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A warm, friendly Open Level class - suitable for all levels including reasonably fit beginners. Classic Hatha yoga poses arranged into flowing sequences to stretch and tone the body whilst calming and refreshing the mind.
This is a dynamic hatha yoga class aimed at beginners and improvers. During this course you will develop your strength, flexibility, and reduce tension levels, regardless of your age, your level of fitness or flexibility. This class will include breathing exercises, postures and some relaxation.
£8.50 per class (please check availability to avoid disappointment) or less if booked in blocks. Although block -booking is preferable, booking one-offs and drop-ins are also possible, subject to availability.
For more info please drop me an email, check www.sophiedubillot.com, or give me a ring. I look forward to seeing you on the mat! | 2019-04-26T02:28:32 | https://www.classfinder.org.uk/venue-profile/eNortjK1UiozMjcyULIGXDAUagLd |
As violet opened the door to the shower the steam began to heat up the room.
At this point Dash has started to realize the full reality of the situation and is shaking with fear.
With her chest pressed against his back and her hair draping down over his face he becomes relaxed.
She leads him in while holding his hand and after she shuts the door she turns to dash and kisses him.
Not the kiss of a sister but the kiss of a lover. As she draws back she gasps under her breath “I love you” she lifts him up and sets him on the corner seat.
She kisses him agian but starts to slide down while breathing heat onto his chest. Now she is on her knees with her head between dashes legs. She brushes back her hair has she begins to drag her tung along his thigh. This sensation drive him insane as he becomes fully erect. She then slide her tung down his shaft that soon slides into her mouth. She then presses her lips together and begins to slide up when she feels the pulsation and warmth of Dashes orgasim. | 2019-04-18T18:48:05 | https://incredibles.all-hentai.com/tag/porn-story/ |
Commercial agents are always looking for new faces and you do not have to be beautiful or handsome to book most commercials.
Short answer: Beat out the competition. How? Right look. A certain indefinable quality they are looking for. Dress somewhat appropriately (no ripped jeans if you're up for a young professional). Do something just a tiny bit original. I once booked a commercial where I was to walk a dog in a park. Most of the audition (on camera) was ad lib. I took a long chained purse, dragged it on the floor and kept gooing at my purse/dog. I am positive it was the purse/dog that booked that commercial.
With a few exceptions, the ad is about the product and they do not want the actors to be particularly memorable. So send in your most natural looking headshot (no glamour here, unless you are stunning). Read our articles on self-submission letters, envelopes, be sure the agent does commercials and do your mass mailing. Also follow up with a postcard.
SAG commercials pay well. Even SAG extras on commercials can make a nice income. I know people who make an average of $35,000 a year as extras on SAG commercials. And please do not think you are demeaning yourself, or selling out, if you do commercials. It's all acting. And I cannot tell you how many casting people send out a call for a particular actor they saw in a commercial. So a commercial may lead to a sit-com audition. In fact, one casting director saw someone in a commercial, remembered the actor and is now tracking him down for some other job. A national commercial is a great step up the ladder, especially if you are the only person in the ad.
Do not make the mistake of thinking that booking a commercial is a shoo-in. I had a major agent who sent me out 67 times before I booked my first commercial. Yes, there were lots of "first refusals," a lot of "holds," and many "call backs" but 67 auditions before the first booking! Got to be a world record for rejection! But then can you imagine the delight in the middle of "Law & Order" of seeing yourself advertising Palmolive! So don't knock commercials. They pay well and the competition is keen and yes they really use trained actors for the most part.
This has always been my dream to be on TV. I tried numerous auditions but got turned down so I kinda gave up. It's always been in me if anyone reading this please contact me.
I would like to enter commercials.
I really would love to land a commercial job.
Hi I'm Antoinette from Evander Mpumalanga. I'm very much interested in tv commercials, I believe in myself and confident enough that I have what it takes. Just need a chance to live my dream.
My name is Barbara and I'm 50 yrs old. I tried a little modeling back when I was in my late 20's and was in the bakini invitational back in 1997. I have always wanted to do commercials as well as acting. How do I get in touch with an agent? what steps do I need to take?
My name is Rodney L. Regan, and I have worked as a background extra in a couple of local commercials, but as one who has worked on stage and film productions along with being a former jazz radio host/producer, I want to do National TV Commercials.
Hello this is Sylvia I really want to be in commercials...I am 27 yrs..i am from India..I always gets lots so compliments for my hai and for my eyes..and the way I talk everybody telling me you should try to get in commercials.. I was wondering where can I start...who can I talk to abt this?
do some commercials!I have my Web page.let me know if you are interested.
Hello, never been in any commecial, but im sure I got what it takes four a new challenge.I resign in Atlanta georgia.
Hello I'm just wondering about something... I am 32 years of age and have a really unique voice I sound like I'm a little kid lol I work as a waitress right now and everyday people are telling me you should try to get in commericals because of my voice I was wondering if you could tell me how to go about getting in them??? Or if you guys ever need help with kids voices???
I really want to be in commercials....where can i start...who can i talk to?
I'd like to be in many commericals as possible. Live out my dream.
I live in Arizona. I travel to LA, alot.
If you can contact me i'd appreciate it. | 2019-04-23T04:56:02 | http://www.actingbiz.com/acting-tips/how-to-get-work-in-commercials/ |
We've enjoyed some of the beauty of Big Sur a few times, but not in the last decade or so. Very much looking forward to a return trip. We'll be visiting relatives in the San Francisco area and have the choice of going in June or July. Question: Is one of those two months better for doing Big Sur? Weather-wise? Crowd-wise?
So: If folks think that Post Ranch really is worth breaking the bank for, the question is which accmmodation to choose? Do people have particular favorites?
Thanks for all feedback. I wonder,too, how early it's necessary to get reservations made. Thanks!
I've been to Post Ranch Inn several times and we try to return every 2 or 3 years for a two or three night stay. We usually stay in either the Butterfly Rooms or the Tree Houses. I really like staying in the upper Butterfly rooms. They are private and have a nice deck looking towards the mountains.
I've never been to Ventana so I can't compare the two, but my partner has been and he says that Post Ranch Inn's location and design are very different and for the most part superior to Ventana.
The one thing to know before going in is that the rooms while very nice are not luxurious in the Four Seasons sense at all and this puts some people off, especially at the prices they charge. We call the rooms "Opulent Zen". Lots of slate, concrete cast fireplace, minimalist flower arrangements, and custom furniture that is a blend between arts/ crats and modern. I think the rooms are a perfect match for the location.
Some of the comments on tripadvisor on PRI remind me of some of comments on Caneel Bay, which I know you are familiar with. The value of PRI lies in more than just the rooms. The property that the inn is built on is gorgeous and views of the Pacific are breathtaking.
They have recently added 3 new room categories and from the pictures they look very similar in asethetic appeal to the older rooms.
It is a very special and unique place that is hard to describe to one that has not been there. There is a "feeling" that one gets when there.
The Post Ranch Inn is our absolute favorite place to stay in California. We stay in one of the Coast units (I think the name is Post, but I'm not positive about that). The coast rooms overlook the ocean and everything is unbelievable - architecture, serenity, quality of service, etc., etc. The Sierra Mar restaurant is excellent. I have a feeling June might be foggier than July. The reservationist should be able to help you with that, and I would recommend making your reservations soon.
Hi Bill, hi Meo-- thanks for your comments.
Actually, we've been on the PRI property-- had dinner at the restaurant when we were last in the area. No question about it-- that setting is incomparable. We thought that the meal, by the way, was fine, but not a truly memorable one (again, except for the setting).
The reason we stay at Caneel is that the main thing we go to St John for is the snorkeling-- and Caneel beats anywhere else hands down for covenience; plus we think the grounds are terrific. When we go to Big Sur, the main thing we'll be interested in is the hiking and of course imbibing the all-around gorgeousness. Since (unlike the situation at Caneel) one has to go off grounds for varied hiking anyway, I keep wondering whether it's worth paying those very steep rates at PR for the view alone (or mainly for the view; I'm sure the rooms are very handsome). I.e. if we hang out at Nepenthe a bit, and do some of those awesome walks with views to die for, I wonder if plunking down $600-700 for a room (or whatever it is, I haven't checked) is truly worth it. I know, I know "worth it" can only be answered by the person her/himself.
Thanks again! I will ponder (and drool).
If by "view" you mean an ocean view - I think PRI will be quite a bit more than $600-$700. Their cheapest rooms may be in that range - but I'm pretty sure most ocean view rooms will be over $1000.
janis is right. The ocean view rooms start at around $1100.00 and go up to $2100 a night.
I was at Ventana about 5 years ago, and at PRI this past April. No question about it, PRI wins hands-down. I really think you should do it at least once in your life. I had the Mountain Room, and loved every minute of my time there.
jamq, wow. Great pictures! I'd love to stay at the Post Ranch Inn but the prices are a bit out of my budget. Your photos really bring out the beauty and feel for the area though.
Bill's photos of Post Ranch Inn are stunning and the property looks so gorgeous..
Here is a website for Big Sur and hit the link for lodging..
I'd say if you have the money, it's worth staying at the Post Ranch Inn in the best room you can afford (they are all fabulous). If you don't have the money, it wouldn't be worth going into debt (well, maybe briefly in debt...but not so you can't sleep at night!).
Is Ventana a lot less? If they are close in price, I'd go with Post Ranch Inn.
July is the foggiest month on N. Cal. coast. We can't keep sparklers lit on the 4th of July.
Carmel and Big Sur are busy every month of the year. You could manage the crowds if you stayed at the Post Ranch. The room is for two, why leave?
I love looking at those photographs too! We need to get back there. Those photos were taken in mid February. The weather was amazing. For returning guests they offer a 2 night, mid week deal for $850 in a Butterfly House room and $1000 for a Tree House from November through April. This is what we usually do. They used to throw in two massages in the deal, but alas you have to pay for those now.
Yipes! Talk about sticker shock!!
Clearly, if we ever do make our way up into that rarefied air, we'll have to make do with "slumming it," (!) in one of the 3 less expensive accommodations. I'm wondering whether folks think that the "order" of rooms, cost-wise, pretty much reflects the desirability of each kind of room. Does it step up, degree by degree, mainly on the awesomeness of the view, or are the rooms themselves quite different from each other, in size and comfort, e.g.? No doubt privacy is better as one goes up in price, but are any of the less expensive options also nice and private? Would one ever hear neighbors, for instance? Can people walk around in the altogether without having to draw drapes?
Both my husband and myself (now in our 70's) much loved our careers as teachers-- but those careers sure didn't facilitate stays at places like PR.
Post Ranch Inn is an amazing place. June is less foggy than July. There will be more tourists on our beautiful Highway 1 in June, too.
iamq - thanks for sharing the pix. Loved the infinity/basking pool...paradise.
From what I've seen, the most private rooms are the ocean rooms and they do indeed have the best views and are the most expensive. They are stand alone units. The other rooms that are stand alone units are the Tree House rooms. These are all built among groves of Coast Redwood trees. This is the room in my photos. They are nice and are private, but ours had a very small deck that we never used. The decks in the upper Buttefly rooms are large and have great views of the trees with glimpses of the mountain through the trees. Privacy in the upper Butterfly unit we always try to get is conducive to "altogetherness", as is all the rooms we've stayed in. LOL! No need to draw the drapes and we never hear anyone, even though there are three units on top of each other in each "wing" of the butterfly. The whole place is really quiet. It almost always feels like you have the place to yourself. We went in June one year and the weather was spectacular. Temps in the low 70's and not a cloud in the sky. I kept muttering, "This is unbelievable..." I'd go as early in June as you can.
I'd go the first week of June, the earlier the better, before "summer vacation" people come out to play. As Tess and others have said, July is generally foggier. If you can, go during the week for a more serene experience. The height of summer is the busiest time in Big Sur.
Oops! I meant to say there would be less tourists in June than July. LOL! Well, that's typical anywhere, right?
Post Ranch Inn is my favorite place on earth. I've been there 3x.. and have always stayed in a butterfly room-- it's all I can afford. The rooms are great and the beds are heavenly.... so is the bathroom. I think it's worth every penny.
Hey, Tess, hope you're all doing ok now after the spraying. Heard they had a court order to stop the 2nd one. Yay! | 2019-04-22T17:05:06 | https://www.fodors.com/community/united-states/questions-abt-big-sur-and-post-ranch-inn-742454/ |
Rod and cone photoreceptors support vision across large light intensity ranges. Rods, active under dim illumination, are thought to saturate at higher (photopic) irradiances. The extent of rod saturation is not well defined; some studies report rod activity well into the photopic range. Using electrophysiological recordings from retina and dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus of cone-deficient and visually intact mice, we describe stimulus and physiological factors that influence photopic rod-driven responses. We find that rod contrast sensitivity is initially strongly reduced at high irradiances, but progressively recovers to allow responses to moderate contrast stimuli. Surprisingly, rods recover faster at higher light levels. A model of rod phototransduction suggests that phototransduction gain adjustments and bleaching adaptation underlie rod recovery. Consistently, exogenous chromophore reduces rod responses at bright background. Thus, bleaching adaptation renders mouse rods responsive to modest contrast at any irradiance. Paradoxically, raising irradiance across the photopic range increases the robustness of rod responses.
Vision functions over about a dozen decades of light intensity1, 2 thanks in part to the use of two different photoreceptor classes (rods and cones). Rods are specialized for high-fidelity signaling at low-light levels, whereas cones mediate fast signaling at higher light levels. Based on this division of labor, light intensities are called scotopic (only rods are active, starlight vision), mesopic (both rods and cones are active), or photopic (rods are saturated, and only cones are active, daylight vision).
The distinction between mesopic and photopic conditions is, by definition, determined by the background irradiance at which rods saturate. However, rod saturation is not as absolute as commonly presented. Rod saturation becomes apparent as a reduction in contrast sensitivity at higher irradiances3,4,5 (seen as deviation from Weber–Fechner law). As a result, larger contrasts still elicit responses from rods, but moderate contrast stimuli only trigger cone responses. At higher irradiances, this “incremental saturation” could progress sufficiently to produce a state of effective “absolute saturation”, in which rods are unresponsive to any physiological contrast. However, whether rods do indeed reach absolute saturation and, if so, at what irradiance this occurs, remain uncertain. Phenomena interpreted as rod saturation have been reported in ex vivo recordings at irradiances ranging from 102 to 105 rhodopsin isomerizations per rod per second (R* rod–1 s–1)4, 6,7,8. However, other studies reveal that rod responses can be recorded across these light intensities9, 10, and recent behavioral studies11, 12 provided evidence for functional rod vision at up to 105 R* rod–1 s–1. Presumably, these discrepancies reflect methodological differences, e.g., species studied, end point measured, or experimental conditions5, 13,14,15. Overall, however, the capacity of rods to contribute to visual responses at higher irradiances remains incompletely understood.
We set out to explicitly define the limits of rod vision in mice by recording rod responses over a wide range of irradiances, using ex vivo and in vivo electrophysiological recordings. Surprisingly, we do not find a simple relationship between rod saturation and irradiance. While rod contrast sensitivity is impaired upon stepping to backgrounds of 104 R* rod–1 s–1 and brighter, contrast sensitivity recovers over time under all backgrounds. In fact, we see rod responses to moderate contrast stimuli even at 107 R* rod–1 s–1, the brightest background we tested. Moreover, contrast sensitivity recovers faster at higher irradiance, such that, contrary to conventional wisdom, raising the background light intensity within the “photopic” range does not reduce, but increase rod contribution to visual responses.
To characterize rod activity in response to different contrast stimuli over a large irradiance range, we first used ex vivo retinas (isolated from RPE) from Cnga3 –/– mice lacking cone photoreception16. With electroretinography (ex vivo ERG, Fig. 1), we recorded the isolated rod response by applying pharmacological agents to inhibit second-order responses in the retina (Methods). During each experiment, we repeatedly presented a set of 50 ms light flashes of four different contrasts (Fig. 1a), while increasing irradiance at 10-fold increments every 30 min. This yielded seven light levels spanning a range from 1 R* rod–1 s–1 (2 × 108 rod-effective photons cm–2 s–1) to 106 R* rod–1 s–1 (2 × 1014 rod-effective photons cm–2 s–1, Fig. 1a). As a measure of response, we compared signal amplitude (mean voltage during 300 ms following flash onset) to baseline (mean voltage during 300 ms before the flash).
At lower light levels (≤103 R* rod–1 s–1), ERGs to all contrasts were detectable (Fig. 1b; Supplementary Fig. 2). At higher light levels (104 to 106 R* rod–1 s–1), responses to the weaker contrasts (0.33 and 0.6 Michelson) were never detectable, consistent with expected incremental rod saturation3, 11. This corresponds to a background at which other authors have described rod saturation4, 6, 7 and we therefore refer to 104 R* rod–1 s–1 and brighter as the “photopic” light range from here on. At the same time, the stimulus with the strongest contrast (0.99 Michelson) always elicited responses at all backgrounds, indicating that rods were never fully saturated in this preparation. During exposure to >104 R* rod–1 s–1, these responses even gained amplitude over time (Fig. 1b), indicating that rods were becoming more responsive. This latter effect had an absolute impact upon responses to intermediate contrast (0.79 Michelson, red curve in Fig. 1b, individual flash responses shown in Fig. 1c), which were lost upon stepping to photopic backgrounds ≥104 R* rod–1 s–1, but gradually re-emerged at all irradiances. The time course of response recovery was consistently faster at higher light levels (n = 4 retinas, Fig. 1d). Comparable results were obtained from recordings in two other cone-deficient mouse lines (Pde6c cpfl1/cpfl1 and Gnat2 cpfl3/cpfl3, Supplementary Fig. 2).
The presence of ERG responses to large contrast steps throughout these recordings shows that rods were never fully saturated at any of the backgrounds tested, including at light levels that were well within the photopic range. Moreover, the re-appearance of responses to an intermediate contrast (0.79 Michelson) indicates that the loss of contrast sensitivity was not a fixed property determined by irradiance, but recovered somewhat at all backgrounds. Counter-intuitively, the rate of this recovery was faster at brighter backgrounds.
To understand how such rod activity could impact the retinal output, we turned to multi-electrode array (MEA) recordings of ganglion cell spiking activity from isolated cone-deficient (Cnga3 –/–) retinas (n = 10 retinas). Similar to the ERG experiments, we increased background light at 10-fold increments every 30 min, yielding 8 light levels from 1 to 107 R* rod–1 s–1 (2 × 108 to 2 × 1015 rod-effective photons cm–2 s–1, Fig. 2a, b), and superimposed 2-s full-field steps of positive contrast (+0.25 Michelson, +0.66 Weber) or negative contrast (–0.49 Michelson, –0.66 Weber). The responses of a representative single ganglion cell are shown in Fig. 2c (positive contrast stimulus) and 2d (negative contrast). We presented blocks of five repeats of this stimulus every 5 min (spike raster shown on the left, average spike rate shown on the right). After switching from a background of 103 R* rod–1 s–1 to a background of 104 R* rod–1 s–1, the cell shown in Fig. 2c, d did not respond to the stimulus during the first presentation, consistent with the concept that rods would become saturated at higher irradiance. However, just as in the ERG recordings, ganglion cell spiking responses increased over time at this background, such that responses became apparent even to the weak contrast used in this experiment. Furthermore, rather than showing further evidence of saturation, responses of this cell actually became stronger with subsequent increases in irradiance, even up to 107 R* rod–1 s–1, 1000-fold above the background at which responses had first disappeared with these fixed contrast stimuli.
This behavior was consistent across the population of retinal ganglion cells (Fig. 3). At lower irradiances, most recorded ganglion cells clearly responded to contrast steps (Fig. 3a). Upon initial switch to a background of 104 R* rod–1 s–1 (2 × 1012 rod-effective photons cm–2 s–1), responses effectively disappeared. However, over time the fraction of responding cells increased again, reaching around 50% after 30 min (Fig. 3a). Similarly, a sizeable fraction of cells retained or recovered responses at even brighter backgrounds (up to 107 R* rod–1 s–1). Mean response amplitude (across responding cells at each epoch, Fig. 3b) also transiently decreased upon switching to 104 R* rod–1 s–1 and 105 R* rod–1 s–1, but otherwise remained at least at 50–70% of the maximal response. Indeed, some ganglion cells, like the one shown in Fig. 2, had their strongest responses at the brightest backgrounds. We observed similar behavior as in Figs. 3a and b in two other cone-deficient mouse lines (Pde6c cpfl1/cpfl1 and Gnat2 cpfl3/cpfl3, Supplementary Fig. 3).
As seen in Fig. 3a, the fraction of responding cells at 104 R* rod–1 s–1 and 105 R* rod–1 s–1 continued to increase throughout the 30 min at these light levels. In a set of experiments, we held retinas at those two backgrounds (104 R* rod–1 s–1, n = 3, Fig. 3c, or 105 R* rod–1 s–1, n = 2, Fig. 3d) for 150 min, and found that nearly all cells eventually regained responses. The major difference between the two light levels was the rate of recovery: it took around 45 min at 104 R* rod–1 s–1 but only 15 min at 105 R* rod–1 s–1 for 50% of the ganglion cells to recover responses. Thus, recovery was faster at a brighter photopic background.
These ex vivo ganglion cell recordings from cone-deficient mice revealed that rod responses at photopic light levels can drive ganglion cell spiking activity, even at contrasts that do not elicit reliable ERG signals. In other words, the ability to detect rod-driven responses at high backgrounds to a stimulus with defined contrast may depend on the sensitivity of the recording method in addition to the photoreceptor biology. The time course of ganglion cell responsiveness further confirms that high background intensities abolish responses to moderate contrast stimuli, but those responses recover over time such that rods can drive retinal activity to moderate contrasts across all irradiances tested. Furthermore, once within the “photopic” range, increasing irradiance can actually enhance rod-driven ganglion cell responses in the isolated retina.
Having recorded rod-driven responses in explanted retinas under even the brightest backgrounds, we next asked whether rods may mediate such light responses also in vivo. To this end, we recorded multiunit activity from the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN) of anesthetized Cnga3 –/– mice (Fig. 4, recording positions shown in Fig. 4d) in response to 50 ms flashes of positive contrast (0.75 Michelson). In these experiments, higher (photopic) irradiances (104.35, 105.35, and 106.35 R* rod–1 s–1) were interspersed with moderate irradiance (mesopic, 103.35 R* rod–1 s–1, 4.52 × 1011 rod-effective photons cm–2 s–1, predicted to support strong rod responses), to confirm that the mice retained good visual responses throughout the recording session.
Firing patterns of a representative multiunit recording are shown in Fig. 4a. As predicted, strong and stable flash responses were recorded at the mesopic background of 103.35 R* rod–1 s–1 (4.52 × 1011 rod-effective photons cm–2 s–1). A 10-fold increase of irradiance (to 104.35 R* rod–1 s–1, 4.52 × 1012 rod-effective photons cm–2 s–1) made responses hard to discern. Upon further increases of irradiance, responses were suppressed at first, but re-emerged over time. Similar to the ex vivo recordings, the rate of response recovery was positively correlated with irradiance. These general patterns were confirmed by a systematic analysis of these data (Fig. 4b), in which response amplitude (difference in spike rate in 200 ms windows before and after the flash) and reliability (based on p-value for rank sum test comparing these values) were plotted as a function of time.
Most recorded multiunits (n = 22/36) exhibited a similar pattern of transient response loss and recovery at the two highest backgrounds, 105.35 and 106.35 R* rod–1 s–1, with the time course of recovery being faster at 106.35 R* rod–1 s–1 (Fig. 4c). Other multiunits (n = 14/36) failed to respond consistently at those irradiances (p > 0.05 for rank sum test for at least half of the trials). Behavior at the intermediate irradiance (104.35 R* rod–1 s–1) was variable, with some multiunits matching the very poor responses shown for the single example in Fig. 4a, b, while others responded reliably (Fig. 4c).
These results in LGN of cone-deficient mice (Fig. 4) were consistent with ganglion cell responses in isolated retina (Fig. 3): Responses transiently disappeared when switching to higher photopic light levels, and re-emerged with a time course which was faster for higher background intensities. Our ex vivo ERG recordings (Fig. 1) suggested that this transient lack of responsiveness may be due to incremental saturation, i.e., reduced contrast sensitivity, rather than absolute saturation. We next tested if this interpretation would also apply to the in vivo situation.
After stepping to a low photopic background intensity (103.9 R* rod–1 s–1), we presented square-wave contrast steps (0.25 Hz) at six different contrasts, centered around the mean background intensity (Fig. 5). While presenting these contrast steps for a total of 48 min, we analyzed the peak-to-trough responses of 86 recorded LGN multiunits in four time bins of 12 min each. During the first 12 min after stepping to this background intensity (Fig. 5b, shown in blue), the weakest contrast stimuli (20% Michelson) did not elicit responses, while stronger-contrast stimuli did. Over time, responses for all stimuli grew in amplitude, reaching steady state during the third time bin (i.e., after about 30 min, shown in orange). Also the 20%-contrast stimulus elicited noticeable responses at that time.
We then stepped to a higher photopic background (105.9 R* rod–1 s–1, Fig. 5c), repeating the same stimulation paradigm. At this background, the reduction in contrast sensitivity during the first 12 min was more pronounced, with stimulus contrasts of 70% or higher being necessary to elicit responses. However, responses recovered also at this background, reaching steady state already during the second time bin (shown in green), i.e., faster than at 103.9 R* rod–1 s–1.
In summary, LGN multiunits exhibited response features upon stepping to photopic background levels which were consistent with those of ERG and ganglion cell recordings ex vivo, namely initially reduced contrast sensitivity with faster recovery at brighter light levels.
The experiments with cone-deficient mice revealed that rods can function across all physiological background light intensities. The difficulty of observing their activity with ERG (Fig. 1) suggests that their light responses are weak, even though they apparently can activate downstream pathways reliably (Figs. 2–5). A reasonable question is whether this allows rods to contribute to visual responses in animals with an intact visual system (i.e., when cones are also functional), or whether the gain of rod signals compared to cone signals is so small that the rod contribution is negligible. To answer this, we set out to measure rod contribution to the overall visual response in mice with intact cone function by using a transgenic mouse line (Opn1mw R) in which the mouse M-opsin coding sequence is replaced by the human long-wavelength sensitive (“L” or “Red”) opsin sequence17. In this animal, the wavelength sensitivities of rods and the two cone types are very different (Fig. 6a), allowing us to test if rods alter the spectral sensitivity of visual responses under bright backgrounds. To rule out the possibility of recording melanopsin-driven responses, we crossed these Opn1mw R animals with a melanopsin knockout (Opn4 –/–) line18 (Opn1mw R :Opn4 –/– mice).
Anesthetized Opn1mw R :Opn4 –/– animals were adapted to a violet light (λ max = 400 nm) to which rods and cones containing L-opsin and S-opsin are approximately equally sensitive (Fig. 6a, b1). Responses to blue (λ max = 430 nm), cyan (λ max = 480 nm), and red (λ max = 630 nm) flashes presented in pseudorandom order at 15 different intensities superimposed upon the violet background (Fig. 6b2 ) were recorded in the contralateral dLGN (recording positions shown in Fig. 6f). Due to the divergence in spectral sensitivity between rhodopsin, S-opsin, and L-opsin, there is a big difference in the effective contrast of these flashes for rods and cones. In particular, while flashes at all three wavelengths present significant contrast for L-opsin, rods should be much less responsive to red stimuli, and S-opsin contrast is very weak at all wavelengths (Fig. 6b2 ). Under the assumption that rods are in absolute saturation and only cones are responding, we would expect equivalent responses to flashes at all wavelengths when flash strength is expressed in units of L-opsin contrast. On the other hand, rod intrusion at mesopic irradiances should produce differential responses to blue and cyan vs. red flashes. For example, a blue and a red flash with equal L-opsin contrast should nevertheless produce different responses at mesopic light levels, because to rods, the blue flash appears brighter than the red flash.
We found clear evidence of rod intrusion in the composite flash responses when these flashes were presented on a violet background generating ~103 R* rod–1 s–1 (1.38 × 1011 rod-effective photons cm–2 s–1), at which rod responses were always strong in our recordings with cone-deficient mice (Fig. 4). Specifically, when flash intensities were expressed in units of L-opsin contrast, responses were consistently larger for blue and cyan flashes than for red flashes, as shown in Fig. 6c for a single unit and in Fig. 6d for the population of recorded units (see Supplementary Table 1a for statistical analysis). Upon stepping up to 104 R* rod–1 s–1, this difference disappeared, with response amplitude to flashes at all wavelengths being adequately predicted by their L-opsin contrasts. Responses at 104 R* rod–1 s–1 could thus be interpreted as being solely cone-driven. Consistent with the other data presented here, however, a further increase in irradiance (to 105 R* rod–1 s–1) produced an increase in rod intrusion. At 105 R* rod–1 s–1, flash response amplitude could no longer be predicted by L-opsin contrast. In this case, blue and cyan responses were consistently smaller than red responses of similar L-opsin contrast. These data indicate an inhibitory influence of rods on the cone flash response at this high photopic level. Such inhibitory rod–cone interactions have precedent in the psychophysics literature19.
To confirm that the effect at 105 R* rod–1 s–1 was not attributable to some methodological error, we first tested how robust it was to errors in our estimate of in vivo L-opsin spectral sensitivity. We varied the two parameters that could strongly influence this estimate (pigment optical density and pre-receptoral spectral filtering; Methods), but found that the reduced responsiveness at blue and cyan was retained (Supplementary Table 1b). We next tested if responses to blue and cyan flashes in cone-deficient Cnga3 –/– mice were equivalent to each other when expressed in units of our estimated rod-opsin contrast, which was the case (Fig. 6e). This suggests that the difference to blue and cyan flashes observed at 105 R* rod–1 s–1 in Opn1mw R :Opn4 –/– mice (Fig. 6d) could be attributable to a difference in relative excitation of rods and L-opsin (L-opsin to rod-opsin ratio of excitation at brightest flash: 0.48 for blue and 0.44 for cyan). In summary, while our data are consistent with flash responses being wholly cone generated at 104 R* rod–1 s–1, they reveal a significant rod contribution at the brighter background (105 R* rod–1 s–1).
What physiological processes could explain the observed pattern of rod responses under bright backgrounds? We probed the most detailed available computational model of rod phototransduction20 (simulating phototransduction with a system of ordinary differential equations (ODE)) with a sinusoidal stimulus (0.25 Hz) of either strong contrast (0.94 Michelson, full amplitude 1.5 log units) or moderate contrast (0.7 Michelson, full amplitude 0.75 log units, Fig. 7a) while increasing the background every 30 min by 1 log unit, spanning low to high intensities (1 to 107 R* rod–1 s–1). The model predicted saturation (lack of photocurrent modulations) at the higher irradiances used in our experiments (Fig. 7b; blue and cyan curves show the predicted photocurrents to the moderate or strong contrast stimulus, respectively). However, while the model predicted rod saturation at high light levels, modulations in the concentration of unbleached rhodopsin (red and orange curves for moderate and strong contrast) were retained at all irradiances (see inset in Fig. 7b). This indicates that if the model incorporated a reduced gain of the phototransduction cascade, this might prevent saturation and allow rods to respond to this stimulus.
The original model’s parameters were fitted to physiological recordings from mouse rods under dark-adapted conditions. They thus did not account for any aspect of photoreceptor light adaption, such as well-established irradiance-dependent translocation of elements of the phototransduction cascade between inner and outer segments21, 22. For example, at higher light levels, arrestin moves into the outer segment, increasing its effective concentration; while transducin and recoverin leave the outer segment, reducing their concentration. These translocations have the net effect of reducing the gain of the phototransduction cascade, thereby contributing a mechanism of light adaptation. We modified the model to include these translocation events (Fig. 7c, solid lines). This modification resulted in modulated photocurrents at all light levels (Fig. 7d).
