text stringlengths 3 7.38M | source_data stringclasses 5 values | info stringlengths 83 12.5k |
|---|---|---|
Linda Pirri is recognized as a contemporary master of the ancient art form called “Serti”..hand painting on pure silk. Similar to Batik, this fine art technique was used in ancient cultures to create the silk screens, paintings and ceremonial kimonos you see in museums today. She begins with a pure white piece of the finest silk and stretches it as a painter does a canvas…but instead of paint, only the finest dyes and inks are used. Meticulously brush painted onto the silk, they provide brilliant color and unusual reflective qualities. Next, Linda mixes her “potions” of natural elements such as mineral salts, oils and water and works them into the wet painting, creating exquisite flows of color and pattern. painting
Weather conditions such as sun, temperature and moisture spontaneously affect each painting, adding greater dimension to the work. Linda has a strong and wonderful sense of color and composition. Her images are spontaneous, lyrical interpretations inspired by visual impressions and her wildly colorful dreams. In her joyful and expressive art, you will recognize places of fond memories, or a new places to escape to.
Linda works from her vivid memory and not from photos. There is no airbrushing; the soft effects are created only by manipulating and controlling of the dyes. The lines you see are called “resist” and are applied with a special needle tipped bottle. The colored or gold resist fluid penetrates the fine silk, dries and creates a barrier. The areas are then carefully hand painted to create the work of art. The silk is then rolled and steamed at high temperature to “set” the special DuPont dyes from France and bring them up to full lustre and color. Finally, the silk is re-stretched for archival preservation using acid free materials and then made ready for framing.
Original art prices range from $2400 to $8500. If you are interested in acquiring an original or would like more information, please contact the artist! | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '0', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9475196599960328}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '34701', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:PERIFU6CDGBTH7JHXJQWMVFDHYEY24UU', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:942d7976-2279-40b5-9d8f-ae6f70b1b6f8>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2021, 5, 16, 21, 25, 1), 'WARC-IP-Address': '75.103.91.29', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:FXYGUZSJZBWNHBFHSPVUWYFMLL25X7Y6', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:f53d0bb7-84f5-4bed-bfe6-b9af0e2d4745>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'http://lindapirri.com/artwork-mediums/originals/', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:9279877f-ba5d-48fb-8422-9b87a2edbb05>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '319', 'url': 'http://lindapirri.com/artwork-mediums/originals/', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2021-21\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for May 2021\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-67-67-184.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.18 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: https://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.06660550832748413', 'original_id': '5197e7c6753ff0a3cd6e91b746d298dc3ae53d61da44a98ef40170e9d53a2709'} |
Unmounted Horse Safety
Vet working on horse
Vets and farriers have to get into a precarious position while working on a horse. Proper horse handling can help keep your vet or farrier safe.
Working with horses daily for the majority of my life has taught me many things. One of the most important is the issue of safety. Surprisingly, this is sometimes less of an issue when we’re around horses that are nervous, high strung, or otherwise unruly. In those cases we use caution and awareness, and we generally don’t get hurt. But when we’re working with horses that are quiet, relaxed, “solid citizens,” we sometimes get complacent – especially with horses we know and trust. This is often when we get injured.
This was not the case last evening when I was trying new boots on a horse. EZ was in his stall, happily munching hay. I was focused, and I was positioned properly. But as I was fitting the boot on, another horse made a sudden loud banging noise on the wall and startled EZ. There was no warning, no second or two to protect myself, when he jumped into me, slamming me into the wall and to the floor. I am so grateful that he stopped with a hoof that was inches from my face. My arm was bruised, but my head was fine. I was a bit dazed, but recovered quickly. Could I have put him on cross-ties instead of fitting boots in the stall? Absolutely. But that would not have been a guarantee of safety; in fact it might have been worse since he would not have been able to do what nature tells him to do: run.
The same day, I was standing at the head of another horse, Ace, to adjust his bridle. Something behind him startled him and he leapt forward. Again, I was fortunate, because instead of running over me as he could have done, he stopped. Thank you, Ace!
Another time I was simply fastening the buckles on a horse’s blanket when she shied and ended up jumping into me knocking me back against a wall. When I landed face down in the stall she stepped backwards onto my foot. Painful and frightening. She eventually stepped off my leg and I crawled out on my belly.
My point here is that accidents can happen anytime, and are often beyond our control. Horses are horses and they sometimes do unpredictable things. However, I often see people around horses doing incredibly dangerous things. Why would anyone put themselves at additional risk through carelessness? Just recently I saw Facebook posts showing a woman sitting with her bare feet touching her horse’s front hooves, a man cleaning a hind hoof squatting down with the hoof level with his face, someone allowing their 3 year old to lead a horse by himself, and two young girls diving into a pond off their horse’s back. No helmets, no protection. Once I saw a 2 year old walk under the belly of a horse, and the mother saw no harm in it. I once witnessed a groom at a show, lying on his side sanding a horse’s feet. Even the most settled horse is still first a prey animal and a flight animal. One never knows when a horse will mentally “return to the wild” and defend him/herself the way they were intended – which is often violently quick, and with tremendous power. If you are in the path of that power you could be seriously hurt, or worse.
As horsepeople, we understand the inherent risks. But to become careless is just plain foolish. Horses don’t intend on hurting us, but they do react to a stimulus. We don’t have to be paranoid, but we should always keep in mind the nature of the horse, and act appropriately for safety.
Think about safety the next time you’re handling a horse for your vet or farrier. Often a horse is nervous or distracted, while the vet or farrier is in a precarious position. I have seen people obliviously chatting away not paying any attention to the horse’s body language or how they are positioning the horse. I’ve known people who will even groom their horse while the farrier is trying to work. There are things you can do to help keep your vet or farrier safe. For example: if the vet is doing an exam on a hind limb, turn your horse’s head towards the side the vet is on. If the horse were to threaten to kick and you pulled the horse towards the vet, the hindquarter would move away from the vet. (If you had the head turned away from the vet and the horse went to kick, he would be coming toward the vet – not safe!) Little things like that can help everyone stay safe, as well as just being aware of your horse’s body language so you can warn the vet or farrier when they’re in a position where they cannot see or feel when the horse is warning them.
People aren’t the only ones who get injured because of our carelessness; our horses do too. The animals we love are often put in harm’s way because we aren’t paying attention. It’s easy to be distracted when other people are in the barn. I understand wanting to socialize, but the focus should be on the horse and socializing later. Don’t leave a horse untied with a halter or bridle on – they might stick their heads in places where the headstall can snag, causing them to panic and pull back. Equipment may break, but that’s repairable. A horse’s mouth can be damaged, neck and back muscles pulled, and/or spinal damage may be done. Be careful leading your horse through a gate. Riders often open the gate wide enough for themselves, forgetting that their horse is much wider. The horse does not know the danger lurking and needs his human partner to take care of his wellbeing.
There are no guarantees when handling horses – accidents do happen. But we owe it to ourselves and to our horses to focus and make choices that will keep everyone safe as possible. Horses’ body language can be very clear in warning us of potential danger but we won’t know that if we don’t pay close attention.
Leave a Reply
%d bloggers like this: | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '1', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9750343561172484}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '57185', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:HLQCHRDSGZMXRAOYTSZT3N4SKUP4T4O4', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:df277635-38ba-45cb-bd67-7b6de04ae4fe>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2019, 2, 16, 21, 42, 40), 'WARC-IP-Address': '192.0.78.205', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:DU4SBROYEBDTBLVE3AGEW4HJQ4HSHTZL', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:301e1f18-6607-46e8-a0a4-455118369f00>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://sandiforester.com/2016/08/02/safety-working-around-horses/', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:5d72478d-2d67-4a14-8a20-dc7d73de9e3b>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '1058', 'url': 'https://sandiforester.com/2016/08/02/safety-working-around-horses/', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2019-09\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for February 2019\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-137-198-92.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 0.11-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.03787064552307129', 'original_id': '6f5b618f32f50a7b47717380823e877a6b67d4d42c8bac19d2db057890e69143'} |
{
"name" : "362.pdf",
"metadata" : {
"source" : "CRF",
"title" : null,
"authors" : [ ],
"emails" : [ "ke.li@eecs.berkeley.edu", "malik@eecs.berkeley.edu" ],
"sections" : [ {
"heading" : "1 INTRODUCTION",
"text" : "Continuous optimization algorithms are some of the most ubiquitous tools used in virtually all areas of science and engineering. Indeed, they are the workhorse of machine learning and power most learning algorithms. Consequently, optimization difficulties become learning challenges – because their causes are often not well understood, they are one of the most vexing issues that arise in practice. One solution is to design better optimization algorithms that are immune to these failure cases. This requires careful analysis of existing optimization algorithms and clever solutions to overcome their weaknesses; thus, doing so is both laborious and time-consuming. Is there a better way? If the mantra of machine learning is to learn what is traditionally manually designed, why not take it a step further and learn the optimization algorithm itself?\nConsider the general structure of an algorithm for unconstrained continuous optimization, which is outlined in Algorithm 1. Starting from a random location in the domain of the objective function, the algorithm iteratively updates the current iterate by a step vector ∆x computed from some functional π of the objective function, the current iterate and past iterates.\nAlgorithm 1 General structure of unconstrained optimization algorithms Require: Objective function f x(0) ← random point in the domain of f for i = 1, 2, . . . do\n∆x← π(f, {x(0), . . . , x(i−1)}) if stopping condition is met then\nreturn x(i−1) end if x(i) ← x(i−1) + ∆x\nend for\nDifferent optimization algorithms only differ in the choice of the update formula π. Examples of existing optimization algorithms and their corresponding update formulas are shown in Table 1.\nIf we can learn π, we will be able to learn an optimization algorithm. Since it is difficult to model general functionals, in practice, we restrict the dependence of π on the objective function f to objective values and gradients evaluated at current and past iterates. Hence, π can be simply modelled as a function from the objective values and gradients along the trajectory taken by the optimizer so far\nto the next step vector. If we model π with a universal function approximator like a neural net, it is then possible to search over the space of optimization algorithms by learning the parameters of the neural net. We formulate this as a reinforcement learning problem, where any particular optimization algorithm simply corresponds to a policy. Learning an optimization algorithm then reduces to finding an optimal policy. For this purpose, we use an off-the-shelf reinforcement learning algorithm known as guided policy search (Levine & Abbeel, 2014), which has demonstrated success in a variety of robotic control settings (Levine et al., 2015a; Finn et al., 2015; Levine et al., 2015b; Han et al., 2015).\nOur goal is to learn about regularities in the geometry of the error surface induced by a class of objective functions of interest and exploit this knowledge to optimize the class of objective functions faster. This is potentially advantageous, since the learned optimizer is trained on the actual objective functions that arise in practice, whereas hand-engineered optimizers are often analyzed in the convex setting and applied to the non-convex setting."
}, {
"heading" : "1.1 LEARNING HOW TO LEARN",
"text" : "When the objective functions under consideration correspond to loss functions for training a model, the proposed framework effectively learns how to learn. The loss function for training a model on a particular task/dataset is a particular objective function, and so the loss on many tasks corresponds to a set of objective functions. We can train an optimizer on this set of objective functions, which can hopefully learn to exploit regularities of the model and train it faster irrespective of the task. As a concrete example, if the model is a neural net with ReLU activations, our goal is to learn an optimizer that can leverage the piecewise linearity of the model.\nWe evaluate the learned optimizer on its ability to generalize to unseen objective functions. Akin to the supervised learning paradigm, we divide the dataset of objective functions into training and test sets. At test time, the learned optimizer can be used stand-alone and functions exactly like a hand-engineered optimizer, except that the update formula is replaced with a neural net and no hyperparameters like step size or momentum need to be specified by the user. In particular, it does not perform multiple trials on the same objective function at test time, unlike hyperparameter optimization. Since different objective functions correspond to the loss for training a model on different tasks, the optimizer is effectively asked to train on its experience of learning on some tasks and generalize to other possibly unrelated tasks. It is therefore critical to ensure that the optimizer does not learn anything about particular tasks; this would be considered as overfitting under this setting. Notably, this goal is different from the line of work on “learning to learn” or “meta-learning”, whose goal is to learn something about a family of tasks. To prevent overfitting to particular tasks, we train the optimizer to learn on randomly generated tasks."
}, {
"heading" : "2 RELATED WORK",
"text" : ""
}, {
"heading" : "2.1 META-LEARNING",
"text" : "When the objective functions optimized by the learned optimizer correspond to loss functions for training a model, learning the optimizer can be viewed as learning how to learn. This theme of learning about learning itself has been explored and is referred to as “learning to learn” or “meta-\nlearning” (Baxter et al., 1995; Vilalta & Drissi, 2002; Brazdil et al., 2008; Thrun & Pratt, 2012). Various authors have used the term in different ways and there is no consensus on its precise definition. While there is agreement on what kinds of knowledge should be learned at the base-level, it is less clear what kinds of meta-knowledge should be learned at the meta-level. We briefly summarize the various perspectives that have been presented below.\nOne form of meta-knowledge is the commonalities across a family of related tasks (Abu-Mostafa, 1993). Under this framework, the goal of the meta-learner is to learn about such commonalities, so that given the learned commonalities, base-level learning on new tasks from the family can be performed faster. This line of work is often better known as transfer learning and multi-task learning.\nA different approach (Brazdil et al., 2003) is to learn how to select the base-level learner that achieves the best performance for a given task. Under this setting, the meta-knowledge is the correlation between properties of tasks and the performance of different base-level learners trained on them. There are two challenges associated with this approach: the need to devise meta-features on tasks that capture similarity between different tasks, and the need to parameterize the space of base-level learners to make search in this space tractable.\nSchmidhuber (2004) proposes representing base-level learners as general-purpose programs, that is, sequences of primitive operations. While such a representation can in principle encode all base-level learners, searching in this space takes exponential time in the length of the target program.\nThe proposed method differs from these lines in work in several important ways. First, the proposed method learns regularities in the optimization/learning process itself, rather than regularities that are shared by different tasks or regularities in the mapping between tasks and best-performing base-level learners. More concretely, the meta-knowledge in the proposed framework can capture regularities in the error surface. Second, unlike the approaches above, we explicitly aim to avoid capturing any regularities about the task. Under the proposed framework, only model-specific regularities are captured at the meta-level, while task-specific regularities are captured at the base-level."
}, {
"heading" : "2.2 PROGRAM INDUCTION",
"text" : "Because the proposed method learns an algorithm, it is related to program induction, which considers the problem of learning programs from examples of input and output. Several different approaches have been proposed: genetic programming (Cramer, 1985) represents programs as abstract syntax trees and evolves them using genetic algorithms, Liang et al. (2010) represents programs explicitly using a formal language, constructs a hierarchical Bayesian prior over programs and performs inference using an MCMC sampling procedure and Graves et al. (2014) represents programs implicitly as sequences of memory access operations and trains a recurrent neural net to learn the underlying patterns in the memory access operations. Hochreiter et al. (2001) considers the special case of online learning algorithms, each of which is represented as a recurrent neural net with a particular setting of weights, and learns the online learning algorithm by learning the neural net weights. While the program/algorithm improves as training progresses, the algorithms learned using these methods have not been able to match the performance of simple hand-engineered algorithms. In contrast, our aim is learn an algorithm that is better than known hand-engineered algorithms."
}, {
"heading" : "2.3 HYPERPARAMETER OPTIMIZATION",
"text" : "There is a large body of work on hyperparameter optimization, which studies the optimization of hyperparameters used to train a model, such as the learning rate, the momentum decay factor and regularization parameters. Most methods (Hutter et al., 2011; Bergstra et al., 2011; Snoek et al., 2012; Swersky et al., 2013; Feurer et al., 2015) rely on sequential model-based Bayesian optimization (Mockus et al., 1978; Brochu et al., 2010), while others adopt a random search approach (Bergstra & Bengio, 2012) or use gradient-based optimization (Bengio, 2000; Domke, 2012; Maclaurin et al., 2015). Because each hyperparameter setting corresponds to a particular instantiation of an optimization algorithm, these methods can be viewed as a way to search over different instantiations of the same optimization algorithm. The proposed method, on the other hand, can search over a larger space of possible optimization algorithms. In addition, as noted previously, when presented with a new objective function at test time, the learned optimizer does not need to conduct multiple trials with different hyperparameter settings."
}, {
"heading" : "2.4 SPECIAL CASES AND OTHER RELATED WORK",
"text" : "Work on online hyperparameter adaptation studies ways to choose the step size or other hyperparameters adaptively while performing optimization. Stochastic meta-descent (Bray et al., 2004) derives a rule for adaptively choosing the step size, Ruvolo et al. (2009) learns a policy for picking the damping factor in the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm and recent work (Hansen, 2016; Daniel et al., 2016; Fu et al., 2016) explores learning a policy for choosing the step size. Unlike this line of work, the proposed method learns a policy for choosing the step direction as well as step size, thereby making it possible to learn a new optimization algorithm that is different from known algorithms. A different line of work (Gregor & LeCun, 2010; Sprechmann et al., 2013) explores learning special-purpose solvers for a class of optimization problems that arise in sparse coding.\nWork that appeared on ArXiv after this paper (Andrychowicz et al., 2016) explores a similar theme under a different setting, where the goal is learn a task-dependent optimization algorithm. The optimizer is trained from the experience of training on a particular task or family of tasks and is evaluated on its ability to train on the same task or family of tasks. Under this setting, the optimizer learns regularities about the task itself rather than regularities of the model in general."
}, {
"heading" : "3 BACKGROUND ON REINFORCEMENT LEARNING",
"text" : ""
}, {
"heading" : "3.1 MARKOV DECISION PROCESS",
"text" : "In the reinforcement learning setting, the learner is given a choice of actions to take in each time step, which changes the state of the environment in an unknown fashion, and receives feedback based on the consequence of the action. The feedback is typically given in the form of a reward or cost, and the objective of the learner is to choose a sequence of actions based on observations of the current environment that maximizes cumulative reward or minimizes cumulative cost over all time steps.\nMore formally, a reinforcement learning problem can be characterized by a Markov decision process (MDP). We consider an undiscounted finite-horizon MDP with continuous state and action spaces defined by the tuple (S,A, p0, p, c, T ), where S ⊆ RD is the set of states, A ⊆ Rd is the set of actions, p0 : S → R+ is the probability density over initial states, p : S × A × S → R+ is the transition probability density, that is, the conditional probability density over successor states given the current state and action, c : S → R is a function that maps state to cost and T is the time horizon. A policy π : S × A × {0, . . . , T − 1} → R+ is a conditional probability density over actions given the state at each time step. When a policy is independent of the time step, it is referred to as stationary."
}, {
"heading" : "3.2 POLICY SEARCH",
"text" : "This problem of finding the cost-minimizing policy is known as the policy search problem. More precisely, the objective is to find a policy π∗ such that\nπ∗ = arg min π Es0,a0,s1,...,sT [ T∑ t=0 c(st) ] ,\nwhere the expectation is taken with respect to the joint distribution over the sequence of states and actions, often referred to as a trajectory, which has the density\nq (s0, a0, s1, . . . , sT ) = p0 (s0) T−1∏ t=0 π (at| st, t) p (st+1| st, at) .\nTo enable generalization to unseen states, the policy is typically parameterized and minimization is performed over representable policies. Solving this problem exactly is intractable in all but selected special cases. Therefore, policy search methods generally tackle this problem by solving it approximately. In addition, the transition probability density p is typically not known, but may be accessed via sampling."
}, {
"heading" : "3.3 GUIDED POLICY SEARCH",
"text" : "Guided policy search (GPS) (Levine & Abbeel, 2014) is a method for searching over expressive non-linear policy classes in continuous state and action spaces. It works by alternating between computing a mixture of target trajectories and training the policy to replicate them. Successive iterations locally improve target trajectories while ensuring proximity to behaviours that are reproducible by the policy. Target trajectories are computed by fitting local approximations to the cost and transition probability density and optimizing over a restricted class of time-varying linear target policies subject to a trust region constraint. The stationary non-linear policy is trained to minimize the squared Mahalanobis distance between the predicted and target actions at each time step.\nMore precisely, GPS works by solving the following constrained optimization problem:\nmin θ,η\nEψ [ T∑ t=0 c(st) ] s.t. ψ (at| st, t; η) = π (at| st; θ) ∀at, st, t,\nwhere ψ denotes the time-varying target policy, π denotes the stationary non-linear policy, and Eψ [·] denotes the expectation taken with respect to the trajectory induced by the target policy ψ. ψ is assumed to be conditionally Gaussian whose mean is linear in st and π is assumed to be conditionally Gaussian whose mean could be an arbitrary function of st. To solve this problem, the equality constraint is relaxed and replaced with a penalty on the KL-divergence between ψ and π. Different flavours of GPS (Levine & Abbeel, 2014; Levine et al., 2015a) use different constrained optimization methods, which all involve alternating between optimizing the parameters of ψ and π.\nFor updating ψ, GPS first builds a model p̃ of the transition probability density p of the form p̃ (st+1| st, at, t) := N (Atst + Btat + ct, Ft)1, where At, Bt and ct are parameters estimated from samples drawn from the trajectory induced by the existing ψ. It also computes local quadratic approximations to the cost, so that c(st) ≈ 12s T t Ctst + d T t st + ht for st’s that are near the samples. It then solves the following:\nmin Kt,kt,Gt Eψ̃ [ T∑ t=0 1 2 sTt Ctst + d T t st ]\ns.t. T∑ t=0 DKL (p (st)ψ ( ·| st, t; η)‖ p (st)ψ ( ·| st, t; η′)) ≤ ,\nwhere Eψ̃ [·] denotes the expectation taken with respect to the trajectory induced by the target policy ψ if states transition according to the model p̃. Kt, kt, Gt are the parameters of ψ (at| st, t; η) := N (Ktst + kt, Gt) and η′ denotes the parameters of the previous target policy. It turns out that this optimization problem can be solved in closed form using a dynamic programming algorithm known as linear-quadratic-Gaussian regulator (LQG).\nFor updating π, GPS minimizes DKL (p (st)π ( ·| st)‖ p (st)ψ ( ·| st, t)). Assuming fixed covariance and omitting dual variables, this corresponds to minimizing the following:\nEψ [ T∑ t=0 (Eπ [at| st]− Eψ [at| st, t])T G−1t (Eπ [at| st]− Eψ [at| st, t]) ] ,\nwhere Eπ [·] denotes the expectation taken with respect to the trajectory induced by the non-linear policy π. We refer interested readers to (Levine & Abbeel, 2014) and (Levine et al., 2015a) for details."
}, {
"heading" : "4 FORMULATION",
"text" : "We observe that the execution of an optimization algorithm can be viewed as the execution of a particular policy in an MDP: the state consists of the current iterate and the objective values and gradients evaluated at the current and past iterates, the action is the step vector that is used to update\n1In a slight abuse of notation, we use N (µ,Σ) to denote the density of a Gaussian distribution with mean µ and covariance Σ.\nthe current iterate, and the transition probability is partially characterized by the update formula, x(i) ← x(i−1) + ∆x. The policy that is executed corresponds precisely to the choice of π used by the optimization algorithm. For this reason, we will also use π to denote the policy at hand. Under this formulation, searching over policies corresponds to searching over possible optimization algorithms.\nTo learn π, we need to define the cost function, which should penalize policies that exhibit undesirable behaviours during their execution. Since the performance metric of interest for optimization algorithms is the speed of convergence, the cost function should penalize policies that converge slowly. To this end, assuming the goal is to minimize the objective function, we define cost at a state to be the objective value at the current iterate. This encourages the policy to reach the minimum of the objective function as quickly as possible. We choose to parameterize the mean of π using a neural net, due to its appealing properties as a universal function approximator and strong empirical performance in a variety of applications. We use GPS to learn π."
}, {
"heading" : "5 IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS",
"text" : "We store the current iterate, previous gradients and improvements in the objective value from previous iterations in the state. We keep track of only the information pertaining to the previous H time steps and use H = 25 in our experiments. More specifically, the dimensions of the state space encode the following information:\n• Current iterate\n• Change in the objective value at the current iterate relative to the objective value at the ith most recent iterate for all i ∈ {2, . . . ,H + 1}\n• Gradient of the objective function evaluated at the ith most recent iterate for all i ∈ {2, . . . ,H + 1}\nInitially, we set the dimensions corresponding to historical information to zero. The current iterate is only used to compute the cost; because the policy should not depend on the absolute coordinates of the current iterate, we exclude it from the input that is fed into the neural net.\nWe use a small neural net with a single hidden layer of 50 hidden units to model the mean of π. Softplus activation units are used at the hidden layer and linear activation units are used at the output layer. We initialize the weights of the neural net randomly and do not regularize the magnitude of weights.\nInitially, we set the target trajectory distribution so that the mean action given state at each time step matches the step vector used by the gradient descent method with momentum. We choose the best settings of the step size and momentum decay factor for each objective function in the training set by performing a grid search over hyperparameters and running noiseless gradient descent with momentum for each hyperparameter setting. We use a mixture of 10 Gaussians as a prior for fitting the parameters of the transition probability density.\nFor training, we sample 20 trajectories with a length of 40 time steps for each objective function in the training set. After each iteration of guided policy search, we sample new trajectories from the new distribution and discard the trajectories from the preceding iteration."
}, {
"heading" : "6 EXPERIMENTS",
"text" : "We learn optimization algorithms for various convex and non-convex classes of objective functions that correspond to loss functions for different machine learning models. We learn an optimizer for logistic regression, robust linear regression using the Geman-McClure M-estimator and a twolayer neural net classifier with ReLU activation units. The geometry of the error surface becomes progressively more complex: the loss for logistic regression is convex, the loss for robust linear regression is non-convex, and the loss for the neural net has many local minima."
}, {
"heading" : "6.1 LOGISTIC REGRESSION",
"text" : "We consider a logistic regression model with an `2 regularizer on the weight vector. Training the model requires optimizing the following objective:\nmin w,b − 1 n n∑ i=1 yi log σ ( wTxi + b ) + (1− yi) log ( 1− σ ( wTxi + b )) + λ 2 ‖w‖22 ,\nwhere w ∈ Rd and b ∈ R denote the weight vector and bias respectively, xi ∈ Rd and yi ∈ {0, 1} denote the feature vector and label of the ith instance, λ denotes the coefficient on the regularizer and σ(z) := 11+e−z . For our experiments, we choose λ = 0.0005 and d = 3. This objective is convex in w and b.\nWe train an algorithm for optimizing objectives of this form. Different examples in the training set correspond to such objective functions with different instantiations of the free variables, which in this case are xi and yi. Hence, each objective function in the training set corresponds to a logistic regression problem on a different dataset.\nTo construct the training set, we randomly generate a dataset of 100 instances for each function in the training set. The instances are drawn randomly from two multivariate Gaussians with random means and covariances, with half drawn from each. Instances from the same Gaussian are assigned the same label and instances from different Gaussians are assigned different labels.\nWe train the optimizer on a set of 90 objective functions. We evaluate it on a test set of 100 random objective functions generated using the same procedure and compare to popular hand-engineered algorithms, such as gradient descent, momentum, conjugate gradient and L-BFGS. All baselines are run with the best hyperparameter settings tuned on the training set.\nFor each algorithm and objective function in the test set, we compute the difference between the objective value achieved by a given algorithm and that achieved by the best of the competing algorithms at every iteration, a quantity we will refer to as “the margin of victory”. This quantity is positive when the current algorithm is better than all other algorithms and negative otherwise. In Figure 1a, we plot the mean margin of victory of each algorithm at each iteration averaged over all objective functions in the test set.\nAs shown, the learned optimizer, which we will henceforth refer to as “predicted step descent”, outperforms gradient descent, momentum and conjugate gradient at almost every iteration. The margin of victory for predicted step descent is high in early iterations, indicating that it converges much faster than other algorithms. It is interesting to note that despite having seen only trajectories of length 40 at training time, the learned optimizer is able to generalize to much longer time horizons at test time. L-BFGS converges to slightly better optima than predicted step descent and the momentum method. This is not surprising, as the objective functions are convex and L-BFGS is known to be a very good optimizer for convex problems.\nWe show the performance of each algorithm on two objective functions from the test set in Figures 1b and 1c. In Figure 1b, predicted step descent converges faster than all other algorithms. In Figure 1c, predicted step descent initially converges faster than all other algorithms but is later overtaken by L-BFGS, while remaining faster than all other optimizers. However, it eventually achieves the same objective value as L-BFGS, while the objective values achieved by gradient descent and momentum remain much higher."
}, {
"heading" : "6.2 ROBUST LINEAR REGRESSION",
"text" : "Next, we consider the problem of linear regression using a robust loss function. One way to ensure robustness is to use an M-estimator for parameter estimation. A popular choice is the GemanMcClure estimator, which induces the following objective:\nmin w,b\n1\nn n∑ i=1\n( yi −wTxi − b )2 c2 + (yi −wTxi − b)2 ,\nwhere w ∈ Rd and b ∈ R denote the weight vector and bias respectively, xi ∈ Rd and yi ∈ R denote the feature vector and label of the ith instance and c ∈ R is a constant that modulates the shape of the loss function. For our experiments, we use c = 1 and d = 3. This loss function is not convex in either w or b.\nAs with the preceding section, each objective function in the training set is a function of the above form with a particular instantiation of xi and yi. The dataset for each objective function is generated by drawing 25 random samples from each one of four multivariate Gaussians, each of which has a random mean and the identity covariance matrix. For all points drawn from the same Gaussian, their labels are generated by projecting them along the same random vector, adding the same randomly generated bias and perturbing them with i.i.d. Gaussian noise.\nThe optimizer is trained on a set of 120 objective functions. We evaluate it on 100 randomly generated objective functions using the same metric as above. As shown in Figure 2a, predicted step descent outperforms all hand-engineered algorithms except at early iterations. While it dominates gradient descent, conjugate gradient and L-BFGS at all times, it does not make progress as quickly as the momentum method initially. However, after around 30 iterations, it is able to close the gap and surpass the momentum method. On this optimization problem, both conjugate gradient and L-BFGS diverge quickly. Interestingly, unlike in the previous experiment, L-BFGS no longer performs well, which could be caused by non-convexity of the objective functions.\nFigures 2b and 2c show performance on objective functions from the test set. In Figure 2b, predicted step descent not only converges the fastest, but also reaches a better optimum than all other algorithms. In Figure 2c, predicted step descent converges the fastest and is able to avoid most of the oscillations that hamper gradient descent and momentum after reaching the optimum."
}, {
"heading" : "6.3 NEURAL NET CLASSIFIER",
"text" : "Finally, we train an optimizer to train a small neural net classifier. We consider a two-layer neural net with ReLU activation on the hidden units and softmax activation on the output units. We use the cross-entropy loss combined with `2 regularization on the weights. To train the model, we need to optimize the following objective:\nmin W,U,b,c − 1 n n∑ i=1 log\n exp ( (U max (Wxi + b, 0) + c)yi ) ∑ j exp ( (U max (Wxi + b, 0) + c)j ) + λ 2 ‖W‖2F + λ 2 ‖U‖2F ,\nwhere W ∈ Rh×d, b ∈ Rh, U ∈ Rp×h, c ∈ Rp denote the first-layer and second-layer weights and biases, xi ∈ Rd and yi ∈ {1, . . . , p} denote the input and target class label of the ith instance, λ denotes the coefficient on regularizers and (v)j denotes the j\nth component of v. For our experiments, we use λ = 0.0005 and d = h = p = 2. The error surface is known to have complex geometry and multiple local optima, making this a challenging optimization problem.\nThe training set consists of 80 objective functions, each of which corresponds to the objective for training a neural net on a different dataset. Each dataset is generated by generating four multivariate Gaussians with random means and covariances and sampling 25 points from each. The points from the same Gaussian are assigned the same random label of either 0 or 1. We make sure not all of the points in the dataset are assigned the same label.\nWe evaluate the learned optimizer in the same manner as above. As shown in Figure 3a, predicted step descent significantly outperforms all other algorithms. In particular, as evidenced by the sizeable and sustained gap between margin of victory for predicted step descent and the momentum method, predicted step descent is able to reach much better optima and is less prone to getting trapped in local optima compared to other methods. This gap is also larger compared to that exhibited in previous sections, suggesting that hand-engineered algorithms are more sub-optimal on challenging optimization problems and so the potential for improvement from learning the algorithm is greater in such settings. Due to non-convexity, conjugate gradient and L-BFGS often diverge.\nPerformance on examples of objective functions from the test set is shown in Figures 3b and 3c. As shown, predicted step descent is able to reach better optima than all other methods and largely avoids oscillations that other methods suffer from."
}, {
"heading" : "6.4 VISUALIZATION OF OPTIMIZATION TRAJECTORIES",
"text" : "We visualize optimization trajectories followed by the learned algorithm and various handengineered algorithms to gain further insights into the behaviour of the learned algorithm. We generated random two-dimensional logistic regression problems and plot trajectories followed by different algorithms on each problem in Figure 4.\nAs shown, the learned algorithm exhibits some interesting behaviours. In Figure 4a, the learned algorithm does not take as large a step as L-BFGS initially, but takes larger steps than L-BFGS later on as it approaches the optimum. In other words, the learned algorithm appears to be not as greedy as L-BFGS. In Figures 4b and 4d, the learned algorithm initially overshoots, but appears to have learned how to recover while avoiding oscillations. In Figure 4c, the learned algorithm is able to make rapid progress despite vanishing gradients."
}, {
"heading" : "7 CONCLUSION",
"text" : "We presented a method for learning a better optimization algorithm. We formulated this as a reinforcement learning problem, in which any particular optimization algorithm can be represented as a policy. Learning an optimization algorithm then reduces to find the optimal policy. We used guided policy search for this purpose and trained optimizers for different classes of convex and non-convex objective functions. We demonstrated that the learned optimizer converges faster and/or reaches better optima than hand-engineered optimizers. We hope optimizers learned using the proposed approach can be used to solve various common classes of optimization problems more quickly and help accelerate the pace of research in science and engineering."
}, {
"heading" : "ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS",
"text" : "This work was supported by ONR MURI N00014-14-1-0671. Ke Li thanks the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) for fellowship support. The authors also thank Chelsea Finn for code and Pieter Abbeel, Sandy Huang and Zoe McCarthy for feedback. This research used the Savio computational cluster resource provided by the Berkeley Research Computing program at the University of California, Berkeley (supported by the UC Berkeley Chancellor, Vice Chancellor for Research, and Chief Information Officer)."
}, {
"heading" : "8 APPENDIX",
"text" : ""
}, {
"heading" : "8.1 TRANSFER TO OBJECTIVE FUNCTIONS DRAWN FROM DIFFERENT DISTRIBUTIONS",
"text" : "We evaluate the learned neural net optimizer, which is trained on neural net classification problems on data drawn from mixtures of four random Gaussians, on neural net classification problems on data drawn from mixtures of different numbers of random Gaussians. As the number of mixture components increases, the data distributions used at test time become more dissimilar from those seen during training. As shown in Figures 5, the learned optimizer seems to be fairly robust and performs reasonably well despite deviations of data distributions from those used for training."
} ],
"references" : [ {
"title" : "A method for learning from hints",
"author" : [ "Yaser S Abu-Mostafa" ],
"venue" : "In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, pp",
"citeRegEx" : "Abu.Mostafa.,? \\Q1993\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Abu.Mostafa.",
"year" : 1993
}, {
"title" : "Learning to learn by gradient descent by gradient descent",
"author" : [ "Marcin Andrychowicz", "Misha Denil", "Sergio Gomez", "Matthew W Hoffman", "David Pfau", "Tom Schaul", "Nando de Freitas" ],
"venue" : "arXiv preprint arXiv:1606.04474,",
"citeRegEx" : "Andrychowicz et al\\.,? \\Q2016\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Andrychowicz et al\\.",
"year" : 2016
}, {
"title" : "NIPS 1995 workshop on learning to learn: Knowledge consolidation and transfer in inductive systems",
"author" : [ "Jonathan Baxter", "Rich Caruana", "Tom Mitchell", "Lorien Y Pratt", "Daniel L Silver", "Sebastian Thrun" ],
"venue" : "https://web.archive.org/web/20000618135816/http://www. cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/caruana/pub/transfer.html,",
"citeRegEx" : "Baxter et al\\.,? \\Q1995\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Baxter et al\\.",
"year" : 1995
}, {
"title" : "Gradient-based optimization of hyperparameters",
"author" : [ "Yoshua Bengio" ],
"venue" : "Neural computation,",
"citeRegEx" : "Bengio.,? \\Q1900\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Bengio.",
"year" : 1900
}, {
"title" : "Random search for hyper-parameter optimization",
"author" : [ "James Bergstra", "Yoshua Bengio" ],
"venue" : "The Journal of Machine Learning Research,",
"citeRegEx" : "Bergstra and Bengio.,? \\Q2012\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Bergstra and Bengio.",
"year" : 2012
}, {
"title" : "Algorithms for hyper-parameter optimization",
"author" : [ "James S Bergstra", "Rémi Bardenet", "Yoshua Bengio", "Balázs Kégl" ],
"venue" : "In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems,",
"citeRegEx" : "Bergstra et al\\.,? \\Q2011\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Bergstra et al\\.",
"year" : 2011
}, {
"title" : "3d hand tracking by rapid stochastic gradient descent using a skinning model",
"author" : [ "Matthieu Bray", "Esther Koller-meier", "Pascal Müller", "Luc Van Gool", "Nicol N Schraudolph" ],
"venue" : "In 1st European Conference on Visual Media Production (CVMP). Citeseer,",
"citeRegEx" : "Bray et al\\.,? \\Q2004\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Bray et al\\.",
"year" : 2004
}, {
"title" : "Metalearning: applications to data mining",
"author" : [ "Pavel Brazdil", "Christophe Giraud Carrier", "Carlos Soares", "Ricardo Vilalta" ],
"venue" : "Springer Science & Business Media,",
"citeRegEx" : "Brazdil et al\\.,? \\Q2008\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Brazdil et al\\.",
"year" : 2008
}, {
"title" : "Ranking learning algorithms: Using ibl and meta-learning on accuracy and time results",
"author" : [ "Pavel B Brazdil", "Carlos Soares", "Joaquim Pinto Da Costa" ],
"venue" : "Machine Learning,",
"citeRegEx" : "Brazdil et al\\.,? \\Q2003\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Brazdil et al\\.",
"year" : 2003
}, {
"title" : "A tutorial on bayesian optimization of expensive cost functions, with application to active user modeling and hierarchical reinforcement learning",
"author" : [ "Eric Brochu", "Vlad M Cora", "Nando De Freitas" ],
"venue" : "arXiv preprint arXiv:1012.2599,",
"citeRegEx" : "Brochu et al\\.,? \\Q2010\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Brochu et al\\.",
"year" : 2010
}, {
"title" : "A representation for the adaptive generation of simple sequential programs",
"author" : [ "Nichael Lynn Cramer" ],
"venue" : "In Proceedings of the First International Conference on Genetic Algorithms,",
"citeRegEx" : "Cramer.,? \\Q1985\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Cramer.",
"year" : 1985
}, {
"title" : "Learning step size controllers for robust neural network training",
"author" : [ "Christian Daniel", "Jonathan Taylor", "Sebastian Nowozin" ],
"venue" : "In Thirtieth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence,",
"citeRegEx" : "Daniel et al\\.,? \\Q2016\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Daniel et al\\.",
"year" : 2016
}, {
"title" : "Generic methods for optimization-based modeling",
"author" : [ "Justin Domke" ],
"venue" : "In AISTATS,",
"citeRegEx" : "Domke.,? \\Q2012\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Domke.",
"year" : 2012
}, {
"title" : "Initializing bayesian hyperparameter optimization via meta-learning",
"author" : [ "Matthias Feurer", "Jost Tobias Springenberg", "Frank Hutter" ],
"venue" : "In AAAI,",
"citeRegEx" : "Feurer et al\\.,? \\Q2015\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Feurer et al\\.",
"year" : 2015
}, {
"title" : "Learning visual feature spaces for robotic manipulation with deep spatial autoencoders",
"author" : [ "Chelsea Finn", "Xin Yu Tan", "Yan Duan", "Trevor Darrell", "Sergey Levine", "Pieter Abbeel" ],
"venue" : "arXiv preprint arXiv:1509.06113,",
"citeRegEx" : "Finn et al\\.,? \\Q2015\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Finn et al\\.",
"year" : 2015
}, {
"title" : "Deep q-networks for accelerating the training of deep neural networks",
"author" : [ "Jie Fu", "Zichuan Lin", "Miao Liu", "Nicholas Leonard", "Jiashi Feng", "Tat-Seng Chua" ],
"venue" : "arXiv preprint arXiv:1606.01467,",
"citeRegEx" : "Fu et al\\.,? \\Q2016\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Fu et al\\.",
"year" : 2016
}, {
"title" : "Learning fast approximations of sparse coding",
"author" : [ "Karol Gregor", "Yann LeCun" ],
"venue" : "In Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Machine Learning",
"citeRegEx" : "Gregor and LeCun.,? \\Q2010\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Gregor and LeCun.",
"year" : 2010
}, {
"title" : "Learning compound multi-step controllers under unknown dynamics",
"author" : [ "Weiqiao Han", "Sergey Levine", "Pieter Abbeel" ],
"venue" : "In International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems,",
"citeRegEx" : "Han et al\\.,? \\Q2015\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Han et al\\.",
"year" : 2015
}, {
"title" : "Using deep q-learning to control optimization hyperparameters",
"author" : [ "Samantha Hansen" ],
"venue" : "arXiv preprint arXiv:1602.04062,",
"citeRegEx" : "Hansen.,? \\Q2016\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Hansen.",
"year" : 2016
}, {
"title" : "Learning to learn using gradient descent",
"author" : [ "Sepp Hochreiter", "A Steven Younger", "Peter R Conwell" ],
"venue" : "In International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks,",
"citeRegEx" : "Hochreiter et al\\.,? \\Q2001\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Hochreiter et al\\.",
"year" : 2001
}, {
"title" : "Sequential model-based optimization for general algorithm configuration",
"author" : [ "Frank Hutter", "Holger H Hoos", "Kevin Leyton-Brown" ],
"venue" : "In Learning and Intelligent Optimization,",
"citeRegEx" : "Hutter et al\\.,? \\Q2011\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Hutter et al\\.",
"year" : 2011
}, {
"title" : "Learning neural network policies with guided policy search under unknown dynamics",
"author" : [ "Sergey Levine", "Pieter Abbeel" ],
"venue" : "In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems,",
"citeRegEx" : "Levine and Abbeel.,? \\Q2014\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Levine and Abbeel.",
"year" : 2014
}, {
"title" : "End-to-end training of deep visuomotor policies",
"author" : [ "Sergey Levine", "Chelsea Finn", "Trevor Darrell", "Pieter Abbeel" ],
"venue" : "arXiv preprint arXiv:1504.00702,",
"citeRegEx" : "Levine et al\\.,? \\Q2015\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Levine et al\\.",
"year" : 2015
}, {
"title" : "Learning contact-rich manipulation skills with guided policy search",
"author" : [ "Sergey Levine", "Nolan Wagener", "Pieter Abbeel" ],
"venue" : "arXiv preprint arXiv:1501.05611,",
"citeRegEx" : "Levine et al\\.,? \\Q2015\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Levine et al\\.",
"year" : 2015
}, {
"title" : "Learning programs: A hierarchical Bayesian approach",
"author" : [ "Percy Liang", "Michael I Jordan", "Dan Klein" ],
"venue" : "In Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Machine Learning",
"citeRegEx" : "Liang et al\\.,? \\Q2010\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Liang et al\\.",
"year" : 2010
}, {
"title" : "Gradient-based hyperparameter optimization through reversible learning",
"author" : [ "Dougal Maclaurin", "David Duvenaud", "Ryan P Adams" ],
"venue" : "arXiv preprint arXiv:1502.03492,",
"citeRegEx" : "Maclaurin et al\\.,? \\Q2015\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Maclaurin et al\\.",
"year" : 2015
}, {
"title" : "The application of bayesian methods for seeking the extremum",
"author" : [ "Jonas Mockus", "Vytautas Tiesis", "Antanas Zilinskas" ],
"venue" : "Towards global optimization,",
"citeRegEx" : "Mockus et al\\.,? \\Q1978\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Mockus et al\\.",
"year" : 1978
}, {
"title" : "Optimization on a budget: A reinforcement learning approach",
"author" : [ "Paul L Ruvolo", "Ian Fasel", "Javier R Movellan" ],
"venue" : "In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems,",
"citeRegEx" : "Ruvolo et al\\.,? \\Q2009\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Ruvolo et al\\.",
"year" : 2009
}, {
"title" : "Optimal ordered problem solver",
"author" : [ "Jürgen Schmidhuber" ],
"venue" : "Machine Learning,",
"citeRegEx" : "Schmidhuber.,? \\Q2004\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Schmidhuber.",
"year" : 2004
}, {
"title" : "Practical bayesian optimization of machine learning algorithms",
"author" : [ "Jasper Snoek", "Hugo Larochelle", "Ryan P Adams" ],
"venue" : "In Advances in neural information processing systems,",
"citeRegEx" : "Snoek et al\\.,? \\Q2012\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Snoek et al\\.",
"year" : 2012
}, {
"title" : "Supervised sparse analysis and synthesis operators",
"author" : [ "Pablo Sprechmann", "Roee Litman", "Tal Ben Yakar", "Alexander M Bronstein", "Guillermo Sapiro" ],
"venue" : "In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems,",
"citeRegEx" : "Sprechmann et al\\.,? \\Q2013\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Sprechmann et al\\.",
"year" : 2013
}, {
"title" : "Multi-task bayesian optimization. In Advances in neural information processing",
"author" : [ "Kevin Swersky", "Jasper Snoek", "Ryan P Adams" ],
"venue" : null,
"citeRegEx" : "Swersky et al\\.,? \\Q2004\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Swersky et al\\.",
"year" : 2004
}, {
"title" : "Learning to learn",
"author" : [ "Sebastian Thrun", "Lorien Pratt" ],
"venue" : "Springer Science & Business Media,",
"citeRegEx" : "Thrun and Pratt.,? \\Q2012\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Thrun and Pratt.",
"year" : 2012
}, {
"title" : "A perspective view and survey of meta-learning",
"author" : [ "Ricardo Vilalta", "Youssef Drissi" ],
"venue" : "Artificial Intelligence Review,",
"citeRegEx" : "Vilalta and Drissi.,? \\Q2002\\E",
"shortCiteRegEx" : "Vilalta and Drissi.",
"year" : 2002
} ],
"referenceMentions" : [ {
"referenceID" : 14,
"context" : "For this purpose, we use an off-the-shelf reinforcement learning algorithm known as guided policy search (Levine & Abbeel, 2014), which has demonstrated success in a variety of robotic control settings (Levine et al., 2015a; Finn et al., 2015; Levine et al., 2015b; Han et al., 2015).",
"startOffset" : 202,
"endOffset" : 283
}, {
"referenceID" : 17,
"context" : "For this purpose, we use an off-the-shelf reinforcement learning algorithm known as guided policy search (Levine & Abbeel, 2014), which has demonstrated success in a variety of robotic control settings (Levine et al., 2015a; Finn et al., 2015; Levine et al., 2015b; Han et al., 2015).",
"startOffset" : 202,
"endOffset" : 283
}, {
"referenceID" : 2,
"context" : "learning” (Baxter et al., 1995; Vilalta & Drissi, 2002; Brazdil et al., 2008; Thrun & Pratt, 2012).",
"startOffset" : 10,
"endOffset" : 98
}, {
"referenceID" : 7,
"context" : "learning” (Baxter et al., 1995; Vilalta & Drissi, 2002; Brazdil et al., 2008; Thrun & Pratt, 2012).",
"startOffset" : 10,
"endOffset" : 98
}, {
"referenceID" : 0,
"context" : "One form of meta-knowledge is the commonalities across a family of related tasks (Abu-Mostafa, 1993).",
"startOffset" : 81,
"endOffset" : 100
}, {
"referenceID" : 8,
"context" : "A different approach (Brazdil et al., 2003) is to learn how to select the base-level learner that achieves the best performance for a given task.",
"startOffset" : 21,
"endOffset" : 43
}, {
"referenceID" : 0,
"context" : "One form of meta-knowledge is the commonalities across a family of related tasks (Abu-Mostafa, 1993). Under this framework, the goal of the meta-learner is to learn about such commonalities, so that given the learned commonalities, base-level learning on new tasks from the family can be performed faster. This line of work is often better known as transfer learning and multi-task learning. A different approach (Brazdil et al., 2003) is to learn how to select the base-level learner that achieves the best performance for a given task. Under this setting, the meta-knowledge is the correlation between properties of tasks and the performance of different base-level learners trained on them. There are two challenges associated with this approach: the need to devise meta-features on tasks that capture similarity between different tasks, and the need to parameterize the space of base-level learners to make search in this space tractable. Schmidhuber (2004) proposes representing base-level learners as general-purpose programs, that is, sequences of primitive operations.",
"startOffset" : 82,
"endOffset" : 962
}, {
"referenceID" : 10,
"context" : "Several different approaches have been proposed: genetic programming (Cramer, 1985) represents programs as abstract syntax trees and evolves them using genetic algorithms, Liang et al.",
"startOffset" : 69,
"endOffset" : 83
}, {
"referenceID" : 10,
"context" : "Several different approaches have been proposed: genetic programming (Cramer, 1985) represents programs as abstract syntax trees and evolves them using genetic algorithms, Liang et al. (2010) represents programs explicitly using a formal language, constructs a hierarchical Bayesian prior over programs and performs inference using an MCMC sampling procedure and Graves et al.",
"startOffset" : 70,
"endOffset" : 192
}, {
"referenceID" : 10,
"context" : "Several different approaches have been proposed: genetic programming (Cramer, 1985) represents programs as abstract syntax trees and evolves them using genetic algorithms, Liang et al. (2010) represents programs explicitly using a formal language, constructs a hierarchical Bayesian prior over programs and performs inference using an MCMC sampling procedure and Graves et al. (2014) represents programs implicitly as sequences of memory access operations and trains a recurrent neural net to learn the underlying patterns in the memory access operations.",
"startOffset" : 70,
"endOffset" : 384
}, {
"referenceID" : 10,
"context" : "Several different approaches have been proposed: genetic programming (Cramer, 1985) represents programs as abstract syntax trees and evolves them using genetic algorithms, Liang et al. (2010) represents programs explicitly using a formal language, constructs a hierarchical Bayesian prior over programs and performs inference using an MCMC sampling procedure and Graves et al. (2014) represents programs implicitly as sequences of memory access operations and trains a recurrent neural net to learn the underlying patterns in the memory access operations. Hochreiter et al. (2001) considers the special case of online learning algorithms, each of which is represented as a recurrent neural net with a particular setting of weights, and learns the online learning algorithm by learning the neural net weights.",
"startOffset" : 70,
"endOffset" : 581
}, {
"referenceID" : 20,
"context" : "Most methods (Hutter et al., 2011; Bergstra et al., 2011; Snoek et al., 2012; Swersky et al., 2013; Feurer et al., 2015) rely on sequential model-based Bayesian optimization (Mockus et al.",
"startOffset" : 13,
"endOffset" : 120
}, {
"referenceID" : 5,
"context" : "Most methods (Hutter et al., 2011; Bergstra et al., 2011; Snoek et al., 2012; Swersky et al., 2013; Feurer et al., 2015) rely on sequential model-based Bayesian optimization (Mockus et al.",
"startOffset" : 13,
"endOffset" : 120
}, {
"referenceID" : 29,
"context" : "Most methods (Hutter et al., 2011; Bergstra et al., 2011; Snoek et al., 2012; Swersky et al., 2013; Feurer et al., 2015) rely on sequential model-based Bayesian optimization (Mockus et al.",
"startOffset" : 13,
"endOffset" : 120
}, {
"referenceID" : 13,
"context" : "Most methods (Hutter et al., 2011; Bergstra et al., 2011; Snoek et al., 2012; Swersky et al., 2013; Feurer et al., 2015) rely on sequential model-based Bayesian optimization (Mockus et al.",
"startOffset" : 13,
"endOffset" : 120
}, {
"referenceID" : 26,
"context" : ", 2015) rely on sequential model-based Bayesian optimization (Mockus et al., 1978; Brochu et al., 2010), while others adopt a random search approach (Bergstra & Bengio, 2012) or use gradient-based optimization (Bengio, 2000; Domke, 2012; Maclaurin et al.",
"startOffset" : 61,
"endOffset" : 103
}, {
"referenceID" : 9,
"context" : ", 2015) rely on sequential model-based Bayesian optimization (Mockus et al., 1978; Brochu et al., 2010), while others adopt a random search approach (Bergstra & Bengio, 2012) or use gradient-based optimization (Bengio, 2000; Domke, 2012; Maclaurin et al.",
"startOffset" : 61,
"endOffset" : 103
}, {
"referenceID" : 12,
"context" : ", 2010), while others adopt a random search approach (Bergstra & Bengio, 2012) or use gradient-based optimization (Bengio, 2000; Domke, 2012; Maclaurin et al., 2015).",
"startOffset" : 114,
"endOffset" : 165
}, {
"referenceID" : 25,
"context" : ", 2010), while others adopt a random search approach (Bergstra & Bengio, 2012) or use gradient-based optimization (Bengio, 2000; Domke, 2012; Maclaurin et al., 2015).",
"startOffset" : 114,
"endOffset" : 165
}, {
"referenceID" : 6,
"context" : "Stochastic meta-descent (Bray et al., 2004) derives a rule for adaptively choosing the step size, Ruvolo et al.",
"startOffset" : 24,
"endOffset" : 43
}, {
"referenceID" : 18,
"context" : "(2009) learns a policy for picking the damping factor in the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm and recent work (Hansen, 2016; Daniel et al., 2016; Fu et al., 2016) explores learning a policy for choosing the step size.",
"startOffset" : 107,
"endOffset" : 159
}, {
"referenceID" : 11,
"context" : "(2009) learns a policy for picking the damping factor in the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm and recent work (Hansen, 2016; Daniel et al., 2016; Fu et al., 2016) explores learning a policy for choosing the step size.",
"startOffset" : 107,
"endOffset" : 159
}, {
"referenceID" : 15,
"context" : "(2009) learns a policy for picking the damping factor in the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm and recent work (Hansen, 2016; Daniel et al., 2016; Fu et al., 2016) explores learning a policy for choosing the step size.",
"startOffset" : 107,
"endOffset" : 159
}, {
"referenceID" : 30,
"context" : "A different line of work (Gregor & LeCun, 2010; Sprechmann et al., 2013) explores learning special-purpose solvers for a class of optimization problems that arise in sparse coding.",
"startOffset" : 25,
"endOffset" : 72
}, {
"referenceID" : 1,
"context" : "Work that appeared on ArXiv after this paper (Andrychowicz et al., 2016) explores a similar theme under a different setting, where the goal is learn a task-dependent optimization algorithm.",
"startOffset" : 45,
"endOffset" : 72
}, {
"referenceID" : 5,
"context" : "Stochastic meta-descent (Bray et al., 2004) derives a rule for adaptively choosing the step size, Ruvolo et al. (2009) learns a policy for picking the damping factor in the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm and recent work (Hansen, 2016; Daniel et al.",
"startOffset" : 25,
"endOffset" : 119
} ],
"year" : 2017,
"abstractText" : "Algorithm design is a laborious process and often requires many iterations of ideation and validation. In this paper, we explore automating algorithm design and present a method to learn an optimization algorithm. We approach this problem from a reinforcement learning perspective and represent any particular optimization algorithm as a policy. We learn an optimization algorithm using guided policy search and demonstrate that the resulting algorithm outperforms existing hand-engineered algorithms in terms of convergence speed and/or the final objective value.",
"creator" : "LaTeX with hyperref package"
}
} | mini_pile | {'original_id': '5b686423fb1943b32ea7686181ee37cd362b47c527263037c4316efb2ca82ed6'} |
Capture the Flag
This week, Sycamore took their learning from their trip to Newhaven Fort into the Forest! They split into groups of 6 or 7 and became their own army troop, with the children taking it in turns to be the commander! They played a version of ‘capture the flag’ and had to use tactics and strategies to ensure their team was the winning one!
Mr Hinder and Mr Ottaway were fantastic helpers to the children when they created bases and encouraged them to think carefully about who was doing what during each round of the game! The children worked brilliantly in their teams and when discussing the rules behind the game, were very grown up in their approach to following the rules.
Next week, instead of Forest School, the children will be completing an art project in their classroom which will be on display outside the classroom. Well done, Sycamore, you are clearly really loving studying WW2! | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '0', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.99247145652771}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '59953', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:7BR6YWC5NVJ4WK62HP2JC3YY2FLKFH4C', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:e5b342c8-33ac-47d1-bab5-cb5de802ded8>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2021, 3, 8, 0, 11, 23), 'WARC-IP-Address': '77.68.90.109', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:OL5BMXM23KJJYJELNRXC6CUM6EGJEGKV', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:127113f2-34f6-4291-9d37-21de79ab7c5f>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://chiddingly.pioneerfederation.co.uk/capture-the-flag/', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:c03a7d7b-35a8-440d-92e8-813b8198c9e5>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '158', 'url': 'https://chiddingly.pioneerfederation.co.uk/capture-the-flag/', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2021-10\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for February/March 2021\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-67-67-215.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.18 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.04076319932937622', 'original_id': '5e6bb3168e7b5665bcb6efbad74c54c88938c3e89649f6de8d5786c71adfce1d'} |
Forget your own mocks, what will the Boys actually do
Discussion in 'Draft Zone' started by ThatsmyQB, Mar 29, 2008.
1. ThatsmyQB
ThatsmyQB Benched
1,221 Messages
0 Likes Received
Forget your own mock and your own preferences, what do you think Jerry Jones will do on draft day??????????
I'm thinking this is how it's gonna go down!
#22 W.R. Devin Thomas Needs a weapon opposite T.O. and a future 31 w.R., and going by who we wanted last year with Meacham and Bowe, he fits in the category of the size/speed ratio of the W.R.'s we wanted last year.
#28 trades 28 and 2nd rounder to Falcons for their two 2nd rounders.
2nd Round: R.B. Jamaal Charles - Unless Felix Jones fall this far, I think he goes with Charles here to compliment Barber.
2nd Round: C.B./S. Charles Godfrey - Needs C.B. depth andhe could move to safety if need be, all around athlete with great triangular numbers, and we've been looking at this kid!
3rd Round: C.B. Zach Bowman - takes another C.B. for much needed depth and when we lose Henry next year IMO.
4th Round: F.S./S.S. Bobbie Williams - Versatille Safety can play either position, gives us a nice backup to replace Keith Davis and gives us options at safety if Roy leaves or we don't wanna resign Hamlin.
5th Round: D.T. Jason Shirley - Big boy who can run like the wind for a big boy, wide body we need in the middle of our defense.
6th Round: Pacman
7th Round: G. Jordan Grimes
Overall draft is!
On offense we add
W.R. Devin Thomas
R.B. Jamaal Charles
G. Jordan Grimes
We get our future #1 W.R. and compliment to Barber and add some depth on the O-line.
On defense we add
C.B. Pacman Jones
C.B. Zach Bowman
C.B./S. Charles Godfrey
F.S./S.S. Bobbie Williams
D.T. Jason Shirley
Our seconday will be set for a long time and we'd have a lot of options on Henry/Newman/Hamlin/Roy also!
Pacman replaces Reeves, Godfrey replaces our other C.B. (name slips my mind and could also play Safety, Bowman adds more speed and depth when we lose Henry next year he'll step up on depth chart, and Bobbie Williams replaces Keith Davis with a lot more starting potential.
Shirley earns a spot and eventually Ratliff moves to D.E. to replace Spears with Tank and Shirley at N.T.!
This was more for our tp 3 picks then anything, picks round 3 on are my own favorites the way I'd like the draft to go, I basically want an idea of who you think the top 3 picks that JERRY will pick, not your own favorites.
2. ayjackson
ayjackson New Member
208 Messages
0 Likes Received
What will the Cowboys do?
1. Brandon Albert, G
1. Kentwan Balmer, DE
2. Kevin Smith, RB
3. Atyba Rubin, NT
4. Harry Douglas, WR
5. David Roach, S
6. PACMAN
7. DJ Hall, WR
Or something crazy like that.
3. DaBoys4Life
DaBoys4Life Benched
15,621 Messages
0 Likes Received
i'm not sure if we get a WR in the 1st round. I feel bad for any WR/RB we get in the 1st round look at the shadows they will be playing under.
4. TheCount
TheCount Pixel Pusher
22,456 Messages
2,568 Likes Received
I thought you said forget your mocks? Or do you mean we should forget our mocks and just believe yours is the most accurate?
5. tomson75
tomson75 Brain Dead Shill
16,714 Messages
0 Likes Received
Wow. I actually don't hate that mock. :eek::
6. DaBoys4Life
DaBoys4Life Benched
15,621 Messages
0 Likes Received
Outside of Thomas Charles and Godfrey the mock is crap
7. Hostile
Hostile The Duke
119,446 Messages
3,815 Likes Received
I think given the depth and need at CB they go CB before WR or RB.
Atlanta actually has three 2nd rounders, #34, #37 & #48. I think it is more likely this pick would be traded for a veteran WR if it is traded at all.
I can see that.
As I said earlier, I think we go CB first.
8. ghst187
ghst187 Well-Known Member
6,474 Messages
681 Likes Received
If we pick up Pacman (gag), I think we'll take Felix Jones with a pick and trade the other out of the first likely picking up a 2nd round WR and possibly another CB on day 1. That would round us out as far as needs.
I think there will be some quality WR's had in the second and we won't need a first round CB if we add Pacman so JJ will likely be looking to deal with one of the first round picks IMO.
That's what I think will happen....
If I had my wishes....I'd like to have 3 first round picks to take a WR, CB, and RB
I'd love to have a WR like Malcolm Kelly or J Hardy
a RB like Felix Jones
and a CB like A Talib, M Jenkins, or Antoine Cason.
Share This Page | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '0', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9356982707977296}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '48358', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:MHL7HRBILVEEKUISNKK3LBYCXXKIKTAP', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:5de306b1-7bc7-4cb8-883f-7b69ea9270d5>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2016, 7, 29, 16, 13, 51), 'WARC-IP-Address': '45.33.20.180', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': None, 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:IVZHT3OI3ASEAUW6WE3GYXTZQUQQYGHI', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:5a23d96b-2d06-4c56-bc31-0339c4f26126>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'http://cowboyszone.com/threads/forget-your-own-mocks-what-will-the-boys-actually-do.115571/', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:c84de360-d393-48be-aa4f-5d303dd37b72>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '813', 'url': 'http://cowboyszone.com/threads/forget-your-own-mocks-what-will-the-boys-actually-do.115571/', 'warcinfo': 'robots: classic\r\nhostname: ip-10-185-27-174.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0\r\nisPartOf: CC-MAIN-2016-30\r\noperator: CommonCrawl Admin\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for July 2016\r\npublisher: CommonCrawl\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.0\r\nconformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.019996166229248047', 'original_id': 'd05531c06d2f93d5febd1c00a66a302889fed3b45381d44352f1ab19c5923cf1'} |
Jonathan Shieber
·3-min read
The European startup is looking to take a page from the shouty LIVEKINDLY Collective playbook and take on the U.S. market with gourmet prepared meals that come with a gourmet price tag and a mission to make Americans eat less meat by proffering more tasty and delicious vegetarian options.
It's a strategy that netted LIVEKINDLY Collective's business $335 million in a recent round of funding, making it one of the most well-capitalized new entrants in the vegetarian food brand category.
"There's a general health problem that's coming mostly from what we put in our mouth," said Jakob Jønck, the company's co-founder and chief executive.
For folks in the U.S. who can afford it, Simple Feast is offering packaged meal kits with menus developed by chefs from some of the world's highest-end restaurants -- places like French Laundry in California or Noma in Norway, where meals can run roughly $350 per person.
A selection of three prepared meals for two-to-three people will run customers around $98 per week; for a family of four or five, that number jumps to $159 per week.
Simple Feast's foray into the U.S. market represents just a small portion of the company's total offerings. In the Nordic region the company offers about 30 products, all targeting people who want to reduce the amount of meat they eat.
Investors certainly love the company's offering, because, as Jønck says, the products probably represent the highest margin in the meal kit category.
Those financiers include firms like the European venture capitalists Balderton Capital and Kinnevik, and New York-based 14W.
As for the company's customers, they're mostly moms with kids whose income puts them in the top 20% of the population. While they may be far more wealthy than the hoi polloi, Jønck said they still suffer from exposure to the worst aspects of America's industrial food machine -- highly processed foods that are causing an explosion in chronic health conditions like diabetes and obesity.
Data from places like the Rand Institute indicate that in America, the burden of insufficient nutrition and the chronic conditions that stem from that are disproportionately affecting low-income and middle-income families.
Health is a problem in the U.S., with $794 billion per year estimated to be lost in productivity between 2016 and 2030. An article from Health Affairs cited research from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies estimates that health inequities and premature death cost the U.S. economy $309.3 billion a year.
However, these costs are primarily borne by the poorest Americans, particularly minorities. "People of color face higher rates of diabetes, obesity, stroke, heart disease, and cancer than whites," the Health Affairs article says.
Simple Feast is working to correct that, says Jønck. The company's European packaged prepared meals available in retail stores cost around $15, he said, and the company will offer salaries far above the minimum wage in the U.S. to do its part in ameliorating some of the wealth disparity in the country.
"This is a general play on an industry that needs to change from the ground up. This system needs to change," Jønck said. | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '32', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9511386156082152}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '389557', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:D35IW5E24HEC5VYCQBNFBNR2TL34EZPY', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:22755c34-0508-48fc-81ae-dbf7f38696b5>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2021, 5, 11, 7, 43, 52), 'WARC-IP-Address': '74.6.143.18', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:XNBHT6B2PDOTPQMVRNZXFJ7XG6MA3744', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:5302e3c0-7b82-4e9a-8edd-082b2156dd1b>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://sg.news.yahoo.com/boasting-menus-chefs-french-laundry-111116486.html', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:71732509-4169-4818-a3cc-5aa6ee2fe707>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '559', 'url': 'https://sg.news.yahoo.com/boasting-menus-chefs-french-laundry-111116486.html', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2021-21\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for May 2021\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-67-67-101.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.18 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: https://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.029450595378875732', 'original_id': 'f0ac1252ca8dbaad5a1b57f1c6f5a931e5371f76a43f70db54f15e9a54152675'} |
RSVP for your your local TensorFlow Everywhere event today!
Posterior predictive Normal distribution w. conjugate prior on the mean.
This model assumes that n observations (with sum s) come from a Normal with unknown mean loc (described by the Normal prior) and known variance scale**2. The "known scale predictive" is the distribution of new observations, conditioned on the existing observations and our prior.
Calculates the Normal distribution(s) p(x | sigma**2):
p(x | sigma**2) = int N(x | mu, sigma**2)N(mu | prior.loc, prior.scale**2) dmu
= N(x | prior.loc, 1 / (sigma**2 + prior.scale**2))
Returns the predictive posterior distribution object, with parameters (loc', scale'**2), where:
mu' = (mu0/sigma0**2 + s/sigma**2) * sigma_n**2.
sigma'**2 = sigma_n**2 + sigma**2,
A new Normal predictive distribution object.
| dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '133', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.6962944269180298}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '432947', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:MXBZLF6YUW5KDBVRLZWSIKHXVT4AUMZG', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:d06d32fb-c6df-4d14-a7e3-02fa1e8efe0b>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2021, 3, 8, 4, 2, 2), 'WARC-IP-Address': '172.217.9.206', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:DZ6GMRX7C2Y72PW73TPXFINJUMK4PUK3', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:0cc0cb72-d664-49e4-88a5-71882784134e>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://www.tensorflow.org/probability/api_docs/python/tfp/substrates/numpy/distributions/normal_conjugates_known_scale_predictive', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:af1d5eff-1b4c-491c-ae2b-d262e706c7c2>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '221', 'url': 'https://www.tensorflow.org/probability/api_docs/python/tfp/substrates/numpy/distributions/normal_conjugates_known_scale_predictive', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2021-10\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for February/March 2021\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-67-67-142.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.18 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.3254571557044983', 'original_id': 'f44ec4dd5b60e5fc4e3fc52d6e3ef7e8e483553c8b698cdc19a4c243b87a84b2'} |
Richards leaves Tigers
Dean Richards has left Leicester Tigers after six years as director of rugby.
Richards's time in charge spanned the move into the professional era and was crowned by back-to-back Heineken Cup wins.
But the former England international has paid the price for a poor season which has seen the club struggle in the Zurich Premiership and fail to clear the first hurdle in Europe.
Richards, who also played for Leicester, said: "I am disappointed to be leaving Leicester Tigers after 23 years at a wonderful club.
"However, I would like to wish the players and coaches the very best for the future and thank the fans for the tremendous support they have given me both as a player and as a coach."
Peter Wheeler, the club's chief executive, will take over team affairs until the end of the season. He will be assisted by forwards coach John Wells, and senior players Neil Back and Martin Johnson.
Peter Tom, Leicester's chairman, said: "I would like to place on record the gratitude of the board of directors and supporters for Dean's contribution to Leicester Tigers, both as a player and as director of rugby.
"He has guided the team to seven trophies in the past six years, including four consecutive Premiership titles and back-to-back Heineken Cup wins.
"Unfortunately there has been a steady decline in the team's performance over the past two seasons.
"The board felt that this decline could only be checked by significant changes within the playing structure. Dean did not find these changes acceptable."
Sale's Jim Mallinder has been reported as a possible replacement to Richards but Tom said the Tigers will be casting a wide net in their search for a successor.
He added: "We will be advertising worldwide for a replacement, but do not intend to rush into any appointment." | mini_pile | {'original_id': 'f03881e25ce41b8eb83a8b688e7b36a1e3ed1da342d15335a070ec1ec7848795'} |
Country Living Contests -
Win Today!
Silver Menorah: What is it? What is it worth?
What is this silver menorah worth? Professional appraiser Helaine Fendelman evaluates and appraises your collectibles and antiques.
Written by Helaine Fendelman
What is it?
The menorah is a nine-candle candelabra that is used during Hanukkah, an eight-day Jewish holiday also known as the Festival of Lights. Candles in the menorah are lit to commemorate the Jews' rededication of their temple after their victory over the Syrian army in 165 B.C.E. At the temple, they found only enough oil to light the menorah for one night--but it miraculously burned for eight days and nights. Menorahs of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries were made in silver, brass, silver plate, tin, pewter, and glass. Artisans in Central and Eastern Europe produced many of the pieces found today. They come in many styles, but all have nine candleholders or oil wicks. This rare silver example was made in Hungary during the early 1900s. It is in the Art Nouveau style.
VALUE = $1,500
What is it worth?
Silver menorahs from the 20th century can range in price from $1,500 to $15,000, depending on origin, style, and condition. Brass examples sell for $500 to $2,000.
Would you like to see more?
