to get around town. - Plant a street tree. - Join a smart growth organization. - More from Smarter Living >> - How smart is your city? Find out at NRDC's Smarter Cities. - For tips on how to green local business operations and save money, visit NRDC's Green Business Guides. - What makes a green neighborhood? A Citizen's Guide to LEED for Neighborhood Development - Smart, green ways to protect rivers and lakes from runoff pollution: Rooftops to Rivers II - Find out how communities benefit from better transit options. - Check us out on YouTube! last revised 2/6/2012	30,594
always much more to a tempest than its terrible thunderclaps. While all eyes and ears are trained on nature's feistiest displays, a host of overlooked things work at gentler rhythms right alongside. It is no different with the Zambezi, the fourth-largest river system in Africa after the Nile, the Zaire and the Niger. Zambezi River's full 3,540km length – running south and then east from northern Zambia all the way to the Indian Ocean via Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique – most travellers only experience its greatest wonder, Victoria Falls. Also known as Mosi-oa-Tunya, the “Smoke that Thunders”, the world's largest falls channels the Zambezi's impressive water volume into a 250km-long zigzag spectacle of rock-eating cataracts and steep-walled gorges perfect for the extreme adrenaline rushes of white-water rafting, kayaking, river boarding and more. Some people call the area, including the nearby twin towns of Livingstone (Zambia) and Vic Falls (Zimbabwe), the adventure capital of Africa. all this high-octane hoopla, however, the upper reaches of the river are just as enrapturing, albeit often in a more languid way. Unbeknown to most, you do not have to travel far from Victoria Falls for a complete change of pace. Just a few kilometres upstream are serene riverside lodges that allow for the easy ogling of birds and big game, including hippos, crocodiles, giraffes and elephants; while the calmer waters bring the more gentle pursuits of canoeing, drift rafting and river boating. safari is an excellent way to explore the upper Zambezi. Glide along in a solo inflatable canoe; or, if you are more inspired by a group experience, take a seat in a large raft. With a paddle in one hand, camera in the other, your senses are bristlingly alert – undisturbed by the drone of a boat motor – to more than 350 bird species and the bush enlivened by munching, grunting and shuffling wildlife. When you make welcome landfall on the beaches of, say, Katombora Island, one of many on the upper Zambezi, you find sand so pure it squeaks beneath your feet. As dinner cooks, watch the local villagers drifting past in their makoros (dugout canoes), the waters teeming with tiger fish. After a colour-wheel sunset, a canopy of stars decorates the skies. water level is low, trust your guide to navigate the shallow channels and avoid the grumpy hippos. At high water times (February to May), even small rapids, while no challenge to negotiate, may set your heart aflutter. A two-day trip, with half- and one-day options possible, can be organised though Bundu Adventures, located at Maramba River Lodge in stately triple-decker catamarans ply the Zambezi’s waters, leaving from and returning to the landing of The Royal Livingstone hotel, just south of Livingstone town. Although built in the 21st Century, the African Queen and African Princess look like river boats from the early 20th Century, finished in teak and beech wood with ships, seating for 80 to 120 passengers (depending on the boat) hardly detracts from the two-hour float along the river edge of Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park, a perfect vantage point for spying wildlife. The animals are most active at sunrise and sunset – and the sunsets are unforgettable – but the cruise experience is lovely at any time of day. evenings, the luxury liners share the river's currents with “booze cruises”. This combination of sunset-viewing plus wildlife- and bird-spotting with an on-board barbecue and open bar have made river-borne evening entertainment options very popular on the Zambezi; try Taonga Safaris, whose launch site is at the River Shack, next to the Livingstone Boat Club. spending the night in Livingstone or Vic Falls, head out of town to a room on the quiet waterside fringe of the Zambezi. Mama Out of Africa and Kayube Zambezi River House are two self-catering and eco-friendly properties located on a 90-hectare private estate about 20km west of Livingstone that looks straight across to Zimbabwe's Zambezi National Park, a treat to both bird- and wildlife-watchers. Out of Africa, parked right on the banks of the river under a large thatch roof, is an old bus converted into lodge for up to four people. Driven here from Germany many years ago and dubbed the “Okavango Mama” along the way, the bus has had many lives, including one as a mobile dressing room during the filming of Out of Africa. You could be relaxing where Meryl Streep or Robert Redford once sat. Surrounded by lawns and towering old-growth trees, the two-room Kayube Zambezi River House is a private luxury accommodation, complete with housekeeping staff. local tours and activities can be booked from both lodges through in-house tour operator victoriafallszambia.travel, including private river safaris, guided visits to traditional villages, bike or horseback rides and, when accessible due to changing water levels on the river, picnics on the adjacent Chundu Island.	275,073
After a year in office, the Obama administration seems to have managed to split the country on most issues. Approval ratings of 50 percent as of mid-January indicate widespread disagreement on many of the President's policies, from health care reform to climate change to financial regulation. Add issues like "card check" and "Buy American," and it's a good bet that there's a big difference of opinion in the metals industry, too. But if there's one administration policy goal that's likely to win near-universal approval, it's the desire to rejuvenate the nation's manufacturing base. That manufacturing is in decline is no secret. According to government figures, manufacturing accounted for 12 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2007, down from 15.9 percent in 1993 and a post-World War II high of 28.3 percent in 1953. The rise in globalization and free-trade agreements also means that U.S. manufacturing is battling it out in a global marketplace, and the numbers don't look too good compared with our largest trade rivals: manufacturing accounted for 23 percent of Germany's GDP and a massive 34 percent for China, according to figures cited by the National Association of Manufacturing. Of course, a good portion of China's manufacturing output ends up being consumed in Springfield rather than Shanghai, something that's a continuing bugbear for U.S. industry. But while the White House is protesting with varying degrees of intensity about China's trade policies, it's increasingly adopting the same basic model—an export-led demand boost for manufacturers—as it attempts to lead a recovery of the battered U.S. economy. That makes sense. With the dollar remaining weak (as a result of market forces, not a government-led peg) and domestic demand unlikely to rebound sharply as U.S. consumers rediscover the virtues of saving, the export market presents growth opportunities that are unlikely to be found at home for some time. Developing new markets for U.S. goods also creates jobs at home. This should be good news for steel. It's generally agreed that the long drive towards efficiency over the past 10 years has left U.S. production costs among the lowest in the world, while domestically produced hot rolled is now selling at levels that are competitive with steel produced by other major nations. That should result in rising exports, and the figures bear that out, both in the short term—exports were on the rise for much of 2009—and over a longer period; exports now account for 15 percent of shipments vs. just 8 percent in 2003, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. High-value products like alloy and electrical steels have seen particularly strong demand from overseas markets, industry participants note, but even commodity-grade products are in demand. So will steel follow in the footsteps of the ferrous scrap market, where domestic pricing and availability is routinely determined by purchase decisions in Turkey and China? It's doubtful. Developing nations will remain structurally short of domestic scrap for years to come, guaranteeing a ready market for scrap-rich nations like the United States. But the surge in international scrap trade in recent years illustrates how export demand can transform domestic market dynamics. There's another big difference between steel and scrap: import policy. U.S. scrap shipments to China aren't competing with a domestic industry. The same can't be said of Chinese shipments of oil country tubular goods, line pipe, PC strand and other products, which are all subject to dumping duties or investigations by the International Trade Commission. So far, U.S. steel exports generally have avoided the same fate (one recent exception being electrical steel products, which are subject to a controversial—and, some would say, politically driven—dumping investigation in China). Given the strains in global trade relations, and those between the United States and China in particular, this could change quickly if U.S. exports do ramp up. In the past decade the steel industry spent a lot more time, effort and lobbying dollars fighting off the threat of imports than it did focusing on opportunities to develop new markets outside North America. Might the next decade see that trend turned on its head—or will trade tensions with China and other nations derail any rise in exports? Whatever the answer, the health of the metals industry is likely to be as much tied to trade flows in 2020 as it is today.	107,579
Senator John Flanagan (2nd Senate District) recently announced the enactment of legislation he supported that will help provide better regulation of animal breeders and pet stores. The new law (Chapter 553 of 2013 signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo) authorizes local governments to enact more stringent laws than those that currently exist at the state level. Any new local laws, rules, regulations or ordinances must be at least as stringent as state law and must not result in banning the sale of dogs and cats that are raised in a safe and healthy manner. Previously, local governments were prohibited from enacting laws to govern pet dealers. The new law would bring consistency with many other animal related laws including the regulation of dangerous dogs, seizure of animals and the operation of spay/neuter facilities by allowing municipalities to act in the best interest of their own communities. With limited state resources, it was difficult for the state to track and punish unlicensed dog breeders who intentionally avoid regulation by quickly selling dogs online and through private sales. In some cases, even the conditions of licensed facilities are called into question, with some dogs spending their entire lives kept inside small enclosures that have wire-floored cages and are stacked upon each other. Under this new law, if a municipality chooses to adopt a more stringent local law, enforcement of the new law will be the sole responsibility of the municipality. The New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets will continue to enforce existing state laws pertaining to animal care by pet dealers. The new law is supported by a variety of animal rights organizations, including the ASPCA, New York State Citizens Against Puppy Mills and the New York State Animal Protective Federation. “Providing local governments with the ability to enact laws to better regulate pet dealers will enhance accountability and oversight which will help protect animals and consumers as well. Local leaders and law enforcement are the first line of defense in their communities, with better insight into the activities in their areas. That local knowledge could prove useful in identifying irresponsible pet dealers and allow for quicker action to protect those animals involved,” stated Senator Flanagan. Senator Flanagan has been a leader in the fight to protect animals in New York State. Last year, he authored a new law to enhance the “Pet Lemon Law” to provide consumers with greater protections when purchasing a pet. This new law will protect consumers for up to six months if an animal is diagnosed with a congenital defect or illness by requiring pet shops to provide consumers with a refund of the full purchase price, including any taxes, or the option to select another animal of equivalent value. Under the enhanced law, the consumer would also be provided with payment of any reasonable veterinary costs that were expended.	268,111
The Texas Agricultural Extension Service is offering a Cow-Calf Standardized Performance Analysis workshop April 18-19 at the Texas A&M University Research and Extension Center. The center is located just north of San Angelo on U.S. 87. The course will start at 9:30 a.m. in the center's classroom. “SPA gives ranchers a way to analyze their cow-calf operation from the production and financial sides,” said Dr. Jason Johnson, Extension economist and a workshop coordinator. “With the current factors affecting the cattle industry, it is imperative that producers know how their operations are performing from the production as well as the financial standpoints. “The SPA program facilitates the comparison of an operation's performance between years, producers, production regions, and production systems. It is intended to be used as an annual tool by the cow-calf producer. “This will be a hands-on workshop where ranchers will actually complete their own analysis for the 2000 calf crop with assistance from the program's personnel.” Johnson said participants who register for the course will be sent forms so they can organize their data before the workshop. Confidentiality of the producers' data will be maintained. Johnson said individual conferences will also be available for producers. “All participants must pre-register for the workshop by April 13,” he said. “This is so they can be advised on how to organize their data for the SPA analysis.” Registration is $100 for ranches that have completed the analysis in the past and $150 for new ranch participants. The fee includes the software, educational materials, meals, and refreshments. For more information or to register, contact Johnson at 915-653-4576.	259,582
Cloud computing, mobile, Advanced Persistent Threats. All are buzz words of the moment in IT and information security circles and yet all are frequently misunderstood and dealt with in silos. It’s become something of a truism to say that the cyber security landscape is constantly morphing. Well, as APTs adapt for the Web 3.0 age, a holistic approach to managing cloud, mobile, cyber and physical security becomes even more fundamental to the success of your information security plans. Web 3.0 is the next stage of the internet. An internet for the machines where everything with an electric current running through it has an IP address and is communicating with other machines like it, without the need for human intervention. The machines will get to a point approaching artificial intelligence where they will learn about your likes, dislikes and needs, locations and associations and organize and present information to you from the web. The user must not demonstrate intention as he or she will not need to click on a link or open an attachment anymore to receive information. This is big data, driven by the cloud and with the mobile device as your personally tailored endpoint which gathers, stores, accesses and transfers this information. Such data can of course be extremely valuable to the avaricious cybercriminal. But what we’re starting to see in the financial services sector and at a government level are cyber crooks using proximity attacks so that not only do they get access to the victim’s prized cloud data, but they can also hack the physical attributes of the phone for gain. These attacks could come originally via a network-based intrusion, or be aimed directly at the device via a spear phishing or spear texting attack, an unsecured Wi-Fi connection or malware disguised as a legitimate app. They used to be the preserve of the movies. Not anymore. Now, malware can be used to effectively hack your reality. The cybercriminal is able to completely take over your device, view your calendar schedule and turn on the camera or mic to spy on an important meeting, for example. Meanwhile, thanks to the cloud and Web 3.0 data your location can be tracked with ease at all times. The automation of these proximity attacks hearkens a brave new world. It’s not difficult to see how dangerous such threats are to commercial or government organisations – not only do the hackers have access to a gold mine of sensitive information being pushed out to the endpoint, but by eavesdropping through the device they could gather additional saleable competitive intelligence or perhaps even leverage the info for insider trading. These kinds of attacks raise important questions about how your security teams are working right now and how closely aligned your mobile and cloud security strategies are. Physical and cyber security teams have historically always competed for budget but internal strife needs to be placed aside to tackle the threat of proximity attacks. At last, there is an area where both can collaborate effectively – cyber criminality which poses a physical threat to the security of the organisation. It should also be a wake-up call to CISOs that their efforts to secure the cloud should never be thought of independently to mobile security. The device is not merely the endpoint for big data and the cloud; it’s an intrinsic part of the ecosystem which needs to be included in a holistic approach. As for the mobile devices which represent the greatest risk to organisations, it’s not Android smartphones but the wide variety of tablets which executives are demanding they be able to use at work. Typically, these devices are bought by the execs themselves, who make matters worse by requesting IT allow them to receive and view sensitive documents. It makes it very difficult to manage and secure these while adequately mitigating the risk of proximity attacks. So what can CISOs do? Well, they can’t say no to their senior execs but they could limit the functionality of the devices in specific locations to reduce risk. For example, access could be granted in the boardroom but only if SMS texting, microphone and camera features are switched off. It’s about limiting the functionality and making the device context-aware according to location. Another pillar of good information security is a viable cloud strategy which incorporates the endpoint – mobile – and in order to achieve this they need to think about continuous monitoring. APTs are designed to evade detection and use the most insidious means to do so. Installing advanced logging, deep packet inspection and file integrity monitoring tools will give security team’s greater situational awareness of what’s going on in their environment to enable them to spot when something isn’t quite right. Finally, in a Web 3.0 world, organisations must take a more holistic approach to security across the board, from cloud to endpoint, and tie physical and cyber security together. Technology moves at a blistering rate of change and the bad guys are always first to adapt. We need to make sure we do all we can to make it as difficult as possible for them to get what they want.	66,591
The Vision Matures: Completing the Campus and Creating a Research Institute Landmark College’s 3rd president, Dr. Lynda J. Katz, Ph.D., guided the maturation of the College during her 17-year tenure. Dr. Lynda Katz was appointed the third president of Landmark College in 1994, and she served for a remarkable 17 years before her retirement in June 2011. Before coming to Landmark, Dr. Katz served as Program Director for Neuropsychological and Rehabilitation Services in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, where for 25 years she taught, administered, and did research. Her presidency ushered in a period of dramatic change at a pivotal moment in the College's history. Her original vision statement from 1994 suggests just how dramatic this change would be: "Landmark College will become increasingly recognized as the center of excellence for teaching, research, and training in the learning disabilities field. Second to none, the name Landmark College will be recognized nationally and internationally as a resource for professionals in the field for persons with learning disabilities and their families, as the authority on postsecondary education." The specific goals she wrote up that year were these: an enrollment increase from 350 to 400 students; the creation of an endowment program; the establishment of a faculty rank and promotion system; an upgrade of faculty salaries; the addition of a first-class athletic facility and a student affairs complex; the enhanced use of technology and classroom implementation; an increase in student retention; national recognition of Landmark College; and finally, an increased recognition of Landmark College as a major contributor to the State of Vermont. All of these have come to pass. Expanding the Campus One of Dr. Katz's first objectives involved the improvement and expansion of the existing campus facilities. As she indicated: "When I came, most folks thought about the campus as a very narrowly defined space, primarily centering on the Administration Building and the residence halls. Almost immediately, the Fine Arts Building was renovated, having recently been purchased prior to my arrival. Then everything started to click in terms of a vision for a comprehensive campus that students would want not only to attend, but also one from which to obtain their degree." After the Fine Arts Building renovation, the next large physical project involved an extensive renovation of the Student Center. Through ongoing fund-raising efforts, as well as the overwhelming generosity of founding trustee Charles Strauch and his family, the new Strauch Family Student Center was opened to the Landmark Community in 1997. Currently, it houses the offices of Student Affairs, Counseling and Health Services, the campus bookstore, student mailboxes, the Cafe, a student game room and several meeting rooms. In attending sporting events on campus, Dr. Katz recognized that while its facility, an inflated dome that was affectionately known as the "bubble," had become a distinctive feature of campus, she also felt strongly that the Landmark Community deserved to have a true sports complex where the entire College community could participate in sports or cheer on the Land Sharks in relative physical comfort. Thus began a second fundraising project to bring the envisioned athletic center to life. The Click Family Sports Center was dedicated on May 17, 2001, thanks to the incredible generosity of many individuals, but especially Jim, Vicki, and alumnus Chris Click. The opening of the Center coincided with the spring graduation that year, and the Clicks were present to cut the ceremonial ribbon, and to speak in front of what was the largest graduating class in College history. As a way of thanking them for their generosity, Basketball Coach John Wood awarded the Clicks the game ball of the final championship game of the team's undefeated season. The Click Family Sports Center houses a full gym, rock climbing wall, exercise pool, and weight room, and sees active use by the college community from dawn to dusk. A Campus Completed Early in 2004, the Board of Trustees directed the College to proceed with three capital building projects, all which were completed by the 20th anniversary: a newly renovated East Academic Building, an expanded Dining Hall, and the Bridges Residences. The East Academic Building, or EAB as it is commonly known, was the last of the original campus academic buildings to be renovated. The renovation process used much of the existing building materials, refurbishing, renovating, and putting to good use much salvageable material, including using the old tables in the science lab as display space. It also incorporated a number of environmentally friendly building principles into its design and for this received designation from the state of Vermont as a "green" building. It houses the offices of Academic Affairs, as well as the Drake Center for Academic Support, a number of classrooms, offices, and a multimedia auditorium. The renovated dining facility allows for the anticipated growth of the student population to 500, and includes a large dining area especially suitable for gatherings or presentations, as well as a small private dining room accommodating smaller groups. Major Grants & National Exposure During Dr. Katz's tenure, the College received three generous federal grants and a congressional award: a Title III Grant, a Title VII Grant, a National Science Foundation Grant, and a congressional award for assistive technology research and dissemination. In 2000, the College was awarded a 1.75 million-dollar Title III grant which has made possible various forms of professional development opportunities for faculty and staff, as well as allowing for extensive means of performance outcomes assessment by tracking students' progress and performance over time, and using that information to inform and modify the College's academic and residential life programs. During the previous year, Landmark received a Title VII grant from the U.S. Department of Education which allowed Landmark to share its expertise in teaching students with learning disabilities and ADHD with other colleges in Vermont and across the country. While Vermont Senator James Jeffords authored the changes in the Higher Education Act that created that new program, he credited Dr. Katz as well: "Her expertise was invaluable in helping to author the legislation—the first specifically recognizing the needs of college students with learning disabilities." Lynne Shea was named Director of External programs (the predecessor to the Landmark College Institute for Research and Training) and the Project Director for Title VII. The grant resulted in a number of workshops for educators throughout the state, as well as four handbooks on LD and ADHD, on teaching writing, on reading and study skills, and on teaching in the content areas—all written by Landmark faculty and staff. Also, in 2000, the College was awarded a $425,000 National Science Foundation Grant to develop an Introduction to Biology curriculum based upon universal design; meaning the information taught would be accessible to all students regardless of learning style. Under the grant, Landmark science faculty and colleagues from nearby schools and colleges created a teaching manual titled Biology Success! Teaching Diverse Learners: A Resource Manual for Biology Educators, intended to set the standard for the teaching of students with learning differences in the classroom.	256,418