Including translocation of phototransduction elements allowed the model to replicate our three main experimental observations: First, responses at photopic light levels (104 R* rod–1 s–1 and above) are initially weak when stepping to that background, but recover over time. Second, saturation was less apparent for stronger stimulus contrast (compare cyan and blue traces in Fig. 7d). Third, the time course of response recovery was faster at higher light levels (see also magnified views in Fig. 7d). Thus, translocation of transducin, arrestin, and recoverin in the model was crucial to enable photocurrents at high light levels. However, the specific time course of the translocation events was less important. We tested the effects of implementing the translocations as artificial, step-like events (dashed lines in Fig. 7c) instead of the more realistic kinetic processes (solid lines in Fig. 7c). As expected, such immediate concentration changes resulted in more rapid recovery in photoresponse (light gray vs. dark gray curves in Fig. 7e), but this did not change the qualitative observation that responses recovered faster at higher photopic light levels. In other words, the light-level-dependent time course of photocurrent recovery needs to be influenced by an additional component, beyond the translocation events. Interestingly, faster response re-emergence at higher irradiances coincided with the increased rate of rhodopsin bleaching (red curve in Fig. 7d). Rhodopsin bleaching reduces the rate of isomerization events and might thus be one of the mechanisms allowing for rod responses at high light levels, similar to the suggested role of bleaching adaptation in cones23.
To directly test if rhodopsin bleaching might indeed support rod responses at higher light levels, we returned to ex vivo MEA ganglion cell recordings from retinas of cone-deficient Cnga3 –/– mice. We explored the impact on bright light responses of supplying exogenous chromophore (50 µM 9-cis retinal, facilitating rhodopsin regeneration). A technical challenge in achieving this was that the bright background light would itself bleach exogenous chromophore. We therefore devised a protocol in which ganglion cell responses were recorded at a high light level (105 R* rod–1 s–1), but with occasional interruptions by 10 min at low mesopic levels (102 R* rod–1 s–1) during which chromophore could be applied (Fig. 8a). While application of chromophore is generally considered to support visual responses in the ex vivo preparation, one would expect the opposite in the case of bleaching adaptation, with responses to contrast steps at the bright background suppressed following epochs of chromophore application.
In accordance with our earlier results (Fig. 3), ganglion cell responses disappeared when first switching to 105 R* rod–1 s–1 in this paradigm, and recovered within about 15–30 min. Then, during the intermittent 10 min periods at dim background (102 R* rod–1 s–1), ganglion cell responses were completely absent, consistent with loss of sensitivity of bleached rods to dim stimuli. Upon stepping back to 105 R* rod–1 s–1 from the dim background, however, contrast responses of ganglion cells were suppressed only weakly and briefly (Fig. 8e, f, control). Conversely, when adding 9-cis retinal during the dim period, responses of some ganglion cells recovered toward the end of the dim period, indicating that the lack of responses in the corresponding control trials was at least partly attributable to rhodopsin bleach. After returning to 105 R* rod–1 s–1, however, responses were significantly weaker than in control conditions (Fig. 8e, f, retinal). This indicates that enhanced regeneration of rhodopsin had detrimental effects on ganglion cell responses at high light levels, consistent with the hypothesis that rhodopsin bleaching is indeed one of the mechanisms that allow rods to escape saturation in bright backgrounds. Interestingly, responses to lower contrast stimuli were more strongly affected by rhodopsin regeneration than responses to higher contrast (Fig. 8e, f), reinforcing our earlier observations (Figs. 1, 5) that saturation is expressed as reduced contrast sensitivity.
Here, we characterized rod-driven visual responses in the mouse over a large irradiance range, from scotopic to high photopic light levels. All our data—ERG and ganglion cell recordings from isolated retina ex vivo, and recordings of LGN responses in vivo—shows that rods can drive visual responses to moderate contrast stimuli, within the range encountered regularly during natural viewing24, at all physiologically relevant irradiances. It further shows that, at photopic backgrounds, this capacity is associated with a recovery in contrast sensitivity over extended exposure, and that this recovery occurs faster at higher backgrounds. Such rod-driven responses were not only readily observed in cone-deficient mice, but also contributed to the visual responses in visually intact animals. Together, our data show that the presence and re-appearance of rod responses depends not simply on the background intensity, but on the interaction between background intensity and the duration of exposure. Surprisingly and counter-intuitively, both higher background intensity and prolonged exposure result in reduced saturation, i.e., in more robust rod-driven signaling.
We initially aimed to use transgenic cone-deficient mice to describe the transition to rod saturation. The concept of rod saturation at bright backgrounds is widely accepted25,26,27,28,29, and dates back at least to the classical study of Aguilar and Stiles3, who found incremental rod saturation with the psychophysical two-color incremental threshold test. Green4 measured ERG responses from rat retina and found rod saturation with a two-color incremental threshold test similar to the one used by Aguilar and Stiles. However, an important aspect of both studies, often overlooked, is that they report loss of contrast sensitivity rather than full rod saturation. Our own work highlights the importance of this distinction. We too see loss of rod contrast sensitivity when stepping to bright backgrounds, but this does not correspond to full rod saturation. Rather, rod responses were always apparent if stimuli of sufficient contrast were applied.
When interpreting the results of visual experiments carried out at high backgrounds, especially when considering whether rods contribute to visual processing, several factors should be considered. First, in addition to stimulus contrast, is the sensitivity of the recording method: stimulus-evoked rod responses (Fig. 3) may not be apparent with a less sensitive method, such as ERG (Fig. 1)30, 31. Second, thanks to the recovery of rod contrast sensitivity over time at photopic backgrounds, rod responses to moderate contrasts may re-emerge even after lacking for many minutes. Third, even more importantly, the recovery rate in contrast sensitivity is itself positively correlated with irradiance. High backgrounds are commonly used as an experimental strategy to study cone vision. Our experiments confirm that stepping to high backgrounds can indeed produce retinal responses that are strongly or even exclusively cone-driven. However, they further reveal that the duration of this exclusively cone-driven operational regime is shortest at higher light levels. Thus, care needs to be taken to limit exposure to photopic light levels if the aim is to exclude rod responses32. Indeed, it is not safe to assume that rods stay silent at any background light intensity, and further irradiance increase, once in the photopic range, can actually be detrimental to the objective of isolating cone vision. Here, we were able to observe rod intrusion at high light levels in visually intact animals due to the distinct spectral sensitivities of rhodopsin and the cone opsins in the “red opsin” mouse model. Since wild-type mice have very similar spectral sensitivity of rhodopsin and M-opsin, unwanted rod intrusion at high light levels can easily go unnoticed.
The results of the computational modeling are instructive with respect to the potential mechanisms that allow rods to signal at even the brightest light levels. A previously published model of rod phototransduction20 predicted that rhodopsin isomerization was triggered by visual stimuli at all backgrounds (red curve, Fig. 7b), but that this was not translated into changes in membrane current at irradiances causing 104 R* rod–1 s–1 or more (blue curve, Fig. 7b). Inclusion of irradiance-dependent translocation of transduction cascade components between inner and outer segment (transducin, arrestin, and recoverin, Fig. 7c) aligned the model with our physiological data (Fig. 7d). The net effect of the translocations is a reduced gain of the cascade, such that the stimulus-induced variation of activated rhodopsin was translated into a modulation of photocurrent. According to the model, then, these translocations are a prerequisite for rod responses at high backgrounds. They do not explain all aspects of such activity, however, as even when we modeled these translocations as instantaneous events, the model recreated the slow build-up of rod responses under extended exposure to high irradiance and the positive correlation between irradiance and the rate of this recovery (Fig. 7e). In the model, the response recovery rate coincided with the rate of rhodopsin bleaching, which naturally occurs more rapidly at higher irradiance. Since rhodopsin bleaching also results in a reduced gain of the transduction cascade, it might contribute a form of “bleaching adaptation” in rods equivalent to that previously described for cone photoreceptors23. Our experiments confirmed this hypothesis (Fig. 8). Note, however, that bleaching can also have the opposite effect and contribute to saturation, because bleached rhodopsin (i.e., opsin) slightly activates the phototransduction cascade33, 34.
The description of bleaching adaptation raises an interesting further question. Why did our ex vivo preparation not stop responding to light simply because all its visual pigment had become bleached? We were able to record responses from cone-deficient retinas isolated from the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) for many hours at high light levels that should have fully bleached available rhodopsin in minutes or even seconds of exposure. While cones can take advantage of 11-cis retinol generated in Müller cells, which they convert to 11-cis retinal31, 35, 36, rods are thought to depend on the RPE visual cycle. How can rods then retain responsiveness? Kaylor et al.37 recently showed that all-trans retinal, after having dissociated from opsin, can regenerate to 11-cis retinal within the membrane phospholipid bilayer of photoreceptors in a light-driven reaction. This process would naturally be strongest at high light levels, resulting in the maintenance of a steady-state pool of regenerated rhodopsin. Alternatively, our ex vivo retina preparation may retain sufficient RPE (we occasionally see small specks of pigment epithelium remaining on the isolated retina) to recycle chromophore.
The mathematical model allows exploration of rod behavior at high irradiance with variations in chromophore recycling. Higher rates of chromophore recycling (model parameter k Rrecyc) abolish responses at high irradiance (Supplementary Fig. 4, first row), consistent with the proposed importance of bleaching adaptation, and consistent with results of our chromophore augmentation experiments (Fig. 8). Interestingly, strong reductions in k Rrecyc (below 1% of the standard parameter value used in Fig. 7a–e) had the same effect, owing to excessive accumulation of opsin, which saturated the cascade33, 34. In essence, only intermediate values of k Rrecyc predicted photopic rod responses (Supplementary Fig. 4, blue curves in panels 2–4). Could changes in other key model parameters support light responses at high backgrounds, despite a lower chromophore regeneration rate likely encountered in ex vivo experimental conditions? The behavior at high irradiance was also dependent upon both the total number of rhodopsin molecules (parameter Rhod total, columns in Supplementary Fig. 4) and the efficiency with which opsin (bleached rhodopsin) activates the cascade (parameter k Ops, different colored curves in Supplementary Fig. 4). Lower values for either parameter supported photopic responses, allowing the model to match responses recorded ex vivo at lower values for k Rrecyc.
Therefore, the sensitivity of rod responses at high irradiance could depend on naturally occurring variations in the properties of the phototransduction cascade and its regulation (e.g., differences in molecular concentrations, kinetic properties, translocation processes, or outer segment volume). Such variations might exist between species, between individuals of the same species, between different rods in the same retina, or even within the same rod across the circadian cycle. This observation might further explain discrepancies in the literature concerning the rod saturation threshold (Introduction).
The updated computational model presented here provides a hypothetical biochemical explanation of our experimental observations. All of our adjustments to the original Invergo et al.20 model were based on reported biophysical rod properties and light adaptation events in rods. Thus, we did not fit the model to our data, but found that implementing already well-established adaptational processes resulted in a surprisingly good qualitative match between the model behavior and our experimental observations. Explaining rod responses at high light intensities does therefore not require any additional mechanisms beyond what is already known about rod behavior. Nevertheless, additional consequences of bright light exposure may well exist. It was recently shown38 that reduced sensitivity of the phototransduction cascade after strong bleaching is partly compensated by properties of the rod inner segment to achieve more robust voltage responses. Furthermore, the supramolecular organization of rhodopsin and transducin into clusters on the disc membrane has been proposed to be important for fast and reliable light responses39,40,41. In the context of bright backgrounds, with reduced concentration of both rhodopsin (due to bleaching) and transducin (due to translocation), regulation of such scaffolding might contribute to controlling the gain of photoresponses.
Do these conclusions drawn for mice translate to other species, including humans? The most direct proof for rod-mediated vision under photopic conditions would be obtained by psychophysical tests with rod monochromats. This is difficult due to the common photophobia of such individuals when exposed to bright light42. However, several studies showed that rods impact aspects of color perception at scotopic and mesopic light levels in human trichromats43,44,45, dichromats46, and blue cone monochromats47 (reviewed by Zele and Cao48). This influence of rod signaling on color vision could be used to test for rod contribution to visual perception also under bright light conditions. Further, insights into rod-mediated vision under bright light can also be gained form a subset of rod-monochromatic individuals, which are not blinded in such an environment49. It is interesting that the rod system in these individuals is apparently less prone to saturation. According to our model, this could be explained by differences in rod biochemistry in these particular patients resulting in different gain control. Deeper insight into the underlying mechanisms of this effectively non-saturating phenotype might reveal new opportunities to treat rod monochromats by appropriately interfering with the properties of the rod cascade, potentially by reducing the gain. While such a reduced gain would be counterproductive for low-light vision, our daily lives, with electrical lighting all around us, happen mostly beyond the scotopic range, so that such treatment could indeed have a net positive benefit.
We used several transgenic mouse lines in which cone responses are abolished due to mutations disrupting the cone phototransduction cascade. In Cnga3 –/– mice16, kindly provided by M. Biel for ex vivo experiments, the cone-specific alpha-subunit of the cyclic nucleotide gated channel is mutated, preventing voltage changes in cones upon light activation. Cnga3 –/– mice were 4.5–6 weeks old for ganglion cell recordings, 8 weeks for ex vivo ERG recordings, and ~6–8 weeks for in vivo experiments. In Pde6c cpfl1/cpfl1 mice (Jackson strain #3678), kindly provided by Bo Chang (The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME), the cone-specific phosphodiesterase is non-functional. Pde6c cpfl1/cpfl1 mice were 11–13 weeks old. In Gnat2 cpfl3/cpfl3 mice (Jackson strain #6795), the cone-specific transducin is non-functional. Gnat2 cpfl3/cpfl3 mice were 5–13 months old, only data from animals at least 1 year old are shown here. All ex vivo experiments were performed with explanted retinas, with RPE removed. A characteristic feature in these preparations was the transient suppression of responses to moderate contrast stimuli upon switching to photopic light levels (104 R* rod–1 s–1 and brighter), a feature not observed in wild-type retinas with functional cones. Further, the Gnat2 cpfl3/cpfl3 model has slow cone degeneration with cones surviving up to 1 year. In contrast to older animals (12–13 months), younger animals (5 months) did not have complete response suppression after switching to photopic light levels, which indicates residual cone function. In other words, the complete response suppression to moderate contrast stimuli in experiments described here suggests that cones were indeed non-functional in those retinas and responses, when present, were rod-driven. “Red opsin” mice (Opn1mwR; Opn4–/–) of ~6–18 weeks were used for in vivo experiments and bred in-house at the University of Manchester, UK.
Animal use was in accordance with German, UK, and European regulations and approved by the Regierungspräsidium Tübingen (ex vivo experiments) and the local Manchester Animal Welfare and Ethical Review Board (AWERB; Manchester, UK; in vivo experiments).
Mice were kept on a 12/12 h light/dark cycle, dark-adapted for 4–16 h before the experiment, and killed under dim red light by cervical dislocation, with or without preceding exposure to CO2. Experiments were performed during daylight circadian times (experiment start in the morning or early afternoon). The eye cups were removed, put in Ringer solution (in mM: 110 NaCl, 2.5 KCl, 1 CaCl2, 1.6 MgCl2, 10 d-Glucose, and 22 NaHCO3) bubbled with 5% CO2/95% O2. The retina was isolated and attached to a nitrocellulose filter (Millipore) with a central 2 × 2 mm hole, with the optic nerve head centered.
All recordings were performed with a perforated 60-electrode MEA (60pMEA200/30iR-Ti-gr, Multichannel Systems, Reutlingen). The electrodes are arranged on a square grid with a 200 µm distance between neighboring electrodes. Experiments were performed as described previously50. Briefly, the mounted retina was placed ganglion cell-side down in the recording chamber, and good electrode contact was achieved by negative pressure through the perforated MEA. The tissue was superfused with Ringer solution at 34 °C. Data were recorded at 25 kHz with a USB-MEA-system (USB-MEA1060, Multichannel Systems, Reutlingen) or an MC-Card-based MEA-system (MEA1060, Multichannel Systems).
Data was high-pass filtered (500 Hz, 10th order butterworth filter), and spike waveforms and spike times were extracted from the raw data using Matlab (MathWorks). Spike sorting and thereby assignment of spikes to individual units (presumably ganglion cells) was performed semi-manually with custom written software (Matlab). Quality of each unit was individually/manually assessed by interspike interval and spike shape variation. Data analysis was based on the spiking responses of individual units. We estimated the instantaneous firing rate of ganglion cells by convolving the spike train (i.e., time series of 0’s and 1’s) with a Gaussian with sigma of 40 ms.
9-cis retinal (Sigma R5754) was dissolved in 99.96% ethanol (VWR 20821.330) for a 50 mM stock solution (Fig. 8). For the experiments, stock was diluted 1000-fold in Ringer solution, for a final concentration of 50 µM. 9-cis retinal Ringer solution was perfused at the beginning of the dim segments of these experiments (Fig. 8a). Given the flow rate of our perfusion system, it took about 1.5 min for the MEA chamber to be completely filled with the 9-cis retinal Ringer solution; after 4 min at full concentration, we switched back to normal Ringer solution. 9-cis retinal Ringer solution was prepared fresh from stock for each experimental perfusion event.
Ex vivo ERG recordings were performed as described previously utilizing the same 60-electrode MEA system as described above50. An Ag/AgCl pellet reference electrode (Science Products E-201ML) was connected instead of the internal reference electrode of the MEA chamber. The AgCl reference was positioned 2–3 mm above the center of the MEA electrode field and was optically shielded from direct visual stimulation. Synaptic transmission from photoreceptors to bipolar cells was blocked with 50 µM L-AP4 (Sigma A7929 or Abcam ab120002), 10 µM NBQX (disodium salt, Tocris 1044), and 10 µM RS-CPP (Tocris 0173). Glial currents (slow PIII component) were inhibited with 100 µM BaCl2 (Sigma 342920)51. Data were low-pass filtered (300 Hz, 4th order Butterworth filter) and downsampled to 1 kHz. Noisy electrodes were discarded and all remaining electrodes were averaged for the analysis of ex vivo ERG responses.
Visual stimulation followed the same protocol described before52. Briefly, the retina was stimulated with full-field gray scale visual stimuli with a computer-controlled digital light processing (DLP) projector (PG-F212X-L, Sharp or K11, Acer) and focused onto the photoreceptors through the condenser of the microscope (Supplementary Fig. 1c). The stimulus projector produced output spanning 3 log units of light intensities (i.e., 1000-fold difference between black (“0”) and white (“255”) pixels). We linearized the gamma function of the projector output. The light path contained a shutter and two motorized filter wheels with a set of neutral density (ND) filters (Thorlabs NE10B-A to NE50B-A), having optical densities from 1 (“ND1”, 101-fold light attenuation) to 5 (“ND5”, 105-fold light attenuation). To achieve light attenuation stronger than 5 log units, we serially combined an ND5-filter in one filter wheel with another ND filter in the second filter wheel, to achieve optical densities from 6 to 10. While changing the ND filters, we closed the shutter to prevent intermittent exposure to bright light. We usually started the experiments with ND8 (i.e., combination of ND5 and ND3 filter), and step by step increased the ambient stimulation luminance by changing the ND filters by 1 unit. Unless otherwise noted, we presented the same set of visual stimuli at each ND level during an experiment.
We measured the spectral intensity profile (in µW cm–2 nm–1) of our light stimuli with a calibrated USB2000+ spectrophotometer (Ocean Optics). We then transformed the stimulus intensity into rod-effective photons cm–2 s–1 by converting the spectrum to photons cm–2 s–1 nm–1, and integrating it with the normalized spectrum of rod sensitivity53. In addition, for comparison we report stimulus intensity in equivalents of photoisomerizations per rod and second (R* rod–1 s–1), assuming dark-adapted rods, by multiplying the photon flux with the effective collection area of rods (0.5 µm2)54. The results for a stimulus intensity of “30” range from 2 × 108 rod-effective photons cm–2 s–1 (1 R* rod–1 s–1, ND8) to 2 × 1015 photons cm–2 s–1 (107 R* rod–1 s–1, ND1), see Fig. 2b, c. Note that the intensity values given as R* rod–1 s–1 (isomerizations events s–1 rod–1) serves for only comparison. It truly reflects photoisomerizations only at low intensities; at high backgrounds, bleaching adaptation leads to a much lower effective rate of isomerizations.
Stimulus. Ganglion cell spiking responses were probed with full-field contrast steps (step duration: 2 s) on a gray (“30” RGB pixel intensity) background (positive contrast: “30” → “50”, Michelson: + 0.25, Weber: + 0.66; negative contrast: “30” → “10”, Michelson: –0.49, Weber: –0.66, see Figs. 2b, 8b). Five positive and five negative steps were interleaved and presented as one block, and the firing rate to these five repetitions was averaged and taken as “one response”. The firing rate curves on the right in Figs. 2d, e, and 8c represent these “responses”, which were used for further analysis; the rasters on the left show the underlying five individual responses.
Responsiveness. Whether or not a ganglion cell responded to a block (five repetitions) of contrast steps was determined manually. For each unit and each stimulus block, we manually inspected spike raster plots and firing rates. If a cell responded clearly and consistently to at least three out of five repetitions within one stimulus block, it was considered as “responding” and was tagged with “1”. Since the purpose of this analysis was to see if rods can drive light responses in ganglion cells, also purely “negative responses” (stimulus-evoked spike suppression) was counted as a response. Stimuli for which a cell responded to only 1 or 2 repetitions or for which the response was weak and/or sluggish were tagged with “0.5”. If a cell did not respond during a stimulus block, it was tagged with “0”. The average value of these assignments across all units was used as the value for “responsiveness” in Fig. 3a, c, d.
Amplitude. The amplitude of the response (used in Fig. 3b) was determined automatically as follows: first, the baseline firing rate was subtracted from the response (baseline firing rate was defined as the mean firing rate during 1300 ms before contrast step onset); second, we took the absolute value of the response (such that also negative deflections in the firing rate would be recognized as a response of the cell to stimulation); third, looking at all four brightness transitions (onsets and offsets of the positive and negative contrast steps), we took the maximal response value within 50–400 ms after the contrast step. This gave one “amplitude” value for each ganglion cell and for each stimulus block. For further analysis, we only considered amplitude values during stimulus blocks to which the cell actually responded (responsiveness tags “0.5” or “1”, see above). These amplitudes were normalized for each ganglion cell separately to its maximal response across the experiment.
Averaging across experiments. In most experiments, full-field contrast steps were presented at the same time points after light-level transitions, with the earliest presentation about 4 min after the ND filter switch and then regularly every 5 min (Protocol 1 in Supplementary Fig. 1b; other stimuli, not discussed here, were presented in between. Note that the other stimuli were also presented on a background of “30” and their maximal intensity did not exceed “60”, ensuring no excessive contribution to light adaptation compared to the full-field contrast step stimuli.) In the experiments depicted in Fig. 3b, c, we changed the order of stimuli and presented full-field contrast steps more closely after the light level switch (Protocol 2 in Supplementary Fig. 1b). In those experiments, we probed the 104 R* rod–1 s–1 and 105 R* rod–1 s–1 light levels at even tighter intervals (Protocol 3) to follow the dynamic changes of ganglion cell responses with higher temporal precision. Supplementary Fig. 1b shows how the data points in Fig. 3 were averaged across experiments in which different stimulus protocols were used.
Here, we independently fitted the first 1000 ms of the responses to the four stimulus edges (i.e., 1000 ms after beginning and end of the positive and negative contrast steps). The linear term m of this fit was interpreted as the “relative response strength” and used for further analysis, the constant term b was not further used. Figure 8d shows the evolution of the response strength for one example ganglion cell during the one experimental segment at 105 R* rod–1 s–1 shown in Fig. 8b.
Population analysis. We recorded from n = 6 Cnga3 –/– retinas with this protocol. For four retinas, we applied 9-cis retinal Ringer during the three last experimental segments, as shown in Fig. 8a. For the other two retinas, we only recorded under control conditions. For each of the four stimulus edges, data as shown in Fig. 8d were counted as “n = 1” for the population analysis. We pooled this data for all experimental segments, for all ganglion cells, and across all six experiments, separately for the “control” and “retinal” experimental segments. Because this approach is based on template matching, we only included experimental segments in the population data during which ganglion cell spiking was robust, and in which there was a template to be matched (e.g., if the response of a cell consists of complete suppression of spiking, this will not yield a template that can be matched). Whether or not to include the responses of a ganglion cell during an experimental segment in the analysis was judged manually and independently for each of the four stimulus edges. As a result, the number of included experimental segments (“n”) varies across the different experimental conditions (Fig. 8e).
Statistical analysis. For each time point after returning to 105 R* rod–1 s–1, we compared the relative response strength in control and retinal conditions with a permutation test. Here, we combined all values (control and retinal), and randomly sampled n values, with n being the smaller of the two population sizes (which was the “retinal” population in each case). We then split this sample in two, measuring the distance between their medians. We repeated this 105 times. Coming from the same population, the distribution of these distances is symmetric around 0. The null hypothesis was that the experimentally observed distance between the medians of control and retinal conditions was from the same distribution, with the alternate being that median of retinal conditions is smaller than that of control. We took as p-value to support the null hypothesis the fraction of samples (out of 105) for which the distance between medians was at least as large as the experimentally observed value. The p-value is color coded in Fig. 8, with p < 0.01 shown in green, p < 0.05 in yellow, and p ≥ 0.05 in white.
Stimulus. For ex vivo ERG recordings, we used a series of 50 ms flashes of different positive contrasts (Fig. 1a). One stimulus set consisted of four flashes with Michelson contrast +0.79 (Weber: +7.44, “30” → “255”), and two flashes each of Michelson contrast +0.6 (Weber: +2.97, “30” → “120”), +0.33 (Weber: +0.99, “30” → “60”), and +0.99 (Weber: +999, “0” → “255”). In order to achieve the high contrast (+0.99), it was necessary to intermittently reduce the gray background from “30” to “0”. About 16 such stimulus sets were shown among other stimuli at each light level (30 min) from 100 R* rod–1 s–1 to 106 R* rod–1 s–1. The other stimuli, not discussed here, were limited to a brightness range between “0” and “60”, presented on a background of “30”.
Analysis. We quantified the strength of the recorded ERG signal by measuring the mean amplitude of the negative voltage deflection during 300 ms directly after the onset of a 50 ms flash. The 300 ms voltage signal preceding the flash was used as a baseline to test for significance of the flash-elicited responses (Wilcoxon rank sum test). Significance testing was performed by using flashes of three consecutive stimulus sets, i.e., n = 12 flashes for contrast +0.79 and n = 6 flashes for the other contrasts. Figure 1b shows the moving average for this analysis (averaging three stimulus sets per data point, shifting by one stimulus set for the next data point; no averaging was done across light level transitions).
Response reliability. ERG responses at high light levels were usually very small, but nevertheless often clearly distinct from the voltage fluctuations of the background activity. As a measure of the reliability of such small signals, we devised a “response reliability index”, which we calculated from the statistical measure of the presence of a response (namely p-value resulting from the Wilcoxon rank sum test, see above) according to the relationship depicted in Supplementary Fig. 1a.
Mice were anesthetised using a single dose of urethane (30% w/v in dH2O, 1.6 mg kg−1, i.p) and placed in a stereotaxic frame (SR 5-M; Narishige, Japan) on a temperature-regulating 37 °C heat mat (Harvard Apparatus, UK). A craniotomy was drilled above the coordinates for the dLGN (B–2.2–2.6 mm, ML 1.5–3 mm) relative to the mouse stereotaxic atlas55. A 32-contact recording electrode (A4 × 8–5 mm-50-200-177/413-A32; Neuronexus, USA) was lowered into the dLGN and extracellular spiking activity collected through a Recorder64 system (Plexon, USA). Light stimuli were delivered to the eye contralateral to the recorded brain hemisphere. Upon completion, animals were killed by cervical dislocation and the brain fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde. Electrode placement (the electrode was dipped in fluorescent dye; CM-Dil, Life Technologies, UK) was verified in post hoc histology.
For in vivo experiments presented in Fig. 4, we delivered multispectral stimuli using a Spectra X light engine (Lumencor, USA). Stimuli were created by stepping four LEDs in combination from a low background to a high level (blue, cyan, green, and yellow, λ max = 430 nm, 480 nm, 511 nm, and 575 nm, respectively). Light stimuli were presented through a light guide to the atropine-dilated eye as diffuse illumination of a Lambertian disc (10 mm in diameter, placed <5 mm from corneal surface). A circular ND wedge (100FS04DV.4, Newport) in the light path between the exit point of the light engine and the end of the optical fiber allowed light intensity to be modulated over a 4 log unit range.
For contrast response assessments in Cnga3 –/– mice (Fig. 5), multispectral stimuli were presented using a system constructed in-house (components from Thorlabs and Edmund optics), comprising three LEDs (λ max = 405, 470, and 617 nm). Stimuli here were delivered to the subject by a 7 mm diameter light guide (placed ~5 mm from the corneal surface and enclosed within a spectrally neutral reflective cone to provide diffuse full-field illumination) and intensity was adjusted using an ND filter wheel.
In all cases, spectral power densities for each LED were measured using a calibrated spectroradiometer (Bentham Instruments Ltd., UK). These were converted to retinal irradiance in rod-effective photon cm–2 s–1 by converting the corneal irradiance and correcting for the pre-receptoral filtering of the lens. The background intensity at the brightest light levels used in vivo was 4.52 × 1014 rod-effective photon cm–2 s–1 (106.35 R* rod–1 s–1) for the experiments shown in Fig. 4, and 1.63 × 1014 rod-effective photon cm–2 s–1 (105.9 R* rod–1 s–1) for Fig. 5.
For experiments in Fig. 4, 1200 flashes (duration: 50 ms) were shown at 1 Hz at each light level (+0.75 Michelson contrast for rods). These flashes were interleaved with a weaker contrast (+0.5, data not analyzed here), thus the protocol took 40 min per light level. For contrast sensitivity experiments (Fig. 5), we uniformly modulated background light intensity (square-wave 0.25 Hz) at a range of contrasts (20–96%) in eight interleaved blocks of six stimulus repeats. We also included spectral modulations designed to evoke varying degrees of rod contrast (not included in the analysis presented here) such that each block of stimuli took 6 min. Stimulus presentation started 30 s after stepping to the tested background.
For experiments with fixed contrast (Fig. 4), we measured 40 light-responsive multiunits from three mice. Four multiunits were excluded because they stopped responding completely after the first light level switch. In one mouse, recordings could only be performed up to the highest light level of 106.35 R* rod–1 s–1, but not for the last mesopic (103.35 R* rod–1 s–1) repetition. Firing rate has been calculated by convolving the spike train (i.e., time series of 0’s and 1’s) with a Gaussian with sigma of 5 ms. Then, responses to 10 flashes were averaged (=1 group). For each group, we calculated the mean background firing rate for the 190 ms directly before stimulus onset. The background firing rates from 20 groups was then averaged and taken as the mean background firing rate for these 20 groups. The mean response rate 50–250 ms after the flash stimulus was considered as response. We applied a Wilcoxon rank sum test (1-sided) to test for significant differences between the 20 background and the 20 response values, i.e., we tested for significant light responses. These significance tests were performed on a running average with shifts of two groups for each data point. No averaging was performed across light-level borders. This resulted in ~350 p-values per recorded multiunit over the whole series of light levels. The measured p-values were then transformed into a response reliability index as shown in Supplementary Fig. 1a.