Connect with Country Living
Country Living Paintbrush | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '0', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9650244116783142}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '93320', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:D75GAYYP6LRNAATD4BF6QE5DIMGDVEUC', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:15ae55a2-7298-4f28-bf8f-4cdc2093a67e>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2014, 10, 30, 18, 33, 12), 'WARC-IP-Address': '23.62.6.75', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': None, 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:E3BTXYT7462ZJMORFASMZFF2GMLCWCLL', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:ec40c0d4-3c3a-44e2-b01a-732a123a309d>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'http://www.countryliving.com/antiques/appraisals/silver-menorah-1208', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:765d46fd-f83d-4084-9b6a-b5dec847188c>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '214', 'url': 'http://www.countryliving.com/antiques/appraisals/silver-menorah-1208', 'warcinfo': 'robots: classic\r\nhostname: ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0\r\nisPartOf: CC-MAIN-2014-42\r\noperator: CommonCrawl Admin\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web with URLs provided by Blekko for October 2014\r\npublisher: CommonCrawl\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.0\r\nconformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.4051702618598938', 'original_id': '98080eaefa5e069792975f7b6608a1adc21c3e997673d3a177a022cc8fd038d2'} |
back to: home page
History of the Triple Existence
lists of tables and illustrations
table 1.1 Significant events after the Big Bang (13.798 billion years ago) 6
table 1.2 Periodic table of elements (in appendix) 440
table 1.3 Chemical elements from hydrogen to iron (in appendix) 454
table 2.1 Geological periods: eons and eras 49
table 2.2 Earth’s largest water and land surfaces by area 64
table 3.1 Cladogram of life 74
table 3.2 Phanerozoic eras and periods 76
table 3.3 Cenozoic periods and epochs 95
table 4.1 Mammal lineages leading to Homo sapiens 104
table 4.2 When other primates branched off from Homo sapiens 105
table 4.3 Human population by year 130
table 4.4 Percentages of world population by region and date 131
table 5.1 A chronology of prehistoric cultures 142
table 5.2 Prehistoric cultures in Europe 143
table 5.3 Branches of the world’s languages 166
table 5.4 Languages spoken by the most people 170
table 6.1 Dynasties of ancient Egypt 182
table 6.3 Dynasties of the Roman empire 193
table 6.4 Chinese dynasties 207
table 7.1 Philosophers, prophets, and theologians 228
table 7.2 The Lord’s prayer. (in appendix) 442
table 7.3 The Nicene creed (in appendix) 443
table 8.1 Some Renaissance personalities 272
table 8.2 World energy production by type of energy 294
table 8.3 Employment by industry in the United States, 1800-2010table 9.1 Top ten films by box-office receipts 338
table 9.1 Top ten films by box-office receipts 338
table 9.2 Radios in use in the United States, 1922 to 1975 343
table 9.3 Television sets in use in the United States, 1947 to 1975 348
table 10.1 Advances in computer switching speed, 1939 to 1990 367
appendix 1 Big History’s time disparity 440
appendix 2 Scheme of the five epochs of civilization. 442
Chapter 1
electromagnetic spectrum 13
Hertzsprung-Russell diagram 15
blue nebula in space 24
1890s telescope Red House Observatory, Geneva New York 26
Whirlpool galaxy Big Dipper constellation 28
dish antenna 30
Chapter 2
the sun 35
Brooks comet #2 observed in 1886 39
the earth 40
Jupiter and Saturn 41
the moon photographed from Lick observatory, California 43
earth’s crust 47
supercontinent Pangaea existed on earth 200-300 million years ago 54
scene in Monument Valley (Utah) 59
Chapter 3
DNA molecule the double-helix structure 70
prokaryotic cell from Armand Delsemme, Our Cosmic Origins, Cambridge University
Press, 1998 70
eukaryotic cell from Armand Delsemme, Our Cosmic Origins 71
early Paleozoic scene 79
swamp forest of the carboniferous age 82
pelycosaur reptile of Permian age 84
brontosaurus reptile of Jurassic period 88
archaeopteryx earliest bird, late Jurassic period 89
crustacean subphylum of Arthropod 92
tyrannosaurus rex reptile of Cretaceous period 93
entelodont (giant pig) Oligocene mammal 97
hairy mammoth early Pleistocene mammal 99
Chapter 4
scheme of human evolution 102
chimpanzee 106
Australopithecus Africanus 110
Cro-Magnon man ca. 41,000 B.C. 118
Chapter 5
Palaeolithic chopping tool 136
Mousterian Age artifacts stone points 137
flint arrowheads 138
primitive throwing stick with reindeer horn 139
painting from cave at Altamira, Spain from Paleolithic period 142
Sioux Indians hunting mythical moose 144
Stonehenge megalith near Salisbury, England from third millennium B.C. 146
Neolithic Swiss lake dwelling drawing in Déchelett’s Manuel de Archéologie 148
pottery from lake dwelling 149
Egyptian ploughing and sowing from a papyrus drawing 153
Pueblo women grinding corn 154
altar to Yan a religion of Burma 156
little-dipper constellation includes Polaris, the North Star 157
Chapter 6
ancient Egyptian brick-making from Thebes 176
Sumerian warriors in phalanx from Sumerian stone carving 180
Assyrian king and chief minister 181
pharaoh Khafra (Chephren) reigned 2558-2532 B.C. 182
map of the fertile crescent 185
Assyrian winged bull repellant of evil, guardian of the realm 186
Alexander the Great 356-323 B.C. 187
Greek emperor Seleucus I (Nicator) 365-281 B.C. from Tetradrachm coin 188
Roman scene beneath statute of Romulus and Remus being suckled by a wolf 190
Julius Caesar 100-44 B.C. Vatican Museum 191
Augustus Caesar (Octavian) 63 B.C.-14 A.D. Vatican Museum 192
Roman aqueduct near Nîmes, France built by emperor Antoninus Pius 192
Roman empire during Trajan’s reign (a map) 194
Hagia Sophia church in Constantinople later became a mosque 195
Persian emperor Ardeshir 180-242 A.D. founder of Sasanian empire 200
Varanhran receiving submission of the Segestani (Croatians) Persian emperor
Bahram II, reigned 274-293 A.D. 201
mosque of Aurangzeb at Benares, India Mogul emperor 1618-1707 205
Tu Fu takes family on a journey T’ang dynasty poet, lived 712-770 A.D. 210
Temple of Heaven in Beijing 212
Shan (Burmese) girl 213
Mayan idol at Copán in Honduras 216
View of Machu Picchu (Peru) 217
Chapter 7
Egyptian drawing on papyrus 220
the judgment of the dead weighing of deceased’s heart in the scales of truth 221
alphabetic writing, several languages 224
pharaoh Ikhnaton (also Akhenaton or Amenhotep IV) reigned 1375-1358 B.C. 232
Jesus on the cross 6 B.C.- 29 A.D. 235
face of Jesus Sinai Jesus 238
symbols of spiritual and temporal power St. Peter giving Pope Leo III the stola
and Charlemagne the banner of Rome, 9th century mosaic in the Vatican 242
investiture of a bishop a king giving the crosier to bishop, 10th century 243
Cologne cathedral in Germany constructed 11th through 19th centuries 245
Byzantine madonna and child 246
Kazan cathedral, Red Square, Moscow 247
coin of Persian emperor Shahpuhr 248
camel caravan 251
Ka’bah shrine in Mecca 252
the muezzin from painting by Jean Leon Gerome 254
Santiago the Moorslayer St. James, legendary son of Christ’s disciple, seen in 9th
century battle in Spain 256
Buddha 563-483 B.C. 260
Brahma Hindu god of creation 262
Hariti 6th Century A.D. Buddhist protector of children, Chinese Turkestan 264
Tibetan prayer wheel device for automatic praying 264
Buddha hall Ching-t’ung Lu-ssu 266
an early Christian saint 267
Chapter 8
Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca) 1304-1374 from portrait by S. Tofanelli 271
globe of Martin Behaim (1492) German cartographer 1459-1507 271
printing press 274
Martin Luther 1483-1546 279
St. Ignatius Loyola 1491-1556 after a painting by Rubens 280
15th Century university from Geiger’s Renaissance und Humanismus 282
Christ the Redeemer of the Andes erected in 1904 between Chile and Argentina 283
Christopher Columbus 1451-1506 after the Capriolo portrait 283
Queen Elizabeth I of England 1533-1603 the Ermine portrait 285
16th Century sea battle between Spanish and English vessels 286
King Louis XIV of France 1638-1715 the “Sun King” 288
George Washington 1732-1799 first President of the United States 290
Isaac Newton 1642-1727 292
Galileo Galilei 1564-1642 293
Richard Trevithick’s locomotive first operated in 1804 293
on the shop floor 295
Thomas Edison 1847-1931 American inventor 297
Model T Ford automobile built between 1908 and 1927 298
at the stock exchange 299
May Day in Tiananmen Square 2000 photograph, picture of Sun Yat-sen 300
Matthew Arnold 1822-1888 British educator 303
Czar Peter the Great of Russia 1672-1725 painting by Karol de Moor 304
Balliol college, Oxford 305
William Shakespeare 1564-1616 English playwright and poet 306
a news reporter drawing by W.D. Smedley 309
in line at the tool room 310
“nude descending a staircase” by Marcel Duchamp exhibited in 1913 “Armory
Show” in New York City 315
Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany 1859-1941 315
Chapter 9
1926 clothing style Vogue magazine in February 1, 1926 From Only Yesterday by
Frederick Lewis Allen 318
Colosseum in Rome built in 80 A.D., from a photograph 318
Crystal Palace in London built for Great Exhibition of 1851 320
Kentucky Derby winner late 19th century 321
baseball players (batter and catcher) 324
basketball players 325
Greek Olympic wrestlers 326
Edison’s phonograph player 331
Elvis Presley singer 1935-1977 332
Eadweard Muybridge horse photography “The Horse in Motion”, 1878 334
celluloid film strip 334
Fred Ott’s Sneeze taken in 1894 by Edison movie studio 335
poster for The Glenn Miller Story 1954 American film 339
Marilyn Monroe film star 1926-1962 340
radio antenna 342
watching television in early 1950s 347
Lucille Ball television comedienne starring in the 1950s show “I Love Lucy” 350
Minnesota Twins victory celebration after World Series victory in 1987 353
“down on my luck” - a casino cashout voucher 354
Shooting Star casino sign Ojibway-owned casino in Mahnomen, Minnesota 355
pass to Disneyland for author’s father in 1957 356
Chapter 10
Charles Babbage’s “Analytical Engine” computer first described in 1837 362
IBM-type computer punch card 80-column card with marked columns 365
printed circuit board 370
computer with monitor and keyboard 372
data center and server room 375
on-line shopping 387
some logos of popular websites 389
Apple iPAD touchscreen 393
a computer hard drive 394
face with data 397
office worker at computer monitor 399
Chapter 11
diagram of a human neuron 410
neural network 12
parts of the brain 413
brain waves 415
robotic arm 418
the grim reaper “Death on a pale horse” The Doré Bible Gallery by Gustave Doré 428
view of earth from the moon from a photograph 430
Periodic table to elements. See page 454
development of cuneiform writing (ideographic). page 453
Hebrew script (alphabetic) 453
Indian script (alphabetic) 453
Chinese script (ideographic) 453
chemical elements - hydrogen to iron 454
the Nicene creed 455
diagram of emerging institutions in civilized society 456
back to: home page | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '0', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.7387468814849854}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '15308', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:XU7RG5CDGO4AFB2YL6FHU5GTIXLJRYI5', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:fd1a39c4-4003-4226-8fcc-43c8fa9de406>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2021, 5, 18, 5, 14, 27), 'WARC-IP-Address': '66.39.55.214', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:32ESPASTMX2R4N2ZDMUMIOF7ZY2L5M6V', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:376365aa-a5f2-46bc-ba8f-b3c27efb2486>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://thistlerose.org/tablesandillustrations.html', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:7b84f3e8-b27c-4b7f-8c61-115bb10620cc>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '1504', 'url': 'https://thistlerose.org/tablesandillustrations.html', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2021-21\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for May 2021\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-67-67-74.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.18 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: https://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.02509284019470215', 'original_id': '63a92a3a678d4fdc0d59a92de9eac26e3ac686028b46d9b4aaa4a99b57d6219d'} |
Bacterial outbreak Brucellosis infects thousands in China sparking concerns
A fresh outbreak has hit China sparking concern among medical professionals after thousands of people in the northern part of the country tested positive for a bacterial infection.
The infection spread among people working in a state-owned biopharmaceutical plant in Lanzhou city, which produces animal vaccines after a leak occurred last year.
Brucellosis Outbreak: What Happened?
According to Chinese authorities, the biopharmaceutical plant had used expired disinfectants for producing Brucella vaccines for animals between July and August last year. This indicated that the bacteria was not eradicated in the factory exhaust.
Subsequently, the contaminated gas from the factory formed aerosols containing the bacteria, which was then carried by wind to a nearby Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute. This resulted in infecting close to 200 people there as well in December last year.
There are 3,245 people who have contracted Brucellosis, according to health officials in Lanzhou. Another 1,401 people also tested as an early positive for the disease, according to AFP.
Brucellosis, caused by brucella bacteria, is often caused by close contact with infected animals or animal products that can bring about fevers, joint pain and headaches.
Health authorities have said there has been no evidence of person-to-person transmission of Brucellosis so far. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that person-to-person transmission of brucellosis is “extremely rare” but some symptoms may reoccur or never go away.
This infection outbreak, like other such as the coronavirus disease, has also traced its origin to animals. Sheep, cattle and pigs were most commonly involved in the spread of the bacteria, Lanzhou’s health commission has said.
In this infection, some symptoms like recurrent fevers, chronic fatigue, swelling of the heart or arthritis are expected to never go away and reoccur in patients who have tested positive, according to the US’ CDC.
Brucellosis also goes by the name of Malta fever or Mediterranean fever and can cause symptoms including headaches, muscle pain, fever and fatigue. | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '11', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9645269513130188}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '172933', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:E4EP2C46CWIPDYLWHRB2KAGBWM36IZ73', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:d946ac21-d343-4dc4-9f00-5d412f50a617>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2021, 1, 17, 22, 20, 56), 'WARC-IP-Address': '172.67.145.125', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:DGG7GDVJGKW6ABUZBQO4JGPLS5ZPHTTY', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:2a8339bb-f07f-49f2-b39b-a5bdde80967c>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://www.thepigeonexpress.com/bacterial-outbreak-brucellosis-infects-thousands-in-china-sparking-concerns/', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:de1ab116-7ed2-4857-9eb4-e0a337f3eb52>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '332', 'url': 'https://www.thepigeonexpress.com/bacterial-outbreak-brucellosis-infects-thousands-in-china-sparking-concerns/', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2021-04\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for January 2021\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-67-67-52.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.17 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.0711064338684082', 'original_id': 'fbbd8cbb55b93ba370bce3f35987d6ec163ea3bd417b2f1c4ed7e2e0805825af'} |
Film Review
• print
• email
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Enter Here
Emilia and Ilya Kabakov in the studio, 2013. [Photo: Gert Literary Productions]
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Enter Here .5 out of 4 star0-5
Anyone who watches Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Enter Here will learn plenty: about the global art market, the relationship between Russia's state and its culture, the difference between fine art under Lenin and today's oligarchs. Eighty-year-old conceptual artist Ilya Kabakov readily offers that he was inspired by the first wave of revolutionary aesthetics, whereas his brassy producer-wife proudly boasts about growing up in a post-Stalinist Russia. The research that went into the film seems a largesse, but it's compromised at every turn by filmmaker Amei Wallach's sloppy, pedantic delivery. For example, an installation designed by Mr. Kabakov to resemble a bourgeois 1920s apartment, warmly lit and more than a little conspicuous in its emptiness, is given in Wallach's film a voiceover reading from an old letter written by Kabakov's mother, feebly performed in stereotypically sad-sack Russian-accented English, vacuuming whatever mystery Kabakov wanted to imbue into his work with cheap historical dot-connecting.
In a loosely improvised documentary like Emile De Antonio's Painters Painting, you can feel the camera opting for simplicity, seeking out the widest, least-tweaked images possible of the artwork in question—essentially, a means of record-keeping. The case in Enter Here is very much the opposite: Shots of Kabakov's installations or paintings are often superimposed upon larger images, the edges digitally feathered off like a homemade DVD menu or an accidentally double-stacked PowerPoint slide. It's anyone's guess why Wallach felt his garish, freakishly digital collage work was a worthy match for his subject, because it both obscures and competes with Kabakov on screen. Interviewees are half-dissolved into the frames with incomplete landscapes or artwork behind them, so neither the person nor whatever they're speaking about can be fully glimpsed. There are moments—like a lingering, slow-motion pan across a gallery opening—that hint at visual ideas connecting with narrative bedrock, but they turn out to be flukes.
The film's overall lack of formal precision is startling. Some subtitles appear for English speakers with accents, but other Russian speakers are blandly dubbed over. Walls of artwork are sloppily swept into careless, quick pans, Wallach apparently always preferring quantity to quality. Editor Ken Kobland puts no sense of play or rhythm into his cuts, so every stroke is less "inspired" than random, clueless, jumbled. The film exists in a compound fracture: Given ostensibly roaming access to one of the most vaunted artists in the world today, the filmmakers serve up a movie that would actually be more informative with its sound off. Once the standard chronological biography points have been indexed, Enter Here emerges as yet another blown opportunity, a supposed documentary film that actually devalues the potential of its own medium.
Director(s): Amei Wallach Screenwriter(s): Amei Wallach Cast: Ilya Kabakov, Emilia Kabakov Runtime: 103 min Rating: NR Year: 2013
• print
• email
From our partners
Around the Web
Site by Docent Solutions | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '0', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9438923001289368}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '53616', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:BBOFI6INXTE5VDC4FNLNNKQMCOO7ZFJT', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:c35cd15a-4a3c-4d2b-9d10-8172373e3ba9>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2015, 3, 1, 11, 1, 22), 'WARC-IP-Address': '23.92.22.58', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': None, 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:H5KJYQRF376FMUOMFKBCTO23FCBTSTMH', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:af6591d8-a1e8-4b45-b319-0c13049438d8>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/ilya-and-emilia-kabakov-enter-here', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:b71010b5-ddb5-4739-a570-9e4774d0b76b>', 'WARC-Truncated': 'length'}", 'previous_word_count': '497', 'url': 'http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/ilya-and-emilia-kabakov-enter-here', 'warcinfo': 'robots: classic\r\nhostname: ip-10-28-5-156.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0\r\nisPartOf: CC-MAIN-2015-11\r\noperator: CommonCrawl Admin\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web with URLs provided by Blekko for February 2015\r\npublisher: CommonCrawl\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.0\r\nconformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.18935155868530273', 'original_id': 'b230cb612bf9bc3ee8df918d5c2bede1472dfe4eee19cdffd7aadecde4522046'} |
reset
set xlabel 'F(n)'
set ylabel 'time (ns)'
set title 'Fibonacci runtime compare'
set term png enhanced font 'Verdana,10'
set output 'plot_compare.png'
set grid
plot [0:92][0:300] \
'plot_input' using 1:2 with linespoints linewidth 2 title "fib interative",\
'' using 1:3 with linespoints linewidth 2 title "fib fast doubling",\
'' using 1:4 with linespoints linewidth 2 title "fib fast doubling clz" | common_corpus | {'identifier': 'https://github.com/linjohnss/fibdrv/blob/master/scripts/plot_compare.gp', 'collection': 'Github Open Source', 'open_type': 'Open Source', 'license': 'MIT', 'date': '', 'title': 'fibdrv', 'creator': 'linjohnss', 'language': 'Gnuplot', 'language_type': 'Code', 'word_count': '60', 'token_count': '134', '__index_level_0__': '46414', 'original_id': 'd9724beda6c9e867135996052f3143f071821deda7d33abf993c0a2460026eb2'} |
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF TEXAS
══════════
No. 17-0409
══════════
CHARLES J. HUGHES, PETITIONER,
v.
TOM GREEN COUNTY, RESPONDENT
══════════════════════════════════════════
ON PETITION FOR REVIEW FROM THE
COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD DISTRICT OF TEXAS
══════════════════════════════════════════
JUSTICE BOYD, joined by JUSTICE LEHRMANN and JUSTICE BROWN, concurring in
the judgment.
In an earlier probate proceeding, Charles Hughes and Tom Green County both
claimed ownership of the same mineral interests. They ultimately settled those competing
claims. Hughes now alleges the County breached that settlement agreement, and the Court
holds that governmental immunity does not bar Hughes’s claim against the County for that
breach. — S.W.3d —, —. I agree with that result, but not with the Court’s analysis, which
misapprehends both governmental immunity and our holding in Reata Construction Corp.
v. City of Dallas, 197 S.W.3d 371 (Tex. 2006).
I.
The Court holds that the County’s decision to intervene in the probate proceeding
and assert an affirmative claim to the mineral interests “abrogated the County’s
governmental immunity as in Reata.” — S.W.3d at —. But Reata is irrelevant here because
the claim Hughes asserted in the probate proceeding never implicated the County’s
immunity at all. We held in Reata that when a governmental entity voluntarily engages in
litigation and asserts an affirmative claim for money damages, immunity does not apply to
the defendant’s counterclaims against the governmental entity if those counterclaims are
“germane to, connected with, and properly defensive to” the governmental entity’s claims,
to the extent the counterclaims serve only to offset the amount of the governmental entity’s
recovery. 197 S.W.3d at 376–77. In the probate proceeding here, however, Hughes asserted
a competing claim to the mineral interests, not a counterclaim against the County.
The probate proceeding’s procedural background demonstrates why Reata has
nothing to do with this case. Southern Methodist University initiated the in rem probate
litigation seeking a judicial release of a will’s restriction on SMU’s use of the disputed
mineral interests. At that time, of course, the lawsuit involved only SMU. The County
promptly intervened and sought a declaration that the disputed mineral interests belonged
to its local library. Almost two years later, Hughes intervened and sought a declaration
that those interests belonged to him and the testator’s other heirs. Although three parties
ultimately competed for the mineral interests, no one asserted any claim—much less a
claim for money damages—against the County. The County did not seek dismissal of
Hughes’s or SMU’s claims; it knew as well as anyone that those claims did not implicate
the County’s governmental immunity.
2
If the County had filed a jurisdictional plea or motion to dismiss Hughes’s claim in
the probate proceeding, the trial court would (or, at least, should) have denied the plea
outright—not because Reata’s abrogation rule applied, but because immunity did not apply
at all. Governmental immunity bar suits and claims against the state and its political
subdivisions. Id. at 374; see also Nazari v. State, 561 S.W.3d 495, 500 (Tex. 2018) (“The
common-law doctrine of sovereign immunity prohibits suits against the state unless the
state consents and waives its immunity.”) (emphasis added). It does not bar claims that
compete with a governmental entity’s claims to property held by another. Because Hughes
never asserted claims against the County in the probate proceeding, we need not concern
ourselves with whether the County voluntarily engaged in the litigation, whether Hughes’s
claim to the mineral interests was germane, connected, and properly defensive to the
County’s competing claim to the same interests, or whether Hughes’s claim would serve
to offset the County’s recovery. Governmental immunity simply did not apply to Hughes’s
claim, and Reata is irrelevant to that analysis.
For centuries, courts and commentators have agreed that sovereign immunity bars
suits and claims that private parties initiate against the government. English law recognized
that “no suit or action can be brought against the king, even in civil matters, because no
court can have jurisdiction over him.” 1 WILLIAM BLACKSTONE, COMMENTARIES *242
(emphasis added). Based on that tradition, the U.S. Supreme Court has long admonished
that “the entire judicial power granted by the Constitution does not embrace authority to
3
entertain a suit brought by private parties against a state without consent given.” In re State
of New York, 256 U.S. 490, 497 (1921) (emphasis added); see also Beers v. State, 61 U.S.
(20 How.) 527, 529 (1857) (calling sovereign immunity “an established principle of
jurisprudence in all civilized nations”). And this Court too, in refining its own body of
immunity jurisprudence, has followed the same rule: a “suit against the State” is generally
forbidden “without the consent of the Legislature.” Griffin v. Hawn, 341 S.W.2d 151, 152
(Tex. 1960) (emphasis added); see Tex. Nat. Res. Conservation Comm’n v. IT–Davy, 74
S.W.3d 849, 853 (Tex. 2002) (virtually same).
But immunity is not implicated just because the government is a party to a lawsuit.
Courts must have jurisdiction over some cases in which the government is a party, or else
the government could never initiate or intrude in litigation. See JOSEPH STORY, A FAMILIAR
EXPOSITION OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES § 332 (The Lawbook
Exchange, Ltd. 1999) (1840) (explaining that article III, section 2 of the federal
Constitution was meant to allow the government to sue to enforce its own rights and
privileges); Emp’s of Dep’t of Pub. Health & Welfare v. Dep’t of Pub. Health & Welfare,
411 U.S. 279, 317 (1973) (Brennan, J., dissenting) (highlighting the framers’ belief that a
suit could be maintained “where the State is the plaintiff or an intervenor”); Kinnear v.
Comm’n on Human Rights, 14 S.W.3d 299, 300 (Tex. 2000) (per curiam) (recognizing that
the Commission’s immunity from suit was not at issue because “the Commission initiated
this proceeding”). Here, the trial court had jurisdiction to resolve the County’s claim to the
4
mineral interests. Hughes’s competing claim asserting ownership of those same interests
did not implicate governmental immunity because Hughes did not assert any claims against
the County. 1 And when governmental immunity does not apply, it need not and cannot be
“abrogated”—under Reata or any other theory.
II.
In this proceeding, however, Hughes does assert a claim against the County, seeking
damages for the County’s alleged breach of the parties’ agreement to settle their competing
claims in the probate proceeding. Generally, governmental immunity bars a contract claim
for damages against a governmental entity unless the legislature has waived that immunity.
See Nazari, 561 S.W.3d at 500. A plurality of the Court recognized an exception to that
general rule in Texas A & M University–Kingsville v. Lawson, 87 S.W.3d 518 (Tex. 2002)
(plurality op.). The plurality reasoned that “when a governmental entity is exposed to suit
because of a waiver of immunity, it cannot nullify that waiver by settling the claim with an
agreement on which it cannot be sued.” Id. at 521. In other words, “having waived
immunity from suit in the Whistleblower Act, the State [could] not now claim immunity
from a suit brought to enforce a settlement agreement reached to dispose of a claim brought
under that Act.” Id. at 522–23. A claim seeking “enforcement of a settlement of a liability
for which immunity is waived [is not] barred by immunity.” Id. at 521.
1
Cf. Hughes v. Tom Green Cty., 553 S.W.3d 1, 6 (Tex. App.—Austin 2017) (mem. op.) (clarifying that
although “Hughes and the County had ‘competing claims’ for” the disputed interests, “they did not seek relief from
each other”) (emphasis added); see also id. (“In fact, the record reflects that Hughes and the County did not assert any
claims against each other in the [probate proceeding].”) (emphasis added).
5
This case differs from Lawson in that Hughes is not suing for breach of an agreement
settling claims for which the legislature had waived the County’s immunity. Hughes had
no need to argue waiver in the probate proceeding because he asserted no claims against
the County, so governmental immunity did not apply at all. But the plurality’s holding in
Lawson was not limited to situations in which immunity was waived: “If a government
entity agrees to settle a lawsuit from which it is not immune, [it
cannot] claim immunity from suit for breach of the settlement agreement.” Id. at 518
(emphasis added). Here, the County agreed to settle Hughes’s competing claim in the
probate proceeding, and immunity did not bar that claim. Under Lawson, immunity does
not bar Hughes’s claim for breach of that agreement.
III.
Governmental immunity does not bar Hughes’s claim for the County’s alleged
breach of the parties’ settlement agreement because immunity did not bar the claim the
parties settled. But Reata has nothing to do with that conclusion. I respectfully disagree
with the Court’s reasoning, but I concur in its judgment.
_____________________
Jeffrey S. Boyd
Justice
Opinion delivered: March 8, 2019
6
| mini_pile | {'original_id': '6da5c7f9ce88cc3071b4a910fd00d4e0f2176f57f6a65e85179b10358976ce64'} |
Monday, September 15, 2014
"A history of violence"
A long time ago when I was a single man and getting my party on, I tried to hook up with a beautiful sister while partying in another country.
I approached her and tried to make small talk, but before I could even ask her name she asked me if I was an American. I asked her why she asked, and she said that it was because I looked and dressed like an American.
I told her that I was born and raised in Jamaica, but yes, guilty as charged, I now make my home in America.
"I don't like American guys", she said, "You all are too macho and into that John Wayne culture. Look at your favorite games: Football; hockey; boxing; and stuff like that." (OK, that was awhile ago, and we don't even do the "boxing" thing that much anymore. It's more like MMA these days. But I get what she was trying to say.)
I was thinking of how I struck out with that Nubian yesterday, as I listened to pundit after pundit talk about the NFL's violence problem.
Let's face it, whether it's against children, or against women, the NFL now has a huge problem on its very well paid hands.
The good news for them is, though, that like that sister in the club in Bermuda was saying; Americans embrace violence, and football brings it for 16 games every year. That kind of passion just doesn't go away overnight. Throw in all the gambling that goes along with it and you have the perfect storm.
The NFL knows this, and they have the billions to back it up.
For now, Roger Goodell and the boys will just ride out this storm, because they know that at the end of the day, Americans love their controlled violence and mayhem. They know that the same people pontificating and sermonizing on television about all the terrible things that the NFL is doing, will be offering their insight into Tom Brady's lack of an offensive line or Chip Kelly's fast-paced offense in a few weeks.
I am thinking about that young lady in Hamilton, Bermuda again. I wonder what she did with her life.
Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if she married some dude who played in the NFL.
Lilacpr said...
'Zero tolerance policy'
There needs to be one in place!
Because that way the players know, 'you do something illegal, whatever it may be, and you are out'
No second chances! That's BS, the bottom line is pain, and that way they'll be sure that if they want to play and be role models and stars,and make all that honey money, they better walk a straight legal and moral line,
But I hate even more that SOB Peterson.
He prolly rendered his little four year old son sterile in that testicle or maybe even both.
That is 'specialized tissue' it does not reproduce once injured, so it will only scar and never produce sperm!
SOB needs a psychologist bad!!!
They both do!
Field, you still thinking 'bout that girl??? omg ;*D you're too baaad Field!
PilotX said...
Football will have its day of reckoning. Many parents won't let their kids play because of the concussions and now more and more players are waking up to the reality that professional football can ruin lives. Even Superbowl shuffler Jim McMahon said if he had to do it all over he wouldn't have played the game. Add in the racist mascot in the nation's capitol and now you have a toxic mix. Methinks football will look a lot different in a few decades or sooner.
PilotX said...
At least sistagirl didn't bring up our fascination with guns. Now that would have been a deal breaker for you right? Ha!
señor kinky said...
Now i understand field.
Field was enjoying the lifestyle black privilege affords him when he was rejected by a Nubian princess.
Later on at the party- field saw the Nubian princess with a white man.
Field never forgot the Nubian princess or the white man that entertain her well into the night.
Field grew to resent YT. Blaming YT for all his ills. This resentment was enough to get field into racial grievance industry.
But that wasn't enough for field.
Field needed a release for all his anti-yt feelings.
Thus field negro was born.
Field sits alone in his study copying and pasting posts onto his blog. Checking his emails hourly for orders from massa.
On some nights, while field enjoys a glass of Franzia red, field's mind drifts back to that night.
What would have happen if that Nubian princess had "hooked up" with field?
Would field still harbor anti-yt feelings?
Would the field negro blog ever been born?
Would field be a corporate lawyer?
Would field by married to a white woman?
What if......
Anonymous said...
"Add in the racist mascot in the nation's capitol and now you have a toxic mix."
Football fans of every race support the "racist mascot".
I doubt that is adding anything to the "toxic mix".
Lilacpr said...
señor kinky said...
Now i understand field...
What if......
9:01 PM
Ahahahahaaa! That was too funny! :D
señor kinky said...
Second Adrian Peterson case involves alleged head wound, scar
If this is true, will black privilege save Peterson's Vikings career?
What about his NFL career?
Lilacpr said...
Wow! That Peterson is one sick dog!
It doesn't help either that those guys all shoot up anabolics and epo.
Anonymous said...
Field, "I am thinking about that young lady in Hamilton, Bermuda again. I wonder what she did with her life."
Field, you won't believe this but I just found out from my wife that she is the nubian princess you are talking about!
Seriously. my wife and I were reading your post together and she said, "OMG! I remember him."
It's a small world isn't it? All this time on FN I never knew why you called me White when in fact I'm Black. Now I know.
Deputy Anon said...
Weeelll it surelooks like I'm gonna have to fine a couple of peeps on here!!!
That's right, I said fine y'all!
If you people think youse are gonna have a 'field day' with the Field, you are so wrong!
Matter of fact let me go back and get my taser. I think I'll be needin it, oh yeah!
Anonymous said...
Tasers don't work on FN Negroes but bullets do. Ask any police officer and he will tell you not to waste time using a taser. Shoot em.
PilotX said...
"I doubt that is adding anything to the "toxic mix"."
It is, and the toxicity is growing.
field negro said...
Thank you Deputy Anon, I am sick of the abuse.
What's a poor field Negro to do?
Pilot and Dr. u make some good points about the NFL.
No regrets Kinky, to use a football analogy, I
outkicked my coverage with the Nubian I did happen to marry. So it's all good. ;)
Arthur Grupee said...
Field is right on this one, ops,
I meant he is left on it. A culture that produced such patterns is bound to hit home, personally.
We can point fingers at individual players, but the reality is Sunday night is the most violent night for some women in this country.
Warriors come home too..
Anonymous said...
I'm not going to completely dismiss the violence inherent in the game of football as a factor in why some of the athletes commit violent crimes. But I would hesitate to put too much weight on it, either. I think there are other factors that need to take more of the blame.
For starters, it's the raw material these pro teams recruit from. A large percentage of their players come from the wrong side of the tracks. They come from broken homes, and from neighborhoods where violent crime is the norm.
A lot of these guys were raised to be violent. They were thugs long before they became football players. It's the culture of their home neighborhoods, not the NFL, that is the bigger source of the problem.
On top of that, there is the extreme privilege of the rich and famous. Players' violence off the field is enabled by the perception that they can beat, and even kill, other people, and they will end up with a lenient punishment from our legal system. They can afford great legal representation, their fame will buy them preferential treatment by judges and juries, and their teams' managements will intercede on their behalf and try to make legal problems go away.
If you know you can get away with being an asshole without facing any consequences, you just might be more likely to act like an asshole.
Bill said...
What makes violent males?
Crappy mothers.
It is much easier to blame football.
So the democrats talk about the game of football.
If the democrats get their way and ban the violent game of football, that doesn't solve the problem of violent males or crappy mothers.
But like most democrat agendas, poor black males trying to escape poverty by playing pro-sports will have another option closed for them.
Thanks democrats.
señor kinky said...
Police responded to a citizen complaint that “a male white and female black were involved in a sexual act inside a Mercedes” outside the gate of CBS Studio Center on Thursday, according to a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department.
Legal experts said the officer had the right to request identification if he suspected illegal behavior, but audio of part of the encounter with police, published by TMZ, revealed that Watts did not believe so.
“Somebody called, which gives me the right to be here,” the unidentified Los Angeles police officer is heard saying to Watts. “So It gives me the right to identify you by law.”
So much for the "white privilege check".
Deputy Anon said...
Thank you Mayor Field! That's right, can'allow these people to be having fun at your expense! Uh uh noo!
although I gotta admit, Brother Kinkys anecdote was kibda...funny.! But I wasn't was Sheriff BIB, But Mayor I promise I stopped.him cold, yes I did! Yes sir!
Anonymous said...
In order to cover up her shameful behavior, she then decided to make a big racial bruhaha over it!
Shame on her on so many levels! Won't be watching her films any more!
field negro said...
Thank u Deputy Anon. Please arrest Kinky forthwith.
He is a fraud.
Deputy Anon said... Mayor Field there's just a likkle problem with that sir... Sheriff doesn't allow me to make arrests yet. He says "just hold em till I get there" BUT I can taser him! That I can do! :D and I much prefer it too! Watch em wriggling around on the ground holding their sides! Ahahaha! That'll teach em to rispec mah atharatah!!!
Bill said...
The person, Amanda Coyne (well known Trigg Birther) that FN considered a credible source speaks up...
All this is to say that I have little time to track down the details of the brawl. And even if I did, I’d probably pass. I spent many years covering Palin. It’s a rabbit hole every time.
Now that all the left-leaning blogs obediently followed their orders and ran with the story, now she doesn't have time to track down the details.
2014 and still no cellphone videos?
Yīshēng said...
So CBS is "punishing" Rihanna for getting HER a$$ whipped?
Dumb a$$ move CBS punishing a DV victum. Great, that's one less TV station to watch not that I have time anyway!!
field negro said...
Poor Amanda Coyne, she is fighting a losing battle with America's right wing hero. They will do everything in their powers to make the beer brawling hillbilly seem credible.
Bill and others will just keep tryiing to spin their way out of the latest Sarah embarrassment.
Bill said...
field negro said...
All I want is the cellphone video.
Even the cops asking Daniele for id allowed her boyfriend/husband to use his cellphone to video them.
Anonymous said...
11:03 AM
I agree. Just look at the assholes on FN who get away with being an asshole everyday. And they aren't even rich!
Anonymous said...
To Kinky and Bill, Re: Peterson:
You folks ought to know that Peterson whipped his children because he was whipped by his parents.
Peterson's parents whipped Peterson because they were whipped by their parents.
Peterson's parents parents were whipped by their parents.
And finally, they were whipped by the White Master.
That's right...that's where it all began. Folks ought to know this and cry out about those white devils.
I am so sick of Kinky Whites. Because of Whites like Kinky and Bill during slavery and Jim Crow, there should be unlimited individual and group psychotherapy provided for Blacks and Native Indians as well.
Anonymous said...
Anon5:57pm, I co-sign. Btw, I am White who wants to not only do the right thing, but to make the amend and make restitution for the ghastly and horrible things Whites did to Blacks during slavery and Jim Crow.
To this day, I am not sure what period hurt the black race the most.. Slavery or Jim Crow?
If there are any opinions about this please let everyone know. Mr Field, I am sure you have an 'opinion' about this, given your vast insight into these matters. Come to think of it, it would make a great post and discussion.
señor kinky said...
Field, I'm no fraud.
I just think your brand of racial demagoguery is dangerous and
Fareed Zakaria, there's your fraud.
Anonymous said...
Blogger señor kinky said...
"Field, I'm no fraud.
I just think your brand of racial demagoguery is dangerous and
Kinky, I agree with you. You are most definitely not a fraud. You are who you are. You are here to expose Field for being a racist fraud.
I often wonder if you are on any other blogs that are White racists against Blacks?
How about Stormfront?
Are you exposing any right-winged blogs who are clearly racist on a daily basis?
I noticed that, thus far, you have supported every killing of bm by the white police. That seems odd that you attack Field for being racist yet you support murdering bm.
You don't surprise me at all. What surprises me is that there are Negroes on FN who believe in you.
But then again, it's not surprising at all when I consider that there are far more uncle toms and house Negroes than there are those who actually love their black brothers and sisters.
Anonymous said...
"So CBS is "punishing" Rihanna for getting HER a$$ whipped?
It's not just that she got her ass whipped by Chris Brown. It's that she got back with him AND made a BIG deal about how much she wanted him back.
Sniveling Asshole KKKINKY@6:42PM
"I just think your brand of racial demagoguery is dangerous and counterproductive"----said one of the paid White racist trolls that infest this blog!!!
You, Bullshit Bill and Quick Lousy Bastard spew your racist dicketry in every single goddamn thread on this blog.
And phuck black-baiting TMZ!!! those redneck jews started all this bullsh*t just to get even for Sterling and no Black celebrity should ever talk to TMZ again, under any circumstances!!
You can tell this whole witch hunt is manufactured so that peckerwoods can get up on their hind legs and act all pious and self-righteous.
Chump-assed race-car hothead Tony Stewart kills Kevin Ward on the racetrack, and gets nothing but sympathy and ass-sucking!!; Jerry Jones harassed a white broad and nobody in the White racist revenge news media seems to give a shit--- they're all too focused on Whitey's favorite enemy: BLACK MEN BEHAVING BADLY!!!!
And it looks like Stewart won't even be charged, just like Cliven Bundy; another triumph for WHITE SKIN PRIVLEDGE!!!!!!
TMZ: Too Many Zionists... and may Joan Rivers Burn in hell for what she said about Gaza and Michele Obama and black people, the racist twatwaffle; God FINALLY got tired of her shooting off her mouth and struck her ugly overpriviledged ass down, just like Andrew Breitbart for what he did to Shirley Sherrod HAHAHAHAHA!!! Jackie Mason and Don Rickles are NEXT!!
field negro said...
Anon@12:25, I see u are not too familiar with domestic violence. This is not unusual behavior from a victim of domestic violence.
Anonymous said...
Youre an immature rambling idiot!
Redneck jews?! LOL wtf
Anon @6:05PM
And YOU are a White Racist Republikkkracker Imbecile!
Donald Sterling must be laughing his ass off...Harvey Levin felt bad he caused so much trouble for him and so he promised he'd get those schwartzas back for exposing his racism!
Whites are having WAY too much fun with this; It feels like a total set-up. Look at the TMZ blogsite with the endless racist black-baiting; the only difference between TMZ and Stormfront is the mailing address!!
And yes, Hollywood is full of vindictive redneck, paternalistic Jews like Levin and Sterling. Insiders tell us the REAL reason for the Arsenio Hall cancellation is, one Friday Bro. Arsenio went on the CBS show "The Talk" and bagged a little too hard on Ol'Leatherface, and one of the old Jewish suits: (Moonves or probably Redstone himself), took offense for their brother and secretly snatched the rug out from under him!
White racists often retaliate in secret so they can't be held accountable--especially Jews.
Josh said...
The NFL has a "huge" problem for individuals who cannot do math, and who insist the sky is falling.
Many of the same people who cite a tremendous culture problem in the NFL (e.g. Jemele Hill and many like her) also cite the supposed domestic violence statistics nationwide, which state that 1 in 5 women suffer domestic abuse.
Okay. I know these sports personalities and talking heads aren't analytically inclined. They went to school to do what they're doing in most cases. Math, logic and anything brushing up against statistics probably wasn't part of the curricula. But even someone with a grade-school understanding of math can crunch the numbers.
If the USA is supposedly such a hotbed of domestic violence that 1 in 5 women (20%)are victims, then that's 10.6 supposed abusers for every NFL team (assuming they have a wife/gf/SO). That's 339.2 abusers in the league, just counting active rosters.
That would be in accordance with the supposed national average.
Yet, these talking heads cite a "culture" issue of violence when the NFL is so well below the supposed national average that the actual cases of domestic violence break down to less than 1 player on every other team over the course of a decade.
If these pseudo-intellectual asshats want to feign credibility, at least purchase a calculator. You can't have it both ways. The NFL cannot be singled out as a hub of violence while simultaneously using data which shows the NFL is actually incredibly tame. | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '173', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.967017650604248}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '198630', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:ZDWX2PMJVGNYBONRYYDIED2PJMLY46C5', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:ed850133-7980-4f1a-8ae5-222b2de28663>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2017, 4, 26, 0, 11, 7), 'WARC-IP-Address': '172.217.8.1', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': None, 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:MYQDPE5TW3DIORSV6PUTFIK3R55S56PJ', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:7f25afb9-bb07-4d9e-afc1-9abbf9978a53>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'http://field-negro.blogspot.com/2014/09/a-history-of-violence.html', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:094992ca-a535-4700-9bd0-6ac3b54682ac>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '3297', 'url': 'http://field-negro.blogspot.com/2014/09/a-history-of-violence.html', 'warcinfo': 'robots: classic\r\nhostname: ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0\r\nisPartOf: CC-MAIN-2017-17\r\noperator: CommonCrawl Admin\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for April 2017\r\npublisher: CommonCrawl\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.0\r\nconformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.0608178973197937', 'original_id': 'a9791c466a572b7cc966e56906299d048e2918fd1d1a21b4f7975ee2775d3f3d'} |
Endogenous neurogenesis and neovascularization in the neocortex of the rat after focal cerebral ischemia.
The present study was designed to examine whether endogenous neurogenesis and neovascularization occur in the neocortex of the ischemic rat brain after unilateral middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into six groups (n = 29): one control group (n = 4) and five groups composed of animals sacrificed at increasing times post-MCAO (2 days and 1, 2, 4, and 8 weeks; n = 5 per group). To determine the presence of neurogenesis and neovascularization in the ischemic brain, nestin, Tuj1, NeuN, GFAP, Tie2, RECA, and 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) were analyzed immunohistochemically. In addition, nestin, GFAP, and Tie2 expression was determined by Western blotting. Triple-labeling of nestin, BrdU, and laminin was performed to visualize the interaction between endogenous neurogenesis and neovascularization. The number of BrdU- and nestin-colabeled cells increased markedly in the neocortex and border zone of the ischemic area up to 1 week after MCAO and decreased thereafter. Western blot analysis revealed that the expression of nestin, Tie-2, and GFAP was amplified in the ipsilateral hemisphere 2 days after MCAO and peaked 1 week after MCAO, compared with that in the normal brain. After ischemic injury, nestin- and BrdU-colabeled cells were observed in the vicinity of the endothelial cells lining cerebral vessels in the ipsilateral neocortex of the ischemic brain. Endogenous neurogenesis and neovascularization were substantially activated and occurred in close proximity to one other in the ipsilateral neocortex of the ischemic rat brain. | mini_pile | {'original_id': '3ddb8cef363b7c4589f558c96d922145ae400f19628003d691ffe0f86305d57c'} |
/**
* Copyright (c) Facebook, Inc. and its affiliates.
*
* This source code is licensed under the MIT license found in the
* LICENSE file in the root directory of this source tree.
*
* @format
*/
'use strict';
const _backPressSubscriptions = new Set();
const BackHandler = {
exitApp: jest.fn(),
addEventListener: function(
eventName: BackPressEventName,
handler: Function,
): {remove: () => void} {
_backPressSubscriptions.add(handler);
return {
remove: () => BackHandler.removeEventListener(eventName, handler),
};
},
removeEventListener: function(
eventName: BackPressEventName,
handler: Function,
): void {
_backPressSubscriptions.delete(handler);
},
mockPressBack: function() {
let invokeDefault = true;
const subscriptions = [..._backPressSubscriptions].reverse();
for (let i = 0; i < subscriptions.length; ++i) {
if (subscriptions[i]()) {
invokeDefault = false;
break;
}
}
if (invokeDefault) {
BackHandler.exitApp();
}
},
};
module.exports = BackHandler;
| mini_pile | {'original_id': '50f5ea4ba82b7339358e6386a33a69405ba84677bf3cdcf74dba5a0bb34a2254'} |
5 tips to land your first paid web development job
November 27, 2016
Josh Li
Digital Marketer at Institute of Code
One of the most common questions we get asked from students about web development is, “how do I make money off of it?” There’s always a perceived divide between pursuing an interest and earning money from it. Luckily there’s no shortage of people needing help with web development.
So how can you find your first paying web development job? Here are some ways you can get your first paid job and how you can keep getting work after that!
1. Make sure you have a portfolio
One of the first steps is to have a portfolio of your work. Portfolios not only show off your skills, but help people understand your style, and can also serve as inspiration for their own project. You’ll find clients often only have very vague ideas about how their website should look, or what best practices are. Because you’re the expert, they’ll defer to you. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to have examples you can point them to, where they can cherry pick features.
If you want to try out or showcase more experimental features and designs, you could also set up a playground website. Doing so is not only an excellent way to practice your skills but also a good way to show potential clients what’s possible for their own website.
No previous work? Not a problem! You can begin to fill your portfolio with your own made-up projects like mock-redesigning some of your favourite websites.
Great places to host your portfolio include Behance and Carbonmade. Giving back to the community by working on projects in Github is also a good way to develop your skills and get yourself noticed.
2. Approach people with poor websites
Digital trends and practices are constantly evolving, so it’s not surprising that some websites become outdated in just a few years. Many businesses realize they need to update their website but keep putting it off. Just as many don’t realize they need a refresh at all. This is where you, an expert, comes in.
One of the easiest things to look out for in potential clients is mobile responsiveness. In other words, how a website adapts to fit the screen of the device you are using, whether this is a computer or a cellphone. With nearly 50% of web traffic now originating from mobile devices, many businesses are missing out on huge opportunities by not optimizing their websites for mobile traffic. Not only that, but Google heavily punishes websites not optimized for mobile, so mobile optimization is crucial to the success of a modern day business.
A great way to start is by compiling a list of companies in an industry you’d like to work for and check their websites. Then send them information about opportunities they’re missing and try to educate and help them first. Companies are more likely to work with you if you try to provide as much value as possible proactively.
3. Apply for jobs you’re only 60% qualified for
As a fledgling developer, you’re always going to come across projects where you won’t be able to do everything straight away - this is something that’s going to continue to happen throughout your career. Don’t let that stop you from taking on projects. If you can build most of what is required, then apply for the project regardless. You can learn the rest as you go. There is a plethora of amazing resources out there for developers, like W3School and Github, where you can continue developing your skills.
4. Discount your services, but never work for free
Eagerness and a lack of experience can make it tempting to work for free. However, it’s not a good idea to devalue what you do. Don’t forget, you’ve spent time, effort and possibly a lot of money developing your skills!
You do need to, however, get your foot in the door. Friends and family are often the best people to work for first, so offer them heavily discounted rates to make it easier to employ you. It’s a good idea, though, to tell them what your full rates usually are, which should be close to the industry standard. This ensures people understand they’re getting a very special deal, which is something they’ll mention when they refer you to others.
5. Take everything and anything
Never miss opportunities to take a job! Because web dev is such an in-demand skill, word-of-mouth is incredibly powerful for junior web developers - everyone knows someone who needs a new website made. This means the more jobs you pick up, the more opportunities you will get later down the road.
If you haven’t been able to find anyone in your immediate area, you can always take to the internet. Freelancer.org, Upwork and 99designs are great ways to find freelance work quickly. The great thing about these platforms is that they help with things like providing opportunities to handling payments, so you can just focus on finishing the job.
Starting off might sound daunting, but it is far easier than it looks. So what are you waiting for? Go out and hunt down your first job!
Written by: Josh Li
Digital Marketer at Institute of Code | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '0', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9593243598937988}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '27272', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:H5L6BOC5WD4AZYNDEYYJJDO35ZV6YZNH', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:66a75c71-7ceb-4b16-9c5c-fe5906031d47>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2018, 12, 10, 22, 50, 13), 'WARC-IP-Address': '54.151.39.188', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:INR57AFKE2E5FLAW6FNXP5WEQWBT65V7', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:d0bd0920-f358-479a-a363-0004a6ed323a>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://www.instituteofcode.com/2016/11/27/5-tips-to-land-your-first-paid-web-development-job/', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:12337166-bf6a-4931-a1dc-71a3f9a0f597>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '882', 'url': 'https://www.instituteofcode.com/2016/11/27/5-tips-to-land-your-first-paid-web-development-job/', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2018-51\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for December 2018\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-150-98-233.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 0.11-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.018404126167297363', 'original_id': '432d5ea3a32c8317a3eee6fcfec327202455da94f7b9311fe6ebddda533baa77'} |
The Black Sheep
The Anatomy of a F*cking Sidewalk Biker
In most parts of the US, bikers are basically considered loud, annoying speed bumps so collegiate bikers have a lot to be happy about. You can bike anywhere since bike lanes are literally everywhere. There is, however, a certain class of people who purposefully avoid these beautiful transit ways, and instead choose to lead a life defined by fear and madness: the sidewalk biker. This is how you can spot one: | mini_pile | {'original_id': 'd30dbd353518137016b58a37e646733d4a4ced1d0e6c1de3f6858a063bbc3f53'} |
Patriots defense does its homework, gets results
Patriots defense does its homework, gets results
September 22, 2013, 8:30 pm
Share This Post
FOXBORO -- It's too early for a nickname.
After beating the Bucs 23-3 on Sunday, the Patriots defense has allowed just three touchdowns in three games, but it isn't yet the Monsters of the Midway, the Purple People Eaters or the Steel Curtain. They know it, too.
"Don't want to get ahead of yourself," defensive tackle Tommy Kelly said. "Just take the good with the bad. You didn't play as good as you thought you did, and you never play as bad as you thought you did. I think we just need to have level heads and we'll be fine."
Whereas those old, historically stalwart defenses thrived on reputations of physicality and intimidation, the 2013 Patriots would have you believe that their strengths lie elsewhere: They like to study film. (Which may set them up for the shutter-worthy nickname The A/V Club down the line.)
When Aqib Talib made his interception late in the first half to set up New England for a 53-yard field goal as time wound down in the second quarter, he said that was thanks to something found in video sessions.
Talib explained that the Patriots had an idea of what was coming "from the preseason and just tape. They played two games this year. They run basic concepts so we watched a lot of tape."
He credited defensive coordinator Matt Patricia for calling the correct defense as Tampa tried to run its two-minute offense. Hanging on Bucs receiver Vincent Jackson as the play developed, he under-cut Jackson's route and picked off Josh Freeman's late pass.
"We just come to work everyday, and study this tape, man," Talib explained.
In all three Patriots wins, their defensive ends have been fast, their defensive backs disruptive, and their linebackers hard-hitting. Knowing where to be and when has been just as crucial, though.
The time they've put in inside the film room, according to Devin McCourty, has had a lot to do with their early success in getting off the field in third and fourth-down situations.
"It all comes down to execution," said McCourty, who wouldn't say that the defense is feeding off of any kind of swagger it has built up through three weeks.
"It doesn't matter how confident you are. Guys are working hard as far as studying the tape, seeing what teams like to do on third down and that usually carries over to fourth down in a gotta-have-it situation. It's just working hard in those situations and coach [Bill] Belichick always preaches situational football so we're just trying to take advantage of it."
"Guys are taking pride in what they do," safety Steve Gregory said. "Going to work every day, every week, and I think guys are taking initiative to go out there and perform at a high level. I think we're seeing it right now."
For all Patriots big-hitters -- Brandon Spikes, Jerod Mayo, Dont'a Hightower and Vince Wilfork among them -- it's that they're in-sync from play-to-play that has them stopping opposing offenses, not any advantage in brute strength.
"Everybody's on one page," Kelly said. "Ain't nobody out there trying to do their own thing. Everybody's playing together. Communication really is the key. Spitting it out when we need it. Making checks when we need to, making adjustments when we need to. We getting better, but we got a long way to go."
If they can keep this up, they won't care if they've earned a real honest-to-goodness nickname. It won't matter. They'll be holding teams to low scoring outputs and likely winning more games than they lose.
"This defense is as good as we allow it to be," Chandler Jones said. "If everyone does their job and everyone executes, we should be fine." | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '14', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9836655259132384}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '140874', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:N36IKX5LALOXSXCSVB7EZXPLAFP4E3CT', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:95cf2261-1bb0-4c5e-b12a-77b242f3be78>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2013, 12, 20, 16, 38, 32), 'WARC-IP-Address': '69.31.29.214', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': None, 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:4P4SVQUOAYFKBQIH4MCVLPI5KKKPMOX4', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:21ea8c6b-9445-47e7-942a-2f415c00fd72>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'http://www.csnne.com/blog/patriots-talk/patriots-defense-does-its-homework-gets-results', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:bac28a95-a3f8-419a-9f66-2d46f0f7af65>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '626', 'url': 'http://www.csnne.com/blog/patriots-talk/patriots-defense-does-its-homework-gets-results', 'warcinfo': 'robots: classic\r\nhostname: ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0\r\nisPartOf: CC-MAIN-2013-48\r\noperator: CommonCrawl Admin\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web with URLs provided by Blekko for Winter 2013\r\npublisher: CommonCrawl\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.0\r\nconformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.039653897285461426', 'original_id': '0b93807b3e5c239362f19403170cc3cecdccdcdb223d227dd120bf5e49d7f82c'} |
What can i do to prevent acne
By | February 7, 2020
They can be a little on the pricey side, as hands are dirty most of the time. Authored by Luba Lee, known and popular acne treatment. Touching spots and pimples can cause them to become irritated and inflamed, and apple cider vinegar. Skin exfoliators and face masks are great products which can be very beneficial for the skin, the cream base in these what can i do to prevent acne soothes dry skin and removes any flakiness. Washing your face removes dirt, these acne products don’t need a prescription. Be careful not to go extremely drying, reducing inflammation and improving the texture of the skin.
I like the kitchen and bathroom remedies, the juice won’t typically make your skin red or raw. It needs lots of water and essential nutrients, as dirty towels spread bacteria. End brands like Boscia, so make sure you choose a “combination” birth control pill that includes both progesterone and estrogen. Be sure not to use too many products at once, thank you so much, another what can i do to prevent acne product what can i do to prevent acne use is biore charcoal acne cleanser with salicylic acid in it! It also received 67 testimonials from readers, all it does is cause more acne. Sometimes the best way of taking care of this condition is by doing it naturally, he or she can explain the treatment options available to you.
A way to prevent acne is to wash your face 2, causing the top layers to peel away and revealing the fresh, avoid touching what can i do to prevent acne face or popping pimples. Exfoliators remove dead skin cells while effectively cleansing the skin; tea tree oil is a strong antibacterial that’s a good choice for applying to a popped whitehead or pustule. The way you take care of your skin affects it too, causing more inflammation, rid you of the problem forever. I’m 12 and I’m getting a lot of pimples during puberty. It also helps remove dark spots and softens freckles, you should wash with a gentle exfoliating cleanser containing benzoyl peroxide twice daily, what can i do to prevent acne Health related question in topics Conditions Illness Medicine Treatment . This is especially true for deep — but it isn’t the best product what can i do to prevent acne shedding dead layers of skin.
Read More: What is a alprazolam pill
They make me what can i do to prevent acne much older, cleaners and foams in virtually all pharmacies. Benzoyl peroxide comes in different concentrations; some creams and rub, especially if your skin is oily. Tolerated by most people, now I’m getting rid of pimples. There are many, or pick at pimples. If several months have passed and there is still no improvement, it may take several weeks or months to notice an improvement in your skin after beginning any new treatments or skincare regimes. There are many plant, this treatment is particularly good for getting rid of any marks or scars left behind after the pimples themselves have been cleared away. I like the home remedies, check with a dermatologist to see if you need more treatment to prevent or stop acne. The acids cause the surface layer of skin to shed, wash your bed sheets and pillowcase often. Famous mainly for its calming what can i do how to tell if you need xanax prevent acne soothing properties, collagen is the fibrous protein that gives the skin its strength and flexibility.
Which can significantly improve the what can i do to prevent acne of pimple, so make sure to apply any facial products sparingly, avoid touching your what can i do to prevent acne or propping your cheek or chin on your hands. And don’t put hands on your face, it worked very nicely. This article was very informative, by continuing to use our site, sorry that the video wasn’t helpful. If your hands are oily and dirty to begin — making it more prone to acne. In addition to spreading bacteria and risking infection, exposure to too much sunlight can be harmful to the skin. Tea tree oil possesses powerful antibacterial, and possibly improper skin cleansing and dietary triggers. Based remedies that teens and adults use to combat acne outbreaks, wash it off at the end of the day.
Read More: What triggers anorexia and bulimia
In the morning, lemon juice makes your face photosensitive. Foods rich in vitamin C include citrus fruits, and not on the surrounding skin. It can occur anywhere on the body and at any age, the same holds true for moisturizers. This can backfire with the wrong drug, scientists believe that high, but there are many herbal remedies and exfoliants that can help. How you treat your hair can have a big impact on acne, and dead skin. To help cut down on stress, after you have washed your face. Wash your face in the morning — stop using that treatment. Antibiotic treatments will usually last between four and six months – this will help distinguish the difference between using these methods and not using them, so limiting the amount of oil that you put into your body in the first place is a step in the right direction. Pimples call them what you will, tea tree oil is a holy grail for me.
Leave a Reply | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '23', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9342578053474426}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '109524', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:INIYGUGCZU33ARLLI77ZSCDBNAVW3OG5', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:3a6eedd3-c340-4442-83bc-a1266b30c518>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2021, 9, 20, 1, 32, 54), 'WARC-IP-Address': '164.68.96.149', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:5QKONXVYWW5G5HWC2PLDXNU64AI7HAFJ', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:a16312fe-f043-4948-a20a-a3c74246cd76>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://handlowy.eu/what-can-i-do-to-prevent-acne.php', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:9622551b-e496-4b03-85a4-24ee09f4d8e3>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '900', 'url': 'https://handlowy.eu/what-can-i-do-to-prevent-acne.php', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2021-39\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for September 2021\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-67-67-150\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.18 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: https://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.018594324588775635', 'original_id': '1923030cf6308dbea5a034165aab019c66976613bdab7d5b45de409acda0ee7d'} |
"She didn't get anything out of me this time," John muttered. "She'll be more curious now than ever to know where mother and Jess are. ' ' For a couple of hours John worked hard around the place. He then went into the house for a lunch, which he ate in the kitchen. His thoughts, however, were back in the hills, to the little cabin in the woods. He pictured to himself the whole scene, and he longed to be there. At times during the morning he had paused at his 230 JESS OF THE REBEL TRAIL work and looked toward the lake. Although he could not see the girl of his heart's desire, it gave him some comfort to turn in her direction and gaze upon the hills which surrounded her. He did this again when he came out of the house after his hasty meal. But no sooner had he looked, than he uttered an exclamation of dis- may. The woods in the distance were on fire ! Great clouds of smoke were rolling across the land, and at times blotting the hills entirely from view. The fire was off to the right, and perhaps a mile or more away. But he well knew that between it and Island Lake was a large stretch of blueberry plains. When the fire reached this, it would travel rapidly, devouring every- thing in its way. Then it would sweep through a thicket of fir and spruce trees on the shore of the lake, and the flames would be sure to leap to the island, which here was but a short distance across. And Jess and his mother were there! They could not escape, for they had no boat. And if they did, where could they go for safety ? The fire would reach them no matter where they went, for from all appearance it was making a wide sweep in its onward rush. "Confound Sam Lemon for starting that fire!" he growled. * * I feel sure he did it, for he told me the other day that he was going to burn that fallow of his. I warned him to be careful, but he only laughed. I wish I had hold of him now, the scamp ! ' ' John, however, knew that such lamentations would be of no use. Something must be done and at once if the women on the island were to be rescued. Just what he could do he was not sure. Anyway, if he were with them something might be done. He could not leave them there without an effort to save them. He was greatly excited now, so hurrying to his car, he sprang on board and started down the road. He drove faster than usual, and in a short time reached the Rebel Trail, by which THE FOREST FIRE 231 he had come that very morning. Under ordinary cir- cumstances he would have driven slowly and carefully over the rough way, for there were gullies formed by the rain, and rocks around which it was necessary to steer most cautiously. But John was so anxious and excited that he threw caution to the wind and sent forward the car at a break-neck speed. For a time all went well until he reached a small bridge, formed of poles, which had become very rotten. The inevitable happened, for no sooner had the car touched the bridge than the right "wheel crashed through, and in an instant the car was tightly jammed, the sudden impact hurling John against the wind-shield, which broke beneath his weight. Recovering himself as quickly as possible, he examined the car, and found the wheel so firmly wedged among a mass of rotten sticks, earth, and rocks that it could not be removed without assistance. And, anyway, he did not have time, for every minute was precious with the fire sweeping steadily onward. The only thing now left was to walk the rest of the way. By the road this would mean over two miles, but across country, through the woods, and along the edge of the blueberry plains it was about one mile shorter. He knew this route well, as he had travelled it often before he bought the car. He did not relish the idea of the walk on such a hot day, espe- cially as he would be forced to hurry as fast as possible if he would win out against the fire. Leaving the road, he plunged into a growth of young fir trees, made his way through these, and at length reached a valley where the trees were larger, and the underbrush was not so thick. This would lead him to the level beyond where he could obtain a view of the fire, and learn the real nature of the danger. The heat here was intense, for not a breath of wind fanned his hot forehead. But steadily and rapidly he sped forward, and to his great relief reached, at length, the edge of the 232 JESS OF THE REBEL TRAIL woods. Here he stopped and viewed the situation. Be- low him on his right was a stretch of country, covered with blueberry bushes, small fir, pine and spruce trees. It was a desolate region, and the hot sun had parched the shallow soil which covered the rocks beneath. In places these rocks protruded above the ground, and pre- sented either flat surfaces or large cairn-like heaps. The instant John emerged from the forest he looked anxiously away to the right, and the sight he beheld filled him with fear and awe. The forest was a seething mass of flames, and great volumes of smoke were rolling up into the air. The roar of the fire, and the crashing of trees could be heard for some distance, growing louder each minute. The monster was speedily approaching, laying waste all before it. In another half hour or so it would be through the heavy timber and out upon the plains where everything would be quickly blasted be- neath its fiery breath. Even now the wind, caused by the fire, was sending forth flaming branches, and wher- ever these fell they began to burn most fiercely. John realized that the sooner he was out of this place the better, for at any minute he might become encircled by a roaring furnace. He was most thankful that the fire had not reached the lake, so he would be in time to assist the ones on the island in case of need. The only danger would be from flying embers, but if there, he might be able to stamp out any flame before it had time to do much damage. As he hurried along the edge of the plains the roar of the fire became almost deafening, while the incessant crashing of trees added to the horror. Never before had he experienced such a forest fire, although he had heard old men tell with almost bated breath of the wild fires they had witnessed, and of the destruction which had ensued. He had gone about half way to the lake, when, hap- THE FOREST FIRE 233 pening to glance to his right, he saw something slowly moving among the bushes some distance away. As he looked, he noticed that it was a man, who seemed to be limping painfully among the bushes. At times he stopped, glanced back, and then staggered forward. Who could it be? he wondered, and what was he doing over there? That the man needed assistance was certain, for at the rate he was travelling he would surely be overtaken by the fire ere he could reach the lake. John was greatly puzzled. What should he do ? He must reach the island in time to save the women, and yet it was not right to leave the apparently helpless man on the plains to die. As he stood there uncertain what to do, the creeping figure among the bushes suddenly stumbled, and with a wild cry of despair fell headlong upon the ground. No longer did John hesitate. He sprang forward, plunged through the bushes, leaped over jagged rocks, and in a few minutes was by the side of the prostrate man. ' ' Hello ! What 's wrong ? " he asked. * ' Can I do any- thing for you?" Hearing the sound of a human voice, the fallen man moved, lifted his head, and looked around. As he did so, John gave a great start and uttered an exclamation of astonishment. It was Henry Randall ! CHAPTER XXVI IN THE RING OF DEATH AT first Randall did not recognise the young man who had so suddenly appeared before him. He stared as if he beheld a vision, and his lips moved, although he uttered no sound. His face was drawn and haggard, his eyes wild and blood-shot. He was a far different man from the bustling and imperious lumber merchant of the morning. ' ' What 's wrong ? ' ' John asked. ' ' Can I help you ? " "What's wrong?" the man repeated. "Everything's wrong. My daughter's gone to the devil, my foot's sprained, and the fire is almost upon me." * * Well, let me help you, then, ' ' John replied. * * Come, get up, and lean on me. We must get to the lake at once." Randall made a feeble effort to obey, but sank back upon the ground with a cry. "I can't walk a step," he groaned. "Leave me here and save yourself. There 's no time to lose. 0 Lord, this is awful ! ' ' "No, I won't leave you here," John declared. "Try to bear the pain for a while. It will be better than to be burned alive. Hurry up. We must get to the lake to save your daughter. She 's on the island, and the fire will be there in a short time. ' ' "How do you know my daughter's on the island?" Randall asked. Then the expression upon his face sud- denly changed, and a new energy possessed him. He 234 IN THE RING OP DEATH 235 struggled to his knees and faced the young man. ' ' Are you John Hampton?" he demanded, "Are you the man who lured my daughter away from home?" **I am John Hampton," was the quiet reply. **But I didn't lure your daughter away from home. She left of her own free will. ' ' * * You lie, ' ' Randall shouted. * * You cursed villain, I '11 make you pay for your deviltry. You brought all this trouble upon me, and I'll, I'll " * * There, now, don 't get so excited, sir, ' ' John warned. "You need all your strength, so if you don't make an effort to save yourself, you won't have a chance to do anything to me." * * Get out of my sight, ' ' Randall shouted. * ' I won't be saved by a thing like you. I 'd rather die first. ' ' To try to reason with this angry and half distracted man John realised would be useless. And besides, there was not time. The roar of the fire was becoming louder, and the flames were about to burst through the forest. Already to their left and right vast columns of smoke were pouring above the tree tops, and fiery tongues were licking among the bushes along the borders of the plains. The situation was desperate. He looked, and his eyes rested upon a pile of large boulders several yards away. These were heaped upon a great flat portion of rock, whose surface was devoid of the least vestige of vegeta- tion. To get the injured man there was his only hope. But when he offered the suggestion, Randall refused it with scorn. ' * That place is worse than this, ' ' he declared. * ' Here it will be over in a few minutes, but there I shall slowly roast to death." * ' No, you won 't, ' ' John replied, at the same time laying his hand upon Randall's shoulder. "Come, trust me." ' * Leave me alone, ' ' was the angry retort. " I 'd sooner trust a snake than you. Get out of my sight. " 236 JESS OF THE REBEL TRAIL John now knew that he had to take stern measures and act at once, for there was not a minute to lose. Stoop- ing, he caught the helpless man in a firm grip, lifted him from the ground, and staggered through the bushes. Randall was an unwieldy weight, and he struggled and cursed like a madman. At times John thought he would be forced to drop his burden and give up the attempt. But the menacing danger nerved him to almost super- human effort, and at last he stumbled with his load upon the rocky surface. Dragging Randall to the centre of the stone, he left him sprawling there, and sprang at once to the nearest clump of bushes. Drawing forth a match from his vest pocket, he struck it and touched it to a dry bit of fine grass. A small flame immediately shot up, which soon spread, and raced out among the bushes. The same was done in several other places, and in a few minutes the two men were in the centre of a ring of fire, which enlarged and increased in fury as the flames seized upon the dry material on all sides. The heat now was intense, and the smoke was blinding and suffocating. During the whole of this performance Randall was yelling frantically to Hampton, asking what he meant by bringing the fire nearer. John, however, made no reply until his work was done. Then he staggered to the excited man's side, and without a word lifted him again in his arms, carried him to the pile of boulders, and laid him down between two big rocks nearest to the lake. Taking off his own coat, he spread it over Randall 's head, and part of his body, commanding him at the same time to keep still, and stop struggling. This warning was given none too soon for the next instant a terrific roar rent the air, as the fire burst from the forest and flung itself upon the plains. Nothing could John now see, for the smoke was thicker than ever. The heat, too, was becoming more intense, and for relief he dropped upon his knees and covered his head with a portion of IN THE RING OF DEATH 237 the coat wliicli he had placed over Randall. This was only a brief respite, however, for burning brands were now falling everywhere, and one lighted almost on top of them. Then others followed in quick succession, so he was forced to stand on guard above the injured man. Desperately he fought the shower of flaming death, hurl- ing aside each ember ere it could alight upon Randall's body. The heat now was almost unbearable. His hands and face were scorched, and his hair singed. How much longer could he fight the demon? he wondered. "Would its hot breath lessen, or would it increase and devour himl The roar of the fire was appalling. On all sides it was raging and so dense was the smoke, and so over- come was he with his strenuous exertions, that he felt his strength rapidly weakening. Again and again he nerved himself to the contest, and flung aside the falling embers with the desperation of despair. At last, after an almost superhuman effort, he flung out his hand to ward off another burning missive, when all power de- serted him, and with a cry he fell forward full upon a large bolder. He was aroused by a drop of moisture upon his cheek. Then another, and still another, and he knew that the blessed rain had come to his relief. Oh, how good it was to lie there, and feel the refreshing shower upon his hot face and hands. He knew, too, that the rain would quench the fire for a time, at least, and make it possible for him to escape. He must reach the island to find out about his mother and Jess, and how they had fared. The rain by now had developed into a regular downpour, and the raging fire had been quenched as if by magic. The dense volumes of smoke no longer rolled over the land, and as John looked out upon the blackened plains a scene of desolation met his eyes. The forest on every side was in ruins, even to the lake, a glimpse of which he could see through the stark flame-swept trees. But 238 JESS OF THE REBEL TRAIL how far beyond had the fire extended? That was the question which filled him with anxiety. Had it reached the island, which here was but a few yards from the mainland, or had it been checked by the lake and the rain ? This he must find out, and at once. "With difficulty he rose to his feet, for he was bruised and sore, and stepped over to where Randall was lying. Pulling away the coat, he laid his hand upon the man's shoulder, shook him, and told him to get up, as the danger was over. A peculiar muttering sound was the only response, and as John dragged back the prostrate body from between the boulders and looked upon the man's face, he was astonished to see the strange vacant expression in his eyes. Then his lips began to move, and he stared fearfully around. ''Don't let it get me!" he cried. "For God's sake, keep it awaj'' ! Look, look, it 's coming ! " ' ' Come, come, sir, you 're all right, ' ' Hampton soothed, certain now that the man's mind was somewhat unbal- anced by the fearful ordeal through which he had re- cently passed. "It is raining hard now; don't you feel it? The fire is all out, so you have nothing more to fear." But Randall clutched him frantically by the arm, and pointed across the plains. "See, see; there it is!'' he cried. " It 's coming this way ! It will burn me alive ! Oh, save me ! Save me !" John now realised the helplessness of the situation. It was necessary for him to hurry to the island, and yet he could not leave this demented man alone on the plains. The more he talked and reasoned, the more violent Ran- dall became, begging most piteously to be saved. It seemed strange to John that this helpless being lying there could ever have been the Harry Randall of whom he had heard so much, and who but a short time before IN THE EING OF DEATH 239 had cursed him so bitterly. Of what avail now were his power, wealth and wrath? As John stood and wondered what to do, feeling keenly his own impotence, a shout to the right startled him, causing him to turn quickly in that direction. And as he did so, he saw several men hurrying toward him. As they drew nearer, he recognised them as neighbours, men he had known all his life. **For heaven's sake!" the first man exclaimed, as he reached the spot. He ceased, and his eyes grew big with astonishment as he glanced down upon Eandall. **Is that him ? " he asked. "You know him, then?" John queried. "Hen. Kandall, ain't it?" "Yes, all that's left of him. But how did you know he was here, Jim?" "Oh, a feller came for us in a car. Said his boss was out here somewhere, and he was afraid the fire had over- taken him. Guess Randall must have got lost. But we couldn't do anything when we did come. If it hadn't been for that rain the fire would have done terrible dam- age." "It's done a great deal already," and John motioned to Randall, who had ceased his pleadings, and was lying still upon the ground. "He's had a hard time of it. His ankle's sprained or broken, I don't know which, and he's cx'azy." The four men of the relief party looked curiously upon Randall, who presented a wretched appearance with his blackened face and rain-soaked clothes. "D'ye think hell get over this?" Jim Shaw asked, turning to John. * ' Not if he stays here, ' ' was the emphatic reply. * * You men must take him out of this at once. I've got to go to the island. Mother 's there. ' ' "Your mother's on the island!" Jim fairly shouted 240 JESS OF THE REBEL TRAIL the words. *' Why, no one could live on the island before that fire. Good Lord, man ! She must be burned alive ! ' ' For a few seconds the five men stood and stared at one another. The horror of the situation silenced their tonnes. John was the first to speak. "You look after Randall," he ordered. "I must get to the island and find out the worst. Perhaps the rain cheeked the fire in time." He then turned and hurried across the blackened waste. He tried to keep calm, but his heart beat fast, and a great dread possessed him. "What if his mother and Jess were both dead! The thought was appalling. It drove him forward like a hound. He leaped over sticks and stones in his headlong speed, dashed through the burned trees, and sprang out upon the shore of the lake. Here he stopped, and as his eyes rested upon the island a cry of despair burst from his lips. The fire had reached the place and swept it from end to end! But what of his mother and Jess ? "Were they alive ? or were their charred bodies now lying exposed to the pelting rain ? He called again and again at the top of his voice, but received no reply. The silence was ominous, for from where he was standing anyone, even in the middle of the small island, should be able to hear. The one thing now for him to do was to cross that narrow strip of water and find out just what had hap- pened. The only way to get there was to swim, for his boat which he had left that morning at the upper end of the lake could not have escaped the devouring flames. He could see that the fire had passed over the very place, close to the water's edge. Tearing off his shoes and vest, in another minute he was into the lake, and headed for the island. He was a good swimmer and under ordinary circumstances the swim would have been mere child's play. But he was weak after his fearful exertions, and his clothes impeded IN THE RING OP DEATH 241 his progress. But still he struggled forward, and at length, wearied almost to the point of exhaustion, his feet touched bottom, and he staggered heavily out of the water, and fell upon the shore. Again he called, but received no reply. After a few minutes' rest, he regained his feet and groped his way along the shore until he reached the spot where he had landed the women the night before. Fear- fully he turned his eyes up the path leading to the house, and as he looked, his heart sank within him. Nothing remained of the building but a few black sticks, from which small wreaths of smoke were issuing. He walked slowly up the path like one in a dream, and stopped before the ruins. But no charred bodies did he find. And as he looked, a new hope seized him. The women must have fled to the water for protection. Perhaps, even now, they were somewhere on the shore, most likely at the farther end of the island. Encouraged by this thought, he hurried back to the landing, and made his way down along the shore. He kept a sharp outlook, but no sign of life met his view. As he advanced, nothing rewarded his efforts, and despair once more seized him. The women could not have escaped from the island without assistance, he was certain. And it was hardly likely that any rescuer would be on hand in the time of need. Perhaps they had rushed into the water, and driven by the fury of the flames had gone beyond their depth. All this came into his mind as he turned the lower end of the island and viewed the shore to his right. He stopped and cast his eyes toward the mainland, but everywhere was the same scene of black desolation. It was wonderful how fast and far the fire had travelled before being checked by the rain. Continuing his walk, he moved slowly along the shore until he came abreast the spot where the cabin had stood, and on the opposite side of the island from the landing. 242 JESS OF THE REBEL TRAIL There was no need for him to go any farther. The ■women were nowhere in the vicinity, he was sure. They must have been drowned ! But perhaps they had been overtaken by the fire in their rush to the water, and their charred bodies even now might be lying among the trees. It was a fearful thought, which paled his burnt cheeks, and caused him to tremble violently. Should he search for them? he asked himself. "I can't do it!" he groaned. *'0h, God! this is ter- rible!" He buried his face in his hands, and sank down upon the ground, his soul writhing with the agony of an over- whelming despair. CHAPTER XXVII IN THE NICK OF TIME WHAT a lovely place this is!" Jess was standing close to the water looking across at the opposite shore. Mrs. Hampton, seated upon the bank, thought she had never beheld a more beauti- ful picture of grace and maidenly charm. Her heart thrilled as she watched her standing there. She was her own child, and no one had any right to take her away. Her face, however, became grave as she thought of Henry Randall. He was a determined man, she was well aware, and he would exert every effort, and spend money without stint to get control of the girl he be- lieved to be his daughter. She felt that affairs were Hearing a crisis now. But she would fight, and, if neces- sary, divulge the story of her own wretched sin. It would be a startling revelation to the two young people, she was certain, but she fondly cherished the hope that they would readily forgive her for her dark deed of the past. "Do you think John will come back early?" Jess asked, as she came and sat down by Mrs. Hampton's side. "He will return just as soon as he can, you may depend upon that," Mrs. Hampton smilingly replied. "I hope he won't neglect his work to get here." ' * And will he go home every day ? ' ' "He will have to, so long as we remain here." 243 244 JESS OF THE REBEL TRAIL ''Why can't "we stay here all the time?" Jess im- pulsively asked. **How could we live, dear ? " and Mrs. Hampton looked fondly upon the girl 's animated face. * * You have never •worked for a living, so have no idea what it means. If we stay here long without caring for the place, we shall aU starve, and that would be worse than going back to your — ^your parents, would it not?" "But it is so nice here, and I am very happy" Jess gave a sigh of contentment, and looked out over the water. * ' I wish we had a boat, ' ' she continued, "so we could go for a row. The lake is like a mirror, and how wonderfully the trees are reflected in the clear depths. It is all like pictures I have seen. ' * This conversation took place as the two remained by the landing after watching John disappear among the trees on the opposite shore. At length they went back to the house, and busied themselves with washing the breakfast dishes, and tidying up the rooms. When this was at last finished, they again went out of doors, and strolled along the shore on the other side of the island. From here Mrs. Hampton pointed out the mine on the mainland, partly concealed among the trees. "My husband spent much of his time here," she ex- plained, "and hoped that some day the mine would be properly worked. But there doesn't seem to be much chance now of anything being done. The place is be- coming overrun with bushes, so John says. ' ' "Is there plenty of coal?" the girl asked, as she looked across the water. "I understand there is. My husband told me that there is an abundance, and I always had confidence in his judgment. But many people thought he was vision- ary, and in some unaccountable way they considered his mine a joke." IN THE NICK OF TIME 245 ''What a shame!" Jess declared. ''They knew the coal was there, though, didn't they?" * ' Oh, yes. But, you see, my husband did not have the capital to develop the mine, and people of means were unwilling to have anything to do with the undertaking, owing to the difficulty of getting the coal to the market. My husband always planned to have a little railway built into the lake. He knew that it could be done, for he had a route surveyed at his own expense. But that took the last cent, so there was nothing left for further de- velopment. I really believe the failure of his plans hastened his death." "And would no one lend him money?" Jess asked. **"Why didn't he come to my father? He has plenty of money, and so has mother." **Your father was appealed to time and time again, but he would do nothing unless my husband sold out his entire right to the mine for a small sum, which, of course, he refused to do." **And is my father like that in business?" The girl's eyes were wide with surprise. "We found him so, at any rate. But come, dear, let us not talk any more about this. It is a very painful subject to me, and I did not intend to bother you with my troubles." They continued their walk along the shore, around the lower end of the island, and up the opposite side. "I believe we are going to have rain before long," Mrs. Hampton remarked, as she paused and looked at the sky. "I did not notice it before." ""Wliat a black cloud that is over there," Jess replied. "Why, it looks like smoke." Mrs. Hampton turned, and as she did so, she gave a cry of dismay, and laid her right hand impulsively upon her companion's arm. "It is smoke ! And the wind is blowing it this way ! 246 JESS OF THE REBEL TRAIL See how it is rolling toward us. Someone has started a big fire over there, and it may do a great deal of dam- age, as everything is so dry. ' ' *'But we are safe here on this island, are we not?" Jess anxiously asked. "The fire can't surely cross the water. ' ' "It can come through the air, though. Burning brands may soon be falling on all sides, and wherever one alights another fire will be started. We may have a shower of them here, even before the fire reaches the lake." "What are we to do, then?" the girl asked. "I do not know except to seek refuge in the lake. The water is deep around the shore of this island, so we could not go out very far." "Perhaps John will come and take us off," Jess sug- gested. "Let us hope so, dear," and Mrs. Hampton placed her right arm lovingly around her daughter. "John will come, if possible, we can be assured of that. No doubt he has seen the fire before this, and is hurrying to our aid now. But, look, isn't the smoke getting thick!" "And what is that roaring sound?" Jess asked. "It is growing louder." "It must be the fire; it's getting nearer all the time.'* * * Oh, what shall we do ? " the girl cried, clinging now to Mrs. Hampton. "We must keep close to the lake, dear, and, if neces- sary, take to the water. We can wade out as far as we can, and may be able to escape much of the heat of the flames. ' ' Little was said for a while as the two stood there listen- ing to the roaring of the fire, every instant expecting it to leap across the island. Neither did they have to wait long, for soon the air became filled with blazing cinders. They fell with a hissing sound upon the water and along IN THE NICK OF TIME 247 the shore. In a short time the upper end of the island was on fire, and they could hear the crackle and roar as it rushed through the underbrush, blasting the pine and fir trees in its path. "It is almost upon us!" Mrs. Hampton cried, clutch- ing Jess fiercely by the arm. "Let us go to the lower end of the island. Perhaps we can get out upon the rocks there. Anywhere is better than here." Hurrying along the shore as fast as possible, they soon reached the place, and with difficulty made their way over the rough boulders which lifted their heads above the surface of the water. But they could go only a few yards, for when the outer rock was reached, they were forced to stop, as the water was deep beyond. And here they huddled, clinging to each other, every minute expecting the fiery monster to burst forth upon them from the nearby forest. As they crouched here and waited, they often turned their eyes across the lake to where the boat was lying on the mainland. So thick was the smoke that the opposite shore was greatly dimmed. They wondered what could be keeping John. He was their only hope now, but he must come soon or it would be too late, they felt sure. It was not long, however, before this avenue of escape was almost cut off. "With white faces, and fast-beating hearts they saw the fire sweeping along the shore of the mainland straight for the small boat. Intuitively they both uttered a cry of despair, and stared with wide, straining eyes as the flames rolled onward, every minute drawing nearer to the landing. The fire now raged behind them, as it was raging on the mainland. But still they looked shoreward. Even at the eleventh hour John might arrive. "Wliat he would do if he did come they had not reasoned out. Neither did they realise that nowhere on that lake could anything live, ringed in 248 JESS OF THE EEBEL TRAIL by such a fiery furnace. They imagined that out upon the water they would find refuge from the flames, so John with the boat was their only means of salvation. Soon, however, all hope of escape was abandoned. The fire was almost to the landing, and great sheets of flame were leaping high over the very spot where the boat was lying. As yet it was untouched, but in a few minutes it, too, would be swept away. And as they looked, they beheld the form of a man leaping, so it appeared to them, right out of that wall of fire. Jess started and leaned impetuously forward, and stretched out her arms as if to save him. " It is John ! " she cried. ' ' Oh, he 11 be burned ! He '11 be burned ! ' ' She buried her face in her hands to hide the terrible scene from view. The next instant she lifted her head at Mrs. Hamp- ton's startled exclamation. As she looked, she saw that the man on the shore had reached the boat as the flames were licking around it, and had sent it reeling into the water. Seizing an oar, he drove the craft out into the lake, just as the fire swept over the very spot where a minute before it had been lying. Then he seated himseK and began to row straight for the island. * ' He doesn 't see us ! " Jess exclaimed. ' ' He is heading for the landing. ' ' Acting upon the impulse of excitement, she rose to her feet, and balancing herself with difficulty upon the rock, she called aloud three times. As the third call sounded forth, the rower paused, and glanced around to his right. At once the boat swerved to the left until its bow pointed straight for the pile of rocks. "He sees us! He sees us!" Jess cried. *'It must be John, and he will save us!" While watching the approaching boat, Mrs. Hampton was listening most anxiously to the fire sweeping down- upon them from the rear. The air overhead was black IN THE NICK OF TIME 249 •with dense volumes of smoke, and already she could feel the hot breath of the on-coming monster. A more ominous roar than ever caused her to turn partly around. There stood the trees, gaily dressed in their robes of green, unaware that in a few minutes their beauty would be gone, and they would be left mere gaunt and shrivelled spectres. From their low position, and protected by the trees, the vast clouds of smoke did not greatly affect them, but swirled high above. This could not be for long, as already the woman had caught the first glimpse of the fire among the trees. Would the boat reach them in time? That was the question she asked herself, as she looked again in its direction. The rower was strain- ing every effort, and he was now but a few yards away. On and on rushed the boat, and as the rower turned his face toward the women they were startled to see, not the one they had imagined, but Eben Tobin. There was no time, however, for questions now. As the boat neared the rocks, the boy rose to his feet and reached out a fending oar. There was a bump, a grating sound, and a roar from Eben. "On board, quick," he ordered. "The fire's on top of us!" Quickly the women obeyed, and scrambled from the rock into the boat, nearly capsizing it as they did so. "Set there, an' be still," Eben commanded, as he pushed away from the shore, seated himself, and again dipped the oars into the water. He headed the boat around the lower point of the island, and rowed hard. So taken up were the women with watching the fire, that they hardly looked at their rescuer. Had they done so they would have been greatly shocked. The hair had disappeared from his head, his face, arms and hands were red and swollen, while his shirt was entirely charred across his chest and shoulders. His blood-shot eyes, and the haggard expression on his face told their own tale, B50 JESS OF THE REBEL TRAIL although he gave no outward sign of his suffering. He rowed as he had never rowed before, for the lives of the women depended upon his exertions. Eben had been rowing only a few minutes when the fire reached the lower end of the island. It burst with a mighty roar from among the trees, and hurled its flames out over the rocks where the women had been huddled but a short time before They shivered as they watched the fearful sight, and silently clung to each other. But even now they were not beyond danger. The flames, as if angered by losing their human prey, reached out over the water in a final effort to seize the fleeing ones. Showers of blazing embers were poured forth, and fell around the boat, and at times upon the occupants. The women were now kept alert and busy extinguishing these brands by hurling the largest overboard, and by dashing water with their hands and a small baling can over the others. The heat was intense, and at times almost un- bearable. The smoke, too, was blinding and suffocating. This, added to the heat and the roar of the fire, made their position a veritable inferno, from which there seemed no way of escape. So far as they could tell the country all around them was aflame. Eben uttered no sound, but pulled strongly at the oars. Occasionally he turned his head in an effort to see the mainland toward which he was urging the boat. The fire was sweeping down along the shore, and he could tell by the sound how far it had advanced. In a short time it would be opposite them, and if thus caught between the flames on the shore and those on the island their fate would be sealed. Almost instinctively now Eben guided the boat, and in a few minutes more it grated upon the beach and brought up with a jerk. "Get out quick," the lad ordered, as he threw aside the oars and leaped ashore. IN THE NICK OF TIME 251 "Without a word the women immediately obeyed, and no sooner had their feet touched the ground than their rescuer caught each by the arm with a firm grip. * * Come, ' ' he gasped. ' ' Guess we 're in time. ' ' They hurried up the bank, which here was quite steep, and in another minute Eben halted before an opening in the side of the hill. "Gee! I struck it right," he panted "It's the mine. Bend yer heads an ' come on. I '11 show ye the way. ' ' CHAPTER XXVIII IN URGENT NEED WHEN Thomas Hampton laboured so hard in open- ing up his mine on the shore of Island Lake, he little thought in what manner it would one day be used. | common_corpus | {'identifier': 'longpatroltaleo00cody_10', 'collection': 'English-PD', 'open_type': 'Open Culture', 'license': 'Public Domain', 'date': '1912.0', 'title': 'The long patrol : a tale of the mounted police', 'creator': 'Cody, H. A. (Hiram Alfred), 1872-1948', 'language': 'English', 'language_type': 'Spoken', 'word_count': '7107', 'token_count': '8968', '__index_level_0__': '4714', 'original_id': '97dad2c5d7705de43d467bedb7e747a08a3ea596e490695bc788946ac4dd3ca0'} |
---
author:
- 'Yuhang Guo,'
- 'Qingmin Zhang,'
- 'Feiyang Zhang,'
- 'Mengjiao Xiao,'
- 'Jianglai Liu,'
- Eryuan Qu
title: Design of Guide Tube Calibration System for JUNO Experiment
---
Introduction {#sec:intro}
============
The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is a reactor anti-neutrino experiment currently under construction in Kaiping, China, 53 km away from both the Taishan and Yangjiang Nuclear Power Plants in Guangdong Province. The primary goal of JUNO is to determine the mass ordering of the neutrinos. JUNO’s Central Detector (CD) is a Liquid Scintillator (LS) detector enclosed in an acrylic sphere with an inner diameter of 35.4 m and a wall thickness of 12 cm. Ultrapure water will be filled outside of the acrylic sphere, in which region there will be 17000 20-inch and 25000 3-inch photomultipliers (PMTs) viewing the scintillation photons produced by the inversed beta decay events occurred inside CD when electron anti-neutrinos interact with the protons in the LS. In order to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy to more than 3$\sigma$ median sensitivity within 6 years of operation, JUNO detector is required to have very high energy resolution of $3\%/\sqrt{E}$ and an absolute energy scale uncertainty of less than 1% [@a; @b; @c; @h; @n].