More info – http://bit.ly/w4n2mS In our new Ableton Live video tutorial series, “Did You Know?”, Ableton Certified Trainer, Dubspot Instructor, and electronic musician Thavius Beck checks out less explored and slightly hidden features in Live. In this newest installment of Did You Know?, Thavius explains and demonstrates an often overlooked an even more often misunderstood feature; Hi-Quality mode on the EQ8. The EQ8 has a Hi-Quality setting that is not enabled by default. We are able to find the Hi-Quality setting by right-clicking on the EQ8′s title bar and selecting “Hi-Quality” from the contextual menu that appears. Once that has been done, the EQ8 will be in Hi-Quality mode, but what exactly does that mean? This is a question that took me quite a bit of investigation to find the answer to, and one that requires more explanation than I intended for these particular videos, but this series is all about sharing esoteric knowledge (as it relates to Live of course) so that is what I will do right now. When Hi-Quality mode is enabled on the EQ8, the audio being fed into the EQ is oversampled by a factor of 2 (meaning the sample rate of the audio is doubled. If your session’s sample rate is 44.1kHz, enabling Hi-Quality will make the audio being fed into the EQ8 88.2kHz). Then the EQ changes are calculated at the doubled sample rate, and finally the audio as it leaves the EQ is undersampled by a factor of 2, or basically brought back to it’s original sample rate. Why does this happen? It all has something to do with what is referred to as the Nyquist Point. The Nyquist Point is one half of your sample rate, so if your session’s sample rate is 44.1kHz, the Nyquist Point will be 22.05kHz, which is right at the upper limit of human hearing, and just beyond the furthest right edge of our EQ8′s GUI. Any audio that produces a frequency higher than the Nyquist Point cannot be accurately reproduced digitally and will have aliasing or digital distortion as a result. Because of this, the EQ8′s frequency range was initially limited to 22kHz on the high end (when working on a session with a 44.1kHz sample rate). If your EQ is in normal mode (not Hi-Quality), and you create a notch on the 4th EQ point (reduce the gain all the way on the 4th point), start to increase the Frequency on that 4th point. You’ll notice that as you get closer to the Nyquist Point (22kHz when working with a 44.1kHz sample rate), the curve of the EQ gets squashed so that the curve doesn’t extend beyond 22kHz. Now, enable Hi-Quality mode and try the same thing. Notice how the EQ curve remains intact no matter how close you get to the Nyquist point. So what does this mean in terms of practical application? Well, it means that you will probably only notice the effect of the Hi-Quality EQ8 if you’re working on a session with a 44.1kHz sample rate, and the improvement will really only be noticeable on the higher frequency sounds effected by the Hi-Quality EQ8. As for specific instances for when you’d want to use the Hi-Quality setting and not, I think that is really for the individual to research a bit further, do a few A/B comparisons, and decide for themselves. As I was doing my research for this post, I searched a few forums to help me gather the info I needed, and I also reached out directly to the Ableton HQ. Here is a very helpful and informative series of posts from the Ableton forums. And below is the explanation for the Hi-Quality setting directly from Matt Jackson at Ableton HQ: “The main difference is that the entire signal is oversampled in high quality mode. Actually the slope isn’t changed. To get technical, in normal mode with a project sampling rate of 44.1kHZ, you have a nyquist frequency of around 22kHZ, the limit of the EQ. Because – in the design process – the filter is derived from an analog prototype, which has no such a limit, all frequencies (and up to infinity) must be matched to the available frequency range of the digital filter, resulting in the squashed slope near nyquist frequency. If you look at the EQ in normal mode, you’ll see the filter slopes warp as they get very close to the 22kHZ mark. If you change your project sampling rate to 88.2 or higher, you’ll see that this warping no longer happens. This is because the nyquist frequency is now much higher than 22kHZ. The same thing happens when you turn on high quality mode when working at 44.1kHZ. Then Live over samples just the EQ so that the filter gives the correct response all the way to the end. (There is no change in the bottom.)” So is it time to fully get rid of your stationery studio and move over to the iPad, at least Auria may be a big first step in that direction Auria is a 48 track digital audio workstation designed exclusively for the iPad. Built from the ground up to be used in professional studio and live tracking applications, Auria includes the necessary tools for recording, mixing, and editing any project. Auria introduces innovative features such as AAF import/export for moving sessions between popular DAWs (like Pro Tools and Nuendo), 64-bit double precision architecture, and up to 24 tracks of simultaneous recording using compatible USB audio interfaces. WaveMachine Labs has teamed with PSPaudioware to offer a powerful vintage-inspired channel strip on every channel, plus a mastering processor on the master and subgroup channels. Auria also features a first among mobile apps – in-app purchase of VST plugins; Auria includes several bundled plugins (convolution reverb, stereo chorus and delay, classicVerb and a pitch processor). Plug-ins by PSPAudioware, Overloud Audio Tools, Fabfilter and more will be available through in-app purchase. WaveMachine Labs is pioneering the effort to develop the VST standard on iOS, allowing manufacturers to easily port their existing plugins to the iPad. “I Only Wanted to be Alone” courtesy of James McCartney This sound installation depicts the possible problems of the flow of information. It tries to reflect the human misaudition, the lapse of information and the social problems which derive from these. The design is clear and it has a transparent structure. Using analog technology and ignoring complicated ones are all used to strenghten the expressiveness of installation. After turning on the wlakman the tape starts to move. Each walkman plays the sound, which is on the tape, in a different point. However, the sound is the same the constants are chaotic. The reading points are not the same distance from each other. Some walkmans are louder while others are quieter so the consonants are not homogeneous. If you bend closer to the walkmans you can easily notice where they are in the course of replay. ‘Making of’ a new sound library of springs – check here for more info: And here’s the pitch: This video demonstrates how to use Transform to make massive layered sound effects like the ones heard in the original Transform trailer. TRANSFORM is an extensive collection of field recordings, sound effects and designed sounds developed by sound designer Jean-Edouard Miclot (a.k.a. JEDSOUND). Bundled with sample mappings for many popular formats, TRANSFORM’s painstakingly recorded and processed sounds will find their home in the arsenals of sound designers, editors and music producers alike. AVAILABLE NOW @ http://twistedtools.com/ Audio Demo made by Richard Devine using sounds from the sample pack. Motiongraphics and Editing by axiom-crux.net Over 1.64 gigabytes of field recordings, sound effects and designed sounds 24bit/96khz WAV audio embedded with Soundminer enriched metadata 46 sampler instruments for a variety of popular formats Ableton Simpler/Sampler, Battery 3, EXS24 MKII, Kontakt 3, Maschine and Reaktor 5 A brand new version of Twisted Tools’ MP16, called MP16c Kore and Maschine templates for MP16c TouchOSC MIDI and OSC template for MP16c Bonus kit by Richard Devine Additional content by Twisted Tools and Jedsound Experimental French composer Pierre Henry, one of the pioneers of musique concrète, is the subject of this documentary that traces his development of a new sound that shocked the music world. During the 1950s, the radical innovator and his colleague Pierre Schaeffer created a unique form of music based on electronically modified environmental noises. Director: Eric Darmon As early as the Apocalypse Now movie in 1979 when Francis Ford Coppola and sound designer Walter Murch pioneered a quadraphonic sound system for the film tour, Coppola has made sound and audio technology an important part of filmmaking, including building a dedicated mixing facility, American Zoetrope. In 2010, under the direction of Coppola, Zoetrope was turned into one of the first post-production facilities to install a Meyer Sound EXP cinema loudspeaker system on its rerecording stage and has since upgraded the other rooms to EXP. Tetro and Twixt are two of his movies that were mixed on an EXP system. In this video, Coppola chats about the evolving role of sound in his storytelling and his sound facility in Napa. Learn about American Zoetrope: http://www.zoetrope.com/ Learn about Meyer Sound EXP: http://www.meyersound.com/products/exp/ Making of second ambience library for HISSandaROAR, recorded with three stereo mics: Sennhesier MKH70 x 2 DPA 4060 x 2 If you’ve ever had to sync waves to picture then you will appreciate the need for a collection of cleanly recorded waves of various scales; from gentle idyllic waterlaps to more turbulent surf. Each location in this new library was recorded to six tracks, capturing a narrow & coherent stereo image with a Sanken CSS5 microphone, a dynamic & exciting pointillistic image using a pair of Sennheiser MKH70s, and a more diffuse, brighter image using a pair of omni-directional DPA 6040 microphones. Each ambience in the library contains a minimum of three minutes duration for each of the three sets of stereo mics, in all fourteen beach locations, along with a photo to clearly identify the setting, and GPS coordinates incase you’d like to visit on Google Earth. This library aims to provide sound editors with the ability to easily choose which location and recording/s best match the perspective and point of view of your footage. Alternatively if you need a micro-nap, hit play & transport yourself to a pristine Pacific beach, far far away…. Showing the new Loop Recorder and SoundCloud export added in Addictive Synth Version 1.2 Dynamic wavetable synthesizer • Six dynamic wavetable oscillators per voice, up to 48 total. • Continous morphing between two oscillator sets. • Realtime editing of up to 128 partials (overtones). • Realtime editing of filter structure to create arbitrary body resonances. • Extensive modulation possibilities using up to 4 LFOs and 4 Envelopes. • Control matrix allows real time control of five parameters using the X/Y touch pad, the modulation wheel and the tilt sensors of the iPad. • Monophonic or polyphonic with 8 voices. • 128 factory presets, unlimited user presets can be shared. • Up to three effects concurrently usable selected from: equalizer, phaser, flanger, chorus and stereo/cross delay. I made a recording of a Shō (japanese Mouth Organ) playing several chords.I processed the file using Absynth’s granular engine and envelopes. Sho and U In the 8th century, a variety of Chinese sheng were introduced to the Japanese court. Some of these instruments, called u by the Japanese, are still preserved in the Shoso-In Imperial Treasure House in the ancient capital of Nara. The present day Japanese free-reed mouth organ, or sho, evolved from these instruments. Sho are traditionally used to produce a chordal texture in Gagaku, the music of the Japanese court. The present day sho is much thinner than the sheng, although its design is similar, with the pipes arranged in a circular fashion extending from the top of a wooden wind chamber. It usually plays at least an octave higher in general, to the sheng. The sho is an extremely expensive instrument to purchase, as the pipes are usually constructed from blackened hundred year old (or more) bamboo that has been part of a thatched roof, directly above the kitchen in a traditional Japanese house. These houses are rare now, and as such, so are the pipes to make a sho. Many contemporary composers, both in Japan and in the West, are writing for the sho, and sho virtuosi like Miyumi Miyata and Ko Ishikawa are performing these works internationally, on both the sho and modern reconstructions of the u.	92,809
The intricate gears and mechanisms of a watch with a complicated movement are usually hidden inside a metal housing. But not with Richard Mille's latest creation, the RM65, which features a housing carved from a single block of sapphire crystal. So if you were wondering how they justified that $1.65 million price tag, there's your answer. Besides providing an intimate view of the watch's inner workings, the use of sapphire crystal also has some distinct pros and cons. It's typically used for the glass dome covering a watch's face since it's very scratch-resistant—meaning the entire M65 should stand up well to wear and tear. But because it's still crystal, it's not indestructible. So an unfortunate drop could leave one of the five lucky owners (it's one of those super-limited-edition deals) of this timepiece with over one and a half million dollars worth of broken watch on their floor. [Richard Mille via Born Rich]	257,163
[en] We present an overview of the recent developments concerning the spectroscopic properties of lanthanide atoms and ions (Z = 57-71). This review is focussed on the advances made during the past twenty years regarding the analysis of the spectra, the transition probabilities, the radiative lifetimes and also the hyperfine structures and isotope shifts. Theoretical aspects as well as experimental measurements are both covered in this paper including bibliographical references up to the end of 2001. Some astrophysical implications of the new atomic data concerning the chemical composition of the sun are briefly reviewed. Emphasis is also put on the new database D.R.E.A.M. developed on a web site of Mons University in Belgium.	16,377
That is a Business, Not a Boomtown Inside early nights, towns used to banner and visit bust overnight. Even at this time, you are able to travel out Western side and see true blurry communities, typically the remains regarding an dropped or lost settlement, in the midst of the pastry pie cake. The motive why these existed has emptied, be them yellow metal or even essential oil, still their whole skeletons remain, together with the wildcatters who established them shifted long back once the area means machine dried up. Additionally, you experience to figure out upfront no matter if you’re any fly-by-night wildcatter or a trader. Businessmen generate schooled judgement making together with choose a community, as the web webpage user, you include to make up your mind whether as well as not you are likely to invest within the web site, hold about after uncomplicated funds, as well as go for the extended term cost. Customers trust businessmen who had a specialist prospect to extensive increase since they understand they are able to go on them how to be presently there. It’s All About „Strategery” Take into account when your company’s older man sought after anyone, „what will you undertake along with your everyday living? micron That was a crucial question nevertheless is. The crucial element to all the things e-commerce has a plan. You have to own a strategy. An e-commerce site without a realistic strategy is for instance a new mail with out using rudder. For the air conditioning manage shipwrecked at some point. You need to know exactly what you are likely to market. You’ll want to establish a status for consistency with your own manufacturers. A person have to help truthfully ask who will be your current target options market and exactly undertake they look like demographically. Being an e-commerce manager, you demand a good understanding involving what their central market expects, just how your individual product or service fits in and also the you can easily make your company’s products the normal and repeatable business type. It is advisable to talk to these and even a hundred or so other uncertain questions previous to opening way up a new e-shop in order to explore that certainly no one’s considering your ‚canihazacheezbrgr’ themed Snuggies. Don’t Always be Reluctant that will Get Community! Uncle Ernie always swore that colour TV was just a craze, and also he would quite possibly the exact involving community networks, however Uncle Ernie is unsuitable. The social web hooks up people in new and interesting tactics, and networking like Facebook, Twitter as they are making end user communication and company knowledge expression a critical part about any corporation’s online strategy. One can find complete unique on-line sector groups using experienced consumers looking to waste their dollars with everything through Tweeters tweeting about Imagine Chi a?os food vehicles in R. A. to help mixed news flash crafters inside Tacoma, who sell by sites enjoy Etsy or Pinterest so that you can global clients. And these kinds of are helping to make serious bank; simply no kiddingthe around. It’s a genuine game bouleverser because at least it levels the enjoying field for vendors enjoy yourself. You just have to learn so that you can make use of to be able to your benefits. Towards Be incorrect is normally Human to Eliminate Divine Fantastic, know that you make by yourself to decreasing the bar council regularly. Difficult ?nternet sites tend to be like the very roach auberge of the particular modern-day world-wide-web times. Way too often web site raisers fill up all their pages using excessive ranges of navigation, catalog stuff, gobs regarding text and pictures in the exact expect involving luring consumers injury lawyer toronto like many these sharp “claws” in the particular drinking water seeing that humanly possible. This kind of approach reeks of numbing power and simply piteuxs the main besides outside of shoppers, who, as fast as possible, just want to get their item and even pay with regard to it and post shots of felines on most of their Facebook internet page. Try to use some minimalist method create them easy repair from faults. You can certainly buy online website templates. Cleanse pages, of course laid out and about as well as properly directed help make it easy for your shoppers to profitably make your purchase. Visit our website: That is a Business, Not a Boomtown	140,124
Environment Hailsham is holding a Murder Mystery play tomorrow (Saturday August 9). Environment Hailsham, which was previously Hailsham in Bloom, is holding the Murder Mystery play at the Charles Hunt Centre, in Vicarage Fields, Hailsham, to help boost its funds. Environment Hailsham is a charity which is run by volunteers who help to give the town a floral presence. Members said they plant up the flower troughs and baskets around the town to help make it prettier for everyone. The play is being staged by the Catsfield Players and starts at 7.30pm. Entry is £6.50 to include a ploughman’s supper. Children aged 12 to 16 can get in for £2.50. Organisers said the venue, the Charles Hunt Centre, near Waitrose, has ample free parking nearby. People are encouraged to bring their own drinks. There will be a raffle taking place during the evening. A spokesman for Environment Hailsham said the event would be ‘a fun family evening’. For more information about the event, contact Joy Bowder on 01323 840 382. Environment Hailsham gained independence and became a registered charity earlier this year. Created in 2008 by a handful of enthusiastic people and initially called Hailsham in Bloom, it was developed by Jeff Bentley Astor and Richard Grocock with the simple aim of making Hailsham a prettier and more attractive town by having planted areas full of flowers which would be maintained by volunteers. The charity maintains its own finances by fund raising.	262,482
A symbolic reading of Genesis inspired this roasted pepper dip. This year, I decided to cook a recipe based on each week’s Torah portion as part of a project to better understand Jewish teachings on food and agriculture. - Make: Golden Beet and Mushroom Salad One of my memorable dishes was derived from the Torah portion Vayera (Genesis 18-22). In Vayera, Abraham and Sarah expel Abraham’s concubine, Hagar, and her son, Ishmael, who wander in the desert. Later, God commands Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, but at the last minute, a ram is sacrificed in his place. To express this portion through food, I made roasted pepper dips with the same ingredients in different colors to represent the two brothers, Isaac and Ishmael (and sprinkled them with sesame seeds to hint at their shared father). The dips are surrounded by greens that represent the bush under which Hagar left Ishmael — and the thicket in which the sacrificial ram was caught. The dips should be served with bread, as a reminder of the bread that Sarah and Abraham offered to three strangers who passed by their tent, as recounted in the Torah portion. 2 organic red bell peppers (read about why they should be organic) 2 organic yellow bell peppers 6—8 smaller carrots (preferably orange, yellow, red and purple) 4 cloves garlic Small bunch of frisée or other greens 2 tablespoons olive oil 2 tablespoons tahini Salt to taste ½ teaspoon lemon juice ¼ teaspoon schug or other chili paste ½ teaspoon pomegranate molasses or ½ medjool date 1 handful toasted walnut (about 15 whole walnuts) ¼ teaspoon black sesame seeds 1) Pre-heat oven to 500˚ F. Wash vegetables. 2) Place all peppers, carrots and garlic (with skins) on parchment paper lined trays and drizzle with olive oil. 3) Cook until brown, turning over halfway through cooking, approximately 40 minutes. 4) Remove from oven and let cool. Once cool, peel pepper skins and take out seeds. Remove garlic skins and carrot tops. 5) Place yellow peppers, 2 cloves garlic and 3—4 carrots (yellow, if you have) in blender with tahini and a pinch of salt. Blend until smooth. 6) In another blender container, place red peppers, 2 cloves garlic and 3—4 carrots (red and orange ones) in blender. Add schug, pomegranate molasses, walnuts, salt and lemon juice. Blend until smooth. 7) On a platter, arrange dips side by side and sprinkle black sesame seeds on top. Then, arrange frisée or other greens along the edge of the plate. Sarah Newman writes Neesh Noosh: A Jewish Woman’s Year Long Journey to Find Faith in Food.	39,300
The fine for passing a B.C. school bus when children are getting on or off is being more than doubled to $368. The previous fine of $167 was one of the lowest in Canada, and a greater deterrent is needed to keep children safe, Transportation Minister Todd Stone said Monday at an announcement at the B.C. legislature. The fine is the same increase as that recently announced for distracted driving penalties. For passing a school bus when its flashing stop lights are activated, drivers already get three penalty points for a first offence. A second offence within a year would trigger a $300 penalty point assessment on top of the $368 fine, plus an automatic review of the driver’s licence that could result in a suspension. From 2009 to 2014, police in B.C. have issued 1,100 tickets to drivers for failing to stop when school bus warning lights indicate. In the same period, 14 children were injured. Peace River North school bus driver Cindy Dettling attended the announcement. Stone and Public Safety Minister Mike Morris credited her with bringing the issue to the government’s attention when she saw more drivers putting her passengers at risk.	178,252