For contrast sensitivity experiments (Fig. 5), we measured responses from 86 LGN multiunits in four mice. Responses at each contrast level and light level were combined to form peri-event histograms (40 ms bin size smoothed with a 5 bin boxcar filter) across four 12 min time bins, each comprising two blocks of stimuli. For analysis, the first trial from each block was excluded such that each bin contained the average of 10 stimulus repeats where intensity varied symmetrically around the background. Response amplitude was defined as the peak-to-trough variation in firing rate under each condition. Contrast response relationships for each channel were then calculated from the average of all LGN multiunits and fitted with a 4-parameters sigmoid function (Graphpad prism).
Stimulus. We presented a series of blue, cyan, and red flashes (50 ms duration) at 2 Hz frequency on a light adapting violet background (λ max = 400 nm, Fig. 6a). We used the Spectra X light engine (Lumencor, Beaverton, OR, USA), the circular ND wedge described in section “Light stimuli for Cnga3 −/− mice”. Flashes followed a pseudorandom order for colors (λ max = 430, 480, and 630 nm respectively for blue, cyan, and red LEDs) and intensities (15 different levels per color) to prevent contrast adaptation in the response.
The values for c and λ 0 (=wavelength of maximal lens transmission) were obtained by fitting tabulated data (c = 5.33 × 104; d = −2.27; λ 0 = 700 nm)58. The absolute stimulus intensity of the violet background (effective photons cm–2 s–1 flux for the brightest background: rod-opsin 1.3758 × 1013 (≈ 104.84 R* rod–1 s–1; in Fig. 6, this condition is tagged with “105 R* rod–1 s–1”), L-opsin: 1.3473 × 1013, S-opsin: 1.5833 × 1013), and contrast of the flashes (assuming POD = 0.1 for cones, POD = 0.01 for rods, and c = 5.33 × 104) are depicted in Fig. 6b.
with the summation taken across 20 time bins (time bin duration 15 ms) in the first 300 ms after the flash onset. We initially evaluated the possibility to measure flash responses as increments/decrements in firing rate in respect to the baseline. However, we chose to use the Euclidean norm because we observed that a significant fraction of units exhibited multiphasic responses where those increments and decrements in firing rate tended to cancel each other out.Statistical analysis of colored flash responses. The procedure for statistical analysis and their results are described in Supplementary Table 1.
We have employed the model of Invergo et al.20 (BioModels BIOMD0000000578) to simulate the phototransduction cascade within the rod outer segment. This model is an adaptation to mouse rods of previous models intended to simulate the phototransduction cascade in amphibians59, 60. The current model of Invergo et al. describes the phototransduction cascade on the system level: based on a reaction network for the molecular species, a system of ODE is derived by simplifying assumptions like mass action kinetics. The numerical solution of this ODE system yields the time dependence of each of the involved molecular species and as the main outcome the photoresponse to a prescribed stimulus. We have implemented the model in the simulation software COPASI61. The original parameters of this model had been fit to biochemical and physiological data based on very different stimuli than the stimulus used in our study, namely to very brief and moderate-intensity flash stimuli on a dark-adapted rod (lasting 10s of milliseconds of at most 2000 R* rod–1 flash–1). Compared to the original parameters of Invergo et al., we have set the total number of rhodopsin molecules (Rhod total) to 2.6 × 107 (Fig. 7a–e, corresponding to the left column in Supplementary Fig. 4) instead of 108, and varied this parameter up to the upper bound reported for rods62 (7 × 107, right column in Supplementary Fig. 4). We set the parameter k Ops (the efficiency of opsin binding to transducin33, 34) to 10−9 instead of 10−13, which resulted in a more pronounced saturation (the dependency of the model behavior on this parameter is shown in Supplementary Fig. 4). We have varied the parameter for the rhodopsin regeneration rate (k Rrecyc) to try and mimic the different experimental conditions (ex vivo, in vivo) and to investigate the dependency of rod responses on that parameter (rows in Supplementary Fig. 4). Given the long duration and high-intensity range of our stimulus, we took into account that arrestin, transducing, and recoverin translocate between the outer and inner segments21, 22, resulting in a near-exchange of these molecular species between inner and outer segment (Fig. 7c). Under intense illumination, arrestin translocates from the inner segment to the outer segment, while transducin and recoverin move in the opposite direction. In the outer segment, it has been proposed that the sequestering of arrestin into a “storage” oligomeric state, and functional monomeric state, may be important for achieving the right functional concentration59. As in the original model by Invergo et al., we have included arrestin oligomerization and therefore allow for the presence of arrestin transport and arrestin oligomerization. We have observed that the reorganization of oligomers is so fast that the effect will be negligible in influencing the time course of response recovery studied here. But even then, even a small variation due to the interaction between arrestin transport and arrestin oligomerization is reflected in the resulting photoresponse. We have implemented the translocation events with their own dynamic properties (solid lines in Fig. 7c–e; Supplementary Fig. 4), as a first-order reaction, with the reaction constant being proportional to the difference between the current total concentration of the species in the outer segment, and the desired concentration. By this way, the concentration of the corresponding species was smoothly driven to the desired level. The reaction constant itself was adjusted so that the final concentration would be reached with a time course described in the original publications21, 22. Alternatively, we implemented translocation as a simplified and artificial stepwise change of concentration upon light-level transitions (dashed lines in Fig. 7c, model behavior in Fig. 7e). None of our parameter adjustments changed the model behavior to the original stimuli used for parameter fitting by Invergo et al.20 Our model is available in BioModels63 under the identifier MODEL1710030000.
The experimental data that support the findings of this study are available from the authors on reasonable request. Raw measurements from ERG recordings (Fig. 1; Supplementary Fig. 2) are available on Figshare (doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.5492626). The computational model is available in BioModels63 under the identifier MODEL1710030000.
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We thank Martin Biel for supplying the Cnga3–/– mouse line for the ex vivo experiments.
Alexandra Tikidji-Hamburyan, Katja Reinhard, Riccardo Storchi and Johannes Dietter contributed equally to this work.
A.T.-H., R.S., R.J.L., T.A.M. designed overall study; A.T.-H., K.R., R.S., H.S., K.E.D., T.M.B., R.J.L., T.A.M. designed experiments; A.T.-H., K.R., H.S., S.I., M.M. performed ex vivo experiments; R.S., K.E.D., R.A.B., L.W. performed in vivo experiments; A.T.-H., K.R., R.S., H.S., K.E.D., S.I., R.A.B., L.W., T.M.B., T.A.M. analyzed data; J.D., P.A.-L., T.A.M. performed computational modeling; A.T.-H., K.R., R.S., R.J.L., T.A.M. wrote manuscript and J.D., H.S., K.E.D., R.A.B., P.A.-L., T.M.B. helped in manuscript writing. All authors have evaluated and discussed results, and have read and approved the final manuscript. This study was supported by funds of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) to the Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience (DFG EXC 307) and to T.A.M. (MU3792/1-1), the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) to the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience (FKZ 01GQ1002), the Academy of Finland (grant 283268), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research council (UK) through a David Phillips Fellowship to T.M.B. (BB/I017836/1) and a project grant to R.J.L. (BB/K002255/1), a European Research Council advanced award to R.J.L. (268970), a Christiane-Nüsslein-Volhard stipend to A.T.-H., a Pro-Retina Stipend to K.R., and support of the Kerstan Foundation to T.A.M., M.U., and J.D.
Correspondence to Robert J. Lucas or Thomas A. Münch. | 2019-04-22T06:24:59 | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-01816-6?error=cookies_not_supported&code=61b7d5de-ee9a-4ae4-b7bd-0ca8a84088cd |
This is the Motorola outdoor cabinet that the receive site is mounted in. This photo was taken when it was located in the office at the Range Township Firehouse in Sedalia (Midway) Ohio.
Here are two views inside of the cabinet - front and rear. The GE transmitter is at the top, the Motorola receiver and controller card in the middle, and the monster power supply on the bottom.
This is a close-up of the GE Mastr-II transmitter mounted onto a 19" rack panel. Below that it the Motorola Spectra-TAC chassis that holds the Micor receiver, audio-squelch board, and controller card.
This is the new microprocessor-controlled controller card that is installed in the Spectra-TAC chassis. It was under development for 6 months. The goal was high performance, low cost and simplicity. There is only one adjustment to calibrate. It contains a DTMF decoder, CTCSS decoder, and a PIC microcontroller to run the whole show. The complete schematic and layout is here. (PDF -1MB). The controller has several modes, such as carrier access, CTCSS access only, carrier access with CTCSS boost, and others. During periods of interference, it is possible to put the site into CTCSS protect or disable it completely for 1 hour, then it will automatically return to its previous mode.
The CTCSS decoder is also a PIC microcontroller, using a specialized version of a FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) called the Goertzel Algorithm to detect the CTCSS tone.
This is the antenna configuration at Mt Sterling. The tower is about 70 feet high, and our antennas are side mounted at about 55 feet. The 2 meter receive antenna is a Hustler G6-144B, and the UHF link antenna is a PC-Tel BMOY-4450.
The Tri-County Firehouse #491 in Mt. Sterling, OH, located on SR-56 at US-62 in the center of town. The tower is directly behind the firehouse, as seen here in the middle of the photo. | 2019-04-20T16:47:11 | http://mcarcoh.org/ke8rv/photo-sd.html |
N4146 MURPHY ROAD - Country living just minutes from the Valley or Green Bay. Offers an a ray of Fruit trees and Vines. With multiple varieties of Asparagus plants besides the large garden space. Well maintained Out buildings for Animals or Storage. Barn pole frame 38 x 132; Barn Masonry 38x70; Utility building 40x80 and 32x38; Milk house 18x38 and a lean-to 20x38. Home offers space for everyone. | 2019-04-23T08:45:39 | https://www.c21affiliated.com/pspoerl/Property/WI/54130/Freedom/N4146_MURPHY_ROAD |
Understand requirements,design and perform coding.
Gain understanding on the existing application and flow.
Involve in all phases of the development cycle and analyze gaps on an ongoing basis.
Ensure to better performance of the application on an ongoing basis.
Ensure 100% availability of the application.
Should be agile and willing to challange new technologies/frameworks.
Java/J2EE Developers with experience in Core Java.
Knowledge of Web services, Hibernate, iBatis, Spring, Design Patterns, XML,XSD,XSLT, SQL, PL/SQL is an added advantage.
Generally requires a minimum of 1 to 2 yrs experience. | 2019-04-19T22:12:50 | http://jobs.fresherswalk.com/2017/02/verizon-experienced-software-engineer-chennai.html |
Tustin is a city in Michigan. So far we have accumulated 0 streets in Tustin and on these streets we have added 0 real estate properties.
Tustin is a census-designated place in the Town of Bloomfield, Waushara County, Wisconsin, United States. Its population was 117 as of the 2010 census. Tustin is located on the northern shore of Lake Poygan. | 2019-04-20T15:16:34 | https://us.housenode.com/midwest/michigan/tustin |
A synthetic spider silk parka, luxury knitwear made from deadstock yarns, and one-of-a-kind pieces from unwanted locally sourced materials are the latest sustainable clothing options.
The Moon Parka is the first product successfully made of synthetic spider silk materials – the result of over 11 years of research, 10 design iterations, and 656 gene synthesis designs. Japanese advanced biomaterials company Spiber created the prototype outerwear jacket in partnership with The North Face, and expects to deliver the final product next year.
Named for the home of the most distant and harshest polar region mankind has reached, the Moon Parka was created thanks to biomimicry. Spiber’s researchers were inspired by the extremely strong and flexible threads that spiders produce with biological proteins. Over a decade of development led to the synthetic fiber used in the Moon Parka, called Qmonos, from the Japanese word for spider web. It is produced through an industrial fermentation process that involves micro-organisms producing proteins.
With the Moon Parka as a proof of concept for the spider silk fiber, Spiber hopes to revolutionize the apparel industry. The company has also set its sights on the automotive and medical device industries for future product development. Ford Motor Company researchers are also looking to biomimicry for inspiration, focusing on geckos’ sticky toe pads to improve adhesives and recyclability.
Meanwhile, despite a growing number of recycling, upcycling and chemical-separation initiatives throughout the fashion industry, a lot of existing textiles are going to waste around the world — so much so that UK waste-reduction charity Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) recently announced a three-year, €3.6 million commitment to reduce clothing waste across Europe.
Designer Eleanor O’Neill is doing her part with an even smaller initiative through her studio in England. The lone producer behind her Study 34 label hand-makes clothing using leftover luxury yarn. It is not uncommon for manufacturers to dispose of high-quality yarns if there is not enough left to produce a complete line of garments. O’Neill buys the remnants in bulk and produces limited knitwear collections.
The sweaters in her newly released Autumn/Winter 2015 line range from £185-215 (US$285-330). O’Neill says that Study 34 pieces are made to last a lifetime with proper care.
Yet, in this era of fast fashion, is using leftover raw materials enough? Recycling materials seems essential in reducing the fashion industry’s negative impacts.
Enter social enterprise Space Between. An initiative of Massey University’s School of Design, Space Between is using a designer-led approach and collaborating with local partners in New Zealand to address sustainability issues. Current and past students of the school are able to develop their entrepreneurial capabilities while reducing waste and resource depletion.
The clothing pieces are known as “The Fundamentals,” and are made on-demand, year-round rather than seasonally in batches. They are produced by Earthlink Inc, a non-profit organization that provides work for people facing workplace challenges. Space Between also partnered with New Zealand Post Group and corporate uniform manufacturer Booker Spalding to identify more sustainable disposal methods for end-of-life retail and postal uniforms, such as upcycling them into The Fundamentals pieces. Get more insight into the process here.
Jennifer Whitty, Senior Lecturer of Fashion Design at Massey University and director of Space Between, said the goal of the project is to “develop alternative connections between design, manufacturing systems, and consumption habits.” She hopes the partnerships will create a mutually beneficial local industry and alter the conventional designer-manufacturer relationship.
Space Between is also affiliated with university research related to waste reduction in the industry, under the banner Fashion Lab. They consider models of making zero-waste garments and aim to challenge the norms of consumption and retail.
This entry was posted in Brands and tagged Innovation, North Face, Spiber, Sustainable Brands. | 2019-04-24T03:50:35 | https://greenstitched.com/2015/11/05/trending-new-fashion-innovations-include-textiles-made-from-deadstock-synthetic-spider-silk/ |
Jackie Smith has today announced her decision to step down as Chief Executive and Registrar of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) after over six years in the role. Jackie will leave her post at the end of July 2018.
“It’s been an honour to lead the NMC over the past six years and I am immensely proud of everything we have achieved. Now is the right time for someone else to take the organisation forward.
“I want to pay tribute to the staff at the NMC who have worked so hard and achieved so much during my time here.
“Jackie has made an immense contribution to the NMC and I will be very sorry to see her leave.
Recruitment of a new Chief Executive and Registrar will begin in due course. | 2019-04-20T14:54:27 | https://www.nmc.org.uk/news/press-releases/jackie-smith-to-step-down-as-nmc-chief-executive/ |
I have a shop manual on order (arriving Thursday) but I would love to get the valves done tonight. Anyone have the printouts for the valve adjustment procedure for the 2017 500 EXC? I can't find anything online. Thank you in advance. I hope I am not violating any rules by asking, since I just want a few pages.
What service manual did you order do you have a link to it?
The repair manual tells you to pull the camshaft to make any adjustments but I only had to change one exhaust shim so I pulled the rocker shaft instead, which is easily found on youtube.
Yeah that is the manual I purchased on ebay. The seller shipped right away. Ordered Sunday night and it was in the mail Monday morning.
I like youtube but there wasn't a detailed one for the 2017. I like to follow the manual to the letter.
the nice thing about the 500, you don't have to touch the cam chain or the cam. I would disassemble so you know what shims are in there.
You guys won't believe this. I emailed the ebay seller as a hail mary. I let him know I bought the book and waiting for delivery and that I need to adjust my valves before a ride on Saturday. I asked him if he could send me the pages needed, but didn't expect a response. He called me! I guess ebay sends him my number or it's on my shipping info.
He sent me everything I needed. He just wanted to help a fellow rider out. Real nice guy. Just thought you guys should know about a seller you can support.
Maybe, if I remember. I kinda get into the zone when working on a bike. Ask my wife, 5 minutes in the garage is actually an hour. Couple hours is actually the entire day.
Somebody has a good youtube video on exactly this, his 1 hr valve check. I just checked mine without the manual, just going by the info in the video and felt comfortable with the procedure. Mine were just barely on the tight side but it sounds like many are really tight from the factory. He shows you how to measure the shims and do the math to get the right ones if you are out of spec. Search 2017 500exc valve adjustment. Doesn't look like you should have to mess with the camshaft, just rocker arm shafts if you need to change shims.
use the video link in this thread, the book is not the way.
Valves are in spec. I watched the video and then followed the manual. I have checked valves many times but that was easy to get at and quick. A few were on the tighter side and few on the looser but in spec. I'll likely have to adjust the next time, which should be quick as well.
That is good news Allout48.
Here are some pictures someone requested. Not much to show.
Just received my shop manual from the seller. Really nice quality. On par with OEM shop manuals.
The 08 and newer KTM valves rarely go out of spec.
At the one hour check(1.3 actually) I had one exhaust valve just barely out of spec(.18mm when spec is .12-.17mm). The other was .16mm and the intakes were perfect at .12mm and .13mm(spec is .10mm-.15mm). Now the spokes on the other hand, smdh.
Ktm specs are so tight, only one shim size will work, you actually have to be out of spec to correct. | 2019-04-26T07:54:57 | https://thumpertalk.com/forums/topic/1222017-2017-500-exc-valve-adjustment/ |
Be part of the push: share the press release here!
A full day of lively discussion, info-sharing, and plenty of documentation via smartphone, tablet, or laptop awaits at PodCamp Western Mass. 6 (#PCWM6), this year slated to convene on Saturday, April 19 at Holyoke Community College’s Kittredge Business Center.
The event welcomes anyone interested in learning more about social media and networking, from beginners to advanced practitioners. It’s one example of an ‘unconference,’ at which participants choose the topics they’d like to discuss on the day of the event. It’s the longest continually running PodCamp in New England, organized by local volunteers.
As a co-founder, this is my take on the day: it’s a democratic approach in line with the key tenets of social media and networking, which aim to involve everyone in a global conversation.
Our world has always been a social one, and while technology is moving the medium forward, it’s still a very human phenomenon. ‘Real-life’ events like PCWM highlight that fact, and offer all types of people – extroverts and introverts alike, opportunities to both learn and teach.
PodCamps also aim to promote education, innovation, and collaboration between new media enthusiasts and professionals of all types, including bloggers, social networkers, marketers, and the people who read, watch, and listen to them. Anyone can also suggest or lead a session, and topics often include overviews of current and emerging trends.
PCWM will be held on Saturday, April 19 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at HCC, with an after-party at Slainte in Holyoke to follow, with a special after party performance by country singer AJ Jansen. Attendees are encouraged to bring laptops, power strips, smartphones, and cameras, and can come and go as their schedules allow. The cost of the program is $30 and $10 for students, which includes a box lunch and morning refreshments, as well as a PCWM t-shirt as supplies last. Tickets are limited, and participants are encouraged to pre-register via EventBrite.
PodCamp WesternMass (PCWM)launched in 2009 to allow anyone interested in the online world to share ideas, hear from industry experts, and participate in discussions at their own pace. PCWM is part of a large network of similar events; the first PodCamp was held in September 2006 in Boston, and today camps are staged around the globe in response to this rapidly growing phenomenon. To learn more or to register, visit the PodCamp WesternMass website (http://podcamp.westernma.biz/). | 2019-04-23T18:34:39 | https://writerjax.net/2014/04/18/its-time-for-the-sixth-installment-podcamp-western-mass/ |
Exact address provided after registration.
Immerse with us and a dedicated group of women for our Women’s Study Group!
Over the course of 9-months you will unfold and birth the wild, glorious, untamed parts of who you are, uncovering the sometimes neglected aspects of you that hold great power and wisdom. Discover new gifts and come back to yourself, define that which you are devoted to and reclaim aliveness and pleasure that is your birthright.
This group is an invitation for you to engage with yourself—with your living, feeling body as a portal to unlocking who you truly are.
This study group draws on Michaela’s work “The Wild Woman’s Way” as well as the teachings of her lineage. You will learn from her directly as she shares insights, teachings, gives transmission and assigns practices.
In this highly personalized format you have the opportunity to draw directly on her vast experience as a counselor and teacher as well as learn from her direct applications of the practices and her experience as a practitioner in the engagement with adversity, loss and success.
Each practice and session is designed as a portal, an entry point into our vast and rich inner landscape which you can explore in between sessions.
In each in-person meeting we will immerse into specifically themed embodied movement, sacred ritual and self-inquiry, integrating body, heart and mind to foster personal empowerment, deeper connection and understanding of who you are as a woman.
Through these practices you will gain the ability to cognitively translate this bodily learning into engagement with a partner, your career and your chosen tribe.
In addition to the immersive learning you will have the chance to connect with like-minded women, creating connection and community. Engage with others around the considerations of being a woman living in these unprecedented times. Through the online platform and a private, moderated Facebook group you will have the opportunity to ask us and each other questions, connect and share your journey through these nine months.
Each Women’s Study Group is specifically designed to utilize the length of time between meetings to foster lasting learning and give ample time to integrate the practices on a somatic, emotional and cognitive level.
Each year’s group has a specific curriculum and each meeting builds and expands on previous learning. You can pace the intensity of your engagement by adjusting the duration and frequency of your practices.
In year 2 we will enter into the practices of Michaela’s lineage, beginning with an immersive, fiercely artistic, and deeply rooted engagement with female deity yoga.
Embody the expression of your assigned female archetype.
Year 2 attendance requires successful completion of Year 1 or the Wild Woman’s Way Online Course.
When one is looking for a Tantra Experience, or tantric education the first question is how do I know where to go? Who is good? Who is ethical? I find these things Here with Michaela’s offerings. The Beauty of Michaela’s work is that real practice needs very little pomp and ceremony, it stands on its own with the results. She is not your Guru or your mother, not the translated work of scripture, but the common sense of looking calmly compassionately humorously within. The individuals who take part are transforming at a rate they understand and can sustain. The practices elevate in spite of our issues and for each person there is an unveiling. This is a sacred act, the lifting of the cloud that masks our blind spot, from this place we can succumb to love. Engaging and inspiring, intuitive and clearly speaking from practical pragmatic experience all moments spent with Michaela are a delight.
A safe, supportive, fun and empowering space was held where I could connect with my archetype through dance and the support of Michaela and the group. I left the workshop feeling closely connected to my body, my feminine energy and life force and with a strong sense of my personal power. | 2019-04-22T08:12:58 | https://www.michaelaboehm.com/product/advanced-womens-study-group-usa-2018/ |
This year’s return of wild steelhead to Idaho’s Snake and Clearwater rivers is among the lowest on record. The legendary wild B-run steelhead are just a fraction of their former run size, when they were first protected under the Endangered Species Act in 1997.
Earlier this summer, as a result of very low returns, Idaho moved to a catch and release steelhead season for the Snake and Clearwater rivers, which would reduce fishing and incidental mortality of wild steelhead. Now, with an increased run of hatchery steelhead predicted, the state of Idaho is considering a return to a catch and keep fishery. While we support the harvest of hatchery steelhead, if the harvest fishery is reinstated this year, Idaho’s low wild return will be subjected to increased fishing pressure, poor handling practices, barbed treble hooks and bait. Wild steelhead simply cannot be subjected to additional handling and stress this season.
Please join the Native Fish Society and our Idaho River Stewards in support of the current catch and release season on the Clearwater, Snake, and Snake river tributaries. Additionally, we’re asking Idaho to ensure catch and release impacts are reduced as much as possible by requiring single barbless hooks, artificial flies and lures, requiring that all wild steelhead not be removed from the water, and to close all spawning areas to steelhead angling during the spring spawning season. To reduce large numbers of hatchery steelhead on the spawning grounds we recommend Idaho’s hatchery managers leave their gates open all year to collect fish and to adjust future releases to ensure wild steelhead are not overwhelmed. Last, but certainly not least, wild steelhead spawning goals need to be established for each river to ensure wild steelhead recover and habitats are fully utilized. | 2019-04-21T11:01:16 | http://nativefishsociety.org/action-alerts/protect-idahos-wild-steelhead |
With a choice of three fabulous variants namely Prestige, R-Sport (Mid-Spec) and R-Sport (Hi-Spec), Jaguar Land Rover Malaysia officially launched the new Jaguar Land Rover’s F-Pace 2.0L Ingenium SUV, at all Jaguar showrooms.
The Jaguar Land Rover F-Pace 2.0L Ingenium SUV is powered by the winner of Ward’s 2018 10 Best Engines award – the new 250ps & 365Nm (from 1200rpm) 2 liter Ingenium powertrain which is matted to the cutting edge 8HP45 drivetrain co-developed with ZF (which features Configurable Dynamics Normal or Sports settings).
A performance SUV through and through the gorgeous and sleek F-Pace 2.0L was developed with Jaguar’s Lightweight Aluminium Architecture, which sports among others full-LED headlights, 20-inch wheels, plus numerous state-of-the-art driver’s enhancements and assistances such as Surround Camera System, Adaptive Cruise Control with Queue Assist, 12.3 Instrument Panel Display and more.
Please visit www.jaguar.com.my for more information. | 2019-04-26T16:51:29 | http://hypertunemag.com/news/new-jaguar-f-pace-2-0l-ingenium-suv-officially-launched-at-all-jaguar-showrooms/ |
Today I tried a show in the “News Sandwich” format. Not familiar with the format? Watch or listen to the show to learn what it is, and let me know what you think!
The show is also available as an audio podcast via BlogTalk and iTunes, etc. Here’s the BlogTalk link. | 2019-04-18T18:42:21 | https://dontletitgo.com/2018/03/28/news-sandwich-trump-and-the-judiciary/ |
Can be found in very large numbers but best used in mixed mushroom dishes.
Starting spherical becoming slightly flattened or club-shaped. White turning cream to brown with a powdery finish when young. Darker umbo-like top which opens to release the spores.
Pure white and soft when edible but inedible when the inside starts turning yellow then becoming brown and dusty as the spores form.
Mixed woodland, pasture, commons and heaths but always growing on old stumps or the roots of stumps underground. Can grow individually but usually in very large groups with the chance of finding more nearby.
Can be confused with very young Amanitas so the mushrooms should be sliced vertically, the stem and cap of the Amanita will be obvious.
The Earthballs from the Scleroderma family, pictured, but the tough nature of the mushroom and the dark, never pure white, interior should help avoid confusion.
Good but can be a bit ‘spongy’ in texture. Must be eaten while the flesh is still white throughout.
There are various different lycoperdons which look similar and are all edible but care should be taken to save possible confusion with Scleroderma species. Like the giant puffball the spores can be used as a stiptic so staunch blood flow or ‘puffed’ onto burns to help with the healing. The spores breathed in however can cause Lycoperdonosis, a lung disease, so care should be taken handling mature specimens. | 2019-04-25T06:29:57 | https://www.wildfooduk.com/mushroom-guide/puffball/ |
But ice forms on the outside of rockets all the time, is there a reason it's a problem on this part of the rocket?
CRS-2 Contenders- Who do you think will get the contract?
Cygnus and Dragon. They work great together!
Finally! <3 Orange adapter though really?
It would take a cluster of seven RS-68s (the most powerful hydrogen-burning rocket engine in production, or ever) to match 5-seg booster thrust.
Orbital assembly vs. heavy lift single-launch are useful for different tasks. Space Station was perfectly suited for orbital assembly because it can be used almost immediately after the very first couple parts are on orbit, and slowly improved while also constantly requiring launches for resupply and astronauts. Apollo was perfectly suited to heavy-lift since the destination was high-energy, so they could use hydrogen fuel for TLI.
What if Zond had successfully send a Cosmonaut on a Lunar Flyby before Apollo 8?
If it was successful, they probably would have flown several more piloted Zond missions around the Moon. It may have boosted their confidence and the public and government opinion enough to try maybe a couple more times to launch N1. If they tried enough times, it would eventually work!
Laser evaporation for orbital debris removal?
Lasers for orbital debris is practical! Low mass objects easily accelerated by light pressure, not having to actually boost anything onto orbit (no potential for additional debris), passively shining into sky.
Agreed! This should be renamed "39 days to Mars might be possible, some distant day, and it might be using something like VASIMR"
You guys should research the way we detect near-Earth objects. A hostile spacecraft and a minor planet have alot of things in common - they are small, shine dimly in the infrared spectrum, not actively communicating with you, and on unpredictable planet-crossing orbits. We have discovered hundreds of these over the years, but observatories on Earth's surface are pretty limited. If you wanna detect enemy probes with more regularity, you need dedicated infrared space observatories. But those have limitations too, like, limited mirror diameter, and you can't look anywhere near the Sun without dim stars getting completely drowned out (you know, the same way you can't see stars during the day), not to mention blowing thru your precious coolant. Observatories on interplanetary orbits will be nessecary too, if you are fighting somebody inferior (as in, on an orbit closer to the Sun) to you. Like, Venus would have a huge advantage fighting Earth, because transfers would only be visible for very short times - maximum elongation! Unless Earth had some space telescopes inferior to Venus.
Looks good, but do Orion cislunar instead of (fake) Mars One.
If there's water on Mars, do you think that a manned Mars landing could happen sooner?
Isn't like, the whole surface a potential Martian habitat?
Almost certainly not. But could it inspire a new, soon unpiloted Mars lander to investigate, another Phoenix type?
This is making a bad assumption - there really won't be "warships" in space, because the point of a spacecraft having weapons is so that it can disable enemy spacecraft, which is a task that does not mesh well with re-usability. Fighting spacecraft will (mostly) be disposable. Their targets mostly will be spy satellites.
What was wrong with the other thread? Anyway, the Soviets didn't think they would need to "spam" killer satellites (missiles, if you want to use a very un-space-like, misleading term) - they would be (and were) launched one at a time. | 2019-04-26T08:21:56 | https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/profile/131042-kibble/ |
*Free entrance for kids 0 to 3 years old.
Sailing into our sunny port-of-call promises a day of new adventures under the warm tropical sunshine. Explore our island with our easy and convenient Cozumel all-inclusive package. Pack your beach bag, because we'll pick you up at your pier and whisk you off to Cozumel's biggest beach and water park for a day of unlimited fun. You'll have all-inclusive access to more than 20 unique amenities and services. Splash in our pools. Dig your toes in the sand of our expansive beach. Let the kiddos play on the pirate ship and shoot water cannons in Buccaneer's Bay. Thrill yourself on our 200-foot long water slides.
Then when hunger strikes treat yourself to a delicious international buffet, featuring favorites like chicken fajitas, mac & cheese and Caesar salad. Unlimited self-serve sweetened natural water in your choice of flavors quenches everyone's thirst. There are also optional conveniences like an á-la-carte menu, cash bar, massage, parasailing and wave runners available for a small surcharge. And when you're ready to call it a day, we'll whisk you back to your ship in time to set sail into a fine Caribbean sunset. | 2019-04-22T12:48:39 | https://www.playamia.com/tours-and-excursions/beach-day-pass-buffet-transportation |
The Athletic Training Program (AT Program) at Sterling College began in the fall of 2001 and has seen many changes, much growth, and achieved initial accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE) on July of 2006. In July of 2011 the AT Program was awarded continuing CAATE[PM1] accreditation through the 2020-2021 academic year.
In May of 2015, the Strategic Alliance (a joint effort involving the Board of Certification (BOC), the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE), the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA), and the NATA Research and Education Foundation (NATA Foundation), made a public announcement noting that the profession of athletic training will move to the Master’s Degree for the professional degree level. With that announcement, the AT Program began the process of transitioning to a Master’s Degree entry level program. The following statement describes the current accreditation status of the AT Program. | 2019-04-21T08:32:14 | https://www.sterling.edu/academics/history-program |
One recent afternoon, the city’s newest grocery market was trying to figure out whether I would buy, steal or leave behind a bag of white Cheddar popcorn — and so was I.