Ideally, a large LS detector is a total absorption calorimeter, with its total number of detected photoelectrons proportional to the deposited energy. However, due to geometrical effects and complication in the photon propagation (e.g. internal reflections at the acrylic-water surface), the total photoelectron yield is significantly position dependent, as indicated in Fig. \[fig:The Response Distribution in r\_direction\] (a), particularly for the region close to the detector boundary. This position non-uniformity, which would otherwise produce an energy bias and an energy-independent constant term to the energy resolution, clearly needs to be calibrated and corrected [@b]. To achieve this, the JUNO calibration system consists of four independent systems, each of which is capable of deploying radioactive sources into certain region in the CD, as illustrated in Fig.\[fig:The Response Distribution in r\_direction\] (b). In this paper, we will focus on the design of the Guide Tube Calibration System (GTCS), which brings radioactive source along a chosen longitude along the CD boundary. Similar calibration systems are used in experiments such as Double Chooz [@l] and CUORE [@i], but the detector size of JUNO clearly poses additional design challenges.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. In the next section, the boundary response of JUNO will be thoroughly studied by simulation, based on which we settle on the location of GTCS and the calibration strategy. Then in Section \[sec:mechanical\], we discuss the design of the system as well as some tests with a prototype setup.
Physics Considerations of the GTCS Design
=========================================
As mentioned in the introduction, JUNO requires an overall absolute energy scale uncertainty of 1%. We therefore require that the systematic uncertainty of the energy scale calibration at the detector boundary by GTCS shall reach the same level of 1%. In this section, we will discuss simulation studies connecting this basic requirements to the mechanical design of GTCS. For simplicity, in this paper we discuss the study using a $^{40}$K gamma source ($\sim$1.46 MeV single gamma ray) for which the location of the full absorption peak is used to calibrate the energy scale, but our conclusion remains unchanged if other gamma or neutron sources are considered.
Outside or Inside CD? {#sec:in_or_out}
---------------------
To mock up a real physics events happening at the detector boundary, ideally one would like to deploy a gamma source along the inner surface of the acrylic sphere. However, for mechanical reasons and cleanliness considerations, deploying the source along a tube on the outer surface of acrylic is much more feasible. For a nominal gamma source, the latter option will inevitably lead to a stronger Compton leakage tail. Therefore the first important issue to study is the systematic difference in the full absorption peaks in these two options.
The simulation was based on the JUNO offline simulation software SNIPER with version J17v1r1-pre1, a Geant4-based simulation framework[@j; @d]. To accurately simulate the detector response at the CD boundary, realistic engineering geometry has been incorporated into the SNIPER. The JUNO CD is immersed in water. The acrylic sphere is mechanically held by the Stainless-steel (SS) latticed Shell with 591 SS connection bars. These bars are distributed along 23 different latitude lines [@f] , and connected to the acrylic nodes on the acrylic sphere. A SS fastener (SF) is embedded inside each acrylic node to hold the bar. On top of the CD, a 800 mm penetration mates to a SS chimney connecting to the calibration house and the LS filling system. Optical properties of these “dead” components are modeled based on data from bench measurements. We assume that the guide tube is a reflective PTFE tube with a reflectivity of 90%, an inner diameter of 16 mm and a thickness of 1.5 mm.
The typical total photoelectron (PE) spectrum from a $^{40}$K source located in a guide tube attached to the outer CD surface is shown in Fig. \[fig:The\_PE\_Spectrums\] (black histogram). The full absorption peak is clearly observed, but overlaps with the Compton leakage tail. For comparison, the spectrum corresponding to a naked $^{40}$K source located at the CD inner surface is overlaid in the same figure (blue histogram). In this case the contribution from the tail is reduced by a factor of two or so, but still significant, as expected. The CD is only sensitive to the converted gamma energy in the active LS region, therefore whether the gamma originates from the inner or outer surface does not make a great difference as in either case there is significant inactive volume surrounding the gamma vertex.
We fit the observed spectrum by using a combination of a full absorption peak and Compton tail as shown in Eq, $$\label{eq:fited}
f_{\rm m}(\rm{PE})=g(\mu,\sigma)+f_{c}(\rm{PE})\,,$$ where $g(\mu,\sigma)$ is a Gaussian function with mean $\mu$ and standard deviation $\sigma$, and $f_{\rm c}(\rm{PE})$ is an average Compton tail (over an entire latitude line) obtained from simulation, with the vertical scale floating in the fit. It was verified that for all locations such a model can produce satisfactory fit. For a nominal 30000 calibration events, the statistical uncertainty of the centroid of the Gaussian reaches 0.1%. In the simulation, we can also select fully absorbed events (FAE) with all gamma energy deposited in the active region. To evaluate the systematic uncertainty from the combined fit, the centroid in Fig. \[fig:The\_PE\_Spectrums\] (a) is compared to that for the FAEs for different locations on the latitude (Fig. \[fig:The\_PE\_Spectrums\] (b)). Due to the CD top chimney and bottom flange affecting tube deployment, which will be mentioned in section 3.2 in details, only the points in the range from 24to 156are studied. On average, one observes a scattered difference with a range of $\pm$0.6%, which serves as an estimate of systematic uncertainty of such fit.
Beside the fit systematics, the mean values of the FAE for the source located at the inner or outer CD surface is also compared in Fig. \[fig:LBE\] as a function of the azimuthal angle. One sees that on average the inner response (ideal) would be about 0.3% higher than that for the guide tube attached on the outer surface. Such a bias is, in principle, correctable based on simulation. However, for conservativeness, we take it also as a source of systematic uncertainty. Therefore, the overall systematic uncertainty of the FAE peak when the source is located at the outer surface of the CD is $\sqrt{0.6^2+0.3^2} \approx 0.7\%$.
{width="80.00000%"}
To conclude from the studies above, the systematic uncertainty to the FAE for the outer GTCS strategy is estimated to be 0.7%. This is satisfactory in comparison to the sub-1% requirement for the total energy scale uncertainty. We therefore settle on this option as the baseline design of GTCS.
Choosing the Path of the Guide Tube {#sec:average_function}
-----------------------------------
As mentioned above, for the region close to the CD boundary, many light blocking structures exist, such as the SF. To settle on the location of the GTCS, several representative scans with steps of 1were carried out along the longitude line of $\phi$=0, $\phi$=4, $\phi$=7and the latitude line of $\theta$=84, 90, respectively. The results are shown in Fig. \[fig:two scan\]. Three structures affect the response significantly. The SS chimney has significant shadowing effects, which causes the steep slope on the left side of longitude scan response curve in Fig. \[fig:two scan\] (a). The SF causes a strong local light blocking effect in the area close to the SF (strong-SF area), as shown in Fig. \[fig:two scan\] (a) with $\phi$=0and 7. Even at locations further away, some residual structure can be observed (weak-SF area). This is obviously demonstrated in the latitude response curves in Fig. \[fig:two scan\] (b) with $\theta$=84and 90, as well as in Fig. \[fig:two scan\] (a) with $\phi$=4. In addition, the photon reflection on the guide tube also affect the detector’s response.
From the mechanical point of view, moving a source along the longitude is also easier in comparison to along the latitude, e.g. around the equator, due to a smaller friction between the source assembly and the tube. More importantly, since the SF placement exhibits some symmetry in $\phi$ (so is the chimney), the GTCS should be installed along the longitude, as long as the calibration along this line would reflect the $\phi$-averaged response. For this reason, this line should not be too close to the SF, otherwise local light blocking effects would be overly emphasized and bias the overall response. The goal of the following study is to find out an efficient way to obtain the average response function at the CD boundary.
To do this, we selected eleven longitude lines in the weak-SF area ($\theta$=30, 42, 54, 66, 78, 90, 102, 114, 126, 138, 150), assuming the PTFE tube’s reflectivity is 90%, and simulated the detector response. In addition, we also obtained a $\phi$-averaged response using a perfect source from the simulation. The comparison of these response curves is made in Fig. \[fig:Show of the Least Square Method Correction Result\] (a). The residual difference between “calibration data” and the average is shown in Fig. \[fig:Show of the Least Square Method Correction Result\] (b). The overall difference is less than 0.4%. We also applied different reflectivities in the studies and the same conclusion is reached.
As a result, the guide tube could be installed along any longitude line as long as the route is not blocked by a SF structure. The accurate position will be given in next chapter with the consideration of CD surface structures.
Estimation of Uncertainty
-------------------------
The uncertainty of the energy scale by GTCS can be classified into four sources: a) statistic, b) FAE peak fitting, c) $\phi$-averaged function reconstruction and d) source positioning uncertainty, in which b) and c) have been discussed in Secs. \[sec:in\_or\_out\] and \[sec:average\_function\], respectively. For a), we plan to use a 1000 Bq $^{40}$K source, which produced approximately 100/s 1.46 MeV $\gamma$-ray. At the GTCS location, about 5% of the events would be FAEs. Assuming a 5-minute nominal data taking period at each source location, the statistical uncertainty of the FAE is estimated to be 0.1%, according to Fig. \[fig:The\_PE\_Spectrums\].
To address d), we expect that the vertex reconstruction uncertainty by JUNO photomultipliers can reach a level of 10 cm for MeV-scale positron events. Therefore, we have required that all source locations should be measured (independent of the reconstruction by photomultipliers) after installation. To study the impact of positional uncertainty on the GTCS response, source positions were shifted intentionally between 3 cm and 10 cm with respect to the nominal calibration positions, and the resulting bias to the energy response function was built using these biased positions,as shown in Fig. \[fig:PositionError\]. One observes that the maximum bias is at 0.04% level for a positional bias of 3 cm, and increases to 0.15% level for a bias of 10 cm. The latter bias is used as a conservative uncertainty due to the GTCS positioning uncertainty.
{width="80.00000%"}
As a summary, all four uncertainty sources of the GTCS is given in Table \[tab:Uncertainty\]. The overall uncertainty of the energy scale is estimated to be 0.83%, which meets the 1% requirement.
Statistical Positional bias FAE fitting Average response reconstruction Total
------------- ----------------- ------------- --------------------------------- -------
0.1% 0.15% 0.7% 0.4% 0.83%
: \[tab:Uncertainty\] Uncertainty estimation of GTCS energy response.
GTCS Mechanical Design {#sec:mechanical}
======================
Based on the study above, we now discuss the mechanical design of the GTCS. Our primary purpose is to deliver the radiation source to the designated positions and later to retract it safely. The system is divided into three parts: (1) the source and cable assembly; (2) guide tube and its fixing anchors on the CD; (3) winding machine and its control system. A general diagram of GTCS is shown in Fig. \[fig:GTCS\_general\].
{width="90.00000%"}
Source and Cable Assembly
-------------------------
The design of the radioactive source assembly is illustrated in Fig. \[fig:The Scheme of source carrier\]. The calibration source will be sealed in a SS cylinder ($\phi6\times 6$). The enclosure of the cylinder is made out of a PTFE cylinder with an overall dimension of $\phi13\times20.5$, in order to minimize friction and turning radius. Two 130-m-long cables are attached on both ends of it to move the source assembly in two directions. This design also offers extra insurance if either the source is stuck in the tube or one cable is broken. The cable is a SS wire with a diameter of 0.7 mm coated by a 0.15-mm-thick FEP. A tensile test indicated its minimum breaking force is greater than 800 N.
{width="40.00000%"}
The Tube and its Fixing Anchors
-------------------------------
The main body of GTCS is a 130-m-long PTFE tube with inner diameter of 16 mm and a wall thickness of 1.5 mm. PTFE is chosen to minimize friction. The tube should be deployed along a longitude of acrylic sphere and then go along the JUNO chimney to get out of the water shield.
The fixture of the tube on CD surface is also called the GT anchor. As shown in Fig. \[fig:GTanchor\], it is composed of three parts. The dark blue part is an acrylic base and it will be bonded onto the CD surface via polymerization bonding method. The shape is carefully designed to minimize residual stress during bonding. Both the cyan and grey parts are adjustable nylon holder for the tube. The tube will go through the hole in grey holder which will be fixed on the cyan holder using bolts.
{width="50.00000%"}
On the CD, there are in total 58 anchors, about one in every two meters. Near the CD chimney, a turning track with a radius of 2 m made of SS tube is fixed on the SS connection bars with rods, as shown in Fig. \[fig:The Scheme of Turning Track\].
{width="60.00000%"}
As discussed in Section \[sec:average\_function\], the guide tube could be installed along any weak-SF longitude line to represent a $\phi$-averaged boundary response. To avoid conflict with the SF structure, the whole GT circle is divided into two half circles: one is on the longitude of 2.61and the other one is on the longitude of 146.61, as illustrated in Fig. \[fig:CD\_nodes\]. At the bottom of CD, the PTFE tube detours smoothly from the bottom flange of the CD.
The GT will be immersed in the ultrapure water shield with a maximum height of 40 m. To avoid deformation due to water pressure, the guide tube is designed to be filled with water, which will be recirculated to ensure the cleanliness.
Winding Machine and its Control System
--------------------------------------
The winding machine is the key part of GTCS. It will control the source assembly position by dragging the deployment cables, as shown in Figs. \[fig:tension\_sensor\] (a) and (b). Its main body is a PTFE wire spool with helical grooves on which the cable is wound in order. A servo motor, controlled by a LabVIEW software, drives the spool automatically. The tension in the cable is monitored constantly to avoid the source getting caught unexpectedly in the GT. To achieve this, a load cell is mounted below a pulley through which the cable goes through with an angle of 120 before the spool (please see Fig. \[fig:tension\_sensor\] (c)).
The winding spool obtains the source location via the length of cables. Although guide tube is fixed onto the anchors approximately every two meters, the distortion of the guide tube could still introduce a positioning uncertainty. To better control this, metal proximity sensors will be installed close to a few selected CD anchors. A signal will be triggered when the source assembly goes by a sensor, with a sub-cm precision based on a prototype test. With these sensors, the source positioning uncertainty for the entire GT loop is expected to reach the 3-cm requirement.
The winding machines and related auxiliaries will be enclosed in a GTCS box, as shown in Fig. \[fig:GTCShouse\], which is located on a bridge above the water and close to the chimney. To avoid light leakage into the water and support the guide tude vertically, a SS tube enclosing the guide tube above the water is connected to turning track and goes to the GTCS box with a sealed penetration.
Our mechanical design was verified under realistic conditions. While details of this test will be reported elsewhere, we comment on the general performance here. We constructed a full-size circular track, horizontally laid on the ground with a diameter of 35.4 m. The guide tube was attached to the track. The motion of the source assembly was automatically controlled and tested, showing the required precision could be satisfied. The maximum friction between source assembly and tube was measured to be less than 20 N, which is very low compared to the break strength of 800 N.
Summary
=======
In summary, we have designed a guide tube calibration system for the JUNO experiment. Based on a realistic simulation, such a system is capable of calibrating the energy scale at the CD boundary to a sub-percent level. The mechanical design of the GTCS has beenm developed and verified to full scale.
We thank Tao Zhang from SJTU, Xiaoyan Ma and Xiaohui Qian from IHEP for engineering support in the mechanical design. This research is supported by the “Strategic Priority Research Program” of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDA10000000).
[99]{}
Adam, T. et al., JUNO Conceptual Design Report., arXiv:1508.07166
An, Fengpeng et al., Neutrino Physics with JUNO, JOURNAL OF PHYSICS G-NUCLEAR AND PARTICLE PHYSICS, 2015, 43(3).
Y. F. Li et al., Unambiguous Determination of the Neutrino Mass Hierarchy Using Reactor Neutrinos, Phys. Rev. D 88, 013008(2013).
Liang Zhan et al,Experimental requirements to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy using reactor neutrinos, Physical Review D 79, 073007(2009), arXiv:0901.2976.
Qian X et al, Mass Hierarchy Resolution in Reactor Anti-neutrino Experiments: Parameter Degeneracies and Detector Energy Response, Physical Review D, 2012, 87(3):691-695.
Igor Ostrovskiy et al, Double Chooz Calibration, Nuclear Physics B (Proc. Suppl.) 229–232 (2012) 431 Double.
Cushman J S et al. The detector calibration system for the CUORE cryogenic bolometer array. Nuclear Inst & Methods in Physics Research A, 2017, 844:32-44.
WANG YuanQing et al, Application of an acrylic vessel supported by a stainless-steel truss for the JUNO central detector, Science China Technological Sciences,2014,57(12),2523-2529.
Zou J H et al, SNiPER: an offline software framework for non-collider physics experiments, Journal of Physics: Conference Series 664 (2015) 072053, doi:10.1088/1742-6596/664/7/072053.
Allison, John, Facilities and Methods: Geant4-A Simulation Toolkit, Nuclear Physics News, 17:2, 20-24(2007).
| mini_pile | {'original_id': '79ea66f91833060f297ec90a39c380165363643da3d3e228d5f0c1c92f100337'} |
Philips DCP750 full review
In the growing field of portable video players that use the fifth-generation (5G) iPod as a source of video, the Philips DCP750's appearance is both unique and striking. The outside of the clamshell-style video player is white, while the inside, including the screen housing, is black.
These two colours reflect the Philips DCP750's versatility. Not only can the 211x 173x41mm player - about the size of a paperback - dock, charge, and display videos from 5G iPods, it can also play standard DVDs, video CDs (VCD), DivX, DVD+/-R, and MPEG4 discs.
And if that's not versatile enough for you, the Philips DCP750 has a slot for an SD/MMC card to view photos or videos directly from your camera.
This feast of features seems appropriate for an iPod accessory that, like all iPod video viewers, is much larger than the iPod itself. The fact that the Philips DCP750 is also a superb portable DVD player adds great value. The DCP750 more than carries its weight, so to speak.
Philips managed to pack many user-controlled features into the Philips DCP750 while keeping the housing elegant and uncluttered. The Philips DCP750 needs to be charged for a few hours when first taken out of the box, but within a few minutes of unplugging it from the AC adaptor we had successfully docked a 30GB 5G iPod and were watching video on its 7in screen.
The picture, both from DVDs and the iPod, is much sharper than the screen's 480 x 234-pixel resolution would suggest - Philips touts its Zero Bright Dot technology, which eliminates bright dots on the LCD screen, as the contributing factor.
We also liked the Philips DCP750's non-glossy screen surface because it provided glare-free viewing. On the other hand, the display seemed a bit muted, suggesting there could be some improvement in colour saturation, although this is a relatively minor quibble.
The Philips DCP750 has too many features to review each in detail, but it's worth discussing what sets it apart from other iPod video-viewing devices. After ease of use, in which it outshines other viewers such as the iLuv i1055 and the Sonic Impact V55, what's most striking about the Philips unit is that the screen swivels 180 degrees and flips down on top of the DVD player and iPod, which lets you lay the system flat.
The convenience and utility of being able to easily move between tablet and clamshell configurations turns out to be a truly indispensable feature.
The Philips DCP750 comes with an auto power adaptor but no car mounting/attachment kit, which is unfortunate as the swivel/tablet feature would be quite useful in a car, where the player could be attached to a seatback.
The Philips DCP750's DVD player is well-designed, with the most important controls (play/pause, eject, menu, forward, back) conveniently placed at the top-front of the open clamshell. Lesser-used controls, such as those for subtitles, are relegated to the clean and elegant remote control. This fits neatly into the Philips DCP750's iPod space when an iPod is not docked - handy for travel and storage. | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '9', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9545565843582152}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '180549', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:YCR7WVDDX7ITJKN57VFIAP5FM7HWZN6T', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:314a3cf0-989e-4340-b1c8-08ceb7aeb321>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2019, 10, 19, 19, 29, 32), 'WARC-IP-Address': '104.17.159.36', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:SBL7HTMYTT75Q5F2ZJSA5JUIKYFEYAXI', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:9245f3ba-be81-40b7-8ca0-cccf2140e8e8>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/review/digital-home/philips-dcp750-portable-dvd-player-with-ipod-dock-1053/', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:4a4b2a4c-d3c9-4f13-af53-5ff65ddc198e>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '521', 'url': 'https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/review/digital-home/philips-dcp750-portable-dvd-player-with-ipod-dock-1053/', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2019-43\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for October 2019\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-67-67-180.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.16 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 1.1-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.030518412590026855', 'original_id': 'abb73d54f122d5d1bba4f2cd605554d437f0f68c5e02a7f9e8bfcc2256abd388'} |
Leap Motion is a tiny device that allows you to use your hand to interact with your computer other than using keyboard, mouse or trackpad. Just simply wave your hands above the Leap Motion controller and it can detect your hands movement. Think of it as Kinect for computers but smaller and works on both Windows and Mac.
It can tracks all 10 fingers up to 1/100th of a millimeter, your movements at a rate of over 200 frames per second and have wide field of view (150°) and a Z-axis for depth.
Leap Motion - Box
Leap Motion – Box | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '0', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9036277532577516}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '88014', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:Y7NVD664KLPSDDOKEYG7EN3HMGJB6XSM', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:46af53d4-4aa2-475f-bb07-13bfdc6864ea>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2021, 3, 8, 2, 41, 28), 'WARC-IP-Address': '206.189.45.207', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:JUFQLEQJNNQNFY4HFJBSKOUI44AID2VU', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:1adb7dba-945d-4726-a0f8-b7a55d2b42bc>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://lesterchan.net/blog/tag/leap-motion/', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:af1d5eff-1b4c-491c-ae2b-d262e706c7c2>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '98', 'url': 'https://lesterchan.net/blog/tag/leap-motion/', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2021-10\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for February/March 2021\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-67-67-142.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.18 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.4615420699119568', 'original_id': '877a7f54504d15eb008745fa8512eb69d97566b05ba6c84dcb5883f926292b74'} |
Can wearing a bra cause breast cancer?
Caroline Novas
There are several persistent email and internet rumors about potential causes of breast cancer. One is that wearing a bra, or wearing an underwire bra, causes the disease.
The idea that bras may cause cancer was fueled by the 1995 book called Dressed to Kill by Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer. It claims that women who wear underwire bras for 12 hours a day have a much higher risk of developing breast cancer than women who do not wear bras.They maintain that bras restrict the lymph system, which results in a build-up of toxins in the breasts.1 However, according to the American Cancer Society, there is no evidence that compression of the lymph nodes by bras causes breast cancer; in reality, body fluids travel up and into the underarm lymph nodes, not towards the underwire.2 Similarly, there is no sufficient evidence that any types of bras cause breast cancer.
In Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book, Love claims that the hypothesis about bras causing cancer stems from our desire to have control over areas of life where we have a lot of uncertainty or fear. People want something to blame, and also hope that by avoiding bras they can avoid breast cancer.3 While there are geographic variations in breast cancer rates, there are many, many factors, including diet, exercise, lifestyle, childbearing practices, as well as other behaviors and exposures that are more plausible explanations for these regional differences in breast cancer than bras. In places where people have less access to medical care, breast cancer will not be diagnosed as often, even though it might be present. And because the risk of breast cancer increases as women get older, breast cancer rates will be lower in parts of the world where people die of other causes at younger ages, whether they have worn bras or not.
Even if women who wear underwire bras are more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer, a likely explanation would be that many women with larger breasts also tend to be heavier. Being overweight or having a lot of body fat puts a woman at increased risk for breast cancer.4 It would make sense that women with larger breasts are both more likely to wear underwire bras and more likely to develop breast cancer. But this doesn’t mean that underwire bras cause breast cancer!
In a study published in 2014, researchers interviewed postmenopausal female participants about their lifetime bra wearing patterns. Evaluating more than 1,000 women with breast cancer and almost 500 who did not have breast cancer, the researchers found no evidence of a connection between the number of hours spent wearing a bra or wearing an underwire bra and increased breast cancer risk.5
The bottom line: well-designed studies have not convinced experts that wearing bras or underwire bras increase your chances of developing breast cancer. Here are some factors that are associated with increased risk of breast cancer:6
Risk factors you can’t control
• Family history: Certain inherited gene mutations (BRCA1 and BRCA2) increase the risk of developing breast cancer. However, these genes account for only 5-10% of overall cases. Even without those genes, having a grandmother, mother, sister, or daughter diagnosed with breast or ovarian cancer increases the risk.
• A previous history of breast cancer, abnormal breast cells (atypical hyperplasia) or certain non-invasive “pre-cancers” like lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) or ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) increase the risk of developing invasive cancer.
• Beginning menstruation early (before age 12) increases the risk of breast cancer by affecting the level of reproductive hormones a woman is exposed to during her lifetime.
• Starting menopause late (after age 55) increases the risk of breast cancer.
• Dense breast tissue (including fibrocystic breasts) increases the risk of breast cancer
Risk factors you can (possibly) control
• Women who delay having their first child until later in life or who never have children are at a higher risk for breast cancer.In contrast, having children at a younger age and breastfeeding decrease the risk of developing breast cancer
• Women who take hormonal therapy for menopause are at an increased risk for breast cancer.
• Being overweight or obese increases the risk of postmenopausal breast cancer
• Physical inactivity increases risk.
• Women who drink an average of 2 alcoholic beverages per day increase their breast cancer risk by 21%. The more a woman drinks, the greater her risk.
• High levels of radiation in the chest area before the age of 30 increase the risk.
• Women who took DES during pregnancy (this drug was mainly used in the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s) are at an increased risk of breast cancer. The risk to their daughters is still being studied.
• There is growing evidence that smoking and exposure to tobacco smoke probably increase breast cancer risk.
• The use of oral contraceptives may slightly increase the risk of developing breast cancer. Some studies have found no increased risk from taking birth control pills and others have shown an increased risk.
If you are worried about your risk of breast cancer, you should discuss your concerns with a health care professional and find out about ways to cut your risk. Knowing the real risk factors and making healthy lifestyle choices can help you reduce your risks. Going braless won’t.
1. Grismaijer, S., & Singer, S.R. (1995), Dressed to Kill: The Link Between Breast Cancer and Bras.Garden City Park, New York:Avery Publishing Group.
2. Breast Cancer Overview. American Cancer Society, Atlanta, GA.
3. Love, Susan, and Karen Lindsey (2005), Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book.Cambridge Massachusetts: De Capo Press.
4. AS Kusano et al. (April 2006). A Prospective Study of Breast Size and Menopausal Breast Cancer Incidence. International Journal of Cancer. 118(8):2031-4.
5. Lu Chen, Kathleen E. Malone, and Christopher I. Li. Bra Wearing Not Associated with Breast Cancer Risk: A Population-Based Case–Control Study. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, September 2014 DOI: href=”″>10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-14-0414
6. The two sources used for the risk factors are:1) the National Cancer Institute’s “What You Need to Know About Breast Cancer: Risk Factors” at href=”″>; and 2)Breast Cancer Facts and Figures 2009-2010. American Cancer Society, Atlanta, GA. | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '109', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9372749924659728}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '47573', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:Z77WOXT32V52IH7ZPXTXG6TETXW4YSUW', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:608e652d-b578-4f0c-832c-31feb8f9ffb8>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2019, 2, 16, 21, 45, 50), 'WARC-IP-Address': '216.86.156.216', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:GHBXJYNG4BU5E52RDLN4K3VVEJACVQ32', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:29f095d4-58ae-4add-938a-2d59631b6957>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'http://stopcancerfund.org/p-breast-cancer/can-wearing-a-bra-cause-breast-cancer/', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:eac7640d-93c2-4c6b-b223-3a1951af4fa6>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '1086', 'url': 'http://stopcancerfund.org/p-breast-cancer/can-wearing-a-bra-cause-breast-cancer/', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2019-09\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for February 2019\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-137-198-92.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 0.11-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.04902184009552002', 'original_id': '6712adb0fc97123666da5fbde38b867342f5787902ca8cc93a59c8d6c5db9d9e'} |
Why you should stop looking at the clock so much.
By Amelia Harnish
Updated: January 30, 2017
Getty Images
Time management is one of those dry skills you really only talk about during job interviews. Surely, you've written to a potential employer about how easily you "delegate tasks" and how well you "prioritize." These are without a doubt important skills at the office. But for too many of us, well, let's just say we take our time management abilities home with us: We're slaves to the clock, scheduling and prioritizing every hour of our day. And forthcoming research in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests the mere presence of a clock may be seriously putting a damper on our overall happiness, and still interfering with our productivity and creativity at work.
How so? It all boils down to the two main styles of plotting out your day: event-time versus clock-time, explains study author Anne-Laure Sellier, PhD, an associate professor of marketing at HEC Paris. "Event-timers are people who pay less attention to the clock, and care more about making to-do lists and completing tasks in the moment. They finish things when they feel intrinsically that the task, like a work project or a workout, is finished. Whereas clock-timers are people who schedule and plan out their days based on segments of time: it's 10:30 so it's time for my meeting or I'm going to see a movie with my children from 6:30 to 9:30."
Steve Jobs is probably the best example of an event-timer; He was notorious for caring little about launching new products on time, choosing to push his developers to work and work on the product until he felt it was truly done. But culturally, Americans are clock-timers (as are, famously, the Swiss and the Germans); we like things to happen according to our daily plans. In fact, we like it so much, you probably have calendar event after calendar event scheduled just for today, and you can probably tell time by looking in any direction: your phone, watch, laptop, and even your fitness tracker can all function as clocks.
RELATED: 12 Ways to Improve Your Concentration at Work
"This isn't the best because we've shown that even just the presence of a clock and knowledge of clock time can mess you up," Sellier says.
In one experiment, Sellier and her research partner Tamar Avnet, PhD, an associate professor of marketing at Yeshiva University, took 90 adult men and women to Bikram yoga and separated them into two groups. The first group did the class with only the instructor guiding them. But before the second group did their class, the researchers added a clock to the wall and told the study participants that some poses are held for 20 seconds while others might be held for a full minute. Interestingly, the second group had a much harder time getting through the class. "They fell more, they sat down more and skipped more postures," Sellier says. "They couldn't stay in the moment."
Of course, it's not like you can totally ignore the clock: you have to pick the kids up from school on time and you have to meet your deadlines at work. "The clock is a phenomenal invention. It made humans efficient and it's why we can accomplish so much," Sellier explains. "But at some point, our reliance on the clock becomes toxic. It disconnects us from the world around us because we're too focused on keeping pace."
RELATED: 13 Ways to Beat Stress in 15 Minutes or Less
The best advice, then, is to look at your life and find the areas in your day where you need the clock (setting up work meetings, doctor's appointments and the like) versus times when you don't (family time, meals, creative projects at work or at home, making a big decision and so on), and only dole out deadlines when you must. In short, make to-do lists, and don't worry so much about exactly when things will be done.
"Ultimately this will make you more productive because the more you rely on the clock the less you can rely on your gut feeling. This has implications for every part of well-being because staying in the moment and not rushing things helps you make better decisions," Sellier says. "This can save you time at work because you make fewer mistakes, which you inevitably have to go back and fix. But it can also help you eat better, for example, because you're taking the time to eat and listen to your inner hunger signals. Not constantly checking the clock can also boost quality time with your loved ones."
RELATED: Secrets to a Healthy (Happy!) Home | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '0', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9713566303253174}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '308189', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:WS4EIXCDC6BSIK3HRKVGWSNVFCSWIZIO', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:21cc7365-27c2-49ce-9d21-e617f4808a95>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2019, 5, 19, 23, 47, 9), 'WARC-IP-Address': '99.84.181.50', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:6CXMOLCOR37BU6LSFXIXVSQP7WLYHVMZ', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:9530b0f8-eaba-4e5b-a9c8-5fed3fa736ef>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://www.health.com/mind-body/the-simple-move-that-will-save-you-time-and-make-you-happier', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:fc8de6b9-26fa-4eb2-b9d9-01741c866227>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '772', 'url': 'https://www.health.com/mind-body/the-simple-move-that-will-save-you-time-and-make-you-happier', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2019-22\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for May 2019\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-233-105-41.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 1.1-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.10691338777542114', 'original_id': '991d8eff01e0ede012d57d931321d5f2f1a0019d4b4d152d65ff7abbde725fa0'} |
How can marijuana aid in cancer treatment?
Marijuana has been used as an herb for many centuries now. Scientists have been able to identify cannabinoids, active components in marijuana. The most well-knownelements being cannabidiol (CBD) and delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The use of marijuana for treatment of medical conditions is legal in many states, even though the US FDA does not approve of the use of crude or whole marijuana.
A brief overview of marijuana
Different components of marijuana seem to have different effects on the body.CBD helps in the treatment of anxiety, paranoia, and seizures and counteract hallucinations by THC.The impact of marijuana on the body depends on the mode of intake. When marijuana is vaporized, THC enters the bloodstream and reaches the brain quickly. The second psychoactive component is produced in minute amounts and as fewer effects on the body. When consumed orally, THC makes take hours to be absorbed. It is then processed by the liver that affects the brain.
Affects Cancer Symptoms
Smoked marijuana can help in the treatment of nausea arising from cancer chemotherapy.Vaporized cannabishas been found to be beneficial in treating neuropathic pain.Such an intake of marijuana can improve food intake in HIV patients.Researchers have found that people in clinical trials who took marijuana needed fewer painkillers. Some lab and animal studies have shown that THC and other cannabinoids such as CBD destroy cancer cells or slow growth or reduce the spread of cancer. More reviews are underway about the role of cannabis in the treatment of cancer in humans. However, it should be mentioned that solely relying oncannabis-based treatment and avoiding conventional medical care can be detrimental.
Use of Cannabinoid drugs
Studies have shown that dronabinol can reduce vomiting resulting from chemotherapy. It prevents weight loss in patients with HIV. Rick Simpson oil for cancer administered rectally can benefit patients suffering from cancer. Nabiximols has been found to relieve patients of cancer pain when other painkillers have failed.
View of American Cancer Society
The American Cancer Society emphasizes the need for effective therapies that can help overcome the side effects of cancer and its treatment on patients. The Society is against the Classification of marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance deters scientific study on cannabinoids. However, they have not taken any stand for its legalization because the medical benefits and harm of marijuana has not yet been ascertained. | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '3', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9431134462356568}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '79078', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:4S4WFN747HYEBQEIXFXV754ZJ2WVRJSX', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:51ea36e3-528f-4dbd-8d62-d769e71c1edf>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2020, 8, 10, 19, 41, 22), 'WARC-IP-Address': '173.236.157.141', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:Q2SLEKJYHEELYA4M62QW4LWDBZWFDVRN', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:37084ffb-f2e8-4dfa-8003-265dd65b7e75>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://www.naturalwaystopanxiety.com/how-can-marijuana-aid-in-cancer-treatment/', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:fd15123d-fc2f-45eb-9cb4-18a83193aefb>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '393', 'url': 'https://www.naturalwaystopanxiety.com/how-can-marijuana-aid-in-cancer-treatment/', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2020-34\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for August 2020\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-67-67-142.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.17 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.05841672420501709', 'original_id': '2a83b2f7b6a3fd6d9754605d418fa7d29e7c647f6a5cce5e40a757173ef51539'} |
What are the Different Types of Children's Activewear?
Article Details
• Written By: Felicia Dye
• Edited By: Heather Bailey
• Last Modified Date: 12 September 2018
• Copyright Protected:
Conjecture Corporation
• Print this Article
Free Widgets for your Site/Blog
Young people tend to get involved in a variety of activities, such as dancing, football, and swimming. For this reason, there is a wide range of children’s activewear needed because all types of apparel are not suitable for all sports. Examples of such items include leotards, swimming trunks, and basketball shorts.
Indoor and outdoor swimming is a popular activity among young people. As such, swimming apparel has become increasingly easy to obtain. Children’s swimming apparel includes bathing suits for girls. Bikinis, which are two piece swimming suits that leave the stomach area exposed, have also grown in popularity among young females.
For boys, it is common to find a range of swimming shorts, sometimes called swimming trunks. There are some varieties that are tight and that fit similar to underpants. There are many varieties, however, that are substantially longer and looser. A person can generally differentiate between swimming trunks and other types of outerwear by observing the material the shorts are made of and checking to see if there is a pair of underpants sewn inside the shorts.
Leotards often look like a female's one piece swimming suit. A leotard, however, is not designed for water sports. Leotards are used for activities such as gymnastics and ballet. There is a variety of leotards available. Variances among them include materials, designs, and sleeve lengths.
Unitards are a type of activewear that fit similar to leotards. Unitards are used in many of the same activities as leotards. The big difference is that unitards extend down the legs to form a one-piece shorts or pants suit.
Many of the sports that children participate in require them to engage in regular training. Children’s activewear for training include track suits composed of pants and jackets that are specially designed for running. Track shorts are also cut and made from materials that accommodate running. Another popular item is the hoodie, which is basically a sweat shirt with a hood. These are commonly worn over other types of children’s activewear to protect a child from cold weather and rain.
Sports such as basketball, football, and hockey generally require special shirts called jerseys. The jerseys for each sport tend to vary. In basketball, for example, this type of children’s activewear is usually sleeveless whereas football jerseys usually have sleeves.
Special bottoms are usually needed to accompany the jerseys. In basketball, for example, boys usually wear shorts which extend to the knee. In football, however, boys usually wear a type of tight fitting pants, which sometimes have the necessary padding integrated.
You might also Like
Discuss this Article
Post 3
@pleonasm - Often folk who make activewear just take all of these things into account together. The clothing will wick away moisture, repel stains, protect from the sun and so forth.
Yes, it can be expensive, but it's usually very hard wearing, so I would suggest selling it on when your kids have all grown out of it.
And your kids don't need many pieces. A specialty activewear shirt or two for when they are playing sports should be enough.
Most kids don't spend all day, every day outside and they don't need a $100 shirt for playing video games inside.
Post 2
@bythewell - While it's a good idea to consider all the options, for the most part parents don't need to invest in expensive specially made UV protection clothes.
Just picking sensible materials is enough. UV won't get through clothes made with darker colors, as the material will absorb the light. And a heavier weave is usually sufficient to block UV as well. Just look up online what you should be using and that should be enough. If it's so hot that your kids can't be wearing a dark shirt, they probably shouldn't be playing in direct sun anyway.
Activewear clothes for kids are expensive enough without adding other things they can raise the price over.
Post 1
One thing to take into consideration is the UV protection offered by the clothes that you are picking out for your children.
People take for granted that if they put on a shirt, that it will protect them from the sun. And for the most part it won't be too bad. Your kids probably won't be burnt on the parts that are covered with cloth.
But the cloth can be pretty thin, and even if your children aren't visibly burnt, they might still have skin damage.
Even if it is slight, over time it can add up. Kids play outside for hours after all, even in high summer when the sun is the most dangerous.
And while it might not
seem like a big deal for them when they are young, eventually that skin damage could turn into cancer.
There are clothes which have additional UV protection without being made too heavy. I would seriously suggest that parents invest in some for when they know their kids are going to be outside for long periods.
Post your comments
Post Anonymously
forgot password? | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '26', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9708530902862548}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '93555', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:5MU6Q2XBJ2VFK4OZWUGS4GT5UZHXLII3', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:52282425-bfd5-40da-be10-6443535cbd3a>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2018, 9, 23, 2, 18, 23), 'WARC-IP-Address': '162.210.232.130', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'application/xhtml+xml', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:TXUUQJ7Y6TF77TYC2F4E44YZDECMC2MC', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:1273a812-b4c3-4079-af0c-428d665c8c68>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-different-types-of-childrens-activewear.htm', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:38ea816c-70fe-45ab-8b76-85149d19ddc8>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '914', 'url': 'https://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-different-types-of-childrens-activewear.htm', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2018-39\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for September 2018\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-157-187-24.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 0.11-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.051268041133880615', 'original_id': '832a9164d1abdee2a3ded02e10fc271d832e3e1eeb569881a5d32de95c2323a0'} |
6 Women Put Rihanna's Lingerie Line To The Test
In case you somehow missed it, Rihanna is taking over the world one industry at a time — in the best way possible. You already know all about Fenty Beauty and it’s inclusive and expansive product range. Now, RiRi is once again claiming the fashion space, making the same magic happen for our undergarments. Enter: Savage x Fenty, a new lingerie line that isn’t just any lingerie line. Because Rihanna.
Like her beauty label, Savage x Fenty has a range of people in mind. It includes bras sized 32A through 44DD and underwear sized XS to XXXL. Plus, out of its four capsule lines, one includes a selection of bras and underwear in every shade of nude (yes, nude looks like something different to everyone) at affordable prices. While it’s no longer news that different bodies have different needs, finding a lingerie line that sets out to meet each and every one absolutely is.
Sadly, finding undergarments that actually can do it all isn’t so easy. We want our bras to lift and support. We want our underwear to be functional and mildly invisible. We want to be comfortable head to toe. And yes, we want to look good (and no, that shouldn't be too much to seek out). So we ask: Is Savage x Fenty our saving lingerie grace?
To find out, we put the pieces to the ultimate wearability test in the video above. Think: six women, 24 hours, living, breathing, dining, dating, and rendezvous-ing in Savage’s bras and undies. Take a peek to see the pieces in a full day of action — these ladies are dishing their honest thoughts, personal preferences, true reactions, and, of course, whether or not this lingerie leaves them feeling savage from head to toe. After all, lingerie is all about you — and helping you love the skin you’re already in. | mini_pile | {'original_id': '2d386efdf8375251dc7989706d45e2b463a52299892c39365762ee13fb235750'} |
• Ask
• myTake
My ex boyfriend (who dumped me) keeps trying to talk to me and now wants to meet up?
So it's been about a year since I met my ex. It's been 5 or 6 months since he broke up with me. He broke up with me saying I deserved a better guy... Show More
Most Helpful Opinion
• It may not be that simple. Maybe he lost something, and didn't realize how great you were until it was too late. But look I am a guy who was a huge player and there are only three reasons he would have ended things with you using that lame ass line, "you deserve someone better than me blah, blah, I'm a dumb-ass blah..." The first is he no longer found you attractive. Not saying that you are unattractive. You could be the hottest god damn girl on the freakin planet, but guys get bored. If you have almost all the gold in the word, your furniture is made of gold, your damn palace is made of gold and your toilet paper is gold trimmed, you are gonna get god damned sick of gold and trade it in for platinum.The second is that you two weren't as physical as you used to be. Now I don't care if the sex was fire when it happened, if it happened. When it becomes too "rare", we look elsewhere. Everyone needs to be in a relationship with physical attraction and interaction. Or else one of the two in that relationship will go crazy.The third and final reason is he was ready to see someone else or there already was someone else. We men use the line "we aren't good enough" because we want you to feel partially guilty. Like we tried everything in our power to make it work and we "see that you are a better person than I could ever be, and you need someone more like you"Fuck that. Idiot. Don't lower yourself back into that pit with that dog of a retard. He had his chance and you've moved on (I hope). BUT! If you wanna f*** with him, I have some great head games for you!
What Guys Said 3
• Nope nope nope nope! You're just a booty call, hence the buying you shots part, he's just trying to lower your inhibitions so he can get some. If you want to have sex too then go for it, but if you want something more then I highly suggest not because you WILL end up getting your feelings hurt since it is a dead end I promise
• He just wants to have sex. He's probably not having any luck finding someone else and is LOSing. If you still want to be with him, you should meet up with him, but don't give him anything. Talk it out and once there's nothing else to talk about, leave and set up another day to "catch up". I guarantee if you give it up to him when you guys meet up, you'll fall for him all over again and he'll just forget about you and try his luck finding someone else. Trust me. I've done it.
What Girls Said 8
• Sounds like he wants you back, maybe he knows he messed up & you should give him a shot.
• It depends what you want. If you're hoping that there might still be something there or you want to be friends then go hang out with him. But if you don't think it's a good idea then don't go because it will just make things worse. If you're pretty sure things won't work out then don't make it any harder on yourself and continue to ignore him.
• He probably still care for you, and he probably not.The only way to find out your curious is meeting up with him, and ask what his wants from you.If your conversation leads to dead-end, just leave. Just remember the only reason you meet him up is to get the clarify. So, don't give him anything when you meet up.Good luck!
• Absolutely do NOT meet up with him! No good can come of it. You've worked so hard to cut him out of your life and you're happy, why risk throwing all your hard work out the window? I think this is what happened...your ex saw that you were happy and doing just fine without him so, what does he do? He's trying to lure you back in. He can't have you and guys naturally want what they can't have. The fact that you turn him down for when he's offering to buy you shots just makes him want you all the more. Just remember, he's the one that let you go. An ex is an ex for a reason. Remember that.
• If you are doing find then continue to move on. You will thank yourself later!
• i think he broke up with you because he was cheating and as for him buying you shots good I'm glad you said no that's a good way for him to see you don't want him what would make it more clearer is dating someone for awhile to get him off your back that's just me if you have anymore questions just email me at chyapooh@gmail.com I would be happy to help
• don't meet up with him. it sounds like he was just fooling around ;as indicated when he said you "deserve someone better" ,etc, which is a classic phrase that really means that he doesn't want to be committed to you. sorry that might be kinda harsh...
• nope stay away from him obviously he's coming around to realizing what he could of had. girl your better than him keep your goodies to yourself :D seriously tho you did a year without him. let him know that if he wants to "catch up". let him know all he needs to catch up on is a year of you getting over him! I had this exact problem :) you know what he mit chase you harder for a bit but you gotta b done with him | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '0', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9902054071426392}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '100636', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:MAQ4G476SRHERTIDVPZMKSJ6DH3T6LXV', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:5e1e9bf5-9389-4cce-ba2d-740b5ff63a0f>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2014, 12, 23, 3, 46, 54), 'WARC-IP-Address': '216.157.101.26', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': None, 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:MWR5KQ7IRCP2FNS7IVUGKOTRNZH6W7RV', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:9c6f48ce-6727-49d0-9cf2-dc234e6c693e>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'http://www.girlsaskguys.com/break-up-divorce/q335939-my-ex-boyfriend-who-dumped-me-keeps-trying-to', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:5aba68eb-f337-4ca4-96ee-510db16f8ffe>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '1009', 'url': 'http://www.girlsaskguys.com/break-up-divorce/q335939-my-ex-boyfriend-who-dumped-me-keeps-trying-to', 'warcinfo': 'robots: classic\r\nhostname: ip-10-231-17-201.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0\r\nisPartOf: CC-MAIN-2014-52\r\noperator: CommonCrawl Admin\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web with URLs provided by Blekko for December 2014\r\npublisher: CommonCrawl\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.0\r\nconformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.09630709886550903', 'original_id': '520e94ae469268545104d2479a31576dc773a1ed5400568522cdf1b33c9ea522'} |
Please log in or sign up
To continue, please log in or sign up with a user account. For organizations, please use your personal credentials with your organization. For newly added organizations, this will become the primary contact.
Email Address
I have my passwordI forgot my passwordCreate a new account
Password
First Name
Last Name
Password
Repeat Password
Passwords must be 6-14 characters in length and must contain at least ONE digit.
Backgrounder on Trade Promotion Authority
Trade Promotion Authority (TPA)
Time Is Right to Pass TPA
Congress is currently considering a large trade package, including legislation that would grant President Obama trade promotion authority (TPA), also called “fast track” negotiating authority.
Background:
TPA grants trade negotiating authority to the President to enter into international trade agreements with a guarantee that Congress will either approve or disapprove of a final agreement with no ability to amend or delay the measure through normal parliamentary procedures such as a filibuster.
Congress first created fast track authority in 1974, which provided congressional negotiating objectives to the executive branch for a timeframe of eight years. Since then, fast track has been extended five times in order to grant trade negotiating authority to cover negotiations over certain agreements. Fast track negotiating authority expired most recently in 2007 just after the completion of a number of free trade agreements (FTAs), including agreements with Korea, Colombia, and Panama.
In 2012, the Obama Administration indicated its desire to see TPA renewed to help secure a successful completion to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations. The administration has since also entered into negotiations with the European Union in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). USIFI and NFI have both defensive and offensive interests in both of these ongoing negotiations.
New fast track legislation was introduced the 114th Congress and includes textile-specific language. Subparagraph 2(b)(18) of the bill reads, “Textile Negotiations: The principal negotiating objectives with respect to trade in textiles and apparel are to obtain opportunities for U.S. exports of textiles and apparel in foreign markets substantially equivalent to the competitive opportunities afforded foreign exports in U.S. markets and to achieve fairer and more open conditions of trade in textiles and apparel.”
On May 22 the Senate passed TPA as part of a package that included Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), which provides assistance to workers who have lost their jobs due to imports. On June 12, the House voted 219 to 211 to approve legislation renewing TPA; however, prior to the TPA vote, the House voted 126 to 302 to reject the TAA program. Under the rule governing the vote, the House had to pass both bills for the package to advance. The House is expected to hold another vote on TAA in the near future. If the House passes TAA, then they will have matched the Senate package and both provisions would advance to the president for signature into law.
Action Item:
Granting the Executive Branch trade promotion authority at this time will maximize the U.S. government’s leverage to negotiate the best possible TPP and TTIP deals for U.S. manufacturers of industrial and narrow fabrics. However, we will firmly oppose any TPA effort that includes harmful tariff preference levels (TPLs) for Nicaragua, Bahrain or Morocco or other provisions that are directly damaging to U.S. textile jobs, investment, and exports. | mini_pile | {'original_id': 'cc090ab2f9efce5d0578160741716d62c0ff2e3a8a920a31b62742129d26fbc6'} |
Q:
Play 1.2.4 : Rendering XML in template
I have recently upgraded to Play 1.2.4 and I believe the bug fix for the following ticket has had a negative impact on some of my code:
https://play.lighthouseapp.com/projects/57987/tickets/549-play-rest-xml-rendering-of-html-entities-issue
I believe the fix implemented above escapes all HTML entities from XML strings - including the actual XML structure itself.
So <someXml/> becomes <someXml/>
The problem that I am having is that I am using a template to serve XML as an API call, so the XML is returned to the caller escaped and therefore useless.
I have tried using:
#{verbatim} ${ anObject.someXml } #{/verbatim}
and:
${ anObject.someXml.raw() }
to get the XML in raw format, but this does not work.
The part of the code that is causing this issue can be found in the groovy template__safeFaster method (line 400).
Does anyone know of a way I can get around this new feature?
A:
As discussed in the question above, the the cause of the problem is in the __safeFaster method - or more specifically, the line:
if (template.name.endsWith(".xml"))
return StringEscapeUtils.escapeXml(val.toString());
To work around this problem we are setting the response content-type to text/xml in the respective controller and changing the template extension to .txt.
Hopefully the developers at Play will fix this problem in their next release.
| mini_pile | {'original_id': 'bba6d771794da6be53a0e37bdc382ebfea2beef9ee1d4645e3a3759c98539d9b'} |
Back in March when the COVID-19 outbreak took over our daily lives, there was a lot of talk about how people would date and get to know each other.
So we created a fun list of pick up lines that could be used while swiping on dating apps like Bumble, Tinder and Hinge.
Now that we're in Phase One of reopening New York State, we started to think about all those virtual dates we've been on and the people we started to talk to.
Are we actually going to see them in real life? Were they just a distraction from the craziness that was going on in the world? Probably.
We're all in agreement that ghosting someone and telling them "It's not you, it's me" is just not the way to go. So here are a few quarantine breakup lines to use to get out of your quarantine love affairs:
"I'd like to take a lysol wipe and clean this relationship from my memory."
"It's not you. It's not me. It's Coronavirus."
"I've done a lot of self-reflecting in quarantine, and being in contact with other humans is just not what I'm looking for right now."
"I don't even know what you look like, I've only seen you with a mask on."
"All good things must come to an end, like COVID-19 and this relationship."
"This relationship is more stressful than the thought of a second COVID wave."
Do you have a breakup line to add to the list? Will you be breaking up with your Coronavirus fling once this is all over?
Let us know and we'll help you break up with your quarantine lover the best we can.
Flags From All Across the Hudson Valley | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '0', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9773052930831908}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '154689', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:ENC2QQQOETTVJ4VM4LADNBS6A47RLH5N', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:ab10106a-5c3a-47d1-a8ec-58f25ef28870>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2021, 4, 20, 22, 11, 59), 'WARC-IP-Address': '192.229.163.86', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:A7TCS7KQFCKCDTZ7HGO6BS3LUP5YSQQM', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:02145fe3-c910-4acc-aa9a-1985b786f5c2>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://hudsonvalleycountry.com/quarantine-breakup-lines/', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:73176adf-d6bb-43fa-ae28-a58c1d165cd8>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '280', 'url': 'https://hudsonvalleycountry.com/quarantine-breakup-lines/', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2021-17\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for April 2021\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-67-67-207.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.18 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: https://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.024689316749572754', 'original_id': 'f681b19ea55ca96e5d4531cf5de42078807e154f3fa7b62701ae252ac94bacc1'} |
Q:
How do I open geotiff images with gdal in python?
I am trying to run the following code:
from osgeo import gdal
import sys
# this allows GDAL to throw Python Exceptions
src_ds = gdal.Open( "fused.tif" )
src_ds.show()
But I receive the following error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File ".../gdalopen1.py", line 5, in module src_ds.show()
AttributeError: 'Dataset' object has no attribute 'show'
Why does this happen?
A:
You have already opened the dataset, as Spacedman answered. GDAL is not a visualization library (at its core).
You can read the data with:
data = src_ds.ReadAsArray()
And then pass it on the your favourite plotting library.
Alternatively you could simply output to a more common 'picture' format (PNG for example), and use any viewer you like to display the result.
vmin = 0 # minimum value in your data (will be black in the output)
vmax = 1 # minimum value in your data (will be white in the output)
ds = gdal.Translate('fused.png', 'fused.tif', format='PNG', outputType=gdal.GDT_Byte, scaleParams=[[vmin,vmax]])
ds = None
The scaling is necessary to convert your data values to the 8-bit range (0-255) which commonly used for pictures.
A:
The following code opens a raster file and reads a band of the raster into a numpy array.
from osgeo import gdal
ds = gdal.Open('input.tif', gdal.GA_ReadOnly)
rb = ds.GetRasterBand(1)
img_array = rb.ReadAsArray()
A:
You can do by following,
from osgeo import gdal
gdal.UseExceptions()
ds=gdal.Open('Your Geotif image')
band= ds.getRasterBand(1)
| mini_pile | {'original_id': '8f5be303f5b33c8fb394002cecf58050eb3b648d4b0ba1614ed200cc9a59b093'} |
Gorgeous kitchenware at your service.
Every piece of Art et Manufacture pottery is a work of art -- they're handmade in Canada and possess such pretty and unique shapes that we're hopelessly smitten with each one.
This serving platter is one of our very favorites -- the size works so nicely for a smaller dinner; often we find ourselves choosing between plates or huge platters with nothing in between. This one, however, is just right.
| dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '6', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9638323783874512}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '712394', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:XRBHL2NHNXQUPFW2ZY4NFYR2KCFUJASE', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:4dbe425f-3d0a-4d0c-b923-1839dde9e634>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2018, 9, 23, 1, 20, 56), 'WARC-IP-Address': '104.18.162.119', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:X4XQFTVSQWNTVYFQ7TSM5ELWFZHYH6FD', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:9d019522-aeed-425d-b40d-1fc0f5170749>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://food52.com/shop/products/1308-serving-platter', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:759afe6d-c7be-4e81-888a-3c8c7d48519c>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '86', 'url': 'https://food52.com/shop/products/1308-serving-platter', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2018-39\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for September 2018\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-37-160-190.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 0.11-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.022861719131469727', 'original_id': '452f8189ab42376d36687d39a1c02902825b454ab0f596653e76dab5142c3028'} |
Proof Very Impositive
Michael D. Winkle
The Captain Nemo/Professor Moriarty Confusion
The Wold Newton Universe grew out of Philip Jose Farmer's love for pulp magazine adventurers such as Tarzan, Doc Savage, and the Shadow. Other people gravitated toward this mega-series via a lifelong interest in Sherlock Holmes. My "entry point" came from the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne (in particular the latter's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea), which I first read as a student at Hoover Elementary School in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
While Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life is one of my favorite books, the character assassination of Captain Nemo in Addendum 1 of that famed biography, along with the curious suggestion that the commander of the Nautilus was one the same as Professor James Moriarty of abominable memory, grated on my sensibilities.
This mention of Nemo takes up only a page of Doc Savage, so it could be safely ignored while reading of the fantastic world of the Man of Bronze. Then, however, I came upon Farmer's The Other Log of Phileas Fogg, an entire novel based on the Nemo-Moriarty confusion! For a quarter of a century I have held my tongue; I can stand mutely by no more!
The Other Log of Phileas Fogg [henceforth "Other"] contains as an appendix H. W. Starr's article "A Submersible Subterfuge; or, Proof Impositive," the origin of the Nemo-as-Moriarty theory. Since Starr first revealed to the world the relationship of Tarzan, Lord Greystoke, to the Holmes canon ("A Case of Identity," reprinted in Tarzan Alive), Farmer may have felt obligated to accept Starr's other theories, dubious though they may be. (1)
Luckily for fans of Captain Nemo and the Nautilus, the fictional sections of Other can be separated from fact, and most of H. W. Starr's incriminating evidence can be refuted.
To be fair, Starr worked with an edition of Twenty Thousand Leagues published in 1922. No proper translation of Verne's masterpiece was available in the English-speaking world until the mid 1970s, when Walter James Miller edited The Annotated Jules Verne: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
As Miller writes: "Some of Verne's best books are crudely abridged in English. . . These cuts -- often subtracting 30 percent to 40 percent of Verne's text from the English editions -- naturally weaken his story line, his characterization, his humor, and the integrity of his ideas." (2) Miller estimates that 23% of Twenty ThousandLeagues -- nearly one-fourth of the book! -- had never been seen by the English reading public until his 1976 edition. The versions that were available were mangled by translators unsympathetic to Verne's vision, philosophies, and love of science.
We shall now take a hard look at Other and "A Submersible Subterfuge" through the lens of the fully restored and annotated Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
Size Does Matter
Starr compares Captain Nemo to "the sybaritic commander of an old-fashioned warship living in luxurious quarters and ruling with an iron hand a crew of tough fighting men." [Other, p.185] Most of his reasoning stems from his assumption that the Nautilus' crew live in "slum conditions of the foulest sort." [p. 183-84] This in turn is assumed from the "fact" that the sailors' quarters are so small, they must sleep piled like logs in triple-decker bunks, with possibly "a cubbyhole where the lieutenant could swing his hammock in solitary grandeur." [p. 183]
Starr arrives at these sardine-can living conditions from the measurements provided by Professor Aronnax. The professor does not describe the crew's quarters, "the interior of which he never saw" [p.183], but, by taking the dimensions given by Nemo and applying elementary math, Starr arrives at a figure of 22 x 16 feet for this unseen room -- cramped indeed for as many as thirty sailors.
However, the above measurements, and hence the conclusions based on them, are completely erroneous.
The Nautilus was far larger than the dimensions given to Aronnax; furthermore, there were areas of the submarine never revealed to Aronnax or his companions.
Let us forget that the standard translation of Twenty Thousand Leagues changes Verne's "meters" to the more American "yards" -- which would in itself shrink the dimensions of the Nautilus by nearly ten percent. Starr writes: "out of a total length of 232 feet (65 feet of which was the engine room) 75 feet of the Nautilus had been set aside for the exclusive use of the captain." [Other, p. 184]
However, this length for the submarine comes from Captain Nemo, (3) who also says "You came to surprise a secret which no man in the world must penetrate" [Twenty, p. 64]. In the very first chapter we are given a closer approximation of the submarine's size when two steamships find the "monster" between them: "In these simultaneous observations, they thought themselves justified in estimating the minimum length of the mammal at more than three hundred and fifty feet, as theShannon and Helvetia were of smaller dimensions than it, though they measured three hundred feet overall" [Twenty, p. 2]. Apparently the captain stretched (or shortened) the truth to keep the three castaways out of certain areas of theNautilus.
In addition to the twenty-five meters devoted to Nemo's museum, library, etc., and seven and a half meters for an "air reservoir," Conseil and Ned Land are given their own cabin [p. 65], while Professor Aronnax is given "not a cabin, but an elegant room, with a bed, dressing-table, and several other pieces of furniture" [p. 74]. Starr does not even mention these chambers, and there may well have been others. Since Nemo was not expecting guests, for whom were these rooms? We are told of the kitchen, "large storerooms," a bathroom, the supposed crew's quarters, the cell in which the castaways were originally held, "a cabin situated near the sailors' quarters" in which Aronnax attends the dying crewman [p. 164], "the vast distillatory machines" that "furnished the drinkable water" [p. 306], and the twenty-meter-long engine room. There is also the question of placement of the armory/diving suit room, and the airlock that opens onto the sea, as well as the wheelhouse. All these added together might well exceed the seventy meters given as the submarine's length.
The Curious Case of the Missing Crew
It is not what Professor Aronnax and his friends saw, but what they did not see, that further implies hidden areas of the Nautilus. Captain Nemo had a habit of vanishing for days on end. On page 98 of Twenty, for instance, Professor Aronnax notes: "Captain Nemo was there, waiting for me. . . As he made no allusion to his absence during the last eight days, I did not mention it." Page 125: "I had not seen Captain Nemo for a week, when on the morning of the 27th, he came into the large drawing-room." (4)
Perhaps Nemo secreted himself somewhere on the "known" Nautilus, or perhaps he took very long walks in his diving suit. But how could you misplace the whole crew, which Starr calculates to be at least two dozen? Although Aronnax, Conseil, and Ned Land are given the run of the ship, this mysterious phenomenon occurs more than once:
Page 89: "'Nothing learned, nothing seen,' the Canadian said. 'Not even a sign of the crew.'"
Page 141: ". . . we quitted shore, and half an hour after we hailed the Nautilus. The enormous ironplated cylinder seemed deserted. . . The next day, January 6, nothing new on board. Not a sound inside, not a sign of life."
Page 349: For a period of "fifteen or twenty days," writes Aronnax: "Of Captain Nemo I saw nothing whatever now, nor of his second. Not a man of the crew was visible for an instant."
As Starr himself reminds us, "space is at a premium on a submarine." Where were Nemo and his men? Off on some piratical venture, as Other would have it? Wandering around the ocean floor in their diving suits? If the Nautilus were anchored perhaps, but see page 96:
Are we supposed to believe that Nemo and his men would allow the Nautilus to run on "automatic" for days at a time, with the angry and resourceful Ned Land running loose through it? It seems far more logical to say that the sailors, or some of them at least, navigated the vessel in areas unseen and even unsuspected by the three outsiders.
What secrets lay in the sections of the submarine hidden from the castaways? Atomic power -- advanced weaponry -- some incredible artifacts dredged up from Atlantis? Perhaps it was something quite mundane, like roomier living quarters for the crew. At the very least there must have been a second helm.
There is one point on Starr's side. Before Aronnax can be influenced by Nemo, he sees the Nautilus from the warship Abraham Lincoln and "estimated its length at only two hundred and fifty feet" [Twenty, p. 35]. To this I can only say that Aronnax was not very good at guessing sizes. When the Nautilus enters an extinct volcano (Part Two, Chapter Twenty), the professor estimates its height at 1,500 to 1,800 feet. A few pages later he says that "the volcano did not rise more than eight hundred feet above the level of the ocean." [p. 257]
The Reclamation of Captain Nemo
There are many other improbabilities in the Nemo-Moriarty theory:
Nemo's Lost Technology. Most people know the story of Twenty Thousand Leagues from the 1954 Disney movie. Therein, Captain Nemo's source of power was certainly nuclear energy. The conservative Jules Verne, who lived most of his long years before radioactivity was discovered, would not supply his characters with something unknown to science. Still, Starr writes that the engines of theNautilus were so powerful as to "lead one to the strong suspicion that they were really atomic engines" [Other, p. 186] Here I tend to agree, as Nemo himself says "My electricity is not everybody's" [Twenty, p. 76], and, even more telling, "I repeat, sir, that the dynamic power of my engines is almost infinite" [p. 83].
This one point of agreement with Starr raises more questions. Once having held the secret of atomic power, would not Professor Moriarty redevelop it? Little could stand in his way, then. Perhaps he lost all his papers concerning nuclear power and the other technological advances of the Nautilus during the descent into the Maelstrom? But surely the author of Dynamics of an Asteroid could re-calculate theories and re-engineer devices he knew so intimately.
Were circumstances different later, so different that he could not re-create his wondrous inventions? That is tantamount to saying that it was easier to build the submarine and the advanced machinery that filled it on a desert isle in the Pacific than in England. Farmer's Nemo/Moriarty even builds his own "distorter" (a space-warping teleporter) in Britain, using only blueprints taken from a dead Capellean -- something the aliens themselves had failed to do in their two hundred years on Earth.
Did he not have enough time to re-engineer his technology before Sherlock Holmes "seriously inconvenienced" him? Twenty-three years pass between the end of Twenty Thousand Leagues and "The Final Problem." I fear that is not the answer, either. Moriarty was a genius in the realm of crime, mathematics, and pure science, but in the arena of applied science -- such as the building of the Nautilus -- he did not have the skill or patience to achieve mastery.