Japan, N. Korea end deep freeze Japan's Koizumi will become his country's first prime minister to visit North Korea Tuesday. BEIJING — Leaders of two of the most unlikely states in Asia, Japan and North Korea, shake hands Tuesday in a major effort to normalize relations, after a two-year diplomatic freeze and almost a century of hostility. Junichiro Koizumi, elected leader of the world's second largest economy, and Kim Jong Il, inheritor of the world's most closed and controlled state, will talk for several hours in Pyongyang, on the first visit ever by a Japanese leader to the North Korean capital. If Prime Minister Koizumi secures prospects for normalized diplomatic relations with Mr. Kim a relationship Tokyo and Pyongyang have never had the visit could well be regarded as historic. The two states, separated by the Sea of Japan, have suffered dysfunctional relations and deep animosity dating to Japan's 35-year occupation of Korea, which ended in 1945. Normalization would put Japan on important new footing in the region, analysts say. The beleaguered nation would improve ties with both Koreas, creating a climate of greater congeniality between North and South. Such diplomatic success could also win Koizumi plaudits at home. The summit comes as the US is preoccupied with a possible Iraq campaign. Indeed, the diplomacy seems to many analysts a bid by the Japanese to break out of a deep-freeze over North Korea often blamed privately, in Tokyo, on US inattention due to the war on terror, or on a lack of US strategy on the North. The Bush team has been divided over how tough to be on North Korea, with strong hawks battling lesser hawks. "The Koizumi effort is the only way to 'end run' the current [Bush administration] logjam on Korea policy," a highly placed US government adviser says. Koizumi will carry to Pyongyang a promise of some $10 billion in aid a figure comparable to the compensation paid when Japan normalized with South Korea in 1965, and a sign of Japanese apology for World War II occupation. As always with the North, the wild card is the mercurial Kim. The leader is viewed with great skepticism in Asia, based on his history of making, then breaking, deals. But Kim, for his part, faces shortages of food, power, and funds: North Korea's economy has shrunk by half in recent years, and desperately needs foreign currency. Moreover, a sunny summit could also benefit the North by revitalizing South Korea's now-troubled "Sunshine Policy." President Kim Dae Jung, originator of the policy that supported taking baby-steps toward normalized diplomatic relations, faces a national election this December against opponents far less willing to engage generously with the North. Kim, who recently termed the summit "epochmaking," has lately shown a willingness to distance himself from fellow "axis of evil" list leader Saddam Hussein by indicating, last week, that he will allow International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors into the North in coming months. Still, if the summit is to be a success, analysts say, Koizumi will need concessions on a range of issues. Kim must clear the air on 20-year-old accusations that 11 Japanese were abducted by the North. He must also extend a moratorium on testing of the "No Dong" missiles, hundreds of which are currently aimed at Japan. Analysts who say Koizumi is the only leader in Japan willing to propose internal reforms worry that the prime minister will harm himself politically if the summit fails. Most Japanese regard the North, much more than China, as a security threat, and welcome a decrease of tensions. Perhaps as a result of these doubts, the Japanese have slightly scaled back expectations in recent days. "It is difficult to speak of normalization of relations with North Korea," says a foreign ministry source. "Koizumi will put everything on the table, [but] the prime minister's aim is simply to find out if there is the political will. Can Kim make a political decision to talk about all the issues?" Japanese sources say there have been "more than 100 informal meetings" between Japanese and North Korean contacts over the past year, and a steady building of momentum leading up to the summit. Japan, for its part, is taking great care that the summit does not overstep the good relations with the US that are a bedrock of Japan's foreign policy. Until now, the practical effect of the Bush approach in the region has been to put initiatives by allies Japan and South Korea on hold. That is why Japan is approaching the summit with great care. "Japan wants to redirect a slow process, but not alienate its No. 1 ally, the US," says Ronald Montaperto, of the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, a defense think-tank in Hawaii. Former President Clinton supported the Sunshine Policy of reconciliation with the North that won South Korea's president a Nobel Prize. But since the early days of the Bush administration, diplomatic movement in North Asia has been in deep freeze. Bush pulled the plug on the Clinton "Perry Process," a US bid to engage the North that worked in tandem with South Korea's Sunshine Policy. Then Bush branded North Korea an "axis of evil," bringing diplomatic relations to a standstill. "You can't have a Sunshine Policy and an 'axis of evil' policy at the same time," says one European scholar of Asia, in Beijing. Now, the White House affirms that it will meet with North Korea for talks. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage last week signaled that he might go to Pyongyang shortly after Koizumi. Though Bush administration hawks favor putting maximum immediate pressure on the North to halt its weapons exports, lesser hawks are willing to accept smaller victories. "The US is not so concerned that Koizumi is out ahead [of the US]," a former US Bush administration official agrees. "We are more concerned that he get something for his efforts. The main question is: Has Kim really decided to open, or is this another of his gambits for face and money?" "Mainly, what the US wants Kim to do is to start playing by the rules," says Mr. Montaperto, "The US and Japan have been working closely. What the US wants is a breaking of the cycle of Kim Jong Il relations," in which Kim makes promises, renegs on them, and hopes for better offers from neighbors. " I don't see how Kim loses anything by this," he says. "He pleases China, Russia, and South Korea. He needs Japan, and Japan funding. And he may pressure the US." "In Japan, we are always making negative comments about North Korea," adds a foreign ministry official. "I've never heard any positive comments. But a certainty in the US that North Korea will one day fold is not enough. In the meantime we need to engage the North, to work toward dialogue, to pursue and explore. That is a fact of life in this part of the world."	61,960
As promised in an earlier post, VIAF (the Virtual International Authority File) is now available as linked data. For those not familiar with VIAF, it is a merger of nearly 20 national-level name authority files (currently we are only dealing with personal names). There are some 9.5 million personae described in VIAF and have established more than 4 million links between the files. To us linked data means: URIs for everythingHTTP 303 redirects for URIs representing the personae our metadata is aboutHTTP content negotiation for different data formatsAn RDF view of the dataA rich a set of internal and external links in our data.... In addition to using the extensions (e.g. m21), HTTP content negotiation can be used to get the various versions of the record. The canonical URI currently returns an XML version of the VIAF record (which gets rendered into HTML in the browser via XSLT), but in the future we expect to return HTML. As more of the authority files contributing to VIAF become available on the web we will be including more links to external sites. For RDF we are currently returning a fairly rudimentary Friend of a Friend (FOAF) record. Friday, September 25, 2009 Some interesting news about the VIAF.	280,098
One of the all time biggest motivators is fear & pain. My guess is it’s a throw-back to our cave-men and cave-women days when fear & pain helped us seek safety, harness fire and stay away from poisonous mushrooms and berries (not to mention snakes and tigers). I have needed to lose 20 pounds for several years. NEEDED because my blood pressure is too high, my knees too painful and much of the weight is around my middle (considered to be the most dangerous for health). I try to motivate myself to lose pounds by reading about the dangers of being over-weight. Here’s my latest: “More recently, a brain scanning study including more than 500 participants confirmed that being overweight or obese is associated with a greater degree of age-related brain degeneration. These effects were biggest in middle-aged people, in whom the obesity-related changes corresponded to an estimated increase in ‘brain age’ of 10 years.” “Obesity is a complex condition with many contributing factors, however; so exactly how it might affect brain structure and function is still unclear.” Body fat is the defining feature of obesity, but you’ve also got things like insulin resistance, hypertension, and high blood pressure” . . . “These can go hand in hand with behavioural factors [such as overeating and lack of exercise] and they can all potentially cause changes in the brain.” If this doesn’t inspire me perhaps fear isn’t my biggest motivator after all. What is your most potent motivator? Click here for the article: why-obesity-damages-your-mind-as-well-as-your-body	253,285
Doctor Q&A: High Heart Rates & Loud Heartbeats After Cardiac Surgery Published: June 8, 2020 I just received two great questions about the heart after cardiac surgery. Tyler asked me, “Are high heart rates common after surgery?” Lisa wrote in, “Adam – I had surgery three days ago. My heart is beating very loudly at night, almost like it’s beating out of my chest. Is this normal?” To provide Tyler and Lisa expert responses to their questions, I interview Dr. Junaid Khan, a leading cardiac surgeon from Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland, California. As you may already know, Dr. Khan is a heart valve specialist having performed over 2,500 heart valve procedures during his career. Here are the highlights of my interview with Dr. Khan specific to high heart rates and loud heartbeats. Key Patient Learnings from Dr. Khan Dr. Kahn shared several important points during this interview that I wanted to write down and remember: Dr. Junaid Khan - High heart rates are common after cardiac surgery and normal as patients recover from heart surgery. - Up to 25% of patients may experience atrial fibrillation, an abnormal or irregular heart rhythm after heart surgery. Atrial fibrillation needs to be monitored as it can cause an elevated risk of stroke. Medications can be used to manage atrial fibrillation. - Most of the time, higher heart rates and atrial fibrillation are temporary cardiac conditions for patients and go away over time. - Loud heartbeats are a common experience for patients following heart surgery. Patients may experience a feeling that their heart is beating out of their chest. - Patients who have heart valve surgery through different access points – sternotomy, minimally-invasive (thoracotomy) and transcatheter approaches – may experience loud heartbeats. - Those patients who receive a mechanical heart valve may hear their heart valve “tick” as the valve opens-and-closes. Thanks Tyler, Lisa & Dr. Khan! I hope that helped you learn more about high heart rates and loud heartbeats after heart surgery. I want to thank Tyler and Lisa for their questions. I also want to extend a special thanks to Dr. Khan for sharing his clinical experiences and research with our patient community! Keep on tickin! P.S. For the hearing impaired members of our community, I have provided a written transcript of my interview with Dr. Khan below. Adam Pick: Hi, everybody, it’s Adam with heartvalvesurgery.com, and we’re answering your questions on the Ask Adam Anything series. I am thrilled to be here today with Dr. Junaid Khan. Dr. Khan, are you there? Dr. Junaid Khan: I’m here with you, Adam, good to be with you. Adam Pick: Yeah, well, as everybody knows, Dr. Khan, you’re a long-time supporter of our community. You are a leading cardiac surgeon at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center up north of me in Oakland, California. Dr. Khan has performed over 2500 heart valve procedures. Dr. Khan, we’ve got some great questions for you today that we’re going to be talking about all about the heart after surgery. To begin, can I ask you, obviously valve therapy is a huge part of your practice. Can you share with our community what it is about fixing valves, repairing and replacing them, that’s so exciting for you? Dr. Junaid Khan: I think, Adam, that’s a good question. I think the valve repair part of the business is really the art of cardiac surgery. No two surgeries are alike. You try to go in and see what’s left or what the problem is inside the heart, and then you move the internal parts around. Sometimes you put in new hinges, put in a ring. I think I like it because it’s very artistic. It allows us to really protect the patient’s own anatomy and it has the best long-term outcomes. That’s why it’s so appealing to me. Adam Pick: Great, and when it comes to the questions, Dr. Khan, we’ve got two great ones for you from our community members, and I got to – I can’t – I got to once again thank you for your support of our community, whether it’s Mildred Burns or Derrick Daniels or Doug Olsen, you have really taken care of the folks from heartvalvesurgery.com, and I want to thank you for that before we get into them. Thank you for your work and your team. Dr. Junaid Khan: I’ll tell you, Adam, not a week goes by that one of my patients doesn’t thank me for introducing them to your book. We give your book to every one of our patients before surgery, and they find it to be so helpful, not only for them as they plan for surgery but also in the recovery from surgery. Adam Pick: Wow, that makes me feel great. It’s been a great team effort, Dr. Khan. Speaking of the team, the patients are obviously a big part of our team, and let’s get to their questions. The first one is coming in from Tyler, and Tyler asks, “Is it common to have a high heart rate after heart valve surgery?” Dr. Junaid Khan: Well, Tyler, that’s a great question. It’s one of the most common questions we get asked. The way I answer that is there are two ways to look at it. First, controlling the heart rate we know is one of the most important components of having a good recovery after heart surgery. We don’t necessarily want you to have a high heart rate. However, sometimes when people are recovering from heart surgery, particularly when they get home, they exercise more. They may be a little bit conditioned, so it’s not abnormal to have a little bit of a high heart rate for a period of time, but it is something that you want to discuss with your doctor. The most important part, however, is something called atrial fibrillation. That can also lead to a high heart rate. Almost 25% of our patients can have atrial fibrillation. Usually that occurs while you’re still in the hospital, but sometimes it can also occur when you’re at home. It’s an irregular heart rate. This is something that is even more important, and we do want to correct that with medications. If you have a high heart rate and you’re exercising and it gets better once you stop exercising, that is probably okay, but if it’s continuously high, we do want to control that with medication. Adam Pick: Junaid, a real quick follow-up for Tyler’s question. I’m guessing there’s some patients, Dr. Khan, who are wondering, is that something where, over time, the high heart rate normalizes? Also, you referenced AFib. Is that something that is maybe a temporary thing? Dr. Junaid Khan: Yeah, so in about a quarter of patients get it. Almost for most of those patients, it’s temporary and it goes away. It’s just irritability in the heart, but we do want to control the atrial fibrillation because it can cause a host of problems. In terms of the high heart rate, we really don’t want a high heart rate for extended periods of time. Now if you’re exercising and the rate goes up, then that’s okay, but a resting high heart rate is problematic and we do want to address that and figure out the source. Adam Pick: Great. I know that helped me; I hope that helped you, Tyler, and the second question, Dr. Khan, comes in from Lisa. She asks – and it’s funny because I remember this when I got home from my procedure. She asks, “I had surgery three days ago. My heart is beating very loudly at night, almost like it’s beating out of my chest. Is this normal?” Dr. Junaid Khan: Yeah, I think what I would tell you – Lisa, it’s a great question It is very normal. It’s one of the things that we do tell patients about to expect after heart surgery. They can feel their heart beating, and sometimes people use the exact phrase that I’m feeling it beating out of my chest. Now, with everything, that’s usually normal. Sometimes when people have a mechanical valve instead of a cow valve, you can actually hear the valve sounds. If I’m going to put a mechanical valve, I tell patients that you may actually hear the valve sounds. That is also perfectly normal. There is a difference, however, about feeling that the heart is beating really loudly and you can feel it versus a feeling of something is not right. It’s beating too fast. If you’re not feeling well, then let your doctor know, but feeling the heart beat now that you can actually sense it is fairly normal after heart surgery. Adam Pick: Now then, Dr. Khan, a quick follow-up to that. Obviously when you’re doing surgery, whether a sternotomy – and I know minimally invasive approaches are very big in your practice – might a patient see this sensation more or less if it’s a minimally invasive procedure or sternotomy? Do you have any data about that? Dr. Junaid Khan: Yeah, that’s a great question. I thought we would see it less because we do so much of the small incision heart surgery but even my patients with a small incision, they feel the heart beating louder. I think it’s a sense that people are more attuned to their heartbeat. That’s why they’re sensing it. There’s no data because it’s so subjective but definitely I was surprised when my minimally invasive patients were still feeling it beat more. Interestingly, I will tell you even some of the percutaneous aortic valve patients that we do say they can feel their heart beating louder. Really for them, the only thing we’ve done is a little puncture in the groin. Adam Pick: Got it, so at Alta Bates Summit, you are doing the transcatheter procedures, the TAVR and the MitraClip, and I know that there are some other transcatheter mitral valve replacement procedures. Is that happening up in your practice? Dr. Junaid Khan: Yeah, all the above, exactly. We’re part of several trials. We do lots of transcatheter aortic valves, and we’re doing a lot of patients who are low risk in part of the low-risk trial. We’ve done lots of MitraClips and we’re also doing transcatheter mitral replacement under certain circumstances. I think the book is still out as to who’s an appropriate candidate for that and also the tricuspid valve clips. Those are the things that we’re going to be part of trials on at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center. Adam Pick: Great. Well, Dr. Khan, on behalf of all of the patients you’ve helped in the past and all the patients you’re going to help in the future, I want to extend a tremendous thank-you Your pursuit of healthy hearts and in particular, healthy heart valves is something that needs to be commended. On behalf of our community, again, we really appreciate all your support through the years that we’ve been doing this together going back, jeez, when we hosted some patient education events up there in Oakland. I still tell people about all the great patient-centric education work that you and your team are doing. Thanks so much. Dr. Junaid Khan: Thank you, Adam. It was a pleasure talking to you and thanks for being such a great advocate for our patients. Adam Pick: Yeah, and so for people who’d like to get into contact with Dr. Khan, we’re going to go ahead right now as we wrap up this video with his phone number so you can reach out to him. Again, Dr. Khan, thanks for all your time and thanks for all your great cardiac care.	289,260
NEW YORK, Apr 18 (IPS) - Such stigma now surrounds the word ‘terrorist' that most recoil from it, or anyone associated with it, as though from a thing contagious; as though, by simple association, one could land in that black hole where civil liberties are suspended in the name of national security. For many Muslim citizens of the United States, such ostracism has become a matter of routine, forcing family members of terror suspects to double up as legal advocates and political supporters for their brothers, husbands and sons.3 A budding nationwide movement to shed light on rights abuses in domestic terror cases is straining to turn that tide. One of its primary sites of congregation is the patch of concrete outside the New York Metropolitan Correction Center (MCC), where suspects deemed violent are held incommunicado. But the families that gather at the monthly vigils held there, sponsored by a growing coalition known as the No Separate Justice Campaign, speak of a different side to the story: one that involves the government abusing post-9/11 laws to round up non-violent, law-abiding Muslims for exercising their rights to free speech and religion. At a Mar. 10 vigil outside the MCC, IPS spoke with Tamer Mehanna, brother of Tarek Mehanna, a Pittsburgh-born pharmacist who is serving out a 17-year sentence in Terra Haute, Indiana. Prior to his conviction on several counts including material support for terrorism, Tarek spent two years in 23-hour isolation, the MCC in New York being just one of the locations where he was all but prevented from communicating with the outside world. Advocates say Mehanna's case represents the ‘separate justice system' for Muslims, in microcosm. Tamer recounted how, between 2004 and 2008, the FBI courted his brother, using everything from polite requests to psychological intimidation to convince him to become an informant. When all failed, Tarek was arrested at an airport in New York City on his way to Saudi Arabia. In addition to shelling out 1.3 million dollars in bail, Tarek's family was shunned by their community in Massachusetts, spent endless hours in court and even gave up their jobs in order to advocate on his behalf. "We are a very tight-knit family, and this has been hell for us," Tamer told IPS. "When my brother was arrested, my mother had to watch her son, a respectable guy, being thrown on the ground and handcuffed like an animal in front of crowds of spectators – it was deeply traumatic. "The second time he was arrested she was stronger, but it was my father's turn to break down. Before this happened, I never even saw my father shed a tear," he added. "But this just crushed him. He fell into a depression, into hopelessness, even lashed out at us for advocating on Tarek's behalf." In their firm belief in Tarek's innocence, the Mehanna family is not alone. An upcoming study co-authored by members of the National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms (NCPCF) and Project SALAM (Support And Legal Advocacy for Muslims) documents hundreds of cases of Muslims imprisoned on terror-related charges despite a lack of evidence linking them with any tangible crime. Former NCPCF Executive Director Stephen Downs told IPS that family members of what he calls ‘political prisoners' – Muslim citizens tried and sentenced for nothing more than political views or religious beliefs – are deeply traumatised and often isolated. "They share commonalities," he said, "of being made to feel unwelcome at their mosques, losing their jobs, having people slip into depression. These outcomes are entirely predictable, but to have them deliberately inflicted on you by your own government is kind of shocking." Bi-annual conferences hosted by NCPCF attract 30 or 40 family members, who Downs says cherish the opportunity to come together and be heard, as respectable citizens with genuine grievances. "They get to talk to the few people in the world who understand what they're going through," he said, "because if you haven't experienced it, you just don't get it." Family members speaking to IPS on condition of anonymity said their isolation from the community is nothing compared to the extreme forms of solitary confinement imposed on their loved ones, most of whom are housed in what the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BoP) calls Communication Management Units (CMUs). According to Alexis Agathocleous, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), CMUs came quietly into existence during the George W. Bush administration, the first in Terre Haute, Indiana in 2006 and the second in Marion, Illinois in 2008. "These units are quite unparalleled within the federal prison system," Agathocleous told IPS. "They segregate prisoners from the rest of the population and impose very strict restrictions on prisoners' ability to communicate with the outside world – this translates to drastically reduced access to social telephone calls and visits, and when visits do occur they are strictly non-contact." Of the roughly 80 prisoners held in CMUs, Agathocleous estimates that between 66 and 72 percent are Muslims, despite the fact that Muslims make up just six percent of the federal prison population. He referred to this significant over-representation as "troubling", adding, "There seems to be the use of religious profiling to select prisoners for CMU designation." Speaking at a rain-soaked vigil outside the MCC in early April, Andy Stepanian – an animal rights activist who spent six months in the CMU at Marion – said the Muslim men he met there were "exceptionally generous and caring." "There has not been a single night in the four and a half years since I've gotten out that I've not either had a nightmare or stayed up for hours wondering, ‘Why was I the lucky one who got out? Is it just because of the pigment of my skin?'" Stepanian said. In 2010 CCR filed litigation representing several inmates housed in CMUs, challenging both the arbitrary and seemingly retaliatory nature of the designation, which is made worse by the fact that the BoP offers "no meaningful process through which can earn their way out – no hearing, no discernible limit on the amount of time someone can spend in a CMU and no meaningful criteria that a prisoner can work at in order to their release," Agathocleous said. Those fortunate enough to afford the monthly trips out to Indiana and Illinois have recorded their testimony of these tightly controlled visits, painful on both sides of the Plexiglas screens that separate loved ones. At a recent NCPCF conference, Majida Salem, wife of Ghassan Elashi, recounted how her 12-year-old Down's syndrome child refused to enter the visitation room at Marion. "He cried and said, ‘It's an ugly visit. Baba no touch… it's bad,'" Salem said. "To me this is so merciless, keeping a man who did nothing but feed widows and orphans locked up in a CMU… for 65 years." © Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service Latest News Headlines Read the latest news stories: - Gaza Under Fire – a Humanitarian Disaster Tuesday, July 22, 2014 - Stunting: The Cruel Curse of Malnutrition in Nepal Tuesday, July 22, 2014 - Food Insecurity a New Threat for Lebanon’s Syrian Refugees Tuesday, July 22, 2014 - From Havana to Bali, Third World Gets the Trade Crumbs Tuesday, July 22, 2014 - Creating a Slum Within a Slum Tuesday, July 22, 2014 - U.S. Debating “Historic” Support for Off-Grid Electricity in Africa Monday, July 21, 2014 - Spain: A Precarious Gateway to Europe for Syrian Refugees Monday, July 21, 2014 - Indigenous Communities Say Education, Funding Key to Fighting HIV/AIDS Monday, July 21, 2014 - Fragility of WTO’s Bali Package Exposed Monday, July 21, 2014 - Refugees Living A Nightmare in Northern Pakistan Monday, July 21, 2014	202,859