On its side: 27 cameras along the ceiling and a wealth of behavioral data.
The start-up behind this operation is Standard Cognition, which has raised $11.2 million in venture capital and formed partnerships with four retail chains around the world. This first market is a prototype to showcase the technology and work on the bugs. The ambitious goal is to add the tech in 100 stores a day (each day!) by 2020.
Standard Market store manager Rebecca Schiffman with the app the store uses to track purchases.
One of the 27 cameras on the ceiling of Standard Market.
Once the system decides it has detected potential theft behavior, a store attendant will get a text and walk over for “a polite conversation,” Mr. Suswal said.
The growth of cashierless technology could hurt the American labor force; there are nearly five million retail sales workers in America. But as Mr. Suswal has pitched Standard Cognition’s technology, he said, he has found that most shop owners are not looking to replace workers. Instead, they want their workers wandering the stores more, in hopes of luring shoppers back into brick-and-mortar retail.
“They all talk about new services, making shopping more fun, making it worthwhile to shop offline,” Mr. Suswal said.
Standard Market has only 25 square feet devoted to food so far.
The store is a prototype to test the cashierless technology and work on the bugs.
On a recent Friday, a line stretched down the street from Standard Market as a bouncer at the door took in one shopper at a time for the automated experience. The store is in San Francisco’s gentrifying Mid-Market neighborhood, between Chanvi Eatery, a Pakistani restaurant, and Huckleberry Bicycles, a high-end bike shop. People outside were downloading the app and typing in their credit card numbers.
“I was playing with it but didn’t take it out,” Mr. Takahashi said, smiling at his win over the tech.
Ms. Schiffman awaits customers at Standard Market.
Outside I found Mr. Suswal. A minute went by, and a notification popped up on my phone with my receipt: one white Cheddar popcorn and one roll of toilet paper for a total of $1.19.
“That shouldn’t happen,” Mr. Suswal said. And yet it did. He shrugged and said I had won it. | 2019-04-25T00:11:53 | https://ufcw99.com/news/stealing-from-a-cashierless-store-without-you-or-the-cameras-knowing-it/ |
20817 Sheridan Heights Lane is a $229,500, 2,104 square foot, 3 bedroom, 2.0 bath home on a 0.15 acre lot located in Porter, TX.
Amazing layout in this one story home with private backyard! Kitchen features tons of beautiful cabinets, plenty of granite counter space and is open to den allowing ease in entertaining. Formal dining is oversized and is a beautiful focal point as your guests enter this lovely home. Covered back patio is great place to enjoy morning coffee in the quiet backyard. Master bedroom features high ceilings and is connected to a flex room that is a perfect study/private tv room or even nursery. Master bath features separate tub and shower along with double vanity. Secondary bedrooms are oversized and closets have ample storage. Wonderful home on quiet culdesac in sought after gold club community of Oakhurst! Close to shopping and dining and also offers easy access to 59 and is only 25 minutes to downtown!
I am interested in 20817 Sheridan Heights Lane, Porter, TX 77365. | 2019-04-19T01:26:51 | https://www.anjadrewes.com/homes/20817-sheridan-heights-lane-porter-tx-77365/30073725 |
Our after school program operates from school pick-up time until 5:30 pm. Students are picked up at their elementary school by a licensed and insured Premier Preschool van and brought back to the center. Upon their arrival, children are served an afternoon snack. The school age children then have an opportunity to receive homework assistance from a teacher. At this time, teachers encourage the completion of assignments before recess or free time in the classroom. Outside recess is a daily routine for school age children, weather permitting. During free time, students may participate in organized group games, art activities or use the many puzzles, books, and board games available in the classroom. | 2019-04-19T17:15:32 | http://premierpreschools.com/after-school/ |
my thoughts…are jumbled at the moment. Keeping myself steadfast on the decisions that I made but trying not to give in to my need to not have anyone hurt.
Today’s Quote…telling someone you love them should never wait until the morning.
i am thankful for…my family, my health and the chances I get to see every day.
One of my favorite things…is to hang out in my room with the peace of my own thoughts. Sometimes it gets tough to interact with people.
Interested in knowing where the quote and the idea for my weekly post came from click this link. You will also find some great ideas on service even if you are without someone to serve. | 2019-04-21T00:49:43 | https://houseofvoid.com/tag/remembrance/ |
The global market for gold should reach $189.6 billion by 2022 from $163.9 billion in 2017 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.0% from 2017 to 2022.
Company profiles of major gold mining companies, providers of gold mining equipment, and marketers and distributors of new gold including AngloGold Ashanti Ltd, Barrick Gold Corp, Kinross Gold Corp, Newmont Mining Corp.
This research report categorizes the gold market by the type of establishments it caters to, these include jewelry, bars and coins and technology.
The global market volume for industrial metals, alloys and precious metals should grow from 4.7 million kilotons in 2017 to reach 5.6 million kilotons by 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.5% for the period of 2017-2022.
The global market for silver ore mining should grow from $7.7 billion in 2018 to reach $8.5 billion by 2023 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.0% for the period of 2018-2023. | 2019-04-21T17:05:41 | https://www.bccresearch.com/market-research/chemicals/global-markets-for-gold.html |
Army Divorce ImageIf you are an Army member or non-military spouse facing divorce, it is important to work with an attorney who understands the unique concerns and challenges that arise in a military divorce. Not all divorce attorneys understand the unique legal concerns of military members and non-military spouses in divorce. As a Florida army divorce lawyer and the spouse of a retired military member, Cindy Lasky has a unique understanding of the legal issues facing military members and their spouses in divorce, and the benefits available to both parties upon dissolution.
For more information about divorce legal services available to Army members and non-military spouses, contact a Florida Army divorce lawyer today.
If you are an Army member on active duty, Florida Army divorce lawyer Lasky can explain how divorce, paternity, child support, and related legal matters are affected by your active duty status, and what protections are offered by the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA).
The division of military benefits is a major concern of both military members and non-military spouses. The Lasky Law Firm is familiar with the state and federal laws applying to the division of military pensions and other benefits, and how the length of service and the length of the marriage come into play. In general, the longer the service, the greater the benefits — and the longer the marriage, the stronger the rights. Jacksonville military divorce attorney Lasky can explain how past or present military service affects the rights of spouses in divorce.
The Lasky Law Firm is proud to serve Army members in divorce, child support, pension division, and related legal matters. To schedule a consultation with a Florida Army divorce lawyer,contact our Duval County family law firm today. | 2019-04-19T10:38:24 | https://www.laskylawfirm.com/family-law-overview/military-divorce/army-divorce/ |
As an introduction, allow me to welcome you to the Service Focus Ltd website.
As an avid reader of industry media, a regular book reviewer and a contributor to numerous online forums and discussions I often find myself writing small pieces of text and publishing them all over the internet.
With that in mind and, following something of a brainwave, I thought it might make sense to try and collect my thoughts in one central location both as a resource and a way of tracking my online footprint. Therefore I will endeavour to marshall the things I publish here for anyone to read should they so wish.
Allowing for the pressures of the working and family lives I lead, this won’t be a rigidly scheduled affair, however, I will endeavour to update frequently and keep things current.
You are most welcome, take a look around and check back when you can for updated content. | 2019-04-22T10:30:39 | https://service-focus.ltd/?p=12778 |
Just like the one posted yesterday, this Needull is also an engaging travelogue about a birthplace. However in complete contrast to yesterday’s account, this article explores the origins of my favorite ‘Chindian’ dish – Chilli Chicken. For someone who absolutely loves the heavenly combo of Egg Fried Rice and Chilli Chicken and orders the same divine dish, be it in the swanky lounge at Taj Colaba or a alley-side hawker stall at Tangra, this is no less a ‘pilgrimage’ than the one you read about yesterday.
Before the Chinese arrived in Kolkata, the city’s restaurant culture was limited to Indian cuisine. Biryani and Kolkata rolls were the go-tos for fast food. It took nearly a century after the first Chinese immigrants arrived for Hakka food to become an intrinsic part of the city’s culinary landscape, thanks both to the mix of ingredients in Chinese kitchens and the marriage of Chinese men to Indian women. Like Schezwan sauce, other dishes were created exclusively for Indian tastes: potatoes were deep-fried and doused in chili, fried eggs and peppers were added to noodles, and the slow Indianisation of Chinese food began.
This looks so delicious, I’m getting hungry. | 2019-04-21T00:29:41 | https://needull.com/2017/04/30/a-culinary-pilgrimage/ |
After the ninth grade, many students takethe decision to stop their schooling and go to a new stage of education - go to a technical school or college. For everyone who wants to continue their education in the field of work, the Cherepovets Construction College named after Lepekhin opens its doors every year.
Building technical school (Cherepovets) is locatedsomewhat distant from the center of the city, on Mira Street. However, the positive side of this location is a well-developed transport structure - you can get here on a multitude of buses.
Construction College (Cherepovets) does not have hostels, so nonresident students have to cooperate and rent an apartment for several people.
Most of the graduates of the technical school find themselvesWork on the specialty received in the walls of this college. According to statistics, about 90% of all graduates are hired for the profession they have received.
The building technical school (Cherepovets) accepts entrants in several specialties, which are very popular among students.
1. Master of parquet and carpentry works. The graduate should be able to repair wooden structures and products, as well as produce them on a woodworking machine.
It is worth noting that this specialty has andsome medical contraindications, among them - diseases of the cardiovascular system, musculoskeletal system, mental disorders. In addition, it is not recommended to carry out such activities to persons who are predisposed to colds.
2. Master of Civil Engineering. The graduate should be able to perform stone, electric welding, installation, furnace, concrete and loading works.
The medical contraindications presented above are also applicable for this work. Due to the severity of the work, it is necessary that the trainees have good physical training.
3. Master of dry construction. At the moment it is the most demanded profession in the labor market. Specialists who graduated from the Construction College (Cherepovets) can easily get a job at any of the city's construction organizations.
4. Master of selected construction works. Specialists who graduated from this department get an opportunity to quickly and easily find work in the organizations of the city. The master of finishing works is one of the most demanded services in the market, therefore, a competent specialist with a diploma will not easily find a well-paid job.
To make sure what to do,it is in this college that you can get acquainted with the numerous responses of the graduates of this educational institution. And they say that when teaching a lot of attention is paid to practice, the teaching staff is highly qualified. Theoretical disciplines are also well served. Therefore, students master building specialties in full and have all the opportunities for professional and career growth.
The building technical school (Cherepovets) is very popular due to the fact that all graduates quickly find work after graduating.
Try bright fitness! (Cherepovets) "Alex Fitness"
Interesting: a technical school - this is what kind of education? | 2019-04-23T04:03:57 | https://erch2014.com/obrazovanie/90760-obschaya-informaciya-pro-stroitelnyy-tehnikum-cherepovec.html |
Bus journey takes a unique position within the car-driven tradition of the USA than it does in most nations. As a result of the world of the US is so huge, flying is commonly probably the most engaging transportation choice for touring between cities and will be priced fairly competitively when factoring in time and comfort. For shorter distances driving is often the primary selection for US home vacationers. Nevertheless, for routes which are below 5 or 6 hours, the bus is sort of all the time probably the most economical and infrequently probably the most handy type of journey. Moreover, as Amtrak (the nationwide rail service) continues to see cuts in authorities funding, bus service is commonly the solely floor transportation choice for a lot of locations. Guests who’re planning to stay to main cities will probably discover having a automotive to be inconvenient, costly, and pointless. Subsequently, taking the bus between locations is a good choice.
The bus trade in the USA is dominated by Greyhound, which is the one remaining nationwide bus service. A number of different corporations equivalent to Trailways and Coach USA are made up of independently owned bus corporations that share advertising and marketing features and branding. As well as there are a number of robust regional gamers within the bus trade. Whereas these corporations compete with Greyhound, they typically find yourself sharing service on routes that do not need sufficient visitors to maintain two carriers. That is much like “code sharing” within the airline trade.
The latest growth within the U.S. bus trade has been the “Chinatown bus” phenomenon. A number of years in the past a number of enterprising enterprise folks in New York’s Chinatown began working buses from Chinatown in NY to Chinatown in Boston, charging lower than half of what conventional bus corporations did and a fraction of what it value to take the prepare or fly. They focused Asian immigrants who wished to buy or go to relations and wanted cheap and handy transportation. Though the buses have been trendy and comfy, the service was naked bones–no promoting, customer support, or bus stations. Prospects merely went to the bus cease, waited for the bus, and paid the motive force upon boarding. For these prepared to do with out frills, these corporations provided nearly the identical service as Greyhound at a considerably lower cost. Earlier than lengthy, phrase unfold concerning the service and every kind of vacationers began utilizing these bus traces. They grew to become particularly standard with college students, price range vacationers, and other people for whom the service was merely extra handy.
Quickly extra bus corporations duplicated this mannequin and began providing service in different markets. Now you could find the sort of bus service in Philadelphia, Virginia, Washington DC, Los Angeles and San Francisco. At this level the time period “Chinatown bus” is used extra loosely to explain this kind of low-cost/low-frills service. Many, if not most, of the corporate’s do not need Chinatown as there predominant location and should not cater to the immigrant inhabitants in any respect. When these corporations first began working, considerations have been raised about security requirements. There’s nonetheless controversy throughout the trade about whether or not these low-cost bus corporations are complying with the identical laws as the standard corporations. Nonetheless, all bus corporations working within the U.S. should endure the identical inspection requirements and should adjust to the identical guidelines. | 2019-04-20T14:41:13 | http://www.hermann-maier.com/bus-journey-within-the-u-s-an-overview-for-guests/ |
Thermal cameras have made their mark in the surveillance industry and are now in use in a variety of environments, from military installations to residential estates. But for today’s needs, simply seeing a blob on the screen isn’t enough.
Hi-Tech Security Solutions asked three thermal experts what was happening in the world of thermal cameras and what we could expect to see coming up in the future. In particular, we wanted to know what developments there may be in the thermal world to assist operators in finding intruders and identifying if they are human or not, providing a mechanism to track them as they move about and assist ground personnel in finding them quickly and safely.
Starting at the beginning, Mobotix AG’s Bevan Vorster explains that traditional thermal imaging cameras use special sensors behind a special lens made of germanium or sapphire, which allow long-wave infrared waves to pass through, unlike the blocking nature of traditional glass lenses. “The combination of a complex sensor, precision lenses and more exacting design requirements that in some cases require special cooling units have all combined to make thermal imaging cameras run into the tens of thousands of Rand per unit, especially for ultra-sensitive models.
Gilbert Muller, from Pelco by Schneider Electric, agrees that the price of these cameras is coming down, making thermal technology more affordable with broader use than ever before. In addition, we are seeing resolutions improving, although the mainstream market is still using resolutions of 640 x 480 and below.
He adds that new, uncooled thermal camera offerings include improved optics with functionalities that until recently were only a part of higher-end high-cost cooled models (that are commonly used for military applications) with the best example being continuous optical zoom.
As useful and usable as thermal cameras have become, this market reflects the visible light camera market in that users want more. Having someone stare at a screen is not always the optimal solution for security requirements and the ability of software, either on the camera or as part of a management system, to ‘do the looking’ in place of humans has become a necessity in the thermal world.
Flir’s Grinfeld explains that recent software enhancements are introducing new standards in thermal solution offerings, and include both camera side and server side developments.
On the server side, he says there is a major shift to end-to-end solution offerings that not only provide seamless integration points and certified procedures for analytics alarm and event management, but also offer a superior user experience. Some of these experiences include bulk configuration of the thermal and analytics settings from the VMS, unique viewing modes such as Picture in Picture (PiP) with multi-sensor PT systems, and high end capabilities including ‘click and track’ functionalities allowing operators to click on targets within the VMS control interface, initiating PT auto-tracking.
Moreover, he notes that these alarms can be triggered without the need for a centralised control room or additional software, which is vital to rapidly detect potential fire, gas or other issues that register temperature change as a danger signal.
As thermals become part of almost every surveillance landscape, Muller sees far better integration of thermals into video management systems and says the analytics used for thermals is continuing to improve. For example, power stations can use thermal imaging not only to detect intruders, but to also keep track of conditions that require preventative maintenance, which are often revealed by thermal hot spots. By addressing developing problems before failure, power providers can keep a station operational, and avoid losses to bring them back online after failure has occurred.
Additional analytical applications that add value to thermal cameras and their users, according to Vorster, include solutions that could be applied at any time of the day, for example, in retail environments. Mobotix thermals are also able to now run functions such as people counting, or to track and provide data on the direction and speed of people and objects.
When looking at what we can expect from the thermal market in the coming years, Muller says we can expect to see these cameras becoming more affordable and we can also expect to see resolution improvements.
Of particular interest, Muller says we should also look out for varifocal lenses on thermals in the future, as opposed to the current majority of fixed-lens devices.
Grinfeld echoes the two, noting that from an application standpoint, the current usability of thermal imaging in the security market is just the tip of the iceberg. “The glass ceiling is mainly price points of thermal cores and to some extent physical characteristics, and size.
Looking at the current offerings of the three interviewees, Grinfeld says Flir has a new PT-HD: multi-sensor system that combines an extreme low light, Full HD visible sensor with 30X optical zoom and a thermal sensor. This range is offered both in cooled and uncooled versions and is also available with a 4X continuous zoom lens.
Customers can also find end-to-end integration between the Flir thermal portfolio and the company’s UVMS line, as well as the FC-Series ID line of fixed thermal cameras for perimeter fencing that include on-board high-end intrusion detection video analytics.
Muller says Pelco offers a full line of thermal fixed and pan-tilt cameras that are well integrated with Pelco and third-party video management systems with a full analytics suite with thermography solutions.
The built-in thermal technology can provide independent temperature measurement for up to 20 zones. In addition, the camera can be set to automatically switch between thermal image where privacy is guaranteed and the optical high-resolution image where all details are visible.
While they may not get all the attention that visible light cameras do, there can be no doubt that thermal cameras are undergoing as much technical innovation as we see in the IP world. And given the utility of cameras that are near impossible to hide from, lowering the price and decreasing the form factor will serve to make this market one that will deliver impressive growth rates for some time to come, while appealing to customers by adding value to both the security and operational functions on business. | 2019-04-24T16:20:41 | http://www.securitysa.com/7897r |
If you are a NEW USER then request/offer journeys to Cirencester or from Cirencester.
If you are a REGISTERED USER then request/offer journeys to Cirencester or from Cirencester.
Very rough Map of Cirencester. Make sure you check Cirencester for accurate location. | 2019-04-22T14:30:54 | http://freewheelers.com/Cirencester |
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden says he doesn’t care if people call him a traitor.
A day after Citizenfour won the Oscar for best documentary feature, its subject, Edward Snowden, appeared on Reddit for an “Ask Me Anything” question-and-answer session.
To be honest, I laughed at NPH. I don’t think it was meant as a political statement, but even if it was, that’s not so bad. My perspective is if you’re not willing to be called a few names to help out your country, you don’t care enough.
For what it’s worth, Greenwald—who joined Snowden and Citizenfour director Laura Poitras on the Reddit AMA—insisted on Reddit that he had laughed it off too, despite earlier calling it “stupid and irresponsible” to a BuzzFeed reporter.
Don’t let it happen in your country.
With that, Snowden implicitly brushed aside any notion that his time as a fugitive in Russia might have caused him to rethink the intelligence leaks that made him the target of an international manhunt. He has repeatedly said that his life in Russia is “great,” though he faces charges of theft and espionage back in the United States.
Redditors cheered Snowden’s resolve. That said, on a practical level, it’s unclear how much earlier he could have realistically come forward. After all, he had only worked at Booz Allen for a few months before he began leaking documents to Greenwald, Poitras, and the Washington Post’s Barton Gellman, among others.
On the other hand, many of the documents he turned over to the media actually came from his time at Dell, where he worked on the computer firm’s CIA and NSA accounts from 2011 to 2013. Had he blown the whistle then, it’s conceivable the programs he revealed would have been slightly less far along. Whether they would have been any easier to dismantle is another question. I tried asking Snowden myself, but my question didn’t get enough upvotes from other Redditors to merit a response.
We can devise means, through the application and sophistication of science, to remind governments that if they will not be responsible stewards of our rights, we the people will implement systems that provide for a means of not just enforcing our rights, but removing from governments the ability to interfere with those rights.
Call Snowden what you will, but he’s right about this much: The U.S. government today views its citizens’ privacy as a lower priority than its own spying capabilities. You can see this not only in the NSA’s surveillance programs, but in the words of President Obama, who supports strong encryption only if it’s weak enough for the government to get around it.
Thomas Hobbes might differ with Snowden on the sort of rights that humans would enjoy in a state of nature. But John Locke, and many others, would agree with him that “there must always be a balance of power between the governing and the governed.” Snowden is convinced that balance is out of whack, and he has no regrets about allegedly breaking the law in order to realign it. Good for him.
Oh, and perhaps now we can all stop whining about that Neil Patrick Harris joke. It was one of the few funny things he said all night.
Was Edward Snowden a Traitor? | 2019-04-19T15:09:51 | https://slate.com/technology/2015/02/edward-snowden-reddit-ama-citizenfour-documentary-subject-has-just-one-regret.html |
Is there a military commitment for joining ROTC?
NO. Army ROTC is a class just like any other class at the University. There are no commitments for just taking the class. However, if you would like to receive financial support, you will be required to make a military commitment.
Who is eligible for a ROTC scholarship?
How much time do I owe the military after I complete ROTC?
Most cadets incur a four-year, active-duty commitment, but the amount of service time you incur can vary. For example, pilots in the Air Force incur a ten-year active-duty service commitment after successfully completing their training. Army ROTC students who receive a ROTC scholarship, or enter the Army ROTC Advanced Course, must serve full-time in the Army four years for four-year scholarship winners, and three years for non-scholarship cadets. Selected Cadets may choose to serve part-time in the U.S. Army Reserve or Army National Guard while pursuing a regular career.
How much money do ROTC scholarships offer?
Scholarship amounts vary, but can go up to $17,000 a year. This money can be used to pay for tuition or room and board if you have the option. You also receive money each year for books and a monthly allowance.
Can I reapply for a scholarship if I don't get one at first?
If you don't earn an ROTC scholarship while applying in high school, you can still take ROTC classes in college. If you decide you like ROTC, you can reapply for a two- or three-year scholarship. | 2019-04-19T14:59:05 | http://armyrotc.unm.edu/index.php?page=faqs |
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This time i wanna share about “Watashi ni Tenshi ga Maiorita! (私に天使が舞い降りた！)” opening and ending songs ost download link.
The opening song “Kimama na Tenshitachi (気ままな天使たち)” by Wataten☆Five (わたてん☆5（ファイブ）).
And the ending song “Happy Happy Friends (ハッピー・ハッピー・フレンズ)” by Wataten☆Five (わたてん☆5（ファイブ）).
Yosh, that is Watashi ni Tenshi ga Maiorita! (私に天使が舞い降りた！) Opening and Ending OST. If the song still Tv Size/short version, the download link will be updated to Full version when Available. | 2019-04-18T20:54:56 | https://myanimeost.net/2019/01/11/watashi-ni-tenshi-ga-maiorita-opening-ending-ost-downloa/ |
Hi folks i hope you are all well and not suffering too much with flooding, snow, strong winds or succumbing to man/woman flu.
Me? i’m dandy thanks, I’ve been having heaps of fun with my new Gelli plate. I’ve been watching others demonstrate how to use it for months and finally ive got one meself Woo Hoo!
All i can say is, how did i manage for so long without one they are FAB!
Well i had me a play and time seemed to vanish for 2 hours while i produced these.
It is very addictive and pretty soon i’m gonna have a stack of prints to play with so better get my crafting brain in gear. | 2019-04-26T08:43:00 | http://bookmagpie.uk/2014/01/12/gelli-printing-first-attempt/ |
Chick Peas……I love them, eaten extensively in the Mediterranean countries and important in Indian cooking, they are called garbanzos in Spain, pois chiches in France, simply ceci in Italy and known as chana dhal in India.
Most people have a can in the pantry and as a Vegetarian I am often asked what to do with them. Where to begin, add them to casseroles, add them to couscous, make a little dressing of olive oil, lemon juice and finely chopped onion, throw over and serve warm as a side salad. Fantastic as a satay dish or an Indian chana dhal curry…..I could go on and on, but I will start with how I usually answer, Make Hummus.
As a Veggie I am always asked what to do with chick peas.
I am lucky enough to have a food processor, but this will work just as well with a blender. Make a little time to give this a go just once, if you enjoy chips and dips, you will never buy hummus again; the only downfall is a little washing up. I think it is so worth the effort and much cheaper and tastier than any bought ones I have thus far tried. Always happy to eat for the sake of my writing so if you have any brand suggestions or a better recipe, please share.
Drain a 390g tin of chickpeas and dump into a food processor or bowl if you are going to use a stick blender, add two cloves of garlic and 2 tbsp of tahini paste and blitz. Slowly add 4 tbsp of olive oil and 1 tbsp if warm water. Keep on until the mixture is creamy. Add the juice of 1 lemon and salt and pepper if you want. NOW EAT. SIMPLE.
NOTE. Chop garlic a little if using a stick blender. Lemons vary in size and some are juicier than others so add taste, add taste, if you are fussy about how lemony you want it. I personally do not care and squeeze with gay abandon. I use two cloves and this is just right for me, others might like more or less, I would say this is a garlic lovers hummus. Tahini paste is made from hulled sesame seeds and can be found in supermarkets or increasingly in veggie shops. I never add salt or pepper and quite often double the recipe with no problems. This recipe is very forgiving and I am usually quite sloppy with my measuring to no ill effect. I also make a camping version where I squash the chickpeas with a fork, add a chopped garlic clove and drizzle with olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice. Perfect on warm toast. | 2019-04-25T20:53:41 | https://crowdedmind.co/2015/11/08/campfire/ |
The workplace can sometimes be out of our control. When going through the interview stage, we might ask about our roles and responsibilities but we rarely ever ask about where we will sit. So when we start the job, we must adapt to our surroundings — whether it’s in an office, cubicle or open-concept office.
This is why it’s absolutely crucial to make our desk our own because so much of our working life is out of our direct control. In a full-time job, approximately 160 hours a month (nearly 2,000 hours a year), are spent at our desks. And whether or not we are all as passionate about our jobs as I am, we are individuals and we enjoy showing off what makes us different.
Erica: “I have a picture of my baby (my motivation), my husband, and my favorite day on the job: our client Forgotten Harvest’s annual Comedy Night featuring Jay Leno.” It’s good to be sentimental as our lives drive our work and passion. Bringing them to work is an important part of being human.
Paul: “My lightsaber chopsticks. Aside from being the most unique things, they allow me to be a Star Wars chopstick Jedi.” As a creative team, we all have our own (we use them as screen pointers, and occasionally for sword fights) and on top of being unique master Jedis of our trades, they represent a community between our creative team.
Kambren: “My wedding ‘Save the Date’ — it reminds me of the support my fiancé has for me about my goals, and gives me something to look forward to. The goals we share are my muse — they keep me focused.” Of course, she also said that her soup (had it been full) would have been her favorite element of the desk — anything to keep up inspiration and joy!
Paige: “My mug that was a gift from my friend has motivational quotes on it, and it keeps me going.” It’s important to have elements that keep you happy and motivated through the day and remind us why we’re doing what we’re doing.
Mark: “The pictures of my kids. Because I’m proud of them, and it motivates me.” Not only do your kids become a part of your daily life, but they also help to form a bond between you and your coworkers.
Jared: Unlike the others, Jared has not personalized his desk. When pressed, he said he just has never brought anything in and just realized that it was bare (he also noted that he now had to bring photos in). However, due to his line of work (editing video), he often switches locations depending on the project, which means he is not as often tied to the desk as others might be. He gains inspiration from the outside world.
Maggie: “My cross that says, ‘More Jesus. Less Drama.’ It reminds me not to get caught up in little things.” It also reminds her to not worry about the things and/or people beyond her control.
Garrett: “It’s a toss-up: My black globe, my pointer chopstick or my Jake the dog tin where I keep my business cards. They make me happy and take me somewhere else.” Of course, his kids also make the list. But what can really beat a Jake dog business card tin or wielding a chopstick pointer?
Often as human beings, what we are exposed to drive the creative culture that we thrive in. The universe gives us what we give out again, so it’s beneficial to create a safe and fun space for your psyche to enjoy.
Life is too short to not stare at a picture of your puppy all day.
Crazy Dog Lady. Art Nerd. Ravenclaw.
When she is not out exploring Detroit, Mariisa sits outside with her two dogs, Java and Wiley, to play fetch and feed the ever-growing population of mosquitos. She has a passion for roasting marshmallows and musical theater, often at the same time.
Mariisa is a graphic designer, which involves creating a diverse portfolio of graphics for the client’s needs to clearly represent their brand and character, along with working with her team on developing an integrated marketing approach. | 2019-04-20T21:12:30 | https://mccicorp.com/blog/whats-on-your-desk/ |
A primary call to action is essential on product and landing pages. It’s easy for add-to-cart buttons to get overshadowed by other necessary options, such as adding an item to a wish list or sharing it on social media. When this happens, conversion rates suffer.
For in-stock products, “add to cart” is always the primary CTA. It needs to stand out without detracting from the most important details about the item, such as the product name, images, price, and other key features.
A single CTA is most logical way to convert. Sometimes keeping it simple is best. Image: Fuel So Good Coffee.
Calling attention to the primary action you want the shopper to take, though, is about more than large buttons with ample space. The store’s design and color scheme play a big role, as do the target shoppers and their buying habits.
Here are eight considerations for presenting the ultimate call to action on a product page.
Standard, simple text works best. Stick to terms like “add to cart” or “purchase” (for stores where typically only a single item is bought). Recognizable instruction works best.
Text-based buttons on a solid background work better than fancy graphics. The idea is to prompt the shopper to take action, not to distract that plea with a busy design.
Poo-Pourri’s landing page CTA is crystal clear: Visitors should order now.
The color should follow the site’s design without blending in. Contrasting colors can work, too, so long as they don’t stand out so much they detract from everything else.
The add-to-cart button should be grouped with available options. If the shopper needs to select a size, color, or other attribute, the CTA should appear immediately below the selection.
Be sure to group necessary elements, such as product options, with the CTA. Image: Everything Kitchens.
Also, leave options open for selection. In the example above, the 8-inch option is selected by default, making it easy for the shopper to add the item to the cart without realizing the size he’s ordering.
On desktop computers, the CTA should always appear above the fold. If shoppers need to scroll to add an item to the cart, conversions drop.
Don’t place the CTA before everything else. Etailer Crate & Barrel does this on the site’s desktop version, but it’s not ideal. Not only does it separate the add-to-cart text from the delivery options, it begs for a purchase before the shopper has even reviewed the product. CTAs define the action to take once the shopper has gained interest. It’s difficult to sell products sight unseen, and this kind of placement can leave shoppers hunting for the button when they’re ready to purchase.
Placing the add-to-cart button above options and in a non-standard location confuses shoppers. Source: Crate & Barrel.
Avoid fancy styles, like excessive emboss and drop shadow. Not only do these filters distract, they often make stores look like they haven’t been updated since the early 2000s. Shoppers might not be able to pinpoint exactly why a button made them question a purchase — only that it isn’t appealing.
Don’t sway from the standards on mobile. With mobile accounting for more than half of Internet traffic, it makes sense to carry the standards over to those devices. While shoppers typically have to scroll (just once, ideally) to reach the CTA, the requested action needs to be just as clear.
It’s common for the CTA to appear on the second scroll for mobile. Be sure not to bury important info, like pricing, in this area.
Use secondary calls to action. While the primary CTA is essential, secondary CTAs are needed as well. These can be links or buttons that prompt alternative actions, such as taking shoppers to other products or sections. Without these, non-buying shoppers have little choice than to leave the store.