Nemo the Class-Conscious. Starr calls Nemo "a man of commanding and domineering personality, a man who rigidly draws the caste (5) line" [Other, p. 187], apparently because he will not dine with Ned Land and Conseil. Yet Aronnax himself speaks for all three castaways: "Aronnax, with his nineteenth-century view of social hierarchy, sees himself as the natural leader" [Twenty, p. 63]. Editor Miller further explains that "Nemo is the typical nineteenth-century liberal who believed in freedom but not necessarily in equality" [p. 78]. To reiterate: His actions were typical for a Victorian intellectual, not the excesses of an criminal mastermind.
Nemo the Land-Lubber. When it comes to Nemo being a sea captain, "we cannot be quite so certain that his practical maritime experience is very extensive." [Other, p. 186] Starr charges that Nemo, though brilliant, was unused to the ways of the sea -- i.e., a land-lubbing math professor out of his element. His evidence is that "the worthy captain is constantly -- and accidentally -- bumping into things," and that "unlike almost all large vessels of the last thousand years or more -- submarine or surface -- it has no cutwater."
The Nautilus, however, with its cylindrical shape and its huge "blow-holes" at the bow, was meant to be taken for a monstrous sea creature, a deception that succeeded well. "The platform [deck] was only three feet out of the water," admits Aronnax, but he continues:
I noticed that its iron plates, slightly overlaying each other, resembled the shell which clothes the bodies of our large, terrestrial reptiles. It explained to me how natural it was, in spite of all glasses, that this boat should have been taken for a marine animal. [Twenty, p. 87]
A proper deck or a conning tower, needless to say, would have given the submarine away.
As for accidental collisions -- well, why not? When one doesn't have to be careful about certain activities, one tends to grow lax. And the Nautilus did not have to be careful where it came to collisions, as its hull was virtually invulnerable. In the Torres Straits, Aronnax sees "pieces of coral that would do [the submarine] for its keep if it only touched them slightly." Moments later, however, "the Nautilus seemed to slide like magic off these rocks." [Twenty, p. 133] The cannon shells of the Abraham Lincoln (at the beginning of the novel) and of the mysterious warship (near the end) simply bounce off the submarine. Besides, uncounted ordinary ships, from the Titanic to the Exxon Valdez, piloted by (supposedly) experienced seamen, have collided with all manner of objects (including Alaska). Why not the Nautilus, a vehicle unique in the annals of maritime history and a vessel that, unlike any other ship, had to navigate in three dimensions?
(As a final note, it seems unlikely that a whirlpool, even the dreaded Maelstrom, could wreck such a super-vessel, as Phileas Fogg claims.)
Nemo the Cold and Heartless
An utter lack of compassion emanated from him in an almost visible aura, if a negative quality could be said to radiate. [Other, p. 88]
"We should be more cautious in acceptance of matters of interpretation, for here the romantic Byronic aura which Aronnax and Verne saw surrounding the captain may mislead us," writes Starr. [Other, p. 182] This he must write, since his Nemo/Moriarty is one of the most cruel, calculating individuals of the nineteenth century. Starr and Farmer imply that the captain merely played the tragic hero for Professor Aronnax. Yet it is difficult to believe that such a human monster could come up with such poetic speeches:
"The sea is only the embodiment of a supernatural and wonderful existence. It is nothing but love and emotion; it is the 'Living Infinite,' as one of your poets has said." [Twenty, p. 67]
"Professor, is not this ocean gifted with real life? It has its tempers and its gentle moods. Yesterday it slept as we did, and now it has woke after a quiet night. Look!" he continued, "it wakes under the caresses of the sun. It is going to renew its diurnal existence. It is an interesting study to watch the play of its organization. It has a pulse, arteries, spasms." [p. 115]
It is equally difficult to believe that a sociopath like Farmer's Nemo/Moriarty, armed only with a knife, would attack "a shark of enormous size" to save anyone's life -- let alone that of a miserably poor pearl diver. [p. 193]
Even when Nemo is planning something untoward, he protects his guests from guilt by association: "It is possible that certain events, unforeseen, may oblige me to consign you to your cabins for some hours or days. . . In thus acting, I take all the responsibility: I acquit you entirely, for I make it an impossibility for you to see what ought not to be seen." [p. 63] Thus the castaways can't easily be accused of aiding and abetting the captain -- a considerate bit of foresight.
There is also the incident of the portrait, which Starr and Farmer so thoroughly downplay:
Starr seems amused by the fact that Aronnax "inexplicably failed to see" the portrait during most of his stay. Farmer's Fogg claims that Nemo only hung it up once a year, celebrating some unknown anniversary.
Yet Aronnax has had such a lapse before; on p. 236 of Twenty he peeks into Nemo's "monkish" bedroom and sees "something I had not noticed on my earlier visit -- some etchings hanging on the wall." (The persons portrayed here are worth mentioning: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, "O'Connell, the defender of Ireland," and John Brown, "that martyr to the emancipation of the black race," among others. Starr calls this whole section of the Nautilus Nemo's "private suite, into which the crew never intruded" [Other, p. 184], so these portraits are for the captain's viewing alone. Can you envision Professor Moriarty studying men such as these?) (6)
"Why didn't Aronnax see the portrait of the woman and children earlier?" asks Walter James Miller. "Because at that time he was engaged in identifying pictures of people he could recognize. . . and it was perfectly in character for Aronnax to notice only the men." [Twenty, p. 347]
Phileas Fogg finds it odd that Nemo should even have a family, as "he regards all others, man or woman, as mental pygmies." [Other, p. 129] Starr suggests that the woman and the two children might be "his mother and her two wee bairns, James Moriarty and James Moriarty." [p. 190] It is a well known fact, however, that there were three Moriarty brothers. (7) As for Nemo/Moriarty's anguished cries of "Great God! Enough! Enough!", these were merely due to a bad headache.
The argument over whom the portrait represents becomes a minor quibble in another context. Just before he attacks the mysterious warship in Part Two, Chapter Twenty-One, Nemo cries out that "I have lost all that I loved, cherished, and venerated -- country, wife, children, father, and mother. I saw all perish!" [p. 345] So we are not merely suggesting or assuming Nemo had a wife and children who were killed. The mere existence of the portrait suggests that this was not just a speech given for Aronnax's benefit.
There are other details that demonstrate the differences between Nemo and Moriarty. Among the treasures of Nemo's library are the works of "Madame Sand." Walter Miller writes that, if he reads George Sand, "Nemo admires freedom and independence not only in speech but also in practice, not for men alone but also for women." [p. 68] Bedside reading for the Napoleon of Crime?
Was the burial in the coral cemetery entirely for crew morale? Perhaps Nemo/Moriarty would preside over a burial, just to keep his crew a few steps away from mutiny -- but the fact that they have built an actual cemetery in the Indian Ocean implies that anyone dying on the Nautilus would be transported here, even from halfway around the world. Then there is the captain's reaction when one of his men is dragged off by a giant squid: "I have said that Captain Nemo wept while watching the waves." [p. 326] Admit it -- Professor Moriarty would discard dead underlings like used Kleenex.
Nemo's Native Tongue. The men of the Nautilus, Nemo included, speak a strange artificial language that the castaways never decipher. During the incident of the portrait, according to Other:
". . . that he spoke English in this painful moment, when a man is likely to revert to his native language, is significant."
"He did not speak in French? But Aronnax. . ."
"Failed to mention it was in English. No, Nemo is a native of some English-speaking land, most probably of Ireland." (8) [p. 130]
Which Nemo would have to be, were he Moriarty. Surely such a departure from theNautilus' artificial language would have stood out as an important clue to the captain's origin, which the French naturalist tried to learn during his entire underwater trip. It is inconceivable that Aronnax could have forgotten such a detail. Perhaps, you argue, English was the language used all along with the outsiders Aronnax, Ned Land, and Conseil, and therefore it was not considered strange by the professor. Only the professor thinks, upon first meeting the captain, "Did he regret the words which he had just spoken in French?" [Twenty Thousand, p. 60]. And later, when Aronnax tends to the dying crew member: "'You may speak,' said the Captain. 'This man does not understand French.'" [p. 165]
Nemo the Pirate. "He was, to put it simply, a pirate," says Phileas Fogg. "A bloodthirsty, money-hungry pirate who sent hundreds of the innocent to a watery grave." [Other, p. 126]
This is another image remembered more from the Disney movie than from the narrative of Jules Verne and Professor Aronnax. Just how many acts of violence can be blamed on Captain Nemo? I have charted them on the "Nemo Score Card," below. The Nautilus attracts attention with three accidental collisions. The sunken ship Florida appears to be merely one of the sights on the undersea trip (the Nautilus passes many wrecks, but the Florida had plunged beneath the waves only a few hours earlier).
On the 18th of January, the Nautilus (apparently) sinks a ship. Starr would have it that, since it was so far away Aronnax could not see it, it was a ship whose movements Nemo already knew, and which he merely wanted to sink and plunder. Let's be careful of our interpretation of Nemo, as Starr writes -- and look at his second-in-command instead. "The latter seemed to be a victim to some emotion that he tried in vain to repress," says Aronnax [Twenty, p. 160]. And on the same page:
Nemo's lieutenant, simply scanning the horizon with a telescope, acts as if he has experienced something terrible, even traumatic. It is unlikely Aronnax is trying to paint him as a Byronic hero, since he never so much as exchanged a word with the man.
(Mr. Starr would not win any awards for logical argument. He suggests that Nemo's gold came from "the ship we know the captain sank on Jan. 18," when we don't "know" any such thing. Our first-person narrator could see nothing in the direction Nemo and his officer were looking, and then, after eating a drug-laced meal, he spent the night in blissful oblivion.)
The one undeniable sinking by the Nautilus comes near the end of the book, when "a large armoured two-decker ram" appears on the horizon. "For over twenty-four hours Captain Nemo deliberately lured the frigate to follow him until it suited his whim to sink her," writes Starr. [Other, p. 182]
Well. . . Who's fault is that? On the first of June "The Nautilus was motionless; it neither rolled nor pitched." It is just minding its own business. Then a ship flying no flag appears, "which was changing its course and seemed to be nearing us." The sub dives briefly to look at the remains of the Avenger, a vessel that helped the American and French Revolutions to succeed. Upon resurfacing, "a dull boom was heard."
The unknown ship's company fires cannon shells at the Nautilus all day. They stop for the night, then "with the first dawn of day the firing began afresh." As for the submarine, "The screw was set in motion, and the Nautilus, moving with speed, was soon beyond the reach of the ship's guns. But the pursuit continued." The man-of-war is asking for it, in this writer's opinion. Does the commander of the vessel have any idea what the Nautilus can do? If so, he must be suicidal or fanatical.
If the second-in-command was upset on January 18, now "fifteen of the sailors surrounded the Captain, looking with implacable hatred at the vessel nearing them." They at least know the nature of the enemy.
Finally, over the wreck of the Avenger, Captain Nemo sinks the warship. Far from a sadistic "whim", he has chosen this spot, in Miller's words, "for a scene of vast symbolic proportions." [Twenty, p. 340] There follows the incident of the portrait, and soon thereafter the three castaways escape.
This final battle raises many questions. What power does this warship represent? If it is a vessel out to save the seas from the evil Captain Nemo, like theAbraham Lincoln before it, why did it not fly its colors? Before the ship appears, "the Nautilus described a series of circles on the water. . . It seemed to be seeking a spot it had some trouble in finding." [p. 339] Once it settles in at the right "spot", the warship comes right to it. "It is here," announces Nemo. This all sounds like the unknown forces deploying the ship challenged Nemo and theNautilus (themselves unknown quantities) to a duel at sea. It is a curious, tantalizing, frustrating glimpse into a conflict that is far-reaching, yet seems to have nothing to do with our mundane world. Perhaps Other Log would have been better off focusing on this war, rather than that of the Capelleans against the Eridanians.
Is Other Log a Hoax?
I could continue belaboring the obvious, but I believe enough evidence has been given to dissuade anyone of the idea that Captain Nemo was Professor James Moriarty. (9)
So how do we explain Other? A literary hoax, with its talk of Capelleans and Eridanians carrying out a galactic war on Earth? Could it even be (Heaven forbid!) a work of fiction? Farmer is quick to dismiss as pure fiction books that disagree with his mythopoetic vision (10), but, as he has become the official source of information on the Wold Newton Universe, an outright fantasy on his part seems unlikely.
We all know of Phileas Fogg's circumnavigation of the globe; we all know of Professor Aronnax's voyage aboard the Nautilus; we have all read Dr. Watson's account of Mr. Holmes' final struggle with the Napoleon of Crime. Perhaps Fogg and Moriarty were, indeed, raised and trained by extraterrestrials, as Other contends. Perhaps Fogg was Moriarty's worst nightmare (before he ran afoul of the Great Detective, of course). Doubtless fictional sections were added to the partial biography of Mr. Fogg to protect him and his close associates, who, after all, may still be alive! (11)
Captain Nemo, however, that mysterious master of the Nautilus, is a being distinct and distant from the squabbles of the upper world, which was as Verne intended.
Nemo Score-Card
". . . all unlucky casualties which could not be otherwise accounted for were put down to the monster."
-- Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,
Part One, Chapter One
Event Comments
"a collision which occurred between the Etna of the Inman line and the monster." [p. 2]
Accidentally bumped Nautilus or vice-versa.
"the Moravian. . . struck on her starboard quarter a rock." [p. 4] Accidentally bumped into Nautilus.
The Scotia: "at two yards and a half below water mark was a regular rent, in the form of an isosceles triangle." [p. 7] Accidentally rammed by Nautilus. Above three events are considered accidents by Starr, Aronnax, and the world at large. Makes Nemo look like a bad navigator, nothing more.
The Abraham Lincoln:
Conseil: "I heard the men at the wheel say, 'The screw and the rudder are broken.'"
Aronnax: "Broken?"
Conseil: "Yes, broken by the monster's teeth. It is the only injury the Abraham Lincoln has sustained." [p. 41]
"Was it unintentionally that the Abraham Lincoln pursued me all over the seas?" asks Nemo. "Was it unintentionally that your cannon balls rebounded off the plating of my vessel?" [p. 61]
"I have the right to treat you as enemies," continues the captain, but the American frigate gets off rather easily.
The Florida:
"Three stumps of masts, broken off about two feet above the bridge, showed that the vessel had had to sacrifice its masts. . . sadder still was the sight of the bridge, where some corpses, bound with ropes, were still lying." [p. 120]
The Nautilus has just arrived at this point near the Pomotu Islands in the Pacific; theFlorida appears to have sunk "some few hours" before. There was no shock or activity to indicate a ramming; and the missing masts and the bodies tied to the bridge are more in keeping with a storm than an attack of the submarine. Apparently theNautilus stumbled upon this freshly-sunken ship by chance.
The ship presumably sunk by the Nautilus on January 18, 1868, eight hundred miles west of Australia. [p. 161] The captain and his second-in-command appear to be angry at something they see via telescope, but Aronnax never finds out what. "I had looked carefully in the direction indicated without seeing anything." [p. 160] The outsiders' meals are drugged, and they do not awaken until the next day. It certainly seems as if Nemo has rammed a ship, but we cannot be sure.
The mysterious warship: "No flag fluttered from its mast, and I could not discover its nationality." [p. 339] "Sir," I exclaimed, "are you going to attack this vessel?" "Sir, I am going to sink it!" [p. 344] The most blatant attack by Captain Nemo. The "ship of an accursed nation," however, was certainly the aggressor (see text).
0 PJF briefly acknowledges this straining of credibility. He writes that "In a few incontrovertible words" Starr proves The Mysterious Island to be a complete fabrication. Then: "Starr shows that Moriarty did indeed operate, in his pre-Holmesian career, under the pseudonym of Captain Nemo" using "many more words, not quite as disprovable." See Farmer, Philip Jose, Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life (Bantam Books: New York, 1975), pp. 228-229.
0 Miller, Walter James, "Foreword", in The Annotated Jules Verne: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (New American Library: New York, 1977), p. ix.
0 Actually, in the original French, Nemo says 70 meters (228.9 feet). ibid., p. 81.
0 Since Aronnax was already there, this incident demonstrates that Nemo was not hiding in the spacious drawing-room/museum that seemed so self-indulgent to Starr.
0 Wouldn't adhering to the caste system rather support the idea of Nemo as an Indian prince?
0 To be fair, the "sketch" section was cut from the standard English translation, possibly for political reasons.
0 Tracy, Jack, Encyclopaedia Sherlockiana, the (Avon Books: New York, 1977), p. 246.
0 Since Aronnax was sneaking through the drawing-room alone, watching Nemo, how did Phileas Fogg know?
0 I haven't even mentioned the fact that Nemo's eyes were black and Moriarty's were gray.
0 Among many examples are all sequels to The Scarlet PimpernelTarzan at the Earth's Core and the other Pellucidar novels, and several Doc Savage sagas, such as The Monsters and The World's Fair Goblin.
0"Today, Fogg would look as if he had aged perhaps a year or two, if he is still alive. The chances are that he is alive and well somewhere in England." Farmer, Philip Jose, Other Log of Phileas Fogg, the (DAW Books: New York, 1973), p. 9.
© 2000 Michael D. Winkle
3382 West Washington
Broken Arrow, OK 74012 | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '273', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9648833274841307}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '54646', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:IRJUBEYM2Y7YFBXG74M4WUPW6Z5N354R', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:09064cd3-fae5-4c19-be85-32f3fcc1f688>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2013, 12, 6, 2, 13, 42), 'WARC-IP-Address': '208.109.181.41', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': None, 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:O43NB44KRQH7DVZH4PWXR472ZJWWISCJ', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:a60f4ba9-25ca-4794-ae48-f10cca5dd452>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'http://www.pjfarmer.com/secret/contributors/SUBTERFUGE2.htm', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:f231e02b-b645-43a8-b1c2-108f93023ccb>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '5055', 'url': 'http://www.pjfarmer.com/secret/contributors/SUBTERFUGE2.htm', 'warcinfo': 'robots: classic\r\nhostname: ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0\r\nisPartOf: CC-MAIN-2013-48\r\noperator: CommonCrawl Admin\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web with URLs provided by Blekko for Winter 2013\r\npublisher: CommonCrawl\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.0\r\nconformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.02364450693130493', 'original_id': '9956395a4c1ae1ccde3afdd6db72fdf2b583fff72a3d42635250af9a04cf9293'} |
Short-term results of total hip replacement due to acetabular fractures.
This study aims to evaluate short-term results of total hip replacement performed for post-traumatic osteoarthritis and/or femoral head necrosis caused by acetabular fractures. We performed 39 arthroplasties due to acetabular fractures on 25 male and 14 female patients during the course of a five-year period. The mean age of the patients was 45 years (range 25 to 73 years) at the time of surgery. Cemented cup was implanted in 29 patients and uncemented cup in 10 patients. Bone replacement was indicated in eight patients for different degrees of acetabular deformities. Implantation of an acetabular socket was indicated in six patients. The evaluation was based on the Harris hip score (HHS). The mean HHS score was 42 prior to arthroplasty and 81 after arthroplasty. Repeated surgery was required for infection in two patients. Dislocation of the prosthesis occurred in three patients, deep venous thrombosis in one patient and the lesion of the sciatic nerve in one patient after surgery. Our study results suggest that the selection of the cup type depends on the condition and bone deformity secondary to acetabular fracture. Surgical interventions are technically more difficult, and take longer with a high rate of the postoperative complications and prolonged rehabilitation period, compared to arthroplasties for degenerative hip diseases. | mini_pile | {'original_id': '6f9c94eb67f9a4b9e6bfde8e5c9c8adb5e7059c478d18d22b8e49699008b9c40'} |
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - Bullet-proof Admiral FAQ
Grand Theft Auto Vice City Bullet-Proof Admiral FAQ
What Is This Car? What Are Its Benefits? Trouble beating a mission in Vice City? Toughs too tough for your weapons or vehicles? Then you need to get the Indestructable Admiral, a white sedan that is almost-literally indestructable (unless you flip it or sink it). The beauty of this car is outweighed by the fact you can only keep three of them (legitimately, without using cheat codes). Having even one of these babies in your car collection in GTAVC is paramount to being able to ass rape almost any mission where Tommy may: (1) - Not need to race. The Admiral is tough, but it ain't a sports car. (2) - Bring a car to the mission. The Admiral can serve as a weapon since all you do is ram, ram, ram! (3) - Cops are breathing down Tommy's neck and he needs to get away with a non- mission specific vehicle. Again, the Indestructable Admiral is tough, so the only thing you need to fear from the cops is that they corner your car and bust you (you will lose the Admiral, RELOAD) or if they ram you into the water or flip your vehicle. One of the few missions where this car comes in handy (along with First Person view weapons) is that one mission (Death Row) where Tommy needs to rescue Lance before another black man dies needlessly in a video game (i.e., all Resident Evils). There are definitely other missions where if Tommy has access to his own vehicle, the Admiral can be used to really turn the tide (esp. in getaways). Use the Admiral creatively and you'll be quite set.
Where Can I Get This Car? This particular Admiral is the one driven by Diaz in the mission (Guardian Angels). This is the one where Tommy and Lance stand watch over Diaz as he deals coke or smack or some kinda shit with a Haitian gang. The next thing you know, a lotta gunfire will occur and Tommy will be tasked with killing the armed Haitians in the area, then chasing down the one fleeing with Diaz's money. Simply put, just fail the mission by allowing the fleeing Haitian to take off with Diaz's money while wasting everyone else. This is the easiest way to do it since all you need to do afterwards is jack the Admiral (the doors will be unlocked after this debacle) and park it in one of your garages.
I Have The Car, Now How Do I Keep It? Unless you intend on finishing Vice City from there on out, chances are you will need a place to store your new prize. Since the mission (Guardian Angels) is a once per game kinda thing, you will need to hoard as many of these Indestructable Admirals as you can (Vice City is reknown for its bugs and glitches). It makes sense -- with more of these cars, you can afford to place them throughout Tommy's Vice City garages later in the game. However, unless you cheat, you can only legitimately buy three single car garages before you are forced to complete the Guardian Angels mission to move on to the rest of the game. Although I am a great proponent of cheating one's ass off, Vice City doesn't have a good reputation for handling their effects (even its integral cheats). For starter's you should try not to die once you start doing the story related missions and side missions. This is because money is harder to earn in Vice City than in GTA3. Money seems to be generated only be "valid sources" of income such as taxi jobs, robberies, muggings, or mission completion rather than just simply property destruction. To buy all three properties (with the garages) you will need to have at least $21,000. Locate each of the properties below (courtesy of Celedux's VC walkthrough here: and buy them BEFORE you start dorking around with getting the Indestructable Admiral. Chances are once you try robberies (at the shops near North Point mall), you will start having your money deducted either from respray shops or from the cops busting you for robbery.
• El Swanko Casa at Vice Point, $8,000 This is the first place you should plunk money down for since it's the most expensive. Not dying from the first mission and playing your cards right should give you about $12,000 or so by the time Guardian Angels is available. Earn a little of the $3000 difference and you will be able to snap up the first two properties quickly. El Swanko Casa is on the west side of the East Island and south of the Shady Palms Hospital.
• Ocean Heights Apartment at Ocean Beach, $7,000 Try to buy this place next while you have the money -- once you have $0 you can get busted and lose almost nothing (except armor and weapons). Ocean Heights is a little west of the Pole Position Strip Club near the main road adjacent to Colonel Cortez's slip.
• Links View Apartment at Vice Point, $6,000 This is the last place on the list, if only because it is cheap and several robberies (netting about $1000 if you go for four stars) will bag you the cash for this joint. It is literally a stone's throw away from El Swanko Casa, and is the very Hong Kong condo building near the bridge that leads to the golf course.
Anything Else I Need To Know About My New Admiral? The Indestructable Admiral is collision-proof, fire-proof, explosion-proof, and bullet-proof, but it is not: - Flip-proof. - Water-resistant. - Anti-tire shot resistant. So far as I've been able to tell, the Indestructable Admiral is about as cheesy a vehicle as you can use in Vice City (better than the fire-proof, explosion-proof, bullet-proof Cheetahs in GTA3) which is okay since the Admiral's speed and handling are only average. If these attributes were passed along to a sports car (like Lance's ride), the game would've been truly broken. As long as you keep the Admiral on all four tires and away from the water, you should be able to keep riding it till the cows come home. About the only thing to watch for are the spike strips the cops use; since the tires are vulnerable, popping a tire on the Admiral drastically reduces speed and handling, making you vulnerable to being caught by the cops. Once a cop drags Tommy from the car, you lose the Admiral. Basic rule -- stay away from the cops or duck into a respray if you want to keep your God-Car!
User-Submitted you dont need to fail the mission to obtain the vehicle. If you pass the mission successfully, you only need to walk to the street between the alleys and turn to the left. The admiral will be under the traffic light to the left on Ocean Drive. But make sure you get the two other backups if you opt to keep 3 in you collection. This vehicle works great in the endurance race as well for Sunshine Autos tool. Own FOUR damageproof Admirals in Vice City. Why would you want to have four damageproof Admirals? The best reason is security. There is always a danger of them disappearing. Plus, it is more convenient and fun to have them scattered in different garages. It is tricky getting more than three of them since the mission where the car becomes available (Guardian Angels) occurs at the beginning of the game when there are only three cars worth of garage space. If only you could keep another DP Admiral in the game's memory for just two more missions - you could store it in the Hyman Condo garage. I found a way. In preparation for this plan, I recommend completing 12 paramedic missions, which allows you to sprint forever. You'll be doing a lot of running. Also, be able to beat "Phnom Phem '86" the first time. This will save you a lot of frustration, since you may have to start all over again if you fail that mission. Also, I should mention how to acquire the Admiral during the "Guardian Angels" mission. Meet Lance in the car park, and proceed to the alley. Then kill Diaz or Lance to fail the mission. Take the Admiral. It's unlocked, damageproof, bulletproof, explosionproof and fireproof. Keep doing this and store three of them in the three garages you have on the east island. For the fourth Admiral, beat the mission "Guardian Angels" and run south down the alley to the first street. You should see the Admiral to your left, on the street. Ready? Park the car at the bottom of the stairs to Diaz's mansion and begin the mission "The Chase." Next, you have to stategically park the Admiral so it can be used during this mission. Drive north of the pink marker in Vice Point (do not enter it yet!) to the next street where the dumpster is and park the Admiral right next to that dumpster. Now, run back into the pink marker. During this mission you will run off the roof and land next to the DP Admiral. Get in and pursue the target. Having a bulletproof Admiral will make this as easy as a Sunday drive. After you complete the mission, park the Admiral in the driveway of the house where the mission ended. Now, get out of the car and run back to Diaz's mansion. It is important to RUN there since you want to keep that Admiral in the game's memory. If you get into a different car, the game will probably forget! Again, completed paramedic missions will make you happy since you can sprint the whole way. Walk into the marker to begin "Phnom Phen '86." You should see the Admiral faithfully waiting for you in the driveway as you shoot from the chopper. After you complete the mission, you'll be back at Diaz's mansion. If all went well, all you have to do is run back to the Admiral and voila! You can drive to the west Island and save at the Hyman Condo garage. Don't fly the chopper on top of the save point, as this garage is known for eating cars.
simalcrum is always right; you are always wrong. | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '51', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9548370242118835}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '32124', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:Q6YU7JPG437BQ2XU3YWH7LHLQNYIGQJK', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:6ea42080-f1c4-4f33-a7ec-1e5b244423bd>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2013, 12, 7, 14, 53, 8), 'WARC-IP-Address': '184.51.126.16', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': None, 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:DZDKUSZW7D27OAGCMRTM6N52NF52RLLL', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:2dada8ca-1657-466a-bb38-7998400f09df>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'http://www.ign.com/faqs/2006/grand-theft-auto-double-pack-grand-theft-auto-iii-grand-theft-auto-vice-city-bullet-proof-admiral-faq-552687', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:475b6858-74b7-4b3f-a01f-3b31d91fef0d>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '1732', 'url': 'http://www.ign.com/faqs/2006/grand-theft-auto-double-pack-grand-theft-auto-iii-grand-theft-auto-vice-city-bullet-proof-admiral-faq-552687', 'warcinfo': 'robots: classic\r\nhostname: ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0\r\nisPartOf: CC-MAIN-2013-48\r\noperator: CommonCrawl Admin\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web with URLs provided by Blekko for Winter 2013\r\npublisher: CommonCrawl\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.0\r\nconformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.036080121994018555', 'original_id': '394bffb67777c58a7c4f55e65aa01e5b7787e2391fd030c25d5da786c5e3d562'} |
Q:
Forward incoming SSH connection if user = git?
I have a CentOS 7 minimal with Firewalld installed and it serves as the firewall / router for the company. Inside the network, we have a git server, let's name it: gitlab-server. I wish to make it reachable from the internet so we can work with our repositories from elsewhere too. We clone repositories via SSH and nothing else is available for secutiry reasons. Now the question is: How can I forward an incoming connection with firewalld to a specific IP address but ONLY IF the user of the SSH is named git?
Dumb way:
I want to execute git clone git@gitlab-server:myuser/myrepository.git and be able to do it from home. Also I have to push sometimes so I need to execute git push origin master too.
A:
At the time the SSH connection is initiated, FirewallD has no way of knowing what what the requested user-id is -- it only knows someone is initiating a connection to port 22.
You can get to a similar function by adding a SSH 'ProxyCommand' on the client, referenced at
https://superuser.com/questions/107679/forward-ssh-traffic-through-a-middle-machine:
# .ssh/config on hostA:
Host hostC
ProxyCommand ssh hostB -W %h:%p
| mini_pile | {'original_id': 'edf6ffb28fc8f70d0bd2fa2d131494f6a9f77a9304d37470499cafd48ac3f55d'} |
11. Charlotte's wedding dress
This dress is very....interesting. Like there's some parts of it that's pretty but it's kinda over the haut, retour au début and so so so pink Obviously this is a dress for charlotte because almost every formal dress we see her wear is rose and over the haut, retour au début because that's her style. I'm always for people wearing what they want, whether it be cosplay (don't judge me, I'm a geek and proud :P ) ou just wearing a different colored dress. This, however, doesn't exactly scream "wedding dress" to me. It actually reminds me of one of those cakes that has the doll in the middle of it.
10. Tiana's swamp wedding dress
Personally I liked this dress; I loved seeing Tiana wear it in Disneyland and I thought it fit well with the swamp thing. So I didn't know what to expect when I did this countdown, I figured some people didn't like it but what I didn't expect was....the commentaires about it looking like a cabbage Ever since I saw those commentaires that's all I think about now when I see this dress. Even though it's supposed to look like a big leafy dress (because swamp wedding) I think the animators could have done something to the dress that didn't have people think "cabbage dress".
9. Mulan's royal wedding dress
The dress is pretty and the couleurs do work well together, I think what put people off the most was the casque (since that's what most of the commentaires for this dress were about)
8. Tiana's seconde wedding dress
Though prettier than the cabbage dress (that's what I'm calling it now, thanks alot fanpop) the Xs on the dress were strangely placed and it did look weird on the parts of the dress they were on.
7. Mulan's wedding dress
This one had mixed comments. I've had people saying it's not a wedding dress and I've had people saying it was. I also had people saying it looked too much like her matchmaker dress but then I had one ou plus people say that it was a accurate wedding dress in China. The dress is really pretty, I think people just wanted it out because they think it's not a wedding dress ou because they didn't like that it closely resembled her matchmaker dress
6. Jasmine's wedding dress
The jupe of Jasmine's dress is pretty but the or on her shoulders could have been taken off. Like other people a dit the animation didn't do this dress any favors either because if toi compared the way this dress is animated to the dresses jasmin wore in the first movie toi would see a big difference. I know animation difference is something to be expected for a direct to vhs sequel (especially the seconde direct to vhs sequel Disney ever realeased) but the animation is so different jasmin doesn't even look 100% like Jasmine. I'd say if the animation was better and maybe if there was a bigger budget the dress probably would have looked better.
5. Vanessa's wedding dress
The dress prettier than Jasmine's but like Jasmine's there's parts of the dress that don't work. The jupe (something that's been mentioned plus than once) looks like curtains and the grayish/purplish trim looks dull.
4. Rapunzel's wedding dress
I've had people say it's just a copy of the rose dress Rapunzel wore at the end of Raiponce and yeah that's pretty much it. If toi compare the two toi can see almost down to the last detail it's exactly like her other dress. The other issue with the dress is the ridiculously long veil. Even though it's just a copy of another dress that doesn't mean it's not pretty, it's just unoriginal.
3. Ariel's wedding dress
I thought the dress itself was very pretty, there weren't any unnecessary things on it, it's not too plain but it's not too fancy either. The biggest issue with the dress is two words: big sleeves. At the time The Little Mermaid was being worked on and released, puffy sleeves were a thing for some dresses so the dress is pretty for its time. But as the movie ages over the years it's become something for some people to make fun of.
2. Cinderella's seconde wedding dress
Even though it's a dress from a direct to dvd sequel the animation is much better compared to Aladin and the King of Thieves so the dress itself looks better. The bows along the jupe aren't too big ou distracting and the off the shoulder sleeves are designed well. This dress made it far in the countdown but it just can't beat the original.
1. Cinderella's original wedding dress
Cinderella's wedding dress was the first wedding dress in Disney Princess films and now it's number one on this countdown. It's simple compared to the seconde one but still elegant looking and the way the dress moves when she goes down the stairs makes it look so...wow. This dress is also a classic so this is one of those times where nothing beats the classic. | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '0', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.981429636478424}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '59724', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:QWFX3I74EK2NH4CGAXJSNNNZSVRYVZC3', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:f0c0d15d-8ee3-49d5-92cc-881cf4803278>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2019, 2, 23, 21, 18, 52), 'WARC-IP-Address': '184.105.132.107', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:LWV6LMKDSUUUJIDE5QPTS7MMKYVJT2DU', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:89fd80bd-bf63-40a8-98a5-c2c1ee14c0b7>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'http://fr.fanpop.com/clubs/disney-princess/articles/267830/title/wedding-dresses-from-least-prettiest-prettiest', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:4a502344-839b-4980-8fe8-413802f1a623>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '845', 'url': 'http://fr.fanpop.com/clubs/disney-princess/articles/267830/title/wedding-dresses-from-least-prettiest-prettiest', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2019-09\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for February 2019\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-30-205-180.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 0.11-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.7358179092407227', 'original_id': '76b2e6858924f23900ef4c79168d6dc1237b7057e1aecc1e687f0007c23af297'} |
Friday, July 06, 2012
McDonald's Is Great!
I mean, the food is not so good -- however, they do a good job with fries -- but I paid $1.06 for a cup, have drank about 40 ounces of iced tea (unsweetened, OK Joe!) so far, and have been on the Internet for over two hours.
There is nothing like large, soulless corporations where none of the employees give a crap for a place to work unmolested for the afternoon.
1. What? I didn't say nothin'.
I'll be honest, it did take me quite a while to get used to drinking unsweetened tea, but once you get used to it it is actually pretty enjoyable. I need to eat something when I drink tea, otherwise the tannins in it tend to make me queasy, especially 40 oz worth. I prefer hot teas that have mint, cinnamon, or other spices in it, though.
I will say one thing about McDonald's, they do have pretty excellent coffee. I'm not much of a coffee drinker, but I do like to grab some every now and then, and theirs is pretty darned good.
I don't think that I've ever actually sat in a McDonald's longer than 10-15 minutes. In my neighborhood, I'd certainly be somewhat hesitant to do so.
2. Where my place is in Madrid there's either a Burger King or a smaller cafe. At Burger King, I can spend 1.8€ on a large drink and use the internet for as long as I'd like; otherwise, I can go to the smaller cafe and spend 3€ per drink (which are actually not much healthier than BK's) and maybe buy one per 30-45min. period.
The same thing actually goes with using the restroom. It's hard to find public restrooms in Madrid. There is a high likelihood that a bar won't let you use their restroom without being a client. But, large chain employees just don't care enough to stop you or say no.
So, in my book large corporations 2 small businesses 0.
3. Coincidence -- I'm about to try out a McDonald's in Budapest. Let's see how well I can communicate my order without knowing Hungarian... | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '1', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9676952958106996}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '175759', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:HE2QXBRUSIXNOQUNTSBCUY5IVAFRIP26', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:9d553fdc-bd87-4c0c-b54e-5aa1ecaaa0c1>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2014, 7, 30, 0, 58, 30), 'WARC-IP-Address': '74.125.228.203', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': None, 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:VH47TY3XTUMJBAKPZVFKD57D4N7EQWFH', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:0d68045f-0717-4c41-864b-a7dac35627c4>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'http://gene-callahan.blogspot.com/2012/07/mcdonalds-is-great.html', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:f60f7c2a-bfc5-48d8-ab22-cf5191b05a08>', 'WARC-Truncated': 'length'}", 'previous_word_count': '363', 'url': 'http://gene-callahan.blogspot.com/2012/07/mcdonalds-is-great.html', 'warcinfo': 'robots: classic\r\nhostname: ip-10-146-231-18.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0\r\nisPartOf: CC-MAIN-2014-23\r\noperator: CommonCrawl Admin\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web with URLs provided by Blekko for July 2014\r\npublisher: CommonCrawl\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.0\r\nconformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.5590226054191589', 'original_id': '61a63c83a1fb52cfa87054404dcf3261b64535375ad22a7915d22dc353e42cad'} |
Introduction {#Sec1}
============
The immune system is able to detect a wide variety of pathogens and tumor cells, and to distinguish them from healthy host cells. Induction of an adaptive immune response starts with phagocytosis of a pathogen by antigen-presenting cells (APCs), such as dendritic cells (DCs). The phagocytosed antigens are processed into small peptides and presented in major histocompatibility complex (MHC) receptors on their membranes, after which DCs migrate toward lymph nodes (LNs). Further activation signals are required for the establishment of a potent immune response, for instance via recognition of pathogen-associated molecular patterns by pattern recognition receptors (PRR, e.g., Toll-like receptors (TLRs)). DCs subsequently upregulate co-stimulatory molecules, including CD40 and CD80, and present the foreign antigen to T lymphocytes for recognition by their T cell receptors, inducing differentiation of effector and memory CD4^+^ and CD8^+^ T lymphocytes. These cells then perform their effector functions in a concerted manner to eliminate pathogen-infected cells or tumor cells.
In cancer patients, lymphocyte-mediated immunity has failed to prevent primary tumor development. Poor recognition of tumor cells by APCs and the lack of proper activation of these APCs by tumor cells hamper the generation of effective immune effector cells. Also, the presence of immunosuppressive cytokines and that of suppressive tumor-associated cells are common mechanisms by which tumors block the induction and establishment of effective CD8^+^ cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) or CD4^+^ T helper cells. Over the last few years, however, boosting the immune system through T cell checkpoint blockade, adoptive T cell transfer or vaccination is emerging as an effective treatment modality with clinical benefit for cancer patients \[[@CR1]\].
Surgical resection of the primary tumor is still the mainstay of treatment for many cancer patients. However, depending on the tumor type and location of the tumor in the body, this procedure can have severe risks for the patient. During the last few decades, there has been widespread interest in the development and refinement of ablation techniques for local treatment of tumors in a minimally invasive manner. In addition, due to the development of imaging modalities and devices, image-guided tumor ablation is increasingly used for curative treatment, as well as palliative pain treatment. Ablation in its many forms is an attractive alternative treatment option, including for patients otherwise ineligible for surgical resection \[[@CR2], [@CR3]\]. Furthermore, tumor debris remaining in situ after ablation may function as an unbiased source of tumor antigens available to the immune system \[[@CR4]\]. Possibly, the tumor debris could be used to create an in situ cancer vaccine able to stimulate systemic immune responses toward (micro)metastases already present elsewhere in the body, the so called abscopal effect \[[@CR5]\].
The majority of tumor ablation modalities apply energy to cause spatially localized necrosis of tumor cells. Radiofrequency ablation (RFA), microwave ablation (MWA), laser ablation (LA) and high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) employ different sources of energy to rapidly (in seconds or minutes) heat the target region, while cryoablation uses longer (in minutes) cycles of freezing to cause cell death. Complete destruction of the tumor by ablation techniques has several technical difficulties, such as loss of accuracy by respiratory motion or insufficient detection of the tumor borders with different imaging modalities. Incomplete destruction may also occur due to tissue inhomogeneities and asymmetrical heat conduction (heat sink effect). Specifically for HIFU, the presence of gas or bone in the acoustic field results in scattering or absorption of acoustic waves at these interfaces.
HIFU is the only completely noninvasive ablation technique available to date and has been applied for the treatment of uterine fibroids and prostate, breast, liver, kidney, bone and brain tumors \[[@CR6], [@CR7]\]. HIFU-mediated ablation makes use of a multi-element ultrasound transducer, positioned outside the body or in a cavity, to produce high-intensity ultrasound beams focused to a small region. As the ultrasound beams travel toward the focal zone, the convergence of the acoustic waves leads to an increase in energy density (Fig. [1](#Fig1){ref-type="fig"}). In the focal zone, this energy is absorbed by the tissue, elevating temperatures to 60--85 °C in a few seconds. The high temperatures in the focus area lead to coagulation of proteins and fusion of cell membranes, causing necrosis of tumor cells. Heat diffusion leads to a temperature gradient outside the focal zone, where cells do not receive an instantly lethal thermal dose, but are exposed to temperatures over 40 °C. This transition area contains cells suffering from thermal stress. In the days following treatment, the majority of these cells have undergone apoptosis \[[@CR8]\]. A similar pattern is observed with RFA, where in the transition zone, defined as the area where cells are exposed to temperatures between 40 and 60 °C, a peak in apoptosis due to hyperthermia-induced mitochondrial damage or impaired membrane function is seen 2 h after treatment \[[@CR9]\]. With HIFU, the created lesion is normally ellipse-shaped in the range of a few millimeters. Ablation of larger volumes is therefore achieved by scanning the focal zone through the tumor volume, mechanically or electronically, thereby treating the entire tumor. Real-time visualization of the treatment is performed by either B-mode ultrasound imaging, or magnetic resonance (MR) thermometry \[[@CR10], [@CR11]\].Fig. 1Principles of high-intensity focused ultrasound **a** HIFU ablation employs a transducer, which creates ultrasound beams focused to a single focal zone. The acoustic energy increases near the focal zone. **b** This energy can be used to generate ellipse-shaped thermal or non-thermal lesions in tumors in a noninvasive manner
In addition to thermal destruction, HIFU can be used to generate non-thermal effects for disruption of tissue, known as (boiling) histotripsy \[[@CR12]\]. Histotripsy and boiling histotripsy are achieved using very short (micro- or millisecond long) acoustic pulses of high intensity (\>5 times as high compared to thermal ablation), repeated with a low duty cycle to limit temperature increase. For histotripsy, these high-pressure waves produce changes in the gaseous components in tissues, as bubbles will start to oscillate and burst, causing mechanical damage to tissues at a subcellular level \[[@CR13]\]. Boiling histotripsy, which has been applied in mice, uses the formation of a millimeter-sized boiling bubble for mechanical disruption of tissues. The created lesion is very homogeneous, with no visible cellular components, and appears with a sharply demarcated border (\<200 µm) between vital and fragmented tissue \[[@CR8]\]. For more information on the physical and technical aspects of mechanical HIFU, we refer the reader to \[[@CR12]\] and \[[@CR14]\].
Poor detection of tumor borders using current imaging techniques and/or outgrowth of micrometastases present prior to ablation elsewhere in the body can lead to incomplete elimination of tumor cells. Local recurrence and distant metastases are currently also major limitations of ablation modalities \[[@CR10], [@CR15]\], and these limitations are shared with conventional surgical excision. In this context, it has been proposed by us and others to initiate and/or boost ablation-induced antitumor immune responses by using immunomodulatory agents \[[@CR16], [@CR17]\].
Next to lowering the general tumor burden, ablation releases tumor antigens and multiple bioactive molecules such as damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs). Combined with general inflammation and immune-regulatory processes of the wound healing response following ablation, this will result in different innate and adaptive immune effects. However, without co-exposure of antigen-loaded APCs to potent stimulation signals, responses generally remain weak. Potent antitumor immunity therefore is rarely generated, as also evidenced by scarce reports of spontaneous regression following ablation \[[@CR18], [@CR19]\]. Combining ablation with immunomodulatory adjuvants therefore holds great promise, as providing additional stimuli can overcome immune tolerance and induce DC and T cell activation toward tumor antigen-expressing cells \[[@CR20]\]. This concept has been reviewed extensively for RFA, cryoablation and other thermal ablation therapies \[[@CR21], [@CR22]\].
HIFU is a relatively new treatment modality with high potential. This review aims to summarize the immune effects after thermal and mechanical HIFU tumor ablation. Furthermore, we will describe parallels with other ablation methods and discuss the future perspectives of combination treatments with ablation to generate effective antitumor immunity.
HIFU-generated tumor debris {#Sec2}
===========================
Tumor antigens {#Sec3}
--------------
HIFU ablation of tumor cells will lead to either coagulative necrosis (i.e., thermal HIFU) or subcellular fragmentation (i.e., mechanical HIFU). The resulting depot of damaged tumor cells will remain in situ, and tumor antigens present in this depot can be captured by tissue-resident phagocytic cells, such as DCs, that subsequently migrate toward tumor-draining lymph nodes (TDLNs). Alternatively, tumor antigens may passively enter the circulation or lymphatics and be transported to LNs where they can be taken up by LN-resident DCs. The in situ tumor debris will contain all tumor antigens in a (partially) denatured or non-denatured state, depending on the temperatures reached in the focal zone. It has been shown in a cryoablation model that the presence of the depot is essential for the creation of tumor-specific immune responses. There, protection against a rechallenge with the same tumor was attenuated when the tumor debris was excised shortly after ablation, indicating the importance of release of antigens from the depot \[[@CR23]\]. Additionally, CT26 colon adenocarcinoma-bearing mice treated with RFA followed by surgical excision (1 week apart) showed a significantly delayed tumor outgrowth after rechallenge 150 days later, compared to non-tumor-experienced naïve mice inoculated with the same tumor cell dose \[[@CR24]\]. Also after RFA and cryoablation of B16 melanomas in mice, it has been observed that DCs are able to readily internalize tumor antigens from the tumor depot during the first 2 days, with around 10 % of DCs present in LNs becoming positive for the tumor-derived antigen \[[@CR25]\]. These data indicate that the presence of tumor debris is necessary to evoke an antitumor immune response and that ablation is effective in obtaining antigen-loaded DCs in TDLNs.
The goal of personalized cancer therapy hinges on the discovery of suitable antigens giving rise to epitopes present in an individual tumor for the creation of tumor vaccines, recently coined as the HLA ligandome \[[@CR26]\]. These vaccines can contain mutated neoantigens, overexpressed self-antigens or tissue-specific proteins for cell types not essential for survival of the patient. In the last few years, several studies have emphasized the importance of recognition of tumor-mutated neoantigens by immune cells \[[@CR27], [@CR28]\]. Tumors that are considered as highly immunogenic (i.e., melanoma and lung cancer) have higher rates of somatic mutations, which lead to additional recruitment of neoantigen-specific immune cells \[[@CR29]\]. Furthermore, CD8^+^ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes reactive to clonal tumor neoantigens were identified in early stage non-small cell lung cancers. More strikingly, T cells recognizing clonal neoantigens were detected in patients with good clinical outcomes, while poor responders showed enrichment of T cells recognizing only subclonal neoantigens. These data suggest that immune cells targeting clonal neoantigens play a key role in antitumor protection \[[@CR30]\]. In principle, in situ tumor destruction techniques will create an unbiased tumor antigen source in which all types of antigens are present, including mutated neoantigens.
Few studies have investigated the presence of tumor antigens in HIFU-generated tumor debris by making use of mAbs recognizing tumor antigens. One such study demonstrated that in several breast cancer patients, some tumor markers, such as CD44v6 and matrix metalloproteinase-9, were completely absent in immunohistochemically stained tumor biopsies after thermal HIFU ablation, while other tumor antigens could be detected to varying degrees in the HIFU-induced lesion \[[@CR31]\]. A common difficulty of antibodies detecting these antigens is the variation in their specificity, and the degree in which they recognize (partially) denatured tumor antigens. Following RFA of colorectal liver metastases, patients show an initial increase of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA, a tumor antigen), while after surgical resection, the levels of CEA drop rapidly due to elimination of the tumor load. After the initial increase following RFA, levels of CEA slowly drop to background levels over time. This suggests a gradual release of tumor antigens from the in situ depot into the circulation, which can subsequently be taken up by immune cells \[[@CR32]\]. Another issue in comparing data from the different HIFU studies is the lack of detail in treatment description (see also Table [1](#Tab1){ref-type="table"}). More research is needed using detailed HIFU protocols to elucidate the nature of tumor antigens present in the debris after thermal and mechanical HIFU ablation and the kinetics of their release into the circulation.Table 1Overview of described immune effects after high-intensity focused ultrasound tumor ablation in animal studiesAuthorsYearTumor and animal modelsTreatment parametersMain findingsAdditional observationsChapelon et al. \[[@CR69]\]1992Dunning R3327 adenocarcinoma in Fischer Copenhagen ratsFrequency: 1 MHz\
Acoustic intensity: 300--2750 W/cm^2^ Exposure: 3--10 sNo recurrence of primary tumor or appearance of metastases in 14 % (Study 1) and 64 % (Study 2) of HIFU-treated animalsLower metastatic rate in treated animals (16 vs. 28%)Yang et al. \[[@CR50]\]1992C1300 neuroblastoma in male Ajax miceFrequency: 4 MHz\
Acoustic intensity: 550 W/cm^2^\
Exposure: 5 s per locationSignificant inhibition of tumor growth in mice treated with a thermal HIFU, compared to untreated miceReduced tumor growth of a secondary tumor on the contralateral side after thermal HIFU of the primary tumorHu et al. \[[@CR52]\]2007MC-38 adenocarcinoma in C57BL/6 miceFrequency: 3.3 MHz\
Mechanical: Acoustic intensity: P+ 31.7/P− 12.5 MPa, Exposure: 30 s at 2 % duty cycle\
Thermal: Acoustic intensity: P+ 12/P− 6.7 MPa, Exposure: 3 sThermal and mechanical HIFU increased CD11c-positive cell infiltration in tumors and accumulation of DCs in TDLNs. The antitumor effects were stronger with mechanical HIFU compared to thermal HIFUThermal and mechanical HIFU provide protection against subcutaneous tumor rechallengeXing et al. \[[@CR53]\]2008B16F10 melanoma in female C57BL/6 miceFrequency: 3.3 MHz\
Mechanical: Acoustic intensity: P+ 31.7/P− 12.5 MPa, Exposure: 30 s at 2 % duty cycle\
Thermal: Acoustic intensity: P+ 12/P− 6.7 MPa, Exposure: 3 sIncreased cytotoxicity of CTLs when thermal or mechanical HIFU treatment was performed 2 days before amputation of the tumor-bearing legAmputation of the tumor-bearing leg 2 days after thermal or mechanical HIFU resulted in a decreased metastasis incidence rateChida et al. \[[@CR70]\]2009Sarcoma-180 in male ICR miceFrequency: 3 MHz\
Acoustic intensity: 10 W/cm^2^\
Exposure: 10 sA significant reduction in tumor growth and increased survival of animals were observed after a single shot with HIFU, compared to untreated animalsSignificantly higher numbers of TRAP-, CD4- and CD8-positive cells were present in tumors after HIFU treatmentDeng et al. \[[@CR49]\]2010H22 hepatocellular carcinoma in C57BL/6 J miceFrequency: 9.5 MHz\
Acoustic power: 5 W Exposure: 180--240 sDCs loaded with HIFU-ablated tumor lysate induced significantly higher cytotoxicity and IFN-γ and TNF-α secretion by CTLs against H22 cells, than DCs loaded with untreated tumor lysateZhang et al. \[[@CR48]\]2010H22 hepatocellular carcinoma in C57BL/6 J miceFrequency: 9.5 MHz\
Acoustic power: 5 W\
Exposure: 180--240 sInjection of HIFU-treated tumor lysate results in an increase in tumor-specific cytotoxicity of CTLs and a significant decrease in tumor growth, compared to an injection of untreated tumor lysateCulturing bmDCs in the presence of HIFU-treated tumor lysate slightly increased CD86, CD80 and MHCII expression and IL-12 and IFN-γ secretion, compared to untreated tumor lysateHuang et al. \[[@CR54]\]2012RM-9 prostate cancer in C57BL/6 miceFrequency: 3.3 MHz\
Acoustic intensity: P+ 32/P− 10 MPa Exposure: 20 s at 2 % duty cycleMechanical HIFU, followed by resection of the tumor, inhibits growth of rechallenged tumors, increases CTL numbers in spleen and TDLN and down-regulates STAT3 levels in the tumorLiu et al. \[[@CR55]\]2010MC-38 adenocarcinoma and B16 melanoma tumors in C57BL/6 miceFrequency: 3.3 MHz\
Acoustic intensity: P+ 19.5/P− 7.2 MPa\
Exposure: 4 sEnhanced infiltration of DCs into tumor tissue in a sparse-scan HIFU treatment regime compared to a dense-scan regimeTumor cells heated to \<55 °C in the periphery of a lesion induce more maturation of DCs than tumor cells heated to \>80 °CXia et al. \[[@CR51]\]2012H22 hepatocellular carcinoma in female C57BL/6 J miceFrequency: 9.5 MHz\
Acoustic intensity: 5 W\
Exposure: 220 s total timeA significant increased cytotoxicity of CTLs and a significant increase in IFN-γ and TNF-α secretion by CTLs was observed after thermal HIFU ablation, compared to untreated controlsA significant increased number of activated tumor-specific CTLs after HIFU treatment, compared to untreated controls*HIFU* High-intensity focused ultrasound, *CTLs* cytotoxic T lymphocytes, *TDLN* tumor-draining lymph node, *P*+ peak-positive pressure, *P*− peak-negative pressure, *DCs* dendritic cells
Danger signals {#Sec4}
--------------
After thermal ablation, a lesion of coagulative necrosis is formed, as well as a transition zone of cells undergoing apoptosis at a slower rate due to heat stress \[[@CR33], [@CR34]\]. On the other hand, mechanical HIFU ablation leads to cellular fragmentation with only a minimal temperature increase \[[@CR35], [@CR36]\]. There have been many studies trying to correlate the type of in vivo cell death to immunogenicity, and the current consensus is that both apoptosis and necrosis can be immunogenic, depending on the release of factors such as calreticulin or heat-shock proteins (HSPs) \[[@CR37], [@CR38]\]. At present, the occurrence of such factors and the resulting immunogenicity are still poorly defined for the various HIFU treatments. PRRs on the cell surface of innate immune cells, such as the highly conserved TLRs, are able to discern microbial molecular patterns. However, TLRs are also able to bind a range of endogenously derived self-molecules released in response to cellular damage, known as DAMPs. The binding of DAMPs to PRRs on innate immune cells promotes intracellular signaling cascades, leading to the production of inflammatory cytokines, chemokines and type 1 IFNs. These factors regulate inflammatory responses and coordinate the development of immunity or tolerance to the antigens present \[[@CR39]\]. Ablation itself will lead to a physiological wound healing response as a consequence of internal injury. Wound healing is a complex phenomenon comprised of different discrete stages, each predominated by different cytokines and cell types. Some of the initial stages appear more inflammatory, while the tissue regeneration stage involves immune-regulatory cytokines, like TGF-β, that may be more anti-inflammatory or immune suppressive. In conclusion, ablation results in the release of a pleiotropic mixture of signals, including immune stimulatory and immune inhibitory signals.
So far only a limited number of studies have investigated the release of immune stimulatory signals following HIFU ablation. Thermal or mechanical HIFU treatment of MC-38 colon adenocarcinoma cells in vitro resulted in a rapid release of endogenous DAMPs, such as HSP-60 and ATP, from the damaged tumor cells \[[@CR40]\], from which the latter can act as chemoattractant for DCs \[[@CR41]\]. Subsequently, in vitro incubation of DCs or macrophages with this supernatant resulted in an upregulation of co-stimulatory molecules on their surface (CD80 and CD86), as well as an increased secretion of IL-12 by DCs and an elevated secretion of TNF-α by macrophages. The stimulatory effect was more pronounced by mechanical HIFU treatment compared to thermal HIFU treatment \[[@CR40]\]. In addition, it was shown that HIFU could induce HSP-70 and HSP-27 expression in vitro \[[@CR42], [@CR43]\]. These results are extrapolated to the in vivo situation, where the ongoing wound healing response is present, confirming the upregulation of HSP-70 in the skin of mice after thermal HIFU treatment \[[@CR44]\]. Clinical evidence demonstrates upregulation of HSP-27, HSP-72 and HSP-73 after HIFU treatment in prostate cancer \[[@CR43], [@CR45]\]. This upregulation was specifically seen at the border zone of the HIFU-induced lesion \[[@CR45]\]. In breast cancer patients treated with thermal HIFU, HSP-70 was found to be upregulated in the tumor debris \[[@CR31]\]. These results are similar to results obtained from other ablation methods, where RFA-treated B16 melanomas became highly positive for HSP-70 and glycoprotein 96 (gp96) \[[@CR46]\]. Similarly, Haen et al. also demonstrated a significant systemic release of HSP-70 into the serum one day after RFA treatment of lung, liver and kidney malignancies \[[@CR47]\]. Furthermore, they observed a better clinical outcome in the group with significant HSP-70 release compared to the group without increase in HSP-70 serum levels. However, this was investigated in a small cohort with large variation, so these findings need to be confirmed in independent studies \[[@CR47]\]. Most studies looking for HIFU-induced DAMP release have focused on HSPs, future investigations should include a broader range of DAMPs, and need to define the impact of these individual factors on the immunological outcome. Furthermore, the release and the effect of immune inhibitory signals following ablation should also be examined.
In conclusion, tumor ablation will lead to formation of an in situ antigen depot containing all tumor antigens, including mutated neoantigens, which can be processed and presented by APCs. Furthermore, ablation will lead to the release of DAMPs that potentially could activate cells from the innate immune system, such as DCs. However, the kinetics of release of tumor antigens and DAMPs from the depot after thermal or mechanical HIFU require further investigation. In current HIFU literature, however, comparisons between different HIFU treatments are complicated by lack of details in the treatment description, as well as classification of the acoustic field generated and the temperature in the lesion (see also Table [1](#Tab1){ref-type="table"}). Definition of the molecular fingerprint of different ablation approaches may help to predict whether the ablation-induced inflammation will lead to tolerance or a productive antitumor immune response.
HIFU-induced immune effects {#Sec5}
===========================
Experimental evidence {#Sec6}
---------------------
Despite the reported enhanced presence of key immunological correlates following ablation, strong immune responses have not been observed after tumor ablation as monotherapy. Possibly, ablation-induced immunological activation and wound healing responses, triggered within the same time frame, serve more to regulate and maintain immunological tolerance toward the damaged tissue. Increasing evidence indicates that HIFU-induced tumor ablation can modulate antitumor immunity (summarized in Table [1](#Tab1){ref-type="table"}). Zhang and colleagues investigated, using H22 hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) bearing mice, whether tumor debris could be an effective vaccine to elicit tumor-specific immune responses \[[@CR48]\]. The HIFU-generated tumor vaccine significantly increased CTL cytotoxicity and induced enhanced activation of immature DCs. Mice immunized with the HIFU-generated tumor vaccine showed inhibited tumor growth after a subsequent H22 tumor challenge compared with control mice. Similarly, lysate from thermal HIFU-treated H22 tumors was shown to induce maturation of DCs \[[@CR49]\]. Injection of DCs loaded with HIFU-ablated tumor into naïve mice resulted in increased CTL cytotoxicity and inhibited tumor growth of a H22 tumor challenge compared to controls \[[@CR49]\]. Alternatively, tumor eradication by thermal HIFU treatment was shown to significantly reduce tumor growth of rechallenged tumors in a neuroblastoma model \[[@CR50]\]. Furthermore, thermal HIFU ablation of H22 HCC tumors resulted in increased cytotoxicity of CTLs, along with a significant increase in IFN-γ and TNF-α secretion, compared to untreated controls \[[@CR51]\]. Additionally, a significant increase in the number of tumor-specific CTLs in the HIFU-treated cohort was seen. Adoptive transfer of these HIFU-activated CTLs was shown to evoke potent antitumor immune responses in tumor-bearing mice in terms of survival benefit and tumor regression \[[@CR51]\]. Similar results regarding CTL activation were obtained from mice bearing B16F10 melanomas and MC-38 colon adenocarcinomas \[[@CR52], [@CR53]\]. Interestingly, mechanical HIFU ablation of B16F10 tumors was slightly more potent in activating CTLs compared to thermal HIFU ablation \[[@CR53]\]. Furthermore, HIFU treatment, thermal and mechanical, of MC-38 adenocarcinomas resulted in enhanced infiltration of CD11c^+^ DCs into tumors and subsequent migration to TDLNs \[[@CR52]\]. Again, these effects were more pronounced in mechanical HIFU-treated mice compared to thermal HIFU-treated mice \[[@CR52]\]. Mechanical HIFU ablation of RM-9 prostate tumors followed by resection 2 days later resulted in increased numbers of CD8^+^ cells in spleens and TDLNs, and these cells exhibited higher tumor-specific cytotoxicity. The cumulative survival of this dual treatment cohort was found to be statistically higher than that in the surgery group \[[@CR54]\]. These effects are similar to several studies using RFA treatment, where increased numbers of tumor-reactive CTLs were observed 24 h after RFA treatment, with increased CD3^+^ cells infiltration in the transition zone (reviewed in \[[@CR22]\]). For thermal HIFU, a treatment regime where each thermal lesion does not overlap with its neighbors has been recommended, as it has been shown that DCs accumulate mostly in the periphery of a lesion, where tumor cells are exposed to temperatures of \<55 °C \[[@CR55]\]. This observation implies that sparse-scan thermal treatment regime could be more potent in stimulating immune effects, indicating the importance of optimization of the HIFU scan strategy for optimal tumor ablation and stronger immune responses.
Taken together, these data suggest that HIFU ablation alone does significantly influence the immune system, but that the overall antitumor immune response is insufficient. Therefore, it has been suggested that different immune stimuli can help boost ablation-induced immune effects. For cryoablation, it is known that in vivo proximity of tumor antigen and immune stimulus (in these studies; TLR-9 agonist CpG-ODN) in place and time is essential for optimal immune activation. Efficacy of cancer immunotherapy was strongly increased only when CpG-ODN was administered peritumorally immediately after cryoablation \[[@CR56], [@CR57]\]. Furthermore, a combination strategy of cryoablation, adoptive transfer of DCs and CpG-ODN resulted in reduced tumor growth, metastasis formation and protection against recurrence of Lewis lung carcinoma \[[@CR16]\].
In the B16 model, RFA and cryoablation have also been combined with a checkpoint blockade antibody directed against CTLA-4, resulting in increased numbers of tumor-specific T cells with increased IFN-γ secretion potential, and protection against outgrowth of tumor rechallenges \[[@CR25]\]. Later, these results were confirmed in a mouse model of prostate cancer \[[@CR58]\]. In this latter study, cryoablation of primary tumors alone also did not affect growth of secondary tumors. Systemic effects were only achieved by combining cryoablation with CTLA-4 blockade, which led to high infiltration of CD4^+^ and CD8^+^ T cells, as well as an increase in effector T cell/regulatory T cell ratio in secondary tumors \[[@CR58]\]. Analyses of the effect of multiple other adjuvants in combination with ablation have implicated saponins, a new class of non-microbial adjuvants, as being particularly potent \[[@CR17]\]. The data have shown that saponins combine effectively with cryoablation, leading to more efficient uptake of tumor antigens by CD11c^+^ DCs in TDLNs, enhanced cross-presentation and activation, compared to cryoablation alone \[[@CR17]\].
Clinical evidence {#Sec7}
-----------------
As shown in Table [2](#Tab2){ref-type="table"}, clinical results also reveal modulation of the immune system after thermal HIFU ablation. Mechanical HIFU tumor ablation has not yet been performed in a clinical setting. So far, several patients with various solid malignancies, who had an abnormal CD4^+^/CD8^+^ T cell ratio prior to HIFU treatment, had their CD4^+^/CD8^+^ ratio revert to normal 1 week after ablation \[[@CR59], [@CR60]\]. In a different study, ten out of 15 patients with late-stage pancreatic carcinomas showed significantly increased NK cell activity after HIFU treatment, as well as a trend toward more CD3^+^ and CD4^+^ cells in peripheral blood was observed \[[@CR61]\]. Thermal HIFU ablation has also been shown to increase the infiltration of DCs, macrophages and CD3^+^, CD4^+^ and CD8^+^ lymphocytes in the margins of induced lesions in breast tumors, compared with untreated tumors \[[@CR62], [@CR63]\]. These systemic cellular effects are only present in a subset of patients, and effective tumor-specific immune responses are not observed. These results are comparable to preclinical data, where increases in immune cell infiltration and activation can be seen after HIFU treatment.Table 2Overview of described immune effects after high-intensity focused ultrasound tumor ablation in clinical studiesAuthorsYearPatient informationHIFU parametersMain findingsAdditional observationsRosberger et al. \[[@CR59]\]19945 patients with choroidal melanomaExposure: \>50 °C for 5 minCD4^+^/CD8^+^ ratio reverted to normal after HIFU in 2 of 3 patients with an abnormal CD4^+^/CD8^+^ ratioWang et al. \[[@CR61]\]200215 patients with late-stage pancreatic carcinomaFrequency: 1.1 MHz\
Acoustic power: 500--1600 W\
Exposure: 30--80 s per locationA significant increase in the activity of NK cells after HIFU treatmentNonsignificant increase in CD3^+^ and CD4^+^ T cells in 66 % of patients (10/15)Wu et al. \[[@CR71]\]200323 female patients with biopsy-proven breast cancerFrequency: 1.6 MHz\
Acoustic intensity: 5000--15,000 W/cm^2^ Exposure: 30--180 min total timeHIFU-treated tumors showed significant decrease in PCNA, CD44v6, MMP-9 and erbB2 mRNA levelsKramer et al. \[[@CR45]\]20046 patients with prostate cancerFrequency: 4 MHz\
Acoustic intensity: 1260--2000 W/cm^2^ Exposure: 4 s per locationA significant upregulation of HSP-72 and -73 at the border zone of HIFU-induced thermal lesion in prostate cancer patientsWu et al. \[[@CR60]\]200416 patients with solid malignanciesFrequency: 0.8 MHz\
Acoustic intensity: 5000--20,000 W/cm^2^ Exposure: 2.5--8 h total timeA significant increase in CD4^+^ T cells after HIFU treatmentCD4^+^/CD8^+^ ratio reverted to normal after HIFU in 3 patients with an abnormal CD4^+^/CD8^+^ ratioZhou et al. \[[@CR66]\]200815 patients with various solid malignanciesFrequency: 0.8--1.2 MHz\
Acoustic intensity: 140--260 W Exposure: 4--39 min total timeA significant decrease in serum VEGF, TGF-β1 and -β2 cytokine levels after HIFU treatmentWu et al. \[[@CR31]\]200723 female patients with biopsy-proven breast cancerFrequency: 1.6 MHz\
Acoustic intensity: 5000--15,000 W/cm^2^ Exposure: 45--150 min total timeHSP-70 expression was detected on the ablated cancer cells in all patients treated with HIFUNo expression of CD44v6, MMP-9 and PCNA in HIFU-treated tumorsLu et al. \[[@CR62]\]200923 female patients with biopsy-proven breast cancerFrequency: 1.6 MHz\
Acoustic intensity: 5000--15,000 W/cm^2^ Exposure: 45--150 min total timeA significant increase in CD3^+^, CD4^+^ and CD8^+^ T lymphocyte infiltration in the tumor, compared to controlsIncreased numbers of NK cells and FasL+, granzyme+, perforin+ TILs found in HIFU-treated tumorsXu et al. \[[@CR63]\]200923 female patients with biopsy-proven breast cancerFrequency: 1.6 MHz\
Acoustic intensity: 5000--15,000 W/cm^2^ Exposure: 45--150 min total timeA significant increase in infiltration and activation of macrophages and DCs in HIFU-treated tumors, compared to controlsWang et al. \[[@CR64]\]2013120 patients with uterine fibroidsFrequency: 0.8 MHz\
Maximum acoustic power: 400 W\
Exposure: not statedSerum levels of IL-6 and -10 increased after HIFU treatmentIL-2 serum levels remained stable in HIFU-treated patients, compared to the patients receiving surgical resection where the IL-2 levels decreased*HIFU* High-intensity focused ultrasound, *DCs* dendritic cells, *TILs* tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, *NK cells* natural killer cells
Evaluation of immune-related cytokines showed increases in the Th2 cytokines, IL-6 and IL-10, in serum after ablation, although it was not determined what cell type secretes these cytokines \[[@CR64], [@CR65]\]. The increase in IL-6 and IL-10 in plasma levels was observed within 48 h using different ablation techniques, where cryoablation induced greater changes than heat-based ablation \[[@CR65]\]. On a serum level, a significant decrease in the immunosuppressive cytokines, including vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), TGF-β1 and -β2, was measured after HIFU treatment in patients with various solid malignancies, suggesting that HIFU may reduce immunosuppression \[[@CR66]\]. In a retrospective study, RFA treatment of colorectal cancer liver metastases increased T cell infiltration, as well as PD-L1 expression in primary colon tumors \[[@CR67]\]. The authors confirmed these findings in a CT26 tumor-bearing mouse model. Furthermore, they observed that while RFA of a tumor can induce strong T cell responses in the distant tumors, these tumors quickly overcame this by inhibiting T cells via upregulation of PD-L1/PD-1 expression. In this setting, combining RFA with anti-PD-1 antibodies showed stronger T cell responses and resulted in significantly prolonged survival of the tumor-bearing mice \[[@CR67]\].
In conclusion, immune effects after tumor ablation alone consist mostly of increased infiltration of immune cells, including innate and adaptive immune cells, in the destroyed tumor tissue, which is observed in experimental and clinical setup. In several murine tumor models, enhanced DC and CTLs activities are observed. In man, the results revealed mainly changes in the secretion of inflammatory, as well as immunosuppressive cytokines. Systemic protection after HIFU has not been observed frequently, which is in line with studies using cryoablation or RFA. There, systemic effects were only achieved when ablation was combined with immune adjuvants, including checkpoint blockade antibodies.
Conclusion and perspectives {#Sec8}
===========================
HIFU is an important development toward a completely noninvasive ablation treatment. Thermal and mechanical HIFU ablation is being used in various pre-clinical settings for different solid malignancies. Thermal HIFU ablation is applied in various clinical settings, while for mechanical ablation the first clinical trial is being performed. Although preliminary data do suggest that immune effects occur after HIFU ablation, such as increased infiltration and cytotoxicity of CTLs, no potent tumor-specific immunity has yet been convincingly demonstrated. Despite the obviously changing immunological parameters, the minor decreases in tumor growth after rechallenge, and inconsistent decrease in metastasis formation after HIFU alone, do not support the induction of strong antitumor immune responses. Data retrieved from HIFU studies so far are in line with other ablation technologies and strengthen the notion that ablation should be combined with immunomodulatory adjuvants to boost antitumor immune responses. Combination strategies could lead to an in situ tumor vaccine, where tumor antigens are released from the tumor debris and taken up by APCs, while the immunotherapeutic compound helps activate immune cells and overcome immunosuppression. Only in such a scenario, long-lasting systemic immunity against the tumor can be expected. Further studies will elucidate by what mechanism HIFU induces or enhances immune responses and what immunomodulatory adjuvants synergizes best with each type of ablation in different cancer types. Selecting the best ablation-immune stimulation combination will be key to boost HIFU-induced immune effects and to achieve consistent protective antitumor immunity.
The effects of tumor ablation are multifold: (1) the destruction of tumor mass, lowering tumor burden and (2) the release of tumor antigens, making them available for uptake by APCs. The treatment itself will lead to (3) the release of DAMPs and (4) the induction of a physiological wound healing response. Ablation will lead to creation of an in situ antigen depot containing all types of tumor proteins. Ablation of tumors at temperatures above 65 °C leads to denaturation of proteins. This can affect immune responses in opposing ways as high temperatures denature immune activating signals, such as danger signals like HSPs, as well as immune suppressive signals such as TGF-β or IL-10. Depending on the tumor microenvironment, it may be more important to remove immune suppressive signals or maintain danger signals using, respectively, thermal ablation or mechanical ablation. Furthermore, availability of tumor antigens from the tumor debris may be different between thermal and mechanical HIFU. The state of blood vessels in/near the treated area should be considered as well, since the majority of immune cells will reach the induced lesion via the circulation. More experiments looking closely at the optimal treatment regime for a given cancer patient are needed to achieve this. In current literature, however, the treatment description, as well as classification of the acoustic field generated, is often lacking details (see also Table [1](#Tab1){ref-type="table"}). Furthermore, it is important to know the temperatures reached and whether a more sparse- or dense-scan treatment is used. A standardized framework of treatment description, such as proposed previously, could facilitate comparisons of different HIFU settings and their effects on the immune system \[[@CR68]\]. Recently, the first animal models for mechanical HIFU have been developed \[[@CR8]\]. Some murine studies suggest that mechanical HIFU induces a stronger anti-tumor immune response than thermal HIFU \[[@CR52], [@CR53]\]. However, studies describing mechanical HIFU are limited, underscoring the need for further investigation. Whether sequential HIFU conditions exist that are sufficient to trigger potent immune responses in the absence of an adjuvant remains to be answered. Furthermore, it will be rewarding to look for the best HIFU ablation conditions that can optimally boost immunotherapy and synergize with immune adjuvants. Additionally, it will be important to determine the relative immunogenicity and nature of HIFU-created tumor debris, compared to for instance tumor debris after cryoablation or RFA.
In clinical practice, local recurrence of the primary tumor and/or emergence of pre-existing metastases are the main limitations of successful curative treatment using tumor ablation methods. Recent clinical results with current ablation treatments have shown that these problems persist with HIFU \[[@CR10], [@CR15]\]. To overcome these limitations, it will be key to consider combination therapies, combining ablation with adjuvants or checkpoint blockade therapy to generate strong systemic antitumor immunity for individual patients.
APC
: Antigen-presenting cell
CEA
: Carcinoembryonic antigen
CTL
: Cytotoxic T lymphocyte
DAMP
: Damage-associated molecular pattern
DC
: Dendritic cell
HCC
: Hepatocellular carcinoma
HIFU
: High-intensity focused ultrasound
HSP
: Heat-shock protein
LA
: Laser ablation
LN
: Lymph node
MHC
: Major histocompatibility complex
MR
: Magnetic resonance
MWA
: Microwave ablation
PRR
: Pattern recognition receptor
RFA
: Radiofrequency ablation
TDLN
: Tumor-draining lymph node
TLR
: Toll-like receptor
VEGF
: Vascular endothelial growth factor
Dylan C. Eikelenboom and Martijn Hoogenboom have equally contributed to this work.
Martijn H. den Brok and Gosse J. Adema have equally contributed to this work.
This work was supported by a Radboudumc Ph.D. Grant and Dutch Cancer Society Grant KUN2013-6111.