The American public has little appreciation of just how close the United States came to collapse a century and a half ago before the Battle of Gettysburg, National Review editor Rich Lowry tells Newsmax as the nation honors the fallen on the 150th anniversary of the historic event that began on July 1. Lowry is author of the new bestseller "Lincoln Unbound: How an Ambitious Young Railsplitter Saved the American Dream — and How We Can Do It Again Story continues below video. "We tend to think big historical events are inevitable — the way they turned out, that's just inexorably the way they had to go," said Lowry. "It's never the case. And if a few things had bounced a different way in Gettysburg, we might have an entirely different Civil War." Editor's Note: Click Here Now to Order a Copy of "Lincoln Unbound." The three-day battle that started 150 years ago Monday marked the turning point of the Civil War as it ended Robert E. Lee's invasion of the north and set in motion the events that won the war for the Union forces. But now the tens of thousands of men who lost their lives in the Pennsylvania countryside are largely forgotten, says Lowry. "Altogether, between the Confederates and the Union troops, there were about 50,000 casualties over the course of those three days — killed, wounded, missing," said Lowry. "And of the 3,900 dead who were buried there at Gettysburg, a quarter of them were unknown, so you couldn't figure out who they were, which gives you an idea of just how astonishingly bloody this was." Lowry said even before the key battle, it was clear the South could not have conquered the North, "but there was a chance it could force the North to give up." But any hope of that outcome was lost as Gen. George G. Meade's Army of the Potomac routed Lee's forces at Gettysburg, says the author of "Lincoln Unbound." President Abraham Lincoln — who was to give his famous Gettysburg Address more than four months later at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery — was keeping an eye on events from the White House. "He famously monitored military operations very closely, spending a lot of time in the telegraphy office," said Lowry. "It hadn't been good times generally for the Union Army. "On July 2, the second day of the battle, Lee really thought he had won and nearly had won on that day. The Confederate troops nearly broke the Union lines, and that's why on July 3, the final day of the battle, Lee thinks it just takes one final push — this is the famous or infamous Pickett's Charge — 10,000 or so troops going straight at the Union line. "They have to run about a mile through fearsome Union artillery and it turned out to be just kind of a meat-grinder. ... It broke the Confederate Army. Lee was defeated, he had to retreat, he offers his resignation to Jefferson Davis. It's not accepted because now the only way it seems the South can survive is by relying on the kind of magical generalship of Robert E. Lee, but he'll never again regain the military initiative after that." Even so, the Gettysburg victory was "bittersweet" for Lincoln, said Lowry. He felt the Union should have pursued Lee's forces as they retreated and destroyed them, but Meade was more cautious. "President Lincoln, throughout the war, had been frustrated because he knew it was absolutely essential strategically to destroy the Confederate Army. That was a center of gravity in the war. And here he saw it again slipping, he believed, from the Union Army's fingers and he was just despairing over that. "So it meant the conflict would continue, it meant that the meat-grinder for both sides would continue, and it meant the draft, which was extremely unpopular obviously, in the North especially." Now when most people mention Gettysburg, it is Lincoln's 272-word speech — starting "Four score and seven years ago," that comes to mind rather than the three bloody days of conflict. Lincoln followed noted orator and statesman Edward Everett, who spoke for more than two hours. By contrast, Lincoln's speech was done in two minutes. "It was a very word-oriented culture," Lowry pointed out. "That's why people tend to contrast Lincoln's short brilliant speech with the supposed windbaggery of those who spoke before him who went on for two hours, two-and-a-half hours. "Lincoln's words are so brilliant, because as many people have commented, they're really a kind of prose poem, and Lincoln loved the musicality of words. He was soaked in the Bible, soaked in Shakespeare, he loved poetry," said Lowry. "He was a little bit of an amateur poet himself. He wrote a little ditty in the White House after the battle, kind of mocking General Lee. "There's a myth that he just kind of wrote it on the train, jotted on the back of an envelope and that was it. That's not how he prepared any of his speeches. "He cared so much about words, especially what was going to be such an important speech at such an important occasion. So he revised it repeatedly before he delivered it, and revised it even after it was delivered for the newspapers," Lowry said. Rich Lowry, editor of the National Review and a Fox News contributor, has authored the new bestseller "Lincoln Unbound: How an Ambitious Young Railsplitter Saved the American Dream — and How We Can Do It Again." Charles Krauthammer says "Lincoln Unbound" makes "an impassioned case for a contemporary Republican renewal on truly Lincolnian lines." Get Lincoln Unbound from Amazon – Click Here Now. © 2016 Newsmax. All rights reserved.	118,417
Hawker desalination plant to go ahead Most South Australians can turn on the tap and know the mains water surging out is drinkable, and it won't corrode their taps or kill their garden plants. This hasn't been the case for residents in Hawker, but a desalination plant is finally set to bring usable water to the town. Minister for Water Ian Hunter announced that tenders are being called for the $8 million desalination plant, which will provide long-awaited drinkable water for the mid north community. "With a bit of luck construction will start late this year and we hope to see the plant in operation late next year," he told ABC Mornings. While Hawker's water has fallen underneath the appropriate Australian drinking water guidelines, locals have deemed it too salty to use. Mayor of the Flinders Ranges Council Peter Slattery said the council and residents were relieved to have a solution to the community's long running water supply problem. He said the State Government has decided on a reverse osmosis plant to desalinate existing ground water, and the council supported this design. "There are a few options available, there are some solar desalination options that use a lot less power than reverse osmosis, but reverse osmosis is what SA Water thought was most appropriate, they're most comfortable and had the most expertise with. "The brine stream that is evaporated off is one of the main costs of a reverse osmosis plant because that's quite an expensive bit of infrastructure." The money for the project will come from the long term investment plans of SA water, and be recouped via its business plan with Flinders Ranges Council and water users. Mr Slattery explained that Hawker residents won't be footing the bill. "There won't actually be any additional or specific costs charged against Hawker residents, it will just be part of the SA Water charges across the state. "It's just the same as we all had to pay for the desal plant at Pt Stanvac and others, everyone across the State will be contributing for the SA Water budget towards this." The desalination plant will be located close to the current bore, just east of the Hawker township. "There have been new bores put down at that site, and SA water is currently negotiating with adjoining land owners for sufficient land for the evaporation ponds that will go out there," Mr Slattery said.	248,154
A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition highlights why studying the link between diet and cancer is such a complex and often confusing prospect. It also illustrates why results from any individual study must always be examined in the wider context of the research that has gone before. (Which is, let’s just note here, precisely what AICR/WCRF’s expert reports and Continuous Update Project [CUP] do.) Researchers at California’s Stanford Prevention Research picked 50 foods at random from a cookbook and entered them into a research database to see how many had been associated with cancer risk — either raising or lowering it — by individual studies. For 40 out of the 50 foods, their searches turned up studies that suggested some effect on cancer risk. Upon closer examination, the researchers concluded that many of these reported associations were weak — certainly too weak to justify someone concerned about cancer risk changing her/his diet to include or exclude the foods in question. Here at AICR, we fund a lot of studies that find associations between specific foods or food components and cancer risk. But we know that finding an association, in and of itself, is only the first step. Preparation of AICR/WCRF experts report and CUP reports begin with a similar process of database searches. But it’s what comes next that counts — years of refining our searches by eliminating studies that do not meet our rigorous, systematic criteria for consideration, looking for agreement among studies of different types. This is the real work that allows us to distinguish consistent patterns in the data from the noise — patterns that lead, eventually, to our evidence-based advice. We agree with the authors of the AJCN paper that the findings of individual studies can confuse and mislead. It’s only by looking at the totality of evidence in a systematic way that meaningful conclusions can be drawn. And a clear conclusion is that our diet can reduce the risk of cancer. There is a strong link, for example, between eating foods high in fiber and reduced colorectal cancer risk. In our Foods That Fight Cancer web resource, we are always careful to place emerging data in the greater context of what previous research has shown. And that’s why you can trust AICR’s Recommendations for Cancer Prevention, which distill thousands of studies into 10 simple statements for living healthier and longer.	88,576
Since its launch two months ago, Windows 10 has been dogged by a number of privacy concerns, ranging from machine IDs to keylogging to spying on your Cortana queries. Windows 7 and 8 were also drawn into the controversy, as Microsoft back-ported some of its telemetry gathering functions to the older operating systems, and the company was also found to be downloading the multigigabyte installation files to Windows 7 and Windows 8 machines without user permission. Microsoft had a lot to answer for, and unfortunately, Terry Myerson did not address all of the issues. He said Windows 10 was designed with two privacy principals in mind: it collects information so the product will work better, and users are in control with the ability to determine what information is collected. Myerson says that some information that is sent back to Microsoft, like the anonymous device ID, device type, and application crash data, is shared with developer partners for the purpose of improving Windows 10 reliability across the board. And really, Windows has been doing that since XP, so why get bent out of shape over it now? He added that no personally identifiable information is gathered, and that the sharing of information allows Microsoft to deliver software and driver fixes to Windows Insiders for further testing within 24 hours. Myerson also addressed concerns that Cortana sends too much information back to Microsoft when doing user queries by not addressing the issue directly. Instead, he basically said that you can shut it off if you don't like it. "Features like Cortana which require more personal information to deliver the full experience, you are asked if you want to turn them on and are given additional privacy customization options," he wrote. Finally, he spoke on the issue of collecting info from email for targeted advertising, and basically said it does not happen and threw in a dig at Google in the process. "Unlike some other platforms, no matter what privacy options you choose, neither Windows 10 nor any other Microsoft software scans the content of your email or other communications, or your files, in order to deliver targeted advertising to you," he wrote. But he said nothing on the other issues, like downloading three gigabytes of Windows 10 install code onto user PCs without their knowledge, or back-porting the Windows 10 information gathering to Windows 7 and 8 and installing it without telling users. Then there was this gem from the EULA: We will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails, other private communications or files in private folders), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to. It's a start and a decent one, but Myerson has more explaining to do. Obviously it's not too big of an issue, because one analyst believes Windows 10 has passed the 100 million installations mark.	246,492
Reuters blog archive (Photo: A man wearing a T-shirt reading "former foster home child" at a news conference presenting the final report on abuse in foster homes in Berlin, December 13, 2010./Thomas Peter) German victims of abuse in foster homes say the 120 million euros proposed as compensation was "humiliatingly" small compared with damages awarded in other countries, and vowed to fight for more. After a two-year inquiry, a government-appointed panel on Monday recommended 120 million euros be set aside for an estimated 30,000 victims expected to file abuse claims. "It's a poor start to the compensation process and another humiliation of victims," the VEH victims' group leader Monika Tschapek-Güntner said. "Roughly 30,000 victims are expected to apply for damages which will leave individuals between 2,000 and 4,000 euros." Tschapek-Güntner said that a deal struck between abuse victims and the Catholic Church in Ireland resulted in payments averaging 76,000 euros per victim. Irish compensation claims are expected to top 1 billion euros. Between 1949 and 1975 up to 800,000 children and youths lived in foster care in West Germany where claimants have alleged rampant physical, emotional and sexual abuse. Roughly two-thirds of those in foster care lived in church-run homes. Both Protestant and Roman Catholic churches in Germany applauded the panel's recommendations. Some interesting comments on Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, back in April 2008 when he was still Metropolitan Kirill, in a cable from the U.S. embassy in Moscow published by Wikileaks: ¶8. (C) Kirill seemed to be in good health was preoccupied as always with the, in his view, excessive emphasis on the individual in the West, and stressed the need to harmonize traditional human rights concerns with “morality and ethics.” Economic progress had been a two-edged sword for Russia, Kirill thought. With prosperity, Russians had “lost something” and Kirill, who is Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, pointed to less prosperous Smolensk as “better preserved” than Moscow or St. Petersburg. (Photo: Shavon Gardner, 17, sings with the Redeemed Christian Church of God youth choir at Redemption Camp in Floyd, Texas June 17, 2009/Jessica Rinaldi) The following is a guest contribution. Reuters is not responsible for the content and the views expressed are the authors’ alone. Elizabeth E. Evans is a freelance writer, columnist and priest-in-charge at St. Marks Episcopal Church, Honey Brook, Pennsylvania. By Elizabeth E. Evans A large-scale study charting the religious habits of American teenagers has quietly been underway for almost a decade but has received relatively little media attention until now. As the data from the longitudinal analysis performed by the National Study of Youth & Religion is released, (NSYR) it could and should stimulate unsettling questions for Christian parents and churches alike. Atheists and agnostics may not believe in God or gods but they know a thing or two about them, according to a survey of religious knowledge among Americans released on Tuesday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. "On average, Americans correctly answer 16 of the 32 religious knowledge questions on the survey. Atheists and agnostics average 20.9 ... Jews and Mormons do about as well, averaging 20.5 and 20.3 correct answers," Pew said. It found Protestants answered 16 correctly and Catholics on average 14.7. About 800 colourful statues of 16th-century Protestant reformer Martin Luther are popping up in the eastern German town of Wittenberg, where Luther first railed against some practices of the Roman Catholic Church almost 500 years ago. The one-metre high plastic figures in red, green, blue and black are the creation of the artist Ottmar Hörl and are intended to replace a statue of Martin Luther on the town square while it is being renovated. The world's first female Lutheran bishop, Maria Jepsen of Germany, resigned on Friday following a report she had allowed a pastor accused of sexual abuse of teenagers in her diocese continued contact with youngsters. (Photo: Bishop Maria Jepsen announces her resignation in Hamburg July 16, 2010/Christian Charisius) In an echo of scandals hitting the Catholic Church, Der Spiegel news magazine reported last week that Jepsen, 65, heard in 1999 that the pastor had abused teenagers in his care, but let him stay in contact with youngsters until 2000. The Russian Orthodox Church has called for tougher rules to reduce the number of abortions carried out in a country struggling to combat its fast-dwindling population. Russia registered 1.2 million abortions and 1.7 million births last year, according to the Health Ministry. The following is a guest contribution. Reuters is not responsible for the content and the views expressed are the authors’ alone. Elizabeth E. Evans is a U.S. freelance journalist living in Glenmoore, PA who writes about religion. By Elizabeth E. Evans It is hard to evaluate the significance of history while it is being written. But in considering whether it matters that there possibly will be no Protestant on the Supreme Court when it convenes next fall, one thing is clear – it’s a fascinating time to be a student of Christian practice in America. Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, the new general secretary of the World Council of Churches, aims to give the organisation a higher profile as a focus for action by Christian bodies on global issues like humanitarian relief in crises, climate change and the Middle East impasse. But at his first news conference this week since taking over on January 1, the Norwegian Lutheran cleric also made it clear that the constraints imposed by a widely diverse organisation that makes its decisions by consensus limit his options. It's unlikely we'll hear him taking a public stand on two of the main issues making religion headlines these days, the sexual abuse charges against the Roman Catholic Church and the disputes over homosexuality straining relations in several Protestant churches. Tveit left no doubt that the 349-member WCC, which groups many of the world's Christian churches but not the Roman Catholics, will not join in widespread criticism of the Roman Catholic Church for its continuing problem with clerical sexual abuse of children. These have surfaced most recently in Ireland and Germany.	275,254