Add to registry or wish list, or save for later.
Share on social media or email to a friend.
Shop related sections or items.
Links to “did you mean?” areas.
Secondary CTAs can be buttons, graphics, or links, yet should never take attention away from the primary CTA.
Never underestimate the power of anchor text. Anchor text is linked text that prompts visitors to take an action. Anchor text is commonly used for search engine optimization, but it can also be used to prompt for clicks on landing pages, category pages, and supporting content (such as how-to articles and the store’s blog posts). On product pages, it can be used to direct shoppers to alternative products without taking away from the primary CTA. According to HubSpot, anchor text can increase conversions by more than 120 percent.
Use anchor text to direct shoppers to other options. In this case, a link to guitar accessories helps shoppers who aren’t looking for other accessories — coffee mugs in this example.
Implement, annotate, and review. It is imperative to review results of all CTAs in the store. In Google Analytics, create annotations to track which changes increased conversions. To do this, visit Conversions > Ecommerce > Overview. At the bottom of the chart, click the expandable down arrow, and then click “+Create New Annotation.” Be descriptive about the change to help identify reasons for the results.
Annotating changes to CTAs helps determine which changes helped boost conversions. | 2019-04-22T14:40:13 | https://www.practicalecommerce.com/8-ways-to-supercharge-calls-to-action-for-ecommerce |
Crack identification is a very important issue in mechanical systems, because it is a damage that if develops may cause catastrophic failure. In the first part of this research, modal analysis of a multi-cracked variable cross-section beam is done using finite element method. Then, the obtained results are validated usingthe results of experimental modal analysis tests. In the next part, a novel procedure is considered to identify the locations and depths of cracks in the multi-cracked variable cross-section beam using natural frequency variations of the beam based on artificial neural network and particle swarm optimization algorithm. In the proposed crack identification algorithm, four distinct neural networks are employed for the identification of locations and depths of both cracks. Back error propagation and particle swarm optimization algorithms are used to train the networks. Finally, the results of these two methods are evaluated. | 2019-04-20T02:17:31 | http://journals.srttu.edu/article_340.html |
Shopko online purchase may be returned to a retail store, but retail store purchase can only be returned to a retail store. The maximum return period is 90 days, with some items having shorter return periods.
Certain electronic items will be subject to different requirements as indicated below.
We will accept returns within 30 days of original purchase on electronics items, including TVs, digital cameras, camcorders, GPS units and portable video and audio electronics.
We will accept returns within 15 days of original purchase on computers.
- Cellular phones and cellular phone cards are non-refundable.
- iPods that have been opened are non-refundable.
- Digital E-readers that have been opened are non-refundable.
- Defective video games, music, movies, and computer software can be exchanged for the identical item; replacement item will be opened by teammate. Open video games, music, movies and computer software may not be returned for a refund.
- Gift Cards and e-Gift Cards are non-refundable.
- Prescription drugs are non-refundable.
Unopened airbeds can be returned for refund or exchange within 14 days of purchase. Opened airbeds accompanied by a receipt may be exchanged for the identical item or exchanged towards another airbed of equal or greater value within 14 days. Defective airbeds can be exchanged for the same model airbed or for credit towards another airbed of equal or greater value.
Perennials, roses, evergreens, trees and shrubs are guaranteed for one year from date of purchase. If you have a question or problem concerning your live goods purchase, please call one of our Lawn & Garden Specialists before removing your plant and returning it to the store. Full refund of purchase will be made for dead plant material during the year of purchase with this receipt/guarantee. If returned the following year, the refund will be given in the form of a store credit.
Refund value for each item returned will be reduced to reflect value of any free gifts received or discounts applied. Purchases made at Shopko may not be returned to Shopko Express Rx. Other restrictions may apply.
Have a comment? Tell us what's on your mind. We will respond to your comment or request as soon as possible. | 2019-04-23T14:14:38 | http://www.returnpolicies.info/u-s-a/shopko/ |
It's getting a bit like "Ground hog Day" around here.
Thanks mate. And I hope you have a nice relaxing evening.
Burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr it's a bit chilly, morning all.
Burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr it's a bit chilly.
Bought myself a pressure washer, a 12v halfords polisher and a 2 ton trolly jack today lol.
Not looking forward to the really snowy days when i cant get my car up onto the drive since that golf got hit near my drive, will have to nick loads of grit from work and cover my drive in it lol.
Sounds abit crazy mate. Pop down to your nearest srteet corner and nick a load out o them yellow bins.
No probs mate we have a couple of those big grit bins at work, i'll just nick some from there hehehehehehehehe. | 2019-04-24T20:34:10 | http://www.subaru-impreza.org/forum/spam-bin-does-exactly-what-says-tin/41039-thursday.html |
The Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol provides funds to help developing countries comply with their obligations under the Protocol to phase out the use of ozone-depleting substances (ODS) at an agreed schedule. ODS are used in refrigeration, foam extrusion, industrial cleaning, fire extinguishing and fumigation. Countries eligible for this assistance are those with an annual per capita consumption of ODS of less than 0.3 kg a year, as defined in Article 5 of the Protocol. They are referred to as Article 5 countries.
The Montreal Protocol was agreed in 1987 after scientists showed that certain man-made substances were contributing to the depletion of the Earth's ozone layer which protects life below from damaging ultraviolet radiation. The Multilateral Fund was established by the London Amendment to the Protocol in 1990.
The phase-out of ODS will enable the ozone layer to repair itself.
The Fund was the first financial mechanism to be borne from an international treaty. It embodies the principle agreed at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 that countries have a common but differentiated responsibility to protect and manage the global commons.
In 1986, industrialized countries consumed 86 per cent of the most important ODS, the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). They agreed to contribute to the Fund in order to help Article 5 countries achieve the Protocol's goals. Article 5 countries committed themselves to joining the global effort to restore the depleted ozone layer. This global consensus forms the basis of the operation of the Multilateral Fund that confines the liability of the Fund to costs essential to the elimination of the use and production of ODSs. An important aspect of the Fund is that it funds only the additional (the so-called 'incremental') costs incurred in converting to non-ODS technologies.
The Fund is managed by an Executive Committee with an equal representation of seven industrialized and seven Article 5 countries which are elected annually by a Meeting of the Parties. The Committee reports annually to the Meeting of the Parties on its operations.
Up to 20 per cent of the contributions of contributing Parties can also be delivered through their bilateral agencies in the form of eligible projects and activities.
The Fund is replenished on a three-year basis by the donors. It Fund provides finance for activities including the closure of ODS production plants and industrial conversion, technical assistance, information dissemination, training and capacity building aimed at phasing out the ODS used in a broad range of sectors.
The Fund Secretariat is based in Montreal, Canada, and comprises a small number of professional and support staff.
The institutional structure of the Multilateral Fund was established at the 1990 Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol in London. Established as an interim mechanism in 1991, and on a permanent basis in 1993, its structure has not been changed in any important respect since.
The Multilateral Fund (MLF) operates under the authority of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol.
An Executive Committee comprising seven developed and seven developing countries oversees Multilateral Fund operations.
The Fund Secretariat assists the Executive Committee and carries out day to day operations.
In delivering financial and technical assistance, the MLF works together with implementing agencies: UNDP, UNEP, UNIDO, the World Bank and a number of bilateral agencies.
The Fund Treasurer is responsible for receiving and administering pledged contributions (cash, promissory notes or bilateral assistance), and disbursing funds to the Fund Secretariat and the implementing agencies based on the directives of the Executive Committee. | 2019-04-22T05:07:46 | http://multilateralfund.org/aboutMLF/default.aspx |
Does “Mein Kampf” Remain a Dangerous Book?
Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” is being published and sold in Germany for the first time since the Second World War.
There was a lot said last week about the reëmergence, in Germany, of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” (“My Struggle”)—which just became legal to publish and sell there, for the first time since the end of the Second World War, albeit in a heavily hedged “scholarly” edition. Did providing a public place for the autobiographical testament of the Nazi dictator, written when he was briefly imprisoned in Bavaria, in the nineteen-twenties, in some way legitimize it, people asked, even if the text was surrounded by a trench work of scholarly addenda designed to italicize its lies and manias?
I read “Mein Kampf” right through for the first time last year, while working on a piece about Timothy Snyder’s history of the Holocaust as it happened in the Slavic and Baltic states during the Second World War. (Snyder reads Hitler in a somewhat original and provocative way, derived in part from his reading of “Mein Kampf.”) I read it in the first English translation, from 1933, with the German version alongside, online, and a crib of graduate-school German grammar nearby. (I’ve since reread sections, in Ralph Manheim’s later translation.) The question of what to do with “Mein Kampf” is, in some sense, independent of the book’s contents—buying it is a symbolic act before it’s any kind of intellectual one, and you can argue that it’s worth banning on those grounds alone. A good opposing case can be made on similarly symbolic grounds: that making it public in Germany is a way of robbing it of the glamour of the forbidden.
However that may be, the striking thing about the text as a text is that it is not so much diabolical or sinister as creepy. It is the last book in the world that you would expect a nascent Fascist dictator to write. Most of us—and most politicians in particular, even those who belong to extremist movements—try to draw a reasonably charismatic picture of our histories and ourselves. We want to look appealing. An evil force may emerge and temporarily defeat the narrator, but that force is usually placed against a childhood of a purer folk existence, now defiled. That’s the way most politicians’ campaign memoirs still work, for instance.
I had set out with a pile of drawings, convinced that it would be child's play to pass the examination. At the Realschule I had been by far the best in my class at drawing, and since then my ability had developed amazingly; my own satisfaction caused me to take a joyful pride in hoping for the best. . . . I was in the fair city for the second time, waiting with burning impatience, but also with confident self-assurance, for the result of my entrance examination. I was so convinced that I would be successful that when I received my rejection, it struck me as a bolt from the blue. Yet that is what happened. When I presented myself to the rector, requesting an explanation for my non-acceptance at the Academy's school of painting, that gentleman assured me that the drawings I had submitted incontrovertibly showed my unfitness for painting.
The triviality of the injury and the length and intensity with which it’s recalled—in a book intended, after all, to attract fanatical followers to a fanatical cause—would seem to be more unsettling than seductive. And many similar passages of equally irrelevant self-pity follow. His description of his hunger while footloose in Vienna is pointillist.
Mussolini’s autobiography, to take the obvious comparison, though ghostwritten—by a former American Ambassador to Italy, apparently!—nonetheless reflects his sense of the best self to put forward; the youthful memories are more predictably of a concord between the young Italian and the national landscape he inhabits. (The Masons play the same role for Mussolini that the Jews did for Hitler: the cosmopolitan force interrupting the natural harmony between the people and their home, the blood and the birthplace.) Mussolini’s is a Fascist dictator’s memoir written as you would expect a Fascist dictator to write it. To be sure, Hitler is writing at the bottom of the ascent and Mussolini at the top, but the temperamental difference is arresting nonetheless.
Indeed, strangely, the "lesser" Fascist and extreme right-wing European figures of the period are closer to the idealized image of a national savior than Hitler even pretends to be. Corneliu Codreanu, in Romania, for instance—who was, hard to believe, an even more violent anti-Semite than Hitler—was a model of the charismatic national leader, providing a mystical religious turn as well. Even Oswald Mosley, in England—for all that P. G. Wodehouse nicely mocked him in his figure of Roderick Spode—had many of the traits of a genuinely popular, charismatic figure, worryingly so. Hitler’s self-presentation has none of that polished charisma. He is a victim and a sufferer first and last—a poor soldier who is gassed, a failed artist who is desperately hungry and mocked by all. The creepiness extends toward his fanatical fear of impurity—his obsession with syphilis is itself pathological—and his cult of strong bodies. Pathos is the weirdly strong emotion, almost the strongest emotion, in the memoir.
Yet the other striking—and, in its way, perhaps explanatory—thing about the book is how petty-bourgeois (in the neutral, descriptive sense that Marx, or, for that matter, Kierkegaard, used the term) its world picture is, even including the petty-bourgeois bias toward self-contempt. The class nature of Hitler’s experience is as clear to him as it is to the reader—he is, he knows, a child of the lower middle classes, and his view of the world is conditioned by that truth.
His pervasive sense of resentment must have vibrated among those who know resentment as a primary emotion. Creepy and miserable and uninspiring as the book seems to readers now, its theme of having been dissed and disrespected by every authority figure and left to suffer every indignity must have resonated with a big chunk of an entire social class in Germany after war and inflation. Even his Jew-hating bears the traces of personal rancor as much as of “scientific” racial ideology. The poison of anti-Semitism comes in many flavors, after all, but the kind that, for instance, Drumont, in France, or Chesterton and Belloc, in Britain, had until then favored was aristocratic in pretension. It assumed that Jews have a secret, conspiratorial power. Admiration is mixed with the disgust, as with the parallel “yellow peril” of the Asians—they’re so smart that they’re sinister.
Hitler’s anti-Semitism seems a purer case of petit-bourgeois paranoia. It resents not the newcomer who invades the sanctuary but the competitor in the shop down the street, who plays by unfair rules. (“I didn’t know what to be more amazed at: the agility of their tongues or their virtuosity at lying.”) It’s telling that his anti-Semitism in “Mein Kampf” is, early on, entangled with his Francophobia. The Jews are like the French: they are, in plain English, the people who get to go to art school. Both the Francophobia and the anti-Semitism are part of the same petty-bourgeois suspicion: They think they’re superior to us! They think they’re better than us because they’re slicker than we are! They look down on us, and it is intolerable to have anyone look down on us! That fear of mockery and of being laughed at is so strong in Hitler that it filled his speeches as late as the onset of the war: the Jews and the English are laughing at me, and they won’t be allowed to laugh for long! That someone would feel this sense of impending shame as a motive for violence is commonplace. But that someone would choose to make so overt his love of violence arises from a fear of being mocked, and that he would use this as the source of his power seems weirdly naked and unprotected.
“Mein Kampf” is a miserable book, but should it be banned? I could certainly sympathize with any German who would like to see it kept illegitimate; some speech should, in fact, be off-limits. But is it a dangerous book? Does it circulate sinister ideas best kept silent? Putting aside the book’s singularly creepy tone, it contains little argumentation that wasn’t already commonplace in other, still-circulating anti-Semitic and extreme-right literature. Hitler’s character remains bewildering, in the obvious mismatch between the extent of his miserableness and the capacity of his will to power, although perhaps it should not be—many other personal stories suggest that miserable people have the will to power in the greatest intensity. But his themes are part of the inheritance of modernity, ones that he merely adapted with a peculiar, self-pitying edge and then took to their nightmarish conclusion: the glory of war over peace; disgust with the messy bargaining and limited successes of reformist, parliamentary democracy and, with that disgust, contempt for the political class as permanently compromised; the certainty that all military setbacks are the results of civilian sabotage and a lack of will; the faith in a strong man; the love of the exceptional character of one nation above all others; the selection of a helpless group to be hated, who can be blamed for feelings of national humiliation. He didn’t invent these arguments. He adapted them, and then later showed where in the real world they led, if taken to their logical outcome by someone possessed, for a time, of absolute power. Resisting those arguments is still our struggle, and so they are, however unsettling, still worth reading, even in their creepiest form.
The first German edition of “Mein Kampf” since 1945 will be published in January. Gerhard Weinberg says it’s about time. | 2019-04-22T14:27:08 | https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/does-mein-kampf-remain-a-dangerous-book?mbid=social_twitter |
If you are a blogger, and you would like to share your posts with the community, this is the place. Link the site once if you wish, link us to every fresh post if you prefer.
If you find a cool brewing chart, spreadsheet, article whatever - link it up here!
If you're wanting to show off your etsy shop, your motorcycle club, or other links that are off topic to brewing, please add those to the Spamvertize category. | 2019-04-19T02:17:51 | http://www.brewunited.com/view_topic.php?topicid=195 |
And the trophy goes to …. LIVA!!! | 2019-04-21T00:44:36 | https://villageroadrunners.com/2018/01/ |
New Africa Business News- Pope Francis, the whole Vicar of Christ, in Line of St. Peter, the Holder of the Keys to Paradise,,, and the head of the Most Powerful religious heritage on Earth KNEELS to kiss the Feet of 2 #proud,warring, hot headed and arrogant opposing South Sudanese leaders …. , Whose actions have sent to deaths millions of souls overtime…..
If this practical Demonstration of the Humility of Christ does not CHANGE the Hearts and minds of these people towards Love, Unity and #Tolerance of all mankind, then Lucifer must be South Sudanese in Color…. Can Kiir even kneel and Kiss Machar’s Feet or vice Versa!!? Hmm… Time shall tell…. | 2019-04-18T11:25:02 | http://newafricabusinessnews.com/2019/04/29591/ |
FlashTorch Mini by Wicked Lasers - http://ebay.to/2uyU8l7 Subscribe to: 2nd channel - https://www.youtube.com/user/origami768 instagram https://instagram.com/crazyrussianhacker/ facebook - https://www.facebook.com/CrazyRussianHacker DON\'T TRY THIS AT HOME! FAN MAIL: CRAZY RUSSIAN HACKER P.O.
Google+ https://plus.google.com/+MrGearOfficial ------------------------------ Greetings to all my dear friends, we have made a decision to vary our channel theme a little bit and to launch a new section where we will burn some different items with a gas-burner. | 2019-04-18T22:48:28 | https://article.wn.com/view/2019/04/03/Torch_takes_10M_to_teach_empathy_to_executives/ |
Chaos Theory: "Keep Your Attack Dog Fed."
"Keep Your Attack Dog Fed."
"This story begins in 1798 and has at its center a scandal-mongering Scottish journalist named James Thomson Callender. At the time, there was intense party rivalry between Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton and Jefferson. | 2019-04-20T04:58:09 | https://fullmoon.typepad.com/chaos/2016/07/keep-your-attack-dog-fed.html |
Towards the north along the waters lies a natural marvel called the Butterfly Island. The distance from the main land is not more than 200 m and a short boat ride is good enough to reach the island.
The isolation acts a blessing in disguise as the island offers a secluded beach to the visitors all with its solitary charm and the thrills of any other Goan beach sans the overcrowded and over polluted stretches of sand. The dolphins are extra acrobatic in the waters surrounding the island. Low tides would create a vast canvas on the beach which is painted by the designer footsteps of crabs and goldfishes.
Canoe ride along the tiny water streams on the island provide a thrilling ride. | 2019-04-24T05:59:27 | http://www.travelchacha.com/cities/goa/butterfly-beach.html |
It's ironic, how we often forget the things worth remembering, but remember the things worth forgetting.
Have you noticed that when you do something good, no one seems to remember. But when you mess up, no one seems to forget.
When people remember little details about you.
Remember when we were young and life seemed so beautiful? | 2019-04-26T09:55:39 | http://www.iliketoquote.com/tag/remember |
The post-Brexit environment in the UK has been marked by political strife and severe economic malaise. The vague suggestion of future free-trade deals offers a glimmer of hope, but will it be enough to turn the tide?
Davos: same old, same old?
Europe and the United States since the global financial crisis: How do they stand regarding the remaining gaps in employment and income?
What will the Paris Attacks means for markets? | 2019-04-18T14:32:23 | http://mrassociates.info/europe |
Making a purchase could not be easier. Just browse our store and add any items that you wish to buy to your shopping basket. After you have finished your selection, click on 'Checkout' and you will be asked for a few details required for us to complete your order.
We accept Visa, Mastercard and Paypal payments. You may choose whether you transmit your credit/debit card information to us over the internet, via phone or by post.
If your item is not in stock, we will place it on back order and send you an email quoting the estimated delay. Should you decide not to wait, you will have the option of cancelling your order.
All prices shown include VAT at 20% and apply to deliveries made to the UK and EU. VAT is deducted from orders to be shipped to non-EU destinations.
When orders are placed on our website, credit card numbers are encrypted using 128 bit encryption. They are only decrypted after they reach our computer. They are not held in clear text on any website.
Our broad but logically structured seed range is targeted at specific situations, soil or light conditions, and aesthetic objectives. Mixtures contain annual and perennial species which will produce precisely the visual effect shown.
With our flower meadows Quality, Diversity, Consistency and Purity are guaranteed.
Frome Town Centre - 10:00 to 15:00 website (http://w.. | 2019-04-18T15:14:48 | http://www.meadowinmygarden.co.uk/terms/return-policy |
Premature mortality in the United States: the roles of geographic area, socioeconomic status, household type, and availability of medical care.
Mansfield, Christopher J., and Wilson, James L., and Kobrinski, Edward J., and Mitchell, Jim. "Premature mortality in the United States: the roles of geographic area, socioeconomic status, household type, and availability of medical care.". American Journal of Public Health. 89:6. (893-898), June 1999. April 26, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10342/3048.
Mansfield, Christopher J. and Wilson, James L. and Kobrinski, Edward J. and Mitchell, Jim, "Premature mortality in the United States: the roles of geographic area, socioeconomic status, household type, and availability of medical care.," American Journal of Public Health 89, no. 6 (June 1999), http://hdl.handle.net/10342/3048 (accessed April 26, 2019).
Mansfield, Christopher J., Wilson, James L., Kobrinski, Edward J., Mitchell, Jim. Premature mortality in the United States: the roles of geographic area, socioeconomic status, household type, and availability of medical care.. American Journal of Public Health. June 1999; 89(6): 893-898. http://hdl.handle.net/10342/3048. Accessed April 26, 2019. | 2019-04-26T04:48:07 | http://thescholarship.ecu.edu/handle/10342/3048 |
As India gears up for the 18th Asian Games which will be held at Jakarta and Palembang in Indonesia starting from the 18th of August, 2018, hopes of a medal from the Indian gymnasts are high.
Following a two day open trial held at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in Delhi on the 25th and 26th of June, two five member teams for men and women were chosen. Dipa Karmakar returned to competition for the first time after the Olympics following her surgery. A strong performance in the allround left her in first place followed by Pranati Das and 2018 Melbourne World Cup bronze medalist Aruna Reddy. Mandira Chowdhury came in fourth and Commonwealth Games Vault finalist Pranati Nayak grabbed the 5th spot.
For the men, Commonwealth Games Rings Finalist, Rakesh Patra stood first in the trials. He was followed by Yogeshwar Singh, Gaurav Kumar, 2010 Asian Games and Commonwealth Games medalist Ashish Kumar and in 5th place, Siddharth Verma.
As they continue to prepare for the Games in Delhi, we wish them the very best and support them in their quest to bring India some medals from the Games. | 2019-04-19T07:22:39 | http://indiangymnastics.com/indian-artistic-gymnastics-team-for-jakarta-asian-games-2018/?share=skype |
Animal diseases that infect humans are a major threat to human health, and diseases often spillover to humans from nonhuman primates. In 2018 the World Health Organization added "Disease X" – an unknown pathogen of zoonotic origin that can infect human beings – to its list of diseases most in need of research and development. Now, researchers, including Dr Tamara Giles-Vernick of the Institut Pasteur, have carried out an extensive social sciences evaluation of how populations in Cameroon interact with nonhuman primates, pointing toward behaviors that could put people at risk of infection with new diseases. Their paper appeared in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases in December.
Zoonotic diseases—those which originate in other animal species before spilling over to humans—now constitute more than 60 percent of emerging infectious diseases. Of these zoonotic diseases, 70 percent reportedly come from wild animals. Because of the similarity between humans and nonhuman primates, these monkeys and apes serve as frequent reservoirs or amplifiers for pathogens that pose a risk to human populations.
In the new work, Tamara Giles-Vernick, Head of the Medical Anthropology and Environment Research Group at the Institut Pasteur, France, and Victor Narat, researcher at the French Center for National Scientific Research (who carried out his postdoctoral fellowship in Dr. Giles-Vernick’s research group), with their colleagues carried out real-time data collection, oral history interviews, questionnaires, and wild meat surveys to paint a full picture of the physical exposure of people in southeastern Cameroon to nonhuman primate species. Data were collected in 2016 and 2017 and included information from multiple villages and hundreds of people.
The researchers found that Cameroonian adults have frequent physical contact with primates, and more with monkeys than great apes. This contact is most often through hunting, butchering, preparing and consuming meat, but also includes injuries sustained from gorillas. Some 85% of questionnaire respondents had eaten primate meat in their lifetimes. In general, the exposure risk in any given village was directly related to the relative density of nonhuman primates and their proximity to human settlements.
Courtesy of PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases who gave permission to use and modify its original press release.
The Agence Nationale de la Recherche (France; http://www.agence-nationale-recherche.fr) funded the study ANR-14-CE31-004, including postdoctoral salary and field missions. TGV received this funding.
The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research(https://www.cifar.ca/) provided additional funding for field investigation. TGV received this funding.
The Institut Pasteur Infection and Epidemiology Department (https://www.pasteur.fr/en/infection-and-epidemiology) provided supplemental funding for VN's salary. VN received this funding.
The Institut Pasteur International Direction (https://www.pasteur.fr/fr/international) provided supplemental funding for participation in the study by Richard Njouom, head of the Virology Department at the Centre Pasteur of Cameroon. | 2019-04-19T03:57:39 | https://www.pasteur.fr/en/research-journal/news/contact-monkeys-and-apes-puts-populations-risk |
Most counselors for consumer-facing businesses are strong advocates of IP rights and encourage their clients to stake out a claim on their trademarks, patents, and copyrights in appropriate time frames. This article will discuss some less-discussed considerations for registering IP in a timely fashion by looking at IP enforcement mechanisms outside the judicial system. Specifically, this article will offer a brief overview of Amazon, Google, and Bing’s IP policies.
Two remedies outside the judicial system are relatively widely known: DMCA takedown requests and UDRP complaints. Under the Safe Harbor provision of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), companies will not be charged with copyright infringement if they remove content uploaded by a user after a complaint has been filed pursuant to 17 U.S. Code § 512(c)(1)(C). For trademarks, the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP)(https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/help/dndr/udrp-en) prevents bad faith registration of domain names that incorporate the trademark of another.
Lesser known remedies that are attractive to IP owners are the IP protection policies of three websites incredibly important for consumer-facing businesses: Amazon, Google Ads (formerly AdWords), and Microsoft’s Bing. One area that might immediately come to mind is for potential trademark infringement from ads shown because of your client’s trademark. However, this “keyword advertising” has been generally upheld as a valid use of a competitor’s trademark, as long as there is no confusion about the source of the sponsored good. See Multi Time Machine, Inc. v. Amazon. com, Inc., 804 F. 3d 930 at 933, (9th Cir. 2015) (“Because Amazon’s search results page clearly labels the name and manufacturer of each product offered for sale and even includes photographs of the items, no reasonably prudent consumer accustomed to shopping online would likely be confused as to the source of the products.”); see also 1-800 Contacts, Inc. v. Lens.com, Inc., 722 F.3d 1229, 1244–45 (10th Cir. 2013).
An example of a keyword ad is shown in the below image. An Amazon search for “Snapple” returned results for Snapple drinks, but the page also displayed a banner ad at the top for San Pellegrino, a Snapple competitor.
Pictured above is a screenshot of Amazon.com product list, captured 8/17/2018.
Amazon’s IP policy (https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/help.html/?itemID=G201361070) is the broadest policy out of the three websites, purporting to protect trademarks, copyrights, and patents. Amazon’s policy is notable in that it specifically acknowledges common law trademarks and copyrights and extends its protection to these unregistered IP rights. Amazon offers further protection for owners of registered trademarks if companies enroll their trademarks with Amazon’s Brand Registry (https://brandservices.amazon.com/benefits). This program offers protection against sellers shipping items from countries where brands are not used or manufactured and sellers creating new products on Amazon purporting to be part of a brand’s catalog, but do not actually exist.
Amazon is notable for allowing patent complaints to restrict the sales of goods offered by a competitor. The scope of protection can vary wildly across Amazon’s catalogue, as some complaints result in the takedown of a product, whereas others result in no action at all. A single violation of Amazon’s policies might result in suspension of a product’s sales, and multiple violations of Amazon’s policies might cause Amazon to shut down a seller’s account.
The trademark complaint form (https://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/policies/trademark-misuse), however, lists the trademark registration number as a required field, which could limit remedies to only owners of federally registered trademarks. The copyright complaint form (https://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/policies/copyright-infringement) does not have this requirement, and should be an open avenue for copyright claims. Microsoft does not disclose the penalty for violations of its IP policies.
Google’s trademark ad policy (https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6118) restricts the use of trademarks in ad text, but specifically notes that it does not protect trademarks as keywords. Google’s Copyright policy (https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6018015?hl=en&ref_topic=1626336) notes that it removes unauthorized copyrighted content, and offers a web form (https://support.google.com/google-ads/contact/copyright) to owners of copyrights for authorizing their use in ads. Google says that it “may restrict the use of trademarks in ad text” in response to a trademark owner complaint, and may “disprove” an ad that contains copyrighted content.
Amazon, Microsoft, and Google all offer IP protection in their policies to varying degrees. Unlike judicial enforcement, complaints are private and decided by employees of the companies, often leading to seemingly arbitrary decisions. One cannot point to past decisions to convince employees to “rule” in certain ways, and a final ruling against your client usually cannot be reversed unless you return with a court order in your client’s favor.
While trademark and copyright complaints can be often made without registration beforehand, the employees of these companies are not trained legal analysts and often will not understand when rights arise under common law protections or which rights are even granted. Because you only get a limited opportunity to convince a private company of the validity of your client’s rights, registration of IP goes a long way towards convincing a layman employee of the validity and strength of your client’s rights.
Ryan Dooley is an IP attorney who helps startups and small businesses with intellectual property matters, covering trademark, copyright, and patent issues. He has experience in technologies such as computer networking, VPN technology, social networking, computer hardware, medical scanning technology, electronic health records, e-readers, and mechanical devices. Ryan has published articles regarding legal developments in emerging areas such as esports, blockchain technologies, hardware vulnerabilities, and piracy. Before law school, Ryan attended the University of California Santa Cruz, where he earned a degree in Computer Science: Game Design. | 2019-04-21T04:33:50 | https://cbaatthebar.chicagobar.org/2018/12/20/ip-rights-outside-the-legal-system/ |
Kutaisi - one of the ancient and beautiful cities of Georgia is situated in a very attractive region - Imereti. The first settlements of the city appeared in the place, where the river Rioni’s deep and narrow valley turns into the plain. Kutaisi is among the world’s ancient cities. Ancient Greek mythology and historical sources ascribe it to the “Minoan Era” (XVII-XV centuries BC.).
Famous “Argonautica”, which tells us the stories of no less than 3300 years behind, is fully referred to the hegemonic city of Kutaisi.
From ancient times and in the feudal era Kutaisi intensively kept the status of the first city in Western Georgia (Kolkheti, Egrisi, Lazeti). In the VI century, as the capital of Egrisi - Kutaisi was the place of warfare for Persians and Byzantines. However, with the help of the Christian Byzantines Georgians have retrieved the town. Since VIII c. it was the capital of the united kingdom of Egrisi and Abkhazia. In the X c. the function of the city has increased and in the year of 978 the royal throne of the united Georgia was established in Kutaisi and Bagrat III was crowned as the King. As the symbol of United Georgia he has built the magnificent “Bagrati Cathedral”. Kutaisi was the capital of the united Georgia for 124 years.