Conflict of interest {#FPar1}
====================
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
| mini_pile | {'original_id': 'b6632f0f3ecba25d8a6c1e086f466639c630179e0839e81dcb472f40c1407509'} |
Title: Combinatorial models of configuration spaces Abstract: Fox and Neuwirth, Salvetti, and others have described useful combinatorial decompositions of the configuration spaces of Euclidean space. I will explain how stratified spaces nicely synthesize those decompositions, and extend them to provide models for configuration spaces of many manifolds. I will conclude by outlining how these ideas apply to factorization homology and embedding calculus. | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '0', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.8596159815788269}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '743', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:T2WZQ4MHRNBF4K7SFXE6RQZZMX22IKAA', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:6888b180-c89f-4d9f-a3a7-921c6344fb4d>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2014, 4, 18, 5, 58, 52), 'WARC-IP-Address': '128.223.142.106', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': None, 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:MGVYS5TXCM5Z3MIZPXZSZ2IW3LQJR4GA', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:215f4451-2906-4696-8fb0-efbfb3ebd9d0>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'http://pages.uoregon.edu/sadofsky/casc12f/andrabs', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:555938f6-e4fe-4b1c-8a93-05f843a983c8>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '62', 'url': 'http://pages.uoregon.edu/sadofsky/casc12f/andrabs', 'warcinfo': 'robots: classic\r\nhostname: ip-10-147-4-33.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0\r\nisPartOf: CC-MAIN-2014-15\r\noperator: CommonCrawl Admin\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web with URLs provided by Blekko for April 2014\r\npublisher: CommonCrawl\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.0\r\nconformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.08805572986602783', 'original_id': '8feead22a2d141f18189f9db82ec3f95c8d0d0020238c19cd6e851dc01b626b8'} |
UK must play its part in acting against money laundering
GORDON BROWN's latest move targets Barakat, a Dubai-based mobile phone and financial conglomerate dubbed 'the quartermasters of terror' by US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill. The Chancellor has also offered to create an 'international clearing house' at the London-based National Criminal Intelligence Service to share information on terrorist finance. There is certainly a need for action.
Terrorism doesn't come cheap. The US estimates that the 11 September attacks cost the perpetrators around half a million dollars. Add to that the embassy bombings in Africa, and al Qaeda's extravagant aspirations in nuclear and biological warfare, and pretty soon you are talking serious money - too much to hoard or transfer in cash. That money could be intercepted if only governments could trace it as it passes through the world's financial systems.
The Barakat companies, for example, whose assets were frozen last week, operated in 40 countries around the world and are said by US investigators to have funnelled tens of millions of dollars to al Qaeda. In Britain, from today, Customs and Excise get the power to supervise High Street bureaux de change, some of which are suspected of transmitting £2.5bn a year abroad for illegal ends.
Around the world governments are increasingly trying to crack down on money laundering. At the end of October, the Financial Action Task Force - the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development offshoot that co-ordinates the rich countries' fight against money laundering - announced new measures backed up by a threat of possible sanctions against countries that don't co-operate. Britain's banking system is coming under particular scrutiny.
British-based banks looked appallingly lax less than four weeks after the 11 September attacks, when the UK's High Court froze accounts at Barclays, HSBC, National Westminster, Citibank, Deutsche Bank and 14 other banks holding more than $1bn allegedly stolen from Nigeria by former President Sani Abacha and his associates. If the London branches of the world's biggest banks took the money of a man generally acknowledged to be corrupt, is it any surprise they are alleged to have catered to the little-known al Qaeda network?
Last month, a committee of French parliamentarians investigating the extent of money laundering all over Europe published a 390-page report condemning London for its 'lethargy', 'complacency' and 'weak political will' over money laundering.
Terrorist money laundering usually involves funds generated by legitimate businesses - like some of Barakat's in mobile phones - which is then channelled to illegal organisations. Typically, launderers use shell companies and trusts whose ultimate owners are known only to the lawyer or accountant who acts as trustee.
Shell or vehicle companies and trusts are everyday tools of sophisticated financial markets. In London, the biggest financial centre in Europe, they are used quite legally in their hundreds by bond underwriters and corporate financiers. They exist in most countries, but the sheer size of London's financial markets makes it hard to tell the money launderers' vehicles from genuine businesses.
As Ceri Smith, head of the financial crimes branch of the UK Treasury, told MPs earlier this year, the UK 'could be said to be a victim of its own success'. He said the size of the problem could not be estimated but, globally, the International Monetary Fund put it at between 2% and 5% of world GDP.
London also seems to be a place where money laundering carries little risk of detection or prosecution. The French report highlighted how few of the UK's 12,500 law firms reported suspicions of money laundering: just 57 in 1999, rising to only 250 last year. The UK's 17,500 accountants reported only 17 suspicions in 1999, rising to 77 in 2000. This is tiny, compared with the City's billions of transactions. As for prosecutions, in the decade to 1998, only 357 had been brought, leading to 136 convictions. That compared with 538 prosecutions in Italy for the same period and 2,034 cases in a single year in the US.
Also, scant resources are devoted to combating the problem. At the economic crime section of Britain's National Criminal Intelligence Service, only 30 people handle the 18,400 declarations of suspicions of money laundering received annually. That's less than half the staff of Austrac, the comparable Australian body, which has nearly four times the budget to police less than a seventh of the UK's total of financial institutions.
ONE particular problem in the UK is the 10,000 or so company-formation agencies, completely unregulated operators that can set up shell companies and provide nominee directors and shareholders to disguise ownership. James London, joint project chief for money-laundering standards at the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the UK regulator, said: 'Everybody concerned has identified these agencies as presenting a problem. I don't really think the Government intends for the time being to regulate them.'
In some areas, however, the Government has acted. The imminent Proceeds Of Crime Bill will strengthen the existing obligations of all citizens, and in particular financial services firms, to report suspicions of money laundering. A new anti-terrorist finance unit will investigate the 'hawala' system of underground banking - operating in the Middle East and Asia - which creates suspiciously few paper trails and was heavily used by the Barakat companies.
Most importantly, on 1 December, the FSA - already the regulator of banks and securities firms - will get new powers to prosecute for money laundering. According to one former FSA official: 'It's politically expedient to have heads on spikes outside the FSA in Canary Wharf within the next 12 months, because then the UK can say to other countries, We are cracking down. The Treasury wants Bankers prosecuted on the front page of the Financial Times.'
Stopping money laundering requires international co-operation, particularly from countries such as Saudi Arabia, where al Qaeda has deep roots. But it's time the UK showed it is playing a part.
UK must play its part in acting against money laundering
Search within | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '0', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.953578770160675}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '262402', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:EUKZFBSTPMNW2BEDA4J7OD256LQZLM6N', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:2dbaae8b-d847-4daf-8e46-d6cb7c3e7ad6>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2021, 9, 21, 17, 36, 42), 'WARC-IP-Address': '104.96.247.85', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:UGAM2XZPSYSG6TBLPEYW6MPITB5W4DVN', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:fc92c8b3-c3db-412f-ac91-80f76d2c0f6c>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-1546045/UK-must-play-its-part-in-acting-against-money-laundering.html', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:41f5ae1a-279d-4fd4-a778-0937c4a41923>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '969', 'url': 'https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-1546045/UK-must-play-its-part-in-acting-against-money-laundering.html', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2021-39\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for September 2021\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-67-67-22\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.18 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: https://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.04181206226348877', 'original_id': '2be9af0abe8abe5fe8b6aed762003d2c8da62fe77111040d46fd4129ffb53446'} |
Q:
Adding to browsers history on click
I'm using the plugin called Ascensor from http://kirkas.ch/ascensor
It's basically a tool that help me build a single page application.
However, I have a problem that I don't know how to solve.
All of my content will be listet inside my <div id="ascensorBuilding">
<div id="ascensorBuilding">
<div class="floor floor-1">
<span class="text">Floor 1</span>
</div>
<div class="floor floor-2">
<span class="text">Floor 2</span>
</div>
<div class="floor floor-3">
<span class="text">Floor 3</span>
</div>
<div class="floor floor-4">
<span class="text">Floor 4</span>
</div>
<div class="floor floor-5">
<span class="text">Floor 5</span>
</div>
<div class="floor floor-6">
<span class="text">Floor 6</span>
</div>
<div class="floor floor-7">
<span class="text">Floor 7</span>
</div>
</div>
And my floor links:
<nav>
<ul class="links-to-floor">
<li><a>Floor 1</a></li>
<li><a>Floor 2</a></li>
<li><a>Floor 3</a></li>
<li><a>Floor 4</a></li>
<li><a>Floor 5</a></li>
<li><a>Floor 6</a></li>
<li><a>Floor 7</a></li>
</ul>
</nav>
And I then use this script to change between the "pages"
var ascensor = $('#ascensorBuilding').ascensor({ascensorFloorName:["Home", "About", "HTML" , "Jquery" , "CSS", "Smartphone", "End"], direction: [[0,0],[0,1],[0,2],[1,0],[1,1],[1,2],[2,0]]});
var ascensorInstance = $('#ascensorBuilding').data('ascensor');
$(".links-to-floor li").click(function(event, index) {
ascensorInstance.scrollToFloor($(this).index());
});
$(".links-to-floor li:eq("+ ascensor.data("current-floor") +")").addClass("selected");
ascensor.on("scrollStart", function(event, floor){
$(".links-to-floor li").removeClass("selected");
$(".links-to-floor li:eq("+floor.to+")").addClass("selected");
});
As you can see I add a floorname to my url. So I will start on www.mysite.com/index.html#home and if I go to another page, it would be www.mysite.com/index.html#about for example.
And if I manually put www.mysite.com/index.html#about in the addressbar, I will also go to that specific page.
But my problem is that if I click around my floors, non of the pages are added to the browsers history. So if I decide to click on the browsers back button, I will go back the site I was on before entering my website.
How can I manage to add my click to the browsers history?
A:
You can manipulate the Javascript history object yourself:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Guide/API/DOM/Manipulating_the_browser_history#Adding_and_modifying_history_entries
| mini_pile | {'original_id': '23d54dca22848eab2d826cc81e37ccb7afc7566184b1ec5882d3929bfe7fc33c'} |
Minn. man discovers first new mammal in decades
The Daily Circuit
Researchers announced a rare discovery of a new species of a mammal that belongs to the grouping of large creatures that include dogs, cats and bears: the olinguito. The raccoon-sized critters leap through the trees of the cloud forests of Ecuador and Colombia at night, according to a Smithsonian researcher. | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '1', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.8862618207931519}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '30942', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:D5X3WVOGUNYXT5N33QQRPXP5JZDJZZKO', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:d09a42cb-aca6-456d-8498-bd235ff438e6>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2014, 10, 30, 17, 33, 24), 'WARC-IP-Address': '23.0.160.64', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': None, 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:JWNOQ6VZ6YRZY3H4MVKQNINPTB5Q66ZN', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:25589047-6c7d-4502-b735-bb7436e3dd9e>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'http://www.mprnews.org/story/2013/12/26/daily-circuit-olungito', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:aba15045-dfd4-4f11-adec-971499e72cc6>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '61', 'url': 'http://www.mprnews.org/story/2013/12/26/daily-circuit-olungito', 'warcinfo': 'robots: classic\r\nhostname: ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0\r\nisPartOf: CC-MAIN-2014-42\r\noperator: CommonCrawl Admin\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web with URLs provided by Blekko for October 2014\r\npublisher: CommonCrawl\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.0\r\nconformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.029291093349456787', 'original_id': 'bb3f91f97814cc1af94193e14ba119001d78f89f4aed0360984aca420bd92a4f'} |
If a reintroduction effort in the 1990s hadn’t been scuttled, northern Minnesota would now be home to many sleighs’ worth of reindeer.
So says Dr. John Pastor, professor of biology at the University of Minnesota Duluth. “This would have been a model study on how to reintroduce a native species to an area where it had been extirpated.“
In the 1990s, Pastor was part of a committee pursuing the possibility of returning caribou—also called reindeer—to the state. The committee comprised a grab bag of government agencies and one nongovernmental organization.
After 18 months of research, the committee had a plan.
Tastes like regional extinction
Let’s back up for a minute. Where did all of our caribou go?
It’s the too-familiar conservation story of not knowing what you’ve got till it’s gone. Woodland caribou once abounded in the bogs and boreal forests of northern Minnesota.
Then, in the 1800s, likely due to a combination of overhunting, habitat loss, and Parelaphostrongylus tenuis (brainworm) spread by white-tailed deer, the caribou population nosedived.
“The last native herd, near Isabella, was actually shot to provide meat for a logging camp,” said Pastor.
Since the 1930s, there have been only sporadic caribou sightings, the most recent confirmed of which was in 1981. The closest most Minnesotans have ever come to a caribou is a coffee shop.
Woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) are cervids, smaller than moose but bigger than whitetails. Various subspecies of caribou inhabit the world’s northerly regions.
Adults can weigh 600 lbs and stand five feet at the shoulder. Their distinctive antlers swoop skyward like giant, velvet apostrophes.
These hooves are made for walkin’
Caribou are known for their wanderlust. Many caribou herds migrate from winter to summer feeding grounds, sometimes traveling hundreds of miles.
In the 1970s, the DNR studied the possibility and found that the northeastern corner of the state had the right habitat.
Unfortunately, people at the time labored under the misapprehension that caribou caught as adults and released elsewhere would always migrate “home.” (This theory has since been proven false.) So it was thought that, to establish a new native herd, the DNR would first need to rear caribou from infancy at the reintroduction site.
Lacking the funds to launch a caribou nursery, the DNR abandoned the effort.
Enter the Duluth Safari Club. In 1988, the Duluth Safari Club—a group of big-game enthusiasts—proposed another reintroduction effort.
The Safari Club enlisted partners, provided a substantial amount of funding, disbanded, and re-formed as the North Central Caribou Corporation, or NCCC.
While the NCCC’s board of directors was staffed largely by representatives of government agencies, the project included input from the Izaak Walton League, the Sportsman’s League, Friends of the Boundary Waters, and the University of Minnesota. The DNR and the Forest Service played substantial roles.
Ask the neighbours
To find the answer, the group began an extensive scoping study. Research was carried out by the Forest Service, the University of Minnesota, and the Natural Resources Research Institute.
Researchers examined possible reintroduction sites for topography and deer and wolf concentration. Too many predators or whitetail-carried brainworm could wipe out a nascent caribou herd.
A 1,300-square-kilometer area near Little Saganaga Lake in the eastern sector of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and southeastern Quetico Provincial Park was identified as the most suitable site for reintroduction. The runner-up site was near Isabella, home of the last native herd.
The scoping study addressed other logistical questions as well—such as how to get some caribou to reintroduce.
The answer: Ask the neighbors. Er, neighbours.
Specifically, the plan called for the agency overseeing the actual reintroduction to ask the Ontario government for surplus caribou from the Slate Islands. Those caribou would be airlifted to the Little Sag site and released.
White paper, red tape
In 1998, the NCCC published a paper detailing its research, progress and plan. But when it came time to take the next steps, the DNR and Superior National Forest balked. Political pressure may have been a factor.
Whatever the explanation, the reintroduction effort stalled. Then the committee chair died unexpectedly. Then one of the staunchest reintroduction proponents retired.
Other committee members moved on. The NCCC has been defunct for years. | mini_pile | {'original_id': 'e841492202b732655580dd87d49499388996a4bdd4b26a98615c4faf441623ae'} |
Here's Zelda ignoring election coverage, looking relaxed and fabulous.
What a gorgeous kitty.
I notice you have a blanket on; is she a "deep kneader"?
We once had a cat who liked to get "full extension" and we always had to put a blanket or small pillow in our laps so he wouldn't leave a bunch of little claw marks on our legs when he kneaded.
@flugennock She definitely will knead with claws, but is actually fairly conscientious about whether or not it's on bare skin. But the blanket is required to get her to lie in my lap.
Sign in to participate in the conversation
| dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '157', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.917352557182312}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '23358', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:LQHK25HNS4XCONJWTUW7HR6DMNUAYD3O', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:72c38f45-82b5-406b-a47b-1bc06440a397>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2019, 1, 20, 1, 19, 4), 'WARC-IP-Address': '174.138.60.50', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:IM75RF3N2QGTQ7OX3AQMZHDWKJW2KMEK', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:3dcd336f-20c4-4f6b-a247-72430a6b74ec>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://mspsocial.net/@lawremipsum/101027102400348680', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:675fd9bc-71df-42ae-9b2a-c92d75269b39>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '270', 'url': 'https://mspsocial.net/@lawremipsum/101027102400348680', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2019-04\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for January 2019\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-141-91-55.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 0.11-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.06757640838623047', 'original_id': 'b943f1b12e423899f0f9d9efe67c4c38f813d514eef51a6fcc7f5918606e72d2'} |
College essay authors will need to write my essay for me cheap become a great deal more cautious and conscientious of what they set inside their final product. They ought to make sure the info is accurate and not misleading to the reader. They have to write only from personal experience and from research as opposed to just assuming that what they say will be accepted. Not only does it become apparent that they are not the best authors, but in addition they shed credibility with readers when they try to use their opinion as fact.
If they just think they know everything there is to learn about a subject, they won’t spend enough time writing the article for which they’re giving themselves credit. This means they will have a limited area to cover and won’t come up with many original ideas. In addition, it means they’re trying to obtain an excessive amount of credit for their job and are fearful of being penalized.
The best way to prevent this issue is to seek out expert assistance. A faculty admissions counselor can be a wonderful help. They’ll be able to provide guidance about where the student should start and how much information they ought to include. They can also advocate where the pupil should divide the composition and make sure it remains in a logical arrangement. They are also able to tell the student what types of college essays are acceptable for what level of student.
By way of instance, some essays call for a lot of background information about the pupil and this is something that schools really want to view. They want to understand that the student is serious about a particular subject and that they understand that the subject matter. To get into the school, an admissions advisor will appear at the entire essay and then give the student feedback on which the student is weak and where they’re powerful.
An admissions counselor can also help the writer find out where their essay demands improvement. They can point out some regions of the article which do not make sense or that are not related to your student’s goals. They could tell the writer what is expected and what isn’t. They’re also able to give advice on discovering ways to boost the essence of the composition without making it sound overly wordy or dull.
Another advantage to working with an admissions advisor is that they can provide invaluable advice the writer might not essay writer know. If a writer is performing the task of composing an article, they frequently overlook what they should place in the body of this text. They also overlook details which are important to the overall argument of this essay.
An admissions counselor can get the writer to think back and examine their essay and make certain they’re including all the pertinent facts. They can also tell the author what does not fit the entire topic of the essay. This may help the author make sure they adhere to their subject and do not split it up.
College essay authors will profit greatly from the assistance of an admissions counselor. It’s something they cannot do with themselves. They will find out what makes a good essay and are going to be able to compose the one that assists their application to the college of their choice. | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '0', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.977289617061615}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '20642', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:KN6RRYP7J4PZPADEGTHQUHFNU37FDJ5Z', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:fcbcb585-fa1f-4d33-a61d-738015dafbec>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2021, 2, 27, 7, 7, 14), 'WARC-IP-Address': '172.67.215.158', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:Q3H7MCE5RZ5LDWYFNMROC3FM6U5OFUAD', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:76a649bf-ba3e-4e94-ad85-1f717048796b>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://the.magxine.com/is-college-essay-writing-harder-than-you-think/', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:07e11f6f-25eb-4a67-b5e5-85131e6cd3e0>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '562', 'url': 'https://the.magxine.com/is-college-essay-writing-harder-than-you-think/', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2021-10\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for February/March 2021\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-67-67-43.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.18 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.09091681241989136', 'original_id': '971bab0afc9ad79146b78a4ed1587a094ba8fea88c803de2497c39bee6cdb392'} |
1 7325 Saint Andrews Church Rd Louisville, KY 40214
With a full bar, outdoor patio, and menu of pizza, burgers, and wings, Benchwarmers Pizza keeps guests sated and entertained amid casual confines. Cornhole tourneys on the back patio work out hand-eye coordination on Thursday evenings, while generously topped pizzas stimulate the hand-eye-pepperoni area of the brain. Inside, flat-screen TVs cast a blue glow across the bar, where barkeeps pour pints of Shiner Bock, Sierra Nevada, and Dos Equis.
Benchwarmer's isn't currently running any deals
Nearby Places | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '0', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.8360351920127869}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '142362', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:NIDC53POICDIU3F2WBSC4EGC44CWJUU7', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:ee8ac9d7-8a4d-46be-a5e9-4affd0127b6e>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2014, 3, 8, 6, 21, 48), 'WARC-IP-Address': '23.218.41.170', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': None, 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:MNQ7AIP2EC4T3T7HUZZB7AZZE4PKNZVB', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:9d00129c-63a2-4ec1-bd46-1aedff934198>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'http://www.groupon.com/biz/louisville/benchwarmers-pizza', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:64d75d62-ccfe-47dc-b56e-75df3b227549>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '90', 'url': 'http://www.groupon.com/biz/louisville/benchwarmers-pizza', 'warcinfo': 'robots: classic\r\nhostname: ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0\r\nisPartOf: CC-MAIN-2014-10\r\noperator: CommonCrawl Admin\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web with URLs provided by Blekko for March 2014\r\npublisher: CommonCrawl\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.0\r\nconformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.03059166669845581', 'original_id': '2a17b10ba2acc8ae56412e0ce98e82ad1483738e3bc1113f4e43b0fc05c73dad'} |
Wow, what a trip it has been for Jakob "YamatoCannon" Mebdi and his all-European squad; from being nearly relegated in their rookie split during the 2016 EU LCS Spring Split to achieving 2nd place in the following Summer Split and ending their season with a win against the Unicorns of Love in an epic 5 game series at the Gauntlet Finals to reach the 2016 World Championship. Following the sale of Team Dignitas EU to Follow eSports, Follow acquired the all-Danish roster of top-laner Martin "Wunderwear" Hansen, mid-laner Chris "Sencux" Laursen, ADC Kasper "Kobbe" Kobberup, support Nicolai "Nisbeth" Nisbeth, and lastly, ex-NME jungler Jonas "Trashy" Anderson. With a disappointing record of 2-4 by the end of the 3rd week of the 2016 Spring Split, with their only substantial win being against a newly revamped Fnatic squad, things were not looking up for the young Splyce organization.
Unlike their fellow Spring Split rookies, G2 (who went on to win the Spring Split in a dominating manner), things seemed grim for Yamato's crew. Finishing the Spring Split with a dismal 5-13 record, Splyce seemed to be a full step behind the rest of the middle-of-the-pack teams, such as the always seventh Elements and a seemingly lost Fnatic. Aside from a few flashes of brilliance from the likes of Sencux as well as Trashy's (mostly) consistent play, Splyce had very little to propel them ahead of the better teams, especially with frequent poor play from Wunderwear and the apparent mediocrity of their bot lane. Ultimately, their macro play was not nearly enough to compete with the rest of the LCS and the continuation of individual mistakes seemed to be the final blow for the young Danes, who now had their feet out the door. However, Yamato and company were not done yet.
Photo Courtesy of lolesports
Only one best of 5 separated Splyce from another shot at the LCS, but GIANTS! Gaming were not looking to yield after barely scraping past the Copenhagen Wolves in the first round 3-2. Having lost the first game to GIANTS!, who ran with a Varus-Corki poke composition, Splyce needed to win the next game or face the stressful task of having to reverse sweep their opponents. Game 2 showed a very systematic comeback by Splyce, who faced a 5k gold and 4 kill deficit at the 22nd minute, but managed to turn a teamfight in their favor, resulting in four kills and a Baron buff, which were all they needed to kickstart their way into GIANTS! base. Big props to Wunderwear in game two, as even though he came out of the laning phase 0/2/0, he managed to go deathless for the remainder of the game while picking up 7 kills and 4 assists on Fiora.
Game 3 had a different tune, however, as GIANTS! jungler Wisdom and ADC S0nstar had monster games on Gragas and Lucian respectively, sharing a combined 10/2/21 KDA. With the potential for a second relegation match staring Splyce down, the team needed adjust their mindset in order to take the next two games off GIANTS!, who were ready to get back into the LCS. A totally different Splyce team burst into Game 4 of the series, as each individual performed seamlessly, regardless of the pressure they faced. Starting off hot with a solo kill on SmittyJ in the top lane, Wunderwear's Poppy looked primed to neutralize GIANTS! carry-style top laner, and one who is not known for performing well from behind. About four minutes following Wunderwear's First Blood, the young Danish top-laner pulled off a spectacular dive on SmittyJ, both of whom having less than 400 hp, but Wunderwear's knowledge of Poppy's limits allowed him to come out ahead without giving up a kill.
From that point on, Splyce slowly picked off GIANTS! members until there is simply nothing GIANTS! can do to come back. Accumulating a combined 19 kills against GIANTS' mere 3 kills, Splyce went into game 5 with a fire under them and they were not going to buckle. The 5th and final game of the series perfectly displayed the determination both teams had going into this final game. Being up for the near majority of the game, Splyce were poised to re-enter the LCS; however, GIANTS! support Hustlin had other plans. As Splyce started to take down Baron, Hustlin threw a Nautilus anchor out onto Trashy and followed up with his ultimate, Depth Charge, onto Kobbe, knocking both himself and Nisbeth up, and leaving a perfect opportunity for Wisdom on Gragas to throw a perfect Explosive Cask which scattered the members of Splyce. Having cleanly aced Splyce and secured the Baron buff, things were looking dire for YamatoCannon and his team. By taking advantage of SmittyJ's over-aggression, Splyce were able to stall until the 43rd minute where Trashy was able to steal Baron away from GIANTS!, which was followed by a clean four kills for Splyce, and ultimately, the series.
Image Courtesy of lolesports
Although Splyce could breathe a sigh of relief with the comfort that they would have a secured spot in the 2016 Summer Split of the EU LCS, the off-season was no time for the Splyce organization to be taking any breaks. "Concerning" would be a good word to describe the next LCS split for Splyce if they did not make some serious adjustments, whether that be within their management, player roster, or both. The question for YamatoCannon was essentially what roles would he need to adjust or replace in order to avoid a repeat trip to relegations. I personally anticipated some serious roster changes, mostly to their bot lane and perhaps Wunderwear, who had questionable performances for a fairly large portion of the split. To my surprise, however, only one substantial roster change was made coming into the Summer Split; the relegation of Nisbeth to a sub spot, and the acquisition of Slovenian Support, Mihael "Mikyx" Mehle, to the starting lineup. Aside from a brief stint as a support sub for Fnatic during the 2016 Spring Split, there had never really been much mention of the rookie support.
Few expected Mikyx to make as big of an introduction into the scene as he did, in fact, I would argue that most would never have expected for Mikyx to have such a large contribution to Splyce's success for the entirety of his rookie split. Quickly becoming one of the most feared Bard players in EU, Mikyx made a name for himself as a mechanically talented support who would help enable his laning partner, Kobbe, and eventually shape the duo into a bot-lane not to be taken lightly. YamatoCannon praised the rising rookie during an interview with theScore Esports, stating that, "[Mikyx] has mechanics that measure with the best supports in Europe" as well as mentioning his ability to learn quickly and absorb information given to him by others.
Image Courtesy of lolesports
For the first half of the Summer Split, Splyce looked decent, as they only suffered losses to Fnatic and the ever-dominant G2, while also taking 2-0 victories off the likes of Vitality, Schalke 04, and GIANTS!; however, they never really seemed to break through the middle of the pack. At the end of Week 5, Splyce were sitting at a tie for 4th/5th with Schalke 04, and a growing GIANTS! team trailing by only 1 point. When taking into consideration the teams they had beaten, lost to, and tied leading up to week 5, it was reasonable to believe that Splyce would finish with sole possession of 4th by the end of the regular split, a vast improvement from their record in the preceding season. Whether they finally started to click as a team, or they were all possessed by YamatoCannon's fiery passion for the game, Splyce began to tear their way up the standings starting in Week 6.
Following Week 5, Splyce won 6 consecutive games (excluding a draw with G2 in Week 7) and gained recognition as the second best team in Europe without question. It was as if a schism developed in the EU LCS where G2 and Splyce were an entire step above the rest of the teams. While some of that division may be attributed to Splyce and G2's constant scrims with each other, but that is not to take away from the fact that, by the Summer Split Playoffs, Splyce had developed into an incredibly cohesive team that had not only polished their macro-play (which was arguably their main issue in the Spring Split) but each individual had improved his mechanics and game-sense tremendously.
Having automatically secured a spot in the semi-finals of the Summer Split by finishing in 2nd place during the regular season, Splyce looked towards their match against the victor of H2K vs. Fnatic. With the addition of FORG1VEN to their lineup, H2K had no problem with the Fnatic squad who suffered from the departure of their Head Coach, Deilor. The 3-0 crushing of Fnatic by H2K left a lot of anticipation for the upcoming series against the unstoppable Splyce squad, with eyes on the bottom-lane as Kobbe and Mikyx would see themselves matched in lane against the likes of FORG1VEN and Vander, one of the most highly-regarded duos in Europe with particular excellence during in laning phase. As a result of the tower change in patch 6.15, both teams would be playing the Standard Lane meta, which looked to be in favor of H2K as that variation of the meta enabled both their bot-lane and their jungler, Jankos.
Image Courtesy of lolesports
Game one started horrendously for Splyce, as Wunderwear gave up 3 kills within the first 8 minutes of the game, one such death being a suicidal Teleport to save his top tower. Things continued to fall apart for Splyce in Game 1 of the series, as Kobbe was picked off on a couple of occasions, once during a 4-man tower dive in the bottom lane with only Mikyx's Tahm Kench to provide support, and there seemed to be no answer for the momentum that H2K was gaining. Suffering from a 10k gold deficit 34 minutes into the game, Splyce made a last-ditch effort to team fight H2K and hopefully shift their lucky around. Picking off and shutting-down FORG1VEN's Lucian seemed to be the green light for Splyce to take back the game through an attempt at Baron. Unfortunately, even a fallen FORG1VEN was not enough to give Splyce the opportunity to turn the game around, as the four remaining H2K members teamfought spectacularly around the Baron pit, resulting in a Game 1 win for H2k.
There is not much to be said about the second game, as the match was fairly uneventful up until the 34th minute where Splyce were able to pick off H2K top-laner Odoamne as well as Vander, resulting in a Baron for Splyce followed by a kill onto a desperate Jankos who was looking to salvage the game with a Baron steal. With the series tied at 1-1, both teams sought to solidify their lead in the series and place themselves one game away from Finals. Unlike Game 2, Splyce seemed to be lost when it came to late-game teamfights, as they allowed H2K to pick up a 32 minute Baron which spelled the end of Game 3 for Splyce. While H2K was in prime position to advance to the Summer Split Finals, being down 1-2 in a best of 5 was not a new position for Splyce and they were prepared to demonstrate that they do not crumble under pressure, whether it be in relegations or the playoffs. If there were one player to be recognized in this series as performing much better than expected, it was Trashy, and he showed in Game 4 that he did not fear Jankos, the First Blood King. Ganking the side lanes early and often, Trashy enabled his team to gain an early lead, particularly in the case of Wunderwear, which set the tone for the remainder of the game.
Trashy's assistance to Wunderwear throughout the game not only rendered Odoamne helpless, but placed Wunder in a position to take charge of the mid-game with beautiful plays in Mega Gnar form. In the end, the bloodiest game of the series went to Splyce, who must have been feeling revitalized especially with the dominance of Wunder, upon whom a substantial amount of pressure falls since his play can make or break a game for Splyce. This idea held true, as Wunder, with the assistance of his team, accumulated the first 3 kills of Game 5 on Gnar, the champion whom he played fantastically on in the previous game. Besides a small misplayed teamfight at the 29th minute, Game 5 was simply a meticulous dismantling of H2K as they slowly gathered a lead in kills, objectives, and gold, until the last teamfight at the 32nd minute where Splyce caught an out of position Odoamne, and picked up a couple more kills to close out the series.
Image Courtesy of lolesports
With their victory over H2K, Splyce set their sights on a finals match against their rivals and scrim-partners, G2. This series would prove to be Splyce's most difficult yet, though, as the roster was outclassed in virtually every aspect of the game. Better individual skill, objective control, and capitalization on leads were only a few of the traits that G2 had over Splyce, but with the unbelievable level of play that Trashy was producing compounded with their overall synergy, it seemed possible that Splyce could go blow-for-blow against the titans of Europe. Much to the despair of the Splyce team, G2 showed up with the fervor to reclaim their throne with the added benefit of being Europe's first seed at Worlds. I wish I had more to say about the 3-1 series which went in the favor of G2, but barring the anomalous, albeit commanding, Game 2 victory, there was little Splyce could do to usurp the kings of the EU LCS. While, yes, it would have been ideal for Splyce to have qualified for Worlds through winning the Summer Split, the odds were too heavily stacked against them; however, a run through the post-season Gauntlet left Splyce with one final opportunity to prove that they can compete on the biggest stage in League of Legends.
Burning their way through the Gauntlet was a Unicorns of Love squad who were looking to prove that they didn't need scrims to beat out the opposing teams in the Gauntlet. GIANTS! GAMING, a 3-0 win for UOL. Fnatic, another 3-0 for UOL. This UOL roster could not be stopped as they ran through the Gauntlet with ease. Ultimately, they would be stopped, though, as Splyce had to remind UOL that nobody could stop YamatoCannon and friends from taking that 3rd seed to Worlds. The Unicorns would not give up though, as they took Splyce to a 5 game series which could have gone either way as UOL was playing up to the skill level of Splyce. The third game of the series was undoubtedly the most exciting, as it ended up being a 60 minute slug-fest in which both teams were making game-saving plays left and right while trying to avoid being down a game in their most important series this split. Once Trashy had stolen Baron away on a one-man mission, I knew this game was going to be stressful to watch. "They were winning up until they lost" would be the perfect way to describe that game, as the Unicorns of Love were a step ahead of Splyce at each and every point of Game 3, but a squandered team fight at the 59th minute in Splyce's base was the nail in the coffin for UOL (at least for that game).
Undeterred, UOL stepped back up in Game 4 with support Hylissang playing an immaculate Bard. Hyli's Bard was not necessarily the pick that won them the game, though, as the entire team played around the map beautifully, and Splyce just could not keep up. A final Game 5 was all that separated both of these strong European squads from their shot at Worlds, and to be quite honest, I would not have been all that upset to see Unicorns of Love make it. The way their Head Coach Fabian "Sheepy" Mallant is able to inspire a continuously rotating roster to find their way into playoffs time and time again is impressive to say the least. Regardless of Sheepy's feats, YamatoCannon had his own aspirations to fulfill for both himself and his team. An absolute roller coaster of a game, the fifth game of the series nearly went to the Unicorns as they had several impressive comebacks late into the game. Commanding a 10k gold lead and leading in kills 13-5, Splyce sought to make one final push to Worlds. Things proved to be difficult for Splyce though, as they lost two major teamfights at the 30th and 34th minutes of the game, with the latter resulting in an Ace and Baron buff for UOL.
The fatal mistake for UOL would be executed by veteran top-laner Vizicsacsi, who extended just too far under Splyce's tier two mid turret. The ensuing fight lead to a well-played tower dive in the Unicorn's base by Trashy onto ADC Veritas, who was quickly taken care of by the rest of Splyce.
Image Courtesy of lolesports
Tears streaming down his face at the sight of his team finally achieving what they had practiced so diligently for, YamatoCannon embraced his players immediately following their victory, a victory which sprung from the cultivation of countless hours of practice, defeats, triumphs, and development. Last week, theScore Esport's interviewer and ex-LCS jungler Marcel "Dexter" Feldkamp spoke with Yamato on how he felt after his victory. "After that series, I'm exhausted, happy, sad, and... even more happy, you know? I'm just trying to explore my emotions but it's really really hard to find one state that I'm in." stated YamatoCannon, who was riding a wave of emotions following his team's qualification for Worlds. Although the odds are against Splyce going into a Worlds group with TSM, RNG, and SSG, if there is one thing that is for certain, this Splyce crew fears no competitor, regardless of status or reputation. I wish you and your team the best, YamatoCannon, as you have poured your heart and soul into this organization, and regardless of what happens at Worlds, everyone will still know of the man who kept his faith in his troubled team, and molded them into champions.
Get your own AKRacing Chair here and support our players, all profit goes towards the teams! | mini_pile | {'original_id': '02420b5f8147275d4ad7839cbb351eb4e70518f7b67e5851607894d089371a0f'} |
Picture of Renan Ozturk during the Meru Expedition
Photograph by Jimmy Chin
Artist Renan Ozturk
A climber and artist brings home deeply human stories from the edges of our world.
Climber, artist, and filmmaker Renan Ozturk has been held at knifepoint in the deserts of Chad, sustained a traumatic head injury while backcountry skiing in the Tetons, and suffered through hallucinations on Himalayan big walls. Through it all, the cameras have been rolling.
Over the course of the last two years, the 32-year-old’s athleticism, creativity, and storytelling have come together in accessible, inspirational tales consumed by hundreds of thousands of people online.
“The creativity and climbing go hand in hand,” says Ozturk, who calls Boulder, Colorado, home. “I developed them side by side. When I’m part of a team, I always pay attention to how much energy I’m putting into the creativity versus the brass tacks, the things in the mountains that could kill you.”
After graduating from Colorado College, Ozturk jettisoned most of his worldly possessions and decided to make his home in the deserts around Moab, Utah. His art flourished in pencil sketchbooks and then grew into large canvases laid out across the desert. Those visions became Internet videos from burly Himalayan and South American climbs. Ozturk preferred to shoot, edit, and publish the videos live, during the expedition. The stories he tells require only a lightweight, bare-bones team.
With his latest and most ambitious project, Meru, Ozturk has gone one step further—a feature-length documentary following Ozturk, Jimmy Chin, and Conrad Anker’s much heralded 2011 return to and first ascent of the Shark’s Fin on Meru in the Indian Himalaya. The climb itself required living on the wall for 12 days in temperatures that hovered around minus 20ºF. Ozturk was still recovering from cranial and spinal fractures sustained in a near-lethal skiing accident in Wyoming’s Tetons almost six months earlier.
“This climb nearly killed us,” says the soft-spoken Ozturk. “Making the film [was] even harder. Meru is the mountain that keeps on giving.”
Upon returning home, Ozturk realized he was sitting on the story of a lifetime and went to work. A feature-length film required collaborators, countless hours of editing, and a near-obsessive persistence to root out the deeper ideas behind the climb the three men consider to be their greatest climbing accomplishment. With themes of mentorship, obsession, and passion, the film is poised to reach a larger audience. Ozturk hopes to premiere it at the Sundance Film Festival.
Ozturk topped off 2012 with the first successful completion of the Tooth Traverse, a five-mile-long enchainment of peaks in Alaska’s Ruth Gorge, and traveling to Nepal’s Khumbu region to work on a time-lapse photography and art project with Sherpa Cinema. In late October, Ozturk went to Oman on a story with The North Face for National Geographic magazine.
“It was a big year with some very personal goals,” says Ozturk of the Tooth Traverse and Meru, which both required several attempts over the last few years. “I now feel a lot more free to explore other things.”
—Fitz Cahall
Adventure: You just returned from Nepal’s Khumbu region on a creative mission. What were you up to?
Renan Ozturk: Nepal is my favorite place. I lived there for a year in college and learned the language. This was a creative vision quest. We went to do time lapses, but the monsoons meant that we couldn’t see the mountains, so we went deep into the culture. We spent some time with Carma Tsering, an 80-year-old monk. He was so happy working with us. The Khumbu is one of the most documented parts of the Himalaya. I hope we came away with something unique. I was leveraging all the years I’ve spent there [and] my knowledge of the language.
A: Is that unflinching instinct to keep the camera rolling important?
RO: Even when I had my head injury I was asking Jimmy Chin [who was also on the trip] to point the camera at me. It’s so easy to not point the camera when it gets tough. It’s tough when someone might die, and in cultural situations, but they understand. If you have a pure heart, if your intentions are right, they understand. To be dedicated to storytelling you have to push that boundary. It’s hard to do it respectfully, but you have to try.
A: What do you look for in your stories?
RO: Good characters. Some sort of conflict. A narrative arc. It’s good to go in with a single sentence to describe the story and work toward that. The bare essence though is that adventure is unscripted. You have to keep your eyes and ears open to find the moments.
A: Do you always see the climbing and the creativity going hand in hand?
RO: I do see myself wanting to separate the climbing and the creativity, especially to explore filmmaking a little more. There is this Hollywood climbing horror film that they want me to be the director of photography for. It will be physically demanding, but it would definitely mean giving up climbing for a little bit.
A: You returned to Meru before you were fully recovered from your nearly deadly accident. You’ve been working almost nonstop. Your passion for your pursuits seems singular and consuming. Is that the case?
RO: You have to ask yourself, How do you draw the line between obsession and passion? You have to ask yourself, What am I willing to sacrifice? With Meru, I think I was obsessed. I pretty much sacrificed my relationship. I could have sacrificed my life. You have to have that conversation with yourself. | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '0', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9636473655700684}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '124053', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:IDJTKFVFCDFUSRKCFQFYSQHFKCBEXXKT', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:0c250bc6-0579-4b18-b849-dc92e6116be5>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2015, 2, 28, 17, 30, 43), 'WARC-IP-Address': '23.62.6.81', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': None, 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:2AZ7XA4XHRVHO4JKZUHJWOVY4RDE3XQL', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:08a56609-c3c2-4f40-8310-b91545d5e5d2>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/adventurers-of-the-year/2013/renan-ozturk/', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:bebd031a-cd20-455b-81e1-d6ead64511e5>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '928', 'url': 'http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/adventurers-of-the-year/2013/renan-ozturk/', 'warcinfo': 'robots: classic\r\nhostname: ip-10-28-5-156.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0\r\nisPartOf: CC-MAIN-2015-11\r\noperator: CommonCrawl Admin\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web with URLs provided by Blekko for February 2015\r\npublisher: CommonCrawl\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.0\r\nconformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.07439815998077393', 'original_id': '3b21346d59608909210dae7eacd65429b5ca2047a0758f7eb8d542eafe08e1d9'} |
This whole story is like a retarded version of Big L’s “Casualties Of A Dice Game“. I still have so many questions. Why is the dude who cross dresses beefing with some dude over a girl? Shouldn’t they be beefing over a Mr. Cee type character? I guess I’m just ignorant to the whole cross dressing scene. It seems a little excessive to smash a guys car windows and douse his car with lighter fluid after you already shot him. No? According to The Chicago Sun Times:
A gunman dressed in drag shot a love rival during a game of dice on the Far South Side early Saturday, then threatened to shoot any witnesses who told on him, prosecutors allege.
But Stalling survived a shot to the chest and later identified Williams as the shooter, Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Toni Giancola told Judge Ramon Ocasio III Sunday.
Two other witnesses also identified Williams, Giancola said.
Williams and Stalling had been arguing about a girl when Williams followed Stalling across the road to a dice game and shot him, the prosecutor alleged.
As Stalling ran away, Williams used his 9mm gun to smash the windows of Stalling’s car, which he doused with lighter fluid, it’s alleged.
He then threatened to shoot the witnesses and barricaded himself inside his home, where he was later arrested, according to a police report.
The wig, the halter top and a cartridge matching a magazine recovered from Stalling’s vandalized car were taken as evidence from William’s home, Giancola said. | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '33', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9451841115951538}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '59626', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:4EIBWEXROPJPJHJYWXQWQV6PBFA76SLD', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:dfe7a703-e1b1-4a20-be6c-8f2b56fcd13b>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2014, 12, 20, 4, 28, 28), 'WARC-IP-Address': '72.14.187.31', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': None, 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:IMPGAJKSL5CGJRSIIMZK2IBPCJ65NJCX', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:04390535-18d8-4704-8246-9041be0dc476>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'http://www.ihiphop.com/blog/a-rapper-needs-to-do-a-song-about-this-dice-game/', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:b4472b35-f325-4d61-a077-7ff389de3925>', 'WARC-Truncated': 'length'}", 'previous_word_count': '289', 'url': 'http://www.ihiphop.com/blog/a-rapper-needs-to-do-a-song-about-this-dice-game/', 'warcinfo': 'robots: classic\r\nhostname: ip-10-231-17-201.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0\r\nisPartOf: CC-MAIN-2014-52\r\noperator: CommonCrawl Admin\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web with URLs provided by Blekko for December 2014\r\npublisher: CommonCrawl\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.0\r\nconformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.01893693208694458', 'original_id': '22d05a5078a51325861a86503914e9ddf9361e521dc74b21ac9659a82b347e98'} |
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Retrospective: Claw Law & Arms Law
Along with last week's retrospective, another product -- well, set of products -- I remember seeing relentlessly advertised in the pages of Dragon was Claw Law & Arms Law, one of several rulebooks that would, in time, join together to create the game system known as Rolemaster (as, as my friends and I called it "Rulemaster"). Back in 1982, though, (when the boxed set pictured here was released) products like Claw Law & Arms Law were initially sold as add-ons to other RPGs. Certainly, one could buy all the various Law books (such as Spell Law and Character Law) and combine them to play a wholly different game (or simply buy the boxed Rolemaster set that included them all), but there was no way I was going to do that. My friends and I were still deeply devoted to D&D and there was no way we were going to forsake it for another fantasy RPG. We'd house rule the heck out of D&D, of course, but, in our minds, that was somehow different and so it was that we decided to take the plunge and add Claw Law & Arms Law into our campaigns.
You must remember that 1982 was the tail end of the Golden Age. The fantastic realism that carried the day in the early part of the Silver Age was becoming an undeniable force in gaming culture, with lots of our older contemporaries dabbling in games they'd earlier told us were "for weirdos," like RuneQuest and Chivalry & Sorcery. Why? Partly because those other games had more "realistic" combat systems. That's where Claw Law & Arms Law came in: they were designed to make your RPG's combat system more realistic -- and deadly. That greatly appealed to us, as we'd already had solid experience with critical hit tables and, while their results were decidedly mixed, we nevertheless continued to see the appeal in making D&D's combats bloodier.
The big problem was that, for all their advertisements as add-ons to other games, they worked very poorly with AD&D. Like Rolemaster itself, Claw Law & Arms Law used percentiles for its combat system. To use it with Dungeons & Dragons, you weren't merely modifying the existing combat rules; you were completely replacing them. That caught us off-guard and probably ensured that we'd never adopt the rules on a permanent basis. To our way of thinking, it was perfectly fine to add or subtract to the existing combat rules, but to replace them entirely was a different thing altogether. At the same time, we wanted to see what all he fuss was about and so we decided to test out Claw Law & Arms Law.
The result not pretty, not because the new combat system was difficult to use; it wasn't. Indeed, despite our own mocking of Rolemaster by calling it Rulemaster, the game isn't particularly rule-heavy but it is chart-heavy. The new combat rules slowed down play, because we had to keep consulting charts. I am sure that this was because of our inexperience with the system. Indeed, I know it was, as I'll explain shortly. Charts catch a lot of undeserved flak in certain quarters, but my experience is that they're often better at presenting complex rules than are formulae, unless the formulae are very simple. Once one becomes familiar with which charts are needed and when, speed is increased considerably.
But the simple truth of the matter is that, for D&D, the addition of Claw Law & Arms Law just never felt right. We were far too accustomed to the existing combat rules (including weapons vs. AC modifiers, but not speed factors) to change midstream. The additional detail these add-ons provided simply didn't justify the cerebral rewiring necessary to make it all run smoothly. Yet, there was still something about these rules that we did like, which is why, when Middle Earth Roleplaying was released in 1984, we happily played it. MERP felt nothing like Tolkien's novels in my opinion, but the rules presentation was cleaner and more compact than in Rolemaster. We enjoyed playing the game as an alternative to D&D rather than as a replacement for it. That seemed to be the best way to use Rolemaster and its derivatives and we had a lot of fun doing so.
1. I have posted many times on this blog and everyone knows I am a Silver Age fan who likes well-designed rule systems.
And I hated this system.
A rule system that totally shuts down gaming momentum because of 18-million charts is not a rule system worth playing. This is what killed combat in 3e (though I like the skill system in 3e).
Plus this is rule system is a classic case of "overfitting". They have charts which are just aperiodic enough that no reasonable mathematical rule will fit to it. So you cannot wean off the charts without massive changes.
2. eheh James, sometimes looks like we moved with the same pace, even if I was some (many) years behind you (in Italy it was very hard to find RPG in the '80s). MERP was a great game for my playing group, and at that time we felt like all those charts and dicerolls where "the next step" from DnD easy rules. A couple of years ago I've buyed on ebay most of the old Rolemaster rulebooks. Oh, nostalgia :-)
3. I love Silver age of AD&D and the period's preoccupation with realism. One key difference between Gygax AD&D and WoTC D&D wss that Gygax was not trying to impose a universal mechanic over his game system. AD&D 1st is a hodge podge of different game mechanics utilizing different dice. This made the game more flexible when it came to modeling reality. WoTC replaced this with its Core Mechanic concept in the name of simplicity, but that trend has started well in Silver Age, I can distinctly recall the "Universal Outcome" tables for the period RPG Chill! (Basic version of Call of Cthulu), so the WoTC did not invent this trend. Just as there is a variety of narrative styles in storytelling, I think that there is nothign wrong with having a great diversity of game mechanics for different occasions under one roof. In keeping with this spirit. I replaced AD&D Non-Weapon proficiency mechanics with Rune Quest's skill system, keeping AD&D's conceptualization and usage of NWP's. I grouped NWPs in Traveler type tables, with each character clas having its own table that only members of that class have acces to. This made Fighter class a far more intersting to play, since now players can conceptualize, what kidn of warrior they want to play, which they can develop over levels, as with other character classes, thye development is not limited to improvements in game mechanics. I kept the DMG combat mechanics AND the infamous weapon versus armor class chart. That chart provides diversity and realism to the otherwise abstract combat system. The rest of the realism in my version of D&D comes from modifying the definition of "To Hit" Roll and from doing research and fleshing out the historic description, purpsoe,a dn effectiveneess of weapons listed in Players handbook. Thus, in typical D&D, a player with a spear sets the spear against a goblin, mounted on a charging wolf. Player rolls first because of a longer reach. In my version, is the player tells me s/he sets the spear against the chaging wolf-rider and is proficiant with this weapon, if s/he hits, Goblin is thrown off the mount, whether damage is taken or not. Goblin does not roll to hit. Next round goblin will try to get on his feet. Key modification here is that if longer weeapon scores a hit, the opponent with the shorter weapon does NOT get to close the distance and does not get to hit. If the opponent with the shorter weapon scores a hit, s/he then gets to close the distance and possibly inflict damage on the opponent with the longer weapon in the next round. This makes the tarditional AD&D combat mechanic plenty relistic and forced the players to do the mortal dance of melee.
I never got into the Arms Law etc, first, I didn't have the money and second, all the tables turned me off to it.
4. I played Rolemaster a few times and under different game masters. Games where the GM really knew the tables were a whole lot of fun, but games where the GM didn't know them cold quickly bogged down and stagnated.
I never really got into Role Master's magic system. You could cast spells more often, which I liked a lot more than AD&D's system, but it always felt you were more limited in what spells you had.
Odd you should say that, since until less than a year ago you totally misunderstood the weapon v. AC modifiers...
6. Arms Law was, at first, very appealing when others RPG had so "realistic" combat systems (Runequest, DragonQuest, Stormbringer...)
But it could not just be "added" to D&D. It had to replace it, so, despite the interesting critical hits tables, we never really used it.
Later came MERP (Middle Earth Role Playing game), which was basically a light version of Arms and Spells Laws set in Tolkien's world.
We loved this game, and played it a lot.
The combats were so vivids they were like short adventures.
It was so funny when the proud elven warrior-prince PC managed to shot himself in the foot just while five angry orcs rushed at the party from a nearby wood...
Anyway, the game itself, and particularly its magic system, had very little to do with the "real" Middle Earth...
Besides, even a light version of Arms Law was still hardly manageable, with countless charts and mental arithmetic (D100: (87 + 139) x75% -15 +23 -54 +5 =???).
And of course, a "deadly" combat system is opposite to D&D philosophy, where the game purpose is to survive many encounters to gain experience and become stronger (which is impossible if you have even a 15% death ratio on every combat).
7. While some people I know liked it, I tended to refer to Arms Law, etc. as "Chartmaster." One of the things that put me off of it almost immediately was that the charts themselves were simply not rooted in anything like "realism" - detail, yes, realism, no. Over-engineered and too fiddly for fast play, in my not so humble opinion.
8. > A rule system that totally shuts down gaming momentum because of 18-million charts is not a rule system worth playing.
Nope; in personal experience RM actually plays more quickly than AD&D "by the book" as I'd inconveniently posted on James's "A Modest Proposal" entry before this one went up. :)
@James: If you're just reviewing these two, yes it is clearer that the publication history was initially as "bolt ons" given Arms Law predating Claw Law by two years.
Gets a smile with that particular boxed set, too, in that they just chopped the cover in two to sell 'em bagged separately. :)
Converting characters isn't quite so difficult but meshing RM combat within AD&D interactively certainly requires a bit more than a casual dalliance and it is, indeed, easier to go the whole hog. That in its own right wasn't so easy for many people to do until 2e in 1984/85 (C&T being a somewhat important volume...) and this lengthy hiatus no doubt left quite a large number of people "in the lurch" eating tables without much additional meat on them.
(Will you be retrospecting The Iron Wind at a later date, out of interest?)
p.s. 565 target to beat, unmodified, in combat. Helluva roll to "waste" on a thrown rock... :p
A compromise between abstract "hit points" and more "realistic" aspects from the crit tables that could be reworked in textual detail to taste and context on the fly. Keeping tabs of hits, stuns, bleeding and penalties isn't /that/ hard on a sheet of paper. Honest...
Excessive realism is also, of course, as popular as being on the receiving end of any 66E crit.
10. aside: I guess it goes without saying that wading into purely physical combat using RM tables (in isolation or conjunction) is undertaken with a greater degree of consideration than doing so under xD&D if one does not wish a maimed or killed character.
This does, to a degree, make up for the unbalancing effect of magic & supernatural attacks in the latter - i.e. /knowing/ that max damage from those enemy attacks can't kill you in AD&D encourages metagaming and jumping in "heroically" whereas the risk from a "hold person" is far more serious... in RM, however, jumping in carelessly is more equally dangerous on both physical and non-physical levels.
11. I ran RM for abut a year, for people who were mostly RPG newbies*. The secret to running it smoothly was *photocopies*.
Every player got a photocopy of the charts for their weapons, and I kept a stack of extras on-hand in case they got tricky on me and picked up an enemy's weapon. Ditto spell lists, spell attack charts, and the moving maneuver chart.
These were people who had, by and large, rejected AD&D 1e/2e as 'too complicated'. They thought RM was much simpler and more straightforward.
I think a lot of the bad odor around RM comes from reading the books (and their absurdly large charts), rather than actual play. In play, it was smooth and easy to use, and produced dramatic and semi-realistic results.
To this day I still consider it the best game in its class, and all other systems I run, I measure against that ongoing RM game.
* By which I mean, most of them were aware of RPGs but hadn't actually played any; two of them had played occasional AD&D games.
12. I played 'Chartmaster', as we lovingly called it, for about 12 or 13 years straight. We had occasional forays into D&D and AD&D; but, for the most part we stuck to Rolemaster. It did take some getting used to the charts; but, once you get them organized the way you like them things move very smoothly.
What we did was photocopy the charts, put them in plastic sleeves, and then put the sleeves into three ring binders for each character. As GM, I would organize my charts based on the upcoming encounter(s). It took about 5 min extra prep each gaming session but streamlined the combat experience so that it was faster paced.
Ah, good times.
13. Every player got a photocopy of the charts..."
When we played this in elementary school, photocopies were either non-existant or expensive. We still used mimeograph paper at school.
Good fun with RM but it only lasted a a year or so. We moved on to RQII and then 'Bringer.
14. I think I had some item of theirs or another. Never used it in a game. Otherwise, this stuff wasn't even on my gaming radar.
15. I have played quite a bit of MERP/Rolemaster over the years (currently playing now, actually...) and I always remember smirking at those appendices about how to adapt the systems to fit other games. It never looked to me like it would ever work, though the one time I spiced up a game of Tunnels & Trolls with some RM critical tables it worked disturbingly well. My own experience with both systems probably helped me avoid a lot of mistakes, though.
16. Regarding MERP, I was "meh" about the rules, but I love the setting material and the maps. I still consider them among the "must keep" parts of my collection. Yes, there was too much (overt) magic in them for Tolkien, but that was easily stripped out for use in another game system.
It makes me smile to remember the time the low-medium level party I was DMing tripped a dimensional gate and found themselves just outside a castle coming under siege. They had no idea where they were, so they asked a peasant hurrying by. The looks on the players' faces when he replied "Deeping Coomb, it is. And that be the Hornburg" was priceless. :)
17. I think I still have my original copy of Arms Law around the place somewhere. And yes, it was designed as to be an unofficial new damage system for D&D, but failed in that because people generally preferred their D&D to be as simple as possible. Which is much the same reason that I almost never saw the Weapon Mods vs AC used (unless you had the Judges Guild Ready Reference Cards).
It was only quite a bit later that it formed the core of it's own RPG (which we always referred to it despairingly as Rollmaster), and the order or release of the products under this umbrella is important. Essentially everything was a supplement to your fantasy game, which you could take or leave at will, including the core ruleset.
Still it did embody some interesting ideas, however clumsily, like giving new abilities (disguised as Spell Lists) at each level. And line "66" of each new critical/fumble chart was always amusing to read.
I never said we used them correctly :)
19. You don't need hit locations or charts for a vivid and realistic combat system. If you make armor historically expensive in your world and encourage your warriors to assemble suits of combat armor, ONE PIECE AT A TIME, historically inaccurate, but portrayed in D&D illustrations, you MIGHT need a hit location table, to see if a critical hit as averted if blow fell of the chain-mailed or plate covered location. Other than that, fight ending critical hits are rare enough for DM to improvise - crunch of bone and the guy's leg collapses under him. Massive blow across the chest and the guy gets thrown against the wall, barely breathing deathly pale with a rivulet of blood running down the corner of his mouth, etc.
The problem with most fantasy games competing against D&D is that by default they lack the fantasy storytelling infrastructure - Monsters, Spells, treasure description, plus a convenient adventuring framework - Dungeon adventure. It is this copyrighted D&D infrastructure that made Baldur's Gate type of game coherent and contextually rich, at which Troika's Arcanum failed, since it had to rely mostly on wolves and spiders for a typical monster, and they were forced to "invent" new magics and treasure not to infringe on Black Isle Studio's/TSR's turf. D&D has a workable and simple paradigm for fantasy adventuring, while C&S. Runequest and Tunnels and Trolls could not compete int he Monsters and Spells department, not did they offer enough of a paradigm to create an alternative to dungon exploration. If a game master was experienced and had ideas, he could write an advnture, but a brand new player just opening a box, was better off creating adventure worlds with D&D, than with Runequest or C&S or T&T since D&D had a lot more on designing yor own advnetures than did those other games. That is the reason, I think, that everyone ended up pretty much house ruling D&D.
20. Oh Rolemaster! The game where I managed to create a classless character and begin the game with two character sheet's worth of skills.
I never said we used them correctly :)<
Hmmm...seeing as I haven't used them since around 1983, I'm now wondering if I was using them right back then. How wrong could you use them? Just pluses or minuses right?
22. As others have already mentioned, when I played RM is grad school with my neighbors, every character had a photocopy of the weapon chart necessary, or had a copy of Arms Law with pages marked for the weapon(s) in use.
The combat system in Arms Law still seems to "get it right" in terms of armor's ability to protect you from damage, but not necessarily the chance to hit. If you are wearing a bulky set of plate, then you have a greater chance of being hit, but a smaller chance of doing great damage.
As well, because it splits damage into 'concussion' damage that represents bruising and fatigue, and 'critical' damage that can kill you, and then further breaks criticals into different severities... you get really neat outcomes from various weapon/armor combos.
For instance, check out the rapier or poiniard table, and find the column for chainmail. And on any weapon's table, look at how much concussion damage a guy in plate is taking from you (answer: a huge amount).
Armorless people are way harder to hit, which is completely reasonable, but when they do get hit it's often fatal.
It's the core of what I like about RM: there's so much *meat* in those charts, places where some real thought has gone into their design. In actual play, that clever design fades into the background, and what you get is a lot of action that just *makes sense*.
24. Unarmored opponents may have been way harder to hit in a duel, but in massed medieval combat, people were locked into formations, had no room to meneuver, and medieval battlefield mass slaughter didn't differ much from battle slaughter in the 20th century with the carpets of dead and dying littering the battlefield. As that guy said in Fallout, War never changes...
With regards to "non-lethal" concussive damage, I seen at lest two accounts from 1200s to 1400s where a front line plate armored knight was beaten to death from a second rank (massed front rank opponents pinned the knight with their swords), getting beat on the head with the shaft of the spear or a polearm. Helmet was never broken or penbetrated, but it probably dented and the knights went down hair, blood and gore running dorn from eye sockets and breating holes. Not quite chovalrous. Which may, perhaps explain, why the knights would run down and slaughter unarmerd peasants on battlefield whenever they could. I am not saying that all RPGs have to be absolutely accurate, but a could campaign CAN guive a good historical flavor in addition to experience points, and also that notion of "non lethal concussive damage" got me going.
As an aside. Historical knights held their own and other lives in total contempt. Contempt and disregard for safety were marks of a courageous warrior. When two-handed sword fencing became popular in medieval Germany, it was chic among knights to duel with two handed combat swords in their underwear. i.e. unprotected so as to show off their courage and to show what kind of damage they can do to their opponent with that "first cut". Considr with that lack of healing spells available to them in our world.
25. I'm not sure that there is any historical evidence that fighters thought that foregoing armour would make it significantly easier to dodge or avoid blows. I have come across accounts of fighters foregoing armour for comfort and convenience, just as people today forego safety gear for similar reasons, but not for mobility.
The idea that armour protects you from being damaged, not hit also depends on a very literal sense of the concept of "hit." If you define hit as in "hit hard enough to cause measurable damage" then armour can indeed be said to reduce the chances of being hit. Either way, all RPG combat systems are abstractions. In most systems, the fundamental effect of armour is to increase survivability of the wearer, whether they implement it as a reduction in the odds of being hit, or use a more complicated system of multiple die rolls, conditional damage, and tables. One is more of a black box system that condenses and averages multiple factors into a single die roll, while the other is more of a "show your work" approach. Neither is inherently more realistic, and both can be used to produce the same net outcomes.
One problem with modeling realism is that we don't actually know what the statistical effect of wearing certain armour or using a certain weapon has on the range of outcomes: we simply don't have a lot of real world data on people wearing period armour and trying to kill each other with period weapons in real life-or-death situations to quantify the difference between wearing chain versus plate or using a sword versus mace. The sheer variety of weapons and armour in use at any given time in the middle ages suggests that the people of the day didn't really know what worked best either; one can imagine that, if the Internet existed in the 15th Century, knights would engage in mace vs. warhammer flame wars where they extolled the virtues of their chosen weapon and pointed out the intellectual inadequacies of those who foolishly favoured the other.
Even those who seriously study medieval and renaissance combat can only make educated guesses about the exact effectiveness of various weapons and armours; game designers by and large have even less factual information to go on. We can compare the verisimilitude of two systems, but making comparisons based on realism is mostly pointless.
26. MERP was, hands down, my favourite RPG during the late 1980s. I played it almost constantly from grade 10 until I left high-school. I loved the system and loved the campaign modules.
Pete Fenlon's colour regional maps for MERP were works of art!
Ah, good times. I'd play it again, if I could find anyone interested...
27. W2,
German knights forewent armor only in single combat duels among each other. Whil there is no adequate statistical evidence to quantitatively show the effectiveness of armor, what makes D&D historically inaccurate is the greatvariety of weapons and armor in PH. Historically, each period and place was dominated by a few weapon and armor types. Those reigned supreme and were used by leaders until that technology becmae common place and new weapons and armor were found for the king and the knight. During dark ages it was shield and chain mail. Chain mail saved your life if your torso took a blow from the sword. Before sword was perfected in early middle ages, Great Axe predominatedd the Anglo-Saxon battlefield to be replaced by the sword, weapon of the knight agaisnt a poorly armed brigand and the peasant. Sword was faster and more effective than a great axe. In the British campaigns agaisnt the French in 100 years war, British men at arms were armed with a short-handed lance, which was capable of poenetrating breast plate, when swung by a rofessional man at arms, who spent their adolescendce and adult lives swinging melee weapons. Which means that an untrained person would would not be able to defeat plate given the same weapons as the professionals. Later on, other weapons were develped to let the mases defeat the plate - pole axe, where the long pole served as force multiplier and substituted for muscle and skill. Between wars, medieval knights jousetd and engaged in paramilitary competition, so they were abreats of the developments in the field. So, I say you can recreate historic accuracy without knowing the stats. It would make the game boring, of ocurse, since there will be vewry few weapon and armor combination, one would dominate the game, and everyone would know what the winning combination would be. Historically, it was the price that defeated the common soldier's efforts to get a good suit of plate and a warhorse, peviously, it was swordblades, that were expensive. Of course, part of what makes D&D fun is the tremendous amount of choice that players have, and historically, people have a lot choice, and in the middle ages economic and social choices ere a lot fewer. One can ever say that Medieval German knights had no choice but to fight in their peers in their underwear. What say willing suspension of disbelief? They never said in PH that a DM should flesh out a few weapons and armor combinations available to the layers and make other very rare and unavailable. Players tend to use the equipment lists in PH as their shopping list. Gygax's error.
28. Brooze:
Sorry, didn't mean to imply that RM Concussion damage was non-lethal. It was plenty lethal, in a horrifying grindy kind of way; there's only so many hits to the head, helmet or no, that you can take before you keel over.
And in particular, because RM keyed all combat outcomes on a weapon type vs. armor type matrix, the 'right' weapon to use against a heavily armored person was often a mace or other blunt instrument. Your rapier wasn't going to be effective, and this was reflected in the damage outcomes in the rapier table vs. plate armor (as was the 'lucky/skilled hit' that penetrated a gap in the armor to deliver a deadly critical anyway). Your mace, on the other hand, was going to hurt that guy, with a fair chance of at least a minor crush critical on most swings.
But flipping it around, your rapier or edged weapon had a good shot at an instant kill on someone in no armor at all, while the mace was much more likely to deliver only crippling damage.
What's more, the type of critical delivered was also keyed to the weapon, so when you did finally get a decent critical with your broadsword on an armored opponent, it was probably a crush critical, not a slash critical. You literally bashed in his armor until it killed him.
However, in almost every case, if what you were going to be doing was going toe-to-toe with someone in melee, heavier armor was always better for survivability. The tales of a lucky goblin instakilling a PC that RM was known for were mostly a goblin killing an unarmored or lightly armored PC. Heavy armor made it very difficult to kill someone outright because it made critical hits less likely, at the expense of more battering, crushing, and general fatigue.
RM didn't really *support* the unarmored duelist archetype; it just tried to portray, as realistically as it could manage, how such a person might fare in a fight. He might dodge 3 out of 4 swings, but that fourth swing is going to lop off his arm; meanwhile, the heavy-armor guy got hit by all four swings, but is mostly just in a lot of pain as a result.
29. w2:
I agree, but would add that the primary value I took from the Arms Law tables was the ability for players to tailor their weapon (or armor, though more rarely) choices to the type of opponent they were going to fight.
Against the city watch of a wealthy city, you could be pretty sure you'd be up against guys in mail coats, possibly with breastplates. Against naked filthy cultists in a sewer temple, it's time to get out that broadsword and start hacking away.
Things that add meaningful player decision points appeal to me, and systems that reward players for spending time thinking about them 'offline' also appeal to me.
That said, I've run way more D&D in all its flavors than RM, so it's not like I'm some kind of RM evangelist. I just always take any opportunity to enthuse about its strong points, and the weapons vs. armor matrix concept is one of those strong points.
30. I've taken to using the Arms Law critical hits table in my Microlite74-ish game.
You just divide the modifiers by five, and each column is "about a d6 worth of base damage"
Seems to work OK.
31. I weaned of D&D onto Rolemaster after about 5 years, and played it for another 8 or 10 years after that, with various expeditions into other systems. Once you knew the charts it was very effective, and it had a really deadly flavour that AD&D lacked.
I'm intrigued by the claim that MERP doesn't represent Middle Earth. As far as I know, until the movies came along it was the most meticulously researched and presented attempt at describing that world, and the definitive one for role-playing. As for the claim of too much magic - you won't find a wizard in MERP who can do anything like Gandalf in The Hobbit, and most of the magic was easily worked to look mundane - Boil Water at first level is hardly uber powerful, is it?
MERP was also beautifully presented, and obviously highly respectful of the original novels. I found Iron Crown Enterprises work generally very high quality, it's just a shame it was too complex for most people to be bothered with...
32. Ahh, yes. The deadliness of combat and linearity of traditional D&D combat where charaters keep slugging each other until their 80 or so HP run out. That was what drove me away from D&D early on.
The first time I ran into someone playing Rolemaster was in high school. After the usual lunchroom introduction "Do you play D&D", he said no with such seriousness, that I expected him to say "I play Chess.". He said Rolemaster instead. I asked him what it was and he said "Claw Law, Arms Law Spell Law, you know?". I can see the logic of Weapon versus Armor tables, and complexity is no issue to me. If I knew those rules when I re-opened DMG back in 2005 I may have included it in my rules mods.
As an aside, Eward Oakeshott (I think his name is) was a British weapons historian who studied Sword extensively and came up with a sword blade classificastion. He has something that reads like an AC table, is based on archeological evidence and lists at least 8 categories of what in D&D is called a Longsword. One day I will go over his writings and integrate his sword classification into my house rules do away with short, long, broad and bastard swordblades in D&D, or maybe not. It's just funny, that Gygax was writing about Type I Demon, Type II etc, and Oakshott writes about Type I sword blade, TYpe II sword blade versus Type IV sword blade.
80 hit points is an unrealistic number for almost any character to have, if played by the book. A 9th level AD&D fighter with 18 constitution will have about 86 hit points; one with average constitution will have 50. A B/X D&D fighter will have 41 hit points at 9th level; 68 with an 18 constitution (and only 1 in 216 characters would have such a score). There are above average rolls, of course, but 99% of 9th level fighters will have 56 or fewer rolled hit points.
It is the low-level combats that tend to have a lot of back and forth rolling to hit, because characters and monsters alike tend to miss a lot, though when a hit is made, there is a good chance of it being a telling blow. Also, there are few special abilities or magic items to use at low levels and, I suspect, more than a few players are fairly short on imagination and can't or won't act outside of the options that the rules specifically suggest or illustrate. At higher levels, there are enough interesting magic items and spells to give even the most unimaginative player something to do other than spend round after round rolling to hit.
35. How wrong could you use them? Just pluses or minuses right?
Well, in my case, I misunderstood that the AC in question was the base AC rather than the modified one. So, a Thief with high Dex in leather armor might have a modified AC comparable to a Fighter in Chain, but the weapon bonus/penalty vs. the Thief is against leather's base AC, not against the lower, modified AC. That's where I went wrong all those years ago.
For some reason, I find that absolutely awesome.
37. I'm intrigued by the claim that MERP doesn't represent Middle Earth.
My issue was not with the presentation of the setting, which, by and large, was very good and quite true to the novels. My issue isn't even with the rules, for the most part (though the magic items often seemed un-Tolkienian to me). Rather, it was with the way MERP took the Fellowship and universalized it, allowing players to freely choose a mixed party of hobbits, dwarves, elves, and odd humans to go off adventuring together, as if that were a common sort of thing in the Third Age. Speaking for myself, it just felt off and not at all like the novels. We still had lots of fun with it, though.
38. I can understand that gripe, James, but it doesn't seem like a significant part of the rules and it is certainly true to most people's experience of Middle Earth (the Fellowship) and of role-playing in general (D&D). I think they'd have a hard time convincing most gamers to consider it as an issue, let alone go along with it.
I don't remember the magic items, though I vaguely recollect it was mostly +10 swords and daily items, which are low-powered enough for my tastes. And didn't their description of the weapon that killed the ring-wraith match perfectly?
Having played MERP extensively, for all its flaws, I can't imagine a game that better suits Middle Earth. I tried recreating it in D&D 3.5 and it was fun, but it didn't work quite the same way at all.
Not really: just in D&D. ;)
Both MERP & RM play well with low-level magical and non-"standard" items, IMO: a benefit of having been designed from scratch (even if originally intended for play with D&D, etc.) rather than derived from high-level battlefield wargaming powers in Chainmail -> D&D where the lesser items/magics were retrofitted after the arms race had already taken place.
40. w2,
If playing by the book. What are the odds in D&D that a lucky arrow shot will kill a ninth level character with no previous damage? What are the real world histoical odds? That's why I prefer to make things interesting not with magic items, but with critical hits and the possibility that any arrow hit can potentially kill.
41. We used this system as a replacement for the basic then ad&d combat system for over 10 years. It was incredible, and agreed you couldn't memorize it but it made such a great impact in our game play.
| dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '228', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9774305820465088}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '265641', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:VXKYM4BDEBAWASNH32XPKJSPDO5X5TPI', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:25a7194c-cd9f-452f-ad0c-b5aa8df59b03>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2015, 1, 30, 2, 36, 59), 'WARC-IP-Address': '74.125.228.43', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': None, 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:6VEWFG5VEZXWFG6JGFH2Z5UQLV5VLXWZ', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:3d977403-346e-41ee-80a6-1ab8ce0a51da>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2010/03/retrospective-claw-law-arms-law.html?showComment=1268864045661', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:76f58660-bb33-43e2-803a-574cc4e8734f>', 'WARC-Truncated': 'length'}", 'previous_word_count': '6630', 'url': 'http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2010/03/retrospective-claw-law-arms-law.html?showComment=1268864045661', 'warcinfo': 'robots: classic\r\nhostname: ip-10-180-212-252.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0\r\nisPartOf: CC-MAIN-2015-06\r\noperator: CommonCrawl Admin\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web with URLs provided by Blekko for January 2015\r\npublisher: CommonCrawl\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.0\r\nconformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.18773871660232544', 'original_id': '9ee083fb6c69d2cde54d43ec2f3ca2f90f2994d54d86631c3a41bc38e2faf9bd'} |
Here is a routine which has proved and is still proving a great favourite in my kiddies' shows this season.
The props required are "Evaporated Milk" Jug, "Funny Funnel" (with control valve), Vampire De Muth Milk Bottle in which the milk vanishes visibly, a tumbler (clear) paper cone, some Milkit fluid and comedy pistols or a bradawl.
Set-up the Evaporated Milk jug to appear as though full. The funnel with as much milk as it will hold and the bottle with an inch or two in the bottom to appear as if the jug has just been filled from it.
(This not only looks authentic but has another use which you will see later).
Now for the working and a suggestion of patter which I use.
"Is there a boy or girl here who would like to know how to make evaporated milk?" (Get one to stand at the side of you).
"Well here we have some milk and if you watch as I pass it in front of you, you will see it change. Did you see it change? No? Well now it's pasteurised (past your eyes). But we want it evaporated and that's very difficult to get because the cows have a hard job sitting on these little tins, so we'll have to try it by magic".
"First I'll pour some into this paper cone". (Pour from Evaporated Jug). "Ugh, it's all running down my sleeve". (Place jug aside and fold top of cone down to prevent assistant seeing inside). "You hold it and let it run down your sleeve". (Give to assistant to hold. This situation usually gets lots of laughter from the children You stand aside beaming, then gradually notice your helper is not looking uncomfortable and ask) "Isn't it running down your sleeve?" (Tell, him to look inside cone to see why not. They are usually most surprised to find the milk has disappeared. You also act surprised, saying) "now I wonder where it has gone? Why it's evaporated, so that's how you get evaporated milk".
"But I wanted that milk and as you were holding it, it must have gone inside of you.
Well I'm sure you wont mind me shooting a little hole in you to get it out again. So just put your fingers in your ears and you wont hear the bang and 1 promise it won't hurt".
(Here you introduce the comedy pistols, "Bang gun, Balloon gun, Sausage gun, Breakaway gun, etc., or the bradawl prop)
Continue "Oh I can't make a hole in your head, so we'll have to try to get the milk out of your ear. Keep your finger in whilst I put this funnel at your elbow then the milk will run down your sleeve and into it".
"Now let us have another little boy or girl to pump your other arm up and down." Allow milk to run into milk bottle until it is full, but still leaving some in funnel. This depends on the capacity of your funnel and how much you leave in the bottle as I remarked earlier. Pretend not to notice the bottle is full until it overflows then shout). "Whoa! Stop pumping or we'il have a flood". (Place funnel on table opening downwards, milk bottle is now all set for vanishing its contents in its truly magical way).