G-d told Moshe, “Tell the priests that the descendants of Aaron may not become defiled by the dead…” (Vayikra 21:1) The beginning of this week’s parshah focuses on the kohanim, while the end of the parshah deals with the chagim (the Jewish holidays), two seemingly unrelated topics. However, a somewhat deeper understanding of the role that the kohanim play in Klal Yisroel, reveals that they are really two sides of the same idea. Obviously, the main role of the kohanim was to act on behalf of the Jewish people in terms of performing the Temple service. However, beyond that, their job was to unify the Jewish people and to keep them unified. That is why ultimately, they came from the tribe of Levi, as Leah, the mother of Levi hinted when she named her son: She became pregnant again, and gave birth to a son. She said, “This time my husband will be attached [laveh] to me, because I have given birth to three sons for him.” Therefore, she called him “Levi”. (Bereishit 29:34) In other words, inherent in Levi is the quality of attaching two things that belong together, the very basis of the kehunah (the priesthood). However, in this case the unification is not only between the Jewish people and G-d, but amongst all the tribes, something that had concerned Ya’akov Avinu from the beginning: He took two stones in his hands and said, “If these two stones become one, then I know that nothing wasteful will come from me.” (Bereishit Rabbah 68:11) He said this before he was even married, and on his way to Padan Aram after taking the blessings originally meant for Eisav. The fulfillment of this prophecy, however, will not be until the End-of-Days, as the following prophecy of Yechezkel predicted: The word of G-d came to me, saying, “Now you, Son of Man, take for yourself one piece of wood and write upon it, ‘For Yehudah and for the Children of Israel, his comrades; and take one piece of wood and write upon it, ‘For Yosef, the wood of Ephraim and all the House of Israel, his comrades’. Then bring them close to you, one to the other, like one piece of wood, and they will become united in your hand. Now when the children of your people say to you, saying, ‘Will you not tell us what these things are to you?’, say to them, ‘Thus said G-d: Behold, I am taking the wood of Yosef which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his comrades, and I am placing them and him together with the wood of Yehudah; and I will make them into one piece of wood, and they will become one in My hand’.” (Yechezkel 37:15-19) Amazingly, the issue of Jewish unity has been seen as secondary to the issue of redemption, when in fact, they are one in the same thing. The lack of unity amongst Klal Yisroel today is not just another obstacle along the path to the Final Redemption, its resolution is the Final Redemption, which was certainly made a lot harder once G-d hid ten of the tribes prior to the destruction of the Second Temple. This is why the Kohen Gadol wore the names of all twelve tribes on his shoulders, six on one side, and six on the other, which worked out to be twenty-five letters on one shoulder, and twenty-five on the other, twelve words and fifty letters in total. Even the word “kohen” alludes to this, since it is spelled Chof-Heh-Nun, the first two letters totaling twenty and the last letter, the Nun equaling fifty. It was as if through the kohen, the tribes somehow became unified. Thus, the mishnah states: Hillel says: “Be like the students of Aharon. Love peace and pursue peace. Love humanity and bring them close to Torah. (Pirkei Avot 1:12) From the mishnah it might sound like, “Well, the truth is, the kohanim were always very busy with the Temple service. However, if you just happened to meet one in the local market place, you would have been impressed how peace-loving they are as a group. Not only that, but you would have seen how, if they had a spare moment, they tended to do outreach… ” In fact, that was their Temple service; it’s just that they had different ways of carrying it out depending upon their modus operandi. On the bottom of the robe, around the hem, place pomegranates of blue- purple, red-purple, and crimson [wool], and bells of gold in-between them all around — golden bell and pomegranate, golden bell and pomegranate — around the hem of the robe. (Shemot 28:33-34) Light unifies. Not just any light, but specifically the “Ohr HaGanuz”, the original light of Creation that G-d subsequently hid from the evil people of history on the first day of Creation: “G-d saw the light that it was good, and He divided… ” (Bereishit 1:4): He saw that it was not worth letting the evil people use it, so He set it aside for the righteous in the Time-to-Come. (Chagigah 12a) So, you might ask, if G-d hid the light, then how could the kohanim access it? This is the answer to that question: G-d made a division in the light’s shining, that it should only emanate for the righteous people whose actions draw the light down; the deeds of the evil people prevent its shining, and this was the hiding. (Sha’arei Leshem, p. 103) Hence, since the kohanim were devoted to the service of G-d and commanded to remain in a high state of spiritual purity, they had open access to the Ohr HaGanuz (the hidden light of Creation). This is alluded to by both the Chof-Heh and the Nun of “kohen”, two numbers that directly allude to this very light: G-d said, “Yehi ohr — Let there be light!” (Bereishit 1:3) Though, traditionally the Hebrew word “yehi” translates as “let there be”, the entire phrase can also be read as follows: yehi = ohr, that is, yehi is the ohr. And, if the word yehi — Yud-Heh-Yud is converted into a gematria of 10+5+10, which has a total of twenty-five, then the phrase would read: twenty-five equals light, and hence, the twenty-fifth word in the Torah is “ohr” (light). As for the Nun, which represents the number fifty, it is always an allusion to the “Nun Sha’arei Binah” (the “Fifty Gates of Understanding”). This is a very a deep concept. Kabbalistically, but in simpler terms it is the Torah knowledge that results in the kind of intellectual clarity that allows a person to see the hand of G-d in everyday life, and to appreciate how mitzvot are really the most productive route for a human being to follow, and in particular, a Jew. It is the knowledge that neutralizes our yetzer hara so that we can do that which is fitting for our soul. It is the “Light of Twenty-Five” that results in the “Understanding of Fifty”, which is why the holiday of Chanukah, which occurs on the 25th day of the month of Kislev, is called “Yemai Binah” — “Days of Understanding”, made possible by the kohanim who saved the day at that time in history. It is this light that results in this profound spiritual understanding that makes the kohanim the “pursuers of peace”. Hence, the Kohan Gadol wore thirty-six bells and “pomegranates” on the bottom of his cloak, the other number that relates to this light. For, twenty-five represents the light hidden within Creation, whereas the number thirty-six is always a reference to the light after it has been revealed through the actions of man. Hence, the miracle of Chanukah that occurred through the kohanim (in the 36th Century) resulted in a holiday that occurs on the 25th day of the month that lasts for eight days during which we kindle thirty-six candles. Not only this, but the Mishkan (the Tabernacle) in which the kohanim served G-d, and through which they drew down this light, was completed on the 25th day of Kislev at the base of Mt. Sinai, the future date of the holiday of Chanukah. Apparently, that is the day in Creation that is the perfect window of opportunity for accessing this light, and anything associated with this day is, by definition, a lens for it. “You will be a kingdom of priests to Me, a holy nation.” (Shemot 19:6) Thus the “Shema”, the ultimate statement of unity, has twenty-five letters, alluding to the fact that without access to this light, the unity it commands is not possible. For Amalek divides the Name of G-d, meaning that He makes G-d appear as if He lacks unity, G-d forbid, in the minds of men. The gematria of Amalek is 240, the same as that of “suffek”, the Hebrew word for “doubt”, meaning that Amalek tries to block the Ohr HaGanuz from reaching mankind to keep him in doubt about G-d’s unity, without which the unity of mankind is absolutely impossible. This is what we learn from Mt. Sinai. At Mt. Sinai the Jewish people achieved the sublime unity of “k’ish echad b’leiv echad”—”like a single person with a single heart”. This was made possible because of the incredible revelation of the Divine Presence that occurred at that time. No nation had ever experienced such a high level of prophecy until the revelation at Mt. Sinai. There was no trace of Amalek whatsoever at that time. Likewise, the gematria of “Erev Rav” (the “Mixed Multitude”) explains the Vilna Gaon, is equal to that of “da’at” which means “knowledge”. The Erev Rav is the element of the Jewish people that surfaces because of Amalekian- based doubt, and which perpetuates that doubt, eroding the will and unity of the Jewish people. Only the Light of 25/36 can erode them until none exist any longer, on which day “G-d will be One and His Name One” (Zechariah 14:9). So, when the Jewish people are told to be a “light unto nations” (Yeshayahu 42:6), what it really means is that we are supposed to act like kohanim and access this light through our deeds, and reveal it to the world so that it can be “filled with the knowledge of G-d”: “And I will take you from the nations and gather you… And I will sprinkle pure waters upon you… And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit… I will put My spirit within you, and I will make it so that you will follow My decrees and keep My judgments and do them. You will dwell in the land.” (Yechezkel 36:23-28) After [the War of Gog and Magog], The Holy One, Blessed is He, will take His revenge against them, as spoken about in Yechezkel, and the Jewish people will dwell in their land in security and with much good. Da’at (G- dly understanding) will greatly increase, as will wisdom and purity. (Sha’arei Leshem, p. 491) Thus, the Torah when defining the Jewish people states explicitly: You will be a kingdom of priests to Me, a holy nation. (Shemot 19:6) Hence, even though all of us may not qualify to serve in the Temple, we do possess the ability to be like students of Aharon, who “love peace and pursue peace; who love humanity and bring them close to Torah.” As a “nation of priests”, each and every Jew possesses the potential to access this light and heightened awareness of reality, by virtue of the special soul we received at Mt. Sinai in order to be able to receive Torah from G-d. With access only to the level of “Nefesh”, the lowest of the five levels of soul, it is impossible to even relate properly to Torah. Therefore, by accepting Torah, we gained access to Ruach and Neshamah as well, two higher levels of soul so that we can draw down the Ohr HaGanuz through Torah-based actions, and in so doing, emanate this light to the rest of Creation until every last aspect of Creation is filled with it. If we don’t, then the consequences are formidable: “‘And it was evening and it was morning, the sixth day — Heh-Shin-Shin- Yud.’ (Bereishit 1:31): The letter Heh [preceding the word Shin-Shin-Yud] is extra… to say that [G-d] made a condition with them [Creation]: ‘If the Jewish people accept the Five Books of the Torah, then it is good; if not, then you will resort back to null and void.'” (Shabbat 88a) In other words, the letter Heh which represents the number five is an allusion to the five books of the Torah; the “sixth day” is also an allusion to the sixth day of Sivan, 2,448 years later at Mt. Sinai when the Torah was destined be given. If the Jewish people do not live up to their role as the light unto nations, then chaos will reign, and chaos is anti-relationship; it is anti-unity. G-d told Moshe, “Speak to the Children of Israel, and tell them the appointed times of G-d, to be celebrated as sacred holidays to G-d. These are My appointed times…” (Vayikra 23:1-2) Which brings us to the chagim (the Jewish holidays). The Leshem writes: However, Purim and Yom HaKippurim will not be annulled at that time [in Techiyat HaMeitim, as opposed to the other holidays], since Purim is the revelation of the Yesod of Abba [which will govern history from 8000-9000] as it is known in Kavanat Purim [of the Arizal], and therefore it alludes to the Eighth Millennium when [the sefirah of] Chochmah will be the primary influence. Likewise, Yom HaKippurim, which is the level of Binah, is the sod of the World-to-Come of the Seventh Millennium, of which we say, “the entire day is Shabbat,” as it is says in Rosh Hashanah (31a). Therefore, Shabbat, Yom HaKippurim, and Purim, which allude to periods after Yemot HaMoshiach, to periods of the World-to-Come and to eternal lights, will remain [as holidays] in order to allow access to their lights and revelations of the future. However, all the [rest of the] holidays allude only to lights of rectification of Yemot HaMoshiach after the beginning of the time of Techiyat HaMeitim onward until the end of the 6,000 years. (Sha’arei Leshem, p. 492) It is well known from Kabbalah, the Sefirot (spiritual emanations) comprised of G-d’s light, are the basis of history. All the potential of a particular millennium is within its corresponding sefirah, which acts as the spiritual DNA of that 1000-year period of time. Jewish holidays are also functions of that same light, and when one comes up during the course of a year at this stage in history, it is really a sneak preview of a light from a different period of time, a taste of a future level of spirituality, an experiencing of the Ohr HaGanuz. It is the temporary dwelling amidst the light of “on that day, G-d will be One and His Name, One”. Thus, the holidays provide access, for the rest of us, to the same light that the kohanim access by their very nature, going all the way back to Levi ben Ya’akov. Thus, we change from our regular lifestyle on the chagim to resemble the kohanim, being less involved in profane matters, dressed more like the kohanim, and being more involved in matters of holiness. Indeed, our table at which we eat our Yom Tov meals resemble an altar more than our every day table of our daily meals, at least spiritually-speaking. Furthermore, an important aspect of the Yomin Tovim was to draw all males up to the Temple from all over Eretz Yisroel, unifying them into a single people, physically as well as spiritually. Then, dressed as we were, sacrificing to G-d as we did, behaving towards one another as we were compelled to do by the holy atmosphere created at that time, we looked and acted like “Mamlechet Kohanim” — a “Nation of Priests”. At that time, we truly became students of Aharon HaKohen. Hence, the parshah ends with the account of the blasphemer, seemingly thrown into the parshah for no obvious reason. However, after having explained the parshah as we have, the connection is indeed obvious. To blasphemy is to reject the Light of Twenty-Five, to block it from entering the world and emanating out to others. The blasphemer is the antithesis of the kohanim and of the chagim as well. Thus, the Talmud equates the disgracing of the holidays with idol worship. In doing so, one denies the Light of Twenty-Five that emanates at that time, making his connection to more mundane things more important than his connection to G-d. Chol HaMoed is NOT to be treated lightly at all because of the light that emanates during it. Nor is the Omer to be treated lightly for that matter, for during each day of the Omer, it is as if another set amount of the Ohr HaGanuz is allowed to enter the world, for the one whose deeds draw it to him. And, to the extent that he is able to draw this light to him is the extent to which he will be able to fulfill the mandate of “k’ish echad, b’leiv echad”, a “single person with a single heart”, the prerequisite for a more complete Kabbalat HaTorah, the receiving of Torah on the holiday of Shavuot. Have a great Shabbat, Copyright © by Rabbi Pinchas Winston and Project Genesis, Inc. Rabbi Winston has authored many books on Jewish philosophy (Hashkofa). If you enjoy Rabbi Winston’s Perceptions on the Parsha, you may enjoy his books. Visit Rabbi Winston’s online book store for more details! www.thirtysix.org	52,592
The Friends of the P.I. Nixon Medical Historical Library invite submissions for a new student essay competition in memory of Danny Jones, M.L.S., who served as Head of Special Collections at the University of Texas Health Science Center, and was also a Past President of the Friends of the P.I. Nixon Medical Historical Library. Previously unpublished essays will be accepted on any topic related to the history of the health sciences, including the history of medicine, dentistry, nursing, public health, or any other health science or profession. A prize of $500 will be awarded to the best essay. The prize will be presented at the Friends Annual Dinner on November 7, 2013. The contest is open to current students in any of the schools of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, as well as to affiliated residents. No more than 2500 words October 15, 2013 Please send entries in pdf format to firstname.lastname@example.org. For further information Susan Hunnicutt, Special Projects Librarian Tags: September 2013	25,776
Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, was perhaps the first to refer to making teachers “jump through hoops” to get the raise. The phrase quickly caught on with people from both sides of the political aisle saying teachers should not have “to jump through hoops” to get a raise. It quickly became apparent that many teachers viewed the benchmarks as an insult – especially since new teachers would not have to achieve them. The question is if the pay raise benchmarks were designed to be absurdly easy to meet, what did they accomplish in terms of being good policy? And the second question is if the benchmarks upset teachers – the group the pay raise was intended to placate – then how are they good politics? In an extraordinary moment of honesty, when the issue originally was being debated on the House floor, House Appropriations Chairman Herb Frierson, R-Poplarville, said the benchmarks were an effort to allow Gov. Phil Bryant to “save face” since the governor had said any pay raise should include performance measures. Over in the Senate, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and Education Chairman Gray Tollison, R-Oxford, removed the benchmarks and replaced them with a system that could potentially provide teachers a bonus in three years based on their school’s performance. In the first two years, the Senate plan would provide teachers with larger raises than the House proposal. Oh, by the way, Reeves referred to the ineffectiveness of requiring teachers to jump through hoops for the raise.	288,576
It could just be four more years for Jeffrey Skilling. Skilling—the former CEO of Enron Corp. who was sentenced to 24 years in prison in 2006 for conspiracy, securities fraud, insider trading and lying to auditors—reached an agreement with the Department of Justice last month to trim his lengthy sentence to 14 years. A district judge approved the terms of a deal last week, which means Skilling, who has already spent six and a half years behind bars, could walk free as soon as 2017. In exchange for the shorter sentence, Skilling will forfeit $54 million, drop his bid for a new trial, and end litigation over his conviction and sentence. Before announcing his approval of the shortened sentence, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake III praised Skilling for the “positive impact” he has made on his fellow prison inmates. Skilling has been tutoring Spanish-speaking inmates after he learned the language himself while in jail; he also has taught business classes and set up job fairs to teach inmates how to write resumes and how to interview well. For more InsideCounsel coverage of the Skilling saga, read:	12,739
M.T. Ross, who was affectionately nicknamed "Penny", was an illustrator and comic artist in the early twentieth century. He lived in Oak Park, Illinois and had his studio in downtown Chicago. He was one of the first co-workers of Walt Disney, as well as a close friend of R.F. Outcault, with whom he developed 'Buster Brown'. M.T. "Penny" Ross moved to Southern California in 1926 to work for RKO and other studios as a set designer. Mamma's Angel Child (Baltimore American Newspaper, 6-6-1913) He created the newspaper comic 'Mamma's Angel Child' around 1913. It became extremely popular and was syndicated in 25 major newspapers nationwide for fifteen years. He illustrated children's books like 'The Flower Babies Book', 'The Flower Children', 'Butterfly Babies' (written by Elizabeth Gordon), 'Bird Children' and 'Animal Children'.	25,082
Now running in his own campaign, the son of the former mayor was advised to develop his own identity and not simply portray himself as his father redux. "Think of it as 'Combat Evolved' redux. 'Destiny' wants to meld the multiplayer and single-player experience into a coherent whole." Gieson Cacho, San Jose Mercury News, September 16, 2014 - DID YOU KNOW? In Latin, redux (from the verb reducere, meaning "to lead back") can mean "brought back" or "bringing back." The Romans used redux as an epithet for the Goddess Fortuna with its "bringing back" meaning; Fortuna Redux was "one who brings another safely home." But it was the "brought back" meaning that made its way into English. Redux belongs to a small class of English adjectives that are always used postpositivelythat is, they always follow the words they modify. Redux has a history of showing up in titles of English works, such as John Drydens Astraea Redux (a poem "on the happy restoration and return of his sacred majesty, Charles the Second"), Anthony Trollopes Phineas Redux, and John Updikes Rabbit Redux. Word Family Quiz: Unscramble the letters to create a ducere relative of redux that can mean "easily led or influenced": UILCETD. The answer is - MORE WORDS OF THE DAY - FEATURED ITEM FROM OUR STORE Theme music by Joshua Stamper ©2006 New Jerusalem Music/ASCAP	169,622
Captain Robert Posey recovered The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb stolen by the Nazis in World War II. In the spring of 1943, the United States established the American Committee on the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas – the Roberts Commission – which was charged with promoting the preservation of cultural treasures in war-torn Europe and Asia. The commission provided lists and reports on cultural treasures to military units, worked with the Civil Affairs Division of the War Department and proposed the establishment of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFA&A) section. The MFA&A were a small group of men and women who volunteered for service and whose principal charge was to protect monuments and other cultural treasures from the destruction of World War II. Yet, no less important was the MFA&A's enormous responsibility to track down and return moveable works of art which were looted by the Nazis. The officers and enlisted personnel of the MFA&A were comprised of museum directors, curators, art historians and architects. Most held degrees from Ivy League institutions and were associated with world renowned museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) and the National Gallery of Art. Yet, among that select group was an outsider, Captain Robert K. Posey (U.S. Army), an Alabama Polytechnic Institute graduate and Monuments Officer assigned to General George Patton's Third Army. Posey was born on April 5, 1904, in Morris, Alabama, and when he was 13 moved to Birmingham. Posey's family, like many Alabama families of that time, was poor and it was thanks in large part to a Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) scholarship that he was able to attend Auburn University graduating with two degrees: a B.S. in architectural engineering in 1926 and a B.S. in architecture in 1927. The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, also referred to as the Ghent Altarpiece, is Belgium's most important artistic treasure. Shortly after his arrival in Normandy in July 1944, a military courier handed Posey photographs of Jan van Eyck's "The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb," also referred to as the Ghent Altarpiece. The "Mystic Lamb" is Belgium's most important and beloved artistic treasure and arguably the single most influential painting ever made. Hitler coveted the painting and in July 1942, he ordered that the painting be turned over and with that, the "Mystic Lamb" was taken to a hiding place within the Reich. In March of 1945, Posey received a tip from a former SS officer who was an art historian and confidant of Nazi Germany's second in command, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring. The officer shared information that there was a massive theft program orchestrated by the Nazis and that Hitler planned to assemble a Reich-wide museum – the Führermuseum – in his boyhood home of Linz, Austria – with Europe's stolen patrimony which was hidden in a salt mine near the Austrian alpine village of Alt Aussee. Posey arrived in Alt Aussee on May 12, 1945, and there he discovered deep within the mine van Eyck's Mystic Lamb as well as over 6,500 paintings and other objets d'art including Michelangelo's Bruges Madonna and Vermeer's The Astronomer. From mid-May 1945 up to his return to the U.S. later that fall, Posey oversaw the rescue of thousands of priceless works by Vermeer, Raphael, Breughel, Titian, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Michelangelo, Altdorfer, Rubens and the Rothschild jewels to name a few. On Aug. 21, 1945, the Mystic Lamb left the U.S. Army's art collecting point in Munich on a chartered flight. Appropriately enough, by orders of General Eisenhower, the only person accompanying this priceless work was its rescuer, Captain Robert Posey. As it was the most important piece of artwork stolen by the Germans, it was the first to be returned. Robert Posey in the 1926 Glomerata. Though Robert Posey was proud of his contributions to the war effort, he rarely spoke about his war-time experience. Nor did he keep in long-term contact with any of the other MFA&A officers with which he served. Although having left Alabama in 1929, Posey was proud of his Alabama roots and always considered himself a Southerner. Robert Posey retired in 1974, and died on April 18, 1977, at the age of 73. For his actions in rescuing Europe's patrimony, Posey was awarded the French Cross of the Legion of Honor as well as the Belgian government's Knight of the Order of Leopold. On the day of his internment at Birmingham's Elmwood Cemetery the Belgium government sent a bouquet of flowers in sincere gratitude to an American soldier, Alabama's Monuments Man, who rescued the Mystic Lamb. (This article first appeared on the al.com website June 18, 2014.) — By Paul Harris, Associate Director of the Honors College and Associate Professor of Political Science in the College of Liberal Arts	220,743
How to create dashed-line Iron Man style balloons in Illustrator. “I’m no novice when it’s comes to illustrator but there’s one thing I still can’t wrap my head around and that’s styles. Take for example the Iron Man Balloons with it’s sort of bit toothed look. How would a letterer go about creating this? Looking a bit deeper it seems like you need edges, corners, inside corners, and etc. along with proportional stretching but every time I go to create them it doesn’t work. I’ve generally got this done for creating type but not for balloons. Maybe it’s just a free form drawing thing but I’m not sure either way. Thanks Mr. Fontastic!” Ah, that’s because it’s a Comicraft Trade Secret (TM)! Sorry. Well, ooookay… it’s actually just embarrasingly simple, and we’d rather you think we were magical geniuses or that we spend three hours crafting every balloon. But even more than that, we like to be known as kind and generous. Kind and Generous Lettering Geniuses — how about that? Anyways, here ya go… The Iron Man balloon is comprised of three layers, of which the middle one has a dashed (broken) stroke. First draw an oval using the oval tool (click on the box tool in the Toolbox and drag to the right to select it). Draw four boxes where the corners would be, and rotate them each 45 degrees. Bring the oval to Front (command-shift-]), then select the whole unit and click “Minus Back” in the Pathfinder palette (circled in green). Give this object a thick black stroke. Copy (command-c) and Paste in Front (command-f) to create a copy of the object directly on top of the original. Give this object a thinner white (or color!) stroke with varying values in the “Dashed Line” fields. Experiment to find settings you like — also try clicking the different “Cap” and “Join” boxes to get different effects!. Copy and Paste in Front again, and give the third object an even thinner solid black stroke (or no stroke at all). Draw the tail, and voila! Instant dashed balloon. You can enlarge and reduce this balloon all over the place, and the dashed bits will move around accordingly. We used other combinations of dashed strokes to create the balloons for Ghost Rider 2099, Calibretto in Battle Chasers, and Ant Man (which is just the Iron Man one without the top layer :-). Experiment to create your own concoctions! — Rich and JG	153,743