In 1089 in Georgia begins the reigning era of David the Builder. In 1922 he released Tbilisi from foreign invaders and the royal throne was moved there. This is the period, where the history of Kutaisi as the capital of the united Georgia ends. During the reign of David the Builder, the unique architectural monument - “Gelati Monastery” was built near the town and the high educational School-Academy was established. Despite the loss of status of the first city, Kutaisi never lost its significant place in Georgian history, it is still cultural, educational and tourist center. | 2019-04-18T23:27:01 | http://imereti.gov.ge/eng/static/17/kutaisi |
For further information about Automechanika Shanghai 2018 and this year’s Tomorrow’s Services & Mobility sector, please visit www.automechanika-shanghai.com. Automechanika Shanghai is organised by Messe Frankfurt (Shanghai) Co Ltd and the China National Machinery Industry International Co Ltd (Sinomachint). It is one of 17 Automechanika fairs held across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. For any further enquiries, you can contact Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd on + 852 2802 7728 or via email at auto@hongkong.messefrankfurt.com. | 2019-04-23T16:00:18 | https://www.hk.messefrankfurt.com/hongkong/en/press/fair-press/mobility-logistics/automechanika-shanghai/press-releases/2018/ams18-pr4.html |
Neuqua Valley High School is proud to be an IAHPERD Blue Ribbon winner since 2002. We strive to have a program that is beneficial to all students that come through and by offering daily physical education, we can do that. To find out more about the IAHPERD Blue Ribbon Program click here. | 2019-04-23T16:04:03 | http://www.nvhspe.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22&Itemid=210 |
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With millions of users,daily 500 business sites are enjoying with S5W Directory. You can choose from so many business listing categories like Dental Equipment directory , just to get ahead within seconds. Now you can connect to the global online market just within your fingers tips ahead. Your response to build the largest global business directory is always expected by us. Joining with High Page Rank website is now easier when you are tricky and feel free to submit a quality business directory.
This business directory is designed and shaped to the optimizations of search engines and can provide you the best of business listing for your webs. Submission in this Online Directory can take you to the wider world of others awaiting for you. Do not miss this great chance to get attached with the Global Business Directory. This Business Directory website can help expanding your business immensely in a positive way. So, Please, stop browsing and do submit your business ASAP. | 2019-04-18T15:02:28 | http://www.s5w.com/dental-equipment |
Landscape Architect: Dig Studio, Denver, Colo.
Goal: Get children and families outdoors and encourage life-long active and healthy lifestyles in a revitalized park environment.
Solution: The giant 1950’s microphone-inspired tower heralds the horizon, but the built-in play value is what really makes this park honoring local radio DJ Paco Sanchez truly extraordinary. Brilliant colors and bold presence aside, it’s the imaginative use of the musical references that do the hard work of delivering dynamic play. Notes and scales offer footholds. Sound waves create netted climbing adventures. Chimes travel with kids as they run across the bridge.
Read more about how the City of Denver Parks and Recreation Department engaged the community and its culture through the transformation of Paco Sanchez Park.
This entry was posted in Accessibility, American Society of Landscape Architects, ASLA, Childhood obesity, Community, Community Build Playgrounds, Community Playgrounds, Community Wellness, Custom, Design, Healthy kids, Inclusion, Inclusive Play, Inclusive playgrounds, landscape architects, Landscape Architecture, National Recreation and Park Association, Outdoor environments, Outdoor Play, Park and Recreation, Parks, Play, Play Environment, Playground, Playground Accessibility, Playground Design, Shaped by Play, Signature, Theme playground and tagged celebration, Colorado, environment, health, industrial design, inspiration, music, parents, recreation by PlayLSI. Bookmark the permalink. | 2019-04-23T13:58:01 | https://togetherweplay.playlsi.com/2019/02/07/case-study-play-reimagined/ |
You weren't born into wealth and privilege. School never came easily to you. Your parents pushed you to pursue a career you had zero interest in. Too much time was wasted playing video games and smoking weed with kids you thought were your friends. College was a blast, but it didn’t last. Your degree doesn't help make the big bucks and the bank still wants to get paid back on the school loans. Since you didn't hang with the right crew, there is no one to hook you up with an opportunity. Your family can't help since they are going nowhere themselves.
When you finally land somewhere, you look around and find yourself in a modern-day, white-collar factory. You, along with hundreds of others in a cubicle farm, labor over boring tasks that you couldn't care less about. Everyday is more monotonous and tedious than the last one. It starts to scare you that this could potentially be your life forever. Others seem to pass you by—lapping you in success—and you seem to be going nowhere fast.
Also, let’s also be honest. You may not be as smart, sophisticated, charismatic or possess the right pedigree as some of your colleagues. So, what’s the answer? You have to hustle. It's a combination of street smarts, improving yourself, staying motivated, fighting and striving.
Decide what to do with your life.
Get a game plan together.
Execute and kill it every day.
Learn as much about your area/industry as humanly possible.
Put in 10,000 hours of work to become an expert.
Eat, sleep and dream what you want to accomplish.
If you fail, start all over again without worry or concern.
Leave behind all the losers dragging you down.
Develop a thick skin, so nothing will rattle you.
Picture who you want to be in the future and then become that person right now.
Dress, act and talk like the successful person you want to become.
Work on your interpersonal, social and presentation skills.
Find people smarter than yourself and learn from them.
Go to sleep early and wake up super early.
Know what your manager needs and exceed their expectations.
Network and meet with as many people in your field as possible to pick their brains and learn as much you can from them.
Don't take “no” for an answer and keeping moving forward.
Build a tribe of people around you to support your endeavors.
Cultivate a social media presence positioning you as an expert in your field.
Find a niche that you can excel in.
Learn from your mistakes and don’t dwell on the setbacks.
This is only a small part of the hustle. The idea is to become totally devoted and focused on your dreams and not let anything or anyone stop you from achieving everything you want in work and life. | 2019-04-24T20:15:32 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2018/11/14/cant-knock-the-hustle-how-to-hit-it-big/ |
We can provide taxi advertising screens in Bletchley TF9 3 to promote your products and services in detail. Taxi TVs are found inside the cab on the back of headrests. These can be made interactive which allows the audience to get more involved in the what the company is advertising.
Touchscreen adverts are a great way to grab your audience attention and have excellent conversion rates. We offer taxi advertising screens in Bletchley along with traditional taxi adverts to market your brand and produce an excellent return on investment.
Our group in Bletchley TF9 3 are available to help you on the greatest strategies of media marketing to get your business and products noticed by potential customers. We'll manage the process of buying marketing and putting together the strategy. Most of the hard work would be carried out by our specialists, making it much simpler for you.
Impartial media agencies will have the top knowledge in terms of marketing. We make use of a selection of advertisers to promote unique services and products. As we are professional offline marketers, we aim to provide the very best value for money and ROI. We are able to provide you with media purchasing and also media planning to create outstanding ad campaigns in Bletchley that can earn new nearby clients from your surrounding area.
If you would like more information on the taxi advertising screens in Bletchley TF9 3 our team can offer you the best prices across the UK. Simply fill in our contact form and we'll get back to you at the earliest opportunity with a free quotation. | 2019-04-20T14:33:49 | https://www.billboardadvertising.org.uk/vehicle/taxi-screens/shropshire/bletchley/ |
A new development is built along Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal, a Superfund site polluted with decades' worth of industrial waste and sewage.
The Trump administration has been taking steps, some quietly, some very publicly, to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). One such quiet step was the administration’s proposal earlier this year to speed up agency efforts to remediate and redevelop former industrial and other hazardous sites known as Superfund sites and brownfields.
On its face, the proposal might seem like a bright spot. But EPA officials actually envision using public funds to clean up private lands owned by developers like President Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner to prepare these sites for massive redevelopment projects.
It’s an old but deceptive approach, cleaning up a handful of highly visible, hazardous sites and creating the appearance that the EPA is keeping the public safe, while leaving the vast majority of potentially toxic sites untouched, their risk to the public unaddressed.
Indeed, America’s cities are built on top of former industrial sites that have largely gone without regulation and remediation, and the continual “churn” of urban land use and redevelopment means there is little recorded or institutional knowledge about these sites’ locations.
A prime example is the Northern Liberties neighborhood of Philadelphia, an old manufacturing area now booming with bistros, art galleries, and boutiques rather than machine shops and factories. A two-acre community garden and playground dubbed “Liberty Lands” now sits atop a reclaimed Superfund site once occupied by Burk Brothers Tannery. But attention and remediation has not extended to the 200 or so other relic industrial sites that operated in the area after the 1950s: They won’t be found in the EPA’s hazardous sites databases, because they either closed prior to reporting requirements or remained small enough to avoid them.
The nature of risk containment today fails to address the historical legacies of hazardous land uses, especially as cities are again growing rapidly and gentrification hides what came before and whatever sources of contamination that may still remain behind.
Ever since the federal government began requiring voluntary reporting of industrial toxic releases in the late 1980s, environmental officials have limited this reporting requirement to the largest, most obvious polluters, the active sites most people know or at least suspect to be a problem. Later, when related efforts extended to include polluted sites no longer in operation, federal action again took a worst-first strategy.
Government agencies now typically identify and clean up only the most visibly polluted sites of relic industry, such as the two vast brownfields in the Dumbo and Gowanus neighborhoods in Brooklyn purchased by Jared Kushner, often with liability-free agreements for subsequent redevelopment.
Meaningful action to address the hazards facing America’s city dwellers will require looking beyond the most obvious sites of concern and asking how many hazardous sites are out there in American cities. Our book, Sites Unseen: Uncovering Hidden Hazards in American Cities begins to tackle this question. We used industry reports and manufacturing directories stretching back to the 1950s to build a historical database of sites occupied by industries known to dump hazardous waste.
We identified these types of sites in four cities, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, New Orleans, and Portland, Oregon, and found that, despite being very different cities, they all shared a common feature and fate: More than 90 percent of the thousands and thousands of potentially hazardous sites we uncovered went unreported in government databases and were given no regulatory attention.
The passage of time has rendered such legacy sites less visible as they are converted into less risky uses such as playgrounds, loft apartments ,and coffee shops and as older residents move on and demographic changes in neighborhoods erase public memory of earlier hazards. As these processes unfold, the problem of contamination branches out from specific sites into an ever-expanding landscape of environmental risks.
Until Americans acknowledge these dynamics, the scale of environmental hazards and toxic sites in cities will not be fully recognized and addressed in a meaningful way. Our study has mapped out this problem in four large cities and offers a DIY guide for others to do the same in their own cities and towns.
Local, state, and federal stakeholders must take the next step and work together to understand and mitigate risks to all urban residents. The sooner and more fully we recognize and address that America’s industrial past means that few cities have escaped contamination, the healthier and more sustainable those places will become. Large-scale redevelopment projects like those undertaken by the Trumps and Kushners of the world are just the tip of the iceberg. | 2019-04-26T12:04:52 | https://mt.prospect.org/article/hidden-hazards-beneath-trumps-dismantling-epa |
If you experience technical issues with the Qualifax website please contact a member of our team to report the issue. If you are contacting us by email then please include your name and phone number.
Your co-operation and patience is greatly appreciated. | 2019-04-22T00:33:04 | http://www.qualifax.ie/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=677:qualifax-website-maintenance&catid=82:features-content |
1. Screencast-o-matic. This free program lets you start recording within 30 seconds of opening the webpage. One button opens the resizeable recording frame. Another button starts the recording.
With Screencast-o-matic, you can record up to 15 minutes then upload your video directly to your YouTube account. You can create as many videos as you want for free, but they come with a "Screencast-o-matic" watermark in the corner.
To get screencasts without the watermark, upgrade to a pro account for $15 a year. This includes a full editing suite, screenshots, offline recording, additional publishing options and unlimited video length. If you're going to shoot more than two screencasts a year, it can be worth the price.
2. Screenr. This is another free, instant record tool with a resizeable frame and one touch record button. Screenr only allows recordings up to five minutes and you're required to sign in with a social media account such as Facebook, Twitter or Google.
The advantage is that you can easily upload short videos to your social media pages, not just YouTube. Screener's free screencasts don't include a watermark but they do make all videos public on their site so pass on this option if you need to keep your video private.
You can go private by paying $19 a month for a pro account, but even the paid options don't include the ability to edit videos.
3. Jing. This is a free tool you download to your desktop and activate from an icon that stays at the top of your screen. Jing allows you to quickly grab stills or record anything on your screen with just a few clicks. You can pick up your full screen or any portion, then instantly upload to Facebook or Twitter.
Videos are limited to five minutes in length and, since they're hosted on screencast.com, storage and bandwidth is limited to 2G a month. You can increase storage space to 25G with a Screencast Pro account for $9.99 per month. Even with the limitations, Jing is one of the quickest ways to create short, single-use videos on the fly. | 2019-04-20T18:11:56 | https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/225390 |
versions of lsof in the main/binary-i386/utils section.
Gunzipped the Packages.gz edited out the older lsof and gzipped it.
files like the extra lsof and modified Packages.gz and wasting bandwidth.
> Subject: Re: non-i386 images?
> > > > Where can I find the non-i386 CD images?
> > > Do you mean for the 2.1r3 release or for potato?
Previous by thread: Re: non-i386 images?
Next by thread: Re: non-i386 images? | 2019-04-22T06:27:20 | https://lists.debian.org/debian-cd/1999/10/msg00080.html |
Communication comes in many varying forms.
In one way or another every single thing on earth is in constant communication of some form; be it the frequencies of rare stones or crystals, sounds of animals, vibrations of plant life, right through to conversation and thoughts of humans.
Numerous thought centers are located throughout the body, sending and receiving data to and from the mind. All the key chakra points are communication sensors, collecting and distributing intuitive information.
Communication comes in many varying forms, as sound, written through various mediums, through verbal means, or visual actions or a combination of these. Hidden communication also has various forms such as various physical signs or even telepathy. The latter is limited to those sensitive enough to perceive the purely mental thought transmission.
Thought is the power that creates concepts that advances civilization throughout time.
Reality is an interpretation of what has been perceived and experienced; then understood through the power of observation then rationalized. Repetition solidifies a concept of thought within the consciousness. The greater the advancement in concepts of thought the more potential there is to build upon then excel further in the future complexity of ideas for creations within reality.
Thought is the power that creates concepts that advances civilization throughout time. Theories that are created are what form then advance technology. Altered states of consciousness enable the revelation of knowledge that can be obtained outside the normal realms of thought.
Creating abstract thoughts that lead to asking questions that in turn lead to answers that provide advancements in knowledge and technology. Thinking different in ways more advantageous and groundbreaking enable the propelling of civilization.
Mental stability is a fine line that borders on genius; the creation of universal concepts cause others to initially ridicule or question them. With confirmation, these concept ideas prove to be revolutionary. The ability to tap into the fields of knowledge, that exists by using visualization, enables the access to a higher realm of knowledge.
The outcome is always based upon what you are prepared to accept or believe.
What you believe is accepted as real, the rest is classed as an illusion or unbelievable; but what if everything is an illusion of your own making. Reality is like dust that can be blown away by the realization that what is observed may not be what is; the hidden is disguised by acceptance of what seems the easiest to comprehend.
Strength in numbers applies to not only to beliefs but also to reality, the more that buy into any particular version of reality is what gives that understanding the energy to exist within their perception. Immaterial of reality, most people see exactly what they wish to see, they interpret what is through the perception of their beliefs. The outcome is always based upon what you are prepared to accept or believe, the potential is always greater than what you can ever imagine.
Any persistent view of reality, whether positive or negative can be switched purely by applying mental visualization; creating an acceptable or more desirable version of what has occurred. What seems to be a negative can be transformed into, or contain, a positive; or of course visa versa. Positives or negatives can be interpreted within reality purely by the power of the mind applying them to the base reality, thus causing observations to be a more desirable illusion.
Creating a reality that is fully satisfying requires a lot of effort, either the physical or mental effort to manipulate what exists into what is desired. Distorting reality to suit some purpose or requirement will achieve bringing into perspective the desired perception.
Life is quite fleeting and fragile in the extreme. Molding reality to suit one's own desires may seem selfish, unless it is realized that only the individual reality is bent to suit what was required; the base reality remains constant. Much like people build a house just for themselves within the fabric of society, so too it is possible to create a specific reality constructed to achieve one's desires. While it is possible for others to observe and interact with an individually constructed reality to some extent, they are unable to influence it negatively; for as long as the effort is exhorted, full control can be maintained by the key driver of that reality. Once concentration lapses, the controlled reality will quickly morph back to the control of the main supporting reality, or that manipulated by others.
Focus on the undesirable give that factor focused on energy, allowing and giving the ability to become powerful or gain some level of advantage or control. The same is true for desirable experiences, with focus and belief, driven by desires, what was imagined can manifest within the perceived reality. What is and what can be is all up to what one personally accepts, or allows to take place without interference; full control over ones reality is the obvious choice in order to experience the life most desired.
Confusion can be self-induced or caused externally by chance or malevolent influences.
Confusion is caused by either the inability to process what is going on or that a divide so large exists between beliefs and the reality being experienced. Confusion can be real or frained as an excuse or reason to avoid accepting some concept or idea. It is always a good excuse or way out to state that the opinions of others are confusing or contributing to the confusion. Confusion may be feigned or used as an excuse to gain more time to extricate themselves from a particular range of situations that are deemed unwanted or unacceptable. Being confused is an ideal excuse to gain more time or to avoid doing or agreeing to things that need to be avoided.
States of confusion can be permanent or temporary, specific or wide-ranging; being or causing a minor or major issue. The state of confusion may not even be fully realized as the factors involved causes the observers to be unable to disentangle themselves from the avalanche of supposed facts or issues that are difficult to begin to fathom.
Self-induced confusion can be caused by absorbing too much new information, being unable to accept certain details due to personal beliefs, or an unwillingness to accept new conflicting or difficult to believe or comprehend details.
Confusion can be a permanent or temporary state, depending on whether the issue can be rationalized, understood, or disregarded for more personally logical information. Confusion can be ignited by thoughts, words, and deeds, being induced purposefully to achieve an agenda or gain an advantage.
Confusion can be self-induced or caused externally by chance or malevolent influences. The impacts can be just for a moment or wider ranging, taking on a life of their own; a downward spiral of conflicting information between beliefs and what reality is imposing. At such time it is always ideal to step to one side mentally to view all the information available. If the issue is minor with few or no consequences then it is best to let it be. If a major impact has potential to affect daily life then figuring out what is going on is the best policy.
Confusion can be an induced solely for the purpose of gaining an advantage or upper hand in a negotiation or some facet of life. When a person sets out to specifically cause confusion in order to gain an advantage over others then they are likely to be quite destructive in their nature. Using confusion as a type of weapon is only as good as the duration it can be maintained. Once others realize the confusion was artificially induced they are likely to either react in kind, become more confident in forcing their demands or walk away in disgust; rarely to let their guard down or trust the one who purposely confused them ever again.
Confusion always has the ability to cause an illusion or dilution of arguments in relation to the true facts. Standing by logical thought, immaterial of the number of detractors offers the way to clarity. Always be fully aware of the dynamics at stake when someone is causing confusion in order to get their own way.
The greater contribution will be from people you trust, thus adding more views will enable some course of action from the extended input of various ideas. The introduction of clarity into the mix will always contribute towards making the right personal decision.
Confusion does come in many forms and levels of intensity. Any struggle with confusion has the ability to intensify lack of understanding, even complicate the thought process further. Taking a break, stepping back, even walking completely away from any situation causing confusion, especially if what is occurring is conflicting strongly with your beliefs.
Everything has the potential to exist, all that is necessary is the required belief.
Within reality there are many things that are hidden or not easily observed yet have the potential to make beneficial contributions to life’s experiences. Having the ability to notice or identify these gems of concealed information, good or bad, can be quite advantageous.
There is also potential to miss things that are in plain view by not giving them sufficient attention through focusing on other distracting yet insignificant issues. Numerous choices of stimuli and things to do exist in life; what to focus on, or what to ignore can be confusing, even mind boggling if given too much thought; even causing the lack of a clear direction to take when concentration is spread thinly over far too many issues.
Missing the essence of a situation through lack of attention to the important points is often possible; with a range of consequences or causes of frustration. It is difficult to give efficient focus to a wide range of issues when distractions are all vying for interest; it should be obvious that placing attention upon specifics within whatever provides interest or motivation is the ideal choice to obtain the best outcome.
Coming to an understanding of how best to achieve desires, creating the means to manage the complexities of life, doing what gives life to dreams, are the elements that need to be identified through realisation of the key components that are necessary to acquire and achieve, that can make or contribute to the life you really want.
It is never too late to realize what are really the most important factors to identify then pursue in life; then finding the ways and means to achieving them in daily life’s reality. Everything has the potential to exist, all that is necessary is the required belief, vision and continual focus to make life exactly what you wish it to become. Don’t loose sight of the potential of what can be in relation to what is by being tried though focusing on the current reality.
Deception depends upon the ability of the deceiver and the gullibility of the deceived.
A complete fabrication that is well thought out and presented correctly can deceive a large number of people who are prepared to readily buy into the concept through psychological influences and demands created solely through strength in numbers of those who have bought into the fabrication as fact.
Deceiving oneself or others with a passion always gives the deception some built in credibility; it is wise to be aware of this ploy in order not to be dragged into believing some particular falsehood or fallacy. Intuition is always a faithful tool in searching out any deception that is being targeted towards you. That gut feeling of what is logically correct and true or is obviously a well-placed falsehood. It is always a personal choice to decide what one believes is true or feels is a fabrication.
External influences may prevail with a deceit for their own selfish reasons, usually due to some form of benefit that is to be acquired. It is always wise to carefully judge the motives of anyone who tries to force an alternative view of reality to what one believes is correct. While there are advantages as well as strengths in number, it doesn't always work out that the majority are the sole owners of truth, as like sheep people tend to follow or latch onto the majority view, which may or may not be correct.
Deception is the pit of delusion and illusionary forces that disguise the facts to gain acceptance or create ignorance of the true dynamics at play. A state of delusive deception can be the mind's ploy to avoid accepting facts that are destructive in some way or thoughts that are undesirable or difficult to accept. An obvious escape from reality by replacing unwanted facts with an imagined or altered version of events. Not facing the truthful facts is always a short-term solution, as reality is persistent in the generally accepted view of anything being more forceful than individual imagination or belief, be they thought real or imagined. A delusion that exists for an extended period of time can take on a life and legitimacy of its own, becoming the accepted and legitimate view as more people buy into the concept.
Deception depends upon the ability of the deceiver and the gullibility of the deceived. The elements that are used will also be of influence; the seeming validity of the lies used, the feasibility of the illusion that is portrayed, the quality of the supporting details, all contribute to the potential acceptance of the deceptions validity.
Deception is always imposing the belief of the imagined upon others, creating the circumstance that will cause the information to be accepted. It is wise to be always vigilant, questioning whatever others may portray, so as not to be deceived by others false beliefs or mischievous trickery. Deception always holds some element of gain in some form for the deceived; this may be some idle promise or the potential to obtain or achieve some desire. Deception's best ally is always greed, as once the expectation is set, it will take a revelation for the deceived to escape the trap that has been set for them.
Self-deception is the most difficult spell to break, as the desires driving the disillusioned will always be the object that has a hold over the thought process and an obstacle to accurate logic being applied.
Deceit is usually applied when one wishes others to believe something that is false in order to distract from the truth for some reason. Or when the truth is far too distasteful for oneself or others to bear that it is disguised within an untrue account of matters.
In order to avoid being deceived into believing some untruth any belief should be limited solely to the facts that can be proven or are clearly evident. To put one's faith in a depiction of what others perceived, true or otherwise, can only be disastrous from some point of view. | 2019-04-21T05:03:54 | https://mindgames.stevenredhead.com/Articles4.html |
On the 23rd of August 2016, Transparency International – Malaysia (TI-M) and Transparency International – Defence & Security (TI-DSP) held a joint workshop on the subject of Integrity and Good Governance in Defence Procurement.
Dato Akhbar Sata, president of TI-M, opened with a welcome address. This was followed by the keynote address by Abdul Samat Kasah, the Director of Strategic Communication at the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). He explained how defence is tricky because it involves both high spending and high secrecy for national security reasons, thus ethics are needed and complacency must be avoided.
The first speaker was Mr Agus Rahardjo, Chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission of the KPK, to speak about defence procurement in Indonesia. He explained that all of Indonesia’s defence equipment is imported from other countries, which is a problem since the government generally does not contact the producer, and is instead always worked through a third party with very little checks and balances. Planning and budgeting are also not transparent or clear, and though there is an electronic program, the military generally tries to procure without it. He suggests getting rid of the middle man, improving payment systems, and increasing price transparency.
Also attending the workshop as a speaker, Attorney Maria Teresa Lee-Rafois, Director of the Fact Finding and Investigation in the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman (Philippine), briefed participants on the defence procurement in the Philippine. She explained how strong progress is being made in Philippines in comparison to other countries in the region, given that the law to prosecute corruption and bribery is actually there, and their President is being strong against corruption and bidding. However, despite the law, when bad people are in command in the military or businesses, the law won’t work. Her Bureau also has only 20 investigators, and the amount to investigate is beyond their ability at the moment. She also talked through a few cases of corruption in procurement she had investigated, explaining their origins and what was done to charge the offenders.
Speaking on the issues of transparency in the Malaysian military was Ms. Cynthia Gabriel, founder and director of the Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4). She explained that Malaysia’s defence budget could soon see a steep increase due to China’s aggressive claims on the South China Seas, as well as the possibility of ISIS becoming an imminent threat. This would be worrisome, however, because Malaysia has no defence white paper in Parliament, nor a committee to discuss defence budgets, policies, or increases. Members of Parliament themselves do not even know how much or what exactly has been spent. She went on to explain how the prevalence of bribery in the military causes a multitude of problems, including a risk to national security through the shoddy equipment purchased, as well as the economic problem from the huge loss of money. She summarized that Malaysia needs have open tender contracts and a clear defence policy.
We then had a riveting Q&A session, followed by Ms Michelle Man and Mr Tobias Bock from the TI-DSP presenting on the corruption risks around the use of agents in defence procurement. Michelle explained that risks of utilizing agents include them working with little oversight, despite working on behalf of their companies, while having very close interactions with governments. They are paid on commission, so want to make a deal no matter the cost, they don’t care about ruining relationships as would in-office people when offered a bribe, and their after-sales contracts are subject to much less scrutiny.
Tobias brought up the good point that a way to ensure that a growing defence budget does not simply end up causing more conflicts with regional neighbours is to actually be more transparent so that they know the money is focused on defence, not offensive weaponry. Both also explained Transparency International’s Government Defence Index, and how countries receive their ratings.
Another Q&A was put to our panel, again with interesting discussions, and then Mr Tobias Block closed out the workshop. It was a greatly thought-provoking and illuminating workshop, and a big thank you is due to everyone who could participate! | 2019-04-21T05:10:43 | http://transparency.org.my/pages/what-we-do/transparency-in-defence/integrity-and-good-governance-in-defence-procurement |
Brave, the company behind Basic Attention Token (BAT) and the Brave browser, has partnered with advertising and data company TAP Network. This will allow BAT users to directly redeem their tokens for real-world rewards.
Brave's internet browsing software, which is available for desktop and Android and will be the default browser for the upcoming HTC Exodus 1 handset, allows users to opt-in to the new TAP rewards feature. It is part of Brave Ads, which gives Brave users BAT in exchange for enabling adverts from partners as part of their browsing experience.
TAP Network has partnerships with over 250,000 brands. Users of BAT will soon be able to trade in their crypto in exchange for hotel stays worldwide, restaurant vouchers, exclusive entertainment experiences, as well as gift cards from top national brands including Amazon, Starbucks, Uber, Apple and many more.
"Consumer data is being misused by major internet companies and TAP Network empowers consumers to directly take control of their own data and get rewarded from top brands," said Lin Dai, co-founder and CEO of TAP Network, "We are excited to partner with Brave to further the mission of protecting consumer privacy, and rewarding users for participating in the advertising ecosystem."
Read more: Why it's good you're still in cryptocurrency in 2019; What are the hottest cryptocurrency trends for 2019? | 2019-04-19T09:01:52 | https://www.chepicap.com/en/news/7732/brave-integrates-bat-with-the-tap-network.html |
The project, made up of trustees and Island businesses, was launched in September 2016 by Geoff Underwood, managing director at IFPL. His aim was to bridge the gap between businesses who want to give back to their local community and charities who need funding.
“As my company, IFPL, has grown, the amount of money we were able to give to charities has grown, too,” said Mr Underwood. “However, with that, the administration required to make all those donations went through the roof. We became inundated with requests from small local charities, groups and good causes. Most of them were not looking for a lot of money but we continuously received numerous letters asking for support.
“I believe the local business community wants to play a greater role in supporting Island causes — and more would do so if the process of giving was more straightforward.
To date, the foundation has distributed more than £220,000 to local projects, including Aspire Ryde, The Bus Shelter, West Wight Sports and Leisure Centre, Cowes Sailability, 1st Shanklin Scout Group and many more.
Trustees come from all areas of the community. Patrick Moore, Sue Lucas, Steve Porter, Brian Marriott, Nick Hessey and founder, Steve Underwood, meet ten times a year for grant rounds. The money the trustees distribute has so far come from business partners such as Wightlink, Glanvilles, Christopher Scott, Westridge Skip Hire, Red Funnel, Hovertravel, JMC Hire, IFPL and many more. Business partners provide a monthly or annual donation to the cause. Other local businesses have helped with the support of their services. These ‘business buddies’ include Crossprint, Stage Gear, Cemmoc, Jason Swain Photography, Albert Cottage, IW Radio, Beacon magazine and a variety of others.
WightAID continues to work for the whole Island but needs the continued support of the business community to help them help those in need. To get involved, visit www.wightaid.org, or call 555915 to find out more.
Island charitable groups can apply for grant funding of between £500 and £10,000 by filling out an easy application online, at www.wightaid.org or by calling 555915.
Here are some groups that have already benefited from grant funding.
West Wight Time Bank is a community project, which encourages residents to share strengths, skills and time with others, which they, in turn, pay forward to the West Wight community.
Four thousand hours have been banked in the last year between 60 members and 12 organisers. The youngest timebank member is 26 and the oldest 89. In its third year of operation, the West Wight Time Bank is continuing to grow, month on month.
“The WightAID grant of £2,070.32, which we received in October last year has enabled all time bank members to participate in individual and community time exchanges, as we have been able to purchase the equipment we needed to meet our outcomes,” said Sally Gaeta, founder of the West Wight Time Bank.
In particular, the money has allowed the group to hold a Family Drop and Swap at Freshwater Family Centre, every Monday during term time. More than 220 parent/carers and children have used this weekly time bank resource and 12 clothing parcels have been made up to support children going into foster care, the women’s refuge and Homestart in Newport.
The grant has also helped the time bank run a Food Redistribution Project, to cut down local food waste. This is a new project in partnership with Sainsbury’s Local, in Freshwater, who have agreed to give the time bank their unsold, in date, bakery products every day, to redistribute to people and groups in the community. A bicycle was funded through the WightAID grant to help deliver the bread around the West Wight.
The grant has also made it possible to purchase new garden equipment for the allotment. A bumper crop of runner beans, dwarf beans, tomatoes, lettuce, spinach and pumpkins has been growing nicely, with 81 small packages of produce being given out to members of the community.
Time bank members have volunteered for community events, gardening, DIY jobs, giving lifts, cat/dog sitting, IT help, cooking, craft work, washing and ironing, visiting and providing a walking companion, to name a few.
“We were elated when we had heard our WightAID application had been successful. It will provide us with equipment we were unable to afford, allowing us to deliver lifesaving skills to young children, who will hopefully go on to become lifeguards across the Island and further afield. The application process, unlike other funding sources, was very clear and straightforward and the team were very supportive and helpful over the phone. Thank you again.” — Waterside Pool, which received a grant towards its beach rookie course.
Pat a Happy Pony was one of the first beneficiaries to receive a grant through WightAID’s simple application process for funding of £500 and under.
This wonderful project was granted £300, which covered the costs of harnesses and sensory equipment. This will enable them to continue going in to care/nursing homes, schools, respite centres to provide therapy through time with the ponies. The group also goes into people’s own homes to visit those who have life-changing disabilities and are housebound.