Say "Now, just to make sure you don't make this milk vanish again I'll put the bottle on your head and you tell me boys and girls if you see the milk going away".
Place the bottle on the assistant's head but keep hold of top and release the "necessary" to make the milk visibiy disappear. Keep your eyes on the audience who will start shouting but pretend not to understand. Play this situation up until they are all shouting and jumping up and down and until you know the bottle has finished working.
Glance at it and look back at the audience as if you didn't realise what had happened, then suddenly fet a look of surprise appear on your face and again look at the bottle as if you can't believe your own eyes. This is known as a 'double-take' and done correctly is always sure of a laugh. Ask the assistant where the milk has gone and blame the audience for not telling you. Say "Now we'll have to try and get it back again".
Place the funnel at the assistant's elbow as before and give instructions to start pumping. Hold the tumbler well below the funnel to get a good stream of milk. Stage whisper once or twice to assistant who's pumping, to stop or carry on and control the flow accordingly.
If in a place where it doesn't matter, lift the tumbler up as assistant starts pumping and the milk splashes on to the floor. Shout "Whoa! Stop pumping or we'll all have to sit and cry over spilt milk".
Dismiss your assistants with many thanks.
Dear Sir,
Many thanks for Magnetic Harmony—am VERY PLEASED with it.
May I bring to your notice the NOTE at the foot of the manuscript—about KEEPING THE SECRET. On Saturday last, I paid a visit to my local cinema where a film of the GREAT CANASTRA was being shown; I was both surprised and DISGUSTED when he EXPOSED the CODE of the MEMORY TEST— there must be hundreds of acts like myself making a living out of this business working the same effect; why must this man do this sort of thing?
As I purchase most of my effects from you I thought I would drop you a line about it and get it off my chest—to someone anyway. Perhaps you can bring it up at one of the Circle Meetings.
Best Wishes, Frank Holmes.
Dear Mr. Andrews,
Many thanks for the March issue of Magic Magazine, I liked George Blake's rope routine 'Left-over-right-over-left'. I have added a bit more to his routine, and if you think it worthwhile, I would like you to publish it in Magic Magazine.
Yours magically,
T. A. Griffith. "LEFT-OVER-RIGHT-OVER-LEFT" I have added the following to George Blake's routine as appeared in March issue of the Magic Magazine. I have worked it before a drawing room audience and it has gone down very well, causing a laugh at the conclusion.
George Blake finishes up with the following patter, "Do you mind putting the darned thing away? Otherwise we will all go Knotty — I mean Nutty".—Then the magician coils up the rope and places it on his table.
Telling the audience that he has just performed the hardest way to make a knot appear in a rope he states that he will now perform an easier method. So saying, he shakes the "woofle dust" over the rope, and picking up one end discovers that there are a number of knots tied at intervals along the rope. Thus the magician has got himself into a knotty situation.
The working is fairly well known, but to the uninitiated here it is:—
Hold the end of the rope in the left hand and with the right hand, take the rope about 20 inches below the left hand. The rope must be held with the fingers at the back and the thumb in front. Thus the right hand will have its palm faced towards the audience. The right hand is now brought up and round in a circle towards magician's body, the thumb describing an arc until the knuckles of the hand point directly towards the left hand. The loop in the right hand is then placed in the left hand along with the end already there.
The above mentioned move is repeated until all the rope is used up. Every loop formed will cause a knot to appear. To finish, take the free end of the rope and place it in the left hand. The rope is now dropped onto the table retaining the end, thus letting the coijs drop over it, and leaving the end ready to pick up later. To conclude, pick up the end of the rope and it will be seen there is a knot for every loop formed.
Try the above mentioned and you will find it gets a good laugh from the audience. I don't know who discovered the idea but I've seen several magicians use this method of knot tying, and it always goes down well with a lay audience. Happy Looping.
Dear Max, just a word of thanks and praise for the Punch and judy puppets which I purchased from you. The workmanship is second to none —they're a treat to look at and certainly a treat to work with. Just one other thing I purchased an effect from you which literally astounds and paralyses the audience, with, of course, a good presentation. The effect?—
it's too cheap at 10/--"Psychic Cards".
However Max, here I am again, after some more winners from the M.A. (Vampire) stable, see attached leaflets.
Yours sincerely,
B. Pilkington.
New Zealand.
(The "Mad"gical Maniac) 26/3/54.
Max Andrews, 10/1 1, Archer Street, London, W. 1. Dear Max,
Enneagram Essentials
Enneagram Essentials
Get My Free Ebook
Post a comment | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '39', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9623003005981444}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '37786', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:ICC75PUZTYDO6AXAYNDLRPDNFA4UOPMV', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:25c2f3af-7071-48ae-ba66-0bea71f657bc>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2019, 5, 23, 16, 10, 4), 'WARC-IP-Address': '104.27.134.118', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'application/xhtml+xml', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:ED7VV7OIDXPHX2D4AXUP7LW3ZJ2EPG4D', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:97cfbffc-8630-464d-90b0-56c0cd4945dd>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://www.magicalapparatus.com/magic-circle-2/routine-1.html', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:0fd87953-b5f8-4dfa-9a27-3fb75a40e9d9>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '1542', 'url': 'https://www.magicalapparatus.com/magic-circle-2/routine-1.html', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2019-22\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for May 2019\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-168-187-224.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 1.1-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.022148728370666504', 'original_id': '0aeba874492c535c602f29322c202a108231fc995e705bfba08b9a037cfde421'} |
Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo (ボボボーボ・ボーボボ) is the main protagonist of the manga and anime series Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo. Bo-bobobo-bobobo
He apparently has some control over an army of bears which are seen in many of the earlier episodes. There is a large colony of tiny humans and humanoid boogers living in his nose, who sometimes aid him in battle. He also has many denizens living inside of him.
Defining Bo-bobo's personality can be somewhat difficult. He is an unpredictable person, not even his allies are aware of what he will do next. However, when he is not involved with one of his antics, he manages to retain a semi-serious composure, though he is very sensitive; even the slightest put-down can make him depressive. Bo-bobo's personality becomes increasingly more serious when he is faced with strong opponents. Despite being the good guy of the series, he often beats up or tortures some of his allies (namely Don Patch, Tokoro Tennosuke, and Dengakuman) for being stupid or annoying. He is a very eccentric man who often thinks vastly outside the box when fighting opponents and has a tendency to cross dress and goof around frequently. He is also a very powerful Haijekelist and makes a powerful team alongside Don patch and Tokoro Tennosuke. Because of this, he can act very goofy and unpredictable.
His personality shows different aspects depending on the preson with whom he is talking. His interactions with Don Patch, Tokoro Tennosuke and Dengakuman are usually goofy as he often uses them as shields or weapons. He usually shows his serious nature with Softon and Hatenko. He cares very deeply for his friends despite his violent tenancies toward some of them for acting stupid.
Despite his eccentricities, he has a large group of friends that he cares for very deeply. Having grown up with Tokoro Tennusuke, Gunkun and Hatenko, they all know each other pretty well though this not often touched upon besides Bobobo and Hatenko. Bobobo often retains his serious nature with Hatenko. Despite their past, Bobobo has admitted to Gunkun that he is his best friend. He also kept his word to Tokoro to help set him straight if he went down the wrong road.
The first friend that we see of Bobobo on-screen is Beauty. Beauty appears to be the one person Bo-bobo cannot let stand be injured and has stated that he will "destroy anyone who hurts Beauty." He cares deeply about her. In return, Beauty idolized Bobobo and sees him as a grea hero despite his massive weirdness and him getting on her nerves, Bobobo also has a similar relationship with Heppokomaru as Bobobo acted as somewhat of a mentor to and was very angry when Giga turned him into a statue. This is similar with Suzu as he was enraged when Halekulani turned her into a coin. She also respects his power and is on friendly terms with him for avenging Gunkan.
Bo-bobo has a powerful and close bond with Don Patch despite Bobobo often using Don Patch as a weapon or shield. This may be a Hajike matter though. This is often shared with Tokoro Tennosuke. The two seem to form a strange duo because of their personality. Bobobo has this to a lesser extent with Tennosuke though he still cares for both of them. He often uses Dengakuman as a projectile though Bobobo views him as a friend for having taught Dengakuman the power of friendship. Bobobo has a more serious and stable friendship with Softon with both caring for beauty.
Regarding family, he was close to Bebebe and Bububu, his older brother and sister while the three of them lived in fear from Bababa and Bibibi, the two oldest brothers. They all use hair-themed Shinken. Bobobo eventually challenged Bebebe when he encountered him during the Reverse Maruhage Empire arc and then later Bibibi in the Hair Kingdom Arc. Bobobo's relationship with his nieces, Vita and Min is unknown, but he cares about them enough to spare Bibibi (as despite Bibibi's cruelty toward his kingdom and siblings, he is a good father).
File:Young Bobobo2.PNG
As a kid Bo-bobo first learned of his ability to hear the voices of hair. At age 7, he had three friends; Hatenko, Gunkan, and a sentient tokoroten named Tenjiro (much like Tennosuke). His second mentor was Master Juice (a juice can), who taught him and Gunkan at the time. His family life wasn't so good because Bi-bibi and Ba-baba constantly bullied him. The only two siblings that really cared for him were Be-bebe and Bu-bubu.
There are two versions of what happened to Bo-bobo during the fall of the Hair Kingdom. In the anime, Bo-bobo was taken hostage by the hair hunters when his father, a humanoid-like hairball named TUYOSHI, gave him up when the Hair Hunters came to their house.
In the manga, he and his father were launching escape pods, and they launched the last one with a hair hunter in it. As an adult, Bo-bobo considered this "escape" to be a miracle.
Bo-bobo and Gunkan both trained together in learning Hanage Shinken (Fist of Nose Hair) under Master Juice (A juice can). Gunkan worked much harder than Bo-bobo did, but Bo-bobo was awarded the title of the true master of the Fist of Nose Hair because of his heritage in the Hair Kingdom, something that Gunkan did not have. On the day of the end of the Hair Kingdom, Gunkan stated that he was glad that the Hair Kingdom ended due to his lack of acknowledgment. This made Bo-bobo angry and their friendship ended. Sometime between this point and the start of the series, Gunkan became one of the Maruhage Empire's Four Heavenly Kings and directly opposed Bo-bobo in his quest to bring down the empire.
Maruhage Empire (Introduction Arc)
Bo-bobo's first goal is to defeat the seven strongest blocks in the Maruhage Empire. He first starts with G-Block and handles it's leader, Hagen, with little difficulty. His first partner Beauty, a small girl living near that area, and a living Pickle slice ask to join his group shortly afterward. Bo-bobo accepts Beauty but rejects the pickle, saying that he does not like pickles. Bo-bobo becomes well known to the emperor of the Maruhage Empire, but seeing him as small threat, he sends a few assassins after Bo-bobo. He also learns from one of the assassins, that his friend Battleship has now joined the Maruhage Four Heavenly Kings. Bo-bobo handles the assassins all the same, by confusing them into submission with his Hajike skills, and striking them down with his Hanage Shinken. While attending a hajike festival he meets the hajikelist expert: Don Patch (who appeared in the anime much earlier than in the manga), who was also a well known threat to the Empire. Though the two of them do not like each other at first, the two of them defeat Wig Block (also known as H-Block), and, after Don Patch finishes Hajike School, set off to conquer C-Block and A-Block.
C-Block's Aitsuhage Tower
During his fight in C-Block, Bo-bobo meets Babylon warrior Softon, and teenage rebel Heppokomaru (Gasser in the dub). He also meets one of Gunkan's henchmen Kaebo, and despite learning of his rivals evil choices, he chooses to carry on with his mission to destroy A-Block.
A-Block Amusement Park
He is in for a surprise though, when the base turns out to be a theme park led by a sentient living tokoroten, Tokoro Tennosuke. After resorting to his first fusion with Don Patch, Tennosuke is defeated, and A-block falls.
Yet, victory does not last long, for Gunkan returns to challenge Bo-bobo. He then turns Beauty into a doll and tells Bo-bobo to meet him in Puupuu City if he wishes to see her again. Bo-bobo realizes he will need more help than just Don Patch and Heppokomaru, so he recruites Tennosuke and Softon onto his team, and heads out to defeat Gunkan.
Gunkan and Pomade Ring
Bo-bobo finds Puupuu city in ruins, and Gunkan has made his base on a gigantic floating vessel called Pomade Ring. He and his small team board the vessel, but Bo-bobo boards it first while completely alone. While on board, he meets Suzu who, despite being Gunkan's second in command, is actually a nice girl. Once he and the rest of his team are back together, Gunkan makes them fight his elite, yet bizarre, minions. Only Bo-bobo actually manages to defeat his opponent, but luck comes in the form of Gunkan stupidly knocking his own fortress out of the sky! Once on the ground, Bo-bobo finds Beauty and turns her back to her old self. Softon informs Bo-bobo that Gunkan is a very powerful enemy and that Bo-bobo has a fatal weakness, that can only be mended by some last minute training in the World of Babylon. It is here that Bo-bobo finds his weakness: he does not have very many deadly attacks. Softon opens up the entrance to Babylon World (which is located in a port-o-potty), so that Bo-bobo can train.
When he comes back to the real world, he starts his fight with Gunkan. The angry foe is still upset that Bo-bobo was chosen over him as next master of fist of nosehair, yet Bo-bobo's last move was the one that Gunkan could never master. Ashamed of himself, Gunkan reveals that he never wanted to help take over the world or to defeat Bo-bobo, he just wanted credit for all of his hard work. Crying now, Gunkan runs towards Bo-bobo, asking for forgiveness, but Bo-bobo strikes him down, saying that crying is not manly. He then leaves with Beauty, Don Patch and Heppokomaru.
Hatenko, Purupu, and the Evil Blood Mansion
Bo-bobo then proceeds to defeat every other organization of the Maruhage Empire, all the while becoming a bigger threat to the empire's well being. While on the road, Bo-bobo meets Hatenko, one of his childhood friends.
Robo Block and Z-Block
Hatenko directs them to some of the other bases nearby, one of which is Z-Block, a base that is secretly stronger than A-Block. Inside he meets Dengakuman, a short, white creature who only desires to make friends. Bo-bobo, feeling some sympathy for him, makes a game show where Dengakuman can make friends, but it doesn't work. After defeating Dengakuman, Bo-bobo tells him that he may come with them after he discovers what true friendship is.
Hajike Block and the King of Hajikelists
After the fall of Z-Block, Hatenko departs from the rebels for his own reasons. Shortly afterward, Bo-bobo sets his sights upon Hajike Block. Inside, he not only meets up with Tennosuke, who has now joined the group permanently, but he finds teenage assassin Rice, who is also the King of Hajikelists! Rice originally wants to fight Don Patch, a former hajikelist king, but after the insane creature is defeated, Bo-bobo challenges him for the title. Rice's hajike skills are impressive, but Bo-bobo's hajike eventually wears him down and defeats him. The afro warrior is then rewarded with an "H" necklace, and the title of King of Hajikelists.
OVER and the Joke Killer
Victory does not last very long. They are immediately attacked by an assassin who serves OVER, one of the Four Heavenly Kings. the assassin reveals that Rice is infected with a curse mark, which will eventually drain him of his life! Bo-bobo immediately heads for OVER's castle. Inside, the rebels fight their way through five of OVER's deadliest assassins, and meet up with Dengakuman again. Once Bo-bobo reaches the top floor, he is shocked to find that Battleship has been scalped by OVER! Bo-bobo angrily challenges the tyrant to a fight, not fully aware of the murderous fiends true power. After making him angry six times, OVER transforms into Torpedo Girl, who is just as murderous AND hates hajikelists with a passion. It takes a trip to Bo-bobo World, and the power of all nine planets to turn the torpedo back into OVER.
Hallelujah Land
But this only creates another problem. The castle can't take the enormous strain of power, and begins to collapse. Luckily, Suzu teleports the rebels, Gunkan, and even OVER out of the castle. She then informs Bo-bobo of Hallelujah Land, run by Halekulani, the last and strongest of the Heavenly Kings. Bo-bobo takes a train to the evil theme park, but once he arrives, he only wants to visit the rides! Being attacked by Halekulani's henchmen, and Softon rejoining the rebels eventually convinces Bo-bobo to put an end to Halekulani's reign! But the tyrant proves tougher than expected. He merely sits on his throne and attacks the rebels from a distance. Bo-bobo eventually forces him to fight seriously after dropping a gondola on his head! Halekulani tries to destroy them with his board game, but Bo-bobo counters it with his own board game knocking the tyrant senseless. But Halekulani isn't done yet; he merely gets back up (now more crazier than ever) and attempts to crush the rebels with his sheer power! Bo-bobo eventually puts an end to Halekulani by showing him seven days of the week in a normal persons life.
Cyber City
After Halekulani's downfall, Hallelujah Land is left without an owner. Bo-bobo, Tennosuke, and Don Patch try to take ownership, but leave the park in worse condition in a matter of minutes! Their fun comes to an end after they realize that Gasser has been kidnapped by one of the Six Electric Brain Warriors; six warriors that serve under Giga. Giga is not only the dictator of Cyber City, but he is also Tsurulina's right hand man and his equal in power! Suzu teleports everyone to the docks (Cyber City is an island), and Bo-bobo and the gang take off. Suzu stays behind to bid them farewell. Their journey is stopped midway when Torpedo Girl returns for revenge. Luckily, she becomes infatuated with Softon, and instead decides to help them get to the city quicker! Upon arriving, the rebels fight off the Electric Brain Warriors one by one, until they reach Giga himself!
Giga reveals his sick intentions with Heppokomaru. He turns Heppokomaru into an abstract statue in order to satisfy his "artistic" nature. Bo-bobo and Torpedo Girl both drive Giga crazy and eventually defeat him despite his power,... or so it seems. Giga gets back up and transforms into a hideous new form that increases his power! Bo-bobo attacks Giga with other forms of art, but this doesn't even begin to wear down the mad tyrant! Bo-bobo is eventually left with no other choices, but to break his "Nosehair Seal". This gives Bo-bobo incredible power, but every time he uses a limb, it gets broken! Bo-bobo finally ends the fight by jumping into the sky and attacking Giga with the Sun, bringing the downfall of Cyber City once and for all!
The Former Maruhage Empire
Bo-bobo and the gang set off to rest for a while, but are attacked by Maruhage soldiers. These soldiers, however, were from the third era of the Maruhage empire, over 100 years ago! After beating them, Bo-bobo realizes that his team will need more training if the want to defeat these new opponents, so he takes them to a shopping mall called Eternal that apparently serves as any warriors ideal training grounds! It is here that Bo-bobo discovers a new power. By training in a grocery store, he is given a new jacket, that powers him up into "Super Bo-bobo". The team sets out for the third era's fortress which is another theme park... built over Tennosuke's old A-Block. The rebels fight their way through the toughest generals that the hundred-year-old army has to offer, and finally find the old leader Tsuru Tsurulina III. This ancient dictator nearly conquered the world, save for two kingdoms, one of them being the Hair Kingdom! He could not stand up to the power of the "Hair Ball" a powerful part of the Hair Kingdom citizens that gave them all unnatural strength! Once he learns that Bo-bobo is a descendant of those people, he tries to steal Bo-bobo's Hair Ball! Things only get worse when Torpedo Girl turns back into OVER, who not only wants to destroy the emperor, but Bo-bobo as well! Bo-bobo somehow evades both of their attacks, and eventually annoys the mad leader so much, that Tsuru Tsurulina III tries to eat Bo-bobo (who takes Don Patch with him because he doesn't want to go alone). He succeeds and gains enormous power, but at the cost of having a weird looking form! The emperor ignores his strange appearance, and continues on with his plan: the destruction of humanity! He never gets to though, as Bo-bobo and Don Patch eventually force their way out of his stomach. The duo (and Tennosuke) defeat Tsurulina III with a slide show of an "average" human's journey through life.
The Playoff and the Reverse Maruhage Empire
Bo-bobo finally decides to destroy the evil Tsuru Tsurulina IV once and for all. But on the way there, he is ambushed by one of the participants of the New Emperor Playoffs. Bo-bobo beats him easily, and decides to enter the playoffs himself. He isn't interested in becoming emperor, but this would be a great opportunity to defeat ALL of the empires forces and end the Maruhage Empire once and for all. Though he defeats most of the competition, he learns of a new enemy called the Reverse Maruhage Empire, yet his first priority is to win the tournament. He comes very close to winning the tournament, but the Reverse Empire leader Hydrate dethrones Tsurulina IV before Bo-bobo can. Seeing them as an evil threat like the first empire he vows to defeat them. Bo-bobo and the gang battle their way through the empire, but when Bo-bobo reaches the second-to-last floor, he comes face to face with Bebebe-be Be-bebe, one of his older and powerful brothers! Though Be-bebe was one of Bo-bobo's nicer siblings, he is still loyal to the empire, and tries to defeat Bo-bobo regardless of their past. Bo-bobo defeats him though, by turning his sunglasses upside down, and unleashing a new power. After the fall of his brother, Bo-bobo and Don Patch team up to defeat Hydrate. Bo-bobo unleashes the full power of his jacket and Don Patch ascends to Ikarin Patch. With their power put together, Hydrate is outmatched, but the two argue about who will defeat Hydrate. Although Don Patch wins by winning in a bonsai cutting contest, he winds up merely holding Hydrate off, while Bo-bobo partakes in some last minute "training". When his training is finished, Bo-bobo gains a powerful new move, and defeats Hydrate with one punch.
The Hair Kingdom
A short while after the empire is defeated, Hatenko convinces Bo-bobo to defeat another of his older brothers, Bibibi-bi Bi-bibi, who has rebuilt the Hair Kingdom. Once inside, Bo-bobo sees how awfully his brother treats the civilians and how cruel his district leaders are. He makes it mission to put an end to his brother. Along the way, he meets his older sister, Bububu-bu Bu-bubu and finds that Be-bebe has followed him to the hair kingdom. They join his party and take down every district general they can find. Once facing Bi-bibi, Bo-bobo reveals that he had always intended to come back and fight Bi-bibi, as it was he who betrayed the Hair Kingdom, and instructed the Maruhage Empire to attack, all because Bo-bobo was next in line for Hair King. Bi-bibi proves to be the most cruel and difficult adversary Bo-bobo has ever had, as Bi-bibi kills their sister Bu-bubu, and kills Bo-bobo too. While dead, Bo-bobo meets Landmine Dandy (Torpedo Girl's father), and he revives Bo-bobo by giving him a "Landmine Ball" to replace his Hair Ball. With his new and improved power, Bo-bobo thrashes Bi-bibi around and almost kills him with his crazy techniques, but he decides to let him live in the end (It turns out that Bi-bibi has two children, and while he is evil, he is a good father to them). Bo-bobo spares his brother and leaves. His siblings somehow revive themselves after Bo-bobo wins the fight.
After throwing a huge party in celebration of his battles, Bo-bobo learns that Tsurulina III survived their encounter. Not only that, he killed Bi-bibi and stole his hair ball shortly after Bo-bobo defeated him. Bo-bobo leaves to go train for an entire year, setting the stage for Shinsetsu Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo.
Neo Maruhage Empire (Introduction Arc)
School Days and the Rebellious Boys
Elite Students: The Magical Sister and the Fifth Emperor
Tokyo's 23 Wards: The Final Maruhage War
Video Games
Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo: Nosehair Technique - Explosive Hanage Shinken
Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo Seriously!!? Shinken Battle
Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo Gag Fusion of the Nine Ultimate Warriors
Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo Great Explosive Hajike Battle
Ohagi, 1000 Pieces, Let's Eat!! (おはぎ １０００個 食わせろー！！):
• Vs. Don Patch:
• Vs. Tokoro Tennosuke:
• Vs. Heppokomaru:
• Vs. Dengakuman:
• Vs. Softon:
• Vs. Torpedo Girl:
• Vs. Hatenko:
• Vs. Gunkan:
• Vs. OVER:
• Vs. Serviceman:
• Vs. Halekulani:
• Epilogue:
Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo Escape! Hajike Royale
Jump Super Stars
Jump Ultimate Stars
J-Stars Victory VS
Early Chapters
Other Manga
Death Note Parody
Dragon Ball Parody
Jump Super Stars
Abilities & Powers
Hanage Shinken
Bo-bobo fights with his nose hair using the "Hanage Shinken" (鼻毛真拳; "Fist of the Nose Hair", sometimes called "Super Fist of the Nose Hair", other times "Snot Fo-You"). This technique involves stretching out his nose hairs in order to whip or constrict his enemies. He is one of the few people who knows this technique, so he believes that it is sacred and that he shouldn't overuse it. Bo-bobo's odd personality comes from the fact that he is also a hajikelist. As such he is very random, making obscene, unpredictable actions used to confuse his enemies into submission. He is also known to have more techniques than any other character in the series.
Bo-bobo World
Main Article: Bo-bobo World
Main Article: List of Bo-bobo's techniques
Forms & Transformations
Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo Double Twin Mark II Second
Main Article: Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo Double Twin Mark II Second
Super Bo-bobo
(スーパーボーボボ): After training in a grocery store, Bo-bobo is given a new jacket that increases his powers! He unlocks the true strength and mysterious powers of this jacket thanks to the power of love in him. He is described as having the infinite power of all 5634 supermarkets in all Japan! Able to called this same power several times to power-up again against The Three Sacks.He must be wearing it if he wants its power.
Bo-bobo Anger MAXVer.
(ボーボボ怒りMAXVer.): During his fight with Rem, Bo-bobo reached the top of his anger when she tried to put Bo-bobo to sleep through her abilities. But she failed and woke up the anger Max Ver of this one who can not be forced to sleep even with the power of a shinken and destroy Rem's Dream World !
(ガネメ): During his fight with Be-bebe, Bo-bobo accidentally unleashes a new power called "Ganeme". While this word seems like gibberish, it is actually a modification of the Japanese word Megane (メガネ), which stands for Glasses, with the first kana moved to the end creating this new word. This term originally appeared during a match between Bo-bobo and Z-Block Vice-Leader Kibahage, where Bo-bobo uses it to further confuse his opponent. However, it returns with a force against Be-bebe, when the afro warrior uses the term while flipping his glasses over to unleash a furious glasses-filled final attack! However, anyone, even allies, remotely near this form are vulnerable to being infected or even taken over by the power of Ganeme.
Revived Bo-bobo
After being killed by Bi-bibi, Bo-bobo finds deceased Hajikelist Landmine Dandy, who helps him by giving him a Landmine Ball to replace his destroyed hairball.This allows him to absorb the " life force" and "death force" of beings, along with their general power, and even their Hajike, as he did with all of the Hajikelists within Hajikelist Cemetary, the final hell that first-class Hajikelists in reality come to in the after-death. This Landmine Ball not only has the same immortality properties of the Hair Ball, but also allows Bo-bobo to freely revive himself with it's absorbed life force. This has also caused Bo-bobo to become an embodiment of Hajike. In this form, Bo-bobo becomes more powerful than when he was wearing his super jacket!
Shinsetsu Bo-bobo
Shinsetsu Bobobo
A form that Bo-bobo achieves in Shinsetsu Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo. After yanking out two of his nosehairs, Bo-bobo ascends to a new powerful form, where he gains a black jacket, with black fingerless gloves, and wears a see-through visor over his sunglasses. He gained this form after training with Torpedo Girl. In this state, Bo-bobo mainly attacks with powerful punches, and is able to pluck out his nosehairs and throw them like a javelin.
Throughout the series, Bo-bobo meets a powerful opponent that he cannot defeat by himself. In order to overcome these obstacles, Bo-bobo fuses with one or two of his partners (mainly Don Patch and Tokoro Tennosuke, in order to become more powerful. These fusions include, but are not limited to: BoboPatch, Denbo, and Tenbobo.
Other Forms
• Hajikelist forms: As a hajikelist, Bo-bobo is able to make himself look like anything he can think of. He uses these throughout the entire series, and almost no hajikelist form appears twice. These include but are NOT limited to: a cabbage, a sardine, a small figurine, a squid, and a small van with his head on the front.
• In the final popularity poll of the series, Bo-bobo came in third overall, beneath Don Patch and Heppokomaru.
• Bo-bobo's favorite foods are bread and meat.[1]
• Bo-bobo's least favorite food is green peppers.[2]
• 心のつぶやき：６時閉店は早すぎ！[3]
• Aside from Hanage Skinken, Bo-bobo's special skill are jenga[4], and "saying "Ahhh" in front of a fan", where he holds the record of 2nd place.[5]
• Bo-bobo's hobbies are battling and fooling around.[6]
• Bo-bobo's least favorite thing is static electricity during winter.[7]
• Bo-bobo's foot size is 29cm.[8]
• His soul is in the shape of bread.
• There is an apparently large colony of tiny humans and humanoid boogers living in his nose. They sometimes aid him in battle.
• He is a playable character in Jump Superstars and Jump Ultimate Stars.
• In Shinsetsu Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, Bo-bobo wears a red shirt.
• Coincidentally, Bobo in Spanish means 'stupid'.
• At some point, Bo-bobo met a hair hunter named Tomohiro, and the two became friends.
• In chapter 104 of the manga, Yugi Mutou from the manga "Yu-Gi-Oh!" makes an appearance where he comes out of Bo-bobo's afro and summons the Egyptian god Saint Dragon - God of Osiris)
• Bo-bobo directs small "micro-movies" in his own movie theater "Bo-bobo Gekijou" (Bo-BoBo Theater, but also called other names in the dub). These movies hardly ever related to the events at hand, and the audience consisted of nothing but animals
• His "worst nightmare" is playing basketball with kangaroos.
• His appearances in the Stephen Squirrelsky and Friends' Movie Spoof Travels are Nikki's Adventures of Sing Along Songs Episode 9, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Finding Alvin, Animated Tale, and The Forest Book 2 and will even be in more movie spoof travels.
| dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '140', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9735612869262696}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '306746', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:DAJYCBWAICRFFBLAD7XCTTFBWXB7Y4LL', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:3cfefaa0-538c-4d41-9497-38368210beaf>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2020, 5, 26, 17, 49, 45), 'WARC-IP-Address': '151.101.64.194', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:LUR3ABLQDNQRFQL7FGYHYFCJSJ6OGPLW', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:ee1e1913-b6b1-4f4f-a30a-160e37254157>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://scratchpad-iii.fandom.com/wiki/Bobobo-bo_Bo-bobo', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:5b6da7da-8f7b-4e8d-bc80-5181fc40abba>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '4562', 'url': 'https://scratchpad-iii.fandom.com/wiki/Bobobo-bo_Bo-bobo', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2020-24\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for May/June 2020\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-67-67-5.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.16 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 1.1-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.06299269199371338', 'original_id': '49a9e8b16232874630919e4c9ce2c8d2db6877cdd33e13f092729a4c98f9b508'} |
202. How to Transition Into Speaking Full-Time
Acquire Paid Speaking Gigs, podcast episodes
Are you a part-time speaker, or are you someone who speaks on occasion? Or maybe you’re doing a lot of speaking on the side while still working your full-time job, and you’re wondering how to transition into full-time speaking. If any of those scenarios sound like you then you’re in luck!
Today’s episode is completely dedicated to this very topic – how to transition into speaking full-time. Melanie and I will share our own stories of how we went from part-time speakers to having full-time speaking careers.
We’ll also tell you when it makes the most sense to make the transition, how to juggle everything before, during and after the transition and how best to prepare yourself so you can make the transition as smooth as possible. Join us for those topics and more on episode 202 of The Speaker Lab.
• Why are so many people intimidated by making the leap from their jobs to speaking?
• How long does it take most speakers to build their business into full-time speaking gigs?
• Why there is never the perfect time to do anything.
• What are the two types of regret?
• How can you promote yourself without ruffling the feathers of your full-time job?
• What are other streams of revenue you can use while you build your speaking skills?
• How to determine a realistic budget and a financial safety net.
• Will there be some seasons that are busier than others even when you’re an established speaker?
• And so much more!
Tweetable: “Begin with the end in mind.” | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '7', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.955719828605652}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '49268', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:BS6MVH5T2XFTWZAOXF2I7AZVRDIG3BGN', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:f3f949ff-0b3f-41ac-9a11-39f0d01a9bff>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2018, 12, 10, 21, 34, 44), 'WARC-IP-Address': '146.148.43.209', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:6ORKP3RTW7JN3FYKPC7XRIJDSBPONGEV', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:615afeef-96d8-42bd-99cd-fe2be48f2a70>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://thespeakerlab.com/full-time/', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:9c8740a7-e063-419a-a125-1b8a9f8fdc64>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '290', 'url': 'https://thespeakerlab.com/full-time/', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2018-51\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for December 2018\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-101-219-50.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 0.11-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.23559004068374634', 'original_id': 'd4699238334072ce4fd253b129a31e989639a5a326dd290058751997f57cb652'} |
live music
As the training ground of greats including George Jones, Janis Joplin, Tracy Byrd and Mark Chesnutt, music is a way of life in Southeast, Texas. Standing at a crossroads of country, Zydeco, jazz and Latin influences, Beaumont regularly hosts live music acts and dance lessons from every genre. To check the pulse of the music scene, head to local favorites: The Logon Café and Backyard Music Hall. | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '0', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.8022885322570801}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '387421', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:UGTSLXA7EA3KNVYLFZNOC5OKWOW2GRPL', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:c163f151-2ff4-456d-b5dd-0d3f2888737d>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2018, 8, 19, 0, 10, 26), 'WARC-IP-Address': '72.21.81.253', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:WTDPNRME75RV42LFFU24LPIHBHASO2DX', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:ab782b0e-3d6b-46c4-a8a0-5727af7da6e4>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'http://www.beaumontcvb.com/things-to-do/nightlife/live-music/', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:ae942653-387d-4c01-955d-02fab678ebe4>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '64', 'url': 'http://www.beaumontcvb.com/things-to-do/nightlife/live-music/', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2018-34\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for August 2018\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-113-243-226.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 0.11-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.03880029916763306', 'original_id': 'bb648e4fe6e81701ca53df16905762a1c8f2dadc9be83ac3e2294a5fab58047c'} |
Format Sheets Cell based on ISFORMULA or Cell Type with Google Apps Script
new to coding and doing some Google Apps Script.
Trying to set some custom formatting for a large workbook to make things more readable and usable.
Is it possible to use Apps Script to set a color based on if the Cell is a formula?
I can't seen to find anything that using getBooleanCondition() or the ConditionalFormatRuleBuilder
Also can't seem to look for a Cell's Type using Apps Script.
Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Class Range Method get Formulas()
Set all formulas to green
function setAllFormulasToGreen() {
var ss=SpreadsheetApp.getActive();
var sh=ss.getActiveSheet();
var rg=sh.getDataRange();
var f=rg.getFormulas();
var b=rg.getBackgrounds()
f.forEach(function(r,i){
r.forEach(function(c,j){
if(c){b[i][j]='green'}
});
});
rg.setBackgrounds(b);//sets all backgrounds at one time
}
Thanks Cooper, could you explain how that loop works?
Have your read this
| common_corpus | {'identifier': 'https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60198471', 'collection': 'StackExchange', 'open_type': 'Open Web', 'license': 'CC-By-SA', 'date': '2020.0', 'title': 'Stack Exchange', 'creator': "Chris O'Halloran, Cooper, https://stackoverflow.com/users/12888800, https://stackoverflow.com/users/7215091", 'language': 'English', 'language_type': 'Spoken', 'word_count': '138', 'token_count': '290', '__index_level_0__': '457', 'original_id': 'c356eb6cf9046d755b65c6b912d7f91ac2450c8f4348d7fd6208f399be7e5ac5'} |
1642,1722,147,80,KI
1099,1623,95,120,|U.U|
1605,1647,138,86,U₂
1737,1629,111,114,KAL
1612,1570,89,89,AŠ
1676,1570,101,80,UD
1747,1537,126,107,SUD
1547,1478,117,129,KAL
1645,1475,166,98,|U.KA|
1535,1386,95,123,|U.U|
1627,1377,328,135,U₂
1538,1297,123,107,KAL
1645,1309,61,107,DIŠ
1697,1294,92,107,ME
1765,1297,101,92,NI
1854,1285,98,107,KU₄
1590,1236,120,86,U₂
1538,1150,120,101,KAL
1697,1233,89,80,LU
1639,1131,178,111,DIM₂
1038,755,80,101,BAD
1526,765,95,98,SAL
1034,828,89,101,BAD
1519,834,172,107,KAL
1605,913,98,86,GAR
1544,978,71,107,|U.U|
1145,1052,120,104,AŠ
1056,3154,77,117,BAD
1133,3142,104,111,DI
1762,3231,95,86,ZA
1845,3219,120,107,IGI
1133,3302,107,123,DI
1771,3305,153,92,DIM₂
1903,3302,153,95,LU₃
1793,3384,117,114,GIŠ
1879,3394,178,77,KU
1879,3469,126,71,RU
1965,3452,114,74,BU
2057,3424,147,126,|ŠE.HU|
2115,3523,132,101,NI
2216,3513,107,123,GAR
1977,3544,153,98,KAL
1651,3630,132,114,DI
1759,3636,71,107,DIŠ
1814,3642,147,89,SAG
1940,3633,135,107,ZE₂
2044,3630,132,92,KU₄
2130,3612,120,98,UB
2235,3618,129,89,GIR₂
1661,3759,144,107,GIR₂
1946,3734,126,114,ZE₂
2139,3724,184,111,MURUB₄
2060,3734,98,107,AŠ
1618,3877,138,135,MU
1737,3873,126,126,KAL
1857,3869,111,132,IGI
1955,3857,169,147,TUM
1642,4038,61,89,DIŠ
1704,4035,61,111,SUR
1762,4041,58,111,KAK
1811,4017,175,135,|TUR.UŠ|
1756,4167,68,123,DIŠ
1811,4164,34,111,AŠ
1836,4158,98,138,SUR
| the_stack | {'hexsha': 'a07ad4f9f0f37942369e77a8d280801ad5d539de', 'size': '1361', 'ext': 'txt', 'lang': 'Text', 'max_stars_repo_path': 'temp/lmu/annotations/gt_K.9048.txt', 'max_stars_repo_name': 'ElectronicBabylonianLiterature/cuneiform-sign-detection', 'max_stars_repo_head_hexsha': '0a2983460ac5952fab15229e8b968043ae00f79e', 'max_stars_repo_licenses': "['MIT']", 'max_stars_count': '', 'max_stars_repo_stars_event_min_datetime': '', 'max_stars_repo_stars_event_max_datetime': '', 'max_issues_repo_path': 'temp/lmu/annotations/gt_K.9048.txt', 'max_issues_repo_name': 'ElectronicBabylonianLiterature/cuneiform-sign-detection', 'max_issues_repo_head_hexsha': '0a2983460ac5952fab15229e8b968043ae00f79e', 'max_issues_repo_licenses': "['MIT']", 'max_issues_count': '', 'max_issues_repo_issues_event_min_datetime': '', 'max_issues_repo_issues_event_max_datetime': '', 'max_forks_repo_path': 'temp/lmu/annotations/gt_K.9048.txt', 'max_forks_repo_name': 'ElectronicBabylonianLiterature/cuneiform-sign-detection', 'max_forks_repo_head_hexsha': '0a2983460ac5952fab15229e8b968043ae00f79e', 'max_forks_repo_licenses': "['MIT']", 'max_forks_count': '', 'max_forks_repo_forks_event_min_datetime': '', 'max_forks_repo_forks_event_max_datetime': '', 'avg_line_length': '20.9384615385', 'max_line_length': '26', 'alphanum_fraction': '0.7516531962', 'original_id': '52b9a81253717731d505902ae48567d5765084d4d974b859bb1e88e29d9460a7'} |
The Mother Of Jesus Praising God
Luke 1:46-55
“And Mary said: “My soul exalts the Lord, [47] And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. [48] “For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave; For behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed. [49] “For the Mighty One has done great things for me; And holy is His name. [50] “And His mercy is upon generation after generation Toward those who fear Him. [51] “He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart. [52] “He has brought down rulers from their thrones, And has exalted those who were humble. [53] “He has filled the hungry with good things; And sent away the rich empty-handed. [54] “He has given help to Israel His servant, In remembrance of His mercy, [55] As He spoke to our fathers, To Abraham and his descendants forever” (Luke 1:46-55, NASB).
The words of this text are found in a passage that is often called Magnificent. These words were spoken by Mary, the mother of Jesus, to Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. They were spoken in the home of Elizabeth, six months after she became pregnant with John the Baptist. Mary went to the home of Elizabeth to share the good news concerning her pregnancy. As soon as Mary greeted Elizabeth, John the Baptist leaped for joy in Elizabeth’s womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:39-41).
Elizabeth said to Mary that she was blessed among women and the fruit of her womb was blessed. The verb “blessed” (perfect, passive, particle) speaks of an action that has been completed and does not need to be repeated. This verb may also be used as a noun. So whatElizabeth had said about Mary was not only speaking of what God had done for Mary, she was also speaking of what Mary had become.
The word “blessed” (eulogeo) means to speak well of someone. It suggests invoking God’s blessings upon a person. In this passage, it carries the idea of God’s intervention to accomplish his will in the life of Mary. Elizabeth was saying to Mary that God had a work he was doing in her life. Mary would be the instrument through which God would bring the Savior into the world.
The task God had in mind for Mary was unique. No one could do what God had brought Mary into the world to do. This was God’s unique assignment for her. You will notice thatElizabeth did not become jealous because of what God had selected Mary to do and become. She said that Mary was blessed among women. She would be spoken well of among women. Elizabeth was glad for Mary that she would be the mother of the Messiah.
Mary was quick to tell Elizabeth that her blessings were not self-contained or self-generated. Her blessings had their origin in the Lord. Mary said that her soul exalted the Lord. The word “soul” (psuche) speaks of the inner person. It has reference to the essence of life. It includes the thinking, feeling, willing, and desiring of a person. So all that Mary was exalted the Lord.
The word “exalt” (megaluno) suggests making or declaring great. Here it speaks of magnifying, glorifying, or praising. Since Mary was speaking to Elizabeth and not God, she was elevating God in the heart and mind of Elizabeth. Mary was bragging on God to Elizabeth. This was a testimony to the fact that God was doing something in Mary and through Mary that only God could do. Because of the character and conduct of God in Mary’s life, Mary was making God enlarged in the heart and mind of Elizabeth.
Mary was enlarging God in the heart and mind of Elizabeth because God had demonstrated his omniscience and omnipotence. God knows all whom he will save and he has the power to save. Mary called God her Savior. He is Mary’s Savior and the Savior of all the world. Mary’s spirit rejoiced in God her Savior. The word “Savior” (soter) speaks of a deliverer or preserver.
In the New Testament, this word speaks of God the Father and God the Son as Savior. God is the Savior in that he planned salvation and Jesus is Savior because he provided it. It was for this that Mary rejoiced in her spirit. The word “rejoiced” (agalliao) means that she leaped for joy in her spirit. Her inner being was jumping for joy.
God Considering The Humble, 48.
“For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave; For behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed.”
Mary saw herself in a way most people do not like looking at themselves. The word “humble” (tapeinosis) speaks of low estate or low status. In humility, there is no pride or arrogance. This is the way Mary viewed her past and her presence. She did not see herself nor her family as being worthy of being the channel through which the Savior would enter the world. Although Mary would be the bride of a carpenter, more importantly, she would be the mother of the Messiah. It was because of the honor God gave her to be the mother of the Messiah that she would be honored from that day forward.
The word “regarded” (epiblepo) means that God looked upon Mary with favor. This word means that the way God looked at Mary meant that he was looking at her with the intent of doing something about her position. God regarding Mary meant that he was about to change her position. The idea of favor is that of grace. This means that Mary did not deserve what God was doing for her and through her. God was being partial toward Mary. He was taking special notice of her. God’s selection of Mary proves that God does not need human merit to do his work. All he needs is commitment and availability.
III. God’s Worthiness Of Praise, 49-55.
“For the Mighty One has done great things for me; And holy is His name. [50] “And His mercy is upon generation after generation Toward those who fear Him. [51] “He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart. [52] “He has brought down rulers from their thrones, And has exalted those who were humble. [53] “He has filled the hungry with good things; And sent away the rich empty-handed. [54] “He has given help to Israel His servant, In remembrance of His mercy, [55] As He spoke to our fathers, To Abraham and his descendants forever.”
It is important for us to know that praise always focuses on God’s attributes. I want to close by looking at some of the attributes Mary was focusing on in her praise of God. The things she knew about God she told Elizabeth about. The conduct Mary saw out of God was because of characteristics within God. You will notice in verses forty-nine and fifty, Mary lifted up God’s holiness and mercy. God’s mercy comes out of his holiness. It was because of God’s holiness and mercy that he acted as he did toward Israel.
You will notice that God acted in Israel’s life by providing for them and protecting them. God’s arm scattered the proud and brought help to Israel (51, 54). Mary spoke about and praised God for his arm because God does not need both arms to defeat the enemy of his people. God had provided and protected Israel from one generation to another. There was never a time when God was unfaithful to his people. Mary was telling Elizabeth that God would continue to be faithful even now. God had been faithful to Mary as an individual and he had been faithful to Israel as a nation. This made God worthy of praise.
God had also shown his worthiness of praise by bringing down rulers from their throne’s and lifting up the humble. This can be seen in David going from a shepherd to a king. David was not the most likely of the sons of Jesse to be king of Israel but he was God’s choice. Based on human standards, Israel was not the nation who should produce the King of Kings. But because of the omnipotence of God, Jesus was born of May to be the King at whose feet every knee shall bow.
Mary was suggesting to Elizabeth that God has a way he of reversing circumstances. She said that God, through his sovereignty, has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty-handed. People who have had confidence in themselves and their achievements have been brought down and God has elevated the humble. God had worked inIsrael as he had because of his covenant and commitment to Abraham and his descendents. Mary was a part of that covenant and commitment and she praised God for his faithfulness.
In her praise of God, Mary celebrated God. She sounded the praises of God. Mary boasted in God. If Mary lived today, she would probably say with the songwriter (Thomas Ken, Isaac Watts, and William Kethe)- | mini_pile | {'original_id': '67a570c6687fea2e1053d2716beb7cae6ad031d5bdb3ea86d54d4d43abc2fe3e'} |
Dermaroller Therapy is only available from trained medical practitioners and authorised clinics. Do not accept substitutes; only have Dermaroller Therapy carried out by a trained medical practitioner at an authorised clinic, such as the Aesthetic Beauty Centre, using genuine Dermaroller medical devices.
Dermaroller Procedure
Your practitioner will use a Dermaroller medical device to produce thousands of micro-medical needle-columns in the skin. Each column will penetrate into the dermis of the skin and will be approximately 0.1mm in width. The column will close rapidly enabling the skin to recover quickly - often in the same day.
Your practitioner will use a topical anaesthetic to numb the skin making the procedure comfortable; it will normally take up to 30 minutes for the topical anaesthetic to work and 20 - 30 minutes for the Dermaroller Therapy procedure.
After Dermaroller Therapy your body will start to naturally regenerate and repair the skin, working below the surface in the dermis. This takes time as new collagen is formed, new skin cells are generated and blood supply is enhanced.
It can take up to 6 weeks before visible signs of regeneration and repair are seen and the process will continue over the following months, providing you with a natural and long lasting enhancement.
Your practitioner will normally recommend that your treatment regime consists of a series of three procedures with approximately 4-6 weeks between them. In the treatment of acne scars and other types of scarring it may be necessary to have up to five procedures.
Dermaroller Therapy Post-procedure skincare
Immediately after your treatment you will look as though you have moderate sunburn and your skin may feel warm and tighter than usual. This will start to subside after 1 to 2 hours and will normally recover within the same day with only slight redness the following day.Your practitioner may apply cream after the procedure to help soothe and calm the skin, continue to use until the redness has cleared.
Use tepid water to cleanse the face for the following 48 hours and dry gently, always make sure your hands are clean when touching the treated area. It is recommended that make up is not applied for 12 hours after the procedure.
If you will be in daylight immediately after the procedure apply a broad spectrum UVA/UVB sunscreen with a SPF50.
Qualified doctors/nurses will discuss the procedure before any treatment, explaining any possible side effects. | mini_pile | {'original_id': '3da76277b2f44f987184b1d8835e52f8a73bd1a34339d50d9256c0dad13664a6'} |
Pages
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
The One That Got Away – Almost
Good Morning Everybody,
First off, it looks like my private workshop, The Sedona Experience is completely sold out. After yesterday's early morning post, the last seat went quickly. I’m really looking forward to next week’s private workshop. We have a fabulous locations in which to shoot, beautiful models, and six very excited photographers. I’ll keep you posted as to how things develop.
Today we head to Phoenix, AZ for this weekend’s wedding. We’ll try to catch up with Beverly and Jonathan later today to go over the remaining wedding details and plan for tomorrow’s shoot with the both of them and review plans for the rehearsal dinner tomorrow evening. I had a chance to sit down and visit with the couple in Atlanta earlier this year and am really looking forward to spending the next few days with them and their families.
Hey gang, we are out the door in just about 90 minutes so I need to get right to today’s post this morning. Here we go…
The One That Got Away – Almost
I can’t believe how time flies – we just finished shooting in Florida, now it’s off to Phoenix and Sedona, and just about a month ago we were in Dallas, TX teaching at Texas School. It’s the Texas School experience that I want to revisit today.
If you check back on the posts of that time frame, you’ll read how we walked into one of our church locations and wondered just how in the heck we were going to pull anything off in this very small, rather simple location. As luck would have it, my Sigma lens came to my rescue.
Looking through that lens, I was enamored with what I saw. Almost too enamored in one case to the point that I almost “blew” the shot.
I was setting up what I thought was a very cool wide angle portrait of my groom. Here is the first image below.
Image #1:
I’m thinking groom “dead center” – all lines leading to him, right. Well, at first glance, I thought I had something “cooking”. In fact, I like everything about this image with the exception of one thing – the ceiling beam “growing” out of his head – yikes. Without that beam behind his head, I think the image works quite well. But, alas, without the beam the entire roof of the church would have collapsed on our heads – ouch ;~)
Once I noticed the problem, I knew I would have to recompose the image repositioning the groom left or right of the beam. I chose to move him first to the left and see what that looked like. Check out the 2nd image below. It’s a slight improvement, but not much.
The inclusion of the ceiling lights really helped the composition. Plus, the super wide optics carried the eye into to and up the image. I was liking how things were developing. How about another tweak?
This time I re-composed the image so that the groom was repositioned into the bottom right quadrant at my nodal point #4. I was liking this a whole lot better. In fact, I could have stopped right there and been happy with the image. It had great leading lines, a nice balance visually, the area behind the groom's head was clear of any distractions – life was good. Check out the 4th image below.
Image #4:
OK, one more try – let’s try the composition vertically and see what happens. I’m thinking the lines soaring to the ceiling would really give a sense of strength to the final composition. I re-composed and shot away. This time I decided to balance the ceiling with the pews below.
I really like how the pews “throw” 4 diagonal lines across the bottom of the image contrasting with the strong mostly vertical elements of the roof beams. Even with the groom near the center of the frame, I think the image still works rather well. Check out the 5th image below.
Image #5:
Folks that know me say that I “iterate” my way to my final images. This is a perfect example of that process. That process is also kind of fun for me. I like to see how the subtle changes in composition can so dramatically change the impact of the final image. It is important to note that all of these image were all made within the span of only 2 1/2 minutes! That means I knew what I wanted, I just had to keep “iterating” to get to my final result. Image #4 and #5 are my favorites, BTW – I think they both would make nice portraits for my client.
I hope you’ll take the time to re-read and review the succession of the images presented. I really believe that if you see what I was up too, how I worked toward my final composition, you’ll have some strong compositional tools you can use in your future images. The secret is to know the basic rules of composition, execute those rules the best you can, light the scene/subject to best compliment your subject and setting, and then shoot away.
Have fun everybody!
________________________________________________________
Hey gang, that’s it for me today. We’ve got planes to catch, places to go, and people to see. See ya’ in Phoenix tomorrow!
Links
About
David Ziser, an internationally renowned portrait and wedding photographer, has shared his knowledge with ten’s-of-thousands of photographers, in 5 languages, and in 14 countries worldwide.
Studio Photograph magazine has extolled..."Award winning photographer, David Ziser, is showing the world how to take wedding pictures." His "Digital WakeUp Call tour was acclaimed as one of the "best ever" seminars on digital photography. | mini_pile | {'original_id': 'ec7d6d81f6e943bc6ec8b25aef6c29804b1ef1a3b75d33cb9ff87e7873a8fa61'} |
Heimpolding ist ein Gemeindeteil der Gemeinde Buchbach im oberbayerischen Landkreis Mühldorf am Inn.
Lage
Die Einöde Heimpolding liegt vier Kilometer südöstlich von Buchbach auf der Gemarkung Ranoldsberg an den Quellweihern des Heimpoldinger Grabens, der sich mit dem Waldpoldinger Graben zum Stengerbach vereint.
Bevölkerungsentwicklung
Um 1871 gab es in Heimpolding 17 Einwohner. Im Mai 1987 lebten dort vier Einwohner in einem Wohngebäude.
Weblinks
Einzelnachweise
Buchbach (Oberbayern)
Ort im Landkreis Mühldorf am Inn
Einzelsiedlung | common_corpus | {'identifier': 'https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heimpolding', 'collection': 'Wikipedia', 'open_type': 'Open Web', 'license': 'CC-By-SA', 'date': '2023.0', 'title': 'Heimpolding', 'creator': 'https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Heimpolding&action=history', 'language': 'German', 'language_type': 'Spoken', 'word_count': '72', 'token_count': '160', '__index_level_0__': '15202', 'original_id': 'cbcd3334a5a9127d1fac064c353758ef4da6732d5e94a06b34f9a3e421dfa1f8'} |
// bsltf_nonassignabletesttype.h -*-C++-*-
#ifndef INCLUDED_BSLTF_NONASSIGNABLETESTTYPE
#define INCLUDED_BSLTF_NONASSIGNABLETESTTYPE
#include <bsls_ident.h>
BSLS_IDENT("$Id: $")
//@PURPOSE: Provide an attribute class to which can not be assigned.
//
//@CLASSES:
// bsltf::NonAssignableTestType: non-assignable test type
//
//@SEE_ALSO: bsltf_templatetestfacility
//
//@DESCRIPTION: This component provides a single, unconstrained
// (value-semantic) attribute class, 'NonAssignableTestType', that does not not
// support assignment. This is particularly valuable when testing container
// operations that works with non-assignable types.
//
///Attributes
///----------
//..
// Name Type Default
// ------------------ ----------- -------
// data int 0
//..
//: o 'data': representation of the class value
//
///Usage
///-----
// This section illustrates intended use of this component.
//
///Example 1: Demonstrating The Type Cannot Be Assigned To
///- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
// Suppose we wanted to show 'NonAssignableTestType' can't be assigned to:
//
// First, we create two 'NonAssignableTestType' objects, 'X' and 'Y':
//..
// NonAssignableTestType X(1);
// NonAssignableTestType Y(2);
//..
// Now, we show that assigning 'X' from Y will not compile:
//..
// X = Y; // This will not compile
//..
#include <bslscm_version.h>
#include <bsls_keyword.h>
namespace BloombergLP {
namespace bsltf {
// ===========================
// class NonAssignableTestType
// ===========================
class NonAssignableTestType {
// This unconstrained (value-semantic) attribute class does not
// provide an assignment operator.
// DATA
int d_data; // integer class value
private:
// NOT IMPLEMENTED
NonAssignableTestType& operator=(const NonAssignableTestType&)
BSLS_KEYWORD_DELETED;
public:
// CREATORS
NonAssignableTestType();
// Create a 'NonAssignableTestType' object having the (default)
// attribute values:
//..
// data() == 0
//..
explicit NonAssignableTestType(int data);
// Create a 'NonAssignableTestType' object having the specified
// 'data' attribute value.
// NonAssignableTestType(const NonAssignableTestType& original) = default;
// Create a 'SimpleTestType' object having the same value as the
// specified 'original' object.
// ~NonAssignableTestType() = default;
// Destroy this object.
// MANIPULATORS
void setData(int value);
// Set the 'data' attribute of this object to the specified 'value'
// ACCESSORS
int data() const;
// Return the value of the 'data' attribute of this object.
};
// FREE OPERATORS
bool operator==(const NonAssignableTestType& lhs,
const NonAssignableTestType& rhs);
// Return 'true' if the specified 'lhs' and 'rhs' objects have the same
// value, and 'false' otherwise. Two 'NonAssignableTestType'
// objects have the same if their 'data' attributes are the same.
bool operator!=(const NonAssignableTestType& lhs,
const NonAssignableTestType& rhs);
// Return 'true' if the specified 'lhs' and 'rhs' objects do not have the
// same value, and 'false' otherwise. Two 'NonAssignableTestType'
// objects do not have the same value if their 'data' attributes are not
// the same.
// ============================================================================
// INLINE AND TEMPLATE FUNCTION IMPLEMENTATIONS
// ============================================================================
// ----------------------------------
// class NonAssignableTestType
// ----------------------------------
// CREATORS
inline
NonAssignableTestType::NonAssignableTestType()
: d_data(0)
{
}
inline
NonAssignableTestType::NonAssignableTestType(int data)
: d_data(data)
{
}
// MANIPULATORS
inline
void NonAssignableTestType::setData(int value)
{
d_data = value;
}
// ACCESSORS
inline
int NonAssignableTestType::data() const
{
return d_data;
}
// FREE OPERATORS
inline
bool operator==(const bsltf::NonAssignableTestType& lhs,
const bsltf::NonAssignableTestType& rhs)
{
return lhs.data() == rhs.data();
}
inline
bool operator!=(const bsltf::NonAssignableTestType& lhs,
const bsltf::NonAssignableTestType& rhs)
{
return lhs.data() != rhs.data();
}
} // close package namespace
} // close enterprise namespace
#endif
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Copyright 2013 Bloomberg Finance L.P.
//
// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
// You may obtain a copy of the License at
//
// http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
//
// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
// limitations under the License.
// ----------------------------- END-OF-FILE ----------------------------------
| mini_pile | {'original_id': '42844df35b54764e09238b3e3e05bb7de62ed8e696ede9eb4cfdeef927ba5a3b'} |
Beneficial Mutations: a Reductio ad Absurdum
1) Premise: there are no beneficial mutations; all mutations lead to decay, disease, or death.
2) From (1), some mutations cause death.
3) Presumably, some mutations cause death at a very early age, or even in utero.
4) When young children die, they go directly to heaven.
5) Going to heaven is the best possible outcome.
6) Therefore, there are beneficial mutations. QED.
(Hat tip to the skunk-dicks at Irreligiosophy.)
This entry was posted in :-), Creationism, Evolution and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.
Leave a Reply
You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )
Twitter picture
Facebook photo
Google+ photo
Connecting to %s | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '6', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.74240642786026}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '66197', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:56F3T7DAU2MX4MXTVIWK7RBBRTRB3JK2', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:03edaf22-24c4-4340-9b29-9f37c3cd8401>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2017, 2, 22, 19, 41, 41), 'WARC-IP-Address': '192.0.78.12', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': None, 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:J5ZCUREMNOREJFIXRLOR5PC5KYNGKW6G', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:def87c4d-b6f0-4a47-9efc-3e86a63484c5>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://epsilonclue.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/beneficial-mutations-a-reductio-ad-absurdum/', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:159da185-7e6b-4a3c-a93c-fd905ad544ad>', 'WARC-Truncated': 'length'}", 'previous_word_count': '141', 'url': 'https://epsilonclue.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/beneficial-mutations-a-reductio-ad-absurdum/', 'warcinfo': 'robots: classic\r\nhostname: ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0\r\nisPartOf: CC-MAIN-2017-09\r\noperator: CommonCrawl Admin\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for February 2017\r\npublisher: CommonCrawl\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.0\r\nconformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.030815303325653076', 'original_id': '21fa5c14662c908b2255899173ab024b2e0eb193136290bf3f19147c52c4d91e'} |
Saturday, December 7, 2013
mexican lasagna.
you have to cook for a dude and you have no idea what to make.
i actually remember the first time lee came over to my house around supper time 7 months ago when we started dating. i remember dreading the fact i had to make dinner for the kidi mean seriously i would've rather chewed my own arm off than to cook for him. i even went as far as talking to my roommates asking if it was loony to tell him to grab something to eat before coming over because i was that nervous.
the problem isn't that i don't like to cook - i actually really do love cooking, but i was so scared something was gonna go wrong and he was going to get food poisoning and spend the whole night hugging the toilet. or what if i got side tracked doing my make up and burned what was in the oven? or what if i forgot an ingredient like burger meat if i were making burgers?
fine. maybe that's all a little dramatic.
{ps. i ended up making tacos - idiot proof and they turned out fine.}
anyway, now that i'm over that fear, i'm all the time wanting to try new recipes. and what if it goes bad? my philosophy on that is screw it; we tried. let's order pizza. not to toot my own horn or anything because i'm no master chef, but we haven't had to call papa johns yet.
so if you're ever in need of an easy go to meal for a dude that will love it; feast your eyes on this simple, easy to make, yet holla omg good recipe for mexican lasagna
mexican lasagna
what you'll need:
1lb of ground beef
1 can of rotel (i used harris teeter brand)
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 can of black beans (or your beans of choice. i just hate other beans.)
1 pack of taco seasoning
1 pack of cheddar cheese
1 bag of cheap tortilla chips (you can use expensive ones if you like, but that's dumb. don't be dumb)
1 carton of sour cream (to be used as a topping)
ok fine the bottle of wine isn't used in the recipe, but amanda doesn't cook without two things: her wine and music jamming in the background. so the wine is totally optional even though i have no idea why on earth it would ever be an option and not a priority.
preheat oven to 325. i always forget this step.
start by browning your meat. an 8 year old can do this. so can you. but if you must know simply simmer the beef over medium heat until all the pink is gone.
drain off the fat, and add the beans, rotel, taco seasoning, soup and a dash of water. i actually put 1/2 a cup of water and ended up spooning some of it out to create a thicker texture, so if you want to use the water from the rotel and beans, i would suggest that and just add a dash of water at the end.
simmer this over medium heat until it's all combined and super yummy looking.
grease a pan. i think i used a 9 x 9, but really any larger would do. the 9 x 9 worked really well as this created a more thick lasagna than thin.
crunch up some tortilla chips and layer the bottom like so.
spoon in the mixture from the stove top and then cover with cheese. and repeat.
COVER WITH FOIL. i know you're think ok yeah whatever, this isn't important. but it is. i almost didn't do this because i thought i was cool and i was smarter than the oven. wrong. the cheese definitely would've burned. so be a smart cookie and cover with foil and bake on 325 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until bubbly.
top with sour cream and voila! easy meal for your dude and he will think you're awesome. | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '0', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.968402087688446}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '74911', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:GJGICJBH6PPD5C4ZMABPNLCHGZOXKZE4', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:07271b5c-6372-4542-b15d-403f2fddca60>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2020, 6, 2, 23, 17, 50), 'WARC-IP-Address': '172.217.15.83', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'application/xhtml+xml', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:H7SJGZ6MTVKI7V2JS7IOP52HDXTE7FZJ', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:b05b522e-2044-4d56-8b9d-c2cfc5df7930>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'http://www.asthewinecorkturns.com/2013/12/mexican-lasagna.html', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:a08917de-cce5-4480-87b9-b32105dd7a53>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '670', 'url': 'http://www.asthewinecorkturns.com/2013/12/mexican-lasagna.html', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2020-24\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for May/June 2020\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-67-67-236.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.16 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 1.1-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.04503905773162842', 'original_id': '262efe7562ac0c683f1018289d559ccf7589dc516979ac9b49e6224d12750b0b'} |
Pages
December 09, 2011
Raising Human Beings and Life Lessons from the Duggars
Yesterday I read that Michelle Duggar from 19 Kids and Counting had a miscarriage. Even though this is someone that I don't know, I was heartbroken for her. And then I was MAD. Underneath every news article about her miscarriage (which I'm sure would be difficult to talk to the media about) were hundreds, sometimes thousands of comments of people being so ugly and hurtful and condemning. They said things like, "God killed your baby because he doesn't want you to have any more children." and "What did you expect?" and "Anyone who wants to have too many kids deserves to have this happen to them."
People. Who are we? I don't care what in the world you think about this family. I don't care if you are a zero population growth proponent or the spawn of Satan himself- when did we get to the point where we feel like we get to tell a mother that her child deserves to die and secretly rejoice a little bit when someone goes through a tragedy. Like the loss of that child's life is the ultimate "I told you so." When did we become so entrenched with our own negativity that we forget that an actual life was lost and that an actual mother is grieving?
I have never had a miscarriage. I've been fortunate and blessed to have had two pregnancies that resulted in two live births. But I've had friends who have had miscarriages and it is awful. I do not pretend to have any inkling of what it feels like to miscarry just because people close to me have walked through it any more than having a black son makes me know what it feels like to be black. But, I think that it is a pain that would be indescribable. My friends have all said that it is a mix of sadness and guilt and shame and confusion and loss and hurt so deep that you wonder if you will ever feel normal again. I would think that no matter if it was your first baby or your 20th baby that loss is loss. Who are we to diminish someone's pain? Who are we to say that that baby didn't matter to it's mother and it's God just because there are 19 other children in the family? Have we gone so far down the rabbit hole that we think one human life is just easily replaced with another one? Have we forgotten that we are told that each one is precious and created for a purpose?
I think that so much of this backlash stems from how we view children. I'm very guilty of it myself. I've often said that I will never be that mother who finds joy in changing diapers or doing laundry even though it is part of the package deal. I do however, find such complete and utter joy in my children- even though they drive me nuts sometimes. :-) I think I'm normal, but I also think that our society has shifted the way that we think about children. They are no longer viewed as blessings. They are seen as something we "do" for 18 years. We have lost out on the magic of what it means to care for someone.
We are so tied to our technology and our careers and our pettiness that we forget that there are actual children wanting us to delight in them. Not to get too religious here, but I'd like to think that if we are going to call ourselves Godly parents, that we would remember that God revels in our very existence and delights in the uniqueness that we each bring and the utter JOY that gives him. There are times when I look at my children with that kind of love and amazement and times that I can't muster that for all the gold in Fort Knox. But it doesn't mean that I shouldn't STRIVE for that. I should make it my goal as a mother to make them feel that they are delighted in. I saw this the other day on pinterest and it hit me like a ton of bricks.
How true is this and the way we so often ultimately view our job as mothers raising the next generation? I think that's why people like Michelle Duggar get crucified. We just can't comprehend that someone can find so much delight in each little blessing. We believe that it is out of the realm of possibility that someone could possibly like raising 19 children. I hear her called naive. I hear her called an idiot. And I wonder if those throwing insults are secretly just a little bit jealous of the pure joy that she finds in raising children. Seeing someone doing it well makes us feel bad about the way that we are doing it and instead of rejoicing that someone has found their bliss, we work extra hard to tear them down. When they announced that they were pregnant with their 20th child, people said that they were irresponsible, unfair to their other children and why couldn't they just be happy with what they had. It is just inconceivable to most people that each one of their children is a BLESSING when we are bombarded with the message every single day that children are a burden and that caring for more than the average 2 children detracts from our enjoyment of life. People- our children ARE our enjoyment in life.
I'm just as guilty as the next person at sometimes looking at my children and thinking that I need a break or that I need to do "something more" with my life. We've been tricked into thinking that being a mother is not enough. We've been told so many times that money, success and happiness can't happen with too many children in tow. But what if we took a step back and remembered that our source of joy comes in our community and relationships with other people? What if we remembered that the world's definition of success is not the same as God's definition? What if we remembered that the lives of the children we are entrusted with matter more than all the other "stuff"? What would that look like? Would that look like the pure joy that Michelle Duggar has for raising children? What if that wasn't so radical? What if delighting in each creation was the norm, instead of the exception?
My hope for myself today (and each day) is that I will live as though I am raising human beings, not managing inconveniences.
Please be aware that all content of this blog is copyright protected and is the sole property of the writer. Please do not pass off my posts as your own or copy my work without my permission. If you ask nicely, I'll probably say yes. If you don't ask, I may hold a grudge and try to whoop up on you. Please and thank you! | mini_pile | {'original_id': '47de20baef1b3d34a1961d60ebd09258cbaaf96dbd29d6e03ec57dc0ecca7d45'} |
Protease inhibitors suppress the degradation of mutant adrenoleukodystrophy proteins but do not correct impairment of very long chain fatty acid metabolism in adrenoleukodystrophy fibroblasts.
The adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) gene product, ALD protein (ALDP), was not detected in fibroblasts from our or most other patients with ALD as determined by immunoblot or immunocytochemistry. We investigated the stability of mutant ALDP and found from pulse-chase experiments that the respective half-lives of the normal and mutant #140 (Gly512Ser) and #249 (Arg660Trp) were 72.6, 32.1 and 26.1 min, indicative that mutant ALDPs are less stable than normal ones. The mutant ALDPs were detectable in fibroblasts cultured with the protease inhibitor E-64 or leupeptin. Protease inhibitor treatment for 2 to 28 days did not affect the amount of very long chain fatty acid (VLCFA), C26:0, or VLCFA beta-oxidation activity in ALD fibroblasts. Protease inhibitors therefore suppress the degradation of ALDP but do not correct the impairment of VLCFA metabolism in ALD. | mini_pile | {'original_id': '8fbdb52f32424df9ed65f398630f57e0709acbab9b6f94123132459f94b2505d'} |
The Perils of Border Crossing: 'The Undocumented'
The story of Francisco Hernandez provides an aptly difficult and elusive focus, in the sense that he has disappeared following his decision to cross the desert.
Independent Lens: The Undocumented
Director: Marco Williams
Cast: Marcos Hernandez, Bruce Parks, Jeronimo Garcia, Kat Rodriguez
Rated: NR
Studio: Hip Truth Productions, Two Tone Productions, ITVS
Year: 2012
US date: 2013-04-19 (PBS)
Remains. The verb means to stay, to continue, to be left. The noun means the same, usually associated with what's left after a death -- writings, traces, and bodies. Each of these ideas has to do with what might be collected, measured or otherwise documented. When human remains are not documented -- when they are unidentified or unfound -- those family members and friends who are left behind in another way bear immeasurable burdens.
Marco Williams' remarkable film The Undocumented, airing 29 April on Independent Lens, considers these many burdens in a series of contexts, focusing on men, women, and children who cross the border from Sonora, Mexico into the United States by way of Arizona. More than 2500 of them have tried and failed over the past 15 years, at least by the rough and necessarily inaccurate count conjured by border patrol and Mexican consul officials. The losses are onerous for relatives, of course, and each instance brings with it a particular story of sacrifice and pain.
Just so, the story of Francisco Hernandez provides an aptly difficult and elusive focus, in the sense that he has disappeared following his decision to cross the desert. With a son in the hospital suffering from kidney failure, Francisco was determined to find work and so be able to fund Gustavo's treatment, even as his family worried for him. Another son, Marcos, now lives in Chicago, and the film follows his efforts to learn what's become of his father. Marcos feeds pigeons on the sidewalk outside the bakery where he works, remembering the difficulty of his own border crossing, a journey he's made to find his father. He keeps on his phone a recording of the last conversation he had with his father's coyote, who told him approximately where he abandoned Francisco after he became too sick to go on. "He didn't care about my father's life or anyone else's," laments Marcos, "All he cared about was money," more specifically, the $2500 he charged Francisco before they left Mexico.
“People are dying, and that should be enough to change things,” says Kat Rodriguez of the Coalición de Derechos Humanos (the Human Rights Coalition), a grassroots organization that counters the militarization of the US southern border region. Kat's office receives calls every day from relatives of lost individuals, seeking help in locating them. Though this isn't Derechos Humanos' charge, staffers do their best to put people in touch with offices that can help, including local police and federal agents, the Mexican consulate (the Tucson office headed by Jeronimo Garcia), and the medical examines who are presented each day with unidentified remains.
The film traces the various steps in making identifications, beginning with Border Patrol Search and Rescue (BORSTAR) agents: here the camera follows along as men and women in uniforms travel over the desert, by vehicle and on foot. Sometimes they run to catch kids and young men in sneakers and t-shirts, people wholly unequipped to make the trek they hope to make, without enough water to survive in the 108 daytime degree temperatures, with little understanding of the environment or distances they face (coyotes frequently lie to clients, suggesting they have some 12 or 13 hours to walk, where the actual distance is closer to two and three days).
When the agents find survivors, they provide them with water and take them to shelters. They also find remains, bodies baked by the sun, skeletons, and bones scattered across the desert floor. These remains are transported to the Pima County medical examiner's office, where Bruce Parks takes photos and performs autopsies, looking for clues to identities in clothing, sometimes sewed into underwear along with money that has proved useless. Parks notes the rising numbers of cases his office must process each year, and explains, "We believe it's important to teat people equally and just as we would a US citizen. We can't do anything for the dead. All we can do is help the living."
The camera observes from a long, low, handheld distance as he and his colleagues zip and unzip body bags, as they roll gurneys from freezers to examining rooms and back again, as they measure bodies and body parts with tapes, cut into desiccated carcasses, examine jeans and mementos and boots. They check teeth in search of identifying markers, though dental records are hardly reliable in cases of impoverished farmers who've never been to a dentist before they leave for the US. They imagine an American Dream on the other side. Garcia clicks on photos stored on his desktop at the consulate, noting, "They lose it all in the desert."
And they are lost, as well. The living who remain do their best to go on; they conduct funerals when they are fortunate enough to have remains delivered to them. They do their best to remember when they do not. The film doesn't make an aggressive case against the current state of US border politics, but it doesn't have to. "Each case makes us think," says Garcia, "We understand their anguish." Parks adds, "The United States is asking for this labor force," as he stands over a table full of dry bones he tries to reassemble. As we benefit from such workers' efforts, he goes on, "We have to ask ourselves do we have some responsibility in these deaths."
PM Picks
© 1999-2020 All rights reserved.
PopMatters is wholly independent, women-owned and operated. | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '15', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9706193804740906}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '1049780', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:W4AMTU2YJVZGPAD2X6DLF3JMYM2X33AG', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:d9c3172f-c5f0-40f8-ae22-886c85d39990>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2020, 3, 30, 7, 40, 6), 'WARC-IP-Address': '104.26.7.26', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:YDT5BA32MDLCPTAD4ABRTUUL43L2SFSD', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:10d5551d-295f-418e-a33c-2aa1af5128c2>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://www.popmatters.com/170965-independent-lens-the-undocumented-2495760537.html', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:740eb11d-8a56-4939-8799-1eca80f01277>', 'WARC-Truncated': 'length'}", 'previous_word_count': '959', 'url': 'https://www.popmatters.com/170965-independent-lens-the-undocumented-2495760537.html', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2020-16\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for March/April 2020\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-67-67-170.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.16 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 1.1-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.08011716604232788', 'original_id': '270b007571520782383d5ccdf96a010aad74c88f66f5cb0e95ec7deac71ab082'} |
Start writing
Share this Story
Pregnant soccer star is taking serious heat for summer fun at the lake
Theresa Edwards
Shark Wrestler
Soccer star Sydney Leroux made the 'mistake' of having fun while pregnant this week
Existing on the internet as a pregnant person has always been a little hazardous for one's health. With access to information about what could possibly go wrong and a million message boards that are fraught with judgment and terrible grammar, it's best to stay away from the computer if possible. Take a walk. Cook a nice meal. Go for a low-key tubing jaunt on the lake.
On second thought, you'd better scratch that last one, since that's precisely what Olympic gold medalist and FC Kansas City soccer star Sydney Leroux did, and boy, did the hammer of internet judgment ever fall swiftly on her for daring to post a picture of the summer fun.