\|Publication Date\|\|September 2013\| \|Formats\|\|Paperback Ebook Hardcover\| \|Series\|\|Readings in Theatre Practice\| How has light influenced the staging of theatre throughout history? What does light contribute to performance? How does it make meaning? This collection explores the creative potential of light in the theatre. Through a wide range of extracts from historical accounts, new research and rare documents, some presented for the first time in English, Scott Palmer provides new ways of thinking about lighting as a creative performance practice. Focusing on elements such as: • the emergence of lighting design in the theatre • equipment and techniques • the dramaturgy of light • its impact on actor, audience and playhouse • the semiotics and phenomenology of light in performance, the book reveals why light has such a profound effect on the audience's experience of a theatrical event.	261,383
Recently I learned a new word for a previously nameless weather phenomenon, and as often happens I was given the opportunity to use it with a fair degree of precision. "Graupel" is from the German for graupel – snow pellets, angular bits of snow softer than hail, harder than snowflakes. As I was hauling trash bins to the curb late in the afternoon, it abruptly started falling and made a muted clicking sound hitting the pavement and car. In aggregate, it sounded like thousands of hamburgers frying two blocks away. I found the word last week in a science magazine at school and filed it away, hoping to confuse someone with a word combining sonic elements of “grapple,” “scrapple,” “growl” and “grope.” One etymology derives the word from the German Graupe, “hulled grain,” and another dictionary says the German is probably from the Serbo-Croat krupa and the Russian for “peeled grain,” krupá. This makes sense, as the sound of graupel falling recalls Gene Krupa’s brush work. In appearance it recalls Thoreau’s journal work, a passage from Nov. 24, 1860: “The first spitting of snow—a flurry or squall—from out a gray or slate-colored cloud that came up from the west. This consisted almost entirely of pellets an eighth of an inch or less in diameter. These drove along almost horizontally, or curving upward like the outline of a breaker, before the strong and chilling wind. The plowed fields were for a short time whitened with them. The green moss about the bases of trees was very prettily spotted white with them, and also the large beds of cladonia in the pastures. They come to contrast with the red cockspur lichens on the stumps, which you had not noticed before. Striking against the trunks of the trees on the west side they fell and accumulated in a white line at the base. Though a slight touch, this was the first wintry scene of the season. The air was so filled with these snow pellets that we could not see a hill half a mile off for an hour. The hands seek the warmth of the pockets, and fingers are so benumbed that you cannot open your jack-knife. The rabbits in the swamps enjoy it, as well as you. Methinks the winter gives them more liberty, like a night.” At its best, Thoreau's prose resembles graupel -- hard, angular and a little chilly.	225,351
One hazard that we share as believers is that repetition can create inattention. We become so familiar with something that it loses its meaning. There are no biblical truths that we can afford to overlook. That is particularly true when it comes to worship. Chaucer once wrote that “Familiarity breeds contempt.” Having extensive knowledge of something or a close association with someone can lead to a loss of respect. To protect ourselves from inattention and “contempt” we need to stop and take stock of the condition of our spiritual lives, particularly the freshness and vitality of our worship. To help us say spiritually vital, Jesus gave His church two specific acts to remind us of what is most important. We call these acts “ordinances.” We are to repeat these ventures of faith to tell us of what Jesus has done for us. The message today is about one of those ordinances, baptism. Scripture: Mark 1:4; Mark 1:9–10; Matthew 3:16; Acts 8:24–36; Matthew 28:16–20; Acts 2:41	240,793
The Gentle Subversive: Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, and the Rise of the Environmental Movement. Mark Hamilton Lytle, 2007. Oxford Univ. Press. Bug Rating: (with some caveats) I have written quite a bit about Rachel Carson, mainly because I am baffled at the amount of vitriol still spewed over her book Silent Spring nearly 50 years after it’s publication. It’s turned out to be my own personal mini-crusade, since everytime I mention the name of this woman people come out of the woodwork to say…well, ill-informed wing-nutty things, frankly, including people who should know better. I find Carson fascinating not just because she is the focus of a modern dis-information campaign, but because she was a scientist that could write. And I mean REALLY write, not just to communicate, but to bring the beauty and love of the natural world that she saw around her alive. In all the DDT hoopla, it seems people have forgotten that Carson wrote beautiful prose about science. She wrote well enough to win a National Book Award, and to have her science book stay #1 on the New York Times best seller list for 86 weeks: “If there is poetry in my book about the sea, it is not because I deliberately put it there, but because no one could write truthfully about the sea and leave out the poetry.” I was interested this short biography of Carson, and picked it up. I’m really glad I did, because it helped me gain a better understanding of this woman and the huge challenges she faced. And there were a lot of challenges. Carson did not come from a wealthy family, and much of her life was occupied in chasing enough money to support herself and her extended family. Carson moved her mother, her brother and sister, and her 2 nieces into one house–and became the primary financial support for all of them during the Depression. In 1929, women did not commonly apply to Johns Hopkins, or gain admission to graduate school at Woods Hole. Carson did both of those things successfully, and recieved a Masters in 1932. She skipped pursuing a PhD in order to seek work, and was lucky enough to find a home in the Department of Fisheries. She began writing radio scripts, and progressed to writing USFW publications and magazine pieces. Carson published her first book in 1941–which was promptly eclipsed by a world at war, and did not prove to be very profitable. In 1950, she got her big break with The Sea Around Us, which did bring enough income in to allow her to purchase a home in Maine and become an independent writer. In 1950 Carson also had her first cancer tumor removed from her left breast. Reading her story now, I can’t help but think of my many freelancing writer friends, and how they struggle to support their families and to try to make a living. It doesn’t seem to have gotten any easier in the last 50 years to be an independent writer. Carson had a demanding family life. Her mother wanted to be connected and involved in Rachel’s life in a way that…well, I found kind of creepy. Rachel’s niece (who was, remember, living with her and diabetic) had an out of wedlock child. Carson became the primary caregiver for both her elderly mother and disabled niece, and could not afford to put either of them in a nursing home or have home help. That Carson could write well under those conditions is pretty amazing. And that doesn’t even begin to cover how much stress she must have been under when writing Silent Spring. In 1958 Carson began work on what would become Silent Spring–her last book. She had a radical mastectomy in 1959. Early excerpts of the book attracted vitriolic criticism, and lots of gendered slurs. “Shrill.” “Emotional.” “Unscientific.” In 1960 Carson developed secondary tumors and blood poisoning, and was confined to a wheelchair for many months. In 1961 she developed an infection that caused her to loose her sight for several months, and was unable to read what she had written. In 1962, as Silent Spring was going to press, more tumors were found in her abdomen. She wore a wig to testify in Congress, hiding her loss of hair from radiation treatments. By late 1963 compression fractures in her spine from radiation treatments made walking difficult and painful. Carson died in Spring 1964. This woman had ovaries of brass. I am in awe of how tenacious and determined she must have been to finish this last project. Her letters show she was hanging on by her fingertips, determined to see it through. As for this book—how does it compare to other Carson biographies? It is short, and a quick read, and has enough footnotes you can be fairly sure of source material. I was very happy that the author chose to not speculate about the nature of Carson’s close friendships with other smart, sciency women of her time, since we don’t know for sure if they were or were not platonic or romantic. The book itself sort of falls into two parts: things jerks said to Carson while she was alive, and things jerks say about her now that she’s dead. It’s not comprehensive, but for a quick dip into the issue and a history of what Carson endured, it’s a good read. I don’t think the author covered modern attacks on Carson very well, but much of the documentation of who paid for the “hit” on Carson came out in late 2007/2008, so that’s understandable. At one time I was pretty actively writing about Carson and DDT, and trying to combat the misinformation campaigns put out by various astroturf groups. I eventually stopped, mostly because the people that comment on that topic scare me. I have gotten many, many threats over those posts, most of them threats of sexual assault. Those posts about DDT and Rachel Carson are the reason that comments on posts close after 40 days on this blog, since that way I don’t have to go in daily and remove nasty spittle-flecked comments. I can’t be intimidated into believing their lies about a brave woman and a wonderful writer, but I was intimidated enough that I stopped writing about Carson to stay under their radar. I think I need to take a lesson from Ms. Carson herself. In the face of terrible pain and opposition, she WON with good writing and truth. “Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.” Rachel Carson I wonder if sometimes I feel driven to defend Carson because I see so much of my sister in her. Both women are talented, had breast cancer much too young–and neither one seems able to catch a fucking break. Anything that could go wrong does seem to go wrong. And by God, if you mess with my sister, you mess with ME. I got your back, Rachel. I got your back. - If you haven’t read Carson’s “The Sense of Wonder” you should. - How well have claims in Carson’s 1962 book held up? Pretty well, actually! - A collection of things I and others have written to try to set the record straight about Carson and DDT - PBS Carson Documentary - Audio Interview with the Biography Author - Interview with the Biography Author at Oxford Press Blog	185,523
After that, the next work of Boyle's you might be able to see is a production of Frankenstein. According to Variety, he's returning to the stage next winter for an adaptation of the Mary Shelley classic to be performed at the National Theater in London. Screenwriter Nick Pear (Persuasion) has penned the play, which will be filmed for a television airing for those who can't make out to the South Bank for the real deal. For those unaware, the man who gave us such diverse films as Trainspotting, Sunshine, 28 Days Later, Millions and The Beach started out in theater, directing for the Royal Court Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company for many, many years before making his first film, Shallow Grave, in 1995. He joked about his time away from the stage, being "distracted for 15 years by the movies." I'm trying to imagine what Boyle's version of Frankenstein will look like, but given that he's done so many different types of movies, it's not that easy. And given that Pear is apparently working from the original novella, the play will presumably avoid similarities with James Whale's 1931 film, from which most of us (and pop culture in general) have gotten our idea of what the Monster looks like. The one thing that keeps coming to mind, though, is that the Monster might end up finding a bag of cash in Boyle's production. Money is a constant motivator in his films, after all, whether its in found suitcases, in the form of large supplies of drugs or the prize in a game show. Maybe instead of literal money, Boyle's Frankenstein will be a metaphorical commentary on money -- the monster that man created, which now destroys him. Okay, I know, that's totally overthinking it.	93,035
I’m going to mention Steampunk a lot in this piece. Bear with me, even if you’ve no interest whatsoever in Steampunk… If you’re considering writing a novel or even a longer work of short fiction, you are no doubt aware that at least some level of research will be necessary – more for a novel, less for a short story. There are a great many books on the subject of story and novel creation, but few that actually address the issue of research. However, I have just discovered a title that, although its target Genre, Steampunk, might not be your cup of tea, does an excellent job of highlighting the various aspects of research necessary to not only select a good timeline for your work but infuse it with a healthy dose of reality. The book I refer to is titled Writing Steampunk by Beth Daniels. Don’t let the fact that this book focuses on Steampunk steer you away. Although the various research resources recommended aim specifically at the Steampunk genre, it’s the kinds of resources and why they should be considered that are key here. For example, since the Steampunk genre generally takes place between the late 18th and late 19th centuries (sometimes even the early 20th century), the book mentions such invaluable resources as The Timetables of History: A Historical Linkage of People and Events and The Illustrated History of the 19th Century. With these resources you’re able to see at a glance what inventions and people existed in the time period you’re considering, so that you can add actual people ad things to your story to make it seem more real. Although Steampunk, by its very nature, usually stretches and skews history well out of proportion, inventions are often hopped across decades to achieve certain objectives; the people, however, usually remain roughly where they belong in history. In addition to explaining how to explore timetables for useful tidbits, Writing Steampunk also explores how to select your target age group, how to make sure the clothing you select for your characters are correct to the period, what modes of transportation were most common, various forms of weaponry they might have carried; Daniels even covers what kinds of adult and children’s games and sports were common during various years and decades. Stringing together any number of the elements touched upon in this book will give your fiction far greater dimension and believability than you ever imagined possible. Not only will your characters be properly dressed, ride the correct mode of transportation, use just the right slang, carry the right newspaper under their arm and right firearm in their coat or handbag, but they’ll also notice the crowd of children playing just the right game and singing the right songs for the period. Writing Steampunk isn’t a research resource; what it is, however, is a resource that explains what resources you should consider for the work you plan to do. And whether you’re planning a Steampunk adventure, a romance, a war epic, a vampire yarn or a science fiction yarn, the resources mentioned in this title will either directly aid your setting and characters or they will give you some idea about similar resources more specific to your time period. Remember, solid research means a more solid framework for your story.	162,152
As you are getting ready to place your early plug and liner orders before winter, you may be reflecting on the incredible variety of spring annuals you are growing in your greenhouse. One of the biggest challenges in bedding plant production is controlling unwanted stretch or stem elongation. But how can you effectively control stem elongation of so many different species in a single greenhouse or in a combination container? There are several techniques growers may use to control stem elongation. For instance, a warmer night air temperature than day air temperature creates a negative DIF (DIF is day temperature minus night temperature), which has been shown to minimize stem elongation. However, the effectiveness of a negative DIF varies with species. With today’s high energy costs, it can be cost prohibitive. Therefore, a more practical and economical tool is to treat each species with plant growth regulators (PGRs). Chemical PGRs are usually applied as foliar sprays to plants in packs or containers. However, some PGRs such as ancymidol (A-Rest, Abide), flurprimidol (Topflor), paclobutrazol (Bonzi, Piccolo, Paczol, Downsize, Florazol) and uniconazole (Concise, Sumagic) are taken up by roots and have growth-regulating activity when applied to the growing substrate. Growers may apply substrate drenches containing these PGRs, which often result in increased control and uniformity in curbing stretch. Dipping trays of rooted liners and plugs into a PGR solution, or liner dip, is a newer method of efficiently applying root-absorbed PGRs that controls stem elongation after transplanting. The use of liner dips allows growers to efficiently apply the required PGRs to a large number of plants. It can also give growers the ability to treat individual plants with the PGR they need before combining them with other species or cultivars in a mixed container or basket. While there is information about using liner dips on flowering annuals in both trade and scientific literature, little to no information is available for using liner dips with foliage annuals. We wanted to see if we could control stem length of several common foliage annuals that are used in combination planters and hanging baskets using PGR liner dips. Trays of ‘Royal Tapestry’ alternanthera (Alternanthera dentata), ‘Silver Falls’ dichondra (Dichondra argentea), ‘Silver Mist’ helichrysum (Helichrysum petiolare), ‘Black Falls’ and ‘Marguerite’ sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), ‘Goldilocks’ lysimachia (Lysimachia nummularia), ‘Emerald Lace’ plectranthus (Plectranthus oertendahlii) and ‘Variegata’ vinca (Vinca major) were received from C. Raker and Sons (Litchfield, Mich.) and Four Star Greenhouses (Carleton, Mich.). Liners were dipped into trays filled with solutions containing 8, 16 or 32 ppm ancymidol (Abide; Fine Americas); 4, 8 or 16 ppm flurprimidol (Topflor; SePRO); 4, 8 or 16 ppm paclobutrazol (Piccolo; Fine); 2, 4 or 8 ppm uniconazole (Concise; Fine); or deionized water (untreated control) for two minutes. The day following chemical treatments, liners were planted in 4-inch round containers filled with a commercial soilless substrate composed of (by volume) 80 percent peat and 20 percent perlite. Plants were grown in a polyethylene-covered greenhouse under natural daylight with day and night temperature set points of 70°F and 67°F, respectively. Plants were fertilized with 200 ppm nitrogen from a balanced feed with each watering. Six weeks after treatments the length of the longest stem of each plant was recorded. So what did we see? No PGR was effective in suppressing stem length of ‘Marguerite’ sweet potato (Figure 1) or ‘Silver Falls’ dichondra. Alternatively, every PGR at each concentration resulted in ‘Black Falls’ sweet potato plants with shorter stems compared to control plants (Figure 1, see slideshow below). Only ‘Variegata’ vinca dipped in 32 ppm ancymidol had shorter stems than control plants (Figure 2, see slideshow below). ‘Emerald Lace’ plectranthus did not require any PGRs (Figure 3, see slideshow below). Stem length of ‘Silver Mist’ helichrysum was only shorter than control plants when treated with 16 or 8 ppm flurprimidol or uniconazole, respectively (Figures 3 and 4). All PGRs, at different concentrations, were effective for controlling stem length of alternanthera and lysimachia (Figures 3 and 4, see slideshow below). In our experiment, we documented a variety of responses to different PGRs with the species we used. For example, we observed three general responses to PGR liner dips across species and cultivars used: 1) did not require chemical growth regulation (plectranthus); 2) were unaffected by most or all PGRs (dichondra, ‘Marguerite’ sweet potato, and vinca); or 3) were affected by each PGR at nearly every concentration (alternanthera, helichrysum, lysimachia and ‘Black Falls’ sweet potato). Species and cultivar clearly interact with PGR active ingredients and concentration to affect stem length. Additionally, the variation between cultivars of the same species (i.e. sweet potato) underscore the importance of conducting in-house PGR trials to develop effective protocols for applying PGR liner dips to control stem length of herbaceous foliage annuals. Using Liner Dips In Your Greenhouse So what does this mean for you and your crop production? Liner dips can clearly be an effective PGR application strategy for aggressive foliage and flowering bedding plants. However, before dipping your liners or plugs into PGR solutions, get a clear idea of what you want out of your liner dips. For instance, are you treating liners that will be planted individually in containers that will eventually be planted in a landscape, or are you treating liners that will be part of a mixed container planting? If you are treating plants that will eventually be planted in the landscape, you may be interested in a lower PGR concentration that will “hold” stem elongation until plants are placed in the landscape. Alternatively, for those plants that are going to be planted in a mixed container or basket, a higher PGR concentration that will slow or stop excessive elongation when the container is brought home by the consumer (Figure 5, see slideshow below). Once you have identified what you want your dips to do for you, there are a few steps you can take to ensure success. First, identify the PGR you want to use and the desired concentration for that PGR. For a “hold” application, you’ll want to use concentrations that would be lower than those necessary for a “slow” or “stop” application. Second, water your plugs and liners a day or so before you plan on applying the liner dips. This will ensure more uniform substrate moisture leading to more uniform uptake and subsequent control. If a plug tray or liner is too dry, too much PGR solution will be absorbed, resulting in too much suppression of growth. Alternatively, if a plug tray or liner is completely saturated, not enough PGR solution will be absorbed and you will not get enough control. Lastly, be sure to time your dip. Dipping plugs or liners in PGR solutions for 30 seconds to up to two minutes has been shown to be an appropriate range for application time. Treatments less than 30 seconds will not provide you with much control, while dips over two minutes may provide excessive control. Next time you grow annuals from plugs or liners, consider using liner dips. They are an effective method for treating a wide variety of species and cultivars during a season in which variety in the greenhouse can be overwhelming. This research was conducted in the Northern U.S. during late spring. Rates will vary based on location and time of year. Be sure to do some in-house trialing with the plant material and PGRs you use to identify which PGRs and concentrations work for the plants you grow.	125,271