A £5,000 grant was donated to Island charity The Wave Project, which has been in operation on the IW since 2015.
Evidence suggests surf therapy helps young people feel less anxious and builds resilience. Through beach school projects, The Wave Project also helps its young participants to feel more engaged in education. Partner organisations and a group of dedicated volunteers help change lives — and funding from WightAID has made this even more possible. | 2019-04-24T10:10:51 | https://iwbeacon.com/2018/11/01/wightaid/ |
Awww! My sister’s baby boys were born in Germany, this morning. The births went well. The boys are okay. And Mommy is recovering from her C-section. The two little, handsome boys made me an Aunt for the fifth and sixth time.
Since the girls are still young, I’m always up to something fun and silly with plush toys. Our kids grow up way too fast. So I enjoy the goofy little things in life, as long as I can with the girls. One of my old children books has arrived, after my own book got lost by moving from one place to another. I finally found one online and I received it by mail, two days ago.
Today when the master bed was straightened, I sat Teddy on my side. And then I had an idea. Teddy had to see my new/old story book from when I was Sara’s age. Sure enough, he enjoyed reading it. (Did you know, Teddy can read in German, too?) 😉 Shortly after the cute set-up, Sara came into the bedroom. She started laughing and asked: “Can I sit next to Teddy and have a storytime?” “Sure! Let’s have storytime with Teddy. He would love it, if you join him reading the book”, I replied. Sara and Teddy had a blast reading stories. They giggled and pointed at pictures.
Teddy and Sara read stories happily ever after.
Teddy reads my old childhood book.
Story time with Teddy is fun! | 2019-04-24T00:35:23 | https://underthepecantreephotography.com/tag/plush-toy/ |
Hollow Fibre UF UltraFiltration. The next giant leap in water filtration. Already designed into AQUAPHOR water filters.
Since its inception, AQUAPHOR’s products included the newest developments in water purification. Specialist process types that were only available in larger scale industrial systems. Now available in AQUAPHOR brand small scale household filters. One of the latest leaps is the hollow fibre membrane.
Hollow fibre UF membranes are micro-thin fibres with porous walls. The tubules (fibres) are around 1mm diameter. The pores that allow water to flow through the fibres are up to 0.1 microns in size. This is 600-800 times thinner than human hair. Smaller than most impurities to pass through.
Filtration of mechanical impurities (clay, sand, rust) larger than 0.1 micron – Removing clay, sand, rust and colloidal iron particles. Allows for perfectly clear water. Water that has gone through a hollow fibre UF membrane tastes and smells better. But more importantly is safer for human consumption. Small particle pollutants, say, iron hydroxides, can irritate the epithelial wall of the intestines. Cause of a range of digestive dysfunctions.
Filtration of Giardia cysts – The cyst form of Giardia is like a cocoon. Resistant to external factors. Including chlorination. Most household filters have no reliable anti-Giardia ability. The most effective method of removing Giardia cysts from drinking water is mechanical filtration through a hollow fibre UF membrane.
AQUAPHOR is the only brand of water filters to use hollow fibre UF membrane options in reverse osmosis.
This technology is used for end stage filtration in the Crystal family of filters, as well as the reverse-osmosis AQUAPHOR Morion system. Module K1-07B uses a hollow fibre UF membrane (made by Mitsubishi, Japan). Also in combination with an AQUAPHOR-made 0.8 micron carbon block to provide ultimate filtration.
Micro-crystalline activated silver in the carbon block prevents bacteria captured by the filter to reproduce. This increases the working life of the hollow fibre UF module.
Non-reactive materials – Made of pure polyethylene – one of the most inert materials known. Hollow fibre membranes have a long service life and can hold up well under unfavourable conditions.
Huge filtering surface in a small volume of space – The effective surface area of the hollow fibre UF membrane used in AQUAPHOR filters is 7,500 cm2 – over 8 sq. ft.
Large absorbent capacity – A hollow fibre UF membrane is able to filter a larger amount of “dirt” (large-particle impurities) than bulk filters such as polypropylene cartridges or carbon blocks.
Molten polymer is pulled through an extruder, so that thin tubes forms. The tubule material is of a variable consistency. Some areas are elastic and some are crystalline.
Then the polymer tubule cools and sets. It is stretched precisely to the point where crystalline areas tear. This creates micro-pores of a specific uniform diameter in the walls of the tubule.
These micro-pores are what allows water filtration to take place. Changing the level of extrusion makes for hollow fibres of different sizes and porosity.
The next step is for the fibres, cut to length, are gathered into bundles. Then folded in half into a loop shape. The “entrances” and “exits” (the openings on each end of each tubule) end up next to each other on one end of the loop.
Then polymer resin is poured into the tubule openings. After it sets, it is cut off so as to widen the tubule ends. The loops of polymer fibres are now in their finished stage. Then are gathered together and fit inside the filter housing. The hollow fibre UF membrane is now complete.
Water enters on the closed ends of the loops. Seeping through the micro-pores. Then clean through the tubule openings on the other side. | 2019-04-20T02:31:14 | https://www.aquaphor.ie/hollow-fibre-uf/ |
Rianna Cutter strips to survive. It’s the best paying gig for a young woman with little education and puts a roof over her child’s head and food on the table. Working toward a better life for her son, she has no time or energy for love.
Jonah Wyatt is ready to make a big change, moving away from his successful pot growing business into a legitimate enterprise. He’s all business all the time and has no interest in finding love he doubts even exists.
Could love be more unexpected?
Their first interaction has all the romance of a business transaction, but from that rough beginning, Rianna and Jonah tentatively reach out to one another. As their barriers dissolve, the awakening of new love is threatened by family drama.
This is book three in a series but may easily be read as a stand alone.
This wasn't good. By the reading the synopsis I really thought it was gonna be an amazing book, but unfortunately, it wasn't. The whole prospect of watching a woman stripping to survive and a drug-lord falling in love had me on edge - a good edge. Then, when I finished the book I was so disappointed. It wasn't at all entertaining and it didn't impact on me in any specific way.
The whole book was incredibly slow-paced and at times I saw myself putting it down - and I wouldn't have picked it up again. I didn't feel a pull to any of the characters and were mostly annoyed with them.
I really don't wanna dig up any more negative feelings so I'm ending this review right here. | 2019-04-23T06:20:50 | http://forbidden-bookss.blogspot.com/2015/03/guarded-passion-by-bonnie-dee.html |
Navy Seals Jump In To Griz Game!
Navy Seals jump in to a Griz game in Honor of Bo Reichbach who was injured in War. Missoula, Montana. | 2019-04-21T09:27:23 | https://www.military.com/video/forces/seal-teams/navy-seals-jump-in-to-griz-game/2649478561001 |
State of Maharashtra and Ors.
By this application, the applicants have sought quashing of the order dated 22.2.2012 issuing process against them for the offences punishable under Sections 498-A, 406 and 417 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code and also quashing of the complaint filed against them by respondent No. 2.
According to the learned counsel for the applicants, there is not even a whisper of allegations made against both these accused constituting essential ingredients of offences punishable under Sections 498-A, 406 and 417 of the Indian Penal Code. In support, he has taken me through the complaint, copy of which has been filed on record as Annexure-2. Learned counsel for the Non-applicant No. 2 states that the applicants should not shy away from the trial and whatever they are submitting now can be submitted by them on merits of the case and, therefore, it would be premature for this Court to allow this petition. He also submits that the allegations made against both the applicants, as can be seen from the paragraphs 4, 13 and 14 in the complaint are sufficient to indicate that prima facie case for the alleged offences has been made out against both the applicants.
Learned A.P.P. for the Non-applicant No. 1/State submits that an appropriate order may be passed in this case.
Upon careful examination of the complaint filed by the Non-applicant No. 2 against the applicants and other persons, I find that so far as present applicants are concerned, there is not even a single allegation which, if taken at face value would constitute any of the offences alleged against these applicants. These allegations neither show any prima facie cruelty having been meted out by the applicants to Non-applicant No. 2 nor any cheating or criminal breach of trust having been prima facie committed in respect of valuable articles, which the Non-applicant No. 2 says to be a stridhan.
In paragraph 4 of the complaint, there is a general allegation that the cash and gifts which the respondent No. 2 and accused No. 1-Vaibhav had received during marriage were kept at the matrimonial home by all the accused persons including the applicant No. 1, who is accused No. 7, being the mediator for the marriage between the respondent No. 2 and accused No. 1-Vaibhav; and the applicant No. 2, who is accused No. 4, being the sister in law of the complainant-Non-applicant No. 2. It is an admitted position that both these applicants were not part of matrimonial home of the accused No. 1 and Non-applicant No. 2. Therefore, no offences relating to cheating and criminal breach of trust punishable under Sections 417 and 406 would be prima facie made out against these applicants. Besides, there is also no allegation in paragraph 4 that the Non-applicant No. 2 at any point of time demanded return of the Stridhan articles to her from those accused persons who are residing in her matrimonial home.
In paragraph 13 of the complaint, what is stated is that there was a meeting on 18.5.2010 at the residence of the applicant No. 2 in which meeting, applicant No. 2, together with accused No. 1-Vaibhav and accused No. 3-Anuradha levelled several false and baseless allegations against the Non-applicant No. 2 in the presence of remaining accused persons. However, what allegations were levelled against her, has not been mentioned by the Non-applicant No. 2. On the basis of statement that false and baseless allegations have been made by one person against another, offence of cruelty is not prima facie constituted. Making of such a statement only discloses the opinion of it’s maker and, therefore, the complainant, who wishes to prove her case of cruelty, must specify the allegations in the complaint so as to enable the other side to meet them appropriately and also enable the Court to decide, as to whether or not these allegations really constitute in law the offence of cruelty, which is not the case here. The statements so made in paragraph 13, therefore, cannot be considered to be sufficient for prima facie constituting offence punishable under Section 498-A of the Indian Penal Code. The statement in paragraph 13 attributed to applicant No. 1 which is to the effect that he has advised Non-applicant No. 2 to mend her ways and improve herself, which is nothing but giving of an elderly advice, wrongly or rightly and it cannot amount to cruelty.
In paragraph 14 of the complaint, it is alleged that the accused Nos. 1 to 4 and 6 forced the complainant to apologize and make a solemn promise that the complainant shall not chat on “ORKUT”, a social networking site. I do not think that even this allegation can amount to harassment within the meaning of Section 498-A of the Indian Penal Code as it has no relation to driving the complainant into such behavior as to endanger her life or cause injury to herself. This allegation also does not have any relation to coercing of the complainant into meeting any unlawful demand for any property or valuable security. On the contrary, spending long time on social networking site such as “ORKUT” or “FACEBOOK” by a person can be viewed as mental harassment by another spouse and, therefore, if the spouse is advised to spend loss time on a social networking site or desist from visiting it, the advice is capable as being seen as made with a view to keep the marriage intact and not otherwise.
Except the above referred allegations, there are no other allegations made against both the applicants and learned counsel for the Non-applicant No. 2-complainant could also not show to me any other allegations except for the afore stated allegations. I have already found that the afore stated allegations do not prima facie constitute any of the offences punishable under Sections 498-A, 406 and 417 of the Indian Penal Code. Therefore, no process for these offences could have been issued against both these applicants. Although learned Magistrate, while issuing process has observed in the order that he has read the complaint, the above referred discussion would show the position to be otherwise. He does not seem to have read the complaint properly. The allegations contained in the complaint, so far as present applicants are concerned, do not make out any case and, therefore, disagreeing with learned counsel for the Non-applicant No. 2, I find that calling upon the applicants to face the ordeal of trial in such a situation would amount to grave injustice to the applicants. The complaint, therefore, as against both the applicants deserves to be quashed and set aside. Accordingly, the application is allowed.
The impugned order of issuance of process under Sections 498-A, 406 and 417 of the Indian Penal Code against the applicants is hereby quashed and set aside.
The complaint as against both the applicants also stands dismissed. The trial as against remaining accused persons, however, shall proceed further in accordance with law.
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READ What are necessary conditions for initiation of prosecution for defamation of public servant? | 2019-04-20T02:51:43 | https://mynation.net/docs/251-2014/ |
Playtech, FXCM, Pepperstone and Amana Capital all appeared in last week's top stories.
Last week saw FXCM distancing itself from the dire results of Global Brokerage, the Belgian authorities fining two brokerage firms over non-compliance, and Playtech acquiring Alpha as it continues to move into the fintech realm.
As the stock of Global Brokerage Inc. (NASDAQ:GLBR) tumbled to a new record low earlier last week and it remarked on the possibly heavy consequences of its eventual delisting from the Nasdaq Stock Market, FXCM Group seems keen to protect its brand, issuing a corporate statement on Monday to clarify its relationship to Global Brokerage.
FXCM claims that adverse developments at GLBR have no impact on it or its ability to service customers. More specifically, FXCM said that it has no responsibility for GLBR’s obligations and that its only debt is the loan to Leucadia, which it has recently taken one step closer to repaying with the sale of FastMatch.
On Monday Finance Magnates reported that Australian forex broker Pepperstone will no longer be providing services to Europe-based clients, effective from the 8th of September. The firm has advised affected persons that they have until that date to close their positions.
European clients that are registered with the Australian subsidiary of Pepperstone will be permanently closed, and customers will have to submit new applications under the FCA-regulated subsidiary. Trading conditions for all clients will remain unchanged.
On Wednesday, we broke the news that AvaTrade and iCFD have agreed to pay the Belgian financial authorities a total fine of €375,000, while claiming that this is not an admission of guilt.
In August last year, the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority took steps to introduce a ban on OTC forex, CFDs and binary options in the country. The FSMA states that neither AvaTrade nor iCFD submitted to the regulator any advertisement or other documents relating to public offers of CFDs.
The two firms will have to contact all of their Belgian clients to offer them the opportunity to terminate their trading accounts, and offer to reimburse their current balances. Both brokers have changed their websites to convey that their services are not intended for Belgian consumers.
On Wednesday we reported that technology developer Playtech is continuing its expansion into the world of fintech with the acquisition of certain assets of Alpha, a UK-based B2B market maker, dealer and broker also known as ACM Group.
The deal was announced via the London Stock Exchange. The cost was capped at $150 million and is to be executed in several stages, with a planned completion date of September 2017.
Playtech has created a new brand called TradeTech Group, with which it plans to consolidate its finance-focused assets. Under the terms of the deal, Alpha will become part of TradeTech Group under the brand name TradeTech Alpha, focusing on risk management and trading solutions to B2B customers.
The following day, Finance Magnate talked to the two CEOs behind the deal in an exclusive interview. We discussed the advantages of the deal and its significance in today’s industry, what drew the two companies to each other, and if they were planning to offer cryptocurrency trading in the future.
To cap off this story, on the same day we published Playtech’s H1 results. The firm reported a substantial increase in revenues in that time period, a rise which was matched and bettered by its new financial division. The two entities rose by 25% and 44% respectively. Markets.com, which Playtech acquired in early 2015, also performed strongly, marking a 94% increase in first-time depositors year-on-year.
On Thursday we exclusively reported that Amana Capital, an FCA-regulated brokerage, is planning to further expand its team in London. The firm recently launched its own education portal, TradeCaptain.com, led by a team of experienced professionals from London and the Middle East.
Finally, on Thursday, we reported on the release of XTB’s half-year financial report, which revealed a sharp increase in profitability with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) totalling $8.1 million (PLN 29.4 million) – a rise of 160 percent.
Revenues rose as net deposits, active accounts and CFD profitability per lot increased materially. Trading volumes remained flat, and marketing costs of XTB were cut materially from a year ago. XTB’s EBITDA margin was 44.5 percent, which is materially higher than last year’s 18.8 percent. Net profit margins increased more modestly to 23.4 percent when compared to 20.2 percent last year. | 2019-04-19T15:05:10 | https://www.financemagnates.com/forex/analysis/playtech-expands-pepperstone-transitions-belgium-fines-best-week/ |
When we say to God "Whatever" it should be "Thy will be done, not my will"
When our faith is tested it grows stronger or we understand how weak we are.
We all have an image of who God is, but how accurate is it?
Believe in Christ and follow Him and be good stewards of the gifts He gives you to carry out His will. | 2019-04-25T22:56:32 | http://stphilothea.libsyn.com/webpage/2010 |
The impact of cancer and its treatment can last long after a child has been cured. This unique center offers long-term follow-up through adulthood to monitor the impact of the disease and treatment on the patient’s growth, organs, fertility, emotional development and more.
In partnership with the American Cancer Society, we have created an all-inclusive resource center that offers health information and social services to cancer patients and their families.
Located near Comer Children's Hospital, the Ronald McDonald House provides a home away from home for families while their child is hospitalized for cancer care.
Download a comprehensive guide of helpful adolescent and young adult cancer support resources (PDF), including links to support organizations; financial assistance and scholarship information; career, legal, transportation and housing assistance resources; fertility support and more.
UChicago Medicine and Comer Children’s Hospital provide links to other organizations as a service to our site visitors. We are not responsible for information or services provided on other websites. | 2019-04-26T10:12:41 | https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/conditions-services/cancer/young-adult-cancer-care/resources-support |
Another month, another slate of good reads.
I once remarked that Updike is the most readable of the American "literary" authors. I think he proves that fairly well in his best-known work. What I like about this story is its plausibility combined with its avoidance of cliche. Rabbit Angstrom is a relatable if not likable character, and you want to know how his story unfolds thanks to Updike's storytelling. Recommended.
I won a medieval-England-themed basket at our church auction, and it included this as well as the next book (as well as one more not read this month). Bryson is of course a delightful author. The basic summary of the book is that we don't know much about Shakespeare's life, or even how he spelled his name. Thankfully Bryson reflects the paucity of evidence with brevity - it is a slim volume and a quick read. It is as good a Shakespeare biography as I've ever read (and the only), so it is recommended.
The next book in the basket was a major departure for me: a historical mystery, party of a long series. I liked Joliffe the player well enough as a character, but I don't think the series was for me.
Journal of Biblical Literature vol 131. no. 1: I finally got around to finishing my first issue of JBL delivered to my home. I was struck by how incredibly broad the field of biblical studies is, and how nice it is to have a survey like JBL to keep tabs on it.
If May was the month of periodicals, June is the month of novels.
After being thrilled with The Hunger Games, I was excited to finally complete the trilogy. Kimberly had gotten both books on reserve from the library, so I read them after her. I was not disappointed. Catching Fire and Mockingjay continue what is great about The Hunger Games - a compelling and readable story combined with a thought-provoking message.
I feel that these books have already become an important part of the canon of youth literature, and that is a good thing. It seems incredible that young people are getting exposed to books which question "the myth of redemptive violence," and moreover that such stories are being made into blockbuster films. I am not sure what young people are thinking about these stories - whether or not they realize the profound critique they offer of our society - but I know that in a powerful story that message can be internalized, and that is good for everyone. Highly recommended.
What is the What is characterized as a novel, but it is paradoxically also the autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng. As a result the book carries the rather inane Library of Congress designation "Autobiography - Fiction." (Apparently between relying on Valentino's distant memories and Eggers' treatment of the subject, the publishers felt compelled to call it a novel). But don't let the taxonomic confusion deter you, it is a good read.
Eggers is a fantastic writer. I have read both Zeitoun and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and loved them both. His telling of Valentino's story is quite compelling and readable. The book doubled as a good primer for me on the history and nature of the conflicts in Sudan over the past several decades. It was interesting to read about the possibility of a new nation - South Sudan, which has of course now come to pass. Recommended.
This book is subtitled "a short history of private life." Bryson guides the reader on a tour of his English country parsonage to give an explanation of the rise of the various furniture, contrivances, garments, and the rooms themselves in the typical home. If you have read Bryson before, you'll appreciate his charming style and readable yet detailed research.
I enjoyed the book as a whole, but my primary critique is that Bryson's structure is a bit contrived. In a few places the connection between the room and the topic is tenuous at best. For example, the "Study" chapter is dedicated not to a space dedicated to intellectual pursuits, but to household pests. The tenuous connection is that Bryson says the study is where his mousetraps are most often sprung.
Much of our standards for homely comfort are derived from Victorian England, so much of the history in this work is centered there. An unintended consequence of this focus has been me coming to regard that society as terribly depraved. I feel quite lucky to have not lived through it. At Home is recommended, but first-time Bryson readers really ought to check out A Walk in the Woods as well.
In next month's reviews I'll cover the current issue of Tin House, which has an article on the so-called "Merritt Parkway" novels. These are novels of marital strife in the midst of suburban discontent, the most prominent of which is Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. I saw the film adaptation and positively hated it.
When I discovered that Too Far To Go (which I had acquired second hand) was a collection of short stories centered on the breakup of a marriage, I was worried that I would be terribly disappointed. But Updike did well with the topic. Rather than despising the main characters as I did in Revolutionary Road, I find myself empathizing with them somewhat. Yet I was still on the whole baffled by their behavior and outlook (and I am proud of that). I recommend anyone read Updike (Terrorist is a good start), but this collection is probably not his best work.
The July 2012 issue of Harper's includes "Reason for living" by Christopher Beha, which is a rather striking review of three books an atheistic ethics. I was particularly pleased by the skewering of Sam Harris' attempt at objective morality. | 2019-04-20T18:42:24 | http://thelibrarybasement.com/tag/bill-bryson.html |
TWO Wingmakers have been named in the Welsh Premier League's 2015/16 team of the season, which is voted for by the 12 league managers.
Central defender Mike Pearson retains his place in the "dream team" from last season, while newcomer Tony Gray earns selection for the first time.
"Peo" made 28 starts in the Welsh Premier for Airbus with one from the bench, while Gray broke the club scoring record with 18 goals from his 29 starts in a prolific first season.
The starting XI is: Ashley Morris (Bala Town); Simon Spender (The New Saints), Kai Edwards (TNS), Mike Pearson (Airbus UK Broughton), Chris Marriott (TNS); Jamie Mullan (TNS), Aeron Edwards (TNS), Chris Venables (Aberystwyth Town); Tony Gray (Airbus UK Broughton), Marc Williams (Llandudno FC), Lee Hunt (Bala Town).
The subs bench is Dave Jones (Newtown AFC), Mike Williams (Llandudno FC), James Joyce (Llandudno FC), Matty Owen (Newtown AFC), Callum Morris (Gap Connah's Quay) and Scott Quigley (TNS). | 2019-04-21T23:09:12 | https://airbusfc.com/index.php/news-archive-2016/1070-peo-and-gray-named-in-wpl-team-of-the-season |
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An SPE Applied Technology Workshop (ATW) on “The Characterization of Effective and Efficient Development of Fractured Carbonate Reservoirs” was held 15–18 June 2014 in Nanjing, China. Participants reviewed recent advances in exploration and production and the technical challenges presented by these reservoirs.
A variety of carbonate reservoirs exist worldwide, mainly paleokarst reservoirs. Because of various scales, poor continuity, strong heterogeneity, accumulation in vugs and fractures, and complex flow behaviors, the efficient development of fractured carbonate reservoirs is quite challenging.
Li Yang, cochairperson of the workshop, opened the session and ATW Chairman Wang Zhigang delivered one of two keynote speeches. He focused on the challenges and current activities of a key carbonate reservoir, Tahe, that he said represented the theme of the ATW. Usman Ahmed, also a workshop cochairperson, introduced the second keynote speaker, Christine Ehlig-Economides. She recalled an ATW a decade ago that also had focused on the Tahe reservoir. She set the stage for a discussion on how much the industry has advanced and the challenges that lie ahead.
In his keynote speech, Wang of Sinopec described the technical challenges and techniques used at Sinopec’s Tahe oil field in western China. The Tarim basin is the company’s largest carbonate play, with proven reserves of 1.3 billion tons and depths of 5300 m to 6300 m. The oil and gas accumulated in pores, vugs, and fractures of severe heterogeneity and depth make it difficult to predict and describe reservoir characteristics, he said.
Carbonate reservoir characterization and evaluation techniques have been developed that have improved the predictability of the carbonate reservoir and its distribution and have increased drilling success, he said. In the Ordovician carbonate reservoir of Tahe, a series of techniques such as paleokarst landform categorization, paleokarst cycle division, hydrocarbon accumulation period analysis, logging for reservoir identification, and evaluation have been implemented. In addition, massive acid fracturing (high pumping pressure, high injection rate, large scale) has become a major technique for development at the field.
Ultradeep, highly heterogeneous reservoirs with low-resolution seismic data make it difficult for reservoir prediction.
The form of fractures and vugs and oil and gas accumulation in such reservoirs make reservoir modeling difficult.
A variety of reservoir fluid systems exist, which lead to a complex oil-water distribution. Current simulation techniques need to be further improved.
Severe channeling and breakthrough were detected after waterflooding was applied. Further research is needed to improve waterflooding, residual oil characterization, and water-control techniques.
Drilling activities are extremely challenging and costly. Drilling technology needs to be further developed or modified.
The first workshop discussion, titled “Oil and Gas Production From Sinopec Carbonate Reservoirs in China: Current Status and Challenges,” was led by Duan Taizhong of Sinopec. Duan described the Tahe and Futai oil fields and the Puguang and Yuanba gas fields. He described the Tahe field geology as multiple superimposed karstification systems related to several unconformities with flow types that include free, pipeline, interstitial, Darcy or non-Darcy, and linear or nonlinear, and dominated by fracture cavern behavior. Frequently, oil production stops with sudden water production, he said.
Three reservoir types in the Futai field are fracture-vug, fracture only, and fracture matrix. Water injection has not been an efficient way to supplement insufficient internal reservoir energy to support production, he said. Production in the Puguang gas field has not yet shown evidence of fractures seen in seismic and log data, but is consistent with carbonate facies clearly identified in seismic data. Production from the Yuanba field is in its initial stages.
The second discussion, led by Heber Cinco-Ley, was about the challenges he has faced in working with carbonate fields in Mexico, including Cantarell, Jujo-Teconimoacan, Abkatun-Pol-Chuk, Homol, and Kuil. In the Cantarell field, very good vertical hydraulic communication in the reservoir resulted in quick formation of a secondary gas cap, and nitrogen injection was used to maintain reservoir pressure. Conductive faults act like constant pressure boundaries in pressure transient data and result in water entry into the oil zone. The reservoir is highly connected by conductive faults and fractures, and small caves exist that do not dominate well production behavior. The Abkatun-Pol-Chuk, Homol, and Kuil reservoirs are connected to the same aquifer, and activity in any one of the reservoirs may affect the others; there is evidence that low permeability areas in the reservoirs are produced via connected higher permeability reservoir areas.
An understanding of in-situ stresses is important in designing well trajectory and direction.
Nuclear magnetic resonance techniques can be used to understand pore and fracture types.
Temperature effect on relative permeability is not significant for unconsolidated carbonates.
The question was posed: Why is the difference between the apparent volume of fractured-cavity formation predicated by seismic and the true volume obvious? Participants recommended correcting the model by use of all kinds of data constantly.
Five discussion leaders examined the area, discussing seismic, logging and measurements, lab analysis of temperature effect on relative permeability and rock stresses in understanding the carbonate.
Four well-testing interpretation models based on triple porosity and a discrete well-testing model based on a discrete fracture network (DFN).
Eight flow models that simultaneously occurred in the Jujo-Tecominoacan field.
The causes of absence of double porosity behavior in fractured carbonate reservoirs: high wellbore storage, small matrix block, and multiblock sizes.
Two discussion leaders reviewed dynamic well testing. One focused on four well-testing interpretation models that have been established based on triple porosity continuous media that include well connects with cavities, well connects with cavities and fractures, well connects with pores, cavities, and fractures, and nonlinear Darcy’s flow in the near wellbore. Also discussed was a discrete well-testing model that has been established based on a DFN model. Cinco-Ley discussed highly homogeneous and strong anisotropy in dynamic performance in fractured carbonate reservoirs, and eight flow models (such as a compartmentalized reservoir model, dual porosity model, etc.) that simultaneously occurred in the Jujo-Tecominoacan field. He interpreted the reasons for the absence of double porosity behavior in fractured carbonate reservoirs as high wellbore storage, small matrix block, or multiblock sizes.
How to get an effective and efficient model as soon as possible.
How to minimize the uncertainty of the geology model.
One suggestion was to make several geology models at the same time and then choose the one most consistent with production. A good reservoir characterization-to-model fluid flow through matrix, fractures, and vugs will reduce uncertainty in reservoir simulation, especially to simulate enhanced oil recovery with chemical injection since that is expensive. Naturally fractured reservoirs with low matrix permeability can be simplified as single porosity models in reservoir simulation.
Pressurized mud cap drilling technology could be used in lost carbonate formations to improve operational efficiency and safety. An electromagnetic lost circulation detector has high accuracy in thief zone identification. Cross-link bridging plugging technology can provide sealing pressure for fractures.
Presentations focused on pressurized mud cap drilling for carbonate wells, thief zone identification, and formation pressure prediction in the next session. On carbonate reservoir drilling in Malaysia, the practices of pressurized mud cap drilling technology, well engineering architecture, and formation evaluation strategies were discussed.
Other topics discussed included a new method of thief zone identification using electromagnetic detectors, hydraulic analysis of fracture width, and cross-link bridging plugging technology for fractures. Another topic was pore pressure prediction using logging data, seismic attributes individually, or using pore volume and pore fluid volume together during drilling, as well as their applications in Iran and Sichuan, China. Compared with well-testing data, those methods could enhance prediction accuracy significantly.
Proppant fracturing technology is proving better than acidizing in PetroChina’s Tarim high-pressure/high-temperature carbonate reservoir.
Ground cross-linked acid fracturing has been successfully applied at Sinopec’s Tahe oil field to get longer etched fracture length.
Novel stimulation techniques have been developed for carbonate reservoirs, such as self-diverting fluid based on viscoelastic surfactant and degradable fiber for moderate to high permeability carbonate reservoirs. | 2019-04-22T12:46:14 | https://www.spe.org/en/jpt/jpt-article-detail/?art=1758 |
I knew as soon as I saw him that he was the cat I wanted. "This one," I told Nathan. "This one is my favorite." He was skinny as sin but twice as fluffy, a grey furball with a white beard & big socks to match. A black nose, not a pink one, which I swore made him cuter. And most importantly, he was purring - hard. He responded to our petting, forcing his head up under our hands if we tried to stop. Yes, he was our cat right away.
We knew we were taking a gamble adopting an old cat. He was 9, the ASPCA told us (though we'd later learn he was closer to 12), an indoor-outdoor who went by George but didn't know his name, which meant we could easily change it. We adopted him despite his age because cats sometimes live to be 18, & where would we be in 18 years?! An old man seemed like a safe bet for an unknown future.
The first few days with George were rough, though. He had an incessantly watery eye, plus a stuffy nose & a kitty cold. He wouldn't eat & hid under the bed whenever we approached him. We took him to the vet but couldn't afford to shell out hundreds of dollars for a cat we'd just gotten, so the ASPCA agreed to take him back, & I gave him a tearful goodbye as Nathan planned to return him while I was away on business. When the photo came via text message less than a day later, though, I was so happy I cried: our cat, eating Spaghetti-O's! He was cured! Nathan liked to take credit for saving his life. We renamed him Stringer Bell, after one of our favorite TV characters & he was only sort of appropriately tough. Mostly, he was just cuddly.
When Nathan was away on Coast Guard deployment, Stringer was my saving grace. With no friends in the area, he was my little buddy, my constant companion. Unlike other cats, he welcomed belly rubs; he was nearly always purring. He'd sleep curled up in my arm at night & would lick my face before I fell asleep, like a little dog. He destroyed our furniture & stuck his head in all our water glasses, but he was the happiest cat in the land, & I freely admitted to being kind of obsessed with him. How could you not love something so cute so much?