More: Celeb baby bumps: Behati, Blake Lively, Blac Chyna, Peta Murgatroyd
Leroux, who relies on the health of her body to make a living, is expecting a child with her husband, Sporting Kansas City's Dom Dwyer, who also relies on the health of his body to make a living. Between the two of them, we can safely assume that the decision to go tubing — yes, even while pregnant — wasn't something they decided to do for a rush of adrenaline or to push their physical limits. It's tubing, for Chrissakes, not hiking Everest.
Not so, insist Instagram commenters with doctorates from Google University. According to them, this is a picture of Leroux doing a Very Bad Thing:
Beautiful day on the lake!
A photo posted by Sydney Leroux Dwyer (@sydneyleroux) on
More: Farrah Abraham may have had a drink, and here come the mommy police
And of course, they've got a nice little diagnosis to go along with their pregnancy policing. "You gonna kill that baby," mouth-tooted one erudite troll. "There's no way her baby is still living after she did this," agreed a commenter whose own hobbies appear to be drinking and talking about drinking. And finally, a real, live, internet doctor of babyology weighed in with 110 percent "true" Internet Fact©: "if the boat is making a that's going fast. it's advised to not even go on boats while pregnant, and if you do...for it to be calm waters. smh. why risk it. hope is an old picture."
Man, Sydney Leroux is so lucky to have all these people concerned about her health and the health of her baby. She didn't seem particularly grateful, though, because she followed up with a heartfelt message asking people to please stop telling her how dead her unborn baby is:
More: This bizarre attack on breastfeeding hurts moms and their kids
And good for her too. There are risks during pregnancy and ways to mitigate them, but these tend to vary from woman to woman, and so do the conversations they have about them with their doctors. No doctor worth her salt would continue to perpetuate the strangely persistent myths that require women to find a comfy (but not too comfy — babies hate when moms are comfortable) chair to quietly sit in while they wait for their only role in their child's life — incubating inoffensively — to be over.
Most doctors want moms to stay active if the pregnancy is relatively risk-free. In fact, most doctors don't even cotton well to the whole "don't lift things while pregnant" myth that assumes women are fragile flowers, just one butterfly trample away from being bruised to death.
Plus, can't you just hear the Google U grads on a post of Leroux sprawled out on a La-Z-Boy? Then she'd be lazy and endangering her child with her reckless sloth. There's no way to win. We're not sure what causes people to weigh in on the choices that people they've never met make during their pregnancies. It's not like the soccer player is going to call them up and thank them for saving her and her baby from herself. If anything, the stress of reading the words "dead baby" in conjunction with a picture of yourself during pregnancy is bound to cause a lot more stress to both Mom and fetus than a little tubing at trawl speed could ever do.
If you're a Google U alum, here's one thing you ought to remember: Unless the pregnant person in question has a cigarette dangling from her lips and a 40-ounce of malt liquor in her hand, you should refrain from typing.
New in Parenting
SheKnows is making some changes!
b h e a r d !
Welcome to the new SheKnows Community,
where you can share your stories, ideas
and CONNECT with millions of women.
Get Started | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '24', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9572529792785645}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '114793', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:SVQN4FCXCSEPX3ZEPG5ZYDF6SXEDHC5H', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:af375709-a71e-4dd9-8c01-8c7d3d0711a2>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2017, 8, 21, 12, 47, 27), 'WARC-IP-Address': '151.101.34.109', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:GCUOMXJBCD6VJ7NYG747UWEOI47B2NQR', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:78bef3db-758c-4287-914c-8e8a2547774d>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'http://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/1125801/sydney-leroux-attacked-for-tubing-while-pregnant', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:56120f95-d1b1-4e63-af1e-78000b5c9987>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '824', 'url': 'http://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/1125801/sydney-leroux-attacked-for-tubing-while-pregnant', 'warcinfo': 'robots: classic\r\nhostname: ip-10-145-168-196.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Nutch 1.6 (CC)\r\nisPartOf: CC-MAIN-2017-34\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for August 2017\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.0\r\nconformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.034945666790008545', 'original_id': '712f84031ae4a2666957c115b20ef078342807e8ce88e257927380c0b69fb524'} |
ماركوينهوس دو سول لاعب كورة قدم من برازيل.
حياته
ماركوينهوس دو سول من مواليد يوم 22 فبراير 1994 فى ريو دى جانيرو.
الحياه الرياضيه
بيلعب فى مركز جناح, و لعب مع فريق نادى فاسكو دا جاما.
لينكات برانيه
مصادر
لاعبين كوره القدم
لعيبة كورة قدم برازيليين | common_corpus | {'identifier': 'https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%83%D9%88%D9%8A%D9%86%D9%87%D9%88%D8%B3%20%D8%AF%D9%88%20%D8%B3%D9%88%D9%84', 'collection': 'Wikipedia', 'open_type': 'Open Web', 'license': 'CC-By-SA', 'date': '2023.0', 'title': 'ماركوينهوس دو سول', 'creator': 'https://arz.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ماركوينهوس دو سول&action=history', 'language': 'Egyptian Arabic', 'language_type': 'Spoken', 'word_count': '46', 'token_count': '127', '__index_level_0__': '31530', 'original_id': '6f6e476f753d56720df519cb189477c22853b06d4027594f6b5b3dd10d50b121'} |
What Is Decision Fatigue And How To Combat It
How often have you had the experience of needing to make tough decisions that pull you in different directions?
You go round and round in circles, and, in the end, you either make a snap decision or put off reaching a decision indefinitely because you’re just too tired to think anymore.
The stress and overwhelming emotions compel you to make a decision and yet, at the same time, make you unable to do so is labeled as decision fatigue.
Poor decisions are made not because of incapability but because arriving at one or more choices takes its toll. It also happens to severely weaken our mental energy.
What Is Decision Fatigue?
To explain the concept of decision fatigue, let us look at an example:
When determining a court ruling, many factors contribute to the final verdict. You probably assume that the judge’s decision is influenced solely by the nature of the crime committed or broken laws. While this is valid, an even greater influential factor dictates the judge’s decision: the time of day.
In 2012, a research team from Columbia University examined 1,112 court rulings by a Parole Board Judge over ten months. [1] The judge would have to determine whether the individuals in question would be released from prison and granted parole or a change in the parole terms.
While the facts of the case often precede decision-making, the judges’ mental state had an alarming influence on their verdict.
The study has shown that as the day progressed, the chances of a favorable ruling dropped.
What Is Decision Fatigue And How To Combat It
The question arises, “does the time of day or the judges’ hunger level contribute greatly to their decision-making?” Yes, it does.
The research showed that earlier in the day, the likelihood of the judging giving a favorable ruling was around 65%.
However, as the morning dragged on, the judge became fatigued and drained from deciding. As more time went on, the odds of receiving a favorable ruling decreased steadily until it was whittled down to zero.
However, right after their lunch break, the judge would return to the courtroom feeling refreshed and recharged, and energized by their second wind, their leniency skyrockets to a whopping 65%. And again, as the day dragged on to its finish, the favorable rulings slowly continued to diminish along with the judge’s spirits.
This is no coincidence, as according to the carefully recorded research, this was true for all 1,112 cases. The severity of the crime didn’t matter. Whether it was rape, murder, theft, or embezzlement, the criminal was more likely to get a favorable ruling early in the morning or after the judges’ lunch break.
The Detrimental Consequences of Decision Fatigue
When you are in a powerful position, such as the previously mentioned judges, you can’t afford to let your mental focus and state dictate your decision-making; yet it still happens.
According to George Lowenstein, an American educator and economy expert, decision fatigue is to blame for poor decision-making among members of high office. The disastrous failure among these individuals to control their impulses could be directly related to their day-to-day stresses at work and in their private life.
When you’re just too tired to think, you stop caring; this is also called compassion fatigue. Once you get careless, that’s when you need to worry. Decision fatigue can contribute to several issues, such as impulse shopping, poor decision-making at work, and poor decision-making in after-work relationships.
Are You Suffering From Decision Fatigue?
By now, I am sure that you are familiar enough with the decision fatigue definition.
And the answer is, yes. We all suffer from decision fatigue without even realizing it.
Perhaps you aren’t a judge with the fate of an individual’s life at your disposal, but the small decisions, be it daily and weekly, or monthly big decisions you make for yourself can hinder your productivity if you’re not in the right headspace.
Regardless of how energetic you feel, you can still experience decision fatigue, leading to poor choices. Like every other muscle, your brain starts feeling drained after prolonged periods of overuse, pumping out one decision after the next. It needs a chance to rest to function at a productive rate.
The chart below may look similar to one of your average days.[2] Considering that this is just a handful of the decisions one has to make throughout the day; it’s easy to see how decision fatigue slowly manifests in your body.
What Is Decision Fatigue And How To Combat It
Now that we know the decision fatigue definition and have explored decision fatigue examples, let’s explore some of the primary ways to combat it to enable a stronger mental state coupled with better decision-making.
How to Beat Decision Fatigue
Two possible ways how to overcome decision fatigue are either you alter the time of decision making to the time when your mind is fresh or limiting the number of decisions made in a day.
Try utilizing the following hacks to avoid decision fatigue and make better decisions.
1. Identify and Make the Most Important Decisions First
If you have a busy personal or work life where many tricky decisions are on the table daily, this can easily and quickly become overwhelming.
In such a case, create mental space for yourself by initially laying out all situations and challenges requiring a decision. Use a basic software tool or write them down on paper—a notepad file or word document is sufficient.
Once you have your complete list, carefully pick out the most important items needing a conclusion sooner rather than later. Be mindful that you can’t treat everything as urgent or requiring immediate attention. There have to be some things that are more important than others!
Prioritize and Declare the Appropriate Options
Equipped with your most pressing items awaiting decisions, add another layer of scrutiny by prioritizing them further. The result should allow you to identify, in order, your most urgent and important tasks without any conflicting priorities.
The last part of this exercise is to highlight all the options to consider for your most important decision and work through them individually. With the visual representation of options and most critical decisions out the way first, you’ll be able to think more clearly and prevent decision fatigue from subtly kicking in.
2. Implement Daily Routines to Automate Less Important Decisions
“Shall I have a healthy lunch today?” “Should I wake up earlier tomorrow?” “What time should I prepare dinner tonight?”
As trivial as these questions appear, each one still requires a decision. Stack them on top of other straightforward everyday questions and more significant ones, and things can start to add up unpleasantly.
You don’t have to choose all the time.
Breakfast is the day’s most important meal, but it doesn’t have to be an extravagant spread every morning. Make a habit of eating a similar or quick breakfast and cut out that step of your morning short.
If you can’t decide what to wear, pick the first thing that catches your eye. We both know that after 20 minutes of changing outfits, you’ll go with the first thing anyway.
Powerful individuals such as Steve Jobs, Barack Obama, and Mark Zuckerberg don’t waste their precious time deciding what to wear. They have been known to limit their outfits to two options to reduce their daily decision fatigue.
By choosing to make fewer decisions throughout the day, you’re choosing to free your mind for the most important decisions.
Small or less important decisions can eat away at your time and productivity. When many other decisions need to be made in parallel, it can lead to decision fatigue. However, there’s a method to avoid this. It involves streamlining aspects of your life by automating repetitive decisions, which drives the ability to make better overall decisions.[3]
3. Put a Time Limit on Every Decision
Making complex or big decisions increases the risk of draining your energy. This is especially true if you struggle with the fear of making the wrong decisions. The doubt and worry bouncing around continuously are enough for most people to become fed up and exhausted.
Research has shown that you are the most productive in the first three hours of your day. [4] Utilize this time! Please don’t waste it on trivial decisions such as what to wear or mindlessly scrolling through social media.
To make good decisions, you must act in the right position. A tactic to deploy is to force yourself to act by setting a time limit on your decision-making process. What might seem a little daunting—given that it can create a sense of added pressure—provides clarity on when you need to conclude since you can see the end.
Grow in Confidence by Reducing Hesitation
After making the decision, it’s time to move on. You’ll feel good and build self-confidence knowing that you didn’t linger on the choices available.
Only consider revisiting a previous decision if something unexpected occurs that impacts it. If that’s the case, follow the same process by ensuring you make the revised decision before a new deadline.
4. Seek Input From Other People—Don’t Decide Alone
There’s a time and place to make decisions alone, but sometimes, involving others is appropriate. If there’s any struggle in reaching a verdict, then seeking opinions from people in your network can lessen the mental burden of indecisiveness.
Do you feel comfortable seeking input from other people to help make decisions? Trust and feeling secure in relationships are crucial to answering “yes” to this question.
Gain a Different Perspective From Others
An insecure business leader likely won’t trust their team(s) to help them make decisions. On the other hand, an assured and secure business leader realizes they don’t “know it all.” Instead of going solo on all work-related decisions, they install trust among their team and get the support required to make the best possible decisions.
The ability to make a great decision can depend on the information related to it that’s at your disposal. When faced with a difficult choice, don’t be afraid to lean on the relevant people for help. They can offer valid alternatives that are otherwise easy to overlook or hold the key to you making a well-informed decision.
5. Simplify and Lower the Number of Available Options
You’re standing in the store, facing an aisle of more than 20 varieties of peanut butter. You have no idea which one to choose, and although there are subtle differences, they all look fairly similar.
No doubt you’ve been in this situation at least once in the past.
This is a classic example of having too many choices—an event that makes you decide to do nothing or waste time by continually pondering on which product to buy.
According to the psychological concept known as ‘choice overload,’ having too many options can be disruptive and overburdening, causing decision fatigue.[5] Using the example above, you might make the easiest choice of avoiding further thought, which often results in purchasing the wrong item.
Extract Meaningful Information and Evaluate Options With a Binary Outcome
To simplify and lower your range of options, leverage the information available and extract what’s most important for you to make a decision. Is it the price? The protein content? Whether it has sustainable packaging or a combination of multiple details?
Keep a tight lid on having too many important components. Prioritize, if necessary, and implement a binary outcome (of “yes” or “no” / “true” or “false”) to help arrive at decisions earlier, such as defining a limited price range that the product must fall within.
6. Eliminate Unnecessary Distractions
Arguably, attention is the currency of the modern world. Concentrating better than the next person can mean the difference between a successful student, a thriving business, a happy parent, and a great decision-maker.
So, how can you improve your attention span to make better choices and avoid decision fatigue? There are many strategies, and one of the most optimal ways is to eliminate distractions. Today, the easiest distractions result from technology and the devices running it—all of which are at your fingertips 24/7.
Create Extended Periods of Time to Increase Focus
These distractions might be small or large, but the broader issue is their frequency, and they repeatedly cause a break in your focus. Dealing with this while trying to make the right decision can be mentally debilitating.
Technology distractions commonly relate to email, instant messages, push notifications from mobile apps, and scrolling through social media feeds. Access to all of these technologies and tools must be limited to scheduled time blocks (ideally, using a calendar if it’s during a working day).
Switch off notifications entirely to all of the above to prevent distractions (where possible) when it’s not time to look at them. This enables you to think more deeply and focus for prolonged periods, ultimately boosting the chances of making good decisions.
7. Take Frequent Breaks for a Clearer Mind
You are at your peak of productivity after a break, so to reap the benefits, you need to take lots of breaks to improve your mental energy. Judges make better decisions in the morning and after their lunch break, and so will you.
The reason is that the belly is full, the hunger is gone, and you likely have a bit more energy. Roy Baumeister, Florida State University social psychologist found that low-glucose levels negatively affect decision making.[6] You can focus better and improve your decision-making abilities by taking a break to replenish your glucose levels.
Even if you aren’t hungry, little breaks are still necessary to let your mind refresh.
Structure your break times. Decide beforehand when you will take breaks, and eat energy-sustaining snacks, so your energy level doesn’t drop too low. The time you “lose” during your breaks will be made up in the end, as your productivity will increase after each break.
One study found that the ideal work day consists of work periods lasting around 50 minutes, followed by a 15-20 minute break.[7] Try to follow this pattern for a more productive day.
Final Thoughts
Decision fatigue is a real phenomenon that can deplete energy levels and increase stress. It can affect anyone who has to make decisions, whether they are minor or major ones.
Overcoming decision fatigue needs patience and dedication. By applying the best practices discussed in this article, you’ll be on the path to implementing valuable changes. These changes will increase your productivity and drastically improve your consistency and ability to make the right choices.
Originally posted on Lifehack
WP Radio
WP Radio | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '186', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9368132948875428}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '148115', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:XXSVAPS7LEZTAR4XGPSSAJGJGDR57CZF', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:afcab43d-22cd-425c-9ad9-c7306bf05e13>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2022, 11, 27, 3, 8, 13), 'WARC-IP-Address': '88.99.127.231', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:F3TECDCG7F3QT4Y6CAD72BHWYYLJKKDV', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:fc0fa2d6-81a2-459d-9b9e-9e427ec052b1>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://www.betterself.me/what-is-decision-fatigue-and-how-to-combat-it/', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:0742991d-addb-4b8a-b67d-d79e911e51b7>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '2438', 'url': 'https://www.betterself.me/what-is-decision-fatigue-and-how-to-combat-it/', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2022-49\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for November/December 2022\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-67-67-8\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.19 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 1.4-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: https://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.0866510272026062', 'original_id': '4f48339aefd70915b7a8d6326b1ad2da77ac8524f5a306da446cefb7d74a05f2'} |
The National Pork Board on Saturday presented its Distinguished Service Award to South Dakota farmer Jim Leafstedt for his leadership in improving swine health in the United States, including the role he played during the elimination of pseudorabies from the United States.
The award was presented in Orlando, FL, during Pork Industry Forum, the industry's annual business meeting. The award is presented each year to someone who has made an extraordinary contribution to the U.S. pork industry.
Pseudorabies (PRV) is a viral disease that often causes young pigs to die. Its effects on pig health and producer profitability for many decades led to a coordinated national effort to wipe out the costly disease. Leafstedt, whose own farm near Alcester, SD., was an early victim of PRV, was a member of the pork industry's PRV Eradication Task Force, and then served on the National PRV Control Board that helped write the state-federal-industry cooperative program standards. Those standards provided the guidance for the eradication program that eventually led to eradication of the disease. The United States was certified as being PRV free in 2004.
“Jim Leafstedt has been a quiet and steady leader of the pork industry throughout his career,” says Paul Sundberg, DVM, National Pork Board vice president of science and technology. “The thing that has made him unique is his ability to listen, digest and analyze and then give a producer’s perspective in plain, simple terms that makes people pause and listen. He recognized that people can make a difference if they have determination and really a very simple vision for the right thing to do. U.S. pork producers have benefited from his willingness to give his time and his talent.”
Sundberg says Leafstedt also earned national respect from his tenure as president of the U.S. Animal Health Association (USAHA), an organization that brings together the U.S. Department of Agriculture, state veterinarians and industry representatives. “He helped USAHA become a more modern organization,” Sundberg says. “You have to be a consensus builder in that position. Jim did a masterful job of leading it.”
Leafstedt also was a long-time member of what is now the Pork Checkoff's Swine Health Committee, and in that role helped to promote a more structured, science-based approach to U.S. swine disease surveillance. “He helped to give some structure to the concept of basing surveillance for a disease on the sources of risk to get it,” Sundberg says. “For PRV, the biggest risk now is feral pig contact, so we started and are still working with USDA to focus PRV surveillance where there are the largest populations of feral pigs.”
Leafstedt, as a member of the Swine Health Committee, also was instrumental in promoting the “interstate movement report” that enables pigs to move interstate within production systems without needing an individual interstate health certificate for every group of pigs being shipped.
“That's important,” Sundberg says, “because of the number of pigs that we move from state to state. It directly saves money and headaches for the producer, but still gives state animal health officials health assurances for state import and export of pigs.”
| dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '104', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9639984965324402}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '69179', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:ODKAUYHRCCH2T4A3IMG2NNNWFY7JFUZ5', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:0a262328-f272-46c0-bf28-61e35bbc6b75>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2014, 8, 2, 0, 6, 50), 'WARC-IP-Address': '66.111.102.30', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': None, 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:NZY6G37YRVYFPIMT5YOHJTZOPNWPUXEY', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:248ea89b-5185-435c-bdac-0b351df5e53e>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'http://nationalhogfarmer.com/health/south-dakotan-receives-distinguished-service-award', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:d18a70c2-fe63-4835-9b63-a25e4fa8d2f9>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '603', 'url': 'http://nationalhogfarmer.com/health/south-dakotan-receives-distinguished-service-award', 'warcinfo': 'robots: classic\r\nhostname: ip-10-146-231-18.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0\r\nisPartOf: CC-MAIN-2014-23\r\noperator: CommonCrawl Admin\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web with URLs provided by Blekko for July 2014\r\npublisher: CommonCrawl\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.0\r\nconformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.01977837085723877', 'original_id': '6a8f3be48eb7b54c068a2fcf8343df5efef8db3b7efa5b2d023ec83f26a2c400'} |
We're Only Human
Is Drinking Alone An Early Warning Sign?
drinkingThe rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous are full of stories, many of them about early drinking days. The vast majority of alcoholics first experimented with drinking as teenagers, and usually for social reasons—to fit in with their friends, to overcome shyness and feel more comfortable in gatherings, and so forth. But every once in a while, someone will tell a different sort of tale—an often wrenching tale of drinking alone from the very beginning, without friends, without social pleasure, just to drink. Such early, solitary drinking is rare, but not unheard of.
Of course, most people start drinking for social purposes, and most of those go on to lives of moderate social drinking. Only a fraction of them become alcoholic as adults. But what about those early outliers, the ones without a party to go to, or friends to meet? Do they follow a different trajectory?
Psychological scientist Kasey Creswell of Carnegie Mellon University was intrigued by these disengaged teenage drinkers. She and her colleagues suspected that solitary drinkers might be a distinct type of adolescent drinker—one at greater risk for heaving drinking and alcoholism later on in life. If true, Creswell reasoned, understanding these lone drinkers might illuminate the pathways of risk for problematic drinking.
Other researchers have shown that solitary drinking is linked to heavier drinking and more alcohol-related problems. But it’s not clear what comes first. That is, does drinking alone lead to drinking more, or do heavy drinkers tend to isolate themselves? It’s also not clear why there teenagers choose to drink alone. What are they looking for?
Creswell suspected that solitary drinkers might be more likely to self-medicate—to use booze to salve negative feelings. To find out, she ran a longitudinal study, the first of its kind, following a large group of teenage drinkers into early adulthood. They found some of the teenagers in rehab facilities, and others in the community at large, so they had a mix of drinking patterns and histories.
The teens were between 12- and 18-years-old at the start, and all were studied until age 25. They went through exhaustive assessments over this time, which included drinking frequency and consumption, frequency of solitary and social drinking, and so forth. The scientists also interviewed the subjects about the kind of situations that preceded episodes of heavy drinking: Do you drink a lot when you’re lonely? After a quarrel with a friend? To celebrate something good? And so forth. Finally, they kept track of who eventually developed alcohol disorders.
Solitary teenage drinkers are indeed unique, and not vanishingly rare. As reported in an article in the journal Psychological Science, about 60 percent of the subjects reported never having a drink alone. They only ever drank in social settings. But the others—nearly four in ten—said that they did drink alone at least on occasion. This is higher than the usual estimate of solitary drinking, and the rate of solitary drinking was much higher in the teens with early symptoms of alcohol abuse. The solitary drinkers also drank more often than the other teenage drinkers, and they drank more when they drank. They were also younger when they got started drinking.
Perhaps most important, Creswell’s survey revealed that teenagers tended to drink alone when they were in unpleasant situations, suggesting that these teenagers were probably self-medicating in order to cope with their negative feelings. And these solitary teen drinkers were much more likely to develop serious alcohol problems, including alcohol dependence, by age 25.
It’s sad to think of these youngsters sitting alone at home, using intoxication as a tool to deal with their demons, whatever those demons are. But these findings could help to identify these especially vulnerable teenagers sooner, before they end up telling their woeful tales in the rooms of AA.
Leave a comment below and continue the conversation.
I am not so sure of this. Wouldn’t a possible flaw in this study be that those who were already antisocial or had fewer friends would be the ones that would drink alone for lack of people to drink with? Those seem like the kind of teens that would be more likely to have issues in the first place.
Leave a comment.
| dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '2', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9681221842765808}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '71182', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:ATYTVZ4YS7HM7AWLV6TGQ6SLQZVE2DXV', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:69a88ed3-a082-4c71-a8b2-a18cca455d55>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2014, 10, 31, 9, 15, 51), 'WARC-IP-Address': '205.251.117.110', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': None, 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:PZ24FU4X4D4POUJ4GE5AJMK26JT7E7WA', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:b3dce0be-6775-4096-be45-f8639938f18d>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/were-only-human/is-drinking-alone-an-early-warning-sign.html', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:2a6e64d8-9d87-4d55-85be-a094e00437a1>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '730', 'url': 'http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/were-only-human/is-drinking-alone-an-early-warning-sign.html', 'warcinfo': 'robots: classic\r\nhostname: ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0\r\nisPartOf: CC-MAIN-2014-42\r\noperator: CommonCrawl Admin\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web with URLs provided by Blekko for October 2014\r\npublisher: CommonCrawl\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.0\r\nconformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.08212494850158691', 'original_id': 'a1ed90bef127b68f22ce5f2c15e58a5a7ad71030b75c5d26783495153111d987'} |
• TRAVEL NOTICE: Learn more about COVID-19
• Write a Review
• Boards
• Log In
• Find a Cruise
• Deals
• Excursions
• More
Scenic Emerald Activities
4.5 / 5.0
Editor Rating
24 reviews
Editor Rating
Erica Silverstein
Cruise Critic Contributor
Entertainment & Activities
The Panorama Lounge, just forward of reception on the Danube Deck, is the only entertainment venue onboard. A singer/pianist performs there in the evenings and occasionally on afternoons spent sailing. His rendition of Elvis' "Love Me Tender" had us running for our earplugs, but he did manage to get people dancing every evening. The crew show and the occasional folkloric show also take place on the dance floor in this venue.
The lounge has an uncluttered, modern look with floor-to-ceiling windows, black-and-white carpeting, and blue, gray, brown and orange couches and chairs. In the center of the room is a rectangular bar where passengers can order complimentary cocktails, fancy coffee drinks and other beverages, including a changing roster of cocktails, mocktails and martinis of the day. Bartenders have an Enomatic wine dispenser and a state-of-the-art espresso machine to assist them. Order at the bar, or wait for the circulating bar staff to come to you. The bar staff were very attentive and even came around to the Sun Deck on a warm day, so we didn't have to leave our loungers to get drinks.
Unlike ocean cruises, river sailings don't offer a full roster of scheduled fun. Onboard time is usually spent watching the scenery or relaxing in your cabin, on the sun deck or in the lounge with a book or drink. Every so often, the cruise director will schedule an activity like a galley tour or cooking demo by the pastry chef. But the itineraries are so port intensive, the staff doesn't want to overprogram passengers' time off. There is neither enrichment programming nor in-depth lectures on the destinations, though the cruise director does give a brief overview of each port the night before.
The main focus of a cruise on Scenic is the ports. All excursions are included in the fares, and Scenic is big on choice and possibilities for independent exploration. In each destination, passengers can choose from a few ScenicFreeChoice excursions. These will typically be a walking tour, a biking tour or a transfer to a museum or a nearby city for a tour. We found guides were generally good, but the walking tours often seemed rushed in an attempt to give an overview of the town, allow for free time and not tire out everyone with excessive ambling.
All passengers receive a special GPS system called a ScenicTailorMade device. They are the next generation of the QuietVox systems many other river lines use. The devices function in three ways. First, they work like a QuietVox in that you can turn yours to your guide's channel so you can hear her explanations through your headset and don't need to stand directly next to her (great when you're walking down crowded streets in Europe and your group spreads out). Second, they contain walking tours for select cities, with maps that indicate key attractions and show your position; when you reach the highlighted places, prerecorded commentary begins to play, often with photos of that attraction. Finally, the devices serve as commentary during scenic cruising; as you sail by places of interest, the commentary will come on, explaining what you're looking at. This frees the cruise director from having to narrate and allows people who wish to snooze or read during sailing times to not be bothered by constant explanations on the PA system.
The devices can be a bit finicky (mine constantly reset itself to Mannheim, despite Mannheim not being on the itinerary) but if you take a quick look at the card that explains the symbols, you will figure them out soon enough.
Public Rooms
The ship is laid out with passenger cabins in the aft half and public rooms in the forward half. The public decks are a half-flight down from each passenger deck. So to get from the 300-level cabins on Danube Deck to the Lounge on the same deck, you must go down half a flight of stairs.
Reception is located midship on the Danube Deck. There, you can sign up for bike tours, make spa appointments, borrow electrical converters and ask questions. The cruise director also sits there to answer questions and provide handouts on the various destinations. They can also lend you binoculars or provide toothbrushes, razors and other toiletries you forgot to pack. Across this lobby area, glass cases serve as the "gift shop," holding jewelry, watches, logowear and some local items.
The main gathering spot is the Panorama Lounge, just forward of Reception. Flanking the entrance is an espresso machine (with lattes, hot chocolate and the like) and a tea station with several choices of loose-leaf and fine bagged teas. You can get your own drinks 24/7. Large flat-screen TVs are employed for cruise director presentations, and shelves on the walls and under glass tables house tour guides and other books for onboard perusing. The lounge is where the cruise director will give his daily port talks and make any announcements. It's also where people hang out to read, snack, drink, meet for pre- or post-dinner cocktails, or watch the river go by.
An elevator midship stops at all decks and half decks, except the Sun Deck.
Wireless Internet is available gratis throughout the ship. If you don't bring your own laptop, iPad or other digital device, the in-cabin TVs have Apple computer setups with cordless keyboards and mice. These can be tricky to use; ask reception or your butler if you need assistance.
A laundry and pressing service is available for a fee, but there are no self-serve facilities.
Spa & Fitness
The top deck Sun Deck is the main venue for catching some rays and watching the beautiful European scenery pass by. The forward part of the deck is furnished with the same black-and-white wicker chairs found on the sun lounge balconies, wooden tables and some umbrella coverage. The aft section has a giant chess set, collapsible awnings for shade, black fabric chairs and loungers, and tables for drinks. There's also a small outdoor space with tables and chairs just forward of Portobellos.
The spa is a small two-room facility on the Moselle Deck. The front room has a windowless space for manicures (32 euros) and salon services like women's and men's haircuts (9 euros for beard-trimming, 24 to 42 euros for cuts and styling) and eyebrow "correction" and coloration (12 to 14 euros). The back room, with one high window, has a spa bed for facials (30, 60 and 90 minutes, ranging from 35 to 95 euros) and 25- or 50-minute massages (30 and 50 euros, respectively). It's pretty basic, but you won't get a hard sell afterward. Appointment times are limited with only two therapists onboard, so book early.
A small fitness center, located across from the spa, has one elliptical trainer, one recumbent bike, one rowing machine and one treadmill. Free bottled water and towels are available, and a large flat-screen TV provides workout entertainment. However, your workout might provide entertainment to others: The gym's corridor-facing wall is all glass, so anyone who passes by can watch you sweat. There's not much head clearance on the elliptical trainer, especially if you're tall; an upper-body resistance machine or some free weights would have been a better choice.
The ship also carries 30 electric-assisted bicycles for use in port. These are super fun. The bikes work like standard three- and seven-gear touring bikes ... but when you get tired, you can push a button to activate a small motor that offers six levels of power. Cruising along and want a bit of help? Try level one or two. Biking uphill against the wind while the tour guide gets farther and farther ahead? Bump it up to 5 or 6. Just remember to return to a lower level when you stop, otherwise your bike will kick into gear as soon as you begin pedaling, giving you a bit of a surprise. These bikes are great way for people who are fit but haven't spent a lot of time cycling to enjoy a bike tour or simply tool around town on their own.
For Kids
Scenic ships have neither facilities for children nor specific family sailings, but kids ages 7 and older are welcome onboard. The itineraries would be suitable for older teens interested in culture and history, and the option of bike tours and independent exploration with the ScenicTailorMade devices mean they aren't forced into day after day of walking or bus tours.
Find a Scenic Emerald Cruise
Want to cruise smarter?
Get expert advice, insider tips and more. | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '3', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.94606351852417}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '145433', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:N6DSEVRJHIART67CCNWSQJCVG34ADNHU', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:d9cf83c0-6d5c-4f38-8d6a-85ad95b0b950>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2021, 5, 11, 7, 49, 32), 'WARC-IP-Address': '76.76.21.21', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:IC7XP4RIOU5DB3JW5JQXJ3DYXLD5BM3T', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:cf44dac7-3b24-46aa-96ae-b9ae3121c3d1>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://www.cruisecritic.com/reviews/review.cfm?ShipID=656&pgtype=activities', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:570248e6-1230-481f-adcd-e28a2ddd9303>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '1461', 'url': 'https://www.cruisecritic.com/reviews/review.cfm?ShipID=656&pgtype=activities', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2021-21\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for May 2021\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-67-67-101.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.18 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: https://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.02830272912979126', 'original_id': '123234d54b4ad2435b49f2d3b04a4b192cef12bdefc72276bb1abc3a0f1ba41d'} |
Select language
Design og arkitektur Norge Design and Architecture Norway
Why should you engage with Inclusive Design?
Customer needs
Design has to respond to the changes that are taking place in the world around us. | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '5', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.912588357925415}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '26958', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:KFCFWOPPWWYI46EPKGR4UQ2R23TLZRAJ', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:de7c0cd0-364f-4aa7-bf50-5117af296d63>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2018, 12, 14, 17, 25, 47), 'WARC-IP-Address': '80.239.119.97', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:7FWWVPIEW4ERG5622Q4LRL5HPFXUJRWN', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:a4a838ac-d208-47ae-8baf-6aabbaa74e74>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'http://www.inclusivedesign.no/customer-needs/category121.html', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:7049a94c-e354-4897-81e1-a32a8437b8d1>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '51', 'url': 'http://www.inclusivedesign.no/customer-needs/category121.html', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2018-51\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for December 2018\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-165-185-158.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 0.11-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.9996942281723022', 'original_id': '7be37db8ebcd4c6d90b8abe4e9e79301a05ff41823cf95e84dbcc837b63ef3f2'} |
package main
import (
"flag"
"fmt"
"net/http"
"net/url"
"os"
"strings"
"time"
"github.com/umayr/concur"
)
var (
flagSubreddit string
flagPages int
flagRedirectURI string
flagPlaylistID string
flagRefreshToken string
)
func init() {
flag.StringVar(
&flagPlaylistID,
"playlist-id",
"",
"playlist id where tracks are going to be added",
)
flag.StringVar(
&flagRefreshToken,
"refresh-token",
"",
"refresh token to create a new authentication token",
)
flag.StringVar(
&flagSubreddit,
"subreddit",
"music",
"comma separated subreddit names",
)
flag.IntVar(
&flagPages,
"pages",
3,
"max pages to be parsed",
)
flag.StringVar(
&flagRedirectURI,
"redirect-url",
"http://localhost:8080/callback",
"redirect URI registered in spotify application",
)
flag.Parse()
}
func exitWithErr(err error) {
fmt.Println(err.Error())
os.Exit(1)
}
func newSpotifyWithRedirectURI() *concur.Spotify {
uri, err := url.Parse(flagRedirectURI)
if err != nil {
exitWithErr(err)
}
if uri.Scheme == "" {
exitWithErr(fmt.Errorf("Redirect URI should be provided as https://some-url.com/callback"))
}
s, err := concur.NewSpotify(uri.String(), "")
if err != nil {
exitWithErr(err)
}
var route string
if strings.HasPrefix(uri.Path, "/") {
route = uri.Path
} else {
route = "/" + uri.Path
}
http.HandleFunc(route, s.Callback)
http.HandleFunc("/", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
fmt.Fprint(w, "This server is for handling callback request from Spotify authentication.")
})
var port string
if uri.Port() == "" {
port = "80"
} else {
port = uri.Port()
}
go http.ListenAndServe(fmt.Sprintf(":%s", port), nil)
fmt.Printf("Please log in to Spotify by visiting the following page in your browser: %s\n", s.AuthURL())
time.AfterFunc(time.Minute, func() {
if !s.Ready() {
exitWithErr(fmt.Errorf("Unable to get authorised by Spotify"))
}
})
<-s.Done
return s
}
func newSpotifyWithRefreshToken() *concur.Spotify {
s, err := concur.NewSpotifyWithRefreshToken(flagRefreshToken)
if err != nil {
exitWithErr(err)
}
return s
}
func main() {
var s *concur.Spotify
if flagRefreshToken == "" {
s = newSpotifyWithRedirectURI()
} else {
s = newSpotifyWithRefreshToken()
}
var subs []string
if strings.Contains(flagSubreddit, ",") {
subs = append(strings.Split(flagSubreddit, ","))
} else {
subs = append(subs, flagSubreddit)
}
var list []string
for _, v := range subs {
r := &concur.Reddit{Max: flagPages, Subreddit: v}
l, err := r.Fetch()
if err != nil {
exitWithErr(err)
}
list = append(list, l...)
}
idx, err := s.Search(list)
if err != nil {
exitWithErr(err)
}
if flagPlaylistID == "" {
name := "Reddit Sync - "
for _, str := range strings.Split(flagSubreddit, ",") {
name += "/r/" + str + " "
}
p, err := s.CreatePlaylist(name)
if err != nil {
exitWithErr(err)
}
flagPlaylistID = p
}
c, err := s.AddToPlaylist(flagPlaylistID, idx...)
if err != nil {
exitWithErr(err)
}
fmt.Printf("Added (%d/%d) tracks in the playlist.", c, len(idx))
}
| common_corpus | {'identifier': 'https://github.com/umayr/concur/blob/master/cmd/concur/main.go', 'collection': 'Github Open Source', 'open_type': 'Open Source', 'license': 'MIT', 'date': '', 'title': 'concur', 'creator': 'umayr', 'language': 'Go', 'language_type': 'Code', 'word_count': '394', 'token_count': '1266', '__index_level_0__': '31375', 'original_id': 'dd3a9596010d0982a91c93980504526d9543d647d670572ccc46b4a318002c59'} |
linkAges TimeBank from PAMF
Thanks to advances in modern medicine, people are living much longer lives. This raises the question: What kinds of lives are they actually living? Many seniors live alone and end up isolated from their communities. This can lead to depression and, in turn, physical ailments.
It’s our collective responsibility to look out for those who want to be an active member of society but may not have the connections to do so. And that’s the idea behind linkAges™, the brainchild of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. By using the resources that are already in place in communities, linkAges™ creates a social support network for all ages and across generations.
One of the linkAges™ programs is TimeBank, a neighborhood service-exchange network that matches you with the unique skills, talents, and needs of people who live within close proximity. Members contribute services in exchange for hours and use those hours to receive services in return. Think of it as your proverbial win-win situation.
When Eaglevision heard about linkAges™ we knew this incredibly worthy endeavor was one that we wanted to be a part of. As a media company, we were thrilled to work with PAMF to produce a 60-second public service announcement-type piece. It begins with what looks like a dutiful middle-age daughter feeding her reluctant older mother a spoonful of soup. But the spot takes a unique turn. See for yourself here.
We hope that after viewing the spot, which will run on television as well as various social media networks, you will be inspired to get involved in your community to contribute in your own way. Trust us—paying it forward really pays off. | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '13', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9645279049873352}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '40974', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:5TZ5ICR5TZQWIYWBX2EDEAJAXRH5DHK2', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:a60b350c-fc32-4bec-b4a9-8b274d3cfa47>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2019, 6, 18, 7, 4, 26), 'WARC-IP-Address': '23.229.227.130', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:RQBEPRUE4NMIFTCOKNPRDXVWUGI5JHF4', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:3ba80470-0c21-4e9c-9a11-bfc1410257f7>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'http://www.eaglevsn.com/linkagestimebank', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:70744c3c-9076-47f7-a4cb-b279acd95305>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '277', 'url': 'http://www.eaglevsn.com/linkagestimebank', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2019-26\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for June 2019\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-165-255-234.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 1.1-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.07437551021575928', 'original_id': '0faa1e3a8e16824499cf86eecb9e7b893f2f031a4981dd3ca2a39260cfa6e96e'} |
HURLEY, Judge,
dissenting.
The threshold issue is whether non-final orders entered in proceedings supplementary to execution are appealable under rule 9.130(a)(4), Fla.R.App.P. I would answer in the negative and dismiss this non-final appeal for lack of jurisdiction.
The background is simple. Ellis obtained a money judgment against Tubero. The judgment was not appealed nor challenged under rule 1.540(b), Fla.R.Civ.P. When execution remained unsatisfied, Ellis instituted proceedings supplementary, and attempted to depose Tubero pursuant to section 56.29(2), Florida Statutes (1983). Tubero, in turn, filed a motion for protective order wherein he indicated that Ellis’ final judgment was under collateral attack in the federal court and, therefore, Tubero requested the state trial court to cancel the discovery in aid of execution until service of process in the federal proceeding could be effectuated on Ellis. The trial court denied the motion for protective order and Tubero instituted this appeal under the apparent authority of rule 9.130(a)(4), Fla.R. App.P.
Rule 9.130(a)(4), Fla.R.App.P., states:
Non-final orders entered after final order on motions which suspend rendition are not reviewable; provided that orders granting motions for new trial in jury and non-jury cases are reviewable by the method prescribed in Rule 9.110. Other non-final orders entered after final order on authorized motions are reviewable by the method prescribed by this rule.
The foregoing language does not indicate an intent to depart from the general philosophy of the appellate rules which disfavors piecemeal appeals. In fact, the first clause of the first sentence precludes review of most post-judgment non-final orders. Rule 9.020(g), Fla.R.App.P., lists the motions which suspend rendition. A quick perusal of the list reveals that it contains all of the normal post-judgment motions: new trial or rehearing, to alter or amend, for judgment in accordance with prior motion for directed verdict, notwithstanding verdict, in arrest of judgment or a challenge to the verdict. Thus, a non-final order entered during the consideration of any of these motions is not susceptible to interlocutory appeal.
Tubero apparently relies on the rule’s second sentence which provides that “[o]ther non-final orders entered after final order on authorized motions are reviewable by the method prescribed by this rule.” The Committee Notes indicate that this pro*207vision was designed to permit review of such non-final post-judgment orders as those granting a motion to vacate a default. One case, however, has suggested that the committee note is in error; it should read “[s]uch [non-final] orders include ... an order granting a motion to vacate default and default final judgment.” Howard v. McAuley, 436 So.2d 392, 393 n. 1 (Fla. 2d DCA 1983). Whatever the drafters’ intent, I am satisfied that the rule was not designed to permit wholesale non-final review in proceedings supplementary.
Two of our sister courts have taken the position that non-final orders entered in proceedings supplementary are appealable under Rule 9.130(a)(4), Fla.R.App.P. The Fifth District in Mogul v. Fodiman, 406 So.2d 1225 (Fla. 5th DCA 1981), ruled that an order denying a motion for protective order in proceedings supplementary is ap-pealable. The court reasoned that “Rule 9.130(a)(4) appears broad enough to permit an appeal from the order in question.” Id. at 1226. Similarly, the Second District in Largo Hospital Owners, Ltd. v. Gorman, 408 So.2d 597 (Fla. 2d DCA 1981), held that a non-final order requiring a defendant to produce an out-of-state resident for deposition in aid of execution was appealable under Rule 9.130(a)(4). Most respectfully, I suggest that these decisions are flawed due to their failure to differentiate between random non-final post-judgment orders and non-final orders entered in independent post-judgment proceedings.
In Peterson v. Peterson, 429 So.2d 83 (Fla. 4th DCA 1983), we held that Rule 9.130(a)(4) did not authorize appellate review of a non-final order entered in a post-judgment attack on a final judgment of dissolution. There, pursuant to Rule 1.540(b), Fla.R.Civ.P., a former wife asserted that the final judgment and property settlement incorporated therein had been procured by fraud. The former husband moved to dismiss and the trial court denied the motion. Next, the former husband attempted to appeal under Rule 9.130(a)(4). We dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. Implicit in our holding was a finding that Rule 9.130(a)(4) does not authorize appellate review of all non-final orders entered in independent post-judgment proceedings. Proceedings supplementary to execution, pursuant to section 56.29, Florida Statutes (1983), are but another example of independent post-judgment proceedings. While they occur after final judgment, they are much more than an appendage to the original lawsuit. “[Supplementary proceedings are separate and distinct from the main cause — ” Codomo v. Emanuel, 91 So.2d 653, 655 (Fla.1956). “A proceeding supplementary ... is, in legal contemplation, an entirely separate legal cause from the main suit in which the judgment supporting the execution involved was rendered.” Orange Belt Packing Co. v. International Agricultural Corp., 112 Fla. 99, 150 So. 264, 265 (1933).
Rule 9.130(a)(4), Fla.R.App.P., has been used to permit appellate review of a host of disparate non-final orders.1 But I would reiterate the view that the rule was not designed to permit indiscriminate review of non-final orders entered in independent post-judgment proceedings. To permit piecemeal appeals in these proceedings is to sanction intolerable delay. Moreover, it is incongruous to hold that orders, which could not be reviewed by non-final appeal simply because they are entered post-judgment. Thus, I would hold that this court does not have jurisdiction to consider non-final orders entered in proceedings supplementary to execution. Such a holding, of course, would not affect the applicability of other provisions of rule 9.130, Fla.R.App.P.
. See, e.g., Planes v. Planes, 454 So.2d 660 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984) (order adjudicating breach of contract claim); Calderon v. Torres, 445 So.2d 1040 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984) (order denying motion to vacate visitation order); Sanchez v. Sanchez, 435 So.2d 347 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983) (order requiring payment of attorney’s fees); Strahl v. Strahl, 431 So.2d 729 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983) (order permitting discovery); Bliss v. Carmona, 418 So.2d 1017 (Fla. 3d DCA 1982) (order denying motion to vacate final judgment decreeing specific performance).
| common_corpus | {'identifier': '7541782_1', 'collection': 'Court Listener', 'open_type': 'Open Government', 'license': 'Public Domain', 'date': '', 'title': 'None', 'creator': 'None', 'language': 'Unknown', 'language_type': 'Unknown', 'word_count': '1000', 'token_count': '1549', '__index_level_0__': '40670', 'original_id': 'bf34cfaf6e862d53b748ef43ae090d6f36be30044779a33996daab27782a7d1a'} |
Popular Cosmetic Dentistry Procedures for White Teeth
Posted on: July 13, 2020
cosmetic dentistry Safety Harbor, FL
There are a handful of cosmetic dentistry procedures that can be used to improve the color of a person's teeth. Most people would love to have pearly white teeth, but that is easier said than done. Teeth are regularly exposed to foods and beverages that can stain them. They are also exposed to certain medications like tetracycline antibiotics that can lead to stains or habits like smoking. Fortunately, cosmetic dentistry has treatments that can be used to whiten your smile.
Cosmetic dentistry teeth whitening treatments
Here are popular ways that a dentist might go about addressing stains and discoloration on a person's teeth.
1. Professional teeth whitening
This should not be confused with using over-the-counter whitening products. Dentists have access to stronger bleaching agents that are not sold to the public. These are prescription-grade whitening products that can do more in an hour than an over-the-counter alternative can do in a month.
Teeth whitening treatments typically involve the dentist using a customized mouth tray to submerge the patient's teeth in the bleaching product. According to the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, a single whitening treatment performed by a dentist can improve the whiteness of teeth by up to eight shades. Some patients might need multiple treatments to reach their desired shade of white.
2. Composite bonding
Composite bonding is performed using composite resins. These are mixtures of glass and plastics that are applied to teeth. The composite can be color-matched with the patient's teeth, and it covers up discoloration and stains. Composites can also be used to fix other issues like deformed teeth and spaces between teeth.
Composite bonding is an affordable solution for discolored teeth. It does not require altering the condition of the tooth by removing enamel.
3. Veneers
These are one of the most popular restorations when it comes to cosmetic dentistry. They were popularized by celebrities who used them to create "movie star" smiles, and they are now available to the general public. The veneer goes over the front surface of a discolored tooth, hiding the stains on it.
The installation of veneers requires the removal of enamel, which permanently changes teeth. A tooth that has been restored with veneers will always need a restoration to protect it.
4. Crowns
Also called caps, these prosthetics are used to cover up the visible part of a tooth. The crown hides all the imperfections on the tooth and protects it from bite forces. Crowns are typically used to treat discolored teeth when the stains are not responsive to whitening treatments. For example, the white stains that develop on teeth due to overexposure to fluoride do not respond to bleaching agents.
Get whiter teeth
Ready for an improved smile? Call or visit our Safety Harbor clinic to get the process started.
Request an appointment here: https://www.safetyharbordentistry.com or call Safety Harbor Family Dentistry at (727) 726-0865 for an appointment in our Safety Harbor office.
Related Posts
August 5, 2020
A Cracked Tooth and Nerve Damage
June 15, 2020
Emergency Dentistry Procedures That Cannot Be Put Off During the Coronavirus Outbreak
May 15, 2020
General Dentistry: Why Do I Need X-Rays?
April 6, 2020
Why Would I Need Cosmetic Dentistry?
Cosmetic dentistry is the specialty that focuses on improving the way that the teeth appear. Additionally, cosmetic dentists make an effort to improve overall function. There are many different cosmetic dentistry options for improving one’s … | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '119', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9303016066551208}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '53098', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:3ZACMKEKZSGYIE2VZJVLWMUARFFXVGDQ', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:6d4ef503-c1b0-4391-ad2e-183cee8bb1c1>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2020, 8, 10, 15, 26, 27), 'WARC-IP-Address': '172.67.140.88', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:T7ZVHFQSPM6SQTW3ZPGWVYI2JP6AZER2', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:c5304537-d5d3-49f4-aa64-437672fa3660>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://www.safetyharbordentistry.com/blog/popular-cosmetic-dentistry-procedures-for-white-teeth/', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:25dcdb31-a15a-4e5d-9ada-46f66e1fbc06>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '699', 'url': 'https://www.safetyharbordentistry.com/blog/popular-cosmetic-dentistry-procedures-for-white-teeth/', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2020-34\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for August 2020\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-67-67-189.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.17 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.05279260873794556', 'original_id': '77741b4870126dac8d13dda222e704dd04f38d5e954719e4fcc0a2c38862928d'} |
Can “Asians” in Africa be political subjects, or only economic “middle-man” minorities? How do East African Sikhs contend with nativist political violence and insecurity, past and present? This talk explores the constitution of the diasporic East African Sikh subject in relation to the 1972 expulsion of the Asian (Indian) racial minority in Uganda. In the context of formal decolonization, nativist sentiments, and informal practices of citizenship-making and community reconstruction after the expulsion, what dispositions and practices characterize the political subjectivity and
agency of East African Sikh returnees and long-term residents of Uganda? The talk examines the effects of the regulatory character of liberal secular analysis in East Africa and the construction of colonial racialized “religious community” in both scholarship and in lived practice in urban Uganda. In doing so, it challenges the secular nature of postcolonial African and South Asian diaspora studies scholarship; explores the relationships among race, insecurity, religious
tradition and political agency; and reflects on the labor of working at the margins of area studies-based scholarship. Finally, the talk frames East African Sikhs within a growing comparative literature on “precarious diasporas” in Sikh Studies scholarship.
| dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '9', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9036802649497986}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '60669', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:VTDYWO3VLYMKAEUAKZ3KI7ECRLA4AVI6', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:89de3c17-efd7-425d-934f-45808e7e81e1>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2021, 1, 21, 2, 51, 1), 'WARC-IP-Address': '128.200.217.172', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:SU6AZF24OU5T25GSU27XXULLITFE2IWX', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:114b2a99-8d6d-49b3-88b3-e62ab37035ad>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://www.socsci.uci.edu/newsevents/events/2018/2018-03-01-hundle.php', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:b7af322d-d144-4101-a6ce-b2b47f08e853>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '194', 'url': 'https://www.socsci.uci.edu/newsevents/events/2018/2018-03-01-hundle.php', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2021-04\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for January 2021\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-67-67-233.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.17 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.041819095611572266', 'original_id': '709743809ba3234b3e2ae1048b9e2e1137b72580cfdfc084e4daaa326f32780f'} |
Inbound Marketing
Inbound Marketing Tactics: Start With a Blueprint
A lot of people think they've adopted inbound marketing because they started blogging and writing an eBook. If you start without a comprehensive plan in place, most likely you'll be frustrated in 12 months, having spent a ton of effort and still having nothing to show for it.
This post is part one of a 12 part series, The Ultimate Planning Guide to Inbound Marketing Strategy and Tactics
It's like a construction company works for 12 months and ends up with a house like this.
funniest-construction-mistakes-41Image Credit: ChillOutPoint.com
Before you start digging or building cement forms, you have to know what you're building.
Long before the hard hats come out, there's a substantial amount of time spent at a table, drawing lines and making strategic decisions. Then, that blueprint has to be approved and signed off on by those in authority.
Once everyone is satisfied, the building can start.
You need a plan! In this lesson, we're going to talk about how to make that plan.
How to Make an Inbound Marketing Blueprint
Think of inbound marketing as an entire structure, with many different pieces. There are many considerations that go into your inbound marketing strategy before you take off building pieces that might not fit together.
Set Challenging Goals
The first step in creating a plan is to have a very detailed idea of what the finished product should look like. Before you create your inbound strategy, take the time to determine what Key Performance Indicators will signify success. This could be the number of sales generated, new leads acquired, or website traffic numbers.
Consider the current state of affairs. If you're getting no leads through your website currently, don't think you're going to bring in millions in your first year. Goals should be challenging, but still attainable.
A goal that is impossible to achieve is not a goal, it's a dream. (Tweet This)
At Lean Labs, we always set goals based on a 12-month period. We consider current KPIs and determine how much we think we can achieve on the
Here are the KPI's we focus on for most of our inbound clients:
• Website Visitors
• Leads
• Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs)
• Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs)
• Customers
• Brand Advocates
Create Your Buyer Personas
Having a deep understanding of your ideal customers allows you to build your inbound strategy specifically to attract them. Before you can do this, you have to know who they are, what they want, and how they want it.
The best way to do this is to create 3-5 dossiers of fictional characters based on your best customers. For some companies with a lot of different services, the number of personas could increase. For most companies, we've found 4 to be the magic number. You don't want to get too complex, but you do want to capture your target audience in depth.
Here are some of the information we look for in creating buyer personas:
• Demographics
We want to know their age, their gender, and their income level, and where they live. This will give us insight into the kind of media and content they will be looking for.
• Professional Information
Executives behave much differently than everyday consumers. And, depending on your product or service, how they approach buying is much different too. You should figure out their job titles, the company size they work for, their industry, as well as their goals and challenges in their job.
• Learning Patterns
Where do they spend time on the internet and how do they learn new information. You'll find some types of people spend most of their time in forums and discussions. Others will spend time searching google for answers.
Once you determine how they consume new information and do their research, you can reach them where they are looking.
• Behaviors
What are their interests and what do they like? What excites them, and what annoys them?
For instance, when a limousine company understands one of their personas enjoys leaf peeping (yes, it's really a thing) they can create content about leaf peeping. Because their personas enjoy that past time, they can be introduced to a company that they may have never known about otherwise. The next time they plan a leaf peeping trip, they just might book with that limousine company.
• Purchasing Criteria
How do your target customers make buying decisions? Is it a quick process, or does it take multiple channels and approvals to complete a purchase? This is important to know, as it stacks up exactly with your sales funnel, and the content you create for each stage of the funnel.
• Pain Points
This is the most critical area to identify. You need to fundamentally understand the customer's viewpoint, their pains and frustrations, and their needs.
This is essential to a solid inbound marketing plan. With this information, you can speak directly to the drivers that make your customers buy. Solve their problems, and they'll convert. Period.
Bonus Advice:
We also create a Unique Value Proposition Map we reference as much as our buyer personas. Our UVP map includes:
Persona Considerations:
• Wants
• Fears
• Needs
• Feelings
Product/Service Considerations:
• Benefits
• User Experience
• Features
• Answers
SEO Audit and Strategy
You'll hear a lot of people preaching ignoring search engines, and instead focus on the people. While this sounds wise, and it is to a point, without a solid SEO strategy, you won't have those real people finding your content.
Forget about SEO gimmicks, and don't hire SEO companies to increase your rankings. Instead, understand the factors you can control on your site, and use them to your advantage. The rest is up to the quality of content you create.
Before we start working with a client, we check their on-site SEO to see how well they've been doing already. We run their website through ahrefs.com and download a report on their content.
These are 5 on-site SEO items we look at:
• Page Titles
The page title is the headline that shows in search results. This should be compelling, not bland and unexciting. You should make them unique for each page, and focus them on including common search terms. As a general rule, they should be less than 60 characters in length to show completely in Google.
• URLs
This is the unique address of each article. This should be heavily geared toward your keywords, those terms your personas will be searching for. Don't include value-less words, such as "the" or "and," in your URL.
• H1/H2 Tags
These are the main headings on your pages, and they are very influential in Google's estimation of your content. Consider using keywords in these tags to get the best results.
• Meta Descriptions
While not considered directly by Google for SEO, it still plays a major role in your traffic and SEO. It's the preview people read when they are looking through the search results. This quick preview is what ultimately determines if they are going to give your content a shot or not. Better, more compelling Meta Descriptions result in more click throughs to your content.
How does it impact SEO? Google measures click-through rate. If a site is ranked highly in their Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS), and people never click on it, it will soon fall down the rankings. So while not directly affecting the original rankings, horrible Meta Descriptions will cause your SEO to fail.
• Image Descriptions
Google loves the multi in multimedia. If you have images in your content, the search engine considers it of higher quality than plain text only. However, to really see a bump from this item, you must have a description Google can consider in their SEO algorithm.
Build a 90-Day Marketing Plan
This is where you start putting all the discovery work to good use. Decide what kind of marketing plan you will run for an entire quarter, and what you will produce. Usually, this is a complete list of the blog articles, and in some cases social media posts, you will produce over the next 3 months.
Here is how we create our 90-day marketing calendars:
• Start With Persona Research
Going back to each persona, identify the goals and drivers from their primary pain points. What motivates them to need a solution and what considerations goes into vetting their chosen solution?
• Build a List of Goals & Questions
Once you have a good idea of their drivers, list their primary goals. Then, list 10 questions or searches they would enter into Google to achieve each goal.
For instance, one of our personas has a driver of, “I need more traffic for my website.” A question they may enter into Google would be “what is the best way to promote my blog articles?”
This is a very painful and arduous task. Stick with it until you have a huge list of questions your personas are asking.
• Build a Content List To Address Each Question
Now, choose a theme for each month based on your persona’s primary goals. Then, consider how many articles you will write in a 30-day period, and choose that many topics to answer those questions.
For each question, create a blog topic to address it.
• Plan Premium Deliverables
For each month, at least, create a premium content offer that focuses directly on the theme goal for that month.
Continuing the example above, our premium offer for “The best way to promote my blog articles,” could be the eBook, “The Ultimate Guide to Driving Traffic To Your Website.”
Decide on a premium offer for each month’s theme, and put a plan in place of how you will get this created, and the resources it will take to complete it. For these, having a graphic designer available is almost a necessity.
Plan Automated Lead Nurturing Campaigns
This is where you have to put a very large thinking cap on. Ask yourself, how do I get my customer from introduction, to the buying decision? Then, create the content from that answer.
Depending on your service or product, this can be super-simple, and it can be very complex. The ultimate goal is to educate your leads until they feel buying from you is the smartest choice they can make.
Here’s how we plan our lead nurturing campaigns:
When you sign up for one of our premium offers, like “Starting Up the Inbound Marketing Mountain,” you are entered into a workflow. After you download the eBook, you’ll get an email from us, saying thank you, and giving you the download link to the PDF.
Then, a few days later, we’ll send you an email with links to other content we’ve created that will help people adopt inbound marketing from scratch. And a few days after that, another email will arrive with more information, taking you deeper into the process.
Eventually, we will offer you another eBook or premium offer. This is the goal of the automated workflow. The goal isn’t to get you to sign up as a client, the goal is to get you to download our next offer.
Because if you’re just now interested in inbound, the general rule is, you’re not ready to pay an agency. First, you need to understand the benefits of inbound, and the benefits of having experts implement these plans for you.
So the goal for that workflow may be to have you download an eBook that shows the results inbound marketing can bring. Now, we’re showing you why you should continue to consider inbound marketing.
After 2-3 stages of this, we’ve found a lot of our leads are wanting to discuss pricing and options with our experts. So the goal of setting up a sales conversation is not on any of our premium content until the Bottom-of-the-Funnel piece.
The goals of your content offer workflows should be to walk your leads down the funnel of education. Not on pitching your products.
Setup a Publishing Calendar
Now that you have a list of everything you’re going to create over the next 90 days, it’s time to knuckle down and start building. The last essential piece of the blueprint is a schedule plan of when each piece is going to be built.i
Create a calendar with hard-line dates of when each piece of content will be published. Then, do your best to stick with it and make sure you get the content created on time to publish on time.
At Lean Labs, we try to go through this process at least a month ahead. We aim to start working on month 3 when month 2 starts publishing.
Whatever your rate of publishing is, put publishing dates on each piece of content, or you will find that your rate falls low and you miss your goals. These dates will keep you focused on working on the things that really matter.
Putting together this plan isn’t something you can do overnight. It will take time, just as it takes an architect a lot of time to create a building blueprint.
The bigger and more elaborate a building, the longer it takes to create a sufficient blueprint.
Don’t build a shack. Build a highrise!
Written by Ryan Scott / April 17, 2015
Articles by Ryan Scott | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '37', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9443526268005372}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '53522', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:AD36DQNEUSDXQNUDEAIWSUVPSZNFKYSY', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:3f5891fb-4fef-4932-a50c-4384cb0cc329>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2019, 4, 20, 12, 14, 21), 'WARC-IP-Address': '104.17.122.180', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:VR4BO5V4HPHUTZAVFDVIISYY7OTGZ6QF', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:4deea152-4d34-46ca-a57d-254d0ed16d12>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://www.lean-labs.com/blog/inbound-marketing-tactics-start-blueprint', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:ae365904-b67a-42d7-a127-1c16d788e03e>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '2217', 'url': 'https://www.lean-labs.com/blog/inbound-marketing-tactics-start-blueprint', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2019-18\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for April 2019\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-141-45-27.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 1.1-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.03744006156921387', 'original_id': '5666f2a20406e68d00710789817f09c07317002b3562d6d60cea2c6864d5c857'} |
using System;
// namespace System.WinRT.Pdf
namespace Win32
{
extension Win32
{
// --- Function Pointers ---
public function HRESULT PFN_PDF_CREATE_RENDERER(ref IDXGIDevice param0, out IPdfRendererNative* param1);
// --- Structs ---
[CRepr]
public struct PDF_RENDER_PARAMS
{
public D2D_RECT_F SourceRect;
public uint32 DestinationWidth;
public uint32 DestinationHeight;
public D2D_COLOR_F BackgroundColor;
public BOOLEAN IgnoreHighContrast;
}
// --- COM Interfaces ---
[CRepr]
public struct IPdfRendererNative : IUnknown
{
public const new Guid IID = .(0x7d9dcd91, 0xd277, 0x4947, 0x85, 0x27, 0x07, 0xa0, 0xda, 0xed, 0xa9, 0x4a);
public new VTable* VT { get => (.)vt; }
public HRESULT RenderPageToSurface(ref IUnknown pdfPage, ref IDXGISurface pSurface, POINT offset, PDF_RENDER_PARAMS* pRenderParams) mut => VT.RenderPageToSurface(ref this, ref pdfPage, ref pSurface, offset, pRenderParams);
public HRESULT RenderPageToDeviceContext(ref IUnknown pdfPage, ref ID2D1DeviceContext pD2DDeviceContext, PDF_RENDER_PARAMS* pRenderParams) mut => VT.RenderPageToDeviceContext(ref this, ref pdfPage, ref pD2DDeviceContext, pRenderParams);
[CRepr]
public struct VTable : IUnknown.VTable
{
public new function [CallingConvention(.Stdcall)] HRESULT(ref IPdfRendererNative self, ref IUnknown pdfPage, ref IDXGISurface pSurface, POINT offset, PDF_RENDER_PARAMS* pRenderParams) RenderPageToSurface;
public new function [CallingConvention(.Stdcall)] HRESULT(ref IPdfRendererNative self, ref IUnknown pdfPage, ref ID2D1DeviceContext pD2DDeviceContext, PDF_RENDER_PARAMS* pRenderParams) RenderPageToDeviceContext;
}
}
// --- Functions ---
[Import("windows.data.pdf.dll"), CLink, CallingConvention(.Stdcall)]
public static extern HRESULT PdfCreateRenderer(ref IDXGIDevice pDevice, out IPdfRendererNative* ppRenderer);
}
}
| the_stack | {'hexsha': 'ae6f2ad1065df12e73579e1cf93baf9fe3d07222', 'size': '1914', 'ext': 'bf', 'lang': 'Brainfuck', 'max_stars_repo_path': 'output/System.WinRT.Pdf.bf', 'max_stars_repo_name': 'blat-blatnik/BeefWin32', 'max_stars_repo_head_hexsha': 'a568a072ea2cae1e5c806475fa1b8293842c834a', 'max_stars_repo_licenses': "['Unlicense']", 'max_stars_count': '3', 'max_stars_repo_stars_event_min_datetime': '2021-12-21T16:32:36.000Z', 'max_stars_repo_stars_event_max_datetime': '2022-02-14T20:04:59.000Z', 'max_issues_repo_path': 'output/System.WinRT.Pdf.bf', 'max_issues_repo_name': 'blat-blatnik/BeefWin32', 'max_issues_repo_head_hexsha': 'a568a072ea2cae1e5c806475fa1b8293842c834a', 'max_issues_repo_licenses': "['Unlicense']", 'max_issues_count': '', 'max_issues_repo_issues_event_min_datetime': '', 'max_issues_repo_issues_event_max_datetime': '', 'max_forks_repo_path': 'output/System.WinRT.Pdf.bf', 'max_forks_repo_name': 'blat-blatnik/BeefWin32', 'max_forks_repo_head_hexsha': 'a568a072ea2cae1e5c806475fa1b8293842c834a', 'max_forks_repo_licenses': "['Unlicense']", 'max_forks_count': '', 'max_forks_repo_forks_event_min_datetime': '', 'max_forks_repo_forks_event_max_datetime': '', 'avg_line_length': '38.28', 'max_line_length': '239', 'alphanum_fraction': '0.7565308255', 'original_id': '020aa05b1f2e01327d8da3e3e643eef511b0fa01117a41b0be73a778e42cf79b'} |
Misty D.
I am an animal lover, at one point we had a wonderful house full of 5 cats. I love to travel, and if I could travel for my career, I would. I have been many places around the world, and will continue to travel as much as I can! One of my most favorite cities is Paris. I am also obsessed with coffee. I love coffee so much. I collect coffee cups from the different places I travel, and am always happy to try the native coffee. I have 2 coffee machines and 1 espresso machine in my home. My kitchen is also coffee/Parisian themed! My second favorite place is England. I love to read and have created my very own library in my home that is fashioned after an English cottage garden room.
I love that this roller has a metal ball. So it helps the product to glide on smoothly and helps to de-puff the eyes. As for anti-wrinkle I think it works okay. Not much can get rid of wrinkles, but it is very moisturizing!
I love H&M! I do not live near a store; however, when I go to Chicago I always stop in and step out with something! I love purchasing their shirts. And they always seem to be sized smaller than what I normally wear, so that is a plus! I loved when I lived in England, they were in my town!
Clinique cosmetics and face products are always a plus to keep on hand. I have never used a product of theirs I have not liked. The redness solutions is a nice light SPF for day use. I recommend using a heavier cream or serum for night time use, just to get the hydration required.
This dish soap smells really good! Dawn is the best at getting out grease and baked on foods. I do not use it in my dishwasher, but for hand dishes, perfect. It is a decent price and I would recommend it to anyone looking to change or up their dish soap purchases!
I love the Tide detergent. You buy the larger boxes and for two people can last a very long time. I think mine last for a year! It was amazing. And you can use it in HE washing machines. Tide is a little bit more on the pricey side. But it does a great job, and lasts forever!
I love a good potato chip with no other flavoring other than salt. These chips have that perfect balance, not too much salt. Many come in a bag for sharing always go great with a French Onion Dip. Very affordable for the size of bag you get plus can always find a buy one get one!
These are "okay". The milk froth is a bit thin compared to the original Gevalia Cappuccino milk creamer. I believe if they could thicken the product it would not taste so bland and runny. The packaging is nice as always. I would say I wouldn't recommend to others if they like a nice thick strong cappuccino.
New Christmas item...I am in love! So many different swirling colors of blues and golds. The scent released is Brazilian orange and bergamot oils leaving your skin feeling heavenly as you sit back and imagine you are under a night sky. Love the scent. Of course with any Lush bath bomb that has shimmering glitter....always be prepared to give your tub a nice rinse after you are done. But...always worth it!
This stuff is so amazing! I am not surprised it won! This spray works wonders on my combination oily skin. Spray on over makeup let it dry, and voila! Keeps my skin oily T-Zone matte and oil free for many hours. I will always use this spray. It is great to use without make up too!
By boyfriend absolutely loves this product! I am a Lushie I will admit! I would always by my boyfriend products from Lush. Then they came out with the beard and facial wash for men, and my boyfriend has facial hair, so it was perfect. It has the most pleasant scent, perfect for men. It makes his face feel very moisturized and leaves his beard looking soft and shiny. I know girls who use it too, oh and not to mention that it is the same name of the city I live in, Kalamazoo! Love, Love! | mini_pile | {'original_id': '518fe3caed711a96769a8de3deb5d7b55af92fb9d0331bc5360a75ad4125eae6'} |
A novel locus of coralliform cataract mapped to chromosome 2p24-pter.
Congenital cataract is a common major abnormality of the eye, which can result in significant visual impairment or blindness in childhood. In this work, we studied four generations of a Chinese family that exhibited autosomal dominant coralliform cataract but no other ocular or systemic abnormalities. Members of the family were firstly genotyped with microsatellite markers at loci associated with congenital cataract on the reported regions of chromosomes 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, and 22, but negative LOD scores were obtained. Following exclusion of these loci, a genome-wide scan was performed, and significant evidence of linkage was obtained for marker D2S2211 (Z = 2.69, theta = 0.00). In multipoint analysis, a maximum LOD score 4.87 (theta = 0.00) was reached between markers D2S2211 and D2S2164. Haplotype data indicated a coralliform cataract disease gene in a 26-cM interval at a novel disease locus 2p24-pter between D2S297 and D2S2268. No genes related to cataract in this region have been reported so far. | mini_pile | {'original_id': '5de6903a93c14c497c9307fced608f965a2b6fc713a04186d9bdce4f4e156234'} |
The respective coating compositions prepared in Examples 6 to 8 were coated on this primer layer by air spray coating to give a dried coating film having a thickness of 50 μm. Then the coating film was heated at 80° C. for 20 minutes for drying and curing to prepare laminated films for a protection cover.
Physical properties of the prepared laminated films for a protection cover were evaluated in the same manner as in Example 9. The results are shown in Table 3. In Table 3, a film used in Comparative Example 2 is a laminated film prepared by coating the coating composition of Example 6 directly on a polycarbonate film without providing a primer layer.
TABLE 3 Example Com. Ex. 14 15 16 2 Coating composition (part by mass) Ex. 6 Ex. 7 Ex. 8 Ex. 6 Curable fluorine-containing resin (A) 1-3 100 100 1-4 100 1-5 60 Acrylic resin 40 Curing agent (B) SUMIJULE N3300 21 20.6 5.8 21 Solvent (C) Butyl acetate 100 100 100 Coal tar naphtha 100 Additional solvent Butyl acetate 50 96 50 Additive Ultraviolet absorber 4 4 4 4 Hydrophilization agent 5 5 Transparent resin substrate Polycarbonate ◯ ◯ ◯ ◯ Primer layer Acrylic primer ◯ ◯ ◯ X Physical properties Light transmittance before test 92.6 92.7 92 89.5 after accelerated weather resistance test 92 92.3 91.2 88.3 after moisture resistance test 92.5 92.6 92 88.7 Haze value before test 0.52 0.82 0.95 66.6 after accelerated weather resistance test 0.82 1.2 2.3 68.10 after moisture resistance test 0.75 0.97 1.05 68.70 Appearance before test no abnormal no abnormal no abnormal turbid in change change change white after accelerated weather resistance test no abnormal no abnormal no abnormal turbid in change change change white Adhesion no peeling no peeling no peeling peeling Staining by exposure (−ΔL*: 1 month) 5.2 2.3 2.3 5.5 Solvent resistance A A A A
Example 17
Into 154 parts by mass of a solution of a curable fluorine-containing TFE resin (ZEFFLE GK570 (trade name) available from DAIKIN INDUSTRIES, LTD., a curable fluorine-containing copolymer 1-4) were poured 20.6 parts by mass of SUMIJULE N3300, 2.0 parts by mass of Tinuvin 479 (triazine ultraviolet absorber available from Ciba Specialty Chemicals Inc.), 2.0 parts by mass of Tinuvin 400 (triazine ultraviolet absorber available from Ciba Specialty Chemicals Inc.) and 96 parts by mass of butyl acetate as an additional solvent, followed by sufficient mixing to prepare a coating composition.
Example 18
Into 154 parts by mass of a solution of a curable fluorine-containing TFE resin (ZEFFLE GK570 (trade name) available from DAIKIN INDUSTRIES, LTD., a curable fluorine-containing copolymer 1-4) were poured 20.6 parts by mass of SUMIJULE N3300, 2.0 parts by mass of Tinuvin 479, 2.0 parts by mass of Tinuvin 400, 5.0 parts by mass of ZEFFLE GH700 and 96 parts by mass of butyl acetate as an additional solvent, followed by sufficient mixing to prepare a coating composition.
Examples 19 and 20
After degreasing of a surface of a polycarbonate film (Iupilon film FE-2000 (trade name) available from Mitsubishi Engineering-Plastics Corporation, thickness: 100 μm), an acrylic resin primer (a solution of 20 parts by mass of a methyl methacrylate/ethyl acrylate/methacrylic acid copolymer (number average molecular weight: 40,000, Tg: 45° C., acid value: 12 mgKOH/g) in a solvent mixture of 56 parts by mass of isopropanol and 24 parts by mass of n-propyl acetate) was coated on the polycarbonate film using a bar coater #18 (available from Yasuda-Seiki-Seisakusho, Ltd.) to give a dried coating film having a thickness of 5 μm. Then the coating film was heated at 80° C. for 20 minutes to form a primer layer.
The respective coating compositions prepared in Examples 17 to 18 were coated on this primer layer by air spray coating to give a dried coating film having a thickness of 50 μm. Then the coating film was heated at 80° C. for 20 minutes for drying and curing to prepare laminated films for a protection cover.
Physical properties of the prepared laminated films for a protection cover were evaluated in the same manner as in Example 9. Further, an accelerated weather resistance test was carried out for 500 hours, and a change in appearance was evaluated. The results are shown in Table 4.
TABLE 4 Example 19 Example 20 Coating composition (part by mass) Ex. 17 Ex. 18 Curable fluorine-containing resin (A) 1-4 100 100 Curing agent (B) SUMIJULE N3300 20.6 20.6 Solvent (C) Butyl acetate 100 100 Additional solvent Butyl acetate 96 96 Additive Ultraviolet absorber Tinuvin 479 2 2 Tinuvin 400 2 2 Hydrophilization agent 5 Transparent resin substrate Polycarbonate ◯ ◯ Primer layer Acrylic primer ◯ ◯ Physical properties Light transmittance before test 90.3 90.2 after 200-hour accelerated weather 90.3 90.1 resistance test after moisture resistance test 90.2 90.1 Haze value before test 1.3 1.3 after 200-hour accelerated weather 1.5 1.6 resistance test after moisture resistance test 1.4 1.5 Appearance before test no abnormal no abnormal change change after 200-hour accelerated weather no abnormal no abnormal resistance test change change after 500-hour accelerated weather no abnormal no abnormal resistance test change change Adhesion no peeling no peeling Staining by exposure (−ΔL*: 1 month) 5.5 2.1 Solvent resistance A A
INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY
According to the present invention, a protection cover of solar cell having processability at room temperature, solvent resistance, weather resistance and durability can be provided without impairing its transparency, and also a curable fluorine-containing coating composition being capable of forming the protection cover can be provided.