Isaiah 66:1,2—This is what the LORD says: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?” declares the LORD. “These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word. When God makes a declaration in Scripture reminding the reader that He is the Creator and King the context is usually unhappiness with His children. Imagine how you would feel if you were the leader and you called and no one answered, you spoke and no one listened, and you established standards of conduct which were ignored and blatantly disobeyed (6:4). People wonder what it takes to gain God’s favor and in reality the answer is simple. Obey what He commands and operate with a contrite spirit. Someone says, “Obey what—the Bible?—that is just man’s dated interpretation.” So they determine their own courses of action, their own relevancy and then wonder why life is a mess. Others dispute the whole notion of remorse as an unnecessary symptom of weakness or sign of fear. So they do whatever they want to do, wear clothing of entitlement, and treat those of differing conviction with disdain. Prideful living reaps enemies and feeds discontent. The world would have us think that compliance with God’s dictums only proves we are misguided fools. How absurd. Check out the world’s ways and measure for yourself how successful they are. Who is the real fool, the one who listens to a sovereign God or the one who listens to a selfish flesh? Satan hated God and was the grandmaster of pride. He leads the quest to rebel from God. His end will be destruction and his adherents will not escape God’s wrath (Rev. 20:10-15). God did not establish commands and ask us to live humble, morally righteous lives to make us miserable. He communicated principles to help us succeed. He knows that if we approach Him contritely we are teachable, respectful, and capable of growth. If we revere His Word He has our attention and we are focused on making correct application. Obedient living is not stifling. Contriteness is not demeaning. It shows remorse for our sin condition with an accompanying desire to do and be what is right. This very day I had to reprimand a leader who erred in judgment. He took reckless action that hurt others and caused embarrassment to our command. When I corrected him, his voice was subdued. He felt bad and owned up to his error. Then he corrected his action and reconciled with those who were offended. This is a leader who can be trusted, a man with whom it is an honor to serve. We look with favor on those who choose humility because they are trustworthy. We learned this from God. God is looking for a broken and contrite heart and a willingness to obey. Without these elements as the focus of our lives, from a biblical perspective, what hope do we have?—Walt Henrichsen ©2011 Daniel York ARR. Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause. If you would like to receive these devotionals go to www.firstcause.org and click on the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box. Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice. Ecclesiastes 12:10-The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth. (Holman CSB)	140,804
Ògbóni in ancient Yorubaland was the exclusive formal conclave of elders whose duty was to administer the community. The Ògbónis were statesmen whose chief business was to enact laws and judge cases. They also elect, discuss with, and advise the king in all matters of governance. The cult worship mother earth and had its own rituals and sets of rules. The ancient Ogboni institution found in Yoruba kingdoms is most powerful and prominent among the Egba and Ijebu. The colonial government, believing it to portend danger to the pacification efforts of belligerent Yoruba land held back its support or patronage. Following the fall of Ijebu to British power in 1892, Governor Carter of Lagos supervised the destruction of the Ogboni House in the town. In Abeokuta, the institution failed to be retained as an instrument of government when Egba United Government was formed in 1898. In an attempt to revive old practices under Christian context, Rev. T.A.J. Ogunbiyi founded the Reformed Ogboni Society in 1914 but many churches forbade its members from joining. Etymology of the group’s name, according to Ogunbiyi who claimed to have been informed by credible authority is in the second earliest events of the Christian bible. This makes the cult similar to the Freemansons whose origin is traced to Adam. “Ogbo” was the club with which Cain beat Abel to death. This, in Ogunbiyi’s interpretation, should be the lot of people who failed to work in God’s tenets, as found in Nehemiah 10:29. Ogunbiyi claimed therefore, to have brought the discipline that was absent in conventional Christianity with the ancient indigenous cult that had been suppressed decades before. From 3 conclaves in 1916, the cult had risen to 123 in 1936, following a period of inactivity caused by resistance from Bishops Tugwell and Oluwole who considered it inconsistent with the worship of Christ. Though originally limited to Christians, muslims were soon admitted into the group and the Christian prefix to its name was dropped to reflect this new status. The Muslim equivalent of Ogunbiyi’s creation, the Tawakalitu Reformed Ogboni Society that was formed in 1938 soon died a natural death. Rites associated with Ògbóni membership, being idolatrous by Christian and Muslim standards, contributed to the large abandonment of this system which was a feature of traditional authorities in southwest towns and villages.	62,346
Brussels, 19 September 2012 Enhancing democracy and fighting poverty: European Commission commits to further support civil society in partner countries In a new Communication on "The roots of democracy and sustainable development: Europe's engagement with Civil Society in external relations", the European Commission announces it will engage further and will provide more support to civil society organisations (CSOs) in its partner countries. The Commission recognises that Civil Society organisations can be efficient independent development actors. It commits to promote a more conducive environment for civil society organisations, so that they can fully play their role in the delivery of social services, transparency and good governance advocacy, and contribute to policy making. EU Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs commented: "The Arab Spring, as well as other recent events over the world, has confirmed that civil society organisations can be powerful actors of change. The EU has drawn lessons from this, and we commit to help develop a dynamic, pluralistic and competent civil society in our partner countries. The renewed EU response aims to empower local CSOs in their actions for democratic governance and equitable development". Štefan Füle, European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, added: "Civil society organisations have a crucial role to play in the transformation process and in holding governments to account. Working with civil society organizations and supporting them is at the centre of our new neighbourhood policy. We have had a civil society facility in the enlargement countries for many years and have established a neighbourhood civil society facility last year. As a testimony of our commitment, the Commission intends to allocate more than €65 million to the neighbourhood civil society in 2011-2013. Also, we are keen to consult CSOs more systematically on our policy initiatives and cooperation programmes". The Commission's new proposals put an emphasis on working with governments and public institutions to ensure the creation and promotion of a more conducive, fair and democratic environment for civil society to operate in; enabling CSOs to help more of the world's poorest and vulnerable people as a result. The Commission also proposes to launch "EU Roadmaps" for stronger engagement with Civil Society Organisations – a new way of working for EU Delegations, allowing for more structured and strategic cooperation with Civil Society in each of the countries the EU works with. The work of civil society groups is vital in partner countries; giving marginalised groups a voice, and empowering them to take part in the decisions which affect them. This communication is particularly timely, as it responds to a clampdown on CSOs in many countries. Examples of EU-funded projects in support of CSOs - After the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia, a support programme for economic recovery was made available to the Government on the condition that it adopted a new law on freedom of association. This law amended conditions used by the previous regime to control this freedom. - Supported by a multi-donor pooled funding mechanism co-funded by the EU, CSOs in Ghana actively contribute to the Public Interest and Accountability Committee which monitors and reports on oil and gas revenues, which are of increasing importance. Through consultations, proposals and presentations to the relevant Parliamentary Committee, CSOs have been successful in influencing the drafting of important energy legislation. They are now monitoring implementation, raising awareness and calling the government to account over possible infringements. - In Somaliland, the EU and other donors supported two European CSOs to establish a regional veterinary training institution. Through a bottom-up approach and using innovative learning, it has educated a new generation of veterinary professionals to addresses the specific needs of the Somali livestock industry. Despite the fragile context, it is now a well-established tertiary education institution with affiliations with European and African institutions. This communication builds on a long-standing partnership with civil society groups and particularly on the results of the "Structured Dialogue"; a two-year consultation (including an online consultation) with Civil Society from Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Neighbourhood region. Under the current EU budget which runs from 2007 to 2013, around 1 billion per year is channelled through civil society organisations. For more information Communication on "The roots of democracy and sustainable development: Europe's engagement with Civil Society in external relations": Structured Dialogue consultation: Online public consultation on civil society:	216,011
City Icon is a generative city simulation featured at Sustainable Cities exhibition by Siemens in The Crystal building in London. The city is a mix of intersecting systems, fluently transforming and interacting with each other. Traffic jams, water streams, nature enclaves, emergency states and energy sources appear and disappear during the day giving a feeling of dynamic but well balanced city. Together with Squint/Opera, I designed and developed 6 simulations representing different sub-systems of the city. City Icon is part of the Sustainable Cities Initiative by Siemens at The Crystal in London, UK. A bespoke application was develop to run and test the generative animation. More on Flickr.	303,836
Received 8 July 2005; revision accepted 5 February 2006. Attraction of Fruit-Eating Bats with Essential Oils of Fruits: A Potential Tool for Forest Restoration Version of Record online: 21 DEC 2006 Volume 39, Issue 1, pages 136–140, January 2007 How to Cite Bianconi, G. V., Mikich, S. B., Teixeira, S. D. and Maia, B. H. L.N.S. (2007), Attraction of Fruit-Eating Bats with Essential Oils of Fruits: A Potential Tool for Forest Restoration. Biotropica, 39: 136–140. doi: 10.1111/j.1744-7429.2006.00236.x - Issue online: 21 DEC 2006 - Version of Record online: 21 DEC 2006 - Atlantic forest; - conservation biology; - forest regeneration; - fruit bats; - restoration ecology; - seed dispersal Previous tests with essential oils from ripe chiropterochoric fruits suggested they can be used to attract and capture fruit-eating bats inside forest remnants. Here we evaluated the efficiency of these oils to attract frugivorous bats to open areas. We performed field tests with artificial fruits impregnated with essential oils of the genera Piper or Ficus that were attached to two groups of mist-nets set 50 m outside the border of a forest remnant. One group of artificial fruits received the corresponding oil isolated through hydrodistillation and the other received water only. Fruits with oils attracted significantly more fruit-eating bats, especially Artibeus lituratus that regularly crosses open habitats to reach other forest remnants. The highly significant attraction of A. lituratus by the oil of Piper was unexpected, since this bat is a specialist on Ficus fruits. We hypothesize that in habitats with no fruit available it is possible to attract frugivorous bats with the odor of several ripe fruit species. Furthermore, we verified that almost half of the individuals captured defecated seeds, indicating that the oils also attract recently fed bats, even when their preferred food is available nearby. This technique potentially may increase seed rain at specific locations, being particularly promising to restoration projects. Estudos anteriores realizados com óleos essenciais extraídos de frutos quiropterocóricos maduros sugerem que estes podem ser utilizados para atrair e capturar morcegos frugívoros no interior de remanescentes florestais. No presente trabalho nós avaliamos a eficiência destes óleos na atração de morcegos frugívoros para áreas abertas por meio de testes com dois grupos de redes-de-neblina instaladas a 50 m de distância de um fragmento florestal. Todas as redes receberam um fruto artificial (gêneros Piper ou Ficus) em sua porção mediana, mas apenas um dos grupos recebeu o óleo correspondente isolado por hidrodestilação; o outro recebeu somente água destilada. Os frutos com óleo atraíram significativamente mais morcegos frugívoros, especialmente Artibeus lituratus. A atração altamente significativa desta espécie pelo óleo de Piper foi inesperada, considerando que este morcego é especialista em frutos de Ficus. Conseqüentemente, nós sugerimos que em hábitats com nenhum fruto disponível é possível atrair morcegos frugívoros com o odor de diversas espécies de frutos maduros. Além disso, quase a metade dos morcegos capturados defecou sementes, indicando que os óleos também atraem indivíduos que se alimentaram recentemente, até mesmo quando seu alimento preferencial encontra-se disponível nas proximidades. Esta técnica tem o potencial de incrementar a chuva de sementes em locais específicos, sendo particularmente promissora para projetos de restauração florestal. Fruit consumption and seed dispersal through bat feces are fundamental for the reproductive success of the consumed plants, the maintenance of forests, and the recovery of degraded areas (Fleming & Sosa 1994, Garcia et al. 2000). Through seed dispersal bats influence the structure of the vegetation of the plant species they consume and disperse (Fleming & Heithaus 1981). Such service is favored by the rapid passage of seeds through the gut of frugivorous bats (approximately 30 min for some species) (Fleming 1988), as well as the large distances that bats often travel, visiting different habitats and sites in a single night (e.g., Fleming 1988, Estrada & Coates-Estrada 2002, Bernard & Fenton 2003). In the Neotropical region fruit-eating bats belong to the Family Phyllostomidae, which has 160 species (Simmons 2005) with high capacity of environmental perception. The importance of odor in the location of food resources by phyllostomid bats has been cited in the literature since the middle of the twentieth century (e.g., Mann 1951, van der Pijl 1957, Fleming 1988). Some authors (Rieger & Jacob 1988, Thies et al. 1998, Mikich et al. 2003, Korine & Kalko 2005) have shown that olfaction was the primary sense employed by some species to detect and/or locate ripe fruits. In addition, Mikich et al. (2003) verified that it was possible to attract Carollia perspicillata (short-tailed fruit bat) using just the essential oil isolated from ripe fruits of Piper gaudichaudianum Kunth (Piperaceae). The fruit-eating bats of the genera Artibeus, Carollia and Sturnira exhibit a strong preference for a restricted group of chiropterochoric fruits. According to previous studies (e.g., Bonaccorso 1979, Fleming 1985, Palmerim et al. 1989, Handley et al. 1991, Kalko et al. 1996, Iudica & Bonaccorso 1997, Wendeln et al. 2000), Artibeus lituratus (great fruit-eating bat) prefers fruits of Ficus spp., while Carollia perspicillata prefers those of Piper spp., and Sturnira lilium (little yellow-shouldered bat) those of Solanum spp. Such preferences were also observed in the study area (Mikich 2002). Based on the results obtained by Mikich et al. (2003), the use of the essential oils of these fruit species has the potential to attract fruit-eating bats to open or degraded forest areas, improving seed rain from bat feces and, consequently, accelerating plant succession. In this study we present the results of field tests designed to measure the efficiency of essential oils in the attraction of fruit-eating bats to agricultural fields surrounding Atlantic Forest habitat islands in southern Brazil. Study area.— We conducted this study in an agricultural field (corn and soybean) located next to the Parque Estadual Vila Rica do Espírito Santo (PEVR) (23°55′ S −51°57′ W), Fênix, Paraná state, Southern Brazil. The PEVR is a small (354 ha) Atlantic Forest isolate limited by cultivated fields and two large rivers, the Ivaí and the Corumbataí. The relief is smooth and the mean altitude is 330 m; climate is Cfa (classification after Koeppen) with annual mean temperatures between 16°C and 29°C (ITCF 1987, Mikich & Oliveira 2003). Annual rainfall ranges between 1400 and 1500 mm, mostly concentrated between December and March (Mikich & Oliveira 2003). At present, the study region, which was once covered by continuous forest, holds few forest isolates up to 800 ha surrounded by extensive areas of agriculture (especially corn and soybean) and degraded riparian forests. The limits of the PEVR with the cultivated areas that surround it are very abrupt, with no buffer zone, and the fields themselves lack bushes or trees. Detailed descriptions of our study area and its plant species, including phenological data, can be found in Mikich and Silva (2001) and Mikich and Oliveira (2003). Plant species and phenology.— The family Piperaceae (pepper family) has six genera and approximately 2000 species distributed both in the tropical and subtropical regions (Judd et al. 1999). Pepper plants of the pantropical genus Piper are shrubs or small trees relatively common as pioneer species in regeneration areas, but they also occur in forest understory, edges, and gaps (Fleming 1988, Thies et al. 1998). Piper fruits are typically chiropterochorous: they exhibit strong odor and dull color, are presented beyond the foliage (van der Pijl 1957, Yuncker 1972), and some species ripen in late afternoon (Thies et al. 1998, Thies & Kalko 2004, S.B.M. pers. obs.). In the PEVR the genus Piper has nine species distributed along roads, trails, forest interior, and edges. Piper gaudichaudianum, one of the most abundant species in this preserve, has curved fruits measuring 100 × 6 mm, holding up to 2000 seeds of 1.0 × 0.8 mm. It has two annual peaks of fruit availability, the most intense one between November and February (wet season) and the other between May and July (dry season) (Mikich & Silva 2001). Piper crassinervium, less abundant in the study area, has fruits measuring 100 × 10 mm, containing up to 3000 seeds of 1.3 × 1.5 mm. It also exhibits two annual peaks of fruit production, the first between March and May (beginning of the dry season), and the other between September and November (beginning of the wet season) (Mikich & Silva 2001). The genus Ficus exhibits intrapopulation as well as intertree asynchronous flowering and fruiting, yet there is strong intratree synchronous flowering and fruiting, which produces a large fruit crop over a brief period of time (Morrison 1978, Janzen 1979, Cosson et al. 1999, Wendeln et al. 2000). According to Mikich and Silva (2001) there are six Ficus species in the PEVR, all low to medium density forest trees. Ficus insipida is one of the more common fig species in the study region. It has fruits measuring 24 × 23 mm, containing 100 to 300 seeds of 2.1 × 1.4 mm each. Fruits of this and/or other fig species are available all year round in the study region (Mikich & Silva 2001). Essential oil isolation.— We collected ripe chiropterochoric fruits in the PEVR, isolated the essential oils through hydrodistillation using a modified Clevenger for 4 h, and stored the oils in freezed vials until the field tests. We used the essential oils of Piper gaudichaudianum in September 2002, October 2002 and January 2003, P. crassinervium in July 2002, and F. insipida in August 2002 and April 2003. The oils were always diluted in distilled water (approximately 17.5 mg/ml), and different species were used according to their availability in the laboratory. Field experiment.— We employed ten mist-nets set 50 m away from the forest edge and parallel to it to evaluate the efficiency of the essential oils in the attraction of fruit-eating bats to open areas outside a forest remnant (PEVR). The nets were grouped into two sets of five, with 50 m between the sets, in order to verify whether the application of the oil in one set would produce a significant (χ2 test, df = 1) higher capture of fruit-eating bats. To avoid bias, each night a different set of mist-nets received the oil. We shaped artificial fruits of the plant species tested in green foam and put one in the midpoint of each net. All nets, in both sets, received one artificial fruit but the fruits were impregnated with the corresponding essential oil in only one set; fruits of the other set were impregnated with distilled water only. Since all mist-nets had an artificial fruit as a visual cue, we were able to measure the effect of odor alone in the capture of bats. We opened the nets (12 × 2.5 m, 60 mm mesh) at sunset, checked them every 15 min, and closed them after 6 h of exposure. We performed the tests in July (one night), August (two), September (two) and October 2002 (three), plus January (one) and April 2003 (three), totaling 12 nights of test or 21600 m2.h (Straube & Bianconi 2002) of capture area. This capture schedule (months and number of nights) was determined by the availability of intercrop bare soil (we were not able to work when crops were mature), as well as climatic conditions since rain probably interferes with the oil efficiency. Consequently we conducted no test during rainy nights. All captured bats were identified to species and had the net set recorded. Individuals were kept inside cotton bags for at least 2 h to collect fecal samples. Each sample was examined for seeds, which were isolated and identified based on a reference collection of the study area (Mikich 2001, 2002). We had captured 112 frugivorous bats belonging to six species: Artibeus lituratus, A. jamaicensis, A. fimbriatus, Sturnira lilium, Carollia perspicillata, and Chiroderma villosum. All species except for A. lituratus (n= 102, 91% of all captures) were represented by few individuals (Table 1), thus preventing analysis of data for each species separately. All bat taxa, however, had higher capture rates in nets with oils. When all species were pooled, 79 fruit-eating bats were captured in nets with oil, while nets without oil captured only 33 (χ2= 18.89, P < 0.0001). \|Bat species\|\|Plant species\| \|Piper gaudichaudianum\|\|P. crassinervium\|\|Ficus insipida\|\|Total\| \|With oil\|\|Without oil\|\|With oil\|\|Without oil\|\|With oil\|\|Without oil\| For A. lituratus, we performed a specific analysis of the tests with Ficus insipida and Piper gaudichaudianum (number of captured individuals 65 and 35, respectively). Of the 65 A. lituratus captured during the tests with F. insipida, 42 (65%) were captured in nets with oil and 23 (35%) in nets without oil, indicating a significant (χ2= 5.55, P= 0.0184) preference for the former. Moreover, of the 35 individuals captured with P. gaudichaudianum essential oil, 28 (80%) were captured in nets with oil and only seven in nets without it (χ2= 12.60, P= 0.0004). Therefore, the use of essential oils of chiropterochoric fruits increased bat capture rate. Forty-seven out of the 102 A. lituratus captured during the tests defecated one or more seeds (up to 100) inside the cotton bags. Seven (58%) of the 12 fecal samples from bats captured during the tests with the essential oil of P. gaudichaudianum contained seeds of Ficus spp. (Ficus insipida, F. glaba Vell. or F. luschnathiana Miq.), four samples (33%) contained seeds of Cecropia glaziouii Sneth., and one (9%) of Maclura tinctoria (L) D. Don ex Steud. Consumption of Ficus seeds by A. lituratus was also observed during the tests with F. insipida oil, since 25 (71%) out of 35 fecal samples examined had seeds of Ficus spp. (Ficus insipida or F. guaranitica), five (14%) had seeds of Maclura tinctoria, three (9%) of Cecropia pachystachya Trécul, and two (6%) of Piper sp. (Piper hispidum Sw. or P. gaudichaudianum). Although the use of the essential oils had produced differential capture rates, the highly significant attraction exhibited by P. gaudichaudianum oil upon A. lituratus was not expected since Piper spp. are not the preferred food item of this bat genus. Furthermore, when the essential oil of P. gaudichaudianum was previously used in tests performed within the PEVR (see Mikich et al. 2003), 67 Artibeus spp. were captured but exhibited no positive response to the oil. Therefore, we believe that in habitats with no zoochoric fruit available, as in the agricultural land that surrounds the PEVR, fruit-eating bats are attracted by the odor of several fruit species, and not just preferred fruits. Inside the forest remnants, due to the higher diversity of chiropterochoric fruit, bats may be more selective with regard to food. An alternative explanation would be a temporary unavailability of Ficus fruits within the PEVR when the three tests with P. gaudichaudianum oil were performed. Analysis of fecal samples of A. lituratus captured during the tests with P. gaudichaudianum, however, revealed that most samples contained seeds of three of the six Ficus species that exist in the PEVR. Additionally, high levels of fig consumption by A. lituratus observed during the tests with the oil of F. insipida proved that one or more species of Ficus were available during the tests. The presence of seeds in the fecal samples of bats captured during the tests with the oils of chiropterochoric fruit species indicates that recently fed bats are attracted by such baits, making the proposed technique potentially effective in forest restoration programs. Because fig production is asynchronous within populations and, in our study region, trees occur at low density in different forest fragments (Mikich & Silva 2001), we believe that the high number of the fig specialist (A. lituratus) captured in the cultivated field was associated with a foraging pattern that included frequent movements within and between forest fragments. The results obtained for Carollia perspicillata by Bianconi (2003), who conducted a bat-banding program in this region, revealed that this species has small feeding areas, probably in response to the abundance of preferred food items, like Piper spp. (Mikich & Silva 2001), inside the forest isolates. Such behavior could explain why few C. perspicillata were captured during the field tests, despite this species being common in the study region. Although the tests were performed inside an agricultural field only 50 m away from a forest border, we believe the results may also be valid for larger distances since bats (especially larger species such as Artibeus spp.) frequently move between forest fragments (Cosson et al. 1999, Estrada & Coates-Estrada 2002, Bianconi et al. 2004). Preliminary results from other trials suggest that the oils attract bats even when applied as far as 700 m away from the forest. The essential oils of chiropterochoric fruit species can be used to attract frugivorous bats to specific locations within an altered matrix, especially those species that often cross open areas to reach other forest isolates in the search of food and other resources. This finding could significantly increase the qualitative and quantitative seed rain within these habitats. Foraging bats attracted by the odor of a supposed food source (essential oil) would spend some time flying around the odor source, increasing the probability of defecating in the vicinity (considering that seed passage is relatively fast and that recently fed bats are attracted by the essential oils). Consequently, the proposed technique has potential use for the restoration of degraded forests within agricultural or pasture land, where the seed bank is usually poor. Future isolation of the active ingredients will allow the wide use of the proposed technique in forest restoration programs. We thank Mater Natura—Instituto de Estudos Ambientais and Fundo Estadual do Meio Ambiente for providing financial support to conduct these experiments; Instituto Ambiental do Paraná and Mr. A. Santiago Lago for permitting the development of this study in their properties; and F. Rocha-Mendes, C. E. Conte, J. Ricetti, and R. A. Machado for helping in the field work. 