Yesterday, while I was in Ohio for a wedding, Stringer had a stroke. Of course, Nathan didn't know that was what had happened, only that the cat had lost control of some bodily functions & was doing what we call his "angry meow." Nathan took him to the emergency vet, where he was X-rayed & put in an oxygen cage to help him breathe, on the off chance it was just allergies. But at 4:30 this morning, Nathan got a call saying Stringer had gotten worse & was likely in a lot of pain. Like a good papa, Nate gave them the go-ahead to stop his suffering. I took a standby flight home at 8:30am, but our kitty was long gone by then.
I don't even like animals. I certainly never thought I'd become this crazy cat lady who lets her pet lick her face at night. But I'll be damned if that little guy wasn't my absolute favorite thing in the world for a solid 14.5 months. He got me through life in Portsmouth when I wanted nothing more than to flee back to D.C. or Ohio. He gave me something to take care of while Nathan was away. He gave me infinite snuggles in exchange for food, water, & a few good belly rubs. When I petted that cat, I could almost feel the stress leaving my body; he was better & cuter than Xanax, but possibly even more addictive.
I've spent all day crying, & I'm not even back home yet. I know that when I enter our apartment & he's not there to greet me - when I see Nathan all out of sorts & sans-cat sad - I'm going to lose it all over again. I know, I know: Far be it from me to question nature's plan. Maybe Stringer Bell just didn't want to move to New Jersey? I don't blame you, little buddy. But I know that we gave him the best year of his short cat life, & he gave us so much love & happiness in return. Already, life feels a lot less fluffy without him.
Nap well, my sweet little man. Mama & papa loved you hard. | 2019-04-21T16:54:12 | https://www.greatestescapist.com/2012/06/cat-lady-goodbye.html |
Actors are excellent for solving problems where you have many independent processes that can work in isolation and only interact with other Actors through message passing. This model fits many problems. But the actor model is unfortunately a terrible model for implementing truly shared state. E.g. when you need to have consensus and a stable view of state across many components. The classic example is the bank account where clients can deposit and withdraw, in which each operation needs to be atomic. For detailed discussion on the topic see this JavaOne presentation.
STM on the other hand is excellent for problems where you need consensus and a stable view of the state by providing compositional transactional shared state. Some of the really nice traits of STM are that transactions compose, and it raises the abstraction level from lock-based concurrency.
Akka's Transactors combine Actors and STM to provide the best of the Actor model (concurrency and asynchronous event-based programming) and STM (compositional transactional shared state) by providing transactional, compositional, asynchronous, event-based message flows.
When you really need composable message flows across many actors updating their internal local state but need them to do that atomically in one big transaction. Might not be often but when you do need this then you are screwed without it.
When you want to share a datastructure across actors.
You can combine Actors and STM in several ways. An Actor may use STM internally so that particular changes are guaranteed to be atomic. Actors may also share transactional datastructures as the STM provides safe shared state across threads.
It's also possible to coordinate transactions across Actors or threads so that either the transactions in a set all commit successfully or they all fail. This is the focus of Transactors and the explicit support for coordinated transactions in this section.
Akka provides an explicit mechanism for coordinating transactions across actors. Under the hood it uses a CommitBarrier, similar to a CountDownLatch.
Here is an example of coordinating two simple counter UntypedActors so that they both increment together in coordinated transactions. If one of them was to fail to increment, the other would also fail.
To include another actor in the same coordinated transaction that you've created or received, use the coordinate method on that object. This will increment the number of parties involved by one and create a new Coordinated object to be sent.
To enter the coordinated transaction use the atomic method of the coordinated object, passing in a java.lang.Runnable.
The coordinated transaction will wait for the other transactions before committing. If any of the coordinated transactions fail then they all fail.
The same actor should not be added to a coordinated transaction more than once. The transaction will not be able to complete as an actor only processes a single message at a time. When processing the first message the coordinated transaction will wait for the commit barrier, which in turn needs the second message to be received to proceed.
UntypedTransactors are untyped actors that provide a general pattern for coordinating transactions, using the explicit coordination described above.
You could send this Counter transactor a Coordinated(Increment) message. If you were to send it just an Increment message it will create its own Coordinated (but in this particular case wouldn't be coordinating transactions with any other transactors).
To coordinate with other transactors override the coordinate method. The coordinate method maps a message to a set of SendTo objects, pairs of ActorRef and a message. You can use the include and sendTo methods to easily coordinate with other transactors.
Here's an example of coordinating an increment, using an untyped transactor, similar to the explicitly coordinated example above.
To execute directly before or after the coordinated transaction, override the before and after methods. They do not execute within the transaction.
To completely bypass coordinated transactions override the normally method. Any message matched by normally will not be matched by the other methods, and will not be involved in coordinated transactions. In this method you can implement normal actor behavior, or use the normal STM atomic for local transactions. | 2019-04-20T19:29:39 | https://doc.akka.io/docs/akka/2.0.5/java/transactors.html |
In typical HEX fashion, the Overnight Travel Bag packs a lot of features into its modern design. Featuring a roomy main compartment for plenty of clothing. However, the front of the bag contains two pockets: one faux fur lined and padded for tablets and e-readers, and the other contains an organizer and room for phone, chargers, or accessories. The rear side of the bag boast a large padded exterior access pocket for your 13"-15" Macbook Pro or other similar sized laptop. This combination of features truly provides thoughtful device storage and protection while still maintaining a slim profile and plenty of space for whatever your travels dictate. A removable shoulder strap in also included. The outer shell is constructed from water resistant, waxed canvas, with black coated trim, providing water resistance to its great texture and feel and also includes custom camo genuine leather zipper pulls, and black logo interior lining. | 2019-04-26T01:40:03 | https://brandswalk.com/products/hex-infinity-overnight-duffel-khaki-canvas |
Robert Desnos (July 4, 1900 - June 8, 1945) was a French surrealist poet.
He was born in Paris. He was a bad student, but in love with literature and began publishing poems. He became a friend of Benjamin Péret and in 1922 he began practicing automatic writing, notably under hypnosis. He fell in love with the singer Yvonne George, but the crowds of fans also obsessed with her ensured that his love was impossible. He wrote several poems for her including those in his collection La liberté ou l'amour (1927), which was condemmned for obscenity.
In 1926 he composed The Night of Loveless Nights, a lyric poem about solitude, curiously written in quatraines like classics, more similar to Baudelaire than Breton. In 1936, he tried working a poem a day for a year.
Desnos was one of the most active members of the Surrealist group, the prophet of the movement according to André Breton.
During World War II Desnos worked for the French Resistance. He was arrested by the Gestapo on February 22, 1944 and sent to Auschwitz before being transferred to Theresienstadt. There he contracted typhoid, which killed him. His is interred at the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris. | 2019-04-24T16:50:04 | https://www.jahsonic.com/RobertDesnos.html |
One of the easiest and effortless ways to move around Warsaw is, without the shadow of a doubt, to rent a Veturilo bike.
Our beloved public bikes, which are only available during the warmer months of the year, will be back on the 1st of March.
It is still deadly cold though. Due to the extremely low temperatures (averaging -10 degrees Celsius), there is even a rumor that they will be equipped with SKIS!
This are (obviously) fake news I just made up.
Jokes aside, Veturilo is one of the largest urban bike systems in Europe, with 366 stations and 5 292 bicycles.
Did you know that Veturilo means “vehicle” in Esperanto? The name was chosen among thousands of other suggestions from internet users.
What else do you need to know about the Veturilo Bikes?
It’s actually FREE to rent a bike for the first 20 minutes (but you have to pay for registration: 10PLN one-time fee). If you time your trip maniacally, you can use them for free, forever. Check out the price list here.
2) They are everywhere in the city!
Here is the official map. I also created my own map with Google’s “my maps”, so that you can use it in Google maps and get directions to the nearest station (you can’t do that with the official maps).
3) There are also E-bikes.
9 of the 366 station are equipped with Electric bikes. At the moment, however, all of these stations are in the center of Warsaw (Powiśle).
Download the latest apps here.
Find out more and create an account here.
At OddUrbanThings we strive to make your life in Warsaw easier and more exciting. | 2019-04-25T16:32:19 | https://www.oddurbanthings.com/veturilo-bikes-warsaw/ |
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You are visiting the placeholder page for Polly Hayes. This page is here because someone used our placeholder utility to look for Polly Hayes. We created this page automatically in hopes Polly Hayes would find it. If you are not Polly Hayes, but are an alumni of General Mclane High School, register on this site for free now. | 2019-04-22T02:15:45 | http://generalmclanehighschool.com/alumni/3126540/polly-hayes.html |
This is one of the most powerful books I have read this year, and probably in a very long time.
Cassie had the worst experience a child could have: She was abused by her father and grew up in an unloving home.
This is a harrowing read, but what makes it an excellent read are the lighter parts and the happy memories.
Cassie’s recollections are put together in a succession of discussions with her therapist.
The most important lesson for Cassie in this book (and for anyone in a similar situation) is not remember the good as well as the bad, because good memories can help drown the bad ones.
I cried tears of joy for Cassie when for the first time she experienced a happy family home (outside her own home) and my heart broke when she returned to chores, a mother who doesn’t love her, and her father, who abuses her. It is like a hike up to the peaks and down into the valley.
This is a true story, written by Cassie Cook herself, with Toni Maguire.
Maguire wrote a memoir of her own childhood abuse (Don’t tell Mummy) and later a sequel (When Daddy Comes Home) and writing her story has encouraged others to come forward and put their childhood secrets into words. Cook was one of them.
Her descriptions are honest and striking; you feel the dark spider crawling all over you, the fear, and the pain in your body. You feel physical pain. But emotionally, it is the mother’s reaction to Cassie’s pregnancy which stays with me, and which I still haven’t entirely digested.
It is not an easy read by far. It is heartbreaking and graphic, but one of the most honest books you will find on the shelves. | 2019-04-19T18:58:12 | https://anythinggoeslifestyle.co.uk/review-did-you-ever-love-me-by-cassie-cook-and-toni-maguire/ |
In March 2013, my family moved from the center of a small town, where 35mbps cable was available, to the outskirts where the best DSL speed is 1.5mbps. We traded the noise and hubbub of town center for the peace and quiet that comes with living out in the sticks. There are more details of this in This Post. We basically went from high speed to high latency. The second hop on a traceroute out the other end of the DSL line, is 60ms away all by itself. Pinging Google is around 80ms! Contrast this to when we were on Cable- the first hop was only 10ms, and Google was 20-30ms. We have come up with some ways to make this workable though!
Believe it or not we can watch Hulu and Netflix at the same time, even as I am working at my job from home, although Hulu does have issues here and there. It isn’t perfect by any means. But rather than tell you all about each thing in gory detail, I’m going to outline the tools we’ve used to make it possible to get by.
1) Asus RT-N16 router. This single $80 investment is by far the most important part of the equation. By itself its a good router, but add Tomato USB to it with its QOS features, and you have something powerful on your hands. I use the Toastman builds and it works great. There’s a lot of reading to do to make it work correctly but it is well worth it. With our 1.5mbps, I limit everything to 1100kbps or less, and give my own computer priority so that when my PC needs bandwidth (since I work from home) it gets it. The Bandwidth Monitor is also great for finding out who’s hogging all the bandwidth! Sometimes somebody will be doing a big download (perhaps an update) and not even realize it. This helps me manage it better, too. This might be replaced with pfSense on my Linux box in the future.
2) AdBlock Plus. Why would an ad blocker matter? Less advertisements means less bandwidth used, which in turn means lower page load times and more bandwidth available for others. It is a minor thing but it does matter.
3) Linux servers, both on the local home network and my VPS at A Small Orange.
A) I don’t always download huge fil es, but when I do, I use my VPS to download them quickly, and then I use cron to schedule a wget of the file from my own server at something like 3 or 4 in the morning. Yes, it means waiting the next day to get bigger files but I do get them. Patience! It would probably be easier to use a Download Scheduler addon such as this one for Firefox.
B) I also use my VPS to browse remotely at times when I need to use a GUI to download a big file that can’t be gotten with a simple wget command (behind a session-based user/password, for example). For this I use a VNC server as outlined here.
C) Private DNS server. My local Debian Linux server also runs DNS for our house. Because it caches DNS, the lookups are almost always faster than if the lookups had to be done over my DSL line every time. The result? “Snappier” page loads.
4) Lowered expectations. Lets get real here for a moment. It’s 1.5mbps DSL. It isn’t going to be fast. There’s nothing you can do but work around it and not try to make it something it isn’t.
All in all, it works fine most of the time. We’re not breaking any speed records, but living out in the peace and quiet of the woods is worth the sacrifice. On the plus side, my wife has been doing more of her Amazing Cooking, I’ve learned how to chop wood, and we have clean air and can see the stars at night.
There’s more to life than high bandwidth. Most of the time!
I moved from the Seattle area, with 50mbit/20mbit cable to a large RV and hit the road. From that point on, we (Wife and I) have used nothing but hotspots for internet. 1x/3g when in transit. Now, we live in the middle of NO-WHERE Oklahoma, and got lucky. The only tower is using the same carrier I subscribe too, and is a 4G LTE relay. Also one of the few in the area who use data, as it’s ranch land. I get around 20mb/10mb, but my latency is around 80ms to Google as well.
That’s not half bad! Unfortunately where we currently live, we get reception from no towers. In fact I don’t even bother having a mobile phone. The most you can do out here is text, there’s not even enough signal for a phone call. It’s pretty stone-ages out here!
1.5MBps is not slow DSL – In Germany this is a good average DSL – I live on 384KBit/s with 64KBit/s uplink. There is no point in QoS because whenever you open a webpage your link is saturated yo no interactive work.
I feel your pain! QoS can still make a difference though. It will allow your most important things to still work even when other things are going on.
If you read it correctly, the author is using 1.5mbps, NOT 1.5MBps.
1.5mbps equates to 187.5KBps, which is HALF the speed you get.
So yeah, it’s slow. Imagine having your speed cut in twain.
I think everybody was referring to bps as bits per second.
In South Africa most DSL users was on 384 kbps until recently and my have been upgraded to 512kbps or 1mbps. I pay for 10mbps but my line can only sync at 6mbps.
I can’t agree enough with running a local dns recursion server. I actually have two at my house (one on my pfSense router, and one on another Linux server as a backup). ISP DNS servers, and even worse, public DNS servers like google’s or level3’s, can be very slow. Which is, of course relative when you’re talking in terms of milliseconds, but having a local recursion server helps a lot. It also means you can manually clear the cache if you ever need to. It also means that you can setup a local DNS domain for your local network (I use a subdomain of my public domain personally) and that you can override authoritative records from the internet should you wish to redirect traffic or block a given hostname.
Yep, Preachin’ to the choir here! I was actually quite surprised at how MUCH faster lookups were. Every little bit counts.
I would add in a squid/proxy server in the mix. Set it up correctly and you can save a decent amount of bandwidth. I have a decent line in the mix and it on average gives me a 3-4% speed boost. You already have linux boxes in the mix. You have already rooted the router so you can do transparent proxy too.
We actually used a squid proxy server for about a month. It didn’t do anything to speed things up, because there weren’t enough users for it. I eventually shut it down, as the cache hits were dismal and there were no real benefits to it.
Try it out again and make sure that it’s set up to transparently proxy all http without configuration required by the clients. It helps a LOT with stuff like phones and tablets that don’t keep huge local caches themselves.
Caching to disk isn’t enabled by default, but as you observe hit ratio is highly dependent on use case. For most web browsing it should provide a measurable benefit, however it might take time for the cache to ‘soak’.
Seriously!?!? 1.5Mbps is not *slow* DSL. LOL This is more inline with avg speeds majority of internet users get.
For casual use, that’s true, but for as much as we rely on the Internet, 1.5mbps has been very limiting for us. It’s taken some getting used to.
I was doing most of what you describe, but since my 1.5Mbit was SOLID I pushed the qos limit on downloads up to nearly the entire 1536kbit/second my line would do. Usually I limited it to 1450, but nearly all of the time even 1500 worked fine.
I also ran squid as mentioned in another comment, along with some simple squidguard filters so the phones and tablets and visitors also skipped most ads.
I might have to give Squid another go, transparent proxy as mentioned before. I am considering moving to pfsense as a firewall/qos anyway, and adding squid to the mix should be easy. Thanks for the comment!
Sounds like a lifestyle change. Curious what prompted it. Getting away from…fluoridated water, or microwave radiation perhaps?
Yep! Move out to the country to get away from the city and the noise and the smog and the light pollution. Not to get away from anything more specific than that though.
Please consider changing your background or the color of your text. It’s impossible to read and you have some interesting stuff to say!!
Curious why you would want to limit yourself to 1.5mbps when 35mbps is available. Go get yourself a pair of Nanostation M5 radios over at ubnt.com and set up your own wireless trunk.
I live in an area that doesn’t have DSL/Cable but I set up my own wireless trunk to an area that has fiber a few miles away. 30mbps service (can go up to 70), 10ms ping to google. Link has been rock solid for the better part of a year.
At some point you have to subscribe to something and need a place to connect your device (the one that isn’t local). How do you deal with that issue? Don’t you also need a direct line of sight or something?
In this case, find a location the has clear line of sight, if not, a place that can be reached with minimal hops in a ptmp config. Make friends with the property owner, subscribe to the cable service so you have your own dedicated line, install the equipment and you’re good to go!
It was pretty easy to set up – equipment only took a couple of hours to install.
That is a possibility, and I have looked into it extensively. The issue there is that I currently live in a rental. I’m not going to fork out that money for a place I might not be in a year from now.
Just throwing this out there, but it doesn’t have to be expensive.
We ended up hooking up a friend who lives 30 KM out of town using about $250 worth of ubiquiti radios and $98 antennas, all we did was checked out to see who was in LOS of both his location and somewhere with high speed (25mbps)once we found the area, we basically just went up to their door and said “hey, do you want free internet in trade for putting an antenna up so we can also get fast internet?” and that was that.
The link has been up for 3 years or so now, without problems other then really nasty fog/snow that craps the connection out about twice a winter – we’re even using a poorly designed antenna (both links are right near the ocean, and they have both rusted) still getting -68DB and getting full speed out of the connection.
For bidirectional synchronization of files between your virtual server and home, check out Unison ( http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/ and also in the apt tree ). It should make your queued download setup a bit friendlier, and I’m sure you can find plenty of other uses for it.
And slow DSL is nothing – I’ve lived off tethered 3G cell service for months at a time!
How about bonding? It’s probable that your ISP doesn’t support MLPPP like mine does, but you can do bonding through your VPS, or via a service like Connectify Dispatch. With a bonding solution combining two DSL lines, you could double your speed (albeit at double the cost), and support that speed for any individual connection, which means as far as Netflix is concerned, you’re on a 3 meg connection, not a 1.5 meg connection.
Maybe because they don’t like GNU/Linux and Mac users? It looks like a pretty bad solution anyway. Better to have a router do that sort of thing if at all possible and spread the bandwidth over the entire house.
I own a Peplink (http://wwww.peplink.com) Balance 30 to bond 3 connections, as well as a 4th USB modem for failover and have been extremely satisfied. It’s easy to set up, feature rich, and support is very responsive. A 2 connection model (the Balance 20) is available from Amazon for $288. Amazon also has a similar router from TP-LINK for significantly less, but I haven’t used it.
2)Use Opera with “turbo” mode, which routes all data through their servers and compresses it.
Author can route traffic through his VPS and compress it, no privacy issues, same features.
Shoot me an email and I’ll help you get set up.
You need a Linux version and preferably a device or router firmware to make this product interesting.
Thanks, we do have a Linux version in testing.
Thanks! Bonding is a brilliant solution to a hard problem especially since most households, even in rural areas, can be provisioned for two lines these days.
Definitely worth a look, thanks for posting!
I was born at just the right time that when I went to college my roomates and I were exposed to what was for the time ‘high speed’ internet via the ethernet connections in our dorm room. Later when we got an apartment it was another year before cable modems were available, even longer for DSL. It was back to 56k dialup or nothing.
Home routers were kind of unheard of then too but at least hubs were available. I set up a Windows box (hey, I was still learning) in the living room and ethernet from that to each of our bedrooms. I found a NAT/Proxy Server called WinGate to run on that livingroom computer. (this was also before Windows had Interner Connection Sharing built in). That worked great! I had it set to not cache the html files but to cache everything else. If a roomate had been to a page earlier it would load pretty much instantly. But.. since images and such rarely get updated without changing the html we rarely found stale content.
These days if I were stuck somewhere with only a slow connection I would do the same thing only using Linux and Squid rather than WinGate.
You’ve avoided a big chunk of the problem by setting the link speeds to your slowest device, the DSL, but you can get rid of more sloth by applying fq_codel, one of the newer tools for “bufferbloat”.
Large buffers in devices between slow and fast links can and do artificially drag interactive performance into the weeds. I gave a short talk on it at http://gtalug.org/wiki/Meetings:2013-06 and one of my colleagues went off to try it. The next day he wrote back to the group to say he was amazed at the improvement.
Thank you! I will look into this to be sure.
We’re going to need some more information on how you configured your QoS settings. I’ve found that cable modems, DSL modems disregard whatever I set them to. DSL is particularly bad with multiple downloads, but cable wasn’t so bad. Now with FiOS there’s no point to bother with QoS, but I’m curious how you set it up and what parameters you used. That would be really helpful.
And don’t forget to tune your TCP window timing on your squid box .. latency has more effect than bandwidth on total throughput.
Another tip that might be useful: use a Firefox plugin, like GoMobile, to load the mobile version of sites. Most of the time they’re cleaner, leaner and meaner 🙂 In the other hand, sometimes they’re crippled, but then you can switch quickly back to a desktop browser.
Your intuition in point #1 is great! That’s a huge improvement because you’re moving the bufferbloat problem closer to you where you can mitigate it!
– well tuned Squid caching HTTP proxy (min. 50% hit rate) setup as a transparent proxy, use proxy autoconfig or manual proxy settings for better performance ie. to remove client DNS lookups all together!
– there’s some neat youtube caching scripts as well.
– good router firewall rules, blocking unnecessary ‘crap’. I used iptables on a Linux router.
– use a ziproxy compressing proxy located on a VPS and locally to deliver clean/compressed/transcoded content. amazing tool. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziproxy you can parent your local squid cache thru a ziproxy pair.
dns poisioning for silly things like the microsoft “am i online” lookups.
DNS caching helps alot with page load times.
they can just query their database for “what domain names has your ip looked up” and they get a (very) good idea about what your dns-server has queried and you subsequently have visited. DNS traffic is easy to sniff!
If you would like to fix this, then run a small-bandwidth tor-relay and enable DNS-functionality on it. Set your caching DNS-server to query your tor-relay which will then forward your request thru the tor network.
In this case the 3-letter agency (sniffing @ ROOT dns servers) will see dns-lookup request for “www.donkeylovers.com” *wink* come from a random tor-exit-node.
It would be great if the community could put together a VM image with everything setup for specifically this case. I live on a boat and have the same issues, but don’t have the time to configure a router to do QoS, transparent squid w/ ad blocking, etc.
When I was downloading sometimes .pdf via commandline I got this pretty 12MBps, wha??? Ah, just my proxy kicking in.
This helped to keep the traffic low, Windows machine fairly secure and hardly any banner ads.
Luckily we moved recently and now we are much better off with cable. But all of that above is still in place – but I am not using aria2 anymore.
If you want I can share the stuff I did with DNSMASQ, send you over the config/scripts and such. Just shoot me an email to thomas@preissler.CU (replace CU with co.uk, thanks spammers).
It can be done; low-end DSL from AT T is also what I somehow muddled through with for most of the last 18 months; though the connection often failed and the followup support was terrible, it worked well enough most of the time, and sure beat a 56K modem. | 2019-04-20T09:16:10 | https://www.tidbitsfortechs.com/2013/12/surviving-internet-on-low-speed-dsl/ |
Um...huh? All of this just to promote a "lame" t-shirt? Seems like a lot of effort to us but when you set an artist and a filmmaker free, unhinged by those nasty account executive types, this is what you get. All to promote a Love is Lame t-shirt.
We're not sure we actually agree that love is, in fact, lame but we do like the quirky effort this piece of creative exudes in a effort to at least get us to buy a t-shirt that argues the point. Of course, because the work is so quirky, it could be flying over our head and, in fact, be endorsing love. More likely, it's reflective of someone's less than successful travels on the path to love.
There are always those time when the parents come to visit and things get all awkward for one reason or another. This scene, courtesy of Durex, goes much further than just plain awkwardness. Rather it delves deep inside a woman, her sexual needs and the tools through which she achieves those needs And the horror she experiences when she realizes her tool of choice has just been consumed by her parents, her husband and herself. | 2019-04-26T11:43:57 | http://www.adrants.com/subject/video/index.php?page=127 |
BABEC: Bay Area Bioscience Education Community | We are a biotechnology education nonprofit serving science teachers and students in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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BABEC enables Bay Area students to perform biotechnology experiments using our advanced, research-grade equipment and curricula. We give teachers the technical skills and pedagogical knowledge to teach biotechnology, so that every student can experience critical thinking, scientific curiosity and career exploration and preparation while doing hands-on scientific discovery. | 2019-04-24T02:34:26 | http://babec.org/ |
For this week’s T-Mobile S2 ROM of the week, check out latest MIUI ROM V5.
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JediMindTrick JB ROM version 5 is out now.
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The latest version includes some extra settings like Fast Dormancy (can save battery life), FasterFix GPS, and Seeder lag reducer. Also Jedi kernel has been updated for more stability and better battery life.
For this week’s T-Mobile Galaxy S2 SGH-T989 ROM of the week, check out latest CyanogenMod 10.1 RC2 coupled with AOSP Uber kernel.
If you are looking for the most stock-like AOSP (What is AOSP?) experience, definitely you should check out CM10.1 as it’s got less features to break but will give you that solid Google OS experience. | 2019-04-23T07:52:13 | https://galaxys2root.com/category/t-mobile-galaxy-s2/page/3/ |
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"The Effects of Rate-Adaptive Atrial Pacing versus Ventricular Backup P" by Rod Passman, Smriti Banthia et al.
BACKGROUND: Atrial rate-adaptive pacing may improve cardiopulmonary reserve in patients with left ventricular dysfunction.
METHODS: A randomized, blinded, single-crossover design enrolled dual-chamber implantable defibrillator recipients without pacing indications and an ejection fraction < or =40% to undergo cardiopulmonary exercise treadmill stress testing in both atrial rate-adaptive pacing (AAIR) and ventricular demand pacing (VVI) pacing modes. The primary endpoint was change in peak oxygen consumption (VO(2)). Secondary endpoints were changes in anaerobic threshold, perceived exertion, exercise duration, and peak blood pressure.
RESULTS: Ten patients, nine males, eight with New York Heart Association class I, mean ejection fraction 24 +/- 7%, were analyzed. Baseline VO(2) was 3.6 +/- 0.5 mL/kg/min. Heart rate at peak exercise was significantly higher during AAIR versus VVI pacing (142 +/- 18 vs 130 +/- 23 bpm; P = 0.05). However, there was no difference in peak VO(2) (AAIR 23.7 +/- 6.1 vs VVI 23.8 +/- 6.3 mL/kg/min; P = 0.8), anaerobic threshold (AAIR 1.3 +/- 0.3 vs VVI 1.2 +/- 0.2 L/min; P = 0.11), rate of perceived exertion (AAIR 7.3 +/- 1.5 vs VVI 7.8 +/- 1.2; P = 0.46), exercise duration (AAIR 15 minutes, 46 seconds +/- 2 minutes, 54 seconds vs VVI 16 minutes, 3 seconds +/- 2 minutes, 48 seconds; P = 0.38), or peak systolic blood pressure (AAIR 155 +/- 22 vs VVI 153 +/- 21; P = 0.61) between the two pacing modes.
CONCLUSION: In this study, AAIR pacing did not improve peak VO(2,) anaerobic threshold, rate of perceived exertion, or exercise duration compared to VVI backup pacing in patients with left ventricular dysfunction and no pacing indications.
Passman, R. S., Banthia, S., Galvez, D., Sheldon, T., & Kadish, A. H. (2009). The effects of rate-adaptive atrial pacing versus ventricular backup pacing on exercise capacity in patients with left ventricular dysfunction. Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology, 32(1), 1-6. | 2019-04-25T10:47:33 | https://touroscholar.touro.edu/president_pubs/63/ |
The Sole TT9 Treadmill became its series leader in 2019. Club quality, it has commercial and home-use warranties. This low-maintenance model is very similar to the TT8, but the TT9 is the only Sole treadmill with a touchscreen. Compared with the TT8 it’s even more durable too.
Highlights include a 10” touchscreen with browser and Bluetooth; a spacious track; excellent shock absorption; and incline/decline to diversify workouts. Read on for a full TT9 Treadmill review.
84" x 36" x 58"
Rating: 97.1/100. The TT9 Treadmill with touchscreen is the new top-of-the-line model from Sole Fitness. Sole Fitness has long been a favorite fitness company among “sensible shoppers” or those who prioritize durability. The new TT9 Treadmill marks a new step for the Sole brand, as it’s their hardiest treadmill and has a touchscreen with web. This all-purpose cardio trainer is available with long warranties for home use and light commercial use.
Like most light commercial treadmills the Sole TT9 is meant to fit almost anyone. The belt speed range is from 0.5 to 12 mph, the workout surface is long and extra-wide, and the machine can support up to 450 pounds. In our review, workouts on the TT9 feel remarkably comfortable thanks to the spacious design and high quality suspension.
Next are lists of pros and cons followed by details about the parts and programming.
10” touchscreen for workouts, reading email, watching videos, etc.
The Sole TT9 is a high-end non-folding treadmill introduced in 2018. Its sale price includes a valuable warranty for residential or light commercial use. From its touchscreen console to the shock-absorbing deck, in our review this newest option from Sole will satisfy almost any walker or runner.
Sole treadmill workout programs can automate the workout belt’s speed and incline. For safety and customization, a trainee can override the program anytime.
Programs can be customized for time and other variables.
The Sole TT9 is a “connected” fitness machine with a 10” touchscreen as its control panel. The touchscreen has web apps, plus the treadmill has Bluetooth for sharing workout data. You can wirelessly export your workout numbers to the Sole Fitness app or third party apps such as iHealth.
A commercial AC motor powers the belt at speeds from 0.5 to 12 mph. The motor has 4.0 continuous horsepower and is optimized for quiet operation.
The workout area is slightly above average in size, measuring 22” wide x 60” long.
Sole tread belts are all high quality, and the TT9 Treadmill is equipped with their best option. It has four layers and is permeated with lubricant to be very low-maintenance. Furthermore it runs over 3” rollers and a wax-coated deck. These features help ensure smooth operation and reduces demand on the main motor.
The deck is extra large to give the treadmill more weight capacity compared with the TT8. Named CushionFlex, this deck provides excellent shock absorption, making exercise gentler on the joints compared with outdoor training. It also absorbs sound to help make the fitness machine home-friendly.
Power incline and decline are included to diversify training. The TT9 has 15 uphill settings and six downhill settings. Controls are built into the handlebars, and incline can also be automated by workout programs.
Contact heart rate sensors are included. This cardio trainer is also compatible with wireless heart rate monitors.
Amenities on the console include music speakers cooling fans, bottle holders, storage areas, an integrated tablet holder, Bluetooth audio speakers, and a USB charging port.
All factory-direct Sole treadmills have 30-day money-back guarantees.
Sole has long been a top choice for light commercial settings because it combines durability and good ergonomics with reasonable pricing. The new TT9 is their best treadmill yet, and it has the bonus of a touchscreen with web apps. This new technology makes the machine rather expensive at full price, but on sale the TT9 can be a very good long-term value. Shoppers who aren’t so interested in having a touchscreen might prefer the similar TT8 Treadmill for about $1K less. | 2019-04-21T06:08:11 | https://www.fitrated.com/treadmills/sole-tt9-review/ |
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