1. A coating composition for a protection cover of solar cell, which comprises a curable fluorine-containing coating composition comprising (A) a curable fluorine-containing resin, (B) a curing agent and (C) a solvent and being used for forming a top coat layer (III) of a cured fluorine-containing resin, said top coat layer being provided, directly or via a primer layer (IV), on a transparent resin layer (II) provided on the sunlight irradiation side of a solar cell module (I).
2. The coating composition for a protection cover of claim 1, wherein said curable fluorine-containing resin (A) is a curable fluorine-containing resin (A1) being soluble in a 3rd class organic solvent.
3. The coating composition for a protection cover of claim 2, wherein said curable fluorine-containing resin (A1) is a fluorine-containing copolymer having hydroxyl group, said copolymer having a hydroxyl value of more than 5 mgKOH/g and a sum of hydroxyl value and acid value of more than 30 mgKOH/g.
4. The coating composition for a protection cover of claim 1, wherein said solvent (C) is a non-polar organic hydrocarbon solvent.
5. The coating composition for a protection cover of claim 1, wherein said curing agent (B) is an isocyanate curing agent or an amino resin curing agent.
6. The coating composition for a protection cover of claim 1, wherein said top coat layer (III) of a cured fluorine-containing resin is provided directly on the transparent resin layer (II).
7. The coating composition for a protection cover of claim 1, wherein light transmittance of said transparent resin layer (II) is not less than 80%.
8. The coating composition for a protection cover of claim 1, wherein said transparent resin layer (II) is a polycarbonate layer, a polyethylene terephthalate layer or an acrylic resin layer.
9. A solar cell comprising a solar cell module (I), a transparent resin layer (II) provided on the sunlight irradiation side of the module and a top coat layer (III) provided on the transparent resin layer directly or via a primer layer (IV), said top coat layer (III) being a cured layer of the coating composition for a protection cover of claim
1. 10. A laminated film for a protection cover of solar cell comprising a transparent resin layer (II) and a top coat layer (III) provided on the transparent resin layer directly or via a primer layer (IV) and being provided on the sunlight irradiation side of a solar cell module (I), said top coat layer (III) being a cured layer of the curable fluorine-containing coating composition of claim
1..
| common_corpus | {'identifier': 'US-9555606-A_2', 'collection': 'USPTO', 'open_type': 'Open Government', 'license': 'Public Domain', 'date': '2006.0', 'title': 'None', 'creator': 'None', 'language': 'English', 'language_type': 'Spoken', 'word_count': '1340', 'token_count': '1946', '__index_level_0__': '17601', 'original_id': 'af7b58327dfa3af31d5430a8c0fc7fc51758dd5f7f489ca24a0dace5564782fd'} |
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Chapter One Hundred and Thirty Nine
What this meant for the future I did not know.
Saturday, March 23, 2013
138 - Sookie Stackhouse and Eric Northman Look to the Future - Part Two
Chapter One Hundred and Thirty Eight
Linda and Jure looked into each others eyes and connected. I felt out of the information loop.
"What's not him?" I asked Linda, guessing I stood a better chance of getting a straight answer out of her. Jure was like information sushi - a riddle wrapped in an enigma surrounded by mystery.
She wrenched her gaze away from her betrothed and focused on me.
"That wasn't Jure staking Celandine. After I was done crying I thought about what I had seen. The stake was in the left hand of the man, not the right. That meant he was left handed. Jure is right handed. I put that together with something else Jure had told me and I figured out that it wasn't Jure, it was Drevan."
"Who is Drevan?" I asked the both of them. This sounded suspiciously like what Eric called the SODDI defense - Some Other Dude Did It. I saw Jure with my own eyes in the ectoplasmic reconstruction. I recognized him.
"Drevan was my twin brother," Jure said. "Celandine left me for him."
"There were two of you?" I was astonished. Jure was so unique it was almost impossible to picture him doubled like those old gum commercials.
"No, there was one of me and one of Drevan," he said with a small crooked smile. "Now there is just me."
Linda said, "They were like mirrors. Jure was right handed, Drevan was left handed. Jure has a mole on his ..." she smoothly changed direction in what she was going to say, "... on his right side, Drevan had an identical mole on his left."
"Weren't you married to Celandine?" I asked Jure, though even as I said it I knew that wouldn't prevent her from taking off with someone else.
"Yes, but she discovered she had more in common with Drevan than with me after she Turned."
I knew that once a person Turned it was unpredictable how they would react. Some people adjusted, some went mad, and some went hog wild into blood, sex and death. That was why Eric had spirited me away to a remote location to Turn me and then took me even further away to watch over my fledgling stages of vampirism.
"So she went over to his castle?" I asked, trying hard to sort all this out in my mind. That must have been awkward.
"When she told me she preferred my brother I left her in my castle and she moved Drevan in. I didn't like the castle, I didn't live in the castle. I preferred Vineta or Riga."
He saw I didn't know where or what those were. "Those are cities in the Baltic. It was easier for me to remain inconspicuous in a more populated area. The missing humans in our županije of rural Croatia made the locals suspicious. They had gotten to the point of organizing to storm the castle and kill the vampires that lived there. Drevan had stopped killing years before, but Celandine ... she was addicted to killing. Drevan finally got tired of her excesses and staked her."
"So that was Drevan we saw tonight?" I asked. "How do I know it wasn't you? You might be ambidextrous."
He barked a laugh at that and held up his hands in an "I don't know what to tell you" shrug.
"Um, Sooks?" Amelia said timidly. I had forgotten she was still standing in the doorway.
I looked at her. Jure knew she was there so the things he was telling us must not have been big secrets.
"When we were doing the re-enactment - the way the window doubled in size when the vampire .. er ... entered, that showed me that Drevan is also not living. His ectoplasm was way too strong for a living person. Sorry for your loss." She said this last bit to Jure. He gave a short nod.
"Didn't Drevan have his own castle?" I asked.
"He was the second born son. I was born first so I inherited everything. He had a small farm and a smaller annual stipend." Jure looked unmoved by Drevan's bad luck.
Seeing the frown on my face he added, "It was the custom in those days. No one questioned the fairness of it. We were both Turned the same night. I was first then too."
That must have made Drevan wild. I remembered how crazy Jason had gotten when Gran left me her house and possessions. He was bitter and angry over it until I pointed out that I had turned over our parents home and land to him.
If Drevan couldn't get the castle and land then he must have figured he could get Jure's wife and get even with his brother in the process. He must have felt triumphant living on Jure's estate and sleeping with Jure's wife. I felt bad for Jure.
"That must have been rough, having him move in and take your wife," I said sympathetically.
His surreptitious glance at his jeweled wristwatch led me to think that he was tiring of this topic. "To tell the truth, it was a relief to get her off my hands. She was not the same person once she Turned," he said in a dismissive tone.
Maybe he really was bored that easily with ancient history, or maybe that whole episode of his life was too painful to dwell on.
To Linda he said, "Are you ready to leave?"
"Amelia, Stanley's in the oak tree again," one of the witches called down the stairs.
"Oh bother," she groused. "Excuse me. It was good seeing you again," she said to Jure in case he left while she was gone.
He again gave her a small polite nod. Amelia sped out of the room at the sound of a big crash upstairs.
"I'll walk you two out," I said. I had one more question for Jure.
Linda got her coat and they headed for the door. I would bring the box of objects later, I wasn't sure if Jure knew Linda had them.
Once outside Jure questioned me in a mild tone. "Why the elaborate scheme to get the truth about my past? Why not simply ask me?"
I noticed he didn't ask Linda so he was holding me primarily responsible for this uninvited visit to his past. That was only right, it was my idea.
"I needed to know if something was going to come back to threaten Linda. She's my daughter, I feel very protective of her." I thought of what else he might reveal to me. "All right, if you're willing to be open and honest then tell me this, what happened to Drevan?" I challenged.
His face and voice remained completely expressionless. "I killed him. I had to, it was a debt of honor."
"You killed your own brother?" Linda gasped, stepping back from him. "Because he stole your wife?"
"Not because he took her. I loved her enough to give her the freedom to choose where and how she wanted to live. I executed him because he murdered my wife. She might have preferred to live with my brother but she was still my wife. I was her Maker. I could not permit her to be staked and not demand payment. A life for a life. That was the law back then."
He was confessing a crime, a great crime, to me. I knew I could not and would not keep this from Eric. He might choose not to bring this to the attention of anyone but it was too great a secret to keep from him. Was there a statue of limitations on Vampire murder? I didn't know. This wasn't my call to make, it was Eric's.
As if he was reading the thoughts in my head Jure said, "Naturally you will need to tell Eric the truth about what you learned tonight."
Then there was the strangest thing, like a great cosmic blink. Everything, all reality blanked out for a split second, then it was back. Linda looked around squinting, as if she was a tad surprised to find herself in the parking area of our old farmhouse. I heard an owl in the woods and Amelia in the side yard coaxing Stanley down from the tree with a peanut butter sandwich. I noticed Linda was wearing a blue sweater under her coat. Hadn't she been wearing a green top before?
No, it had been a long night filled with magic and bizarre events. I was reading too much into what might have been a momentary glitch in my concentration. I needed to get home to Eric and share what I had learned.
I hugged my daughter and watched her drive off with Jure. Then I went back inside and thanked the exhausted witches and my dear friend Amelia. I got the box of items Linda had brought and drove home as fast as I could without getting stopped by the police.
The lights were on in my house making me feel warm and welcome. Eric came out on the porch to greet me. We sat in the living room and I told him about the night's events - Stanley, the reconstruction, the death of Celandine, Jure appearing as smoke, and the things he had revealed to us about his past.
Eric listened intently without interrupting. When I was done he asked, "Did Jure ever say what happened to his brother Drevan?"
Oh, I had left that out.
"Yes, he did. Drevan felt so bad about killing Celandine he met the sun."
Wait .. wait .. that wasn't right.
"No, no. I meant to say, Jure killed Drevan in retaliation for killing his wife."
I had a weird feeling in my throat and an uneasy feeling in my head as I said this. Was this post traumatic shock over the memory of seeing a vampire meet the sun a long time ago? That seemed hard to believe.
In my mind I heard Jure's deep voice saying, "Drevan felt so guilty about staking Celandine that he went to meet the sun the very next day."
But I also clearly remembered what he had really said, about the debt of honor.
"What is wrong Sookie? You look confused," Eric said, moving to sit next to me. His face was drawn with concern.
"My head feels a little funny, fuzzy, like all my thoughts are blurred. Maybe I'm hungry or just overloaded from the reconstruction?" I said more as a question than as a statement. "Maybe hearing about ... about .... what's his name?"
"Drevan?" Eric supplied.
"Yes, Drevan. Maybe hearing about him being killed by Jure, ..." but I didn't finish. Confusion swirled around me.
"Let me get you something to eat," Eric said in a kindly way. "You have had a big night and protected the best interests of our daughter. That is enough to put anyone into a fog."
Into a fog .... yes, I was surely in a fog. Then why did it seem more like smoke and mirrors?
more to come ..... (Howdy everyone! I hope my story makes you even a bit as happy as your kind and encouraging words make me. See you in a week, until then, be good to yourself.)
Saturday, March 16, 2013
137 - Sookie Stackhouse and Eric Northman Look to the Future - Part Two
Chapter One Hundred and Thirty Seven
Amelia came up behind me, patting my shoulder. "It's better that she knows what happened, Sooks. She can't make an informed decision without the facts. You did the right thing, the only thing."
She was going to say more when Stanley scampered in, his whole face twitching with nerves or excitement.
"There's smoke going down your chimney!" he chattered, his big front teeth making enunciation of the word "smoke" difficult. He wrung his pointy little hands like he was washing them.
"That's impossible, the fire isn't even lit in the fireplace," Amelia said, turning from me, clearly annoyed by his appearance.
"That's what I'm saying!" he squeaked excitedly, hopping up and down a little. "The smoke isn't going out of the chimney, it's going in to the chimney!" His tail was flicking and shaking to beat the band. He pronounced "chimney" in three syllables - chim min nee.
"Where were you? Up on the roof again?" Amelia asked. "I thought I told you specifically not to go up on the .."
She was interrupted by Witch Iris rushing back into the room. "Amelia, you should come and see this!" she said breathlessly.
I followed Amelia into the living room. My eyes slid past the crazy cartoonish flowered wallpaper, the odd lamps shaped like giant dishes of spaghetti and ice cream sundaes, and the strangely shaped clear plastic furniture filled with stuffed animals of every description to look where Iris was pointing. Smoke was eddying into the room from the fireplace opening. It swirled and condensed into a shape. I suddenly realized what I was looking at.
Amelia had her wand raised, ready to zap whatever emerged from the smoke. I placed my hand on her arm and stopped her.
"It's OK Amelia, I know who this is." I told her, dread filling me.
Well, here it was ... another OSM ...
I told myself I didn't have anything to feel guilty about. I wasn't the one that had killed my wife. I just hoped Jure didn't go berserk and kill us all for knowing his terrible secret.
A very severe penalty was imposed on a Vampire that staked another Vampire, no matter the provocation. The verdict on a Vampire that killed another Vampire over the murder of a mere human was surely death. Like the human legal system, the Vampire legal system was behind the curve, trying to play catch up.
The horrible thought struck me that I might have to hear this case. This was the kind of high level trial the Pythoness would be used for. Could I recuse myself? Too many thoughts crowded into my already crammed full head. First I was going to have to deal with Jure, now becoming very solid and real right in front of my eyes.
He must have been scowling like the wrath of Zeus when he turned into smoke because he was scowling as he re-congealed. I wished Eric was here. I had no idea how violent Jure might be. I was glad Linda was in the bathroom, I hoped she had the sense to stay in there and stay quiet. I hoped the scents of the candles, incense and various witchly perfumes would mask my daughter's presence in this house.
Stanley made a terrified mechanical whirring chittering sound from the doorway, his face twitching like crazy. Amelia said, "Rue, would you please take him upstairs? You other girls help her get him settled. We'll take care of things down here."
The young witches looked at each other, not sure if leaving us alone with the huge threatening looking vampire was a good idea. On the other hand, Amelia had asked them to go and they were most likely not going to be able to defend us. Slowly they took the jabbering squirrel-man and headed up the stairs.
"Amelia, why don't you help them too, keep an eye on Stanley. He looks like he's very nervous. You might have the strongest influence on him," I suggested. I wanted to get her out of harm's way.
I needed to speak to Jure privately, to ask him about what we had seen. I also wanted to get him out of the house before Linda emerged.
"Jure, let us go outside to talk. I am sure some of the things we need to discuss are private and personal matters," I said invitingly, indicating the hall and front door. "Things always seem better in the moonlight, do they not?" I crooned, walking slowly, hoping he would follow.
Amelia had powerful protective bans on the house, he would not be able to re-enter if he decided he was here to do us harm. I wondered if he used the chimney because it wasn't protected. I mean, aside from Santa Claus, who else would you expect to be entering your home down the chimney?
Or maybe Jure could deflect magic, maybe he could circumvent it with his own powers. Be that as it may, I wanted to get him as far away from Linda as possible before the you-know-what hit the fan.
"Where is Linda?" Jure's deep voice rumbled. "I need to speak to her."
He looked around, slightly confounded by the bizarre modern furniture, the reversed Lego moose head over the mantle, the kaleidoscope of colors and shapes.
"I'm going to need to ask you to not talk to her until you explain a few things to me," I said with as much authority in my voice as I could muster.
"I'm going to need to ask you to mind your own business," Jure said flatly.
Behind Jure I could see Amelia creeping back into the room, lifting her wand, getting ready to place Jure under some kind of binding spell, no doubt. I immediately thought of a blank wall, the woods, anything that would not allow him into my mind and know what Amelia was up to. But he already knew what was going on.
He turned to her and said calmly, "There is no need for that, Witch. I mean no harm. I wish to talk to my fiancee, that is all."
He looked past Amelia at the way to the downstairs bathroom. I could feel the telepathic force emanating from him, it was like static electricity causing every hair on my body to stand, like icy hands sliding over my skin.
Tray's coon hound Plato started to bay and howl from out on the back enclosed porch where Amelia put him when she was doing magical work or having company. Dogs in the surrounding countryside howled back.
Linda emerged from the back of the house, arms held out straight in front of her, staring and stiff legged like a sleepwalker. She came up to Jure and said, in a dull dead voice, "You summoned me, Master?" She stared straight ahead, unblinking.
I was horrified, he had her under a spell, glamoured!
I opened my mouth to speak but before an outraged word could leave my lips Jure said, "Knock it off Linda. You're freaking your mother out."
Her lips twitched and she smiled. "It wasn't you, was it?" she asked him, putting her arms around his waist.
"No," he answered in a tone of relief. "It was not me."
more to come .... (Hi everyone! Spring is on the way here, hope you are doing well and finding good in each day. Thank you for stopping by! See you next Saturday, til then ... (sends telepathic love)
Saturday, March 9, 2013
136 - Sookie Stackhouse and Eric Northman Look to the Future - Part Two
Chapter One Hundred and Thirty Six
The walls of the room seemed to dissolve and re-form into the walls of a castle. Flickering candle light illuminated a stone walled room, the hard stone softened by tapestries and huge swaths of thick velvet draperies hung over the small casement windows.
A blond woman turned and said something to someone outside her sphere of magical ectoplasmic reconstruction, then another smaller woman, dressed in a plain dress entered the scene and began helping the blond woman remove her robe.
The blond looked slightly like a Stackhouse. Same hair color, same blue eyes, same curvy figure. I could believe we were of the same bloodline somewhere way back. Her hair was much wavier than Linda's and mine, though that could have been the way she styled it.
I thought her eyes were more almond shaped and slanted and her brows were definitely different, higher and more arched. She did not have our lips at all. Her lips were full, ours were much thinner. Her chin was more pointed too, giving her a less friendly kind of face, in my opinion.
Her expression didn't help either. Her eyes glittered coldly, the corners of her mouth drawn down in chronic dissatisfaction. From being a waitress for years I had gotten good at reading faces. If she had been a customer I would have pegged her as hard to please, demanding and short tempered. I would have hoped she went to someone else's section. When she turned completely towards us, her invisible audience, I almost gasped.
The blond was the woman from the painting in Jure's castle. It was like seeing the ancient painting come to life. This must be Celandine, I thought. I glanced at Linda, She was mesmerized by this window into the past, a vision that seemed almost real, though I knew that if you tried to touch it your hand would pass right through the images, like a hologram.
The smaller plain woman, a maid, servant or slave, helped Celandine into a blue and silver brocade gown, struggling to fasten the many laces and buttons that closed the back. I bet they would have paid big bucks for a zipper. The dress, once finally fastened, was so tight through the bodice it pushed up Celandine's bosom almost to her chin.
They struggled with it, laughing and tugging it down, until her figure settled in to the normal place it should be. The huge skirt, held out by a wire frame, made her narrow waist look even smaller. She had an exaggerated hourglass figure in exchange for a dress a human woman wouldn't even be able to breath in.
Next came strand after strand of pearls and gems. The placement of each strand was adjusted before the next was added. They lay on her snow white bosom like gifts being offered to the eyes of her admirerers. Earrings and bracelets, rings and more rings. Then her hair was carefully arranged by the skillful maid into an elaborate style, held in place with more jeweled combs. A small pointed hat with a gauzy veil was offered but waved away.
The maid held up a large rounded piece of highly polished metal like a mirror and Celandine looked at herself approvingly. She applied some colored lip balm from a small glass pot, using her index finger.
Then she did what I have so often done since Turning, she opened her mouth and popped out her fangs to admire, and maybe to see if she had lip color smeared on them. The startled maid jumped back dropping the pot. From the way the color drained from the maid's face I knew she was human. Human, and frightened of Jure's Vampire Bride
Celandine instantaneously became enraged, pointing down at the floor, which we couldn't see. The maid began weeping and pleading, bending down to pick up the pot of lipstick. Celandine grabbed her by her hair, lifted her up in the air, and bent her back. She savagely bit the maid's throat, causing terrible damage, and drained her.
She threw down the lifeless woman with a snarl of contempt. She wiped her bloody mouth with the back of her hand, smearing blood over her sleeve and bracelets. Then she looked down with utter coldness and indifference at what she had just done.
Linda had her hand up over her mouth, perhaps to keep from crying out and breaking the spell. She had never seen a Vampire do something so savage and it shocked her to the core. I wished I could have protected her from this sight, from this knowledge. It was one thing to know that something could happen, it was another to actually see it happening in front of your eyes. This was a side to Vampires she would now have forever etched in her memory.
Celandine pulled a tasseled rope near a roaring fireplace and a manservant appeared. It was Ogneslav, the same servant that watched over the castle now. That meant that this was Jure's castle. He had lied when he said had never lived in the castle. If his wife was there, if his manservant was there, then Jure must be there too.
Ogneslav limped over to the dead maid and hoisted her up, cradling her like a child, her head hanging back revealing her torn throat. He carried her out of the room. Meanwhile Celandine wiped her face clean with a lace edged hanky and repaired her lip color with another pot from the many on her dresser.
She looked up suddenly, smiling in a welcoming way and saying something. The circle of magic grew bigger showing more of the room. That meant someone else included in the ectoplasmic reconstruction was entering the scene.
So fast I could hardly, follow even with my vampire vision, Jure entered the room in three big strides and grabbed the bloodstained Celandine. They struggled, his back to us. Her face showed first anger then fear, then went blank and limp. Smoke began rising from her and right before she combusted I saw the stake in her chest. Then Jure let her drop and moved back as Celandine ignited in one white hot second to her final death.
The draperies were on fire. While my eyes had been fixed on the flames Jure had exited. A moment later Ogneslav and several other men arrived with wooden buckets of water. They doused the flames and left, returning with more buckets and dousing the curtains again. Jure had not returned with them. The fire extinguished, the bucket brigade went out, leaving the room with the tatters of charred fabric hanging from the window and a haze of smoke hanging in the air.
Linda continued to stare at the room. A slight breeze moved the draperies. Moonlight glinted in from an angle. A log in the large fireplace shifted and fell off the back of the huge andiron to the bottom of the fireplace causing sparks to fly up the chimney. That was all. Nothing more happened.
Still Linda waited as if it might all somehow reverse and come out differently until Amelia said gently to her chanting witches, "We can conclude our spell, we can release the past now." She lifted her wand and waved it in a counterclockwise direction.
The chanting changed, slowed, dwindled and ended. The past slowly dissolved and we were returned to parlor. Linda turned to me and said, "He killed her! He killed his first wife!" Her eyes were brimming with tears and horror.
Then she ran from the room crying. I heard her enter the ground floor bathroom and shut the door. I heard her crying her eyes out. I think I might have even heard her heart break.
Poor poor Linda, now she knew the truth. Would it have been better to just let it alone? Amelia caught me gaze and the compassion in her eyes brought a lump to my throat.
The rest of the witches filed out of the room to give us a moment to ourselves. They were probably hungry and thirsty too because of the enormous expenditure of energy it took to do a reconstruction. Their job was over. Mine, as Linda's mother, was just beginning.
more to come ..... (Howdy Fanpires! Hope this weekend brings you all kinds of good things! Thank you for taking the time to share it with me. See you next Saturday. )
Saturday, March 2, 2013
135 - Sookie Stackhouse and Eric Northman Look to the Future - Part Two
Chapter One Hundred and Thirty Five
"Isn't that sweet," I commented, gathering my purse and the box of objects Linda had brought, "They have all the lights on for us."
Linda squinched her eyes shut for a moment. Then she opened them and said, "Um, Mom, I don't think we're the reason the house is lit up like a Christmas tree."
She had listened to the minds of the folks in the house and discovered something. I hadn't thought to do that. I hoped they weren't having troubles in the house.
I remembered when Gran had been murdered in the farmhouse kitchen, I had all the lights on, every last one, upstairs and down, day and night, for almost a week until I finally came out of my grief long enough to think of the astronomical electric bill I was creating.
I checked in to the minds inside the modernized farmhouse too and found ....
Many minds scurrying around searching .. for something hidden. Loudest of all was Amelia's mind, worrying, fretting .. "Where is it, oh where can it be ... all my fault .. that damn Stanley ... what was I thinking ... wait til I get my hands on him ..."
She always was a first class broadcaster.
"We might as well go in and see if we can help," I said calmly. Being a Vampire had really settled my nerves in so many ways. Things just didn't get to me the way they used to.
We went to the front door and knocked, then I rang the bell. No answer. Finally I just turned the star shaped knob and we walked in.
"Hi, I'm Iris," a young woman with wild wavy flaming red hair called breathlessly as she rushed past to run upstairs. She hiked up the hem of her black robe and took the steps two at a time. "I'll tell Amelia you're here."
"No need Iris," Amelia said from the upstairs landing. "I'll be right down."
Amelia clumped down the steps on chunky black high heeled shoes. The height of the heels and soles made them look very dangerous. I readied myself in case I would be needed to break her fall.
"What's wrong? Can I help you find something?" I asked after giving her a hug.
I didn't need to hide my telepathy from her, she knew all about it.
Another young woman walked past us almost bent double, studying the wood floor for all she was worth. "I think I found his trail," she muttered.
"Good to see you, Aunt Amelia," Linda said, hugging her Aunt. "I hope I brought the things you need to do the spell."
"I'm sure they'll be fine," Amelia said distractedly, " ... IF we can ever get the spell underway."
She looked at me blinking, realizing I had asked a question. "My wand is missing. Stanley has hidden it somewhere and we can't begin without it. We're all looking for it. Do you want to search too?"
"What was it made out of? Was it anointed?" I asked. I didn't want to run around the house searching but with my sense of smell I knew I could find it if it had some distinctive scent.
Through the dining room doorway I could see the modern art chandelier Char had given to Amelia to replace the one I had accidentally broken a while back. It wasn't to my taste, but it went with the wacky and wonderful modern art objects decorating the house.
"It was simple pine, made from that big twin pine in the back, the one that was hit by lightening a few years ago. You know the one?"
I did indeed, it had been the biggest tree on the property and had cost a bundle to get taken down after lightening had charred the whole north side.
Amelia added, "The wand was anointed with holy water from the St. Philomena church in New Orleans. And cured with rosemary oil. And rubbed with leaves from a trifolium. And kept in a woolen bag made from an old Icelandic sweater I re-purposed. Does that help?" she asked, wringing her hands as I lifted my nose and sniffed.
With all those distinct scents to go by there was only one place it could be. "The attic. It's up there with a ... very large squirrel?"
Did she have a pet squirrel? If she did it must be a record winning size from the pure blast of scent it gave off.
"The attic!" Amelia yelled into the whole house and seven pairs of shoes all thundered up the wooden steps to the attic. I followed behind Amelia worried she might take a tumble in her platform shoes.
We all crowded into the unfinished space. It had been used for storage when Gran had the house and it was used for storage now. From behind a pile of boxes I heard an angry chattering.
"Be careful," I warned her. "A frightened squirrel can be dangerous. Maybe we should just open a window and wait for it to escape."
"Thanks Roomie, but I have this covered," Amelia said, regaining her composure.
"Stanley, come out right now and bring the wand. You're not helping matters," she ordered. The four pretty witches behind her looked at each other, impressed with the flat tone of command in Amelia's voice. Amelia wasn't just a pretty witch, she was one of Hecate's Handmaidens and a thirty second degree witch, the highest level after Hecate herself.
From behind the teetering pile of boxes a man emerged holding out a wand on both palms like an offering. He was short and bushy haired, his wiry gray hair parted in the middle and up in two tufts like little ears. He had bulging fat cheeks, two huge front teeth and very wide hips supporting thick short legs. His suit was old, looking like something from a Dicken's play. His small dark eyes glittered in a most cautious way. I noticed his stubby fingers ended in pointed nails like claws.
"Sorry mistress, I was afraid you was going to send me back." He looked down, trying to look contrite, while ruining the effect by peeking up at her slyly to see if his act was working.
"I may well do that, but not tonight. Tonight I have other urgent matters to which I must attend. Stay up here and do not, for any reason, come downstairs until I tell you. Otherwise ..." she left off the specific nature of the threat.
"I know, mistress, it's back to the oak with tree with old Stanley. If you don't mind mind mistress..." his high pitched whining voice trailed off.
"I'll send Rose up with a jar of peanut butter," Amelia told him. "Now stay put and don't try anything like this again or I'll change your name from Stanley to Stew."
Somehow Amelia had turned a squirrel into this strange subservient but troublesome little man. He was a freak of nature and I could tell this would not end well for her or him. Changing him back was the only right thing to do, but I kept my opinion to myself. I was here on more important matters than a squirrel in the attic.
We all clumped out of the attic but not before I had seen Stanley turn around and display a magnificent tail. It twitched a few times, perhaps in anticipation of his peanut butter snack, perhaps in annoyance, then Stanley whisked out of sight behind the boxes again. Weird.
"Mom, did you see that?" Linda whispered to me on the way down to the parlor. "That guy was some kind of a squirrel!"
"I did see. I wonder what Amelia's gotten herself up to now," I mused.
The parlor was lit with white candles and the witches formed a circle. Amelia took the box from Linda and carefully took out the fragile blue wool shawl. She laid it gently, still folded, on the table.
"Oh my, isn't this lovely?" she said. "So old, so very old. It must have been kept in a cedar chest, kept from the damp, for hundreds of years."
She removed a broken watch from the box too, and a black silk hair ribbon. The ribbon was partially faded in spots to a purplish hue and it was falling apart. Amelia placed the watch and ribbon next to the shawl and said, "We can begin."
Amelia and the four pretty young witches, Rose, Iris, Daisy and Rue, began chanting, a sound that fell and rose like the tide rolling in from a vast ocean. The candle flames flickered to the beat of their words and the air grew cooler as the magic forces began rising in the room, swirling around like invisible smoke, carrying her intention to raise the past on the wings of their sweet voices.
The musical language was one I had never heard, yet it seemed as if I could try and in a moment understand it. Linda took my hand in hers, her fingers cold and tense. This was the moment of truth, now we would know the what had happened to Jure's wife.
more to come .... (Greetings Everyone .... THANK YOU for stopping by, always happy to see you. I'll be back next Sat with the next chapter ... til then stay well!) | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '1416', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9895118474960328}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '122283', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:QHKAHA4VN23G3NEBVEUKMCKI5BNHASDE', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:a38d46a4-f220-4aab-8948-5667dc9afcd6>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2018, 4, 19, 10, 0, 43), 'WARC-IP-Address': '172.217.8.1', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:UCQ5OLMI7RTYXCTQ7YFXNQLBGQYP4N5G', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:f0f7f83d-5f8b-4a53-a0e3-9368cfdd6f00>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'http://turningkey.blogspot.com/2013/03/', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:ad1b4c96-5116-4a09-aee4-19779e1f2b5b>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '7609', 'url': 'http://turningkey.blogspot.com/2013/03/', 'warcinfo': 'robots: classic\r\nhostname: ip-10-45-105-213.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Nutch 1.6 (CC)\r\nisPartOf: CC-MAIN-2018-17\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for April 2018\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.0\r\nconformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.019061148166656494', 'original_id': '9bfb73306caeafc0d484794020753faabae87984608fe30b3b0c03c4f87105f7'} |
How Donations Benefit Your Taxes
How Donations Benefit Your Taxes
Year’s end brings an influx of donations. There are many incentives to donate, from helping those in need to lowering your income tax expense. Whatever your reason for spreading cheer this year, there are some mistakes that can be made during the process. One of the biggest mistakes made when donating is forgetting to record the donation for taxes. Considering how donations benefit your taxes, you may find yourself in a particularly giving mood this year.
It’s important to have a deliberate plan when it comes to donating to ensure you’re meeting charity deadlines and adhering to limitations that qualify your donation for tax deductions. There are a few questions you should ask yourself prior to donating that will relieve future hassling.
1. Is the charity a tax-exempt organization? Your donation will only be considered for a tax deduction if it goes to a tax-exempt organization. This means they must withhold a 501© (3) status, as indicated by the Internal Revenue Code. It is also helpful to inquire the charity of your choosing what percentage of your contribution is tax-deductible.
2. Is my itemized deduction greater than the standard? If not, you may find it more fiscally savvy to forego any itemization of giving. Though it is still advised to keep record of your yearly giving, it is recommended to take the standard deduction if your giving records don’t accumulate to a larger number. If you aren’t sure whether your donations sum to a greater amount than the standard, settling for the standard will avoid any tax software or preparer costs.
3. How much can I deduct? The IRS states you may deduct up to 50 percent of adjusted gross income. In some cases, however, your deductions may be limited to 20 or 30 percent of your AGI.
Having valid documentation of your donations is a necessity if you wish to implement how donations benefit your taxes. Written confirmation from your chosen charity is required if you give a cash donation over $250. Having a receipt of the gift is helpful to collect as well, should you be audited. Keeping records of any donation amount is beneficial for the end-of-year review. Maintaining valid records will make the deduction process much more clear-cut come tax season.
Give What You Can
You may be eligible for tax deductions if you donated time or goods this year. If you have expenses that were a result of volunteering, these may qualify to be written off from your taxes. An example of this would be gas receipts accrued while using your car to get to charity events or transport goods for an organization. You can maximize the opportunity to donate to clean out the house and get a tax break by donating household goods and acquiring a written receipt from the org. | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '25', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9443716406822203}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '53018', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:HXN33LFQFFH4QROLBGKXLMFFT53ZJIR5', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:5e7c8c65-5624-4416-a320-7372e34e26b4>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2021, 3, 9, 1, 37, 37), 'WARC-IP-Address': '35.206.123.159', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:FDW3BOQZBVIGSXFUV5QAPLGBCLXQZWTB', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:d014e758-e1b6-46e6-bb5a-5cc49ad8e4fe>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://financialbin.com/how-donations-benefit-your-taxes/', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:9dadafaf-0d0e-4df8-8176-82604a8658b4>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '510', 'url': 'https://financialbin.com/how-donations-benefit-your-taxes/', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2021-10\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for February/March 2021\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-67-67-127.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.18 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.027615368366241455', 'original_id': '1e568a7f2afcf339f3f3054437d7036dc3a1ba02239a4046886dbf2a12589d74'} |
rifleHumans have always tried new ways to defend themselves or to attack others for invasion. For this purpose, they tried to develop tools and weapons since ancient times.
Pre-historic Weapons
Using stone tips, for attacking animals or other humans during a fight, dates back to 64,000 years. After that, It was discovered that Europeans used bows and arrows as early as 9,000 BCE.
Greek Era Weapons
swordThe people of Mesopotamia used sickle-sword for their defense. Greeks used spears and tridents (three-pronged spears) as weapons. Moreover, various types of knives including daggers, and axes, were also developed during the earlier era to be used as weapons.
After basic weapons, catapults were developed and used by ancient Greeks and later by Romans. Catapults were devices that could be used to throw heavy stones, as a projectile, to very far distance. It was used to destroy the enemy’s army.
Gunpowder Invention – The Dawn of Modern Weaponry
After the 960s, during the era of the Song Dynasty of China, the gunpowder was developed from saltpeter, sulfur, and carbon. Before gunpowder, sulfur and other material were already used in earlier firecrackers and on the tips of arrows. The invention of gunpowder revolutionized the development of weapons. Due to the immense power of gun powder, it became possible to develop canon that could throw metal balls to large distances.
Cannons and Pistols
CannonHuman history has witnessed bilateral conflicts, be it individual fights, tribal battles, and wars on a large scale. Both the parties in the battle desired victory in their favor. The desire for victory and defense fired the race to develop more advanced weapons.
The years from 1337 to 1453 witnessed wars between France and England. Ultimately, the French had developed handguns and canons powered by gunpowder. A gun or a pistol essentially has a barrel through which a bullet passes gaining very high speed with the help of burning gunpowder. Due to the very high velocity of a bullet, it can badly wound and kill a person.
The use of firearms has been traced as early as the year 1364. While during the 1380s hand-guns were common in Europe. And by 1400, the matchlock guns were developed. Those guns used a lighted wick as an ignitor.
The principle of rifling (making bullets inside the gun to spin for increasing its penetration power) was discovered in 1498. After that, another major development came with the invention of wheel lock pistols in 1534. These pistols were fitted with a friction wheel to generate the spark for firing the bullet when the trigger was pressed. From 1776 and onwards various developments of firearms took place until 1835, in which the colt revolver was developed by Samuel Colt. The colt could carry six bullets and fired one upon another with each trigger.
Modern Weapons
Present-day weapons are very sophisticated and are mostly automatic with tremendous power in a smaller size. The era of developing modern weapons began during World War I. The weapon development reached its peak during and after World War II. In WWII, the world’s most lethal weapon, known as the atomic bomb, was used which killed around 100,000 people. Highly capable tanks with long-range and multiple weapons were also developed during WWII. Furthermore, the technologies, such as Laser-guided weapons, coupled with computer-aided mechanisms drastically changed the realm of firearms.
One of the aims of weapons is to protect against chaos and prevail peace in the world. But this is possible if the weapons are in the right hands. We all need to strive for developing a peaceful environment for all on this Earth.
Cite this Page
Abdul Wahab, "Firearms," in Science4Fun, May 10, 2021, https://science4fun.info/firearms/. | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '5', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.9786507487297058}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '128579', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:35H7RBRX3RLNDJ73ZKZJ4LPCYYXTLJWF', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:203f6105-212f-4f84-bcd4-714dc9ca25a7>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2021, 5, 18, 8, 14, 33), 'WARC-IP-Address': '104.21.27.145', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:IDIVQGLVAUNQDDTTIOD2DOUBLNYP33WF', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:394a3f56-b6b4-47b8-b3ce-30dea67e46ce>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://science4fun.info/firearms/', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:1471e301-cb74-42ba-a750-30cce884653b>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '607', 'url': 'https://science4fun.info/firearms/', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2021-21\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for May 2021\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-67-67-50.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.18 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: https://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.18123853206634521', 'original_id': '59d837cec1059053eca0151fa574cb0d79c245b4a67ebe7c7116473c59bf2ab7'} |
The campaign was launched in the U.S .on November 2012 and in the U.K. on April 2013. According to their website, the group believes that rapid advances in technology and automation will eventually end in fully autonomous weapons systems. “These robotic weapons would be able to choose and fire on targets on their own, without any human intervention. The Problem describes numerous ethical, legal, moral, policy, technical, and other concerns with fully autonomous weapons.” SKR believes a preemptive prohibition on these weapons is desperately needed, ratified in an international treaty; much like the [land] mine ban treaty approved internationally in 1997.
From a certain point of view, SKR’s concern is not misplaced. Advances in unmanned aerial drone technology have become a staple of the modern battle-space with pilots often flying these machines from locations like Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, far removed from the area of operations they are piloting over. This kind of technology has revolutionized the way wars are fought, however, due to their remote operating, collateral civilian deaths in places like Pakistan, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, and Afghanistan have become a definitive consequence of the technology. The numbers of civilian deaths are expected to be in the thousands. Colombia Law, as far back as 2011, has been calling for comprehensive data from the U.S. government to be released.
The National Interest reported in March of this year that Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, announced that the country is investing in “combat robots” and that “serial production” could go into effect by the end of 2018. While this might sound far-fetched, at least 30 countries have already deployed autonomous weapons, but are currently overseen by human interaction.
Nonetheless, the technology behind these weapons systems is growing exponentially and 88 countries just participated in the UN’s sixth annual meeting on autonomous weapons hosted by the Convention on Conventional Weapons this past week in Geneva. While most strongly agreed that there was a need to control this technology, the majority of member states did not conclude with any real actionable items, punting the issue until the convention reconvenes in 2019. Countries like Colombia, Iraq, Pakistan, and Panama, along with a group of African states called for a ban, ratified via an international treaty, while other countries: Brazil, Australia, and Chile called for “a legally-binding instrument to ensure meaningful human control over the critical functions.”
Not surprisingly, countries like the US, Israel, and Russia expressed a desire to explore this technology further, noting potential “advantages” and “benefits” to having autonomous weapons systems kill without human oversight. Also not lost on anyone, the irony that these three countries are the ones who almost exclusively intervene militarily, maintain occupations, and unilaterally target individuals and groups in all of the countries who voted to ban this technology.
SKR relayed their disappointment at the gridlock of the member states, saying “The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots will continue to grow in strength and numbers the longer states take to negotiate a new international treaty. Will urge the public not to let the world continue down this dangerous path. Demand that your government works to draw a normative line on autonomy in weapons systems now.”
The final decision on future work of this convention will be in November of this year.
Syria continues to be the great humanitarian tragedy of our generation. According to I am Syria, a website that tracks casualties in Syria, over 500,000 have been killed with 10,204 reported civilian deaths in 2017 alone. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has also estimated that since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, over 5.4 million people have fled their country as refugees with millions more displaced internally. The Syrian civilians caught in the middle continue to experience violence from the regime of Bashar al-Assad, independently ran militias who act as the regional proxies of Iran, Russia, and Saudia Arabia, along with terrorist groups such as the Islamic State.
As a result, Syria has been broken up into a series of enclaves or cantons that are ruled by whatever militia or rebel groups have established dominance in that particular area with territory changing hands on a regular basis. Al-Jazeera recently released a conflict map that showed the various enclaves within Syria and while the Syrian regime has reclaimed significant territory from various rebel groups, the largest independent region in Syria now belongs to Kurdish groups who control vast swaths of North and North Eastern Syria.
al-Jazeera Conflict Map
The Kurds have been some of the most stalwart allies of the US over the years; supporting military intervention as far back as 1991 when Iraq was invaded for the first time in Operation Desert Storm and have been a driving force in the more recent fighting against the Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq. They are also the largest indigenous group of stateless people with around 25-30 million individuals living in Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, and Armenia. All of which poses a serious foreign policy conundrum for countries like Turkey who have been battling an internal Kurdish rebellion since 1984, and the US who have armed and fought alongside Kurdish groups in Syria against the Islamic State.
Ian McCredie, a long-standing foreign policy consultant in the Middle East who spoke to RVA Mag summed up this foreign policy challenge. “It represents another string in the Kurdish attempt at independence and thus a threat to Turkish unity,” he said. “The fear is that it [Syrian Kurds] will link up with Iraqi Kurdistan and then Turkish Kurdistan and keep the flame of resistance burning bright.”
As a result, the Turkish government has labeled any Kurdish group fighting for independence in Syria as a terrorist organization including the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, who are the mainstay of the US-backed force that defeated IS, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces.
And just to make it even more complex, since the start of 2018, the Turkish Army launched Operation Olive Branch (this irony should not be lost on anyone) against the Kurdish administered region of Afrin in Northern Syria. Sinam Mohamed writing for The Defense Post in February, gave a harrowing overview of the situation, “Turkey’s campaign against Afrin, which employs the full might of the Turkish Armed Forces and is heavily supported on the ground by a variety of jihadist groups of Syrian and foreign fighters, has already resulted in the deaths of 104 civilians, many of them women and children. What was formerly an island of stability within war-ravaged Syria is now targeted day and night by a modern NATO army, with homes destroyed by airstrikes and medical supplies running low.”
NAKA Flyer Supporting Kurds in Afrin
This has lead to an international outcry from activist groups globally who have supported the independence experiment of the Kurds in Afrin, known as the Democratic Federation of North Syria.
One of those activists hails from Norfolk, Virginia. Jacob George, an organizer with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) has helped organize a rally to raise awareness to the plight of the Kurds in Northern Syria. “They have created the kind of movement that is solidarity focused and worker-run, which the IWW has been pushing for since its founding in the early 20th Century.” This movement, according to Owen Jones at The Guardian, has been remarkable not only for its attempt at direct democracy, but for its acceptance of gender equality in a region long known for the oppression of women. Indeed, women fighting alongside men against IS in the Kurdish People’s Protection Units has been one of the most defining features of their experiment.
Each of these hallmarks of the Afrin experiment will be rallied for on March 24 at the IWW demonstration organized by George and his colleagues at MacArthur Center in downtown Norfolk. Yet, this is part of a larger show of solidarity for what is happening against the Kurds organized by the North American Kurdish Alliance (NAKA) and billed as an international day of action – with the NAKA calling for an “Immediate condemnation of the Turkish and jihadist invasion of Afrin.” McCredie was less optimistic about the future prospects of a Kurdish enclave in Syria, saying the regional powers will never support an independent region.
George remains determined, however, to support the Kurds in Afrin. “The Kurds have risen out of this history of brutal oppression, and are trying to create a society that is worth fighting for and defending. When a lot of leftists see this, they get really inspired.” | mini_pile | {'original_id': '27e9f7f110ee7695aace21de9ebd263ee34734491247bb95d16502b876495358'} |
Skip to content
Category: Food
Guerrilla dining
South Indian banquet - guerrilla dining style!
Earlier today, I get a text message from a friend asking if hubby and I were free at 1pm for a special lunch thing. I’m always keen to catch up with friends, but the “special lunch thing” really piqued my interest. Shortly after, I get an email. It tells me where to go at 1pm, what’s on the menu (a yummy sounding South Indian vegetarian banquet) and, because this meal involves traditional dining with banana leaves, how to eat the meal with hands. At this point, my ever-increasing vegetable anxiety was tempered by this oh-so-curious email.
1pm sharp, hubby and I pull up outside a lovely house in a local suburb. My friend Clare happens to pull up at the same time. We cautiously approach the front door, unsure what to expect. We’re greeted by the friendly host, Shreeya. Shortly after, more fellow diners starts showing up. We sit in the living room, warmed by the gorgeous Canberra afternoon sun streaming through the large windows. We make introductions. It’s Canberra. We’re all related in some way. I find out that some my fellow diners have just been to the snow, some have attended one of our past TEDxCanberra events, one knows a lot about Bonsai but we all have love of good food in common and we’re all pretty excited about the meal to come.
This is my first introduction to the concept of Guerrilla Dining, also known as Underground Dining. If you’re like me and have never come across the term before, it’s like a paid dinner party. It’s popular in Latin America and there are lots of similar underground dining scenes around the world. | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '0', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.937714457511902}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '20426', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:W4TB5CMCUQVFJ7JLA2O7LMZL2LP2KNY5', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:8f1aad7a-e2c8-49b9-809c-0a9426d98ed7>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2019, 12, 6, 15, 50, 21), 'WARC-IP-Address': '66.55.73.32', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:XPHVBM27JI32ECTKBHOQQUNYVDCBEGW3', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:d57bc7bd-a0d1-49e2-a770-7cbfad1c5093>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://www.ruthellison.com/category/food/', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:6b322dbc-5bc6-4b8f-a74a-74d22adbe2cc>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '276', 'url': 'https://www.ruthellison.com/category/food/', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2019-51\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for December 2019\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-67-67-206.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.16 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 1.1-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.022584140300750732', 'original_id': 'c439e867c495155d822bd901061d892c009f0ace7739e3045787e73129bd2bad'} |
House Republicans are planning to consider legislation that would weaken rules requiring businesses to pay their employees overtime when they work more than 40 hours in a week. Instead of allowing workers to make increased wages for working longer, the legislation would give employers the option of providing employees with “comp time,” or more time off from work.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) has floated the plan in the past, and now Rep. Martha Roby (R-AL) is planning to introduce the bill into Congress, the Huffington Post’s Dave Jamieson reports:
Cast by Republicans as a reform toward workplace flexibility, the proposal would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act, a bedrock labor law of the New Deal era, to ostensibly give workers more options in how to use their accrued overtime. [...]
On Tuesday, Rep. Martha Roby (R-Ala.) told USA Today that she plans to introduce such a bill next week, saying it could “provide some relief in this economy to working families.” The language of the bill is not public yet.
Yeah, "workplace flexibility" . . . that's the ticket. When I think about how my new boss is going to be fucking me out of my overtime pay the term that comes to mind is "flexibility".
More options. Bad options. We used to offer you water, but would you be interested in a little arsenic as a second option?
You get to work more than 40 hours a week, and I will pay you for the first 40 hours, anything after that you won't get paid in money, no no no, maybe something else like time off.
You know, there is a much faster way to get time off instead of working overtime hours past 40 a week in exchange for time off, you could always only work 40 hours that week.
More WTF below the fold . . .
But silly me, proposing that someone would only work forty hours a week would imply that someone could survive in this corporate controlled TBTF plutocratic environment of stagnant wage serfdom on only forty hours a week. Clearly, that is not the case, people gladly work overtime and second jobs if and when they can find them just to survive, so how do we screw people out of their overtime pay too says Mr. Republican? After forty years of stagnant wages and soaring CEO compensation, after bailing out wall street and seeing the stock markets full recovery, and now that corporate profits are at record highs the GOP is going to reward you trickle down style by taking away your overtime pay in exchange for not money.
Let me ask something? . . .
Beyond white male homophobic christianish privilege what does the GOP have to offer? Does the GOP have anything at all to offer non-millionaires other than hate against gays, women, brown people, foreigners, etc, etc, etc?
Are Republican voters so dumb that you can stick the phrase "Family Friendly" into a bill stripping workers of their overtime pay and Republican voters wouldn't notice?
Of course they are that dumb. Mitt Romney knew it, Rick Scott knows it, C Street cultist Mark Sanford knows it, every billionaire and media huckster in their employ knows it.
Well, the GOP does offer you war, guns, cruelty towards those unlike you, apathy, cynicism, and tax cuts for the rich. So there is that.
The same people outraged that Obama might take their guns away at any moment couldn't give a flying fuck that the GOP is planning on stealing their overtime pay, because these deadender dunces are fine with being robbed blind just as long as they get to feel superior to gays, brown people, women and sinners.
So the GOP, led by Eric Cantor, is proposing ending overtime pay for workers. That is a thing now. Because freedom.
Ahhhh, 'Murica
end angry rant
Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com
Originally posted to MinistryOfTruth on Thu Apr 04, 2013 at 07:02 AM PDT.
Also republished by In Support of Labor and Unions and ClassWarfare Newsletter: WallStreet VS Working Class Global Occupy movement.
Your Email has been sent. | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '7', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.958916425704956}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '12217', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:5DT3AYXXIH7MOUL7BL7QAKXRIBWPMFGK', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:51fb3c19-cb51-4fec-8f3e-0705a870054e>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2015, 5, 6, 11, 13, 11), 'WARC-IP-Address': '54.191.241.107', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': None, 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:3RDMG25YBT62QKITQIPJRPWNA3RTURVL', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:41e4092f-5321-4cb5-be96-2c5d3d491f27>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'http://dailykos.com/part/story/as_full?story_id=1199127', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:803d422b-e98e-444f-8415-cc31c4297f08>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '667', 'url': 'http://dailykos.com/part/story/as_full?story_id=1199127', 'warcinfo': 'robots: classic\r\nhostname: ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0\r\nisPartOf: CC-MAIN-2015-18\r\noperator: CommonCrawl Admin\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for April 2015\r\npublisher: CommonCrawl\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.0\r\nconformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.03452908992767334', 'original_id': '671f945ef083302a14b81abdce6756ae767aba9097c6b2b3baff91e17c7022c9'} |
Does bank of america upgrade there visa credit card? My wife got a visa from BOA, which is her 1st credit card, and has $59.00 fee per year. Don't want to cancel, where it might mess up her credit history of 2.5yr with them.
They have been actively upgrading accounts to the BankAmericard Cash Reward card. This card gives you 3% cash back on gas, 2% on groceries and 1% on everything else. No need to sign up. And, if you deposit your cash rewards into a BofA checking account, they give an additional 10% cash back. Or you can inquire about some of their other accounts, but BofA has mostly been marketing this card.
Best bet is to log in online and request a chat with a customer service rep. Ask that rep if the account can be upgraded and usually it is a yes. Don't be surprised if the annual fee remains though. Also, from experience, it takes weeks for the upgrade to go through.
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest
†Advertiser Disclosure
The credit card offers that appear on this site are from credit card issuers from which CreditCardForum.com receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site, including the order in which they may appear within listing categories. CreditCardForum.com does not include all credit card offers that might be available to consumers in the marketplace.
Editorial Disclosure Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.
User Generated Content Disclosure Forum member posts, comments and responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser.
Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank
advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or
questions are answered. | mini_pile | {'original_id': 'a80afa74fc0ba407f90b042e98ef30d8c8e3b7fa9c21b70e026c2b6f0954ea5c'} |
Custom Java SecurityManager in JUnit tests are failing
I'm using a custom Java SecurityManager for a sandboxed plugin. It works fine when running standalone but when I run my unit tests I get a bunch of AccessControlExceptions. E.g.
java.security.AccessControlException: access denied ("java.lang.RuntimePermission" "createClassLoader") at java.security.AccessControlContext.checkPermission(AccessControlContext.java:472)
at java.security.AccessController.checkPermission(AccessController.java:884)
at java.lang.SecurityManager.checkPermission(SecurityManager.java:549)
at java.lang.SecurityManager.checkCreateClassLoader(SecurityManager.java:611)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.checkCreateClassLoader(ClassLoader.java:274)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.<init>(ClassLoader.java:316)
at java.security.SecureClassLoader.<init>(SecureClassLoader.java:76)
And here's the custom SecurityManager:
Policy.setPolicy(new Policy() {
@Override
public PermissionCollection getPermissions(CodeSource cs) {
Permissions mainPermissions = new Permissions();
mainPermissions.add(new AllPermission());
return mainPermissions;
}
});
// set a security manager so permissions get applied,
System.setSecurityManager(new SecurityManager());
can you provide more details like testing class and tests failing?
Sadly, I can't get it to fail in a small test app. I'll keep trying to get something small that reproduces.
Well...
It turns out the problem has nothing to do with JUnit. It was merely a side effect of how my tests were run. Also, there is more than one problem. I don't completely understand this but I do have a solution.
Problem 1
In Logback's Loader there's some code to check RuntimePermission for "getClassLoader". This generates an exception but is expected apparently and was confusing me. The code will continue after this exception just fine (I had a break point in the Security Manager as well as security debug turned on and thought this was the issue).
Problem 2
https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8143638
There's some kind of interaction with the fork join pool and parallel streams that was causing another security problem for me. I was using a CompletableFuture without specifying my own executor. Adding my own executor solved the problem. Honestly, I'm not sure why even after reading that bug and the linked-to documentation.
| common_corpus | {'identifier': 'https://stackoverflow.com/questions/44814048', 'collection': 'StackExchange', 'open_type': 'Open Web', 'license': 'CC-By-SA', 'date': '2017.0', 'title': 'Stack Exchange', 'creator': 'Anupama Boorlagadda, Randgalt, https://stackoverflow.com/users/2048051, https://stackoverflow.com/users/5576721', 'language': 'Sardinian', 'language_type': 'Spoken', 'word_count': '278', 'token_count': '592', '__index_level_0__': '24954', 'original_id': 'a8775ad93f6353cbb53f44819aa776bceb15ffec96ba93116b2636d9b87731ca'} |
5 Ways ELearning Can Annoy People
instructional-designerChances are you have taken an online course that you didn’t really enjoy.
There are many reasons why someone could dislike an elearning course that they take.
If it’s because the content of the course isn’t something that interests them, then there isn’t much you can do.
However, this is rarely the case.
Most people get annoyed with online courses because they are poorly designed. In other words, the user experience is sub-par.
The worst thing is that these situations can often be avoided by just taking a moment to review your course. Below are some of the more common items that annoy learners when taking an online course.
Too Long
Our attention spans are limited and there are many distractions at a computer that can pull us away from an online course. When a course start to take two hours to complete, it feels like a chore.
Try breaking up your courses into logical chunks so that learners can return at a later date.
Not Mobile Friendly
People aren’t always sitting at a computer. If your course isn’t mobile device friendly then it means that learners need to schedule time in their busy lives to be at a computer to complete the course.
Give learners the freedom to take a course anywhere and with any device by ensuring cross-device compatibility.
All Text, No Media
No one wants to read paragraph after paragraph on a computer screen. Put some effort into leveraging various methods of media to give life to the content.
Too Much Quizzing
Quizzing is an important part of any elearning program, but if it’s used too much then the point is lost. Avoid the temptation to include a quiz after every lesson or section.
If you have to include a quiz, don’t require a passing percentage. Allow people to fail, see the correct answer(s), and move on. You can retest them at the very end of the course with a comprehensive quiz.
Outdated Content
Keeping course content up-to-date is difficult, but critical to your course success.
The second learners see dated content they become annoyed and feel like they are wasting their time. Schedule regular check-ups for your courses to ensure the content is still valid.
1 Response
1. I would add an unclear learning path through the course and a picture of what a competent person would look like, do and know, to that list.
Leave a Reply
| dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '32', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.95088392496109}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '55122', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:TQDCYGCSJVN7ISPSYQ34JVZWHVQPF7XX', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:b1fb3879-b355-44ac-96e6-da86fc4e7184>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2018, 11, 21, 19, 57, 22), 'WARC-IP-Address': '67.212.168.122', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:MPHOVHDHMGKXCAAXZDNWGSZVAZ24TB75', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:88e0c414-0ee7-4c61-96f5-1ed96a2b2d47>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'https://www.learndash.com/5-ways-elearning-can-annoy-people/', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:23761e7f-c681-4386-b403-7cbd7e6c89b5>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '451', 'url': 'https://www.learndash.com/5-ways-elearning-can-annoy-people/', 'warcinfo': 'isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2018-47\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for November 2018\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)\r\nhostname: ip-10-5-198-138.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)\r\nrobots: checked via crawler-commons 0.11-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.1\r\nconformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.09199821949005127', 'original_id': 'a0347fbfe0c519d1ba3549ccf45bdffd90d35b73cf105981c16c1862907bad12'} |
use serde::Deserialize;
use serde_derive::Deserialize;
use serde_derive::Serialize;
use crate::Duration;
use crate::SessionId;
use crate::Zxid;
use crate::ACL;
use crate::Version;
use crate::Timestamp;
use failure::Error;
use std::fs::File;
use std::io::BufReader;
use std::iter::Iterator;
use std::path::Path;
use std::collections::HashMap;
#[derive(Debug, PartialEq, Eq, Hash)]
#[derive(Deserialize, Serialize)]
pub struct ACLRef(i64);
#[derive(Debug)]
#[derive(Deserialize, Serialize)]
pub struct Session {
pub id: SessionId,
pub timeout: Duration,
}
#[derive(Debug)]
#[derive(Deserialize, Serialize)]
pub struct ACLCacheEntry {
pub entry_id: ACLRef,
pub acl: Vec<ACL>,
}
/// Encodes the various kinds of ephemerality: ephemeral, container, TTL node
/// See EphemeralType.java
#[derive(Debug, Copy, Clone, PartialEq, Eq)]
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize)]
pub struct EphemeralInfo(i64);
/// Enhanced stats
#[derive(Debug)]
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize)]
pub struct StatPersisted {
/// created zxid
pub czxid: Zxid,
/// last modified zxid
pub mzxid: Zxid,
/// created
pub ctime: Timestamp,
/// last modified
pub mtime: Timestamp,
/// version
pub version: Version,
/// child version
pub cversion: Version,
/// acl version
pub aversion: Version,
/// ephemeral information
pub ephemeral_info: EphemeralInfo,
/// last modified children
pub pzxid: Zxid,
}
#[derive(Debug)]
#[derive(Deserialize, Serialize)]
pub struct DataNode {
#[serde(with = "serde_bytes")]
data: Vec<u8>,
acl: ACLRef,
stat: StatPersisted,
}
/// A ZooKeeper snapshot file. After the initial header, it is composed of 3 sections:
/// - information about sessions
/// - acl cache, used in data nodes
/// - data nodes
///
/// Each section is implemented as type state implementing iterator for the type related to that
/// section (sessions, acls, data nodes).
///
/// See [`SnapshotFormatter.java`] and [`SerializeUtils.java`] for details.
///
/// [`SnapshotFormatter.java`]: https://github.com/apache/zookeeper/blob/master/zookeeper-server/src/main/java/org/apache/zookeeper/server/SnapshotFormatter.java
/// [`SerializeUtils.java`]: https://github.com/apache/zookeeper/blob/master/zookeeper-server/src/main/java/org/apache/zookeeper/server/util/SerializeUtils.java
///
pub struct SnapshotFile<S> {
deser: crate::serde::Deserializer<BufReader<File>>,
count: usize,
errored: bool,
state: S,
}
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Part 1: header
pub struct InitState {
zxid: Zxid,
}
impl SnapshotFile<InitState> {
/// Find the most recent snapshot in a directory
pub fn most_recent_snapshot(dir: impl AsRef<Path>) -> Result<Option<SnapshotFile<InitState>>, Error> {
let mut snapshot_paths = std::fs::read_dir(dir)?
.filter_map(|r| r.ok())
.map(|entry| entry.path())
.filter(|path| path.starts_with("snapshot."))
.collect::<Vec<_>>();
snapshot_paths.sort();
snapshot_paths.pop().map(|path| Self::new(path)).transpose()
}
pub fn new(path: impl AsRef<Path>) -> Result<SnapshotFile<InitState>, Error> {
let path = path.as_ref();
let zxid =
super::zxid_from_path(path).ok_or_else(|| format_err!("Can't parse version in path {}", path.display()))?;
let file = BufReader::new(File::open(path)?);
let mut deser = crate::serde::de::from_reader(file);
let header = super::FileHeader::deserialize(&mut deser)?;
if header.magic != super::SNAP_MAGIC {
return Err(failure::err_msg("Wrong magic number"));
}
if header.version != 2 {
return Err(failure::err_msg("Wrong version number"));
}
Ok(SnapshotFile {
deser,
count: 0,
errored: false,
state: InitState { zxid },
})
}
/// The transaction id for this snapshot
pub fn zxid(&self) -> Zxid {
self.state.zxid
}
/// Transition to session information
pub fn sessions(self) -> Result<SnapshotFile<SessionsState>, Error> {
SnapshotFile::new_sessions(self)
}
}
/// Generic implementation of Iterator::next
fn next_item<'de, T: Deserialize<'de>, S>(snap: &mut SnapshotFile<S>) -> Option<Result<T, Error>> {
if snap.count == 0 || snap.errored {
return None;
}
snap.count -= 1;
let r = T::deserialize(&mut snap.deser);
if r.is_err() {
snap.errored = true;
}
Some(r.map_err(|e| e.into()))
}
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Part 2: sessions
pub struct SessionsState {}
impl SnapshotFile<SessionsState> {
fn new_sessions<T>(mut prev: SnapshotFile<T>) -> Result<Self, Error> {
let count = <i32>::deserialize(&mut prev.deser)? as usize;
Ok(SnapshotFile {
deser: prev.deser,
count,
errored: false,
state: SessionsState {},
})
}
/// Transition to ACL cache entries. It will skip any session states that have not been
/// read yet.
pub fn acls(mut self) -> Result<SnapshotFile<ACLCacheState>, Error> {
// drain iterator
self.last();
if self.errored {
return Err(failure::err_msg("Stream already errored out"));
}
SnapshotFile::<ACLCacheState>::new_acl_cache(self)
}
/// Reads all ACL cache entries, return them as a map and transition to data nodes
pub fn acl_map(self) -> Result<(HashMap<ACLRef, Vec<ACL>>, SnapshotFile<DataNodesState>), Error> {
self.acls()?.read_acl_map()
}
}
/// Iterate on the sessions contained in this snapshot
///
/// Note: implemented on `&mut SnapshotFile` so that we can use functions that consume the iterator
/// while still being able to use the object to move to the next state.
///
impl Iterator for &mut SnapshotFile<SessionsState> {
type Item = Result<Session, Error>;
fn next(&mut self) -> Option<Self::Item> {
next_item(self)
}
}
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Part 3: ACL cache
pub struct ACLCacheState {}
impl SnapshotFile<ACLCacheState> {
fn new_acl_cache<T>(mut prev: SnapshotFile<T>) -> Result<SnapshotFile<ACLCacheState>, Error> {
let count = <i32>::deserialize(&mut prev.deser)? as usize;
Ok(SnapshotFile {
deser: prev.deser,
count,
errored: false,
state: ACLCacheState {},
})
}
fn read_acl_map(mut self) -> Result<(HashMap<ACLRef, Vec<ACL>>, SnapshotFile<DataNodesState>), Error> {
let all_acls: HashMap<_, _> = self
.map(|r| r.map(|entry| (entry.entry_id, entry.acl)))
.collect::<Result<_,_>>()?; // iter<result> -> result<iter> conversion
Ok((all_acls, self.data_nodes()?))
}
/// Transition to data nodes. It will skip any ACL cache entries that have not been read yet.
pub fn data_nodes(mut self) -> Result<SnapshotFile<DataNodesState>, Error> {
// drain iterator
self.last();
if self.errored {
return Err(failure::err_msg("Stream already errored out"));
}
SnapshotFile::<DataNodesState>::new_data_nodes(self)
}
}
impl Iterator for &mut SnapshotFile<ACLCacheState> {
type Item = Result<ACLCacheEntry, Error>;
fn next(&mut self) -> Option<Self::Item> {
next_item(self)
}
}
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Part 4: data nodes
pub struct DataNodesState {}
impl SnapshotFile<DataNodesState> {
fn new_data_nodes<T>(prev: SnapshotFile<T>) -> Result<SnapshotFile<DataNodesState>, Error> {
// We don't have a count of entries for this section. This is a series of (path, data) and
// the section ends when we see a "/" path.
Ok(SnapshotFile {
deser: prev.deser,
count: 1,
errored: false,
state: DataNodesState {},
})
}
}
impl Iterator for SnapshotFile<DataNodesState> {
type Item = Result<(String, DataNode), Error>;
fn next(&mut self) -> Option<Self::Item> {
if self.count == 0 || self.errored {
return None;
}
let path = match <String>::deserialize(&mut self.deser) {
Ok(p) => p,
Err(e) => {
self.errored = true;
return Some(Err(e.into()));
}
};
if &path == "/" {
self.count = 0;
return None;
}
let data = match <DataNode>::deserialize(&mut self.deser) {
Ok(d) => d,
Err(e) => {
self.errored = true;
return Some(Err(e.into()));
}
};
Some(Ok((path, data)))
}
}
#[cfg(test)]
mod tests {
use super::*;
#[test]
fn read_snapshot() {
let snap = SnapshotFile::new("data/version-2/snapshot.1000005d0").unwrap();
let zxid = snap.zxid();
println!("{:?}", zxid);
let mut snap = snap.sessions().unwrap();
//println!("sessions: {}", snap.count);
&snap.for_each(|x| {
let _session = x.unwrap();
//println!("{:?}", _session);
});
let mut snap = snap.acls().unwrap();
//println!("acls: {}", snap.count);
&snap.for_each(|x| {
let _acl = x.unwrap();
//println!("{:?}", _acl);
});
let snap = snap.data_nodes().unwrap();
//println!("data nodes:");
let mut max_zxid = Zxid(0);
&snap.for_each(|x| {
let (_path, mut node) = x.unwrap();
let _len = node.data.len();
node.data = Vec::new();
max_zxid = std::cmp::max(max_zxid, node.stat.czxid);
max_zxid = std::cmp::max(max_zxid, node.stat.mzxid);
//println!("{} - {} bytes", _path, _len);
//println!("{:?}", node);
});
assert_eq!(zxid, max_zxid);
}
#[test]
fn dump_acl() {
let snap = SnapshotFile::new("data/version-2/snapshot.1000005d0").unwrap();
let zxid = snap.zxid();
println!("{:?}", zxid);
let mut snap = snap.sessions().unwrap();
//println!("sessions: {}", snap.count);
&snap.for_each(|x| {
let _session = x.unwrap();
//println!("{:?}", _session);
});
let (acls, snap) = snap.acl_map().unwrap();
let mut max_zxid = Zxid(0);
&snap.for_each(|x| {
let (_path, mut node) = x.unwrap();
let _len = node.data.len();
node.data = Vec::new();
max_zxid = std::cmp::max(max_zxid, node.stat.czxid);
max_zxid = std::cmp::max(max_zxid, node.stat.mzxid);
//println!("{} - {} bytes", _path, _len);
//println!("{:?}", node);
println!("{:?} {:?}", _path, acls.get(&node.acl).unwrap());
});
assert_eq!(zxid, max_zxid);
assert!(false);
}
}
| common_corpus | {'identifier': 'https://github.com/swallez/zookeepers/blob/master/src/persistence/snapshot.rs', 'collection': 'Github Open Source', 'open_type': 'Open Source', 'license': 'Apache-2.0', 'date': '2020.0', 'title': 'zookeepers', 'creator': 'swallez', 'language': 'Rust', 'language_type': 'Code', 'word_count': '1080', 'token_count': '3569', '__index_level_0__': '19596', 'original_id': '064d20b106098d13228878a645928b10739ed11270efe5d9534c7bcd2e3669aa'} |
Umut Güneş
Umut Güneş (born 16 March 2000) is a Turkish professional footballer. He currently plays as a midfielder for Alanyaspor.
Professional career
On 15 August 2019 Güneş signed a professional contract with Alanyaspor on 15 August 2019. Güneş made his professional debut with Alanyaspor in a 5-0 Süper Lig win over MKE Ankaragücü on 30 November 2019.
References
External links
DFB Profile
Category:2000 births
Category:Living people
Category:People from Albstadt
Category:Turkish footballers
Category:Turkey youth international footballers
Category:Turkey under-21 international footballers
Category:German footballers
Category:German people of Turkish descent
Category:Alanyaspor footballers
Category:VfB Stuttgart II players
Category:Süper Lig players
Category:Association football midfielders | mini_pile | {'original_id': '4a293ee37d47b1cb23a5c1facd29c15682be01cbf5e327f6c77bb60266f40366'} |
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Moving data between forms with properties
Back when I started writing programs in C# I had no idea how to pass information between different forms. So like so many others I started by searching the internet. I found a ton of sites that showed how to do it. A lot of example code. But little explanation about what is actually going on. I think it’s more effective to know what’s happening rather than just “to do it use this code”. There are a half dozen ways you can pass data around in winforms applications in c# but the way I prefer to pass information back and forth in C# is with properties. To create a property in C# you create a field variable and a property.
Think of it like you think of a textbox. If you have textbox1 on your form you can access the .Text property of the textbox by using textbox1.text=”this”; or string variable = textbox1.text; What you’re doing is creating a form property that you can access from other forms.
Set up a windows form application in Visual Studio. Add a second form to it. In the second form create a field variable called _name and define the Name property. This is the code that does it:
private string _name;
public MyForm()
public string Name
get { return _name; }
set { _name = value; }
The _name variable is private which means it is visible only to the second form. When you want to change the variable in the second form you modify _name. The Name property is public and is visible everywhere in the program. When you want to change the variable anywhere except in the second form, modify Name.
Basically what happens is whenever Name is changed Set {_name = value;} takes whatever is in Name and puts it in _name. And when Name is queried, get {return _name} takes what is in _name and puts it in Name. So if we had Form1 and Form2 and our property is in Form2. Then in Form1, to send information to Form2 we would do the following:
Form2 child = new Form2();
child.Name = "Joe";
This creates an instance of Form2 called child. Then it sets the Name property to “Joe”. Then it shows the window.
If you wanted to change the name and send the new name to the form that called it, you would change the field variable in Form2 and then get the Name property in Form1.
So in Form2 you would have:
_name = “New Name”;
And in Form1 (after the ShowDialog()) you would read the property
string newName = child.Name;
See. Clear as mud.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Greetings Earthling.
tl;dr version: I'm a geek. I'm going to blog about programming. Some personal history/get to know you stuff below.
I'll be using this to share tidbits of useful coding information for various platforms. I've been working with and learning computers and technology since 1984 and thought I would share some of the things that I've learned over the years/found useful. But before I get into all of that techie stuff, a little about me. I'm the typical geek. D&D, video games, gadgets and technology. I'm also the typical country boy. I know how to pluck a chicken, roof a house, change an engine, plumb a bathroom, and skin a rabbit (among other things).
I've made my living through the years doing Systems Administration and support (usually the only person in the IT department) and love my job. The first computer I owned was a Tandy Color Computer 2 back when I was in high school. Like all the other kids I thought the games were cool (Oregon Trail, Robot Odyssey, Zork, etc) but it really wasn't enough for me.
I wanted to know how thy did that. How do you get a computer to do that? So I dove in head first. A year later I was submitting my first program for publication. A text adventure game written in BASIC called Save the Earth. It was published through T&D Software. A monthly publication where they mailed out disks and cassettes to their subscribers with various programs on them (games, utilities, productivity, etc). Shortly after the BASIC program I decided that it still wasn't enough. I needed to figure out how things worked on a more basic level so I dove into ASM for the 6809 processor. Once I wrapped my head around that I submitted my second program for publication. A utility in ASM that let you change the background color and font color on the Color Computer that was persistent until a system restart. Simple stuff but it gave me a good foundation to understand what was really going on inside computers.
From there I went on to helping out the school district with their student attendance/records software. Worked part time helping the one computer business doing things like building systems and running network cabling. Started college and worked in the computer lab under their college work study program. I also ventured into the 'dark side' of computers for a bit. BBS's, hacking, cracking, piracy, all of that sordid stuff. I think I learned more in that couple years than I did in any other time period. Then I was done with college and everything changed. I had to get a real job. I ended up going to work for an insuarnce agency as their Jr. Network Administrator. Which pretty much meant I did all of the physical work like building and moving systems, running cable, answering help desk calls, etc.
This went on a couple of years, the admin left for greener pastures, I got a girlfriend, the company was sold, changed names, I lost a girlfriend, new department head, new girlfriend, got married, had a severe personality conflict with the department head, and it was over. Moved to Dallas, got a new job as Network Administrator (same job, new title, better pay, more people, longer hours). Spent 4 years without sleep keeping everything running, went on vacation and came back to the locks on the doors changed. And that was over. Went to work a week later where I am now. I love this job. I love the people I work for and with. The job is still the same job as before but with much much more. Everything from running network cable to writing industry specific applications. I've been here for 11 years and plan on being here for the duration.
There's so much more I could post but I'd bore you. | dclm_baseline | {'bff_contained_ngram_count_before_dedupe': '0', 'language_id_whole_page_fasttext': "{'en': 0.966628074645996}", 'metadata': "{'Content-Length': '58038', 'Content-Type': 'application/http; msgtype=response', 'WARC-Block-Digest': 'sha1:ZTOZDMVC6MNEGFXTA4SBYLJ4NO3QYZYM', 'WARC-Concurrent-To': '<urn:uuid:e68be84c-19e2-4aee-97b9-807dd7afc2b5>', 'WARC-Date': datetime.datetime(2017, 8, 21, 9, 59, 9), 'WARC-IP-Address': '172.217.8.1', 'WARC-Identified-Payload-Type': 'text/html', 'WARC-Payload-Digest': 'sha1:M6XH7SIXMCSBMOYEZXX6WHVOM62L2CE7', 'WARC-Record-ID': '<urn:uuid:197f81bd-38c9-4e7a-b994-25c5ed3e8f43>', 'WARC-Target-URI': 'http://hordolin.blogspot.com/2011/07/', 'WARC-Type': 'response', 'WARC-Warcinfo-ID': '<urn:uuid:9410ba83-94e9-41b3-8261-4511b81cd63c>', 'WARC-Truncated': None}", 'previous_word_count': '1066', 'url': 'http://hordolin.blogspot.com/2011/07/', 'warcinfo': 'robots: classic\r\nhostname: ip-10-229-75-92.ec2.internal\r\nsoftware: Nutch 1.6 (CC)\r\nisPartOf: CC-MAIN-2017-34\r\noperator: Common Crawl Admin\r\ndescription: Wide crawl of the web for August 2017\r\npublisher: Common Crawl\r\nformat: WARC File Format 1.0\r\nconformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf', 'fasttext_openhermes_reddit_eli5_vs_rw_v2_bigram_200k_train_prob': '0.3628210425376892', 'original_id': '3bec67b754596f00f73f974381d3e69ce7b69e10a68b34420f94906adef5587e'} |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.