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Zool. 511, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington , D.C. ., , - ITCF (Instituto de Terras, Cartografia e Florestas). 1987. Plano de manejo do Parque Estadual de Vila Rica do Espírito Santo, Fênix, PR. ITCF, Curitiba , Paraná . - and . 1997. Feeding of the bat, Sturnira lilium, on fruits of Solanum riparium influences dispersal of this pionner tree in forests of northwestern Argentina. Stud. Neotrop. Fauna & Environm. 32: 4–6. , - 1979. How to be a fig. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 10: 13–51. - and . 1999. Plant systematics: a phylogenetic approach. Sinauer Associates Inc., Sunderland , MA . , , , - and . 1996. The relation of fig fruit syndromes to fruit-eating bats in the New and Old World tropics. J. Biogeogr. 23: 565–576. , , - and . 2005. Fruit detection and discrimination by small fruit-eating bats (Phyllostomidae): Echolocation call design and olfaction. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 59: 12–23. , - 1951. Esquema ecologico de selva, sabana y cordillera em Bolívia. Universidad de Chile, Santiago . - 2001. Frugivoria e dispersão de sementes em uma pequena reserva isolada do Estado do Paraná, Brasil. PhD thesis. Universidade Federal do Paraná , Curitiba . - 2002. A dieta dos morcegos frugívoros (Mammalia, Chiroptera, Phyllostomidae) de um pequeno remanescente de Floresta Estacional Semidecidual do sul do Brasil. Rev. Bras. Zool. 19 (1): 239–249. - and . 2001. Composição florística e fenologia das espécies zoocóricas de remanescentes de Floresta Estacional Semidecidual no centro-oeste do Paraná, Brasil. Acta Bot. Bras. 15 (1): 89–113. - and . 2003. Revisão do Plano de Manejo do Parque Estadual Vila Rica do Espírito Santo. Mater Natura/FNMA, Curitiba . , - and . 2003. Attraction of the fruit-eating bat Carollia perspicillata to Piper gaudichaudianum essential oil. J. Chem. Ecol. 29 (10): 2379–2383. , , , - 1978. Influence of habitat on the foranging distances of the fruit bat, Artibeus jamaicensis. J. Mammal. 59 (3): 622–624. - and . 1989. Trophic structure of a neotropical frugivore community: Is there competition between birds and bats? Oecologia 79: 403–411. , , - and . 1988. The use of olfaction in food location by frugivorous bats. Biotropica 20 (2): 161–164. , - 2005. Order Chiroptera. In D. E.Wilson and D. M.Reeder (Eds.). Mammal species of the world: A taxonomic and geographic reference, 3rd edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore , Maryland . - and . 2002. Sobre a grandeza e a unidade utilizada para estimar esforço de captura com utilização de redes-de-neblina. Chiropt , Neotrop . 8 (1–2): 150–152. , - and . 1998. The roles of echolocation and olfaction in two Neotropical fruit-eating bats, Carollia perspicillata and C. castanea, feeding on Piper. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 42 (6): 397–409. , , - and . 2004. Phenology of neotropical pepper plants (Piperaceae) and their association with their main dispersers, two short-tailed fruit bats, Carollia perspicillata and C. castanea (Phyllostomidae). Oikos 104: 362–376. , , - 1957. The dispersal of plants by bats (chiropterochory). Acta Bot. Neerl. 6: 291–315. - and . 2000. Nutritional values of 14 fig species and bat feeding preferences in Panama. Biotropica 32 (3): 489–501. , , - 1972. The Piperaceae of Brazil I. Piper. Hoehnea 2: 19–366.	80,218
“Writing is a way of organizing thought. Publishing is a way of receiving feedback.” ~ Frank Chimero In ‘The Element‘, Sir Ken Robinson highlights ‘the importance of Identifying Passion and Redefining Creativity’. In ‘Starfish and The Spider‘, Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom identify “the unstoppable power of leaderless organisations” and “inevitability and need for ever-changing models in our ever-changing and ever-connecting world”. In ‘Life Inc.‘, Douglass Ruskoff asks ‘should our infrastructures/governments/education/systems be focused on creating good citizens and well-ness/well-being rather than economic performance and growth?’ In ‘Affluenza and The Selfish Capitalist‘, Oliver James provides evidence that ‘material affluence and extrinsic value(s) can produce the opposite of happiness’. In ‘Drive‘, Daniel Pink provides ‘scientifically surprising truths about human-motivation’ and how ‘autonomy, mastery and purpose can far exceed financial reward in the value stakes’. In ‘The Social Entrepreneur‘, Andrew Mawson provides his experienced insight towards “the empowering importance of Personal Responsibility over Personal Right(s)” In ‘The New Capitalist Manifesto‘, Umair Haque (a thought leader in the field of Economics and Business Innovation) highlights that ‘our current economy, business strategies, policies and mindsets are unsustainable – we need to change or die.’ For many years, my work, endeavors, experience and research has (and continues), to inspire me to ponder such important things and I’ve challenged myself to do and learn about active participation and empowering human-focused responsibility and value-conversation(s). “What good is an energy industry that destroys the atmosphere? What good is a media industry that, with relentlessly intrusive, ever-more persuasive ads, pollutes the infosphere? What good is production that consumes the natural world? What good are banks that catastrophically deplete the financial sphere? What good is a food industry that sparks an epidemic of obesity? What good is an apparel industry that produces insipid clothes in joyless, dreary working conditions? What good are athletic shoes that don’t make people fitter?” These are special words. They weren’t spoken by a warrior wielding the buzzwords ‘Eco’ or ‘Green’, they weren’t (in this instance) written by authors like Naomi Klein, nor were they written by the head of some Corporate Social Responsibility council. In this instance they are extremely important, in print on page 193 of his latest book ‘The New Capitalist Manifesto‘, they were written by Umair Haque (Director of Havas Media Lab and Economist Blogger for the Harvard Business Review). In the penultimate page of his book Umair writes: “my goal hasn’t been to write the new economic blueprint – but to give you pen, paper and maybe even a handful of design elements, for writing your own…” “…the future of capitalism begins, in other words, with you. So don’t just read this book. Use it. Its not a textbook, its a handbook. The protectors of the past never create the future. And the creators of the future never stop questioning the past. You’ve got to ask – and keep asking!” Today, inspired my Umair (and the authors and great thinkers listed above, plus a few others) I choose to take my insights and learnings, and present to you my ever-developing philosophy towards the future – a twenty-first-century enterprise and economy – an inter-dependent ecology; upon the new rules within Digital Landscapes, Social Ethonomics and Twenty-First-Century Economics. I encourage you to help me (us) re-conceptualise and re-define the words: Economic, Prosperity, Growth, Responsibility, Ethics, Value, and Worth, to develop a set of first principles of value creation, into a concise philosophy – with a clear intent and purpose! The diagram below forms the basis of a presentation I made to Media Tree UK (and their supporting Economic Development partners) on 17/01/2011 in relation to ‘The Future of Kent’s Creative Business Economy‘.	78,458
My video is blurry! -Check the focus of your security camera lens. For fixed lens dome cameras, unscrew the dome and gently twist the lens. For cameras with a varifocal lens, first adjust the zoom level by twisting the outer adjustment setting of the lens and lock it down. Then next adjust the inner adjustment until it start to become clear. Slowly continue to adjust the setting until the surveillance image is crystal clear. Lock it down and then re-install the dome cover or any other housing if needed. If your camera has a manual iris adjustment, you will need to adjust that setting as well. We reccomend adjusting manual iris settings around dusk. -Clean the camera lens with a soft cloth and rubbing alcohol -If your recording resolution is 640×480 (D1), you may see a “blur” when there is motion; this is normal (and unavoidable) for a video signal. Try reducing the resolution to 640×240 (Half D1, or 2CIF) or lower (CIF). For “doubled” video or ghosting: -Check that the video cable is not coiled in a large number of loops; loops can cause a type of feedback noise, as well as cause other noise issues For ghosting from another video source, i.e., another image appears in the one you are looking at: -Move the affected video inputs on the back of the DVR to another location -If the two affected inputs have their cables running near each other for a long distance, try to separating them.	8,383
Getting gold for China is world's top financial problem, Rickards tells KWNSubmitted by cpowell on Thu, 2010-07-15 01:41. Section: Daily Dispatches 9:40p ET Wednesday, July 14, 2010 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: Writing at King World News, James G. Rickards of Omnis Inc. writes that rebalancing world gold reserves away from the West and toward China is the world's biggest financial problem but can't be discussed openly by central bankers. Rickards' commentary is headlined "China, Gold, CNBC, and Wilbur Ross" and you can find it at King World News here: Or try this abbreviated link: Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.	136,882
From Mission Health ASHEVILLE, N.C. (Feb. 12, 2013) – “We are pleased to report that at this stage of our exhaustive and on-going investigation we can confirm that the blisters a small number of our patients have experienced appear to be related to skin conditions not uncommon to post-operative patients. These conditions arise from such causes as pressure, friction, and immobility. We have found no evidence of infection from our investigation and testing to date; the blisters are localized to the skin; and there is no evidence of any spread from person-to-person. Occurrence rates are extremely low. To date, approximately one-half of one percent of the more than 1,800 surgeries and procedures performed since Feb. 1 have resulted in this type of a skin condition – again, a condition not uncommon to post-operative patients. Patients experiencing this condition are being treated and discharged normally upon the order of their attending physician.” About Mission Hospital Mission Hospital, the flagship hospital of Mission Health, is a not-for-profit hospital that serves as the regional referral center for tertiary and quaternary care in western North Carolina and the adjoining region. Mission Hospital is the busiest surgical hospital in North Carolina and houses the region’s only dedicated Level II trauma center. It also includes Mission Children’s Hospital– the regions only children’s hospital. Mission Hospital has seven Centers of Excellence: Cancer, Heart, Mission Children’s Hospital, Neurosciences, Orthopedics, Trauma and Women’s Health. In 2012 Thomson Reuters named Mission Hospital as a Top 100 Hospital for the fourth consecutive year, and Professional Research Consultants ranked Mission Hospital in the top 15% nationally in patient satisfaction. Mission Hospital is licensed for 730 beds and employs more than 6,500 people, including over 1,800 RNs. Mission Hospital is committed to serving its community and improving the health and wellness of the people of western North Carolina. For more information, please visit mission-health.org.	193,442
THE FIANNA FÁIL STORY……. The Rise And Decline Of Fianna Fáil , by Kevin Boland – Mercier Press. Seán Lemass And The Making Of Modern Ireland , by Paul Bew and Henry Patterson – Gill and Macmillan. By Roy Johnston. From ‘Gralton’ magazine, Aug/Sept 1983. During the pre-1958 period of investment-starvation , Ireland was a net exporter of capital and the Irish rentier-bourgeoisie preferred to deal on the London stock exchange. We identified partition as the main obstacle to the achievement of this important step in the completion of the bourgeois-democratic revolution , contrasting the Irish scene with other relatively successful bourgeois democracies such as Denmark or Norway. The copper-fastening of partition by declaring an independent 26-county Punt in the 1930’s , ’40’s or ’50’s was politically unthinkable. It is ironical that this has since been achieved , in a manner of speaking , within the greater EEC straitjacket , when the ability to use the financial system in the control process has been abandoned. However , for Bew and Patterson to admit arguments like this into the analysis of the 1950’s would be for them to invoke what at all costs must be suppressed – the national question , the whole of Ireland as the natural political and economic unit……. THE PETER BERRY PAPERS……. The Top Secret Memoirs of Ireland’s Most Powerful Civil Servant : Dirty Tricks, Election ’69/ Spying on a Unionist Politician/ Keeping the (State) Taoiseach informed/ The Garda Fallon Murder/ Advice to Jack Lynch- ‘Fire the pair of them…’/ Vivion De Valera’s advice to O’Malley/ Rumours of a Coup D’Etat/ The Internment Plot, November 1970/ Secret Meeting with William Craig. From ‘MAGILL’ magazine , June 1980. ” I was not to know until the proceedings before the Committee of Public Accounts of 27th January 1971 were published (Booklet No. 7 , paragraph 4102) that Mr Haughey had seen Captain Kelly with Col. Hefferon at his home in the last week of September and on 3rd October – the day before he visited me – he had given a cheque for £500 for Captain Kelly’s expenses for the Baileboro meeting. Both Col. Hefferon and Kelly swore to this before the CPA.” OCTOBER 7th 1969 : “I had a visit from a security chief who told me that a group in Saor Éire were planning armed robberies , that his own men were showing signs of the jitters and that lives were at risk. He told me that some of the group were psychopaths and that , short of placing them in detention without trial , he knew of no way of containing them except by having each individual followed by day and night and to do that he would need 30 extra men. He said that his Authorities were short of men for other police purposes and that he had no hope of getting the manpower he required unless I brought Ministerial weight to bear on the Commissioner , and I undertook to speak to the Commissioner and to the Minister……. “ Easter Saturday (23rd April 2011) : Balbriggan Bridge at 2pm. Easter Sunday (24th April 2011) : Assemble at gates of Deansgrange Cemetery at 1pm for the march to the Republican Plot. Easter Monday (25th April 2011) : Assemble at the Garden of Rememberance , Parnell Square , Dublin City Centre , at 1.45pm for the march to the GPO. HUNGER-STRIKERS COMMEMORATION 2011 , DUBLIN : An RSF-organised Hunger-Strikers Commemoration will be held at the GPO in O’Connell Street , Dublin, at 2pm on Saturday 7th May 2011 – those attending are asked to assemble at the Garden of Remembrance in Parnell Square , where the parade will leave from , at 1.45pm , for the GPO. DATE – SATURDAY 7TH MAY 2011. VENUE – THE 79’R PUB , BALLYFERMOT. GROUP – THE DRUIDS. DOORS OPEN – 8.30PM. ADMISSION – €5 PER PERSON. All Welcome !	75,252
It may not be the catchiest of names, but the AstraZeneca drug MEDI4736 was revealed on Wednesday night as a "new great white hope" in the fight against cancer as it took centre stage in the British company's battle against Pfizer's planned £63bn takeover. It is this drug, developed in Cambridge and Maryland, that AstraZeneca chief executive, Pascal Soriot, was referring to when he warned MPs that an aggressive cost-cutting transaction could delay development and cost lives. Doctors and scientists are so excited about the potential of MEDI4736 that it has been fast-tracked to phase III hospital trials before the results of the first clinical trials have even been published. AstraZeneca's head drug developer, Briggs Morrison, believes the drug, which has initially been trialled on lung cancer but could be extended to a whole range of tumours, could "hold the potential to shape the future of cancer treatment" and rake in annual sales of up to £3.9bn. The results of phase I trials released on Wednesday night showed "encouraging clinical activity and acceptable safety across a range of tumour types", which Morrison said would help "redefine the cancer treatment landscape". The development of MEDI4736, or in scientific terms a human monoclonal antibody, is so important to AstraZeneca that Soriot will fly to the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago to oversees the full presentation of the results later this month. MEDI4736 works by stripping cancer cells of their "stealth cloak" so that the patient's immune system can detect and kill tumours, and could replace chemotherapy in some cases. AstraZeneca last week began testing the drug on 702 patients who have non-small-cell lung carcinoma at more than 100 hospitals across the world. The tests have begun more than six months ahead of schedule as AstraZeneca rushes to get the drug to market ahead of rivals. "MEDI4736 is an important molecule in our immuno-oncology portfolio and its entry into phase III clinical trials is further evidence of our commitment to invest in distinctive science in our core therapy areas, and to rapidly progress our immuno-oncology pipeline," Morrison said. "Lung cancer is still the leading cancer killer, there is a clear need for more treatment options to provide patients with a better chance of beating the disease." The excitement surrounding the drug was further underpinned on Wednesday when the company announced plans for a separate trial of MEDI4736 in conjunction with another drug to create "an enhanced anti-tumour immune response". Savvas Neophytou, analyst at Panmure Gordon, said the investment and scientific communities were buzzing with excitement about the "great white hope [of] MEDI4736". Combining MEDI4736 with US biotech company Incyte's NCB24360 molecule was the equivalent of "removing the stealth from cancer and hitting the target with much higher ballistics at the same time". "MEDI4736 blocks the signals that help tumours avoid detection by the immune system, countering the tumour's immune-evading tactics, while INCB24360 enhances the ability of immune cells to combat the tumour," he said. Colin White, lead analyst and head of oncology at Datamonitor Healthcare, said MEDI4736 had "a tremendous amount of commercial potential". "It looks like it's going to be an effective treatment against a wide range of different tumours, so there is potential for high commercial returns. This drug could be worth multibillions of dollars, but there are lots of competitors out there and there's a chance they could beat AstraZeneca to market and steal a huge commercial advantage." Roche, Merck and Bristol-Myers are also developing similar immunotherapy treatments. Despite AstraZeneca's criticism of the benefits of big pharmaceutical acquisitions in the wake of Pfizer's interest, it picked up MEDI4736 when it bought the Maryland research firm MedImmune for £9.3bn in 2007. The company has produced several of AstraZeneca's most promising pipeline drugs including other cancer immunology drugs Tremelimumab, MEDI0680 and MEDI6469. If MEDI4736 proves as successful as hoped it could be worth about £35bn if it was spun out on its own, according to analysts. Soriot warned on Tuesday that a Pfizer takeover and the struggle to reconcile "saving tax and saving lives" could jeopardise the progress of drugs. "Any distraction on work we are doing now could run the risk of delaying our drugs pipeline," he said, alluding to Pfizer's desire to save US tax payments through taking over AstraZeneca and domiciling the combined company in the UK. He added: "From the lab to the patient takes many years." There are fears the future of MedImmune, in Gaithersburg, Maryland, could be particularly at risk because Pfizer has committed to basing at least 20% of research and development staff in the UK and Pfizer already has a world-leading oncology research park in San Diego, California. John LaMattina, Pfizer's head of research from 2004-2007, said he would be worried if he worked at MedImmune and pointed out that the company consolidated three oncology research sites into its California campus while he was in charge. US politicians have written to Read to implore him to maintain MedIummune's research in Gaithersburg if the deal goes ahead. Maryland congressman John Delaney said Read's promises to maintain one fifth of the combined company's research in the UK made him worry that it would "put more pressure on decisions they make in the US". Soriot has accused Pfizer of trying to snap up AstraZeneca on the cheap before the true value of its future drugs are reflected in its share price. "A year and a half ago, we didn't have much of a portfolio," he said. "Now we have one of the best in the industry." Roy Herbst, chief of medical oncology at the Yale Cancer Centre, said: "Every company is realising that immune therapy is going to be part of armamentarium [doctors' arsenal against] almost every cancer." He said buying AstraZeneca would give Pfizer "all the immune therapy they don't have. They definitely need to partner".	111,554
Target lock: Pyrup Pyrups are tiny seal-like creatures that make high-pitched sounds and hide inside walls or beneath rocks in Skyward Sword. They have a single antenna hanging from its head, the function of it is presumably to act as a radar. They attack by spraying a line of fire towards Link, and can also obstruct his path in this manner. They can be defeated by throwing a Bomb into the hole in the wall they hide in or the rock they hide beneath, killing the enemy in the process.	50,566
With an overall population of 25,625 and a student population of 2,043, approximately 2,043 of Carlsbad students attend one of Carlsbad's schools that offer accounting programs. The largest accounting school in Carlsbad, by student population, is New Mexico State University-Carlsbad. In 2010, New Mexico State University-Carlsbad graduated approximately 0 students from its accounting program. In 2009 tuition at accounting schools in Carlsbad was $1,286 per year, on average. In addition to tuition costs, plan on spending an average of $1,032 for accounting related books and supplies each year. If you decide to work as an accountant in Carlsbad, your job prospects are not very good. In 2010, 1 out of every 5 accountants in New Mexico were working in the greater Carlsbad area. By the year 2018, the number of accountants is expected to increase by 6% in Carlsbad. This projected change is slower than the projected nationwide trend for accountants. As an accountant in Carlsbad, you can expect to make an average salary of $27,560 per year. This is lower than the average salary for accountants in the state.	99,825

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